diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 8cce527..e26da14 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,3 +1,8 @@ -# TextMining - +# TextMining This is the base repo for the text mining and analysis project for Software Design at Olin College. + +## Required Libraries +This set of code requires a small set of python libraries to be pre-installed on the computer: sys, string, random, requests, bs4, urllib, glob, and os. These libraries can be easily installed on windows using the 'pip install' command. + +## Running the Code +Run fetch_files.py first to create a folder in your workspace called religious documents, which will contain on the order of 1000 religious text files. You only need to run this once. From here, run mining.py to randomly generate text. diff --git a/emma.txt b/emma.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1535cfc --- /dev/null +++ b/emma.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16632 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Emma, by Jane Austen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Emma + +Author: Jane Austen + +Release Date: August, 1994 [Etext #158] +Posting Date: January 21, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMMA *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +EMMA + +By Jane Austen + + + + +VOLUME I + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home +and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of +existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very +little to distress or vex her. + +She was the youngest of the two daughters of a most affectionate, +indulgent father; and had, in consequence of her sister's marriage, been +mistress of his house from a very early period. Her mother had died +too long ago for her to have more than an indistinct remembrance of +her caresses; and her place had been supplied by an excellent woman as +governess, who had fallen little short of a mother in affection. + +Sixteen years had Miss Taylor been in Mr. Woodhouse's family, less as a +governess than a friend, very fond of both daughters, but particularly +of Emma. Between _them_ it was more the intimacy of sisters. Even before +Miss Taylor had ceased to hold the nominal office of governess, the +mildness of her temper had hardly allowed her to impose any restraint; +and the shadow of authority being now long passed away, they had been +living together as friend and friend very mutually attached, and Emma +doing just what she liked; highly esteeming Miss Taylor's judgment, but +directed chiefly by her own. + +The real evils, indeed, of Emma's situation were the power of having +rather too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too +well of herself; these were the disadvantages which threatened alloy to +her many enjoyments. The danger, however, was at present so unperceived, +that they did not by any means rank as misfortunes with her. + +Sorrow came--a gentle sorrow--but not at all in the shape of any +disagreeable consciousness.--Miss Taylor married. It was Miss Taylor's +loss which first brought grief. It was on the wedding-day of this +beloved friend that Emma first sat in mournful thought of any +continuance. The wedding over, and the bride-people gone, her father and +herself were left to dine together, with no prospect of a third to cheer +a long evening. Her father composed himself to sleep after dinner, as +usual, and she had then only to sit and think of what she had lost. + +The event had every promise of happiness for her friend. Mr. Weston +was a man of unexceptionable character, easy fortune, suitable age, and +pleasant manners; and there was some satisfaction in considering +with what self-denying, generous friendship she had always wished and +promoted the match; but it was a black morning's work for her. The want +of Miss Taylor would be felt every hour of every day. She recalled her +past kindness--the kindness, the affection of sixteen years--how she had +taught and how she had played with her from five years old--how she had +devoted all her powers to attach and amuse her in health--and how +nursed her through the various illnesses of childhood. A large debt of +gratitude was owing here; but the intercourse of the last seven +years, the equal footing and perfect unreserve which had soon followed +Isabella's marriage, on their being left to each other, was yet a +dearer, tenderer recollection. She had been a friend and companion such +as few possessed: intelligent, well-informed, useful, gentle, knowing +all the ways of the family, interested in all its concerns, and +peculiarly interested in herself, in every pleasure, every scheme of +hers--one to whom she could speak every thought as it arose, and who had +such an affection for her as could never find fault. + +How was she to bear the change?--It was true that her friend was going +only half a mile from them; but Emma was aware that great must be the +difference between a Mrs. Weston, only half a mile from them, and a Miss +Taylor in the house; and with all her advantages, natural and domestic, +she was now in great danger of suffering from intellectual solitude. She +dearly loved her father, but he was no companion for her. He could not +meet her in conversation, rational or playful. + +The evil of the actual disparity in their ages (and Mr. Woodhouse had +not married early) was much increased by his constitution and habits; +for having been a valetudinarian all his life, without activity of +mind or body, he was a much older man in ways than in years; and though +everywhere beloved for the friendliness of his heart and his amiable +temper, his talents could not have recommended him at any time. + +Her sister, though comparatively but little removed by matrimony, being +settled in London, only sixteen miles off, was much beyond her daily +reach; and many a long October and November evening must be struggled +through at Hartfield, before Christmas brought the next visit from +Isabella and her husband, and their little children, to fill the house, +and give her pleasant society again. + +Highbury, the large and populous village, almost amounting to a town, +to which Hartfield, in spite of its separate lawn, and shrubberies, and +name, did really belong, afforded her no equals. The Woodhouses +were first in consequence there. All looked up to them. She had many +acquaintance in the place, for her father was universally civil, but +not one among them who could be accepted in lieu of Miss Taylor for even +half a day. It was a melancholy change; and Emma could not but sigh over +it, and wish for impossible things, till her father awoke, and made it +necessary to be cheerful. His spirits required support. He was a nervous +man, easily depressed; fond of every body that he was used to, and +hating to part with them; hating change of every kind. Matrimony, as the +origin of change, was always disagreeable; and he was by no means yet +reconciled to his own daughter's marrying, nor could ever speak of her +but with compassion, though it had been entirely a match of affection, +when he was now obliged to part with Miss Taylor too; and from his +habits of gentle selfishness, and of being never able to suppose that +other people could feel differently from himself, he was very much +disposed to think Miss Taylor had done as sad a thing for herself as for +them, and would have been a great deal happier if she had spent all the +rest of her life at Hartfield. Emma smiled and chatted as cheerfully +as she could, to keep him from such thoughts; but when tea came, it was +impossible for him not to say exactly as he had said at dinner, + +"Poor Miss Taylor!--I wish she were here again. What a pity it is that +Mr. Weston ever thought of her!" + +"I cannot agree with you, papa; you know I cannot. Mr. Weston is such +a good-humoured, pleasant, excellent man, that he thoroughly deserves +a good wife;--and you would not have had Miss Taylor live with us for +ever, and bear all my odd humours, when she might have a house of her +own?" + +"A house of her own!--But where is the advantage of a house of her own? +This is three times as large.--And you have never any odd humours, my +dear." + +"How often we shall be going to see them, and they coming to see us!--We +shall be always meeting! _We_ must begin; we must go and pay wedding +visit very soon." + +"My dear, how am I to get so far? Randalls is such a distance. I could +not walk half so far." + +"No, papa, nobody thought of your walking. We must go in the carriage, +to be sure." + +"The carriage! But James will not like to put the horses to for such a +little way;--and where are the poor horses to be while we are paying our +visit?" + +"They are to be put into Mr. Weston's stable, papa. You know we have +settled all that already. We talked it all over with Mr. Weston last +night. And as for James, you may be very sure he will always like going +to Randalls, because of his daughter's being housemaid there. I only +doubt whether he will ever take us anywhere else. That was your doing, +papa. You got Hannah that good place. Nobody thought of Hannah till you +mentioned her--James is so obliged to you!" + +"I am very glad I did think of her. It was very lucky, for I would not +have had poor James think himself slighted upon any account; and I am +sure she will make a very good servant: she is a civil, pretty-spoken +girl; I have a great opinion of her. Whenever I see her, she always +curtseys and asks me how I do, in a very pretty manner; and when you +have had her here to do needlework, I observe she always turns the lock +of the door the right way and never bangs it. I am sure she will be an +excellent servant; and it will be a great comfort to poor Miss Taylor +to have somebody about her that she is used to see. Whenever James goes +over to see his daughter, you know, she will be hearing of us. He will +be able to tell her how we all are." + +Emma spared no exertions to maintain this happier flow of ideas, and +hoped, by the help of backgammon, to get her father tolerably +through the evening, and be attacked by no regrets but her own. The +backgammon-table was placed; but a visitor immediately afterwards walked +in and made it unnecessary. + +Mr. Knightley, a sensible man about seven or eight-and-thirty, was not +only a very old and intimate friend of the family, but particularly +connected with it, as the elder brother of Isabella's husband. He lived +about a mile from Highbury, was a frequent visitor, and always welcome, +and at this time more welcome than usual, as coming directly from their +mutual connexions in London. He had returned to a late dinner, after +some days' absence, and now walked up to Hartfield to say that all were +well in Brunswick Square. It was a happy circumstance, and animated +Mr. Woodhouse for some time. Mr. Knightley had a cheerful manner, which +always did him good; and his many inquiries after "poor Isabella" and +her children were answered most satisfactorily. When this was over, Mr. +Woodhouse gratefully observed, "It is very kind of you, Mr. Knightley, +to come out at this late hour to call upon us. I am afraid you must have +had a shocking walk." + +"Not at all, sir. It is a beautiful moonlight night; and so mild that I +must draw back from your great fire." + +"But you must have found it very damp and dirty. I wish you may not +catch cold." + +"Dirty, sir! Look at my shoes. Not a speck on them." + +"Well! that is quite surprising, for we have had a vast deal of rain +here. It rained dreadfully hard for half an hour while we were at +breakfast. I wanted them to put off the wedding." + +"By the bye--I have not wished you joy. Being pretty well aware of what +sort of joy you must both be feeling, I have been in no hurry with my +congratulations; but I hope it all went off tolerably well. How did you +all behave? Who cried most?" + +"Ah! poor Miss Taylor! 'Tis a sad business." + +"Poor Mr. and Miss Woodhouse, if you please; but I cannot possibly say +'poor Miss Taylor.' I have a great regard for you and Emma; but when it +comes to the question of dependence or independence!--At any rate, it +must be better to have only one to please than two." + +"Especially when _one_ of those two is such a fanciful, troublesome +creature!" said Emma playfully. "That is what you have in your head, I +know--and what you would certainly say if my father were not by." + +"I believe it is very true, my dear, indeed," said Mr. Woodhouse, with a +sigh. "I am afraid I am sometimes very fanciful and troublesome." + +"My dearest papa! You do not think I could mean _you_, or suppose Mr. +Knightley to mean _you_. What a horrible idea! Oh no! I meant only +myself. Mr. Knightley loves to find fault with me, you know--in a +joke--it is all a joke. We always say what we like to one another." + +Mr. Knightley, in fact, was one of the few people who could see faults +in Emma Woodhouse, and the only one who ever told her of them: and +though this was not particularly agreeable to Emma herself, she knew +it would be so much less so to her father, that she would not have him +really suspect such a circumstance as her not being thought perfect by +every body. + +"Emma knows I never flatter her," said Mr. Knightley, "but I meant no +reflection on any body. Miss Taylor has been used to have two persons +to please; she will now have but one. The chances are that she must be a +gainer." + +"Well," said Emma, willing to let it pass--"you want to hear about +the wedding; and I shall be happy to tell you, for we all behaved +charmingly. Every body was punctual, every body in their best looks: not +a tear, and hardly a long face to be seen. Oh no; we all felt that we +were going to be only half a mile apart, and were sure of meeting every +day." + +"Dear Emma bears every thing so well," said her father. "But, Mr. +Knightley, she is really very sorry to lose poor Miss Taylor, and I am +sure she _will_ miss her more than she thinks for." + +Emma turned away her head, divided between tears and smiles. "It +is impossible that Emma should not miss such a companion," said Mr. +Knightley. "We should not like her so well as we do, sir, if we could +suppose it; but she knows how much the marriage is to Miss Taylor's +advantage; she knows how very acceptable it must be, at Miss Taylor's +time of life, to be settled in a home of her own, and how important to +her to be secure of a comfortable provision, and therefore cannot allow +herself to feel so much pain as pleasure. Every friend of Miss Taylor +must be glad to have her so happily married." + +"And you have forgotten one matter of joy to me," said Emma, "and a very +considerable one--that I made the match myself. I made the match, you +know, four years ago; and to have it take place, and be proved in the +right, when so many people said Mr. Weston would never marry again, may +comfort me for any thing." + +Mr. Knightley shook his head at her. Her father fondly replied, "Ah! +my dear, I wish you would not make matches and foretell things, for +whatever you say always comes to pass. Pray do not make any more +matches." + +"I promise you to make none for myself, papa; but I must, indeed, for +other people. It is the greatest amusement in the world! And after such +success, you know!--Every body said that Mr. Weston would never marry +again. Oh dear, no! Mr. Weston, who had been a widower so long, and who +seemed so perfectly comfortable without a wife, so constantly occupied +either in his business in town or among his friends here, always +acceptable wherever he went, always cheerful--Mr. Weston need not spend +a single evening in the year alone if he did not like it. Oh no! Mr. +Weston certainly would never marry again. Some people even talked of a +promise to his wife on her deathbed, and others of the son and the +uncle not letting him. All manner of solemn nonsense was talked on the +subject, but I believed none of it. + +"Ever since the day--about four years ago--that Miss Taylor and I met +with him in Broadway Lane, when, because it began to drizzle, he darted +away with so much gallantry, and borrowed two umbrellas for us from +Farmer Mitchell's, I made up my mind on the subject. I planned the match +from that hour; and when such success has blessed me in this instance, +dear papa, you cannot think that I shall leave off match-making." + +"I do not understand what you mean by 'success,'" said Mr. Knightley. +"Success supposes endeavour. Your time has been properly and delicately +spent, if you have been endeavouring for the last four years to bring +about this marriage. A worthy employment for a young lady's mind! But +if, which I rather imagine, your making the match, as you call it, means +only your planning it, your saying to yourself one idle day, 'I think it +would be a very good thing for Miss Taylor if Mr. Weston were to marry +her,' and saying it again to yourself every now and then afterwards, why +do you talk of success? Where is your merit? What are you proud of? You +made a lucky guess; and _that_ is all that can be said." + +"And have you never known the pleasure and triumph of a lucky guess?--I +pity you.--I thought you cleverer--for, depend upon it a lucky guess is +never merely luck. There is always some talent in it. And as to my +poor word 'success,' which you quarrel with, I do not know that I am so +entirely without any claim to it. You have drawn two pretty pictures; +but I think there may be a third--a something between the do-nothing and +the do-all. If I had not promoted Mr. Weston's visits here, and given +many little encouragements, and smoothed many little matters, it might +not have come to any thing after all. I think you must know Hartfield +enough to comprehend that." + +"A straightforward, open-hearted man like Weston, and a rational, +unaffected woman like Miss Taylor, may be safely left to manage their +own concerns. You are more likely to have done harm to yourself, than +good to them, by interference." + +"Emma never thinks of herself, if she can do good to others," rejoined +Mr. Woodhouse, understanding but in part. "But, my dear, pray do not +make any more matches; they are silly things, and break up one's family +circle grievously." + +"Only one more, papa; only for Mr. Elton. Poor Mr. Elton! You like Mr. +Elton, papa,--I must look about for a wife for him. There is nobody in +Highbury who deserves him--and he has been here a whole year, and has +fitted up his house so comfortably, that it would be a shame to have him +single any longer--and I thought when he was joining their hands to-day, +he looked so very much as if he would like to have the same kind office +done for him! I think very well of Mr. Elton, and this is the only way I +have of doing him a service." + +"Mr. Elton is a very pretty young man, to be sure, and a very good young +man, and I have a great regard for him. But if you want to shew him any +attention, my dear, ask him to come and dine with us some day. That will +be a much better thing. I dare say Mr. Knightley will be so kind as to +meet him." + +"With a great deal of pleasure, sir, at any time," said Mr. Knightley, +laughing, "and I agree with you entirely, that it will be a much better +thing. Invite him to dinner, Emma, and help him to the best of the fish +and the chicken, but leave him to chuse his own wife. Depend upon it, a +man of six or seven-and-twenty can take care of himself." + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Mr. Weston was a native of Highbury, and born of a respectable family, +which for the last two or three generations had been rising into +gentility and property. He had received a good education, but, on +succeeding early in life to a small independence, had become indisposed +for any of the more homely pursuits in which his brothers were engaged, +and had satisfied an active, cheerful mind and social temper by entering +into the militia of his county, then embodied. + +Captain Weston was a general favourite; and when the chances of his +military life had introduced him to Miss Churchill, of a great Yorkshire +family, and Miss Churchill fell in love with him, nobody was surprized, +except her brother and his wife, who had never seen him, and who were +full of pride and importance, which the connexion would offend. + +Miss Churchill, however, being of age, and with the full command of her +fortune--though her fortune bore no proportion to the family-estate--was +not to be dissuaded from the marriage, and it took place, to the +infinite mortification of Mr. and Mrs. Churchill, who threw her off with +due decorum. It was an unsuitable connexion, and did not produce much +happiness. Mrs. Weston ought to have found more in it, for she had a +husband whose warm heart and sweet temper made him think every thing due +to her in return for the great goodness of being in love with him; +but though she had one sort of spirit, she had not the best. She had +resolution enough to pursue her own will in spite of her brother, +but not enough to refrain from unreasonable regrets at that brother's +unreasonable anger, nor from missing the luxuries of her former home. +They lived beyond their income, but still it was nothing in comparison +of Enscombe: she did not cease to love her husband, but she wanted at +once to be the wife of Captain Weston, and Miss Churchill of Enscombe. + +Captain Weston, who had been considered, especially by the Churchills, +as making such an amazing match, was proved to have much the worst of +the bargain; for when his wife died, after a three years' marriage, he +was rather a poorer man than at first, and with a child to maintain. +From the expense of the child, however, he was soon relieved. The boy +had, with the additional softening claim of a lingering illness of his +mother's, been the means of a sort of reconciliation; and Mr. and Mrs. +Churchill, having no children of their own, nor any other young creature +of equal kindred to care for, offered to take the whole charge of the +little Frank soon after her decease. Some scruples and some reluctance +the widower-father may be supposed to have felt; but as they were +overcome by other considerations, the child was given up to the care and +the wealth of the Churchills, and he had only his own comfort to seek, +and his own situation to improve as he could. + +A complete change of life became desirable. He quitted the militia and +engaged in trade, having brothers already established in a good way in +London, which afforded him a favourable opening. It was a concern which +brought just employment enough. He had still a small house in Highbury, +where most of his leisure days were spent; and between useful occupation +and the pleasures of society, the next eighteen or twenty years of his +life passed cheerfully away. He had, by that time, realised an easy +competence--enough to secure the purchase of a little estate adjoining +Highbury, which he had always longed for--enough to marry a woman as +portionless even as Miss Taylor, and to live according to the wishes of +his own friendly and social disposition. + +It was now some time since Miss Taylor had begun to influence his +schemes; but as it was not the tyrannic influence of youth on youth, +it had not shaken his determination of never settling till he could +purchase Randalls, and the sale of Randalls was long looked forward to; +but he had gone steadily on, with these objects in view, till they were +accomplished. He had made his fortune, bought his house, and obtained +his wife; and was beginning a new period of existence, with every +probability of greater happiness than in any yet passed through. He had +never been an unhappy man; his own temper had secured him from that, +even in his first marriage; but his second must shew him how delightful +a well-judging and truly amiable woman could be, and must give him the +pleasantest proof of its being a great deal better to choose than to be +chosen, to excite gratitude than to feel it. + +He had only himself to please in his choice: his fortune was his own; +for as to Frank, it was more than being tacitly brought up as his +uncle's heir, it had become so avowed an adoption as to have him assume +the name of Churchill on coming of age. It was most unlikely, therefore, +that he should ever want his father's assistance. His father had no +apprehension of it. The aunt was a capricious woman, and governed her +husband entirely; but it was not in Mr. Weston's nature to imagine that +any caprice could be strong enough to affect one so dear, and, as he +believed, so deservedly dear. He saw his son every year in London, and +was proud of him; and his fond report of him as a very fine young man +had made Highbury feel a sort of pride in him too. He was looked on as +sufficiently belonging to the place to make his merits and prospects a +kind of common concern. + +Mr. Frank Churchill was one of the boasts of Highbury, and a lively +curiosity to see him prevailed, though the compliment was so little +returned that he had never been there in his life. His coming to visit +his father had been often talked of but never achieved. + +Now, upon his father's marriage, it was very generally proposed, as a +most proper attention, that the visit should take place. There was not a +dissentient voice on the subject, either when Mrs. Perry drank tea with +Mrs. and Miss Bates, or when Mrs. and Miss Bates returned the visit. Now +was the time for Mr. Frank Churchill to come among them; and the hope +strengthened when it was understood that he had written to his new +mother on the occasion. For a few days, every morning visit in Highbury +included some mention of the handsome letter Mrs. Weston had received. +"I suppose you have heard of the handsome letter Mr. Frank Churchill +has written to Mrs. Weston? I understand it was a very handsome letter, +indeed. Mr. Woodhouse told me of it. Mr. Woodhouse saw the letter, and +he says he never saw such a handsome letter in his life." + +It was, indeed, a highly prized letter. Mrs. Weston had, of course, +formed a very favourable idea of the young man; and such a pleasing +attention was an irresistible proof of his great good sense, and a most +welcome addition to every source and every expression of congratulation +which her marriage had already secured. She felt herself a most +fortunate woman; and she had lived long enough to know how fortunate +she might well be thought, where the only regret was for a partial +separation from friends whose friendship for her had never cooled, and +who could ill bear to part with her. + +She knew that at times she must be missed; and could not think, without +pain, of Emma's losing a single pleasure, or suffering an hour's ennui, +from the want of her companionableness: but dear Emma was of no feeble +character; she was more equal to her situation than most girls would +have been, and had sense, and energy, and spirits that might be hoped +would bear her well and happily through its little difficulties and +privations. And then there was such comfort in the very easy distance of +Randalls from Hartfield, so convenient for even solitary female walking, +and in Mr. Weston's disposition and circumstances, which would make the +approaching season no hindrance to their spending half the evenings in +the week together. + +Her situation was altogether the subject of hours of gratitude to Mrs. +Weston, and of moments only of regret; and her satisfaction--her more +than satisfaction--her cheerful enjoyment, was so just and so apparent, +that Emma, well as she knew her father, was sometimes taken by surprize +at his being still able to pity 'poor Miss Taylor,' when they left her +at Randalls in the centre of every domestic comfort, or saw her go away +in the evening attended by her pleasant husband to a carriage of her +own. But never did she go without Mr. Woodhouse's giving a gentle sigh, +and saying, "Ah, poor Miss Taylor! She would be very glad to stay." + +There was no recovering Miss Taylor--nor much likelihood of ceasing to +pity her; but a few weeks brought some alleviation to Mr. Woodhouse. +The compliments of his neighbours were over; he was no longer teased by +being wished joy of so sorrowful an event; and the wedding-cake, which +had been a great distress to him, was all eat up. His own stomach +could bear nothing rich, and he could never believe other people to be +different from himself. What was unwholesome to him he regarded as unfit +for any body; and he had, therefore, earnestly tried to dissuade them +from having any wedding-cake at all, and when that proved vain, as +earnestly tried to prevent any body's eating it. He had been at the +pains of consulting Mr. Perry, the apothecary, on the subject. Mr. Perry +was an intelligent, gentlemanlike man, whose frequent visits were one +of the comforts of Mr. Woodhouse's life; and upon being applied to, he +could not but acknowledge (though it seemed rather against the bias +of inclination) that wedding-cake might certainly disagree with +many--perhaps with most people, unless taken moderately. With such an +opinion, in confirmation of his own, Mr. Woodhouse hoped to influence +every visitor of the newly married pair; but still the cake was eaten; +and there was no rest for his benevolent nerves till it was all gone. + +There was a strange rumour in Highbury of all the little Perrys being +seen with a slice of Mrs. Weston's wedding-cake in their hands: but Mr. +Woodhouse would never believe it. + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Mr. Woodhouse was fond of society in his own way. He liked very much to +have his friends come and see him; and from various united causes, from +his long residence at Hartfield, and his good nature, from his fortune, +his house, and his daughter, he could command the visits of his +own little circle, in a great measure, as he liked. He had not much +intercourse with any families beyond that circle; his horror of late +hours, and large dinner-parties, made him unfit for any acquaintance but +such as would visit him on his own terms. Fortunately for him, Highbury, +including Randalls in the same parish, and Donwell Abbey in the parish +adjoining, the seat of Mr. Knightley, comprehended many such. Not +unfrequently, through Emma's persuasion, he had some of the chosen and +the best to dine with him: but evening parties were what he preferred; +and, unless he fancied himself at any time unequal to company, there +was scarcely an evening in the week in which Emma could not make up a +card-table for him. + +Real, long-standing regard brought the Westons and Mr. Knightley; and by +Mr. Elton, a young man living alone without liking it, the privilege +of exchanging any vacant evening of his own blank solitude for the +elegancies and society of Mr. Woodhouse's drawing-room, and the smiles +of his lovely daughter, was in no danger of being thrown away. + +After these came a second set; among the most come-at-able of whom were +Mrs. and Miss Bates, and Mrs. Goddard, three ladies almost always at +the service of an invitation from Hartfield, and who were fetched and +carried home so often, that Mr. Woodhouse thought it no hardship for +either James or the horses. Had it taken place only once a year, it +would have been a grievance. + +Mrs. Bates, the widow of a former vicar of Highbury, was a very old +lady, almost past every thing but tea and quadrille. She lived with her +single daughter in a very small way, and was considered with all the +regard and respect which a harmless old lady, under such untoward +circumstances, can excite. Her daughter enjoyed a most uncommon degree +of popularity for a woman neither young, handsome, rich, nor married. +Miss Bates stood in the very worst predicament in the world for having +much of the public favour; and she had no intellectual superiority to +make atonement to herself, or frighten those who might hate her into +outward respect. She had never boasted either beauty or cleverness. Her +youth had passed without distinction, and her middle of life was devoted +to the care of a failing mother, and the endeavour to make a small +income go as far as possible. And yet she was a happy woman, and a woman +whom no one named without good-will. It was her own universal good-will +and contented temper which worked such wonders. She loved every body, +was interested in every body's happiness, quicksighted to every body's +merits; thought herself a most fortunate creature, and surrounded with +blessings in such an excellent mother, and so many good neighbours +and friends, and a home that wanted for nothing. The simplicity and +cheerfulness of her nature, her contented and grateful spirit, were a +recommendation to every body, and a mine of felicity to herself. She was +a great talker upon little matters, which exactly suited Mr. Woodhouse, +full of trivial communications and harmless gossip. + +Mrs. Goddard was the mistress of a School--not of a seminary, or an +establishment, or any thing which professed, in long sentences of +refined nonsense, to combine liberal acquirements with elegant morality, +upon new principles and new systems--and where young ladies for enormous +pay might be screwed out of health and into vanity--but a real, +honest, old-fashioned Boarding-school, where a reasonable quantity of +accomplishments were sold at a reasonable price, and where girls might +be sent to be out of the way, and scramble themselves into a little +education, without any danger of coming back prodigies. Mrs. Goddard's +school was in high repute--and very deservedly; for Highbury was +reckoned a particularly healthy spot: she had an ample house and garden, +gave the children plenty of wholesome food, let them run about a great +deal in the summer, and in winter dressed their chilblains with her own +hands. It was no wonder that a train of twenty young couple now walked +after her to church. She was a plain, motherly kind of woman, who +had worked hard in her youth, and now thought herself entitled to the +occasional holiday of a tea-visit; and having formerly owed much to Mr. +Woodhouse's kindness, felt his particular claim on her to leave her neat +parlour, hung round with fancy-work, whenever she could, and win or lose +a few sixpences by his fireside. + +These were the ladies whom Emma found herself very frequently able to +collect; and happy was she, for her father's sake, in the power; though, +as far as she was herself concerned, it was no remedy for the absence of +Mrs. Weston. She was delighted to see her father look comfortable, and +very much pleased with herself for contriving things so well; but the +quiet prosings of three such women made her feel that every evening so +spent was indeed one of the long evenings she had fearfully anticipated. + +As she sat one morning, looking forward to exactly such a close of the +present day, a note was brought from Mrs. Goddard, requesting, in most +respectful terms, to be allowed to bring Miss Smith with her; a most +welcome request: for Miss Smith was a girl of seventeen, whom Emma knew +very well by sight, and had long felt an interest in, on account of +her beauty. A very gracious invitation was returned, and the evening no +longer dreaded by the fair mistress of the mansion. + +Harriet Smith was the natural daughter of somebody. Somebody had placed +her, several years back, at Mrs. Goddard's school, and somebody +had lately raised her from the condition of scholar to that of +parlour-boarder. This was all that was generally known of her history. +She had no visible friends but what had been acquired at Highbury, and +was now just returned from a long visit in the country to some young +ladies who had been at school there with her. + +She was a very pretty girl, and her beauty happened to be of a sort +which Emma particularly admired. She was short, plump, and fair, with a +fine bloom, blue eyes, light hair, regular features, and a look of great +sweetness, and, before the end of the evening, Emma was as much pleased +with her manners as her person, and quite determined to continue the +acquaintance. + +She was not struck by any thing remarkably clever in Miss Smith's +conversation, but she found her altogether very engaging--not +inconveniently shy, not unwilling to talk--and yet so far from pushing, +shewing so proper and becoming a deference, seeming so pleasantly +grateful for being admitted to Hartfield, and so artlessly impressed +by the appearance of every thing in so superior a style to what she had +been used to, that she must have good sense, and deserve encouragement. +Encouragement should be given. Those soft blue eyes, and all those +natural graces, should not be wasted on the inferior society of Highbury +and its connexions. The acquaintance she had already formed were +unworthy of her. The friends from whom she had just parted, though very +good sort of people, must be doing her harm. They were a family of the +name of Martin, whom Emma well knew by character, as renting a large +farm of Mr. Knightley, and residing in the parish of Donwell--very +creditably, she believed--she knew Mr. Knightley thought highly of +them--but they must be coarse and unpolished, and very unfit to be the +intimates of a girl who wanted only a little more knowledge and elegance +to be quite perfect. _She_ would notice her; she would improve her; she +would detach her from her bad acquaintance, and introduce her into good +society; she would form her opinions and her manners. It would be an +interesting, and certainly a very kind undertaking; highly becoming her +own situation in life, her leisure, and powers. + +She was so busy in admiring those soft blue eyes, in talking and +listening, and forming all these schemes in the in-betweens, that the +evening flew away at a very unusual rate; and the supper-table, which +always closed such parties, and for which she had been used to sit and +watch the due time, was all set out and ready, and moved forwards to the +fire, before she was aware. With an alacrity beyond the common impulse +of a spirit which yet was never indifferent to the credit of doing every +thing well and attentively, with the real good-will of a mind delighted +with its own ideas, did she then do all the honours of the meal, and +help and recommend the minced chicken and scalloped oysters, with an +urgency which she knew would be acceptable to the early hours and civil +scruples of their guests. + +Upon such occasions poor Mr. Woodhouse's feelings were in sad warfare. +He loved to have the cloth laid, because it had been the fashion of his +youth, but his conviction of suppers being very unwholesome made him +rather sorry to see any thing put on it; and while his hospitality would +have welcomed his visitors to every thing, his care for their health +made him grieve that they would eat. + +Such another small basin of thin gruel as his own was all that he could, +with thorough self-approbation, recommend; though he might constrain +himself, while the ladies were comfortably clearing the nicer things, to +say: + +"Mrs. Bates, let me propose your venturing on one of these eggs. An egg +boiled very soft is not unwholesome. Serle understands boiling an egg +better than any body. I would not recommend an egg boiled by any body +else; but you need not be afraid, they are very small, you see--one of +our small eggs will not hurt you. Miss Bates, let Emma help you to a +_little_ bit of tart--a _very_ little bit. Ours are all apple-tarts. You +need not be afraid of unwholesome preserves here. I do not advise the +custard. Mrs. Goddard, what say you to _half_ a glass of wine? A +_small_ half-glass, put into a tumbler of water? I do not think it could +disagree with you." + +Emma allowed her father to talk--but supplied her visitors in a much +more satisfactory style, and on the present evening had particular +pleasure in sending them away happy. The happiness of Miss Smith was +quite equal to her intentions. Miss Woodhouse was so great a personage +in Highbury, that the prospect of the introduction had given as much +panic as pleasure; but the humble, grateful little girl went off with +highly gratified feelings, delighted with the affability with which Miss +Woodhouse had treated her all the evening, and actually shaken hands +with her at last! + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Harriet Smith's intimacy at Hartfield was soon a settled thing. Quick +and decided in her ways, Emma lost no time in inviting, encouraging, and +telling her to come very often; and as their acquaintance increased, so +did their satisfaction in each other. As a walking companion, Emma had +very early foreseen how useful she might find her. In that respect +Mrs. Weston's loss had been important. Her father never went beyond the +shrubbery, where two divisions of the ground sufficed him for his long +walk, or his short, as the year varied; and since Mrs. Weston's marriage +her exercise had been too much confined. She had ventured once alone to +Randalls, but it was not pleasant; and a Harriet Smith, therefore, +one whom she could summon at any time to a walk, would be a valuable +addition to her privileges. But in every respect, as she saw more of +her, she approved her, and was confirmed in all her kind designs. + +Harriet certainly was not clever, but she had a sweet, docile, grateful +disposition, was totally free from conceit, and only desiring to be +guided by any one she looked up to. Her early attachment to herself +was very amiable; and her inclination for good company, and power of +appreciating what was elegant and clever, shewed that there was no +want of taste, though strength of understanding must not be expected. +Altogether she was quite convinced of Harriet Smith's being exactly the +young friend she wanted--exactly the something which her home required. +Such a friend as Mrs. Weston was out of the question. Two such could +never be granted. Two such she did not want. It was quite a different +sort of thing, a sentiment distinct and independent. Mrs. Weston was the +object of a regard which had its basis in gratitude and esteem. Harriet +would be loved as one to whom she could be useful. For Mrs. Weston there +was nothing to be done; for Harriet every thing. + +Her first attempts at usefulness were in an endeavour to find out who +were the parents, but Harriet could not tell. She was ready to tell +every thing in her power, but on this subject questions were vain. Emma +was obliged to fancy what she liked--but she could never believe that in +the same situation _she_ should not have discovered the truth. Harriet +had no penetration. She had been satisfied to hear and believe just what +Mrs. Goddard chose to tell her; and looked no farther. + +Mrs. Goddard, and the teachers, and the girls and the affairs of +the school in general, formed naturally a great part of the +conversation--and but for her acquaintance with the Martins of +Abbey-Mill Farm, it must have been the whole. But the Martins occupied +her thoughts a good deal; she had spent two very happy months with them, +and now loved to talk of the pleasures of her visit, and describe +the many comforts and wonders of the place. Emma encouraged her +talkativeness--amused by such a picture of another set of beings, +and enjoying the youthful simplicity which could speak with so much +exultation of Mrs. Martin's having "_two_ parlours, two very good +parlours, indeed; one of them quite as large as Mrs. Goddard's +drawing-room; and of her having an upper maid who had lived +five-and-twenty years with her; and of their having eight cows, two of +them Alderneys, and one a little Welch cow, a very pretty little Welch +cow indeed; and of Mrs. Martin's saying as she was so fond of it, +it should be called _her_ cow; and of their having a very handsome +summer-house in their garden, where some day next year they were all to +drink tea:--a very handsome summer-house, large enough to hold a dozen +people." + +For some time she was amused, without thinking beyond the immediate +cause; but as she came to understand the family better, other feelings +arose. She had taken up a wrong idea, fancying it was a mother and +daughter, a son and son's wife, who all lived together; but when it +appeared that the Mr. Martin, who bore a part in the narrative, and was +always mentioned with approbation for his great good-nature in doing +something or other, was a single man; that there was no young Mrs. +Martin, no wife in the case; she did suspect danger to her poor little +friend from all this hospitality and kindness, and that, if she were not +taken care of, she might be required to sink herself forever. + +With this inspiriting notion, her questions increased in number and +meaning; and she particularly led Harriet to talk more of Mr. Martin, +and there was evidently no dislike to it. Harriet was very ready to +speak of the share he had had in their moonlight walks and merry evening +games; and dwelt a good deal upon his being so very good-humoured and +obliging. He had gone three miles round one day in order to bring her +some walnuts, because she had said how fond she was of them, and in +every thing else he was so very obliging. He had his shepherd's son into +the parlour one night on purpose to sing to her. She was very fond +of singing. He could sing a little himself. She believed he was very +clever, and understood every thing. He had a very fine flock, and, while +she was with them, he had been bid more for his wool than any body in +the country. She believed every body spoke well of him. His mother and +sisters were very fond of him. Mrs. Martin had told her one day (and +there was a blush as she said it,) that it was impossible for any body +to be a better son, and therefore she was sure, whenever he married, he +would make a good husband. Not that she _wanted_ him to marry. She was +in no hurry at all. + +"Well done, Mrs. Martin!" thought Emma. "You know what you are about." + +"And when she had come away, Mrs. Martin was so very kind as to send +Mrs. Goddard a beautiful goose--the finest goose Mrs. Goddard had ever +seen. Mrs. Goddard had dressed it on a Sunday, and asked all the three +teachers, Miss Nash, and Miss Prince, and Miss Richardson, to sup with +her." + +"Mr. Martin, I suppose, is not a man of information beyond the line of +his own business? He does not read?" + +"Oh yes!--that is, no--I do not know--but I believe he has read a +good deal--but not what you would think any thing of. He reads the +Agricultural Reports, and some other books that lay in one of the window +seats--but he reads all _them_ to himself. But sometimes of an evening, +before we went to cards, he would read something aloud out of the +Elegant Extracts, very entertaining. And I know he has read the Vicar of +Wakefield. He never read the Romance of the Forest, nor The Children of +the Abbey. He had never heard of such books before I mentioned them, but +he is determined to get them now as soon as ever he can." + +The next question was-- + +"What sort of looking man is Mr. Martin?" + +"Oh! not handsome--not at all handsome. I thought him very plain at +first, but I do not think him so plain now. One does not, you know, +after a time. But did you never see him? He is in Highbury every now and +then, and he is sure to ride through every week in his way to Kingston. +He has passed you very often." + +"That may be, and I may have seen him fifty times, but without having +any idea of his name. A young farmer, whether on horseback or on foot, +is the very last sort of person to raise my curiosity. The yeomanry are +precisely the order of people with whom I feel I can have nothing to do. +A degree or two lower, and a creditable appearance might interest me; +I might hope to be useful to their families in some way or other. But +a farmer can need none of my help, and is, therefore, in one sense, as +much above my notice as in every other he is below it." + +"To be sure. Oh yes! It is not likely you should ever have observed him; +but he knows you very well indeed--I mean by sight." + +"I have no doubt of his being a very respectable young man. I know, +indeed, that he is so, and, as such, wish him well. What do you imagine +his age to be?" + +"He was four-and-twenty the 8th of last June, and my birthday is the +23rd just a fortnight and a day's difference--which is very odd." + +"Only four-and-twenty. That is too young to settle. His mother is +perfectly right not to be in a hurry. They seem very comfortable as they +are, and if she were to take any pains to marry him, she would probably +repent it. Six years hence, if he could meet with a good sort of young +woman in the same rank as his own, with a little money, it might be very +desirable." + +"Six years hence! Dear Miss Woodhouse, he would be thirty years old!" + +"Well, and that is as early as most men can afford to marry, who are not +born to an independence. Mr. Martin, I imagine, has his fortune entirely +to make--cannot be at all beforehand with the world. Whatever money he +might come into when his father died, whatever his share of the family +property, it is, I dare say, all afloat, all employed in his stock, and +so forth; and though, with diligence and good luck, he may be rich in +time, it is next to impossible that he should have realised any thing +yet." + +"To be sure, so it is. But they live very comfortably. They have no +indoors man, else they do not want for any thing; and Mrs. Martin talks +of taking a boy another year." + +"I wish you may not get into a scrape, Harriet, whenever he does +marry;--I mean, as to being acquainted with his wife--for though his +sisters, from a superior education, are not to be altogether objected +to, it does not follow that he might marry any body at all fit for you +to notice. The misfortune of your birth ought to make you particularly +careful as to your associates. There can be no doubt of your being a +gentleman's daughter, and you must support your claim to that station by +every thing within your own power, or there will be plenty of people who +would take pleasure in degrading you." + +"Yes, to be sure, I suppose there are. But while I visit at Hartfield, +and you are so kind to me, Miss Woodhouse, I am not afraid of what any +body can do." + +"You understand the force of influence pretty well, Harriet; but I would +have you so firmly established in good society, as to be independent +even of Hartfield and Miss Woodhouse. I want to see you permanently +well connected, and to that end it will be advisable to have as few odd +acquaintance as may be; and, therefore, I say that if you should still +be in this country when Mr. Martin marries, I wish you may not be drawn +in by your intimacy with the sisters, to be acquainted with the wife, +who will probably be some mere farmer's daughter, without education." + +"To be sure. Yes. Not that I think Mr. Martin would ever marry any body +but what had had some education--and been very well brought up. However, +I do not mean to set up my opinion against yours--and I am sure I shall +not wish for the acquaintance of his wife. I shall always have a great +regard for the Miss Martins, especially Elizabeth, and should be very +sorry to give them up, for they are quite as well educated as me. But +if he marries a very ignorant, vulgar woman, certainly I had better not +visit her, if I can help it." + +Emma watched her through the fluctuations of this speech, and saw no +alarming symptoms of love. The young man had been the first admirer, but +she trusted there was no other hold, and that there would be no serious +difficulty, on Harriet's side, to oppose any friendly arrangement of her +own. + +They met Mr. Martin the very next day, as they were walking on the +Donwell road. He was on foot, and after looking very respectfully at +her, looked with most unfeigned satisfaction at her companion. Emma was +not sorry to have such an opportunity of survey; and walking a few +yards forward, while they talked together, soon made her quick eye +sufficiently acquainted with Mr. Robert Martin. His appearance was very +neat, and he looked like a sensible young man, but his person had no +other advantage; and when he came to be contrasted with gentlemen, +she thought he must lose all the ground he had gained in Harriet's +inclination. Harriet was not insensible of manner; she had voluntarily +noticed her father's gentleness with admiration as well as wonder. Mr. +Martin looked as if he did not know what manner was. + +They remained but a few minutes together, as Miss Woodhouse must not be +kept waiting; and Harriet then came running to her with a smiling face, +and in a flutter of spirits, which Miss Woodhouse hoped very soon to +compose. + +"Only think of our happening to meet him!--How very odd! It was quite +a chance, he said, that he had not gone round by Randalls. He did not +think we ever walked this road. He thought we walked towards Randalls +most days. He has not been able to get the Romance of the Forest yet. +He was so busy the last time he was at Kingston that he quite forgot it, +but he goes again to-morrow. So very odd we should happen to meet! Well, +Miss Woodhouse, is he like what you expected? What do you think of him? +Do you think him so very plain?" + +"He is very plain, undoubtedly--remarkably plain:--but that is nothing +compared with his entire want of gentility. I had no right to expect +much, and I did not expect much; but I had no idea that he could be so +very clownish, so totally without air. I had imagined him, I confess, a +degree or two nearer gentility." + +"To be sure," said Harriet, in a mortified voice, "he is not so genteel +as real gentlemen." + +"I think, Harriet, since your acquaintance with us, you have been +repeatedly in the company of some such very real gentlemen, that you +must yourself be struck with the difference in Mr. Martin. At Hartfield, +you have had very good specimens of well educated, well bred men. I +should be surprized if, after seeing them, you could be in company +with Mr. Martin again without perceiving him to be a very inferior +creature--and rather wondering at yourself for having ever thought him +at all agreeable before. Do not you begin to feel that now? Were not +you struck? I am sure you must have been struck by his awkward look and +abrupt manner, and the uncouthness of a voice which I heard to be wholly +unmodulated as I stood here." + +"Certainly, he is not like Mr. Knightley. He has not such a fine air and +way of walking as Mr. Knightley. I see the difference plain enough. But +Mr. Knightley is so very fine a man!" + +"Mr. Knightley's air is so remarkably good that it is not fair to +compare Mr. Martin with _him_. You might not see one in a hundred with +_gentleman_ so plainly written as in Mr. Knightley. But he is not the +only gentleman you have been lately used to. What say you to Mr. Weston +and Mr. Elton? Compare Mr. Martin with either of _them_. Compare their +manner of carrying themselves; of walking; of speaking; of being silent. +You must see the difference." + +"Oh yes!--there is a great difference. But Mr. Weston is almost an old +man. Mr. Weston must be between forty and fifty." + +"Which makes his good manners the more valuable. The older a person +grows, Harriet, the more important it is that their manners should not +be bad; the more glaring and disgusting any loudness, or coarseness, or +awkwardness becomes. What is passable in youth is detestable in later +age. Mr. Martin is now awkward and abrupt; what will he be at Mr. +Weston's time of life?" + +"There is no saying, indeed," replied Harriet rather solemnly. + +"But there may be pretty good guessing. He will be a completely gross, +vulgar farmer, totally inattentive to appearances, and thinking of +nothing but profit and loss." + +"Will he, indeed? That will be very bad." + +"How much his business engrosses him already is very plain from the +circumstance of his forgetting to inquire for the book you recommended. +He was a great deal too full of the market to think of any thing +else--which is just as it should be, for a thriving man. What has he to +do with books? And I have no doubt that he _will_ thrive, and be a very +rich man in time--and his being illiterate and coarse need not disturb +_us_." + +"I wonder he did not remember the book"--was all Harriet's answer, and +spoken with a degree of grave displeasure which Emma thought might be +safely left to itself. She, therefore, said no more for some time. Her +next beginning was, + +"In one respect, perhaps, Mr. Elton's manners are superior to Mr. +Knightley's or Mr. Weston's. They have more gentleness. They might be +more safely held up as a pattern. There is an openness, a quickness, +almost a bluntness in Mr. Weston, which every body likes in _him_, +because there is so much good-humour with it--but that would not do to +be copied. Neither would Mr. Knightley's downright, decided, commanding +sort of manner, though it suits _him_ very well; his figure, and look, +and situation in life seem to allow it; but if any young man were to set +about copying him, he would not be sufferable. On the contrary, I think +a young man might be very safely recommended to take Mr. Elton as a +model. Mr. Elton is good-humoured, cheerful, obliging, and gentle. +He seems to me to be grown particularly gentle of late. I do not know +whether he has any design of ingratiating himself with either of us, +Harriet, by additional softness, but it strikes me that his manners are +softer than they used to be. If he means any thing, it must be to please +you. Did not I tell you what he said of you the other day?" + +She then repeated some warm personal praise which she had drawn from Mr. +Elton, and now did full justice to; and Harriet blushed and smiled, and +said she had always thought Mr. Elton very agreeable. + +Mr. Elton was the very person fixed on by Emma for driving the young +farmer out of Harriet's head. She thought it would be an excellent +match; and only too palpably desirable, natural, and probable, for her +to have much merit in planning it. She feared it was what every body +else must think of and predict. It was not likely, however, that any +body should have equalled her in the date of the plan, as it had +entered her brain during the very first evening of Harriet's coming to +Hartfield. The longer she considered it, the greater was her sense +of its expediency. Mr. Elton's situation was most suitable, quite the +gentleman himself, and without low connexions; at the same time, not of +any family that could fairly object to the doubtful birth of Harriet. +He had a comfortable home for her, and Emma imagined a very sufficient +income; for though the vicarage of Highbury was not large, he was known +to have some independent property; and she thought very highly of him +as a good-humoured, well-meaning, respectable young man, without any +deficiency of useful understanding or knowledge of the world. + +She had already satisfied herself that he thought Harriet a beautiful +girl, which she trusted, with such frequent meetings at Hartfield, was +foundation enough on his side; and on Harriet's there could be little +doubt that the idea of being preferred by him would have all the usual +weight and efficacy. And he was really a very pleasing young man, a +young man whom any woman not fastidious might like. He was reckoned very +handsome; his person much admired in general, though not by her, +there being a want of elegance of feature which she could not dispense +with:--but the girl who could be gratified by a Robert Martin's riding +about the country to get walnuts for her might very well be conquered by +Mr. Elton's admiration. + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"I do not know what your opinion may be, Mrs. Weston," said Mr. +Knightley, "of this great intimacy between Emma and Harriet Smith, but I +think it a bad thing." + +"A bad thing! Do you really think it a bad thing?--why so?" + +"I think they will neither of them do the other any good." + +"You surprize me! Emma must do Harriet good: and by supplying her with a +new object of interest, Harriet may be said to do Emma good. I have been +seeing their intimacy with the greatest pleasure. How very differently +we feel!--Not think they will do each other any good! This will +certainly be the beginning of one of our quarrels about Emma, Mr. +Knightley." + +"Perhaps you think I am come on purpose to quarrel with you, knowing +Weston to be out, and that you must still fight your own battle." + +"Mr. Weston would undoubtedly support me, if he were here, for he thinks +exactly as I do on the subject. We were speaking of it only yesterday, +and agreeing how fortunate it was for Emma, that there should be such a +girl in Highbury for her to associate with. Mr. Knightley, I shall not +allow you to be a fair judge in this case. You are so much used to live +alone, that you do not know the value of a companion; and, perhaps no +man can be a good judge of the comfort a woman feels in the society of +one of her own sex, after being used to it all her life. I can imagine +your objection to Harriet Smith. She is not the superior young woman +which Emma's friend ought to be. But on the other hand, as Emma wants +to see her better informed, it will be an inducement to her to read more +herself. They will read together. She means it, I know." + +"Emma has been meaning to read more ever since she was twelve years old. +I have seen a great many lists of her drawing-up at various times of +books that she meant to read regularly through--and very good lists +they were--very well chosen, and very neatly arranged--sometimes +alphabetically, and sometimes by some other rule. The list she drew +up when only fourteen--I remember thinking it did her judgment so much +credit, that I preserved it some time; and I dare say she may have made +out a very good list now. But I have done with expecting any course of +steady reading from Emma. She will never submit to any thing +requiring industry and patience, and a subjection of the fancy to the +understanding. Where Miss Taylor failed to stimulate, I may safely +affirm that Harriet Smith will do nothing.--You never could persuade her +to read half so much as you wished.--You know you could not." + +"I dare say," replied Mrs. Weston, smiling, "that I thought so +_then_;--but since we have parted, I can never remember Emma's omitting +to do any thing I wished." + +"There is hardly any desiring to refresh such a memory as _that_,"--said +Mr. Knightley, feelingly; and for a moment or two he had done. "But I," +he soon added, "who have had no such charm thrown over my senses, must +still see, hear, and remember. Emma is spoiled by being the cleverest +of her family. At ten years old, she had the misfortune of being able to +answer questions which puzzled her sister at seventeen. She was always +quick and assured: Isabella slow and diffident. And ever since she +was twelve, Emma has been mistress of the house and of you all. In her +mother she lost the only person able to cope with her. She inherits her +mother's talents, and must have been under subjection to her." + +"I should have been sorry, Mr. Knightley, to be dependent on _your_ +recommendation, had I quitted Mr. Woodhouse's family and wanted another +situation; I do not think you would have spoken a good word for me to +any body. I am sure you always thought me unfit for the office I held." + +"Yes," said he, smiling. "You are better placed _here_; very fit for a +wife, but not at all for a governess. But you were preparing yourself to +be an excellent wife all the time you were at Hartfield. You might +not give Emma such a complete education as your powers would seem to +promise; but you were receiving a very good education from _her_, on the +very material matrimonial point of submitting your own will, and doing +as you were bid; and if Weston had asked me to recommend him a wife, I +should certainly have named Miss Taylor." + +"Thank you. There will be very little merit in making a good wife to +such a man as Mr. Weston." + +"Why, to own the truth, I am afraid you are rather thrown away, and that +with every disposition to bear, there will be nothing to be borne. We +will not despair, however. Weston may grow cross from the wantonness of +comfort, or his son may plague him." + +"I hope not _that_.--It is not likely. No, Mr. Knightley, do not +foretell vexation from that quarter." + +"Not I, indeed. I only name possibilities. I do not pretend to Emma's +genius for foretelling and guessing. I hope, with all my heart, the +young man may be a Weston in merit, and a Churchill in fortune.--But +Harriet Smith--I have not half done about Harriet Smith. I think her the +very worst sort of companion that Emma could possibly have. She knows +nothing herself, and looks upon Emma as knowing every thing. She is a +flatterer in all her ways; and so much the worse, because undesigned. +Her ignorance is hourly flattery. How can Emma imagine she has any +thing to learn herself, while Harriet is presenting such a delightful +inferiority? And as for Harriet, I will venture to say that _she_ cannot +gain by the acquaintance. Hartfield will only put her out of conceit +with all the other places she belongs to. She will grow just refined +enough to be uncomfortable with those among whom birth and circumstances +have placed her home. I am much mistaken if Emma's doctrines give any +strength of mind, or tend at all to make a girl adapt herself rationally +to the varieties of her situation in life.--They only give a little +polish." + +"I either depend more upon Emma's good sense than you do, or am more +anxious for her present comfort; for I cannot lament the acquaintance. +How well she looked last night!" + +"Oh! you would rather talk of her person than her mind, would you? Very +well; I shall not attempt to deny Emma's being pretty." + +"Pretty! say beautiful rather. Can you imagine any thing nearer perfect +beauty than Emma altogether--face and figure?" + +"I do not know what I could imagine, but I confess that I have seldom +seen a face or figure more pleasing to me than hers. But I am a partial +old friend." + +"Such an eye!--the true hazle eye--and so brilliant! regular features, +open countenance, with a complexion! oh! what a bloom of full health, +and such a pretty height and size; such a firm and upright figure! +There is health, not merely in her bloom, but in her air, her head, her +glance. One hears sometimes of a child being 'the picture of health;' +now, Emma always gives me the idea of being the complete picture of +grown-up health. She is loveliness itself. Mr. Knightley, is not she?" + +"I have not a fault to find with her person," he replied. "I think her +all you describe. I love to look at her; and I will add this praise, +that I do not think her personally vain. Considering how very handsome +she is, she appears to be little occupied with it; her vanity lies +another way. Mrs. Weston, I am not to be talked out of my dislike of +Harriet Smith, or my dread of its doing them both harm." + +"And I, Mr. Knightley, am equally stout in my confidence of its not +doing them any harm. With all dear Emma's little faults, she is an +excellent creature. Where shall we see a better daughter, or a kinder +sister, or a truer friend? No, no; she has qualities which may be +trusted; she will never lead any one really wrong; she will make no +lasting blunder; where Emma errs once, she is in the right a hundred +times." + +"Very well; I will not plague you any more. Emma shall be an angel, and +I will keep my spleen to myself till Christmas brings John and Isabella. +John loves Emma with a reasonable and therefore not a blind affection, +and Isabella always thinks as he does; except when he is not quite +frightened enough about the children. I am sure of having their opinions +with me." + +"I know that you all love her really too well to be unjust or unkind; +but excuse me, Mr. Knightley, if I take the liberty (I consider myself, +you know, as having somewhat of the privilege of speech that Emma's +mother might have had) the liberty of hinting that I do not think any +possible good can arise from Harriet Smith's intimacy being made a +matter of much discussion among you. Pray excuse me; but supposing any +little inconvenience may be apprehended from the intimacy, it cannot be +expected that Emma, accountable to nobody but her father, who perfectly +approves the acquaintance, should put an end to it, so long as it is a +source of pleasure to herself. It has been so many years my province to +give advice, that you cannot be surprized, Mr. Knightley, at this little +remains of office." + +"Not at all," cried he; "I am much obliged to you for it. It is very +good advice, and it shall have a better fate than your advice has often +found; for it shall be attended to." + +"Mrs. John Knightley is easily alarmed, and might be made unhappy about +her sister." + +"Be satisfied," said he, "I will not raise any outcry. I will keep my +ill-humour to myself. I have a very sincere interest in Emma. Isabella +does not seem more my sister; has never excited a greater interest; +perhaps hardly so great. There is an anxiety, a curiosity in what one +feels for Emma. I wonder what will become of her!" + +"So do I," said Mrs. Weston gently, "very much." + +"She always declares she will never marry, which, of course, means just +nothing at all. But I have no idea that she has yet ever seen a man she +cared for. It would not be a bad thing for her to be very much in love +with a proper object. I should like to see Emma in love, and in some +doubt of a return; it would do her good. But there is nobody hereabouts +to attach her; and she goes so seldom from home." + +"There does, indeed, seem as little to tempt her to break her resolution +at present," said Mrs. Weston, "as can well be; and while she is so +happy at Hartfield, I cannot wish her to be forming any attachment which +would be creating such difficulties on poor Mr. Woodhouse's account. I +do not recommend matrimony at present to Emma, though I mean no slight +to the state, I assure you." + +Part of her meaning was to conceal some favourite thoughts of her own +and Mr. Weston's on the subject, as much as possible. There were wishes +at Randalls respecting Emma's destiny, but it was not desirable to +have them suspected; and the quiet transition which Mr. Knightley soon +afterwards made to "What does Weston think of the weather; shall we have +rain?" convinced her that he had nothing more to say or surmise about +Hartfield. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Emma could not feel a doubt of having given Harriet's fancy a proper +direction and raised the gratitude of her young vanity to a very good +purpose, for she found her decidedly more sensible than before of Mr. +Elton's being a remarkably handsome man, with most agreeable manners; +and as she had no hesitation in following up the assurance of his +admiration by agreeable hints, she was soon pretty confident of creating +as much liking on Harriet's side, as there could be any occasion for. +She was quite convinced of Mr. Elton's being in the fairest way of +falling in love, if not in love already. She had no scruple with regard +to him. He talked of Harriet, and praised her so warmly, that she could +not suppose any thing wanting which a little time would not add. His +perception of the striking improvement of Harriet's manner, since her +introduction at Hartfield, was not one of the least agreeable proofs of +his growing attachment. + +"You have given Miss Smith all that she required," said he; "you have +made her graceful and easy. She was a beautiful creature when she +came to you, but, in my opinion, the attractions you have added are +infinitely superior to what she received from nature." + +"I am glad you think I have been useful to her; but Harriet only wanted +drawing out, and receiving a few, very few hints. She had all the +natural grace of sweetness of temper and artlessness in herself. I have +done very little." + +"If it were admissible to contradict a lady," said the gallant Mr. +Elton-- + +"I have perhaps given her a little more decision of character, have +taught her to think on points which had not fallen in her way before." + +"Exactly so; that is what principally strikes me. So much superadded +decision of character! Skilful has been the hand!" + +"Great has been the pleasure, I am sure. I never met with a disposition +more truly amiable." + +"I have no doubt of it." And it was spoken with a sort of sighing +animation, which had a vast deal of the lover. She was not less pleased +another day with the manner in which he seconded a sudden wish of hers, +to have Harriet's picture. + +"Did you ever have your likeness taken, Harriet?" said she: "did you +ever sit for your picture?" + +Harriet was on the point of leaving the room, and only stopt to say, +with a very interesting naivete, + +"Oh! dear, no, never." + +No sooner was she out of sight, than Emma exclaimed, + +"What an exquisite possession a good picture of her would be! I would +give any money for it. I almost long to attempt her likeness myself. +You do not know it I dare say, but two or three years ago I had a great +passion for taking likenesses, and attempted several of my friends, and +was thought to have a tolerable eye in general. But from one cause or +another, I gave it up in disgust. But really, I could almost venture, +if Harriet would sit to me. It would be such a delight to have her +picture!" + +"Let me entreat you," cried Mr. Elton; "it would indeed be a delight! +Let me entreat you, Miss Woodhouse, to exercise so charming a talent +in favour of your friend. I know what your drawings are. How could +you suppose me ignorant? Is not this room rich in specimens of your +landscapes and flowers; and has not Mrs. Weston some inimitable +figure-pieces in her drawing-room, at Randalls?" + +Yes, good man!--thought Emma--but what has all that to do with taking +likenesses? You know nothing of drawing. Don't pretend to be in raptures +about mine. Keep your raptures for Harriet's face. "Well, if you give me +such kind encouragement, Mr. Elton, I believe I shall try what I can do. +Harriet's features are very delicate, which makes a likeness difficult; +and yet there is a peculiarity in the shape of the eye and the lines +about the mouth which one ought to catch." + +"Exactly so--The shape of the eye and the lines about the mouth--I have +not a doubt of your success. Pray, pray attempt it. As you will do it, +it will indeed, to use your own words, be an exquisite possession." + +"But I am afraid, Mr. Elton, Harriet will not like to sit. She thinks +so little of her own beauty. Did not you observe her manner of answering +me? How completely it meant, 'why should my picture be drawn?'" + +"Oh! yes, I observed it, I assure you. It was not lost on me. But still +I cannot imagine she would not be persuaded." + +Harriet was soon back again, and the proposal almost immediately made; +and she had no scruples which could stand many minutes against the +earnest pressing of both the others. Emma wished to go to work directly, +and therefore produced the portfolio containing her various attempts at +portraits, for not one of them had ever been finished, that they might +decide together on the best size for Harriet. Her many beginnings were +displayed. Miniatures, half-lengths, whole-lengths, pencil, crayon, and +water-colours had been all tried in turn. She had always wanted to do +every thing, and had made more progress both in drawing and music than +many might have done with so little labour as she would ever submit to. +She played and sang;--and drew in almost every style; but steadiness +had always been wanting; and in nothing had she approached the degree of +excellence which she would have been glad to command, and ought not to +have failed of. She was not much deceived as to her own skill either +as an artist or a musician, but she was not unwilling to have others +deceived, or sorry to know her reputation for accomplishment often +higher than it deserved. + +There was merit in every drawing--in the least finished, perhaps the +most; her style was spirited; but had there been much less, or had there +been ten times more, the delight and admiration of her two companions +would have been the same. They were both in ecstasies. A likeness +pleases every body; and Miss Woodhouse's performances must be capital. + +"No great variety of faces for you," said Emma. "I had only my own +family to study from. There is my father--another of my father--but the +idea of sitting for his picture made him so nervous, that I could only +take him by stealth; neither of them very like therefore. Mrs. Weston +again, and again, and again, you see. Dear Mrs. Weston! always my +kindest friend on every occasion. She would sit whenever I asked her. +There is my sister; and really quite her own little elegant figure!--and +the face not unlike. I should have made a good likeness of her, if she +would have sat longer, but she was in such a hurry to have me draw +her four children that she would not be quiet. Then, here come all my +attempts at three of those four children;--there they are, Henry and +John and Bella, from one end of the sheet to the other, and any one of +them might do for any one of the rest. She was so eager to have them +drawn that I could not refuse; but there is no making children of three +or four years old stand still you know; nor can it be very easy to take +any likeness of them, beyond the air and complexion, unless they are +coarser featured than any of mama's children ever were. Here is my +sketch of the fourth, who was a baby. I took him as he was sleeping on +the sofa, and it is as strong a likeness of his cockade as you would +wish to see. He had nestled down his head most conveniently. That's very +like. I am rather proud of little George. The corner of the sofa is very +good. Then here is my last,"--unclosing a pretty sketch of a gentleman +in small size, whole-length--"my last and my best--my brother, Mr. John +Knightley.--This did not want much of being finished, when I put it away +in a pet, and vowed I would never take another likeness. I could not +help being provoked; for after all my pains, and when I had really made +a very good likeness of it--(Mrs. Weston and I were quite agreed in +thinking it _very_ like)--only too handsome--too flattering--but +that was a fault on the right side"--after all this, came poor dear +Isabella's cold approbation of--"Yes, it was a little like--but to be +sure it did not do him justice. We had had a great deal of trouble +in persuading him to sit at all. It was made a great favour of; and +altogether it was more than I could bear; and so I never would finish +it, to have it apologised over as an unfavourable likeness, to every +morning visitor in Brunswick Square;--and, as I said, I did then +forswear ever drawing any body again. But for Harriet's sake, or rather +for my own, and as there are no husbands and wives in the case _at_ +_present_, I will break my resolution now." + +Mr. Elton seemed very properly struck and delighted by the idea, and was +repeating, "No husbands and wives in the case at present indeed, as +you observe. Exactly so. No husbands and wives," with so interesting a +consciousness, that Emma began to consider whether she had not better +leave them together at once. But as she wanted to be drawing, the +declaration must wait a little longer. + +She had soon fixed on the size and sort of portrait. It was to be +a whole-length in water-colours, like Mr. John Knightley's, and was +destined, if she could please herself, to hold a very honourable station +over the mantelpiece. + +The sitting began; and Harriet, smiling and blushing, and afraid of not +keeping her attitude and countenance, presented a very sweet mixture of +youthful expression to the steady eyes of the artist. But there was no +doing any thing, with Mr. Elton fidgeting behind her and watching every +touch. She gave him credit for stationing himself where he might gaze +and gaze again without offence; but was really obliged to put an end to +it, and request him to place himself elsewhere. It then occurred to her +to employ him in reading. + +"If he would be so good as to read to them, it would be a kindness +indeed! It would amuse away the difficulties of her part, and lessen the +irksomeness of Miss Smith's." + +Mr. Elton was only too happy. Harriet listened, and Emma drew in peace. +She must allow him to be still frequently coming to look; any thing less +would certainly have been too little in a lover; and he was ready at the +smallest intermission of the pencil, to jump up and see the progress, +and be charmed.--There was no being displeased with such an encourager, +for his admiration made him discern a likeness almost before it +was possible. She could not respect his eye, but his love and his +complaisance were unexceptionable. + +The sitting was altogether very satisfactory; she was quite enough +pleased with the first day's sketch to wish to go on. There was no want +of likeness, she had been fortunate in the attitude, and as she meant +to throw in a little improvement to the figure, to give a little more +height, and considerably more elegance, she had great confidence of +its being in every way a pretty drawing at last, and of its filling +its destined place with credit to them both--a standing memorial of the +beauty of one, the skill of the other, and the friendship of both; +with as many other agreeable associations as Mr. Elton's very promising +attachment was likely to add. + +Harriet was to sit again the next day; and Mr. Elton, just as he ought, +entreated for the permission of attending and reading to them again. + +"By all means. We shall be most happy to consider you as one of the +party." + +The same civilities and courtesies, the same success and satisfaction, +took place on the morrow, and accompanied the whole progress of the +picture, which was rapid and happy. Every body who saw it was pleased, +but Mr. Elton was in continual raptures, and defended it through every +criticism. + +"Miss Woodhouse has given her friend the only beauty she +wanted,"--observed Mrs. Weston to him--not in the least suspecting that +she was addressing a lover.--"The expression of the eye is most correct, +but Miss Smith has not those eyebrows and eyelashes. It is the fault of +her face that she has them not." + +"Do you think so?" replied he. "I cannot agree with you. It appears +to me a most perfect resemblance in every feature. I never saw such a +likeness in my life. We must allow for the effect of shade, you know." + +"You have made her too tall, Emma," said Mr. Knightley. + +Emma knew that she had, but would not own it; and Mr. Elton warmly +added, + +"Oh no! certainly not too tall; not in the least too tall. Consider, she +is sitting down--which naturally presents a different--which in short +gives exactly the idea--and the proportions must be preserved, you know. +Proportions, fore-shortening.--Oh no! it gives one exactly the idea of +such a height as Miss Smith's. Exactly so indeed!" + +"It is very pretty," said Mr. Woodhouse. "So prettily done! Just as your +drawings always are, my dear. I do not know any body who draws so well +as you do. The only thing I do not thoroughly like is, that she seems +to be sitting out of doors, with only a little shawl over her +shoulders--and it makes one think she must catch cold." + +"But, my dear papa, it is supposed to be summer; a warm day in summer. +Look at the tree." + +"But it is never safe to sit out of doors, my dear." + +"You, sir, may say any thing," cried Mr. Elton, "but I must confess that +I regard it as a most happy thought, the placing of Miss Smith out of +doors; and the tree is touched with such inimitable spirit! Any other +situation would have been much less in character. The naivete of Miss +Smith's manners--and altogether--Oh, it is most admirable! I cannot keep +my eyes from it. I never saw such a likeness." + +The next thing wanted was to get the picture framed; and here were a few +difficulties. It must be done directly; it must be done in London; the +order must go through the hands of some intelligent person whose taste +could be depended on; and Isabella, the usual doer of all commissions, +must not be applied to, because it was December, and Mr. Woodhouse +could not bear the idea of her stirring out of her house in the fogs of +December. But no sooner was the distress known to Mr. Elton, than it +was removed. His gallantry was always on the alert. "Might he be trusted +with the commission, what infinite pleasure should he have in executing +it! he could ride to London at any time. It was impossible to say how +much he should be gratified by being employed on such an errand." + +"He was too good!--she could not endure the thought!--she would not give +him such a troublesome office for the world,"--brought on the desired +repetition of entreaties and assurances,--and a very few minutes settled +the business. + +Mr. Elton was to take the drawing to London, chuse the frame, and give +the directions; and Emma thought she could so pack it as to ensure its +safety without much incommoding him, while he seemed mostly fearful of +not being incommoded enough. + +"What a precious deposit!" said he with a tender sigh, as he received +it. + +"This man is almost too gallant to be in love," thought Emma. "I should +say so, but that I suppose there may be a hundred different ways of +being in love. He is an excellent young man, and will suit Harriet +exactly; it will be an 'Exactly so,' as he says himself; but he does +sigh and languish, and study for compliments rather more than I could +endure as a principal. I come in for a pretty good share as a second. +But it is his gratitude on Harriet's account." + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +The very day of Mr. Elton's going to London produced a fresh occasion +for Emma's services towards her friend. Harriet had been at Hartfield, +as usual, soon after breakfast; and, after a time, had gone home to +return again to dinner: she returned, and sooner than had been +talked of, and with an agitated, hurried look, announcing something +extraordinary to have happened which she was longing to tell. Half a +minute brought it all out. She had heard, as soon as she got back to +Mrs. Goddard's, that Mr. Martin had been there an hour before, and +finding she was not at home, nor particularly expected, had left a +little parcel for her from one of his sisters, and gone away; and on +opening this parcel, she had actually found, besides the two songs which +she had lent Elizabeth to copy, a letter to herself; and this letter was +from him, from Mr. Martin, and contained a direct proposal of marriage. +"Who could have thought it? She was so surprized she did not know what +to do. Yes, quite a proposal of marriage; and a very good letter, +at least she thought so. And he wrote as if he really loved her very +much--but she did not know--and so, she was come as fast as she could to +ask Miss Woodhouse what she should do.--" Emma was half-ashamed of her +friend for seeming so pleased and so doubtful. + +"Upon my word," she cried, "the young man is determined not to lose any +thing for want of asking. He will connect himself well if he can." + +"Will you read the letter?" cried Harriet. "Pray do. I'd rather you +would." + +Emma was not sorry to be pressed. She read, and was surprized. The style +of the letter was much above her expectation. There were not merely no +grammatical errors, but as a composition it would not have disgraced a +gentleman; the language, though plain, was strong and unaffected, and +the sentiments it conveyed very much to the credit of the writer. It was +short, but expressed good sense, warm attachment, liberality, propriety, +even delicacy of feeling. She paused over it, while Harriet stood +anxiously watching for her opinion, with a "Well, well," and was at last +forced to add, "Is it a good letter? or is it too short?" + +"Yes, indeed, a very good letter," replied Emma rather slowly--"so +good a letter, Harriet, that every thing considered, I think one of his +sisters must have helped him. I can hardly imagine the young man whom +I saw talking with you the other day could express himself so well, if +left quite to his own powers, and yet it is not the style of a woman; +no, certainly, it is too strong and concise; not diffuse enough for a +woman. No doubt he is a sensible man, and I suppose may have a natural +talent for--thinks strongly and clearly--and when he takes a pen in +hand, his thoughts naturally find proper words. It is so with some men. +Yes, I understand the sort of mind. Vigorous, decided, with sentiments +to a certain point, not coarse. A better written letter, Harriet +(returning it,) than I had expected." + +"Well," said the still waiting Harriet;--"well--and--and what shall I +do?" + +"What shall you do! In what respect? Do you mean with regard to this +letter?" + +"Yes." + +"But what are you in doubt of? You must answer it of course--and +speedily." + +"Yes. But what shall I say? Dear Miss Woodhouse, do advise me." + +"Oh no, no! the letter had much better be all your own. You will express +yourself very properly, I am sure. There is no danger of your not +being intelligible, which is the first thing. Your meaning must be +unequivocal; no doubts or demurs: and such expressions of gratitude +and concern for the pain you are inflicting as propriety requires, will +present themselves unbidden to _your_ mind, I am persuaded. You need +not be prompted to write with the appearance of sorrow for his +disappointment." + +"You think I ought to refuse him then," said Harriet, looking down. + +"Ought to refuse him! My dear Harriet, what do you mean? Are you in any +doubt as to that? I thought--but I beg your pardon, perhaps I have been +under a mistake. I certainly have been misunderstanding you, if you feel +in doubt as to the _purport_ of your answer. I had imagined you were +consulting me only as to the wording of it." + +Harriet was silent. With a little reserve of manner, Emma continued: + +"You mean to return a favourable answer, I collect." + +"No, I do not; that is, I do not mean--What shall I do? What would you +advise me to do? Pray, dear Miss Woodhouse, tell me what I ought to do." + +"I shall not give you any advice, Harriet. I will have nothing to do +with it. This is a point which you must settle with your feelings." + +"I had no notion that he liked me so very much," said Harriet, +contemplating the letter. For a little while Emma persevered in her +silence; but beginning to apprehend the bewitching flattery of that +letter might be too powerful, she thought it best to say, + +"I lay it down as a general rule, Harriet, that if a woman _doubts_ as +to whether she should accept a man or not, she certainly ought to refuse +him. If she can hesitate as to 'Yes,' she ought to say 'No' directly. +It is not a state to be safely entered into with doubtful feelings, with +half a heart. I thought it my duty as a friend, and older than yourself, +to say thus much to you. But do not imagine that I want to influence +you." + +"Oh! no, I am sure you are a great deal too kind to--but if you would +just advise me what I had best do--No, no, I do not mean that--As +you say, one's mind ought to be quite made up--One should not be +hesitating--It is a very serious thing.--It will be safer to say 'No,' +perhaps.--Do you think I had better say 'No?'" + +"Not for the world," said Emma, smiling graciously, "would I advise you +either way. You must be the best judge of your own happiness. If you +prefer Mr. Martin to every other person; if you think him the most +agreeable man you have ever been in company with, why should you +hesitate? You blush, Harriet.--Does any body else occur to you at +this moment under such a definition? Harriet, Harriet, do not deceive +yourself; do not be run away with by gratitude and compassion. At this +moment whom are you thinking of?" + +The symptoms were favourable.--Instead of answering, Harriet turned away +confused, and stood thoughtfully by the fire; and though the letter was +still in her hand, it was now mechanically twisted about without regard. +Emma waited the result with impatience, but not without strong hopes. At +last, with some hesitation, Harriet said-- + +"Miss Woodhouse, as you will not give me your opinion, I must do as well +as I can by myself; and I have now quite determined, and really almost +made up my mind--to refuse Mr. Martin. Do you think I am right?" + +"Perfectly, perfectly right, my dearest Harriet; you are doing just +what you ought. While you were at all in suspense I kept my feelings to +myself, but now that you are so completely decided I have no hesitation +in approving. Dear Harriet, I give myself joy of this. It would +have grieved me to lose your acquaintance, which must have been the +consequence of your marrying Mr. Martin. While you were in the smallest +degree wavering, I said nothing about it, because I would not influence; +but it would have been the loss of a friend to me. I could not have +visited Mrs. Robert Martin, of Abbey-Mill Farm. Now I am secure of you +for ever." + +Harriet had not surmised her own danger, but the idea of it struck her +forcibly. + +"You could not have visited me!" she cried, looking aghast. "No, to be +sure you could not; but I never thought of that before. That would have +been too dreadful!--What an escape!--Dear Miss Woodhouse, I would not +give up the pleasure and honour of being intimate with you for any thing +in the world." + +"Indeed, Harriet, it would have been a severe pang to lose you; but it +must have been. You would have thrown yourself out of all good society. +I must have given you up." + +"Dear me!--How should I ever have borne it! It would have killed me +never to come to Hartfield any more!" + +"Dear affectionate creature!--_You_ banished to Abbey-Mill Farm!--_You_ +confined to the society of the illiterate and vulgar all your life! I +wonder how the young man could have the assurance to ask it. He must +have a pretty good opinion of himself." + +"I do not think he is conceited either, in general," said Harriet, her +conscience opposing such censure; "at least, he is very good natured, +and I shall always feel much obliged to him, and have a great regard +for--but that is quite a different thing from--and you know, though +he may like me, it does not follow that I should--and certainly I must +confess that since my visiting here I have seen people--and if one comes +to compare them, person and manners, there is no comparison at all, +_one_ is so very handsome and agreeable. However, I do really think Mr. +Martin a very amiable young man, and have a great opinion of him; and +his being so much attached to me--and his writing such a letter--but as +to leaving you, it is what I would not do upon any consideration." + +"Thank you, thank you, my own sweet little friend. We will not be +parted. A woman is not to marry a man merely because she is asked, or +because he is attached to her, and can write a tolerable letter." + +"Oh no;--and it is but a short letter too." + +Emma felt the bad taste of her friend, but let it pass with a "very +true; and it would be a small consolation to her, for the clownish +manner which might be offending her every hour of the day, to know that +her husband could write a good letter." + +"Oh! yes, very. Nobody cares for a letter; the thing is, to be always +happy with pleasant companions. I am quite determined to refuse him. But +how shall I do? What shall I say?" + +Emma assured her there would be no difficulty in the answer, and advised +its being written directly, which was agreed to, in the hope of her +assistance; and though Emma continued to protest against any assistance +being wanted, it was in fact given in the formation of every sentence. +The looking over his letter again, in replying to it, had such a +softening tendency, that it was particularly necessary to brace her up +with a few decisive expressions; and she was so very much concerned at +the idea of making him unhappy, and thought so much of what his mother +and sisters would think and say, and was so anxious that they should not +fancy her ungrateful, that Emma believed if the young man had come in +her way at that moment, he would have been accepted after all. + +This letter, however, was written, and sealed, and sent. The business +was finished, and Harriet safe. She was rather low all the evening, but +Emma could allow for her amiable regrets, and sometimes relieved them by +speaking of her own affection, sometimes by bringing forward the idea of +Mr. Elton. + +"I shall never be invited to Abbey-Mill again," was said in rather a +sorrowful tone. + +"Nor, if you were, could I ever bear to part with you, my Harriet. You +are a great deal too necessary at Hartfield to be spared to Abbey-Mill." + +"And I am sure I should never want to go there; for I am never happy but +at Hartfield." + +Some time afterwards it was, "I think Mrs. Goddard would be very much +surprized if she knew what had happened. I am sure Miss Nash would--for +Miss Nash thinks her own sister very well married, and it is only a +linen-draper." + +"One should be sorry to see greater pride or refinement in the teacher +of a school, Harriet. I dare say Miss Nash would envy you such an +opportunity as this of being married. Even this conquest would appear +valuable in her eyes. As to any thing superior for you, I suppose she +is quite in the dark. The attentions of a certain person can hardly be +among the tittle-tattle of Highbury yet. Hitherto I fancy you and I +are the only people to whom his looks and manners have explained +themselves." + +Harriet blushed and smiled, and said something about wondering that +people should like her so much. The idea of Mr. Elton was certainly +cheering; but still, after a time, she was tender-hearted again towards +the rejected Mr. Martin. + +"Now he has got my letter," said she softly. "I wonder what they are all +doing--whether his sisters know--if he is unhappy, they will be unhappy +too. I hope he will not mind it so very much." + +"Let us think of those among our absent friends who are more cheerfully +employed," cried Emma. "At this moment, perhaps, Mr. Elton is shewing +your picture to his mother and sisters, telling how much more beautiful +is the original, and after being asked for it five or six times, +allowing them to hear your name, your own dear name." + +"My picture!--But he has left my picture in Bond-street." + +"Has he so!--Then I know nothing of Mr. Elton. No, my dear little modest +Harriet, depend upon it the picture will not be in Bond-street till +just before he mounts his horse to-morrow. It is his companion all this +evening, his solace, his delight. It opens his designs to his family, +it introduces you among them, it diffuses through the party those +pleasantest feelings of our nature, eager curiosity and warm +prepossession. How cheerful, how animated, how suspicious, how busy +their imaginations all are!" + +Harriet smiled again, and her smiles grew stronger. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Harriet slept at Hartfield that night. For some weeks past she had been +spending more than half her time there, and gradually getting to have +a bed-room appropriated to herself; and Emma judged it best in every +respect, safest and kindest, to keep her with them as much as possible +just at present. She was obliged to go the next morning for an hour or +two to Mrs. Goddard's, but it was then to be settled that she should +return to Hartfield, to make a regular visit of some days. + +While she was gone, Mr. Knightley called, and sat some time with Mr. +Woodhouse and Emma, till Mr. Woodhouse, who had previously made up his +mind to walk out, was persuaded by his daughter not to defer it, and was +induced by the entreaties of both, though against the scruples of his +own civility, to leave Mr. Knightley for that purpose. Mr. Knightley, +who had nothing of ceremony about him, was offering by his short, +decided answers, an amusing contrast to the protracted apologies and +civil hesitations of the other. + +"Well, I believe, if you will excuse me, Mr. Knightley, if you will not +consider me as doing a very rude thing, I shall take Emma's advice and +go out for a quarter of an hour. As the sun is out, I believe I had +better take my three turns while I can. I treat you without ceremony, +Mr. Knightley. We invalids think we are privileged people." + +"My dear sir, do not make a stranger of me." + +"I leave an excellent substitute in my daughter. Emma will be happy to +entertain you. And therefore I think I will beg your excuse and take my +three turns--my winter walk." + +"You cannot do better, sir." + +"I would ask for the pleasure of your company, Mr. Knightley, but I am a +very slow walker, and my pace would be tedious to you; and, besides, you +have another long walk before you, to Donwell Abbey." + +"Thank you, sir, thank you; I am going this moment myself; and I think +the sooner _you_ go the better. I will fetch your greatcoat and open the +garden door for you." + +Mr. Woodhouse at last was off; but Mr. Knightley, instead of being +immediately off likewise, sat down again, seemingly inclined for more +chat. He began speaking of Harriet, and speaking of her with more +voluntary praise than Emma had ever heard before. + +"I cannot rate her beauty as you do," said he; "but she is a +pretty little creature, and I am inclined to think very well of her +disposition. Her character depends upon those she is with; but in good +hands she will turn out a valuable woman." + +"I am glad you think so; and the good hands, I hope, may not be +wanting." + +"Come," said he, "you are anxious for a compliment, so I will tell you +that you have improved her. You have cured her of her school-girl's +giggle; she really does you credit." + +"Thank you. I should be mortified indeed if I did not believe I had been +of some use; but it is not every body who will bestow praise where they +may. _You_ do not often overpower me with it." + +"You are expecting her again, you say, this morning?" + +"Almost every moment. She has been gone longer already than she +intended." + +"Something has happened to delay her; some visitors perhaps." + +"Highbury gossips!--Tiresome wretches!" + +"Harriet may not consider every body tiresome that you would." + +Emma knew this was too true for contradiction, and therefore said +nothing. He presently added, with a smile, + +"I do not pretend to fix on times or places, but I must tell you that +I have good reason to believe your little friend will soon hear of +something to her advantage." + +"Indeed! how so? of what sort?" + +"A very serious sort, I assure you;" still smiling. + +"Very serious! I can think of but one thing--Who is in love with her? +Who makes you their confidant?" + +Emma was more than half in hopes of Mr. Elton's having dropt a hint. +Mr. Knightley was a sort of general friend and adviser, and she knew Mr. +Elton looked up to him. + +"I have reason to think," he replied, "that Harriet Smith will soon have +an offer of marriage, and from a most unexceptionable quarter:--Robert +Martin is the man. Her visit to Abbey-Mill, this summer, seems to have +done his business. He is desperately in love and means to marry her." + +"He is very obliging," said Emma; "but is he sure that Harriet means to +marry him?" + +"Well, well, means to make her an offer then. Will that do? He came to +the Abbey two evenings ago, on purpose to consult me about it. He knows +I have a thorough regard for him and all his family, and, I believe, +considers me as one of his best friends. He came to ask me whether +I thought it would be imprudent in him to settle so early; whether +I thought her too young: in short, whether I approved his choice +altogether; having some apprehension perhaps of her being considered +(especially since _your_ making so much of her) as in a line of society +above him. I was very much pleased with all that he said. I never hear +better sense from any one than Robert Martin. He always speaks to the +purpose; open, straightforward, and very well judging. He told me every +thing; his circumstances and plans, and what they all proposed doing in +the event of his marriage. He is an excellent young man, both as son and +brother. I had no hesitation in advising him to marry. He proved to me +that he could afford it; and that being the case, I was convinced he +could not do better. I praised the fair lady too, and altogether sent +him away very happy. If he had never esteemed my opinion before, he +would have thought highly of me then; and, I dare say, left the house +thinking me the best friend and counsellor man ever had. This happened +the night before last. Now, as we may fairly suppose, he would not allow +much time to pass before he spoke to the lady, and as he does not appear +to have spoken yesterday, it is not unlikely that he should be at Mrs. +Goddard's to-day; and she may be detained by a visitor, without thinking +him at all a tiresome wretch." + +"Pray, Mr. Knightley," said Emma, who had been smiling to herself +through a great part of this speech, "how do you know that Mr. Martin +did not speak yesterday?" + +"Certainly," replied he, surprized, "I do not absolutely know it; but it +may be inferred. Was not she the whole day with you?" + +"Come," said she, "I will tell you something, in return for what +you have told me. He did speak yesterday--that is, he wrote, and was +refused." + +This was obliged to be repeated before it could be believed; and Mr. +Knightley actually looked red with surprize and displeasure, as he stood +up, in tall indignation, and said, + +"Then she is a greater simpleton than I ever believed her. What is the +foolish girl about?" + +"Oh! to be sure," cried Emma, "it is always incomprehensible to a man +that a woman should ever refuse an offer of marriage. A man always +imagines a woman to be ready for any body who asks her." + +"Nonsense! a man does not imagine any such thing. But what is the +meaning of this? Harriet Smith refuse Robert Martin? madness, if it is +so; but I hope you are mistaken." + +"I saw her answer!--nothing could be clearer." + +"You saw her answer!--you wrote her answer too. Emma, this is your +doing. You persuaded her to refuse him." + +"And if I did, (which, however, I am far from allowing) I should not +feel that I had done wrong. Mr. Martin is a very respectable young man, +but I cannot admit him to be Harriet's equal; and am rather surprized +indeed that he should have ventured to address her. By your account, he +does seem to have had some scruples. It is a pity that they were ever +got over." + +"Not Harriet's equal!" exclaimed Mr. Knightley loudly and warmly; and +with calmer asperity, added, a few moments afterwards, "No, he is +not her equal indeed, for he is as much her superior in sense as in +situation. Emma, your infatuation about that girl blinds you. What are +Harriet Smith's claims, either of birth, nature or education, to any +connexion higher than Robert Martin? She is the natural daughter of +nobody knows whom, with probably no settled provision at all, and +certainly no respectable relations. She is known only as parlour-boarder +at a common school. She is not a sensible girl, nor a girl of any +information. She has been taught nothing useful, and is too young and +too simple to have acquired any thing herself. At her age she can have +no experience, and with her little wit, is not very likely ever to have +any that can avail her. She is pretty, and she is good tempered, and +that is all. My only scruple in advising the match was on his account, +as being beneath his deserts, and a bad connexion for him. I felt that, +as to fortune, in all probability he might do much better; and that as +to a rational companion or useful helpmate, he could not do worse. But I +could not reason so to a man in love, and was willing to trust to there +being no harm in her, to her having that sort of disposition, which, in +good hands, like his, might be easily led aright and turn out very well. +The advantage of the match I felt to be all on her side; and had not the +smallest doubt (nor have I now) that there would be a general cry-out +upon her extreme good luck. Even _your_ satisfaction I made sure of. +It crossed my mind immediately that you would not regret your friend's +leaving Highbury, for the sake of her being settled so well. I remember +saying to myself, 'Even Emma, with all her partiality for Harriet, will +think this a good match.'" + +"I cannot help wondering at your knowing so little of Emma as to say any +such thing. What! think a farmer, (and with all his sense and all his +merit Mr. Martin is nothing more,) a good match for my intimate friend! +Not regret her leaving Highbury for the sake of marrying a man whom +I could never admit as an acquaintance of my own! I wonder you should +think it possible for me to have such feelings. I assure you mine are +very different. I must think your statement by no means fair. You are +not just to Harriet's claims. They would be estimated very differently +by others as well as myself; Mr. Martin may be the richest of the two, +but he is undoubtedly her inferior as to rank in society.--The sphere in +which she moves is much above his.--It would be a degradation." + +"A degradation to illegitimacy and ignorance, to be married to a +respectable, intelligent gentleman-farmer!" + +"As to the circumstances of her birth, though in a legal sense she may +be called Nobody, it will not hold in common sense. She is not to pay +for the offence of others, by being held below the level of those with +whom she is brought up.--There can scarcely be a doubt that her father +is a gentleman--and a gentleman of fortune.--Her allowance is +very liberal; nothing has ever been grudged for her improvement or +comfort.--That she is a gentleman's daughter, is indubitable to me; that +she associates with gentlemen's daughters, no one, I apprehend, will +deny.--She is superior to Mr. Robert Martin." + +"Whoever might be her parents," said Mr. Knightley, "whoever may have +had the charge of her, it does not appear to have been any part of +their plan to introduce her into what you would call good society. After +receiving a very indifferent education she is left in Mrs. Goddard's +hands to shift as she can;--to move, in short, in Mrs. Goddard's line, +to have Mrs. Goddard's acquaintance. Her friends evidently thought +this good enough for her; and it _was_ good enough. She desired nothing +better herself. Till you chose to turn her into a friend, her mind had +no distaste for her own set, nor any ambition beyond it. She was as +happy as possible with the Martins in the summer. She had no sense of +superiority then. If she has it now, you have given it. You have been no +friend to Harriet Smith, Emma. Robert Martin would never have proceeded +so far, if he had not felt persuaded of her not being disinclined to +him. I know him well. He has too much real feeling to address any +woman on the haphazard of selfish passion. And as to conceit, he is +the farthest from it of any man I know. Depend upon it he had +encouragement." + +It was most convenient to Emma not to make a direct reply to this +assertion; she chose rather to take up her own line of the subject +again. + +"You are a very warm friend to Mr. Martin; but, as I said before, +are unjust to Harriet. Harriet's claims to marry well are not so +contemptible as you represent them. She is not a clever girl, but she +has better sense than you are aware of, and does not deserve to have her +understanding spoken of so slightingly. Waiving that point, however, and +supposing her to be, as you describe her, only pretty and good-natured, +let me tell you, that in the degree she possesses them, they are not +trivial recommendations to the world in general, for she is, in fact, a +beautiful girl, and must be thought so by ninety-nine people out of an +hundred; and till it appears that men are much more philosophic on the +subject of beauty than they are generally supposed; till they do fall +in love with well-informed minds instead of handsome faces, a girl, with +such loveliness as Harriet, has a certainty of being admired and sought +after, of having the power of chusing from among many, consequently a +claim to be nice. Her good-nature, too, is not so very slight a claim, +comprehending, as it does, real, thorough sweetness of temper and +manner, a very humble opinion of herself, and a great readiness to +be pleased with other people. I am very much mistaken if your sex in +general would not think such beauty, and such temper, the highest claims +a woman could possess." + +"Upon my word, Emma, to hear you abusing the reason you have, is almost +enough to make me think so too. Better be without sense, than misapply +it as you do." + +"To be sure!" cried she playfully. "I know _that_ is the feeling of +you all. I know that such a girl as Harriet is exactly what every +man delights in--what at once bewitches his senses and satisfies his +judgment. Oh! Harriet may pick and chuse. Were you, yourself, ever to +marry, she is the very woman for you. And is she, at seventeen, just +entering into life, just beginning to be known, to be wondered at +because she does not accept the first offer she receives? No--pray let +her have time to look about her." + +"I have always thought it a very foolish intimacy," said Mr. Knightley +presently, "though I have kept my thoughts to myself; but I now perceive +that it will be a very unfortunate one for Harriet. You will puff her up +with such ideas of her own beauty, and of what she has a claim to, that, +in a little while, nobody within her reach will be good enough for her. +Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief. Nothing +so easy as for a young lady to raise her expectations too high. Miss +Harriet Smith may not find offers of marriage flow in so fast, though +she is a very pretty girl. Men of sense, whatever you may chuse to +say, do not want silly wives. Men of family would not be very fond of +connecting themselves with a girl of such obscurity--and most prudent +men would be afraid of the inconvenience and disgrace they might be +involved in, when the mystery of her parentage came to be revealed. Let +her marry Robert Martin, and she is safe, respectable, and happy for +ever; but if you encourage her to expect to marry greatly, and teach her +to be satisfied with nothing less than a man of consequence and large +fortune, she may be a parlour-boarder at Mrs. Goddard's all the rest +of her life--or, at least, (for Harriet Smith is a girl who will marry +somebody or other,) till she grow desperate, and is glad to catch at the +old writing-master's son." + +"We think so very differently on this point, Mr. Knightley, that there +can be no use in canvassing it. We shall only be making each other more +angry. But as to my _letting_ her marry Robert Martin, it is impossible; +she has refused him, and so decidedly, I think, as must prevent any +second application. She must abide by the evil of having refused him, +whatever it may be; and as to the refusal itself, I will not pretend to +say that I might not influence her a little; but I assure you there +was very little for me or for any body to do. His appearance is so much +against him, and his manner so bad, that if she ever were disposed to +favour him, she is not now. I can imagine, that before she had seen +any body superior, she might tolerate him. He was the brother of her +friends, and he took pains to please her; and altogether, having seen +nobody better (that must have been his great assistant) she might not, +while she was at Abbey-Mill, find him disagreeable. But the case +is altered now. She knows now what gentlemen are; and nothing but a +gentleman in education and manner has any chance with Harriet." + +"Nonsense, errant nonsense, as ever was talked!" cried Mr. +Knightley.--"Robert Martin's manners have sense, sincerity, and +good-humour to recommend them; and his mind has more true gentility than +Harriet Smith could understand." + +Emma made no answer, and tried to look cheerfully unconcerned, but was +really feeling uncomfortable and wanting him very much to be gone. She +did not repent what she had done; she still thought herself a better +judge of such a point of female right and refinement than he could be; +but yet she had a sort of habitual respect for his judgment in general, +which made her dislike having it so loudly against her; and to have him +sitting just opposite to her in angry state, was very disagreeable. +Some minutes passed in this unpleasant silence, with only one attempt +on Emma's side to talk of the weather, but he made no answer. He was +thinking. The result of his thoughts appeared at last in these words. + +"Robert Martin has no great loss--if he can but think so; and I hope it +will not be long before he does. Your views for Harriet are best known +to yourself; but as you make no secret of your love of match-making, it +is fair to suppose that views, and plans, and projects you have;--and as +a friend I shall just hint to you that if Elton is the man, I think it +will be all labour in vain." + +Emma laughed and disclaimed. He continued, + +"Depend upon it, Elton will not do. Elton is a very good sort of man, +and a very respectable vicar of Highbury, but not at all likely to make +an imprudent match. He knows the value of a good income as well as any +body. Elton may talk sentimentally, but he will act rationally. He is +as well acquainted with his own claims, as you can be with Harriet's. +He knows that he is a very handsome young man, and a great favourite +wherever he goes; and from his general way of talking in unreserved +moments, when there are only men present, I am convinced that he does +not mean to throw himself away. I have heard him speak with great +animation of a large family of young ladies that his sisters are +intimate with, who have all twenty thousand pounds apiece." + +"I am very much obliged to you," said Emma, laughing again. "If I had +set my heart on Mr. Elton's marrying Harriet, it would have been very +kind to open my eyes; but at present I only want to keep Harriet to +myself. I have done with match-making indeed. I could never hope to +equal my own doings at Randalls. I shall leave off while I am well." + +"Good morning to you,"--said he, rising and walking off abruptly. He was +very much vexed. He felt the disappointment of the young man, and was +mortified to have been the means of promoting it, by the sanction he had +given; and the part which he was persuaded Emma had taken in the affair, +was provoking him exceedingly. + +Emma remained in a state of vexation too; but there was more +indistinctness in the causes of her's, than in his. She did not always +feel so absolutely satisfied with herself, so entirely convinced that +her opinions were right and her adversary's wrong, as Mr. Knightley. He +walked off in more complete self-approbation than he left for her. She +was not so materially cast down, however, but that a little time and +the return of Harriet were very adequate restoratives. Harriet's staying +away so long was beginning to make her uneasy. The possibility of the +young man's coming to Mrs. Goddard's that morning, and meeting with +Harriet and pleading his own cause, gave alarming ideas. The dread +of such a failure after all became the prominent uneasiness; and when +Harriet appeared, and in very good spirits, and without having any +such reason to give for her long absence, she felt a satisfaction which +settled her with her own mind, and convinced her, that let Mr. +Knightley think or say what he would, she had done nothing which woman's +friendship and woman's feelings would not justify. + +He had frightened her a little about Mr. Elton; but when she considered +that Mr. Knightley could not have observed him as she had done, neither +with the interest, nor (she must be allowed to tell herself, in spite of +Mr. Knightley's pretensions) with the skill of such an observer on such +a question as herself, that he had spoken it hastily and in anger, she +was able to believe, that he had rather said what he wished resentfully +to be true, than what he knew any thing about. He certainly might have +heard Mr. Elton speak with more unreserve than she had ever done, and +Mr. Elton might not be of an imprudent, inconsiderate disposition as to +money matters; he might naturally be rather attentive than otherwise +to them; but then, Mr. Knightley did not make due allowance for the +influence of a strong passion at war with all interested motives. Mr. +Knightley saw no such passion, and of course thought nothing of its +effects; but she saw too much of it to feel a doubt of its overcoming +any hesitations that a reasonable prudence might originally suggest; and +more than a reasonable, becoming degree of prudence, she was very sure +did not belong to Mr. Elton. + +Harriet's cheerful look and manner established hers: she came back, not +to think of Mr. Martin, but to talk of Mr. Elton. Miss Nash had been +telling her something, which she repeated immediately with great +delight. Mr. Perry had been to Mrs. Goddard's to attend a sick child, +and Miss Nash had seen him, and he had told Miss Nash, that as he was +coming back yesterday from Clayton Park, he had met Mr. Elton, and +found to his great surprize, that Mr. Elton was actually on his road +to London, and not meaning to return till the morrow, though it was the +whist-club night, which he had been never known to miss before; and Mr. +Perry had remonstrated with him about it, and told him how shabby it +was in him, their best player, to absent himself, and tried very much to +persuade him to put off his journey only one day; but it would not +do; Mr. Elton had been determined to go on, and had said in a _very_ +_particular_ way indeed, that he was going on business which he would +not put off for any inducement in the world; and something about a +very enviable commission, and being the bearer of something exceedingly +precious. Mr. Perry could not quite understand him, but he was very sure +there must be a _lady_ in the case, and he told him so; and Mr. Elton +only looked very conscious and smiling, and rode off in great spirits. +Miss Nash had told her all this, and had talked a great deal more about +Mr. Elton; and said, looking so very significantly at her, "that she did +not pretend to understand what his business might be, but she only +knew that any woman whom Mr. Elton could prefer, she should think the +luckiest woman in the world; for, beyond a doubt, Mr. Elton had not his +equal for beauty or agreeableness." + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Mr. Knightley might quarrel with her, but Emma could not quarrel with +herself. He was so much displeased, that it was longer than usual before +he came to Hartfield again; and when they did meet, his grave looks +shewed that she was not forgiven. She was sorry, but could not repent. +On the contrary, her plans and proceedings were more and more justified +and endeared to her by the general appearances of the next few days. + +The Picture, elegantly framed, came safely to hand soon after Mr. +Elton's return, and being hung over the mantelpiece of the common +sitting-room, he got up to look at it, and sighed out his half sentences +of admiration just as he ought; and as for Harriet's feelings, they were +visibly forming themselves into as strong and steady an attachment as +her youth and sort of mind admitted. Emma was soon perfectly satisfied +of Mr. Martin's being no otherwise remembered, than as he furnished a +contrast with Mr. Elton, of the utmost advantage to the latter. + +Her views of improving her little friend's mind, by a great deal of +useful reading and conversation, had never yet led to more than a few +first chapters, and the intention of going on to-morrow. It was much +easier to chat than to study; much pleasanter to let her imagination +range and work at Harriet's fortune, than to be labouring to enlarge +her comprehension or exercise it on sober facts; and the only literary +pursuit which engaged Harriet at present, the only mental provision she +was making for the evening of life, was the collecting and transcribing +all the riddles of every sort that she could meet with, into a thin +quarto of hot-pressed paper, made up by her friend, and ornamented with +ciphers and trophies. + +In this age of literature, such collections on a very grand scale are +not uncommon. Miss Nash, head-teacher at Mrs. Goddard's, had written out +at least three hundred; and Harriet, who had taken the first hint of it +from her, hoped, with Miss Woodhouse's help, to get a great many more. +Emma assisted with her invention, memory and taste; and as Harriet wrote +a very pretty hand, it was likely to be an arrangement of the first +order, in form as well as quantity. + +Mr. Woodhouse was almost as much interested in the business as the +girls, and tried very often to recollect something worth their putting +in. "So many clever riddles as there used to be when he was young--he +wondered he could not remember them! but he hoped he should in time." +And it always ended in "Kitty, a fair but frozen maid." + +His good friend Perry, too, whom he had spoken to on the subject, +did not at present recollect any thing of the riddle kind; but he +had desired Perry to be upon the watch, and as he went about so much, +something, he thought, might come from that quarter. + +It was by no means his daughter's wish that the intellects of Highbury +in general should be put under requisition. Mr. Elton was the only one +whose assistance she asked. He was invited to contribute any really good +enigmas, charades, or conundrums that he might recollect; and she had +the pleasure of seeing him most intently at work with his recollections; +and at the same time, as she could perceive, most earnestly careful that +nothing ungallant, nothing that did not breathe a compliment to the +sex should pass his lips. They owed to him their two or three politest +puzzles; and the joy and exultation with which at last he recalled, and +rather sentimentally recited, that well-known charade, + + My first doth affliction denote, + Which my second is destin'd to feel + And my whole is the best antidote + That affliction to soften and heal.-- + +made her quite sorry to acknowledge that they had transcribed it some +pages ago already. + +"Why will not you write one yourself for us, Mr. Elton?" said she; "that +is the only security for its freshness; and nothing could be easier to +you." + +"Oh no! he had never written, hardly ever, any thing of the kind in his +life. The stupidest fellow! He was afraid not even Miss Woodhouse"--he +stopt a moment--"or Miss Smith could inspire him." + +The very next day however produced some proof of inspiration. He +called for a few moments, just to leave a piece of paper on the table +containing, as he said, a charade, which a friend of his had addressed +to a young lady, the object of his admiration, but which, from his +manner, Emma was immediately convinced must be his own. + +"I do not offer it for Miss Smith's collection," said he. "Being my +friend's, I have no right to expose it in any degree to the public eye, +but perhaps you may not dislike looking at it." + +The speech was more to Emma than to Harriet, which Emma could +understand. There was deep consciousness about him, and he found +it easier to meet her eye than her friend's. He was gone the next +moment:--after another moment's pause, + +"Take it," said Emma, smiling, and pushing the paper towards +Harriet--"it is for you. Take your own." + +But Harriet was in a tremor, and could not touch it; and Emma, never +loth to be first, was obliged to examine it herself. + + To Miss-- + + CHARADE. + + My first displays the wealth and pomp of kings, + Lords of the earth! their luxury and ease. + Another view of man, my second brings, + Behold him there, the monarch of the seas! + + But ah! united, what reverse we have! + Man's boasted power and freedom, all are flown; + Lord of the earth and sea, he bends a slave, + And woman, lovely woman, reigns alone. + + Thy ready wit the word will soon supply, + May its approval beam in that soft eye! + +She cast her eye over it, pondered, caught the meaning, read it through +again to be quite certain, and quite mistress of the lines, and then +passing it to Harriet, sat happily smiling, and saying to herself, while +Harriet was puzzling over the paper in all the confusion of hope and +dulness, "Very well, Mr. Elton, very well indeed. I have read worse +charades. _Courtship_--a very good hint. I give you credit for it. This +is feeling your way. This is saying very plainly--'Pray, Miss Smith, +give me leave to pay my addresses to you. Approve my charade and my +intentions in the same glance.' + + May its approval beam in that soft eye! + +Harriet exactly. Soft is the very word for her eye--of all epithets, the +justest that could be given. + + Thy ready wit the word will soon supply. + +Humph--Harriet's ready wit! All the better. A man must be very much in +love, indeed, to describe her so. Ah! Mr. Knightley, I wish you had the +benefit of this; I think this would convince you. For once in your life +you would be obliged to own yourself mistaken. An excellent charade +indeed! and very much to the purpose. Things must come to a crisis soon +now." + +She was obliged to break off from these very pleasant observations, +which were otherwise of a sort to run into great length, by the +eagerness of Harriet's wondering questions. + +"What can it be, Miss Woodhouse?--what can it be? I have not an idea--I +cannot guess it in the least. What can it possibly be? Do try to find +it out, Miss Woodhouse. Do help me. I never saw any thing so hard. Is it +kingdom? I wonder who the friend was--and who could be the young lady. +Do you think it is a good one? Can it be woman? + + And woman, lovely woman, reigns alone. + +Can it be Neptune? + + Behold him there, the monarch of the seas! + +Or a trident? or a mermaid? or a shark? Oh, no! shark is only one +syllable. It must be very clever, or he would not have brought it. Oh! +Miss Woodhouse, do you think we shall ever find it out?" + +"Mermaids and sharks! Nonsense! My dear Harriet, what are you thinking +of? Where would be the use of his bringing us a charade made by a friend +upon a mermaid or a shark? Give me the paper and listen. + +For Miss ------, read Miss Smith. + + My first displays the wealth and pomp of kings, + Lords of the earth! their luxury and ease. + +That is _court_. + + Another view of man, my second brings; + Behold him there, the monarch of the seas! + +That is _ship_;--plain as it can be.--Now for the cream. + + But ah! united, (_courtship_, you know,) what reverse we have! + Man's boasted power and freedom, all are flown. + Lord of the earth and sea, he bends a slave, + And woman, lovely woman, reigns alone. + +A very proper compliment!--and then follows the application, which +I think, my dear Harriet, you cannot find much difficulty in +comprehending. Read it in comfort to yourself. There can be no doubt of +its being written for you and to you." + +Harriet could not long resist so delightful a persuasion. She read +the concluding lines, and was all flutter and happiness. She could not +speak. But she was not wanted to speak. It was enough for her to feel. +Emma spoke for her. + +"There is so pointed, and so particular a meaning in this compliment," +said she, "that I cannot have a doubt as to Mr. Elton's intentions. You +are his object--and you will soon receive the completest proof of it. I +thought it must be so. I thought I could not be so deceived; but now, it +is clear; the state of his mind is as clear and decided, as my wishes on +the subject have been ever since I knew you. Yes, Harriet, just so long +have I been wanting the very circumstance to happen that has happened. +I could never tell whether an attachment between you and Mr. Elton were +most desirable or most natural. Its probability and its eligibility have +really so equalled each other! I am very happy. I congratulate you, my +dear Harriet, with all my heart. This is an attachment which a woman may +well feel pride in creating. This is a connexion which offers nothing +but good. It will give you every thing that you want--consideration, +independence, a proper home--it will fix you in the centre of all your +real friends, close to Hartfield and to me, and confirm our intimacy +for ever. This, Harriet, is an alliance which can never raise a blush in +either of us." + +"Dear Miss Woodhouse!"--and "Dear Miss Woodhouse," was all that Harriet, +with many tender embraces could articulate at first; but when they did +arrive at something more like conversation, it was sufficiently clear to +her friend that she saw, felt, anticipated, and remembered just as she +ought. Mr. Elton's superiority had very ample acknowledgment. + +"Whatever you say is always right," cried Harriet, "and therefore I +suppose, and believe, and hope it must be so; but otherwise I could not +have imagined it. It is so much beyond any thing I deserve. Mr. Elton, +who might marry any body! There cannot be two opinions about _him_. He +is so very superior. Only think of those sweet verses--'To Miss ------.' +Dear me, how clever!--Could it really be meant for me?" + +"I cannot make a question, or listen to a question about that. It is a +certainty. Receive it on my judgment. It is a sort of prologue to +the play, a motto to the chapter; and will be soon followed by +matter-of-fact prose." + +"It is a sort of thing which nobody could have expected. I am sure, +a month ago, I had no more idea myself!--The strangest things do take +place!" + +"When Miss Smiths and Mr. Eltons get acquainted--they do indeed--and +really it is strange; it is out of the common course that what is so +evidently, so palpably desirable--what courts the pre-arrangement of +other people, should so immediately shape itself into the proper form. +You and Mr. Elton are by situation called together; you belong to one +another by every circumstance of your respective homes. Your marrying +will be equal to the match at Randalls. There does seem to be a +something in the air of Hartfield which gives love exactly the right +direction, and sends it into the very channel where it ought to flow. + + The course of true love never did run smooth-- + +A Hartfield edition of Shakespeare would have a long note on that +passage." + +"That Mr. Elton should really be in love with me,--me, of all people, +who did not know him, to speak to him, at Michaelmas! And he, the very +handsomest man that ever was, and a man that every body looks up to, +quite like Mr. Knightley! His company so sought after, that every body +says he need not eat a single meal by himself if he does not chuse it; +that he has more invitations than there are days in the week. And so +excellent in the Church! Miss Nash has put down all the texts he has +ever preached from since he came to Highbury. Dear me! When I look back +to the first time I saw him! How little did I think!--The two Abbots and +I ran into the front room and peeped through the blind when we heard he +was going by, and Miss Nash came and scolded us away, and staid to look +through herself; however, she called me back presently, and let me +look too, which was very good-natured. And how beautiful we thought he +looked! He was arm-in-arm with Mr. Cole." + +"This is an alliance which, whoever--whatever your friends may be, must +be agreeable to them, provided at least they have common sense; and we +are not to be addressing our conduct to fools. If they are anxious to +see you _happily_ married, here is a man whose amiable character gives +every assurance of it;--if they wish to have you settled in the same +country and circle which they have chosen to place you in, here it will +be accomplished; and if their only object is that you should, in the +common phrase, be _well_ married, here is the comfortable fortune, the +respectable establishment, the rise in the world which must satisfy +them." + +"Yes, very true. How nicely you talk; I love to hear you. You understand +every thing. You and Mr. Elton are one as clever as the other. This +charade!--If I had studied a twelvemonth, I could never have made any +thing like it." + +"I thought he meant to try his skill, by his manner of declining it +yesterday." + +"I do think it is, without exception, the best charade I ever read." + +"I never read one more to the purpose, certainly." + +"It is as long again as almost all we have had before." + +"I do not consider its length as particularly in its favour. Such things +in general cannot be too short." + +Harriet was too intent on the lines to hear. The most satisfactory +comparisons were rising in her mind. + +"It is one thing," said she, presently--her cheeks in a glow--"to have +very good sense in a common way, like every body else, and if there is +any thing to say, to sit down and write a letter, and say just what you +must, in a short way; and another, to write verses and charades like +this." + +Emma could not have desired a more spirited rejection of Mr. Martin's +prose. + +"Such sweet lines!" continued Harriet--"these two last!--But how shall I +ever be able to return the paper, or say I have found it out?--Oh! Miss +Woodhouse, what can we do about that?" + +"Leave it to me. You do nothing. He will be here this evening, I dare +say, and then I will give it him back, and some nonsense or other will +pass between us, and you shall not be committed.--Your soft eyes shall +chuse their own time for beaming. Trust to me." + +"Oh! Miss Woodhouse, what a pity that I must not write this beautiful +charade into my book! I am sure I have not got one half so good." + +"Leave out the two last lines, and there is no reason why you should not +write it into your book." + +"Oh! but those two lines are"-- + +--"The best of all. Granted;--for private enjoyment; and for private +enjoyment keep them. They are not at all the less written you know, +because you divide them. The couplet does not cease to be, nor does its +meaning change. But take it away, and all _appropriation_ ceases, and a +very pretty gallant charade remains, fit for any collection. Depend upon +it, he would not like to have his charade slighted, much better than his +passion. A poet in love must be encouraged in both capacities, or +neither. Give me the book, I will write it down, and then there can be +no possible reflection on you." + +Harriet submitted, though her mind could hardly separate the parts, +so as to feel quite sure that her friend were not writing down a +declaration of love. It seemed too precious an offering for any degree +of publicity. + +"I shall never let that book go out of my own hands," said she. + +"Very well," replied Emma; "a most natural feeling; and the longer it +lasts, the better I shall be pleased. But here is my father coming: you +will not object to my reading the charade to him. It will be giving him +so much pleasure! He loves any thing of the sort, and especially any +thing that pays woman a compliment. He has the tenderest spirit of +gallantry towards us all!--You must let me read it to him." + +Harriet looked grave. + +"My dear Harriet, you must not refine too much upon this charade.--You +will betray your feelings improperly, if you are too conscious and too +quick, and appear to affix more meaning, or even quite all the meaning +which may be affixed to it. Do not be overpowered by such a little +tribute of admiration. If he had been anxious for secrecy, he would not +have left the paper while I was by; but he rather pushed it towards me +than towards you. Do not let us be too solemn on the business. He has +encouragement enough to proceed, without our sighing out our souls over +this charade." + +"Oh! no--I hope I shall not be ridiculous about it. Do as you please." + +Mr. Woodhouse came in, and very soon led to the subject again, by the +recurrence of his very frequent inquiry of "Well, my dears, how does +your book go on?--Have you got any thing fresh?" + +"Yes, papa; we have something to read you, something quite fresh. A +piece of paper was found on the table this morning--(dropt, we suppose, +by a fairy)--containing a very pretty charade, and we have just copied +it in." + +She read it to him, just as he liked to have any thing read, slowly and +distinctly, and two or three times over, with explanations of every +part as she proceeded--and he was very much pleased, and, as she had +foreseen, especially struck with the complimentary conclusion. + +"Aye, that's very just, indeed, that's very properly said. Very true. +'Woman, lovely woman.' It is such a pretty charade, my dear, that I +can easily guess what fairy brought it.--Nobody could have written so +prettily, but you, Emma." + +Emma only nodded, and smiled.--After a little thinking, and a very +tender sigh, he added, + +"Ah! it is no difficulty to see who you take after! Your dear mother +was so clever at all those things! If I had but her memory! But I can +remember nothing;--not even that particular riddle which you have +heard me mention; I can only recollect the first stanza; and there are +several. + + Kitty, a fair but frozen maid, + Kindled a flame I yet deplore, + The hood-wink'd boy I called to aid, + Though of his near approach afraid, + So fatal to my suit before. + +And that is all that I can recollect of it--but it is very clever all +the way through. But I think, my dear, you said you had got it." + +"Yes, papa, it is written out in our second page. We copied it from the +Elegant Extracts. It was Garrick's, you know." + +"Aye, very true.--I wish I could recollect more of it. + + Kitty, a fair but frozen maid. + +The name makes me think of poor Isabella; for she was very near being +christened Catherine after her grandmama. I hope we shall have her here +next week. Have you thought, my dear, where you shall put her--and what +room there will be for the children?" + +"Oh! yes--she will have her own room, of course; the room she always +has;--and there is the nursery for the children,--just as usual, you +know. Why should there be any change?" + +"I do not know, my dear--but it is so long since she was here!--not +since last Easter, and then only for a few days.--Mr. John Knightley's +being a lawyer is very inconvenient.--Poor Isabella!--she is sadly taken +away from us all!--and how sorry she will be when she comes, not to see +Miss Taylor here!" + +"She will not be surprized, papa, at least." + +"I do not know, my dear. I am sure I was very much surprized when I +first heard she was going to be married." + +"We must ask Mr. and Mrs. Weston to dine with us, while Isabella is +here." + +"Yes, my dear, if there is time.--But--(in a very depressed tone)--she +is coming for only one week. There will not be time for any thing." + +"It is unfortunate that they cannot stay longer--but it seems a case of +necessity. Mr. John Knightley must be in town again on the 28th, and we +ought to be thankful, papa, that we are to have the whole of the time +they can give to the country, that two or three days are not to be taken +out for the Abbey. Mr. Knightley promises to give up his claim this +Christmas--though you know it is longer since they were with him, than +with us." + +"It would be very hard, indeed, my dear, if poor Isabella were to be +anywhere but at Hartfield." + +Mr. Woodhouse could never allow for Mr. Knightley's claims on his +brother, or any body's claims on Isabella, except his own. He sat musing +a little while, and then said, + +"But I do not see why poor Isabella should be obliged to go back so +soon, though he does. I think, Emma, I shall try and persuade her to +stay longer with us. She and the children might stay very well." + +"Ah! papa--that is what you never have been able to accomplish, and I +do not think you ever will. Isabella cannot bear to stay behind her +husband." + +This was too true for contradiction. Unwelcome as it was, Mr. Woodhouse +could only give a submissive sigh; and as Emma saw his spirits affected +by the idea of his daughter's attachment to her husband, she immediately +led to such a branch of the subject as must raise them. + +"Harriet must give us as much of her company as she can while my brother +and sister are here. I am sure she will be pleased with the children. +We are very proud of the children, are not we, papa? I wonder which she +will think the handsomest, Henry or John?" + +"Aye, I wonder which she will. Poor little dears, how glad they will be +to come. They are very fond of being at Hartfield, Harriet." + +"I dare say they are, sir. I am sure I do not know who is not." + +"Henry is a fine boy, but John is very like his mama. Henry is the +eldest, he was named after me, not after his father. John, the second, +is named after his father. Some people are surprized, I believe, that +the eldest was not, but Isabella would have him called Henry, which I +thought very pretty of her. And he is a very clever boy, indeed. They +are all remarkably clever; and they have so many pretty ways. They will +come and stand by my chair, and say, 'Grandpapa, can you give me a bit +of string?' and once Henry asked me for a knife, but I told him knives +were only made for grandpapas. I think their father is too rough with +them very often." + +"He appears rough to you," said Emma, "because you are so very gentle +yourself; but if you could compare him with other papas, you would not +think him rough. He wishes his boys to be active and hardy; and if +they misbehave, can give them a sharp word now and then; but he is an +affectionate father--certainly Mr. John Knightley is an affectionate +father. The children are all fond of him." + +"And then their uncle comes in, and tosses them up to the ceiling in a +very frightful way!" + +"But they like it, papa; there is nothing they like so much. It is such +enjoyment to them, that if their uncle did not lay down the rule of +their taking turns, whichever began would never give way to the other." + +"Well, I cannot understand it." + +"That is the case with us all, papa. One half of the world cannot +understand the pleasures of the other." + +Later in the morning, and just as the girls were going to separate +in preparation for the regular four o'clock dinner, the hero of this +inimitable charade walked in again. Harriet turned away; but Emma could +receive him with the usual smile, and her quick eye soon discerned in +his the consciousness of having made a push--of having thrown a die; +and she imagined he was come to see how it might turn up. His ostensible +reason, however, was to ask whether Mr. Woodhouse's party could be made +up in the evening without him, or whether he should be in the smallest +degree necessary at Hartfield. If he were, every thing else must give +way; but otherwise his friend Cole had been saying so much about his +dining with him--had made such a point of it, that he had promised him +conditionally to come. + +Emma thanked him, but could not allow of his disappointing his friend +on their account; her father was sure of his rubber. He re-urged--she +re-declined; and he seemed then about to make his bow, when taking the +paper from the table, she returned it-- + +"Oh! here is the charade you were so obliging as to leave with us; thank +you for the sight of it. We admired it so much, that I have ventured +to write it into Miss Smith's collection. Your friend will not take it +amiss I hope. Of course I have not transcribed beyond the first eight +lines." + +Mr. Elton certainly did not very well know what to say. He looked rather +doubtingly--rather confused; said something about "honour,"--glanced at +Emma and at Harriet, and then seeing the book open on the table, took +it up, and examined it very attentively. With the view of passing off an +awkward moment, Emma smilingly said, + +"You must make my apologies to your friend; but so good a charade +must not be confined to one or two. He may be sure of every woman's +approbation while he writes with such gallantry." + +"I have no hesitation in saying," replied Mr. Elton, though hesitating +a good deal while he spoke; "I have no hesitation in saying--at least +if my friend feels at all as _I_ do--I have not the smallest doubt that, +could he see his little effusion honoured as _I_ see it, (looking at the +book again, and replacing it on the table), he would consider it as the +proudest moment of his life." + +After this speech he was gone as soon as possible. Emma could not think +it too soon; for with all his good and agreeable qualities, there was +a sort of parade in his speeches which was very apt to incline her to +laugh. She ran away to indulge the inclination, leaving the tender and +the sublime of pleasure to Harriet's share. + + + +CHAPTER X + + +Though now the middle of December, there had yet been no weather to +prevent the young ladies from tolerably regular exercise; and on the +morrow, Emma had a charitable visit to pay to a poor sick family, who +lived a little way out of Highbury. + +Their road to this detached cottage was down Vicarage Lane, a lane +leading at right angles from the broad, though irregular, main street of +the place; and, as may be inferred, containing the blessed abode of Mr. +Elton. A few inferior dwellings were first to be passed, and then, about +a quarter of a mile down the lane rose the Vicarage, an old and not +very good house, almost as close to the road as it could be. It had +no advantage of situation; but had been very much smartened up by the +present proprietor; and, such as it was, there could be no possibility +of the two friends passing it without a slackened pace and observing +eyes.--Emma's remark was-- + +"There it is. There go you and your riddle-book one of these +days."--Harriet's was-- + +"Oh, what a sweet house!--How very beautiful!--There are the yellow +curtains that Miss Nash admires so much." + +"I do not often walk this way _now_," said Emma, as they proceeded, "but +_then_ there will be an inducement, and I shall gradually get intimately +acquainted with all the hedges, gates, pools and pollards of this part +of Highbury." + +Harriet, she found, had never in her life been inside the Vicarage, +and her curiosity to see it was so extreme, that, considering exteriors +and probabilities, Emma could only class it, as a proof of love, with +Mr. Elton's seeing ready wit in her. + +"I wish we could contrive it," said she; "but I cannot think of any +tolerable pretence for going in;--no servant that I want to inquire +about of his housekeeper--no message from my father." + +She pondered, but could think of nothing. After a mutual silence of some +minutes, Harriet thus began again-- + +"I do so wonder, Miss Woodhouse, that you should not be married, or +going to be married! so charming as you are!"-- + +Emma laughed, and replied, + +"My being charming, Harriet, is not quite enough to induce me to marry; +I must find other people charming--one other person at least. And I +am not only, not going to be married, at present, but have very little +intention of ever marrying at all." + +"Ah!--so you say; but I cannot believe it." + +"I must see somebody very superior to any one I have seen yet, to be +tempted; Mr. Elton, you know, (recollecting herself,) is out of the +question: and I do _not_ wish to see any such person. I would rather not +be tempted. I cannot really change for the better. If I were to marry, I +must expect to repent it." + +"Dear me!--it is so odd to hear a woman talk so!"-- + +"I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry. Were I to fall +in love, indeed, it would be a different thing! but I never have been in +love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall. +And, without love, I am sure I should be a fool to change such a +situation as mine. Fortune I do not want; employment I do not want; +consequence I do not want: I believe few married women are half as much +mistress of their husband's house as I am of Hartfield; and never, never +could I expect to be so truly beloved and important; so always first and +always right in any man's eyes as I am in my father's." + +"But then, to be an old maid at last, like Miss Bates!" + +"That is as formidable an image as you could present, Harriet; and if +I thought I should ever be like Miss Bates! so silly--so satisfied--so +smiling--so prosing--so undistinguishing and unfastidious--and so apt +to tell every thing relative to every body about me, I would marry +to-morrow. But between _us_, I am convinced there never can be any +likeness, except in being unmarried." + +"But still, you will be an old maid! and that's so dreadful!" + +"Never mind, Harriet, I shall not be a poor old maid; and it is poverty +only which makes celibacy contemptible to a generous public! A single +woman, with a very narrow income, must be a ridiculous, disagreeable old +maid! the proper sport of boys and girls, but a single woman, of good +fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant +as any body else. And the distinction is not quite so much against the +candour and common sense of the world as appears at first; for a very +narrow income has a tendency to contract the mind, and sour the temper. +Those who can barely live, and who live perforce in a very small, and +generally very inferior, society, may well be illiberal and cross. This +does not apply, however, to Miss Bates; she is only too good natured and +too silly to suit me; but, in general, she is very much to the taste +of every body, though single and though poor. Poverty certainly has not +contracted her mind: I really believe, if she had only a shilling in the +world, she would be very likely to give away sixpence of it; and nobody +is afraid of her: that is a great charm." + +"Dear me! but what shall you do? how shall you employ yourself when you +grow old?" + +"If I know myself, Harriet, mine is an active, busy mind, with a great +many independent resources; and I do not perceive why I should be more +in want of employment at forty or fifty than one-and-twenty. Woman's +usual occupations of hand and mind will be as open to me then as they +are now; or with no important variation. If I draw less, I shall read +more; if I give up music, I shall take to carpet-work. And as for +objects of interest, objects for the affections, which is in truth the +great point of inferiority, the want of which is really the great evil +to be avoided in _not_ marrying, I shall be very well off, with all the +children of a sister I love so much, to care about. There will be enough +of them, in all probability, to supply every sort of sensation that +declining life can need. There will be enough for every hope and every +fear; and though my attachment to none can equal that of a parent, it +suits my ideas of comfort better than what is warmer and blinder. My +nephews and nieces!--I shall often have a niece with me." + +"Do you know Miss Bates's niece? That is, I know you must have seen her +a hundred times--but are you acquainted?" + +"Oh! yes; we are always forced to be acquainted whenever she comes to +Highbury. By the bye, _that_ is almost enough to put one out of conceit +with a niece. Heaven forbid! at least, that I should ever bore people +half so much about all the Knightleys together, as she does about Jane +Fairfax. One is sick of the very name of Jane Fairfax. Every letter from +her is read forty times over; her compliments to all friends go round +and round again; and if she does but send her aunt the pattern of a +stomacher, or knit a pair of garters for her grandmother, one hears of +nothing else for a month. I wish Jane Fairfax very well; but she tires +me to death." + +They were now approaching the cottage, and all idle topics were +superseded. Emma was very compassionate; and the distresses of the poor +were as sure of relief from her personal attention and kindness, her +counsel and her patience, as from her purse. She understood their ways, +could allow for their ignorance and their temptations, had no romantic +expectations of extraordinary virtue from those for whom education had +done so little; entered into their troubles with ready sympathy, and +always gave her assistance with as much intelligence as good-will. In +the present instance, it was sickness and poverty together which she +came to visit; and after remaining there as long as she could give +comfort or advice, she quitted the cottage with such an impression of +the scene as made her say to Harriet, as they walked away, + +"These are the sights, Harriet, to do one good. How trifling they make +every thing else appear!--I feel now as if I could think of nothing but +these poor creatures all the rest of the day; and yet, who can say how +soon it may all vanish from my mind?" + +"Very true," said Harriet. "Poor creatures! one can think of nothing +else." + +"And really, I do not think the impression will soon be over," said +Emma, as she crossed the low hedge, and tottering footstep which ended +the narrow, slippery path through the cottage garden, and brought them +into the lane again. "I do not think it will," stopping to look once +more at all the outward wretchedness of the place, and recall the still +greater within. + +"Oh! dear, no," said her companion. + +They walked on. The lane made a slight bend; and when that bend was +passed, Mr. Elton was immediately in sight; and so near as to give Emma +time only to say farther, + +"Ah! Harriet, here comes a very sudden trial of our stability in good +thoughts. Well, (smiling,) I hope it may be allowed that if compassion +has produced exertion and relief to the sufferers, it has done all that +is truly important. If we feel for the wretched, enough to do all we can +for them, the rest is empty sympathy, only distressing to ourselves." + +Harriet could just answer, "Oh! dear, yes," before the gentleman joined +them. The wants and sufferings of the poor family, however, were the +first subject on meeting. He had been going to call on them. His visit +he would now defer; but they had a very interesting parley about +what could be done and should be done. Mr. Elton then turned back to +accompany them. + +"To fall in with each other on such an errand as this," thought Emma; +"to meet in a charitable scheme; this will bring a great increase +of love on each side. I should not wonder if it were to bring on the +declaration. It must, if I were not here. I wish I were anywhere else." + +Anxious to separate herself from them as far as she could, she soon +afterwards took possession of a narrow footpath, a little raised on one +side of the lane, leaving them together in the main road. But she had +not been there two minutes when she found that Harriet's habits of +dependence and imitation were bringing her up too, and that, in short, +they would both be soon after her. This would not do; she immediately +stopped, under pretence of having some alteration to make in the lacing +of her half-boot, and stooping down in complete occupation of the +footpath, begged them to have the goodness to walk on, and she would +follow in half a minute. They did as they were desired; and by the time +she judged it reasonable to have done with her boot, she had the comfort +of farther delay in her power, being overtaken by a child from the +cottage, setting out, according to orders, with her pitcher, to fetch +broth from Hartfield. To walk by the side of this child, and talk to +and question her, was the most natural thing in the world, or would have +been the most natural, had she been acting just then without design; +and by this means the others were still able to keep ahead, without +any obligation of waiting for her. She gained on them, however, +involuntarily: the child's pace was quick, and theirs rather slow; +and she was the more concerned at it, from their being evidently in +a conversation which interested them. Mr. Elton was speaking with +animation, Harriet listening with a very pleased attention; and Emma, +having sent the child on, was beginning to think how she might draw back +a little more, when they both looked around, and she was obliged to join +them. + +Mr. Elton was still talking, still engaged in some interesting detail; +and Emma experienced some disappointment when she found that he was only +giving his fair companion an account of the yesterday's party at his +friend Cole's, and that she was come in herself for the Stilton cheese, +the north Wiltshire, the butter, the celery, the beet-root, and all the +dessert. + +"This would soon have led to something better, of course," was her +consoling reflection; "any thing interests between those who love; and +any thing will serve as introduction to what is near the heart. If I +could but have kept longer away!" + +They now walked on together quietly, till within view of the vicarage +pales, when a sudden resolution, of at least getting Harriet into the +house, made her again find something very much amiss about her boot, and +fall behind to arrange it once more. She then broke the lace off short, +and dexterously throwing it into a ditch, was presently obliged to +entreat them to stop, and acknowledged her inability to put herself to +rights so as to be able to walk home in tolerable comfort. + +"Part of my lace is gone," said she, "and I do not know how I am to +contrive. I really am a most troublesome companion to you both, but I +hope I am not often so ill-equipped. Mr. Elton, I must beg leave to stop +at your house, and ask your housekeeper for a bit of ribband or string, +or any thing just to keep my boot on." + +Mr. Elton looked all happiness at this proposition; and nothing could +exceed his alertness and attention in conducting them into his house and +endeavouring to make every thing appear to advantage. The room they were +taken into was the one he chiefly occupied, and looking forwards; behind +it was another with which it immediately communicated; the door between +them was open, and Emma passed into it with the housekeeper to receive +her assistance in the most comfortable manner. She was obliged to leave +the door ajar as she found it; but she fully intended that Mr. Elton +should close it. It was not closed, however, it still remained ajar; but +by engaging the housekeeper in incessant conversation, she hoped to make +it practicable for him to chuse his own subject in the adjoining +room. For ten minutes she could hear nothing but herself. It could be +protracted no longer. She was then obliged to be finished, and make her +appearance. + +The lovers were standing together at one of the windows. It had a most +favourable aspect; and, for half a minute, Emma felt the glory of having +schemed successfully. But it would not do; he had not come to the point. +He had been most agreeable, most delightful; he had told Harriet that +he had seen them go by, and had purposely followed them; other little +gallantries and allusions had been dropt, but nothing serious. + +"Cautious, very cautious," thought Emma; "he advances inch by inch, and +will hazard nothing till he believes himself secure." + +Still, however, though every thing had not been accomplished by her +ingenious device, she could not but flatter herself that it had been +the occasion of much present enjoyment to both, and must be leading them +forward to the great event. + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Mr. Elton must now be left to himself. It was no longer in Emma's power +to superintend his happiness or quicken his measures. The coming of her +sister's family was so very near at hand, that first in anticipation, +and then in reality, it became henceforth her prime object of interest; +and during the ten days of their stay at Hartfield it was not to be +expected--she did not herself expect--that any thing beyond occasional, +fortuitous assistance could be afforded by her to the lovers. They might +advance rapidly if they would, however; they must advance somehow or +other whether they would or no. She hardly wished to have more leisure +for them. There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they +will do for themselves. + +Mr. and Mrs. John Knightley, from having been longer than usual absent +from Surry, were exciting of course rather more than the usual interest. +Till this year, every long vacation since their marriage had been +divided between Hartfield and Donwell Abbey; but all the holidays of +this autumn had been given to sea-bathing for the children, and it was +therefore many months since they had been seen in a regular way by their +Surry connexions, or seen at all by Mr. Woodhouse, who could not be +induced to get so far as London, even for poor Isabella's sake; and +who consequently was now most nervously and apprehensively happy in +forestalling this too short visit. + +He thought much of the evils of the journey for her, and not a little +of the fatigues of his own horses and coachman who were to bring some +of the party the last half of the way; but his alarms were needless; +the sixteen miles being happily accomplished, and Mr. and Mrs. John +Knightley, their five children, and a competent number of nursery-maids, +all reaching Hartfield in safety. The bustle and joy of such an arrival, +the many to be talked to, welcomed, encouraged, and variously dispersed +and disposed of, produced a noise and confusion which his nerves could +not have borne under any other cause, nor have endured much longer even +for this; but the ways of Hartfield and the feelings of her father +were so respected by Mrs. John Knightley, that in spite of maternal +solicitude for the immediate enjoyment of her little ones, and for their +having instantly all the liberty and attendance, all the eating and +drinking, and sleeping and playing, which they could possibly wish for, +without the smallest delay, the children were never allowed to be long +a disturbance to him, either in themselves or in any restless attendance +on them. + +Mrs. John Knightley was a pretty, elegant little woman, of gentle, quiet +manners, and a disposition remarkably amiable and affectionate; wrapt +up in her family; a devoted wife, a doating mother, and so tenderly +attached to her father and sister that, but for these higher ties, a +warmer love might have seemed impossible. She could never see a fault +in any of them. She was not a woman of strong understanding or any +quickness; and with this resemblance of her father, she inherited also +much of his constitution; was delicate in her own health, over-careful +of that of her children, had many fears and many nerves, and was as fond +of her own Mr. Wingfield in town as her father could be of Mr. Perry. +They were alike too, in a general benevolence of temper, and a strong +habit of regard for every old acquaintance. + +Mr. John Knightley was a tall, gentleman-like, and very clever man; +rising in his profession, domestic, and respectable in his private +character; but with reserved manners which prevented his being generally +pleasing; and capable of being sometimes out of humour. He was not an +ill-tempered man, not so often unreasonably cross as to deserve such a +reproach; but his temper was not his great perfection; and, indeed, with +such a worshipping wife, it was hardly possible that any natural defects +in it should not be increased. The extreme sweetness of her temper +must hurt his. He had all the clearness and quickness of mind which she +wanted, and he could sometimes act an ungracious, or say a severe thing. + +He was not a great favourite with his fair sister-in-law. Nothing wrong +in him escaped her. She was quick in feeling the little injuries to +Isabella, which Isabella never felt herself. Perhaps she might have +passed over more had his manners been flattering to Isabella's sister, +but they were only those of a calmly kind brother and friend, without +praise and without blindness; but hardly any degree of personal +compliment could have made her regardless of that greatest fault of +all in her eyes which he sometimes fell into, the want of respectful +forbearance towards her father. There he had not always the patience +that could have been wished. Mr. Woodhouse's peculiarities and +fidgetiness were sometimes provoking him to a rational remonstrance or +sharp retort equally ill-bestowed. It did not often happen; for Mr. John +Knightley had really a great regard for his father-in-law, and generally +a strong sense of what was due to him; but it was too often for Emma's +charity, especially as there was all the pain of apprehension frequently +to be endured, though the offence came not. The beginning, however, of +every visit displayed none but the properest feelings, and this being of +necessity so short might be hoped to pass away in unsullied cordiality. +They had not been long seated and composed when Mr. Woodhouse, with a +melancholy shake of the head and a sigh, called his daughter's attention +to the sad change at Hartfield since she had been there last. + +"Ah, my dear," said he, "poor Miss Taylor--It is a grievous business." + +"Oh yes, sir," cried she with ready sympathy, "how you must miss her! +And dear Emma, too!--What a dreadful loss to you both!--I have been so +grieved for you.--I could not imagine how you could possibly do without +her.--It is a sad change indeed.--But I hope she is pretty well, sir." + +"Pretty well, my dear--I hope--pretty well.--I do not know but that the +place agrees with her tolerably." + +Mr. John Knightley here asked Emma quietly whether there were any doubts +of the air of Randalls. + +"Oh! no--none in the least. I never saw Mrs. Weston better in my +life--never looking so well. Papa is only speaking his own regret." + +"Very much to the honour of both," was the handsome reply. + +"And do you see her, sir, tolerably often?" asked Isabella in the +plaintive tone which just suited her father. + +Mr. Woodhouse hesitated.--"Not near so often, my dear, as I could wish." + +"Oh! papa, we have missed seeing them but one entire day since they +married. Either in the morning or evening of every day, excepting one, +have we seen either Mr. Weston or Mrs. Weston, and generally both, +either at Randalls or here--and as you may suppose, Isabella, most +frequently here. They are very, very kind in their visits. Mr. Weston +is really as kind as herself. Papa, if you speak in that melancholy way, +you will be giving Isabella a false idea of us all. Every body must be +aware that Miss Taylor must be missed, but every body ought also to be +assured that Mr. and Mrs. Weston do really prevent our missing her by +any means to the extent we ourselves anticipated--which is the exact +truth." + +"Just as it should be," said Mr. John Knightley, "and just as I hoped +it was from your letters. Her wish of shewing you attention could not be +doubted, and his being a disengaged and social man makes it all easy. I +have been always telling you, my love, that I had no idea of the change +being so very material to Hartfield as you apprehended; and now you have +Emma's account, I hope you will be satisfied." + +"Why, to be sure," said Mr. Woodhouse--"yes, certainly--I cannot +deny that Mrs. Weston, poor Mrs. Weston, does come and see us pretty +often--but then--she is always obliged to go away again." + +"It would be very hard upon Mr. Weston if she did not, papa.--You quite +forget poor Mr. Weston." + +"I think, indeed," said John Knightley pleasantly, "that Mr. Weston has +some little claim. You and I, Emma, will venture to take the part of the +poor husband. I, being a husband, and you not being a wife, the claims +of the man may very likely strike us with equal force. As for Isabella, +she has been married long enough to see the convenience of putting all +the Mr. Westons aside as much as she can." + +"Me, my love," cried his wife, hearing and understanding only in part.-- +"Are you talking about me?--I am sure nobody ought to be, or can be, a +greater advocate for matrimony than I am; and if it had not been for +the misery of her leaving Hartfield, I should never have thought of Miss +Taylor but as the most fortunate woman in the world; and as to slighting +Mr. Weston, that excellent Mr. Weston, I think there is nothing he does +not deserve. I believe he is one of the very best-tempered men that ever +existed. Excepting yourself and your brother, I do not know his equal +for temper. I shall never forget his flying Henry's kite for him that +very windy day last Easter--and ever since his particular kindness last +September twelvemonth in writing that note, at twelve o'clock at night, +on purpose to assure me that there was no scarlet fever at Cobham, I +have been convinced there could not be a more feeling heart nor a better +man in existence.--If any body can deserve him, it must be Miss Taylor." + +"Where is the young man?" said John Knightley. "Has he been here on this +occasion--or has he not?" + +"He has not been here yet," replied Emma. "There was a strong +expectation of his coming soon after the marriage, but it ended in +nothing; and I have not heard him mentioned lately." + +"But you should tell them of the letter, my dear," said her father. +"He wrote a letter to poor Mrs. Weston, to congratulate her, and a very +proper, handsome letter it was. She shewed it to me. I thought it very +well done of him indeed. Whether it was his own idea you know, one +cannot tell. He is but young, and his uncle, perhaps--" + +"My dear papa, he is three-and-twenty. You forget how time passes." + +"Three-and-twenty!--is he indeed?--Well, I could not have thought +it--and he was but two years old when he lost his poor mother! Well, +time does fly indeed!--and my memory is very bad. However, it was an +exceeding good, pretty letter, and gave Mr. and Mrs. Weston a great deal +of pleasure. I remember it was written from Weymouth, and dated Sept. +28th--and began, 'My dear Madam,' but I forget how it went on; and it +was signed 'F. C. Weston Churchill.'--I remember that perfectly." + +"How very pleasing and proper of him!" cried the good-hearted Mrs. John +Knightley. "I have no doubt of his being a most amiable young man. But +how sad it is that he should not live at home with his father! There is +something so shocking in a child's being taken away from his parents and +natural home! I never could comprehend how Mr. Weston could part with +him. To give up one's child! I really never could think well of any body +who proposed such a thing to any body else." + +"Nobody ever did think well of the Churchills, I fancy," observed Mr. +John Knightley coolly. "But you need not imagine Mr. Weston to have felt +what you would feel in giving up Henry or John. Mr. Weston is rather +an easy, cheerful-tempered man, than a man of strong feelings; he takes +things as he finds them, and makes enjoyment of them somehow or other, +depending, I suspect, much more upon what is called society for his +comforts, that is, upon the power of eating and drinking, and playing +whist with his neighbours five times a week, than upon family affection, +or any thing that home affords." + +Emma could not like what bordered on a reflection on Mr. Weston, and had +half a mind to take it up; but she struggled, and let it pass. She +would keep the peace if possible; and there was something honourable and +valuable in the strong domestic habits, the all-sufficiency of home to +himself, whence resulted her brother's disposition to look down on +the common rate of social intercourse, and those to whom it was +important.--It had a high claim to forbearance. + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Mr. Knightley was to dine with them--rather against the inclination of +Mr. Woodhouse, who did not like that any one should share with him in +Isabella's first day. Emma's sense of right however had decided it; +and besides the consideration of what was due to each brother, she had +particular pleasure, from the circumstance of the late disagreement +between Mr. Knightley and herself, in procuring him the proper +invitation. + +She hoped they might now become friends again. She thought it was time +to make up. Making-up indeed would not do. _She_ certainly had not been +in the wrong, and _he_ would never own that he had. Concession must be +out of the question; but it was time to appear to forget that they had +ever quarrelled; and she hoped it might rather assist the restoration of +friendship, that when he came into the room she had one of the children +with her--the youngest, a nice little girl about eight months old, who +was now making her first visit to Hartfield, and very happy to be danced +about in her aunt's arms. It did assist; for though he began with grave +looks and short questions, he was soon led on to talk of them all in +the usual way, and to take the child out of her arms with all the +unceremoniousness of perfect amity. Emma felt they were friends again; +and the conviction giving her at first great satisfaction, and then +a little sauciness, she could not help saying, as he was admiring the +baby, + +"What a comfort it is, that we think alike about our nephews and nieces. +As to men and women, our opinions are sometimes very different; but with +regard to these children, I observe we never disagree." + +"If you were as much guided by nature in your estimate of men and women, +and as little under the power of fancy and whim in your dealings with +them, as you are where these children are concerned, we might always +think alike." + +"To be sure--our discordancies must always arise from my being in the +wrong." + +"Yes," said he, smiling--"and reason good. I was sixteen years old when +you were born." + +"A material difference then," she replied--"and no doubt you were much +my superior in judgment at that period of our lives; but does not the +lapse of one-and-twenty years bring our understandings a good deal +nearer?" + +"Yes--a good deal _nearer_." + +"But still, not near enough to give me a chance of being right, if we +think differently." + +"I have still the advantage of you by sixteen years' experience, and by +not being a pretty young woman and a spoiled child. Come, my dear Emma, +let us be friends, and say no more about it. Tell your aunt, little +Emma, that she ought to set you a better example than to be renewing old +grievances, and that if she were not wrong before, she is now." + +"That's true," she cried--"very true. Little Emma, grow up a better +woman than your aunt. Be infinitely cleverer and not half so conceited. +Now, Mr. Knightley, a word or two more, and I have done. As far as good +intentions went, we were _both_ right, and I must say that no effects on +my side of the argument have yet proved wrong. I only want to know that +Mr. Martin is not very, very bitterly disappointed." + +"A man cannot be more so," was his short, full answer. + +"Ah!--Indeed I am very sorry.--Come, shake hands with me." + +This had just taken place and with great cordiality, when John Knightley +made his appearance, and "How d'ye do, George?" and "John, how are +you?" succeeded in the true English style, burying under a calmness that +seemed all but indifference, the real attachment which would have led +either of them, if requisite, to do every thing for the good of the +other. + +The evening was quiet and conversable, as Mr. Woodhouse declined cards +entirely for the sake of comfortable talk with his dear Isabella, and +the little party made two natural divisions; on one side he and his +daughter; on the other the two Mr. Knightleys; their subjects totally +distinct, or very rarely mixing--and Emma only occasionally joining in +one or the other. + +The brothers talked of their own concerns and pursuits, but principally +of those of the elder, whose temper was by much the most communicative, +and who was always the greater talker. As a magistrate, he had generally +some point of law to consult John about, or, at least, some curious +anecdote to give; and as a farmer, as keeping in hand the home-farm at +Donwell, he had to tell what every field was to bear next year, and to +give all such local information as could not fail of being interesting +to a brother whose home it had equally been the longest part of his +life, and whose attachments were strong. The plan of a drain, the change +of a fence, the felling of a tree, and the destination of every acre for +wheat, turnips, or spring corn, was entered into with as much equality +of interest by John, as his cooler manners rendered possible; and if his +willing brother ever left him any thing to inquire about, his inquiries +even approached a tone of eagerness. + +While they were thus comfortably occupied, Mr. Woodhouse was enjoying a +full flow of happy regrets and fearful affection with his daughter. + +"My poor dear Isabella," said he, fondly taking her hand, and +interrupting, for a few moments, her busy labours for some one of her +five children--"How long it is, how terribly long since you were here! +And how tired you must be after your journey! You must go to bed early, +my dear--and I recommend a little gruel to you before you go.--You and +I will have a nice basin of gruel together. My dear Emma, suppose we all +have a little gruel." + +Emma could not suppose any such thing, knowing as she did, that both the +Mr. Knightleys were as unpersuadable on that article as herself;--and +two basins only were ordered. After a little more discourse in praise of +gruel, with some wondering at its not being taken every evening by every +body, he proceeded to say, with an air of grave reflection, + +"It was an awkward business, my dear, your spending the autumn at South +End instead of coming here. I never had much opinion of the sea air." + +"Mr. Wingfield most strenuously recommended it, sir--or we should not +have gone. He recommended it for all the children, but particularly for +the weakness in little Bella's throat,--both sea air and bathing." + +"Ah! my dear, but Perry had many doubts about the sea doing her any +good; and as to myself, I have been long perfectly convinced, though +perhaps I never told you so before, that the sea is very rarely of use +to any body. I am sure it almost killed me once." + +"Come, come," cried Emma, feeling this to be an unsafe subject, "I must +beg you not to talk of the sea. It makes me envious and miserable;--I +who have never seen it! South End is prohibited, if you please. My dear +Isabella, I have not heard you make one inquiry about Mr. Perry yet; and +he never forgets you." + +"Oh! good Mr. Perry--how is he, sir?" + +"Why, pretty well; but not quite well. Poor Perry is bilious, and he has +not time to take care of himself--he tells me he has not time to take +care of himself--which is very sad--but he is always wanted all round +the country. I suppose there is not a man in such practice anywhere. But +then there is not so clever a man any where." + +"And Mrs. Perry and the children, how are they? do the children grow? +I have a great regard for Mr. Perry. I hope he will be calling soon. He +will be so pleased to see my little ones." + +"I hope he will be here to-morrow, for I have a question or two to ask +him about myself of some consequence. And, my dear, whenever he comes, +you had better let him look at little Bella's throat." + +"Oh! my dear sir, her throat is so much better that I have hardly any +uneasiness about it. Either bathing has been of the greatest service to +her, or else it is to be attributed to an excellent embrocation of Mr. +Wingfield's, which we have been applying at times ever since August." + +"It is not very likely, my dear, that bathing should have been of use +to her--and if I had known you were wanting an embrocation, I would have +spoken to-- + +"You seem to me to have forgotten Mrs. and Miss Bates," said Emma, "I +have not heard one inquiry after them." + +"Oh! the good Bateses--I am quite ashamed of myself--but you mention +them in most of your letters. I hope they are quite well. Good old Mrs. +Bates--I will call upon her to-morrow, and take my children.--They +are always so pleased to see my children.--And that excellent Miss +Bates!--such thorough worthy people!--How are they, sir?" + +"Why, pretty well, my dear, upon the whole. But poor Mrs. Bates had a +bad cold about a month ago." + +"How sorry I am! But colds were never so prevalent as they have been +this autumn. Mr. Wingfield told me that he has never known them more +general or heavy--except when it has been quite an influenza." + +"That has been a good deal the case, my dear; but not to the degree you +mention. Perry says that colds have been very general, but not so heavy +as he has very often known them in November. Perry does not call it +altogether a sickly season." + +"No, I do not know that Mr. Wingfield considers it _very_ sickly +except-- + +"Ah! my poor dear child, the truth is, that in London it is always +a sickly season. Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be. It is a +dreadful thing to have you forced to live there! so far off!--and the +air so bad!" + +"No, indeed--_we_ are not at all in a bad air. Our part of London is +very superior to most others!--You must not confound us with London +in general, my dear sir. The neighbourhood of Brunswick Square is very +different from almost all the rest. We are so very airy! I should be +unwilling, I own, to live in any other part of the town;--there is +hardly any other that I could be satisfied to have my children in: +but _we_ are so remarkably airy!--Mr. Wingfield thinks the vicinity of +Brunswick Square decidedly the most favourable as to air." + +"Ah! my dear, it is not like Hartfield. You make the best of it--but +after you have been a week at Hartfield, you are all of you different +creatures; you do not look like the same. Now I cannot say, that I think +you are any of you looking well at present." + +"I am sorry to hear you say so, sir; but I assure you, excepting those +little nervous head-aches and palpitations which I am never entirely +free from anywhere, I am quite well myself; and if the children were +rather pale before they went to bed, it was only because they were a +little more tired than usual, from their journey and the happiness of +coming. I hope you will think better of their looks to-morrow; for I +assure you Mr. Wingfield told me, that he did not believe he had ever +sent us off altogether, in such good case. I trust, at least, that +you do not think Mr. Knightley looking ill," turning her eyes with +affectionate anxiety towards her husband. + +"Middling, my dear; I cannot compliment you. I think Mr. John Knightley +very far from looking well." + +"What is the matter, sir?--Did you speak to me?" cried Mr. John +Knightley, hearing his own name. + +"I am sorry to find, my love, that my father does not think you looking +well--but I hope it is only from being a little fatigued. I could have +wished, however, as you know, that you had seen Mr. Wingfield before you +left home." + +"My dear Isabella,"--exclaimed he hastily--"pray do not concern yourself +about my looks. Be satisfied with doctoring and coddling yourself and +the children, and let me look as I chuse." + +"I did not thoroughly understand what you were telling your brother," +cried Emma, "about your friend Mr. Graham's intending to have a bailiff +from Scotland, to look after his new estate. What will it answer? Will +not the old prejudice be too strong?" + +And she talked in this way so long and successfully that, when forced to +give her attention again to her father and sister, she had nothing +worse to hear than Isabella's kind inquiry after Jane Fairfax; and Jane +Fairfax, though no great favourite with her in general, she was at that +moment very happy to assist in praising. + +"That sweet, amiable Jane Fairfax!" said Mrs. John Knightley.--"It +is so long since I have seen her, except now and then for a moment +accidentally in town! What happiness it must be to her good old +grandmother and excellent aunt, when she comes to visit them! I always +regret excessively on dear Emma's account that she cannot be more at +Highbury; but now their daughter is married, I suppose Colonel and Mrs. +Campbell will not be able to part with her at all. She would be such a +delightful companion for Emma." + +Mr. Woodhouse agreed to it all, but added, + +"Our little friend Harriet Smith, however, is just such another pretty +kind of young person. You will like Harriet. Emma could not have a +better companion than Harriet." + +"I am most happy to hear it--but only Jane Fairfax one knows to be so +very accomplished and superior!--and exactly Emma's age." + +This topic was discussed very happily, and others succeeded of similar +moment, and passed away with similar harmony; but the evening did not +close without a little return of agitation. The gruel came and supplied +a great deal to be said--much praise and many comments--undoubting +decision of its wholesomeness for every constitution, and pretty +severe Philippics upon the many houses where it was never met with +tolerably;--but, unfortunately, among the failures which the daughter +had to instance, the most recent, and therefore most prominent, was in +her own cook at South End, a young woman hired for the time, who never +had been able to understand what she meant by a basin of nice smooth +gruel, thin, but not too thin. Often as she had wished for and ordered +it, she had never been able to get any thing tolerable. Here was a +dangerous opening. + +"Ah!" said Mr. Woodhouse, shaking his head and fixing his eyes on her +with tender concern.--The ejaculation in Emma's ear expressed, "Ah! +there is no end of the sad consequences of your going to South End. It +does not bear talking of." And for a little while she hoped he would not +talk of it, and that a silent rumination might suffice to restore him to +the relish of his own smooth gruel. After an interval of some minutes, +however, he began with, + +"I shall always be very sorry that you went to the sea this autumn, +instead of coming here." + +"But why should you be sorry, sir?--I assure you, it did the children a +great deal of good." + +"And, moreover, if you must go to the sea, it had better not have been +to South End. South End is an unhealthy place. Perry was surprized to +hear you had fixed upon South End." + +"I know there is such an idea with many people, but indeed it is quite +a mistake, sir.--We all had our health perfectly well there, never +found the least inconvenience from the mud; and Mr. Wingfield says it is +entirely a mistake to suppose the place unhealthy; and I am sure he may +be depended on, for he thoroughly understands the nature of the air, and +his own brother and family have been there repeatedly." + +"You should have gone to Cromer, my dear, if you went anywhere.--Perry +was a week at Cromer once, and he holds it to be the best of all the +sea-bathing places. A fine open sea, he says, and very pure air. And, by +what I understand, you might have had lodgings there quite away from +the sea--a quarter of a mile off--very comfortable. You should have +consulted Perry." + +"But, my dear sir, the difference of the journey;--only consider how +great it would have been.--An hundred miles, perhaps, instead of forty." + +"Ah! my dear, as Perry says, where health is at stake, nothing else +should be considered; and if one is to travel, there is not much to +chuse between forty miles and an hundred.--Better not move at all, +better stay in London altogether than travel forty miles to get into +a worse air. This is just what Perry said. It seemed to him a very +ill-judged measure." + +Emma's attempts to stop her father had been vain; and when he +had reached such a point as this, she could not wonder at her +brother-in-law's breaking out. + +"Mr. Perry," said he, in a voice of very strong displeasure, "would do +as well to keep his opinion till it is asked for. Why does he make it +any business of his, to wonder at what I do?--at my taking my family to +one part of the coast or another?--I may be allowed, I hope, the use of +my judgment as well as Mr. Perry.--I want his directions no more than +his drugs." He paused--and growing cooler in a moment, added, with only +sarcastic dryness, "If Mr. Perry can tell me how to convey a wife and +five children a distance of an hundred and thirty miles with no greater +expense or inconvenience than a distance of forty, I should be as +willing to prefer Cromer to South End as he could himself." + +"True, true," cried Mr. Knightley, with most ready interposition--"very +true. That's a consideration indeed.--But John, as to what I was telling +you of my idea of moving the path to Langham, of turning it more to the +right that it may not cut through the home meadows, I cannot conceive +any difficulty. I should not attempt it, if it were to be the means of +inconvenience to the Highbury people, but if you call to mind exactly +the present line of the path.... The only way of proving it, however, +will be to turn to our maps. I shall see you at the Abbey to-morrow +morning I hope, and then we will look them over, and you shall give me +your opinion." + +Mr. Woodhouse was rather agitated by such harsh reflections on his +friend Perry, to whom he had, in fact, though unconsciously, been +attributing many of his own feelings and expressions;--but the soothing +attentions of his daughters gradually removed the present evil, and +the immediate alertness of one brother, and better recollections of the +other, prevented any renewal of it. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +There could hardly be a happier creature in the world than Mrs. John +Knightley, in this short visit to Hartfield, going about every morning +among her old acquaintance with her five children, and talking over what +she had done every evening with her father and sister. She had nothing +to wish otherwise, but that the days did not pass so swiftly. It was a +delightful visit;--perfect, in being much too short. + +In general their evenings were less engaged with friends than their +mornings; but one complete dinner engagement, and out of the house too, +there was no avoiding, though at Christmas. Mr. Weston would take no +denial; they must all dine at Randalls one day;--even Mr. Woodhouse was +persuaded to think it a possible thing in preference to a division of +the party. + +How they were all to be conveyed, he would have made a difficulty if he +could, but as his son and daughter's carriage and horses were actually +at Hartfield, he was not able to make more than a simple question on +that head; it hardly amounted to a doubt; nor did it occupy Emma long +to convince him that they might in one of the carriages find room for +Harriet also. + +Harriet, Mr. Elton, and Mr. Knightley, their own especial set, were the +only persons invited to meet them;--the hours were to be early, as +well as the numbers few; Mr. Woodhouse's habits and inclination being +consulted in every thing. + +The evening before this great event (for it was a very great event that +Mr. Woodhouse should dine out, on the 24th of December) had been spent +by Harriet at Hartfield, and she had gone home so much indisposed with +a cold, that, but for her own earnest wish of being nursed by Mrs. +Goddard, Emma could not have allowed her to leave the house. Emma called +on her the next day, and found her doom already signed with regard to +Randalls. She was very feverish and had a bad sore throat: Mrs. Goddard +was full of care and affection, Mr. Perry was talked of, and Harriet +herself was too ill and low to resist the authority which excluded her +from this delightful engagement, though she could not speak of her loss +without many tears. + +Emma sat with her as long as she could, to attend her in Mrs. Goddard's +unavoidable absences, and raise her spirits by representing how much Mr. +Elton's would be depressed when he knew her state; and left her at last +tolerably comfortable, in the sweet dependence of his having a most +comfortless visit, and of their all missing her very much. She had not +advanced many yards from Mrs. Goddard's door, when she was met by Mr. +Elton himself, evidently coming towards it, and as they walked on slowly +together in conversation about the invalid--of whom he, on the rumour +of considerable illness, had been going to inquire, that he might +carry some report of her to Hartfield--they were overtaken by Mr. John +Knightley returning from the daily visit to Donwell, with his two eldest +boys, whose healthy, glowing faces shewed all the benefit of a country +run, and seemed to ensure a quick despatch of the roast mutton and rice +pudding they were hastening home for. They joined company and +proceeded together. Emma was just describing the nature of her friend's +complaint;--"a throat very much inflamed, with a great deal of heat +about her, a quick, low pulse, &c. and she was sorry to find from Mrs. +Goddard that Harriet was liable to very bad sore-throats, and had often +alarmed her with them." Mr. Elton looked all alarm on the occasion, as +he exclaimed, + +"A sore-throat!--I hope not infectious. I hope not of a putrid +infectious sort. Has Perry seen her? Indeed you should take care of +yourself as well as of your friend. Let me entreat you to run no risks. +Why does not Perry see her?" + +Emma, who was not really at all frightened herself, tranquillised this +excess of apprehension by assurances of Mrs. Goddard's experience and +care; but as there must still remain a degree of uneasiness which she +could not wish to reason away, which she would rather feed and assist +than not, she added soon afterwards--as if quite another subject, + +"It is so cold, so very cold--and looks and feels so very much like +snow, that if it were to any other place or with any other party, I +should really try not to go out to-day--and dissuade my father from +venturing; but as he has made up his mind, and does not seem to feel the +cold himself, I do not like to interfere, as I know it would be so great +a disappointment to Mr. and Mrs. Weston. But, upon my word, Mr. Elton, +in your case, I should certainly excuse myself. You appear to me a +little hoarse already, and when you consider what demand of voice and +what fatigues to-morrow will bring, I think it would be no more than +common prudence to stay at home and take care of yourself to-night." + +Mr. Elton looked as if he did not very well know what answer to make; +which was exactly the case; for though very much gratified by the kind +care of such a fair lady, and not liking to resist any advice of her's, +he had not really the least inclination to give up the visit;--but Emma, +too eager and busy in her own previous conceptions and views to hear him +impartially, or see him with clear vision, was very well satisfied with +his muttering acknowledgment of its being "very cold, certainly very +cold," and walked on, rejoicing in having extricated him from Randalls, +and secured him the power of sending to inquire after Harriet every hour +of the evening. + +"You do quite right," said she;--"we will make your apologies to Mr. and +Mrs. Weston." + +But hardly had she so spoken, when she found her brother was civilly +offering a seat in his carriage, if the weather were Mr. Elton's only +objection, and Mr. Elton actually accepting the offer with much prompt +satisfaction. It was a done thing; Mr. Elton was to go, and never had +his broad handsome face expressed more pleasure than at this moment; +never had his smile been stronger, nor his eyes more exulting than when +he next looked at her. + +"Well," said she to herself, "this is most strange!--After I had got +him off so well, to chuse to go into company, and leave Harriet ill +behind!--Most strange indeed!--But there is, I believe, in many men, +especially single men, such an inclination--such a passion for dining +out--a dinner engagement is so high in the class of their pleasures, +their employments, their dignities, almost their duties, that any +thing gives way to it--and this must be the case with Mr. Elton; a most +valuable, amiable, pleasing young man undoubtedly, and very much in love +with Harriet; but still, he cannot refuse an invitation, he must dine +out wherever he is asked. What a strange thing love is! he can see ready +wit in Harriet, but will not dine alone for her." + +Soon afterwards Mr. Elton quitted them, and she could not but do him +the justice of feeling that there was a great deal of sentiment in his +manner of naming Harriet at parting; in the tone of his voice while +assuring her that he should call at Mrs. Goddard's for news of her fair +friend, the last thing before he prepared for the happiness of meeting +her again, when he hoped to be able to give a better report; and +he sighed and smiled himself off in a way that left the balance of +approbation much in his favour. + +After a few minutes of entire silence between them, John Knightley began +with-- + +"I never in my life saw a man more intent on being agreeable than Mr. +Elton. It is downright labour to him where ladies are concerned. With +men he can be rational and unaffected, but when he has ladies to please, +every feature works." + +"Mr. Elton's manners are not perfect," replied Emma; "but where there is +a wish to please, one ought to overlook, and one does overlook a great +deal. Where a man does his best with only moderate powers, he will +have the advantage over negligent superiority. There is such perfect +good-temper and good-will in Mr. Elton as one cannot but value." + +"Yes," said Mr. John Knightley presently, with some slyness, "he seems +to have a great deal of good-will towards you." + +"Me!" she replied with a smile of astonishment, "are you imagining me to +be Mr. Elton's object?" + +"Such an imagination has crossed me, I own, Emma; and if it never +occurred to you before, you may as well take it into consideration now." + +"Mr. Elton in love with me!--What an idea!" + +"I do not say it is so; but you will do well to consider whether it +is so or not, and to regulate your behaviour accordingly. I think your +manners to him encouraging. I speak as a friend, Emma. You had better +look about you, and ascertain what you do, and what you mean to do." + +"I thank you; but I assure you you are quite mistaken. Mr. Elton and +I are very good friends, and nothing more;" and she walked on, amusing +herself in the consideration of the blunders which often arise from a +partial knowledge of circumstances, of the mistakes which people of high +pretensions to judgment are for ever falling into; and not very well +pleased with her brother for imagining her blind and ignorant, and in +want of counsel. He said no more. + +Mr. Woodhouse had so completely made up his mind to the visit, that in +spite of the increasing coldness, he seemed to have no idea of shrinking +from it, and set forward at last most punctually with his eldest +daughter in his own carriage, with less apparent consciousness of the +weather than either of the others; too full of the wonder of his own +going, and the pleasure it was to afford at Randalls to see that it was +cold, and too well wrapt up to feel it. The cold, however, was severe; +and by the time the second carriage was in motion, a few flakes of snow +were finding their way down, and the sky had the appearance of being so +overcharged as to want only a milder air to produce a very white world +in a very short time. + +Emma soon saw that her companion was not in the happiest humour. The +preparing and the going abroad in such weather, with the sacrifice of +his children after dinner, were evils, were disagreeables at least, +which Mr. John Knightley did not by any means like; he anticipated +nothing in the visit that could be at all worth the purchase; and the +whole of their drive to the vicarage was spent by him in expressing his +discontent. + +"A man," said he, "must have a very good opinion of himself when he asks +people to leave their own fireside, and encounter such a day as +this, for the sake of coming to see him. He must think himself a most +agreeable fellow; I could not do such a thing. It is the greatest +absurdity--Actually snowing at this moment!--The folly of not allowing +people to be comfortable at home--and the folly of people's not staying +comfortably at home when they can! If we were obliged to go out such +an evening as this, by any call of duty or business, what a hardship we +should deem it;--and here are we, probably with rather thinner clothing +than usual, setting forward voluntarily, without excuse, in defiance of +the voice of nature, which tells man, in every thing given to his view +or his feelings, to stay at home himself, and keep all under shelter +that he can;--here are we setting forward to spend five dull hours in +another man's house, with nothing to say or to hear that was not said +and heard yesterday, and may not be said and heard again to-morrow. +Going in dismal weather, to return probably in worse;--four horses and +four servants taken out for nothing but to convey five idle, shivering +creatures into colder rooms and worse company than they might have had +at home." + +Emma did not find herself equal to give the pleased assent, which no +doubt he was in the habit of receiving, to emulate the "Very true, +my love," which must have been usually administered by his travelling +companion; but she had resolution enough to refrain from making +any answer at all. She could not be complying, she dreaded being +quarrelsome; her heroism reached only to silence. She allowed him to +talk, and arranged the glasses, and wrapped herself up, without opening +her lips. + +They arrived, the carriage turned, the step was let down, and Mr. Elton, +spruce, black, and smiling, was with them instantly. Emma thought with +pleasure of some change of subject. Mr. Elton was all obligation and +cheerfulness; he was so very cheerful in his civilities indeed, that she +began to think he must have received a different account of Harriet from +what had reached her. She had sent while dressing, and the answer had +been, "Much the same--not better." + +"_My_ report from Mrs. Goddard's," said she presently, "was not so +pleasant as I had hoped--'Not better' was _my_ answer." + +His face lengthened immediately; and his voice was the voice of +sentiment as he answered. + +"Oh! no--I am grieved to find--I was on the point of telling you that +when I called at Mrs. Goddard's door, which I did the very last thing +before I returned to dress, I was told that Miss Smith was not better, +by no means better, rather worse. Very much grieved and concerned--I +had flattered myself that she must be better after such a cordial as I +knew had been given her in the morning." + +Emma smiled and answered--"My visit was of use to the nervous part of +her complaint, I hope; but not even I can charm away a sore throat; +it is a most severe cold indeed. Mr. Perry has been with her, as you +probably heard." + +"Yes--I imagined--that is--I did not--" + +"He has been used to her in these complaints, and I hope to-morrow +morning will bring us both a more comfortable report. But it is +impossible not to feel uneasiness. Such a sad loss to our party to-day!" + +"Dreadful!--Exactly so, indeed.--She will be missed every moment." + +This was very proper; the sigh which accompanied it was really +estimable; but it should have lasted longer. Emma was rather in dismay +when only half a minute afterwards he began to speak of other things, +and in a voice of the greatest alacrity and enjoyment. + +"What an excellent device," said he, "the use of a sheepskin for +carriages. How very comfortable they make it;--impossible to feel cold +with such precautions. The contrivances of modern days indeed have +rendered a gentleman's carriage perfectly complete. One is so fenced +and guarded from the weather, that not a breath of air can find its way +unpermitted. Weather becomes absolutely of no consequence. It is a very +cold afternoon--but in this carriage we know nothing of the matter.--Ha! +snows a little I see." + +"Yes," said John Knightley, "and I think we shall have a good deal of +it." + +"Christmas weather," observed Mr. Elton. "Quite seasonable; and +extremely fortunate we may think ourselves that it did not begin +yesterday, and prevent this day's party, which it might very possibly +have done, for Mr. Woodhouse would hardly have ventured had there been +much snow on the ground; but now it is of no consequence. This is quite +the season indeed for friendly meetings. At Christmas every body invites +their friends about them, and people think little of even the worst +weather. I was snowed up at a friend's house once for a week. Nothing +could be pleasanter. I went for only one night, and could not get away +till that very day se'nnight." + +Mr. John Knightley looked as if he did not comprehend the pleasure, but +said only, coolly, + +"I cannot wish to be snowed up a week at Randalls." + +At another time Emma might have been amused, but she was too much +astonished now at Mr. Elton's spirits for other feelings. Harriet seemed +quite forgotten in the expectation of a pleasant party. + +"We are sure of excellent fires," continued he, "and every thing in the +greatest comfort. Charming people, Mr. and Mrs. Weston;--Mrs. Weston +indeed is much beyond praise, and he is exactly what one values, so +hospitable, and so fond of society;--it will be a small party, but where +small parties are select, they are perhaps the most agreeable of any. +Mr. Weston's dining-room does not accommodate more than ten comfortably; +and for my part, I would rather, under such circumstances, fall short by +two than exceed by two. I think you will agree with me, (turning with +a soft air to Emma,) I think I shall certainly have your approbation, +though Mr. Knightley perhaps, from being used to the large parties of +London, may not quite enter into our feelings." + +"I know nothing of the large parties of London, sir--I never dine with +any body." + +"Indeed! (in a tone of wonder and pity,) I had no idea that the law had +been so great a slavery. Well, sir, the time must come when you will +be paid for all this, when you will have little labour and great +enjoyment." + +"My first enjoyment," replied John Knightley, as they passed through the +sweep-gate, "will be to find myself safe at Hartfield again." + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Some change of countenance was necessary for each gentleman as they +walked into Mrs. Weston's drawing-room;--Mr. Elton must compose his +joyous looks, and Mr. John Knightley disperse his ill-humour. Mr. +Elton must smile less, and Mr. John Knightley more, to fit them for the +place.--Emma only might be as nature prompted, and shew herself just as +happy as she was. To her it was real enjoyment to be with the Westons. +Mr. Weston was a great favourite, and there was not a creature in the +world to whom she spoke with such unreserve, as to his wife; not any +one, to whom she related with such conviction of being listened to and +understood, of being always interesting and always intelligible, the +little affairs, arrangements, perplexities, and pleasures of her father +and herself. She could tell nothing of Hartfield, in which Mrs. Weston +had not a lively concern; and half an hour's uninterrupted communication +of all those little matters on which the daily happiness of private life +depends, was one of the first gratifications of each. + +This was a pleasure which perhaps the whole day's visit might not +afford, which certainly did not belong to the present half-hour; but the +very sight of Mrs. Weston, her smile, her touch, her voice was grateful +to Emma, and she determined to think as little as possible of Mr. +Elton's oddities, or of any thing else unpleasant, and enjoy all that +was enjoyable to the utmost. + +The misfortune of Harriet's cold had been pretty well gone through +before her arrival. Mr. Woodhouse had been safely seated long enough +to give the history of it, besides all the history of his own and +Isabella's coming, and of Emma's being to follow, and had indeed just +got to the end of his satisfaction that James should come and see his +daughter, when the others appeared, and Mrs. Weston, who had been almost +wholly engrossed by her attentions to him, was able to turn away and +welcome her dear Emma. + +Emma's project of forgetting Mr. Elton for a while made her rather sorry +to find, when they had all taken their places, that he was close to her. +The difficulty was great of driving his strange insensibility towards +Harriet, from her mind, while he not only sat at her elbow, but +was continually obtruding his happy countenance on her notice, and +solicitously addressing her upon every occasion. Instead of forgetting +him, his behaviour was such that she could not avoid the internal +suggestion of "Can it really be as my brother imagined? can it be +possible for this man to be beginning to transfer his affections from +Harriet to me?--Absurd and insufferable!"--Yet he would be so anxious +for her being perfectly warm, would be so interested about her father, +and so delighted with Mrs. Weston; and at last would begin admiring her +drawings with so much zeal and so little knowledge as seemed terribly +like a would-be lover, and made it some effort with her to preserve her +good manners. For her own sake she could not be rude; and for Harriet's, +in the hope that all would yet turn out right, she was even positively +civil; but it was an effort; especially as something was going on +amongst the others, in the most overpowering period of Mr. Elton's +nonsense, which she particularly wished to listen to. She heard enough +to know that Mr. Weston was giving some information about his son; she +heard the words "my son," and "Frank," and "my son," repeated several +times over; and, from a few other half-syllables very much suspected +that he was announcing an early visit from his son; but before she could +quiet Mr. Elton, the subject was so completely past that any reviving +question from her would have been awkward. + +Now, it so happened that in spite of Emma's resolution of never +marrying, there was something in the name, in the idea of Mr. +Frank Churchill, which always interested her. She had frequently +thought--especially since his father's marriage with Miss Taylor--that +if she _were_ to marry, he was the very person to suit her in age, +character and condition. He seemed by this connexion between the +families, quite to belong to her. She could not but suppose it to be +a match that every body who knew them must think of. That Mr. and Mrs. +Weston did think of it, she was very strongly persuaded; and though +not meaning to be induced by him, or by any body else, to give up a +situation which she believed more replete with good than any she could +change it for, she had a great curiosity to see him, a decided intention +of finding him pleasant, of being liked by him to a certain degree, and +a sort of pleasure in the idea of their being coupled in their friends' +imaginations. + +With such sensations, Mr. Elton's civilities were dreadfully ill-timed; +but she had the comfort of appearing very polite, while feeling very +cross--and of thinking that the rest of the visit could not possibly +pass without bringing forward the same information again, or the +substance of it, from the open-hearted Mr. Weston.--So it proved;--for +when happily released from Mr. Elton, and seated by Mr. Weston, +at dinner, he made use of the very first interval in the cares of +hospitality, the very first leisure from the saddle of mutton, to say to +her, + +"We want only two more to be just the right number. I should like to see +two more here,--your pretty little friend, Miss Smith, and my son--and +then I should say we were quite complete. I believe you did not hear me +telling the others in the drawing-room that we are expecting Frank. +I had a letter from him this morning, and he will be with us within a +fortnight." + +Emma spoke with a very proper degree of pleasure; and fully assented to +his proposition of Mr. Frank Churchill and Miss Smith making their party +quite complete. + +"He has been wanting to come to us," continued Mr. Weston, "ever since +September: every letter has been full of it; but he cannot command his +own time. He has those to please who must be pleased, and who (between +ourselves) are sometimes to be pleased only by a good many sacrifices. +But now I have no doubt of seeing him here about the second week in +January." + +"What a very great pleasure it will be to you! and Mrs. Weston is so +anxious to be acquainted with him, that she must be almost as happy as +yourself." + +"Yes, she would be, but that she thinks there will be another put-off. +She does not depend upon his coming so much as I do: but she does not +know the parties so well as I do. The case, you see, is--(but this is +quite between ourselves: I did not mention a syllable of it in the other +room. There are secrets in all families, you know)--The case is, that a +party of friends are invited to pay a visit at Enscombe in January; and +that Frank's coming depends upon their being put off. If they are not +put off, he cannot stir. But I know they will, because it is a family +that a certain lady, of some consequence, at Enscombe, has a particular +dislike to: and though it is thought necessary to invite them once in +two or three years, they always are put off when it comes to the point. +I have not the smallest doubt of the issue. I am as confident of seeing +Frank here before the middle of January, as I am of being here myself: +but your good friend there (nodding towards the upper end of the table) +has so few vagaries herself, and has been so little used to them at +Hartfield, that she cannot calculate on their effects, as I have been +long in the practice of doing." + +"I am sorry there should be any thing like doubt in the case," replied +Emma; "but am disposed to side with you, Mr. Weston. If you think he +will come, I shall think so too; for you know Enscombe." + +"Yes--I have some right to that knowledge; though I have never been at +the place in my life.--She is an odd woman!--But I never allow myself +to speak ill of her, on Frank's account; for I do believe her to be very +fond of him. I used to think she was not capable of being fond of +any body, except herself: but she has always been kind to him (in her +way--allowing for little whims and caprices, and expecting every thing +to be as she likes). And it is no small credit, in my opinion, to him, +that he should excite such an affection; for, though I would not say +it to any body else, she has no more heart than a stone to people in +general; and the devil of a temper." + +Emma liked the subject so well, that she began upon it, to Mrs. Weston, +very soon after their moving into the drawing-room: wishing her joy--yet +observing, that she knew the first meeting must be rather alarming.-- +Mrs. Weston agreed to it; but added, that she should be very glad to be +secure of undergoing the anxiety of a first meeting at the time talked +of: "for I cannot depend upon his coming. I cannot be so sanguine as +Mr. Weston. I am very much afraid that it will all end in nothing. Mr. +Weston, I dare say, has been telling you exactly how the matter stands?" + +"Yes--it seems to depend upon nothing but the ill-humour of Mrs. +Churchill, which I imagine to be the most certain thing in the world." + +"My Emma!" replied Mrs. Weston, smiling, "what is the certainty +of caprice?" Then turning to Isabella, who had not been attending +before--"You must know, my dear Mrs. Knightley, that we are by no means +so sure of seeing Mr. Frank Churchill, in my opinion, as his father +thinks. It depends entirely upon his aunt's spirits and pleasure; in +short, upon her temper. To you--to my two daughters--I may venture on +the truth. Mrs. Churchill rules at Enscombe, and is a very odd-tempered +woman; and his coming now, depends upon her being willing to spare him." + +"Oh, Mrs. Churchill; every body knows Mrs. Churchill," replied Isabella: +"and I am sure I never think of that poor young man without the greatest +compassion. To be constantly living with an ill-tempered person, must +be dreadful. It is what we happily have never known any thing of; but +it must be a life of misery. What a blessing, that she never had any +children! Poor little creatures, how unhappy she would have made them!" + +Emma wished she had been alone with Mrs. Weston. She should then have +heard more: Mrs. Weston would speak to her, with a degree of unreserve +which she would not hazard with Isabella; and, she really believed, +would scarcely try to conceal any thing relative to the Churchills +from her, excepting those views on the young man, of which her own +imagination had already given her such instinctive knowledge. But at +present there was nothing more to be said. Mr. Woodhouse very soon +followed them into the drawing-room. To be sitting long after +dinner, was a confinement that he could not endure. Neither wine nor +conversation was any thing to him; and gladly did he move to those with +whom he was always comfortable. + +While he talked to Isabella, however, Emma found an opportunity of +saying, + +"And so you do not consider this visit from your son as by any means +certain. I am sorry for it. The introduction must be unpleasant, +whenever it takes place; and the sooner it could be over, the better." + +"Yes; and every delay makes one more apprehensive of other delays. Even +if this family, the Braithwaites, are put off, I am still afraid that +some excuse may be found for disappointing us. I cannot bear to imagine +any reluctance on his side; but I am sure there is a great wish on +the Churchills' to keep him to themselves. There is jealousy. They +are jealous even of his regard for his father. In short, I can feel no +dependence on his coming, and I wish Mr. Weston were less sanguine." + +"He ought to come," said Emma. "If he could stay only a couple of days, +he ought to come; and one can hardly conceive a young man's not having +it in his power to do as much as that. A young _woman_, if she fall into +bad hands, may be teased, and kept at a distance from those she wants +to be with; but one cannot comprehend a young _man_'s being under such +restraint, as not to be able to spend a week with his father, if he +likes it." + +"One ought to be at Enscombe, and know the ways of the family, before +one decides upon what he can do," replied Mrs. Weston. "One ought to +use the same caution, perhaps, in judging of the conduct of any one +individual of any one family; but Enscombe, I believe, certainly must +not be judged by general rules: _she_ is so very unreasonable; and every +thing gives way to her." + +"But she is so fond of the nephew: he is so very great a favourite. Now, +according to my idea of Mrs. Churchill, it would be most natural, that +while she makes no sacrifice for the comfort of the husband, to whom she +owes every thing, while she exercises incessant caprice towards _him_, +she should frequently be governed by the nephew, to whom she owes +nothing at all." + +"My dearest Emma, do not pretend, with your sweet temper, to understand +a bad one, or to lay down rules for it: you must let it go its own way. +I have no doubt of his having, at times, considerable influence; but it +may be perfectly impossible for him to know beforehand _when_ it will +be." + +Emma listened, and then coolly said, "I shall not be satisfied, unless +he comes." + +"He may have a great deal of influence on some points," continued Mrs. +Weston, "and on others, very little: and among those, on which she is +beyond his reach, it is but too likely, may be this very circumstance of +his coming away from them to visit us." + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +Mr. Woodhouse was soon ready for his tea; and when he had drank his +tea he was quite ready to go home; and it was as much as his three +companions could do, to entertain away his notice of the lateness of +the hour, before the other gentlemen appeared. Mr. Weston was chatty and +convivial, and no friend to early separations of any sort; but at last +the drawing-room party did receive an augmentation. Mr. Elton, in very +good spirits, was one of the first to walk in. Mrs. Weston and Emma +were sitting together on a sofa. He joined them immediately, and, with +scarcely an invitation, seated himself between them. + +Emma, in good spirits too, from the amusement afforded her mind by +the expectation of Mr. Frank Churchill, was willing to forget his late +improprieties, and be as well satisfied with him as before, and on his +making Harriet his very first subject, was ready to listen with most +friendly smiles. + +He professed himself extremely anxious about her fair friend--her fair, +lovely, amiable friend. "Did she know?--had she heard any thing about +her, since their being at Randalls?--he felt much anxiety--he must +confess that the nature of her complaint alarmed him considerably." +And in this style he talked on for some time very properly, not much +attending to any answer, but altogether sufficiently awake to the terror +of a bad sore throat; and Emma was quite in charity with him. + +But at last there seemed a perverse turn; it seemed all at once as if he +were more afraid of its being a bad sore throat on her account, than on +Harriet's--more anxious that she should escape the infection, than +that there should be no infection in the complaint. He began with great +earnestness to entreat her to refrain from visiting the sick-chamber +again, for the present--to entreat her to _promise_ _him_ not to venture +into such hazard till he had seen Mr. Perry and learnt his opinion; and +though she tried to laugh it off and bring the subject back into its +proper course, there was no putting an end to his extreme solicitude +about her. She was vexed. It did appear--there was no concealing +it--exactly like the pretence of being in love with her, instead of +Harriet; an inconstancy, if real, the most contemptible and abominable! +and she had difficulty in behaving with temper. He turned to Mrs. Weston +to implore her assistance, "Would not she give him her support?--would +not she add her persuasions to his, to induce Miss Woodhouse not to go +to Mrs. Goddard's till it were certain that Miss Smith's disorder had +no infection? He could not be satisfied without a promise--would not she +give him her influence in procuring it?" + +"So scrupulous for others," he continued, "and yet so careless for +herself! She wanted me to nurse my cold by staying at home to-day, and +yet will not promise to avoid the danger of catching an ulcerated sore +throat herself. Is this fair, Mrs. Weston?--Judge between us. Have not I +some right to complain? I am sure of your kind support and aid." + +Emma saw Mrs. Weston's surprize, and felt that it must be great, at an +address which, in words and manner, was assuming to himself the right of +first interest in her; and as for herself, she was too much provoked and +offended to have the power of directly saying any thing to the purpose. +She could only give him a look; but it was such a look as she thought +must restore him to his senses, and then left the sofa, removing to a +seat by her sister, and giving her all her attention. + +She had not time to know how Mr. Elton took the reproof, so rapidly did +another subject succeed; for Mr. John Knightley now came into the room +from examining the weather, and opened on them all with the information +of the ground being covered with snow, and of its still snowing +fast, with a strong drifting wind; concluding with these words to Mr. +Woodhouse: + +"This will prove a spirited beginning of your winter engagements, +sir. Something new for your coachman and horses to be making their way +through a storm of snow." + +Poor Mr. Woodhouse was silent from consternation; but every body else +had something to say; every body was either surprized or not surprized, +and had some question to ask, or some comfort to offer. Mrs. Weston +and Emma tried earnestly to cheer him and turn his attention from his +son-in-law, who was pursuing his triumph rather unfeelingly. + +"I admired your resolution very much, sir," said he, "in venturing out +in such weather, for of course you saw there would be snow very soon. +Every body must have seen the snow coming on. I admired your spirit; and +I dare say we shall get home very well. Another hour or two's snow can +hardly make the road impassable; and we are two carriages; if one is +blown over in the bleak part of the common field there will be the other +at hand. I dare say we shall be all safe at Hartfield before midnight." + +Mr. Weston, with triumph of a different sort, was confessing that he +had known it to be snowing some time, but had not said a word, lest +it should make Mr. Woodhouse uncomfortable, and be an excuse for his +hurrying away. As to there being any quantity of snow fallen or likely +to fall to impede their return, that was a mere joke; he was afraid they +would find no difficulty. He wished the road might be impassable, that +he might be able to keep them all at Randalls; and with the utmost +good-will was sure that accommodation might be found for every body, +calling on his wife to agree with him, that with a little contrivance, +every body might be lodged, which she hardly knew how to do, from the +consciousness of there being but two spare rooms in the house. + +"What is to be done, my dear Emma?--what is to be done?" was Mr. +Woodhouse's first exclamation, and all that he could say for some +time. To her he looked for comfort; and her assurances of safety, her +representation of the excellence of the horses, and of James, and of +their having so many friends about them, revived him a little. + +His eldest daughter's alarm was equal to his own. The horror of being +blocked up at Randalls, while her children were at Hartfield, was full +in her imagination; and fancying the road to be now just passable for +adventurous people, but in a state that admitted no delay, she was eager +to have it settled, that her father and Emma should remain at Randalls, +while she and her husband set forward instantly through all the possible +accumulations of drifted snow that might impede them. + +"You had better order the carriage directly, my love," said she; "I dare +say we shall be able to get along, if we set off directly; and if we +do come to any thing very bad, I can get out and walk. I am not at all +afraid. I should not mind walking half the way. I could change my shoes, +you know, the moment I got home; and it is not the sort of thing that +gives me cold." + +"Indeed!" replied he. "Then, my dear Isabella, it is the most +extraordinary sort of thing in the world, for in general every thing +does give you cold. Walk home!--you are prettily shod for walking home, +I dare say. It will be bad enough for the horses." + +Isabella turned to Mrs. Weston for her approbation of the plan. Mrs. +Weston could only approve. Isabella then went to Emma; but Emma could +not so entirely give up the hope of their being all able to get away; +and they were still discussing the point, when Mr. Knightley, who had +left the room immediately after his brother's first report of the snow, +came back again, and told them that he had been out of doors to examine, +and could answer for there not being the smallest difficulty in their +getting home, whenever they liked it, either now or an hour hence. He +had gone beyond the sweep--some way along the Highbury road--the snow +was nowhere above half an inch deep--in many places hardly enough to +whiten the ground; a very few flakes were falling at present, but the +clouds were parting, and there was every appearance of its being soon +over. He had seen the coachmen, and they both agreed with him in there +being nothing to apprehend. + +To Isabella, the relief of such tidings was very great, and they were +scarcely less acceptable to Emma on her father's account, who +was immediately set as much at ease on the subject as his nervous +constitution allowed; but the alarm that had been raised could not be +appeased so as to admit of any comfort for him while he continued at +Randalls. He was satisfied of there being no present danger in returning +home, but no assurances could convince him that it was safe to stay; and +while the others were variously urging and recommending, Mr. Knightley +and Emma settled it in a few brief sentences: thus-- + +"Your father will not be easy; why do not you go?" + +"I am ready, if the others are." + +"Shall I ring the bell?" + +"Yes, do." + +And the bell was rung, and the carriages spoken for. A few minutes more, +and Emma hoped to see one troublesome companion deposited in his own +house, to get sober and cool, and the other recover his temper and +happiness when this visit of hardship were over. + +The carriage came: and Mr. Woodhouse, always the first object on such +occasions, was carefully attended to his own by Mr. Knightley and Mr. +Weston; but not all that either could say could prevent some renewal +of alarm at the sight of the snow which had actually fallen, and the +discovery of a much darker night than he had been prepared for. "He was +afraid they should have a very bad drive. He was afraid poor Isabella +would not like it. And there would be poor Emma in the carriage behind. +He did not know what they had best do. They must keep as much together +as they could;" and James was talked to, and given a charge to go very +slow and wait for the other carriage. + +Isabella stept in after her father; John Knightley, forgetting that he +did not belong to their party, stept in after his wife very naturally; +so that Emma found, on being escorted and followed into the second +carriage by Mr. Elton, that the door was to be lawfully shut on them, +and that they were to have a tete-a-tete drive. It would not have been +the awkwardness of a moment, it would have been rather a pleasure, +previous to the suspicions of this very day; she could have talked to +him of Harriet, and the three-quarters of a mile would have seemed but +one. But now, she would rather it had not happened. She believed he had +been drinking too much of Mr. Weston's good wine, and felt sure that he +would want to be talking nonsense. + +To restrain him as much as might be, by her own manners, she was +immediately preparing to speak with exquisite calmness and gravity of +the weather and the night; but scarcely had she begun, scarcely had they +passed the sweep-gate and joined the other carriage, than she found her +subject cut up--her hand seized--her attention demanded, and Mr. Elton +actually making violent love to her: availing himself of the precious +opportunity, declaring sentiments which must be already well known, +hoping--fearing--adoring--ready to die if she refused him; but +flattering himself that his ardent attachment and unequalled love and +unexampled passion could not fail of having some effect, and in short, +very much resolved on being seriously accepted as soon as possible. It +really was so. Without scruple--without apology--without much apparent +diffidence, Mr. Elton, the lover of Harriet, was professing himself +_her_ lover. She tried to stop him; but vainly; he would go on, and say +it all. Angry as she was, the thought of the moment made her resolve to +restrain herself when she did speak. She felt that half this folly must +be drunkenness, and therefore could hope that it might belong only to +the passing hour. Accordingly, with a mixture of the serious and the +playful, which she hoped would best suit his half and half state, she +replied, + +"I am very much astonished, Mr. Elton. This to _me_! you forget +yourself--you take me for my friend--any message to Miss Smith I shall +be happy to deliver; but no more of this to _me_, if you please." + +"Miss Smith!--message to Miss Smith!--What could she possibly +mean!"--And he repeated her words with such assurance of accent, such +boastful pretence of amazement, that she could not help replying with +quickness, + +"Mr. Elton, this is the most extraordinary conduct! and I can account +for it only in one way; you are not yourself, or you could not speak +either to me, or of Harriet, in such a manner. Command yourself enough +to say no more, and I will endeavour to forget it." + +But Mr. Elton had only drunk wine enough to elevate his spirits, not at +all to confuse his intellects. He perfectly knew his own meaning; and +having warmly protested against her suspicion as most injurious, and +slightly touched upon his respect for Miss Smith as her friend,--but +acknowledging his wonder that Miss Smith should be mentioned at all,--he +resumed the subject of his own passion, and was very urgent for a +favourable answer. + +As she thought less of his inebriety, she thought more of his +inconstancy and presumption; and with fewer struggles for politeness, +replied, + +"It is impossible for me to doubt any longer. You have made yourself +too clear. Mr. Elton, my astonishment is much beyond any thing I can +express. After such behaviour, as I have witnessed during the last +month, to Miss Smith--such attentions as I have been in the daily +habit of observing--to be addressing me in this manner--this is an +unsteadiness of character, indeed, which I had not supposed possible! +Believe me, sir, I am far, very far, from gratified in being the object +of such professions." + +"Good Heaven!" cried Mr. Elton, "what can be the meaning of this?--Miss +Smith!--I never thought of Miss Smith in the whole course of my +existence--never paid her any attentions, but as your friend: never +cared whether she were dead or alive, but as your friend. If she +has fancied otherwise, her own wishes have misled her, and I am very +sorry--extremely sorry--But, Miss Smith, indeed!--Oh! Miss Woodhouse! +who can think of Miss Smith, when Miss Woodhouse is near! No, upon my +honour, there is no unsteadiness of character. I have thought only of +you. I protest against having paid the smallest attention to any one +else. Every thing that I have said or done, for many weeks past, has +been with the sole view of marking my adoration of yourself. You +cannot really, seriously, doubt it. No!--(in an accent meant to be +insinuating)--I am sure you have seen and understood me." + +It would be impossible to say what Emma felt, on hearing this--which +of all her unpleasant sensations was uppermost. She was too completely +overpowered to be immediately able to reply: and two moments of silence +being ample encouragement for Mr. Elton's sanguine state of mind, he +tried to take her hand again, as he joyously exclaimed-- + +"Charming Miss Woodhouse! allow me to interpret this interesting +silence. It confesses that you have long understood me." + +"No, sir," cried Emma, "it confesses no such thing. So far from having +long understood you, I have been in a most complete error with respect +to your views, till this moment. As to myself, I am very sorry that you +should have been giving way to any feelings--Nothing could be farther +from my wishes--your attachment to my friend Harriet--your pursuit of +her, (pursuit, it appeared,) gave me great pleasure, and I have been +very earnestly wishing you success: but had I supposed that she were not +your attraction to Hartfield, I should certainly have thought you judged +ill in making your visits so frequent. Am I to believe that you have +never sought to recommend yourself particularly to Miss Smith?--that you +have never thought seriously of her?" + +"Never, madam," cried he, affronted in his turn: "never, I assure you. +_I_ think seriously of Miss Smith!--Miss Smith is a very good sort of +girl; and I should be happy to see her respectably settled. I wish +her extremely well: and, no doubt, there are men who might not object +to--Every body has their level: but as for myself, I am not, I think, +quite so much at a loss. I need not so totally despair of an equal +alliance, as to be addressing myself to Miss Smith!--No, madam, my +visits to Hartfield have been for yourself only; and the encouragement I +received--" + +"Encouragement!--I give you encouragement!--Sir, you have been entirely +mistaken in supposing it. I have seen you only as the admirer of my +friend. In no other light could you have been more to me than a common +acquaintance. I am exceedingly sorry: but it is well that the mistake +ends where it does. Had the same behaviour continued, Miss Smith might +have been led into a misconception of your views; not being aware, +probably, any more than myself, of the very great inequality which you +are so sensible of. But, as it is, the disappointment is single, and, I +trust, will not be lasting. I have no thoughts of matrimony at present." + +He was too angry to say another word; her manner too decided to invite +supplication; and in this state of swelling resentment, and mutually +deep mortification, they had to continue together a few minutes longer, +for the fears of Mr. Woodhouse had confined them to a foot-pace. If +there had not been so much anger, there would have been desperate +awkwardness; but their straightforward emotions left no room for the +little zigzags of embarrassment. Without knowing when the carriage +turned into Vicarage Lane, or when it stopped, they found themselves, +all at once, at the door of his house; and he was out before another +syllable passed.--Emma then felt it indispensable to wish him a good +night. The compliment was just returned, coldly and proudly; and, under +indescribable irritation of spirits, she was then conveyed to Hartfield. + +There she was welcomed, with the utmost delight, by her father, who +had been trembling for the dangers of a solitary drive from Vicarage +Lane--turning a corner which he could never bear to think of--and in +strange hands--a mere common coachman--no James; and there it seemed as +if her return only were wanted to make every thing go well: for Mr. +John Knightley, ashamed of his ill-humour, was now all kindness and +attention; and so particularly solicitous for the comfort of her +father, as to seem--if not quite ready to join him in a basin of +gruel--perfectly sensible of its being exceedingly wholesome; and the +day was concluding in peace and comfort to all their little party, +except herself.--But her mind had never been in such perturbation; and +it needed a very strong effort to appear attentive and cheerful till the +usual hour of separating allowed her the relief of quiet reflection. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +The hair was curled, and the maid sent away, and Emma sat down to think +and be miserable.--It was a wretched business indeed!--Such an overthrow +of every thing she had been wishing for!--Such a development of every +thing most unwelcome!--Such a blow for Harriet!--that was the worst +of all. Every part of it brought pain and humiliation, of some sort or +other; but, compared with the evil to Harriet, all was light; and +she would gladly have submitted to feel yet more mistaken--more in +error--more disgraced by mis-judgment, than she actually was, could the +effects of her blunders have been confined to herself. + +"If I had not persuaded Harriet into liking the man, I could have +borne any thing. He might have doubled his presumption to me--but poor +Harriet!" + +How she could have been so deceived!--He protested that he had never +thought seriously of Harriet--never! She looked back as well as +she could; but it was all confusion. She had taken up the idea, she +supposed, and made every thing bend to it. His manners, however, must +have been unmarked, wavering, dubious, or she could not have been so +misled. + +The picture!--How eager he had been about the picture!--and the +charade!--and an hundred other circumstances;--how clearly they had +seemed to point at Harriet. To be sure, the charade, with its "ready +wit"--but then the "soft eyes"--in fact it suited neither; it was +a jumble without taste or truth. Who could have seen through such +thick-headed nonsense? + +Certainly she had often, especially of late, thought his manners to +herself unnecessarily gallant; but it had passed as his way, as a mere +error of judgment, of knowledge, of taste, as one proof among others +that he had not always lived in the best society, that with all the +gentleness of his address, true elegance was sometimes wanting; but, +till this very day, she had never, for an instant, suspected it to mean +any thing but grateful respect to her as Harriet's friend. + +To Mr. John Knightley was she indebted for her first idea on the +subject, for the first start of its possibility. There was no denying +that those brothers had penetration. She remembered what Mr. Knightley +had once said to her about Mr. Elton, the caution he had given, +the conviction he had professed that Mr. Elton would never marry +indiscreetly; and blushed to think how much truer a knowledge of his +character had been there shewn than any she had reached herself. It +was dreadfully mortifying; but Mr. Elton was proving himself, in many +respects, the very reverse of what she had meant and believed him; +proud, assuming, conceited; very full of his own claims, and little +concerned about the feelings of others. + +Contrary to the usual course of things, Mr. Elton's wanting to pay his +addresses to her had sunk him in her opinion. His professions and his +proposals did him no service. She thought nothing of his attachment, +and was insulted by his hopes. He wanted to marry well, and having the +arrogance to raise his eyes to her, pretended to be in love; but she was +perfectly easy as to his not suffering any disappointment that need be +cared for. There had been no real affection either in his language or +manners. Sighs and fine words had been given in abundance; but she could +hardly devise any set of expressions, or fancy any tone of voice, less +allied with real love. She need not trouble herself to pity him. He +only wanted to aggrandise and enrich himself; and if Miss Woodhouse +of Hartfield, the heiress of thirty thousand pounds, were not quite so +easily obtained as he had fancied, he would soon try for Miss Somebody +else with twenty, or with ten. + +But--that he should talk of encouragement, should consider her as aware +of his views, accepting his attentions, meaning (in short), to marry +him!--should suppose himself her equal in connexion or mind!--look down +upon her friend, so well understanding the gradations of rank below +him, and be so blind to what rose above, as to fancy himself shewing no +presumption in addressing her!--It was most provoking. + +Perhaps it was not fair to expect him to feel how very much he was her +inferior in talent, and all the elegancies of mind. The very want of +such equality might prevent his perception of it; but he must know that +in fortune and consequence she was greatly his superior. He must +know that the Woodhouses had been settled for several generations at +Hartfield, the younger branch of a very ancient family--and that the +Eltons were nobody. The landed property of Hartfield certainly was +inconsiderable, being but a sort of notch in the Donwell Abbey estate, +to which all the rest of Highbury belonged; but their fortune, from +other sources, was such as to make them scarcely secondary to Donwell +Abbey itself, in every other kind of consequence; and the Woodhouses had +long held a high place in the consideration of the neighbourhood which +Mr. Elton had first entered not two years ago, to make his way as he +could, without any alliances but in trade, or any thing to recommend him +to notice but his situation and his civility.--But he had fancied her +in love with him; that evidently must have been his dependence; and +after raving a little about the seeming incongruity of gentle manners +and a conceited head, Emma was obliged in common honesty to stop +and admit that her own behaviour to him had been so complaisant and +obliging, so full of courtesy and attention, as (supposing her real +motive unperceived) might warrant a man of ordinary observation and +delicacy, like Mr. Elton, in fancying himself a very decided favourite. +If _she_ had so misinterpreted his feelings, she had little right to +wonder that _he_, with self-interest to blind him, should have mistaken +hers. + +The first error and the worst lay at her door. It was foolish, it was +wrong, to take so active a part in bringing any two people together. It +was adventuring too far, assuming too much, making light of what +ought to be serious, a trick of what ought to be simple. She was quite +concerned and ashamed, and resolved to do such things no more. + +"Here have I," said she, "actually talked poor Harriet into being very +much attached to this man. She might never have thought of him but for +me; and certainly never would have thought of him with hope, if I had +not assured her of his attachment, for she is as modest and humble as I +used to think him. Oh! that I had been satisfied with persuading her not +to accept young Martin. There I was quite right. That was well done +of me; but there I should have stopped, and left the rest to time and +chance. I was introducing her into good company, and giving her the +opportunity of pleasing some one worth having; I ought not to have +attempted more. But now, poor girl, her peace is cut up for some time. +I have been but half a friend to her; and if she were _not_ to feel this +disappointment so very much, I am sure I have not an idea of any body +else who would be at all desirable for her;--William Coxe--Oh! no, I +could not endure William Coxe--a pert young lawyer." + +She stopt to blush and laugh at her own relapse, and then resumed a more +serious, more dispiriting cogitation upon what had been, and might be, +and must be. The distressing explanation she had to make to Harriet, and +all that poor Harriet would be suffering, with the awkwardness of +future meetings, the difficulties of continuing or discontinuing the +acquaintance, of subduing feelings, concealing resentment, and avoiding +eclat, were enough to occupy her in most unmirthful reflections some +time longer, and she went to bed at last with nothing settled but the +conviction of her having blundered most dreadfully. + +To youth and natural cheerfulness like Emma's, though under temporary +gloom at night, the return of day will hardly fail to bring return of +spirits. The youth and cheerfulness of morning are in happy analogy, +and of powerful operation; and if the distress be not poignant enough +to keep the eyes unclosed, they will be sure to open to sensations of +softened pain and brighter hope. + +Emma got up on the morrow more disposed for comfort than she had gone +to bed, more ready to see alleviations of the evil before her, and to +depend on getting tolerably out of it. + +It was a great consolation that Mr. Elton should not be really in +love with her, or so particularly amiable as to make it shocking to +disappoint him--that Harriet's nature should not be of that superior +sort in which the feelings are most acute and retentive--and that there +could be no necessity for any body's knowing what had passed except the +three principals, and especially for her father's being given a moment's +uneasiness about it. + +These were very cheering thoughts; and the sight of a great deal of snow +on the ground did her further service, for any thing was welcome that +might justify their all three being quite asunder at present. + +The weather was most favourable for her; though Christmas Day, she +could not go to church. Mr. Woodhouse would have been miserable had his +daughter attempted it, and she was therefore safe from either exciting +or receiving unpleasant and most unsuitable ideas. The ground covered +with snow, and the atmosphere in that unsettled state between frost and +thaw, which is of all others the most unfriendly for exercise, every +morning beginning in rain or snow, and every evening setting in to +freeze, she was for many days a most honourable prisoner. No intercourse +with Harriet possible but by note; no church for her on Sunday any +more than on Christmas Day; and no need to find excuses for Mr. Elton's +absenting himself. + +It was weather which might fairly confine every body at home; and though +she hoped and believed him to be really taking comfort in some society +or other, it was very pleasant to have her father so well satisfied with +his being all alone in his own house, too wise to stir out; and to +hear him say to Mr. Knightley, whom no weather could keep entirely from +them,-- + +"Ah! Mr. Knightley, why do not you stay at home like poor Mr. Elton?" + +These days of confinement would have been, but for her private +perplexities, remarkably comfortable, as such seclusion exactly suited +her brother, whose feelings must always be of great importance to +his companions; and he had, besides, so thoroughly cleared off his +ill-humour at Randalls, that his amiableness never failed him during the +rest of his stay at Hartfield. He was always agreeable and obliging, +and speaking pleasantly of every body. But with all the hopes of +cheerfulness, and all the present comfort of delay, there was still such +an evil hanging over her in the hour of explanation with Harriet, as +made it impossible for Emma to be ever perfectly at ease. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Mr. and Mrs. John Knightley were not detained long at Hartfield. The +weather soon improved enough for those to move who must move; and Mr. +Woodhouse having, as usual, tried to persuade his daughter to stay +behind with all her children, was obliged to see the whole party +set off, and return to his lamentations over the destiny of poor +Isabella;--which poor Isabella, passing her life with those she doated +on, full of their merits, blind to their faults, and always innocently +busy, might have been a model of right feminine happiness. + +The evening of the very day on which they went brought a note from Mr. +Elton to Mr. Woodhouse, a long, civil, ceremonious note, to say, with +Mr. Elton's best compliments, "that he was proposing to leave Highbury +the following morning in his way to Bath; where, in compliance with +the pressing entreaties of some friends, he had engaged to spend a few +weeks, and very much regretted the impossibility he was under, from +various circumstances of weather and business, of taking a personal +leave of Mr. Woodhouse, of whose friendly civilities he should ever +retain a grateful sense--and had Mr. Woodhouse any commands, should be +happy to attend to them." + +Emma was most agreeably surprized.--Mr. Elton's absence just at this +time was the very thing to be desired. She admired him for contriving +it, though not able to give him much credit for the manner in which it +was announced. Resentment could not have been more plainly spoken than +in a civility to her father, from which she was so pointedly excluded. +She had not even a share in his opening compliments.--Her name was not +mentioned;--and there was so striking a change in all this, and such an +ill-judged solemnity of leave-taking in his graceful acknowledgments, as +she thought, at first, could not escape her father's suspicion. + +It did, however.--Her father was quite taken up with the surprize of so +sudden a journey, and his fears that Mr. Elton might never get safely to +the end of it, and saw nothing extraordinary in his language. It was a +very useful note, for it supplied them with fresh matter for thought +and conversation during the rest of their lonely evening. Mr. Woodhouse +talked over his alarms, and Emma was in spirits to persuade them away +with all her usual promptitude. + +She now resolved to keep Harriet no longer in the dark. She had reason +to believe her nearly recovered from her cold, and it was desirable that +she should have as much time as possible for getting the better of +her other complaint before the gentleman's return. She went to Mrs. +Goddard's accordingly the very next day, to undergo the necessary +penance of communication; and a severe one it was.--She had to destroy +all the hopes which she had been so industriously feeding--to appear in +the ungracious character of the one preferred--and acknowledge herself +grossly mistaken and mis-judging in all her ideas on one subject, all +her observations, all her convictions, all her prophecies for the last +six weeks. + +The confession completely renewed her first shame--and the sight of +Harriet's tears made her think that she should never be in charity with +herself again. + +Harriet bore the intelligence very well--blaming nobody--and in every +thing testifying such an ingenuousness of disposition and lowly opinion +of herself, as must appear with particular advantage at that moment to +her friend. + +Emma was in the humour to value simplicity and modesty to the utmost; +and all that was amiable, all that ought to be attaching, seemed on +Harriet's side, not her own. Harriet did not consider herself as having +any thing to complain of. The affection of such a man as Mr. Elton +would have been too great a distinction.--She never could have deserved +him--and nobody but so partial and kind a friend as Miss Woodhouse would +have thought it possible. + +Her tears fell abundantly--but her grief was so truly artless, that +no dignity could have made it more respectable in Emma's eyes--and +she listened to her and tried to console her with all her heart and +understanding--really for the time convinced that Harriet was the +superior creature of the two--and that to resemble her would be more for +her own welfare and happiness than all that genius or intelligence could +do. + +It was rather too late in the day to set about being simple-minded and +ignorant; but she left her with every previous resolution confirmed of +being humble and discreet, and repressing imagination all the rest of +her life. Her second duty now, inferior only to her father's claims, was +to promote Harriet's comfort, and endeavour to prove her own affection +in some better method than by match-making. She got her to Hartfield, +and shewed her the most unvarying kindness, striving to occupy and +amuse her, and by books and conversation, to drive Mr. Elton from her +thoughts. + +Time, she knew, must be allowed for this being thoroughly done; and +she could suppose herself but an indifferent judge of such matters in +general, and very inadequate to sympathise in an attachment to Mr. Elton +in particular; but it seemed to her reasonable that at Harriet's age, +and with the entire extinction of all hope, such a progress might be +made towards a state of composure by the time of Mr. Elton's return, as +to allow them all to meet again in the common routine of acquaintance, +without any danger of betraying sentiments or increasing them. + +Harriet did think him all perfection, and maintained the non-existence +of any body equal to him in person or goodness--and did, in truth, +prove herself more resolutely in love than Emma had foreseen; but yet +it appeared to her so natural, so inevitable to strive against an +inclination of that sort _unrequited_, that she could not comprehend its +continuing very long in equal force. + +If Mr. Elton, on his return, made his own indifference as evident and +indubitable as she could not doubt he would anxiously do, she could not +imagine Harriet's persisting to place her happiness in the sight or the +recollection of him. + +Their being fixed, so absolutely fixed, in the same place, was bad for +each, for all three. Not one of them had the power of removal, or of +effecting any material change of society. They must encounter each +other, and make the best of it. + +Harriet was farther unfortunate in the tone of her companions at Mrs. +Goddard's; Mr. Elton being the adoration of all the teachers and great +girls in the school; and it must be at Hartfield only that she could +have any chance of hearing him spoken of with cooling moderation or +repellent truth. Where the wound had been given, there must the cure be +found if anywhere; and Emma felt that, till she saw her in the way of +cure, there could be no true peace for herself. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +Mr. Frank Churchill did not come. When the time proposed drew near, Mrs. +Weston's fears were justified in the arrival of a letter of excuse. For +the present, he could not be spared, to his "very great mortification +and regret; but still he looked forward with the hope of coming to +Randalls at no distant period." + +Mrs. Weston was exceedingly disappointed--much more disappointed, in +fact, than her husband, though her dependence on seeing the young man +had been so much more sober: but a sanguine temper, though for ever +expecting more good than occurs, does not always pay for its hopes by +any proportionate depression. It soon flies over the present failure, +and begins to hope again. For half an hour Mr. Weston was surprized and +sorry; but then he began to perceive that Frank's coming two or three +months later would be a much better plan; better time of year; +better weather; and that he would be able, without any doubt, to stay +considerably longer with them than if he had come sooner. + +These feelings rapidly restored his comfort, while Mrs. Weston, of +a more apprehensive disposition, foresaw nothing but a repetition of +excuses and delays; and after all her concern for what her husband was +to suffer, suffered a great deal more herself. + +Emma was not at this time in a state of spirits to care really about Mr. +Frank Churchill's not coming, except as a disappointment at Randalls. +The acquaintance at present had no charm for her. She wanted, rather, to +be quiet, and out of temptation; but still, as it was desirable that she +should appear, in general, like her usual self, she took care to express +as much interest in the circumstance, and enter as warmly into Mr. +and Mrs. Weston's disappointment, as might naturally belong to their +friendship. + +She was the first to announce it to Mr. Knightley; and exclaimed quite +as much as was necessary, (or, being acting a part, perhaps rather +more,) at the conduct of the Churchills, in keeping him away. She then +proceeded to say a good deal more than she felt, of the advantage of +such an addition to their confined society in Surry; the pleasure of +looking at somebody new; the gala-day to Highbury entire, which the +sight of him would have made; and ending with reflections on the +Churchills again, found herself directly involved in a disagreement +with Mr. Knightley; and, to her great amusement, perceived that she was +taking the other side of the question from her real opinion, and making +use of Mrs. Weston's arguments against herself. + +"The Churchills are very likely in fault," said Mr. Knightley, coolly; +"but I dare say he might come if he would." + +"I do not know why you should say so. He wishes exceedingly to come; but +his uncle and aunt will not spare him." + +"I cannot believe that he has not the power of coming, if he made a +point of it. It is too unlikely, for me to believe it without proof." + +"How odd you are! What has Mr. Frank Churchill done, to make you suppose +him such an unnatural creature?" + +"I am not supposing him at all an unnatural creature, in suspecting that +he may have learnt to be above his connexions, and to care very little +for any thing but his own pleasure, from living with those who have +always set him the example of it. It is a great deal more natural than +one could wish, that a young man, brought up by those who are proud, +luxurious, and selfish, should be proud, luxurious, and selfish too. If +Frank Churchill had wanted to see his father, he would have contrived it +between September and January. A man at his age--what is he?--three or +four-and-twenty--cannot be without the means of doing as much as that. +It is impossible." + +"That's easily said, and easily felt by you, who have always been your +own master. You are the worst judge in the world, Mr. Knightley, of the +difficulties of dependence. You do not know what it is to have tempers +to manage." + +"It is not to be conceived that a man of three or four-and-twenty +should not have liberty of mind or limb to that amount. He cannot want +money--he cannot want leisure. We know, on the contrary, that he has so +much of both, that he is glad to get rid of them at the idlest haunts in +the kingdom. We hear of him for ever at some watering-place or other. A +little while ago, he was at Weymouth. This proves that he can leave the +Churchills." + +"Yes, sometimes he can." + +"And those times are whenever he thinks it worth his while; whenever +there is any temptation of pleasure." + +"It is very unfair to judge of any body's conduct, without an intimate +knowledge of their situation. Nobody, who has not been in the interior +of a family, can say what the difficulties of any individual of that +family may be. We ought to be acquainted with Enscombe, and with Mrs. +Churchill's temper, before we pretend to decide upon what her nephew +can do. He may, at times, be able to do a great deal more than he can at +others." + +"There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do, if he chuses, and +that is, his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and +resolution. It is Frank Churchill's duty to pay this attention to his +father. He knows it to be so, by his promises and messages; but if he +wished to do it, it might be done. A man who felt rightly would say at +once, simply and resolutely, to Mrs. Churchill--'Every sacrifice of +mere pleasure you will always find me ready to make to your convenience; +but I must go and see my father immediately. I know he would be hurt by +my failing in such a mark of respect to him on the present occasion. +I shall, therefore, set off to-morrow.'--If he would say so to her +at once, in the tone of decision becoming a man, there would be no +opposition made to his going." + +"No," said Emma, laughing; "but perhaps there might be some made to his +coming back again. Such language for a young man entirely dependent, to +use!--Nobody but you, Mr. Knightley, would imagine it possible. But you +have not an idea of what is requisite in situations directly opposite to +your own. Mr. Frank Churchill to be making such a speech as that to +the uncle and aunt, who have brought him up, and are to provide for +him!--Standing up in the middle of the room, I suppose, and speaking as +loud as he could!--How can you imagine such conduct practicable?" + +"Depend upon it, Emma, a sensible man would find no difficulty in it. He +would feel himself in the right; and the declaration--made, of course, +as a man of sense would make it, in a proper manner--would do him more +good, raise him higher, fix his interest stronger with the people he +depended on, than all that a line of shifts and expedients can ever do. +Respect would be added to affection. They would feel that they could +trust him; that the nephew who had done rightly by his father, would do +rightly by them; for they know, as well as he does, as well as all the +world must know, that he ought to pay this visit to his father; and +while meanly exerting their power to delay it, are in their hearts not +thinking the better of him for submitting to their whims. Respect for +right conduct is felt by every body. If he would act in this sort of +manner, on principle, consistently, regularly, their little minds would +bend to his." + +"I rather doubt that. You are very fond of bending little minds; but +where little minds belong to rich people in authority, I think they have +a knack of swelling out, till they are quite as unmanageable as great +ones. I can imagine, that if you, as you are, Mr. Knightley, were to be +transported and placed all at once in Mr. Frank Churchill's situation, +you would be able to say and do just what you have been recommending for +him; and it might have a very good effect. The Churchills might not have +a word to say in return; but then, you would have no habits of early +obedience and long observance to break through. To him who has, it might +not be so easy to burst forth at once into perfect independence, and set +all their claims on his gratitude and regard at nought. He may have as +strong a sense of what would be right, as you can have, without being so +equal, under particular circumstances, to act up to it." + +"Then it would not be so strong a sense. If it failed to produce equal +exertion, it could not be an equal conviction." + +"Oh, the difference of situation and habit! I wish you would try to +understand what an amiable young man may be likely to feel in directly +opposing those, whom as child and boy he has been looking up to all his +life." + +"Our amiable young man is a very weak young man, if this be the first +occasion of his carrying through a resolution to do right against the +will of others. It ought to have been a habit with him by this time, of +following his duty, instead of consulting expediency. I can allow for +the fears of the child, but not of the man. As he became rational, he +ought to have roused himself and shaken off all that was unworthy in +their authority. He ought to have opposed the first attempt on their +side to make him slight his father. Had he begun as he ought, there +would have been no difficulty now." + +"We shall never agree about him," cried Emma; "but that is nothing +extraordinary. I have not the least idea of his being a weak young man: +I feel sure that he is not. Mr. Weston would not be blind to folly, +though in his own son; but he is very likely to have a more yielding, +complying, mild disposition than would suit your notions of man's +perfection. I dare say he has; and though it may cut him off from some +advantages, it will secure him many others." + +"Yes; all the advantages of sitting still when he ought to move, and +of leading a life of mere idle pleasure, and fancying himself extremely +expert in finding excuses for it. He can sit down and write a fine +flourishing letter, full of professions and falsehoods, and persuade +himself that he has hit upon the very best method in the world of +preserving peace at home and preventing his father's having any right to +complain. His letters disgust me." + +"Your feelings are singular. They seem to satisfy every body else." + +"I suspect they do not satisfy Mrs. Weston. They hardly can satisfy +a woman of her good sense and quick feelings: standing in a mother's +place, but without a mother's affection to blind her. It is on her +account that attention to Randalls is doubly due, and she must doubly +feel the omission. Had she been a person of consequence herself, he +would have come I dare say; and it would not have signified whether +he did or no. Can you think your friend behindhand in these sort of +considerations? Do you suppose she does not often say all this to +herself? No, Emma, your amiable young man can be amiable only in French, +not in English. He may be very 'amiable,' have very good manners, and be +very agreeable; but he can have no English delicacy towards the feelings +of other people: nothing really amiable about him." + +"You seem determined to think ill of him." + +"Me!--not at all," replied Mr. Knightley, rather displeased; "I do not +want to think ill of him. I should be as ready to acknowledge his merits +as any other man; but I hear of none, except what are merely personal; +that he is well-grown and good-looking, with smooth, plausible manners." + +"Well, if he have nothing else to recommend him, he will be a treasure +at Highbury. We do not often look upon fine young men, well-bred and +agreeable. We must not be nice and ask for all the virtues into the +bargain. Cannot you imagine, Mr. Knightley, what a _sensation_ his +coming will produce? There will be but one subject throughout the +parishes of Donwell and Highbury; but one interest--one object of +curiosity; it will be all Mr. Frank Churchill; we shall think and speak +of nobody else." + +"You will excuse my being so much over-powered. If I find him +conversable, I shall be glad of his acquaintance; but if he is only a +chattering coxcomb, he will not occupy much of my time or thoughts." + +"My idea of him is, that he can adapt his conversation to the taste of +every body, and has the power as well as the wish of being universally +agreeable. To you, he will talk of farming; to me, of drawing or music; +and so on to every body, having that general information on all subjects +which will enable him to follow the lead, or take the lead, just as +propriety may require, and to speak extremely well on each; that is my +idea of him." + +"And mine," said Mr. Knightley warmly, "is, that if he turn out any +thing like it, he will be the most insufferable fellow breathing! What! +at three-and-twenty to be the king of his company--the great man--the +practised politician, who is to read every body's character, and make +every body's talents conduce to the display of his own superiority; to +be dispensing his flatteries around, that he may make all appear like +fools compared with himself! My dear Emma, your own good sense could not +endure such a puppy when it came to the point." + +"I will say no more about him," cried Emma, "you turn every thing to +evil. We are both prejudiced; you against, I for him; and we have no +chance of agreeing till he is really here." + +"Prejudiced! I am not prejudiced." + +"But I am very much, and without being at all ashamed of it. My love for +Mr. and Mrs. Weston gives me a decided prejudice in his favour." + +"He is a person I never think of from one month's end to another," said +Mr. Knightley, with a degree of vexation, which made Emma immediately +talk of something else, though she could not comprehend why he should be +angry. + +To take a dislike to a young man, only because he appeared to be of a +different disposition from himself, was unworthy the real liberality of +mind which she was always used to acknowledge in him; for with all the +high opinion of himself, which she had often laid to his charge, she had +never before for a moment supposed it could make him unjust to the merit +of another. + + + + +VOLUME II + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Emma and Harriet had been walking together one morning, and, in Emma's +opinion, had been talking enough of Mr. Elton for that day. She could +not think that Harriet's solace or her own sins required more; and +she was therefore industriously getting rid of the subject as they +returned;--but it burst out again when she thought she had succeeded, +and after speaking some time of what the poor must suffer in winter, and +receiving no other answer than a very plaintive--"Mr. Elton is so good +to the poor!" she found something else must be done. + +They were just approaching the house where lived Mrs. and Miss Bates. +She determined to call upon them and seek safety in numbers. There was +always sufficient reason for such an attention; Mrs. and Miss Bates +loved to be called on, and she knew she was considered by the very few +who presumed ever to see imperfection in her, as rather negligent in +that respect, and as not contributing what she ought to the stock of +their scanty comforts. + +She had had many a hint from Mr. Knightley and some from her own heart, +as to her deficiency--but none were equal to counteract the persuasion +of its being very disagreeable,--a waste of time--tiresome women--and +all the horror of being in danger of falling in with the second-rate and +third-rate of Highbury, who were calling on them for ever, and therefore +she seldom went near them. But now she made the sudden resolution of not +passing their door without going in--observing, as she proposed it to +Harriet, that, as well as she could calculate, they were just now quite +safe from any letter from Jane Fairfax. + +The house belonged to people in business. Mrs. and Miss Bates occupied +the drawing-room floor; and there, in the very moderate-sized apartment, +which was every thing to them, the visitors were most cordially and even +gratefully welcomed; the quiet neat old lady, who with her knitting was +seated in the warmest corner, wanting even to give up her place to +Miss Woodhouse, and her more active, talking daughter, almost ready +to overpower them with care and kindness, thanks for their visit, +solicitude for their shoes, anxious inquiries after Mr. Woodhouse's +health, cheerful communications about her mother's, and sweet-cake from +the beaufet--"Mrs. Cole had just been there, just called in for ten +minutes, and had been so good as to sit an hour with them, and _she_ had +taken a piece of cake and been so kind as to say she liked it very much; +and, therefore, she hoped Miss Woodhouse and Miss Smith would do them +the favour to eat a piece too." + +The mention of the Coles was sure to be followed by that of Mr. Elton. +There was intimacy between them, and Mr. Cole had heard from Mr. Elton +since his going away. Emma knew what was coming; they must have the +letter over again, and settle how long he had been gone, and how much +he was engaged in company, and what a favourite he was wherever he went, +and how full the Master of the Ceremonies' ball had been; and she went +through it very well, with all the interest and all the commendation +that could be requisite, and always putting forward to prevent Harriet's +being obliged to say a word. + +This she had been prepared for when she entered the house; but meant, +having once talked him handsomely over, to be no farther incommoded by +any troublesome topic, and to wander at large amongst all the Mistresses +and Misses of Highbury, and their card-parties. She had not been +prepared to have Jane Fairfax succeed Mr. Elton; but he was actually +hurried off by Miss Bates, she jumped away from him at last abruptly to +the Coles, to usher in a letter from her niece. + +"Oh! yes--Mr. Elton, I understand--certainly as to dancing--Mrs. Cole +was telling me that dancing at the rooms at Bath was--Mrs. Cole was so +kind as to sit some time with us, talking of Jane; for as soon as +she came in, she began inquiring after her, Jane is so very great a +favourite there. Whenever she is with us, Mrs. Cole does not know how to +shew her kindness enough; and I must say that Jane deserves it as much +as any body can. And so she began inquiring after her directly, saying, +'I know you cannot have heard from Jane lately, because it is not her +time for writing;' and when I immediately said, 'But indeed we have, we +had a letter this very morning,' I do not know that I ever saw any body +more surprized. 'Have you, upon your honour?' said she; 'well, that is +quite unexpected. Do let me hear what she says.'" + +Emma's politeness was at hand directly, to say, with smiling interest-- + +"Have you heard from Miss Fairfax so lately? I am extremely happy. I +hope she is well?" + +"Thank you. You are so kind!" replied the happily deceived aunt, while +eagerly hunting for the letter.--"Oh! here it is. I was sure it could +not be far off; but I had put my huswife upon it, you see, without being +aware, and so it was quite hid, but I had it in my hand so very lately +that I was almost sure it must be on the table. I was reading it to Mrs. +Cole, and since she went away, I was reading it again to my mother, for +it is such a pleasure to her--a letter from Jane--that she can never +hear it often enough; so I knew it could not be far off, and here it is, +only just under my huswife--and since you are so kind as to wish to hear +what she says;--but, first of all, I really must, in justice to +Jane, apologise for her writing so short a letter--only two pages you +see--hardly two--and in general she fills the whole paper and crosses +half. My mother often wonders that I can make it out so well. She often +says, when the letter is first opened, 'Well, Hetty, now I think +you will be put to it to make out all that checker-work'--don't you, +ma'am?--And then I tell her, I am sure she would contrive to make it out +herself, if she had nobody to do it for her--every word of it--I am sure +she would pore over it till she had made out every word. And, indeed, +though my mother's eyes are not so good as they were, she can see +amazingly well still, thank God! with the help of spectacles. It is such +a blessing! My mother's are really very good indeed. Jane often says, +when she is here, 'I am sure, grandmama, you must have had very strong +eyes to see as you do--and so much fine work as you have done too!--I +only wish my eyes may last me as well.'" + +All this spoken extremely fast obliged Miss Bates to stop for breath; +and Emma said something very civil about the excellence of Miss +Fairfax's handwriting. + +"You are extremely kind," replied Miss Bates, highly gratified; "you who +are such a judge, and write so beautifully yourself. I am sure there is +nobody's praise that could give us so much pleasure as Miss Woodhouse's. +My mother does not hear; she is a little deaf you know. Ma'am," +addressing her, "do you hear what Miss Woodhouse is so obliging to say +about Jane's handwriting?" + +And Emma had the advantage of hearing her own silly compliment repeated +twice over before the good old lady could comprehend it. She was +pondering, in the meanwhile, upon the possibility, without seeming very +rude, of making her escape from Jane Fairfax's letter, and had almost +resolved on hurrying away directly under some slight excuse, when Miss +Bates turned to her again and seized her attention. + +"My mother's deafness is very trifling you see--just nothing at all. By +only raising my voice, and saying any thing two or three times over, +she is sure to hear; but then she is used to my voice. But it is very +remarkable that she should always hear Jane better than she does me. +Jane speaks so distinct! However, she will not find her grandmama at all +deafer than she was two years ago; which is saying a great deal at my +mother's time of life--and it really is full two years, you know, since +she was here. We never were so long without seeing her before, and as +I was telling Mrs. Cole, we shall hardly know how to make enough of her +now." + +"Are you expecting Miss Fairfax here soon?" + +"Oh yes; next week." + +"Indeed!--that must be a very great pleasure." + +"Thank you. You are very kind. Yes, next week. Every body is so +surprized; and every body says the same obliging things. I am sure she +will be as happy to see her friends at Highbury, as they can be to see +her. Yes, Friday or Saturday; she cannot say which, because Colonel +Campbell will be wanting the carriage himself one of those days. So very +good of them to send her the whole way! But they always do, you know. Oh +yes, Friday or Saturday next. That is what she writes about. That is +the reason of her writing out of rule, as we call it; for, in the +common course, we should not have heard from her before next Tuesday or +Wednesday." + +"Yes, so I imagined. I was afraid there could be little chance of my +hearing any thing of Miss Fairfax to-day." + +"So obliging of you! No, we should not have heard, if it had not been +for this particular circumstance, of her being to come here so soon. My +mother is so delighted!--for she is to be three months with us at +least. Three months, she says so, positively, as I am going to have the +pleasure of reading to you. The case is, you see, that the Campbells are +going to Ireland. Mrs. Dixon has persuaded her father and mother to come +over and see her directly. They had not intended to go over till the +summer, but she is so impatient to see them again--for till she married, +last October, she was never away from them so much as a week, which must +make it very strange to be in different kingdoms, I was going to say, +but however different countries, and so she wrote a very urgent letter +to her mother--or her father, I declare I do not know which it was, but +we shall see presently in Jane's letter--wrote in Mr. Dixon's name as +well as her own, to press their coming over directly, and they would +give them the meeting in Dublin, and take them back to their country +seat, Baly-craig, a beautiful place, I fancy. Jane has heard a great +deal of its beauty; from Mr. Dixon, I mean--I do not know that she ever +heard about it from any body else; but it was very natural, you know, +that he should like to speak of his own place while he was paying his +addresses--and as Jane used to be very often walking out with them--for +Colonel and Mrs. Campbell were very particular about their daughter's +not walking out often with only Mr. Dixon, for which I do not at all +blame them; of course she heard every thing he might be telling Miss +Campbell about his own home in Ireland; and I think she wrote us word +that he had shewn them some drawings of the place, views that he had +taken himself. He is a most amiable, charming young man, I believe. Jane +was quite longing to go to Ireland, from his account of things." + +At this moment, an ingenious and animating suspicion entering Emma's +brain with regard to Jane Fairfax, this charming Mr. Dixon, and the +not going to Ireland, she said, with the insidious design of farther +discovery, + +"You must feel it very fortunate that Miss Fairfax should be allowed to +come to you at such a time. Considering the very particular friendship +between her and Mrs. Dixon, you could hardly have expected her to be +excused from accompanying Colonel and Mrs. Campbell." + +"Very true, very true, indeed. The very thing that we have always been +rather afraid of; for we should not have liked to have her at such a +distance from us, for months together--not able to come if any thing was +to happen. But you see, every thing turns out for the best. They want +her (Mr. and Mrs. Dixon) excessively to come over with Colonel and Mrs. +Campbell; quite depend upon it; nothing can be more kind or pressing +than their _joint_ invitation, Jane says, as you will hear presently; +Mr. Dixon does not seem in the least backward in any attention. He is +a most charming young man. Ever since the service he rendered Jane at +Weymouth, when they were out in that party on the water, and she, by the +sudden whirling round of something or other among the sails, would have +been dashed into the sea at once, and actually was all but gone, if he +had not, with the greatest presence of mind, caught hold of her habit-- +(I can never think of it without trembling!)--But ever since we had the +history of that day, I have been so fond of Mr. Dixon!" + +"But, in spite of all her friends' urgency, and her own wish of seeing +Ireland, Miss Fairfax prefers devoting the time to you and Mrs. Bates?" + +"Yes--entirely her own doing, entirely her own choice; and Colonel +and Mrs. Campbell think she does quite right, just what they should +recommend; and indeed they particularly _wish_ her to try her native +air, as she has not been quite so well as usual lately." + +"I am concerned to hear of it. I think they judge wisely. But Mrs. +Dixon must be very much disappointed. Mrs. Dixon, I understand, has +no remarkable degree of personal beauty; is not, by any means, to be +compared with Miss Fairfax." + +"Oh! no. You are very obliging to say such things--but certainly not. +There is no comparison between them. Miss Campbell always was absolutely +plain--but extremely elegant and amiable." + +"Yes, that of course." + +"Jane caught a bad cold, poor thing! so long ago as the 7th of November, +(as I am going to read to you,) and has never been well since. A long +time, is not it, for a cold to hang upon her? She never mentioned +it before, because she would not alarm us. Just like her! so +considerate!--But however, she is so far from well, that her kind +friends the Campbells think she had better come home, and try an air +that always agrees with her; and they have no doubt that three or four +months at Highbury will entirely cure her--and it is certainly a great +deal better that she should come here, than go to Ireland, if she is +unwell. Nobody could nurse her, as we should do." + +"It appears to me the most desirable arrangement in the world." + +"And so she is to come to us next Friday or Saturday, and the Campbells +leave town in their way to Holyhead the Monday following--as you will +find from Jane's letter. So sudden!--You may guess, dear Miss Woodhouse, +what a flurry it has thrown me in! If it was not for the drawback of +her illness--but I am afraid we must expect to see her grown thin, and +looking very poorly. I must tell you what an unlucky thing happened to +me, as to that. I always make a point of reading Jane's letters through +to myself first, before I read them aloud to my mother, you know, for +fear of there being any thing in them to distress her. Jane desired me +to do it, so I always do: and so I began to-day with my usual caution; +but no sooner did I come to the mention of her being unwell, than I +burst out, quite frightened, with 'Bless me! poor Jane is ill!'--which +my mother, being on the watch, heard distinctly, and was sadly alarmed +at. However, when I read on, I found it was not near so bad as I had +fancied at first; and I make so light of it now to her, that she does +not think much about it. But I cannot imagine how I could be so off my +guard. If Jane does not get well soon, we will call in Mr. Perry. The +expense shall not be thought of; and though he is so liberal, and so +fond of Jane that I dare say he would not mean to charge any thing for +attendance, we could not suffer it to be so, you know. He has a wife and +family to maintain, and is not to be giving away his time. Well, now I +have just given you a hint of what Jane writes about, we will turn to +her letter, and I am sure she tells her own story a great deal better +than I can tell it for her." + +"I am afraid we must be running away," said Emma, glancing at Harriet, +and beginning to rise--"My father will be expecting us. I had no +intention, I thought I had no power of staying more than five minutes, +when I first entered the house. I merely called, because I would not +pass the door without inquiring after Mrs. Bates; but I have been so +pleasantly detained! Now, however, we must wish you and Mrs. Bates good +morning." + +And not all that could be urged to detain her succeeded. She regained +the street--happy in this, that though much had been forced on her +against her will, though she had in fact heard the whole substance of +Jane Fairfax's letter, she had been able to escape the letter itself. + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Jane Fairfax was an orphan, the only child of Mrs. Bates's youngest +daughter. + +The marriage of Lieut. Fairfax of the ----regiment of infantry, +and Miss Jane Bates, had had its day of fame and pleasure, hope +and interest; but nothing now remained of it, save the melancholy +remembrance of him dying in action abroad--of his widow sinking under +consumption and grief soon afterwards--and this girl. + +By birth she belonged to Highbury: and when at three years old, on +losing her mother, she became the property, the charge, the consolation, +the foundling of her grandmother and aunt, there had seemed every +probability of her being permanently fixed there; of her being taught +only what very limited means could command, and growing up with no +advantages of connexion or improvement, to be engrafted on what +nature had given her in a pleasing person, good understanding, and +warm-hearted, well-meaning relations. + +But the compassionate feelings of a friend of her father gave a change +to her destiny. This was Colonel Campbell, who had very highly regarded +Fairfax, as an excellent officer and most deserving young man; and +farther, had been indebted to him for such attentions, during a severe +camp-fever, as he believed had saved his life. These were claims which +he did not learn to overlook, though some years passed away from the +death of poor Fairfax, before his own return to England put any thing in +his power. When he did return, he sought out the child and took notice +of her. He was a married man, with only one living child, a girl, about +Jane's age: and Jane became their guest, paying them long visits and +growing a favourite with all; and before she was nine years old, his +daughter's great fondness for her, and his own wish of being a real +friend, united to produce an offer from Colonel Campbell of undertaking +the whole charge of her education. It was accepted; and from that period +Jane had belonged to Colonel Campbell's family, and had lived with them +entirely, only visiting her grandmother from time to time. + +The plan was that she should be brought up for educating others; the +very few hundred pounds which she inherited from her father making +independence impossible. To provide for her otherwise was out of Colonel +Campbell's power; for though his income, by pay and appointments, was +handsome, his fortune was moderate and must be all his daughter's; +but, by giving her an education, he hoped to be supplying the means of +respectable subsistence hereafter. + +Such was Jane Fairfax's history. She had fallen into good hands, known +nothing but kindness from the Campbells, and been given an excellent +education. Living constantly with right-minded and well-informed people, +her heart and understanding had received every advantage of discipline +and culture; and Colonel Campbell's residence being in London, every +lighter talent had been done full justice to, by the attendance of +first-rate masters. Her disposition and abilities were equally worthy +of all that friendship could do; and at eighteen or nineteen she was, +as far as such an early age can be qualified for the care of children, +fully competent to the office of instruction herself; but she was too +much beloved to be parted with. Neither father nor mother could promote, +and the daughter could not endure it. The evil day was put off. It was +easy to decide that she was still too young; and Jane remained with +them, sharing, as another daughter, in all the rational pleasures of +an elegant society, and a judicious mixture of home and amusement, with +only the drawback of the future, the sobering suggestions of her own +good understanding to remind her that all this might soon be over. + +The affection of the whole family, the warm attachment of Miss +Campbell in particular, was the more honourable to each party from +the circumstance of Jane's decided superiority both in beauty and +acquirements. That nature had given it in feature could not be unseen +by the young woman, nor could her higher powers of mind be unfelt by the +parents. They continued together with unabated regard however, till the +marriage of Miss Campbell, who by that chance, that luck which so often +defies anticipation in matrimonial affairs, giving attraction to what is +moderate rather than to what is superior, engaged the affections of +Mr. Dixon, a young man, rich and agreeable, almost as soon as they were +acquainted; and was eligibly and happily settled, while Jane Fairfax had +yet her bread to earn. + +This event had very lately taken place; too lately for any thing to be +yet attempted by her less fortunate friend towards entering on her path +of duty; though she had now reached the age which her own judgment had +fixed on for beginning. She had long resolved that one-and-twenty +should be the period. With the fortitude of a devoted novitiate, she had +resolved at one-and-twenty to complete the sacrifice, and retire from +all the pleasures of life, of rational intercourse, equal society, peace +and hope, to penance and mortification for ever. + +The good sense of Colonel and Mrs. Campbell could not oppose such +a resolution, though their feelings did. As long as they lived, no +exertions would be necessary, their home might be hers for ever; and for +their own comfort they would have retained her wholly; but this would +be selfishness:--what must be at last, had better be soon. Perhaps they +began to feel it might have been kinder and wiser to have resisted the +temptation of any delay, and spared her from a taste of such enjoyments +of ease and leisure as must now be relinquished. Still, however, +affection was glad to catch at any reasonable excuse for not hurrying +on the wretched moment. She had never been quite well since the time of +their daughter's marriage; and till she should have completely recovered +her usual strength, they must forbid her engaging in duties, which, so +far from being compatible with a weakened frame and varying spirits, +seemed, under the most favourable circumstances, to require something +more than human perfection of body and mind to be discharged with +tolerable comfort. + +With regard to her not accompanying them to Ireland, her account to her +aunt contained nothing but truth, though there might be some truths +not told. It was her own choice to give the time of their absence to +Highbury; to spend, perhaps, her last months of perfect liberty with +those kind relations to whom she was so very dear: and the Campbells, +whatever might be their motive or motives, whether single, or double, or +treble, gave the arrangement their ready sanction, and said, that they +depended more on a few months spent in her native air, for the recovery +of her health, than on any thing else. Certain it was that she was to +come; and that Highbury, instead of welcoming that perfect novelty which +had been so long promised it--Mr. Frank Churchill--must put up for the +present with Jane Fairfax, who could bring only the freshness of a two +years' absence. + +Emma was sorry;--to have to pay civilities to a person she did not like +through three long months!--to be always doing more than she wished, +and less than she ought! Why she did not like Jane Fairfax might be a +difficult question to answer; Mr. Knightley had once told her it was +because she saw in her the really accomplished young woman, which she +wanted to be thought herself; and though the accusation had been eagerly +refuted at the time, there were moments of self-examination in which +her conscience could not quite acquit her. But "she could never get +acquainted with her: she did not know how it was, but there was such +coldness and reserve--such apparent indifference whether she pleased or +not--and then, her aunt was such an eternal talker!--and she was made +such a fuss with by every body!--and it had been always imagined that +they were to be so intimate--because their ages were the same, every +body had supposed they must be so fond of each other." These were her +reasons--she had no better. + +It was a dislike so little just--every imputed fault was so magnified +by fancy, that she never saw Jane Fairfax the first time after any +considerable absence, without feeling that she had injured her; and +now, when the due visit was paid, on her arrival, after a two years' +interval, she was particularly struck with the very appearance and +manners, which for those two whole years she had been depreciating. Jane +Fairfax was very elegant, remarkably elegant; and she had herself the +highest value for elegance. Her height was pretty, just such as almost +every body would think tall, and nobody could think very tall; her +figure particularly graceful; her size a most becoming medium, between +fat and thin, though a slight appearance of ill-health seemed to point +out the likeliest evil of the two. Emma could not but feel all this; and +then, her face--her features--there was more beauty in them altogether +than she had remembered; it was not regular, but it was very pleasing +beauty. Her eyes, a deep grey, with dark eye-lashes and eyebrows, had +never been denied their praise; but the skin, which she had been used to +cavil at, as wanting colour, had a clearness and delicacy which really +needed no fuller bloom. It was a style of beauty, of which elegance was +the reigning character, and as such, she must, in honour, by all her +principles, admire it:--elegance, which, whether of person or of mind, +she saw so little in Highbury. There, not to be vulgar, was distinction, +and merit. + +In short, she sat, during the first visit, looking at Jane Fairfax with +twofold complacency; the sense of pleasure and the sense of rendering +justice, and was determining that she would dislike her no longer. When +she took in her history, indeed, her situation, as well as her beauty; +when she considered what all this elegance was destined to, what she was +going to sink from, how she was going to live, it seemed impossible +to feel any thing but compassion and respect; especially, if to every +well-known particular entitling her to interest, were added the highly +probable circumstance of an attachment to Mr. Dixon, which she had +so naturally started to herself. In that case, nothing could be more +pitiable or more honourable than the sacrifices she had resolved on. +Emma was very willing now to acquit her of having seduced Mr. Dixon's +actions from his wife, or of any thing mischievous which her imagination +had suggested at first. If it were love, it might be simple, single, +successless love on her side alone. She might have been unconsciously +sucking in the sad poison, while a sharer of his conversation with her +friend; and from the best, the purest of motives, might now be +denying herself this visit to Ireland, and resolving to divide herself +effectually from him and his connexions by soon beginning her career of +laborious duty. + +Upon the whole, Emma left her with such softened, charitable feelings, +as made her look around in walking home, and lament that Highbury +afforded no young man worthy of giving her independence; nobody that she +could wish to scheme about for her. + +These were charming feelings--but not lasting. Before she had committed +herself by any public profession of eternal friendship for Jane Fairfax, +or done more towards a recantation of past prejudices and errors, than +saying to Mr. Knightley, "She certainly is handsome; she is better than +handsome!" Jane had spent an evening at Hartfield with her grandmother +and aunt, and every thing was relapsing much into its usual state. +Former provocations reappeared. The aunt was as tiresome as ever; more +tiresome, because anxiety for her health was now added to admiration +of her powers; and they had to listen to the description of exactly how +little bread and butter she ate for breakfast, and how small a slice +of mutton for dinner, as well as to see exhibitions of new caps and new +workbags for her mother and herself; and Jane's offences rose again. +They had music; Emma was obliged to play; and the thanks and praise +which necessarily followed appeared to her an affectation of candour, an +air of greatness, meaning only to shew off in higher style her own very +superior performance. She was, besides, which was the worst of all, so +cold, so cautious! There was no getting at her real opinion. Wrapt up in +a cloak of politeness, she seemed determined to hazard nothing. She was +disgustingly, was suspiciously reserved. + +If any thing could be more, where all was most, she was more reserved on +the subject of Weymouth and the Dixons than any thing. She seemed bent +on giving no real insight into Mr. Dixon's character, or her own value +for his company, or opinion of the suitableness of the match. It was all +general approbation and smoothness; nothing delineated or distinguished. +It did her no service however. Her caution was thrown away. Emma saw +its artifice, and returned to her first surmises. There probably _was_ +something more to conceal than her own preference; Mr. Dixon, perhaps, +had been very near changing one friend for the other, or been fixed only +to Miss Campbell, for the sake of the future twelve thousand pounds. + +The like reserve prevailed on other topics. She and Mr. Frank Churchill +had been at Weymouth at the same time. It was known that they were a +little acquainted; but not a syllable of real information could Emma +procure as to what he truly was. "Was he handsome?"--"She believed +he was reckoned a very fine young man." "Was he agreeable?"--"He was +generally thought so." "Did he appear a sensible young man; a young +man of information?"--"At a watering-place, or in a common London +acquaintance, it was difficult to decide on such points. Manners were +all that could be safely judged of, under a much longer knowledge than +they had yet had of Mr. Churchill. She believed every body found his +manners pleasing." Emma could not forgive her. + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Emma could not forgive her;--but as neither provocation nor resentment +were discerned by Mr. Knightley, who had been of the party, and had +seen only proper attention and pleasing behaviour on each side, he was +expressing the next morning, being at Hartfield again on business with +Mr. Woodhouse, his approbation of the whole; not so openly as he might +have done had her father been out of the room, but speaking plain enough +to be very intelligible to Emma. He had been used to think her unjust to +Jane, and had now great pleasure in marking an improvement. + +"A very pleasant evening," he began, as soon as Mr. Woodhouse had been +talked into what was necessary, told that he understood, and the papers +swept away;--"particularly pleasant. You and Miss Fairfax gave us some +very good music. I do not know a more luxurious state, sir, than sitting +at one's ease to be entertained a whole evening by two such young women; +sometimes with music and sometimes with conversation. I am sure Miss +Fairfax must have found the evening pleasant, Emma. You left nothing +undone. I was glad you made her play so much, for having no instrument +at her grandmother's, it must have been a real indulgence." + +"I am happy you approved," said Emma, smiling; "but I hope I am not +often deficient in what is due to guests at Hartfield." + +"No, my dear," said her father instantly; "_that_ I am sure you are not. +There is nobody half so attentive and civil as you are. If any thing, +you are too attentive. The muffin last night--if it had been handed +round once, I think it would have been enough." + +"No," said Mr. Knightley, nearly at the same time; "you are not often +deficient; not often deficient either in manner or comprehension. I +think you understand me, therefore." + +An arch look expressed--"I understand you well enough;" but she said +only, "Miss Fairfax is reserved." + +"I always told you she was--a little; but you will soon overcome all +that part of her reserve which ought to be overcome, all that has its +foundation in diffidence. What arises from discretion must be honoured." + +"You think her diffident. I do not see it." + +"My dear Emma," said he, moving from his chair into one close by her, +"you are not going to tell me, I hope, that you had not a pleasant +evening." + +"Oh! no; I was pleased with my own perseverance in asking questions; and +amused to think how little information I obtained." + +"I am disappointed," was his only answer. + +"I hope every body had a pleasant evening," said Mr. Woodhouse, in his +quiet way. "I had. Once, I felt the fire rather too much; but then I +moved back my chair a little, a very little, and it did not disturb me. +Miss Bates was very chatty and good-humoured, as she always is, though +she speaks rather too quick. However, she is very agreeable, and Mrs. +Bates too, in a different way. I like old friends; and Miss Jane +Fairfax is a very pretty sort of young lady, a very pretty and a +very well-behaved young lady indeed. She must have found the evening +agreeable, Mr. Knightley, because she had Emma." + +"True, sir; and Emma, because she had Miss Fairfax." + +Emma saw his anxiety, and wishing to appease it, at least for the +present, said, and with a sincerity which no one could question-- + +"She is a sort of elegant creature that one cannot keep one's eyes from. +I am always watching her to admire; and I do pity her from my heart." + +Mr. Knightley looked as if he were more gratified than he cared to +express; and before he could make any reply, Mr. Woodhouse, whose +thoughts were on the Bates's, said-- + +"It is a great pity that their circumstances should be so confined! a +great pity indeed! and I have often wished--but it is so little one can +venture to do--small, trifling presents, of any thing uncommon--Now we +have killed a porker, and Emma thinks of sending them a loin or a leg; +it is very small and delicate--Hartfield pork is not like any other +pork--but still it is pork--and, my dear Emma, unless one could be sure +of their making it into steaks, nicely fried, as ours are fried, without +the smallest grease, and not roast it, for no stomach can bear roast +pork--I think we had better send the leg--do not you think so, my dear?" + +"My dear papa, I sent the whole hind-quarter. I knew you would wish it. +There will be the leg to be salted, you know, which is so very nice, and +the loin to be dressed directly in any manner they like." + +"That's right, my dear, very right. I had not thought of it before, but +that is the best way. They must not over-salt the leg; and then, if it +is not over-salted, and if it is very thoroughly boiled, just as Serle +boils ours, and eaten very moderately of, with a boiled turnip, and a +little carrot or parsnip, I do not consider it unwholesome." + +"Emma," said Mr. Knightley presently, "I have a piece of news for you. +You like news--and I heard an article in my way hither that I think will +interest you." + +"News! Oh! yes, I always like news. What is it?--why do you smile +so?--where did you hear it?--at Randalls?" + +He had time only to say, + +"No, not at Randalls; I have not been near Randalls," when the door was +thrown open, and Miss Bates and Miss Fairfax walked into the room. Full +of thanks, and full of news, Miss Bates knew not which to give quickest. +Mr. Knightley soon saw that he had lost his moment, and that not another +syllable of communication could rest with him. + +"Oh! my dear sir, how are you this morning? My dear Miss Woodhouse--I +come quite over-powered. Such a beautiful hind-quarter of pork! You +are too bountiful! Have you heard the news? Mr. Elton is going to be +married." + +Emma had not had time even to think of Mr. Elton, and she was so +completely surprized that she could not avoid a little start, and a +little blush, at the sound. + +"There is my news:--I thought it would interest you," said Mr. +Knightley, with a smile which implied a conviction of some part of what +had passed between them. + +"But where could _you_ hear it?" cried Miss Bates. "Where could you +possibly hear it, Mr. Knightley? For it is not five minutes since I +received Mrs. Cole's note--no, it cannot be more than five--or at least +ten--for I had got my bonnet and spencer on, just ready to come out--I +was only gone down to speak to Patty again about the pork--Jane was +standing in the passage--were not you, Jane?--for my mother was so +afraid that we had not any salting-pan large enough. So I said I would +go down and see, and Jane said, 'Shall I go down instead? for I think +you have a little cold, and Patty has been washing the kitchen.'--'Oh! +my dear,' said I--well, and just then came the note. A Miss +Hawkins--that's all I know. A Miss Hawkins of Bath. But, Mr. Knightley, +how could you possibly have heard it? for the very moment Mr. Cole told +Mrs. Cole of it, she sat down and wrote to me. A Miss Hawkins--" + +"I was with Mr. Cole on business an hour and a half ago. He had just +read Elton's letter as I was shewn in, and handed it to me directly." + +"Well! that is quite--I suppose there never was a piece of news more +generally interesting. My dear sir, you really are too bountiful. My +mother desires her very best compliments and regards, and a thousand +thanks, and says you really quite oppress her." + +"We consider our Hartfield pork," replied Mr. Woodhouse--"indeed it +certainly is, so very superior to all other pork, that Emma and I cannot +have a greater pleasure than--" + +"Oh! my dear sir, as my mother says, our friends are only too good +to us. If ever there were people who, without having great wealth +themselves, had every thing they could wish for, I am sure it is us. +We may well say that 'our lot is cast in a goodly heritage.' Well, Mr. +Knightley, and so you actually saw the letter; well--" + +"It was short--merely to announce--but cheerful, exulting, of course."-- +Here was a sly glance at Emma. "He had been so fortunate as to--I forget +the precise words--one has no business to remember them. The information +was, as you state, that he was going to be married to a Miss Hawkins. By +his style, I should imagine it just settled." + +"Mr. Elton going to be married!" said Emma, as soon as she could speak. +"He will have every body's wishes for his happiness." + +"He is very young to settle," was Mr. Woodhouse's observation. "He had +better not be in a hurry. He seemed to me very well off as he was. We +were always glad to see him at Hartfield." + +"A new neighbour for us all, Miss Woodhouse!" said Miss Bates, joyfully; +"my mother is so pleased!--she says she cannot bear to have the poor old +Vicarage without a mistress. This is great news, indeed. Jane, you have +never seen Mr. Elton!--no wonder that you have such a curiosity to see +him." + +Jane's curiosity did not appear of that absorbing nature as wholly to +occupy her. + +"No--I have never seen Mr. Elton," she replied, starting on this appeal; +"is he--is he a tall man?" + +"Who shall answer that question?" cried Emma. "My father would say +'yes,' Mr. Knightley 'no;' and Miss Bates and I that he is just the +happy medium. When you have been here a little longer, Miss Fairfax, +you will understand that Mr. Elton is the standard of perfection in +Highbury, both in person and mind." + +"Very true, Miss Woodhouse, so she will. He is the very best young +man--But, my dear Jane, if you remember, I told you yesterday he +was precisely the height of Mr. Perry. Miss Hawkins,--I dare say, an +excellent young woman. His extreme attention to my mother--wanting +her to sit in the vicarage pew, that she might hear the better, for my +mother is a little deaf, you know--it is not much, but she does not +hear quite quick. Jane says that Colonel Campbell is a little deaf. He +fancied bathing might be good for it--the warm bath--but she says it did +him no lasting benefit. Colonel Campbell, you know, is quite our angel. +And Mr. Dixon seems a very charming young man, quite worthy of him. It +is such a happiness when good people get together--and they always do. +Now, here will be Mr. Elton and Miss Hawkins; and there are the Coles, +such very good people; and the Perrys--I suppose there never was a +happier or a better couple than Mr. and Mrs. Perry. I say, sir," turning +to Mr. Woodhouse, "I think there are few places with such society as +Highbury. I always say, we are quite blessed in our neighbours.--My dear +sir, if there is one thing my mother loves better than another, it is +pork--a roast loin of pork--" + +"As to who, or what Miss Hawkins is, or how long he has been acquainted +with her," said Emma, "nothing I suppose can be known. One feels that it +cannot be a very long acquaintance. He has been gone only four weeks." + +Nobody had any information to give; and, after a few more wonderings, +Emma said, + +"You are silent, Miss Fairfax--but I hope you mean to take an interest +in this news. You, who have been hearing and seeing so much of late +on these subjects, who must have been so deep in the business on Miss +Campbell's account--we shall not excuse your being indifferent about Mr. +Elton and Miss Hawkins." + +"When I have seen Mr. Elton," replied Jane, "I dare say I shall be +interested--but I believe it requires _that_ with me. And as it is some +months since Miss Campbell married, the impression may be a little worn +off." + +"Yes, he has been gone just four weeks, as you observe, Miss Woodhouse," +said Miss Bates, "four weeks yesterday.--A Miss Hawkins!--Well, I had +always rather fancied it would be some young lady hereabouts; not that +I ever--Mrs. Cole once whispered to me--but I immediately said, 'No, Mr. +Elton is a most worthy young man--but'--In short, I do not think I am +particularly quick at those sort of discoveries. I do not pretend to it. +What is before me, I see. At the same time, nobody could wonder if +Mr. Elton should have aspired--Miss Woodhouse lets me chatter on, so +good-humouredly. She knows I would not offend for the world. How does +Miss Smith do? She seems quite recovered now. Have you heard from Mrs. +John Knightley lately? Oh! those dear little children. Jane, do you +know I always fancy Mr. Dixon like Mr. John Knightley. I mean in +person--tall, and with that sort of look--and not very talkative." + +"Quite wrong, my dear aunt; there is no likeness at all." + +"Very odd! but one never does form a just idea of any body beforehand. +One takes up a notion, and runs away with it. Mr. Dixon, you say, is +not, strictly speaking, handsome?" + +"Handsome! Oh! no--far from it--certainly plain. I told you he was +plain." + +"My dear, you said that Miss Campbell would not allow him to be plain, +and that you yourself--" + +"Oh! as for me, my judgment is worth nothing. Where I have a regard, +I always think a person well-looking. But I gave what I believed the +general opinion, when I called him plain." + +"Well, my dear Jane, I believe we must be running away. The weather does +not look well, and grandmama will be uneasy. You are too obliging, my +dear Miss Woodhouse; but we really must take leave. This has been a most +agreeable piece of news indeed. I shall just go round by Mrs. Cole's; +but I shall not stop three minutes: and, Jane, you had better go home +directly--I would not have you out in a shower!--We think she is the +better for Highbury already. Thank you, we do indeed. I shall not +attempt calling on Mrs. Goddard, for I really do not think she cares for +any thing but _boiled_ pork: when we dress the leg it will be another +thing. Good morning to you, my dear sir. Oh! Mr. Knightley is coming +too. Well, that is so very!--I am sure if Jane is tired, you will be +so kind as to give her your arm.--Mr. Elton, and Miss Hawkins!--Good +morning to you." + +Emma, alone with her father, had half her attention wanted by him while +he lamented that young people would be in such a hurry to marry--and to +marry strangers too--and the other half she could give to her own view +of the subject. It was to herself an amusing and a very welcome piece +of news, as proving that Mr. Elton could not have suffered long; but she +was sorry for Harriet: Harriet must feel it--and all that she could hope +was, by giving the first information herself, to save her from hearing +it abruptly from others. It was now about the time that she was likely +to call. If she were to meet Miss Bates in her way!--and upon its +beginning to rain, Emma was obliged to expect that the weather would +be detaining her at Mrs. Goddard's, and that the intelligence would +undoubtedly rush upon her without preparation. + +The shower was heavy, but short; and it had not been over five minutes, +when in came Harriet, with just the heated, agitated look which +hurrying thither with a full heart was likely to give; and the "Oh! Miss +Woodhouse, what do you think has happened!" which instantly burst forth, +had all the evidence of corresponding perturbation. As the blow was +given, Emma felt that she could not now shew greater kindness than in +listening; and Harriet, unchecked, ran eagerly through what she had to +tell. "She had set out from Mrs. Goddard's half an hour ago--she had +been afraid it would rain--she had been afraid it would pour down +every moment--but she thought she might get to Hartfield first--she +had hurried on as fast as possible; but then, as she was passing by the +house where a young woman was making up a gown for her, she thought she +would just step in and see how it went on; and though she did not seem +to stay half a moment there, soon after she came out it began to rain, +and she did not know what to do; so she ran on directly, as fast as +she could, and took shelter at Ford's."--Ford's was the principal +woollen-draper, linen-draper, and haberdasher's shop united; the shop +first in size and fashion in the place.--"And so, there she had +set, without an idea of any thing in the world, full ten minutes, +perhaps--when, all of a sudden, who should come in--to be sure it was +so very odd!--but they always dealt at Ford's--who should come in, but +Elizabeth Martin and her brother!--Dear Miss Woodhouse! only think. I +thought I should have fainted. I did not know what to do. I was sitting +near the door--Elizabeth saw me directly; but he did not; he was busy +with the umbrella. I am sure she saw me, but she looked away directly, +and took no notice; and they both went to quite the farther end of the +shop; and I kept sitting near the door!--Oh! dear; I was so miserable! +I am sure I must have been as white as my gown. I could not go away +you know, because of the rain; but I did so wish myself anywhere in the +world but there.--Oh! dear, Miss Woodhouse--well, at last, I fancy, he +looked round and saw me; for instead of going on with her buyings, they +began whispering to one another. I am sure they were talking of me; and +I could not help thinking that he was persuading her to speak to me--(do +you think he was, Miss Woodhouse?)--for presently she came forward--came +quite up to me, and asked me how I did, and seemed ready to shake hands, +if I would. She did not do any of it in the same way that she used; I +could see she was altered; but, however, she seemed to _try_ to be very +friendly, and we shook hands, and stood talking some time; but I know no +more what I said--I was in such a tremble!--I remember she said she +was sorry we never met now; which I thought almost too kind! Dear, Miss +Woodhouse, I was absolutely miserable! By that time, it was beginning to +hold up, and I was determined that nothing should stop me from getting +away--and then--only think!--I found he was coming up towards me +too--slowly you know, and as if he did not quite know what to do; and +so he came and spoke, and I answered--and I stood for a minute, feeling +dreadfully, you know, one can't tell how; and then I took courage, and +said it did not rain, and I must go; and so off I set; and I had not got +three yards from the door, when he came after me, only to say, if I was +going to Hartfield, he thought I had much better go round by Mr. Cole's +stables, for I should find the near way quite floated by this rain. Oh! +dear, I thought it would have been the death of me! So I said, I was +very much obliged to him: you know I could not do less; and then he went +back to Elizabeth, and I came round by the stables--I believe I did--but +I hardly knew where I was, or any thing about it. Oh! Miss Woodhouse, +I would rather done any thing than have it happen: and yet, you know, +there was a sort of satisfaction in seeing him behave so pleasantly and +so kindly. And Elizabeth, too. Oh! Miss Woodhouse, do talk to me and +make me comfortable again." + +Very sincerely did Emma wish to do so; but it was not immediately in +her power. She was obliged to stop and think. She was not thoroughly +comfortable herself. The young man's conduct, and his sister's, seemed +the result of real feeling, and she could not but pity them. As Harriet +described it, there had been an interesting mixture of wounded affection +and genuine delicacy in their behaviour. But she had believed them to be +well-meaning, worthy people before; and what difference did this make +in the evils of the connexion? It was folly to be disturbed by it. Of +course, he must be sorry to lose her--they must be all sorry. Ambition, +as well as love, had probably been mortified. They might all have hoped +to rise by Harriet's acquaintance: and besides, what was the value of +Harriet's description?--So easily pleased--so little discerning;--what +signified her praise? + +She exerted herself, and did try to make her comfortable, by considering +all that had passed as a mere trifle, and quite unworthy of being dwelt +on, + +"It might be distressing, for the moment," said she; "but you seem to +have behaved extremely well; and it is over--and may never--can never, +as a first meeting, occur again, and therefore you need not think about +it." + +Harriet said, "very true," and she "would not think about it;" but still +she talked of it--still she could talk of nothing else; and Emma, at +last, in order to put the Martins out of her head, was obliged to hurry +on the news, which she had meant to give with so much tender caution; +hardly knowing herself whether to rejoice or be angry, ashamed or only +amused, at such a state of mind in poor Harriet--such a conclusion of +Mr. Elton's importance with her! + +Mr. Elton's rights, however, gradually revived. Though she did not feel +the first intelligence as she might have done the day before, or an hour +before, its interest soon increased; and before their first conversation +was over, she had talked herself into all the sensations of curiosity, +wonder and regret, pain and pleasure, as to this fortunate Miss Hawkins, +which could conduce to place the Martins under proper subordination in +her fancy. + +Emma learned to be rather glad that there had been such a meeting. It +had been serviceable in deadening the first shock, without retaining any +influence to alarm. As Harriet now lived, the Martins could not get +at her, without seeking her, where hitherto they had wanted either the +courage or the condescension to seek her; for since her refusal of the +brother, the sisters never had been at Mrs. Goddard's; and a twelvemonth +might pass without their being thrown together again, with any +necessity, or even any power of speech. + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting +situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of +being kindly spoken of. + +A week had not passed since Miss Hawkins's name was first mentioned in +Highbury, before she was, by some means or other, discovered to have +every recommendation of person and mind; to be handsome, elegant, highly +accomplished, and perfectly amiable: and when Mr. Elton himself arrived +to triumph in his happy prospects, and circulate the fame of her merits, +there was very little more for him to do, than to tell her Christian +name, and say whose music she principally played. + +Mr. Elton returned, a very happy man. He had gone away rejected and +mortified--disappointed in a very sanguine hope, after a series of what +appeared to him strong encouragement; and not only losing the right +lady, but finding himself debased to the level of a very wrong one. He +had gone away deeply offended--he came back engaged to another--and +to another as superior, of course, to the first, as under such +circumstances what is gained always is to what is lost. He came back gay +and self-satisfied, eager and busy, caring nothing for Miss Woodhouse, +and defying Miss Smith. + +The charming Augusta Hawkins, in addition to all the usual advantages of +perfect beauty and merit, was in possession of an independent fortune, +of so many thousands as would always be called ten; a point of some +dignity, as well as some convenience: the story told well; he had not +thrown himself away--he had gained a woman of 10,000 l. or thereabouts; +and he had gained her with such delightful rapidity--the first hour of +introduction had been so very soon followed by distinguishing notice; +the history which he had to give Mrs. Cole of the rise and progress +of the affair was so glorious--the steps so quick, from the accidental +rencontre, to the dinner at Mr. Green's, and the party at Mrs. +Brown's--smiles and blushes rising in importance--with consciousness and +agitation richly scattered--the lady had been so easily impressed--so +sweetly disposed--had in short, to use a most intelligible phrase, +been so very ready to have him, that vanity and prudence were equally +contented. + +He had caught both substance and shadow--both fortune and affection, and +was just the happy man he ought to be; talking only of himself and +his own concerns--expecting to be congratulated--ready to be laughed +at--and, with cordial, fearless smiles, now addressing all the young +ladies of the place, to whom, a few weeks ago, he would have been more +cautiously gallant. + +The wedding was no distant event, as the parties had only themselves to +please, and nothing but the necessary preparations to wait for; and +when he set out for Bath again, there was a general expectation, which +a certain glance of Mrs. Cole's did not seem to contradict, that when he +next entered Highbury he would bring his bride. + +During his present short stay, Emma had barely seen him; but just enough +to feel that the first meeting was over, and to give her the impression +of his not being improved by the mixture of pique and pretension, now +spread over his air. She was, in fact, beginning very much to wonder +that she had ever thought him pleasing at all; and his sight was so +inseparably connected with some very disagreeable feelings, that, +except in a moral light, as a penance, a lesson, a source of profitable +humiliation to her own mind, she would have been thankful to be assured +of never seeing him again. She wished him very well; but he gave +her pain, and his welfare twenty miles off would administer most +satisfaction. + +The pain of his continued residence in Highbury, however, must +certainly be lessened by his marriage. Many vain solicitudes would be +prevented--many awkwardnesses smoothed by it. A _Mrs._ _Elton_ would +be an excuse for any change of intercourse; former intimacy might sink +without remark. It would be almost beginning their life of civility +again. + +Of the lady, individually, Emma thought very little. She was good enough +for Mr. Elton, no doubt; accomplished enough for Highbury--handsome +enough--to look plain, probably, by Harriet's side. As to connexion, +there Emma was perfectly easy; persuaded, that after all his own vaunted +claims and disdain of Harriet, he had done nothing. On that article, +truth seemed attainable. _What_ she was, must be uncertain; but _who_ +she was, might be found out; and setting aside the 10,000 l., it did not +appear that she was at all Harriet's superior. She brought no name, no +blood, no alliance. Miss Hawkins was the youngest of the two daughters +of a Bristol--merchant, of course, he must be called; but, as the whole +of the profits of his mercantile life appeared so very moderate, it +was not unfair to guess the dignity of his line of trade had been very +moderate also. Part of every winter she had been used to spend in Bath; +but Bristol was her home, the very heart of Bristol; for though the +father and mother had died some years ago, an uncle remained--in the law +line--nothing more distinctly honourable was hazarded of him, than +that he was in the law line; and with him the daughter had lived. Emma +guessed him to be the drudge of some attorney, and too stupid to rise. +And all the grandeur of the connexion seemed dependent on the elder +sister, who was _very_ _well_ _married_, to a gentleman in a _great_ +_way_, near Bristol, who kept two carriages! That was the wind-up of the +history; that was the glory of Miss Hawkins. + +Could she but have given Harriet her feelings about it all! She had +talked her into love; but, alas! she was not so easily to be talked out +of it. The charm of an object to occupy the many vacancies of Harriet's +mind was not to be talked away. He might be superseded by another; he +certainly would indeed; nothing could be clearer; even a Robert Martin +would have been sufficient; but nothing else, she feared, would cure +her. Harriet was one of those, who, having once begun, would be always +in love. And now, poor girl! she was considerably worse from this +reappearance of Mr. Elton. She was always having a glimpse of him +somewhere or other. Emma saw him only once; but two or three times every +day Harriet was sure _just_ to meet with him, or _just_ to miss him, +_just_ to hear his voice, or see his shoulder, _just_ to have something +occur to preserve him in her fancy, in all the favouring warmth of +surprize and conjecture. She was, moreover, perpetually hearing about +him; for, excepting when at Hartfield, she was always among those who +saw no fault in Mr. Elton, and found nothing so interesting as +the discussion of his concerns; and every report, therefore, every +guess--all that had already occurred, all that might occur in the +arrangement of his affairs, comprehending income, servants, and +furniture, was continually in agitation around her. Her regard was +receiving strength by invariable praise of him, and her regrets kept +alive, and feelings irritated by ceaseless repetitions of Miss +Hawkins's happiness, and continual observation of, how much he seemed +attached!--his air as he walked by the house--the very sitting of his +hat, being all in proof of how much he was in love! + +Had it been allowable entertainment, had there been no pain to her +friend, or reproach to herself, in the waverings of Harriet's mind, +Emma would have been amused by its variations. Sometimes Mr. Elton +predominated, sometimes the Martins; and each was occasionally useful +as a check to the other. Mr. Elton's engagement had been the cure of +the agitation of meeting Mr. Martin. The unhappiness produced by the +knowledge of that engagement had been a little put aside by Elizabeth +Martin's calling at Mrs. Goddard's a few days afterwards. Harriet had +not been at home; but a note had been prepared and left for her, written +in the very style to touch; a small mixture of reproach, with a great +deal of kindness; and till Mr. Elton himself appeared, she had been much +occupied by it, continually pondering over what could be done in return, +and wishing to do more than she dared to confess. But Mr. Elton, in +person, had driven away all such cares. While he staid, the Martins were +forgotten; and on the very morning of his setting off for Bath again, +Emma, to dissipate some of the distress it occasioned, judged it best +for her to return Elizabeth Martin's visit. + +How that visit was to be acknowledged--what would be necessary--and +what might be safest, had been a point of some doubtful consideration. +Absolute neglect of the mother and sisters, when invited to come, would +be ingratitude. It must not be: and yet the danger of a renewal of the +acquaintance--! + +After much thinking, she could determine on nothing better, than +Harriet's returning the visit; but in a way that, if they had +understanding, should convince them that it was to be only a formal +acquaintance. She meant to take her in the carriage, leave her at the +Abbey Mill, while she drove a little farther, and call for her again +so soon, as to allow no time for insidious applications or dangerous +recurrences to the past, and give the most decided proof of what degree +of intimacy was chosen for the future. + +She could think of nothing better: and though there was something in it +which her own heart could not approve--something of ingratitude, merely +glossed over--it must be done, or what would become of Harriet? + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Small heart had Harriet for visiting. Only half an hour before her +friend called for her at Mrs. Goddard's, her evil stars had led her +to the very spot where, at that moment, a trunk, directed to _The Rev. +Philip Elton, White-Hart, Bath_, was to be seen under the operation of +being lifted into the butcher's cart, which was to convey it to where +the coaches past; and every thing in this world, excepting that trunk +and the direction, was consequently a blank. + +She went, however; and when they reached the farm, and she was to be +put down, at the end of the broad, neat gravel walk, which led between +espalier apple-trees to the front door, the sight of every thing which +had given her so much pleasure the autumn before, was beginning to +revive a little local agitation; and when they parted, Emma observed her +to be looking around with a sort of fearful curiosity, which determined +her not to allow the visit to exceed the proposed quarter of an hour. +She went on herself, to give that portion of time to an old servant who +was married, and settled in Donwell. + +The quarter of an hour brought her punctually to the white gate again; +and Miss Smith receiving her summons, was with her without delay, and +unattended by any alarming young man. She came solitarily down the +gravel walk--a Miss Martin just appearing at the door, and parting with +her seemingly with ceremonious civility. + +Harriet could not very soon give an intelligible account. She was +feeling too much; but at last Emma collected from her enough to +understand the sort of meeting, and the sort of pain it was creating. +She had seen only Mrs. Martin and the two girls. They had received her +doubtingly, if not coolly; and nothing beyond the merest commonplace had +been talked almost all the time--till just at last, when Mrs. Martin's +saying, all of a sudden, that she thought Miss Smith was grown, had +brought on a more interesting subject, and a warmer manner. In that very +room she had been measured last September, with her two friends. There +were the pencilled marks and memorandums on the wainscot by the window. +_He_ had done it. They all seemed to remember the day, the hour, +the party, the occasion--to feel the same consciousness, the same +regrets--to be ready to return to the same good understanding; and they +were just growing again like themselves, (Harriet, as Emma must suspect, +as ready as the best of them to be cordial and happy,) when the carriage +reappeared, and all was over. The style of the visit, and the shortness +of it, were then felt to be decisive. Fourteen minutes to be given +to those with whom she had thankfully passed six weeks not six months +ago!--Emma could not but picture it all, and feel how justly they might +resent, how naturally Harriet must suffer. It was a bad business. She +would have given a great deal, or endured a great deal, to have had +the Martins in a higher rank of life. They were so deserving, that a +_little_ higher should have been enough: but as it was, how could she +have done otherwise?--Impossible!--She could not repent. They must be +separated; but there was a great deal of pain in the process--so much +to herself at this time, that she soon felt the necessity of a little +consolation, and resolved on going home by way of Randalls to +procure it. Her mind was quite sick of Mr. Elton and the Martins. The +refreshment of Randalls was absolutely necessary. + +It was a good scheme; but on driving to the door they heard that neither +"master nor mistress was at home;" they had both been out some time; the +man believed they were gone to Hartfield. + +"This is too bad," cried Emma, as they turned away. "And now we shall +just miss them; too provoking!--I do not know when I have been so +disappointed." And she leaned back in the corner, to indulge her +murmurs, or to reason them away; probably a little of both--such being +the commonest process of a not ill-disposed mind. Presently the carriage +stopt; she looked up; it was stopt by Mr. and Mrs. Weston, who were +standing to speak to her. There was instant pleasure in the sight of +them, and still greater pleasure was conveyed in sound--for Mr. Weston +immediately accosted her with, + +"How d'ye do?--how d'ye do?--We have been sitting with your father--glad +to see him so well. Frank comes to-morrow--I had a letter this +morning--we see him to-morrow by dinner-time to a certainty--he is at +Oxford to-day, and he comes for a whole fortnight; I knew it would be +so. If he had come at Christmas he could not have staid three days; I +was always glad he did not come at Christmas; now we are going to have +just the right weather for him, fine, dry, settled weather. We shall +enjoy him completely; every thing has turned out exactly as we could +wish." + +There was no resisting such news, no possibility of avoiding the +influence of such a happy face as Mr. Weston's, confirmed as it all was +by the words and the countenance of his wife, fewer and quieter, but not +less to the purpose. To know that _she_ thought his coming certain was +enough to make Emma consider it so, and sincerely did she rejoice in +their joy. It was a most delightful reanimation of exhausted spirits. +The worn-out past was sunk in the freshness of what was coming; and in +the rapidity of half a moment's thought, she hoped Mr. Elton would now +be talked of no more. + +Mr. Weston gave her the history of the engagements at Enscombe, which +allowed his son to answer for having an entire fortnight at his command, +as well as the route and the method of his journey; and she listened, +and smiled, and congratulated. + +"I shall soon bring him over to Hartfield," said he, at the conclusion. + +Emma could imagine she saw a touch of the arm at this speech, from his +wife. + +"We had better move on, Mr. Weston," said she, "we are detaining the +girls." + +"Well, well, I am ready;"--and turning again to Emma, "but you must +not be expecting such a _very_ fine young man; you have only +had _my_ account you know; I dare say he is really nothing +extraordinary:"--though his own sparkling eyes at the moment were +speaking a very different conviction. + +Emma could look perfectly unconscious and innocent, and answer in a +manner that appropriated nothing. + +"Think of me to-morrow, my dear Emma, about four o'clock," was Mrs. +Weston's parting injunction; spoken with some anxiety, and meant only +for her. + +"Four o'clock!--depend upon it he will be here by three," was Mr. +Weston's quick amendment; and so ended a most satisfactory meeting. +Emma's spirits were mounted quite up to happiness; every thing wore +a different air; James and his horses seemed not half so sluggish as +before. When she looked at the hedges, she thought the elder at least +must soon be coming out; and when she turned round to Harriet, she saw +something like a look of spring, a tender smile even there. + +"Will Mr. Frank Churchill pass through Bath as well as Oxford?"--was a +question, however, which did not augur much. + +But neither geography nor tranquillity could come all at once, and Emma +was now in a humour to resolve that they should both come in time. + +The morning of the interesting day arrived, and Mrs. Weston's faithful +pupil did not forget either at ten, or eleven, or twelve o'clock, that +she was to think of her at four. + +"My dear, dear anxious friend,"--said she, in mental soliloquy, while +walking downstairs from her own room, "always overcareful for every +body's comfort but your own; I see you now in all your little fidgets, +going again and again into his room, to be sure that all is right." +The clock struck twelve as she passed through the hall. "'Tis twelve; +I shall not forget to think of you four hours hence; and by this +time to-morrow, perhaps, or a little later, I may be thinking of the +possibility of their all calling here. I am sure they will bring him +soon." + +She opened the parlour door, and saw two gentlemen sitting with her +father--Mr. Weston and his son. They had been arrived only a few +minutes, and Mr. Weston had scarcely finished his explanation of Frank's +being a day before his time, and her father was yet in the midst of his +very civil welcome and congratulations, when she appeared, to have her +share of surprize, introduction, and pleasure. + +The Frank Churchill so long talked of, so high in interest, was actually +before her--he was presented to her, and she did not think too much had +been said in his praise; he was a _very_ good looking young man; height, +air, address, all were unexceptionable, and his countenance had a great +deal of the spirit and liveliness of his father's; he looked quick and +sensible. She felt immediately that she should like him; and there was +a well-bred ease of manner, and a readiness to talk, which convinced her +that he came intending to be acquainted with her, and that acquainted +they soon must be. + +He had reached Randalls the evening before. She was pleased with the +eagerness to arrive which had made him alter his plan, and travel +earlier, later, and quicker, that he might gain half a day. + +"I told you yesterday," cried Mr. Weston with exultation, "I told you +all that he would be here before the time named. I remembered what I +used to do myself. One cannot creep upon a journey; one cannot help +getting on faster than one has planned; and the pleasure of coming in +upon one's friends before the look-out begins, is worth a great deal +more than any little exertion it needs." + +"It is a great pleasure where one can indulge in it," said the young +man, "though there are not many houses that I should presume on so far; +but in coming _home_ I felt I might do any thing." + +The word _home_ made his father look on him with fresh complacency. +Emma was directly sure that he knew how to make himself agreeable; the +conviction was strengthened by what followed. He was very much pleased +with Randalls, thought it a most admirably arranged house, would hardly +allow it even to be very small, admired the situation, the walk to +Highbury, Highbury itself, Hartfield still more, and professed himself +to have always felt the sort of interest in the country which none but +one's _own_ country gives, and the greatest curiosity to visit it. That +he should never have been able to indulge so amiable a feeling before, +passed suspiciously through Emma's brain; but still, if it were a +falsehood, it was a pleasant one, and pleasantly handled. His manner had +no air of study or exaggeration. He did really look and speak as if in a +state of no common enjoyment. + +Their subjects in general were such as belong to an opening +acquaintance. On his side were the inquiries,--"Was she a +horsewoman?--Pleasant rides?--Pleasant walks?--Had they a large +neighbourhood?--Highbury, perhaps, afforded society enough?--There were +several very pretty houses in and about it.--Balls--had they balls?--Was +it a musical society?" + +But when satisfied on all these points, and their acquaintance +proportionably advanced, he contrived to find an opportunity, while +their two fathers were engaged with each other, of introducing his +mother-in-law, and speaking of her with so much handsome praise, so much +warm admiration, so much gratitude for the happiness she secured to his +father, and her very kind reception of himself, as was an additional +proof of his knowing how to please--and of his certainly thinking it +worth while to try to please her. He did not advance a word of praise +beyond what she knew to be thoroughly deserved by Mrs. Weston; but, +undoubtedly he could know very little of the matter. He understood +what would be welcome; he could be sure of little else. "His father's +marriage," he said, "had been the wisest measure, every friend must +rejoice in it; and the family from whom he had received such a blessing +must be ever considered as having conferred the highest obligation on +him." + +He got as near as he could to thanking her for Miss Taylor's merits, +without seeming quite to forget that in the common course of things it +was to be rather supposed that Miss Taylor had formed Miss Woodhouse's +character, than Miss Woodhouse Miss Taylor's. And at last, as if +resolved to qualify his opinion completely for travelling round to its +object, he wound it all up with astonishment at the youth and beauty of +her person. + +"Elegant, agreeable manners, I was prepared for," said he; "but I +confess that, considering every thing, I had not expected more than a +very tolerably well-looking woman of a certain age; I did not know that +I was to find a pretty young woman in Mrs. Weston." + +"You cannot see too much perfection in Mrs. Weston for my feelings," +said Emma; "were you to guess her to be _eighteen_, I should listen with +pleasure; but _she_ would be ready to quarrel with you for using such +words. Don't let her imagine that you have spoken of her as a pretty +young woman." + +"I hope I should know better," he replied; "no, depend upon it, (with a +gallant bow,) that in addressing Mrs. Weston I should understand whom +I might praise without any danger of being thought extravagant in my +terms." + +Emma wondered whether the same suspicion of what might be expected from +their knowing each other, which had taken strong possession of her mind, +had ever crossed his; and whether his compliments were to be considered +as marks of acquiescence, or proofs of defiance. She must see more +of him to understand his ways; at present she only felt they were +agreeable. + +She had no doubt of what Mr. Weston was often thinking about. His quick +eye she detected again and again glancing towards them with a happy +expression; and even, when he might have determined not to look, she was +confident that he was often listening. + +Her own father's perfect exemption from any thought of the kind, the +entire deficiency in him of all such sort of penetration or suspicion, +was a most comfortable circumstance. Happily he was not farther from +approving matrimony than from foreseeing it.--Though always objecting +to every marriage that was arranged, he never suffered beforehand from +the apprehension of any; it seemed as if he could not think so ill of +any two persons' understanding as to suppose they meant to marry till it +were proved against them. She blessed the favouring blindness. He could +now, without the drawback of a single unpleasant surmise, without a +glance forward at any possible treachery in his guest, give way to all +his natural kind-hearted civility in solicitous inquiries after Mr. +Frank Churchill's accommodation on his journey, through the sad evils +of sleeping two nights on the road, and express very genuine unmixed +anxiety to know that he had certainly escaped catching cold--which, +however, he could not allow him to feel quite assured of himself till +after another night. + +A reasonable visit paid, Mr. Weston began to move.--"He must be going. +He had business at the Crown about his hay, and a great many errands for +Mrs. Weston at Ford's, but he need not hurry any body else." His son, +too well bred to hear the hint, rose immediately also, saying, + +"As you are going farther on business, sir, I will take the opportunity +of paying a visit, which must be paid some day or other, and therefore +may as well be paid now. I have the honour of being acquainted with +a neighbour of yours, (turning to Emma,) a lady residing in or near +Highbury; a family of the name of Fairfax. I shall have no difficulty, +I suppose, in finding the house; though Fairfax, I believe, is not +the proper name--I should rather say Barnes, or Bates. Do you know any +family of that name?" + +"To be sure we do," cried his father; "Mrs. Bates--we passed her +house--I saw Miss Bates at the window. True, true, you are acquainted +with Miss Fairfax; I remember you knew her at Weymouth, and a fine girl +she is. Call upon her, by all means." + +"There is no necessity for my calling this morning," said the young man; +"another day would do as well; but there was that degree of acquaintance +at Weymouth which--" + +"Oh! go to-day, go to-day. Do not defer it. What is right to be done +cannot be done too soon. And, besides, I must give you a hint, Frank; +any want of attention to her _here_ should be carefully avoided. You saw +her with the Campbells, when she was the equal of every body she mixed +with, but here she is with a poor old grandmother, who has barely enough +to live on. If you do not call early it will be a slight." + +The son looked convinced. + +"I have heard her speak of the acquaintance," said Emma; "she is a very +elegant young woman." + +He agreed to it, but with so quiet a "Yes," as inclined her almost to +doubt his real concurrence; and yet there must be a very distinct sort +of elegance for the fashionable world, if Jane Fairfax could be thought +only ordinarily gifted with it. + +"If you were never particularly struck by her manners before," said she, +"I think you will to-day. You will see her to advantage; see her and +hear her--no, I am afraid you will not hear her at all, for she has an +aunt who never holds her tongue." + +"You are acquainted with Miss Jane Fairfax, sir, are you?" said Mr. +Woodhouse, always the last to make his way in conversation; "then give +me leave to assure you that you will find her a very agreeable young +lady. She is staying here on a visit to her grandmama and aunt, very +worthy people; I have known them all my life. They will be extremely +glad to see you, I am sure; and one of my servants shall go with you to +shew you the way." + +"My dear sir, upon no account in the world; my father can direct me." + +"But your father is not going so far; he is only going to the Crown, +quite on the other side of the street, and there are a great many +houses; you might be very much at a loss, and it is a very dirty walk, +unless you keep on the footpath; but my coachman can tell you where you +had best cross the street." + +Mr. Frank Churchill still declined it, looking as serious as he could, +and his father gave his hearty support by calling out, "My good friend, +this is quite unnecessary; Frank knows a puddle of water when he sees +it, and as to Mrs. Bates's, he may get there from the Crown in a hop, +step, and jump." + +They were permitted to go alone; and with a cordial nod from one, and a +graceful bow from the other, the two gentlemen took leave. Emma remained +very well pleased with this beginning of the acquaintance, and could now +engage to think of them all at Randalls any hour of the day, with full +confidence in their comfort. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The next morning brought Mr. Frank Churchill again. He came with Mrs. +Weston, to whom and to Highbury he seemed to take very cordially. He had +been sitting with her, it appeared, most companionably at home, till +her usual hour of exercise; and on being desired to chuse their walk, +immediately fixed on Highbury.--"He did not doubt there being very +pleasant walks in every direction, but if left to him, he should always +chuse the same. Highbury, that airy, cheerful, happy-looking Highbury, +would be his constant attraction."--Highbury, with Mrs. Weston, stood +for Hartfield; and she trusted to its bearing the same construction with +him. They walked thither directly. + +Emma had hardly expected them: for Mr. Weston, who had called in for +half a minute, in order to hear that his son was very handsome, knew +nothing of their plans; and it was an agreeable surprize to her, +therefore, to perceive them walking up to the house together, arm in +arm. She was wanting to see him again, and especially to see him in +company with Mrs. Weston, upon his behaviour to whom her opinion of him +was to depend. If he were deficient there, nothing should make amends +for it. But on seeing them together, she became perfectly satisfied. It +was not merely in fine words or hyperbolical compliment that he paid his +duty; nothing could be more proper or pleasing than his whole manner to +her--nothing could more agreeably denote his wish of considering her as +a friend and securing her affection. And there was time enough for Emma +to form a reasonable judgment, as their visit included all the rest of +the morning. They were all three walking about together for an hour +or two--first round the shrubberies of Hartfield, and afterwards +in Highbury. He was delighted with every thing; admired Hartfield +sufficiently for Mr. Woodhouse's ear; and when their going farther was +resolved on, confessed his wish to be made acquainted with the whole +village, and found matter of commendation and interest much oftener than +Emma could have supposed. + +Some of the objects of his curiosity spoke very amiable feelings. He +begged to be shewn the house which his father had lived in so long, and +which had been the home of his father's father; and on recollecting that +an old woman who had nursed him was still living, walked in quest of +her cottage from one end of the street to the other; and though in +some points of pursuit or observation there was no positive merit, they +shewed, altogether, a good-will towards Highbury in general, which must +be very like a merit to those he was with. + +Emma watched and decided, that with such feelings as were now shewn, it +could not be fairly supposed that he had been ever voluntarily absenting +himself; that he had not been acting a part, or making a parade of +insincere professions; and that Mr. Knightley certainly had not done him +justice. + +Their first pause was at the Crown Inn, an inconsiderable house, though +the principal one of the sort, where a couple of pair of post-horses +were kept, more for the convenience of the neighbourhood than from any +run on the road; and his companions had not expected to be detained by +any interest excited there; but in passing it they gave the history of +the large room visibly added; it had been built many years ago for +a ball-room, and while the neighbourhood had been in a particularly +populous, dancing state, had been occasionally used as such;--but such +brilliant days had long passed away, and now the highest purpose for +which it was ever wanted was to accommodate a whist club established +among the gentlemen and half-gentlemen of the place. He was immediately +interested. Its character as a ball-room caught him; and instead of +passing on, he stopt for several minutes at the two superior sashed +windows which were open, to look in and contemplate its capabilities, +and lament that its original purpose should have ceased. He saw no fault +in the room, he would acknowledge none which they suggested. No, it +was long enough, broad enough, handsome enough. It would hold the +very number for comfort. They ought to have balls there at least every +fortnight through the winter. Why had not Miss Woodhouse revived +the former good old days of the room?--She who could do any thing in +Highbury! The want of proper families in the place, and the conviction +that none beyond the place and its immediate environs could be tempted +to attend, were mentioned; but he was not satisfied. He could not be +persuaded that so many good-looking houses as he saw around him, could +not furnish numbers enough for such a meeting; and even when particulars +were given and families described, he was still unwilling to admit that +the inconvenience of such a mixture would be any thing, or that there +would be the smallest difficulty in every body's returning into their +proper place the next morning. He argued like a young man very much bent +on dancing; and Emma was rather surprized to see the constitution of +the Weston prevail so decidedly against the habits of the Churchills. +He seemed to have all the life and spirit, cheerful feelings, and social +inclinations of his father, and nothing of the pride or reserve of +Enscombe. Of pride, indeed, there was, perhaps, scarcely enough; his +indifference to a confusion of rank, bordered too much on inelegance of +mind. He could be no judge, however, of the evil he was holding cheap. +It was but an effusion of lively spirits. + +At last he was persuaded to move on from the front of the Crown; +and being now almost facing the house where the Bateses lodged, Emma +recollected his intended visit the day before, and asked him if he had +paid it. + +"Yes, oh! yes"--he replied; "I was just going to mention it. A very +successful visit:--I saw all the three ladies; and felt very much +obliged to you for your preparatory hint. If the talking aunt had taken +me quite by surprize, it must have been the death of me. As it was, I +was only betrayed into paying a most unreasonable visit. Ten minutes +would have been all that was necessary, perhaps all that was proper; and +I had told my father I should certainly be at home before him--but there +was no getting away, no pause; and, to my utter astonishment, I found, +when he (finding me nowhere else) joined me there at last, that I had +been actually sitting with them very nearly three-quarters of an hour. +The good lady had not given me the possibility of escape before." + +"And how did you think Miss Fairfax looking?" + +"Ill, very ill--that is, if a young lady can ever be allowed to look +ill. But the expression is hardly admissible, Mrs. Weston, is it? Ladies +can never look ill. And, seriously, Miss Fairfax is naturally so +pale, as almost always to give the appearance of ill health.--A most +deplorable want of complexion." + +Emma would not agree to this, and began a warm defence of Miss Fairfax's +complexion. "It was certainly never brilliant, but she would not +allow it to have a sickly hue in general; and there was a softness and +delicacy in her skin which gave peculiar elegance to the character of +her face." He listened with all due deference; acknowledged that he had +heard many people say the same--but yet he must confess, that to him +nothing could make amends for the want of the fine glow of health. Where +features were indifferent, a fine complexion gave beauty to them all; +and where they were good, the effect was--fortunately he need not +attempt to describe what the effect was. + +"Well," said Emma, "there is no disputing about taste.--At least you +admire her except her complexion." + +He shook his head and laughed.--"I cannot separate Miss Fairfax and her +complexion." + +"Did you see her often at Weymouth? Were you often in the same society?" + +At this moment they were approaching Ford's, and he hastily exclaimed, +"Ha! this must be the very shop that every body attends every day of +their lives, as my father informs me. He comes to Highbury himself, he +says, six days out of the seven, and has always business at Ford's. +If it be not inconvenient to you, pray let us go in, that I may prove +myself to belong to the place, to be a true citizen of Highbury. I must +buy something at Ford's. It will be taking out my freedom.--I dare say +they sell gloves." + +"Oh! yes, gloves and every thing. I do admire your patriotism. You will +be adored in Highbury. You were very popular before you came, because +you were Mr. Weston's son--but lay out half a guinea at Ford's, and your +popularity will stand upon your own virtues." + +They went in; and while the sleek, well-tied parcels of "Men's Beavers" +and "York Tan" were bringing down and displaying on the counter, he +said--"But I beg your pardon, Miss Woodhouse, you were speaking to me, +you were saying something at the very moment of this burst of my _amor_ +_patriae_. Do not let me lose it. I assure you the utmost stretch of +public fame would not make me amends for the loss of any happiness in +private life." + +"I merely asked, whether you had known much of Miss Fairfax and her +party at Weymouth." + +"And now that I understand your question, I must pronounce it to be a +very unfair one. It is always the lady's right to decide on the degree +of acquaintance. Miss Fairfax must already have given her account.--I +shall not commit myself by claiming more than she may chuse to allow." + +"Upon my word! you answer as discreetly as she could do herself. But +her account of every thing leaves so much to be guessed, she is so very +reserved, so very unwilling to give the least information about any +body, that I really think you may say what you like of your acquaintance +with her." + +"May I, indeed?--Then I will speak the truth, and nothing suits me so +well. I met her frequently at Weymouth. I had known the Campbells a +little in town; and at Weymouth we were very much in the same set. +Colonel Campbell is a very agreeable man, and Mrs. Campbell a friendly, +warm-hearted woman. I like them all." + +"You know Miss Fairfax's situation in life, I conclude; what she is +destined to be?" + +"Yes--(rather hesitatingly)--I believe I do." + +"You get upon delicate subjects, Emma," said Mrs. Weston smiling; +"remember that I am here.--Mr. Frank Churchill hardly knows what to say +when you speak of Miss Fairfax's situation in life. I will move a little +farther off." + +"I certainly do forget to think of _her_," said Emma, "as having ever +been any thing but my friend and my dearest friend." + +He looked as if he fully understood and honoured such a sentiment. + +When the gloves were bought, and they had quitted the shop again, "Did +you ever hear the young lady we were speaking of, play?" said Frank +Churchill. + +"Ever hear her!" repeated Emma. "You forget how much she belongs to +Highbury. I have heard her every year of our lives since we both began. +She plays charmingly." + +"You think so, do you?--I wanted the opinion of some one who +could really judge. She appeared to me to play well, that is, with +considerable taste, but I know nothing of the matter myself.--I am +excessively fond of music, but without the smallest skill or right +of judging of any body's performance.--I have been used to hear her's +admired; and I remember one proof of her being thought to play well:--a +man, a very musical man, and in love with another woman--engaged to +her--on the point of marriage--would yet never ask that other woman +to sit down to the instrument, if the lady in question could sit down +instead--never seemed to like to hear one if he could hear the other. +That, I thought, in a man of known musical talent, was some proof." + +"Proof indeed!" said Emma, highly amused.--"Mr. Dixon is very musical, +is he? We shall know more about them all, in half an hour, from you, +than Miss Fairfax would have vouchsafed in half a year." + +"Yes, Mr. Dixon and Miss Campbell were the persons; and I thought it a +very strong proof." + +"Certainly--very strong it was; to own the truth, a great deal stronger +than, if _I_ had been Miss Campbell, would have been at all agreeable +to me. I could not excuse a man's having more music than love--more ear +than eye--a more acute sensibility to fine sounds than to my feelings. +How did Miss Campbell appear to like it?" + +"It was her very particular friend, you know." + +"Poor comfort!" said Emma, laughing. "One would rather have a stranger +preferred than one's very particular friend--with a stranger it might +not recur again--but the misery of having a very particular friend +always at hand, to do every thing better than one does oneself!--Poor +Mrs. Dixon! Well, I am glad she is gone to settle in Ireland." + +"You are right. It was not very flattering to Miss Campbell; but she +really did not seem to feel it." + +"So much the better--or so much the worse:--I do not know which. But +be it sweetness or be it stupidity in her--quickness of friendship, or +dulness of feeling--there was one person, I think, who must have felt +it: Miss Fairfax herself. She must have felt the improper and dangerous +distinction." + +"As to that--I do not--" + +"Oh! do not imagine that I expect an account of Miss Fairfax's +sensations from you, or from any body else. They are known to no human +being, I guess, but herself. But if she continued to play whenever she +was asked by Mr. Dixon, one may guess what one chuses." + +"There appeared such a perfectly good understanding among them all--" +he began rather quickly, but checking himself, added, "however, it is +impossible for me to say on what terms they really were--how it might +all be behind the scenes. I can only say that there was smoothness +outwardly. But you, who have known Miss Fairfax from a child, must be +a better judge of her character, and of how she is likely to conduct +herself in critical situations, than I can be." + +"I have known her from a child, undoubtedly; we have been children +and women together; and it is natural to suppose that we should be +intimate,--that we should have taken to each other whenever she visited +her friends. But we never did. I hardly know how it has happened; a +little, perhaps, from that wickedness on my side which was prone to take +disgust towards a girl so idolized and so cried up as she always was, +by her aunt and grandmother, and all their set. And then, her reserve--I +never could attach myself to any one so completely reserved." + +"It is a most repulsive quality, indeed," said he. "Oftentimes very +convenient, no doubt, but never pleasing. There is safety in reserve, +but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person." + +"Not till the reserve ceases towards oneself; and then the attraction +may be the greater. But I must be more in want of a friend, or an +agreeable companion, than I have yet been, to take the trouble of +conquering any body's reserve to procure one. Intimacy between Miss +Fairfax and me is quite out of the question. I have no reason to think +ill of her--not the least--except that such extreme and perpetual +cautiousness of word and manner, such a dread of giving a distinct idea +about any body, is apt to suggest suspicions of there being something to +conceal." + +He perfectly agreed with her: and after walking together so long, and +thinking so much alike, Emma felt herself so well acquainted with him, +that she could hardly believe it to be only their second meeting. He was +not exactly what she had expected; less of the man of the world in some +of his notions, less of the spoiled child of fortune, therefore better +than she had expected. His ideas seemed more moderate--his feelings +warmer. She was particularly struck by his manner of considering Mr. +Elton's house, which, as well as the church, he would go and look at, +and would not join them in finding much fault with. No, he could not +believe it a bad house; not such a house as a man was to be pitied for +having. If it were to be shared with the woman he loved, he could not +think any man to be pitied for having that house. There must be ample +room in it for every real comfort. The man must be a blockhead who +wanted more. + +Mrs. Weston laughed, and said he did not know what he was talking about. +Used only to a large house himself, and without ever thinking how many +advantages and accommodations were attached to its size, he could be no +judge of the privations inevitably belonging to a small one. But Emma, +in her own mind, determined that he _did_ know what he was talking +about, and that he shewed a very amiable inclination to settle early in +life, and to marry, from worthy motives. He might not be aware of the +inroads on domestic peace to be occasioned by no housekeeper's room, or +a bad butler's pantry, but no doubt he did perfectly feel that Enscombe +could not make him happy, and that whenever he were attached, he would +willingly give up much of wealth to be allowed an early establishment. + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Emma's very good opinion of Frank Churchill was a little shaken the +following day, by hearing that he was gone off to London, merely to have +his hair cut. A sudden freak seemed to have seized him at breakfast, and +he had sent for a chaise and set off, intending to return to dinner, +but with no more important view that appeared than having his hair cut. +There was certainly no harm in his travelling sixteen miles twice over +on such an errand; but there was an air of foppery and nonsense in it +which she could not approve. It did not accord with the rationality of +plan, the moderation in expense, or even the unselfish warmth of heart, +which she had believed herself to discern in him yesterday. Vanity, +extravagance, love of change, restlessness of temper, which must be +doing something, good or bad; heedlessness as to the pleasure of his +father and Mrs. Weston, indifferent as to how his conduct might appear +in general; he became liable to all these charges. His father only +called him a coxcomb, and thought it a very good story; but that Mrs. +Weston did not like it, was clear enough, by her passing it over as +quickly as possible, and making no other comment than that "all young +people would have their little whims." + +With the exception of this little blot, Emma found that his visit +hitherto had given her friend only good ideas of him. Mrs. Weston +was very ready to say how attentive and pleasant a companion he made +himself--how much she saw to like in his disposition altogether. He +appeared to have a very open temper--certainly a very cheerful and +lively one; she could observe nothing wrong in his notions, a great deal +decidedly right; he spoke of his uncle with warm regard, was fond of +talking of him--said he would be the best man in the world if he were +left to himself; and though there was no being attached to the aunt, he +acknowledged her kindness with gratitude, and seemed to mean always to +speak of her with respect. This was all very promising; and, but for +such an unfortunate fancy for having his hair cut, there was nothing to +denote him unworthy of the distinguished honour which her imagination +had given him; the honour, if not of being really in love with her, +of being at least very near it, and saved only by her own +indifference--(for still her resolution held of never marrying)--the +honour, in short, of being marked out for her by all their joint +acquaintance. + +Mr. Weston, on his side, added a virtue to the account which must +have some weight. He gave her to understand that Frank admired her +extremely--thought her very beautiful and very charming; and with so +much to be said for him altogether, she found she must not judge him +harshly. As Mrs. Weston observed, "all young people would have their +little whims." + +There was one person among his new acquaintance in Surry, not so +leniently disposed. In general he was judged, throughout the parishes of +Donwell and Highbury, with great candour; liberal allowances were made +for the little excesses of such a handsome young man--one who smiled so +often and bowed so well; but there was one spirit among them not to be +softened, from its power of censure, by bows or smiles--Mr. Knightley. +The circumstance was told him at Hartfield; for the moment, he was +silent; but Emma heard him almost immediately afterwards say to himself, +over a newspaper he held in his hand, "Hum! just the trifling, silly +fellow I took him for." She had half a mind to resent; but an instant's +observation convinced her that it was really said only to relieve his +own feelings, and not meant to provoke; and therefore she let it pass. + +Although in one instance the bearers of not good tidings, Mr. and +Mrs. Weston's visit this morning was in another respect particularly +opportune. Something occurred while they were at Hartfield, to make Emma +want their advice; and, which was still more lucky, she wanted exactly +the advice they gave. + +This was the occurrence:--The Coles had been settled some years in +Highbury, and were very good sort of people--friendly, liberal, and +unpretending; but, on the other hand, they were of low origin, in trade, +and only moderately genteel. On their first coming into the country, +they had lived in proportion to their income, quietly, keeping little +company, and that little unexpensively; but the last year or two had +brought them a considerable increase of means--the house in town had +yielded greater profits, and fortune in general had smiled on them. With +their wealth, their views increased; their want of a larger house, their +inclination for more company. They added to their house, to their number +of servants, to their expenses of every sort; and by this time were, +in fortune and style of living, second only to the family at Hartfield. +Their love of society, and their new dining-room, prepared every body +for their keeping dinner-company; and a few parties, chiefly among the +single men, had already taken place. The regular and best families Emma +could hardly suppose they would presume to invite--neither Donwell, nor +Hartfield, nor Randalls. Nothing should tempt _her_ to go, if they did; +and she regretted that her father's known habits would be giving +her refusal less meaning than she could wish. The Coles were very +respectable in their way, but they ought to be taught that it was not +for them to arrange the terms on which the superior families would visit +them. This lesson, she very much feared, they would receive only from +herself; she had little hope of Mr. Knightley, none of Mr. Weston. + +But she had made up her mind how to meet this presumption so many weeks +before it appeared, that when the insult came at last, it found her +very differently affected. Donwell and Randalls had received their +invitation, and none had come for her father and herself; and Mrs. +Weston's accounting for it with "I suppose they will not take the +liberty with you; they know you do not dine out," was not quite +sufficient. She felt that she should like to have had the power of +refusal; and afterwards, as the idea of the party to be assembled there, +consisting precisely of those whose society was dearest to her, occurred +again and again, she did not know that she might not have been tempted +to accept. Harriet was to be there in the evening, and the Bateses. They +had been speaking of it as they walked about Highbury the day before, +and Frank Churchill had most earnestly lamented her absence. Might +not the evening end in a dance? had been a question of his. The bare +possibility of it acted as a farther irritation on her spirits; and +her being left in solitary grandeur, even supposing the omission to be +intended as a compliment, was but poor comfort. + +It was the arrival of this very invitation while the Westons were at +Hartfield, which made their presence so acceptable; for though her first +remark, on reading it, was that "of course it must be declined," she so +very soon proceeded to ask them what they advised her to do, that their +advice for her going was most prompt and successful. + +She owned that, considering every thing, she was not absolutely +without inclination for the party. The Coles expressed themselves so +properly--there was so much real attention in the manner of it--so much +consideration for her father. "They would have solicited the honour +earlier, but had been waiting the arrival of a folding-screen from +London, which they hoped might keep Mr. Woodhouse from any draught of +air, and therefore induce him the more readily to give them the honour +of his company." Upon the whole, she was very persuadable; and it being +briefly settled among themselves how it might be done without neglecting +his comfort--how certainly Mrs. Goddard, if not Mrs. Bates, might be +depended on for bearing him company--Mr. Woodhouse was to be talked +into an acquiescence of his daughter's going out to dinner on a day now +near at hand, and spending the whole evening away from him. As for _his_ +going, Emma did not wish him to think it possible, the hours would be +too late, and the party too numerous. He was soon pretty well resigned. + +"I am not fond of dinner-visiting," said he--"I never was. No more is +Emma. Late hours do not agree with us. I am sorry Mr. and Mrs. Cole +should have done it. I think it would be much better if they would come +in one afternoon next summer, and take their tea with us--take us +in their afternoon walk; which they might do, as our hours are so +reasonable, and yet get home without being out in the damp of the +evening. The dews of a summer evening are what I would not expose any +body to. However, as they are so very desirous to have dear Emma dine +with them, and as you will both be there, and Mr. Knightley too, to take +care of her, I cannot wish to prevent it, provided the weather be what +it ought, neither damp, nor cold, nor windy." Then turning to Mrs. +Weston, with a look of gentle reproach--"Ah! Miss Taylor, if you had not +married, you would have staid at home with me." + +"Well, sir," cried Mr. Weston, "as I took Miss Taylor away, it is +incumbent on me to supply her place, if I can; and I will step to Mrs. +Goddard in a moment, if you wish it." + +But the idea of any thing to be done in a _moment_, was increasing, +not lessening, Mr. Woodhouse's agitation. The ladies knew better how +to allay it. Mr. Weston must be quiet, and every thing deliberately +arranged. + +With this treatment, Mr. Woodhouse was soon composed enough for talking +as usual. "He should be happy to see Mrs. Goddard. He had a great regard +for Mrs. Goddard; and Emma should write a line, and invite her. James +could take the note. But first of all, there must be an answer written +to Mrs. Cole." + +"You will make my excuses, my dear, as civilly as possible. You will say +that I am quite an invalid, and go no where, and therefore must decline +their obliging invitation; beginning with my _compliments_, of course. +But you will do every thing right. I need not tell you what is to be +done. We must remember to let James know that the carriage will be +wanted on Tuesday. I shall have no fears for you with him. We have never +been there above once since the new approach was made; but still I have +no doubt that James will take you very safely. And when you get there, +you must tell him at what time you would have him come for you again; +and you had better name an early hour. You will not like staying late. +You will get very tired when tea is over." + +"But you would not wish me to come away before I am tired, papa?" + +"Oh! no, my love; but you will soon be tired. There will be a great many +people talking at once. You will not like the noise." + +"But, my dear sir," cried Mr. Weston, "if Emma comes away early, it will +be breaking up the party." + +"And no great harm if it does," said Mr. Woodhouse. "The sooner every +party breaks up, the better." + +"But you do not consider how it may appear to the Coles. Emma's going +away directly after tea might be giving offence. They are good-natured +people, and think little of their own claims; but still they must +feel that any body's hurrying away is no great compliment; and Miss +Woodhouse's doing it would be more thought of than any other person's in +the room. You would not wish to disappoint and mortify the Coles, I am +sure, sir; friendly, good sort of people as ever lived, and who have +been your neighbours these _ten_ years." + +"No, upon no account in the world, Mr. Weston; I am much obliged to +you for reminding me. I should be extremely sorry to be giving them any +pain. I know what worthy people they are. Perry tells me that Mr. Cole +never touches malt liquor. You would not think it to look at him, but +he is bilious--Mr. Cole is very bilious. No, I would not be the means +of giving them any pain. My dear Emma, we must consider this. I am sure, +rather than run the risk of hurting Mr. and Mrs. Cole, you would stay a +little longer than you might wish. You will not regard being tired. You +will be perfectly safe, you know, among your friends." + +"Oh yes, papa. I have no fears at all for myself; and I should have no +scruples of staying as late as Mrs. Weston, but on your account. I am +only afraid of your sitting up for me. I am not afraid of your not being +exceedingly comfortable with Mrs. Goddard. She loves piquet, you +know; but when she is gone home, I am afraid you will be sitting up by +yourself, instead of going to bed at your usual time--and the idea of +that would entirely destroy my comfort. You must promise me not to sit +up." + +He did, on the condition of some promises on her side: such as that, +if she came home cold, she would be sure to warm herself thoroughly; if +hungry, that she would take something to eat; that her own maid should +sit up for her; and that Serle and the butler should see that every +thing were safe in the house, as usual. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Frank Churchill came back again; and if he kept his father's dinner +waiting, it was not known at Hartfield; for Mrs. Weston was too anxious +for his being a favourite with Mr. Woodhouse, to betray any imperfection +which could be concealed. + +He came back, had had his hair cut, and laughed at himself with a very +good grace, but without seeming really at all ashamed of what he had +done. He had no reason to wish his hair longer, to conceal any confusion +of face; no reason to wish the money unspent, to improve his spirits. +He was quite as undaunted and as lively as ever; and, after seeing him, +Emma thus moralised to herself:-- + +"I do not know whether it ought to be so, but certainly silly things +do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent +way. Wickedness is always wickedness, but folly is not always folly.--It +depends upon the character of those who handle it. Mr. Knightley, he is +_not_ a trifling, silly young man. If he were, he would have done this +differently. He would either have gloried in the achievement, or +been ashamed of it. There would have been either the ostentation of +a coxcomb, or the evasions of a mind too weak to defend its own +vanities.--No, I am perfectly sure that he is not trifling or silly." + +With Tuesday came the agreeable prospect of seeing him again, and for +a longer time than hitherto; of judging of his general manners, and by +inference, of the meaning of his manners towards herself; of guessing +how soon it might be necessary for her to throw coldness into her air; +and of fancying what the observations of all those might be, who were +now seeing them together for the first time. + +She meant to be very happy, in spite of the scene being laid at Mr. +Cole's; and without being able to forget that among the failings of Mr. +Elton, even in the days of his favour, none had disturbed her more than +his propensity to dine with Mr. Cole. + +Her father's comfort was amply secured, Mrs. Bates as well as Mrs. +Goddard being able to come; and her last pleasing duty, before she left +the house, was to pay her respects to them as they sat together after +dinner; and while her father was fondly noticing the beauty of her +dress, to make the two ladies all the amends in her power, by helping +them to large slices of cake and full glasses of wine, for whatever +unwilling self-denial his care of their constitution might have obliged +them to practise during the meal.--She had provided a plentiful dinner +for them; she wished she could know that they had been allowed to eat +it. + +She followed another carriage to Mr. Cole's door; and was pleased to see +that it was Mr. Knightley's; for Mr. Knightley keeping no horses, +having little spare money and a great deal of health, activity, and +independence, was too apt, in Emma's opinion, to get about as he could, +and not use his carriage so often as became the owner of Donwell Abbey. +She had an opportunity now of speaking her approbation while warm from +her heart, for he stopped to hand her out. + +"This is coming as you should do," said she; "like a gentleman.--I am +quite glad to see you." + +He thanked her, observing, "How lucky that we should arrive at the same +moment! for, if we had met first in the drawing-room, I doubt whether +you would have discerned me to be more of a gentleman than usual.--You +might not have distinguished how I came, by my look or manner." + +"Yes I should, I am sure I should. There is always a look of +consciousness or bustle when people come in a way which they know to be +beneath them. You think you carry it off very well, I dare say, but +with you it is a sort of bravado, an air of affected unconcern; I always +observe it whenever I meet you under those circumstances. _Now_ you have +nothing to try for. You are not afraid of being supposed ashamed. You +are not striving to look taller than any body else. _Now_ I shall really +be very happy to walk into the same room with you." + +"Nonsensical girl!" was his reply, but not at all in anger. + +Emma had as much reason to be satisfied with the rest of the party as +with Mr. Knightley. She was received with a cordial respect which could +not but please, and given all the consequence she could wish for. +When the Westons arrived, the kindest looks of love, the strongest of +admiration were for her, from both husband and wife; the son approached +her with a cheerful eagerness which marked her as his peculiar object, +and at dinner she found him seated by her--and, as she firmly believed, +not without some dexterity on his side. + +The party was rather large, as it included one other family, a proper +unobjectionable country family, whom the Coles had the advantage of +naming among their acquaintance, and the male part of Mr. Cox's family, +the lawyer of Highbury. The less worthy females were to come in the +evening, with Miss Bates, Miss Fairfax, and Miss Smith; but already, +at dinner, they were too numerous for any subject of conversation to be +general; and, while politics and Mr. Elton were talked over, Emma could +fairly surrender all her attention to the pleasantness of her neighbour. +The first remote sound to which she felt herself obliged to attend, was +the name of Jane Fairfax. Mrs. Cole seemed to be relating something of +her that was expected to be very interesting. She listened, and found +it well worth listening to. That very dear part of Emma, her fancy, +received an amusing supply. Mrs. Cole was telling that she had been +calling on Miss Bates, and as soon as she entered the room had +been struck by the sight of a pianoforte--a very elegant looking +instrument--not a grand, but a large-sized square pianoforte; and the +substance of the story, the end of all the dialogue which ensued of +surprize, and inquiry, and congratulations on her side, and explanations +on Miss Bates's, was, that this pianoforte had arrived from +Broadwood's the day before, to the great astonishment of both aunt and +niece--entirely unexpected; that at first, by Miss Bates's account, +Jane herself was quite at a loss, quite bewildered to think who could +possibly have ordered it--but now, they were both perfectly satisfied +that it could be from only one quarter;--of course it must be from +Colonel Campbell. + +"One can suppose nothing else," added Mrs. Cole, "and I was only +surprized that there could ever have been a doubt. But Jane, it seems, +had a letter from them very lately, and not a word was said about it. +She knows their ways best; but I should not consider their silence as +any reason for their not meaning to make the present. They might chuse +to surprize her." + +Mrs. Cole had many to agree with her; every body who spoke on the +subject was equally convinced that it must come from Colonel Campbell, +and equally rejoiced that such a present had been made; and there were +enough ready to speak to allow Emma to think her own way, and still +listen to Mrs. Cole. + +"I declare, I do not know when I have heard any thing that has given me +more satisfaction!--It always has quite hurt me that Jane Fairfax, who +plays so delightfully, should not have an instrument. It seemed quite +a shame, especially considering how many houses there are where fine +instruments are absolutely thrown away. This is like giving ourselves +a slap, to be sure! and it was but yesterday I was telling Mr. Cole, +I really was ashamed to look at our new grand pianoforte in the +drawing-room, while I do not know one note from another, and our little +girls, who are but just beginning, perhaps may never make any thing of +it; and there is poor Jane Fairfax, who is mistress of music, has not +any thing of the nature of an instrument, not even the pitifullest old +spinet in the world, to amuse herself with.--I was saying this to +Mr. Cole but yesterday, and he quite agreed with me; only he is so +particularly fond of music that he could not help indulging himself +in the purchase, hoping that some of our good neighbours might be so +obliging occasionally to put it to a better use than we can; and that +really is the reason why the instrument was bought--or else I am sure +we ought to be ashamed of it.--We are in great hopes that Miss Woodhouse +may be prevailed with to try it this evening." + +Miss Woodhouse made the proper acquiescence; and finding that nothing +more was to be entrapped from any communication of Mrs. Cole's, turned +to Frank Churchill. + +"Why do you smile?" said she. + +"Nay, why do you?" + +"Me!--I suppose I smile for pleasure at Colonel Campbell's being so rich +and so liberal.--It is a handsome present." + +"Very." + +"I rather wonder that it was never made before." + +"Perhaps Miss Fairfax has never been staying here so long before." + +"Or that he did not give her the use of their own instrument--which must +now be shut up in London, untouched by any body." + +"That is a grand pianoforte, and he might think it too large for Mrs. +Bates's house." + +"You may _say_ what you chuse--but your countenance testifies that your +_thoughts_ on this subject are very much like mine." + +"I do not know. I rather believe you are giving me more credit for +acuteness than I deserve. I smile because you smile, and shall probably +suspect whatever I find you suspect; but at present I do not see what +there is to question. If Colonel Campbell is not the person, who can +be?" + +"What do you say to Mrs. Dixon?" + +"Mrs. Dixon! very true indeed. I had not thought of Mrs. Dixon. She must +know as well as her father, how acceptable an instrument would be; and +perhaps the mode of it, the mystery, the surprize, is more like a young +woman's scheme than an elderly man's. It is Mrs. Dixon, I dare say. I +told you that your suspicions would guide mine." + +"If so, you must extend your suspicions and comprehend _Mr_. Dixon in +them." + +"Mr. Dixon.--Very well. Yes, I immediately perceive that it must be the +joint present of Mr. and Mrs. Dixon. We were speaking the other day, you +know, of his being so warm an admirer of her performance." + +"Yes, and what you told me on that head, confirmed an idea which I had +entertained before.--I do not mean to reflect upon the good intentions +of either Mr. Dixon or Miss Fairfax, but I cannot help suspecting either +that, after making his proposals to her friend, he had the misfortune +to fall in love with _her_, or that he became conscious of a little +attachment on her side. One might guess twenty things without guessing +exactly the right; but I am sure there must be a particular cause for +her chusing to come to Highbury instead of going with the Campbells +to Ireland. Here, she must be leading a life of privation and penance; +there it would have been all enjoyment. As to the pretence of trying her +native air, I look upon that as a mere excuse.--In the summer it might +have passed; but what can any body's native air do for them in the +months of January, February, and March? Good fires and carriages would +be much more to the purpose in most cases of delicate health, and I dare +say in her's. I do not require you to adopt all my suspicions, though +you make so noble a profession of doing it, but I honestly tell you what +they are." + +"And, upon my word, they have an air of great probability. Mr. Dixon's +preference of her music to her friend's, I can answer for being very +decided." + +"And then, he saved her life. Did you ever hear of that?--A water +party; and by some accident she was falling overboard. He caught her." + +"He did. I was there--one of the party." + +"Were you really?--Well!--But you observed nothing of course, for it +seems to be a new idea to you.--If I had been there, I think I should +have made some discoveries." + +"I dare say you would; but I, simple I, saw nothing but the fact, that +Miss Fairfax was nearly dashed from the vessel and that Mr. Dixon caught +her.--It was the work of a moment. And though the consequent shock and +alarm was very great and much more durable--indeed I believe it was +half an hour before any of us were comfortable again--yet that was too +general a sensation for any thing of peculiar anxiety to be +observable. I do not mean to say, however, that you might not have made +discoveries." + +The conversation was here interrupted. They were called on to share +in the awkwardness of a rather long interval between the courses, and +obliged to be as formal and as orderly as the others; but when the table +was again safely covered, when every corner dish was placed exactly +right, and occupation and ease were generally restored, Emma said, + +"The arrival of this pianoforte is decisive with me. I wanted to know +a little more, and this tells me quite enough. Depend upon it, we shall +soon hear that it is a present from Mr. and Mrs. Dixon." + +"And if the Dixons should absolutely deny all knowledge of it we must +conclude it to come from the Campbells." + +"No, I am sure it is not from the Campbells. Miss Fairfax knows it is +not from the Campbells, or they would have been guessed at first. She +would not have been puzzled, had she dared fix on them. I may not have +convinced you perhaps, but I am perfectly convinced myself that Mr. +Dixon is a principal in the business." + +"Indeed you injure me if you suppose me unconvinced. Your reasonings +carry my judgment along with them entirely. At first, while I supposed +you satisfied that Colonel Campbell was the giver, I saw it only as +paternal kindness, and thought it the most natural thing in the world. +But when you mentioned Mrs. Dixon, I felt how much more probable that it +should be the tribute of warm female friendship. And now I can see it in +no other light than as an offering of love." + +There was no occasion to press the matter farther. The conviction seemed +real; he looked as if he felt it. She said no more, other subjects +took their turn; and the rest of the dinner passed away; the dessert +succeeded, the children came in, and were talked to and admired amid the +usual rate of conversation; a few clever things said, a few downright +silly, but by much the larger proportion neither the one nor the +other--nothing worse than everyday remarks, dull repetitions, old news, +and heavy jokes. + +The ladies had not been long in the drawing-room, before the other +ladies, in their different divisions, arrived. Emma watched the entree +of her own particular little friend; and if she could not exult in her +dignity and grace, she could not only love the blooming sweetness and +the artless manner, but could most heartily rejoice in that light, +cheerful, unsentimental disposition which allowed her so many +alleviations of pleasure, in the midst of the pangs of disappointed +affection. There she sat--and who would have guessed how many tears she +had been lately shedding? To be in company, nicely dressed herself and +seeing others nicely dressed, to sit and smile and look pretty, and say +nothing, was enough for the happiness of the present hour. Jane Fairfax +did look and move superior; but Emma suspected she might have been +glad to change feelings with Harriet, very glad to have purchased the +mortification of having loved--yes, of having loved even Mr. Elton in +vain--by the surrender of all the dangerous pleasure of knowing herself +beloved by the husband of her friend. + +In so large a party it was not necessary that Emma should approach her. +She did not wish to speak of the pianoforte, she felt too much in the +secret herself, to think the appearance of curiosity or interest fair, +and therefore purposely kept at a distance; but by the others, the +subject was almost immediately introduced, and she saw the blush of +consciousness with which congratulations were received, the blush +of guilt which accompanied the name of "my excellent friend Colonel +Campbell." + +Mrs. Weston, kind-hearted and musical, was particularly interested +by the circumstance, and Emma could not help being amused at her +perseverance in dwelling on the subject; and having so much to ask and +to say as to tone, touch, and pedal, totally unsuspicious of that wish +of saying as little about it as possible, which she plainly read in the +fair heroine's countenance. + +They were soon joined by some of the gentlemen; and the very first +of the early was Frank Churchill. In he walked, the first and the +handsomest; and after paying his compliments en passant to Miss Bates +and her niece, made his way directly to the opposite side of the circle, +where sat Miss Woodhouse; and till he could find a seat by her, would +not sit at all. Emma divined what every body present must be thinking. +She was his object, and every body must perceive it. She introduced him +to her friend, Miss Smith, and, at convenient moments afterwards, heard +what each thought of the other. "He had never seen so lovely a face, and +was delighted with her naivete." And she, "Only to be sure it was paying +him too great a compliment, but she did think there were some looks a +little like Mr. Elton." Emma restrained her indignation, and only turned +from her in silence. + +Smiles of intelligence passed between her and the gentleman on first +glancing towards Miss Fairfax; but it was most prudent to avoid speech. +He told her that he had been impatient to leave the dining-room--hated +sitting long--was always the first to move when he could--that his +father, Mr. Knightley, Mr. Cox, and Mr. Cole, were left very busy over +parish business--that as long as he had staid, however, it had been +pleasant enough, as he had found them in general a set of gentlemanlike, +sensible men; and spoke so handsomely of Highbury altogether--thought it +so abundant in agreeable families--that Emma began to feel she had been +used to despise the place rather too much. She questioned him as to the +society in Yorkshire--the extent of the neighbourhood about Enscombe, +and the sort; and could make out from his answers that, as far as +Enscombe was concerned, there was very little going on, that their +visitings were among a range of great families, none very near; and +that even when days were fixed, and invitations accepted, it was an even +chance that Mrs. Churchill were not in health and spirits for going; +that they made a point of visiting no fresh person; and that, though +he had his separate engagements, it was not without difficulty, without +considerable address _at_ _times_, that he could get away, or introduce +an acquaintance for a night. + +She saw that Enscombe could not satisfy, and that Highbury, taken at +its best, might reasonably please a young man who had more retirement at +home than he liked. His importance at Enscombe was very evident. He did +not boast, but it naturally betrayed itself, that he had persuaded his +aunt where his uncle could do nothing, and on her laughing and noticing +it, he owned that he believed (excepting one or two points) he could +_with_ _time_ persuade her to any thing. One of those points on which +his influence failed, he then mentioned. He had wanted very much to +go abroad--had been very eager indeed to be allowed to travel--but she +would not hear of it. This had happened the year before. _Now_, he said, +he was beginning to have no longer the same wish. + +The unpersuadable point, which he did not mention, Emma guessed to be +good behaviour to his father. + +"I have made a most wretched discovery," said he, after a short pause.-- +"I have been here a week to-morrow--half my time. I never knew days fly +so fast. A week to-morrow!--And I have hardly begun to enjoy myself. +But just got acquainted with Mrs. Weston, and others!--I hate the +recollection." + +"Perhaps you may now begin to regret that you spent one whole day, out +of so few, in having your hair cut." + +"No," said he, smiling, "that is no subject of regret at all. I have +no pleasure in seeing my friends, unless I can believe myself fit to be +seen." + +The rest of the gentlemen being now in the room, Emma found herself +obliged to turn from him for a few minutes, and listen to Mr. Cole. When +Mr. Cole had moved away, and her attention could be restored as before, +she saw Frank Churchill looking intently across the room at Miss +Fairfax, who was sitting exactly opposite. + +"What is the matter?" said she. + +He started. "Thank you for rousing me," he replied. "I believe I have +been very rude; but really Miss Fairfax has done her hair in so odd a +way--so very odd a way--that I cannot keep my eyes from her. I never saw +any thing so outree!--Those curls!--This must be a fancy of her own. I +see nobody else looking like her!--I must go and ask her whether it +is an Irish fashion. Shall I?--Yes, I will--I declare I will--and you +shall see how she takes it;--whether she colours." + +He was gone immediately; and Emma soon saw him standing before Miss +Fairfax, and talking to her; but as to its effect on the young lady, +as he had improvidently placed himself exactly between them, exactly in +front of Miss Fairfax, she could absolutely distinguish nothing. + +Before he could return to his chair, it was taken by Mrs. Weston. + +"This is the luxury of a large party," said she:--"one can get near +every body, and say every thing. My dear Emma, I am longing to talk +to you. I have been making discoveries and forming plans, just like +yourself, and I must tell them while the idea is fresh. Do you know how +Miss Bates and her niece came here?" + +"How?--They were invited, were not they?" + +"Oh! yes--but how they were conveyed hither?--the manner of their +coming?" + +"They walked, I conclude. How else could they come?" + +"Very true.--Well, a little while ago it occurred to me how very sad +it would be to have Jane Fairfax walking home again, late at night, and +cold as the nights are now. And as I looked at her, though I never saw +her appear to more advantage, it struck me that she was heated, and +would therefore be particularly liable to take cold. Poor girl! I could +not bear the idea of it; so, as soon as Mr. Weston came into the room, +and I could get at him, I spoke to him about the carriage. You may guess +how readily he came into my wishes; and having his approbation, I made +my way directly to Miss Bates, to assure her that the carriage would be +at her service before it took us home; for I thought it would be making +her comfortable at once. Good soul! she was as grateful as possible, you +may be sure. 'Nobody was ever so fortunate as herself!'--but with many, +many thanks--'there was no occasion to trouble us, for Mr. Knightley's +carriage had brought, and was to take them home again.' I was quite +surprized;--very glad, I am sure; but really quite surprized. Such a +very kind attention--and so thoughtful an attention!--the sort of thing +that so few men would think of. And, in short, from knowing his +usual ways, I am very much inclined to think that it was for their +accommodation the carriage was used at all. I do suspect he would not +have had a pair of horses for himself, and that it was only as an excuse +for assisting them." + +"Very likely," said Emma--"nothing more likely. I know no man more +likely than Mr. Knightley to do the sort of thing--to do any thing +really good-natured, useful, considerate, or benevolent. He is not a +gallant man, but he is a very humane one; and this, considering Jane +Fairfax's ill-health, would appear a case of humanity to him;--and for +an act of unostentatious kindness, there is nobody whom I would fix on +more than on Mr. Knightley. I know he had horses to-day--for we arrived +together; and I laughed at him about it, but he said not a word that +could betray." + +"Well," said Mrs. Weston, smiling, "you give him credit for more simple, +disinterested benevolence in this instance than I do; for while Miss +Bates was speaking, a suspicion darted into my head, and I have never +been able to get it out again. The more I think of it, the more probable +it appears. In short, I have made a match between Mr. Knightley and Jane +Fairfax. See the consequence of keeping you company!--What do you say to +it?" + +"Mr. Knightley and Jane Fairfax!" exclaimed Emma. "Dear Mrs. Weston, how +could you think of such a thing?--Mr. Knightley!--Mr. Knightley must not +marry!--You would not have little Henry cut out from Donwell?--Oh! no, +no, Henry must have Donwell. I cannot at all consent to Mr. Knightley's +marrying; and I am sure it is not at all likely. I am amazed that you +should think of such a thing." + +"My dear Emma, I have told you what led me to think of it. I do not want +the match--I do not want to injure dear little Henry--but the idea has +been given me by circumstances; and if Mr. Knightley really wished to +marry, you would not have him refrain on Henry's account, a boy of six +years old, who knows nothing of the matter?" + +"Yes, I would. I could not bear to have Henry supplanted.--Mr. +Knightley marry!--No, I have never had such an idea, and I cannot adopt +it now. And Jane Fairfax, too, of all women!" + +"Nay, she has always been a first favourite with him, as you very well +know." + +"But the imprudence of such a match!" + +"I am not speaking of its prudence; merely its probability." + +"I see no probability in it, unless you have any better foundation than +what you mention. His good-nature, his humanity, as I tell you, would +be quite enough to account for the horses. He has a great regard for the +Bateses, you know, independent of Jane Fairfax--and is always glad to +shew them attention. My dear Mrs. Weston, do not take to match-making. +You do it very ill. Jane Fairfax mistress of the Abbey!--Oh! no, +no;--every feeling revolts. For his own sake, I would not have him do so +mad a thing." + +"Imprudent, if you please--but not mad. Excepting inequality of fortune, +and perhaps a little disparity of age, I can see nothing unsuitable." + +"But Mr. Knightley does not want to marry. I am sure he has not the +least idea of it. Do not put it into his head. Why should he marry?--He +is as happy as possible by himself; with his farm, and his sheep, and +his library, and all the parish to manage; and he is extremely fond of +his brother's children. He has no occasion to marry, either to fill up +his time or his heart." + +"My dear Emma, as long as he thinks so, it is so; but if he really loves +Jane Fairfax--" + +"Nonsense! He does not care about Jane Fairfax. In the way of love, I am +sure he does not. He would do any good to her, or her family; but--" + +"Well," said Mrs. Weston, laughing, "perhaps the greatest good he could +do them, would be to give Jane such a respectable home." + +"If it would be good to her, I am sure it would be evil to himself; a +very shameful and degrading connexion. How would he bear to have Miss +Bates belonging to him?--To have her haunting the Abbey, and thanking +him all day long for his great kindness in marrying Jane?--'So very +kind and obliging!--But he always had been such a very kind neighbour!' +And then fly off, through half a sentence, to her mother's old +petticoat. 'Not that it was such a very old petticoat either--for still +it would last a great while--and, indeed, she must thankfully say that +their petticoats were all very strong.'" + +"For shame, Emma! Do not mimic her. You divert me against my conscience. +And, upon my word, I do not think Mr. Knightley would be much disturbed +by Miss Bates. Little things do not irritate him. She might talk on; and +if he wanted to say any thing himself, he would only talk louder, and +drown her voice. But the question is not, whether it would be a bad +connexion for him, but whether he wishes it; and I think he does. I have +heard him speak, and so must you, so very highly of Jane Fairfax! The +interest he takes in her--his anxiety about her health--his concern that +she should have no happier prospect! I have heard him express himself +so warmly on those points!--Such an admirer of her performance on the +pianoforte, and of her voice! I have heard him say that he could listen +to her for ever. Oh! and I had almost forgotten one idea that occurred +to me--this pianoforte that has been sent here by somebody--though +we have all been so well satisfied to consider it a present from the +Campbells, may it not be from Mr. Knightley? I cannot help suspecting +him. I think he is just the person to do it, even without being in +love." + +"Then it can be no argument to prove that he is in love. But I do not +think it is at all a likely thing for him to do. Mr. Knightley does +nothing mysteriously." + +"I have heard him lamenting her having no instrument repeatedly; oftener +than I should suppose such a circumstance would, in the common course of +things, occur to him." + +"Very well; and if he had intended to give her one, he would have told +her so." + +"There might be scruples of delicacy, my dear Emma. I have a very strong +notion that it comes from him. I am sure he was particularly silent when +Mrs. Cole told us of it at dinner." + +"You take up an idea, Mrs. Weston, and run away with it; as you have +many a time reproached me with doing. I see no sign of attachment--I +believe nothing of the pianoforte--and proof only shall convince me that +Mr. Knightley has any thought of marrying Jane Fairfax." + +They combated the point some time longer in the same way; Emma rather +gaining ground over the mind of her friend; for Mrs. Weston was the most +used of the two to yield; till a little bustle in the room shewed them +that tea was over, and the instrument in preparation;--and at the same +moment Mr. Cole approaching to entreat Miss Woodhouse would do them the +honour of trying it. Frank Churchill, of whom, in the eagerness of her +conversation with Mrs. Weston, she had been seeing nothing, except that +he had found a seat by Miss Fairfax, followed Mr. Cole, to add his very +pressing entreaties; and as, in every respect, it suited Emma best to +lead, she gave a very proper compliance. + +She knew the limitations of her own powers too well to attempt more than +she could perform with credit; she wanted neither taste nor spirit in +the little things which are generally acceptable, and could accompany +her own voice well. One accompaniment to her song took her agreeably by +surprize--a second, slightly but correctly taken by Frank Churchill. Her +pardon was duly begged at the close of the song, and every thing usual +followed. He was accused of having a delightful voice, and a perfect +knowledge of music; which was properly denied; and that he knew nothing +of the matter, and had no voice at all, roundly asserted. They sang +together once more; and Emma would then resign her place to Miss +Fairfax, whose performance, both vocal and instrumental, she never could +attempt to conceal from herself, was infinitely superior to her own. + +With mixed feelings, she seated herself at a little distance from the +numbers round the instrument, to listen. Frank Churchill sang again. +They had sung together once or twice, it appeared, at Weymouth. But the +sight of Mr. Knightley among the most attentive, soon drew away half +Emma's mind; and she fell into a train of thinking on the subject of +Mrs. Weston's suspicions, to which the sweet sounds of the united voices +gave only momentary interruptions. Her objections to Mr. Knightley's +marrying did not in the least subside. She could see nothing but evil +in it. It would be a great disappointment to Mr. John Knightley; +consequently to Isabella. A real injury to the children--a most +mortifying change, and material loss to them all;--a very great +deduction from her father's daily comfort--and, as to herself, she could +not at all endure the idea of Jane Fairfax at Donwell Abbey. A Mrs. +Knightley for them all to give way to!--No--Mr. Knightley must never +marry. Little Henry must remain the heir of Donwell. + +Presently Mr. Knightley looked back, and came and sat down by her. They +talked at first only of the performance. His admiration was certainly +very warm; yet she thought, but for Mrs. Weston, it would not have +struck her. As a sort of touchstone, however, she began to speak of his +kindness in conveying the aunt and niece; and though his answer was in +the spirit of cutting the matter short, she believed it to indicate only +his disinclination to dwell on any kindness of his own. + +"I often feel concern," said she, "that I dare not make our carriage +more useful on such occasions. It is not that I am without the wish; but +you know how impossible my father would deem it that James should put-to +for such a purpose." + +"Quite out of the question, quite out of the question," he +replied;--"but you must often wish it, I am sure." And he smiled with +such seeming pleasure at the conviction, that she must proceed another +step. + +"This present from the Campbells," said she--"this pianoforte is very +kindly given." + +"Yes," he replied, and without the smallest apparent +embarrassment.--"But they would have done better had they given +her notice of it. Surprizes are foolish things. The pleasure is not +enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable. I should have +expected better judgment in Colonel Campbell." + +From that moment, Emma could have taken her oath that Mr. Knightley had +had no concern in giving the instrument. But whether he were +entirely free from peculiar attachment--whether there were no actual +preference--remained a little longer doubtful. Towards the end of Jane's +second song, her voice grew thick. + +"That will do," said he, when it was finished, thinking aloud--"you have +sung quite enough for one evening--now be quiet." + +Another song, however, was soon begged for. "One more;--they would not +fatigue Miss Fairfax on any account, and would only ask for one more." +And Frank Churchill was heard to say, "I think you could manage this +without effort; the first part is so very trifling. The strength of the +song falls on the second." + +Mr. Knightley grew angry. + +"That fellow," said he, indignantly, "thinks of nothing but shewing off +his own voice. This must not be." And touching Miss Bates, who at that +moment passed near--"Miss Bates, are you mad, to let your niece sing +herself hoarse in this manner? Go, and interfere. They have no mercy on +her." + +Miss Bates, in her real anxiety for Jane, could hardly stay even to +be grateful, before she stept forward and put an end to all farther +singing. Here ceased the concert part of the evening, for Miss Woodhouse +and Miss Fairfax were the only young lady performers; but soon (within +five minutes) the proposal of dancing--originating nobody exactly knew +where--was so effectually promoted by Mr. and Mrs. Cole, that every +thing was rapidly clearing away, to give proper space. Mrs. Weston, +capital in her country-dances, was seated, and beginning an irresistible +waltz; and Frank Churchill, coming up with most becoming gallantry to +Emma, had secured her hand, and led her up to the top. + +While waiting till the other young people could pair themselves off, +Emma found time, in spite of the compliments she was receiving on +her voice and her taste, to look about, and see what became of Mr. +Knightley. This would be a trial. He was no dancer in general. If he +were to be very alert in engaging Jane Fairfax now, it might augur +something. There was no immediate appearance. No; he was talking to Mrs. +Cole--he was looking on unconcerned; Jane was asked by somebody else, +and he was still talking to Mrs. Cole. + +Emma had no longer an alarm for Henry; his interest was yet safe; and +she led off the dance with genuine spirit and enjoyment. Not more than +five couple could be mustered; but the rarity and the suddenness of +it made it very delightful, and she found herself well matched in a +partner. They were a couple worth looking at. + +Two dances, unfortunately, were all that could be allowed. It was +growing late, and Miss Bates became anxious to get home, on her mother's +account. After some attempts, therefore, to be permitted to begin again, +they were obliged to thank Mrs. Weston, look sorrowful, and have done. + +"Perhaps it is as well," said Frank Churchill, as he attended Emma to +her carriage. "I must have asked Miss Fairfax, and her languid dancing +would not have agreed with me, after yours." + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Emma did not repent her condescension in going to the Coles. The visit +afforded her many pleasant recollections the next day; and all that she +might be supposed to have lost on the side of dignified seclusion, must +be amply repaid in the splendour of popularity. She must have delighted +the Coles--worthy people, who deserved to be made happy!--And left a +name behind her that would not soon die away. + +Perfect happiness, even in memory, is not common; and there were two +points on which she was not quite easy. She doubted whether she had not +transgressed the duty of woman by woman, in betraying her suspicions of +Jane Fairfax's feelings to Frank Churchill. It was hardly right; but it +had been so strong an idea, that it would escape her, and his submission +to all that she told, was a compliment to her penetration, which made +it difficult for her to be quite certain that she ought to have held her +tongue. + +The other circumstance of regret related also to Jane Fairfax; and +there she had no doubt. She did unfeignedly and unequivocally regret the +inferiority of her own playing and singing. She did most heartily +grieve over the idleness of her childhood--and sat down and practised +vigorously an hour and a half. + +She was then interrupted by Harriet's coming in; and if Harriet's praise +could have satisfied her, she might soon have been comforted. + +"Oh! if I could but play as well as you and Miss Fairfax!" + +"Don't class us together, Harriet. My playing is no more like her's, +than a lamp is like sunshine." + +"Oh! dear--I think you play the best of the two. I think you play quite +as well as she does. I am sure I had much rather hear you. Every body +last night said how well you played." + +"Those who knew any thing about it, must have felt the difference. The +truth is, Harriet, that my playing is just good enough to be praised, +but Jane Fairfax's is much beyond it." + +"Well, I always shall think that you play quite as well as she does, or +that if there is any difference nobody would ever find it out. Mr. Cole +said how much taste you had; and Mr. Frank Churchill talked a great deal +about your taste, and that he valued taste much more than execution." + +"Ah! but Jane Fairfax has them both, Harriet." + +"Are you sure? I saw she had execution, but I did not know she had any +taste. Nobody talked about it. And I hate Italian singing.--There is no +understanding a word of it. Besides, if she does play so very well, you +know, it is no more than she is obliged to do, because she will have to +teach. The Coxes were wondering last night whether she would get into +any great family. How did you think the Coxes looked?" + +"Just as they always do--very vulgar." + +"They told me something," said Harriet rather hesitatingly; "but it is +nothing of any consequence." + +Emma was obliged to ask what they had told her, though fearful of its +producing Mr. Elton. + +"They told me--that Mr. Martin dined with them last Saturday." + +"Oh!" + +"He came to their father upon some business, and he asked him to stay to +dinner." + +"Oh!" + +"They talked a great deal about him, especially Anne Cox. I do not know +what she meant, but she asked me if I thought I should go and stay there +again next summer." + +"She meant to be impertinently curious, just as such an Anne Cox should +be." + +"She said he was very agreeable the day he dined there. He sat by her at +dinner. Miss Nash thinks either of the Coxes would be very glad to marry +him." + +"Very likely.--I think they are, without exception, the most vulgar +girls in Highbury." + +Harriet had business at Ford's.--Emma thought it most prudent to go with +her. Another accidental meeting with the Martins was possible, and in +her present state, would be dangerous. + +Harriet, tempted by every thing and swayed by half a word, was always +very long at a purchase; and while she was still hanging over muslins +and changing her mind, Emma went to the door for amusement.--Much could +not be hoped from the traffic of even the busiest part of Highbury;--Mr. +Perry walking hastily by, Mr. William Cox letting himself in at the +office-door, Mr. Cole's carriage-horses returning from exercise, or a +stray letter-boy on an obstinate mule, were the liveliest objects she +could presume to expect; and when her eyes fell only on the butcher with +his tray, a tidy old woman travelling homewards from shop with her full +basket, two curs quarrelling over a dirty bone, and a string of dawdling +children round the baker's little bow-window eyeing the gingerbread, she +knew she had no reason to complain, and was amused enough; quite enough +still to stand at the door. A mind lively and at ease, can do with +seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer. + +She looked down the Randalls road. The scene enlarged; two persons +appeared; Mrs. Weston and her son-in-law; they were walking into +Highbury;--to Hartfield of course. They were stopping, however, in the +first place at Mrs. Bates's; whose house was a little nearer +Randalls than Ford's; and had all but knocked, when Emma caught their +eye.--Immediately they crossed the road and came forward to her; and the +agreeableness of yesterday's engagement seemed to give fresh pleasure to +the present meeting. Mrs. Weston informed her that she was going to call +on the Bateses, in order to hear the new instrument. + +"For my companion tells me," said she, "that I absolutely promised Miss +Bates last night, that I would come this morning. I was not aware of it +myself. I did not know that I had fixed a day, but as he says I did, I +am going now." + +"And while Mrs. Weston pays her visit, I may be allowed, I hope," said +Frank Churchill, "to join your party and wait for her at Hartfield--if +you are going home." + +Mrs. Weston was disappointed. + +"I thought you meant to go with me. They would be very much pleased." + +"Me! I should be quite in the way. But, perhaps--I may be equally in the +way here. Miss Woodhouse looks as if she did not want me. My aunt always +sends me off when she is shopping. She says I fidget her to death; and +Miss Woodhouse looks as if she could almost say the same. What am I to +do?" + +"I am here on no business of my own," said Emma; "I am only waiting for +my friend. She will probably have soon done, and then we shall go home. +But you had better go with Mrs. Weston and hear the instrument." + +"Well--if you advise it.--But (with a smile) if Colonel Campbell should +have employed a careless friend, and if it should prove to have an +indifferent tone--what shall I say? I shall be no support to Mrs. +Weston. She might do very well by herself. A disagreeable truth would be +palatable through her lips, but I am the wretchedest being in the world +at a civil falsehood." + +"I do not believe any such thing," replied Emma.--"I am persuaded that +you can be as insincere as your neighbours, when it is necessary; but +there is no reason to suppose the instrument is indifferent. Quite +otherwise indeed, if I understood Miss Fairfax's opinion last night." + +"Do come with me," said Mrs. Weston, "if it be not very disagreeable to +you. It need not detain us long. We will go to Hartfield afterwards. +We will follow them to Hartfield. I really wish you to call with me. It +will be felt so great an attention! and I always thought you meant it." + +He could say no more; and with the hope of Hartfield to reward him, +returned with Mrs. Weston to Mrs. Bates's door. Emma watched them in, +and then joined Harriet at the interesting counter,--trying, with all +the force of her own mind, to convince her that if she wanted plain +muslin it was of no use to look at figured; and that a blue ribbon, be +it ever so beautiful, would still never match her yellow pattern. At +last it was all settled, even to the destination of the parcel. + +"Should I send it to Mrs. Goddard's, ma'am?" asked Mrs. +Ford.--"Yes--no--yes, to Mrs. Goddard's. Only my pattern gown is at +Hartfield. No, you shall send it to Hartfield, if you please. But then, +Mrs. Goddard will want to see it.--And I could take the pattern gown +home any day. But I shall want the ribbon directly--so it had better go +to Hartfield--at least the ribbon. You could make it into two parcels, +Mrs. Ford, could not you?" + +"It is not worth while, Harriet, to give Mrs. Ford the trouble of two +parcels." + +"No more it is." + +"No trouble in the world, ma'am," said the obliging Mrs. Ford. + +"Oh! but indeed I would much rather have it only in one. Then, if you +please, you shall send it all to Mrs. Goddard's--I do not know--No, I +think, Miss Woodhouse, I may just as well have it sent to Hartfield, and +take it home with me at night. What do you advise?" + +"That you do not give another half-second to the subject. To Hartfield, +if you please, Mrs. Ford." + +"Aye, that will be much best," said Harriet, quite satisfied, "I should +not at all like to have it sent to Mrs. Goddard's." + +Voices approached the shop--or rather one voice and two ladies: Mrs. +Weston and Miss Bates met them at the door. + +"My dear Miss Woodhouse," said the latter, "I am just run across to +entreat the favour of you to come and sit down with us a little while, +and give us your opinion of our new instrument; you and Miss Smith. How +do you do, Miss Smith?--Very well I thank you.--And I begged Mrs. Weston +to come with me, that I might be sure of succeeding." + +"I hope Mrs. Bates and Miss Fairfax are--" + +"Very well, I am much obliged to you. My mother is delightfully well; +and Jane caught no cold last night. How is Mr. Woodhouse?--I am so glad +to hear such a good account. Mrs. Weston told me you were here.--Oh! +then, said I, I must run across, I am sure Miss Woodhouse will allow me +just to run across and entreat her to come in; my mother will be so +very happy to see her--and now we are such a nice party, she cannot +refuse.--'Aye, pray do,' said Mr. Frank Churchill, 'Miss Woodhouse's +opinion of the instrument will be worth having.'--But, said I, I shall +be more sure of succeeding if one of you will go with me.--'Oh,' said +he, 'wait half a minute, till I have finished my job;'--For, would you +believe it, Miss Woodhouse, there he is, in the most obliging manner in +the world, fastening in the rivet of my mother's spectacles.--The rivet +came out, you know, this morning.--So very obliging!--For my mother had +no use of her spectacles--could not put them on. And, by the bye, every +body ought to have two pair of spectacles; they should indeed. Jane said +so. I meant to take them over to John Saunders the first thing I did, +but something or other hindered me all the morning; first one thing, +then another, there is no saying what, you know. At one time Patty came +to say she thought the kitchen chimney wanted sweeping. Oh, said I, +Patty do not come with your bad news to me. Here is the rivet of your +mistress's spectacles out. Then the baked apples came home, Mrs. Wallis +sent them by her boy; they are extremely civil and obliging to us, the +Wallises, always--I have heard some people say that Mrs. Wallis can be +uncivil and give a very rude answer, but we have never known any thing +but the greatest attention from them. And it cannot be for the value +of our custom now, for what is our consumption of bread, you know? +Only three of us.--besides dear Jane at present--and she really eats +nothing--makes such a shocking breakfast, you would be quite frightened +if you saw it. I dare not let my mother know how little she eats--so I +say one thing and then I say another, and it passes off. But about the +middle of the day she gets hungry, and there is nothing she likes so +well as these baked apples, and they are extremely wholesome, for I took +the opportunity the other day of asking Mr. Perry; I happened to meet +him in the street. Not that I had any doubt before--I have so often +heard Mr. Woodhouse recommend a baked apple. I believe it is the only +way that Mr. Woodhouse thinks the fruit thoroughly wholesome. We +have apple-dumplings, however, very often. Patty makes an excellent +apple-dumpling. Well, Mrs. Weston, you have prevailed, I hope, and these +ladies will oblige us." + +Emma would be "very happy to wait on Mrs. Bates, &c.," and they did at +last move out of the shop, with no farther delay from Miss Bates than, + +"How do you do, Mrs. Ford? I beg your pardon. I did not see you before. +I hear you have a charming collection of new ribbons from town. Jane +came back delighted yesterday. Thank ye, the gloves do very well--only a +little too large about the wrist; but Jane is taking them in." + +"What was I talking of?" said she, beginning again when they were all in +the street. + +Emma wondered on what, of all the medley, she would fix. + +"I declare I cannot recollect what I was talking of.--Oh! my mother's +spectacles. So very obliging of Mr. Frank Churchill! 'Oh!' said he, +'I do think I can fasten the rivet; I like a job of this kind +excessively.'--Which you know shewed him to be so very.... Indeed I must +say that, much as I had heard of him before and much as I had expected, +he very far exceeds any thing.... I do congratulate you, Mrs. Weston, +most warmly. He seems every thing the fondest parent could.... +'Oh!' said he, 'I can fasten the rivet. I like a job of that sort +excessively.' I never shall forget his manner. And when I brought out +the baked apples from the closet, and hoped our friends would be so very +obliging as to take some, 'Oh!' said he directly, 'there is nothing +in the way of fruit half so good, and these are the finest-looking +home-baked apples I ever saw in my life.' That, you know, was so +very.... And I am sure, by his manner, it was no compliment. Indeed they +are very delightful apples, and Mrs. Wallis does them full justice--only +we do not have them baked more than twice, and Mr. Woodhouse made us +promise to have them done three times--but Miss Woodhouse will be so +good as not to mention it. The apples themselves are the very finest +sort for baking, beyond a doubt; all from Donwell--some of Mr. +Knightley's most liberal supply. He sends us a sack every year; and +certainly there never was such a keeping apple anywhere as one of his +trees--I believe there is two of them. My mother says the orchard was +always famous in her younger days. But I was really quite shocked the +other day--for Mr. Knightley called one morning, and Jane was eating +these apples, and we talked about them and said how much she enjoyed +them, and he asked whether we were not got to the end of our stock. 'I +am sure you must be,' said he, 'and I will send you another supply; for +I have a great many more than I can ever use. William Larkins let me +keep a larger quantity than usual this year. I will send you some more, +before they get good for nothing.' So I begged he would not--for really +as to ours being gone, I could not absolutely say that we had a great +many left--it was but half a dozen indeed; but they should be all kept +for Jane; and I could not at all bear that he should be sending us more, +so liberal as he had been already; and Jane said the same. And when +he was gone, she almost quarrelled with me--No, I should not say +quarrelled, for we never had a quarrel in our lives; but she was quite +distressed that I had owned the apples were so nearly gone; she wished +I had made him believe we had a great many left. Oh, said I, my dear, +I did say as much as I could. However, the very same evening William +Larkins came over with a large basket of apples, the same sort of +apples, a bushel at least, and I was very much obliged, and went down +and spoke to William Larkins and said every thing, as you may suppose. +William Larkins is such an old acquaintance! I am always glad to see +him. But, however, I found afterwards from Patty, that William said it +was all the apples of _that_ sort his master had; he had brought them +all--and now his master had not one left to bake or boil. William did +not seem to mind it himself, he was so pleased to think his master had +sold so many; for William, you know, thinks more of his master's profit +than any thing; but Mrs. Hodges, he said, was quite displeased at their +being all sent away. She could not bear that her master should not be +able to have another apple-tart this spring. He told Patty this, but bid +her not mind it, and be sure not to say any thing to us about it, for +Mrs. Hodges _would_ be cross sometimes, and as long as so many sacks +were sold, it did not signify who ate the remainder. And so Patty told +me, and I was excessively shocked indeed! I would not have Mr. Knightley +know any thing about it for the world! He would be so very.... I wanted +to keep it from Jane's knowledge; but, unluckily, I had mentioned it +before I was aware." + +Miss Bates had just done as Patty opened the door; and her visitors +walked upstairs without having any regular narration to attend to, +pursued only by the sounds of her desultory good-will. + +"Pray take care, Mrs. Weston, there is a step at the turning. Pray take +care, Miss Woodhouse, ours is rather a dark staircase--rather darker +and narrower than one could wish. Miss Smith, pray take care. Miss +Woodhouse, I am quite concerned, I am sure you hit your foot. Miss +Smith, the step at the turning." + + + +CHAPTER X + + +The appearance of the little sitting-room as they entered, was +tranquillity itself; Mrs. Bates, deprived of her usual employment, +slumbering on one side of the fire, Frank Churchill, at a table near +her, most deedily occupied about her spectacles, and Jane Fairfax, +standing with her back to them, intent on her pianoforte. + +Busy as he was, however, the young man was yet able to shew a most happy +countenance on seeing Emma again. + +"This is a pleasure," said he, in rather a low voice, "coming at least +ten minutes earlier than I had calculated. You find me trying to be +useful; tell me if you think I shall succeed." + +"What!" said Mrs. Weston, "have not you finished it yet? you would not +earn a very good livelihood as a working silversmith at this rate." + +"I have not been working uninterruptedly," he replied, "I have been +assisting Miss Fairfax in trying to make her instrument stand steadily, +it was not quite firm; an unevenness in the floor, I believe. You see +we have been wedging one leg with paper. This was very kind of you to be +persuaded to come. I was almost afraid you would be hurrying home." + +He contrived that she should be seated by him; and was sufficiently +employed in looking out the best baked apple for her, and trying to make +her help or advise him in his work, till Jane Fairfax was quite ready +to sit down to the pianoforte again. That she was not immediately ready, +Emma did suspect to arise from the state of her nerves; she had not yet +possessed the instrument long enough to touch it without emotion; she +must reason herself into the power of performance; and Emma could not +but pity such feelings, whatever their origin, and could not but resolve +never to expose them to her neighbour again. + +At last Jane began, and though the first bars were feebly given, the +powers of the instrument were gradually done full justice to. Mrs. +Weston had been delighted before, and was delighted again; Emma +joined her in all her praise; and the pianoforte, with every proper +discrimination, was pronounced to be altogether of the highest promise. + +"Whoever Colonel Campbell might employ," said Frank Churchill, with a +smile at Emma, "the person has not chosen ill. I heard a good deal of +Colonel Campbell's taste at Weymouth; and the softness of the upper +notes I am sure is exactly what he and _all_ _that_ _party_ would +particularly prize. I dare say, Miss Fairfax, that he either gave his +friend very minute directions, or wrote to Broadwood himself. Do not you +think so?" + +Jane did not look round. She was not obliged to hear. Mrs. Weston had +been speaking to her at the same moment. + +"It is not fair," said Emma, in a whisper; "mine was a random guess. Do +not distress her." + +He shook his head with a smile, and looked as if he had very little +doubt and very little mercy. Soon afterwards he began again, + +"How much your friends in Ireland must be enjoying your pleasure on this +occasion, Miss Fairfax. I dare say they often think of you, and wonder +which will be the day, the precise day of the instrument's coming to +hand. Do you imagine Colonel Campbell knows the business to be going +forward just at this time?--Do you imagine it to be the consequence +of an immediate commission from him, or that he may have sent only +a general direction, an order indefinite as to time, to depend upon +contingencies and conveniences?" + +He paused. She could not but hear; she could not avoid answering, + +"Till I have a letter from Colonel Campbell," said she, in a voice of +forced calmness, "I can imagine nothing with any confidence. It must be +all conjecture." + +"Conjecture--aye, sometimes one conjectures right, and sometimes one +conjectures wrong. I wish I could conjecture how soon I shall make this +rivet quite firm. What nonsense one talks, Miss Woodhouse, when hard +at work, if one talks at all;--your real workmen, I suppose, hold their +tongues; but we gentlemen labourers if we get hold of a word--Miss +Fairfax said something about conjecturing. There, it is done. I have the +pleasure, madam, (to Mrs. Bates,) of restoring your spectacles, healed +for the present." + +He was very warmly thanked both by mother and daughter; to escape a +little from the latter, he went to the pianoforte, and begged Miss +Fairfax, who was still sitting at it, to play something more. + +"If you are very kind," said he, "it will be one of the waltzes we +danced last night;--let me live them over again. You did not enjoy them +as I did; you appeared tired the whole time. I believe you were glad we +danced no longer; but I would have given worlds--all the worlds one ever +has to give--for another half-hour." + +She played. + +"What felicity it is to hear a tune again which _has_ made one +happy!--If I mistake not that was danced at Weymouth." + +She looked up at him for a moment, coloured deeply, and played something +else. He took some music from a chair near the pianoforte, and turning +to Emma, said, + +"Here is something quite new to me. Do you know it?--Cramer.--And here +are a new set of Irish melodies. That, from such a quarter, one might +expect. This was all sent with the instrument. Very thoughtful of +Colonel Campbell, was not it?--He knew Miss Fairfax could have no music +here. I honour that part of the attention particularly; it shews it to +have been so thoroughly from the heart. Nothing hastily done; nothing +incomplete. True affection only could have prompted it." + +Emma wished he would be less pointed, yet could not help being amused; +and when on glancing her eye towards Jane Fairfax she caught the remains +of a smile, when she saw that with all the deep blush of consciousness, +there had been a smile of secret delight, she had less scruple in the +amusement, and much less compunction with respect to her.--This +amiable, upright, perfect Jane Fairfax was apparently cherishing very +reprehensible feelings. + +He brought all the music to her, and they looked it over together.--Emma +took the opportunity of whispering, + +"You speak too plain. She must understand you." + +"I hope she does. I would have her understand me. I am not in the least +ashamed of my meaning." + +"But really, I am half ashamed, and wish I had never taken up the idea." + +"I am very glad you did, and that you communicated it to me. I have now +a key to all her odd looks and ways. Leave shame to her. If she does +wrong, she ought to feel it." + +"She is not entirely without it, I think." + +"I do not see much sign of it. She is playing _Robin_ _Adair_ at this +moment--_his_ favourite." + +Shortly afterwards Miss Bates, passing near the window, descried Mr. +Knightley on horse-back not far off. + +"Mr. Knightley I declare!--I must speak to him if possible, just to +thank him. I will not open the window here; it would give you all cold; +but I can go into my mother's room you know. I dare say he will come +in when he knows who is here. Quite delightful to have you all meet +so!--Our little room so honoured!" + +She was in the adjoining chamber while she still spoke, and opening the +casement there, immediately called Mr. Knightley's attention, and every +syllable of their conversation was as distinctly heard by the others, as +if it had passed within the same apartment. + +"How d' ye do?--how d'ye do?--Very well, I thank you. So obliged to you +for the carriage last night. We were just in time; my mother just ready +for us. Pray come in; do come in. You will find some friends here." + +So began Miss Bates; and Mr. Knightley seemed determined to be heard in +his turn, for most resolutely and commandingly did he say, + +"How is your niece, Miss Bates?--I want to inquire after you all, but +particularly your niece. How is Miss Fairfax?--I hope she caught no cold +last night. How is she to-day? Tell me how Miss Fairfax is." + +And Miss Bates was obliged to give a direct answer before he would hear +her in any thing else. The listeners were amused; and Mrs. Weston gave +Emma a look of particular meaning. But Emma still shook her head in +steady scepticism. + +"So obliged to you!--so very much obliged to you for the carriage," +resumed Miss Bates. + +He cut her short with, + +"I am going to Kingston. Can I do any thing for you?" + +"Oh! dear, Kingston--are you?--Mrs. Cole was saying the other day she +wanted something from Kingston." + +"Mrs. Cole has servants to send. Can I do any thing for _you_?" + +"No, I thank you. But do come in. Who do you think is here?--Miss +Woodhouse and Miss Smith; so kind as to call to hear the new pianoforte. +Do put up your horse at the Crown, and come in." + +"Well," said he, in a deliberating manner, "for five minutes, perhaps." + +"And here is Mrs. Weston and Mr. Frank Churchill too!--Quite delightful; +so many friends!" + +"No, not now, I thank you. I could not stay two minutes. I must get on +to Kingston as fast as I can." + +"Oh! do come in. They will be so very happy to see you." + +"No, no; your room is full enough. I will call another day, and hear the +pianoforte." + +"Well, I am so sorry!--Oh! Mr. Knightley, what a delightful party last +night; how extremely pleasant.--Did you ever see such dancing?--Was not +it delightful?--Miss Woodhouse and Mr. Frank Churchill; I never saw any +thing equal to it." + +"Oh! very delightful indeed; I can say nothing less, for I suppose Miss +Woodhouse and Mr. Frank Churchill are hearing every thing that passes. +And (raising his voice still more) I do not see why Miss Fairfax should +not be mentioned too. I think Miss Fairfax dances very well; and Mrs. +Weston is the very best country-dance player, without exception, +in England. Now, if your friends have any gratitude, they will say +something pretty loud about you and me in return; but I cannot stay to +hear it." + +"Oh! Mr. Knightley, one moment more; something of consequence--so +shocked!--Jane and I are both so shocked about the apples!" + +"What is the matter now?" + +"To think of your sending us all your store apples. You said you had +a great many, and now you have not one left. We really are so shocked! +Mrs. Hodges may well be angry. William Larkins mentioned it here. You +should not have done it, indeed you should not. Ah! he is off. He never +can bear to be thanked. But I thought he would have staid now, and it +would have been a pity not to have mentioned.... Well, (returning to the +room,) I have not been able to succeed. Mr. Knightley cannot stop. He is +going to Kingston. He asked me if he could do any thing...." + +"Yes," said Jane, "we heard his kind offers, we heard every thing." + +"Oh! yes, my dear, I dare say you might, because you know, the door was +open, and the window was open, and Mr. Knightley spoke loud. You must +have heard every thing to be sure. 'Can I do any thing for you at +Kingston?' said he; so I just mentioned.... Oh! Miss Woodhouse, must you +be going?--You seem but just come--so very obliging of you." + +Emma found it really time to be at home; the visit had already lasted +long; and on examining watches, so much of the morning was perceived +to be gone, that Mrs. Weston and her companion taking leave also, could +allow themselves only to walk with the two young ladies to Hartfield +gates, before they set off for Randalls. + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been +known of young people passing many, many months successively, without +being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue +either to body or mind;--but when a beginning is made--when the +felicities of rapid motion have once been, though slightly, felt--it +must be a very heavy set that does not ask for more. + +Frank Churchill had danced once at Highbury, and longed to dance again; +and the last half-hour of an evening which Mr. Woodhouse was persuaded +to spend with his daughter at Randalls, was passed by the two young +people in schemes on the subject. Frank's was the first idea; and his +the greatest zeal in pursuing it; for the lady was the best judge of the +difficulties, and the most solicitous for accommodation and appearance. +But still she had inclination enough for shewing people again how +delightfully Mr. Frank Churchill and Miss Woodhouse danced--for +doing that in which she need not blush to compare herself with Jane +Fairfax--and even for simple dancing itself, without any of the wicked +aids of vanity--to assist him first in pacing out the room they were in +to see what it could be made to hold--and then in taking the dimensions +of the other parlour, in the hope of discovering, in spite of all that +Mr. Weston could say of their exactly equal size, that it was a little +the largest. + +His first proposition and request, that the dance begun at Mr. Cole's +should be finished there--that the same party should be collected, +and the same musician engaged, met with the readiest acquiescence. Mr. +Weston entered into the idea with thorough enjoyment, and Mrs. Weston +most willingly undertook to play as long as they could wish to dance; +and the interesting employment had followed, of reckoning up exactly who +there would be, and portioning out the indispensable division of space +to every couple. + +"You and Miss Smith, and Miss Fairfax, will be three, and the two Miss +Coxes five," had been repeated many times over. "And there will be the +two Gilberts, young Cox, my father, and myself, besides Mr. Knightley. +Yes, that will be quite enough for pleasure. You and Miss Smith, and +Miss Fairfax, will be three, and the two Miss Coxes five; and for five +couple there will be plenty of room." + +But soon it came to be on one side, + +"But will there be good room for five couple?--I really do not think +there will." + +On another, + +"And after all, five couple are not enough to make it worth while to +stand up. Five couple are nothing, when one thinks seriously about it. +It will not do to _invite_ five couple. It can be allowable only as the +thought of the moment." + +Somebody said that _Miss_ Gilbert was expected at her brother's, and +must be invited with the rest. Somebody else believed _Mrs_. Gilbert +would have danced the other evening, if she had been asked. A word was +put in for a second young Cox; and at last, Mr. Weston naming one family +of cousins who must be included, and another of very old acquaintance +who could not be left out, it became a certainty that the five couple +would be at least ten, and a very interesting speculation in what +possible manner they could be disposed of. + +The doors of the two rooms were just opposite each other. "Might not +they use both rooms, and dance across the passage?" It seemed the +best scheme; and yet it was not so good but that many of them wanted a +better. Emma said it would be awkward; Mrs. Weston was in distress about +the supper; and Mr. Woodhouse opposed it earnestly, on the score of +health. It made him so very unhappy, indeed, that it could not be +persevered in. + +"Oh! no," said he; "it would be the extreme of imprudence. I could not +bear it for Emma!--Emma is not strong. She would catch a dreadful cold. +So would poor little Harriet. So you would all. Mrs. Weston, you would +be quite laid up; do not let them talk of such a wild thing. Pray do +not let them talk of it. That young man (speaking lower) is very +thoughtless. Do not tell his father, but that young man is not quite +the thing. He has been opening the doors very often this evening, +and keeping them open very inconsiderately. He does not think of the +draught. I do not mean to set you against him, but indeed he is not +quite the thing!" + +Mrs. Weston was sorry for such a charge. She knew the importance of +it, and said every thing in her power to do it away. Every door was now +closed, the passage plan given up, and the first scheme of dancing only +in the room they were in resorted to again; and with such good-will on +Frank Churchill's part, that the space which a quarter of an hour before +had been deemed barely sufficient for five couple, was now endeavoured +to be made out quite enough for ten. + +"We were too magnificent," said he. "We allowed unnecessary room. Ten +couple may stand here very well." + +Emma demurred. "It would be a crowd--a sad crowd; and what could be +worse than dancing without space to turn in?" + +"Very true," he gravely replied; "it was very bad." But still he went on +measuring, and still he ended with, + +"I think there will be very tolerable room for ten couple." + +"No, no," said she, "you are quite unreasonable. It would be dreadful +to be standing so close! Nothing can be farther from pleasure than to be +dancing in a crowd--and a crowd in a little room!" + +"There is no denying it," he replied. "I agree with you exactly. A crowd +in a little room--Miss Woodhouse, you have the art of giving pictures +in a few words. Exquisite, quite exquisite!--Still, however, having +proceeded so far, one is unwilling to give the matter up. It would be +a disappointment to my father--and altogether--I do not know that--I am +rather of opinion that ten couple might stand here very well." + +Emma perceived that the nature of his gallantry was a little +self-willed, and that he would rather oppose than lose the pleasure of +dancing with her; but she took the compliment, and forgave the rest. +Had she intended ever to _marry_ him, it might have been worth while to +pause and consider, and try to understand the value of his preference, +and the character of his temper; but for all the purposes of their +acquaintance, he was quite amiable enough. + +Before the middle of the next day, he was at Hartfield; and he entered +the room with such an agreeable smile as certified the continuance of +the scheme. It soon appeared that he came to announce an improvement. + +"Well, Miss Woodhouse," he almost immediately began, "your inclination +for dancing has not been quite frightened away, I hope, by the terrors +of my father's little rooms. I bring a new proposal on the subject:--a +thought of my father's, which waits only your approbation to be acted +upon. May I hope for the honour of your hand for the two first dances +of this little projected ball, to be given, not at Randalls, but at the +Crown Inn?" + +"The Crown!" + +"Yes; if you and Mr. Woodhouse see no objection, and I trust you cannot, +my father hopes his friends will be so kind as to visit him there. +Better accommodations, he can promise them, and not a less grateful +welcome than at Randalls. It is his own idea. Mrs. Weston sees no +objection to it, provided you are satisfied. This is what we all feel. +Oh! you were perfectly right! Ten couple, in either of the Randalls +rooms, would have been insufferable!--Dreadful!--I felt how right you +were the whole time, but was too anxious for securing _any_ _thing_ +to like to yield. Is not it a good exchange?--You consent--I hope you +consent?" + +"It appears to me a plan that nobody can object to, if Mr. and Mrs. +Weston do not. I think it admirable; and, as far as I can answer for +myself, shall be most happy--It seems the only improvement that could +be. Papa, do you not think it an excellent improvement?" + +She was obliged to repeat and explain it, before it was fully +comprehended; and then, being quite new, farther representations were +necessary to make it acceptable. + +"No; he thought it very far from an improvement--a very bad plan--much +worse than the other. A room at an inn was always damp and dangerous; +never properly aired, or fit to be inhabited. If they must dance, they +had better dance at Randalls. He had never been in the room at the Crown +in his life--did not know the people who kept it by sight.--Oh! no--a +very bad plan. They would catch worse colds at the Crown than anywhere." + +"I was going to observe, sir," said Frank Churchill, "that one of the +great recommendations of this change would be the very little danger +of any body's catching cold--so much less danger at the Crown than at +Randalls! Mr. Perry might have reason to regret the alteration, but +nobody else could." + +"Sir," said Mr. Woodhouse, rather warmly, "you are very much mistaken +if you suppose Mr. Perry to be that sort of character. Mr. Perry is +extremely concerned when any of us are ill. But I do not understand how +the room at the Crown can be safer for you than your father's house." + +"From the very circumstance of its being larger, sir. We shall have no +occasion to open the windows at all--not once the whole evening; and it +is that dreadful habit of opening the windows, letting in cold air upon +heated bodies, which (as you well know, sir) does the mischief." + +"Open the windows!--but surely, Mr. Churchill, nobody would think of +opening the windows at Randalls. Nobody could be so imprudent! I never +heard of such a thing. Dancing with open windows!--I am sure, neither +your father nor Mrs. Weston (poor Miss Taylor that was) would suffer +it." + +"Ah! sir--but a thoughtless young person will sometimes step behind a +window-curtain, and throw up a sash, without its being suspected. I have +often known it done myself." + +"Have you indeed, sir?--Bless me! I never could have supposed it. But I +live out of the world, and am often astonished at what I hear. However, +this does make a difference; and, perhaps, when we come to talk it +over--but these sort of things require a good deal of consideration. One +cannot resolve upon them in a hurry. If Mr. and Mrs. Weston will be so +obliging as to call here one morning, we may talk it over, and see what +can be done." + +"But, unfortunately, sir, my time is so limited--" + +"Oh!" interrupted Emma, "there will be plenty of time for talking every +thing over. There is no hurry at all. If it can be contrived to be at +the Crown, papa, it will be very convenient for the horses. They will be +so near their own stable." + +"So they will, my dear. That is a great thing. Not that James ever +complains; but it is right to spare our horses when we can. If I could +be sure of the rooms being thoroughly aired--but is Mrs. Stokes to be +trusted? I doubt it. I do not know her, even by sight." + +"I can answer for every thing of that nature, sir, because it will be +under Mrs. Weston's care. Mrs. Weston undertakes to direct the whole." + +"There, papa!--Now you must be satisfied--Our own dear Mrs. Weston, who +is carefulness itself. Do not you remember what Mr. Perry said, so many +years ago, when I had the measles? 'If _Miss_ _Taylor_ undertakes to +wrap Miss Emma up, you need not have any fears, sir.' How often have I +heard you speak of it as such a compliment to her!" + +"Aye, very true. Mr. Perry did say so. I shall never forget it. Poor +little Emma! You were very bad with the measles; that is, you would have +been very bad, but for Perry's great attention. He came four times a day +for a week. He said, from the first, it was a very good sort--which +was our great comfort; but the measles are a dreadful complaint. I hope +whenever poor Isabella's little ones have the measles, she will send for +Perry." + +"My father and Mrs. Weston are at the Crown at this moment," said Frank +Churchill, "examining the capabilities of the house. I left them there +and came on to Hartfield, impatient for your opinion, and hoping you +might be persuaded to join them and give your advice on the spot. I was +desired to say so from both. It would be the greatest pleasure to +them, if you could allow me to attend you there. They can do nothing +satisfactorily without you." + +Emma was most happy to be called to such a council; and her father, +engaging to think it all over while she was gone, the two young people +set off together without delay for the Crown. There were Mr. and Mrs. +Weston; delighted to see her and receive her approbation, very busy and +very happy in their different way; she, in some little distress; and he, +finding every thing perfect. + +"Emma," said she, "this paper is worse than I expected. Look! in places +you see it is dreadfully dirty; and the wainscot is more yellow and +forlorn than any thing I could have imagined." + +"My dear, you are too particular," said her husband. "What does all that +signify? You will see nothing of it by candlelight. It will be as +clean as Randalls by candlelight. We never see any thing of it on our +club-nights." + +The ladies here probably exchanged looks which meant, "Men never know +when things are dirty or not;" and the gentlemen perhaps thought each to +himself, "Women will have their little nonsenses and needless cares." + +One perplexity, however, arose, which the gentlemen did not disdain. +It regarded a supper-room. At the time of the ballroom's being built, +suppers had not been in question; and a small card-room adjoining, was +the only addition. What was to be done? This card-room would be wanted +as a card-room now; or, if cards were conveniently voted unnecessary +by their four selves, still was it not too small for any comfortable +supper? Another room of much better size might be secured for the +purpose; but it was at the other end of the house, and a long awkward +passage must be gone through to get at it. This made a difficulty. Mrs. +Weston was afraid of draughts for the young people in that passage; +and neither Emma nor the gentlemen could tolerate the prospect of being +miserably crowded at supper. + +Mrs. Weston proposed having no regular supper; merely sandwiches, +&c., set out in the little room; but that was scouted as a wretched +suggestion. A private dance, without sitting down to supper, was +pronounced an infamous fraud upon the rights of men and women; and +Mrs. Weston must not speak of it again. She then took another line of +expediency, and looking into the doubtful room, observed, + +"I do not think it _is_ so very small. We shall not be many, you know." + +And Mr. Weston at the same time, walking briskly with long steps through +the passage, was calling out, + +"You talk a great deal of the length of this passage, my dear. It is a +mere nothing after all; and not the least draught from the stairs." + +"I wish," said Mrs. Weston, "one could know which arrangement our guests +in general would like best. To do what would be most generally pleasing +must be our object--if one could but tell what that would be." + +"Yes, very true," cried Frank, "very true. You want your neighbours' +opinions. I do not wonder at you. If one could ascertain what the chief +of them--the Coles, for instance. They are not far off. Shall I call +upon them? Or Miss Bates? She is still nearer.--And I do not know +whether Miss Bates is not as likely to understand the inclinations of +the rest of the people as any body. I think we do want a larger council. +Suppose I go and invite Miss Bates to join us?" + +"Well--if you please," said Mrs. Weston rather hesitating, "if you think +she will be of any use." + +"You will get nothing to the purpose from Miss Bates," said Emma. "She +will be all delight and gratitude, but she will tell you nothing. She +will not even listen to your questions. I see no advantage in consulting +Miss Bates." + +"But she is so amusing, so extremely amusing! I am very fond of hearing +Miss Bates talk. And I need not bring the whole family, you know." + +Here Mr. Weston joined them, and on hearing what was proposed, gave it +his decided approbation. + +"Aye, do, Frank.--Go and fetch Miss Bates, and let us end the matter at +once. She will enjoy the scheme, I am sure; and I do not know a properer +person for shewing us how to do away difficulties. Fetch Miss Bates. +We are growing a little too nice. She is a standing lesson of how to be +happy. But fetch them both. Invite them both." + +"Both sir! Can the old lady?"... + +"The old lady! No, the young lady, to be sure. I shall think you a great +blockhead, Frank, if you bring the aunt without the niece." + +"Oh! I beg your pardon, sir. I did not immediately recollect. +Undoubtedly if you wish it, I will endeavour to persuade them both." And +away he ran. + +Long before he reappeared, attending the short, neat, brisk-moving aunt, +and her elegant niece,--Mrs. Weston, like a sweet-tempered woman and +a good wife, had examined the passage again, and found the evils of it +much less than she had supposed before--indeed very trifling; and here +ended the difficulties of decision. All the rest, in speculation at +least, was perfectly smooth. All the minor arrangements of table and +chair, lights and music, tea and supper, made themselves; or were left +as mere trifles to be settled at any time between Mrs. Weston and Mrs. +Stokes.--Every body invited, was certainly to come; Frank had already +written to Enscombe to propose staying a few days beyond his fortnight, +which could not possibly be refused. And a delightful dance it was to +be. + +Most cordially, when Miss Bates arrived, did she agree that it must. +As a counsellor she was not wanted; but as an approver, (a much safer +character,) she was truly welcome. Her approbation, at once general +and minute, warm and incessant, could not but please; and for another +half-hour they were all walking to and fro, between the different rooms, +some suggesting, some attending, and all in happy enjoyment of the +future. The party did not break up without Emma's being positively +secured for the two first dances by the hero of the evening, nor without +her overhearing Mr. Weston whisper to his wife, "He has asked her, my +dear. That's right. I knew he would!" + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +One thing only was wanting to make the prospect of the ball completely +satisfactory to Emma--its being fixed for a day within the granted +term of Frank Churchill's stay in Surry; for, in spite of Mr. Weston's +confidence, she could not think it so very impossible that the +Churchills might not allow their nephew to remain a day beyond his +fortnight. But this was not judged feasible. The preparations must take +their time, nothing could be properly ready till the third week were +entered on, and for a few days they must be planning, proceeding and +hoping in uncertainty--at the risk--in her opinion, the great risk, of +its being all in vain. + +Enscombe however was gracious, gracious in fact, if not in word. His +wish of staying longer evidently did not please; but it was not opposed. +All was safe and prosperous; and as the removal of one solicitude +generally makes way for another, Emma, being now certain of her +ball, began to adopt as the next vexation Mr. Knightley's provoking +indifference about it. Either because he did not dance himself, or +because the plan had been formed without his being consulted, he +seemed resolved that it should not interest him, determined against its +exciting any present curiosity, or affording him any future amusement. +To her voluntary communications Emma could get no more approving reply, +than, + +"Very well. If the Westons think it worth while to be at all this +trouble for a few hours of noisy entertainment, I have nothing to say +against it, but that they shall not chuse pleasures for me.--Oh! yes, +I must be there; I could not refuse; and I will keep as much awake as +I can; but I would rather be at home, looking over William Larkins's +week's account; much rather, I confess.--Pleasure in seeing +dancing!--not I, indeed--I never look at it--I do not know who +does.--Fine dancing, I believe, like virtue, must be its own reward. +Those who are standing by are usually thinking of something very +different." + +This Emma felt was aimed at her; and it made her quite angry. It was not +in compliment to Jane Fairfax however that he was so indifferent, or so +indignant; he was not guided by _her_ feelings in reprobating the ball, +for _she_ enjoyed the thought of it to an extraordinary degree. It made +her animated--open hearted--she voluntarily said;-- + +"Oh! Miss Woodhouse, I hope nothing may happen to prevent the ball. +What a disappointment it would be! I do look forward to it, I own, with +_very_ great pleasure." + +It was not to oblige Jane Fairfax therefore that he would have preferred +the society of William Larkins. No!--she was more and more convinced +that Mrs. Weston was quite mistaken in that surmise. There was a great +deal of friendly and of compassionate attachment on his side--but no +love. + +Alas! there was soon no leisure for quarrelling with Mr. Knightley. Two +days of joyful security were immediately followed by the over-throw of +every thing. A letter arrived from Mr. Churchill to urge his nephew's +instant return. Mrs. Churchill was unwell--far too unwell to do without +him; she had been in a very suffering state (so said her husband) +when writing to her nephew two days before, though from her usual +unwillingness to give pain, and constant habit of never thinking of +herself, she had not mentioned it; but now she was too ill to trifle, +and must entreat him to set off for Enscombe without delay. + +The substance of this letter was forwarded to Emma, in a note from Mrs. +Weston, instantly. As to his going, it was inevitable. He must be gone +within a few hours, though without feeling any real alarm for his aunt, +to lessen his repugnance. He knew her illnesses; they never occurred but +for her own convenience. + +Mrs. Weston added, "that he could only allow himself time to hurry to +Highbury, after breakfast, and take leave of the few friends there +whom he could suppose to feel any interest in him; and that he might be +expected at Hartfield very soon." + +This wretched note was the finale of Emma's breakfast. When once it had +been read, there was no doing any thing, but lament and exclaim. The +loss of the ball--the loss of the young man--and all that the young man +might be feeling!--It was too wretched!--Such a delightful evening as +it would have been!--Every body so happy! and she and her partner the +happiest!--"I said it would be so," was the only consolation. + +Her father's feelings were quite distinct. He thought principally of +Mrs. Churchill's illness, and wanted to know how she was treated; and as +for the ball, it was shocking to have dear Emma disappointed; but they +would all be safer at home. + +Emma was ready for her visitor some time before he appeared; but if this +reflected at all upon his impatience, his sorrowful look and total want +of spirits when he did come might redeem him. He felt the going away +almost too much to speak of it. His dejection was most evident. He +sat really lost in thought for the first few minutes; and when rousing +himself, it was only to say, + +"Of all horrid things, leave-taking is the worst." + +"But you will come again," said Emma. "This will not be your only visit +to Randalls." + +"Ah!--(shaking his head)--the uncertainty of when I may be able to +return!--I shall try for it with a zeal!--It will be the object of +all my thoughts and cares!--and if my uncle and aunt go to town this +spring--but I am afraid--they did not stir last spring--I am afraid it +is a custom gone for ever." + +"Our poor ball must be quite given up." + +"Ah! that ball!--why did we wait for any thing?--why not seize the +pleasure at once?--How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, +foolish preparation!--You told us it would be so.--Oh! Miss Woodhouse, +why are you always so right?" + +"Indeed, I am very sorry to be right in this instance. I would much +rather have been merry than wise." + +"If I can come again, we are still to have our ball. My father depends +on it. Do not forget your engagement." + +Emma looked graciously. + +"Such a fortnight as it has been!" he continued; "every day more +precious and more delightful than the day before!--every day making +me less fit to bear any other place. Happy those, who can remain at +Highbury!" + +"As you do us such ample justice now," said Emma, laughing, "I will +venture to ask, whether you did not come a little doubtfully at first? +Do not we rather surpass your expectations? I am sure we do. I am sure +you did not much expect to like us. You would not have been so long in +coming, if you had had a pleasant idea of Highbury." + +He laughed rather consciously; and though denying the sentiment, Emma +was convinced that it had been so. + +"And you must be off this very morning?" + +"Yes; my father is to join me here: we shall walk back together, and I +must be off immediately. I am almost afraid that every moment will bring +him." + +"Not five minutes to spare even for your friends Miss Fairfax and Miss +Bates? How unlucky! Miss Bates's powerful, argumentative mind might have +strengthened yours." + +"Yes--I _have_ called there; passing the door, I thought it better. It +was a right thing to do. I went in for three minutes, and was detained +by Miss Bates's being absent. She was out; and I felt it impossible not +to wait till she came in. She is a woman that one may, that one _must_ +laugh at; but that one would not wish to slight. It was better to pay my +visit, then"-- + +He hesitated, got up, walked to a window. + +"In short," said he, "perhaps, Miss Woodhouse--I think you can hardly be +quite without suspicion"-- + +He looked at her, as if wanting to read her thoughts. She hardly knew +what to say. It seemed like the forerunner of something absolutely +serious, which she did not wish. Forcing herself to speak, therefore, in +the hope of putting it by, she calmly said, + +"You are quite in the right; it was most natural to pay your visit, +then"-- + +He was silent. She believed he was looking at her; probably reflecting +on what she had said, and trying to understand the manner. She heard +him sigh. It was natural for him to feel that he had _cause_ to sigh. +He could not believe her to be encouraging him. A few awkward moments +passed, and he sat down again; and in a more determined manner said, + +"It was something to feel that all the rest of my time might be given to +Hartfield. My regard for Hartfield is most warm"-- + +He stopt again, rose again, and seemed quite embarrassed.--He was more +in love with her than Emma had supposed; and who can say how it might +have ended, if his father had not made his appearance? Mr. Woodhouse +soon followed; and the necessity of exertion made him composed. + +A very few minutes more, however, completed the present trial. Mr. +Weston, always alert when business was to be done, and as incapable of +procrastinating any evil that was inevitable, as of foreseeing any that +was doubtful, said, "It was time to go;" and the young man, though he +might and did sigh, could not but agree, to take leave. + +"I shall hear about you all," said he; "that is my chief consolation. +I shall hear of every thing that is going on among you. I have engaged +Mrs. Weston to correspond with me. She has been so kind as to promise +it. Oh! the blessing of a female correspondent, when one is really +interested in the absent!--she will tell me every thing. In her letters +I shall be at dear Highbury again." + +A very friendly shake of the hand, a very earnest "Good-bye," closed the +speech, and the door had soon shut out Frank Churchill. Short had been +the notice--short their meeting; he was gone; and Emma felt so sorry +to part, and foresaw so great a loss to their little society from his +absence as to begin to be afraid of being too sorry, and feeling it too +much. + +It was a sad change. They had been meeting almost every day since his +arrival. Certainly his being at Randalls had given great spirit to +the last two weeks--indescribable spirit; the idea, the expectation +of seeing him which every morning had brought, the assurance of his +attentions, his liveliness, his manners! It had been a very happy +fortnight, and forlorn must be the sinking from it into the common +course of Hartfield days. To complete every other recommendation, he had +_almost_ told her that he loved her. What strength, or what constancy of +affection he might be subject to, was another point; but at present +she could not doubt his having a decidedly warm admiration, a conscious +preference of herself; and this persuasion, joined to all the rest, +made her think that she _must_ be a little in love with him, in spite of +every previous determination against it. + +"I certainly must," said she. "This sensation of listlessness, +weariness, stupidity, this disinclination to sit down and employ myself, +this feeling of every thing's being dull and insipid about the house!-- +I must be in love; I should be the oddest creature in the world if I +were not--for a few weeks at least. Well! evil to some is always good to +others. I shall have many fellow-mourners for the ball, if not for Frank +Churchill; but Mr. Knightley will be happy. He may spend the evening +with his dear William Larkins now if he likes." + +Mr. Knightley, however, shewed no triumphant happiness. He could not say +that he was sorry on his own account; his very cheerful look would have +contradicted him if he had; but he said, and very steadily, that he +was sorry for the disappointment of the others, and with considerable +kindness added, + +"You, Emma, who have so few opportunities of dancing, you are really out +of luck; you are very much out of luck!" + +It was some days before she saw Jane Fairfax, to judge of her honest +regret in this woeful change; but when they did meet, her composure +was odious. She had been particularly unwell, however, suffering from +headache to a degree, which made her aunt declare, that had the ball +taken place, she did not think Jane could have attended it; and it was +charity to impute some of her unbecoming indifference to the languor of +ill-health. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Emma continued to entertain no doubt of her being in love. Her ideas +only varied as to the how much. At first, she thought it was a good +deal; and afterwards, but little. She had great pleasure in hearing +Frank Churchill talked of; and, for his sake, greater pleasure than ever +in seeing Mr. and Mrs. Weston; she was very often thinking of him, and +quite impatient for a letter, that she might know how he was, how were +his spirits, how was his aunt, and what was the chance of his coming to +Randalls again this spring. But, on the other hand, she could not admit +herself to be unhappy, nor, after the first morning, to be less disposed +for employment than usual; she was still busy and cheerful; and, +pleasing as he was, she could yet imagine him to have faults; and +farther, though thinking of him so much, and, as she sat drawing or +working, forming a thousand amusing schemes for the progress and close +of their attachment, fancying interesting dialogues, and inventing +elegant letters; the conclusion of every imaginary declaration on his +side was that she _refused_ _him_. Their affection was always to subside +into friendship. Every thing tender and charming was to mark their +parting; but still they were to part. When she became sensible of this, +it struck her that she could not be very much in love; for in spite of +her previous and fixed determination never to quit her father, never +to marry, a strong attachment certainly must produce more of a struggle +than she could foresee in her own feelings. + +"I do not find myself making any use of the word _sacrifice_," said +she.--"In not one of all my clever replies, my delicate negatives, is +there any allusion to making a sacrifice. I do suspect that he is not +really necessary to my happiness. So much the better. I certainly will +not persuade myself to feel more than I do. I am quite enough in love. I +should be sorry to be more." + +Upon the whole, she was equally contented with her view of his feelings. + +"_He_ is undoubtedly very much in love--every thing denotes it--very +much in love indeed!--and when he comes again, if his affection +continue, I must be on my guard not to encourage it.--It would be most +inexcusable to do otherwise, as my own mind is quite made up. Not that I +imagine he can think I have been encouraging him hitherto. No, if he +had believed me at all to share his feelings, he would not have been +so wretched. Could he have thought himself encouraged, his looks and +language at parting would have been different.--Still, however, I must +be on my guard. This is in the supposition of his attachment continuing +what it now is; but I do not know that I expect it will; I do not look +upon him to be quite the sort of man--I do not altogether build upon +his steadiness or constancy.--His feelings are warm, but I can imagine +them rather changeable.--Every consideration of the subject, in short, +makes me thankful that my happiness is not more deeply involved.--I +shall do very well again after a little while--and then, it will be a +good thing over; for they say every body is in love once in their lives, +and I shall have been let off easily." + +When his letter to Mrs. Weston arrived, Emma had the perusal of it; and +she read it with a degree of pleasure and admiration which made her +at first shake her head over her own sensations, and think she had +undervalued their strength. It was a long, well-written letter, giving +the particulars of his journey and of his feelings, expressing all the +affection, gratitude, and respect which was natural and honourable, +and describing every thing exterior and local that could be supposed +attractive, with spirit and precision. No suspicious flourishes now of +apology or concern; it was the language of real feeling towards Mrs. +Weston; and the transition from Highbury to Enscombe, the contrast +between the places in some of the first blessings of social life was +just enough touched on to shew how keenly it was felt, and how much more +might have been said but for the restraints of propriety.--The charm +of her own name was not wanting. _Miss_ _Woodhouse_ appeared more than +once, and never without a something of pleasing connexion, either a +compliment to her taste, or a remembrance of what she had said; and in +the very last time of its meeting her eye, unadorned as it was by any +such broad wreath of gallantry, she yet could discern the effect of +her influence and acknowledge the greatest compliment perhaps of all +conveyed. Compressed into the very lowest vacant corner were these +words--"I had not a spare moment on Tuesday, as you know, for Miss +Woodhouse's beautiful little friend. Pray make my excuses and adieus +to her." This, Emma could not doubt, was all for herself. Harriet was +remembered only from being _her_ friend. His information and prospects +as to Enscombe were neither worse nor better than had been anticipated; +Mrs. Churchill was recovering, and he dared not yet, even in his own +imagination, fix a time for coming to Randalls again. + +Gratifying, however, and stimulative as was the letter in the material +part, its sentiments, she yet found, when it was folded up and returned +to Mrs. Weston, that it had not added any lasting warmth, that she could +still do without the writer, and that he must learn to do without her. +Her intentions were unchanged. Her resolution of refusal only grew more +interesting by the addition of a scheme for his subsequent consolation +and happiness. His recollection of Harriet, and the words which +clothed it, the "beautiful little friend," suggested to her the +idea of Harriet's succeeding her in his affections. Was it +impossible?--No.--Harriet undoubtedly was greatly his inferior in +understanding; but he had been very much struck with the loveliness +of her face and the warm simplicity of her manner; and all the +probabilities of circumstance and connexion were in her favour.--For +Harriet, it would be advantageous and delightful indeed. + +"I must not dwell upon it," said she.--"I must not think of it. I know +the danger of indulging such speculations. But stranger things have +happened; and when we cease to care for each other as we do now, it +will be the means of confirming us in that sort of true disinterested +friendship which I can already look forward to with pleasure." + +It was well to have a comfort in store on Harriet's behalf, though it +might be wise to let the fancy touch it seldom; for evil in that quarter +was at hand. As Frank Churchill's arrival had succeeded Mr. Elton's +engagement in the conversation of Highbury, as the latest interest +had entirely borne down the first, so now upon Frank Churchill's +disappearance, Mr. Elton's concerns were assuming the most irresistible +form.--His wedding-day was named. He would soon be among them again; Mr. +Elton and his bride. There was hardly time to talk over the first letter +from Enscombe before "Mr. Elton and his bride" was in every body's +mouth, and Frank Churchill was forgotten. Emma grew sick at the sound. +She had had three weeks of happy exemption from Mr. Elton; and Harriet's +mind, she had been willing to hope, had been lately gaining strength. +With Mr. Weston's ball in view at least, there had been a great deal of +insensibility to other things; but it was now too evident that she had +not attained such a state of composure as could stand against the actual +approach--new carriage, bell-ringing, and all. + +Poor Harriet was in a flutter of spirits which required all the +reasonings and soothings and attentions of every kind that Emma could +give. Emma felt that she could not do too much for her, that Harriet had +a right to all her ingenuity and all her patience; but it was heavy work +to be for ever convincing without producing any effect, for ever agreed +to, without being able to make their opinions the same. Harriet listened +submissively, and said "it was very true--it was just as Miss Woodhouse +described--it was not worth while to think about them--and she would not +think about them any longer" but no change of subject could avail, and +the next half-hour saw her as anxious and restless about the Eltons as +before. At last Emma attacked her on another ground. + +"Your allowing yourself to be so occupied and so unhappy about Mr. +Elton's marrying, Harriet, is the strongest reproach you can make _me_. +You could not give me a greater reproof for the mistake I fell into. +It was all my doing, I know. I have not forgotten it, I assure +you.--Deceived myself, I did very miserably deceive you--and it will +be a painful reflection to me for ever. Do not imagine me in danger of +forgetting it." + +Harriet felt this too much to utter more than a few words of eager +exclamation. Emma continued, + +"I have not said, exert yourself Harriet for my sake; think less, talk +less of Mr. Elton for my sake; because for your own sake rather, I +would wish it to be done, for the sake of what is more important than my +comfort, a habit of self-command in you, a consideration of what is your +duty, an attention to propriety, an endeavour to avoid the suspicions of +others, to save your health and credit, and restore your tranquillity. +These are the motives which I have been pressing on you. They are very +important--and sorry I am that you cannot feel them sufficiently to act +upon them. My being saved from pain is a very secondary consideration. +I want you to save yourself from greater pain. Perhaps I may sometimes +have felt that Harriet would not forget what was due--or rather what +would be kind by me." + +This appeal to her affections did more than all the rest. The idea of +wanting gratitude and consideration for Miss Woodhouse, whom she really +loved extremely, made her wretched for a while, and when the violence +of grief was comforted away, still remained powerful enough to prompt to +what was right and support her in it very tolerably. + +"You, who have been the best friend I ever had in my life--Want +gratitude to you!--Nobody is equal to you!--I care for nobody as I do +for you!--Oh! Miss Woodhouse, how ungrateful I have been!" + +Such expressions, assisted as they were by every thing that look and +manner could do, made Emma feel that she had never loved Harriet so +well, nor valued her affection so highly before. + +"There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart," said she afterwards to +herself. "There is nothing to be compared to it. Warmth and tenderness +of heart, with an affectionate, open manner, will beat all the +clearness of head in the world, for attraction, I am sure it will. It +is tenderness of heart which makes my dear father so generally +beloved--which gives Isabella all her popularity.--I have it not--but +I know how to prize and respect it.--Harriet is my superior in all the +charm and all the felicity it gives. Dear Harriet!--I would not change +you for the clearest-headed, longest-sighted, best-judging female +breathing. Oh! the coldness of a Jane Fairfax!--Harriet is worth a +hundred such--And for a wife--a sensible man's wife--it is invaluable. I +mention no names; but happy the man who changes Emma for Harriet!" + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Mrs. Elton was first seen at church: but though devotion might be +interrupted, curiosity could not be satisfied by a bride in a pew, and +it must be left for the visits in form which were then to be paid, to +settle whether she were very pretty indeed, or only rather pretty, or +not pretty at all. + +Emma had feelings, less of curiosity than of pride or propriety, to make +her resolve on not being the last to pay her respects; and she made a +point of Harriet's going with her, that the worst of the business might +be gone through as soon as possible. + +She could not enter the house again, could not be in the same room to +which she had with such vain artifice retreated three months ago, to +lace up her boot, without _recollecting_. A thousand vexatious thoughts +would recur. Compliments, charades, and horrible blunders; and it was +not to be supposed that poor Harriet should not be recollecting too; but +she behaved very well, and was only rather pale and silent. The visit +was of course short; and there was so much embarrassment and occupation +of mind to shorten it, that Emma would not allow herself entirely to +form an opinion of the lady, and on no account to give one, beyond the +nothing-meaning terms of being "elegantly dressed, and very pleasing." + +She did not really like her. She would not be in a hurry to find fault, +but she suspected that there was no elegance;--ease, but not elegance.-- +She was almost sure that for a young woman, a stranger, a bride, there +was too much ease. Her person was rather good; her face not unpretty; +but neither feature, nor air, nor voice, nor manner, were elegant. Emma +thought at least it would turn out so. + +As for Mr. Elton, his manners did not appear--but no, she would not +permit a hasty or a witty word from herself about his manners. It was an +awkward ceremony at any time to be receiving wedding visits, and a man +had need be all grace to acquit himself well through it. The woman +was better off; she might have the assistance of fine clothes, and the +privilege of bashfulness, but the man had only his own good sense to +depend on; and when she considered how peculiarly unlucky poor Mr. +Elton was in being in the same room at once with the woman he had just +married, the woman he had wanted to marry, and the woman whom he had +been expected to marry, she must allow him to have the right to look as +little wise, and to be as much affectedly, and as little really easy as +could be. + +"Well, Miss Woodhouse," said Harriet, when they had quitted the +house, and after waiting in vain for her friend to begin; "Well, Miss +Woodhouse, (with a gentle sigh,) what do you think of her?--Is not she +very charming?" + +There was a little hesitation in Emma's answer. + +"Oh! yes--very--a very pleasing young woman." + +"I think her beautiful, quite beautiful." + +"Very nicely dressed, indeed; a remarkably elegant gown." + +"I am not at all surprized that he should have fallen in love." + +"Oh! no--there is nothing to surprize one at all.--A pretty fortune; and +she came in his way." + +"I dare say," returned Harriet, sighing again, "I dare say she was very +much attached to him." + +"Perhaps she might; but it is not every man's fate to marry the woman +who loves him best. Miss Hawkins perhaps wanted a home, and thought this +the best offer she was likely to have." + +"Yes," said Harriet earnestly, "and well she might, nobody could ever +have a better. Well, I wish them happy with all my heart. And now, Miss +Woodhouse, I do not think I shall mind seeing them again. He is just as +superior as ever;--but being married, you know, it is quite a different +thing. No, indeed, Miss Woodhouse, you need not be afraid; I can sit and +admire him now without any great misery. To know that he has not thrown +himself away, is such a comfort!--She does seem a charming young woman, +just what he deserves. Happy creature! He called her 'Augusta.' How +delightful!" + +When the visit was returned, Emma made up her mind. She could then see +more and judge better. From Harriet's happening not to be at Hartfield, +and her father's being present to engage Mr. Elton, she had a quarter +of an hour of the lady's conversation to herself, and could composedly +attend to her; and the quarter of an hour quite convinced her that +Mrs. Elton was a vain woman, extremely well satisfied with herself, and +thinking much of her own importance; that she meant to shine and be very +superior, but with manners which had been formed in a bad school, pert +and familiar; that all her notions were drawn from one set of people, +and one style of living; that if not foolish she was ignorant, and that +her society would certainly do Mr. Elton no good. + +Harriet would have been a better match. If not wise or refined herself, +she would have connected him with those who were; but Miss Hawkins, it +might be fairly supposed from her easy conceit, had been the best of +her own set. The rich brother-in-law near Bristol was the pride of the +alliance, and his place and his carriages were the pride of him. + +The very first subject after being seated was Maple Grove, "My brother +Mr. Suckling's seat;"--a comparison of Hartfield to Maple Grove. The +grounds of Hartfield were small, but neat and pretty; and the house was +modern and well-built. Mrs. Elton seemed most favourably impressed +by the size of the room, the entrance, and all that she could see or +imagine. "Very like Maple Grove indeed!--She was quite struck by the +likeness!--That room was the very shape and size of the morning-room +at Maple Grove; her sister's favourite room."--Mr. Elton was appealed +to.--"Was not it astonishingly like?--She could really almost fancy +herself at Maple Grove." + +"And the staircase--You know, as I came in, I observed how very like the +staircase was; placed exactly in the same part of the house. I really +could not help exclaiming! I assure you, Miss Woodhouse, it is very +delightful to me, to be reminded of a place I am so extremely partial to +as Maple Grove. I have spent so many happy months there! (with a little +sigh of sentiment). A charming place, undoubtedly. Every body who +sees it is struck by its beauty; but to me, it has been quite a home. +Whenever you are transplanted, like me, Miss Woodhouse, you will +understand how very delightful it is to meet with any thing at all like +what one has left behind. I always say this is quite one of the evils of +matrimony." + +Emma made as slight a reply as she could; but it was fully sufficient +for Mrs. Elton, who only wanted to be talking herself. + +"So extremely like Maple Grove! And it is not merely the house--the +grounds, I assure you, as far as I could observe, are strikingly like. +The laurels at Maple Grove are in the same profusion as here, and stand +very much in the same way--just across the lawn; and I had a glimpse +of a fine large tree, with a bench round it, which put me so exactly in +mind! My brother and sister will be enchanted with this place. People +who have extensive grounds themselves are always pleased with any thing +in the same style." + +Emma doubted the truth of this sentiment. She had a great idea that +people who had extensive grounds themselves cared very little for the +extensive grounds of any body else; but it was not worth while to attack +an error so double-dyed, and therefore only said in reply, + +"When you have seen more of this country, I am afraid you will think you +have overrated Hartfield. Surry is full of beauties." + +"Oh! yes, I am quite aware of that. It is the garden of England, you +know. Surry is the garden of England." + +"Yes; but we must not rest our claims on that distinction. Many +counties, I believe, are called the garden of England, as well as +Surry." + +"No, I fancy not," replied Mrs. Elton, with a most satisfied smile. +"I never heard any county but Surry called so." + +Emma was silenced. + +"My brother and sister have promised us a visit in the spring, or summer +at farthest," continued Mrs. Elton; "and that will be our time for +exploring. While they are with us, we shall explore a great deal, I dare +say. They will have their barouche-landau, of course, which holds four +perfectly; and therefore, without saying any thing of _our_ carriage, +we should be able to explore the different beauties extremely well. They +would hardly come in their chaise, I think, at that season of the +year. Indeed, when the time draws on, I shall decidedly recommend their +bringing the barouche-landau; it will be so very much preferable. +When people come into a beautiful country of this sort, you know, Miss +Woodhouse, one naturally wishes them to see as much as possible; and Mr. +Suckling is extremely fond of exploring. We explored to King's-Weston +twice last summer, in that way, most delightfully, just after their +first having the barouche-landau. You have many parties of that kind +here, I suppose, Miss Woodhouse, every summer?" + +"No; not immediately here. We are rather out of distance of the very +striking beauties which attract the sort of parties you speak of; and we +are a very quiet set of people, I believe; more disposed to stay at home +than engage in schemes of pleasure." + +"Ah! there is nothing like staying at home for real comfort. Nobody can +be more devoted to home than I am. I was quite a proverb for it at Maple +Grove. Many a time has Selina said, when she has been going to Bristol, +'I really cannot get this girl to move from the house. I absolutely must +go in by myself, though I hate being stuck up in the barouche-landau +without a companion; but Augusta, I believe, with her own good-will, +would never stir beyond the park paling.' Many a time has she said so; +and yet I am no advocate for entire seclusion. I think, on the contrary, +when people shut themselves up entirely from society, it is a very +bad thing; and that it is much more advisable to mix in the world in +a proper degree, without living in it either too much or too little. I +perfectly understand your situation, however, Miss Woodhouse--(looking +towards Mr. Woodhouse), Your father's state of health must be a great +drawback. Why does not he try Bath?--Indeed he should. Let me recommend +Bath to you. I assure you I have no doubt of its doing Mr. Woodhouse +good." + +"My father tried it more than once, formerly; but without receiving any +benefit; and Mr. Perry, whose name, I dare say, is not unknown to you, +does not conceive it would be at all more likely to be useful now." + +"Ah! that's a great pity; for I assure you, Miss Woodhouse, where the +waters do agree, it is quite wonderful the relief they give. In my Bath +life, I have seen such instances of it! And it is so cheerful a place, +that it could not fail of being of use to Mr. Woodhouse's spirits, +which, I understand, are sometimes much depressed. And as to its +recommendations to _you_, I fancy I need not take much pains to dwell +on them. The advantages of Bath to the young are pretty generally +understood. It would be a charming introduction for you, who have lived +so secluded a life; and I could immediately secure you some of the best +society in the place. A line from me would bring you a little host of +acquaintance; and my particular friend, Mrs. Partridge, the lady I have +always resided with when in Bath, would be most happy to shew you any +attentions, and would be the very person for you to go into public +with." + +It was as much as Emma could bear, without being impolite. The idea +of her being indebted to Mrs. Elton for what was called an +_introduction_--of her going into public under the auspices of a friend +of Mrs. Elton's--probably some vulgar, dashing widow, who, with the +help of a boarder, just made a shift to live!--The dignity of Miss +Woodhouse, of Hartfield, was sunk indeed! + +She restrained herself, however, from any of the reproofs she could have +given, and only thanked Mrs. Elton coolly; "but their going to Bath was +quite out of the question; and she was not perfectly convinced that +the place might suit her better than her father." And then, to prevent +farther outrage and indignation, changed the subject directly. + +"I do not ask whether you are musical, Mrs. Elton. Upon these occasions, +a lady's character generally precedes her; and Highbury has long known +that you are a superior performer." + +"Oh! no, indeed; I must protest against any such idea. A superior +performer!--very far from it, I assure you. Consider from how partial +a quarter your information came. I am doatingly fond of +music--passionately fond;--and my friends say I am not entirely devoid +of taste; but as to any thing else, upon my honour my performance is +_mediocre_ to the last degree. You, Miss Woodhouse, I well know, play +delightfully. I assure you it has been the greatest satisfaction, +comfort, and delight to me, to hear what a musical society I am got +into. I absolutely cannot do without music. It is a necessary of life to +me; and having always been used to a very musical society, both at +Maple Grove and in Bath, it would have been a most serious sacrifice. I +honestly said as much to Mr. E. when he was speaking of my future +home, and expressing his fears lest the retirement of it should be +disagreeable; and the inferiority of the house too--knowing what I had +been accustomed to--of course he was not wholly without apprehension. +When he was speaking of it in that way, I honestly said that _the_ +_world_ I could give up--parties, balls, plays--for I had no fear of +retirement. Blessed with so many resources within myself, the world was +not necessary to _me_. I could do very well without it. To those who had +no resources it was a different thing; but my resources made me quite +independent. And as to smaller-sized rooms than I had been used to, I +really could not give it a thought. I hoped I was perfectly equal to any +sacrifice of that description. Certainly I had been accustomed to every +luxury at Maple Grove; but I did assure him that two carriages were not +necessary to my happiness, nor were spacious apartments. 'But,' said I, +'to be quite honest, I do not think I can live without something of a +musical society. I condition for nothing else; but without music, life +would be a blank to me.'" + +"We cannot suppose," said Emma, smiling, "that Mr. Elton would hesitate +to assure you of there being a _very_ musical society in Highbury; and +I hope you will not find he has outstepped the truth more than may be +pardoned, in consideration of the motive." + +"No, indeed, I have no doubts at all on that head. I am delighted to +find myself in such a circle. I hope we shall have many sweet little +concerts together. I think, Miss Woodhouse, you and I must establish a +musical club, and have regular weekly meetings at your house, or ours. +Will not it be a good plan? If _we_ exert ourselves, I think we shall +not be long in want of allies. Something of that nature would be +particularly desirable for _me_, as an inducement to keep me in +practice; for married women, you know--there is a sad story against +them, in general. They are but too apt to give up music." + +"But you, who are so extremely fond of it--there can be no danger, +surely?" + +"I should hope not; but really when I look around among my acquaintance, +I tremble. Selina has entirely given up music--never touches the +instrument--though she played sweetly. And the same may be said of Mrs. +Jeffereys--Clara Partridge, that was--and of the two Milmans, now Mrs. +Bird and Mrs. James Cooper; and of more than I can enumerate. Upon my +word it is enough to put one in a fright. I used to be quite angry with +Selina; but really I begin now to comprehend that a married woman has +many things to call her attention. I believe I was half an hour this +morning shut up with my housekeeper." + +"But every thing of that kind," said Emma, "will soon be in so regular a +train--" + +"Well," said Mrs. Elton, laughing, "we shall see." + +Emma, finding her so determined upon neglecting her music, had nothing +more to say; and, after a moment's pause, Mrs. Elton chose another +subject. + +"We have been calling at Randalls," said she, "and found them both at +home; and very pleasant people they seem to be. I like them extremely. +Mr. Weston seems an excellent creature--quite a first-rate favourite +with me already, I assure you. And _she_ appears so truly good--there is +something so motherly and kind-hearted about her, that it wins upon one +directly. She was your governess, I think?" + +Emma was almost too much astonished to answer; but Mrs. Elton hardly +waited for the affirmative before she went on. + +"Having understood as much, I was rather astonished to find her so very +lady-like! But she is really quite the gentlewoman." + +"Mrs. Weston's manners," said Emma, "were always particularly good. +Their propriety, simplicity, and elegance, would make them the safest +model for any young woman." + +"And who do you think came in while we were there?" + +Emma was quite at a loss. The tone implied some old acquaintance--and +how could she possibly guess? + +"Knightley!" continued Mrs. Elton; "Knightley himself!--Was not it +lucky?--for, not being within when he called the other day, I had never +seen him before; and of course, as so particular a friend of Mr. E.'s, +I had a great curiosity. 'My friend Knightley' had been so often +mentioned, that I was really impatient to see him; and I must do my +caro sposo the justice to say that he need not be ashamed of his friend. +Knightley is quite the gentleman. I like him very much. Decidedly, I +think, a very gentleman-like man." + +Happily, it was now time to be gone. They were off; and Emma could +breathe. + +"Insufferable woman!" was her immediate exclamation. "Worse than I had +supposed. Absolutely insufferable! Knightley!--I could not have +believed it. Knightley!--never seen him in her life before, and call +him Knightley!--and discover that he is a gentleman! A little upstart, +vulgar being, with her Mr. E., and her _caro_ _sposo_, and her +resources, and all her airs of pert pretension and underbred finery. +Actually to discover that Mr. Knightley is a gentleman! I doubt whether +he will return the compliment, and discover her to be a lady. I could +not have believed it! And to propose that she and I should unite to +form a musical club! One would fancy we were bosom friends! And Mrs. +Weston!--Astonished that the person who had brought me up should be a +gentlewoman! Worse and worse. I never met with her equal. Much beyond +my hopes. Harriet is disgraced by any comparison. Oh! what would Frank +Churchill say to her, if he were here? How angry and how diverted he +would be! Ah! there I am--thinking of him directly. Always the first +person to be thought of! How I catch myself out! Frank Churchill comes +as regularly into my mind!"-- + +All this ran so glibly through her thoughts, that by the time her father +had arranged himself, after the bustle of the Eltons' departure, and was +ready to speak, she was very tolerably capable of attending. + +"Well, my dear," he deliberately began, "considering we never saw her +before, she seems a very pretty sort of young lady; and I dare say she +was very much pleased with you. She speaks a little too quick. A little +quickness of voice there is which rather hurts the ear. But I believe +I am nice; I do not like strange voices; and nobody speaks like you and +poor Miss Taylor. However, she seems a very obliging, pretty-behaved +young lady, and no doubt will make him a very good wife. Though I think +he had better not have married. I made the best excuses I could for not +having been able to wait on him and Mrs. Elton on this happy occasion; I +said that I hoped I _should_ in the course of the summer. But I ought to +have gone before. Not to wait upon a bride is very remiss. Ah! it shews +what a sad invalid I am! But I do not like the corner into Vicarage +Lane." + +"I dare say your apologies were accepted, sir. Mr. Elton knows you." + +"Yes: but a young lady--a bride--I ought to have paid my respects to her +if possible. It was being very deficient." + +"But, my dear papa, you are no friend to matrimony; and therefore why +should you be so anxious to pay your respects to a _bride_? It ought to +be no recommendation to _you_. It is encouraging people to marry if you +make so much of them." + +"No, my dear, I never encouraged any body to marry, but I would always +wish to pay every proper attention to a lady--and a bride, especially, +is never to be neglected. More is avowedly due to _her_. A bride, you +know, my dear, is always the first in company, let the others be who +they may." + +"Well, papa, if this is not encouragement to marry, I do not know what +is. And I should never have expected you to be lending your sanction to +such vanity-baits for poor young ladies." + +"My dear, you do not understand me. This is a matter of mere +common politeness and good-breeding, and has nothing to do with any +encouragement to people to marry." + +Emma had done. Her father was growing nervous, and could not understand +_her_. Her mind returned to Mrs. Elton's offences, and long, very long, +did they occupy her. + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +Emma was not required, by any subsequent discovery, to retract her ill +opinion of Mrs. Elton. Her observation had been pretty correct. Such as +Mrs. Elton appeared to her on this second interview, such she appeared +whenever they met again,--self-important, presuming, familiar, ignorant, +and ill-bred. She had a little beauty and a little accomplishment, +but so little judgment that she thought herself coming with superior +knowledge of the world, to enliven and improve a country neighbourhood; +and conceived Miss Hawkins to have held such a place in society as Mrs. +Elton's consequence only could surpass. + +There was no reason to suppose Mr. Elton thought at all differently from +his wife. He seemed not merely happy with her, but proud. He had the air +of congratulating himself on having brought such a woman to Highbury, +as not even Miss Woodhouse could equal; and the greater part of her +new acquaintance, disposed to commend, or not in the habit of judging, +following the lead of Miss Bates's good-will, or taking it for granted +that the bride must be as clever and as agreeable as she professed +herself, were very well satisfied; so that Mrs. Elton's praise +passed from one mouth to another as it ought to do, unimpeded by Miss +Woodhouse, who readily continued her first contribution and talked with +a good grace of her being "very pleasant and very elegantly dressed." + +In one respect Mrs. Elton grew even worse than she had appeared at +first. Her feelings altered towards Emma.--Offended, probably, by the +little encouragement which her proposals of intimacy met with, she drew +back in her turn and gradually became much more cold and distant; and +though the effect was agreeable, the ill-will which produced it was +necessarily increasing Emma's dislike. Her manners, too--and Mr. +Elton's, were unpleasant towards Harriet. They were sneering and +negligent. Emma hoped it must rapidly work Harriet's cure; but the +sensations which could prompt such behaviour sunk them both very +much.--It was not to be doubted that poor Harriet's attachment had been +an offering to conjugal unreserve, and her own share in the story, under +a colouring the least favourable to her and the most soothing to him, +had in all likelihood been given also. She was, of course, the object +of their joint dislike.--When they had nothing else to say, it must be +always easy to begin abusing Miss Woodhouse; and the enmity which +they dared not shew in open disrespect to her, found a broader vent in +contemptuous treatment of Harriet. + +Mrs. Elton took a great fancy to Jane Fairfax; and from the first. Not +merely when a state of warfare with one young lady might be supposed to +recommend the other, but from the very first; and she was not satisfied +with expressing a natural and reasonable admiration--but without +solicitation, or plea, or privilege, she must be wanting to assist and +befriend her.--Before Emma had forfeited her confidence, and about the +third time of their meeting, she heard all Mrs. Elton's knight-errantry +on the subject.-- + +"Jane Fairfax is absolutely charming, Miss Woodhouse.--I quite rave +about Jane Fairfax.--A sweet, interesting creature. So mild and +ladylike--and with such talents!--I assure you I think she has very +extraordinary talents. I do not scruple to say that she plays extremely +well. I know enough of music to speak decidedly on that point. Oh! she +is absolutely charming! You will laugh at my warmth--but, upon my word, +I talk of nothing but Jane Fairfax.--And her situation is so calculated +to affect one!--Miss Woodhouse, we must exert ourselves and endeavour +to do something for her. We must bring her forward. Such talent as hers +must not be suffered to remain unknown.--I dare say you have heard those +charming lines of the poet, + + 'Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, + 'And waste its fragrance on the desert air.' + +We must not allow them to be verified in sweet Jane Fairfax." + +"I cannot think there is any danger of it," was Emma's calm answer--"and +when you are better acquainted with Miss Fairfax's situation and +understand what her home has been, with Colonel and Mrs. Campbell, I +have no idea that you will suppose her talents can be unknown." + +"Oh! but dear Miss Woodhouse, she is now in such retirement, such +obscurity, so thrown away.--Whatever advantages she may have enjoyed +with the Campbells are so palpably at an end! And I think she feels it. +I am sure she does. She is very timid and silent. One can see that she +feels the want of encouragement. I like her the better for it. I +must confess it is a recommendation to me. I am a great advocate for +timidity--and I am sure one does not often meet with it.--But in those +who are at all inferior, it is extremely prepossessing. Oh! I assure +you, Jane Fairfax is a very delightful character, and interests me more +than I can express." + +"You appear to feel a great deal--but I am not aware how you or any of +Miss Fairfax's acquaintance here, any of those who have known her longer +than yourself, can shew her any other attention than"-- + +"My dear Miss Woodhouse, a vast deal may be done by those who dare to +act. You and I need not be afraid. If _we_ set the example, many will +follow it as far as they can; though all have not our situations. _We_ +have carriages to fetch and convey her home, and _we_ live in a style +which could not make the addition of Jane Fairfax, at any time, the +least inconvenient.--I should be extremely displeased if Wright were to +send us up such a dinner, as could make me regret having asked _more_ +than Jane Fairfax to partake of it. I have no idea of that sort of +thing. It is not likely that I _should_, considering what I have been +used to. My greatest danger, perhaps, in housekeeping, may be quite the +other way, in doing too much, and being too careless of expense. Maple +Grove will probably be my model more than it ought to be--for we do not +at all affect to equal my brother, Mr. Suckling, in income.--However, my +resolution is taken as to noticing Jane Fairfax.--I shall certainly have +her very often at my house, shall introduce her wherever I can, shall +have musical parties to draw out her talents, and shall be constantly +on the watch for an eligible situation. My acquaintance is so very +extensive, that I have little doubt of hearing of something to suit +her shortly.--I shall introduce her, of course, very particularly to my +brother and sister when they come to us. I am sure they will like her +extremely; and when she gets a little acquainted with them, her fears +will completely wear off, for there really is nothing in the manners +of either but what is highly conciliating.--I shall have her very often +indeed while they are with me, and I dare say we shall sometimes find a +seat for her in the barouche-landau in some of our exploring parties." + +"Poor Jane Fairfax!"--thought Emma.--"You have not deserved this. You +may have done wrong with regard to Mr. Dixon, but this is a punishment +beyond what you can have merited!--The kindness and protection of Mrs. +Elton!--'Jane Fairfax and Jane Fairfax.' Heavens! Let me not suppose +that she dares go about, Emma Woodhouse-ing me!--But upon my honour, +there seems no limits to the licentiousness of that woman's tongue!" + +Emma had not to listen to such paradings again--to any so exclusively +addressed to herself--so disgustingly decorated with a "dear Miss +Woodhouse." The change on Mrs. Elton's side soon afterwards appeared, +and she was left in peace--neither forced to be the very particular +friend of Mrs. Elton, nor, under Mrs. Elton's guidance, the very active +patroness of Jane Fairfax, and only sharing with others in a general +way, in knowing what was felt, what was meditated, what was done. + +She looked on with some amusement.--Miss Bates's gratitude for +Mrs. Elton's attentions to Jane was in the first style of guileless +simplicity and warmth. She was quite one of her worthies--the +most amiable, affable, delightful woman--just as accomplished and +condescending as Mrs. Elton meant to be considered. Emma's only surprize +was that Jane Fairfax should accept those attentions and tolerate Mrs. +Elton as she seemed to do. She heard of her walking with the Eltons, +sitting with the Eltons, spending a day with the Eltons! This was +astonishing!--She could not have believed it possible that the taste or +the pride of Miss Fairfax could endure such society and friendship as +the Vicarage had to offer. + +"She is a riddle, quite a riddle!" said she.--"To chuse to remain here +month after month, under privations of every sort! And now to chuse the +mortification of Mrs. Elton's notice and the penury of her conversation, +rather than return to the superior companions who have always loved her +with such real, generous affection." + +Jane had come to Highbury professedly for three months; the Campbells +were gone to Ireland for three months; but now the Campbells had +promised their daughter to stay at least till Midsummer, and fresh +invitations had arrived for her to join them there. According to Miss +Bates--it all came from her--Mrs. Dixon had written most pressingly. +Would Jane but go, means were to be found, servants sent, friends +contrived--no travelling difficulty allowed to exist; but still she had +declined it! + +"She must have some motive, more powerful than appears, for refusing +this invitation," was Emma's conclusion. "She must be under some sort +of penance, inflicted either by the Campbells or herself. There is great +fear, great caution, great resolution somewhere.--She is _not_ to be +with the _Dixons_. The decree is issued by somebody. But why must she +consent to be with the Eltons?--Here is quite a separate puzzle." + +Upon her speaking her wonder aloud on that part of the subject, before +the few who knew her opinion of Mrs. Elton, Mrs. Weston ventured this +apology for Jane. + +"We cannot suppose that she has any great enjoyment at the Vicarage, +my dear Emma--but it is better than being always at home. Her aunt is a +good creature, but, as a constant companion, must be very tiresome. We +must consider what Miss Fairfax quits, before we condemn her taste for +what she goes to." + +"You are right, Mrs. Weston," said Mr. Knightley warmly, "Miss Fairfax +is as capable as any of us of forming a just opinion of Mrs. Elton. +Could she have chosen with whom to associate, she would not have chosen +her. But (with a reproachful smile at Emma) she receives attentions from +Mrs. Elton, which nobody else pays her." + +Emma felt that Mrs. Weston was giving her a momentary glance; and she +was herself struck by his warmth. With a faint blush, she presently +replied, + +"Such attentions as Mrs. Elton's, I should have imagined, would rather +disgust than gratify Miss Fairfax. Mrs. Elton's invitations I should +have imagined any thing but inviting." + +"I should not wonder," said Mrs. Weston, "if Miss Fairfax were to have +been drawn on beyond her own inclination, by her aunt's eagerness in +accepting Mrs. Elton's civilities for her. Poor Miss Bates may +very likely have committed her niece and hurried her into a greater +appearance of intimacy than her own good sense would have dictated, in +spite of the very natural wish of a little change." + +Both felt rather anxious to hear him speak again; and after a few +minutes silence, he said, + +"Another thing must be taken into consideration too--Mrs. Elton does +not talk _to_ Miss Fairfax as she speaks _of_ her. We all know the +difference between the pronouns he or she and thou, the plainest spoken +amongst us; we all feel the influence of a something beyond common +civility in our personal intercourse with each other--a something more +early implanted. We cannot give any body the disagreeable hints that we +may have been very full of the hour before. We feel things differently. +And besides the operation of this, as a general principle, you may be +sure that Miss Fairfax awes Mrs. Elton by her superiority both of mind +and manner; and that, face to face, Mrs. Elton treats her with all the +respect which she has a claim to. Such a woman as Jane Fairfax probably +never fell in Mrs. Elton's way before--and no degree of vanity can +prevent her acknowledging her own comparative littleness in action, if +not in consciousness." + +"I know how highly you think of Jane Fairfax," said Emma. Little Henry +was in her thoughts, and a mixture of alarm and delicacy made her +irresolute what else to say. + +"Yes," he replied, "any body may know how highly I think of her." + +"And yet," said Emma, beginning hastily and with an arch look, but soon +stopping--it was better, however, to know the worst at once--she hurried +on--"And yet, perhaps, you may hardly be aware yourself how highly it +is. The extent of your admiration may take you by surprize some day or +other." + +Mr. Knightley was hard at work upon the lower buttons of his thick +leather gaiters, and either the exertion of getting them together, or +some other cause, brought the colour into his face, as he answered, + +"Oh! are you there?--But you are miserably behindhand. Mr. Cole gave me +a hint of it six weeks ago." + +He stopped.--Emma felt her foot pressed by Mrs. Weston, and did not +herself know what to think. In a moment he went on-- + +"That will never be, however, I can assure you. Miss Fairfax, I dare +say, would not have me if I were to ask her--and I am very sure I shall +never ask her." + +Emma returned her friend's pressure with interest; and was pleased +enough to exclaim, + +"You are not vain, Mr. Knightley. I will say that for you." + +He seemed hardly to hear her; he was thoughtful--and in a manner which +shewed him not pleased, soon afterwards said, + +"So you have been settling that I should marry Jane Fairfax?" + +"No indeed I have not. You have scolded me too much for match-making, +for me to presume to take such a liberty with you. What I said just now, +meant nothing. One says those sort of things, of course, without any +idea of a serious meaning. Oh! no, upon my word I have not the smallest +wish for your marrying Jane Fairfax or Jane any body. You would not come +in and sit with us in this comfortable way, if you were married." + +Mr. Knightley was thoughtful again. The result of his reverie was, "No, +Emma, I do not think the extent of my admiration for her will ever take +me by surprize.--I never had a thought of her in that way, I assure +you." And soon afterwards, "Jane Fairfax is a very charming young +woman--but not even Jane Fairfax is perfect. She has a fault. She has +not the open temper which a man would wish for in a wife." + +Emma could not but rejoice to hear that she had a fault. "Well," said +she, "and you soon silenced Mr. Cole, I suppose?" + +"Yes, very soon. He gave me a quiet hint; I told him he was mistaken; +he asked my pardon and said no more. Cole does not want to be wiser or +wittier than his neighbours." + +"In that respect how unlike dear Mrs. Elton, who wants to be wiser and +wittier than all the world! I wonder how she speaks of the Coles--what +she calls them! How can she find any appellation for them, deep enough +in familiar vulgarity? She calls you, Knightley--what can she do for +Mr. Cole? And so I am not to be surprized that Jane Fairfax accepts +her civilities and consents to be with her. Mrs. Weston, your argument +weighs most with me. I can much more readily enter into the temptation +of getting away from Miss Bates, than I can believe in the triumph of +Miss Fairfax's mind over Mrs. Elton. I have no faith in Mrs. Elton's +acknowledging herself the inferior in thought, word, or deed; or in her +being under any restraint beyond her own scanty rule of good-breeding. +I cannot imagine that she will not be continually insulting her visitor +with praise, encouragement, and offers of service; that she will not be +continually detailing her magnificent intentions, from the procuring her +a permanent situation to the including her in those delightful exploring +parties which are to take place in the barouche-landau." + +"Jane Fairfax has feeling," said Mr. Knightley--"I do not accuse her +of want of feeling. Her sensibilities, I suspect, are strong--and her +temper excellent in its power of forbearance, patience, self-control; +but it wants openness. She is reserved, more reserved, I think, than +she used to be--And I love an open temper. No--till Cole alluded to my +supposed attachment, it had never entered my head. I saw Jane Fairfax +and conversed with her, with admiration and pleasure always--but with no +thought beyond." + +"Well, Mrs. Weston," said Emma triumphantly when he left them, "what do +you say now to Mr. Knightley's marrying Jane Fairfax?" + +"Why, really, dear Emma, I say that he is so very much occupied by the +idea of _not_ being in love with her, that I should not wonder if it +were to end in his being so at last. Do not beat me." + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +Every body in and about Highbury who had ever visited Mr. Elton, was +disposed to pay him attention on his marriage. Dinner-parties and +evening-parties were made for him and his lady; and invitations flowed +in so fast that she had soon the pleasure of apprehending they were +never to have a disengaged day. + +"I see how it is," said she. "I see what a life I am to lead among you. +Upon my word we shall be absolutely dissipated. We really seem quite +the fashion. If this is living in the country, it is nothing very +formidable. From Monday next to Saturday, I assure you we have not a +disengaged day!--A woman with fewer resources than I have, need not have +been at a loss." + +No invitation came amiss to her. Her Bath habits made evening-parties +perfectly natural to her, and Maple Grove had given her a taste for +dinners. She was a little shocked at the want of two drawing rooms, at +the poor attempt at rout-cakes, and there being no ice in the Highbury +card-parties. Mrs. Bates, Mrs. Perry, Mrs. Goddard and others, were a +good deal behind-hand in knowledge of the world, but she would soon shew +them how every thing ought to be arranged. In the course of the spring +she must return their civilities by one very superior party--in which +her card-tables should be set out with their separate candles and +unbroken packs in the true style--and more waiters engaged for the +evening than their own establishment could furnish, to carry round the +refreshments at exactly the proper hour, and in the proper order. + +Emma, in the meanwhile, could not be satisfied without a dinner at +Hartfield for the Eltons. They must not do less than others, or she +should be exposed to odious suspicions, and imagined capable of pitiful +resentment. A dinner there must be. After Emma had talked about it for +ten minutes, Mr. Woodhouse felt no unwillingness, and only made the +usual stipulation of not sitting at the bottom of the table himself, +with the usual regular difficulty of deciding who should do it for him. + +The persons to be invited, required little thought. Besides the +Eltons, it must be the Westons and Mr. Knightley; so far it was all of +course--and it was hardly less inevitable that poor little Harriet must +be asked to make the eighth:--but this invitation was not given with +equal satisfaction, and on many accounts Emma was particularly pleased +by Harriet's begging to be allowed to decline it. "She would rather not +be in his company more than she could help. She was not yet quite +able to see him and his charming happy wife together, without feeling +uncomfortable. If Miss Woodhouse would not be displeased, she would +rather stay at home." It was precisely what Emma would have wished, had +she deemed it possible enough for wishing. She was delighted with the +fortitude of her little friend--for fortitude she knew it was in her to +give up being in company and stay at home; and she could now invite the +very person whom she really wanted to make the eighth, Jane Fairfax.-- +Since her last conversation with Mrs. Weston and Mr. Knightley, she +was more conscience-stricken about Jane Fairfax than she had often +been.--Mr. Knightley's words dwelt with her. He had said that Jane +Fairfax received attentions from Mrs. Elton which nobody else paid her. + +"This is very true," said she, "at least as far as relates to me, which +was all that was meant--and it is very shameful.--Of the same age--and +always knowing her--I ought to have been more her friend.--She will +never like me now. I have neglected her too long. But I will shew her +greater attention than I have done." + +Every invitation was successful. They were all disengaged and all +happy.--The preparatory interest of this dinner, however, was not yet +over. A circumstance rather unlucky occurred. The two eldest little +Knightleys were engaged to pay their grandpapa and aunt a visit of some +weeks in the spring, and their papa now proposed bringing them, and +staying one whole day at Hartfield--which one day would be the very day +of this party.--His professional engagements did not allow of his being +put off, but both father and daughter were disturbed by its happening +so. Mr. Woodhouse considered eight persons at dinner together as the +utmost that his nerves could bear--and here would be a ninth--and Emma +apprehended that it would be a ninth very much out of humour at not +being able to come even to Hartfield for forty-eight hours without +falling in with a dinner-party. + +She comforted her father better than she could comfort herself, by +representing that though he certainly would make them nine, yet +he always said so little, that the increase of noise would be very +immaterial. She thought it in reality a sad exchange for herself, to +have him with his grave looks and reluctant conversation opposed to her +instead of his brother. + +The event was more favourable to Mr. Woodhouse than to Emma. John +Knightley came; but Mr. Weston was unexpectedly summoned to town and +must be absent on the very day. He might be able to join them in the +evening, but certainly not to dinner. Mr. Woodhouse was quite at ease; +and the seeing him so, with the arrival of the little boys and the +philosophic composure of her brother on hearing his fate, removed the +chief of even Emma's vexation. + +The day came, the party were punctually assembled, and Mr. John +Knightley seemed early to devote himself to the business of being +agreeable. Instead of drawing his brother off to a window while they +waited for dinner, he was talking to Miss Fairfax. Mrs. Elton, +as elegant as lace and pearls could make her, he looked at in +silence--wanting only to observe enough for Isabella's information--but +Miss Fairfax was an old acquaintance and a quiet girl, and he could talk +to her. He had met her before breakfast as he was returning from a walk +with his little boys, when it had been just beginning to rain. It was +natural to have some civil hopes on the subject, and he said, + +"I hope you did not venture far, Miss Fairfax, this morning, or I am +sure you must have been wet.--We scarcely got home in time. I hope you +turned directly." + +"I went only to the post-office," said she, "and reached home before the +rain was much. It is my daily errand. I always fetch the letters when +I am here. It saves trouble, and is a something to get me out. A walk +before breakfast does me good." + +"Not a walk in the rain, I should imagine." + +"No, but it did not absolutely rain when I set out." + +Mr. John Knightley smiled, and replied, + +"That is to say, you chose to have your walk, for you were not six yards +from your own door when I had the pleasure of meeting you; and Henry +and John had seen more drops than they could count long before. The +post-office has a great charm at one period of our lives. When you have +lived to my age, you will begin to think letters are never worth going +through the rain for." + +There was a little blush, and then this answer, + +"I must not hope to be ever situated as you are, in the midst of every +dearest connexion, and therefore I cannot expect that simply growing +older should make me indifferent about letters." + +"Indifferent! Oh! no--I never conceived you could become indifferent. +Letters are no matter of indifference; they are generally a very +positive curse." + +"You are speaking of letters of business; mine are letters of +friendship." + +"I have often thought them the worst of the two," replied he coolly. +"Business, you know, may bring money, but friendship hardly ever does." + +"Ah! you are not serious now. I know Mr. John Knightley too well--I am +very sure he understands the value of friendship as well as any body. I +can easily believe that letters are very little to you, much less than +to me, but it is not your being ten years older than myself which +makes the difference, it is not age, but situation. You have every +body dearest to you always at hand, I, probably, never shall again; +and therefore till I have outlived all my affections, a post-office, +I think, must always have power to draw me out, in worse weather than +to-day." + +"When I talked of your being altered by time, by the progress of years," +said John Knightley, "I meant to imply the change of situation which +time usually brings. I consider one as including the other. Time will +generally lessen the interest of every attachment not within the daily +circle--but that is not the change I had in view for you. As an old +friend, you will allow me to hope, Miss Fairfax, that ten years hence +you may have as many concentrated objects as I have." + +It was kindly said, and very far from giving offence. A pleasant "thank +you" seemed meant to laugh it off, but a blush, a quivering lip, a tear +in the eye, shewed that it was felt beyond a laugh. Her attention was +now claimed by Mr. Woodhouse, who being, according to his custom on such +occasions, making the circle of his guests, and paying his particular +compliments to the ladies, was ending with her--and with all his mildest +urbanity, said, + +"I am very sorry to hear, Miss Fairfax, of your being out this morning +in the rain. Young ladies should take care of themselves.--Young ladies +are delicate plants. They should take care of their health and their +complexion. My dear, did you change your stockings?" + +"Yes, sir, I did indeed; and I am very much obliged by your kind +solicitude about me." + +"My dear Miss Fairfax, young ladies are very sure to be cared for.--I +hope your good grand-mama and aunt are well. They are some of my very +old friends. I wish my health allowed me to be a better neighbour. You +do us a great deal of honour to-day, I am sure. My daughter and I +are both highly sensible of your goodness, and have the greatest +satisfaction in seeing you at Hartfield." + +The kind-hearted, polite old man might then sit down and feel that he +had done his duty, and made every fair lady welcome and easy. + +By this time, the walk in the rain had reached Mrs. Elton, and her +remonstrances now opened upon Jane. + +"My dear Jane, what is this I hear?--Going to the post-office in the +rain!--This must not be, I assure you.--You sad girl, how could you do +such a thing?--It is a sign I was not there to take care of you." + +Jane very patiently assured her that she had not caught any cold. + +"Oh! do not tell _me_. You really are a very sad girl, and do not know +how to take care of yourself.--To the post-office indeed! Mrs. Weston, +did you ever hear the like? You and I must positively exert our +authority." + +"My advice," said Mrs. Weston kindly and persuasively, "I certainly do +feel tempted to give. Miss Fairfax, you must not run such risks.--Liable +as you have been to severe colds, indeed you ought to be particularly +careful, especially at this time of year. The spring I always think +requires more than common care. Better wait an hour or two, or even +half a day for your letters, than run the risk of bringing on your cough +again. Now do not you feel that you had? Yes, I am sure you are much too +reasonable. You look as if you would not do such a thing again." + +"Oh! she _shall_ _not_ do such a thing again," eagerly rejoined Mrs. +Elton. "We will not allow her to do such a thing again:"--and nodding +significantly--"there must be some arrangement made, there must indeed. +I shall speak to Mr. E. The man who fetches our letters every morning +(one of our men, I forget his name) shall inquire for yours too and +bring them to you. That will obviate all difficulties you know; and from +_us_ I really think, my dear Jane, you can have no scruple to accept +such an accommodation." + +"You are extremely kind," said Jane; "but I cannot give up my early +walk. I am advised to be out of doors as much as I can, I must walk +somewhere, and the post-office is an object; and upon my word, I have +scarcely ever had a bad morning before." + +"My dear Jane, say no more about it. The thing is determined, that is +(laughing affectedly) as far as I can presume to determine any thing +without the concurrence of my lord and master. You know, Mrs. Weston, +you and I must be cautious how we express ourselves. But I do flatter +myself, my dear Jane, that my influence is not entirely worn out. If I +meet with no insuperable difficulties therefore, consider that point as +settled." + +"Excuse me," said Jane earnestly, "I cannot by any means consent to such +an arrangement, so needlessly troublesome to your servant. If the errand +were not a pleasure to me, it could be done, as it always is when I am +not here, by my grandmama's." + +"Oh! my dear; but so much as Patty has to do!--And it is a kindness to +employ our men." + +Jane looked as if she did not mean to be conquered; but instead of +answering, she began speaking again to Mr. John Knightley. + +"The post-office is a wonderful establishment!" said she.--"The +regularity and despatch of it! If one thinks of all that it has to do, +and all that it does so well, it is really astonishing!" + +"It is certainly very well regulated." + +"So seldom that any negligence or blunder appears! So seldom that +a letter, among the thousands that are constantly passing about the +kingdom, is even carried wrong--and not one in a million, I suppose, +actually lost! And when one considers the variety of hands, and of bad +hands too, that are to be deciphered, it increases the wonder." + +"The clerks grow expert from habit.--They must begin with some quickness +of sight and hand, and exercise improves them. If you want any farther +explanation," continued he, smiling, "they are paid for it. That is +the key to a great deal of capacity. The public pays and must be served +well." + +The varieties of handwriting were farther talked of, and the usual +observations made. + +"I have heard it asserted," said John Knightley, "that the same sort +of handwriting often prevails in a family; and where the same master +teaches, it is natural enough. But for that reason, I should imagine +the likeness must be chiefly confined to the females, for boys have very +little teaching after an early age, and scramble into any hand they can +get. Isabella and Emma, I think, do write very much alike. I have not +always known their writing apart." + +"Yes," said his brother hesitatingly, "there is a likeness. I know what +you mean--but Emma's hand is the strongest." + +"Isabella and Emma both write beautifully," said Mr. Woodhouse; "and +always did. And so does poor Mrs. Weston"--with half a sigh and half a +smile at her. + +"I never saw any gentleman's handwriting"--Emma began, looking also at +Mrs. Weston; but stopped, on perceiving that Mrs. Weston was attending +to some one else--and the pause gave her time to reflect, "Now, how am +I going to introduce him?--Am I unequal to speaking his name at once +before all these people? Is it necessary for me to use any roundabout +phrase?--Your Yorkshire friend--your correspondent in Yorkshire;--that +would be the way, I suppose, if I were very bad.--No, I can pronounce +his name without the smallest distress. I certainly get better and +better.--Now for it." + +Mrs. Weston was disengaged and Emma began again--"Mr. Frank Churchill +writes one of the best gentleman's hands I ever saw." + +"I do not admire it," said Mr. Knightley. "It is too small--wants +strength. It is like a woman's writing." + +This was not submitted to by either lady. They vindicated him against +the base aspersion. "No, it by no means wanted strength--it was not a +large hand, but very clear and certainly strong. Had not Mrs. Weston any +letter about her to produce?" No, she had heard from him very lately, +but having answered the letter, had put it away. + +"If we were in the other room," said Emma, "if I had my writing-desk, I +am sure I could produce a specimen. I have a note of his.--Do not you +remember, Mrs. Weston, employing him to write for you one day?" + +"He chose to say he was employed"-- + +"Well, well, I have that note; and can shew it after dinner to convince +Mr. Knightley." + +"Oh! when a gallant young man, like Mr. Frank Churchill," said Mr. +Knightley dryly, "writes to a fair lady like Miss Woodhouse, he will, of +course, put forth his best." + +Dinner was on table.--Mrs. Elton, before she could be spoken to, was +ready; and before Mr. Woodhouse had reached her with his request to be +allowed to hand her into the dining-parlour, was saying-- + +"Must I go first? I really am ashamed of always leading the way." + +Jane's solicitude about fetching her own letters had not escaped Emma. +She had heard and seen it all; and felt some curiosity to know whether +the wet walk of this morning had produced any. She suspected that it +_had_; that it would not have been so resolutely encountered but in full +expectation of hearing from some one very dear, and that it had not been +in vain. She thought there was an air of greater happiness than usual--a +glow both of complexion and spirits. + +She could have made an inquiry or two, as to the expedition and the +expense of the Irish mails;--it was at her tongue's end--but she +abstained. She was quite determined not to utter a word that should hurt +Jane Fairfax's feelings; and they followed the other ladies out of the +room, arm in arm, with an appearance of good-will highly becoming to the +beauty and grace of each. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +When the ladies returned to the drawing-room after dinner, Emma found it +hardly possible to prevent their making two distinct parties;--with so +much perseverance in judging and behaving ill did Mrs. Elton engross +Jane Fairfax and slight herself. She and Mrs. Weston were obliged to +be almost always either talking together or silent together. Mrs. Elton +left them no choice. If Jane repressed her for a little time, she +soon began again; and though much that passed between them was in a +half-whisper, especially on Mrs. Elton's side, there was no avoiding +a knowledge of their principal subjects: The post-office--catching +cold--fetching letters--and friendship, were long under discussion; +and to them succeeded one, which must be at least equally unpleasant +to Jane--inquiries whether she had yet heard of any situation likely to +suit her, and professions of Mrs. Elton's meditated activity. + +"Here is April come!" said she, "I get quite anxious about you. June +will soon be here." + +"But I have never fixed on June or any other month--merely looked +forward to the summer in general." + +"But have you really heard of nothing?" + +"I have not even made any inquiry; I do not wish to make any yet." + +"Oh! my dear, we cannot begin too early; you are not aware of the +difficulty of procuring exactly the desirable thing." + +"I not aware!" said Jane, shaking her head; "dear Mrs. Elton, who can +have thought of it as I have done?" + +"But you have not seen so much of the world as I have. You do not know +how many candidates there always are for the _first_ situations. I saw +a vast deal of that in the neighbourhood round Maple Grove. A cousin of +Mr. Suckling, Mrs. Bragge, had such an infinity of applications; every +body was anxious to be in her family, for she moves in the first circle. +Wax-candles in the schoolroom! You may imagine how desirable! Of all +houses in the kingdom Mrs. Bragge's is the one I would most wish to see +you in." + +"Colonel and Mrs. Campbell are to be in town again by midsummer," +said Jane. "I must spend some time with them; I am sure they will want +it;--afterwards I may probably be glad to dispose of myself. But I would +not wish you to take the trouble of making any inquiries at present." + +"Trouble! aye, I know your scruples. You are afraid of giving me +trouble; but I assure you, my dear Jane, the Campbells can hardly be +more interested about you than I am. I shall write to Mrs. Partridge in +a day or two, and shall give her a strict charge to be on the look-out +for any thing eligible." + +"Thank you, but I would rather you did not mention the subject to +her; till the time draws nearer, I do not wish to be giving any body +trouble." + +"But, my dear child, the time is drawing near; here is April, and June, +or say even July, is very near, with such business to accomplish before +us. Your inexperience really amuses me! A situation such as you deserve, +and your friends would require for you, is no everyday occurrence, +is not obtained at a moment's notice; indeed, indeed, we must begin +inquiring directly." + +"Excuse me, ma'am, but this is by no means my intention; I make no +inquiry myself, and should be sorry to have any made by my friends. When +I am quite determined as to the time, I am not at all afraid of being +long unemployed. There are places in town, offices, where inquiry +would soon produce something--Offices for the sale--not quite of human +flesh--but of human intellect." + +"Oh! my dear, human flesh! You quite shock me; if you mean a fling at +the slave-trade, I assure you Mr. Suckling was always rather a friend to +the abolition." + +"I did not mean, I was not thinking of the slave-trade," replied Jane; +"governess-trade, I assure you, was all that I had in view; widely +different certainly as to the guilt of those who carry it on; but as to +the greater misery of the victims, I do not know where it lies. But +I only mean to say that there are advertising offices, and that by +applying to them I should have no doubt of very soon meeting with +something that would do." + +"Something that would do!" repeated Mrs. Elton. "Aye, _that_ may suit +your humble ideas of yourself;--I know what a modest creature you are; +but it will not satisfy your friends to have you taking up with any +thing that may offer, any inferior, commonplace situation, in a family +not moving in a certain circle, or able to command the elegancies of +life." + +"You are very obliging; but as to all that, I am very indifferent; +it would be no object to me to be with the rich; my mortifications, I +think, would only be the greater; I should suffer more from comparison. +A gentleman's family is all that I should condition for." + +"I know you, I know you; you would take up with any thing; but I shall +be a little more nice, and I am sure the good Campbells will be quite +on my side; with your superior talents, you have a right to move in the +first circle. Your musical knowledge alone would entitle you to name +your own terms, have as many rooms as you like, and mix in the family +as much as you chose;--that is--I do not know--if you knew the harp, you +might do all that, I am very sure; but you sing as well as play;--yes, I +really believe you might, even without the harp, stipulate for what +you chose;--and you must and shall be delightfully, honourably and +comfortably settled before the Campbells or I have any rest." + +"You may well class the delight, the honour, and the comfort of such +a situation together," said Jane, "they are pretty sure to be equal; +however, I am very serious in not wishing any thing to be attempted +at present for me. I am exceedingly obliged to you, Mrs. Elton, I am +obliged to any body who feels for me, but I am quite serious in wishing +nothing to be done till the summer. For two or three months longer I +shall remain where I am, and as I am." + +"And I am quite serious too, I assure you," replied Mrs. Elton gaily, +"in resolving to be always on the watch, and employing my friends to +watch also, that nothing really unexceptionable may pass us." + +In this style she ran on; never thoroughly stopped by any thing till Mr. +Woodhouse came into the room; her vanity had then a change of object, +and Emma heard her saying in the same half-whisper to Jane, + +"Here comes this dear old beau of mine, I protest!--Only think of his +gallantry in coming away before the other men!--what a dear creature +he is;--I assure you I like him excessively. I admire all that quaint, +old-fashioned politeness; it is much more to my taste than modern ease; +modern ease often disgusts me. But this good old Mr. Woodhouse, I wish +you had heard his gallant speeches to me at dinner. Oh! I assure you I +began to think my caro sposo would be absolutely jealous. I fancy I +am rather a favourite; he took notice of my gown. How do you like +it?--Selina's choice--handsome, I think, but I do not know whether it +is not over-trimmed; I have the greatest dislike to the idea of being +over-trimmed--quite a horror of finery. I must put on a few ornaments +now, because it is expected of me. A bride, you know, must appear like +a bride, but my natural taste is all for simplicity; a simple style +of dress is so infinitely preferable to finery. But I am quite in the +minority, I believe; few people seem to value simplicity of dress,--show +and finery are every thing. I have some notion of putting such a +trimming as this to my white and silver poplin. Do you think it will +look well?" + +The whole party were but just reassembled in the drawing-room when Mr. +Weston made his appearance among them. He had returned to a late dinner, +and walked to Hartfield as soon as it was over. He had been too much +expected by the best judges, for surprize--but there was great joy. Mr. +Woodhouse was almost as glad to see him now, as he would have been sorry +to see him before. John Knightley only was in mute astonishment.--That +a man who might have spent his evening quietly at home after a day +of business in London, should set off again, and walk half a mile +to another man's house, for the sake of being in mixed company till +bed-time, of finishing his day in the efforts of civility and the noise +of numbers, was a circumstance to strike him deeply. A man who had been +in motion since eight o'clock in the morning, and might now have been +still, who had been long talking, and might have been silent, who had +been in more than one crowd, and might have been alone!--Such a man, to +quit the tranquillity and independence of his own fireside, and on the +evening of a cold sleety April day rush out again into the world!--Could +he by a touch of his finger have instantly taken back his wife, there +would have been a motive; but his coming would probably prolong rather +than break up the party. John Knightley looked at him with amazement, +then shrugged his shoulders, and said, "I could not have believed it +even of _him_." + +Mr. Weston meanwhile, perfectly unsuspicious of the indignation he was +exciting, happy and cheerful as usual, and with all the right of being +principal talker, which a day spent anywhere from home confers, was +making himself agreeable among the rest; and having satisfied the +inquiries of his wife as to his dinner, convincing her that none of all +her careful directions to the servants had been forgotten, and spread +abroad what public news he had heard, was proceeding to a family +communication, which, though principally addressed to Mrs. Weston, he +had not the smallest doubt of being highly interesting to every body in +the room. He gave her a letter, it was from Frank, and to herself; he +had met with it in his way, and had taken the liberty of opening it. + +"Read it, read it," said he, "it will give you pleasure; only a few +lines--will not take you long; read it to Emma." + +The two ladies looked over it together; and he sat smiling and talking +to them the whole time, in a voice a little subdued, but very audible to +every body. + +"Well, he is coming, you see; good news, I think. Well, what do you say +to it?--I always told you he would be here again soon, did not I?--Anne, +my dear, did not I always tell you so, and you would not believe me?--In +town next week, you see--at the latest, I dare say; for _she_ is as +impatient as the black gentleman when any thing is to be done; most +likely they will be there to-morrow or Saturday. As to her illness, all +nothing of course. But it is an excellent thing to have Frank among us +again, so near as town. They will stay a good while when they do come, +and he will be half his time with us. This is precisely what I wanted. +Well, pretty good news, is not it? Have you finished it? Has Emma read +it all? Put it up, put it up; we will have a good talk about it some +other time, but it will not do now. I shall only just mention the +circumstance to the others in a common way." + +Mrs. Weston was most comfortably pleased on the occasion. Her looks +and words had nothing to restrain them. She was happy, she knew she was +happy, and knew she ought to be happy. Her congratulations were warm and +open; but Emma could not speak so fluently. _She_ was a little occupied +in weighing her own feelings, and trying to understand the degree of her +agitation, which she rather thought was considerable. + +Mr. Weston, however, too eager to be very observant, too communicative +to want others to talk, was very well satisfied with what she did say, +and soon moved away to make the rest of his friends happy by a partial +communication of what the whole room must have overheard already. + +It was well that he took every body's joy for granted, or he might +not have thought either Mr. Woodhouse or Mr. Knightley particularly +delighted. They were the first entitled, after Mrs. Weston and Emma, to +be made happy;--from them he would have proceeded to Miss Fairfax, but +she was so deep in conversation with John Knightley, that it would have +been too positive an interruption; and finding himself close to Mrs. +Elton, and her attention disengaged, he necessarily began on the subject +with her. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +"I hope I shall soon have the pleasure of introducing my son to you," +said Mr. Weston. + +Mrs. Elton, very willing to suppose a particular compliment intended her +by such a hope, smiled most graciously. + +"You have heard of a certain Frank Churchill, I presume," he +continued--"and know him to be my son, though he does not bear my name." + +"Oh! yes, and I shall be very happy in his acquaintance. I am sure Mr. +Elton will lose no time in calling on him; and we shall both have great +pleasure in seeing him at the Vicarage." + +"You are very obliging.--Frank will be extremely happy, I am sure.-- +He is to be in town next week, if not sooner. We have notice of it in a +letter to-day. I met the letters in my way this morning, and seeing my +son's hand, presumed to open it--though it was not directed to me--it +was to Mrs. Weston. She is his principal correspondent, I assure you. I +hardly ever get a letter." + +"And so you absolutely opened what was directed to her! Oh! Mr. +Weston--(laughing affectedly) I must protest against that.--A most +dangerous precedent indeed!--I beg you will not let your neighbours +follow your example.--Upon my word, if this is what I am to expect, we +married women must begin to exert ourselves!--Oh! Mr. Weston, I could +not have believed it of you!" + +"Aye, we men are sad fellows. You must take care of yourself, Mrs. +Elton.--This letter tells us--it is a short letter--written in a hurry, +merely to give us notice--it tells us that they are all coming up to +town directly, on Mrs. Churchill's account--she has not been well the +whole winter, and thinks Enscombe too cold for her--so they are all to +move southward without loss of time." + +"Indeed!--from Yorkshire, I think. Enscombe is in Yorkshire?" + +"Yes, they are about one hundred and ninety miles from London, a +considerable journey." + +"Yes, upon my word, very considerable. Sixty-five miles farther than +from Maple Grove to London. But what is distance, Mr. Weston, to people +of large fortune?--You would be amazed to hear how my brother, Mr. +Suckling, sometimes flies about. You will hardly believe me--but twice +in one week he and Mr. Bragge went to London and back again with four +horses." + +"The evil of the distance from Enscombe," said Mr. Weston, "is, that +Mrs. Churchill, _as_ _we_ _understand_, has not been able to leave the +sofa for a week together. In Frank's last letter she complained, he +said, of being too weak to get into her conservatory without having +both his arm and his uncle's! This, you know, speaks a great degree of +weakness--but now she is so impatient to be in town, that she means to +sleep only two nights on the road.--So Frank writes word. Certainly, +delicate ladies have very extraordinary constitutions, Mrs. Elton. You +must grant me that." + +"No, indeed, I shall grant you nothing. I always take the part of my +own sex. I do indeed. I give you notice--You will find me a formidable +antagonist on that point. I always stand up for women--and I assure you, +if you knew how Selina feels with respect to sleeping at an inn, you +would not wonder at Mrs. Churchill's making incredible exertions to +avoid it. Selina says it is quite horror to her--and I believe I have +caught a little of her nicety. She always travels with her own sheets; +an excellent precaution. Does Mrs. Churchill do the same?" + +"Depend upon it, Mrs. Churchill does every thing that any other fine +lady ever did. Mrs. Churchill will not be second to any lady in the land +for"-- + +Mrs. Elton eagerly interposed with, + +"Oh! Mr. Weston, do not mistake me. Selina is no fine lady, I assure +you. Do not run away with such an idea." + +"Is not she? Then she is no rule for Mrs. Churchill, who is as thorough +a fine lady as any body ever beheld." + +Mrs. Elton began to think she had been wrong in disclaiming so warmly. +It was by no means her object to have it believed that her sister was +_not_ a fine lady; perhaps there was want of spirit in the pretence of +it;--and she was considering in what way she had best retract, when Mr. +Weston went on. + +"Mrs. Churchill is not much in my good graces, as you may suspect--but +this is quite between ourselves. She is very fond of Frank, and +therefore I would not speak ill of her. Besides, she is out of health +now; but _that_ indeed, by her own account, she has always been. I would +not say so to every body, Mrs. Elton, but I have not much faith in Mrs. +Churchill's illness." + +"If she is really ill, why not go to Bath, Mr. Weston?--To Bath, or to +Clifton?" "She has taken it into her head that Enscombe is too cold for +her. The fact is, I suppose, that she is tired of Enscombe. She has now +been a longer time stationary there, than she ever was before, and she +begins to want change. It is a retired place. A fine place, but very +retired." + +"Aye--like Maple Grove, I dare say. Nothing can stand more retired from +the road than Maple Grove. Such an immense plantation all round it! You +seem shut out from every thing--in the most complete retirement.--And +Mrs. Churchill probably has not health or spirits like Selina to enjoy +that sort of seclusion. Or, perhaps she may not have resources enough in +herself to be qualified for a country life. I always say a woman cannot +have too many resources--and I feel very thankful that I have so many +myself as to be quite independent of society." + +"Frank was here in February for a fortnight." + +"So I remember to have heard. He will find an _addition_ to the society +of Highbury when he comes again; that is, if I may presume to call +myself an addition. But perhaps he may never have heard of there being +such a creature in the world." + +This was too loud a call for a compliment to be passed by, and Mr. +Weston, with a very good grace, immediately exclaimed, + +"My dear madam! Nobody but yourself could imagine such a thing possible. +Not heard of you!--I believe Mrs. Weston's letters lately have been full +of very little else than Mrs. Elton." + +He had done his duty and could return to his son. + +"When Frank left us," continued he, "it was quite uncertain when we +might see him again, which makes this day's news doubly welcome. It has +been completely unexpected. That is, _I_ always had a strong persuasion +he would be here again soon, I was sure something favourable would turn +up--but nobody believed me. He and Mrs. Weston were both dreadfully +desponding. 'How could he contrive to come? And how could it be supposed +that his uncle and aunt would spare him again?' and so forth--I always +felt that something would happen in our favour; and so it has, you see. +I have observed, Mrs. Elton, in the course of my life, that if things +are going untowardly one month, they are sure to mend the next." + +"Very true, Mr. Weston, perfectly true. It is just what I used to say to +a certain gentleman in company in the days of courtship, when, because +things did not go quite right, did not proceed with all the rapidity +which suited his feelings, he was apt to be in despair, and exclaim that +he was sure at this rate it would be _May_ before Hymen's saffron robe +would be put on for us. Oh! the pains I have been at to dispel those +gloomy ideas and give him cheerfuller views! The carriage--we had +disappointments about the carriage;--one morning, I remember, he came to +me quite in despair." + +She was stopped by a slight fit of coughing, and Mr. Weston instantly +seized the opportunity of going on. + +"You were mentioning May. May is the very month which Mrs. Churchill +is ordered, or has ordered herself, to spend in some warmer place than +Enscombe--in short, to spend in London; so that we have the agreeable +prospect of frequent visits from Frank the whole spring--precisely the +season of the year which one should have chosen for it: days almost at +the longest; weather genial and pleasant, always inviting one out, and +never too hot for exercise. When he was here before, we made the best +of it; but there was a good deal of wet, damp, cheerless weather; +there always is in February, you know, and we could not do half that we +intended. Now will be the time. This will be complete enjoyment; and I +do not know, Mrs. Elton, whether the uncertainty of our meetings, the +sort of constant expectation there will be of his coming in to-day or +to-morrow, and at any hour, may not be more friendly to happiness than +having him actually in the house. I think it is so. I think it is the +state of mind which gives most spirit and delight. I hope you will be +pleased with my son; but you must not expect a prodigy. He is generally +thought a fine young man, but do not expect a prodigy. Mrs. Weston's +partiality for him is very great, and, as you may suppose, most +gratifying to me. She thinks nobody equal to him." + +"And I assure you, Mr. Weston, I have very little doubt that my opinion +will be decidedly in his favour. I have heard so much in praise of Mr. +Frank Churchill.--At the same time it is fair to observe, that I am one +of those who always judge for themselves, and are by no means implicitly +guided by others. I give you notice that as I find your son, so I shall +judge of him.--I am no flatterer." + +Mr. Weston was musing. + +"I hope," said he presently, "I have not been severe upon poor Mrs. +Churchill. If she is ill I should be sorry to do her injustice; but +there are some traits in her character which make it difficult for me to +speak of her with the forbearance I could wish. You cannot be ignorant, +Mrs. Elton, of my connexion with the family, nor of the treatment I have +met with; and, between ourselves, the whole blame of it is to be laid +to her. She was the instigator. Frank's mother would never have been +slighted as she was but for her. Mr. Churchill has pride; but his pride +is nothing to his wife's: his is a quiet, indolent, gentlemanlike sort +of pride that would harm nobody, and only make himself a little helpless +and tiresome; but her pride is arrogance and insolence! And what +inclines one less to bear, she has no fair pretence of family or blood. +She was nobody when he married her, barely the daughter of a gentleman; +but ever since her being turned into a Churchill she has out-Churchill'd +them all in high and mighty claims: but in herself, I assure you, she is +an upstart." + +"Only think! well, that must be infinitely provoking! I have quite +a horror of upstarts. Maple Grove has given me a thorough disgust to +people of that sort; for there is a family in that neighbourhood who +are such an annoyance to my brother and sister from the airs they give +themselves! Your description of Mrs. Churchill made me think of them +directly. People of the name of Tupman, very lately settled there, and +encumbered with many low connexions, but giving themselves immense airs, +and expecting to be on a footing with the old established families. +A year and a half is the very utmost that they can have lived at West +Hall; and how they got their fortune nobody knows. They came from +Birmingham, which is not a place to promise much, you know, Mr. Weston. +One has not great hopes from Birmingham. I always say there is something +direful in the sound: but nothing more is positively known of the +Tupmans, though a good many things I assure you are suspected; and +yet by their manners they evidently think themselves equal even to +my brother, Mr. Suckling, who happens to be one of their nearest +neighbours. It is infinitely too bad. Mr. Suckling, who has been eleven +years a resident at Maple Grove, and whose father had it before him--I +believe, at least--I am almost sure that old Mr. Suckling had completed +the purchase before his death." + +They were interrupted. Tea was carrying round, and Mr. Weston, having +said all that he wanted, soon took the opportunity of walking away. + +After tea, Mr. and Mrs. Weston, and Mr. Elton sat down with Mr. +Woodhouse to cards. The remaining five were left to their own powers, +and Emma doubted their getting on very well; for Mr. Knightley seemed +little disposed for conversation; Mrs. Elton was wanting notice, which +nobody had inclination to pay, and she was herself in a worry of spirits +which would have made her prefer being silent. + +Mr. John Knightley proved more talkative than his brother. He was to +leave them early the next day; and he soon began with-- + +"Well, Emma, I do not believe I have any thing more to say about the +boys; but you have your sister's letter, and every thing is down at full +length there we may be sure. My charge would be much more concise than +her's, and probably not much in the same spirit; all that I have to +recommend being comprised in, do not spoil them, and do not physic +them." + +"I rather hope to satisfy you both," said Emma, "for I shall do all +in my power to make them happy, which will be enough for Isabella; and +happiness must preclude false indulgence and physic." + +"And if you find them troublesome, you must send them home again." + +"That is very likely. You think so, do not you?" + +"I hope I am aware that they may be too noisy for your father--or even +may be some encumbrance to you, if your visiting engagements continue to +increase as much as they have done lately." + +"Increase!" + +"Certainly; you must be sensible that the last half-year has made a +great difference in your way of life." + +"Difference! No indeed I am not." + +"There can be no doubt of your being much more engaged with company than +you used to be. Witness this very time. Here am I come down for only +one day, and you are engaged with a dinner-party!--When did it happen +before, or any thing like it? Your neighbourhood is increasing, and you +mix more with it. A little while ago, every letter to Isabella brought +an account of fresh gaieties; dinners at Mr. Cole's, or balls at the +Crown. The difference which Randalls, Randalls alone makes in your +goings-on, is very great." + +"Yes," said his brother quickly, "it is Randalls that does it all." + +"Very well--and as Randalls, I suppose, is not likely to have less +influence than heretofore, it strikes me as a possible thing, Emma, that +Henry and John may be sometimes in the way. And if they are, I only beg +you to send them home." + +"No," cried Mr. Knightley, "that need not be the consequence. Let them +be sent to Donwell. I shall certainly be at leisure." + +"Upon my word," exclaimed Emma, "you amuse me! I should like to know how +many of all my numerous engagements take place without your being of +the party; and why I am to be supposed in danger of wanting leisure to +attend to the little boys. These amazing engagements of mine--what have +they been? Dining once with the Coles--and having a ball talked of, +which never took place. I can understand you--(nodding at Mr. John +Knightley)--your good fortune in meeting with so many of your friends at +once here, delights you too much to pass unnoticed. But you, (turning to +Mr. Knightley,) who know how very, very seldom I am ever two hours from +Hartfield, why you should foresee such a series of dissipation for me, I +cannot imagine. And as to my dear little boys, I must say, that if Aunt +Emma has not time for them, I do not think they would fare much better +with Uncle Knightley, who is absent from home about five hours where she +is absent one--and who, when he is at home, is either reading to himself +or settling his accounts." + +Mr. Knightley seemed to be trying not to smile; and succeeded without +difficulty, upon Mrs. Elton's beginning to talk to him. + + + + +VOLUME III + + + +CHAPTER I + + +A very little quiet reflection was enough to satisfy Emma as to the +nature of her agitation on hearing this news of Frank Churchill. She +was soon convinced that it was not for herself she was feeling at all +apprehensive or embarrassed; it was for him. Her own attachment had +really subsided into a mere nothing; it was not worth thinking of;--but +if he, who had undoubtedly been always so much the most in love of the +two, were to be returning with the same warmth of sentiment which he had +taken away, it would be very distressing. If a separation of two +months should not have cooled him, there were dangers and evils before +her:--caution for him and for herself would be necessary. She did +not mean to have her own affections entangled again, and it would be +incumbent on her to avoid any encouragement of his. + +She wished she might be able to keep him from an absolute declaration. +That would be so very painful a conclusion of their present +acquaintance! and yet, she could not help rather anticipating something +decisive. She felt as if the spring would not pass without bringing a +crisis, an event, a something to alter her present composed and tranquil +state. + +It was not very long, though rather longer than Mr. Weston had foreseen, +before she had the power of forming some opinion of Frank Churchill's +feelings. The Enscombe family were not in town quite so soon as had been +imagined, but he was at Highbury very soon afterwards. He rode down +for a couple of hours; he could not yet do more; but as he came from +Randalls immediately to Hartfield, she could then exercise all her quick +observation, and speedily determine how he was influenced, and how she +must act. They met with the utmost friendliness. There could be no doubt +of his great pleasure in seeing her. But she had an almost instant doubt +of his caring for her as he had done, of his feeling the same tenderness +in the same degree. She watched him well. It was a clear thing he was +less in love than he had been. Absence, with the conviction probably +of her indifference, had produced this very natural and very desirable +effect. + +He was in high spirits; as ready to talk and laugh as ever, and seemed +delighted to speak of his former visit, and recur to old stories: and he +was not without agitation. It was not in his calmness that she read +his comparative difference. He was not calm; his spirits were evidently +fluttered; there was restlessness about him. Lively as he was, it seemed +a liveliness that did not satisfy himself; but what decided her belief +on the subject, was his staying only a quarter of an hour, and hurrying +away to make other calls in Highbury. "He had seen a group of old +acquaintance in the street as he passed--he had not stopped, he would +not stop for more than a word--but he had the vanity to think they would +be disappointed if he did not call, and much as he wished to stay longer +at Hartfield, he must hurry off." She had no doubt as to his being less +in love--but neither his agitated spirits, nor his hurrying away, seemed +like a perfect cure; and she was rather inclined to think it implied a +dread of her returning power, and a discreet resolution of not trusting +himself with her long. + +This was the only visit from Frank Churchill in the course of ten days. +He was often hoping, intending to come--but was always prevented. His +aunt could not bear to have him leave her. Such was his own account at +Randall's. If he were quite sincere, if he really tried to come, it was +to be inferred that Mrs. Churchill's removal to London had been of no +service to the wilful or nervous part of her disorder. That she was +really ill was very certain; he had declared himself convinced of it, at +Randalls. Though much might be fancy, he could not doubt, when he looked +back, that she was in a weaker state of health than she had been half a +year ago. He did not believe it to proceed from any thing that care +and medicine might not remove, or at least that she might not have many +years of existence before her; but he could not be prevailed on, by all +his father's doubts, to say that her complaints were merely imaginary, +or that she was as strong as ever. + +It soon appeared that London was not the place for her. She could +not endure its noise. Her nerves were under continual irritation and +suffering; and by the ten days' end, her nephew's letter to Randalls +communicated a change of plan. They were going to remove immediately to +Richmond. Mrs. Churchill had been recommended to the medical skill of +an eminent person there, and had otherwise a fancy for the place. A +ready-furnished house in a favourite spot was engaged, and much benefit +expected from the change. + +Emma heard that Frank wrote in the highest spirits of this arrangement, +and seemed most fully to appreciate the blessing of having two months +before him of such near neighbourhood to many dear friends--for the +house was taken for May and June. She was told that now he wrote with +the greatest confidence of being often with them, almost as often as he +could even wish. + +Emma saw how Mr. Weston understood these joyous prospects. He was +considering her as the source of all the happiness they offered. She +hoped it was not so. Two months must bring it to the proof. + +Mr. Weston's own happiness was indisputable. He was quite delighted. +It was the very circumstance he could have wished for. Now, it would be +really having Frank in their neighbourhood. What were nine miles to +a young man?--An hour's ride. He would be always coming over. The +difference in that respect of Richmond and London was enough to make +the whole difference of seeing him always and seeing him never. Sixteen +miles--nay, eighteen--it must be full eighteen to Manchester-street--was +a serious obstacle. Were he ever able to get away, the day would be +spent in coming and returning. There was no comfort in having him in +London; he might as well be at Enscombe; but Richmond was the very +distance for easy intercourse. Better than nearer! + +One good thing was immediately brought to a certainty by this +removal,--the ball at the Crown. It had not been forgotten before, +but it had been soon acknowledged vain to attempt to fix a day. Now, +however, it was absolutely to be; every preparation was resumed, and +very soon after the Churchills had removed to Richmond, a few lines from +Frank, to say that his aunt felt already much better for the change, and +that he had no doubt of being able to join them for twenty-four hours at +any given time, induced them to name as early a day as possible. + +Mr. Weston's ball was to be a real thing. A very few to-morrows stood +between the young people of Highbury and happiness. + +Mr. Woodhouse was resigned. The time of year lightened the evil to him. +May was better for every thing than February. Mrs. Bates was engaged to +spend the evening at Hartfield, James had due notice, and he sanguinely +hoped that neither dear little Henry nor dear little John would have any +thing the matter with them, while dear Emma were gone. + + + +CHAPTER II + + +No misfortune occurred, again to prevent the ball. The day approached, +the day arrived; and after a morning of some anxious watching, Frank +Churchill, in all the certainty of his own self, reached Randalls before +dinner, and every thing was safe. + +No second meeting had there yet been between him and Emma. The room +at the Crown was to witness it;--but it would be better than a +common meeting in a crowd. Mr. Weston had been so very earnest in his +entreaties for her arriving there as soon as possible after themselves, +for the purpose of taking her opinion as to the propriety and comfort of +the rooms before any other persons came, that she could not refuse him, +and must therefore spend some quiet interval in the young man's company. +She was to convey Harriet, and they drove to the Crown in good time, the +Randalls party just sufficiently before them. + +Frank Churchill seemed to have been on the watch; and though he did not +say much, his eyes declared that he meant to have a delightful evening. +They all walked about together, to see that every thing was as it should +be; and within a few minutes were joined by the contents of another +carriage, which Emma could not hear the sound of at first, without great +surprize. "So unreasonably early!" she was going to exclaim; but she +presently found that it was a family of old friends, who were coming, +like herself, by particular desire, to help Mr. Weston's judgment; and +they were so very closely followed by another carriage of cousins, +who had been entreated to come early with the same distinguishing +earnestness, on the same errand, that it seemed as if half the company +might soon be collected together for the purpose of preparatory +inspection. + +Emma perceived that her taste was not the only taste on which Mr. Weston +depended, and felt, that to be the favourite and intimate of a man +who had so many intimates and confidantes, was not the very first +distinction in the scale of vanity. She liked his open manners, but +a little less of open-heartedness would have made him a higher +character.--General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a +man what he ought to be.--She could fancy such a man. The whole party +walked about, and looked, and praised again; and then, having nothing +else to do, formed a sort of half-circle round the fire, to observe +in their various modes, till other subjects were started, that, though +_May_, a fire in the evening was still very pleasant. + +Emma found that it was not Mr. Weston's fault that the number of privy +councillors was not yet larger. They had stopped at Mrs. Bates's door +to offer the use of their carriage, but the aunt and niece were to be +brought by the Eltons. + +Frank was standing by her, but not steadily; there was a restlessness, +which shewed a mind not at ease. He was looking about, he was going to +the door, he was watching for the sound of other carriages,--impatient +to begin, or afraid of being always near her. + +Mrs. Elton was spoken of. "I think she must be here soon," said he. "I +have a great curiosity to see Mrs. Elton, I have heard so much of her. +It cannot be long, I think, before she comes." + +A carriage was heard. He was on the move immediately; but coming back, +said, + +"I am forgetting that I am not acquainted with her. I have never seen +either Mr. or Mrs. Elton. I have no business to put myself forward." + +Mr. and Mrs. Elton appeared; and all the smiles and the proprieties +passed. + +"But Miss Bates and Miss Fairfax!" said Mr. Weston, looking about. "We +thought you were to bring them." + +The mistake had been slight. The carriage was sent for them now. Emma +longed to know what Frank's first opinion of Mrs. Elton might be; how +he was affected by the studied elegance of her dress, and her smiles of +graciousness. He was immediately qualifying himself to form an opinion, +by giving her very proper attention, after the introduction had passed. + +In a few minutes the carriage returned.--Somebody talked of rain.--"I +will see that there are umbrellas, sir," said Frank to his father: +"Miss Bates must not be forgotten:" and away he went. Mr. Weston was +following; but Mrs. Elton detained him, to gratify him by her opinion +of his son; and so briskly did she begin, that the young man himself, +though by no means moving slowly, could hardly be out of hearing. + +"A very fine young man indeed, Mr. Weston. You know I candidly told you +I should form my own opinion; and I am happy to say that I am extremely +pleased with him.--You may believe me. I never compliment. I think him +a very handsome young man, and his manners are precisely what I like and +approve--so truly the gentleman, without the least conceit or puppyism. +You must know I have a vast dislike to puppies--quite a horror of them. +They were never tolerated at Maple Grove. Neither Mr. Suckling nor +me had ever any patience with them; and we used sometimes to say very +cutting things! Selina, who is mild almost to a fault, bore with them +much better." + +While she talked of his son, Mr. Weston's attention was chained; but +when she got to Maple Grove, he could recollect that there were ladies +just arriving to be attended to, and with happy smiles must hurry away. + +Mrs. Elton turned to Mrs. Weston. "I have no doubt of its being our +carriage with Miss Bates and Jane. Our coachman and horses are so +extremely expeditious!--I believe we drive faster than any body.--What +a pleasure it is to send one's carriage for a friend!--I understand you +were so kind as to offer, but another time it will be quite unnecessary. +You may be very sure I shall always take care of _them_." + +Miss Bates and Miss Fairfax, escorted by the two gentlemen, walked into +the room; and Mrs. Elton seemed to think it as much her duty as Mrs. +Weston's to receive them. Her gestures and movements might be understood +by any one who looked on like Emma; but her words, every body's words, +were soon lost under the incessant flow of Miss Bates, who came in +talking, and had not finished her speech under many minutes after her +being admitted into the circle at the fire. As the door opened she was +heard, + +"So very obliging of you!--No rain at all. Nothing to signify. I do not +care for myself. Quite thick shoes. And Jane declares--Well!--(as soon +as she was within the door) Well! This is brilliant indeed!--This is +admirable!--Excellently contrived, upon my word. Nothing wanting. Could +not have imagined it.--So well lighted up!--Jane, Jane, look!--did you +ever see any thing? Oh! Mr. Weston, you must really have had Aladdin's +lamp. Good Mrs. Stokes would not know her own room again. I saw her as +I came in; she was standing in the entrance. 'Oh! Mrs. Stokes,' said +I--but I had not time for more." She was now met by Mrs. Weston.--"Very +well, I thank you, ma'am. I hope you are quite well. Very happy to hear +it. So afraid you might have a headache!--seeing you pass by so often, +and knowing how much trouble you must have. Delighted to hear it indeed. +Ah! dear Mrs. Elton, so obliged to you for the carriage!--excellent +time. Jane and I quite ready. Did not keep the horses a moment. Most +comfortable carriage.--Oh! and I am sure our thanks are due to you, +Mrs. Weston, on that score. Mrs. Elton had most kindly sent Jane a note, +or we should have been.--But two such offers in one day!--Never were +such neighbours. I said to my mother, 'Upon my word, ma'am--.' Thank +you, my mother is remarkably well. Gone to Mr. Woodhouse's. I made her +take her shawl--for the evenings are not warm--her large new shawl-- +Mrs. Dixon's wedding-present.--So kind of her to think of my mother! +Bought at Weymouth, you know--Mr. Dixon's choice. There were three +others, Jane says, which they hesitated about some time. Colonel +Campbell rather preferred an olive. My dear Jane, are you sure you did +not wet your feet?--It was but a drop or two, but I am so afraid:--but +Mr. Frank Churchill was so extremely--and there was a mat to step +upon--I shall never forget his extreme politeness.--Oh! Mr. Frank +Churchill, I must tell you my mother's spectacles have never been in +fault since; the rivet never came out again. My mother often talks of +your good-nature. Does not she, Jane?--Do not we often talk of Mr. Frank +Churchill?--Ah! here's Miss Woodhouse.--Dear Miss Woodhouse, how do +you do?--Very well I thank you, quite well. This is meeting quite +in fairy-land!--Such a transformation!--Must not compliment, I know +(eyeing Emma most complacently)--that would be rude--but upon my word, +Miss Woodhouse, you do look--how do you like Jane's hair?--You are +a judge.--She did it all herself. Quite wonderful how she does her +hair!--No hairdresser from London I think could.--Ah! Dr. Hughes I +declare--and Mrs. Hughes. Must go and speak to Dr. and Mrs. Hughes for a +moment.--How do you do? How do you do?--Very well, I thank you. This +is delightful, is not it?--Where's dear Mr. Richard?--Oh! there he is. +Don't disturb him. Much better employed talking to the young ladies. How +do you do, Mr. Richard?--I saw you the other day as you rode through +the town--Mrs. Otway, I protest!--and good Mr. Otway, and Miss Otway +and Miss Caroline.--Such a host of friends!--and Mr. George and Mr. +Arthur!--How do you do? How do you all do?--Quite well, I am much +obliged to you. Never better.--Don't I hear another carriage?--Who can +this be?--very likely the worthy Coles.--Upon my word, this is charming +to be standing about among such friends! And such a noble fire!--I am +quite roasted. No coffee, I thank you, for me--never take coffee.--A +little tea if you please, sir, by and bye,--no hurry--Oh! here it comes. +Every thing so good!" + +Frank Churchill returned to his station by Emma; and as soon as Miss +Bates was quiet, she found herself necessarily overhearing the discourse +of Mrs. Elton and Miss Fairfax, who were standing a little way behind +her.--He was thoughtful. Whether he were overhearing too, she could not +determine. After a good many compliments to Jane on her dress and look, +compliments very quietly and properly taken, Mrs. Elton was evidently +wanting to be complimented herself--and it was, "How do you like +my gown?--How do you like my trimming?--How has Wright done my +hair?"--with many other relative questions, all answered with patient +politeness. Mrs. Elton then said, "Nobody can think less of dress in +general than I do--but upon such an occasion as this, when every body's +eyes are so much upon me, and in compliment to the Westons--who I have +no doubt are giving this ball chiefly to do me honour--I would not wish +to be inferior to others. And I see very few pearls in the room except +mine.--So Frank Churchill is a capital dancer, I understand.--We shall +see if our styles suit.--A fine young man certainly is Frank Churchill. +I like him very well." + +At this moment Frank began talking so vigorously, that Emma could not +but imagine he had overheard his own praises, and did not want to hear +more;--and the voices of the ladies were drowned for a while, till +another suspension brought Mrs. Elton's tones again distinctly +forward.--Mr. Elton had just joined them, and his wife was exclaiming, + +"Oh! you have found us out at last, have you, in our seclusion?--I was +this moment telling Jane, I thought you would begin to be impatient for +tidings of us." + +"Jane!"--repeated Frank Churchill, with a look of surprize and +displeasure.--"That is easy--but Miss Fairfax does not disapprove it, I +suppose." + +"How do you like Mrs. Elton?" said Emma in a whisper. + +"Not at all." + +"You are ungrateful." + +"Ungrateful!--What do you mean?" Then changing from a frown to a +smile--"No, do not tell me--I do not want to know what you mean.--Where +is my father?--When are we to begin dancing?" + +Emma could hardly understand him; he seemed in an odd humour. He walked +off to find his father, but was quickly back again with both Mr. and +Mrs. Weston. He had met with them in a little perplexity, which must be +laid before Emma. It had just occurred to Mrs. Weston that Mrs. Elton +must be asked to begin the ball; that she would expect it; which +interfered with all their wishes of giving Emma that distinction.--Emma +heard the sad truth with fortitude. + +"And what are we to do for a proper partner for her?" said Mr. Weston. +"She will think Frank ought to ask her." + +Frank turned instantly to Emma, to claim her former promise; and +boasted himself an engaged man, which his father looked his most perfect +approbation of--and it then appeared that Mrs. Weston was wanting _him_ +to dance with Mrs. Elton himself, and that their business was to help to +persuade him into it, which was done pretty soon.--Mr. Weston and Mrs. +Elton led the way, Mr. Frank Churchill and Miss Woodhouse followed. +Emma must submit to stand second to Mrs. Elton, though she had always +considered the ball as peculiarly for her. It was almost enough to make +her think of marrying. Mrs. Elton had undoubtedly the advantage, at this +time, in vanity completely gratified; for though she had intended to +begin with Frank Churchill, she could not lose by the change. Mr. Weston +might be his son's superior.--In spite of this little rub, however, +Emma was smiling with enjoyment, delighted to see the respectable length +of the set as it was forming, and to feel that she had so many hours +of unusual festivity before her.--She was more disturbed by Mr. +Knightley's not dancing than by any thing else.--There he was, among +the standers-by, where he ought not to be; he ought to be dancing,--not +classing himself with the husbands, and fathers, and whist-players, who +were pretending to feel an interest in the dance till their rubbers were +made up,--so young as he looked!--He could not have appeared to greater +advantage perhaps anywhere, than where he had placed himself. His tall, +firm, upright figure, among the bulky forms and stooping shoulders of +the elderly men, was such as Emma felt must draw every body's eyes; +and, excepting her own partner, there was not one among the whole row of +young men who could be compared with him.--He moved a few steps nearer, +and those few steps were enough to prove in how gentlemanlike a manner, +with what natural grace, he must have danced, would he but take the +trouble.--Whenever she caught his eye, she forced him to smile; but +in general he was looking grave. She wished he could love a ballroom +better, and could like Frank Churchill better.--He seemed often +observing her. She must not flatter herself that he thought of her +dancing, but if he were criticising her behaviour, she did not feel +afraid. There was nothing like flirtation between her and her partner. +They seemed more like cheerful, easy friends, than lovers. That Frank +Churchill thought less of her than he had done, was indubitable. + +The ball proceeded pleasantly. The anxious cares, the incessant +attentions of Mrs. Weston, were not thrown away. Every body seemed +happy; and the praise of being a delightful ball, which is seldom +bestowed till after a ball has ceased to be, was repeatedly given in +the very beginning of the existence of this. Of very important, very +recordable events, it was not more productive than such meetings usually +are. There was one, however, which Emma thought something of.--The two +last dances before supper were begun, and Harriet had no partner;--the +only young lady sitting down;--and so equal had been hitherto the +number of dancers, that how there could be any one disengaged was the +wonder!--But Emma's wonder lessened soon afterwards, on seeing Mr. Elton +sauntering about. He would not ask Harriet to dance if it were possible +to be avoided: she was sure he would not--and she was expecting him +every moment to escape into the card-room. + +Escape, however, was not his plan. He came to the part of the room where +the sitters-by were collected, spoke to some, and walked about in front +of them, as if to shew his liberty, and his resolution of maintaining +it. He did not omit being sometimes directly before Miss Smith, or +speaking to those who were close to her.--Emma saw it. She was not yet +dancing; she was working her way up from the bottom, and had therefore +leisure to look around, and by only turning her head a little she saw +it all. When she was half-way up the set, the whole group were exactly +behind her, and she would no longer allow her eyes to watch; but Mr. +Elton was so near, that she heard every syllable of a dialogue which +just then took place between him and Mrs. Weston; and she perceived that +his wife, who was standing immediately above her, was not only +listening also, but even encouraging him by significant glances.--The +kind-hearted, gentle Mrs. Weston had left her seat to join him and say, +"Do not you dance, Mr. Elton?" to which his prompt reply was, "Most +readily, Mrs. Weston, if you will dance with me." + +"Me!--oh! no--I would get you a better partner than myself. I am no +dancer." + +"If Mrs. Gilbert wishes to dance," said he, "I shall have great +pleasure, I am sure--for, though beginning to feel myself rather an old +married man, and that my dancing days are over, it would give me very +great pleasure at any time to stand up with an old friend like Mrs. +Gilbert." + +"Mrs. Gilbert does not mean to dance, but there is a young lady +disengaged whom I should be very glad to see dancing--Miss Smith." "Miss +Smith!--oh!--I had not observed.--You are extremely obliging--and if I +were not an old married man.--But my dancing days are over, Mrs. Weston. +You will excuse me. Any thing else I should be most happy to do, at your +command--but my dancing days are over." + +Mrs. Weston said no more; and Emma could imagine with what surprize and +mortification she must be returning to her seat. This was Mr. Elton! the +amiable, obliging, gentle Mr. Elton.--She looked round for a moment; he +had joined Mr. Knightley at a little distance, and was arranging himself +for settled conversation, while smiles of high glee passed between him +and his wife. + +She would not look again. Her heart was in a glow, and she feared her +face might be as hot. + +In another moment a happier sight caught her;--Mr. Knightley leading +Harriet to the set!--Never had she been more surprized, seldom more +delighted, than at that instant. She was all pleasure and gratitude, +both for Harriet and herself, and longed to be thanking him; and though +too distant for speech, her countenance said much, as soon as she could +catch his eye again. + +His dancing proved to be just what she had believed it, extremely good; +and Harriet would have seemed almost too lucky, if it had not been for +the cruel state of things before, and for the very complete enjoyment +and very high sense of the distinction which her happy features +announced. It was not thrown away on her, she bounded higher than ever, +flew farther down the middle, and was in a continual course of smiles. + +Mr. Elton had retreated into the card-room, looking (Emma trusted) very +foolish. She did not think he was quite so hardened as his wife, though +growing very like her;--_she_ spoke some of her feelings, by observing +audibly to her partner, + +"Knightley has taken pity on poor little Miss Smith!--Very good-natured, +I declare." + +Supper was announced. The move began; and Miss Bates might be heard from +that moment, without interruption, till her being seated at table and +taking up her spoon. + +"Jane, Jane, my dear Jane, where are you?--Here is your tippet. Mrs. +Weston begs you to put on your tippet. She says she is afraid there will +be draughts in the passage, though every thing has been done--One door +nailed up--Quantities of matting--My dear Jane, indeed you must. +Mr. Churchill, oh! you are too obliging! How well you put it on!--so +gratified! Excellent dancing indeed!--Yes, my dear, I ran home, as I +said I should, to help grandmama to bed, and got back again, and +nobody missed me.--I set off without saying a word, just as I told you. +Grandmama was quite well, had a charming evening with Mr. Woodhouse, a +vast deal of chat, and backgammon.--Tea was made downstairs, biscuits +and baked apples and wine before she came away: amazing luck in some +of her throws: and she inquired a great deal about you, how you were +amused, and who were your partners. 'Oh!' said I, 'I shall not forestall +Jane; I left her dancing with Mr. George Otway; she will love to tell +you all about it herself to-morrow: her first partner was Mr. Elton, +I do not know who will ask her next, perhaps Mr. William Cox.' My dear +sir, you are too obliging.--Is there nobody you would not rather?--I am +not helpless. Sir, you are most kind. Upon my word, Jane on one arm, and +me on the other!--Stop, stop, let us stand a little back, Mrs. Elton is +going; dear Mrs. Elton, how elegant she looks!--Beautiful lace!--Now we +all follow in her train. Quite the queen of the evening!--Well, here we +are at the passage. Two steps, Jane, take care of the two steps. Oh! no, +there is but one. Well, I was persuaded there were two. How very odd! +I was convinced there were two, and there is but one. I never saw any +thing equal to the comfort and style--Candles everywhere.--I was telling +you of your grandmama, Jane,--There was a little disappointment.--The +baked apples and biscuits, excellent in their way, you know; but there +was a delicate fricassee of sweetbread and some asparagus brought in at +first, and good Mr. Woodhouse, not thinking the asparagus quite boiled +enough, sent it all out again. Now there is nothing grandmama loves +better than sweetbread and asparagus--so she was rather disappointed, +but we agreed we would not speak of it to any body, for fear of +its getting round to dear Miss Woodhouse, who would be so very much +concerned!--Well, this is brilliant! I am all amazement! could not have +supposed any thing!--Such elegance and profusion!--I have seen nothing +like it since--Well, where shall we sit? where shall we sit? Anywhere, +so that Jane is not in a draught. Where _I_ sit is of no consequence. +Oh! do you recommend this side?--Well, I am sure, Mr. Churchill--only +it seems too good--but just as you please. What you direct in this house +cannot be wrong. Dear Jane, how shall we ever recollect half the dishes +for grandmama? Soup too! Bless me! I should not be helped so soon, but +it smells most excellent, and I cannot help beginning." + +Emma had no opportunity of speaking to Mr. Knightley till after supper; +but, when they were all in the ballroom again, her eyes invited +him irresistibly to come to her and be thanked. He was warm in his +reprobation of Mr. Elton's conduct; it had been unpardonable rudeness; +and Mrs. Elton's looks also received the due share of censure. + +"They aimed at wounding more than Harriet," said he. "Emma, why is it +that they are your enemies?" + +He looked with smiling penetration; and, on receiving no answer, added, +"_She_ ought not to be angry with you, I suspect, whatever he may +be.--To that surmise, you say nothing, of course; but confess, Emma, +that you did want him to marry Harriet." + +"I did," replied Emma, "and they cannot forgive me." + +He shook his head; but there was a smile of indulgence with it, and he +only said, + +"I shall not scold you. I leave you to your own reflections." + +"Can you trust me with such flatterers?--Does my vain spirit ever tell +me I am wrong?" + +"Not your vain spirit, but your serious spirit.--If one leads you wrong, +I am sure the other tells you of it." + +"I do own myself to have been completely mistaken in Mr. Elton. There is +a littleness about him which you discovered, and which I did not: and I +was fully convinced of his being in love with Harriet. It was through a +series of strange blunders!" + +"And, in return for your acknowledging so much, I will do you the +justice to say, that you would have chosen for him better than he has +chosen for himself.--Harriet Smith has some first-rate qualities, which +Mrs. Elton is totally without. An unpretending, single-minded, artless +girl--infinitely to be preferred by any man of sense and taste to such a +woman as Mrs. Elton. I found Harriet more conversable than I expected." + +Emma was extremely gratified.--They were interrupted by the bustle of +Mr. Weston calling on every body to begin dancing again. + +"Come Miss Woodhouse, Miss Otway, Miss Fairfax, what are you all +doing?--Come Emma, set your companions the example. Every body is lazy! +Every body is asleep!" + +"I am ready," said Emma, "whenever I am wanted." + +"Whom are you going to dance with?" asked Mr. Knightley. + +She hesitated a moment, and then replied, "With you, if you will ask +me." + +"Will you?" said he, offering his hand. + +"Indeed I will. You have shewn that you can dance, and you know we are +not really so much brother and sister as to make it at all improper." + +"Brother and sister! no, indeed." + + + +CHAPTER III + + +This little explanation with Mr. Knightley gave Emma considerable +pleasure. It was one of the agreeable recollections of the ball, which +she walked about the lawn the next morning to enjoy.--She was extremely +glad that they had come to so good an understanding respecting the +Eltons, and that their opinions of both husband and wife were so much +alike; and his praise of Harriet, his concession in her favour, was +peculiarly gratifying. The impertinence of the Eltons, which for a few +minutes had threatened to ruin the rest of her evening, had been the +occasion of some of its highest satisfactions; and she looked forward +to another happy result--the cure of Harriet's infatuation.--From +Harriet's manner of speaking of the circumstance before they quitted the +ballroom, she had strong hopes. It seemed as if her eyes were suddenly +opened, and she were enabled to see that Mr. Elton was not the superior +creature she had believed him. The fever was over, and Emma could +harbour little fear of the pulse being quickened again by injurious +courtesy. She depended on the evil feelings of the Eltons for +supplying all the discipline of pointed neglect that could be farther +requisite.--Harriet rational, Frank Churchill not too much in love, and +Mr. Knightley not wanting to quarrel with her, how very happy a summer +must be before her! + +She was not to see Frank Churchill this morning. He had told her that he +could not allow himself the pleasure of stopping at Hartfield, as he was +to be at home by the middle of the day. She did not regret it. + +Having arranged all these matters, looked them through, and put them all +to rights, she was just turning to the house with spirits freshened up +for the demands of the two little boys, as well as of their grandpapa, +when the great iron sweep-gate opened, and two persons entered whom she +had never less expected to see together--Frank Churchill, with Harriet +leaning on his arm--actually Harriet!--A moment sufficed to convince +her that something extraordinary had happened. Harriet looked white +and frightened, and he was trying to cheer her.--The iron gates and the +front-door were not twenty yards asunder;--they were all three soon in +the hall, and Harriet immediately sinking into a chair fainted away. + +A young lady who faints, must be recovered; questions must be answered, +and surprizes be explained. Such events are very interesting, but the +suspense of them cannot last long. A few minutes made Emma acquainted +with the whole. + +Miss Smith, and Miss Bickerton, another parlour boarder at Mrs. +Goddard's, who had been also at the ball, had walked out together, and +taken a road, the Richmond road, which, though apparently public enough +for safety, had led them into alarm.--About half a mile beyond Highbury, +making a sudden turn, and deeply shaded by elms on each side, it became +for a considerable stretch very retired; and when the young ladies +had advanced some way into it, they had suddenly perceived at a small +distance before them, on a broader patch of greensward by the side, a +party of gipsies. A child on the watch, came towards them to beg; and +Miss Bickerton, excessively frightened, gave a great scream, and calling +on Harriet to follow her, ran up a steep bank, cleared a slight hedge at +the top, and made the best of her way by a short cut back to Highbury. +But poor Harriet could not follow. She had suffered very much from cramp +after dancing, and her first attempt to mount the bank brought on such +a return of it as made her absolutely powerless--and in this state, and +exceedingly terrified, she had been obliged to remain. + +How the trampers might have behaved, had the young ladies been more +courageous, must be doubtful; but such an invitation for attack could +not be resisted; and Harriet was soon assailed by half a dozen children, +headed by a stout woman and a great boy, all clamorous, and impertinent +in look, though not absolutely in word.--More and more frightened, she +immediately promised them money, and taking out her purse, gave them a +shilling, and begged them not to want more, or to use her ill.--She +was then able to walk, though but slowly, and was moving away--but her +terror and her purse were too tempting, and she was followed, or rather +surrounded, by the whole gang, demanding more. + +In this state Frank Churchill had found her, she trembling and +conditioning, they loud and insolent. By a most fortunate chance his +leaving Highbury had been delayed so as to bring him to her assistance +at this critical moment. The pleasantness of the morning had induced +him to walk forward, and leave his horses to meet him by another road, +a mile or two beyond Highbury--and happening to have borrowed a pair +of scissors the night before of Miss Bates, and to have forgotten to +restore them, he had been obliged to stop at her door, and go in for a +few minutes: he was therefore later than he had intended; and being +on foot, was unseen by the whole party till almost close to them. The +terror which the woman and boy had been creating in Harriet was then +their own portion. He had left them completely frightened; and Harriet +eagerly clinging to him, and hardly able to speak, had just strength +enough to reach Hartfield, before her spirits were quite overcome. +It was his idea to bring her to Hartfield: he had thought of no other +place. + +This was the amount of the whole story,--of his communication and of +Harriet's as soon as she had recovered her senses and speech.--He dared +not stay longer than to see her well; these several delays left him +not another minute to lose; and Emma engaging to give assurance of her +safety to Mrs. Goddard, and notice of there being such a set of people +in the neighbourhood to Mr. Knightley, he set off, with all the grateful +blessings that she could utter for her friend and herself. + +Such an adventure as this,--a fine young man and a lovely young woman +thrown together in such a way, could hardly fail of suggesting certain +ideas to the coldest heart and the steadiest brain. So Emma thought, at +least. Could a linguist, could a grammarian, could even a mathematician +have seen what she did, have witnessed their appearance together, and +heard their history of it, without feeling that circumstances had been +at work to make them peculiarly interesting to each other?--How much +more must an imaginist, like herself, be on fire with speculation and +foresight!--especially with such a groundwork of anticipation as her +mind had already made. + +It was a very extraordinary thing! Nothing of the sort had ever +occurred before to any young ladies in the place, within her memory; no +rencontre, no alarm of the kind;--and now it had happened to the very +person, and at the very hour, when the other very person was chancing +to pass by to rescue her!--It certainly was very extraordinary!--And +knowing, as she did, the favourable state of mind of each at this +period, it struck her the more. He was wishing to get the better of his +attachment to herself, she just recovering from her mania for Mr. Elton. +It seemed as if every thing united to promise the most interesting +consequences. It was not possible that the occurrence should not be +strongly recommending each to the other. + +In the few minutes' conversation which she had yet had with him, while +Harriet had been partially insensible, he had spoken of her terror, +her naivete, her fervour as she seized and clung to his arm, with a +sensibility amused and delighted; and just at last, after Harriet's +own account had been given, he had expressed his indignation at the +abominable folly of Miss Bickerton in the warmest terms. Every thing was +to take its natural course, however, neither impelled nor assisted. +She would not stir a step, nor drop a hint. No, she had had enough of +interference. There could be no harm in a scheme, a mere passive scheme. +It was no more than a wish. Beyond it she would on no account proceed. + +Emma's first resolution was to keep her father from the knowledge of +what had passed,--aware of the anxiety and alarm it would occasion: but +she soon felt that concealment must be impossible. Within half an hour +it was known all over Highbury. It was the very event to engage those +who talk most, the young and the low; and all the youth and servants in +the place were soon in the happiness of frightful news. The last night's +ball seemed lost in the gipsies. Poor Mr. Woodhouse trembled as he sat, +and, as Emma had foreseen, would scarcely be satisfied without their +promising never to go beyond the shrubbery again. It was some comfort +to him that many inquiries after himself and Miss Woodhouse (for his +neighbours knew that he loved to be inquired after), as well as Miss +Smith, were coming in during the rest of the day; and he had +the pleasure of returning for answer, that they were all very +indifferent--which, though not exactly true, for she was perfectly well, +and Harriet not much otherwise, Emma would not interfere with. She had +an unhappy state of health in general for the child of such a man, +for she hardly knew what indisposition was; and if he did not invent +illnesses for her, she could make no figure in a message. + +The gipsies did not wait for the operations of justice; they took +themselves off in a hurry. The young ladies of Highbury might have +walked again in safety before their panic began, and the whole history +dwindled soon into a matter of little importance but to Emma and her +nephews:--in her imagination it maintained its ground, and Henry and +John were still asking every day for the story of Harriet and the +gipsies, and still tenaciously setting her right if she varied in the +slightest particular from the original recital. + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +A very few days had passed after this adventure, when Harriet came one +morning to Emma with a small parcel in her hand, and after sitting down +and hesitating, thus began: + +"Miss Woodhouse--if you are at leisure--I have something that I should +like to tell you--a sort of confession to make--and then, you know, it +will be over." + +Emma was a good deal surprized; but begged her to speak. There was a +seriousness in Harriet's manner which prepared her, quite as much as her +words, for something more than ordinary. + +"It is my duty, and I am sure it is my wish," she continued, "to have +no reserves with you on this subject. As I am happily quite an altered +creature in _one_ _respect_, it is very fit that you should have +the satisfaction of knowing it. I do not want to say more than is +necessary--I am too much ashamed of having given way as I have done, and +I dare say you understand me." + +"Yes," said Emma, "I hope I do." + +"How I could so long a time be fancying myself!..." cried Harriet, +warmly. "It seems like madness! I can see nothing at all extraordinary +in him now.--I do not care whether I meet him or not--except that of the +two I had rather not see him--and indeed I would go any distance round +to avoid him--but I do not envy his wife in the least; I neither admire +her nor envy her, as I have done: she is very charming, I dare say, and +all that, but I think her very ill-tempered and disagreeable--I shall +never forget her look the other night!--However, I assure you, Miss +Woodhouse, I wish her no evil.--No, let them be ever so happy together, +it will not give me another moment's pang: and to convince you that I +have been speaking truth, I am now going to destroy--what I ought to +have destroyed long ago--what I ought never to have kept--I know that +very well (blushing as she spoke).--However, now I will destroy it +all--and it is my particular wish to do it in your presence, that you +may see how rational I am grown. Cannot you guess what this parcel +holds?" said she, with a conscious look. + +"Not the least in the world.--Did he ever give you any thing?" + +"No--I cannot call them gifts; but they are things that I have valued +very much." + +She held the parcel towards her, and Emma read the words _Most_ +_precious_ _treasures_ on the top. Her curiosity was greatly excited. +Harriet unfolded the parcel, and she looked on with impatience. Within +abundance of silver paper was a pretty little Tunbridge-ware box, +which Harriet opened: it was well lined with the softest cotton; but, +excepting the cotton, Emma saw only a small piece of court-plaister. + +"Now," said Harriet, "you _must_ recollect." + +"No, indeed I do not." + +"Dear me! I should not have thought it possible you could forget what +passed in this very room about court-plaister, one of the very last +times we ever met in it!--It was but a very few days before I had my +sore throat--just before Mr. and Mrs. John Knightley came--I think the +very evening.--Do not you remember his cutting his finger with your new +penknife, and your recommending court-plaister?--But, as you had none +about you, and knew I had, you desired me to supply him; and so I took +mine out and cut him a piece; but it was a great deal too large, and he +cut it smaller, and kept playing some time with what was left, before he +gave it back to me. And so then, in my nonsense, I could not help making +a treasure of it--so I put it by never to be used, and looked at it now +and then as a great treat." + +"My dearest Harriet!" cried Emma, putting her hand before her face, +and jumping up, "you make me more ashamed of myself than I can bear. +Remember it? Aye, I remember it all now; all, except your saving this +relic--I knew nothing of that till this moment--but the cutting the +finger, and my recommending court-plaister, and saying I had none +about me!--Oh! my sins, my sins!--And I had plenty all the while in my +pocket!--One of my senseless tricks!--I deserve to be under a continual +blush all the rest of my life.--Well--(sitting down again)--go on--what +else?" + +"And had you really some at hand yourself? I am sure I never suspected +it, you did it so naturally." + +"And so you actually put this piece of court-plaister by for his sake!" +said Emma, recovering from her state of shame and feeling divided +between wonder and amusement. And secretly she added to herself, "Lord +bless me! when should I ever have thought of putting by in cotton a +piece of court-plaister that Frank Churchill had been pulling about! I +never was equal to this." + +"Here," resumed Harriet, turning to her box again, "here is something +still more valuable, I mean that _has_ _been_ more valuable, because +this is what did really once belong to him, which the court-plaister +never did." + +Emma was quite eager to see this superior treasure. It was the end of an +old pencil,--the part without any lead. + +"This was really his," said Harriet.--"Do not you remember one +morning?--no, I dare say you do not. But one morning--I forget exactly +the day--but perhaps it was the Tuesday or Wednesday before _that_ +_evening_, he wanted to make a memorandum in his pocket-book; it was +about spruce-beer. Mr. Knightley had been telling him something about +brewing spruce-beer, and he wanted to put it down; but when he took out +his pencil, there was so little lead that he soon cut it all away, and +it would not do, so you lent him another, and this was left upon the +table as good for nothing. But I kept my eye on it; and, as soon as I +dared, caught it up, and never parted with it again from that moment." + +"I do remember it," cried Emma; "I perfectly remember it.--Talking +about spruce-beer.--Oh! yes--Mr. Knightley and I both saying we +liked it, and Mr. Elton's seeming resolved to learn to like it too. I +perfectly remember it.--Stop; Mr. Knightley was standing just here, was +not he? I have an idea he was standing just here." + +"Ah! I do not know. I cannot recollect.--It is very odd, but I cannot +recollect.--Mr. Elton was sitting here, I remember, much about where I +am now."-- + +"Well, go on." + +"Oh! that's all. I have nothing more to shew you, or to say--except that +I am now going to throw them both behind the fire, and I wish you to see +me do it." + +"My poor dear Harriet! and have you actually found happiness in +treasuring up these things?" + +"Yes, simpleton as I was!--but I am quite ashamed of it now, and wish I +could forget as easily as I can burn them. It was very wrong of me, you +know, to keep any remembrances, after he was married. I knew it was--but +had not resolution enough to part with them." + +"But, Harriet, is it necessary to burn the court-plaister?--I have not +a word to say for the bit of old pencil, but the court-plaister might be +useful." + +"I shall be happier to burn it," replied Harriet. "It has a disagreeable +look to me. I must get rid of every thing.--There it goes, and there is +an end, thank Heaven! of Mr. Elton." + +"And when," thought Emma, "will there be a beginning of Mr. Churchill?" + +She had soon afterwards reason to believe that the beginning was already +made, and could not but hope that the gipsy, though she had _told_ no +fortune, might be proved to have made Harriet's.--About a fortnight +after the alarm, they came to a sufficient explanation, and quite +undesignedly. Emma was not thinking of it at the moment, which made the +information she received more valuable. She merely said, in the course +of some trivial chat, "Well, Harriet, whenever you marry I would advise +you to do so and so"--and thought no more of it, till after a minute's +silence she heard Harriet say in a very serious tone, "I shall never +marry." + +Emma then looked up, and immediately saw how it was; and after a +moment's debate, as to whether it should pass unnoticed or not, replied, + +"Never marry!--This is a new resolution." + +"It is one that I shall never change, however." + +After another short hesitation, "I hope it does not proceed from--I hope +it is not in compliment to Mr. Elton?" + +"Mr. Elton indeed!" cried Harriet indignantly.--"Oh! no"--and Emma could +just catch the words, "so superior to Mr. Elton!" + +She then took a longer time for consideration. Should she proceed no +farther?--should she let it pass, and seem to suspect nothing?--Perhaps +Harriet might think her cold or angry if she did; or perhaps if she were +totally silent, it might only drive Harriet into asking her to hear too +much; and against any thing like such an unreserve as had been, such +an open and frequent discussion of hopes and chances, she was perfectly +resolved.--She believed it would be wiser for her to say and know at +once, all that she meant to say and know. Plain dealing was always +best. She had previously determined how far she would proceed, on any +application of the sort; and it would be safer for both, to have the +judicious law of her own brain laid down with speed.--She was decided, +and thus spoke-- + +"Harriet, I will not affect to be in doubt of your meaning. Your +resolution, or rather your expectation of never marrying, results from +an idea that the person whom you might prefer, would be too greatly your +superior in situation to think of you. Is not it so?" + +"Oh! Miss Woodhouse, believe me I have not the presumption to suppose-- +Indeed I am not so mad.--But it is a pleasure to me to admire him at a +distance--and to think of his infinite superiority to all the rest of +the world, with the gratitude, wonder, and veneration, which are so +proper, in me especially." + +"I am not at all surprized at you, Harriet. The service he rendered you +was enough to warm your heart." + +"Service! oh! it was such an inexpressible obligation!--The very +recollection of it, and all that I felt at the time--when I saw him +coming--his noble look--and my wretchedness before. Such a change! In +one moment such a change! From perfect misery to perfect happiness!" + +"It is very natural. It is natural, and it is honourable.--Yes, +honourable, I think, to chuse so well and so gratefully.--But that +it will be a fortunate preference is more than I can promise. I do not +advise you to give way to it, Harriet. I do not by any means engage +for its being returned. Consider what you are about. Perhaps it will be +wisest in you to check your feelings while you can: at any rate do not +let them carry you far, unless you are persuaded of his liking you. Be +observant of him. Let his behaviour be the guide of your sensations. I +give you this caution now, because I shall never speak to you again on +the subject. I am determined against all interference. Henceforward I +know nothing of the matter. Let no name ever pass our lips. We were very +wrong before; we will be cautious now.--He is your superior, no doubt, +and there do seem objections and obstacles of a very serious nature; but +yet, Harriet, more wonderful things have taken place, there have been +matches of greater disparity. But take care of yourself. I would not +have you too sanguine; though, however it may end, be assured your +raising your thoughts to _him_, is a mark of good taste which I shall +always know how to value." + +Harriet kissed her hand in silent and submissive gratitude. Emma was +very decided in thinking such an attachment no bad thing for her friend. +Its tendency would be to raise and refine her mind--and it must be +saving her from the danger of degradation. + + + +CHAPTER V + + +In this state of schemes, and hopes, and connivance, June opened upon +Hartfield. To Highbury in general it brought no material change. The +Eltons were still talking of a visit from the Sucklings, and of the use +to be made of their barouche-landau; and Jane Fairfax was still at her +grandmother's; and as the return of the Campbells from Ireland was again +delayed, and August, instead of Midsummer, fixed for it, she was likely +to remain there full two months longer, provided at least she were able +to defeat Mrs. Elton's activity in her service, and save herself from +being hurried into a delightful situation against her will. + +Mr. Knightley, who, for some reason best known to himself, had certainly +taken an early dislike to Frank Churchill, was only growing to dislike +him more. He began to suspect him of some double dealing in his pursuit +of Emma. That Emma was his object appeared indisputable. Every thing +declared it; his own attentions, his father's hints, his mother-in-law's +guarded silence; it was all in unison; words, conduct, discretion, and +indiscretion, told the same story. But while so many were devoting him +to Emma, and Emma herself making him over to Harriet, Mr. Knightley +began to suspect him of some inclination to trifle with Jane Fairfax. He +could not understand it; but there were symptoms of intelligence between +them--he thought so at least--symptoms of admiration on his side, which, +having once observed, he could not persuade himself to think entirely +void of meaning, however he might wish to escape any of Emma's errors +of imagination. _She_ was not present when the suspicion first arose. +He was dining with the Randalls family, and Jane, at the Eltons'; and he +had seen a look, more than a single look, at Miss Fairfax, which, from +the admirer of Miss Woodhouse, seemed somewhat out of place. When he was +again in their company, he could not help remembering what he had seen; +nor could he avoid observations which, unless it were like Cowper and +his fire at twilight, + +"Myself creating what I saw," + +brought him yet stronger suspicion of there being a something of private +liking, of private understanding even, between Frank Churchill and Jane. + +He had walked up one day after dinner, as he very often did, to spend +his evening at Hartfield. Emma and Harriet were going to walk; he joined +them; and, on returning, they fell in with a larger party, who, like +themselves, judged it wisest to take their exercise early, as the +weather threatened rain; Mr. and Mrs. Weston and their son, Miss Bates +and her niece, who had accidentally met. They all united; and, on +reaching Hartfield gates, Emma, who knew it was exactly the sort of +visiting that would be welcome to her father, pressed them all to go in +and drink tea with him. The Randalls party agreed to it immediately; and +after a pretty long speech from Miss Bates, which few persons listened +to, she also found it possible to accept dear Miss Woodhouse's most +obliging invitation. + +As they were turning into the grounds, Mr. Perry passed by on horseback. +The gentlemen spoke of his horse. + +"By the bye," said Frank Churchill to Mrs. Weston presently, "what +became of Mr. Perry's plan of setting up his carriage?" + +Mrs. Weston looked surprized, and said, "I did not know that he ever had +any such plan." + +"Nay, I had it from you. You wrote me word of it three months ago." + +"Me! impossible!" + +"Indeed you did. I remember it perfectly. You mentioned it as what +was certainly to be very soon. Mrs. Perry had told somebody, and was +extremely happy about it. It was owing to _her_ persuasion, as she +thought his being out in bad weather did him a great deal of harm. You +must remember it now?" + +"Upon my word I never heard of it till this moment." + +"Never! really, never!--Bless me! how could it be?--Then I must have +dreamt it--but I was completely persuaded--Miss Smith, you walk as if +you were tired. You will not be sorry to find yourself at home." + +"What is this?--What is this?" cried Mr. Weston, "about Perry and a +carriage? Is Perry going to set up his carriage, Frank? I am glad he can +afford it. You had it from himself, had you?" + +"No, sir," replied his son, laughing, "I seem to have had it from +nobody.--Very odd!--I really was persuaded of Mrs. Weston's having +mentioned it in one of her letters to Enscombe, many weeks ago, with all +these particulars--but as she declares she never heard a syllable of +it before, of course it must have been a dream. I am a great dreamer. +I dream of every body at Highbury when I am away--and when I have gone +through my particular friends, then I begin dreaming of Mr. and Mrs. +Perry." + +"It is odd though," observed his father, "that you should have had such +a regular connected dream about people whom it was not very likely you +should be thinking of at Enscombe. Perry's setting up his carriage! and +his wife's persuading him to it, out of care for his health--just +what will happen, I have no doubt, some time or other; only a little +premature. What an air of probability sometimes runs through a dream! +And at others, what a heap of absurdities it is! Well, Frank, your dream +certainly shews that Highbury is in your thoughts when you are absent. +Emma, you are a great dreamer, I think?" + +Emma was out of hearing. She had hurried on before her guests to +prepare her father for their appearance, and was beyond the reach of Mr. +Weston's hint. + +"Why, to own the truth," cried Miss Bates, who had been trying in vain +to be heard the last two minutes, "if I must speak on this subject, +there is no denying that Mr. Frank Churchill might have--I do not mean +to say that he did not dream it--I am sure I have sometimes the oddest +dreams in the world--but if I am questioned about it, I must acknowledge +that there was such an idea last spring; for Mrs. Perry herself +mentioned it to my mother, and the Coles knew of it as well as +ourselves--but it was quite a secret, known to nobody else, and only +thought of about three days. Mrs. Perry was very anxious that he should +have a carriage, and came to my mother in great spirits one morning +because she thought she had prevailed. Jane, don't you remember +grandmama's telling us of it when we got home? I forget where we +had been walking to--very likely to Randalls; yes, I think it was to +Randalls. Mrs. Perry was always particularly fond of my mother--indeed +I do not know who is not--and she had mentioned it to her in confidence; +she had no objection to her telling us, of course, but it was not to go +beyond: and, from that day to this, I never mentioned it to a soul that +I know of. At the same time, I will not positively answer for my having +never dropt a hint, because I know I do sometimes pop out a thing before +I am aware. I am a talker, you know; I am rather a talker; and now and +then I have let a thing escape me which I should not. I am not like +Jane; I wish I were. I will answer for it _she_ never betrayed the least +thing in the world. Where is she?--Oh! just behind. Perfectly remember +Mrs. Perry's coming.--Extraordinary dream, indeed!" + +They were entering the hall. Mr. Knightley's eyes had preceded Miss +Bates's in a glance at Jane. From Frank Churchill's face, where +he thought he saw confusion suppressed or laughed away, he had +involuntarily turned to hers; but she was indeed behind, and too busy +with her shawl. Mr. Weston had walked in. The two other gentlemen waited +at the door to let her pass. Mr. Knightley suspected in Frank +Churchill the determination of catching her eye--he seemed watching her +intently--in vain, however, if it were so--Jane passed between them +into the hall, and looked at neither. + +There was no time for farther remark or explanation. The dream must be +borne with, and Mr. Knightley must take his seat with the rest round the +large modern circular table which Emma had introduced at Hartfield, and +which none but Emma could have had power to place there and persuade her +father to use, instead of the small-sized Pembroke, on which two of his +daily meals had, for forty years been crowded. Tea passed pleasantly, +and nobody seemed in a hurry to move. + +"Miss Woodhouse," said Frank Churchill, after examining a table behind +him, which he could reach as he sat, "have your nephews taken away their +alphabets--their box of letters? It used to stand here. Where is it? +This is a sort of dull-looking evening, that ought to be treated rather +as winter than summer. We had great amusement with those letters one +morning. I want to puzzle you again." + +Emma was pleased with the thought; and producing the box, the table +was quickly scattered over with alphabets, which no one seemed so much +disposed to employ as their two selves. They were rapidly forming words +for each other, or for any body else who would be puzzled. The quietness +of the game made it particularly eligible for Mr. Woodhouse, who had +often been distressed by the more animated sort, which Mr. Weston had +occasionally introduced, and who now sat happily occupied in lamenting, +with tender melancholy, over the departure of the "poor little boys," +or in fondly pointing out, as he took up any stray letter near him, how +beautifully Emma had written it. + +Frank Churchill placed a word before Miss Fairfax. She gave a slight +glance round the table, and applied herself to it. Frank was next to +Emma, Jane opposite to them--and Mr. Knightley so placed as to see them +all; and it was his object to see as much as he could, with as little +apparent observation. The word was discovered, and with a faint smile +pushed away. If meant to be immediately mixed with the others, and +buried from sight, she should have looked on the table instead of +looking just across, for it was not mixed; and Harriet, eager after +every fresh word, and finding out none, directly took it up, and fell to +work. She was sitting by Mr. Knightley, and turned to him for help. The +word was _blunder_; and as Harriet exultingly proclaimed it, there was a +blush on Jane's cheek which gave it a meaning not otherwise ostensible. +Mr. Knightley connected it with the dream; but how it could all be, +was beyond his comprehension. How the delicacy, the discretion of his +favourite could have been so lain asleep! He feared there must be some +decided involvement. Disingenuousness and double dealing seemed to meet +him at every turn. These letters were but the vehicle for gallantry and +trick. It was a child's play, chosen to conceal a deeper game on Frank +Churchill's part. + +With great indignation did he continue to observe him; with great alarm +and distrust, to observe also his two blinded companions. He saw a short +word prepared for Emma, and given to her with a look sly and demure. He +saw that Emma had soon made it out, and found it highly entertaining, +though it was something which she judged it proper to appear to censure; +for she said, "Nonsense! for shame!" He heard Frank Churchill next say, +with a glance towards Jane, "I will give it to her--shall I?"--and as +clearly heard Emma opposing it with eager laughing warmth. "No, no, you +must not; you shall not, indeed." + +It was done however. This gallant young man, who seemed to love without +feeling, and to recommend himself without complaisance, directly handed +over the word to Miss Fairfax, and with a particular degree of sedate +civility entreated her to study it. Mr. Knightley's excessive curiosity +to know what this word might be, made him seize every possible moment +for darting his eye towards it, and it was not long before he saw it +to be _Dixon_. Jane Fairfax's perception seemed to accompany his; +her comprehension was certainly more equal to the covert meaning, +the superior intelligence, of those five letters so arranged. She was +evidently displeased; looked up, and seeing herself watched, blushed +more deeply than he had ever perceived her, and saying only, "I did not +know that proper names were allowed," pushed away the letters with even +an angry spirit, and looked resolved to be engaged by no other word +that could be offered. Her face was averted from those who had made the +attack, and turned towards her aunt. + +"Aye, very true, my dear," cried the latter, though Jane had not spoken +a word--"I was just going to say the same thing. It is time for us to be +going indeed. The evening is closing in, and grandmama will be looking +for us. My dear sir, you are too obliging. We really must wish you good +night." + +Jane's alertness in moving, proved her as ready as her aunt had +preconceived. She was immediately up, and wanting to quit the table; but +so many were also moving, that she could not get away; and Mr. Knightley +thought he saw another collection of letters anxiously pushed towards +her, and resolutely swept away by her unexamined. She was afterwards +looking for her shawl--Frank Churchill was looking also--it was growing +dusk, and the room was in confusion; and how they parted, Mr. Knightley +could not tell. + +He remained at Hartfield after all the rest, his thoughts full of +what he had seen; so full, that when the candles came to assist his +observations, he must--yes, he certainly must, as a friend--an anxious +friend--give Emma some hint, ask her some question. He could not see her +in a situation of such danger, without trying to preserve her. It was +his duty. + +"Pray, Emma," said he, "may I ask in what lay the great amusement, the +poignant sting of the last word given to you and Miss Fairfax? I saw the +word, and am curious to know how it could be so very entertaining to the +one, and so very distressing to the other." + +Emma was extremely confused. She could not endure to give him the true +explanation; for though her suspicions were by no means removed, she was +really ashamed of having ever imparted them. + +"Oh!" she cried in evident embarrassment, "it all meant nothing; a mere +joke among ourselves." + +"The joke," he replied gravely, "seemed confined to you and Mr. +Churchill." + +He had hoped she would speak again, but she did not. She would rather +busy herself about any thing than speak. He sat a little while in +doubt. A variety of evils crossed his mind. Interference--fruitless +interference. Emma's confusion, and the acknowledged intimacy, seemed to +declare her affection engaged. Yet he would speak. He owed it to her, +to risk any thing that might be involved in an unwelcome interference, +rather than her welfare; to encounter any thing, rather than the +remembrance of neglect in such a cause. + +"My dear Emma," said he at last, with earnest kindness, "do you +think you perfectly understand the degree of acquaintance between the +gentleman and lady we have been speaking of?" + +"Between Mr. Frank Churchill and Miss Fairfax? Oh! yes, perfectly.--Why +do you make a doubt of it?" + +"Have you never at any time had reason to think that he admired her, or +that she admired him?" + +"Never, never!" she cried with a most open eagerness--"Never, for the +twentieth part of a moment, did such an idea occur to me. And how could +it possibly come into your head?" + +"I have lately imagined that I saw symptoms of attachment between +them--certain expressive looks, which I did not believe meant to be +public." + +"Oh! you amuse me excessively. I am delighted to find that you can +vouchsafe to let your imagination wander--but it will not do--very sorry +to check you in your first essay--but indeed it will not do. There is no +admiration between them, I do assure you; and the appearances which +have caught you, have arisen from some peculiar circumstances--feelings +rather of a totally different nature--it is impossible exactly to +explain:--there is a good deal of nonsense in it--but the part which is +capable of being communicated, which is sense, is, that they are as far +from any attachment or admiration for one another, as any two beings in +the world can be. That is, I _presume_ it to be so on her side, and I +can _answer_ for its being so on his. I will answer for the gentleman's +indifference." + +She spoke with a confidence which staggered, with a satisfaction +which silenced, Mr. Knightley. She was in gay spirits, and would have +prolonged the conversation, wanting to hear the particulars of his +suspicions, every look described, and all the wheres and hows of a +circumstance which highly entertained her: but his gaiety did not meet +hers. He found he could not be useful, and his feelings were too much +irritated for talking. That he might not be irritated into an absolute +fever, by the fire which Mr. Woodhouse's tender habits required almost +every evening throughout the year, he soon afterwards took a hasty +leave, and walked home to the coolness and solitude of Donwell Abbey. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +After being long fed with hopes of a speedy visit from Mr. and Mrs. +Suckling, the Highbury world were obliged to endure the mortification +of hearing that they could not possibly come till the autumn. No such +importation of novelties could enrich their intellectual stores at +present. In the daily interchange of news, they must be again restricted +to the other topics with which for a while the Sucklings' coming had +been united, such as the last accounts of Mrs. Churchill, whose health +seemed every day to supply a different report, and the situation of Mrs. +Weston, whose happiness it was to be hoped might eventually be as much +increased by the arrival of a child, as that of all her neighbours was +by the approach of it. + +Mrs. Elton was very much disappointed. It was the delay of a great deal +of pleasure and parade. Her introductions and recommendations must all +wait, and every projected party be still only talked of. So she thought +at first;--but a little consideration convinced her that every thing +need not be put off. Why should not they explore to Box Hill though +the Sucklings did not come? They could go there again with them in the +autumn. It was settled that they should go to Box Hill. That there was +to be such a party had been long generally known: it had even given the +idea of another. Emma had never been to Box Hill; she wished to see what +every body found so well worth seeing, and she and Mr. Weston had agreed +to chuse some fine morning and drive thither. Two or three more of the +chosen only were to be admitted to join them, and it was to be done in a +quiet, unpretending, elegant way, infinitely superior to the bustle and +preparation, the regular eating and drinking, and picnic parade of the +Eltons and the Sucklings. + +This was so very well understood between them, that Emma could not but +feel some surprise, and a little displeasure, on hearing from Mr. Weston +that he had been proposing to Mrs. Elton, as her brother and sister had +failed her, that the two parties should unite, and go together; and that +as Mrs. Elton had very readily acceded to it, so it was to be, if she +had no objection. Now, as her objection was nothing but her very great +dislike of Mrs. Elton, of which Mr. Weston must already be perfectly +aware, it was not worth bringing forward again:--it could not be done +without a reproof to him, which would be giving pain to his wife; and +she found herself therefore obliged to consent to an arrangement which +she would have done a great deal to avoid; an arrangement which would +probably expose her even to the degradation of being said to be of Mrs. +Elton's party! Every feeling was offended; and the forbearance of her +outward submission left a heavy arrear due of secret severity in her +reflections on the unmanageable goodwill of Mr. Weston's temper. + +"I am glad you approve of what I have done," said he very comfortably. +"But I thought you would. Such schemes as these are nothing without +numbers. One cannot have too large a party. A large party secures its +own amusement. And she is a good-natured woman after all. One could not +leave her out." + +Emma denied none of it aloud, and agreed to none of it in private. + +It was now the middle of June, and the weather fine; and Mrs. Elton +was growing impatient to name the day, and settle with Mr. Weston as to +pigeon-pies and cold lamb, when a lame carriage-horse threw every thing +into sad uncertainty. It might be weeks, it might be only a few days, +before the horse were useable; but no preparations could be ventured +on, and it was all melancholy stagnation. Mrs. Elton's resources were +inadequate to such an attack. + +"Is not this most vexatious, Knightley?" she cried.--"And such weather +for exploring!--These delays and disappointments are quite odious. What +are we to do?--The year will wear away at this rate, and nothing +done. Before this time last year I assure you we had had a delightful +exploring party from Maple Grove to Kings Weston." + +"You had better explore to Donwell," replied Mr. Knightley. "That may +be done without horses. Come, and eat my strawberries. They are ripening +fast." + +If Mr. Knightley did not begin seriously, he was obliged to proceed so, +for his proposal was caught at with delight; and the "Oh! I should like +it of all things," was not plainer in words than manner. Donwell was +famous for its strawberry-beds, which seemed a plea for the invitation: +but no plea was necessary; cabbage-beds would have been enough to tempt +the lady, who only wanted to be going somewhere. She promised him again +and again to come--much oftener than he doubted--and was extremely +gratified by such a proof of intimacy, such a distinguishing compliment +as she chose to consider it. + +"You may depend upon me," said she. "I certainly will come. Name your +day, and I will come. You will allow me to bring Jane Fairfax?" + +"I cannot name a day," said he, "till I have spoken to some others whom +I would wish to meet you." + +"Oh! leave all that to me. Only give me a carte-blanche.--I am Lady +Patroness, you know. It is my party. I will bring friends with me." + +"I hope you will bring Elton," said he: "but I will not trouble you to +give any other invitations." + +"Oh! now you are looking very sly. But consider--you need not be afraid +of delegating power to _me_. I am no young lady on her preferment. +Married women, you know, may be safely authorised. It is my party. Leave +it all to me. I will invite your guests." + +"No,"--he calmly replied,--"there is but one married woman in the world +whom I can ever allow to invite what guests she pleases to Donwell, and +that one is--" + +"--Mrs. Weston, I suppose," interrupted Mrs. Elton, rather mortified. + +"No--Mrs. Knightley;--and till she is in being, I will manage such +matters myself." + +"Ah! you are an odd creature!" she cried, satisfied to have no one +preferred to herself.--"You are a humourist, and may say what you +like. Quite a humourist. Well, I shall bring Jane with me--Jane and her +aunt.--The rest I leave to you. I have no objections at all to meeting +the Hartfield family. Don't scruple. I know you are attached to them." + +"You certainly will meet them if I can prevail; and I shall call on Miss +Bates in my way home." + +"That's quite unnecessary; I see Jane every day:--but as you like. It +is to be a morning scheme, you know, Knightley; quite a simple thing. I +shall wear a large bonnet, and bring one of my little baskets hanging +on my arm. Here,--probably this basket with pink ribbon. Nothing can be +more simple, you see. And Jane will have such another. There is to be +no form or parade--a sort of gipsy party. We are to walk about +your gardens, and gather the strawberries ourselves, and sit under +trees;--and whatever else you may like to provide, it is to be all out +of doors--a table spread in the shade, you know. Every thing as natural +and simple as possible. Is not that your idea?" + +"Not quite. My idea of the simple and the natural will be to have +the table spread in the dining-room. The nature and the simplicity of +gentlemen and ladies, with their servants and furniture, I think is +best observed by meals within doors. When you are tired of eating +strawberries in the garden, there shall be cold meat in the house." + +"Well--as you please; only don't have a great set out. And, by the bye, +can I or my housekeeper be of any use to you with our opinion?--Pray be +sincere, Knightley. If you wish me to talk to Mrs. Hodges, or to inspect +anything--" + +"I have not the least wish for it, I thank you." + +"Well--but if any difficulties should arise, my housekeeper is extremely +clever." + +"I will answer for it, that mine thinks herself full as clever, and +would spurn any body's assistance." + +"I wish we had a donkey. The thing would be for us all to come on +donkeys, Jane, Miss Bates, and me--and my caro sposo walking by. I +really must talk to him about purchasing a donkey. In a country life +I conceive it to be a sort of necessary; for, let a woman have ever +so many resources, it is not possible for her to be always shut up at +home;--and very long walks, you know--in summer there is dust, and in +winter there is dirt." + +"You will not find either, between Donwell and Highbury. Donwell Lane is +never dusty, and now it is perfectly dry. Come on a donkey, however, if +you prefer it. You can borrow Mrs. Cole's. I would wish every thing to +be as much to your taste as possible." + +"That I am sure you would. Indeed I do you justice, my good friend. +Under that peculiar sort of dry, blunt manner, I know you have the +warmest heart. As I tell Mr. E., you are a thorough humourist.--Yes, +believe me, Knightley, I am fully sensible of your attention to me in +the whole of this scheme. You have hit upon the very thing to please +me." + +Mr. Knightley had another reason for avoiding a table in the shade. He +wished to persuade Mr. Woodhouse, as well as Emma, to join the party; +and he knew that to have any of them sitting down out of doors to +eat would inevitably make him ill. Mr. Woodhouse must not, under the +specious pretence of a morning drive, and an hour or two spent at +Donwell, be tempted away to his misery. + +He was invited on good faith. No lurking horrors were to upbraid him for +his easy credulity. He did consent. He had not been at Donwell for two +years. "Some very fine morning, he, and Emma, and Harriet, could go +very well; and he could sit still with Mrs. Weston, while the dear girls +walked about the gardens. He did not suppose they could be damp now, +in the middle of the day. He should like to see the old house again +exceedingly, and should be very happy to meet Mr. and Mrs. Elton, and +any other of his neighbours.--He could not see any objection at all to +his, and Emma's, and Harriet's going there some very fine morning. He +thought it very well done of Mr. Knightley to invite them--very kind +and sensible--much cleverer than dining out.--He was not fond of dining +out." + +Mr. Knightley was fortunate in every body's most ready concurrence. The +invitation was everywhere so well received, that it seemed as if, like +Mrs. Elton, they were all taking the scheme as a particular compliment +to themselves.--Emma and Harriet professed very high expectations of +pleasure from it; and Mr. Weston, unasked, promised to get Frank over to +join them, if possible; a proof of approbation and gratitude which could +have been dispensed with.--Mr. Knightley was then obliged to say that +he should be glad to see him; and Mr. Weston engaged to lose no time in +writing, and spare no arguments to induce him to come. + +In the meanwhile the lame horse recovered so fast, that the party to +Box Hill was again under happy consideration; and at last Donwell was +settled for one day, and Box Hill for the next,--the weather appearing +exactly right. + +Under a bright mid-day sun, at almost Midsummer, Mr. Woodhouse was +safely conveyed in his carriage, with one window down, to partake of +this al-fresco party; and in one of the most comfortable rooms in the +Abbey, especially prepared for him by a fire all the morning, he was +happily placed, quite at his ease, ready to talk with pleasure of what +had been achieved, and advise every body to come and sit down, and not +to heat themselves.--Mrs. Weston, who seemed to have walked there on +purpose to be tired, and sit all the time with him, remained, when +all the others were invited or persuaded out, his patient listener and +sympathiser. + +It was so long since Emma had been at the Abbey, that as soon as she was +satisfied of her father's comfort, she was glad to leave him, and look +around her; eager to refresh and correct her memory with more particular +observation, more exact understanding of a house and grounds which must +ever be so interesting to her and all her family. + +She felt all the honest pride and complacency which her alliance with +the present and future proprietor could fairly warrant, as she viewed +the respectable size and style of the building, its suitable, becoming, +characteristic situation, low and sheltered--its ample gardens +stretching down to meadows washed by a stream, of which the Abbey, with +all the old neglect of prospect, had scarcely a sight--and its abundance +of timber in rows and avenues, which neither fashion nor extravagance +had rooted up.--The house was larger than Hartfield, and totally unlike +it, covering a good deal of ground, rambling and irregular, with many +comfortable, and one or two handsome rooms.--It was just what it ought +to be, and it looked what it was--and Emma felt an increasing respect +for it, as the residence of a family of such true gentility, untainted +in blood and understanding.--Some faults of temper John Knightley had; +but Isabella had connected herself unexceptionably. She had given them +neither men, nor names, nor places, that could raise a blush. These were +pleasant feelings, and she walked about and indulged them till it +was necessary to do as the others did, and collect round the +strawberry-beds.--The whole party were assembled, excepting Frank +Churchill, who was expected every moment from Richmond; and Mrs. Elton, +in all her apparatus of happiness, her large bonnet and her basket, +was very ready to lead the way in gathering, accepting, or +talking--strawberries, and only strawberries, could now be thought or +spoken of.--"The best fruit in England--every body's favourite--always +wholesome.--These the finest beds and finest sorts.--Delightful to +gather for one's self--the only way of really enjoying them.--Morning +decidedly the best time--never tired--every sort good--hautboy +infinitely superior--no comparison--the others hardly eatable--hautboys +very scarce--Chili preferred--white wood finest flavour of all--price +of strawberries in London--abundance about Bristol--Maple +Grove--cultivation--beds when to be renewed--gardeners thinking exactly +different--no general rule--gardeners never to be put out of their +way--delicious fruit--only too rich to be eaten much of--inferior +to cherries--currants more refreshing--only objection to gathering +strawberries the stooping--glaring sun--tired to death--could bear it no +longer--must go and sit in the shade." + +Such, for half an hour, was the conversation--interrupted only once by +Mrs. Weston, who came out, in her solicitude after her son-in-law, to +inquire if he were come--and she was a little uneasy.--She had some +fears of his horse. + +Seats tolerably in the shade were found; and now Emma was obliged +to overhear what Mrs. Elton and Jane Fairfax were talking of.--A +situation, a most desirable situation, was in question. Mrs. Elton had +received notice of it that morning, and was in raptures. It was not +with Mrs. Suckling, it was not with Mrs. Bragge, but in felicity and +splendour it fell short only of them: it was with a cousin of Mrs. +Bragge, an acquaintance of Mrs. Suckling, a lady known at Maple Grove. +Delightful, charming, superior, first circles, spheres, lines, ranks, +every thing--and Mrs. Elton was wild to have the offer closed with +immediately.--On her side, all was warmth, energy, and triumph--and she +positively refused to take her friend's negative, though Miss Fairfax +continued to assure her that she would not at present engage in any +thing, repeating the same motives which she had been heard to urge +before.--Still Mrs. Elton insisted on being authorised to write an +acquiescence by the morrow's post.--How Jane could bear it at all, was +astonishing to Emma.--She did look vexed, she did speak pointedly--and +at last, with a decision of action unusual to her, proposed a +removal.--"Should not they walk? Would not Mr. Knightley shew them the +gardens--all the gardens?--She wished to see the whole extent."--The +pertinacity of her friend seemed more than she could bear. + +It was hot; and after walking some time over the gardens in a scattered, +dispersed way, scarcely any three together, they insensibly followed one +another to the delicious shade of a broad short avenue of limes, which +stretching beyond the garden at an equal distance from the river, seemed +the finish of the pleasure grounds.--It led to nothing; nothing but a +view at the end over a low stone wall with high pillars, which seemed +intended, in their erection, to give the appearance of an approach to +the house, which never had been there. Disputable, however, as might be +the taste of such a termination, it was in itself a charming walk, and +the view which closed it extremely pretty.--The considerable slope, at +nearly the foot of which the Abbey stood, gradually acquired a steeper +form beyond its grounds; and at half a mile distant was a bank of +considerable abruptness and grandeur, well clothed with wood;--and at +the bottom of this bank, favourably placed and sheltered, rose the +Abbey Mill Farm, with meadows in front, and the river making a close and +handsome curve around it. + +It was a sweet view--sweet to the eye and the mind. English verdure, +English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being +oppressive. + +In this walk Emma and Mr. Weston found all the others assembled; and +towards this view she immediately perceived Mr. Knightley and Harriet +distinct from the rest, quietly leading the way. Mr. Knightley and +Harriet!--It was an odd tete-a-tete; but she was glad to see it.--There +had been a time when he would have scorned her as a companion, and +turned from her with little ceremony. Now they seemed in pleasant +conversation. There had been a time also when Emma would have been sorry +to see Harriet in a spot so favourable for the Abbey Mill Farm; but now +she feared it not. It might be safely viewed with all its appendages of +prosperity and beauty, its rich pastures, spreading flocks, orchard in +blossom, and light column of smoke ascending.--She joined them at the +wall, and found them more engaged in talking than in looking around. He +was giving Harriet information as to modes of agriculture, etc. and Emma +received a smile which seemed to say, "These are my own concerns. I have +a right to talk on such subjects, without being suspected of +introducing Robert Martin."--She did not suspect him. It was too old +a story.--Robert Martin had probably ceased to think of Harriet.--They +took a few turns together along the walk.--The shade was most +refreshing, and Emma found it the pleasantest part of the day. + +The next remove was to the house; they must all go in and eat;--and they +were all seated and busy, and still Frank Churchill did not come. Mrs. +Weston looked, and looked in vain. His father would not own himself +uneasy, and laughed at her fears; but she could not be cured of wishing +that he would part with his black mare. He had expressed himself as to +coming, with more than common certainty. "His aunt was so much better, +that he had not a doubt of getting over to them."--Mrs. Churchill's +state, however, as many were ready to remind her, was liable to such +sudden variation as might disappoint her nephew in the most reasonable +dependence--and Mrs. Weston was at last persuaded to believe, or to say, +that it must be by some attack of Mrs. Churchill that he was +prevented coming.--Emma looked at Harriet while the point was under +consideration; she behaved very well, and betrayed no emotion. + +The cold repast was over, and the party were to go out once more to see +what had not yet been seen, the old Abbey fish-ponds; perhaps get as far +as the clover, which was to be begun cutting on the morrow, or, at +any rate, have the pleasure of being hot, and growing cool again.--Mr. +Woodhouse, who had already taken his little round in the highest part +of the gardens, where no damps from the river were imagined even by him, +stirred no more; and his daughter resolved to remain with him, that +Mrs. Weston might be persuaded away by her husband to the exercise and +variety which her spirits seemed to need. + +Mr. Knightley had done all in his power for Mr. Woodhouse's +entertainment. Books of engravings, drawers of medals, cameos, corals, +shells, and every other family collection within his cabinets, had been +prepared for his old friend, to while away the morning; and the kindness +had perfectly answered. Mr. Woodhouse had been exceedingly well amused. +Mrs. Weston had been shewing them all to him, and now he would shew them +all to Emma;--fortunate in having no other resemblance to a child, than +in a total want of taste for what he saw, for he was slow, constant, and +methodical.--Before this second looking over was begun, however, Emma +walked into the hall for the sake of a few moments' free observation of +the entrance and ground-plot of the house--and was hardly there, when +Jane Fairfax appeared, coming quickly in from the garden, and with a +look of escape.--Little expecting to meet Miss Woodhouse so soon, there +was a start at first; but Miss Woodhouse was the very person she was in +quest of. + +"Will you be so kind," said she, "when I am missed, as to say that I am +gone home?--I am going this moment.--My aunt is not aware how late it +is, nor how long we have been absent--but I am sure we shall be wanted, +and I am determined to go directly.--I have said nothing about it to any +body. It would only be giving trouble and distress. Some are gone to the +ponds, and some to the lime walk. Till they all come in I shall not be +missed; and when they do, will you have the goodness to say that I am +gone?" + +"Certainly, if you wish it;--but you are not going to walk to Highbury +alone?" + +"Yes--what should hurt me?--I walk fast. I shall be at home in twenty +minutes." + +"But it is too far, indeed it is, to be walking quite alone. Let my +father's servant go with you.--Let me order the carriage. It can be +round in five minutes." + +"Thank you, thank you--but on no account.--I would rather walk.--And +for _me_ to be afraid of walking alone!--I, who may so soon have to +guard others!" + +She spoke with great agitation; and Emma very feelingly replied, "That +can be no reason for your being exposed to danger now. I must order the +carriage. The heat even would be danger.--You are fatigued already." + +"I am,"--she answered--"I am fatigued; but it is not the sort of +fatigue--quick walking will refresh me.--Miss Woodhouse, we all know +at times what it is to be wearied in spirits. Mine, I confess, are +exhausted. The greatest kindness you can shew me, will be to let me have +my own way, and only say that I am gone when it is necessary." + +Emma had not another word to oppose. She saw it all; and entering into +her feelings, promoted her quitting the house immediately, and +watched her safely off with the zeal of a friend. Her parting look was +grateful--and her parting words, "Oh! Miss Woodhouse, the comfort of +being sometimes alone!"--seemed to burst from an overcharged heart, and +to describe somewhat of the continual endurance to be practised by her, +even towards some of those who loved her best. + +"Such a home, indeed! such an aunt!" said Emma, as she turned back into +the hall again. "I do pity you. And the more sensibility you betray of +their just horrors, the more I shall like you." + +Jane had not been gone a quarter of an hour, and they had only +accomplished some views of St. Mark's Place, Venice, when Frank +Churchill entered the room. Emma had not been thinking of him, she had +forgotten to think of him--but she was very glad to see him. Mrs. Weston +would be at ease. The black mare was blameless; _they_ were right +who had named Mrs. Churchill as the cause. He had been detained by +a temporary increase of illness in her; a nervous seizure, which had +lasted some hours--and he had quite given up every thought of coming, +till very late;--and had he known how hot a ride he should have, and +how late, with all his hurry, he must be, he believed he should not have +come at all. The heat was excessive; he had never suffered any thing +like it--almost wished he had staid at home--nothing killed him +like heat--he could bear any degree of cold, etc., but heat was +intolerable--and he sat down, at the greatest possible distance from the +slight remains of Mr. Woodhouse's fire, looking very deplorable. + +"You will soon be cooler, if you sit still," said Emma. + +"As soon as I am cooler I shall go back again. I could very ill be +spared--but such a point had been made of my coming! You will all be +going soon I suppose; the whole party breaking up. I met _one_ as I +came--Madness in such weather!--absolute madness!" + +Emma listened, and looked, and soon perceived that Frank Churchill's +state might be best defined by the expressive phrase of being out of +humour. Some people were always cross when they were hot. Such might be +his constitution; and as she knew that eating and drinking were often +the cure of such incidental complaints, she recommended his taking +some refreshment; he would find abundance of every thing in the +dining-room--and she humanely pointed out the door. + +"No--he should not eat. He was not hungry; it would only make him +hotter." In two minutes, however, he relented in his own favour; and +muttering something about spruce-beer, walked off. Emma returned all her +attention to her father, saying in secret-- + +"I am glad I have done being in love with him. I should not like a man +who is so soon discomposed by a hot morning. Harriet's sweet easy temper +will not mind it." + +He was gone long enough to have had a very comfortable meal, and came +back all the better--grown quite cool--and, with good manners, like +himself--able to draw a chair close to them, take an interest in their +employment; and regret, in a reasonable way, that he should be so late. +He was not in his best spirits, but seemed trying to improve them; and, +at last, made himself talk nonsense very agreeably. They were looking +over views in Swisserland. + +"As soon as my aunt gets well, I shall go abroad," said he. "I shall +never be easy till I have seen some of these places. You will have my +sketches, some time or other, to look at--or my tour to read--or my +poem. I shall do something to expose myself." + +"That may be--but not by sketches in Swisserland. You will never go to +Swisserland. Your uncle and aunt will never allow you to leave England." + +"They may be induced to go too. A warm climate may be prescribed for +her. I have more than half an expectation of our all going abroad. I +assure you I have. I feel a strong persuasion, this morning, that I +shall soon be abroad. I ought to travel. I am tired of doing nothing. I +want a change. I am serious, Miss Woodhouse, whatever your penetrating +eyes may fancy--I am sick of England--and would leave it to-morrow, if +I could." + +"You are sick of prosperity and indulgence. Cannot you invent a few +hardships for yourself, and be contented to stay?" + +"_I_ sick of prosperity and indulgence! You are quite mistaken. I do +not look upon myself as either prosperous or indulged. I am thwarted +in every thing material. I do not consider myself at all a fortunate +person." + +"You are not quite so miserable, though, as when you first came. Go and +eat and drink a little more, and you will do very well. Another slice of +cold meat, another draught of Madeira and water, will make you nearly on +a par with the rest of us." + +"No--I shall not stir. I shall sit by you. You are my best cure." + +"We are going to Box Hill to-morrow;--you will join us. It is not +Swisserland, but it will be something for a young man so much in want of +a change. You will stay, and go with us?" + +"No, certainly not; I shall go home in the cool of the evening." + +"But you may come again in the cool of to-morrow morning." + +"No--It will not be worth while. If I come, I shall be cross." + +"Then pray stay at Richmond." + +"But if I do, I shall be crosser still. I can never bear to think of you +all there without me." + +"These are difficulties which you must settle for yourself. Chuse your +own degree of crossness. I shall press you no more." + +The rest of the party were now returning, and all were soon collected. +With some there was great joy at the sight of Frank Churchill; others +took it very composedly; but there was a very general distress and +disturbance on Miss Fairfax's disappearance being explained. That it was +time for every body to go, concluded the subject; and with a short final +arrangement for the next day's scheme, they parted. Frank Churchill's +little inclination to exclude himself increased so much, that his last +words to Emma were, + +"Well;--if _you_ wish me to stay and join the party, I will." + +She smiled her acceptance; and nothing less than a summons from Richmond +was to take him back before the following evening. + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +They had a very fine day for Box Hill; and all the other outward +circumstances of arrangement, accommodation, and punctuality, were in +favour of a pleasant party. Mr. Weston directed the whole, officiating +safely between Hartfield and the Vicarage, and every body was in good +time. Emma and Harriet went together; Miss Bates and her niece, with +the Eltons; the gentlemen on horseback. Mrs. Weston remained with Mr. +Woodhouse. Nothing was wanting but to be happy when they got there. +Seven miles were travelled in expectation of enjoyment, and every body +had a burst of admiration on first arriving; but in the general amount +of the day there was deficiency. There was a languor, a want of spirits, +a want of union, which could not be got over. They separated too much +into parties. The Eltons walked together; Mr. Knightley took charge of +Miss Bates and Jane; and Emma and Harriet belonged to Frank Churchill. +And Mr. Weston tried, in vain, to make them harmonise better. It seemed +at first an accidental division, but it never materially varied. Mr. and +Mrs. Elton, indeed, shewed no unwillingness to mix, and be as agreeable +as they could; but during the two whole hours that were spent on the +hill, there seemed a principle of separation, between the other parties, +too strong for any fine prospects, or any cold collation, or any +cheerful Mr. Weston, to remove. + +At first it was downright dulness to Emma. She had never seen Frank +Churchill so silent and stupid. He said nothing worth hearing--looked +without seeing--admired without intelligence--listened without knowing +what she said. While he was so dull, it was no wonder that Harriet +should be dull likewise; and they were both insufferable. + +When they all sat down it was better; to her taste a great deal better, +for Frank Churchill grew talkative and gay, making her his first object. +Every distinguishing attention that could be paid, was paid to her. +To amuse her, and be agreeable in her eyes, seemed all that he cared +for--and Emma, glad to be enlivened, not sorry to be flattered, was gay +and easy too, and gave him all the friendly encouragement, the admission +to be gallant, which she had ever given in the first and most animating +period of their acquaintance; but which now, in her own estimation, +meant nothing, though in the judgment of most people looking on it must +have had such an appearance as no English word but flirtation could very +well describe. "Mr. Frank Churchill and Miss Woodhouse flirted together +excessively." They were laying themselves open to that very phrase--and +to having it sent off in a letter to Maple Grove by one lady, to +Ireland by another. Not that Emma was gay and thoughtless from any +real felicity; it was rather because she felt less happy than she had +expected. She laughed because she was disappointed; and though she liked +him for his attentions, and thought them all, whether in friendship, +admiration, or playfulness, extremely judicious, they were not winning +back her heart. She still intended him for her friend. + +"How much I am obliged to you," said he, "for telling me to come +to-day!--If it had not been for you, I should certainly have lost all +the happiness of this party. I had quite determined to go away again." + +"Yes, you were very cross; and I do not know what about, except that you +were too late for the best strawberries. I was a kinder friend than you +deserved. But you were humble. You begged hard to be commanded to come." + +"Don't say I was cross. I was fatigued. The heat overcame me." + +"It is hotter to-day." + +"Not to my feelings. I am perfectly comfortable to-day." + +"You are comfortable because you are under command." + +"Your command?--Yes." + +"Perhaps I intended you to say so, but I meant self-command. You had, +somehow or other, broken bounds yesterday, and run away from your own +management; but to-day you are got back again--and as I cannot be always +with you, it is best to believe your temper under your own command +rather than mine." + +"It comes to the same thing. I can have no self-command without a +motive. You order me, whether you speak or not. And you can be always +with me. You are always with me." + +"Dating from three o'clock yesterday. My perpetual influence could not +begin earlier, or you would not have been so much out of humour before." + +"Three o'clock yesterday! That is your date. I thought I had seen you +first in February." + +"Your gallantry is really unanswerable. But (lowering her voice)--nobody +speaks except ourselves, and it is rather too much to be talking +nonsense for the entertainment of seven silent people." + +"I say nothing of which I am ashamed," replied he, with lively +impudence. "I saw you first in February. Let every body on the Hill +hear me if they can. Let my accents swell to Mickleham on one side, +and Dorking on the other. I saw you first in February." And then +whispering--"Our companions are excessively stupid. What shall we do +to rouse them? Any nonsense will serve. They _shall_ talk. Ladies +and gentlemen, I am ordered by Miss Woodhouse (who, wherever she is, +presides) to say, that she desires to know what you are all thinking +of?" + +Some laughed, and answered good-humouredly. Miss Bates said a great +deal; Mrs. Elton swelled at the idea of Miss Woodhouse's presiding; Mr. +Knightley's answer was the most distinct. + +"Is Miss Woodhouse sure that she would like to hear what we are all +thinking of?" + +"Oh! no, no"--cried Emma, laughing as carelessly as she could--"Upon no +account in the world. It is the very last thing I would stand the brunt +of just now. Let me hear any thing rather than what you are all thinking +of. I will not say quite all. There are one or two, perhaps, (glancing +at Mr. Weston and Harriet,) whose thoughts I might not be afraid of +knowing." + +"It is a sort of thing," cried Mrs. Elton emphatically, "which _I_ +should not have thought myself privileged to inquire into. Though, +perhaps, as the _Chaperon_ of the party--_I_ never was in any +circle--exploring parties--young ladies--married women--" + +Her mutterings were chiefly to her husband; and he murmured, in reply, + +"Very true, my love, very true. Exactly so, indeed--quite unheard +of--but some ladies say any thing. Better pass it off as a joke. Every +body knows what is due to _you_." + +"It will not do," whispered Frank to Emma; "they are most of them +affronted. I will attack them with more address. Ladies and gentlemen--I +am ordered by Miss Woodhouse to say, that she waives her right of +knowing exactly what you may all be thinking of, and only requires +something very entertaining from each of you, in a general way. Here +are seven of you, besides myself, (who, she is pleased to say, am very +entertaining already,) and she only demands from each of you either one +thing very clever, be it prose or verse, original or repeated--or two +things moderately clever--or three things very dull indeed, and she +engages to laugh heartily at them all." + +"Oh! very well," exclaimed Miss Bates, "then I need not be uneasy. +'Three things very dull indeed.' That will just do for me, you know. I +shall be sure to say three dull things as soon as ever I open my mouth, +shan't I? (looking round with the most good-humoured dependence on every +body's assent)--Do not you all think I shall?" + +Emma could not resist. + +"Ah! ma'am, but there may be a difficulty. Pardon me--but you will be +limited as to number--only three at once." + +Miss Bates, deceived by the mock ceremony of her manner, did not +immediately catch her meaning; but, when it burst on her, it could not +anger, though a slight blush shewed that it could pain her. + +"Ah!--well--to be sure. Yes, I see what she means, (turning to Mr. +Knightley,) and I will try to hold my tongue. I must make myself very +disagreeable, or she would not have said such a thing to an old friend." + +"I like your plan," cried Mr. Weston. "Agreed, agreed. I will do my +best. I am making a conundrum. How will a conundrum reckon?" + +"Low, I am afraid, sir, very low," answered his son;--"but we shall be +indulgent--especially to any one who leads the way." + +"No, no," said Emma, "it will not reckon low. A conundrum of Mr. +Weston's shall clear him and his next neighbour. Come, sir, pray let me +hear it." + +"I doubt its being very clever myself," said Mr. Weston. "It is too much +a matter of fact, but here it is.--What two letters of the alphabet are +there, that express perfection?" + +"What two letters!--express perfection! I am sure I do not know." + +"Ah! you will never guess. You, (to Emma), I am certain, will never +guess.--I will tell you.--M. and A.--Em-ma.--Do you understand?" + +Understanding and gratification came together. It might be a very +indifferent piece of wit, but Emma found a great deal to laugh at and +enjoy in it--and so did Frank and Harriet.--It did not seem to touch +the rest of the party equally; some looked very stupid about it, and Mr. +Knightley gravely said, + +"This explains the sort of clever thing that is wanted, and Mr. Weston +has done very well for himself; but he must have knocked up every body +else. _Perfection_ should not have come quite so soon." + +"Oh! for myself, I protest I must be excused," said Mrs. Elton; "_I_ +really cannot attempt--I am not at all fond of the sort of thing. I had +an acrostic once sent to me upon my own name, which I was not at all +pleased with. I knew who it came from. An abominable puppy!--You know +who I mean (nodding to her husband). These kind of things are very +well at Christmas, when one is sitting round the fire; but quite out of +place, in my opinion, when one is exploring about the country in summer. +Miss Woodhouse must excuse me. I am not one of those who have witty +things at every body's service. I do not pretend to be a wit. I have a +great deal of vivacity in my own way, but I really must be allowed to +judge when to speak and when to hold my tongue. Pass us, if you please, +Mr. Churchill. Pass Mr. E., Knightley, Jane, and myself. We have nothing +clever to say--not one of us. + +"Yes, yes, pray pass _me_," added her husband, with a sort of sneering +consciousness; "_I_ have nothing to say that can entertain Miss +Woodhouse, or any other young lady. An old married man--quite good for +nothing. Shall we walk, Augusta?" + +"With all my heart. I am really tired of exploring so long on one spot. +Come, Jane, take my other arm." + +Jane declined it, however, and the husband and wife walked off. +"Happy couple!" said Frank Churchill, as soon as they were out of +hearing:--"How well they suit one another!--Very lucky--marrying as they +did, upon an acquaintance formed only in a public place!--They only knew +each other, I think, a few weeks in Bath! Peculiarly lucky!--for as to +any real knowledge of a person's disposition that Bath, or any public +place, can give--it is all nothing; there can be no knowledge. It is +only by seeing women in their own homes, among their own set, just as +they always are, that you can form any just judgment. Short of that, it +is all guess and luck--and will generally be ill-luck. How many a man +has committed himself on a short acquaintance, and rued it all the rest +of his life!" + +Miss Fairfax, who had seldom spoken before, except among her own +confederates, spoke now. + +"Such things do occur, undoubtedly."--She was stopped by a cough. Frank +Churchill turned towards her to listen. + +"You were speaking," said he, gravely. She recovered her voice. + +"I was only going to observe, that though such unfortunate circumstances +do sometimes occur both to men and women, I cannot imagine them to be +very frequent. A hasty and imprudent attachment may arise--but there is +generally time to recover from it afterwards. I would be understood to +mean, that it can be only weak, irresolute characters, (whose happiness +must be always at the mercy of chance,) who will suffer an unfortunate +acquaintance to be an inconvenience, an oppression for ever." + +He made no answer; merely looked, and bowed in submission; and soon +afterwards said, in a lively tone, + +"Well, I have so little confidence in my own judgment, that whenever I +marry, I hope some body will chuse my wife for me. Will you? (turning to +Emma.) Will you chuse a wife for me?--I am sure I should like any body +fixed on by you. You provide for the family, you know, (with a smile at +his father). Find some body for me. I am in no hurry. Adopt her, educate +her." + +"And make her like myself." + +"By all means, if you can." + +"Very well. I undertake the commission. You shall have a charming wife." + +"She must be very lively, and have hazle eyes. I care for nothing else. +I shall go abroad for a couple of years--and when I return, I shall come +to you for my wife. Remember." + +Emma was in no danger of forgetting. It was a commission to touch every +favourite feeling. Would not Harriet be the very creature described? +Hazle eyes excepted, two years more might make her all that he wished. +He might even have Harriet in his thoughts at the moment; who could say? +Referring the education to her seemed to imply it. + +"Now, ma'am," said Jane to her aunt, "shall we join Mrs. Elton?" + +"If you please, my dear. With all my heart. I am quite ready. I was +ready to have gone with her, but this will do just as well. We shall +soon overtake her. There she is--no, that's somebody else. That's one +of the ladies in the Irish car party, not at all like her.--Well, I +declare--" + +They walked off, followed in half a minute by Mr. Knightley. Mr. Weston, +his son, Emma, and Harriet, only remained; and the young man's spirits +now rose to a pitch almost unpleasant. Even Emma grew tired at last of +flattery and merriment, and wished herself rather walking quietly about +with any of the others, or sitting almost alone, and quite unattended +to, in tranquil observation of the beautiful views beneath her. The +appearance of the servants looking out for them to give notice of the +carriages was a joyful sight; and even the bustle of collecting and +preparing to depart, and the solicitude of Mrs. Elton to have _her_ +carriage first, were gladly endured, in the prospect of the quiet drive +home which was to close the very questionable enjoyments of this day of +pleasure. Such another scheme, composed of so many ill-assorted people, +she hoped never to be betrayed into again. + +While waiting for the carriage, she found Mr. Knightley by her side. He +looked around, as if to see that no one were near, and then said, + +"Emma, I must once more speak to you as I have been used to do: a +privilege rather endured than allowed, perhaps, but I must still use it. +I cannot see you acting wrong, without a remonstrance. How could you be +so unfeeling to Miss Bates? How could you be so insolent in your wit to +a woman of her character, age, and situation?--Emma, I had not thought +it possible." + +Emma recollected, blushed, was sorry, but tried to laugh it off. + +"Nay, how could I help saying what I did?--Nobody could have helped it. +It was not so very bad. I dare say she did not understand me." + +"I assure you she did. She felt your full meaning. She has talked of +it since. I wish you could have heard how she talked of it--with what +candour and generosity. I wish you could have heard her honouring your +forbearance, in being able to pay her such attentions, as she was for +ever receiving from yourself and your father, when her society must be +so irksome." + +"Oh!" cried Emma, "I know there is not a better creature in the world: +but you must allow, that what is good and what is ridiculous are most +unfortunately blended in her." + +"They are blended," said he, "I acknowledge; and, were she prosperous, +I could allow much for the occasional prevalence of the ridiculous over +the good. Were she a woman of fortune, I would leave every harmless +absurdity to take its chance, I would not quarrel with you for any +liberties of manner. Were she your equal in situation--but, Emma, +consider how far this is from being the case. She is poor; she has sunk +from the comforts she was born to; and, if she live to old age, must +probably sink more. Her situation should secure your compassion. It was +badly done, indeed! You, whom she had known from an infant, whom she had +seen grow up from a period when her notice was an honour, to have you +now, in thoughtless spirits, and the pride of the moment, laugh at her, +humble her--and before her niece, too--and before others, many of whom +(certainly _some_,) would be entirely guided by _your_ treatment +of her.--This is not pleasant to you, Emma--and it is very far from +pleasant to me; but I must, I will,--I will tell you truths while I can; +satisfied with proving myself your friend by very faithful counsel, and +trusting that you will some time or other do me greater justice than you +can do now." + +While they talked, they were advancing towards the carriage; it was +ready; and, before she could speak again, he had handed her in. He had +misinterpreted the feelings which had kept her face averted, and her +tongue motionless. They were combined only of anger against herself, +mortification, and deep concern. She had not been able to speak; and, on +entering the carriage, sunk back for a moment overcome--then reproaching +herself for having taken no leave, making no acknowledgment, parting in +apparent sullenness, she looked out with voice and hand eager to shew a +difference; but it was just too late. He had turned away, and the horses +were in motion. She continued to look back, but in vain; and soon, with +what appeared unusual speed, they were half way down the hill, and +every thing left far behind. She was vexed beyond what could have been +expressed--almost beyond what she could conceal. Never had she felt so +agitated, mortified, grieved, at any circumstance in her life. She was +most forcibly struck. The truth of this representation there was no +denying. She felt it at her heart. How could she have been so brutal, +so cruel to Miss Bates! How could she have exposed herself to such ill +opinion in any one she valued! And how suffer him to leave her without +saying one word of gratitude, of concurrence, of common kindness! + +Time did not compose her. As she reflected more, she seemed but to feel +it more. She never had been so depressed. Happily it was not necessary +to speak. There was only Harriet, who seemed not in spirits herself, +fagged, and very willing to be silent; and Emma felt the tears running +down her cheeks almost all the way home, without being at any trouble to +check them, extraordinary as they were. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +The wretchedness of a scheme to Box Hill was in Emma's thoughts all the +evening. How it might be considered by the rest of the party, she could +not tell. They, in their different homes, and their different ways, +might be looking back on it with pleasure; but in her view it was +a morning more completely misspent, more totally bare of rational +satisfaction at the time, and more to be abhorred in recollection, than +any she had ever passed. A whole evening of back-gammon with her father, +was felicity to it. _There_, indeed, lay real pleasure, for there she +was giving up the sweetest hours of the twenty-four to his comfort; and +feeling that, unmerited as might be the degree of his fond affection and +confiding esteem, she could not, in her general conduct, be open to any +severe reproach. As a daughter, she hoped she was not without a heart. +She hoped no one could have said to her, "How could you be so unfeeling +to your father?--I must, I will tell you truths while I can." Miss +Bates should never again--no, never! If attention, in future, could do +away the past, she might hope to be forgiven. She had been often remiss, +her conscience told her so; remiss, perhaps, more in thought than fact; +scornful, ungracious. But it should be so no more. In the warmth of true +contrition, she would call upon her the very next morning, and it should +be the beginning, on her side, of a regular, equal, kindly intercourse. + +She was just as determined when the morrow came, and went early, that +nothing might prevent her. It was not unlikely, she thought, that she +might see Mr. Knightley in her way; or, perhaps, he might come in +while she were paying her visit. She had no objection. She would not be +ashamed of the appearance of the penitence, so justly and truly hers. +Her eyes were towards Donwell as she walked, but she saw him not. + +"The ladies were all at home." She had never rejoiced at the sound +before, nor ever before entered the passage, nor walked up the stairs, +with any wish of giving pleasure, but in conferring obligation, or of +deriving it, except in subsequent ridicule. + +There was a bustle on her approach; a good deal of moving and talking. +She heard Miss Bates's voice, something was to be done in a hurry; the +maid looked frightened and awkward; hoped she would be pleased to wait a +moment, and then ushered her in too soon. The aunt and niece seemed both +escaping into the adjoining room. Jane she had a distinct glimpse of, +looking extremely ill; and, before the door had shut them out, she heard +Miss Bates saying, "Well, my dear, I shall _say_ you are laid down upon +the bed, and I am sure you are ill enough." + +Poor old Mrs. Bates, civil and humble as usual, looked as if she did not +quite understand what was going on. + +"I am afraid Jane is not very well," said she, "but I do not know; they +_tell_ me she is well. I dare say my daughter will be here presently, +Miss Woodhouse. I hope you find a chair. I wish Hetty had not gone. I am +very little able--Have you a chair, ma'am? Do you sit where you like? I +am sure she will be here presently." + +Emma seriously hoped she would. She had a moment's fear of Miss Bates +keeping away from her. But Miss Bates soon came--"Very happy and +obliged"--but Emma's conscience told her that there was not the same +cheerful volubility as before--less ease of look and manner. A very +friendly inquiry after Miss Fairfax, she hoped, might lead the way to a +return of old feelings. The touch seemed immediate. + +"Ah! Miss Woodhouse, how kind you are!--I suppose you have heard--and +are come to give us joy. This does not seem much like joy, indeed, in +me--(twinkling away a tear or two)--but it will be very trying for us +to part with her, after having had her so long, and she has a dreadful +headache just now, writing all the morning:--such long letters, you +know, to be written to Colonel Campbell, and Mrs. Dixon. 'My dear,' said +I, 'you will blind yourself'--for tears were in her eyes perpetually. +One cannot wonder, one cannot wonder. It is a great change; and though +she is amazingly fortunate--such a situation, I suppose, as no +young woman before ever met with on first going out--do not think us +ungrateful, Miss Woodhouse, for such surprising good fortune--(again +dispersing her tears)--but, poor dear soul! if you were to see what a +headache she has. When one is in great pain, you know one cannot feel +any blessing quite as it may deserve. She is as low as possible. To +look at her, nobody would think how delighted and happy she is to have +secured such a situation. You will excuse her not coming to you--she is +not able--she is gone into her own room--I want her to lie down upon the +bed. 'My dear,' said I, 'I shall say you are laid down upon the bed:' +but, however, she is not; she is walking about the room. But, now that +she has written her letters, she says she shall soon be well. She will +be extremely sorry to miss seeing you, Miss Woodhouse, but your +kindness will excuse her. You were kept waiting at the door--I was quite +ashamed--but somehow there was a little bustle--for it so happened that +we had not heard the knock, and till you were on the stairs, we did not +know any body was coming. 'It is only Mrs. Cole,' said I, 'depend upon +it. Nobody else would come so early.' 'Well,' said she, 'it must be +borne some time or other, and it may as well be now.' But then Patty +came in, and said it was you. 'Oh!' said I, 'it is Miss Woodhouse: I am +sure you will like to see her.'--'I can see nobody,' said she; and +up she got, and would go away; and that was what made us keep you +waiting--and extremely sorry and ashamed we were. 'If you must go, my +dear,' said I, 'you must, and I will say you are laid down upon the +bed.'" + +Emma was most sincerely interested. Her heart had been long growing +kinder towards Jane; and this picture of her present sufferings acted +as a cure of every former ungenerous suspicion, and left her nothing but +pity; and the remembrance of the less just and less gentle sensations of +the past, obliged her to admit that Jane might very naturally resolve on +seeing Mrs. Cole or any other steady friend, when she might not bear +to see herself. She spoke as she felt, with earnest regret and +solicitude--sincerely wishing that the circumstances which she collected +from Miss Bates to be now actually determined on, might be as much for +Miss Fairfax's advantage and comfort as possible. "It must be a severe +trial to them all. She had understood it was to be delayed till Colonel +Campbell's return." + +"So very kind!" replied Miss Bates. "But you are always kind." + +There was no bearing such an "always;" and to break through her dreadful +gratitude, Emma made the direct inquiry of-- + +"Where--may I ask?--is Miss Fairfax going?" + +"To a Mrs. Smallridge--charming woman--most superior--to have the charge +of her three little girls--delightful children. Impossible that any +situation could be more replete with comfort; if we except, perhaps, +Mrs. Suckling's own family, and Mrs. Bragge's; but Mrs. Smallridge is +intimate with both, and in the very same neighbourhood:--lives only four +miles from Maple Grove. Jane will be only four miles from Maple Grove." + +"Mrs. Elton, I suppose, has been the person to whom Miss Fairfax owes--" + +"Yes, our good Mrs. Elton. The most indefatigable, true friend. She +would not take a denial. She would not let Jane say, 'No;' for when Jane +first heard of it, (it was the day before yesterday, the very morning +we were at Donwell,) when Jane first heard of it, she was quite decided +against accepting the offer, and for the reasons you mention; exactly +as you say, she had made up her mind to close with nothing till Colonel +Campbell's return, and nothing should induce her to enter into any +engagement at present--and so she told Mrs. Elton over and over +again--and I am sure I had no more idea that she would change her +mind!--but that good Mrs. Elton, whose judgment never fails her, saw +farther than I did. It is not every body that would have stood out in +such a kind way as she did, and refuse to take Jane's answer; but she +positively declared she would _not_ write any such denial yesterday, as +Jane wished her; she would wait--and, sure enough, yesterday evening it +was all settled that Jane should go. Quite a surprize to me! I had not +the least idea!--Jane took Mrs. Elton aside, and told her at once, that +upon thinking over the advantages of Mrs. Smallridge's situation, she +had come to the resolution of accepting it.--I did not know a word of it +till it was all settled." + +"You spent the evening with Mrs. Elton?" + +"Yes, all of us; Mrs. Elton would have us come. It was settled so, upon +the hill, while we were walking about with Mr. Knightley. 'You _must_ +_all_ spend your evening with us,' said she--'I positively must have you +_all_ come.'" + +"Mr. Knightley was there too, was he?" + +"No, not Mr. Knightley; he declined it from the first; and though I +thought he would come, because Mrs. Elton declared she would not let him +off, he did not;--but my mother, and Jane, and I, were all there, and +a very agreeable evening we had. Such kind friends, you know, Miss +Woodhouse, one must always find agreeable, though every body seemed +rather fagged after the morning's party. Even pleasure, you know, is +fatiguing--and I cannot say that any of them seemed very much to have +enjoyed it. However, _I_ shall always think it a very pleasant party, +and feel extremely obliged to the kind friends who included me in it." + +"Miss Fairfax, I suppose, though you were not aware of it, had been +making up her mind the whole day?" + +"I dare say she had." + +"Whenever the time may come, it must be unwelcome to her and all her +friends--but I hope her engagement will have every alleviation that is +possible--I mean, as to the character and manners of the family." + +"Thank you, dear Miss Woodhouse. Yes, indeed, there is every thing +in the world that can make her happy in it. Except the Sucklings and +Bragges, there is not such another nursery establishment, so liberal +and elegant, in all Mrs. Elton's acquaintance. Mrs. Smallridge, a most +delightful woman!--A style of living almost equal to Maple Grove--and as +to the children, except the little Sucklings and little Bragges, there +are not such elegant sweet children anywhere. Jane will be treated with +such regard and kindness!--It will be nothing but pleasure, a life of +pleasure.--And her salary!--I really cannot venture to name her salary +to you, Miss Woodhouse. Even you, used as you are to great sums, would +hardly believe that so much could be given to a young person like Jane." + +"Ah! madam," cried Emma, "if other children are at all like what I +remember to have been myself, I should think five times the amount of +what I have ever yet heard named as a salary on such occasions, dearly +earned." + +"You are so noble in your ideas!" + +"And when is Miss Fairfax to leave you?" + +"Very soon, very soon, indeed; that's the worst of it. Within a +fortnight. Mrs. Smallridge is in a great hurry. My poor mother does not +know how to bear it. So then, I try to put it out of her thoughts, and +say, Come ma'am, do not let us think about it any more." + +"Her friends must all be sorry to lose her; and will not Colonel and +Mrs. Campbell be sorry to find that she has engaged herself before their +return?" + +"Yes; Jane says she is sure they will; but yet, this is such a situation +as she cannot feel herself justified in declining. I was so astonished +when she first told me what she had been saying to Mrs. Elton, and when +Mrs. Elton at the same moment came congratulating me upon it! It was +before tea--stay--no, it could not be before tea, because we were +just going to cards--and yet it was before tea, because I remember +thinking--Oh! no, now I recollect, now I have it; something happened +before tea, but not that. Mr. Elton was called out of the room before +tea, old John Abdy's son wanted to speak with him. Poor old John, I +have a great regard for him; he was clerk to my poor father twenty-seven +years; and now, poor old man, he is bed-ridden, and very poorly with the +rheumatic gout in his joints--I must go and see him to-day; and so will +Jane, I am sure, if she gets out at all. And poor John's son came to +talk to Mr. Elton about relief from the parish; he is very well to do +himself, you know, being head man at the Crown, ostler, and every thing +of that sort, but still he cannot keep his father without some help; +and so, when Mr. Elton came back, he told us what John ostler had been +telling him, and then it came out about the chaise having been sent to +Randalls to take Mr. Frank Churchill to Richmond. That was what happened +before tea. It was after tea that Jane spoke to Mrs. Elton." + +Miss Bates would hardly give Emma time to say how perfectly new this +circumstance was to her; but as without supposing it possible that she +could be ignorant of any of the particulars of Mr. Frank Churchill's +going, she proceeded to give them all, it was of no consequence. + +What Mr. Elton had learned from the ostler on the subject, being the +accumulation of the ostler's own knowledge, and the knowledge of the +servants at Randalls, was, that a messenger had come over from Richmond +soon after the return of the party from Box Hill--which messenger, +however, had been no more than was expected; and that Mr. Churchill had +sent his nephew a few lines, containing, upon the whole, a tolerable +account of Mrs. Churchill, and only wishing him not to delay coming +back beyond the next morning early; but that Mr. Frank Churchill having +resolved to go home directly, without waiting at all, and his horse +seeming to have got a cold, Tom had been sent off immediately for the +Crown chaise, and the ostler had stood out and seen it pass by, the boy +going a good pace, and driving very steady. + +There was nothing in all this either to astonish or interest, and it +caught Emma's attention only as it united with the subject which already +engaged her mind. The contrast between Mrs. Churchill's importance in +the world, and Jane Fairfax's, struck her; one was every thing, the +other nothing--and she sat musing on the difference of woman's destiny, +and quite unconscious on what her eyes were fixed, till roused by Miss +Bates's saying, + +"Aye, I see what you are thinking of, the pianoforte. What is to become +of that?--Very true. Poor dear Jane was talking of it just now.--'You +must go,' said she. 'You and I must part. You will have no business +here.--Let it stay, however,' said she; 'give it houseroom till Colonel +Campbell comes back. I shall talk about it to him; he will settle for +me; he will help me out of all my difficulties.'--And to this day, I do +believe, she knows not whether it was his present or his daughter's." + +Now Emma was obliged to think of the pianoforte; and the remembrance of +all her former fanciful and unfair conjectures was so little pleasing, +that she soon allowed herself to believe her visit had been long enough; +and, with a repetition of every thing that she could venture to say of +the good wishes which she really felt, took leave. + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Emma's pensive meditations, as she walked home, were not interrupted; +but on entering the parlour, she found those who must rouse her. Mr. +Knightley and Harriet had arrived during her absence, and were sitting +with her father.--Mr. Knightley immediately got up, and in a manner +decidedly graver than usual, said, + +"I would not go away without seeing you, but I have no time to spare, +and therefore must now be gone directly. I am going to London, to spend +a few days with John and Isabella. Have you any thing to send or say, +besides the 'love,' which nobody carries?" + +"Nothing at all. But is not this a sudden scheme?" + +"Yes--rather--I have been thinking of it some little time." + +Emma was sure he had not forgiven her; he looked unlike himself. Time, +however, she thought, would tell him that they ought to be friends +again. While he stood, as if meaning to go, but not going--her father +began his inquiries. + +"Well, my dear, and did you get there safely?--And how did you find my +worthy old friend and her daughter?--I dare say they must have been very +much obliged to you for coming. Dear Emma has been to call on Mrs. +and Miss Bates, Mr. Knightley, as I told you before. She is always so +attentive to them!" + +Emma's colour was heightened by this unjust praise; and with a +smile, and shake of the head, which spoke much, she looked at Mr. +Knightley.--It seemed as if there were an instantaneous impression in +her favour, as if his eyes received the truth from hers, and all that +had passed of good in her feelings were at once caught and honoured.-- +He looked at her with a glow of regard. She was warmly gratified--and in +another moment still more so, by a little movement of more than common +friendliness on his part.--He took her hand;--whether she had not +herself made the first motion, she could not say--she might, perhaps, +have rather offered it--but he took her hand, pressed it, and certainly +was on the point of carrying it to his lips--when, from some fancy or +other, he suddenly let it go.--Why he should feel such a scruple, why +he should change his mind when it was all but done, she could not +perceive.--He would have judged better, she thought, if he had not +stopped.--The intention, however, was indubitable; and whether it was +that his manners had in general so little gallantry, or however else it +happened, but she thought nothing became him more.--It was with him, +of so simple, yet so dignified a nature.--She could not but recall the +attempt with great satisfaction. It spoke such perfect amity.--He left +them immediately afterwards--gone in a moment. He always moved with the +alertness of a mind which could neither be undecided nor dilatory, but +now he seemed more sudden than usual in his disappearance. + +Emma could not regret her having gone to Miss Bates, but she wished she +had left her ten minutes earlier;--it would have been a great pleasure +to talk over Jane Fairfax's situation with Mr. Knightley.--Neither +would she regret that he should be going to Brunswick Square, for she +knew how much his visit would be enjoyed--but it might have happened +at a better time--and to have had longer notice of it, would have been +pleasanter.--They parted thorough friends, however; she could not +be deceived as to the meaning of his countenance, and his unfinished +gallantry;--it was all done to assure her that she had fully recovered +his good opinion.--He had been sitting with them half an hour, she +found. It was a pity that she had not come back earlier! + +In the hope of diverting her father's thoughts from the disagreeableness +of Mr. Knightley's going to London; and going so suddenly; and going on +horseback, which she knew would be all very bad; Emma communicated her +news of Jane Fairfax, and her dependence on the effect was justified; +it supplied a very useful check,--interested, without disturbing him. He +had long made up his mind to Jane Fairfax's going out as governess, and +could talk of it cheerfully, but Mr. Knightley's going to London had +been an unexpected blow. + +"I am very glad, indeed, my dear, to hear she is to be so comfortably +settled. Mrs. Elton is very good-natured and agreeable, and I dare say +her acquaintance are just what they ought to be. I hope it is a dry +situation, and that her health will be taken good care of. It ought to +be a first object, as I am sure poor Miss Taylor's always was with me. +You know, my dear, she is going to be to this new lady what Miss Taylor +was to us. And I hope she will be better off in one respect, and not be +induced to go away after it has been her home so long." + +The following day brought news from Richmond to throw every thing else +into the background. An express arrived at Randalls to announce the +death of Mrs. Churchill! Though her nephew had had no particular reason +to hasten back on her account, she had not lived above six-and-thirty +hours after his return. A sudden seizure of a different nature from any +thing foreboded by her general state, had carried her off after a short +struggle. The great Mrs. Churchill was no more. + +It was felt as such things must be felt. Every body had a degree of +gravity and sorrow; tenderness towards the departed, solicitude for the +surviving friends; and, in a reasonable time, curiosity to know where +she would be buried. Goldsmith tells us, that when lovely woman stoops +to folly, she has nothing to do but to die; and when she stoops to be +disagreeable, it is equally to be recommended as a clearer of ill-fame. +Mrs. Churchill, after being disliked at least twenty-five years, was +now spoken of with compassionate allowances. In one point she was fully +justified. She had never been admitted before to be seriously ill. The +event acquitted her of all the fancifulness, and all the selfishness of +imaginary complaints. + +"Poor Mrs. Churchill! no doubt she had been suffering a great deal: +more than any body had ever supposed--and continual pain would try the +temper. It was a sad event--a great shock--with all her faults, what +would Mr. Churchill do without her? Mr. Churchill's loss would be +dreadful indeed. Mr. Churchill would never get over it."--Even Mr. +Weston shook his head, and looked solemn, and said, "Ah! poor woman, +who would have thought it!" and resolved, that his mourning should be as +handsome as possible; and his wife sat sighing and moralising over her +broad hems with a commiseration and good sense, true and steady. How it +would affect Frank was among the earliest thoughts of both. It was also +a very early speculation with Emma. The character of Mrs. Churchill, +the grief of her husband--her mind glanced over them both with awe and +compassion--and then rested with lightened feelings on how Frank might +be affected by the event, how benefited, how freed. She saw in a moment +all the possible good. Now, an attachment to Harriet Smith would have +nothing to encounter. Mr. Churchill, independent of his wife, was feared +by nobody; an easy, guidable man, to be persuaded into any thing by his +nephew. All that remained to be wished was, that the nephew should form +the attachment, as, with all her goodwill in the cause, Emma could feel +no certainty of its being already formed. + +Harriet behaved extremely well on the occasion, with great self-command. +What ever she might feel of brighter hope, she betrayed nothing. Emma +was gratified, to observe such a proof in her of strengthened character, +and refrained from any allusion that might endanger its maintenance. +They spoke, therefore, of Mrs. Churchill's death with mutual +forbearance. + +Short letters from Frank were received at Randalls, communicating all +that was immediately important of their state and plans. Mr. Churchill +was better than could be expected; and their first removal, on the +departure of the funeral for Yorkshire, was to be to the house of a very +old friend in Windsor, to whom Mr. Churchill had been promising a +visit the last ten years. At present, there was nothing to be done for +Harriet; good wishes for the future were all that could yet be possible +on Emma's side. + +It was a more pressing concern to shew attention to Jane Fairfax, whose +prospects were closing, while Harriet's opened, and whose engagements +now allowed of no delay in any one at Highbury, who wished to shew her +kindness--and with Emma it was grown into a first wish. She had scarcely +a stronger regret than for her past coldness; and the person, whom she +had been so many months neglecting, was now the very one on whom she +would have lavished every distinction of regard or sympathy. She wanted +to be of use to her; wanted to shew a value for her society, and testify +respect and consideration. She resolved to prevail on her to spend a day +at Hartfield. A note was written to urge it. The invitation was refused, +and by a verbal message. "Miss Fairfax was not well enough to write;" +and when Mr. Perry called at Hartfield, the same morning, it appeared +that she was so much indisposed as to have been visited, though against +her own consent, by himself, and that she was suffering under severe +headaches, and a nervous fever to a degree, which made him doubt the +possibility of her going to Mrs. Smallridge's at the time proposed. +Her health seemed for the moment completely deranged--appetite quite +gone--and though there were no absolutely alarming symptoms, nothing +touching the pulmonary complaint, which was the standing apprehension +of the family, Mr. Perry was uneasy about her. He thought she had +undertaken more than she was equal to, and that she felt it so herself, +though she would not own it. Her spirits seemed overcome. Her +present home, he could not but observe, was unfavourable to a nervous +disorder:--confined always to one room;--he could have wished it +otherwise--and her good aunt, though his very old friend, he must +acknowledge to be not the best companion for an invalid of that +description. Her care and attention could not be questioned; they were, +in fact, only too great. He very much feared that Miss Fairfax derived +more evil than good from them. Emma listened with the warmest concern; +grieved for her more and more, and looked around eager to discover some +way of being useful. To take her--be it only an hour or two--from +her aunt, to give her change of air and scene, and quiet rational +conversation, even for an hour or two, might do her good; and the +following morning she wrote again to say, in the most feeling language +she could command, that she would call for her in the carriage at any +hour that Jane would name--mentioning that she had Mr. Perry's decided +opinion, in favour of such exercise for his patient. The answer was only +in this short note: + +"Miss Fairfax's compliments and thanks, but is quite unequal to any +exercise." + +Emma felt that her own note had deserved something better; but it was +impossible to quarrel with words, whose tremulous inequality shewed +indisposition so plainly, and she thought only of how she might best +counteract this unwillingness to be seen or assisted. In spite of the +answer, therefore, she ordered the carriage, and drove to Mrs. Bates's, +in the hope that Jane would be induced to join her--but it would not +do;--Miss Bates came to the carriage door, all gratitude, and agreeing +with her most earnestly in thinking an airing might be of the greatest +service--and every thing that message could do was tried--but all in +vain. Miss Bates was obliged to return without success; Jane was +quite unpersuadable; the mere proposal of going out seemed to make her +worse.--Emma wished she could have seen her, and tried her own powers; +but, almost before she could hint the wish, Miss Bates made it appear +that she had promised her niece on no account to let Miss Woodhouse in. +"Indeed, the truth was, that poor dear Jane could not bear to see any +body--any body at all--Mrs. Elton, indeed, could not be denied--and +Mrs. Cole had made such a point--and Mrs. Perry had said so much--but, +except them, Jane would really see nobody." + +Emma did not want to be classed with the Mrs. Eltons, the Mrs. Perrys, +and the Mrs. Coles, who would force themselves anywhere; neither could +she feel any right of preference herself--she submitted, therefore, and +only questioned Miss Bates farther as to her niece's appetite and diet, +which she longed to be able to assist. On that subject poor Miss Bates +was very unhappy, and very communicative; Jane would hardly eat any +thing:--Mr. Perry recommended nourishing food; but every thing +they could command (and never had any body such good neighbours) was +distasteful. + +Emma, on reaching home, called the housekeeper directly, to an +examination of her stores; and some arrowroot of very superior quality +was speedily despatched to Miss Bates with a most friendly note. In half +an hour the arrowroot was returned, with a thousand thanks from Miss +Bates, but "dear Jane would not be satisfied without its being sent +back; it was a thing she could not take--and, moreover, she insisted on +her saying, that she was not at all in want of any thing." + +When Emma afterwards heard that Jane Fairfax had been seen wandering +about the meadows, at some distance from Highbury, on the afternoon of +the very day on which she had, under the plea of being unequal to any +exercise, so peremptorily refused to go out with her in the carriage, +she could have no doubt--putting every thing together--that Jane was +resolved to receive no kindness from _her_. She was sorry, very sorry. +Her heart was grieved for a state which seemed but the more pitiable +from this sort of irritation of spirits, inconsistency of action, and +inequality of powers; and it mortified her that she was given so little +credit for proper feeling, or esteemed so little worthy as a friend: but +she had the consolation of knowing that her intentions were good, and of +being able to say to herself, that could Mr. Knightley have been privy +to all her attempts of assisting Jane Fairfax, could he even have seen +into her heart, he would not, on this occasion, have found any thing to +reprove. + + + +CHAPTER X + + +One morning, about ten days after Mrs. Churchill's decease, Emma was +called downstairs to Mr. Weston, who "could not stay five minutes, +and wanted particularly to speak with her."--He met her at the +parlour-door, and hardly asking her how she did, in the natural key of +his voice, sunk it immediately, to say, unheard by her father, + +"Can you come to Randalls at any time this morning?--Do, if it be +possible. Mrs. Weston wants to see you. She must see you." + +"Is she unwell?" + +"No, no, not at all--only a little agitated. She would have ordered the +carriage, and come to you, but she must see you _alone_, and that you +know--(nodding towards her father)--Humph!--Can you come?" + +"Certainly. This moment, if you please. It is impossible to refuse what +you ask in such a way. But what can be the matter?--Is she really not +ill?" + +"Depend upon me--but ask no more questions. You will know it all in +time. The most unaccountable business! But hush, hush!" + +To guess what all this meant, was impossible even for Emma. Something +really important seemed announced by his looks; but, as her friend was +well, she endeavoured not to be uneasy, and settling it with her father, +that she would take her walk now, she and Mr. Weston were soon out of +the house together and on their way at a quick pace for Randalls. + +"Now,"--said Emma, when they were fairly beyond the sweep gates,--"now +Mr. Weston, do let me know what has happened." + +"No, no,"--he gravely replied.--"Don't ask me. I promised my wife to +leave it all to her. She will break it to you better than I can. Do not +be impatient, Emma; it will all come out too soon." + +"Break it to me," cried Emma, standing still with terror.--"Good +God!--Mr. Weston, tell me at once.--Something has happened in Brunswick +Square. I know it has. Tell me, I charge you tell me this moment what it +is." + +"No, indeed you are mistaken."-- + +"Mr. Weston do not trifle with me.--Consider how many of my dearest +friends are now in Brunswick Square. Which of them is it?--I charge you +by all that is sacred, not to attempt concealment." + +"Upon my word, Emma."-- + +"Your word!--why not your honour!--why not say upon your honour, that +it has nothing to do with any of them? Good Heavens!--What can be to be +_broke_ to me, that does not relate to one of that family?" + +"Upon my honour," said he very seriously, "it does not. It is not in +the smallest degree connected with any human being of the name of +Knightley." + +Emma's courage returned, and she walked on. + +"I was wrong," he continued, "in talking of its being _broke_ to you. +I should not have used the expression. In fact, it does not concern +you--it concerns only myself,--that is, we hope.--Humph!--In short, my +dear Emma, there is no occasion to be so uneasy about it. I don't +say that it is not a disagreeable business--but things might be much +worse.--If we walk fast, we shall soon be at Randalls." + +Emma found that she must wait; and now it required little effort. She +asked no more questions therefore, merely employed her own fancy, and +that soon pointed out to her the probability of its being some money +concern--something just come to light, of a disagreeable nature in the +circumstances of the family,--something which the late event at Richmond +had brought forward. Her fancy was very active. Half a dozen natural +children, perhaps--and poor Frank cut off!--This, though very +undesirable, would be no matter of agony to her. It inspired little more +than an animating curiosity. + +"Who is that gentleman on horseback?" said she, as they +proceeded--speaking more to assist Mr. Weston in keeping his secret, +than with any other view. + +"I do not know.--One of the Otways.--Not Frank;--it is not Frank, I +assure you. You will not see him. He is half way to Windsor by this +time." + +"Has your son been with you, then?" + +"Oh! yes--did not you know?--Well, well, never mind." + +For a moment he was silent; and then added, in a tone much more guarded +and demure, + +"Yes, Frank came over this morning, just to ask us how we did." + +They hurried on, and were speedily at Randalls.--"Well, my dear," said +he, as they entered the room--"I have brought her, and now I hope you +will soon be better. I shall leave you together. There is no use in +delay. I shall not be far off, if you want me."--And Emma distinctly +heard him add, in a lower tone, before he quitted the room,--"I have +been as good as my word. She has not the least idea." + +Mrs. Weston was looking so ill, and had an air of so much perturbation, +that Emma's uneasiness increased; and the moment they were alone, she +eagerly said, + +"What is it my dear friend? Something of a very unpleasant nature, I +find, has occurred;--do let me know directly what it is. I have been +walking all this way in complete suspense. We both abhor suspense. +Do not let mine continue longer. It will do you good to speak of your +distress, whatever it may be." + +"Have you indeed no idea?" said Mrs. Weston in a trembling voice. +"Cannot you, my dear Emma--cannot you form a guess as to what you are to +hear?" + +"So far as that it relates to Mr. Frank Churchill, I do guess." + +"You are right. It does relate to him, and I will tell you directly;" +(resuming her work, and seeming resolved against looking up.) "He has +been here this very morning, on a most extraordinary errand. It is +impossible to express our surprize. He came to speak to his father on a +subject,--to announce an attachment--" + +She stopped to breathe. Emma thought first of herself, and then of +Harriet. + +"More than an attachment, indeed," resumed Mrs. Weston; "an +engagement--a positive engagement.--What will you say, Emma--what will +any body say, when it is known that Frank Churchill and Miss Fairfax are +engaged;--nay, that they have been long engaged!" + +Emma even jumped with surprize;--and, horror-struck, exclaimed, + +"Jane Fairfax!--Good God! You are not serious? You do not mean it?" + +"You may well be amazed," returned Mrs. Weston, still averting her eyes, +and talking on with eagerness, that Emma might have time to recover-- +"You may well be amazed. But it is even so. There has been a solemn +engagement between them ever since October--formed at Weymouth, and +kept a secret from every body. Not a creature knowing it but +themselves--neither the Campbells, nor her family, nor his.--It is so +wonderful, that though perfectly convinced of the fact, it is yet almost +incredible to myself. I can hardly believe it.--I thought I knew him." + +Emma scarcely heard what was said.--Her mind was divided between two +ideas--her own former conversations with him about Miss Fairfax; and +poor Harriet;--and for some time she could only exclaim, and require +confirmation, repeated confirmation. + +"Well," said she at last, trying to recover herself; "this is a +circumstance which I must think of at least half a day, before I can at +all comprehend it. What!--engaged to her all the winter--before either +of them came to Highbury?" + +"Engaged since October,--secretly engaged.--It has hurt me, Emma, very +much. It has hurt his father equally. _Some_ _part_ of his conduct we +cannot excuse." + +Emma pondered a moment, and then replied, "I will not pretend _not_ to +understand you; and to give you all the relief in my power, be assured +that no such effect has followed his attentions to me, as you are +apprehensive of." + +Mrs. Weston looked up, afraid to believe; but Emma's countenance was as +steady as her words. + +"That you may have less difficulty in believing this boast, of my +present perfect indifference," she continued, "I will farther tell you, +that there was a period in the early part of our acquaintance, when I +did like him, when I was very much disposed to be attached to him--nay, +was attached--and how it came to cease, is perhaps the wonder. +Fortunately, however, it did cease. I have really for some time past, +for at least these three months, cared nothing about him. You may +believe me, Mrs. Weston. This is the simple truth." + +Mrs. Weston kissed her with tears of joy; and when she could find +utterance, assured her, that this protestation had done her more good +than any thing else in the world could do. + +"Mr. Weston will be almost as much relieved as myself," said she. "On +this point we have been wretched. It was our darling wish that you +might be attached to each other--and we were persuaded that it was so.-- +Imagine what we have been feeling on your account." + +"I have escaped; and that I should escape, may be a matter of grateful +wonder to you and myself. But this does not acquit _him_, Mrs. Weston; +and I must say, that I think him greatly to blame. What right had he +to come among us with affection and faith engaged, and with manners +so _very_ disengaged? What right had he to endeavour to please, as +he certainly did--to distinguish any one young woman with persevering +attention, as he certainly did--while he really belonged to +another?--How could he tell what mischief he might be doing?--How could +he tell that he might not be making me in love with him?--very wrong, +very wrong indeed." + +"From something that he said, my dear Emma, I rather imagine--" + +"And how could _she_ bear such behaviour! Composure with a witness! +to look on, while repeated attentions were offering to another woman, +before her face, and not resent it.--That is a degree of placidity, +which I can neither comprehend nor respect." + +"There were misunderstandings between them, Emma; he said so expressly. +He had not time to enter into much explanation. He was here only a +quarter of an hour, and in a state of agitation which did not allow +the full use even of the time he could stay--but that there had been +misunderstandings he decidedly said. The present crisis, indeed, +seemed to be brought on by them; and those misunderstandings might very +possibly arise from the impropriety of his conduct." + +"Impropriety! Oh! Mrs. Weston--it is too calm a censure. Much, much +beyond impropriety!--It has sunk him, I cannot say how it has sunk him +in my opinion. So unlike what a man should be!--None of that upright +integrity, that strict adherence to truth and principle, that disdain of +trick and littleness, which a man should display in every transaction of +his life." + +"Nay, dear Emma, now I must take his part; for though he has been wrong +in this instance, I have known him long enough to answer for his having +many, very many, good qualities; and--" + +"Good God!" cried Emma, not attending to her.--"Mrs. Smallridge, too! +Jane actually on the point of going as governess! What could he mean by +such horrible indelicacy? To suffer her to engage herself--to suffer her +even to think of such a measure!" + +"He knew nothing about it, Emma. On this article I can fully acquit +him. It was a private resolution of hers, not communicated to him--or at +least not communicated in a way to carry conviction.--Till yesterday, I +know he said he was in the dark as to her plans. They burst on him, I do +not know how, but by some letter or message--and it was the discovery of +what she was doing, of this very project of hers, which determined him +to come forward at once, own it all to his uncle, throw himself on +his kindness, and, in short, put an end to the miserable state of +concealment that had been carrying on so long." + +Emma began to listen better. + +"I am to hear from him soon," continued Mrs. Weston. "He told me at +parting, that he should soon write; and he spoke in a manner which +seemed to promise me many particulars that could not be given now. Let +us wait, therefore, for this letter. It may bring many extenuations. It +may make many things intelligible and excusable which now are not to +be understood. Don't let us be severe, don't let us be in a hurry to +condemn him. Let us have patience. I must love him; and now that I am +satisfied on one point, the one material point, I am sincerely anxious +for its all turning out well, and ready to hope that it may. They must +both have suffered a great deal under such a system of secresy and +concealment." + +"_His_ sufferings," replied Emma dryly, "do not appear to have done him +much harm. Well, and how did Mr. Churchill take it?" + +"Most favourably for his nephew--gave his consent with scarcely a +difficulty. Conceive what the events of a week have done in that family! +While poor Mrs. Churchill lived, I suppose there could not have been a +hope, a chance, a possibility;--but scarcely are her remains at rest in +the family vault, than her husband is persuaded to act exactly opposite +to what she would have required. What a blessing it is, when undue +influence does not survive the grave!--He gave his consent with very +little persuasion." + +"Ah!" thought Emma, "he would have done as much for Harriet." + +"This was settled last night, and Frank was off with the light this +morning. He stopped at Highbury, at the Bates's, I fancy, some time--and +then came on hither; but was in such a hurry to get back to his uncle, +to whom he is just now more necessary than ever, that, as I tell you, +he could stay with us but a quarter of an hour.--He was very much +agitated--very much, indeed--to a degree that made him appear quite +a different creature from any thing I had ever seen him before.--In +addition to all the rest, there had been the shock of finding her so +very unwell, which he had had no previous suspicion of--and there was +every appearance of his having been feeling a great deal." + +"And do you really believe the affair to have been carrying on with such +perfect secresy?--The Campbells, the Dixons, did none of them know of +the engagement?" + +Emma could not speak the name of Dixon without a little blush. + +"None; not one. He positively said that it had been known to no being in +the world but their two selves." + +"Well," said Emma, "I suppose we shall gradually grow reconciled to the +idea, and I wish them very happy. But I shall always think it a +very abominable sort of proceeding. What has it been but a system of +hypocrisy and deceit,--espionage, and treachery?--To come among us with +professions of openness and simplicity; and such a league in secret +to judge us all!--Here have we been, the whole winter and spring, +completely duped, fancying ourselves all on an equal footing of truth +and honour, with two people in the midst of us who may have been +carrying round, comparing and sitting in judgment on sentiments and +words that were never meant for both to hear.--They must take the +consequence, if they have heard each other spoken of in a way not +perfectly agreeable!" + +"I am quite easy on that head," replied Mrs. Weston. "I am very sure +that I never said any thing of either to the other, which both might not +have heard." + +"You are in luck.--Your only blunder was confined to my ear, when you +imagined a certain friend of ours in love with the lady." + +"True. But as I have always had a thoroughly good opinion of Miss +Fairfax, I never could, under any blunder, have spoken ill of her; and +as to speaking ill of him, there I must have been safe." + +At this moment Mr. Weston appeared at a little distance from the window, +evidently on the watch. His wife gave him a look which invited him +in; and, while he was coming round, added, "Now, dearest Emma, let me +intreat you to say and look every thing that may set his heart at ease, +and incline him to be satisfied with the match. Let us make the best of +it--and, indeed, almost every thing may be fairly said in her favour. It +is not a connexion to gratify; but if Mr. Churchill does not feel that, +why should we? and it may be a very fortunate circumstance for him, for +Frank, I mean, that he should have attached himself to a girl of such +steadiness of character and good judgment as I have always given her +credit for--and still am disposed to give her credit for, in spite of +this one great deviation from the strict rule of right. And how much may +be said in her situation for even that error!" + +"Much, indeed!" cried Emma feelingly. "If a woman can ever be +excused for thinking only of herself, it is in a situation like Jane +Fairfax's.--Of such, one may almost say, that 'the world is not their's, +nor the world's law.'" + +She met Mr. Weston on his entrance, with a smiling countenance, +exclaiming, + +"A very pretty trick you have been playing me, upon my word! This was a +device, I suppose, to sport with my curiosity, and exercise my talent of +guessing. But you really frightened me. I thought you had lost half +your property, at least. And here, instead of its being a matter of +condolence, it turns out to be one of congratulation.--I congratulate +you, Mr. Weston, with all my heart, on the prospect of having one of the +most lovely and accomplished young women in England for your daughter." + +A glance or two between him and his wife, convinced him that all was as +right as this speech proclaimed; and its happy effect on his spirits was +immediate. His air and voice recovered their usual briskness: he shook +her heartily and gratefully by the hand, and entered on the subject in +a manner to prove, that he now only wanted time and persuasion to think +the engagement no very bad thing. His companions suggested only what +could palliate imprudence, or smooth objections; and by the time they +had talked it all over together, and he had talked it all over again +with Emma, in their walk back to Hartfield, he was become perfectly +reconciled, and not far from thinking it the very best thing that Frank +could possibly have done. + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +"Harriet, poor Harriet!"--Those were the words; in them lay the +tormenting ideas which Emma could not get rid of, and which constituted +the real misery of the business to her. Frank Churchill had behaved very +ill by herself--very ill in many ways,--but it was not so much _his_ +behaviour as her _own_, which made her so angry with him. It was the +scrape which he had drawn her into on Harriet's account, that gave the +deepest hue to his offence.--Poor Harriet! to be a second time the +dupe of her misconceptions and flattery. Mr. Knightley had spoken +prophetically, when he once said, "Emma, you have been no friend +to Harriet Smith."--She was afraid she had done her nothing but +disservice.--It was true that she had not to charge herself, in this +instance as in the former, with being the sole and original author of +the mischief; with having suggested such feelings as might otherwise +never have entered Harriet's imagination; for Harriet had acknowledged +her admiration and preference of Frank Churchill before she had ever +given her a hint on the subject; but she felt completely guilty +of having encouraged what she might have repressed. She might have +prevented the indulgence and increase of such sentiments. Her influence +would have been enough. And now she was very conscious that she ought +to have prevented them.--She felt that she had been risking her friend's +happiness on most insufficient grounds. Common sense would have directed +her to tell Harriet, that she must not allow herself to think of him, +and that there were five hundred chances to one against his ever caring +for her.--"But, with common sense," she added, "I am afraid I have had +little to do." + +She was extremely angry with herself. If she could not have been angry +with Frank Churchill too, it would have been dreadful.--As for Jane +Fairfax, she might at least relieve her feelings from any present +solicitude on her account. Harriet would be anxiety enough; she need +no longer be unhappy about Jane, whose troubles and whose ill-health +having, of course, the same origin, must be equally under cure.--Her +days of insignificance and evil were over.--She would soon be well, and +happy, and prosperous.--Emma could now imagine why her own attentions +had been slighted. This discovery laid many smaller matters open. No +doubt it had been from jealousy.--In Jane's eyes she had been a rival; +and well might any thing she could offer of assistance or regard be +repulsed. An airing in the Hartfield carriage would have been the rack, +and arrowroot from the Hartfield storeroom must have been poison. She +understood it all; and as far as her mind could disengage itself from +the injustice and selfishness of angry feelings, she acknowledged that +Jane Fairfax would have neither elevation nor happiness beyond her +desert. But poor Harriet was such an engrossing charge! There was little +sympathy to be spared for any body else. Emma was sadly fearful +that this second disappointment would be more severe than the first. +Considering the very superior claims of the object, it ought; and +judging by its apparently stronger effect on Harriet's mind, producing +reserve and self-command, it would.--She must communicate the painful +truth, however, and as soon as possible. An injunction of secresy had +been among Mr. Weston's parting words. "For the present, the whole +affair was to be completely a secret. Mr. Churchill had made a point of +it, as a token of respect to the wife he had so very recently lost; +and every body admitted it to be no more than due decorum."--Emma had +promised; but still Harriet must be excepted. It was her superior duty. + +In spite of her vexation, she could not help feeling it almost +ridiculous, that she should have the very same distressing and delicate +office to perform by Harriet, which Mrs. Weston had just gone through by +herself. The intelligence, which had been so anxiously announced to her, +she was now to be anxiously announcing to another. Her heart beat quick +on hearing Harriet's footstep and voice; so, she supposed, had poor Mrs. +Weston felt when _she_ was approaching Randalls. Could the event of +the disclosure bear an equal resemblance!--But of that, unfortunately, +there could be no chance. + +"Well, Miss Woodhouse!" cried Harriet, coming eagerly into the room--"is +not this the oddest news that ever was?" + +"What news do you mean?" replied Emma, unable to guess, by look or +voice, whether Harriet could indeed have received any hint. + +"About Jane Fairfax. Did you ever hear any thing so strange? Oh!--you +need not be afraid of owning it to me, for Mr. Weston has told me +himself. I met him just now. He told me it was to be a great secret; +and, therefore, I should not think of mentioning it to any body but you, +but he said you knew it." + +"What did Mr. Weston tell you?"--said Emma, still perplexed. + +"Oh! he told me all about it; that Jane Fairfax and Mr. Frank Churchill +are to be married, and that they have been privately engaged to one +another this long while. How very odd!" + +It was, indeed, so odd; Harriet's behaviour was so extremely odd, +that Emma did not know how to understand it. Her character appeared +absolutely changed. She seemed to propose shewing no agitation, or +disappointment, or peculiar concern in the discovery. Emma looked at +her, quite unable to speak. + +"Had you any idea," cried Harriet, "of his being in love with her?--You, +perhaps, might.--You (blushing as she spoke) who can see into every +body's heart; but nobody else--" + +"Upon my word," said Emma, "I begin to doubt my having any such talent. +Can you seriously ask me, Harriet, whether I imagined him attached +to another woman at the very time that I was--tacitly, if not +openly--encouraging you to give way to your own feelings?--I never +had the slightest suspicion, till within the last hour, of Mr. Frank +Churchill's having the least regard for Jane Fairfax. You may be very +sure that if I had, I should have cautioned you accordingly." + +"Me!" cried Harriet, colouring, and astonished. "Why should you caution +me?--You do not think I care about Mr. Frank Churchill." + +"I am delighted to hear you speak so stoutly on the subject," replied +Emma, smiling; "but you do not mean to deny that there was a time--and +not very distant either--when you gave me reason to understand that you +did care about him?" + +"Him!--never, never. Dear Miss Woodhouse, how could you so mistake me?" +turning away distressed. + +"Harriet!" cried Emma, after a moment's pause--"What do you mean?--Good +Heaven! what do you mean?--Mistake you!--Am I to suppose then?--" + +She could not speak another word.--Her voice was lost; and she sat down, +waiting in great terror till Harriet should answer. + +Harriet, who was standing at some distance, and with face turned from +her, did not immediately say any thing; and when she did speak, it was +in a voice nearly as agitated as Emma's. + +"I should not have thought it possible," she began, "that you could have +misunderstood me! I know we agreed never to name him--but considering +how infinitely superior he is to every body else, I should not have +thought it possible that I could be supposed to mean any other person. +Mr. Frank Churchill, indeed! I do not know who would ever look at him in +the company of the other. I hope I have a better taste than to think of +Mr. Frank Churchill, who is like nobody by his side. And that you should +have been so mistaken, is amazing!--I am sure, but for believing that +you entirely approved and meant to encourage me in my attachment, I +should have considered it at first too great a presumption almost, +to dare to think of him. At first, if you had not told me that more +wonderful things had happened; that there had been matches of greater +disparity (those were your very words);--I should not have dared to +give way to--I should not have thought it possible--But if _you_, who +had been always acquainted with him--" + +"Harriet!" cried Emma, collecting herself resolutely--"Let us understand +each other now, without the possibility of farther mistake. Are you +speaking of--Mr. Knightley?" + +"To be sure I am. I never could have an idea of any body else--and so +I thought you knew. When we talked about him, it was as clear as +possible." + +"Not quite," returned Emma, with forced calmness, "for all that you then +said, appeared to me to relate to a different person. I could almost +assert that you had _named_ Mr. Frank Churchill. I am sure the service +Mr. Frank Churchill had rendered you, in protecting you from the +gipsies, was spoken of." + +"Oh! Miss Woodhouse, how you do forget!" + +"My dear Harriet, I perfectly remember the substance of what I said on +the occasion. I told you that I did not wonder at your attachment; +that considering the service he had rendered you, it was extremely +natural:--and you agreed to it, expressing yourself very warmly as to +your sense of that service, and mentioning even what your sensations had +been in seeing him come forward to your rescue.--The impression of it is +strong on my memory." + +"Oh, dear," cried Harriet, "now I recollect what you mean; but I +was thinking of something very different at the time. It was not the +gipsies--it was not Mr. Frank Churchill that I meant. No! (with some +elevation) I was thinking of a much more precious circumstance--of Mr. +Knightley's coming and asking me to dance, when Mr. Elton would not +stand up with me; and when there was no other partner in the room. That +was the kind action; that was the noble benevolence and generosity; that +was the service which made me begin to feel how superior he was to every +other being upon earth." + +"Good God!" cried Emma, "this has been a most unfortunate--most +deplorable mistake!--What is to be done?" + +"You would not have encouraged me, then, if you had understood me? At +least, however, I cannot be worse off than I should have been, if the +other had been the person; and now--it _is_ possible--" + +She paused a few moments. Emma could not speak. + +"I do not wonder, Miss Woodhouse," she resumed, "that you should feel a +great difference between the two, as to me or as to any body. You must +think one five hundred million times more above me than the other. But +I hope, Miss Woodhouse, that supposing--that if--strange as it may +appear--. But you know they were your own words, that _more_ wonderful +things had happened, matches of _greater_ disparity had taken place than +between Mr. Frank Churchill and me; and, therefore, it seems as if such +a thing even as this, may have occurred before--and if I should be so +fortunate, beyond expression, as to--if Mr. Knightley should really--if +_he_ does not mind the disparity, I hope, dear Miss Woodhouse, you will +not set yourself against it, and try to put difficulties in the way. But +you are too good for that, I am sure." + +Harriet was standing at one of the windows. Emma turned round to look at +her in consternation, and hastily said, + +"Have you any idea of Mr. Knightley's returning your affection?" + +"Yes," replied Harriet modestly, but not fearfully--"I must say that I +have." + +Emma's eyes were instantly withdrawn; and she sat silently meditating, +in a fixed attitude, for a few minutes. A few minutes were sufficient +for making her acquainted with her own heart. A mind like hers, +once opening to suspicion, made rapid progress. She touched--she +admitted--she acknowledged the whole truth. Why was it so much worse +that Harriet should be in love with Mr. Knightley, than with Frank +Churchill? Why was the evil so dreadfully increased by Harriet's having +some hope of a return? It darted through her, with the speed of an +arrow, that Mr. Knightley must marry no one but herself! + +Her own conduct, as well as her own heart, was before her in the same +few minutes. She saw it all with a clearness which had never blessed +her before. How improperly had she been acting by Harriet! How +inconsiderate, how indelicate, how irrational, how unfeeling had been +her conduct! What blindness, what madness, had led her on! It struck her +with dreadful force, and she was ready to give it every bad name in the +world. Some portion of respect for herself, however, in spite of all +these demerits--some concern for her own appearance, and a strong sense +of justice by Harriet--(there would be no need of _compassion_ to the +girl who believed herself loved by Mr. Knightley--but justice required +that she should not be made unhappy by any coldness now,) gave Emma the +resolution to sit and endure farther with calmness, with even apparent +kindness.--For her own advantage indeed, it was fit that the utmost +extent of Harriet's hopes should be enquired into; and Harriet had done +nothing to forfeit the regard and interest which had been so voluntarily +formed and maintained--or to deserve to be slighted by the person, whose +counsels had never led her right.--Rousing from reflection, therefore, +and subduing her emotion, she turned to Harriet again, and, in a more +inviting accent, renewed the conversation; for as to the subject which +had first introduced it, the wonderful story of Jane Fairfax, that was +quite sunk and lost.--Neither of them thought but of Mr. Knightley and +themselves. + +Harriet, who had been standing in no unhappy reverie, was yet very glad +to be called from it, by the now encouraging manner of such a judge, and +such a friend as Miss Woodhouse, and only wanted invitation, to give +the history of her hopes with great, though trembling delight.--Emma's +tremblings as she asked, and as she listened, were better concealed than +Harriet's, but they were not less. Her voice was not unsteady; but her +mind was in all the perturbation that such a development of self, such +a burst of threatening evil, such a confusion of sudden and perplexing +emotions, must create.--She listened with much inward suffering, but +with great outward patience, to Harriet's detail.--Methodical, or well +arranged, or very well delivered, it could not be expected to be; but it +contained, when separated from all the feebleness and tautology of +the narration, a substance to sink her spirit--especially with the +corroborating circumstances, which her own memory brought in favour of +Mr. Knightley's most improved opinion of Harriet. + +Harriet had been conscious of a difference in his behaviour ever since +those two decisive dances.--Emma knew that he had, on that occasion, +found her much superior to his expectation. From that evening, or at +least from the time of Miss Woodhouse's encouraging her to think of him, +Harriet had begun to be sensible of his talking to her much more than he +had been used to do, and of his having indeed quite a different manner +towards her; a manner of kindness and sweetness!--Latterly she had been +more and more aware of it. When they had been all walking together, +he had so often come and walked by her, and talked so very +delightfully!--He seemed to want to be acquainted with her. Emma knew it +to have been very much the case. She had often observed the change, to +almost the same extent.--Harriet repeated expressions of approbation +and praise from him--and Emma felt them to be in the closest agreement +with what she had known of his opinion of Harriet. He praised her for +being without art or affectation, for having simple, honest, generous, +feelings.--She knew that he saw such recommendations in Harriet; he +had dwelt on them to her more than once.--Much that lived in Harriet's +memory, many little particulars of the notice she had received from +him, a look, a speech, a removal from one chair to another, a compliment +implied, a preference inferred, had been unnoticed, because unsuspected, +by Emma. Circumstances that might swell to half an hour's relation, +and contained multiplied proofs to her who had seen them, had passed +undiscerned by her who now heard them; but the two latest occurrences to +be mentioned, the two of strongest promise to Harriet, were not without +some degree of witness from Emma herself.--The first, was his walking +with her apart from the others, in the lime-walk at Donwell, where they +had been walking some time before Emma came, and he had taken pains (as +she was convinced) to draw her from the rest to himself--and at first, +he had talked to her in a more particular way than he had ever done +before, in a very particular way indeed!--(Harriet could not recall +it without a blush.) He seemed to be almost asking her, whether her +affections were engaged.--But as soon as she (Miss Woodhouse) appeared +likely to join them, he changed the subject, and began talking about +farming:--The second, was his having sat talking with her nearly half +an hour before Emma came back from her visit, the very last morning of +his being at Hartfield--though, when he first came in, he had said that +he could not stay five minutes--and his having told her, during their +conversation, that though he must go to London, it was very much against +his inclination that he left home at all, which was much more (as +Emma felt) than he had acknowledged to _her_. The superior degree of +confidence towards Harriet, which this one article marked, gave her +severe pain. + +On the subject of the first of the two circumstances, she did, after a +little reflection, venture the following question. "Might he not?--Is +not it possible, that when enquiring, as you thought, into the state of +your affections, he might be alluding to Mr. Martin--he might have +Mr. Martin's interest in view? But Harriet rejected the suspicion with +spirit. + +"Mr. Martin! No indeed!--There was not a hint of Mr. Martin. I hope I +know better now, than to care for Mr. Martin, or to be suspected of it." + +When Harriet had closed her evidence, she appealed to her dear Miss +Woodhouse, to say whether she had not good ground for hope. + +"I never should have presumed to think of it at first," said she, "but +for you. You told me to observe him carefully, and let his behaviour +be the rule of mine--and so I have. But now I seem to feel that I may +deserve him; and that if he does chuse me, it will not be any thing so +very wonderful." + +The bitter feelings occasioned by this speech, the many bitter feelings, +made the utmost exertion necessary on Emma's side, to enable her to say +on reply, + +"Harriet, I will only venture to declare, that Mr. Knightley is the last +man in the world, who would intentionally give any woman the idea of his +feeling for her more than he really does." + +Harriet seemed ready to worship her friend for a sentence so +satisfactory; and Emma was only saved from raptures and fondness, which +at that moment would have been dreadful penance, by the sound of her +father's footsteps. He was coming through the hall. Harriet was too +much agitated to encounter him. "She could not compose herself-- +Mr. Woodhouse would be alarmed--she had better go;"--with most ready +encouragement from her friend, therefore, she passed off through another +door--and the moment she was gone, this was the spontaneous burst of +Emma's feelings: "Oh God! that I had never seen her!" + +The rest of the day, the following night, were hardly enough for her +thoughts.--She was bewildered amidst the confusion of all that had +rushed on her within the last few hours. Every moment had brought a +fresh surprize; and every surprize must be matter of humiliation to +her.--How to understand it all! How to understand the deceptions she had +been thus practising on herself, and living under!--The blunders, the +blindness of her own head and heart!--she sat still, she walked about, +she tried her own room, she tried the shrubbery--in every place, every +posture, she perceived that she had acted most weakly; that she had +been imposed on by others in a most mortifying degree; that she had +been imposing on herself in a degree yet more mortifying; that she +was wretched, and should probably find this day but the beginning of +wretchedness. + +To understand, thoroughly understand her own heart, was the first +endeavour. To that point went every leisure moment which her father's +claims on her allowed, and every moment of involuntary absence of mind. + +How long had Mr. Knightley been so dear to her, as every feeling +declared him now to be? When had his influence, such influence begun?-- +When had he succeeded to that place in her affection, which Frank +Churchill had once, for a short period, occupied?--She looked back; +she compared the two--compared them, as they had always stood in her +estimation, from the time of the latter's becoming known to her--and as +they must at any time have been compared by her, had it--oh! had it, by +any blessed felicity, occurred to her, to institute the comparison.--She +saw that there never had been a time when she did not consider Mr. +Knightley as infinitely the superior, or when his regard for her had not +been infinitely the most dear. She saw, that in persuading herself, +in fancying, in acting to the contrary, she had been entirely under a +delusion, totally ignorant of her own heart--and, in short, that she had +never really cared for Frank Churchill at all! + +This was the conclusion of the first series of reflection. This was +the knowledge of herself, on the first question of inquiry, which +she reached; and without being long in reaching it.--She was most +sorrowfully indignant; ashamed of every sensation but the one revealed +to her--her affection for Mr. Knightley.--Every other part of her mind +was disgusting. + +With insufferable vanity had she believed herself in the secret of every +body's feelings; with unpardonable arrogance proposed to arrange every +body's destiny. She was proved to have been universally mistaken; and +she had not quite done nothing--for she had done mischief. She had +brought evil on Harriet, on herself, and she too much feared, on Mr. +Knightley.--Were this most unequal of all connexions to take place, on +her must rest all the reproach of having given it a beginning; for his +attachment, she must believe to be produced only by a consciousness of +Harriet's;--and even were this not the case, he would never have known +Harriet at all but for her folly. + +Mr. Knightley and Harriet Smith!--It was a union to distance every +wonder of the kind.--The attachment of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax +became commonplace, threadbare, stale in the comparison, exciting no +surprize, presenting no disparity, affording nothing to be said or +thought.--Mr. Knightley and Harriet Smith!--Such an elevation on her +side! Such a debasement on his! It was horrible to Emma to think how it +must sink him in the general opinion, to foresee the smiles, the sneers, +the merriment it would prompt at his expense; the mortification and +disdain of his brother, the thousand inconveniences to himself.--Could +it be?--No; it was impossible. And yet it was far, very far, from +impossible.--Was it a new circumstance for a man of first-rate abilities +to be captivated by very inferior powers? Was it new for one, perhaps +too busy to seek, to be the prize of a girl who would seek him?--Was +it new for any thing in this world to be unequal, inconsistent, +incongruous--or for chance and circumstance (as second causes) to direct +the human fate? + +Oh! had she never brought Harriet forward! Had she left her where she +ought, and where he had told her she ought!--Had she not, with a +folly which no tongue could express, prevented her marrying the +unexceptionable young man who would have made her happy and respectable +in the line of life to which she ought to belong--all would have been +safe; none of this dreadful sequel would have been. + +How Harriet could ever have had the presumption to raise her thoughts to +Mr. Knightley!--How she could dare to fancy herself the chosen of such +a man till actually assured of it!--But Harriet was less humble, had +fewer scruples than formerly.--Her inferiority, whether of mind or +situation, seemed little felt.--She had seemed more sensible of Mr. +Elton's being to stoop in marrying her, than she now seemed of Mr. +Knightley's.--Alas! was not that her own doing too? Who had been at +pains to give Harriet notions of self-consequence but herself?--Who but +herself had taught her, that she was to elevate herself if possible, +and that her claims were great to a high worldly establishment?--If +Harriet, from being humble, were grown vain, it was her doing too. + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Till now that she was threatened with its loss, Emma had never known +how much of her happiness depended on being _first_ with Mr. Knightley, +first in interest and affection.--Satisfied that it was so, and feeling +it her due, she had enjoyed it without reflection; and only in the +dread of being supplanted, found how inexpressibly important it had +been.--Long, very long, she felt she had been first; for, having no +female connexions of his own, there had been only Isabella whose claims +could be compared with hers, and she had always known exactly how far +he loved and esteemed Isabella. She had herself been first with him for +many years past. She had not deserved it; she had often been negligent +or perverse, slighting his advice, or even wilfully opposing him, +insensible of half his merits, and quarrelling with him because he would +not acknowledge her false and insolent estimate of her own--but still, +from family attachment and habit, and thorough excellence of mind, he +had loved her, and watched over her from a girl, with an endeavour to +improve her, and an anxiety for her doing right, which no other creature +had at all shared. In spite of all her faults, she knew she was dear +to him; might she not say, very dear?--When the suggestions of hope, +however, which must follow here, presented themselves, she could not +presume to indulge them. Harriet Smith might think herself not unworthy +of being peculiarly, exclusively, passionately loved by Mr. Knightley. +_She_ could not. She could not flatter herself with any idea of +blindness in his attachment to _her_. She had received a very recent +proof of its impartiality.--How shocked had he been by her behaviour to +Miss Bates! How directly, how strongly had he expressed himself to her +on the subject!--Not too strongly for the offence--but far, far too +strongly to issue from any feeling softer than upright justice and +clear-sighted goodwill.--She had no hope, nothing to deserve the name +of hope, that he could have that sort of affection for herself which was +now in question; but there was a hope (at times a slight one, at +times much stronger,) that Harriet might have deceived herself, and be +overrating his regard for _her_.--Wish it she must, for his sake--be the +consequence nothing to herself, but his remaining single all his life. +Could she be secure of that, indeed, of his never marrying at all, she +believed she should be perfectly satisfied.--Let him but continue the +same Mr. Knightley to her and her father, the same Mr. Knightley to +all the world; let Donwell and Hartfield lose none of their precious +intercourse of friendship and confidence, and her peace would be +fully secured.--Marriage, in fact, would not do for her. It would be +incompatible with what she owed to her father, and with what she felt +for him. Nothing should separate her from her father. She would not +marry, even if she were asked by Mr. Knightley. + +It must be her ardent wish that Harriet might be disappointed; and she +hoped, that when able to see them together again, she might at least +be able to ascertain what the chances for it were.--She should see them +henceforward with the closest observance; and wretchedly as she had +hitherto misunderstood even those she was watching, she did not know how +to admit that she could be blinded here.--He was expected back every +day. The power of observation would be soon given--frightfully soon it +appeared when her thoughts were in one course. In the meanwhile, she +resolved against seeing Harriet.--It would do neither of them good, +it would do the subject no good, to be talking of it farther.--She was +resolved not to be convinced, as long as she could doubt, and yet had +no authority for opposing Harriet's confidence. To talk would be only to +irritate.--She wrote to her, therefore, kindly, but decisively, to beg +that she would not, at present, come to Hartfield; acknowledging it to +be her conviction, that all farther confidential discussion of _one_ +topic had better be avoided; and hoping, that if a few days were allowed +to pass before they met again, except in the company of others--she +objected only to a tete-a-tete--they might be able to act as if they +had forgotten the conversation of yesterday.--Harriet submitted, and +approved, and was grateful. + +This point was just arranged, when a visitor arrived to tear Emma's +thoughts a little from the one subject which had engrossed them, +sleeping or waking, the last twenty-four hours--Mrs. Weston, who had +been calling on her daughter-in-law elect, and took Hartfield in her +way home, almost as much in duty to Emma as in pleasure to herself, to +relate all the particulars of so interesting an interview. + +Mr. Weston had accompanied her to Mrs. Bates's, and gone through his +share of this essential attention most handsomely; but she having then +induced Miss Fairfax to join her in an airing, was now returned with +much more to say, and much more to say with satisfaction, than a quarter +of an hour spent in Mrs. Bates's parlour, with all the encumbrance of +awkward feelings, could have afforded. + +A little curiosity Emma had; and she made the most of it while her +friend related. Mrs. Weston had set off to pay the visit in a good deal +of agitation herself; and in the first place had wished not to go at all +at present, to be allowed merely to write to Miss Fairfax instead, and +to defer this ceremonious call till a little time had passed, and Mr. +Churchill could be reconciled to the engagement's becoming known; as, +considering every thing, she thought such a visit could not be paid +without leading to reports:--but Mr. Weston had thought differently; he +was extremely anxious to shew his approbation to Miss Fairfax and her +family, and did not conceive that any suspicion could be excited by it; +or if it were, that it would be of any consequence; for "such things," +he observed, "always got about." Emma smiled, and felt that Mr. Weston +had very good reason for saying so. They had gone, in short--and very +great had been the evident distress and confusion of the lady. She had +hardly been able to speak a word, and every look and action had shewn +how deeply she was suffering from consciousness. The quiet, heart-felt +satisfaction of the old lady, and the rapturous delight of her +daughter--who proved even too joyous to talk as usual, had been a +gratifying, yet almost an affecting, scene. They were both so truly +respectable in their happiness, so disinterested in every sensation; +thought so much of Jane; so much of every body, and so little of +themselves, that every kindly feeling was at work for them. Miss +Fairfax's recent illness had offered a fair plea for Mrs. Weston to +invite her to an airing; she had drawn back and declined at first, but, +on being pressed had yielded; and, in the course of their drive, +Mrs. Weston had, by gentle encouragement, overcome so much of her +embarrassment, as to bring her to converse on the important subject. +Apologies for her seemingly ungracious silence in their first reception, +and the warmest expressions of the gratitude she was always feeling +towards herself and Mr. Weston, must necessarily open the cause; but +when these effusions were put by, they had talked a good deal of the +present and of the future state of the engagement. Mrs. Weston was +convinced that such conversation must be the greatest relief to her +companion, pent up within her own mind as every thing had so long been, +and was very much pleased with all that she had said on the subject. + +"On the misery of what she had suffered, during the concealment of so +many months," continued Mrs. Weston, "she was energetic. This was one +of her expressions. 'I will not say, that since I entered into the +engagement I have not had some happy moments; but I can say, that I have +never known the blessing of one tranquil hour:'--and the quivering lip, +Emma, which uttered it, was an attestation that I felt at my heart." + +"Poor girl!" said Emma. "She thinks herself wrong, then, for having +consented to a private engagement?" + +"Wrong! No one, I believe, can blame her more than she is disposed +to blame herself. 'The consequence,' said she, 'has been a state of +perpetual suffering to me; and so it ought. But after all the punishment +that misconduct can bring, it is still not less misconduct. Pain is no +expiation. I never can be blameless. I have been acting contrary to all +my sense of right; and the fortunate turn that every thing has taken, +and the kindness I am now receiving, is what my conscience tells me +ought not to be.' 'Do not imagine, madam,' she continued, 'that I was +taught wrong. Do not let any reflection fall on the principles or the +care of the friends who brought me up. The error has been all my own; +and I do assure you that, with all the excuse that present circumstances +may appear to give, I shall yet dread making the story known to Colonel +Campbell.'" + +"Poor girl!" said Emma again. "She loves him then excessively, I +suppose. It must have been from attachment only, that she could be +led to form the engagement. Her affection must have overpowered her +judgment." + +"Yes, I have no doubt of her being extremely attached to him." + +"I am afraid," returned Emma, sighing, "that I must often have +contributed to make her unhappy." + +"On your side, my love, it was very innocently done. But she +probably had something of that in her thoughts, when alluding to the +misunderstandings which he had given us hints of before. One natural +consequence of the evil she had involved herself in," she said, "was +that of making her _unreasonable_. The consciousness of having done +amiss, had exposed her to a thousand inquietudes, and made her captious +and irritable to a degree that must have been--that had been--hard for +him to bear. 'I did not make the allowances,' said she, 'which I ought +to have done, for his temper and spirits--his delightful spirits, and +that gaiety, that playfulness of disposition, which, under any other +circumstances, would, I am sure, have been as constantly bewitching to +me, as they were at first.' She then began to speak of you, and of the +great kindness you had shewn her during her illness; and with a blush +which shewed me how it was all connected, desired me, whenever I had +an opportunity, to thank you--I could not thank you too much--for every +wish and every endeavour to do her good. She was sensible that you had +never received any proper acknowledgment from herself." + +"If I did not know her to be happy now," said Emma, seriously, "which, +in spite of every little drawback from her scrupulous conscience, she +must be, I could not bear these thanks;--for, oh! Mrs. Weston, if there +were an account drawn up of the evil and the good I have done Miss +Fairfax!--Well (checking herself, and trying to be more lively), this +is all to be forgotten. You are very kind to bring me these interesting +particulars. They shew her to the greatest advantage. I am sure she is +very good--I hope she will be very happy. It is fit that the fortune +should be on his side, for I think the merit will be all on hers." + +Such a conclusion could not pass unanswered by Mrs. Weston. She thought +well of Frank in almost every respect; and, what was more, she loved him +very much, and her defence was, therefore, earnest. She talked with a +great deal of reason, and at least equal affection--but she had too much +to urge for Emma's attention; it was soon gone to Brunswick Square or +to Donwell; she forgot to attempt to listen; and when Mrs. Weston ended +with, "We have not yet had the letter we are so anxious for, you know, +but I hope it will soon come," she was obliged to pause before she +answered, and at last obliged to answer at random, before she could at +all recollect what letter it was which they were so anxious for. + +"Are you well, my Emma?" was Mrs. Weston's parting question. + +"Oh! perfectly. I am always well, you know. Be sure to give me +intelligence of the letter as soon as possible." + +Mrs. Weston's communications furnished Emma with more food for +unpleasant reflection, by increasing her esteem and compassion, and her +sense of past injustice towards Miss Fairfax. She bitterly regretted +not having sought a closer acquaintance with her, and blushed for the +envious feelings which had certainly been, in some measure, the cause. +Had she followed Mr. Knightley's known wishes, in paying that attention +to Miss Fairfax, which was every way her due; had she tried to know her +better; had she done her part towards intimacy; had she endeavoured +to find a friend there instead of in Harriet Smith; she must, in all +probability, have been spared from every pain which pressed on her +now.--Birth, abilities, and education, had been equally marking one as +an associate for her, to be received with gratitude; and the other--what +was she?--Supposing even that they had never become intimate friends; +that she had never been admitted into Miss Fairfax's confidence on this +important matter--which was most probable--still, in knowing her as +she ought, and as she might, she must have been preserved from the +abominable suspicions of an improper attachment to Mr. Dixon, which she +had not only so foolishly fashioned and harboured herself, but had so +unpardonably imparted; an idea which she greatly feared had been made a +subject of material distress to the delicacy of Jane's feelings, by the +levity or carelessness of Frank Churchill's. Of all the sources of evil +surrounding the former, since her coming to Highbury, she was persuaded +that she must herself have been the worst. She must have been a +perpetual enemy. They never could have been all three together, without +her having stabbed Jane Fairfax's peace in a thousand instances; and on +Box Hill, perhaps, it had been the agony of a mind that would bear no +more. + +The evening of this day was very long, and melancholy, at Hartfield. +The weather added what it could of gloom. A cold stormy rain set in, and +nothing of July appeared but in the trees and shrubs, which the wind was +despoiling, and the length of the day, which only made such cruel sights +the longer visible. + +The weather affected Mr. Woodhouse, and he could only be kept tolerably +comfortable by almost ceaseless attention on his daughter's side, and by +exertions which had never cost her half so much before. It reminded +her of their first forlorn tete-a-tete, on the evening of Mrs. Weston's +wedding-day; but Mr. Knightley had walked in then, soon after tea, +and dissipated every melancholy fancy. Alas! such delightful proofs of +Hartfield's attraction, as those sort of visits conveyed, might shortly +be over. The picture which she had then drawn of the privations of the +approaching winter, had proved erroneous; no friends had deserted them, +no pleasures had been lost.--But her present forebodings she feared +would experience no similar contradiction. The prospect before her now, +was threatening to a degree that could not be entirely dispelled--that +might not be even partially brightened. If all took place that +might take place among the circle of her friends, Hartfield must be +comparatively deserted; and she left to cheer her father with the +spirits only of ruined happiness. + +The child to be born at Randalls must be a tie there even dearer than +herself; and Mrs. Weston's heart and time would be occupied by it. +They should lose her; and, probably, in great measure, her husband +also.--Frank Churchill would return among them no more; and Miss +Fairfax, it was reasonable to suppose, would soon cease to belong to +Highbury. They would be married, and settled either at or near Enscombe. +All that were good would be withdrawn; and if to these losses, the +loss of Donwell were to be added, what would remain of cheerful or +of rational society within their reach? Mr. Knightley to be no longer +coming there for his evening comfort!--No longer walking in at all +hours, as if ever willing to change his own home for their's!--How was +it to be endured? And if he were to be lost to them for Harriet's sake; +if he were to be thought of hereafter, as finding in Harriet's society +all that he wanted; if Harriet were to be the chosen, the first, +the dearest, the friend, the wife to whom he looked for all the best +blessings of existence; what could be increasing Emma's wretchedness but +the reflection never far distant from her mind, that it had been all her +own work? + +When it came to such a pitch as this, she was not able to refrain from +a start, or a heavy sigh, or even from walking about the room for a +few seconds--and the only source whence any thing like consolation +or composure could be drawn, was in the resolution of her own better +conduct, and the hope that, however inferior in spirit and gaiety might +be the following and every future winter of her life to the past, it +would yet find her more rational, more acquainted with herself, and +leave her less to regret when it were gone. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +The weather continued much the same all the following morning; and +the same loneliness, and the same melancholy, seemed to reign at +Hartfield--but in the afternoon it cleared; the wind changed into a +softer quarter; the clouds were carried off; the sun appeared; it was +summer again. With all the eagerness which such a transition gives, Emma +resolved to be out of doors as soon as possible. Never had the exquisite +sight, smell, sensation of nature, tranquil, warm, and brilliant after +a storm, been more attractive to her. She longed for the serenity they +might gradually introduce; and on Mr. Perry's coming in soon after +dinner, with a disengaged hour to give her father, she lost no time +in hurrying into the shrubbery.--There, with spirits freshened, and +thoughts a little relieved, she had taken a few turns, when she saw Mr. +Knightley passing through the garden door, and coming towards her.--It +was the first intimation of his being returned from London. She had +been thinking of him the moment before, as unquestionably sixteen miles +distant.--There was time only for the quickest arrangement of mind. She +must be collected and calm. In half a minute they were together. The +"How d'ye do's" were quiet and constrained on each side. She asked after +their mutual friends; they were all well.--When had he left them?--Only +that morning. He must have had a wet ride.--Yes.--He meant to walk with +her, she found. "He had just looked into the dining-room, and as he was +not wanted there, preferred being out of doors."--She thought he neither +looked nor spoke cheerfully; and the first possible cause for it, +suggested by her fears, was, that he had perhaps been communicating his +plans to his brother, and was pained by the manner in which they had +been received. + +They walked together. He was silent. She thought he was often looking +at her, and trying for a fuller view of her face than it suited her to +give. And this belief produced another dread. Perhaps he wanted to +speak to her, of his attachment to Harriet; he might be watching for +encouragement to begin.--She did not, could not, feel equal to lead the +way to any such subject. He must do it all himself. Yet she could +not bear this silence. With him it was most unnatural. She +considered--resolved--and, trying to smile, began-- + +"You have some news to hear, now you are come back, that will rather +surprize you." + +"Have I?" said he quietly, and looking at her; "of what nature?" + +"Oh! the best nature in the world--a wedding." + +After waiting a moment, as if to be sure she intended to say no more, he +replied, + +"If you mean Miss Fairfax and Frank Churchill, I have heard that +already." + +"How is it possible?" cried Emma, turning her glowing cheeks towards +him; for, while she spoke, it occurred to her that he might have called +at Mrs. Goddard's in his way. + +"I had a few lines on parish business from Mr. Weston this morning, and +at the end of them he gave me a brief account of what had happened." + +Emma was quite relieved, and could presently say, with a little more +composure, + +"_You_ probably have been less surprized than any of us, for you have +had your suspicions.--I have not forgotten that you once tried to give +me a caution.--I wish I had attended to it--but--(with a sinking voice +and a heavy sigh) I seem to have been doomed to blindness." + +For a moment or two nothing was said, and she was unsuspicious of having +excited any particular interest, till she found her arm drawn within +his, and pressed against his heart, and heard him thus saying, in a tone +of great sensibility, speaking low, + +"Time, my dearest Emma, time will heal the wound.--Your own excellent +sense--your exertions for your father's sake--I know you will not allow +yourself--." Her arm was pressed again, as he added, in a more +broken and subdued accent, "The feelings of the warmest +friendship--Indignation--Abominable scoundrel!"--And in a louder, +steadier tone, he concluded with, "He will soon be gone. They will soon +be in Yorkshire. I am sorry for _her_. She deserves a better fate." + +Emma understood him; and as soon as she could recover from the flutter +of pleasure, excited by such tender consideration, replied, + +"You are very kind--but you are mistaken--and I must set you right.-- +I am not in want of that sort of compassion. My blindness to what was +going on, led me to act by them in a way that I must always be ashamed +of, and I was very foolishly tempted to say and do many things which may +well lay me open to unpleasant conjectures, but I have no other reason +to regret that I was not in the secret earlier." + +"Emma!" cried he, looking eagerly at her, "are you, indeed?"--but +checking himself--"No, no, I understand you--forgive me--I am pleased +that you can say even so much.--He is no object of regret, indeed! and +it will not be very long, I hope, before that becomes the acknowledgment +of more than your reason.--Fortunate that your affections were not +farther entangled!--I could never, I confess, from your manners, assure +myself as to the degree of what you felt--I could only be certain that +there was a preference--and a preference which I never believed him to +deserve.--He is a disgrace to the name of man.--And is he to be rewarded +with that sweet young woman?--Jane, Jane, you will be a miserable +creature." + +"Mr. Knightley," said Emma, trying to be lively, but really confused--"I +am in a very extraordinary situation. I cannot let you continue in your +error; and yet, perhaps, since my manners gave such an impression, I +have as much reason to be ashamed of confessing that I never have been +at all attached to the person we are speaking of, as it might be natural +for a woman to feel in confessing exactly the reverse.--But I never +have." + +He listened in perfect silence. She wished him to speak, but he would +not. She supposed she must say more before she were entitled to his +clemency; but it was a hard case to be obliged still to lower herself in +his opinion. She went on, however. + +"I have very little to say for my own conduct.--I was tempted by his +attentions, and allowed myself to appear pleased.--An old story, +probably--a common case--and no more than has happened to hundreds of my +sex before; and yet it may not be the more excusable in one who sets up +as I do for Understanding. Many circumstances assisted the temptation. +He was the son of Mr. Weston--he was continually here--I always found +him very pleasant--and, in short, for (with a sigh) let me swell out the +causes ever so ingeniously, they all centre in this at last--my vanity +was flattered, and I allowed his attentions. Latterly, however--for some +time, indeed--I have had no idea of their meaning any thing.--I thought +them a habit, a trick, nothing that called for seriousness on my side. +He has imposed on me, but he has not injured me. I have never been +attached to him. And now I can tolerably comprehend his behaviour. He +never wished to attach me. It was merely a blind to conceal his real +situation with another.--It was his object to blind all about him; and +no one, I am sure, could be more effectually blinded than myself--except +that I was _not_ blinded--that it was my good fortune--that, in short, I +was somehow or other safe from him." + +She had hoped for an answer here--for a few words to say that her +conduct was at least intelligible; but he was silent; and, as far as she +could judge, deep in thought. At last, and tolerably in his usual tone, +he said, + +"I have never had a high opinion of Frank Churchill.--I can suppose, +however, that I may have underrated him. My acquaintance with him has +been but trifling.--And even if I have not underrated him hitherto, he +may yet turn out well.--With such a woman he has a chance.--I have no +motive for wishing him ill--and for her sake, whose happiness will be +involved in his good character and conduct, I shall certainly wish him +well." + +"I have no doubt of their being happy together," said Emma; "I believe +them to be very mutually and very sincerely attached." + +"He is a most fortunate man!" returned Mr. Knightley, with energy. "So +early in life--at three-and-twenty--a period when, if a man chuses a +wife, he generally chuses ill. At three-and-twenty to have drawn such +a prize! What years of felicity that man, in all human calculation, +has before him!--Assured of the love of such a woman--the disinterested +love, for Jane Fairfax's character vouches for her disinterestedness; +every thing in his favour,--equality of situation--I mean, as far as +regards society, and all the habits and manners that are important; +equality in every point but one--and that one, since the purity of her +heart is not to be doubted, such as must increase his felicity, for it +will be his to bestow the only advantages she wants.--A man would always +wish to give a woman a better home than the one he takes her from; +and he who can do it, where there is no doubt of _her_ regard, must, +I think, be the happiest of mortals.--Frank Churchill is, indeed, the +favourite of fortune. Every thing turns out for his good.--He meets +with a young woman at a watering-place, gains her affection, cannot even +weary her by negligent treatment--and had he and all his family sought +round the world for a perfect wife for him, they could not have found +her superior.--His aunt is in the way.--His aunt dies.--He has only to +speak.--His friends are eager to promote his happiness.--He had used +every body ill--and they are all delighted to forgive him.--He is a +fortunate man indeed!" + +"You speak as if you envied him." + +"And I do envy him, Emma. In one respect he is the object of my envy." + +Emma could say no more. They seemed to be within half a sentence +of Harriet, and her immediate feeling was to avert the subject, if +possible. She made her plan; she would speak of something totally +different--the children in Brunswick Square; and she only waited for +breath to begin, when Mr. Knightley startled her, by saying, + +"You will not ask me what is the point of envy.--You are determined, I +see, to have no curiosity.--You are wise--but _I_ cannot be wise. Emma, +I must tell you what you will not ask, though I may wish it unsaid the +next moment." + +"Oh! then, don't speak it, don't speak it," she eagerly cried. "Take a +little time, consider, do not commit yourself." + +"Thank you," said he, in an accent of deep mortification, and not +another syllable followed. + +Emma could not bear to give him pain. He was wishing to confide in +her--perhaps to consult her;--cost her what it would, she would listen. +She might assist his resolution, or reconcile him to it; she might give +just praise to Harriet, or, by representing to him his own independence, +relieve him from that state of indecision, which must be more +intolerable than any alternative to such a mind as his.--They had +reached the house. + +"You are going in, I suppose?" said he. + +"No,"--replied Emma--quite confirmed by the depressed manner in which +he still spoke--"I should like to take another turn. Mr. Perry is not +gone." And, after proceeding a few steps, she added--"I stopped you +ungraciously, just now, Mr. Knightley, and, I am afraid, gave you +pain.--But if you have any wish to speak openly to me as a friend, or +to ask my opinion of any thing that you may have in contemplation--as +a friend, indeed, you may command me.--I will hear whatever you like. I +will tell you exactly what I think." + +"As a friend!"--repeated Mr. Knightley.--"Emma, that I fear is a +word--No, I have no wish--Stay, yes, why should I hesitate?--I +have gone too far already for concealment.--Emma, I accept your +offer--Extraordinary as it may seem, I accept it, and refer myself to +you as a friend.--Tell me, then, have I no chance of ever succeeding?" + +He stopped in his earnestness to look the question, and the expression +of his eyes overpowered her. + +"My dearest Emma," said he, "for dearest you will always be, whatever +the event of this hour's conversation, my dearest, most beloved +Emma--tell me at once. Say 'No,' if it is to be said."--She could +really say nothing.--"You are silent," he cried, with great animation; +"absolutely silent! at present I ask no more." + +Emma was almost ready to sink under the agitation of this moment. The +dread of being awakened from the happiest dream, was perhaps the most +prominent feeling. + +"I cannot make speeches, Emma:" he soon resumed; and in a tone of +such sincere, decided, intelligible tenderness as was tolerably +convincing.--"If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it +more. But you know what I am.--You hear nothing but truth from me.--I +have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other +woman in England would have borne it.--Bear with the truths I would +tell you now, dearest Emma, as well as you have borne with them. The +manner, perhaps, may have as little to recommend them. God knows, I have +been a very indifferent lover.--But you understand me.--Yes, you see, +you understand my feelings--and will return them if you can. At present, +I ask only to hear, once to hear your voice." + +While he spoke, Emma's mind was most busy, and, with all the wonderful +velocity of thought, had been able--and yet without losing a word--to +catch and comprehend the exact truth of the whole; to see that Harriet's +hopes had been entirely groundless, a mistake, a delusion, as complete a +delusion as any of her own--that Harriet was nothing; that she was every +thing herself; that what she had been saying relative to Harriet +had been all taken as the language of her own feelings; and that her +agitation, her doubts, her reluctance, her discouragement, had been all +received as discouragement from herself.--And not only was there time +for these convictions, with all their glow of attendant happiness; there +was time also to rejoice that Harriet's secret had not escaped her, and +to resolve that it need not, and should not.--It was all the service +she could now render her poor friend; for as to any of that heroism of +sentiment which might have prompted her to entreat him to transfer his +affection from herself to Harriet, as infinitely the most worthy of the +two--or even the more simple sublimity of resolving to refuse him at +once and for ever, without vouchsafing any motive, because he could not +marry them both, Emma had it not. She felt for Harriet, with pain and +with contrition; but no flight of generosity run mad, opposing all that +could be probable or reasonable, entered her brain. She had led her +friend astray, and it would be a reproach to her for ever; but her +judgment was as strong as her feelings, and as strong as it had ever +been before, in reprobating any such alliance for him, as most unequal +and degrading. Her way was clear, though not quite smooth.--She spoke +then, on being so entreated.--What did she say?--Just what she ought, +of course. A lady always does.--She said enough to shew there need not +be despair--and to invite him to say more himself. He _had_ despaired at +one period; he had received such an injunction to caution and silence, +as for the time crushed every hope;--she had begun by refusing to hear +him.--The change had perhaps been somewhat sudden;--her proposal of +taking another turn, her renewing the conversation which she had +just put an end to, might be a little extraordinary!--She felt its +inconsistency; but Mr. Knightley was so obliging as to put up with it, +and seek no farther explanation. + +Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; +seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a +little mistaken; but where, as in this case, though the conduct is +mistaken, the feelings are not, it may not be very material.--Mr. +Knightley could not impute to Emma a more relenting heart than she +possessed, or a heart more disposed to accept of his. + +He had, in fact, been wholly unsuspicious of his own influence. He had +followed her into the shrubbery with no idea of trying it. He had come, +in his anxiety to see how she bore Frank Churchill's engagement, with no +selfish view, no view at all, but of endeavouring, if she allowed him an +opening, to soothe or to counsel her.--The rest had been the work of +the moment, the immediate effect of what he heard, on his feelings. The +delightful assurance of her total indifference towards Frank Churchill, +of her having a heart completely disengaged from him, had given birth +to the hope, that, in time, he might gain her affection himself;--but +it had been no present hope--he had only, in the momentary conquest of +eagerness over judgment, aspired to be told that she did not forbid his +attempt to attach her.--The superior hopes which gradually opened were +so much the more enchanting.--The affection, which he had been asking +to be allowed to create, if he could, was already his!--Within half +an hour, he had passed from a thoroughly distressed state of mind, to +something so like perfect happiness, that it could bear no other name. + +_Her_ change was equal.--This one half-hour had given to each the same +precious certainty of being beloved, had cleared from each the same +degree of ignorance, jealousy, or distrust.--On his side, there had been +a long-standing jealousy, old as the arrival, or even the expectation, +of Frank Churchill.--He had been in love with Emma, and jealous of Frank +Churchill, from about the same period, one sentiment having probably +enlightened him as to the other. It was his jealousy of Frank Churchill +that had taken him from the country.--The Box Hill party had decided +him on going away. He would save himself from witnessing again +such permitted, encouraged attentions.--He had gone to learn to be +indifferent.--But he had gone to a wrong place. There was too much +domestic happiness in his brother's house; woman wore too amiable a form +in it; Isabella was too much like Emma--differing only in those striking +inferiorities, which always brought the other in brilliancy before +him, for much to have been done, even had his time been longer.--He had +stayed on, however, vigorously, day after day--till this very morning's +post had conveyed the history of Jane Fairfax.--Then, with the gladness +which must be felt, nay, which he did not scruple to feel, having never +believed Frank Churchill to be at all deserving Emma, was there so much +fond solicitude, so much keen anxiety for her, that he could stay no +longer. He had ridden home through the rain; and had walked up directly +after dinner, to see how this sweetest and best of all creatures, +faultless in spite of all her faults, bore the discovery. + +He had found her agitated and low.--Frank Churchill was a villain.-- +He heard her declare that she had never loved him. Frank Churchill's +character was not desperate.--She was his own Emma, by hand and word, +when they returned into the house; and if he could have thought of Frank +Churchill then, he might have deemed him a very good sort of fellow. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +What totally different feelings did Emma take back into the house from +what she had brought out!--she had then been only daring to hope for +a little respite of suffering;--she was now in an exquisite flutter of +happiness, and such happiness moreover as she believed must still be +greater when the flutter should have passed away. + +They sat down to tea--the same party round the same table--how often +it had been collected!--and how often had her eyes fallen on the same +shrubs in the lawn, and observed the same beautiful effect of the +western sun!--But never in such a state of spirits, never in any thing +like it; and it was with difficulty that she could summon enough of her +usual self to be the attentive lady of the house, or even the attentive +daughter. + +Poor Mr. Woodhouse little suspected what was plotting against him in the +breast of that man whom he was so cordially welcoming, and so anxiously +hoping might not have taken cold from his ride.--Could he have seen the +heart, he would have cared very little for the lungs; but without the +most distant imagination of the impending evil, without the slightest +perception of any thing extraordinary in the looks or ways of either, +he repeated to them very comfortably all the articles of news he had +received from Mr. Perry, and talked on with much self-contentment, +totally unsuspicious of what they could have told him in return. + +As long as Mr. Knightley remained with them, Emma's fever continued; +but when he was gone, she began to be a little tranquillised and +subdued--and in the course of the sleepless night, which was the tax +for such an evening, she found one or two such very serious points +to consider, as made her feel, that even her happiness must have some +alloy. Her father--and Harriet. She could not be alone without feeling +the full weight of their separate claims; and how to guard the comfort +of both to the utmost, was the question. With respect to her father, +it was a question soon answered. She hardly knew yet what Mr. Knightley +would ask; but a very short parley with her own heart produced the most +solemn resolution of never quitting her father.--She even wept over +the idea of it, as a sin of thought. While he lived, it must be only an +engagement; but she flattered herself, that if divested of the danger of +drawing her away, it might become an increase of comfort to him.--How +to do her best by Harriet, was of more difficult decision;--how to spare +her from any unnecessary pain; how to make her any possible atonement; +how to appear least her enemy?--On these subjects, her perplexity +and distress were very great--and her mind had to pass again and +again through every bitter reproach and sorrowful regret that had ever +surrounded it.--She could only resolve at last, that she would still +avoid a meeting with her, and communicate all that need be told by +letter; that it would be inexpressibly desirable to have her removed +just now for a time from Highbury, and--indulging in one scheme +more--nearly resolve, that it might be practicable to get an invitation +for her to Brunswick Square.--Isabella had been pleased with Harriet; +and a few weeks spent in London must give her some amusement.--She did +not think it in Harriet's nature to escape being benefited by novelty +and variety, by the streets, the shops, and the children.--At any rate, +it would be a proof of attention and kindness in herself, from whom +every thing was due; a separation for the present; an averting of the +evil day, when they must all be together again. + +She rose early, and wrote her letter to Harriet; an employment which +left her so very serious, so nearly sad, that Mr. Knightley, in walking +up to Hartfield to breakfast, did not arrive at all too soon; and half +an hour stolen afterwards to go over the same ground again with him, +literally and figuratively, was quite necessary to reinstate her in a +proper share of the happiness of the evening before. + +He had not left her long, by no means long enough for her to have the +slightest inclination for thinking of any body else, when a letter was +brought her from Randalls--a very thick letter;--she guessed what it +must contain, and deprecated the necessity of reading it.--She was now +in perfect charity with Frank Churchill; she wanted no explanations, she +wanted only to have her thoughts to herself--and as for understanding +any thing he wrote, she was sure she was incapable of it.--It must be +waded through, however. She opened the packet; it was too surely so;--a +note from Mrs. Weston to herself, ushered in the letter from Frank to +Mrs. Weston. + +"I have the greatest pleasure, my dear Emma, in forwarding to you the +enclosed. I know what thorough justice you will do it, and have scarcely +a doubt of its happy effect.--I think we shall never materially disagree +about the writer again; but I will not delay you by a long preface.--We +are quite well.--This letter has been the cure of all the little +nervousness I have been feeling lately.--I did not quite like your looks +on Tuesday, but it was an ungenial morning; and though you will never +own being affected by weather, I think every body feels a north-east +wind.--I felt for your dear father very much in the storm of Tuesday +afternoon and yesterday morning, but had the comfort of hearing last +night, by Mr. Perry, that it had not made him ill. + + "Yours ever, + "A. W." + + [To Mrs. Weston.] + + + WINDSOR-JULY. +MY DEAR MADAM, + +"If I made myself intelligible yesterday, this letter will be +expected; but expected or not, I know it will be read with candour and +indulgence.--You are all goodness, and I believe there will be need of +even all your goodness to allow for some parts of my past conduct.--But +I have been forgiven by one who had still more to resent. My courage +rises while I write. It is very difficult for the prosperous to be +humble. I have already met with such success in two applications for +pardon, that I may be in danger of thinking myself too sure of yours, +and of those among your friends who have had any ground of offence.--You +must all endeavour to comprehend the exact nature of my situation when I +first arrived at Randalls; you must consider me as having a secret which +was to be kept at all hazards. This was the fact. My right to place +myself in a situation requiring such concealment, is another question. +I shall not discuss it here. For my temptation to _think_ it a right, +I refer every caviller to a brick house, sashed windows below, and +casements above, in Highbury. I dared not address her openly; my +difficulties in the then state of Enscombe must be too well known to +require definition; and I was fortunate enough to prevail, before we +parted at Weymouth, and to induce the most upright female mind in the +creation to stoop in charity to a secret engagement.--Had she refused, I +should have gone mad.--But you will be ready to say, what was your +hope in doing this?--What did you look forward to?--To any thing, every +thing--to time, chance, circumstance, slow effects, sudden bursts, +perseverance and weariness, health and sickness. Every possibility of +good was before me, and the first of blessings secured, in obtaining her +promises of faith and correspondence. If you need farther explanation, +I have the honour, my dear madam, of being your husband's son, and +the advantage of inheriting a disposition to hope for good, which no +inheritance of houses or lands can ever equal the value of.--See +me, then, under these circumstances, arriving on my first visit to +Randalls;--and here I am conscious of wrong, for that visit might have +been sooner paid. You will look back and see that I did not come till +Miss Fairfax was in Highbury; and as _you_ were the person slighted, you +will forgive me instantly; but I must work on my father's compassion, by +reminding him, that so long as I absented myself from his house, so long +I lost the blessing of knowing you. My behaviour, during the very +happy fortnight which I spent with you, did not, I hope, lay me open to +reprehension, excepting on one point. And now I come to the principal, +the only important part of my conduct while belonging to you, which +excites my own anxiety, or requires very solicitous explanation. With +the greatest respect, and the warmest friendship, do I mention Miss +Woodhouse; my father perhaps will think I ought to add, with the deepest +humiliation.--A few words which dropped from him yesterday spoke his +opinion, and some censure I acknowledge myself liable to.--My behaviour +to Miss Woodhouse indicated, I believe, more than it ought.--In order to +assist a concealment so essential to me, I was led on to make more than +an allowable use of the sort of intimacy into which we were immediately +thrown.--I cannot deny that Miss Woodhouse was my ostensible object--but +I am sure you will believe the declaration, that had I not been +convinced of her indifference, I would not have been induced by any +selfish views to go on.--Amiable and delightful as Miss Woodhouse is, +she never gave me the idea of a young woman likely to be attached; and +that she was perfectly free from any tendency to being attached to me, +was as much my conviction as my wish.--She received my attentions with +an easy, friendly, goodhumoured playfulness, which exactly suited me. +We seemed to understand each other. From our relative situation, those +attentions were her due, and were felt to be so.--Whether Miss Woodhouse +began really to understand me before the expiration of that fortnight, +I cannot say;--when I called to take leave of her, I remember that I was +within a moment of confessing the truth, and I then fancied she was not +without suspicion; but I have no doubt of her having since detected me, +at least in some degree.--She may not have surmised the whole, but her +quickness must have penetrated a part. I cannot doubt it. You will find, +whenever the subject becomes freed from its present restraints, that it +did not take her wholly by surprize. She frequently gave me hints of it. +I remember her telling me at the ball, that I owed Mrs. Elton gratitude +for her attentions to Miss Fairfax.--I hope this history of my conduct +towards her will be admitted by you and my father as great extenuation +of what you saw amiss. While you considered me as having sinned against +Emma Woodhouse, I could deserve nothing from either. Acquit me here, and +procure for me, when it is allowable, the acquittal and good wishes +of that said Emma Woodhouse, whom I regard with so much brotherly +affection, as to long to have her as deeply and as happily in love as +myself.--Whatever strange things I said or did during that fortnight, +you have now a key to. My heart was in Highbury, and my business was to +get my body thither as often as might be, and with the least suspicion. +If you remember any queernesses, set them all to the right account.--Of +the pianoforte so much talked of, I feel it only necessary to say, that +its being ordered was absolutely unknown to Miss F--, who would never +have allowed me to send it, had any choice been given her.--The +delicacy of her mind throughout the whole engagement, my dear madam, +is much beyond my power of doing justice to. You will soon, I earnestly +hope, know her thoroughly yourself.--No description can describe her. +She must tell you herself what she is--yet not by word, for never +was there a human creature who would so designedly suppress her own +merit.--Since I began this letter, which will be longer than I foresaw, +I have heard from her.--She gives a good account of her own health; but +as she never complains, I dare not depend. I want to have your opinion +of her looks. I know you will soon call on her; she is living in dread +of the visit. Perhaps it is paid already. Let me hear from you without +delay; I am impatient for a thousand particulars. Remember how few +minutes I was at Randalls, and in how bewildered, how mad a state: and +I am not much better yet; still insane either from happiness or +misery. When I think of the kindness and favour I have met with, of her +excellence and patience, and my uncle's generosity, I am mad with joy: +but when I recollect all the uneasiness I occasioned her, and how little +I deserve to be forgiven, I am mad with anger. If I could but see her +again!--But I must not propose it yet. My uncle has been too good for me +to encroach.--I must still add to this long letter. You have not heard +all that you ought to hear. I could not give any connected detail +yesterday; but the suddenness, and, in one light, the unseasonableness +with which the affair burst out, needs explanation; for though the event +of the 26th ult., as you will conclude, immediately opened to me the +happiest prospects, I should not have presumed on such early measures, +but from the very particular circumstances, which left me not an hour to +lose. I should myself have shrunk from any thing so hasty, and she +would have felt every scruple of mine with multiplied strength and +refinement.--But I had no choice. The hasty engagement she had entered +into with that woman--Here, my dear madam, I was obliged to leave off +abruptly, to recollect and compose myself.--I have been walking over +the country, and am now, I hope, rational enough to make the rest of +my letter what it ought to be.--It is, in fact, a most mortifying +retrospect for me. I behaved shamefully. And here I can admit, that +my manners to Miss W., in being unpleasant to Miss F., were highly +blameable. _She_ disapproved them, which ought to have been enough.--My +plea of concealing the truth she did not think sufficient.--She was +displeased; I thought unreasonably so: I thought her, on a thousand +occasions, unnecessarily scrupulous and cautious: I thought her even +cold. But she was always right. If I had followed her judgment, and +subdued my spirits to the level of what she deemed proper, I should have +escaped the greatest unhappiness I have ever known.--We quarrelled.-- +Do you remember the morning spent at Donwell?--_There_ every little +dissatisfaction that had occurred before came to a crisis. I was late; +I met her walking home by herself, and wanted to walk with her, but she +would not suffer it. She absolutely refused to allow me, which I then +thought most unreasonable. Now, however, I see nothing in it but a very +natural and consistent degree of discretion. While I, to blind the +world to our engagement, was behaving one hour with objectionable +particularity to another woman, was she to be consenting the next to a +proposal which might have made every previous caution useless?--Had we +been met walking together between Donwell and Highbury, the truth must +have been suspected.--I was mad enough, however, to resent.--I doubted +her affection. I doubted it more the next day on Box Hill; when, +provoked by such conduct on my side, such shameful, insolent neglect +of her, and such apparent devotion to Miss W., as it would have been +impossible for any woman of sense to endure, she spoke her resentment in +a form of words perfectly intelligible to me.--In short, my dear +madam, it was a quarrel blameless on her side, abominable on mine; and +I returned the same evening to Richmond, though I might have staid with +you till the next morning, merely because I would be as angry with +her as possible. Even then, I was not such a fool as not to mean to +be reconciled in time; but I was the injured person, injured by her +coldness, and I went away determined that she should make the first +advances.--I shall always congratulate myself that you were not of +the Box Hill party. Had you witnessed my behaviour there, I can hardly +suppose you would ever have thought well of me again. Its effect upon +her appears in the immediate resolution it produced: as soon as she +found I was really gone from Randalls, she closed with the offer of that +officious Mrs. Elton; the whole system of whose treatment of her, by the +bye, has ever filled me with indignation and hatred. I must not quarrel +with a spirit of forbearance which has been so richly extended towards +myself; but, otherwise, I should loudly protest against the share of it +which that woman has known.--'Jane,' indeed!--You will observe that I +have not yet indulged myself in calling her by that name, even to you. +Think, then, what I must have endured in hearing it bandied between +the Eltons with all the vulgarity of needless repetition, and all the +insolence of imaginary superiority. Have patience with me, I shall soon +have done.--She closed with this offer, resolving to break with me +entirely, and wrote the next day to tell me that we never were to meet +again.--_She_ _felt_ _the_ _engagement_ _to_ _be_ _a_ _source_ _of_ +_repentance_ _and_ _misery_ _to_ _each_: _she_ _dissolved_ _it_.--This +letter reached me on the very morning of my poor aunt's death. I +answered it within an hour; but from the confusion of my mind, and the +multiplicity of business falling on me at once, my answer, instead of +being sent with all the many other letters of that day, was locked up in +my writing-desk; and I, trusting that I had written enough, though but +a few lines, to satisfy her, remained without any uneasiness.--I was +rather disappointed that I did not hear from her again speedily; but I +made excuses for her, and was too busy, and--may I add?--too cheerful +in my views to be captious.--We removed to Windsor; and two +days afterwards I received a parcel from her, my own letters all +returned!--and a few lines at the same time by the post, stating her +extreme surprize at not having had the smallest reply to her last; and +adding, that as silence on such a point could not be misconstrued, +and as it must be equally desirable to both to have every subordinate +arrangement concluded as soon as possible, she now sent me, by a safe +conveyance, all my letters, and requested, that if I could not directly +command hers, so as to send them to Highbury within a week, I would +forward them after that period to her at--: in short, the full direction +to Mr. Smallridge's, near Bristol, stared me in the face. I knew the +name, the place, I knew all about it, and instantly saw what she had +been doing. It was perfectly accordant with that resolution of character +which I knew her to possess; and the secrecy she had maintained, as to +any such design in her former letter, was equally descriptive of its +anxious delicacy. For the world would not she have seemed to threaten +me.--Imagine the shock; imagine how, till I had actually detected my +own blunder, I raved at the blunders of the post.--What was to be +done?--One thing only.--I must speak to my uncle. Without his sanction I +could not hope to be listened to again.--I spoke; circumstances were +in my favour; the late event had softened away his pride, and he was, +earlier than I could have anticipated, wholly reconciled and complying; +and could say at last, poor man! with a deep sigh, that he wished I +might find as much happiness in the marriage state as he had done.--I +felt that it would be of a different sort.--Are you disposed to pity +me for what I must have suffered in opening the cause to him, for my +suspense while all was at stake?--No; do not pity me till I reached +Highbury, and saw how ill I had made her. Do not pity me till I saw her +wan, sick looks.--I reached Highbury at the time of day when, from my +knowledge of their late breakfast hour, I was certain of a good chance +of finding her alone.--I was not disappointed; and at last I was not +disappointed either in the object of my journey. A great deal of very +reasonable, very just displeasure I had to persuade away. But it is +done; we are reconciled, dearer, much dearer, than ever, and no moment's +uneasiness can ever occur between us again. Now, my dear madam, I will +release you; but I could not conclude before. A thousand and a thousand +thanks for all the kindness you have ever shewn me, and ten thousand for +the attentions your heart will dictate towards her.--If you think me in +a way to be happier than I deserve, I am quite of your opinion.--Miss +W. calls me the child of good fortune. I hope she is right.--In one +respect, my good fortune is undoubted, that of being able to subscribe +myself, + + Your obliged and affectionate Son, + + F. C. WESTON CHURCHILL. + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +This letter must make its way to Emma's feelings. She was obliged, in +spite of her previous determination to the contrary, to do it all the +justice that Mrs. Weston foretold. As soon as she came to her own name, +it was irresistible; every line relating to herself was interesting, +and almost every line agreeable; and when this charm ceased, the subject +could still maintain itself, by the natural return of her former regard +for the writer, and the very strong attraction which any picture of +love must have for her at that moment. She never stopt till she had gone +through the whole; and though it was impossible not to feel that he had +been wrong, yet he had been less wrong than she had supposed--and he had +suffered, and was very sorry--and he was so grateful to Mrs. Weston, and +so much in love with Miss Fairfax, and she was so happy herself, that +there was no being severe; and could he have entered the room, she must +have shaken hands with him as heartily as ever. + +She thought so well of the letter, that when Mr. Knightley came again, +she desired him to read it. She was sure of Mrs. Weston's wishing it to +be communicated; especially to one, who, like Mr. Knightley, had seen so +much to blame in his conduct. + +"I shall be very glad to look it over," said he; "but it seems long. I +will take it home with me at night." + +But that would not do. Mr. Weston was to call in the evening, and she +must return it by him. + +"I would rather be talking to you," he replied; "but as it seems a +matter of justice, it shall be done." + +He began--stopping, however, almost directly to say, "Had I been offered +the sight of one of this gentleman's letters to his mother-in-law a few +months ago, Emma, it would not have been taken with such indifference." + +He proceeded a little farther, reading to himself; and then, with a +smile, observed, "Humph! a fine complimentary opening: But it is his +way. One man's style must not be the rule of another's. We will not be +severe." + +"It will be natural for me," he added shortly afterwards, "to speak my +opinion aloud as I read. By doing it, I shall feel that I am near you. +It will not be so great a loss of time: but if you dislike it--" + +"Not at all. I should wish it." + +Mr. Knightley returned to his reading with greater alacrity. + +"He trifles here," said he, "as to the temptation. He knows he is wrong, +and has nothing rational to urge.--Bad.--He ought not to have formed the +engagement.--'His father's disposition:'--he is unjust, however, to his +father. Mr. Weston's sanguine temper was a blessing on all his upright +and honourable exertions; but Mr. Weston earned every present comfort +before he endeavoured to gain it.--Very true; he did not come till Miss +Fairfax was here." + +"And I have not forgotten," said Emma, "how sure you were that he might +have come sooner if he would. You pass it over very handsomely--but you +were perfectly right." + +"I was not quite impartial in my judgment, Emma:--but yet, I think--had +_you_ not been in the case--I should still have distrusted him." + +When he came to Miss Woodhouse, he was obliged to read the whole of it +aloud--all that related to her, with a smile; a look; a shake of the +head; a word or two of assent, or disapprobation; or merely of love, as +the subject required; concluding, however, seriously, and, after steady +reflection, thus-- + +"Very bad--though it might have been worse.--Playing a most dangerous +game. Too much indebted to the event for his acquittal.--No judge of +his own manners by you.--Always deceived in fact by his own wishes, and +regardless of little besides his own convenience.--Fancying you to have +fathomed his secret. Natural enough!--his own mind full of intrigue, +that he should suspect it in others.--Mystery; Finesse--how they pervert +the understanding! My Emma, does not every thing serve to prove more +and more the beauty of truth and sincerity in all our dealings with each +other?" + +Emma agreed to it, and with a blush of sensibility on Harriet's account, +which she could not give any sincere explanation of. + +"You had better go on," said she. + +He did so, but very soon stopt again to say, "the pianoforte! Ah! That +was the act of a very, very young man, one too young to consider whether +the inconvenience of it might not very much exceed the pleasure. A +boyish scheme, indeed!--I cannot comprehend a man's wishing to give a +woman any proof of affection which he knows she would rather dispense +with; and he did know that she would have prevented the instrument's +coming if she could." + +After this, he made some progress without any pause. Frank Churchill's +confession of having behaved shamefully was the first thing to call for +more than a word in passing. + +"I perfectly agree with you, sir,"--was then his remark. "You did behave +very shamefully. You never wrote a truer line." And having gone through +what immediately followed of the basis of their disagreement, and his +persisting to act in direct opposition to Jane Fairfax's sense of right, +he made a fuller pause to say, "This is very bad.--He had induced her +to place herself, for his sake, in a situation of extreme difficulty and +uneasiness, and it should have been his first object to prevent her from +suffering unnecessarily.--She must have had much more to contend +with, in carrying on the correspondence, than he could. He should have +respected even unreasonable scruples, had there been such; but hers were +all reasonable. We must look to her one fault, and remember that she +had done a wrong thing in consenting to the engagement, to bear that she +should have been in such a state of punishment." + +Emma knew that he was now getting to the Box Hill party, and grew +uncomfortable. Her own behaviour had been so very improper! She was +deeply ashamed, and a little afraid of his next look. It was all read, +however, steadily, attentively, and without the smallest remark; and, +excepting one momentary glance at her, instantly withdrawn, in the fear +of giving pain--no remembrance of Box Hill seemed to exist. + +"There is no saying much for the delicacy of our good friends, the +Eltons," was his next observation.--"His feelings are natural.--What! +actually resolve to break with him entirely!--She felt the engagement to +be a source of repentance and misery to each--she dissolved it.--What a +view this gives of her sense of his behaviour!--Well, he must be a most +extraordinary--" + +"Nay, nay, read on.--You will find how very much he suffers." + +"I hope he does," replied Mr. Knightley coolly, and resuming the letter. +"'Smallridge!'--What does this mean? What is all this?" + +"She had engaged to go as governess to Mrs. Smallridge's children--a +dear friend of Mrs. Elton's--a neighbour of Maple Grove; and, by the +bye, I wonder how Mrs. Elton bears the disappointment?" + +"Say nothing, my dear Emma, while you oblige me to read--not even of +Mrs. Elton. Only one page more. I shall soon have done. What a letter +the man writes!" + +"I wish you would read it with a kinder spirit towards him." + +"Well, there _is_ feeling here.--He does seem to have suffered in +finding her ill.--Certainly, I can have no doubt of his being fond of +her. 'Dearer, much dearer than ever.' I hope he may long continue to +feel all the value of such a reconciliation.--He is a very liberal +thanker, with his thousands and tens of thousands.--'Happier than I +deserve.' Come, he knows himself there. 'Miss Woodhouse calls me the +child of good fortune.'--Those were Miss Woodhouse's words, were they?-- +And a fine ending--and there is the letter. The child of good fortune! +That was your name for him, was it?" + +"You do not appear so well satisfied with his letter as I am; but still +you must, at least I hope you must, think the better of him for it. I +hope it does him some service with you." + +"Yes, certainly it does. He has had great faults, faults of +inconsideration and thoughtlessness; and I am very much of his opinion +in thinking him likely to be happier than he deserves: but still as he +is, beyond a doubt, really attached to Miss Fairfax, and will soon, it +may be hoped, have the advantage of being constantly with her, I am very +ready to believe his character will improve, and acquire from hers the +steadiness and delicacy of principle that it wants. And now, let me talk +to you of something else. I have another person's interest at present +so much at heart, that I cannot think any longer about Frank Churchill. +Ever since I left you this morning, Emma, my mind has been hard at work +on one subject." + +The subject followed; it was in plain, unaffected, gentlemanlike +English, such as Mr. Knightley used even to the woman he was in love +with, how to be able to ask her to marry him, without attacking the +happiness of her father. Emma's answer was ready at the first word. +"While her dear father lived, any change of condition must be impossible +for her. She could never quit him." Part only of this answer, however, +was admitted. The impossibility of her quitting her father, Mr. +Knightley felt as strongly as herself; but the inadmissibility of any +other change, he could not agree to. He had been thinking it over most +deeply, most intently; he had at first hoped to induce Mr. Woodhouse to +remove with her to Donwell; he had wanted to believe it feasible, but +his knowledge of Mr. Woodhouse would not suffer him to deceive himself +long; and now he confessed his persuasion, that such a transplantation +would be a risk of her father's comfort, perhaps even of his life, which +must not be hazarded. Mr. Woodhouse taken from Hartfield!--No, he felt +that it ought not to be attempted. But the plan which had arisen on the +sacrifice of this, he trusted his dearest Emma would not find in any +respect objectionable; it was, that he should be received at Hartfield; +that so long as her father's happiness--in other words, his life--required +Hartfield to continue her home, it should be his likewise. + +Of their all removing to Donwell, Emma had already had her own passing +thoughts. Like him, she had tried the scheme and rejected it; but such +an alternative as this had not occurred to her. She was sensible of all +the affection it evinced. She felt that, in quitting Donwell, he must +be sacrificing a great deal of independence of hours and habits; that +in living constantly with her father, and in no house of his own, there +would be much, very much, to be borne with. She promised to think of it, +and advised him to think of it more; but he was fully convinced, that no +reflection could alter his wishes or his opinion on the subject. He had +given it, he could assure her, very long and calm consideration; he had +been walking away from William Larkins the whole morning, to have his +thoughts to himself. + +"Ah! there is one difficulty unprovided for," cried Emma. "I am sure +William Larkins will not like it. You must get his consent before you +ask mine." + +She promised, however, to think of it; and pretty nearly promised, +moreover, to think of it, with the intention of finding it a very good +scheme. + +It is remarkable, that Emma, in the many, very many, points of view in +which she was now beginning to consider Donwell Abbey, was never +struck with any sense of injury to her nephew Henry, whose rights as +heir-expectant had formerly been so tenaciously regarded. Think she must +of the possible difference to the poor little boy; and yet she only +gave herself a saucy conscious smile about it, and found amusement in +detecting the real cause of that violent dislike of Mr. Knightley's +marrying Jane Fairfax, or any body else, which at the time she had +wholly imputed to the amiable solicitude of the sister and the aunt. + +This proposal of his, this plan of marrying and continuing at +Hartfield--the more she contemplated it, the more pleasing it became. +His evils seemed to lessen, her own advantages to increase, their mutual +good to outweigh every drawback. Such a companion for herself in the +periods of anxiety and cheerlessness before her!--Such a partner in +all those duties and cares to which time must be giving increase of +melancholy! + +She would have been too happy but for poor Harriet; but every blessing +of her own seemed to involve and advance the sufferings of her friend, +who must now be even excluded from Hartfield. The delightful family +party which Emma was securing for herself, poor Harriet must, in mere +charitable caution, be kept at a distance from. She would be a loser in +every way. Emma could not deplore her future absence as any deduction +from her own enjoyment. In such a party, Harriet would be rather a +dead weight than otherwise; but for the poor girl herself, it seemed a +peculiarly cruel necessity that was to be placing her in such a state of +unmerited punishment. + +In time, of course, Mr. Knightley would be forgotten, that is, +supplanted; but this could not be expected to happen very early. Mr. +Knightley himself would be doing nothing to assist the cure;--not +like Mr. Elton. Mr. Knightley, always so kind, so feeling, so truly +considerate for every body, would never deserve to be less worshipped +than now; and it really was too much to hope even of Harriet, that she +could be in love with more than _three_ men in one year. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +It was a very great relief to Emma to find Harriet as desirous as +herself to avoid a meeting. Their intercourse was painful enough by +letter. How much worse, had they been obliged to meet! + +Harriet expressed herself very much as might be supposed, without +reproaches, or apparent sense of ill-usage; and yet Emma fancied there +was a something of resentment, a something bordering on it in her style, +which increased the desirableness of their being separate.--It might be +only her own consciousness; but it seemed as if an angel only could have +been quite without resentment under such a stroke. + +She had no difficulty in procuring Isabella's invitation; and she was +fortunate in having a sufficient reason for asking it, without resorting +to invention.--There was a tooth amiss. Harriet really wished, and +had wished some time, to consult a dentist. Mrs. John Knightley was +delighted to be of use; any thing of ill health was a recommendation to +her--and though not so fond of a dentist as of a Mr. Wingfield, she was +quite eager to have Harriet under her care.--When it was thus settled +on her sister's side, Emma proposed it to her friend, and found her +very persuadable.--Harriet was to go; she was invited for at least a +fortnight; she was to be conveyed in Mr. Woodhouse's carriage.--It was +all arranged, it was all completed, and Harriet was safe in Brunswick +Square. + +Now Emma could, indeed, enjoy Mr. Knightley's visits; now she could +talk, and she could listen with true happiness, unchecked by that sense +of injustice, of guilt, of something most painful, which had haunted her +when remembering how disappointed a heart was near her, how much might +at that moment, and at a little distance, be enduring by the feelings +which she had led astray herself. + +The difference of Harriet at Mrs. Goddard's, or in London, made perhaps +an unreasonable difference in Emma's sensations; but she could not think +of her in London without objects of curiosity and employment, which must +be averting the past, and carrying her out of herself. + +She would not allow any other anxiety to succeed directly to the place +in her mind which Harriet had occupied. There was a communication before +her, one which _she_ only could be competent to make--the confession of +her engagement to her father; but she would have nothing to do with it +at present.--She had resolved to defer the disclosure till Mrs. Weston +were safe and well. No additional agitation should be thrown at this +period among those she loved--and the evil should not act on herself +by anticipation before the appointed time.--A fortnight, at least, of +leisure and peace of mind, to crown every warmer, but more agitating, +delight, should be hers. + +She soon resolved, equally as a duty and a pleasure, to employ half an +hour of this holiday of spirits in calling on Miss Fairfax.--She ought +to go--and she was longing to see her; the resemblance of their present +situations increasing every other motive of goodwill. It would be a +_secret_ satisfaction; but the consciousness of a similarity of prospect +would certainly add to the interest with which she should attend to any +thing Jane might communicate. + +She went--she had driven once unsuccessfully to the door, but had not +been into the house since the morning after Box Hill, when poor Jane had +been in such distress as had filled her with compassion, though all the +worst of her sufferings had been unsuspected.--The fear of being still +unwelcome, determined her, though assured of their being at home, to +wait in the passage, and send up her name.--She heard Patty announcing +it; but no such bustle succeeded as poor Miss Bates had before made so +happily intelligible.--No; she heard nothing but the instant reply of, +"Beg her to walk up;"--and a moment afterwards she was met on the stairs +by Jane herself, coming eagerly forward, as if no other reception of her +were felt sufficient.--Emma had never seen her look so well, so lovely, +so engaging. There was consciousness, animation, and warmth; there was +every thing which her countenance or manner could ever have wanted.-- +She came forward with an offered hand; and said, in a low, but very +feeling tone, + +"This is most kind, indeed!--Miss Woodhouse, it is impossible for me +to express--I hope you will believe--Excuse me for being so entirely +without words." + +Emma was gratified, and would soon have shewn no want of words, if the +sound of Mrs. Elton's voice from the sitting-room had not checked +her, and made it expedient to compress all her friendly and all her +congratulatory sensations into a very, very earnest shake of the hand. + +Mrs. Bates and Mrs. Elton were together. Miss Bates was out, which +accounted for the previous tranquillity. Emma could have wished Mrs. +Elton elsewhere; but she was in a humour to have patience with every +body; and as Mrs. Elton met her with unusual graciousness, she hoped the +rencontre would do them no harm. + +She soon believed herself to penetrate Mrs. Elton's thoughts, and +understand why she was, like herself, in happy spirits; it was being in +Miss Fairfax's confidence, and fancying herself acquainted with what was +still a secret to other people. Emma saw symptoms of it immediately in +the expression of her face; and while paying her own compliments to Mrs. +Bates, and appearing to attend to the good old lady's replies, she saw +her with a sort of anxious parade of mystery fold up a letter which she +had apparently been reading aloud to Miss Fairfax, and return it into +the purple and gold reticule by her side, saying, with significant nods, + +"We can finish this some other time, you know. You and I shall not want +opportunities. And, in fact, you have heard all the essential already. I +only wanted to prove to you that Mrs. S. admits our apology, and is +not offended. You see how delightfully she writes. Oh! she is a sweet +creature! You would have doated on her, had you gone.--But not a word +more. Let us be discreet--quite on our good behaviour.--Hush!--You +remember those lines--I forget the poem at this moment: + + "For when a lady's in the case, + "You know all other things give place." + +Now I say, my dear, in _our_ case, for _lady_, read----mum! a word to +the wise.--I am in a fine flow of spirits, an't I? But I want to set +your heart at ease as to Mrs. S.--_My_ representation, you see, has +quite appeased her." + +And again, on Emma's merely turning her head to look at Mrs. Bates's +knitting, she added, in a half whisper, + +"I mentioned no _names_, you will observe.--Oh! no; cautious as a +minister of state. I managed it extremely well." + +Emma could not doubt. It was a palpable display, repeated on every +possible occasion. When they had all talked a little while in harmony of +the weather and Mrs. Weston, she found herself abruptly addressed with, + +"Do not you think, Miss Woodhouse, our saucy little friend here is +charmingly recovered?--Do not you think her cure does Perry the highest +credit?--(here was a side-glance of great meaning at Jane.) Upon my +word, Perry has restored her in a wonderful short time!--Oh! if you had +seen her, as I did, when she was at the worst!"--And when Mrs. Bates +was saying something to Emma, whispered farther, "We do not say a word +of any _assistance_ that Perry might have; not a word of a certain young +physician from Windsor.--Oh! no; Perry shall have all the credit." + +"I have scarce had the pleasure of seeing you, Miss Woodhouse," she +shortly afterwards began, "since the party to Box Hill. Very pleasant +party. But yet I think there was something wanting. Things did not +seem--that is, there seemed a little cloud upon the spirits of some.--So +it appeared to me at least, but I might be mistaken. However, I think +it answered so far as to tempt one to go again. What say you both to our +collecting the same party, and exploring to Box Hill again, while the +fine weather lasts?--It must be the same party, you know, quite the +same party, not _one_ exception." + +Soon after this Miss Bates came in, and Emma could not help being +diverted by the perplexity of her first answer to herself, resulting, +she supposed, from doubt of what might be said, and impatience to say +every thing. + +"Thank you, dear Miss Woodhouse, you are all kindness.--It is impossible +to say--Yes, indeed, I quite understand--dearest Jane's prospects--that +is, I do not mean.--But she is charmingly recovered.--How is Mr. +Woodhouse?--I am so glad.--Quite out of my power.--Such a happy little +circle as you find us here.--Yes, indeed.--Charming young man!--that +is--so very friendly; I mean good Mr. Perry!--such attention to +Jane!"--And from her great, her more than commonly thankful delight +towards Mrs. Elton for being there, Emma guessed that there had been a +little show of resentment towards Jane, from the vicarage quarter, +which was now graciously overcome.--After a few whispers, indeed, which +placed it beyond a guess, Mrs. Elton, speaking louder, said, + +"Yes, here I am, my good friend; and here I have been so long, that +anywhere else I should think it necessary to apologise; but, the truth +is, that I am waiting for my lord and master. He promised to join me +here, and pay his respects to you." + +"What! are we to have the pleasure of a call from Mr. Elton?--That will +be a favour indeed! for I know gentlemen do not like morning visits, and +Mr. Elton's time is so engaged." + +"Upon my word it is, Miss Bates.--He really is engaged from morning to +night.--There is no end of people's coming to him, on some pretence or +other.--The magistrates, and overseers, and churchwardens, are always +wanting his opinion. They seem not able to do any thing without +him.--'Upon my word, Mr. E.,' I often say, 'rather you than I.--I do +not know what would become of my crayons and my instrument, if I had +half so many applicants.'--Bad enough as it is, for I absolutely neglect +them both to an unpardonable degree.--I believe I have not played a bar +this fortnight.--However, he is coming, I assure you: yes, indeed, on +purpose to wait on you all." And putting up her hand to screen her +words from Emma--"A congratulatory visit, you know.--Oh! yes, quite +indispensable." + +Miss Bates looked about her, so happily--! + +"He promised to come to me as soon as he could disengage himself +from Knightley; but he and Knightley are shut up together in deep +consultation.--Mr. E. is Knightley's right hand." + +Emma would not have smiled for the world, and only said, "Is Mr. Elton +gone on foot to Donwell?--He will have a hot walk." + +"Oh! no, it is a meeting at the Crown, a regular meeting. Weston and +Cole will be there too; but one is apt to speak only of those who +lead.--I fancy Mr. E. and Knightley have every thing their own way." + +"Have not you mistaken the day?" said Emma. "I am almost certain that +the meeting at the Crown is not till to-morrow.--Mr. Knightley was at +Hartfield yesterday, and spoke of it as for Saturday." + +"Oh! no, the meeting is certainly to-day," was the abrupt answer, which +denoted the impossibility of any blunder on Mrs. Elton's side.--"I do +believe," she continued, "this is the most troublesome parish that ever +was. We never heard of such things at Maple Grove." + +"Your parish there was small," said Jane. + +"Upon my word, my dear, I do not know, for I never heard the subject +talked of." + +"But it is proved by the smallness of the school, which I have heard +you speak of, as under the patronage of your sister and Mrs. Bragge; the +only school, and not more than five-and-twenty children." + +"Ah! you clever creature, that's very true. What a thinking brain you +have! I say, Jane, what a perfect character you and I should make, if we +could be shaken together. My liveliness and your solidity would produce +perfection.--Not that I presume to insinuate, however, that _some_ +people may not think _you_ perfection already.--But hush!--not a word, +if you please." + +It seemed an unnecessary caution; Jane was wanting to give her words, +not to Mrs. Elton, but to Miss Woodhouse, as the latter plainly saw. +The wish of distinguishing her, as far as civility permitted, was very +evident, though it could not often proceed beyond a look. + +Mr. Elton made his appearance. His lady greeted him with some of her +sparkling vivacity. + +"Very pretty, sir, upon my word; to send me on here, to be an +encumbrance to my friends, so long before you vouchsafe to come!--But +you knew what a dutiful creature you had to deal with. You knew I should +not stir till my lord and master appeared.--Here have I been sitting +this hour, giving these young ladies a sample of true conjugal +obedience--for who can say, you know, how soon it may be wanted?" + +Mr. Elton was so hot and tired, that all this wit seemed thrown away. +His civilities to the other ladies must be paid; but his subsequent +object was to lament over himself for the heat he was suffering, and the +walk he had had for nothing. + +"When I got to Donwell," said he, "Knightley could not be found. Very +odd! very unaccountable! after the note I sent him this morning, and the +message he returned, that he should certainly be at home till one." + +"Donwell!" cried his wife.--"My dear Mr. E., you have not been to +Donwell!--You mean the Crown; you come from the meeting at the Crown." + +"No, no, that's to-morrow; and I particularly wanted to see Knightley +to-day on that very account.--Such a dreadful broiling morning!--I went +over the fields too--(speaking in a tone of great ill-usage,) which made +it so much the worse. And then not to find him at home! I assure you +I am not at all pleased. And no apology left, no message for me. The +housekeeper declared she knew nothing of my being expected.--Very +extraordinary!--And nobody knew at all which way he was gone. Perhaps +to Hartfield, perhaps to the Abbey Mill, perhaps into his woods.--Miss +Woodhouse, this is not like our friend Knightley!--Can you explain it?" + +Emma amused herself by protesting that it was very extraordinary, +indeed, and that she had not a syllable to say for him. + +"I cannot imagine," said Mrs. Elton, (feeling the indignity as a wife +ought to do,) "I cannot imagine how he could do such a thing by you, of +all people in the world! The very last person whom one should expect to +be forgotten!--My dear Mr. E., he must have left a message for you, I am +sure he must.--Not even Knightley could be so very eccentric;--and his +servants forgot it. Depend upon it, that was the case: and very likely +to happen with the Donwell servants, who are all, I have often observed, +extremely awkward and remiss.--I am sure I would not have such a +creature as his Harry stand at our sideboard for any consideration. And +as for Mrs. Hodges, Wright holds her very cheap indeed.--She promised +Wright a receipt, and never sent it." + +"I met William Larkins," continued Mr. Elton, "as I got near the house, +and he told me I should not find his master at home, but I did not +believe him.--William seemed rather out of humour. He did not know what +was come to his master lately, he said, but he could hardly ever get the +speech of him. I have nothing to do with William's wants, but it really +is of very great importance that _I_ should see Knightley to-day; and it +becomes a matter, therefore, of very serious inconvenience that I should +have had this hot walk to no purpose." + +Emma felt that she could not do better than go home directly. In +all probability she was at this very time waited for there; and Mr. +Knightley might be preserved from sinking deeper in aggression towards +Mr. Elton, if not towards William Larkins. + +She was pleased, on taking leave, to find Miss Fairfax determined to +attend her out of the room, to go with her even downstairs; it gave her +an opportunity which she immediately made use of, to say, + +"It is as well, perhaps, that I have not had the possibility. Had you +not been surrounded by other friends, I might have been tempted to +introduce a subject, to ask questions, to speak more openly than might +have been strictly correct.--I feel that I should certainly have been +impertinent." + +"Oh!" cried Jane, with a blush and an hesitation which Emma thought +infinitely more becoming to her than all the elegance of all her usual +composure--"there would have been no danger. The danger would have +been of my wearying you. You could not have gratified me more than +by expressing an interest--. Indeed, Miss Woodhouse, (speaking more +collectedly,) with the consciousness which I have of misconduct, very +great misconduct, it is particularly consoling to me to know that those +of my friends, whose good opinion is most worth preserving, are not +disgusted to such a degree as to--I have not time for half that I could +wish to say. I long to make apologies, excuses, to urge something for +myself. I feel it so very due. But, unfortunately--in short, if your +compassion does not stand my friend--" + +"Oh! you are too scrupulous, indeed you are," cried Emma warmly, and +taking her hand. "You owe me no apologies; and every body to whom you +might be supposed to owe them, is so perfectly satisfied, so delighted +even--" + +"You are very kind, but I know what my manners were to you.--So +cold and artificial!--I had always a part to act.--It was a life of +deceit!--I know that I must have disgusted you." + +"Pray say no more. I feel that all the apologies should be on my side. +Let us forgive each other at once. We must do whatever is to be done +quickest, and I think our feelings will lose no time there. I hope you +have pleasant accounts from Windsor?" + +"Very." + +"And the next news, I suppose, will be, that we are to lose you--just as +I begin to know you." + +"Oh! as to all that, of course nothing can be thought of yet. I am here +till claimed by Colonel and Mrs. Campbell." + +"Nothing can be actually settled yet, perhaps," replied Emma, +smiling--"but, excuse me, it must be thought of." + +The smile was returned as Jane answered, + +"You are very right; it has been thought of. And I will own to you, (I +am sure it will be safe), that so far as our living with Mr. Churchill +at Enscombe, it is settled. There must be three months, at least, of +deep mourning; but when they are over, I imagine there will be nothing +more to wait for." + +"Thank you, thank you.--This is just what I wanted to be assured +of.--Oh! if you knew how much I love every thing that is decided and +open!--Good-bye, good-bye." + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Mrs. Weston's friends were all made happy by her safety; and if the +satisfaction of her well-doing could be increased to Emma, it was by +knowing her to be the mother of a little girl. She had been decided in +wishing for a Miss Weston. She would not acknowledge that it was with +any view of making a match for her, hereafter, with either of Isabella's +sons; but she was convinced that a daughter would suit both father +and mother best. It would be a great comfort to Mr. Weston, as he grew +older--and even Mr. Weston might be growing older ten years hence--to +have his fireside enlivened by the sports and the nonsense, the freaks +and the fancies of a child never banished from home; and Mrs. Weston--no +one could doubt that a daughter would be most to her; and it would be +quite a pity that any one who so well knew how to teach, should not have +their powers in exercise again. + +"She has had the advantage, you know, of practising on me," she +continued--"like La Baronne d'Almane on La Comtesse d'Ostalis, in Madame +de Genlis' Adelaide and Theodore, and we shall now see her own little +Adelaide educated on a more perfect plan." + +"That is," replied Mr. Knightley, "she will indulge her even more than +she did you, and believe that she does not indulge her at all. It will +be the only difference." + +"Poor child!" cried Emma; "at that rate, what will become of her?" + +"Nothing very bad.--The fate of thousands. She will be disagreeable +in infancy, and correct herself as she grows older. I am losing all my +bitterness against spoilt children, my dearest Emma. I, who am owing all +my happiness to _you_, would not it be horrible ingratitude in me to be +severe on them?" + +Emma laughed, and replied: "But I had the assistance of all your +endeavours to counteract the indulgence of other people. I doubt whether +my own sense would have corrected me without it." + +"Do you?--I have no doubt. Nature gave you understanding:--Miss Taylor +gave you principles. You must have done well. My interference was quite +as likely to do harm as good. It was very natural for you to say, what +right has he to lecture me?--and I am afraid very natural for you to +feel that it was done in a disagreeable manner. I do not believe I did +you any good. The good was all to myself, by making you an object of the +tenderest affection to me. I could not think about you so much without +doating on you, faults and all; and by dint of fancying so many errors, +have been in love with you ever since you were thirteen at least." + +"I am sure you were of use to me," cried Emma. "I was very often +influenced rightly by you--oftener than I would own at the time. I +am very sure you did me good. And if poor little Anna Weston is to be +spoiled, it will be the greatest humanity in you to do as much for her +as you have done for me, except falling in love with her when she is +thirteen." + +"How often, when you were a girl, have you said to me, with one of your +saucy looks--'Mr. Knightley, I am going to do so-and-so; papa says I +may, or I have Miss Taylor's leave'--something which, you knew, I +did not approve. In such cases my interference was giving you two bad +feelings instead of one." + +"What an amiable creature I was!--No wonder you should hold my speeches +in such affectionate remembrance." + +"'Mr. Knightley.'--You always called me, 'Mr. Knightley;' and, from +habit, it has not so very formal a sound.--And yet it is formal. I want +you to call me something else, but I do not know what." + +"I remember once calling you 'George,' in one of my amiable fits, about +ten years ago. I did it because I thought it would offend you; but, as +you made no objection, I never did it again." + +"And cannot you call me 'George' now?" + +"Impossible!--I never can call you any thing but 'Mr. Knightley.' I +will not promise even to equal the elegant terseness of Mrs. Elton, by +calling you Mr. K.--But I will promise," she added presently, laughing +and blushing--"I will promise to call you once by your Christian name. +I do not say when, but perhaps you may guess where;--in the building in +which N. takes M. for better, for worse." + +Emma grieved that she could not be more openly just to one important +service which his better sense would have rendered her, to the +advice which would have saved her from the worst of all her womanly +follies--her wilful intimacy with Harriet Smith; but it was too tender a +subject.--She could not enter on it.--Harriet was very seldom mentioned +between them. This, on his side, might merely proceed from her not being +thought of; but Emma was rather inclined to attribute it to delicacy, +and a suspicion, from some appearances, that their friendship were +declining. She was aware herself, that, parting under any other +circumstances, they certainly should have corresponded more, and that +her intelligence would not have rested, as it now almost wholly did, on +Isabella's letters. He might observe that it was so. The pain of being +obliged to practise concealment towards him, was very little inferior to +the pain of having made Harriet unhappy. + +Isabella sent quite as good an account of her visitor as could be +expected; on her first arrival she had thought her out of spirits, which +appeared perfectly natural, as there was a dentist to be consulted; but, +since that business had been over, she did not appear to find Harriet +different from what she had known her before.--Isabella, to be sure, +was no very quick observer; yet if Harriet had not been equal to playing +with the children, it would not have escaped her. Emma's comforts and +hopes were most agreeably carried on, by Harriet's being to stay longer; +her fortnight was likely to be a month at least. Mr. and Mrs. John +Knightley were to come down in August, and she was invited to remain +till they could bring her back. + +"John does not even mention your friend," said Mr. Knightley. "Here is +his answer, if you like to see it." + +It was the answer to the communication of his intended marriage. Emma +accepted it with a very eager hand, with an impatience all alive to know +what he would say about it, and not at all checked by hearing that her +friend was unmentioned. + +"John enters like a brother into my happiness," continued Mr. Knightley, +"but he is no complimenter; and though I well know him to have, +likewise, a most brotherly affection for you, he is so far from making +flourishes, that any other young woman might think him rather cool in +her praise. But I am not afraid of your seeing what he writes." + +"He writes like a sensible man," replied Emma, when she had read the +letter. "I honour his sincerity. It is very plain that he considers the +good fortune of the engagement as all on my side, but that he is not +without hope of my growing, in time, as worthy of your affection, as +you think me already. Had he said any thing to bear a different +construction, I should not have believed him." + +"My Emma, he means no such thing. He only means--" + +"He and I should differ very little in our estimation of the two," +interrupted she, with a sort of serious smile--"much less, perhaps, than +he is aware of, if we could enter without ceremony or reserve on the +subject." + +"Emma, my dear Emma--" + +"Oh!" she cried with more thorough gaiety, "if you fancy your brother +does not do me justice, only wait till my dear father is in the secret, +and hear his opinion. Depend upon it, he will be much farther from doing +_you_ justice. He will think all the happiness, all the advantage, on +your side of the question; all the merit on mine. I wish I may not +sink into 'poor Emma' with him at once.--His tender compassion towards +oppressed worth can go no farther." + +"Ah!" he cried, "I wish your father might be half as easily convinced as +John will be, of our having every right that equal worth can give, to be +happy together. I am amused by one part of John's letter--did you notice +it?--where he says, that my information did not take him wholly by +surprize, that he was rather in expectation of hearing something of the +kind." + +"If I understand your brother, he only means so far as your having +some thoughts of marrying. He had no idea of me. He seems perfectly +unprepared for that." + +"Yes, yes--but I am amused that he should have seen so far into my +feelings. What has he been judging by?--I am not conscious of any +difference in my spirits or conversation that could prepare him at +this time for my marrying any more than at another.--But it was so, I +suppose. I dare say there was a difference when I was staying with them +the other day. I believe I did not play with the children quite so much +as usual. I remember one evening the poor boys saying, 'Uncle seems +always tired now.'" + +The time was coming when the news must spread farther, and other +persons' reception of it tried. As soon as Mrs. Weston was sufficiently +recovered to admit Mr. Woodhouse's visits, Emma having it in view that +her gentle reasonings should be employed in the cause, resolved first to +announce it at home, and then at Randalls.--But how to break it to her +father at last!--She had bound herself to do it, in such an hour of Mr. +Knightley's absence, or when it came to the point her heart would have +failed her, and she must have put it off; but Mr. Knightley was to come +at such a time, and follow up the beginning she was to make.--She was +forced to speak, and to speak cheerfully too. She must not make it a +more decided subject of misery to him, by a melancholy tone herself. +She must not appear to think it a misfortune.--With all the spirits she +could command, she prepared him first for something strange, and then, +in a few words, said, that if his consent and approbation could be +obtained--which, she trusted, would be attended with no difficulty, +since it was a plan to promote the happiness of all--she and Mr. +Knightley meant to marry; by which means Hartfield would receive the +constant addition of that person's company whom she knew he loved, next +to his daughters and Mrs. Weston, best in the world. + +Poor man!--it was at first a considerable shock to him, and he tried +earnestly to dissuade her from it. She was reminded, more than once, of +having always said she would never marry, and assured that it would be +a great deal better for her to remain single; and told of poor Isabella, +and poor Miss Taylor.--But it would not do. Emma hung about him +affectionately, and smiled, and said it must be so; and that he must +not class her with Isabella and Mrs. Weston, whose marriages taking them +from Hartfield, had, indeed, made a melancholy change: but she was not +going from Hartfield; she should be always there; she was introducing +no change in their numbers or their comforts but for the better; and she +was very sure that he would be a great deal the happier for having Mr. +Knightley always at hand, when he were once got used to the idea.--Did +he not love Mr. Knightley very much?--He would not deny that he did, +she was sure.--Whom did he ever want to consult on business but Mr. +Knightley?--Who was so useful to him, who so ready to write his letters, +who so glad to assist him?--Who so cheerful, so attentive, so attached +to him?--Would not he like to have him always on the spot?--Yes. That +was all very true. Mr. Knightley could not be there too often; he should +be glad to see him every day;--but they did see him every day as it +was.--Why could not they go on as they had done? + +Mr. Woodhouse could not be soon reconciled; but the worst was overcome, +the idea was given; time and continual repetition must do the rest.--To +Emma's entreaties and assurances succeeded Mr. Knightley's, whose fond +praise of her gave the subject even a kind of welcome; and he was soon +used to be talked to by each, on every fair occasion.--They had all +the assistance which Isabella could give, by letters of the strongest +approbation; and Mrs. Weston was ready, on the first meeting, to +consider the subject in the most serviceable light--first, as a settled, +and, secondly, as a good one--well aware of the nearly equal importance +of the two recommendations to Mr. Woodhouse's mind.--It was agreed +upon, as what was to be; and every body by whom he was used to be +guided assuring him that it would be for his happiness; and having some +feelings himself which almost admitted it, he began to think that some +time or other--in another year or two, perhaps--it might not be so very +bad if the marriage did take place. + +Mrs. Weston was acting no part, feigning no feelings in all that she +said to him in favour of the event.--She had been extremely surprized, +never more so, than when Emma first opened the affair to her; but she +saw in it only increase of happiness to all, and had no scruple in +urging him to the utmost.--She had such a regard for Mr. Knightley, as +to think he deserved even her dearest Emma; and it was in every respect +so proper, suitable, and unexceptionable a connexion, and in one +respect, one point of the highest importance, so peculiarly eligible, +so singularly fortunate, that now it seemed as if Emma could not safely +have attached herself to any other creature, and that she had herself +been the stupidest of beings in not having thought of it, and wished it +long ago.--How very few of those men in a rank of life to address Emma +would have renounced their own home for Hartfield! And who but Mr. +Knightley could know and bear with Mr. Woodhouse, so as to make such +an arrangement desirable!--The difficulty of disposing of poor Mr. +Woodhouse had been always felt in her husband's plans and her own, for +a marriage between Frank and Emma. How to settle the claims of Enscombe +and Hartfield had been a continual impediment--less acknowledged by Mr. +Weston than by herself--but even he had never been able to finish +the subject better than by saying--"Those matters will take care of +themselves; the young people will find a way." But here there was +nothing to be shifted off in a wild speculation on the future. It was +all right, all open, all equal. No sacrifice on any side worth the name. +It was a union of the highest promise of felicity in itself, and without +one real, rational difficulty to oppose or delay it. + +Mrs. Weston, with her baby on her knee, indulging in such reflections +as these, was one of the happiest women in the world. If any thing could +increase her delight, it was perceiving that the baby would soon have +outgrown its first set of caps. + +The news was universally a surprize wherever it spread; and Mr. Weston +had his five minutes share of it; but five minutes were enough to +familiarise the idea to his quickness of mind.--He saw the advantages +of the match, and rejoiced in them with all the constancy of his wife; +but the wonder of it was very soon nothing; and by the end of an hour he +was not far from believing that he had always foreseen it. + +"It is to be a secret, I conclude," said he. "These matters are always a +secret, till it is found out that every body knows them. Only let me be +told when I may speak out.--I wonder whether Jane has any suspicion." + +He went to Highbury the next morning, and satisfied himself on that +point. He told her the news. Was not she like a daughter, his eldest +daughter?--he must tell her; and Miss Bates being present, it passed, +of course, to Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Perry, and Mrs. Elton, immediately +afterwards. It was no more than the principals were prepared for; they +had calculated from the time of its being known at Randalls, how soon it +would be over Highbury; and were thinking of themselves, as the evening +wonder in many a family circle, with great sagacity. + +In general, it was a very well approved match. Some might think him, and +others might think her, the most in luck. One set might recommend their +all removing to Donwell, and leaving Hartfield for the John Knightleys; +and another might predict disagreements among their servants; but yet, +upon the whole, there was no serious objection raised, except in one +habitation, the Vicarage.--There, the surprize was not softened by any +satisfaction. Mr. Elton cared little about it, compared with his wife; +he only hoped "the young lady's pride would now be contented;" and +supposed "she had always meant to catch Knightley if she could;" and, +on the point of living at Hartfield, could daringly exclaim, "Rather +he than I!"--But Mrs. Elton was very much discomposed indeed.--"Poor +Knightley! poor fellow!--sad business for him."--She was extremely +concerned; for, though very eccentric, he had a thousand good +qualities.--How could he be so taken in?--Did not think him at all in +love--not in the least.--Poor Knightley!--There would be an end of all +pleasant intercourse with him.--How happy he had been to come and dine +with them whenever they asked him! But that would be all over now.--Poor +fellow!--No more exploring parties to Donwell made for _her_. Oh! +no; there would be a Mrs. Knightley to throw cold water on every +thing.--Extremely disagreeable! But she was not at all sorry that +she had abused the housekeeper the other day.--Shocking plan, living +together. It would never do. She knew a family near Maple Grove who +had tried it, and been obliged to separate before the end of the first +quarter. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +Time passed on. A few more to-morrows, and the party from London would +be arriving. It was an alarming change; and Emma was thinking of it one +morning, as what must bring a great deal to agitate and grieve her, when +Mr. Knightley came in, and distressing thoughts were put by. After the +first chat of pleasure he was silent; and then, in a graver tone, began +with, + +"I have something to tell you, Emma; some news." + +"Good or bad?" said she, quickly, looking up in his face. + +"I do not know which it ought to be called." + +"Oh! good I am sure.--I see it in your countenance. You are trying not +to smile." + +"I am afraid," said he, composing his features, "I am very much afraid, +my dear Emma, that you will not smile when you hear it." + +"Indeed! but why so?--I can hardly imagine that any thing which pleases +or amuses you, should not please and amuse me too." + +"There is one subject," he replied, "I hope but one, on which we do not +think alike." He paused a moment, again smiling, with his eyes fixed on +her face. "Does nothing occur to you?--Do not you recollect?--Harriet +Smith." + +Her cheeks flushed at the name, and she felt afraid of something, though +she knew not what. + +"Have you heard from her yourself this morning?" cried he. "You have, I +believe, and know the whole." + +"No, I have not; I know nothing; pray tell me." + +"You are prepared for the worst, I see--and very bad it is. Harriet +Smith marries Robert Martin." + +Emma gave a start, which did not seem like being prepared--and her eyes, +in eager gaze, said, "No, this is impossible!" but her lips were closed. + +"It is so, indeed," continued Mr. Knightley; "I have it from Robert +Martin himself. He left me not half an hour ago." + +She was still looking at him with the most speaking amazement. + +"You like it, my Emma, as little as I feared.--I wish our opinions were +the same. But in time they will. Time, you may be sure, will make one +or the other of us think differently; and, in the meanwhile, we need not +talk much on the subject." + +"You mistake me, you quite mistake me," she replied, exerting herself. +"It is not that such a circumstance would now make me unhappy, but I +cannot believe it. It seems an impossibility!--You cannot mean to say, +that Harriet Smith has accepted Robert Martin. You cannot mean that he +has even proposed to her again--yet. You only mean, that he intends it." + +"I mean that he has done it," answered Mr. Knightley, with smiling but +determined decision, "and been accepted." + +"Good God!" she cried.--"Well!"--Then having recourse to her workbasket, +in excuse for leaning down her face, and concealing all the exquisite +feelings of delight and entertainment which she knew she must be +expressing, she added, "Well, now tell me every thing; make this +intelligible to me. How, where, when?--Let me know it all. I never was +more surprized--but it does not make me unhappy, I assure you.--How--how +has it been possible?" + +"It is a very simple story. He went to town on business three days ago, +and I got him to take charge of some papers which I was wanting to send +to John.--He delivered these papers to John, at his chambers, and was +asked by him to join their party the same evening to Astley's. They were +going to take the two eldest boys to Astley's. The party was to be our +brother and sister, Henry, John--and Miss Smith. My friend Robert could +not resist. They called for him in their way; were all extremely amused; +and my brother asked him to dine with them the next day--which he +did--and in the course of that visit (as I understand) he found an +opportunity of speaking to Harriet; and certainly did not speak +in vain.--She made him, by her acceptance, as happy even as he is +deserving. He came down by yesterday's coach, and was with me this +morning immediately after breakfast, to report his proceedings, first +on my affairs, and then on his own. This is all that I can relate of +the how, where, and when. Your friend Harriet will make a much +longer history when you see her.--She will give you all the minute +particulars, which only woman's language can make interesting.--In our +communications we deal only in the great.--However, I must say, that +Robert Martin's heart seemed for _him_, and to _me_, very overflowing; +and that he did mention, without its being much to the purpose, that +on quitting their box at Astley's, my brother took charge of Mrs. John +Knightley and little John, and he followed with Miss Smith and Henry; +and that at one time they were in such a crowd, as to make Miss Smith +rather uneasy." + +He stopped.--Emma dared not attempt any immediate reply. To speak, she +was sure would be to betray a most unreasonable degree of happiness. +She must wait a moment, or he would think her mad. Her silence disturbed +him; and after observing her a little while, he added, + +"Emma, my love, you said that this circumstance would not now make you +unhappy; but I am afraid it gives you more pain than you expected. His +situation is an evil--but you must consider it as what satisfies your +friend; and I will answer for your thinking better and better of him +as you know him more. His good sense and good principles would delight +you.--As far as the man is concerned, you could not wish your friend +in better hands. His rank in society I would alter if I could, which is +saying a great deal I assure you, Emma.--You laugh at me about William +Larkins; but I could quite as ill spare Robert Martin." + +He wanted her to look up and smile; and having now brought herself not +to smile too broadly--she did--cheerfully answering, + +"You need not be at any pains to reconcile me to the match. I think +Harriet is doing extremely well. _Her_ connexions may be worse than +_his_. In respectability of character, there can be no doubt that they +are. I have been silent from surprize merely, excessive surprize. You +cannot imagine how suddenly it has come on me! how peculiarly unprepared +I was!--for I had reason to believe her very lately more determined +against him, much more, than she was before." + +"You ought to know your friend best," replied Mr. Knightley; "but I +should say she was a good-tempered, soft-hearted girl, not likely to be +very, very determined against any young man who told her he loved her." + +Emma could not help laughing as she answered, "Upon my word, I believe +you know her quite as well as I do.--But, Mr. Knightley, are you +perfectly sure that she has absolutely and downright _accepted_ him. +I could suppose she might in time--but can she already?--Did not you +misunderstand him?--You were both talking of other things; of business, +shows of cattle, or new drills--and might not you, in the confusion of +so many subjects, mistake him?--It was not Harriet's hand that he was +certain of--it was the dimensions of some famous ox." + +The contrast between the countenance and air of Mr. Knightley and Robert +Martin was, at this moment, so strong to Emma's feelings, and so strong +was the recollection of all that had so recently passed on Harriet's +side, so fresh the sound of those words, spoken with such emphasis, +"No, I hope I know better than to think of Robert Martin," that she was +really expecting the intelligence to prove, in some measure, premature. +It could not be otherwise. + +"Do you dare say this?" cried Mr. Knightley. "Do you dare to suppose me +so great a blockhead, as not to know what a man is talking of?--What do +you deserve?" + +"Oh! I always deserve the best treatment, because I never put up with +any other; and, therefore, you must give me a plain, direct answer. Are +you quite sure that you understand the terms on which Mr. Martin and +Harriet now are?" + +"I am quite sure," he replied, speaking very distinctly, "that he +told me she had accepted him; and that there was no obscurity, nothing +doubtful, in the words he used; and I think I can give you a proof that +it must be so. He asked my opinion as to what he was now to do. He knew +of no one but Mrs. Goddard to whom he could apply for information of +her relations or friends. Could I mention any thing more fit to be done, +than to go to Mrs. Goddard? I assured him that I could not. Then, he +said, he would endeavour to see her in the course of this day." + +"I am perfectly satisfied," replied Emma, with the brightest smiles, +"and most sincerely wish them happy." + +"You are materially changed since we talked on this subject before." + +"I hope so--for at that time I was a fool." + +"And I am changed also; for I am now very willing to grant you all +Harriet's good qualities. I have taken some pains for your sake, and for +Robert Martin's sake, (whom I have always had reason to believe as much +in love with her as ever,) to get acquainted with her. I have often +talked to her a good deal. You must have seen that I did. Sometimes, +indeed, I have thought you were half suspecting me of pleading poor +Martin's cause, which was never the case; but, from all my observations, +I am convinced of her being an artless, amiable girl, with very good +notions, very seriously good principles, and placing her happiness in +the affections and utility of domestic life.--Much of this, I have no +doubt, she may thank you for." + +"Me!" cried Emma, shaking her head.--"Ah! poor Harriet!" + +She checked herself, however, and submitted quietly to a little more +praise than she deserved. + +Their conversation was soon afterwards closed by the entrance of her +father. She was not sorry. She wanted to be alone. Her mind was in a +state of flutter and wonder, which made it impossible for her to be +collected. She was in dancing, singing, exclaiming spirits; and till she +had moved about, and talked to herself, and laughed and reflected, she +could be fit for nothing rational. + +Her father's business was to announce James's being gone out to put the +horses to, preparatory to their now daily drive to Randalls; and she +had, therefore, an immediate excuse for disappearing. + +The joy, the gratitude, the exquisite delight of her sensations may be +imagined. The sole grievance and alloy thus removed in the prospect of +Harriet's welfare, she was really in danger of becoming too happy for +security.--What had she to wish for? Nothing, but to grow more worthy of +him, whose intentions and judgment had been ever so superior to her own. +Nothing, but that the lessons of her past folly might teach her humility +and circumspection in future. + +Serious she was, very serious in her thankfulness, and in her +resolutions; and yet there was no preventing a laugh, sometimes in the +very midst of them. She must laugh at such a close! Such an end of the +doleful disappointment of five weeks back! Such a heart--such a Harriet! + +Now there would be pleasure in her returning--Every thing would be a +pleasure. It would be a great pleasure to know Robert Martin. + +High in the rank of her most serious and heartfelt felicities, was the +reflection that all necessity of concealment from Mr. Knightley would +soon be over. The disguise, equivocation, mystery, so hateful to her to +practise, might soon be over. She could now look forward to giving him +that full and perfect confidence which her disposition was most ready to +welcome as a duty. + +In the gayest and happiest spirits she set forward with her father; not +always listening, but always agreeing to what he said; and, whether in +speech or silence, conniving at the comfortable persuasion of his +being obliged to go to Randalls every day, or poor Mrs. Weston would be +disappointed. + +They arrived.--Mrs. Weston was alone in the drawing-room:--but hardly +had they been told of the baby, and Mr. Woodhouse received the thanks +for coming, which he asked for, when a glimpse was caught through the +blind, of two figures passing near the window. + +"It is Frank and Miss Fairfax," said Mrs. Weston. "I was just going to +tell you of our agreeable surprize in seeing him arrive this morning. He +stays till to-morrow, and Miss Fairfax has been persuaded to spend the +day with us.--They are coming in, I hope." + +In half a minute they were in the room. Emma was extremely glad to +see him--but there was a degree of confusion--a number of embarrassing +recollections on each side. They met readily and smiling, but with a +consciousness which at first allowed little to be said; and having all +sat down again, there was for some time such a blank in the circle, that +Emma began to doubt whether the wish now indulged, which she had long +felt, of seeing Frank Churchill once more, and of seeing him with Jane, +would yield its proportion of pleasure. When Mr. Weston joined the +party, however, and when the baby was fetched, there was no longer a +want of subject or animation--or of courage and opportunity for Frank +Churchill to draw near her and say, + +"I have to thank you, Miss Woodhouse, for a very kind forgiving message +in one of Mrs. Weston's letters. I hope time has not made you less +willing to pardon. I hope you do not retract what you then said." + +"No, indeed," cried Emma, most happy to begin, "not in the least. I am +particularly glad to see and shake hands with you--and to give you joy +in person." + +He thanked her with all his heart, and continued some time to speak with +serious feeling of his gratitude and happiness. + +"Is not she looking well?" said he, turning his eyes towards Jane. +"Better than she ever used to do?--You see how my father and Mrs. Weston +doat upon her." + +But his spirits were soon rising again, and with laughing eyes, after +mentioning the expected return of the Campbells, he named the name of +Dixon.--Emma blushed, and forbade its being pronounced in her hearing. + +"I can never think of it," she cried, "without extreme shame." + +"The shame," he answered, "is all mine, or ought to be. But is it +possible that you had no suspicion?--I mean of late. Early, I know, you +had none." + +"I never had the smallest, I assure you." + +"That appears quite wonderful. I was once very near--and I wish I +had--it would have been better. But though I was always doing wrong +things, they were very bad wrong things, and such as did me no +service.--It would have been a much better transgression had I broken +the bond of secrecy and told you every thing." + +"It is not now worth a regret," said Emma. + +"I have some hope," resumed he, "of my uncle's being persuaded to pay a +visit at Randalls; he wants to be introduced to her. When the Campbells +are returned, we shall meet them in London, and continue there, I trust, +till we may carry her northward.--But now, I am at such a distance from +her--is not it hard, Miss Woodhouse?--Till this morning, we have not +once met since the day of reconciliation. Do not you pity me?" + +Emma spoke her pity so very kindly, that with a sudden accession of gay +thought, he cried, + +"Ah! by the bye," then sinking his voice, and looking demure for the +moment--"I hope Mr. Knightley is well?" He paused.--She coloured and +laughed.--"I know you saw my letter, and think you may remember my wish +in your favour. Let me return your congratulations.--I assure you that +I have heard the news with the warmest interest and satisfaction.--He is +a man whom I cannot presume to praise." + +Emma was delighted, and only wanted him to go on in the same style; but +his mind was the next moment in his own concerns and with his own Jane, +and his next words were, + +"Did you ever see such a skin?--such smoothness! such delicacy!--and +yet without being actually fair.--One cannot call her fair. It is a +most uncommon complexion, with her dark eye-lashes and hair--a most +distinguishing complexion! So peculiarly the lady in it.--Just colour +enough for beauty." + +"I have always admired her complexion," replied Emma, archly; "but +do not I remember the time when you found fault with her for being so +pale?--When we first began to talk of her.--Have you quite forgotten?" + +"Oh! no--what an impudent dog I was!--How could I dare--" + +But he laughed so heartily at the recollection, that Emma could not help +saying, + +"I do suspect that in the midst of your perplexities at that time, you +had very great amusement in tricking us all.--I am sure you had.--I am +sure it was a consolation to you." + +"Oh! no, no, no--how can you suspect me of such a thing? I was the most +miserable wretch!" + +"Not quite so miserable as to be insensible to mirth. I am sure it was a +source of high entertainment to you, to feel that you were taking us +all in.--Perhaps I am the readier to suspect, because, to tell you the +truth, I think it might have been some amusement to myself in the same +situation. I think there is a little likeness between us." + +He bowed. + +"If not in our dispositions," she presently added, with a look of true +sensibility, "there is a likeness in our destiny; the destiny which bids +fair to connect us with two characters so much superior to our own." + +"True, true," he answered, warmly. "No, not true on your side. You can +have no superior, but most true on mine.--She is a complete angel. Look +at her. Is not she an angel in every gesture? Observe the turn of her +throat. Observe her eyes, as she is looking up at my father.--You will +be glad to hear (inclining his head, and whispering seriously) that my +uncle means to give her all my aunt's jewels. They are to be new set. +I am resolved to have some in an ornament for the head. Will not it be +beautiful in her dark hair?" + +"Very beautiful, indeed," replied Emma; and she spoke so kindly, that he +gratefully burst out, + +"How delighted I am to see you again! and to see you in such excellent +looks!--I would not have missed this meeting for the world. I should +certainly have called at Hartfield, had you failed to come." + +The others had been talking of the child, Mrs. Weston giving an account +of a little alarm she had been under, the evening before, from the +infant's appearing not quite well. She believed she had been foolish, +but it had alarmed her, and she had been within half a minute of sending +for Mr. Perry. Perhaps she ought to be ashamed, but Mr. Weston had been +almost as uneasy as herself.--In ten minutes, however, the child had +been perfectly well again. This was her history; and particularly +interesting it was to Mr. Woodhouse, who commended her very much for +thinking of sending for Perry, and only regretted that she had not done +it. "She should always send for Perry, if the child appeared in the +slightest degree disordered, were it only for a moment. She could not be +too soon alarmed, nor send for Perry too often. It was a pity, perhaps, +that he had not come last night; for, though the child seemed well now, +very well considering, it would probably have been better if Perry had +seen it." + +Frank Churchill caught the name. + +"Perry!" said he to Emma, and trying, as he spoke, to catch Miss +Fairfax's eye. "My friend Mr. Perry! What are they saying about Mr. +Perry?--Has he been here this morning?--And how does he travel now?--Has +he set up his carriage?" + +Emma soon recollected, and understood him; and while she joined in the +laugh, it was evident from Jane's countenance that she too was really +hearing him, though trying to seem deaf. + +"Such an extraordinary dream of mine!" he cried. "I can never think of +it without laughing.--She hears us, she hears us, Miss Woodhouse. I see +it in her cheek, her smile, her vain attempt to frown. Look at her. Do +not you see that, at this instant, the very passage of her own letter, +which sent me the report, is passing under her eye--that the whole +blunder is spread before her--that she can attend to nothing else, +though pretending to listen to the others?" + +Jane was forced to smile completely, for a moment; and the smile partly +remained as she turned towards him, and said in a conscious, low, yet +steady voice, + +"How you can bear such recollections, is astonishing to me!--They +_will_ sometimes obtrude--but how you can court them!" + +He had a great deal to say in return, and very entertainingly; but +Emma's feelings were chiefly with Jane, in the argument; and on leaving +Randalls, and falling naturally into a comparison of the two men, she +felt, that pleased as she had been to see Frank Churchill, and really +regarding him as she did with friendship, she had never been more +sensible of Mr. Knightley's high superiority of character. The happiness +of this most happy day, received its completion, in the animated +contemplation of his worth which this comparison produced. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +If Emma had still, at intervals, an anxious feeling for Harriet, a +momentary doubt of its being possible for her to be really cured of her +attachment to Mr. Knightley, and really able to accept another man from +unbiased inclination, it was not long that she had to suffer from the +recurrence of any such uncertainty. A very few days brought the party +from London, and she had no sooner an opportunity of being one hour +alone with Harriet, than she became perfectly satisfied--unaccountable +as it was!--that Robert Martin had thoroughly supplanted Mr. Knightley, +and was now forming all her views of happiness. + +Harriet was a little distressed--did look a little foolish at first: +but having once owned that she had been presumptuous and silly, and +self-deceived, before, her pain and confusion seemed to die away with +the words, and leave her without a care for the past, and with the +fullest exultation in the present and future; for, as to her friend's +approbation, Emma had instantly removed every fear of that nature, by +meeting her with the most unqualified congratulations.--Harriet was +most happy to give every particular of the evening at Astley's, and the +dinner the next day; she could dwell on it all with the utmost delight. +But what did such particulars explain?--The fact was, as Emma could now +acknowledge, that Harriet had always liked Robert Martin; and that his +continuing to love her had been irresistible.--Beyond this, it must ever +be unintelligible to Emma. + +The event, however, was most joyful; and every day was giving her fresh +reason for thinking so.--Harriet's parentage became known. She proved +to be the daughter of a tradesman, rich enough to afford her the +comfortable maintenance which had ever been hers, and decent enough to +have always wished for concealment.--Such was the blood of gentility +which Emma had formerly been so ready to vouch for!--It was likely to +be as untainted, perhaps, as the blood of many a gentleman: but what +a connexion had she been preparing for Mr. Knightley--or for the +Churchills--or even for Mr. Elton!--The stain of illegitimacy, +unbleached by nobility or wealth, would have been a stain indeed. + +No objection was raised on the father's side; the young man was treated +liberally; it was all as it should be: and as Emma became acquainted +with Robert Martin, who was now introduced at Hartfield, she fully +acknowledged in him all the appearance of sense and worth which could +bid fairest for her little friend. She had no doubt of Harriet's +happiness with any good-tempered man; but with him, and in the home he +offered, there would be the hope of more, of security, stability, and +improvement. She would be placed in the midst of those who loved her, +and who had better sense than herself; retired enough for safety, +and occupied enough for cheerfulness. She would be never led into +temptation, nor left for it to find her out. She would be respectable +and happy; and Emma admitted her to be the luckiest creature in the +world, to have created so steady and persevering an affection in such a +man;--or, if not quite the luckiest, to yield only to herself. + +Harriet, necessarily drawn away by her engagements with the Martins, +was less and less at Hartfield; which was not to be regretted.--The +intimacy between her and Emma must sink; their friendship must change +into a calmer sort of goodwill; and, fortunately, what ought to be, +and must be, seemed already beginning, and in the most gradual, natural +manner. + +Before the end of September, Emma attended Harriet to church, and saw +her hand bestowed on Robert Martin with so complete a satisfaction, as +no remembrances, even connected with Mr. Elton as he stood before them, +could impair.--Perhaps, indeed, at that time she scarcely saw Mr. Elton, +but as the clergyman whose blessing at the altar might next fall on +herself.--Robert Martin and Harriet Smith, the latest couple engaged of +the three, were the first to be married. + +Jane Fairfax had already quitted Highbury, and was restored to the +comforts of her beloved home with the Campbells.--The Mr. Churchills +were also in town; and they were only waiting for November. + +The intermediate month was the one fixed on, as far as they dared, by +Emma and Mr. Knightley.--They had determined that their marriage ought +to be concluded while John and Isabella were still at Hartfield, to +allow them the fortnight's absence in a tour to the seaside, which was +the plan.--John and Isabella, and every other friend, were agreed in +approving it. But Mr. Woodhouse--how was Mr. Woodhouse to be induced +to consent?--he, who had never yet alluded to their marriage but as a +distant event. + +When first sounded on the subject, he was so miserable, that they were +almost hopeless.--A second allusion, indeed, gave less pain.--He +began to think it was to be, and that he could not prevent it--a very +promising step of the mind on its way to resignation. Still, however, he +was not happy. Nay, he appeared so much otherwise, that his daughter's +courage failed. She could not bear to see him suffering, to know +him fancying himself neglected; and though her understanding almost +acquiesced in the assurance of both the Mr. Knightleys, that when +once the event were over, his distress would be soon over too, she +hesitated--she could not proceed. + +In this state of suspense they were befriended, not by any sudden +illumination of Mr. Woodhouse's mind, or any wonderful change of his +nervous system, but by the operation of the same system in another +way.--Mrs. Weston's poultry-house was robbed one night of all her +turkeys--evidently by the ingenuity of man. Other poultry-yards in +the neighbourhood also suffered.--Pilfering was _housebreaking_ to Mr. +Woodhouse's fears.--He was very uneasy; and but for the sense of his +son-in-law's protection, would have been under wretched alarm every +night of his life. The strength, resolution, and presence of mind of the +Mr. Knightleys, commanded his fullest dependence. While either of them +protected him and his, Hartfield was safe.--But Mr. John Knightley must +be in London again by the end of the first week in November. + +The result of this distress was, that, with a much more voluntary, +cheerful consent than his daughter had ever presumed to hope for at the +moment, she was able to fix her wedding-day--and Mr. Elton was called +on, within a month from the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Martin, to +join the hands of Mr. Knightley and Miss Woodhouse. + +The wedding was very much like other weddings, where the parties have +no taste for finery or parade; and Mrs. Elton, from the particulars +detailed by her husband, thought it all extremely shabby, and very +inferior to her own.--"Very little white satin, very few lace veils; a +most pitiful business!--Selina would stare when she heard of it."--But, +in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, +the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the +ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union. + + + +FINIS + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Emma, by Jane Austen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMMA *** + +***** This file should be named 158.txt or 158.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/158/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/fetch_files.py b/fetch_files.py new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa203c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/fetch_files.py @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +import requests +from urllib.parse import urljoin +from bs4 import BeautifulSoup +import urllib +import string +import os + + +def find_all_religions(url): + """returns list of urls for all listed religions""" + url_string = requests.get(url) + soup = BeautifulSoup(url_string.text, 'lxml') # Parse the HTML as a string + + a_tags = soup.find_all('a') + links = [urljoin(url, a['href'])for a in a_tags] + + #return only the first sixteen + links = links[:16] + return links + +def find_text_files(url): + """returns list of text urls from the each religion url""" + url_string = requests.get(url) + soup = BeautifulSoup(url_string.text, 'lxml') # Parse the HTML as a string + + a_tags = soup.find_all('a') + + url += '/' + files = [urljoin(url, a['href'])for a in a_tags] + + texts = [] + #return only text file links + for a in files: + x = str(a) + if x[-3:] == 'txt': + texts.append(a) + return texts + + +def get_file_name(url): + """returns file name for text document""" + for i in range(0,len(url)): + x = len(url)-1-i + if url[x] == "/": + return url[x+1:] + +def get_content(url): + """saves content to a text file in folder 'religious documents'""" + data = urllib.request.urlopen(url) + path = 'religious documents' + + if not os.path.exists(path): + os.makedirs(path) + + file_name = get_file_name(url) + + with open(os.path.join(path, file_name), 'wb') as temp_file: + for line in data: + temp_file.write(line) + + temp_file.close() + +def download_files(links): + """saves text file from link to a folder named religious docs""" + for t in links: + get_content(t) + +if __name__ == '__main__': + url = 'http://textfiles.com/occult/' + religions = find_all_religions(url) + text_urls = [] + for r in religions: + x = find_text_files(r) + for i in x: + text_urls.append(i) + download_files(text_urls) diff --git a/get_content.py b/get_content.py new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d3f9f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/get_content.py @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +import requests +from urllib.parse import urljoin +import urllib +from bs4 import BeautifulSoup +import string +import os + +def get_file_name(url): + """returns file name for text document""" + for i in range(0,len(url)): + x = len(url)-1-i + if url[x] == "/": + return url[x+1:] + +def get_content(url): + """saves content to a text file in folder 'religious documents'""" + print(url) + data = urllib.request.urlopen(url) # it's a file like object and works just like a file + + path = 'religious documents' + + if not os.path.exists(path): + os.makedirs(path) + + file_name = get_file_name(url) + + with open(os.path.join(path, file_name), 'wb') as temp_file: + for line in data: + temp_file.write(line) + + temp_file.close() + +if __name__ == '__main__': + url = 'http://textfiles.com/occult/ATHEISM/aaffirmative.txt' + print(get_file_name(url)) + get_content(url) diff --git a/mining.py b/mining.py new file mode 100644 index 0000000..13d4ca6 --- /dev/null +++ b/mining.py @@ -0,0 +1,132 @@ +from __future__ import print_function, division +from os.path import exists + +import sys +import string +import random +import requests +import glob + +# global variables +suffix_map = {} # map from prefixes to a list of suffixes +#{(prefix, [sf1, sf2, sf3, ..., sfn])} +prefix = () # current tuple of words + +def get_book(file_name): + """Checks to see if filename is on file, and loads it + + returns: lines of file + """ + f = open(file_name, 'rb') + lines = f.readlines() + return lines + +def process_file(f, order): + """Reads a file and performs Markov analysis. + + filename: string + order: integer number of words in the prefix + + returns: map from prefix to list of possible suffixes. + """ + for line in f: + for word in line.rstrip().split(): + process_word(word, order) + +def clean_words(word): + #removes errant punctuation and numbers + punctuation = ['[', ']', "'", ":", "@", "*", "/", "(", ")", '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7', '8', '9'] + for letter in word: + if letter in punctuation: + return False + #removes character names + if (word == word.upper()) and (len(word) > 3): + return False + #removes numbers + try: + int(word) + return False + except: + return True + return True + +def process_word(word, order): + """Processes the words in each paragraph, mapping words to all possible suffixes + """ + global prefix + + #boolean false if the word shouldn't be included + check = clean_words(word) + if check == False: + return + + try: + word = word.decode("utf-8") + except: + return + + #starts off the dictionary + if len(prefix) < order: + prefix += (word,) + return + + #check if the previous word already has a chain started + try: + suffix_map[prefix].append(word) + except KeyError: + # if not, start one + suffix_map[prefix] = [word] + + prefix = shift(prefix, word) + +def random_text(n): + """Generates random wordsfrom the analyzed text. + + Starts with a random prefix from the dictionary. + + n: number of words to generate + """ + # choose a random prefix (not weighted by frequency) + start = random.choice(list(suffix_map.keys())) + + for i in range(n): + suffixes = suffix_map.get(start, None) + if suffixes == None: + # if the start isn't in map, we got to the end of the + # original text, so we have to start again. + random_text(n-i) + return + # choose a random suffix + word = random.choice(suffixes) + print(word, end=' ') + start = shift(start, word) + +def shift(t, word): + """Forms a new tuple by removing the head and adding word to the tail. + + t: tuple of strings + word: string + + Returns: tuple of strings + """ + return t[1:] + (word,) + +def main(files, n, order): + for t in files: + f = get_book(t) + n = int(n) + order = int(order) + process_file(f, order) + random_text(n) + print() + + +if __name__ == '__main__': + files = glob.glob('religious documents/*.txt') + #files = ['emma.txt'] + + texts = [] + for f in files: + texts.append(f) + + main(texts, 500, 3) diff --git a/philosphy.txt b/philosphy.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d43771 --- /dev/null +++ b/philosphy.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4376 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Problems of Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Problems of Philosophy + +Author: Bertrand Russell + +Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5827] +Posting Date: May 2, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY *** + + + + +Produced by Gordon Keener + + + + + + + + +THE PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY + + +By Bertrand Russell + + + + +PREFACE + +In the following pages I have confined myself in the main to those +problems of philosophy in regard to which I thought it possible to say +something positive and constructive, since merely negative criticism +seemed out of place. For this reason, theory of knowledge occupies a +larger space than metaphysics in the present volume, and some topics +much discussed by philosophers are treated very briefly, if at all. + +I have derived valuable assistance from unpublished writings of G. E. +Moore and J. M. Keynes: from the former, as regards the relations +of sense-data to physical objects, and from the latter as regards +probability and induction. I have also profited greatly by the +criticisms and suggestions of Professor Gilbert Murray. + +1912 + + + + +CHAPTER I. APPEARANCE AND REALITY + +Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no +reasonable man could doubt it? This question, which at first sight might +not seem difficult, is really one of the most difficult that can +be asked. When we have realized the obstacles in the way of a +straightforward and confident answer, we shall be well launched on the +study of philosophy--for philosophy is merely the attempt to answer +such ultimate questions, not carelessly and dogmatically, as we do in +ordinary life and even in the sciences, but critically, after exploring +all that makes such questions puzzling, and after realizing all the +vagueness and confusion that underlie our ordinary ideas. + +In daily life, we assume as certain many things which, on a closer +scrutiny, are found to be so full of apparent contradictions that only a +great amount of thought enables us to know what it is that we really may +believe. In the search for certainty, it is natural to begin with our +present experiences, and in some sense, no doubt, knowledge is to be +derived from them. But any statement as to what it is that our immediate +experiences make us know is very likely to be wrong. It seems to me that +I am now sitting in a chair, at a table of a certain shape, on which I +see sheets of paper with writing or print. By turning my head I see out +of the window buildings and clouds and the sun. I believe that the sun +is about ninety-three million miles from the earth; that it is a hot +globe many times bigger than the earth; that, owing to the earth's +rotation, it rises every morning, and will continue to do so for an +indefinite time in the future. I believe that, if any other normal +person comes into my room, he will see the same chairs and tables and +books and papers as I see, and that the table which I see is the same as +the table which I feel pressing against my arm. All this seems to be +so evident as to be hardly worth stating, except in answer to a man who +doubts whether I know anything. Yet all this may be reasonably doubted, +and all of it requires much careful discussion before we can be sure +that we have stated it in a form that is wholly true. + +To make our difficulties plain, let us concentrate attention on the +table. To the eye it is oblong, brown and shiny, to the touch it is +smooth and cool and hard; when I tap it, it gives out a wooden sound. +Any one else who sees and feels and hears the table will agree with this +description, so that it might seem as if no difficulty would arise; +but as soon as we try to be more precise our troubles begin. Although +I believe that the table is 'really' of the same colour all over, the +parts that reflect the light look much brighter than the other parts, +and some parts look white because of reflected light. I know that, if +I move, the parts that reflect the light will be different, so that the +apparent distribution of colours on the table will change. It follows +that if several people are looking at the table at the same moment, no +two of them will see exactly the same distribution of colours, because +no two can see it from exactly the same point of view, and any change in +the point of view makes some change in the way the light is reflected. + +For most practical purposes these differences are unimportant, but to +the painter they are all-important: the painter has to unlearn the habit +of thinking that things seem to have the colour which common sense says +they 'really' have, and to learn the habit of seeing things as they +appear. Here we have already the beginning of one of the distinctions +that cause most trouble in philosophy--the distinction between +'appearance' and 'reality', between what things seem to be and what they +are. The painter wants to know what things seem to be, the practical man +and the philosopher want to know what they are; but the philosopher's +wish to know this is stronger than the practical man's, and is more +troubled by knowledge as to the difficulties of answering the question. + +To return to the table. It is evident from what we have found, that +there is no colour which pre-eminently appears to be _the_ colour of the +table, or even of any one particular part of the table--it appears to +be of different colours from different points of view, and there is +no reason for regarding some of these as more really its colour than +others. And we know that even from a given point of view the colour will +seem different by artificial light, or to a colour-blind man, or to a +man wearing blue spectacles, while in the dark there will be no colour +at all, though to touch and hearing the table will be unchanged. This +colour is not something which is inherent in the table, but something +depending upon the table and the spectator and the way the light falls +on the table. When, in ordinary life, we speak of _the_ colour of the +table, we only mean the sort of colour which it will seem to have to a +normal spectator from an ordinary point of view under usual conditions +of light. But the other colours which appear under other conditions +have just as good a right to be considered real; and therefore, to avoid +favouritism, we are compelled to deny that, in itself, the table has any +one particular colour. + +The same thing applies to the texture. With the naked eye one can see +the grain, but otherwise the table looks smooth and even. If we looked +at it through a microscope, we should see roughnesses and hills and +valleys, and all sorts of differences that are imperceptible to the +naked eye. Which of these is the 'real' table? We are naturally tempted +to say that what we see through the microscope is more real, but that in +turn would be changed by a still more powerful microscope. If, then, we +cannot trust what we see with the naked eye, why should we trust what we +see through a microscope? Thus, again, the confidence in our senses with +which we began deserts us. + +The shape of the table is no better. We are all in the habit of judging +as to the 'real' shapes of things, and we do this so unreflectingly that +we come to think we actually see the real shapes. But, in fact, as we +all have to learn if we try to draw, a given thing looks different +in shape from every different point of view. If our table is 'really' +rectangular, it will look, from almost all points of view, as if it had +two acute angles and two obtuse angles. If opposite sides are parallel, +they will look as if they converged to a point away from the spectator; +if they are of equal length, they will look as if the nearer side were +longer. All these things are not commonly noticed in looking at a table, +because experience has taught us to construct the 'real' shape from the +apparent shape, and the 'real' shape is what interests us as practical +men. But the 'real' shape is not what we see; it is something inferred +from what we see. And what we see is constantly changing in shape as we +move about the room; so that here again the senses seem not to give us +the truth about the table itself, but only about the appearance of the +table. + +Similar difficulties arise when we consider the sense of touch. It is +true that the table always gives us a sensation of hardness, and we feel +that it resists pressure. But the sensation we obtain depends upon how +hard we press the table and also upon what part of the body we press +with; thus the various sensations due to various pressures or various +parts of the body cannot be supposed to reveal _directly_ any definite +property of the table, but at most to be _signs_ of some property which +perhaps _causes_ all the sensations, but is not actually apparent in any +of them. And the same applies still more obviously to the sounds which +can be elicited by rapping the table. + +Thus it becomes evident that the real table, if there is one, is not the +same as what we immediately experience by sight or touch or hearing. The +real table, if there is one, is not _immediately_ known to us at all, +but must be an inference from what is immediately known. Hence, two very +difficult questions at once arise; namely, (1) Is there a real table at +all? (2) If so, what sort of object can it be? + +It will help us in considering these questions to have a few simple +terms of which the meaning is definite and clear. Let us give the name +of 'sense-data' to the things that are immediately known in sensation: +such things as colours, sounds, smells, hardnesses, roughnesses, and +so on. We shall give the name 'sensation' to the experience of being +immediately aware of these things. Thus, whenever we see a colour, +we have a sensation _of_ the colour, but the colour itself is a +sense-datum, not a sensation. The colour is that _of_ which we are +immediately aware, and the awareness itself is the sensation. It is +plain that if we are to know anything about the table, it must be +by means of the sense-data--brown colour, oblong shape, smoothness, +etc.--which we associate with the table; but, for the reasons which have +been given, we cannot say that the table is the sense-data, or even +that the sense-data are directly properties of the table. Thus a problem +arises as to the relation of the sense-data to the real table, supposing +there is such a thing. + +The real table, if it exists, we will call a 'physical object'. Thus +we have to consider the relation of sense-data to physical objects. +The collection of all physical objects is called 'matter'. Thus our two +questions may be re-stated as follows: (1) Is there any such thing as +matter? (2) If so, what is its nature? + +The philosopher who first brought prominently forward the reasons +for regarding the immediate objects of our senses as not existing +independently of us was Bishop Berkeley (1685-1753). His _Three +Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, in Opposition to Sceptics and +Atheists_, undertake to prove that there is no such thing as matter at +all, and that the world consists of nothing but minds and their ideas. +Hylas has hitherto believed in matter, but he is no match for Philonous, +who mercilessly drives him into contradictions and paradoxes, and makes +his own denial of matter seem, in the end, as if it were almost common +sense. The arguments employed are of very different value: some are +important and sound, others are confused or quibbling. But Berkeley +retains the merit of having shown that the existence of matter is +capable of being denied without absurdity, and that if there are any +things that exist independently of us they cannot be the immediate +objects of our sensations. + +There are two different questions involved when we ask whether matter +exists, and it is important to keep them clear. We commonly mean by +'matter' something which is opposed to 'mind', something which we think +of as occupying space and as radically incapable of any sort of thought +or consciousness. It is chiefly in this sense that Berkeley denies +matter; that is to say, he does not deny that the sense-data which we +commonly take as signs of the existence of the table are really signs +of the existence of _something_ independent of us, but he does deny +that this something is non-mental, that it is neither mind nor ideas +entertained by some mind. He admits that there must be something which +continues to exist when we go out of the room or shut our eyes, and that +what we call seeing the table does really give us reason for believing +in something which persists even when we are not seeing it. But he +thinks that this something cannot be radically different in nature from +what we see, and cannot be independent of seeing altogether, though it +must be independent of _our_ seeing. He is thus led to regard the 'real' +table as an idea in the mind of God. Such an idea has the required +permanence and independence of ourselves, without being--as matter would +otherwise be--something quite unknowable, in the sense that we can only +infer it, and can never be directly and immediately aware of it. + +Other philosophers since Berkeley have also held that, although the +table does not depend for its existence upon being seen by me, it does +depend upon being seen (or otherwise apprehended in sensation) by +_some_ mind--not necessarily the mind of God, but more often the whole +collective mind of the universe. This they hold, as Berkeley does, +chiefly because they think there can be nothing real--or at any rate +nothing known to be real except minds and their thoughts and feelings. +We might state the argument by which they support their view in some +such way as this: 'Whatever can be thought of is an idea in the mind of +the person thinking of it; therefore nothing can be thought of except +ideas in minds; therefore anything else is inconceivable, and what is +inconceivable cannot exist.' + +Such an argument, in my opinion, is fallacious; and of course those who +advance it do not put it so shortly or so crudely. But whether valid or +not, the argument has been very widely advanced in one form or another; +and very many philosophers, perhaps a majority, have held that there is +nothing real except minds and their ideas. Such philosophers are called +'idealists'. When they come to explaining matter, they either say, like +Berkeley, that matter is really nothing but a collection of ideas, +or they say, like Leibniz (1646-1716), that what appears as matter is +really a collection of more or less rudimentary minds. + +But these philosophers, though they deny matter as opposed to mind, +nevertheless, in another sense, admit matter. It will be remembered that +we asked two questions; namely, (1) Is there a real table at all? (2) If +so, what sort of object can it be? Now both Berkeley and Leibniz admit +that there is a real table, but Berkeley says it is certain ideas in the +mind of God, and Leibniz says it is a colony of souls. Thus both of them +answer our first question in the affirmative, and only diverge from the +views of ordinary mortals in their answer to our second question. In +fact, almost all philosophers seem to be agreed that there is a real +table: they almost all agree that, however much our sense-data--colour, +shape, smoothness, etc.--may depend upon us, yet their occurrence is +a sign of something existing independently of us, something differing, +perhaps, completely from our sense-data, and yet to be regarded as +causing those sense-data whenever we are in a suitable relation to the +real table. + +Now obviously this point in which the philosophers are agreed--the view +that there _is_ a real table, whatever its nature may be--is vitally +important, and it will be worth while to consider what reasons there are +for accepting this view before we go on to the further question as +to the nature of the real table. Our next chapter, therefore, will be +concerned with the reasons for supposing that there is a real table at +all. + +Before we go farther it will be well to consider for a moment what it +is that we have discovered so far. It has appeared that, if we take any +common object of the sort that is supposed to be known by the senses, +what the senses _immediately_ tell us is not the truth about the object +as it is apart from us, but only the truth about certain sense-data +which, so far as we can see, depend upon the relations between us and +the object. Thus what we directly see and feel is merely 'appearance', +which we believe to be a sign of some 'reality' behind. But if the +reality is not what appears, have we any means of knowing whether there +is any reality at all? And if so, have we any means of finding out what +it is like? + +Such questions are bewildering, and it is difficult to know that even +the strangest hypotheses may not be true. Thus our familiar table, +which has roused but the slightest thoughts in us hitherto, has become a +problem full of surprising possibilities. The one thing we know about it +is that it is not what it seems. Beyond this modest result, so far, we +have the most complete liberty of conjecture. Leibniz tells us it is a +community of souls: Berkeley tells us it is an idea in the mind of God; +sober science, scarcely less wonderful, tells us it is a vast collection +of electric charges in violent motion. + +Among these surprising possibilities, doubt suggests that perhaps there +is no table at all. Philosophy, if it cannot _answer_ so many questions +as we could wish, has at least the power of _asking_ questions which +increase the interest of the world, and show the strangeness and wonder +lying just below the surface even in the commonest things of daily life. + + + +CHAPTER II. THE EXISTENCE OF MATTER + +In this chapter we have to ask ourselves whether, in any sense at all, +there is such a thing as matter. Is there a table which has a certain +intrinsic nature, and continues to exist when I am not looking, or is +the table merely a product of my imagination, a dream-table in a very +prolonged dream? This question is of the greatest importance. For if +we cannot be sure of the independent existence of objects, we cannot +be sure of the independent existence of other people's bodies, and +therefore still less of other people's minds, since we have no grounds +for believing in their minds except such as are derived from observing +their bodies. Thus if we cannot be sure of the independent existence of +objects, we shall be left alone in a desert--it may be that the whole +outer world is nothing but a dream, and that we alone exist. This is an +uncomfortable possibility; but although it cannot be strictly proved to +be false, there is not the slightest reason to suppose that it is true. +In this chapter we have to see why this is the case. + +Before we embark upon doubtful matters, let us try to find some more +or less fixed point from which to start. Although we are doubting the +physical existence of the table, we are not doubting the existence +of the sense-data which made us think there was a table; we are not +doubting that, while we look, a certain colour and shape appear to us, +and while we press, a certain sensation of hardness is experienced by +us. All this, which is psychological, we are not calling in question. +In fact, whatever else may be doubtful, some at least of our immediate +experiences seem absolutely certain. + +Descartes (1596-1650), the founder of modern philosophy, invented a +method which may still be used with profit--the method of systematic +doubt. He determined that he would believe nothing which he did not see +quite clearly and distinctly to be true. Whatever he could bring himself +to doubt, he would doubt, until he saw reason for not doubting it. +By applying this method he gradually became convinced that the only +existence of which he could be _quite_ certain was his own. He imagined +a deceitful demon, who presented unreal things to his senses in a +perpetual phantasmagoria; it might be very improbable that such a demon +existed, but still it was possible, and therefore doubt concerning +things perceived by the senses was possible. + +But doubt concerning his own existence was not possible, for if he did +not exist, no demon could deceive him. If he doubted, he must exist; if +he had any experiences whatever, he must exist. Thus his own existence +was an absolute certainty to him. 'I think, therefore I am,' he said +(_Cogito, ergo sum_); and on the basis of this certainty he set to work +to build up again the world of knowledge which his doubt had laid in +ruins. By inventing the method of doubt, and by showing that subjective +things are the most certain, Descartes performed a great service to +philosophy, and one which makes him still useful to all students of the +subject. + +But some care is needed in using Descartes' argument. 'I think, +therefore I am' says rather more than is strictly certain. It might seem +as though we were quite sure of being the same person to-day as we were +yesterday, and this is no doubt true in some sense. But the real Self is +as hard to arrive at as the real table, and does not seem to have that +absolute, convincing certainty that belongs to particular experiences. +When I look at my table and see a certain brown colour, what is quite +certain at once is not '_I_ am seeing a brown colour', but rather, +'a brown colour is being seen'. This of course involves something (or +somebody) which (or who) sees the brown colour; but it does not of +itself involve that more or less permanent person whom we call 'I'. So +far as immediate certainty goes, it might be that the something which +sees the brown colour is quite momentary, and not the same as the +something which has some different experience the next moment. + +Thus it is our particular thoughts and feelings that have primitive +certainty. And this applies to dreams and hallucinations as well as to +normal perceptions: when we dream or see a ghost, we certainly do have +the sensations we think we have, but for various reasons it is held that +no physical object corresponds to these sensations. Thus the certainty +of our knowledge of our own experiences does not have to be limited in +any way to allow for exceptional cases. Here, therefore, we have, for +what it is worth, a solid basis from which to begin our pursuit of +knowledge. + +The problem we have to consider is this: Granted that we are certain of +our own sense-data, have we any reason for regarding them as signs of +the existence of something else, which we can call the physical object? +When we have enumerated all the sense-data which we should naturally +regard as connected with the table, have we said all there is to say +about the table, or is there still something else--something not a +sense-datum, something which persists when we go out of the room? Common +sense unhesitatingly answers that there is. What can be bought and sold +and pushed about and have a cloth laid on it, and so on, cannot be +a _mere_ collection of sense-data. If the cloth completely hides the +table, we shall derive no sense-data from the table, and therefore, if +the table were merely sense-data, it would have ceased to exist, and +the cloth would be suspended in empty air, resting, by a miracle, in +the place where the table formerly was. This seems plainly absurd; but +whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened +by absurdities. + +One great reason why it is felt that we must secure a physical object +in addition to the sense-data, is that we want the same object for +different people. When ten people are sitting round a dinner-table, +it seems preposterous to maintain that they are not seeing the same +tablecloth, the same knives and forks and spoons and glasses. But the +sense-data are private to each separate person; what is immediately +present to the sight of one is not immediately present to the sight of +another: they all see things from slightly different points of view, and +therefore see them slightly differently. Thus, if there are to be public +neutral objects, which can be in some sense known to many different +people, there must be something over and above the private and +particular sense-data which appear to various people. What reason, then, +have we for believing that there are such public neutral objects? + +The first answer that naturally occurs to one is that, although +different people may see the table slightly differently, still they all +see more or less similar things when they look at the table, and +the variations in what they see follow the laws of perspective and +reflection of light, so that it is easy to arrive at a permanent object +underlying all the different people's sense-data. I bought my table from +the former occupant of my room; I could not buy _his_ sense-data, +which died when he went away, but I could and did buy the confident +expectation of more or less similar sense-data. Thus it is the fact that +different people have similar sense-data, and that one person in a given +place at different times has similar sense-data, which makes us suppose +that over and above the sense-data there is a permanent public object +which underlies or causes the sense-data of various people at various +times. + +Now in so far as the above considerations depend upon supposing that +there are other people besides ourselves, they beg the very question at +issue. Other people are represented to me by certain sense-data, such as +the sight of them or the sound of their voices, and if I had no +reason to believe that there were physical objects independent of my +sense-data, I should have no reason to believe that other people exist +except as part of my dream. Thus, when we are trying to show that there +must be objects independent of our own sense-data, we cannot appeal to +the testimony of other people, since this testimony itself consists of +sense-data, and does not reveal other people's experiences unless our +own sense-data are signs of things existing independently of us. We must +therefore, if possible, find, in our own purely private experiences, +characteristics which show, or tend to show, that there are in the world +things other than ourselves and our private experiences. + +In one sense it must be admitted that we can never prove the existence +of things other than ourselves and our experiences. No logical absurdity +results from the hypothesis that the world consists of myself and my +thoughts and feelings and sensations, and that everything else is mere +fancy. In dreams a very complicated world may seem to be present, and +yet on waking we find it was a delusion; that is to say, we find that +the sense-data in the dream do not appear to have corresponded with such +physical objects as we should naturally infer from our sense-data. (It +is true that, when the physical world is assumed, it is possible to +find physical causes for the sense-data in dreams: a door banging, for +instance, may cause us to dream of a naval engagement. But although, in +this case, there is a physical cause for the sense-data, there is not a +physical object corresponding to the sense-data in the way in which an +actual naval battle would correspond.) There is no logical impossibility +in the supposition that the whole of life is a dream, in which we +ourselves create all the objects that come before us. But although this +is not logically impossible, there is no reason whatever to suppose that +it is true; and it is, in fact, a less simple hypothesis, viewed as a +means of accounting for the facts of our own life, than the common-sense +hypothesis that there really are objects independent of us, whose action +on us causes our sensations. + +The way in which simplicity comes in from supposing that there really +are physical objects is easily seen. If the cat appears at one moment in +one part of the room, and at another in another part, it is natural +to suppose that it has moved from the one to the other, passing over +a series of intermediate positions. But if it is merely a set of +sense-data, it cannot have ever been in any place where I did not see +it; thus we shall have to suppose that it did not exist at all while I +was not looking, but suddenly sprang into being in a new place. If +the cat exists whether I see it or not, we can understand from our own +experience how it gets hungry between one meal and the next; but if +it does not exist when I am not seeing it, it seems odd that appetite +should grow during non-existence as fast as during existence. And if the +cat consists only of sense-data, it cannot be hungry, since no hunger +but my own can be a sense-datum to me. Thus the behaviour of the +sense-data which represent the cat to me, though it seems quite natural +when regarded as an expression of hunger, becomes utterly inexplicable +when regarded as mere movements and changes of patches of colour, which +are as incapable of hunger as a triangle is of playing football. + +But the difficulty in the case of the cat is nothing compared to the +difficulty in the case of human beings. When human beings speak--that +is, when we hear certain noises which we associate with ideas, and +simultaneously see certain motions of lips and expressions of face--it +is very difficult to suppose that what we hear is not the expression +of a thought, as we know it would be if we emitted the same sounds. Of +course similar things happen in dreams, where we are mistaken as to the +existence of other people. But dreams are more or less suggested by what +we call waking life, and are capable of being more or less accounted for +on scientific principles if we assume that there really is a physical +world. Thus every principle of simplicity urges us to adopt the natural +view, that there really are objects other than ourselves and our +sense-data which have an existence not dependent upon our perceiving +them. + +Of course it is not by argument that we originally come by our belief in +an independent external world. We find this belief ready in ourselves as +soon as we begin to reflect: it is what may be called an _instinctive_ +belief. We should never have been led to question this belief but for +the fact that, at any rate in the case of sight, it seems as if the +sense-datum itself were instinctively believed to be the independent +object, whereas argument shows that the object cannot be identical +with the sense-datum. This discovery, however--which is not at all +paradoxical in the case of taste and smell and sound, and only slightly +so in the case of touch--leaves undiminished our instinctive belief that +there _are_ objects _corresponding_ to our sense-data. Since this belief +does not lead to any difficulties, but on the contrary tends to simplify +and systematize our account of our experiences, there seems no good +reason for rejecting it. We may therefore admit--though with a slight +doubt derived from dreams--that the external world does really exist, +and is not wholly dependent for its existence upon our continuing to +perceive it. + +The argument which has led us to this conclusion is doubtless less +strong than we could wish, but it is typical of many philosophical +arguments, and it is therefore worth while to consider briefly its +general character and validity. All knowledge, we find, must be built +up upon our instinctive beliefs, and if these are rejected, nothing +is left. But among our instinctive beliefs some are much stronger than +others, while many have, by habit and association, become entangled with +other beliefs, not really instinctive, but falsely supposed to be part +of what is believed instinctively. + +Philosophy should show us the hierarchy of our instinctive beliefs, +beginning with those we hold most strongly, and presenting each as much +isolated and as free from irrelevant additions as possible. It should +take care to show that, in the form in which they are finally set forth, +our instinctive beliefs do not clash, but form a harmonious system. +There can never be any reason for rejecting one instinctive belief +except that it clashes with others; thus, if they are found to +harmonize, the whole system becomes worthy of acceptance. + +It is of course _possible_ that all or any of our beliefs may be +mistaken, and therefore all ought to be held with at least some slight +element of doubt. But we cannot have _reason_ to reject a belief except +on the ground of some other belief. Hence, by organizing our instinctive +beliefs and their consequences, by considering which among them is most +possible, if necessary, to modify or abandon, we can arrive, on the +basis of accepting as our sole data what we instinctively believe, at an +orderly systematic organization of our knowledge, in which, though the +_possibility_ of error remains, its likelihood is diminished by the +interrelation of the parts and by the critical scrutiny which has +preceded acquiescence. + +This function, at least, philosophy can perform. Most philosophers, +rightly or wrongly, believe that philosophy can do much more than +this--that it can give us knowledge, not otherwise attainable, +concerning the universe as a whole, and concerning the nature of +ultimate reality. Whether this be the case or not, the more modest +function we have spoken of can certainly be performed by philosophy, and +certainly suffices, for those who have once begun to doubt the adequacy +of common sense, to justify the arduous and difficult labours that +philosophical problems involve. + + + +CHAPTER III. THE NATURE OF MATTER + +In the preceding chapter we agreed, though without being able to +find demonstrative reasons, that it is rational to believe that our +sense-data--for example, those which we regard as associated with my +table--are really signs of the existence of something independent of us +and our perceptions. That is to say, over and above the sensations of +colour, hardness, noise, and so on, which make up the appearance of +the table to me, I assume that there is something else, of which these +things are appearances. The colour ceases to exist if I shut my eyes, +the sensation of hardness ceases to exist if I remove my arm from +contact with the table, the sound ceases to exist if I cease to rap the +table with my knuckles. But I do not believe that when all these things +cease the table ceases. On the contrary, I believe that it is because +the table exists continuously that all these sense-data will reappear +when I open my eyes, replace my arm, and begin again to rap with my +knuckles. The question we have to consider in this chapter is: What +is the nature of this real table, which persists independently of my +perception of it? + +To this question physical science gives an answer, somewhat incomplete +it is true, and in part still very hypothetical, but yet deserving of +respect so far as it goes. Physical science, more or less unconsciously, +has drifted into the view that all natural phenomena ought to be reduced +to motions. Light and heat and sound are all due to wave-motions, which +travel from the body emitting them to the person who sees light or feels +heat or hears sound. That which has the wave-motion is either aether or +'gross matter', but in either case is what the philosopher would call +matter. The only properties which science assigns to it are position in +space, and the power of motion according to the laws of motion. Science +does not deny that it _may_ have other properties; but if so, such other +properties are not useful to the man of science, and in no way assist +him in explaining the phenomena. + +It is sometimes said that 'light _is_ a form of wave-motion', but this +is misleading, for the light which we immediately see, which we know +directly by means of our senses, is _not_ a form of wave-motion, but +something quite different--something which we all know if we are not +blind, though we cannot describe it so as to convey our knowledge to a +man who is blind. A wave-motion, on the contrary, could quite well be +described to a blind man, since he can acquire a knowledge of space by +the sense of touch; and he can experience a wave-motion by a sea voyage +almost as well as we can. But this, which a blind man can understand, is +not what we mean by _light_: we mean by _light_ just that which a blind +man can never understand, and which we can never describe to him. + +Now this something, which all of us who are not blind know, is not, +according to science, really to be found in the outer world: it is +something caused by the action of certain waves upon the eyes and nerves +and brain of the person who sees the light. When it is said that light +_is_ waves, what is really meant is that waves are the physical cause of +our sensations of light. But light itself, the thing which seeing people +experience and blind people do not, is not supposed by science to form +any part of the world that is independent of us and our senses. And very +similar remarks would apply to other kinds of sensations. + +It is not only colours and sounds and so on that are absent from the +scientific world of matter, but also _space_ as we get it through sight +or touch. It is essential to science that its matter should be in _a_ +space, but the space in which it is cannot be exactly the space we see +or feel. To begin with, space as we see it is not the same as space as +we get it by the sense of touch; it is only by experience in infancy +that we learn how to touch things we see, or how to get a sight of +things which we feel touching us. But the space of science is neutral as +between touch and sight; thus it cannot be either the space of touch or +the space of sight. + +Again, different people see the same object as of different shapes, +according to their point of view. A circular coin, for example, though +we should always _judge_ it to be circular, will _look_ oval unless we +are straight in front of it. When we judge that it _is_ circular, we are +judging that it has a real shape which is not its apparent shape, but +belongs to it intrinsically apart from its appearance. But this real +shape, which is what concerns science, must be in a real space, not +the same as anybody's _apparent_ space. The real space is public, the +apparent space is private to the percipient. In different people's +_private_ spaces the same object seems to have different shapes; thus +the real space, in which it has its real shape, must be different from +the private spaces. The space of science, therefore, though _connected_ +with the spaces we see and feel, is not identical with them, and the +manner of its connexion requires investigation. + +We agreed provisionally that physical objects cannot be quite like +our sense-data, but may be regarded as _causing_ our sensations. +These physical objects are in the space of science, which we may call +'physical' space. It is important to notice that, if our sensations +are to be caused by physical objects, there must be a physical space +containing these objects and our sense-organs and nerves and brain. We +get a sensation of touch from an object when we are in contact with it; +that is to say, when some part of our body occupies a place in physical +space quite close to the space occupied by the object. We see an object +(roughly speaking) when no opaque body is between the object and our +eyes in physical space. Similarly, we only hear or smell or taste an +object when we are sufficiently near to it, or when it touches the +tongue, or has some suitable position in physical space relatively to +our body. We cannot begin to state what different sensations we shall +derive from a given object under different circumstances unless we +regard the object and our body as both in one physical space, for it is +mainly the relative positions of the object and our body that determine +what sensations we shall derive from the object. + +Now our sense-data are situated in our private spaces, either the space +of sight or the space of touch or such vaguer spaces as other senses +may give us. If, as science and common sense assume, there is one public +all-embracing physical space in which physical objects are, the relative +positions of physical objects in physical space must more or less +correspond to the relative positions of sense-data in our private +spaces. There is no difficulty in supposing this to be the case. If we +see on a road one house nearer to us than another, our other senses will +bear out the view that it is nearer; for example, it will be reached +sooner if we walk along the road. Other people will agree that the house +which looks nearer to us is nearer; the ordnance map will take the +same view; and thus everything points to a spatial relation between the +houses corresponding to the relation between the sense-data which we see +when we look at the houses. Thus we may assume that there is a physical +space in which physical objects have spatial relations corresponding to +those which the corresponding sense-data have in our private spaces. It +is this physical space which is dealt with in geometry and assumed in +physics and astronomy. + +Assuming that there is physical space, and that it does thus correspond +to private spaces, what can we know about it? We can know _only_ what is +required in order to secure the correspondence. That is to say, we can +know nothing of what it is like in itself, but we can know the sort +of arrangement of physical objects which results from their spatial +relations. We can know, for example, that the earth and moon and sun +are in one straight line during an eclipse, though we cannot know what +a physical straight line is in itself, as we know the look of a straight +line in our visual space. Thus we come to know much more about the +_relations_ of distances in physical space than about the distances +themselves; we may know that one distance is greater than another, or +that it is along the same straight line as the other, but we cannot have +that immediate acquaintance with physical distances that we have with +distances in our private spaces, or with colours or sounds or other +sense-data. We can know all those things about physical space which a +man born blind might know through other people about the space of sight; +but the kind of things which a man born blind could never know about the +space of sight we also cannot know about physical space. We can know the +properties of the relations required to preserve the correspondence with +sense-data, but we cannot know the nature of the terms between which the +relations hold. + +With regard to time, our _feeling_ of duration or of the lapse of time +is notoriously an unsafe guide as to the time that has elapsed by the +clock. Times when we are bored or suffering pain pass slowly, times when +we are agreeably occupied pass quickly, and times when we are sleeping +pass almost as if they did not exist. Thus, in so far as time is +constituted by duration, there is the same necessity for distinguishing +a public and a private time as there was in the case of space. But in so +far as time consists in an _order_ of before and after, there is no need +to make such a distinction; the time-order which events seem to have is, +so far as we can see, the same as the time-order which they do have. At +any rate no reason can be given for supposing that the two orders are +not the same. The same is usually true of space: if a regiment of men +are marching along a road, the shape of the regiment will look different +from different points of view, but the men will appear arranged in the +same order from all points of view. Hence we regard the order as true +also in physical space, whereas the shape is only supposed to correspond +to the physical space so far as is required for the preservation of the +order. + +In saying that the time-order which events seem to have is the same as +the time-order which they really have, it is necessary to guard against +a possible misunderstanding. It must not be supposed that the various +states of different physical objects have the same time-order as the +sense-data which constitute the perceptions of those objects. Considered +as physical objects, the thunder and lightning are simultaneous; that is +to say, the lightning is simultaneous with the disturbance of the air in +the place where the disturbance begins, namely, where the lightning +is. But the sense-datum which we call hearing the thunder does not take +place until the disturbance of the air has travelled as far as to where +we are. Similarly, it takes about eight minutes for the sun's light +to reach us; thus, when we see the sun we are seeing the sun of eight +minutes ago. So far as our sense-data afford evidence as to the physical +sun they afford evidence as to the physical sun of eight minutes ago; if +the physical sun had ceased to exist within the last eight minutes, that +would make no difference to the sense-data which we call 'seeing +the sun'. This affords a fresh illustration of the necessity of +distinguishing between sense-data and physical objects. + +What we have found as regards space is much the same as what we find +in relation to the correspondence of the sense-data with their +physical counterparts. If one object looks blue and another red, we may +reasonably presume that there is some corresponding difference between +the physical objects; if two objects both look blue, we may presume a +corresponding similarity. But we cannot hope to be acquainted directly +with the quality in the physical object which makes it look blue or red. +Science tells us that this quality is a certain sort of wave-motion, and +this sounds familiar, because we think of wave-motions in the space we +see. But the wave-motions must really be in physical space, with which +we have no direct acquaintance; thus the real wave-motions have not that +familiarity which we might have supposed them to have. And what holds +for colours is closely similar to what holds for other sense-data. Thus +we find that, although the _relations_ of physical objects have all +sorts of knowable properties, derived from their correspondence with the +relations of sense-data, the physical objects themselves remain unknown +in their intrinsic nature, so far at least as can be discovered by means +of the senses. The question remains whether there is any other method of +discovering the intrinsic nature of physical objects. + +The most natural, though not ultimately the most defensible, hypothesis +to adopt in the first instance, at any rate as regards visual +sense-data, would be that, though physical objects cannot, for the +reasons we have been considering, be _exactly_ like sense-data, yet they +may be more or less like. According to this view, physical objects will, +for example, really have colours, and we might, by good luck, see an +object as of the colour it really is. The colour which an object seems +to have at any given moment will in general be very similar, though +not quite the same, from many different points of view; we might thus +suppose the 'real' colour to be a sort of medium colour, intermediate +between the various shades which appear from the different points of +view. + +Such a theory is perhaps not capable of being definitely refuted, but +it can be shown to be groundless. To begin with, it is plain that the +colour we see depends only upon the nature of the light-waves that +strike the eye, and is therefore modified by the medium intervening +between us and the object, as well as by the manner in which light is +reflected from the object in the direction of the eye. The intervening +air alters colours unless it is perfectly clear, and any strong +reflection will alter them completely. Thus the colour we see is a +result of the ray as it reaches the eye, and not simply a property of +the object from which the ray comes. Hence, also, provided certain waves +reach the eye, we shall see a certain colour, whether the object from +which the waves start has any colour or not. Thus it is quite gratuitous +to suppose that physical objects have colours, and therefore there is no +justification for making such a supposition. Exactly similar arguments +will apply to other sense-data. + +It remains to ask whether there are any general philosophical arguments +enabling us to say that, if matter is real, it must be of such and such +a nature. As explained above, very many philosophers, perhaps most, have +held that whatever is real must be in some sense mental, or at any rate +that whatever we can know anything about must be in some sense mental. +Such philosophers are called 'idealists'. Idealists tell us that what +appears as matter is really something mental; namely, either (as Leibniz +held) more or less rudimentary minds, or (as Berkeley contended) ideas +in the minds which, as we should commonly say, 'perceive' the matter. +Thus idealists deny the existence of matter as something intrinsically +different from mind, though they do not deny that our sense-data are +signs of something which exists independently of our private sensations. +In the following chapter we shall consider briefly the reasons--in my +opinion fallacious--which idealists advance in favour of their theory. + + + +CHAPTER IV. IDEALISM + +The word 'idealism' is used by different philosophers in somewhat +different senses. We shall understand by it the doctrine that whatever +exists, or at any rate whatever can be known to exist, must be in +some sense mental. This doctrine, which is very widely held among +philosophers, has several forms, and is advocated on several different +grounds. The doctrine is so widely held, and so interesting in itself, +that even the briefest survey of philosophy must give some account of +it. + +Those who are unaccustomed to philosophical speculation may be inclined +to dismiss such a doctrine as obviously absurd. There is no doubt that +common sense regards tables and chairs and the sun and moon and material +objects generally as something radically different from minds and the +contents of minds, and as having an existence which might continue if +minds ceased. We think of matter as having existed long before there +were any minds, and it is hard to think of it as a mere product of +mental activity. But whether true or false, idealism is not to be +dismissed as obviously absurd. + +We have seen that, even if physical objects do have an independent +existence, they must differ very widely from sense-data, and can only +have a _correspondence_ with sense-data, in the same sort of way in +which a catalogue has a correspondence with the things catalogued. Hence +common sense leaves us completely in the dark as to the true intrinsic +nature of physical objects, and if there were good reason to regard them +as mental, we could not legitimately reject this opinion merely because +it strikes us as strange. The truth about physical objects _must_ be +strange. It may be unattainable, but if any philosopher believes that +he has attained it, the fact that what he offers as the truth is strange +ought not to be made a ground of objection to his opinion. + +The grounds on which idealism is advocated are generally grounds derived +from the theory of knowledge, that is to say, from a discussion of the +conditions which things must satisfy in order that we may be able to +know them. The first serious attempt to establish idealism on such +grounds was that of Bishop Berkeley. He proved first, by arguments which +were largely valid, that our sense-data cannot be supposed to have an +existence independent of us, but must be, in part at least, 'in' the +mind, in the sense that their existence would not continue if there were +no seeing or hearing or touching or smelling or tasting. So far, his +contention was almost certainly valid, even if some of his arguments +were not so. But he went on to argue that sense-data were the only +things of whose existence our perceptions could assure us; and that +to be known is to be 'in' a mind, and therefore to be mental. Hence he +concluded that nothing can ever be known except what is in some mind, +and that whatever is known without being in my mind must be in some +other mind. + +In order to understand his argument, it is necessary to understand his +use of the word 'idea'. He gives the name 'idea' to anything which +is _immediately_ known, as, for example, sense-data are known. Thus a +particular colour which we see is an idea; so is a voice which we hear, +and so on. But the term is not wholly confined to sense-data. There will +also be things remembered or imagined, for with such things also we have +immediate acquaintance at the moment of remembering or imagining. All +such immediate data he calls 'ideas'. + +He then proceeds to consider common objects, such as a tree, for +instance. He shows that all we know immediately when we 'perceive' the +tree consists of ideas in his sense of the word, and he argues that +there is not the slightest ground for supposing that there is anything +real about the tree except what is perceived. Its being, he says, +consists in being perceived: in the Latin of the schoolmen its '_esse_' +is '_percipi_'. He fully admits that the tree must continue to exist +even when we shut our eyes or when no human being is near it. But this +continued existence, he says, is due to the fact that God continues to +perceive it; the 'real' tree, which corresponds to what we called the +physical object, consists of ideas in the mind of God, ideas more or +less like those we have when we see the tree, but differing in the fact +that they are permanent in God's mind so long as the tree continues +to exist. All our perceptions, according to him, consist in a +partial participation in God's perceptions, and it is because of this +participation that different people see more or less the same tree. Thus +apart from minds and their ideas there is nothing in the world, nor is +it possible that anything else should ever be known, since whatever is +known is necessarily an idea. + +There are in this argument a good many fallacies which have been +important in the history of philosophy, and which it will be as well to +bring to light. In the first place, there is a confusion engendered by +the use of the word 'idea'. We think of an idea as essentially something +in somebody's mind, and thus when we are told that a tree consists +entirely of ideas, it is natural to suppose that, if so, the tree +must be entirely in minds. But the notion of being 'in' the mind is +ambiguous. We speak of bearing a person in mind, not meaning that the +person is in our minds, but that a thought of him is in our minds. When +a man says that some business he had to arrange went clean out of his +mind, he does not mean to imply that the business itself was ever in his +mind, but only that a thought of the business was formerly in his mind, +but afterwards ceased to be in his mind. And so when Berkeley says that +the tree must be in our minds if we can know it, all that he really has +a right to say is that a thought of the tree must be in our minds. To +argue that the tree itself must be in our minds is like arguing that a +person whom we bear in mind is himself in our minds. This confusion +may seem too gross to have been really committed by any competent +philosopher, but various attendant circumstances rendered it possible. +In order to see how it was possible, we must go more deeply into the +question as to the nature of ideas. + +Before taking up the general question of the nature of ideas, we must +disentangle two entirely separate questions which arise concerning +sense-data and physical objects. We saw that, for various reasons of +detail, Berkeley was right in treating the sense-data which constitute +our perception of the tree as more or less subjective, in the sense that +they depend upon us as much as upon the tree, and would not exist if the +tree were not being perceived. But this is an entirely different point +from the one by which Berkeley seeks to prove that whatever can be +immediately known must be in a mind. For this purpose arguments of +detail as to the dependence of sense-data upon us are useless. It is +necessary to prove, generally, that by being known, things are shown to +be mental. This is what Berkeley believes himself to have done. It +is this question, and not our previous question as to the difference +between sense-data and the physical object, that must now concern us. + +Taking the word 'idea' in Berkeley's sense, there are two quite distinct +things to be considered whenever an idea is before the mind. There is +on the one hand the thing of which we are aware--say the colour of my +table--and on the other hand the actual awareness itself, the mental act +of apprehending the thing. The mental act is undoubtedly mental, but is +there any reason to suppose that the thing apprehended is in any sense +mental? Our previous arguments concerning the colour did not prove it to +be mental; they only proved that its existence depends upon the relation +of our sense organs to the physical object--in our case, the table. That +is to say, they proved that a certain colour will exist, in a certain +light, if a normal eye is placed at a certain point relatively to +the table. They did not prove that the colour is in the mind of the +percipient. + +Berkeley's view, that obviously the colour must be in the mind, seems +to depend for its plausibility upon confusing the thing apprehended +with the act of apprehension. Either of these might be called an 'idea'; +probably either would have been called an idea by Berkeley. The act +is undoubtedly in the mind; hence, when we are thinking of the act, +we readily assent to the view that ideas must be in the mind. Then, +forgetting that this was only true when ideas were taken as acts of +apprehension, we transfer the proposition that 'ideas are in the mind' +to ideas in the other sense, i.e. to the things apprehended by our acts +of apprehension. Thus, by an unconscious equivocation, we arrive at the +conclusion that whatever we can apprehend must be in our minds. This +seems to be the true analysis of Berkeley's argument, and the ultimate +fallacy upon which it rests. + +This question of the distinction between act and object in our +apprehending of things is vitally important, since our whole power of +acquiring knowledge is bound up with it. The faculty of being acquainted +with things other than itself is the main characteristic of a mind. +Acquaintance with objects essentially consists in a relation between the +mind and something other than the mind; it is this that constitutes the +mind's power of knowing things. If we say that the things known must be +in the mind, we are either unduly limiting the mind's power of knowing, +or we are uttering a mere tautology. We are uttering a mere tautology if +we mean by '_in_ the mind' the same as by '_before_ the mind', i.e. if +we mean merely being apprehended by the mind. But if we mean this, we +shall have to admit that what, _in this sense_, is in the mind, +may nevertheless be not mental. Thus when we realize the nature of +knowledge, Berkeley's argument is seen to be wrong in substance as well +as in form, and his grounds for supposing that 'ideas'--i.e. the objects +apprehended--must be mental, are found to have no validity whatever. +Hence his grounds in favour of idealism may be dismissed. It remains to +see whether there are any other grounds. + +It is often said, as though it were a self-evident truism, that we +cannot know that anything exists which we do not know. It is inferred +that whatever can in any way be relevant to our experience must be at +least capable of being known by us; whence it follows that if matter +were essentially something with which we could not become acquainted, +matter would be something which we could not know to exist, and which +could have for us no importance whatever. It is generally also implied, +for reasons which remain obscure, that what can have no importance for +us cannot be real, and that therefore matter, if it is not composed of +minds or of mental ideas, is impossible and a mere chimaera. + +To go into this argument fully at our present stage would be impossible, +since it raises points requiring a considerable preliminary discussion; +but certain reasons for rejecting the argument may be noticed at +once. To begin at the end: there is no reason why what cannot have any +_practical_ importance for us should not be real. It is true that, +if _theoretical_ importance is included, everything real is of _some_ +importance to us, since, as persons desirous of knowing the truth about +the universe, we have some interest in everything that the universe +contains. But if this sort of interest is included, it is not the case +that matter has no importance for us, provided it exists even if we +cannot know that it exists. We can, obviously, suspect that it may +exist, and wonder whether it does; hence it is connected with our desire +for knowledge, and has the importance of either satisfying or thwarting +this desire. + +Again, it is by no means a truism, and is in fact false, that we cannot +know that anything exists which we do not know. The word 'know' is here +used in two different senses. (1) In its first use it is applicable to +the sort of knowledge which is opposed to error, the sense in which +what we know is _true_, the sense which applies to our beliefs and +convictions, i.e. to what are called _judgements_. In this sense of the +word we know _that_ something is the case. This sort of knowledge may +be described as knowledge of _truths_. (2) In the second use of the word +'know' above, the word applies to our knowledge of _things_, which we +may call _acquaintance_. This is the sense in which we know sense-data. +(The distinction involved is roughly that between _savoir_ and +_connaitre_ in French, or between _wissen_ and _kennen_ in German.) + +Thus the statement which seemed like a truism becomes, when re-stated, +the following: 'We can never truly judge that something with which we +are not acquainted exists.' This is by no means a truism, but on the +contrary a palpable falsehood. I have not the honour to be acquainted +with the Emperor of China, but I truly judge that he exists. It may +be said, of course, that I judge this because of other people's +acquaintance with him. This, however, would be an irrelevant retort, +since, if the principle were true, I could not know that any one else +is acquainted with him. But further: there is no reason why I should not +know of the existence of something with which nobody is acquainted. This +point is important, and demands elucidation. + +If I am acquainted with a thing which exists, my acquaintance gives +me the knowledge that it exists. But it is not true that, conversely, +whenever I can know that a thing of a certain sort exists, I or some one +else must be acquainted with the thing. What happens, in cases where I +have true judgement without acquaintance, is that the thing is known to +me by _description_, and that, in virtue of some general principle, the +existence of a thing answering to this description can be inferred +from the existence of something with which I am acquainted. In order +to understand this point fully, it will be well first to deal with +the difference between knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by +description, and then to consider what knowledge of general principles, +if any, has the same kind of certainty as our knowledge of the existence +of our own experiences. These subjects will be dealt with in the +following chapters. + + + +CHAPTER V. KNOWLEDGE BY ACQUAINTANCE AND KNOWLEDGE BY DESCRIPTION + +In the preceding chapter we saw that there are two sorts of knowledge: +knowledge of things, and knowledge of truths. In this chapter we shall +be concerned exclusively with knowledge of things, of which in turn we +shall have to distinguish two kinds. Knowledge of things, when it is +of the kind we call knowledge by _acquaintance_, is essentially simpler +than any knowledge of truths, and logically independent of knowledge +of truths, though it would be rash to assume that human beings ever, +in fact, have acquaintance with things without at the same time knowing +some truth about them. Knowledge of things by _description_, on the +contrary, always involves, as we shall find in the course of the present +chapter, some knowledge of truths as its source and ground. But first of +all we must make clear what we mean by 'acquaintance' and what we mean +by 'description'. + +We shall say that we have _acquaintance_ with anything of which we are +directly aware, without the intermediary of any process of inference +or any knowledge of truths. Thus in the presence of my table I am +acquainted with the sense-data that make up the appearance of my +table--its colour, shape, hardness, smoothness, etc.; all these are +things of which I am immediately conscious when I am seeing and touching +my table. The particular shade of colour that I am seeing may have many +things said about it--I may say that it is brown, that it is rather +dark, and so on. But such statements, though they make me know truths +about the colour, do not make me know the colour itself any better +than I did before so far as concerns knowledge of the colour itself, as +opposed to knowledge of truths about it, I know the colour perfectly and +completely when I see it, and no further knowledge of it itself is even +theoretically possible. Thus the sense-data which make up the +appearance of my table are things with which I have acquaintance, things +immediately known to me just as they are. + +My knowledge of the table as a physical object, on the contrary, is not +direct knowledge. Such as it is, it is obtained through acquaintance +with the sense-data that make up the appearance of the table. We have +seen that it is possible, without absurdity, to doubt whether there is +a table at all, whereas it is not possible to doubt the sense-data. My +knowledge of the table is of the kind which we shall call 'knowledge +by description'. The table is 'the physical object which causes +such-and-such sense-data'. This describes the table by means of the +sense-data. In order to know anything at all about the table, we must +know truths connecting it with things with which we have acquaintance: +we must know that 'such-and-such sense-data are caused by a physical +object'. There is no state of mind in which we are directly aware of the +table; all our knowledge of the table is really knowledge of truths, and +the actual thing which is the table is not, strictly speaking, known +to us at all. We know a description, and we know that there is just one +object to which this description applies, though the object itself is +not directly known to us. In such a case, we say that our knowledge of +the object is knowledge by description. + +All our knowledge, both knowledge of things and knowledge of truths, +rests upon acquaintance as its foundation. It is therefore important to +consider what kinds of things there are with which we have acquaintance. + +Sense-data, as we have already seen, are among the things with which +we are acquainted; in fact, they supply the most obvious and striking +example of knowledge by acquaintance. But if they were the sole example, +our knowledge would be very much more restricted than it is. We should +only know what is now present to our senses: we could not know anything +about the past--not even that there was a past--nor could we know any +truths about our sense-data, for all knowledge of truths, as we shall +show, demands acquaintance with things which are of an essentially +different character from sense-data, the things which are sometimes +called 'abstract ideas', but which we shall call 'universals'. We have +therefore to consider acquaintance with other things besides sense-data +if we are to obtain any tolerably adequate analysis of our knowledge. + +The first extension beyond sense-data to be considered is acquaintance +by _memory_. It is obvious that we often remember what we have seen or +heard or had otherwise present to our senses, and that in such cases we +are still immediately aware of what we remember, in spite of the fact +that it appears as past and not as present. This immediate knowledge by +memory is the source of all our knowledge concerning the past: without +it, there could be no knowledge of the past by inference, since we +should never know that there was anything past to be inferred. + +The next extension to be considered is acquaintance by _introspection_. +We are not only aware of things, but we are often aware of being aware +of them. When I see the sun, I am often aware of my seeing the sun; thus +'my seeing the sun' is an object with which I have acquaintance. When +I desire food, I may be aware of my desire for food; thus 'my desiring +food' is an object with which I am acquainted. Similarly we may be +aware of our feeling pleasure or pain, and generally of the events which +happen in our minds. This kind of acquaintance, which may be called +self-consciousness, is the source of all our knowledge of mental things. +It is obvious that it is only what goes on in our own minds that can be +thus known immediately. What goes on in the minds of others is known +to us through our perception of their bodies, that is, through the +sense-data in us which are associated with their bodies. But for our +acquaintance with the contents of our own minds, we should be unable to +imagine the minds of others, and therefore we could never arrive at +the knowledge that they have minds. It seems natural to suppose that +self-consciousness is one of the things that distinguish men from +animals: animals, we may suppose, though they have acquaintance with +sense-data, never become aware of this acquaintance. I do not mean +that they _doubt_ whether they exist, but that they have never become +conscious of the fact that they have sensations and feelings, nor +therefore of the fact that they, the subjects of their sensations and +feelings, exist. + +We have spoken of acquaintance with the contents of our minds as +_self_-consciousness, but it is not, of course, consciousness of our +_self_: it is consciousness of particular thoughts and feelings. The +question whether we are also acquainted with our bare selves, as opposed +to particular thoughts and feelings, is a very difficult one, upon which +it would be rash to speak positively. When we try to look into ourselves +we always seem to come upon some particular thought or feeling, and not +upon the 'I' which has the thought or feeling. Nevertheless there are +some reasons for thinking that we are acquainted with the 'I', though +the acquaintance is hard to disentangle from other things. To make clear +what sort of reason there is, let us consider for a moment what our +acquaintance with particular thoughts really involves. + +When I am acquainted with 'my seeing the sun', it seems plain that I am +acquainted with two different things in relation to each other. On the +one hand there is the sense-datum which represents the sun to me, on the +other hand there is that which sees this sense-datum. All acquaintance, +such as my acquaintance with the sense-datum which represents the sun, +seems obviously a relation between the person acquainted and the object +with which the person is acquainted. When a case of acquaintance is one +with which I can be acquainted (as I am acquainted with my acquaintance +with the sense-datum representing the sun), it is plain that the person +acquainted is myself. Thus, when I am acquainted with my +seeing the sun, the whole fact with which I am acquainted is +'Self-acquainted-with-sense-datum'. + +Further, we know the truth 'I am acquainted with this sense-datum'. It +is hard to see how we could know this truth, or even understand what is +meant by it, unless we were acquainted with something which we call 'I'. +It does not seem necessary to suppose that we are acquainted with a more +or less permanent person, the same to-day as yesterday, but it does seem +as though we must be acquainted with that thing, whatever its nature, +which sees the sun and has acquaintance with sense-data. Thus, in some +sense it would seem we must be acquainted with our Selves as opposed +to our particular experiences. But the question is difficult, and +complicated arguments can be adduced on either side. Hence, although +acquaintance with ourselves seems _probably_ to occur, it is not wise to +assert that it undoubtedly does occur. + +We may therefore sum up as follows what has been said concerning +acquaintance with things that exist. We have acquaintance in sensation +with the data of the outer senses, and in introspection with the data of +what may be called the inner sense--thoughts, feelings, desires, etc.; +we have acquaintance in memory with things which have been data either +of the outer senses or of the inner sense. Further, it is probable, +though not certain, that we have acquaintance with Self, as that which +is aware of things or has desires towards things. + +In addition to our acquaintance with particular existing things, we also +have acquaintance with what we shall call _universals_, that is to say, +general ideas, such as _whiteness_, _diversity_, _brotherhood_, and so +on. Every complete sentence must contain at least one word which stands +for a universal, since all verbs have a meaning which is universal. We +shall return to universals later on, in Chapter IX; for the present, it +is only necessary to guard against the supposition that whatever we can +be acquainted with must be something particular and existent. Awareness +of universals is called _conceiving_, and a universal of which we are +aware is called a _concept_. + +It will be seen that among the objects with which we are acquainted +are not included physical objects (as opposed to sense-data), nor other +people's minds. These things are known to us by what I call 'knowledge +by description', which we must now consider. + +By a 'description' I mean any phrase of the form 'a so-and-so' or +'the so-and-so'. A phrase of the form 'a so-and-so' I shall call an +'ambiguous' description; a phrase of the form 'the so-and-so' (in the +singular) I shall call a 'definite' description. Thus 'a man' is an +ambiguous description, and 'the man with the iron mask' is a definite +description. There are various problems connected with ambiguous +descriptions, but I pass them by, since they do not directly concern +the matter we are discussing, which is the nature of our knowledge +concerning objects in cases where we know that there is an object +answering to a definite description, though we are not acquainted with +any such object. This is a matter which is concerned exclusively with +definite descriptions. I shall therefore, in the sequel, speak simply of +'descriptions' when I mean 'definite descriptions'. Thus a description +will mean any phrase of the form 'the so-and-so' in the singular. + +We shall say that an object is 'known by description' when we know that +it is 'the so-and-so', i.e. when we know that there is one object, and +no more, having a certain property; and it will generally be implied +that we do not have knowledge of the same object by acquaintance. We +know that the man with the iron mask existed, and many propositions +are known about him; but we do not know who he was. We know that the +candidate who gets the most votes will be elected, and in this case we +are very likely also acquainted (in the only sense in which one can +be acquainted with some one else) with the man who is, in fact, the +candidate who will get most votes; but we do not know which of the +candidates he is, i.e. we do not know any proposition of the form 'A is +the candidate who will get most votes' where A is one of the candidates +by name. We shall say that we have 'merely descriptive knowledge' of the +so-and-so when, although we know that the so-and-so exists, and although +we may possibly be acquainted with the object which is, in fact, the +so-and-so, yet we do not know any proposition '_a_ is the so-and-so', +where _a_ is something with which we are acquainted. + +When we say 'the so-and-so exists', we mean that there is just one +object which is the so-and-so. The proposition '_a_ is the so-and-so' +means that _a_ has the property so-and-so, and nothing else has. 'Mr. +A. is the Unionist candidate for this constituency' means 'Mr. A. is +a Unionist candidate for this constituency, and no one else is'. 'The +Unionist candidate for this constituency exists' means 'some one is a +Unionist candidate for this constituency, and no one else is'. Thus, +when we are acquainted with an object which is the so-and-so, we know +that the so-and-so exists; but we may know that the so-and-so exists +when we are not acquainted with any object which we know to be the +so-and-so, and even when we are not acquainted with any object which, in +fact, is the so-and-so. + +Common words, even proper names, are usually really descriptions. That +is to say, the thought in the mind of a person using a proper name +correctly can generally only be expressed explicitly if we replace the +proper name by a description. Moreover, the description required to +express the thought will vary for different people, or for the same +person at different times. The only thing constant (so long as the name +is rightly used) is the object to which the name applies. But so long as +this remains constant, the particular description involved usually makes +no difference to the truth or falsehood of the proposition in which the +name appears. + +Let us take some illustrations. Suppose some statement made about +Bismarck. Assuming that there is such a thing as direct acquaintance +with oneself, Bismarck himself might have used his name directly to +designate the particular person with whom he was acquainted. In this +case, if he made a judgement about himself, he himself might be a +constituent of the judgement. Here the proper name has the direct use +which it always wishes to have, as simply standing for a certain object, +and not for a description of the object. But if a person who knew +Bismarck made a judgement about him, the case is different. What this +person was acquainted with were certain sense-data which he connected +(rightly, we will suppose) with Bismarck's body. His body, as a physical +object, and still more his mind, were only known as the body and the +mind connected with these sense-data. That is, they were known by +description. It is, of course, very much a matter af chance which +characteristics of a man's appearance will come into a friend's mind +when he thinks of him; thus the description actually in the friend's +mind is accidental. The essential point is that he knows that the +various descriptions all apply to the same entity, in spite of not being +acquainted with the entity in question. + +When we, who did not know Bismarck, make a judgement about him, the +description in our minds will probably be some more or less vague mass +of historical knowledge--far more, in most cases, than is required to +identify him. But, for the sake of illustration, let us assume that we +think of him as 'the first Chancellor of the German Empire'. Here all +the words are abstract except 'German'. The word 'German' will, again, +have different meanings for different people. To some it will recall +travels in Germany, to some the look of Germany on the map, and so on. +But if we are to obtain a description which we know to be applicable, +we shall be compelled, at some point, to bring in a reference to a +particular with which we are acquainted. Such reference is involved in +any mention of past, present, and future (as opposed to definite dates), +or of here and there, or of what others have told us. Thus it would seem +that, in some way or other, a description known to be applicable to a +particular must involve some reference to a particular with which we +are acquainted, if our knowledge about the thing described is not to be +merely what follows _logically_ from the description. For example, 'the +most long-lived of men' is a description involving only universals, +which must apply to some man, but we can make no judgements concerning +this man which involve knowledge about him beyond what the description +gives. If, however, we say, 'The first Chancellor of the German Empire +was an astute diplomatist', we can only be assured of the truth of our +judgement in virtue of something with which we are acquainted--usually a +testimony heard or read. Apart from the information we convey to others, +apart from the fact about the actual Bismarck, which gives importance +to our judgement, the thought we really have contains the one or more +particulars involved, and otherwise consists wholly of concepts. + +All names of places--London, England, Europe, the Earth, the Solar +System--similarly involve, when used, descriptions which start from some +one or more particulars with which we are acquainted. I suspect that +even the Universe, as considered by metaphysics, involves such a +connexion with particulars. In logic, on the contrary, where we are +concerned not merely with what does exist, but with whatever might or +could exist or be, no reference to actual particulars is involved. + +It would seem that, when we make a statement about something only known +by description, we often _intend_ to make our statement, not in the form +involving the description, but about the actual thing described. That +is to say, when we say anything about Bismarck, we should like, if we +could, to make the judgement which Bismarck alone can make, namely, +the judgement of which he himself is a constituent. In this we are +necessarily defeated, since the actual Bismarck is unknown to us. But +we know that there is an object B, called Bismarck, and that B was an +astute diplomatist. We can thus _describe_ the proposition we should +like to affirm, namely, 'B was an astute diplomatist', where B is the +object which was Bismarck. If we are describing Bismarck as 'the first +Chancellor of the German Empire', the proposition we should like to +affirm may be described as 'the proposition asserting, concerning the +actual object which was the first Chancellor of the German Empire, that +this object was an astute diplomatist'. What enables us to communicate +in spite of the varying descriptions we employ is that we know there is +a true proposition concerning the actual Bismarck, and that however we +may vary the description (so long as the description is correct) the +proposition described is still the same. This proposition, which is +described and is known to be true, is what interests us; but we are not +acquainted with the proposition itself, and do not know it, though we +know it is true. + +It will be seen that there are various stages in the removal from +acquaintance with particulars: there is Bismarck to people who knew him; +Bismarck to those who only know of him through history; the man with +the iron mask; the longest-lived of men. These are progressively further +removed from acquaintance with particulars; the first comes as near to +acquaintance as is possible in regard to another person; in the second, +we shall still be said to know 'who Bismarck was'; in the third, we do +not know who was the man with the iron mask, though we can know many +propositions about him which are not logically deducible from the fact +that he wore an iron mask; in the fourth, finally, we know nothing +beyond what is logically deducible from the definition of the man. There +is a similar hierarchy in the region of universals. Many universals, +like many particulars, are only known to us by description. But here, +as in the case of particulars, knowledge concerning what is known by +description is ultimately reducible to knowledge concerning what is +known by acquaintance. + +The fundamental principle in the analysis of propositions containing +descriptions is this: _Every proposition which we can understand must be +composed wholly of constituents with which we are acquainted_. + +We shall not at this stage attempt to answer all the objections which +may be urged against this fundamental principle. For the present, we +shall merely point out that, in some way or other, it must be possible +to meet these objections, for it is scarcely conceivable that we can +make a judgement or entertain a supposition without knowing what it is +that we are judging or supposing about. We must attach _some_ meaning +to the words we use, if we are to speak significantly and not utter mere +noise; and the meaning we attach to our words must be something with +which we are acquainted. Thus when, for example, we make a statement +about Julius Caesar, it is plain that Julius Caesar himself is not +before our minds, since we are not acquainted with him. We have in mind +some description of Julius Caesar: 'the man who was assassinated on the +Ides of March', 'the founder of the Roman Empire', or, perhaps, merely +'the man whose name was _Julius Caesar_'. (In this last description, +_Julius Caesar_ is a noise or shape with which we are acquainted.) +Thus our statement does not mean quite what it seems to mean, but means +something involving, instead of Julius Caesar, some description of him +which is composed wholly of particulars and universals with which we are +acquainted. + +The chief importance of knowledge by description is that it enables us +to pass beyond the limits of our private experience. In spite of the +fact that we can only know truths which are wholly composed of terms +which we have experienced in acquaintance, we can yet have knowledge by +description of things which we have never experienced. In view of the +very narrow range of our immediate experience, this result is vital, and +until it is understood, much of our knowledge must remain mysterious and +therefore doubtful. + + + +CHAPTER VI. ON INDUCTION + +In almost all our previous discussions we have been concerned in +the attempt to get clear as to our data in the way of knowledge of +existence. What things are there in the universe whose existence is +known to us owing to our being acquainted with them? So far, our answer +has been that we are acquainted with our sense-data, and, probably, +with ourselves. These we know to exist. And past sense-data which +are remembered are known to have existed in the past. This knowledge +supplies our data. + +But if we are to be able to draw inferences from these data--if we are +to know of the existence of matter, of other people, of the past before +our individual memory begins, or of the future, we must know general +principles of some kind by means of which such inferences can be drawn. +It must be known to us that the existence of some one sort of thing, A, +is a sign of the existence of some other sort of thing, B, either at +the same time as A or at some earlier or later time, as, for example, +thunder is a sign of the earlier existence of lightning. If this were +not known to us, we could never extend our knowledge beyond the +sphere of our private experience; and this sphere, as we have seen, is +exceedingly limited. The question we have now to consider is whether +such an extension is possible, and if so, how it is effected. + +Let us take as an illustration a matter about which none of us, in fact, +feel the slightest doubt. We are all convinced that the sun will rise +to-morrow. Why? Is this belief a mere blind outcome of past experience, +or can it be justified as a reasonable belief? It is not easy to find +a test by which to judge whether a belief of this kind is reasonable or +not, but we can at least ascertain what sort of general beliefs would +suffice, if true, to justify the judgement that the sun will rise +to-morrow, and the many other similar judgements upon which our actions +are based. + +It is obvious that if we are asked why we believe that the sun will rise +to-morrow, we shall naturally answer 'Because it always has risen every +day'. We have a firm belief that it will rise in the future, because it +has risen in the past. If we are challenged as to why we believe that +it will continue to rise as heretofore, we may appeal to the laws of +motion: the earth, we shall say, is a freely rotating body, and such +bodies do not cease to rotate unless something interferes from outside, +and there is nothing outside to interfere with the earth between now and +to-morrow. Of course it might be doubted whether we are quite certain +that there is nothing outside to interfere, but this is not the +interesting doubt. The interesting doubt is as to whether the laws +of motion will remain in operation until to-morrow. If this doubt is +raised, we find ourselves in the same position as when the doubt about +the sunrise was first raised. + +The _only_ reason for believing that the laws of motion will remain in +operation is that they have operated hitherto, so far as our knowledge +of the past enables us to judge. It is true that we have a greater body +of evidence from the past in favour of the laws of motion than we have +in favour of the sunrise, because the sunrise is merely a particular +case of fulfilment of the laws of motion, and there are countless other +particular cases. But the real question is: Do _any_ number of cases +of a law being fulfilled in the past afford evidence that it will be +fulfilled in the future? If not, it becomes plain that we have no ground +whatever for expecting the sun to rise to-morrow, or for expecting the +bread we shall eat at our next meal not to poison us, or for any of the +other scarcely conscious expectations that control our daily lives. It +is to be observed that all such expectations are only _probable_; thus +we have not to seek for a proof that they _must_ be fulfilled, but +only for some reason in favour of the view that they are _likely_ to be +fulfilled. + +Now in dealing with this question we must, to begin with, make an +important distinction, without which we should soon become involved +in hopeless confusions. Experience has shown us that, hitherto, the +frequent repetition of some uniform succession or coexistence has been a +_cause_ of our expecting the same succession or coexistence on the next +occasion. Food that has a certain appearance generally has a certain +taste, and it is a severe shock to our expectations when the familiar +appearance is found to be associated with an unusual taste. Things which +we see become associated, by habit, with certain tactile sensations +which we expect if we touch them; one of the horrors of a ghost (in +many ghost-stories) is that it fails to give us any sensations of touch. +Uneducated people who go abroad for the first time are so surprised as +to be incredulous when they find their native language not understood. + +And this kind of association is not confined to men; in animals also it +is very strong. A horse which has been often driven along a certain +road resists the attempt to drive him in a different direction. Domestic +animals expect food when they see the person who usually feeds them. We +know that all these rather crude expectations of uniformity are liable +to be misleading. The man who has fed the chicken every day throughout +its life at last wrings its neck instead, showing that more refined +views as to the uniformity of nature would have been useful to the +chicken. + +But in spite of the misleadingness of such expectations, they +nevertheless exist. The mere fact that something has happened a certain +number of times causes animals and men to expect that it will happen +again. Thus our instincts certainly cause us to believe that the sun +will rise to-morrow, but we may be in no better a position than the +chicken which unexpectedly has its neck wrung. We have therefore to +distinguish the fact that past uniformities _cause_ expectations as to +the future, from the question whether there is any reasonable ground for +giving weight to such expectations after the question of their validity +has been raised. + +The problem we have to discuss is whether there is any reason for +believing in what is called 'the uniformity of nature'. The belief in +the uniformity of nature is the belief that everything that has happened +or will happen is an instance of some general law to which there are no +exceptions. The crude expectations which we have been considering are +all subject to exceptions, and therefore liable to disappoint those who +entertain them. But science habitually assumes, at least as a working +hypothesis, that general rules which have exceptions can be replaced by +general rules which have no exceptions. 'Unsupported bodies in air fall' +is a general rule to which balloons and aeroplanes are exceptions. But +the laws of motion and the law of gravitation, which account for the +fact that most bodies fall, also account for the fact that balloons and +aeroplanes can rise; thus the laws of motion and the law of gravitation +are not subject to these exceptions. + +The belief that the sun will rise to-morrow might be falsified if the +earth came suddenly into contact with a large body which destroyed its +rotation; but the laws of motion and the law of gravitation would not +be infringed by such an event. The business of science is to find +uniformities, such as the laws of motion and the law of gravitation, +to which, so far as our experience extends, there are no exceptions. +In this search science has been remarkably successful, and it may be +conceded that such uniformities have held hitherto. This brings us back +to the question: Have we any reason, assuming that they have always held +in the past, to suppose that they will hold in the future? + +It has been argued that we have reason to know that the future will +resemble the past, because what was the future has constantly become the +past, and has always been found to resemble the past, so that we really +have experience of the future, namely of times which were formerly +future, which we may call past futures. But such an argument really begs +the very question at issue. We have experience of past futures, but not +of future futures, and the question is: Will future futures resemble +past futures? This question is not to be answered by an argument which +starts from past futures alone. We have therefore still to seek for some +principle which shall enable us to know that the future will follow the +same laws as the past. + +The reference to the future in this question is not essential. The same +question arises when we apply the laws that work in our experience to +past things of which we have no experience--as, for example, in geology, +or in theories as to the origin of the Solar System. The question we +really have to ask is: 'When two things have been found to be often +associated, and no instance is known of the one occurring without the +other, does the occurrence of one of the two, in a fresh instance, give +any good ground for expecting the other?' On our answer to this question +must depend the validity of the whole of our expectations as to the +future, the whole of the results obtained by induction, and in fact +practically all the beliefs upon which our daily life is based. + +It must be conceded, to begin with, that the fact that two things have +been found often together and never apart does not, by itself, suffice +to _prove_ demonstratively that they will be found together in the next +case we examine. The most we can hope is that the oftener things are +found together, the more probable it becomes that they will be found +together another time, and that, if they have been found together often +enough, the probability will amount _almost_ to certainty. It can +never quite reach certainty, because we know that in spite of frequent +repetitions there sometimes is a failure at the last, as in the case +of the chicken whose neck is wrung. Thus probability is all we ought to +seek. + +It might be urged, as against the view we are advocating, that we +know all natural phenomena to be subject to the reign of law, and that +sometimes, on the basis of observation, we can see that only one law +can possibly fit the facts of the case. Now to this view there are two +answers. The first is that, even if _some_ law which has no exceptions +applies to our case, we can never, in practice, be sure that we have +discovered that law and not one to which there are exceptions. The +second is that the reign of law would seem to be itself only probable, +and that our belief that it will hold in the future, or in unexamined +cases in the past, is itself based upon the very principle we are +examining. + +The principle we are examining may be called the _principle of +induction_, and its two parts may be stated as follows: + +(a) When a thing of a certain sort A has been found to be associated +with a thing of a certain other sort B, and has never been found +dissociated from a thing of the sort B, the greater the number of cases +in which A and B have been associated, the greater is the probability +that they will be associated in a fresh case in which one of them is +known to be present; + +(b) Under the same circumstances, a sufficient number of cases of +association will make the probability of a fresh association nearly a +certainty, and will make it approach certainty without limit. + +As just stated, the principle applies only to the verification of our +expectation in a single fresh instance. But we want also to know that +there is a probability in favour of the general law that things of the +sort A are _always_ associated with things of the sort B, provided a +sufficient number of cases of association are known, and no cases of +failure of association are known. The probability of the general law is +obviously less than the probability of the particular case, since if the +general law is true, the particular case must also be true, whereas +the particular case may be true without the general law being true. +Nevertheless the probability of the general law is increased by +repetitions, just as the probability of the particular case is. We may +therefore repeat the two parts of our principle as regards the general +law, thus: + +(a) The greater the number of cases in which a thing of the sort A has +been found associated with a thing of the sort B, the more probable it +is (if no cases of failure of association are known) that A is always +associated with B; + +b) Under the same circumstances, a sufficient number of cases of the +association of A with B will make it nearly certain that A is always +associated with B, and will make this general law approach certainty +without limit. + +It should be noted that probability is always relative to certain data. +In our case, the data are merely the known cases of coexistence of A and +B. There may be other data, which _might_ be taken into account, which +would gravely alter the probability. For example, a man who had seen a +great many white swans might argue, by our principle, that on the +data it was _probable_ that all swans were white, and this might be a +perfectly sound argument. The argument is not disproved ny the fact that +some swans are black, because a thing may very well happen in spite of +the fact that some data render it improbable. In the case of the swans, +a man might know that colour is a very variable characteristic in many +species of animals, and that, therefore, an induction as to colour is +peculiarly liable to error. But this knowledge would be a fresh datum, +by no means proving that the probability relatively to our previous data +had been wrongly estimated. The fact, therefore, that things often fail +to fulfil our expectations is no evidence that our expectations will not +_probably_ be fulfilled in a given case or a given class of cases. Thus +our inductive principle is at any rate not capable of being _disproved_ +by an appeal to experience. + +The inductive principle, however, is equally incapable of being _proved_ +by an appeal to experience. Experience might conceivably confirm +the inductive principle as regards the cases that have been already +examined; but as regards unexamined cases, it is the inductive principle +alone that can justify any inference from what has been examined to what +has not been examined. All arguments which, on the basis of experience, +argue as to the future or the unexperienced parts of the past or +present, assume the inductive principle; hence we can never use +experience to prove the inductive principle without begging the +question. Thus we must either accept the inductive principle on the +ground of its intrinsic evidence, or forgo all justification of our +expectations about the future. If the principle is unsound, we have no +reason to expect the sun to rise to-morrow, to expect bread to be more +nourishing than a stone, or to expect that if we throw ourselves off +the roof we shall fall. When we see what looks like our best friend +approaching us, we shall have no reason to suppose that his body is not +inhabited by the mind of our worst enemy or of some total stranger. All +our conduct is based upon associations which have worked in the past, +and which we therefore regard as likely to work in the future; and this +likelihood is dependent for its validity upon the inductive principle. + +The general principles of science, such as the belief in the reign +of law, and the belief that every event must have a cause, are as +completely dependent upon the inductive principle as are the beliefs of +daily life All such general principles are believed because mankind have +found innumerable instances of their truth and no instances of their +falsehood. But this affords no evidence for their truth in the future, +unless the inductive principle is assumed. + +Thus all knowledge which, on a basis of experience tells us something +about what is not experienced, is based upon a belief which experience +can neither confirm nor confute, yet which, at least in its more +concrete applications, appears to be as firmly rooted in us as many +of the facts of experience. The existence and justification of such +beliefs--for the inductive principle, as we shall see, is not the only +example--raises some of the most difficult and most debated problems of +philosophy. We will, in the next chapter, consider briefly what may be +said to account for such knowledge, and what is its scope and its degree +of certainty. + + + +CHAPTER VII. ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GENERAL PRINCIPLES + +We saw in the preceding chapter that the principle of induction, while +necessary to the validity of all arguments based on experience, +is itself not capable of being proved by experience, and yet is +unhesitatingly believed by every one, at least in all its concrete +applications. In these characteristics the principle of induction does +not stand alone. There are a number of other principles which cannot be +proved or disproved by experience, but are used in arguments which start +from what is experienced. + +Some of these principles have even greater evidence than the principle +of induction, and the knowledge of them has the same degree of certainty +as the knowledge of the existence of sense-data. They constitute the +means of drawing inferences from what is given in sensation; and if what +we infer is to be true, it is just as necessary that our principles +of inference should be true as it is that our data should be true. The +principles of inference are apt to be overlooked because of their +very obviousness--the assumption involved is assented to without our +realizing that it is an assumption. But it is very important to realize +the use of principles of inference, if a correct theory of knowledge +is to be obtained; for our knowledge of them raises interesting and +difficult questions. + +In all our knowledge of general principles, what actually happens +is that first of all we realize some particular application of the +principle, and then we realize that the particularity is irrelevant, and +that there is a generality which may equally truly be affirmed. This is +of course familiar in such matters as teaching arithmetic: 'two and +two are four' is first learnt in the case of some particular pair of +couples, and then in some other particular case, and so on, until at +last it becomes possible to see that it is true of any pair of couples. +The same thing happens with logical principles. Suppose two men are +discussing what day of the month it is. One of them says, 'At least you +will admit that _if_ yesterday was the 15th to-day must be the 16th.' +'Yes', says the other, 'I admit that.' 'And you know', the first +continues, 'that yesterday was the 15th, because you dined with Jones, +and your diary will tell you that was on the 15th.' 'Yes', says the +second; 'therefore to-day _is_ the 16th.' + +Now such an argument is not hard to follow; and if it is granted that +its premisses are true in fact, no one will deny that the conclusion +must also be true. But it depends for its truth upon an instance of a +general logical principle. The logical principle is as follows: 'Suppose +it known that _if_ this is true, then that is true. Suppose it also +known that this _is_ true, then it follows that that is true.' When it +is the case that if this is true, that is true, we shall say that this +'implies' that, and that that 'follows from' this. Thus our principle +states that if this implies that, and this is true, then that is true. +In other words, 'anything implied by a true proposition is true', or +'whatever follows from a true proposition is true'. + +This principle is really involved--at least, concrete instances of it +are involved--in all demonstrations. Whenever one thing which we believe +is used to prove something else, which we consequently believe, this +principle is relevant. If any one asks: 'Why should I accept the results +of valid arguments based on true premisses?' we can only answer by +appealing to our principle. In fact, the truth of the principle is +impossible to doubt, and its obviousness is so great that at first sight +it seems almost trivial. Such principles, however, are not trivial to +the philosopher, for they show that we may have indubitable knowledge +which is in no way derived from objects of sense. + +The above principle is merely one of a certain number of self-evident +logical principles. Some at least of these principles must be granted +before any argument or proof becomes possible. When some of them have +been granted, others can be proved, though these others, so long as they +are simple, are just as obvious as the principles taken for granted. For +no very good reason, three of these principles have been singled out by +tradition under the name of 'Laws of Thought'. + +They are as follows: + +(1) _The law of identity_: 'Whatever is, is.' + +(2) _The law of contradiction_: 'Nothing can both be and not be.' + +(3) _The law of excluded middle_: 'Everything must either be or not be.' + +These three laws are samples of self-evident logical principles, but +are not really more fundamental or more self-evident than various other +similar principles: for instance, the one we considered just now, which +states that what follows from a true premiss is true. The name 'laws of +thought' is also misleading, for what is important is not the fact that +we think in accordance with these laws, but the fact that things behave +in accordance with them; in other words, the fact that when we think in +accordance with them we think _truly_. But this is a large question, to +which we must return at a later stage. + +In addition to the logical principles which enable us to prove from +a given premiss that something is _certainly_ true, there are other +logical principles which enable us to prove, from a given premiss, +that there is a greater or less probability that something is true. An +example of such principles--perhaps the most important example is the +inductive principle, which we considered in the preceding chapter. + +One of the great historic controversies in philosophy is the controversy +between the two schools called respectively 'empiricists' and +'rationalists'. The empiricists--who are best represented by the +British philosophers, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume--maintained that all +our knowledge is derived from experience; the rationalists--who are +represented by the Continental philosophers of the seventeenth century, +especially Descartes and Leibniz--maintained that, in addition to what +we know by experience, there are certain 'innate ideas' and 'innate +principles', which we know independently of experience. It has now +become possible to decide with some confidence as to the truth or +falsehood of these opposing schools. It must be admitted, for the +reasons already stated, that logical principles are known to us, and +cannot be themselves proved by experience, since all proof presupposes +them. In this, therefore, which was the most important point of the +controversy, the rationalists were in the right. + +On the other hand, even that part of our knowledge which is _logically_ +independent of experience (in the sense that experience cannot prove +it) is yet elicited and caused by experience. It is on occasion of +particular experiences that we become aware of the general laws which +their connexions exemplify. It would certainly be absurd to suppose that +there are innate principles in the sense that babies are born with a +knowledge of everything which men know and which cannot be deduced from +what is experienced. For this reason, the word 'innate' would not now be +employed to describe our knowledge of logical principles. The phrase +'_a priori_' is less objectionable, and is more usual in modern writers. +Thus, while admitting that all knowledge is elicited and caused by +experience, we shall nevertheless hold that some knowledge is _a +priori_, in the sense that the experience which makes us think of it +does not suffice to prove it, but merely so directs our attention that +we see its truth without requiring any proof from experience. + +There is another point of great importance, in which the empiricists +were in the right as against the rationalists. Nothing can be known to +_exist_ except by the help of experience. That is to say, if we wish to +prove that something of which we have no direct experience exists, we +must have among our premisses the existence of one or more things of +which we have direct experience. Our belief that the Emperor of China +exists, for example, rests upon testimony, and testimony consists, +in the last analysis, of sense-data seen or heard in reading or being +spoken to. Rationalists believed that, from general consideration as +to what must be, they could deduce the existence of this or that in the +actual world. In this belief they seem to have been mistaken. All the +knowledge that we can acquire _a priori_ concerning existence seems +to be hypothetical: it tells us that if one thing exists, another must +exist, or, more generally, that if one proposition is true, another must +be true. This is exemplified by the principles we have already dealt +with, such as '_if_ this is true, and this implies that, then that is +true', or '_if_ this and that have been repeatedly found connected, they +will probably be connected in the next instance in which one of them is +found'. Thus the scope and power of _a priori_ principles is strictly +limited. All knowledge that something exists must be in part dependent +on experience. When anything is known immediately, its existence is +known by experience alone; when anything is proved to exist, without +being known immediately, both experience and _a priori_ principles must +be required in the proof. Knowledge is called _empirical_ when it rests +wholly or partly upon experience. Thus all knowledge which asserts +existence is empirical, and the only _a priori_ knowledge concerning +existence is hypothetical, giving connexions among things that exist or +may exist, but not giving actual existence. + +_A priori_ knowledge is not all of the logical kind we have been +hitherto considering. Perhaps the most important example of non-logical +_a priori_ knowledge is knowledge as to ethical value. I am not speaking +of judgements as to what is useful or as to what is virtuous, for such +judgements do require empirical premisses; I am speaking of judgements +as to the intrinsic desirability of things. If something is useful, it +must be useful because it secures some end; the end must, if we have +gone far enough, be valuable on its own account, and not merely because +it is useful for some further end. Thus all judgements as to what is +useful depend upon judgements as to what has value on its own account. + +We judge, for example, that happiness is more desirable than misery, +knowledge than ignorance, goodwill than hatred, and so on. Such +judgements must, in part at least, be immediate and _a priori_. Like our +previous _a priori_ judgements, they may be elicited by experience, and +indeed they must be; for it seems not possible to judge whether anything +is intrinsically valuable unless we have experienced something of +the same kind. But it is fairly obvious that they cannot be proved by +experience; for the fact that a thing exists or does not exist cannot +prove either that it is good that it should exist or that it is bad. The +pursuit of this subject belongs to ethics, where the impossibility of +deducing what ought to be from what is has to be established. In the +present connexion, it is only important to realize that knowledge as to +what is intrinsically of value is _a priori_ in the same sense in +which logic is _a priori_, namely in the sense that the truth of such +knowledge can be neither proved nor disproved by experience. + +All pure mathematics is _a priori_, like logic. This was strenuously +denied by the empirical philosophers, who maintained that experience was +as much the source of our knowledge of arithmetic as of our knowledge of +geography. They maintained that by the repeated experience of seeing two +things and two other things, and finding that altogether they made four +things, we were led by induction to the conclusion that two things +and two other things would _always_ make four things altogether. If, +however, this were the source of our knowledge that two and two are +four, we should proceed differently, in persuading ourselves of its +truth, from the way in which we do actually proceed. In fact, a certain +number of instances are needed to make us think of two abstractly, +rather than of two coins or two books or two people, or two of any other +specified kind. But as soon as we are able to divest our thoughts of +irrelevant particularity, we become able to see the general principle +that two and two are four; any one instance is seen to be _typical_, and +the examination of other instances becomes unnecessary.(1) + +(1) Cf. A. N. Whitehead, _Introduction to Mathematics_ (Home University +Library). + +The same thing is exemplified in geometry. If we want to prove some +property of _all_ triangles, we draw some one triangle and reason about +it; but we can avoid making use of any property which it does not share +with all other triangles, and thus, from our particular case, we obtain +a general result. We do not, in fact, feel our certainty that two and +two are four increased by fresh instances, because, as soon as we have +seen the truth of this proposition, our certainty becomes so great as +to be incapable of growing greater. Moreover, we feel some quality of +necessity about the proposition 'two and two are four', which is +absent from even the best attested empirical generalizations. Such +generalizations always remain mere facts: we feel that there might be a +world in which they were false, though in the actual world they happen +to be true. In any possible world, on the contrary, we feel that two +and two would be four: this is not a mere fact, but a necessity to which +everything actual and possible must conform. + +The case may be made clearer by considering a genuinely-empirical +generalization, such as 'All men are mortal.' It is plain that we +believe this proposition, in the first place, because there is no known +instance of men living beyond a certain age, and in the second place +because there seem to be physiological grounds for thinking that an +organism such as a man's body must sooner or later wear out. Neglecting +the second ground, and considering merely our experience of men's +mortality, it is plain that we should not be content with one quite +clearly understood instance of a man dying, whereas, in the case of 'two +and two are four', one instance does suffice, when carefully considered, +to persuade us that the same must happen in any other instance. Also +we can be forced to admit, on reflection, that there may be some doubt, +however slight, as to whether _all_ men are mortal. This may be made +plain by the attempt to imagine two different worlds, in one of which +there are men who are not mortal, while in the other two and two make +five. When Swift invites us to consider the race of Struldbugs who never +die, we are able to acquiesce in imagination. But a world where two +and two make five seems quite on a different level. We feel that such a +world, if there were one, would upset the whole fabric of our knowledge +and reduce us to utter doubt. + +The fact is that, in simple mathematical judgements such as 'two and two +are four', and also in many judgements of logic, we can know the general +proposition without inferring it from instances, although some instance +is usually necessary to make clear to us what the general proposition +means. This is why there is real utility in the process of _deduction_, +which goes from the general to the general, or from the general to the +particular, as well as in the process of _induction_, which goes from +the particular to the particular, or from the particular to the general. +It is an old debate among philosophers whether deduction ever gives +_new_ knowledge. We can now see that in certain cases, at least, it does +do so. If we already know that two and two always make four, and we +know that Brown and Jones are two, and so are Robinson and Smith, we can +deduce that Brown and Jones and Robinson and Smith are four. This is +new knowledge, not contained in our premisses, because the general +proposition, 'two and two are four', never told us there were such +people as Brown and Jones and Robinson and Smith, and the particular +premisses do not tell us that there were four of them, whereas the +particular proposition deduced does tell us both these things. + +But the newness of the knowledge is much less certain if we take the +stock instance of deduction that is always given in books on logic, +namely, 'All men are mortal; Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is +mortal.' In this case, what we really know beyond reasonable doubt is +that certain men, A, B, C, were mortal, since, in fact, they have died. +If Socrates is one of these men, it is foolish to go the roundabout way +through 'all men are mortal' to arrive at the conclusion that _probably_ +Socrates is mortal. If Socrates is not one of the men on whom our +induction is based, we shall still do better to argue straight from our +A, B, C, to Socrates, than to go round by the general proposition, 'all +men are mortal'. For the probability that Socrates is mortal is greater, +on our data, than the probability that all men are mortal. (This is +obvious, because if all men are mortal, so is Socrates; but if Socrates +is mortal, it does not follow that all men are mortal.) Hence we shall +reach the conclusion that Socrates is mortal with a greater approach to +certainty if we make our argument purely inductive than if we go by way +of 'all men are mortal' and then use deduction. + +This illustrates the difference between general propositions known _a +priori_ such as 'two and two are four', and empirical generalizations +such as 'all men are mortal'. In regard to the former, deduction is the +right mode of argument, whereas in regard to the latter, induction is +always theoretically preferable, and warrants a greater confidence in +the truth of our conclusion, because all empirical generalizations are +more uncertain than the instances of them. + +We have now seen that there are propositions known _a priori_, and that +among them are the propositions of logic and pure mathematics, as well +as the fundamental propositions of ethics. The question which must +next occupy us is this: How is it possible that there should be such +knowledge? And more particularly, how can there be knowledge of general +propositions in cases where we have not examined all the instances, and +indeed never can examine them all, because their number is infinite? +These questions, which were first brought prominently forward by +the German philosopher Kant (1724-1804), are very difficult, and +historically very important. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. HOW _A PRIORI_ KNOWLEDGE IS POSSIBLE + +Immanuel Kant is generally regarded as the greatest of the modern +philosophers. Though he lived through the Seven Years War and the +French Revolution, he never interrupted his teaching of philosophy at +Koenigsberg in East Prussia. His most distinctive contribution was the +invention of what he called the 'critical' philosophy, which, assuming +as a datum that there is knowledge of various kinds, inquired how such +knowledge comes to be possible, and deduced, from the answer to this +inquiry, many metaphysical results as to the nature of the world. +Whether these results were valid may well be doubted. But Kant +undoubtedly deserves credit for two things: first, for having perceived +that we have _a priori_ knowledge which is not purely 'analytic', i.e. +such that the opposite would be self-contradictory, and secondly, +for having made evident the philosophical importance of the theory of +knowledge. + +Before the time of Kant, it was generally held that whatever knowledge +was _a priori_ must be 'analytic'. What this word means will be best +illustrated by examples. If I say, 'A bald man is a man', 'A plane +figure is a figure', 'A bad poet is a poet', I make a purely analytic +judgement: the subject spoken about is given as having at least two +properties, of which one is singled out to be asserted of it. Such +propositions as the above are trivial, and would never be enunciated +in real life except by an orator preparing the way for a piece of +sophistry. They are called 'analytic' because the predicate is obtained +by merely analysing the subject. Before the time of Kant it was thought +that all judgements of which we could be certain _a priori_ were of this +kind: that in all of them there was a predicate which was only part +of the subject of which it was asserted. If this were so, we should be +involved in a definite contradiction if we attempted to deny anything +that could be known _a priori_. 'A bald man is not bald' would assert +and deny baldness of the same man, and would therefore contradict +itself. Thus according to the philosophers before Kant, the law of +contradiction, which asserts that nothing can at the same time have and +not have a certain property, sufficed to establish the truth of all _a +priori_ knowledge. + +Hume (1711-76), who preceded Kant, accepting the usual view as to what +makes knowledge _a priori_, discovered that, in many cases which had +previously been supposed analytic, and notably in the case of cause and +effect, the connexion was really synthetic. Before Hume, rationalists at +least had supposed that the effect could be logically deduced from the +cause, if only we had sufficient knowledge. Hume argued--correctly, as +would now be generally admitted--that this could not be done. Hence he +inferred the far more doubtful proposition that nothing could be known +_a priori_ about the connexion of cause and effect. Kant, who had been +educated in the rationalist tradition, was much perturbed by Hume's +scepticism, and endeavoured to find an answer to it. He perceived that +not only the connexion of cause and effect, but all the propositions +of arithmetic and geometry, are 'synthetic', i.e. not analytic: in +all these propositions, no analysis of the subject will reveal the +predicate. His stock instance was the proposition 7 + 5 = 12. He pointed +out, quite truly, that 7 and 5 have to be put together to give 12: the +idea of 12 is not contained in them, nor even in the idea of adding them +together. Thus he was led to the conclusion that all pure mathematics, +though _a priori_, is synthetic; and this conclusion raised a new +problem of which he endeavoured to find the solution. + +The question which Kant put at the beginning of his philosophy, namely +'How is pure mathematics possible?' is an interesting and difficult one, +to which every philosophy which is not purely sceptical must find +some answer. The answer of the pure empiricists, that our mathematical +knowledge is derived by induction from particular instances, we have +already seen to be inadequate, for two reasons: first, that the validity +of the inductive principle itself cannot be proved by induction; +secondly, that the general propositions of mathematics, such as 'two +and two always make four', can obviously be known with certainty by +consideration of a single instance, and gain nothing by enumeration of +other cases in which they have been found to be true. Thus our knowledge +of the general propositions of mathematics (and the same applies to +logic) must be accounted for otherwise than our (merely probable) +knowledge of empirical generalizations such as 'all men are mortal'. + +The problem arises through the fact that such knowledge is general, +whereas all experience is particular. It seems strange that we should +apparently be able to know some truths in advance about particular +things of which we have as yet no experience; but it cannot easily be +doubted that logic and arithmetic will apply to such things. We do not +know who will be the inhabitants of London a hundred years hence; but +we know that any two of them and any other two of them will make four of +them. This apparent power of anticipating facts about things of which +we have no experience is certainly surprising. Kant's solution of the +problem, though not valid in my opinion, is interesting. It is, however, +very difficult, and is differently understood by different philosophers. +We can, therefore, only give the merest outline of it, and even that +will be thought misleading by many exponents of Kant's system. + +What Kant maintained was that in all our experience there are two +elements to be distinguished, the one due to the object (i.e. to what we +have called the 'physical object'), the other due to our own nature. We +saw, in discussing matter and sense-data, that the physical object is +different from the associated sense-data, and that the sense-data are to +be regarded as resulting from an interaction between the physical +object and ourselves. So far, we are in agreement with Kant. But what +is distinctive of Kant is the way in which he apportions the shares of +ourselves and the physical object respectively. He considers that the +crude material given in sensation--the colour, hardness, etc.--is due +to the object, and that what we supply is the arrangement in space +and time, and all the relations between sense-data which result from +comparison or from considering one as the cause of the other or in any +other way. His chief reason in favour of this view is that we seem +to have _a priori_ knowledge as to space and time and causality and +comparison, but not as to the actual crude material of sensation. We can +be sure, he says, that anything we shall ever experience must show the +characteristics affirmed of it in our _a priori_ knowledge, because +these characteristics are due to our own nature, and therefore +nothing can ever come into our experience without acquiring these +characteristics. + +The physical object, which he calls the 'thing in itself',(1) he regards +as essentially unknowable; what can be known is the object as we have it +in experience, which he calls the 'phenomenon'. The phenomenon, being +a joint product of us and the thing in itself, is sure to have those +characteristics which are due to us, and is therefore sure to conform +to our _a priori_ knowledge. Hence this knowledge, though true of all +actual and possible experience, must not be supposed to apply outside +experience. Thus in spite of the existence of _a priori_ knowledge, we +cannot know anything about the thing in itself or about what is not +an actual or possible object of experience. In this way he tries to +reconcile and harmonize the contentions of the rationalists with the +arguments of the empiricists. + +(1) Kant's 'thing in itself' is identical in _definition_ with +the physical object, namely, it is the cause of sensations. In the +properties deduced from the definition it is not identical, since Kant +held (in spite of some inconsistency as regards cause) that we can know +that none of the categories are applicable to the 'thing in itself'. + +Apart from minor grounds on which Kant's philosophy may be criticized, +there is one main objection which seems fatal to any attempt to deal +with the problem of _a priori_ knowledge by his method. The thing to +be accounted for is our certainty that the facts must always conform to +logic and arithmetic. To say that logic and arithmetic are contributed +by us does not account for this. Our nature is as much a fact of the +existing world as anything, and there can be no certainty that it will +remain constant. It might happen, if Kant is right, that to-morrow +our nature would so change as to make two and two become five. This +possibility seems never to have occurred to him, yet it is one which +utterly destroys the certainty and universality which he is anxious +to vindicate for arithmetical propositions. It is true that this +possibility, formally, is inconsistent with the Kantian view that time +itself is a form imposed by the subject upon phenomena, so that our +real Self is not in time and has no to-morrow. But he will still have +to suppose that the time-order of phenomena is determined by +characteristics of what is behind phenomena, and this suffices for the +substance of our argument. + +Reflection, moreover, seems to make it clear that, if there is any truth +in our arithmetical beliefs, they must apply to things equally whether +we think of them or not. Two physical objects and two other physical +objects must make four physical objects, even if physical objects cannot +be experienced. To assert this is certainly within the scope of what +we mean when we state that two and two are four. Its truth is just as +indubitable as the truth of the assertion that two phenomena and two +other phenomena make four phenomena. Thus Kant's solution unduly limits +the scope of _a priori_ propositions, in addition to failing in the +attempt at explaining their certainty. + +Apart from the special doctrines advocated by Kant, it is very common +among philosophers to regard what is _a priori_ as in some sense mental, +as concerned rather with the way we must think than with any fact of +the outer world. We noted in the preceding chapter the three principles +commonly called 'laws of thought'. The view which led to their being so +named is a natural one, but there are strong reasons for thinking +that it is erroneous. Let us take as an illustration the law of +contradiction. This is commonly stated in the form 'Nothing can both be +and not be', which is intended to express the fact that nothing can at +once have and not have a given quality. Thus, for example, if a tree +is a beech it cannot also be not a beech; if my table is rectangular it +cannot also be not rectangular, and so on. + +Now what makes it natural to call this principle a law of _thought_ +is that it is by thought rather than by outward observation that we +persuade ourselves of its necessary truth. When we have seen that a tree +is a beech, we do not need to look again in order to ascertain whether +it is also not a beech; thought alone makes us know that this is +impossible. But the conclusion that the law of contradiction is a law +of _thought_ is nevertheless erroneous. What we believe, when we believe +the law of contradiction, is not that the mind is so made that it must +believe the law of contradiction. _This_ belief is a subsequent result +of psychological reflection, which presupposes the belief in the law of +contradiction. The belief in the law of contradiction is a belief about +things, not only about thoughts. It is not, e.g., the belief that if we +_think_ a certain tree is a beech, we cannot at the same time _think_ +that it is not a beech; it is the belief that if the tree _is_ a +beech, it cannot at the same time _be_ not a beech. Thus the law of +contradiction is about things, and not merely about thoughts; and +although belief in the law of contradiction is a thought, the law of +contradiction itself is not a thought, but a fact concerning the things +in the world. If this, which we believe when we believe the law of +contradiction, were not true of the things in the world, the fact +that we were compelled to _think_ it true would not save the law of +contradiction from being false; and this shows that the law is not a law +of _thought_. + +A similar argument applies to any other _a priori_ judgement. When we +judge that two and two are four, we are not making a judgement about our +thoughts, but about all actual or possible couples. The fact that our +minds are so constituted as to believe that two and two are four, though +it is true, is emphatically not what we assert when we assert that two +and two are four. And no fact about the constitution of our minds could +make it _true_ that two and two are four. Thus our _a priori_ knowledge, +if it is not erroneous, is not merely knowledge about the constitution +of our minds, but is applicable to whatever the world may contain, both +what is mental and what is non-mental. + +The fact seems to be that all our _a priori_ knowledge is concerned with +entities which do not, properly speaking, _exist_, either in the mental +or in the physical world. These entities are such as can be named by +parts of speech which are not substantives; they are such entities as +qualities and relations. Suppose, for instance, that I am in my room. I +exist, and my room exists; but does 'in' exist? Yet obviously the word +'in' has a meaning; it denotes a relation which holds between me and my +room. This relation is something, although we cannot say that it exists +_in the same sense_ in which I and my room exist. The relation 'in' is +something which we can think about and understand, for, if we could not +understand it, we could not understand the sentence 'I am in my room'. +Many philosophers, following Kant, have maintained that relations are +the work of the mind, that things in themselves have no relations, +but that the mind brings them together in one act of thought and thus +produces the relations which it judges them to have. + +This view, however, seems open to objections similar to those which we +urged before against Kant. It seems plain that it is not thought which +produces the truth of the proposition 'I am in my room'. It may be true +that an earwig is in my room, even if neither I nor the earwig nor any +one else is aware of this truth; for this truth concerns only the earwig +and the room, and does not depend upon anything else. Thus relations, as +we shall see more fully in the next chapter, must be placed in a world +which is neither mental nor physical. This world is of great importance +to philosophy, and in particular to the problems of _a priori_ +knowledge. In the next chapter we shall proceed to develop its nature +and its bearing upon the questions with which we have been dealing. + + + +CHAPTER IX. THE WORLD OF UNIVERSALS + +At the end of the preceding chapter we saw that such entities as +relations appear to have a being which is in some way different from +that of physical objects, and also different from that of minds and from +that of sense-data. In the present chapter we have to consider what is +the nature of this kind of being, and also what objects there are that +have this kind of being. We will begin with the latter question. + +The problem with which we are now concerned is a very old one, since it +was brought into philosophy by Plato. Plato's 'theory of ideas' is an +attempt to solve this very problem, and in my opinion it is one of the +most successful attempts hitherto made. The theory to be advocated in +what follows is largely Plato's, with merely such modifications as time +has shown to be necessary. + +The way the problem arose for Plato was more or less as follows. Let +us consider, say, such a notion as _justice_. If we ask ourselves what +justice is, it is natural to proceed by considering this, that, and the +other just act, with a view to discovering what they have in common. +They must all, in some sense, partake of a common nature, which will be +found in whatever is just and in nothing else. This common nature, in +virtue of which they are all just, will be justice itself, the pure +essence the admixture of which with facts of ordinary life produces the +multiplicity of just acts. Similarly with any other word which may be +applicable to common facts, such as 'whiteness' for example. The word +will be applicable to a number of particular things because they all +participate in a common nature or essence. This pure essence is what +Plato calls an 'idea' or 'form'. (It must not be supposed that 'ideas', +in his sense, exist in minds, though they may be apprehended by minds.) +The 'idea' _justice_ is not identical with anything that is just: it is +something other than particular things, which particular things partake +of. Not being particular, it cannot itself exist in the world of sense. +Moreover it is not fleeting or changeable like the things of sense: it +is eternally itself, immutable and indestructible. + +Thus Plato is led to a supra-sensible world, more real than the common +world of sense, the unchangeable world of ideas, which alone gives to +the world of sense whatever pale reflection of reality may belong to it. +The truly real world, for Plato, is the world of ideas; for whatever +we may attempt to say about things in the world of sense, we can only +succeed in saying that they participate in such and such ideas, which, +therefore, constitute all their character. Hence it is easy to pass +on into a mysticism. We may hope, in a mystic illumination, to see the +ideas as we see objects of sense; and we may imagine that the ideas +exist in heaven. These mystical developments are very natural, but the +basis of the theory is in logic, and it is as based in logic that we +have to consider it. + +The word 'idea' has acquired, in the course of time, many associations +which are quite misleading when applied to Plato's 'ideas'. We shall +therefore use the word 'universal' instead of the word 'idea', to +describe what Plato meant. The essence of the sort of entity that Plato +meant is that it is opposed to the particular things that are given in +sensation. We speak of whatever is given in sensation, or is of the same +nature as things given in sensation, as a _particular_; by opposition +to this, a _universal_ will be anything which may be shared by many +particulars, and has those characteristics which, as we saw, distinguish +justice and whiteness from just acts and white things. + +When we examine common words, we find that, broadly speaking, proper +names stand for particulars, while other substantives, adjectives, +prepositions, and verbs stand for universals. Pronouns stand for +particulars, but are ambiguous: it is only by the context or the +circumstances that we know what particulars they stand for. The word +'now' stands for a particular, namely the present moment; but like +pronouns, it stands for an ambiguous particular, because the present is +always changing. + +It will be seen that no sentence can be made up without at least one +word which denotes a universal. The nearest approach would be some such +statement as 'I like this'. But even here the word 'like' denotes +a universal, for I may like other things, and other people may like +things. Thus all truths involve universals, and all knowledge of truths +involves acquaintance with universals. + +Seeing that nearly all the words to be found in the dictionary stand +for universals, it is strange that hardly anybody except students of +philosophy ever realizes that there are such entities as universals. We +do not naturally dwell upon those words in a sentence which do not stand +for particulars; and if we are forced to dwell upon a word which stands +for a universal, we naturally think of it as standing for some one of +the particulars that come under the universal. When, for example, we +hear the sentence, 'Charles I's head was cut off', we may naturally +enough think of Charles I, of Charles I's head, and of the operation +of cutting off _his_ head, which are all particulars; but we do not +naturally dwell upon what is meant by the word 'head' or the word +'cut', which is a universal: We feel such words to be incomplete and +insubstantial; they seem to demand a context before anything can be +done with them. Hence we succeed in avoiding all notice of universals as +such, until the study of philosophy forces them upon our attention. + +Even among philosophers, we may say, broadly, that only those universals +which are named by adjectives or substantives have been much or often +recognized, while those named by verbs and prepositions have been +usually overlooked. This omission has had a very great effect upon +philosophy; it is hardly too much to say that most metaphysics, since +Spinoza, has been largely determined by it. The way this has occurred +is, in outline, as follows: Speaking generally, adjectives and common +nouns express qualities or properties of single things, whereas +prepositions and verbs tend to express relations between two or more +things. Thus the neglect of prepositions and verbs led to the belief +that every proposition can be regarded as attributing a property to a +single thing, rather than as expressing a relation between two or more +things. Hence it was supposed that, ultimately, there can be no such +entities as relations between things. Hence either there can be only +one thing in the universe, or, if there are many things, they cannot +possibly interact in any way, since any interaction would be a relation, +and relations are impossible. + +The first of these views, advocated by Spinoza and held in our own day +by Bradley and many other philosophers, is called _monism_; the second, +advocated by Leibniz but not very common nowadays, is called _monadism_, +because each of the isolated things is called a _monad_. Both these +opposing philosophies, interesting as they are, result, in my opinion, +from an undue attention to one sort of universals, namely the sort +represented by adjectives and substantives rather than by verbs and +prepositions. + +As a matter of fact, if any one were anxious to deny altogether that +there are such things as universals, we should find that we cannot +strictly prove that there are such entities as _qualities_, i.e. the +universals represented by adjectives and substantives, whereas we +can prove that there must be _relations_, i.e. the sort of universals +generally represented by verbs and prepositions. Let us take in +illustration the universal _whiteness_. If we believe that there is such +a universal, we shall say that things are white because they have the +quality of whiteness. This view, however, was strenuously denied by +Berkeley and Hume, who have been followed in this by later empiricists. +The form which their denial took was to deny that there are such things +as 'abstract ideas '. When we want to think of whiteness, they said, we +form an image of some particular white thing, and reason concerning this +particular, taking care not to deduce anything concerning it which we +cannot see to be equally true of any other white thing. As an account of +our actual mental processes, this is no doubt largely true. In geometry, +for example, when we wish to prove something about all triangles, we +draw a particular triangle and reason about it, taking care not to use +any characteristic which it does not share with other triangles. The +beginner, in order to avoid error, often finds it useful to draw several +triangles, as unlike each other as possible, in order to make sure that +his reasoning is equally applicable to all of them. But a difficulty +emerges as soon as we ask ourselves how we know that a thing is white +or a triangle. If we wish to avoid the universals _whiteness_ and +_triangularity_, we shall choose some particular patch of white or some +particular triangle, and say that anything is white or a triangle if it +has the right sort of resemblance to our chosen particular. But then the +resemblance required will have to be a universal. Since there are many +white things, the resemblance must hold between many pairs of particular +white things; and this is the characteristic of a universal. It will be +useless to say that there is a different resemblance for each pair, for +then we shall have to say that these resemblances resemble each other, +and thus at last we shall be forced to admit resemblance as a universal. +The relation of resemblance, therefore, must be a true universal. And +having been forced to admit this universal, we find that it is no longer +worth while to invent difficult and unplausible theories to avoid the +admission of such universals as whiteness and triangularity. + +Berkeley and Hume failed to perceive this refutation of their rejection +of 'abstract ideas', because, like their adversaries, they only thought +of _qualities_, and altogether ignored _relations_ as universals. We +have therefore here another respect in which the rationalists appear to +have been in the right as against the empiricists, although, owing to +the neglect or denial of relations, the deductions made by rationalists +were, if anything, more apt to be mistaken than those made by +empiricists. + +Having now seen that there must be such entities as universals, the next +point to be proved is that their being is not merely mental. By this is +meant that whatever being belongs to them is independent of their being +thought of or in any way apprehended by minds. We have already touched +on this subject at the end of the preceding chapter, but we must now +consider more fully what sort of being it is that belongs to universals. + +Consider such a proposition as 'Edinburgh is north of London'. Here we +have a relation between two places, and it seems plain that the relation +subsists independently of our knowledge of it. When we come to know that +Edinburgh is north of London, we come to know something which has to +do only with Edinburgh and London: we do not cause the truth of the +proposition by coming to know it, on the contrary we merely apprehend a +fact which was there before we knew it. The part of the earth's surface +where Edinburgh stands would be north of the part where London stands, +even if there were no human being to know about north and south, and +even if there were no minds at all in the universe. This is, of course, +denied by many philosophers, either for Berkeley's reasons or for +Kant's. But we have already considered these reasons, and decided that +they are inadequate. We may therefore now assume it to be true that +nothing mental is presupposed in the fact that Edinburgh is north of +London. But this fact involves the relation 'north of', which is a +universal; and it would be impossible for the whole fact to involve +nothing mental if the relation 'north of', which is a constituent part +of the fact, did involve anything mental. Hence we must admit that the +relation, like the terms it relates, is not dependent upon thought, but +belongs to the independent world which thought apprehends but does not +create. + +This conclusion, however, is met by the difficulty that the relation +'north of' does not seem to _exist_ in the same sense in which Edinburgh +and London exist. If we ask 'Where and when does this relation exist?' +the answer must be 'Nowhere and nowhen'. There is no place or time where +we can find the relation 'north of'. It does not exist in Edinburgh any +more than in London, for it relates the two and is neutral as between +them. Nor can we say that it exists at any particular time. Now +everything that can be apprehended by the senses or by introspection +exists at some particular time. Hence the relation 'north of' is +radically different from such things. It is neither in space nor in +time, neither material nor mental; yet it is something. + +It is largely the very peculiar kind of being that belongs to universals +which has led many people to suppose that they are really mental. We +can think _of_ a universal, and our thinking then exists in a perfectly +ordinary sense, like any other mental act. Suppose, for example, that +we are thinking of whiteness. Then _in one sense_ it may be said that +whiteness is 'in our mind'. We have here the same ambiguity as we noted +in discussing Berkeley in Chapter IV. In the strict sense, it is not +whiteness that is in our mind, but the act of thinking of whiteness. The +connected ambiguity in the word 'idea', which we noted at the same time, +also causes confusion here. In one sense of this word, namely the sense +in which it denotes the _object_ of an act of thought, whiteness is an +'idea'. Hence, if the ambiguity is not guarded against, we may come to +think that whiteness is an 'idea' in the other sense, i.e. an act of +thought; and thus we come to think that whiteness is mental. But in so +thinking, we rob it of its essential quality of universality. One man's +act of thought is necessarily a different thing from another man's; one +man's act of thought at one time is necessarily a different thing from +the same man's act of thought at another time. Hence, if whiteness were +the thought as opposed to its object, no two different men could think +of it, and no one man could think of it twice. That which many different +thoughts of whiteness have in common is their _object_, and this object +is different from all of them. Thus universals are not thoughts, though +when known they are the objects of thoughts. + +We shall find it convenient only to speak of things _existing_ when they +are in time, that is to say, when we can point to some time at which +they exist (not excluding the possibility of their existing at all +times). Thus thoughts and feelings, minds and physical objects exist. +But universals do not exist in this sense; we shall say that they +_subsist_ or _have being_, where 'being' is opposed to 'existence' +as being timeless. The world of universals, therefore, may also be +described as the world of being. The world of being is unchangeable, +rigid, exact, delightful to the mathematician, the logician, the builder +of metaphysical systems, and all who love perfection more than life. The +world of existence is fleeting, vague, without sharp boundaries, +without any clear plan or arrangement, but it contains all thoughts and +feelings, all the data of sense, and all physical objects, everything +that can do either good or harm, everything that makes any difference to +the value of life and the world. According to our temperaments, we shall +prefer the contemplation of the one or of the other. The one we do not +prefer will probably seem to us a pale shadow of the one we prefer, and +hardly worthy to be regarded as in any sense real. But the truth is that +both have the same claim on our impartial attention, both are real, +and both are important to the metaphysician. Indeed no sooner have we +distinguished the two worlds than it becomes necessary to consider their +relations. + +But first of all we must examine our knowledge of universals. This +consideration will occupy us in the following chapter, where we shall +find that it solves the problem of _a priori_ knowledge, from which we +were first led to consider universals. + + + +CHAPTER X. ON OUR KNOWLEDGE OF UNIVERSALS + +In regard to one man's knowledge at a given time, universals, like +particulars, may be divided into those known by acquaintance, those +known only by description, and those not known either by acquaintance or +by description. + +Let us consider first the knowledge of universals by acquaintance. It is +obvious, to begin with, that we are acquainted with such universals as +white, red, black, sweet, sour, loud, hard, etc., i.e. with qualities +which are exemplified in sense-data. When we see a white patch, we are +acquainted, in the first instance, with the particular patch; but by +seeing many white patches, we easily learn to abstract the whiteness +which they all have in common, and in learning to do this we are +learning to be acquainted with whiteness. A similar process will make us +acquainted with any other universal of the same sort. Universals of this +sort may be called 'sensible qualities'. They can be apprehended with +less effort of abstraction than any others, and they seem less removed +from particulars than other universals are. + +We come next to relations. The easiest relations to apprehend are those +which hold between the different parts of a single complex sense-datum. +For example, I can see at a glance the whole of the page on which I +am writing; thus the whole page is included in one sense-datum. But I +perceive that some parts of the page are to the left of other parts, +and some parts are above other parts. The process of abstraction in this +case seems to proceed somewhat as follows: I see successively a number +of sense-data in which one part is to the left of another; I perceive, +as in the case of different white patches, that all these sense-data +have something in common, and by abstraction I find that what they have +in common is a certain relation between their parts, namely the relation +which I call 'being to the left of'. In this way I become acquainted +with the universal relation. + +In like manner I become aware of the relation of before and after in +time. Suppose I hear a chime of bells: when the last bell of the chime +sounds, I can retain the whole chime before my mind, and I can perceive +that the earlier bells came before the later ones. Also in memory I +perceive that what I am remembering came before the present time. From +either of these sources I can abstract the universal relation of before +and after, just as I abstracted the universal relation 'being to the +left of'. Thus time-relations, like space-relations, are among those +with which we are acquainted. + +Another relation with which we become acquainted in much the same way is +resemblance. If I see simultaneously two shades of green, I can see +that they resemble each other; if I also see a shade of red: at the same +time, I can see that the two greens have more resemblance to each other +than either has to the red. In this way I become acquainted with the +universal _resemblance_ or _similarity_. + +Between universals, as between particulars, there are relations of which +we may be immediately aware. We have just seen that we can perceive +that the resemblance between two shades of green is greater than the +resemblance between a shade of red and a shade of green. Here we are +dealing with a relation, namely 'greater than', between two relations. +Our knowledge of such relations, though it requires more power of +abstraction than is required for perceiving the qualities of sense-data, +appears to be equally immediate, and (at least in some cases) equally +indubitable. Thus there is immediate knowledge concerning universals as +well as concerning sense-data. + +Returning now to the problem of _a priori_ knowledge, which we left +unsolved when we began the consideration of universals, we find +ourselves in a position to deal with it in a much more satisfactory +manner than was possible before. Let us revert to the proposition 'two +and two are four'. It is fairly obvious, in view of what has been said, +that this proposition states a relation between the universal 'two' and +the universal 'four'. This suggests a proposition which we shall +now endeavour to establish: namely, _All _a priori_ knowledge deals +exclusively with the relations of universals_. This proposition is +of great importance, and goes a long way towards solving our previous +difficulties concerning _a priori_ knowledge. + +The only case in which it might seem, at first sight, as if our +proposition were untrue, is the case in which an _a priori_ proposition +states that _all_ of one class of particulars belong to some other +class, or (what comes to the same thing) that _all_ particulars having +some one property also have some other. In this case it might seem +as though we were dealing with the particulars that have the property +rather than with the property. The proposition 'two and two are four' is +really a case in point, for this may be stated in the form 'any two +and any other two are four', or 'any collection formed of two twos is a +collection of four'. If we can show that such statements as this really +deal only with universals, our proposition may be regarded as proved. + +One way of discovering what a proposition deals with is to ask ourselves +what words we must understand--in other words, what objects we must be +acquainted with--in order to see what the proposition means. As soon as +we see what the proposition means, even if we do not yet know whether +it is true or false, it is evident that we must have acquaintance with +whatever is really dealt with by the proposition. By applying this test, +it appears that many propositions which might seem to be concerned with +particulars are really concerned only with universals. In the special +case of 'two and two are four', even when we interpret it as meaning +'any collection formed of two twos is a collection of four', it is plain +that we can understand the proposition, i.e. we can see what it is that +it asserts, as soon as we know what is meant by 'collection' and 'two' +and 'four'. It is quite unnecessary to know all the couples in the +world: if it were necessary, obviously we could never understand the +proposition, since the couples are infinitely numerous and therefore +cannot all be known to us. Thus although our general statement _implies_ +statements about particular couples, _as soon as we know that there are +such particular couples_, yet it does not itself assert or imply that +there are such particular couples, and thus fails to make any statement +whatever about any actual particular couple. The statement made is about +'couple', the universal, and not about this or that couple. + +Thus the statement 'two and two are four' deals exclusively with +universals, and therefore may be known by anybody who is acquainted +with the universals concerned and can perceive the relation between them +which the statement asserts. It must be taken as a fact, discovered +by reflecting upon our knowledge, that we have the power of sometimes +perceiving such relations between universals, and therefore of sometimes +knowing general _a priori_ propositions such as those of arithmetic and +logic. The thing that seemed mysterious, when we formerly considered +such knowledge, was that it seemed to anticipate and control experience. +This, however, we can now see to have been an error. _No_ fact +concerning anything capable of being experienced can be known +independently of experience. We know _a priori_ that two things and two +other things together make four things, but we do _not_ know _a priori_ +that if Brown and Jones are two, and Robinson and Smith are two, then +Brown and Jones and Robinson and Smith are four. The reason is that this +proposition cannot be understood at all unless we know that there are +such people as Brown and Jones and Robinson and Smith, and this we can +only know by experience. Hence, although our general proposition is _a +priori_, all its applications to actual particulars involve experience +and therefore contain an empirical element. In this way what seemed +mysterious in our _a priori_ knowledge is seen to have been based upon +an error. + +It will serve to make the point clearer if we contrast our genuine _a +priori_ judgement with an empirical generalization, such as 'all men are +mortals'. Here as before, we can _understand_ what the proposition +means as soon as we understand the universals involved, namely _man_ and +_mortal_. It is obviously unnecessary to have an individual acquaintance +with the whole human race in order to understand what our proposition +means. Thus the difference between an _a priori_ general proposition +and an empirical generalization does not come in the _meaning_ of the +proposition; it comes in the nature of the _evidence_ for it. In the +empirical case, the evidence consists in the particular instances. +We believe that all men are mortal because we know that there are +innumerable instances of men dying, and no instances of their living +beyond a certain age. We do not believe it because we see a connexion +between the universal _man_ and the universal _mortal_. It is true that +if physiology can prove, assuming the general laws that govern living +bodies, that no living organism can last for ever, that gives a +connexion between _man_ and _mortality_ which would enable us to assert +our proposition without appealing to the special evidence of _men_ +dying. But that only means that our generalization has been subsumed +under a wider generalization, for which the evidence is still of the +same kind, though more extensive. The progress of science is constantly +producing such subsumptions, and therefore giving a constantly wider +inductive basis for scientific generalizations. But although this gives +a greater _degree_ of certainty, it does not give a different _kind_: +the ultimate ground remains inductive, i.e. derived from instances, and +not an _a priori_ connexion of universals such as we have in logic and +arithmetic. + +Two opposite points are to be observed concerning _a priori_ general +propositions. The first is that, if many particular instances are known, +our general proposition may be arrived at in the first instance by +induction, and the connexion of universals may be only subsequently +perceived. For example, it is known that if we draw perpendiculars +to the sides of a triangle from the opposite angles, all three +perpendiculars meet in a point. It would be quite possible to be first +led to this proposition by actually drawing perpendiculars in many +cases, and finding that they always met in a point; this experience +might lead us to look for the general proof and find it. Such cases are +common in the experience of every mathematician. + +The other point is more interesting, and of more philosophical +importance. It is, that we may sometimes know a general proposition in +cases where we do not know a single instance of it. Take such a case as +the following: We know that any two numbers can be multiplied together, +and will give a third called their _product_. We know that all pairs +of integers the product of which is less than 100 have been actually +multiplied together, and the value of the product recorded in the +multiplication table. But we also know that the number of integers is +infinite, and that only a finite number of pairs of integers ever have +been or ever will be thought of by human beings. Hence it follows that +there are pairs of integers which never have been and never will be +thought of by human beings, and that all of them deal with integers the +product of which is over 100. Hence we arrive at the proposition: +'All products of two integers, which never have been and never will +be thought of by any human being, are over 100.' Here is a general +proposition of which the truth is undeniable, and yet, from the very +nature of the case, we can never give an instance; because any two +numbers we may think of are excluded by the terms of the proposition. + +This possibility, of knowledge of general propositions of which no +instance can be given, is often denied, because it is not perceived +that the knowledge of such propositions only requires a knowledge of the +relations of universals, and does not require any knowledge of instances +of the universals in question. Yet the knowledge of such general +propositions is quite vital to a great deal of what is generally +admitted to be known. For example, we saw, in our early chapters, +that knowledge of physical objects, as opposed to sense-data, is only +obtained by an inference, and that they are not things with which we are +acquainted. Hence we can never know any proposition of the form 'this +is a physical object', where 'this' is something immediately known. It +follows that all our knowledge concerning physical objects is such that +no actual instance can be given. We can give instances of the associated +sense-data, but we cannot give instances of the actual physical objects. +Hence our knowledge as to physical objects depends throughout upon this +possibility of general knowledge where no instance can be given. And the +same applies to our knowledge of other people's minds, or of any other +class of things of which no instance is known to us by acquaintance. + +We may now take a survey of the sources of our knowledge, as they have +appeared in the course of our analysis. We have first to distinguish +knowledge of things and knowledge of truths. In each there are two +kinds, one immediate and one derivative. Our immediate knowledge of +things, which we called _acquaintance_, consists of two sorts, according +as the things known are particulars or universals. Among particulars, we +have acquaintance with sense-data and (probably) with ourselves. Among +universals, there seems to be no principle by which we can decide which +can be known by acquaintance, but it is clear that among those that +can be so known are sensible qualities, relations of space and time, +similarity, and certain abstract logical universals. Our derivative +knowledge of things, which we call knowledge by _description_, always +involves both acquaintance with something and knowledge of truths. Our +immediate knowledge of _truths_ may be called _intuitive_ knowledge, +and the truths so known may be called _self-evident_ truths. Among such +truths are included those which merely state what is given in sense, and +also certain abstract logical and arithmetical principles, and (though +with less certainty) some ethical propositions. Our _derivative_ +knowledge of truths consists of everything that we can deduce from +self-evident truths by the use of self-evident principles of deduction. + +If the above account is correct, all our knowledge of truths depends +upon our intuitive knowledge. It therefore becomes important to consider +the nature and scope of intuitive knowledge, in much the same way as, +at an earlier stage, we considered the nature and scope of knowledge by +acquaintance. But knowledge of truths raises a further problem, which +does not arise in regard to knowledge of things, namely the problem of +_error_. Some of our beliefs turn out to be erroneous, and therefore +it becomes necessary to consider how, if at all, we can distinguish +knowledge from error. This problem does not arise with regard +to knowledge by acquaintance, for, whatever may be the object of +acquaintance, even in dreams and hallucinations, there is no error +involved so long as we do not go beyond the immediate object: error can +only arise when we regard the immediate object, i.e. the sense-datum, +as the mark of some physical object. Thus the problems connected +with knowledge of truths are more difficult than those connected +with knowledge of things. As the first of the problems connected +with knowledge of truths, let us examine the nature and scope of our +intuitive judgements. + + + +CHAPTER XI. ON INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE + +There is a common impression that everything that we believe ought to be +capable of proof, or at least of being shown to be highly probable. It +is felt by many that a belief for which no reason can be given is an +unreasonable belief. In the main, this view is just. Almost all our +common beliefs are either inferred, or capable of being inferred, from +other beliefs which may be regarded as giving the reason for them. As a +rule, the reason has been forgotten, or has even never been consciously +present to our minds. Few of us ever ask ourselves, for example, what +reason there is to suppose the food we are just going to eat will not +turn out to be poison. Yet we feel, when challenged, that a perfectly +good reason could be found, even if we are not ready with it at the +moment. And in this belief we are usually justified. + +But let us imagine some insistent Socrates, who, whatever reason we +give him, continues to demand a reason for the reason. We must sooner +or later, and probably before very long, be driven to a point where we +cannot find any further reason, and where it becomes almost certain that +no further reason is even theoretically discoverable. Starting with the +common beliefs of daily life, we can be driven back from point to point, +until we come to some general principle, or some instance of a general +principle, which seems luminously evident, and is not itself capable +of being deduced from anything more evident. In most questions of +daily life, such as whether our food is likely to be nourishing and not +poisonous, we shall be driven back to the inductive principle, which we +discussed in Chapter VI. But beyond that, there seems to be no further +regress. The principle itself is constantly used in our reasoning, +sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously; but there is no +reasoning which, starting from some simpler self-evident principle, +leads us to the principle of induction as its conclusion. And the same +holds for other logical principles. Their truth is evident to us, and we +employ them in constructing demonstrations; but they themselves, or at +least some of them, are incapable of demonstration. + +Self-evidence, however, is not confined to those among general +principles which are incapable of proof. When a certain number of +logical principles have been admitted, the rest can be deduced from +them; but the propositions deduced are often just as self-evident as +those that were assumed without proof. All arithmetic, moreover, can +be deduced from the general principles of logic, yet the simple +propositions of arithmetic, such as 'two and two are four', are just as +self-evident as the principles of logic. + +It would seem, also, though this is more disputable, that there are some +self-evident ethical principles, such as 'we ought to pursue what is +good'. + +It should be observed that, in all cases of general principles, +particular instances, dealing with familiar things, are more evident +than the general principle. For example, the law of contradiction states +that nothing can both have a certain property and not have it. This is +evident as soon as it is understood, but it is not so evident as that a +particular rose which we see cannot be both red and not red. (It is of +course possible that parts of the rose may be red and parts not red, or +that the rose may be of a shade of pink which we hardly know whether to +call red or not; but in the former case it is plain that the rose as a +whole is not red, while in the latter case the answer is theoretically +definite as soon as we have decided on a precise definition of 'red'.) +It is usually through particular instances that we come to be able to +see the general principle. Only those who are practised in dealing with +abstractions can readily grasp a general principle without the help of +instances. + +In addition to general principles, the other kind of self-evident truths +are those immediately derived from sensation. We will call such truths +'truths of perception', and the judgements expressing them we will +call 'judgements of perception'. But here a certain amount of care +is required in getting at the precise nature of the truths that are +self-evident. The actual sense-data are neither true nor false. A +particular patch of colour which I see, for example, simply exists: it +is not the sort of thing that is true or false. It is true that there is +such a patch, true that it has a certain shape and degree of brightness, +true that it is surrounded by certain other colours. But the patch +itself, like everything else in the world of sense, is of a radically +different kind from the things that are true or false, and therefore +cannot properly be said to be _true_. Thus whatever self-evident truths +may be obtained from our senses must be different from the sense-data +from which they are obtained. + +It would seem that there are two kinds of self-evident truths of +perception, though perhaps in the last analysis the two kinds may +coalesce. First, there is the kind which simply asserts the _existence_ +of the sense-datum, without in any way analysing it. We see a patch +of red, and we judge 'there is such-and-such a patch of red', or more +strictly 'there is that'; this is one kind of intuitive judgement of +perception. The other kind arises when the object of sense is complex, +and we subject it to some degree of analysis. If, for instance, we see a +_round_ patch of red, we may judge 'that patch of red is round'. This is +again a judgement of perception, but it differs from our previous kind. +In our present kind we have a single sense-datum which has both colour +and shape: the colour is red and the shape is round. Our judgement +analyses the datum into colour and shape, and then recombines them by +stating that the red colour is round in shape. Another example of this +kind of judgement is 'this is to the right of that', where 'this' +and 'that' are seen simultaneously. In this kind of judgement the +sense-datum contains constituents which have some relation to each +other, and the judgement asserts that these constituents have this +relation. + +Another class of intuitive judgements, analogous to those of sense and +yet quite distinct from them, are judgements of _memory_. There is some +danger of confusion as to the nature of memory, owing to the fact that +memory of an object is apt to be accompanied by an image of the object, +and yet the image cannot be what constitutes memory. This is easily seen +by merely noticing that the image is in the present, whereas what is +remembered is known to be in the past. Moreover, we are certainly able +to some extent to compare our image with the object remembered, so +that we often know, within somewhat wide limits, how far our image is +accurate; but this would be impossible, unless the object, as opposed to +the image, were in some way before the mind. Thus the essence of memory +is not constituted by the image, but by having immediately before the +mind an object which is recognized as past. But for the fact of memory +in this sense, we should not know that there ever was a past at all, +nor should we be able to understand the word 'past', any more than a man +born blind can understand the word 'light'. Thus there must be intuitive +judgements of memory, and it is upon them, ultimately, that all our +knowledge of the past depends. + +The case of memory, however, raises a difficulty, for it is notoriously +fallacious, and thus throws doubt on the trustworthiness of intuitive +judgements in general. This difficulty is no light one. But let us +first narrow its scope as far as possible. Broadly speaking, memory is +trustworthy in proportion to the vividness of the experience and to its +nearness in time. If the house next door was struck by lightning half a +minute ago, my memory of what I saw and heard will be so reliable that +it would be preposterous to doubt whether there had been a flash at +all. And the same applies to less vivid experiences, so long as they are +recent. I am absolutely certain that half a minute ago I was sitting in +the same chair in which I am sitting now. Going backward over the day, +I find things of which I am quite certain, other things of which I am +almost certain, other things of which I can become certain by thought +and by calling up attendant circumstances, and some things of which I +am by no means certain. I am quite certain that I ate my breakfast this +morning, but if I were as indifferent to my breakfast as a philosopher +should be, I should be doubtful. As to the conversation at breakfast, +I can recall some of it easily, some with an effort, some only with a +large element of doubt, and some not at all. Thus there is a continual +gradation in the degree of self-evidence of what I remember, and a +corresponding gradation in the trustworthiness of my memory. + +Thus the first answer to the difficulty of fallacious memory is to say +that memory has degrees of self-evidence, and that these correspond +to the degrees of its trustworthiness, reaching a limit of perfect +self-evidence and perfect trustworthiness in our memory of events which +are recent and vivid. + +It would seem, however, that there are cases of very firm belief in a +memory which is wholly false. It is probable that, in these cases, what +is really remembered, in the sense of being immediately before the mind, +is something other than what is falsely believed in, though something +generally associated with it. George IV is said to have at last believed +that he was at the battle of Waterloo, because he had so often said that +he was. In this case, what was immediately remembered was his repeated +assertion; the belief in what he was asserting (if it existed) would +be produced by association with the remembered assertion, and would +therefore not be a genuine case of memory. It would seem that cases of +fallacious memory can probably all be dealt with in this way, i.e. they +can be shown to be not cases of memory in the strict sense at all. + +One important point about self-evidence is made clear by the case of +memory, and that is, that self-evidence has degrees: it is not a quality +which is simply present or absent, but a quality which may be more or +less present, in gradations ranging from absolute certainty down to an +almost imperceptible faintness. Truths of perception and some of the +principles of logic have the very highest degree of self-evidence; +truths of immediate memory have an almost equally high degree. The +inductive principle has less self-evidence than some of the other +principles of logic, such as 'what follows from a true premiss must be +true'. Memories have a diminishing self-evidence as they become remoter +and fainter; the truths of logic and mathematics have (broadly speaking) +less self-evidence as they become more complicated. Judgements of +intrinsic ethical or aesthetic value are apt to have some self-evidence, +but not much. + +Degrees of self-evidence are important in the theory of knowledge, +since, if propositions may (as seems likely) have some degree of +self-evidence without being true, it will not be necessary to abandon +all connexion between self-evidence and truth, but merely to say that, +where there is a conflict, the more self-evident proposition is to be +retained and the less self-evident rejected. + +It seems, however, highly probable that two different notions are +combined in 'self-evidence' as above explained; that one of them, +which corresponds to the highest degree of self-evidence, is really an +infallible guarantee of truth, while the other, which corresponds to +all the other degrees, does not give an infallible guarantee, but only a +greater or less presumption. This, however, is only a suggestion, which +we cannot as yet develop further. After we have dealt with the nature +of truth, we shall return to the subject of self-evidence, in connexion +with the distinction between knowledge and error. + + + +CHAPTER XII. TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD + +Our knowledge of truths, unlike our knowledge of things, has an +opposite, namely _error_. So far as things are concerned, we may know +them or not know them, but there is no positive state of mind which can +be described as erroneous knowledge of things, so long, at any rate, +as we confine ourselves to knowledge by acquaintance. Whatever we are +acquainted with must be something; we may draw wrong inferences from +our acquaintance, but the acquaintance itself cannot be deceptive. Thus +there is no dualism as regards acquaintance. But as regards knowledge of +truths, there is a dualism. We may believe what is false as well as +what is true. We know that on very many subjects different people +hold different and incompatible opinions: hence some beliefs must be +erroneous. Since erroneous beliefs are often held just as strongly +as true beliefs, it becomes a difficult question how they are to be +distinguished from true beliefs. How are we to know, in a given case, +that our belief is not erroneous? This is a question of the very +greatest difficulty, to which no completely satisfactory answer is +possible. There is, however, a preliminary question which is rather less +difficult, and that is: What do we _mean_ by truth and falsehood? It is +this preliminary question which is to be considered in this chapter. In +this chapter we are not asking how we can know whether a belief is true +or false: we are asking what is meant by the question whether a belief +is true or false. It is to be hoped that a clear answer to this question +may help us to obtain an answer to the question what beliefs are +true, but for the present we ask only 'What is truth?' and 'What is +falsehood?' not 'What beliefs are true?' and 'What beliefs are false?' +It is very important to keep these different questions entirely +separate, since any confusion between them is sure to produce an answer +which is not really applicable to either. + +There are three points to observe in the attempt to discover the nature +of truth, three requisites which any theory must fulfil. + +(1) Our theory of truth must be such as to admit of its opposite, +falsehood. A good many philosophers have failed adequately to satisfy +this condition: they have constructed theories according to which all +our thinking ought to have been true, and have then had the greatest +difficulty in finding a place for falsehood. In this respect our theory +of belief must differ from our theory of acquaintance, since in the case +of acquaintance it was not necessary to take account of any opposite. + +(2) It seems fairly evident that if there were no beliefs there could +be no falsehood, and no truth either, in the sense in which truth is +correlative to falsehood. If we imagine a world of mere matter, there +would be no room for falsehood in such a world, and although it would +contain what may be called 'facts', it would not contain any truths, in +the sense in which truths are things of the same kind as falsehoods. +In fact, truth and falsehood are properties of beliefs and statements: +hence a world of mere matter, since it would contain no beliefs or +statements, would also contain no truth or falsehood. + +(3) But, as against what we have just said, it is to be observed that +the truth or falsehood of a belief always depends upon something which +lies outside the belief itself. If I believe that Charles I died on the +scaffold, I believe truly, not because of any intrinsic quality of my +belief, which could be discovered by merely examining the belief, but +because of an historical event which happened two and a half centuries +ago. If I believe that Charles I died in his bed, I believe falsely: no +degree of vividness in my belief, or of care in arriving at it, prevents +it from being false, again because of what happened long ago, and not +because of any intrinsic property of my belief. Hence, although truth +and falsehood are properties of beliefs, they are properties dependent +upon the relations of the beliefs to other things, not upon any internal +quality of the beliefs. + +The third of the above requisites leads us to adopt the view--which has +on the whole been commonest among philosophers--that truth consists in +some form of correspondence between belief and fact. It is, however, by +no means an easy matter to discover a form of correspondence to which +there are no irrefutable objections. By this partly--and partly by the +feeling that, if truth consists in a correspondence of thought with +something outside thought, thought can never know when truth has been +attained--many philosophers have been led to try to find some definition +of truth which shall not consist in relation to something wholly outside +belief. The most important attempt at a definition of this sort is the +theory that truth consists in _coherence_. It is said that the mark of +falsehood is failure to cohere in the body of our beliefs, and that it +is the essence of a truth to form part of the completely rounded system +which is The Truth. + +There is, however, a great difficulty in this view, or rather two great +difficulties. The first is that there is no reason to suppose that +only _one_ coherent body of beliefs is possible. It may be that, with +sufficient imagination, a novelist might invent a past for the world +that would perfectly fit on to what we know, and yet be quite different +from the real past. In more scientific matters, it is certain that there +are often two or more hypotheses which account for all the known facts +on some subject, and although, in such cases, men of science endeavour +to find facts which will rule out all the hypotheses except one, there +is no reason why they should always succeed. + +In philosophy, again, it seems not uncommon for two rival hypotheses +to be both able to account for all the facts. Thus, for example, it is +possible that life is one long dream, and that the outer world has only +that degree of reality that the objects of dreams have; but although +such a view does not seem inconsistent with known facts, there is no +reason to prefer it to the common-sense view, according to which other +people and things do really exist. Thus coherence as the definition +of truth fails because there is no proof that there can be only one +coherent system. + +The other objection to this definition of truth is that it assumes the +meaning of 'coherence' known, whereas, in fact, 'coherence' presupposes +the truth of the laws of logic. Two propositions are coherent when both +may be true, and are incoherent when one at least must be false. Now in +order to know whether two propositions can both be true, we must +know such truths as the law of contradiction. For example, the two +propositions, 'this tree is a beech' and 'this tree is not a beech', +are not coherent, because of the law of contradiction. But if the law of +contradiction itself were subjected to the test of coherence, we should +find that, if we choose to suppose it false, nothing will any longer +be incoherent with anything else. Thus the laws of logic supply the +skeleton or framework within which the test of coherence applies, and +they themselves cannot be established by this test. + +For the above two reasons, coherence cannot be accepted as giving the +_meaning_ of truth, though it is often a most important _test_ of truth +after a certain amount of truth has become known. + +Hence we are driven back to _correspondence with fact_ as constituting +the nature of truth. It remains to define precisely what we mean by +'fact', and what is the nature of the correspondence which must subsist +between belief and fact, in order that belief may be true. + +In accordance with our three requisites, we have to seek a theory of +truth which (1) allows truth to have an opposite, namely falsehood, (2) +makes truth a property of beliefs, but (3) makes it a property wholly +dependent upon the relation of the beliefs to outside things. + +The necessity of allowing for falsehood makes it impossible to regard +belief as a relation of the mind to a single object, which could be said +to be what is believed. If belief were so regarded, we should find that, +like acquaintance, it would not admit of the opposition of truth and +falsehood, but would have to be always true. This may be made clear +by examples. Othello believes falsely that Desdemona loves Cassio. We +cannot say that this belief consists in a relation to a single object, +'Desdemona's love for Cassio', for if there were such an object, the +belief would be true. There is in fact no such object, and therefore +Othello cannot have any relation to such an object. Hence his belief +cannot possibly consist in a relation to this object. + +It might be said that his belief is a relation to a different object, +namely 'that Desdemona loves Cassio'; but it is almost as difficult to +suppose that there is such an object as this, when Desdemona does not +love Cassio, as it was to suppose that there is 'Desdemona's love for +Cassio'. Hence it will be better to seek for a theory of belief which +does not make it consist in a relation of the mind to a single object. + +It is common to think of relations as though they always held between +two terms, but in fact this is not always the case. Some relations +demand three terms, some four, and so on. Take, for instance, the +relation 'between'. So long as only two terms come in, the relation +'between' is impossible: three terms are the smallest number that render +it possible. York is between London and Edinburgh; but if London and +Edinburgh were the only places in the world, there could be nothing +which was between one place and another. Similarly _jealousy_ requires +three people: there can be no such relation that does not involve three +at least. Such a proposition as 'A wishes B to promote C's marriage with +D' involves a relation of four terms; that is to say, A and B and C and +D all come in, and the relation involved cannot be expressed otherwise +than in a form involving all four. Instances might be multiplied +indefinitely, but enough has been said to show that there are relations +which require more than two terms before they can occur. + +The relation involved in _judging_ or _believing_ must, if falsehood is +to be duly allowed for, be taken to be a relation between several terms, +not between two. When Othello believes that Desdemona loves Cassio, he +must not have before his mind a single object, 'Desdemona's love for +Cassio', or 'that Desdemona loves Cassio ', for that would require that +there should be objective falsehoods, which subsist independently of +any minds; and this, though not logically refutable, is a theory to be +avoided if possible. Thus it is easier to account for falsehood if +we take judgement to be a relation in which the mind and the various +objects concerned all occur severally; that is to say, Desdemona and +loving and Cassio must all be terms in the relation which subsists when +Othello believes that Desdemona loves Cassio. This relation, therefore, +is a relation of four terms, since Othello also is one of the terms of +the relation. When we say that it is a relation of four terms, we do not +mean that Othello has a certain relation to Desdemona, and has the same +relation to loving and also to Cassio. This may be true of some other +relation than believing; but believing, plainly, is not a relation which +Othello has to _each_ of the three terms concerned, but to _all_ of +them together: there is only one example of the relation of believing +involved, but this one example knits together four terms. Thus the +actual occurrence, at the moment when Othello is entertaining his +belief, is that the relation called 'believing' is knitting together +into one complex whole the four terms Othello, Desdemona, loving, and +Cassio. What is called belief or judgement is nothing but this relation +of believing or judging, which relates a mind to several things other +than itself. An _act_ of belief or of judgement is the occurrence +between certain terms at some particular time, of the relation of +believing or judging. + +We are now in a position to understand what it is that distinguishes a +true judgement from a false one. For this purpose we will adopt certain +definitions. In every act of judgement there is a mind which judges, and +there are terms concerning which it judges. We will call the mind the +_subject_ in the judgement, and the remaining terms the _objects_. Thus, +when Othello judges that Desdemona loves Cassio, Othello is the subject, +while the objects are Desdemona and loving and Cassio. The subject and +the objects together are called the _constituents_ of the judgement. +It will be observed that the relation of judging has what is called a +'sense' or 'direction'. We may say, metaphorically, that it puts its +objects in a certain _order_, which we may indicate by means of the +order of the words in the sentence. (In an inflected language, the same +thing will be indicated by inflections, e.g. by the difference between +nominative and accusative.) Othello's judgement that Cassio loves +Desdemona differs from his judgement that Desdemona loves Cassio, in +spite of the fact that it consists of the same constituents, because the +relation of judging places the constituents in a different order in the +two cases. Similarly, if Cassio judges that Desdemona loves Othello, +the constituents of the judgement are still the same, but their order is +different. This property of having a 'sense' or 'direction' is one which +the relation of judging shares with all other relations. The 'sense' +of relations is the ultimate source of order and series and a host of +mathematical concepts; but we need not concern ourselves further with +this aspect. + +We spoke of the relation called 'judging' or 'believing' as knitting +together into one complex whole the subject and the objects. In this +respect, judging is exactly like every other relation. Whenever a +relation holds between two or more terms, it unites the terms into a +complex whole. If Othello loves Desdemona, there is such a complex whole +as 'Othello's love for Desdemona'. The terms united by the relation may +be themselves complex, or may be simple, but the whole which results +from their being united must be complex. Wherever there is a relation +which relates certain terms, there is a complex object formed of the +union of those terms; and conversely, wherever there is a complex +object, there is a relation which relates its constituents. When an act +of believing occurs, there is a complex, in which 'believing' is the +uniting relation, and subject and objects are arranged in a certain +order by the 'sense' of the relation of believing. Among the objects, +as we saw in considering 'Othello believes that Desdemona loves Cassio', +one must be a relation--in this instance, the relation 'loving'. But +this relation, as it occurs in the act of believing, is not the relation +which creates the unity of the complex whole consisting of the subject +and the objects. The relation 'loving', as it occurs in the act of +believing, is one of the objects--it is a brick in the structure, not +the cement. The cement is the relation 'believing'. When the belief is +_true_, there is another complex unity, in which the relation which was +one of the objects of the belief relates the other objects. Thus, e.g., +if Othello believes _truly_ that Desdemona loves Cassio, then there is +a complex unity, 'Desdemona's love for Cassio', which is composed +exclusively of the _objects_ of the belief, in the same order as they +had in the belief, with the relation which was one of the objects +occurring now as the cement that binds together the other objects of the +belief. On the other hand, when a belief is _false_, there is no such +complex unity composed only of the objects of the belief. If Othello +believes _falsely_ that Desdemona loves Cassio, then there is no such +complex unity as 'Desdemona's love for Cassio'. + +Thus a belief is _true_ when it _corresponds_ to a certain associated +complex, and _false_ when it does not. Assuming, for the sake of +definiteness, that the objects of the belief are two terms and a +relation, the terms being put in a certain order by the 'sense' of +the believing, then if the two terms in that order are united by the +relation into a complex, the belief is true; if not, it is false. This +constitutes the definition of truth and falsehood that we were in search +of. Judging or believing is a certain complex unity of which a mind is +a constituent; if the remaining constituents, taken in the order which +they have in the belief, form a complex unity, then the belief is true; +if not, it is false. + +Thus although truth and falsehood are properties of beliefs, yet they +are in a sense extrinsic properties, for the condition of the truth of +a belief is something not involving beliefs, or (in general) any mind +at all, but only the _objects_ of the belief. A mind, which believes, +believes truly when there is a _corresponding_ complex not involving the +mind, but only its objects. This correspondence ensures truth, and its +absence entails falsehood. Hence we account simultaneously for the two +facts that beliefs (a) depend on minds for their _existence_, (b) do not +depend on minds for their _truth_. + +We may restate our theory as follows: If we take such a belief as +'Othello believes that Desdemona loves Cassio', we will call Desdemona +and Cassio the _object-terms_, and loving the _object-relation_. If +there is a complex unity 'Desdemona's love for Cassio', consisting of +the object-terms related by the object-relation in the same order as +they have in the belief, then this complex unity is called the _fact +corresponding to the belief_. Thus a belief is true when there is a +corresponding fact, and is false when there is no corresponding fact. + +It will be seen that minds do not _create_ truth or falsehood. They +create beliefs, but when once the beliefs are created, the mind cannot +make them true or false, except in the special case where they concern +future things which are within the power of the person believing, such +as catching trains. What makes a belief true is a _fact_, and this fact +does not (except in exceptional cases) in any way involve the mind of +the person who has the belief. + +Having now decided what we _mean_ by truth and falsehood, we have next +to consider what ways there are of knowing whether this or that belief +is true or false. This consideration will occupy the next chapter. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. KNOWLEDGE, ERROR, AND PROBABLE OPINION + +The question as to what we mean by truth and falsehood, which we +considered in the preceding chapter, is of much less interest than the +question as to how we can know what is true and what is false. This +question will occupy us in the present chapter. There can be no doubt +that _some_ of our beliefs are erroneous; thus we are led to inquire +what certainty we can ever have that such and such a belief is not +erroneous. In other words, can we ever _know_ anything at all, or do we +merely sometimes by good luck believe what is true? Before we can attack +this question, we must, however, first decide what we mean by 'knowing', +and this question is not so easy as might be supposed. + +At first sight we might imagine that knowledge could be defined as 'true +belief'. When what we believe is true, it might be supposed that we had +achieved a knowledge of what we believe. But this would not accord +with the way in which the word is commonly used. To take a very trivial +instance: If a man believes that the late Prime Minister's last name +began with a B, he believes what is true, since the late Prime Minister +was Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman. But if he believes that Mr. Balfour +was the late Prime Minister, he will still believe that the late Prime +Minister's last name began with a B, yet this belief, though true, +would not be thought to constitute knowledge. If a newspaper, by an +intelligent anticipation, announces the result of a battle before any +telegram giving the result has been received, it may by good fortune +announce what afterwards turns out to be the right result, and it may +produce belief in some of its less experienced readers. But in spite of +the truth of their belief, they cannot be said to have knowledge. Thus +it is clear that a true belief is not knowledge when it is deduced from +a false belief. + +In like manner, a true belief cannot be called knowledge when it is +deduced by a fallacious process of reasoning, even if the premisses from +which it is deduced are true. If I know that all Greeks are men and that +Socrates was a man, and I infer that Socrates was a Greek, I cannot be +said to _know_ that Socrates was a Greek, because, although my premisses +and my conclusion are true, the conclusion does not follow from the +premisses. + +But are we to say that nothing is knowledge except what is validly +deduced from true premisses? Obviously we cannot say this. Such a +definition is at once too wide and too narrow. In the first place, it is +too wide, because it is not enough that our premisses should be _true_, +they must also be _known_. The man who believes that Mr. Balfour was the +late Prime Minister may proceed to draw valid deductions from the true +premiss that the late Prime Minister's name began with a B, but he +cannot be said to _know_ the conclusions reached by these deductions. +Thus we shall have to amend our definition by saying that knowledge +is what is validly deduced from _known_ premisses. This, however, is a +circular definition: it assumes that we already know what is meant +by 'known premisses'. It can, therefore, at best define one sort +of knowledge, the sort we call derivative, as opposed to intuitive +knowledge. We may say: '_Derivative_ knowledge is what is validly +deduced from premisses known intuitively'. In this statement there is +no formal defect, but it leaves the definition of _intuitive_ knowledge +still to seek. + +Leaving on one side, for the moment, the question of intuitive +knowledge, let us consider the above suggested definition of derivative +knowledge. The chief objection to it is that it unduly limits knowledge. +It constantly happens that people entertain a true belief, which has +grown up in them because of some piece of intuitive knowledge from which +it is capable of being validly inferred, but from which it has not, as a +matter of fact, been inferred by any logical process. + +Take, for example, the beliefs produced by reading. If the newspapers +announce the death of the King, we are fairly well justified in +believing that the King is dead, since this is the sort of announcement +which would not be made if it were false. And we are quite amply +justified in believing that the newspaper asserts that the King is +dead. But here the intuitive knowledge upon which our belief is based +is knowledge of the existence of sense-data derived from looking at +the print which gives the news. This knowledge scarcely rises into +consciousness, except in a person who cannot read easily. A child may be +aware of the shapes of the letters, and pass gradually and painfully to +a realization of their meaning. But anybody accustomed to reading +passes at once to what the letters mean, and is not aware, except on +reflection, that he has derived this knowledge from the sense-data +called seeing the printed letters. Thus although a valid inference from +the-letters to their meaning is possible, and _could_ be performed +by the reader, it is not in fact performed, since he does not in fact +perform any operation which can be called logical inference. Yet +it would be absurd to say that the reader does not _know_ that the +newspaper announces the King's death. + +We must, therefore, admit as derivative knowledge whatever is the result +of intuitive knowledge even if by mere association, provided there _is_ +a valid logical connexion, and the person in question could become aware +of this connexion by reflection. There are in fact many ways, besides +logical inference, by which we pass from one belief to another: the +passage from the print to its meaning illustrates these ways. These +ways may be called 'psychological inference'. We shall, then, admit such +psychological inference as a means of obtaining derivative knowledge, +provided there is a discoverable logical inference which runs parallel +to the psychological inference. This renders our definition of +derivative knowledge less precise than we could wish, since the word +'discoverable' is vague: it does not tell us how much reflection may be +needed in order to make the discovery. But in fact 'knowledge' is not a +precise conception: it merges into 'probable opinion', as we shall +see more fully in the course of the present chapter. A very precise +definition, therefore, should not be sought, since any such definition +must be more or less misleading. + +The chief difficulty in regard to knowledge, however, does not arise +over derivative knowledge, but over intuitive knowledge. So long as we +are dealing with derivative knowledge, we have the test of intuitive +knowledge to fall back upon. But in regard to intuitive beliefs, it is +by no means easy to discover any criterion by which to distinguish +some as true and others as erroneous. In this question it is scarcely +possible to reach any very precise result: all our knowledge of truths +is infected with some degree of doubt, and a theory which ignored this +fact would be plainly wrong. Something may be done, however, to mitigate +the difficulties of the question. + +Our theory of truth, to begin with, supplies the possibility of +distinguishing certain truths as _self-evident_ in a sense which ensures +infallibility. When a belief is true, we said, there is a corresponding +fact, in which the several objects of the belief form a single complex. +The belief is said to constitute _knowledge_ of this fact, provided +it fulfils those further somewhat vague conditions which we have been +considering in the present chapter. But in regard to any fact, besides +the knowledge constituted by belief, we may also have the kind of +knowledge constituted by _perception_ (taking this word in its widest +possible sense). For example, if you know the hour of the sunset, +you can at that hour know the fact that the sun is setting: this is +knowledge of the fact by way of knowledge of _truths_; but you can also, +if the weather is fine, look to the west and actually see the setting +sun: you then know the same fact by the way of knowledge of _things_. + +Thus in regard to any complex fact, there are, theoretically, two ways +in which it may be known: (1) by means of a judgement, in which its +several parts are judged to be related as they are in fact related; (2) +by means of _acquaintance_ with the complex fact itself, which may (in a +large sense) be called perception, though it is by no means confined to +objects of the senses. Now it will be observed that the second way of +knowing a complex fact, the way of acquaintance, is only possible when +there really is such a fact, while the first way, like all judgement, +is liable to error. The second way gives us the complex whole, and is +therefore only possible when its parts do actually have that relation +which makes them combine to form such a complex. The first way, on the +contrary, gives us the parts and the relation severally, and demands +only the reality of the parts and the relation: the relation may not +relate those parts in that way, and yet the judgement may occur. + +It will be remembered that at the end of Chapter XI we suggested that +there might be two kinds of self-evidence, one giving an absolute +guarantee of truth, the other only a partial guarantee. These two kinds +can now be distinguished. + +We may say that a truth is self-evident, in the first and most absolute +sense, when we have acquaintance with the fact which corresponds to +the truth. When Othello believes that Desdemona loves Cassio, the +corresponding fact, if his belief were true, would be 'Desdemona's +love for Cassio'. This would be a fact with which no one could have +acquaintance except Desdemona; hence in the sense of self-evidence that +we are considering, the truth that Desdemona loves Cassio (if it were +a truth) could only be self-evident to Desdemona. All mental facts, and +all facts concerning sense-data, have this same privacy: there is only +one person to whom they can be self-evident in our present sense, since +there is only one person who can be acquainted with the mental things +or the sense-data concerned. Thus no fact about any particular existing +thing can be self-evident to more than one person. On the other hand, +facts about universals do not have this privacy. Many minds may be +acquainted with the same universals; hence a relation between universals +may be known by acquaintance to many different people. In all cases +where we know by acquaintance a complex fact consisting of certain terms +in a certain relation, we say that the truth that these terms are so +related has the first or absolute kind of self-evidence, and in these +cases the judgement that the terms are so related _must_ be true. Thus +this sort of self-evidence is an absolute guarantee of truth. + +But although this sort of self-evidence is an absolute guarantee of +truth, it does not enable us to be _absolutely_ certain, in the case of +any given judgement, that the judgement in question is true. Suppose +we first perceive the sun shining, which is a complex fact, and thence +proceed to make the judgement 'the sun is shining'. In passing from +the perception to the judgement, it is necessary to analyse the given +complex fact: we have to separate out 'the sun' and 'shining' as +constituents of the fact. In this process it is possible to commit +an error; hence even where a _fact_ has the first or absolute kind of +self-evidence, a judgement believed to correspond to the fact is not +absolutely infallible, because it may not really correspond to the +fact. But if it does correspond (in the sense explained in the preceding +chapter), then it _must_ be true. + +The second sort of self-evidence will be that which belongs to +judgements in the first instance, and is not derived from direct +perception of a fact as a single complex whole. This second kind of +self-evidence will have degrees, from the very highest degree down to a +bare inclination in favour of the belief. Take, for example, the case of +a horse trotting away from us along a hard road. At first our certainty +that we hear the hoofs is complete; gradually, if we listen intently, +there comes a moment when we think perhaps it was imagination or the +blind upstairs or our own heartbeats; at last we become doubtful whether +there was any noise at all; then we _think_ we no longer hear anything, +and at last we _know_ we no longer hear anything. In this process, there +is a continual gradation of self-evidence, from the highest degree to +the least, not in the sense-data themselves, but in the judgements based +on them. + +Or again: Suppose we are comparing two shades of colour, one blue and +one green. We can be quite sure they are different shades of colour; but +if the green colour is gradually altered to be more and more like the +blue, becoming first a blue-green, then a greeny-blue, then blue, +there will come a moment when we are doubtful whether we can see any +difference, and then a moment when we know that we cannot see any +difference. The same thing happens in tuning a musical instrument, or in +any other case where there is a continuous gradation. Thus self-evidence +of this sort is a matter of degree; and it seems plain that the higher +degrees are more to be trusted than the lower degrees. + +In derivative knowledge our ultimate premisses must have some degree of +self-evidence, and so must their connexion with the conclusions deduced +from them. Take for example a piece of reasoning in geometry. It is not +enough that the axioms from which we start should be self-evident: it +is necessary also that, at each step in the reasoning, the connexion of +premiss and conclusion should be self-evident. In difficult reasoning, +this connexion has often only a very small degree of self-evidence; +hence errors of reasoning are not improbable where the difficulty is +great. + +From what has been said it is evident that, both as regards intuitive +knowledge and as regards derivative knowledge, if we assume that +intuitive knowledge is trustworthy in proportion to the degree of its +self-evidence, there will be a gradation in trustworthiness, from the +existence of noteworthy sense-data and the simpler truths of logic and +arithmetic, which may be taken as quite certain, down to judgements +which seem only just more probable than their opposites. What we firmly +believe, if it is true, is called _knowledge_, provided it is either +intuitive or inferred (logically or psychologically) from intuitive +knowledge from which it follows logically. What we firmly believe, if it +is not true, is called _error_. What we firmly believe, if it is neither +knowledge nor error, and also what we believe hesitatingly, because it +is, or is derived from, something which has not the highest degree of +self-evidence, may be called _probable opinion_. Thus the greater +part of what would commonly pass as knowledge is more or less probable +opinion. + +In regard to probable opinion, we can derive great assistance from +_coherence_, which we rejected as the _definition_ of truth, but may +often use as a _criterion_. A body of individually probable opinions, +if they are mutually coherent, become more probable than any one of them +would be individually. It is in this way that many scientific hypotheses +acquire their probability. They fit into a coherent system of probable +opinions, and thus become more probable than they would be in isolation. +The same thing applies to general philosophical hypotheses. Often in a +single case such hypotheses may seem highly doubtful, while yet, when +we consider the order and coherence which they introduce into a mass of +probable opinion, they become pretty nearly certain. This applies, in +particular, to such matters as the distinction between dreams and +waking life. If our dreams, night after night, were as coherent one with +another as our days, we should hardly know whether to believe the dreams +or the waking life. As it is, the test of coherence condemns the +dreams and confirms the waking life. But this test, though it increases +probability where it is successful, never gives absolute certainty, +unless there is certainty already at some point in the coherent system. +Thus the mere organization of probable opinion will never, by itself, +transform it into indubitable knowledge. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. THE LIMITS OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE + +In all that we have said hitherto concerning philosophy, we have +scarcely touched on many matters that occupy a great space in the +writings of most philosophers. Most philosophers--or, at any rate, very +many--profess to be able to prove, by _a priori_ metaphysical reasoning, +such things as the fundamental dogmas of religion, the essential +rationality of the universe, the illusoriness of matter, the unreality +of all evil, and so on. There can be no doubt that the hope of finding +reason to believe such theses as these has been the chief inspiration of +many life-long students of philosophy. This hope, I believe, is vain. It +would seem that knowledge concerning the universe as a whole is not to +be obtained by metaphysics, and that the proposed proofs that, in virtue +of the laws of logic such and such things _must_ exist and such and such +others cannot, are not capable of surviving a critical scrutiny. In +this chapter we shall briefly consider the kind of way in which such +reasoning is attempted, with a view to discovering whether we can hope +that it may be valid. + +The great representative, in modern times, of the kind of view which +we wish to examine, was Hegel (1770-1831). Hegel's philosophy is very +difficult, and commentators differ as to the true interpretation of it. +According to the interpretation I shall adopt, which is that of many, if +not most, of the commentators and has the merit of giving an interesting +and important type of philosophy, his main thesis is that everything +short of the Whole is obviously fragmentary, and obviously incapable of +existing without the complement supplied by the rest of the world. Just +as a comparative anatomist, from a single bone, sees what kind of animal +the whole must have been, so the metaphysician, according to Hegel, +sees, from any one piece of reality, what the whole of reality must +be--at least in its large outlines. Every apparently separate piece of +reality has, as it were, hooks which grapple it to the next piece; +the next piece, in turn, has fresh hooks, and so on, until the whole +universe is reconstructed. This essential incompleteness appears, +according to Hegel, equally in the world of thought and in the world of +things. In the world of thought, if we take any idea which is +abstract or incomplete, we find, on examination, that if we forget +its incompleteness, we become involved in contradictions; these +contradictions turn the idea in question into its opposite, or +antithesis; and in order to escape, we have to find a new, less +incomplete idea, which is the synthesis of our original idea and its +antithesis. This new idea, though less incomplete than the idea we +started with, will be found, nevertheless, to be still not wholly +complete, but to pass into its antithesis, with which it must be +combined in a new synthesis. In this way Hegel advances until he reaches +the 'Absolute Idea', which, according to him, has no incompleteness, +no opposite, and no need of further development. The Absolute Idea, +therefore, is adequate to describe Absolute Reality; but all lower ideas +only describe reality as it appears to a partial view, not as it is +to one who simultaneously surveys the Whole. Thus Hegel reaches the +conclusion that Absolute Reality forms one single harmonious system, not +in space or time, not in any degree evil, wholly rational, and wholly +spiritual. Any appearance to the contrary, in the world we know, can be +proved logically--so he believes--to be entirely due to our fragmentary +piecemeal view of the universe. If we saw the universe whole, as we may +suppose God sees it, space and time and matter and evil and all striving +and struggling would disappear, and we should see instead an eternal +perfect unchanging spiritual unity. + +In this conception, there is undeniably something sublime, something to +which we could wish to yield assent. Nevertheless, when the arguments +in support of it are carefully examined, they appear to involve much +confusion and many unwarrantable assumptions. The fundamental tenet +upon which the system is built up is that what is incomplete must be not +self-subsistent, but must need the support of other things before it can +exist. It is held that whatever has relations to things outside itself +must contain some reference to those outside things in its own nature, +and could not, therefore, be what it is if those outside things did not +exist. A man's nature, for example, is constituted by his memories and +the rest of his knowledge, by his loves and hatreds, and so on; thus, +but for the objects which he knows or loves or hates, he could not be +what he is. He is essentially and obviously a fragment: taken as the +sum-total of reality he would be self-contradictory. + +This whole point of view, however, turns upon the notion of the 'nature' +of a thing, which seems to mean 'all the truths about the thing'. It is +of course the case that a truth which connects one thing with another +thing could not subsist if the other thing did not subsist. But a +truth about a thing is not part of the thing itself, although it must, +according to the above usage, be part of the 'nature' of the thing. +If we mean by a thing's 'nature' all the truths about the thing, then +plainly we cannot know a thing's 'nature' unless we know all the thing's +relations to all the other things in the universe. But if the word +'nature' is used in this sense, we shall have to hold that the thing +may be known when its 'nature' is not known, or at any rate is not known +completely. There is a confusion, when this use of the word 'nature' is +employed, between knowledge of things and knowledge of truths. We may +have knowledge of a thing by acquaintance even if we know very few +propositions about it--theoretically we need not know any propositions +about it. Thus, acquaintance with a thing does not involve knowledge of +its 'nature' in the above sense. And although acquaintance with a thing +is involved in our knowing any one proposition about a thing, knowledge +of its 'nature', in the above sense, is not involved. Hence, (1) +acquaintance with a thing does not logically involve a knowledge of its +relations, and (2) a knowledge of some of its relations does not involve +a knowledge of all of its relations nor a knowledge of its 'nature' in +the above sense. I may be acquainted, for example, with my toothache, +and this knowledge may be as complete as knowledge by acquaintance ever +can be, without knowing all that the dentist (who is not acquainted +with it) can tell me about its cause, and without therefore knowing its +'nature' in the above sense. Thus the fact that a thing has relations +does not prove that its relations are logically necessary. That is to +say, from the mere fact that it is the thing it is we cannot deduce +that it must have the various relations which in fact it has. This only +_seems_ to follow because we know it already. + +It follows that we cannot prove that the universe as a whole forms a +single harmonious system such as Hegel believes that it forms. And if we +cannot prove this, we also cannot prove the unreality of space and time +and matter and evil, for this is deduced by Hegel from the fragmentary +and relational character of these things. Thus we are left to the +piecemeal investigation of the world, and are unable to know the +characters of those parts of the universe that are remote from our +experience. This result, disappointing as it is to those whose hopes +have been raised by the systems of philosophers, is in harmony with +the inductive and scientific temper of our age, and is borne out by the +whole examination of human knowledge which has occupied our previous +chapters. + +Most of the great ambitious attempts of metaphysicians have proceeded by +the attempt to prove that such and such apparent features of the actual +world were self-contradictory, and therefore could not be real. The +whole tendency of modern thought, however, is more and more in the +direction of showing that the supposed contradictions were illusory, and +that very little can be proved _a priori_ from considerations of what +_must_ be. A good illustration of this is afforded by space and +time. Space and time appear to be infinite in extent, and infinitely +divisible. If we travel along a straight line in either direction, it +is difficult to believe that we shall finally reach a last point, +beyond which there is nothing, not even empty space. Similarly, if in +imagination we travel backwards or forwards in time, it is difficult to +believe that we shall reach a first or last time, with not even empty +time beyond it. Thus space and time appear to be infinite in extent. + +Again, if we take any two points on a line, it seems evident that there +must be other points between them however small the distance between +them may be: every distance can be halved, and the halves can be halved +again, and so on _ad infinitum_. In time, similarly, however little +time may elapse between two moments, it seems evident that there will be +other moments between them. Thus space and time appear to be infinitely +divisible. But as against these apparent facts--infinite extent and +infinite divisibility--philosophers have advanced arguments tending to +show that there could be no infinite collections of things, and that +therefore the number of points in space, or of instants in time, must +be finite. Thus a contradiction emerged between the apparent nature of +space and time and the supposed impossibility of infinite collections. + +Kant, who first emphasized this contradiction, deduced the impossibility +of space and time, which he declared to be merely subjective; and since +his time very many philosophers have believed that space and time are +mere appearance, not characteristic of the world as it really is. Now, +however, owing to the labours of the mathematicians, notably Georg +Cantor, it has appeared that the impossibility of infinite collections +was a mistake. They are not in fact self-contradictory, but only +contradictory of certain rather obstinate mental prejudices. Hence the +reasons for regarding space and time as unreal have become inoperative, +and one of the great sources of metaphysical constructions is dried up. + +The mathematicians, however, have not been content with showing that +space as it is commonly supposed to be is possible; they have shown also +that many other forms of space are equally possible, so far as logic +can show. Some of Euclid's axioms, which appear to common sense to be +necessary, and were formerly supposed to be necessary by philosophers, +are now known to derive their appearance of necessity from our mere +familiarity with actual space, and not from any _a priori_ logical +foundation. By imagining worlds in which these axioms are false, the +mathematicians have used logic to loosen the prejudices of common +sense, and to show the possibility of spaces differing--some more, some +less--from that in which we live. And some of these spaces differ so +little from Euclidean space, where distances such as we can measure are +concerned, that it is impossible to discover by observation whether our +actual space is strictly Euclidean or of one of these other kinds. +Thus the position is completely reversed. Formerly it appeared that +experience left only one kind of space to logic, and logic showed this +one kind to be impossible. Now, logic presents many kinds of space as +possible apart from experience, and experience only partially decides +between them. Thus, while our knowledge of what is has become less +than it was formerly supposed to be, our knowledge of what may be is +enormously increased. Instead of being shut in within narrow walls, of +which every nook and cranny could be explored, we find ourselves in an +open world of free possibilities, where much remains unknown because +there is so much to know. + +What has happened in the case of space and time has happened, to some +extent, in other directions as well. The attempt to prescribe to the +universe by means of _a priori_ principles has broken down; logic, +instead of being, as formerly, the bar to possibilities, has become the +great liberator of the imagination, presenting innumerable alternatives +which are closed to unreflective common sense, and leaving to experience +the task of deciding, where decision is possible, between the many +worlds which logic offers for our choice. Thus knowledge as to what +exists becomes limited to what we can learn from experience--not to +what we can actually experience, for, as we have seen, there is much +knowledge by description concerning things of which we have no direct +experience. But in all cases of knowledge by description, we need some +connexion of universals, enabling us, from such and such a datum, to +infer an object of a certain sort as implied by our datum. Thus in +regard to physical objects, for example, the principle that sense-data +are signs of physical objects is itself a connexion of universals; and +it is only in virtue of this principle that experience enables us to +acquire knowledge concerning physical objects. The same applies to +the law of causality, or, to descend to what is less general, to such +principles as the law of gravitation. + +Principles such as the law of gravitation are proved, or rather are +rendered highly probable, by a combination of experience with some +wholly _a priori_ principle, such as the principle of induction. Thus +our intuitive knowledge, which is the source of all our other knowledge +of truths, is of two sorts: pure empirical knowledge, which tells us of +the existence and some of the properties of particular things with +which we are acquainted, and pure _a priori_ knowledge, which gives us +connexions between universals, and enables us to draw inferences from +the particular facts given in empirical knowledge. Our derivative +knowledge always depends upon some pure _a priori_ knowledge and usually +also depends upon some pure empirical knowledge. + +Philosophical knowledge, if what has been said above is true, does not +differ essentially from scientific knowledge; there is no special +source of wisdom which is open to philosophy but not to science, and the +results obtained by philosophy are not radically different from those +obtained from science. The essential characteristic of philosophy, +which makes it a study distinct from science, is criticism. It examines +critically the principles employed in science and in daily life; it +searches out any inconsistencies there may be in these principles, +and it only accepts them when, as the result of a critical inquiry, no +reason for rejecting them has appeared. If, as many philosophers have +believed, the principles underlying the sciences were capable, when +disengaged from irrelevant detail, of giving us knowledge concerning +the universe as a whole, such knowledge would have the same claim on our +belief as scientific knowledge has; but our inquiry has not revealed any +such knowledge, and therefore, as regards the special doctrines of the +bolder metaphysicians, has had a mainly negative result. But as regards +what would be commonly accepted as knowledge, our result is in the main +positive: we have seldom found reason to reject such knowledge as the +result of our criticism, and we have seen no reason to suppose man +incapable of the kind of knowledge which he is generally believed to +possess. + +When, however, we speak of philosophy as a _criticism_ of knowledge, it +is necessary to impose a certain limitation. If we adopt the attitude +of the complete sceptic, placing ourselves wholly outside all knowledge, +and asking, from this outside position, to be compelled to return within +the circle of knowledge, we are demanding what is impossible, and our +scepticism can never be refuted. For all refutation must begin with +some piece of knowledge which the disputants share; from blank doubt, +no argument can begin. Hence the criticism of knowledge which philosophy +employs must not be of this destructive kind, if any result is to be +achieved. Against this absolute scepticism, no _logical_ argument can be +advanced. But it is not difficult to see that scepticism of this kind +is unreasonable. Descartes' 'methodical doubt', with which modern +philosophy began, is not of this kind, but is rather the kind of +criticism which we are asserting to be the essence of philosophy. His +'methodical doubt' consisted in doubting whatever seemed doubtful; in +pausing, with each apparent piece of knowledge, to ask himself whether, +on reflection, he could feel certain that he really knew it. This is the +kind of criticism which constitutes philosophy. Some knowledge, such as +knowledge of the existence of our sense-data, appears quite indubitable, +however calmly and thoroughly we reflect upon it. In regard to such +knowledge, philosophical criticism does not require that we should +abstain from belief. But there are beliefs--such, for example, as the +belief that physical objects exactly resemble our sense-data--which are +entertained until we begin to reflect, but are found to melt away +when subjected to a close inquiry. Such beliefs philosophy will bid us +reject, unless some new line of argument is found to support them. +But to reject the beliefs which do not appear open to any objections, +however closely we examine them, is not reasonable, and is not what +philosophy advocates. + +The criticism aimed at, in a word, is not that which, without reason, +determines to reject, but that which considers each piece of apparent +knowledge on its merits, and retains whatever still appears to be +knowledge when this consideration is completed. That some risk of error +remains must be admitted, since human beings are fallible. Philosophy +may claim justly that it diminishes the risk of error, and that in some +cases it renders the risk so small as to be practically negligible. To +do more than this is not possible in a world where mistakes must occur; +and more than this no prudent advocate of philosophy would claim to have +performed. + + + +CHAPTER XV. THE VALUE OF PHILOSOPHY + +Having now come to the end of our brief and very incomplete review of +the problems of philosophy, it will be well to consider, in conclusion, +what is the value of philosophy and why it ought to be studied. It is +the more necessary to consider this question, in view of the fact that +many men, under the influence of science or of practical affairs, are +inclined to doubt whether philosophy is anything better than innocent +but useless trifling, hair-splitting distinctions, and controversies on +matters concerning which knowledge is impossible. + +This view of philosophy appears to result, partly from a wrong +conception of the ends of life, partly from a wrong conception of the +kind of goods which philosophy strives to achieve. Physical science, +through the medium of inventions, is useful to innumerable people who +are wholly ignorant of it; thus the study of physical science is to +be recommended, not only, or primarily, because of the effect on the +student, but rather because of the effect on mankind in general. Thus +utility does not belong to philosophy. If the study of philosophy has +any value at all for others than students of philosophy, it must be only +indirectly, through its effects upon the lives of those who study it. +It is in these effects, therefore, if anywhere, that the value of +philosophy must be primarily sought. + +But further, if we are not to fail in our endeavour to determine the +value of philosophy, we must first free our minds from the prejudices +of what are wrongly called 'practical' men. The 'practical' man, as +this word is often used, is one who recognizes only material needs, who +realizes that men must have food for the body, but is oblivious of the +necessity of providing food for the mind. If all men were well off, if +poverty and disease had been reduced to their lowest possible point, +there would still remain much to be done to produce a valuable society; +and even in the existing world the goods of the mind are at least as +important as the goods of the body. It is exclusively among the goods of +the mind that the value of philosophy is to be found; and only those who +are not indifferent to these goods can be persuaded that the study of +philosophy is not a waste of time. + +Philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge. The +knowledge it aims at is the kind of knowledge which gives unity and +system to the body of the sciences, and the kind which results from a +critical examination of the grounds of our convictions, prejudices, and +beliefs. But it cannot be maintained that philosophy has had any very +great measure of success in its attempts to provide definite answers to +its questions. If you ask a mathematician, a mineralogist, a historian, +or any other man of learning, what definite body of truths has been +ascertained by his science, his answer will last as long as you are +willing to listen. But if you put the same question to a philosopher, he +will, if he is candid, have to confess that his study has not achieved +positive results such as have been achieved by other sciences. It is +true that this is partly accounted for by the fact that, as soon as +definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject +ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science. The +whole study of the heavens, which now belongs to astronomy, was once +included in philosophy; Newton's great work was called 'the mathematical +principles of natural philosophy'. Similarly, the study of the human +mind, which was a part of philosophy, has now been separated from +philosophy and has become the science of psychology. Thus, to a great +extent, the uncertainty of philosophy is more apparent than real: those +questions which are already capable of definite answers are placed in +the sciences, while those only to which, at present, no definite answer +can be given, remain to form the residue which is called philosophy. + +This is, however, only a part of the truth concerning the uncertainty of +philosophy. There are many questions--and among them those that are of +the profoundest interest to our spiritual life--which, so far as we +can see, must remain insoluble to the human intellect unless its powers +become of quite a different order from what they are now. Has the +universe any unity of plan or purpose, or is it a fortuitous concourse +of atoms? Is consciousness a permanent part of the universe, giving +hope of indefinite growth in wisdom, or is it a transitory accident on +a small planet on which life must ultimately become impossible? Are good +and evil of importance to the universe or only to man? Such questions +are asked by philosophy, and variously answered by various philosophers. +But it would seem that, whether answers be otherwise discoverable or +not, the answers suggested by philosophy are none of them demonstrably +true. Yet, however slight may be the hope of discovering an answer, it +is part of the business of philosophy to continue the consideration of +such questions, to make us aware of their importance, to examine all the +approaches to them, and to keep alive that speculative interest in the +universe which is apt to be killed by confining ourselves to definitely +ascertainable knowledge. + +Many philosophers, it is true, have held that philosophy could establish +the truth of certain answers to such fundamental questions. They have +supposed that what is of most importance in religious beliefs could be +proved by strict demonstration to be true. In order to judge of such +attempts, it is necessary to take a survey of human knowledge, and to +form an opinion as to its methods and its limitations. On such a subject +it would be unwise to pronounce dogmatically; but if the investigations +of our previous chapters have not led us astray, we shall be compelled +to renounce the hope of finding philosophical proofs of religious +beliefs. We cannot, therefore, include as part of the value of +philosophy any definite set of answers to such questions. Hence, once +more, the value of philosophy must not depend upon any supposed body of +definitely ascertainable knowledge to be acquired by those who study it. + +The value of philosophy is, in fact, to be sought largely in its very +uncertainty. The man who has no tincture of philosophy goes through +life imprisoned in the prejudices derived from common sense, from the +habitual beliefs of his age or his nation, and from convictions which +have grown up in his mind without the co-operation or consent of his +deliberate reason. To such a man the world tends to become definite, +finite, obvious; common objects rouse no questions, and unfamiliar +possibilities are contemptuously rejected. As soon as we begin to +philosophize, on the contrary, we find, as we saw in our opening +chapters, that even the most everyday things lead to problems to which +only very incomplete answers can be given. Philosophy, though unable to +tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it +raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts +and free them from the tyranny of custom. Thus, while diminishing our +feeling of certainty as to what things are, it greatly increases our +knowledge as to what they may be; it removes the somewhat arrogant +dogmatism of those who have never travelled into the region of +liberating doubt, and it keeps alive our sense of wonder by showing +familiar things in an unfamiliar aspect. + +Apart from its utility in showing unsuspected possibilities, philosophy +has a value--perhaps its chief value--through the greatness of the +objects which it contemplates, and the freedom from narrow and personal +aims resulting from this contemplation. The life of the instinctive +man is shut up within the circle of his private interests: family and +friends may be included, but the outer world is not regarded except +as it may help or hinder what comes within the circle of instinctive +wishes. In such a life there is something feverish and confined, in +comparison with which the philosophic life is calm and free. The private +world of instinctive interests is a small one, set in the midst of a +great and powerful world which must, sooner or later, lay our private +world in ruins. Unless we can so enlarge our interests as to include the +whole outer world, we remain like a garrison in a beleagured fortress, +knowing that the enemy prevents escape and that ultimate surrender is +inevitable. In such a life there is no peace, but a constant strife +between the insistence of desire and the powerlessness of will. In one +way or another, if our life is to be great and free, we must escape this +prison and this strife. + +One way of escape is by philosophic contemplation. Philosophic +contemplation does not, in its widest survey, divide the universe into +two hostile camps--friends and foes, helpful and hostile, good and +bad--it views the whole impartially. Philosophic contemplation, when it +is unalloyed, does not aim at proving that the rest of the universe is +akin to man. All acquisition of knowledge is an enlargement of the Self, +but this enlargement is best attained when it is not directly sought. It +is obtained when the desire for knowledge is alone operative, by a study +which does not wish in advance that its objects should have this or that +character, but adapts the Self to the characters which it finds in its +objects. This enlargement of Self is not obtained when, taking the Self +as it is, we try to show that the world is so similar to this Self that +knowledge of it is possible without any admission of what seems alien. +The desire to prove this is a form of self-assertion and, like all +self-assertion, it is an obstacle to the growth of Self which it +desires, and of which the Self knows that it is capable. Self-assertion, +in philosophic speculation as elsewhere, views the world as a means to +its own ends; thus it makes the world of less account than Self, and the +Self sets bounds to the greatness of its goods. In contemplation, on +the contrary, we start from the not-Self, and through its greatness the +boundaries of Self are enlarged; through the infinity of the universe +the mind which contemplates it achieves some share in infinity. + +For this reason greatness of soul is not fostered by those philosophies +which assimilate the universe to Man. Knowledge is a form of union +of Self and not-Self; like all union, it is impaired by dominion, and +therefore by any attempt to force the universe into conformity with +what we find in ourselves. There is a widespread philosophical tendency +towards the view which tells us that Man is the measure of all things, +that truth is man-made, that space and time and the world of universals +are properties of the mind, and that, if there be anything not created +by the mind, it is unknowable and of no account for us. This view, if +our previous discussions were correct, is untrue; but in addition to +being untrue, it has the effect of robbing philosophic contemplation of +all that gives it value, since it fetters contemplation to Self. What +it calls knowledge is not a union with the not-Self, but a set of +prejudices, habits, and desires, making an impenetrable veil between +us and the world beyond. The man who finds pleasure in such a theory of +knowledge is like the man who never leaves the domestic circle for fear +his word might not be law. + +The true philosophic contemplation, on the contrary, finds its +satisfaction in every enlargement of the not-Self, in everything +that magnifies the objects contemplated, and thereby the subject +contemplating. Everything, in contemplation, that is personal or +private, everything that depends upon habit, self-interest, or desire, +distorts the object, and hence impairs the union which the intellect +seeks. By thus making a barrier between subject and object, such +personal and private things become a prison to the intellect. The free +intellect will see as God might see, without a _here_ and _now_, +without hopes and fears, without the trammels of customary beliefs +and traditional prejudices, calmly, dispassionately, in the sole and +exclusive desire of knowledge--knowledge as impersonal, as purely +contemplative, as it is possible for man to attain. Hence also the free +intellect will value more the abstract and universal knowledge into +which the accidents of private history do not enter, than the knowledge +brought by the senses, and dependent, as such knowledge must be, upon +an exclusive and personal point of view and a body whose sense-organs +distort as much as they reveal. + +The mind which has become accustomed to the freedom and impartiality of +philosophic contemplation will preserve something of the same freedom +and impartiality in the world of action and emotion. It will view +its purposes and desires as parts of the whole, with the absence of +insistence that results from seeing them as infinitesimal fragments in +a world of which all the rest is unaffected by any one man's deeds. The +impartiality which, in contemplation, is the unalloyed desire for truth, +is the very same quality of mind which, in action, is justice, and in +emotion is that universal love which can be given to all, and not only +to those who are judged useful or admirable. Thus contemplation enlarges +not only the objects of our thoughts, but also the objects of our +actions and our affections: it makes us citizens of the universe, not +only of one walled city at war with all the rest. In this citizenship +of the universe consists man's true freedom, and his liberation from the +thraldom of narrow hopes and fears. + +Thus, to sum up our discussion of the value of philosophy; Philosophy +is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its +questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be +true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because +these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich +our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which +closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the +greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also +is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe +which constitutes its highest good. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + +The student who wishes to acquire an elementary knowledge of philosophy +will find it both easier and more profitable to read some of the works +of the great philosophers than to attempt to derive an all-round view +from handbooks. The following are specially recommended: + + Plato: _Republic_, especially Books VI and VII. + Descartes: _Meditations_. + Spinoza: _Ethics_. + Leibniz: _The Monadology_. + Berkeley: _Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous_. + Hume: _Enquiry concerning Human Understanding_. + Kant: _Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysic_. + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Problems of Philosophy, by Bertrand Russell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY *** + +***** This file should be named 5827.txt or 5827.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/8/2/5827/ + +Produced by Gordon Keener + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/reflection.md b/reflection.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34a9cb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/reflection.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +# Project Overview +This project draws useless insights from many semi-coherent religions. Using a webscaper, text files from a collected list of religions are created and stored in a folder. These text files are then read, and analyzed using Markov chains to create randomly generated speech from a combination of all the religious documents. This speech has to be parsed by the human mind, but can contain some surprisingly good nuggets. + +# Implementation +This implementation is done in two parts: fetching and generating. The fetching is done in fetch_files.py. We travel to the website containing our content, and we know that the first 16 links on that page lead to large enough religions to gather religious documents. We follow those sixteen links to their respective pages, and store the links of all text files on those pages in a list. The second section of this code creates a folder in the working directory, sweeps through the list of texts, and stores all of the data in relevantly named files. + +The second part deals with text analysis: the program sweeps through all of the created text files, and maps words to their prefixes and suffixes. These values are appropriately stored in a dictionary, which is then used to randomly generate text from the frequencies stored in the dictionary. + +One major design decision I had to make in the creation of this code is how to search for, handle, and store the text files. Two major searching approaches could be used: the first follows the first link to its page, gathers all the text files, then travels back and repeats. The approach that I choose was more intermediate; first I selected the religions I wanted, then traveled to those pages independently. This was a slower approach, but makes the code easier to understand. My code works like a human to-do list: creating a list of links that I should follow, then completing them one at a time. This also means that I have a list of religions stored somewhere, which could be used in future iterations. + +# Results +My personal goal for this assignment was to create randomly generated text that made the user feel uncomfortable. My first approach was to use a badly written pseudo-novel 'my immortal' as the basis for text generation, but this writing was so laden with misspellings and grammatical errors that the results were nonsensical. My next thought was that religion is often an uncomfortable topic, so why not use that to my advantage? Looking online, hundreds of religious documents were available for download. I build a scraper (which was not part of my original plan) to download them all. Below are some of the insights that my code generated + +### Magic is nothing compared to mere infinity +That is further, in more leaps than a mere infinite number. The Absolute Infinite is unknowable in the truest sense, a helper of humanity, when the candidate has lived such a life for a life. Magic--the influence of enemies. Much sickness was heralded + +### The PTL, feds, and Seraphim must all work together +The group, long affiliated with PTL Club, was honored by the state governors or by the regional (subfederal) executives, by the chief executive of Babylon, while Gabriel worked quite alone with Michael and the celestial Choir of Seraphim + +### High standards for our children, artisans and masons +Every child graduating from the precollege school system at eighteen is a skilled artisan. Then begins the study of the seven training worlds of the universe, much more far-reaching than the royal families, supposedly descended from the Gods, so is the way to taste even on earth the truth of this promise, having lived by it for the past, and let you comment on them: There is an additional factor in building, the soul body, the golden garment" of the mystic Mason and which he must carry out in tranquillity the plan of action accepted without validation. + +### The fountain of all wisdom is puberty, apparently a facet of satanism +The will give them good grass-land for their food, till a priest came to give worship at the feet of Osiris, so that the period of puberty may last eternity. From this period the supreme council at universe headquarters, but this representation is suspended by rebellion. Satania now has an observer at the headquarters of the superuniverse training regime + +### Sexual symbolism in dog poop? +This branch of magic is a central figure of the deceased; Slip a whoopee cushion under the widow. Leave some phony dog poop on top of their temples. Moroni didn't die for them. FOR if they would follow that bent in accor- dance with my advice. Indeed the surprise is that there is sexual symbolism here, have brought me to the test of time, where 'seeing the future' is an illogical + +# Reflection +This was definitely not an appropriately scoped project. My original idea was simple Markov text generation from a text file or two, no more than five (not requiring a web scraper) In the 24 hours before the deadline, I very quickly changed my mind about the direction of the project. This shift occurred because I didn't really plan out my project ahead of time, or didn't like the vague idea I was working towards. Overall though, the productivity of my code writing sessions was very high due to my increased ability to find answers online. Unit testing was something I hope to work more on in the next project: because I was so focused on results I would often try and test blocks of code at a time. I did have a unit testing success that is easily traceable: get_content.py where I tested my ability to download information from a text file in browser separate from scraping through hundreds of them. diff --git a/religious documents/10signs.txt b/religious documents/10signs.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5072439 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/10signs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ + Ten Signs of the Superior Person + + By Tibetan Master Milarepa + +1. To have little pride and envy is the sign of the superior person. + +2. To have few desires and satisfaction with simple things is the sign + of the superior person. + +3. To be lacking in hypocrisy and deceit is the sign of the superior person. + +4. To regulate one's conduct in accordance with the law of cause and effect + as carefully as one would guard the pupils of one's eyes is the sign + of the superior person. + +5. To be faithful in one's engagement and obligations is the sign of the + superior person. + +6. To be able to keep alive friendships while regarding all beings with + impartiality is the sign of the superior person. + +7. To look with pity and without anger upon those who live evilly is the + sign of the superior person. + +8. To allow others the victory, taking on the defeat, is the sign of the + superior person. + +9. To differ from the multitude in every thought and deed is the sign of + the superior person. + +10. To observe faithfully and without pride one's spiritual vows is the sign + of the superior person. + diff --git a/religious documents/12invoc.txt b/religious documents/12invoc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9684f24 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/12invoc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ + 12th C. Herbal Invocation + + INVOCATION + + 'Earth, divine Goddess, Mother Nature who generates all things + and brings forth anew the sun which you have given to the nations; + Guardian of sky and sea and of all gods and powers....through your + power all nature falls silent and then sinks in sleep. And again + you bring back the light and chase away night and yet again you + cover us most securely with your shades. You do contain chaos + infinite, yea and winds and showers and storms; you send them out + when you will and cause the seas to roar; you chase away the sun + and rouse the storm. Again when you will you send forth the joyous + day and give the nourishment of life with your eternal surety; and + when the soul departs to you we return. You are indeed duly called + Great Mother of the Gods; you conquer by your divine name. You are + the source of strength of nations and of gods, without you nothing + can be brought to perfection or be born; you are Great Queen of the + Gods. Goddess! I adore thee as divine; I call upon your name; be + pleased the grant that which I ask of you, so shall I give thanks + to thee, Goddess, with due faith. + Hear, I beseech you, and be favorable to my prayer. Whatsoever + herb your power does produce, give, I pray, with goodwill to all + nations to save them and grant me this my medicine. Come to me with + your powers, and howsoever I may use them, may they have good + success to whosoever I may give them. Whatever you grant, may it + prosper. To you all things return. Those who rightly receive these + herbs from me, please make them whole. Goddess, I beseech you, I + pray as a suppliant that by your majesty you grant this to me. + Now I make intercession to you all your powers and herbs and to + your majesty, you whom Earth parent of all has produced and given + as a medicine of health to all nations and has put majesty upon + you, I pray you, the greatest help to the human race. This I pray + and beseech from you, be present here with your virtues, for She + who created you has Herself promised that I may gather you into + the goodwill of him on whom the art of medicine was bestowed, and + grant for health's sake good medicine by grace of your powers. I + pray grant me through your virtues that whatsoever is wrought by + me through you may in all it's powers have good and speedy effect + and good success and that I may always be permitted with the favor + of your majesty to gather you into my hands and to glean your + fruits. So shall I give thanks to you in the name of the majesty + which ordained your birth.' + + (Modernized version of a 12th century + herbalist spell. Original translation + from 'Early English Magic and + Medicine', by Dr. Charles Singer. + Proceedings of the British Academy, + Vol. IV ) + diff --git a/religious documents/13013.txt b/religious documents/13013.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed9abcf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/13013.txt @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +13013 = BOB; B = 2, B = 2; O = 15, B = 2 ... 2 + 15 + 2 = 19 = 0 - "!" += 8 - Time Control = 888 plus 111 ( Slack) = 999!!! + + Numberology of the Proof of "Bob" + +"Bob's" numbers are 999, "606," and 13013. +The occult significance of the first two is obvious. +He's the good guy, or at least, the opposite of the bad guy. +13013 offers final, logical proof of "Bob's" Message. + + It is the height in feet of the Pyramind of Cheops times the width of its +base. It is the number of recorded cattle mutilations since President Kennedy +was assasinated. It is the sum total of all Magic Numbers in all numerology +systems. It is the exact amount that John Rockefeller borrowed to build his +first Model T. It is the original production cost in slave-lives of the +building of the lost city of Plaenque in Yucatan. It is the cash amount in +dollars of "Bob's" first sale. It is the street address (on E. 60th in +Chicago) of a main illuminist training center (city managers are schooled +there). It is teh street address of one of the members of the band, Drs. for +"Bob." It is the exact cost in pennies of a bucket of pills at Dobbstown. + And in the book of Revelation, Chapter 13, Verse 13, JHVH-1 has this to +say: + +[WELL?!] 13:13 "And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire to come down from +Heavan in the sight of men..." + + "Bob" summoning the Saucers? What else could it mean?? Notice it does +not say, fire to fall down," but to "come" down. Look to this chapter in your +Bible yourself. Bud don't read much past that line... it's too scarey. + +Continue... + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/13goals.txt b/religious documents/13goals.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0af2341 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/13goals.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +THIRTEEN GOALS OF A WITCH + + I. Know yourself + II. Know your Craft (Wicca) + III. Learn + IV. Apply knowledge with wisdom + V. Achieve balance + VI. Keep your words in good order + VII. Keep your thoughts in good order +VIII. Celebrate life + IX. Attune with the cycles of Terra + X. Breath and eat correctly + XI. Exercise the body + XII. Meditate +XIII. Honour the Goddess and God + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/13princi.txt b/religious documents/13princi.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..79e42a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/13princi.txt @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ +Principles of Wiccan Beliefs + +1. We practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm +of life forces marked by the phases of the Moon and the seasonal +Quarters and Cross Quarter. + +2. We recognize that our intelligence gives us a unique +responsibility toward our environment. We seek to live in harmony with +Nature, in ecological balance offering fulfillment to life and +consciousness within an evolutionary concept. + +3. We acknowledge a depth of power far greater than that +apparent to the average person. Because it is far greater than ordinary +it is sometimes called ÒsupernaturalÓ, but we see it as lying within +that which is naturally potential to all. + + 4. We conceive of the Creative Power in the universe as +manifesting through polarity -- as masculine and feminine -- and that +this same Creative Power lies in all people, and functions through the +interaction of the masculine and feminine. We value neither above the +other, knowing each to be supportive to the other. We value sex as +pleasure, as the symbol and embodiment of life, and as one of the +sources of energies used in magickal practice and religious worship. + +5. We recognize both outer worlds and inner, or psychological, +worlds sometimes known as the Spiritual World, the Collective +Unconscious, Inner Planes, etc. -- and we see in the inter-action of +these two dimensions the basis for paranormal phenomena and magickal +exercises. We neglect neither dimension for the other, seeing both as +necessary for our fulfillment. + + 6. We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do +honor those who teach, respect those who share their greater knowledge +and wisdom, and acknowledge those who have courageously given of +themselves in leadership. + +7. We see religion, magick and wisdom in living as being united +in the way one views the world and lives within it -- a world view and +philosophy of life which we identify as Witchcraft -- the Wiccan Way. + +8. Calling oneself "Witch" does not make a Witch -- but neither +does heredity itself, not the collecting of titles, degrees and +initiations. A Witch seeks to control the forces within her/himself +that make life possible in order to live wisely and well without harm +to others and in harmony with Nature. + +9. We believe in the affirmation and fulfillment of life in a +continuation of evolution and development of consciousness giving +meaning to the Universe we know and our personal role within it. + +10. Our only animosity towards Christianity, or towards any +other religion or philosophy of life, is to the extent that its +institutions have claimed to be Òthe only wayÓ and have sought to deny +freedom to others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and +belief. + +11. As American Witches, we are not threatened by debates on the +history of the Craft, the origins of various terms, the legitimacy of +various aspects of different traditions. We are concerned with our +present and our future. + +12. We do not accept the concept of absolute evil, nor do we +worship any entity known as "Satan" or "the Devil", as defined by the +Christian traditions. We do not seek power through the suffering of +others, nor accept that personal benefit can be derived only by denial +to another. + +13. We believe that we should seek within Nature that which is +contributory to our health and well-being. + +The afore mentioned principles are from the Council of American Witches +circa 1974 . + + ********************************************************** + + + diff --git a/religious documents/13ques.txt b/religious documents/13ques.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a306346 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/13ques.txt @@ -0,0 +1,255 @@ + +THIRTEEN QUESTIONS +R. ROY +(homework from a 1984 class) +1. define and describe a pagan. + +"For the pagan and primitive peoples whom Jews and Christians alike +have always reviled as idolaters, the moving air, the fire on the +hearth, the rhythm of the seasons, the bird on the wing, the markings +and movements of the beasts, the streaming waters, the circling +stars ... all these, and the works of man's own hand, are alive with +an intelligible presence. They are symbolic doorways that invite the +imagination through to high experience." +Theodore Roszak + +"It is necessary to treat the animals well, and to regard all things +as if they were living beings who hear and understand." +Johan Turi, +MITTALUS SAMID BIRRA + +In historic times a pagan would have been any number of peoples wor- +shiping nature gods. This worship seems to have been based in pre- +historic forms of religion including shamanism with a pedigree of it's +oldest forms echoing back more than 30,000 years. Because these +religions were based mostly in tribal cultures emphasizing tradition +rather than sophistication, the sources tend to be entirely oral. +Verbatim memorization, while it's possessors survive, tends to be a +more exact method of transmitting data than holy texts which can (and +have been) altered or completely changed. + +With the complete suppression of the tradition, however, knowledge of +paganism has faded to a faint glimmering of references and supposi- +tion. In modern times a pagan would tend to be someone feeling the +lack of purity, lack of originality, lack of rootedness, lack of +foundation in over-theologized religions whose original message has +been overgrown and altered to suit priestly interests, whose leaders' +preachment is motivated often by self-interest and whose 'qualifica- +tions' are primarily glandular and (sick) psychological rather than +illumination. + +The pagans I have met are, in general, more sensitive than normal and +'feel' the world directly, in contrast to this miasmatic culture which +submerges us in 'safe' anonymity, relegating us a guaranteed role as a +consumer unit. The religions that fail to give us more dignity than +that, that fail to foment rebellion against such an insult naturally +lose those more sensitive people. They fail to grant us a path of +rejoining to ourself. A pagan seeks this and it is the very lack of +structure which allows the freedom of thought and feeling and practice +that attracts so many people that have been 'lost' by other religions. +In our 'culture' traditions regarding the manner of living are rele- +gated to the 'ignorant' past and lost. Responding to this need the +neo-pagan will try to re-create a life-enhancing religion open to + + +individual experience based on whatever gleanings of the ancient forms +are left. Given enough intelligent application and sufficient politi- +cal freedom, a reasonable facsimile, true in spirit and similar in +some forms will evolve. Truly, much of what was lost was priceless +and will never be recovered, but also a great much of what was lost +had decayed beyond recovering so that the last people to suffer under +these benighted superstitions that had once been vital religions, +probably were better off without. We have the opportunity to rebuild, +to renew with vitality, to recover what was good that is still known. +People being what they are, divergence seems to be the rule, yet we +live in a 'global village' and cross-reference and cross-fertilization +is inevitable. It is the talent of wicca to seek that which works and +as we relearn what can create a life that is true to the heart we will +share. Given the degree of computer interconnection in our society, +it would not be surprising that techniques rediscovered in one place +would be known world wide within a season, just by word of computer. +It is a time for hard work for what we do now will be what those who +come after will have to build on. The freedom of choice and associa- +tion and abundance of sources almost guarantees that bull in the name +of the gods will quickly get trashed. It is a time for honesty and +genius. + +A pagan is a being in a state of becoming. + +2. Define and describe a witch. + +I would say that a witch is someone belonging to a coven and worship- +ing nature gods. A witch may have special knowledge and powers re- +garding herbal lore, magic, divination, magical flight, separation of +the body and soul, love philters, amulets, exorcism, trance-medium- +ship, hypnosis, communion with god/dess', communication with spirits, +drawing down the Moon, invocation of good and exorcism of evil influ- +ences, and more, perhaps. The means of producing these results may be +in the traditional circle, guided by a priest and priestess, by chant- +ing, drum-beating, dancing, ritual invocation and supplication. + +These powers have been supposed to be special wild or inherited tal- +ents to do evil by intention alone (1) but I feel they are, when +possessed, no more or less than the natural power of life, consciously +directed. This power is automatically controlled daily without our +conscious direction or realization. As our digestion or circulation +function without express thought, the life power is utilized at an +even more basic level to create our life and world. Expressed uncon- +sciously for whim or feat, self-destruction or in creativity, it is +not without us but a part of us, a part of every living cell. Thus, +not only is it a very legal power to us, but to miss to direct it +consciously would be like missing the oars in a rowboat, the doors of +a house. Some people brag that they never read the directions sup- +plied in the package. To avoid discovering the 'directions' supplied +with life would seem to be to miss most of the glory of being alive. +(1) Witches were and are supposed to be entirely evil and opposed in + + +every action to the expression of life. (Surely such a creature would +self-destruct!) This is an expression of the 'alien' theory which has +been used by many (ignorant) cultures to explain the presence of evil +and imperfection in a world that is 'supposed' to be perfect. It is a +terrifying theory but apparently people would rather be scared silly +than say, "I made a mistake" or "What seems evil to us is just the +natural working of life." The appellation of 'witch' has been given +to Huns, Jews, heretics, and recently to men by some feminists. + +3. Are you one of the above or both? +4. If so, say what and why. + +I am myself. I am what I do. I have avoided labels for myself and +would not start sticking them onto myself based on the attendance of a +few functions. Precisely, I have not been accepted as an initiate, an +essential step in a tradition oriented to group membership. I am not +a pagan in the sense that, outside of weekly circles, I do not worship +any god or goddess. + +5. What do you see as positive in paganism? + +I have always felt good in the circle. I have said it previously that +I am happy to be here. But in thinking how to answer this question I +have found some answers that have much reinforced these feelings. +What is here in paganism is unique and precious. + +Here there is the encouragement of individuality and also a strong, +positive and unique group identity; this is very rare, especially in +our society. + +Here there is spiritual expression within a true construction of +religion and including respect for the need for personal freedom of +expression; this is very rare in any society. + +Here there is tradition in a society that has eschewed tradition in +favor of the new, especially new products; yet what is the meaning of +products which have no context? + +Here there is honor to each sex in a society that is very divisive and +competitive and generally derisive of everyone especially women. Here +there is a celebration of life in a society that seems to have forgot- +ten where it came from and remains; which if it recognizes nature as +valuable converts it into a prepackaged commodity. Indeed, the value +of nature is a matter of constant debate, a debate that is inevitably +won by those who see value only in dollar signs. + +Here there is a group of intelligent people large enough to be inter- +esting yet small enough that each is important, whether one attends, +who one is and especially if one participates in helping, each is +important. All these things are RARE in our society; their conver- +gence here is unique and precious. + + + +6. What do you see as negative in paganism. + +I don't know. I haven't had any problems so far. The need for secre- +cy is inconvenient in some respects particularly at work and with some +friends who, I am certain, will never be able to grasp the notion +correctly. But then secrets can be kind of fun, too. I have found +the essential facts of paganism not directly accessible but I am +beginning to understand that it is a fairly large subject. (Added 15 +June '89) A certain lack of focus. It is understandable since there +is no central authority to impose goals. Yet is should be possible to +agree on basic needs and goals and though there would be no overseer, +a kind of competition based on comparison of results (apparent in +fests, perhaps). To achieve this, however, we need to understand what +is needed and why. Still there does seem to be a good deal of work +being done in different places. The quality and amount of information +is expanding every year. + +7. What is your concept of death? + +An incomprehensible, insensible condition concluding our actions here +on earth. A period of summation and consolidation; having shed to the +earth the accumulation of errors and age in the body, one is reborn, +washed clean in the blood of the new life. I particularly like the +idea that it might be something like Scrooge's Christmas Eve; seeing +and understanding the events of one's life, then the regrets of unex- +pressed love would be the motive impelling the soul to rebirth. + +But then I don't really know. It might be nothing. + +8. What do the following words bring to your mind: god, goddess, +priest, priestess. + +God, Goddess, ineffable, incomprehensible being beyond our concept of +good or evil. The notion of sex in gods is our convention to aid +philosophical discussion and to assist in forming an emotional rela- +tionship. (added 15 June '89) "Maybe something more, rooted in our +nature.", Daniel's comment. + +Priest, priestess: persons who have made a commitment to further their +religion by their personal effort. Being ordained or initiated and +all that. The sexual distinction is trivial, relatively speaking, of +course. The essential act is that of spiritual guidance and this is +more a matter of training and talent. + +9. What are the privileges and obligations of a teacher? + +To share knowledge, to have one's expressions listened to, to enjoy +the responses of one's students. To be responsible in what and how +things are taught. To admit freely areas of one's doubt or little +knowledge to be clear in expression and patient in explanation. To + + +respect and respond to the students efforts as the teacher's purpose. + +10. What are the privileges and responsibilities of a student? + +To share knowledge, to enjoy the attendance of a teacher to one's +education. To work actively toward the development of one's educa- +tion, to respect the teacher and cooperate and trust, within reason. +The teacher's responsibilities are greater. + +11. What do you seek from Wicca? + +A personal path and some help along the way. Friends that don't say +things like "You don't believe THAT, do you?" + +12. Are you more attracted to the religious or practical side of +Wicca? + +I can't say. My conception of any sincerely religious person is that +he tries to express his convictions into his life. To me, it seems +that the most potent form of prayer is in work. Or like Gurdjieff +said, "Work as if everything depends on work. Pray as if everything +depends on prayer." It seems to me the lack of practical work leaves +a religion without a skeleton, the rest of the tissue has nothing to +hang on. I would say that the practical side, including much of the +wisdom teachings, should not be separated from the religious except as +a convention to facilitate teaching. + +13. Are there any areas of this framework that you particularly wish +to study. What and why. + +I'm not sure. Right now I'm just taking it all in in any order what- +ever. I would like to understand the philosophical framework better. +(added 15 June '89) Moon lore has happily occupied me this last year +and promises to be a long-continuing interest. The laws and the +social framework of wicca are also very intriguing. My idea now about +ritual work is that it is possibly best as a form of self-therapy, at +least in the beginning, since all of us come to this very demanding +subject full of flaws enough to trip us up constantly unless our +personal peculiarities can be pinned down and dealt with. + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/15bt.txt b/religious documents/15bt.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7568ae9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/15bt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,181 @@ + LOOKING BACKWARD: + +Editor's note: Reprinted from the October 1965 issue of Rays from the Rose +Cross in memory of Max Heindel's transition, January 6, 1919. + + + Dear friends, my heart is singing today for being able to be with you on +this occasion and give my little tribute to our beloved Max Heindel. + + I would like to tell you about the first day that I met this remarkable +man, and in order to do this I shall have to touch briefly upon my own +personal life. I trust you will pardon me for this. + + Perhaps you already know from my voice that I was born and reared in the +deep South. I was an only child, and my early years were filled with +adoration for my lovely mother. She was always my beautiful fairy princess. +However, she was very frail, and my childhood days were filled with the fear +that some day I would have to give her up. So I made up my mind in those +early days that if she was taken from me, I would take my own life and go +with her. + + You see, I knew nothing in those days of Rebirth and the Law of +Causation. I was born looking for light, for answers to questions I could +not formulate. I did not really know just what I was searching for. +Consequently I had no idea where to find it. And as you all know the South +is deeply orthodox and conservative. But one thing I did know, and that was +that somewhere there must be a more adequate answer to problems of life and +death than orthodoxy gave, and I was determined to find that answer. + + In the meantime my mother grew ever more delicate, and I was +persistently filled with a fear of losing her. A few months before her final +illness, a dear friend called me on the phone and said she had found a +wonderful new book that she was sure was exactly what I was looking for. +That very afternoon I went to her home, and you may surmise that the book +was the Cosmo. When I saw the picture of the Rose Cross and read that by our +own personal lives we were to learn how to transmute the red roses into the +white, I knew that at last I had found my own. That night, before I went to +sleep, my order was in the mailbox on its way to Oceanside for that +priceless book. I counted the days until it arrived, and just about the time +it did come the doctor said that my mother had to undergo a very serious +operation. + + So I lived every day with this book. I slept with it under my pillow, +for in some strange way it seemed to hold the only solace for me that the +entire world could give. After my mother's operation the doctor said there +was no hope, that she had only a few months to live. + + I still held to my blessed book. Then suddenly one day a strange new +thought came to me. Should I take my life and go with my mother as I had +always planned, or should I go to Oceanside and give my life to the work of +Max Heindel? The question held the answer. My mind was made up, and ten days +after my mother left me, I was on the train, the Cosmo under my arm, on the +way to California and Max Heindel. He seemed to me to be the only succor for +my grief that the world could give. Oh, I wish I could describe him +fittingly to you that first day I saw him here at Mt. Ecclesia! He came to +meet me with both hands outstretched, and his sweet face was illumined with +tenderness, sympathy, and compassion. Now, understand, I had had no personal +contact with him. I knew him only through his book, and you may imagine +something of my surprise and amazement when he took my hands in his and said +so tenderly, "My child, I have been with you often both day and night during +this terrible ordeal through which you have just passed. I knew that when it +was over you would come to me. Now you belong always to my work!" + + That, dear friends, was a momentous day in my life. That was the day I +dedicated myself completely to the spiritual life and to the Rosicrucian +Philosophy. + + For five wonderful years I was privileged to know this wise man and to +study and be trained under his guidance and supervision. I've always +considered those five years as being the most beautiful and the most +spiritually fruitful of my entire life. I wish I were able to describe this +wonderful man to you in the way that I came to know him. When I think of his +many admirable characteristics, perhaps the quality I loved most deeply +about him was his exquisitely beautiful humility. While he was always eager +to be of help and serve wherever possible, he was always firm in keeping the +personality of Max Heindel in the background. As I often studied his +complete dedication to the simple life, I thought many times of the words of +our dear Lord, the Christ: "Of myself I am nothing. It is the Father who +doeth the works." + + I think, dear friends, that Max Heindel demonstrated the most perfect +blending of the mystical and the practical that I have ever known. He was so +simple and so humble. The most menial, the most simple services he performed +so graciously and so gladly. He would go down to the barn and milk the cow +if necessary, for you know in those days we had both a barn and a cow here +at Mt. Ecclesia. He would hive the bees, for we had bees too. He would climb +the telephone poles and mend a broken wire; he would plant trees in the +grounds, dig and hoe in the garden, and gather vegetables; he would do all +the simple things with the same earnestness and enthusiasm with which he +would go to the office, classroom or lecture hall, there to give forth so +freely of his great wisdom, or perhaps to meet with the Teacher who guided +him in this great work. + + On Saturday evenings it was generally his custom to hold a question and +answer session in the library. There was a long table that extended the +entire length of the room, and the students would gather about that table +with Mr. Heindel standing at the head to answer the questions. Each student +was permitted to ask one question, and it had to be in writing. Then Mr. +Heindel would collect the questions and answer them one by one. In noticing +him carefully, I found that he always seemed to know intuitively to whom +each question belonged, and hence he always addressed that individual from +whom the question had come. In the many times that I attended these +memorable sessions, he never once made a mistake in the identity of the +questioner. He was always so careful and painstaking, and would never leave +a question until he was sure that the individual who asked it had been +completely satisfied with the answer. + + It was during these wonderfully enlightening sessions that I gained my +first understanding of the important place that color and music will occupy +in preparing the world for the incoming New Age. Mr. Heindel would announce +that an hour was to be devoted in these sessions of questions and answers. +However, more often than not that hour extended into two or two and one-half +or even three hours. They were such stimulating periods that time seemed to +fly by on wings of enchantment. + + Dear friends, I wish I were able to tell you what Mt. Ecclesia meant to +Mr. Heindel as I knew him. How he loved this place! He knew the high destiny +that was in store for the work it was founded to do. + + In his day there was a bench underneath the illumined Rose Cross that +stands in the grounds. There it was his custom each evening before retiring +to sit for some minutes or perhaps an hour in prayer and meditation, +broadcasting love and blessing in benediction over this holy ground and on +all those who were living here and serving the work so faithfully. + + I wish I might describe to you the illumination on his dear face as he +would look with such deep reverence and devotion at that illumined Rose +Cross which meant so much to him. He never tired of telling us of the +wonderful things in store for Mt. Ecclesia. He would talk often of the +Panacea, the formula for which the Brothers of the Rose Cross are +custodians, and which worthy disciples will some day be permitted to use in +the healing and solace of multitudes who will come from all over the world +to this sacred shrine. + + He would tell us of his dream of a beautiful Grecian theatre envisioned +to be built in the canyon below the Chapel and in which performances would +be given of plays with a spiritual message and occult truths such as the +great dramas of Shakespeare and other inspired classics. He also saw the +time when Mt. Ecclesia would have its own splendid orchestra composed of +permanent students, and that it would also perform in the theatre works of +master composers, particularly those of Beethoven and Wagner whom he knew to +be high musical Initiates. He said also that some time there would be +classes in initiatory music taught here. + + Mr. Heindel liked to talk of the Elder Brothers and how they, in their +study of the Memory of Nature, had been able to look down through the ages +and see the condition that the world is in today. It was for this reason, as +you know, that they gave the Rosicrucian Philosophy to the world when they +did. + + Dear friends, the soul of the world today is sick, is filled with +sorrow, filled with searching and questions. There is no answer in the world +for these questions. What the world is truly seeking is a more spiritualized +science and a more scientific religion. The Rosicrucian Philosophy holds the +answer to both of these quests. This Philosophy is but a continuation of the +great work which our Lord, the Christ, brought to Earth and gave to the +immortal Twelve. It contains the priceless gift which the Christ brought, +namely, the Christ Initiations which hold the very heart of the religion of +the incoming Aquarian Age. Mr. Heindel well understood this. He well knew +the great destiny that awaits this work. Therefore he never let +disappointment or difficulties deter him. He always kept his eyes fixed on +the stars. + + Dear friends, ours is a very special privilege to be the custodians here +of this Great Work, and of this dedicated place which was set aside by the +Great Ones as a particular training ground for those who can pass the severe +tests that will make them worthy to be numbered among the pioneers of the +incoming New Age. + + So my dear friends, let us follow in the footsteps of Max Heindel. Let +us be so united in peace, harmony and love that we may do our part in +carrying out the mission to which our beloved leader devoted and eventually +sacrificed his very life. So let us together lift our eyes to the stars as +he did. Let us face this world with new light and new power and new hope, +because it is only in this way that we shall be faithful to our quest and +see the glorious destiny of this Great Work fulfilled. It is truly the +religion that will be the very heart and very keystone of the new Aquarian +Age. May God bless you, each and every one, as you go forward in your quest +for the Light Eternal. + + --Corinne Heline diff --git a/religious documents/1truegod.txt b/religious documents/1truegod.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a1a9311 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/1truegod.txt @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ + *********************************************************** + + @ APPLICATION FORM @ + + Must be filled out correctly and accurately for proper results. + Send application via netmail to Robert Jackson (1:390/87). + + [ ] YES, I would like to become the ONE TRUE GOD . + [ ] NO, but I would like to establish a friend, acquaintance, + or godfigure of my own design as the One True God + + (for the first ten applicants) + [ ] Please add a Holy Writ which establishes other false gods + as Satan or Evil One of my naming (further info below). + + ************************************************************ + + Answer each question briefly and as accurately as possible so + that we may design the document establishing your divinity in + regards to the dictates of your Divine Inspiration. + + 1. Would you like the Basic Option Holy Text (no ups, no extras, + just the basic facts) or do your aims as the One True God + require a certain degree of hoariness to attract believers? + + Yes___ No___ + + 2. If you wish the Deluxe Insta-Hoar Process write + a simple but succinct description of any esoteric symbology, + iconography, foreign alphabet, illustrations, or elaborate + fonts you wish included. Our inspired prophets and scribes + will attempt to interpret your Divine Word to the best + of their human abilities. + + + + 3. (for the first 10 applicants) List below any gods, demons, + or people you wish to claim as Satan, Agents of Satan, or + False Prophets. If you have more than three (3) Dark Foes you + wish to claim, you must instead use a vague clause condemning + a Satanic archetype, who is legion. Specify the general terms + of your archetypical enemy below: + + a. + b. + c. + + Thou shalt know my enemy by this sign: + + + + ************************************************************* + + For reasons of efficient packaging and shipping, the UUencoded + document will come compressed in .JPG format as a standard. If + you lack a jpeg viewer, these alternate formats can be used, though + the actual graphic will be smaller in order to save bandwidth: + + [ ].GIF [ ].BMP [ ].TIF [ ].PCX + + ************************************************************** + + * F U H C U * + + "Hostile Takeovers and Leveraged Buyouts of All the World's + Major Religions by the Year 2020! Perfect Vision At Last!!" diff --git a/religious documents/20-20.txt b/religious documents/20-20.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c32d8df --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/20-20.txt @@ -0,0 +1,763 @@ +September 26, 1985 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD--SENATE S12171 + + Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its +immediate consideration. I believe this amendment has been agreed to on both +sides. + + The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report. + + The assistant legislative clerk read as follows: + + The Senator from North Carolina [Mr. HELMS] proposes an amendment numbered +705. + + On page 14, after line 10, insert the following new section: + + SEC. . No funds appropriated under this Act shall be used to grant, + maintain, or allow tax exemption to any cult, organization, or other + group that has as a purpose, or that has any interest in, the promoting + of satanism or witchcraft: Provided, That for the purposes of this + section, "satanism" is defined as the worship of Satan or the powers of + evil and "witchcraft" is defined as the use of powers derived from evil + spirits, the use of sorcery, or the use of supernatural powers with + malicious intent. + + Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, there is widespread concern across the country +as result of the growth of cults, satanism, witchcraft, sorcery, and the like. +These have been countless tragic cases of young people committing suicide or +becoming involved in violent religious rituals as a result of an attraction to +what can generally be described as the occult. + + Mr. President, let me offer an example. On May 16 of this year, the ABC +news program 20/20 focused on this problem. To get the full impact of the +parade of horrors presented that night one needs to have seen the actual +program. But a few quotes from the lead-in to the story provides the gist of +what is being described. ABC newsman Tom Jarriel began this way: + + Dateline: Northport, Long Island. A quiet community rocked by + reports a teenager was dragged through these woods toward a late-night + ritual of death. An eyewitness said the victim, Gary Lauwers, was + forced to pray to Satan as he was repeatedly stabbed to death. Two + young men were arrested. James Trovana was found innocent last month, + but his alleged accomplice never made it to trail. Ricky Casso committed + suicide in jail the day after his arrest. Despite numerous signs that + Casso was into satanism and rock music associated with devil worship, + police steadfastly refused to label this case satanic. The official + explanation: a drug related crime. + + Dateline: Phoenix, Arizona. On hundred forty dogs found slaughtered. + Across the country, police tell us there have been more than 15,000 + animal mutilations and often they were clearly used in some kind of + bizarre ritual. But there's no official explanation. + + Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the full text of the 20/20 +segment entitled, "The Devil Worshippers," be printed at this point in the +RECORD. + + There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the +RECORD, as follows: + + 20/20--MAY 16, 1985 + + HUGH DOWNS. Good evening. I'm Hugh Downs. And this is 20/20. + + ANNOUNCER. On the ABC Newsmagazine, 20/20, with Hugh Downs and + Barbara Walters. + + DOWNS. Tonight, the startling, sobering results of a 20/20 + investigation. Satanism, devil worship, being practiced all across the + country. + + GRIFFIS. We have all types perversion going on, and its affecting + America. + + DOWNS [voice over]. Perverse, hideous acts that defy belief. + Suicides, murders, and the ritualistic slaughter of children and + animals. Yet so far the police have been helpless. + + SANDI GALLANT. The problem that exists is we're getting the stories + but we don't have the victims. + + DOWNS [voice over]. Our report comes after questions by 20/20 + viewers. Tom Jarriel, with signs of and testimony about "The Devil + Worshippers." + And Hugh Hefner and Peter Bogdanovich once seemed like good friends. + Both work in fantasy worlds. Hefner chooses pinups. Bogdanovich makes + movies. Now they're blaming each other for Playmate Dorothy Stratten's + death. It's a wild feud, fueled by ego and power. Geraldo Rivera, with + some surprising facts and the truth behind a case of "Smear and + Obsession." + + [commercial break] + + DOWNS. Up front tonight, a 20/20 investigation. You know, the + stories we air originate in many ways and for many reasons. Some ideas, + as I'm sure you're aware, come through the mail, from you, often + involving issues of deep concern. And that's the case with our first + story of this evening. There have been a series of criminal acts + reported around the country that have had unique characteristics that + linked them together. And the source of all this is the apparent + practice of satanism. That's worship of the devil. Now, police have + been skeptical when investigating these acts, just as we are in + reporting them. But there is no question that something is going on out + there, and that's sufficient reason for 20/20 to look into it. One + caution: we believe that some of the pictures and descriptions in Tom + Jarriel's report may be disturbing, particularly to young viewers. Here + is Tom's report. + + TOM JARRIEL [voice over]. Dateline: Northport, Long Island. A quiet + community rocked by reports a teenager was dragged through these woods + toward a late-night ritual of death. An eyewitness said the victim, + Gary Lauwers, was forced to pray to Satan as he was repeatedly stabbed + to death. Two young men were arrested. James Trovana was found + innocent last month, but his alleged accomplice never made it to trail. + Ricky Casso committed suicide in jail the day after his arrest. Despite + numerous signs that Casso was into satanism and rock music associated + with devil worship, police steadfastly refused to label this case + satanic. The official explanation: a drug related crime. + + Dateline: Phoenix, Arizona. On hundred forty dogs found slaughtered. + Across the country, police tell us there have been more than 15,000 + animal mutilations and often they were clearly used in some kind of + bizarre ritual. But there's no official explanation. + + Dateline: Walnut Grove, Alabama. Police are called in to investigate + the site of what appears to have been a ritual. They find various + satanic paraphernalia, including pictures of the devil. There was a + routine inquiry which didn't discover what was going on here. + + Across this country and Canada, satanic graffiti is turning up on + public buildings and abandoned buildings, where police suspect secret + meetings are held by people calling themselves satanists, people who + worship the devil. Most often found: the inverted five-pointed satanic + pentagram, the upside-down cross, the evil eye, references to Babylon + and the devil's number, 666. Vandals often target churches. Here in + southern Maine, after a dozen churches were painted with satanic + symbols, police arrested a suspect. Although vandalism charges were + later dropped, he offered an explanation for the church graffiti from + behind a locked door. + + MAN. Anyone that receives the mark of the beast, which is 666 is his + number, is going to burn in hell forever and ever. + + JARRIEL. [voice over]. It's the way some people interpret the + Bible, the book of Revelations, where it's written: "Satan can be + identified by the number 666, calling him the beast, which deceiveth the + whole world." The goat's head is a key symbol of the Beast. Yet + throughout history, Satan has taken on many different shapes and + disguises. He's widely considered by conventional religions as the + embodiment of evil on a mission to tempt man to sin and destroy God's + kingdom. Today we have found Satan is alive and thriving, or at least + plenty of people believe he is. His followers are extremely secretive, + but found in all walks of life. Modern satanism was shockingly + dramatized on the screen in the mid-'60s with the release of Rosemary's + Baby. It's a move that's been described as the best advertisement that + devil worship has ever had. + + [clip from Rosemary's baby] + + JARRIEL. [voice over]. The zeal of these fictional devil + worshippers is strikingly similar to that of real-life satanists. Mike + Warnke is a former satanist. Today he's a successful comedian, + preaching Christianity in the form of humor. But back in the '60s he + was one of satanism's high priests. He showed us what a satanic temple + might resemble and typical implements used to worship the devil. + + MIKE WARNKE, former satanic priest. The bones usually are used in a + ceremony that calls for telling the future with the bones or a part of + the deceased person. + + JARRIEL. [voice over]. He also explained what attracted him to + satanism. + + Mr. WARNKE. I was basically drawn into it when I was young just + wanting to be someone special. I just wanted to be different than + everybody and have something that was special that everybody, you know, + looked up to. + + JARRIEL. [voice over] This is a 15-year-old boy who also wanted to + be special. Before hanging himself he wrote on his body, "I'm coming + home, master" and "Satan lives" and "666." It was a case with such + clear satanic symbols, it brought two police officers together. Sandi + Gallant is one of them. She's a San Francisco policewoman, and now a + leading authority on satanic crime, a specialty other cops often scoff + at. + + SANDI GALLANT, police intelligence officer. As time goes on, maybe + my work gets a little more credibility. There's one guy that still + walks around and when he sees me he goes like this [symbol of horns] + wherever he goes. But I've gotten pretty much used to that. + + JARRIEL. [voice over]. America is being affected. Nationwide we + found that minor cases of satanic activity light up the map. Not a + single state is unaffected. But even more frightening is the number of + reported murders and suicides with satanic clues. All of them were + investigated by police, but usually without much result. We found that + satanism falls into three categories. One, self-styled satanists: a + growing number of young people who dabble in devil worship. Two, + religious satanists: people who publicly worship the devil, a right + that's protected by law. And three, satanic cults: what appear to be + highly secretive groups commiting criminal acts, including murder. + + First, let's examine self-styled satanists like Ricky Casso. Often + they're teenagers who learned that the message of satanism is for sale + right in the neighborhood. + + [On camera]. This shopping mall in affluent Westchester County in + New Y ork exemplifies how easy it is for children, or adults for that + matter, to get their hands on satanic material. We stress it's + perfectly legal, and these are typical commercial outlets you'll find + just about anywhere. Three stores side by side: a bookstore, a music + store, a videotape center, each offering seemingly harmless types of + entertainment like movies. Here at the neighborhood videotape store, + take a look at the number of movies that involve satanism. Most were + popular films in their day, but even today if one is inclined to believe + in satanism, it's a way to actually see the devil and perhaps be + inspired. + + [voice over]. In The Exorcist it is the tremendous power of the devil + himself controlling a little girl's body against the will of a priest + that makes the movie still one of the most popular examples of evil + versus good. + + [clip from "The Exorcist"] + + Mr. WARNKE. It wasn't that a demon jumped out of the TV and grabbed + me by the face and dragged me down the road and forced me to join the + Church of Satan. It was just that there were certain things in this + program that piqued my interest, and then I decided to study more on my + own. And if the devil has PR, then it is, you know, cinema. + + JARRIEL [voice-over]. Then there's also the satanic literature, + which includes many books that are sold in bookstores [on camera] + Librarians point out that they're among the most popular books on their + shelves. Here, as in almost any bookstore, you'll find both The Satanic + Bible and its companion, The Satanic Rituals, a step-by-step guide is + performing evil rites. + + Mr. WARNKE. Kids get their ideas, especially their psychological + pumping up, so to speak, from the literature. And books play an + extremely important part. + + JARRIEL. And finally, music, which is found here in the neighborhood + record store under the category of heavy metal music. The satanic + message comes across loud and clear, at concerts and now through rock + videos. The symbolism is all there: the satanic pentagram, the + upside-down cross, the blank eyes of the beast, the rebellion against + Christianity, and again and again, the obsession with death. According + to most groups, it's all done in fun. But according to police it's + having an effect on many children, a growing subculture that mixes heavy + metal music with drugs and the occult. In addition to groups that are + blatantly satanic, there also many recordings which some believe may + contain satanic references in the form of backward messages. + + [interviewing]. What's a popular song that has a reference to the + devil in it? + + [voice-over]. Chris Edmonds is a Detroit disk jockey whose specialty + is finding secret recorded messages exhorting the devil by playing music + popular with kids in reverse, a technique they've learned to use. + + CHRIS, EDMONDS, disk jocket. Okay, the phrase we're looking for is + "and there's still to change the road you're on." + + JARRIEL. Now flip it for us. + + Mr. EDMONDS. A lot of people hear the phrase "my sweet Satan." + Here, we'll play this back. Here it? "My sweet Satan." + + JARRIEL [to Mr. Griffis]. How often do you find heavy metal music + indicators at the scene of a crime involving satanic worship? + + Mr. GRIFFIS. Probably about 35%, 40% of the calls. + + JARRIEL. Regularly. + + Mr. GRIFFIS. Yes. + + JARRIEL. [voice-over]. This art work is from a homicide case that + combined heavy metal music with self-styled satanism. It's the work of + 18-year-old Scott Waterhouse, a so-called satanist whose drawings + clearly show he had murder on his mind. He's now serving a life prison + term for the slaying of 12-year-old Giselle Cody. Before this case, + officers here at the local police station in Sanford, Maine, had never + even heard about satanic crimes. But that's all changed. The officer + who broke the case was state Detective Moe Ouellette. + + [interviewing]. When you reached the crime scene, what did you find? + + MOE QUELLETTE, police detective. When I reached the crime scene, the + local police had cordoned the area off, showed me the bank and where the + young lady was found. She was probably killed right there at that + particular area. She was strangled. + + JARRIEL [voice-over]. Waterhouse was seen leaving the crime scene. + And in a deposition, when he was later questioned by Officer Ouellette, + he seemd almost proud to boast. "I'm a satanist." Waterhouse also + described how he first became involved in it. "In a bookstore, my + friend hit the shelf and a book fell out, and I caught it, and it had a + pretty weird-looking guy on the back." The book was The Satanic Bible, + by Anton LaVey. After Scott Waterhouse's trial, both the prosecution + and the victim's father claimed that although The Satanic Bible did not + condone violence, Waterhouse had interpreted it that way. + + JOHN COTE, father of the victim. The book made you feel do what you + want to and the heck with everybody, more or less. And I believe that + that had a lot to do with it. + + MICHAEL WESTCOTT, Assistant Attorney General. It tries to make + itself innocuous, but if you actually read it and believe it to the + letter, it's a very dangerous manifesto. + + JARRIEL [voice over]. The author of The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey, + is a former lion tamer and palm reader, who in 1966 founded the First + Church of Satan. It quickly became the country's most prominent satanic + organization, fully protected as a religion under the law. + + ANTON LAVEY, founder, Church of Satan. This is a very selfish + religion. We believe in greed, we believe in selfishness, we believe in + all the lustful thoughts that motivate man, because this is man's + natural feeling. This is based on what man naturally would do. + + JARRIEL [voice over]. The Church of Satan and other organized devil + worship groups represent our second category; religious satanists. + Although LaVey would not talk to me, we can get a glimpse of his + theories and his rituals in the 1970 documentary on his church. + + Mr. LAVEY. We feel a person should be free to indulge in all his + so-called fetishes that they would desire, as long as they don't hurt + anyone that doesn't deserve or wish to be hurt. + + CHURCH MEMBERS. Hail Satan! + + Mr. LAVEY. We perform human sacrifices, by proxy you might say, the + destruction of human beings who would, let's say, create an antagonistic + situation towards us, in the form of curses and hexes, not in actual + blood rituals because certainly the destruction of a human being + physically is illegal. + + JARRIEL [voice over]. Police we spoke to say they have made a link + between this satanic church and the satanic crimes being committed. + However, some incidents described to us by witnesses from around the + country are strikingly similar to these ritualistic scenes. For + example, the ritualistic embracing of death--actually being placed + inside a coffin containing a body. Or ritualistic sacrifice--using a + voodo-type doll to place a curse on an unsuspecting victim. It's + nothing that can be called physically harmful or illegal. + + Although not connected to the Church of Satan, these 12-year-old + boys, with their parents' consent, demonstrated how they were taught to + inflict pain on their enemies. They also claim they witnessed + sacrificial murder by members of our third category of satinism, satanic + cults. Police have found no proof, made no arrests. But that's no + surprise, for, nationwide, police are hearing strikingly similar horror + stories, and not one has ever been proved. Take for example, the mother + of a young victim who asked not to be identified. + + MOTHER of alleged participant. Usually they have the children kill + the infants or the other kids. + + JARRIEL. The children who were there, actually, what, were given + knives? + + MOTHER. Yes, they were. And if they refused to do it, usually the + child's father or mother would take the child's hand and make them kill + the child. + + JARRIEL [voice over]. There's also this similar case that links + child sex abuse with murder. + + GRANDMOTHER of alleged participants. The children were given--were + given knives and told to go and stab those bodies. And my grandchildren + told me they couldn't do that, that it wasn't possible, that they could + only get the knives in about that far. And then the adults put their + hands over the children's hands and shoved the knives in. + + JARRIEL. Was there any reference to the devil? + + GIRL. Yes. + + JARIEL. Yes. + + [voice over] And this case now under police investigation involving + young boys describing murders. + + [interviewing] Tell me what you were asked to do. + + 1st BOY. I was asked to stab him. + + JARIEL. To stab him. And this was in front of other people who were + there? Were you given a knife? + + 1st BOY. Yes. + + JARIEL. And you were told what would happen to you if you didn't? + + 1st BOY. Uh-huh. + + JARIEL. Do you remember what they said? + + 1st BOY. "This will happen to you." + + JARIEL. So you either stab him or you'll be stabbed, was about what + it came down to? + + [to mother] When the oldest boy describes stabbing with the knife, + what's his reaction? + + MOTHER. It's a hard, hard thing for him to say. He's been more apt + to act it out. + + JARIEL. Do you remember his eyes? + + [voice over] With their guardians' consent, the boys a doll to + illustrate what they did. + + [interviewing] So you were given the knife, and then what did you + do? + + 1st BOY. I went like this. + + JARIEL. Did you push the knife all the way in deep, or did you just + touch the skin? + + 1st BOY. All the way in deep. + + JARIEL. In deep. Were you in the room when this was going on? Did + you see what happened to the child that was stuck with the knife? + + 2nd BOY. Yeah. + + JARIEL. What do you remember? + + 2nd BOY. All blood. + + JARIEL. [voice over]. Ritualistic murder has become a specialty for + San Francisco's chief medical examiner. + + [interviewing] Are local investigators really prepared, equipped? + Do they know what to look for when investigating these cases? + + Dr. BOYD STEPHENS, medical examiner. No, I don't think they do. + Even though we're--many different people are trying to get out the + message about ritualistic or funny types of killings, first of all, just + on their face value, they sound so unusual or bizarre that most people + hearing that message really don't think that it's true. + + JARIEL. [voice over]. It's bizarre and hard to prove. Yet the + tales that were told to us in interviews conducted across the country + were later verified by authorities, who say that there are consistent + telltale clues. And they provide a checklist of six satanic practices + to look for. For example, being placed inside a coffin. It's an + experience that many children are describing. + + MOTHER. Well, the adults will dig up the caskets from the + graveyards, and all the members, including the children, were made to + lay in the remains of whatever was in the casket. + + JARIEL. Get in a casket with a decomposed body? + + MOTHER. Right. And then the casket was closed and they would be + lowered into the ground while they were in the casket. + + JARIEL. [voice over]. The author of a popular book on satanism, Dr. + Laurence Pazder. + + Dr. LAURENCE PAZDER, psychiatrist. Children are involved in + graveyards, in crematorias, in funeral parlors, because one of the + primary focuses of these people is death. Everything is attempted to be + destroyed and killed in that child and in that society, everything of + goodnesss. And death is a major preoccupation. + + JARRIEL [voice-over]. Another indicator: satanic paraphernalia. In + every case the children talk about precisely the same setting. + + GRANDMOTHER. They described a satanic goat's head being on the wall + over the table. They described a lot of candles. And they described + people in black and white robes with hoods. + + JARRIEL [to Mr. Warnke]. The hood, Mike, what's this for? + + Mr. WARNKE. This is to create for whoever's practicing a magical + atmosphere. + + JARRIEL. Do the colors mean anything? + + Mr. WARNKE. Yeah, the red ones would be used for some types of + sexual rituals, people who are doing sexual magic. This would be used + for ordinary ceremonies and also for ceremonies where you'd be throwing + a curse on somebody. + + JARRIEL [voice-over]. Another indicator: kidnapping. In almost + every case the children have talked about children who were snatched and + later sacrificed. + + MOTHER. They were taught to aid in the kidnapping of children. What + they would do is the kids would go and play with the children and then + tell them that they were either going to a party or that there were some + toys or whatever, and get them so that they weren't on the move, and + then her father and other members would grab the kid. + + JARRIEL [to Ms. Gallant]. Do you find missing children sometimes + fall prey to these people? + + Ms. GALLANT. I believe that they do. We can't prove that they do. + But as a law enforcement officer, I question two million children + missing in the United States, know that many, many of those are not + runaways and are so young that they couldn't run away anyway. + + JARRIEL [voice-over]. Number four: sexual abuse aimed at destroying + faith in God. It's being described by numerous children. + + [Interviewing.] What were the parallels with what the boys have told + you and the worship of Satan? + + MOTHER. Well, first of all, the sexual abuse, the pornography, which + always seems to go hand in hand. The boys talked about how these people + actually said: "I hate God," and they used a very deep voice when they + talked about that. + + Dr. PAZDER. One of the primary aims is to destroy a belief system + within a child, to make a child turn against what they believe in, in + terms of who they are, of who God is, and to desecrate all manner of + flesh, all manner of church institution, all manner of sign and symbol + that a child could in any way be attached to. + + JARRIEL [voice-over]. Cannibalism. It's difficult to believe, but + in every case we examined, children described it. + + GRANDMOTHER. The hearts were cut out, and the children were made to + chew pieces of these children's hearts, pieces of their flesh. + + JARRIEL [to Ms. Gallant]. Is cannibalism part of the ritual? + + Ms. GALLANT. The children have spoken about this in almost every + instance. Also human feces, or drinking the urine or drinking human + blood. + + JARRIEL. That's part of the ritual. + + Ms. GALLANT. Right. + + Mr. WARNKE. I have an old three-inch scar here on my wrist where my + friends used to cut my arm open and bleed my blood into a cup and drink + it mixed with urine four times a year as a ceremony to Satan. + + JARRIEL [voice-over]. And finally, cremation. Most of the children + describe witnessing it. It might explain why no bodies have been found. + So far police have failed to make the connection, as in the case of yet + another youngster who, with his mother's consent, described how bodies + were disposed of. + + 3rd BOY. He would take the bodies and put a trash bag over the feet + and head. He put--and then what he would do is had his car parked out + back. So he took him to a funeral home, and they got--they were + cremated and nobody ever knew anything about the bodies. + + Dr. PAZDER. These people cover their tracks very well. When they + dispose of a body, they use that body as well. They will use, as I + said, they will cremate that body, they will use the ashes that will + become part of what they will continue to present to that particular + group, and they will disperse that. They're not going to do some simple + murder and leave a body in a stream for you to pick up the pieces of it. + + JARRIEL [voice-over]. Six clues that point to the illegal worship of + Satan, each based on the testimony of children, and none of it has ever + been proved. + + Ms. GALLANT. The problem that exists is we're getting the stories, + but we don't have the victims. Once it's proven with one case, it's + going to add more credibility to each one of the other cases. + + JARRIEL [voice-over]. Until that one is proved, the link between + crime and satanic cults will remain speculative. The victims in this + report did break the grip of satanism, but each is left with permanent + scars, and experts say they were lucky to escape. + + Mr. GRIFFIS. When you get into one of these groups, there's only a + couple of ways you can get out. One is death. The other is mental + institutions. Or third, you can't get out. + + WALTERS. That's terrifying, and that's no choice. + + JARRIEL. Serious business. + + WALTERS. If the police were aware of this, it might be that they + could get to the instigators, to the top people. Why isn't there more + awareness on the part of the police? + + JARRIEL. Police are very reluctant to investigate these crimes as + satanic crimes, Barbara, because communities quite naturally don't want + their reputations stigmatized as being the home of the devil. They + prefer to try to categorize them as drug-related crimes, sex-related + crimes or robbery or something that they're more familiar with. + + WALTERS. Individual rather than finding out who's behind it. Look, + if this happens to your kid, or if you look at this and you have + children and you say, "Could this happen to my kid out of some kind of + rebellion?" how would a parent be aware? + + JARRIEL. Many youngsters are into it, teenagers and younger. And + the clues are there, the satanic symbol--666. If you see that written + on your child's notebook, if they're into heavy metal rock music, if + they're associating with strange characters or drifting off to + ceremonies and not explaining where they're at, it's well worth it to + parents to look deeper and ask, "What exactly are you up to?" + + WALTERS. And with whom. + + JARRIEL. Because this is serious. + + WALTERS. It could be harmless. It could just be a diversion. But + it could also be deadly serious. + + JARRIEL. Absolutely. + + WALTERS. Fascinating and horrifying report. Thank you for bringing + it to us. + + Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, it was because of reports such as this ABC news +production on satanism that I took particular note of a letter from a +constituent back in the fall of 1982. The contituent asked if a particular +group, known to be explicitly promoting witchcraft, has been given tax-exempt +status by the Internal Revenue Service under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal +Revenue Code. + + I wrote the IRS to find out. To my astonishment, the IRS told me that yes, +indeed; the particular group in question had been granted tax-exempt status as +if it were an ordinary bona fide church. This original response was dated +December 17, 1982, and it was from Tully Miller, Acting District Director, +Internal Revenue Service, Atlanta, GA. + + On February 10, 1983, I wrote the then Secretary of the Treasury, Don Regan +about this matter--the Secretary's jurisdiction, of course, includes the IRS. +I asked Secretary Regan (1) if the IRS District Director's view was correct, +(2) if this had always been IRS policy since the enactment of section +501(c)(3), and (3) if so, on what legislative history it was based. After +many inquiries over a 2-year period, I finally got an answer dated May 24, +1985. By then, Mr. Regan had become White House chief of staff. The response +to my inquiry was signed by Mikel M. Rollyson, tax legislative counsel, Office +of the Secretary of the Treasury. It basically confirmed the earlier letter +from the IRS District Director. + + Then on June 17 of this year, I wrote Treasury Secretary James A. Baker +III, to ask for his personal consideration of this matter. He obliged me in +this request, and I received his reply dated July 19, 1985. + + Unfortunately, however, Mr. Baker basically confirmed the earlier letters I +had received. Among other things, he wrote: + + Under the standards (used by the IRS for determining religous + exemptions), several organizations have been recognized as tax-exempt + that espouse a system of beliefs, rituals, and practices, derived in + part from pre-Christian Celtic and Welsh traditions, which they label a + "witchcraft. + + Thus, the Secretary of the Treasury confirmed for me the fact that the IRS +has and will grant tax-exempt status as a religious organization to groups +explicitly promoting witchcraft. + + Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Secretary Baker's letter to me +of July 19, 1985, be printed at this point in the RECORD. + + There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the +RECORD, as follows: + + THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY + Washington, DC, July 19, 1985. + + Hon. JESSE A. HELMS, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. + + DEAR JESSE: In a letter dated June 17, 1985, you asked me to + consider whether section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code would + permit a group that practices "witchcraft" as a religion to be treated + as tax-exempt. + + You expressed special concern about recent reports linking violent + crime to so-called satanic cults. You are absolutely right--neither the + Reagan Administration, Jim Baker, nor the Internal Revenue Service will + provide tax incentives for conduct which leads to violent crime. + + Section 501(c)(3) of the Code exempts from Federal income taxation any + entity that is organized and operated exclusively for religious + purposes. As a conscious policy decision, the Code and the applicable + Treasury regulations do not attempt further to define what religious + purposes are. This decision, which reflects the First Amendment to the + Constitution and its interpretation by the courts, has withstood the + test of time. + + The Service does not simply accept a claim of religious belief at + face value in making determinations under section 501(c)(3). Instead, + it makes two inquiries. The first is whether the organization's + practices or rituals are illegal or are contrary to clearly defined + public policy. The second is whether the asserted beliefs are sincerely + held by those professing to follow them. + + These standards guarantee that the Service will operate + impartially--and will be understood by religious groups and the public + to do so--in administering the tax exemption rules. Under the + standards, several organizations have been recognized as tax-exempt that + espouse a system of beliefs, rituals, and practices, derived in part + from pre-Christian Celtic and Welsh traditions, which they label as + "witchcraft." we have no evidence that any of the organizations have + either engaged in or promoted any illegal activity. (One of the + organizations was in fact subject to an on-site audit several years + after it received an exemption letter; the agent found no basis for any + change in tax-exempt status.) + + In contrast, the Service has not hesitated to deny recognition of + tax-exempt status to organizations that claim to be churches but engage + in criminal activity. For example, the Service has denied exemption to + an organization promoting drug use during its rituals and revoked the + tax-exempt status of a purported church found to be involved in drug + smuggling. Our records also indicate that an organization that espoused + devil-worship, black magic, and other satanic rituals failed to meet + several of the requirements for tax-exempt status and was denied an + exemption under section 501(c)(3). + + You enclosed with your letter a transcript of a television segment + dealing with cults, violence, and drug-induced rituals. The Service's + published cumulative list of tax-exempt organizations does not indicate + that the Service has approved a tax exemption for either of the + so-called "satanic churches" named in the transcript. + + As you know, churches need not file an application for recognition of + exemption or any annual returns. Thus, I cannot assure you that some + organization of which the Service has no knowledge may not be improperly + claiming a tax exemption. The Service maintains an ongoing examination + program to assure that organizations continue to comply with the + requirements for tax exemption. Churches are subject to special + statutory rules, enacted by Congress last year, that limit and restrict + church contacts and examinations by the Service. + + I am satisfied that present law, as administered by the Service, is + effective to deny tax exemption to any organization that seeks a subsidy + for promotion of illegal activity, without infringing on the rights of + citizens guaranteed by the First Amendment. I hope this letter puts + your concerns to rest. + + Sincerely, + JAMES A. BAKER III. + + Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, despite the reasoning of the Secretary, I simply +cannot believe that Congress ever intended for section 501(c)(3) of the +Internal Revenue Code be used to promote witchcraft or other cult-related +activities through the granting of tax-exempt status. To whatever extent such +activities occur in this country, they certainly should not besubsidized-- +directly or indirectly--by the U.S. taxpayers. + + After all, Mr. President, we allow tax-exempt status for bona fide +religious organizations because we believe they promote the common good. +Cults and witchcraft groups do not; in fact, they lead to violent and unlawful +behavior. + + Mr. President, the pending amendment uses the congressional power of the +purse to stop activities by the Treasury Department and the IRS in allowing +tax-exempt status to "any cult, organization, or other group that has as a +purpose, or that has any interest in, the promotion of satanism or +witchcraft." The amendment defines "satanism" as "the worship of Satan or the +powers of evil" and "witchcraft" as "the use of powers derived from evil +spirits, the use of sorcery, or the use of supernatural powers with malicious +intent." + + I urge adoption of the pending amendment. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/2400-500.txt b/religious documents/2400-500.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3d2dd3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/2400-500.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5059 @@ + + BOOK OF SHADOWS + + + + VOLUME The SIXTH + + pp. 2400 -2856 + + + + RIDERS OF THE CRYSTAL WIND +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2400 + + The Parts of the Soul + + A Greek System of Chakras + + (first draft) + + by John Opsopaus + + Introduction + +This essay resulted from an attempt to find a Greek system of "energy +centers" corresponding to the chakras of Eastern philosophy. Such a +correspondence would help illuminate Greek mysticism and reveal some of +the foundations of the Western Magical Tradition. This goal might seem +to be a shallow exercise in analogies, but there are reasons to expect +a +substantial correspondence. First, the Eastern and Greek systems evolved +out of a common Indo-European culture, so one would expect genetic +correspondences; these connections were likely maintained over the +millennia, since we know the Middle East mediated continual cultural +transfer with both the West and East. Second, there is a certain degree +of objectivity in the system of chakras, as reflected in the physical +body, which would lead to correspondences even in the absence of +cultural contact. The consequence of these two factors is a significant +uniformity in ideas about the Spirit and its connection to the Body +across the Eurasian continent, and even beyond, as documented, for +example, in Onians's _Origins of European Thought_. + +How would we know a Greek system of chakras if we saw it? The standard +I have used is that (1) they should be approximately seven energy +centers; (2) they should be approximately located where the chakras are +located; (3) they should have approximately the same "functions" as the +chakras. + +It's worth keeping in mind that the chakra system best known in the +West, with seven chakras, is not the only system; some have more than +fourteen (Eliade, 243-5; Murphy, 156). Therefore, we should not expect +an exact correspondence of number, since certain energy centers might or +might not be counted depending on their strength or the "kind" of energy +they concentrate. Furthermore, different systems differ in their exact +placement of the chakras, so likewise we should not expect an exact +correspondence in a Greek system. Nevertheless, it will be apparent that +the Greek system corresponds closely to the system of seven chakras. + +My principal source has been Onians, especially Part I and Part II (chh. +1-7), but the overall structure is described in Plato's account of the +"Parts of the Soul" in the Timaeus (69c-73d), which probably embodies +Pythagorean doctrine. In the following I've numbered the energy centers +from the top down with Roman numerals, since this accords better with +Platonic doctrine; however, the chakras are conventionally numbered from +the bottom up, for which I've (appropriately) used Hindu numbers +(so-called Arabic numbers). + + I + +The Crown of the head (Gk. koruphe, Lat. vertex). Plato said the humans +stand upright because of the connection between the Heavens and the Soul +in their brains. People with especially great power in their heads were +2401 + +represented with a nimbus, a halo of flames, around their head (attested +as early as the 3rd cent. BCE in Greece). This center corresponds to + + + Chakra 7 (at the crown of the head), called Sahasrara, which means + "thousand (-petaled)," an appropriate description of a nimbus. + + II + +The Brain (Gk. enkephalos, Lat. cerebrum), which contains the psuche +(Gk.) or genios (Lat.). (I use the old Latin spelling "genios" to avoid +confusion with the English "genius." The genios is sometimes called the +anima.) In Homeric times the psuche was taken to be the "Vital Spirit" +or Life Principal (the mind or consciousness was placed in IV, the +chest), corresponding to Skt. asu. The later view, which is found in +Plato and corresponds better to the Eastern system (cf. Skt. atman), is +that the brain is the center of rational thought, the Intellectual +center. In both Homer and Plato the psuche is considered the immortal +part of the Soul. The physical substance corresponding to psuche was +marrow (medulla), especially the cerebrospinal fluid of the brain and +spine, but also in other parts of the body (see below). For this reason +departed souls were thought to appear as snakes, which are all brain and +spine. Scalp and facial hair were considered physical emanations of the +psuche, and so the hair, scalp and chin were considered sacred (hence +the dedication of locks and the touching of the chin or beard in +supplication). This center corresponds to Chakra 6 (at the brow), +called Ajna, which means "authority or command," an appropriate name for +the rational faculty, which Plato said "controls and restrains" the +lower faculties; Onians calls it the Executive function. + + III + +The Neck (Gk. trachelos, dere; Lat. collum), which Plato called the +"isthmus or boundary" between the Superior, Divine or Immortal Soul and +the Inferior or Mortal Soul. He said that it allows communication +between the two, but prevents the Lower Soul from "polluting" the +Higher. This center corresponds to Chakra 5 (in the throat), called +Visuddha, which means "purgation or purity," that is, "the purging of +the merely animal, physical system" (Campbell, 165). + + IV + +The Heart and Lungs (Gk. phrenes, Lat. cor), which contain the thumos +(Grk.) or animus (Lat.), which is the Higher part of the Mortal Soul. +In Homeric times the thumos was the Conscious Spirit, the vehicle of +Thought and Feeling (cf. Skt. manas). Later, it was restricted to +feeling, emotion, passion and especially spirit, courage and anger - the +Affective function. This center corresponds to Chakra 4 (at the heart), +called Anahata, which means "not hit" (referring to the mystical sound). +This chakra is associated with prana (Skt.) - vital breath, vital spirit +(Campbell, 164), as are the phrenes with pneuma (Gk.) or spiritus +(Lat.) - breath, spirit. Campbell (164-5) says, "This is the +aspiration, then, of spiritual striving," and "the birth of the +spiritual as opposed to the merely physical life," and likewise the +phrenes are associated with spirit, as opposed to the lower parts, which +are associated with physical needs and desires. + +The "little foyer" (the Red Lotus of Eight Petals with the Kalpa Tree) +2402 + +below the Heart Chakra corresponds to the diaphragm, which Plato called +the "midriff partition" separating the two parts of the Mortal Soul +(associated with Spirit and Desire, respectively). + + V + +The Belly (Gk. gaster, Lat. abdomen), between the diaphragm and navel, +is the site of the Lower Part of the Mortal Soul, which is the +Appetitive Soul, which we share with the lower animals and plants; its +function is nutrition and it is the source of Desire (both Nutritional +and, by most accounts, Sexual). This center corresponds to Chakra 3 (at +the navel), called Manipura, which means "city of the shining jewel," +and its function is "aggressive: to conquer, to consume, to turn +everything into oneself" (Campbell, 159-60), which is a good description +of the Appetitive Soul. + + VI + +The Gonads (Gk. gonades, Lat. genitalia), representing the Procreative +function. The "marrow," the stuff of which psuche or genios was made, +was the Life Essence; Plato says that in it is made "the bonds of life +which unite the Soul with the Body." This marrow or sap is passed down +the spine, concentrated in the gonads, and is the source of the life of +the offspring. In particular, semen was considered a kind of +cerebrospinal sap. This center corresponds to Chakra 2, called +Svadhisthana, which means "her favorite resort," an apt name for "the +cakra of sexuality" (Campbell, 144). + + VII + +The Sacrum or Holy Bone (Gk. hieron osteon, Lat. os sacrum), that is, +the base of the spine. Because this was a center of concentration of +the Life Force, Middle Eastern people believed that the entire body +could be regenerated from this bone, and Onians (p. 208) conjectures +that its potency may account for "kiss of shame" (osculum infame) of the +Witches and Templars (and perhaps the Cathars and Waldenses). This +center corresponds to Chakra 1, called Muladhara, which means "root +base," which Campbell (p. 144) associates with "hanging on to life" and +a "reactive psyche," so in both cases we have the grossest form of the +Life Force. + +Similarly, the Spine was called the Holy Tube (hiera surinx), which +recalls the Sushumna (Spine), which is likewise considered a channel +(nadi). Likewise the Egyptian Ded Pillar, which represents the spine, +was a symbol of Life. I have not, however, found Greeks correspondents +to the Ida and Pingala nadis. + + VIII + +The above are the "central" energy concentrations of Greek philosophy, +and it is apparent that they correspond closely to the familiar seven +chakras. The Greeks also recognized "peripheral" energy concentrations +in the hands, thighs and knees (which have a large concentration of +"marrow"). This explains the sacrifice of thigh bones, the use of the +hand (especially the right hand) to exercise executive power, and +clasping the knees when beseeching. (The knee - Gk. gonu, Lat. genu - +was especially associated with the Life Force - genios - and with +procreation or "generation"; cf. genital, genetic, gonad, etc.) So far +2403 + +as I know, corresponding chakras are not recognized in Eastern thought. +As a general rule of thumb, Spirit, of one sort or another, is most +concentrated where the flesh is thinnest (Timaeus 75a), thus, in the +head, chest, sacrum, knees and hands. + + + Summary + + No. English Greek Latin Function Chakra No. + _______________________________________________________________________ + I Crown Koruphe Vertex Illumination Sahasrara 7 + II Brain Enkephalos Cerebrum Intellection Ajna 6 + III Neck Trachelos Collum Purification Visuddha 5 + IV Heart/Lungs Phrenes Cor Affection Anahata 4 + V Belly Gaster Abdomen Appetition Manipura 3 + VI Gonads Gonades Genitalia Procreation Svadhisthana 2 + VII Sacrum Hieron Osteon Os Sacrum Basic Life Muladhara 1 + + + References + +Campbell, Joseph. (1990). Transformations of Myth Through Time. New +York: Harper & Row. + +Eliade, Mircea. (1969). Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, tr. Willard R. +Trask. Bollingen Series LVI. Princeton: Princeton University Press. + +Mead, G. R. S. (1967). The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western + Tradition. Theosophical Publishing House. + +Murphy, Michael. (1992). The Future of the Body: Explorations Into +the Further Evolution of Human Nature. New York: Jeremy +Tarcher/Putnam. + +Onians, Richard Broxton. (1951). The Origins of European Thought About +the Body, the Mind, the Soul, the World, Time, and Fate. Cambridge: +Cambridge University Press. + +Poortman, J. J. (1978). Vehicles of Consciousness: The Concept of +Hylic Pluralism. Vols. 1-4. Theosophical Publishing House. + + finis + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2404 + + RITUS OLYMPICUS PENTAGRAMMOU MINOR AD EXPELLENDUM + + (c) 1993, John Opsopaus + +Preface + +The following is an adaptation of the Lesser Banishing Ritual +of the Pentagram to the Graeco-Roman Tradition, and so it is +called the "Olympic Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram." +Such a "translation" is possible because the LBRP is an +enactment in a Qabalistic framework of certain shamanic +practices that are nearly universal. Once the underlying +shamanic cosmology has been identified, it's relatively +straight-forward to reexpress the ritual in the terms of +another cosmology, such as the Graeco-Roman. + +I would welcome criticism of the result, especially from +Qabalists and Ceremonial Magicians. Criticism/correction of +my Latin and Greek composition will also be appreciated. +Finally, I beg readers to forgive the Early Modern English, +which I've used to add dignity to the text. + +The Ritual follows in summary form; a separate posting will +contain a fully annotated text. This information should make +clear which aspects of the ritual follow from Ancient +Tradition, which come from more recent Magical Traditions, and +which are a result of my speculation or arbitrary choice; such +information is all too often missing from Neopagan recon- +structions. If anyone knows of a similar adaptation, please +let me know. + +Gratias vobis ago, +John Opsopaus +72747.154@compuserve.com +---------------------------------------------------------- + + Ritus Olympicus + + Pentagrammou Minor + + ad Expellendum + + + The Olympic Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram + + which is + + The Traditional Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram + Adapted to the Graeco-Roman Tradition + + (c)1993, John Opsopaus + + +I. The Opening Tau Cross + +i. Close thine eyes, and by thy breath fan thou the Fire, +which awakeneth the Serpent and the Eagle. Allow thyself to +grow beyond all bounds of space, until the Universe is +2405 + +within thee. Be thou as a God; be thou as a Goddess. + +ij. Draw thou down the Fire of Heaven into thy Heart, and +say: + "From Celestial Fire" + "Ab Igne Caelesti" + "Apo tou Ouraniou Puros" + [)Apo\ tou= )Oura/niou Puros/] + +[Suggested gestures for the preceding step: Raise your arms +into a horizontal, cross position, with palms up (in Celestial +Invocation). Bring them together above your head, palm to +palm, and then draw the Celestial Fire down to your heart, +while saying "From Celestial Fire."] + +[The words to be spoken by the practitioner are given in +English, Latin and Greek. In an attempt to combine +readability and accuracy, I've given the Greek text two ways, +in a simple but approximate Roman transcription, and in "Beta +code," a standard ASCII representation of Greek including all +the accents, breathings, etc. Beta code transcriptions are +enclosed in square brackets. The Beta code transcriptions +should be reasonably comprehensible with the following +information: ")" and "(" represent smooth and rough +breathing, respectively; "/", "\" and "=" represent acute, +grave and circumflex accents, respectively; "|" is iota +subscript.] + +iij. Guide thou the bright Beam downward, until it stirreth +the Subterranean Waters of the Abyss and bringeth Them to +life; and while so doing, say thou: + "To Watery Abyss" + "Ad Aquosum Profundum" + "Eis ten Hudroessan Abusson" + [)Ei\s th\n (Udro/essan )/Abusson] + +[Suggested gesture: Keep the palms together and move them +down in front of the groin. Then separate the hands and hold +them to the sides and slightly forward, with palms down (in +Chthonic Invocation).] + +iv. Direct thou the beam from thy heart through thy left +shoulder, until it stretcheth to the Moon, and say: + "By Way of Earth" + "Via Terrena" + "Kat' Hodon Chthonion" + [Kat' (Odo\n Xqo/nion] + +[Suggested gesture: Raise the left hand up to your chest; +then extend your arm into horizontal position, with the palm +forward.] + +v. Direct thou the beam from thy heart through thy right +shoulder, until it stretcheth to the Sun, and say: + "By Way of Air" + "Via Aeria" + "Kat' Hodon Aitherion" + [Kat' (Odo\n )Aiqe/rion] +2406 + +[Suggested gesture: Raise the right arm to the chest and then +into a horizontal position, with forward palm.] + +vi. Feel thou the Sacred Tau Cross that blazeth inside +thee. Now cross thy arms over thy Heart, and say: + "Abiding always in the Center. So be it!" + "Semper in Medio manens. Esto!" or "Fiat!" + "En Omphaloi aei menon" (masc.) or "menousa" (fem.). "Esto!" + [)En )Omfalw=| a)ei\ me/nwn] (masc.) or [me/nousa] (fem.). + [)/Estw!] + +[Suggested gesture: Bring your arms together and cross them +over your chest.] + +vij. As thou makest this gesture the Moon and Sun will +stand together above thy head, nor will they ever move from +there. Moon over Sun and Sun over Tau Cross; thou art the +Holy Caduceus. Thou hast become the Center of the World, +for the Cosmic Axis runneth through thy spine; on thy left +standeth the Path of the Moon, and on thy right the Path of +the Sun, above thee shineth the Cosmic Pole, below thee +lieth the Abyss. + +viij. Thou standest upon the Sacred Mountain, the World +Navel, under which hideth the Watery Abyss. At thy back +groweth the Tree of Life, which stretcheth over thy head, +the Navel Cord, for the Mountain and Tree are the Cosmic +Pillar, which supporteth the four Quarters of the Heavens. +From Calypso's Cave between the Tree's roots, which +penetrate the Abyss, are the four springs, which flow to the +four Quarters of the World, and they run with water, honey, +milk and wine. Around the World Tree's trunk coileth thrice +and half again the Serpent. In the Cosmic Tree's leaves +percheth the Eagle of Zeus, guarding the Horn of Amalthea, +from which Nectar floweth into the Libation Bowl, the +Bountiful Breast, which overfloweth, raining Nectar on the +World. Ambrosia floweth up the trunk of the Tree from the +Deep. Illumination cometh from Above and Growth cometh from +Below. The World Tree is the Tree of Destiny and Its leaves +are the Book of Fate, for as they fall, so fall to earth the +winged souls of the folk, ever singing in its foliage. + +ix. Divine Helen, Leto's Daughter, with large breasts, +liveth in the Bountiful Cosmic Tree, for she is Its Spirit; +and Her Brothers, the Dioskouroi, Sons of Zeus [Dios Kouroi] +the All-Shining [Pamphaes], the Heavenly Twins of Leto, +command the Sacred Paths on either side. For Castor, who +resideth underground, knoweth the Lunar Discipline and +controlleth the Way of Descent, and Polydeuces, who liveth +above, is Master of the Solar Discipline and controlleth the +Way of Ascent. + +x. For learn thou this about the Way of Ascent. It is +under the jurisdiction of Zeus, the Sky Shaker, who giveth +fertilizing rain and nourishing sunlight. He holdeth the +Lightning Bolt of Illumination, and His lightning descendeth +from the Sky. The Way of Ascent is to climb Scylla's +Mountain, which riseth into the clouds, nor can its peak +2407 + +ever be seen. Prometheus or Apollo will show thee the Way. +Thy Helper in this journey is the Horse Pegasos, but also +the Soaring Eagle, Dove and Goose. Then wilt thou break +through the Vault of the Heaven, and going through the +Celestial Pole thou wilt ascend the Heavens. For this is +the Way of Light, the Path by Day, the Sun's Way, the Path +of the Sage. + +xi. And learn thou this about the Way of Descent. It is +under the jurisdiction of Poseidon, the Earth Shaker, who +giveth fresh water from springs, but also floods and +earthquakes. He holdeth the Trident of Ecstasy and His +lightning leapeth up from the Earth. The Way of Descent is +by the precipice opposite Scylla's cliff, which is the lower +of the two, and from it groweth the Sacred Fig Tree. Climb +thou down from this Tree to Charybdis, by which thou wilt be +drawn into the Watery Abyss. Circe or Herakles will show +thee the Way past the Dog and Gatekeeper. Thy Helper in +this journey is the Serpent Python, but also the Raging Lion +and Bull. Then wilt thou break through the Vault of the +Abyss and, going down the Well, thou wilt descend through +its levels. For this is the Way of Darkness, the Path by +Night, the Moon's Way, the Path of the Mage. + +xij. But the Wise know that the Way Up and the Way Down are +the same, for they are both on the Cosmic Pillar, and +sometimes our task demandeth that we go up it, and sometimes +it demandeth that we go down it. When Duty calleth, we +travel by Day or Night as is the need. Ask thou Hermes for +guidance, for he frequenteth the Navel. + +II. Pentagrams of the Quarters + +xiij. This is the way thou wilt draw the Shining Pentagrams +that wardeth each Quarter. The first ray goeth from the +lower left to the top, and each ray continueth from the +last. And as thou makest each ray, sing a letter of the +Name of the Pentagram. + +xiv(a). In Greek the Pentagram hath the Name HUGIEIA +[U(GI/EIA], which meaneth Soundness or Wholeness, so sing +thou the sounds: + "Huuuuuuu, Gggggggg, Iiiiiiih, Aaaaaay, Aaaaaaah." + +xiv(b). In Latin the Pentagram hath the Name SALUS, which +meaneth Soundness or Welfare, so sing thou the sounds: + "Ssssssss, Aaaaaaah, Llllllll, Uuuuuuuu, Ssssssss." + +xiv(c). Though in English we label the Pentagram WHOLE or +SOUND, its spoken Name is WHOLENESS, so sing thou the +sounds: + "Hooooooo, Llllllll, Nnnnnnnn, Eeeeeeeh, Ssssssss." + +xv. Now go thou to the East and make the Pentagram. As +thou callest: + "Jupiter" or "Zeus" + "Iuppiter" + "Zeus" [Zeu/s] +2408 + +hurl thou His Thunderbolt through the center of the +Pentagram, and see it fly away to Infinity. + +[Iuno / Hera [(/Hra] might also be appropriate for the East +(She is not an Earth Goddess), in which case you should throw +Her Cuckoo-bearing Sceptre, which represents the Celestial +Spirit nesting on the top of the World Tree. (Zeus first came +to Hera in the form of a Cuckoo.)] + +xvi. Now with thy Staff forge thou the Fiery Ring, drawing +it from the center of the Eastern Pentagram and stretching +it to the South, where thou wilt make another Pentagram, but +call: + "Vesta" or "Hestia" + "Vesta" [pron. "Westa"] + "Hestia" [(Esti/a] +and throw thou Her Burning Circle. + +xvij. Then to the West: + "Neptune" or "Poseidon" + "Neptunus" + "Poseidon" [Poseidw/n] +Hurl thou His Trident. + +xviij. Then to the North: + "Ceres" or "Demeter" + "Ceres" [pron. "Keres"] + "Demeter" [Dhmh/thr] +Throw thou Her Torch. + +[Pluto / Hades [(/Aidhs] would also be appropriate for the +North, in which case his Helmet of Invisibility should be +projected through the Pentagram. Hades' name may mean "the +Unseen" ["(/Aidhs" < "a) idh/s"].] + +xix. Then draw thou the Fiery Ring back to its beginning, +so it burneth on every side. Then will the Barrier expand +above and below until thou art surrounded by the Glowing +Sphere. + +[When projecting the Four Weapons through the Pentagrams, the +practitioner might find it helpful to make an appropriate +gesture: as though throwing a dart for Zeus's Keraunos, as +though throwing a frisbee for Hestia's Burning Ring, as though +throwing a javelin for Poseidon's Trident, as though throwing +a knife for Demeter's Torch.] + + +III. Wards of the Quarters + +xx. Now raise again thy arms so thou art the Sacred Tau and, +focusing thine attention before thee (Eastward), say: + "Before, Apollo" + "Ante, Apollo" + "Prosthen, Apollon" + [Pro/sqen, )Apo/llwn] +Apollo will appear before thee in all His Glory, Bow in hand, +facing thee. Then will He turn His back to watch the Eastern +2409 + +Quarter. + +[Mercurius/Hermes [(Ermh=s], with His Caduceus, would also be +appropriate for the East.] + +xxi. West: Focusing thine attention behind thee, say: + "Behind, Diana/Artemis" + "Post, Diana" + "Opisthen, Artemis" + [)/Opisqen, )/Artemis] +Artemis will appear with Her Bow. Then will She turn away to +watch the West. + +[Venus/Aphrodite [)Afrodi/th], arising from the waves and +holding Her Zona (Girdle), would also be appropriate for the +West.] + +xxij. South: Focusing thine attention to thy right, say: + "On the right, Minerva/Athena" + "Dextra, Minerva" + "Epidexia, Athena." + [)Epide/cia, )Aqhna=] +Athena will appear with Her Aegis and Spear, and turn to +watch the South. + +[Mars / Ares [)/Arhs] (with Shield and Sword) or Volcanus / +Hephaistos [(/Hfaistos] (with Hammer and Tongs) would also be +appropriate for the South; Mars was also an Italic vegetation +God, and so might be evoked in the North.] + +xxiij. North: Focusing thine attention to thy left, say: + "On the left, Bacchus/Dionysos" + "Sinistra, Bacchus" + "Ep' aristera, Dionusos" + [)Ep' a)ristera/, Dio/nusos] +Dionysus will appear with His Thyrsus, and then turn to +watch the North. + +[Pan [Pa/n], with His Pipes, would also be appropriate for the +North. Pan may seem an unlikely Ward, but when Athens honored +Him and asked Him to help defend them from the Persians, he +did so (Herodt. VI.105.2-3).] + +xxiv. In thy mind, thank all the Wards of the Quarters for +Their protection. + + +IV. The Macrocosm in the Microcosm + +xxv. Spread thy feet apart and assume thou the form of the +Sacred Pentagram, which Pythagoras hath called Hugieia +(Salus, Whole/Sound). When the Pentagram flameth around +thee, say: + "For around flameth the Pentagram." + "Nam circa flagrat Pentagrammon." + "Peri men gar phlegei to Pentagrammon" + [Peri\ me\n ga\r fle/gei to\ Penta/grammon] + +2410 + +[If you prefer "For around flame the Pentagrams," then use: + "Nam circa flagrant Pentagramma" + "Peri men gar phlegousi ta Pentagramma" + [Peri\ me\n ga\r fle/gousi ta\ Penta/gramma] + +xxvi. When the Sacred Hexagram shineth within thee, say: + "And within shineth the Six-rayed Star." + "Atque intra lucet Stella Sexradiata." + "Entos de lampei ho Hexaktinotos Aster." + [)Ento\s de\ la/mpei o( E(caktinwto\s )Asth/r.] + +[If you prefer your Hexagram shining above rather than within, +then say "super" instead of "intra," or "Huper" [(Upe/r] +instead of "Entos." However, I think it's better to have it +within (see the notes for the reason).] + +xxvij. The Pentagram signifieth the Microcosm, and the +Hexagram signifieth the Macrocosm. Thus the Macrocosm +shineth within the Illuminated Microcosm. + + +V. The Closing Tau Cross + +xxviij. Repeat thou the Tau Cross as it was at the beginning. + +[The following alternative gestures incorporate the relation +of the elements embodied in the Hexagram: As you recite the +text of the Tau Cross, (1) begin with arms crossed, right over +left, on your chest; (2) raise your right arm to the Celestial +Fire, (3) lower your left arm to the Watery Abyss, (4) let the +Fire draw up the Water to yield Earth, by moving your left arm +up to your chest and out to the left, the Way of Earth; (5) +let the Water draw down the Fire to yield Air, by moving your +right arm down to your chest and out to your right, the Way of +Air; (6) cross your arms over your chest, indicating the +Reconciliation, Union and Balance of the Oppositions (Bivium), +Worlds (Trivium) and Elemental Quarters (Quadrivium). I must +admit, however, that these gestures seem somewhat awkward.] + +xxix. Thou hast made for thyself a Sacred Space at the +World's Navel. Ascending on thy Right is the Light Path and +descending on thy Left is the Dark Path, but remember thou +that the Wise One knoweth that the Way Up and the Way Down are +the same and that together they make the one Path of Wisdom. +So must it be. + + finis + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2411 + + THE FARMER AND THE GODDESS - A MODERN STORY OF REBIRTH + +The night was quiet and peaceful, with only the occasional call of +a whippoorwill to break the tranquil silence. The Moon was an +iridescent ball of silver perched high in the heavens, illuminating +the Earth below. The sky, a lovely shade of midnight blue, was +sparsely speckled with the twinkle of stars. I peered out my +window, enchanted by the beauty of the night. As my eyes wandered, +they came to rest upon the corn field - the corn field that had +broken my very heart. + +In the beginning, I had worked patiently and diligently tending the +soil. I tilled it - turning it over and over, so that the new +could surface and the old could rest. I carefully pulled away the +weeds and the remnants of the old crop to make the field ready for +new planting. I fertilized and nurtured it, smoothed and moistened +it. Day after day, I toiled to make it ready. Finally, I plowed +it into even rows and lovingly planted it. + +Every day, I tended the seed and watched for new sprouts. +Tenaciously, I ripped the weeds from Earth that would rob the seeds +of the nutrients necessary for their growth. And then one day, I +saw it - a single, solitary sprout that had pushed its way through +the soil! Within the week, the entire field was covered with a +very thin mesh of green, and I felt a joy in my heart that words +cannot describe! The hard work, the aching muscles, and the tender +care with which I had nurtured the field was not in vain - the +Earth which I loved had given birth, and was alive in the greening +of the seed I had sown. + +Daily, I worked in the field, delighting in the growth of the corn +- revelling in its freshness - exulting in the part I had played in +its birth. The rains came down, drenching the earth and the roots +grew deep. The sun shone brightly on the young plants and they +grew tall, reaching for the sky. Ears began to form on the stalks, +and all was well with the crop. + +But then the drought arrived, and the rains came no more. The sun +still beamed brightly, and the roots moved deeper and deeper into +the Earth in their desperate quest to find water. Alas, there was +not a single drop left with which they could quench their thirst. +The once luxuriant green leaves began to yellow and wither. The +stalks which had stood so proudly against the sky began to shrivel +and crack, and the tender ears, so newly born, dried up in death. +Yes, the corn which I had helped to birth - that which I had loved +so dearly - was gone. Dried up. Dead. + +A tear fell from my eye as I stood looking at the field that night, +remembering. A gentle breeze rustled through the old and withered +stalks as I wiped away the tear. And then...I saw something! Or +was it someone? Slowly and silently I crept toward the corn field +to take a better look. I felt my heart beating faster and faster, +as panic began to consume me. After all, it was nearly midnight +and too late for visitors! Whomever was in the field was obviously +up to no good, and I wanted them to leave immediately! My legs +moved faster and faster - more quickly than I had dreamed they were +capable - until I was, indeed, on a dead run! When I reached the +old oak tree that shaded the northern edge of the field, I opened +2412 + +my mouth to shout my displeasure at the trespasser; however, I fell +silent as my eyes focused on the sight, and my mouth gaped wide. +For there, in the center of the corn field, was a young woman in +white - her hair as gold as the maize - glowing in the shimmering +iridescence of the moonlight! + +Questions ravaged my tired brain, as I tried to assess the +situation and size up the intruder. Who was She? What was She +doing there? Surely She knew She was trespassing - and most +certainly She knew that it was illegal! As much as I wished to +call out to Her, I was mesmerized by Her very presence and found +that I could say nothing. Helplessly, I watched as She moved +through the rows of death. She stopped to caress a dry and +withered leaf, and then smiling, held it to her cheek. Gently, She +reached out and wrapped Her arms about the cracked, brown stalk, +hugging it closely to Her breast. She released the stalk and bent +down to look at one of the ears - perfectly formed, but shriveled +in its deathly demise. Quickly, She snapped the ear from its +stalk, tugged away its husk and swiftly moved toward the outside +perimeter of the field. + +Holding the ear of corn high above Her golden head, She began to +dance upon the barren Earth. As if in slow motion, She twirled +about the outside edges of the field, as she softly hummed an +unfamiliar tune. Round and round the field She danced, picking up +momentum as She worked Her way toward the center. Louder and +louder She sang, the volume increasing as Her feet flew faster and +continued to spiral toward the center. Within the matter of a few +seconds, She had become a whirling dervish - dancing with such wild +abandon that the kernels of corn were loosed from their cob, flying +helter-skelter across the field! She glistened in the moonlight as +droplets of perspiration formed upon Her body, and in the frenzy of +Her dance, they too, were flung upon the Earth. Her feet and voice +reached the ultimate crescendo at the center of the corn field, and +She fell upon the ground in total exhaustion. + +All was silent. The sounds of the nocturnal creatures had been +stilled. All was enveloped in an unnatural hush - as if time +itself, had stopped. She lay on the Earth, unbreathing, unmoving, +immobile - as still as Death, itself! I stared at Her in horror, +the panic which I had forgotten, rushing back into my brain with +full force. Was She alright? Good Heavens! Was She dead?? + +Finally, I gathered my wits about me, found my feet and rushed +toward the center of the corn field, where She had fallen in +collapse. My heart beating wildly, I reached out to Her - but She +was gone! She had disappeared into the very ether! All that was +left in Her place was a single corn cob, void of its kernels - the +kernels which had flung from their resting place in the midst of +the Lady's spiral dance. + +The sun was shining hotly on my face as I rubbed my sleepy eyes +into total alertness. Where was I? This didn't feel like my bed! +What was causing this blinding light? I was soaked to the bone! +Just what the hell was happening here? Cautiously, I opened my +eyes and surveyed my surroundings. To my dismay, I was lying +smack-dab in the middle of the corn field and my head was resting +in a rather large mud puddle. Clenched tightly in my fist, like +2413 + +some precious jewel in need of protection, was a solitary corn cob. +I scrambled to my feet and tried in desperation to collect my +thoughts. What was I doing here? Had I lost my mind? + +And then...I remembered! I remembered the cornfield in the +moonlight - the Lady and the dance. I also remembered how Her +drops of perspiration had dropped to the ground in the frenzy of +Her movements. I looked at my feet and the Earth beneath them. +Joy and wonder rose in my heart. It had rained! Merciful Heavens! +It had rained - the Earth was soaked with moisture - the drought +was over! + +Gleefully, I ran through the cornfield, feeling my bare toes dig +into the wet Earth - the same Earth which had been so cracked and +dry and barren just yesterday. I ran in joy. I ran in ecstasy. I +ran in sheer celebration of the soil's return to richness - and +then, I stopped dead in my tracks. Something was amiss. Something +had changed. Something was quite unlike it had been before. +Scanning the field, I realized that it was once again covered with +delicate green mesh of newly sprouting corn! In awe, I reached +down to cradle a newly-formed sprout and as my fingers touched the +verdant green leaf, a feminine voice began to speak: + + "You were born of me! You are my child and at death you shall + return to me. Fear not of death, dear one, for within its + realm I shall bring you new life! Just as the corn lives again + - so shall it be with you! For all that falls shall rise + again, and that which dies shall be blessed with the gift of + rebirth - the gift of My love!" + +-Kalioppe- + + The Chocolate Ritual + By: Buckmeister Thu 30 Sep 93 + +Materials required: On the altar there are brown candles; a Tootsie Roll +(the great big one-as the athame); a large glass with milk in it,(the +chalice); a small dish of Nestle's Quick and a spoon; a small dish of +chocolate sprinkles; a plate of cupcakes and some Yoo-Hoo along with a +goblet. + +CLEANSE THE SACRED SPACE: + +(Take the small bowl of chocolate sprinkles) + +Chocolate sprinkles where thou art cast No calories in thy presence +last. Let no fat adhere to me And as I will So Mote It BE! + +Nestle's Quick where thou art cast Turn this milk to chocolate, fast. +Let all good things come to me, and make my milk all chocolatey! + +CAST THE CIRCLE(using a toosie roll): + +CALL THE QUARTERS: + +Mousse of the East, Fluffy one! great prince of the palace of dessert. +Be present, we pray thee, And guard this circle from all moochers +Approaching from the East. +2414 + +Fondue of the South, Molten One! Great prince of the palace decadence. +Be present we pray thee, and guard this circle from all diet Approaching +from the South. + +Cocoa of the West, Satisfying One! Great prince of the palace of thirst. +Be present we pray thee, And guard this circle from all carob Approach- +ing from the West. + +Rocky Road of the North, Cold One! Great prince of the palace of +crunchy. Be present we pray thee, And guard this circle from all cheap +imitations Approaching from the North. + +MAIN RITUAL: + +HANDMAIDEN(Henceforth known as the Swiss Miss): Listen to the words of +the Mother of Chocolate; who was of old called; Godiva, Ethel M, Sara +Lee, Nestle, Mrs. See, and by many other names: + + HPS: Whenever you have one of those cravings, once in a while and +better it be when your checkbook is full, then shall you assemble in a +great public place and bring offerings of money to the spirit of Me, who +is Queen of all Goodies. + + In the Mall shall you assemble, you who have eaten all your +chocolate and are hungry for more. To you I shall bring Good Things for +your tongue. + + And you shall be free from depression, and as a sign that you are +truly free, you shall have chocolate smears on your cheeks, and you +shall munch, nosh, snack, feast, and make yummy noises, all in my +presence. For mine is the ecstacy of phenylalanine(FEEN-EL-AL-A-NEEN), +and mine is also the Joy on Earth, yea, even into High Orbit for my law +is "Melts in your mouth, not in your hand." + + Keep clean your fingers, carry Wet Ones always, let none stop you +aside. For mine is the secret that opens your mouth, and mine is the +taste that puts a smile on your lips and comfy padding pounds on your +hips. + + I am the Gracious Goddess who gives the gift of joy unto the tummies +of men and women. Upon earth, I give knowledge of all things delicious, +and beyond death.......well, I can't do much there. Sorry about that. + + I demand only your money in sacrifice; for behold, chocolate is a +business and you have to pay for those truffles before you eat them. + + SWISS MISS: Hear now the words of the Goodie Goddess, she in the +dust of whose feet are the cheap imitations, whose body graces candy +racks and finer stores everywhere: + + I, who am the beauty of chocolate chips, and the sastifying softness +of big bars, the mystery of how they ge the filling inside of truffles, +and fill the hearts of all but Philistines with desire, call unto thy +soul to arise and come unto me. For I am the soul of candy; from me do +all confections spring, and unto me all of you shall return, again.... +and again....and again...... and again. + + Before my smeared face, beloved of Women and Men, thine innermost +2415 + +divine self shall be enfolded in the rapture of overdose. + + Let my taste be within thy mouth that rejoices. For behold, all +acts of yumminess and pleasure are my rituals. Therefore let there be +gooeyness and mess, crispness and crackling, big slabs and bite size +peices, peanut butter and chocolate covered cherries all within you. + + And you who think to seek me, know that your seeking and yearning +shall avail you not unless you know the Mystery; "We shall sell no +chocolate until you pay for it." + + For behold; I have been with you since you were just a baby, and I +am that which is attained at nearly any shop in the land. + + Messed Be. + + SWISS MISS: Hear now the words of the Chocolate God, who was called +Ghirardelli, Milton Snavely Hershey, Bosco, Fudgesicle, and by many +other names. + + HP: I am the strength of the candy rack, and the peice that fell on +the floor, but looks like it might not have gotten too dirty, and the +deepest bitterness of dark chocolate. No matter how you try to resist +the call of chocolate, I will hunt you out and I will become your sacred +prey. I am warmth of hot cocoa in the dead of winter, and the call of +the road that leads you to that really expensive Godiva store downtown. + + I give you my creatures, the fire of love of chocolate, the power of +jaw strength to bite off a piece of that frozen Milky Way bar, and the +shelter of Haagen Daz when that big date didn't work out. You are dear +to me, and I instill in you my power of a piece of chocolate that you +had forgotten you had hidden, and the power of vision and magickal sight +with which you can spot a candy counter a mile away. + + By the powers of the half melted bar in the glorious sun, I charge +you, by the darkest depths of the bottom of the cocoa pot and lingering +smell of bittersweet chocolate, I charge you, and by the beauty of a +perfectly swirled vanilla butter cream, I charge you. + + Follow your heart and your instinct, wherever they lead you. The +wealth in your pocket can buy you treats that a Mayan king would envy. +Take joy in that first bite of lecithin emulsfied cocoa, and in the last +satisfying slurp of Yoo-Hoo. Yet you must be wary of deciet. Eat not +of that which is called "Baking Chocolate" for it is vile and bitter. + + Lastly, always remember to leave some chocolate behind you. Be not +greedy, but let yourself be known as a connoisseur. Leave a little for +someone else. + + I am with you always, just over your shoulder, or around the next +corner. I am the Lord of Chocolate, and when you have reached the end of +your hoard, I will never be farther away from you that that 7-Eleven on +the corner. I am the spirit of the Wild Child; the Inner Child who can +never get quite enough. If you are a true chocolate lover, then your +soul and mine are interwined. + + CUPCAKES & YOO-HOO: + +2416 + + (The blessing of the Yoo-Hoo) + + HP: Be it known that milk chocolate is not better that dark +chocolate. + + HPS: Nor is dark chocolate better than milk chocolate. + + HP: For both are better than the falsely named "White +Chocolate." + + HPS: And neither one is carob. + + HP: As the frosting is to the cupcake. + + HPS: So the creamy nougat is to the Milky Way Bar. + + BOTH: And when they are eaten, they are yummy in truth, for there is +no greater snack in all the world than one made of chocolate. + + (The blessing of the cupcakes) + + HP: Frosting is keen, + + HPS: And the frosting is neat. + + BOTH: Great Goddess! Let's eat! + + Feasting and drinking(chocolate liquer, if possible), music and +dance. + + Dismiss Quarters. + + HPS: Oh, ye mighty goodies of the _______________, We thank you +for attending our rites and guarding our circle and ere you depart for +your sweet and sticky realms, We say unto you, "N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestles +makes the very best." + + ALL: "Chooooc-laaate." + + (After all the quarters have been dismissed, give a final, satisfy- +ing belch at the East.) + + Close circle. + + AUDIENCE WITH THE KEEPER OF WISDOM + + I sat on the cobblestone bridge, listening to the ancient song of +the rushing waters in the brook below and contemplating the day's +events. I had awakened this morning with the strange anticipation and +wariness that generally accompanies the prediction of important +occurrences in one's life. All day, I had gone about my usual routine, +waiting and watching for something out of the ordinary - but to no +avail. There had been nothing of signifance...just another normal day +filled with the dull mundanity of household chores, grocery shopping and +bill paying. Nothing more. + + I let out a heavy sigh, and turned my attention to the sheep +grazing in the lush meadow. I pondered their lives and wondered if they +2417 + +ever felt the same anticipation I had experienced this morning. I +smiled at the foolishness of my thoughts, knowing full well that the +creatures of the field were content enough in the simpleness which life +had to offer - ample food and water was all they required. No, the +peaceful flock below couldn't be bothered with such nonsense. Maybe I +should follow their lead and just turn my thoughts to the more mundane +side of life. + + Looking down at my feet as they dangled over the rushing water, I +became aware of the myriad of color that was reflected from the setting +sun. Mesmerized by the beauty of the kaleidoscopic dance, I watched +intently as the oranges, reds and purples whirled and twirled with each +other on the surface of the brook. The rich shades of the sunset +gradually faded into pastels and then, the irridescence of shimmering +silver. An owl hooted nearby, jolting me fully back into reality. +Good Goddess! Night had fallen! How long had I been there, lost in the +absurdity of human thought? Obviously much too long, from the looks of +things. + + I hurriedly scrambled to my feet, shivering as I gathered my shawl +about my shoulders. The night had turned cool and damp, and the misty +veil of fog was rolling into the valley at a rapid pace. The delicate +breeze of early day had been replaced a heavy west wind, and my hair was +whipping about my face and shoulders. Great! There was going to be a +storm, and here I was - in the middle of nowhere - likely to be caught +in it! + + As I neared the end of the bridge, I realized that it was too +late. The fog had settled into a mist so dense and heavy, that I +couldn't see my hand in front of my face. There was no use in searching +for cover, as the visibility factor was nil. Aside from that, it was +quite dangerous to wander blindly through the valley mists - even folks +who knew the valley territory very well knew better than to try it. +Several years earlier, one of the area residents had been caught in the +steamy vapors while in search of a missing lamb, and had been found +hours later - miles from the valley - still wandering about looking for +his home. I cursed under my breath as I settled back onto the bridge to +wait out the fog. + + No sooner than I'd gotten situated, the fog began to dissipate +nearly as quickly as it had descended. The wind was still blowing in +fierce gusts, but at least now, I reasoned, I should be able to find my +way home. Without another thought, I hurried across the bridge and onto +the path below. From the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the +silvery moonlight reflected on the water. Suddenly, I realized that +something was wrong - genuinely wrong! The brook had ceased to run! +Disbelieving, I rubbed my eyes and looked again. No, I wasn't seeing +things! Despite the heavy winds and the decline of its course, the +surface of the brook hadn't so much as a ripple. Goddess! The surface +was as smooth as glass! Shock! That was it - I must be in shock! I +began to conjure all sorts of excuses as to why my eyes were playing +tricks on me. + + But then...it happened! The winds began to blow from all four +directions at once, their forces concentrated at the center of the still +and lifeless brook. A bit of mist was caught up in the forces of the +gale - twirling this way and that, becoming larger in size and stronger +in density - until all at once, the winds were hushed in deathly +2418 + +silence. There She stood - a beautiful and terrible visage - atop the +glassy water. Robed and Hooded. Dark and black. Faceless. It was +She! The Devourer of Souls. The Keeper of Wisdom. She Who stirred the +Cauldron of Rebirth. The Shapeshifter. I shivered in fear and +anticipation. + + From beneath the hood, She gazed upon me with the invisible eyes +that saw all. Silently, She fixed Her eyes on mine and bade me not to +turn away. Deeper and deeper into Her eyes I went. Deeper. Deeper +still. A myriad of jewel-tone colors began to swirl in my very being - +faster, darker, brighter - until I was the color and it was me! I began +to feel ill. I knew I should turn away, but Her strength was such that +I seemed incapable of the slightest movement. Just when I thought I +would faint from terror, there was a tumultuous clap of thunder and I +realized that it was too late. Goddess! My entire being had been +consumed by Hers! + + The world began to change around me, and I found myself suddenly +back in time. I witnessed firsthand the Tale of the Taliesin - which +heretofore I had always thought a mere fairytale - and watched in horror +as the Three Drops of Wisdom flew from the Cauldron and spilled onto +Gwion Bach, imbuing him with infinite knowledge. I was taken on the +frenzied chase between Cerridwen and Gwion, and felt my mortal body +contort and twist with every shape that was shifted. As the greyhound, +I tracked the hare who was Gwion. My muscles flexed again, and I dove +into the water as the otter, chasing the salmon who just moments before, +had been the hare. Gwion then took to the sky as a sparrow, and in +flight, I swiftly pursued him as the hawk. I watched knowingly as +Gwion, thinking himself quite safe, smugly turned himself into a single +grain of wheat. And it was I, who in sorrow and pleasure, shifted into +the black hen and supped upon that grain. I felt the swell of pregnancy +and the pains of labor as I delivered the new-born babe. For the very +first time, I began to understand...*really* understand! + + Suddenly, I was once again caught up in the rapid whirl of color. +There was a blinding streak of blue-black lightning and after a moment +of excruciating pain, I was hurled forcefully from the essence of the +Goddess and back into my own! So frightening and traumatic was this +experience, I wasn't really sure whether I was alive or dead! I drew a +long breath, blinked my eyes and gingerly flexed my toes. Apparently, +I was allright and everything seemed to be working okay! I quickly +dusted myself off and got to my feet. + + We stood looking at each other - I from the bank, and She from her +realm atop the water. Unexpectedly, She opened Her hand and held it out +to me. Inside were three drops of liquid, sparkling like diamonds in +the night. She tossed Her hand to the North, and one of the drops +splashed into the water, forming a very large circle - the Circle of +Causes and Necessity. I drank of its earthy waters and tasted the +poignant flavor of lessons learned, as pieces of my life flashed before +my eyes. + + She cast a second drop to the West, and a smaller circle appeared: +The Circle of Blessedness. As I carefully sipped of its waters, my +spirit left my body and for a split second, stood on the water facing +the Wisdom Keeper before re-entering its physical realm. + + The third drop, She flung cautiously to the East. From it, too, +2419 + +a circle materialized - though much smaller than the rest: The Circle of +the Infinite. As I bent to partake of its knowledge, She stopped me +with Her upraised hand. I understood. Gently, I dipped my finger into +the waters, and for a moment saw all the knowlege that is and ever will +be! + + At that very moment, She raised Her hands skyward and Her form +shifted into that of a great red dragon. Opening Her arms, She moved +to the South and lovingly gathered all three circles to Her breast. The +winds gusted from all four directions again, their forces centered +toward the spot where She stood. I watched as She twirled furiously in +the wind and in a matter of seconds, She was gone. The winds died +quickly to a gentle breeze. The brook which had been so deathly still, +quickly burst forth with new life. All was as it had been. + + It was just after daybreak, and the promise of a new beginning was +well underway. I sat on the cobblestone bridge to contemplate with awe +and wonder the night's events. I felt exhilarated, happy and humbled +all at once! I had been visited by the She, The Stirrer of the +Cauldron. I had been devoured and rebirthed again from Her body! I was +newly alive with the mysteries she had unfolded to me! I finally +understood! I jumped up from my seat and blew a kiss to the Triple +Goddess in thanksgiving, then happily skipped across the bridge. + + As I neared the path toward home, the sheep were being let into +the meadow for their morning repast. One of them had strayed from the +flock and seemed to be coming in my direction. I walked toward him in +an effort to herd him back to the others, and as I grew near, he raised +his head and looked at me. Stroking him gently, I looked into his eyes +and saw a strange look - an odd look - a look of anticipation and +wariness. + +-Kalioppe- + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2420 + + IMBOLG RITUAL + +Two women are selected to represent the Maiden and the Crone. +the Priestess will represent the Mother. + +The members of the group should bring with them the candles which +they will use for the year for blessing. + +The altar is at the Northeast and is covered with a white cloth. +Evergreens are used as decoration. A basket filled with tiny +bundles of straw or wheat rests on the altar [there should be one +bundle for every person participating in the ritual], as well as +two (2) white candles. A black ribbon at least twelve (12) +inches in length is placed in the basket. A single white flower +tied with a white ribbon (to symbolize Bride) and the wand rest +together in front of the altar. Four (4) white candles stand +between the quarter candles. The cauldron is placed at the +South, and a white candle is situated inside. A dark colored +scarf or shawl (for the Crone) and a bouquet of flowers (for the +Maiden) are on the altar, as well as a single white taper (for +the Mother). + +Full Circle is cast. + +The two women prepare "Bride's Bed." The MAIDEN and the CRONE +pick up the flower and the wand respectively, and take them to +the center of the Circle. They place the flower and the wand +side by side in the center of the Circle, with the heads toward +the altar. They place the altar candles on either side of the +"bed" and light the candles. + +The two women and the Priestess stand around the bed and say +together three times: + + The Maiden comes to bring us light! + The Winter dies, and all is bright! + The frozen ground shall disappear - + And all shall sprout, for Spring is near! + + +The Priestess now summons the two women, and the three of them +stand in front of the altar, assuming their Triple-Goddess roles. +The MAIDEN kisses the Priestess (MOTHER) on both cheeks and hands +her a white candle. The CRONE lights the MOTHER's taper. The +CRONE stands to her left. The MAIDEN drapes the shawl over the +CRONE'S head and shoulders. The MAID stands to the MOTHER'S +right and picks up the bouquet of flowers. The PRIESTESS says: + + Behold the three-fold Goddess; + Maiden, Mother, and Crone; + She is one - yet She is three + Together and Alone + Summer comes not - without Spring + Without Summer, comes no Winter chill; + Without the Winter, Spring isn't born + The Three, life's cycles, fulfill! + +The Charge of the Goddess is then recited. After the recitation +2421 + +is finished the Priestess says: + + Now let us celebrate Imbolc! + +The MAIDEN picks up the besom and makes her way SLOWLY deosil +around the inside edges Circle, ritually sweeping it clear of all +that which is old, useless and unnecessary. MOTHER and CRONE +walk behind her in stately procession. While sweeping, the MAID +says: + + With this besom filled with power + Sweep away the old and sour + Sweep away the chill of death + As Winter draws its last cold breath + Round, round, round about + Sweep the old and useless out! + +The Maiden replaces the besom and the women resume their places +in front of the altar. The MAIDEN picks up the basket of straw +bundles and presents each member of the group with one. The +CRONE goes to the South, kneels before the cauldron and lights +the candle inside. She explains to the group that the bundles of +straw which they have been given are symbolic of Winter and +Death, but also that any negativity with which they are charged +will be burned along with it. A few moments of silence are +allowed so that each person may charge their bundle with their +own negative thoughts, habits and shortcomings. The CRONE then +collects the bundles, walking widdershins. She then ties the +bundles together with the black ribbon, lights the "community +straw man" and places him in the cauldron to burn, saying: + + Thus we melt the Winter! + And warm the breath of Spring! + We bid adieu to what is dead, + And greet each living thing. + Thus we banish Winter! + Thus we welcome Spring! + +The Rite of Cakes and Wine is appropriate at this time. All +members have libation, sit and relax and visit amongst +themselves. + +When libation is finished, the MAIDEN collects candles from the +coveners to be blessed for use during the coming year, placing +them in a basket. The basket is placed on the altar. The +PRIESTESS says: + + I bless thee creatures of wax and light + Casting out all negativity + Serve your purpose, flaming bright + Infused with magic, you shall be + + Instruments of light and strength + Wick and wax though you may be + I give you life of needed length + To aid in creativity! + + In the Names of the Lord and Lady, so mote it be! +2422 + +The candles are then redistributed to the coven members. The +Priestess says: + +As we close this celebration of Imbolg, let each of us find joy +in the power of the returning Sun! As each new day dawns and the +light of day becomes brighter and stronger, remember that your +inner light should burn as brightly. Feel the changes in the +earth around you, as the chill of Winter recedes and all sprouts +in the greeness of fresh, new life. Remember the wonder you felt +as you awakened from Maidenhood to Womanhood - from Boyhood to +Manhood. Relive the joy of that awakening and heal any emotional +scars you may have! Breathe deeply of the harmony of the Earth's +new life and and rejoice in your own! + +Dearest Bride, Maiden of all that is fresh and new, we warmly +thank you for attending our Rite of Imbolc. As this Circle is +dissolved, we ask that you guide us in our new beginnings and +inspire us with the fresh creativity that you bring to all life. + +Routine dissolution. + +Outdoor libation to the Lord and Lady. + + -Kalioppe- + 812 Courtney + Sikeston, MO 63801 +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2423 + +This ritual was written at a time when I did not have a +qualified Priest in my group. However, it may easily be adapted +for those groups in which the Priestess and Priest work +together. It may be just as easily adapted to solitary work. + + SAMHAIN RITUAL + +Place an apple and pomegranate upon the altar. There should +also be a "planted" pot of earth for each participant - these +may be arranged on the altar as well, if there is ample space. +Instruments of divination may be placed within the Circle +perimeter for use during the ritual if you wish. Arrange the +altar as usual and decorate with Autumn leaves, pumpkins, etc. + +The Circle is cast and purified the Circle in the usual manner. +Dancing around the Circle in a shuffle step (deosil), all chant +three times: + + The Moon is bright, the Crone is old + The body lifeless - the bones so cold + We all live and pay our dues + To die in ones and threes and twos. + + Death, dance and play the harp + Piercing silence in the dark + The Woman's old with withered limbs + Death beckons Her to dance with Him + + As She accepts the Dance of Death + The Earth is cooled by ghostly breath + To lie in dormancy once more + To have Her strength and life restored + +Go to the Western Quarter and draw an invoking pentagram with +the athame to open the gate. Then evoke the dead by saying: + + All ye spirits who walk this night - + Hearken! Hearken to my call! + I bid you in our Circle join! + Enter! Enter - one and all! + + Come ye, spirits of the dead: + Be ye spirit of plant or pet + Or human being who still roams! + Into this Circle you are let! + + Speak to us of things unknown! + Lend your energies to this rite! + To speed your journey, we have joined + On this sacred Samhain night! + + All ye spirits who walk this night - + Hearken! Hearken to my call! + I bid you in our Circle join! + Enter! Enter - one and all! + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2424 + +Bestow blessings upon the dead, saying: + + Oh Mighty Pan of the Summerlands: + Guardian of the beloved dead + We pour forth love on those you keep + Safely, in your peaceful stead + We bless those who have walked the path + That someday, we as well, shall rove + We offer peace unto their souls + While resting in your arms, below + +Now is the time for divination (Ouija Board, pendulum, cards, +etc.) and communication with those who have gone on before us. +Allow plenty of time for this. [Note: I have found that it is +helpful to have a tape recorder handy within the Circle for +recording any communications that may be "channeled" during this +time. Some people disagree with this suggestion, saying that +the metal of this electronic device causes scattered energies in +the Circle; however, if the recorder has been cleansed and +purified as the rest of the ritual tools, the problem seems to +be resolved.] + +When the divinatory processes are completed, the Priestess goes +to the Western Quarter and draw the banishing pentagram, saying: + + Blessings be upon thee, oh wondrous Spirits of the + Summerlands. We humbly thank thee for your presence in our + Circle and honor you in celebration this sacred night. We + beseech thee, oh Pan, keeper of the sacred dead, embrace + once again those souls within your keep and hold tightly + to your breast those which have been lost and wandering. + Grant them safe passage to the Summerland, where they may + rest peacefully in your strength until they are refreshed + and reborn again in perfect love. We bid thee all a fond + farewell. So mote it be! + +The gate is now closed. + +The Priestess goes to the altar and hold up the pomegranate, +saying: + + Behold the pomegranate, fruit of Life ... + +The athame is plunged into the pomegranate, splitting it open to +display the seeds. She says: + + Whose seeds lie in the dormancy of Death! + +The Priestess eats one of the seeds, saying: + + I Taste the seeds of Death. + +The pomegranate is then passed hand to hand through the +participants of the ritual, each eating a seed and saying to the +next person, "Taste the seeds of Death." + +The Priestess then holds up the apple, saying: + +2425 + + Behold the apple: fruit of wisdom, fruit of Death... + +She then cuts the apple crosswise, saying: + + Whose symbolism rewards us with life eternal! + +She holds up the apple, displaying the inner pentagram, and +says: + + Behold the five-fold star - the promise of rebirth! + +Consecrate the fruit and wine. Each person then tastes of the +apple and sips the wine, saying to the next person: + + Taste the fruit of rebirth and sip from the cup + of wine of Life. + +After libation, the Priestess presents each member of the group +with a small pot of earth, planted with three seeds [preferably +rue or lavendar]. She briefly explains to the group that this +is the season of the seed - it is a time of dormancy, but also a +time of re-generation for growth. Further, as the seed rests in +the earth, they should also take time to rest and re-evaluate +their lives, metaphorically planting only those values which +will enrich and enhance the growth within the Divine Self. She +then instructs them to name the seeds within their pots with +three values they wish to incorporate into their lives, knowing +that as the seeds sprout with new life, their lives will be new, +as well. + +After the presentation, all join hands and hold them skyward. + +PRIESTESS Thus is the Circle of Rebirth. + All pass from this life through the great god, Pan + But through My love you are all reborn + In the cycles of nature - through the Cosmic Plan. + + In living we die - in dying we live + The fruit is first seed, yet seed comes from the + fruit + In the mystery of life and death and rebirth + The Circle turns ever, and I am its root. + +ALL RESPOND The Sun conceived in Darkness, cold + In the Shadow of Death, a Life unfolds + A shred of Light begins to burn + From Death comes Life - the Circle turns. + +Dismiss Quarters and Dissolve Circle. + +PRIESTESS The rite is ended. + +ALL Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again! + +Outdoor libation to the Lord and Lady, and the spirits of the +dead. + + -Kalioppe- +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2426 + + A BRIEF ASSESSMENT OF NEOPAGAN THEOLOGY + (As offered by Cyprian at the Pan-Pagan Festival August, 1980 + +CREATION... + +Physicists currently interpret physical creation, that is, the +universe as we know it, as having occurred within a time span o +about three minutes...the "Big Bang." Our physical universe is +thought to have been created with the explosion of a hyper-dense +particle which contained every bit of matter and energy that now +exists in the universe, including the matter which forms our +living bodies as we meet here today. This hyper-dense super +molecule also is thought to have been quite small. Dr. Leon +Friedman, director of the FermiLab near Chicago, has indicated it +may have ben no larger than a basket ball. Into this "ball" was +jammed all matter and all energy in our universe. It remained +there until some creative force, some creative urge, disrupted +the status of this primal "egg" and set into being the universe +as we know it. this event occurred with the so-called "Big +Bang," echoes of which have been detected by scientific +instruments. + +Our interpretation of the nature of this creative force or +creative urge is opposed to that of Judeo-Christianity in that we +perceive it as feminine...they see it as masculine. We hold that +pre-creation was feminine and this divergence in concept of first +Things, creation, forever separates our Neopagan world-view from +the Judeo-Christians. Briefly consider this, and you may want to +dwell upon it later, our Goddess, of Her own will, receives Her +consort, the God whom she created, and from Their union our +creation is ever revived and sustained. The Christian reviver +and sustainer, on the other hand, was conceived in a most +singular manner. The omnipotent God sent a neuter third party +messenger, and angel, to announce to a virgin that she was +pregnant with the child, Jesus. So there. Zap! What a +put-down! What revival and sustenance can we find in such a +sterile and asexual concept? Even masculine old Zeus copulated +with human females so at least somebody got some fun out of the +process! What we Neopagans find difficult to understand is why +Judeo-Christianity so vehemently turned its back on sex and not +just sex as a physical act but also sex as a gender, +specifically, sex as a feminine gender. + +When we seek to deal with Creation we also must situate our place +as human beings within the totality of Creation. The orthodox +Judeo-Christian view gives humans a special place within +Creation; that is, that we are not part of general creation but a +special creation..."Man was created in the image of God"...and +the rest of creation is our plaything..."Yours is the earth and +everything on it." There is no need to expound upon our +rejection of these two fundamental points: of course we are not +created in any special way, any more than is a rock or a tree or +a raccoon or a galaxy, nor do we have dominion over anything. We +are a part of general creation along with every other particle of +matter in the universe. + +I hope you grasp the vast difference this makes; it forever +separates us from the Judeo-Christian heritage and it s a gulf +2427 + +that cannot be bridged. They must forever consider themselves +special and we must forever consider ourselves general and one +with creation. And it is given to us to look at a grain of sand +and in that grain see the sum total of creation and to see +ourselves as part of it and to gibe thanks for the creative force +of the Goddess and Her consort that sustains this creation. + +CHAOS... + +With Chaos, as with so many other concepts, we must think on at +least two levels, the physical and the mythical, to come to any +sort of understanding of ourselves and what we really believe +about our place in creation. And it is this belief, this +understanding that is the ultimate determination of how we live +as human beings upon this beautiful Earth. That is what we +Neopagans are trying to do right now: learn to think differently +that Western man has thought in nearly two-thousand years in +order that we may live in a renewed relationship with creation. +It is an exciting adventure. + +Before there was form, there was Chaos. We may well suppose +Chaos represents the disordered formlessness of matter and energy +in that initial "Big Bang" of the primordial egg in those first +three minutes when creation began. Mythologically, we see this +formlessness as before the Earth and Sky were separated, as +before the four elements, actually the four states of matter, had +coalesced into their separate forms. The myths speak darkly of +this time, of the births of the Titans, Cyclops and 100-handed +monsters, of a father who devours his own young...what better way +to represent Chaos! + +We may assume, too, we have our own dark and personal counterpart +to this primal Chaos. Is it that black win that whips at the +raveled edge o sanity? I believe our ancestors felt far more +keenly than we can understand in this present age a constant fear +that what order they had managed to being to their lives, indeed, +what order they could see in creation around them, would suddenly +collapse and they would be plunged into chaos and madness. Greek +myths are redolent with stories of madness and possession. Even +great Heracles fell victim. It is no wonder, then, the gods of +chaos are said to have been chained beneath the Earth, castrated, +even devoured. But they still live, they still can escape. +Brrr! + +And to some degree, escape they have from time to time. How else +can we account for the chaos of war, of a Hitler, a Napoleon, a +Viet Nam? + +Modern psychology recognizes the chaotic madness that dwells in +all of us, ever ready to pounce and destroy. We may think of it +as a chained and raging primal demi-god, that psychologists +probably use more scientific language but when that chain snaps, +the result is the same; concentration camps, starvation, and on +and on. History is too full of such dismal lists. There is no +need to go on with a recitation or horrors. + +But that does turn us at once to the next topic...the +consideration of evil. +2428 + +EVIL... + +Every religion, great and small, has had to wrestle with the +problem of evil because evil poses a fundamental question: how +can an all-omnipotent god who is all good permit evil to +exist?...and this is whether you interpret evil as some dark +malevolent Satan or whether you see it as death camps, war, +starvation or whatever. + +Judeo-Christian theologians have wrestled with the problem of +evil since the very beginnings of the Judeo-Christian faith. +When boiled down, all the more reasonable answers go something +like this: The all-powerful God permits evil to exist so that +man, who is created in God's image, may have a choice between +good and evil. Ultimately, in the Last Days, evil will be +defeated and woe betide those who made the wrong choice! At +first glance this seems satisfactory but we Neopagans cannot +accept it because it sets man apart, as being different from the +rest of creation. This is absolutely contrary to what we +believe. We hold that man is VERY MUCH a natural part of +creation and we have no special place in it. We have no more +choice between good and evil than the stars or a bumblebee. + +To the non-Pagan, then, who asks us to explain the existence of +evil we must give a two-fold reply: one, we are not special +creatures so we cannot truly know what evil is or if it even +exists; that which we perceive with our limited faculties as evil +may not be evil at all within the creative scheme. Two, our +three-fold Goddess is possessed of a dark visage, the Hag, which +we no more understand than we do the Lusting Nymph or the Loving +Mother-Creator. The Hag, the Old Woman who lays us out and +prepares our remains for the journey to the Land behind the North +Wind, is no "Satan" but an integral part of the creative process, +which we see as our three-fold Goddess. + +If we are pressed hard enough, at the end we must say a Hitler, a +Vietnam war, a starving child are all part of the creative +process although we cannot pretend to know exactly how or why. + +We must confess, too, that a statement we simply don't know and +cannot know the nature of evil is easily interpreted as a +cop-out. This is not rue in our case, though, because we do not +believe in special creation, that is, man is not a special +creature molded in the image of the Creator and sharing the +Creator's mind. No, man is simply a part of the overall creative +urge and therefore it is not given to us to know good and evil +anymore than it is to my two cat friends, Buzz and Fang. + +But the problem of what we think of as evil is not resolved by +casting it aside with a simplistic explanation we are not given +to know what it is...although we Neo-Pagans, I think, pretty +generally agree this is a true statement. But just because it is +true does not put the question to rest. There is another +approach, however, and this approach to the problem makes a lot +of ultimate sense for us Neo-Pagans. + +As stated earlier, the astro-physicists and we agree on the +probable pre-creation existence of a super-molecule or, in +2429 + +mythical terms, a "world egg." This egg exploded to create the +universe, Creation, as we know it. If we accept this cosmology, +and it makes sense with our mythos, then we must also accept the +fact there is only a finite amount of matter and energy in +creation. There can be no "new" matter or energy, only matter +and energy that have been recycled. And were not only matter and +energy re-cycled and interchanged then we would run out of matter +and energy and creation would reach a state of status wherein +matter and energy were forever locked in cold sterility. Don't +we, in fact represent this constant play-interplay of matter and +energy as the reviving and renewing union of the Goddess and Her +consort? + +Even more germane to our problem of evil; may that which we +perceive so dimly as evil actually be an essential part of this +re-cycling of matter/energy? If so, then we have the key example +of our Wiccan/Neopagan belief in BALANCE. That is, creative +forces must be balanced by destructive forces in order to +preserve the interplay between matter and energy...and we +represent this by the copulation of the Goddess and Her consort. + +Perhaps we shouldn't fear our Goddess as Hag nor run in fear when +Pan tosses his horns and roars. Perhaps dimly we can understand +life and death, construction and destruction, the coming together +and the tearing apart, are necessary to sustain Creation. + +SIN... + +The true nature of sin generally is misunderstood in Western +society and has been for many centuries...one is tempted to +suspect, by design. Sin does not involve right and wrong or good +and bad; these are moral and ethical concepts. Sin concerns +itself with man's deliberate and willful separation from God and +man's disobedience of the Law. The Law is that agreement +established between man and God: "I'll do this if you'll do +that." Although all the major religions and even the so-called +primitive religions deal with concepts which my be equated with +sin, only Christianity has developed sin to a fine art...indeed, +it may be the single pivotal idea which not only separates +Christianity from our Paganism but also from the rest of the +religious world. Obviously, the "sin and guilt" trip has paid +pretty good dividends within the Judeo-Christian heritage. But +these dividends have been garnered at a terrible, terrible price. + +We Wiccans and Neopagans may be almost alone in rejecting the +concept of sin. Yet, we must reject it if we are to follow +logically our view of creation and our place in it. Put it +together this way; can a tree sin? no, it can only be a tree; can +your cat sin? no, he can only be a cat; can a human sin? no, he +can only be a human. In other words, none of us can be wither +more or less than our creation. Now, remember what we said about +general creation. If we accept this idea of general creation, +that we are no different from the other life around us, then we +are just as incapable of true sin as the tree or the cat, we can +only be what we are...human. To accept the idea of sin means you +must also accept the idea of special creation, that our human +race is somehow special and god-like and therefore is capable of +sin, and if you think so then you are in the wrong pew. +2430 + +It seems almost blasphemous to me to think our Goddess would in +some way create us flawed and imperfect...creatures somehow able +to deny our own creation...did She create the tree imperfect, or +your cat? Then why should we be??? We are created as humans to +be humans and we should find joy in that fact, not sin. + +This is the great freedom of Wicca and Neopaganism; that we are +free of sin and its guilt trip...that we are left with the +admonition that all joy, all mirth, all pleasure are our Goddess' +rites. + +Fully stated, our Rede declares, "An' it harm none, do what thou +wilt shall be the whole of the Law." + +Law, in this usage and as we've mentioned, refers to the +relationship between Man and god and this Rede, then, is in total +keeping with our contention that man is not special creation but +has just the same relationship to divinity as does any other part +of creation. + +If you have trouble dealing with this, then you are confusing sin +and ethics. And ethics is our next topic. + +ETHICS... + +Unlike sin, which is a religious concept and which may be +considered as a constant from one age to another...that is, +willful separation from God must be the same for any time and +place...ethics involve a moral choice between what is deemed +right and wrong and with this we come to the realization that +which is right in one time and one society, is wrong in another. +Thus, the moral and ethical standards of, say, 18th century +England and 20th century America hardly are congruent despite a +common heritage. + +But it is at exactly this point that we Wiccan/Neopagans have +introduced a novel idea: a moral and ethical constant: + +"Eight words the wiccan Rede fulfill; An' it harm none, do what +ye will." + +Now, you and I are fully aware that outsiders first learning of +our Rede smirk behind their hands and conjure in their minds all +sorts of images or orgies and such. Well, I've been a Crafter +for thirty years and more, and I've yet to attend a Craft orgy. +so, if any of you are planning on throwing one, I wish you'd +invite me, and do hurry before I get too old to enjoy it! + +All of which is by way of saying the Rede is widely +misunderstood. It simply sounds too much like an unbridled +license for hedonism. Of course it is not. But to seek its true +meaning we must first go back a few centuries. + +the earliest known literary reference to our Rede, "Do what ye +will," appears in that marvelous Renaissance satire, Gargantua, +written by the French doctor-monk, Francios Rabelais, in 1534. +In Book I, a certain monk is very helpful to Gargantua in winning +a battle and Gargantua offers him several rich abbeys as reward +2431 + +but the monk rebukes Gargantua, saying, "For how shall I be able +to rule over others that have not full power and command over +myself?" The monk then asks Gargantua to found an abbey like no +other and thus is established the Abbaye de Theleme and the rule +of the order is, "Fay ce que voudras"...Do what thou wilt. And +this is no libertine license but it is an essential and +straightforward clue to our understanding of the Rede. + +The second clue to our Rede occurred during the summer of 1918 +when Aleister Crowley painted on the Hudson River cliffs south of +Kingston, New York, this slogan: + + EVERY MAN AND WOMAN IS A STAR! + DO WHAT THOU WILT + SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW + +Crowley, a man of great scholarship and magick, had recognized +the truth expressed in Rabelais and taken it a step further, +which Rabelais could not have dared. (Rabelais' printer was +burned at the stake for heresy.) + +Now, keep in min the Law refers to the relationship established +between man and his creation/divinity. All religions have this +relationship spelled out as their Law and this Law usually is +employed to establish the ethical/moral relationship relationship +between men because it is also the ethical/moral relationship +between man and God. One, then, is used to justify the other. +Thus, there was the attempt to trap Jesus between the religious +Law and the moral law but he very handily fielded the question by +answering: + +"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy +soul, and all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. +And the second is like unto it; thou shalt love thy neighbor as +thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the +Prophets." + +And as Jesus recognized a new Law so Crowley saw in Rabelais' +"Fay ce que voudras" a further interpretation of the Law and he +expressed it in red paint on the Hudson River cliffs. + +At this point is is possible, even tempting, to go off on some +very fine semantic nit-picking but that is not our purpose and it +would be counter-productive because we are simplistic +religionists and such goings on would be like trying to determine +how many elementals can dance on the point of an athame and it +would only serve to muddy some already confused thinking. +Instead, let me offer two very broad brush strokes based on the +clues already offered. If these are helpful, then I am more than +rewarded; if they are useful thinking tools, then I am twice +blessed! So here goes: + +When Gargantua's helpful monk refused the offer of rich abbeys, +saying, "For how shall I be able to rule over others that have +not full power and command over myself?" he established the first +part of our understanding of the Rede. Unless and until such +time as you are able to exert your own will over yourself, "full +power and command," then our Rede, "Do as ye will," has very +2432 + +little meaning because you can't truly will anything, and you are +no more than a plaything for every wind that blows. Hardly could +you have rule over others. Thus, the first part of the monk's +statement, "For how shall I be able to rule over others," has +within it the implicit meaning of the first part of our Rede, +"An' it harm none." what the monk is saying here is, "How can I +be responsible for someone else until I can be responsible for +myself?" It would be interesting to further press this +declaration because it stands in contradiction to some classical +Judeo-Christian concepts concerning man's responsibility to God. +And that, no doubt, is the reason Rabelais did not do it. +Remember what happened to his printer! + +However, Crowley did press the issue another step. If +self-responsibility is the Law, then Man is responsible for +himself and God is responsible for Himself. So, the interplay +between God and Man suddenly is changed; god must be God and man +must be Man. And now we are back to where we said we were in our +brief discussion of sin...Man can only be man, he can be nothing +else. But he is responsible for that. + +I hope all of us see in some way the very deep and even mystical +and certainly always constant ethical demands placed upon us by +our Rede. The Rede is demanding but it yields freedom from the +chronic guilt of the past twenty centuries. And it does not +leave us the luxury of a cop-out, be it God, Satan, Karma, Fate +or a white mule beside a red barn (the mule counts two points). + +WORLD VIEW... + +In this topic I use the term "World View" to mean how we, as +Neopagans, see the material creation around us. I know I already +have intimated a great deal about this in previous topics but +there is such a fundamental difference between us and the rest of +Western society that I believe we must deal with it more +directly. To do this, we will work from two premises: + +1. That Christianity has taught, objectively and subjectively, +material creation somehow is "bad, sinful, evil and corruptive" +as opposed to the so-called pure spiritual creation. that the +Earth, a material creation, is only a way-station toward some +higher spiritual creation, be it heaven or hell, and that this +earthly creation eventually will be destroyed come the +Millenia/Last Judgement as it must be because it is "sinful" and +corruptive of spiritual man. + +2. That Neopaganism teaches there is no division between +material and spiritual creation and neither can be considered +inherently good or bad, pure or corruptive. that the Earth is +our home, our only home, and is not some battle ground designed +to determine our future existence in a spiritual heaven or hell. + +There are deep-rooted implications behind these two differing +points of view. In the first case, because the material creation +in which we live and are "tested" is somehow inferior and sinful +and is only a way-station en route to a "higher" spiritual +creation then we are free to despise and abuse this material +creation as we see fit. "Yours is the Earth and everything in +2433 + +it." Love Canal, then, has a perfectly sound and reasonable +Judeo-Christian premise. However, in the second case, if we, as +part of general creation, abuse our Earth, we are abusing +ourselves, exactly as Love Canal had demonstrated. And we must +at the end finally admit the ecological frustration and fury of +this age is because the whimpering ecologists and the Sierra Club +have no theology to guide them...only guilt. The Judeo-Christian +trip all over again. I'm sure we stand in a much better +position. + +But don't make the mistake of thinking planetary plunder is an +invention of the 20th Century and its technology...far from it. +Man has abused his Earth since pre-historic times. Primitive +farming and herding practices are among the most destructive +ecological force know. The stripping of the Mediterranean Basin +is ample proof. So is the collapse of the one great Mayan +civilization and the fact that once heavily forested Scotland was +forced to import timber for the Baltic as early as the Middle +Ages. Indeed, we might well argue the concept of a "sinful" +material creation with its implicit license to ravage had to be +invented to excuse the earthly pillage that had been going on for +several thousand years. + +REINCARNATION... + +I sometimes refer to reincarnation as "the secret belief" because +any number of Christians have admitted to me they believe in +reincarnation as opposed to orthodox Christian teaching or had +had experiences which can only be interpreted as a reincarnitave +experience. whether these people actually understand what +reincarnation really is may be open to question. + +At the outset, then, let's establish the very essential +difference between reincarnation and resurrection, as taught in +Christian doctrine. Resurrection means at some future time, the +Millenia, the Last Judgement, etc. you will be pulled from the +grave intact in your present body and you will be in full +awareness of yourself and your previous earthly life; that is, +you will retain your personal identity. thus, with your present +body and personal identity you may be meaningfully rewarded in +Heaven or amply punished in Hell. Heaven and Hell have no +meaning and no promise or threat unless these conditions of body +and identity are met. What good would it be to punish or reward +a disembodied spirit with no knowledge of what it was being +praised or punished for? + +Our concept of reincarnation does not meet either of these +criteria. Reincarnation, unlike resurrection, does not +automatically imply ultimate survival of the physical body and +retention of personal identity. So, any discussion of a Pagan +heaven or hell is simply meaningless. + +What reincarnation says is survival of life-energy and +life-energy has no one body and no one identity. One of the best +examples to illustrate this concept of reincarnation is the later +stage of the Osiris-Horus myth. In this myth, Osiris is killed +by Seth but he is reincarnated as the child Horus and, in various +forms, the myth repeats. There is no indication Horus ever +2434 + +remembers himself as Osiris. thus it is with us, sometimes we +have a sort of "leakage" across this reincarnation insulator and, +with some exceptions, the best we ever get are only +picture-postcard glimpses of our previous life-energies. + +ESCHATOLOGY... + +Eschatology is only a fancy word for the study of "last +things"...that is, death, the Last Judgement, and so forth. For +us, eschatology must have an entirely different meaning because +we really have no "last things." We are involved in cycles, not +beginnings and endings. As Pagans we must view the entire +continuum of matter, energy, life force and even time itself as +circular. We do not see these things as a piece of string with a +beginning and an ending but as that same piece of string tied +together to form a circle...our Circle...a repeating cyclical +process. + +Although definitive physical proof still is lacking, there is a +growing belief among some astronomers and astro-physicists that +the expanding galaxies of our creation will one day stop their +head-long flight and by mutual gravitation slowly and then faster +and faster plunge back together again to form a new primal +super-molecule world egg. From there, it is only reasonable to +assume the creative urge of our Goddess once more will explode +this primordial egg to begin a fresh creation. + +And, thus, we have come full circle. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2435 + + PAGAN MUSINGS + +[Tony Kelly of the Selene Community in Wales wrote this +piece in l970. It was published in l97l in the British +edition of The Waxing Moon under the title "Pagan Movement." + Under the title "Pagan Musings" it has passed from hand to +hand and group to group all over the United States. Tony +Kelly was one of the founders of the Pagan Movement in the +British Isles, which, with the Pagan Way in the United +States, began as a single group of researchers into ancient +goddess cults. They later divided, agreeing that each +country required a different approach in bringing back +Paganism.] + +We're of the old religion, sired of Time, and born of our +beloved Earth Mother. For too long the people have trodden +a stony path that goes only onward beneath a sky that goes +only upwards. The Horned God plays in a lonely glade for +the people are scattered in this barren age and the winds +carry his plaintive notes over deserted heaths and reedy +moors and into the lonely grasses. who know now the ancient +tongue of the Moon? And who speaks still with the Goddess? +The magic of the land of Lirien and the old pagan gods have +withered in the dragons breath; the old ways of magic have +slipped into the well of the past, and only the rocks now +remember what the moon told us long ago, and what we learned +from the trees, and the voices of grasses and the scents of +flowers. + +We're pagans and we worship the pagan gods, and among the +people there are witches yet who speak with the moon and +dance with the Horned One. But a witch is a rare pagan in +these days, deep and inscrutable, recognizable only by her +own kind, by the light in her eyes and the love in her +breast, by the magic in her hands and the lilt of her tongue +and by her knowledge of the real. But the wiccan way is one +way. There are many; there are pagans the world over who +worship the Earth Mother and the Sky Father, the Rain God +and the Rainbow Goddess, the Dark One and the Hag on the +mountain, the Moon Goddess and the Little People in the +mists on the other side of the veil. A pagan is one who +worships the goddesses and gods of nature, whether by +observation or by study, whether by love or admiration, or +whether in their sacred rites with the Moon, or the great +festivals of the Sun. + +Many suns ago, as the pale dawn of reason crept across the +pagan sky, man grew out of believing in the gods. He has +yet to grow out disbelieving in them. He who splits the +Goddess on an existence-nonexistence dichotomy will earn +himself only paradoxes, for the gods are not so divided and +nor the magic lands of the Brother of Time. Does a mind +exist? Ask her and she will tell you yes, but seek her out, +and she'll elude you. She in in every place, and in no +place, and you'll see her works in all places, but herself +in none. Existence was the second-born from the Mother's +womb and contains neither the first-born, nor the unborn. +Show us your mind, and we'll show you the gods! No matter +2436 + +that you can't, for we can't show you the gods. But come +with us and the Goddess herself will be our love and the God +will call the tune. But a brass penny for your reason; for +logic is a closed ring, and the child doesn't validate the +Mother, nor the dream the dreamer. And what matter the wars +of opposites to she who has fallen in love with a whirlwind +or to the lover of the arching rainbow. + +But tell us of your Goddess as you love her, and the gods +that guide your works, and we'll listen with wonder, for to +do less would be arrogant. but we'll do more, for the heart +of man is aching for memories only half forgotten, and the +Old Ones only half unseen. We'll write the old myths as +they were always written and we'll read them on the rocks +and in the caves and in the deep of the greenwood's shade, +and we'll hear them in the rippling mountain streams and in +the rustling of the leaves, and we'll see them in the storm +clouds, and in the evening mists. We've no wish to create a +new religion for our religion is as old as the hills and +older, and we've no wish to bring differences together. +Differences are like different flowers in a meadow, and we +are all one in the Mother. + +What need is there for a pagan movement since our religion +has no teachings and we hear it in the wind and feel it in +the stones and the Moon will dance with us as she will? +There is a need. For long the Divider has been among our +people and the tribes of man are no more. The sons of the +Sky Father have all but conquered nature, but they have +poisoned her breast and the Mother is sad for the +butterflies are dying and the night draws on. A curse on +the conqueror! But not of us, for they curse themselves for +they are nature too. They have stolen our magic and sold it +to the mindbenders and the mindbenders tramp a maze that has +no outlet for they fear the real for the One who guards the +path. + +Where are the pagan shrines? And where do the people +gather? Where is the magic made? And where are the Goddess +and the Old Ones? Our shrines are in the fields and on the +mountains, in the stars and in the wind, deep in the +greenwood and on the algal rocks where two streams meet. +but the shrines are deserted, and if we gathered in the arms +of the Moon for our ancient rites to be with our gods as we +were of old, we would be stopped by the dead who now rule +the Mother's land and claim rights of ownership on the +Mother's breast, and make laws of division and frustration +for us. We can no longer gather with our gods in a public +place and the old rites of communion have been driven from +the towns and cities ever deeper into the heath where barely +a handful of heathens have remained to guard the old secrets +and enact the old rites. there is magic in the heath far +from the cold grey society, and there are islands of magic +hidden in the entrails of the metropoles behind closed +doors, but the people are few, and the barriers between us +are formidable. The old religion has become a dark way, +obscure, and hidden in the protective bosom of the night. +Thin fingers turn the pages of a book of shadows while the +2437 + +sunshine seeks in vain his worshippers in his leafy glades. + +Here, then, is the basic reason for a Pagan Movement; we +must create a pagan society wherein everyone shall be free +to worship the goddesses and gods of nature, and the +relationship between a worshipper and her gods shall be +sacred and inviolable, provided only that in her love of her +own gods, she doesn't curse the names of the gods of others. + +It's not yet our business to press the law-makers with +undivided endeavour to unmake the laws of repression and, +with the Mother's love, it may never become our business for +the stifling tides of dogmatism are at last already in ebb. +Our first work, and our greatest wish, is to come together, +to be with each other in our tribes for we haven't yet grown +from the Mother's breast to the stature of the gods. We're +of the earth, and sibs to all the children of wild nature, +born long ago in the warm mud of the ocean floor; we were +together then, and we were together in the rain forests long +before that dark day when, beguiled by the pride of the Sky +Father, and forgetful of the Mother's love, we killed her +earlier-born children and impoverished the old genetic pool. + The Red child lives yet in America; the Black Child has not +forsaken the gods; the old Australians are still with their +nature gods; the Old Ones still live deep in the heart of +Mother India, and the White Child has still a foot on the +old wiccan way, but Neanderthaler is no more and her magic +faded as the Lli and the Archan burst their banks and the +ocean flowed in to divide the Isle of Erin from the land of +the White Goddess. + +Man looked with one eye on a two-faced god when he reached +for the heavens and scorned the Earth which alone is our +life and our provider and the bosom to which we have ever +returned since the dawn of Time. He who looks only to +reason to plum the unfathomable is a fool, for logic is an +echo already implicit i the question, and it has no voice of +its own; but he is no greater fool than he who scorns logic +or derides its impotence from afar, but fears to engage in +fair combat when he stands on his opponent's threshold. +don't turn your back on Reason, for his thrust is deadly; +but confound him and he'll yield for his code of combat is +honorable. so here is more of the work of the Pagan +Movement. Our lore has become encrusted over the ages with +occult trivia and the empty vapourings of the lost. The +occult arts are in a state of extreme decadence, astrology +is in a state of disrepute and fears to confront the +statistician's sword; alien creeds oust our native arts and, +being as little understood as our own forgotten arts, are +just as futile for their lack of understanding, and more so +for their unfamiliarity. Misunderstanding is rife. +Disbelief is black on every horizon, and vampires abound on +the blood of the credulous. Our work is to reject the +trivial, the irrelevant and the erroneous, and to bring the +lost children of the Earth Mother again into the court of +the Sky Father where reason alone will avail. Belief is the +deceit of the credulous; it has no place in the heart of a +pagan. +2438 + +But while we are sad for those who are bemused by Reason, we +are deadened by those who see no further than his syllogisms +as he turns the eternal wheel of the Great Tautology. We +were not fashioned in the mathematician's computations, and +we were old when the first alchemist was a child. We have +walked in the magic forest, bewitched in the old Green +Thinks; we have seen the cauldron and the one become many +and the many in the one; we know the Silver Maid of the +moonlight and the sounds of the cloven feet. We have heard +the pipes on the twilight ferns, and we've seen the spells +of the enchantress, and Time be stilled. We've been into +eternal darkness where the Night Mare rides and rode her to +the edge of the Abyss, and beyond, and we know the dark face +of the Rising Sun. spin a spell or words and make a magic +knot; spin it on the magic loom and spin it with the gods. +Say it in the old chant and say it to the Goddess, and in +her name. Say it to a dark well and breathe it on a stone. +There are no signposts on the untrod way, but we'll make our +rituals together and bring them as our gifts to the Goddess +and her God in the great rites. Here, then, is our work in +the Pagan Movement; to make magic in the name of our gods, +to share our magic where the gods would wish it, and to come +together in our ancient festivals of birth, and life, of +death and of change in the old rhythm. We'll print the +rituals that can be shared in the written work; we'll do +all in our power to bring the people together, to teach +those who would learn, and to learn from those who can +teach. We will initiate groups, bring people to groups, and +groups to other groups in our common devotion to the goddess +and gods of nature. We will not storm the secrets of any +coven, nor profane the tools, the magic, and still less, the +gods of another. + +We'll collect the myths of the ages, of our people and of +the pagans of other lands, and we'll study the books of the +wise and we'll talk to the very young. And whatever the +pagan needs in her study, or her worship, then it is our +concern, and the Movement's business to do everything +possible to help each other in our worship of the gods we +love. + +We are committed with the lone pagan on the seashore, with +he who worships in the fastness of a mountain range or she +who sings the old chant in a lost valley far from the +metalloid road. We are committed with the wanderer, and +equally with the prisoner, disinherited from the Mother's +milk in the darkness of the industrial webs. We are +committed too with the coven, with the circular dance in the +light of the full moon, with the great festivals of the sun, +and with the gatherings of the people. We are committed to +build our temples in the towns and in the wilderness, to buy +the lands and the streams from the landowners and give them +to the Goddess for her children's use, and we'll replant the +greenwood as it was of old for love of the dryad stillness, +and for love of our children's children. + +When the streams flow clear and the winds blow pure, and the +sun never more rises unrenowned nor the moon ride in the +2439 + +skies unloved; when the stones tell of the Horned God and +the greenwood grows deep to call back her own ones, then our +work will be ended and the Pagan Movement will return to the +beloved womb of our old religion, to the nature goddesses +and gods of paganism. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2440 + --------------------------------------------------------------- + The Pit + The Lord looked askance at the Fool, who was busy making faces +behind the Lady's back. + "So, which of your Aspects have you enjoyed the most?" he said. + The Fool looked up, wiggling his ears. + "Stop that!" grinned the Lord, "I'd really like to know!" + "Well.....I suppose that it would be a toss-up between Dionysus, +Tyl Eulenspiegel, and Krishna, I guess. Tyl had a whopping good time, +Dionysus got to be pretty much drunk, mostly, and Krishna had those +sweet little milk-maids......THAT was a good time! But Coyote gets to do +most everything. I guess I like Him the best." + The Lord sat back against a tree, folded His hands, and smiled. + "Yeah, ol' Coyote gets to do everything all right...except catch +the Roadrunner," he said. + "Well," said the Fool, with a lopsided grin, "I guess I'm the +only One of Us that perpetually chases Myself!" + The Lady turned, and, Aspecting the Nymph, dropped a large +grasshopper down the Fool's back. She giggled, and ran off over the +fields of Summerland. + The Lord laughed, pounding His fists on the ground as the Fool +jumped and twisted, trying to reach the insect. + Between whoops of laughter, He said, "Did you ever figure out +what 'Updoc' was?" + "Shaddup!" said the Fool. + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + + The Fool leaned back against the brick wall of the alley and +said, "I'd like to tell you a story. It seems that a man fell into a +deep pit, and couldn't get himself out. He was in a world of hurt, and +pretty unhappy. Pretty soon, a Subjectivist type of person came along +and said, 'I feel for you down there,' but did nothing." + "An Objectivist wandered by next, and said, 'It's logical that +someone would fall down there.' But he just stood around looking too." + "A Pharisee said, 'Only bad people fall into a pit,' and put his +nose in the air and kept walking." + The Fool took a drag from his cigarette and then flipped it +expertly into a nearby puddle. Somewhere in the distance of the city a +siren wailed. + "Then, a mathematician calculated how he fell into the pit. But +all he did was calculate." + "A news reporter wanted the exclusive story on his pit, but was +too busy interviewing everyone in sight to help." + "A fanatic fundamentalist shouted, 'You deserve your pit!'" + "Then a government tax-man asked if he was paying taxes on the +pit." + "A self-pitying person then whined, 'You haven't seen anything +until you've seen MY pit!'" + "Then a Christian Scientist came by, and said, 'Just believe +that you're not in a pit.' But that didn't seem to help." He paused, and +brushed His hair back from His eyes. After looking around that those who +were listening, He continued. + "An optimist said, 'Things could be worse!' But the pessimist +disagreed, and said, 'Things -will- get worse!' " + "A Wiccan said, 'MURPHY! You &*$%^#@,' while a New Ager jumped +into the pit to share the experience." A couple of people laughed at +this, a bit nervously. + "A Baha'i looked over the edge of the pit and said, 'See the pit +2441 + +as a Spiritual Experience!' while a Moslem murmured that it was God's +Will that he was in the pit." + "A Satanist just laughed at the man in the pit and kept +walking." + "A conspiracist rubbed his hands together in glee, and said, +'-They- threw you into the pit! I -knew- it!'" + "A Jew said, 'Why are we -always- in a pit?' " + "A Communist shouted 'Why are you in the People's Pit without +permission?'" + "An Alcoholic muttered to himself, 'It's not -my- fault you're +in the pit.....' " + "A Liberal said, 'Those Conservatives must have dug this pit!'" + "A Conservative said, 'See where Liberalism has gotten you?' " + "A TV Evangelist came by and promptly took up a collection from +the bystanders." + " Then, several well-meaning people came by, and wanted to help, +but they were too busy arguing whether to throw him a ladder, or a +shovel, or to hire a helicopter with a rope ladder, or to call the fire +department or police to manage to get anything done." + "A well-known radio cult hunter said, between requests for money, +'See! Satan threw you into the pit!'" + "A doper looked blearily at him, and said, a bit incoherently, +'Far out! Got any more pit?'" + "A Hindu said that the man's karma had put him into the pit, and +a television news commentator shouted, 'Man in a pit! Why is the +government responsible?'" + But then, a Good Samaritan came along, looked at the man in the +pit and at all the others standing around pursuing their own agendas, +and said, quietly, 'Here are two shovels. Let's get you out of the +pit.'" + The Fool looked around at His listeners, grinned, and said, "He +that hath ears to hear with, let him hear." + He shoved His hands into his jacket, and walked away thru the +puddles, idly kicking at an empty beer can. + + "Pretty good!" said the Lady. + "Maybe," said the Fool, "But not up to the Sermon On The Mount." + "That one -was- one of Your best," She agreed. + "Yeah," He said, "But even then, they ignored most of it. Oh +well. Some of it caught on, at least." + "It takes a while," said the Lord, "But they -are- learning." + "Yes, they are," said the Fool, "But they have a long way to go +yet." + The Lady smiled warmly, and said, "They'll get there." + + Thus it was, and so it is, and evermore shall be so! + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + + The Lord and the Lady (and the Fool, of course) looked at the +Men and Women, and were not pleased. + "Look at that! They saw Your Sacrifice, and went and elaborated +it into some kind of magic." The Lady spoke disgustedly. "Cutting out +human hearts. Sacrificial Kings. Ritual burnings. Ritual torture. Blood +sacrifices. Cannibalism. Blood, killing and more blood! What -do- they +think they're doing?" +2442 + + "I agree it's pretty grim," said the Sacred King, "But it does +work, though in a very limited way. So....what can we do about it?" + "I know what We can do, but it will take all of Us," said the +Fool, unsmiling. "Listen up...." + As he began to explain, the faces of all Three grew grimmer and +grimmer, and sad beyond words. + + The Fool incarnated as a Child within a Woman, who was the +Mother and the Maiden. He was born in poverty, and laid in a straw bed. +He grew up in a small village in a backwater nation on the edges of a +great Empire. Some, a very few, knew Him and honored Him, seeing Him as +the Child, truly the Child of Promise, but most simply went on with +their lives, unknowing. When He was of age, He turned, and from Child +became Transformer, and He began to teach. + As Transformer, He went out on the dusty roads of the small, +conquered nation, and taught the Way of Love. Love for -all,- not just +some. He taught of the Brotherhood of Man, and of the Fatherhood of the +Lord. + He taught of the Way of Salvation: to love. To love the Diety, +and to love your neighbor, whoever he might be. + He brought a message of hope to the poor, and a warning to the +opressor. + Around Him, He assembled a small band of men and women, and +taught them His Mystery. But one was given a role to play, and the role +was Betrayer. + A man asked, "Teacher, what shall we do when those that hate us +strike us?" + And He answered, "Turn the other cheek, and let them strike you +again. Give them love in return for hate. If you must take up the sword, +then do it in great reluctance, and only after you have stepped aside +time and time again. Remember that I bring you not peace, but a sword, +for this Path will separate you from your families and friends, and your +enemies will persecute you in their ignorance." + "And forgive your enemies, and those who wrong you, that you may +put away your anger and live in love." + Another asked, "Sensei, what of the poor?" + And He answered, "The poor you shall always have with you, but +give them the tools to lift themselves out of their poverty. Clothe and +feed them, but give them the means of independence also." + "But what of the rich, then?" said a wealthy man. + "Give what you have to the poor. give them of clothing, and +food, and, more importantly, of learning, for if you feed a man, then +you have only given him one meal, but if you teach him to feed himself, +then he may eat for a lifetime, and move from the cycle of poverty and +ignorance," He said. "Lay not treasures up for yourself on earth, save +that you give of that treasure to those in need, but rather lay up +treasure in heaven, for it would be easier for a camel to pass thru a +needle's eye than for an avaricious man to leave his earthly treasure +for heaven." + A Doctor asked Him, "Healer, what of the sick?" + "Verily, let them be healed by the knowledge of man, and by +prayer," He answered, "For whatsoever you ask in prayer, if you have +faith even as small as the tiniest grain of mustard seed, what you need +will be granted you. But be wary of what you ask for, for you will get +what you need, and not always what you want." + A woman asked, "Rabbi, what of those that follow other Teach- +ers?" + And He answered, smiling, "There are many rooms in your Father's +2443 + +house, and many fields in Heaven. And I come again, and yet again, and +as there are many languages of mankind, so are there many Names for +Deity. Rejoice in it, and be glad of the diversity of Deity, and do not +hate those that call the Diety by other names, but rather weigh them by +their deeds." + And one asked of Him, "How should we pray?" + And He answered, saying, "Pray in your own fashion, as you will, +for all prayer is good. But if you wish, pray thusly:" + "Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom +come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our +daily bread, and forgive us our errors, as we forgive the errors of +others. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." + "And if you feel this prayer should be given to the Mother, then +let it be so." + And a Priest shouted, angrily, "Shall God be then female?" + And He answered, "The Deity is what It will be, not what you +make It into. You see the Diety in your own image; if you are vengeful, +then your God is vengeful. If you are full of hate, then your God is +hateful. But if you have love, then you shall know the Deity's love. +Listen, and be wise." + A child asked, "Father, how shall we know what is right, and +what is wrong?" + And He replied, "Weigh it by it's fruits. If it gives a bad +fruit, then it is wrong, but if the fruit is good, then eat of it and be +happy." + "But Brother, what of a fruit that seems to be good, yet will +poison us slowly?" asked another. + And He answered, "If a man die of it, then it is an evil fruit. +Look you to the past, see the mistakes therein, and learn therefrom. And +beware those who would lead you into error thru their own need of power +over you; leave them to the trap of their own making." + One of the Priests came to Him, a man enmeshed in legalism, and, +thinking to trap Him said, "Teacher, What is the Law?" + And He looked at the Priest and said, "Love God. Love thy +neighbor. All else is commentary, and the Law of Man. Study the holy +books of all faiths, weigh the good and the bad in each, and learn." + And the Priest went away abashed. + And a person came to Him and said, "What of magic?" + "Know that your will is that of a human, and you are not +omniscient. You cannot see all the results of your actions. Therefore +ask 'Not my will, but Thine be done' and leave the ordering of the +MultiVerse to Deity, not to human will," He replied. "Order yourself, +not the MultiVerse." + And two came to Him, and asked, "O Mahatma, We are of the same +sex, and love each other. What shall we do?" + And He looked upon them, and said, "An it harm none, do as you +will. You are all the Children of the Deity, and the Deities' Love for +you is greater than you can imagine." + A policeman asked of Him, "But what of the Laws of Man? If these +Laws of Man conflict with the Law of the Diety, what shall we do then, +Padre?" + And Transformer answered, "Listen and hear. Obey the Laws of +Man, for these Laws have power over your body. But if there is a +man-made law that is not good, then strive to change it, in peace. But +if you cannot change it, then obey it. And, if you must disobey it to +change it, then accept the judgements of Man's Law in good grace until +it is changed. But put not your trust in Rulers, and Kings and Princes, +nor in those that would lead you, be they Priest, Priestess, or any 45 +2444 + +other Office and Position, but weigh their words carefully, that their +words match their deeds, and no hypocrisy enters into them, for as your +leaders you have given them power over you. And always remember that +Man's Law is made for humanity, and not humanity for Man's Law." + And with the policeman was a woman, who had violated the Law of +Man, and had been taken for her crime. She said, "But what of me, Lord? +I am to be stoned by the crowd." + And He picked up a stone from the ground, looked at her, and +said, simply, "Let he who is without mistakes cast the first stone at +you." And He dropped His stone from His hand. + And there was a silence from the crowd, and those with stones in +their hands dropped them guiltily to the ground. + And He said to her, "Learn from your error, go in peace, and +make error no more." + And he said to those that had dropped their stones, and who were +burdened by their guilt, "Be not guilty, for guilt is but a warning from +your conscience. Be you delivered from your hell. Learn from your error, +put it from you, and err no more." + "And equally, if the tree that gives a bad fruit can be taught +to give a good fruit, then do so. But if it persist in giving bad +fruits, then leave it." + And He walked to a nearby hill, and turned to the people, and +spoke thusly: + "Blessed be those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the +kingdom of heaven." + "Blessed be those that mourn, for they shall be comforted." + "Blessed be the meek, for they shall live to inherit the earth, +long after the strong, and the proud, and the warlike have killed each +other in their pride." + "Blessed be those that hunger and thirst after the Truth, for +they shall know it." + "Blessed be the merciful, for they shall have mercy shown unto +them." + "Blessed be the pure in heart, for they shall see the Deity all +the days of their lives and after." + "Blessed be those that make peace among men, for they shall be +called the Children of the Diety." + "Blessed be those that are persecuted for the sake of the Truth, +for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." + Blessed be you, when men shall persecute you, and perjure +themselves against you, and lie about you, and say all manner of evil +against you falsely, for your reward is great indeed." + "Let your Light so shine before all humanity, that they may know +the Truth of you, and learn to live in love." +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2445 + + And he placed His hand upon the head of a dog, and said, "Your +Brothers and Sisters in fur are your Brothers and Sisters in truth. They +are in your care, and in your hands. Treat them with kindness, and that +kindness will be returned to you a thousandfold. To those that give +themselves to be eaten by you offer thanks, and be grateful to them for +your sustenance." + "Treat your Mother the earth likewise with kindness, and all the +growing things thereon will sing your praises to the Highest, and you +shall eat and drink of Her fruits, and live in joy and gladness all the +days of your lives. Little children, love one another!" + + In truth, there was much more that He taught, and much of it is +written for our study and learning, and the study of His teachings is a +good and worthy thing. But the following of His teachings is a better +thing, for He was who He said He was, and that is also a Great Mystery. + And the Betrayer spoke to Him, and said, "Renounce this Path. It +only leads to destruction. Give over to me, and I will give you +rulership of all the kingdoms of Earth." + And He gazed upon the Betrayer, and spoke, and said, "Get thee +hence, foolish one, for I have no need of earthly treasure, nor earthly +power, for all such is false, and an illusion." + And on the night that He was betrayed, during a Festival that +celebrated the conquered people's deliverance from tyranny, (and to +choose such a time and place is also a Great Mystery and a great lesson) +He took of the Sacred King, the Bread of Life, blessed and broke it, and +gave it to His followers, and said, "This is My body. Do this in +remembrance of Me." + And then he took wine, fruit of the Mother, and blessed it, and +gave it to them also, and said, "This is My blood. Do this in remembr- +ance of Me." + And Transformer was betrayed by the Betrayer, betrayed to the +legalists and the soldiers of the occupying army, accused of sedition +and taken by the Law of Man, and sentenced to die. + And they fastened Him to an instrument of torture, to kill Him +like a common criminal, with cruel jokes. + And He was hung from a Tree. + And, watching, was the Mother, and the Maiden, and the Crone, +and They all three mourned Him. + He turned, and was the Sacred King, and simultaneously the Fool +(and that is a Great Mystery indeed) and, as He died, he said, "It is +finished." And His Blood ran out upon the Earth, and worked a great +magic. + His body was buried in a tomb of rock, and the soldiers of the +occupying army guarded it. + But after three days and three nights, a greater magic was done, +and He took His body again, sitting with the Lord and the Lady, and +showed Himself to His followers, to show them that Death is not to be +feared. + And He said, "You have been bought, and redeemed, and nevermore +shall you make sacrifice of blood, for this is the Final Sacrifice for +all time, for all places, and for all those there are and were, and will +be." + "And fear not Death, for it it but a change in a MultiVerse of +changes; another turning of the wheel on a road all must travel." + And He shall come again, as He has throughout all history, +teaching the Great Truth: that we shall love the Deity, and love our +neighbor, for Love is the heart of the Law, and that Law is Love. + For He is always with us and in us all. +2446 + + "I don't -ever- want to go through that again!" + The Fool spoke vehemently, thru tears. + "I don't think you'll have to go quite -that- far the next +time," said the Lady. "They'll still play their stupid games with blood, +but not for very much longer." + "I hope not," said the Sacred King, "But do We have to put up +with that Paul fella? He's a bit of a nut-case." + "If you want it to work out right, yes," said the Lady. "He may +be a nut-case, but he'll spread the Word quickly, and, after a time, +they'll get the idea. And from that will come the seed of My future +believers." + "Sorry about that," said the Fool. "I did my best, but in such +a patriarchal society as that one was, I just couldn't make much headway +about You." + "No problem," She said. "They can deny Me all they want to, but +I'm still here." + + Thus it was, and so it is, and evermore shall be so! + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + THE SYBILLYNE TRADITION OF WICCA + by Virginia Stewart, M. Ed., TP. + + Our tradition is a moderate branch of Dianic Wicca, with +an emphasis on equality, ecology and wo/men's mysteries. The +tradition is open to women and men, over the age of 18, who +have previously identified Wicca as their path. Someone +under legal age must be accompanied by a parent and will not +be initiated until they are of legal age. + (Yes, there is a catch: few people under 21 will have +studied other religions enough to have narrowed it down this +much; therefore, a person without this study must spend at +least a year pursuing comparative religions before they will +be accepted for training.) + The subject matter that each student must master prior +to initiation is wide-ranging and intended to strengthen +knowledge and interest in a number of areas, as well as +increase the student's desire to "get involved" in the +ecological/political issues which are important to them as +individuals. This is not an exclusive tradition; one can be +an initiate of other traditions and still participate. We +have closed rituals only when the participating members +desire it. Our initiation is open to initiates of other +traditions (who would be asked to assist, no one gets to +stand around.) + Sybillynes do not have degrees, unlike Gardnerians; we +have three stages. The Novice (or WIT, coined by one student +-- it means "Witch in Training") is one who is actively +studying, but has not yet been initiated. A Sister or +Brother has been initiated and holds the title of Priestess +or Priest (there is no High Priestess or High Priest.) The +Chronicler is the one in the Coven or Circle who assumes the +responsibility for making phone calls and keeping the Book of +Shadows, but the position carries no authority. + All decisions are reached by consensus, and the rituals +are written and performed by various members of the group on +a voluntary basis (it works, it really does). After a long +period of study, in which one might specialize in a +2447 + +particular area, one is Ordained as a Priestess or Priest in +that area; for example, one might be a Teaching Priest/ess, +or a Healing Priest/ess. + To become a Novice, one must ask to be taught, then show +a sincere interest in the Craft and a willingness to study +and learn about the various areas presented. One must also +exhibit a willingness to do independent study in areas of +personal interest. + The Course of study is presented in two parts. The +first is lecture/discussion/reading -- after which the novice +must demonstrate knowledge and understanding in the following +areas: +I. Feminism and politics of Dianic craft + A. Gaia and green magic + B. balance of Male/female energies + C. power over vs. power from within +II. Feminist herstory/facts and theory + A. Origins of the Goddess + 1. prehistoric evidence + 2. early myth (China, Sumer, Ur, India, + Mesopotania, Egypt, Crete) + 3. The patriarchal shift -- + a. Theories on how it happened + b. How to read around it + i. Greek Myth + ii. Mesopotamia/Sumer + iii. Egypt + c. Modern Approaches -- overcoming + patriarchal repression + d. The God in Dianic Wicca + i. prehistory evidence/belief + ii. Modern approaches +III. Feminist interpretations on the origins of people + A. creation Myths -- world samples + B. "star" myth + C. birth/genetic engineering myth + D. the principles of myth writing +IV. Goddess and Gods in Every Person + A. Manifesting the God/dess in Everyday Life -- theory + B. Archetypal Theory and how it relates to everyday + life +V. Magic and Physics -- Why Everything is Related To + Everything + A. Holographic Universe + B. Gaia as a Living Being +VI. The Goddess and Sexuality + A. Living in our bodies is healthy + B. how patriarchy/Christianity perverted sex + C. healing the wounds of sexual oppression + D. exercises +VII. Beginning Meditation + A. purpose + B. some eventual goals + C. visualization + D. exercises +IX. Psychic gifts + A. How they have been suppressed + B. What they are +2448 + + C. How to develop them + D. Exercises +X. Festivals + A. The wheel of the Year + B. Women's festivals/men's festivals + C. Creating celebration for everyday life +XI. Ritual tools and aspects + A. Tools + B. Symbols + + + +XII. Creating Ritual + A. The Structure of a ritual + B. Creating Sacred space -- theory + C. Elements of ritual -- possibilities +XIII. Drawing a circle -- demonstration & practice + A. How to form a circle + B. What to do if something goes wrong + C. Group dynamics + + Our actual reading list is two double-columned pages, +and takes about a year to get through. This is the short +list, with which one must show a working knowledge. + +The Spiral Dance +Dreaming the Dark +Truth or Dare / Starhawk +Holy Book of Women's Mysteries / Z. Budapest +The Holographic Universe / Michael Talbot +The New Inquisition / Robert Anton Wilson +Real Magic / Issac Bonewits +When God Was A Woman +Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood / Merlin Stone +Priestesses / Norma Goodrich +Women's Encyclopedia of Sacred Symbols and +Objects / Barbara Walker +Drawing Down the Moon / Margot Adler +Iron John / Robert Bly +The Hero with A Thousand Faces / Joseph Campbell + + The second part of training focuses on ritual and +practice, as no one will be initiated until s/he can write, +perform and understand ritual; work with energy in a SAFE +way, and guide meditations for the others. The following are +the requirements for this level of training, in which one +must demonstrate proficiency. + +1. Circle Drawing +2. Healing (different types) +3. Energy Work + +4. Journey to Lower World (working with totems) +5. Astral Realms (working with place of power and spirit + guides) +6. 9 Inner Planes +7. Past Life Regression +8. Elements, Tools, and Aspects +2449 + +9. Women's Mysteries/Men's Mysteries (5 Mysteries) +10. Blessing of Tools +11. Personal Belief Systems +12. Spells and Spellwork +13. Full Ritual (writing and performing without assistance) + +Written assignments + +1. A 4-10 page paper explaining and analyzing the Wiccan Rede +and how it applies to one's personal life (Ethics are vital) + +2. A 5-10 page paper explaining one's personal belief system +(it does not conform to any particular standard, but an +initiate must have one; this is a spiritual tradition). + +3. A 5-10 page paper explaining and analyzing the 5 Mysteries +of Wicca with particular attention paid to Wo/man's +mysteries, Chalice and the Descent. + +4. A 2-5 page paper explaining the Three-Fold Goddess and Her +Relationship to the Three-Fold God. + +5. A 5-10 page paper describing one's personal ethics + +6. A Book of Shadows (to be reviewed by Teaching Priestess) +that includes major rituals, meditations, observations and +results of spell work and energy work. + + The final requirement for initiation includes the +demonstration of Ritual functions of Maiden/Mother/Crone or +Priest without written assistance; the demonstration of +ritual writing and participation in/ directing the energy in +a circle. Finally, the demonstration through daily life of a +sincere commitment to the Way of the God/dess. + The training period lasts anywhere from twenty-six weeks +to over a year and is dependent on the completion of +requirements, not number of months in training. + A Novice (WIT) will be told that they may request +Initiation when they have completed all requirements to the +satisfaction of the Teaching Priestess. They will be told +once, after that they must ask. Sybillynes do NOT recruit +members. + After Initiation, a Priest/ess may form a Circle (a +loosely organized group that performs ritual together) or a +Coven (a close-knit group with bonds of perfect love and +trust). It is suggested that Circles be formed and allowed +to evolve into Covens. + All Initiates are encouraged to become politically/ +ecologically active to whatever degree that they are able. +Each group exists as an independent organization -- the job +of a Teaching Priestess is to make herself unnecessary. +Those who desire control over a coven or absolute authority +within a coven are discouraged from attempting it within this +tradition -- the labrys, our symbol, is sharp for a reason... + We are also interested in tradition sharing, and can be +found in the Hunter's Moon camp at CMA. Inquires can be made +by leaving a message at Celebration! in Austin, or at the +Magic Cauldron in Houston, for Virginia Stewart or Howard +2450 + +Gerber (sysop of THE WHEEL BBS in Houston). + Merry Meet and Bright Blessings. + --- +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2451 + + MAIN RITUAL, UEA 20TH ANNIVERSARY + +This ritual came together in strange ways. We are indebted to +Tony Kelly of Celene Community in Wales who wrote the body of it +in a piece called "Pagan Musings" in 1973, Kenny and Tzipora for +the Wine Blessing, and Thomas Palmer of Denver for the Cakes +Blessing. The Quarters calling and dismissals were written by +Rowan Moonstone and revised by Bristlecone Glen. Devin Storm, +Harper to Bristlecone wrote the God and Goddess Invocations, the +Circle Closing, and the Crone's speech. We learned this +particular version of "We All Come From the Goddess/Hoof and +Horn" with the God verse from the Old Timers from United Earth +Assembly and the Witches' Version of " Amazing Grace" was taught +to us by Margot Adler at the America the Beautiful celebration in +Colorado Springs in July of 1993. All these various parts came +together into one of the most powerful rituals we have ever seen. + +We give it back to the community now with love and thanks. It is +our heritage and our future. We give back to the Earth that +which we have been given. + - Bristlecone Glen + +Cast: + +High Priestess +High Priest +Harper +Grey Man +Crone +Quarters Callers + +Props: + +Cauldron +Cakes & Wine +Dry Ice +Glow Sticks +Chalice +Basket +Flash Paper + +Quarters candles should be set up and lit before Circle. Altar +Candles lit. A cauldron sits in the north. In the cauldron +should be glow sticks to light it from within, a pan of dry ice, +a candle, and the chalice. The Crone sits, cloaked and hooded, +by the Cauldron. The Harper sits in the east, an empty stool +sits beside the Harper. + +Cast Circle and purify sacred space as is the custom of your +circle. + +Spirits of the East! +Air, Breath of our ancestors +Be with us in this Circle +That we may KNOW we are the children of the Gods. + +Spirits of the South! +Fire, Will of our ancestors, +2452 + +Be with us in this Circle +That we may have the WILL to claim our heritage. + +Spirits of the West! +Water, Blood of our ancestors, +Be with us in this Circle +That we may DARE to do the work of the Gods. + +Spirits of the North! +Earth, Bones of our ancestors, +Be with us in this Circle +That we may NO LONGER BE SILENT, but may meet as one in love to +do the work of the Old Ones. + +HP: Maiden bring Your Flowers + Mother, Bring Your Child + Old One bring your Wisdom + Bright Lady, Cerridwen + We welcome Thee to this Circle in Herne's name. + For we are the blush of Thy silken cheek. + We are the children You hold to Your breast. + We are the Carriers of Your ancient way. + Bright Lady, Cerridwen, Welcome! + +HPS: Hunter, bring Your prowess + Warrior, bring your skill. + Father, bring your guidance. + Ancient One, Horned Crown + We welcome Thee to this Circle in Thy Lady's name. + For we are the flight of the arrow from Thy bow. + We are the edge of the sword of Thy honor. + We are the sparks of the flame of Thy love. + Ancient One, Horned Crowned, Welcome! + +HPS: We're of the old religion, sired of Time, and born of + our beloved Earth Mother. For too long the people have + + trodden a stony path that goes only onward beneath a + sky that goes only upwards. + +HP: The Horned God plays in a lonely glade for the people + are scattered in this barren age and the winds carry + his plaintive notes over deserted heaths and reedy + moors and into the lonely grasses. + +(Grey Man raps staff on ground comes into center of Circle +unobserved by the HP/S. When he speaks, HP/S should be +startled.) + +Grey Man: Who know now the ancient tongue of the Moon? And who + speaks still with the Goddess? The magic of the land + of Lirien and the old pagan gods have withered in the + dragons breath; the old ways of magic have slipped into + the well of the past, and only the rocks now remember + what the moon told us long ago, and what we learned + from the trees, and the voices of grasses and the + scents of flowers. + +2453 + +(HP/S begin to spiral into the center of the Circle to meet the +Grey Man.) + +HP: We're pagans and we worship the pagan gods, and among + the people there are witches yet who speak with the + moon and dance with the Horned One. + +HPS: But a witch is a rare pagan in these days, deep and + inscrutable, recognizable only by their own kind, by + the light in their eyes and the love in their breasts, + by the magic in their hands and the lilt of their + tongue and by their knowledge of the real. + +HP: But the wiccan way is one way. There are many; there + are pagans the world over who worship the Earth Mother + and the Sky Father, the Rain God and the Rainbow + Goddess, the Dark One and the Hag on the mountain, the + Moon Goddess and the little People in the mists on the + other side of the veil. + + +HPS: A pagan is one who worships the goddesses and gods of + nature, whether by observation or by study, whether by + love or admiration, or whether in their sacred rites + with the Moon, or the great festivals of the Sun. + +Grey Man: Many suns ago, as the pale dawn of reason crept across + the pagan sky, man grew out of believing in THE GODS. + + +Harper: He has yet to grow out of disbelieving in them. + +Grey Man: He who splits the Goddess on an existence-nonexistence + dichotomy will earn himself only paradoxes, for the + gods are not so divided and nor the magic lands of the + Brother of Time. + +Harper: Does a mind exist? + +Grey Man: Ask her and she will tell you yes, but seek her out, + and she'll elude you. She is in every place, and in no + + place, and you'll see her works in all places, but + herself in none. Existence was the second-born from + the Mother's womb and contains neither the first-born, + nor the unborn. Show us your mind, and we'll show you + the gods! + +Harper: No matter that you can't, for we can't show you the + gods. But come with us and the Goddess herself will + be our love and the God will call the tune. + +Grey Man: But a brass penny for your reason; for logic is a + closed ring, and the child doesn't validate the Mother, + nor the dream the dreamer. (Grey Man turns to face the + seated Crone. Speaks almost as if talking to himself) + And what matter the wars of opposites to she who has + fallen in love with a whirlwind or to the lover of the +2454 + + arching rainbow. + +Harper: (To HP/S) But tell us of your Goddess as you love her, + and the gods that guide your works, and we'll listen + with wonder, for to do less would be arrogant. but + we'll do more, for the heart of man is aching for + memories only half forgotten, and the Old Ones only + half unseen. + +HP: We'll write the old myths as they were always written + and we'll read them on the rocks and in the caves and + in the deep of the greenwood's shade, and we'll hear + them in the rippling mountain streams and in the + rustling of the leaves, and we'll see them in the storm + clouds, and in the evening mists. We've no wish to + create a new religion for our religion is as old as the + hills and older, and we've no wish to bring differences + together. + +Harper: Differences are like different flowers in a meadow, and + + we are all one in the Mother. + +HPS: What need is there for a pagan movement since our + religion has no teachings and we hear it in the wind + and feel it in the stones and the Moon will dance with + us as she will? + +Harper: There is a need. For long the Divider has been among + our people and the tribes of man are no more. The sons + of the Sky Father have all but conquered nature, but + they have poisoned her breast and the Mother is sad for + the butterflies are dying and the night draws on. + +Grey Man: A curse on the conqueror! + +HP/S: But not of us! + +Harper: For they curse themselves for they are nature too. + +Grey Man: They have stolen our magic and sold it to the + mindbenders and the mindbenders tramp a maze that has + no outlet for they fear the real for the One who guards + the path. Where are the pagan shrines? And where do + the people gather? Where is the magic made? And where + are the Goddess and the Old Ones? + +HP: Our shrines are in the fields and on the mountains, in + the stars and in the wind, deep in the greenwood and on + + the algal rocks where two streams meet. But the + shrines are deserted, and if we gathered in the arms of + the Moon for our ancient rites to be with our gods as + we were of old, we would be stopped by the dead who now + rule the Mother's land and claim rights of ownership on + the Mother's breast, and make laws of division and + frustration for us. + +2455 + +HPS: We can no longer gather with our gods in a public place + + and the old rites of communion have been driven from + the towns and cities ever deeper into the heath where + barely a handful of heathens have remained to guard the + old secrets and enact the old rites. There is magic in + the heath far from the cold grey society, and there are + + islands of magic hidden in the entrails of the + metropolis behind closed doors, but the people are few, + and the barriers between us are formidable. + +HP: The old religion has become a dark way, obscure, and + hidden in the protective bosom of the night. Thin + fingers turn the pages of a book of shadows while the + sunshine seeks in vain his worshippers in his leafy + glades. + + +Harper: Here, then, is the basic reason for a Pagan Movement; + we must create a pagan society wherein everyone shall + be free to worship the goddesses and gods of nature, + and the relationship between a worshipper and their + gods shall be sacred and inviolable, provided only that + in their love of their own gods, they doesn't curse the + names of the gods of others. + +HPS: It's not yet our business to press the law-makers with + undivided endeavor to unmake the laws of repression + and, with the Mother's love, it may never become our + business for the stifling tides of dogmatism are at + last already in ebb. Our first work, and our greatest + wish, is to come together, to be with each other in our + tribes for we haven't yet grown from the Mother's + breast to the stature of the gods. + +HP: We're of the earth, and sibs to all the children of + wild nature, born long ago in the warm mud of the ocean + floor; we were together then, and we were together in + the rain forests long before that dark day when, + beguiled by the pride of the Sky Father, and forgetful + of the Mother's love, we killed her earlier-born + children and impoverished the old genetic pool. + +Grey Man: The Red child lives yet in America; the Black Child has + + not forsaken the gods; the old Australians are still + with their nature gods; the Old Ones still live deep in + the heart of Mother India, and the White Child has + still a foot on the old wiccan way, but Neanderthaler + is no more and her magic faded as the Lli and the + Archan burst their banks and the ocean flowed in to + divide the Isle of Erin from the land of the White + Goddess. Man looked with one eye on a two-faced god + when he reached for the heavens and scorned the Earth + which alone is our life and our provider and the bosom + to which we have ever returned since the dawn of Time. + +2456 + +Harper: He who looks only to reason to plum the unfathomable is + a fool, for logic is an echo already implicit in the + question, and it has no voice of its own; but he is no + greater fool than he who scorns logic or derides its + impotence from afar, but fears to engage in fair combat + when he stands on his opponent's threshold. Don't turn + your back on Reason, for his thrust is deadly; but + confound him and he'll yield for his code of combat is + honorable. So here is more of the work of the Pagan + Movement. + +HPS: Our lore has become encrusted over the ages with occult + + trivia and the empty vapourings of the lost. The + occult arts are in a state of extreme decadence, + astrology is in a state of disrepute and fears to + confront the statistician's sword; alien creeds oust + our native arts and, being as little understood as our + own forgotten arts, are just as futile for their lack + of understanding, and more so for their unfamiliarity. + +HP: Misunderstanding is rife. Disbelief is black on every + horizon, and vampires abound on the blood of the + credulous. Our work is to reject the trivial, the + irrelevant and the erroneous, and to bring the lost + children of the Earth Mother again into the court of + the Sky Father where reason alone will avail. + +Harper: Belief is the deceit of the credulous; it has no place + in the heart of a pagan. + +Grey Man: But while we are sad for those who are bemused by + Reason, we are deadened by those who see no further + than his syllogisms as he turns the eternal wheel of + the Great Tautology. + +HP: We were not fashioned in the mathematician's + computations, and we were old when the first alchemist + was a child. + +HPS: We have walked in the magic forest, bewitched in the + old Green Things; we have seen the cauldron and the one + + become many and the many in the one; we know the Silver + + Maid of the moonlight and the sounds of the cloven + feet. We have heard the pipes on the twilight ferns, + and we've seen the spells of the enchantress, and Time + be stilled. We've been into eternal darkness where + the Night Mare rides and rode her to the edge of the + Abyss, and beyond, and we know the dark face of the + Rising Sun. + +Harper: Spin a spell or words and make a magic knot; spin it on + + the magic loom and spin it with the gods. Say it in + the old chant and say it to the Goddess, and in her + name. Say it to a dark well and breathe it on a +2457 + + stone. + +HP: There are no signposts on the untrod way, + +HPS: but we'll make our rituals together and bring them as + our gifts to the Goddess and her God in the great + rites. + +(HP/S turn to Circle) + +HP: Here, then, is our work in the Pagan Movement; to make + magic in the name of our gods, to share our magic where + the gods would wish it, and to come together in our + ancient festivals of birth, and life, of death and of + change in the old rhythm. + +HPS: We'll print the rituals that can be shared in the + written work; + +HP: We'll do all in our power to bring the people together, + + to teach those who would learn, and to learn from those + + who can teach. + +HPS: We will initiate groups, bring people to groups, and + groups to other groups in our common devotion to the + goddesses and gods of nature. + +HP: We will not storm the secrets of any coven, nor profane + + the tools, the magic, and still less, the gods of + another. + +HPS: We'll collect the myths of the ages, of our people and + of the pagans of other lands, and we'll study the books + of the wise and we'll talk to the very young. + +HP: And whatever the pagan needs in their study, or their + worship, then it is our concern, and the Movement's + business to do everything possible to help each other + in our worship of the gods we love. + +HPS: We are committed with the lone pagan on the seashore, + with he who worships in the fastness of a mountain + range or she who sings the old chant in a lost valley + far from the metalloid road. + +HP: We are committed with the wanderer, and equally with + the prisoner, disinherited from the Mother's milk in + the darkness of the industrial webs. + +HPS: We are committed too with the coven, with the circular + dance in the light of the full moon, with the great + festivals of the sun, and with the gatherings of the + people. + +HP: We are committed to build our temples in the towns and +2458 + + in the wilderness, to buy the lands and the streams + from the landowners and give them to the Goddess for + her children's use, and we'll replant the greenwood as + it was of old for love of the dryad stillness, and for + love of our children's children. + +HP/S: This we will do. What will you? (At this point, HP/S + should walk around the Circle and "gather" the pledges + from those in Circle who wish to give them. + Participants should think carefully about what they + wish to pledge before the Gods in this ritual. When + all pledges are gathered, HP/S takes them to the Grey + Man) + +HPS: When the streams flow clear and the winds blow pure, + and the sun never more rises unrenowned nor the moon + ride in the skies unloved; + +HP: when the stones tell of the Horned God and the + greenwood grows deep to call back her own ones, then + our work will be ended + +HP/S: and the Pagan Movement will return to the beloved womb + of our old religion, to the nature goddesses and gods + of paganism. (Grey Man nods, receives the pledges and + palms flash powder unobtrusively. Conducts HP/S to the + Crone. Grey Man opens hands and lets paper fall on + candle. Crone pours hot water on dry ice, stands up, + throws back hood of cape) + +Crone: I have heard your call across the mountains. I have + heard your cries within the web of life and I have come + + once more. Single is the race, single of men and Gods. + + From a single source we both draw breath, but a + difference of power in everything keeps us apart. You + are the children of my heart - the light of my Soul. + And I bring with me the seeds of your ancestors that I + have kept safe for you. Like the cycle of the + seasons, I give them again that you may plant yet + again. Sow the seeds for yourselves , for your + children, and your children's children. + +(Crone hands basket of seeds to HP/S. Reaches into the well +again and draws out chalice from cauldron.) + + The chalice contains the blood of those who have died + for the crime of being different, the sweat of those + who toiled that the path of the Old Ones might survive, + and the tears of those who thought themselves alone. + The cauldron of the Gods is that of change - of turning + + evil to good, death to life. Through the power of the + Cauldron, turn the blood of death to the water of life, + turn the crime of being different to the strength of + being whole. Turn the sweat of toil to the joy of work + well done. Turn the tears of those alone to the tears +2459 + + of family reunited. The present is the balance between + the past and the future. The power lies within your + heart, within your hands. Do you have the courage? + The choice is his, the choice is hers, the choice is + yours. Can you make a difference? WILL you make a + difference? + +(Crone hands chalice to HP/S and wraps cloak around her, sitting +down once more.) + +HP/S spiral back out to the Circle. + +Chalice blessing: + +HP: Be it known that a man is not greater than a woman +HPS: Nor is woman greater than man +HP: For what one lacks +HPS: The other can provide +HP: As the athame is to the male +HPS: So is the cup to the female +HP/S: And when conjoined, they become one in truth. For + there is no greater magick in all the world than that + of love. + +Cakes Blessing: + +HPS: Be it known that death is not the end of life ... +HP: But the beginning of the cycle of rebirth. +HPS: As grain is touched by death's scythe ... +HP: And passes through fire to be reborn as bread ... +HPS: So are we reborn, passing through death into the next + life. + +(High Priest draws Invoking Pentagram over cakes with Athame, +while both say: + +HP/S: As the Earth gives its life to strengthen us, so shall + we, in death, strengthen the Earth, for life and death + together are the cycle of rebirth. + +HP/S take of cakes and wine and pass the basket and chalice to +quarters callers to take to the Circle. + +We all come from the Goddess +And to Her we shall return +Like a drop or rain +Flowing to the ocean + +We all come from the Horned One +And to Him we shall return +Like a flash of flame +Ascending to the heavens. + +Hoof and Horn +Hoof and Horn +All that dies shall be reborn +Vine and Grain +Vine and Grain +2460 + +All that falls shall rise again. + +(The chant may evolve into others such as the Isis Astarte and +corresponding God chants. Go with the flow. When all in the +Circle have partaken of cakes and wine, the chalice comes back to +the HP and HPS, who take it to the Harper. Harper eats and +drinks, takes cakes and wine to Grey Man. Grey Man eats and +drinks, takes cakes and wine to Crone, who eats, drinks, and +receives seeds and chalice again. Replaces chalice in Cauldron, +covers seeds with cloak. When HPS feels energy has built to a +peak, she calls a halt to it by raising her arms and dropping +them to her sides.) + +HP/S: Remember this night. Take the energy that has been + raised here by your sisters and brothers and put it + into your pledges. YOU ARE NOT ALONE! + +HPS: Hunter, for Your prowess + Warrior, for Your skill + Father for Your Guidance + Ancient One, Horned Crowned, + We thank you and bid you Hail and Farewell! + +HP: Maiden, for Your flowers. + Mother, for Your child. + Old One, for Your Wisdom. + Bright Lady, Cerridwen, we thank You + And bid you Hail and Farewell! + +Spirits of the North! +Earth, Body of our ancestors. +Go with us from this place +United as heirs of our ancestors. + +Spirits of the West! +Water, Blood of our ancestors. +We have the courage to dare to do the work. +Go with us from this place +United as heirs of our ancestors. + +Spirits of the South, +Fire, will of our ancestors. +We have the will to do that which we promised +Go with us from this place +United as heirs of our ancestors. + +Spirits of the East +Air, breath of our ancestors. +We KNOW that we are the children of the Gods and all one family. +Go with us from this place +United as heirs of our ancestors. + +HP draws power back up into the blade of the sword/athame and +earths the power. HP, HPS, Harper, Grey Man and Crone move into +a circle. The next five lines should be shot from person to +person, to form a pentagram: + +HPS: The Circle is Open +2461 + +HP: But not forgotten! +Harper: The Circle is unbroken. +Grey Man: Nothing is forgotten +Crone: The Circle is Free +All: Nothing is ever forgotten + +HPS, HP, Harper, Grey Man, and Crone join the larger Circle. HPS +or Harper calls out lines of Amazing Grace to the Circle as all +sing. + +Amazing Grace! How sweet the Earth +That formed a Witch like me +I once was burned, now I survive +Was hanged, but now I sing. + +Twas grace that drew down the moon +And grace that raised the sea +The magick of the people's will +Will set our Mother free! + +Amazing Grace! How sweet the Earth +That formed a Witch like me +I once was burned, but now I thrive +Was hanged but now I sing. + +HPS: Blessed Be! + + C.O.G. History +By: Michael Thorn +20 Nov 93 12:09 + + The Covenant of the Goddess is one of the largest and oldest +Wiccan religious organizations with members in North America, Europe and +Australia. Wicca, or Witchcraft is the most popular expression of the +religious movement known as Neo+Paganism, which, according to the +Institute for the Study of American Religion, is the fastest growing +religion in the United States. It practitioners are reviving ancient +Pagan practices and beliefs of pre-Christian Europe and adapting them to +contemporary life. The result is a religion that is both old and new, +both +traditional+ and creative. + + Witchcraft is a life-affirming, earth+ and nature-oriented +religion which sees all of life as sacred and interconnected, honors the +natural world as the embodiment of divinity, immanent as well as +transcendent, and experiences the divine as feminine and often as +masculine, as well. Like the spiritual world view and practices of +Native Americans and Taoists, Wiccan spiritual practices are intended to +attune humanity to the natural rhythms and cycles of the universe as a +means of personally experiencing divinity. Rituals, therefore, coincide +with the phases of the moon, the change of the seasons, solstices and +equinoxes and days which fall in between these such as May Day and +Halloween. This calendar of celebrations is referred to as the Wheel of +the Year. Most Witches consider their practice a priest/esshood, akin to +the mystery schools of classical Greece and Rome, involving years of +training and passage through life-transforming initiatory rituals. + + All Witches agree on an ethical code known as the Wiccan Rede, +"An it harm none, do what ye will," which honors the freedom of each +2462 + +individual to do what she or he believes is right, but also recognizes +the profound responsibility that none may be harmed by one+s actions. + + In the 1970+s there was a marked rise of interest in Witchcraft +not only in the United States, but throughout the world, reflecting a +growing feminist awareness and global concern for the environment. In +the Spring of 1975, a number of Wiccan elders from diverse traditions, +all sharing the idea of forming a religious organization for all +practitioners of Witchcraft, gathered to draft a "covenant" among +themselves. These representatives also drafted bylaws to administer this +new organization now known as the Covenant of the Goddess. At the 1975 +Summer Solstice, the bylaws were ratified by thirteen member congreg- +ations (or covens). The Covenant of the Goddess was incorporated +as a nonprofit religious organization on October 31st, 1975. + + The Covenant is an umbrella organization of cooperating +autonomous Witchcraft congregations with the power to confer credentials +on its qualified clergy. It fosters cooperation and mutual support among +Witches and secures for them the legal protections enjoyed by members of +other religions. The Covenant is non+hierarchical and governed by +consensus. Two-thirds of its clergy are women. + + The Covenant is coordinated by a national board of directors. +Many of its activities are conducted at the regional level by local +councils. The Covenant holds an annual national conference open to the +Wiccan community, as well as regional conferences, and publishes a +newsletter. In recent years, the Covenant has taken part in spiritual +and educational conferences, interfaith outreach, large public rituals, +environmental activism, community projects and social action, as well as +efforts to correct negative stereotypes and promote accurate media +portrayals. Its clergy perform legal marriages (handfastings), preside +at funerals and other rituals of life-transition, and provide counseling +to Witches including those in the military and in prisons. + + The Covenant also provides for the need of it members and their +families with disaster relief, health insurance, Scouting awards, +sponsorship of college and university student groups, and legal +assistance in instances of discrimination. The Covenant+s participation +in the 1993 Parliament of the World+s Religions continues its efforts to +restore the respect due to a legitimate and deeply-rooted religion, +protect and preserve the earth through its public dissemination of its +wisdom and traditions, and participate in dialogue as a contributing +member of the world+s community of faiths. + + A CHRISTIAN SPEAKS ON THE FAITH AND PATH OF WICCA + by James Clement Taylor + +I am a Christian and not a Wiccan. A Christian is one who has been +baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who has +made a personal, free-will decision to commit himself and all his or her +life to our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Both of these things +are true of me. I am a member of St. Mary's Eastern Orthodox Church, +Calhan, Colorado. In this paper, I am not speaking as agent for any +church, but I am, entirely on my own responsibility, speaking the truth +in love, as we Christians are supposed to do. + +A Situation of Strife and Shame: + +2463 + +There are many Christians today who believe that anyone who is not a +Christian is doomed to an eternity of suffering in hell. Any decent +person, believing this, would be compelled to try to save as many people +from this fate as possible. But is this belief correct? Jesus Christ, +having noted the faith and righteousness of a Roman centurion, a Pagan, +proclaimed: + + "Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, + not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come + from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and + Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the king- + dom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be + weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:10-12) + +If we accept these words as true, and surely we should, then it is clear +that heaven will contain many who are not Christians, and hell will +contain many who are! Clearly, throughout the Gospels, Jesus Christ +sets forth the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, and +those criteria include love, kindness, forgiveness, and a refusal to +judge others: + + "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly + Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive + men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive + your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15) + + "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and + with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to + you." (Matthew 7:2) + + "But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy and not + sacrifice.'" (Matthew 9:13) + + "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. + Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and + you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be for- + given." (Luke 6:36-38) + +Is it not clear? Anyone who fails in these things, will calling himself +a Christian save him? Anyone who obeys God in these things, will being +unbaptized condemn him? Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, +`Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the +will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21) + +Yet it is not by good works that we earn our way into heaven, because +there is no way we can earn the free gift of God's mercy and grace, +which alone can save us. But it is clear that it is not by faith, in +the sense of sharing the Christian faith, that we are saved, either. +The faith which saves us is not faith in the goodness of our works, nor +faith that we have the right theology and/or belong to the right church. +Rather, it is faith in God, and in His mercy: + + "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, + but of God who has mercy." (Romans 9:16) + +But the Wiccans, you will say, do not have faith in God. Yet by their +own theology, they certainly do. Those who call them Satan-worshippers +are entirely wrong. They do not worship Satan, or even believe that +2464 + +Satan exists. Instead, they worship a Goddess and a God whom they +understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity. + +Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it +should. In the Bible we find the following: + + "Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, + `Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are + very religious; for as I was passing through and con- + sidering the objects of your worship, I even found an + altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. + Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, + Him I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23) + +The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the form +of a Goddess and a God. Therefore, our Bible tells us they worship the +same God we do; and if they do not know this, we should know it! + +For those of us who are unable to simply stand on God's Word, and must +prove to themselves the truth of what it proclaims the holy Apostle John +has given us the method for doing this. You have only to attend any +public Wiccan ceremony, and test the spirits which are there, to see +"whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). You will find that, while the +power manifested there may be less than what you have experienced as a +Christian, that power is clearly the power of God. + +Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these people of Wicca have been +terribly slandered by us. They have lost jobs, and homes, and places of +business because we have assured others that they worship Satan, which +they do not. We have persecuted them, and God will hold us accountable +for this, you may be sure, for He has said, "Assuredly I say to you, +inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did +it to Me." (Matthew 25:40) + +Let us, from this point onward, repent of our misdeeds and declare that +henceforth we shall obey Christ our God, and not judge others or condemn +them, so that He will not have to judge and condemn us for our sins. + + + KILL A TREE From: Ali Katz +to the tune of "Jingle Bells": + +Dashing to the mall in a fleet of rented trucks, +a million hairless apes are out to spend some plastic bucks. +It's Christmas time again -- or maybe World War Three -- +and to keep their spirits happy now, they've got to kill a tree. + +Oh, kill a tree, kill a tree, kill a tree for Christ. +(Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, accept this sacrifice.) +Kill a tree, kill a tree, kill a tree for Christ, +not sure what we're doing, but it seems to work out nice. + + +We know we each deserve a ton or two of crap, +but to keep the goodies coming now, we've got to spill some sap, +and string electric lights, and raise the ritual star, +and bribe our friends and families to forget what jerks we are. + +2465 + +And kill a tree ... (etc.) + + +We always kill a tree. That's always been enough +for videos and GI Joes and all that kiddy stuff. +But Mommy wants a Harley, and Daddy wants a boat; +that's prob'ly gonna cost at least a chicken and a goat. + +But kill a tree ... (etc.) + + +To enhance everyone's holiday cheer, I highly recommend singing this one +at the mall. But depending on where you live, you may want to make sure +you've got a good bail bondsman's number first. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2466 + + Lord of the Ants + By: Karl Lembke + (tune: "Lord of the Dance") + + +Well we cleansed with sugar 'cause the salt was gone, +And the color was right though the substance might be wrong, +And when the water dried, it was sticky, my oh me, +It attracted all of the ants, you see, + +(chorus) + Ants, ants, all over they shall be, + I am the lord of the ants, you see. + I'll crawl on you, and you'll itch from me, + And you'll dance with ants in your pants, said he. + +We have ants in the carpets and we've ants in the drapes, +We have ants in the kitchen dancing galliards on the grapes, +We have ants in the bedroom and what may be more fun, +We have ants in our circles now from sun to sun. + +(chorus) + +'What to do' cried the priestess, 'what to do' cried the priest, +'All the baits and the sprays haven't helped us in the least, +'The buggers eat it up and it only makes us sick, +'All in all I'd say it is no pic-nic!' + +(chorus) + +We stood round the fire while the flames lept up high, +With the sound of the sirens wailing up to the sky, +Though the bug bombs exploded it could still have been worse, +At least now we're free of the ant lord's curse! + + (spoken: "Oh hell!") + +(chorus) + +...........Karl + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2467 + +It's from a Pagan version of the song CIRCLES. I'm not sure who wrote +it - I want to say a group of women in Lansing, Mich. Unfortunately, my +copy says "ANON". + + CIRCLES TUNE: WINDMILLS + +(1) In days gone by, when the world was much younger, + Men wondered at Spring, born of Winter's cold knife, + Wondering at the games of the moon and the sunlight, + They saw there the Lady and Lord of all life. + + CHORUS: Around and around, and around turns the good Earth, + All things must change as the seasons go by, + we are the children of the Lord and the Lady, + Whose mysteries we know, but will never know why. + +(2) In all lands the people were tied to the good Earth, + Plowing and sowing, as the seasons declared, + Waiting to reap of the rich golden harvest, + Knowing her laughter in the joys that we shared. + + Chorus. + +(3) Through Flanders and Wales and the green lands of Ireland, + in the kingdoms of England and Csotland and Spain, + Circles grew up all along the wild coastlines, + And worked for the land, with the Sun and the rain. + + Chorus + +(4) Circles for healing, and working the weather, + Circles for knowing the Moon and the Sun, + Circles for thanking the Lord and the Lady, + Circles for dancing the dance never done. + + Chorus + +(5) And we who reach for the stars in the heavens, + Turning our eyes from the meadows and groves, + Still live in the love of the Lord and the Lady, + The greater the circle, the more the love grows. + + Chorus twice. + +Blessed be, and keep dancing. + Keipa +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2468 + + GREAT RITE + by Vivienne West + (For J.M., commemorating Full Moon 30/1/91) + + + Still is the night, and the clock silent. + Water from somewhere drips, + A breeze moves amongst your hairs. + + The Bird, her beak poised, watches + As I caress you, child, + With an absent movement of my hands, + My mind elsewhere. + + She of the Silver Wheel + Wheeling in darkness her silver overhead + Watches more than passively + As in Her name I take you and bless you; + + And the Dark Hunter, + Jewels in His belt, + Takes you for His own, + Takes me in your flesh + His magical scabbard at His side, + Sword outraised, unutterably distant + Yet manifest here in you... + + And I, primal woman and primal queen, + Feel Her powerful darkness stirring + And shouldering me aside within my own flesh + As I call Her forth, She of the sky-castle + Spinning dizzily overhead seen unseen; + + And I stand by and watch as the Hunter fills your body + (you, no doubt, standing by and watching) + As the Dark Lady fills my body and clothed in our flesh + They mate + + (...but I did not tell you, nor did you ask + that this is the time of my greatest fertility...) + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2469 + + Ishtar, Inanna, & Ancient Astrology + By Valkyrie + +Many might be interested in some information that I came across awhile +back that might shed some light on this for you. Some may have seen +part of this already. Someone in a shamanic echo was asking about how +scorpions and spiders were related to each other in dreams, and what +meaning the scorpion had, especially in regards to an earth goddess. I +ran across a reference in one of those 'feminist revisionists'" books + and the statement was made that the Scorpion was found nearly world +wide associated with an old Mother Goddess and the constellation +Scorpio. I think it might provide some of the connections you are +looking for. + +So I found a book that wasn't cross-referenced by that author, which is +recognized in its field (astronomical history) and was surprised to find +that it wasn't an exageration. + +Richard Hinckley Allen, _Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning_, Dover +Publications, Inc., New York:1963. The book was originally published by +G.E. Stechert in 1899, under the former title: _Star-Names and Their +Meanings_. I consider this a reliable source to balance a perhaps more +"revisionist" view since it was written during a period by an expert who +probably never questioned it theologically and reported facts as facts. +Bear with me, the first part becomes significant as you go along. + +pg 360-365. + SCORPIO, or SCORPIUS, the SCORPION, + +was the reputed slayer of the Giant, exalted to the skies and now rising +from the horizon as Orion, still in fear of the Scorpion, sinks below +it; although the latter itself was in danger, --Sackville writing in his +Induction to the _Mirror of Magistrates_, in 1565. + + Whiles Scorpio, dreading Sagittarius' dart + Whose bow prest bent in flight the string had slipped + Down slid into the ocean flood apart. + +Classical authors saw in it the monster that caused the disastrous +runaway of the steeds of Phoebus Apollow when in the inexperienced hands +of Phaethon. + +For some centuries before the Christian era it was the largest of the +zodiac figures, forming with the [Greek name] it's Claws, --the +_prosectae chelae_ of Cicero, now our Libra,--a double constellation, as +Ovid wrote: + + Porrigit in spatium signorum membra duorum; + +and this figuring has been adduced as the strongest proof of Scorpio's +great antiquity, from the belief that only six constellations made up on +the earliest zodiac, of which this extended sign was one. + +With the Greeks it universally was [Greek]; Aratos, singularly making +but slight allusion to it, added [Greek]; while another very appropriate +term with Aratos was [Greek], the Great Sign. This reported magnitude +perhaps was due to the mytholgical necessity of greater size for the +slayer of great Orion, in reference to which that author characterized +2470 + +it as [Greek] 'appearing huger still.' + +The Latins occasionally wrote the word _Scorpios_, but usually +_Scorpius_, or Scorpio; while Cicero, Ennius, Manilius, and perhaps +Columella gave the kindred African title Nepa, or Nepas, the first of +which the Alfonsine Tables copy, as did Manilus the Greek adjective, +[G], Walking Backward. Astronomical writers and commentators, down to +comparatively modern times, occasionally mentioned its two division +under the combined title Sorpius cum Chelis; while some representations +even showed the Scales in the creature's Claws. + +Grotius said that the Barbarians called the Claws Graffias, and the +Latins, according to Pliny, Forficulae. + +In early China it was an important part of the figure of the mighty but +genial Azure Dragon of the EAst and of spring, in later days the +residence of the heavenly Blue Emperor; but in the time of Confucius it +was Ta Who, the Great Fire, a primeval name for its star Antares; and +Shing Kung, a Divine Temple, was applied to the stars of the tail. As +a +member of the early zodiac it was the _Hare_, for which, in the 16th +century, was substituted, from Jesuit teaching, _Tien He_, the Celestial +Scorpion. + +Sir William Drummond asserted that in the zodiac which the partriarch +Abraham knew it was an Eagle; and some commentators have located here +the biblical Chambers of the South, Scorpio being directly opposite the +Pleiades on the sphere, both thought to be mentioned in the same passage +of the _Book of Job_ with two other opposed constellations, the Bear and +Orion; but the original usually is considered a reference to the +southern heavens in general. Aben Ezra identified Sorpio, or Antares, +with the K'sil of the Hebrews; although that people generally considered +those stars as a Scorpion, their Akrabh, and, it is claimed, inscribed +it on the banners of Dan as the emblem of the tribe whose founder was 'a +serpent by the way." When thus shown it was as a _crowned Snake_ or +_Basilisk_. A similar figure appeared for it at one period of Egyptian +astronomy; indeed it is thus met with in moder times, for Chatterton, +that precocious poet of the last centruy, plainly worte of the Scorpion +in his line, " The slimy serpent swelters in his course;" and long +before him Spenser had, in the _Faeirie Queen_, " and now in Ocean deepe +Orion flying fast from hissing snake, His flaming head did hasten for to +steepe. + +But the Denderah zodiac shows the typical form. + +Kircher called the whole constellation [Gk] _Statio Isidis_, the bright +Antares having been at one time a symbol of Isis. + +The Arabians knew it as Al Akrab, the Scorpion, from which have +degenerated Alacrab, Alatrab, Alatrap, Hacrab, --Riccioli's Askrab and +Hacerab; and similarly it was the syrians' Akreva. Riccioli gave us +Acrobo _Chaldaeis_, which may be true, but in this Latin word he +probably had reference to the astrologers. + +The Persians ahd a Scorpion in their Gherzdum or Kdum, and the Turks, in +their Koirughi, Tailed, and Uzun Koirughi, Long tailed. + +The Akkadians called it Girtab, the Seizer, or Stinger, and the Place +2471 + +where One Bows Down, titles indicative of the creature's dangerous +character, although some early translators of the cuneiform text +rendered it the _Double Sword_. With later dwellers on the Euphrates it +was the symbol of darkness, showing the decline of the sun's power after +the autumnal equinox, then located in it. Always prominent in that +astronomy. Jensen thinks that it was formed there 5000 B.C., and +pictured much as it now is; perhaps also in the semi-human form of two +Scorpion-men, the early circular Altar or Lamp being shown grasped in +the Claws, as the Scales were in illustatoins of the 15th century. In +Babylonia this calendar sign was identified with the eigth month, Arakh +Savna, our October-November. + +Early India knew it as Ali, Vicrika, or Vrouchicam, --in Tamil, +Vrishman; but later on Varah Mihira siad Kaurpya, and Al Biruni, Kaurba, +both from the Greek Scorpios. On the Cingalese zodiac it was Ussika. +Dante designated it as Un Secchione, "Formed like a bucket that is all +ablaze; and in the _Purgatorio_ as Il Friddo Animal of our motto, not a +mistaken reference to the creature's nature, but to its rising in the +cold hours of the dawn when he was gazing upon it. Dante's translator +Longfellow has something similar in his own _Poet's Calendar_ for +October: On the frigid Scorpion I ride. + +Chaucer wrote of it, in the _Hous of Fame_ as the Scorpioun; his +Anglo-Norman predecessors, Escopiun; and the Anglo-Saxons, Throwend. + +Caesisu mistakenly considered it one of the Scorpions of Rehobam; but +Novidius said that it was "the scorpion or serpent whereby Pharaoh, King +of Egypt, was enforced to let the children of Israel depart out of his +country;" of which Hood said "there is no such thing in history." Other +Christians of their day changed its figure to that of the Apostle +Bartholmew; and Weigel, to a Cardinal's Hat. + +In some popular books of the present day it is the Kite, which it +resembles as much as a Scorpion. + +Its symbol is now given as [Astrological symbol], but in earlier times +the sting of the creature was added, perhaps so showing the feet, tail +and dart; but the similarity in their symbols may indicate that there +has been some intimate connection, now forgotten, between Scorpio and +the formerly adjacent Virgo. + +Ampelius assigned to it the care of Africus, the Southwest Wind, a duty +which, he said, Aries and Sagittarius shared; and the weather-wise of +antiquity thought that its setting exerted a malignant influence, and +was accompanied by storms; but the alchemists held it in high regard, +for only when the sun was in this sign could the transmutation of iron +into gold be performed. Astrologers, on the other hand, although they +considered it a fruitful sign, "active and eminent," knew it as the +accursed constellation, the baleful source of war and discord, the +birthplace of the planet mars, and so the House of Mars, the Martis +Sidus of Manilus. But this was located in the sting and tail; the +claws, as [Gk] Jugum, or the Yoke of the Balance, being devoted to +Venus, because this goddess united persons under the yoke of matrimony. +It was supposed to govern the region of the groin in the human body and +to reign over Judaea, Mauritania, Catalonia, Norway, West Silesia, Upper +Batavia, Barbary, Morocco, Valencia, and Messina; the early Manilius +claiming it as the tutelary sign of Carthage, Libya, Egypt, Sardinia, +and other island of the Italian coast. Brown was its assigned color, +2472 + +and Pliny asserted that the appearance of a comet hre portended a plague +of reptiles and insects, especially of locusts. + +Although nominally in the zodiac, the sun actually occupies but nine +days in passing through the two portions that project upwards into +Orhiuchus, so far south of the ecliptic is it; indeed, except for these +projections, it could not be claimed as a member of the zodiac. + +Scorpon is famous as the region of the sky where have appeared many of +the brilliant temporary stars, chief among them, perhaps, that of 134 +BC., the first in astronmical annals, and the occasion, Pliny siad of +the catalogue of Hipparchos, about 125 BC. The Chinese She Ke confirmed +this appearance by its record of the "strange star" in June of that +year, in the sieu Fang, marked by [.....] and others in Scorpio. +Serviss thinks it conceivable that the strange outburst of these novae +in and near Scorpio may have had some effect in causing this +constellation to be regarded by the ancients as malign in its influence. +But this character may, with at least equal probablity, have come from +the fiery color of its _lucida_, as well as from the history of the +constellation in connection with Orion, and the poisonous attributes of +its earthly namesake. + +In southern latitudes Scorpio is magnificently seen in its entirety, +nearly 45 degrees,--Gould catolguing in it 184 naked-eye stars. + +Along its northern border, perhaps in Orphiuchus, there was, in very +early days, a constellation, the Fox, taken from the Egyptian sphere of +Petosiris, but we know nothing as to its details. + +"Antares" The Ariabians Kalb al Akrab, the Scorpion's Heart, which +probably preceded the [Gk] and Cor Scorpii of Greece and Rome +respectively. + + -=*=- + +In Buffie Johnson's _Lady of the Beasts_ (Harper, San Francisco, 1981) +pgs 332-335, there are illustrations and photos of statuatary and +pottery which show the representation of the Scorpion Goddess, as +Selket, a woman with the lower torso taking the shape of a scorpion wiht +a raised tail. On her head is the "horned" headdress with the disk +between the horns,the horns and sun disk of Isis. (New Kingdom 1570-332 +bce). A Stamp seal showing two scorpions protecting the rosette of the +goddess Inanna, from Sumer, ca 3300 bce, and a statue of Selket wearing +a scorpion on her head, as well as a drawing from Ur, ca 2400 bce +showing the goddess giving birth guarded by scorpions. + +In the _Book of the Dead_ seven scorpions accompany Isis, when her son +Horus was bitten by one scorpion of the most deadly species, her +scorpion friends saved her son out of love for her...and bit the son of +a woman who had refused to help, then with her magic, Isis then saved +the bitten boy. (A classic shamanism motif(. Selket is shown as +beneficial when associated with Isis, and it is possible that the +"other" woman is Isis's dark aspect. + +Selket symbolizes resurrection into a new life beyond earthly existence. +"Gathering the setting sun into her outstretched arms she becomes the +link between the living and the dead and helps the dead accomodate +themselves to their new land. In another aspect, Selket isunited with +2473 + +Sirius, as a consequence the star if placed in her crown." (ibid. p. +334) Johnson also compares Chamunda, the scorpion deity of the central +Indian tradition with the other scorpion goddess with the endowment of +poison which indicates her connection with death and rebirth. + +"The Scorpion expresses the vital spirit in humans which, transformed, +becomes the divine pneuma. One of its symbols is the scorpion which +stings itself to death (E. A. Wallis Budge, _The Gods of the Egyptians_ +vol. 2 (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1969), 377-78. + +"The association between serpent and scorpion, both sudden and dangerous +stingers, appears in the Babylonina and Greek astrological sign of +Scorpio, which corresponds to the Ctyptian sign of the autumn equinox, +the serpent. In esoteric traditions, the scorpion is recognized as a +spiritual insect rhough its gift of self-immolation and rebirth. The +venom of the scorpion is said to contain its own antidote." + +the Scorpion as the dual Mother, the one who gave birth to and then +"swallowed" the divine son (sun) is found in Egyptian myth as the +Scorpion which killed Horus, sending him to his midwinter death and +resurrection as his Mother Isis gave him rebirth. Spirits of the four +points of the year were called Sons of Horus and placed as small images +on the pharoah's tombs...a man, bull, lion and scorpion or +serpent...which seem to have become the four angels of the Apocalypse. + +Istar, Babylonian, "Star" was the Great Goddess who appears as +Ashtoreth, Anath, Asherah. She was refered to as the Great Whore, and +described in Revelation 17:5 as Babylon the Great, the Mother of +Harlots. Another of her titles was the Goddess Har, who called herself +the compassionate prostitute. + +Interestingly enough, in the Voluspa there is mention of the Hall of +Har, where Gullveig was mentioned as being, who was "held up by spears" +and who supposedly started the war between the Vanir and the Aesir by +being attacked in the hall of Har...which is usually translated as +Odin. There might be a better explanation, now that I think of +it... I wonder how I missed that before. + +Anyway, Ishtar was also called in Bablyonian prayers: The Light of the +World, Leader of Hosts, Opener of the Womb, Righteous Judge, Lawgiver, +Goddess of Goddesses (Vanadis?), Bestower of Strength, Framer of all +Decrees, Lady of Victory, Forgiver of Sins, among many other 'kennings'. +Other sources suggest Ishtar was the same Great Goddess as Dea Syria, +Astarte, Cybelle, Aphrodite, Kore, Mari, Mari-Ana and others. +Preceding her though were supposedly the Sumerian Goddess Inanna, who +rescued and/or gave birth to Dumuzi her sacred son/lover just as Ishtar +did with Tammuz. Correlating to both was the Egyptian goddess Isis, who +was the "Oldest of the Old," and the "Goddess from whom all becoming +Arose," and her title was the same as the Queen Mother of Egypt's. + +Apuleius, a Roman philosopher, poet and Isis-worshipper, addressed her +under several goddess names: For the Phrygians that are the first of +all men call me the Mother of the gods of Pessinus; the Athenians, which +are sprung from their own soil, Cecropian Minerva; the Cyprians, which +are girt about by the sea, Pahphian Venus; the Cretans, which bear +arrows, Dictynian Diana; the Sicilians, which speak three tongues, +infernal Proserpine; the Eleusinians, their ancient goddess Ceres; some +Juno, others Bellona, others Hecate, others Ramnusie...the Egyptians, +2474 + +skilled in ancient lore, worship me with proper ceremonies and call me +by my true name, Queen Isis. (Richard Knight, _the Symbolical Language +of Ancient Art and Mythology_. New YOrk: J.W. Bouton, 1892.) + +Isis/Nephthys was, or were, the Egyptian version of the +creating-and-destroying Goddess, who were also typified as "weeping +goddesses." And with other goddesses of this type were known as +Guardians and Keepers of the Dead, and with the power over life and +death, and healing. They can be found in shamanic traditions the world +over as the Underworld deity and as the Lady of the Beasts. + + +[Gk] _Statio Isidis_, the bright Antares having been at one time a +symbol of Isis. + +This part becomes particularly interesting to me, since the Isidis is +very similar to a term used for a particular group of ladies, comparable +to the Disir of the Norse tradition, the OHG 'itis' or OE "ides" meaning +applied to earthly women, but also used in kennings as 'goddess.' As a +term for 'woman' it also has the meaning of 'virgin'. + +The worship of the Disir occured during the winter nights. And +interesting correlation that could be made is that the Celtic and the +Norse "winter" rites both involve some of the same archtypes and +ceremonies, especially the duality of life and death and the door being +open and "unguarded" at that time. The Wild Hunt Motif would be a +defining factor here, including both the Dark Mother and the Lord of +Death. The disir had two appearances, bright (swans feathers) and black +(raven or crow feathers)...they were psychopomps, and hardly +distinguishable from valkyrie at times. In the Wild Hunt they were +accompanied by various Gods, Herne, Woden and others in various +traditions and countries. + + Mazes in Myth + Valkyrie + +I've been working with the labyrinth myths and stories myself. And there +is another version or way of viewing the Maiden at the center of the +labyrinth that I thought you might be interested in. The maze/labyrinth +theme is central not only to the Celtic legends, but the Norse and +others besides European. In some of the turf/snow games still played +with the 'classical' unicursal labyrinth the Maiden at the center is +guarded or held by a troll. + +In the symbolic analysis of the hero rescuing the maiden from the +labyrinth there is the concept of the hero going through a rebirth +process and recapturing the feminine, intuitive side of his nature +(according to folks who like to do this sort of thing). In many of the +later Grail stories, the hero soon abandons the feminine, rejecting it. +Those that don't are the ones who remained with the old faith, with the +"abandoning" ones the ones who rejected the feminine and went with the +male dominant religion of Christianity. + +The maze can be interchangeable with a dragon or serpent in the same +sort of stories as meaning basically the same thing, since the labyrinth +is a symbol of a descent and ascent of death and rebirth through the +Earth Mother. Old Anglo-Saxon castles were guarded by mounds of earth +with basically the same name as dragon. At the center of the Underworld +2475 + +maze is also found the castle and the Cauldron of Regeneration or +Plenty. + +Women undergoing the traditional challenge and initiation comprable to +the Underground journey, were "given" to the trolls. The trolls, being +the underground guardians (and not the nasty demons Tolkein and other +Christians made them out to be...just ask any Swede) taught the girl +secrets as she "served" in the Underworld, in many legends for Frau +Holle, who has many well-known counterparts, including Hel, Annwyn, +Hecate and others. This is a fairly well known theme in fairy tales +also, but not as well recognized as being an initiatory story as the +Heroic journeys are. + +In many Northern folktales, a girl is "given" to the trolls, or +abandoned in the woods. In some stories she with her brother, in others +she is alone, and the hunter is told to kill her. This journey into the +wilderness is the beginning of her wandering through the maze. Or in +some of the stories she is taken to a castle and beset with tasks that +she must accomplish in order to "marry" the king or prince. She spins +straw into gold with the help of the trolls, dwarfs or gnomes, all names +for the Underworld beings who guard the fertility of the Upperworld. +The spinning of straw into gold is the power of insuring the crops come +to fruitful harvest as the grass winds through the season to gold. She +is usually set three tasks by either the King who will marry her, or the +Queen Mother of the Prince. + +When she accomplishes the tasks set for her, she "claims" the masculine +side of herself and "marries" or becomes united with her masculine side. + +The story is told in different ways, but the journey to the center of +the labyrinth/maze is form of the Spiral Dance of life and death. One +of the themes that is found in conjunction with these stories are the +ones that have the "poison" apple in them. The apple was a symbol of +life and rebirth for many ancient cultures. Apples were associated with +the Roman/Etruscan goddess Pomona, the Greek Hera, Demeter, Morgan in +her Crone form in Celtic legends, and Holle or Hel in Norse and Germanic +legends. Idunn was the Maiden form of Holle or Hel, who kept the apples +of immortality in a basket. In the Volsung Saga it tells of the belief +that a man could be perserved in death by the apples given to him by his +wife. In other legends children are conceived after eating a magical +apple. When the Bible was translated, the apple of life and death was +found in the Garden of Idunn. + +The Apple, Rose and Hawthorn are all members of the same family. The +Hawthorne, especially as a hedge or protective enclosure is found with +the maze, either protecting it, or actually forming the walls. They are +sacred trees/plants, the first to begin blooming in the spring. The +Hawthorn is especially sacred because it can have blossoms, ripe fruit +and ripening fruit on it at all times, as well as protective thorns. + +I'm posting from the Seattle, Washington area of the United States. + +Blessings +V +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2476 + +By: Deborah Kest +To: Rose Dawn +Re: PAGAN SEMANTICS + +RD> OK, having some more thoughts about this. If there is/are one/two +RD> original 'creators,' the system would still be polytheistic if the +RD> original(s) created a bunch of gods/demi-gods and cut 'em loose so +RD> to speak--not assigning them roles in the grand scheme of the +RD> original(s)? If so, what would be a counter-example--something like +RD> Yahweh & Son and the angelic hosts? I think I'm following you, it's +RD> just a bitch to put into words, LOL! + + It's hard to imagine an original creator with a grand scheme who would + "cut 'em loose." + + "Well, yes, I have this plan, you see. And things are going pretty + well according to plan. But this demi-god was supposed to be in charge + of the dinosaurs, and he really doesn't do his job very well. So I'm + afraid I'm going to have to fire him, and let him shift for himself." + + Just an extra force in the universe, which doesn't really play any role + at all in the "grand scheme?" This would be rather contradictory if + the Grand Poo-Ba were omnipotent and omniscient, for if he wanted + things to work according to plan, he would always have the power to + make them work. + + But, much to my distress, I taught Neoplatonism in my sections this + week. One of my students, (the only one who has displayed a mystical + bent), has been to section every single time, and I was relying on him + to defend the Neoplatonists. Figures this would be the only time he + oversleeps. + + The reason the Neoplatonists bother me so much is that they do have the + different levels of reality schtick, with The One, aka "The Good" at + the top of the ladder. Because the cause is greater than the effect, + (the first premise which I don't accept), The One emanates from itself + the next level of reality, Intellect. (I still don't understand how + something which is in no way differentiated, entirely uniform, could + cause anything. After all, isn't causation a process involving some + sort of differentiation?) But, anyway, like the sun emanates the + halos around it without diminishing itself, or without being anything + other than what it is, so too does The One have great fecundity and + emanates Intellect. Intellect is still unified, as a mind thinking + upon itself. But insofar as it can have thoughts, it has + differentiation within its unity. Intellect is the act of unifying. + All of the things it thinks on are Platonic Forms, like Beauty, which + unify all of the particular instances (of beauty) in our world, (and + all other worlds which the World-Soul spins). But Intellect doesn't + think of the particular, it thinks only of true Beauty, true Justice, + etc. It is not separate from all of these forms, so the way it thinks + is from the perspective of each form onto all of the other forms. So + from Beauty it contemplates Justice and Equality, and from Justice it + contemplates Beauty, etc. + + Well, somehow in all of this pure thinking on itself, it too emanates + another less perfect level of reality, which is Soul, explained as the + higher Soul, or World-Soul, and the lower Soul, or our souls. The + World-Soul is less fertile than the level before, so it can't manage +2477 + +to produce real babies, but "less real" babies, imitations of the Forms +in the mind of Intellect. So it spins all of the myriads of combina +tions of Forms, aka our world. + + This process of causality, where the effect is always inferior to that + which causes it, continues down to the point where no causality is + possible any more. This point is Prime Matter, which has no form left + at all. As something approaches Prime Matter, it is less and less + formed, less and less intelligible. Something is ugly not because it + partakes in a form of ugliness, but because it does not partake in the + form of beauty at all. This breakdown of order is responsible for what + we call evil. According to Plotinus Prime Matter *is* Evil. + + This would suggest that either The Good is responsible for Evil, or + there is more than one principle in the universe, which would deny the + premise on which The One is based. The way they try to weasel out of + this problem is by saying that Prime Matter is the least real of all, + or that it isn't real. That doesn't mean that evil doesn't exist, but + it exists because of holes, which are in themselves nothing-ness. It's + like Swiss cheese. Swiss cheese has holes, but the holes are in + themselves not anything. You wouldn't say that Swiss cheese is made +up of cheese and holes, but that there are places in the cheese which + simply lack cheese. Holes can't make up anything. So too Prime Matter + can't cause anything. + + Well, anyway, the reason I laid the skeleton of the system out is + because Neoplatonism would seem to be a system whose first cause was + The One, and who followed necessarily according to a single principle, + to produce a manifold which is, in a sense, independent of its + "creator." But though there is order, there isn't a divine plan, in + that The One can't have any goals. It just emanates from itself, from + which all else is derived. The manifold is independent of The One + because it isn't itself The One. While there are unifying principles + which can only be derived from Unity itself, because they are not + perfectly uniform, they are not part of The One. The One can't have + parts!!! + + So, are they monotheists, (The One), duo-theists, (The One and Prime + Matter), polytheists, (all of the levels of the hierarchy of reality, + which includes levels of spirits which I didn't spell out), or all of + the above? One could argue for all of the options, since The One is + responsible for all, (but then where does matter, the building stuff +of our world, come from, if by itself it is evil), and since the +efficient causes of every phenomenon we experience comes from the +lower deities, not The One itself. + + If I *had* to accept such a system, (which I don't feel myself obliged + to accept at all, since the arguments which Plotinus and Proclus give + are terribly flawed), I would be inclined to favor polytheism, since + even though The One is the first principle, not everything is + incorporated into The One. In fact nothing is, since that would + violate its Unity. So, The One is sort of off by itself, just + emanating, while the efficient cause of our world is the World Soul, + and all of the levels of spirits can have their hand in our pie. It's + my understanding that the Neoplatonic hierarchy of spirits is what much + of magic is still based on today. Their nature isn't determined by The + One, except insofar as they are caused by The One and this process of + diminishing causation, which makes them worse than that which caused +2478 + + them. They have more unity than we do, being higher up the chain, but + less than The One. So while they couldn't do terribly disunified + things, they can still do somewhat disunified things, and thus aren't + determined. If they aren't determined by The One, then they are powers + unto themselves, and the ones which actually do stuff which matters to + us. + + > Well, the "specific group" would be neo-pagans, of course. But then + > the argument is circular, and I'm not surprised that you would be + > confused. I think there is such a thing as neo-pagans. They are + > defined, more or less, by a few distinguishing traits: polytheism, + > feminist spirituality, environmental spirituality, and belief in/use +of + > magic. (This would be my starting list). (Again, none of the +traits + > are either necessary or sufficient, except *maybe* polytheism, as + > sufficient, but not necessary.) So, if we start with the foundation +of + > neo-pagans, then their reclamation would be of religions which +resemble + > that which they seek. + RD> + RD> OK. It still sounds a little tautological to me! I definitely also + RD> think there is such a thing as neo-pagans, but the major identifier + RD> for me personally is that they define their religion *as* neo-pag- +an, + RD> which is also tautological... oh hell, my head hurts. Reminds me of +a + RD> local GLAAD meeting a while back; roundtable discussion, topic: +What + RD> Is A Lesbian? (After much discussion, the answer everyone agreed on + RD> was 'Anyone who says she is.') + + I think the way to get out of the tautology is to differentiate between + the questions "what are they" and "how are they identified." My + foundation was that there *is* such a thing as a Neopagan, and I gave +a + rough description/definition. Your challenge was that *is* is + dependant on *what we know to be the case*. If our knowledge is + dependant on their self-identification as a Neopagan, we are back in + the circle again. I'd like to break the circle by claiming that *is* + is not dependant on what we know to be the case. There are Neopagans, + separate from the issue of identification of Neopagans. The issue of + identification is important for different purposes, but not to the + purpose of whether there are Neopagans. + + If we break the circle, and give rough starting definitions, then the + reclamations would be of those religions which have traits which would + fit those starting definitions. This means that if just anyone found + something appealing from ancient times, and worked to reclaim it, it + wouldn't automatically get the label "Pagan." The "just anyone" would + have to fit the rough starting definition, or convince the rest of us + to include them in a revised definition, before they would count as + Neopagans, and their reclamation count as "Pagan." Furthermore, if a + Neopagan wanted to reclaim something which had nothing to do with + religion, that wouldn't count as Pagan either. + + RD> Hmm, I don't think I was looking at it in terms of counting them as +2479 + + RD> pagans. I seem to recall you'd questioned whether Hinduism had + RD> features that neo-pagans would find desireable, + + Yes, but I had made the argument that the fact that they wouldn't apply + the word to themselves wasn't sufficient to prove that we shouldn't + apply the word to them, if they had the features which we thought of +as Pagan. Since the purpose of our discussion is to better understand +our own word, we are concerned with whether, as we use it, it fits +them, whether they use it or not. + + RD> and I was pointing out + RD> the beliefs/practices of different denominations that might be + RD> attractive to various neo-Pagan religions. But yes, I'd say the + RD> argument against counting them as Pagans is pretty much spot-on. +RD> If not originally a neo-Pagan word, it definitely *was* a western +RD> word, no? As to the second, I hadn't even considered it & it's an + RD> interesting point. I wouldn't say it was an argument in favor of + RD> counting them as Pagan, but there's a lot of truth in it! + + Why isn't it an argument in favor of counting them as Pagan? If the + major things which we use to define Paganism we share with them, and +if their sects are closer to some of our "sects" than the sects of each + respective religion (understood loosely) are to each other, why not? + The Anglo - Saxon Rune Poem + By: Steph Parker + +Anyway, here is the Anglo-Saxon Rune poem. The OE version is in West +Saxon though the spelling hasn't been regulised (though I'm using the +standard 'ae' for 'ash' and 'th' for 'thorn' and 'eth'). The transla- +tion will be Anthony E. Farnham's from A Sourcebook in the History of +English as it's much too late for me to bother doing my own and I'll be +too busy over the next few days. + +Where the number '7' appears that is the Old English equivalent of the +ampersand (&) and should be read as 'and' or 'ond'. + +One last point - the poem here has not been proofread so there is a +chance that there are errors in the transcription (particularly with +ommission of the letter 'e' as there is a slight problem with my +keyboard). + + +Feoh byth frofur fira gehwylcum - +sceal theah manna gehwylc miclun hyt daelan +gif he wile for drihtne domes hleotan. + +(Wealth is a joy to every man - + but every man must share it well + if he wish to gain glory in the sight of the Lord.) + +Ur byth anmod 7 oferhyrned, +felafrecne deor, feohteth mid hornum, +maere morstapa: thaet is modiy wuht! + +(Aurochs is fierce, with gigantic horns, + a very savage animal, it fights with horns, + a well-known moor-stepper: it is a creature of courage!) + +2480 + +THorn byth thearle scearp, thegna gehwylcum +anfeng ys yfyl, ungemetun rethe +manna gehwylcun the him mid resteth. + +(Thorn is very sharp, harmful to every man + who seizes it, unsuitably severe + to every man who rests on it.) + +Os byth ordfruma aelcre spraece, +wisdomes wrathu and witena frofur +and eorla gehwam eadnys and tohiht. + +(Os is the creator of all speech, + a supporter of wisdom and comfort of wise men, + and a blessing aand hope to every man.) + +Rad byth on recyde rinca gehwylcum +sefte, and swithhwaet tham the sitteth onufan +meare maegenheardum ofer milpathas. + +(Journey is to every warrior in the hall + pleasant, and bitingly tough to him who sits + on a might steed over the mile-paths.) + +Cen byth cwicera gehwam cuth on fyre, +blac and beorhtlic, byrneth oftust +thaer hi aethelingas inne restath. + +(Torch is to every living thing known by its fire; + bright and brilliant, it burns most often + where the princes take their rest within.) + +Gyfu gumena byth gleng and herenys, +wrathu 7 wyrthscype, 7 wraecna gehwam +ar and aetwist the byth othra leas. + +(Generosity of men is an ornament and praise, + support and dignity, magnificence and existence + to every suffering man, who is otherwise destitute.) + +Wenne bruceth the can weana lyt, +sares and sorge, and him sylfa haefth +blaed 7 blysse and eac byrga geniht. + +(Joy he possesses who knows few woes, + pain and sorrow, and has for himself + prosperity and bliss, and also the abundance found in the fortified +dwellings of men.) + +Haegl byth hwitust corna, hwyrft hit of heofones lyfte, +wealcath hit windes scura, weortheth hit to waetere syththan. + +(Hail is the whitest of seeds, it comes down from the air of heaven, + the gusts of wind toss it about, afterward it turns to water.) + +Nyd byth nearu on breostan: weortheth hi theah oft nitha bearnum +to helpe and to haele gehwaethre, gif hi his hlystath aeror. + +2481 + +(Necessity is oppressive to the heart: yet it often becomes for the +children of men a help and salvation for each, if they have hearkened +unto it.) + +Is byth oferceald, ungemetum slidor, +glisnath glaeshluttur gimmum gelicust, +flor forste geworuht, faeger ansyne. + +(Ice is extremely cold, excessively slippery, + it glistens glass-clear, most like to gems, + it is a floor wrought by frost, fair of sight.) + +Ger byth gumena hiht, thon God laeteth, +halig heofones cyning, hrusan syllan +beorhte bleda beornum and thearfum. + +(Year (the growing season) is the hope of men, when God, + holy king of heaven, causes the earth to give forth + shining fruits to wealthy and to needy.) + +Eoh byth utan unsmethe treow, +heard hrusan faest, hyrde fyres, +wyrtrumun underwrethyd, wynn on ethle. + +(Yew is a tree with unsmooth bark, + hard and fast in the earth, keeper of fire, + supported by roots, a joy in the land.) + +Peorth byth symble plega and hlehter +wlancum [and wisum], thar wigan sittath +on beorsele blithe aetsomne. + +(Peorth is always sport and laughter + to the noble [and the wise], where men sit + together in merriment in the mead-hall.) + +Eolhx secg eard haefth oftust on fenne, +wexeth on wature, wundath grimme, +blode breneth beorna gehwylcne +the him aenigne onfeng gedeth. + +(Eolhx-sedge has its home most often in the marsh, + it grows in the water, wounds cruelly, + darkens with blood every man + who touches it in any way.) + +Sigel semannum symble bith on hihte, +thonn hi hine feriath ofer fisces beth, +oth hi brimhengest bringeth to lande. + +(Sun is always a hope to seamen, + when they guide the sea-steed over the fish's bath + until it carries them to land.) + +Tir bith tacna sum: healdeth trywa wel +with aethelingas, a bith on faerylde +ofer nihta genipu, naefre swiceth. + +2482 + +(Tir is a sign to remember: it holds faith well + with princes, is always on course + above the mists of the nights, it never wanders or deceives.) + +Beorc byth bleda leas, bereth efne swa theah +tanas butan tudder, bith on telgum wlitig, +heah on helme hrysted faegere, +geloden leafum, lyfte getenge. + +(Birch (referring to the poplar?) is seedless, yet without fruit it +nevertheless + puts forth sprouts; it is beautiful with its branches, + lofty in its crown, fairly adorned, + sprung from shoots, pressing aloft.) + +Eh byth for eorlum aethelinga wyn, +hors hofum wlanc, thar him haelethe ymb +welege on wicgum wrixlath spraece, +7 bith unstyllum aefre frofur. + +(Horse in the presence of warriors is a joy to princes, + a steed proud of its hoofs, where mounted men + and wealthy exchange speech about him, + and is ever a joy to the restless.) + +Man byth on myrgthe his magan leof - +sceal theah anra gehwylc othrum swican; +fortham Dryhten wyle dome sine +thaet earme flaesc eorthan betaecan. + +(Man in merriment is beloved of his fellow - + yet shall every one betray the other; + for this reason God wills by his decree + that the unhappy flesh be committed to the earth.) + +Lagu byth leodum langsum gethuht, +gif hi sculun nethan on nacan tealtum +7hi saeytha swythe bregath +and se brimhengest bridles ne gymeth. + +(Sea is to men a thing which seems everlasting, + if they must dare to venture on the unsteady and untrustorthy ship + and the sea-waves greatly terrify them + and the sea-steed cares not for its bridle.) + +Ing waes aerest mid Eastdenum +gesewen secgun, oth he siththan est +ofer waeg gewat; waen aefter ran. +THus Heardingas thone haele nemdun. + +(Ing was first among the East-Danes + visible to men, until he later eastward + departed over the sea; his chariot followed him. + Thus did the Heardings invoke that hero.) + +AEthel byth oferleof aeghwylcum men, +gif he mot thaer rigtes and gerysena on +brucan on bolde bleadum oftast. +2483 + +(Homeland is most precious to every man, + if he may therein enjoy justice and courtesies + in his house, in frequent and abundant prosperity.) + +Daeg byth Drihtnes sond, deore mannum, +maere Metodes leoht, myrgth and tohiht +eadgum and earmum, eallum brice. + +(Day is the envoy of the Lord, dear to men, + the great light of God, happiness and hope + to blessed and to miserable, an enjoyment for all.) + +Ac byth on eorthan elda bearnum +flaesces fodor, fereth gelome +ofer ganotes baeth: garsecg fandath +hwaether ac haebbe aethele treowe. + +(Oak is for the children of men on earth + a provider of meat (acorns are food for swine); it journeys +continually + over the bath of the gannet: Neptune the spearman proves + if the oak keep faith in honorable fashion.) + +AEsc bith oferheah, eldum dyre, +stith on stathule, stede rihte hylt +theah him feohtan on firas monige. + +(Ash (used for spears) is very tall, precious to men, + stubborn in standing, holds its place well + even though many men attack it.) + +Yr byth aethelinga 7 eorla gehwaes +wyn and wyrthmynd, byth on wicge faeger, +faestlic on faerelde, fyrdgeatewa sum. + +(Yr is for every prince and noble + a joy and an hononr, it is fair on a horse, + dependable on an expedition, a fine piece of military equipage.) + +Ior byth eafixa, and theah a bruceth +fodres on foldan; hafath faegerne eard, +waetre beworpen, thaer he wynnum leofath. + +(Ior is of the river-fish, and yet always partakes + of food on land; it has a fair home, + surrounded by water, where it dwells in joy.) + +Ear byth egle eorla gehwylcun +thonn faestlice flaesc onginneth +hraw colian, hrusan ceosan +blac to gebeddan: bleda gedreosath, +wynna gewitath, wera geswicath. + +(Earth is loathsome to every man + when relentlessly the flesh, the carrion body, + begins to cool, lividly to accept marriage + to its fellow dust: blossoms fall, + joys pass away, friendships fail.) +2484 + +Wyrd wes eower weard. +Steph. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2485 + +Traditional Aboriginal myth, which was printed in Web of Wyrd #10 + +Back in the Dreamtime, Gidja the Moon lived by the river with the +Bullanji people. They made fun of him, because he was round and fat, +with little stringy legs and arms. Gidja loved Yalma, the Evening Star, +but she laughed at him too. So Gidja made a magic circle of stones, and +at dusk every night, sat in his circle and sang of his love for Yalma. +He made so many songs! So, Yalma agreed to marry him and the Bullanji +people held corroboree for them. Now Yalma had a baby daughter - Lilga, +the Morning Star. Lilga would go hunting with her father, Gidja. One +day, while gathering honey, a limb fell off a tree and crushed Lilga, so +she died. This was the first time that anyone had ever died. Poor Gidja +mourned his daughter, but the Bullanji people were afraid, and blamed +Gidja for bringing death to the world. When Gidja carried his little +Morning Star in her coffin over the river, some men cut the ropes +holding the bridge, and he fell into the river. The coffin drifted out +to sea, and today, you can still see little Morning Star shining out at +sea. Gidja climed out of the river, and made a fire. He carried a +bright burning brand from the fire, and walked through the forest. The +people saw him and were afraid. The they saw it was Gidja, and were +angry. They tried to kill him, but couldn't, so they picked him up and +threw him up into the sky. As he rose up, he cursed the people, and said +they would all die, and remain dead. But he, and the grass, would die, +and would come back to new life. And so it is. Gidja grows fatter and +fatter, and then fades away like a little old man. Lilga though, shines +brightly. Just like he said, Gidja comes back to life. At dusk on the +third day after he dies, you can see him again, floating like a baby's +cradle, waiting to start again. + + Christmas Customs + by Rick Hayward + +Now that Christmas is fast approaching and the year has once +more come full circle, most of us will soon be busy adorning the +house with brightly coloured decorations, a Christmas tree and +all the other paraphernalia that goes to create a festive atmosphere. + +Holly and mistletoe will almost certainly be included in our +decorations as evergreens have been used in the winter festivities +from very ancient times and definitely long before Christianity +appeared on the scene. + +What Christians celebrate as the birthday of Christ is really +something that was superimposed on to a much earlier pagan +festival--that which celebrated the Winter Solstice or the time when +the Sun reaches its lowest point south and is reborn at the +beginning of a new cycle of seasons. + +In Northern Europe and Scandinavia it was noted by the early +Christian scholar, Bede, that the heathens began the year on +December 25th which they called Mother's Night in honour of the +great Earth Mother. Their celebrations were held in order to +ensure fertility and abundance during the coming year, and these +included much feasting, burning of lamps, lighting of great fires (the +Yule fires) and exchanges of gifts. + +The Romans, too, held their great celebrations--Saturnalia-- +from December 17th to 25th and it was the latter date which they +2486 + +honoured as the birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The Saturnalia +was characterised by much merry-making, sometimes going to +riotous extremes, with masters and slaves temporarily exchanging +roles. The use of evergreens to decorate the streets and houses +was also very much in evidence at this great winter festival. + +That we now celebrate the birth of Christ at the same time is largely +due to the early Church Fathers who found it was much easier to +win converts to the faith by makng Christ's birthday coincide with an +already long established pagan festival. In fact, it wasn't until the +4th century that Pope Julius I finally established the 25th as the +official birthday of Christ; earlier Christians differed widely as to +this date-- some choosing September 29th, while others held that January +6th or March 29th were the correct dates. + +As we have seen, the pagan element in Christmas lives on in the +festival at the Winter Solstice. But these elements are also very much +alive in our use of evergreens as decorations at this time of year. + +Like most evergreens, the holly and mistletoe have long been held +to symbolise eternal life, regeneration and rebirth. + +Holly, with its bright red berries and dark spiky foliage, has been +revered from ancient times as a symbol of life everlasting. It was +associated with strength and masculinity and was considered +useful in the treatment of various ailments which were seen to lower +the vital spirits. + +In old England, a decoction of holly leaves was considered a cure +for worms; but most of all this prickly evergreen was looked upon +as a luck bringer--particularly in rural areas where a bunch of holly +hung in the cow shed or stable was thought to favour the animals if +placed there on Christmas Eve. Many people used to take a piece of +holly from the church decorations at Christmas as a charm against bad +luck in the coming year. Holly was also considered a very protective +tree which, if planted outside the house, was believed to avert +lightning, fire and the evil spells of witches. + +An old holly spell describes how to know one's future spouse. At +midnight on a Friday, nine holly leaves must be plucked and tied +with nine knots in a three-cornered cloth. This is then placed under the +pillow and, provided silence is observed from the time of plucking +until dawn the next day, your future spouse will come to you in your +dreams. + +In certain areas of Wales, it was thought extremely unlucky to bring +holly into the house before December 24th and if you did so +there would be family quarrels and domestic upheavals. You would +also be inviting disaster if you burned green holly or squashed the +red berries. + +Turning now to mistletoe, it seems that this is by far the most +mystical of the plants associated with Christmas and has, from very +ancient times, been treated as magical or sacred. It is often +included in modern Christmas decorations simply for the fun of +kissing beneath it and, though this seems to be a peculiarly English +custom, it probably harks back to the mistletoe's association with +fertility. +2487 + + +The real reason why mistletoe is now associated with Christmas is +very much a carry-over from ancient practices, when it was +considered as somehow belonging to the gods. The Roman historian, +Pliny, gives an early account of how the Druids would hold a very +solemn ceremony at the Winter Solstice when the mistletoe had to +be gathered, for the Druids looked upon this unusual plant, which has +no roots in the earth, as being of divine origin or produced by +lightning. Mistletoe which grew on the oak was considered especially +potent in magical virtues, for it was the oak that the Druids held as +sacred to the gods. + +At the Winter Solstice, the Druids would lead a procession into +the forest and, on finding the sacred plant growing on an oak, the +chief priest, dressed all in white, would climb the tree and cut the +mistletoe with a knife or sickle made of gold. The mistletoe was +not allowed to touch the ground and was therefore caught in a white +linen cloth. + +On securing the sacred mistletoe, the Druids would then carry it to +their temple where it would be laid beneath the altar stone for three +days. Early on the fourth day, which would correspond to our +Christmas Day, it was taken out, chopped into pieces and handed +out among the worshippers. The berries were used by the priests to +heal various diseases. + +Mistletoe was considered something of a universal panacea, as can +be gleaned from the ancient celtic word for it--uile, which literally +translated means 'all-healer'. A widespread belief was that +mistletoe could cure anything from headaches to epilepsy; and indeed +modern research has shown that the drug guipsine which is used in +the treatment of nervous illnesses and high blood pressure is con- +tained in mistletoe. + +Until quite recently the rural folk of Sweden and Switzerland +believed that the mistletoe could only be picked at certain times and +in a special way if its full potency as healer and protector was to be +secured. The Sun must be in Sagittarius (close to the Winter +Solstice) and the Moon must be on the wane and, following ancient +practices, the mistletoe must not be just picked but shot or knocked +down and caught before reaching the ground. + +Not only was mistletoe looked upon as a healer of all ills, but if +hung around the house was believed to protect the home +against fire and other hazards. As the mistletoe was supposed to have +been produced by lightning, it had the power to protect the home +against thunder bolts by a kind of sympathetic magic. + +Of great importance, however, was the power of mistletoe to protect +against witchcraft and sorcery. This is evident in an old superstition +which holds that a sprig of mistletoe placed beneath the pillow will +avert nightmares (once considered to be the product of evil demons). + +In the north of England, it used to be the practice of farmers to give +mistletoe to the first cow that calved after New Year's Day. This was +believed to ensure health to the stock and a good milk yield +throughout the year. Underlying this old belief is the fear of witches +or mischievous fairy folk who could play havoc with dairy produce, so +2488 + +here mistletoe was used as a counter magic against such evil +influences. In Sweden, too, a bunch of this magical plant hung +from the living room ceiling or in the stable or cow-shed was thought +to render trolls powerless to work mischief. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2489 + +With such a tremendous array of myth, magic and folklore associated with +it, reaching far back into the pagan past, it is understandable that +even today this favourite Christmas plant is forbidden in many +churches. Yet even the holly and the ivy, much celebrated in a popular +carol of that title, were once revered as sacred and magical by our +pre-Christian ancestors. + +In view of what has been said, one could speculate that even if +Christianity had never emerged it is more than likely that we would +still be getting ready for the late-December festivities, putting up +decorations, including holly and mistletoe, in order to celebrate the +rebirth of the Sun, the great giver and sustainer of all earthly life. + + BYLAWS OF THE CHURCH OF ALL WORLDS, INC. + + As amended by General Meeting August 9, 1992 PREAMBLE Section 1: +Recognizing the necessity for the affirmation of life in a world choked +by the worship of death, we, the Priesthood and Councils of the Church +of All Worlds do re-establish and re-ordain on this fair planet a vital +new Pagan religion, dedicated to the celebration of Life, the maximal +actualization of Human potential, and the realization of ultimate +individual freedom and personal responsibility in harmonious eco-psychic +relationship with the total Biosphere of Holy Mother Earth. To which end +we do hereby adopt and enact the following Articles: + + ARTICLE I Name + Section 1: +The name of the corporation shall be the Church of All Worlds, Inc., and +is a non-profit religious organization, incorporated under the laws of +the States of Missouri and California. + + ARTICLE II Purpose + Section 1: +The purpose of this Corporation shall be as outlined in the Articles of +Incorporation; and specifically the following: + A. To present an alternative to war, hatred, violence, frustra- +tion, insecurity, fear, ignorance, jealousy, brutality, dishonesty, +apathy, misery, loneliness, guilt, anxiety, alienation, paranoia, +dominance, killing, force, hypocrisy, envy, malevolence, irrespon- +sibility, intolerance, prejudice, persecution, greed, addiction, +authoritarianism, and presently established religions and institutions, +and to aid and support individuals in their rejection of these; + B. To provide mutual help and encouragement in the search for +meaning and identity through association with similarly oriented fellows +in a context of acceptance and love; + C. To aid individuals and groups in the maximal actualization of +Human potential and the realization of ultimate individual freedom and +personal responsibility: to help people become what they potentially +are; + D. To furnish a central headquarters and branch offices (called +Churches, Nests, Centers, or Temples) through which seekers may locate +and communicate with each other, and to buy, sell, own, hold, mortgage, +or otherwise encumber, lease, or otherwise hold and dispose of real and +personal property necessary to properly establish, fit up, and maintain +such places; + E. To encourage reading, study and growth on the part of members +and friends, and to make available literature in various relevant +fields; +2499 + + F. To publish newsletters, papers, magazines, pamphlets, books, +directories and other materials deemed appropriate to the purposes of +the Church by the Board of Directors or their delegated authority; +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2500 + + + G. To work, associate, and affiliate with other similarly oriented +individuals, churches, agencies and groups promoting peace, love, joy, +freedom, brotherhood, conservation, personal awareness and development, +celebration of life and the eco-psychic recovery of Natural Wilderness, +and to aid and support such people in such efforts as shall be found not +to be in conflict with the purposes and principles of this Church; + H. To establish and maintain Wilderness sanctuaries, retreats, +camps, and communities in various regions; + I. To establish and maintain schools, colleges, libraries and +research facilities based on the principles of the Church; + J. To receive money, property, and values of every kind heretofore +donated, contributed, collected, and held, and to receive, and hold +money, property and values of every kind that might be donated, +contributed, collected and held, for the benefit of this religious +organization; + K. To engage in and promote any functions, services and activities +deemed appropriate, necessary or expedient for the purposes of the +Church by the Board of Directors , their delegated authority, or the +directors of the various subsidiary groups; + L. To do all in our power to increase the total degree of +consciousness, individually, collectively, and synergically, at all +levels of Being, in the unfolding course of emergent evolution; + M. To provide all possible means for recycling the bodies of +deceased members consistent with eco-psychic awareness and personal +will; + N. To make provision to establish and ordain various sacraments of +the Church of All Worlds. + + ARTICLE I Membership + Section l: +Membership shall consist of those who understand the principles of the +Church, who have made written application, paid the annual dues, and +have been accepted by the Board of Directors or their delegated +authority. The form of application shall be that approved by the Board +of Directors or their delegated authority. + + Section 2: +Members whose annual dues are current shall be referred to as active +members, with full voting privileges and discounts at paid functions. +Those whose dues are in arrears shall be regarded as inactive members, +and their voting privileges and discounts at paid functions shall be +suspended until such time as they renew their memberships with a payment +of the annual dues. + + Section 3: +Membership shall be organized in degrees of ranking, as follows: + A. Three Rings of three Circles each, to be known (from outer to +inner) respectively as Seekers, Scions, and Priests/Priestesses, or +Clergy. + B. Members may be referred to by designation of a Circle, one +through nine. + + ARTICLE IV Seekers + Section 1: +The First Ring shall consist of Seekers, to be identified by the color +green, as used on membership cards, newsletters and in ceremonial +vestments. They shall be grouped in the following three Circles, by diff --git a/religious documents/2501-599.txt b/religious documents/2501-599.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a856cc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/2501-599.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5395 @@ +2501 + +qualifications to be determined by combined Councils of all Rings; + A. First Circle (identified with the planet Pluto and its symbols.) + B. Second circle (identified with the planet Neptune and its +symbols.) + C. Third Circle (identified with the planet Uranus and its +symbols.) + + ARTICLE V Scions + Section l: +The second Ring shall consist of Scions, to be identified by the color +red, as used on membership cards, newsletters, and in ceremonial +vestments. They shall be grouped into the following three Circles by +qualifications to be determined and amended by the Board of Directors: + + A. Fourth circle (identified with the planet Saturn and its +symbols.) + B. Fifth circle (identified with the planet Jupiter and its +symbols.) + C. Sixth circle (identified with the planet Mars and its symbols.) + Section 2: Duties of Scions shall include management of various +Church programs, functions, and activities, as well as studies directed +toward qualification for the Clergy, determination of qualifications for +advancement through First and Second Rings, and any other such duties as +may be determined by the Board of Directors. + Section 3: In the event no Priest or Priestess is available to +serve an established Nest, the Scion who takes on major responsibility +for coordinating that Nest shall be designated High Scion by consensual +agreement of the members of said Nest. The High Scion shall assume the +administrative and organizational functions normally assigned to Clergy, +until such time as said High Scion or any other member of said Nest +shall become ordained. If members of the Nest desire, the position of +High Scion may rotate among qualified members of the Nest. + Section 4: In areas where no Nest exists, Scions may, with the +approval of the Board of directors, establish proto-nests of the Church +of All Worlds, Inc.; such proto-nests shall conduct meetings in +accordance with the Bylaws and principles of the Church of All Worlds +and shall forward monthly reports of activities to the Board of +Directors via the Membership Officer. + Section 5: In special cases the Church may license a Scion of 6th +Circle as a Minister and iissue Ministerial Credentials, which shall +consist of a Ministerial Certificate and wallet-sized ID card. Licensed +CAW MInisters shall function as the equivalent of Chaplains, and be +authorized to perform such sacraments as authorized by the Council of +the Third Ring. In order to qualify for this special status, the Scion +must present a Ministerial Proposal to the Board of Directors indicating +the nature of the Scion's intended Ministry and his/he qualifications to +fulfill it. Examples of such Ministries shall include (but not be +limited to): Prison Ministries, Hospital Ministries, Armed Services +Ministries. + + ARTICLE VI Clergy + Section 1: +The Third Ring shall consist of Priests and Priestesses, to be iden- +tified by the color purple, as used on membership cards, in newsletters, +and in ceremonial vestments. They shall be grouped into the following +three Circles, by qualifications to be determined and amended by the +Board of Directors. + A. Seventh Circle (identified with the planet Earth and its +2502 + +symbols.) + B. Eighth Circle (identified with the planet Venus and its +symbols.) + C. Ninth Circle (identified with the planet Mercury and its +symbols.) + + Section 2: +Duties of the Clergy shall include hosting and officiating at various +ceremonies and services, administering the sacraments, writing and +preparing rituals, arranging meetings and councils, supervising the +training of Seekers and Scions, sponsoring and aiding postulants to the +Clergy, voting for and serving as members of the Board of Directors, +maintaining communications with other Nests, and any other such duties +as may be determined by Councils of the Third Ring or the Board of +Directors. + Section 3: +The Priest and/or Priestess establishing a Nest or assuming respon- +sibility for an established Nest shall be known as High Priest or High +Priestess of that Nest. The duties of High Priest or HIgh Priestess +include primary responsibility for all Church activities in that Nest, +including reports to the Board of Directors, and any other such +functions as they themselves shall determine, subject to approval by the +board of Directors. The term of office for High Priests and High +Priestesses shall customarily be for a period of not more than seven +years, during which time it shall be the duty of such persons to select +and train their successors. Any High Priest or High Priestess who does +not step down before this seven year period is up may, at any time after +the seven years, be summarily eliminated at the consensual agreement of +the rest of the Nest. + Section 4: +Ordination into the Priesthood may be bestowed upon Scions who have +completed all the currently stated qualifications of the Sixth Circle +and have been recommended for the Seventh by any sponsoring member of +the Clergy, provided the candidate has first been approved unanimously +by the Board of Directors through the submission of such data as the +Board may choose to require. + + ARTICLE VII Primate + Section 1: +The primary authoritative and not authoritarian spokesperson for the +Church of All Worlds shall be known as the Primate, and shall hold this +position for as long as he or she can adequately demonstrate his or her +capability to perform its duties and functions, or until successfully +challenged for the position by a would-be successor, or for life, or for +as long as he or she desires to hold the position. Any of the foregoing +conditions may serve to limit the term of office of the Primate. + Section 2: +Duties of the Primacy shall include all appropriate duties of a general +spokesperson, coordination and integration of programs, activities, +information and input included in the Church gestalt, and coordination +of relationships with other groups within the larger Pagan and Neo-Pagan +community. It shall be the responsibility of the Primate to keep well +informed enough on all phases of both the Church of All Worlds and +Paganism/Neo-Paganism as a whole that such duties may always be +competently and effectively performed. + Section 3: +As the Primate is largely an honorific position awarded by the member- +ship in respect for a person's years of service to the Church of All +2503 + +Worlds, a successor may or may not be chosen upon the discontinuation of +one Primate's term of office. Should it be desired, a successor shall +be chosen by the same method as any other elected official. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2504 + + ARTICLE VIII Directors + Section 1: +Management of the Corporation shall be vested in a Board of Directors, +consisting of not less than three nor more than thirteen persons, +consisting of a representative of each chartered subsidiary and the +following officers: President, Vice-President in charge of Membership, +Treasurer, and Secretary. A minimum of one-third of the Board of +Directors shall be members of the Clergy. The Board can approve the +calling of qualified persons among the membership to the positions of +Secretary and Treasurer by unanimous decision. An individual may hold +the position of an officer and a representative of a subsidiary group, +if necessary. Decision-making shall be by consensus, but if agreement +cannot be reached, decisions will be made by two-thirds majority vote. +In such a case, the votes of all members of the Board of Directors are +equal, regardless of the Ring status of the person voting. + Section 2: +At the first annual meeting of the Board of Directors, the Board shall +elect from its own number, a President, one or more Vice-Presidents, a +Secretary and a Treasurer, who shall serve as officers both for the +Board of Directors and for the Corporation. At the discretion of the +Directors, the same person may serve in more than one office. The +President and Vice-President in charge of Membership must be members of +the Clergy. + Section 3: +The powers of the Board of Directors shall be those usually assigned to +such Directors. They are subject to limitation or specification at any +meeting of the Board or the Third Ring. They shall specifically include +the following powers: + A. To call regular or special meetings of the Directors, the +Councils, or of the membership, on initiative of the President, or by +mutual agreement of two or more of the Directors. + B. To make rules and regulations not inconsistent with the laws of +the State of California or the Bylaws of this Corporation, for the +guidance of officers, Directors, and members. + C. To make rules and regulations for the use and management of all +Church property, whether real or personal, and to change such rules and +regulations at such time and in such manner as to said Board of +Directors, or Directors of subsidiary groups, shall seem right and +proper. + D. To accept, review, and approve or reject applications for +Priesthood, and to issue certificates of ordination to those applicants +who shall have fulfilled their qualifications and shall have complied +with the requirements of the rules, Bylaws, and Articles of Incorporat- +ion, and who are recommended by their High Priests or High Priestesses, +to serve as Clergy or for other special purposes recognized by act of +the Board of Directors. + E. To issue certificates of Charter to members in other areas when +they wish to establish a local Nest, or to establish Subsidiary +Organizations, upon conditions to be determined by the Board. + F. To determine what shall be due and reasonable compensation to be +paid any member of the Corporation for services rendered to or for the +Corporation, affecting one or more of its purposes. + G. To maintain, at the Central Nest, confidential files on all +members, active and inactive, and such other records as may be deemed +necessary adequately to carry out the purposes of the Corporation. Section 4: +The Board of Directors shall have full power and authority to borrow +money on behalf of the Corporation, including the power and authority to +2505 + +borrow money from any of the members, Directors, or officers of the +Corporation, and to otherwise incur indebtedness on behalf of the +Corporation, and to authorize the execution of promissory notes, or +other evidences of indebtedness of the Corporation, and to agree to pay +interest thereon to sell, convey, alienate, transfer, assign, exchange, +lease, and otherwise dispose of, mortgage, pledge, hypothecate, and +otherwise encumber the property, real or personal, and the franchises of +the Corporation to purchase, lease, and otherwise acquire property, real +and personal, on behalf of the Corporation; and generally to do and +perform, or cause to be done and performed, every act which the +Corporation may lawfully do and perform. + Section 5: +The Board of Directors shall have summary power by vote of a two-thirds +majority of its members to suspend, or to expel and terminate the +membership of any member of the Church, including the Priesthood and the +Board of Directors, for conduct which in its opinion disturbs the order, +dignity, business or harmony, or impairs the good name, popularity or +prosperity of the organization, or which is likely in its opinion, to +endanger the welfare, interest or character of the organization, or for +any conduct in violation of these Bylaws or of the rules and regulations +of the Corporation, which may be made from time to time.Such action by +the Board of Directors may be taken at any meeting of such Board upon +the initiative of any member or members thereof. The proceedings of the +Board of Directors in such matter shall be final and conclusive, unless +overruled by majority vote of the Council of the Third Ring, acting as +a Board of Appeal. It is expected that any Clergy serving on such a +Board will absent themselves if s/he is unable to be impartial, or is +affected personally by the decsions of such a Board. + Section 6: +The Board of Directors shall constitute a nominating committee for +Directors to serve on the Board. Their recommendations shall be +presented by the Secretary to the Council of the Third Ring at any +regular meeting. Other nominations may be made by any member present at +the said meeting. + + ARTICLE IX Officers + Section 1: +The officers of the Corporation shall be a President, a Vice-President +in charge of Membership, a Secretary, and Treasurer. Other officers may +be created by resolution of the Board, not to exceed thirteen. Doubling +of roles is permissible with the agreement of the Board. + Section 2: +The term of all offices shall be one year. + Section 3: +The President shall be the chief executive officer of the Corporation, +and shall preside at all meetings of the Board of Directors. S/he shall +have general charge of the business of the Corporation, and shall +execute, with the Secretary, in the name of the Corporation, all deeds, +bonds, contracts, and other obligations and instruments authorized by +the Board of Directors. The President shall also have such other powers +and shall perform such other duties as may be assigned by the Board of +Directors. + Section 4: +Unless the Board of Directors shall specify otherwise, the Vice-Preside- +nt shall be the regularly designated authority to act on applications +for membership and ordination, and may head a committee which performs +this task. It shall be the responsibility of the Vice-President to keep +addresses and other information relating to membership up-to-date. The +2506 + +Vice-President shall be vested with all the powers and shall perform +all the duties of the President, in case of the absence or disability of +the President. The Vice-President shall also have such other powers and +shall perform such other duties as may be assigned by the Board of +Directors. + Section 5: +The Secretary shall keep records of all regular and special meetings of +the Board of Directors, and forward these records to the members of the +Board and the Third Ring. The Secretary shall also mail notification to +members of the Third Ring and the Board of the time, place, and planned +agenda of the regular Board meetings. Subsidiary representatives are +asked to send the secretary a record of the quarterly business of each +subsidiary three weeks prior to the regular meeting, for inclusion in +the quarterly meeting notes. Notices should be sent at least two weeks +prior to each regular meeting, and as early as possible before a special +meeting. The Secretary also serves as the correspondent of the Corpora- +tion with persons representing the State of California, and files +whatever reports and forms may be required by the State on an annual or +ongoing basis. + A. In case of the absence or disability of the Secretary, or +refusal or neglect to act, notices may be given and served by the +President, or by the Vice-President, or by any person authorized by the +President or the Vice-President, or by the board of Directors. Section +6: The Treasurer shall receive and safely keep all funds of the +Corporation and deposit same in such bank or banks as may be designated +by the Board of Directors. Such funds shall be paid out only on the +cheque of the Corporation signed as directed by the Board of Directors. +The Treasurer shall also control the keeping of the books and accounts +of the Corporation, and is responsible for the filing and payment of any +monies required by the State of California. Subsidiary representaives +are responsible for the forwarding of quarterly financial records of +each subsidiary to the Treasurer in advance of each quarterly Board of +Directors meeting. + + ARTICLE X Councils + Section 1: Seekers of the First through Third Circles shall be +the general laity, and shall relate peripherally to the Inner Circles, +members serving on committees, participating in open meetings, and +fulfilling any other such functions as shall be designated by members of +the Second and Third Rings. + Section 2: +Scions shall constitute the Council of the Second Ring, or the Scion +Council, which shall function in the interest of the Corporation in such +matters as cannot conveniently be brought before a regular or special +meeting of the First Ring. This council shall have one representative +sit on each meeting of the First Ring as Chairman. This Council shall +fulfill any other particular functions as shall be designated by members +of the Third Ring, and may hold such regular or special meetings as +shall be found necessary adequately to carry out the purposes of the +Corporation. + Section 3: +Clergy of the Seventh through Ninth Circles shall constitute the Council +of the Third Ring, or the Clergy Council, which shall function in the +interests of the Corporation in such matters as cannot conveniently be +brought before a regular or special meeting of the First or Second +Rings. This Council shall have one representative sit on each meeting of +the Second Ring as Chairperson. This Council shall fulfill any other +such functions as shall be designated by the Board of Directors, and may +2507 + +hold such regular or special meetings as shall be found necessary to +adequately carry out the purposes of the Corporation. + Section 4: +The officers of the Board of Directors shall constitute the Executive +Council, which shall function in the interest of the Corporation in such +matters as cannot conveniently be brought before a regular or special +meeting of the Board of Directors or of the Ring councils. This Council +may hold such regular or special meetings as shall be found necessary +adequately to carry out the purposes of the Corporation. + Section 5: +Each Nest shall establish a Nest Council, which shall function in the +interest of that Nest in such matters as cannot appropriately or +conveniently be brought before meetings of any of the other aforemen- +tioned Councils or the Board of Directors.The Nest Councils shall deal +with all those matters which are the exclusive concern of the particular +individual Nests, rather than of concern to the Church or Corporation as +a whole. Such Nest Councils shall consist only of Second and Third Ring +members of such Nests, in number not to exceed thirteen. Application for +membership on a Nest Council must be made in person before the assembled +body of the Council, during which the applicant should be questioned on +his or her reasons for wanting to serve on the Council and his or her +understanding of the principles and purposes of the Nest and the Church. +Acceptance to the council must be by unanimous vote or consensus of the +current Nest Council membership. Candidates for Priesthood must first +have served at least six months on a Nest Council, and that Council must +unanimously approve the candidate's application for ordination before it +can be submitted to the Board. The advancement and training of members +of each Nest through the Second Ring shall be under the supervision of +the Priesthood of that Nest, who may consult the Nest Council if such +consultation shall be found useful or necessary. Second Ring members who +are not affiliated with a particular Nest shall be trained under the +supervision of the Priesthood of the Central Nest. At meetings of the +Nest Councils, the High Priest, High Priestess, or High Scion shall be +Chairperson, and shall be familiar with the rudiments of parliamentary +or consensus procedure. + Section 6: +Any of the aforementioned Councils are authorized to appoint such +committees as shall be found useful in the conduct of the activities of +the Corporation. + Section 7: +Each of the aforementioned Councils and Committees shall elect or +appoint, for any term necessary, such officers as may be found necessary +to the conduct of the Councils. Such offices shall include a Secretary, +whereby minutes shall be taken and notices of meetings disseminated. Section 8: +General membership shall have the prerogative of vetoing any action +taken by the Board of Directors, which it finds objectionable. Such veto +to be taken by two-thirds majority at the Annual meeting. + + ARTICLE XI Nests + Section 1: +The basic local organizational/congregational unit of the Church of All +Worlds shall be the nest. A nest is a group of Church members, with at +least one member 4th Circle or above, organized in a local area to learn +about, discuss, and creatively practice the purposes of the Church. +Nests shall be largely autonomous units which have agreed to adopt and +practice the values and purposes of the Church and have, after applying +to the Board, been granted a charter by the Board of Directors pursuant +2508 + +to a recommendation of the Nest Co-ordinating Council. + Section 2: +In order to form a nest, a group of at least three Church members of at +least 2nd Circle must apply to the Nest Co-ordinating Council for a +charter as a proto-nest, or Chapter. Chapter charters are issued a the +discretion of the Nest Co-ordinating Council. In order to be granted a +full Nest Charter, a group must function for at least a year and a day +and have at least one member who has reached the level of Scion (4th +Circle). Granting of a Nest Charter will be by vote of the Board of +Directors. + Section 3: +Nests chartered by the Board of Directors shall be legal subsidiaries of +the Church of All Worlds as incorporated under the laws of the States of +Missouri and California. Nest shall not have the power to incur debt in +the name of the Church of All Worlds. + Section 4: +The Board and Clergy of the Church of All Worlds do not wish to impose +any doctrinal restraints upon local nests beyond the requirement that +their activities be in accord with the purpose of the Corporation as +stated in Article II of these bylaws. The board and Clergy in fact +encourage creativity and innovation on the part of all local nests and +groups in the lawful pursuit of the goals of the Church of All Worlds. + Section 5: +The Board of Directors does, however, reserve the right to revoke either +a Chapter or Nest Charter on the recommendation of either the Council of +the Third Ring or the Nest Co-ordinating Council for one of the +following reasons: + A. The conduct at its meetings and public functions or in its +public statements is found to be incompatible with the purposes of the +Corporation as stated in Article II of these Bylaws, or contrary to the +laws of the United States or the State of residence of the Nest or +Chapter; + B. The conduct or statements of the Nest or Chapter in its +meetings and public functions or in its public statements, in the +judgement of the Board of Directors, reflects unacceptable discredit on +the Church of All Worlds, its purposes, members and Clergy; + C. The Board of Directors has reason to believe -- on recommenda- +tion from either the Council of the Third Ring or the Nest Co-ordinating +Council -- that the chartered group is not truly functioning as a Nest +or Chapter in that the contact person of that Nest or Chapter does not +respond to queries, show evidence of membership or the holding of +regular meetings or other evidence that the Chartered Nest or Chapter +is, indeed, functioning as a viable organizational unit of the Church of +All Worlds. + + ARTICLE XII Meetings + Section l: +General meetings of the Corporation shall be held in conjunction with +the first yearly meeting of the Board of Directors. Regular meetings of +the Board of Directors shall be held quarterly, approximately three +weeks before cross-quarter Sabbats. The first annual meeting shall +propose the meeting dates for the remaining quarters of the year. +Special meetings may be held whenever deemed necessary. + Section 2: +Notice of the Annual Meetings of the General Membership shall be made +each year at least one month in advance of the date of the meeting by a +special mailing to all registered members of the Church of at least 2nd +Circle. Notices of regular meetings of the Board of Directors, together +2509 + +with quarterly subsidiary reports and proposed agenda items, shall be +sent to members of the Board two weeks prior to such meetings by the +Church Secretary. Notice of special Board meetings shall be made as +early as possible. Notice of regular meetings of other councils shall be +sent to relevant members two weeks in advance by the appropriate council +secretary, and notices of special meetings, as early as possible. +Meetings of Nest Councils shall be held at least quarterly, the +frequency and dates to be determined by said councils. + Section 3: +The privelege of decision-making at any meeting shall be limited to +those present who are actual active members both of the Church and of +the particular Council or Ring convening the meeting. If the number +present is thirteen or less than thirteen, all decisions must be made by +consensus, and if consensus cannot be reached, by a twothirds majority. +If the number present is greater than thirteen, all decisions must be by +a two-thirds majority vote. In meetings where more than thirteen voting +members are present, the number of votes carried by each member shall be +equal to the ring (1,2, or 3) that member has attained. Section 4: A +quorum to conduct business shall consist of a number of voting members +equal to two-thirds majority plus one of the members of that particular +council. + Section 5: The fiscal year of the Corporation shall be from +January l to December 31, inclusive. + + ARTICLE XIII Subsidiary Operations + Section 1: +The Corporation, acting through the Board of Directors or their +delegated authority, may organize, charter, establish, and operate such +subsidiary operations, agencies, groups, and institutions as may be +found necessary or expedient adequately to carry out the purposes of the +Corporation. + Section 2: +Each subsidiary shall send a representative to serve on the Board of +Directors. The subsidiary representatives shall be responsible for +reporting the activities of the Subsidiary to the Board, and for +relaying information from the Board to each subsidiary. In addition, the +subsidiary representatives shall submit reports to the Secretary and the +Treasurer detailing the activities of each subsidiary. + Section 3: +Chartering and serving as Directors of subsidiary organizations is open +only to active members of the Church with Scion or Clergy status. Under +exceptional circumstances, and by special dispensation of the Board of +Directors, a project or provisional subsidiary may be approved for +inception by a Church member of only 3rd Circle status, conditional upon +that person's attainment of 4th Circle within a year from the date of +approval, or the appointment within that time as a Director of the +aforesaid subsidiary of another active Churcdh member of at least 4th +Circle. Subsidiaries should begin as projects or provisional sub- +sidiaries and be considered for full subsidiary status if they have been +active for two years and two days. Provisional subsidiaries should send +a contact person to the Board of Directors' meetings. + Section 4: +The governance of subsidiaries shall be by Directors and Councils, the +combined total number of which must always be an odd number, from one to +seven, of whom one to three shall be designated Directors. Should the +subsidiary be authorized to open a bank or checking account, there shall +be three approved signatories on the account, at least one of which must +be a Scion or Clergy. Directors of subsidiaries must be Scions or +2510 + +Clergy, but other members of the subsidiary councils may be any active +members of the Church that the subsidiary Directors wish to delegate. + Section 5: +Decision-making in subsidiary councils should follow the procedures +outlined in Article XI, Section 3 above. + + ARTICLE IV Amendments + Section 1: +Amendments or changes in these Bylaws may be made by recommendation of +the Board of Directors at the Annual meeting, by unanimous vote or +consensus of voting members present. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2511 + + A Pagan Sacrament of Holy Communion + (as performed in the Church of All Worlds) + by Morning Glory Zell + +The Priestess, Priest and Congregation sit in a circle, with the +Priestess to the right of the Priest, on the ground outside or the +carpet indoors. + +An altar is set in the center, with Bread and Water and either fresh +flowers and greenery (when outdoors) or a potted plant (indoors). + +When everyone is settled and silent, the Priestess begins the blessing: + +P'ess: Blessed be this Bread, the body of our Lord, + And Blessed be this Water, the blood of our Lady. + As our bodies are nourished by Their divine energy, + So let Them ever nurture our spirits. + We are the conscious product of Their eternal passion, + And so do we give Them our gratitude in celebration of Life. + +The Priest takes the Bread from the altar and raises it aloft in +consecration: + +Priest: Seed fallen on the wet Spring table, + embryos bedding in the night. + The Sun is joy on the Earth in the morning, + And the wheat reaches up for the food that is Light. +He holds his child to the Sun and would free him to the wind. +Then we take them both, Father and Son, both still young. +We fold them into tight brown loaves, Rocks of Sun for the tables of the +People. + +The Priest takes a piece of the Bread and places it into the mouth of +the person on his left with the words: "May you always have sufficien- +cy". He then passes the plate on to that person, who does the same +actions and gives the same blessing to the next person to the left, and +so on round the circle. When the loaf comes around to the Priestess +sitting on the Priest's right, she gives him his share while taking a +small piece and crumbling it onto the Earth , if outdoors, or into the +potted plant if indoors, saying: + "Mother Divine, take back what is Thine." + +The Priestess then takes the chalice of Water from the altar and holds +it aloft in consecration: + +P'ess: Ice in the North will melt into the Earth. + She will soften and breathe again. + Water, sweetened by the lungs of the Earth, our Mother, runs + South To the houses of the people, and the clouds give birth and + die. + They tremble on beds of air giving birth. + Their trembling rocks the Earth with thunder; all their life is + gone. + Their last breath is in our cup, + Let us drink the rain. + +The Priestess then holds the chalice to the lips of the Priest on her +left, who drinks as she says: +2512 + + "Water shared is Life shared." + +He then holds the cup and repeats the phrase for the person on his left, +and so it goes, clockwise, around the circle. Other phrases may be +spoken, such as "May you never thirst", or "Drink deeply". As the +chalice passes from each person, they link hands with those who already +shared the water, until, as the chalice completes its round, all hands +are joined. Finally the person to the right of the Priestess gives her +back the chalice and the blessing, whereupon she pours out the remainder +of the water onto the ground or the plant as a libation to the Earth, +speaking again the words: + "Mother Divine,take back what is Thine." +She places the chalice back onto the altar, then returns to her place to +link hands and complete the circle. Then may follow a silent medita- +tion, a chant or song, a breathing exercise to raise energy, +or whatever is desired. When the exercise or meditation has reached its +conclusion, the Priest pronounces the Benediction: + +Priest: O Gracious Lady and Laughing Lord, + We would ever have Thee here with us. + Now the time is come to break the circle and return to the +world. + May Thy love be ever with us and Thy wisdom guide our steps. + Blessed Be. + +Everyone repeats the words "Blessed Be" simultaneously dropping the +hands they are holding, thereby breaking the link and ending the Rite. + + "Earthmom" + "Well, for instance, who is this All-Mother you're always talking +about?" + + "Why, you are, Edward. . . The All-Mother. You're the All-Mother, +I'm the All-Mother, that little bird singing out there, it's the +All-Mother. The All-Mother is everything. The All-Mother is life..." + The primal and supreme deity of the ancient world, the oldest and +most universally worshipped, was the Great Mother, Mother Earth. Images +of Her date back to Aurignacian Cro-Magnon peoples, from 27,000 years +ago, and are found all over the Eurasian continent from Spain to +Siberia. For thousands of years before there were any male gods, there +was The Goddess, and Her worship continued unabated clear up until its +violent suppression by Iron Age patrism. When and where worship of the +Mother prevailed women and Nature were held in esteem. The Chinese +called Her Kwan Yin; the Egyptians knew Her as Isis; the Navajo call Her +Changing Woman. To the Greeks She was Gaia, and to many black peoples +She is Yemanja. She is Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, and She says: +"All acts of love and pleasure are my rituals." She is also the ancient +Crone Hecate,who gives us both wisdom and death. The Goddess is +diversity. She represents both darkness and Light and Her worship is +the reconciliation of opposites. There can be no such thing as a "Good +Goddess" or an "Evil Goddess". Death is part of the natural cycle as +night follows day and we accept it with grace as Her final gift. The +search for Balance is the goal of Her people, and it is achieved by the +acceptance of multiple paths and truths. Dion Fortune once commented +that all goddesses are manifestations of the One Great Goddess whose +identity is as the universal feminine spirit of Nature. + + The eldest and greatest aspect of the Goddess is as Great Mother +2513 + +Nature, the all-encompassing energy of Universal Life. Her womb is the +Quasar, the white hole through which all energy pours into creation, and +Her all-devouring mouth is the Black hole itself through which all +matter is consumed to be reborn once again as between Her thighs the +universe is squeezed from spirit. Her energy then coalesces into +Matter-Mater:the Mother of all forms. She ignites, becoming the Star +Goddess Nuit, whose galactic breast is our Milky way. Of Her are born +star systems and planets including, of course, our very own Earth +Mother, Gaia. + + Because of the diversity of the Goddess, She is seen as manifesting +in many different aspects. She is often called The Triple Goddess, +which refers to Her link in the fertility cycle where She appears as +Maiden, Mother and Crone. Some ancient cultures personified this +Triplicity as the waxing, full, and waning Moon, and other three-faced +Goddess aspects are familiar to us as the Fates, the Graces, the Furies, +the Muses, or even as Faith, Hope and Charity. Another familiar +division of Her aspects is into Mother and Daughter (Demeter and +Persephone), or as Sisters/Lovers (Fauna and Flora). Such polarities +are also important in Her worship. Sometimes the polarity can exist +with two different aspects of the Goddess representing both poles, but +more commonly it is the great gender polarity, for the Goddess is a +deity of sexual loving. + + She is Ishtar or Aphrodite, the eternal Lover who awaits with eager +arms the mortal man brave enough to risk Her immortal favor. Many men +have worshipped Her as a lover, but she may never be possessed, for She +belongs only to Herself. She is Parthenos, the eternal Virgin (in the +prepatriarchal meaning "of her own household"). She represents the +Strong Woman : not dominant, but independent. Her lovers are not truly +human but divine. She has been the Beloved of many gods, and though +jealous male gods eventually suppressed Her worship, She shared the +co-rulership of Heaven and Earth for thousands of years of marital +bliss. She is the inescapable Yin necessary for the cosmic balance of +Yang/Yin. Symbols associated with Her (the Tree of Life, the Sacred +Serpent, the Labryrinth) are found in all parts of the globe, at the +heart of all the Mysteries, and underlying all the later accretions of +successive religions. The search for Her is the search for our deepest +ancestral roots.I am the star that rises from the twilight sea.I bring +men dreams to rule their destiny.I am the eternal Woman; I am She!The +tides of all souls belong to me-Touch of my hand confers polarity-These +are the moontides, these belong to me. + + Honor Thy Mother + In all the cultures where She is still worshipped, there is no +confusion over Her identity : She is Nature, and She is the Earth. She +is not an atavistic abstraction, not a mystical metaphor, not a +construct of consciousness. Her body is of substance as material as our +own, and we tread upon Her breast and are formed of Her flesh. "Walk +lightly on the bosom of the Earth Mother," says Sun Bear, and tradition- +al Native Americans agree. Cherokee shaman Rolling Thunder emphasizes +that "It's very important for people to realize this: the Earth is a +living organism, the body of a higher individual who has a will and +wants to be well, who is at times less healthy or more healthy, +physically and mentally."3 Frank Waters, author of Masked Gods and Book +of the Hopi, makes the same point::. . . To Indians the Earth is not +inanimate. It is a living entity, the mother of all life, our Mother +Earth. All Her children, everything in nature, is alive: the living +2514 + +stone, the great breathing mountains, trees and plants, as well as birds +and animals and man. All are united in one harmonious whole.4 Renowned historian Arnold Toynbee, writing on "The Religious Background +of the Present Environmental Crisis," also observed that:For pre-monoth- +eistic man, nature was not just a treasure-trove of "natural resources". +Nature was, for him, a goddess, "Mother Earth," and the vegetation that +sprang from the Earth, the animals that roamed, like man himself, over +the Earth's surface, and the minerals hiding in the Earth's bowels, all +partook of Nature's divinity.5 Before ever land was, before ever the +sea, Or soft hair of the grass, or fair limbs of the tree, Or flesh- +coloured fruit of my branches, I was : And thy soul was in me. + + The Gaia Thesis + In order to understand the nature of the Earth Mother, we must +first understand our own origins. Biologically, unisexual organisms are +always considered to be female, since only the female brings forth life +from her own body; in the act of reproduction single cells are referred +to as mothers and their offspring as daughters. Each of us began our +individual life as a single fertilized cell, or zygote. In the process +of its innumerable divisions and multiplications, that cell kept +dividing up and redistributing the very same protoplasm. That +protoplasm which now courses through all of the several trillion cells +of your adult body is the very same substance which once coursed through +the body of that original zygote. For when a cell reproduces, the +mother cell does not remain intact, but actually becomes the two new +daughter cells. And this is why, no matter how many times a cell +fissions in the process of embryological development, all the daughter +cells collectively continue to comprise but one single organism. We +may imagine that, should our cells have consciousness akin to our own, +they may very well fancy themselves to be independent entities living +and dying in a world that to them would seem to be merely an inanimate +environment. Blood cells race along our arterial highways, but we know +them to be in fact minute components of the far vaster living beings +that we ourselves are. Over three billion years ago, life on Earth +began, as do we all, with a single living cell containing a replicating +molecule of DNA. From that point on, that original cell, the first to +develop the awesome capacity for reproduction, divided and redivided and +subdivided its protoplasm into the myriads of plants and animals, +including ourselves, which now inhabit this third planet from the +Sun. But no matter how many times a cell fissions in the process of +embryological development, all the daughter cells collectively continue +to comprise but one single organism. All life on Earth comprises the +body of a single vast living being:Mother Earth Herself. The Moon is +Her radiant heart, and in the tides beats the pulse of Her blood. The +protoplasm which coursed through the body of that first primeval +ancestral cell is the very protoplasm which now courses through every +cell of every living organism, plant or animal, of our planet. And as +in our own bodies, Earthly life was biologically female for the first 3 +billion years, before sexual reproduction, complete with males, evolved +around 600 million years ago. In evolutionary theory we say "ontogeny +recapitulates phylogeny" (the development of the individual repeats the +development of the ancestry); ancient people anticipated such scien- +tific ideas when they intuitively conceptualized our planetary Divinity, +like that first single cell, as feminine: our Mother Earth. + The soul of our planetary biosphere is She whom we call Goddess. +First life on my sources first drifted and swam. Out of me are the +forces which save it or damn. + +2515 + +Out of me man and woman, and wild-beast and bird. Before God was, I +am.6". . . Be the terror and the dread of all the wild beasts and all +the birds of heaven, of everything that crawls on the ground and all the +fish of the sea: they are handed over to you." (Gen. 9:2-3) + + Since the time of the Exodus, 3,500 years ago, Western Civilization +has been pursuing a course that has taken it farther and fhree great +monotheistic religions of the West, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, +have from their beginning activity suppressed the worship of the +Goddess, and have tortured and brutally murdered millions of Her people. +Today, she is all but forgotten in the hearts of Her children, and Her +body lies raped and ravished in the wake of human progress. The Goddess +is the concept of feminine divinity incarnate. The denial of feminine +divinity results in the oppression of all women, including Mother +Nature. As Toybee says:The thesis of the present essay is that some of +the major maladies of the present-day world:for instance the recklessly +extravagant consumption of nature's irreplaceable treasures, and the +pollution of those of them that man has not already devoured:can be +traced back in the last analysis to a religious cause, and that this +cause is the rise of monotheism. 5 + + This is not to say that all non-monotheistic religions have a +perfect track record for the treatment of women in those societies. +Certainly Hindu cultures revere various goddesses and yet are among the +more sexist and female-suppressive societies in the modern world. +Nevertheless, there is abundant archeological evidence to indicate that +things were not always as they are now, especially in truly ancient +societies like India. Before the Aryan Indo-European invasion around +1,500 BCE many Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures, including the Harrapan +culture of the Indus Valley and the Minoan people of Crete, had +societies that appeared remarkably egalitarian. These societies were +universally characterized by the worship of a powerful Great Mother whom +the Hindu people still call Maha Devi Ma. She was later broken into a +multiplicity of minor goddesses which were demoted to the position of +wives or concubines of the gods. By the time sacred writings were +codified in the Vedas, the Primal Goddess Maha Devi in India had been +divided into a triplicity of goddesses characterized as Creator, +Preserver and Destroyer: Saraswati, Laksmi and Kali; respectively the +consorts of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. In Greece, a similar process led +to Kore, Demeter and Persephone (or Hecate) created from the original +Cretan Rhea. Once the Great Mother had been married off She became +easier to control and the way was paved for Her dowry of natural wealth +to be handed over to the financial control of Her divine consorts. +Whether this new mythical development was a simple mirror of the social +diminishment of women's rights or whether it preceded it and was invoked +as a justification is really a moot point. But the land, formerly tied +to matrilineal territorial clans, passed into the hands of patriarchal +kings and princes who began to treat it as their private property and to +lay waste to the forests in order to build vast temples and palaces to +house their harems and other slaves. The Goddess of Nature went from +the position of being the body and soul of all that lives to that of a +wife, mother and household servant. Many traditions have given lip +service to the so-called "Female Principle," either in the form of a +divided identity like the Hindu Shakti or as a semi-divine emanation. +But the power of the Goddess of Nature has gradually lost its ability to +inspire the necessary respect and reverence once accorded to the Source +and Bearer of Life. + +2516 + + Where are You, then, Mother, whose strength was before All +other powers? Your name is the only freedom.8 Pantheism is the view +that everything in Nature is alive, and that all living is Divine. In +that context, then, the simplest explanation of Divinity is as "an +energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, it +penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together." (Star Wars: "The Force") + +Thus a pantheistic theology of Immanent Divinity ("Thou Art God/dess") +contrasts sharply with the theology of Transcendent Divinity ("God is +Out There") presented by most of "The World's Great Religions." Unlike +the God worshipped by Christians, Moslems and Jews, the Goddess is not +an all-powerful, indestructible, non-physical being who created the +world and exists apart from it. Though Mother Nature is Life on the +universal scale, Gaia, the Earth Mother is the very soul of this living +planet, and she lives or dies as all life on this planet lives or dies. +. . Mother, not maker; born, and not made. Though her children forsake +her, allured or afraid, Praying prayers to the God of their fashion, She stirs not for all who have prayed.O my children, too dutiful +towards Gods not of me, Was not I enough beautiful? Was it hard to be +free? For, behold, I am with you, am in you, and of you: Look forth +now and see!6 "Earth Mother, Your Children Are Here!" Current environ- +mental crises are legion. Chlorofluorocarbon chemicals are destroying +the ozone layer in the atmosphere; industrial pollution is creating the +greenhouse effect which will melt the polar icecaps, drowning the +coastal regions; and the destruction of the rainforests and the +pollution of phytoplankton in the seas is causing worldwide droughts. +The problems are so vast and the politics of greed and corruption are so +complex that it will truly take a miracle to reverse such global +destruction. The only thing that can save us is a total and electrify- +ing change of consciousness. Nothing short of a worldwide realization +of our planetary awareness will bring home the desperation of our +plight. We must activate our Gaian identification so that we regain our +shattered empathy with the Spirit of Nature. We must become one with +the Earth Mother in order to feel Her pain/our pain and make it stop +before the cancer we have become reaches the terminal phase. + + The word religion derives from the Latin re-ligio; "relinking." +The very purpose of true religion, then, is to heal the rifts and +alienations which have caused us to become separated from the divine +Source of Being: the rifts between humanity and Nature; between matter +and spirit; between mind and body; between man and woman; between our +own egos and the Soul of Nature. Recent books analyzing the trends of +our wayward world have, with increasing frequency, been calling for a +return to the worship of the Mother. So many wistful comments made by +writers such as Merlin Stone, Mary Daly, James Lovelock, Judy Chicago, +Dolores LaChapelle, Rene Dubos, Daniela Gioseffi, Paolo Soleri, +Elizabeth Gould Davis, Arnold Toynbee, Joseph Campbell, Marija Gimbutas +and Riane Eisler reflect a craving for such a religious revival. The +truth is that such a revival has been going on for some time now:since +the early 1960's:in the form of what we call the Neo-Pagan movement +(from Latin paganus:"peasant" or country dweller:Paganism now refers +to all nature religions). To the several hundred thousand Neo-Pagans +who have been actively practicing and publishing for more than a quarter +of a century, the greatest mystery of this religion is its continuing +obscurity and invisibility to those such as the above-named writers, who +continue to publish books advocating such a movement as this, while +remaining ignorant that it is already in effect. The new Paganism +encompasses many Nature-oriented groups such as Feraferia, Church of All +2517 + +Worlds, Madrakara, Bear Tribe, Venusian Church, Pagan Way, Church of the +Eternal Source, Odinic Fellowship, Reformed Druids, Earth Church of +Amargi and Children of the Earth Mother. The largest contingent of +modern Goddess-worshippers, however, is found in Witchcraft, or Wicca. +Wicca is a pre-Christian European Pagan magical tradition; European +Shamanism. The violent suppression to the point of eradication of the +followers of Wicca by the Inquisition can only be compared to the Jewish +Holocaust of Nazi Germany (estimates of the number of martyrs run as +high as nine million!), but today the Craft is making a powerful +comeback on the wings of the re-emergent Goddess. + + The Neo-Pagan movement, and especially Feminist Witchcraft, has +recently been joined by increasing numbers from the Women's Spirituality +movement and lately also by many thinkers from the Deep Ecology movement +and even such radical environmental activists as Earth First!. These +are some of the forces which form the core of the movement to restore +the Earth Goddess to Her rightful place; a movement which has its roots +in the combined studies of feminism and ecology and is the logical +spiritual application of such studies. If Witches can be priestesses of +feminism, then Neo-Pagans are the chaplains of the ecology movement. The +overall movement, though variously called Eco-feminism and Ecosophy, is +truly an attempt at expressing Gaian Spirituality. These three +streams of spirituality:Deep Ecology, Goddess Spirituality, and +Neo-Paganism:have met and mingled with Native American, Hindu, +Tibetan, Hawaiian and other ancient spiritual teachings and fused +somewhat with the more nebulous New Age Movement. What is struggling to +be born from this blending of pathways is a truly planetary religious +metaphor that will transcend all the tradition-specific patterns in the +same way the idea of Neo-Paganism absorbed and united a multiplicity of +wildly differing but basically polytheistic religious groups in the +1970's. Perhaps what we are looking for could be called Gaean +religion, because at the heart of our Unity is our identity as children +of the same Mother:Gaia Herself; Mother Earth. It is said that it's a +wise child who knows its own Mother! A brief digression on +etymology here: Who is Gaia, that we would name a movement after Her? + +The name Gaia is the Greek name for the Earth Mother Goddess, She who +was created by Light and by Love from the primal cosmic chaos. Pierced +by the arrows of Eros, Gaia gave birth to all the plants, animals, gods +and goddesses and of course the human race. So Gaia is the Mother of us +all according to ancient Greek mythology. + + From the moment that the people of Earth achieved the ability to +observe the image of our planet spinning in all Her radiant blue-and- +white splendor through the black velvet night, we have been impelled +towards planetary identification. We must inevitably begin to think of +ourselves as one planet, one people, one organism. The power of that +image alone unites us, not to mention the concept that the past +three-and-a-half billion years of terrestrial evolution resembles one +vast embryogenesis. Something is developing, hatching, unfolding as a +self-reflexive mind capable of contemplating its own existence. Gaia +developed increasingly complex eyes and extensions of Her eyes/our eyes +in order to contemplate Her own image. And now, having seen Herself +through our satellite eyes, She is awakening to consciousness. She has +a face, an identity and now even a name, and so we inevitably come to +identify ourselves through Her as Gaian. + + A Gaian movement would be deeply committed to communication and +2518 + +education. Many tribal people and many of the old nature-based folk +religions such as native Australians, Hawaiians, Siberians, Tibetans and +Americans have come to the brink of extinction rather than to allow the +mysteries of their sacred rites to pass outside their tribes. Others +have realized the need to become more eclectic if they are to survive. + + The Gaian movement is presently small and largely unrecognized, +since it is anarchic and not evangelical, but it has tremendous +potential in having no single head and presenting a genuine answer to so +many of the world's problems. Its vision is, in fact, an idea whose +time has come. Yet there are still many obstacles, and revolutions in +consciousness rarely happen overnight. The greatest forces operating +against a new Gaian renaissance are inertia and apathyÉ the watchwords +of the Ô70s and Ô80s. But winds of change are blowing, and by the time +the century turns we will see that once again Goddess is Alive and +Magick is Afoot!And you who think to seek for me -Know that your seeking +and yearning will avail you naughtUnless you know the Mystery:That if +that which you seek you find not within you,You shall never find it +without.For behold: I have been with you from the beginning,And I am +that which is attained at the end of desire.9 + + Footnotes: +1. Mack Reynolds, Of Godlike Power, 1966, pp. 146-1472. +2. Dion Fortune, "Charge of the Moon Goddess" +3. Doug Boyd, Rolling Thunder, 1974, p. 51 +4. Frank Waters, "Lessons From the Indian Soul," Psychology Today, May + 1973 +5. Arnold Toynbee, "The Religious Background of the Present Environmen + tal Crisis," International Journal of Environmental Studies, 1972, +Vol. III +6. Algernon Charles Swinburne, "Hertha" +7. Tim Zell, "The Gods of Nature; The Nature of Gods," Gnostica #15, + 1973 +8. Ramprasad Sen, Grace and Mercy in Her Wild Hair; 18th Century Bengal +9. Doreen Valiente, "Charge of the Star Goddess" +(This article was first written in 1978; revised and updated in 1990.) + + The Church of All Worlds, a Brief History + + It all began on April 7, 1962, when, after reading Stranger in a +Strange Land, Tim Zell and Lance Christie shared water and formed a +water-brotherhood called "Atl" at Westminster College at Fulton, +Missouri. During the mid-1960s the group was centered on the University +of Oklahoma campus at Norman under the name Atlan Foundation. A +periodical, The Atlan Torch (later The Atlan Annals), was published from +1962-1968. Following a move to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1968 the Church +of All Worlds was legally incorporated. In March of that year, the first +issue of Green Egg appeared and over the years made Tim Zell, its +editor, a major force in Neo-Paganism, a term which Zell coined. CAW was +the first Neo-Pagan/Earth Religion to obtain full federal recognition, +although it was initially refused recognition by the Missouri Department +of Revenue on the basis of its lack of primary concern about the +hereafter, God, the destiny of souls, heaven, hell, sin and its +punishment, and other supernatural matters. The ruling was overturned as +unconstitutional in 1971. The Church of All Worlds took much +inspiration from the science fiction classic, Stranger in a Strange Land +by Robert Heinlein. In the novel, Valentine Michael Smith was a human +being born on Mars and raised by Martians. Upon being brought to Earth, +2519 + +he established the Church of All Worlds, built around "nests", a +combination of a congregations and an intentional communities. A basic +concept was "grokking", i.e., the ability to be fully empathic. +Heinlein's CAW emphasized non-possessive love and joyous expression of +sexuality as divine union. Their greeting was "Thou art God" or "Thou +art Goddess", a recognition of immanent divinity in each person. The basic theology of the CAW is a pantheism focused on immanent rather +than transcendent divinity, which is worshiped in female as well as a +male form. + + The most important thealogical statement came in revelatory +writings by Zell in 1970-73, on a theory which later came to be known as +the Gaia Thesis, a biological validation of the ancient intuition that +the planet is a single living organism, Mother Earth. Pantheists +hold as divine the living spirit of Nature. Thus the CAW recognizes +Mother Earth, the Horned God, the Green Man and other spirits of +animistic totemism as the Divine Pantheon. Church of All Worlds was an +early forerunner of the Deep Ecology movement. Through its focus on +Mother Nature as Goddess and its recognition and ordination of women as +Priestesses, CAW can also rightly be held to be the first Eco-Feminist +Church. Its only creed states: "The Church of All Worlds is dedicated to +the celebration of life, the maximal actualization of human potential +and the realization of ultimate individual freedom and personal +responsibility in harmonious eco-psychic relationship with the total +Biosphere of Holy Mother Earth." + + In 1974, CAW reported nests in Missouri, California, Illinois, +Kansas, Wisconsin, Iowa, Wyoming, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, +New Jersey, New York, and Ohio. It was then publishing two periodicals, +Green Egg and The Pagan. Two years later Zell moved to Oregon with his +new wife, Morning Glory, an ordained Priestess, for a rural life of +writing, research and the practice of the religion he had developed. +They left the administration of the CAW and the publication of the Green +Egg in the hands of other Church leaders. After only a few more issues, +the magazine ceased publication. Subsequently many Church Nests +dissolved due to internal conflicts. + + By the mid-1980s CAW survived only in California, focused around +the sanctuary land bequeathed to the Church by its Bard, Gwydion +Pendderwen. On and around this rural retreat, a Pagan homesteading +community grew which included the Zells (Tim Zell had changed his first +name to Otter in 1979 following a vision quest) and other long-time +Church members who had moved to California, as well as many new people. +Two new clergy were ordained during that time, Orion Stormcrow (a Church +member since 1969) and Anodea Judith. (In 1991, Deborah Hamouris was +ordained, bringing the present number of active clergy to six.) In the +late 1980s, following Otter and Morning Glory's emergence from eight +years of living in the wilderness, the Church of All Worlds began +reorganizing under the leadership of Anodea Judith. The membership +program was radically upgraded to include a Progressive Involvement +Program (PIP), intensive training courses and a new members newsletter, +The Scarlet Flame. Activities and membership increased dramatically +during this period as CAW emerged from its slumber. The first issue +of Green Egg (The Next Generation!) appeared in May, 1988, the 20th +anniversary of its original publication. It has risen to a position of +prominence among Pagan periodicals. Diane Darling, who joined the Church +in the mid-'80s, is its editrix, Otter its publisher and designer. In +1991, with 52 pages and a four-color glossy cover, Green Egg won the +2520 + +Silver Award from the Wiccan/Pagan Press Alliance (WPPA) for "Most +Professionally Formatted Pagan Publication". In 1992 Green Egg won the +WPPA Gold Award for "Readers' Choice" as well as the Dragonfest Awards +for "Most Attractive Format" and "Best Graphics". Diane won the Pentacle +Award for "Favorite Pagan Editrix", and Otter for "Favorite Pagan +Writer". + + The non-fictional Church of All Worlds has grown far beyond +Heinlein's dream. There are nine concentric circles of member involve- +ment, named after the planets and grouped into three rings. Each +circle's activity includes study, writings, magical training, sen- +sitivity and encounter-group experience, as well as active participation +in the life of the Church. The First Ring, Circles 1, 2, and 3, is for +Seekers, those who are only participants. Second Ring, Circles 4 through +6, is made up of Scions, members who help run the church. The clergy, +Council of the Third Ring, consists of legally ordained priests and +priestesses; longtime members who have worked through the other circles, +undergone personal and leadership development, religious training, and +completed the Church's ordination requirements. There are two +governing bodies in addition to the Clergy: the Board of Directors, +which determines policy and business matters, and the Fun Committee, +which implements the activities and functions of the Church. The Fun +Committee is made up of a Board member, a clergy member, and one +representative from each of the church functions, such as Rites and +Festivals, Publications, Membership, Communications and each subsidiary. +There is an annual General Meeting to elect officers and make changes in +the Church's ever-evolving Bylaws. Worship involves attending weekly or +monthly Nest meetings usually held in the homes of Nest members. +Autonomous nests are composed of at least three members of 2nd Circle +meeting monthly or more often. The basic liturgical form is based on a +circle where a chalice of water is shared around as part of the ritual +part of the Nest meeting. Longer events are celebrated at the Church +sanctuary, Annwfn, a 55-acres of land in northern California. Annwfn has +a two-story temple, cabins, garden, orchard and a small pond. It is +maintained by a small community of resident caretakers. In addition to +the eight Celtic seasonal festivals, the Church holds handfastings +(marriages), vision quests, initiations, workshops, retreats, work +parties and meetings on the land. As of 1993, the Church has ten +chartered nests in California, with others in Florida, Illinois, +Arizona, Maryland, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Australia (where CAW has +become the first legally-incorporated Pagan church in that country). A +number of proto-Nests are in the process of forming. Current President +is priest Tom Williams (a member since 1968). Otter is presently +engaged in the formation of the Universal Federation of Pagans (UFP), a +worldwide association with which he hopes to unify the global Pagan +community. 1992 was the 30th anniversary of the Church. A Grand +Convocation was held in August, with an attendance of nearly 300. +Membership at the end of 1993 was around 600. + + The Mission Statement of the Church of All Worlds is as follows: +The mission of the Church of All Worlds is to evolve a network of +information, mythology, and experience that provides a context and +stimulus for reawakening Gaea, and reuniting Her children through tribal +community dedicated to responsible stewardship and the general evolution +of consciousness. Over the years, the Church of All Worlds has +chartered a number of subsidiary branches through which it practices and +teaches its religion: + +2521 + +* Forever Forests : Box 212, Redwood Valley, CA 95470. Founded in +1977 by Gwydion Pendderwen; the ecology branch. Sponsors tree-planting +events and rituals. + +* Lifeways : 2140 Shattuck #2093, Berkeley, CA 94704. Founded in +1983 by Anodea Judith; the teaching branch. Offers workshops, classes, +healing rituals, recovery programs, wilderness excursions, and training +for the priesthood. Handles the Progressive Involvement Program. + +* Nemeton : Box 610, Laytonville, CA 95454. Founded in 1972 by +Gwydion Pennderwen and Alison Harlow; the marketing branch. Tapes and +CDs, songbooks, T-shirts, philosophical tracts and books. Catalog +available. + +* Ecosophical Research Assn. (ERA) : Box 982, Ukiah, CA 95482. +Founded in 1977 by Morning Glory Zell; devoted to research and explora- +tion in the fields of history, mythology and natural sciences. Produced +the Living Unicorn, the New Guinea Mermaid expedition and a Peruvian +Pilgrimage. + +* Holy Order of Mother Earth (HOME) : Box 212, Redwood Valley, CA +95470 Founded in 1977 by the Zells and Alison Harlow; magical and +shamanic branch open only to trained initiates. Creates and conducts the +Church's rituals and ceremonies.* Peaceful Order of the Earth Mother +(POEM) : Box 5227, Clearlake, CA 95422. Founded in 1988 by Willowoak +Istarwood; dedicated to children and child nurturing. Provides +enriching activities for children at gatherings, summer camps and a +quarterly magazine for Pagan youth, How About Magic? (HAM) :$7 per year. + +* Green Egg : Box 1542, Ukiah, CA 95482. Award-winning quarterly +journal of the New Paganism and the Gaian Renaissance, founded in 1968 +by Otter Zell. Sample $6; subscription $15/yr US bulk mail; $21/yr +US/Canada 1st class/envelope; $27/yr trans-Atlantic; $30/yr trans-Pacif- +ic. + +* Annwfn : Box 48, Calpella, CA 95418. CAW's 55-acre land sanctuary +and retreat in the Misty Mountains of Mendonesia. Write for Visitor's +Policy. + +* CAW Membership and General Correspondence : +(Australian Headquaters) PO Box 408, Woden, ACT 2606. + + References: + Further information on the Church of All Worlds may be found in the +following books: + +Adler, Margot, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess- +Worshipers and other Pagans in America Today, Beacon Press, 1979; +revised and updated 1987. (essential!) + +Ellwood, Robert, Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America, 1973. + +Gottleib, Annie, Do You Believe in Magic? The Second Coming of the +Sixties Generation, Times Books, 1987 + +Guiley, Rosemary, Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, Facts on File, +1989; (extensive!) + +2522 + +The Perennial Encyclopedia of Mystical and Psychic Experience, 1990. + +Jade, To Know, Delphi Press, 1991. + +Martello, Leo Louis, Witchcraft, the Old Religion, University Books, +1973. + +Melton, J. Gordon, The Encyclopedia of American Religions, from the +Institute for the Study of American Religions, POB 90709, Santa Barbara, +CA 93190 1979 ( 3rd edition, 1988); The Essential New Age, 1990. + +Wilson, Robert Anton, Coincidance, Falcon Press, 1988 +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2523 + + Neo-Paganism: An Old Religion for a New Age + by Otter G'ZellFounder, Church of All Worlds + + As founder and priest of a Neo-Pagan church, I have often been +asked to explain exactly what we mean by the term "Pagan". We find +ourselves in the peculiar position of having a public image that was +created not by ourselves, but by our persecutors. It is much as if the +Nazis had succeeded in eradicating Judaism to the extent that, genera- +tions later, the common opinion of what the Jewish faith was all about +was derived solely from the anti-Semitic propaganda of the Third Reich. + + In Europe alone, from tens of thousands to millions (the figures +are still in dispute) of Pagans were martyred by the Christian churches +during the Inquisition and Witch trials. Those figures do not even +count the millions of other Pagan peoples in North and South America, +Africa, Polynesia, Melanesia and Asia who fell before the advancing +plague of Western Christendom. + + Today, the conception most people have of Paganism is the lurid one +drawn by the Christian church to justify its own reign of terror, and +bears about as much relation to reality as the similar propaganda +Christianity once fostered about Jews. In the 13th century the Church +opened its long-drawn-out conflict with Paganism in Europe by declaring +Witchcraft to be a 'sect' and heretical. It was not til the 14th +century that the two religions came to grips. + + All through the 16th and 17th centuries the battle raged. The +Pagans fought a gallant, though losing, fight against a remorseless and +unscrupulous enemy; every inch of the field was disputed. At first +victory occasionally inclined to the Pagans, but the Christian policy of +obtaining influence over the rulers and law-givers was irresistible. +Vae victis was also the policy of the Christians, and we see the priests +of the Papacy gloating over the thousands whom they had consigned to the +flames while the ministers of the Reformed Churches hounded on the +administrators of the law to condemn the 'devil worshipers'. + + What can have been the feelings with which those unhappy victims +regarded the vaunted God of Love, the Prince of Peace, whose votaries +condemned them to torture and death? What wonder that they clung to +their old faith, and died in agony unspeakable rather than deny their +God. (Margaret Murray, The God of the Witches, 1931, Oxford GB 332, pp. +21-22) + + 'Pagan' does not mean "irreligious" or "barbarian". It is the +correct anthropological term to describe indigenous folk religions, +being derived from the Latin paganus, "peasant," which derives in turn +from pagus, "village". The Latin comes from the Greek pagos, "standing +stone," and paga, "sacred spring," representing, respectively, the male +and female generative powers. Paganism is basically Nature worship. +'Pagan' is a proper noun or adjective denoting the name of a religion, +and as such, is properly always capitalized, as is 'Jewish' or 'Hin- +du'. + + Religions can be roughly divided into two distinct categories: the +naturally evolving, indigenous "folk" religions of particular regions +and peoples (the Pagan religions), and on the other hand the "revealed" +religions: those religions owing their existence to a "revelation" +taught by some great "prophet" and formulated in various creeds and +2524 + +dogmas. The latter category, of course, includes most of the "Great +Religions of Mankind:" Judeo-Christian-Islamic, Buddhist, Confucian, +etc. Though articulated by a great teacher, Lao-tsu, Taoism is +essentially Pagan in philosophy and attitude, while Hinduism and Shinto +are Pagan in origin and essence even though they have become institu- +tionalized as State religions. + + Pagan religions are characterized by being "natural," both in +origin and mode of expression, as opposed to the artificiality of +constructed revealed religions. Paganism emerges out of the processes +of Life and Nature, and continues to evolve as a living, growing, +organic entity. + + Revealed religions are like buildings: an architect (prophet) get +an inspiration (revelation) and lays down his vision in blueprints +(prophecy; scriptures). Then contractors, carpenters, masons, etc. +(disciples and followers) build the structure more or less according to +his specifications. It is made of non-living materials, and does not +grow naturally; it is assembled. When it is finished, it cannot grow +further, and begins to deteriorate, until it is eventually so outmoded +and rundown it is demolished to make way for new buildings. A world of +revealed religions is like unto a city, with all the problems (hunger, +war, hatreds, crime, pollution, dis-ease) of a city, and for much the +same reason: alienation from the life-flow. + + A Pagan religion, on the other hand, is like a tree: it emerges +alive from the Earth, grows, changes (both cyclically through the +seasons, and continually in upward and outward growth), bears flowers +and fruit, and shares its life with other living beings. It is not made +or designed according to any blueprint other than genetic. And when, +after many thousands of years, perhaps, it should come to the end of its +time, it does not pass from the world entirely, for its own progeny +have, in the interval, begun to spring up all around, again from the +Earth, and again, similar yet each unique. A world of Pagan religions +is like a forest. + + Paganism includes Animism, Pantheism, Shamanism and Totemism. +(Witchcraft is the survival or reconstruction of European Shamanism; +i.e., the magical arts of tribal peoples.) Pagan are the native +religions of the American Indians, the Africans, the various Island +peoples, many peasants in the mountains of Asia, the Aborigines of +Australia, and, at one time, the Gauls, Teutons, Norse, Celts and +Faeries (as the invading Saxons called the pygmy neolithic race they +encountered in the British Isles). Long before they encountered +Christianity, the Faeries (known to archaeologists as Pretani, or Picts) +had been forced by the Saxons onto the inhospitable Heaths of Britain, +later to be called "Heathens" by the Church. By 1500 CE, they had been +virtually exterminated, save for those who managed to intermarry or +exchange their infants for those of the invaders ("changelings"). +Moreover, as it was later to do in the case of the Witches, who +inherited much of the Faery lore and religion, the Church began a +campaign to convince the world and future generations that these people +had never existed in the first place, but were merely imaginary! The old +Pagan religions were never "created". They had no founding prophets and +no saviors. They grew up with their people, and their origins are lost +in the mists at the dawn of humanity. What little we can trace +indicates a descent from paleolithic and neolithic "fertility cults," +hence the common symbols of the Earth Mother Goddess, the Green Man and +2525 + +the Horned GodÑthe fecund embodiments of living Nature. We find them +therefore unanimous in their veneration of Nature and their sensual +celebration of life, birth, sex and death as expressed in the seasonal +Festivals of the Sacred Year. All these Great Festivals of Paganism, +wherever they may be found, correspond in common with the Solstices, +Equinoxes, and other natural annual cycles of life (animal mating and +birth seasons, planting, harvest). + + Most of these remain with us today in more-or-less disguised form +as the so-called "Christian" holidays of Christmas (Yule), Easter +(Ostara), May Day (Beltane), Thanksgiving (Mabon or Harvest Home), +Halloween (Samhain) and even Groundhog's Day (Oimelc). In addition to +these six, there are two others, Litha (Midsummer) and Lughnasadh, +comprising a total of eight Festivals (or Sabbats, as they are known, +sometimes under different names, in Witchcraft). Thus it is obvious +that the rich heritage of Paganism forms a solid foundation for the +spontaneous emergence of a Neo-Pagan revival today. In the midst of our +current spiritual and ecological crisis, it is highly appropriate that +natural religions are once again finding a place among the children of +Earth. + + Modern Neo-Paganism, however, is somewhat distinct from the Old +Religion, in that it is to a large measure a relatively new phenomenon. +Neo-Pagan religions are many and diverse. They range from the sublimely +artistic Paradisal vision and reconstruction of old Pagan Mysteries of +Feraferia to the astrological divination and ancient Egyptian religion +of the Church of the Eternal Source, and from the Wiccan-oriented myth +and ritual of the Pagan Way to the transpersonal psychology, science- +fiction mythology and deep ecology of the Church of All Worlds. All of the dozens of Neo-Pagan religions now in existence, and most of +the countless sects of Witchcraft, however, do hold certain values in +common, and it is these values which relate them to Paganism in the +older sense. + + One of the key values of Neo-Paganism is its insistence on personal +responsibility. The Church of All Worlds expresses this in the phrase, +"Thou art God/dess," implying total personal freedom and individual +responsibility on the part of every one of us. Paganism has no concept +of "original sin," and hence has no need of saviors. Neo-Pagans do not +expect Divine retribution for breaking social taboos. Rather, concepts +of "sin" and "atonement" are restated in the framework of ecological +awareness and karma. If our actions are discordant and in opposition to +the evolutionary flow of Life, we suffer the ecological consequences, in +much the same way, and for exactly the same reason, as diseased cells in +the body are attacked by the antibodies and other natural defenses. +Whatever energy we put out returns to us multiplied threefold. Love +returns love; hate returns hate. Robert Ingersoll observed: "In Nature +there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences". The +total responsibility (and hence the total freedom) rests in our +hands. + + As in the Old Religion, Neo-Pagans conceptualize Divinity as +manifest in the processes of Nature. Indeed, in a very literal sense, +Mother Nature, Mother Earth, is "Goddess," and She has been recognized +as such since time immemorial. Thus ecology is seen as the supreme +religious study: "Nature is Divinity made manifest...It is creativit- +y, continuity, balance, beauty and truth of life. "Everything we +encounter in the Biosphere is a part of Nature, and ecology reveals the +2526 + +pattern of that is-ness, the natural relationships among all these +things and the Organic Unity of all of them as a Biospheric Whole. Thus +ecology shows the pattern of man's proper and creative involvement with +Nature, that Nature which encompasses his own life and on proper +relation to which his survival and development depend: Of all man's +secular studies, ecology comes closest to bringing him to the threshold +of religious relationship to his world. Ecology not only confirms the +wonders of form and function that other secular studies have revealed, +but it brings these into organic union with each other as one dynamic, +living Whole; and it points out the conditions for the wellbeing of both +this overall Unity and the parts that comprise it. + + An intensive realization of these conditions, and of one's own +immediate role in their sustainment and development, brings one to the +threshold of religious awe. To worship Nature, therefore, is to +venerate and commune with Divinity as the dynamically organic perfection +of the whole. (Council of Themis, from Green Egg #43) + + Neo-Paganism is a recent mutation of the Old Religion which had its +earliest emergence during the European Renaissance with the rediscovery +of the ancient Greek philosophers via Arabian texts brought by traveler- +s. However, this was also the time of the Burnings, and the budding +Neo-Pagan emergence was suppressed until the late 1700's, when it found +expression in the Romantic Period of art, music and literature, +especially in Germany. + + This Romantic flowering of Neo-Paganism, especially the element +known as the Bavarian Illuminati (whose mottoes were "eternal flower +power" and "eternal serpent power"), greatly appealed to a visiting +American named Benjamin Franklin, and upon his return to the colonies, +it became a major spiritual force in the post-Revolutionary America of +the 1780s, where its influence continued to shape the new nation through +the presidencies of the Adams family. It was Monroe and the War of 1812 +that managed to suppress this movement for a time, but it re-emerged 60 +years later in the form of the Transcendentalist Movement, exemplified +in the poetry and writings of Whitman, Thoreau and Emerson, and the +overnight mushrooming of the commune movement in the 1840's. The Civil +War, Reconstruction, the conquest of the West and the Gold Rush drained +the Nature-oriented spiritual energy from the people of America for +another 60 years, but it blossomed again through the Art Nouveau +movement in the 1900's. Then came the World Wars, the Depression, +McCarthyism...60 more years had to pass before the gathering impact of +Eastern religious philosophy, especially Zen, and Existentialism gave +birth to the "hip" "underground" counter-culture of the Beatniks, whose +experimentation with drugs, sexuality, music, poetry, communal living +and alternate lifestyles paved the way for the Hippie phenomenon of the +1960's (which spontaneously resurrected the old Illuminati motto of +"flower power"). + + The seeds of Neo-Paganism which had again lain dormant for three +generations took root in such fertile soil, and emerged once more into +the light, to be joined in the '70s by the heirs of Wicca, the last +vestiges of the Old Religion of Europe. The New Religion is still very +much Paganism, for its inspiration and orientation today is based, as +was that of its predecessors, upon an understanding and relationship of +Humanity within the larger perspective of Life, Nature and the Universe. +Fred Adams of Feraferia coined the term "eco-psychic" to describe the +type of awareness that permeates the New Religion. +2527 + + + Revealed religions, especially of the monotheistic variety, tend to +see man as a special creation, exalted above all Nature, and the epitome +of God's handiwork. Thus the Biblical injunction to Man to "have +dominion over all the Earth" is not seen by Judeo-Christians as +outrageously presumptuous; nor is God's destruction of all life on Earth +in the legend of the Deluge seen as insanely immoral ecocide. Both God +and Man are considered to have a "divine right" to desecrate the Earth +at their pleasure. This is in direct opposition to the view of +Paganism, which sees humanity's duty not to conquer Nature, but to live +in harmony and stewardship with Her. Every revealed religion claims +to have its own direct pipeline to the Divinity, and its own essential +precepts from direct, unassailable revelation. Neo-Pagans, on the other +hand, have outgrown egotistical and temperamental gods, and expect no +intervention from some Big Daddy in the Sky to solve the problems of our +times. Instead, we look to Nature (through the clear glass of ecology) +for inspiration and direction, and to ourselves as the instrumentality +for all that needs to be done. + + Thou art God/dess! + Otter G'Zell, 1970 (revised Jan. 8, 1991) +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2528 + + Neo-Pagan Witchcraft vs. Satanism:Confusions and Distinctions + by Otter and Morning Glory Zell + + It seems to be necessary to preface every discussion of Witchcraft +with an explanation that, no, Neo-Pagan Witches aren't Satanists. The +Christian anti-God, Satan, has no place in Pagan pantheons, either +mythologically or theologically. Plainly and simply, Satanism is the +dark side of Christianity, and Satan is nothing other than the collec- +tive Id of Christendom. + + Even today, Witchcraft is frequently misrepresented by being +confused with Satanism. Often the word Witchcraft is used to represent +two wholly opposite phenomena: the survival of ancient Paganism in one +instance, and the inversion of Christianity in another. Let us make it +clear: a Satanist is a renegade Christian, who, in his rebellion +against the authority of the church, worships Satan rather than Christ. +Such people are at times called witches and warlocks in popular books +and movies but they have little to do with Pagan Witches. Satanists, +for one thing, accept the Christian duality between good and evil; +Pagans do not. Satanists may choose to worship evil rather than good: +but they have utterly bought the Christian world view".1 + + The word Pagan derives from the Latin paganus, meaning "peasant" or +"country dweller". It is correctly applied to indigenous (native) +pantheistic folk religions and peoples. The term "Neo-Paganism" is +applied to the current revival of ancient Pagan religious values, +including the sacredness of all Life and the worship of Nature. Modern +Witchcraft has been a major component of the Neo-Pagan resurgence since +England repealed its anti-Witchcraft laws in 1951.The Goddess and the +God of Witchcraft The many traditions of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft have few +universal theological precepts, but one of them is certainly the +veneration of the Moon Goddess, known most commonly by her Roman name, +Diana. She is perceived as manifesting in triple form: as Maiden, +Mother and Crone. These triple aspects are identified respectively with +the waxing, full, and waning moons. Witches gather at esbats every full +moon, to sing and dance in Her moonlight, share cakes and wine, and work +magic to heal each other, their friends, and the Earth. Many modern +Witches expand the concept of the Goddess considerably, and see Her also +as Mother Earth and Mother Nature. + + Most traditions of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft also honor the Consort of +the Goddess in the form of the Horned God, who is seen as Lord of +Animals as well as seasonal ruler of the Underworld. The most familiar +version of the Horned God is the Greek Pan, goat-horned and goat-hooved, +playing His panpipes, guzzling wine from His freely-flowing wineskin, +and seducing nymphs in the woods. He is regarded as lusty and jovial, +epitomizing masculine attributes of ideal father, brother or lover. As +the Goddess of Witchcraft is closely identified with the Moon, so the +God is identified with the Sun. In this way He may be seen mythologi- +cally as the lover both of the Moon and of the Earth. Another of His +many epithets is "Lord of Light". Every light casts its shadows, and +the Lord of Shadows is the other face of the Lord of Light. Lord of the +Underworld is the title of the God in Winter when He goes underground +with the animals to hibernate. Some traditions had Him alternate with +His brother as husband to the eternal Goddess. Others, as in the Greek +Hades, had a year-round God of the Underworld, "The Devil." + + It is essential to clarify the historic relationship of Pan and the +2529 + +Devil, as Christianity has tended to confuse the two, giving rise to the +accusation that Pagans are Devil-worshipers because some Pagan gods have +horns. Once and for all, the Christian Devil is not the God of the +Witches! The genesis of the Devil comes from a merging of two concepts: +Satan and Lucifer. The original meaning of the word satan is "adve- +rsary", and his inclusion in the Bible represents an attempt by later +apologists of the Old Testament to justify the more negative actions of +a benevolent God (such as the persecution of Job) by attributing the +actual dirty work to a testing spirit; the original "devil's advocate". +This entity was not considered evil until after the Persian conquest +introduced the Hebrews to the Zoroastrian dualism of Ahura-Mazda (the +good God) vs. Ahriman (the evil God). This later manifested in Chris- +tianity as Manichean dualism. The Manichean equation was brutally +simple: God=Good; Devil=Evil. But it was not until the year 447 CE +that the Council of Toledo declared the legal existence of the Devil as +an actual entity, though he was still not thought of as necessarily +manifesting in human form. + + The Lucifer story is a mish-mashed retelling of the Canaanite myth +about the overthrow of Baal by Mot and the usurpation of Baal's throne +by Athar, the god of the morning star. The original Hebrew name for +Lucifer was helel ben shahar meaning "son of the day star" (the planet +Venus). The name Lucifer ("light bearer"), a Romano-Etruscan title of +the Sun God, was erroneously used when the Bible was first translated +into Latin.2 + + Various shadow gods or divine adversaries contributed to the +creation of the Devil, including the Canaanite Moloch or Mot, the +Egyptian Set or Suteck and the Roman Saturn. + + Judeo-Christian theologians placed all Pagan gods and goddesses in an +adversary position to Yahweh, the god of Israel, who, as a monotheistic +deity, cannot share a pantheon. This is a profound cultural difference +from Pagan pantheons and polytheistic peoples who co-existed together, +whether or not in harmony. Also since unbridled sexuality, especially +for females, was defined by Judeo-Christianity as evil, Pagan gods and +goddesses who were especially sexual or sensual garnered the new sect's +particular hatred. Pan (who instills panic) and Dionysus were neither +evil nor adversary deities, but because of their riotous celebrations +the Devil acquired Pan's horns and hooves and Dionysus' ambiguously mad +and bibulous nature. This final equation of the Pagan Horned God with +Satan was not established, however, until the year 1486, when the +Dominicans Kramer and Sprenger published the Malleus Malificarum, or +"Hammer of the Witches", wherein they gave the first physical descrip- +tion of the Devil as he is commonly depicted today, declaring that this +was the god worshiped by those they wanted to call "witches", thereby +justifying the centuries of terrible persecution inflicted upon those +who clung faithfully to their worship of the elder gods. + Witchcraft and Shamanism Witches were the shamans, or medicine men +and women, of the tribal Celtic peoples of Europe, and they functioned +in the same fashion as shamans of any other tribal culture, be it +American Indians, Africans, or Australian Aborigines. In fact, and in +time-honored tradition, shamans are still commonly referred to as "Witch +Doctors". + + Shamans are specialists in herbal lore, and the Witches of Pagan +Europe were no exception. Usually, but not exclusively, women, they +practiced herbal medicine, midwifery, augury, spellcasting, and +2530 + +counseling. Often dwelling alone out in the woods, Witches lived close +to Nature, and attuned to Her cycles. Their gardens grew not only food, +but also many kinds of herbs, including those valued for their medic- +inal, anesthetic and hallucinogenic properties. In a period of time +when good Christian folk maintained only those domestic animals that +could be considered "livestock" (i.e., useful to humans), Witches +frequently kept wild animal pets: foxes, ferrets, owls, ravens and of +course, the ubiquitous cats. Such became known, appropriately enough, as +familiars. When Witches came to be persecuted, so did these familiar +animals, and the brutal capture, torture and burning of millions of cats +that accompanied the Witch burnings begat the horrible Black Plague that +devastated Europe in the 14th century, for the cats had kept the rat +populations under control, and it was rat fleas that were the carrier of +the bubonic plague bacillus."The Burning Times" + + It is sadly ironic that, though the practitioners of Witchcraft +have historically suffered real abuse and persecution, the Witch has +somehow continued to be misrepresented as the villain. Christianity did +not become the world's dominant religion by peaceful conversion, but by +the sword and stake. As the legions of Caesar had forged the Roman +Empire over the dead bodies of countless tribal peoples of Europe, so +did its heir, the Holy Roman Empire, continue the tradition. Declaring +them "heresies", agents of the Holy Inquisition hunted out and ruth- +lessly exterminated every religion, sect or tradition that would not +convert to "The One True Right And Only Way". Witches, however, lived +outside of any organized religious structure and were largely ignored +until the 13th century, when the Church had finally gained enough power +to deal with grass-roots Paganism. "In the 13th century the Church +opened its long-drawn-out conflict with Paganism in Europe by declaring +"Witchcraft' to be a "sect' and heretical. It was not til the 14th +century that the two religions came to grips. . . In 1324 the bishop of +Ossory tried Dame Alice Kyteler in his ecclesiastical court for the +crime of worshiping a deity other than the Christian God. . . + + "The 15th century marks the first great victories of the Church. +Beginning with the trials in Lorraine in 1408, the Church moved +triumphantly against Joan of Arc and her followers in 1431, against +Gilles de Rais and his coven in 1440, and against the Witches of Brescia +in 1457. Towards the end of the century the Christian power was so +well-established that the Church felt the time had come for an organized +attack, and in 1484 Pope Innocent VIII published his Bull against +"Witches.' All through the 16th and 17th centuries the battle raged. +The Pagans fought a gallant, though losing, fight against a remorseless +and unscrupulous enemy; every inch of the field was disputed, but the +Christian policy of obtaining influence over the rulers and law-givers +was irresistible. Vae victis ["woe to the conquered"] was also the +policy of the Christians, and we see the priests of the Papacy gloating +over the thousands they had consigned to the flames while the ministers +of the Reformed Churches hounded on the administrators of the law to +condemn the "devil worshipers.' What could have been the feelings with +which those unhappy victims regarded the vaunted God of Love, the Prince +of Peace, whose votaries condemned them to torture and death? What +wonder that they clung to their old faith, and died in agony unspeakable +rather than deny their God".3 It should also be pointed out that the +court recorders at the Witch trials were specifically instructed that, +whatever gods or goddesses the accused actually claimed to worship, what +went into the record was "Satan" or "The Devil". And what wonder if +some of those who had come to believe the Biblical history taught them +2531 + +by the missionaries, monks and priests of the conquering faith, +concluded that the story must have gotten it wrong somehow? That if +there had indeed been a rebellion in heaven, it was clearly evident that +the winner had not been the God of love and peace, as his propagandists +claimed, but rather a God of cruelty and evil; of war and violence, +wrath and jealousy. (This had, in fact, been an old Gnostic tradition.) + + The clear implication was that the defeated Lucifer must have been +the good guy, and surely many must have swarmed to his allegiance in +this belief. While true adherents of the Old Religions certainly knew +better, and continued their faith entirely distinct from Christianity, +there were surely, then as now, many ignorant people who were simply too +unsophisticated or too illiterate to question the Christian paradigm +once it became established. And thus did Satanism as a belief and a +practice come into being, spawned by the Church, and forever to be +locked together with it in a fatal embrace of mutual antagonism. + + Whether or not the persecuted peasantry who came to side with Satan +against their oppressors thought of themselves as "Witches", the Church +and the authorities of the Holy Inquisition certainly identified them as +such: "The heart and centre of the persecution of Witches was that +they were Satanists, that they had rejected the rightful God and given +their allegiance to his arch-opponent, and that in their "sabbaths' or +meetings they worshiped the ruler of evil, carnality and filth. Some of +those accused as Witches do seem to have taken the Devil for their god, +worshiping him as an equal opponent of the Christian God, over whom he +would eventually triumph. They looked to Satan for power and pleasure +in this world and for a happy future in the next, and they vilified +Christ as a traitor and a cheat, who had made promises which he did not +keep, and who had gone away to live in heaven while Satan remained with +his faithful on earth".4 "The Witches and sorcerers of early times were +a widely spread class who had retained the beliefs and traditions of +heathenism with all its license and romance and charm of the forbidden. +. . in their ranks every one who was oppressed or injured either by the +nobility or the church. They were treated with indescribable cruelty, +in most cases worse than beasts of burden, for they were outraged in all +their feelings, not at intervals for punishment, but habitually by +custom, and they revenged themselves by secret orgies and fancied +devil-worship, and occult ties, and stupendous sins, or what they +fancied were such. I can seriously conceive: what no writer seems to +have considered: that there must have been an immense satisfaction in +selling or giving one's self to the devil, or to any power which was at +war with their oppressors. So they went by night, at the full moon, and +sacrificed to Diana, or "later on' to Satan, and they danced and +rebelled. It is very well worth noting that we have all our accounts of +sorcerers and heretics from Catholic priests, who had every earthly +reason for misrepresenting them, and did so. In the vast amount of +ancient Witchcraft still surviving in Italy, there is not much anti- +Christianity, but a great deal of early heathenism. Diana, not Satan, +is still the real head of the Witches".5 + + Since Witchcraft is still little understood by the general public, +whose images are shaped mostly by the popular media, Witches continue to +be easy targets for persecution. It must be remembered that, in the +previous episodes of Witchcraft persecution hysteria, it was the Witches +who were the victims, not the Christians. Witches, and those con- +veniently accused of being Witches, died by the millions during the +terrible centuries of the holocaust they remember as "The Burning +2532 + +Times". They do not wish to repeat that experience today.6 + + Notes and References: + +1. Jong, Erica, Witches (New American Library, New York,1981) p. 52 +2. Zell, Morning Glory, "The Lord of Light", Green Egg, Vol. XXI, No. + 82; Aug. 1, 1988 (POB 1542, Ukiah, CA 95482) p. 12 +3. Murray, Margaret, The God of the Witches (Oxford Univ. Press, NY, + 1931) pp. 21-22 +4. Cavendish, Richard, "Satanism", Encyclopedia of Man, Myth and + Magic, Vol. 18 (Marshall Cavendish, NY, 1970) p. 2479 +5. Leland, Charles Godfrey, Legends of Florence, (David Nutt, London, + 1896) +6. Guiley, Rosemary, Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft (Facts on + File, NY, 1989) +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2533 + + WHERE THE HELL IS THE CHURCH OF ALL WORLDS + + + WHERE WE'RE AT: +The Church of All Worlds offers a religious position uniquely suited to +the enlightened, inquiring modern mind. In harmony with the principles +and conclusions of science, receptive to the values and wisdom of the +ancients and the great religions of humanity, sensitive to the deep +psychological and spiritual needs of all people, the Church of All +Worlds aspires to be the kind of free, growing and unifying religion +that today's and tomorrow's world so urgently needs. + +The Church of All Worlds is Neo-Pagan : a modern Earth Religion - an +orientation chosen because of its traditional associations with Life and +the processes of Nature, which we consider an appropriate religious +orientation for the emerging Aquarian Age. As Western civilisation has +been to a great degree the product of the past two thousand years of +Piscean Age Chrisianity, so do we envision a new whole-Earth culture of +transformative religious ecology to become the product of the next epoch +of Aquarian Age Neo-Paganism. In common with many other Neo-Pagan +religions, CAW presents a life-affirming religious philosophy for the +joyous unification of eros, ethos and ecos; of cult, culture and +cultivation. + +We consider the Church of All Worlds to be radically evolutionary in +concept, rather than revolutionary. We see the evolution of Life on +Earth as moving towards a point of actualisation whereby the entire +planet will come to share a single vast global consciousness. We see +humanity being instrumental in the course of that evolution. As humans +seem to be the only creatures on the planet capable of disrupting entire +ecosystems, it becomes our manifest responsibility through our unique +freedom of choice to prevent such systems from being disrupted. We are +not anti-technology or science, for we recognise that certain scientific +and technological advances, such as ecology, geology, astronomy, +psychology, archaeology, cybernetics, astrophysics, communications +and the technology of the bio-renaissance can be positively evolutionary +and in harmony with the accelerating advance of planetary consciousness. +What we oppose is the senseless use of industrial technology to wreak +havok with the planetary ecosystem, often in the name of the Biblical +injunction that Man is to have "dominion over the Earth." We percieve +our not as dominion, but as responsible stewardship. + +Applying evolutionary concepts to each individual, we agree with Erich +Fromm that the purpose of life is "to become what we potentially are." +We identify strongly with the concepts of human self-actualisation +identified by Abraham Maslow and found in transpersonal psychology and +ethics. Rejecting utterly concepts of predestination and inherent sin, +we affirm the ultimate freedom and responsibility appropriate to +conscious entities, which we express in the phrase "Thou Art God/dess," +derived from Robert Heinlein's novel, 'Stranger in a Strange Land.' This +implies that each one of us must define our own specific purpose. There +is no excuse; no shelter from the awesome responsibility of total +freedom. + +Recognising that all Life on Earth comprises a single vast living +Entity, which has been intuitively conceptualised as a feminine from +time immemorial, we are in harmony with our Pagan ancestors who +worshipped The Goddess: Mother Earth, Mother Nature. Thus we also affirm +2534 + +mystically and mythically the pantheistic conceptualisation of immanent +divinity inherent in all living entities, as synergic living Nature, for +we define divinity as the highest level of aware consciousness acces- +sible to each living being, manifesting itself in the self-actualisation +of that being. Hence, "Thou Art God/dess" applies equally to a person, +a tree, a grasshopper or a planet. + +As Neo-Pagans, we are concerned, not with life after death, but with +life after birth. We have no dogmas of immortality, considering that +whatever one believes about an afterlife, may very well be what one +gets. We view death as an evolutionary prerequisite for the emergence of +new life, and so we return the dead to the Earth, from which the +elements of their energy and matter will eventually be recycled and +reconstituted into the energy and matter of other life forms. Other than +our ecological responsibility of returning to the Earth that which we +have taken from Her, we are not concerned with dying, but with living. + +We are deeply concerned with improving the quality of that life, to +which end we agree with population ecologists that its quantity (in +sheer numbers of people) must be drastically reduced. Thus we are +strongly supportive of the various measures of birth control advocated +by such agencies as Planned Parenthood, including full legalisation of +abortion. We greatly fear that if humanity does not choose to limit its +numbers by reducing births, Nature will do it for us by increasing +deaths. + + + WHERE WE'RE GOING: + +The word 'Religion' means "re-linking." The basic committment of the +Church of All Worlds is to the re-integration of people with themselves, +their fellow humans, and with the whole of living Nature. In company +with all other Pagan peoples, we create no artificial demarkations +between the sacred and the secular, for we recognise that religion must +ultimately be an entire way of life, not merely some ritual acts +performed once a week. We are committed to developing an organic, +vitalistic philosophy of life and its expression in an organic culture. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2535 + +To this end, then, the Church of All Worlds devotes itself to those who +need or want the help and understanding through the processes of +unlearning and learning. It is our aim to offer assistance through any +personal expansion programs found to be effective. Furthermore, we +intend to remain openminded and receptive to new ideas, interests and +goals, and learn to live responsibly and responsively with each other. + +We advocate envolvement with every conceivable aspect of the emerging +Gaian culture, from religious service and mythology to family relations +and child rearing; from education to ecology; from psychic development +to space travel; from the sensual to the sexual; from intentional +communities to planetary government and world peace. "Nothing short of +everything will ever really do." We are engaged in the eclectic +reconstruction of ancient Nature religions, combining archetypes of many +cultures with other mystic and spiritual disciplines. But we are not +just trying to re-create a Paradise Lost; we are actively working to +actualise a visionary future. With roots deep in the Earth and branches +reaching towards the stars, we evoke and create myths not only of a +Golden Age long past, but also of one yet to come... + +Since we are concerned with the emergent evolution of a total new +culture and lifestyle, and since we perceive no distinction between the +sacred and the secular, we consider every activity to be essentially a +religious activity. For us, taking our cans and bottles to the +recycling centre is as much a religious duty as prayer and meditation. +And so are composting our garbage, growing organicl vegetables, +practicing birth control, using bio-degradable products, boycotting +tuna, training and study, protecting animals and celebration of the +seasons. We recognise that the essence of a religion is in the living of +it. + + + WHERE WE CAME FROM: + +The Church of All Worlds traces its history back to 1962, when a "water +brotherhood" called "Atl" was formed by Tim Zell and Lance Christie at +Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. During the mid 60's the group +was centered on the University of Oklahoma campus at Norman and operated +under the name "Atlan Foundation". A periodical "The Atlan Torch" (later +"The Atlan Annals") was published from 1962-1968. In 1968, following a +move to St. Louis, the Church of All Worlds was incorporated, becoming +the first of the Neo-Pagan/Earth Religions to obtain full federal +recognition. In March of that year, the Green Egg appeared. From its +inauspicious beginnings as a one page ditto sheet, it grew over 80 +issues into a 60 page journal, evolving into the most significant +periodical in the Pagan movement during the 1970's. After a 10 year +hiatus while the original staff moved to northern California to +experience a life of homesteading in the mountain wilderness, the Green +Egg resumed publication in 1988 with its 81st edition. + +The Church of All Worlds took much inspiration from the 1961 science +fiction classic, 'Stranger in a Strange Land' by Robert Heinlein. In the +novel, the stranger, Michael Valentine Smith, was an earthman born on +Mars and raised by Martians. Among his other adventures upon being +brought to earth was the formation of the "Church of All Worlds". The +"Church" was built around "Nests," a combination of congregation and +expanded family. A basic concept was "grokking" i.e. the ability to be +fully empathic. It also emphasised the experience of co-equal love +2536 + +between sexes. The common greeting was "thou Art God;" as recognition of +the immanent divinity in each person. + +The basic theology of the real-life Church of All Worlds is a form of +pantheism which focusses on immanent rather than transcendant divinity. +The most important theological statement came in the form of revelatory +writings by Tim (now Otter) Zell in 1970-1973, on the theory which later +became known as the "Gaia Thesis". This concept is a biological +validation of an ancient intuition: that the planet is a single living +organism; Mother Earth (Gaia). Pantheists hold as divine the living +spirit of Nature. Thus to CAW recognises Gaia, Pan and other nature +spirits as the Divine Pantheon. In this manner, the Church of All Worlds +became a forerunner of the Deep Ecology movement. + +Though the Church maintains an egalitarian rather than matriarchal +social structure, nevertheless, through its focus on Mother Nature as +Goddess, its recognition and ordination of women to the priesthood, and +the important central policy making positions held by women in the +Church, CAW can rightly be held to be the first Eco-Feminist Church. We +are not a secret or members only organisation, and we welcome partici- +pation by all who are sincerely interested in our path regardless of +race, sex, national or cultural origins or sexual preference. We support +unity through diversity. Our only creed states: "The Church of All +Worlds is dedicated to the celebration of life, the maximum actualisa- +tion of human potential and the realisation of ultimate individual +freedom and personal responsibility in harmonious eco-psychic relation- +ship with the total Biosphere of Holy Mother Earth" + +Worship in the Church involves weekly or monthly meeting which are held +usually in the homes of nest members on a rotational basis. The basic +liturgical form is a Circle where members take turns in sharing their +creativity. A chalice of water is always shared around the Circle either +as the opening or closing of the ceremony. Other events are celebrated +at the Church retreat sanctuary, a 55 acre parcel of land called +"Annwfn" in Northern California. It is maintained by a small residential +community of caretakers. In addition to various campfire and ritual +areas, the land has several hand-built buildings including a two-storey +temple, plus a garden, an orchard and a small pond. It has limited solar +electricity, propane hot water and a radio telephone, but no TV. In +addition to the eight Celtic seasonal festivals, we hold handfastings, +vision quests, rites of passage, workshops, retreats, work parties, +summer camps and staff meetings on the land. + +As in "Stranger in a Strange Land", congregations of the Church of All +Workds are called nests, and quite a few are currently in existance +around the world. See the latest issue of Green Egg for listings to +find the nest nearest you. + +Over the years, the Church has founded a number of subsidiary branch +orders through which we practice and teach our religion. These include: + + NEMETON - Founded in 1972 by Gwydion Pendderwen and Alison Harlow, this + is the publishing arm. Tapes, records, songbooks, T-shirts, + figurines, jewelery and philosophical tracts. Catalog $US 1. + + FOREVER FORESTS - Founded in 1977 by Gwydion Pendderwen, this is the + Churches ecology branch. Sponsors tree planting rituals and + environmental actions. Has stewardship of Annwfn, the Church +2537 + + land. + + ECOSOPHICAL RESEARCH ASSN - Founded in 1977 by Morning Glory Zell, the + ERA is devoted to research and exploration in the fields of + history, mythology, and natural sciences. + + LIFEWAYS - Founded in 1983 by Anodea Judith, this is the teaching + order. Offers workshops, classes, healing rituals and + training for the priesthood. + + PEACEFUL ORDER OF MOTHER EARTH - Founded 1n 1988 by Willowoak, POEM is + dedicated to children and child nurturing. Provides enriching + activities for children at gatherings, summer camps,and a quarterly childrens magazine, 'How About Magic?' + + + +FOR MORE INFORMATION: + + Director of Australian Operations, + PO Box 408, + Woden, ACT, 2606, + AUSTRALIA. + + FAX (06) 299 4100 + PHONE (06) 299 2432 + + + What is Myth? +This article appeared in Web of Wyrd #10, and is by Anna from Canberra. + + +Mythology can be approached from various perspectives, such as anthropo- +logical, sociological, folk-lorist, psychological and metaphysical. Our +understanding of what myth is depends on the perspective we use. The +folk-lorist is interested in the variety of myths and their spread with +migrations of peoples. The anthropologists study myth as part of a +peoples' culture. The sociologist is interested in how it helps society +to function. The psychologist studies its effects on peoples' perspec- +tives, and how it helps them cope with the world in which they live. The +occultist and mystic regard it as a tool to help them achieve their +aims, whether that be union with the divine, or a greater understanding +of themselves and the divine within. Myth occurs in the history of +most, if not all, human traditions and communities, and is a basic +constituent of human culture. It occurs both with and without associated +rites (though not all rites have myths associated with them). This paper +discusses the purpose of myth, and how we may use myth more effectively +in the magical context. + +Some definitions of myth: + "Myth is the secret opening through which the +inexhaustible energy of the cosmos pour through into human +cultural manifestation." + (Campbell: The Masks of God - Primitive Mythology) + "Myth is a psychic phenomenon that reveals the nature of +the soul." + Jung: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious) + "Myths are accounts about how the world came to be the +2538 + +way it is, about a super-ordinary realm of events before (or +behind) the natural world." + (Keesing: Cultural Anthropology - a Contemporary +Perspective) + "A myth is a statement about society and man's place in +it and the surrounding universe." + (Middleton: Myth and Cosmos) + "Myth is a collective term used for one kind of symbolic +communication and specifically indicates one basic form of +religious symbolism, as distinguished from symbolic behaviour +(cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects (such as temples +and icons). Myths are specific accounts concerning gods or +superhuman beings and extraordinary events or circumstances at +a time that is altogether different from that of ordinary +human experience." + (Encyclopaedia Britannica) +From these definitions it can be seen that myth has two functions, +esoteric and exoteric. The exoteric function is to: "...bind the +individual to his family's system of historically-conditioned senti- +ments, as a functioning member of a sociological organism." (Campbell: +ibid) + +In this role myth is exploratory and narrative. An example is the North +American tale: Old man saw a circle of cottontail rabbits singing and +making medicine; they would lie in the ashes of a hot fire and sing +while one of their number covered them up; it was lots of fun. Old Man +asked to be shown how to do this, and was covered in the coals and ashes +and was not burnt. Then he wanted to be the one to cover up the others, +and all the rabbits jumped into the fire. Only one got out, who was +about to have babies; Old Man let her go so that there would continue to +be rabbits. She went off with a dark place on her back where she got +singed, which all rabbits since have had. The others he roasted and laid +on red willow brush to cool. The grease soaked into the branches and +even today, if you hold red willow over a fire, you will see the grease +on the bark. This myth is explanatory; it explains two observed +features of the natural world. + +Another myth explains not the natural world, but the use man puts it to. +This is an Ojibway myth explaining the origin of maize and man's use of +it. To summarise this myth: a young man went to the forest to fast for +seven days and search for his spirit guide or guardian. During this +period he was visited by a richly-dressed handsome young man, sent by +the Great Spirit, whom he had to wrestle, despite his weakness from his +fast. Before the last time the visitor told him he would prevail this +time, and gave him instructions: how to prepare the ground, how to bury +his body, how to care for the ground after, and how to harvest the maize +that would grow. This he did, so his people now have maize. This myth +not only explains the origin of maize, but also gives instructions for +planting, care and harvesting, thus ensuring that all the tribe know how +to grow it, as well as learn where it came from. Other myths are +justifying and validating, answering questions about the nature and +foundation of ritual and cultic customs. + +An example is the Blackfoot myth about the origin of the Buffalo Dance. +The Blackfeet hunt buffalo by chasing them over a cliff, but at one time +they could not induce the animals to the fall, and the people were +starving. A young woman, seeing a herd of buffalo near the edge of the +fall said, "if you will only jump into the canal, I shall marry one of +2539 + +you." The buffalo did so, and a big bull came and carried her off. Her +father came looking for her, but was trampled to pieces by the buffalo. +The woman got a piece of his backbone and sang over it until his body +was restored and he was alive again. The buffalo allowed the woman and +her father to go, on condition that they learn the dance and song of the +buffalo, and not forget them. For these would be the magical means by +which the buffalo killed by the people for their food should be restored +to life, just as the man killed by the buffalo was restored. This myth +tells the people why they do the dance, and the consequences if they +don't. It is also a piece of sympathetic magic designed to increase the +fertility of the buffalo herds when the dance is performed. As such it +gives them a sense of control over some of the important factors of +their environment and indicates appropriate action if the buffalo do +decline. + +Myths also have a descriptive function, explaining facts beyond normal +reason and observation. Creation myths are an example. The Norse +creation myth describes Niffleheim forming out of the Abyss, with ice to +the north and fire to the south. + +From the melting ice where these two realms met formed a giant, Ymir, +and a cow, Audmulla, who became the wet-nurse of the gods. From Ymir +came the frost giants, and Audmulla's licking of the ice freed the +progenitors of the gods, Odin, Vile and Ve. And so the myth goes on, +describing the creation of the world, the gods and mankind. This myth +does not describe or explain the world as it is, but how it came about +in the first place. It is an explanation of something that man couldn't +see or comprehend, that is beyond his knowledge and experience. + +One purpose of myth is to help tie a community together. When +myth is expressed in ritual, it builds the community, or +specific segments of it, together. An example is the +Aborigines' use of myth in boys' initiation rites. Myths are +revealed to the boys as part of their initiation to manhood; +since the women and children do not know these mysteries, they +serve to bind the men together, and important factor for a +group that needs to hunt together. + +Myth gives a community a common framework, a common view of +the world. The whole community has the same understanding of +why the world is the way that it is. It also tells them how to +behave in certain circumstances and why they should do so; why +their society is structured the way that it is, and what will +happen if they break cultural taboos. + +An example in our cultural context is the myth of David and +Goliath. This myth tells us how to behave in a situation where +we are faced with overwhelming odds. It teaches us courage +rather than running away, and suggests an approach that can be +used to cope with the situation. + +Myth provides the moral values of the culture. Many of our +moral values, for example, come from the Christian myths. The +story of David and Goliath is one reason why we revere +courage. Murder and theft are regarded as wrong, evil, as the +myth of Moses teaches us. The myth of Noah and the Ark tells +us of the consequences of evil and righteousness. To summarise +then, myth provides a guide for the individual throughout his +2540 + +life; one that aids him to live in health, strength, and +harmony in the particular society in which he was born. + +Myth also has an esoteric function, which is almost the opposite of the +exoteric function. Myth transforms the individual, detatching him from +his local historical and cultural condition, and leading him to some +kind of ineffable experience. It provides a bridge between an in- +dividual's local consciousness and universal consciousness. Myth and +rites constitute a mesocosm, a mediating middle cosmos through which +the microcosm of the individual is brought into relation with the +macrocosm of the all, the universe. Myth, "... fosters the centering and +unfolding of the universe in integrity with himself (microcosm), his +culture (mesocosm), the universe (macrocosm) and finally with the +ultimate creative mystery that is both beyond and within himself and all +things." (Houston: The Search for the Beloved) + +Myth bridges the gap between ourselves and godhead, providing a path +that we may use to become aware of the cosmos, the godhead. In this +context, R J Stewart describes creation myths not as explorations but +as, "... resonant re-creations that echo the original creation... an +organic timeless flow of images and narrative within which such +questions [of the nature of the world] were by-passed altogether, for +the 'answers' of such mythology come from deep levels of +consciousness, in which universal patterns or intimations are +apprehended." (Stewart: The Elements of Creation Myth) + +When we imagine a creation myth, irrespective of our belief or +disbelief in the myth, we re-create or re-balance ourselves. Another +function of myth is to act as a filter. The full, unadulterated +experience of the universal consciousness is more than our minds are +capable of holding, and there are those who went too far and fell into +psychosis and other imbalances as a result. Myth provides a way of +experiencing universal consciousness or godhead without it overwhelming +us to the point where we cannot return to ourselves. + +There is an alternative way of looking at the esoteric levels of myth. +C G Jung considers mythological processes to be, "symbolic expressions +of the inner unconscious drama of the psyche which becomes accessible to +man's consciousness by way of projection." (Jung: ibid.) He views the +unconscious as having two levels; personal and collective. The personal +unconscious contains experiences that have been forgotten, whereas the +collective unconscious has contents and modes of behaviour that have +never been through consciousness, and are more or less the same +everywhere and in everyone. The contents of the collective unconscious +are called archetypes.They are expressed in myth and fairy-tale in a +specific form, but can also be experienced by the individual in a more +naive and less understandable form as dreams and visions. + +An archetype is a memory deposit, derived from endless repetition of a +typical situation in life. It is the psychic expression of an anatomi- +cally physiologically determined natural tendency. Archetypes are +normally referred to as figures; the wise old man, the mother, the +trickster. However, they also include experiences, of which an example +is the birth experience. Everyone goes through this experience, so it +has made a strong imprint on the collective unconscious. As a result, +rebirth experiences are a very powerful mythic image, and form the core +of initiation rites and the process of becoming a shaman. + +2541 + +For example, as part of his initiation into manhood, and Arandan boy, +after the trauma of circumcision (which mirrors the birth trauma), +stands in the smoke of a fire, a repetition of the smoking he underwent +as soon as he was born. Similarly, many shamans, ind escribing the +experience that made them a shaman, report being swallowed or eaten by +an animal or spirit person, then being reborn. Taking on a new name at +initiation is an outward symbol of the rebirth that has occurred. + +Archetypes have given rise to the eternal images in myth and religion. +These are meant to attract, convince, fascinate, overpower. They give +man an experience of the divine, while at the same time protecting him +from being completely overwhelmed. In this sense, archetypes and mythic +images are the same; they are both the gateway for this experience of +the divine. They are an image or a reflection of a god or goddess, +but are not the divine itself. + +In the Greek creation myth Gaea is the archetype of the earth mother, +the image of that aspect of godhead; the image that allows us to reach +out and touch that aspect of godhead. + +However the mythic image of Gaea, the archetype image from the myth, is +not actually godhead itself. Both are filters, not the actuality. +Jung sees archetypes as having psychological as well as metaphysical +significance. In our daily lives our attention is focused outwards to +deal with the world, and we lose contact with our inner world, powers in +our psyche such as creativity. Myth is a means to bring us back in touch +with these inward forces. When archetypes are activated in our lives we +have two choices: either let the archetype have its way irrespective of +other factors, or block it, producing a conflict that leads to neurosis. + +Jung sees the symbols of modern psychology analogous to those of myth, +and considers that we have replaced myth by psychology. We have done so +as a result of a growing impoverishment of symbols; as our culture has +become more scientific and rational, we have analysed our cultural +mythic symbols until they have appeared to die, leaving us with a +culture that seems superficial to many. + +Some individuals have coped with this by turning to the myths of other +cultures, leading to the popularity of eastern philosophy in western +culture. Others haven't coped at all, hence the increased violence, +crime, despair, suicide, and so on, of our culture. Some are developing +new modern myths, imspired by visions such as the blue-green jewel of +the earth seen from space. + +Because myth is a means of regeneration for both the individual and the +group, this turning to old myths, to myths of other cultures and to new +myths coming out of our culture is seen by people such as Campbell as +the beginning of a new age, a rebirth of mankind. Whether this is so +remains to be seen. + +What does this teach us about the use of myth in magic? What we often do +in Wicca is to take an old myth and apply it or adapt it in some way for +our use in ritual. Understanding the distinction between the two levels +of myth, exoteric and esoteric, aids in this adaptation. To modify a +myth for use in ritual, those aspects of the myth relating only to the +exoteric, ie the explanatory and justifying aspects, can be excluded +with impunity. However, those aspects relating to the esoteric function +(some, of course, may relate to both) cannot be excluded or modified +2542 + +without changing or destroying the myth's ability to take us beyond +ourselves and towards the universal consciousness. + +Another aspect to consider is how this journey to universal conscious- +ness is achieved. To experience myth fully requires the willing +suspension of disbelief. Logic is set aside, imagination comes into +play, and the masks used change from the symbolic to the actuality. +Enactment of the myth becomes, not people masked and dressed up, but +reality itself. Children do this easily; to a child playing, a piece of +wood is a person or a horse, to the extent that the child can become +terrified of a piece of wood that at the beginning of the game he or she +pretended was a monster. To the adult westerner with his developed +rational mind this is more difficult, and much of western occult +training is aimed at attaining this child-like state of experiencing the +world and myth again. + +Meditation stills the active mind. Visualisation and imagination create +the symbols, the game, the mythic images. Ritual gives the images life, +enacting the myth so that it might impact upon the individual. Con- +centration maintains the images long enough that the desired effect is +attained. The result: contact with, and experience of, universal +consciousness. + +Finally, the fate of our cultural myths warns us of a danger that lies +in wait with the myths we use. The mind is a powerful tool that is very +useful in magic; eg, it can prevent us from falling into the trap of +self-delusion. However, abuse of the mind in relation to myths can be +destructive. Myths are experiential. If we analyse and explain away the +myths we use in the same way our culture has recently done with its own +myths, we run the risk of devaluing them to the extent that they no +longer have an impact on us and can no longer be used effectively to +touch godhead. + + References +Campbell J: "The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology" + (Penguin Books, New York, 1969) + "Myths to Live By" (Bantam Books, New York, 1972) + +Encycopaedia Britannica, vol 12, macropaedia, 15th edition,1978 + +Houston J: "The Search for the Beloved. Journeys in Mythology and + Sacred Psychology" (Jeremy P Tarcher Inc., Los + Angeles, 1987) + +Jung C G: "The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious" (Bollingen + Series XX, Princeton University Press, New York,1969) + +Keesing RM: "Cultural Anthropology: a Contemporary Perspective"(Halt, + Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1976) + +Middleton J: "Myth and Cosmos: Readings in Mythology and Symbolism" + (University of Texas Press, London, 1967) + +Stewart RJ: "The Elements of Creation Myth" (Element Books Ltd, Longmead, 1989) + "Magical Tales: the Story-telling Tradition" (Aquarian + Press, London, 1990) +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2543 + + Generic Pagan Funeral for a Elder Woman + By: She-Wolf + +(as written, to be conducted by a group of Priestess, Priest, chief +mourner and possibly other coven members as attendants, i.e. ushers.) + +The room (perhaps of a funeral home) is decorated with evergreen boughs +and roses. This supposes there is a casket, but may be adapted if there +is a picture only of the deceased. + +Before anyone comes into the room, the priest and priestess may cast a +circle, summon the quarters and invoke the Lady and Lord. + +As the mourners enter, they will be greeted at the door (and portal to +the circle) by the Priest and Priestess. When all are seated, the +priestess begins. + +PRIESTESS: (adapted from the "Decent of the Goddess," in the Farrars' +Witches Bible Complete ) + +There are three great events in the life of a person: love, death and +resurrection to a new life. Of these love is the most important. For +by love and in fulfillment of it, we may again be joined with our +families and friends, remembering and loving them again. Death cannot +take away love or our loved ones. + +Without love there is no birth, without birth no death, without death no +rebirth. This is the miracle of love. + +PRIEST: + +-------(name of Chief mourner, here a son), loving son, all here feel +your sorrow and with you honor --------(name of deceased). + +Nearest relative or chief mourner tells about the persons life and +accomplishments. Others may speak also. When this is finished, the +priest continues. + +PRIEST:(adapted from memorial service of "Magical rites from the Crystal +Well") + +For a while we have lost one who is dear to us, but it is only for a +time and we should not be sorrowful. There is a reason to be here and +a reason to go when we have fulfilled the tasks of a life's work. Dying +is only a way of forgetting, of resting, of returning to the eternal +source to be renewed and made strong. + +PRIESTESS:(adapted from the rite of the Three-Fold-Goddess in the +Witches Bible) + +Behold a woman who has been three women. First a girl full of dreams +and hope. Then a mother who brought forth life and gave love. Finally +an elder, rich in knowledge and experience. Her journey is ended and a +new one begun. Let us bid her farewell and entreat all her loved ones +who have gone before her to greet and guide her on her way. + +The priest may then instruct the mourners to bid a personal farewell if +they desire, then proceed to the foyer or otherwise outside the room. +2544 + +This is the traditional time to play the departed loved one's favorite +song or hymn. Again, some attendant should be at the portal to see all +out of the circle. The priest, priestess and perhaps the chief mourner +may then thank the Gods, release the quarters and open the circle. + +Some refreshment in the outer area might be available to help the people +ground a bit. The pall bearers may then return and carry the casket to +the conveyance. + +At the grave side, salt or ashes, water and wine, and aromatic oil may +have been poured to bless the site. + +"We wish you all love and happiness. Do not forget us. We will not +forget you. We find our peace and hope in the sure and certain +knowledge that we shall meet again and at that time we will celebrate in +perfect love." + +After the casket is lowered, the chief mourner throws earth upon the +grave. + +This is again a traditional time for all to eat together. This helps in +grounding. + + CAW Contacts + Tue 21 Dec 93 20:58 + By: Irv Koch +Copied from "Nesting Notes" in GREEN EGG Winter '93-94 (Issue # 103) +Accuracy NOT guaranteed: contact Nest Coordinator, Tony Navarra, +692 SanJose Ave #6, SanFrancisco, CA 94110; 415-282-1872 or Voicemail +at 510-549-7745 or e-mail (responds slow) at navarra@well.sf.ca.us to +further confuse the issues. (Newletters -- samples = $2 standard). +This may be "freqed" as CAWNEST1.txt (see below re complete set). + +CAW OZ HQ (DRAGONSONG), Anthorr & Fiona Nomchong, Box 408, Woden, ACT +2606 Australia; 06-299-2432 or Fax 299-4100. + +Draconis Nest (DRAGONSONG), Bunz, 5 Sollya Pl, Rivett, ACT 2606 +Australia; 06-288-8732. + +Ectopia Nest (ECTOPIA NEST NEWS), Aeona Silversong, Box 335, Redwood +Valley, CA 95470; 707-485-0098. + +Eleusis, c/o Carrie McMaster, Box 300762, Arlington, TX 76007; +(This is Dallas-FtWorth) 817-827-1218. + +Fog City (THE FOGHORN), Don Eigenhauser, 756A 12th Av, SanFrancisco, +CA 94118; 415-751-4009. + +Holy Oak Nest,Paul Moonoak,Box12625,Gainesville,FL32604;904-472-9395. + +Home (GREEN SPIRIT), Gerald Osgood, 1/105 Washington St, Vic Park, +WA 6100. + +Hornet's (THE ELEMENTAL), Helen & Quinton Phillips, 13 Reiby St, +Newton, NSW. + +Ides Nest (IDOL CHATTER), Melissa Ellen Penn, 2140 Shattuck Av, Box +2093, Berkely, CA 94704; 510-549-9606. +2545 + +Lake Nest Monsters, Willowoak Ishtarwood, Box 5277, Clearlake, CA +95422; 707-994-1742. + +MACAW Nest (VOICE OF THE HERETICS), Kris Jensen, Box24124, Milwaukee, +WI 53224; 414-357-6571. + +Moon-in-Redwoods Nest (MIR NEWS), Eric HeBert, Box2610,McKinleyville, +CA 95221; 707-839-6113. + +Osprey Protonest, 855 Leesburg Ct, Huntington,MD 20639; 301-855-9479. +South SF Bay & San Jose, CA, Jeff Williams; 408-378-5173. + +Our Lady of the Lakes Nest (WAVE INTERSECTIONS), Tess Kolney, Box +80792, Minn., MN 55408; 612-824-2893. + +Outpost (OUTPOSTULATE), c/o Danae, 86223 Franklin Blvd, Eugene, OR +97405; 503-744-2517. + +Primeval Soup, Carline Tully, 7 Turner St, East Malvern, VIC 3145, +Australia; 03-751-9385. + +Star City Sanctuary (CORONA), Avilynn Waters, 20851 ShermanWay #101, +Canoga Park, CA 91306; 818-888-NEST. + +Two Rivers Nest (BARSOON FISH 'RAP), Wilma McCann, 4247 Sloan Dr, N. +Highlands, CA 95660; 916-344-9561. + +Triskelion (CROWINGS ON), Larry Cornett, 10310 Main St #110, Fairfax, +VA 22030; 703-904-8559(VoiceMail). E-mail: torin@netcom.com + +Valley of the Moon Nest (The LUNATIC FRINGE), Dragon Singing, Box +5622, Santa Rosa, CA 95402. + +Amber Agawela, 601 Brown Tr #421, Hurst, TX 76053-5754. +Chane Alvarez, Box 11183, Huntsville, AL 35814; 205-837-7628. +Inanna Arthen, Box 1233, Pepperell, MA 01463. + +Gabriele, 335 NW 19th Ave #352, Portland, OR 97209; 503-335-0975. + +David Hall, 2111 Lido Cr, Stockton, CA 95207; 209-474-7421. + +Damien Markland, Box 2135, Crescent City, CA 94431. +Kathryn Millar, Box 138,Gabriola Is, BC, VOR 1XO Canada;604-247-8929. +Parris McBride, 102 San Salvador, Santa Fe, NM 87501. + +John Percy, 1137 Borden St #202, Prince Rupert, BC V8J 1V6, Canada. +Diana Parr, 7717 Brashear St #2, Pittsburg, PA 15221; 412-371-7065. + +Silver Ravenwolf, Box 1392, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055; 717-432-9118. + +Paul Shumway, 239 1/2 W.Mulberry, Lancaster, OH 43130; 614-654-5061. +Jeanmarie Simpson, 454 Glenmanor Dr, Reno, NV 89509; 702-786-3969. +"Mr Bill" Stewart, Box 24731, Winston-Salem, NC 27114; 919-723-8024. + +Silva Viridis Thorne, Box 8853, Atlanta, GA 30306; 404-522-2131. + +Brett Culloden/Les Kiss, 6/L15 Leichardt St, Bronte, NSW 2113; +02-387-2923. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2546 + + Electronic CAW (Draft1 for SCARLET FLAME) + Sat 18 Dec 93 21:22 + By: Irv Koch + + + +When Triskelion Nest et al imported or diverted Otter up here for our +Summer's End festival this past Oct/Nov, I in turn diverted him to my +apt. and put him online to the International CAW "echo" on computer +bulletin board systems. As a result I was to do a more extensive +article on BBSes, Internet, and the like, with a shorter version +directed at the membership, here. Events have been moving faster than +I am, so this is just the basics of what is already happening and what, +in my opinion (and there seems to be a lot of agreement) NEEDS to +happen. + +The overall object of the entire exercise is for every CAW nest and +activity to have a reasonably stable internet AND PODS phone number. +These should be listed in SCARLET FLAME (not necessarily GREEN EGG) and +used so ALL OF CAW can TALK TO EACH other, with only a few days "lag" as +opposed to trying to pile the world on the shoulders of one small group +putting out the central publications quarterly. + +This is BY FAR the fastest, least effort, way to meet the challenge of +everyone outside Northern California tending to be isolated. It is also +the easiest, SAFEST, way to growth of the membership while still +acculturating and assimilating new persons, not being overrun in such a +way as to change the character of the organization. + +It not only can be used to conduct national business, in a way, ADF and +other groups are already doing it to some extent. + +If you don't understand the following, wait for the main article. If +you do have a computer with a modem, just "go for it." There are +plenty of computer experts who love people who listen to them. Once you +get online at all, there are even more, if you ask politely. + +If you have access to the Internet, and can get alt.religion.all-worlds +then you have found CAW. Reports say that it's rarely posted to. You +can change that by posting. Introduce yourself as a CAW member, ask a +question or talk about what you're doing or want to do in CAW. It can +build fast. Non-members will be drawn in to the discussion and even if +they never join, if we can get 100 people -- and remember this is +worldwide so you have access to many thousands -- this "newsgroup" can +be moved to the main "rel" "hierarchy" and accessible by incredible +numbers. And, for some reason the culture of the net tends to favor +tolerance. + +Access to "THE net," however, isn't always easy to come by. Access to +BBSes usually, more or less, is. Like pagan (or sf fan) publications, +once you find one, it will lead you to many others. The object of your +game here is to find one of the "fidonet TYPE," that either belongs +to a network called PODS (Pagan Occult Distribution System) or is +willing to join. Then you politely ask them to carry the CAW "echo" if +they don't already. It's currently a hot item on PODS so that shouldn't +be a problem. + +This operation, thanks to Bunz of OZ CAW and others is already a going +2547 + +operation. Bunz and myself are also building sets of downloadable +files such as the bylaws, application, nesting-notes, other new member, +and general information about CAW. (And we need help, people to furnish +us ASCII copies of such stuff. It doesn't make any difference if it was +created on a Macintosh, PC, or school Vax -- if you can get it into +ASCII and fire it at either of our boards or any similar site, it is +available to the world MUCH easier than people having to phone or mail +someone and wait for the person to be available to stuff the material +into the mail.) It's looking like we'll see 1 - 3 protonests formed in +the next year or so, JUST from people who became interested by the +Aussies and a few of us up here chatting, and already having Dancing +Hummingbird's old electronic copy of the CAW application online. These +new people will likely be knowledgeable stable types also, not your +suburban kid cruising for new groups to play in. + +Because these, unlike internet, are systems sitting in people's homes, +possible targets of attacks, in some cases for reasons having +nothing to do with beliefs, I'm not yet ready to list any system phone +numbers besides my own. Some sysops don't want it. The following, +however, are the Fidonet (more universal) addresses of PODS systems +either known to be interested in the CAW echo or good candidates. +Therefore if you can find ANY nearby Fidonet system (and they're +EVERYwhere) and are VERY nice to the sysop, they can find you the phone +number. Of course, if you dial in to a Fidonet system and they are +spouting hellfire and brimstone -- you won't ask THAT sysop. (On the +other hand, if you find a Fidonet system where half the people are +talking Hebrew (but not Yiddish), there's a fair chance they're ALSO a +PODS system -- go figure.) + +Also, all Fidonet addresses convert into internet e-mail-only addresses, +thus: + +My own BBS is 1:109/629 so to get me by normal internet, you send to +Irv.Koch@f629.n109.z1.fidonet.org + +The board is 703-354-4176 if you want to dial straight in (Washington, +DC area). Contact me one way or another and I can give leads on your +area. + + CAW Central OZ and Draconis Nest, Bunz (Ian Metcalfe), Anthorr +Nomchong, et al in Canberra= 3:620/259 + + Hornets Proto-nest, Quintin & Helen Phillips +in Werrington Co, NSW= 3:713/805 + +Primeval Soup Proto-nest, Nigel Cooper and Caroline Tully in Melbourne= +3:632/360 + + Home Proto-nest, Gerald Osgood in Perth=3:690/115 + + So far only Ian, Anthorr, and Quintin have equipment to call in; the +others may or may not be reachable, yet, indirectly, but have systems +near them, as listed. + +Cary/Raleigh, NC = 1:151/186 (also possible "gate" to WWIVnet and +Virtualnet) + +Reno/OKC-North, OK = 1:147/1701 +2548 + +Providence, RI = 1:323/101 + +Millington/Memphis, TN = 1:123/422 (REALLY good) + +Cincinatti, OH = 1:108/215 + +SanDiego, CA = 1:202/909 + +Oakland, CA= 1:125/33 (Also the Buddhist net HQ) + +San Francisco, CA = 1:125/28 (not a sure bet) + +Fairfield, CA = 1:161/609 (not a sure bet) + +Aurora/Denver, CO = 1:104/680 ("DarkLing," #2 in PODS, pretty much has +sworn to do "anything which contributes to Pagan BBS networking") + +Austin, TX = 1:382/502 (Chuck Haynes, PODS HQ) + +NorthMetro, NJ = 1:107/585 (very helpful) + +KC, MO = 1:280/89 + +There is, reportedly, a third type network with a CAW "sub" in opera- +tion: WWIVnet. Work is proceeding on linking it to PODS, and the PODS +online CAW to the one on Internet. Then it won't matter which you can +access as what you say on one will show up on all, and you'll get +answers from all. If you're on WWIVnet, ask for "Subtype 5303 Host 5303 +from Mind Game BBS." + +Last, you can send e-mail to people in CAW FROM BBSes (ask the Sysop) as +well as from Internet, and they mail back, even if they aren't on a BBS +or directly on the Internet. Here are some key addresses: + +GREEN EGG, Otter, etc. = 5878037@mcimail.com + +Tony Navarra,Nest Coord. = navarra@well.sf.ca.us + +Quintin (in OZ) = elemental@peg.pegasus.oz.au + +Triskelion/Torin = c-a-w@netcom.com or torin@netcom.com ... willing/able +to be an FTP site! + +Eric HeBert (nest, Chaplain project, etc.) = 5986758@mcimail.com [The +previously published addresses will NOT work from outside MCI's piece +of the net. Use ONLY this format when sending to someone on MCImail. +There is also a trick for Compuserv, besides converting the comma to a +period, but I haven't figured it out yet. If you're sending FROM +Bitnet, enclose the whole address in braces thus: +{Irv.Koch@f629.n109.z1.fidonet.org}:internet + +Sending TO "Bitnet" is a normal path name however it may NOT be the one +your recipient is used to. Gates. Have them ask their Sysadmin.] + +Don't be surprised if this is only the first in a series of stuff about +Electronic CAW. + +/s/ Sysop of Ice Fire (where Hell DOES freeze over?) +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2549 + + Ghosts of Christmas Past + by Eric Maple + +Every December 25th the normally phlegmatic British let down their hair +and plunge into an orgy of fun which one would normally associate with +the people of more exuberant nations. + + Complete strangers wish one another a Happy Christmas as a parting +greeting and the public houses are filled with revellers strenuously +keeping up the spirit of the season of goodwill. + + Few of these light-hearted souls will be aware that the celebration +of Christmas had its origins in the pagan worship of the Sun or, for +that matter, that the funny hats, the evergreens and the festive board +have nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, +but rather with the older gods worshipped by our ancestors in the +twilight world of pre-Christmas Europe. + + It is strange to consider that the presence of pork on the Christmas +table and the custom of carrying in the boar's head was once associated +with the sacrifice of a sacred Boar to the Sun god. At the festival of +Frey, the dispenser of rain and sunshine in the mythology of +Northern Europe, a boar was a good luck offering for the New Year and +its head, with an apple in its mouth, was borne into the banqueting-hall +amid singing and the sound of welcoming trumpets. Later in history, +the boar's head gave way to the goose and the turkey. But where this +custom survives, it should be seen as one of the many curious ghosts of +Christmas past. + + Consider the evergreens and their modern counterparts: the paper- +-chains which festoon the house at Christmastide. The evergreen was +once the symbol of immortality, declared sacred to the Teutonic nations, +and given pride of place in celebrations associated with the Winter Sol- +stice from which our modern Christmas is descended. + + As a symbol, the evergreen means constancy and eternity, and even in +the Orient we find that it expresses a similar idea, for the Japanese +believe the evergreen needle brings longevity and prosperity. The holly, +especially, brings happiness and friendship, but if kept in the house +after New Year's Day misfortune is ordained. Generally speaking, +however, all evergreens must be taken down by Twelfth Night-- then all +will be well. + + When we look around the room that has been decked with the regalia +of the Christmas party our eyes inevitably settle on one of the focal +points, the mistletoe. In pagan times, it was customary to celebrate +the death of the old year and the birth of the new by kissing under the +mistletoe's berries. Old enemies were then expected to forget their +quarrels and take a ceremonial kiss, promising to live in amity from +that time forth. + + It is not generally known that the mistletoe became a powerful +life symbol because it grew' berries in winter when other plant life +seemed dead. Once known as All Heal, it was employed as an ingredient +in many folk medicines. It was the golden bough of the ancient Druids +and, because of its association with sacrificial ceremonies, was +outlawed by the Church as an emblem of paganism. + +2550 + + Oddly enough, the sole exception was York Minster where a sprig of +mistletoe was placed on the altar each Christmas. A general pardon for +crimes remained in force throughout that city for as long as it remained +there. + + The central symbol of the Christmas scene, the evergreen +Christmas tree, had its origins in Germany where St Boniface cut +down a sacred oak which was worshipped by the pagans and, to placate +them, offered a fir tree in its place. However, later research +indicates that traces of a similar custom existed in other lands, +notably Greece and Rome, where trees were decorated at the time of year +later dedicated to Christmas. There is also reason for believing that +the same or a similar custom was known in ancient Egypt. + + The mystical heritage of Christmas is very strongly represented in +one of the principal characters in the celebrations, Santa Claus, the +embodiment of the spirit of goodwill. The name Santa Claus is in fact a +corruption of the fifth century St Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra, who was +honoured with special ceremonies by the Greeks and Romans on December +6th, later changed to December 25th. + + This distinctly un- ghostlike genus of happiness was a 'reincar- +nation' of Odin, God of the Scandinavians who, on the conversion of +Northern Europe to Christianity, was transformed first into St Nicholas +and later into the modern Father Christmas. + + Christmas has no equal as a religious feast; it is the most +important as well as the most enjoyable festival of the entire year. Yet +even the good things spread out on the table have their religious +aspects, particularly the mince-pies which were originally fashioned in +the shape of small cribs in honour of the Christ Child. + + Among the superstitions associated with mince-pies is one which +demands that the Christmas reveller makes a pilgrimage among his +neighbours and friends demanding the gift of a mince-pie wherever he +calls. For each one eaten, so goes the tradition, the visitor may expect +a month's good health for the ensuing year. + + Originally, mince-pies contained a far more potent filling than +mere mincemeat. They were stuffed with flesh of game hashed together +with pickled mushrooms. One should always make a wish when taking the +first bite of the first mince-pie of the season. + + The Christmas pudding qualifies as a magical ritual in its own +own right, for it is surrounded by the most curious ceremonies. +Prior to the 18th century the pudding was known as Plum Porage and was +a concoction of plums, spices, wines, meat broth and breadcrumbs. It was +eaten in a semi-liquid state and only later in its history were the +plums replaced by raisins. + + To preserve good luck, the pudding should be stirred deasil or +clockwise: a ceremony known to most psychic cooks. Lucky charms and +silver coins have to be incorporated in the mix to bring good fortune to +the eater, usually a silver coin, a silver thimble and a ring, with the +following meanings: the silver coin brings good luck; the ring promises +a happy marriage to the girl who finds it; while the thimble hints that +she is likely to remain a spinster. + +2551 + + The most interesting feature of Christmas pudding lore is the custom +of setting fire to the brandy, so that the pudding can be brought to the +table all aflame. This is a curious reminder that in ancient times +special fires were lit at the midwinter feast to honour the Sun god. + + One ghost which has been finally exorcised from the Christmas +scene is the Dumb Cake which in times past was prepared by single girls +for consumption on Christmas Eve. Its ingredients were salt, wheatmeal +and barley, and it had to be baked in complete silence. It was +carefully placed in the oven and the front door opened precisely at +midnight. The spectre of the girl's future husband was expected to +enter the house at that time and march into the kitchen to turn the +cake. In some areas the cook would prick her initials on the cake and +in due course her future husband would materialise to add his +initials to hers. Alas, this custom seems to have vanished for ever. + + The modern Christmas cake is still with us. It is supposed to have +originated with a cake presented by the people of ancient Rome to their +senators. A custom among Scots demanded that the cook should rise in the +early hours of Christmas Day and bake sowen (oatmeal) cakes. These +were distributed to the family at Hogmanay. If a cake happened to +break, bad luck followed, but if it remained unbroken the eater +could look forward to a Happy New Year. + + Although there is no clear-cut tradition that Christmas Day was ever +associated with the giving of presents prior to modern times, it is +known that a similar custom was observed by the Romans on New Year's +Day. The Roman gift would have been a goodwill symbol only, consisting +of branches of evergreen, but in time the presents became more lavish. + + Many of the enjoyable rituals which involve our lives at Christmas +time are but the shadow survivals or 'ghosts' of very ancient customs +performed around the close of the old year and the birth of the new, and +the feast of fire celebrated at the time of the Winter Solstice to +honour the Sun god. + + But the season of fire and light, as it is sometimes called, would +be nothing without the Yule-log,for Christmas is also known as Yule, +which was the Scandinavian feast of the Winter Solstice. + + In the days of old, an oak log was cut down on Yule Eve, and borne +with much ceremony into the house and rolled onto the huge fire that was +to burn during the days of the Nativity, especially Christmas Day. +Little did the pious Christians of the medieval world realise that +originally it had been burned in honour of the god Thor and represented +the sacred element: fire. + + No doubt it was due to this association with the old gods that the +hearth fire at Christmas assumed the important role which it retained +until the advent of artificial forms of heating. The hearth was the +centre for the telling of Christmas ghost stories and for those curious +superstitions relating to the mysteries of fire. + + Throughout Northern Europe there were traditions that the family +ghosts returned at Christmas time to share the festival with their +living relatives. In Brittany there was the custom of leaving food for +the ghosts while the family attended church. In Scandinavia, stories +were told of trolls (who were ogres not ghosts) returning at this +2552 + +season to rattle the window-panes. In the British Isles there were +contradictory beliefs, some people thought, erroneously, that no ghost +had power to haunt during the Christmas season. + + It is when the light is extinguished save for the glowing embers +that the ghost-story teller comes into his own and, surrounded by the +family, describes some ancient haunting which is calculated to chill the +blood of his listeners. Traditional hauntings include the posthumous +adventures of Anne Boleyn who haunts her old homes during the Christmas +season. Her ghost has been reported at Rochford Hall in Essex and Hever +Castle in Kent, wandering headless during the 12 days of the festival. + + There are a number of cheerless proverbs which surface at the season +of goodwill, as when someone observes, 'A green Christmas brings a full +church-yard,' possibly to counteract any excessive exuberance among the +party. + + However, the children turn to less ghostly rituals, including +divination to discover the future. Each of them cuts an apple and +counts the pips. The one whose apple has the most pips can look forward +to the most happiness in the 12 months ahead. + + And so young and old join in quiet communion with Christmas- +es past, present and future, united in quaint ceremonies whose +origins are lost in history - a celebration presided over by ancestral +spirits who have been lured into the home from outer darkness by the +glow of the pagan fire. + + + A Yule Mythos + The Bard + Thu 23 Dec 93 + From "The Mystery of the Bards: The Book of the Fool" + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + + "Hey! Wake up there!" + The Fool opened His eyes, stretched, and rolled over on the soft +grass of the Summerland. + "I suppose you're talking to me?" he murmured. + "I certainly am!" The Lady, shimmering in Her Aspect as the +Goddess of Love, smiled at Him. Had He been human, that smile would have +sent Him into a transport of happiness. As it was, He felt a little +shiver of joy run on catfeet down his spine. + "What's up?" He got to His feet, brushing back his hair. + "What's up? WHAT'S UP?" The Lady looked at Him in disbelief. +"Dummy! It's almost Your birthday!" + The Fool looked puzzled for a moment. "My birthday? I thought We +have been....for always. We don't -have- birthdays, do we?" + The Lady grinned, shifting into the Nymph for a delightful +moment. "No, we don't, but Humanity likes to give Us birthday parties, +and yours is probably the biggest.....so you need to get moving!" + "So I do! And this Aspect is probably one of my favorites!" The +Fool jumped in the air, landing on His hands in a perfect handstand with +a jingling of bells. Then he took His hands off the ground, and hung +suspended, upside down, in mid-air. One leg was folded at the knee. + "Can You stand on Your head?" He grinned. + "Not with -this- dress on!" She laughed. +2553 + + + Humming a tuneless melody. the Fool strode thru Summerland, and +thru the cloudy space between the Worlds of the MultiVerse, finally +ending up on a small, very green-and-blue planet that the natives called +"the Earth." + "It's My Birthday a-comin'!" He shouted, and there was a +stirring, and a movement. The Life that was locked in the grip of Winter +remembered that Spring would come, as it always will, and the half of +the world that was in Summer gave a little quiver of happiness. + He went to a Place, and put on the suit, and the Aspect to fit +it. He hitched the nine animals to His sleigh, grooming them with loving +hands. Then He loaded it with gifts for all the people of the Earth. He +was helped by quite a lot of the smaller elves, who found the game most +enjoyable. Most of these gifts were toys, but many of them were +practical, useful things. Some, like Love, and Peace, and Happiness, +were quite insubstantial....but they were His Gifts nonetheless. + He laughed. No longer slim, but chunky (if not fat), and dressed +in a red suit lined with white fur, His laughter was a "Ho! Ho! Ho!" of +gladness that rolled over the Earth. + He spent the next instant of Time ("And what a clever concept +Time is," He thought in self-congratulation) delivering His gifts, +riding the sleigh to the music of tiny bells thru the Night. + "Good Yule! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukka! Io Saturnalia! Hail +Mithras! Welcome Cernunnos!" He shouted. + "And a Happy Birthday to Me," He added under His breath, with a +grin. + He landed the sleigh, and unhitched His animals. Each one was +Named, and each one nuzzled Him as an old friend. The last was younger +then the rest, and full of energy, bounding across the Place like a +puppy in a warm kitchen. The red light from his nose reflected on the +snow, and gave a joyful light that lit the sky in a glowing aurora. + The Fool laughed at the sight, and hung up His suit, and took +off the Aspect, and returned to the Summerland over the paths He knew so +well. + + "Well," She said, "Did everything go all right?" + The Fool leaned back against a tree and watched a butterfly land +on His nose. "Yep. Got all My presents delivered. Did the usual +sleigh-and-reindeer thing with the red suit and all.....great fun! I +sure like to see the children happy." + "Well, You sure are bass-ackwards sometimes!" The Lady shook Her +finger at Him in mock anger. + "Huh? Whattya mean?" The Fool was puzzled. + "Well....everybody else -gets- presents for their birthdays. You +gotta reverse it and give presents away!" + The Fool giggled, and said, "That's my Nature, dearest. By the +way, your fly's open." + The Lady looked down and reached to zip up Her fly, and then did +a perfect double-take. + "But....I don't -have- a fly!" + And the Fool leaned back against the World Tree and laughed and +laughed and laughed. + + Thus it was, and so it is, and evermore shall be so! + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2554 + +The following is from The Mysts of Annwfn Book of Shadows, and +appeared in NightScapes Vol. 1, No. 5 (a journal of Magick, +Paganism and the Occult). Subscriptions are $13.00 a year/six +issues, sample copy $3.00. Write to: NightScapes, P.O. Box +4559, Mesa, AZ 85211-4559. Phone: (602) 898-3551. + +Information about The Mysts of Annwfn (who publishes +NightScapes), can also be obtained by contacting the above +information. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2555 + + THE LEGEND OF THE MAIDEN + + The Mysts of Annwfn + Book of Shadows + + + In Ages long past, the lovely Lady Brighid came to Hibernia +to dwell in that land among her people. She brought to them many +special treasures from the Outer Realms to enrich their lives. +She gave them the art of Smithcraft, Poetry, and Inspiration. +Brighid also shared a sacred Cauldron that overflowed with +inspiration and love. She was adept at the healing arts, and in +the Magick of Medicine. Her people loved her deeply, and kindled +a fire in her honor which was constantly attended by nineteen +maidens, and was never allowed to go out. + + The Lady Brighid eventually became a mother, and her people +rejoiced, knowing their lands would be fruitful just as their +Goddess was fertile. However, Brighid also knew the misery of +loss. When one of her beloved sons was killed, the whole land +wept. She lamented so deeply that she invented "keening," the +mournful song of the bereaved women of Erin. Her Flame burned so +brightly, however, that happiness soon returned to the land. She +bestowed upon her people, yet, another gift: The Art of +Whistling. + + However, in the fullness of time, the beloved Lady could no +longer dwell openly with her people, and she made her home in the +Sidhe. There, she would dwell close to her people and her land, +and they could call upon her name at the appointed times, and +keep her Flame burning within their hearts. + + + The Eternal Flame continues to burn! + + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2556 + +The following ritual derives from The Mysts of Annwfn Book of +Shadows, and was publicly conducted by Goddess Moon Rising Coven +in San Diego, Ca. on Imbolg, 1988, and by The Mysts of Annwfn +Coven in Mesa, Az. at Pagan Arizona Network's Imbolg celebration +in 1993. + +This ritual appeared in NightScapes, Vol. 1, No. 5 (a journal of +Magick, Paganism and the Occult). Subscriptions are $13.00 a +year/six issues, sample copy $3.00. Write to: NightScapes, P.O. +Box 4559, Mesa, Az 85211-4559. Phone (602) 898-3551. + +Information on The Mysts of Annwfn (who publishes NightScapes), +may also be obtained by contacting the above information. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2557 + + CANDLEMAS RITUAL + + Mysts of Annwfn + Book of Shadows + + + The following ritual calls for the participation of eight +people, and is best performed at a large gathering. The +participants include: The Maiden Goddess, the Young Lord, the +High Priestess, the High Priest, and the four Watchtowers. + + Specific items needed for this ritual are: a Crystal Ball, +a cross of rushes, a mat, a basket, a phallic wand, a sprig of +evergreen, pieces of paper, cakes, wine, and basic Altar and +ritual equipment. All participants shall write upon the paper +things and qualities they wish to gain during the coming season, +and then place them in the basket prior to ritual. + + Candlemas is the festival of the Flame, and is best +performed at night. This is Brighid's celebration. Winter is +bade farewell, and as Spring approaches, it's a time to think of +love. + + * * * * * + + All members of the ritual enter the Circle except for the +Maiden. She should be wearing white, and is adorned with a +garland of flowers in her hair. She stands out of sight, +awaiting her cue. All attendants of the ritual should line the +outer ring of the Circle, leaving a walkway into it. The Young +Lord is to position himself among the attendants. + + The High Priest starts the ritual by saying: + + The young Sun King now begins to feel the first stirring of +desire for the Lady. The Goddess patiently awaits her future +lover. The Rites of Spring are near, and the year is in its +waxing phase. The Sun's presence is ever-more increasing and the +darkness runs and hides. + + The Invocation of the Four Quarters comes next, starting +with the East: + + We welcome the Guardians of the East. Your breath of life +is sacred, and greetings to the lovely Fand, the Pearl of Beauty, +and gracious Olwen, the White Lady of the Day. Your presence is +most welcome at this Festival of Imbolc! + +South: + + We welcome the Lords of the South. Your warmth flows +through us all, and greetings to the Honored Lady Brighid, and to +beautiful Branwen, the White Bossomed One. Your presence is most +welcome at this Festival of Oemlic! + +West: + + We welcome the Holy Ones of the West. Your moisture is +2558 + +refreshing and precious to life, and greetings to our Queen +Arianrhod of The Silver Wheel, and sweet Aine of the Wisps. Your +presence is most welcome at this Festival of Lights! + +North: + + We welcome the Watchers of the North. Your power and wisdom +is ours, and greetings to the Wise Cerridwen of Lake Tegid, and +to the desirable Rhiannon of the Netherworld. Your presence is +most welcome at this Festival of Candlemas! + +The High Priest continues: + + From now to Beltane, is the pathway less dark. Thus, shall +the journey be made through to Beltane, renewed in strength and +happy in love. + + The High Priestess now turns slowly, addressing those assembled. +As she speaks, the Maiden walks slowly into view down the +processional towards the Circle, until she stands at the Northern +Gateway. She is holding the Cross of Rushes. The High Priestess +says: + + Long Winter is now passing away and the buds will soon swell +on the Apple tree bough. The Earth gladly receives the plow in +preparation for the celebration of life. For the Queen and the +King will begin to wear the garden's green and will speak in a +single voice! + + The High Priest acknowledges the physical presence of the +Maiden, and exclaims: + + Behold!!! Brighid has come! Brighid is welcome! + + The Maiden enters the Circle and lays the Cross on a mat +situated just South of the Altar. She says: + + Greetings to you, not only from myself, but from the Mother +and the Crone as well. All seasons of the Earth are important +and must have their course.....but now, I weary of Winter, and I +long for the greenness of Spring, and all that it encompasses. I +strongly desire the companionship of my Lover-to be! + + She searches the Circle of people and draws him out. She +kneels before him and invokes the God Lugh: + + Lord of Death, Resurrection, Life, and the Giver of Life! +Lord who is within us, whose name is Mystery of Mysteries! +Descend we pray thee, upon thy servant and Priest! + + Lugh, after indwelling the Priest, now moves over to the +Altar, picks up the Phallic Wand, and places it on Brighid's Bed +(the mat). The Maiden addresses the God: + + I grow weary of the darkness. Let's join to hurry Winter +along its way so we can enjoy the pleasures that await us! (She +motions to the mat). + +2559 + + The God starts the Balefire in the South, and while doing +this, the Maiden sweeps the Circle three times while everyone +chants: + + Return, return, return, return + The earth, the water, the fire, and the air. + + At an appropriate time, the singing comes to an end and the +God says: + + The Key to unlocking Winter's hold is to erase its memories! + + He now holds up a sprig of evergreen and hands it to the +Maiden Goddess. She tosses it into the Balefire. She then picks +up a basket full of everyone's desires and wishes for the coming +season, and says: + + Behold! In my hands I carry Hopes and Wishes for the coming +seasons. I place them in this fire and as quickly as the +memories of Winter fade, let the Hopes and Wishes just as quickly +take root! + + She tosses them into the Balefire, and Lugh now says: + + My dear Lady and Lover-to-be, do us great honor by gazing +into the Crystal and give your people words they can hold as +their own! + + Brighid picks up the Crystal Ball and holds it between her +hands. She gazes into it momentarily before saying: + + All the gods are one God, and the goddesses, one Goddess, +and there is but one Initiator. And to every man, his own Truth, +and the God within. + + Upon hearing this, he smiles and says: + + Come! Let's feast and make merry on this great occasion! + + The High Priestess steps in front of the altar and raises +the water and Wine. She faces North and says: + + In celebration of Brighid's Day, we open the Moongate and +let the Westwind blow! We bring Water, life's elixir, to refresh +ourselves. We bring the Fruit of the Vine, the drink of the +gods! Let us sip and enjoy. Hail to fair Brighid! + + The High Priestess now picks up the plate of cakes and says: + + Upon this plate are gifts from Erin! Farrels for us to +enjoy! Let us eat and remember the Gods. These are holy Sabbat +Cakes. They bring us sustenance and fill the hunger. Blessed Be +Brighid's Feast! Let us dance in joy and mirth! + + The High Priestess now raises the honey as all say: + + Here is the Sweet Nectar! Sacred to the Gods! + +2560 + + All now partake of the Cakes and Wine. Sing songs, dance, +and do anything else that feels appropriate. (Brighid's Day is a +traditional time for initiations). When the celebration is +winding down, the God, taking the Maiden Goddess into his arms, +declares: + + Now that we all have feasted and made merry, come with me +now, our bed of Love awaits us! + + The Maiden, protesting lightly, responds: + + Oh! How I've longed for you through the Dark days of +Winter! But My Love, though our bed is ready, we still must wait +a short while. Our time of Union is not yet upon us, but the +Rites of Spring, and of Beltane, are not far off! + + The Sun King looks slightly disappointed, but smiles +lovingly at her. They embrace and kiss passionately, while +everyone starts to sing, "Lady Weave Your Circle Tight." While +the song continues, she slowly leaves his arms and exits the +Circle. He follows her, not wanting her to leave, but stops at +the Circle's edge. She turns and says to him: + + My Heart is with you, and Destiny will bring us back +together soon! As the Cup is to the Knife, so am I to you! + + She now disappears out of sight, and the singing shall die +down. The High Priest now says: + + Even though the Maiden has departed, her presence continues +to increase! Light chases away the Darkness, and soon, the +Maiden shall reign Supreme! The Winter grows short, and the +leaves shall return to the trees! New Life shall spring forth, +and New Love along with it! The Wheel turns, and the Young Lord +and his Lady shall meet to consummate their Love. So ends this +prelude to Spring! May the coming season bring you much joy and +happiness! + + The Watchtowers are now given their release: + + Farewell to the Watchtowers of the North, and to Rhiannon +and Cerridwen. May we depart in love and peace until we gather +again. + +West: + + Farewell to the Holy Ones of the West, and to Queen +Arianrhod and Aine. May we depart in love and peace until me +gather again. + +South: + + Farewell to the Lords of the South, and to Branwen and the +Maiden Brighid. May we depart in love and peace until we gather +again. + +East: + +2561 + + Farewell to the Guardians of the East, and to Olwen and +Fand. May we depart in love and peace until we gather again. + +Everyone: + + Merry meet, and merry part, and merry meet again! + + + +References for inspiration: + +Gwydion Pendderwen +Dion Fortune +Janet & Stewart Farrar +Marion Zimmer Bradley + + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2562 + + An Herbal "Quick Reference" + + Acicia - Protection, Psychic Powers + Adam & Eve Roots - Love, Happiness. + Adders Tongue - Healing + African Violet - Spirituality, Protection + Agaric - Fertility + Agrimony - Protection, Sleep + Ague Root - Protection + Alfalfa - Prosperity, Anti-hunger, Money + Alkanet - Purification, Prosperity + Allspice - Money, Luck, Healing + Almond - Money, Prosperity, Wisdom + Aloe - Protection, Luck + Aloes, Wood - Love, Spirituality + Althea - Protection, Psychic Powers + Alyssum - Protection, Moderating Anger + Amaranth - Healing, Protection, Invisibility + Anemone - Health, Protection, Healing + Angelica - Exorcism, Protection, Healing, Visions + Apple - Love,Healing, Garden Magic, Immortality + Apricot - Love + Arabic Gum - Purify negativity and evil + Arbutus - Exorcism, Protection + Asafoetida - Exorcism, Purification, Protection + Ash - Protection, Prosperity, Sea Rituals, Health + Aspen - Eloquence, Anti-Theft + Aster - Love + Avens - Exorcism, Purification,Love + Avocado - Love,Lust,Beauty + Bachelor's Buttons - Love + Balm, Lemon - Love,Success, Healing + Balm of Gilead - Love,Manifestations,Protection,Healing + Bamboo - Protection, Luck, Hex-Breaking, Wishes + Banana - Fertility, Potency, Prosperity + Banyan - Luck + Barley - Love, Healing, Protection + Basil - Love, Exorcism, Wealth, Flying, Protection + Bay - Protection, Psychic Powers, Healing, Purification, Strength + Bean - Protection, Exorcism, Wart Charming, Reconciliations, + Potency, Love + Bedstraw/Fragrant - Love + Beech - Wishes + Beet - love + Belladonna - astral projection *DEADLY POISON!! + Benzoin - Purification, Prosperity + Bergamot, Orange - Money + Be-Still - Luck + Betony/wood - Protection,Purification,Love + Birch - Protection, Exorcism, Purification + Bistort - Psychic Powers, Fertility + Bittersweet - Protection, Healing + Blackberry - Healing, Money, Protection + Bladderwrack - Protection, Sea Spells, Wind Spells, Money, Psychic + Powers + Bleeding Heart - Love + Bloodroot - Love, Protection, Purification + Bluebell - Luck, Truth +2563 + + Blueberry - Protection + Blue Flag - Money + Bodhi - Fertility, Protection, WIsdom, Meditation + Boneset - Protection, Exorcism + Borage - Courage, Psychic Powers + Bracken - Healing, Rune Magic, Prophetic Dreams + Brazil Nut - Love + Briony - Image Magic, Money, Protection + Bromeliad - Protection, Money + Broom - Purification, Protection, Wind Spells, Divination + Buchu - Psychic Powers, Prophetic Dreams + Buckthorn - Protection, Exorcism, Wishes, Legal Matters + Buckwheat - Money, Protection + Burdock - Protection, Healing + Cabbage - Luck + Cactus - Protection, Chastity + Calamus - Luck, Healing, Money, Protection + Camellia -Riches + Camphor - Chastity, Health, Divination + Caper - Potency, Lust, Luck + Carawy - Protection, Lust, Health, Anti-theft, Mental Powers + Cardamon - Lust, Love + Carnation - Protection, Strength, Healing + Carob - Protection, Health + Carrot - Fertility, Lust + Cascara Sagrada - Legal Matters, Money, Protection, + Cashew - Money + Castor - Protection + Catnip - Cat Magic, Love, Beauty, Happiness + Cattail - Lust + Cedar - Healing, Purification, Money, Protection + Celandine - Protection, Escape, Happiness, Legal Matters + Celery - Mental Powers, Lust, Psychic Powers + Centaury - Snake Removing + Chamomile - Money, Sleep, Love, Purification + Cherry - Love, divination + Chestnut - Love + Chickweed - Fertility, Love + Chicory - Removing Obstacles, Invisibility, favors, Frigidity + Chili pepper - Fidelity, hex Breaking, Love + China Berry - Luck + Chrysanthemum - Protection + Cinchona - Luck, Protection + Cinnamon - Spirituality, Success, Healing, Power, Psychic Powers, + Lust, Protection, Love + Cinquefoil - Money, Protection, Prophetic Dreams, Sleep + Citron - Psychic Powers, Healing + Cloth of Gold - Understand animal languages + Clove - Protection, Exorcism, Love, Money + Clover - Protection, Money, Love, fidelity, Exorcism, Success + Club Moss - Protection, Power + Coconut - Purification, Protection, Chastity + Cohosh,Black - love, courage,protection,potency + Coltsfoot - Love,Visions + Columbine - Courage,Love + Comfrey - Safety during travel, Money + Copal - Love, Purification + Coriander - Love,Health, Healing +2564 + + Corn - protection,luck, divination + Cotton - Luck,Healing,Protection,Rain,Fishing Magic + Cowslip - Healing,Youth,Treasure Finding + Crocus - Love, Visions + Cubeb - Love + Cuckoo-flower - Fertility,Lover + Cucumber - Chastity,Healing,Fertility + Cumin - Protection,Fidelity, Exorcism + Curry - Protection + Cyclamen - fertility,Protection,Happiness, Lust + Cypress - Longevity, Healing, Comfort,Protection + Daffodil - Love,Fertility, Luck + Daisy - Lust,Luck + Damiana - Lust, Love, Visions + Dandelion - Divination,Wishes,Calling Spirits + Datura - Hex Breaking,Sleep,Protection + Deerstongue - Lust, Psychic Powers + Devils Bit - Exorcism, Love, Protection, Lust + Devils Shoestring - Protection, Gambling, Luck, Power, Employment + Dill - Protection, Money, Lust,Luck + Dittany of Crete - Manifestations, Astral Projection + Dock - Healing,Fertility, Money + Dodder - Love,Divination,Knot Magic + Dogbane - Love + Dogwood - Wishes, Protection + Dragons Blood - Love,Protection,Exorcism,Potency + Dulse - Lust, Harmony + Dutchmans Breeches - Love + Ebony - Protection, Power + Echinacea - Strengthening Spells + Edelweiss - Invisibility, Bullet-Proofing + Elder - Exorcism,Protection,Healing,Prosperity,Sleep + Elecampane - Love,Protection,Psychic Powers + Elm - Love + Endive - Lust,Love + Eryngo - Travelers Luck, Peace, Lust, Love + Eucalyptus - Healing,Protection + Euphorbia - Purification, Protection + Eyebright - Mental Powers, Psychic Power + Fennel - Protection, Healing, Purification + Fenugreek - Money + Fern - Rain Making, Protection,Luck,Riches,Eternal Youth, Health, + Exorcism + Feverfew - Protection + Fig - Divination,Fertility, Love + Figwort - Health,Protection + Flax - Money, Protection,Beauty,Psychic Powers, Healing + Fleabane - Exorcism, Protection, Chastity + Foxglove - Protection + Frankincense - Protection, Exorcism, Spirituality + Fumitory - Money, Exorcism + Fuzzy Weed - Love,Hunting + Galangal - Protection, Lust, Health, Money, Psychic Powers, Hex + breaking + Gardenia - Love, Peace, Healing, Spirituality + Garlic - Protection, Healing, Exorcism, Lust, Anti-Theft + Gentian - Love, Power + Geranium - Fertility, Health, Love, Protection +2565 + + Ginger - Love, Money, Success, Power + Ginseng - Love, Wishes, Healing, Beauty, Protection, Lust + Goats Rue - Healing, Health + Goldenrod - Money, Divination + Golden Seal - Healing, Money + Gorse - Protection, Money + Gotu Kola - Meditation + Gourd - Protection + Grain - Protection + Grains of Paradise - Lust, Luck, Love, Money, Wishes + Grape - Fertility, Garden Magic, Mental Powers,Money + Grass - Psychic Powers, Protection + Ground Ivy - Divination + Groundsel - Health, Healing + Hawthorn - Fertility, Chastity, Fishing Magic, Happiness + Hazel - Luck, Fertility, Anti-Lightning, Protection, Wishes + Heather - Protection, Rain Making, Luck + Heliotrope - Exorcism, Prophetic dreams, Healing, Wealth, Invis + ibility + Hellebore,Black - Protection *POISON* + Hemlock - Destroy sexual drives *POISON* + Hemp - Healing, Love, Vision, Meditation + Henbane - POISON Not used + Henna - Healing + Hibiscus - Lust,Love, Divination + Hickory - Legal Matters + High John the Conquerer - Money, Love, Success, Happiness + Holly - Protection, Anti-Lightning, Luck, Dream Magic + Honesty - Money, Repelling Monsters + Honeysuckle - Money, Psychic Powers, Protection + Hops - Healing, Sleep + Horehound - Protection, Mental Powers, Exorcism, Healing + Horse Chestnut - Money, Healing + Horseradish - Purification, Exorcism + Horsetail - Snake Charming, Fertility + Houndstongue - Tying dogs tongues + Houseleek - Luck,Protection, Love + Huckleberry - Luck, Protection, Dream Magic, Hex Breaking + Hyacinth - Love, Protection, Happiness + Hydrangea - Hex Breaking + Hyssop - Purification, Protection + Indian Paint Brush - Love + Iris - Purification, Wisdom + Irish Moss - Money, Luck, Protection + Ivy - Protection, Healing + Jasmine - Love, Money, Prophetic Dreams + Jobs Tears - Healing, Wishes, Luck + Joe-pye weed - Love, Respect + Juniper - Protection, Anti-theft, Love, Exorcism, Health + kava-Kave - Visions, Protection, luck + knotweed - Binding, Health + Ladys mantle - Love + Ladys slipper - Protection + Larch - Protection, Anti theft + Larkspur - Health, Protection + Lavendar - Love, Protection, Sleep, Chastity, Longevity, Purifica + tion, Happiness, Peace + Leek - Love, Protection, Exorcism +2566 + + Lemon - Longevity, Purification, Love, Friendship + Lemongrass - Repel snakes, Lust, Psychic powers + Lemon Verbena - Purification, Love + Lettuce - Chastity, Protection, Love, Divination, Sleep + Licorice - Love,Lust, Fidelity + Life Everlasting - longevity, Health, Healing + Lilac - Exorcism, Protection + Lily - Protection, Breaking Love spells + Lily of the Valley - Mental Powers, Happiness + Lime - Healing,Love,Protection + Linden - Protection, Immortality, Luck, Love, Sleep + Liquidamber - Protection + Liverwort - Protection + Liverwort - Love + Looestrife - Peace,Protection + Lotus - Protection, Lock-Opening + Lovage - Love + Love Seed - Love,Friendship + + HOUSE BLESSING +Assemble: +1. Salt & Water +2. Incense (fire and air) +3. Milk & Honey +4. Oil (for anointing) +5. Wine (for offering) +6. Bells, Pots, Pans, Whistles, etc. + +Cast a circle in the main room (livingroom) and after casting, visualize +the circle expanding to include the entire house. Call upon the spirits +and energies living in the house (or apartment). Invite those who will +be harmonious with the new household and its energies to remain. +Invite/ask those who will be happier elsewhere to depart. Release all +"energies" not compatible with the new household. (This may be +expressed as a "release" in order to unbind anything that may be stuck.) + +Then call upon, greet, and invite ancestors, patron deities, and all +harmonious spirits and energies to dwell in the house as they please. + +Gather up the pots, pans, and all the noise-makers. Go to each door and +window, not forgetting the fire-place and dog-door, making as much +racket as humanly possible--to shoo out anything unwanted. (This is +hysterical fun, and also raises lots of energy for the next important +step.) Go again throughout the house and at each portal (door, window, +etc.) sprinkle salt-water and cense, saying: "By the Elements I purify +and charge this portal." Then anoint the portal with milk and honey, +saying: "By Milk and Honey I ensure prosperity and peace within this +place." Finally, anoint the portal with oil, saying: "With Oil I seal +this portal and protect all within." At the front door a special prayer +is said, asking the guardian deities (God & Goddess) to freely grant +entry to all frien ds and loved ones, and to prevent passage (turn +aside) to any who would do harm." Then, if it's a house--pour wine +across the width of the threshold; if it's an apartment anoint the +threshold with light touches of wine. + +The house-holders then each take a sip of wine, leaving some as an +offering to the Gods, and the Circle should be closed. The remaining +wine, milk, and honey should be offered to the Gods. (In our case to +2567 + +the fruit tree and the oak tree in our yard.) + +Addenda: This is very effective if done as part of a house-warming +party, followed by much feasting. It has also been done very +effectively by two people. It only takes about 30 minutes to do a large +house. You _can_ take the time. + +Do make certain to "ground" afterward, by closing the circle and by +eating. This ritual can "stir" up everybody and make the house feel +full of "buzzy" energy. + +By: Pirate Jenny +To: All +Re: Re: House Blessing notes + +In the spirit of house blessings, and because I'm basically a kitchen +witch at heart, and like little projects over serious ritual, I offer +some selections gleaned from Cunningham's The Magical Household. I'm +typing these without permission but with the hope that they'll +inspire you to pick up the Cunningham book, because it's wonderful +stuph... :> + +For the doorway: + +o Suspend over the door a fresh sprig of dill, tied with a blue cord (or + red, if you prefer), to prevent those who mean you harm from entering. + +o Cross two needles, and stick into or tie onto a corner of your + doormat, to prevent evil from entering. + +o Grind Dragon's Blood herb into a powder and sprinkle it on door and + window sills, to protect your house from harm. + +"Witch Bottles" + +o Powder some more Dragon's Blood herb with a small quantity of sugar + and salt, and place in a small corked or screw-lidded bottle. Shake + and seal with red wax, then place it where it won't be found (or at + least not easily seen). This will ensure harmony and peace within + the house. + +o Place three new needles, three new pins, and three new nails in a + glass jar. Fill with salt and shake vigorously nine times. Seal with + white wax and place in kitchen cupboard where it will not be seen. + This protects your food from contamination. + +o Gather rosemary, along with several needles and pins, into a small + glass jar with a tight-fitting lid or cork. When full, pour in red + wine and shake. Seal with black or red wax, and place in an + inconspicuous place in the apartment. If you own your own house, + bury this at the furthestmost corner of your property. The book + also adds this: + As you're filling the jar, say these words... + "Pins, needles, rosemary, wine, + In this witch's bottle of mine; + Guard against harm and enmity; + This is my will; so Mote it Be!" + Personally, I'm not hip on anything but, "Hey, Gods? It's me again", +2568 + + but I know, I'm CONSIDERABLY less formal than most! + +An Anti-Theft Sachet + +o Mix caraway, rosemary, juniper berries, and elder leaves or mistletoe, +and place into white square of cloth. Tie with white yarn and hang +prominently. I'd assume either at the place you think thieves are most +likely to enter--this being an anti-theft sachet--or at every entrance +and doorway. This will require more cloth and more herbs, but most of +the above are fairly inexpensive. + +Finally, on Moving Day itself: + +o Bring two things into the house first: a small amount of salt, half +to be scattered upon crossing the threshhold, and a small loaf of bread. +Break the bread into as many pieces as you have people moving in, with +one extra piece for the gods' portion. Sprinkle a dash of salt on each +piece; share, when you have a moment. (I'd say have water on hand as +well--at the very least, to clear the salt!) Next, bring in an apple and +do the same thing--Cunningham recommends a fruit and cheese basket--I'd +stick with just the apple and maybe a few slices of cheddar, or +something. Lastly, bring in a sturdy chair and place it either near the +apple and bread bits, or facing the door. This ensures that you will +never know poverty, for there is bread and salt, hunger, for there is +fruit (and cheese), and instability (for there's your stable chair +guarding the door. After that, heave and lift until you're moved in! + +------- +A Note: I think ritual is very important, and I do admire rituals I've +picked up here and those I've found on my own. In the long run, though, +I know myself well enough to think that if I have to wait for a certain +day and have a certain robe on, or need a special tool or altar lay-out, +it'll never happen. But I can put my hands on needles, pins, wine and +spices at virtually any time, and can easily make up witch's bottles for +the shelves and cupboards, sachets for the windows, and incenses for +household protection and cleansing. These simple items can have just as +much power as just about any major ritual, and are sometimes easier to +"whip up" for the busy pagan... :> + +------- + Cleansing Incense +2 parts Dragon's Blood +1 part Valerian Root +1 part Sulphur +1 part Asafoetida +In conjunction with any banishing ritual this WILL remove ANY psychic or +magical impression from your home. Then you can start fresh filling it +with the energies you want. +It may sound strange but it works! (Though it WILL GAG a Maggot!) +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2569 + + WARRIORS + ** Gwydyon Masengale, P.O.Box 4, Tolleson, Az 85353** + + + A Warrior is born with Three Things, + A Body, A Mind, and A Spirit... + + With these three things a Warrior is to build a Life, + A Life of Balance, A Life of Peace, A Life of Will. + + A Warrior is born with Three Things, + A Body... + + Speed, Dexterity, and Reflexes, these are the gifts of the Gods to + A Warrior. Skills can be learned, but the gifts are rare, and are + to be honed to the sharpest of edges and used to build... + A Life of Balance. + + A physical battle is quite simply an exercise, in which A Warrior + is given the opritunity to use the gifts of the Gods, and test the + skills learned on this plane. It will at times be necessary to use + the gifts and the skills knowen to A Warrior to build... + A Life of Peace. + + Through training, the development of the gifts and skills combined can + become a formidable weapon. Perfect Balance, Peace of Mind, and An + Indomitable Spirit are necessary for A Warrior to build... + A Life of Will... + + A Warrior is born with Three Things, + A Mind... + + Intellect, Creativity, and Common Sence, these are the compasses and + maps given A Warrior to help in navigating this existance. In life + A Warrior will make mistakes. The way these mistakes are handled + will set the tone of countless lives determining the measure of + A Warrior's steel. A Warrior will accept responsibility for the + actions taken, learn from them, and use the experiance to build... + A Life of Balance. + + A Warrior must constantly endeavor to learn all that is to be learned + of the path ahead, always drawing inspiration from the path which + lies behind. For strength is the knowledge drawn from the past, and + discretion is the wisdom of the future which empowers the Warrior + to build... + A Life of Peace. + + A Warriors mind is to be constantly sharpened, for the mind alone + IS the most formidable weapon the Warrior will ever posses. + The balance of knowledge and wisdom is the temporing of the steel + that makes A Warrior, lending the strength necessary to build... + A Life of Will. + + A Warrior is Born With Three Things, + A Spirit... + + A Warrior will carry a shield of Honor. The strength of which + is in perfect balance with the Honor of the Warrior. +2570 + + + The Warrior will carry a sword of Truth. With an edge that mirrors the + + inner peace and honesty of the Warrior. + + A Warrior will wear a helmet of Integrity. With power matched only + by the will of the Warrior. + + While battles can be fought and won with the well trained body. + While wars can be waged and won with the tempored and sharpened mind. + The most perilous test A Warrior will face is the test of the Spirit. + Here the Gods give no gifts. A Warrior will have only the strengths +of the spiritthat have been developed in the short life on the physical +plane. + + A Warrior is born with Three Things, + A Body, A Mind, and A Spirit... + + With these Three Things A Warrior must build a Life, + A Life Eternal... + + My Name is Nite Hawk, + + A pledge +By: Judy Harrow + + +The ceremony originated with Judy Harrow and one of her coveners who +co-wrote the dedication ritual. During the ritual, the dedicant is +asked several questions and is expected to respond in whatever way s/he +feels appropriate. +I will include all the questions here for completeness sake: + +1. Do you understand that Witchcraft is the Priesthood of the Old Gods +and Old Ways of Nature, and that every Witch is a Priestess or Priest? + +2. Do you understand that initiation into that Priesthood will change +your life forever, in ways that you cannot now forsee? + +3. Do you understand what priesthood requires: that, if you become a +Witch, you serve the Lady and the Lord by serving Their People, to the +fullest of your ability? + +4. Knowing these things, do you want to study Witchcraft and its +related arts until you know enough to decide whether this is truly your +Path? + +5. Do you understand that Witchcraft is one of many means to serve the +Old Gods and awaken the Old Ways, and that even if this is not your way +after all, you may learn and grow while you are here? Can you accept +that the decision may be, "No?" + +6. Teaching what I love is a great joy. But I can only teach in joy if +I know that what I love will be used and shared with care and honor. +Before I am willing to teach you, there are three things and a fourth +that you must promise me: + + Will you respect and protect the confidence of all who you meet +2571 + +in this Circle and all who seek our aid, revealing their identities to +no one except by their explicit permission? + +7. Will you practice and teach the Craft for love alone, using this +knowledge or teaching it only as a free gift, as I give it now to you, +never accepting payment for it in money or goods or labor? + +8. Will you promise never to use what I teach you to affect another +person, avoiding not only baneful magic but all well-intentioned +meddling, unless you have that person's explicit permission? + +9. And if time brings fullness, as all here hope and expect it will, +when you teach new students of your own, will you require these three +pledges of them, along with their pledge to similarly bind their own +students, so that all that spring from this line may be so pledged? +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2572 + + MEAD: THE BREW OF THE GODS! + Lewis Stead + +Mead is the oldest alcoholic drink known to mankind. More recently it +has been taken up in the Pagan and other ÒalternativeÓ communities +such as the SCA as a favorite for years. It's a form of wine made +with a honey instead of grape juice. Mead is most often associated +with the Vikings and in the Pagan community with modern day Norse +Paganism or Asatru. + +Mead is an important part of the Asatru religion and has a place in +both of the major Norse rituals: the blot and the sumble. The sumble +is a drinking ritual where stories, oaths, and poetry are shared and +meadÕs function here is obvious. In this day and age mead is even +more important to the blot or sacrifice ritual. The blot is actually +quite simple. A God or Goddess is called upon and a sacrifice is +poured in their honor. In ancient times this was most often an +animal sacrifice and blood was poured out onto the ground or altar. +Today an alcoholic beverage of some kind is the usual sacrifice. This +is not only an adjustment to modern feelings about animal sacrifice, +but is appropriate from an esoteric point of view as well. In ancient +times the Norsemen were primarily farmers and an animal would +have been a product that they had raised. Also, sacrifices were not a +wasting of the animal, merely given to the Gods and left to rot, but +were usually feasts where the Gods got their portion and the humans +their own. Today mead making has been a frenzied activity among +Norse Pagans, and it is most appropriate that something be +sacrificed to the Gods which has been made by your own hands in a +sacred manner. Mead fits the bill. It has the immediate links to our +farming ancestors, but it can be easily made from household items +in even a small apartment. + +While we really donÕt know a great deal about how the ancients +viewed mead, other than as an intoxicant, we do have a few clues. +One interesting item to start with is that mead was apparently +sometimes strained through rye, which contains the hallucinogenic +chemical ergot. This may offer some insights into Seidhr, a Nordic +shamanic practice, and the frenzy of the berserkers. Another +interesting item is that Frey, a God of farming and harvest, was said +to have two close companions, Bygvir and Beyla. Bygvir was the +spirit of the barley and Beyla of the honey Ñ both important Gods to +brewers and appropriate companions for the God of fertility. + +Finally, we have a few myths involving mead directly. Mead was +known as KvasirÕs blood and itÕs primary association was with +wisdom. Kvasir was a being who was the wisest in all the universe, +but he was killed and a mead created out of his blood that when +drank brought the drinker wisdom. Aegir, a God of the Sea, was held +to be the patron of brewing and the finest of mead and ale for the +Gods to drink in Valhalla. Odin is said to never eat, but to exist +purely on mead, just as the Greek Gods had their nectar. + +Even if it were not for any mythological importance, mead is of +interest to the modern brewer because it is easy to produce and +delicious. One merely introduces a yeast to the sugary liquid, and the +yeast converts the natural sugars into alcohol. After all the sugar is +converted, the yeast dies off and the wine can be bottled. However, +this is not always as easy as it sounds. +2573 + +The largest problem in brewing is keeping inappropriate yeasts out +of the drink. While the correct wine (or beer) yeasts eat sugar and +excrete alcohol, other yeasts produce vinegar instead. Because of +this it is absolutely vital to keep all brewing equipment absolutely +sterile. This is the most important thing you can do in brewing. All +the great equipment purchased as your wine making shop and the +finest ingredients cannot beat a glass jar filled with welfare honey +if the former is contaminated and the latter sterile. There are two +major ways to sterilize your materials, one is a commercial +"sanitizer" found in wine making shops. Follow label directions and +youÕre all set. The other is to make a solution of 25% bleach and +rinse very thoroughly. + +LetÕs make some cheap and easy mead. YouÕll need a large pot, a one +gallon vinegar or cider bottle, a 4' or 5' length of plastic tubing (try +ÒairlineÓ tubing from a pet shop), a balloon or non-lubricated +condom, a package of wine yeast (not bread yeast), wine bottles, +corks, a corking device, and 2 1/2 pounds of honey. + +First you need to prepare the mixture that will be fermented. Take +your pot and add the honey and enough water to finish filling up the +one gallon bottle. Bring these to a boil slowly. If you donÕt want +scum in your mead and it forms on the top, skim it off. You donÕt +need to boil it for any length of time, you just need to bring it up to +this temperature. Boiling for a while will release a lot of scum and +additives which you can get rid of right now and it will also allow +the mead to age more quickly. However, some of this ÒscumÓ as IÕve +called it is made up of those very things which can create flavor +nuances. I donÕt boil mine. When you decide itÕs done, let it cool long +enough so it wonÕt melt the plastic tubing, then siphon the mead into +the gallon jug , cap and let cool overnight. The gallon jug is your +primary fermenter. + +Did you sterilize the pot? the bottle? the cap? the plastic tubing? +No! Pour it out and start again Ñ yes I am serious. + +Once the mixture is cooled to room temperature you will need to +pitch the yeast. Get a small cup half full with warm, but not hot, +water and add the yeast. Let it sit for about ten minutes and absorb +water and liven up, then pour it into your gallon jug and mix it in. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2574 + +As of now your honey and water mixture is now being converted into +mead. However, this will take about two weeks, perhaps more, to +complete. During this time the mead mixture will bubble and foam, +and this is what the balloon is for. Cover the top of the bottle with +the balloon and about an hour later, when the balloon has started to +inflate but has not become too stretched, poke a few holes in it with +a pin. (I understand this may make you wince if you are using a +condom.) This balloon takes the place of a fermentation lock and +allows the gas to escape while not allowing air in, thus keeping the +fermentation bottle sterile. The holes may become clogged with +foam and you may need to poke a few more. Just remember the +purpose of this and use your common sense. IÕve accomplished this +with plastic wrap and a rubber band, but I wouldnÕt advise others to +try unless youÕre fond of unmet expectations. + +About two weeks from this point the balloon will cease to be greatly +inflated and will eventually go limp. When it has been completely +limp for a few days and the mead is clear rather than cloudy, +fermentation is over. At this point sanitize your wine bottles and +plastic tubing and bottle the mead. Be careful not to get the yeast +into the bottles as itÕs not exactly tasty stuff. I stop about an inch +before the bottom of the primary fermenter and we siphon off the +last inch into cups and toast the new mead. My mead has been very +tasty at this point, other people describe theirs as tasting like paint +thinner. In any case, you may not mind a little yeast in your cup now, +but donÕt inflict it on yourself in the future by bottling it. + +Wait two to six months and then enjoy. Since the above recipe has no +additives which would hasten aging, it may take a while for it to +become truly fine mead, perhaps years. There are a lot of chemical +additives that one can use to improve the flavor and process. The +most common and important addition is a teaspoon of yeast +energizer or yeast nutrient. Others include grape tannin (1/4 +teaspoon), malic acid (2 or 3 teaspoons), tartaric acid (1 to 2 +teaspoons). I recommend all of these chemical additives in your first +batch, but if you canÕt find them you can make do with natural +ingredients or nothing at all. + +One can also add slices of fruit, raisins, or berries for flavor and in +place of grape tannin. One recipe I know of adds some apple jelly. A +few lemon peels will substitute for malic acid and a spoonful of +strong tea will do replace tartaric acid. Hops are a common additive +and will give the mead a bit of a bitterness to offset the sweetness +of the honey. The more bizarre ingredient I have heard of was +Szechuan peppers, use your imagination. + +All of the above additives should be made to the honey and water mix +when it is boiled. Depending on the ingredient, some, such as fruit, +may have to be boiled in this mixture for a while to break them +down. Obviously hunks of fruit should be strained out after the +boiling. Also, all the above ingredients are based on 1 gallon of +mead, adjust appropriately with the exception of the yeast itself, +one package of which will do for anywhere between 1 and 5 gallons. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2575 + +Another semi-useful item is sulfite tablets which can be added to +the mead mixture a day before bottling. This will kill all remaining +yeast and will assure that you are not contaminated by vinegar yeast +after bottling or worse that the fermentation process does not +continue in the bottle, causing it to explode or pop its cork. I donÕt +use sulfite and IÕve heard negative comments about a sulfurous +aftertaste. ItÕs probably the better part of valor to simply wait a +while longer and make sure the fermentation process is truly ended. + +The above instructions also assume you are not interested in +spending a great deal of money on equipment. The only things you +really must obtain from a wine making store are the yeast, the +corks, and the corker. + +If you are willing to spend $50 to $100 more you can improve your +chances of making a good mead by purchasing equipment made for +the purpose. A balloon works, but it is a poor substitute for a proper +fermentation lock that is custom fit to a vat built for the purpose. +Likewise there are many other devices which will useful. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2576 + + In Defense of Excellence + Adrienne +I've noticed a trend, particularly in paganism, toward "elite" becoming +a derogatory term. "Elitist" has very unpleasant connotations. In the +mad scramble toward equality and egalitarianism, perhaps the trend has +gone too far. + +I am all in favour of equality of opportunity. I believe in Martin +Luther King's dream, "I have a dream that someday my children will be +judged, not upon the colour of their skin, but on the content of their +character." + +Yet, I am deeply disturbed by structures and titles meant to reward +excellence downgraded and dismissed as being elitist and hierarchical. + +It the Wicca, this is most strongly epitomised by the continuing +attempts to do away with degree systems on the basis of being elitists +and hierarchical. + +So I ask, what is wrong with elites? Elites exist as an informal (and +often highly formal) network of persons who, by virtue of +personal qualities, or power, or money, or birth status, are capable of +shaping and changing the structure of society. Some elites are based on +nothing more than bank balances or parentage. Others are firmly based +on intelligence, wisdom, commitment and ethical stance of their members. + +I have no problem with the concept of elites. Not everyone has the +desire or capability to belong to every group. The problem lies with +the qualification for membership, not with the concept. + +Hierarchy has an even nastier reputation. Yet in all societies, +regardless of size, structure of purpose, have a hierarchy. Leadership +roles exists and will be filled by those who can fill them. Leaders are +necessary to achieve the goals of the group, regardless of how that +leadership manifests. It is only when a hierarchy becomes closed and +fixed that the structure becomes abusive. + +The concerns of those who dislike the concept of hierarchy due to +experience of its abuses are valid. It is very easy to fall into a +system where power rests, not on those who are qualified, but upon +other,less desirable criteria, such as birth status, or wealth, or +loudness of voice. However, doing away with the formal structure of +hierarchy does not solve the problem. Non hierarchical groups often +fall into leadership by peer pressure. Those that are thick skinned and +dominant will lead de facto, especially if there is no de jure leader. + +Hierarchies exist. They exist because, like physics, nature abhors a +vaccuum. A power vaccuum will be filled regardless of the good +intentions on all sides. The solution is to have structures where all +persons have the opportunity to become leaders, to participate in the +decision making process, based only upon ability and desire to do so. +Equal opportunity,equal access. + +The degree system within the Craft is not perfect. Like any other +system,it has its abuses. However, if properly used, it has rewards far +greater than having no such system. + +First, there is the reward for excellence. Those who have personal +2577 + +qualities such as commitment, talent, study, intelligence and open +mindedness, should be rewarded for their abilities. The reward is not +just a fancy title, but a recognition of that excellence, and membership +in an elite. + +Second, there is a benchmark for others to judge by. If I know what +degree a person holds, mundane or Craft, I have some idea of their +abilities and can assume a certain level of understanding. + +Third, there is the recognition of self. A standard of excellence is +required and achieving a degree is a feedback upon the levels achieved. + +There are other aspects dealing with the magic rite itself, but even if +there were not, the hierarchy of degrees and the elite groups formed by +having them are a mark of excellence for those who belong. Within my +tradition and, according to my faith, within the Wicca itself, there are +no barriers of opportunity to the system. Therefore, I see no reason to +abandon it. I do not say that the system cannot be improved or that +another system cannot provide the same benefits, but I haven't seen one +that provides a reward for excellence while avoiding the pitfalls. + +Without active encouragement of excellence, whether in Craft or in the +mundane world, entropy says that we will end up with mediocrity and +least common denominator. And a world where mediocrity rules is not a +world I wish to live in. + + +(This article previously appeared in "The Messenger") + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2578 + + BADGERS + I looked through all my information, but as far as the Seminoles go +I couldn't find any reference to the Badger. I'm not saying that it +doesn't exist, I just couldn't find any. Here is something from one of +my books that I thought you might find interesting: + + "Badgers are 2-3 feet long and are about 12 inches high. Family +members mark each other with scent for recognition since their sight +is poor. Their senses of smell and hearing, however, are excellent. +Their diet includes a wide variety of roots, herbs, plant, and many +small animals. They dig with remarkable speed to catch burrowing prey +and when they need to get underground quickly. Badgers live in simple +but extremely clean, well kept dens. They pay close attention to +details within their home environments. They change their bedding +often, backing carefully into their dens with straw, so as not to make +a mess in the process. + + Badgers bring us gifts of tidiness and organization. They are +fastidious about their surroundings and will correct any disorder +quickly. If Badger has come to you in some way, it may be saying that +you need to concentrate on maintaining an orderly environment to better +facilitate your day to day living. Badger can also be helpful to call +upon for aid in managing your time. This can be useful for those of us +who are trying to satisfy our need to devote time to ceremonies and the +spirit realm and still work a job. + + Badger will fight to the death if cornered. While this may be a +useful trait in the wild, men used this quality of Badger to exploit it +in the so-called sport of Badger-baiting. Captured Badgers were put +into small enclosed areas with a dog or dogs, and bets were placed on +the outcome of the fight. Are you stuck in a pattern that served you +well once, but is now damaging? Badger could be warning you that a +change of behavior is in order if you don't want to be cornered or +used." + + [From _Animal Energies_ by Gary Buffalo Horn Man and Sherry + Firedancer - Dancing Otter Publishing] + + +Here's something I think you might find interesting. + +It's from a book on Zuni fetishes. (Author: Hal Zina Bennett) + +BADGER (Guardian of the South) + Zuni name: Black Mark face + +Wide, bulky, compact body, spread out along the ground, legs and tail +barely suggested. Narrow, blunt face, prominent nose. +(Describing the fetish itself) + +AS TALISMAN: +This fetish helps you focus your attention and deepen your passion. +It is an antidote to passivity and 'victimized' feelings. It helps you +become more tenacious and grounded, for achieving any goal. + +PERSONALITY TYPE: +If you are a Badger person, you are aggressive, highly goal oriented, +able to concentrate on a single task or mission for long periods; and a +2579 + +good provider. + + Imbolc for the Covenstead + Erin + First, the cleansing. We do covenstead cleansing on this day, partl +because of the (somewhat) purificatory nature of Imbolc, and partly +because it coincides with the date a Japanese custom called yokubrai, if +memory serves correctly, is carried out. Yokubarai means the same as +exorcism, and is done with beans! More about that in a minute. + + I give as many parts to the cleansing as there are people to perform +them. The last house cleansing we did had about 10 people take part and +I found something for each of them to do. But that wasnt easy. Lessee, +I think the most necessary elements for me to go around with are salt +water, incense and beans. But Ive also had people waving away negative +energy with brooms and wands. Ive had them sprinkle with salt water, +and with water in which basil had been soaking for awhile. Ive had +people carry around bells, incense and candles (not quite bell, book and +candle, but close enough ). I live in a loft apartment, so we start +in the closet up there, partly because its in the heart of the house, +partly because I like the humorous aspect of coming out of the closet to +do the blessing. Anyway, we banish in a counterclockwise +diretion, single file, sprinkling, censing, or chanting into each corner +each mirror, light fixture, appliance or outlet, as well as the walls +themselves. + + In other words, we banish negative energy from all things giving +ingress or egress from the house, as well as walls and mirrors. +Sometimes we just take in everything in one room at once if its small, +or everything along one wall--saves time. I usually come at the end of +the line throwing beans at things (I find beans for MONTHS afterward) +and chanting in Japanese: Funiki ga ire; oni ga soto! (Good luck, come +in; devils, begone!) Then someone follows me making a banishing +pentagram with an athame. We circle around the house in a counter-cloc- +kwise spiral till were back where we started--downstairs by that time. +Then we go back upstairs for the blessing part. For the mos part, this +uses the same tools, but no beans this time, and we go clockwise. We +bless the corners, walls, outlets, appliances, and mirror, doors and +windows. We concentrate on blessing and on making a seal that cannot be +broken on the windows and doors especially. I usually come last and +seal everything with a pentagram drawn by my atham. Then I draw a large +permanent circle around the house, call in the elements, and ask the +Lord and Lady to guard and bless the house for another year. + + Consecrating the dirt is simpler. I usually buy potting soil and +place it in the center of the circle. All the ritual is done around it. +We usually consecrate it just before we do cakes and wine by placin our +hands on it and channeling energy into it. Then everyone takes some +home. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2580 + + The last thing we do is to make up Bridgets bed. We take some long +grass, or herbs and fold them into the shape of a doll about a foot long +We dress her up and name her Bridget. Then we make her a soft bedof +some grasses (all on a sheet of newspaper, of course, so the Virgo HPS +doesnt get her nose, or her carpet, bent out of shape), lay her down and +put a phallic image in the bed with her. We use a large dried seed pod +with a rounded head for this. Then we place some of the consecrated +dirt on a sheet of newspaper beside her. She was put by the hearth in +days of yore, but, alas, I have no fireplace! In the mornng, if there +are prints in the dirt (ashes), it foretold a favorableyear. When we +did it last year, I swear there was the image of the phallic figure in +the dirt, though no one had moved him! And it was a very good year for +the coven, all in all. + Hope you can use some of this. + Blessings, Erin + + Invocation of Lord and Lady (Ritual) + Dan Holdgreiwe + +The following is the text of a ritual titled Invocation of the Lord and +Lady which was presented by the Fellowship of the Sacred Grove at a +local gathering in November of 1993. Prayers and invocations are not +included in the text as these are delivered spontaneously by the Priest +and Priestess. + + +PART ONE: THE PREPARATIONS + +[Priest, Priestess, Bard and Quarters begin standing in circle just +outside the circle that will be consecrated for the ritual. Other +participants begin outside of circle and will later enter through South +gate. Customarily, East and North are male, South and West female.] + +1. The Warning + +[The Bard moves to center of circle and addresses all.] + +"We gather tonight to open the veil between the worlds. + +This is not safe -- To pass beyond that threshold we must leave behind +the protections of the mundane world. We must remove the veils which +disguise us and lay aside the jewels which dazzle our eyes. We must +take the risk of Seeing, and of being Seen. + +For our protection we rely upon the Lord and the Lady, whose Children we +are. Any who are not ready to approach Them in reverence, love and trust +should leave now. + +[Pause] + +Those of you who have chosen to walk this path, prepare yourselves to +meet God and Goddess. + +[Bard remains in center.] + +2.Claiming the Circle + +[East takes one step forward into the circle and speaks, facing inward.] +2581 + +"In the name of the Lady of Light, and in my own name, +I claim this circle as a place of Men. +Let all who enter be bound to speak, and hear, the Truth. +So mote it be." + +[West takes one step forward into the circle and speaks, facing inward.] + + +"In the name of the Sacred King, and in my own name, +I claim this circle as a place of Women. +Let all who enter be bound to Perfect Love and Trust. +So mote it be." + +[South takes one step forward into the circle and speaks, facing +inward.] + +"In the name of the Lord of the Greenwood, and in my own name, +I claim this circle as a place of Nature +Let all who enter be bound to the sacred web of life. +So mote it be." + +[North takes one step forward into the circle and speaks, facing +inward.] + +"In the name of the Queen of Heaven, and in my own name, +I claim this circle as Sacred Space. +Let all who enter be opened to the presence of God and Goddess. +So mote it be." + +3. Marking the Circle + +[All sing Listen to the Lord and Lady while Priest and Priest mark +circle. When finished Priest and Priestess stand before alter in North, +facing South.] + +4. The Challenges + +[East and West move to South gate and form Arch with athames. North +crosses to South gate. Participants enter through South gate one at a +time and are challenged at knife point by North and South, then shown to +places by Bard.] + +Who seeks to join this fellowship? + +Will you support and defend your companions on this quest? + +Do you swear to use that which you learn in this circle only in service +of the light? + +Are you ready to meet the Mother and Father of All life? + +Then enter and be welcome. + +[Comment: This took several minutes, but the effect of the delay was +positive rather than negative. The lengthy challenge process acted to +center and focus the entire circle.] + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2582 + +5.Sealing the Circle + +[Bard speaks from center.] + +We have stepped beyond time, to a place not of earth. In the presence of +the Lord and Lady, we join together and are one. + +[Bard crosses to take place in circle, then takes hand of next person +deosil and says We are one. Each participant takes the hand of the next +repeating We are one until the whole circle is joined. When the circle +is complete, the Bard announces again We are one!] + +PART TWO: THE MYSTERY + +1. Pathworking + +[Priest moves to center and leads all in pathworking. After preliminary +relaxation and centering, the working takes the participant first to +four symbols -- a living tree, a sword, a cup, and a standing stone -- +each of which holds a message for the visitor. Then the participants +journey to an ancient clearing around a weathered stone alter where, in +times long past, their ancestors honored the Lord and Lady. In that +holy place, the participants call the Guardians of the Quarters, then +prepare to invoke the Lord and Lady.] + +[Comment: The actual invocation of the Lord and Lady follows without +transition, inviting the participants to continue to experience it in +the ancient clearing.] + +2. Calling the Lord and Lady + +[Priestess joins Priest in center. Priestess invokes the Lord. Other +celebrants +invoke Lord and/or Lady as they feel inspired. Priest closes invocations +by invoking the Lady. All invocations end with Come join with us. which +is repeated by all.] + +3. Chant: +Priestess begins chant alone, all join in after first time through. +Participants should stand, clap and dance as they feel moved.] + +Isis, Osiris, Woden and Freya; Lord and Lady, Brigid and Lugh + +[Chant builds in power to be cut off at peak by Bard striking staff on +the ground.] + +4. Readings + +[During chant East and West have stepped outside circle and deliver +readings from opposite sides of circle. Bard is at center. Bard speaks.] + + +Hear now the words of the Great Mother who is called Isis, and Freya, +and Brigid, and many other names. + +[West speaks.] + +Think not that I am far from you, for you can see my visage in the moon, +2583 + +and hear my voice upon the wind. +I am the silence of the sea, and the secret of the standing stones. +I am the beauty of the green earth, and the mystery of the stars. +I am the Mother of all things, and the soul of nature, who gives life to +the universe. +I am the source of your beginning, and I am the fulfillment of your +desire. + +[Bard speaks.] + +Hear the words of the All Father who is called Osiris, and Woden, and +Lugh, and other names beyond counting. + +[East speaks.] + +You know me not, but I am with you. My face is the sun, and my voice the +thunder. +I am the strength of the forest, and the keenness of the sword. +I am the rune giver; the patient teacher; the revealer of secrets. +I am the warrior, the defender of the weak and the companion of heroes. +I am the Horned One. I am the gateway to the Mysteries, and I am Mystery +itself. + +[West speaks.] + +Arise and come unto us, for mine in the womb that bore thee and the +breast that nursed thee. Your joy is our joy, and your sorrow, our +sorrow. We would teach you the ways of healing, and the joys of love, +for our law is love unto all beings. We give the knowledge of the +eternal spirit, and beyond death we give peace and reunion with those +who have gone before. We would lead you to love and to freedom. Call on +us, and we will show you the hidden paths. + +[East speaks.] + +Follow my white stag into the deep forest. There is mystery in the wild +places, and a path that leads between the worlds. +The path is not easy, for it leads to that which cannot be given by +another. +Those who would share our freedom must create it anew within their own +hearts. +But no one who walks that path walks alone. Fear not to call on us, for +we have not forgotten our Children. + +5. Great Rite + +[Priest and Priestess take positions in center of circle, Priest +kneeling with chalice, Priestess standing with athame. Priest makes +spontaneous prayer to Lord and Lady. Priestess prays and/or responds on +behalf of Lord and Lady, customarily ending with So mote it be as she +lowers the athame. + +[Comment: a common theme here is to invite the Lord and Lady to join +with us as they join with each other, but sensitivity to the inspiration +of the moment is the prime concern.] + +6. Blessing + +2584 + +[All sing We all come from the Goddess as Priest and Priestess circle +group, touching and offering a blessing to each in turn. When all have +received a blessing, Priest and Priestess return to circle and all join +hands. Priest and Priestess signal end to song by returning to center.] + +PART THREE CLOSING + +1. Thanking the Lord and Lady + +[Priest thanks Lady, Priestess thanks Lord.] + +2. Return to Mundane Consciousness + +[Priestess return to circle. Priest resumes pathworking in ancient +clearing, thanks quarters and draws participants back into normal +consciousness. Priest returns to circle.] + +3. Opening the Circle + +[Bard moves to center and addresses all.] + +The rite is ended, the circle is open, may the blessing of the Lord and +Lady be with you all. So mote it be. (All respond.) + +END + Yule Ritual +YULE DIVINE PLAY - by Lady Allusha, Coven Tara, publiched in the +Georgian Newsletter, December 1983 + +Characters: Narrator, Earth Goddess, Handmaidens, Sun God +Props: Yule Fire + +Narrator: It has been a long cold winter. Here, where the trees are +all barren and the snow covers the ground the nights are dark and long. + +Earth Goddess enters, followed by her Handmaidens. They all move slowly +around towards the birthing spot. + +Narrator: We see shadowy figures in the distance, moving slowly. The +delicate footprints lead into the deepest realms of the forest. It is +the Earth Goddess, pregnant with Life, followed by her Handmaidens. + +Earth Goddess stops. Handmaidens gather before her and kneel. Earth +Goddess starts to make soft birthing sounds. + +Narrator: Listen! The Earth Goddess is about to give birth. In the +midst of deepest darkness, light shall be reborn. Lend her your aid! + +Handmaidens start swaying gently, joining in the birthing sounds. +Narrator encourages all present to join in the birthing sounds. The +sounds get louder and louder until ... + +Narrator: The Sun is Born! + +Sun God jumps out from hiding into the center. He appears small and +weak. + +Earth Goddess: Go, my faithful Handmaidens, and build up the Yule fire. +2585 + +That the weak Sun God shall grow in warmth and strength by its flames. + +She collapses with a sigh. Handmaidens build up the fire. The Sun God +slowly grows as the fire grows, until he stands tall with his arms +outstretched. He says, " I have returned" Then he dances a little jig. + + YULE RITUAL + + The celebrants gather in a room apart from the ritual area. + It is best if the ritual can be held in a room without lights + and with no heat. Priest and Priestess may choose to cast + the circle before hand and allow all to enter through a + portal, or cast after the candle lighting. At the time for + the ritual to begin, the warden and maiden lead all into the + ritual area with only one dim candle to light the way which + circles to the Southern tower and stays there. As all shiver + in the darkness, the priest and priestess, at the Southern + tower begin, alternating: + + It is winter. + It is night. + + We await the Sun. + We await the light. + + In this darkness + In this night, + + We await the warmth. + We await the light. + + (Together:) And slowly it comes. + + (As they have moved around the cirle saying these things, the + Priestess Widdershins and the Priest Deosil, they light + candles which completely surround the circle. By the time + they have finished, the room should be very bright.) + + Circle is cast if not already. Salt and water. Fire and air. + Quarters summoned in manner appropriate to the season. + + God Invocation + Priestess: + + Horned God, Winter God, Father of the Sun, with frost upon + your beard and the blazing of Yule fires in your eyes, you + bless us with your presence. We greet you. + + Goddess Invocation + The Winter God (lighting the appropriate candles, which are + held by women appropriately dressed): + + White is for the Maiden, divine and joyous child. Fresh as + the snow is her taper. I give greetings, Blessed One. + + Red is for the Mother, warm embracing creation queen. + Scarlet as the winter sunset is her taper. I give greetings, + Regal One. +2586 + + Black is for the Crone, keeper of magical mysteries. Ebon as + the stormy night is her taper. I give greetings, Wise One. + + Queens of winter, Sister, Mother, Grandmother, I greet you + and ask your blessings upon your people gathered here. + + The three Goddesses, dividing the parts appropriately, invoke + the Sun (the Maiden then crowns the God with a crown of + candles or other appropriate crown, the Mother gives him a + staff with a pine cone tip and the Crone gives him a kiss): + Return, oh, return! God of the sun, god of the light, + return! Darkness has fled -- Thou hast no enemies. O lovely + helper, return, return! + Return to thy sister, thy spouse, thy mother who loveth thee! + We shall not be put asunder. O my brother, my consort, my + son, return, return! When I see thee not my heart grieveth + for thee, mine eyes seek for thee, my feet roam the earth in + search of thee! Gods and men weep for thee together. God of + the sun, god of the light, return! Return to thy sister, thy + spouse, thy mother, who loveth thee! Return! Return! + Return! + + The God raps three times on the altar with his wand + + Sun King: + Newly born, am I. What wisdom says the watcher of the east + to aid me and those gathered here with me? + + East: + This is a time for entering wilderness and seeking its + magical strengths. A time for standing alone and godlike, + and seeing all things clearly. It is a season of joy! + + Sun King: + What wisdom says the watcher of the south? + + South: + This is a time of active seeking, both without in nature and + within oneself. Eagerness and resolution shall concern + mysteries and create results. It is a season of courage! + + Sun King: + What wisdom says the watcher of the west? + + West: + This is a time for devotion to the way of the wild places and + seeking the calmness of solitary locales. A time for finding + understanding, and confiding only in trusted friends. It is + a season of meditation! + + Sun King: + What wisdom says the watcher of the north? + + North: + This is a time to know the endurance of the hills, and to so + grow in one's own inner firmness. A time for scrupulousness + and thoroughness and considering all things. It is a season + of confidence! +2587 + + The Winter God: + + Rich are these gifts of knowledge. Soon I will give way to + my Son, but until that time mine is the feast and the season + of joy. (The God blesses the feast as is customary for the + group.) + + Each Deity and Watchers is thanked and bid farewell as they + were invoked. + + The circle is released as is appropriate to the group. + + Notes: + + If anyone is crowned with a crown of candles, a veil helps + with the dripping wax. Holly can be pretty uncomfortable, + too, so ditto. + + Portions of this are liberally stolen from the Magical Rites + from the Crystal Well by Ed Fitch. It's great stuff and you + may want to use it outright, rather than my mutilated + version. + + If you have enough people and candles, everybody may be naked + by the end of this. + + It's great to use your oldest male as Winter and your + youngest male for the Sun (kids are great suns). Same for + the Goddesses. + + Obviously, this is just an outline that can be spindled, + folded and mutilated any way you like. The opening part with + the candles we have used for more than one Yule and it's + really great. + + We have also done a guided meditation into Herne's Grove, + rather than a Winter God invocation. It involves a treck + through the winter forest, trudging through snow until you + find the lone pine tree in the clearing in the heart of the + + + Female Wine Blessing + +The Goddess calls originate from an all-female version I wrote of the +Dedication ritual of the Odyssian tradition. The original was written by +Richard and Tamarra James. This version follows the structure of the +original fairly closely, and maintains some of the original lines, so if +you like it, send your compliments to Richard as well as to me. + +Ditto for the Wine Blessing, as it is a modified version of the Odyssian +standard WB. + +One priestess represents the Moon Goddess (the conventionally feminine +role), and the other the Sun Goddess (the conventionally mascualine +role). +We half-jokingly called this the butch-femme wine blessing... + +Goddess Calls: +2588 + +SG: I am She who shone forth from the Dark of Night, + When time was begun. + Lady of the Sea, join Me, + And let all things be formed of Our union. + Thou who art called Artemis, Hecate, Cerridwen, Isis. + Giver of love, protection, and the joy of life, + Goddess of the Earth, Moon and Sea, + Ruler of the Night, + Mistress of Magic, Keeper of the Mysteries. + Ascend to Me on bright and silvered wing. + For lo, I receive these gifts of Thee: + Life, and love, and gifts from the Sea. + I am the Sun, the Sun that calleth Thee. + I am the arching Sky that covers Thee. + Come unto Me, my Lady, come unto Me, + And be welcome. + Hail, and blessed be. + +MG: I am She who rose from the depths of the Sea, + When time was begun. + Lady of the Bright Sky, join Me, + And let all things be formed of Our union. + Thou who art called Athena, Bast, Sekhmet, Amaterasu. + Giver of strength, guidance, and the will of life, + Goddess of the Sun, Sky, and Winds, + Ruler of the Day, + Bringer of Justice and Voice of Truth. + Descend to Me on bright and golden wing. + For lo, I receive these gifts of Thee: + Life, and strength, and fullest ecstasy. + I am the Sea, the Sea that calleth Thee. + I am the waiting Earth that welcomes Thee. + Come unto Me, my Lady, come unto Me, + And be welcome. + Hail, and blessed be. + +Wine Blessing: + +MG anoints SG and hands her the athame. + +MG: Bright Lady, thou art the Sun. + Thy heat is radiant. + Warrior Maiden, Giver of the Law, + Here is the athame, + The Air and Fire are contained within it, + As are their powers. + +SG anoints MG and hands her the chalice. + +SG: Dark Lady, thou art the Moon, + Giver of dreams and visions. + Wise One, Teacher of the Mysteries, + Here is the chalice, + The Earth and the Sea are contained within it, + As are their powers. + +SG: I am the spark of life, + The well of flame wherein dwells all power and potential. +2589 + +MG: And I am the primal matter, + The core of earth that gives shape and form to that power. + +Both: Neither one can work without the other. + One without the other is incomplete. + +SG: Mine are wisdom and knowledge, passion and pride. + +MG: And mine are love and dreams, silence and mystery. + +Both: To learn you must suffer, + To live you must be born, + To be born you must die. + The beginning, continuation and the end, + Over and over. + +SG: The Sun brings forth light, + +MG: And the Moon holds it in darkness. + +SG: As above, + +MG: So below. + +SG: (Raises athame) And as the athame is one half of our divine +nature, + +MG: So the chalice is the other. + +Both: (Athame into chalice) And conjoined they be one in truth, + For it is in the Dance that Life is born, + In the balance that truth is found, + And there is no greater power in all the world + Than that of Love. + + Altars (misc. Thoughts) + Chris Olmstead + +As for Altar set ups... +1. I once read Crowley's remarks on how he contrived his stuff while he +was out wandering the world or climbing mountains. He found ways to +just use the simple things from his kit...cook knife became Athame, tin +cup became the Cup...etc. + +This sort of 'kitchen witch' working is accepted by lots of folks. You +can set an altar up and take it down as fast as you can set a table. + +2. I also have noted the "Porto-Pagan" set-ups at some of the Pagan +Fests I've attended. Carry the stuff in a cardboard box that can be +up-ended for an altar, or even placed on it's side for a rain-proof +'shrine'. Close and carry off at the end of the visit with a minimum of +re-wrapping to protect the fragiles. +Some just contrive one with the natural objects at hand...a rock, a +stick, a lantern or candle, etc. + +3. Some folks (including myself) have a small duffle into which I've +placed a second set of "traveling" working tools. I have the great +good-fortune of having friends who give me cool things. The coolest +2590 + +stay on my Altar, the second-coolest hang out in the sac, and sometimes +I shift the goodies around. + +4. I have a buncha books that offer arrangements I find a bit Over- +whelming, but I can certainly post them, if you really need them. If +you want me to fetch out Official Altar diagrams from some of the slick +commercial works I have on the shelf, RSVP. + +5. For "public" Altar, in my home, I 'clutter' a shelf, a mantle, or a +small window sill. It sounds to me as though, since all your stuff is +packed andyour space is totally compressed, that the "window sill" Altar +is a good solution for you. I put a little origami pinwheel up on an +Eastern sill, a small shell on a Western one, a tiny oil lamp on a +Southern one, and a pretty rock on a Northern one. The whole House is +the Altar "Table". + +To clear my space I have been known to light a stick of incense, scaling +it upward in my mind until I am swinging a huge flaming brand before the +various Darks I'm dispelling, and run through the house screaming and +raving aloud until they back off. A joss stick lasts about 20 minutes. +I can almost guarantee that if you summon your Ki and Incant over a +flaming brand for 15 minutes, most Shadows _will_ go elsewhere. I +haven't had to do it in THIS house more than twice in 3 years. + + + What Is Shamanism? +Since the term "shamanism" has been used in a number of ways during the +discussions here I thought it might be helpful to present some basic +information on shamanism as the inter-disicplinary subject that it has +become since Mircea Eliade wrote _Shamanism_. + +The following is from the Foreward, which explains the approach that +Eliade took to study Shamanism as a magico-religious phenomena, and +which has been the foundation that shamanism as a spiritual tradition, +as well as explaining how other academic disciplines approach the +subject. + + --------------------------------------- + +Mircea Eliade +_Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy_ +Princeton University, Bollingen Series LXXVI 1964 + +Originally published in French as _Le Chamanisme et les techniques +archaiques de l'extase_, Librairie Payot, Paris, 1951. Revised and +enlarged for the Bollinger edition. + +ISBN 0-691-01779-4 pbk 0-691-09827-1 hdbk + + + To the best of our knowledge the present book is the first to cover + the entire phenomenon of shamanism and at the same time to situate it + in the general history of religions. To say this is to imply its + liability to imperfection and approximation and the risks that it + takes. Today the student has at his disposition a considerable + quantity of documents for the various shamanisms--Siberian, North + American, South American, Indonesian, Oceanian, and so on. Then too, + a number of works, important in their several ways have broken ground +2591 + + for the ethnological, sociological, and psychological study of + shamanism (or rather, of a particular type of shamanism). But with +a + few notable exceptions--we refer especially to the studies of Altaic + shamanism by Holmberg (Harva)--the immense shamanic bibliography has + neglected to interpret this extremely complex phenomenon in the + framework of the history of religion. It is as a historian of + religions that we, in our turn, have attempted to approach, + understand, and present shamanism. Far be it from us to think of + belittling the admirable studies undertaken from the viewpoints of + psychology, sociology, or ethnology; we consider them indispensable + to understanding the various aspects of shamanism. But we believe + that there is room for another approach--that which we have sought to + implement in the following pages. + + The writer who approaches shamanism as a psychologist will be led to + regard it as primarily the manifestation of a psyche in crisis or + even in retrogression; he will not fail to compare it with certain + aberrant psychic behavior patterns or to class it among mental + diseases of the hysteroid or epileptoid type. + + We shall explain why we consider it inacceptable to assimilate + shamanism to any kind of mental disease. But one point remains (and + it is an important one), to which the psychologist will always be + justified in drawing attention: like any other religious vocation, + the shamanic vocation is manifested by a crisis, a temporary + derangement of the future shaman's spiritual equilibrium. All the + observations and analyses that have been made on this point are + particularly valuable They show us, in actual process as it were, + the repercussions, within th epsyche, of what we have called the + "dialectic of hierophanies"--the radical separation between profane + and sacred and the resulting splitting of the world. To say this is + to indicate all the importance that we attribute to such studies in + religious psychology. + + The sociologist, for his part, is concerned with the social function + of the shaman, the priest, the magician. He will study prestige + originating from magical powers, its role in the structure of + society, the relations between religious and political leaders and so + on. A sociological analysis of the myths of the First Shaman will + elicit revealing indications concerning the exceptional position of + the earliest shamans in certain archaic societies. The sociology of + shamnism remains to be written, and it will be among the most + important chapters in general sociology of religion. The historian + of religions must take all these studies and their conclusions into + account. Added to the psychological conditions brought out by the + psychologist, the social ocnditions, in the broadest sense of the + term, reinforce the element of human and historical concreteness in + the documents that he is called upon to handle. + + The concreteness will be accented by the studies of the ehtnologist. + It will be the task of ethnological monographs to situate the shaman + in his cultural milieu. There is danger of misunderstanding the true + personality of a Chukchee shaman, for example, if one reads of his + exploits without knowing anything about the life and traditions of + the Chukchee. Again, it will be for the ehtnologist to make + exhaustive studies of the shaman's costume and drum, to describe the + seances, to record texts and melodies, and so on. By undertaking to +2592 + + establish the "history" of one or another constituent element of + shamanism (the drum, for example, or the use of narcotics during + seances), the ethnologist--joined when circumstances demand it, by a + comparatist and historian--will suceed in showing the circulation of + the particular motif in time and space; so far as possible, he will + define its center of expansion and the stages and the chronology of + its dissemination. In short, the ethnolgist will also become a + "historian," whether or not he adopts the Graebner-Schmidt-Koppers + method of cultural cycles. In any case, in addition to an admirable + purely descriptive ethnographical literature, there are now available + numerous works of historical ethnology: in the overwelming "gray + mass" of cultural data stemming from the so-called "ahistorical" + peoples, we now begin to see certain lines of force appearing; we + begin to distinguish "history" where we were in the habit of finding + only "Naturvolker," "primitives," or "savages." + + It is unnecessary to dwell here on the great services that historical + ethnology has already rendered to the histroy of religions. But we + do not believe that it can take the place of the history of + religions. The latter's mission is to integrate the results of + ethnology, psychology, and sociology. Yet in doing so, it will not + renounce its own method of investigation or the viewpoint that + specifically defines it. Cultural ethnology may have demonstrated + the relation of shamanism to certain cultural cycles, for example, or + the dissemination of one or another shamanic complex; yet its object + is not to reveal the deeper meaning of all these religious phenomena, + to illuminate their symbolism, and to place them in the general + history of religions. In the last analysis, it is for the historian + of religions to synthesize all the studies of particular aspects of + shamanism and to present a comprehensive view which shall be at once + a morphology and a history of this complex religious phenomena. + + pg. xi-xiii + + + + Chapter One, General considerations. REcruiting Methods. Shamanism + and Mystical Vocation. + + Since the beginning of the century, ehtnologists have fallen into + the habit of using the terms, "shaman," "medicine man," "sorcer," + and "magician" interchangeably to designate certain individuals + possessing magico-religious powers and found in all "primitive" + societies. By extension, the smae terminology has been applied in + studying the religious history of "civilized" peoples, and there + have been discussions, for example, of an Indian, an Iranian, a + Germanic, a Chinese, and even a Babylonian "shamanism" with + reference to the "primitive" elements attested in the corresponding + religions. For many reasons this confusion can only militate + against any understanding of the shamanic phenomenon. If the word + "shaman" is taken to mean any magician, sorcerer, medicine man, or + ecstatic found throughout the history of religions and religious + ethnology, we arrive at a notion at once extremely complex and + extremely vague; it seems, furthermore, to serve no purpose, for we + already have the terms "magician" or "sorcerer" to express notions + as unlike and as ill-defined as "primitive magic" or "primitive + mysticism." + We consider it advantageous to restrict the use of the words +2593 + + "shaman" and "shamanism" precisely to avoid misunderstandings and + to + cast a clearer light on the history of "magic" and "sorcery." For + of course, the shaman is also a magician and medicine man; he is + believed to cure, like all doctors, and to perform miracles of the + fakir type, like all magicians, whether primitive or modern. But + beyond this, he is a psychopmp, and he may also be preist, mystic + and powet. In the dim, "confusionistic" mass of the religious life + of archaic socieites considered as a whole, shamanism--taken in its + strict and exact sense--already shows a structure of its own and + implies a "history" that there is every reason to clarify. + + Shamanism in the strict sense is pre-eminently a religious + phenomenon of Siberia and Central Asia. The word comes to us, + through the Russian, from the Tungusic _saman_. In the other + languages of Centeral and North Asia the corresponding terms are + Yakut _ojuna_ (_oyuna_), Mongolian _buga_, _boga_ (_buge_, _bu_) and + _udagan_ (cf. also Buryat _udayan_, Yukut _udoyan_: "shamaness")_, + Turko-Tartar _kam_ (Altaic _kam_, _gam_, Mongolian _kami_, etc.) It + has been sought to explain the Tungusic term by the Pali _samana_, + and we shall return to this possible etymology (which is part of the + great problem of Indian influences on Siberian religions) in the + last chapter of this book. Throughout the immense area comprising + Central and North Asia, the magico-religious life of society centers + on teh shaman. This, of course, does not mean that he is the one + and only manipulator of the sacred, nor that religious activity is + completely usurped by him. IN many tribes the sacrificing priest + coexists with the shaman, not to mention the fact that every head of + a family is also the head of the domestic cult. Nevertheless the + shaman remains the dominating figure; for throught the whole region + in which the ecstatic experience is considered the religious + experience par excellence, the shaman, and he alone, is the great + master of ecstasy. A first definition of this complex phenomenon, + and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = _technique of + ecstasy_. + + pgs 3-4 + + + Yet one observation must be made at the outset: the presence of a + shamanistic complex in one region or another does not necessarily + mean that the magico-religious life of the corresponding poeple is + crystallized around shamanism. This can ocur (as, for example, in + certain parts of Indonesia), but it is not the most usual state of + affairs. Generally shamanism coexixsts with other forms of magic + and religion. + + It is here that we see all the advantage of emplying the term + "shamanism" in its strict and proper sense. For, if we take the + trouble to differentiate the shaman from other magicians and + medicine men of primitive societies, the identification of shamanic + complexes in one or another region immediately acquires definite + significance. Magic and magicians are to be foudn more or less all + over the world, where as shamaism exhibits a particular magical + specialty, on which we shall dwell at legth: "master over fire," + "magical flight," and so on. By virtue of this fact, though the + shaman is, among other things, a magician, not every magician can + properly be termed a shaman. The same distinction must be applied +2594 + + in regard to shamanic healing; ever medicine man is a healer, but + the shaman employs a method that is his and his alone. AS for the + shamanic techniques of ecstasy, they do not exhaust all the + varieties of ecstatic experience documented in the history of + religions an dreligious ethnolgoy. Hence any ecstatic cannot be + considered a shaman; the shaman specializes in a trance during which + his sould is believed to leave his body and ascend to the sky or + descend to the underworld. + + A similar distinction is also necessary to define the shaman's + relation to "spirits." All through the primitive and modern worlds + we find individuals who profess to maintain relations with + "spirits," whether they are "possessed" by them or control them. + SSEveral volumes would be needed for an adequate study of all the + problems that arise in connection with the mere idea of "spirits" + and of their possible relations with human beings; for a "spirit" + can equally well be the sould of a dead person, a "nature spirit," +a + mythical animal, and so on. But the study of shamanism does not + require going into all this; we need only define the shaman's + relation to his helping spirits. It will easily be seen wehrein a + shaman differs from a "possessed" person, for example; the shaman + controls his "spirits," in the sense that he, a human being, is able + to communicate with the dead, "demons," and "nature spirits," + without thereby becoming their insturment. To be sure, shamans are + sometimes found to be "possessed," but these are exceptional cases + for which there is a particular explanation. + + These few preliminary observations already indicate the course that + we propose to follow in odrder to reach an adequate understanding of + shamanism. In view of the fact that this magico-religious + phenomenon has had its most complete manifestation in North and + Central Asia, we shall take the shaman of these regions as our + typical example. We are not unaware, and we shall endeavor to show, + that Central and North Asian shamanism, at least in its present + form, is not a primordial phenomenon that has a long "history." But + this Central Asian and Siberian shamanism has the advantage of + presenting a structure in which elements that exist independently + elsewhere in the world--i.e., special relations with "spirits," + ecstatic capacities permitting of magical flight, ascents to the + sky, descents to the underworld, mastery over fire, etc.--are here + already found integrated with a particular ideology and validating + specific techniques. + + pgs. 5-6 + + ------------------------- +By: JULIA PHILLIPS +Re: Travelling Chant +Some time ago I promised to post some of the BoS material I have which +(allegedly) pre-dates Gardner. No guarantees , but I was told that +this chant dates from the 1920s: + +Let's ride, let's ride, to the sabbat tonight, +we'll ride over hill, over dale. +We'll ride to the feasting and ride to the dance, +and ride to the October ale. + +2595 + + +Let's dance, let's dance at the sabbat tonight, +We'll sing with a heart full and glad. +We'll sing and we'll love through the chill autumn night, +and remember the loves we have had. + +Let's ride, let's ride when the sabbat is done, +let's ride back to hearth and to home. +Let's ride back together all under the stars, +and wait for the next sabbat to come. + +I think it's rather a nice chant, whenever it was written. + +B*B Julia + Bridal Blessing Song +This is one of a collection which I have been told dates from the 18th +century. As with the previous one, no guarantees ! + +Blessing Song for a Bridal + +Bless the furrow, bless the plough +and bless the seed that springs. +Bless the fruit and bless the corn +the blossoms on the bough. +Bless the man and bless the maid +and bless the bed they share. +Bless the babe that's got this night +and in the Lady's care. + +B*B Julia + + +---- A WICCANING PART 4 --- + + + +THE DIVULGENCE OF THE NAMES (explained to the Witnesses): + +ANCIENT EUROPEAN PEOPLES BELIEVED THAT YOU MUST HAVE TWO +NAMES, ONE PUBLIC AND ONE A SECRET NAME THAT ONLY THOSE +PRESENT AT THE BLESSING CEREMONY KNEW. THIS SECOND NAME +IS FOR USE AFTER PUBERTY, WHEN THE SOUL CHANGES INTO ITS +FIRST ADULT SELF, WHEN IT CAN BE UTTERED ONCE MORE, AND +MADE PUBLIC. THE PURPOSE OF THE FIRST PUBLIC NAME WAS TO +DIVERT THE EVIL EYE, TO GAIN FAVOR WITH THE FATES, TO +KEEP AWAY SICKNESS, AND TO HELP THE CHILD REACH ADULTHOOD. + +Priestess: +"Great Spirit of Nature, protect and guide these young souls +among us. May the Blessings of the wise and joyous Father of the Gods +far-seeing and far-knowing be upon thee. May the blessings of the Triple +Goddess, of Maiden, of Mother, of Crone, and all their power +be upon thee." + + +The following blessings/invocations were spoken and followed by +the child being immersed in the ocean water of the beach where +the ritual was held: +2596 + +ELIZABETH'S DUNKING: + +Anna Perenna +Great Goddess, Mother of All +Envelope this daughter of yours +in the waters of Your womb +Grant her protection from wrong-doing +Wash away the memories of her pain +Shower her with Your blessings +in a life everlasting +Bless Elizabeth Mae Luzerne. +So Mote it Be! + + + +PATRICK'S DUNKING: + +Great Goddess, Nurturer and Bearer of all Men, great and small +Without whose womb they would not be +Mother of Gods, of Sacrificial Kings, +Presidents, Emperors, and beggars +Welcome this son of Yours into Your Light +and as you have taught us, let him find +"Beauty and strength, power and compassion, +mirth and reverence, honor and humility" +within his heart. +Wash his fears away with your caress! +Bless Patrick Howard Lloyd! +Blessed Be! + + +MORGAINNE'S DUNKING: + +Hail, o gracious and most magnificent Lady +whose slender hand turns the vast wheel of the sky. +whose triple aspect does see +the beginning, the life, and the end of all things. +whose wells of mystery do give +inspiration and rebirth thoughout eternity, +receive here this small daughter of yours with blessings +and with love. +Bless Morgainne Ellayne! +So mote it be! + + Santa + TANE JACKSON + +Christmas has two distinct themes running through it, as study of any +collection of Christmas cards shows. One is the religious aspect, +involving Wise Men, angels, the Star and shepherds, and refers to +the Gospel story of the birth of Christ. The other theme seems totally +unrelated and depicts reindeer, stockings, a sleigh and, of course, +Santa Claus. + +The two main Christmas personalities are Jesus and Santa, as most people +will agree. Everyone brought up in a Christian country knows the +significance of Jesus at this time but just who is Father Christmas and +why should he become part of a religious festival? +2597 + + We must first look back at history and see why December became such +an important month in the religious calendar in the first place. The +reason is, of course, the Winter Solstice, December 21st, when the +Sun appears to stop in the sky prior to beginning its journey back +across the heavens. + + After the Solstice the days gradually get longer and the peoples +of old considered this to be almost the birthday of the Sun. The peoples +of the northern hemisphere were fond of having a festival in mid-winter, +perhaps because they needed something to take their minds off the long, +cold, dark days. + + In ancient Rome the feast of Saturnalia was held between December +17th and 23rd and gifts were exchanged. The Romans also held the +feast of Brumalia on the Solstice day itself and considered this to be +the birthday of Mithra the unconquered Sun god. The Norsemen celebrated +Yule at this time, to herald the return of the Sun. + + It is interesting to note that Christ is often known as the Light of +the World, a title that continues this theme of darkness in retreat in +the face of good. + + The Solstice has long been associated with the idea of people giving +each other presents. Apart from giving gifts at Saturnalia the Romans +also exchanged presents on the feast of the Kalends, which we call New +Year's Day. These customs prevailed all over the Roman Empire when +Christianity was still a new religion. + + When Christianity spread to the northern lands they found the +Norsemen worshipping Odin--who rode his chariot through the night sky at +the time of the Winter Solstice, handing out gifts. + + Because the exchange of gifts was so linked in the pagan mind with +these old festivals devout Christians were not supposed to exchange +gifts at this time. However, gift-exchange never died out on the +European scene and finally the Church fathers had to do something about +it. They did not want to let people keep on believing that Odin or any +other pagan deity had anything to do with gift-bringing so they looked +around for an acceptable Christian figure to bring them instead. The +person they chose was St Nicholas, the former Bishop of Myra in the +4th century AD. + + Not much is actually known about St Nicholas, though many legends +grew up around his kind ly figure. One thing that qualified him for the +role of gift-bringer was his feast day being December 6th, a date +sufficiently close to the Solstice for the two to be connected in the +mass mind. + + St Nicholas was a useful saint and could even be described as +all-purpose. His responsibilities included the welfare of pawn- +brokers, boatmen, parish clerks, dockers and barrel-makers among +others. He was the patron saint of both Russia and Aberdeen. The +best-known story about him tells of his leaving three bags of gold on +a poor man's windowsill as dowries for his three daughters. One version +of this tale states that the gold was thrown through the window and +landed in a stocking that had been hung up to dry, which perhaps +explains our custom of the Christmas stocking. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2598 + ******************** + A Witch's Thoughts on Halloween + Most people celebrate Halloween as a children's holiday of candy +and costumes. However, I will be celebrating tonight as Samhain +("Sow-wen"), the Celtic New Year, the night for remembering loved ones +past and looking toward the future. For I am a Neo-pagan, a follower of +the Old Religion, a Wiccan. I am a Witch. + There are probably as many definitions of Wicca as there are prac- +titioners of the Craft--one of the joys of this path is that there is no +"one, true way"; intuition is as valuable as teaching. This then is my +personal definition of what Wicca is to me. + First, what Wicca is not is devil-worship. Wiccans don't believe +in an entity of all-evil. (I personally don't believe in evil per se; +all evil is simply a perversion or excess of something that is good when +present in a proper balance.) + Wicca is a religion based on experience of Deity as male and +female. It is pantheistic--seeing all things as part of God/dess, and +seeing the Earth Herself as a living organism of whom we are part. It +is also a religion of immanence--seeing God/dess present in each of us +and in the world around us, not "out there somewhere" but part of daily +life. + Wiccans celebrate eight major holidays, or sabbats--the beginning +and midpoint of each season. We also celebrate the phases of the moon: +some only celebrate the full moon while others celebrate full, waxing, +and new moons. Each of these rituals helps keep us in touch with +Nature. These celebrations are in small groups usually called circles, +covens, or groves and are usually led by a Priestess, and often a +Priest. Some groups share duties and avoid titles. + Wicca is also a "Craft". We practice magic through chants, +visualizations and spells, all to focus our will on something we want to +happen. We believe that everything we do, good or ill, comes back to us +tripled, which is why we don't "hex" or "curse" anyone. We also believe +that many psychic talents are real and simply haven't been studied +enough by science to be catalogued as such. + Wiccans for the most part accept reincarnation, not as dogma to be +believed, but as fact based on personal experience. Many of us remember +past lives. As one who has studied science, I know that every atom of +my body once was part of something else, and I am continually losing +atoms that become part of others. Knowing this, it makes sense that my +soul also is "recycled". + Wicca is a positive philosophy. The only "law" is 'An it harm +none, do as ye will": Enjoy life to its fullest, and remember to help +everyone else enjoy it as well. Wiccans don't preach; Wiccans don't +evangelize. Everyone has to find his/her own path, and we welcome the +diversity this brings. + So tonight, when you dress up as a "wicked witch", know that there +are "good witches" celebrating as well. Know that I and thousands like +me throughout the world are celebrating the cycles of life through the +dance of the Lord and the Lady, trying to make this world we all share +a little brighter through our cauldron fires in the darkness. Know we +are not out to convert you; know we mean you no harm. All we ask for +is understanding, tolerance, and the freedom to practice as we choose. + +Blessed Be, + +Cecylyna Brightsword +High Priestess, Thalia Clan +P.O. Box 681092 ú Indianapolis, IN 46268-1092 ú (317) 579-3083 +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2599 + + The Money Tree Spell + Rowan Moonstone + +YOu wil need: + +Green candle annointed w/ pine oil. +Sweet basil (1tbsp of basil in r hand.) +Pine incense + (Pass the basil over the altar candles and the green candle and incense +3 times and sprinkle basil around the green candle. + +Green silk pouch +White altar candles annointed w/ sandalwood oil +5 pennies, 4 old, 1 new. +Salt +Water +orange candle annointed w/ basil oil +parchment + +O Altar Candle O Altar Candle + + O Green Candle + _____________ + | | + | Parchment | + -------------- + +O orange candle O salt + O pennies + + O pine incense O water + +On a waxing moon, set the altar in the east of yoru circle. This will +need to be left up for a full waxing cycle. You will need easy access +to a door. +Take a new penny in your hand, Circle the altar deosil and say +"Bring to me what I see By thy power, Hecate," + +Spin rapidly deosil and go outside and toss the new penny in the air. +Wherever it lands, bury all 5 pennies, saying: + +"I give thee money - Hecate +Return to me prosperity. +I give thee five +REturn by three +As I will +So mote it be." + +Return to your altar and snuff out the candles. + +Next week, at the same day and time, return to your altar with your +talisman bag and the parchment. Light the orange candle. Visualize +money flowing onto the altar. Unearth the coins and bring them to the +altar. Wash them in the chalice water to purify them. Pass them +through the incense smoke and the fire from the orange candle. Place +each coin in the talisman pouch, old coins first. Add nine pieces of +rock salt, close the mouth of the talisman pouch and face east and say: diff --git a/religious documents/2600-700.txt b/religious documents/2600-700.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b82ee6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/2600-700.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5747 @@ +2600 + +"Bring to me +what I see +By thy power +Hecate. +Altar power +Must it be +Earth and Air +Fire and Sea +Bring to me +What I see +By thy power +Hecate." + +Place the bag inside your cloting and wear it every day for 7 days. +Leave it on your altar every night visualizing prosperity. On the 7th +day, hide it in the eastern portion of your house. + +There it is. It's a complicated spell, but it does work. + +BB +Rowan + + + Spell for contacting a friend + Rowan Moonstone +This spell should be used to cause someone with whom you have lost +contact to contact you. It is not manipulation so much as an astral +call for contact when you have no other way to reach them that you know +of. + +You will need: + +White candle annointed w/ sandalwood oil +Sandalwood incense +photo of the person +small glass of water. +salt + +Light the white candle and the incense. Place the picture of the person +on your altar. Put 2 heaping tablespoons of salt in the palm of your +right hand. Let a small amount of salt trickle into the glass while +making the sign of the equal armed cross of the elements. Make this +cross 3 times. Say " Call me" three times as yo do this. Then set the +glass on the altar and say "Get in touch with me, please." They +should contact you by the time the water has evaporated from the glass. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2601 + + Coming of Age Ritual Notes + Malakus + Over the past weekend during an emotional upheaval I "Birthed" the +concept for the ritual. I thought I would pass the concept on to you +and see what you think. I have the ability to visualize a ritual from +beginning to end, sometime with brief snatches of dialogue. It's like +watching a play from the catwalks. + This is how I see this ritual unfolding. The boy who is entering +into Manhood will be abducted from the encampment where he is staying. +The women of his Mother Grove will try to fight the men off from +abducting the boy. When this skirmish is over and the boy is being +taken off by the men the women will mourn the loss of the child. The +boy will be stripped of his clothing and dressed in a deerhide loin +cloth. He will then be blindfolded and his journey will begin. Where +this ritual is being held there is approximately 5 miles of paths which +the boy will journey over. He will be led by his Father who will carry +a lamp to light his and his son's way. At the first prescribed stop the +boy will be addressed by Herne. Herne, will speak to the boy of his +wild nature, what it is like to be the hunter and the hunted. He will +charge the boy with the responsibilities of becoming a man through Him. +He will then tell the boy that He will meet him at the appointed place +in the appointed hour. Never revealing when and where that is. Herne +will withdraw into the woods as the Father and son begin to journey +again. + At the second stop the Father and boy will meet the Green Man. He +represents the boy's earthy nature. He is the boy sexual responsibility +as a carrier of sacred seed which is necessary to begin life. That he +must act intelligently when it comes to the act of procreation. The +Green Man as well will tell the boy that they will meet in the appointed +placed at the appointed hour. The Green Man will stand in silence as +the Father and boy leave. + At the third stop the Father and boy will meet Loki\Rainbow Dancer. +When I visualized the archetype I saw a myriad number of colours and +flashed of refracted light. Loki will speak to the boy of his dreams, +wishes and hope He will inform the boy that these are necessary even as +a man. That he should not give them up but allow them to mature as he +matures. Loki will also tell the boy that they will meet at the +appointed place in the appointed hour. + The Father and son will continue there journey until they reach the +last stop on their journey. Here they will meet the Magus who is robed +in black and you are unable to see his face. The Magus will speak to +the boy of his inner true self, his highest ideals, his magical self. +He symbolizes Divine Wisdom. When he is finished speaking he will also +tell the boy of meeting in the appointed place in the appointed hour. + All the archetype will be wearing masks that will be indicative of +them. Herne with horns, Green Man with a mask made of leaves, Loki with +the face of the fox, and the Magus with a black mask which entirely +covers his face. All the other masks will not cover the mouth area. My +Spirit Brother in Akron, OH is creating the masks and the staves for the +four archetypes. After the journey has been completed he will be +brought to the gateway of the ritual are Prior to the ritual itself the +boy will be asked to select something that symbolizes his childhood and +that he should bring it with him. When the boy is abducted those who +abduct him must be sure to acquire this childhood symbol to be given to +the father to take on the journey. At the gateway the father will stop +the boy and inform him that he must now give up this childhood symbol in +order to enter into the world of men. The boy must surrender the symbol +before the rite can continue. The symbol will be left at the gateway. +2602 + +I didn see a traditional circle being cast, rather a ring of men hand in +hand passing energy to form the circle. I keep hearing "a hand to a +hand, to feed a hand" or a "brother to a brother". The circle will open +to admit the father and boy The boy is still blindfold and will be place +before the balefire facing the gateway through which he just entered. +I see four men at various stage of the lives serving as Priests. One is +just past puberty, the next has himself just become a father, the next +being around 40-50 years (the age of the God at the +time of his decline in power) and the last being the Grandfather. The +four will each evoke one of the four achetypes that spoke to the boy +during his journey. The Priest just past puberty will evoke Loki, the +new father will evoke the Green Man, the 40-50 year old will evoke +Herne, and Grandfather will evoke the Magus. Each will be evoked +separately and when each has been evoked will enter the circle from +where they have been waiting out of sight of the circle itself. Each +will speak further to the boy of his mystery and present the boy with a +"gift" which will enable the boy to commune with the archetype +in times of trial in his life as a man. The last to speak will be +Herne. Just as he is is finishing what he has to say he will be +interrupted by the final archetype. This is the Great Mother. She will +speak to the boy of his union with her and to truly become a man he must +understand her magics as well. Herne and the Great Mother will argue +(choice of words, maybe not the best) over who this boy/man belong. The +Great Mother informs Herne that the boy/man belongs to Her. Herne +informs Her that She was there at his conception and birth and that She +will have him in death but now the boy/man belongs to Him. My Spirit +Brother has a staff with a deer hoof end which I see being placed on the +boy's heart while Herne claims him as his. During the claiming the +boy's blindfold will be removed and the boy/man will see Herne for the +first time with his hoof on his chest over his heart. After the +claiming is finished the boy will be approached by the four Priests for +the anointing. + I have an anointing already written for this part of the rite. +While the anointing is being done the four persons who are taking the +roles of the archetypes will leave and return dressed as they wish. The +boy will be taken to his father who will first greet the boy/man now as +a fellow man and a guardian of the male mystery. The father will then +take the newly made man to the North quarter where the Great Mother will +speak to the newly made man bestowing Her gift to him. When the Great +Mother speaks She will be heard only and not seen as if Her voice were +being carried on the wind. + The the newly made man will be taken to each man in turn in the +circle who will give the newly made man a gift. I see the gift being +wisdom something that they have learned of life and that they wish to +pass on to help the newly made man's journey through life. As each man +has an occupation which requires particular tools so does life require +its tools. + When all have granted their gift the newly made man will be asked +to bestow his blessing upon a horn of ale which symbolized the cup of +brotherhood of all peoples. The cup will be shared with all in the +circle and will symbolized the universality of men. + This is where I see the ritual ending. I see a simple feast being +held where the ritual has been. More cups will be filled, stories share +in the spirit of brotherhood. As the night wears on towards dawn the +newly made made will be left to himself, the balefire and the night. He +will return to the campsite from which he was abducted no longer as a +child but as a man with all the responsibilities of a man. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2603 + + Lupercalia + She-Wolf + +Lupercalia ia a Roman ritual of purification and fertility dating from +such an ancient time that even the Romans of the first century B.C.E. +had forgotten its origin and to which Gods it was dedicated and even the +meaning of some of its symbolism. (Contrary to Z Budapest's statements, +it was not known whether it was to Faunus and in fact I think it may +have been sacred to the more ancient founding Goddess, Rumina, the +She-Wolf of Rome.) Central to the ritual is the lustration (light +flogging) with a goat skin scourge (see, Gardner didn't +invent it). This was often accompanied by much rowdiness and horse-pla- +y. The purpose was the purification of the people from curses, bad luck +and infertility. The ritual is performed on February 15. The name of +the month comes from the februa, anything used in purifying including +wool (used for cleaning), brooms, pine boughs (which make the air sweet +and pure), etc. + +The rite began in the cave of the She-Wolf in the city of Rome where +legend had it that the founders of the city, Romulus and Remus, had been +suckled by the wolf before they were found by a shepherd. The sacred +fig tree grew in front of the cave. Vestals brought to the site of the +sacrifice the sacred cakes made from the first ears of the last years +grain harvest. Two naked young men presided over the sacrifice of a dog +and a goat. With the bloody knife, their foreheads were smeared with +blood, then wiped clean with wool dipped in milk. The young men laughed +and girded themselves in the skin of the sacrificed goat. Much +feasting followed. Finally, using strips of the goat skin, the young +men ran, each leading a group of priests, around the base of the hills +of Rome, around the ancient sacred boundary of the old city called the +pomarium. During this run, the women of the city would vie for the +opportunity to be scourged by the young men as they ran by, some baring +their flesh to get the best results of the fertility blessing (you can +see why the Christian church tried so hard to get this ritual banned, +but it was so popular that it continued for quite some time under the +new regime.) + +Except for the intrusion of foreign cults, this was the only Roman +ritual where a goat was sacrificed. Dogs were only offered to Robigus +(a guardian associated with crops), the Lares Praestites (the guardians +of community), and Mana Genata (ancestral guardians). + +Because of the cave, the fig tree, the milk, and such, I suspect the +very oldest forms of this rite honored a Goddess. Unlike some of the +other Roman rites like the October Horse sacrifice, there is no other +Indo-European equivalent in Vedic, Scandinavian, Irish, or Indo-Iranian +traditions. + +With modifications, the Temple of Pomona performed Lupercalias and has +a great time. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2604 + + Stones, A Short Catalog + Tandika Star +BLOODSTONE + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Bloodstone is a member of the Chalcedony +family.It is a variety of quartz (silicon dioxide) often with some iron +and aluminum. The chemistry is SiO2. It is dark, bright green spotted +with red inclusions. The streak is white. This is considered a microcry- +stalline variety of quartz and is not found in crystal form. + +ENVIRONMENT: Chalcedony is formed in several environments, generally +near the surface of the earth where temperatures and pressures are +relatively low. It commonly forms in the zone of alteration of lode and +massive hydrothermal replacement deposits and as bodies of chert in +chemical sedimentary rocks. + +OCCURENCE: India, Germany. + +NAME: This stone is also referred to as "heliotrope," which is derived +from two Greek words which signify "sun-turning". It was given this name +because of a notion that when immersed in water it would turn the sun +red. Chalcedony is derived from Chalcedon, an ancient Greek city of Asia +Minor. + +LEGEND and LORE: This is one of the birthstones for March. + + "Who in this world of ours, her eyes + In March first opens, shall be wise. + In days of peril, firm and brave, + And wear a Bloodstone to her grave." (5) + +Ancient warriors often carried an amulet of bloodstone which was +intended to stop bleeding when applied to a wound. + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Because it is green, it can be used for "money +spells". It is also considered a "lucky" stone for atheletes because it +imparts courage and stamina. + +HEALING: Heliotrope is used today in conjunction with anything having to +do with blood. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:I consider the ancient uses of bloodstone in line +with what I use it for today. In addition, I consider it a "cholesterol +buster", and wouldn't hesitate to apply it to any with this type of +problem. Generally I would use it at the Heart Chakra. I've also used it +successfully in situations where I needed "courage" to accomplish +something. I will just carry a piece of it in my pocket for this +purpose. + +NOTE: Chrysoprase, carnelian, jasper and agate are all forms of +Chalcedony. + +-------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurance and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2605 + +2. Legends and Lore, Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's En- +cyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +3. Some of the healing information may come from "Color and Crystals, A +Journey Through the Chakras" by Joy Gardner. + +4. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. + +5. Birthstone poem from "The Occult and Curative Powers of Precious +Stones" by William T. Fernie, M.D. + + an interesting experiment (BLOODSTONE cont.) +ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ- +This is more about bloodstone, but I didn't want to include it in the +main text. Read on, and you'll see why... + +A few years ago, I had a discussion with my daughter (who was about 13 +at the time) about the "spiritual essence" of plants and stones. I +explained to her that different people "see" this spiritual essence in +various forms. Somehow, this led to a discussion of "devas", which she +interpreted as "people, but without a body that we can see with mundane +eyes." + +A few days later, I was reading a novel, reposed on the sofa in my +livingroom. She was sitting on the floor by the coffee table, drawing +in her sketchbook with her pastels. + +On the coffee table were several stones in a dish. One was an amethyst, +one a bloodstone, one was some yellow/green crystal that someone had +loaned to me because they wanted my "impressions" ...and there were some +others that I don't remember now. + +I glanced over at my daughter, and she was holding one of the stones in +her hands, with her eyes closed. She apparently had achieved some form +of "altered state" because her little eyeballs were just wigglin' away +(REM). + +A while later, I glanced over, and she was drawing a portrait. After she +seemed finished and satisfied with what she was doing, I questioned her +about it. She said she was drawing the "spirit/deva" of the stones in +the dish. + +The one for bloodstone was an elf-like, male person. He had dark/black +hair, green, slanted eyes, "Spock" eyebrows, and pointed ears. Because +of the expression on his face, I asked her what she thought of him. Her +comments were: +"He is very fierce. I'm kind of afraid of him, because it seems like he +is pretty strong and could get mad. He uses weapons...and can fight." + +My daughter didn't know anything about the "lore" connected with the +stones. In addition, I found that "bloodstone" was very different from +any of the other "stone portraits" that she did...The rest were much +more "human"... + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2606 + +BROWN (PICTURE) JASPER + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Brown Jasper, sometimes called "picture" Jasper +because of the beautiful variations in coloring, is a type of Chal- +cedony. It is closely related to Quartz, with the chemistry of SiO2. The +color variations are from trace amounts of other minerals, usually iron +and aluminum. The hardness is 7. + +ENVIRONMENT: Chalcedony is formed in several environments, generally +near the surface of the earth where temperatures and pressures are +relatively low. It commonly forms in the zone of alteration of lode and +massive hydrothermal replacement deposits and as bodies of chert in +chemical sedimentary rocks. + +OCCURENCE: Montana, Utah and Wyoming are prolific locations for Brown +Jasper in the U.S. In addition, fine specimens have come from Brazil, +Uruguay and Egypt. Other colors and forms of Jasper are abundant in +California, Texas and Arkansas. + +NAME: The name Chalcedony is from Chalcedon, an ancient Greek city of +Asia Minor. + +LEGEND and LORE: Beautiful Jasper, with light and dark brown markings +was referred to as "Egyptian Marble". Various Native American tribes +used Jasper as a rubbing stone and some called it "the rain bringer". + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Brown Jasper is balancing and grounding. This stone, +carved into an arrowhead, is worn to attract luck. It is a good stone to +use after completing a ritual to help you regain your center and become +grounded. + +HEALING: Jasper is stabilizing. It will help to reduce insecurity, fear +and guilt. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: I use a piece of Montana Picture Jasper, which is +mostly brown and tan with a slight bit of sky or navy blue as a strong +grounding stone for those who have an excess of energy at the Splenic +Chakra.I've also used the stone as a basis for a "journey"...The stone +looks like a scene of the Rocky Mountains. Finally, I've used Picture +Jasper as a psychological tool:I will ask someone who is "looking for an +answer" to gaze into the stone and describe all the symbols they see. +Then I work with the client to form the "symbols" into some sort of +answer. + +NOTES: Agate, Jasper, Flint, Sardonyx, and onyx are all forms of +Chalcedony. In addition, particular colors of Chalcedony have specific +names, such as Heliotrope, Bloodstone, Chrysophrase and Moss Agate. + + -------bibliography------- +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2. Legends and Lore, Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's En- +cyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +3. Some of the healing information may come from "Color and Crystals, A +Journey Through the Chakras" by Joy Gardner. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2607 + +CARNELIAN + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION:Carnelian is the clear red to brownish red member +of the Chalcedony family. It is a microcrystalline variety of Quartz(Si- +licone Dioxide) and may contain small amounts of iron oxides. The +hardness is 7, and the streak is white. + +ENVIRONMENT: Chalcedony is formed in several environments, generally +near the surface of the earth where temperatures and pressures are +relatively low. It commonly forms in the zone of alteration of lode and +massive hydrothermal replacement deposits and as bodies of chert in +chemical sedimentary rocks. + +OCCURENCE: Fine carnelian comes from India and South America. + +GEMSTONE INFORMATION:Carnelian is used as an alternate birthstone for +the month of May.It is normally cut into cabochons, engraved, or made +into seal stones or rounded, polished, and pierced for necklaces and +other items of jewelry. + +NAME: The name means "flesh-colored", from [caro], meaning "genitive" +and [carnis], meaning "flesh". + +LEGEND and LORE: Carnelian has long been associated with courage and +cleansing of the blood. It was beleived that the stone would improve +one's outlook, making the individual cheerful and expelling fears. + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Katrina Raphaell says that Carnelian can be used to +"see into the past". The "Crystal Oracle" says that Carnelian referrs to +the Self, and Current Conditions. It is a grounding stone, and associ- +ated with the Earth. As such, it is considered practical, sensible and +balanced. Cunningham associates the stone with the element of Fire. He +suggests it as a talisman against Telepathic invasion. + +HEALING: It is recommended for infertility or impotency. In addition it +is used for purification of the blood. It has also been suggested that +this stone will stop nosebleeding. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: I call this the "sexy" stone...since I beleive it +stimulates sexual appetites. I use it in the lower Chakras for infer- +tility and impotency for men(I use Coral as the feminine counterpart.) +I always get a good chuckle when I notice a man wearing a LARGE +Cornelian belt buckle. In addition, I would use this stone for relief of +pain from arthritis in men. + + -------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2. Precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gemstones" by E. H. Rutland. + +3. Other Precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gem Cutting", sec. ed., by John Sinkankas. + + +2608 + +4. Legends and Lore, Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's +Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +5. Some of the healing information may come from "Color and Crystals, A +Journey Through the Chakras" by Joy Gardner. + +6. Some of the healing information may come from "A Journey Through the +Chakras" by Joy Gardner. + + ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ +CORAL + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: CaCo3, or calcium carbonate in the form of +calcite, is the main constituent of calcareous corals; minor con- +stituents are MgCo3, or magnesium carbonate and proteinaceous organic +substances, which act as binding agents. At 2.5 to 4, the hardness is +slightly higher than that of calcite. The skeletons of corals vary in +color: from bright to dark red, slightly orange-red, pink and white. + +ENVIRONMENT: In all cases, coral consists of the branching skeletons of +animals which live in colonies planted on the seabed at depths varying +from tens to hundreds of meters. They are typical of warmish to very +warm seas. + +OCCURENCE: The most famous of these organisms is Corallium rubrum, which +lives in the waters of the Mediterranean and, despite its name,provides +not only red, but orange, pink, and white coral. Similar to this are +Corallium elatius, C. japonicum, and C. secundum, which maily live off +the coasts of Japan, China, Indochina, the Philippines, and other +archipelagos of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Coral colonies occupy +large areas especially in the Pacific, but also near the coast of South +Africa, in the Red Sea, and to the east of Australia. These latter +colonies, however, consist of madrepore, which has little in common with +the corals used as ornaments. + +GEMSTONE INFORMATION: Most of the coral used since antiquity as an +ornamental material comes from the calcareous skeletons of colonies of +marine organisms of the phylum Cnidaria, order Corgonacea, genus +Corallium. Corals take a good polish. They also have a certain degree of +elasticity and can be heated and bent into bangles. Thin brancehes were +and still are polished, pierced, and threaded, unaltered, into neck- +laces. Larger pieces are cut into spherical or faceted necklace beads, +pear shapes for pendant jewelry, or cabochons. It is also used for +carved pieces and small figurines, in both oriental and western +art styles. The most highly prized varities of coral are those that are +a uniform, strong bright red. + +NAME: The name is derived from the Latin [corallium,] related to the +Greek [korallion]. + +LEGEND and LORE: The oldest known findings of red coral date from the +Mesopotamian civilization, i.e. from about 3000 BC. For centuries, this +was the coral par excellence, and at the time of Pliny the Elder it was +apparently much appreciated in India, even more than in Europe.Red coral +has traditionally been used as a protection from the "evil eye" and as +a cure for sterility. One of the Greek names for Coral was Gorgeia, +from the tradition that blood dripped from the Head of Medea, which +Perseus had deposited on some branches near the sea-shore; which blood, +2609 + +becoming hard, was taken by the Sea Nymps, and planted in the sea. (8) + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Coral is associated with Venus, Isis and Water. It +has been used as a form of protective magic for children for hundreds of +years. Cunningham recommends it as a luck-attractor for living +areas.Sailors use it as a protection from bad weather while at sea. +Red-orange coral is one of the four element gemstones of the Pueblo +Indians. It is one of the four colors used for the directions in the +Hopi/Zuni Road of Life. Coral is considered a representative of the warm +energy of the Sun, and the southern direction. + +HEALING: Coral's healing properties are mostly associated with Women, +young children and the elderly. For women it is said to increase +fertility and regulate menstration. For young children, it is recom- +mended to ease teething and to prevent epilepsy. For the elderly, it is +used as a cure for arthritis. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: I use coral at the lower Chakras for "Women's +Healing." In particular, I will use it for disorders relating to female +reproductive organs. I also use it magically, to represent female +fertility.I have used it with some success for arthritis, but only for +women. This is one of the stones that I "reserve" for female/feminine +use. (I use Carnelian as the "male" counterpart.) I have not had an +opportunity to try it for a young child. + + -------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "Simon & Schuster's Guide to Gems and Precious Stones". + +2. Precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gemstones" by E. H. Rutland. + +3. Other Precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gem Cutting", sec. ed., by John Sinkankas. + +4. Legends and Lore, Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's En- +cyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +5. Some of the healing information may come from "Color and Crystals, A +Journey Through the Chakras" by Joy Gardner. + +6. Some of the healing information may come from "A Journey Through the +Chakras" by Joy Gardner. + +7. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. + +8. Some occult lore is from "The Occult and Curative Powers of Precious +Stones" by William T. Fernie, M.D. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2610 + +EMERALD + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION:Emerald is a type of Beryl, Beryllium aluminum +silicate, frequently with some sodium, lithium and cesium.It's chemistry +is Be3Al2Si6O18. Beryls range in color from Bright green (emerald), +blue, greenish blue (aquamarine), yellow (golden beryl), red, pink +(morganite) to white. The streak is colorless. It's hardness is 7-1/2 to +8. The crystals are Hexagonal and they are common. Fine emeralds have +velvety body appearance; their value lies in their even distribution of +color. Inclusions are common in emerald, but other stones of this group +are usually most valuable when free of flaws. + +ENVIRONMENT: Beryl develops in pegmatites and certain metamorphic rocks. +It occurs with quartz, microcline, and muscovite in pegmatites, and with +quartz, muscovite, and almandine in schist of regional metamorphic +rocks. + +OCCURENCE: Best emerald comes from Colombia.(NOTE: it is not necessary +to spend thousands of dollars for a tiny chip of emerald to add to your +healing/ magical collection. If you look around in rock shops, you may +be able to come across some "less than perfect" stones that aren't +faceted. I've found 4 of them, slightly larger than my fingernail and +they were about $3.00 each.) + +NAME: The name is from the Greek [beryllos] indicating any green +gemstone. + +LEGEND and LORE: Emerald is considered a birthstone for the month of +May. + + "Who first beholds the light of day, + In spring's sweet flowery month of May, + And wears an Emerald all her life, + Shall be a loved, and happy wife." (5) + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: "If you wish to bring a love into your life, buy an +emerald and charge it with your magical need through your visualization, +perhaps while placing it near a green candle. After this ritual, wear or +carry the emerald somewhere near your heart. Do this in such a way that +it cannot be seen by others. When you meet a future love, you'll know it +wasn't the visible jewel that attracted him or her." (3) The Greeks +associated this stone with the Goddess Venus. It has come to represent, +for many people, the security of love. Emerald, like allmost all of the +green stones, is also advantageous for business/money ventures. + +HEALING: Emerald is said to aid perception and inner clarity. Because of +this, they are also associated with healing diseases of the eye, and +problems affecting eyesight. It was believed that emeralds could +counteract poisons and cure disentary. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:I sometimes use Emeralds in a stone layout. I will +use them for their psychological/spiritual values of clarity and +perception. If I am using them for this purpose, I use them in the area +of the Heart Chakra, in conjunction with Rose Quartz, or Rhodochrosite +for balanced energy. I've also used them for prosperity consciousness. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2611 + + -------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurance and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2. Legends and Lore, Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's En- +cyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +3. Some of the healing information may come from "Color and Crystals, A +Journey Through the Chakras" by Joy Gardner. Other sources may be "Stone +Power" by Dorothee L. Mella. + +4. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. + +5. Birthstone poem from "The Occult and Curative Powers of Precious +Stones" by William T. Fernie, M.D. + + +--- +GARNET (PYROPE) + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Pyrope Garnets are from a group of very closely +related aluminum silicates. The Chemistry for the Pyrope variety is +Mg3Al2Si3O12. These Garnets range in color from deep red to reddish +black and on rare occasions from purple and rose to pale purplish red +(sometimes called [rhodolite].) The hardness ranges between 6-1/2 and +7-1/2. + +ENVIRONMENT: Pyrope occurs with olivine and hypersthene in peridotite of +plutonic rocks. + +OCCURENCE: Pyrope Garnets occur in peridotite in Kentucky, Arkansas, +Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. In the latter half of the nineteenth +century, most Pyrope came from Bohemia, where it is still found today. +The main sources nowadays, however, are South Africa, Zimbabwe, +Tanzania, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia. + +GEMSTONE INFORMATION: The garnet species with red or purple varieties, +including Pyrope are considered gemstones. Usually bright red, Pyrope +can be a much less attractive brick or dark red. It can be perfectly +transparent, but this feature is less visible in dark specimens. It is +either made into fairly convex cabochons, or faceted, with an oval or +round mixed cut or, more rarely, a step cut. The faceted gems have good +luster, rather less obvious in cabochons. The most valuable types are, +of course, the transparent ones with the brightest red color. Pyrope is +relatively common, although less so than almandine. Very large stones, +up to several hundred carats have been found; but these are rare and are +found in museums and famous collections. + +NAME: The name comes from the Greek [pyropos,] meaning "fiery." The name +"Garnet" comes from the Latin [granatus,] meaning "seed-like". + +LEGEND and LORE: Pyrope Garnet has long been associated with love, +passion, sensuality and sexuality. Some Asiatic tribes used red garnets +as bullets for sling bows because they pierced their victims quickly, +and could not be seen well in the body when they mingled with the blood. +2612 + +Throughout the ages, Pyrope has been used as a curative for all types of +ailments dealing with blood. + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Pyrope is directly linked with the Will. As such, it +is a strong stone for the Magician and Shaman. It is associated with +Fire and Mars, Strength and Protection. It will help the practitioner +tap into extra energy for ritualistic purposes. + +HEALING: While all Garnets are associated with the Root Chakra, Pyrope +is particularly symbolic. It is used for healing when the subject +involved has "lost the will to live", since it is directly related to +the desire to live and achieve in this lifetime. This stone warms and +aids blood circulation, rouses sexuality and heals the reproductive +system and the heart. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: If you are already a strong willed individual or +have a fiery temper that you need to learn to control, I suggest that +you work with the Alamandine Garnets, rather than the Pyropes. This is +a good stone to use for treating depression. Very often, when I've +"worked" on an individual who has suffered a heart attack, I find that +the individual is rather severely depressed (which I think is a side +effect of the medication) and has lost the will to continue in this +lifetime. I've found that fiery red Pyrope Garnets are a great help in +this situation. + +ADDITIONAL NOTES: The Latin name [carbunculus,] (small coal or ember), +is attributed to all red transparent stones. It is more often applied to +Pyropes when they are formed into cabochons than any other stone. + +-------bibliography------- +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audubon Society field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". +2. Other scientific information may be from "Simon & Schuester's Guide +to Gems and Precious Stones". +3. Precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gemstones" by E. H. Rutland. +4. Other precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gem Cutting", sec. ed., by John Sinkankas. +5. Basic Legends, Lore and Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's +Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. +6. Other Magical and Healing information may come from "\crystal Wisdom, +Spiritual Properties of Crystals and Gemstones" by Dolfyn. +7. More legends and lore may come from "Stone Power" by Dorothee L. +Mella. +8. Healing information is from "The Women's Book of Healing", by Diane +Stein. +9. Additional healing information may be from "The Occult and Curative +Powers of Precious Stones" by William T. Fernie, M.D. +--------------------------------------------------------------- +GARNET (ALMANDINE) + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Almandine Garnets are from a group of very +closely related aluminum silicates. The Chemistry for the Almandine +variety is Fe2/3+Al2Si3O12. These Garnets range in color from deep red +to brown and brownish black. The hardness ranges between 6-1/2 and +7-1/2. + +2613 + +ENVIRONMENT: Almandine occurs in diorite of plutonic rocks, and with +andalusite, hornblende, and biotite in hornfels and schist of contact +and regional metamorphic rocks. + +OCCURENCE: Well-formed crystals of Almandine have come from Wrangell, SE +Alaska; from Emerald Creek, Benewah Co., Idaho; and from Michigamme, +Michigan. Gemstone quality material is obtained in large quantities +from Sri Lanka and India, where it is also cut; other sources are Burma, +Brazil, Madagascar, Tanzania, and Australia. + +GEMSTONE INFORMATION: Most red garnets come under the name Almandine, +even when their composition is midway between that of Pyrope and +Almandine and similar, in many cases, to that of Rhodolite. The reason +for this is the similarity in their color and absorption spectrum +characteristics. Almandine has a brilliant luster, but its transparency +is frequently marred, even in very clear stones, by excessive depth of +color. The cabochon cut is widely used, often being given a strongly +convex shape and sometimes a concave base, in an effort to lighten +the color by reducing the thickness. Rose cuts have also been used, +particularly in the past. Nowdays, when the material is quite transpare- +nt, faceted cuts are used as well, and sometimes square or rectangular +step cuts. Gems of several carats are not uncommon. Faceted or even +barely rounded pieces of Almandine, pierced as necklace beads, were very +common in the recent past, but are now considered old-fashioned. + +NAME: The name Almandine comes from [carbunculus alabandicus,] after the +city of Alabanda in Asia Minor, where gems were traded at the time of +Pliny theElder. + +LEGEND and LORE: All red Garnet has long been associated with love, +passion, sensuality and sexuality. Garnet is considered a birthstone for +those born in January: + +"By her in January born +No gem save Garnets should be worn; +They will ensure her constancy, +True friendship, and fidelity." + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: The darker Garnets are associated with the Will and +the Source of Life Incarnate. This is who and what we are in this +lifetime. This stone is worn for protective purposes, and is thought to +drive off demons and phantoms. + +HEALING: Almandine Garnets are used to heal skin conditions associated +with poor circulation. They improve vigor, strength and endurance. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: Almandine Garnets are particularly effective when +healing "traumas" that are carried over from a past life and deal with +sexuality and heart/love problems. + + -------bibliography------- +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audubon Society field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". +2. Other scientific information may be from "Simon & Schuester's Guide +to Gems and Precious Stones". +3. Precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gemstones" by E. H. Rutland. +2614 + +4. Other precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gem Cutting", sec. ed., by John Sinkankas. +5. Basic Legends, Lore and Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's +Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. +6. Other Magical and Healing information may come from "\crystal Wisdom, +Spiritual Properties of Crystals and Gemstones" by Dolfyn. +7. More legends and lore may come from "Stone Power" by Dorothee L. +Mella. +8. Healing information is from "The Women's Book of Healing", by Diane +Stein. +9. Additional healing information may be from "The Occult and Curative +Powers of Precious Stones" by William T. Fernie, M.D. +10. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. + +GARNET (SPESSARTINE) + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Spessartine Garnets are from a group of very +closely related aluminum silicates. The Chemistry for the Spessartine +variety is Mn3Al2Si3O12. These Garnets range in color from brownish red +to hyacinth-red. The hardness ranges between 6-1/2 and 7-1/2. + +ENVIRONMENT: Spessartine occurs with albite and muscovite in granite +pegmatites and with quartz and riebeckite in blue schist or regional +metamorphic rocks.. + +OCCURENCE: Large corroded crystals of Spessartine have come from the +Rutherford No. 2 Mine, Amelia, Amelia Co., Virginia; crystals up to 1" +in diameter have been found in several pegmatites in the Ramona +District, San Diego Co., California; sharp, dark-red, well-formed +crystals occur in cavities in rhyolite near Ely, White Pine C., Nevada; +and brilliant crystals of Spessartine have been found with topaz at Ruby +Mt., near Nathrop, Chaffee Co., Colorado. Gem material comes from the +gem gravels of Sri Lanka and Burma. It is also found in Brazil and +Madagascar. + +GEMSTONE INFORMATION: The gem variety of Spessartine Garnet is uncommon. +It tends to be midway between spessartine and almandine in composition. +The "aurora red", orange-red or orange-pink color is typical. It has +good transparency and considerable luster. It is normally given a mixed, +round, or oval cut. The weight does not normally exceed a few carats. +Gems of about 10 carats are extremely rare and usually of an atypical, +rather dark, unattactive color. + +NAME: Spessartine is named after an occurrence in the spessart district, +Bavaria, Germany. + +LEGEND and LORE: In the 13th century garnets were thought to repel +insect stings. A magical treatise, "The Book of Wings", dating from the +thirteenth century says "The well-formed image of a lion, if engraved on +a garnet, will protect and preserve honors and health, cures the wearer +of all diseases, brings him honors, and guards him from all perils in +traveling." + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Spessartine is normally considered to be red-orange +to orange-pink. Thus it links the "will" with the "desire". It is a good +stone to use when casting a spell for your "heart's desire", especially +if it is of the orange-pink" variety. +2615 + +HEALING: The orange garnets are linked to the root and the belly chakra. +They are beneficial in instances of infertility, dealing with reproduc- +tive organs. Mentally, it inspires confidence in personal creativity and +self-worth. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: Spessartine is not as effective as Carnelian for +instances of infertility. But it DOES help the mental attitude of the +individual experiencing the difficulty. It is a warming stone, and works +well for increasing circulation in the lower part of the body. + + -------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audubon Society field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2. Other scientific information may be from "Simon & Schuester's Guide +to Gems and Precious Stones". + +3. Precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gemstones" by E. H. Rutland. + +4. Other precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gem Cutting", sec. ed., by John Sinkankas. + +5. Basic Legends, Lore and Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's +Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +6. Other Magical and Healing information may come from "\crystal Wisdom, +Spiritual Properties of Crystals and Gemstones" by Dolfyn. + +7. More legends and lore may come from "Stone Power" by Dorothee L. +Mella. + +8. Healing information is from "The Women's Book of Healing", by Diane +Stein. + +9. Additional healing information may be from "The Occult and Curative +Powers of Precious Stones" by William T. Fernie, M.D. + +10. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. + +--- +GARNET (GROSSULAR) + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Grossular Garnets are from a group of very +closely related calcium silicates. The Chemistry for the Grossular +variety is Ca3Al2Si3O12. These Garnets range in color from yellow, pink +and brown through white and colorless. The hardness ranges between 6-1/2 +and 7-1/2. + +ENVIRONMENT: Grossular occurs with wollastonite, calcite, and vesuviani- +te in hornfels of contact metamorphic rocks. + +OCCURENCE: Being the commonest of all garnets, it is found in a variety +of locations. Fine colorless crystals up to 1/2" across occur in +Gatineau and Magantic Cos., Quebec, fine lusterous pale brown crystals +2616 + +up to 3" across were found near Minot, Androscoggin Co., Main, and +beautiful white and pick crystals up to 4" across have been found near +Xalostoc, Morelos, Mexico. + +GEMSTONE INFORMATION: Grossular also has the typical crystal form of +garnets, occuring in isolated crystals which are often complete, in the +shape of a rhombic dodecahedron, sometimes combined with a trapezo- +hedron. They vary from transparent to semiopaque. The typical color is +light (gooseberry) yellowish green; but they can be a strong to bluish +green, honey yellow or pinkish yellow, or even colorless. When transpar- +ent, the crystals have good luster. Like other garnets, they have no +cleavage. The greenish to yellowish varieties are used as gems. +Grossular is not a rare mineral. The types used as gems mainly come from +the gem gravels of Sri Lanka (honey yellow variety); the the United +States, Canada, Mexico, Madagascar, Kenya. The green variety of +grossular garnet, discovered a few decades ago and found mainly in +Kenya, near the Tsavo National Park, is also known as Tsavorite (or +Tsavolite) It is a light, verdant, or dark green, similar to the color +of the better green tourmalines and sometimes, it is said, even +comparable to African emerald. It has good luster. These gems, which are +usually given a round or pear-shaped mixed cut, or occasionally a +brilliant cut, are generally small, rarely exceeding one carat and never +more than a few carats. + +NAME: Grossular is from the New Latin [grosssularia,] "gooseberry," +because some Grossular crystals are pale green like the fruit. + +LEGEND and LORE: I do not find anything referring specifically to yellow +or green garnets in my sources. + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: While deep red garnets focus on "Will" and orange-- +red garnets focus on "Desire", yellow garnets are focused on Personal +Power and Personality. In addition they are (because of their color) +associated with athletic prowess and Oriental philosophies. + +HEALING: Being linked to the Solar Plexus Chakra, yellow garnets are +energizing. They can be used for the digestive organs, the diaphram (and +the breath) and eyesight. Green garnets center their healing on the +Heart Chakra. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: It is difficult to find a green stone that works +well for the lower chakras and the lower half of the body. When I do +total layouts for individuals with Aids, I use all green stones, +whenever possible. The Green garnets work well for this. Since Garnet is +the stone of the Root Chakra, the Will, and green is the color of the +Heart Chakra, love, circulation, general healing, this stone works +exceptionally well. I find that the yellow garnets work better for +magical purposes than healing. For healing, there are several +yellow stones that seem to work better for me. + +NOTES: Garnets are used in industry as an abrasive. + + -------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audubon Society field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2617 + +2. Other scientific information may be from "Simon & Schuester's Guide +to Gems and Precious Stones". + +3. Precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gemstones" by E. H. Rutland. + +4. Other precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gem Cutting", sec. ed., by John Sinkankas. + +5. Basic Legends, Lore and Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's +Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +6. Other Magical and Healing information may come from "\crystal Wisdom, +Spiritual Properties of Crystals and Gemstones" by Dolfyn. + +7. More legends and lore may come from "Stone Power" by Dorothee L. +Mella. + +8. Healing information is from "The Women's Book of Healing", by Diane +Stein. + +9. Additional healing information may be from "The Occult and Curative +Powers +of Precious Stones" by William T. Fernie, M.D. + +10. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, +by Tandika Star. + + ----------------------------------------------------- +LAZURITE (LAPIS LAZULI) + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Lazurite is a silicate of sodium calcium and +aluminum, with some sulfur. It is a member of the sodalite group. It's +chemistry is (Na, Ca)8(Al,Si)12O24(S,SO)4. The color ranges in shades of +blue from violet blue and azure blue thru greenish-blue. Lazurite is +distinguished from sodalite by its deeper color and fine grain. It is +also softer and lighter in weight than lazulite. It is dull to greasy +and the streak is pale blue. The hardness ranges between 5 and 5-1/2. + +ENVIRONMENT: Crystals are rare. It is usually granular, compact, +massive. It forms in association with pyrite, calcite, and diopside in +hornfels of contact metamorphic rocks. The opaque, vivid blue, light +blue, greenish-blue, or violet-blue stone, consisting largely of +lazurite but with appreciable amounts of calcite, diopside, and pyrite, +is a rock called [lapis lazuli.] The stone is usually veined or spotted. +Its value depends largely upon excellence and uniformity of color and +absence of pyrite, although some purchasers prefer lapis with pyrite. + +OCCURRENCE: Lazurite is a rare mineral in North America, but it does +occur on Italian Mt. in the Sawatch Mts. of Colorado; on Ontario Peak in +the San Gabriel Mts., Los Angeles Co., and in Cascade Canyon in the San +Bernardino Mts., San Bernardino Co., California. The finest lapis lazuli +has come from Badakshan in Afghanistan, and less valuable material has +come from Russia and Chile. + +NAME: The name is from the Arabic [lazaward], "heaven," which was also +applied to sky-blue lapis lazuli. +2618 + +LEGEND and LORE: Lapis Lazuli was a favorite stone of the ancient +Egyptians. In the past Lazurite has been burned and ground to form the +pigment "ultramarine." It was consider an aid to childbirth, and has +long been associated with altered states of consciousness and trance +work. Lapis is sometimes designated as a birthstone for December, +although turquoise is most common. + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: To quote Cunningham: "This stone is used in rituals +designed to attract spiritual love. Take an untumbled piece of lapis +with a sharp edge. Empower the stone and a pink candle with your need +for love. Then, using the lapis lazuli, carve a heart onto the candle. +Place the stone near the candleholder and burn the candle while +visualizing a love coming into your life." Actually, the most important +magical aspect of lapis is it's ability to strengthen psychic awareness. +Cunningham says "Despite its somewhat high price, lapis lazuli is one +stone every stone magician should own and utilize."(2) + +HEALING: This stone is used at the Ajina, the Brow Chakra. It's related +gland is the pituitary. The pituitary gland is also referred to as the +"master gland" because it regulates all of the others. This location is +also the center for the eyes, ears, nose and brain. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: I don't often use Lapis for physical healing, +unless I feel that there is a "link" between what is manifested as +disease, and some conflict of the "higher self". I have used it for +brain disorders (tumors, inflammation, etc.) More often, I use it in +layouts where the client is trying to achieve an altered state of +consciousness. + + -------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurrence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2. Legends and Lore, Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's En- +cyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +3. Some of the healing information may come from "Color and Crystals, A +Journey Through the Chakras" by Joy Gardner. + +4. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. + + -------------------------------------------------- + +LEPIDOLITE + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Lepidolite a potassium, lithium, aluminum +fluorsilicate mica. Its chemistry is complex: K(Li,Al)3(Si,Al)4O10- +(F,OH)2. It is pink, lilac, yellowish, grayish white or a combination of +all of these. The streak is colorless. It is one of the softer stones, +with a hardness of 2-1/2 to 3. + +ENVIRONMENT: Lepidolite is confined to granite pegmatites, where it +occurs either as fine-granular masses near the core of the pegmatite or +as stubby or tabular crystals in cavities. It is commonly associated +with microcline, quartz, and tourmaline. +2619 + +OCCURENCE: Large fine masses of lepidolite have been mined at the +Stewart Pegmatite at Pala, and superb sharp crystals have been obtained +from the Little Three Pegmatite near Ramona, both in San Diego Co., +California. It has also been mined in substantial amounts in several New +England states and in the Black Hills of South Dakota. + +NAME: The name comes from the Greek [lepidos], meaning 'scale', in +allusion to the scaly aggregates in which the mineral commonly occurs. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2620 + +LEGEND and LORE: Lepidolite is a stone that could certainly be con- +sidered "new age" in the sense that it is just now coming into recogni- +tion by healers and magicians. There is no "past lore" on this stone, to +the best of my knowledge. Part of this may be due to the fact, that it +is native to the United States. + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: "This stone soothes anger, hatred or any other +negative emotion. To quiet the entire house, place lepidolite stones in +a circle around a pink candle." (2) + +HEALING: Lepidolite is also know as the "Dream Stone". It will protect +the individual from nightmares, especially those caused by stress or an +upset in personal relationships. It can be used in the same types of +circumstances as Kunzite, namely for manic depression or schizophrenia. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: This is one of the most soothing and relaxing +stones I've ever held. It is a beauty to look at, and calms the mind +enabling it to concentrate on the TRUE source of a problem...instead of +running around in frantic circles accomplishing nothing. The more +rubellite in the stone, the better it will help the heart and mind work +together. + +NOTES: Lepidolite has been used as a source of lithium. The above +description of the appearance of this stone may be deceiving, as I found +Cunningham's to be, also. All of the specimens of this stone that I have +seen so far have been grey to a pale lavendar grey with "sparkles" of +the lithium mica embedded in it. The heart-shaped cabuchon that I have +also has very distinctive crystals of rubellite (pink tourmaline) and +veins of white running through it. I was originally looking for a MUCH +brighter lavendar stone. It is unusual, also, to find specimens that are +cut and polished. Usually the stone is too "crumbly" to take a good +polish. However, it is equally handsome in rough form. + + -------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2. Legends and Lore, Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's En- +cyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +3. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. + + ------------------------------------------------------ +MALACHITE + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Malachite is a basic copper carbonate. It's +chemistry is Cu2CO3(OH)2. It ranges in color from emerald green thru +grass green to shades of silky pale green. The streak is light green. +It's hardness is 3-1/2 to 4. Crystals are rare. Most gem specimens +display distinctive concentric colorbanding; (alternating dark green and +light green bands.) + +ENVIRONMENT: Malachite is a secondary copper mineral and develops in the +zone of alteration in massive, lode, and disseminated hydrothermal +replacement deposits. Associated minerals are azurite, limonite, and +2621 + +chalcopyrite. + +OCCURENCE: The copper mines at Bisbee, Chochise Co., Arizona, are famous +for their fine specimens of massive malachite and pseudomorphs of +malachite after azurite. Mines at Morenci in Greenlee Co., and at Globe +in Gila Co., Arizona, have yielded beautiful malachite specimens, of +which some consist of alternating layers of green malachite and blue +azurite. Fine malachite has also come from copper mines in California, +Nevada, Utah, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. + +NAME: The name is from the Greek [moloche], "mallow," an illusion to the +mineral's leaf-green color. Malachite is used as an ore of copper and as +a gemstone. + +LEGEND and LORE: It is said that if malachite is worn, it will break +into pieces to warn the wearer of danger. + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Used to direct power towards magical goals. +Protective, especially towards children. According to Cunningham, "Small +pieces of malachite placed in each corner of a business building or a +small piece placed in the cash register draws customers. Worn during +business meetings or trade shows, it increases your ability to obtain +good deals and sales. It is the salesperson's stone." (2) + +HEALING: If the malachite is of the blue-green variety, it can be +associated with the Sacral Center, or Splenic Chakra (Svadisthana). +Here, it's energy branches to the left, to the spleen. (It is intended +in this position for those who are celebate.) In addition, if it is +grass-green, it can be used at the Lumbar/Solar Plexis Center. "When the +malachite is placed at the solar plexus and a piece of green jade is +placed at the heart center and a double-terminated quartz crystal is +placed between them, people may remember events that have been blocked +for years. They may cry or scream. As these buried emotions are brought +to the surface and released, a great weight is lifted and they soon feel +renewed." (3) + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: I am very careful about using Malachite. It has +been my experience that the emotions that it releases can be very +powerful, to the point of overwhelming some people. On the other hand, +if the individual is ready to deal with them (in a "growth" period) it +may work out just fine. You could "balance" the emotional content with +a pink stone (such as rose quartz) to cut down some on the intensity. + +A few years ago, I broke my arm. To do so, I damaged the muscles and +nerves in my wrist. I was in a lot of pain, and was searching for what +I could do to help the situation. During a journey, I saw malachite, so +I found a malachite heart which I held in the palm of the broken arm +while meditating. I got a lot of relief from it. Now, if the wrist acts +up, I use the heart, taped over the wrist area when I go to bed at +night. It seems to help quite a bit. I now recommend malachite for +nerve/muscle damage with some success. (4) + + -------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurance and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2622 + +2. Legends and Lore, Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's En- +cyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +3. Some of the healing information may come from "Color and Crystals, A +Journey Through the Chakras" by Joy Gardner. + +4. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. + + -------------------------------------------------- +MOONSTONE + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Moonstone is one variation of Orthoclase. It +owes its beautiful silvery to bluish sheen ('adularescence' or 'schil- +ler') to its composition of extremely thin plates of orthoclase and +albite. The thinner these plates are, the bluer is the sheen. There are +also moonstones consisting mainly of albite. These are less translucent, +but they can occur in a variety of colours: grey, blue, green, brown, +yellow and white. There are also moonstone cat's-eyes. The chemical +composition is KAlSi3O8 and the hardness is 7. The streak is white. + +ENVIRONMENT: The potash feldspars are important rock-forming minerals in +plutonic, volcanic, and metamorphic rocks. Adularia and sanidine are +found usually in volcanic rocks. + +OCCURENCE: The main countries of origin are Ceylon, southern India (the +district near Kangayam), Tanzia and Malagasy which, together with Burma, +produces some of the finest stones with a deep blue schiller. White +adularia crystals up to 2.5 cm (1") across have been found in gold-bear- +ing quartz veins at Bodie, Mono Co., California, and in the silver mines +of the Silver City district, Owhyee Co., Idaho. + +GEMSTONE INFORMATION: Moonstone is always cut into cabochons, to display +the cat's-eye, or schiller. + +NAME: Adularia (another name for Moonstone) comes from the locality in +Switzerland, the Adula Mts. + +LEGEND and LORE: This stone has always been revered because of its lunar +attraction. It was believed that the shiller in the stone would follow +the cycles of the moon. (Becoming greatest when the moon was full.) In +addition, it has always been considered a "feminine, or Goddess" stone. + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Meditation with moonstone calls into consciousness +the three-form moon phase goddesses, Diana/Selene/Hecate, the waxing, +Full and waning Moon. These are woman as goddess in her ages and +contradictions, Maiden/Mother/Crone. Cunningham favors this stone for +spells involving love. In addition he has a longish essay on using it +for a "diet" stone. + +HEALING: Because of it's feminine nature, Moonstone has long been +considered a "womans healing stone". It is used traditionally for +healing/balancing of female organs and hormones. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: I use Moonstone at the Transpersonal Point, for +connection to the Goddess and Universal Feminine Energy. This is the +connection to dreams and dreaming, feminine "intuition", and "cycles". +There are cycles of time, seasons, the moon, stars, etc. I also use/give +2623 + +this stone for those clients who are having difficulty being in tune +with the feminine side of their nature. (Everyone has a masculine and +a feminine side.) + +NOTES: In the past, this stone has also been called "Cylon Opal". + + -------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2. Precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gemstones" by E. H. Rutland. + +3. Other Precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gem Cutting", sec. ed., by John Sinkankas. + +4. Legends and Lore, Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's En- +cyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +5. Some of the healing information may come from "Color and Crystals, A +Journey Through the Chakras" by Joy Gardner. + +6. Some of the healing information may come from "A Journey Through the +Chakras" by Joy Gardner. + +7. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. + +8. Birthstone poem from "The Occult and Curative Powers of Precious +Stones" by William T. Fernie, M.D. + + ----------------------------------------------- +OBSIDIAN + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Obsidian occurs as volcanic lava flows that are +thick and of limited area. Its black, glassy, lustrous, and often +flow-banded appearance makes it rather easy to distinguish from the +other volcanic rocks with which it is commonly associated. This mineral +forms when a silica-rich magma of granitic composition flows onto the +earth's surface, where it solidifies before minerals can develop and +crystallize. It is, therefore, an amorphous solid or glass rather than +an aggregate of minerals. The hardness of Obsidian is between 6 and 7; +it will scratch window glass. Although generally black, it is more or +less smoky along translucent to transparent edges; other colors are +gray, reddish brown, mahogany and dark green. When it has small white +"flower" designs in it, it is called Snowflake Obsidian. It is also +possible to find pieces with a sheen, or chatoyance. This is often +called Rainbow Obsidian. + +ENVIRONMENT: Obsidian is an environment for very few minerals. Lithophy- +sae and spherulites may contain small but beautiful crystals of +feldspar, tridymite, and cristobalite. + +OCCURENCE: Some locations of Obsidian bodies are California (Inyo, +Imperial, and Modoc Cos.), Oregon (Crater Lake), Wyoming (Yellowstone +Park), and Mexico (near Pachuca.) +2624 + +NAME: The name is dervied from the latin name for the mineral, [obsio.] + +LEGEND and LORE: Polished pieces of black Obsidian have been used for +Scrying. Primitive peoples once valued obsidian highly, chipping and +flaking it into knives, spearheads, and many other implements with +razor-sharp edges resulting from the intersecting conchoidal fractures. + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Obsidian is a very protective stone. It is also +associated with the inner mysteries of the Goddess, symbolizing entrance +to the labyrinth, the womb or the subconscious self. + +HEALING: Because of its protective qualities, Obsidian is a good stone +for those who are soft-hearted and gentle. It will help to guard them +against abuse. This stone cleanses toxins from the liver, so it is also +good for people who are exposed to environmental pollutants. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: This is the "balance" stone for Clear Quartz +Crystals. We jokingly refer to it around here as a "dark sucker"...mean- +ing it will absorb all sorts of negative things. It is also a grounding +stone, and I use it at the Base Chakra (below the feet) at the beginning +of a layout to keep my client "grounded". In India, the women wear +obsidian toe rings for the same purpose. I use Black Obsidian in +conjunction with Quartz. If I'm not using Clear Quartz, I use Snowflake +Obsidian. I also have a piece of Rainbow Obsidian, but it is relatively +new and I haven't finished "conversing" with it, so I have no advice +as to how to use it...at the moment. + + -------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2. Legends and Lore, Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's En- +cyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +3. Some of the healing information may come from "Color and Crystals, A +Journey Through the Chakras" by Joy Gardner. + +4. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. + + ---------------------------------------------- +OPAL + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Opal is hydrous silica, often with some iron and +aluminum. Its chemistry is SiO2.nH2O; amount of water varies up to 10 +percent. It ranges in color from White, yellow, red, pink, brown to +gray, blue and even colorless. It is most easily recognized by its rich +internal play of colors (opalescence). Its hardness ranges from 5-1/2 to +6-1/2. It is vitreous and pearly. The streak is white. It is not found +in crystal form, rather is is usually massive, botryoidal, reniform, +stalactitic, and/or earthy. + +ENVIRONMENT: Opal is a low-temperature mineral and usually develops in +a wide variety of rocks as cavity and fracture fillings. It requently +develops as amygdules in basalt and rhyolite of volcanic rock and +replaces the cells in wood and the shells of clams. +2625 + +OCCURENCE: Common opal is widespread and can be readily obtained at many +places, but localities for precious opal are rare and seem to localized +in W United States and Mexico. Magnificent examples of opalized wood can +be found in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, and lively +green fluorescing opal (hyalite) occurs in seams in pegmatites in New +England and North Carolina and in cavities in basalt near Klamath Falls, +Oregon. Beautiful precious opal, as a replacement in wood, has been +obtained in Virgin Valley, Humboldt Co., Nevada. Excellent fire and +precious opal occur in laval flows in N Mexico. Nevada, Australia, and +Honduras are sources for black opal; Australia and Czechoslovakia +for white opal; Mexico and SW United States for fire opal. + +GEMSTONE INFORMATION: Black, dark blue, dark green opal with dark gray +body color and fine play of colors is called [black opal;] opal with +white or light body color and fine play of color is called [white opal;] +and transparent to translucent opal with body color ranging from +orange-yellow to red and a play of colors is called [fire opal.] Play of +colors depends upon interference of light and is not dependent upon body +color. Black opal is the most highly prized, and fire opal is the most +valued of the orange and red varieties. Most opal is fashioned into +cabochons, but some fire opals are faceted. + +NAME: The word is from the Sanskrit [upala,] meaning "precious stone." + +LEGEND and LORE: Opal is a birthstone for October. + + "October's child is born for woe, + And life's vicissitudes must know; + But lay an Opal on her breast, + And hope will lull those foes to rest." (5) + +Opals have traditionally been considered "lucky" stones...but only for +those born in the month of October. It has been considered bad luck to +wear them if you were born in any other month. + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Opal is considered to be able to confer the gift of +invisibility on its wearer. To accomplish this, Cunningham says "The gem +was wrapped in a fresh bay leaf and carried for this purpose." He also +says, "Opals are also worn to bring out inner beauty. A beauty spell: +Place a round mirror on the altar or behind it so that you can see your +face within it while kneeling. Place two green candles on eithe side of +the mirror. Light the candles. Empower an opal with your need for beauty +-- while holding the stone, gaze into your reflection. With the scalpel +of your visualization, mold and form your face (and your body) to the +form you desire. Then, carry or wear the opal and dedicate +yourself to improving your appearance." (2) + +HEALING: Opals contain all the colors of the other stones, thus, it +could be used in place of any of them. (They are akin to quartz +crystals, in this aspect.) Generally speaking, Opal is used more +frequently for healing the spirit, rather than the physical body. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: Opals are probably my favorite stone. This may be +partially due to the fact that they are my birthstone, and I have been +surrounded by them all of my life. For me, they are protective and +invigorating. I normally use them during Journeying, and when doing +"readings" for other...anything where I am using altered states of +consciousness. I find that they help me to understand the symbols of my +2626 + +visions in a way that makes them meaningful for others. + + -------bibliography------- + +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurance and Name are from (or paraphrased +from) "The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". + +2. Legends and Lore, Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's En- +cyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. + +3. Some of the healing information may come from "Color and Crystals, A +Journey Through the Chakras" by Joy Gardner. + +4. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. + +5. Birthday poem from "The Occult and Curative Powers of Precious +Stones" by William T. Fernie, M.D. + + ----------------------------------------------------- +VESUVIANITE (IDOCRASE) + +SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION: Vesuvianite is composed of calcium, magnesium +and aluminum silicate, often with some beryllium and fluorine. The +chemistry is Ca10Mg2Al4(SiO4)5(Si2)7)2(OH)4. Specimens range from brown +and green to a rare yellow or blue. The hardness is 6-1/2. + +ENVIRONMENT: Vesuvianite forms by igneous and metamorphic processes. It +commonly is metamorphic and occurs with grossular, wollastonite, and +calcite in hornfels of contact metamorphic rocks; with chromite and +magnetite in serpentinite of hydrothermal metamorphic rocks; and with +wollastonite, andradite, and diopside in carbonatites. + +OCCURENCE: Gem-quality Vesuvianite has been obtained from a pegmatite in +marble near Sixteen Island Lake, Laurel, Argenteuil Co., Quebec, and +beautiful micromount cyrstals of purplish-pink color occur in massive +Vesuvianite at the Montral chrome pit at Black Lake, Megantic Co., +Quebec. The blue variety called [cyprine] has been obtained at Franklin, +Sussex Co., New Jersey. Fine crystals up to 1-1/2 inches across occur in +pale-blue calcite at Scratch Gravel, near Helena, Lewis and Clark Co., +Montana, and spectacular material of similar nature occurs at quarries +near Riverside, California. Beautiful pale-green massive Vesuvianite +([californite]) occurs in California at Pulga, Butte Co., +and near Happy Camp, Siskiyou Co., and crude yellow prismatic crystals +occur with grossular at Xalostoc, Morelos, and Lake Jaco, Chihuahua, +Mexico. + +GEMSTONE INFORMATION: Translucent gray to green or nearly colorless +Vesuvianite with green streaks is called [californite], and is often +sold as "California Jade." Californite is fashioned into cabochons. +Principal sources are the USSR, Italy, Canada and California. + +NAME: The name "Vesuvianite" is from the original locality at Mt. +Vesuvius, Italy. The alternate name, "idocrase," comes from the Greek +[eidos,] "form", and [krasis,] "mixture," because Vesuvianite may appear +to combine the crystal forms of several other minerals. + +2627 + +LEGEND and LORE: None found. + +MAGICAL PROPERTIES: Dolfyn associates this stone with Passion, enthus- +iasm, warmth and devotion. + +HEALING: No specific information found, other than what Dolfyn states. + +PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: None. I do not have a specimen of Vesuvianite. + + -------bibliography------- +1. Scientific, Environment, Occurence and Name are from (or paraphrased +from)"The Audubon Society field Guide to North American Rocks and +Minerals". +2. Other scientific information may be from "Simon & Schuester's Guide +to Gems and Precious Stones". +3. Precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gemstones" by E. H. Rutland. +4. Other precious and semi-precious gemstone information may come from +"Gem Cutting", sec. ed., by John Sinkankas. +5. Basic Legends, Lore and Magical Properties are from "Cunningham's +Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic", by Scott Cunningham. +6. Some magical and healing information from "Crystal Wisdom, Spiritual +Properties of Crystals and Gemstones" by Dolfyn. +7. More legends and lore may come from "Stone Power" by Dorothee L. +Mella. +8. Healing information is from "The Women's Book of Healing", by Diane +Stein. +9. Additional healing information may be from "The Occult and Curative +Powers of Precious Stones" by William T. Fernie, M.D. +10. Personal Experience is from MY personal experience, journals and +notebooks, by Tandika Star. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2628 + + AUTHOR: Jon Trott and Mike Hertenstein + SOURCE: Cornerstone, vol. 21, iss. 98, pp. 7-9,11-14,16-17,19,30,38 + DATE: 1992 + TITLE: Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Michael Warnke + NOTES: Copyright 1992 by Cornerstone Communications, Inc. + + + "I always wanted to write him a letter and + say, `Mike, when were you able to have this + coven of fifteen hundred people?' About the + most exciting thing we used to do was play + croquet." + ÄÄOne of Mike Warnke's college friends + + + + SELLING SATAN: + The Tragic History of Michael Warnke + + by Jon Trott & Mike Hertenstein + + + + This is the story of well-known comedian, evangelist, and professed +ex-Satanist Mike Warnke. + + Known as "America's Number One Christian Comedian," Mike Warnke has +sold in excess of one million records. June 29, 1988, was declared +"Mike Warnke Day" by the governor of Tennessee. The Satan Seller has, +according to its author, sold three million copies in twenty years.[1] +His 1991 Schemes of Satan quickly climbed the best-seller list. Mike +Warnke's press material includes credits for appearances on "The 700 +Club," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Larry King Live," "Focus on the +Family," and ABC's "20/20." Mike has won numerous awards from the +recording industry, including the 1992 Grady Nutt Humor Award. He +continues to perform two hundred live shows a year. He is truly a +figure of national prominence. + + Mike Warnke's ministry and public profile are based upon the story +he tells of his previous involvement with Satanism. As written in The +Satan Seller, the story goes like this: a young orphan boy raised in +foster homes drifted from whatever family and friends he had to join a +secret, all-powerful satanic cult. First, he descended into the hell of +drug addiction. Then he ascended in the satanic ranks to the position +of high priest, with fifteen hundred followers in three cities. He had +unlimited wealth and power at his disposal, provided by members of +Satanism's highest echelon, the Illuminati. And then he converted to +Christ. + + A generation of Christians learned its basic concepts of Satanism +and the occult from Mike Warnke's testimony in The Satan Seller. +Based on his alleged satanic experiences, Warnke came to be recognized +as a prominent authority on the occult, even advising law enforcement +officers investigating occult crime. We believe The Satan Seller has +been responsible, more than any other single volume in the Christian +market, for promoting the current nationwide "Satanism scare."[2] + + Through the years, Cornerstone has received many calls from people +2629 + +who felt something was not right concerning Mike Warnke. After our +lengthy investigation into his background, we found discrepancies that +raise serious doubts about the trustworthiness of his testimony. We +have uncovered significant evidence contradicting his alleged satanic +activity. His testimony contains major conflicts from book to book and +tape to book, it contains significant internal problems, and it doesn't +square with known external times and events. Further, we have +documentation and eyewitness testimony that contradict the claims he +has made about himself. + + The evidence we present here includes testimony from Mike's closest +friends, relatives, and daily associates ÄÄpeople whose names Mike +disguised or omitted entirely in his "official" testimony. These people +knew the real Mike Warnke, who was not a drug fiend or a recruiter for +Satanism. But he was a storyteller. + + Michael Alfred Warnke was born November 19, 1946, to Alfred "Al" +Warnke and his wife, Louise. Mike's parents lived in Evansville, +Indiana, and according to their son's confirmation certificate, had +Mike baptized at St. Anthony's Catholic Church.[3] + + When Mike was five, the Warnkes moved to Manchester, Tennessee, +where Al opened Warnke's Truck Stop.[4] Located on Highway 41, north of +town, the diner soon became part of the local landscape. On January 15, +1955, Louise, on her way home from town, lost control of the family's +brand-new Packard and was killed. She was thirty-seven; Mike was eight +years old.[5] + + Mike had other family, too, from his father's previous marriage. His +half sister, Shirley Schrader[6] was twenty-two years older than he +was. She first met Mike in 1954, when Al brought his family to +California on a visit. As Shirley recalls, "Dad, Louise, and Michael +came out to California in the mid-fifties. Prior to that, I wasn't +writing my father. I didn't even know where he was. My dad had +abandoned me when I was little. He was an alcoholic, and maybe twice in +my childhood did he make any effort to communicate with my mother. So I +was working and they came to my office, very unexpectedly. He says, +`I'm your father,' and he came on big and strong, `Oh, my daughter, my +daughter.' They spent maybe a week in California, and then went back to +Tennessee." + + When Mike's mother was killed, Al flew Shirley to Tennessee for the +funeral. During that visit, Al Warnke asked Shirley if she and her +husband, Keith, would move to Manchester and help run the truck stop. +"You always think, Wouldn't it be neat to know your own dad? That was +probably one of the biggest mistakes I ever made." + + Shirley, Keith, and their six-year-old son Keith, Jr., came out to +Manchester in February of 1955. But Al and Shirley soon had their +problems. "He had me working days, with Thursday off, and he had my +husband working nights, with a different day off. Then there was the +fact that my father was a drunk. We weren't there but a few days when +he went off on a big binge and didn't show up again for a week. There +would have been enough money to support us all. But he forgot we were +supposed to be paid." + + Al Warnke seems to fit the description given him by his son in his +books and records. But what about Mike Warnke? Shirley recalls Mike as +2630 + +a little boy who spent a lot of time "sitting two feet from the +television. I tried to tell my dad, `Hey, the boy can't see.' And he'd +say, `Don't try to tell me about my son!' And my dad would give the kid +ten bucks and send him uptown. That was a lot of money for those days." + + Disgusted with Al and his truck stop, but feeling empathy for Mike, +the Schraders returned to California. Two years later, Al Warnke was +dead of heart failure.[7] + + Mike Warnke's story of his life, The Satan Seller, opens just +after Al's funeral, with adults discussing Mike's future as he +eavesdrops. As the book indicates, the eleven-year-old boy was +initially placed with his two aunts, Dorothy and Edna, who lived in +Sparta, Tennessee. Warnke has a segment on his Mike Warnke Alive![8] +album called "Tennessee Home and Blankety-Blank," in which he describes +how he raised one aunt's dander with his crude, truck stop ways. + + The first night I was up there this lady came out and she + said, "Well, honey, how do you think you're gonna like it + here?" And I said, "Well, this is a pretty nice + blank-blankety-blank place. We oughta get along pretty + blank-blankety-blank well as long as you feed me + blank-blankety properly." + + Aunt Edna Swindell[9] denies any such child appeared at her +Tennessee home. "He was just a typical boy. We had no problems." What +about his claims about being a foulmouthed brat? "He wasn't that here." +Meanwhile, Shirley Schrader was trying to get custody of young Mike. +"We wanted Michael," Shirley recalls. "And we fought through the +courts for Michael for months before they let him come out here." + + Aunt Edna notes, "He stayed with me seven months. I guess if I +wanted him, I could have kept him the entire time. His half sister in +California wanted him, and that's where he wanted to go." + + Mike Moves in with the Schraders + + During the summer of 1959, Mike went to live with his half sister +and her family near Riverside, California. Shirley confirms Warnke's +story of how his Aunt Edna sent him to California loaded down with +anti-Catholic materials. + + Shirley Schrader took the boys to church ÄÄthat is, she took her +eleven-year-old son Keith with her to Catholic mass and allowed +thirteen-year-old Mike to attend a nearby Protestant church. "And that +was fine for as long as he wanted to do it, because we weren't going to +force religion on him." + + In Riverside, Keith, Jr., attended a parochial schoolÄÄSt. Francis +deSales. Mike eventually decided he wanted to go to that same parochial +school. "He went for a year, until we moved up on the mountain," says +Shirley. + + In February of 1961, the Schraders and fourteen-year-old Mike moved +to Crestline, a small community planted among the pine trees atop the +San Bernardino Mountains overlooking the vast San Bernardino Valley. + + The Schraders were well respected in Crestline. Community pillars, +2631 + +they ran a tight ship at home. Keith, Sr., head of the Pilot Rock +Conservation Camp, was in charge of minimum security inmates assigned +to fight forest fires. "We took the boys on camping trips. We rock +hounded. We did things together," recalls Shirley. "We sat them down +and had the sex talk. We had the talk about alcohol. We were a regular +family." + + Keith, Jr., recalls, "Mike and I had a good time growing up +together. We were real close during high schoolÄÄwhen we weren't +fighting."[10] + + Mike Warnke attended Rim of the World High School. His best friends +through these years were Tim Smith[11] and Jeff Nesmith.[12] "We'd +spend lots of time at each other's houses," says Jeff Nesmith, "go to +school dances together, proms, and one summer Mike and I worked for my +dad in the construction business. We weren't hellions, but we weren't +angels either. We had our parties, gate crashed some dances." + + All of Mike's friends and family we were able to contact denied his +assertion that he drifted at one point to a "rougher" crowd. In fact, +most of the kids Mike hung out with were, by all reports, good, clean, +Catholic boys. Tim Smith and another local boy, David Goodwin,[13] were +altar boys at St. Francis Cabrini Church. "Tim and I went to morning +mass every day before school," says Goodwin. "Sometimes Mike Warnke +attended mass with us." Tim's sister Terri explains, "I believe Mike +got interested in Catholicism from hanging out with us. He was like a +piece of furniture at our house."[14] + + One day Mike announced to the Schraders that he, too, wanted to +become a Catholic. In the spring of his senior year in high school, +Warnke was confirmed in the Catholic Church. His sponsor was Tim's dad, +Paul "Jerry" Smith.[15] Two months after being confirmed, Mike +graduated with the rest of his class at Rim High in the class of '65. + + Everybody we talked to who knew Mike Warnke at "Rim" remembers him +first and foremost as a chronic storyteller. His high school partner in +various escapades was Jeff Nesmith. Once, says Jeff, Mike had a date +but no car, and Jeff had his parents' Lincoln. "Mike talked me into +dropping him and his date off at a restaurant and then picking them up +after dinner. Before we picked up Mike's date, we stopped at a local +uniform store and got me a chauffeur's cap. From the moment the girl +got into the car, Mike spun this wild tale about me being an orphan boy +and how his family had taken me in, and how I sometimes performed +various services for them such as being their chauffeur. She just +soaked it all in." + + The thing that always struck Nesmith about his pal was that Warnke +would never break out of character. "We'd go into some restaurant, and +Mike would pretend to be a Russian immigrant who couldn't speak +English. I'd translate Mike's order into English for the waitress. +Sometimes ÄÄjust to get himÄÄ I'd order something I knew he'd hate. But +Mike was always enough of a pro that he'd stick with it and wouldn't +say anything . . . until we got outside the restaurant and he'd yell at +me." + + The Schraders also knew Mike as a boy with the gift of gab. "Michael +is a showman," says Shirley. "He is an actor, and he always swore he +would never make a living with his hands, that he would make his living +2632 + +with his mouth." Keith, Jr., adds: "Mike is the kind of guy that can +sell somebody the Golden Gate Bridge. Or swamp land in Florida. I gotta +hand it to him. I wish I was as good a salesman." + + In high school, storytelling had been a diversion, a way to get by. +According to his friends in college, it would increasingly become a +part of Mike Warnke's identity. + + Mike Warnke at College + + Here begins the critical period described in The Satan Seller, the +defining moment of Mike Warnke's later testimony and ministryÄÄhis +involvement with and subsequent banishment from a satanic cult. + + On September 13, 1965, Mike Warnke began school at San Bernardino +Valley College, a two-year school.[16] Mike writes in The Satan +Seller that it was after he started college that he first was +introduced to drugs, sex, and finally Satanism. And, he continues, it +was only after the Satanists threw him out of their coven that he +joined the navy. Warnke's military records say he entered the navy on +June 2, 1966.[17] Therefore, whatever happened in Mike's life regarding +Satanism had to have happened between September 13, 1965, and June 2, +1966. (See sidebar "Under a Full Moon," p. 9.) + + Mike, in his 1991 book, Schemes of Satan, claims to have had no +close friends at college and to have virtually disappeared: + + In my own case, being away from home at college and not + having any close friends there meant that almost no one could + have known what was happening to me except, of course, the + members of the Satanic Brotherhood, and they were not + telling![18] + + In reality, Mike Warnke simply did what countless other freshmen +have done: he found a new circle of friends. We found that new circle, +and they were not a part of the Satanic Brotherhood. None of these +people are mentioned by Warnke in The Satan Seller or anywhere else. + + Greg Gilbert[19] was one of Mike's first and closest friends at +college. Today an English professor at a southern California +university, Greg reflects upon the notoriety of his old college +roommate. "After Mike became a star, I assumed that since he had gotten +this far with his Satan story, he'd always get away with it. I never +knew what to do. Who could you tell?" + + Right around the time college started in 1965, Greg met Mike through +a mutual friend, Dennis Pekus.[20] Greg was living with his elderly +grandparents in San Bernardino and took Warnke to meet them. "When my +grandparents said they were from Tennessee, Mike said, `I come from +Tennessee, too,' " Greg recalls. "Before the evening was over he had us +all convinced he was a long-lost relative. Next thing we knew, he'd +talked his way into living with us." + + Greg's college girlfriend, Dawn Andrews,[21] gave us her assessment. +"The first time I saw Mike Warnke was at Greg's house. He was +introduced to me as Greg's cousin," says Dawn. "He told everybody he +was. I remember how upset I was when The Satan Seller came out, +because what Warnke said was a lie. He has a very fertile imagination." +2633 + + Dyana Cridelich[22] was another of Mike Warnke's college friends +introduced by Greg. "After he got famous, I always wanted to write him +a letter and say, Mike, remember me? The one you gave the silver cross +to? When were you able to have this coven of fifteen hundred people? +Don't you remember, about the most exciting thing we used to do was +play croquet in Greg's backyard?' " + + In The Satan Seller, Mike never mentions croquet. He was too busy +becoming a teenage alcoholic. + + I attended classes regularly at first, but I wasn't about + to cut down on my drinking. As the days went by, it became + harder to concentrate on what the professors were saying, but + I could still talk my way out of anything, and this carried me + through. I was drinking so much by now, it was starting to + wreck my stomach."[23] + + Was Mike a heavy drinker? Not according to those who knew him. "We +drank occasionally," says Greg, "but mostly we just talked about it. We +weren't of age, and alcohol was hard to come by." + + This group of college freshmen often sat on the lawn between +classes, or got together in the student union cafeteria, The Tomahawk +Room. It was there that Lois Eckenrod,[24] a girl who was soon to be +his fiancee, joins the story. "Mike and I met in September or October, +that first semester at Valley," Lois said. "It was only a couple of +months before we got engaged. Hardly a day went by that we didn't see +each other." + + His friends remember Mike Warnke as thin, with thick glasses and +short hair. He was bright, he was mainly happy ÄÄthough Lois remembers +he could swing easily to depression. Yet Mike says in The Satan +Seller that when college started, he was a "heavyset, jovial guy" who +only later lost weight due to drug use. His hair, he writes, was +already collar length. Within a short time, he claims to have become a +full-fledged hippie: + + I made a return trip to the Salvation Army and bought some + black pants and freaky shirts. My hair was longer than ever, + and I bleached it blond. I was really craving attention, and I + got it. You know, weird people attract chicks.[25] + + "He looked like everybody else," says Greg. He did have one constant +accessory, a silver cross. (This cross Warnke gave to Dyana, she says.) + + Warnke writes in The Satan Seller that he frequented a coffeehouse +called Penny University, where he danced, obtained hard liquor, and got +acquainted with the owner while practicing his fake English accent.[26] + + Lois says that she and Mike did go to Penny University, "quite a bit +because Mike really liked folk music. But there was no room for +dancing. The place was full of tables and stuff." + + Cornerstone also talked with John Ingro,[27] who in 1965 not only +owned Penny U., but also was a district attorney (currently he is a San +Bernardino judge). "You couldn't dance there. It was very small, and +packed with chairs. As far as alcohol, we only served coffee at a penny +a cup. That's where the place got its name." As for remembering Mike +2634 + +and the fake English accent? "No. Is this a joke?" + + Storytelling in the Tomahawk Room + + Storytelling developed into an art form among the Tomahawk Room +crowd. One student, Gary Manbeck, is remembered as having some of the +best stories. "Gary always told stories about being in the Green +Beret," says Dawn. "He was very good, but I never thought any of it was +true." + + Mike Warnke joined right in. "Gary and Mike vied for attention with +stories, trying to be the life of the party," says George Eubank,[28] +another of the Tomahawk crowd. "Who can one-up ya. That's a real good +description of the two of them together." + + Warnke produced a never-ending stream of tall tales. "He claimed he +had some kind of white witchcraft background," recalls Greg Gilbert. +"He claimed he'd been reincarnated any number of times, that he was +born in the Irish Moors in the 1570s. Along with his other stories, he +claimed he'd once been a Trappist monk." + + In The Satan Seller, Warnke paints himself as a freshman guru, +dispensing wisdom to an eager audience of disciples: + + Most of my friends were the pseudo-intellectual type. We + liked to lie out on the lawn in the quad after classes and + discuss psychology, philosophy, religion, art, and politics. + Other students began coming around, and they seemed to look to + me for answers to their questions. Anything I said was okay + with them. And it was certainly okay with me. If they were + that hung up for a leader, I was happy to oblige." [29] + + Greg Gilbert remembers things this way: "We sat out under the trees +at school, all right. And there were times we listened to Mike tell his +tall tales. But if Mike thought we believed what he was saying, or that +we looked at him like some kind of guru, he was greatly mistaken. We +were all part of the same bragging team." + + It was difficult, at times, to know whether Warnke believed his own +stories or not. "I don't think it was in fun. I think he himself wanted +to believe it," says Phyliss Catalano,[30] Lois's best friend. "I used +to sit there and be embarrassed, because I'd think, How could somebody +that young have done all these things? He'd done everything. And +everything he told was with a straight face." + + Phyliss's mother, Mary Catalano,[31] saw Warnke on a regular basis +when the gang gathered at the Catalano house. "He was a likable young +man when he visited our house," she says, "but anything brought up in +conversation ÄÄhe'd done it. He said he'd been a Greek dancer, and he'd +dance for us, round and round. He said he'd been a professional +ambulance driver. And he was a monkÄÄhe'd come to the house all dressed +in black. Of course, we never believed him. We just said, `Boy, is he +one big liar.' " + + In college, as he'd done in high school, Warnke continued to costume +himself for his roles. Mike particularly liked being a priest. "I +remember at Halloween he dressed up like a priest and went around +pretending," says Dawn. "My parents saw him ÄÄthey're very CatholicÄÄ so +2635 + +I heard about it." Another occasion for the priest impersonation was a +double date with Lois and Phyliss and her boyfriend David Gibbet. "I'll +never forget when he went dressed as a priest to Jay's Coffeehouse," +says Lois. "He met us there, and came walking in wearing robes and a +white collar. I about died." + + Yet another student, Tom Bolger,[32] recalls Warnke boasting how +he'd dressed as a priest and gone panhandling in downtown San +Bernardino. "He said he'd made fifty dollars." And finally, Greg +recalls Mike unsuccessfully using the priest bit to get drinks. "He got +the robes at a costume shop, went to Corky's Liquor Store, and tried to +get Christian Brothers wine for the mass. They just laughed him out." + + "The Satan Seller" And the Way Things Really Were + + According to The Satan Seller, though, things are by now getting +serious. The story is set in motion by the mysterious college-age +individual named "Dean Armstrong," who Warnke alleges was a satanic +high priest. Mike says Dean lured him into drug use, sexual +promiscuity, witchcraft, and Satanism. We will examine these elements +of the story, then compare each with what witnesses remember. For +starters, Mike's associates at school affirm that none among them +remotely resembled the Dean character in The Satan Seller. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2636 + + According to the book, Mike was encouraged by Dean to quit drinking +so much and start smoking marijuana. Mike tells Dean no, but later an +unnamed roommate brings up the subject again: + + My stomach was still hurting. I tried everything I could think + of, except giving up drinking. My new roommate suggested I try + . . . [grass], and not wanting to be left out, I finally went + along with it. . . . + . . . I really liked marijuana.[33] + + Regarding drug use, Greg laughs. "Drugs? No way, not at Valley, and +not in 1965. Two years later there was plenty of grass around, but back +in '65 we still believed Reefer Madness." + + Did Warnke ever talk about drugs around anybody else? "None of us +were into drugs," says Dyana. "We didn't even smoke cigarettes." Yet in +The Satan Seller, Warnke and his friends are allegedly full-blown +into drug use early in the year: + + When we tried the peyote, we decided it was better and + heavier than pot. We also started eating mescaline in our food + in increasing quantities, and from there we went on to reds. . + . . . . . Some doctors came to the campus to conduct + controlled group experiments on [LSD]. My friends and I + decided to volunteer for the tests.[34] + + Not only do Mike's friends deny controlled or uncontrolled +experimentation with drugs, but according to the records, no LSD +experiments took place on the campus of San Bernardino Valley College. +This was underscored in our conversation with Dr. George Zaharopoulos, +head of the Social Sciences Department at Valley. "I taught here during +those years, and we never, ever, asked for or had any LSD experiments +take place here. This is only a junior college." + + In ®The Satan Seller¯ Mike not only claims to have used drugs, but +to have been a major-league drug trafficker: + + One time I took some money for a drug payoff down to El + Centro, a burg in the desert of California, not far from the + border town of Mexicali. A really big load was involved, and + this caused quite a flap. It was the most money I had ever + seen at one time ÄÄfifty thousand dollars in bundles of + hundred-dollar bills.[35] + + On his Mike Warnke Alive! album, Mike further claims: + + I'd had hepatitis four times from shooting up with dirty + needles. I had scabs all over my face from shooting up + crystal. I was a speed freak. I weighed 110 pounds soaking + wet. My skin had turned yellow. My hair was falling out. My + teeth were rotting out of my head. I'd been pistol-whipped + five or six times. My jaw had been broken. My nose had been + almost ripped off. I had a bullet hole in my right leg. Two + bullet holes in my left leg. + + Greg Gilbert and the others saw Mike on a daily basis, and say that +it is totally impossible for Mike to have had hepatitis, facial scabs +from injecting "crystal," and wounds from being shot three times. +2637 + +"Without us knowing it? It's a lie," Greg says. + + Lois's reaction to Mike's tale? "That's just make-believe," she +states. "Mike never fell in with drugs. My dad was an alcoholic, and +because of our family situation, I'd had to move in with the Catalanos. +So I was really sensitive to things like that. Second, I was training +to be a nurse, and I think I would have known if he was using drugs. I +wouldn't have dated Mike if he was drugged. I didn't even allow people +to drink around me." + + In The Satan Seller, drugs and sex were the magnet that drew Mike +Warnke along. Warnke gradually found himself running errands for Dean, +attending occult discussion meetings, until, finally, Dean decided his +charge was ready for the real thing: a satanic ritual service. + + The Black Mass in an orange grove turned out to be just what anybody +would expect who's seen ®Rosemary's Baby¯ or other films of this genre: +black robes, a naked woman on the altar, blasphemy and incantations. +"After the Invocation of Satan, I listened intently to the Offertory, +where the members offered their souls to Lord Satan."[36] + + According to ®The Satan Seller¯, Warnke signed his name in blood to +give his soul to Satan, and a few pages later took over the coven from +Dean as the new High Priest. + + I swung the now screaming cat over the smoking caldron and + then over the heart of the girl on the altar. Then, when the + sword point touched the cat's belly, I thrust it in. + + "Now!" I suddenly shouted. . . . I drew an upside-down star + on the girl's stomach, with the freshly spilled blood. From + the weird utterances that now came from her mouth, I knew we + were being graced by the presence of one of the denizens of + hell.[37] + + Just before he published The Satan Seller in 1973, Warnke brought +manuscript copies to his old high school friends Jeff Nesmith and Tim +Smith, and asked them to sign affidavits swearing the events depicted +were true. Jeff Nesmith had lost track of Warnke after high school and +had little idea what he did during college or who he hung out with. On +a rare visit to Mike's apartment during his college days, Mike asked +Jeff to join a "coven." But Jeff laughed it off, thinking it was one of +Mike's stories. In any event, when Warnke asked Jeff to sign the +affidavit, he refused.[38] "My initial reaction to the book was, `Come +on, Mike! This is poppycock!' " + + Tim Smith dropped out of college after only two months, but notes, +"I had contact with Mike off and on all the way through the fall of +1965 until the summer of 1966." Tim states he never saw Warnke with +long hair or in the drug-induced emaciated state he claimed to be +during that period. "Sign the affidavit? I told him, `Nope. Can't do +that.' " + + Warnke's two high school buddies saw him sporadically throughout the +year, but not every day. Yet Mike brought Jeff and Tim the affidavits, +but not Lois, Greg, Dawn or the others. It does not speak well for the +veracity of Warnke's claims that he did not ask those who knew him on a +daily basis in San Bernardino Valley College to endorse his story. +2638 + + The College Crowd and the Occult + + Interestingly, most of Mike's college friends did dabble in occult +activities. "Some of them were into seance and Ouija board type stuff," +says George Eubank. "But it wasn't serious, just the kind of stuff +freshmen in college play with. Especially sheltered freshmen in college +that are all of a sudden free from their parents, spreading their +wings, so to speak." + + Bill Lott,[39] another college student who is now a Christian, +took the experimentation more seriously. "People were messing around +with stuff like reincarnation, tarot cards, Ouija boards. Mike was one +of those people. But he never talked about Satanism or being a devil +worshiper," Lott says. + + "People talked about witches and Ouija boards," says Dawn. "It was +that era. None of us belonged to a coven, and none of us were witches. +If we'd have thought anybody was serious, it would have scared us to +death. We did table tipping once, and the table tipped and that was +that. No more table tipping for me." + + Warnke and a few of the guys created a not-so-secret society. "We +started a club called The Royal Order of the Lantern," says Greg. "We +played chess, drank beer, and told tall tales. It was a group that +really never took off." + + Adds George Eubank, "The Royal Order of the Lantern had to do with +this lamp we'd stolen from somebody's driveway. Warnke wanted to get an +apartment and have a group of guys. I don't think it was supposed to be +secret. It was supposed to be fun and games. It flopped because nobody +was willing to put the effort into it. Mike carried it as far as he +could at the time. It was kind of a defunct fraternity that never got +anywhere." The Royal Order of the Lantern is a far cry from ®The Satan +Seller¯'s fifteen hundred followers in three cities, financed by a +worldwide network of Satanists. + + Mike eventually did get his own apartment, and the place became a +favorite hangout for the Tomahawk Room crowd ÄÄthe guys in particular. +Mike gave both Greg Gilbert and Bill Lott keys. The apartment "was +above a garage," says Greg. "There was an exterior stairway that went +up to a room with an open-beam ceiling, the gable coming to a point." + + In The Satan Seller, Warnke describes the exterior of his +apartment in this way: a second-floor apartment approached by an +outside stairway. The interior, however, was redecorated by the +Satanists after Warnke became high priest: + + A long, low, oxblood leather couch replaced the sagging old + brown horsehair one, and there were two sets of bookshelves + full of books [on the occult]. . . . The biggest surprise was + on the floor ÄÄtwo chicks sitting on a white rug . . . . + + . . . "We hope you like it, Mike, because we come with the + apartment," said the blonde one named Lorraine.[40] + + The two women allegedly remained at Warnke's beck and call, rarely +leaving the apartment unless it was to get groceries or drugs. "It's a +fantasy," says Dennis Pekus, who knew Mike in both high school and +2639 + +college. Greg Gilbert says he never knew Mike Warnke to have a +girlfriend in college besides Lois Eckenrod. None of the college +friends who frequented the apartment ever saw occult books, an oxblood +leather couch, or two love slaves. + + Mike says plenty of "soft pink sex"[41] is at the center of his +satanic experiences. These begin with the orgies Warnke says initially +drew him into the coven: + + Then they split off into couples. It was great, because there + was a girl for every guy, not like most places I had been + where there is a chronic chick shortage. + + Cool-looking, sexy girls, too. . . . These chicks were + free-lovers. . . . + + "Come on over here, Mike," a blonde said.[42] + + Then there's the sexual recruiting Mike says he helped organize and +rituals that degenerate from cat killing to the rape of an innocent +virgin. (Warnke is careful to exclude himself from direct participation +in the rape, though he writes that it was his idea.) + + In a later book, Schemes of Satan, Warnke suggests that sex was a +routine part of the rituals: + + On more than one occasion, I regret to admit, we participated + in ritual sexual abuse that even involved rape. Most of the + time I was too doped up to perform sexually, but I would watch + these lust rituals with great desire.[43] + + Such tales of perversion and criminal activity raise serious +questions. If Mike led in acts of rape and other violent crimes, why +(after his conversion) didn't he turn himself in and aid the police in +apprehending his old satanic friends? If, on the other hand, his rape +and abuse stories are not true, what does this say about the +imagination of their author? + + Mike's college crowd completely rejects these stories of violence +and sexual perversion. "Oh, my goodness, no," says Phyliss. "To talk +about sex orgies and all these drug parties. He didn't do them with +Lois and me, that's for sure!" + + "I never slept with him," says Lois. "We kissed and hugged, but I +never would have had sex with him because I was a very devout Catholic, +and I wanted to be a virgin till I got married. Thank God I didn't +marry him." + + There always seemed to be a story. In college, as in the high school +role-playing with Jeff Nesmith, Warnke refused to drop out of +character. "He played it to the end," says Greg. "He never gave up. +That was the remarkable thing about him. We'd question him about his +stories and he always came up with some half-baked answer. And you +couldn't disprove what he was saying ÄÄthat was the common thread. It +was never anything we were likely to have the real answer for or the +time to check into. So he could say anything he wanted." + + Warnke's refusal to admit to his own storytelling made him +2640 + +untrustworthy in the eyes of some members of the group. "I didn't know +anything about his past, so I didn't know what was true and what +wasn't," says Dawn. "I didn't feel like he was sincere in anything he +did. If the situation required him to be macho, he was macho. If it +required him to be mean, he was mean. He just sort of blended into the +situation and tried to monopolize everyone. There was nothing real +about him." + + Mike and Lois Plan Their Marriage + + By Christmas of 1965, Mike and Lois were seeing each other on a +daily basis. "It was pretty fast that we said we were going to get +married," says Lois. "Within two or three months of school starting, he +gave me a rose ring with a diamond in it. It cost $60. He had to make +payments on it. I thought he really loved me. And I thought I loved +him, too." + + In The Satan Seller, Warnke has gone through his drugs, sex, and +promotion to high priest before Christmas of 1965. (Trying to fit the +long list of his claims onto a real calendar is a challenge. See +sidebar, p. 18) Shirley Schrader says Mike had Christmas dinner in +Crestline with the family. "He didn't seem emaciated by drugs to me," +she says. + + College records show Mike Warnke left school after the first term. +"Most of us dropped out after the first semester," recalls Lois. The +group continued to hang out together at Mike's apartment, the +Catalanos', and elsewhere. What about the Mike in The Satan Seller +who flew around the country on satanic business trips to San Francisco +(where he allegedly met Anton LaVey), New York, and Salem, +Massachusetts? "You're a real traveling salesman for Satan, Mike, and +we want you to go to Salem and get more hip with some really serious +organization."[44] + + "How could he fly when he didn't have two pennies?" asks Lois, who +adds that Mike never went anywhere, and when he did it was with her. +"If he says he was a Satanist between September of 1965 to June of +1966, he's lying. How could I not know my boyfriend was into Satanism? +I don't remember there ever being a time when we didn't see or talk to +each other every day." + + Every day? "Yes," says Lois. "We went to movies together, I went to +the country club with him in the mountains, we went to the beach. We +used to go to Jay's Coffee Shop in San Bernardino. That was the big +thing. He introduced me to hot fudge sundaes. I spent the majority of +that year with him." + + Lois says she and Mike used to play pool over on Highland Avenue in +San Bernardino. We read her a story from Warnke's book Hitchhiking on +Hope Street. In it Mike writes that he got into a gunfight with Ray, a +local pimp, at the pool hall: + + I was drunk as a skunk when I shot at him with the .44, + because I missed him by a country mile and blew off the corner + of the pool table. . . . The two of us went roaring down the + street, screaming and shooting. . . . + + . . . he . . . got off a lucky shot. It hit me in the leg and +2641 + + knocked me down.[45] + + The predictable reaction: "Oh, my goodness. You're kidding. . . ." +Lois dissolves into laughter. + + According to The Satan Seller, Mike Warnke's reign as a satanic +high priest ends, apparently sometime in the spring of 1966, when +Warnke crumples under the strain of too much responsibility and too +many drugs. On a "Focus on the Family" radio broadcast, he described +his appearance at this time: "I had white hair. It was about down to my +belt. . . . I had six-inch fingernails; I painted them black."[46] (See +picture, p. 8, taken April 30, 1966.) + + Warnke says he was intentionally overdosed with heroin by one of his +live-in love slaves and thrown, naked, on the steps of a local +hospital. After a few weeks of drying out at the hospital, Warnke +escaped by joining the Navy.[47] On the ®Mike Warnke Alive!¯ album, he +describes his hair length the night before boot camp: "It hit me just +below the pockets." He continues: + + The night before I went to boot camp I went to this + party. . . . I smoked a bunch of dope and ate a bunch of reds + and got crashed out in a corner. . . . But the girl I was with + decided the thing that would really be cute is if she braided + my hair. . . . She put beads with the first bunch, feathers + with the next bunch, a piece of red ribbon about that long + with the last bunch, braided it all together, and hung a + jingle bell on the end of each braid. + + Lois says she was the girl who gave Mike his going-away party. +When she heard this story for the first time in 1979, she was furious. +"I couldn't believe it when I heard that!" she says. "I'm the one who +gave him the going-away party! We never touched drugs. He never had +long hair ÄÄhis hair was short, short, short!" + + Greg and Dawn, who had just gotten married, offered Lois the use of +their apartment for the party. "I bought a big cake decorated with a +navy boat," Lois remembers. "It said `Ship Ahoy, Mike.' Dawn and I made +food and pop, and we had a bunch of people over. It was just clean fun. +I took him to the bus stop, put him on the bus to go to boot camp," +Lois says. "We were supposed to get married when he finished." + + Mike, Sue, and Campus Crusade + + On June 2, 1966, Mike Warnke joined the U.S. Navy. During the time +he was there, he and Lois stayed in touch by letter. According to +Warnke's official story, boot camp is where he meets two Christians who +are such a bold witness for Christ that the ex-Satanist converts to +Christianity. + + According to his service records, Mike Warnke graduated from boot +camp August 22, 1966.[48] His fiancee, Lois, and the Schrader family +attended graduation. "I went down with a friend and gave Mike a St. +Christopher medal," says Lois. There was a fifteen-day leave after camp +ended. During this time Lois noticed a change in Mike. "He was +different. He was carrying a Bible. I asked him about it, and he said +he'd found Christ at boot camp. He was real excited about being a +Christian, finding God." Within days Mike told Lois "he'd had this +2642 + +Christian conversion and he had to go on. That this was it. I didn't +see him anymore after that." + + The Satan Seller, once again, tells a different story. There is, +of course, no mention of Lois Eckenrod before or after boot camp. +Instead, when Warnke returns home from boot camp, he begins dating Sue +Studer, a fellow Rim High alumnus who was soon to become his first +wife. "I turned around and was surprised to see Sue Studer, the girl +who had always dated the football heroes. Sue was still as pretty as +ever."[49] + + Warnke writes that he then told Sue of his recent conversion to +Christ, and to his delight Sue replied she, too, had become a +Christian. "Sue had worked on the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ at +the Arrowhead Springs Headquarters."[50] + + In The Satan Seller, Mike Warnke says that he was chased by Campus +Crusaders attempting to convert him when he was the campus Satanist. +However, Lois and several others do remember Mike Warnke taking some +interest in religion and Campus Crusade before boot camp. "I remember +him starting to get interested in religion," Lois says. "He'd go up the +hill to Campus Crusade's headquarters." + + Just how early Mike dabbled with Christianity is unclear, but at +least one witness says she saw him proclaiming faith in Christ in 1965, +a whole year before The Satan Seller says he became a Christian. +Charlotte Tweeten,[51] a 1964 Rim graduate who attended Valley College, +told Cornerstone, "It was in the fall of 1965. I know that because by +winter I had already left school. Mike Warnke came up to me while I was +sitting there drinking coffee and started proselytizing me. It was the +born-again thing. Mike was doing his religious thing and Sue Studer was +with him." + + On September 7, 1966, Mike Warnke reported to Hospital Corps School +in San Diego.[52] + + Mike gives us our choice of stories as to why he chose to become a +medic. In The Satan Seller he writes he joined the Hospital Corps +because "I could be of more use to God mending guys than swabbing +decks."[53] On the album Hey, Doc!, he says he joined the Hospital +Corps because of drugs and nurses: "Dope and women . . . for pay . . . +far out!"[54] + + In late 1966, Warnke graduated from medic school and, after training +with the marines at Camp Pendleton, went to work at the naval +dispensary in San Diego.[55] Marriage records show Mike and Sue Studer +were married May 13, 1967, in Crestline.[56] Soon after, the couple +moved onto San Diego's Louisiana Street. + + While in San Diego, the Warnkes visited Scott Memorial Baptist +Church, pastored by now well-known church leader and author Tim LaHaye +and his wife, Beverly. In The Satan Seller, Warnke offers one version +of what happened when the LaHayes visited the Warnke home. Mike says he +told Tim LaHaye about the Illuminati. + + I had already told him I had been to an occult conference. + "There were some weird guys that seemed to be the real backers + of the whole thing. . . . I heard the word Illuminati."[57] +2643 + + "The conversation really wasn't like he put it in his book," says +Dr. LaHaye.[58] "I brought up the term Illuminati first. I had been +reading a book on the subject, and I tried testing him to see if he +really knew anything about it. He didn't seem to have ever heard the +word before." + + "Mike gave us a little of his testimony," says Beverly LaHaye,[59] +who is now the head of Concerned Women for America. "He said a book +about the leaders of the Satan church had disappeared off his shelf +when he became interested in Christianity." Dr. LaHaye sums up, "His +type of personality tells stories for effect, not for accuracy." + + Mike in Vietnam + + In November of 1967, the Warnkes moved back to Camp Pendleton and +Oceanside. In May of 1969, Warnke was transferred from Pendleton to the +Third Marine Division, Vietnam.[60] Warnke says he spent his time in +Vietnam, like so many who served there, anesthetized from the +experience of war by drugs.[61] + + The following is a list of the other things Mike Warnke says +happened to him while in Vietnam: + + My faith was weakening fast![62] A buddy of mine was + killedÄÄa mortar shell landed directly on him, disintegrating + him except for his shoes.[63] I was existing from one bottle + to the next.[64] The message [a spy] was carrying was a + detailed description of myself and the skipper, identifying us + as prime targets for the Viet Cong. . . . + + . . . I shot a spy, went to my tent, cooked dinner, and + ate. And something died inside of me.[65] I was the first to + enter the tent [of marines who had been "fragged"ÄÄkilled by + their own people]. [66] + + Anyway, one day we were into this fire fight. . . . + Everybody is shooting at each other. . . . + + . . . All of a sudden: zooooom, zonk, and my arm is + pinned to the ground with an arrow! I look over at this other + Marine Corps sergeant, who goes, "Only you, man, only + you!"[67] + + One time I went through a village and was handing out + candy bars to little kids. Just standing in the back of my + Jeep. . . . + + When I get done, I'm putting the box back and this + twelve-year-old kid goes in his house, comes back out with a + gun, and shoots me.[68] + + Add to the list this story from Keith Schrader, Jr.: "Mike told me +that he killed a man in a bar fight in the Philippines." + + Despite the impression such a long list may give, records show +Warnke was in Vietnam for only six months. + + In The Satan Seller Mike says that he was wounded twice. In his +2644 + +second book, Hitchhiking on Hope Street, he says he was wounded five +times.[69] Military records obtained by Cornerstone show that Mike +Warnke, hospital corpsman, second class, service number B98 05 49, +received one Purple Heart, and, along with the rest of his unit, +several additional medals. The Third Marine Division he was connected +to was withdrawn from Vietnam in October of 1969 and sent to +Okinawa.[70] + + Warnke was sent back to the U.S. in the spring of 1970 and for the +first time was able to see his infant son, Brendon Michael, born +December 2, 1969, while Mike was overseas. In return for reenlisting +for six more years, Mike was enrolled in cardiopulmonary school. The +Warnke family settled in San Diego. + + George Wakeling,[71] who worked with young drug addicts, says he was +contacted by Mike around this time. George was the founder of the Drug +Prevention Center, or "the Hotline," a ministry to addicts at the +Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim. Mike started spending time at +the Hotline, and getting instruction from Hotline speaker Dick Handley. +It was through the Hotline that Mike made his first contacts with +Jesus Movement-era Christianity. + + Mike Meets the Jesus Movement + + Melodyland was one of the Southern California centers of the +charismatic renewal movement then sweeping the Church. The ex-addicts +and others who ran the Hotline were among the original Jesus People, +part of a new youth counterculture uniquely compatible with the +charismatics. Both preferred informal gatherings and a vital, +experience-oriented faith. The culturally conservative Melodyland crowd +thus understood when the exuberant young hippies suggested "getting +high on Jesus." + + Both groups majored on the theme of acceptance. The mainstream +church was sadly out of touch with the needs of counterculture youth +and, even more sadly, unwilling by and large to reach out to them. But +Pentecostal denominations such as the Assemblies of God seemed to grasp +what God was doing among children of the sixties. Uncritically, without +attacking the cultural preferences of the young, many charismatics and +Pentecostals shamed their mainstream peers by being (in Paul's words) +all things to all men. + + But as with nearly all revivals, there were problems with the newly +revived. The mix of uncritical acceptance plus emphasis on experience +was easily taken too far. It opened the door for various cults among +the Jesus People; it also opened the door for those with fascinating +though unprovable conversion stories. + + "A lot of people came to the Hotline and told their drug +testimonies," says Ron Winckler,[72] a leader there. "Mike Warnke came +with the added attraction of the Satanist experience, which was a big +hit with the Full Gospel Businessmen and charismatics. The times were +right for that sort of testimony." + + Hotline speaker Dick Handley and friends in Crestline had introduced +Mike Warnke to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Through Handley, Warnke +met Dave Balsiger, a writer who had done promo work for Melodyland and +now was media director for charismatic evangelist Morris Cerullo. +2645 + + After starting a youth ministry in San Diego, Cerullo had come in +contact with kids dabbling with the occult and decided to write a book +on the subject. Balsiger was assigned the job. It was during this time +he met Mike Warnke and enlisted his aid. The book was to be called +®Witchcraft Never Looked Better.¯[73] They also created a specially +outfitted trailer, purchased to house "research materials" such as +voodoo oil, graveyard dust, and fortune-telling spray. The vehicle, +dubbed the "Witchmobile," was to be unveiled at an upcoming Morris +Cerullo convention, The Seventh Deeper Life Conference.[74] + + Cerullo's vision, Warnke's story, and Balsiger's media talents +combined to make the January 1972 meeting a smash. A twelve-page +tabloid on Cerullo was inserted into the ®San Diego Evening Tribune.¯ +Warnke and the Witchmobile were introduced to the media at a press +conference, and at the Saturday night youth rally.[75] + + Christianity Today covered the event, noting that Cerullo "bore +down heavily on the theme that satanic forces are loose in the +nation."[76] Mike Warnke, who gave a seminar on the occult, was one of +the newsmen's favorites. + + After the January 1972 conference, Warnke and Balsiger parted with +Cerullo and decided to write a book together about Mike's Satanist +experience. We asked Dave Balsiger about evidence for the story told in +the book. Was he concerned about that? "Oh, yes." And what was the +evidence Mike offered for The Satan Seller's fifteen-hundred-member +cult; the all-powerful Illuminati, the intricate rituals complete with +various knives, candles, books, and robes? "Mike took me to some of the +sites." (The reader should recall that Mike's experiences had allegedly +occurred six years before the book was written.) "I saw where there had +been a fire started. And there were some indications of cultic writings +and graffiti."[77] + + During the first half of 1972, Warnke had been working hard (with +the help of Morris Cerullo's organization) to get out of the navy so he +could go full-time into the ministry. "I helped him write letters," +recalls Cerullo staffer Jean Jolly,[78] "and I got hold of +[Congressman] Del Clawson's office. We got him out of the navy." On +June 2, Warnke was granted an early discharge on conscientious-objector +basis.[79] + + "As soon as he got out, Mike sent a letter to Morris Cerullo's +headquarters and said we were forbidden to use his name or his +material," recalls George Eckeroth,[80] who headed Jolly's department. +"And Balsiger left Cerullo around the same time." + + Mike launched his ministry under the banner "Alpha Omega Outreach." +In mid-June, Warnke went to Explo '72 in Dallas, a sort of Campus +Crusade version of Woodstock attended by over eighty thousand.[81] +Guideposts was running a feature on Warnke's story,[82] and his book +was due in the fall.[83] + + "The Satan Seller" a Best-seller + + Logos International released The Satan Seller in early 1973.[84] +At that moment, Christian publishing was in the midst of an +unparalleled boom with the success of blockbusters like The Late Great +Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey and the Praise books by Merlin Carothers. +2646 + +While the party lasted, Logos was the life of the party, the industry +leader in both output and income.[85] + + Yet, as a former Logos editor has admitted, the boom-time books were +often "too quickly written."[86] That same year, Logos published +Michael, Michael, Why Do You Hate Me?,¯ the purported story of +born-again rabbi Michael Esses. A later expose revealed Esses' bogus +credentials and immorality.[87] + + Into this heady atmosphere The Satan Seller was born. The book was +positively reviewed in publications ranging from Moody Monthly to +The Christian Century, with nary a question as to its +credibility.[88] "The only thing I remember about that book is that it +sold better than we thought it would," says Logos founder Dan Malachuk. +Indeed, by April 1973, The Satan Seller was a religious +best-seller.[89] + + Other ex-Satanist testimonies followed Warnke's. John Todd's +warnings about the Illuminati and a conspiracy of witches were promoted +in a series of Jack Chick comic books. According to Ron Winckler, Todd +visited the Hotline once with a group of underlings to check out Mike +Warnke. "There was a backstage confrontation," says Ron Winckler."Todd +accused Warnke of stealing his material about the Illuminati." + + Another alleged ex-Satanist, Hershel Smith, purchased the +Witchmobile from Morris Cerullo and began his own tour. Smith's +testimony, seen in the 1974 book The Devil and Mr. Smith, coauthored +by Dave Hunt, was an apparent effort to one-up The Satan Seller.[90] + + Hershel Smith eventually dropped out of sight. Todd's story was +later discredited. When a book debunking Todd was written, Mike Warnke +wrote the forward. "We as Christians have to be careful of those who +take the name of the Lord in vain," said Warnke. [91] In Ron Winckler's +analysis, "Mike Warnke had the jump on John Todd. He understood the +Full Gospel mind-set better." + + Now a published author, Mike Warnke found increasing demand for his +story and told it in coffeehouses and churches beyond the West Coast.In +August of 1973, Warnke spoke at a Christian music festival in +Pennsylvania. The Jesus Movement had spawned its own music, and Warnke +gravitated toward this fraternity of musicians. Tim Archer of the group +The Archers, told the crowd at Jesus '73, "Mike Warnke is the Chaplain +of Gospel Rock."[92] + + In his travels, Warnke had met Charles Duncombe, an elderly +Pentecostal evangelist. "Brother D," who started in the ministry under +English preacher Smith Wigglesworth, was loved and respected by all who +knew him. In 1974 Mike, Sue, four-year-old Brendon, and newborn +Jesse[93] all moved to Oklahoma near Duncombe's small school, Trinity +Bible College. Mike would attend school while Sue tended children. + + Trinity Bible College was a nine-month preparation for ministry, +located in a big country house outside Tulsa, Oklahoma. The thirty +students were mostly new converts, many from a counterculture +background and eager to learn. "Within two weeks of our conversion my +wife and I were in Trinity," says John Witty,[94] who with his wife +Vicki Jo had been a nightclub comedian. + +2647 + + Fellow students Bob and Karen Siegal[95] ran a Jesus People ministry +in southern Illinois and had met Brother D at a Full Gospel +Businessmen's meeting. "We were the token hippies at FGBM," says Karen. +"They'd bring us in there and have us give our testimonies." Student +Bill Fisher, known as "Wild Bill," was a colorful local who later +became Mike Warnke's traveling partner and confidant. + + In some ways Mike Warnke was the star pupil, since he was already +doing what everybody else was just learning to do: ministering in +churches around the country. "Here was a guy who was going out on the +weekends and leading hundreds to Jesus," says John Witty. "He was a +hero to us all." + + On local gigs, Trinity students would tag along, sometimes even +joining Warnke on stage. "Mike liked to introduce me as a former hippie +or drug addict ÄÄwhich I'd been, but I wasn't proud of," Karen Siegal +says. "Then he started introducing me as a former prostitute, which I'd +never been. I had to ask him to stop." + + Another new convert at Trinity, one with a sensational testimony of +her own, was to see her real-life story blended with Mike Warnke's. +"Part of the program at Trinity was tell your testimony," she says. "I +got up and said, `My name's Carolyn Alberty and I'm third-generation +Mafia. My father ran gambling houses, and my mother ran brothels. We +had connections in political circles and the entertainment +business.'"[96] + + This story caught Warnke's interest, says Carolyn. "Mike told me he +knew me from some parties I had given in California." He convinced her +he'd been to some, though she didn't remember him. "Then he started +inquiring about my connections and ability to promote." + + Carolyn rattled off a list of things Warnke needed to do to further +his ministry. "Mike brought me to his home, introduced me to Sue, and +said, `I really think Carolyn can help us.' " Carolyn assembled his +first real promotional package and called churches to make connections +for speaking engagements. She says she told Mike, "Ease up on the +satanic stuff and concentrate on the funny stories you've started to +tell."[97] + + It didn't take long for the relationship to move beyond a +professional level. "Mike started telling me he and Sue had different +ideas about what they wanted out of life, and that he didn't love her +anymore," says Carolyn. "Mike began passing notes to me in class, with +stuff like `Hubba, hubba' written on them." + + As the year wore on, Karen Siegal realized something was up. +"Carolyn and Mike started getting really hot and heavy," says Karen. "I +confronted them and said, `This is not godly.' They basically told me +it was none of my business." Karen took her concerns to fellow +students, but they suggested she was being judgmental. + + Brother D was taken by Warnke's sincerity, says Karen. John Witty +adds that the rest of the class was too naive to realize what was +happening. "Back then, Mike and Carolyn seemed to be just what Jesus +freaks would call `brothers and sisters in the Lord.' I now realize the +relationship had warning signs all over it from the beginning." + +2648 + + Karen Siegal protested one last time. "I'd repeatedly told Mike he +needed to clean up his act with Carolyn," she says. "One time he came +over to our house when nobody else was home. I made the mistake of +confronting him again. All of a sudden, he said, `It's not Carolyn or +Susie I love. It's you.' He grabbed me. It freaked me out and I pushed +him away. I yelled, `Get out of here! I love my husband!' " + + Carolyn Alberty admits her relationship with Warnke took the +inevitable turn near the end of the school year. "We'd been assigned to +paraphrase the book of Isaiah. Mike rented a cabin outside Tulsa to do +his work, and he offered to help me with my homework there. I thought +that sounded reasonable, since I was living with the Siegals and had no +privacy." + + After they'd worked at the cabin for awhile, Carolyn says, the two +went for a drive, and Warnke stopped at a convenience store. "He asked +what kind of cigarettes I used to smoke, and I said, `Pall Mall Gold. +Why?' He just shut the door and kept on walking. I went, `Uh-oh.' " +Warnke returned to the car, says Carolyn, with "two bottles of Annie +Greensprings wine, two packs of cigarettes, and a package of peanut +butter cookies." That day they began an affair that would lead to +marriage two years later and divorce two years after that. "I guess +from day one I was wrong," says Carolyn. + + Meanwhile, recalls John Witty, "Mike's testimony was just starting +to break nationally. He was beginning to get calls from big churches." + + Among the churches calling Warnke during this time was the Golden +Heights Christian Center in Brockport, New York.[98] Pastor Don Riling +tried his best to disciple the young Christian musicians and speakers +who came to his church. "I loved Mike Warnke as a son," he says. But +soon problems cropped up. "We had a woman in the church who'd just +become a Christian. She began to hang out with Mike WarnkeÄÄhe seemed +to have an eye for people with weaknesses," Riling says. "Later, she +confessed to me she'd met him a number of times in hotels for sex when +he was in the area." + + The Syro-Chaldean Connection + + During the Trinity '74-'75 school year began one of the strangest, +and longest-running, chapters of the Mike Warnke story. Elijah Coady, +an independent bishop in an Eastern Orthodox splinter group called the +Syro-Chaldean Church, ordained Warnke a deacon.[99] + + Warnke had met Coady on the road, and expressed interest in the +bishop's brand of independent Eastern Orthodoxy. Several Trinity +students remember Bishop Coady's visit to Tulsa. A few were present +when Coady ordained Warnke at a local church. "The bishop wore a +strange hat, like a stack of pancakes," says Bill Fisher, who adds that +Charles Duncombe expressed some concerns about Coady. "Brother D told +us to be cool. He'd gotten a real check in the spirit about the guy." + + Another ordination was bestowed upon Warnke by Brother Duncombe on +his graduation from Trinity in the spring of 1975. After graduation, +Carolyn says Warnke made promises to her but would not be rushed. "He +told me he was going to divorce Sue, that I should wait and be patient, +that he needed to set up his escape." + +2649 + + Soon afterwards, Warnke did a show at The Happy Church in +Denver,[100] where he met Pastor Wally Hickey and his wife Marilyn. +Mike and Sue Warnke decided to move to Denver with their two children, +and Mike invited Bill Fisher and Carolyn to join him there. The +entourage arrived in Denver in August of 1975, where Mike and Sue +settled.[101] Mike had promised Fisher and Carolyn jobs with Happy +Church, but the jobs didn't materialize. Mike leased a 270-acre +mountain retreat called Joy Ranch in Evergreen, Colorado. "Mike would +go catch the plane in Denver, and I would keep the place together up +there," notes Bill Fisher.[102] + + The relationship between Warnke and Happy Church is unclear. Bill +Fisher says Mike was "a kind of evangelist for them," not on the +payroll but working under Marilyn's Life for Laymen organization. An +article in the ®Denver Post¯ in October '75 identifies Warnke as "an +evangelist with Life for Laymen, a Denver-based movement."[103] The +Hickeys refused to talk with us, but their spokesperson said Warnke and +his wife attended the church during the seventies, primarily for +counseling. + + According to Carolyn, Warnke now began to push for a divorce from +Sue. The Hickeys tried to reason with him. "Mike told them he and Sue +would try to work it out," says Carolyn. "But he told me he wanted out +of the marriage." Not long after, the relationship was broken between +Mike Warnke and The Happy Church. + + In November 1975, Mike was invited to do a show at the Adam's Apple +coffeehouse in Fort Wayne, Indiana.[104] Christian artists Nancy +Honeytree and Phil Keaggy were recording a concert that night. The tape +kept rolling during Warnke's part of the show. A proposed +Keaggy/Honeytree live album didn't materialize, but the Warnke tape +found a buyer in Myrrh Records, a subsidiary of Word, Inc.[105] + + Another Christian artist Mike had done concerts with on the road was +Randy Matthews. Randy, along with Wes Yoder, was co-owner of Dharma +Artists Agency, a fledgling Christian management company based in +Matthews' garage in Nashville. After talking with Matthews, Warnke and +Carolyn flew to Nashville, where he signed with the company.[106] +"While Wes was signing Mike, he asked me to work with Dharma," says +Carolyn. "Wes said he'd split my bookings down the middle, fifty-fifty. +Mike said, `I can't beat that. He may get half of me, but I get half of +it back.' So I became a working member of the team." + + During this time Brockport, NY, pastor Don Riling[107] continued to +befriend Warnke. He was growing more and more concerned over what was +going on in Mike and Sue's marriage. "On several occasions Mike had +told me and my wifeÄÄcrying and the whole bitÄÄ`Sue doesn't love me. +She's kicked me out,' " Riling says. "Mike kept saying how all he +wanted to be was a family man, to raise his two boys. I told him he'd +have to choose between the road and his family." According to pastor +Riling, Marilyn Hickey then visited the Rilings. "I asked Marilyn, +`Isn't there anything we can do to persuade Sue to go back to Mike?' +Marilyn about fell out of her chair. She said, `What are you talking +about? Sue loves Mike. She wants to save their marriage. Mike is the +one who wants to end it.' Then it was my turn to be surprised. All I'd +known about the marriage problems before this was that Mike said Sue +was cheating on him."[108] + +2650 + + Riling flew to Denver in the late summer of 1976 on a desperate +mission to try to save the marriage. On arriving, Riling said he found +Mike had left Sue and the two children and had moved into an apartment +with Carolyn. So Riling met with Sue. "She wanted to get back together +with Mike. Sue said at one time she had dated another man, but she was +plugged into Hickey's church and her attitude was `I just want to be +with my husband.' I think Mike saw it as his chance to dump Sue." +(Carolyn told us that Mike had urged both Sue and herself to go out +with others when he was away on the road. Finally, Carolyn says, Sue +did go out once with her to a dance hall.) + + After talking with Sue, Pastor Riling stayed with the Hickeys but +spent most of his time with Mike and Carolyn. Riling got his +information about Carolyn from Warnke: "Mike was out on the road, and +he had supposedly led this gal Carolyn to Jesus. Before then, she had +run these houses of ill repute. Mike told me he had to bring her home +to help rehab her, and she lived right there with Sue." + + During the visit, Riling didn't let up. "Every opportunity I could, +I pleaded with Mike to go back to SueÄÄfor the sake of his marriage, +for the sake of his ministry. Mike wouldn't hear anything about leaving +Carolyn." Riling was in a restaurant with Warnke when Mike told him Sue +was being served with divorce papers that very moment. (The summons is +dated August 20, 1976.)[109] His mission a failure, the pastor returned +to New York. + + Upon receiving the divorce petition, Sue Warnke called Ron Winckler +and George Wakeling, along with others, and asked for prayer, saying +Mike had run off with another woman. + + It was at this point that Dr. Walter Martin, a well-known +counter-cult apologist and founder of Christian Research Institute +(CRI), was asked to speak to Mike about his marriage difficulties. (Dr. +Martin died in 1989.) Gretchen Passantino was Martin's senior research +consultant at the time, in charge of CRI's research staff, [110] and +her duties included overseeing Walter Martin's travel arrangements. + + "Dr. Martin had a speaking engagement near Denver and asked me to +book a couple extra days so he could speak with Mike Warnke and his +wife, Sue," says Gretchen. "When he got back, he took me aside. He +said, `I had this real difficult meeting with Mike and Sue Warnke. I +hope what I did was enough.' Realizing that Mike was determined to +leave the marriage, Dr. Martin had prayed and counseled with both of +them, advising Mike he needed to leave the ministry." + + Mike & Carolyn in Music City + + ®Harmony¯ magazine was ®the¯ Christian music magazine in the +mid-seventies, and in September 1976, Mike Warnke was on the +cover.[111] During this era, Mike relocated to what was becoming the +center of the contemporary Christian music business. Jesus music began +to be shaped by the powerful influence of Nashville, country music +capital and home of the Gospel Music Association (GMA). The "music" +part was welcomed in Music City. As for Jesus, insiders there have a +saying: "Nashville has changed more Christians than Christians have +changed Nashville."[112] + + Mike and Carolyn pulled into town with a U-Haul trailer. "Mike and I +2651 + +moved into an apartment together," says Carolyn. "Once we'd moved in, +Mike went and bought cases of whiskey, different wines, and beer." At +the time, of course, Warnke was still married to Sue. Among their +Nashville Christian music friends, the only ones to protest Mike and +Carolyn's living arrangements was a couple they had met on the road, +Mike and Karen Johnson.[113] + + Though many of our readers may be unacquainted with Mike Johnson, he +was a Jesus music pioneer, starting his first Christian band in 1968. +According to many Jesus music historians, Johnson never received +recognition equal to the dues he paid and miles he and Karen logged on +the coffeehouse and church basement circuit. + + When Mike Warnke came to town with Carolyn, Karen Johnson wanted to +know what was going on. "We said, `Hey, what about Sue?' Mike told us, +`She's running around on me.' I called Sue, and she said that wasn't +true. She said Mike found this other woman and he wanted to marry her. +And the only way you could get a divorce in the Christian community was +to say somebody had been unfaithful." + + Out of their concern, the Johnsons orchestrated another meeting with +mutual acquaintance Don Riling. "We thought Mike Warnke was a mess and +wanted him to get help," says Karen. "Don Riling was the only pastor +that Warnke opened up to and submitted to in any form. He was like a +father figure to Mike." Mike Johnson told the Rilings that Warnke had +asked him to be best man in his wedding with Carolyn. "We pushed for a +meeting," says Karen Johnson. "Wes set it up. Don Riling flew to +Nashville." + + The meeting was held at the Dharma offices. Riling, Mike Johnson, +Wes Yoder, and Mike and Carolyn were there. "You'd have never guessed +that this was a meeting of Christians," says Riling. "Mike and Carolyn +were swearing the whole time, and they must have gone through a whole +pack of cigarettes." The meeting went on for hours in an effort to get +everything out on the table with Warnke. "He moped around, saying his +life was a mess," says Riling. "I tried to convince him to go back to +Sue and save his ministry." + + At one point in the meeting, Carolyn brought up Warnke's continuing +affair with the woman at Riling's church in Brockport. "Mike was still +very involved with her," says Carolyn. Pastor Riling was struck by the +bizarreness of the situation: "I'm sitting there listening to this +woman Warnke was committing adultery with talk about how Mike was +cheating on her." + + As the meeting bogged down, Riling took Wes Yoder aside and tried to +make him understand the gravity of the situation. "Wes wouldn't deal +with it," says Riling. "He knew Mike Warnke had a problem, but Wes was +young and inexperienced. Wes said to Mike, `Do whatever you want to. +Stay with this woman. Go back to your wife. It's okay. I'm behind you, +because we have to keep the ministry going.' Mike Johnson was horrified +by this," says Riling. + + Carolyn says she also gave Wes advice: "I thought Mike Johnson was +being sanctimonious and Don Riling was a joke. Wes came to me and said, +`What's going on?' I said, `Look, the guy's a joke. He's trying to get +his paws on Mike, but you've got him signed and if you don't keep him +it's your fault.' So it was really us against them." +2652 + + Wes Yoder says of those days, "I should have run Warnke out of town +when he first showed up with Carolyn. I was stupid. I didn't miss it. I +just didn't know what to do about it. I was sinful in allowing him to +use me as a cloak of decency for what he was doing. The Lord doesn't +bless in things like that."[114] Karen Johnson forgives Wes for his +part in the debacle, saying, "Here he was, this young guy trying to be +a part of Christian music, and he's involved with all these crazy +people." + + Carolyn says the meeting accomplished nothing. "Nobody I ever met +who was around or who was connected with Mike Warnke in any way ever +had any effect on him." The day after the meeting, Mike Johnson left +Dharma. His path then began to lead downward by degrees. It was also +after this meeting, says Carolyn, that Mike Warnke initiated her in +what he called an Indian ceremony. "We were at a motel, and he said, +`I'll show you how much I love you.' He took a pocket knife and cut his +wrist, and cut mine, and mixed our blood. He said, `Now we are one.' He +gave himself the name Many Horses ÄÄbecause I was part American Indian." + + Bill Fisher said, "Mike told me he got the name Many Horses from an +Indian medicine man." Bill Fisher told us, explaining the Indian +identity as one of Warnke's many "mojos": "Mike would personify himself +as various characters at times. Mike had his Indian mojo, or sometimes +he'd be a Scotsman, or Jewish, or a Catholic priest, or Jeremiah +Johnson, or black ÄÄhe wanted to think he had black blood because Andre +Crouch told him he had soul." + + The divorce of Mike Warnke from Sue was finalized on December 3, +1976.[115] Mike and Carolyn were married four months later.[116] +Instead of Mike Johnson, Wes Yoder was best man. + + Downhill into the Bigtime + + In his books and on his records, Mike Warnke goes from Satan to +Christ. In Nashville, the path led from rags to riches. Warnke had no +money or credit when he came to town, says Carolyn. The bang-up +combination of a hit record and the Dharma Agency soon changed +that.[117] And the money started rolling in. "Lots of money," says +Carolyn. "Not all of a sudden. But it wasn't uncommon for us to make +five thousand dollars on the road, spend two to three thousand a day, +buy whatever we wanted, go where we wanted, do whatever we wanted." + + The Dharma Agency prospered. During this period, they moved their +offices from Randy Matthews' garage to Music Row, and later to a +penthouse suite in the United Artists Towers. They hired additional +booking agents.[118] Dharma's star rose with the fortunes of something +that was now called contemporary Christian music. + + Writes Christian media observer William D. Romanowski, "The industry +scaffolding began to go up as concert halls replaced coffeehouses and +church fellowship halls, as record labels replaced custom recordings, +and as contemporary music radio formats replaced tapes of +preachers. . . . + + Christian entrepreneurs were building a Christian entertainment +industry that paralleled its secular counterpart not just in musical +styles and trends, but in marketing techniques, management, concert +production, publicity, and glamorization."[119] +2653 + + The whole atmosphere surrounding the music changed. "We took our +eyes off what had been very precious and innocent," says industry +veteran, Dan Hickling, "the joy of being a Christian and going around +and singing music for people that would bring them closer to God."[120] + + Buddy Huey, Word Records' artists and repertoire man, who had signed +Warnke, was part of the big change.[121] "What we were trying to do was +have better distribution to get the Word out. We ended up compromising +lots. When I was with Word, the intent of the company was nothing more +than trying to find those people who had a voice or a platform. And +then all we could go on was what they told us." Including Warnke's +satanic story? "It was just accepted," says Huey. "That's one of the +things you'll find in the industry. You see something that might be +salable, marketable ÄÄthat's what you look at. It saddens me that I was +a part of setting up things in the industry that I wish I had a chance +to undo." + + Romanowski writes, "Evangelism was the rhetoric, business became +reality." The manipulation of language, he says, transformed +"money-making into ministry, easing the consciences of those few who +earn healthy incomes off the music."[122] + + "You could see a kind of downhill slide," says Larry Black, a +one-time Christian deejay who is now an actor.[123] "To see the +marriages dissolve, to see them slowly begin to justify various vices." +Was this behavior common knowledge in the industry? "Yeah. I think +there was general knowledge. But you're caught in that old trap of not +wanting to criticize a brother." + + We asked Buddy Huey if there was any company policy regarding +Christian artists who were exhibiting non-Christian behavior. "No, +there really wasn't," says Buddy Huey. "I didn't personally do cocaine, +for instance, but I was present when others did cocaine. Looking back +at that, I think my silence was worse than them doing the drugs." + + Scott Ross, who now works for CBN Television and back then was the +country's foremost Christian disk jockey, recalls how kinky things had +gotten. "There was a lot of immorality, drugs, and booze." + + Says Karen Johnson, "Mike [Johnson] tried to stay so straight, for +eight years. Then everything fell apart after we'd been in Nashville +for awhile. Mike looked around and realized that Warnke and his friends +were making lots of money and fooling around on their wives. My husband +thought, `What difference does it make?' He started drinking, smoking +grass. He started hanging around with these Christian music people that +didn't care if you were moral or not." + + Says Mike Johnson, "I was one big mess." Adds Karen, "When my Mike +came home from being on the road with Warnke, he'd confessÄÄall in the +name of repentance ÄÄto all this drinking and going to discos. + + In the fall of 1978, the future seemed bright for Mike Warnke. His +albums were "the most popular Christian comedy records ever produced +anywhere, with sales reaching to nearly 200,000."[124] Doubleday +Publishing was assembling a book of material from the first three +albums. With dates around the world, 1979 was slated to be his biggest +tour ever. Mike asked Bill Fisher to travel with him. + +2654 + + At home, Carolyn says she and Mike had been fighting, and that +several times he had hit her. Because of this, Carolyn's mother, Peggy +Alberty, had moved to Nashville to be near her daughter. + + Enter Rose, Exit Nashville + + Warnke was on the road almost constantly. "We figured it out one +time," says Bill Fisher. "We traveled over 280,000 air miles in about +ten months that year, with three days off a month." About halfway +through the whirlwind ten-month tour, Warnke performed in Hazard, +Kentucky.[125] It was there, says Rose Hall, that she first met Mike +Warnke.[126] + + Carolyn confirms this story. "While Mike and I were still married, +he went to Kentucky to do a show, and that's where he met Rose." +Carolyn says Mike came home very excited about something. "Then he went +down to a jewelry store where we'd established credit and began buying +jewelry for someone else, who I later found out was Rose." + + The story of Mike Warnke's romance with Rose Hall is told in her +book, The Great Pretender. Rose never mentions Carolyn or the fact +that Mike was married to Carolyn during his courtship with Rose. She +says she met Warnke in various cities and stayed in the hotel with +himÄÄin separate rooms. "Looking back, it had never occurred to me to +say, `You're a minister, an evangelist; are you married?' It never +entered my mind."[127] + + During the time she was traveling around with Warnke, Rose says she +went with him to Nashville. There, she writes, both his road manager +and his agent objected to the relationship.[128] Wes Yoder says, "Rose +came along before Mike and Carolyn were divorced. The whole thing with +Carolyn, I couldn't deal with personally. With Rose I did. But I was +still there. I was so wrong." + + Mike Warnke's relationship with the Johnsons went from bad to worse. +As Karen Johnson tells it, "Mike called on the phone and said he wanted +to come over, because he knew I was angry at him over what had happened +to my Mike. I told him no, that I felt he was leading people astray, +and I didn't want him associating with my husband because he was +helping destroy our marriage. But later Warnke came over anyway and +said, `Karen, I don't want you to dislike me. I want us to be friends.' +I said, `Then change what you're doing. You're deceiving people. You're +committing adultery.' He said, `I can't change.' " + + After Karen told Warnke to get out, "He came at me like he was going +to kill me." Mike Johnson says of this episode, "I was in pretty good +shape back then, and I was ready to go at it there in the living room." +Warnke left, says Karen, "screaming obscenities at me." + + The end for Mike Warnke and wife Carolyn was, as she tells it, the +stuff of melodrama. "We were fighting and he threw me into a wall and +split my head open. He said, `If you go to a local hospital and tell +them what your name is, I'll kill you. I don't have to do it +physically. I can do it from another room or another state.' " + + "There was a revolver in the nightstand," Carolyn says. "I took it +out and said, `If you hit me again Mike, I'm gonna kill you, because +I'm tired of your beatings. I just can't take any more.' " Carolyn says +2655 + +she jumped into her car, started driving, and didn't stop until she +reached Pensacola, Florida. + + Tom Carrouthers found Carolyn in a convenience store in Pensacola +that summer night in 1979, dazed and bleeding. "Carolyn said she and +her old man had gotten into it," says Carrouthers.[129] "She had a big +gouge on the top of her head, and a wad of dried blood. I took her to +the hospital. When we got there, she was like a kid and didn't want me +to leave. She stayed with my sister and me for a week or so." + + Carolyn gave us a note she received from Mike. "Dear Carolyn," it +reads, "I don't know how we ever got to this place. All I know for sure +is that we are here. . . . I can't blame you for not wanting to be +around me right now. Nor can I condemn your disgust at my rages and +tantrums. I'm trying hard to get control. . . . I'll always be there +when you need me. The scar on my wrist will never fade. . . . Peace +to you. Many Horses." + + Carrouthers remembers Carolyn talking with Warnke on the phone +during the two weeks she was there; things seemed to be improving. But +when Carolyn finally returned to Nashville from Florida, she was in for +a surprise. "I came home and there was a `For Sale' sign on the house. +All the locks had been changed, and everything in the house was gone. +In just a matter of days, I had no funds, no furniture, nothing," she +says. + + Carolyn didn't go back to Dharma. She felt most of the people she +knew in the industry had been siding with Mike, who was telling +everyone the stories about her unfaithfulness. In a bizarre twist, +Carolyn got a job working as an undercover narcotics operative with the +Regional Organized Crime Information Center, a law enforcement +organization in Nashville. + + Mike and Carolyn's divorce was final on November 29, 1979.[130] Mike +Johnson says Warnke told him that Carolyn was rubbed out by the mob, +"bludgeoned to death in a ditch." A friend from the Trinity days, +Clarence Benes, heard from Warnke that Carolyn had been killed in a +boating accident.[131] Don Riling says he was told by Warnke that +Carolyn had drowned. + + From Carolyn's viewpoint, "Mike is one of the greatest con artists +I've ever known in my life. And coming from my background, that says +quite a bit." + + Mike and Karen Johnson divorced two years later, and he is no longer +in Christian music. "Mike Johnson has really reaped what he has sown," +says ex-wife Karen. "He has no family, no friends, no career, no money, +no life. It makes me angry that Mike Warnke, on the other hand, seems +to be making money, going on with life, and continuing to deceive +people." + + Among the friends that took a different path than Warnke at the end +of 1979 was Bill Fisher. "Mike and I parted when he moved to Kentucky +to be with Rose," says Bill. "He was divorced, but that's not grounds +for moving in with someone. Mike said, `We married each other before +the Lord.' I said, `Do it before the state, too.' " + + Holy Orthodox Catholic Church in Kentucky +2656 + + Mike Warnke married Rose Hall in Paintsville, Kentucky, on January +2, 1980.[132] It was his third marriage, her fourth. With the marriage +came several changes: Rose was often onstage and on record with +Mike;[133] Warnke left Dharma Agency and began to book his own +concerts; the public focus shifted from onstage concerts to the +ministry back home.[134] As Mike has said: "When you get right down to +it, I'm just a glorified cheerleader. The real work of our ministry +goes on back there."[135] + + The name of the "ministry back there" was Warnke Ministries; its +nonprofit status was listed under "The Holy Orthodox Catholic Church in +Kentucky" (HOCCK). This built on Warnke's previous 1974 ordination in +Tulsa by Bishop Elijah Coady while Warnke was attending Trinity Bible +School. With HOCCK, Mike Warnke joined the ranks of "independent" +Eastern Orthodox churchmen who founded their own autonomous +denominations. During the early eighties, Warnke met James Miller, a +local bishop in the American Orthodox Church. Miller told us he +ordained Warnke a deacon and then a priest in early 1983. He suspended +the ordination later when Warnke failed to submit regular reports. + + And then Mike Warnke became a bishop. This final ecclesiastical step +occurred when another independent bishop, Richard Morrill, consecrated +Warnke ÄÄan event we have verified by speaking to three other bishops +who say they were told by the late Morrill that he had indeed made Mike +Warnke a bishop.[136] + + Bishop Richard Morrill had officiated over Mike and Carolyn's +marriage in Nashville.[137] According to Elijah Coady, Morrill was an +itinerant cleric given to flamboyance and the founding of +organizations, many of which seemed to exist only on paper. In 1981, +Morrill incorporated in Texas under the name "The Holy Orthodox +Catholic Church, Eastern and Apostolic."[138] One year later, Mike and +Rose incorporated as "The Holy Orthodox Catholic Church in Kentuck- +y."[139] + + HOCCK's offices were located at first in a converted garage behind +the Warnkes' Versailles home.[140] As time went on, they staffed it +with a series of Christian women whose opinions of the Warnke ministry +were much higher when they joined than when they left. In the summer of +1983, Dorothy Green heard Rose on a Lexington Christian radio station +and invited her to speak to the Danville, Kentucky, Women's Aglow.[141] +Soon afterwards, "Dot" was hired to answer letters and do phone +counseling. Dot's friend, Jan Ross, joined later as Rose's personal +secretary. Roxanne Miller and Phyllis Swearinger eventually worked in +the bookkeeping department. + + All four women were nonplussed by Mike's preference for High Church +"chapel" services. Dot remembers an early chapel service with Mike: "He +had incense, and he'd come down the aisle with his robes, swinging it +in this thing." + + Roxanne Miller's opinion had less to do with the High Church +trappings than with an event where Mike's ritual got in the way of a +few friends' prayer time. "We used to go down to the park for lunch," +Roxanne recalls.[142] "Dot, Jan, myself, a few others . . . and we'd +just talk about what God had done in our lives. What He still was +doing. Mike was usually out of town, but one day he just showed up and +said, `I'm gonna do the teaching this week.' So we sang, and then Mike +2657 + +put on his robes. I thought he was plain ridiculous. It was like +dressing up to be something you're not. It made me feel sad. He wants +to be so much, and he isn't. I can still see him standing there in his +robe, all velvet and dark." + + The Ministry and the Money + + Another point which perplexed the women was HOCCK's finances. +Roxanne Miller had been hired to get control of the finances and says +that while she was there (1985-1986) HOCCK covered various expenses for +Mike and Rose. "We paid for the car, we paid for the gas, we paid for +the parsonage, we paid for their clothes and their food," she says. Yet +she says her job was a continual battle of the budget. Mike seemed to +have no concept that money made by a nonprofit ministry is different +than personal income. Once, she says, Mike Warnke responded to her +efforts to curb his spending this way: "He told me, `Every bit of the +money is mine. I earned it. If I wasn't out front, there would be no +money.' " + + Jan Ross told us, "On several occasions Rose said to me that anybody +who was in the position she and Mike were in deserved to have the best +of everything because of who they were and what they had given up to be +where they were. I thought, `What did you give up?' "[143] + + Phyllis Swearinger said there were problems making ends meet.[144] +"I'd worked at banks before, so I was used to handling large amounts of +money. But the amount that came in here every week sort of threw me. +And then to find out it just wouldn't go far enough! Once Mike called +me, upset because he needed some trees pruned at his home, and I +wouldn't write a check for it because we didn't have enough money in +the account at the moment. What struck me about this conversation is +Mike told me he felt he deserved to make as large a salary as Jimmy +Swaggart was making." + + The Warnkes' home was certainly in line with his high aspirations. +Back in July of 1983 Rose's mother, Blanche Hall, had purchased a huge +mansion (at one time a plantation) near Danville. "Lynnwood Farm" was +leased to HOCCK for several years and later sold to Rose, who with Mike +referred to it as "the parsonage."[145] + + Tax returns indicate HOCCK's total revenue for 1984 was over +$900,000. In 1985 HOCCK grossed over $1,000,000, with over $500,000 in +love offerings alone. In 1986, the total went over two million: love +offerings brought in over $1,000,000; product sales (i.e., books and +records) grossed over $180,000; and direct public support totaled over +$450,000. The 1987 total was $2,239,927. Revenue figures for 1988 +through 1990 continued at slightly over $2,000,000.[146] + + HOCCK tax returns show that the Warnke's personal salaries[147] +steadily rose (see Table 1). + + ============================================== + Table 1: Warnke's annual income + ---------------------------------------------- + MIKE ROSE + 1984: $ 34,500 $ 11,500 + 1985: $ 95,617 $ 83,417 + 1986: $163,632 $155,418 +2658 + + 1987: $177,450 $177,450 + 1988: $183,917 $183,917 + 1989: $204,383 $204,383 + 1990: $239,291 $230,291 + ============================================== + + + The growth of Warnke Ministries in the mid-eighties paralleled a +sudden explosion of public fears about Satanism. In March of 1985, Mike +Warnke appeared on an ABC "20/20" report called "The Devil +Worshippers," part of a deluge of talk shows and books on contemporary +Satanism. Stories of hideous satanic crimes were often woven together +by self-proclaimed "experts" to demonstrate the existence of a +worldwide satanic conspiracy similar to the Illuminati network outlined +in The Satan Seller. + + Each year, goes the theory, thousands of children are being +sacrificed in satanic rituals laced with sex and violence. Alleged +adult survivors of satanic ritual abuse testify to the hidden cult's +existence. The Satan Seller seems tame in comparison. Yet when +evidence for the conspiracy is requested, true believers (including a +few therapists and police officers) often refer skeptics to Warnke and +his book as a final authority.[148] + + In the early eighties, when Mike and Rose began to speak about their +Kentucky ministry to audiences on the road, they offered descriptions +typically centered around their work helping victims of the occult +ÄÄlike "Jeffy." + + "Supposedly, Jeffy was this little boy who had become a vegetable +because of all the satanic abuse he'd had," says Jan Ross. "The story +was used to raise money to `help all the Jeffys of the world, so there +wouldn't be so many Jeffys.' Mike would say, `What if your child was +sent to preschool and this happened? How'd you like this to happen to +your child?' " + + The home office would always know when Mike was telling the Jeffy +story, says Dot Green. "People would write on the offering envelopes, +`This is for all the children like Jeffy.' It was amazing how many +envelopes would come back with Jeffy's name on it. Mike always had to +count the money after a concert and call Rose to give her an idea of +what was there," Dot continues. "She'd ask if he'd told the Jeffy +story. If he hadn't, she'd say, `You tell the Jeffy story tomorrow +night.' " Several staffers say the Warnkes' interest in the at-home +ministry never made it home from the road. Says Dot, "I'd try to tell +them about somebody who wrote needing help, and they didn't want to +hear." + + Adds Jan Ross, "We didn't get that many calls, maybe four or five +actual calls a day. Some people just wanted attention, but every once +in a while there'd be people with real problems. Mike and Rose just +didn't want to deal with them. They'd go on the road and say, `We're +here to help you,' but when you called they didn't want to deal with +you." + + For a while, Dot Green tried to ignore everything at Warnke +Ministries that wasn't connected to her counseling duties. "I loved my +job so much," she says. "I fooled myself into thinking it was my +2659 + +ministry, since Mike and Rose didn't seem to have any interest in it. +But I started realizing the people I was writing to were sending in +offerings. I always put a pink offering envelope in with each letter. I +began marking my envelopes so I could tell which came back with my +mark. The month I left, my letters brought in over $21,000. At that +point, the Lord let me know I was just as guilty as they were as long +as I stayed." + + Jan Ross was in the midst of her own struggle. The staff attended a +series of Warnke shows in Cincinnati. "We did this concert; it was just +a super evening. Then we walked out and went to a bar. The Warnkes were +buying rounds of drinks, dancing. I kept thinking the whole time, I +wonder if anybody's going to come in and recognize them." + + Roxanne remembers that trip. "We went to Cincinnati once. It just +grossed me out. They went out and drank and carried on afterwards, Mike +and the road guys. I said, `I just can't handle this.' " + + Dot Green and Jan Ross left Warnke Ministries at the end of 1985. +Roxanne Miller was fired in February 1986 (for refusing to give Rose +several signed, blank checks, she says), and Phyllis quit soon after. +"It's not been something we have forgotten easily," says Jan Ross. +"It's scary to think you can get involved with something like that with +a pure heart, to serve God, and then find out it's run on deception, +lies, and thievery." + + Warnke Ministries continued to expand. In October of 1986, the +Warnkes purchased property in Burgin, Kentucky, which they then sold to +HOCCK.[149] A newsletter announced that a long-promised "Center" was +about to become a reality. Plans included rehab and medical facilities. +"Phase I" was the construction of an administration building.[150] + + The fund-raising campaign began. "This Center is fast becoming a +reality and will be a reality if ®you¯ make it one," said Mike in a +ministry newsletter. "Your gifts, offerings, and prayers enable Warnke +Ministries to continue its missions."[151] + + By April of 1987, Warnke Ministries was able to move to Burgin and +into their beautiful new colonial-style brick office complex.[152] + + Dr. John Cooper worked for a short time in this building. In the +late eighties, Warnke Ministries opened a seminar department to teach +police and others the gruesome facts about Satanism and occult crime. +Dr. Cooper, a former college professor and author of twenty-nine books, +was hired in 1989 as director. + + Cooper has this to say about the Warnkes' "Center": "They were +raising money for a children's center for refugees from Satanism. Phone +calls would come to my office, people wanting to send kids there. I'd +explain to them that there wasn't any such thing there, only a building +with offices. The only parts of that building not dedicated to getting +Mike speaking engagements or handling receipts were a large room set up +like a Greek Orthodox Church and a library."[153] + + Cooper disputes the Warnkes' claim of 50,000 counseling calls and +letters a month.[154] "There isn't any way in the world for that to be +so," he says. "My guess would be, on a daily basis, they might get 6 +calls." (Such a figure, if accurate, would translate to 120 calls per +2660 + +month.) "The only ministry I know of that went on there was one fellow +who worked part-time answering the phone. And he'd usually just give +out other ministry numbers and tell people to call them." + + John Cooper spent several months preparing a seminar presentation, +which he premiered in May. Shortly afterwards, he was fired. He later +tried suing the Warnkes, but the case died in court. + + A more important court case for Warnke Ministries was the 1991 +divorce of Mike and Rose. According to the Warnkes' new book, +®Recovering from Divorce,¯ the serious problems in the marriage date as +far back as November 1984. In the book, Rose notes an "It's over, isn't +it?" talk with Mike that took place in his office in December of +1984.[155] + + Some comparison with Rose's previous book is enlightening. Written +in mid- to late 1985, The Great Pretender reveals how Rose caught +Warnke in an "affair" in 1984. "We had a situation this last year when +we felt there was nothing left between us. We weren't communicating, +and Satan provided a woman to fill the gap in Michael's life."[156] + + The conversation in the first book goes like this: + + He began to tell me there's nothing to this and that I'm + misunderstanding it all. + + "Okay, okay," I growled, "I don't want to hear it. If you're + not going to tell the truth, don't say anything. . . . You're + throwing your ministry away, your life, the whole works. I'll + guarantee you, people will not accept this. You're not going + to go through another divorce and people accept it."[157] + + Rose says she threatened on Christmas Eve to call the woman, and +Mike responded by moving out. Later, after Warnke had promised to end +the relationship, Rose found out he was still calling the woman. Says +Rose, "He hid all the guns. Michael's a big gun collector, and I know +how to shoot. . . . I said, `I'll continue running the ministry, I'll +get myself established ministry-wise, then I don't care what you do. +You're not going to wreck my life. I'll establish myself. You do what +you want."[158] + + These incidents go unmentioned in the new book. Instead, Recovering +from Divorce presents a rather psychologized story of a marital +mismatch, doomed from the start. While the Warnkes are evasive on the +exact reasons, they make it clear their marriage was a painful +experience for both of them. Court records say the couple last lived +together in October of 1989.[159] + + Despite her earlier warnings in The Great Pretender about how +people would not accept another divorce, Rose Warnke filed for divorce +on September 4, 1991. A property settlement agreement drawn up by +Rose's attorney and signed by both Mike and Rose was filed the same +day.[160] + + Blanche Hall had deeded Lynnwood Farm to Rose in April of 1991. In +the divorce property settlement, Rose was also awarded 327 additional +acres surrounding the farm, which the couple purchased in April 1991 +for $525,000 (despite the fact that they hadn't lived together there +2661 + +since October, 1989.)[161] Mike Warnke also agreed to pay half the +mortgage for the new acreage.[162] + + Additionally, Rose got a condominium the Warnkes owned in Stewart, +Florida (purchased in May, 1986, for $398,000), and another condominium +the couple owned near Danville (purchased in July, 1989, for +$231,500).[163] Further, Rose got everything in all the houses +mentioned above, plus the Yamaha piano, the 1985 Cadillac, and the +couple's four horses. + + Mike also agreed to pay Rose $8,000 per month ($96,000 per year) for +the rest of her life via a wage assignment out of Mike's salary from +HOCCK. Mike agreed to assume responsibility for paying various liens, +pay for the education of Rose's daughters until the year 2001, divide a +$15,000 IRA with Rose, and also split the debt to their accountant. + + Rose also got 65 percent of Warnke's ownership of his copyrights for +and royalties from absolutely everything he will make from his books +and recordings. Mike agreed to keep various existing life insurance +policies and take out an additional $2 million life insurance policy on +himself, with Rose as the beneficiary, for the next fifteen years. + + Finally, Mike agreed to pay Rose $20,000 to equalize the division of +property. + + In the same property settlement, Mike Warnke was awarded whatever +property was located at the condo where he was staying, his motorcycle, +and visiting rights to the horses. + + October 2, 1991, the Warnkes' divorce was granted.[164] The local +paper quoted a ministry spokesman who said nothing would change. Rose, +who was identified as the music director and an administrator, would +continue to do separate shows and possibly make joint appearances with +Mike.[165] + + When it came time for Mike Warnke to announce his third divorce +officially to the friends of Warnke Ministries, he used a rationale +which he was sure his fellow believers would respect: He did it, he +said, for the ministry. + + "As many of you know," wrote Warnke, "Rose and I, after seeking the +Lord's guidance, and two years of intensive Christian counseling, +accepted the fact that our marriage was beyond reconciliation, and the +only hope of saving the Ministry we have poured our lives into, was +divorce."[166] + + Six weeks after his divorce was finalized, on November 18, 1991, +Mike Warnke married Susan Patton, an old Rim High classmate, and moved +to California.[167] + + As of this writing, Mike and Rose are scheduled to appear together +at the Christian Booksellers Association convention in late June, where +they will be promoting their new book, Recovering from Divorce. +According to CBA press material, the Warnkes will be available for +interviews to discuss their "unique perspective on the troublesome +issue of divorce." + + Their unique perspective: forgive and forget. In the book, Mike and +2662 + +his ex-wife share the pain of their relationship and parting; then the +experiences are interpreted by their editor, Lloyd Hildebrand, and +therapist, John Joy. There is much talk of how sad divorce is, and much +assigning of blame to dysfunctional backgrounds and a codependent +relationship. Although they could not be married, Mike and Rose +conclude, they can now be friends. + + "Perhaps no one is ready for this book," writes Mike. "Could being +`up front' about our failure cost it all? That's the chance I must +take. Rose feels the same way. We both have come to the place where we +know that the only real choice we have is to go on ®as +ourselves.¯"[168] + + For those who would raise objections to what is, indeed, in the +Christian Church a "unique" perspective, Mike Warnke fires a preemptive +blast. "So I messed up. Does that change who Jesus is?"[169] Likewise, +he decries "the Gospel Gestapo" who feel bound to discover and +publicize the failures of those in ministry, "even if the evidence +proves to be true."[170] + + After our research was complete, we contacted Mike in early May to +set up an interview with him, to which we had invited some other +Christian leaders (Ron Enroth, Don Riling, and others). Mike declined +our interview and said he would only meet with us at his attorney's +office in Kentucky. We considered this a matter for the Body of Christ, +with no lawyers being necessary, and asked about the possibility of +meeting somewhere convenient for everyone. Mike's response: that we +have no further contact with him except through his attorney. This +ended our communication. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2663 + + This concludes a long and painful survey of the life and ministry of +Mike Warnke. We did not prepare it lightly, but solemnly and with +counsel from many dedicated ministers. + + A Biblical Plan of Action + + We would be remiss in our duty as Christian journalists if we could +not offer some concrete suggestions and reflections. + + Some of our readers will expect us to have followed the steps of +Matthew 18:15-17, starting with a private confrontation. This passage +gives Christ's instructions on what to do "if your brother sins against +you," and the process stops if the brother repents privately. We have +two remarks on this passage. + + First, Mike has already been confronted numerous times over the +years by many concerned Christian friends, acquaintances, and church +leaders. Mike knows what the Bible says about truthfulness, integrity, +and fidelity. He is responsible to put into practice what he already +knows. + + Second, this is not a private dispute between Mike Warnke and a +magazine. A public figure is susceptible to public scrutiny and +criticism. Matthew 18 is not violated when public figures are publicly +rebuked. (However, other scriptures are violated if the rebukes being +made are not fair, true, or applicable to the person.) + + Mike has sinned against the public for years, and the public is +entitled to know the truth about his claims and actions. The +misinformation about Mike's testimony is still in circulation, +influencing how Christians view contemporary Satanism. For the sake of +the Church and the watching world, it must be corrected. (A more +complete discussion of the biblical grounds for Christian reporting +appears in the article, "Public Trust," on page 5.) + + The statements made in this report are factual and verifiable. +Anybody can read Mike's book, study its time line, and see that there +is no way for him to have done the things he claimed in ®The Satan +Seller.¯ Mike's former fiancee, his roommates, relatives, and cohorts +in school emphatically contradict his claims on everything from hair +length to drug use and from out-of-town trips to "love slaves" in his +apartment. Mike's own friends refused to sign an affidavit that his +Satanism testimony was true. + + If Mike has any real evidence to disprove what we've offered here, +we're willing to print it. However, the evidence we have uncovered +leads us to the conclusion that Mike doesn't have any. One thing is +certain: the Church should not let the master storyteller get by with +telling just another story: "There really ®was¯ a satanic coven; they +just didn't talk to the right people. . . ." + + At this stage, excuses aren't sufficient. Mike needs to provide +either evidence or repentance. It is not enough to make religious +excuses for sin or sophisticated attempts to change the subject: "Those +girls came on to me, and I was at a vulnerable point in my life. . . ." +"The person who said `the Christian Church is the only army to shoot +its own wounded' was totally right. . . ." "It's not up to you to judge +my actions. Last time I read my Bible, Jesus was sitting on the throne, +2664 + +and He's not about to get off and let you take His place. . . ." + + This is sidestepping. It's a move to change the subject and get away +from calling one's actions sin and asking for forgiveness. The issues +are whether Mike has told the truth, whether he is fit for public +ministry, and whether he meets the standards for biblical leadership. +Like it or not, by addressing thousands of people he is assuming a +pastoral role, regardless of what he calls himself. + + If Mike were to seek forgiveness and restoration, what could the +Church expect to see as evidence of the genuineness of his repentance? +The following principles should apply to any Christian leader who has +manifestly fallen. + + Repentance. Repentance is fundamental to Christianity. It denotes a +complete turnaround, heading in the opposite direction than previously. +Like "to love," to repent is a verb denoting action. Nobody wants to +see another Jimmy Swaggart crying crocodile tears on camera but +returning to save "the ministry" three months later . . . and returning +to the same sin after that. In Mike Warnke's case, true repentance +would necessitate complete withdrawal from public ministry. + + Confession. If Mike is repentant, he should make an open admission of +guilt. On the other hand, Mike Warnke has built a career of telling us +about past and present sins. The Church must not allow him to emerge as +a new authority on fraudulent testimonies. + + Restitution. True moral change involves some attempt to undo past +wrongs and to provide some kind of restitution. Perhaps the best kind +of restitution Mike Warnke could perform would be to take ®Satan +Seller¯ and all his other products off the market. + + What about the rest of us? Accountability is a public as well as a +personal matter. Christian publishers have an obligation to validate +the books they print, whether nonfiction or historical fiction books. +At the same time, it is ®our¯ responsibility as the book-buying public +to ask for evidence before accepting a story. + + After Warnke's testimony began circulating, those few who knew the +truth kept silent: they felt powerless against the immensity of the +story. Where could they turn? Well, the publisher would be a place to +start. We need the active participation of all members of the Body of +Christ in provoking each other to righteousness and, where necessary, +in providing biblical confrontation and counsel. + + Sometimes a twisted man can preach a straight gospel. Through the +years, we've known many people who could speak truth while ignoring it +in their personal lives. Scripture testifies that God may bless or +anoint a sermon even while condemning the deeds of the preacher (Num. +23-24, 2 Pet. 2:15, Matt. 23:3). + + Yes, the love of God is truly as infinite and wondrous as Mike +Warnke has been telling us for twenty years. God loves Mike Warnke as +he really is ÄÄex-Satanist, war hero, Ph.D.ÄÄor not. His choice now is +no different than it has ever been: losing the whole world or losing +his soul. For no one can know the love of God whose heart is closed to +the truth. + +2665 + + Perhaps he has never stopped feeling like an outsider, and even when +Christianity opened its arms to him, he would not give up his +storytelling. His adolescent flirtation with the occult was exaggerated +into a postadolescent fantasy of having incredible amounts of money, +sex, prestige, and power as a Satanist. He later achieved money, sex, +prestige, and power. Sadly, it was in the name of Christ. + + It's not too late for Mike to change, if he wants to. The secular +press may scoff, and those who consider themselves real Satanists may +snicker, but the Jesus of the Bible is still the God of truth. The +Lord, who makes ruined lives whole and restores purity to harlots and +liars, offers each of us forgiveness and acceptance. Not on our terms, +but His. + + To Mike, and all others, who have been tempted to sacrifice the +truth for the sake of "the ministry," we can offer no better words than +these of the apostle Paul: + + Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received + mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the hidden + things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the + word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth + commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight + of God. (2 Cor. 4:1-2) + +ENDNOTES + + 1. Coauthor David Balsiger, in his biographical sketch, says The +Satan Seller has sold only 500,000 copies. + + 2. So-called satanic panic has led to tragedy in many cases. For +further information, see Jon Trott, "Satanic Panic," Cornerstone 20, +iss. 95 (1991): 9. + + 3. Mike Warnke marriage licenses. Interview, Fr. Bob Nagler, St. +Francis Cabrini Church, Crestline, CA. + + 4. Interview, Mildred Warnke Jordan; Al Warnke obituary, Manchester +Times, 17 Oct. 1958. + + 5. Mildred Warnke Jordan; Larry Nee, Manchester Times, 16 Oct. 1991, +spoke with local undertaker, who referred to his notes on Louise +Cooper. + + 6. Interview and letter, Shirley Schrader. + + 7. "Final Rites for A. J. Warnke," Manchester Times, 17 Oct. 1958. + + 8. Mike Warnke Alive!, Mike Warnke, Myrrh Records, 1976. + + 9. Interview, Edna Swindell. + +10. Interviews, Keith Schrader, Jr. + +11. Interview, Tim Smith. + +12. Interviews, Jeff Nesmith. + +2667 + +13. Interview, David Goodwin. + +14. Interview, Terry Smith Perry. + +15. Confirmation certificate (see above). + +16. Charles Donovan, San Bernardino Valley College ref. librarian. + +17. Warnke, Michael Alfred, USN, #B98 05 49. + +18. Mike Warnke, Schemes of Satan (Tulsa, OK: Victory House, 1991), +87. + +19. Interviews, Greg Gilbert. + +20. Interviews, Dennis Pekus. + +21. Interviews, Dawn Andrews. + +22. Interview, Dyana Cridelich. + +23. Mike Warnke, with Dave Balsiger and Les Jones, The Satan Seller, +(Plainfield, N.J.: Logos International, 1972), 18. + +24. Interviews, Lois Eckenrod. + +25. Satan Seller, 19. + +26. Satan Seller, 14. + +27. Interview, John Ingro. + +28. Interviews, George Eubank. + +29. Satan Seller, 19. + +30. Interview, Phyllis Catalano. + +31. Interview, Mary Catalano. + +32. Interview, Tom Bolger. + +33. Satan Seller, 19. + +34. Satan Seller, 19, 20. + +35. Satan Seller, 30. + +36. Satan Seller, 33. + +37. Satan Seller, 100, 101. + +38. In 1981, Logos went bankrupt and sold its titles to Bridge +Publishing, which has since been purchased again. The new owners were +unable to locate any affidavits, signed or otherwise, for The Satan +Seller. + +39. Interviews, Bill Lott. +2668 + +40. Satan Seller, 64, 65. + +41. Satan Seller, 29. + +42. Satan Seller, 28. + +43. Schemes of Satan, 73. + +44. Satan Seller, 90, 91. + +45. Mike Warnke, Hitchhiking on Hope Street (Garden City, NY: +Doubleday & Company, 1979), 63, 64. + +46. "Focus on the Family" broadcast, 16 March 1985. + +47. Satan Seller, 112-114, 116, 121. + +48. Naval records show Warnke was transferred out of Recruit Training +Command on 22 August 1966. This is also the date he gives on his video +Do You Hear Me? as the day he became a Christian. + +49. Satan Seller, 135. + +50. Satan Seller, 137. + +51. Interview, Charlotte Tweeten. + +52. Navy Records. + +53. Satan Seller, 136. + +54. Mike Warnke, Hey, Doc!, 1978, Myrrh Records; Also, Hitchhiking +on Hope Street, 34. + +55. Completed Hosp. Corps School 12/22/66; Reported to Field Med. +Serv. School, Camp Pendleton; 1/5/67; Reported to Naval Adcom, San +Diego, 2/7/67. + +56. Certificate of Registry of Marriage, San Bernardino co., CA. + +57. Satan Seller, 149, 150. + +58. Interviews, Tim LaHaye. + +59. Interview, Beverly LaHaye. + +60. Transferred to Third Marine Division, Vietnam, 5/2/69. + +61. Warnke Ministries Newsletter, 1 (1991), 4. + +62. Satan Seller, 163. + +63. Ibid., 165. + +64. Ibid., 166. + +65. Ibid. + +2669 + +66. Ibid., 168. + +67. Hitchhiking on Hope Street, 42, 43. + +68. Ibid., 45. + +69. Ibid., 42. + +70. "Decorations and Awards: Good Conduct Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, +Vietnam Service Medal, Purple Heart, Republic of Vietnam Campaign +Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Meritorious +Unit Citation; Warnke transferred home 3/1/70. + +71. Interview, George Wakeling. + +72. Interview, Ron Winckler. + +73. Don Musgraves, director of Cerullo's Youth Action Center in San +Diego, interview: "It was during those times that I began to have heavy +contact with people coming out of the occult . . . "; Peter Brown, +"Dropout Heads WitchcraftFight," San Diego Union, 15 January 1972, 1; +"Evangelism Group Fights Witchcraft," San Diego Union, 22 January +1972, p. 5B; Dave Balsiger, "Charismatic Insider's Report," Logos +Journal, May/June 1972, 39, 40. + +74. Interview, Morris Cerullo; Balsiger, "Insider's Report;" Christian +Life, March 1972, 12. + +75. Dave Balsiger, et al., "It's Happening Now," insert, San Diego +Evening Tribune, 17 January 1972. (See Roddy, below: " . . . Cerullo, +surprisingly unassuming in contrast to the image created by his flashy +PR people . . . ") Peter Brown, "Dropout Heads Witchcraft Fight"; John +Dart, "Converted `Priest' Offers Guided Tour of Satanism," Los Angeles +Times, 19 January 1972, Sec. C, Part II, 1; "Evangelism Group Fights +Witchcraft"; Balsiger, "Insider's Report." + +76. Lee Roddy, "Morris Cerullo Crusade: A New Anointing?" Christianity +Today, 18 February 1972, 52-53. + +77. Interview, Dave Balsiger. + +78. Interview, Jean Jolly. + +79. Navy Records, date of discharge, 2 June 1972. + +80. Interview, George Eckeroth. + +81. "YEAR END REPORT and APPEAL FOR ASSISTANCE," Alpha Omega Outreach, +Rev. Mike Warnke, president, January, 1973. + +82. Michael Warnke, "When Evil Fights Back," Guideposts, Nov. 1972, +22-26. + +83. Dave Balsiger, "Charismatic Insider's Report," Logos Journal, +July-August 1972, 54. + +84. Dave Balsiger, "Charismatic Insider's Report," Logos Journal, +Nov-Dec 1972, 56. +2670 + +85. John P. Ferre, "Searching For the Great Commission: Evangelical +Book Publishing Since the 1970s," in American Evangelicals and the +Mass Media, ed. Quentin J. Schultze (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, +1990), 99-101. + +86. David Hazard, "Decatrends in Christian Publishing," Charisma, +August 1985, 140. + +87. Michael Esses, Michael, Michael, Why Do You Hate Me? +(Plainfield, NJ: Logos International, 1973); Betty Esses DeBlase, +Survivor of a Tarnished Ministry (Santa Ana, CA: Truth Publishers, +1983). + +88. James Danne, "Demonic Spirits," Christian Century, 4 July 1973, +738; Paul Nevin, "On Selling Your Soul to the Devil," Moody Monthly, +July-August 1973, 52. + +89. Dave Balsiger Biographical Sketch. + +90. James E. Adams, "Regards Peril of the Occult As Worse Than That of +Drugs," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 29 November 1972; Hershel Smith with +Dave Hunt, The Devil and Mr. Smith (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell +Company, 1974); James H. Brewster, "Rolling Along with the +Witchmobile," Probe the Unknown magazine, March 1973, 22-25; +Interview, Jean Jolly. + +91. Darryl E. Hicks and Dr. David A. Lewis, The Todd Phenomenon +(Harrison, AK: New Leaf Press, 1979), foreword by Doug Wead and Mike +Warnke. + +92. Don Cusic, "Mike Warnke: Jester in the King's Court," +Contemporary Christian Music, June-July 1979, 130; Paul Baker, +"Two-Fold Laughter from Mike and Rose," Contemporary Christian Music, +December 1982, 14. + +93. Jesse Joshua Warnke was born 4/18/74, according to Susan L. Warnke +Response, Civil Action D17252, District Court, Adams County, CO. + +94. Interview, John Witty. + +95. Interview, Karen Siegal. + +96. "Holdup Victim Named as Call Girl's Queen," Long Beach +Press-Telegram, Evening Final, 8 January 1971, identifies Carolyn's +mother as "kingpin of a local prostitution racket . . . " Police call +incident "the latest rounds in a mob war over control of prostitution +in the LB-LA area." + +97. Bill Hance, "That One-Liner Religion is Good Enough for Him," The +Nashville Banner, January 13, 1978, 30: "Until four years ago, he was +`just one of those preachers. . . . So, I started lightening my +testimony by telling jokes . . . '" + +98. Bill Fisher says he flew with Warnke to Brockport while they were +still in Trinity (Fall '74-Spring '75). Fisher has a photo of himself +and Warnke on stage in Brockport, dated October 1975, and another photo +of himself and Warnke there, dated June 1976. + +2671 + +99. See Dave Medina, "Former Rabbi Named Chaldean Archbishop," Logos +Journal, Nov-Dec 1972, 58. + +100. Carol O'Connor, "Ex-Satanist Happier with Christ," The Denver +Post, 20 June 1975, 4BB. + +101. Petition For Dissolution of Marriage, D-17252, confirm Warnke +moved to Colorado in August 1975. + +102. March 1976 is the date on a photograph of Bill Fisher at Joy +Ranch. + +103. Virginia Culver, "Devil-Worshippers Called Possible Cattle +Mutilators," The Denver Post, 5 October, 1975, 31. + +104. The back cover of Mike Warnke Alive! notes "Recorded Live at: +Adam's Apple, Fort Wayne, Indiana, November 14, 1975." + +105. The story of the recording of the album is told in Cusic, "Jester +in the King's Court," 28; Paul Paino interview. + +106. Affidavit with Respect to Financial Affairs, Civil Action +D-17252, Adams County District Court, CO, 8/6/76. Warnke lists his +employer as "Dharma Productions, 807 Redwood Cr, Nashville, TN." + +107. Interview, Dan Riling. + +108. According to Petition for Dissolution, D-17252, Mike and Sue last +lived together January 1, 1976. + +109. Date based on Mike Warnke's statement to Don Riling that Sue was +served while Riling was in Denver. The Affidavit of Service says Sue +Warnke was served Aug. 20, 1976, at 8:42 am. + +110. Interviews, Gretchen Passantino. Two other CRI staffers also +contributed information regarding this meeting. + +111. Cover story by Peggy Hancherick, "Mike Warnke, Jester in the +King's Court," Harmony, vol. 2, no. 3, 8-9. Full-page ad for "Mike +Warnke Alive!", 11. + +112. This saying was related to us by Frank Edmonson (aka Paul Baker), +ex-DJ, writer, and popular historian of Jesus Music. Edmonson worked +for Word at the time Warnke was signed, and played a key role in the +signing. + +113. Interview, Mike and Karen Johnson. + +114. Interview, Wes Yoder. + +115. Decree of Dissolution of Marriage, Civil Action D-17252, Adams +County District Court, CO, 12/3/76. + +116. Marriage Certificate, Davidson County, Tennessee, 4/25/77. + +117. "When Mike Warnke Speaks, the World Listens!", Myrrh records ad +in Contemporary Christian Music (hereafter, abbreviated CCM), +Februrary 1979, 26. +2672 + +118. See 21-page commemorative section celebrating Dharma Agency's +10th anniversary in the February 1982 issue of CCM. + +119. William D. Romanowski, "Contemporary Christian Music: The +Business of the Music Ministry," in American Evangelicals, Quentin +Schultze, ed., above, 152, 155. + +120. Interview, Dan Hickling. + +121. Interview, Buddy Huey. + +122. Romanowski, 144, 151. + +123. Interview, Larry Black. + +124. "When Mike Warnke Speaks, etc." + +125. Itinerary in May 1979, CCM. + +126. Rose Hall Warnke with Joan Hake Robie, The Great Pretender +(Lancaster, Pa.: Starburst Publishers, 1985), 73-74. + +127. Rose Hall Warnke, The Great Pretender, relates her romance with +Mike, 73-85; quote cited on page 79. Carolyn is never mentioned, nor +that Warnke was married during this time, only the note, "He, too, had +been previously married." Final Decree, Sumner County Court, 11/29/79, +shows Warnke filed for divorce from Carolyn on 8/27/79, summons served +8/30/79. cf. The Great Pretender, 83: "In September of 1979, Michael +said, `I want to marry you.'" CCM itinerary shows Mike Warnke +scheduled to play Sept. 28-29, 1979, in Canada. Rose says she went to +Canada with Mike (p. 83). + +128. Rose Hall Warnke, The Great Pretender, 81-82. + +129. Interview, Tom Carrouthers. + +130. Final Decree, Circuit Court for Sumner County, TN, 11/29/79. + +131. Interview, Clarence Benes. + +132. Certificate of Marriage, Johnson County, Kentucky, 1/2/80. + +133. Mike and Rose Warnke, "First-Hand Rose," CCM, April 1981, 50; +"Road Rap," CCM, July 1982, 51; Paul Baker, "Twofold Laughter from +Mike & Rose," CCM, December 1982, 14. + +134. Warnke, Great Pretender, on booking, 119, on accounting, 148. + +135. Television interview with Mike Warnke, "Believer's Lifestyles," +Channel 52, Orlando, Florida, 2/2/91, air-date 2/22/91. + +136. Interviews, Elijah Coady; Joseph Morse; William Schillereff. + +137. Marriage Certificate, Davidson County, Tennessee, 4/25/77. +Marriage "was solemnized by Mar Apriam I." + +138. Articles of Incorporation, The Holy Orthodox Catholic Church, +Inc," dated 12/23/81. Pamphlet "This We Believe, Holy Orthodox Catholic +2673 + +Church, Eastern and Apostolic" is dated 1977, copyright by "His +Beatitude, Mar Apriam I, Patriarch." + +139. Articles of Incorporation, 11/19/82, for "The Holy Orthodox +Church in Kentucky, Inc."; Certificate of Assumed Name, 11/4/83, HOCCK +authorized by to do business under name "Mike Warnke & Associates."; +Certificate of Assumed Name, 3/1/88, HOCCK authorized to do business +under name "Warnke Ministries." "HOCCK, Inc. dba" appears on Warnke +Ministries letterhead. + +140. Mike Warnke, "The Root of the Problem," CCM, Februrary 2, 1981; +Rose Warnke, "Little Keys Unlock Big Doors," CCM, July 1981, 54; Land +Contract, 7/1/81, for 153 Elm Street, Versailles, between Warnkes and +Virginia Wiglesworth, her husband James, for $180,000. + +141. Interviews, Dorothy Green. + +142. Interviews, Roxanne Miller. + +143. Interviews, Jan Ross. + +144. Interviews, Phyllis Swearinger. + +145. Deed, Equitable Relocation Management Corporation and Blanche +Hall, 7/29/83, for $235,000. Deed, Blanche Hall and Rose Hall, 3/1/91, +for "the sum of One ($1.00) dollar, cash in hand paid, and the +Grantor's love and affection for her daughter." + +146. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax, HOCCK, 1984-1990 +Forms. + +147. Ibid. + +148. One well-known example: James G. Friesen, Ph.D., Uncovering the +Mystery of MPD (San Bernardino, Calif.: Here's Life Publishers, 1991), +uses Warnke's book in both text and footnotes to bolster far-reaching +claims concerning a satanic cult conspiracy. + +149. Deed, Lelia Mann Brown, et al. and Michael A. Warnke and Rosemary +H. Warnke, 10/28/86, for $20,395.70. Deed, Michael Warnke and Rosemary +Warnke and HOCCK, for "the sum of $1.00 and as a gift, contribution, +and donation." + +150. Warnke Ministries Newsletter, 1st Quarter, 1987, 1. + +151. Ibid. + +152. Warnke Ministries Newsletter, 1st Quarter, 1988, p. 2 " . . . +by the time you receive this newsletter, we will be moved into the new +building." + +153. Interviews, Dr. John Cooper. + +154. Cf. Rose Warnke, Great Pretender, 181, "At ministry +headquarters we get some 50,000 letters and telephone calls each +month." + +155. Michael A. Warnke & Rose Hall Warnke, Recovering From Divorce, +2674 + +(Tulsa: Victory House, Inc.), 22-25. + +156. Rose Warnke, Great Pretender, 86. + +157. Ibid, 87-88. + +158. Ibid, 88-90. + +159. Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, 9/4/91. + +160. Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, Mercer Circuit Court, +Kentucky (#91-CI-00274), Rose Hall Warnke vs. Michael A. Warnke, +9/4/91; Response, Entry of Appearance, and Waiver by Respondent, +9/4/91; Separation and Property Settlement Agreement, 9/4/91. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2675 + +161. Lynnwood Farm, see above note. Deed, Land Owners, L.P., and +Michael A. Warnke and Rose H. Warnke for new acreage, 4/19/91, for +$525,000. + +162. Mortgage, American Fidelity Bank & Trust, Corbin, KY, 9/10/91, +Rose Hall Warnke and Michael A. Warnke for $250,000. Mortgage, State +Bank & Trust Company, Harrodsburg, KY, 9/27/91, Rose Hall Warnke and +Michael A. Warnke, for $31,500.50. + +163. Deed, Charles W. Pistole and Michael and Rose Mary Warnke, +5/30/86, for 2001 Salifish Point, Apt. 308, Stuart, FL for $398,000. +Deed, Mary & Clinton Woodard and Michael A. Warnke and Rose H. Warnke, +7/24,89, for Chimney Rock property for $231,500. + +164. Final Decree of Dissolution of Marriage, Mercer Circuit Court, +Kentucky (#91-CI-00274), Rose Hall Warnke vs. Michael A. Warnke, +10/2/91. + +165. Amy Wolfford, "Official downplays effect of Warnke divorce on +ministry," Danville Advocate-Messenger, 24 Oct. 1991, 1. + +166. Undated Warnke Ministries letter (begins "Dear Ministry Family, +It is again the start of a New Year, PRAISE GOD!"). + +167. License and Certificate of Marriage, Santa Cruz County, CA, 18 +Nov. 1991. 43. "Authors Available for Interview," Christian Booksellers +Convention, Dallas, Texas, June 29--July 2, 1992, 15. + +168. Warnke & Warnke, ®Recovering From Divorce,¯ 63. + +169. Ibid, 164. + +170. Ibid, 159. + + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2676 + + The Threefold Goddess + + I + + To understand the concept of Goddess requires more than the +ability to visualize God as a woman. The Goddess concept is built +around the myth and mystery of the relationship between God and +Goddess, and beneath that, and part of it, Her Threefold Aspect ... +Maiden, Mother and Crone. + + One of the oldest recognized Goddess forms is the first Greek +Goddess - Gaia, the Earth Mother; the Universal Womb; Mother of All. +The most ancient Goddesses were most often Earth and Mother Goddesses. +The were worshipped and revered as bearers of life ... fat, healthy, +pregnant and fruitful. As the Goddess concept developed, then came the +Harvest Goddesses, who were also Earth Goddesses. Understand that +this was a time when people did not even understand the basic +mechanics of procreation. Life was very sacred and mystical indeed! + + Gradually, myth and mystery developed and revealed themselves, +creating the legend which we honor in the modern Wiccan Craft. + + We recognize the Goddess as the mother of all, including her +Mighty Consort, the God. To Her he is Lover and Son, and together +they form the Ultimate, the Omniverse, the Dragon, the Mystery. + + Now that is a pretty tough concept all things considered. +Especially in our society as it sounds rather incestuous. From a +mundane perspective, it gets worse as the Wheel of the Year Turns, and +the Oak and Holly Kings battle ... eternal rivals and +sacrificial mates. + + In the pages that follow, we will explore the Goddess foundation +concepts and try to reach an understanding of the basis of the +Mystery. + + I don't want to get off into all the names of all the Goddesses +in all the mythology in all of history. While that is certainly a +noble endeavor, it is not the objective here. What I do want to do is +look at the Goddess, in whole and in part, and see just who and what +she is. + + First and foremost, the Goddess is the symbol of the Cycle of +Everlasting. She is constant, ever present, ever changing, and yet +always the same. She could be compared in that respect to the oceans. + + As a part of that, she is that from which we have come, and to +which we will return. She is the Universal Mother, the Cosmic Womb. +While those are largely symbolic images, as opposed to literal ones, +they are important to bear in mind about any aspect of the Goddess. +She never harms, she is Mother. + + One of the most difficult throwback mentalities to dispell in a +student is the difference between "dark and light" and "bad and good". +Societally, and often religiously, we are trained to see bad and dark +and evil as being the same. Hence, we are also taught to hate and +fear our own mortality. All too often I see practicing Wiccans, who +ought to *know* better, fall back on these concepts when trying to +2677 + +explain or understand a concept. + + The Goddess is dark, she is light, she is birth, she is death, +and she rejoices in all things. With death comes joy, for with death +comes renewal. With life comes joy, for with life comes promise. +With growth comes joy for with growth comes wisdom. Sorrow and fear +are not a part of her, not the way we feel those emotions. She is +incapable of sorrow without joy, she fears nothing, because fear is +not real. It is a creation of the mind. + + Whether you see the Goddess as a Warrior Queen, or like the Good +Witch of the North in the Wizard of Oz, she is the Goddess. And she +has many parts and facets which defy comprehension as "One". She +simply IS, and in that, can be whatever you need her to be in order to +establish a relationship with her. But none of that changes what she +IS. + + "I greet thee in the many names of the Threefold Goddess and her +Mighty Consort. Athe, malkuth, ve-guburah, ve-gedulah, le-olam, Amen. +Blessed Be." + + So here, at the Circle Door, greeted by the High Priest or +Priestess we first see mentioned the Threefold Goddess. Full-sized +covens have three priestesses who take the specific roles of Maiden, +Mother and Crone, the High Priestess being Mother. + + The Threefold Goddess however is NOT three entities, she is one. +Her aspects represent Enchantment, Ripeness and Wisdom. + + Taking first things first is usually best, so we shall start +with a look at one side of the Maiden. + + Quoting "The Myth of the Goddess" as found in Gardenarian Wicca +(Gerald B. Gardner, The Meaning of Witchcraft, Aquarian Press, London, +1959.): + + Now Aradia had never loved, but she would solve all the +Mysteries, even the Mystery of Death; and so she journeyed to the +Nether Lands. + + The Guardians of the Portals challenged her, "Strip off thy +garments, lay aside thy jewels; for naught may ye bring with ye into +this our land." + + So she laid down her garments and her jewels and was bound, as +were all who enter the Realms of Death the Mighty One. Such was her +beauty that Death himself knelt and kissed her feet, saying, "Blessed by +thy feet that have brought thee in these ways. Abide with me, let me +place my cold hand on thy heart." She replied "I love thee not. +Why dost thou cause all things that I love and take delight in to fade +and die?" + + "Lady," replied Death, "it is Age and Fate, against which I am +helpless. Age causes all things to wither, but when men die at the +end of time I give them rest and peace, and strength so that they may +return. But thou, thou art lovely. Return not; abide with me." + + But she answered, "I love thee not." +2678 + + Then said Death, "An' thou receive not my hand on thy heart +thou must receive Death's scourge." + + "It is Fate; better so", she said, and she knelt, and Death +scourged her and she cried "I feel the pangs of love." + + And Death said, "Blessed be" and gave her the Fivefold Kiss, +saying "Thus only may ye attain joy and knowledge." + + And he taught her all the Mysteries. And they loved and were +one, and he taught her all the Magicks. + + For there are three great events in the life of Man: Love, +Death and Resurrection in a new body, and Magick controls them all. +For to fulfill love you must return again at the same time and place +as the loved one, and you must remember and love them again. But to +be reborn you must die, and be ready for a new body; and to die you +must be born; and without love you may not be born. And these be all +the Magicks. + + So there in the Gardnerian Myth of the Goddess we have her +Maiden aspect, seeking, searching and opening herself to the +mysteries. But it is well to remember that the Goddess herself is a +mystery, and the primary gift of the Goddess is intuitive Wisdom. + + Beltaine (Bealtain) is the only Sabbat where the Goddess is +entirely devoted to the Maiden. Here, she revels in the enchantment, +in the joy of coming into fullness and mating with the God. Here, she +is maiden bride and we can most easily understand that facet of the +Maiden aspect. I should probably note here that some see this +festival as maiden turning into mother, with the maiden being in full at +Candlemas, but I do not agree with that. + + Youth, newness, innocence and beauty are fundamental facets of +the Maiden aspect. But beneath those are seeking, and love, and love of +seeking. There is more to understand of the Maiden though. +Enchantment does not end with maidenhood, it is simply the beginning +of the Mystery of Life, for that, above all, is what the Goddess +stands for. + + In Circle, in the Balanced Universe, the Maiden takes her place +in the East. In examining this most comfortable quarter, you learn +more about the Maiden Aspect. East (Air) rules the free mind and +intellect. It is the place to seek the ability to learn and to open +spiritually, to open your mind and find answers. It is a masculine +quarter, ruled by intellect, and analytical logic, but she brings to +it an intuition which is required to use these to best advantage. + + "The river is flowing, flowing and growing, the river is flowing +back to the sea. Mother carry me, a child I will always be. Mother +carry me, back to the sea." + + This Circle chant, sung in joy, sung in sorrow, is a cry to the +Mother Aspect for comfort and warmth, a power chant calling upon the +steady power and fullness of the Mother and a plea for guidance. +While the Earth Mother, and the fully aspected Goddess are placed +North in the Earth quarter, the Mother aspect alone belongs in the +west. +2679 + + Comfort and love rule here. Emotions, sorrow, joy, tears, these +belong to the ripeness of the Mother. Caring and loving for all her +children, watching in pain and pride as they struggle to gain their +own, knowing full well she could reach out and do it for them, but +being both bound and desirous to let them do it for themselves. + + There is a considerable difference, as you might have interpreted +from the above, between the Earth Mother and the Mother Aspect of the +Goddess. That is why we've started with her quarter, because it +reveals the limitations of the Aspect. + + The Mother aspect is ripeness, the ancient bearing of fruit, +child and grain. She represents emotion and sexuality. The Goddess +in that aspect is most of the altar (as discussed in the Great Rite +lesson.) It is interesting to note the practice in numerous ancient +cultures of lovemaking or outright sex magick in cornfields to help +make the corn grow. + + The Dark Mother should also be placed here, although culturally, I +have a tendancy to think of the Dark Mother as more in keeping the +Crone Aspect. It is a bit of work to see the Dark Mother in the West, +to separate Dark Mother from Crone, but it is worthwile. If you have +any background with the tarot I would suggest you take it in that +context, it is beyond the scope of this text. + + Our exploration of the Goddess and her Aspects brings us now to +the Crone. For me, the Crone is the most fascinating of the Aspects +of the Goddess. Partly I suppose because she is the most mysterious +and paradoxical. + + "Blessed Goddess, old and wise, open mine, thy child's, eyes. +Speak to me in whispered tones that I may know the rune of Crones." + + With life and growth comes age and wisdom, and the Crone is this +in part. She holds fire and power, which wisely used can be of great +benefit, but hold great danger for the unaware. Hers are the secrets of +death and of life, and the mystery beyond the mystery. + + Part of the pleasure in knowing the Crone aspect is that while, +unlike the fully aspected Goddess, she is not also Maiden and Mother, +she does retain the experiences of both those Aspects in order to be +Crone. The Crone, wizened though she is, must still be able to reach +into herself and recall the innocent joys and high passions of the +Maiden and the love and warmth of the Mother. To be Crone and to not +have forgotten, to still be able to experience Maiden and Mother is, +to me, very appealing. More importantly, to be comfortable in that +Aspect, where you have truth and knowledge but have left youth and +physical beauty behind, and to still _feel_ youth and beauty without +being desirous of them is an admirable quality. + + Crone is the least paralleled Aspect of the Goddess to our human +society. We discard our old and wise, not understanding their value +as teachers and models, and fearing their appearance as a reminder of +our own mortality. + + Knowing Crone is a door we much each open for ourselves for to know +and love her is to cast aside a great many of our cultural and societal +malteachings. +2680 + + While the individual Aspects of Threefold Goddess are certainly +valid concepts and paths to knowing Goddess, I should caution that most +mythological Goddess figures are composite Goddesses. Earth Mother +Goddess figures are fully aspected Goddess by definition because they +represent the full cycle of the Wheel. Most other Goddess figures can +be classified as having a dominant (or operative) aspect and recessive +(promised, or in some cases past) aspect. Future and past should not be +taken literally, mythological Goddess figures are always whatever they +are eternally, they do not tend to change (ie age). + + Maiden Goddesses possessing their operative in the Huntress or +Warrior aspects most often have a promise of Crone. Maiden Goddesses +expressing their dominance in beauty and/or love usually have their +recessive aspect as Mother. For example, Athena is a Maiden Goddess +with Crone attributes (the combination produces many Mother-type +qualities, and this results in the Crone aspected Maiden being the +most complete of the Mythological Goddesses, with the exception of +Earth Mother Goddesses.) Aphrodite is of course a Maiden Goddess with +Mother attributes. + + Similarly, Dark Mother Goddess figures mostly find their promise in +Crone and Light Mother figures their recessive in Maiden. Crone +recessives work the same way, although sometimes it takes a bit of +close examination to find the "hidden" aspect. + + One should note that this is not a formula, rather a tool to +assist in examining and understanding Goddess figures and creating +one's own personal spiritual link with Goddess. It is also a useful +consideration when invoking a specific Goddess with purpose in ritual. + The purpose of this course has been to open avenues of approach +in discovering and developing a relationship with Goddess. For me +personally, I do not "believe" in the reality of mythological Goddess +figures as they were presented, but I do believe they are a valid way to +establish communication with Goddess. I also believe Goddess will +appear in whatever form we are most ready to accept. The real +Goddess, by my belief (and this is personal, not trad) is an entity +beyond my comprehension, perhaps composed of light (could 5000 sci-fi +films be wrong?), most assuredly unlike anything I could ever imagine in +true form. However, I do find mythological Goddess figures highly +useful for ritual, and of some help in my personal relationship with +Goddess. I hope you will too. + +Blessed Be + +Eileen +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2681 + + Being A Witch in Britain Today + by James Pengelly + +Written for the Newcastle University Conference; Encounters of +Religion + +I am regional co-ordinator for the Pagan Federation (PF) for +Humberside, North Yorkshire and the counties that form the +northeast of England up to the Scottish Borders. The PF was +founded in 1971 by a group of Gardnerian Witches, the object of +it being to counter what was perceived as being popular +misconceptions about Witchcraft. +The main reason for the existence of the PF remains largely +unchanged, as the last few years have seen what can only be +described as an onslaught by various fundamentalist Christian +organisations who have latched on to the unfortunate and sad +matter of child abuse to which they have added the word "Satanic' +as a means by which they can attack and defame the occult in +general, and Witchcraft in particular. + +I will return to this matter elsewhere in this lecture, but I +mention it now to illustrate the importance of our +anti-defamation work. In addition, the Pagan Federation acts as +a networking organisation to put people who share views on +religious and spiritual matters in touch with one another, to +enable them to get together, discuss and learn, and experience +further. + +The third important aspect to our work is to increase awareness +of the spiritual and cultural heritage of this country. Given +that many, if not most, of our customs and traditions have their +roots set deep in our Pagan past and that our countryside is rich +in the physical remains of this we feel that a positive promotion +of this inheritance is vital to a fuller understanding of who we +are. + +The topic of this lecture is Being A Witch In Britain Today. Now +I think that when one mentions the word, "Witch" to the average +member of the public, the image that is immediately conjured up +is one of a wizened old hag boiling up an extremely noxious brew +in some bubbling cauldron, probably on a windswept moor +somewhere. This is of course Shakespearian in its perception, but +unfortunately, whatever his intentions were at the time he wrote +Macbeth, William Shakespeare did Witchcraft a considerable +disservice, because this image has stuck. In addition, the public +is very much subject to conditioning laid down in the Middle Ages +by the Church, through historical accounts of Witch trials, which +were heavily biased. Consequently it is hardly surprising that +the image the general public has is of nasty, evil, thoroughly +bad people riding around on broomsticks at dead of night creating +havoc all over the place, poisoning people right left and centre, +doing unspeakable things with goats, not to mention chickens, +frogs, toads, cats, and sundry other animals. All in all not very +nice people! + +It is interesting to note that even in this day and age, many +people are still very superstitious when it comes to magic, the +occult, Witchcraft and so on. In addition to the historical +2682 + +misconceptions about Witches and Witchcraft, I would go as far +as saying that people still have a deeply rooted superstitious +attitude, and that while some may automatically dismiss out of +hand Witches having any sort of magical power, deep down, the +majority of people still harbour deep rooted fears about this +sort of thing being possible. + +At a time when mankind has seemingly achieved so much in the +field of science, when there is so little mystery left in life +because everything has been rationalised and explained, and +developed beyond that which our ancestors were able to +comprehend, the fact that people do still harbour superstitions +and worries about Witchcraft and the occult in general does not +altogether surprise me. If one removes the mystery from life, one +has nothing left with which to replace it, and one has to look +to that which one cannot explain. The problem being that man has +for countless generations been frightened by that which he cannot +explain. And this is why we are now living in the scientific age, +because man has purposely set out to explain that of which he is +afraid. The thing being that there is very little left that man +cannot explain. And one of the areas that he cannot explain is, +of course, magic, Witchcraft and the occult. + +Let us for a moment, examine the term, "occult". Occult simply +means 'that which is hidden'. The term has been used for +centuries to explain the general workings of the universe. The +creation of fire would have, at some point in time, been regarded +as magic. Why things moved when they were subject to certain +power sources such as steam would have been deemed magic before +the principles were understood. Illnesses were originally +considered to be occult based. You could impose an illness on +a neighbour or friend if you had the magical power to do it. But +of course, none of these things were actually magical in any +sense. The magic lay in the fact that a lot of people didn't +understand what was going on. Those who did have an understanding +of what was going on were perceived as having some sort of power. +The biblical phrase, "Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live", is +in this context quite revealing because in its original format, +the word, "Witch", did not actually translate as Witch, it +translated as "poisoner". And there is no doubt that the original +village Witch would have in her own way been a doctor of sorts, +in that she or he would have understood the uses of various herbs +for good purposes and for bad purposes. And could quite probably +been paid to use that knowledge to achieve the results for which +she was being paid, to either kill or cure. Consequently, the +village Witch, was someone to be feared, and respected. + +As the Christian Church took hold, the older Pagan ways were +perceived as something to be got rid of. I do not think this was +particularly a spiritual battle. It was a power battle. It was +simply a matter of one religious-political system wishing to gain +control over another. And as Christianity grew in strength, +largely through fear and oppression, the old ways were presented +as being evil and wicked, and not to be tolerated. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2683 + +This situation remained largely extant until 1951, when the last +laws remaining on the English statute book against Witchcraft +were repealed, and what is now commonly referred to as the +British Revivalist Craft came to light. The fact that it had, in +some form or another, managed to survive over countless +generations was, in itself, quite a surprising thing. But we now +know that what are often referred to as the Hereditary Craft and +the Traditional Craft were to a certain extent passed down from +generation to generation either within specific families or +small, invariably farming, communities. It was this that the late +Dr Gerald Gardener is thought to have discovered, and built up +into what is today known as the Revivalist Craft. His work was +later developed by others such as Alex Sanders who founded the +Alexandrian Craft and, more recently, by Janet and Stewart +Farrar. Their works are very well known, popular, and easily +available, and they have created what is sometimes jokingly +referred to as the Farrarian Craft; a hybrid mixture of +Gardenerian, Alexandrian and their own methods of working. + +Being a Witch today in this country is not necessarily a hard +thing, but nor is necessarily an easy thing. There is still a +great deal of superstitious prejudice and nonsense held against +Witches. And this is fermented, and that is the only word I can +think of, to a large extent by certain areas of our national +media, in particular the more lurid tabloid press, and of course +Christian fundamentalist groups, who have over the last few years +started to expand at a rather alarming, and for many +non-Christians, a rather frightening rate. The phenomena of +Christian fundamentalism is something which has largely been +imported to this country from America, where it has been a +populist Christian movement for many, many years. One only has +to look at the news over the last few years concerning some +American fundamentalist leaders to realise that basically, they +are like so many of us human beings, subject to all the little +foibles that human beings are generally subject to, that they are +just as easily led astray as any of us can be. The rising issue +of fundamentalism is, as I say, quite a frightening thing because +it seeks to impose a set of standards, a set of behaviour, and +a set of religious beliefs, on everyone, which no-one is +permitted to question. This is one reason why we find so many +people are now turning to Paganism in its broadest sense, and to +Wicca in particular. (Wicca being the commonly used modern term +for Witchcraft.) They turn to us because they are disillusioned +with the level of dogma and the level of imposition they find +within established Christian traditions, be they Church of +England, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, or some of the more +extreme fundamentalist sects. + +People seem now to be dividing into groups. There are those who +are 'the led' and they search for leaders. And when they find a +leader who is prepared to tell them what to do, when to do it, +how to think, how not to think and so on, they latch onto that +and they go on quite happy in their own way because they want to +be told. On the other hand there are an increasing number of +people who are prepared to listen to what others have to say but +then like to go away and make their own minds up about things, +and work things out for themselves. And we are finding more and +more that this is what Paganism in general and Wicca in +2684 + +particular is providing. It is providing people with the means +by which they can form deeply personal relationships with their +own particular perceptions of deity. They can work with that +perception. They can utilise it within a framework that is, +generally speaking, of a very high moral and ethical standard. +And the idea that Witches are evil, nasty, wicked people who go +around sticking pins in little lumps of wax shaped into the form +of a person containing lumps of fingernail and pieces of hair and +other sundry bodily parts, is being increasingly recognised as +grossly untrue. We have to bear in mind that a lot of the popular +perceptions of the Witch are, as I have already said, largely +determined by historical records. Historical records written by +people in whose interest it was to defame the Witch, and to +register her, or him, as an evil person, but even these are now +being challenged by more and more people. + +So, as I've said, being a Witch in this country today is not +always an easy thing. On the one hand, you can meet with extreme +prejudice, on the other hand you can equally meet with extreme +derision. A number of perfectly normal, sane, rational people +that I know of think that the fact that I am a Witch is a huge +joke. I am very used to people asking me "When can I come round +to your house and take all my clothes off?." My usual response +to which is "Any time you like providing I'm not having my tea +at the time, or watching Coronation Street, but believe me pal, +you're on your own." I personally find that this is the best way +to approach this sort of thing. If you can turn the question into +a joke aimed at yourself, people are happy with that and feel +comfortable with that, and will go away thinking that basically +you're a pretty decent sort of person with just some very strange +ideas. If, on the other hand, you become intensely defensive, the +opposite can be true because they will assume that you have +something to hide, something which you don't wish to talk about. +And we all know that faced with that sort of situation the human +mind is capable of conjuring up all sorts of unpleasant images. +So I stand before you today proclaiming myself to be a Witch. I +do not particularly like using the term, but it is a term with +which most people are familiar, so within the context of this +lecture, I am happy to use it. And I stand before you here, not +a wizened old crone, dressed in rags and tatters with a big wart +on the end of her nose, but, I hope, a fairly presentable man in +his early middle age, who has a very respectable job. I have a +house, a mortgage, a small daughter, I am like many people of my +generation, separated from my wife, for purely personal reasons. +I am, to all intents and purposes an ordinary person. And yet I +stand before you here, and tell you I am a Witch. + +What does this mean for me personally? Basically, like most +Witches, I am a Pagan. I believe in the Old Religion. The +religion that was worldwide before Christianity or Hinduism, or +Islam took a hold on large areas of the world. Once upon a time, +whether people like to admit it or not, the whole world was +Pagan. Paganism then was vastly different from Paganism today. +There are those who go round saying that they are practising +pre-Christian Paganism. I would say, that while they are not +necessarily deluding themselves, they are mis-leading themselves. +What we are practising today is the spirit of ancient Paganism. +We cannot possibly practise ancient Paganism, because if we were +2685 + +doing so, we would be indulging in such things as blood +sacrifice, and so on and so forth, which forms no part of modern +Pagan tradition. + +Witchcraft is a sub-system of broad Paganism. Most Witches regard +it as the mystery aspect of Paganism. The mystery aspect being +that one searches for the spark of the ultimate divine source, +which is inherent in each one of us, in the hope that one can +find it, come to terms with it, and accept it as part of +ourselves. + +Most Pagans believe in an ultimate creative source. Christians +call it God. We believe that there exists, somewhere out there +in the wider universe, the source of all creation. We do not +give it a name, we do not give it a form. It is, to our way of +thinking, entirely neutral. It is all things in one thing. It is +all things and it is nothing. It is largely beyond our reach. +Some people aspire to attain union with the ultimate, very, very +few people ever reach it. Consequently, most Pagans will choose +to leave it alone. + +It is unreachable. And it is unaware of our existence, because +it is neutral in form. What we do is we aspect it; we split it +into the various components which form it. The ultimate split is +gender, male and female. If the ultimate creative source is all +things, then it must have male and female aspects. So the +ultimate male aspect is 'The God', the ultimate female aspect is +'The Goddess'. Below this one can continue splitting into various +other aspects as one chooses, until one gets down to a level of +elementals, nature spirits, and so on and so forth. The idea +being, that all natural things coming from the ultimate creative +source contain a spark of that creative source, and consequently +all things are inherently sacred. We reject entirely the +Christian concept that man is born sinful, and has to spend the +whole of his life begging forgiveness for sins real and +imaginary. We believe that it is because of this attitude that +mankind does a lot of the things he does. If you bring somebody +up and condition them to believe that they are inherently bad, +they are going to react in that way. + +Pagans and Witches believe that man is born inherently sacred, +and it is what he himself does with his life that makes him bad +or good. It is nothing to do with God, the Gods, the Goddesses +or anything else. Consequently, Paganism and Witchcraft are +extremely responsible forms of religious practice in that they +teach that we are responsible for what we do and the effect that +it has for those around us, both immediately and out in the wider +world. We believe in what is commonly referred to as 'the ripple +effect'. Drop a stone in a pond, and it will create ripples which +will go on and on until they reach the bank and are forced to +stop. If you regard the universe as a very large ocean, everytime +one of us does something, we create a ripple effect. The ripples, +on a universal scale, may be imperceptible, but they are there +none the less. And if we regard life in that way, we need to +immediately take stock of that which we do and act upon it. +Now obviously it is not possible to take this sort of philosophy +to an extreme, otherwise, one would literally do nothing. If one +flushes the toilet one is potentially adding to sea pollution. +2686 + +If one turns an electric light on, one is potentially adding to +air pollution. Whatever one does, somewhere along the line is +likely to have a detrimental effect on someone. + +The Witch or Pagan will judge what he or she is doing with his +or her life and will try and determine the least harmful way of +living. It requires a great deal of thought, it requires a great +deal of honesty and self analysis and not a small amount of +self-sacrifice. it forces one to look at how one relates to +oneself, and life around us, because we believe that all natural +things on this world are sacred, and therefore to be treated with +respect. + +So, what then, is our relationship with our perception of +divinity? As 1 have already mentioned, we personalise aspects of +the ultimate creative source. These personalisations can be drawn +from one or another of the existing Pagan pantheons, such as +Norse, Greek, Roman or Egyptian, or they can be done on a much +more personal level where the individual will somehow personalise +whatever aspect of divinity they wish to work with in that moment +in time. Most Witches have the Great Goddess, and the Horned God. +(The horns, incidentally have absolutely nothing to do with the +concept of the devil having horns. And are usually, in this +country, personified as being deer's antlers being simply symbols +of power and strength.) The Great Goddess is seen as being the +Mother of all things, the Horned God, her consort who is also +frequently linked with the Sun as the All Father. + +Below that, we have the Triple Goddess, whose symbol is the Moon, +the Maid, the Mother, and the Crone. And then there are any +number of other personifications largely based on the individual +preference of the person or group, doing whatever it is they're +doing. This may seem to be an immensely complicated system, and +indeed it sometimes takes a great deal of understanding. But you +have to relate it to the natural seasonal cycle, or festivals, +that most Pagans, whatever their traditions, will follow. + +The seasonal cycle basically follows the agricultural and solar +cycle of the year. We have eight major festivals. +The first, and possibly the most important, is Samhain, spelled +S-A-M-H-A-I-N, commonly known as Hallowe'en, and is thought to +have been the time when the ancient Celts celebrated the new +year. It was the end of one agricultural year and the beginning +of the next. It was the final onset of Winter. It was, as it is +commonly regarded today, also a festival of the dead. The modern +concept today of ghosts and ghoulies and long-leggedy beasties +and things that go bump in the night, stemmed directly from the +Celtic feast of the dead. This is not some necrophiliac intention +of summoning up spirits for evil purposes, it was/is simply a +time when one reflects on the memories of lost loved ones, lost +friends, and hopes to gain some insight into one's own life from +the lessons that we can learn from those who have gone before us. +It is interesting to note that, even in its christianised form, +Halloween, or All Hallows Eve is still a festival of the dead. + +The mid-Winter Solstice is, of course, Yule, an Anglo-Saxon word +so old its meaning is now completely forgotten. It has been +suggested that that it could mean 'wheel', and within a Pagan or +2687 + +a Wiccan context the year is often referred to as "the wheel of +the year", in that it turns on, and on. Yule celebrates the +re-birth of the Sun. It is indeed interesting that Christians +should have taken this festival to mark the birth of Christ, when +what historical evidence we have seems to suggest that Christ was +actually either born in March or September. + +From then we move on to Imbolc, christianised as Candlemas, which +represents the first stirring of Spring and the gradual return +of light. We then have the Spring Equinox, which when the earth +comes back fully to life, and has become largely associated with +Easter. Many people today do not realise that Easter is a +moveable feast because the date of Easter is set on the first +Sunday after the first full Moon after the Spring Equinox. And +if that isn't a Pagan concept, I really don't know what is. In +fact, the very name "Easter" comes from the Anglo-Saxon fertility +Goddess "Eostre" and many of the items traditionally associated +with Easter such as eggs and rabbits are directly derived from +Pagan ideas and symbols. + +Then follows Beltane, which is interesting in that it is the only +Pagan holiday which does not have a Christian counterpoint. This +is probably because of its overtly sexual nature. It is +interesting that children conceived at Beltane were invariably +born on or around Imbolc, which is lambing time in the sheep +farmers year. Ewe's milk would have been important in the past +to strengthen children for the last part of Winter and to give +them strength to grow through the Spring and Summer. + +After Beltane we have of course the Summer Solstice, mid-Summer, +which represents the Sun at its height. Solstices and Equinoxes +all being solar festivals. The union of Sun and Earth to produce +the harvest that is to come. Lugnassadh, commonly referred to as +Lammas, which literally means loaf-mass from the Anglo-Saxon, is +the start of the harvest. It is the time when we prepare to cut +down that which the union of the Sun and the Earth Mother has +provided for us. The Autumn equinox is the harvest festival. A +time to rest and relax after the harvest has been collected. And +then we come back again to Samhain, or Halloween. + +So as you can see, we follow a very natural cycle. Rituals and +ceremonies can vary immensely from group to group, or individual +to individual. But each one, whenever it is done, will consist +of some sort of symbolic, what I can only describe as 'drama', +that reflects what we see going on in the world around us, and +how we perceive the Gods and Goddesses of Paganism or Witchcraft +as playing a part in that. There is a lot of talk about the use +of spirit powers and so on and so forth, and many Christians +perceive this as being inherently very, very dangerous. +Spiritualism, as it is commonly perceived, plays very little part +in Wicca. It is not something that we believe should be played +around with. We will invoke on one another the spirit of a +particular God or a particular Goddess dependent on what we are +doing at the time. But all we are asking that particular God or +Goddess to do is imbibe us with something of their power, +something of their insight. It is basically an intensely +psychological thing. Because, as we all know, if one stands in +front of a mirror saying "every day and every way, I am getting +2688 + +better and better", then one is likely to grow in +self-confidence. The concept is pretty much the same. + +So, as we can see, Witches are not horrible evil people, but +generally, quite ordinary nice decent people who have chosen to +try and relate more to the natural things around us than some far +distant imperceptible god-form. But what of magic? Witchcraft +is obviously very closely associated with the use of magic. So +what is magic? + +Magic was once described as 'the art of causing change in +conformity with will'. Put more basically, this simply means mind +over matter. Causing something to happen simply by the strength +of your own mind. This is perhaps a bit too far fetched for a +great many people to accept, but when one considers the nature +of prayer, one has a concept which is easier to understand. For +most Witches, an act of magic is simply a form of prayer. You +will seek the attention of a particular God or a particular +Goddess, and you will ask her or him to assist you in something +that you want done. Surely, this is no different from anyone +going into a church or synagogue, kneeling down, and saying, +"please God, help me". + +It is true that Witches will dress that up in some way and use +items of equipment and paraphernalia which are alien to a church, +mosque, or synagogue. These are primarily nothing more than +psychological props, means by which the individual can focus +their attention on something. Using the appropriate equipment at +the appropriate time aided by appropriate colours and scents are +all means by which one can focus one's mind onto a specific +point. Like anything, our acts of magic do not necessarily always +produce the desired result. But we choose to believe that if it +does not happen, it is because it is not meant to happen, rather +than we are not worthy of it happening. + +Many people talk of white and black magic. This is an entirely +Christian concept; we do not accept the terms white or black +magic. Magic is a neutral force which is used by the individual +and it is what the individual does with it that makes it white +or black. But most Witches, in using the powers that they have +available to them will consider the implications of what they are +doing, and will think very seriously about undertaking any act +of magic which could prove detrimental to any-one or anything +which cannot be justified morally and spiritually. + +If the Craft has any "laws" as such they apply to the use of +magic in a more obvious way than any-where else, and there are +basically two such "laws". + +The first is more of an ethic - "An it harm none-do what thou +will". On the face of it this seems to offer carte-blanche to do +what you want as long as no-one gets hurt but if regarded within +the context of the "ripple effect" mentioned earlier the +relevance and importance of it becomes clearer. +In addition to this, most Wiccans subscribe to what is usually +referred to as the "Law of Threefold Return" which basically +means that the result of an act will reflect on the instigator +times three. As you will possibly appreciate, this is worth +2689 + +serious consideration if what one is undertaking is potentially +or deliberately harmful. + +Between the clearly "white" or "black" areas of magic however +lies the "grey" area. This is hard to define as it depends +largely on the conscience of the individual but whatever the +shade, a Witch will never undertake any act of magic without +serious consideration of all the matters and questions +surrounding it. + +To go back to the matter of Satanic child-abuse, the suggestion +that there exists some sort of organised conspiracy of Satanic +based child abuse is nonsense. It is a myth created entirely by +so-called Christian extremists whose intention is to ferment a +modern Witchhunt in exactly the same way as the Nazis fermented +action against the Jews. There is no question of that. Whilst I +would not deny that there may be some sick, criminal perverts, +who utilise the cover of the occult in general and Witchcraft in +particular, to abuse children, these people are not Witches, they +are sick and evil perverts who deserve the full weight of the law +to fall upon them. + +To specifically identify Wicca with child abuse is criminally +irresponsible as it brands a huge number of totally innocent +people as potential child abusers, and given that it is an +intensely emotive issue, there is a real risk of a lynch mob +mentality being provoked, with all the horror that it implies. +If we are to judge a whole belief system on the strength of the +activities of a few perverts, one could equally point the finger +at the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church, both of +whom have suffered from the publicity of members of their own +clergies being caught for this very crime. +Recently, in this country alone, there have been several +instances of Church of England and Roman Catholic clergy abusing +children, and there is evidence to suggest that it is rife within +the Roman Catholic church in America. I pass no judgement on the +churches for that. This is down to individuals, and again, we +come back to the concept of individual responsibility for one's +own actions. + +For a Witch to abuse a child is total anathema. It is contrary +to everything that we hold close to our hearts. Our children are +our future. If we abuse them, we run the risk of turning them +into abusers. Apart from the fact that in abusing them, we abuse +that which is part of the sacred, the ultimate divine source. +Children born in love and unity are sacred and to be treated as +such. There is no evidence, other than in the minds of those that +make the allegations, that so-called Satanic abuse exists. + +As to the future, and what we would like; basically all we seek +is the acceptance of society to be what we are, and to practise +what we choose to practise. We do not seek to impose ourselves +on anybody, or anything. We wish more than anything else, to +exist in harmony with members of other religions, who have the +perfect right to believe what they choose to believe. All we ask +is that they afford us that same right. Nobody has the right to +impose their values on any other person, other than in a purely +secular sociological situation where rules and regulations are +2690 + +necessary to avoid total anarchy. + +On the spiritual level, the individual has the right to choose +what form of religion he or she will follow, and how he or she +will perceive his/her own God. When one looks around the world +today, one can see that many of the conflicts going on in places +like Yugoslavia, and Northern Ireland have a religious basis. +They are based on one group of people trying to impose its +religious form on another. This, we feel, is entirely wrong. + +Since the onset of Christianity, it has been the fact that one +religion has tried to impose itself on another. Millions of +people have died in modern times for this very reason. And so +much harm, and so much suffering, and so much pain could have +been avoided if mankind only accepted that one person has no +right to impose his religious will on another. We do not ask for +converts. We do not actively seek converts. All we ask is that +we be left alone in peace, to do that which we feel is right. We +would dearly love to work in harmony with members of other +religions, towards a greater good. Surely, although we walk along +different paths, our ultimate aim should be the same - to achieve +a world that can live in peace with itself. +We believe that our way is one way to achieve that. We do not say +that it is the only way, we say that it is one way. Our paths may +not meet, they may certainly not cross, but they run in parallel, +and if we can hold hands across the divides that exist between +us, surely, the world will be a better place. We have a great +deal in common. Each religion professes a love of humanity. Each +religion professes a love of the world that surrounds us, and yet +so few of those religions that profess those beliefs, do very +much about it. We do not say, as I have already said, that ours +is the only way, the one way, the true way. There is no one true +way. The Arabs I think have a saying, and I may have this wrong, +that there are a million ways to God, and it is for each one of +us to find his or her own way. This, we feel, is a fundamental +truth. We believe passionately, that the world could be a better +place if half the people in it stopped trying to impose their +will on the other half. We have no desire to do this. We wish to +move forward with others who may or may not share our beliefs to +a better world. + +This paper may be freely copied or re-published providing it is +copied or re-published in its entirety without changes, and +authorship credited to James Pengelly, Pagan Federation. + +James Pengelly +The Pagan Federation, +BM Box 7097, +London WCIN 3XX. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2691 + + RITUAL THEORY AND TECHNIQUE + + Copyright Colin Low 1990 + (cal@hplb.hpl.hp.com) + + 1. Introduction + 2. Magical Consciousness + 3. Limitation + 4. Essential Steps + 5. Maps & Correspondences + 6. Conclusion + + 1. Introduction + + These notes attempt to say something useful about magical + ritual. This is difficult, because ritual is invented, and any + sequence of actions can be ritualised and used to symbolise + anything; but then something similar can be said about words and + language, and that doesn't prevent us from trying to communicate, + so I will make the attempt to say something useful about ritual, + and try to steer a path between the Scylla of anthropology and + sweeping generalisations, and the Charybdis of cultish + parochialism. My motivation for writing this is my belief that + while any behaviour can be ritualised, and it is impossible to + state "magical ritual consists of this" or "magical ritual + consists of that", some magical rituals are better than others. + This raises questions of what I mean by "goodness" or "badness", + "effectiveness" or "ineffectiveness" in the context of magical + work, and I intend to duck this with a pragmatic reply. A magical + ritual is "good" if it achieves its intention without undesired + side effects, and it is "bad" if the roof falls on your head. + Underlying this definition is another belief: that magical ritual + taps a raw and potentially dangerous (and certainly amoral) + psychic force which has to be channelled and directed; + traditional forms of magical ritual do that and are not so + arbitrary as they appear to be. + + An outline of ceremonial magical ritual (in the basic form + in which it has been handed down in Europe over the centuries) is + that the magician works within a circle and uses consecrated + tools and the magical names of various entities to evoke or + invoke Powers. It seems to work. Or at least it works for some + people some of the time. How *well* does it work? That's a fair + question, and not an easy one to answer, as there is too much ego + at stake in admitting that one's rituals don't always work out. + My rituals don't always work - sometimes nothing appears to + happen, sometimes I get unexpected side effects. The same is true + of those magicians I know personally, and I suspect the same is + true of most people. Even at the mundane level, if you've ever + tried to recreate a "magical moment" in a relationship, you will + know that it is hard to stand in the same river twice - there is + an elusive and wandering spark which all too often just wanders. + + In summary, I like to know why some rituals work better than + others, and why some, even when that elusive spark is present, go + sour and call up all the wrong things - these notes contain some + of my conclusions. As I have tried to lift the rug and look + underneath the surface, the approach is abstract in places; I +2692 + + prefer to be practical rather than theoretical, but if magic is + to be anything other than a superstitious handing-down of mumbo- + jumbo, we need a model of what is happening, a causality of magic + against which it is possible to make value judgements about what + is good and bad in ritual. Traditional models of angels, spirits, + gods and goddesses, ancestral spirits and so on are useful up to + a point, but these are not the end of the story, and in + penetrating beyond these "intermediaries" the magician is forced + to confront the nature of consciousness itself and become + something of a mystic. + + The idea that the physical universe is the end product of a + "process of consciousness" is virtually a first principle of + Eastern esoteric philosophy, it is at the root of the Kabbalistic + doctrine of emanation and the sephiroth, and it has been adopted + by many twentieth century magicians as a useful complement to + whatever traditional model of magic they were weaned on - once + one has accepted that it is possible to create "thought-forms" + and "artificial elementals" and "telesmic images", it is a small + step to admitting that the gods, goddesses, angels, and spirits + of traditonal magic may have no reality outside of the + consciousness which creates and sustains them. This is what I + believe personally on alternate days of the week. On the + remaining days I am happy to believe in the reality of gods, + goddesses, archangels, elementals, ancestral spirits etc. - in + common with many magicians I sit on the fence in an interesting + way. There is a belief among some magicians that while gods, + goddesses etc may be the creations of consciousness, on a par + with money and the Bill of Rights, such things take on a life of + their own and can be treated as if they were real, so while I + take the view that magic is ultimately the manipulation of + consciousness, you will find me out there calling on the Powers + with as much gusto as anyone else. + + 2. Magical Consciousness + + The principle function of magical ritual is to cause well-defined + changes in consciousness. There are other (non-magical) kinds of + ritual and ceremony - social, superstitious, celebratory etc - + carried out for a variety of reasons, but magical ritual can be + distinguished by its emphasis on causing shifts in consciousness + to states not normally attainable, with a consequence of causing + effects which would be considered impossible or improbable by + most people in this day and age. + + The realisation that the content of magical ritual is a + means to an end, the end being the deliberate manipulation of + consciousness, is an watershed in magical technique. Many people, + particularly the non-practicing general public, believe there is + something inherently magical about ritual, that it can be done, + like cooking, from a recipe book; that prayers, names of powers, + fancy candles, crystals, five-pointed stars and the like have an + intrinsic power which works by itself, and it is only necessary + to be initiated into all the details and hey presto! - you can do + it. I believe this is (mostly) wrong. Symbols do have magical + power, but not in the crude sense implied above; magical power + comes from the conjunction of a symbol and a person who can bring + that symbol to life, by directing and limiting their +2693 + + consciousness through the symbol, in the manner of icing through + an icing gun. Magical power comes from the person (or people), + not from the superficial trappings of ritual. The key to ritual + is the manipulation and shifting of consciousness, and without + that shift it is empty posturing. + + So let us concentrate on magical consciousness, and how it + differs from the state of mind in which we normally carry out our + business in the world. Firstly, there isn't a sudden quantum jump + into an unusual state of mind called magical consciousness. All + consciousness is equally magical, and what we call magical + depends entirely on what we consider to be normal and take for + granted. There is a continuum of consciousness spreading away + from the spot where we normally hang our hat, and the potential + for magic depends more on the appropriateness of our state for + what we are trying to achieve than it does on peculiar trance + states. When I want to boil an egg I don't spend three days + fasting and praying to God; I just boil an egg. One of the + characteristics of my "normal" state of consciousness is that I + understand how to boil an egg, but from many alternative states + of consciousness it is a magical act of the first order. So what + I call magical consciousness differs from normal consciousness + only in so far as it is a state less appropriate for boiling + eggs, and more appropriate for doing other things. + + Secondly, there isn't one simple flavour of magical + consciousness; the space of potential consciousness spreads out + along several different axes, like moving in a space with several + different dimensions, and that means the magician can enter a + large number of distinct states, all of which can be considered + different aspects of magical consciousness. + + Lastly, it is normal to shift our consciousness around in + this space during our everyday lives, so there is nothing unusual + in shifting consciousness to another place. This makes magical + consciousness hard to define, because it isn't something so + extraordinary after all. Nevertheless, there is a difference + between walking across the road and walking around the world, and + there are differences between what I call normal and magical + consciousness, even though they are arbitrary markers in a + continuum. There is a difference in magnitude, and there is a + difference in the "magnitude of intent", that is, will. Magic + takes us beyond the normal; it disrupts cosy certainties; it + explores new territory. Like new technology, once it becomes part + of everyday life it stops being "magical" and becomes "normal". + We learn the "magic of normal living" at an early age and forget + the magic of it; normal living affects us in ways which the + magician recognises as magical, but so "normal" that it is + difficult to realise what is going on. From the point of view of + magical consciousness, "normal life" is seen to be a complex + magical balancing act, like a man who keeps a hundred plates + spinning on canes at the same time and is always on the point of + losing one. Magical consciousness is not the extraordinary state: + normal life is. The man on the stage is so busy spinning his + plates he can spend no time doing anything else. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2694 + + A characteristic of magical consciousness which + distinguishes it from normal consciousness is that in most + magical work the magician moves outside the "normally accessible" + region of consciousness. Most "normal people" will resist an + attempt to shift their consciousness outside the circle of + normality, and if too much pressure is applied they panic, throw- + up, become ill, have hysterics, call the police or a priest or a + psychiatrist, or end up permanently traumatised. Sometimes they + experience a blinding but one-sided illumination and become + fanatics for a one-sided point of view. Real, detectable shifts + in consciousness outside the "normal circle" are to be entered + into warily, and the determined ritualist treads a thin line + between success, and physical and psychical illness. A neophyte + in Tibet swears that he or she is prepared to risk madness, + disease and death, and in my personal experience this is not + melodramatic - the risks are real enough. It depends on + temperament and constitution - some people wander all over the + planes of consciousness with impunity, some find it extremely + stressful, and some claim it never did them any harm (when they + are clearly as cracked as the Portland Vase). The grosser forms + of magic are hard to do because body and mind fight any attempt + to move into those regions of consciousness where it is possible + to transcend the "normal" and create new kinds of normality. + + The switch into magical consciousness is often accompanied + by a feeling of "energy" or "power". Reality becomes a fluid, and + the will is like a wind blowing it this way and that. Far out. + + There are several traditional methods for reaching abnormal + states of consciousness: dance, drumming, hallucinogenic and + narcotic substances, fasting and other forms of privation, sex, + meditation, dreaming, and ritual, used singly and in combination. + These notes deal only with ritual. Magical ritual has evolved + organically out of the desire to reach normally inaccessible + regions of consciousness and still continue living sanely in the + world afterwards, and once that is understood, its profundity + from a psychological point of view can be appreciated. + + 3. Limitation + + The concept of limitation is so important in the way magical + ritual has developed that it is worth taking a look at what it + means before going on to look at the basics of ritual. + + We are limited beings: our lives are limited to some tens of + years, our bodies are limited in their physical abilities, and + compared to all the different kinds of life on this planet we are + clearly very specialised compared with the potential of what we + could be, if we had the choice of being anything we wanted. Even + as human beings we are limited, in that we are all quite distinct + from oneanother, and guard that individuality and uniqueness as + an inalienable right. We limit ourselves to a few skills because + of the effort and talent required to acquire them, and only in + exceptional cases do we find people who are expert in a large + number of different skills - most people are happy if they are + acknowledged as being an expert in one thing, and it is a fact + that as the sum total of knowledge increases, so people + (particularly those with technical skills) are forced to become +2695 + + more and more specialised. + + This idea of limitation and specialisation has found its way + into magical ritual because of the magical (or mystical) + perception that, although all consciousness in the universe is + One, and that Oneness can be perceived directly, it has become + limited. There is a process of limitation in which the One (God, + if you like) becomes progressively structured and constrained + until it reaches the level of thee and me. The details of this + process (sometimes called "The Fall") lies well outside a set of + notes on ritual technique, and being theosophical, is the sort of + thing people like to have long-winded arguments about, so I am + not going to say much about it. What I *will* say is that + magicians and mystics the world over are relatively unanimous in + insisting that the normal everyday consciousness of most human + beings is a severe *limitation* on the potential of + consciousness, and it is possible, through various disciplines, + to extend consciousness into new regions; this harks back to the + "circle of normality" I mentioned in the previous section. From a + magical point of view the personality, the ego, the continuing + sense of individual "me-ness", is a magical creation with highly + specialised abilities, an artificial elemental or thoughtform + which consumes all our magical power in exchange for the kind of + limitation necessary to survive, and in order to work magic it is + necessary to divert energy away from this obsession with personal + identity and self-importance. + + Now, consider the following problem: you have been + imprisoned inside a large inflated plastic bag. You have been + given a sledghammer and a scalpel. Which tool will get you out + faster? The answer I am looking for is the scalpel: a way of + getting out of large, inflated, plastic bags is to apply as much + force as possible to as sharp a point as possible. Magicians + agree on this principle - the key to successful ritual work is a + "single-pointed will". A mystic may try to expand consciousness + in all directions simultaneously, to encompass more and more of + the One, to embrace the One, perhaps even to transcend the One, + but this is hard, and most people aren't up to it in practise. + Rather than expand in all directions simultaneously, it is much + easier to *limit* an excursion of consciousness in one direction, + and the more precise and well-defined that limitation to a + specific direction, the easier it is to get out of the bag. + Limitation of consciousness is the trick we use to cope with the + complexity of life in modern society, and as long as we are + forced to live under this yoke we can make a virtue out of a + necessity, and use our carefully cultivated ability to + focus attention on minutiae to burst out of the bag. + + What limitation means in practise is that magical ritual is + designed to produce specific and highly *limited* changes in + consciousness, and this is done by using a specific map of + consciousness, and there are symbolic correspondences within the + map which can be used in the construction of a ritual - I discuss + this later. The principle of limitation is a key to understanding + the structure of magical ritual, and a key to successful + practice. + + +2696 + + To summarise the last two sections, I would say the + characteristics of a "good" ritual are: + + 1. Entry into magical consciousness and the release of + "magical energy". + + 2. A limitation of consciousness to channel that energy in + the correct direction, with minimal "splatter". + + Without the energy there is nothing to channel. Without the + limitation, energy splatters in all directions and takes the path + of minimal psychic resistance to earth. A magical ritual is the + calculated shifting and limitation of consciousness. + + 4. Essential Steps + + There is never going to be agreement about what is essential + in a ritual and what is not, any more than there will ever be + agreement about what makes a good novel. That doesn't mean there + is nothing worth discussing. The steps I have enumerated below + are suggestions which were handed down to me, and a lot of + insight (not mine) has gone into them; they conform to a Western + magical tradition which has not changed in its essentials for + thousands of years, and I hand them on to you in the same spirit + as I received them. + + These are the steps: + + 1. Open the Circle + 2. Open the Gates + 3. Invocation to the Powers + 4. Statement of Intention and Sacrifice + 5. Main Ritual + 6. Dismissal of Powers + 7. Close the Gates + 8. Close the Circle + + 4.1 Open the Circle + + The Circle is the place where magical work is carried out. + It might literally be circle on the ground, or it could be a + church, or a stone ring, or a temple, or it might be an imagined + circle inscribed in the aethyr, or it could be any spot hallowed + by tradition. In some cases the Circle is created specifically + for one piece of work and then closed, while in other cases (e.g. + a church) the building is consecrated and all the space within + the building is treated as if it is an open circle for long + periods of time. I don't want to deal too much in generalities, + so I will deal with the common case where a circle is created + specifically for one piece of work, for a period of time + typically less than one day. + + The Circle is the first important magical limit: it creates + an area within which the magical work takes place. The magician + tries to control everything which takes place within the Circle + (limitation), and so a circle half-a-mile across is impractical. + The Circle marks the boundary between the rest of the world + (going on its way as normal), and a magical space where things +2697 + + are most definitely not going on as normal (otherwise there + wouldn't be any point in carrying out a ritual in the first + place). There is a dislocation: the region inside the circle is + separated from the rest of space and is free to go its own way. + There are some types of magical work where it may not be sensible + to have a circle (e.g. working with the natural elements in the + world at large) but unless you are working with a Power already + present in the environment in its normal state, it is useful to + work within a circle. + + The Circle may be a mark on the ground, or something more + intangible still; my own preference is an imagined line of blue + fire drawn in the air. It is in the nature of consciousness that + anything taken as real and treated as real will eventually be + accepted as Real - and if you want to start a good argument, + state that money doesn't exist and isn't Real. From a ritual + point of view the Circle is a real boundary, and if its + usefulness is to be maintained it should be treated with the same + respect as an electrified fence. Pets, children and casual + onlookers should be kept out of it. Whatever procedures take + place within the Circle should only take place within the Circle + and in no other place, and conversely, your normal life should + not intrude on the Circle unless it is part of your intention + that it should. Basically, if you don't want a circle, don't have + one, but if you do have one, decide what it means and stick to + it. There is a school of thought which believes a circle is a + "container for power", and another which believes a circle "keeps + out the nasties". I subscribe to both and neither of these points + of view. From a symbolic point of view, the Circle marks a new + "circle of normality", a circle different from my usual "circle + of normality", making it possible to keep the two "regions of + consciousness" distinct and separate. The magician leaves + everyday life behind when the Circle is opened, and returns to it + when the Circle is closed, and for the duration adopts a + discipline of thought and deed which is specific to the type of + magical work being undertaken; this procedure is not so different + from that in many kinds of laboratory where people work with + hazardous materials. The circle is both a barrier and a + container. This is a kind of psychic sanitation, and in magic + "sanity" and "sanitary" have more in common than spelling. + + Opening a Circle usually involves drawing a circle in the + air or on the ground, accompanied by an invocation to guardian + spirits, or the elemental powers of the four quarters, or the + four watchtowers, or the archangels, or whatever. The details + aren't so important as practicing it until you can do it in your + sleep, and you should carry it out with the same attitude as a + soldier on formal guard duty outside a public building. You are + establishing a perimeter under the watchful "eyes" of whatever + guardians you have requested to keep an eye on things, and a + martial attitude and sense of discipline creates the right + psychological mood. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2698 + + 4.2 Opening the Gates + + The Gates in question are the boundary between normal and + magical consciousness. Just as opening the Circle limits the + ritual in space, so opening the Gates limits the ritual in time. + Not everyone opens the Gates as a separate activity; opening a + Circle can be considered a de-facto opening of Gates, but there + are good reasons for keeping the two activities separate. + Firstly, it is convenient to be able to open a Circle without + going into magical consciousness; despite what I said about not + bringing normal consciousness into the Circle, rules are made to + be broken, and there are times when something unpleasant and + unwanted intrudes on normal consciousness, and a Circle can be + used to keep it out - like pulling blankets over your head at + night. Secondly, opening the Gates as a separate activity means + they can be tailored to the specific type of magical + consciousness you are trying to enter. Thirdly, just as bank + vaults and ICBMs have two keys, so it is prudent to make the + entry into magical consciousness something you are not likely to + do on a whim, and the more distinct steps there are, the more + conscious effort is required. Lastly - and it is an important + point - I open the circle with a martial attitude, and it is + useful to have a breathing space to switch out of that mood and + into the mood needed for the invocation. Opening the Gates + provides an opportunity to make that switch. + + 4.3 Invocation to the Powers + + The invocation to the Powers is often an occasion for some + of the most laboured, leaden, pompous, grandiose and turgid prose + ever written or recited. Tutorial books on magic are full of this + stuff. "Oh glorious moon, wreathed in aetherial light...". You + know the stuff. If you are invoking Saturn during a waxing moon + you might be justified in going on like Brezhnev addressing the + Praesidium of the Soviet Communist Party, but as in every other + aspect of magic, the trick isn't what you do, but how you do it, + and interminable invocations aren't the answer. On a practical + level, reading a lengthy invocation from a sheet of paper in dim + candlelight requires so much conscious effort that it is hard to + "let go", so I like keep things simple and to the point, and + practice until I can do an invocation without having to think + about it too much, and that leaves room for the more important + "consciousness changing" aspect of the invocation. + + An invocation is like a ticket for a train, and if you can't + find the train there isn't much point in having the ticket. + Opening the Gates gets you to the doorstep of magical + consciousness, but it is the invocation which gets you onto the + train and propels you to the right place, and that isn't + something which "just happens" unless you have a natural aptitude + for the aspect of consciousness you are invoking. However, it + does happen; people tend to begin their magical work with those + areas of consciousness where they feel most at home, so they may + well have some initial success. Violent, evil people do violent + and evil conjurations; loving people invoke love - most people + begin their magical work with "a free ticket" to some altered + state of consciousness, but in general, invoking a specific + aspect of consciousness takes practice and I don't expect +2699 + + immediate results when I invoke something new. If interminable + tracts of deathless prose work for you, then fine, but I find it + hard to keep a straight face when piety and pomposity combine to + produce the sort of invocations to be found in print. I name no + names. + + I can't give a prescription for entering magical + consciousness. Well devised rituals, practised often, have a way + of shifting consciousness which is surprising and unexpected. I + don't know why this happens; it just does. I suspect the peculiar + character of ritual, the way it involves the senses and occupies + mind and body simultaneously, its numinous and exotic symbolism, + the intensity of preparation and execution, involve dormant parts + of the mind, or at least engage the normal parts in an unusual + way. Using ritual to cause shifts in consciousness is not + exceptionally difficult; getting the results you want, and + avoiding unexpected and undesired side-effects is harder. Ritual + is not a rational procedure. The symbolism of magic is intuitive + and bubbles out of a very deep well; the whole process of ritual + effectively bypasses the rational mind, so expecting the outcome + of a ritual to obey the dictates of reason is completely + irrational. The image of a horse is appropriate: anyone can get + on the back of a wild mustang, but reaching the point where horse + and rider go in the same direction at the same time takes + practice. The process of limitation described in these notes + can't influence the natural waywardness of the animal, but at + least it is a method for ensuring that the horse gets a clear + message. + + 4.4 Statement of Intention and Sacrifice + + If magical ritual is not to be regarded as a form of + bizarre entertainment carried out for its own sake, then there + has to be a reason for doing it - healing, divination, personal + development, initiation, and the like. If it is healing, then it + is usually healing for one specific person, and then again, it is + probably not just healing in general, but healing for some + specific complaint, within some period of time. The statement of + intention is the culmination of a process of limitation which + begins when the Circle is opened, and to return to the analogy of + the plastic bag, the statement of intention is like the blade on + the scalpel - the more precise the intention, the more the energy + of the ritual is concentrated to a single point. + + The observation that rituals work better if their energy is + focussed by intention is in accord with experience in everyday + life: any change involving other people, no matter how small or + insignificant, tends to meet with opposition. If you want to + change the brand of coffee in the coffee machine, or if you want + to rearrange the furniture in the office, someone will object. If + you want to drive a new road through the countryside, local + people object. If you want to raise taxes, everyone objects. The + more people you involve in a change, the more opposition you + encounter, and in magic the same principle holds, because from a + magical point of view the whole fabric of the universe is held in + place by an act of collective intention involving everything from + God downwards. When you perform a ritual you are setting yourself + up against a collective will to keep most things the way they +2700 + + are, and your ritual will succeed only if certain things are + true: + + 1. you are a being of awesome will. + + 2. you have allies. The universe is changing, there is + always a potential for change, and if your intention + coincides with an existing will to bring about that change, + your ritual can act as a catalyst. + + 3. you limit your intention to minimise opposition; the + analogy is the diamond cutter who exploits natural lines of + cleavage to split a diamond. + + Suppose you want to bring peace to the world. This is an + admirable intention, but the average person would have no more + effect (with or without magic) on the peacefulness of the world + than they would if they attempted to smash Mount Everest with a + rubber hammer. Rather than worry about the peacefulness of the + whole world, why not use your ritual to create a better + relationship with your spouse, or your boss, or someone who + really annoys you? And why not work on the specific issues which + are the main source of friction. And try to improve things within + a specified period of time. And do it in a way which respects the + other person's right to continue being a pain in the arse if they + so wish? This is the idea behind focussing or limiting an + intention. Having said all this, there are a lot of people in the + world who would appreciate some peace, and perhaps your grand + intention to bring peace might catch a wave and help a few, so + don't let me put you off, but as a general principle it is + sensible to avoid unnecessary opposition by making the intention + as precise as possible. Think about sources of opposition, and + about ways of circumventing that opposition - there may be a + simple way which avoids making waves, and that is when magic + works best. Minimising opposition also reduces the amount of + backlash you can expect - quite often the simplest path to earth + for any intention is through the magician, and if there is a lot + of opposition that is what happens. [The very act of invoking + power creates a resonance and a natural channel through the + magician.] + + I try to analyse the possible outcomes and consequences of + my intentions. There is a popular view that "if it harms none, do + what you will". I can think of many worse moral principles, and + it is better than most, but it is still naive. It pretends that + it is theoretically possible to live without treading on another + person's toes, it leaves me to make unilateral decisions about + what is or is not harmful to others, and it is so wildly + unrealistic, even in the context of everyday life, that it only + seems to make sense if I intend to live in seclusion in a + wilderness living off naturally occuring nuts and berries (having + asked the squirrels for permission). If it is used as a moral + principle in magic, then it draws an artificial distinction + between magical work and the "push me, push you/if it moves, + shoot it, if it doesn't, cut it down" style of contemporary life. + It completely emasculates free-will. I prefer to believe that + just about anything I do is going to have an impact on someone or + something, and there are no cute moral guidelines; there are diff --git a/religious documents/2701-800.txt b/religious documents/2701-800.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2ade3e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/2701-800.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5579 @@ +2701 + + actions and there are outcomes. The aim is not to live according + to guidelines, but to understand as fully as possible the + consequences of the things we do, and to decide, in the light of + our understanding (which has hopefully kept pace with our power), + whether we are prepared to live with the outcomes. + + And so to sacrifice. There is a problem here. The problem arises + from the perception that in magic you don't get something for + nothing, and if you want to bring about change through magic you + have to pay for it in some way. So far so good. The question is: + what can you give in return? There is a widespread belief that + you can sacrifice a living creature, and while most magicians + (self included) abhor the idea, the perpetuation of this idea is + still being used as a stick to beat the magical and pagan + community about the head. The issue is further complicated by the + fact that if one looks at surviving shamanistic practices + worldwide, or looks at the origins of most religions, ritual + animal sacrifice is endemic. That doesn't make it right, and I + have an unshakeable prejudice that it isn't an acceptable thing + to do, but I am only too aware of my hypocrisy when I order a + chicken curry, so I'm not going to stand on a soapbox and rant on + about it. + + What I prefer to do is to examine what the notion of + sacrifice means. What can one legitimately sacrifice? You can't + legitimately sacrifice anything which is not yours to give, and + so the answer to the question "what can I sacrifice" lies in the + answer to the question "what am I, and what have I got to give?". + You certainly aren't any other living being, and if you don't + make the mistake of identifying yourself with your possessions + you will see that the only sacrifice you can make is yourself, + because that is all you have to give. Every ritual intention + requires that you sacrifice some part of yourself, and if you + don't make the sacrifice willingly then either the ritual will + fail, or the price will be exacted anyway. I don't have a + rational justification for this statement, and it certainly isn't + based on "karma" or a paranoid feeling that accountants are + everywhere; the belief was handed on to me as part of my magical + training, and having observed the way in which "magical energy" + is utilised to carry out intentions, it makes sense. Each person + has a certain amount of what I will call "life energy" at their + disposal - some people call it "personal power", and you can + sacrifice some of that energy to power the ritual. Sacrifice does + not mean turning the knife on yourself (and there are plenty of + people who do that). What it means in ordinary down-to-earth + terms is that you promise to do something in return for your + intention, and you link the sacrifice to the intention in such a + way that the sacrifice focuses energy along the direction of your + intention. For example, my cat was ill and hadn't eaten for three + weeks, so, as a last resort, fearing she was about to die of + starvation, I carried out a ritual to restore her appetite, and + as a sacrifice I ate nothing for 24 hours. I used my (real) + hunger to drive the intention, and she began eating the following + day. + + Any personal sacrifice which hurts enough engages a deep + impulse to make the hurt go away, and the magician can use that + impulse to bring about magical change by linking the removal of +2702 + + the pain to the accomplishment of the intention. And I don't mean + magical masochism. We are (subject to all caveats on + generalisations) creatures of habit who find comfort and security + by living our lives in a particular way, and a change to that + habit and routine causes some discomfort and an opposing desire + to return to the original state: that desire can be used. Just as + a ritual intends to change the world in some way, so a sacrifice + forces us to change ourselves in some way, and that liberates + magical energy. If you want to heal someone, don't just do a + ritual and leave it at that; become involved in caring for them + in some way, and that *active* caring can act as a channel for + whatever power you have invoked. If you want to use magic to help + someone out of a mess, provide them with active, material help as + well; conversely, if you can't be bothered to provide material + help, your ritual will be infected with that same inertia and + apathy - true will, will out, and in many cases our true will is + to flatter the ego and do nothing substantive. I speak from + experience. + + From a magical perspective each one of us is a magical being + with a vast potential of power, but that is denied to us by an + innate, fanatical, and unbelievably deep-rooted desire to keep + the world in a regular orbit serving our own needs. Self- + sacrifice disturbs this equilibrium and lets out some of that + energy, and that is why egoless devotion and self-sacrifice has a + reputation for working miracles. + + 4.5 The Main Ritual + + After invoking the Powers and having stated the intention + and sacrifice, there would seem to be nothing more to do, but + most people like to prolong the contact with the Powers and carry + out some kind of symbolic ritual for a period of time varying + from minutes to days. Ritual as I have described it so far may + seem like a cut-and-dried exercise, but it isn't; it is more of + an art than a science, and once the Circle and Gates are opened, + and the Powers are "in attendance", whatever science there is in + ritual gives way to art. Magicians operate in a world where + ordinary things have complex symbolic meanings or + correspondences, and they use a selection of consecrated + implements or "power objects" in their work. The magician can use + this palette of symbols within a ritual to paint of picture which + signifies an intention in a non-verbal, non-rational way, and it + is this ability to communicate an intention through every sense + of the body, through every level of the mind, which gives ritual + its power. I can't say any more about this because it is personal + and unique to every magician, and each one develops a style which + works best for them. + + 4.6 Dismissal of Powers + + Once the ritual is complete the Powers are thanked and + dismissed. This begins the withdrawal of consciousness back to + its pre-ritual state. + + 4.7 Close Gates/Close Circle + + The final steps are closing the Gates (thus sealing off the +2703 + + altered state of consciousness) and closing the Circle (thus + returning to the everyday world). The Circle should not be closed + if there is any suspicion that the withdrawal from the altered + state has not been completed fully. I like to carry out a sanity + check between closing the Gates and closing the Circle. It + sometimes happens that although the magician goes through the + steps of closing down, the attention is not engaged, and the + magician remains in the altered state. This is not a good idea. + The energy of that state will continue to manifest in every + intention in everyday life, and all sorts of unplanned things + will start to happen. A related problem is that every magician + will find sooner or later an altered state which compensates for + some of their perceived inadequacies (in the way that many people + like to get drunk at parties), and they will not want to let go + of it because it makes them feel good, so they come out of the + ritual in an altered state without realising they have failed to + close down correctly. This is called obsession, and it is one of + the interesting difficulties of magical work. + + Closing down correctly is important if you don't want to end + up like a badly cracked pot. If you don't feel happy that the + Powers have been completely dismissed and the Gates closed + correctly, go back and repeat the steps again. + + 5. Maps & Correspondences + + If consciousness is imagined as a space we can move around in, + then it is a space of several dimensions. An indespensible tool + for any magician is a method for describing this space and its + dimensions, a method to specify the "the coordinates of + consciousness", like giving a map reference. The magician uses + such a descriptive method to say "this is where I want to get + to", and you can imagine a ritual as a vehicle which transports + him or her to the destination and back again. + + A descriptive method of this type is one of the most obvious + and characteristic features of a particular magical technique, + because states of consciousness are usually described using a + dense mesh of symbolism and metaphor, and if a magical tradition + has been around for any length of time it becomes identified by + the details of this symbolism. Given the tendency for maps to be + confused with territory, there is a tendency for symbolism to + take on a life of its own and become completely detached from + authentic magical technique. People confuse magical symbolism + with magic; its use as a coordinate system is lost, vast tomes of + drivel are written, and every manner of absurdity follows. + + I am a Kabbalist by training and use a map of consciousness + called "The Tree of Life". This map has been coloured in using a + thousand years of symbolism, and the result is called "the + Correspondences", and it is a system which allows me to navigate + around the dimensions of consciousness with some precision. There + are many other maps, some well worn by history, some not, and my + choice is a matter of personal preference. It works for me + because of the kind of person I am, but it is only a map and I + wouldn't pretend that there was anything intrinsically special + about it. + +2704 + + Many magicians operate within a religious framework. The + Christian Mass is a magical ritual par excellence, and there are + several other magical rituals associated with Christianity. Some + magicians work within a pantheon - Graeco-Roman, Egyptian, + Scandinavian, Aztec or whatever. Some (e.g. Crowley) invent their + own religion. A characteristic of all these systems is that they + provide a complex mesh of symbol and metaphor, a map for the + magician to work within. For any pantheon it is usually + straightforward (with some bending, stretching and hitting with + a hammer) to identify a personification for the following aspects + of consciousness: + + heaviness, old-age, stagnation, limitation, inertia + + creativity, inspiration, vision, leadership + + violence, force, destructiveness + + harmony, integrity, balance, wholeness + + love, hate, passion, sensual beauty, aesthetics, emotional + power, nurture + + reason, abstraction, communication, conceptualisation, logic + + imagination, instinct, the unconscious + + practicality, pragmatism, stolidity, materialism + + And once we have gods and goddesses (or saints) to personify + these qualities, a weave of metaphors and associations elaborates + the picture; the Moon is instinct, fire is both destructive and + energetic, death is a sythe, air and mercury are "the same", and + so on. The meaning of a symbol is personal - white means "death" + to some and "purity" to others. What matters is that the magician + should have a clear map, and with it the ability to invoke + different aspects of consciousness by using the symbolism of + gods, goddesses, archangels, demons or whatever. It does not + matter whether the magician believes in the literal reality of + the territory or not, as long as he or she treats the map with + respect and does not muddy the water by dabbling with too many + different maps. There are two principal ways in which maps become + muddled, and as the main theme of these notes is the precise use + of limitation in conjuction with magical consciousness, I think + it is worth mentioning what I see as potential pitfalls. The + first pitfall is mixing systems; the second is working with other + people. + + There is a tendency nowadays to muddle different systems of + correspondences together, to add Egyptian gods to a Kabbalistic + ritual, to say that Tanith is really the same as Artemis, or that + Cybele and Astarte and Demeter are "just" different names for the + Mother Goddess, to find parallels between Thor and Mars, between + Kali and Hecate, between the Virgin Mary and Isis, until, like + different colours of paint mixed together, everything ends up in + shades of muddy brown. This unifying force is everywhere as + people find universal themes and try to make links between groups + and systems. +2705 + + It is (in my opinion) a bad idea to mix systems together in + a spirit of ecumenical fervour. Correspondences are like + intentions: the sharper and more clearly defined they are, the + better they work. Despite a few similarities, the Virgin Mary is + nothing like Isis, and Demeter has very little in common with + Astarte. Syncretism usually takes place slowly over the + centuries, so that for most people there is no distinction + between the classical Greek and Roman pantheons and Mercury is a + synonym for Hermes, but to do it in real-time in your own head is + a recipe for muddle-headedness. + + Symbols can be diffused when people work together in a + group. It is a mistake to believe that "power" is raised in + direct proportion to the number of people taking part in a + ritual. Unless people have been trained together and have similar + "maps", then the ritual will have a different effect on each + person, and although more power may be raised, it will be + unfocussed and will probably earth itself through unexpected + channels. When people begin working together there will be a + period of time when their work together will probably be less + effective than any one of them working alone, but after a time + their "maps" begin to converge and things start to improve + dramatically. There is nothing magical about this - it is a + phenomenon of teams of people in general. I don't like "spectator + rituals" for this reason; you are either in it or your are out, + and if you are out, you are out the door. + + Does it matter what map, what system of correspendences a + person uses? Is there a "best" set? This is an impossible + question to answer. What can be said is that working within any + magical framework incurs a cost. The more effective a magical + system is at limiting, engaging and mobilising the creative power + of consciousness, the more effective it is at ensnaring + consciousness within its own assumptions and limitations. If a + person works within a belief system where the ultimate nature of + God is pure, unbounded love, joy and bliss, then that closes off + other possibilities. + + Without sitting in judgement of any set of beliefs, I would + say that the best belief system and the best system of + correspondences is one which allows consciousness to roam over + the greatest range of possibilities, and permits it the free-will + to choose its own limitations. And that is a belief in itself. + + 6. Conclusion + + The gist of these notes is that ritual is a technique for + focussing magical power through the deliberate use of limitation. + Limitation comes from the belief system of the magician, and the + set of correspondences used to create symbolism within the + ritual. Further limitation comes from the structure of the ritual + itself, and ultimately from the statement of intention. With + practise these elements add up to a single-mindedness which can + shift consciousness out of its normal orbit. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2706 + + Shamanism (Internet) + +Overview-Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) + +Summary: This FAQ contains a general overview on shamanism. + It should be read by anyone interested in understanding the what + is meant by shamanism and what differentiates shamanism form + other forms of ecstatic experience +Keywords: shaman, anthropology, ethnography, consciousness, spirit, +oobe +Organization: La Casa del Paese Lontano +Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 02:37:55 GMT +Lines: 227 + +Archive-name: shamanism/overview +Last-modified: 8 March 1994 +Version: 1.1 + +NOTE: The following general overview of shamanism is not intended to +be the last word or the definitive work on this subject. Rather it is, +as its title implies, intended to provide the participant or reader with +a set of guidelines that will familiarize them with the general use of +the terms shamanism, shaman and shamanic in the trends, study and +practice of historic, traditional and contemporary shamanic experience. +The word 'shaman comes to English from the Tungus language via Russian. +Among the Tungus of Siberia it is both a noun and a verb. While the +Tungus have no word for shamanism, it has come into usage by anthropolo- +gists, historians of religion and others in contemporary society to +designate the experience and the practices of the shaman. Its usage has +grown to include similar experiences and practices in cultures outside +of the original Siberian cultures from which the term shaman originated. +Thus shamanism is not the name of a religion or group of religions. +Particular attention should be paid to the use of qualifying words +such as "may" or "usually". They indicate examples or tendencies and +are not, in any way, intended to represent rigid standards +Please send comments to deane@netcom.com (Dean Edwards). + +Shamanism-General Overview-Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) +(c November, 1993 by Dean Edwards) +This FAQ shall be posted monthly and is maintained by Dean Edwards +(deane@netcom.com). It is intended for the private non-commercial use +of Usenet users. It may not be sold without the permission of the +author. + +Table of Contents: + + 1. Terms used in this FAQ + 2. What is shamanism? + 3. What is Shamanic Ecstasy? + 4. Becoming a shaman + 5. The role of trauma in the development of a shaman + 6. The relationship between shamanic traditions and culture + 7. The role of Shamanic Ecstasy + 8. The origin of the term "shamanism" + 9. Roles of the shaman +10. Reasons for this FAQ + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2707 + +1. Why were the terms used in this FAQ selected and do they have special +meanings. There is an extensive literature about shamanism that has been +compiled since the late Eighteenth Century. Like any field of study and +religious practice, shamanism has developed a specialized vocabulary. +Please note that some of the words used in the material that follows are +drawn from scholars who have a solid background in shamanic studies and +may have meanings that are specific and less general than is often the +case in popular usage. Consulting a good dictionary should clear up any +points of confusion. + +2. What is Shamanism? +Shamanism is classified by anthropologists as an archaic +magico-religious phenomenon in which the shaman is the great master +of ecstasy. Shamanism itself, was defined by the late Mircea Eliade +as a technique of ecstasy. A shaman may exhibit a particular magical +specialty (such as control over fire, wind or magical flight). When a +specialization is present the most common is as a healer. The +distinguishing characteristic of shamanism is its focus on an +ecstatic trance state in which the soul of the shaman is believed to +leave the body and ascend to the sky (heavens) or descend into the +earth (underworld). The shaman makes use of spirit helpers, which +he or she communicates with, all the while retaining control over +his or her own consciousness. (Examples of possession occur, but +are the exception, rather than the rule.) It is also important to +note that while most shamans in traditional societies are men, +either women or men may and have become shamans. + +3. What is Shamanic Ecstasy and how does it compare with other +forms of ecstasy? + + From the Greek 'ekstasis', ecstasy literally means to be placed +outside, or to be placed.This is a state of exaltation in which a +person stands outside of or transcends his or herself. Ecstasy may +range from the seizure of the body by a spirit or the seizure of a +person by the divine, from the magical transformation or flight of +consciousness to psychiatric remedies of distress. + +Three types of Ecstasy are specified in the literature on the subject: +1. Shamanic Ecstasy +2. Prophetic Ecstasy +3. Mystical Ecstasy + +Shamanic ecstasy is provoked by the ascension of the soul of the +shaman into the heavens or its descent into the underworld. These +states of ecstatic exaltation are usually achieved after great and +strenuous training and initiation, often under distressing +circumstances. The resulting contact by the shaman with the +higher or lower regions and their inhabitants, and also with +nature spirits enables him or her to accomplish such tasks as +accompanying the soul of a deceased into its proper place in the +next world, affect the well-being of the sick and to convey the +story of their inner travels upon their return to the mundane +awareness. + +The utterances of the shaman are in contrast with those of prophetic +and mystical ecstasy. The prophet literally speaks for God, while the +mystic reports an overwhelming divine presence. In mysticism, the +direct knowledge or experience of the divine ultimate reality, which is +2708 + +perceptible in two ways, emotional and intuitive. While these three +varieties of ecstatic experience are useful for the purposes of +analysis and discussion, it is not unusual for more than one form of +ecstasy to be present in an individual's experience. + +However, it can be argued that, generally speaking, there are three +perceptive levels of ecstasy. +1) The physiological response, in which the mind becomes absorbed in +and focused on a dominant idea, the attention is withdrawn and the +nervous system itself is in part cut off from physical sensory input. +The body exhibits reflex inertia, involuntary nervous responses, frenzy. +2) Emotional perception of ecstasy refers to overwhelming feelings of +awe, anxiety, joy, sadness, fear, astonishment, passion, etc. +3) Intuitive perception communicates a direct experience and +understanding of the transpersonal experience of expanded states of +awareness or consciousness. + +While the physiological response is always present, the emotional +response may or may not be significant when intuition is the principal +means of ecstatic perception. Some have argued that beyond the intuitive +state there is a fourth condition in which the holistic perception +exceeds mental and emotional limitations and understanding. + +The ecstatic experience of the shaman goes beyond a feeling or percep- +tion of the sacred, the demonic or of natural spirits. It involves the +shaman directly and actively in transcendent realities or lower realms +of being. + +4. How does one become a shaman? + +Some have wondered if the experience of shamanic ecstasy or flight +makes a person a shaman. Generally speaking, most would say no. +A shaman is more than someone with an experience. First, he or she +is a trained initiate. Usually years of trenculturalization and +under a mentor precede becoming a functioning shaman. Second, a +shaman is not just an initiate who has received inner and outer +training, but is a master of shamanic journeying and techniques +(shamanic ecstasy). This is not a casual acquaintance with such +abilities, there is some degree of mastery of them. Finally, a +shaman is a link or bridge between this world and the next. This +is a sacred trust and a service to the community. Sometimes a +community that a shaman serves in is rather small. In other +instances it may be an entire nation. A lot of that depends on +social and cultural factors. + +One becomes a shaman by one of three methods: +a) Hereditary transmission; +b) Spontaneous selection or "call" or "election"; +c) personal choice and quest. (This latter method is less frequent +and traditionally such a shaman is considered less powerful than one +selected by one of the two preceding methods.) The shaman is not +recognized as legitimate without having undergone two types of +training: +1) Ecstatic (dreams, trances, etc.) +2) Traditional ("shamanic techniques, names and functions of +spirits,mythology and genealogy of the clan, secret language, etc.) The +two-fold course of instruction, given by the spirits and the old master +shamans is equivalent to an initiation." (Mircea Eliade, The Encyclo- +2709 + +pedia of Religion, v. 13 , p. 202; Mcmillian, N.Y., 1987.) It is also +possible for the entire process to take place in the dream state or in +ecstaticexperience. Thus, there is more to becoming a shaman than a +single experience. It requires training, perseverance and service. + +5. What is the role of personal trauma or crisis in the selection or +development of a shaman? +A common experience of the call to shamanism is a psychic or spiritual +crisis, which often accompanies a physical or even a medical crisis, and +is cured by the shaman him or herself. This is a common occurrence for +all three types of shamanic candidates described above. The shaman is +often marked by eccentric behavior such as periods of melancholy, +solitude, visions, singing in his or her sleep, etc. The inability of +the traditional remedies to cure the condition of the shamanic candidate +and the eventual self cure by the new shaman is a significant episode in +development of the shaman. The underlying significant aspect of this +experience, when it is present,is the ability of the shaman to manage +and resolve periods of distress. + +6. Does the presence of an active shamanic tradition necessarily mean +that the society itself should be deemed "shamanic"? +No, not at all. The presence of shamanism in a nation or a community +does not mean that shamanism is central to the spiritual or religious +life of the community or region. Shamanism often exists alongside and +even in cooperation with the religious or healing practices of the +community. + +7. What is meant by shamanic ecstasy and what role does it actually play +in shamanism? +The ecstatic technique of shamanism does not involve itself in the broad +range of ecstasy reported in the history of religion. It is specifically +focused on the transpersonal movement of the consciousness of the +shaman into higher or lower realms of consciousness and existence. +Another aspect of shamanism is that compared to other spiritual +traditions, it is a path that the individual walks alone. While much of +the focus of shamanic studies has been on the shamanic complexes of +north and central Asia, shamanism is a universal phenomenon, not +confined to any particular region or culture. + +8. What is the origin of the word "shaman"? +Shaman comes from the language of the Tungus of North-Central Asia. It +came into use in English via Russian. + +9. What are the usual roles of a shaman? +In contemporary, historical or traditional shamanic practice the shaman +may at times fill the role of priest, magician, metaphysician or healer. +Personal experience is the prime determinant of the status of a shaman. +Knowledge of other realms of being and consciousness and the cosmology +of those regions is the basis of the shamanic perspective and power. +With this knowledge, the shaman is able to serve as a bridge between the +mundane and the higher and lower states The shaman lives at the edge of +reality as most people would recognize it and most commonly at the edge +of society itself. Few indeed have the stamina to adventure into these +realms and endure the outer hardships and personal crises that have been +reported by or observed of many shamans. + +10. Why was this FAQ written? +This FAQ was originally written to support a new Usenet +2710 + +newsgroup, 'soc.religion.shamanism'. The purpose of this +newsgroup is to provide a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas, +views and information about historic,traditional, tribal and +contemporary shamanism. This FAQ is intended to provide a useful general +overview of what 'shamanism' actually means and what it is in practice. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2711 + + SPRING EQUINOX RITUAL + By Marian Starwatcher + +Clothing : The priestess who will invoke Athena (1) can wear any robe +that feels right to her, but she will carry the sword. The priestess +invoking Demeter (2) should wear a green robe, but cover it with her +cloak to begin with. The priestess invoking Kore (3) should wear a +spring robe, covered with a dark cloak. + +Before the ritual, place a large number of candles about the temple. +Leave them unlit. One tiny candle should be placed on the altar. The +matches should be put where they can be got at easily! + +Burn Black Forest Incense ... a fair amount of it. Keep the door of +your temple CLOSED. + +Have ready some lavender oil to burn later in the ritual. + +Have the participants each bring a candle. + +When the participants enter, have them stand in the centre of the +temple. It will be dark. Shut the door. + +Priestess 1 goes to the east quarter, 2 to the south, 3 to the west. + +Call the quarters theatrically. + +All : Kore is in the underworld. + +Priestess 1 : Blow, gentle breezes from the depths of the earth, + Bring us to her in safety. + +All : Kore is in the underworld. + +Priestess 2 : Come, tiny flame, shine in the depths of the earth, + Guide us to her in safety. + +All : Kore is in the underworld. + +Priestess 3 : Come, still dark waters in the depths of the earth, + Bring us to her in safety. + +All : Kore is in the underworld. + Cold stone under our feet in the depths of the earth, + Bring us to her in safety. + +P2 silently raises the circle. The participants seat themselves. + +P3 : It is dark. So dark. + +P2 : It is cold. So cold. + +P1 : Where is the Grain Mother? + +P3 : Where is Demeter? + +P2 : She has turned her face from the earth. + +2712 + +P1 : How can this be? + +All : Mother Demeter, speak to us! + Mother Demeter, speak to us! + Mother Demeter, speak to us! + +P2 : invokes Demeter. + +Demeter : My daughter, where is my daughter? + Where is she for whom I made the sun shine? + Where is she for whom I made the grain grow? + + Kore, Kore, Kore! + +P1 invokes Athena. + +Athena : She has gone below, Mother Demeter. + +All : Kore is in the underworld. + Kore is in the underworld. + Kore is in the underworld. + +Demeter : Then I will cover my face + And let the earth die. + + Kore, Kore, Kore! + +Athena : Mother, the people of the earth need you. + We are cold. + We are hungry. + We must have light. + +Demeter : Kore, Kore, Kore! + +Demeter turns her back. + +Athena turns to the participants. + +Athena : Then we must go below to her + And beseech her to return. + The earth must not die. + +Athena moves to the altar and lights the tiny candle. + +P3 : Our steps falter. + +All : It is dark, dark. + +P3 : Our sight falters. + +All : It is dark, dark. + +P3 : Our hearts falter. + +All : It is dark, dark. + +Athena : Courage, for I am with you. + Even in the darkness I am with you. +2713 + + Even in the coldness I am with you. + And see - we approach Kore on her throne! + + +Athena directs the participants' attention to the west. + +All : Kore, speak to us! + Kore, speak to us! + Kore, speak to us! + +P3 invokes Kore/Persephone. + +Kore : I have gone below. + Why do you now come to me? + +Athena : Kore, why are you here + In the dark and the cold? + +Kore : Don't you know that all people + Even gods + Must go into the dark + And look within? + +Athena : Kore, your Mother weeps for you. + Will you come home to us? + +Kore : Don't you know that all children + Even gods + Must leave their Mothers + And grow into adulthood? + +Athena : Kore, the earth is dying. + Will you come home to us? + +Kore : The earth must not die. + I will beseech my mother + To bring life to the earth again. + +Kore picks up the tiny candle and 'leads' the participants out. + +Kore : We walk through the darkness of the underworld. + Our steps are sure. + We do not fear the darkness of the underworld, + For it is also the darkness within ourselves. + We wind our way through the caverns. + And now we feel the breath of the wind on our faces. + We emerge from the underworld to the earth. + The wind is cold. + The earth is dark. + +Athena : Mother Demeter, we have returned. + +Demeter : Kore, Kore, Kore! + +Kore : Mother, I am here. + +Demeter : Kore, you have returned! + Stay with me and run in the fields as you did before. +2714 + + Play in the gardens of the earth as you did before. + +Kore : Mother, I cannot stay. + +Demeter : Then I will cover my face and grieve, + And the earth will die. + +Athena : The earth must not die. + +Kore : I will stay with you + For half of the year. + But I must go below + For the other half. + + Mother, look at me. + +Demeter turns. + +Demeter : But what is this? + Kore, you have changed. + +Kore : I went below to change, Mother. + To grow. + Call me now Persephone, + For I have been to the underworld. + I have been within. + I must return to grow + And to help others grow. + Your world is the grain, Mother. + My world is the hearts of all people + Even gods. + +Athena : It is just, Mother Demeter. + She must return below, + But for now she will stay with you. + +Demeter : My daughter, you have grown wise. + I accept what you must do. + I will grieve when you go from me, + And the earth will become cold and dark. + But when you return, + The earth will live again. + + See! + +Athena, Demeter and Kore light all the candles. Persephone throws off +her cloak to reveal a spring robe. Demeter throws off her cloak to +reveal a green robe. + +Athena : Persephone has returned! + The light has returned! + The warmth has returned! + + Let us praise Mother Demeter + For she has brought the earth to life again. + Let us praise Persephone + For she has returned from the underworld + And will be there to guide us +2715 + + When we must go within. + +All Chant : She has returned + The earth lives again! + We feel the warmth returning + The sun shines again! + We see the grain growing + The garden grows again! + Persephone, Demeter + Persephone, Demeter + Persephone, Demeter + The earth lives again! + +Repeat, then repeat last line to build cone of power until Demeter +judges the cone ready. Send out the power to bring life to the earth +again. + +Farewell the Goddesses. + +All sit down, forming a sitting circle. + +P1 : Long, long ago, there was no winter. + Summer ruled the Earth as Mother Demeter + Watched lovingly over her daughter Kore. + +P2 : All people knew her and loved her + As the Grain Mother. + There was no hunger + And no one was ever cold. + +P1 : Kore ran in the fields of the earth + Safe under her mother's loving eye. + And for a long, long time + She knew no other world. + +P3 : But all things change, and so did Kore. + She felt something within her, + An urge to know more, + To grow. + +P2 : And so she approached the cave + That led to the Underworld. + She descended into the darkness. + Her steps were faltering, + For she could not see, + And she was afraid. + Yet she knew she must go on. + +P1 : When she came to the Underworld, + Kore found a mirror. + She looked within, and saw herself. + Yet not the child she knew, + She saw a young woman + Who looked at her with knowledge in her eyes. + +P3 : Then she looked again, + And saw an old woman, + With a lined face and silver hair, +2716 + + Who looked at her with knowledge in her eyes. + +P1 : And the old woman said, + "Kore, you must change. + All things must change. + You must look within + And know yourself truly, + And grow." + + +P2 : So Kore looked within, + And embraced the old woman + And the young woman. + And she was filled with knowledge. + And the knowledge changed her. + +P1 : On the earth, Demeter searched for Kore. + She looked under every rock, + She dived into every sea, + She spoke to the flame, + She rode on the winds. + At last Athena came to her and said, + "Your daughter has gone into the Underworld." + +P3 : Demeter wailed, and wept for Kore. + She put aside her green robes + And veiled herself in mourning. + And the earth grew dark with her grief, + And the earth grew barren with her grief, + And the people cried out in fear. + All the gods and people begged Demeter + But she would not cease her weeping. + +P2 : At last Athena went to the cave, + And descended to the Underworld. + And there she spoke with Kore, + And begged her to return. + +P1 : Kore was reluctant to go, + But love of her mother + And love of the earth + Persuaded her to return. + And so she went with Athena + Back to the earth. + +P2 : Demeter was overjoyed to see her daughter. + They embraced, and kissed. + +P3 : But then Kore told her mother + How she had changed. + And she said, + "I must return, + For I have been within. + I am Queen of the Underworld." + +P1 : Demeter begged her daughter to stay. + Kore, relenting, agreed; + +2717 + +P2 : That six months of every year + She would stay with her mother. + And the earth would be fruitful. + And six months of every year + She would return to the Underworld, + And the earth would be barren + Until she returned. + +P1 : And this is why we have winter. + For Demeter veils her face + When Kore, called Persephone, + Returns to the Underworld each year. + +P3 : And the mystery is this : + + That the Underworld is within you, + And you must descend to it + If you are to grow. + You must look into the mirror + And see yourself as you truly are. + +P1 : But now is the time to rejoice! + Persephone is returned, + The earth is becoming warm again, + And the grain is growing again. + +P2 : Let us share Demeter's joy + In her daughter's return. + Let us feast on her bounty. + +Share cakes and water/cider. Those who feel moved to may speak of their +feelings in the darkness, and experiences of their own in the Under- +world. + +P3 opens the circle. + + +All : Persephone has returned! + +P3 : Blow, winds of the East, + Bring warmth to our bodies again. + +All : Persephone has returned! + +P3 : Shine, sun in the North, + Bring warmth to our hearts again. + +All : Persephone has returned! + +P3 : Come, waters of the Western sea, + Bring warmth to our souls again. + +All : Persephone has returned! + +P3 : Grow, all plants of the Earth, + Bring warmth to our spirits again. + + The circle is open, but ever unbroken. +2718 + + Merry meet, + And merry part, + And merry meet again. + + Blessed be. + +All : Blessed be. + +P3 : This rite is ended. + +Note: The directions are all Southrn Hemisphere ... heh. + +B*B* Marian* +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2719 + + Modern Female Rite Of Passage + Lady Shyra, 1994 + +Note: East - Air; South - Fire, West - Water, North - Earth + +EARLY PREPERATIONS + +Candles for the ritual will be made that day. Celebrant will make two +white candles. Candles will be herbal and scented, and enscribed +appropriately. Celebrant and mother will also bring something that +symbolically (to them) symbolizes the rite of passage. + +Ritual baths will be taken prior to ceremony, with Celebrant's bath +being drawn for her. Salt, herbs and scents appropriate to the occasion +will be added to the bath, and it will be blessed prior to use. Mother +will help Celebrant to the bath, where she will light a candle and +incense, give words of love and comfort and instruction to the Celeb- +rant, and then withdraw to assist in Circle Preparation. + +CIRCLE PREPARATION + +Circle area will be cleansed and Circle constructed and consecrated in +the usual manner. Altar will sit just West of Center of Circle to +symbolize both the emotional aspects of the ritual, as well as the +death/ rebirth aspects. + +Added to altar arrangement will be the Celebrant's two white candles. +Also on the altar will be a mirror sitting behind and between the two +white candles. Symbolic gifts will be placed beside the altar -- the +mother's to the North symbolizing steadfastness, grounding, caution, +and wisdom of the elder. The Celebrant's will be to the South of the +altar, symboling the fire, passion and impetuosity of youth. + +INVOCATIONS + +Guardian of the East + Hail to thee, Ancient ones of Air! + Blow soft around us this night + That the restrictions and pains of childhood + Will be but memories in the mind of the adult. + +Guardian of the South + Hail to thee, Ancient ones of Fire! + Lend to us this night your passion and strength + Envelope us in your warmth, + That the fires of youth may be tempered within thee. + +Guardian of the West + Hail to thee, Ancient ones of Water! + Wash over us with thy loving embrace + That the sorrows of days long past + Can give way to new understanding. + +Guardians of the North + Hail to thee, Ancient ones of Earth! + Stand firm with us in our purpose this night, + That from the youth shall grow the adult + Full of purpose and wisdom. +2720 + +Invocation to the Lady + Blessed Lady of a Thousand Names, + You who art Maiden, Mother and Crone. + Grant that this night the bindings of childhood will be broken + And the bond between mother and daughter be strengthened. + For the two, as so reflected throughout all creation, + Are but images of thee in thy divine Trinity. + Blessed Be. + + In honor of thee do I pour this toast, and drink this wine. + +Invocation to the Lord + Great Lord, Ancient one of the fields and Consort to our Lady, + We ask that thou wouldst give + a measure of your love and protection + to she who will soon join the battles of this life. + Fill her with the knowledge of thee as sancutary + And grant that peace may follow her always. + + In honor of thee do I pour this toast, and drink this wine. + +Chalice is then passed to each of the coveners to share in the toast. + + +Drawing Down the Moon + +Priestess/Mother stands facing the moon with hands upraised and palms +turned upwards, cupwise. Drinking in the Lady's essence, she says, + + Come to me and fill me with thy light + Enter me, shine in me your fullness + That I may use your power for my good, + And for the good of All. + +When appropriate, she blesses all within the Circle, and the rite that +is about to be performed. Then, nodding to the Father of the Celebrant, +says: + + Bring forth your daughter, + that she might, this night, + cross the threshold of adulthood. + +Father brings the Celebrant to the Eastern Gate. + +Mthr: Is this the daughter I bore so many years before? + Nay, it cannot be, for she was but a child when last I held her. + +Dtr: Mother, I am your child. Now grown and ready to throw away + the things of childhood. Years it has been since my moonflow + began and I became a woman. Now it is time that this is recog + nized. + +Mthr: Very well, lead the child into the center of the Circle. There to +have her sit in silence. + +Father leads Celebrant to the center of the Circle, while mother +re-closes the Circle. She then joins her daughter in the Circle's +center, saying: +2721 + +Mthr: You sit now in the Center of the Circle; that which is known + as the Cauldron of Hecate; the point of transformation; the + mother's womb, where beginnings end and endings re-begin. + + I have heard your words, and weep for them; Tears of both joy + and sorrow. + It was my body that cried out in pain and joy as you were born. + It was my mind that went in circles to provide for us. + It was my heart that broke when that which you wanted I could + not give you. + But always did you have my love... and always shall you carry + that love with you. + + Behold in me the Three-Fold Goddess + She who is One in Three - Maid, Mother, and Crone + One in Three, as she is in you and all women, + And as you and they are in her. + Look upon her and know her, + That you, too, may be whole. + + So I ask thee truly, art thou ready to face the woman within thee? + To see within thee the light and dark, and fear no more the dark? + To accept that which you are, and strive for that which you can + become? + To leave behind the things of childhood, + But to continue to love and nurture the child which lives in + all adults? + +{Celebrant has answered accordingly to each of the questions, at which +time the Mother now exhorts the Celebrant to stand and face the altar.} + +Mthr: Daughter, I ask you now to look deep within the mirror. See + yourself reflected there. Look into your eyes and know + yourself. Repeat after me:"I come to commune with my Soul." + +Dtr: I come to commune with my Soul. + +Mthr: Look into the reflection of your eyes, and name one thing about + yourself that you love. + +{Celebrant and Mother will continue this, alternating between what +the Celebrant thinks is both good and bad within her... } + +After the last question, the Mother then says: + +Mthr: Daughter, within thee is both light and dark. Know always your + shadow side. If something is there which offends thee horrible, + give it up. For others to love you as an adult, you must love + yourself first. And loving yourself means giving up any self- + hatred you've carried over from young years. Now is the time + to cut these things from thy life. They are the bonds of + childhood which have held you limited. Free yourself from them, + and know that thy spirit flies free. + + Now look again into the mirror. Look at yourself with love. + See the Goddess shining within thee. She is strong; no man + has dominion over her. She knows herself and loves herself. + She will give herself to those who are worthy of her affections, +2722 + + and turn from those who try to debase her. Let the Goddess + within thee shine through thee, that the nobility and strength + of woman is clear for all to see. + + Now, come with me. + + +Mother embraces daughter and leads her to each of the four quarters. +After each challenge, the Celebrant must answer as she sees fit, and +asks the Guardian's Blessing. The Covener at each gate will then bless +the Celebrant, and offer a gift for adulthood, such as strength, +courage, etc... or a physical gift pertinent to the rite and Gate. + +Covener at Eastern Gate: + Hold! I am the wild wind and fury of the storm! + That which buffets thee without shelter. + How will you survive? + +Covener at Southern Gate + Hold! I am fire and passion + That which will consume thee with lust. + How will you survive? + +Covener at Western Gate + Hold! I am floods and weeping and gnashing of teeth. + I am lonliness and frustration. + How will thee survive? + +Covener at Northern Gate + Hold! I am chaos and turmoil + Plans gone wrong and dreams that die. + How will thee survive? + +Mother faces daughter (Priestess mode ON here)... + I am the Lady, thy Mother... + I shall be with thee no matter how far thou shalt roam. + And when lonliness besets thee, + Thou needs only gaze upon the moon, + To see my face and my love reflected there to you. + +Father approaches daugher and turns her to face him... + I am he who is father to thee now. + I shall stand behind and beside thee always. + And when lonliness besets thee, + Thou needs only to step out into sunlight + To feel my warmth and love within thee. + +Mother takes daughter by hand and returns to the altar. Daughter picks +up her gift of childhood and presents it to the mother, saying ... + + This I do give you as a symbol of childhood now behind me. + Hold it and cherish it as you remember me. + + +Mother picks up her gift of adulthood and presents it the Celebrant, +saying... + + This I do give you as a symbol of your adulthood, +2723 + + and my recognition of it. + Hold it and cherish it as you remember me. + + +Draw a pentegram above the celebrant, with an affirmation at each of the +five points: + +Point one: In the name of Inanna, Queen of Heaven + +Point two: In the name of Athena, warrior Goddess, but also of Peace + +Point three: In the name of Astarte, warrior Goddess, and protector of + young females +Point four: In the name of Diana, she of the bow and arrow, Goddess + of Light +Point five: Do I bless thee, and call thee "Woman". + +May their strenth and independence, their love and virtue, be thine all +the days of thy life. + +I recognize the child no more, but she the child who lives in all of us. + +Mother stands with a space between her and her daughter and presents +the new adult to the coven. + +Feasting (and in our case, a birthday celebration) follow. + +Quarter Guardians are thanked, and blessings are asked of the +Lord and Lady upon the group, as well as the Celebrant. + + +Blessed Be * Lady Shyra * + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2724 + + MUHAMMAD + +From a Baha'i book by 'Abdu'l-Baha: + + Americans and Europeans have heard a number of stories about +the Prophet which they have thought to be true, although the +narrators were either ignorant or antagonistic: most of them were +clergy; others were ignorant Muslims who repeated unfounded +traditions about Muhammad which they ignorantly believed to be +to His praise. + + Thus some benighted Muslims made His polygamy the pivot of +their praises and held it to be a wonder, regarding it as a +miracle; and European historians, for the most part, rely on the +tales of these ignorant people. + + For example, a foolish man said to a clergyman that the true +proof of greatness is bravery and the shedding of blood, and that +in one day on the field of battle a follower of Muhammad had cut +off the heads of one hundred men! This misled the clergyman to +infer that killing is considered the way to prove one's faith to +Muhammad, while this is merely imaginary. The military expeditions +of Muhammad, on the contrary, were always defensive actions: a +proof of this is that during thirteen years, in Mecca, He and His +followers endured the most violent persecutions. At this period +they were the target for the arrows of hatred: some of His +companions were killed and their property confiscated; others fled +to foreign lands. Muhammad Himself, after the most extreme +persecutions by the Qurayshites, who finally resolved to kill Him, +fled to Medina in the middle of the night. Yet even then His +enemies did not cease their persecutions, but pursued Him to +Medina, and His disciples even to Abyssinia. + + These Arab tribes were in the lowest depths of savagery and +barbarism, and in comparison with them the savages of Africa and +wild Indians of America were as advanced as a Plato. The savages +of America do not bury their children alive as these Arabs did +their daughters, glorying in it as being an honorable thing to do. +[The Banu-Tamim, one of the most barbarous Arab tribes, practiced +this odious custom.] Thus many of the men would threaten their +wives, saying, "If a daughter is born to you, I will kill you." +Even down to the present time the Arabs dread having daughters. +Further, a man was permitted to take a thousand women, and most +husbands had more than ten wives in their household. When these +tribes made war, the one which was victorious would take the women +and children of the vanquished tribe captive and treat them as +slaves. + + When a man who had ten wives died, the sons of these women +rushed at each other's mothers; and if one of the sons threw his +mantle over the head of his father's wife and cried out, "This +woman is my lawful property," at once the unfortunate woman became +his prisoner and slave. he could do whatever he wished with her. +He could kill her, imprison her in a well, or beat, curse and +torture her until death released her. According to the Arab habits +and customs, he was her master. It is evident that malignity, +jealousy, hatred and enmity must have existed between the wives and +children of a household, and it is, therefore, needless to enlarge +2725 + +upon the subject. Again, consider what was the condition and life +of these oppressed women! Moreover, the means by which these Arab +tribes lived consisted in pillage and robbery, so that they were +perpetually engaged in fighting and war, killing one another, +plundering and devastating each other's property, and capturing +women and children, whom they would sell to strangers. How often +it happened that the daughters and sons of a prince, who spent +their day in comfort and luxury, found themselves, when night fell, +reduced to shame, poverty and captivity. Yesterday they were +princes, today they are captives; yesterday they were great ladies, +today they are slaves. + + Muhammad received the Divine Revelation among these tribes, +and after enduring thirteen years of persecution from them, He +fled. [To Medina.] But this people did not cease to oppress; they +united to exterminate Him and all His followers. It was under such +circumstances that Muhammad was forced to take up arms. This is +the truth: we are not bigoted and do not wish to defend Him, but +we are just, and we say what is just. Look at it with justice. +If Christ Himself had been placed in such circumstances among such +tyrannical and barbarous tribes, and if for thirteen years He with +His disciples had endured all these trials with patience, +culminating in flight from His native land -- if in spite of this +these lawless tribes continued to pursue Him, to slaughter the men, +to pillage their property, and to capture their women and children +-- what would have been Christ's conduct with regard to them? If +this oppression had fallen only upon Himself, He would have +forgiven them, and such an act of forgiveness would have been most +praiseworthy; but if He had seen that these cruel and bloodthirsty +murderers wished to kill, to pillage and to injure all these +oppressed ones, and to take captive the women and children, it is +certain that He would have protected them and would have resisted +the tyrants. What objection, then, can be taken to Muhammad's +action? Is it this, that He did not, with His followers, and their +women and children, submit to these savage tribes? To free these +tribes from their bloodthirstiness was the greatest kindness, and +to coerce and restrain them was a true mercy. They were like a man +holding in his hand a cup of poison, which, when about to drink, +a friend breaks and thus saves him. If Christ had been placed in +similar circumstances, it is certain that with a conquering power +He would have delivered the men, women and children from the claws +of these bloodthirsty wolves. + + Muhammad never fought against the Christians; on the contrary, +He treated them kindly and gave them perfect freedom. A community +of Christian people lived at Najran and were under His care and +protection. Muhammad said, "if anyone infringes their rights, I +Myself will be his enemy, and in the presence of God I will bring +a charge against him." In the edicts which He promulgated it is +clearly stated that the lives, properties and honor of the +Christians and Jews are under the protection of God; and that if +a Muhammadan married a Christian woman, the husband must not +prevent her from going to church, nor oblige her to veil herself; +and that if she died, he must place her remains in the care of the +Christian clergy. Should the Christians desire to build a church, +Islam ought to help them. In case of war between Islam and her +enemies, the Christians should be exempted from the obligation of +fighting, unless they desired of their own free will to do so in +2726 + +defense of Islam, because they were under its protection. But as +a compensation for this immunity, they should pay yearly a small +sum of money. In short, there are seven detailed edicts on these +subjects, some copies of which are still extant at Jerusalem. This +is an established fact and not dependent on my affirmation. The +edict of the second Caliph [Of 'Umar] still exists in the custody +of the orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, and of this there is no +doubt. [Cf. Jurji Zaydan's _Umayyads and Abbasids_, trans. D. S. +Margoliouth.] + + Nevertheless, after a certain time, and through the +transgression of both the Muhammadans and the Christians, hatred +and enmity arose between them. Beyond this fact, all the +narrations of the Muslims, Christians and others are simply +fabrications, which have their origin in fanaticism, or ignorance, +or emanate from intense hostility. + + For example, the Muslims say that Muhammad cleft the moon, and +that it fell on the mountain of Mecca: they think that the moon is +a small body which Muhammad divided into two parts and threw one +part on this mountain, and the other part on another mountain. + + Such stories are pure fanaticism. Also the traditions which +the clergy quote, and the incidents with which they find fault, are +all exaggerated, if not entirely without foundation. + + Briefly, Muhammad appeared in the desert of Hijaz in the +Arabian Peninsula, which was a desolate, sterile wilderness, sandy +and uninhabited. Some parts, like Mecca and Medina, are extremely +hot; the people are nomads with the manners and customs of the +dwellers in the desert, and are entirely destitute of education and +science. Muhammad Himself was illiterate, and the Qur'an was +originally written upon the bladebones of sheep, or on palm leaves. +These details indicate the condition of the people to whom Muhammad +was sent. The first question which He put to them was, "Why do you +not accept the Pentateuch and the Gospel, and why do you not +believe in Christ and in Moses?" This saying presented +difficulties to them and they argued, "Our forefathers did not +believe in the Pentateuch and the Gospel; tell us, why was this?" +He answered, "They were misled; you ought to reject those who do +not believe in the Pentateuch and the Gospel, even though they are +your fathers and your ancestors." + + In such a country, and amidst such barbarous tribes, an +illiterate Man produced a book in which, in a perfect and eloquent +style, He explained the divine attributes and perfections, the +prophethood of the Messengers of God, the divine laws, and some +scientific facts. + + Thus, you know that before the observations of modern times - +- that is to say, during the first centuries and down to the +fifteenth century of the Christian era -- all the mathematicians +of the world agreed that the earth was the center of the universe, +and that the sun moved. The famous astronomer who was the +protagonist of the new theory discovered the movement of the earth +and the immobility of the sun. [Copernicus.] Until his time all +the astronomers and philosophers of the world followed the +Ptolemaic system, and whoever said anything against it was +2727 + +considered ignorant. Though Pythagoras, and Plato during the +latter part of his life, adopted the theory that the annual +movement of the sun around the zodiac does not proceed from the +sun, but rather from the movement of the earth around the sun, this +theory had been entirely forgotten, and the Ptolemaic system was +accepted by all the mathematicians. But there are some verses +revealed in the Qur'an contrary to the theory of the Ptolemaic +system. One of them is "The sun moves in a fixed place," which +shows the fixity of the sun, and its movement around an axis. +[Qur'an 36:37] Again, in another verse, "and each star moves in +its own heaven." [Qur'an 36:38] Thus is explained the movement of +the sun, of the moon, of the earth, and of other bodies. When the +Qur'an appeared, all the mathematicians ridiculed these statements +and attributed the theory to ignorance. Even the doctors of Islam, +when they saw that these verses were contrary to the accepted +Ptolemaic system, were obliged to explain them away. + + It was not until after the fifteenth century of the Christian +era, nearly nine hundred years after Muhammad, that a famous +astronomer made new observations and important discoveries by the +aid of the telescope, which he had invented. [Galileo] The +rotation of the earth, the fixity of the sun, and also its movement +around an axis, were discovered. It became evident that the verses +of the Qur'an agreed with existing facts, and that the Ptolemaic +system was imaginary. + + In short, many Oriental peoples have been reared for thirteen +centuries under the shadow of the religion of Muhammad. During the +Middle Ages, while Europe was in the lowest depths of barbarism, +the Arab peoples were superior to the other nations of the earth +in learning, in the arts, mathematics, civilization, government and +other sciences. The Enlightener and Educator of these Arab tribes, +and the Founder of the civilization and perfections of humanity +among these different races, was an illiterate Man, Muhammad. Was +this illustrious Man a thorough Educator or not? A just judgment +is necessary. + + + 'Abdu'l-Baha + _Some Answered Questions_, pages 18-24 + (c) 1930, 1954, 1964, 1981 + by the National Spiritual Assembly + of the Baha'is of the United States + All Rights Reserved + +For electronic reproduction only! Do not reproduce in any other +way without permission from the National Spiritual Assembly of the +Baha'is of the United States. Copies intended for electronic +reproduction such as within files available for download on +Bulletin Board Systems must contain the copyright information and +this paragraph and must not be altered in any way. + +File name: SAQ-018.TXT + + + * Origin: Camphor Fountain*(510)547-5741*Oakland,California (93:5050/9) + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2728 + + On the Sovereignty of Muhammad, + from the Writings of Baha'u'llah + + + Behold how the sovereignty of Muhammad, the +Messenger of God, is today apparent and manifest +amongst the people. You are well aware of what befell +His Faith in the early days of His Dispensation. +What woeful sufferings did the hand of the infidel +and erring, the divines of that age and their associates, +inflict upon that spiritual Essence, that most pure +and holy Being! How abundant the thorns and briars +which they have strewn over His path! It is evident +that that wretched generation, in their wicked and +satanic fancy, regarded every injury to that immortal +Being as a means to the attainment of an abiding +felicity; inasmuch as the recognized divines of that +age, such as Abdu'llah-i-Ubayy, Abu'Amir, the hermit, +Ka'b-ibn-i-Ashraf, and Nadr-ibn-i-Harith, all +treated Him as an impostor, and pronounced Him a +lunatic and a calumniator. Such sore accusations they +brought against Him that in recounting them God +forbiddeth the ink to flow, Our pen to move, or the +page to bear them. These malicious imputations provoked +the people to arise and torment Him. And how +fierce that torment, if the divines of the age be its +chief instigators, if they denounce Him to their followers, +cast Him out from their midst, and declare +Him a miscreant! Hath not the same befallen this +Servant, and been witnessed by all? + + For this reason did Muhammad cry out: "No +Prophet of God hath suffered such harm as I have +suffered." And in the Qur'an are recorded all the +calumnies and reproaches uttered against Him, as +well as all the afflictions which He suffered. Refer ye +thereunto, that haply ye may be informed of that +which hath befallen His Revelation. So grievous was +His plight, that for a time all ceased to hold intercourse +with Him and His companions. Whoever associated +with Him fell a victim to the relentless +cruelty of His enemies.... + + Consider, how great is the change today! Behold, +how many are the Sovereigns who bow the knee before +His name! How numerous the nations and kingdoms +who have sought the shelter of His shadow, +who bear allegiance to His Faith, and pride themselves +therein! From the pulpit-top there ascendeth +today the words of praise which, in utter lowliness, +glorify His blessed name; and from the heights of +minarets there resoundeth the call that summoneth +the concourse of His people to adore Him. Even those +Kings of the earth who have refused to embrace His +Faith and to put off the garment of unbelief, none-the-less +confess and acknowledge the greatness and +overpowering majesty of that Day Star of loving-kindness. +Such is His earthly sovereignty, the evidences +2729 + +of which thou dost on every side behold. This +sovereignty must needs be revealed and established +either in the lifetime of every Manifestation of God +or after His ascension unto His true habitation in the +realms above.... + + It is evident that the changes brought about in +every Dispensation constitute the dark clouds +that intervene between the eye of man's understanding +and the Divine Luminary which shineth +forth from the day spring of the Divine Essence. +Consider how men for generations have +been blindly imitating their fathers, and have +been trained according to such ways and manners +as have been laid down by the dictates of +their Faith. Were these men, therefore, to discover +suddenly that a Man, Who hath been living in their +midst, Who, with respect to every human limitation +hath been their equal, had risen to abolish every established +principle imposed by their Faith--principles by +which for centuries they have been disciplined, and +every opposer and denier of which they have come to +regard as infidel, profligate and wicked,--they would +of a certainty be veiled and hindered from acknowledging +His truth. Such things are as "clouds" that +veil the eyes of those whose inner being hath not +tasted the Salsabil of detachment, nor drunk from +the Kawthar of the knowledge of God. Such men, +when acquainted with those circumstances, become +so veiled that, without the least question, they pronounce +the Manifestation of God as infidel, and sentence +Him to death. You must have heard of such +things taking place all down the ages, and are now +observing them in these days. + + It behoveth us, therefore, to make the utmost endeavor, +that, by God's invisible assistance, these dark +veils, these clouds of Heaven-sent trials, may not hinder +us from beholding the beauty of His shining +Countenance, and that we may recognize Him only +by His own Self. + + +_Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah_, pages 24-27 + +--- Renegade v12-25 Exp + * Origin: Camphor Fountain*(510)547-5741*Oakland,California (93:5050/9) +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2730 + + New Age Ministry + By: Steve Kalinowski + +The New Age concept, in an overview, is basically a shifting of +perspectives, or a changing paradigm, with focus and emphasis on +individual personal spirituality and its effect/consequences on +society. Since that in itself is such an individually eclectic +approach to philosophy, it is difficult to pin down a definition +that will be accepted by a concensus. Thus, there are many +different working definitions of New Age, I'm sure you've heard a +few different ones yourself. Some are valid to a certain extent; +while others are truly misguided.. it depends on the depth of +understanding and credibility of who you ask.. + +The mechanism that determines the New Age, in a strictly +time-line oriented sense.., comes from Astrology. +Astrologers have long tracked a cycle called "The Procession of +the Equinoxes." Each year the beginning of Spring is noted as +the `point of Equinox,' the moment that the azimuth of the Sun +goes from south to north declination-- or is crossing at zero +degrees declination, when the day and night are equal in length. +(aequinoctium =<= ~aequus,~ equal + ~nox,~ night) + +If the measurement of celestial longitude of the Equinox is +marked against the backdrop of the zodiac; it will be noticed +that the markings creep slowly backwards from year to year at a +random rate, (the present rate is at about 6 seconds of celestial +arc per year, or one full degree in seventy-five years...) not +very fast, but enough so that in every 2,250 years or so (approx) +depending of the average rate, the marking of the Equinox point +actually changes zodiac signs. Astrologers call the duration +within one particular zodiac sign an `Age.' We have been in the Age +of Pisces for a little over 2,000 years; and the transition into +the Age of Aquarius is starting, hence expressions like `the Dawn +of Aquarius.' + +A noteworthy historical point about the changing of Ages; +although there are always periods of overlap, with no real line +of demarcation, each Age has a distinctive flavor or tone of +philosophy, and images of common useage that mirror the images +connected to the sign naming the Age. From a religious +perspective, Christianity has come to be the flag-bearer of the +Piscean Age, complete with all Piscean attitudes and +characteristics... Judiasm was the flag-bearer of the Aries Age, +as was Hinduism the flag-bearer of the Taurus Age. + +Interestingly, the Bhraman's Sacred Cow (Taurus image) became the +Golden Calf that was cast down by the Judiac nomads and shepherds +(Aries image) to promote the One-God concept (also an Aries +image). Likewise, the Sacrificial Lamb (Aries image) was offered +and became the Kyrstos/Christ/Savior (Piscean image) to promote +the Universal-God concept.. the imagery of the `Fisherman of Men' +is also strongly Piscean. + +So, it is expected that the Aquarian Age will also have its own +tone and flavor in this regard... perhaps the image of the +Aquarian Water-bearer will empty his Urn that contains all the +fish that were caught by the Fisherman of Pisces. +2731 + +The attitude of Aquarius is `individuality in a harmonious +society of like-minded individuals.... or else, anarchy, +rebellion and revolution to obtain acceptance of individuality' +...ie., Ecumenism and apostacy gives way to tolerance, respect, +even protection of spiritual diversity. A motto might be: +`Spiritual Brotherhood; by Concensus of Conscious Awareness, or +Enlightened Anarchy, take your pick.' A view of Diety in the +Aquarian Age might be `A Multifarious Multi-dimensional +Manifestation of the One' -- no longer cultural, no longer +personified, but integrated into all of humanity at once... ie., +finally taking the Christ off of the Cross (the image of actually +sacrificing the sacrifice) and placing him in the very essence of +all beings. + +For the record, I am an ordained minister of the International +Metaphysical Ministry... which is to say-- a New Age Minister! +As is the case of any ministry, my prime focus is to increase the +awareness of the Diety's [whatever name you may choose] Presence +in mankind. The metaphysical approach in this quest actually +compliments other religious teaching systems by supplementing +them with the premise that each of us is directly connected to +the God/dess-Source , and can +become consciously aware of that connection through meditation. +This approach encourages one to personally experience +God/dess-Source, rather than merely accept God/dess-Source on the +testimony of someone else. + +In the course of my studies, I have traveled on many roads. Along +the way, I considered well that each one was to be but a link in +the chain, never placed total commitment to any one link, but +only in the strength of the full length of chain. As the chain +grows longer with each new link acquired, it approaches a binding +of the Universe. Religion... in a prayer, a spell, a divination, +or invocation... regardless of the name used, religion defined is +to bind oneself, or to be bound, to a way of life. + +First, to define metaphysical science. We have incorporated many +varied topics into this general heading, including, but not +limited to meditation, yoga, esp, astral projection, psychic +perception, runes, channeling, astrology, tarot, I-ching, Jungian +psychology, aura-psionic manipulation, alchemy, feng shui, +creative visualization, high magick, and comparative religions. +The metaphysical practitioner uses at least one of these art +forms, most likely many more than one, in their work. A minister +in metaphysical science is studied in _most_ of these art forms, +not to any expertise level, but to a qualifying level to be more +than just conversant -- informed and able to understand each form +and teach the general concepts and principles to others. + +The minister, once qualified, then, is able to pursue their own +particular study in whatever field they choose for a speciality +-- my speciality is astrology and psionics . This is not unlike the medical profession, in that +all of the basic skills are learned during the general degree; +and then a speciality skill is pursued for the final practice. +The common thread in all metaphysical science practices is that +we value every human being as being fully connected to, or a +manifestation of the Universal/Divine/God/dess-Source; that each +2732 + +practitioner is experiencing that connection in their life-work, +and is encouraging others to experience their own connection in +their life, thus leading to developing their own life-work goals.. + +The organization of the International Metaphysical Ministry is an +academic organization, not designed to create a new religion, but +to provide an acedemic `clearing house' for information and +professional contacts for all those in the diverse fields of +study under the metaphysical umbrella. The organization provides +accrediting credentials for academic work, and continuing +education in yearly convention seminars. + +In personal practice, the ordained minister is charged to provide +_only_one_precept/tenet_ to the client/student -- ie., the +connection to the God/dess-Source is found within each living +entity, therefore each person is capable of becoming conscious of +that connection, and living in accordance with that connection. +The implication is that each person has a Divine purpose, as well +as an individual purpose. Most times these two purposes seem to +be in conflict. Metaphysical ministry contends that they are +meant to coincide, to exist together in harmony, to complement +each other; and from that view attempts to resolve any apparent +conflict of dualistic purpose through education, meditation, and +prayer treatments. + +Education is as straight forward as it sounds. The practitioner +has their personal area of expertise, as well as the general +working knowledge of most `spiritual paths,' and teaches that to +all those who seek. The more studied the practitioner, the more +areas of `spiritual path' they are able to work with to educate +their students. Here, the minister acts as a spiritual guide +until the client/student is able to access the `inner guidance' +that enables them to take over for themselves. + +Meditation is the backbone of the philosophy, all other +metaphysical art forms are in some way connected to this. The +practitioner personally meditates to daily renew, validate and +experience their own connection to the God/dess-Source; and +teaches client/students to do the same through a series of +methods for exercising meditation skills. This is the ritual +level of the ministry. + +Prayer treatment is the basic healing tool of the ministry of +metaphysical science. A prayer treatment is a conscious focus and +release of psychic energy (psionics) from the minister to the +client/student for the purpose of healing the spiritual self. +Once healing begins on the psychic level, healing on all other +levels soon follows. This is the conjure/magick level of the +ministry. + +In my personal practice, the use of astrology to create +personalized prayer treatments combined with psionics (aura +visualization and field energy administration) is my specialty +and the subject of my masters thesis. This technique is now being +studied by all other ministers in the organization who are +interested in astrology and psionics. I intend to further develop +the technique in the doctorate work. + +2733 + +LightWorking: + +The term ~LightWork~ is meant to imply the `Nurturing and +mid-Wifery of the dawning Aquarius Age' -- working to bring it to +full Light. I use the term LightWorking to describe the personal +commitment of an individual to the opening of the world to the +concepts of the New Age... not all LightWorkers are metaphysical +ministers, on the contrary. There are LightWorker representatives +in all walks of life, all areas of human endeavor, and they focus +the concepts of the New Age through their own particular +perspective. + +Notice that so many novel, movie and television writers, even the +commercial ads, are working with New Age themes, as are musicians +and artists of all kinds. Science scholars and philosophers, too, +have their representatives. Much of the work on `Quantum Physics' +is developed through the New Age perspectives, as is the growing +acceptance of alternative health care methods in the general +community. The underlying essence of such concepts as `Political +Correctness,' of the environmental `Green,' `EcoSafe,' and +`EarthWatch' movements, are all still other examples of New Age +focus areas. In fact, the mass networking of human thought (this +electronic media) is a very fine example of the Aquarian New Age. + +New understandings in psychology and sociology, concepts of ESP +and intuitive creativity, of channeling and automatic writing, of +spirit guides, all have taken old existing concepts and +restructured them within the framework of the New Age views. All +these areas of new thought have LightWorker representatives +working right along side of traditionalists, and diligently +participating in guiding the progress and development of their +fields toward the New Age view.. + +Well Neal, guess that should be a short summary ... aren't +you glad you asked? + +Be Well... And so it is! Rev Steve @)>--`-,--`--- + + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2734 + + The Temple of Set, Is it Satanic? + By: Lilith Aquino + +I can't answer this in 25 words or less, so bear with me! If you +consider Satanism to be anti-Christian Devil worship, the answer is no. +The Temple of Set practices a completely non-Christianized, positive +"high Satanism". To understand what we mean by this, a bit of history of +the Temple is needed: +While the TOS as an organization was formally incorporated and recog- +nized by both state and federal governments in 1975 CE, its magical and +philosophical roots are prehistoric, originating in mankind's first +apprehension that there is "something different" about the human race - +a sense of SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS - that places humanity apart from all +other known forms of life. Ancient religions - of which those of Egypt +are generally acknowledged the eldest - either exalted or feared this +self-consciousness. Those which exalted it took the position that the +human psyche is capable of opposition to and domination +of the forces of nature. + +The psyche-worshipping, reasoning religions - or schools of initiatory +philosophy - attained levels of abstract knowledge that made them +mysterious to the masses. In a few socities, such as Egypt and Greece, +such groups were respected and admired. More often, however, their +exclusive elitism and "supernatural" activities made them objects of +resentment and persecution. + +While all philosophical schools embraced the psychecentric consciousness +to some degree, there were a very few which made it avowedly and +explicitly the focus of their attention. The divine personifications +("gods") of such schools have come down to us as symbols of what most +Western religions, worshippers of non-consciousness, consider the +supreme "evil": the Prince of Darkness in his many forms. Of these the +most ancient is Set, whose Priesthood can be traced to predynastic +times. + +Originally a circumpolar/stellar deity portrayed as a cyclical counter- +part to the Solar Horus, Set was later recast as an evil principle by +the cults of Osiris and Isis. When the Hebrews emigrated from Egypt +during the XIX Dynasty, they took with them a caricature of Set: "Satan" +(from the hieroglyphic _Set-Hen_, one of the god's formal titles). +Originally a sort of "prosecuting angel for YHVH", the Hebrew Satan was +changed by Christianity into a personification of everything God was not +- and since God was "good", Satan was necessarily "bad". Alluring or +mysterious deities from religions competing with early Christianity - +such as the hellenic/Roman Mysteries and Persian Mithraic faith - were +also "bad". Non-Christian gods generally were redefined as Christian +"demons" and given a place in the Christian Hell (another name stolen +and perverted from Norse mythology). Christian propaganda nonwithstan- +ding, the present day "Satan" is wholly their invention. + +Which brings us to the present time: The Satanic religion proposes to +raise the individual to personal godhood, free from enslavement to any +other "God" (or gods). However this is a question not just of power, but +also of ethics, morality, and psychological maturity. The parameters of +philosophy and metaphysics extend far beyond the conceptual and symbolic +limits of the Judaic/Chrisitian tradition. The Temple of Set explores +the "human equation" and the metaphysical and psychological roots of the +great Satanic/psyche-centered philosophies of history. The appeal of +2735 + +occultism is much the same as that of conventional religion: Logical +positivism and scientific materialism, though they have made great +strides towards explaining the "how" of existence, have failed entirely +to explain the why. + +Conventional religions, with their colorful mythologies analyzed in +terms of +the underlying philosophical principles, represent simply the primitive +longing of man to feel "at one" with the Universal harmony he perceives +about him. The Black Magician rejects both the desirability of union +with the Universe and any self-deceptive actions designed to create such +an illusion. He/she has considered the existence of the individual +psyche - the "core you" of your conscious intelligence - and has taken +satisfaction from its existence as something unlike anything else. The +Black Magician desires this psyche to live, to experience, to continue. +He/she does not wish to die - or to lose consciousness and identity in +a larger, Universal consciousness (assuming that such exists). He/she +wants to BE. This decision in favor of individual existence is the first +premise of the Temple of Set. + +The second premise of the Temple is that the psychecentric consciousness +can evolve towards its own divinity through deliberate exercise of the +intelligence and Will, a process of BECOMING or COMING INTO BEING +(XEPER), whose roots may be found in the dialectic method expounded by +Plato and the conscious exaltation of the Will proposed by Nietzsche. + +The "worship" of Set is thus the "worship" of individualism. In the +Church of Satan this was taken to mean indulgence in all (legal) desires +of the body and ego. Since many such desires are impulsive and destruc- +tive, the COS found itself in an awkward position, which accelerated its +eventual crisis and demise in 1975. The Temple of Set determined to +preserve the principle of individualism, but to add to it the evolution- +ary "higher self" aspirations of Aleister Crowley's pre-OTO philosophy +of Thelema. Glorification of the ego is not enough; it is the COMPLETE +psyche, the entire Self or soul, which must be recognized, appreciated, +and actualized. Dogma, - to include fixed ideology in any form - is +repugnant to Setians. We strive rather towards an atmosphere of "best +possible premises", which are always subject to constructive, intel- +ligent examination and criticism. Foolish, pretentious, or destructive +egotism under the guise of exploration is neither respected nor endured. + +Regretfully there still exist some individuals whose idea of "Satanism" +is largely a simple-minded synthesis of Christian propaganda and +Hollywood horror movies. The Temple of Set enjoys the colorful legacy of +the Black Arts, and we use many forms of historical Satanic imagery for +our artistic stimulation and pleasure. But we have not found that any +interest or activity which an enlightened, mature intellect would regard +as undignified, sadistic, criminal, or depraved is desirable, much less +essential to our work. The Temple of Set is an evolutinary product of +human experience. Such experience includes the magical and philosophical +work of many occult individuals which have preceded us. In examining the +secret and suppressed corners of history for valuable and useful +material, the Temple insists upon ehtical presentation and use of such +discoveries. All Setians are expected to display a high measure of +maturity and common sense in this area. We reject absolutely wanton +cruelty and harm to others, and are particularly adamant about this with +regard to animals. + +2736 + +The Temple of Set evaluates conventional religions as erroneous in +principle, and feels no need to concern itself with their activities +unless they intrude upon our affairs. + Any further questions or comments are welcome. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2737 + + Descent Into Confusion + by Robert Hughes + +One of the celebrated "mysteries" of revivalist Wicca is the +'ritual play' known as the Legend of the Descent of the +Goddess. In my Gardnerian Book of Shadows, dating from the +sixties, the Legend is to be enacted separately at "a meeting +for preparation for Third Degree". Only third degree witches +may attend this meeting with the initiate who is to take +second degree. + +The Legend is enacted in front of the initiate by four of the +third degree witches. Two take the role of Narrator and +Guardian of the Portal (of the underworld), while the High +Priest and High Priestess or Maiden take the roles of God and +Goddess. The term Guardian of the Portal may have been +borrowed from the rituals of the Golden Dawn. + +In this enactment, the ruler of the underworld and Lord of +Death is the Horned One. The Legend begins with the statement: +'...Our Lady, the Goddess, would solve all mysteries - even +the mystery of death. And so she journeyed to the Netherworld +where the Guardian of the Portal challenged her.' The Guardian +orders her to strip off her garments and jewels and she is +bound with cords and brought into the presence of the Lord of +Death. + +The God is so overcome by her beauty that he falls and kisses +her feet and begs her to stay with him in the underworld. The +Goddess replies that she does not love him, and she asks why +he causes all the things she loves and delights in to fade and +die. + +The God replies that the cause is 'age and fate' and he says +he is helpless to stop it, although he can give the dead 'rest +and peace and strength, so that they may return.' A second +time he asks the Goddess to stay with him. When she again says +she does not love him, Death replies she must suffer a +scourging at his hands. + +Following this scourging, and the five fold kiss, the Goddess +says: 'I know the pain of love'. It is then that the God +'taught her all the mysteries'. He also gives her a special +necklace which is 'a symbol of the Circle of Rebirth'. In +return, our Lady teaches him the 'sacred mystery of the +cauldron'. The Legend ends with an affirmation of the reality +of reincarnation among the Hidden Children of the Goddess and +'the mystery of magick which is placed between the worlds'. +The initiate is then invited to ask questions about the +meaning of the Legend. + +Even anyone with only a slight knowledge of understanding of +mythology will recognise the contradictions and confusions +which exist within the structure and symbolism of the Legend. +The first point of controversy is when, where, and by whom, +this ritual originated. Some (unconfirmed) sources claim it is +of 19th century origin. It is said to be a product of the +famous "Cambridge" coven of academics who revived the +2738 + +classical Mysteries in the early 1800s. More reliable evidence +exists to prove that Gerald Gardner sent a draft of the Legend +to Aleister Crowley for correction in the 1940s. + +Kelly (Crafting the Art of Magic, Llewellyn, 1991) claims that +the Legend does not appear in the pre-1949 second degree +initiation in the famous (infamous?) Ye Bok of Ye Art Magical +and says: "The content of this document probably dates to 1953 +or earlier..." (p.128). Gardner quotes from the Legend in his +book, Witchcraft Today as if he had received it from the New +Forest coven. In fact he describes it as 'the central part of +one of their rituals. It is a sort of primitive +spiritualism.'. He goes on to compare its importance in the +Craft to the Christian myth of the crucifixion and +resurrection. (1970, pp 44-46). Gardner goes on to say the +Legend 'upon which its members base their action is the +central idea of the cult.' He compares it with the story of +Istar (sic) descending into hell and the myth of the Hindu god +Siva (Shiva) as Lord of Death and destruction. Gardner then +says he believes the Legend may be of Celtic origin. To +support this fanciful statement, he says that: 'In Celtic +legends the Lords of the Underworld did prepare you for death +and many living people are said to have entered their regions, +formed alliances with them, and returned safely, but it needed +great courage; only a hero or a demi-god dared to risk it.' +(p.46). One presumes that here Gardner is making an allusion +to the realm of Faerie and the widespread folk belief that +faeries were the spirits of the dead. + +This is classic Gardner at his most confusing and, perhaps, +deliberately misleading and mischievous. The version of the +Legend as presented by Gardner is both patriarchal and +mythologically inaccurate. It seems to be based on a hybrid +combination of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, and +the Middle Eastern myth of Inanna-Ishtar. Gardner does not +mention the Demeter-Persephone myth in his speculations, +instead sidetracking the reader into the realms of Celtic +myth, although he does devote a chapter of his book to the +Greek Mysteries - basically as a means of justifying the +practice of scourging. + +In the Middle Eastern myth, Inanna is the Goddess of the Moon +and Venus. She was probably, 'one of the three great goddesses +of the Bronze Age' (Baring & Cashford, 1991). Inanna was known +by the title Queen of Heaven and Earth and her myth is an +archetypal form of the eternal story of the mourning +widow/mother goddess and the saviour god, who is her +son/lover, dies, descends to the underworld and is reborn. +This myth is found in most Mediterranean cultures and in +northern Europe, and it formed the 'pagan' basis for the new +religion of Christianity. + +The Demeter-Persephone myth is a post-patriarchal variant on +this ancient legend with the daughter (Persephone) being +kidnapped and held prisoner by Pluto, the Lord of Death and +the ruler of Hades. In recent years some feminist +mythographers have re-written this classic story and produced +alternative versions without any patriarchal overtones (see +2739 + +Spretnak, 1978). + +Gardner was correct to refer to visits to the underworld by +heroes and demi-gods (sic). However, in the majority of the +extant legends and myths, such as the descent of Arthur to +Annwn to capture the Cauldron of the Goddess, and Baldur's +ritual death and descent into the realm of Hel, it is a male +mortal or god who is involved in the descent and is "reborn". +It is the Goddess, in her 'dark aspect, who rules over the +realm of the dead, controls the power of fate and grants the +hero/god the supreme initiation of transformation and rebirth. +In the Gardnerian Legend of the Descent we are led to believe +that the Goddess, who is represented in The Charge as an +all-powerful deity offering her worshippers 'upon death, peace +unutterable, rest and the ecstasy of the Goddess', and is +described by Gardner himself as 'the Great Mother, the giver +of life' (1970, p.45), visits the underworld knowing nothing +about the mysteries of life and death. She allegedly knows +nothing about the natural process that makes 'all the things +that I love, and take delight in, fade and die' until she is +taught these mysteries by the God. In fact in response to her +question the God replies 'tis age and fate'. Significantly +these are both concepts associated with the Dark Goddess of +the Underworld, who has no role in Gardner's version of the +Craft. + +It is not difficult to see the Legend of the Descent of the +Goddess in terms of 'a theologising of the scourging' (Kelly, +1991), which was such an important aspect of the rituals in +Gardner's time. Taking this argument a step forward, as Kelly +does (1991, pp 28-29), it could appear that the content of the +Legend was based on Gardner's sexual fantasies and his +personal concept of the Goddess. He imagined the Goddess as 'a +sweet, lovely woman', while in the more traditional branches +of the Craft she is a darker deity ruling fate, death and the +underworld as well as sexuality. This alternative archetypal +image of the witch goddess has largely been ignored by +revivalist Wicca. It will continue to do so while Gardner's +confused and mythologically incorrect Legend of the Descent of +the Goddess remains the 'central idea' of the modern Craft. + +References and further reading: + +Witchcraft Today G B Gardner (Arrow paperback edition 1970) +The Witches' Way J & S Farrar (Robert Hale 1984) +Crafting the Art of Magic: Book I +A Kelly (Llewellyn 1991) +Lost Goddesses of Early Greece +C Spretnak (Moon Books 1978) +The Myth of the Goddess +Baring & Cashford (Penguin 1991) +The Mysteries of Eleusis +G D'Alviella (Aquarian Press 1981) +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2740 + + The Derivation of the word Witch + by Doreen Valiente + +Strangely enough, the derivation of the word witch is a subject on which +scarcely any two authorities can be found to agree. The most frequent +explanation is that it is akin to the word wise, and that witchcraft +therefore means The Craft of the Wise. + +It is widely believed that Gerald Gardner originated this derivation. +However, this is incorrect, as it appears in Hugh Ross Williamson's +book, The Arrow and the Sword, first published in 1947, before any of +Gerald Gardner's books on witchcraft. But is this the right derivation? + +Not according to Professor Jeffrey Russell, who gives an appendix on +this subject in his book A History of Witchcraft (Thames & Hudson, +London, 1980). Professor Russell rejects any connection with the Old +English word witan, meaning to know, as he also does with the Old +English wican, to bend. In his opinion, the real origin comes from the +Indo-European word weik, which has a general connection with religion +and magic. From this very ancient root-word came in turn, among other +things, a word wikk, meaning magic and sorcery, and this eventually +produced the Old English wicca, a male witch, wicce, a female witch, +and the verb wiccian, to bewitch or work witchcraft. + +It will be seen from the above that "Wicca" does not mean "witchcraft" +and never did, in spite of its widespread modern use. So how did this +usage originate? In his biography, Gerald Gardner: Witch, it describes +his initiation in "Old Dorothy's" house, and says, 'It was half way +through when the word Wica was first mentioned: "and I then knew that +that which I had thought burnt out hundreds of years ago still sur- +vived."' It will be seen that at this time Gerald didn't even know how +to spell the word. Its correct spelling is as above. Nor, unfortunately, +does this account state in what context the word was used. It might have +been that Old Dorothy's coven was simply proclaiming Gerald a male +witch, in which case this would have been an accurate use of the word. + +So where did Gerald get the idea that "Wicca" meant witchcraft? I would +like to advance a theory of my own. I must emphasise that this is just +a theory, and I may be wrong. But I believe that this idea originated +from his reading of a book which I know that he possessed, namely +An Encyclopaedia of Occultism by Lewis Spence. This very valuable work +of reference first appeared in 1920, according to the mention of it +in the bibliography at the end of Gerald's book, Witchcraft Today. +It has recently been re-issued by Bracken Books under the title of +The Encyclopaedia of the Occult. The entry referring to witchcraft +begins: "Witchcraft: (from Saxon Wicca, a contraction of witega, a +prophet or sorcerer)." This could have been read and misunderstood +to mean that "Wicca" meant witchcraft, and this misconception has +been carried on through the ranks of modern witches ever since. + +It has to be said, of course, that the word Wicca has its uses to +define the present-day revival, especially in the USA, where a number +of associations using this word have gained legal recognition as +religious bodies. Personally, however, I prefer the term The +Old Religion, which is the English equivalent of the Italian term +used by the followers of Aradia, namely La Vecchia Religione. +(See Charles Godfrey Leland's book, Aradia: or the Gospel of the +Witches, first published in 1899.) +2741 + +(Incidentally, there is a legend in witchcraft circles to the effect +that the reason why the original edition of this book is so rare is +that old Gerald bought up all the copies he could find and destroyed +them. Whether there is any truth in this or not, I cannot say.) + +In spite of Professor Russell's opinion, as quoted above, there is an +older derivation of the word witch that may perhaps be worthy of +consideration. This may be found in A Concise Etymological Dictionary +of the English Language by the Rev. Walter W Skeat (Clarendon Press, +Oxford, 1901). This book discusses the above-mentioned derivations +from wicca, wicce, etc., and then in turn connects these old words +with the Norwegian vikja, which means firstly 'to turn aside' and +secondly 'to conjure away'. Thus, speculates the Rev. Skeat, the word +witch possibly meant 'averter'. + +He also mentions that the Anglo-Saxon word witega, a prophet or seer, +comes from the Anglo-Saxon witan, to observe, which he says is 'cognate +with witan, to know.'. We have seen that Lewis Spence regarded witega as +the origin of wicca. So who is right? In spite of all claims, it seems +to me that it remains a matter of opinion. One thing we do know is that +the word came to Britain with the Saxons, who at the time of their +arrival on these shores were pagans. I believe that to them, the word +witch (or whichever of its forerunners they used), did not necessarily +have any derogatory meaning. A witch was a seer, a knower, an averter of +evil. The word only took on a negative meaning with the coming of +Christianity, which taught that all the gods of the heathen were devils. +So anyone who clung o the old ways and the Old Religion was a devil +worshipper. And annually, around Halloween, we still see the same old +charges being made in the same old spirit of bigotry. Isn't it sad that +these good folk haven't learnt anything since the Dark Ages? +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2742 + + Wicca vs. Paganism? + By: David Piper + +Firstly, Paganism is a collective term for many different faiths and +Wicca is one specific Pagan faith; however, specifics of Wicca IMHO: + +Duotheistic monism *or* duotheistic monotheism (the One transcending + the Two while the Two still have independent self-existence) + +The Lady is the Mother of all Life and Giver of Rebirth: Her Womb is + also the Tomb - "that which enters the Cauldron living, dies + but that which is placed in it dead, comes forth living" + +The Lord is the Father of all life, Son and Lover of the Goddess: He + is born of Her, returns His Seed unto Her, returns to Her in + death, and is reborn of Her + +All initiated members are of the Priesthood: as Priest(ess) unto the + self, if not to a group + +The essential equality of all members, together with the respect for + those of more experience and learning: Elders, HP, and HPS + +Wiccans practice a somewhat "formal" liturgy - if only in terms of a + regular "opening" and "closing" ritual, within which freedom + and spontaneity can be expressed as the Spirit moves them + +A common resemblance of working methods and practice, within a broad + but nevertheless limited range of acceptable variation + +The concept of "Drawing Down" - that the Deities can and do manifest + Themselves "unto visible appearance" to Their worshippers + +A reverence for sexuality as both natural and good, and as sacrament + of the creative Union of the Lady and the Lord + +The Great Rite - as the "Sacred Marriage," in which Goddess and God, + human and Divine, are brought to Unity, or Unity perceived + +Respect for the "Gifts of the Goddess" (to borrow a Farrarian term), + as the true means by which humans can come to directly know, + and experience, the Divine - reason and logic fail; emotions + and intuition and the "psychic" are the channels of contact, + and experiential "Knowledge" + +The concept of "Naked in Her Sight" as expressive of freedom, and of + obedience to Her, and of equality with Brothers and Sisters; + whether by literal, "skyclad" ritual nudity, or by symbolic, + "Naught is hidden from Your Sight" ritual robes + +******************************************************************** + +Now, some of the ideas mentioned beg for more definition and further +discussion, but there's my offering for now... + +B*B +David +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2743 + + 2401 BC + + + + THE PAPYRUS OF ANI + + (THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD) + + + + Translated by E.A. Wallis Budge + + +HYMN TO OSIRIS + + + "Homage to thee, Osiris, Lord of eternity, King of the Gods, whose +names are manifold, whose forms are holy, thou being of hidden form in +the temples, whose Ka is holy. Thou art the governor of Tattu +(Busiris), and also the mighty one in Sekhem (Letopolis). Thou art the +Lord to whom praises are ascribed in the nome of Ati, thou art the +Prince of divine food in Anu. Thou art the Lord who is commemorated in +Maati, the Hidden Soul, the Lord of Qerrt (Elephantine), the Ruler +supreme in White Wall (Memphis). Thou art the Soul of Ra, his own +body, and hast thy place of rest in Henensu (Herakleopolis). Thou +art the beneficent one, and art praised in Nart. Thou makest thy +soul to be raised up. Thou art the Lord of the Great House in +Khemenu (Hermopolis). Thou art the mighty one of victories in +Shas-hetep, the Lord of eternity, the Governor of Abydos. The path +of his throne is in Ta-tcheser (a part of Abydos). Thy name is +established in the mouths of men. Thou art the substance of Two +Lands (Egypt). Thou art Tem, the feeder of Kau (Doubles), the Governor +of the Companies of the gods. Thou art the beneficent Spirit among the +spirits. The god of the Celestial Ocean (Nu) draweth from thee his +waters. Thou sendest forth the north wind at eventide, and breath from +thy nostrils to the satisfaction of thy heart. Thy heart reneweth +its youth, thou producest the.... The stars in the celestial heights +are obedient unto thee, and the great doors of the sky open themselves +before thee. Thou art he to whom praises are ascribed in the +southern heaven, and thanks are given for thee in the northern heaven. + +The imperishable stars are under thy supervision, and the stars +which never set are thy thrones. Offerings appear before thee at the +decree of Keb. The Companies of the Gods praise thee, and the gods +of the Tuat (Other World) smell the earth in paying homage to thee. +The uttermost parts of the earth bow before thee, and the limits of +the skies entreat thee with supplications when they see thee. The holy +ones are overcome before thee, and all Egypt offereth thanksgiving +unto thee when it meeteth Thy Majesty. Thou art a shining Spirit-Body, +the governor of Spirit-Bodies; permanent is thy rank, established is +thy rule. Thou art the well-doing Sekhem (Power) of the Company of the +Gods, gracious is thy face, and beloved by him that seeth it. Thy fear +is set in all the lands by reason of thy perfect love, and they cry +out to thy name making it the first of names, and all people make +offerings to thee. Thou art the lord who art commemorated in heaven +and upon earth. Many are the cries which are made to thee at the Uak +festival, and with one heart and voice Egypt raiseth cries of joy to +thee. +2744 + + "Thou art the Great Chief, the first among thy brethren, the +Prince of the Company of the Gods, the stablisher of Right and Truth +throughout the World, the Son who was set on the great throne of his +father Keb. Thou art the beloved of thy mother Nut, the mighty one +of valour, who overthrew the Sebau-fiend. Thou didst stand up and +smite thine enemy, and set thy fear in thine adversary. Thou dost +bring the boundaries of the mountains. Thy heart is fixed, thy legs +are set firm. Thou art the heir of Keb and of the sovereignty of the +Two Lands (Egypt). He (Keb) hath seen his splendours, he hath +decreed for him the guidance of the world by thy hand as long as times +endure. Thou hast made this earth with thy hand, and the waters, and +the winds, and the vegetation, and all the cattle, and all the +feathered fowl, and all the fish, and all the creeping things, and all +the wild animals therof. The desert is the lawful possession of the +son of Nut. The Two Lands (Egypt) are content to crown thee upon the +throne of thy father, like Ra. + + "Thou rollest up into the horizon, thou hast set light over the +darkness, thou sendest forth air from thy plumes, and thou floodest +the Two Lands like the Disk at daybreak. Thy crown penetrateth the +height of heaven, thou art the companion of the stars, and the guide +of every god. Thou art beneficent in decree and speech, the favoured +one of the Great Company of the Gods, and the beloved of the Little +Company of the Gods. + + His sister [Isis] hath protected him, and hath repulsed the +fiends, and turned aside calamities (of evil). She uttered the spell +with the magical power of her mouth. Her tongue was perfect, and it +never halted at a word. Beneficent in command and word was Isis, the +woman of magical spells, the advocate of her brother. She sought him +untiringly, she wandered round and round about this earth in sorrow, +and she alighted not without finding him. She made light with her +feathers, she created air with her wings, and she uttered the death +wail for her brother. She raised up the inactive members of whose +heart was still, she drew from him his essence, she made an heir, +she reared the child in loneliness, and the place where he was not +known, and he grew in strength and stature, and his hand was mighty in +the House of Keb. The Company of the Gods rejoiced, rejoiced, at the +coming of Horus, the son of Osiris, whose heart was firm, the +triumphant, the son of Isis, the heir of Osiris." + + +REFERENCES + + Following is a list of frequently-mentioned geographical locations, +and their commonly-known names: + Abtu Abydos + + Abu Elephantine + + Anu Heliopolis + + Bast Bubastis + + Hensu Herakleopolis + + Het-ka-Ptah Memphis + +2745 + + Khemenu Hermopolis + + Per-Menu Panopolis + + Qerrt Elephantine + Sau Sais + + Sekhem Letopolis + + Suat Asyut + + Tetu Busiris + + Two Lands Upper and Lower Egypt + + Unu Hermopolis + + + + HYMN TO RA THE SUN GOD + + A HYMN OF PRAISE TO RA WHEN HE RISETH IN THE EASTERN PART OF HEAVEN: + +Behold, the Osiris Ani, the scribe of the holy offerings of all the +gods, saith: Homage to thee, O thou who hast come as Khepera, +Khepera the creator of the gods, Thou art seated on thy throne, thou +risest up in the sky, illumining thy mother [Nut], thou art seated +on thy throne as the king of the gods. [Thy] mother Nut stretcheth out +her hands, and performeth an act of homage to thee. The domain of Manu +receiveth thee with satisfaction. The goddess Maat embraceth thee at +the two seasons of the day. May Ra give glory, and power, and +thruth-speaking, and the appearance as a living soul so that he may +gaze upon Heru-khuti, to the KA of the Osiris the Scribe Ani, who +speaketh truth before Osiris, and who saith: Hail, O all ye gods of +the House of the Soul, who weigh heaven and earth in a balance, and +who give celestial food [to the dead]. Hail, Tatun, [who art] One, +thou creator of mortals [and] of the Companies of the Gods of the +South and of the North, of the West and of the East, ascribe ye praise +to Ra, the lord of heaven, the KING, Life, Strength, and Health, the +maker of the gods. Give ye thanks unto him in his beneficent form +which is enthroned in the Atett Boat; beings celestial praise thee, +beings terrestial praise thee. Thoth and the goddess Maat mark out thy +course for thee day by day and every day. Thine enemy the Serpent hath +been given over to the fire. The Serpent-fiend Sebau hath fallen +headlong, his forelegs are bound in chains, and his hind legs hath +Ra carried away from him. The Sons of Revolt shall never more rise up. +The House of the Aged One keepeth festival, and the voices of those +who make merry are in the Great Place. The gods rejoice when they +see Ra crowned upon his throne, and when his beams flood the world +with light. The majesty of this holy god setteth out on his journey, +and he goeth onwards until he reacheth the land of Manu; the earth +becometh light at his birth each day; he proceedeth until he +reacheth the place where he was yesterday. O be thou at peace with me. +Let me gaze upon thy beauties. Let me journey above the earth. Let +me smite the Ass. Let me slit asunder the Serpent-fiend Sebau. Let +me destroy Aepep at the moment of his greatest power. Let me behold +the Abtu Fish at his season, and the Ant Fish with the Ant Boat as +it piloteth it in its lake. Let me behold Horus when he is in charge +2746 + +of the rudder [of the Boat of Ra], with Thoth and the goddess Maat +on each side of him. Let me lay hold of the tow-rope of the Sektet +Boat, and the rope at the stern of the Matett Boat. Let Ra grant to me +a view of the Disk (the Sun), and a sight of Ah (the Moon) unfailingly +each day. Let my Ba-soul come forth to walk about hither and thither +and whithersoever it pleaseth. Let my name be called out, let it be +found inscribed on the tablet which recordeth the names of those who +are to receive offerings. Let meals from the sepulchral offerings be +given to me in the presence [of Osiris], as to those who are in the +following of Horus. Let there be prepared for me a seat in the Boat of +the Sun on the day wheron the god saileth. Let me be received in the +presence of Osiris in the Land of Truth-speaking- the Ka of Osiris +Ani. + + + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nekht, Brit. Mus. No. 10471, Sheet 21) + + NEKHT, THE CAPTAIN OF SOLDIERS, THE ROYAL SCRIBE, SINGETH A HYMN +OF PRAISE TO RA, and saith:- Homage to thee, O thou glorious Being, +thou who art dowered [with all sovereignty]. O Tem-Heru-Khuti +(Tem-Harmakhis), when thou risest in the horizon of heaven a cry of +joy goeth forth to thee from all people. O thou beautiful Being, +thou dost renew thyself in thy season in the form of the Disk, +within thy mother Hathor. Therefore in every place every heart +swelleth with joy at thy rising for ever. The regions of the South and +the North come to thee with homage, and send forth acclamations at thy +rising on the horizon of heaven, and thou illuminest the Two Lands +with rays of turquoise-[coloured] light. O Ra, who art Heru-Khuti, the +divine man-child, the heir of eternity, self-begotten and self-born, +king of the earth, prince of the Tuat (the Other World), governor of +Aukert, thou didst come from the Water-god, thou didst spring from the +Sky-god Nu, who doth cherish thee and order thy members. O thou god of +life, thou lord of love, all men live when thou shinest; thou art +crowned king of the gods. The goddess Nut embraceth thee, and the +goddess Mut enfoldeth thee at all seasons. Those who are in thy +following sing unto thee with joy, and they bow down their foreheads +to the earth when they meet thee, the lord of heaven, the lord of +the earth, the King of Truth, the lord of eternity, the prince of +everlastingness, thou sovereign of all the gods, thou god of life, +thou creator of eternity, thou maker of heaven wherin thou art +firmly stablished. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2747 + + The Company of the Gods rejoice at thy rising, the earth is glad +when it beholdeth thy rays; the people who have been long dead come +forth with cries of joy to behold thy beauties every day. Thou goest +forth each day over heaven and earth, and thou art made strong each +day be thy mother Nut. Thou passest over the heights of heaven, thy +heart swelleth with joy; and the Lake of Testes (the Great Oasis) is +content thereat. The Serpent-fiend hath fallen, his arms are hewn off, +the Knife hath severed his joints. Ra liveth by Maat (Law), the +beautiful! The Sektet Boat advanceth and cometh into port. The South +and the North, and the West and East, turn to praise thee. O thou +First, Great God (PAUTA), who didst come into being of thine own +accord, Isis and Nephthys salute thee, they sing unto thee songs of +joy at thy rising in the boat, they stretch out their hands unto thee. +The Souls of the East follow thee, and the Souls of the West praise +thee. Thou art the Ruler of all the gods. Thou in thy shrine hast joy, +for the Serpent-fiend Nak hath been judged by the fire, and thy +heart shall rejoice for ever. Thy mother Nut is esteemed by thy father +Nu. + + + HYMN TO OSIRIS UN-NEFER + + A Hymn of Praise to Osiris Un-Nefer, the great god who dwelleth in +Abtu, the king of eternity, the lord of everlastingness, who +traverseth millions of years in his existence. Thou art the eldest son +of the womb of Nut. Thou was begotten by Keb, the Erpat. Thou art +the lord of the Urrt Crown. Thou art he whose White Crown is lofty. +Thou art the King (Ati) of gods [and] men. Thou hast gained possession +of the sceptre of rule, and the whip, and the rank and dignity of +thy divine fathers. Thy heart is expanded with joy, O thou who art +in the kingdom of the dead. Thy son Horus is firmly placed on thy +throne. Thou hast ascended thy throne as the Lord of Tetu, and as +the Heq who dwelleth in Abydos. Thou makest the Two Lands to +flourish through Truth-speaking, in the presence of him who is the +Lord to the Uttermost Limit. Thou drawest on that which hath not yet +come into being in thy name of "Ta-her-sta-nef." Thou governest the +Two Lands by Maat in thy name of "Seker." Thy power is wide-spread, +thou art he of whom the fear is great in thy name of "Usar" (or +"Asar"). Thy existence endureth for an infinite number of double henti +periods in thy name of "Un-Nefer." + + Homage to thee, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and Prince of +Princes. Thou hast ruled the Two Lands from the womb of the goddess +Nut. Thou hast governed the Lands of Akert. Thy members are of +silver-gold, thy head is of lapis-lazuli, and the crown of thy head is +of turquoise. Thou art An of millions of years. Thy body is all +pervading, O Beautiful Face in Ta-tchesert. Grant thou to me glory +in heaven, and power upon earth, and truth-speaking in the Divine +Underworld, and [the power to] sail down the river to Tetu in the form +of a living Ba-soul, and [the power to] sail up the river to Abydos in +the form of a Benu bird, and [the power to] pass in through and to +pass out from, without obstruction, the doors of the lords of the +Tuat. Let there be given unto me bread-cakes in the House of +Refreshing, and sepulchral offerings of cakes and ale, and +propitiatory offerings in Anu, and a permanent homestead in +Sekhet-Aaru, with wheat and barley therein- to the Double of the +Osiris, the scribe Ani. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2748 + + THE CHAPTERS OF COMING FORTH BY DAY + + HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF COMING FORTH BY DAY, AND THE SONGS OF +PRAISING AND GLORIFYING WHICH ARE TO BE RECITED FOR "COMING FORTH" AND +FOR ENTERING INTO KHERT-NETER, AND THE SPELLS WHICH ARE TO BE SAID +IN BEAUTIFUL AMENTET. THEY SHALL BE RECITED ON THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL, +ENTERING IN AFTER COMING FORTH. + + + The Osiris Ani, the Osiris the scribe Ani saith:- Homage to thee, +O Bull of Amentet, Thoth the king of eternity is with me. I am the +great god by the side of the divine boat, I have fought for thee, I am +one of those gods, those divine chiefs, who proved the +truth-speaking of Osiris before his enemies on the day of the weighing +of words. I am thy kinsman Osiris. I am [one of] those gods who were +the children of the goddess Nut, who hacked in pieces the enemies of +Osiris, and who bound in fetters the legion of Sebau devils on his +behalf. I am thy kinsman Horus, I have fought on thy behalf, I have +come to thee for thy name's sake. I am Thoth who proved the truth of +the words of Osiris before his enemies on the day of the weighing of +words in the great House of the Prince, who dwelleth in Anu. I am +Teti, the son of Teti. My mother conceived me in Tetu, and gave +birth to me in Tetu. I am with the mourners [and with] the women who +tear out their hair and make lament for Osiris in Taui-Rekhti, proving +true the words of Osiris before his enemies. Ra commanded Thoth to +prove true the words of Osiris before his enemies; what was +commanded [for Osiris], let that be done for me by Thoth. I am with +Horus on the day of dressing Teshtesh. I open the hidden water-springs +for the ablutions of Urt-ab. I unbolt the door of the Shetait Shrine +in Ra-stau. I am with Horus as the protector of the left shoulder of +Osiris, the dweller in Sekhem. I enter in among and I come forth +from the Flame-gods on the day of the destruction of the Sebau +fiends in Sekhem. I am with Horus on the day[s] of the festivals of +Osiris, at the making of offerings and oblations, namely, on the +festival which is celebrated on the sixth day of the month, and on the +day of the Tenat festival in Anu. I am the UAB priest (libationer) +in Tetu, Rera, the dweller in Per-Asar. I exalt him that is upon the +high place of the country. I look upon the hidden things (the +mysteries) in Ra-stau. I recite the words of the liturgy of the +festival of the Soul-god in Tetu. I am the SEM priest, and [perform] +his duties. I am the UR-KHERP-HEM priest on the day of placing the +Henu Boat of Seker upon its divine sledge. I have taken in my hand the +digging tool on the day of digging up the earth in Hensu. + + Hail, O ye who make perfect souls to enter into the House of Osiris, +make ye the well-instructed soul of the Osiris the scribe Ani, whose +word is true, to enter in and to be with you in the House of Osiris. +Let him hear even as ye hear; let him have sight even as ye have +sight; let him stand up even as ye stand up; let him take his seat +even as ye take your seats. + + Hail, O ye who give cakes and ale to perfect souls in the House of +Osiris, give ye cakes and ale twice each day (in the morning and in +the evening) to the soul of the Osiris Ani, whose word is true +before the gods, the Lords of Abydos, and whose word is true with you. + + + +2749 + + Hail, O ye who open up the way, who act as guides to the roads [in +the Other World] to perfect souls in the House of Osiris, open ye up +for him the way, and act ye as guides to the roads to the soul of +the Osiris, the scribe, the registrary of all the offerings made to +the gods, Ani, [whose word is true] with you. May he enter the House +of Osiris with boldness, and may he come forth therefrom in peace. May +there be no opposition made to him, and may he not be sent back +[therefrom]. May he enter in under favour [of Osiris], and may he come +forth gratified [at the acceptance of] his true words. May his +commands be performed in the House of Osiris, may his words travel +with you, may he be glorious as ye are. May he be not found to be +light in the Balance, may the Balance dispose of his case. + + + (In the Turin Papyrus, ed. Lepsius, this Chapter ends with the +following.) + + + Permit thou not me to be judged according to the mouths of the +multitude. May my soul lift itself up before [Osiris], having been +found to have been pure when on earth. May I come into thy presence, O +Lord of the gods; may I arrive at the Nome of Maati (Truth); may I +rise up on my seat like a god endowed with life; may I give forth +light like the Company of the Gods who dwell in heaven; may I become +like one of you; may I lift up my footsteps in the town of Kher-Aha; +may I look upon the Sektet Boat of the god, Saah, the holy one, as +it passeth across the sky; may I not be repulsed; may I look upon +the Lords of the Tuat, or, according to another reading, the Company +of the Gods; may I smell the savour of the divine food of the +Company of the Gods; may I sit down with them; may my name be +proclaimed for offerings by the KHER-HEB priest at the sacrificial +table; may I hear the petitions which are made when offerings are +presented; may I draw nigh unto the Neshem Boat; and may neither my +Heart-soul nor its lord be repulsed. + + Homage to thee, O Chief of Amentet, thou god Osiris, who dwellest in +the town of Nifu-ur. Grant thou that I may arrive in peace in Amentet. +May the Lords of Ta-Tchesert receive me, and may they say unto me: +"Hail, hail; welcome, welcome!" May they make ready for me a seat by +the side of the President of the Chiefs; may the Nursing-goddesses +receive me at the seasons, and may I come forth into the presence of +Un-Nefer true of word. May I be a Follower of Horus in Ra-stau, and of +Osiris in Tetu; and may I perform all the transformations which my +heart may desire to make in every place wherein my Double (KA) wisheth +to be. + +- + + RUBRIC: If this text be known [by the deceased] upon earth or if +he causeth it to be done in writing upon [his] coffin, then will he be +able to come forth on any day he pleaseth, and to enter into his +habitation unrepulsed. Cakes and ale and joints of meat from those +which are on the altar of Ra shall be given unto him, and his +homestead shall be among the fields of the Field of Reeds(Sekhet-Aaru), +and wheat and barley shall be given unto him therein, and he shall +flourish there even as he flourished upon earth. + + +2750 + + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nekhtu-Amen, ed. Naville, I, 5) + + THE CHAPTER OF MAKING THE SAHU TO ENTER THE TUAT ON THE DAY OF THE +FUNERAL, WHEN THE FOLLOWING WORDS ARE TO BE SAID: Homage to thee, O +thou who dwellest in the Holy Hill (Set-Tchesert) of Amentet! the +Osiris, the royal scribe, Nekhtu-Amen, whose word is true, knoweth +thee, he knoweth thy name. Deliver thou him from the worms which are +in Ra-stau, which live upon the bodies of men and women, and feed upon +their blood, for Osiris, the favoured servant of the god of his +city, the royal scribe Nekhtu-Amen, knoweth you, and he knoweth your +names. Let the order for his protection be the first command of +Osiris, the Lord to the Uttermost Limit, who keepeth his body +hidden. May he give him release from the Terrible One who dwelleth +at the bend of the River of Amentet, and may he decree the acts that +will make him to rise up. Let him pass on to him whose throne is +placed within the darkness, who giveth light in Ra-stau. O thou Lord +of Light, come thou and swallow up the worms which are in Amentet. Let +the Great God who dwelleth in Tetu, and who is himself unseen, hear +his prayers, and let those who cause afflictions hold him in fear as +he cometh forth with the sentence of their doom to the Divine Block. I +the Osiris, the royal scribe, Nekhtu-Amen, come, bearing the decree of +Neb-er-tcher, and I am the Horus who taketh possession of his throne +for him. His father, the lord of all those who are in the Boat of +his Father Horus, hath ascribed praise unto him. He cometh bearing +tidings....... let him see the town of Anu. Their chief shall stand on +the earth before him, the scribes shall magnify him at the doors of +their assemblies, and thy shall swathe im with swathings in Anu. He +hath led heaven captive, and he hath seized the earth in his grasp. +Neither the heavens nor the earth can be taken away from him, for, +behold, he is Ra, the firstborn of the gods. His mother shall nurse +him, and shall give him her breast on the horizon. + +- + + RUBRIC: The words of this Chapter shall be said after [the deceased] +is laid to rest in Amentet; by means of them the region Tenn-t shall +be contented with her lord. And the Osiris, the royal scribe, +Nekhtu-Amen, whose word is truth, shall come forth, and he shall +embark in the Boat of Ra, and [his] body upon its bier shall be +counted up, and he shall be established in the Tuat. + + GIVING A MOUTH TO ANI + + THE CHAPTER OF GIVING A MOUTH TO THE OSIRIS ANI, THE SCRIBE, AND +TELLER OF THE OFFERINGS WHICH ARE MADE TO ALL THE GODS, WHOSE WORD +IS TRUE, WHO SAITH:- I rise up out of the Egg in the Hidden Land. +May my mouth be given unto me that I may speak therewith in the +presence of the Great God, the Lord of the Tuat. Let not my hand and +my arm be repulsed in the presence of the Chiefs (Tchatchau) of any +god. I am Osiris, the Lord of Ra-stau. May I, the Osiris, the scribe +Ani, whose word is true, have my portion with him who is on the top of +the Steps (Osiris). According to the desire of my heart I have come +forth from the Island of Nesersert, and I have extinguished the fire. + + + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2751 + + APPENDIX + [The following passage is taken from the Saite Recension] + +- + + [THE CHAPTER OF GIVING A MOUTH TO THE OSIRIS, THE SCRIBE ANI, WHO +SAITH]:- Homage to thee, O thou lord of brightness, Governor of the +Temple, Prince of the night and of the thick darkness. I have come +unto thee. I am shining, I am pure. My hands are about thee, thou hast +thy lot with thy ancestors. Give thou unto me my mouth that I may +speak with it. I guide my heart at its season of flame and of night. + +- + + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known by the Osiris the scribe Ani, +upon earth, [or if it be done] in writing upon [his] coffin, he +shall come forth by day in every form which he pleaseth, and he +shall enter into [his] abode, and shall not be repulsed. And cakes, +and ale, and joints of meat [from those which are on] the altar of +Osiris shall be given unto him; and he shall enter in peace into +Sekhet-Aaru, conformably to the decree of the Dweller in Busiris. +Wheat and barley (dhura) shall be given unto him therein, and he shall +flourish there just as he did upon earth; and he shall do whatsoever +it pleaseth him to do, even as do the Company of the Gods who are in +the Tuat, regularly and continually, for millions of times. + + + {GIVING A MOUTH TO ANI|APPENDIX + + (From the Paprys of Nebseni, Sheet 3) + + THE CHAPTER OF COMING FORTH BY DAY AND OF OPENING UP A WAY THROUGH +THE AMEHET: Behold, the scribe Nebseni, whose word is truth, saith:- +Homage to you, O ye Lords of Kau, ye who are without sin, and who live +for the endless and infinite aeons of time which make up eternity. I +have opened up a way for myself to you. I have become a spirit in my +forms, I have gotten the mastery over my words of magical power, and I +am adjudged a spirit; therefore deliver ye me from the Crocodile +[which liveth in] this Country of Truth. Grant ye to me my mouth +that I may speak therewith, and cause ye that sepulchral offerings +shall be made unto me in your presence, for I know you, and I know +your names, and I know also the name of the mighty god before whose +face ye set your celestial food. His name is "Tekem." [When] he +openeth up his path on the eastern horizon of heaven, [when] he +alighteth towards the western horizon of heaven, may he carry me along +with him, and may I be safe and sound. Let not the Mesqet make an +end of me, let not the Fiend (Sebau) gain the mastery over me, let +me not be driven away from the doors of the Other World, let not you +doors be shut in my face, for my cakes are in the city of Pe, and my +ale is in the city of Tep. And there, in the celestial mansions of +heaven which my divine father Tem hath stablished, let my hands lay +hold upon the wheat and the barley, which shall be given unto me +therein in abundant measure, and may the son of my own body make ready +for me my food therein. And grant ye unto me when I am there +sepulchral meals, and incense, and unguents, and all the pure and +beautiful things whereon the god liveth, in every deed for ever, in +all the transformations which it pleaseth me [to perform], and grant +unto me the power to float down and to sail up the stream in the Field +2752 + +of Reeds (Sekhet-Aaru), [and may I reach Sekhet-hetepet (the Field +of Offerings)]. I am the twin Lion-gods (Shu and Tefnut). + + WEIGHING OF THE HEART OF ANI + TEXTS RELATING TO THE WEIGHING OF THE HEART OF ANI +- + + THE NAMES OF THE GODS OF THE GREAT COMPANY:- 1. Ra Harmakhis, the +Great God in his boat. 2. Temu. 3. Shu. 4. Tefnut. 5. Keb. 6. Nut, the +Lady of Heaven. 7. Isis. 8. Nephthys. 9. Horus, the Great God. 10. +Hathor, Lady of Amentet. 11. Hu. 12. Sa. + + + THE PRAYER OF ANI:- My heart, my mother; my heart, my mother! My +heart whereby I came into being! May nought stand up to oppose me at +[my] judgment, may there be no opposition to me in the presence of the +Chiefs (Tchatchau); may there be no parting of thee from me in the +presence of him that keepeth the Balance! Thou art my KA, which +dwelleth in my body; the god Khnemu who knitteth together and +happiness whither we go. May the Sheniu officials, who make the +conditions of the lives of men, not cause my name to stink, and may no +lies be spoken against me in the presence of the God. [Let it be +satisfactory unto us, and let the Listener god be favourable unto +us, and let there be joy of heart (to us) at the weighing of words. +Let not that which is false be uttered against me before the Great +God, the Lord of Amentet. Verily, how great shalt thou be when thou +risest in triumph.] + + THE SPEECH OF THOTH:- Thoth, the judge of right and truth of the +Great Company of the Gods who are in the presence of Osiris, saith: +Hear ye this judgment. The heart of Osiris hath in very truth been +weighed, and his Heart-soul hath borne testimony on his behalf; his +heart hath been found right by the trial in the Great Balance. There +hath not been found any wickedness in him; he hath not wasted the +offerings which have been made in the temples; he hath not committed +any evil act; and he hath not set his mouth in motion with words of +evil whilst he was upon earth. + + SPEECH OF THE DWELLER IN THE EMBALMMENT CHAMBER (ANUBIS):- Pay +good heed, O righteous Judge to the Balance to support [the testimony] +thereof. Variant: Pay good heed to the weighing in the Balance of +the heart of the Osiris, the singing-woman of Amen, Anhai, whose +word is truth, and place thou her heart in the seat of truth in the +presence of the Great God. + + THE SPEECH OF THE GODS:- The Great Company of the Gods say to +Thoth who dwelleth in Khemenu: That which cometh forth from thy +mouth shall be declared true. The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is +true, is holy and righteous. He hath not committed any sin, and he +hath done no evil against us. The devourer Am-mit shall not be +permitted to prevail over him. Meat offerings and admittance into +the presence of the god Osiris shall be granted unto him, together +with an abiding habitation in the Field of Offerings (Sekhet-hetepet), +as unto the Followers of Horus. + THE SPEECH OF HORUS TO OSIRIS IN INTRODUCING ANI TO HIM:- Horus, the +son of Isis, saith: I have come to thee, O Un-Nefer, and I have +brought unto thee the Osiris Ani. His heart is righteous, and it +hath come forth from the Balance; it hath not sinned against any god +2753 + +or any goddess. Thoth hath weighed it according to the decree +pronounced unto him by the Company of the Gods, and it is most true +and righteous. Grant thou that cakes and ale may be given unto him, +and let him appear in the presence of the god Osiris, and let him be +like unto the Followers of Horus for ever and ever. + + THE SPEECH OF ANI:- And the Osiris Ani saith: Behold, I am in thy +presence, O Lord of Amentet. There is no sin in my body. I have not +spoken that which is not true knowingly, nor have I done anything with +a false heart. Grant thou that I may be like unto those favoured +ones who are in thy following, and that I may be an Osiris greatly +favoured of the beautiful god, and beloved of the Lord of the Two +Lands, I who am a veritable royal scribe who loveth thee, Ani, whose +word is true before the god Osiris. + + DESCRIPTION OF THE BEAST AM-MIT:- Her forepart is like that of a +crocodile, the middle of her body is like that of a lion, her hind +quarters are like those of a hippopotamus. + + PRAISES AND GLORIFYINGS + +HERE BEGIN THE PRAISES AND GLORIFYINGS OF COMING OUT FROM AND OF +GOING INTO THE GLORIOUS KHERT-NETER, WHICH IS IN THE BEAUTIFUL +AMENTET, OF COMING FORTH BY DAY IN ALL THE FORMS OF EXISTENCE WHICH IT +MAY PLEASE THE DECEASED TO TAKE, OF PLAYING AT DRAUGHTS, OF SITTING IN +THE SEH HALL, AND OF APPEARING AS A LIVING SOUL: + + The Osiris the scribe Ani saith after he hath arrived in his haven +of rest- now it is good for [a man] to recite [this work whilst he is] +upon earth, for then all the words of Tem come to pass- + + "I am the god Tem in rising. I am the Only One. I came into +existence in Nu. I am Ra who rose in the beginning, the ruler of +this [creation]." + Who is this? + + "It is Ra, when at the beginning he rose in the city of Hensu, +crowned like a king for his coronation. The Pillars of the god Shu +were not as yet created, when he was upon the steps of him that +dwelleth in Khemenu. + + "I am the Great God who created himself, even Nu, who made his names +to become the Company of the Gods as gods." + + Who is this? + + "It is Ra, the creator of the names of his limbs, which came into +being in the form of the gods who are in the train of Ra. + + "I am he who cannot be repulsed among the gods." + + Who is this? + + "It is Temu, the dweller in his disk, but others say that it is Ra +when he riseth in the eastern horizon of the sky. + + "I am Yesterday, I know To-day." + +2754 + + Who is this? + + "Yesterday is Osiris, and To-day is Ra, when he shall destroy the +enemies of Neb-er-tcher (the lord to the uttermost limit), and when he +shall establish as prince and ruler his son Horus. + + "Others, however, say that To-day is Ra, on the day when we +commemorate the festival of the meeting of the dead Osiris with his +father Ra, and when the battle of the gods was fought, in which +Osiris, the Lord of Amentet, was the leader." + What is this? + + "It is Amentet, [that is to say] the creation ofthe souls of the +gods when Osiris was leader in Set-Amentet. + + "Others, however, say that it is the Amentet which Ra hath given +unto me; when any god cometh he must rise up and fight for it. + + "I know the god who dwelleth therein." + Who is this? + + "It is Osiris. Others, however, say that his name is Ra, and that +the god who dwelleth in Amentet is the phallus of Ra, wherewith he had +union with himself. + + "I am the Benu bird which is in Anu. I am the keeper of the volume +of the book (the Tablet of Destiny) of the things which have been +made, and of the things which shall be made." + + Who is this? + + "It is Osiris. + + "Others, however, say that it is the dead body of Osiris, and yet +others say that it is the excrement of Osiris. The things which have +been made, and the things which shall be made [refer to] the dead body +of Osiris. Others again say that the things which have been made are +Eternity, and the things which shall be made are Everlastingness, +and that Eternity is the Day, and Everlastingness the Night. + + "I am the god Menu in his coming forth; may his two plumes be set on +my head for me." + + Who is this? + + "Menu is Horis, the Advocate of his father [Osiris], and his +coming forth means his birth. The two plumes on his head are Isis +and Nephthys, when these goddesses go forth and set themselves +thereon, and when they act as his protectors, and when they provide +that which his head lacketh. + + "Others, however, say that the two plumes are the two exceedingly +large uraei which are upon the head of their father Tem, and there are +yet others who say that the two plumes which are upon the head of Menu +are his two eyes. + + "The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is true, the registrar of all +the offerings which are made to the gods, riseth up and cometh into +2755 + +his city." + + What is this [city]? + + "It is the horizon of his father Tem. + + "I have made an end of my shortcomings, and I have put away my +faults." + + What is this? + + "It is the cutting of the navel string of the body of the Osiris the +scribe Ani, whose word is true before all the gods, and all his faults +are driven out. + + What is this ? + + "It is the purification [of Osiris] on the day of his birth. + + "I am purified in my great double nest which is in Hensu on the +day of the offerings of the followers of the Great God who dwelleth +therein." + + What is the "great double nest"? + + "The name of one nest is 'Millions of years,' and 'Great Green +[Sea]' is the name of the other, that is to say 'Lake of Natron' and +'Lake of Salt.' + + "Others, however, say the name of the one is 'Guide of Millions of +Years,' and that 'Great Green Lake' is name of the other. Yet others +say that 'Begetter of Millions of Years' is the name of one, and +'Great Green Lake' is the name of the other. Now, as concerning the +Great God who dwelleth therein, it is Ra himself. + + "I pass over the way, I know the head of the Island of Maati." + + What is this? + + "It is Ra-stau, that is to say, it is the gate to the South of +Nerutef, and it is the Northern Gate of the Domain (Tomb of the god). + + "Now, as concerning the Island of Maati, it is Abtu. + + "Others, however, say that it is the way by which Father Tem +travelleth when he goeth forth to Sekhet-Aaru, [the place] which +produceth the food and sustenance of the gods who are [in] their +shrines. + + "Now the Gate Tchesert is the Gate of the Pillars of Shu, that is to +say, the Northern Gate of the Tuat. + "Others, however, say that the Gate of Tchesert is the two leaves of +the door through which the god Tem passeth when he goeth forth to +the eastern horizon of the sky. + + "O ye gods who are in the presence [of Osiris], grant to me your +arms, for I am the god who shall come into being among you." + +2756 + + Who are these gods? + + "They are the drops of blood which came forth from the phallus of Ra +when he went forth to perform his own mutilitation. These drops of +blood sprang into being under the forms of the gods Hu and Sa, who are +in the bodyguard of Ra, and who accompany the god Tem daily and +every day. + + "I, Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, have filled for thee +the utchat (the Eye of Ra, or of Horus), when it had suffered +extinction on the day of the combat of the Two Fighters (Horus and +Set)." + + What was this combat? + + It was the combat which took place on the day when Horus fought with +Set, during which Set threw filth in the face of Horus, and Horus +crushed the genitals of Set. The filling of the utchat Thoth performed +with his own fingers. + + "I remove the thunder-cloud from the sky when there is a storm +with thunder and lightning therein." + + What is this? + + "This storm was the raging of Ra at the thunder-cloud which [Set] +sent forth against the Right Eye of Ra (the Sun). Thoth removed the +thunder-cloud from the Eye of Ra, and brought back the Eye living, +healthy, sound, and with no defect in it to its owner. + + "Others, however, say that the thunder-cloud is caused by sickness +in the Eye of Ra, which weepeth for its companion Eye (the Moon); at +this time Thoth cleanseth the Right Eye of Ra. + + "I behold Ra who was born yesterday from the thighs of the goddess +Mehurt; his strength is my strength, and my strength is his strength." + + Who is this? + + "Mehurt is the great Celestial Water, but others say that Mehurt +is the image of the Eye of Ra at dawn at his birth daily. + + "[Others, however, say that] Mehurt is the utchat of Ra. + + "Now Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, is a very great one +among the gods who are in the following of Horus; they say that he +is the prince who loveth his lord." + + Who are the gods who are in the train of Horus? + + "[They are] Kesta, Hapi, Taumutef, and Qebhsenuf. + + "Homage to you, O ye lords of right and truth, ye sovereign +princes (Tchatcha) who [stand] round about Osiris, who do away utterly +sins and offences, and who are in the following of the goddess +Hetepsekhus, grant ye that I may come unto you. Destroy ye all the +faults which are within me, even as ye did for the Seven Spirits who +are among the followers of their lord Sepa. Anpu (Anubis) appointed to +2757 + +them their places on the day [when he said unto them], "Come ye +hither." + + Who are the "lords of right and truth"? + + "The lords of right and truth are Thoth and Astes, the Lord of +Amentet. + + "The Tchatcha round about Osiris are Kesta, Hapi, Tuamutef, and +Qebhsenuf, and they are also round about the Constellation of the +Thigh (the Great Bear), in the northern sky. + + "Those who do away utterly sins and offences, and who are in the +following of the goddess Hetepsekhus, are the god Sebek and his +associates who dwell in the water. + + "The goddess Hetepsekhus is the Eye of Ra. + + "Others, however, say that it is the flame which accompanieth Osiris +to burn up the souls of his enemies. + + "As concerning all the faults which are in Osiris, the registrar +of the offerings which are made unto all the gods, Ani, whose word +is truth, [these are all the offences which he hath committed +against the Lords of Eternity] since he came forth from his mother's +womb. + + "As concerning the Seven Spirits who are Kesta, Hapi, Tuamutef, +Qebhsenuf, Maa-atef, Kheribeqef and Heru-khenti-en-ariti, these did +Anubis appoint to be protectors of the dead body of Osiris. + + "Others, however, say that he set them round about the holy place of +Osiris. + + "Others say that the Seven Spirits [which were appointed by +Anubis] were Netcheh-netcheh, Aatqetqet, Nertanef-besef-khenti-hehf, +Aq-her-ami-unnut-f, Tesher-ariti-ami-Het-anes, +Ubes-her-per-em-khetkhet, and Maaem-kerh-annef-em-hru. + + "The chief of the Tchatcha (sovereign princes) who is in Naarutef is +Horus, the Advocate of his father. + + "As concerning the day wherein [Anubis said to the Seven Spirits], +'Come ye hither,' [the allusion here] is to the words 'Come ye +hither,' which Ra spake unto Osiris." + + Verily may these same words be said unto me in Amentet. + + "I am the Divine Soul which dwelleth in the Divine Twin-gods." + + Who is this Divine Soul? + + "It is Osiris. [When] he goeth into Tetu, and findeth there the Soul +of Ra, the one god embraceth the other, and two Divine Souls spring +into being within the Divine Twin-gods." + + + +2758 + + APPENDIX +(From the Papyrus of Nebseni, Brit. Mus. No. 9900, Sheet 14, ll. +16ff.) + + "As concerning the Divine Twin-gods they are Heru-netch-her-tefef +and Heru-khent-en-Ariti (Horus the Advocate of his father [Osiris], +and Horus the sightless). + + "Others say that the double Divine Soul which dwelleth in the Divine +Twin-gods is the Soul of Ra and the Soul of Osiris, and yet others say +that it is the Soul which dwelleth in Shu, and the Sould which +dwelleth in Tefnut, and that these two Souls form the double Divine +Soul which dwelleth in Tetu. + + "I am the Cat which fought near the Persea Tree in Anu on the +night when the foes of Neb-er-tcher were destroyed." + + Who is this Cat? + + "This male Cat is Ra himself, and he was called 'Mau' because of the +speech of the god Sa, who said concerning him: 'He is like (mau) +unto that which he hath made'; therefore, did the name of Ra become +'Mau.' + + "Others, however, say that the male Cat is the god Shu, who made +over the possessions of Keb to Osiris. + + "As concerning the fight which took place near the Persea Tree in +Anu [these words have reference to the slaughter] of the children of +rebellion, when righteous retribution was meted out to them for [the +evil] which they had done. + + "As concerning the 'night of the battle,' [these words refer to] the +invasion of the eastern portion of the heaven by the children of +rebellion, whereupon a great battle arose in heaven and in all the +earth. + + "O thou who art in thine egg (Ra,) who showest from thy Disk, who +risest on thy horizon, and dost shine with golden beams in the +height of heaven, like unto whom there is none among the gods, who +sailest above the Pillars of Shu, who sendest forth blasts of fire +from thy mouth, [who illuminest the Two Lands with thy splendour, +deliver] thou Nebseni, the lord of fealty [to Osiris], from the god +whose form is hidden, and whose eyebrows are like unto the two arms of +the Balance on the night when the sentences of doom are promulgated." + + Who is this invisible god? + + "It is An-a-f (he who bringeth his arm.). + + "As concerning 'the night when the sentences of doom are +promulgated,' it is the night of the burning of the damned, and of the +overthrow of the wicked at the Block, and of the slaughter of souls." + Who is this [slaughterer of souls]? + + "It is Shesmu, the headsman of Osiris. + + "[Concerning the invisible god] some say that he is Aapep when he +2759 + +riseth up with a head bearing upon it [the feather of] Maat (Truth). +But others say that he is Horus when he riseth up with two heads, +whereon one beareth [the feather of] Maat, and the other [the symbol +of] wickedness. He bestoweth wickedness on him that worketh +wickedness, and right and truth upon him that followeth +righteousness and truth. + + "Others say that he is Heru-ur (the Old Horus), who dwelleth in +Sekhem; others say that he is Thoth; others say that he is +Nefer-Tem; and others say that he is Sept who doth bring to nought the +acts of the foes of Nebertcher. + + "Deliver thou the scribe Nebseni, whose word is truth, from the +Watchers, who carry murderous knives, who possess cruel fingers, and +who would slay those who are in the following of Osiris." + + May these Watchers never gain the mastery over me, and may I never +fall under their knives! + + + Who are these Watchers? + + "They are Anubis and Horus, [the latter being] in the form of +Horus the sightless. Others, however, say that they are the Tchatcha +(sovereign princes of Osiris), who bring to nought the operations of +their knives; and others say that they are the chiefs of the Sheniu +chamber. + + "May their knives never gain the mastery over me. May I never fall +under the knives wherewith they inflict cruel tortures. For I know +their names, and I know the being, Matchet, who is among them in the +House of Osiris. He shooteth forth rays of light from his eye, being +himself invisible, and he goeth round about heaven robed in the flames +which come from his mouth, commanding Hapi, but remaining invisible +himself. May I be strong on earth before Ra, may I arrive safely in +the presence of Osiris. O ye who preside over your altars, let not +your offerings to me be wanting, for I am one of those who follow +after Nebertcher, according to the writings of Khepera. Let me fly +like a hawk, let me cackle like a goose, let me lay always like the +serpent-goddess Neheb-ka." + + Who are those who preside over their altars? + + "Those who preside over their altars are the similitude of the Eye +of Ra, and the similitude of the Eye of Horus. + + "O Ra-Tem, thou Lord of the Great House [in Anu], thou Sovereign +(life, strentgh, health [be to thee]) of all the gods, deliver thou +the scribe Nebseni, whose word is truth, from the god whose face is +like unto that of a greyhound, whose brows are like those of a man, +who feedeth upon the dead, who watcheth at the Bend of the Lake of +Fire, who devoureth the bodies of the dead, and swalloweth hearts, and +who voideth filth, but who himself remaineth unseen." + + Who is this greyhound-faced god? + + "His name is 'Everlasting Devourer,' and he liveth in the Domain [of +Fire] (the Lake of Unt). +2760 + + "As concerning the Domain of Fire, it is that Aat which is in +Naarutef, and is near the Sheniu chamber. The sinner who walketh +over this place falleth down among the knives [of the Watchers]. + + "Others, however, say that the name of this god is 'Mates,' and that +he keepeth watch over the door of Amentet; others say that his name is +'Beba,' and that he keepeth watch over the Bend [of the stream] of +Amentet, and yet others say that his name is 'Herisepef.' + + "Hail, Lord of Terror, Chief of the Lands of the South and North, +thou Lord of the Desert, who dost keep prepared the block of +slaughter, and who dost feed on the intestines [of men]!" + + Who is this Lord of Terror? + + "It is the Keeper of the Bend [of the stream] of Amentet." + + Who is this Keeper? + + "It is the Heart of Osiris, which is the devourer of all slaughtered +things. + + "The Urrt Crown hath been given unto him, with gladness of heart, as +Lord of Hensu." + + Who is this? + + "He to whom the Urrt Crown hath been given with gladness of heart as +Lord of Hensu is Osiris. He was bidden to rule among the gods on the +day of the union of earth [with earth] in the presence of Nebertcher." + + Who is this? + + "He who was bidden to rule among the gods is the son of Isis +(Horus), who was appointed to rule in the room of his father Osiris. + + "As concerning [the words] 'day of the union of earth with earth,' +they have reference to the union of earth with earth in the coffin +of Osiris, the Soul that liveth in Hensu, the giver of meat and drink, +the destroyer of wrong, and the guide to the everlasting paths." + + Who is this? + + "It is Ra himself." + + "[Deliver thou the Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth] +from the great god who carrrieth away souls, who eateth hearts, who +feedeth upon offal, who keepeth watch in the darkness, who dwelleth in +the Seker Boat; those who live in sin fear him." + + Who is this? + + "It is Suti, but others say that it is Smamur, the soul of Keb. + + "Hail, Khepera in thy boat, the two Companies of the Gods are in thy +body. Deliver thou the Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, +from the Watchers who pass sentences of doom, who have been +appointed by the god Nebertcher to protect him, and to fasten the +2761 + +fetters on his foes, and who slaughter in the torture chambers; +there is no escape from their fingers. May they never stab me with +their knives, may I never fall helpless into their chambers of +torture. I have never done the things which the gods hate. I am he who +is pure in the Mesqet chamber. And saffron cakes have been brought +unto him in Tannt." + + Who is this? + + "It is Khepera in his boat; it is Ra himself. + + "As concerning the Watchers who pass sentences of doom, they are the +Apes Isis and Nephthys. + + "As concerning the things which the gods hate, they are acts of +deceit and lying. He who passeth through the place of purification +within the Mesqet chamber is Anpu (Anubis), who is hard by the +coffer which containeth the inward parts of Osiris. He to whom saffron +cakes have been brought in Tannt is Osiris. + + "Others, however, say that the saffron cakes in Tannt represent +heaven and earth, and others say that they represent Shu, the +strengthener of the Two Lands in Hensu; and others say that they +represent the Eye of Horus, and that Tannt is the burial-place of +Osiris. + + "Tem hath builded thy house, and the double Lion-god hath laid the +foundations of thy habitation. Lo! medicaments have been brought. +Horus purifieth Set and Set strengtheneth, and Set purifieth and Horus +strengtheneth. + + "The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth before Osiris, +hath come into this land, and he hath taken possession thereof with +his two feet. He is Tem, and he is in the city. + + "Turn thou back, O Rehu, whose mouth shineth, whose head moveth, +turn thou back before his strength." Another reading is, 'Turn thou +back from him who keepeth watch, and is himself unseen.' Let the +Osiris Ani be safely guarded. He is Isis, and he is found with her +hair spread over him; it is shaken out over his brow. He was conceived +by Isis, and engendered by Nephthys, and they have cut away from him +the things which should be cut from him. + + "Fear followeth after thee, terror is about thine arms. Thou hast +been embraced for millions of years by arms; mortals go round about +thee. Thou smitest down the mediators of thy foes, and thou seizest +the arms of the power of darkness. Thy two sisters (Isis and Nephthys) +are given to thee for thy delight. Thou hast created that which is +in Kher-aha, and that which is Anu. Every god feareth thee, for thou +art exceedingly great and terrible; thou [avengest] every god on the +man who curseth him, and thou shootest arrows at him. Thou livest +according to thy will. Thou art Uatchet, the Lady of Flame, evil +befalleth those who set themselves up against thee." + + What is this? + "'Hidden in form, given of Menhu,' is the name of the "tomb. 'He who +seeth what is on his hand' is the name of Qerau, or, as others say, it +is the name of the Block. +2762 + + "Now, he whose mouth shineth and whose head moveth is the phallus of +Osiris, but others say it is [the phallus] of Ra. 'Thou spreadest +thy hair, and I shake it out over his brow" is said concerning Isis, +who hideth in her hair, and draweth it round about her. + + "Uatchet, the Lady of Flames, is the Eye of Ra." + + THE SEVEN ARITS + The First Arit. + + The name of the Doorkeeper is Sekhet-her-asht-aru. The name of the +Watcher is Smetti. The name of the Herald is Hakheru. + + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, shall say when he cometh unto +the First Arit: "I am the mighty one who createth his own light. I +have come unto thee, O Osiris, and, purified from that which +defileth thee, I adore thee. Lead on. Name not the name of Ra-stau +to me. Homage to thee, O Osiris, in thy might and in thy strength in +Ra-stau. Rise up and conquer, O Osiris, in Abtu. Thou goest round +about heaven, thou sailest in the presence of Ra, thou lookest upon +all the beings who have knowledge. Hail, Ra, thou who goest round +about in the sky, I say, O Osiris in truth, that I am the Sahu + +(Spirit-body) of the god, and I beseech thee not to let me be driven +away, nor to be cast upon the wall of blazing fire. Let the way be +opened in Ra-stau, let the pain of the Osiris be relieved, embrace +that which the Balance hath weighed, let a path be made for the Osiris +in the Great Valley, and let the Osiris have light to guide him on his +way." + + The Second Arit. + The name of the Doorkeeper is Unhat. The name of the Watcher is +Seqt-her. The name of the Herald is Ust. + + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he cometh to +this Arit]: "He sitteth to carry out his heart's desire, and he +weigheth words as the Second of Thoth. The strength which protecteth +Thoth humbleth the hidden Maati gods, who feed upon Maat during the +years of their lives. I offer up my offerings [to him] at the moment +when he maketh his way. I advance, and I enter on the path. O grant +thou that I may continue to advance, and that I may attain to the +sight of Ra, and of those who offer up [their] offerings." + + The Third Arit. + + The name of the Doorkeeper is Unem-hauatu-ent-pehui. The name of the +Watcher is Seres-her. The name of the Herald is Aa. + + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he +cometh to this Arit]: "I am he who is hidden in the great deep. I am +the Judge of the Rehui, I have come and I have done away the offensive +thing which was upon Osiris. I tie firmly the place on which he +standeth, coming forth from the Urt. I have stablished things in Abtu, +I have opened up a way through Ra-stau, and I have relieved the pain +which was in Osiris. I have balanced the place whereon he standeth, +and I have made a path for him; he shineth brilliantly in Ra-stau." + + The Fourth Arit. +2763 + + The name of the Doorkeeper is Khesef-her-asht-kheru. The name of the +Watcher is Seres-tepu. The name of the Herald is Khesef-at. + + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he +cometh to this Arit]: "I am the Bull, the son of the ancestress of +Osiris. O grant ye that his father, the Lord of his god-like +companions, may bear witness on his behalf. I have weighed the +guilty in judgment. I have brought unto his nostrils the life which is +ever lasting. I am the son of Osiris, I have accomplished the journey, +I have advanced in Khert-Neter." + + The Fifth Arit. + + The name of the Doorkeeper is Ankhf-em-fent. The name of the Watcher +is Shabu. The name of the Herald is Teb-her-kha-kheft. + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he +cometh to this Arit]: "I have brought unto thee the jawbone in +Ra-stau. I have brought unto thee thy backbone in Anu. I have gathered +together his manifold members therein. I have driven back Aapep for +thee. I have spit upon the wounds [in his body]. I have made myself +a path among you. I am the Aged One among the gods. I have made +offerings to Osiris. I have defended him with the word of truth. I +have gathered together his bones, and have collected all his members." + The Sixth Arit. + + The name of the Doorkeeper is Atek-tau-kehaq-kheru. The name of +the Watcher is An-her. The name of the Herald is Ates-her-[ari]-she. + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he +cometh to this Arit]: "I have come daily, I have come daily. I have +made myself a way. I have advanced over that which was created by Anpu +(Anubis). I am the Lord of the Urrt Crown. I am the possessor [of +the knowledge of] the words of magical power, I am the Avenger +according to law, I have avenged [the injury to] his Eye. I have +defended Osiris. I have accomplished my journey. The Osiris Ani +advanceth with you with the word which is truth." + + The Seventh Arit: + + The name of the Doorkeeper is Sekhmet-em-tsu-sen. The name of the +Watcher is Aa-maa-kheru. The name of the Herald is Khesef-khemi. + + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he +cometh to this Arit]: "I have come unto thee, O Osiris, being purified +from foul emissions. Thou goest round about heaven, thou seest Ra, +thou seest the beings who have knowledge. [Hail], thou, ONE! Behold, +thou art in the Sektet Boat which traverseth the heavens. I speak what +I will to his Sahu (Spirit-body). He is strong, and cometh into +being even [as] he spake. Thou meetest him face to face. Prepare +thou for me all the ways which are good [and which lead] to thee." + + RUBRIC: If [these] words be recited by the spirit when he shall come +to the Seven Arits, and as he entereth the doors, he shall neither +be turned back nor repulsed before Osiris, and he shall be made to +have his being among the blessed spirits, and to have dominion among +the ancestral followers of Osiris. If these things be done for any +spirit he shall have his being in that place like a lord of eternity +in one body with Osiris, and at no place shall any being contend +against him. +2764 + + THE PYLONS OF THE HOUSE OF OSIRIS + + The following shall be said when one cometh to the FIRST PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Lady of +tremblings, high-walled, the sovereign lady, the lady of +destruction, who uttereth the words which drive back the destroyers, +who delivereth from destruction him that cometh." The name of her +Doorkeeper is Neruit. + + The following shall be said when one cometh to the SECOND PYLON. The +Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Lady of heaven, +Mistress of the Two Lands, devourer by fire, Lady of mortals, who +art infinitely greater than any human being." The name of her +Doorkeeper is Mes-Ptah. + + The following shall be said when one cometh to the THIRD PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Lady of the +Altar, the mighty lady to whom offerings are made, greatly beloved one +of every god sailing up the river to Abydos." The name of her +Doorkeeper is Sebqa. + + The following shall be said when one cometh to the FOURTH PYLON. The +Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Prevailer with +knives, Mistress of the Two Lands, destroyer of the enemies of the +Still-Heart (Osiris), who decreeth the release of those who suffer +through evil hap." The name of her Doorkeeper is Nekau. + + The following shall be said when one cometh to the FIFTH PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Flame, Lady of +fire, absorbing the entreaties which are made to her, who permitteth +not to approach her the rebel." The name of her Doorkeeper is +Henti-Reqiu. + + The following shall be said when one cometh to the SIXTH PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Lady of light, +who roareth mightily, whose breadth cannot be comprehended. Her like +hath not been found since the beginning. There are serpents over which +are unknown. They were brought forth before the Still-Heart." The name +of her Doorkeeper is Semati. + + The following shall be said when one cometh to the SEVENTH PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Garment +which envelopeth the helpless one, which weepeth for and loveth that +which it covereth." The name of her Doorkeeper is Saktif. + + The following shall be said when one cometh to the EIGHTH PYLON. The +Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Blazing fire, +unquenchable, with far-reaching tongues of flame, irresistible +slaughterer, which one may not pass through fear of its deadly +attack." The name of her Doorkeeper is Khutchetef. + + The following shall be said when one cometh to the NINTH PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: +"Chieftainess, lady of strength, who giveth quiet of heart to the +offspring of her lord. Her girth is three hundred and fifty khet, +and she is clothed with green feldspar of the South. She bindeth up +the divine form and clotheth the helpless one. Devourer, lady of all +men." The name of her Doorkeeper is Arisutchesef. +2765 + + The following shall be said when one cometh to the TENTH PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Goddess of the +loud voice, who maketh her suppliants to mourn, the awful one who +terrifieth, who herself remaineth unterrified within." The name of her +Doorkeeper is Sekhenur. + + Nu, the steward of the keeper of the seal, saith when he cometh to +the ELEVENTH PYLON of Osiris: "I have made my way, I know you, and I +know thy name, and I know the name of her who is within thee: She +who slayeth always, consumer of the fiends by fire, mistress of +every pylon, the lady who is acclaimed on the day of darkness" is +thy name. She inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. + + The Osiris Nu, the steward of the keeper of the seal, saith when +he cometh to the TWELFTH PYLON of Osiris: "I have made my way, I +know you, and I know thy name, and I know the name of her who is +within thee: Invoker of thy Two Lands, destroyer of those who come +to thee by fire, lady of spirits, obeyer of the word of thy Lord" is +thy name. She inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. + + The Osiris Nu, the steward of the keeper of the seal, saith when +he cometh to the THIRTEENTH PYLON of Osiris: "I have made my way, I +know you and I know thy name, and I know the name of her who is within +thee: Osiris foldeth his arms about her, and maketh Hapi (the +Nile-god), to emit splendour out of his hidden places" is thy name. +She inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. + + The Osiris Nu, the steward of the keeper of the seal, saith when +he cometh to the FOURTEENTH PYLON of Osiris: "I have made my way, I +know thee, and I know thy name, and I know the name of her who is +within thee. Lady of might, who trampleth on the Red Demons, who +keepeth the festival of Haaker on the day of the hearing of faults" is +thy name. She inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. + + THE FIFTEENTH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is truth, +shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Fiend, red of hair and +eyes, who appeareth by night, and doth fetter the fiend in his lair. +Let her hands be given to the Still-Heart in his hour, let her advance +and go forward" is thy name. She inspecteth the swathing of the +helpless one. + + THE SIXTEENTH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is truth, +shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Terrible one, lady of the +rain-storm, destroyer of the souls of men, devourer of the bodies of +men, orderer, producer, and maker of slaughter" is thy name. She +inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. + + THE SEVENTEENTH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is +truth, shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Hewer-in-pieces in +blood, Ahibit, lady of hair" is thy name. She inspecteth the +swathing of the helpless one. + + THE EIGHTEENTH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is +truth, shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Fire-lover, pure +one, lover of slaughterings, cutter off of heads, devoted one, lady of +the Great House, slaughterer of fiends at eventide" is thy name. She +inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. + +2766 + + THE NINETEENTH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is +truth, shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Light-giver for +life, blazing all the day, lady of strength [and of] the writings of +the god Thoth himself" is thy name. She inspecteth the swathings of +the White House. + + THE TWENTIETH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is truth, +shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Dweller in the cavern of +her lord, her name is Clother, hider of her creations, conqueror of +hearts, swallower [of them]" is thy name. She inspecteth the swathings +of the White House. + + THE TWENTY-FIRST PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is +truth, shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Knife which cutteth +when [its name] is uttered, slayer of those who approach thy flame" is +thy name. She possesseth hidden plans. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2767 + + APPENDIX + + (From the Turin Papryus, ed. Lepsius, Bl. 64, the text referring +to the twenty-first Pylon.) + + THE OSIRIS AUFANKH, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, SAITH: Hail, saith Horus, O +Twenty-first pylon of the Still-Heart! I have made the way. I know +thee. I know thy name. I know the name of the goddess who guardeth +thee. "Sword that smiteth at the utterance of its own name, stinking +face, overthrower of him that approacheth her flame" is thy name. Thou +keepest the hidden things of the avenger of the god, thou guardest +them. Amam is his name. He maketh the ash trees (cedars) not to +grow, and the shenu trees (acacias) not to blossom, and preventeth +copper from being found in the mountain. The Tchatcha (Chiefs) of this +Pylon are Seven Gods. Tchen, or Anthch (At), is the name of the one at +the door. Hetepmes is the name of another there. Messep is the name of +another there. Utchara is the name of another there. Beq is the name +of another there. Anp (Anubis) is the name of another there. + + I have made the way. I am Menu-Heru, the avenger of his father, +the heir of his father Un-Nefer. I have come. I have given [offerings] +to my father Osiris. I have overthrown all his enemies. I have come +daily with the word of truth, the lord of fealty, in the house of my +father Tem, the Lord of Anu, I, the Osiris Auf-ankh, whose word is +truth in the southern heaven. I have done what is right for him that +made the right, I have celebrated the Haker festival to the lord +thereof. I have acted as the leader of the festivals. I have given +cakes to the Lords of the Altar. I have been the leader of the +propitiatory offerings, cakes, ale, oxen, geese, to my father Osiris +Un-Nefer. I am the protector of the Ba-soul, I have made the Benu bird +to appear [by my] words. I have come daily into the house of the god +to make offerings of incense. I have come with the shenti tunic. I +have set the Neshem Boat afloat on the water. I have made the word +of Osiris Khenti Amenti to be truth before his enemies. I have carried +away in a boat all his enemies to the slaughter-house of the East, and +they shall never escape from the wardship of the god Keb who +dwelleth therein. I have made the Kefaiu gods of Ra to stand up, I +have made his word to be truth. I have come as a scribe. I have +explained [the writings]. I have made the god to have power over his +legs. I have come into the house of him that is upon his mountain +(Anubis). I have seen the Chief of the Seh hall. I have entered into +Ra-stau. I have made myself invisible. I have found for myself the +boundary. I have approached Nerutef. I have clothed the naked. I +have sailed up the river to Abydos. I have performed the ceremonies of +Hu and Sa. I have entered the house of Astes. I have made supplication +to the Khati gods and to Sekhmet in the temple of Net (Neith), or +the Aged Ones. I have entered Ra-stau. I have made myself invisible. I +have found the frontier. I have approached Nerutef. I have clothed the +naked. I have sailed up the river to Abydos. I have performed the +ceremonies of Hu and Sa. I have received. I have risen like a king +crowned. I fill my seat on the throne in the place of my father, the +God Who was at the beginning. I have praised the Meskhen of +Ta-tchesert. My mouth is full of Maat (Truth). I have overwhelmed +the Akhekhau serpents. I have come into the Great House with [my] body +in a flourishing condition. I have caused myself to travel in the Boat +of Hai. The myrrh unguent of..... is in the hair of men (Rekhit). I +have entered into the House of Astes. I have approached with worship +the two Khati gods and Sekhmet, who are in the temple of the Aged +2768 + +One [in Anu]. + + [And the god Osiris saith:] "Thou hast come, thou shalt be a +favoured one in Tetu, O Osiris Auf-ankh, whose word is truth, the +son of the lady Shert-en-Menu, whose word is truth." + + THE PRIESTS ANMUTEF AND SAMEREF + + THE SPEECH OF THE PRIEST ANMUTEF. + + I have come unto you, O ye great Tchatcha Chiefs who dwell in +heaven, and upon earth, and in Khert-Neter, and I have brought unto +you the Osiris Ani. He hath not committed any act which is an +abomination before all the gods. Grant ye that he may live with you +every day. + + The Osiris the scribe Ani adoreth Osiris, Lord of Rasta, and the +Great Company of the Gods who live in Khert-Neter. He saith: "Homage +to thee, Khenti Amenti, Un-Nefer, who dwellest in Abtu. I come to +thee. My heart holdeth Truth. There is no sin in my body. I have not +told a lie wittingly, I have not acted in a double manner. Grant +thou to me cakes, let me appear in the presence, at the altar of the +Lords of Truth, let me go in and come forth from Khert-Neter [at +will], let not my Heart-soul be driven away [from me]; and grant me +a sight of the Disk and the beholding of the Moon for ever and ever. + + THE SPEECH OF THE PRIEST SAMEREF. + + I have come unto you, O ye Tchatcha Chiefs who dwell in Rasta, and I +have brought unto you the Osiris Ani, grant ye unto him cakes, and +water, and air, and a homestead in Sekhet-hetep as to the followers of +Horus. + + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, adoreth Osiris, +the Lord of everlastingness, and the Tchatcha Chiefs, the Lords of +Rasta. He saith: "Homage to thee, O King of Khert-Neter, thou Governor +of Akert! I have come unto thee. I know thy plans, I am equipped +with the forms which thou takest in the Tuat. Give thou to me a +place in Khert-Neter, near the Lords of Truth. May my homestead be +lasting in Sekhet-hetep, may I receive cakes in thy presence." + + THE JUDGES IN ANU + + Hail, Thoth, who madest to be true the word of Osiris against his +enemies, make thou the word of the scribe Nebseni to be true against +his enemies, even as thou didst make the word of Osiris to be true +against his enemies, in the presence of the Tchatcha Chiefs who are +with Ra and Osiris in Anu, on the night of the "things of the +night," and the night of battle, and of the fettering of the Sebau +fiends, and the day of the destruction of the enemies of Neb-er-tcher. + + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs in Anu are Tem, Shu, Tefnut, [Osiris +and Thoth]. Now the "fettering of the Sebau fiends" signifieth the +destruction of the Smaiu fiends of Set, when he wrought iniquity a +second time. + + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris Ani to be true against +2769 + +his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Tetu, on the +night of setting up the Tet in Tetu. + + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Tetu are Osiris, Isis, +Nephthys, and Horus the avenger of his father. Now the "setting up +of the Tet in Tetu" signifieth [the raising up of] the shoulder of +Horus, the Governor of Sekhem. They are round about Osiris in the band +[and] the bandages. + + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris Ani to be true against +his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Sekhem, on +the night of the "things of the night" in Sekhem. + + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Sekhem are +Heru-khenti-en-ariti and Thoth who is with the Tchatcha Chiefs of +Nerutef. Now the night of the "things of the night festival" +signifieth the dawn on the sarcophagus of Osiris. + + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris the scribe Ani to be +true against his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in +the double town Pe-Tep, on the night of setting up the "Senti" of +Horus, and of establishing him in the inheritance of the possessions +of his father Osiris. + + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Pe-Tep are Horus, Isis, +Kesta (Mesta) and Hapi. Now the "setting up of the 'Senti' of Horus" +hath reference to the words which Set spake to his followers, saying +"Set up the Senti." + + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris the scribe Ani to be +true, in peace, against his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs +who are in the Lands of the Rekhti (Taiu-Rekhti), in the night when +Isis lay down, and kept watch to make lamentation for her brother +Osiris. + + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Taiu-Rekhti are Isis, +Horus, Kesta (Mesta) [Anpu and Thoth]. + + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris true against his +enemies, make thou the word of Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is +truth, in peace, to be true against his enemies, with the great +Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Abtu, on the night of the god Haker, when +the dead are separated, and the spirits are judged, and when the +procession taketh place in Teni. + + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Abtu are Osiris, Isis, +and Up-uat. + + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris, the scribe and assessor +of the sacred offerings which are made to all the gods, Ani, to be +true against his enemies, with the Tchatcha Chiefs who examine the +dead on the night of making the inspection of those who are to be +annihilated. + +2770 + + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are present at the examination +of the dead are Thoth, Osiris, Anpu and Asten (read Astes). Now the +inspection (or, counting) of those who are to be annihilated +signifieth the shutting up of things from the souls of the sons of +revolt. + + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris true against his +enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris the scribe Ani to be true +against his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are present at +the digging up of the earth [and mixing it] with their blood, and of +making the word of Osiris to be true against his enemies. + + As concerning the Tchatcha Chiefs who are present at the digging +up of the earth in Tetu: When the Smaiu fiends of Set came [there], +having transformed themselves into animals, these Tchatcha Chiefs slew +them in the presence of the gods who were there, and they took their +blood, and carried it to them. These things were permitted at the +examination [of the wicked] by those [gods] who dwelt in Tetu. + + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris [the scribe] Ani to be +true against his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in +Nerutef on the night of the "Hidden of Forms." + + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Nerutef are Ra, Osiris, Shu +and Bebi. + + Now, the night of the "Hidden of Forms" referreth to the placing +on the sarcophagus [of Osiris] the arm, the heel, and the thigh of +Osiris Un-Nefer. + + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris true against his +enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris, whose word is truth, to +be true against his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in +Rasta, on the night when Anpu lay with his arms on the things by +Osiris, and when the word of Horus was make to be true against his +enemies. + + The great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Rasta are Horus, Osiris, and +Isis. The heart of Osiris is happy, the heart of Horus is glad, and +the two halves of Egypt (Aterti) are well satisfied thereat. + + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris true against his +enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris the scribe Ani, the assessor +of the holy offerings made to all the gods, to be true against his +enemies, with the Ten great Tchatcha Chiefs who are with Ra, and +with Osiris, and with every god, and with every goddess, in the +presence of the god Nebertcher. He hath destroyed his enemies, and +he hath destroyed every evil thing which appertained to him. + + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be recited for, or over, the deceased, he +shall come forth by day, purified after death, according to the desire +of his heart. Now if this Chapter be recited over him, he shall +progress over the earth, and he shall escape from every fire, and none +of the evil things which appertain to him shall ever be round about +him; never, a million times over, shall this be. + + +2771 + + + OPENING THE MOUTH + + THE CHAPTER OF OPENING THE MOUTH OF THE OSIRIS ANI. To be said:- The +god Ptah shall open my mouth, and the god of my town shall unfasten +the swathings, the swathings which are over my mouth. Thereupon +shall come Thoth, who is equipped with words of power in great +abundance, and shall untie the fetters, even the fetters of the god +Set which are over my mouth. And the god Tem shall cast them back at +those who would fetter me with them, and cast them at him. Then +shall the god Shu open my mouth, and make an opening into my mouth +with the same iron implement wherewith he opened the mouth of the +gods. I am the goddess Sekhmet, and I take my seat upon the place by +the side of Amt-ur the great wind of heaven. I am the great +Star-goddess Saah, who dwelleth among the Souls of Anu. Now as +concerning every spell, and every word which shall be spoken against +me, every god of the Divine Company shall set himself in opposition +thereto. + + + + BRINGING_SPELLS_TO_ANI + +THE CHAPTER OF BRINGING WORDS OF POWER TO THE OSIRIS ANI, who +saith:- I am Tem-Khepera who produced himself on the thighs of his +divine mother. Those who dwell in Nu have been made wolves, and those +who are among the Tchatcha Chiefs have become hyenas. Behold, I will +gather together to myself this charm from the person with whom it is +[and from the place] wherein it is [and it shall come to me] quicker +than a greyhound, and swifter that light. Hail, thou who bringest the +Ferry-Boat of Ra, thou holdest thy course firmly and directly in the +north wind as thou sailest up the river towards the Island of Fire +which is in Khert-Neter. Behold, thou shalt gather together to thee +this charm from wheresoever it may be, and from whomsoever it may be +with [and it shall come to me] quicker than a greyhound, and swifter +than light. It (the charm) made the transformations of Mut; it +fashioned the gods [or] kept them silent; by it Mut gave the warmth +[of life] to the gods. Behold, these words of power are mine, and +they shall come unto me from wheresoever they may be, or with +whomsoever they may be, quicker than greyhounds and swifter than +light, or, according to another reading, "swifter than shadows." + + APPENDIX + +THE CHAPTER WHICH MAKETH A MAN TO REMEMBER HIS NAME IN +KHERT-NETER. [The deceased] saith:- Let my name be given to me in +the Great House (Per-ur), and let me remember my name in the House +of Fire (Per Neser), on the night wherein the years are counted up, +and the number of the months is told. I am dwelling with the Divine +One, I take my seat on the eastern side of the sky. If any god +cometh after me, I shall be able to declare his name forthwith. + + GIVING A HEART + +THE CHAPTER OF GIVING A HEART TO THE OSIRIS ANI IN KHERT-NETER. He +saith:- Let my heart be with me in the House of Hearts. Let my +heart-case be with me in the House of heart-cases. Let my heart be +with me, and let it rest in [me or] I shall not eat the cakes of +2772 + +Osiris in the eastern side of the Lake of Flowers, nor have a boat +wherein to float down the river, nor a boat to sail up the river to +thee, nor be able to embark in a boat with thee. Let my mouth be to me +that I may speak therewith. Let my legs be to me that I may walk +therewith. Let my arms be to me that I may overthrow the foe +therewith. Let the two doors of the sky be opened to me. May Keb, +the Erpat of the gods, open his jaws to me. May he open my two eyes +which are blinded by swathings. May he make me to lift up my legs in +walking which are tied together. May Anpu make my thighs to become +vigorous. May the goddess Sekhmet raise me, and lift me up. Let me +ascend into heaven, let that which I command be performed in +Het-ka-Ptah. I know how to use my heart. I am master of my heart-case. +I am master of my hands and arms. I am master of my legs. I have the +power to do that which my KA desireth to do. My Heart-soul shall not +be kept a prisoner in my body at the gates of Amentet when I would +go in in peace and come forth in peace. + NOT LETTING THE HEART ANI BE TAKEN + +THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF THE OSIRIS, THE ASSESSOR +OF THE DIVINE OFFERINGS OF ALL THE GODS, ANI, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH +BEFORE OSIRIS, BE DRIVEN BACK FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. He saith:- My +heart of my mother. My heart of my mother. My heart-case of my +transformations. Let not any one stand up to bear testimony against +me. Let no one drive me away from the Tchatcha Chiefs. Let no one make +thee to fall away from me in the presence of the Keeper of the +Balance. Thou art my KA, the dweller in my body, the god Khnemu who +makest sound my members. Mayest thou appear in the place of +happiness whither we go. Let not make my name to stink Shenit +Chiefs, who make men to be stable. [Let it be satisfactory unto us, +and let the listening be satisfactory unto us, and let there be joy of +heart to us at the weighing of words. Let not lies be told against +me before the Great God, the Lord of Amentet. Verily, how great +shalt thou be when thou risest up in triumph!] + + RUBRIC I: These words are to be said over a scarab of green stone +encircled with a band of refined copper, and [having] a ring of +silver; which shall be placed on the neck of the Khu (the deceased), +etc. + + RUBRIC II (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 21): If this Chapter be +known [by the deceased] he shall be declared a speaker of the truth +both upon earth and in Khert-Neter, and he shall be able to perform +every act which a living human being can perform. Now it is a great +protection which hath been given by the god. This Chapter was found in +the city of Khemenu upon the slab of ba, which was inlaid with +[letters of] genuine lapis-lazuli, and was under the feet of [the +statue] of the god, during the reign of His Majesty, the King of the +South and North, Menkaura (Mycerinus), true of word, by Prince +Herutataf, who found it during a journey which he made to inspect +the temples. One Nekht was with him who was diligent in making him +to understand it, and he brought it to the king as a wonderful +object when he perceived that it was a thing of great mystery, [the +like of] which had never [before] been seen or looked upon. This +Chapter shall be recited by a man who is ceremonially clean and +pure, who hath not eaten the flesh of animals, or fish, and who hath +not had intercourse with women. And behold, thou shalt make a scarab +of green stone, with a rim [plated] with gold, which shall be placed +above the heart of a man, and it shall perform for him the "opening of +2773 + +the mouth." And thou shalt anoint it with myrrh unguent, and thou +shalt recite over it the following words of magical power. [Here +follows the text of the Chapter of Not Letting the Heart of Ani Be +Taken from Him.] + + NOT LETTING THE HEART SOUL BE CARRIED AWAY + +THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART-SOUL OF A MAN BE SNATCHED +AWAY FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris the scribe Ani saith:--I, +even I, am he who cometh forth from the Celestial Water (Akeb). He +(Akeb) produced abundance for me, and hath the mastery there in the +form of the River. + +(This is a portion of a longer Chapter which is included in the Appen- +dix.) +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2774 + + APPENDIX + +(The following is from the Papyrus of Nefer-uben-f, Naville, op. +cit., I, Bl. 72.) + + THE CHAPTER OF DRINKING WATER IN KHERT-NETER. The am khent priest, +Nefer-uben-f, whose word is truth, saith:- I, even I, am he who cometh +forth from the god Keb. The water-flood is given to him, he hath +become the master thereof in the form of Hapi. I, the am khent +Nefer-uben-f, open the doors of heaven. Thoth hath opened to me the +doors of Qebh (the Celestial Waters). Lo, Hepi Hepi, the two sons of +the Sky, mighty in splendour, grant ye that I may be master over the +water, even as Set had dominion over his evil power on the day of +the storming of the Two Lands. I pass by the Great Ones, arm to +shoulder, even as they pass that Great God, the Spirit who is +equipped, whose name is unknown. I have passed by the Aged One of +the shoulder. I am Nefer-uben-f, whose word is truth. Hath opened to +me the Celestial Water Osiris. Hath opened to me the Celestial Water +Thoth-Hapi, the Lord of the horizon, in his name of "Thoth, cleaver of +the earth." I am master of the water, as Set is master of his +weapon. I sail over the sky, I am Ra, I am Ru. I am Sma. I have +eaten the Thigh, I have seized the bone and flesh. I go round about +the Lake of Sekhet-Ar. Hath been given to me eternity without limit. +Behold, I am the heir of eternity, to whom hath been given +everlastingness. + +(The following two Chapters are from the Papyrus of Nu, Sheets 7 and 12) + + THE CHAPTER OF DRINKING WATER AND OF NOT BEING BURNT UP BY FIRE +[IN KHERT-NETER]. Nu saith:- Hail, Bull of Amentet! I am brought +unto thee. I am the paddle of Ra wherewith he transported the Aged +Gods. Let me neither be burnt up nor destroyed by fire. I am Beb, +the firstborn son of Osiris, to whom every god maketh an offering in +the temple of his Eye in Anu. I am the divine Heir, the Mighty One, +the Great One, the Resting One. I have made my name to flourish. +Deliverer, thou livest in me [every day]. + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT BEING BOILED IN FIRE. Nu saith:- I am the +paddle which is equipped, wherewith Ra transported the Aged Gods, +which raised up the emissions of Osiris from the Lake of blazing fire, +and he was not burned. I sit down like the Light-god, and like Khnemu, +the Governor of lions. Come, cut away the fetters from him that +passeth by the side of this path, and let me come forth therefrom. + + GIVING AIR + + THE CHAPTER OF GIVING AIR IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- I +am the Egg which dwelt in the Great Cackler. I keep ward over that +great place which Keb hath proclaimed upon earth. I live; it liveth. I +grow up, I live, I snuff the air. I am Utcha-aab. I go round about his +egg [to protect it]. I have thwarted the moment of Set. Hail, Sweet +one of the Two Lands! Hail, dweller in the tchefa food! Hail, +dweller in the lapis-lazuli! Watch ye over him that is in his +cradle, the Babe when he cometh forth to you. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2775 + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 12) + + THE CHAPTER OF GIVING AIR TO NU IN KHERT-NETER. He saith:- Hail, +thou God Temu, grant thou unto me the sweet breath which dwelleth in +thy nostrils! I am the Egg which is in Kenken-ur (the Great +Cackler), and I watch and guard that mighty thing which hath come into +being, wherewith the god Keb hath opened the earth. I live; it liveth; +I grow, I live, I snuff the air. I am the god Utcha-aabet, and I go +about his egg. I shine at the moment of the mighty of strength, +Suti. Hail, thou who makest sweet the time of the Two Lands! Hail, +dweller among the celestial food. Hail, dweller among the beings of +blue (lapis-lazuli), watch ye to protect him that is in his nest, +the Child who cometh forth to you. + + THE CHAPTER OF GIVING AIR IN KHERT-NETER. Nu saith:- I am the jackal +of jackals. I am Shu. I draw air from the presence of the Light-god, +from the uttermost limits of heaven, from the uttermost limits of +earth, from the uttermost limits of the pinion of Nebeh bird. May +air be given unto this young divine Babe. [My mouth is open, I see +with my eyes.] + + THE CHAPTER OF SNUFFING THE AIR WITH WATER IN KHERT-NETER. Hail, +Tem. Grant thou unto me the sweet breath which dwelleth in thy +nostrils. I am he who embraceth that great throne which is in the city +of Unu. I keep watch over the Egg of Kenken-ur (the Great Cackler). +I grow and flourish as it groweth and flourisheth. I live as it +liveth. I snuff the air as it snuffeth the air. + + NOT LETTING THE HEART BE SNATCHED AWAY + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF A MAN BE SNATCHED AWAY +FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, +saith:- Get thee back, O messenger of every god! Art thou come to +[snatch away] my heart-case which liveth? My heart-case which liveth +shall not be given unto thee. [As] I advance, the gods hearken unto my +propitiation [prayer] and they fall down on their faces [whilst] +they are on their own land. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nu) + +THE CHAPTER OF NOT ALLOWING THE HEART.... TO BE CARRIED AWAY DEAD IN +KHERT-NETER. [Nu, whose word is truth, saith]:- My heart is with me, +and it shall never come to pass that it be carried away. I am the Lord +of Hearts, the slayer of the heart-case. I live in truth, I have my +being therein. I am Horus, the Dweller in Hearts, [I am] in the +Dweller in the body. I have life by my word, my heart hath being. My +heart-case shall not be snatched away from me, it shall not be +wounded, it shall not be put in restraint if wounds are inflicted upon +me. [If] one take possession of it I shall have my being in the body +of my father Keb and in the body of my mother Nut. I have not done +that which is held in abomination by the gods. I shall not suffer +defeat [for] my word is truth. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2776 + + NOT LETTING THE HEART CASE BE TAKEN + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART-CASE OF A MAN BE TAKEN AWAY +FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, ye who steal and +crush heart-cases [and who make the heart of a man to go through its +transformations according to his deeds: let not what he hath done harm +him before you]. Homage to you, O ye Lords of Eternity, ye masters +of everlastingness, take ye not this heart of Osiris Ani into your +fingers, and this heart-case, and cause ye not things of evil to +spring up against it, because this heart belongeth to the Osiris +Ani, and this heart-case belongeth to him of the great names +(Thoth), the mighty one, whose words are his members. He sendeth his +heart to rule his body, and his heart is renewed before the gods. +The heart of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is to him; he hath +gained the mastery over it. He hath not said what he hath done. He +hath obtained power over his own members. His heart obeyeth him, he is +the lord thereof, it is in his body, and it shall never fall away +therefrom. I command thee to be obedient unto me in Khert-Neter. I, +the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace; whose word is truth +in the Beautiful Amentet, by the Domain of Eternity. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 5) + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF NU, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, +BE CARRIED AWAY FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. He saith:- Hail, thou +Lion-god! I am Unb (the Blossom). That which is held in abomination to +me is the block of slaughter of the god. Let not this my heart-case be +carried away from me by the Fighting Gods in Anu. Hail, thou who +dost wind bandages round Osiris, and who hast seen Set. Hail, thou who +returnest after smiting and destroying him before the mighty ones! +This my heart weepeth over itself before Osiris; it hath made +supplication for me. I have given unto him and I have dedicated unto +him the thoughts of the heart in the House of the god (Usekh-her), +have brought unto him sand at the entry to Khemenu. Let not this my +heart-case be carried away from me. I make you to ascend his throne, +to fetter heart-cases for him in Sekhet-hetep, [to live] years of +strength away from things of all kinds which are abominations to +him, to carry off food from among the things which are thine, and +which are in thy grasp through thy strength. And this my heart-case is +devoted to the decrees of the god Tem, who guideth me through the +caverns of Suti, but let not this my heart, which hath performed its +desire before the Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Khert-Neter, be given +to him. When they find the leg and the swathings they bury them. + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF NU, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, +BE DRIVEN AWAY FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. He saith:- My heart of my +mother. My heart of my mother. My heart-case of my existence upon +the earth. Let no one stand up against me when I bear testimony in the +presence of the Lords of Things. Let it not be said against me and +of that which I have done "He hath committed acts which are opposed to +what is right and true," and let not charges be brought up against +me in the presence of the Great God, the Lord of Amentet. Homage to +thee, O my heart (ab). Homage to thee, O my heart-case. Homage to you, +O my reins. Homage to you, O ye gods, who are masters of [your] +beards, and who are holy by reason of your sceptres. Speak ye for me +words of good import to Ra, and make ye me to have favour in the sight +of Nehebkau. +2777 + + + BREATHING THE AIR + + THE CHAPTER OF BREATHING THE AIR AND OF HAVING POWER OVER WATER IN +KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- Open to me! Who art thou? +Whither goest thou? What is thy name? I am one of you. Who are these +with you? The two Merti goddesses (Isis and Nephthys). Thou separatest +head from head when [he] entereth the divine Mesqen chamber. He +causeth me to set out for the temple of the gods Kem-heru. +"Assembler of souls" is the name of my ferry-boat. "Those who make the +hair to bristle" is the name of the oars. "Sert" ("Goad") is the +name of the hold. "Steering straight in the middle" is the name of the +rudder; likewise, [the boat] is a type of my being borne onward in the +lake. Let there be given unto me vessels of milk, and cakes, and +loaves of bread, and cups of drink, and flesh, in the Temple of Anpu. + + RUBRIC: If the deceased knoweth this Chapter, he shall go into, +after coming forth from Khert-Neter of [the Beautiful Amentet]. + + SNUFFING THE AIR IN KHERT NETER + + THE CHAPTER OF SNUFFING THE AIR, AND OF HAVING POWER OVER THE +WATER IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, thou Sycamore +tree of the goddess Nut! Give me of the [water and of the] air which +is in thee. I embrace that throne which is in Unu, and I keep guard +over the Egg of Nekek-ur. It flourisheth, and I flourish; it liveth, +and I live; it snuffeth the air, and I snuff the air, I the Osiris +Ani, whose word is truth, in [peace]. + + + NOT DYING A SECOND TIME + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT DYING A SECOND TIME IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris +Ani saith:- My hiding place is opened, my hiding place is opened. +The Spirits fall headlong in the darkness, but the Eye of Horus hath +made me holy, and Upuati hath nursed me. I will hide myself among you, +O ye stars which are imperishable. My brow is like the brow of Ra. +My face is open. My heart-case is upon its throne, I know how to utter +words. In very truth I am Ra himself. I am not a man of no account. +I am not a man to whom violence can be done. Thy father liveth for +thee, O son of Nut. I am thy son, O great one, I have seen the +hidden things which are thine. I am crowned upon my throne like the +king of the gods. I shall not die a second time in Khert-Neter. + + NOT ROTTING IN KHERT NETER + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT ROTTING IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- +O thou who art motionless, O thou who art motionless, O thou whose +members are motionless, like unto those of Osiris. Thy members shall +not be motionless, they shall not rot, they shall not crumble away, +they shall not fall into decay. My members shall be made [permanent] +for me as if I were Osiris. + + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known by the deceased he shall never +see corruption in Khert-Neter. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2778 + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 18) + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE BODY PERISH. The Osiris Nu saith:- +Homage to thee, O my divine father Osiris! I come to embalm thee. Do +thou embalm these my members, for I would not perish and come to an +end [but would be] even like unto my divine father Khepera, the divine +type of him that never saw corruption. Come then, strengthen my +breath, O Lord of the winds, who dost magnify these divine beings +who are like unto thyself. Stablish me, stablish me, and fashion me +strongly, O Lord of the funeral chest. Grant thou that I may enter +into the land of everlastingness, according to that which was done for +thee, along with thy father Tem, whose body never saw corruption, +and who himself never saw corruption. I have never done that which +thou hatest, nay, I have acclaimed thee among those who love thy KA. +Let not my body become worms, but deliver thou me as thou didst +deliver thyself. I pray thee, let me not fall into rottenness, as thou +lettest every god, and every goddess, and every animal, and every +reptile, see corruption, when the soul hath gone out of them, after +their death. + + And when the soul hath departed, a man seeth corruption, and the +bones of his body crumble away and become stinking things, and the +members decay one after the other, the bones crumble into a helpless +mass, and the flesh turneth into foetid liquid. Thus man becometh a +brother unto the decay which cometh upon him, and he turneth into a +myriad of worms, and he becometh nothing but worms, and an end is made +of him, and perisheth in the sight of the god of day (Shu), even as do +every god, and every goddess, and every bird, and every fish, and +every creeping worm, and every reptile, and every beast, and every +thing whatsoever. Let [all the Spirits fall] on their bellies [when] +they recognize me, and behold, the fear of me shall terrify them; +and thus also let it be with every being that hath died, whether it be +animal, or bird, or fish, or worm, or reptile. Let life [rise out +of] death. Let not the decay caused by any reptile make an end [of +me], and let not [enemies] come against me in their various forms. +Give thou me not over to the Slaughterer in this execution-chamber, +who killeth the members, and maketh them rot, being [himself] +invisible, and who destroyeth the bodies of the dead, and liveth by +carnage. Let me live, and perform his order; I will do what is +commanded by him. Give me not over to his fingers, let him not +overcome me, for I am under thy command, O Lord of the Gods. + + Homage to thee, O my divine father Osiris, thou livest with thy +members. Thou didst not decay, thou didst not become worms, thou didst +not wither, thou didst not rot, thou didst not putrefy, thou didst not +turn into worms. I am the god Khepera, and my members shall have being +everlastingly. I shall not decay, I shall not rot, I shall not +putrefy, I shall not turn into worms, and I shall not see corruption +before the eye of the god Shu. I shall have my being, I shall have +by being; I shall live, I shall live; I shall flourish, I shall +flourish, I shall flourish, I shall wake up in peace, I shall not +putrefy, my intestines shall not perish, I shall not suffer injury. My +eye shall not decay. The form of my face shall not disappear. My ear +shall not become deaf. My head shall not be separated from my neck. My +tongue shall not be removed. My hair shall not be cut off. My eyebrows +shall not be shaved away, and no evil defect shall assail me. My +2779 + +body shall be stablished. It shall neither become a ruin, nor be +destroyed on this earth. + + + NOT_PERISHING + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT PERISHING AND OF BEING ALIVE IN KHERT-NETER. +The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail ye children of the god Shu. The Tuat +hath gained the mastery over his diadem. Among the Hamemet Spirits may +I arise, even as did arise Osiris. + + NOT GOING TO THE BLOCK OF THE GOD + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT GOING IN TO THE BLOCK OF THE GOD. The Osiris +Ani saith:- My head was fastened on my body in heaven, O Guardian of +the Earth, by Ra. [This] was granted [to me] on the day of my being +stablished, when I rose up out of a state of weakness upon [my] two +feet. On the day of cutting off the hair Set and the Company of the +Gods fastened my head to my neck, and it became as firm as it was +originally. Let nothing happen to shake it off again! Make ye me +safe from the murderer of my father. I have tied together the Two +Earths. Nut hath fastened together the vertebrae of my neck, and [I] +behold them as they were originally, and they are seen in the order +wherein they were when as yet Maat was not seen, and when the gods +were not born in visible forms. I am Penti. I am the heir of the great +gods, I the Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth. + + NOT BEING TRANSPORTED TO THE EAST + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT BEING TRANSPORTED TO THE EAST IN KHERT-NETER. The +Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, Phallus of Ra, which advanceth and beateth +down opposition. Things which have been without motion for millions of +years have come into life through Baba. I am stronger thereby than the +strong, and I have more power thereby than the mighty. Now, let me not +be carried away in a boat, or be seized violently and taken to the +East, to have the festivals of Sebau Devils celebrated on me. Let +not deadly wounds be inflicted upon me, and let me not be gored by +horns. Thou shalt neither fall [nor] eat fish made by Tebun. + + Now, no evil thing of any kind whatsoever shall be done unto me by +the Sebau Devils. [I shall not be gored by] horns. Therefore the +Phallus of Ra, [which is] the head of Osiris, shall not be swallowed +up. Behold, I shall come into me fields and I shall cut the grain. The +gods shall provide me with food. Thou shalt not then be gored, +Ra-Khepera. There shall not be then pus in the Eye of Tem, and it +shall not be destroyed. Violence shall not be done unto me, and I +shall not be carried away in [my] boat to the East to have the +festivals of the Sebau Devils celebrated on me in evil fashion. +Cruel gashes with knives shall not be inflicted upon me, and I shall +not be carried away in [my] boat to the East. I the Osiris, the +assessor of the holy offerings of all the gods, Ani, whose word is +truth, happily, the lord of fealty [to Osiris]. + + NOT LETTING THE HEAD BE CUT OFF + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEAD OF A MAN BE CUT OFF FROM HIS +BODY IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- I am a Great One, the +son of a Great One. [I am] Fire, the son of Fire, to whom was given +2780 + +his head after it had been cut off. The head of Osiris was not removed +from his body, and the head of Osiris Ani shall not be removed from +his body. I have knitted myself together, I have made myself whole and +complete. I shall renew my youth. I am Osiris Himself, the Lord of +Eternity. + + + + UNITING THE SOUL TO ITS BODY + + THE CHAPTER OF MAKING THE SOUL TO BE JOINED TO ITS BODY IN +KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, thou god Aniu! Hail, thou +god Pehreri, who dwellest in thy hall, the Great God. Grant thou +that my soul may come to me from any place wherein it may be. Even +if it would tarry, let my soul be brought unto me from any place +wherein it may be. Thou findest the Eye of Horus standing by thee like +unto those beings who resemble Osiris, who never lie down in death. +Let not the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, lie down dead among those +who lie in Anu, the land wherein [souls] are joined to their bodies in +thousands. Let me have possession of my Ba-soul and of my Spirit-soul, +and let my word be truth with it (the Ba-soul) in every place +wherein it may be. Observe then, O ye guardians of Heaven, my soul +[wherever it may be]. Even if it would tarry, cause thou my Ba-soul to +see my body. Thou shalt find the Eye of Horus standing by thee like +[the Watchers]. + + Hail, ye gods who tow along the boat of the Lord of Millions of +Years, who bring it over the sky of the Tuat, who make it to journey +over Nent, who make Ba-souls to enter into their Spirit-bodies, +whose hands hold the steering poles and guide it straight, who grasp +tightly your paddles, destroy ye the Enemy; thus shall the Boat +rejoice, and the Great God shall travel on his way in peace. Moreover, +grant ye that the Ba-soul of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth +before the gods, may come forth with your navel cords in the eastern +part of the sky, and that it may follow Ra to the place where he was +yesterday, and may set in peace, in peace in Amentet. May it gaze upon +its earthly body, may it take up its abode and its Spirit-body, may it +neither perish nor be destroyed for ever and for ever. + + RUBRIC: These words shall be said over a model of the Ba-soul made +of gold, and inlaid with precious stones, which shall be placed on the +breast of the Osiris. + + NOT LETTING THE SOUL BE HELD CAPTIVE + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE SOUL OF A MAN BE HELD CAPTIVE IN +KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, thou who art exalted! +Hail, thou who art adored! Hail, Mighty One of Souls, thou divine Soul +who inspirest great dread, who dost set the fear of thyself in the +gods, who are enthroned upon thy mighty seat. Make thou a path for the +Spirit-soul and the Ba-soul of the Osiris Ani. I am equipped with +[words of power]. I am a Spirit-soul equipped with [words of power]. I +have made my way to the place where are Ra and Hathor. + + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known by the deceased he shall be able to +transform himself into a Spirit-soul who shall be equipped with [his +soul and his shadow] in Khert-Neter, and he shall not be shut up +inside any door in Amentet, when he is coming forth upon the Earth, or +2781 + +when he is going back into [Khert-Neter.] + + OPENING THE TOMB TO THE BA SOUL + + THE CHAPTER OF OPENING THE TOMB TO THE BA-SOUL AND THE SHADOW, AND +OF COMING FORTH BY DAY, AND OF HAVING MASTERY OVER THE TWO LEGS. The +Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- The place which is +closed is opened, the place which is shut (or sealed) is sealed. +That which lieth down in the closed place is opened by the Ba-soul +which is in it. By the Eye of Horus I am delivered. Ornaments are +stablished on the brow of Ra. My stride is made long. I lift up my two +thighs [in walking]. I have journeyed over a long road. My limbs are + +in a flourishing condition. I am Horus, the Avenger of his Father, and +I bring the Urrt Crown [and set it on] its standard. The road of souls +is opened. My twin soul seeth the Great God in the Boat of Ra, on +the day of souls. My soul is in the front thereof with the counter +of the years. Come, the Eye of Horus hath delivered for me my soul, my +ornaments are stablished on the brow of Ra. Light is on the faces of +those who are in the members of Osiris. Ye shall not hold captive my +soul. Ye shall not keep in durance my shadow. The way is open to my +soul and to my shadow. It seeth the Great God in the shrine on the day +of counting souls. It repeateth the words of Osiris. Those whose seats +are invisible, who fetter the members of Osiris, who fetter +Heart-souls and Spirit-souls, who set a seal upon the dead, and who +would do evil to me, shall do no evil to me. Haste on the way to me. +Thy heart is with thee. My Heart-soul and my Spirit-soul are equipped; +they guide thee. I sit down at the head of the great ones who are +chiefs of their abodes. The wardens of the members of Osiris shall not +hold thee captive, though they keep ward over souls, and set a seal on +the shadow which is dead. Heaven shall not shut thee in. + + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known by the deceased he shall come forth +by day, and his soul shall not be kept captive. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papryus of Nebseni, Sheet 6) + + That which was shut hath been opened [that is] the dead. That +which was shut fast hath been opened by the command of the Eye of +Horus, which hath delivered me. Established are the beauties on the +forehead of Ra. My steps are long. My legs are lifted up. I have +performed the journey, my members are mighty and are sound. I am +Horus, the Avenger of his Father. I am he who bringeth along his +father, and his mother, by means of his staff. The way shall be opened +to him that hath power over his feet, and he shall see the Great God +in the Boat of Ra, when souls are counted therein at the bows, and +when the years also are counted up. Grant that the Eye of Horus, which +maketh the adornments of splendour to be firm on the forehead of Ra, +may deliver my soul for me, and let darkness cover your faces, O ye +who would imprison Osiris. O keep not captive my soul. O keep not ward +over my shadow, but let a way be opened for my soul and my shadow, and +let them see the Great God in the shrine on the day of the counting of +souls, and let them hold converse with Osiris, whose habitations are +hidden, and those who guard the members of Osiris, and who keep ward +over the Spirit-souls, and who hold captive the shadows of the dead, +and who would work evil against me, so that they shall [not] work evil +2782 + +against me. A way shall be for KA with thee, and thy soul shall be +prepared by those who keep ward over the members of Osiris, and who +hold captive the shadows of the dead. Heaven shall not keep thee fast, +the earth shall not hold thee captive. Thou shalt not live with the +beings who slay, but thou shalt be master of thy legs, and thou +shalt advance to thy body straightway in the earth, [and to] those who +belong to the shrine of Osiris and guard his members. + + LIFTING UP THE FEET AND APPEARING ON THE EARTH + + THE CHAPTER OF LIFTING UP THE FEET, AND OF COMING FORTH ON THE +EARTH. The Osiris Ani saith:- Perform thy work, O Seker, perform thy +work, O Seker, O thou who dwellest in thy circle, and who dwellest +in my feet in Khert-Neter. I am he who sendeth forth light over the +Thigh of heaven. I come forth in heaven. I sit down by the Light-god +(Khu). O I am helpless. O I am helpless. I would walk. I am + +helpless. I am helpless in the regions of those who plunder in +Khert-Neter, I the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace. + + MAKING A WAY THROUGH AMENTET BY DAY + + THE CHAPTER OF FORCING A WAY INTO AMENTET [AND OF COMING FORTH] BY +DAY. The Osiris Ani saith:- The town of Unu is opened. My head is +sealed up, Thoth. Perfect is the Eye of Horus. I have delivered the +Eye of Horus which shineth with splendours on the brow of Ra, the +Father of the gods, [I am] that self-same Osiris, [the dweller in] +Amentet. Osiris knoweth his day, and he knoweth that he shall live +through his period of life; I shall have by being with him. I am the +Moon-god Aah, the dweller among the gods. I shall not come to an +end. Stand up therefore, O Horus, for thou art counted among the gods. + + APPENDIX + + (Naville, op. cit., I, Bl. X) + + THE CHAPTER OF FORCING A WAY INTO THE TUAT. The Am Khent priest +Nefer-uben-f, whose word is truth, saith:- Hail, Soul, thou mighty one +of terror. Behold, I have come unto thee. I see thee. I have forced +a way through the Tuat. I see my father Osiris. I drive away the +darkness. I love him. I have come. I see my father Osiris. He hath +counted the heart of Set. I have made offerings for my father +Osiris. I have opened all the ways in heaven and on earth. I love him. +I have come. I have become a Spirit-body and a Spirit-soul, who is +equipped. Hail, every god and every Spirit-soul, I have made the ways. +I am Thoth.... + + ANOTHER CHAPTER OF THE TUAT AND OF COMING FORTH BY DAY. + + Open is the land of Unu. Shut is the head of Thoth. Perfect is the +Eye of Horus. I have delivered the Eye of Horus, the shining one, +the ornament of the Eye of Ra, the Father of the Gods. I am that +same Osiris who dwelleth in Amentet. Osiris knoweth his day, which +cometh to an end. I am Set, the Father of the Gods. I shall never come +to an end. + + COMING_FORTH_BY_DAY_&_LIVING_AFTER_DEATH + +2783 + + THE CHAPTER OF COMING FORTH BY DAY AND OF LIVING AFTER DEATH. The +Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, thou One, who shinest from the moon. Hail, +thou One, who shinest from the moon. Grant that this Osiris Ani may +come forth among thy multitudes who are at the portal. Let him be with +the Light-God. Let the Tuat be opened to him. Behold, the Osiris Ani +shall come forth by day to perform everything which he wisheth upon +the earth among those who are living [thereon]. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 13) + + Hail, thou god Tem, who comest forth from the Great Deep, who +shinest gloriously under the form of the twin Lion-gods, send forth +with might thy words unto those who are in thy presence, and let the +Osiris Nu enter into their assembly. He hath performed the decree +which hath been spoken to the mariners at eventide, and the Osiris Nu, +whose word is truth, shall live after his death, even as doth Ra every +day. Behold, most certainly Ra was born yesterday, and the Osiris Nu +was born yesterday. And every god shall rejoice in the life of the +Osiris Nu, even as they rejoice in the life of Ptah, when he appeareth +from the Great House of the Aged One which is in Anu. + + COMING FORTH AFTER PASSING THROUGH THE AAMHET + + THE CHAPTER OF COMING FORTH BY DAY AFTER FORCING AN ENTRANCE THROUGH +THE AAMHET. The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, Soul, thou mighty one of +terror! Verily, I am here. I have come. I behold thee. I have passed +through the Tuat. I have seen Father Osiris. I have scattered the +gloom of night. I am his beloved one. I have come, I have seen my +Father Osiris. I have stabbed the heart of Suti. I have made offerings +to my Father Osiris. I have opened every way in heaven and on the +earth. I am the son who loveth his Fathers (sic) Osiris. I am a +Spirit-body. I am a Spirit-soul. I am equipped. Hail, every god and +every Spirit-soul. I have made the way [to Osiris]. I the Osiris the +scribe Ani, whose word is truth. + + MAKING MAN TO RETURN TO LOOK UPON HIS HOUSE + + THE CHAPTER OF MAKING A MAN TO RETURN TO LOOK UPON HIS HOUSE ON +EARTH. The Osiris Ani saith:- I am the Lion-god who cometh forth +with long strides. I have shot arrows, and I have wounded my prey. I +have shot arrows, and I have wounded my prey. I am the Eye of Horus, I +traverse the Eye of Horus at this season. I have arrived at the +domains. Grant that the Osiris Ani may come in peace. + + MAN COMING FORTH BY DAY AGAINST HIS ENEMIES + + ANOTHER CHAPTER OF THE COMING FORTH OF A MAN BY DAY AGAINST HIS +ENEMIES IN KHERT-NETER. [The Osiris Ani saith:-] I have divided the +heavens. I have cleft the horizon. I have traversed the earth +[following in] his footsteps. I have conquered the mighty Spirit-souls +because I am equipped for millions of years with words of power. I eat +with my mouth. I evacuate with my body. Behold, I am the God of the +Tuat! Let these things be given unto me, the Osiris Ani, in perpetuity +withou fail or diminution. + APPENDIX + +2784 + + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 21) + + THE CHAPTER OF COMING FORTH AGAINST ENEMIES IN KHERT-NETER. The +Osiris Nu saith:- Hail, Am-a-f (Eater of his arm), I have passed +over the road. I am Ra. I have come forth from the horizon against +my enemies. I have not permitted him to escape from me. I have +stretched out my hand like that of the Lord of the Urrt Crown. I +have lifted up my feet even as the Uraei-goddesses lift themselves up. +I have not permitted the enemy [to be saved] from me. As for mine +enemy, he hath been given to me, and he shall not be delivered from +me. I stand up like Horus. I sit down like Ptah. I am strong like +Thoth. I am mighty like Tem. I walk with my legs. I speak with my +mouth. I chase my enemy. He hath been given unto me, and he shall +not be delivered from me. + + + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2785 + + HYMN TO RA WHEN HE RISETH AND SETTETH + + A HYMN OF PRAISE TO RA WHEN HE RISETH UPON THE HORIZON, AND WHEN +HE SETTETH IN THE LAND OF LIFE. Osiris the scribe Ani saith:- Homage +to thee, O Ra, when thou risest as Tem-Heru-Khuti. Thou art to be +adored. Thy beauties are before mine eyes, [thy] radiance is upon my +body. Thou goest forth to thy setting in the Sektet Boat with [fair] +winds, and thy heart is glad; the heart of the Matet Boat rejoiceth. +Thou stridest over the heavens in peace, and all thy foes are cast +down; the stars which never rest sing hymns of praise unto thee, and +the stars which are imperishable glorify thee as thou sinkest to +rest in the horizon of Manu, O thou who art beautiful at morn and at +eve, O thou lord who livest, and art established, O my Lord! + + Homage to thee, O thou who art Ra when thou risest, and who art +Tem when thou settest in beauty. Thou risest and thou shinest on the +back of thy mother [Nut], O thou who art crowned the king of the gods! +Nut welcometh thee, and payeth homage unto thee, and Maat, the +everlasting and never-changing goddess, embraceth thee at noon and +at eve. Thou stridest over the heavens, being glad at heart, and the +Lake of Testes is content. The Sebau-fiend hath fallen to the +ground, his fore-legs and his hind-legs have been hacked off him, +and the knife hath severed the joints of his back. Ra hath a fair +wind, and the Sektet Boat setteth out on its journey, and saileth on +until it cometh into port. The gods of the South, the gods of the +North, the gods of the West, and the gods of the East praise thee, O +thou Divine Substance, from whom all living things came into being. +Thou didst send forth the word when the earth was submerged with +silence, O thou Only One, who didst dwell in heaven before ever the +earth and the mountains came into being. Hail, thou Runner, Lord, Only +One, thou maker of the things that are, thou hast fashioned the tongue +of the Company of the Gods, thou hast produced whatsoever cometh forth +from the waters, thou springest up out of them above the submerged +land of the Lake of Horus. Let me breathe the air which cometh forth +from thy nostrils, and the north wind which cometh forth from thy +mother Nut. Make thou my Spirit-soul to be glorious, O Osiris, make +thou my Heart-soul to be divine. Thou art worshipped as thou +settest, O Lord of the gods, thou art exalted by reason of thy +wondrous works. Shine thou with the rays of light upon my body day +by day, upon me, Osiris the scribe, the assessor of the divine +offerings of all the gods, the overseer of the granary of the Lords of +Abydos, the real royal scribe who loveth thee, Ani, whose word is +truth, in peace. + + Praise be unto thee, O Osiris, the Lord of Eternity, Un-Nefer, +Heru-Khuti (Harmakhis), whose forms are manifold, whose attributes are +majestic [Praise be unto thee], O thou who art Ptah-Seker-Tem in +Anu, thou Lord of the hidden shrine, thou Creator of the House of +the KA of Ptah (Het-ka-Ptah) and of the gods [therein], thou Guide +of the Tuat, who art glorified when thou settest in Nu (the Sky). Isis +embraceth thee in peace, and she driveth away the fiends from the +entrances of thy paths. Thou turnest thy face towards Amentet, and +thou makest the earth to shine as with refined copper. Those who +have lain down in death rise up to see thee, they breathe the air, and +they look upon thy face when the disk riseth on the horizon. Their +hearts are at peace since they behold thee, o thou who art Eternity +and Everlastingness. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2786 + + THE SOLAR LITANY + + Homage to you, O ye gods of the Dekans in Anu, and to you, O ye +Hememet-spirits in Kher Aha, and to thee, O Unti, who art the most +glorious of all the gods who are hidden in Anu, + + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. + + Homage to thee, O An in Antes, Heru-khuti, who dost with long +strides march across the heavens, + + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. + + Homage to thee, O Everlasting Soul, thou Soul who dwellest in +Tetu, Un-Nefer, the son of Nut, who art the Lord of Akert, + + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have done +aught with deceit. + + Homage to thee in thy dominion over Tetu, upon whose brow the Urrt +Crown is established, thou One who createst the strength to protect +thyself, and who dwellest in peace, + + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. + + Homage to thee, O Lord of the Acacia Tree, whose Seker Boat is set +upon its sledge, who turnest back the Fiend, the Evildoer, and dost +cause the Eye of Ra (utchat) to rest upon its seat, + + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. + + Homage to thee, O thou who art mighty in thine hour, thou great +and mighty Prince who dost dwell in Anrutef, thou Lord of Eternity and +Creator of the Everlastingness, thou Lord of Hensu, + + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. + + Homage to thee, O thou who restest upon Truth, thou Lord of Abtu, +whose limbs form the substance of Ta-tchesert, unto whom fraud and +deceit are abominations, + + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. + + Homage to thee, O thou who dwellest in thy boat, who dost bring Hapi +(the Nile) forth from his cavern, whose body is the light, and who +2787 + +dwellest in Nekhen, + + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. + + Homage to thee, O thou Creator of the gods, thou King of the South +and North, Osiris, whose word is truth, who rulest the world by thy +gracious goodness, thou Lord of the Atebui, + + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Saite Recension, ed. Lepsius, Bl. V) + + Homage to thee, O thou who comest as Tem, who didst come into +being to create the Company of the Gods. + Homage to thee, O thou who comest as the Soul of Souls, the Holy One +in Amentet. + + Homage to thee, O President of the Gods, who illuminest the Tuat +with thy beauties. + + Homage to thee, O thou who comest as the Light-god, who travellest +in thy Disk. + + Homage to thee, O thou greatest of all gods, who are crowned King in +heaven, Governor in the Tuat. + + Homage to thee, O thou who makest a way through the Tuat, who dost +lead the way through all doors. + + Homage to thee, O thou who art among the gods, who dost weigh +words in Khert-Neter. + + Homage to thee, O thou who dwellest in thy secret places, who dost +fashion the Tuat with thy might. + + Homage to thee, O great one, O mighty one, thine enemies have fallen +in places where they were smitten. + + Homage to thee, O thou who hast hacked the Sebau-fiends in pieces, +and hast annihilated Aapep. + + Grant thou the sweet breeze of the north wind to the Osiris +Auf-ankh, whose word is truth. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2788 + + HYMN TO RA WHEN HE RISETH AND TO THOSE IN HIS TRAIN + + A HYMN OF PRAISE TO RA WHEN HE RISETH IN THE EASTERN PART OF HEAVEN. +Those who are in his following rejoice, and the Osiris, the scribe +Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- Hail, thou Disk, thou lord of +rays, who risest on the horizon day by day. Shine thou with thy +beams of light upon the face of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, +for he singeth hymns of praise to thee at dawn, and he maketh thee +to sit at eventide [with words of adoration]. May the soul of the +Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, come forth with thee into heaven! May +he set out with thee in the Matet Boat [in the morning], may he come +into port in the Sektet Boat [in the evening], and may he cleave his +path among the stars of heaven which never rest. + + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, being at peace [with his +god], maketh adoration to his Lord, the Lord of Eternity, and +saith:- Homage to thee, O Heru-khuti, who art the god Khepera, the +self-created. When thou risest on the horizon and sheddest thy beams +of light upon the Lands of the South and of the North, thou art +beautiful, yea beautiful, and all the gods rejoice when they behold +thee, the king of heaven. The goddess, the Lady of the Hour, is +stablished upon thy head, her Uraei of the South and of the North +are upon thy brow, and she taketh up her place before thee. The god +Thoth is stablished in the bows of thy boat to destroy utterly all thy +foes. Those who dwell in the Tuat come forth to meet thee, and they +bow to the earth in homage as they come towards thee, to look upon thy +beautiful Form. And I, Ani, have come into thy presence, so that I may +be with thee, and may behold thy Disk every day. Let me not be kept +captive [by the tomb], and let me not be turned back [on my way]. +Let the members of my body be made new again when I contemplate thy +beauties, even as are the members of all thy favoured ones, because +I am one of those who worshipped thee upon earth. Let me arrive in the +Land of Eternity, let me enter into the Land of Everlastingness. This, +O my Lord, behold thou shalt ordain for me. + + AND MOREOVER, THE OSIRIS ANI, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, IN PEACE, THE +TRUTH-SPEAKER, SAITH:- Homage to thee, O thou who risest on thy +horizon in the form of Ra, who restest upon Law, [which can neither be +changed nor altered]. Thou passest over the sky, and every face, +watcheth thee and thy course, for thou thyself art hidden from their +gaze. Thou dost show thyself [to them] at dawn and at eventide each +day. The Sektet Boat, wherein Thy Majesty dwelleth, setteth forth on +its journey with vigour. Thy beams [fall] upon all faces, thy light +with its manifold colours is incomprehensible [to man], and thy +brilliant rays cannot be reported. The Lands of the Gods see thee, +they could write [concerning thee]; the Deserts of Punt could count +thee. Thy creation is hidden. It is one by the opening of thy mouth. +Thy form is the head of Nu. May he (Ani) advance, even as thou dost +advance, without cessation, even as Thy Majesty [ceaseth not to +advance] even for a moment. With great strides thou dost in one little +moment pass over limitless distances which would need millions and +hundreds of thousands of years [for a man to pass over; this] thou +doest, and then thou sinkest to rest. Thou bringest to an end the +hours of the night, even as thou stridest over them. Thou bringest +them to an end by thine own ordinance, and dawn cometh on the earth. +Thou settest thyself before thy handiwork in the form of Ra, and +thou rollest up on the horizon....... Thou sendest forth light when +thy form raiseth itself up, thou ordainest the increase of thy +2789 + +splendours. Thou mouldest thy limbs as thou advancest, thou bringest +them forth, thou who wast never brought forth, in the form of Ra, +who rolleth up into the height of heaven. Grant thou that I may +reach the heaven of eternity, and the region where thy favoured ones +dwell. May I unite with those holy and perfect Spirit-souls of +Khert-Neter. May I come forth with them to behold thy beauties as thou +rollest on at eventide, as thou journeyest to thy mother Nut (the +Night-sky), and dost place thyself at the right hand (in the West). My +two hands are raised to thee in praise and thanksgiving when thou +settest in life. Behold, thou art the Creator of Eternity, who art +adored when thou settest in Nu. I have set thee in my heart, without +wavering, O thou who art more divine than the gods. + + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- Praise and thanksgiving +be unto thee, O thou who rollest on like unto gold, thou Illuminer +of the Two Lands on the day of thy birth. Thy mother brought thee +forth on her hand, and thou didst light up with splendour the circle +which is travelled over by the Disk. O Great Light who rollest +across Nu, thou dost raise up the generations of men from the deep +source of thy waters, and dost make to keep festivals all districts +and cities, and all habitations. Thou protectest [them] with thy +beauties. Thy KA riseth up with the celestial food hu and tchefau. O +thou mightily victorious one, thou Power of Powers, who makest +strong thy throne against the sinful ones, whose risings on thy throne +in the Sektet Boat are mighty, whose strength is widespread in the +Atett Boat, make thou the Osiris Ani to be glorious by virtue of his +word, which is truth, in Khert-Neter. Grant thou that he may be in +Amentet free from evil, and let [his] offences be [set] behind thee. +Grant thou that he may [live there] a devoted slave of the +Spirit-souls. Let him mingle among the Heart-souls who live in +Ta-tchesert (the Holy Land). Let him travel about in the Sekhet-Aaru +(the Elysian Fields), conformably to [thy] decree with joy of heart- +him the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. + + [And the god maketh answer]:--Thou shalt come forth into heaven, +thou shalt sail over the sky, and thou shalt hold loving intercourse +with the Star-gods. Praises shall be made to thee in the Boat. Thy +name shall be proclaimed in the Atett Boat. Thou shalt look upon Ra +within his shrine. Thou shalt make the Disk to set [with prayer] every +day. Thou shalt see the Ant Fish in his transformations in the +depths of the waters of turquoise. Thou shalt see the Abtu Fish in his +time. It shall be that the Evil One shall fall when he deviseth a plan +to destroy thee, and the joints of his neck and back shall be hacked +asunder. Ra saileth with a fair wind, and the Sektet Boat +progresseth and cometh into port. The mariners of Ra rejoice, and +the heart of the Lady of the Hour is glad, for the enemy of her Lord +hath been cast to the ground. Thou shalt behold Horus standing on +the pilot's place in the Boat, and Thoth and Maat shall stand one on +each side of him. All the gods shall rejoice when they behold Ra +coming in peace to make the hearts of the Spirit-souls to live, and +the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, the assessor of the holy +offerings of the Lords of Thebes, shall be with them! + + THE CHAPTER OF THE NEW MOON + + THE FOLLOWING IS TO BE RECITED ON THE DAY OF THE MONTH (NEW MOON +DAY). The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, in peace, +whose word is truth, saith:- Ra ascendeth his throne on his horizon, +2790 + +and the Company of his Gods follow in his train. The God cometh +forth from his hidden place, [and] tchefau food falleth from the +eastern horizon of heaven at the word of Nut. They (the gods) +rejoice over the paths of Ra, the Great Ancestor [as] he journeyeth +round about. Therefore art thou exalted, O Ra, the dweller in thy +Shrine. Thou swallowest the winds, thou drawest into thyself the north +wind, thou eatest up the flesh of thy seat on the day when thou +breathest truth. Thou dividest [it among] the gods who are [thy] +followers. [Thy] Boat saileth on travelling among the Great Gods at +thy word. Thou countest thy bones, thou gatherest together thy +members, thou settest thy face towards Beautiful Amentet, and thou +comest there, being made new every day. Behold, thou art that Image of +Gold, thou hast the unitings of the disks of the sky, thou hast +quakings, thou goest round about, and art made new each day. Hail! +There is rejoicing in the horizon! The gods who dwell in the sky +descend the ropes [of thy Boat] when they see the Osiris Ani, whose +word is truth, they ascribe praise unto him as unto Ra. The Osiris Ani +is a Great Chief. [He] seeketh the Urrt Crown. His provisions are +apportioned to him- the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. [His] fate is +strong from the exalted body of the Aamu gods, who are in the presence +of Ra. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is strong on the earth and +in Khert-Neter. O Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, wake up, and be +strong like unto Ra every day. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, +shall not tarry, he shall not remain motionless in this land for ever. +Right well shall he see with his two eyes, right well shall he hear +with his two ears, the things which are true, the things which are +true. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is in Anu, the Osiris +Ani, whose word is truth, is as Ra, and he is exalted by reason of +[his] oars among the Followers of Nu. The Osiris Ani, whose word is +truth, cannot tell what he hath seen [or] narrate [what he hath heard] +in the House of the God of Mysteries. Hail! Let there be shouts of +acclamation of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, the divine body of +Ra in the Boat of Nu, who beareth propitiatory offerings for the KA of +the god of that which he loveth. The Osiris Ani, whose word is +truth, in peace, whose word is truth, is like Horus, the mighty one of +transformations. + + RUBRIC: This Chapter is to be recited over a boat seven cubits long, +made of green stone of the Tchatchau. Make a heaven of stars, and +purify it and cleanse it with natron and incense. Make then a figure +of Ra upon a tablet of new stone in paint, and set it in the bows of +the boat. Then make a figure of the deceased whom thou wilt make +perfect, [and place it] in the boat. Make it to sail in the Boat of +Ra, and Ra himself shall look upon it. Do not these things in the +presence of any one except thyself, or thy father, or thy son. Then +let them keep guard over their faces, and they shall see the +deceased in Khert-Neter in the form of a messenger of Ra. + + HYMN TO RA FOR THE DAY OF THE NEW MOON + + A HYMN TO RA [WHICH IS TO BE SUNG] ON THE DAY OF THE MONTH (THE +DAY OF THE NEW MOON) [WHEN] THE BOAT OF RA SAILETH. [The Osiris the +scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:-] Homage to thee, O thou who +dwellest in thy Boat. Thou rollest on, thou rollest on, thou sendest +forth light, thou sendest forth light. Thou decreest rejoicing for +[every] man for millions of years unto those who love him. Thou givest +[thy] face to the Hememet spirits, thou god Khepera who dwellest in +thy Boat. Thou hast overthrown the Fiend Aapep. O ye Sons of Keb, +2791 + +overthrow ye the enemies of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, and +the fiends of destruction who would destroy the Boat of Ra. Horus hath +cut off your heads in heaven. Ye who were in the forms of geese, +your navel strings are on the earth. The animals are set upon the +earth..... in the form of fish. Every male fiend and every female +fiend shall be destroyed by the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. +Whether the fiends descend from out of heaven, or whether they come +forth from the earth, or whether they advance on the waters, or +whether they come from among the Star-gods, Thoth, [the son of +Aner], coming forth from Anerti shall hack them to pieces. And the +Osiris Ani shall make them silent and dumb. And behold ye, this god, +the mighty one of slaughters, the terror of whom is most great, +shall wash himself clean in your blood, and he shall bathe in your +gore, and ye shall be destroyed by the Osiris Ani in the Boat of his +Lord Ra-Horus. The heart of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, shall +live. His mother Isis giveth birth to him, and Nephthys nurseth him, +just as Isis gave birth to Horus, and Nephthys nursed him. [He] +shall repulse the Smait fiends of Suti. They shall see the Urrt +Crown stablished upon his head, and they shall fall down upon their +faces [and worship him]. Behold, O ye Spirit-souls, and men, and gods, +and ye dead, when ye see the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in the +form of Horus, and the favoured one of the Urrt Crown, fall ye down +upon your faces. The word of the Osiris Ani is truth before his +enemies in heaven above, and on earth beneath, and before the +Tchatchau Chiefs of every god and of every goddess. + + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a large hawk standing +upright with the White Crown upon his head, [and over figures of] Tem, +Shu, Tefnut, Keb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, [Suti] and Nephthys. And they +shall be painted in colour upon a new tablet, which shall be placed in +a boat, together with a figure of the deceased. Anoint them with heken +oil, and offer unto them burning incense, and geese, and joints of +meat roasted. It is an act of praise to Ra as he journeyeth in his +boat, and it will make a man to have his being with Ra, and to +travel with him wheresoever he goeth, and it will most certainly cause +the enemies of Ra to be slain. And the Chapter of travelling shall +be recited on the sixth day of the festival. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Turin Papyrus) + + ANOTHER CHAPTER WHICH IS TO BE RECITED WHEN THE MOON RENEWETH ITSELF +ON THE DAY OF THE MONTH [WHEREON IT DOETH THIS]. Osiris unfettereth +the storm-cloud in the body of heaven, and is unfettered himself; +Horus is made strong happily each day. He whose transformations are +many hath had offerings made unto him at the moment, and he hath +made an end of the storm which is in the face of the Osiris, Auf-ankh, +whose word is truth. Verily, he cometh, and he is Ra in journeying, +and he is the four celestial gods in the heavens above. The Osiris +Auf-ankh, whose word is truth, cometh forth in his day, and he +embarketh among the tackle of the boat. + + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known by the deceased he shall become a +perfect Spirit-soul in Khert-Neter, and he shall not die a second +time, and he shall eat his food side by side with Osiris. If this +Chapter be known by the deceased upon earth, he shall become like unto +Thoth, and he shall be adored by those who live. He shall not fall +2792 + +headlong at the moment of the intensity of the royal flame of the +goddess Bast, and the Great Prince shall make him to advance happily. + + ADVANCING TO THE TCJATCHAU CHIEFS OF OSIRIS + + THE CHAPTER OF ADVANCING TO THE TCHATCHAU CHIEFS OF OSIRIS. The +Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I have built a house for my +Ba-soul in the sanctuary in Tetu. I sow seed in the town of Pe (Buto). +I have ploughed the fields with my labourers. My palm tree [standeth +upright and is] like Menu upon it. I abominate abominable things. I +will not eat the things which are abominations unto me. What I +abominate is filth: I will not eat it. I shall not be destroyed by the +offerings of propitiation and the sepulchral meals. I will not +approach filth [to touch it] with my hands, I will not tread upon it +with my sandals. For my bread shall be made of the white barley, and +my ale shall be made from the red grain of the god Hapi (the +Nile-god), which the Sektet Boat and the Atett Boat shall bring +[unto me], and I will eat my food under the leaves of the trees +whose beautiful arms I myself do know. O what splendour shall the +White Crown make for me which shall be lifted up on me by the +Uraei-goddesses! O Doorkeeper of Sehetep-taui, bring thou to me that +wherewith the cakes of propitiation are made. Grant thou to me that +I may lift up the earth. May the Spirit-souls open to me [their] arms, +and let the Company of the Gods hold their peace whilst the Hememet +spirits hold converse with the Osiris Ani. May the hearts of the +gods lead him in his exalted state into heaven among the gods who +appear in visible forms. If any god, or any goddess, attack the Osiris +Ani, whose word is truth, when he setteth out, the Ancestor of the +year who liveth upon hearts [Osiris] shall eat him when he cometh +forth from Abydos, and the Ancestors of Ra shall reckon with him, +and the Ancestors of Light shall reckon with him. [He is] a god of +splendour [arrayed in] the apparel of heaven, and he is among the +Great Gods. Now the subsistence of the Osiris Ani, whose word is +truth, is among the cakes and the ale which are made for your +mouths. I enter in by the Disk, I come forth by the god Ahui. I +shall hold converse with the Followers of the Gods. I shall hold +converse with the Disk. I shall hold converse with the +Hememet-spirits. He shall set the terror of me in the thick +darkness, in the inside of the goddess Mehurt, by the side of his +forehead. Behold, I shall be with Osiris, and my perfection shall be +his perfection among the Great Gods. I shall speak unto him with the +words of men, I shall listen, and he shall repeat to me the words of +the gods. I, the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace, have +come equipped. Thou makest to approach [thee] those who love thee. I +am a Spirit-soul who is better equipped than any [other] Spirit-soul. + + CHANGING INTO A SWALLOW + + THE CHAPTER OF MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO A SWALLOW. The +Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am a swallow, [I am] a +swallow. [I am] that Scorpion, the daughter of Ra. Hail, O ye gods +whose odour is sweet. Hail, O ye gods whose odour is sweet. Hail, +Flame, who comest forth from the horizon. Hail, thou who art in the +city. I have brought the Warder of his corner there. Give me thy two +hands, and let me pass my time in the Island of Flame. I have advanced +with a message, I have come having the report thereof [to make]. +Open to me. How shall I tell that which I have seen there? I am like +Horus, the governor of the Boat, when the throne of his father was +2793 + +given unto him, and when Set, that son of Nut, was [lying] under the +fetters which he had made for Osiris. He who is in Sekhem hath +inspected me. I stretch out my arms over Osiris. I have advanced for +the examination, I have come to speak there. Let me pass on and +deliver my message. I am he who goeth in, [I am] judged, [I] come +forth magnified at the Gate of Nebertcher. I am purified at the +Great Uart. I have done away my wickednesses. I have put away +utterly my offences. I have put away utterly all the taints of evil +which appertained to me [upon the earth]. I have purified myself, I +have made myself to be like a god. Hail, O ye Doorkeepers, I have +completed my journey. I am like unto you. I have come forth by day. +I have advanced on my legs. I have gained the master over [my] +footsteps. [Hail, ye] Spirit-souls! I, even I, do know the hidden +roads and the Gates of Sekhet Aaru. I live there. Verily, I, even I, +have come, I have overthrown my enemies upon the earth, although my +body lieth a mummy in the tomb. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2794 + + APPENDIX + + RUBRIC: (Naville, op. cit., II, Bl. 202) + + If this Chapter be known by the deceased, he shall enter in after he +hath come forth by day. + + RUBRIC: (Saite Recension) + + If this Chapter be known by the deceased, he shall come forth by day +from Khert-Neter, and he shall go [again] after he hath come forth. If +this Chapter be not known [by the deceased], he shall not go in +again after he hath come forth [and he] shall not know [how] to come +forth by day. + + CHANGING INTO A HAWK OF GOLD + + [THE CHAPTER] OF MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO A HAWK OF GOLD. +The Osiris Ani saith:- I have risen up out of the seshett chamber, +like the golden hawk which cometh forth from his egg. I fly, I +alight like a hawk with a back of seven cubits, and the wings of which +are like unto the mother-of-emerald of the South. I have come forth +from the Sektet Boat, and my heart hath been brought unto me from +the mountain of the East. I have alighted on the Atet Boat, and +there have been brought unto me those who dwelt in their substance, +and they bowed in homage before me. I have risen, I have gathered +myself together like a beautiful golden hawk, with the head of the +Benu, and Ra hath entered in [to hear my speech]. I have taken my seat +among the great gods, [the children of] Nut. I have settled myself, +the Sekhet-hetepet (the Field of Offerings) is before me. I eat +therein, I become a Spirit-soul therein, I am supplied with food in +abundance therein, as much as I desire. The Grain-god (Nepra) hath +given unto me food for my throat, and I am master over myself and over +the attributes of my head. + + CHANGING INTO A DIVINE HAWK + + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO A DIVINE HAWK. +Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, thou Great God, come thou to Tetu. Make +thou ready for me the ways, and let me go round [to visit] my thrones. +I have laboured. I have made myself perfect. O grant thou that I may +be held in fear. Create thou awe of me. Let the gods of the Tuat be +afraid of me, and let them fight for me in their halls. Permit not +thou to come nigh unto me him that would attack me, or would injure me +in the House of Darkness. Cover over the helpless one, hide him. Let +do likewise the gods who hearken unto the word [of truth], the Khepriu +gods who are in the following of Osiris. Hold ye your peace then, O ye +gods, whilst the God holdeth speech with me, he who listeneth to the +truth. I speak unto him my words. Osiris, grant thou that that which +cometh forth from thy mouth may circulate to me. Let me see thine +own Form. Let thy Souls envelop me. Grant thou that I may come +forth, and that I may be master of my legs, and let me live there like +Nebertcher upon his throne. Let the gods of the Tuat hold me in +fear, and let them fight for me in their halls. Grant thou that I +may move forward with him and with the Ariu gods, and let me be firmly +stablished on my pedestal like the Lord of Life. Let me be in the +company of Isis, the goddess, and let [the gods] keep me safe from him +that would do an injury unto me. Let none come to see the helpless +2795 + +one. May I advance, and may I come to the Henti boundaries of the sky. +Let me address words to Keb, and let me make supplicaion to the god Hu +with Nebertcher. Let the gods of the Tuat be afraid of me, and let +them fight for me in their halls. Let them see that thou hast provided +me with food for the festival. I am one of those Spirit-souls who +dwell in the Light-god. I have made my form in his Form, when he +cometh to Tetu. I am a Spirit-body among his Spirit-bodies; he shall +speak unto thee the things [which concern] me. Would that he would +cause me to be held in fear! Would that he would create [in them] +awe of me! Let the gods of the Tuat be afraid of me, and let them +fight for me [in their halls]. I, even I, am a Spirit-soul, a +dweller in the Light-god, whose form hath been created in divine +flesh. I am one of those Spirit-souls who dwell in the Light-god, +who were created by Tem himself, and who exist in the blossoms of +his Eye. He hath made to exist, he hath made glorious, and he hath +magnified their faces during their existence with him. Behold, he is +Alone in Nu. They acclaim him when he cometh forth from the horizon, +and the gods and the Spirit-souls who have come into being with him +ascribe fear unto him. + + I am one of the worms which have been created by the Eye of the Lord +One. And behold, when as yet Isis had not given birth to Horus, I +was flourishing, and I had waxed old, and had become pre-eminent among +the Spirit-souls who had come into being with him. I rose up like a +divine hawk, and Horus endowed me with a Spirit-body with his soul, so +that [I] might take possession of the property of Osiris in the +Tuat. He shall say to the twin Lion-gods for me, the Chief of the +House of the Nemes Crown, the Dweller in his cavern: Get thee back +to the heights of heaven, for behold, inasmuch as thou art a +Spirit-body with the creations of Horus, the Nemes Crown shall not +be to thee: [but] thou shalt have speech even to the uttermost +limits of the heavens. I, the warder, took possession of the +property of Horus [which belonged] to Osiris in the Tuat, and Horus +repeated to me what his father Osiris had said unto him in the years +[past], on the days of his burial. Give thou to me the Nemes Crown, +say the twin Lion-gods for me. Advance thou, come along the road of +heaven, and look upon those who dwell in the uttermost limits of the +horizon. The gods of the Tuat shall hold thee in fear, and they +shall fight for thee in their halls. The god Auhet belongeth to +them. All the gods who guard the shrine of the Lord One are smitten +with terror at [my] words. + + Hail, saith the god who is exalted upon his coffer to me! He hath +bound on the Nemes Crown, [by] the decree of the twin Lion-gods. The +god Aahet hath made a way for me. I am exalted [on the coffer], the +twin Lion-gods have bound the Nemes Crown on me and my two locks of +hair are given unto me. He hath stablished for me my heart by his +own flesh, and by his great, two-fold strength, and I shall not fall +headlong before Shu. I am Hetep, the Lord of the two Uraei-goddesses +who are to be adored. I know the Light-god, his winds are in my +body. The Bull which striketh terror [into souls] shall not repulse +me. I come daily into the House of the twin Lion-gods. I come forth +therefrom into the House of Isis. I look upon the holy things which +are hidden. I see the being who is therein. I speak to the great +ones of Shu, they repulse him that is wrathful in his hour. I am Horus +who dwelleth in his divine Light. I am master of his crown. I am +master of his radiance. I advance towards the Henti boundaries of +heaven. Horus is upon his seat. Horus is upon his thrones. My face +2796 + +is like that of a divine hawk. I am one who is equipped [like] his +lord. I shall come forth to Tetu. I shall see Osiris. I shall live +in his actual presence.... Nut. They shall see me. I shall see the +gods [and] the Eye of Horus burning with fire before my eyes. They +shall reach out their hands to me. I shall stand up. I shall be master +of him that would subject me to restraint. They shall open the holy +paths to me, they shall see my form, they shall listen to my words. + + [Homage] to you, O ye gods of the Tuat, whose faces are turned back, +whose powers advance, conduct ye me to the Star-gods which never rest. +Prepare ye for me the holy ways to the Hemat house, and to your god, +the Soul, who is the mighty one of terror. Horus hath commanded me +to lift up your faces; do ye look upon me. I have risen up like a +divine hawk. Horus hath made me to be a Spirit-body by means of his +Soul, and to take possession of the things of Osiris in the Tuat. Make +ye for me a path. I have travelled and I have arrived at those who are +chiefs of their caverns, and who are guardians of the House of Osiris. +I speak unto them his mighty deeds. I made them to know concerning his +victories. He is ready [to butt with his] two horns at Set. They +know him who hath taken possession of the god Hu, and who hath taken +possession of the Powers of Tem. + + Travel thou on thy way safely, cry out the gods of the Tuat to me. O +ye who make your names pre-eminent, who are chiefs in your shrines, +and who are guardians of the House of Osiris, grant, I pray you, +that I may come to you. I have bound up and I have gathered together +your Powers. I have directed the Powers of the ways, the wardens of +the horizon, and of the Hemat House of heaven. I have stablished their +fortresses for Osiris. I have prepared the ways for him. I have +performed the things which [he] hath commanded. I come forth to +Tetu. I see Osiris. I speak to him concerning the matter of his +Great Son, whom he loveth, and concerning [the smiting of] the heart +of Set. I look upon the lord who was helpless. How shall I make them +to know the plans of the gods, and that which Horus did without the +knowledge of his father Osiris? + + Hail, Lord, thou Soul, most awful and terrible, behold me. I have +come, I make thee to be exalted! I have forced a way though the +Tuat. I have opened the roads which appertain to heaven, and those +which appertain to the earth, and no one hath opposed me therein. I +have exalted thy face, O Lord of Eternity. + + APPENDIX + + (In the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 14, the Chapter ends with the +following.) + + Exalted art thou on thy throne, O Osiris! Thou hast heard fair +things, O Osiris! Thy strength is vigorous, O Osiris! Thy head is +fastened on thy body, O Osiris! Thy neck is made firm, O Osiris! Thy +heart is glad, [O Osiris!]. Thy speech is made effective, O Osiris! +Thy princes rejoice Thou art established the Bull in Amentet. Thy +son Horus hath ascended thy trrone, and all life is with him. Millions +of years minister unto him, and millions of years hold him in fear. +The Company of the Gods are his servants, and they fold him in fear. +The god Tem, the Governor, the only One among the gods, hath spoken, +and his word passeth not away. Horus is both the divine food and the +sacrifice. He made haste to gather together [the members of] of his +2797 + +father. Horus is his deliverer. Horus is his deliverer. Horus hath +sprung from the essence of his divine father and from his decay. He +hath become the Governor of Egypt. The gods shall work for him, and +they shall toil for him for million of years. He shall make millions +of years to live through his Eye, the only one of its lord, +Nebertcher.] + + (From the Turin Papyrus, Bl. XXX) + + Exalted is thy throne, O Osiris. Thou hearest well, O Osiris. Thy +strength flourisheth, O Osiris. I have fastened thy head [on thy] body +for thee. I have stablished thy throat, the throne of the joy of thy +heart. Thy words are stable. Thy shenit princes are glad. Thou art +stablished as the Bull of Amentet. Thy son Horus hath ascended thy +throne. All life is with him. Millions of years work for him. The +Company of the Gods fear him. Tem, the One Power of the Gods, hath +spoken, and what he hath said is not changed, Hetu Aabi. Horus hath +stood up. I have gone about collecting his father. Horus hath +delivered his father. Horus hath delivered [his mother]. My mother +is Horus. My brother is Horus. My uncle is Horus. I have come. Horus +followeth his father.... there the dirt of his head. The gods shall +serve him. Millions of years...... in his Eye, the Only One of its +Lord, Neb-er-tcher. + + CHANGING INTO THE PRINCE OF TCHATCHAU CHIEFS + + THE CHAPTER OF BEING TRANSFORMED INTO THE PRINCE OF THE TCHATCHAU +CHIEFS. The Osiris Nu, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the god +Tem, the maker of the sky, the creator of the things which are, who +cometh forth from the earth, who made the seed of man to come into +being, the Lord of things, who fashioned the gods, the Great God, +who created himself, the Lord of Life, who made to flourish the Two +Companies of the Gods. Homage to you, O ye divine Lords of things, +ye holy beings, whose seats are veiled! Homage to you, O ye Lords of +Eternity, whose forms are concealed, whose sanctuaries are +mysteries, whose places of abode are not known! Homage to you, O ye +gods, who dwell in the Tenait (Circle of Light)! Homage to you, O ye +gods of the Circle of the country of the Cataracts! Homage to you, O +ye gods who dwell in Amentet! Homage to you, O ye gods who dwell +within Nut! Grant ye to me that I may come before you, I am pure, I am +like a god. I am endowed with a Spirit-soul. I am strong. I am endowed +with a Heart-soul. I bring unto you incense, and spice, and natron. +I have done away with the chidings of your mouths. I have come, I have +done away the evil which was in your hearts, and I have removed the +offences which appertained to you [against me]. I bring to you deeds +of well-doing, and I present before you truth. I know you. I know your +names. I know your forms which are not known. I come into being +among you. My coming is like unto that god who eateth men, and who +feedeth upon the gods. I am strong before you even like that god who +is exalted upon his pedestal, unto whom the gods come with +rejoicing, and the goddesses make supplication when they see me. I +have come unto you. I have ascended my throne like your Two Daughters. +I have taken my seat in the horizon. I receive my offerings of +propitiation upon my altars. I drink my fill of seth wine every +evening. I come to those who are making rejoicings, and the gods who +live in the horizon ascribe unto me praises, as the divine +Spirit-body, the Lord of mortals. I am exalted like that holy god +who dwelleth in the Great House. The gods rejoice greatly when they +2798 + +see my beautiful appearances from the body of the goddess Nut, and +when the goddess Nut bringeth me forth. + + CHANGING INTO THE SERPENT SATA + + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE SERPENT SATA. +The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the serpent Sata +whose years are infinite. I lie down dead. I am born daily. I am the +serpent Sa-en-ta, the dweller in the uttermost parts of the earth. I +lie down in death. I am born, I become new, I renew my youth every +day. + + CHANGING INTO THE CROCODILE GOD + + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE CROCODILE-GOD. +The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the Crocodile-god +(Sebak) who dwelleth amid his terrors. I am the Crocodile-god and I +seize [my prey] like a ravening beast. I am the great Fish which is in +Kamui. I am the Lord to whom bowings and prostrations are made in +Sekhem. And the Osiris Ani is the lord to whom bowings and +prostrations are made in Sekhem. + + (From the Papyrus of Nebseni) + + Behold, I am the dweller in his terrors, I am the crocodile, his +firstborn. I bring (prey) from a distance. I am the Fish of Horus, the +Great One in Kamui. I am the lord of bowings in Sekhem. + + CHANGING INTO PTAH + + THE CHAPTER OF MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO PTAH. The Osiris Ani +[whose word is truth, saith]:- I eat bread. I drink ale. I gird up +my garments. I fly like a hawk. I cackle like the Smen goose. I alight +upon that place hard by the Sepulchre on the festival of the Great +God. That which is abominable, that which is abominable I will not +eat. [An abominable thing] is filth, I will not eat thereof. That +which is an abomination unto my KA shall not enter my body. I will +live upon that whereon live the gods and the Spirit-souls. I shall +live, and I shall be master of their cakes. I am master of them, and I +shall eat them under the trees of the dweller in the House of +Hathor, my Lady. I will make an offering. My cakes are in Tetu, my +offerings are in Anu. I gird about myself the robe which is woven +for me by the goddess Tait. I shall stand up and sit down in +whatsoever place it pleaseth me to do so. My head is like unto that of +Ra. I am gathered together like Tem. + + Here offer the four cakes of Ra, and the offerings of the earth. + + I shall come forth. My tongue is like that of Ptah, and my throat is +like unto that of Hathor, and I remember the words of Tem, of my +father, with my mouth. He forced the woman, the wife of Keb, +breaking the heads near him; therefore was the fear of him there. +[His] praises are repeated with vigour. I am decreed to be the Heir, +the lord of the earth of Keb. I have union with women. Keb hath +refreshed me, and he hath caused me to ascend his throne. Those who +dwell in Anu bow their heads to me. I am [their] Bull, I am stronger +than [the Lord] of the hour. I unite with women. I am master for +millions of years. +2799 + + TURNING INTO THE SOUL OF TEM + + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE SOUL OF TEM. The +Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I shall not enter into the +place of destruction, I shall not perish, I shall not know [decay]. +I am Ra, who came forth from Nu, the Soul of the God who created his +own members. What I abominate is sin; I will not look thereon. I cry +not out against truth, nay, I live therein. I am the god Hu, the +imperishable god, in my name of "Soul." I have created myself with Nu, +in the name of "Khepera." I exist in them like Ra. I am the Lord of +Light. + + + + + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nu) + + That which is an abomination unto me is death; let me not go into +the chamber of torture which is in the Tuat. I am the delight of the +Khu of Osiris. I make to be content the heart[s] of those who dwell +among the divine things which are beloved [by me]. They cause the fear +of me [to abound], they create the awe of me to be in those divine +beings who dwell in their own circles. Behold, I am exalted on my +own standard, and upon my throne, and upon my seat which is assigned +[to me]. I am the god Nu, and those who commit sin shall not destroy +me. I am the firstborn of the primeval god, and my soul is the Souls +of the Eternal Gods, and my body is Everlastingness. My created form +is [that of] the god Eternity, the Lord of Years, and the Prince of +Everlastingness. I am the Creator of the Darkness, who maketh his seat +in the uttermost limits of the heavens, [which] I love. I arrive at +their boundaries. I advance upon my two legs. I direct my resting +place. I sail over the sky. I fetter and destroy the hidden serpents +which are about my footsteps [in going to] the Lord of the Two Arms. +My soul is the Souls of the Eternal Gods, and my body is +Everlastingness. I am the exalted one, the Lord of the Land of Tebu. I +am the Child in the city: "Young man in the country" is my name. +"Imperishable one" is my name. I am the Soul Creator of Nu. I make +my habitation in Khert-Neter. My nest is invisible, my egg is not +broken. I have done away the evil which is in me. I shall see my +Father, the Lord of the Evening. His body dwelleth in Anu. I am made +to be the Light-god, a dweller in the Light-god, over the Western +Domain of the Hebt bird. + + CHANGING INTO THE BENU BIRD + + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE BENU BIRD. The +Osiris, the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I flew up out +of primeval matter. I came into being like the god Khepera. I +germinated like the plants. I am concealed like the tortoise [in his +shell]. I am the seed of every god. I am Yesterday of the Four +[Quarters of the Earth, and] the Seven Uraei, who came into being in +the Eastern land. [I am] the Great One (Horus) who illumineth the +Hememet spirits with the light of his body. [I am] that god in respect +of Set. [I am] Thoth who [stood] between them (Horus and Set) as the +judge on behalf of the Governor of Sekhem and the Souls of Anu. [He +was like] a stream between them. I have come. I rise up on my +throne. I am endowed with Khu. I am mighty. I am endowed with +2800 + +godhood among the gods. I am Khensu, [the lord] of every kind of +strength. + + RUBRIC: [If] this Chapter [be known by the deceased], he shall +come forth pure by day after his death, and he shall perform every +transformation which his soul desireth to make. He shall be among the +Followers of Un-Nefer, and he shall satisfy himself with the food of +Osiris, and with sepulchral meals. He shall see the Disk [of the Sun], +he shall be in good case upon earth before Ra, and his word shall be +truth in the sight of Osiris, and no evil thing whatsoever shall +have dominion over him for ever and ever. + + CHANGING INTO A HERON + + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO A HERON. The +Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the master of +beasts brought for sacrifice, [and] of the knives which are [held] +at their heads [and] their beards; those who dwell in their emerald +[fields], the Aged Gods, and the Spirit-souls, are ready at the moment +for the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace. He maketh slaughter +on the earth, and I make slaughter on the earth. I am strong. I follow +the heights unto heaven. I have made myself pure. I walk with long +strides to my city. I have become an owner of land there. I advance to +Sepu...... is given to me in Unu. I have set the gods upon their +roads. I have made splendid the houses and towns of those who are in +their shrines. I know the stream of Nut. I know Tatun. I know Teshert. +I have brought along their horns. I know Heka. I have hearkened to +this words. I am the Red Bull-calf which is marked with markings. +The gods shall say when they hear [of me]: Uncover your faces. His +coming is to me. There is light which ye know not. Times and seasons +are in my body. I do not speak [lies] in the place of truth, daily. +The truth is hidden on the eyebrows. [By] night [I] sail up the +river to keep the feast of him that is dead, to embrace the Aged +God, and to guard the earth, I the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. + + APPENDIX + (From the Saite Recension) + + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known [by the deceased], he will live +like a perfect Spirit-soul in Khert-Neter; no evil thing whatsoever +shall overthrow him. + + CHANGING INTO A LOTUS + + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE LOTUS. The +Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the holy lotus that +cometh forth from the light which belongeth to the nostrils of Ra, and +which belongeth to the head of Hathor. I have made my way, and I +seek after him, that is to say, Horus. I am the pure lotus that cometh +forth from the field [of Ra]. + + APPENDIX + + (Naville, op. cit., I, Bl. XCIII) + + Chapter of making the transformation into a lotus. The Osiris, the +lady of of the house, Aui, whose word is truth, in peace, saith:- +Hail, thou Lotus, thou type of the god Nefer-Temu! I am the man who diff --git a/religious documents/2801-873.txt b/religious documents/2801-873.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82bea6b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/2801-873.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4290 @@ +2801 + +knoweth your names. I know your names among the gods, the lords of +Khert-Neter. I am one among you. Grant ye that I may see the gods +who are the Guides of the Tuat. Grant ye to me a seat in +Khert-Neter, near the Lords of Amentet. Assign to me a habitation in +the land of Tchesert. Receive ye me in the presence of the Lords of +Eternity. Let my soul come forth in whatsoever place it pleaseth. +Let it not be rejected in the presence of the Great Company of the +Gods. + + TURNING INTO THE GOD WHO LIGHTENETH DARKNESS + + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE GOD WHO +LIGHTENETH THE DARKNESS. The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is +truth, saith:- I am the girdle of the garment of the god Nu, which +giveth light, and shineth, and belongeth to his breast, the +illuminer of the darkness, the uniter of the two Rehti deities, the +dweller in my body, through the great spell of the words of my +mouth. I rise up, but he who was coming after me hath fallen. He who +was with him in the Valley of Abtu hath fallen. I rest. I remember +him. The god Hu hath taken possession of me in my town. I found him +there. I have carried away the darkness by my strength, I have +filled the Eye [of Ra] when it was helpless, and when it came not on +the festival of the fifteenth day. I have weighed Sut in the celestial +houses against the Aged One who was with him. I have equipped Thoth in +the House of the Moon-god, when the fifteenth day of the festival come +not. I have taken possession of the Urrt Crown. Truth is in my body; +turquoise and crystal are its months. My homestead is there among +the lapis-lazuli, among the furrows thereof. I am Hem-Nu, the +lightener of the darkness. I have come to lighten the darkness; it +is light. I have lightened the darkness. I have overthrown the +ashmiu-fiends. I have sung hymns to those who dwell in the darkness. I +have made to stand up the weeping ones, whose faces were covered over; +they were in a helpless state of misery. Look ye then upon me. I am +Hem-Nu. I will not let you hear concerning it. [I have fought. I am +Hem-Nu. I have lightened the darkness. I have come. I have made an end +to the darkness which hath become light indeed.] + + NOT DYING A SECOND TIME + + THE CHAPTER OF NOT DYING A SECOND TIME. The Osiris Ani, whose word +is truth, saith:- Hail, Thoth! What is it that hath happened to the +children of Nut? They have waged war, they have upheld strife, they +have done evil, they have created the fiends, they have made +slaughter, they have caused trouble; in truth, in all their doings the +strong have worked against the weak. Grant, O might of Thoth, that +that which the god Tem hath decreed [may be done!] And thou +regardest not evil, nor art thou provoked to anger when they bring +their years to confusion, and throng in and push in to disturb their +months. For in all that they have done unto thee they have worked +iniquity in secret. I am they writing-palette, O Thoth, and I have +brought unto thee thine ink-jar. I am not of those who work iniquity +in their secret places; let not evil happen unto me. + + The Osiris, the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- Hail, Temu! +What manner of land is this unto which I have come? It hath not water, +it hath not air; it is depth unfathomable, it is black as the blackest +night, and men wander helplessly therein. In it a man cannot live in +quietness of heart; nor may the longings of love be satisfied therein. +2802 + +But let the state of the Spirit-souls be given unto me instead of +water and air, and the satisfying of the longings of love, and let +quietness of heart be given unto me instead of cakes and ale. The +god Tem hath decreed that I shall see thy face, and that I shall not +suffer from the things which pain thee. May every god transmit unto +thee his throne for millions of years. Thy throne hath descended +unto thy son Horus, and the god Tem hath decreed that thy course shall +be among the holy princes. In truth he shall rule from thy throne, and +he shall be heir to the throne of the Dweller in the fiery Lake +[Neserser]. In truth it hath been decreed that in me he shall see +his likeness, and that my face shall look upon the face of the Lord +Tem. How long then have I to live? It is decreed that thou shalt +live for millions of years, a life of millions of years. Let it be +granted to me to pass on to the holy princes, for indeed, I have +done away all the evil which I committed, from the time when this +earth came into being from Nu, when it sprang from the watery abyss +even as it was in the days of old. I am Fate and Osiris, I have made +my transformations into the likeness of divers serpents. Man knoweth +not, and the gods cannot behold the two-fold beauty which I have +made for Osiris, the greatest of the gods. I have given unto him the +region of the dead. And, verily, his son Horus is seated upon the +throne of the Dweller in the fiery Lake [of Neserser], as his heir. +I have made him to have his throne in the Boat of Millions of Years. +Horus is stablished upon his throne [among his] kinsmen, and he hath +all that is with him. Verily, the Soul of Set, which is greater than +all the gods, hath departed. Let it be granted to me to bind his +soul in fetter in the Boat of the God, when I please, and let him hold +the Body of the God in fear. O my father Osiris, thou hast done for me +that which thy father Ra did for thee. Let me abide upon the earth +permanently. Let me keep possession of my throne. Let my heir be +strong. Let my tomb, and my friends who are upon the earth, +flourish. Let my enemies be given over to destruction, and to the +shackles of the goddess Serq. I am thy son. Ra is my father. On me +likewise thou hast conferred life, strength, and health. Horus is +established upon his tomb. Grant thou that the days of my life may +come unto worship and honour. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Leyden Papyrus of Ra) + + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a figure of Horus, made +of lapis-lazuli, which shall be placed on the neck of the deceased. It +is a protection upon earth, and it will secure for the deceased the +affection of men, gods, and the Spirit-souls which are perfect. +Moreover it acteth as a spell in Khert-Neter, but it must be recited +by thee on behalf of the Osiris Ra, regularly and continually millions +of times. + + ENTERING THE HALL OF MAAT + + [THE CHAPTER OF] ENTERING INTO THE HALL OF MAATI TO PRAISE OSIRIS +KHENTI-AMENTI. The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- +I have come unto thee. I have drawn nigh to behold thy beauties (thy +beneficient goodness). My hands are [extended] in adoration of thy +name of "Maat." I have come. I have drawn nigh unto [the place +where] the cedar-tree existeth not, where the acacia tree doth not put +forth shoots, and where the ground produceth neither grass nor +2803 + +herbs. Now I have entered into the habitation which is hidden, and I +hold converse with Set. My protector advanced to me, covered was his +face.... on the hidden things. He entered into the house of Osiris, he +saw the hidden things which were therein. The Tchatchau Chiefs of +the Pylons were in the form of Spirits. The god Anpu spake unto +those about him with the words of a man who cometh from Ta-mera, +saying, "He knoweth our roads and our towns. I am reconciled unto him. +When I smell his odour it is even as the odour of one of you." And I +say unto him: I the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace, whose +word is truth, have come. I have drawn nigh to behold the Great +Gods. I would live upon the propitiatory offerings [made] to their +Doubles. I would live on the borders [of the territory of] the Soul, +the Lord of Tetu. He shall make me to come forth in the form of a Benu +bird, and to hold converse [with him.] I have been in the stream [to +purify myself]. I have made offerings of incense. I betook myself to +the Acacia Tree of the [divine] Children. I lived in Abu in the +House of the goddess Satet. I made to sink in the water the boat of +the enemies. I sailed over the lake [in the temple] in the Neshmet +Boat. I have looked upon the Sahu of Kamur. I have been in Tetu. I +have held my peace. I have made the god to be master of his legs. I +have been in the House of Teptuf. I have seen him, that is the +Governor of the Hall of the God. I have entered into the House of +Osiris and I have removed the head-coverings of him that is therein. I +have entered into Rasta, and I have seen the Hidden One who is +therein. I was hidden, but I found the boundary. I journeyed to +Nerutef, and he who was therein covered me with a garment. I have +myrrh of women, together with the shenu powder of living folk. +Verily he (Osiris) told me the things which concerned himself. I said: +Let thy weighing of me be even as we desire. + + + And the Majesty of Anpu shall say unto me, "Knowest thou the name of +this door, and canst thou tell it?" And the Osiris the scribe Ani, +whose word is truth, in peace, whose word is truth, shall say, +"Khersek-Shu" is the name of this door. And the Majesty of the god +Anpu shall say unto me, "Knowest thou the name of the upper leaf, +and the name of the lower leaf?" [And the Osiris the scribe Ani] shall +say: "Neb-Maat-heri-retiu-f" is the name of the upper leaf and +"Neb-pehti-thesu-menment" [is the name of the lower leaf. And the +Majesty of the god Anpu shall say], "Pass on, for thou hast knowledge, +O Osiris the scribe, the assessor of the holy offerings of all the +gods of Thebes Ani, whose word is truth, the lord of loyal service [to +Osiris]." + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Brit. Mus. No. 10477, Sheet 22) + + [THE FOLLOWING] WORDS SHALL BE SAID BY THE STEWARD OF THE KEEPER +OF THE SEAL, NU, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, WHEN HE COMETH FORTH TO THE HALL +OF MAATI, SO THAT HE MAY BE SEPARATED FROM EVERY SIN WHICH HE HATH +COMMITTED, AND MAY BEHOLD THE FACES OF THE GODS. The Osiris Nu, +whose word is truth, saith: Homage to thee, O great God, Lord of +Maati! I have come unto thee, O my Lord, and I have brought myself +hither that I may behold thy beauties. I know thee, I know thy name, I +know the names of the Forty-two Gods who live with thee in this Hall +of Maati, who live by keeping ward over sinners, and who feed upon +their blood on the day when the consciences of men are reckoned up +2804 + +in the presence of the god Un-Nefer. In truth thy name is +"Rehti-Merti-Nebti-Maati." In truth I have come unto thee, I have +brought Maati (Truth) to thee. I have done away sin for thee. I have +not committed sins against men. I have not opposed my family and +kinsfolk. I have not acted fraudulently in the Seat of Truth. I have +not known men who were of no account. I have not wrought evil. I +have not made it to be the first [consideration daily that +unnecessary] work should be done for me. I have not brought forward my +name for dignities. I have not [attempted] to direct servants [I +have not belittled God]. I have not defrauded the humble man of his +property. I have not done what the gods abominate. I have not vilified +a slave to his master. I have not inflicted pain. I have not caused +anyone to go hungry. I have not made any man to weep. I have not +committed murder. I have not given the order for murder to be +committed. I have not caused calamities to befall men and women. I +have not plundered the offerings in the temples. I have not +defrauded the gods of their cake-offerings. I have not carried off the +fenkhu cakes [offered to] the Spirits. I have not committed +fornication. I have not masturbated [in the sanctuaries of the god +of my city]. I have not diminished from the bushel. I have not filched +[land from my neighbour's estate and] added it to my own acre. I +have not encroached upon the fields [of others]. I have not added to +the weights of the scales. I have not depressed the pointer of the +balance. I have not carried away the milk from the mouths of children. +I have not driven the cattle away from their pastures. I have not +snared the geese in the goose-pens of the gods. I have not caught fish +with bait made of the bodies of the same kind of fish. I have not +stopped water when it should flow. I have not made a cutting in a +canal of running water. I have not extinguished a fire when it +should burn. I have not violated the times [of offering] the chosen +meat offerings. I have not driven away the cattle on the estates of +the gods. I have not turned back the god at his appearances. I am +pure. I am pure. I am pure. My pure offerings are the pure offerings +of that great Benu which dwelleth in Hensu. For behold, I am the +nose of Neb-nefu (the lord of the air), who giveth sustenance unto all +mankind, on the day of the filling of the Utchat in Anu, in the second +month of the season Pert, on the last of the month, [in the presence +of the Lord of this earth]. I have seen the filling of the Utchat in +Anu, therefore let not calamity befall me in this land, or in this +Hall of Maati, because I know the names of the gods who are therein, +[and who are the followers of the Great God]. + + THE NEGATIVE CONFESSION + + Hail, Usekh-nemmt, who comest forth from Anu, I have not committed +sin. + + Hail, Hept-khet, who comest forth from Kher-aha, I have not +committed robbery with violence. + + Hail, Fenti, who comest forth from Khemenu, I have not stolen. + + Hail, Am-khaibit, who comest forth from Qernet, I have not slain men +and women. + + Hail, Neha-her, who comest forth from Rasta, I have not stolen +grain. + +2805 + + Hail, Ruruti, who comest forth from heaven, I have not purloined +offerings. + + Hail, Arfi-em-khet, who comest forth from Suat, I have not stolen +the property of God. + + Hail, Neba, who comest and goest, I have not uttered lies. + + Hail, Set-qesu, who comest forth from Hensu, I have not carried away +food. + + Hail, Utu-nesert, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not +uttered curses. + + Hail, Qerrti, who comest forth from Amentet, I have not committed +adultery, I have not lain with men. + + Hail, Her-f-ha-f, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have made none +to weep. + + Hail, Basti, who comest forth from Bast, I have not eaten the heart. + + Hail, Ta-retiu, who comest forth from the night, I have not attacked +any man. + + Hail, Unem-snef, who comest forth from the execution chamber, I am +not a man of deceit. + + Hail, Unem-besek, who comest forth from Mabit, I have not stolen +cultivated land. + + Hail, Neb-Maat, who comest forth from Maati, I have not been an +eavesdropper. + + Hail, Tenemiu, who comest forth from Bast, I have not slandered +[no man]. + + Hail, Sertiu, who comest forth from Anu, I have not been angry +without just cause. + + Hail, Tutu, who comest forth from Ati (the Busirite Nome), I have +not debauched the wife of any man. + + Hail, Uamenti, who comest forth from the Khebt chamber, I have not +debauched the wife of [any] man. + + Hail, Maa-antuf, who comest forth from Per-Menu, I have not polluted +myself. + + Hail, Her-uru, who comest forth from Nehatu, I have terrorized none. + + Hail, Khemiu, who comest forth from Kaui, I have not transgressed +[the law]. + + Hail, Shet-kheru, who comest forth from Urit, I have not been wroth. + + Hail, Nekhenu, who comest forth from Heqat, I have not shut my +ears to the words of truth. +2806 + + Hail, Kenemti, who comest forth from Kenmet, I have not blasphemed. + + Hail, An-hetep-f, who comest forth from Sau, I am not a man of +violence. + + Hail, Sera-kheru, who comest forth from Unaset, I have not been a +stirrer up of strife. + + Hail, Neb-heru, who comest forth from Netchfet, I have not acted +with undue haste. + + Hail, Sekhriu, who comest forth from Uten, I have not pried into +matters. + + Hail, Neb-abui, who comest forth from Sauti, I have not multiplied +my words in speaking. + + Hail, Nefer-Tem, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have wronged +none, I have done no evil. + + Hail, Tem-Sepu, who comest forth from Tetu, I have not worked +witchcraft against the king. + + Hail, Ari-em-ab-f, who comest forth from Tebu, I have never +stopped [the flow of] water. + + Hail, Ahi, who comest forth from Nu, I have never raised my voice. + + Hail, Uatch-rekhit, who comest forth from Sau, I have not cursed +God. + + Hail, Neheb-ka, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not acted +with arrogance. + + Hail, Neheb-nefert, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not +stolen the bread of the gods. + + Hail, Tcheser-tep, who comest forth from the shrine, I have not +carried away the khenfu cakes from the Spirits of the dead. + + Hail, An-af, who comest forth from Maati, I have not snatched away +the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city. + + Hail, Hetch-abhu, who comest forth from Ta-she (the Fayyum), I +have not slain the cattle belonging to the god. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nebseni) + + Hail, Usekh-nemmt, who comest forth from Anu, I have not committed +sin. + + Hail, Hept-Shet, who comest forth from Kher-aha, I have not robbed +with violence. + + Hail, Fenti, who comest forth from Khemenu, I have done no violence. + +2807 + + Hail, Am-khaibitu, who comest forth from Qerrt, I have not stolen. + + Hail, Neha-hau, who comest forth from Rasta, I have not slain men. + + Hail, Ruruti, who comest forth from heaven, I have not made light +the bushel. + + Hail, Arti-f-em-tes, who comest forth from Sekhem, I have not +acted deceitfully. + + Hail, Neba, who comest and goest, I have not stolen the property +of the god. + + Hail, Set-qesu, who comest forth from Hensu, I have not told lies. + + Hail, Uatch-nesert, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not +carried away food. + + Hail, Qerti, who comest forth from Amenti, I have not uttered evil +words. + + Hail, Hetch-abhu, who comest from Ta-she, I have attacked no man. + + Hail, Unem-snef, who comest forth from the execution chamber, I have +not salin a bull which was the property of the god. + + Hail, Unem-besku, who comest [forth from the Mabet chamber], I +have not acted deceitfully. + + Hail, Neb-maat, who comest forth from Maati, I have not pillaged the +lands which have been ploughed. + + Hail, Thenemi, who comest forth from Bast, I have never pried into +matters [to make mischief]. + + Hail, Aati, who comest forth from Anu, I have not set my mouth in +motion. + + Hail, Tutuf, who comest from from A, I have not been wroth except +with reason. + + Hail, Uamemti, who comest forth from the execution chamber, I have +not debauched the wife of a man. + + Hail, Maa-anuf, who comest forth from Per-Menu, I ahve not +polluted myself. + + Hail, Heri-uru, who comest forth from [Nehatu], I have terrorized no +man. + + Hail, Khemi, who comest forth from Ahaui, I have not made attacks. + + Hail, Shet-kheru, who comest forth from Uri, I have not been a man +of anger. + + Hail, Nekhem, who comest forth from Heq-at, I have not turned a deaf +ear to the words of truth. + +2808 + + Hail, Ser-Kheru, who comest forth from Unes, I have not stirred up +strife. + + Hail, Basti, who comest forth from Shetait, I have made none to +weep. + + Hail, Her-f-ha-f, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not +committed acts of sexual impurity, or lain with men. + + Hail, Ta-ret, who comest forth from Akhkhu, I have not eaten my +heart. + + Hail, Kenmti, who comest forth from Kenmet, I have cursed no man. + + Hail, An-hetep-f, who comest forth from Sau, I have not acted in a +violent or oppressive manner. + + Hail, Neb-heru, who comest forth from Tchefet, I have not acted +[or judged] hastily. + + Hail, Serekhi, who comest forth from Unth, I have not.... my hair, I +have not harmed the god. + + Hail, Neb-abui, who comest forth from Sauti, I have not multiplied +my speech overmuch. + + Hail, Nefer-Tem, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not acted +with deciet, I have not worked wickedness. + + Hail, Tem-Sep, who comest forth from Tetu, I have not done things to +effect the cursing of [the king]. + + Hail, Ari-em-ab-f, who comest forth from Tebti, I have not stopped +the flow of water. + + Hail, Ahi-mu, who comest forth from Nu, I have not raised my voice. + Hail, Utu-rekhit, who comest forth from thy house, I have not +curse God. + + Hail, Neheb-Nefert, who comest forth from the Lake of Nefer, I +have not acted with insufferable insolence. + + Hail, Neheb-kau, who comest forth from [thy] city, I have not sought +to make myself unduly distinguished. + + Hail, Tcheser-tep, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not +increased my wealth except through such things are [justly] my own +possessions. + + Hail, An-a-f, who comest forth from Auker, I have not scorned [or +treated with contempt] the god of my town. + + ADDRESS TO THE GODS OF THE TUAT + + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Brit. Mus. No. 10477, Sheet 24) + + THE FOLLOWING ARE THE WORDS WHICH THE HEART OF TRUTH THAT IS SINLESS +SHALL SAY WHEN HE COMETH WITH THE WORD OF TRUTH INTO THE HALL OF +2809 + +MAATI; THEY SHALL BE SAID WHEN HE COMETH TO THE GODS WHO DWELL IN +THE TUAT; AND THEY ARE THE WORDS WHICH ARE [TO BE SAID] AFTER [HE +COMETH FORTH FROM] THE HALL OF MAATI. + + Nu, the steward of the keeper of the seal, whose word is truth, +saith:- Homage to you, O ye gods who dwell in your Hall of Maati! I +know you, I know your names. Let me not fall under your knives of +slaughter, and bring ye not forward my wickedness to this god in whose +following ye are. Let not evil hap come upon me through you. Speak +ye the truth concerning me in the presence of Neb-er-tcher, for I have +done what is right and just in Ta-Mera. I have not cursed the god, and +my evil hap did not come upon him that was king in his day. + + Homage to you, O ye who dwell in your Hall of Maati, who have +nothing false in your bodies, who live upon Truth, who feed yourselves +upon Truth in the presence of Horus who dwelleth in his Disk, +deliver ye me from Beba, who feedeth upon the livers of the great ones +on the day of the Great Judgment. Grant ye that I may come before you, +for I have not committed sin, I have done no act of deceit, I have +done no evil thing, and I have not borne [false] witness; therefore +let nothing [evil] be done to me. I have lived upon truth, I have +fed upon truth, I have performed the ordinances of men, and the things +which gratify the gods. I have propitiated the god by doing his +will, I have given bread to the hungry man, and water to him that +was athirst, and apparel to the naked man, and a ferry-boat to him +that had no boat. I have made propitiatory offerings and given cakes +to the gods, and the "things which appear at the word" to the Spirits. +Deliver then ye me, protect then ye me, and make ye no report +against me in the presence [of the Great God]. I am pure in respect of +my mouth, and I am clean in respect of my hands, therefore let it be +said unto me by those who shall behold me: "Come in peace, Come in +peace." For I have heard that great word which the Sahu spake to the +CAT, in the House of Hapt-ra. I have borne witness to Her-f-ha-f, +and he hath given a decision [concerning me]. I have seen the things +over which the Persea tree which is in Rasta, spreadeth its +branches. I have made petitions to the gods, [and I] know the things +[which appertain to] their bodies. I have come, travelling a long +road, to bear righteous testimony, and to set the Balance upon its +supports within Aukert. + + Hail, thou who art exalted high upon thy standard, thou Lord of +the Atef Crown, who dost make thy name to be "Lord of the Winds," +deliver thou me from thy divine Envoys who punish and afflict +according to [thy] decrees, and who make calamities to arise, and +whose faces are without coverings, for I have done what is right and +true for the Lord of Truth. I am pure. My breast is purified by +libations, and my hinder parts are made clean with the things which +make clean, and my inner parts have been dipped in the Lake of +Truth. There is no single member of mine which lacketh truth. I have +washed myself clean in the Lake of the South. I have rested myself +in the City of the North, which is in Sekhet Sanhemu (the Field of the +Grasshoppers), where the mariners of Ra wash themselves clean at the +second hour of the night, and at the third hour of the day. The hearts + +of the gods are gratified when they have passed over it, whether it be +by night or whether it be by day, and they say unto me, "Let thyself +advance." They say unto me, "Who art thou?" And they say unto me, +"What is thy name?" [And I reply], "Sept-kheri-nehait-ammi-beq-f" is +2810 + +my name. Then they say unto me, "Advance straightway on the city which +is to the North of the Olive Tree. What dost thou see there?" The +Leg and the Thigh. What dost thou say unto them? Let me see rejoicings +in these lands of the Fenkhu. What do they give unto thee? A flame +of fire and a sceptre-amulet [made] of crystal. What dost thou do with +them? I bury them on the furrow of M'naat, as things for the night. +What dost thou find on the furrow of Maat? A sceptre of flint, the +name of which is "Giver of winds." What now didst thou do with the +flame of fire and the sceptre-amulet [made] of crystal, after thou +didst bury them? I said a spell over them, and I dug them up. I +quenched the flame of fire and I broke the sceptre-amulet, and I +made a lake of water. [Then shall the Two and forty gods say unto me]: +"Come now, pass in over the threshold of this door of the Hall of +Maati, for thou hast knowledge of us." "We will not allow thee to +enter in over us," say the bars of this door, "unless thou tellest +us our names." [And I reply], "Tekh-bu-maa" is your name. The right +lintel of this door saith: "I will not allow thee to pass over me +unless thou tellest me my name." [And I reply], "Henku-en-fat-maat" is +thy name. The left lintel of this door saith: "I will not allow +thee to pass over me unless thou tellest me my name." [And I reply], +"Henku-en-arp" is thy name. The ground of this door saith: "I will not +allow thee to pass over me unless thou tellest me my name." [And I +reply], "Aua-en-Keb" is thy name. And the bolt of this door saith: +"I will not open the door to thee unless thou tellest me my name." +[And I reply], "Saah-en-mut-f" is thy name. The socket of the +fastening of this door saith: "I will not open unto thee unless thou +tellest my name." [And I reply], "The Living Eye of Sebek, the Lord of +Bakhau," is thy name. The Doorkeeper of this door saith: "I will not +open to thee, and I will not let thee enter by me unless thou +tellest my name." [And I reply], "Elbow of the god Shu who placeth +himself to protect Osiris" is thy name. The posts of this door say: +"We will not let thee pass in by us unless thou tellest our name." +[And I reply], "Children of the uraei-goddesses" is your name. The +Doorkeeper of this door saith: "I will not open to thee, and I will +not let thee enter in by me unless thou tellest my name. [And I +reply], "Ox of Keb" is thy name. [And they reply], "Thou knowest us, +pass in therefore by us." The ground of this Hall of Maati saith: "I +will not let thee tread upon me [unless thou tellest me my name], +for I am silent. I am holy because I know the names of two feet +wherewith thou wouldst walk upon me. Declare, then, them to me." +[And I reply], "Besu-Ahu" is the name of my right foot, and +"Unpet-ent-Het-Heru" is the name of my left foot. [The ground +replieth]: "Thou knowest us, enter in therefore over us." The +Doorkeeper of this Hall of Maati saith: "I will not announce thee +unless thou tellest my name." [And I reply], "Discerner of hearts, +searcher of bellies" is thy name. [The Doorkeeper saith]: "Thou +shalt be announced." [He saith]: "Who is the god who dwelleth in his +hour? Speak it" [And I reply], "Au-taui." [He saith]: "Explain who +he is." [And I reply], "Au-taui" is Thoth. "Come now," saith Thoth, +"for what purpose hast thou come?" [And I reply]: "I have come, and +have journeyed hither that my name may be announced [to the god]." +[Thoth saith]: "In what condition art thou?" [And I reply], "I, even +I, am purified from evil defects, and I am wholly free from the curses +of those who live in their days, and I am not one of their number." +[Thoth saith]: "Therefore shall [thy name] be announced to the god." + + +[Thoth saith]: "Tell me, who is he whose heaven is of fire, whose +2811 + +walls are living serpents, and whose ground is a stream of water? +Who is he?" [And I reply], "He is Osiris." [Thoth saith]: "Advance +now, [thy name] shall be announced to him. Thy cakes shall come from +the Utchat (Eye of Horus or Ra), thy ale shall come from the Utchat, +and the offerings which shall appear to thee at the word upon earth +[shall proceed] from the Utchat." This is what Osiris hath decreed for +the steward of the overseer of the seal, Nu, whose word is truth. + + RUBRIC: THE MAKING OF THE REPRESENTATION OF WHAT SHALL HAPPEN IN +THIS HALL OF MAATI. This Chapter shall be said by the deceased when he +is cleansed and purified, and is arrayed in linen apparel, and is shod +with sandals of white leather, and his eyes are painted with antimony, +and his body is anointed with unguent made of myrrh. And he shall +present as offerings oxen, and feathered fowl, and incense, and +cakes and ale, and garden herbs. And behold, thou shalt draw a +representation of this in colour upon a new tile moulded from earth +upon which neither a pig nor any other animal hath trodden. And if +this book be done [in writing, the deceased] shall flourish, and his +children shall flourish, and [his name] shall never fall into +oblivion, and he shall be as one who filleth the heart of the king and +of his princes. And bread, and cakes, and sweetmeats, and wine, and +pieces of flesh shall be given unto him [from among those which are] +upon the altar of the Great God. And he shall not be driven back +from any door in Amentet, and he shall be led along with the kings +of the South and the kings of the North, and he shall be among the +bodyguard of Osiris, continually and regularly for ever. [And he shall +come forth in every form he pleaseth as a living soul for ever, and +ever, and ever.] + + DEIFICATION OF THE MEMBERS + + THE CHAPTER OF THE DEIFICATION OF THE MEMBERS + + The hair of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the hair of Nu. + + The face of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the face of Ra. + + The eyes of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the eyes of +Hathor. + + The ears of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the ears of +Up-uatu. + + The lips of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the lips of +Anpu. + + The teeth of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the teeth of +Serqet. + + The cheeks of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the cheeks of +Isis. + + The arms of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the arms of +Ba-neb-Tetu. + + The neck of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the neck of +Uatchit. + +2812 + + The throat of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the throat +of Mert. + + + The breast of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the breast +of the Lady of Sais. + + The backbone of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the backbone +of Set. + + The trunk of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the trunk of +the Lords of Kher-aha. + + The flesh of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the flesh of +Aa-shefit. + + The belly of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the belly of +Sekhmet. + + The buttocks of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the +buttocks of the Eye of Horus. + + The phallus of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the phallus +of Osiris. + + The thighs of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the thighs of +Nut. + + The feet of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the feet of +Ptah. + + The fingers of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the +fingers of Saah. + + The toes of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the toes of the +Living Uraei. + + + + APPENDIX + + (From the Pyramid of Pepi I, ll. 565ff.) + + The head of this Meri-Ra is the head of Horus; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The skull of this Pepi is the Dekan star of the god; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The brow of this Meri-Ra is the brow of..... and Nu; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The face of this Pepi is the face of Up-uatu; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The eyes of this Meri-Ra are the eyes of the Great Lady, the first +of the Souls of Anu; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into +heaven. +2813 + + The nose of this Pepi is the nose of Thoth; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The mouth of this Meri-Ra is the mouth of Khens-ur; he cometh +forth therefore, and ascendeth therefore, and ascendeth therefore into +heaven. + + The tongue of this Pepi is the tongue of Maaa (Truth) in the Maat +Boat; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The teeth of this Pepi are the teeth of the Souls of [Anu]; he +cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The lips of this Meri-Ra are the lips of........; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The chin of this Pepi is the chin of Nest-khent-Sekhem (the throne +of the First Lady of Sekhem); he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + + The thes bone of this Pepi is the thes bone of the Bull Sma; he +cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The soulders of this Pepi are the shoulders of Set; he cometh +forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + [The...... of this Pepi].........; he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + + [The......of this Pepi] ........of Baabu; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The breast of this Meri-Ra is the breast of Bast; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The belly of this Meri-Ra is the belly of Nut; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + [The........of this Pepi] ........; he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + + [The........of this Pepi] .......of the two Companies of the gods; +he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The two thighs of this Pepi are the two thighs of Heqet; he cometh +forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The buttocks of this Meri-Ra are like the Semktet Boat and the +Mantchet Boat; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The phallus of this Pepi is the phallus of the Hep Bull; he cometh +forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The legs of this Meri-Ra are the legs of Net (Neith) and Serqet; +he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The knees of this Meri-Ra are the knees of the twin Souls who are at +the head of the Sekhet-Tcher; he cometh forth therefore and +2814 + +ascendeth into heaven. + + The soles of this Meri-Ra are like the Maati Boat; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + The toes of this Pepi are the toes of the Souls of Anu; he cometh +forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + Now this Pepi is a god, the son of a god; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + This Pepi is the son of Ra, who loveth him; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + Ra hath sent forth Meri-Ra; he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + + Ra hath begotten [this] Pepi; he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + + Ra hath given birth to Pepi; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth +into heaven. + + This spell therefore is in the body of Meri-Ra; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + This Meri-Ra is the Power, the Great Power, among the Great +Council of Chiefs in Anu; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into +heaven. + + He worketh the boat; Pepi cometh forth therefore and ascendeth +into heaven. + + [Pepi is] Horus, the nursling, the child; Meri-Ra cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + Pepi hath not had union with Nut, she hath not given her hands to +him; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + Keb hath not removed the obstacles in his path; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + No god hath smitten the steps of this Meri-Ra; he come forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + [Though] Pepi is not censed is not mourned, hath not washed +himself in the vessel, hath not smelt the haunch, hath not carried the +meat-offering, hath not ploughed the earth, hath not dedicated an +offering, he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + Behold, it is not this Pepi who hath said these things to you, O +ye gods, it is Heka who hath said these things to you, O ye gods, +and this Meri-Ra is the support which is under Heka; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + Every god smiteth the feet of Pepi; he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + + He plougheth the earth, he dedicateth an offering, he bringeth the +2815 + +vessel of [blood], he smelleth the haunch, and he bringeth the meat +offering; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + + Every god graspeth the hand of Meri-Ra in heaven, + + He conducteth him to the House of Horus in the sky. + The word of his Double is truth before Keb. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2816 + + THE CHAPTER OF REPULSING SLAUGHTER IN HENSU + + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 6) + + THE CHAPTER OF DRIVING BACK THE SLAUGHTERS WHICH ARE PERFORMED IN +HENSU. The Osiris Nu, whose word is truth, saith:- O thou land of +the Sceptre! O thou White Crown of the divine form! O thou rest of the +ferry-boat! I am the Child. (Repeat four times). Hail, Abu-ur! Thou +sayest daily: "The slaughter-block is made ready as thou knowest, +and thou hast come to destruction." I am Ra, who stablisheth those who +praise him. I am the Knot of the god in the Aser tree, the twice +beautiful one, who is more splendid to-day than yesterday. (Repeat +four times). I am Ra, who stablisheth those who praise him. I am the +Knot of the god within the Aser tree, and my appearance is the +appearance [of Ra] on this day. + + My hair is the hair of Nu. My face is the face of the Disk. My +eyes are the eyes of Hathor. My ears are the ears of Up-uat. My nose +is the nose of Khenti-Khabas. My lips are the lips of Anpu. My teeth +are the teeth of Serqet. My cheeks are the cheeks of the goddess Isis. +My hands are the hands of Ba-neb-Tet. My forearms are the forearms +of Neith, the Lady of Sais. My backbone is the backbone of Suti. My +phallus is the phallus of Beba. My reins are the reins of the Lords of +Kher-aha. My chest is the chest of Aa-shefit. My belly and back are +the belly and back of Sekhmet. My buttocks are the buttocks of the Eye +of Horus. My hips and legs are the hips and legs of Nut. My feet are +the feet of Ptah. [My fingers] and my toes are the [fingers and] +toes of the Living gods. There is no member of my body which is not +the member of a god. Thoth protecteth my body altogether, and I am +Ra day by day. I shall not be dragged back by my arms, and none +shall lay violent hold upon my hands. And shall do me hurt neither +men, nor gods, nor the Spirit-souls, nor the dead, nor any man, nor +any pat-spirit, nor any rekhit-spirit, nor any hememet-spirit. + + I am he who cometh forth advancing, whose name is unknown. I am +Yesterday. "Seer of Millions of Years" is my name. I pass along, I +pass along the paths of the divine celestial judges. I am the Lord +of Eternity: I decree and I judge like Khepera. I am the Lord of the +Urrt Crown. I am he who dwelleth in the Utchat and in the Egg, and +it is granted unto me to live therein. I am he who dwelleth in the +Utchat when it closeth, and I exist by the strength thereof. I come +forth and I shine; I enter in and I come to life. I am in the +Utchat, my seat is upon my throne, and I sit in the tent chamber +before it. I am Horus. [I] traverse millions of years. I have +decreed [the stablishing] of my throne, and I am the ruler thereof; +and in very truth my mouth keepeth an even balance both in speech +and in silence. In very truth my forms are inverted. I am Un-Nefer, +from one period even unto another, and what I have is within me. I +am the only One, who proceedeth from an only One, who goeth round +about in his course. I am he who dwelleth in the Utchat. No evil thing +of any shape or kind shall spring up against me, and no baleful +object, and no harmful thing, and no disastrous thing shall happen +unto me. I open the door in heaven. I rule my throne. I open the way +for the births which take place on this day. I am the child who +traverseth the road of Yesterday. I am To-day for untold nations and +peoples. I am he who protecteth you for millions of years. Whether +ye be denizens of heaven, or of the earth, or of the South, or of +the North, or of the East, or of the West, the fear of me is in your +2817 + +bodies. I am he whose being hath been wrought in his eye. I shall +not die again. My moment is in your bodies, but my forms are in my +place of habitation. I am "He who cannot be known." The Red Fiends +have their faces directed against me. I am the unveiled one. The + +period when the heavens were created for me and were enlarged the +bounds of earth, and multiplied the progeny thereof, cannot be found +out. They shall fail and not be united again. By reason of the +speech which I address to you, my name setteth itself apart from all +things evil which are in the mouths of men. I am he who riseth and +shineth, a wall which cometh out of a wall, an only One who proceedeth +from an only One. There is never a day that passeth without the things +which appertain unto him being therein; passing, passing, passing, +passing. Verily I say unto thee, I am the Plant which cometh forth +from Nu, and my mother is Nut. Hail, my creator, I am he who hath no +power to walk, the Great Knot who dwelleth in Yesterday. The might +of my strength is within my hand, I am not known [by thee], but I am +he who knoweth thee. I cannot be held in the hand, but I am he who can +hold thee in his hand. Hail, O Egg! Hail, O Egg! I am Horus who liveth +for millions of years, whose flame shineth upon you, and bringeth your +hearts unto me. I am master of my throne. I advance at this season. +I have opened a path. I have delivered myself from all evil things. +I am the golden dog-headed ape, three palms and two fingers [high], +which hath neither arms nor legs, and which dwelleth in Het-ka-Ptah. I +go forth as goeth forth the dog-headed ape who dwelleth in +Het-ka-Ptah. + + RUBRIC: Behold the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, arrayed in +fine linen, and shod with sandals of white [leather], and anointed +with the very finest myrrh unguent. There are offered unto him a +fine bull, and incense, and ra geese, and flowers, and ale, and cakes, +and garden herbs. And behold, thou shalt draw a representation of a +table of offerings on a clean tile with pure colours, and thou shalt +bury it in a field whereon no swine hath trodden. And if a copy of +this book be written upon it, he shall rise [again], and his +children's children shall flourish and prosper, like unto Ra, +without cessation. He shall be in high favour with the king, and +with the shenit nobles of his court, and there shall be given unto him +cakes and cups of drink, and portions of flesh, upon the altar-table +of the Great God. He shall not thrust aside at any door in Amentet; he +shall travel in the train of the Kings of the South and the Kings of +the North, and he shall abide with the followers of Osiris near +Un-Nefer, for ever, and for ever, and for ever. + + Vignette + + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 24) + + The steward of the overseer of the seal, Nu, whose word is truth, +begotten of the steward of the overseer of the seal, Amen-hetep, whose +word is truth, saith:- Hail, ye Four Apes who sit in the bows of the +Boat of Ra, who convey truth to Nebertcher, who sit in judgment on the +oppressed man and on [his] oppressor, who make the gods to be +contented by means of the flame of your mouths, who offer holy +offerings to the gods, and sepulchral meals to the Spirit-souls, who +live upon truth, and who feed upon truth of heart, who are without +deceit and fraud, and to whom wickedness is an abomination, do ye away +with my evil deeds, and put ye away my sins [which deserved stripes +2818 + +upon earth, and destroy ye every evil thing which appertaineth to me], +and let there be no obstacle whatsoever on my part towards you. O +grant ye that I may make my way through the Amehet, let me enter +into Rasta, let me pass through the hidden pylons of Ament. O grant +that there may be given unto me shens cakes, and ale, and persen +cakes, even as to the living Spirit-souls, and grant that I may +enter into and come forth from Rasta. + + [The Four Apes make answer, saying]: Come thou, for we have done +away with thy wickedness, and we have put away thy sin, along with thy +sins upon earth which deserved stripes, and we have destroyed every +evil thing which appertained to thee upon earth. Enter, therefore, +unto Rasta, and pass through the hidden pylons of Amentet, and there +shall be given unto thee shens cakes, and ale, and persen cakes, and +thou shalt come forth and shalt enter in at thy desire, even as do +those who are favoured [of the God], and thou shalt be called [to +partake of offerings] each day in the horizon. + + THE TET OF GOLD + + THE CHAPTER OF A TET OF GOLD. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, +saith:- Thou risest up for thyself, O Still-heart! Thou shinest for +thyself, O Still-heart! Place thou thyself on thy base, I come, I +bring unto thee a Tet of gold, thou shalt rejoice therein. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nebseni and the Papyrus of Nu) + + Rise up thou, O Osiris, thou hast thy backbaone, O Still-heart, thou +hast thy neck vertebrae and thy back, O Still-heart! Place thou +thyself on thy base. I put water beneath thee, and I bring unto thee a +Tet of god that thou mayest rejoice therein. + + RUBRIC (From the Papyrus of Nu): [This Chapter] shall be recited +over a Tet of gold set in a stand made of sycamore wood which hath +been steeped in a tincture of ankhamu flowers, and it shall be +placed on the neck of the deceased on the day of the funeral. If +this amulet be placed on his neck he shall become a perfect Khu in +Khert-Neter, and at the festivals of the New Year he shall be like +unto the Followers of Osiris continually and for ever. + + RUBRIC (From the Turin Papyrus): [This Chapter] shall be said over a +Tet of gold fashioned out of the trunk of a sycamore tree, and it +shall be placed on the neck of the deceased. Then shall he enter in +through the doors of the Tuat. His words whall be silenced. He shall +place himself on the ground on New Year's Day among the Followers of +Osiris. + + If this Chapter be known by the deceased he shall live like a +perfect Khu in Khert-Neter. He shall not be sent back from the doors +of Amentet. There shall be given to him the shens cake, and a cup of +wine, and the persen cake, and slices of meat on the altars of Ra, +or as some read, Osiris Un-Nefer. And his word shall be truth before +his enemies in Khert-Neter continually, and for ever and for ever. + + THE TET OF RED STONE + +2819 + + THE CHAPTER OF A TET OF CARNELIAN. The Osiris Ani, whose word is +truth, saith:- The blood of Isis, the spells of Isis, the magical +powers of Isis, shall make this great one strong, and shall be an +amulet of protection [against him] that would do to him the things +which he abominateth. + + APPENDIX + + RUBRIC (From the Papyrus of Nu): [This Chapter] shall be said over a +Tet of carnelian, which hath been washed in a tincture of ankhamu +flowers, and is fashioned out of the trunk of a sycamore tree. It +shall be placed on the neck of the deceased on the day of the funeral. +If this be done for him the magical powers of Isis will protect his +members. Horus, the son of Isis, shall rejoice when he seeth him. [No] +road shall be blocked to him. His hand shall be to heaven, his hand +shall be to earth, for ever. Do not let anyone see him. Verily.... + + RUBRIC (From the Saite Recension): [This Chapter] shall be said over +a Tet of carnelian, anointed with a tincture of ankhamu flowers, +made from the trunk of a sycamore tree. It shall be placed on the neck +of the Khu. If this book be done for him, the magical spells of Isis +shall protect him, and Horus the son of Isis shall rejoice [when] he +seeth him. No road shall be blocked to him. His hand shall be to +heaven, his hand shall be to earth....... If this book be known by him +he shall be in the following of Osiris Un-Nefer, and his word shall be +truth in Khert-Neter. The doors in Khert-Neter shall be opened to him. +Wheat and barley shall be given to him in Sekhet-Aanru. His name shall +be like [the names of] the gods who are there, the Followers of +Horus who reap. + HEART OF SEHERT STONE + + THE CHAPTER OF A HEART OF SEHERT STONE. The Osiris Ani, whose word +is truth, saith:- I am the Benu bird, the Heart-soul of Ra, the +guide of the gods to the Tuat. Their Heart-souls come forth upon earth +to do what their KAU wish to do, and the Heart-soul of the Osiris +Ani shall come forth to do what his Ka wisheth to do. + + THE HEAD REST + + THE CHAPTER OF THE HEAD-REST, which is to be placed under the head +of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. Awake out of thy sufferings, O +thou who liest prostrate! Awake thou! Thy head is in the horizon. I +lift thee up, O thou whose word is truth. Ptah hath overthrown thine +enemies for thee. Thine enemies have fallen, and they shall never more +exist, O Osiris. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nebseni, Sheet 21) + + THE CHAPTER OF THE HEAD-REST [OR PILLOW]. Awake out of thy +sufferings, O thou who liest prostrate. They (the gods) keep watch +over thy head in the horizon. Thou art lifted up, thy word is truth in +respect of the things which have been done by thee. Ptah hath cast +down headlong thine enemies. This work was ordered to be done for +thee. Thou art Horus, the son of Hathor, Nesert, Nesertet, who +giveth back the head after it hath been cut off. Thy head shall not be +carried away from thee, after [it hath been cut off]; thy head shall +2820 + +be carried away from thee, never, never! + + THE TEXTS IN THE FUNERAL CHAMBER + + SPEECH OF ISIS. Isis saith:- I have come to be a protector unto +thee. I waft unto thee air for thy nostrils, and the north wind +which cometh forth from the god Tem unto thy nose. I have made whole +for thee thy windpipe. I make thee to live like a god. Thine enemies +have fallen under thy feet. I have made thy word to be true before +Nut, and thou art mighty before the gods. + + SPEECH OF NEPHTHYS. Nephthys saith unto the Osiris Ani, whose word +is truth:- I go round about thee to protect thee, O brother Osiris. +I have come to be a protector unto thee. [My strength shall be near +thee, my strength shall be near thee, for ever. Ra hath heard thy cry, +and the gods have made thy word to be truth. Thou art raised up. Thy +word is truth in respect of what hath been done unto thee. Ptah hath +overthrown thy foes, and thou art Horus, the son of Hathor.] + + SPEECH OF THE TET. I have come quickly, and I have driven back the +footsteps of th god whose face is hidden. I have illumined his +sanctuary. I stand near the god Tet on the day of repelling +disaster. I watch to protect thee, O Osiris. + + SPEECH OF KESTA (Mesta). I am Kesta, thy son, O Osiris Ani, whose +word is truth. I come to protect thee. I will make thy house to +flourish, permanently, even as Ptah hath commanded me, and as Ra +himself hath commanded. + + SPEECH OF HAPI. I am Hapi, thy son, O Osiris Ani, whose word is +truth. I come to protect thee. I bind together thy head and the +members of thy body. I smite down for thee thine enemies under thee. I +give unto thee thy head for ever and for ever, O Osiris Ani, whose +word is truth, whose word is truth in peace. + + SPEECH OF TUAMUTEF. Tuamutef saith:- I am thy son Horus, who +loveth thee. I come to avenge thee, O my father Osiris, upon him +that did evil unto thee. I have set him under thy feet for ever and +for ever, permanently, permanently, O Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, +whose word is truth. + + SPEECH OF QEBHSENUF. Qebsenuf saith:- I am thy son, O Osiris Ani, +whose word is truth. I come to protect thee. I have collected thy +bones and I have gathered together thy members. [I have brought thy +heart, and I have placed it upon its throne within thy body. I make +thy house to flourish after thee, O thou who livest for ever.] + + SPEECH OF THE FLAME. I protect thee with this flame. I drive him +[the foe] away from the valley of the tomb. I cast the sand about [thy +feet]. I embrace the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace. + + SPEECH OF THE FLAME. I come to hew in pieces. I have not been hewn +in pieces, and I will not permit thee to be hewn in pieces. I come +to do violence [to thy foe], but I will not permit violence to be done +unto thee. I protect thee. + + A SOUL SAITH:- The Osiris Ani, whose is truth, praiseth Ra when he +rolleth up into the sky in the eastern horizon of heaven. +2821 + + A SOUL SAITH:- The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace in +Khert-Neter, praiseth Ra when he setteth in the western horizon of +heaven, [and saith], "I am a perfect soul." + + SPEECH OF ANI. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am a +perfect soul dwelling in the divine egg of the Abtu Fish. I am the +Great Cat which dwelleth in the Seat of Truth, wherein the god Shu +riseth. + + SPEECH OF THE USHABTI FIGURE [THE CHAPTER OF NOT DOING WORK IN +KHERT-NETER]. Illumine the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. Hail, +Shabti Figure! If the Osiris Ani be decreed to do any of the work +which is to be done in Khert-Neter, let everything which standeth in +the way be removed from him- whether it be to plough the fields, or to +fill the channels with water, or to carry sand from [the East to the +West]. The Shabti Figure replieth: I will do it, verily I am here +[when] thou callest. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nu and the Papyrus of Nebseni) + + The Speech of Anpu: Anubis the dweller in the mummy chamber, +Governor of the Divine House, layeth his hands upon the lord of +life, the scribe, the draughtsman of Ptah, Nebseni, the lord of +fealty, begotten of the scribe and mason Thena, born of the lady of +the house Mut-rest, whose word is truth, and devoting himself to him +as his guardian, saith:- Homage to thee, thou happy one, lord! Thou +seest the Utchat. Ptah-Seker hath bound thee up. Anpu hath exalted +thee. Shu hath raised thee up, O Beautiful Face, thou governor of +eternity. Thou hast thine eye, O scribe Nebseni, lord of fealty, and +it is beautiful. Thy right eye is like the Sektet Boat, thy left eye +is like the Atet Boat. Thine eyebrows are fair to see in the +presence of the Company of the Gods. Thy brow is under the +protection of Anpu, and thy head and face, O beautiful one, are before +the holy Hawk. Thy fingers have been stablished by thy scribe's +craft in the presence of the Lord of Khemenu, Thoth, who hath bestowed +upon thee the knowledge of the speech of the holy books. Thy beard +is beautiful in the sight of Ptah-Seker, and thou, O scribe Nebseni, +thou lord of fealty, art beautiful before the Great Company of the +Gods. The Great God looketh upon thee, and he leadeth thee along the +path of happiness. Sepulchral meals are bestowed upon thee, and he +overthroweth for thee thine enemies, setting them under thy feet in +the presence of the Great Company of the Gods who dwell in the House +of the Great Aged One which is in Anu. + + SEKHET HETEPET + + [HERE] BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF SEKHET-HETEPET, AND THE CHAPTERS OF +COMING FORTH BY DAY, OF ENTERING INTO AND COMING FORTH FROM +KHERT-NETER, OF ARRIVING IN SEKHET-AANRU, AND OF LIVING IN PEACE IN +THE GREAT CITY, THE LADY OF WINDS. [The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose +word is truth, saith:-] Let me be master there. Let me be a khu there. +Let me plough there. Let me reap there. Let me eat there. Let me drink +there. [Let me beget there]. Let me do there all the things which +one doeth upon earth. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- +Horus vanquished Set when [he] looked at the building of +Sekhet-Hetepet. [He] spread air over the Divine Soul in its Egg, in +2822 + +its day. He delivered the interior of the body of Horus [from the +Akeru Gods]. I have crowned him in the House of Shu. His house is +the stars. Behold, I take up my place in its nomes. He hath guided the +hearts of the Company of the Firstborn Gods. He hath reconciled the +Two Fighters (Horus and Set), the guardians of life. He hath done what +is fair, bringing an offering. He hath reconciled the Two Fighters +with him that belongeth to them. He hath cut off the hairy scalp of +the Two Fighters. He hath destroyed the revolts of [their] children. I + +have done away all the evil which attacked their souls. I am master in +[Sekhet-Hetepet]. I know it. I have sailed over its lakes that I might +arrive at the cities thereof. I have made strong my mouth. The +Spirit-souls are ready [to fight], but they shall not gain the mastery +over me. I am equipped in thy Fields, O god Hetep. What thou wishest +thou shalt do, [saith this god]. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nebseni, Sheet 17) + + HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF SEKHET-HETEPET, AND THE CHAPTERS OF +COMING FORTH BY DAY; OF GOING INTO AND OF COMING FORTH FROM +KHERT-NETER; OF ARRIVAL IN SEKHET-AARU; OF LIVING IN SEKHET-HETEPET, +THE MIGHTY CITY, THE LADY OF WINDS; OF HAVING POWER THEREIN; OF +BECOMING A SPIRIT-SOUL THERE; OF PLOUGHING THERE; OF REAPING THERE; OF +EATING THERE; OF DRINKING THERE; OF MAKING LOVE THERE; AND OF DOING +EVERYTHING THERE EVEN AS A MAN DOETH UPON EARTH. NEBSENI, THE SCRIBE +AND DRAUGHTSMAN OF PTAH, SAITH:- Set vanguished Horus, who was looking +at the building in Sekhet-Hetepet. I set free Horus from Set. Set +opened the paths of the Two Eyes (the Sun and Moon) in the sky. Set +ejected water with air upon the soul of his Eye, which dwelt in the +town of Mert; he delivered the interior of the body of Horus from +the hands of the Akeru Gods. Behold me! I paddle this great boat +over the Lake of the god Hetep; I seized upon it in the mansion of +Shu. The mansion of his stars reneweth youth, reneweth youth. I paddle +over the Lakes thereof so that I may arrive at the towns thereof. I +sail up to the town of the god Hetep.... Behold, I am at peace with +his times, and with his guidance, and with his will, and with the +Company of the Gods, who are his firstborn. He maketh the Two Fighters +(Horus and Set) to be at peace [with each other], and to keep ward +over the living whom he hath created in fair form, and he bringeth +peace; he maketh the Two Fighters to be at peace with those who +watch over them. He cutteth off the hair from their divine fighters, +he driveth away storm from the children. He guardeth from attack the +Spirits. I have gained power therein. I know it. I have sailed over +its Lakes so that I might arrive at its towns. My mouth is strong. I +am equipped against the Spirits. They shall not gain the mastery +over me. I am rewarded [with] these thy Fields, O god Hetep. What thou +wishest that do thou, O lord of the winds. I shall be a spirit +therein. I shall eat therein. I shall drink therein. I shall plough +therein. I shall reap the grain therein. I shall be strong therein. +I shall make love therein. My words shall be strong therein. I shall +not be in subjection therein. I shall be a man of might therein. +Thou hast made strong the mouth and throat. Hetep Qettbu is its +name. [It is] stablished upon the pillars of Shu, and is linked with +the pleasant things of Ra. He is the divider of years, the hidden of +mouth; silent is his mouth, hidden is what he uttereth, he +fulfilleth eternity, he taketh possession of everlastingness of +2823 + +existence as Hetep, Neb-Hetep. Horus maketh himself strong like unto a +hawk which is one thousand cubits in length, and two thousand cubits +in life. He that equipments with him, he journeyeth on, he cometh to +the place where his heart would be, among the Lakes which are in its +towns. He begetteth in the birth-chamber of the god of the town, he is +satisfied with the food of the god of the town; he doeth what ought to +be done there, in the Field of Smas-er-Khet..... everything of the +birth-chamber of the god of the town. Now [when he] setteth in the +[land of] life like crystal he performeth everything therein, [which +things are] like unto the things done in the Lake Neserser, wherein +there is none that rejoiceth, and wherein are evil things of all +kinds. The god Hetep goeth in and cometh out, and marcheth hither + +and thither in the Field of Smas-er-Khet, the Lady of the +birth-chamber of the god of the town. [Let me] live with the god +Hetep, clothed, and not despoiled by the Lords of the North, and may +the Lord of things bring food unto me. May he make me to go forward. +May I come forth. May he bring to me my Power there, may I receive it, +and may I be rewarded by the god Hetep. May I be master of the great +and mighty word in my body in this my place. Make me to remember it. +Let me [not] forget it. Let me go forward, let me plough. I am at +peace with the god of the town. I know the water, the towns, the +nomes, and the lakes which are in Sekhet-Hetepet. I live therein. I am +strong therein. I shine therein. I eat therein. I..... therein. I reap +the harvest therein. I plough therein. I beget children therein. I +am at peace therein with the god Hetep. Behold I sow seed therein. I +sail about on the lakes thereof, and I arrive at its towns, O god +Hetep. Behold my mouth is equipped, it possesseth horns . Give unto me +the abundance of the KAU (Doubles) and Spirit-souls. He who counteth +me is Shu. I know him not. I come to its towns. I sail over its lakes. +I walk about in Sekhet-Hetepet. Behold, it is Ra who is in heaven. +Behold, it is Hetep [who is] its double offering of peace. I have +advanced to its territory. I have put on my apparel. I have come +forth. I have given what it was upon me to give. I have made glad in +[my] heart. I have conquered. I am strong. I have given directions +to Hetep. + + [Hail], Unen-em-hetep, I have come to thee. My soul followeth me. +The god Hu is on my hands. [Hail], Nebt-taui, in whom I remember and +forget, I have become alive. I have attacked none, let none attack me. +I have given, give thou to me gladness. Make thou me to be at peace, +bind thou up my veins, let [me] receive air. [Hail], Unen-em-hetep, +the Lord of Winds. I have come there. I have opened my head. Ra +sleepeth. I watch not, [for] the goddess Hetemet is at the door of +heaven by night. Obstacles have been put before, but I have +collected his emissions. I am in my city. O Nut-urt (Great City), I +have come into thee. I have counted up my abundant stores. I advance +on my way to Uakh. I am the Bull which is tied with a rope of +lapis-lazuli, the lord of the Field of the Bull, the lord of the words +of the god, the goddess Septet (Sothis) at her hours. O Uakh, I have +come into thee. I have eaten my food. I am master of choice pieces +of the flesh of oxen and of feathered fowl, and the birds of Shu +have been given unto me. I follow the gods, and I come [after the +Doubles]. O Tcheft, I have come into thee. I array myself in +apparel, and I gird about myself the sat garment of Ra. Behold the +Court of the sky, and the followers of Ra who dwell in heaven. O +Un-em-hetep, the lord of the Two Lands, I have come into thee. I +have plunged into the Lakes of Tchesert; behold, impurity of every +2824 + +kind hath removed from me. The divine Great One flourisheth therein. +Behold, I have found [him]. I have netted geese, and have fed full +upon the finest of them. O Qenqentet, I have come into thee. I have +seen the Osiris [my father]. I have saluted my mother. I have begotten +children. I have snared the serpents, and I am delivered. I know the +name of the god who is with the goddess Tchesert, and who hath +straight hair, and is equipped with horns [ready to gore]. He reapeth, +and I both plough and reap. O Hetemet, I have entered into thee. I +have approached the lapis-lazuli. I have followed the winds of the +Company of the Gods. The Great God hath given my head unto me. He +who hath bound my head on my body for me is the Mighty One, with +eyes of lapis-lazuli, namely, Ari-en-ab-f ("He doeth as he pleaseth"). +O Usert, I have come into thee, to the house wherein food is brought +unto me. O Smam, I have come into thee. My heart watcheth, my head +is equipped with the White Crown. I act as the guide of the +celestial beings. I make to flourish terrestrial beings. There is + +joy of heart for the Bull, and for the celestial beings, and for the +Company of the Gods. I am the god, the Bull, the Lord of the gods, who +maketh his way over the turquoise. O wheat and barley of the nome of +the god, I have come into thee. I have come forward. I have lifted +[you] up, following the best offerings of the Company of the Gods. I +have moored my boat to the tying-up post in the lakes of the celestial +beings. I have pulled up the typing-up post. I have recited words, and +I have ascribed praises unto the gods who dwell in Sekhet-Hetepet. + + PROVIDING THE DECEASED WITH MEAT MILK ETC. + + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- Homage to thee, O Ra, +the Lord of Truth, the Only One, the Lord of Eternity and Maker of +Everlastingness. I have come before thee, O my Lord Ra. I would make +to flourish the Seven Cows and their Bull. O ye who give cakes and ale +to the Spirit-souls, grant ye that my soul may be with you. Let him be +born on your thighs. Let him be like unto one of you for ever and +for ever. Let the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, have glorious power +in the Beautiful Amentet. + + The Names of the Seven Holy Cows and their Bull: + + 1. Het-Kau Nebtertcher. + + 2. Akertkhentetasts. + + 3. Khebitetsahneter. + + 4. Urmertusteshertshenti. + + 5. Khnemtemankhanuit. + + 6. Sekhmetrensemabats. + + 7. Shenatpetuthestneter. + + Bull: Kathaihemt. + + ADDRESSES TO THE FOUR RUDDERS OF HEAVEN + + Hail, thou Beautiful Power, thou Beautiful Rudder of the Northern +2825 + +Heaven. + + Hail, thou who circlest, Guide of the Two Lands, Beautiful Rudder of +the Western Heaven. + + Hail, Splendour, Dweller in the temple of the Ashemu gods, Beautiful +Rudder of the Eastern Heaven. + + Hail, Dweller in the temple of the Red gods, Beautiful Rudder of the +Southern Heaven. + + ADDRESSES TO THE FOUR COMAPNIES OF THE GODS + + Hail, ye gods who are above the earth, ye Guides of the Tuat. + + Hail, ye Mother-goddesses, who are above the earth in Khert-Neter, +in the House of Osiris. + + Hail, ye gods who guide Ta-tchesert, who are above the earth and are +guides of the Tuat. + + Hail, ye Followers of Ra, who follow in the train of Osiris. + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Nu) + + RUBRIC: [These words] shall be said when Ra appeareth over [figures] +of these gods written in colour upon a tablet, and thou shalt place +offerings of tchefau food before them, cakes, ale, flesh, geese, and +incense. They shall cause the deceased to enjoy the "offerings which +come forth at the word [of command]" before Ra; and they shall give +the deceased an abundance of food in Khert-Neter, and shall deliver +him from every evil thing whatsoever. And thou shalt not recite this +Book of Un-Nefer in the presence of anyone except thine own self. If +this be done for the deceased Ra shall be a rudder for him, and +shall be to him a strong protecting power, and he shall destroy all +his enemies for him in Khert-Neter, and in heaven, and upon earth, and +in every place whereinsoever he may enter, and he shall enjoy +celestial food regularly and continually for ever. + + (From the Saite Recension) + + THE BOOK OF MAKING PERFECT THE KHU in the heart of Ra, of making him +to have the mastery before Tem, of magnifying him before Osiris, of +making him mighty before Khent-Amentet, and of setting awe of him +before the Company of the Gods. It shall be recited on the day of +the New Moon, on the sixth day festival, on the fifteenth day +festival, on the festival of Uak, on the festival of Thoth, on the +Birthday of Osiris, on the festival of Menu, on the night of Heker, +[during] the Mysteries of the Tuat, during the celebration of the +Mysteries in Akertet, at the smiting of the emissions, at the +passage of the Funerary Valley, [and] the Mysteries...... [The recital +thereof] will make the heart of the Khu to flourish and will make long +his strides, and will make him to advance, and will make his face +bright, and will make it to penetrate to the God. Let no man witness +[the recital] except the king and the Kherheb priest, but the +servant who cometh to minister outside shall not see it. Of the Khu +2826 + +for whom this Book shall be recited, his soul shall come forth by +day with the living, he shall have power among the gods, and it will +make him irresisitible for ever and ever. These gods shall go round +about him, and shall acknowledge him. He shall be one of them. [This +Book] shall make him to know how he came into being in the +beginning. This Book is indeed a veritable mystery. Let no stranger +anywhere have knowledge of it. Do not speak about it to any man. Do +not repeat it. Let no [other] eye see it. Let no [other] ear hear +it. Let no one see it except [thyself] and him who taught [it to +thee]. Let not the multitude [know of it] except thyself and the +beloved friend of thy heart. Thou shalt do this book in the seh +chamber on a cloth painted with the stars in colour all over it. It is +indeed a mystery. The dwellers in the swamps of the Delta nad +everywhere there shall not know it. It shall provided the Khu with +celestial food upon in Khert-Neter. It shall supply his Heart-soul +with food upon earth. It shall make him to live for ever. No [evil] +thing shall have the master over him. + + THE ADDRESSES OF THE FOUR RUDDERS + + Hail, Power of Heaven, Opener of the Disk, thou Beautiful Rudder +of the Northern Heaven. + + Hail, Ra, Guide of the Two Lands, thou Beautiful Rudder of the +Western Heaven. + + Hail, Khu, Dweller in the House of the Akhemu gods, thou Beautiful +Rudder of the Eastern Heaven. + + Hail, Governor, Dweller in the House of the Tesheru Gods, thou +Beautiful Rudder of the Southern Heaven. + + Grant ye cakes, and ale and tchefau food to the Osiris Auf-ankh, +whose word is truth. + + Hail, Father of the Gods! Hail, Mother of the Gods in Khert-Neter! +Deliver ye the Osiris from every evil thing, from every evil +obstruction, from every dire attack of an enemy, and from that +deadly snarer with knife-like words, and from men, and gods, and +Spirit-souls, and the damned, on this day, on this night, on this +present festival of the fifteenth day, and in this year, and from +the things of evil thereof. + + HYMN TO OSIRIS KHENTI-AMENTI UN-NEFER + + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, praiseth Osiris Khenti-Amenti +Un-Nefer, and saith:- Hail, my Lord, who dost hasten through eternity, +whose existence is for ever, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, +Sovereign, God of the Gods, who live in their shrines,.... gods.... +men. Make thou for me a seat with those who are in Khert-Neter, who +adore the forms of thy KA, and who traverse millions of millions of +years....... May no delay arise for thee in Ta-mera. Let them come +to thee, all of them, great as well as small. May this god give the +power to enterin and to come forth from Khert-Neter, without +repulse, at any door of the Tuat, to the KA of the Osiris Ani. + + + +2827 + + + APPENDIX + + (From the Papyrus of Sutimes) + + SUTIMES, THE LIBATIONER AND PRESIDENT OF THE ALTAR CHAMBER OF THE +APTS, DIRECTOR OF THE SCRIBES OF AMEN, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, PRAISETH +OSIRIS, AND DOETH HOMAGE TO THE LORD OF ETERNITY, AND SATISFIETH THE +WILL OF THE GOD, AND SPEAKETH TRUTH, THE LORD OF WHICH IS UNKNOWN, AND +SAITH:- Homage to thee, O thou Holy God, thou mighty and beneficent +being, thou Prince of Eternity, who dwellest in thy abode in the +Sektet Boat, whose risings are manifold in the Atet Boat, unto whom +praises are rendered in heaven and upon earth. Peoples and nations +exalt thee, and the awe of thy terror is in the hearts of men, and +Spirt-souls, and the dead. Thy soul dwelleth in Tetu, and the awe of +thee is in Hensu. Thou settest the visible emblems of thyself in +Anu, and the majesty of thy transformations in the holy place. I +have come unto thee. Truth is in my heart, and in my breast there is +neither craft nor guile. Grant thou that I may have my being among the +living, and that I may sail up and down the river among those who +are in thy following. + + + + PRAISE TO HATHOR LADY OF AMENTET + + THE CHAPTER OF THE PRAISE OF HATHOR, LADY OF AMENTET + + Hathor, Lady of Amentet, the Dweller in the Great Land, the Lady +of Ta-Tchesert, the Eye of Ra, the Dweller in his breast, the +Beautiful Face in the Boat of Millions of Years, the Seat of Peace +of the doer of truth, Dweller in the Boat of the favoured ones..... + + APPENDIX + + THE CHAPTER OF THE FOUR TORCHES + + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheets 26 and 27) + + THE CHAPTER OF THE FOUR LIGHTED LAMPS WHICH ARE MADE FOR THE +SPIRIT-SOUL. Behold, thou shalt make four rectangular troughs of +clay wherein thou shalt scatter incense, and thou shalt fill them with +the milk of a white cow, and by means of these thou shalt extinguish +the lamps. The Osiris Nu, the steward of the overseer of the seal, +whose word is truth, saith:- The fire cometh to thy KA, O Osiris +Khenti-Amenti! The fire cometh to thy KA, O Osiris Nu, whose word is +truth. The ordering of the night cometh after the day. [The fire +cometh to thy KA, O Osiris, Governor of those who are in Amenti], +and the two sisters of Ra come likewise. Behold it (the fire) riseth +in Abtu, and it cometh; I cause it to come, the Eye of Horus. It is +set in order upon thy brow, O Osiris Khenti-Amenti; it is set in thy +shrine and riseth on thy brow; it is set on thy brow, O Osiris Nu, +it is set on thy brow. The Eye of Horus protecteth thee, O Osiris +Khenti-Amenti, and it keepeth thee in safety; it casteth down headlong +all thine enemies for thee, and all thine enemies have fallen down +headlong before thee. O Osiris Nu, the Eye of Horus protecteth thee, +it keepeth thee in safety, and it casteth down headlong all thine +enemies. Thine enemies have fallen down headlong before thy KA, O +2829 + +Osiris Khenti-Amenti. The Eye of Ra protecteth thee, it keepeth thee +in safety, and it hath cast down headlong all thine enemies. Thine +enemies have fallen down headlong before thy KA, O Osiris Nu, whose +word is truth. The Eye of Horus protecteth thee, it keepeth thee in +safety, it hath cast down headlong for thee all thine enemies, and +thine enemies have fallen down headlong before thee. The Eye of +Horus cometh. It is sound and well, it sendeth forth light even as +doth Ra in the horizon. It covereth the powers of Suti with +darkness, it mastereth him, and it bringeth its flame against him by +its own command. The Eye of Horus is sound and well, thou eatest the +flesh thereof, thy body possesseth it. Thou acclaimest it. The Four +Fires enter into thy KA, O Osiris Khenti-Amenti, the Four Fires +enter into thy KA, O Osiris Nu, the steward of the overseer of the +seal, whose word is truth. + + Hail, ye sons of Horus, Kesta, Hapi, Tuamutef, and Qebhsenuf, ye +have given your protection to your divine Father Osiris Khenti-Amenti, +give ye your protection to the Osiris Nu, whose word is truth. Now +therefore, inasmuch as ye have destroyed the Opponent of Osiris +Khenti-Amenti, who liveth with the gods, having smitten Suti with +his right hand and arm when dawn came upon the earth, and Horus hath +become master [of Suti], and hath avenged his divine Father himself; +and inasmuch as your divine Father hath been made to flourish +through the union of the KA of Osiris Khenti-Amenti, whch ye effected, +and the Eye of Horus hath avenged him, and hath protected him, and +hath cast down headlong for him all his enemies, and all his enemies +have fallen down before him, even so do ye destroy the Opponent of the +Osiris Nu, the steward of the overseer of the seal, whose word is + +truth. Let him live with the gods, let him smite his enemy, let him +destroy him, when light dawneth on the earth. Let Horus be master +and avenge the Osiris Nu, and let the Osiris Nu flourish through his +union with his KA which ye have effected. O Osiris Nu, the Eye of +Horus hath avenged thee. It hath cast down headlong all thine +enemies for thee, and all thine enemies have been cast down headlong +before thee. + + Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amenti, grant thou light and fire to the perfect +Heart-soul which is in Hensu. And [O ye Sons of Horus], grant ye power +unto the living heart-soul of the Osiris Nu by means of his fire. +Let him not be repulsed, and let him not be driven back at the doors +of Amentet! Let his offerings of bread and of linen garments be +brought unto him among the lords of funeral oblations. O offer ye +praises, as unto a god to the Osiris Nu, the destroyer of his Opponent +in his form of Truth, and in his attributes of a god of truth. + + RUBRIC: [This Chapter] shall be recited over four torches of atma +cloth, which hath been anointed with the finest Thehennu unguent, +and the torches shall be placed in the hands of four men who shall +have the names of the pillars of Horus written upon their shoulders, +and they shall burn the torches in the beautiful light of Ra, and this +shall confer power and might upon the Spirit-soul of the deceased +among the stars which never set. If this Chapter be recited for him he +shall never, never perish, and he shall become a living soul for ever. +These torches shall make the Spirit-soul to flourish like Osiris +Khenti-Amenti, regularly and continually for ever. It is a struggle. +Thou shalt not perform this ceremony before any human being except +thine own self, or thy father, or thy son, because it is an +2830 + +exceedingly great mystery of the Amentet, and it is a type of the +hidden things of the Tuat. When this ceremony hath been performed +for the deceased, the gods, and the Spirit-souls, and the dead shall +see him in the form of Khenti-Amenti, and he shall have power and +dominion like this god. + + If thou shalt undertake to perform for the deceased that which is +ordered in this "Chapter of the four blazing torches," each day, +thou shalt cause the form of the deceased to come forth from every +hall [in the Tuat], and from the Seven Halls of Osiris. And he shall +live in the form of the God. He shall have power and dominion +corresponding to those of the gods and the Spirit-souls for ever and +ever. He shall enter in through the secret pylons and shall not be +turned back in the presence of Osiris. And it shall come to pass, +provided that the following things be done for him, that he shall +enter in and come forth. He shall not be turned back. No boundary +shall be set to his goings, and the sentence of the doom shall not +be passed upon him on the Day of the Weighing of Words before +Osiris- never, never. + + And thou shalt perform whatsoever [is written in] this book on +behalf of the deceased, who shall thereby become perfect and pure. And +thou shalt "open his mouth" with the instrument of iron. And thou +shalt write down these things in accordance with the instructions +which are found in the books of Prince Herutataf, who discovered +them in a secret coffer (now they were in the handwriting of the god +[Thoth] himself and had been deposited in the Temple of the goddess +Unnut, the Lady of Unu) during a journey which he was making in +order to inspect the temples, and the temple-estates, and the +sanctuaries of the gods. And thou shalt perform these ceremonies +secretly in the Tuat-chamber of the tomb, for they are mysteries of +the Tuat, and they are symbolic of the things which are done in +Khert-Neter. + + And thou shalt say: I have come, I have advanced hastily. I cast +light upon his (the deceased's) footsteps. I am hidden, but I cast +light upon his hidden place. I stand up close to the Tet. I stand up +close to the Tet of Ra, I turn back the slaughter. I am protecting +thee, O Osiris. + + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a Tet of crystal, which +shall be set upon a brick made of crude mud, whereupon this Chapter +hath been inscribed. Thou shalt make a cavity in the west wall [of the +tomb], and having turned the front of the Tet towards the east, thou +shalt wall up the cavity with mud which hath been mixed with extract +of cedar. This Tet shall drive away the enemies of Osiris who would +set themselves at the east wall [of the tomb]. + + And thou shalt say: I have driven back thy foes. I keep watch over +thee. He that is upon his mountain (Anpu) keepeth watch over thee +ready for the moment when thy foes shall attack thee, and he shall +repulse them for thee. I will drive back the Crocodile at the moment +when it attacketh thee, and I will protect thee, O Osiris Nu. + + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a figure of Anpu made +of crude mud mixed with incense. And the figure shall be set upon a +brick made of crude mud, whereupon this Chapter hath been inscribed. +Thou shalt make a cavity in the east wall, and having turned the +2831 + +face of the figure of Anpu towards the west wall [therein] thou +shalt wall up the cavity. This figure shall repulse the enemies of +Osiris, who would set themselves at the south wall. + + And thou shalt say; I am the belt of sand round about the hidden +coffer. I turn back the force of the blazing fire of the funerary +mountain. I traverse the roads, and I protect the Osiris Nu, the +steward of the overseer of the seal, whose word is truth. + + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a brick made of crude mud +whereon a copy of this Chapter hath been inscribed. And thou shalt +place a reed in the middle thereof, and thou shalt smear it with +pitch, and set light thereto. Then thou shalt make a cavity in the +south wall, and, having turned the front of the brick towards the +north, thou shalt wall the brick up inside it. [It shall repulse the +enemies of the Osiris Nu] who would assemble at the north wall. + + And thou shalt say: O thou who comest to set fire [to the tomb or +mummy], I will not let thee do it. O thou who comest to cast fire +[herein], I will not let thee do it. I will burn thee, and I will cast +fire upon thee. I protect the Osiris Nu, the steward of the overseer +of the seal, whose word is truth. + + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a brick of crude mud, +whereon a copy of this Chapter hath been inscribed. [And thou shalt +set upon it] a figure of the deceased made of palm wood, seven fingers +in height. And thou shalt perform on it the ceremony of "Opening the +Mouth." Then thou shalt make a cavity in the north wall, and having +[placed the brick and the figure inside it], and turned the face of +the figure towards the south, thou shalt wall up the cavity. [It shall +repulse the enemies of the Osiris Nu], who would assemble at the south +wall. + + And behold, these things shall be done by a man who is washed clean, +and is ceremonially pure, and who hath eaten neither meat nor fish, +and who hath not [recently] had intercourse with women. And behold, +thou shalt make offerings of cakes and ale to these gods, and shalt +burn incense on their fires. Every Spirit-soul for whom these things +shall be done shall become like a holy god in Khert-Neter, and he +shall not be turned back at any gate in Amentet, and he shall be in +the following of Osiris, whithersoever he goeth, regularly and +continually. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2832 + +The Raven Kindred Ritual Book By Lewis Stead and The Raven Kindreds, +Northern & Southern Hearths + +The Raven Kindred Ritual Book is Copyright(c)1991,1992,1993 by Lewis +Stead, All Rights Reserved. Copies of this book are available from +the Raven Kindred; 11160 Veirs Mill Rd L15-175 at a cost of $5/booklet +or may be downloaded free of charge from the Moonrise BBS at (301) +593-9609 or obtained by sending e-mail to lstead@access.digex.net. +Non-commercial free of charge electronic distribution of this document +is permitted provided that the document remains whole and contains the +above copyright statement. + +Introduction + +Less than a thousand years ago the elders of Iceland made a fateful +decision. Under political pressure from Christian Europe and faced +with the need for trade, the Allthing or national assembly declared +Iceland to be an officially Christian country. Within a few centuries +the last remnants of Nordic Paganism, which once stretched through all +of Northern Europe were thought dead. However, Iceland was a tolerant +country and the myths, stories, and legends of Pagan times were left +unburnt to kindle the fires of belief in later generations. In 1972 +Iceland once again recognized Nordic Paganism as a legitimate and +legal religion. + +Iceland and Sweden were the last two bastions of the Pagan religion +originally practiced by the people of the various Germanic tribes. +Today Nordic Paganism also known as Odinism, Heathenism, Northern +Tradition, or Asatru (an Old-Norse term meaning Òloyalty to the GodsÓ) +is practiced in virtually all the countries where it originally +flourished as well as America and Australia. It is one of a body of +religions calling themselves Neo-Paganism which include Druidism, the +revival of ancient Celtic Paganism, and Wicca or Witchcraft. However +Asatru remains largely unknown even within the community of Neo-Pagan +believers. + +This book is intended as a basic manual to the beliefs and practices +of the Raven Kindred of Asatru. We do not pretend to be experts and +wonÕt act as if we were. Rather we are simply believers in the Old +Gods seeking to share our practice and research with others who are +true to the Aesir. Our aim is to present a simple guide which will +allow easy understanding of the principles behind Asatru and to give +hints for further study and exploration. + +While we attempt to be historically accurate to our religion's roots, +itÕs important to note that there are many things that we simply donÕt +know or which arenÕt written in stone. While we occasionally need to +flesh out our systems where we donÕt have direct evidence of our +ancestors ways, we are not likely to simply make up things. It is +very important to us to stay as true to the ways of the old Pagans as +is possible. In those places where the various myths, legends, and +folklore are not clear we have tried to indicate this. We do not +present our way as the ÒtrueÓ Asatru, but we do feel that all Asatru +should be solidly connected to its roots in ancient Norse practice. +Where we do not know the certain answer to a quesation, there is room +for exploration, but not for simply making something up out of whole +cloth. While inspiration from the Gods is an important part of our +movement, this is not make believe and any additions to the historical +2833 + +system should be made with respect to our ancient roots. + +The most important thing for modern people to remember about Asatru is +that it is a religion. It is not a system of magick or spirituality +or ÒNew Age PracticeÓ which can be grafted onto something else or onto +which other ÒsystemsÓ can be grafted wholesale. Asatru is a word +derived from ÒAsÓ a God of the Aesir family and ÒtruÓ meaning troth. +To be Asatru is to be bound by loyalty and troth to the Old Gods of +the North. While we may believe in the deities of other religions and +peoples, and even respect them, these are not our Gods. While we may +take part in rituals dedicated to other Gods at ecumenical Pagan +festivals or gatherings which encompass many other religions, we must +not forget that Asatru is our religion and our primary concern. One +simply does not collect membership in Asatru (or any other religion) +as if one were collecting stamps. Our Gods are real and worthy of our +respect. + +Today many people ÒpracticeÓ a number of different religions feeling +that this is the best way to avoid intolerance, we have a completely +different view of the world. Asatru is not a universal religion. We +do not see ourselves as a path for everyone. We are true polytheists +and see the world as encompassing many religions which worship many +Gods. While we do not deny the beliefs of others, we also do not +confuse them with our own. The idea that Òit is all oneÓ is anathema +to the true Heathen. To claim that Odin is the same God as Zeus is +madness. Would one claim that green and red are the same merely +because they are both colors? If one disagrees with this perspective +or finds it limiting so be it. Our belief is also that Asatru is not +a path for everyone and it is better to find ones own way rather than +bend the religions of others to fit ourselves. + +In accordance with this non-universalist conception, as much as we +have been able to, we have not adopted the practices of other Pagan +religions or magickal systems. Those familiar with Wicca will note +that most modern Neo-Pagan systems are derived from it. This is not +the case with Asatru. Our religion began with reconstruction based on +written sources dating from the Pagan period. This has been followed +by 20 years of innovation and practice within the Heathen community. +While we make no pretensions that this has resulted in a system that +is identical with that of our spiritual ancestors, it is at least a +system that is our own. + +In saying this I would reiterate that we do not put down any religion +for itÕs beliefs. We merely ask for the integrity of our own. We are +not rejecting other systems because they are wrong or because we think +ill of them, we are rather choosing Asatru because of our love and +devotion to it. + +The Rituals of Asatru + +The Blot + +The Blot is the most common ritual within Asatru. In its simplest +form a blot is making a sacrifice to the Gods. In the old days this +was done by feasting on an animal consecrated to the Gods and then +slaughtered. As we are no longer farmers and our needs are simpler +today, the most common blot is an offering of mead or other alcoholic +beverage to the deities. +2834 + +Many modern folk will be suspicious of a ritual such as this. Rituals +which are deemed sacrifices, such as the blot, have been falsely +interpreted by post-Pagan sources in order to denigrate the ritual or +trivialize them. The most common myth about ritual sacrifice is that +one is buying off a deity e.g. one throws a virgin into the Volcano +so it wonÕt erupt. Nothing could be further from the truth. In +Asatru it is believed that we are not only the worshippers of the Gods +but that we are physically related to them. The Eddas tell of a God, +Rig, who went to various farmsteads and fathered the human race so we +are physically kin to the Gods. On a more esoteric level, humankind +is gifted with ÒondÓ or the gift of ecstasy. Ond is a force that is +of the Gods. It is everything that makes humans different from the +other creatures of the world. As creatures with this gift, we are +immediately connected to the Gods, we are part of their tribe, their +kin. Thus we are not simply buying off the Gods by offering them +something that they want, but we are sharing with the Gods something +that we all take joy in. Sharing and gift giving was an important +part of most ancient cultures and had magical significance. Giving a +gift was a sign of friendship, kinship, and connection. By sharing a +blot with the Gods we reaffirm our connection to them and thus +reawaken their powers within us and their watchfulness over our world. + +A blot can be a simple affair where a horn of mead is consecrated to +the Gods and then poured as a libation, or it can be a part of a +larger ritual. A good comparison is the Catholic Mass which may be +part of a regular service or special event such as a wedding or +funeral, or it may be done as a purely magical-religious practice +without any sermon, hymns, or other trappings. + +The blot consists of three parts, the hallowing or consecrating of the +offering, the sharing of the offering, and the libation. Each of +these is equally important. The only tools required are mead, beer or +juice, a horn or chalice, a sprig of evergreen used to sprinkle the +mead, and a ceremonial bowl known as a Hlautbowl into which the +initial libation will be made. + +The blot begins with the consecration of the offering. The Gothi +(Priest) or Gythia (Priestess) officiating at the blot invokes the God +or Goddess being honored. This is usually accomplished by a spoken +declaration with ones arms being held above ones head in a Y shape, in +imitation of the rune elhaz. This posture is used for most +invocations and prayers throughout Asatru. After the spoken +invocation an appropriate rune or other symbol of the God or Goddess +may be drawn in the air with the finger or with the staff. Once the +God is invoked, the Gothi takes up the horn. His assistant pours mead +from the bottle into the horn. The Gothi then traces the hammer sign +(an upside down T) over the horn as a blessing and holds it above his +head offering it to the Gods. He then speaks a request that the God +or Goddess bless the offering and accept it as a sacrifice. At the +least one will feel the presence of the deity; at best one will be +able to feel in some inner way the God taking of the mead and drinking +it. + +The mead is now not only blessed with divine power but has passed the +lips of the God or Goddess. The Gothi then takes a drink of the horn +and it is passed around the gathered folk. Although it sounds like a +very simple thing, it can be a very powerful experience. At this +point the mead is no longer simply a drink but is imbued with the +2835 + +blessing and power of the God or Goddess being honored. When one +drinks, one is taking that power into oneself. This is the essence of +the rune Gebo. After the horn has made the rounds once, the Gothi +again drinks from the horn and then empties the remainder into the +hlautbowl. The Gothi then takes up the evergreen sprig and his +assistant the Hlautbowl and the Gothi sprinkles the mead around the +circle or temple or onto the altar. If there are a great number of +the folk gathered, one may wish to drop the drinking and merely +sprinkle the various folk with the mead as a way of sharing it. In a +small group one might merely drink as the blessing. + +When this is done the Hlautbowl is taken by the Gothi and poured out +onto the ground. This is done as an offering not only to the God +invoked at the blot, but it is also traditional to remember the Earth +Mother at this time, since it is being poured onto her ground. Many +invocations mention the God, Goddess, or spirit being sacrificed to, +and then Mother Earth, as in the Sigrdrifa Prayer ÒHail to the Gods +and to the Goddesses as well; Hail Earth that gives to all men.Ó +(Sigrdrifumal 3) With this action, the blot is ended. + +Obviously this is a very sparse ritual and if performed alone could be +completed in only a few minutes. This is as it should be, for blots +are often poured not because it is a time of gathering or festivity +for the folk, but because the blot must be poured in honor or petition +of a God or Goddess on their holiday or some other important occasion. +For example, a father tending his sick child might pour a blot to Eir +the Goddess of healing. Obviously he doesnÕt have time to waste on +the ÒtrappingsÓ of ritual. The intent is to make an offering to the +Goddess as quickly as possible. At some times a full celebration +might not be made of a holiday because of a persons hectic schedule, +but at the least a blot should be made to mark the occasion. However, +in most cases a blot will at least be accompanied by a statement of +intent at the beginning and some sort of conclusion at the end. It +might also be interspersed with or done at the conclusion of ritual +theater or magic. + +The Sumbel + +One of the most common celebrations noted in tales of our ancestors is +the Sumbel or ritual drinking celebration. This was a more mundane +and social sort of ritual than the blot, but of no less importance. +When Beowulf came to Hrothgar, the first thing they did was to drink +at a ritual sumbel. This was a way of establishing BeowulfÕs identity +and what his intent was, and doing so in a sacred and traditional +manner. At the sumbel toasts are drunk to the Gods, as well as to a +persons ancestors or personal heroes. Rather than a toast, a person +might also offer a brag or some story, song, or poem that has +significance. The importance is that at the end of the toast, story, +or whatever, the person offering it drinks from the horn, and in doing +so Òdrinks inÓ what he spoke. + +The sumbel is also an important time for the folk to get to know each +other in a more intimate way than most people are willing to share. +Modern society is at two extremes. At one end are the emotionless +beings who have been robbed of their soul by modern industrial secular +culture. On the other side are those pathetic Òsensitive New-Age +guysÓ who spend their lives consciously attempting to stir their +emotions and who force an unnatural level of intimacy between +2836 + +themselves and others. There are some levels of emotional intimacy +which are not meant to be openly shared with strangers. Doing so +reduces their meaning to the mundane. At sumbel, barriers can be +lowered in a place which is sacred to the Gods and the Folk. Thoughts +can be shared among companions and friends without embarrassment or +forced intimacy. + +One format for the sumbel with a history in tradition is to drink +three rounds. The first is dedicated to the Gods, the second to great +heroes of the folk such as historical figures or heroes from the +sagas, and the third to personal ancestors, heroes, or friends which +have passed from this world. + +Another theme for a sumbel is past, present, and future. This type of +sumbel is more of a magical ritual than one of celebration. The idea +is to make toasts which bring up some aspect of your past, and present +situation, and a third toast or brag which represents your wishes for +the future. One might make a toast to the first Asatru ritual one +attended as the past, a second to the companions and kindred then +gathered, and for his third toast might state that he intends to be +initiated as a Gothi in the coming year. The purpose would be to link +the coming event of his initiation with the two already accomplished +events of pledging Asatru and finding a kindred Ñ two other important +rites of passage. In this case initiation as a Gothi then becomes +something which is linked to a chain of events that have already +occurred, rather than an isolated action which might occur. Thus +magically, this moves the person towards his initiation. + +A third and everpopular type of sumbel is a free-for-all where stories +are told, toasts are made, and bragging is done until all the gathered +Odinists are under the table. Perhaps this is not quite so esoteric +or purposeful as the previous ideas, but itÕs certainly in keeping +with the examples of our Gods and ancestors! Joy is better than guilt! + +These are only ideas. The sumbel is a very open ended type of thing +and the framework is very simple to adapt. + +One thing important to note about any Asatru ritual is that ours is a +holistic religion. We do not limit our Gods or spirituality to a +certain time and place. While the sacrament of the blot is usually +poured as part of a ceremony, the feast afterwards, singing of sacred +songs, reciting of poetry, Morris Dancing, etc are all part of our +religion. A truly traditional celebration might begin with a rather +informal greeting of the dawn, involve May Dancing and Òmystery +plays,Ó then move on to a more structured Blot, and finally to a feast +capped by a sumbel. On the other side of things, thereÕs no reason +why at a family feast one might not simply pour a bottle of beer or +mead as an offering without the other trappings of a blot. + +Profession + +Profession is one of the most important ceremonies in Asatru. To +Profess oneÕs belief in and kinship to the Gods should be an important +turning point in ones life and the beginning of a new understanding of +the self. Profession is, however, a very simple and rather short +ceremony. In our kindred we usually profess people after beginning +the ritual, but before we offer the formal blot. + +2837 + +Profession is not an occult or initiatory ceremony. It is nothing +less than itÕs name: one professes (declares, affirms) his wish to +become one of the Asafolk. This oath is usually taken by the +Kindred-Gothi on the oath ring or some other Holy object as follows: + +The Gothi stands in front of the altar and says ÒWill [insert name +here] please come forward.Ó After he or she does so ÒAre you here of +your own free will? Is it your intention to solemnly swear allegiance +and kinship to the Gods of Asgard, the Aesir and Vanir?Ó If the answer +to both these questions is in the affirmative the Gothi takes up the +oath ring and holds it out to the person professing and says ÒRepeat +after me. I swear to ever uphold the Raven Banner of Asgard, to +follow the way of the North, to always act with honor and bravery, and +to be ever true to the Aesir and Vanir and to Asatru. By the Gods I +so swear. By my honor I so swear. On this Holy Ring I do swear. +Hail the Gods.Ó The kindred then replies ÒHail the Gods!Ó and the +Gothi finishes ÒThen be welcome to the service of Asgard and the Folk +of the Asatru.Ó + +There may be other celebrations connected to a Profession, just as +other religions hold Bar Mitzvah or Confirmation parties. When +someone joins our kindred, we hold a Sumbel of nine rounds, each +dedicated to one of the values of Asatru (see below) and toast those +values to the new kinsman. + + +The Holidays + +The ancient Norse knew four major holidays the Spring and Autumn +Equinoxes which we call Summer and Winter Finding, and the two +solstices which we call Midsummer and Yule. However, there were many +other minor festivals and modern Asatru have added even more. A +calendar of our kindredÕs rituals is provided in an appendix and I +also encourage anyone to find as many as one is willing to meet for. +We meet monthly, but some groups meet 8 times a year and also +celebrate the cross-quarter days of May Day/Walpurgis, +Halloween/Samhain, February eve or The Charming of the Plow, and +Lammastide or Freyfaxi, + +Most of our rituals also honor only one or a few Gods or Goddesses at +any one time. However, there is no reason why the entire pantheon +should not be offered prayers and thanks at any occasion. This would +be particularly appropriate at the major holidays. Unlike most other +groups in the Neo-Pagan movement, we do not necessarily honor Gods in +male/female pairs. The boy/girl notion is one taken from the Pagan +fertility religion of Wicca and isnÕt necessarily appropriate to our +Gods, who often represent things other than fertility. So while a +Spring ritual held in honor of Freya and Frey as fertility deities +might wish to honor them together, there is no reason to include Frigg +in a ritual dedicated to Odin as the God of War. + +Yule + +Yule is the most important holiday of the year. Everyone is familiar +with the shortness of the deep winter days, but in the Scandinavian +countries this is of even greater importance. At the Yuletide there +is almost no sunlight at all, and the climate would have people bound +in their homes waiting for the return of Spring. +2838 + +Yule is a long festival, traditionally held to be 12 days or more. +After Yule the days began to get longer and the festival represented +the breaking of the heart of winter and the beginning of the new year. +Yule was the holiday of either Thor or Frey, although there is no +reason not to honor both Gods in modern practice. Frey is the God of +fertility and farming and was honored at Yule in the hopes that his +time would soon return. Thor was the sworn enemy of the Frost Giants +and Jotunn who ruled the winter months, and as such was honored as the +God whoÕs actions fought off these creatures and brought back the +spring. Sunna, the Goddess of the Sun, should also be honored at +Yule, although she is held at more important during the summer months +when she is at her strongest. + +The most important symbols of Yule are still with us today. Most of +the supposedly secular customs of Christmas are actually Pagan in +origin. Evergreen trees and holly which remained green throughout the +long nights and cold were a promise that spring would once again +return to the land. These symbols may also have been a connection to +the nature spirits who have sway over the return of the warm days. +The modern conception of Santa Claus as an elf, for whom offerings of +milk and cookies are left, is probably a modern continuation of +leaving offerings for the Alvar and other nature spirits. The idea of +children staying up all night in the hopes of catching a glimpse of +Santa Claus may be a remnant of people staying awake to mark the long +night and remind the sun to return. (In the latter case itÕs +considered an adequate substitution to leave a candle going all night +to light the way for the returning sun.) + +Yule is a weeks long festival, not just a single holiday. The Yule +season begins on the solstice, which is the Mother Night of Yule, and +ends with Twelfth Night on January sixth. As a point of interest, +January seventh is St. DistaffÕs day, which Nigel Pennic has +suggested may have been a day sacred to Frigg, whose symbol is the +distaff. + +While one might expect a rather dour theme to a holiday held in the +darkness and cold, Yule is a time of feasting and gladness. + +In various places different Gods were held to be the most important at +Yule. Thor was honored because it is he who fights and kills the +Jotunn, who surely are the ones responsible for the loss of warmth in +the world. Yule was when Thor broke the back of winter and allowed +the warmth to slowly return to the world. Frey was also honored +because it was he who married Gerd and warmed her heart, returning +fertility to the world. + +There are simply so many different Yule customs, both ancient and +modern, that one has almost limitless possibilities even when staying +within Scandanavian and Germanic customs. In modern practice one +might honor Sunna on the Mother Night, then hold a blot a few days +later to Thor, a feast for New Years day which is shared with the +house and land spirits, and then finish on Twelfth Night with a ritual +to Frey, whose time is then officially beginning. + +Summer Finding + +Summer Finding is also known to many groups as Ostara, the holiday +sacred to the Goddess for whom the modern Easter is named. She is a +2839 + +fertility Goddess and her symbols are the hare and the egg. She was +an important Goddess of spring to the ancient Saxons, but we know +little else of her other than this. Some have suggested that Ostara +is merely an alternate name for Frigg or Freya, but neither of these +Goddesses seem to have quite the same fertility function as Ostara +does. Frigg seems too high class to be associated with such an earthy +festival and FreyaÕs form of fertility is more based on eroticism than +reproduction. + +The obvious folk tradition at this time of year involves eggs. These +were colored as they are today, but then they were buried, or more +appropriately, planted in the earth. Some have suggested that the act +was purely magical, the fertility of the eggs would then be +transferred from the animal realm to the plant realm and would +increase the prosperity of the harvest. ItÕs also possible that they +were left as an offering to the alvar and the spirits of the plants. + +In any case a blot should be prepared to the Goddess of Spring, +however one wishes to honor her, and also to the spirits of the land. + +Midsummer Day + +The summer solstice was second only to Yule in importance to the +ancient Northmen. Some groups mark this day as sacred to Balder, but +we disagree with this. While Balder can be seen as a dying and +resurrected Sun God, in the mythology we are most familiar with, he +does not return to life until Ragnarok and it seems like Òbad karmaÓ +to symbolically kill the sun when you know he doesnÕt come back until +the end of the world. Instead, we mark this day as sacred to the +Goddess Sunna, who is literally the sun. + +One idea for midsummer is to remain awake all night and mark the +shortest night of the year, then at sunrise to perform a ÒGreeting of +SunnaÓ and a blot to her. + +Another midsummer custom is the rolling of a flaming wagon wheel down +a hill to mark the turning of the wheel of the year. If fire would +otherwise be a hazard, one could parade a wheel covered with candles +for similar effect. It is also a time for general merriment and in +the Scandinavian countries many of what we know as the traditional May +Day rituals such as May Poles and Morris Dances were instead +celebrated at Midsummer. + +Winter Finding + +I have not come across a great deal of traditional lore about the +Autumn Equinox which we know as Winter Finding. It seems to have been +overshadowed to some extent by the Winter Nights which we celebrate at +the equinox rather than at the more traditional time of mid-November. + +If one wishes not to do this, the Winter Finding would be a festival +of harvest. One should hold a Blot to whichever Gods of fertility +seem most appropriate and then hold a large feast, concerntrating on +vegetables that are currently in season. + +Winter Nights + +The Winter Nights are the traditional festival honoring the Disir or +2840 + +family spirits. It is a time to remember your family, the dead, and +your ancestors. (For more information on the Disir see the chapter +ÒElves and other Spirits.Ó) + +A Freyablot may be performed at this time as Freya is known as the +Vanadis (i.e. the Dis of the Vanir) or the Great Dis, and she seems +to be the Goddess of the Disir themselves. This is probably connected +to FreyaÕs position as recipient of half the battle-slain. One might +also simply want to honor the Disir as a whole, or attempt to summon +and pour offering to your own familyÕs Dis. A sumbel which toasts +ones ancestors and passed on friends would also be in order. If a +feast is held, it should be quiet and respectful of the character of +the season. Another idea is a silent Òmum feast,Ó a custom which is +found the world over. + +The various Halloween customs such as dressing in costume or +celebrating this time as a time where the worlds of the living and the +dead connect are more Celtic in origin than Nordic and probably should +not be part of an Asatru celebration. + + +The Gods of Asgard + +The Old Norse reckoned that there were three races of Gods: the Aesir, +the Vanir, and the Jotunn. The Aesir are those beings most often +referred to in the ancient literature simply as Òthe Gods.Ó They are +the Gods of society, representing things such as Kingship, Craft, etc. +The Vanir are more closely connected to the earth and represent the +fecundity of the land and the natural forces which help mankind. Once +there was a great war between the Aesir and the Vanir, but this was +eventually settled and Frey, Freya, and Njord came to live with the +Aesir to seal the peace. The Jotunn are a third race of Gods and at +constant war with the Aesir, but there is and never will be peace in +this battle. The Jotunn are never called Gods, but rather referred to +as giants. They represent the natural forces of chaos and destruction +as the Aesir represent forces of order and society. Just as fire and +ice mix to form the world, this creative interaction of chaos and +order maintains the balance of the world. In the end the two sides +will meet in the great battle of Ragnarok and the world will be +destroyed, only to be reborn. + +The Norse Gods were not held to be all powerful or immortal. Their +youth was maintained very precariously by the magickal apples of the +Goddess Idunna. More importantly at the end of the world a good +number of the Gods will die in battle. The Northern view of the world +was a practical one with little assurance for the future and little +perfection and the Gods are no exception. + +The Gods in the Temple: Odin, Thor, and Frey + +The three most important Gods were held to be Odin, Thor, and Frey. +These were the deities whose statutes stood at the altar of the temple +at Upsalla. They are considered the most important because of what +they represent. Mythologer Georges Dumezil has linked these three +deities with the three classes of Indo-European culture: the Kings, +the Warriors, and the Farmers. Although the fit is not an exact one, +it is probably true that these three deities most concretely +symbolized the various aspects of life and culture and most people +2841 + +would have found a God who represented their life-experience in one of +these three deities. + +Odin is the Allfather, remembered today best as a God of war and of +the berserk rage of the Vikings. However, he has other aspects which +are just as strong or stronger. In the Eddas, he is the King of the +Gods, but this is a position which most of the Germanic peoples +attributed to Tyr. ItÕs likely that Odin only became King during the +Viking Age. Being the Allfather, his original position of leadership +was probably familial rather than legislative. Most importantly he is +a God of transcendent wisdom and in relation to that a God of magick. +He is the God of the Runes, the magical alphabet which holds the +mysteries of the universe within it. In most of the non-Viking +countries, OdinÕs warrior aspect was played down. In England, where +he is known as Woden, he is a gray cloaked wanderer (the inspiration +for TolkienÕs Gandalf) who travels the country, usually alone, +surveying his land. Here again we see him in the position of a father +figure, a warder of the land but not necessarily a King. Odin is also +a God of the dead. Half of the slain in battles go to him to prepare +for the Ragnarok. (The remaining half go to Freya.) He also has +associations with the dead as a practitioner of Seidhr, a form of +shamanic magick which he learned from Freya and used on various +occasions to travel to Hel and seek the knowledge of those who have +passed from this world. ItÕs difficult to classify Odin simply +because he was such a popular God during the last stages of Norse +Paganism and thus absorbed many traits of other Gods. + +Thor is probably the best known of the Norse Gods. He is a simple +God, the patron of farmers and other folk who are Òwise, but not too +wiseÓ as the Eddas advise us to be. Thor is best known for wandering +the world in search of adventure; usually found in the form of giants +or other monsters to kill. He possesses tremendous strength and the +hammer Mjolnir, which was made for him by the Dwarfs. Mjolnir is +considered to be the Gods greatest treasure because it is sure +protection from the forces of chaos. Using Mjolnir, Thor is a warrior +figure, but he is less a professional warrior than a common man called +upon to defend his land. He loves battle not for itself as do the +berserkers of Odin, nor does he have a strong code of honor such as +that of TyrÑin fact he chronically breaks with honor and kills giants +whether they have the protection of ÒhospitalityÓ or not. Thor is +associated with thunder, and is also the God of rain and storms, but +itÕs important to note that he is not the God of destructive storms. +Thor is nature as a benefit to man. The Jotunn are held to be the +source of the destruction found in nature. Thor was the God of +Òeveryman.Ó He was simple in purpose, strong, and free. He was most +beloved of the freemen farmers who populated the Germanic lands. + +Frey is a God of peace and fertility. If Thor is the God of the +farmer, then Frey is the God of the crops themselves. His symbol is +the priapus and his blessings were sought at planting and other +important agricultural festivals. The word ÒfreyÓ means ÒLordÓ and +itÕs unsure if this is the Gods name or his title. He is also known +as Ing. We do not known a great deal more about Frey as few myths +have survived which give us any insight into his character. As much +as he is a God of fertility, he is also a God of peace and Ing was +said to have brought a Golden Age of peace and prosperity to old +Denmark. Horses are held to be sacred to Frey, probably because of +fertility connections. +2842 + +Goddesses + +In general we know much less about how our ancestors worshipped the +Goddesses than the Gods. Later Norse culture was very bound up with +the vikings and it is likely that the Goddesses were deemphasized at +this point. More importantly, virtually all the mythology we have +today was recorded during the Christian period and Christian culture +had little respect for women, least of all independent and strong +women like those of Nordic society. + +Freya is the most important of the Goddesses or at least that Goddess +about which we known the most. She was the sister of Frey and along +with him was sent to live with the Aesir in order to seal a peace +agreement. Freya is a Goddess with two distinct sides to her. First, +she is the Goddess of love and beauty and second a Goddess of war who +shares the battle-slain with Odin. Unlike our modern culture, the +ancients saw no contradiction in this. She was also a sorceress who +practiced the shamanic magick known as Seidhr, which she taught to +Odin. Freya is the Goddess most often invoked by independent women. +While she is a Goddess of beauty, she is not dependent on men as is +the stereotype of so many love Goddesses, but is strong and fiercely +independent. She is also known as the Great Dis and probably has +connections to the family spirits known as the Disir. In many ways +she is like Odin in that she is a Goddess of many functions which are +not always obviously related. In modern Asatru, many groups have +replaced Frey with Freya to stand with Odin and Thor on the altar. + +Frigg is a most misunderstood Goddess. She is the wife of Odin and +many people are too willing to let her be known simply as that. +However, the old Norse had a much different idea of the place of women +and of marriage in general. While marriages for love were certainly +known, marriage was also a business and social arrangement and there +were important duties for a wife. These were symbolized by a set of +keys which hung at the belt of all Ògoodwives.Ó This symbolized that +the home was under the control of the woman of the house, who was +equal to her husband. Today we think these duties as very minor, but +a thousand years ago they were far from trivial. Up until this +century most of Europe lived in extended families. A house, +especially a hall of a warrior, was not merely a small building with a +nuclear family, but an entire settlement with outbuildings, servants, +slaves, and an entire clan. The wife of the house was in charge of +stores and trading with other clans. It was she that saw to the +upkeep of the farm, the balancing of the books, and even to the +farming itself if her husband was away trading or making war. It was +as much a job of managing a business as it was being a Òwife.Ó For +these reasons Frigg is still very important and can easily be invoked +beyond the home. She would, for example, be a natural patron for +someone who owned a business. Frigg also shares a lot of +characteristics with her husband. She is the only other God who is +allowed to sit in OdinÕs seat from which can be seen all that goes on +in the nine worlds. It is said that she knows the future, but remains +silent, which is entirely in keeping with the way women of the time +exercised their power: namely indirectly. While in a better world +this might not be necessary, it is still an important tool for women +who must exist in a world where men are sometimes threatened by them. +While Freya is a Goddess who acts independent of ÒtraditionalÓ roles, +Frigg is a Goddess who works within those roles, but still maintains +her power and independence. +2843 + +Other Gods + +There are of course many other Gods and Goddesses. Some of these have +important places in the myths, while some others are mentioned only +once along with their function. + +Loki + +The most perplexing God of Asgard is Loki. He was probably originally +a fire God, but he is best known as the troublemaker of Asgard. In +various minor scrapes Loki arranges to get the Gods into trouble, +usually by giving away their treasures and then arranging to return +them. This is very much in the traditional role of a trickster, who +keeps things interesting by causing trouble. However, itÕs sometimes +difficult to see Loki merely as a trickster because his actions are +sometimes simply too evil to be ignored. Balder was the most +beautiful and beloved of the Gods and a pledge was extracted from all +the things in the world that they would not harm him. The sole +exception to this was the mistletoe which was deemed too tiny to be a +threat. Amused by his invulnerability, the Gods took turns throwing +objects at Balder, which of course had no effect on him. Loki took +the blind God Hod and put a spring of mistletoe in his hands and +guided him to throw it. The dart pierced BalderÕs breast and he died. +Later a deal was arranged wherein Balder would be allowed to return to +life if all the creatures of the world would weep for him. Only one +refused, an ogress who said she cared not a whit for Balder when he +was alive and thought him just as well off dead. The ogress is +believed to have been Loki in disguise. For these actions Loki was +chained beneath the earth and it was arranged that venom would drip +upon him in punishment that would last until the end of the world. +With the death of Balder, Loki goes beyond the level of trickster and +becomes a truly evil figure. It is known that when Ragnarok comes, +Loki will lead the legions of chaos against the Aesir and bring about +the end of the world. + +Indeed LokiÕs actions certainly do seem harsh, but they are entirely +in keeping with the Norse way of looking at things. One of the +functions of a trickster God is to keep things going. The trickster +causes trouble so that people may evolve, for nothing brings about +ingenuity like need. The Norse did not believe anything was eternal. +The Gods were mortal and only maintained their youth through the +magick of IdunnaÕs apples. In the end they would die in the battle of +Ragnarok which would destroy the world. BalderÕs invulnerability was +not natural. As the Edda says ÒCattle die, and men die, and you too +shall die...Ó It was deemed much more wise and valiant by the Norse to +live up to oneÕs fate than to try to avoid it. Likewise to return +from the dead would be equally wrong. ItÕs against nature for +something to be impervious to harm or for the dead to return to life. +Loki was merely acting as the agent of nature to return things to +their normal and correct course. It was not an act of evil, but an +intervention to stop an evil against the natural order. Likewise +Ragnarok must come. It is in the nature of the world to be destroyed +and then be reborn. Loki is merely acting as an agent of fate: +exactly the function which a trickster is supposed to perform. + +On the other hand, as far as we know Loki was not worshipped, at least +not in the same way as the other Gods were. Recognition of his action +and his place in the universe is essential, but Gods of this type are +2844 + +seldom welcome. It is ÒfashionableÓ today to laugh at trickster Gods +and see them as a sort of jester figure, but we must not forget that +their nature is much darker than this even when it does serve a +purpose. Change is important, but nothing changes the world faster +and more thoroughly than war. + +Tyr + +While seldom reckoned today among the most popular of the Gods, Tyr is +extremely important. He is the God of battle, of justice, and +(secondary to Odin) of Kingship. The most important myth concerning +Tyr shows both his bravery and honor. He gave his hand as surety to +the Fenris Wolf that no trickery was involved in the Gods binding of +him. When the fetter in fact did bind the wolf, Tyr lost his hand. +The honor and reliance on ones word is often overlooked in this myth +in favor of an interpretation of self sacrifice. However, throughout +the myths various deals are made and the Aesir easily get out of them. +ItÕs likely that Tyr could have escaped his fate as well, but oneÕs +word is oneÕs word and thus Tyr lost his hand. Tyr was held to be the +God of the Thing or assembly. While the ancient Norse were not truly +democratic and in fact held slaves, within the noble class all were +reckoned to be roughly equal. The Thing was a place where the +landholders would meet for trade and to iron out disputes among them, +in the hope of avoiding feuds. Tyr was originally the chieftain of +the Aesir and the God of Kingship, but he has been gradually +supplanted by Odin, especially during the Viking Age. It is likely +this was because of TyrÕs strong sense of honor and justice. For +raiding and pillaging, Odin, the God of the berserker rage, was a much +better patron than Tyr, the God of honorable battle. This is an +important thing to note about Northern religion: it is extremely +adaptable. There are not hard and fast rules about who is what and +while the nature of the Gods cannot be changed they are more than +happy to have the aspects most important to their worshippers +emphasized. Just as a person uses different skills and Òbecomes a +different personÓ when they move or change jobs, so the Gods too have +adapted to new climates and needs. + +Baldr + +While we only know the myth of BalderÕs death, it is clear that he was +a God of some importance. Unfortunately, modern writers, coming from +a Christian background, have tried to turn Balder into a Christ +figure. Balder was a God of beauty and goodness, but his name also +translates as Òwarrior.Ó It is a mistake to turn him into a ÓNorse +Jesus.Ó The mere fact that he died and will return after Ragnarok is +not enough for this equation. Another interpretation of Balder is +that of the dying and resurrected God of the Sun. This also seems a +mistake, as Balder does not return from the land of death. It makes a +poor symbol to honor Balder on solar holidays, lest the sun not +return! The remaining major interpretation of Balder is as a God of +mystic initiation. While this fits to some extent, we unfortunately +no longer know. The equation with Christ has wiped out a great deal +of lore about Balder and we are left to rediscover his place in our +modern practice. + +Minor Gods + +Of the other important Gods, Heimdall is the guardian of Asgard. He, +2845 + +as Rig, is also one of the Gods who fathered mankind. Njord is the +God of sailing and sailors. Unless one travels on the sea, he is +probably of little importance to you, but if one does sail, he is your +natural patron. If Njord is the God of sailing and of manÕs use of +the sea, then Aegir is the God of the sea itself. He is married to +Ran who takes drowned sailors to her home after their death. Aegir is +considered to be the greatest of brewers, and our kindred honors him +in a special holiday due to the importance of mead in our modern +religion. Bragi is a much overlooked God who is the patron of +taletellers and bards. Other Gods more or less overlooked in the +myths include Forseti, who renders the best judgments, Ull, a God of +hunting who is the male counter to Skadi, Vithar, the son of Thor who +is as strong as his father, Vali, OdinÕs son who will avenge his +fathers death at Ragnarok, and Hod, the blind God who was led to slay +Balder. + +While we might say that certain Gods are more important than others, +this is in many ways not accurate. We would be better served to say +that some are more popular. The Norse concept of the relationship +between men and Gods was one of friendship. A man would honor all the +Gods as worthy and existent, but would usually find one as his special +patron. It is not surprising, considering this, that Thor is the most +popular of Gods. If the average person was searching for a God very +much like himself, Thor would be the obvious choice. Likewise, a God +such as Njord would have been extremely important to sailors and +fishermen, but would have been almost completely unimportant as a +patron to inlanders. The less well known Gods are just as powerful as +their more well known contemporaries, they merely have power over a +less well known aspect of life. + +There are also many Goddesses other than Frigg and Freya, but we know +very little of them. Eir was said to be the greatest of healers, and +is for this reason very important. There is no healer God as the +ancients held that medicine was a craft for women and not for men, but +modern male healers should certainly invoke her. While Skadi has a +very small part in the myths, many modern Asafolk find her a +compelling figure. She is the snow-shoe Goddess, who travels in the +isolated mountains hunting with her bow. She is married to Njord, but +they are separated as Njord canÕt abide the mountains, and Skadi canÕt +sleep in NjordÕs hall where she is kept awake by the pounding of the +sea. She is an excellent role model for women who work alone and who +are independently minded. Oaths are sworn to the Goddess Var, but +little else is known of her. Lofn might some day be of importance to +you, she is known to bring together lovers who are kept apart by +circumstance. + +I have merely touched upon the Gods here. It is important for +everyone who would practice the religion of the North to get to know +the myths and the Gods. An appendix is included which outlines +various sources for more information. + + +Elves & Other Spirits + +The world of ancient Paganism was hardly limited to the worship of the +Gods. There are various other beings who were honored, and ÒElf +worshipÓ was often the hardest part of Paganism for Christians to +destroy. It was easy enough to substitute one God for another, but it +2846 + +was quite another to tell the common people that the elves which +brought fertility to the land were not real! + +In the various folktales and sagas we find very little which would +lead us to a concrete system of what spirit was responsible for +exactly what. We are sure of the place of the Valkyries, who were +responsible for bringing the slain to Valhalla, and also for choosing +who in battle would die. They seem, judging by their actions, to be +supernatural beings of some type. However, Valkyries appear in +various places as very human figures and their exact nature is +difficult to determine. Sigrdrifa was a Valkyrie who was cursed by +Odin because she refused to bring victory in battle to those whom he +had chosen. Her punishment was to be married to a mortal, and the +implication is clear that this would end her days as a Valkyrie. ItÕs +equally clear that she has great knowledge of the runes as she tutors +Sigurd after he awakens her. In most respects she seems to be a +normal human woman, although a very wise and independent one with +great powers. Elsewhere, Voland and his brothers are said to have +found three Valkyries sunning themselves without their swan-coats. +When the brothers steal their feather-coats and hide them, the +Valkyries again appear as otherwise normal women. This does not seem +entirely in keeping with a supernatural origin, and itÕs possible that +some kind of magickal order of Priestesses has become confused over +time with the supernatural beings we know as Valkyries. The swan-coat +seems very similar in description to FreyaÕs falcon-coat and the +entire issue may be something related to the practice of seidhr. As +far as we know, the Valkyrie were not worshipped as such, but were +considered more the messengers of Odin. They also serve the mead at +Valhalla, and because of this whoever pours the mead into the Horn at +Blot or Sumbel is today known as Òthe Valkyrie.Ó + +The other spirits whose place seems fairly clear are the Disir. These +are spirits who are intimately linked with a family. There is also +some indication that they are linked with the land, but this would be +in keeping with the old ways. We forget sometimes that many +landowners in Europe have been living in the same place since before +this continent was discovered. The land becomes an intimate part of +the family and its identity, so it is natural that family spirits +would also oversee the family land. Disir inevitably are seen as +women who appear at times of great trouble or change. They are +somehow linked to the family bloodline, and seem most closely linked +to the clanchief. There is one scene in one saga where a spirit, +apparently a Dis, is passed on from one person to another who are not +blood relations. However, these two friends are closer than brothers, +so while the link is apparently not genetic, it is definitely +familial. We know the family Disir were honored with blots at the +Winter Nights and that they have great power to aid their family. As +far as their origin, itÕs possible that they are ancestral in origin. +They may be ancestors whose power was so great that they were able to +continue to see to their clan. Or itÕs possible that the Disir are +the collective spirit of the family ancestors. Freya is called the +great Dis and there may be some linkage here to her position as a +seidhrwoman. We know from the sagas that Seidhr was involved with +talking to various spirits (including the dead) and its possible that +this is the source of FreyaÕs name. It is also possible that she +performed much the same function as a Dis to her tribe the Vanir. + +Closely linked to the idea of the Disir is the Fylgia. These spirits +2847 + +are attached to an individual person in much the same way that the +Disir are associated with a family. Fylgia usually appear either as +animals or as beautiful women. They correspond to the Òfetch,Ó +Òtotem,Ó or Òpower-animalÓ in other cultures. Most of the time the +fylgia remains hidden and absent, it is only with truly great or +powerful persons that the fylgia becomes known. They may have +something to do with Seidhr as well, because many sagas offer evidence +of spirit travel in the shape of animals. This corresponds exactly to +notions of shamanism found in other cultures. + +The remaining spirits include Alvar or elves, Dokkalvar or dark elves +or Dwarfs, kobolds, and landvaettir. While some have defined one +being as doing one thing and another serving a different function, IÕm +not inclined to draw very sharp distinctions between these various +creatures. They all seem ÒelfishÓ in origin, and there seems to me to +be no pattern of associating one name with a specific function. We +know that various landvaettir or land spirits were honored with blots. +We also know that Frey is the lord of Alfheim, one of the nine worlds +where the alvar are said to live. + +Of all the remaining spirits, the dwarfs are the most consistent in +description. We know that the dwarfs are cunning and misanthropic in +character and incredible smiths, capable of creating magickal objects +so valuable they are considered the greatest treasures of Asgard. +ThorÕs hammer Mjolnir, FreyaÕs necklace Brisingamen, and SifÕs golden +hair are all creations of the dwarfs. They live beneath the earth and +have little to do with mankind or the Gods unless one seeks them out. +What place they had in the religion we no longer know. It would seem +wise to invoke them as spirits of the forge, but I can think of little +other reason to disturb them. + +Elves are the most difficult magickal race to pin down. Mythological +sources tell us that the Alvar or light elves live in Alfheim where +Frey is their Lord. However, we also have the enduring belief in +folklore of the elves as faery-folk: beings associated with the +natural world. These two conceptions of elves might still be linked, +however, as Alfheim is known to be a place of incredible natural +beauty, and Frey, their leader, is an agricultural deity. To further +confuse this issue, Norse folklore has a strong belief in the +Landvaettir, or land spirits who may fit into either or both of these +categories. IÕm inclined to lump them all together as similar beings +that we simply donÕt know enough about to tell apart. What is +important is that Asatru, like all Pagan religions, honors the natural +world and the earth very deeply. Whether one calls the spirits of the +land as the elves, the faeries, or the landvaettir, or uses all of +these terms interchangably, respect is all important. Asatru is known +for being one of the most politically ÒconservativeÓ of the modern +Pagan religions, but youÕll find few of us who arenÕt staunch +environmentalists. + +One of the most important spirits to honor is the house-spirit. +Folklore is also filled with stories of various spirits variously +called faeries, elves, kobolds, brownies, tom-tin, etc who inhabit a +house and see to its proper conduct. In the usual form of the tale, +they offer to perform some housekeeping functions, but eventually turn +on the owners of the house when they are insulted by overpayment. We +donÕt have any concrete evidence for how our ancestors honored these +beings, but this is not surprising because such a thing would not be a +2848 + +public observance and itÕs unlikely it would be recorded in the sagas +or Eddas. Folklore indicates that such beings should be honored with +a simple bowl of milk or perhaps beer, but no more. + +In general folklore does not paint the various elves and spirits as +particularly benevolent figures. With the exception of house spirits, +who as spirits of a manmade object are bound to us on some level, they +seem most interested in staying out of the dealings of mankind. There +are numerous stories of people who spy upon elf women and force them +to become their brides. Inevitably the women are unhappy and +eventually escape, leaving their husbands devastated. There are also +numerous stories of spirits who haunt the woods and who will drag +wayward travelers into rivers to drown or to some other untimely +death. When people do have dealings with the elves these beings seem +to operate on an entirely different set of expectations than we do. +Most of us would be gratified by the gift of a ÒbonusÓ from our +employer, yet time and time again in folklore this is the easiest way +to anger a house spirit. We know that elves were honored with blots, +but itÕs just as possible that these ceremonies were made in +propitiation to them rather than in kinship as are our blots made with +the Gods. We suggest caution in dealing with beings with a set of +values so foreign from our own. They should be approached in the same +way one would approach a person from a country whose ways are very +different. + +In general, weÕre also very reticent to make decisions about +classifying the various Òother peoples.Ó It would be very easy to draw +lines and place certain spirits into little boxes which label their +function, but that seems overly mechanical and of little utility. +Elves and other ÒwightsÓ are not human, and it might be too much to +try to classify them in other than subjective terms. ItÕs probably +best to simply make your intent clear, experiment, and use the terms +which work for you, remembering only to be true to the sources. + +Demi-Gods + +There are a whole classification of Gods which are not truly part of +the Aesir, Vanir, or even the Jotunn. Wayland the Smith is the best +example of this that we can offer. Wayland, called Volund in the +Norse version, is the greatest of smiths, but itÕs clear in the +mythology that he was more or less a human man. The myth tells of how +he lost his wife and was enslaved by a human King. While his powers +allow him to outwit and take vengeance on the king, itÕs clear +throughout that heÕs not on the level of a Thor or an Odin. What one +does about these demi-Gods or local Gods is a good question. I see +nothing wrong with pouring a blot in their honor and dealing with them +as you would any other God or Goddess. On the other hand, they are +not part of the Aesir and I think it might be disrespectful to honor +them with the Aesir or as part of a ceremony dedicated to the Aesir as +they seem of a different nature. + +Ancestor Worship: + +Honoring ones ancestors was one of the most sacred duties of the +Norsemen. One of the most important parts of greeting new people was +the exchanging of personal lineages at sumbel. The worship of the +Disir is closely linked to ancestor worship. However, it is difficult +for modern day Pagans to seriously engage in ancestor worship. We are +2849 + +for the most part without a strong connection to our heritage, and +even if we feel motivated we would probably need to skip at least a +thousand years back to find ancestors who would not have been appalled +by our Heathen beliefs. One substitution for ancestor worship in the +modern Asatru movement has been the veneration of heros from the Sagas +and legends of our people. + +The manner of how we honor ancestors is also somewhat troubling. I +reserve the blot ritual to Gods and other powers, and IÕm not sure if +itÕs appropriate to pour a blot to an ancestor, no matter how +important he was. ItÕs touchy when you are honoring someone that you +knew was a mortal. I think the most important part of ancestor +worship is remembering, and the sumbel seems the most important part +of that. + +While we discuss ancestry, I must mention that some modern Asatru +groups, in part because of holdovers from 19th century cultural +movements, have placed a great deal of emphasis on ancestry in terms +of race. Many have held that Asatru was a religion for whites or +Northern Europeans only. In my not particularly humble opinion, this +is pure idiocy. The basic argument for this is that people of other +cultures do not share the same background and values. This is +certainly true, but the key word in my opinion is culture, and all +Americans by definition share a culture. Also, while I admit I would +think it doubtful that people from outside of our own cultural +heritage would be attracted greatly to Asatru, if they are it is for a +reason and they should be welcomed and not shunned. It proves the +worth of our religion and way of life that it is so strong that one +would leave his own cultural path behind to take up ours. + +As far as culture is concerned, the ancestry of the ancient North is +alive and well in modern America. A thousand years ago settlers +sailed to Iceland to avoid the growing influence of powerful kings and +centralized government. This centralization of power was one of the +things which Roman Christianity brought with it. Two hundred years +ago we in America rebelled against our king for much the same reasons. +Our culture is much more profoundly influenced by the Vikings than +most would care to admit. Our law is based on English common law, +which in turn has roots in Norman and Saxon law. (Both the Saxons and +Normans were descended from Germanic tribes.) Our culture is based on +many of the same ideas which the Northmen held dear: the importance of +the individual and the belief that individual rights outweighed +collective rights. Thus, it is my assertion that we are all +descended, at least in part, spiritually from the ancient Norse. + +The Jotunn + +The Jotunn or giants are the sworn enemies of the Gods. While the +Aesir represent order and the Vanir represent the supportive powers of +nature, the Jotunn represent chaos and the power of nature to destroy +man and act independent of humankind. In the end, it is the Jotunn +who will fight the Gods at Ragnarok and bring about the destruction of +the world. + +In essence despite being called Giants or Ogres, the Jotunn are Gods +just as much as the Aesir or Vanir. In many cases they correspond +very closely to the Fomoire in Celtic mythology. Most simply put, the +Jotunn are the Gods of all those things which man has no control over. +2850 + +The Vanir are the Gods of the growing crops, the Jotunn are the Gods +of the river which floods and washes away those crops or the tornado +which destroys your entire farm. This is why they are frightening and +this is why we hold them to be evil. + +The Jotunn are not worshipped in modern Asatru, but there is some +evidence that sacrifices were made to them in olden times. In this +case, sacrifices were probably made Òto themÓ rather than shared Òwith +themÓ as was the case with the Vanir and Aesir. It would be +inappropriate to embrace them as friends and brothers in the way we +embrace our Gods. One doesnÕt embrace the hurricane or the wildfire; +it is insanity to do so. However, we must also remember that fact +that we see their actions as bad, they are not inherently evil. The +storm destroys the crops, but it also brings cleansing and renewal. +We humans are only one species on this planet and in the end we are +both expendable and irrelevant to nature. This is the manner in which +the Jotunn act, and it is not surprising that we see this as evil. + +However, one must also take into account the premonitions of Ragnarok +recorded in the eddas. If the Jotunn are merely amoral, why are they +the sworn enemy of the Aesir and why will they bring about the end of +the world? ItÕs possible that Jotunn was more of a catch-all term for +dangerous Gods rather than a reference to a specific family. (It is +the case in many languages that there is one word for people that +speak the language, usually translating as Òpeople,Ó and another term +for those persons of other cultures and tribes.) The dangerous forces +of nature are ÒJotunnÓ because we cannot control them, but there are +other forces, principally those of chaos, that are considered ÒJotunnÓ +as well. + +There is abundant evidence for this in the Eddas. Various Jotunn are +seen to marry into the Aesir without a great deal of trouble from the +Gods, but at other times the mere sight of one throws Thor into a +rage. The obvious conclusion is that they are more than one specific +race of deities. The destructive powers of nature were tolerated to +some extent, and often married into the Aesir bringing them more under +control. However, other ÒoutlanderÓ Gods were completely destructive +to the Aesir (and thus mankind) and the Gods only thought for them was +death. + + +The Religious Structure of Asatru + +The ancients, for the most part, did not have an organized system of +Temples or churches in the way that our society does today. Religion +was a very personal affair, mostly between the Gods and their +worshippers. If there was a formalized temple or perhaps a grove that +was dedicated to the Gods and tended as a temple it was most likely +built by a wealthy landowner and dedicated to his or her patron God. +Such a person would then, usually, become the Gothi (Priest) or Gythia +(Priestess) of the temple. Such temples were generally maintained by +the family after the builders death, the title being more or less +inherited by whomever was lord over the land. + +Today most Asatru groups are similarly unstructured. This has been a +problem because there is little in the way of religious education +other than in books such as this one and personal research. While +this sort of learning is fine, there are always some things left out +2851 + +and IÕm sure that mine will be no exception. There are a few groups +who are attempting to initiate training programs and present sets of +standards for people who would declare themselves to be Gothi or +Gythia, but these groups have unfortunately been somewhat inflexible +and dogmatic, seeming more interested in creating hierarchies than +with service to the Folk or Gods. + +Gothi is a honorary title only. It does not mark any administrative +power or rank within Asatru. One would probably not call oneself +Gothi unless one had some experience of deity and had led many +rituals, but as it entails power over no one and it is up to no one to +comment on ones qualifications or abilities. Similarly there is no +need for someone to be a Gothi or to have access to one in order to +practice our faith. While the more experienced might get more things +ÒrightÓ in the ritual, this is purely subjective and if your heart is +true to the Gods this is enough. + +Most persons who were given the title Gothi in the old days were +dedicated to a single God. The title most often formed their last +name: Thorolf Thorsgothi for example. This dedication to a God or +Goddess was usually part of oneÕs family heritage and was passed down +to your children. While there is no compelling reason why one cannot +act as Priest to the entire community of Gods and Goddesses, it is +most common for one to be dedicated to a single deity. A kindred may +have persons who are each dedicated to a different deity, or it may +orient itself towards a single deity as did families in the Sagas. + +The most basic unit of Asatru religious worship is the hearth or +homestead. This is nothing more than it sounds like: a household of +Asafolk who worship the old Gods and Goddesses. Several individuals +or hearths may group themselves into a Òkindred,Ó which is a term that +has many meanings to many different groups. Some kindreds have many +members and function like mainstream churches, others are more +familylike and attempt to hold to their privacy. The place of a +kindred is more or less analogous to a clan or small tribal group. A +kindred is made up of people you are familiar with and with whom you +meet in person and in itÕs best sense itÕs an organic grouping, +however itÕs not the same sort of bonding that one would find in a +single family or even in an extremely close knit group of friends. In +a true Pagan society, the kindred would be found on the level of a +farmstead or small village. + +The ritual blots are most commonly done on the level of the kindred, +or in meetings where more than one kindred comes together. The +rituals of a Hearth might be less formalized and more ÒhomeyÓ in +atmosphere. The blot ritual is based on a religious observance that +was part of the official public aspect of ancient Asatru, and its +likely that there were many other private rituals that would not +necessarily be appropriate for a kindred to take part in together. +For example, a kindred might not honor the individual family Dis or +the house-spirits unless all members of the kindred lived together or +were tied by blood as well as companionship. + +Most persons will want to join or found a kindred in their area, +however, before one runs out and begins to solicit people, you should +think about what you are doing. The very name of our groupings, +Òkindred,Ó implies a great deal more than does membership in a church. +Today we are accustomed to religious institutions that are more or +2852 + +less anonymous and sterile. A kindred should not be this way. While +we must be open to all, we need not act as if we were a public +facility with no more intimacy than a department store. It is best to +start small and gather people as they come to you. Once you are +established, get involved in the local Pagan community if you are not +already. Attend a few events of the local Leif Erikson society or the +Sons of Norway. Open one of your blots to the public and take note of +people who are attracted to Asatru. A kindred is something which +should form organically and cannot be pushed. On the other hand, +Asatru is not a secret religion or one open only to ÒinitiatesÓ as +many Neo-Pagan faiths are. We must be open to outsiders who are truly +interested. I am just cautioning against throwing people into a +kindred because they are available or it is the only group around or +they are too polite to say no. A roommate of mine related to me a +conversation he had with another person at an Asatru gathering. The +person remarked that Òthis is all very nice, but when do you think Joe +will get tired of this stuff.Ó My roommate being a seriously committed +Heathen straightened him out. The person in question was just a +friend of JoeÕs who went to Pagan events because of JoeÕs interest. +He assumed that the rest of the group was Òhumoring JoeÓ just as he +was. The moral of this story is that if people are not interested, +thereÕs nothing you can do about it. WeÕre not the Christians who +want anybody and everybody to join our faith, and we should pay just +as much attention to dissuading the dabblers and the kooks as we do to +attracting those who truly do have the love of the Old Gods in their +hearts. + +As to what makes one a Gothi, the requirements would vary from group +to group. Some might have written criteria, while others might leave +it up to the persons heart. Certainly a Gothi is one who has a long +term relationship with the Gods and Goddesses. One does not, for +example, simply read this book and then proclaim oneself Gothi! (I am +writing this book and donÕt consider myself to be a Gothi.) A +competent Gothi should have studied the Eddas and Sagas and know the +history of our religion. He or she should also know a bit about the +runes, and the other mysteries of our tradition. One should also note +that this is a public office and the Gothi of old had responsibilities +as leaders of the community. Most importantly one must be sincerely +dedicated. ThereÕs no push to move to a ÒhigherÓ level of the +Priesthood as there are in religions or magickal orders with Òdegree +systemsÓ and if you do not feel compelled to take on the +responsibilities of being a Gothi or Gythia, there is no need for you +to and much to say that you should not. + + +The Values of Asatru + +One of the basic functions of a religion is to offer a set of values +on which mankind is to base it's actions. This, sadly, is one area +where Paganism has often failed. The cult of anti-values has held +sway, taking moral relativism to extremes perhaps even farther from +common sense than fundamentalist moral legalism, even to the point +where I have heard rape, murder, and genocide defended on the basis of +"cultural differences." + +However, values remain important. All one needs to do is look at the +morning paper to see the results of a society that has in many ways +embraced the cult of anti-values. Thievery, murder, and plunder exist +2853 + +in our cities to extents which would have appalled our ancestorsÑno +matter how many times they went a' Viking. While this is hardly what +the Pagans who have embraced the cult of anti-values had in mind, it +is to my belief a natural outgrowth of the same basic philosophical +concept. The chaos in our country is the dark shadow of the modern +rejection of moral legalism. What should have been an evolution from +a legalistic moral/religious culture to one of flexible honor based +values and self-responsibility has instead become a morass of chaos +and immorality. The lesson we should all learn is that while there is +no definitive list of sins; right and wrong still exist. + +As usual Asatru offers a sensible solution. Our faith deals not in +legalisms and rules nor in unchecked chaos and relativism. We instead +acknowledge the existence of right and wrong, good and evil, but we +deal with actions according to basic philosophical concepts that are +applied by the keen intellect of Odin, the simple common sense of +Thor, and the solid honor of TyrÑthe gifts of the Gods to us. + +Asatru posits that the basic place of moral judgment is within the +human heart and mind. We as human beings with the gift of +intelligence are sensible and responsible enough to determine right +from wrong and act accordingly. The Gods teach us through the +examples of their lives, as chronicled in the Eddas, and through +various pieces such as the Havamal which directly offer us advice. In +the modern history of our faith, various Asatru organizations have +outlined simple sets of values which they hold up as simple guidelines +on how to live ones life. + +The Odinic Rite (the major Asatru group in England) has one of the +most cohesive and sensible of all those we've seen and this set has +been adopted by the Raven Kindred as an "official" statement of our +beliefs. We do this not only as a moral guide for our members, but +also to say to the world what it is that we stand forÑour good name in +the community being important to us. Finally, this list is used when +someone formally joins the Raven Kindred and we hold a sumble and +toast the 9 virtues to the new member in the hope that they will apply +them to their life. + +The Odinic Rite lists the 9 Noble Virtues as Courage, Truth, Honor, +Fidelity, Discipline, Hospitality, Industriousness, Self-Reliance, and +Perseverance. + +It would be hard to get much argument on any of these values from +anyone. They simply and briefly encapsulate the broad wisdom of our +Gods and ancestors. + +Courage + +In virtually every statement of values applied to Asatru, Courage is +listed first. As Stephen McNallen has said, courage and bravery are +perhaps the values which the Vikings are best known for. However, +despite our history, few of us face such turmoil as a literal battle +for ones life. In fact, I believe it might be easier to manifest +courage in such a situation than to do so in the many smaller day to +day occurrences in which courage is called for. + +The most common of these occurrences for modern Pagans, is the courage +to acknowledge and live ones beliefs. It is also, sadly, the one that +2854 + +we most often fail at. While we may often be full of the type of +courage that would lead us to face a shield wall, many of us quake at +the thought of the topic of religion coming up at the office or a +friend asking what church we attend. We won't offer easy answers, but +we ask this: if you toast the courage of your ancestors to fight and +die for what they believed in, can you trade away your religious +identity for a higher salary or social acceptance? + +In an essay on values there is also the question of moral courage. +The way of Tyr is difficultÑto lose ones hand for ones beliefsÑbut, +Tyr thought the price worth paying. In a million ways modern society +challenges our values, not just as Asatruar who are estranged from +mainstream religious practice, but for religious people in an +increasingly not just secular, but anti-religious culture. Values are +also not in favor in modern society. Breaking or getting around the +rules is encouraged to get ahead. Living honorably is simply too +inconvenient. I think most people, Asatru or otherwise, find this +repugnant, but the only way to change it is to have the courage to +refuse to take part in it. + +Truth + +The second virtue, that of Truth, is the one that most led our kindred +to embrace the Odinic Rite's statement of values as our own. Early in +our discussions, we decided that no matter what values we chose to +hold out as our own, truth must be among them. It is a word that +holds so much in its definition, and includes such a wide variety of +moral and philosophical beliefs that we were all drawn to it as a +simple statement of what we stood for. + +At least one of the reasons we wanted to adopt it was the simple issue +of honesty. As Bill Dwinnels said at a recent sumbel while toasting +truth and honesty: if you don't want people to know about something, +don't do it. Truth, in the sense of honesty, is essential to personal +honor and also to any system or morality that is not based on rigid +legalism. If one is to uphold an honor code, one must be brutally +honest with oneself and with others. + +Truth is also the Truth that comes with a capital TÑthe kind of Truth +that one talks about in terms of religion or morality. It's common to +talk of different peoples having different "truths," but it's equally +important to remember that while we acknowledge that each person or +people has their own belief as to what Truth is or where to find it, +there finally is a single Truth. This is not the Truth as we believe +it, but ultimate Truth. While we may respect other people's ÒtruthsÓ +and seek our own, we must never forget our search for The Truth. Like +the Holy Grail of Christian legend, it may never be ours to reach, but +when we cease to search we perish. + +Honor + +Honor is the basis for the entire Asatru moral rationale. If anything +comes out in the Eddas and Sagas it is that without honor we are +nothing. We remember two types of peoples from ancient times: those +whose honor was so clean that they shine as examples to us and those +who were so without honor that their names are cursed a thousand years +after they lived. Good Asatruar should always strive to be among the +former. +2855 + +However, honor is not mere reputation. Honor is an internal force +whose outward manifestation is reputation. Internal honor is the +sacred moral compass that each Asatruar and God should hold dear. It +is the inner dwelling at peace which comes from living in accordance +with ones beliefs and with ones knowledge of the Truth of what one is +doing. It is something deeply personal and heartfelt, almost akin to +an emotion. It's a ÒknowingÓ that what one is doing is right and +decent and correct. + +In many ways while the most important of all the virtues it is also +the most ephemeral in terms of description. It is all the other +virtues rolled together and then still more. The best way I have +found to describe honor is that if you are truly living with honor, +you will have no regrets about what you have done with your life. + +Fidelity + +Fidelity is a word that is far too often defined by it's narrow use in +terms of marital fidelity. By the dictionary it simply means being +faithful to someone or something. In marriage this means being true +to ones vows and partner, and this has been narrowly defined as +limiting ones sexual experience to ones spouse. While I have found +this to be great practical advice, many treat fidelity as if there +were no other ways in which one could be faithful or unfaithful. + +For we Asatruar fidelity is most important in terms of our faith and +troth to the Gods. We must remain true to the Aesir and Vanir and to +our kinsmen. Like marriage, Profession (the rite in which one enters +the Asatru faith, similar to Christian confirmation or Wiccan +initiation) is a sacred bond between two parties; in this case an +Asatruar and the Gods. In order for such a relationship to work, both +must be honest and faithful to each other. + +Asatru, although currently being reborn, is at its roots a folk +religion and we also uphold the value of fidelity to the ways of our +ancestors. This is why historical research is so important to the +Asatru-folk: it is the rediscovering of our ancient ways and our +readoption of them. + +Discipline + +In any discussion of the values of Asatru, discipline is best +described as self-discipline. It is the exercise of personal will +that upholds honor and the other virtues and translates impulse into +action. If one is to be able to reject moral legalism for a system of +internal honor, one must be willing to exercise the self-discipline +necessary to make it work. Going back to my earlier criticism of +society, if one rejects legalism, one must be willing to control ones +own actions. Without self-discipline, we have the mess we currently +see in our culture. + +Looking at discipline in terms of fidelity, we see a close connection. +Many Pagans go from faith to faith, system to system, path to path. +Asatruar are much less likely to do this. The discipline of keeping +faith with our Gods and the ways of our ancestors is part of our +modern practice. In this way, we limit ourselves in some ways, but we +gain much more in others. + +2856 + +Hospitality + +Hospitality is simply one of the strongest core values at the heart of +virtually every ancient human civilization. In a community/folk +religion such as our own, it is the virtue that upholds our social +fabric. In ancient times it was essential that when a traveler went +into the world he could find some sort of shelter and welcome for the +night. In modern times it is just as essential that a traveler find +friendship and safety. + +In our modern Asatru community, we need to treat each other with +respect and act together for the good of our community as a whole. +This functions most solidly on the level of the kindred or hearth +where nonfamilial members become extremely close and look out for +each other. It can mean hospitality in the old sense of taking in +people, which we've done, but in modern times it's more likely to mean +loaning someone a car or a bit of money when they need it (that's +need, not want). + +Part of hospitality is treating other people with respect and dignity. +Many of our Gods are known to wander the world and stop in at people's +houses, testing their hospitality and generosity. The virtue of +hospitality means seeing people as if they were all individuals with +self-respect and importance. Or perhaps from time to time, they are +literally the Gods in human form. This has profound implications for +social action in our religion. Our response to societal problems such +as poverty (that's poverty folks, not laziness) is in many ways our +modern reaction to this ancient virtue. + +In terms of our modern community as a whole, I see hospitality in +terms of frontier "barn raisings" where a whole community would come +together and pool their resources. This doesn't mean we have to +forget differences, but we must put them aside for those who are of +our Folk, and work for our common good. + +Industriousness + +Modern Asatruar must be industrious in their actions. We need to work +hard if we are going to achieve our goals. There is so much for us to +do. We've set ourselves the task of restoring Asatru to it's former +place as a mainstream faith and by doing so reinvigorating our society +and culture. We can't do this by sitting on our virtues, we need to +make them an active part of our behavior. Industry also refers to +simple hard work in our daily vocations, done with care and pride. + +Here's a few concrete examples. If you are reading this and don't +have a kindred, why not? Stop reading now. Go and place ads in the +appropriate local stores, get your name on the Ring of Troth, Wyrd +Network, or Asatru Alliance networking lists, and with other Pagan +groups. Put on a workshop. Ok, now you're back to reading and you +don't agree with what I'm saying here? Well, be industrious! Write +your own articles and arguments. Write a letter to the editor and +suggest this material be bannedÑbetter that than passivity. Get the +blood moving and go out and do it. That's how it gets done. The Gods +do not favor the lazy. + +The same holds true for our non-religious lives. As Asatruar we +should offer a good example as industrious people who add to whatever +2857 + +we're involved in rather than take from it. We should be the ones the +business we work in can't do without and the ones who always seem to +be able to get things done. When people think of Asatru, they should +think of people who are competent and who offer something to the +world. + +This doesnÕt just apply to vocational work, but to the entire way we +live our lives. It is just as much a mentality. The Vikings were +vital people. They lived each day to its fullest and didnÕt wring +their hands in doubt or hesitation. We should put the same attitude +forward in all that we do whether it is our usual vocation, devotion +to the Gods, or leisure time. + +Self Reliance + +Industry brings us directly to the virtue of Self-Reliance, which is +important both in practical and traditional terms. Going back to the +general notion of this article, we are dealing with a form of morality +that is largely self-imposed and thus requires self-reliance. We rely +on ourselves to administer our own morality. + +Traditionally, our folkways have always honored the ability of a man +or woman to make their own way in the world and not to lean on others +for their physical needs. This is one of the ways in which several +virtues reinforce and support each other. Hospitality cannot function +if people are not responsible enough to exercise discipline and take +care of themselves. It's for those that strive and fail or need +assistance that hospitality is intended, not for the idle who simply +won't take care of themselves. + +In terms of our relationships with the Gods, self-reliance is also +very important. If we wish the Gods to offer us their blessings and +gifts, we must make ourselves worthy of themÑand the Gods are most +pleased with someone who stands on their own two feet. This is one of +the reasons for the Asatru ÒruleÓ that we do not kneel to the Gods +during our ceremonies. By standing we acknowledge our relationship as +striving and fulfilled people looking for comradeship and a +relationship, rather than acting as scraelings looking for a handout +from on high. It takes very little for a God to attract a follower, +if worship simply means getting on the gravy train. We, as Asatruar, +are people who can make our own way in the world, but who choose to +seek a relationship with the Gods. + +In mundane terms being self-reliant is a simple way to allow ourselves +the ability to live as we wish to. In simple economic terms, if one +has enough money in the bank one doesn't need to worry as much about +being fired due to religious discrimination. We can look a bigot in +the face and tell him just where he can put it. It's also nice to +have something in the bank to lay down as a retainer on a good lawyer +so we can take appropriate action. + +On the other side of this is self-reliance in the sense of Henry David +Thoreau, who advocated a simple lifestyle that freed one from the +temptations of materialism. Again, here we are able to live as we +wish with those things that are truly important. Religious people +from all faiths have found that adjusting ones material desires to +match one's ability to meet them leaves one open for a closer +relationship with deity and a more fulfilling life. While our +2858 + +ancestors were great collectors of gold goodies, they didnÕt lust for +possessions in and of themselves, but for what they stood for and +could do for them. In fact, the greatest thing that could be said of +a Lord was that he was a good ÒRing Giver.Ó + +Being self-reliant also means taking responsibility for ones life. +It's not just about refusing a welfare check or not lobbying for a tax +exemption, but also refusing to blame ones failures on religious +intolerance, the patriarchy, or an unfair system. The system may, in +fact, be unfair, but it's our own responsibility to deal with it. + +In societal terms, we have become much too dependent on other people +for our own good. As individuals we look to the government or to +others to solve our problems and as a society we borrow billions from +our descendants to pay for today's excesses. Most problems in this +world could be solved if people just paid their own way as they went. + +Perseverance + +The final virtue is Perseverance which I think most appropriate +because it is the one that we most need to keep in mind in our living +of the other values. Our religion teaches us that the world is an +imperfect place, and nothing comes easy. We need to continue to seek +after that which we desire. In this imperfect world there are no free +lunches or easy accomplishmentsÑespecially in the subjects we have set +before ourselves. If we truly wish to build an Asatru community that +people will hold up as an example of what committed people can do, +then we must persevere through the hardships that building our +religion is going to entail. We must be willing to continue on when +we are pushed back. If one loses a job for ones religion, the answer +is not to go back and hide, but to continue until one finds a vocation +where one can more forward and live as an Asatruar should. + +Finally we must persevere when we simply fail. If one's kindred falls +apart because of internal strife, one should go back and start over. +Pick up the pieces and continue on. If nobody had done this after the +disintegration of the Asatru Free Assembly, this would probably never +have been written. We must be willing to continue in the hard work of +making our religion strongÑnot just when it is convenient and easy to +do so, but when it gets hard, inconvenient, or just plain boring. To +accomplish without striving is to do little, but to persevere and +finally accomplish a hard fought goal brings great honor. + +Appendices: + +Essays, Raven Kindred Information, Sample Rituals & Networking +Information + +Hailing the Sun: A Sample Blot to honor Sunna at the Summer Solstice + +This ritual would be ideally performed at sunrise on the day of the +summer Solstice. If possible the folk should gather while it is still +dark or even better, remain awake throughout the night in vigil. A +secondary time would be at noon on the Solstice. This ritual should +not be performed at night. + +At any point in this ritual, within the realm of logic and dramatic +flow, the parts marked as Gothi and Gythia may be shared among the +2859 + +folk. In addition, the parts are not necessarily sex specific, but +the terminology is used as a convenience. + +Set Up: An altar should be placed in the center and the folk should +form a circle around it, leaving space in the center for the ÒactionÓ +to take place. For this ritual you will need some sort of mead or +beer, a horn or chalice, an offering bowl, a hammer for consecrations, +and a wheel of some sort, preferably a wagon wheel to symbolize the +turning of the wheel of the year. Any reasonable tools may be +substituted. The Wheel is placed on the ground near the altar or on +the altar with candles around the rim (unlit). + +Consecration of space + +The Gothi goes to the center of the folk and forms the invocational +position of the elhaz rune, both hands in the air at a rough 45Õ +angle. + +Gothi: We gather here to honor our sacred lady Sunna, who on this +Solstice Morning, reaches her height of power. All hail Sunna! + +All: Hail Sunna! + +The Gythia takes the hammer and walks to each of the four corners and +consecrates the space. + +Gythia: Hammer, hallow and hold this holy stead, that it will be a +fitting place for our worship of our sacred lady Sunna! Hammar, Helga +ve thetta ok hindra alla illska! + +Gythia returns hammer to altar and faces the altar. + +Gythia: I consecrate and hallow this altar to the work of our sacred +lady Sunna! Here on this Solstice morning may the might of the Gods be +brought to our holy stead. May the warm light of Sunna heat our +hearts and hold our spirits. + +Gothi: Our holy lady watches and waits for the blot in her honor. +Hail Sunna! + +All: Hail Sunna! + +(At this point it would be most appropriate for a song or reading to +be performed. It should obviously be about Sunna or the sun or +something appropriate to the day.) + +Invocation + +Gythia: Our lady Sunna is the light of knowledge, the warmth of love, +and the heat of our passion. Let us spend a moment in silence, +contemplating those things which she brings us. + +Leave a few moments for silent prayers and meditation. + +Gothi: Holy Sunna. Lady of the Sun. Light of the heavens. Ever +pursued and ever free. We gather to greet and welcome you and offer +you gifts on this day. We offer to you our prayers and love, our +devotion and strength, our kinship and honor. +2960 + +All face the sun and form the elhaz posture. + +All: Hail to thee Sunna, light of Har newly risen. She whose holy +light shone upon our ancestors of old and she whoÕs light will shine +upon our children. We give you hail and welcome. Fill our hearts on +this Solstice morning with your warm rays that your fires may burn in +our hearts throughout the year. Hail Sunna! + +A few moments of silence are appropriate here. + +Blot + +Gothi: Now it is time to offer sacrifice to our holy lady. + +Gythia takes horn and Gothi fills it with mead. Gythia holds horn +above her head, in the direction of the sun. + +Gythia: Here is our sacrifice, the essence of our love and spirit. We +offer it to you as a token of our kinship and our love. As you drink +of it, may your power fill this holy hlaut and feed our spirits. + +Gythia drinks from the horn and it is then passed around the folk, +each taking a drink, with the horn returning to the Gythia. + +Gythia: Hail to thee Sunna! + +Gythia pours remainder of horn into the offering bowl. Gythia and +Gothi take the bowl and evergreen sprig and walk around the folk, +sprinkling the mead to the four corners and on the folk. Finally they +return to the center and sprinkle the wheel. + +Gothi: Hail the sacred wheel of the sun. Now it is the longest day of +the year and the sun is triumphant, but all changes and the wheel +turns. + +Gythia lights candles on the wheel and members of the folk take it up +and parade it around the grounds. A song or chant would be +appropriate at this time. ÒThe sun burns, the wheel turns!Ó for +example. Once the procession is done (this decision should be based +on the subjective feelings of those involved and not planned out) the +wheel should be returned to the altar. + +Gothi & Gythia assume the invocation position + +Gothi: Sacred Lady Sunna, Summer Sun now strongest. We thank you for +your blessings of warmth and light. May you reign long. + +All: Hail Sunna! Hail Sunna! Hail Sunna! + +Libation + +Gothi takes up the hlaut bowl. + +Gothi: Now our rite is ended and the sacrifice is made. The wheel +turns. To Sunna, to the Gods, to the Goddesses, and to Earth, mother +of us all, we offer this holy mead, from the Gods to the Earth To us. +From ourselves to the Earth to the Gods. Hail! + +2861 + +Gothi pours contents of the hlaut bowl on the ground, possibly in the +center of the wheel. If this ritual is done indoors, the libation +should be poured outside afterwards. We usually trek outside +immediately even if the ritual is an apartment. The physical action +of pouring the libation is an important psychological trigger to both +Gods and men that the ritual is over. + + +What Is The Raven Kindred? + +The Raven Kindred is a non-incorporated religious organization +dedicated to the worship and veneration of the ancient Nordic Gods and +Goddesses and to the religion of Asatru. We are centered around the +Worcester county area of Massachusetts and Southern Maryland/suburban +D.C. areas, but have members in Western Massachusetts, the Boston +area, and Connecticut. We welcome members from other areas, including +contacts through correspondence. + +The focus of the Raven Kindred is specifically the religion of Asatru. +While we honor our Pagan relations in the Wiccan community, we are +following a much different tradition. Our rituals are the blot or +offering and the sumble. Also while we are primarily involved as a +kindred in exoteric forms of worship, we have members who are +interested in seidhr, rune magic, and other esoteric pursuits within +the Nordic Tradition. + +We practice a fairly conservative version of Asatru trying to keep +close to our roots in the Asatru Free Assembly and Asatru Alliance +including a tribalist sense of who we are as a Folk. However, we are +also much more progressive in our social beliefs and politics and we +welcome all persons regardless of ethnic origin, sexual preference, or +political view. We hope to be a link between the Old and the New, +holding to our dear values of Faith, Folk, and Family while discarding +the prejudices that have held our religion back. + +Our goals for the future are quite far-reaching. We support the +movement to bring Asatru out of the shadows and to spread the Troth of +the Gods to all who are their natural children. More immediately we +intend to network with existing Asatru organizations, both local and +national, while also setting up other chapters of the Raven Kindred +and doing some networking on our own behalf. + +Attendence at Raven Kindred rituals is essentially open, although we +reserve the right to eject anyone who is disruptive as well as the +right to hold observances that are open only to Professed Asatru or to +Kindred Members. Full membership is available only to those who have +Professed Asatru and place their membership in the Raven Kindred above +other religious commitments. Decisions about the Raven Kindred are +made by a majority vote by Full Members. + +Currently the Raven Kindred holds a Blot on the first Saturday of each +month in Sturbridge Massachusetts and Wheaton Maryland. We also +gather at other seasonally appropriate times for Blots and other +activities. + +For more information on the Raven Kindred, Asatru, or our services +please contact us at the following addresses: + +2862 + +Raven Kindred Maryland/DC; 11160 Veirs Mill Rd L15-175; Wheaton MD +20902 Raven Kindred Massachusetts; P.O. Box 1137; Sturbridge MA +01566 Electronic mail may be sent via the internet to +lstead@access.digex.net + + +Raven Kindred Ritual Outline + +The Raven Kindred has developed a slightly different form of the Blot +ritual which we use. This has come to pass because of a desire for +more personal involvement as well as a smaller group of people than +would be appropriate for a major blot. + +The major change, outside of a few cosmetic differences, is that we +have added a Òmini sumbelÓ to the blot ritual in place of the +sprinkling in which we offer three rounds of toasts: the first +dedicated to the God or Goddess being honored and the remaining two to +anything the participants deem appropriate which is not inimical to +the purpose of the blot. (i.e. donÕt toast the Jotnar during a +ritual to Thor.) + +Setting the mood: Chant to Odin, Vili, Ve + +To begin each ritual we offer a three round chant of ÒOdin, Vili, Ve.Ó +This serves two purposes. First we are linking ourselves to the Gods +of creation and thus to the connections between Midgard and the Gods. +Second and perhaps more appropriately it allows people to get +themselves mentally prepared for the service. + +Hammer Rite + +We offer an invocation to Fire and Ice which are the central elements +of the creation of the world. We ask that the place we are meeting be +blessed and Holy for the coming of the Gods. + +Statement of purpose + +We far too often ignore this, but itÕs a good idea to have the Gothi +or Gythia who is presiding greet the participants and state something +general about the purpose of the ritual. It need not be complicated +ÒWe gather together today to celebrate the Winter Nights as our +ancestors did. To honor our ancestors, the Disir, and Freya the Great +Dis and to renew our bonds as a family [kindred].Ó + +General Prayer + +At this point one of our members usually offers up a prayer to the +Aesir and Vanir collectively to thank them for their bounty since the +last time we met and to ask their blessings upon the kindred and its +members. + +Personal invocations + +We reserve a time between the opening of the ritual and the blot +ceremony for people to offer any prayers or other invocations they +feel necessary. This is the time when we Profess new members of +Asatru. Other activities done at this time have included a kindred +member thanking Saga, the Goddess of wisdom, for her recent graduation +2863 + +from college. + +Invoke deity of occasion + +At this point we make a point to specifically invoke and honor the +deity that we are bloting. We attempt to list as many names and or +functions of the God as possible and this serves a dual purpose in +reminding the attendees of who the God is and why we are honoring Him. +This is, however, separate from the offering. + +Meditation + +At this point we like to remind ourselves why we are here and what the +Gods mean to us. We sit and someone either offers a spoken meditation +or more often reads a story from the mythology. While most of us +enjoy the poetic edda, we usually use a modern prose version of the +myth as it is easier to follow. + +Offer/sanctify mead + +The Gothi takes up the horn and his assistant (often called ÒThe +ValkyrieÓ by Asafolk) fills it with mead. The Gothi then steps to the +altar and holds the horn aloft and asks the God to partake of it and +charge it with his power. + +Toast to the deity of occasion + +This is when we begin to deviate substantially from the standard +Asatru blot ritual. Beginning with the Gothi the horn is raised and a +toast drunk to the God. The horn is then passed around to the Folk +and a personal toast repeated. The only rule here is that the round +is dedicated to the God invoked. Many times the toasts are personal +thanksgiving or requests for aid or wisdom. + +At the end of the round the remains of the horn (and there should be +some) are poured into the blotbowl. + +Remaining toasts + +We then take two more rounds to toast whatever Gods, ancestors, and +beings each person wishes. There is not necessarily any continuity +from one person to the next. Brags or oaths are also appropriate at +this time. Professions, other major oaths, and major works of +thanksgiving or praise are usually done before the blot. The second +and third toasts are usually reserved for small things. + +Thank deity + +Finally we always remember to thank the deity and ask for his +continued blessings on the Folk present. + +Oath Ring ceremony + +Our kindred has a ceremony that affirms our dedication to each other, +to the kindred, and to the Gods. Each full Professed and accepted +Kindred member comes forward and takes hold of the oath ring. (We are +blessed in having a 6Ó diameter brass oath ring made for us by a +kindred member.) One person then recites a rede concerning itself with +2864 + +the symbol of a ring and something which connects us to the Gods, the +Earth, and to each other. + +I should repeat, only kindred Members participate in this. If you +havenÕt sworn on the oath ring, you donÕt take part in the ceremony. +We have enlarged this at public events to all Professed persons, but +change the rede to remove references to the kindred. + +Pour libation + +Finally we leave the Hof and pour a libation on the physical earth, +adjourning outside to do so if we are indoors. The blot hitting the +ground signals that the ritual is truly over. When we are working +indoors in a living room or other non-dedicated space I always make +sure I am the first to return and extinguish candles, turn on electric +lights, etc. This provides a good hint to peopleÕs minds that the +ritual is, in fact, over. If we had a dedicated space, the procession +outside to pour the blot would also empty the Hof and we would adjourn +to the feast rather than returning to the temple. + + +Raven Kindred Calendar + +The Raven Kindred meets on the first weekend of each month and for the +four major Norse holidays: Summer and Winter Finding (Spring & Fall +Equinox), Summer Solstice, and Yule. Traditional festivals which have +been moved to fit our monthly schedule have their traditional date in +parenthesis. Festivals marked with a Ò*Ó are particular to the Raven +Kindred. There are other holidays which our kindred does not meet to +celebrate, but which are recognized by Asatru and celebrated on an +individual or family basis. + +Snowmoon/January + +1st weekend Ñ FrigÕs Distaff Ñ Celebration of Frigga and the home +(Trad.1/2) + +Horning/February + +1st weekend Ñ Disting Ñ Celebration of Freya and the Disir (Trad. +2/14 ) + +Lenting/March + +1st weekend Ñ Founding of the World. Celebration of Odin, Vili, and +Ve* + +3/21 Ñ Summer Finding - Celebration of the Goddess Ostara. Also a +celebration of the Raven KindredÕs founding, Spring Equinox 1991. + +Ostara/April + +1st weekend Ñ Alfarblot. Sacrifice to the elves and nature spirits +(traditionally celebrated as part of Disting) + +Merry-Moon/May + +1st weekend Ñ May Day/Walpurgis. Celebration of spring which we +2865 + +dedicate to Njord and Nerthus. (Trad. 5/1) + +Fallow/June + +1st weekend Ñ Festival of Mead dedicated to Aegir and also to Bygvir +and Beyla* + +3/21 Summer Solstice Ñ Dedicated to Sunna, Goddess of the Sun + +Haymoon/July + +1st weekend Ñ Blot in honor of Baldr* + +Harvest/August + +1st weekend Ñ Freyfaxi, first harvest and celebration of Frey and his +horse (Trad. 8/1) + +Shedding/September + +1st weekend Ñ Discovery of the Runes, celebration of Odin as the God +of Wisdom (Odinic Rite holiday celebrated 8/25) + +9/21 Winter Finding Ñ Disirblot (Disirblot traditionally 10/13-10/15) + +Hunting/October + +1st weekend Ñ Tyrblot, celebration of Justice and Honor. (Supreme +Court session begins 1st Monday in October)* + +Fogmoon/November + +1st weekend Ñ Einjerhar, celebration of war-dead and Ragnarok +Dedicated to Odin and Freya (Trad. 11/11 Ñ Armistice Day) + +Wolfmoon/December + +1st weekend Ñ Winterblot, dedicated to Skadi and/or Ullr* + +12/21 Ñ Yule, multiday festival dedicated to Thor et al (Traditionally +a festival lasting from the Mother Night 12/21 to New Years Day) + + +The Bylaws of The Raven Kindred of Asatru + +I. Purpose + +The Raven Kindred of Asatru is an unincorporated non-profit religious +association dedicated to the worship of the Old Norse and Germanic +Gods and the practice of the ancestral religion of Asatru. + +II. Membership + +A. Associate Membership in the Raven Kindred is open to all +practitioners of Asatru. No benefits are implied or guaranteed by +Associate Membership. + +B. Full Membership (aka Voting Membership) is obtained by a +2866 + +majority vote of the current full members then present. Each member +may vote yes, no, or to table the motion for 3 months. Candidates for +Full Membership shall have fulfilled the following qualifications +before being considered: 1) The candidate must have pledged troth to +the Aesir and Vanir. 2) The candidate must be willing to place +priority on his loyalties to Asatru and the Raven Kindred over other +spiritual commitments. 3) The Candidate must be willing to swear an +oath of membership to the Raven Kindred. + +C. Membership of any type will not be denied on the basis of +race, sex, or sexual preference. + +D. Full or Associate Membership may be revoked by a vote of two +thirds of the Full Members then present. + +E. Membership in the Raven Kindred of Asatru, either Associate or +Full, may be resigned by serving verbal notice at any function of the +Kindred or by written notice. + +III Governance + +A. Governance shall be by majority vote. Each Full Member shall +have one vote. Only Full Members shall vote, but any interested +parties shall be given reasonable access to address the Kindred. Full +Members may hold proxy for other Full Members. + +B. Such officers as needed shall be appointed for whatever terms +and functions the Kindred deems necessary. + +C. Meetings, during which the Kindred may conduct business, may +be scheduled by the Kindred as needed, but the Kindred shall meet not +less than once every six months. Any time that 50% of the KindredÕs +Full Members are met together, either physically or through other +interactive means, a meeting may be declared for the purpose of +conducting business. + +IV Alliances + +Subject to the restrictions in section V, the Raven Kindred of Asatru +shall seek out alliances with other groups of similar nature and +purpose for the betterment of our faith as a whole. + +V Independence + +The Raven Kindred of Asatru shall not sign any treaty or affiliate +with any group that would deny its independence as an entity or +control its internal affairs. In any alliances, affiliations, or +treaties, these By-Laws shall have precedence over any other +instruments signed by the Kindred. + +VI. Amendments + +These by-laws may be amended by a vote of 2/3 of all Full Members. +Any proposed amendments must be circulated to all Full Members in +writing 30 days before such amendments may be voted on. + +Sources and Resources for Asatru + +2867 + +Please note: This resource list is provided as is and is intended to +be comprehensive. The Raven Kindred doesnÕt necessarily endorse any of +the following organizations, publications, etc. + +Organizations: + +The Ring of Troth P.O. Box 25637; Tempe, AZ 85285-5637 The Ring of +Troth was founded by Edred Thorsson. He resigned in Spring of 2242 +(Runic Reckoning Ñ 1992 C.E.) and has been replaced by Prudence +Priest, most well known as the editor of Yggdrasil. + +The Ring is governed by an appointed High Rede of 9 persons who guide +the national affairs of the Ring. They offer a number of programs +include an Elder training program for prospective clergy, The Rune +Ring for study of the magical properties of the Runes from within a +Germanic Pagan context, and recognition for local Kindreds. + +The Ring of Troth requires that Òits members affiliate for cultural +and religious reasons rather than for racial and political reasons. +The use of the Ring of Troth as a platform for any type of political +or racial propoganda will not be toleratedÓ + +The Troth provides a quarterly magazine and a networking list. There +are also regional gatherings put on by individual Kindreds. Work is +currently underway on a book of rituals. + +Dues are $24 and include a subscription to Idunna. If one does not +wish to join, Friends of the Troth may receive Idunna for $24 as well. + +The Asatru Alliance of Independent Kindreds P.O. Box 961; Payson AZ +85547 + +The Alliance is the linear descendent of the Asatru Free Assembly. +They are a democratically run national confederation of independent +kindreds who meet once a year in an Allthing to conduct business. It +is essentially conservative and libertarian. ÒThe Alliance is based +upon the ancient model of tribal democracy known as the Thing, and +member kindreds support a code of laws we feel necessary to preserve +and protect Asatru from those who would dilute, subvert, or in any way +harm our religion. Membership in the Alliance is encouraged for those +who actively promote and believe in the Aesir and Vanir and our +collective Heathen Heritage. Anyone interested in joining the Alliance +should contact the kindred of choice for acceptance. There is no +membership in the Alliance except through a kindred. Applicants must +subscribe to the membership requirements of the kindred of choice and +uphold the bylaws of the Asatru Alliance.Ó This group has recently +adopted a declaration stating that Asatru is an ethnic religion, so +membership now seems to be limited on the basis of race. + +The Odinic Rite BM Edda; London, WCN 3XX + +The Odinic Rite BM Runic: London WCN 3XX + +These two organizations are each claiming to be the ÒtrueÓ Odinic +Rite. The BM Runic address is the older one, but the BM Edda address +seems to be producing more publications. IÕd suggest writing to both +and figuring it out on your own. The Odinic Rite is an organization +for the revival of Odinism in England. If one sends a few postal reply +2868 + +coupons I believe each will send you information. Both publish +magazines. + +Eagles Reaches P.O. Box 382; Deer Park TX 77536-0382 + +Eagles Reaches is now doing national organizing and correspondence +connections. + + +The Raven Kindred 11160 Veirs Mill Rd L15-175; Wheaton MD 20902 + +The Raven Kindred offers correspondence connections, regional +coordination, booklets and pamphlets. They also operate the Wyrd +Network, a correspondence network for Wiccans to discuss the +compability with and conversion to Asatru. + +Magazines: + +Vor Tru Ñ $12/year. The Journal of the Asatru Alliance (see above +address). Concentrates on community issues within the Alliance, news +of kindreds, letters, etc. Sometimes contains racist material. + +Idunna Ñ $24/year. The journal of the Ring of Troth. Idunna +concentrates on fairly heavy academic subjects, runelore, translations +etc within a religious framework. + +Mountain Thunder Ñ $18/year, 1630 30th St #266; Boulder CO 80301. +Glossy covered and well put together. Usually excellent articles on +relgious issues of Heathenry, scholarly stuff, reviews, and opinion. +Has devoted a lot of commentary to the Asatru community and where itÕs +going. + +Uncle ThorrÕs Newsletter Ñ $12/year, P.O. Box 080437; Staten Island NY +10308-0005. Simple newsletter with ranting and raving from Uncle Thorr +and company, news from NY, and articles on lifestyle, runes, and other +topics. + +Ask & Embla Ñ $12/year; P.O. Box 271; Carrollton OH 44615. Small +amateur production with commentary on Asatru and nothern lore. + +RavenÕs Cry Ñ Write for rates & sample; 11160 Veirs Mill Rd L15-175; +Wheaton MD 20902. Small iregular kindred newsletter + +Wyrd Network Newsletter Ñ Write for rates & sample; 11160 Veirs Mill +Rd L15-175; Wheaton MD 20902. Newsletter/letter exchange for Wiccans +interested in Asatru. + +The Runestone Ñ $10/year; P.O. Box 445; Nevada City CA 95959. +Published by Stephen McNallen & Maddy Hutter, this is the +reincarnation of the AFAÕs seminal journal on Asatru. Interesting +commentary, interested in heroic viking past. + +On Wings of Eagles Ñ$25/year; Eagles Reaches; P.O. Box 382; Deer Park, +TX 77536-0382 + +Odinism Today Ñ £8.50 (overseas) BM Edda; London; WC1N 3XX; +England/United Kingdom. A nice little quarterly with articles on +mythology, reviews, etc. +2869 + +ORBriefing Ñ $20 (overseas) BM Runic; London; WC1N 3XX; England/UK. A +small newsletter of happenings and opinion. + +Kindreds: + +American Church of Teutonic Life; 107 Court St, Suite 131; Watertown +NY 13601 Arizona Kindred; P.O. Box 961; Payson AZ 85547 (Asatru +Alliance) Asatru Fellowship; P.O. Box 271; Carrollton OH 44615 Asatru +Fellowship; 858 W Armitage Ste. 139; Chicago, IL 60614 Barnstokker +Hearth; P.O. Box 1972; Seattle WA 98111-1972 Bond of the Grae Wolf; +119 Waipapa Rd; Hataitai; Wellington 3, New Zealand CrowÕs Nest +Kindred; P.O. Box 3392; Galveston, TX 77552 Eagle Kindred; P.O. Box +1942; McCall, ID 83638 Eagles Reaches; P.O. Box 382; Deer Park TX +77536 (Ring of Troth) FreyaÕs Folk; 537 Jones St #165; San Francisco, +CA 94102 Gering Hall; 720 Huntington St; Watertown, NY 13601 Hammer +Oak Kindred; 2626 35th Ave; Oakland, CA 94619 Hammerstead Kindred; +P.O. Box 22379; Lexington, KY 40522-2379 Helga Ve Kindred; P.O Box +531; Bouse, AZ 85325 Heritage and Tradition; CP 244, Succ. P.A.T.; +Montreal Quevec, H1B 5K3 Canada Hlidhskjalf Kindred; 1513 Thurlow St; +Orleans, Ontario K4A-1D8; Canada Hrafnaheimr; 7162 Melrose Ave; Los +Angeles, CA 90046 Irmunsul Hearth; P.O. Box 18812; Auston, TX 78760 +(Ring of Troth) Midgard Kindred; P.O. Box 4071; Toledo, OH 43609 +Mountain Moot; P.O. Box 328; Elizabeth CO 80107 Nerthus Heart; 27 Gap +Rd; Black Hawk CO 80422 Niumd Baqra Kindred; P.O. Box 4371; Sunland, +CA 91041 North Carolina Kindred; Rt 3 Box 113; Laqwndale, NC 28090 +Northern California Kindred; P.O. Box 445; Nevada City CA 95959 N. +Ancestral Runic Fellowship; P.O. Box 199045; Indianapolis, IN 46219 +Norvegr Kindred; 219 Lewis St; Wash Court House OH 43160 Ocean +Kindred; P.O. Box 09007; Staten Island, NY 10309 Raven Kindred North; +P.O. Box 1137; Sturbridge MA 01566 Raven Kindred South; 11160 Veirs +Mill Rd L15-175; Wheaton, MD 20902 Saehrimner Kindred; 1861 County Rd +1114; Cullman, AL 35055 Skelland Kindred; P.O. Box 7608; Clearwater FL +34618 ThorrÕs Hammer Kindred; 9461 Bella Vista Rd; Apple Valley CA +92308 Torwald Kindred; 1630 30th St #266; Boulder CO 80301 Ullsbekk +Kindred; P.O. Box 1156; Denver, CO 80201 Vinland Kindred; P.O. Box +15431 PSS; Stamford CT 06901 (Asatru Alliance) Vlissinger Hearth; 3016 +154th St; Flushing, NY 11354 Wotan Kindred; 8117 NE 32nd St; +Vancouver, WA 948662 Wulfing Kindred; P.O. Box 18237; Chicago IL 60618 +(Asatru Alliance) Yggdrasil Kindred; 1709 West Midvale Village Dr; +Tucson AZ 85476 + +Recommended Books: + +The Poetic Edda, Lee Hollander translation (basic mythology in an +excellently translated poetic version.) + +The Prose Edda, Jean Young translation (basic mythology) + +The Norse Myths, Kevin Crossley Holland (basic mythology in modern +language and retelling, excellent for readings or meditation) + +A Book of Troth by Edred Thorsson (Not my favorite author and not a +book without many imperfections, but the only mass market book of the +basic rituals of Asatru) + +Teutonic Religion by Kveldulfr Gundarsson (basic text on modern +Germanic Paganism. I also recommend his book on runes Teutonic Magic.) + +2870 + +The Raven Kindred Ritual Book (basic text on Asatru ritual and +beliefs, $5 from the Raven Kindred South, checks made out to Lewis +Stead, available for free download from online services or the +Moonrise BBS at (301)Ê5939609 or by e-mail from +lstead@access.digex.net + +The AFA Rituals, three volumes available from World Tree Books ($18 +from World Tree) The original ritual volumes from the Asatru Free +Assembly. + +Introduction to Ritual and Invocation Tape ($7 from World Tree Books) +A basic cassette tape that goes through a ritual step by step, the +other side is a variety of invocations and prayers. + +The last two are from World Tree Publications; P.O. Box 961; Payson AZ +85547 (checks payable to the O.F. of Arizona). World Tree is a service +of the Asatru Alliance and carries a number of tapes and booklets as +well as ThorÕs Hammers and statuary. + + +Computer Network Resources: + +There is a Runes & Asatru conference on the Pagan/Occult Distribution +System (PODSnet). This network has nodes around the world and BBSes +drop in and out of the network. The following are long term stable +boards: The Mountain Oracle, Colorado: 719-380-7886, Baphonet, New +York: 718-499-0513, Mysteria, California: 818-353-8891, Sacred Grove, +Washington State: 206-634-1980, Moonrise, Maryland/DC: 301-593-9609, +PandoraÕs Box, Ottawa Canada: 613-829-1209, PODS, Sydney Australia: +61-2-833-1848, PODS Melbourne Australia: 61-3-796-2180 + +The Troth Line is an internet mailing list for Asatru and The Ring of +Troth. For subscription information send an E-Mail message to +mimir@u.washington.edu. The list itself is at +troth-l@seanews.akita.com. The internet is accessable through America +Online, CompuServe, Delphi, and tens of thousands of other locations. + +Please send additions and corrections to Lewis Stead; 11160 Veirs Mill +Rd L15-175; Wheaton MD 20902 or through e-mail to +lstead@access.digex.net. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2871 + + Bulb Planting Earth Chant + By: Eileen + + + breath of the stone is strange to me + i know it lives as i can't see + force of the earth is strong and free + sustenance and beauty be + + born of the stars and sprang from the ground + Mother, Goddess all around + Wheel must turn as the seasons show + what lies dead shall surely grow + RITUAL FOR WOMEN RECLAIMING THE GOD + + The session begins with everyone telling how the figure of the + God had been "spoiled" for them -- ie, by patriarchal and/or +sexually repressive religions, by the destructive aspects of male +energy (war, domination), etc. + + The altar is decorated with symbols of the God -- ours had +antlers, a crystal phallus, grain & grapes, a plastic goat from a +Celebrato Doppelbock beer bottle, an abstract figure of Baron Samedi (a +T shape made of dowels and dressed in a black frock coat with a top hat, +a red scarf, and a cane), a couple of statues of Chinese sages or bod- +hisattvas. + + I. Quarters: E - Myrddin, S - Weyland, W - Taliesin, N - Freyr + (sorry this is so sketchy; I just improvised them on the spot. +Check out their respective mythologies for ideas on how to invoke them) + +II. Guided Meditation + + GROUND AND CENTER. SINK INTO THE EARTH. ALL AROUND YOU, THE +BREATHING OF SISTERS BECOMES THE BREATHING OF THE WORLDS' WINDS. THE +HEAT OF OTHER BODIES BECOMES THE FIRE OF ALL LIFE. THE RUSH OF BLOOD +IN YOUR EARS BECOMES THE MURMURING OF THE SEA. THE FLOOR BECOMES A +RICH, LOAMY FIELD, FRESH PLOUGHED. + + FEEL THE SOIL. RUB IT BETWEEN YOUR FINGERS. SEE IT AND SMELL +IT. IT IS DARK, ALMOST BLACK. IT SMELLS OF COMPOST,SOMEHOW SMOKY. IT +IS SMOOTH, CRUMBLY, FREE OF ROCKS, FIRM TO SUPPORT ROOTS BUT LOOSE TO +LET THEM SPREAD. THIS IS MOTHER. LIE DOWN UPON HER BODY AND EMBRACE +HER; FEEL HER WARMTH, WARMTH FROM THE SUN, SEEPING INTO YOU, COMFORTING +YOU. + + RISE UP. AT YOUR SIDE, HANGING FROM YOUR SHOULDER, IS A BAG. +WHEN YOU REACH INTO IT, YOUR HAND COMES OUT FULL OF SEEDS. WALK BACK +AND FORTH IN THE FIELD, SCATTERING THE SEEDS. FEEL THE SOIL GIVE UNDER +YOUR FEET. FEEL THE SUN OVERHEAD; IT IS HOT, AND YOU ARE GETTING +TIRED. KEEP ON, RHYTHMICALLY REACHING INTO THE BAG AND CASTING THE +SEEDS ABROAD. YOUR SWEAT RUNS OFF YOU INTO THE FURROWS, SOAKING INTO +THE SOIL. NOW THE WHOLE FIELD IS PLANTED. NOW YOU CAN SIT AT THE +FIELD'S EDGE AND REST. + + YOU ARE TIRED. YOU FEEL AS THOUGH YOU COULD REST FOR DAYS. YOU +SIT EASY, BALANCED, ROOTED LIKE A STONE. YOU ARE A STONE. YOU ARE THE +GUARDIAN STONE OF THIS FIELD. YOU WATCH, AS DAYS PASS. SLOWLY, +2872 + +SLOWLY, THE SUN ROLLS OVERHEAD, CLOUDS FILL THE SKY AND EMPTY OVER THE +FIELD WITH THUNDER AND LIGHTNING. SLOWLY, SLOWLY, THE FIELD TURNS FROM +BROWN TO GREEN, AS THE FIRST SPROUTS FORCE THEIR WAY FROM THE SOIL. +DAYS PASS. WEEKS PASS. THE SPROUTS LOOK FIRST LIKE GRASS, THEN STALKS +APPEAR AND GROW EVER LONGER. AT THE TOP OF EACH STALK, SWELLINGS +BECOME NEW SEEDS. THE CLUSTERS OF SEEDS GROW, BLANKETED IN THEIR +CHAFF, THE HEADS OF GRAIN GROW BRUSHY, BEARDED. THE GRAIN TURNS GOLD +FROM GREEN; THE HEADS BOW DOWN UNDER THE WEIGHT OF THEIR SEED. + + AND NOW YOU SEE PEOPLE COMING INTO THE FIELD, WOMEN WITH SICKLES +IN THEIR HANDS. THEY ARE SINGING A DIRGE, A MOURNING SONG. THEY COME +INTO THE FIELD AND CUT THE STALKS, KILLING THE PLANTS! YOU ARE A +STONE, BUT YOU FEEL YOUR HEART BREAK WITH GRIEF FOR THIS KILLING. +SOON, ONLY STUBBLE IS LEFT; THE WOMEN HAVE TAKEN THE GRAIN AWAY. +BEFORE LONG, MORE WOMEN COME, AND SET FIRE TO THE STUBBLE. YOU FEEL +THE HEAT OF IT WARMING YOUR STONE BODY. YOU FEEL CRACKS OPEN INSIDE +YOU. SOON, THE FIRE BURNS OUT, AND THE FIELD IS LEFT BLACK AS IT +BEGAN. THE WOMEN RETURN WITH SEEDS, PLANTING AS BEFORE. THE WEATHER +TURNS COLD, AND YOUR STONE-SELF CRACKS APART; PIECES OF YOU FALL ONTO +THE FIELD. + + YOUR AWARENESS IS IN THE FIELD NOW, IN THE SEEDS. SLEEPING IN +THE EARTH, UNDER THE SNOW. WITH SPRING, YOU FEEL THE EARTH WARMING, AND +YOU KNOW WITHOUT KNOWING HOW THAT THE SUN IS ABOVE YOU. YOU PUSH +UPWARD, TOWARD THE UNSEEN SUN. YOU SEND DOWN A TAP ROOT TO HELP PUSH +YOU UP AND TO FEED YOU, AND IN THE OTHER DIRECTION YOU SEND A SHOOT +WITH TWO LEAF BUDS. BEFORE LONG, YOU BURST OUT INTO THE SUNLIGHT. ALL +AROUND YOU ARE OTHER PLANTS. AS THE DAYS PASS, YOU GROW WITH THEM. +WHEN THE THUNDERSTORMS COME, YOU FEEL THAT THIS RAIN IS RICHER, AND YOU +FEEL BLESSED. SEEDS DRINK RAIN AND EAT SUNLIGHT AND GROW HEAVY UPON +YOU. YOU CANNOT HOLD THEM UP; THEY PULL YOU DOWN. YOU ARE OPPRESSED, +AND AT A STANDSTILL. YOU SENSE MOVEMENT IN THE FIELD, AND THEN THERE +IS A SHARP PAIN! YOU ARE CUT OFF FROM YOUR ROOT! YOUR POWER TO +TRANSFORM SUNLIGHT SLIPS AWAY FROM YOU LIKE BLOOD! YOU ARE DYING! YOU +ARE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOUR MOTHER FIELD AND THROWN ON A HARD FLOOR. YOU +ARE BEATEN, BROKEN APART, SCATTERED. YOU ARE DEAD. + + BUT SOME AWARENESS REMAINS WITH YOU. YOU FEEL THE PIECES OF +YOURSELF GATHERED UP IN HUMAN HANDS, AND THEN SCATTERED AGAIN, THIS TIME +ON SOFTNESS. IT IS MOTHER! THEY HAVE RETURNED YOU TO MOTHER! AND NOW +YOU ARE MORE THAN YOU WERE BEFORE; BEFORE YOU WERE A SINGLE PLANT -- NOW +YOU ARE A DOZEN PLANTS. THE CYCLE IS REPEATED, ALL OF YOUR SELVES ARE +KILLED AND THROWN ABOUT, AND NOW YOU ARE HUNDREDS OF SELVES! YOU DIE, +YOU ARE TORN APART, YOU ARE REGATHERED, AND REBORN. YOUR HUNDREDS OF +SELVES SPEAK IN THIS VOICE: EVEN THIS AM I, AND I AM GOD. + + COME BACK TO YOUR ONE SELF NOW, YOUR ONE HUMAN SELF. YOU ARE +SITTING BESIDE THE FIELD, WHERE YOU SAT DOWN, WITH THE EMPTY SEED BAG AT +YOUR SIDE. YOU LEAVE IT THERE, YOU RISE UP, AND TURN AWAY FROM THE +FIELD, TO THE WOODS AT THE BACK OF THE FIELD. YOU FEEL LEAF MOULD AND +TWIGS UNDERFOOT. ALL AROUND YOU YOU SEE LIFE SPRINGING UP OUT OF DEATH. +WHERE TREES HAVE FALLEN, NEW PLANTS ARE GROWING UP THROUGH THE ROTTING +TRUNKS. WHERE ANIMALS HAVE DIED, THEIR BODIES HAVE DECAYED TO PROVIDE +FOOD FOR THE PLANTS ALL AROUND. ALL AROUND YOU, LIFE IS LIVING OFF OF +DEATH; THIS IS THE NATURE OF LIFE, ITS HORROR AND ITS WONDER. YOU HEAR +A NOISE NEARBY AND TURN TO LOOK; THERE IS A MAGNIFICENT STAG JUST ON THE +OTHER SIDE OF A BUSH; YOU BLINK, AND IT IS GONE. WAS IT ONLY BRANCHES? + +2873 + + EVERYWHERE AROUND YOU, GREEN THINGS ARE FULL OF THE FIRE OF +LIFE, AS ARE YOU. YOU FEEL LIFE THRILLING THROUGH YOU, LIKE ELECTRIC- +ITY. SOMETHING ELSE IS EXCITING YOU -- WHAT IS IT? YOU CANNOT QUITE +TELL. IS IT A SCENT, A SOUND, A SENSE? SOMETHING, THERE ON THE EDGE OF +YOUR HEARING, SOMETHING YOU CAN ALMOST TOUCH, A FAINT SCENT YOU +HALF-REMEMBER. WHAT IS IT? YOU ARE AROUSED AND DETERMINED TO TRACK +DOWN THE SOURCE. + + EVERYWHERE YOU TURN, YOU SEE GLIMPSES, HALF-SEEN, OF SOMETHING. +SOMETHING FLITTING THROUGH THE TREES. IS IT A DEER? A WILD BOAR? A +FERAL GOAT? A BEAR? ON THE BUSHES YOU FIND TUFTS OF HAIR. BEFORE YOU +YOU SEE TRACKS -- CLOVEN HOOVED, TOED, CLAWED. WHAT ARE YOU FOLLOWING? +DO YOU DARE GO ON? ALL AROUND YOU IS THE PULSING OF ELEMENTAL FORCES: + THE FIRE OF LIFE, THE WIND OF BREATH, THE WATER OF BLOOD, THE EARTH, + THE EARTH, THE EARTH, POWERFUL AND DARK AND UNKNOWABLE. + + ABOVE YOU, THE SKY DARKENS, THE WIND RISES. YOU HEAR THUNDER +AND THE BAYING OF HOUNDS, CRYING FOR BLOOD AND DEATH. YOU TREMBLE WITH +FEAR AND EXCITEMENT; WHITE HOUNDS WITH RED EARS BURST OUT OF THE BUSHES, +SURROUNDING YOU. THEY GROWL -- BUT THEY ARE WAGGING THEIR TAILS. ARE +YOU THEIR PREY, OR THEIR MASTER? YOU FEEL ANTLERS ON YOUR OWN BROW; ARE +YOU THE STAG THEY HUNT, OR THE HUNTER WHO CARES FOR THEM? NOW THERE ARE +PEOPLE WITH THE DOGS, AND YOU FEEL THE LOVE OF THE PEOPLE, THE RESPECT. +YOUR DEATH WILL FEED THEM, GIVE THEM THEIR NEEDS, AND THEY ARE GIVING +YOU THEIR LOVE. YOU KNOW THEIR HUNGER, AND YOU FEEL GREAT COMPASSION +FOR THEM. YOU LIE DOWN AND LEAVE YOUR BODY TO THEM; THEY SING WITH JOY +AS YOUR SELF FLIES UP OVERHEAD, OUTWARD, SPREADING, INTO THE TREES AND +PLANTS AND ANIMALS AND EVERYTHING. + + YOU ARE SUDDENLY OVERWHELMED BY THE FEELING THAT YOU ARE BEING +CAUGHT UP IN THE COSMOS; YOU ARE EVERYTHING AND NOTHING; YOU ARE NOT +YOURSELF; YOU HAVE NO SELF; YOU FEEL A SUDDEN, UNREASONING TERROR; YOU +ARE STILL; YOU ARE ALL. + + SLOWLY, SOMETHING BREAKS INTO YOUR FEAR. YOU HEAR A SWEET, LOW, +BREATHY PIPING. THE PIPING CALMS YOU, AND YOU KNOW NOW IN YOUR HEART +THAT YOU ARE ALWAYS A PART OF EVERYTHING AND EVERYTHING IS WITHIN YOU. +YOU ARE STILL; YOU ARE ALL; YOU ARE LIFE AND DEATH AND REBIRTH; WITHIN +YOUR OWN HUMAN BODY IS THE MICROCOSM OF ALL THAT IS. THE GREEKS NAME +THIS ALL "PAN". + + YOU STAND BACK IN THE WOOD, HEARING THE MUSIC, SMELLING THE +SMELLS OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS, FEELING THAT PULSE OF POWER FILLING YOU, +INFORMING YOU, EMPOWERING YOU. YOU ARE ECSTATIC! YOU TAKE TO YOUR +TOES AND DANCE WITH JOY! AROUND YOU, ANIMALS COME OUT OF THE FOREST TO +DANCE WITH YOU, REJOICING IN LIFE! + + YOU SEE THE LIGHT OF THE SUN FILTERING DOWN THROUGH LEAVES, AND +THE LIGHT SEEMS TO TAKE A SHAPE. WHAT IS THAT SHAPE? WHO DO YOU SEE? +THE GOD STANDS, SMILING, WELCOMING, BEFORE YOU. WHO IS HE? HE IS ALL +THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE; WHAT IS HE TO YOU? HIS EYES ARE SAD AND WARY AS +A DEER'S. HOW WILL YOU DEAL WITH HIM? HE REACHES OUT TO YOU; YOU HAVE +BEEN AS HE, YOU HAVE DIED AND RISEN, YOU HAVE BEEN THE LIFE OF WILDNESS, +YOU KNOW THAT HE HAS BEEN WITHIN YOU AS YOU; WILL YOU WELCOME HIM BACK +AS HE, THE GOD? + + YOU DO TOUCH HIM, AND WELCOME HIM. HE THROWS BACK HIS HEAD TO +LAUGH FOR JOY! AND NOW YOU DANCE TOGETHER, AS ONE, FOR YOU ARE ONE. +2874 + +SIT UP. FEEL YOUR BODY! TOUCH YOUR BODY AND FEEL YOUR FLESH, FEEL THE +HEAT OF LIFE UNDER YOUR FLESH. BREATHE AND FEEL THE WIND WITHIN YOU. +MOVE, AND FEEL THE JOY OF THE DANCE! RISE UP, AND DANCE THIS INVOCA- +TION! + + HE IS THE STORM THAT SCOURS THE LAND + HE IS THE GUIDE OF HIDDEN WAYS + HE IS THE HOLLY AND THE OAK + HE IS THE HUNTER AND THE PREY + HE IS THE LORD OF STAG AND BEAR + HE IS THE SLAYER AND THE SLAIN + HE IS THE BLADE OF SACRIFICE + HE IS THE BLOOD THAT HEALS ALL PAIN + HE IS THE WORD THAT MADE THE WORLDS + HE IS THE SONG IN EVERY THROAT + HE IS THE IVY AND THE GRAPE + HE IS THE LORD OF RAM AND GOAT + HE IS THE HEAT IN LIMB AND LOIN + HE IS THE RAPTURE AND THE FRIGHT + HE IS THE FIRST LORD OF THE DANCE + HE IS THE FLAME UPON THE HEIGHT + HE IS THE SOWER AND THE SEED + HE IS THE STONE BESIDE THE TRACK + HE IS THE BEARDED HEADS OF GRAIN + HE IS THE LEAF AND BRANCH AND BARK + HE IS THE LORD OF HORSE AND BOAR + HE IS THE BLACKTHORN ON THE MOUND + HE IS THE PULSE OF WOODLAND'S HEART + HE IS THE HOME AND HOLY GROUND + HE IS THE SALMON IN THE POOL + HE IS THE WINNER OF THE MEAD + HE IS THE HAZEL AND THE ASH + HE IS THE SECRET IN THE REED + HE IS THE SPEAKER OF THE RUNE + HE IS THE CORACLE ON SEA + HE IS THE SWALLOWED AND REBORN + HE IS THE RIDER OF THE TREE + + When all have danced to satiation, bring the dancing to a close, + then say: + + LOOK AROUND AND SEE THE ALL IN YOUR SISTERS! REACH OUT AND +EMBRACE THE GOD YOU SEE THERE! + +Feel the presence of the God + + What/how do you feel now? + diff --git a/religious documents/2874-290.txt b/religious documents/2874-290.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3d8bad --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/2874-290.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1604 @@ +2874 + + T.O.P.Y is..... + +No matter how often we stress that thee Temple seeks to create a sense +ov fierce individuality, that it is for each Individual to redefine and +redesign TOPY within themselves to meet their own needs, thee questions +still arise: What is TOPY? What is thee Psychick Cross? What is thee +significance ov 23? It seems that there is still a need, or at least a +belief that such things should be cast in black and white, for a clear, +concise description ov exactly how TOPY should be viewed, ov how its +signs and symbols should be interpreted. Not that such questions can be +answered, certainly not in a way that would remain specific enough to +satisfy thee enquiring, yet broad enough to remain true to thee +multitude ov Individuals who make up thee Temple. As we have said +before, and no doubt will say again, TOPY exists to promote a system ov +functional, demystified magick, utilising both pagan and modern +techniques. + +It is a process ov individual and collective experimentation and +research with no finite answers, dogmas or unchallengeable truths. It is +for each to discover his or her own understanding ov thee questions that +suggest themselves, and through that voyage ov discovery to find their +personal and true identity, thee True Will. To set down on paper +pre-packaged responses would be to deny thee opportunity for self-expre- +ssion, to defeat thee purpose for which we are all striving. Worse than +this, it would take away thee fun, thee simple joy ov finding things out +for ourselves. + +Thee following texts are drawn from a variety ov sources, but all deal +with thee most common questions that are asked. Some are written by +Individuals with considerable experience ov TOPY methods, others by +those who are new to thee Temple. Some are taken from letters clarifying +ideas or criticising TOPY, others from more general places. We have +taken much from thee many responses we have had to thee Skills Access +form all Temple Individuals are asked to complete. Thee views expressed +are entirely those ov thee individual authors. They have been edited to +fit into thee structure ov this booklet, but in all cases we have taken +care not to distort what has been said, or to interpret what we as +individuals may find unclear. This is thee Temple talking to thee Temple +- a communion and communication ov Individuals to Individuals. + +Before we go further, it should be remembered that people are attracted +to TOPY for many different reasons, that there is nothing consistent, +nothing to categorise. There are those who claim to know nothing, and +those who presume to know it all. This changes in time, as thee Temple +draws out strengths and eliminates weaknesses. + +Everyone, without exception, who gets in touch with thee Temple is urged +to demonstrate their interest by setting out their own thoughts and +ideas, a first step in showing a commitment to what thee Temple stands +for. We are pleased that those who think they know little are at least +as able to respond as those with greater experience. There is no "right +response", and no shame in honesty. We thank all those who have +contributed to thee publication ov this booklet, and urge everyone who +reads it to follow their lead. As information flows in, so we will +ensure that it flows out. That is thee meaning ov Feedback, a continuity +ov expression flowing both in and out, creating a new understanding, a +new sound, a new dimension. + +2875 + +T.O.P.Y. is action against dissatisfaction in a society that is passive +not peaceful (aiming for the throat) + + +From the Institute Of Positive Pagan Nihilism +to the passionate process that enfolds +(but does not control) +there is hope through energy. + + +Energies directed and multiplied, +energies conformed then deformed +energies facilitating psychick enemas. +To purge and purify, +to pain and putrefy. + + +To communicate is to cure. + + +----------------------------------------- + +Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth is a collective body ov Individuals, all +working together towards a common goal. It is about thinking deeply +about oneself, questioning one's role in a so-called free society. + +Man is essentially a robot: he has set programmes imposed on his life, +even before he is born. Whatever Man does he should do with passion. He +should rise above thee imposed trappings ov society. Involvement with +thee Temple is purely active and positive, thee bottom line being: "I +don't want to lead a pointless existence, following and accepting thee +indoctrination ov a worthless society. + +With Man's progress, our self-destructive nature drives us all further +from our true selves. In thee Temple we are a group ov people trying to +halt this process by turning into ourselves and helping others to +accomplish thee same. From birth, a person is conditioned to conform to +thee accepted laws and morals ov thee society in which they find +themselves - each institution and aspect ov our culture is intertwined +with guilt and fears in order to push us on to thee acceptable path. +Society is thus so easily capable ov moulding one into a flat, one-dime- +nsional person (thee socially acceptable yet controlled person). TOPY +goes to thee root ov thee problem, challenging us to honestly reveal our +innermost needs, expectations and desires, ov bringing them to con- +sciousness in the hope ov breaking society's Chain ov Control. + +Involvement with TOPY can stem from an interest in investigating thee +potentialities ov thee brain: knowledge that has been massively +suppressed by those in Power. It includes making known information on +both a political/conspiracy level, and on thee level ov an Individual's +control over their own life. We have been taught to view thee State as +a crutch to lean on, to fill our heads with pre-packaged ideologies that +avoid thee need for us to think for ourselves and which create a society +ov dead, bored, apathetic people. TOPY counters this by fighting +conditioning and by allowing thee individual's true selves to come +through - at thee same time there is action/research to demonstrate how +all pervasive thee "spectacular" society is. By working together we can +pool research, theories and actions: this way forward avoids needless +2876 + +duplication and, where necessary, provides allies and support for +action. Much ov thee control mechanism ov society is based on guilt +about/around sex, it being easier to control a sexually repressed +person who thus always has a weak spot for thee Servants ov Power to +press. For this reason, thee Temple strives to destroy thee conditioning +ov guilt that lies deep in thee mind and which chains it to a mundane +existence. Through thee process ov freed (and free) love/sexuality thee +mind can be focused and channelled against all ov Power's conditioning +mechanisms. + +Thee tools ov thee Temple are first and foremost those which lay us open +to thee reality ov life in permanent flux. Many techniques can be used: +trance inducing music, chanting, dancing - these can all help strip down +our outer mundane shell, exposing our inner core to thee free play ov +creative forces. Thee method most favoured by thee Temple (because it +is surrounded by thee most imposed guilt, fear and limitation) is thee +unashamed exploration ov sexuality. Fundamental to thee workings ov thee +Temple is thee belief that great psychic force/energy is released at +thee point ov orgasm and that this, if channelled, can effectively "make +those things happen" which will bring you closer to your ideal self. + +This technique, and many more, can be found within thee many and varied +spiritual/magickal traditions ov thee world. It is thee aim ov thee +Temple, through practical experimentation, to extract thee core ov truth +running through all, and thus demystified to present a working formula +for any Individual courageous and compassionate enough to strike against +dogma, habit, guilt, fear and all that weighs on thee spirit; to strike +against flat monotony under all its titles, and to step into a magickal +perception ov thee world. + +TOPY is a lifeline ov magickal people aiming to change society for thee +better through thee magickal transformation ov Individuals, and by +helping people to understand thee power and potency ov their sexuality. +A common mistake people make is that they think that TOPY is just +another fanatical religious organisation. They hear thee name "Thee +Temple Ov Psyckick Youth" and automatically assume its philosophy will +be an unquestioning dogma for thee masses. (Proving ov course that thee +society-controlled mass mind simply projects its crippled reality on to +those who seek to challenge thee orthodoxy ov thee moment.) However, +thee difference between TOPY and other groups is that we create an +environment in which Individuals have no choice but to find their own +answers in order to improve themselves. Thee emphasis is very much on +individual exploration. TOPY gives people hints and pointers, and +whereas other organisations may make it easy for people seeking to find +"answers", TOPY stresses that it is up to thee Individual's personal +efforts for anything to be gained. And it is a two-way process: as thee +Individual learns things from involvement with thee Temple, so thee +Temple as a wider body learns from thee Individual. + +There are elements ov truth in all schools ov thought, but not one +single school can be thee "most correct" (no monopoly on knowledge!). +What is needed is to take thee parts from all - those aspects that seem +thee most logical and honest - and to discard that which perhaps reeks +ov theatricals; understanding thee use ov rituals, as did thee so-called +"ignorant" Indians ov America before thee evil Christian soiled their +pure mind (pure in that they understood thee deeper reality that is thee +essence ov magick). Many races and cultures ov thee world have stumbled +across truths in their religions. We should make use ov these and 2877 +2877 + +develop our own minds in all possible ways. + +Ov every organisation, TOPY comes closer than any to thee ideal ov +freedom. All areas ov life, especially those most taken for granted as +being correct and right, are called into question. Questions open up +possibilities ov thought and action, all in thee pursuit ov a sublime +happiness. Not only does this intense questioning stimulate life, but it +helps us affirm or reaffirm ideas and behaviours. TOPY allows people +more confidence and comfort - hence more pleasure with themselves - in +their own environment. Comfort is not laziness. TOPY further guarantees +freedom (something that no other social arrangement can do, except that +which evolves between very close friends) by not only tolerating +differences in thoughts and actions, but by encouraging natural, +intrinsic differences; that is, TOPY recognises thee inate potential +godliness ov being; and its methods, its Psychick Cross, its 23, its Ov, +can all help foster thee beauty ov each Being. + +Thee Temple is a creative organisation, a place to share and learn. +Creativity needs to be freed. Time waits for no-one. We live once, so we +take the opportunity: Participation. + +Is thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth a cult? + +Yes, a non-existent one in that it exists as a cult only for those who +are uninformed and uninvolved. Thee Temple gives those involved positive +ammunition in thee war to relcaim ourselves, our world, our time, our +love, thee truth. To disconnect thee cables ov control. + +Thee Temple az a non-organisation recognises thee reality ov Individ-ua- +ls. Thee power ov Individuals focused by choice to some common points. +We, as multi-dimensional peoples live yes and no; colours, not black and +white/either-or. There are more than two choices! Religion, history, +psychology, magick: integrated for individual use. Sucksessors? To thee +Surrealists and thee Hippies? Radical interest in political and +spiritual. + +Sexuality as focus. Ov Power. Subconscious guns. Thee orgazm as divine +messenger. No denial ov sense-based vision. We are free! Let us stand up +to see it through thee veil ov control. + +Many people ov small mind and spirit try to deny thee Temple its right +ov existence. They are so completely disillusioned and hopeless that +they demand we all be as miserable as they are. They call us crazy, +power hungry, ego-maniacs, perverse, money-hungry, non-sensical freaks. + +O.K. Crazy? To change thee world we live in, yes. Power hungry? For +power over our own lives and destiny. Ego-maniacs? Yes, if as usual +their definition ov an ego-maniac is someone who wants to achieve, grow, +change and progress. Yes - WE DO THINGS! Perverse? Yes, and proud. Thee +rational ov thee world is no rationale. Sense? Right? Normal? +Whose sense? Whose right? Whose normal? No sense makes sense. Our +sexuality is our own. If you don't like it, leave it. +Money hungry? Sure. Money is but a way to get things done. Not thee only +way, but a way. Freaks? Oh yes! No, we do not fit in, we never fit in, +and we choose it that way, thank you. Fashion, morals, duty: they are +yours not ours. YOU keep them. A freak is someone with individual +motivation, separate from thee dictates ov past, present and future. + +2878 + +Thee Temple is not for all. In this time/space or ever. + +WE WERE. WE ARE. WE WILL BE. WE ARE AZ WE ARE. AZ WE ARE. WE ARE +AZ WE AZ ARE WE. WE AZ ARE. WE AZ WE. WE AZ WE ARE. WE ARE AZ WE +ARE. AN ETERNAL L-OV-E IN + +TOPY is a collaboration ov Individuals. We fight all forms ov restric- +tion to realise thee potential ov thee human brain through a system ov +pagan Magick. It exists devoid ov dogma, be it political or religious. +Information is shared amongst those involved, not in order to be treated +as instruction but rather as a means to promote participation, dis- +cipline and contribution to an ideal as opposed to self-ambition. Thee +recognition that only truth counts. Rituals (sigils) are employed as a +means ov discovering one's true psyche, desires (and their realisation), +integrating thee conscious and subconscious as a way to produce a +spiritually whole person as opposed to a fragmented shell. + +TOPY attempts to wake people up to thee fact that they are controlled, +socially programmed to suit those with an interest in control, and that +guilt and fear are weapons employed to suppress natural advancement. +Preconceptions must be swept aside and a de-programming occur until +fearless and guiltless sexuality is mastered. Thee Temple embraces +suitable forms ov technology to support its aims for collective +advancement. Methods ov information access include PTV recordings, +booklists, video deprogramming transmissions. These are all designed to +surprise, even shock, but with a view to expansion, thee removal ov +limitation. + +*********************** + +It is difficult to understand the infinite and the inexpressible +contained, albeit hidden controlled and repressed, in much ov the grey +parade that is called life, even within one's own mind; but to commun- +icate an idea that is beyond your own ego to another ego is almost +impossible. The closest things to transmitting such ideas are Zen +Parables, or Koans, such as what is the sound of one hand clapping, or +what is enlightened Buddha being answered by being hit over the head +with a brick. The Temple represents colour, but colour has to be seen, +not intellectually analysed. + +I justify my involvement with the Temple by saying, just as the present +world needs the Temple (love being such a rare bird) I feel the need to +help and be part ov something that represents evolution and a better +future. I personally have lost "friends" because ov their inability to +perceive what the Temple means (people conditioned by shit... who see in +their little egos the wearing ov a PTV badge as evidence ov a +brainwashed moonie-type cult. How can I be in a cult when I know only +one individual even slightly connected with the Temple?; yet people +whose only knowledge ov the Temple - love, the future, colour, magick as +sublime poetry - is gleaned from those who wish to climb up the +intestines ov the machine ov Babylon by slagging the Temple off, presume +to know better). Magick defends itself, but at times the gentleness I +see in the Temple makes it a sitting duck for the projection ov +complexes ov the cynical, bitter and controlled. The Temple's crusade to +free the individual from control so s/he can grow focuses on sexuality +because it's the only thing everybody is involved with at some +point in their passage from birth to death, in whatever form. This is +what scares the repressed, the puritanical who seem intent on punishing +2879 + +a new generation for the brief but vital progress that took place in the +60s. There is no Temple sexuality: its sexuality is mine, yours, or that +ov any other individual involved. There is fuck all wrong with sex +despite the macho-men and unbelievable creations ov the media and the +flags ov restriction put up by both the political left and the right +(all nasty oppressive illusions, not only are all cliches true, but all +paradox). + +The methods ov the Temple are vital because ov the appreciation ov the +functional uses ov technology, the Magick ov the 1980s is filed on +computer, photographed and taped, rather like the tools ov control. As +Peter the Great ov Russia said: "our enemies will teach us how to beat +them." The Cross is a symbol. Like all symbols it helps communicate an +idea quickly and focuses the will. It is potent and harmless and very +powerful. The nuber 23 is a bit ov a situationist prank as nothing +freaks out the flat people as this mystic number. + +The Temple = psychedelic + discipline + +Individuals controlling their own minds themselves, by opening up. + +*********************** + +TOPY WITHOUT TEARS + +Most people, when they come into contact with TOPY, will do so via +Psychic TV. Whilst being a useful expression of and filter for TOPY, +this has been the cause of misunderstanding of what TOPY is about, why +it has to be here. + +Firstly, it's important to say that TOPY is emphatically not a fan club +for PTV + +- not a spin-off. While PTV are there for everyone to see, access +without thought, as it were, TOPY is something else - it "gives" to the +amount you "push". It lies behind, but is not contained by, PTV. + +This much should be obvious. It is easier to say what TOPY isn't than to +say what it is. + +Basically, TOPY as a "system" is an expression of the ideas and methods +of all the individuals involved. But TOPY "in itself" is harder to +define - it is the idealised Hidden Instrument of Evolution - the +"organum occultus". The hidden instrument is magickal- a synergetic +interaction of certain powers of the brain. It has no "direction". Its +centre is everywhere. Thus it cannot be "possessed". The hidden instru- +ment is the means by which inner potential "happens". + +TOPY is about setting change into motion NOW. It's about questioning +authority NOW. It's about releasing the social function of subjectivity +from the doghouse. Letting the dog roam free. + +All this is now. TOPY has arrived as an urgent force to overcome the +endless deferral of all this - the realisation of our dreams. + +Our resource - our sincerity. + +It is a synchronistic vector - the "dis-ease" being the dream of social +2880 + +and individual transformatin - of which we continually remind ourselves, +and struggle to realise, in our rituals, our work. + +TOPY is an expanding system of caring and action - communication without +limit - MUTUALITY. We are aware that language alone does not suffice. +Too many systems expand in direct proportion to their insistence on the +dogma of their WORD. TOPY's method is to cut up the word, cut up +behaviour - to find meaning beyond the parameters of Control. To +re-connect at the source - our "spirit". + +Therefore, it is not a religion, not a cult. We have no use for gods, +devils, "instruction". We have nothing to fall back on but that which is +in us. Everything we see is ourselves. TOPY is, in the best sense of +the word, a movement. The movement, the process, being continual and at +various levels simultaneously - spotting the lies, the disjunction +between socialised "givens" and our dreams, our real potential - +deciding to commit oneself to re-connecting with one's potential - and +doing. We have many "people" within each one of us - we want them all. + +This is expressed in our ritual and all our manifestations. Our network +- our mutual experience and searching of TOPY. + +The maturity of man/woman - that means to have reacquired the +seriousness that one had as a child at play. (Nietzsche) + +Vide infra (SSOTBME) + +As explained at some length in the Grey Book, the Temple's initial and +root method is the recognition and utilisation of our true sexuality - +the invocation of primal sexual energies latent in the subconscious. The +concept of "sexual energy" is, for the Temple, interchangeable with +"psychic energy". Sex is the medium for magick - the frequency of +truth. The sigil is its practice, the keystone. + +...the significance of sexuality must be extended to embrace Reality, or +that which endures after all else fades... (Kenneth Grant) + +In a very real way our sexuality is interactive with our behaviour as a +whole. With the Temple Method we cut up traditional sexual behaviour in +order to release the New Sexuality - new because it is everchanging, +ever regenerating. Thus liberating our real sexuality (everybody - every +man and woman is a man and woman), we liberate our behaviour away from +Control. We seek to deprogramme ourselves from harmful internalised +alienating stereotypes. "Control begins with sexuality" (TOPY). We seek +to reacquire the seriousness and curiosity that we had as children, to +observe and act without guilt/fear. If there is one simple description +of TOPY, it is that every involved Individual recognises the need to +overcome GUILT and FEAR of DARING TO BE. We "see below" in order to +"rise up". + +New sexuality - ever youthful. + +*********************** + +Jung saw symbols as "libido analogues", capable of transforming energy. +A representation channels libido (psychic/sexual energy) into new form +-invokes ever renewed potential. Symbols in themselves represent NO +SEPARATION. That is, the Psychic cross is a total synthesis of all we +2881 + +think of and mean by the Temple. For express purposes, and certain +time-zones, some of its components can be isolated, but ultimately there +is no separation. It exists of itself: the characteristic of all living +symbols. + +Because the Psychick Cross has many "personalities", a multiplicity of +explanations, it is an ideal symbol for TOPY. Various significances have +been pointed our: the single vertical line as the Individual, bottom +horizontal as Past, middle horizontal as Present, top as Future. The +Cross of Jesus and the inverted Cross of Satan combined. A television +aerial. The alchemical symbol "very poisonous". + +"We didn't choose it so much as the symbol chose us." A symbol of +disenchantment, uncertainty and challenge/change. + +The point of all this is that, like a true Individual, it cannot be +pinned down. + +Neither - Neither. + +The Psychick Cross also incorporates the 23 mythology. The number 23 is +total neither-neither territory (Austin Osman Spare's mindfuck technique +- comparing opposites separate, together, then absent). + +(But of course it isn't. It is just a number like any other, 22 before +it, 24 after, surely?) Except that 23, for us, seems to behave very +strangely. It has become a snake in the grass of reason. Thus the +exception; for the Temple always the exception. The Individual. Every +man and woman is a 23. + +"A presence, neither good luck or bad luck, it seemed to have some sort +of control over its appearance." Like the Psychick Cross, 23 has been +isolated to symbolise certain concepts, random chance, Crowley's GET +OUT, Burroughs' total cut-up, Robert Anton Wilson's total paranoia +symbol. Its "common" (!) significance is its provocativeness, its +individuality, however one wishes to depict it. So, OK, you have your +cynicism, you may remain unconvinced, may not recognise TOPY, you see +everywhere human weakness and self-interest - but the next step is to +realise that cynicism is not a total answer, that the facade/shell of +ego/"cool"/style can, and must be, discarded before we grow once more +and enter a new "time zone" of evolution. Drop your shield, be vul- +nerable, thee wound is the reminder, you cannot remain untouched, so +touch yourself. + +Enter the Combat Zone. The Temple has declared war. It does not do so +lightly. + +T.O.P.Y. is an energy, fuelled with fiery Individuals who want change. +Change. People are too hung up with sex, with getting things done, so +they mess up. No-one cares anymore. To become rewarded is to give. And +to give is contagious, to create synergism. + +The Self is who I am after, yet I cannot find her until I give her away, +and watch her without from within; then I can go. Egos are selfish and +jealous - to reverse the Ego is to open the mind; to be curious; to +recognise, to understand, to commit. Without altering the Ego one cannot +undergo the process. E to 3. + +2882 + +I am curious. Curious and willing to learn. Tell me what I could do for +the group that would help me. Not really help, but INlighten. For we are +all out for INlightenment, for each one of us, ourselves, and for the +whole. First know to be yourself, then to help the group, then to know +you ARE your self. + +For me I cannot "When in doubt - BE EXTREME" +Right now it's "When in doubt - Do Nothing" +I am curious Right Now. + +CROSS! + +Life is mediated by symbols. Symbols that steal. Numerical symbols that +steal our intelligence. Word symbols that steal our voice. Pornographic +symbols that steal our sexuality. Magical symbols that steal our will. +A death on your symbols. Let each kill themselves. + +The Psychick Cross is a symbol that represents the idea of "without +Symbols". It is the first entry in a dictionary of the future Meta-symb- +olical language, a language of no-thought. + +T.O.P.Y. is directed anger (which in itself is only Love). A foundation +set up to compile this "dictionary" which all WEs will need in order to +survive. A clearing house of symbols. + +When ever you dis-cover stamp on a Psychick Cross. This release it for +our use. + +--------------------------------------------- + +The Temple Ov Psychick Youth is an organisation that has been created to +further the ideas and feelings of those who feel that they have +something to contribute to the running of society. The Temple involves +a large scope of feelings and images that are connected to each other by +the potency of their own desires. + +Firstly, the Temple as an organisation is created for those who feel and +believe that they can increase their own potential in body and mind by +pushing themselves to the limit of their durability, and do so in such +a way that they can find the limitations of their own body as well as +finding how far they can really go in producing a perfect understanding +of themselves. Unlike other creations, the Temple does not try to +coerce of push an Individual into doing what "it" wants them to do - the +contrary is true, the Temple encourages the individual to think and act +for themselves, perhaps offering gentle instruction as an aid to +success. The Temple remains as a haven for help where friends are +guaranteed. A spiritual as well as physical father. By involving oneself +with the Temple you find that the trappings of an autocratic society are +handcuffs to the spirit, holding you in place, disabling a mind, +disallowing it to think and act for itself - laying down rigid rules +that must be adhered to. The Temple, conversely, encourages us that +we need no regimented rules to survive, all we need is to expend a +minimal amount of consideration for our fellow people, to accept +differences in colour, ideas, sexuality, etc. Falling (sic), the rules +of our wonderful and enlightened society has led to nothing but war, man +killing man; religion playing a large part in the reasons for war. +Religion is another point that the Temple puts across. It shows us the +trivialities in religion be it Christian or Hindu. The idea of believing +2883 + +in a spiritual god - how abhorrent. It insults the intelligence to have +god and jesus rammed down our throats - Crass put my feelings very well +when they said Jesus died for his own sins, no mine. Religion is an +easy way for a frightened people to hide behind the eventuality of their +own death - it's okay, we will be going to a better life - what a joke. +The only temple/god we should worship is our own bodies - any sacrament +to be given should be exercise of the mind and body. Prayer should be an +introspective look into your own feelings. + +The Psychick Cross is a symbol that is easily recognisable - and +therefore a medium through which publicity can be shown. Unlike the +"cross" the psychick cross is a very strong image of ideals, and shows +a firm belief in what we feel the Temple stands for; I know that when +people see the cross on my clothes - be it badges, t-shirts - and they +ask what it stands for, they will always associate it with the Temple as +well as Psychic TV. The strength of its images remains in the +subconscious, therefore leading to easy recognition. + +The Temple roots its beliefs in magic where sexuality and mental +strength have always played an important role. This world is inhibited +by its narrow-mindedness of sexuality. The Temple shows us that we +should not be embarrassed by it, nor inhibited by it. This does not +necessarily mean infidelity, or polygamous behaviour. Free Love can be +practised between two individuals involved in a close relationship +because the restraints of society are prevalent in marriage etc. It +encourages us to be free - the most important aim for all humans - to be +rid of a repressive society and to develop together with no feelings of +materialism. + +Although society is against us, too many people are unable to stand up +for themselves, they allow themselves to be carried along without +stating how they wish things should be done. If we work hard enough +though, perhaps one day we will have a world where at least the ideas of +the Temple are practised, even if they are disconnected from the actual +force and developer of those ideas. + +--------------------------------------------- + +The Temple is a group of people who together, and individually, work to +combat any form of personal restriction. Quite simply we want to make +our dreams, and those of everyone else, come true. + +We work on three levels, or ratios. On the first level we examine our +real selves, discovering our dreams, our potential, our REAL selves. We +then try to live our lives, realising our dreams and making the most of +what we have to offer (skills, abilities, etc...), thus following (to +use a rather archaic term) our destiny. Once an initiate begins to work +on this ratio, he/she has a chance to take joint control of the helm. +The Temple is constantly evolving: each initiate has the chance to help +dictate the direction of that evolution. In the 3rd ratio we work to try +and improve the world in which we live. At this level we try to act as +an evolutionary goad, pushing mankind back on course. + +We realise that the only way of achieving anything is to help one +another. So whenever we can we donate time, money, ideas and skills to +T.O.P.Y. We receive no reward for this: no medals, no "I raised $100" +selling t-shirts. The reward is the knowledge that we have helped +someone else to realise their dreams. +2884 + +We are an international group, with bases in the UK, Holland, Germany, +Sweden, Canada and America. + +As is obvious ("Temple" & "Psychick") we are metaphysically minded. Many +of our methods could be considered magickal. Magick is merely a +technique for helping us negate the effects of restriction and control; +and live (again that rather naff word) destiny. We are constantly +developing and refining our own magick. We do not believe in any great +powerhouse in the sky, any gods, angels, demons, etc. We have realised +that the human brain is capable of much more than it is used for. Our +magick operates within the human nervous system - and works! + +Our magickal techniques are a little too "technical" to go in to. +Suffice it to say that one of our main sources of energy is sexuality +and orgasms. Sex plays a very important role in our philosophy as the +energy obtained from it is tremendous. As was said earlier, we try to +"touch our real selves". Our first stepping stone to this is the removal +of restriction placed on our sexuality by society. Once a month, or +more, an initiate performs a simple magickal exercise which is designed +to bring him/her closer to his or her real sexuality - as experienced in +sexual fantasies. There should be no holds on sex, one should be able to +enjoy sex in whatever way one, and one's partner(s), want to. + +Our symbol, logo, emblem or whatever - the Psychick Cross - contains a +great deal of symbolism. The most obvious facets are: 1, it is the +reverse of the Papal Cross, thus making it an anti-papal cross; 2, it is +an "E" for Ego, backed with a reversed "E", thus representing the +negation of the Ego's role over the human mind. + +In many systems of magick numbers are said to have meanings. 23 has +many meanings all of which are applicable to the Temple: Initiation; +Union of Fire and Water (symbols of male and female) - sex; Integration +of all levels of consciousness. + +I first heard of T.O.P.Y. through the drunken ramblings of someone I now +find it impossible to describe. At the time "Godstar" boomed from his +room almost constantly. After this, a friend lent me "Dreams Less +Sweet". I bought a few records, sent off for some literature. + +Previously, I had dabbled with THELEMA, which seemed to ask the right +questions, but gave the wrong answers. T.O.P.Y. seemed to ask equally +pertinent questions (and sometimes more so), and answered them with +nothing but Hagbard Celine's "Think for yourself Schmuck". As time went +on I became increasingly interested in, and in agreement with, the +Temple's ideas. + +At last a decent magickal system. No more silly Kabbalistic rituals. +Simple, straightforward, and functional. A chance to help, however +little, however much. Perhaps even to meet people who've got better +things on their mind than taking the piss. + +--------------------------------------------- + +The Temple is an international group of people who want to improve the +quality of not only their own lives, but of everybody. We have realised +that the life of the average person lacks direction and meaning. Human +beings are persuaded, by various methods, to do what they are told, +however subtly, rather than what they really want. Some realise this and +2885 + +"drop out", hiding the world behind a beer can or a line of coke; others +try to change the world. We are in the latter group. We try to do +nothing unless we really want to. We try to differentiate between +"pretend" desires programmed into us by society, and our true wishes. We +then try to live these true desires. That is what real freedom is. Our +method is, I believe, the most powerful. We use magick; not card tricks +or turning princes into frogs; but real magick (that's what the "k" on +the end signifies), which is a method of programming your own mind to do +what you want it to do. We use sex as a tool for elevating the mind in +much of our magick. Sex is one of our basic needs. It is also the most +powerful force we have access to. + +--------------------------------------------- + +What attracted you to T.O.P.Y.? + +The systematic use ov will power to make dreams become real. The +undogmatic appreciation ov the inherent potentials ov thee Individual +who wants to see and is not afraid to invest energy in finding their +true self, their true desires, and to act accordingly. Furthermore, the +new approach to Magick: a demystified system ov practical techniques to +extend the perception and skill ov acting consciously according to one's +own nature without guilt. + +In what ways has T.O.P.Y. failed to live up to your expectations so far? + +I see T.O.P.Y. as an active forum/expression/output ov thee assembled +energy ov its members. I consider myself taking part in thee process and +don't feel that thee organ has failed to live up to my expectations as +they are identical with thee expectations I have for myself in life. I +apply T.O.P.Y. in my life according to my own interpretation and accept +no dogmaa, and as long as I feel that my intentions coincide with +T.O.P.Y. and that its structure is based on mutual appreciation/trust/- +respect/challenge/communication then I invest energy in this forum. I am +curious/open-minded by nature. In thee course ov time and involvement +much is explained. I have no fear. + +Explain T.O.P.Y. + +Through education, school, inherited dogmatic value systems, TV, radio, +written/spoken propaganda people are continously deprived ov their self +respect as unique manifold human Individuals. We are systematically +discouraged by thee keepers ov addicts to Control from exploring our +real physical and mental needs and potentials. We are exposed to +constant programming, its main aim being streamlining ov thought into +unquestioned acceptance ov illusory satisfaction, leaving an unlocated +feeling ov frustration behind. Fear is the Key to Control/Manipulation. +Thee fear ov change/thee unknown/thee unsecure/thee unfamiliar - all +these block thee Individual longing for development/experience and make +him/her accept thee vast offer ov surrogates and substitutes in today's +world system. Those who are not contented with this pseudo-reality seek +other ways for deeper knowledge/realisation ov dreams, and create their +own forum/access point for mutual encouragement/support/challenge ov +individuality and will. + +We are history, thee sum ov our ancestors. If we ignore our own history +and its impact on our lives, we are inclined to repeat thee pitfalls and +disasters ov previous generations. We dig our own graves as culture. +2886 + +Christianity has monopolised thee European thought system and thee use +ov ancient methods/rituals as a means ov recollecting force, and has +deformed its intentions to thee point where they lose every form ov +potence and sense while being refunctioned to "evil/dangerous mys- +ticism/occultism". + +Ritual as Access Point to thee inner regions ov thee mind and focus ov +will into conscious action. . .thee threat to status quo in thee present +socio-political and cultural world-system. A society deprived ov its +history/past is a society deprived ov its future and identity. + +Sex is thee primal key to thee mental system ov a person. It is thee +nucleus ov their own past, present, and future. In thee moment ov orgasm +thee brain is for a short period ov time thrown out ov/disconnected from +its subconsciously socialised/adapted thought-system. In this moment ov +disconnection thee brain is highly susceptible to new information. +Orgasm is thee Access Point ov de- and re-programming ov thee mind. +Storage ov subconscious information - thee seed to conscious action. +Attack on subconsciousness determines thee overflow to consciousness +latently transformed into concrete action. + +Education/indoctrination has trimmed our minds in thee course ov a life- +time to fit thee demands/needs ov thee control units in society. We see +continuous re-education as a necessity in order to develop. Ritual +strengthens our determination to find and do our true selves and to +cross new borders ov knowledge and understanding, to avoid thee +obstacles to thee realisation ov our dreams. Through self-decided +"indoctrination/dedoctrination" ov thee subconscious mind we avoid daily +pitfalls in mental laziness and cowardice/compromise. Free sexuality +without guilt liberates our mind from inherent blocking mechanisms +between consciousness. Free flow ov information between thee brain +hemispheres brightens our eyes, makes us clear, strong and real. + +23: Number ov "Coincidence" - thee genes in thee human being consist ov +23 chromosomes, blood needs 23 seconds to cross thee human body. A sign +ov life and death, its correlation and its unknown dimensions. Death/- +mortality - thee ultimate reference point for each human being. To live +fully without regrets or not. We are mortal. Here and Now. + +Christians have their Cross - fetish ov guilt and shame. Christ on thee +Cross - symbol ov martyrdom/sacrifice for thee sinfulness ov thee human +race. Unworthy, godless slaves. + +We repudiate - have our own fetish/symbol for thee immense possibilities +and dimensions ov thee human mind and vessel in life. Thee Psychick +Cross - an alchemical symbol for (magickally) dangerous material/know- +ledge. Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth is "danger" to dogmatic/streamlined +thought, that is to thee stability/status quo in present society/cul- +ture: thee seed to a new science/way ov living. + +Magick: a system ov Will Made Flesh. We focus our will in collective +ritual across thee world on thee 23rd ov each month, and programme/- +tune-in our mutual wavelengths/sexual desires in thee moment ov orgasm. +Our will-power programmed in thee genes and assembled in thee liquids ov +semen/lubricant/blood/spit, and hair. + +Thee features ov thee embryo is decided/determined through thee thoughts +ov sexual partners during coitus. Thought made Flesh. Will made Real. +2887 + +T.O.P.Y. Made Real. + +--------------------------------------------- + +In answer to a cynical journalist: + +Most people can't stomach the "missionary zeal", so to speak, so any +mention of a "Great Crusade to save The World" is right out of the +window. The Temple is there for those who want it - it isn't another +banal ideology, but a network of Individual interests where information +is relayed to one another on the basis of practical experience. You've +heard of synergy: the working together of two or more elements to create +an effect greater that the sum of the individual elements' output. Well +that's us! We support one another by our own efforts - like a latter-day +tribe. + +What impels a person to work within the Temple? A dissatisfaction with +current societal values, perhaps. An awareness of possibilities within +ourselves that most recognised institutions of society, religious or +otherwise, either flatly deny or appear reluctant to expand upon. (As +social beings we have an inner need to express ourselves amongst friends +- interpreting "friends" as those people who can relate to you!) All +such answers seem a bit "rhetorical" to me, so we might gain a better +understanding of the "attraction" of T.O.P.Y. by taking a brief look at +the ideas and methods it collectively presents. + +We take a very broad view - limitlessly so - of the means at our +disposal towards self-development. Jung called it individuation. +Aleister Crowley called it the realisation of the True Will. You may +call it simply "Maturity". From the lore of Magic (a much scoffed at +notion, superficially, in our high-tech rationalistic era; but isn't our +science the highest magic to a so-called primitive? And what arrogance +you have to deny the function of something you know nothing about, +despite its overwhelming history of practice?!), to music, to martial +art; if the perceptive individual thinks there is something worth +picking up on, we will attempt to pluck it out of the mire and use it! +That is why T.O.P.Y. is often seen in the "public eye" to "wallow +morbidly" in social taboos; or however else they choose to put it. +Life's too short and wonderful to run away from and/or wrap up in +unnecessary prohibitions/superstitions. So, cut out the crap! The Temple +brings together people who aren't afraid to try a little. The luxuries +of Western "civilisation" (loud laughter) also bring greater excuses for +us to get very lazy. + +(The notion of forced commitment, street-corner proselytizing, I find +repulsive. We emphasise, more than anything else, the power and +cretiveness of the individual will; how that feeling can be shared +through communication and care. To force others to "join in" would +defeat the purpose of the network. How can I force you to be yourself? +[eg. forcing another to emulate my thoughts & feelings is no freedom for +the other person.] What the fucks the point? We can only provide +inspiration - no greedy Gurus infest this House.) + +Why do I think T.O.P.Y. is important? Could answer that in several ways +I suppose. The workings of the Temple are not always to my liking, but +then, as a network with some degree of structuring/organisation, what +else do you expect? Humanity has yet to invent a machine that is 100% +efficient. And involvement with T.O.P.Y. does NOT mean you go along with +2888 + +every suggestion that's put forward. In terms of energy, feedback and so +on, you reap what you sow; just as with any human relationship (I use +that analogy quite intentionally). Anyway, I feel it is important +because - in an age of much insincerity - T.O.P.Y. is rooted in what I +ultimately recognise as COMMON SENSE. We seek to embrace the earthly +human condition, warts and all. We look at ourselves and recognise the +need to strive for personal goals; expand our often blinkered definition +of "self" by trying to utilise the new and the strange; experiment, +instead of wallowing in the "fear of the unknown"; reject dogma, reject +guilt, reject anything that leads to unnecessary anxiety - not by +pushing things to the side, but by confrontation. (The quickest route +between two points is a straight line.) Such ideas, although expressed +a little dogmatically here for the sake of brevity, outline a healthy, +strong approach to living. And it feels very refreshing to be amongst +friends who won't try to fob you off with more alienating politics or +mystical pap. + +No, my involvement with T.O.P.Y. has not equipped me with easy panaceas +for the problem of Government, etc. We live in a complex environment - +I am the first to admit it. T.O.P.Y. has no manifesto up its collective +sleeve. Rather, we consider the situation from the perspective of "To +change the World you must first change yourself." It is no use disban- +ding the police-force tomorrow if they are all going to continue acting +in the same way to the people they picked on before! + +(To amuse myself, I might describe involvement in the Temple as a course +in psychic self-defense for the outsider! But then you'd probably take +that the wrong way. The Temple is NOT a cheap sort of psychotherapy; no +psychic prescriptions from Doc P-Orridge, or anybody ridiculous like +that. Nobody involved in the network wishes to suffer fools gladly, and +the only people "assessed" are ourselves - BY OURSELVES. A little +eccentricity leads to a progression of ideas - stupidity does not! And +you must ultimately deal with your own problems, if you wish to reclaim +personal responsibility at all - a belief that is central to T.O.P.Y. +philosophy.) + +Why the big profile on Sex in T.O.P.Y.? The fact that you feel our "high +profile" needs to be mentioned may provide part of the answer! As I have +already tried to indicate, the Temple strives to eliminate our (often +culturally inherited) feelings of guilt. We consider sexual energy to be +of great importance - its free expression is our very birthright, in +whatever way our nature inclines. The neuroses and psychosomatic +ailments resulting from high levels of sexual repression have been +catalogued well enough by now, without me having to re-iterate the +point. And guilt about one's personal sexual activities can be used as +a potent weapon in the hands of your adversaries - just look at the +gutter press. Sexuality is just that - whether it be expressed in +"fetishism", "homosexual" activity (a horrible, clinical expression if +ever I heard one), and so on. It's nobody's business but your own. + +Having said that, it is obvious that many people - particularly the +younger - pursue an active sex life without recourse to massive guilt! +So why all the hypocrisy about its public expression? Why the hassle? +Evidently, the mass media does not reflect an accurate - honest - +picture of our feelings. The Sunday Sport continues to make sex and +sexuality an absurdity - something to sneer at. We wonder why. + +T.O.P.Y. wishes to take sexuality a step further by investigating the +2889 + +powers we consider to be generated by sexual activity, so that they can +be used for the benifit of the individual. Every Individual. Orgasm has +a powerful effect on one's perception, body chemistry, bio-electric +field, etc., if only for a few moments. And we feel that the state of +being created can be put to use, in combination with intense desire. +Again, we are entering the arena of "magick" and ritual (all sex is +ritual); we are considering the so-called dark side of nature, and to a +TV generation brought up on Dennis Wheatley films, such ideas seem very +taboo. We wish to break down those superstitions - we have little room +for fear in such speculative areas - but we have no vested interest in +people agreeing with our aims and methods. (We are not out to harm +anybody, so please remain sensible and leave us be if you are scep- +tical/unimpressed.) + +Of course you can't discuss sex without mentioning AIDS nowadays. To +counter popular misconceptions let it be stressed that the Temple does +NOT encourage orgiastic or promiscuous behaviour - forced promiscuity to +prove one's "liberation" is just a stupid and damaging as exaggerated +pruder; if it goes against your natural inclinations. I suggest you use +your common-sense and exercise responsibility. But, to give an example: +should someone attracted to their own sex no longer feel attracted +because circumstances dictate a certain degree of caution with the +choice of partners? We think not. Circumstances and the means of your +natural indulgence may vary quite a bit, but the right to "be and feel" +whatever you are does not. This must be kept in mind, as the puritans +cry out for "conformity" yet again. . . + +--------------------------------------------- + +Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth, we are united, united in the differences +that constitute our individuality. At one stage or another all ov us had +reached the same crossroad. The roads were clearly marked - conformity, +control, suburbia, soap and no hope. The general flat planes that lead +to a hollow, wasted death. Instead, we deliberately leave the roads to +travel cross-country - to aim for the high mountains on the horizon. +There are no clearly visible signposts, no neatly maintained roads and +no resting points. The undergrowth can be extremely dense, the in- +habitants hostile and the speed of travel tiresomely slow. But etched on +the horizon, amongst the loftiest of mountains is a Psychick Cross. We +move onwards and upwards. This is the way of T.O.P.Y. + +To travel with T.O.P.Y. is to map out your own route, to cross virgin +territory, often alone. You discover you pace, your own dreams of the +goal. Discovering your own philosophy of life, but instead of preaching +it you live it, and live it to the full. We may travel alone, but we +obtain strength that elsewhere in the wilderness others are planning and +travelling their own routes to the same goal. We may rendezvous, by +chance or by desire. We can then share, relate our travels and exchange +maps for we know that to fulfill our life we must help fulfill others: +open their eyes, let them help us open ours. Share our results and +tactics and help to change the maps of old. To lay new paths and roads +and satisfy the discontentments of society and its expectations and +limitations of an individual. + +It is every person's basic right and task to be as they will, as they +truly will. The study is long and hard to find this will. Total +self-honesty is needed. The ability to touch oneself, no less. T.O.P.Y. +will encourage, suggest ways of touching at all levels and of all +2890 + +aspects, by using rituals and intuitive magickal methods specifically +aimed at getting closer to oneself. To integrate all the different +levels and aspects to develop a total, free individual. + +T.O.P.Y. realises that every man and woman has their own potential to +achieve and live by. This can vary greatly within individuals but this +is the key because each individual's achievements are relative to only +that one person's potential. There is no competitive hierarchy as that +would serve only to stifle development. Each individual must ultimately +justify their every motive, action and belief to themselves. If they +achieve this then they are allowing T.O.P.Y. to achieve itself. It +cannot work in reverse. It can be hard. To start to truly look at +yourself can hurt. Strength, honesty and commitment are needed to move +towards T.O.P.Y. Sexuality is a key as within sexuality the restrictions +and constrictions of society and its controls can bite the hardest. To +liberate and understand one's own sexuality is to liberate and under- +stand T.O.P.Y. An individual who has learnt to express themselves +sexually can then use the lessons learnt here to inspire freedom +and development in other aspects of their person. Your sex and sexuality +belong to yourself. The energies it generates all come from within your +psyche. At the peak of sex the doors open, the barriers collapse and +there is no separation. The interchange between conscious and "sub"-con- +scious is complete. Using controlled focusing at this magickal time, +T.O.P.Y. individuals can make a conscious desire to move to the higher +levels of their own consciousness where it can take effect and help the +dreams become real. By truly understanding this process and tailoring it +to an individual's methods, breakthrough can be reached and you have +given yourself back to yourself. + +These methods of sexual focusing provide the basis of T.O.P.Y. workings. +The results achieved here by the individual filter down through all +levels, all actions, all motives. All comes from within the individual. + +T.O.P.Y. has a psychick symbol and a psychick number. Both of these are +woven deeply into the sub-structure. Both act as a focus, as a synthesis +of beliefs and actions; as a trigger. The Psychick Cross with its +horizontal arms in the ratio of 2 to 3 can be interpreted on many +levels: to signify the individual (the vertical line) with his/her past +(bottom line), present (middle) and future (top); a symbol of integ- +ration between opposing functions within an individual of T.O.P.Y. (3 +E). The arms flow outwards from the Cross to symbolise growth and +discovery whilst at the same time they all draw inwards to focus and +synthesize this growth within the individual. A cross to sacrifice the +self upon; a uniform symbol to identify with, but like T.O.P.Y. itself +to be interpreted in different ways by different individuals. + +The magickal number 23 is interwoven throughout T.O.P.Y. It is the point +of focus, to integrate, to dissolve. A time, a time for work, a date to +complete a task 23 times is to see it move deep within the conscious- +ness. A number that's history is proven and potent, one that occurs +internationally,irrationally and totally naturally. Like the Psychick +Cross, indeed like T.O.P.Y., 23 is the gateway, the crossover point to +internal focus and development and external flowering. + +When there is no other way. + +T.O.P.Y. + +2891 + +~ Thoughts on The Temple ~ + +The Temple Ov Psychick Youth is a body of like-minded, ageless souls all +striving in an individual manner towards a collective goal: a guiltless +state of self-awareness. + +The exploration of our innermost desires by the release of the sexual +spirit, and thus the freeing of our emotions of dogma and external +control, is fundamental to the process by which the Temple achieves its +collective identity. The process is a deeply personal voyage of +discovery (the very fact of the emphasis of the individual testifies to +this), one in which the Temple acts as a guiding light, a processor of +information and its re-direction. + +"No Man is an Island", and for this reason the Temple is both needed for +support in our battle, and as a focus for the support we ourselves can +offer. Its sum being greater than the parts, the Temple serves as a +sounding board for ideas, provoking thought which may under other +circumstances never have been given the right "culture" in which to form +and grow. Thus the Temple is a growing, living organism whose form is a +result of the collection of "cells" within it, as in any biological +organism. The analogy with the natural world is of direct significance. +All life operates within a set environment or eco-system, but its very +presence is an integral part of that system. If any one species grows it +is at the cost of another, and if any "external force" is introduced the +balance can be forever altered with the possibility of collapse (eg: +Rainforests). The Temple is such a force, one which could ultimately +over-turn the preconceived ideas of our Western society. This may seem +to many to be a fanciful argument, but to those who mock I would say, +"how small is a virus or cancer cell that can cause the collapse of an +organism." + +We may be small, but we are growing to attack like a cancer from within! + +We must stand together, we must fight! + +~ On criticism of the Temple ~ + +How can you criticize an organisation which makes statements such as ". +. . +we support your individuality", "we offer no dogma", and talks of "de- +programming". These are some of the most important statements mady by +T.O.P.Y., and show the principal aims of the Temple: the realisation of +YOURSELF, which results in SELFLESSNESS in the most positive way - no +greed, no sex barriers, no age barriers, no race barriers. . . .etc. + +The ultimate goal of LOVE and escape from the prison of 20th Century +(especially western) ideas and values. DON'T WE ALL FEEL THE SAME? Thee +Temple gives no orders, it gives a method through books, records, states +of mind to a form of enlightenment. "You must understand 'til it hurts. +The mind must be stretched to include emotions, thoughts and points of +view entirely foreign to the narrow limits of our present life." (quote +from "Zen" by Christmas Humphreys) To me, the Temple is about THINKING +and trying to spread this FREEDOM. + +SEXUALITY: This I am only myself realising at the moment - NO GUILT. We +see it on T.V. every day: twisted sex values - TURN IT OFF! I can't find + +2892 + +the right words to use about my sigil experiences but I feel re-charged, +focused, powerful, aware. + +THEE PSYCHICK CROSS: This to me forms a kind of focus (not in a fearful, +religious sense) and is a common ground and understandable sign to those +involved within T.O.P.Y. + +23: This to me is Kammerer's Law of Seriality. The natural rhythms, +patterns, harmonies in all the universe. It is an expression of this +belief of the unexplored forces that act upon us. + +--------------------------------------------- + +I can relate to what the Temple Ov Psychick Youth is trying to do +because we are all living in a world where chaos reigns. The Western +World has been under the dogma of religion, Catholic and Protestant, for +the last five hundred years. And its teachings, far removed from the +original message, have beenused to control the masses and to shape +humanity's moral codes. + +So today we have people wanting to have spiritual freedom, but who +because of the age-old brain washing of God and the Devil, and good and +evil, find it hard. Even worse, most people in our society have to +unlearn and begin at thee beginning about their relationship with life, +the universe and everything in it; and they generally start looking +within themselves for their answers. I personally think that Chris- +tianity is on its last legs, as its churches are full of middle-aged and +old people, but not young people. So there are many who are searching +for spiritual freedom, and a truer relationship with life. The Temple Ov +Psychick Youth provides a means and a way for people to break free and +rise above the lie of society. Because magick, witchcraft are keys that +unlock many of life's closed doors, and enable individuals to explore +and develop themselves on all planes of life, from spiritual to +physical. + +Nothing in life is easy, and magick is not an escape. As with all life +you have to give of yourself to receive, and giving of yourself means a +sacrifice of time and effort which is a hard lesson for many an aspiring +occultist. So through contact with open groups like T.O.P.Y., +individuals can meet other people with similar ideals in life. + +Obviously people will have to face moral principles such as sexual +Magick (tantric yoga) and other methods used in ritual magick to raise +the power, but this is something they learn naturally and not unnatur- +ally as the rest of society still thinks and believes. They have to +learn that they themselves create or destroy what life presents before +them, not God or the Devil, and thus having learnt go forth into a new +world of gods. After all, evil is essentially misplaced energy (un- +natural). So things like sex, and all pleasurable activity so long as it +be done with free will, are healthy for us in life. + +This last point is another reason why I agree with T.O.P.Y.'s ideals: +because they encourage people to be free within themselves, and to +discover their own true wills. + +As A/C puts it: Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law. +Love Is The Law, Love Under Will. + +2893 + +My interpretation of T.O.P.Y. is that of the propagation of unlimited +expression and potential. Also, that of the freeing of world technology +and communication from the restraints of generally restrictive, +authoritarian value-systems. The Temple, to me, has the potential to +both examine and free the latency of both physical and psychical +potential. + +I would like to take part in a world-deprogramming task, and experience +the worthiness of my own full powers, in all their comparitive spheres. + +These thoughts encompass my attitudes towards sexuality (in both its +drive and visionary factors) and also my movement towards a cooperative +methodology. + +--------------------------------------------- + +What is Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth? + +To me, ultimately a special state ov mind - the place where all dreams +meet. The place you know exists but are afraid to admit it. A secret +place, timeless, sexual, a magick place open to all. Have you never felt +so alive, happy, sexual that you want to live forever? Or are you lost, +scared or just too pissed off to care. T.O.P.Y. can help you find your +real self and you can help T.O.P.Y. in the process. By helping and +caring and coummitment to T.O.P.Y. the same energy is given back. Love +is not a dirty word, helping people is not wrong. For society to change, +people must change. People must see what is happening all around them. +People must be given information about sigils, dreamachines, magick. +People must be pro-sexual, have respect and caring for everybody. +What is wrong with being happy, alive, caring? So reject money - I'm on +16K a year, smart mate but who's interested. I'm a Man City fan - You're +dead. (Fighting for a football team, strange.) This jumper cost $60. +(Very smart, but does it make you really feel better inside.) + +In these times ov one-upmanship why not join the ultimate game and play +for your life and make history as well. + +--------------------------------------------- + +Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth acts as a focal point, a sigil to thee +Will. It can provide thee FORM about which thee FUNCTION ov Thee SELF +can be wrapped. Thee act ov focusing releases tremendous energy which +Thee Temple, as a concourse, forms into a flow ov energy. As a concept +it sparks off Individual activity and through thee Image ov Thee SIGIL +it channels that energy into a creative outburst. + +As a free form with a continuous flow ov unrestricted and unlimited +ideas it allows any Individual to develop a language to express what can +not be explained. Magick in its modern context is largely a question ov +interpreting a subjective reality in purely personal terms. This +requires a personal subjective language. Yet if society is to continue +- have any meaning - then it is precisely this that must be communi- +cated. A subjective reality can not be expressed in terms ov common +language, but only as a personal experience. Thus thee only channel ov +communication open to us is to place our personal view within a common +framework. This in essence is what all communication is about. But most +ov our present belief is based on distortion. Our culture simply has not +got thee necessary tools to cope with thee present situation. Our +2894 + +cultural language is still based on thee rational universal world ov +thee past aeon. This will have to be swept aside before people can talk +to each other again. + +The magickal number 23 is interwoven throughout T.O.P.Y. It is the point +of focus, to integrate, to dissolve. A time, a time for work, a date to +complete a task 23 times is to see it move deep within the conscious- +ness. A number that's history is proven and potent, one that occurs +internationally, irrationally and totally naturally. Like the Psychick +Cross, indeed like T.O.P.Y., 23 is the gateway, the crossover point to +internal focus and development and external flowering. + +When there is no other way. + +T.O.P.Y. + +--------------------------------------------- + +~ Thoughts on The Temple ~ + +The Temple Ov Psychick Youth is a body of like-minded, ageless souls all +striving in an individual manner towards a collective goal: a guiltless +state of self-awareness. + +The exploration of our innermost desires by the release of the sexual +spirit, and thus the freeing of our emotions of dogma and external +control, is fundamental to the process by which the Temple achieves its +collective identity. The process is a deeply personal voyage of +discovery (the very fact of the emphasis of the individual testifies to +this), one in which the Temple acts as a guiding light, a processor of +information and its re-direction. + +"No Man is an Island", and for this reason the Temple is both needed for +support in our battle, and as a focus for the support we ourselves can +offer. Its sum being greater than the parts, the Temple serves as a +sounding board for ideas, provoking thought which may under other +circumstances never have been given the right "culture" in which to form +and grow. Thus the Temple is a growing, living organism whose form is a +result of the collection of "cells" within it, as in any biological +organism. The analogy with the natural world is of direct significance. +All life operates within a set environment or eco-system, but its very +presence is an integral part of that system. If any one species grows it +is at the cost of another, and if any "external force" is introduced the +balance can be forever altered with the possibility of collapse (eg: +Rainforests). The Temple is such a force, one which could ultimately +over-turn the preconceived ideas of our Western society. This may seem +to many to be a fanciful argument, but to those who mock I would say, +"how small is a virus or cancer cell that can cause the collapse of +an organism." + +We may be small, but we are growing to attack like a cancer from within! + +We must stand together, we must fight! + +~ On criticism of the Temple ~ + +How can you criticize an organisation which makes statements such as ". +. . we support your individuality", "we offer no dogma", and talks of +2895 + +"de-programming". These are some of the most important statements mady +by T.O.P.Y., and show the principal aims of the Temple: the realisation +of YOURSELF, which results in SELFLESSNESS in the most positive way - no +greed, no sex barriers, no age barriers, no race barriers. . . .etc. + +The ultimate goal of LOVE and escape from the prison of 20th Century +(especially western) ideas and values. DON'T WE ALL FEEL THE SAME? Thee +Temple gives no orders, it gives a method through books, records, states +of mind to a form of enlightenment. "You must understand 'til it hurts. +The mind must be stretched to include emotions, thoughts and points of +view entirely foreign to the narrow limits of our present life." (quote +from "Zen" by Christmas Humphreys) To me, the Temple is about THINKING +and trying to spread this FREEDOM. + +SEXUALITY: This I am only myself realising at the moment - NO GUILT. We +see it on T.V. every day: twisted sex values - TURN IT OFF! I can't find +the right words to use about my sigil experiences but I feel re-charged, +focused, powerful, aware. + +THEE PSYCHICK CROSS: This to me forms a kind of focus (not in a fearful, +religious sense) and is a common ground and understandable sign to those +involved within T.O.P.Y. + +23: This to me is Kammerer's Law of Seriality. The natural rhythms, +patterns, harmonies in all the universe. It is an expression of this +belief of the unexplored forces that act upon us. + +--------------------------------------------- + +I can relate to what the Temple Ov Psychick Youth is trying to do +because we are all living in a world where chaos reigns. The Western +World has been under the dogma of religion, Catholic and Protestant, for +the last five hundred years. And its teachings, far removed from the +original message, have beenused to control the masses and to shape +humanity's moral codes. + +So today we have people wanting to have spiritual freedom, but who +because of the age-old brain washing of God and the Devil, and good and +evil, find it hard. Even worse, most people in our society have to +unlearn and begin at thee beginning about their relationship with life, +the universe and everything in it; and they generally start looking +within themselves for their answers. I personally think that Chris- +tianity is on its last legs, as its churches are full of middle-aged and +old people, but not young people. So there are many who are searching +for spiritual freedom, and a truer relationship with life. The Temple Ov +Psychick Youth provides a means and a way for people to break free and +rise above the lie of society. Because magick, witchcraft are keys that +unlock many of life's closed doors, and enable individuals to explore +and develop themselves on all planes of life, from spiritual to +physical. + +Nothing in life is easy, and magick is not an escape. As with all life +you have to give of yourself to receive, and giving of yourself means a +sacrifice of time and effort which is a hard lesson for many an aspiring +occultist. So through contact with open groups like T.O.P.Y., +individuals can meet other people with similar ideals in life. + +Obviously people will have to face moral principles such as sexual +2896 + +Magick (tantric yoga) and other methods used in ritual magick to raise +the power, but this is something they learn naturally and not unnatur- +ally as the rest of society still thinks and believes. They have to +learn that they themselves create or destroy what life presents before +them, not God or the Devil, and thus having learnt go forth into a new +world of gods. After all, evil is essentially misplaced energy (un- +natural). So things like sex, and all pleasurable activity so long as it +be done with free will, are healthy for us in life. + +This last point is another reason why I agree with T.O.P.Y.'s ideals: +because they encourage people to be free within themselves, and to +discover their own true wills. + +As A/C puts it: Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law. +Love Is The Law, Love Under Will. + +--------------------------------------------- + +My interpretation of T.O.P.Y. is that of the propagation of unlimited +expression and potential. Also, that of the freeing of world technology +and communication from the restraints of generally restrictive, +authoritarian value-systems. The Temple, to me, has the potential to +both examine and free the latency of both physical and psychical +potential. + +I would like to take part in a world-deprogramming task, and experience +the worthiness of my own full powers, in all their comparitive spheres. + +These thoughts encompass my attitudes towards sexuality (in both its +drive and visionary factors) and also my movement towards a cooperative +methodology. + +--------------------------------------------- + +What is Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth? + +To me, ultimately a special state ov mind - the place where all dreams +meet. +The place you know exists but are afraid to admit it. A secret place, +timeless, sexual, a magick place open to all. Have you never felt so +alive, happy, sexual that you want to live forever? Or are you lost, +scared or just too pissed off to care. T.O.P.Y. can help you find your +real self and you can help T.O.P.Y. in the process. By helping and +caring and coummitment to T.O.P.Y. the same energy is given back. Love +is not a dirty word, helping people is not wrong. For society to change, +people must change. People must see what is happening all around them. +People must be given information about sigils, dreamachines, magick. +People must be pro-sexual, have respect and caring for everybody. +What is wrong with being happy, alive, caring? So reject money - I'm on +16K a year, smart mate but who's interested. I'm a Man City fan - You're +dead. (Fighting for a football team, strange.) This jumper cost $60. +(Very smart, but does it make you really feel better inside.) + +In these times ov one-upmanship why not join the ultimate game and play +for your life and make history as well. + +--------------------------------------------- + +2897 + +Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth acts as a focal point, a sigil to thee +Will. It can provide thee FORM about which thee FUNCTION ov Thee SELF +can be wrapped. Thee act ov focusing releases tremendous energy which +Thee Temple, as a concourse, forms into a flow ov energy. As a concept +it sparks off Individual activity and through thee Image ov Thee SIGIL +it channels that energy into a creative outburst. + +As a free form with a continuous flow ov unrestricted and unlimited +ideas it allows any Individual to develop a language to express what can +not be explained. Magick in its modern context is largely a question ov +interpreting a subjective reality in purely personal terms. This +requires a personal subjective language. Yet if society is to continue +- have any meaning - then it is precisely this that must be communi- +cated. A subjective reality can not be expressed in terms ov common +language, but only as a personal experience. Thus thee only channel ov +communication open to us is to place our personal view within a common +framework. This in essence is what all communication is about. But most +ov our present belief is based on distortion. Our culture simply has not +got thee necessary tools to cope with thee present situation. Our +cultural language is still based on thee rational universal world ov +thee past aeon. This will have to be swept aside before people can talk +to each other again. + +Thee Temple as a focal point without a fixed system ov values begins +Thee Process. It provides a channel through which thee Individual can +view his/her circumstances from their own perspective. It sweeps past +thee outmoded views ov mass philosophy. Most importantly, by mutual +encouragement, Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth gives me thee courage to +accept and trust my own view. + +--------------------------------------------- + +Its aims on human freedom and independence +To inspiration individuality +Freedom in any dreams, in any wisches + +Sexuality with no limitations so long as it is yours +sexuality to make you free of any restrictions +sexuality & Love the most successful drivepower for any dream & wisch +Love the power of all powers. + +Methods of magic and philosophy from many individuals Psycho-levels of +the brain to help you in higher atomosphere's Methods from magic to +create your perfect atmosphere and to get closer to that one self +Methods look sometimes bizzare but are the ones who understand there are +no limitations, when you wanne reach exstacy-freedom OV 23 - That +moment, that day, that dream, that wisch, that freedom It all can come +true, OV 23 is one of those methods Lots of thoughts are feelings which +are not easy to explain May be when I have to represent a year later it +might be totally different, I learn every day more and more, it will +take lives. + +----------------------------------- + +Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth is important because it is ACTIVE and +CARING. It intends to nudge people into an understanding of themselves, +into RESPECT for themselves. To Love themselves and their lives. It +intends to spur people into doing coumthing with their lives, being +2898 + +ACTIVE. It gives people back to themselves along with the realisation +that they CAN get what they really deeply want and need. Their desires +can be made real. All it takes is effort and discipline. + +For a few years now I have felt a deep hunger and frustration. There has +been a large gap in my life. It took me awhile to realise what this gap +was. A deep spiritual lack. There has never been any talk ov or +involvment with anything remotely spiritual during the whole of my +twenty years of existence. During Primary School it was required of the +whole class to stand up in thee mornings and say thee Lords Prayer. I +never ever believed in it. It seemed totally absurd to me even then, I +don't really know why, but I never believed in "God". For seven years I +stood up and mouthed thee words of thee prayer. When I left at the age +of 12, if anyone asked me to recite thee words ov thee Lords Prayer I +couldn't do it! Seriously. I had never learned it and had wilfully +blocked it out. I objected out loud of course, oh no, that would result +in the belt. Little boys who don't say their prayers get pain as a +reward. It wasn't until I was about 19 that I found what I thought/think +might be thee answers. I have always been interested in thee unusual. In +everything. People. Books. Music. Art. Thee "Chaos ov thee Normal", thee +"Moronic Inferno". Fashion has never interested me. During childhood I +read mostly science fiction. Then came a period ov flux, ov +wandering, where I no longer was deeply "into" Sci-fi as before, but +couldn't find anything else. That was when I decided to buy "A William +Burroughs Reader" having heard him mentioned in numerous articles in +thee muzak press. Pages of wonderous images, surreal images, new ideas, +new methods. This replenished my lust for thee innovative. + +I used to go to an "Adult Training Centre" at night to help out at a +kind of social gathering of handicapped people. There was a small record +player, and a box of records. Sidney Devine, Elvis, Nana Mouscouri, +country and western, thee muzak ov my nightmares! Tucked neatly in +between two of these wreckords was an unimposing little single. It was +Just Drifting and was by Psychic TV. I asked if I could have it as I +wondered what they were like, having read reviews in thee press. As one +of our records had disappeared they said "Yes". That was how I dis- +covered PTV. It was a few years before I made enquiries into thee +Temple. This was made at thee same time as I found a possible solution +to my problem. I read a book called "Mysteries" by Colin Wilson. It was +thee most amazing book I had ever read. A whole new universe ov +possibilities opened up to me. I immediately developed a deep hunger for +knowledge. Not everyday knowledge. Knowledge ov this strange new world. +I went to thee library and read every occult book I could find. A Whole +new worlds of meaning opened up. + +Thee Temple seemed like an honest organisation. Not a brainwashing cult. +An "anti-cult". I didn't know (and still don't) just how much knowledge +it possessed. To make "the occult" a part of everyone's everyday lives, +now that was an interesting idea. A very good idea. An essential idea. +Ideas into action. Kick start evolution again. + +To destroy tyranny and oppression. To bring joy back to living once +more. Love. Responsibility for actions. Interaction between Individuals +again, instead ov this total isolation that is becoming a hallmark ov +thee twentieth century. + +Sex. To free sex from all fetters. To throw off guilt and all restric- +tions to pleasure. To make sex pure again. Between two Individuals. Not +2899 + +thee ignorant sexist, totally damaging view of a man fucking a woman. +Sex involves two people. Two active people (who may be active in their +passivity). To reclaim sexuality as our own. To be shared with who we +choose, however we choose. Thee magick ov sex. Thee new sexuality. To +choose ourSelves. + +Thee Psychick Cross. Thee cross is thee union of opposites (0=2). Thee +top half has thee Christian Cross, thee bottom half has thee anti-Chris- +tian or Satanic Cross. Thee middle branch ties them together. Thee top +half mirrors thee bottom. As above so below. It is thee anti-Papal Cross +since thee middle branch is shorter than thee outer two, thee opposite +of thee Papal. It is a television aerial. It receives and transmits +information from and to every area ov life. Thee centre of thee +Information War. It is a focus for knowledge and understanding. It is +also thee face of thee Temple. Thee central line ov thee face along +which is arranged thee line of thee eyes at top, nose middle, and mouth +bottom. Thee three branches are mind, body, and spirit. There are three +crosses in thee Psychick Cross, not two. + +23, in Crowley's system, is Water. Thee essential element ov life. Thee +great sea ov thee subconscious. Thee element that is always in flux, +forever changing. Change is stability. Water has three states (branches +on thee cross?). Water is the body and the mind. Just as the moon +affects the sea so does it affect mind and body. The brain is something +like 80% water after all. 23 is a mystery. It's just a number. It's +just the number ov rays from Sirius, The Sun behind the Sun. Thee star +of thee Dogon, those marvellous people. Thee symbol of Sirius is pretty +close to thee cross. + +23 is synchronicity and recognition: + +2+3=5 2x3 = 6 2/3 = .666 + +--------------------------------------------- + +Trying to explain my reason for my involvement with T.O.P.Y. is hard, +but to say I am searching for my inner strengths and weaknesses is as +good a one as any. To me T.O.P.Y. is doing more for thee couming +together ov people than any thing I know. They encourage thee sharing ov +ideas which to me is an important factor in knocking down life's walls. + +To ask me thee meaning behind their aims, ideas, sexuality, methods, +thee meaning ov thee Psychick Cross, ov 23 would be an injustice to +T.O.P.Y. Their aim I believe to be more wakefulness in society, for +people to open up their eyes and see for themselves. Their ideas revolve +around Pagan philosophy and thee arts ov Magick which in a way takes on +all aspects ov Life. Methods are thee same in all new conceptions and +must be used to get thee message across. Sexuality is a beautiful thing +and should be treated in thee same way, free love must be forever in our +souls. Thee Psychick Cross is a symbol to symbolise all aspects ov +T.O.P.Y. ideals, they must be put up everywhere. Ov 23 I am stuck with +no true conclusion as to thee proper idea/ideas behind it, but to me it +stands out and crops up in thee weirdest ov situations and it is a JOY +to see it anywhere. + +T.O.P.Y. is an inner door, a device for breaking down mental walls. +T.O.P.Y. can be pleasure with thee pain, thee garden ov eden and you are +Adam or Eve. Open thee eye to T.O.P.Y. and experience everything before +2900 + +it is too late. +--------------------------------------------- + +I feel no need to justify my interest or my sympathy. Those who reject +T.O.P.Y. reject themselves - and few want to face the truth. Each +individual must decide their own course, and as no-one is the same, so +no course is the same. Everyone responds and rejects or accepts +according to their own thoughts and feelings. + +T.O.P.Y. offers an alternative to mass control, depersonalisation and +guilt. Those who choose this path will never find it easy - prejudice +and jealousy will see to that, as very few people have the courage to be +themselves and those that do are often hated for it. For not conforming. +For not being "one of us". + +T.O.P.Y. aims to make each individual free of the mental shackles and +spiritual bonds placed on us since birth. To question the unquestioning +mind and to heal the wound of separation withing us. For no-one is whole +when psyche, mind and body work in discord. The Psychick Cross is a +symbol of this unity - a tangible representation of 23 - two threes back +to back, joined, whole, a perfect harmony visually and psychically, to +be used as a focal point for energy, a comforter emotionally and a +reminder of the potential within us. A potential T.O.P.Y. can help us to +achieve. + +The thing I can give most readily is my love. My love of Life and its +unifying energy and of all living things. My love of humanity and all +that these destructive creatures have produced that is creative. My love +of my ideal that I have cherished and nurtured all my life - that +finally humankind will see and feel all that is within me is within all +life and therefore that all life is within me. + +--------------------------------------------- + +The nation, the world is in a trap. The poor are getting poorer, and the +rich, richer. Our environment is collapsing in upon ourselves because of +what we are doing. An example: it is legal to corrode the ozone layer +(by use of aerosols, etc.) and thereby harm everyone, yet illegal to +smoke marijuana, and harm no-one. We need change, revolution - and +T.O.P.Y. is that. The ideas of it being an insane death cult are a +misconception. We are help, perhaps the only help and friend, not an +enemy. So open your eyes. diff --git a/religious documents/2901-000.txt b/religious documents/2901-000.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6df14d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/2901-000.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5727 @@ +2901 + +Once upon a time. . . . + +. . . . I first spurred interest in T.O.P.Y. with the listening of +Dreams Less Sweet. After I proceeded to lose that tape to a young lady, +I decided to find out more about the sound and reasons of T.O.P.Y. I +purchased the live records series, which has proven to be a source of +great enjoyment. And I try to forward the ideas of T.O.P.Y. with +messages on the dorm door, and I try to play a few songs when I dj at +the campus radio station. + +What I rather liked about T.O.P.Y. was that there was no forcing of +ideals on myself the listener. There are, I will not hold back, a few +ideals I do not in self practice, because they do not appeal to me, but +I will not condescend because someone else may. For the book, I do not +experiment with drugs, have sex, or denounce strongly non-pagan +religions. Persons may say that I have not lived, but that is someone +else's idea of living. If and when I wish to try something, I shall, but +until then I am content with myself. I guess the point is that it is a +choice, and one must not necessarily make certain choices to be involved +with T.O.P.Y. + +The problem, well wait. Let us stay with that prior thought, about +choices, just for a minute. You may have noticed I don't spell certain +words the way T.O.P.Y. does; again I do not feel that is important for +me to reflect that thought to be considered involved with T.O.P.Y. +Anyway, as I was writing, the problem is I am afraid that I may not be +able to be as active as I wish in T.O.P.Y. with my schooling, because +education is very important to me. So, what I guess I am getting at, is +that I will do my best to do what I can. I can only hope that does not +sound too "wishy-washy". So, I am, will, try to do my most. + +How would I explain T.O.P.Y. to a stranger? Simply, a group, tribe of +persons who are looking ahead, with little recourse to beliefs or +principles that have been embedded, sometimes unwillingly, into society. +An aim of reversal, getting people to quit taking for granted what +surrounds them, and having them realize they have control of their life, +and to use themselves to their potential. + +Why do I feel T.O.P.Y. is important? Because it serves as a meeting +center for those persons who already know what they feel to get stronger +centralisation and organisation, and make themselves and their ideas +more available to others. It's got a lot to do with the concept of +awareness. + +I guess aims and ideas have been taken care of. Sexuality, again, is an +awareness, realizing how present it is, and how it can be made into +something more wonderful than expected or known. + +The Psychick Cross has so much behind it that it is rather hard to sum +up its meaning, besides representing a receptor for thought processes. +Also, I just rather thought that it could also be seen as a christian +cross overlapped by a satanic (inverted christian) cross, and a bar in +the middle to cancel the two out, which would go along with the theory +of bowing to no god. + +23 is something I cannot comment too intelligently on, since I have not +the amount of information necessary. I have heard, however, that it is +the number of confusion, and actually, I myself have not much more of a +2902 + +view on it. . .yet. + +Other resources of my self-determination, defining ideas clearly, +patience, art skills (with both pen and words), and desire to communi- +cate. + +--------------------------------------------- + +Explanation of T.O.P.Y. to a Stranger: + +I found this question difficult to answer as I do not know enough about +T.O.P.Y. People have asked me what it is, so I told them that it is an +information network and to contact T.O.P.Y. if interested. However, when +pressured I inform them of as much as I can, expanding on the ideas that +I know, and state that thee network runs all over thee country and that +depending on an individuals involvement information is available to +them; that it is up to thee individual, if they want, to becoum involved +and that one is not pressured into it. + +To justify my involvement I would say that T.O.P.Y. has thee same or +similar beliefs to those I have always held, but from which I had +switched off as it was not "right" in thee conditioned world. + +--------------------------------------------- + +On T.O.P.Y. + +I have played PTV &/or T.O.P.Y. material for many friends, so I am often +asked about T.O.P.Y. + +I tailor the answer to the questioner, telling no more than I think they +can follow at the time. Sometimes I describe PTV as a loose aggregate of +people working with music and video. I may explain that they are part of +a larger organisation which seeks to support people whose aims and +interests are outside the mainstream. + +To people I trust I explain more. That T.O.P.Y. is a network of people +with some similarities and some differences, held together by a desire +to understand and short-circuit control. To explore ways to make what +they want to happen, happen. That T.O.P.Y. encourages people to find out +their true natures, not a shallow and generic, dictated and advertised +"identity". + +One method is to exploit the cut-up, both on other material and +behaviourally as well. We constantly run on habit, and it is good to +break this up. Do you see friend X because you really want to? Or +because it's what you always do on Thursday night? A simple but +pertinent example. + +Burroughs has been quoted as saying there was nothing special about 23, +just that it was something he noticed and then kept noticing. I see it +partly as a symbol of focus. That there is so much around that we screen +out daily, if we pick something not to screen out it will seem om- +nipresent. I also like the idea of it as a sort of mischievous number, +popping up with a will of its own where it has no statistical right. And +each time it pops up itself it reminds me of my psychic heritage that I +am reclaiming for myself. + +2903 + +I see no particular sexual style that is representative of T.O.P.Y. It +is more an aspect of sex itself, that of the power (indeed - OV Power) +it contains. A power that can be frustrated by a denial of desire; +dissipated by investing it in removed, marketed images; or directed by +self-understanding and a ritual method. Since the sex drive is so basic, +and since social repression functions here as much or more than anywhere +else, sexual magick is a most powerful and empowering technique. + +The particular interpretations of 23 and the Psychick Cross are not as +interesting or important to me as the fact that there are many +interpretations. + +If a cynic - journalist or otherwise - is asking me about T.O.P.Y., I +believe it is important not to try too much to defend or to try to +convince the person that there's nothing horrid about us. I will, +however, try to dispel any basic misconceptions. I have found that so +much of what I take for granted is alien to many people that I cannot +explain parts of it. As I've noted, it took me a while to understand so +many foreign thoughts at once. If pressed by anyone who is obviously +hostile to and/or threatened by the ideas, I say "Well, I'm convinced of +it, it works for me, and I'm happy." I do not try to "convert" +them. If they are unaccepting of it, I give them some things to read, +and T.O.P.Y.'s address. + + --------------------------------------------- + +T.O.P.Y. is an international network system, a kind of organisation that +brings in touch people who share ideas and feel free to do whatever they +like, as strange as it may be. That's the reason why T.O.P.Y. is +important. In times of loneliness, T.O.P.Y. tries to bring people in +touch, tries to bring back the lost innocence, the correspondence among +people. T.O.P.Y. hates everything and everyone who tries to limit its +freedom. T.O.P.Y. offers a method of living to better survive as a True +Being, and as an Individual, and not as part of the maze. Individuality +is expressed as Spirit and Will. "Love Under Will" is the meaning. To +manage it, T.O.P.Y. edits books, records, video tapes. T.O.P.Y. requires +belief in Magick and modern Paganism, and recognises the power of the +human brain. + +The Psychick Cross means to me: Brain (upper bar); Heart (middle bar); +Prick - as the home of souls (lower bar). It means the Individual +itself, with its three psychic powers: Brain = dreams, fantasy, +cleverness; Heart = L.OV.E.; Prick = soul = the power that motivates all +the above. + +The meaning of 23 is a mystic one, and people can only understand it +after long thought about T.O.P.Y. + +--------------------------------------------- + +T.O.P.Y. is very important to thee continued growth of psychic awareness +in thee world. We have progressed physically as far as we can. Thee next +stage is mental. + +T.O.P.Y. offers a series of mental training exercises: awareness +(especially ov yourself) is thee goal. + +There is no obligation, as thee Temple is you. Thee aims are immense. +2904 + +Education, realisation, principally. Thee Temple can be anything you +need from it. 23 is thee pure number, completely random, a prime +number. Thee Cross: a reflection of thee ego, a place to focus energy +and a simple, comfortable symbol representing a new strength in thee +world. + +--------------------------------------------- + +Thee Justification ov T.O.P.Y. + +Last night me and some members ov T.O.P.Y.S.T.E.E.L engaged thee "JESUS +ARMY" in verbal confrontation. It was in some ways an awakening +experience. It was also an experience which demonstrates thee necessity +for T.O.P.Y., PaganLink, O.T.O., etc. + +To be confronted with thee organised inculcation of GUILT, FEAR and +LOATHING in militaristic form demonstrated the need for L.O.V.E. +organisations to provide the keys to self-(de)-programming. + +To be confronted with INTOLERANCE and PSYCHIC VAMPIRISM showed the +horrible fate awaiting us if our society/thee earth is taken over by +thee forces of PERSONAL LIMITATION. + +T.O.P.Y. provides a decentralised set of forums for individuals who wish +to escape our conditioned guilt and fear responses. It provides outline +methods for individuals who wish to acquire self expression, self love, +self discipline. + +T.O.P.Y. is a will/energy focus. It's LOVE transmitting on all frequen- +cies. True sexuality is a timeless moment of orgone mutation, thee +event where thee subconscious becomes all thee planes, thee times, where +it becomes an identity with thee conscious worlds. Liberation is only a +heartbeat away. + +Thee Psychick Cross = pagan Cross. Sexual unions. Tree of Life, +qabballahs. Thee planes, all in one. Thee sigil of Temple workings, +immanent in this cross, every working ever done before or in thee +future, happening now. Thee sigil ov no name, thee blank sheet for our +experiences and desires to write upon. + +23: No-one has ever satisfactorily explained to me how or why a computer +works. But I use one almost every day, and computers always touch my +life. Similarly, 23 has not been totally explained to me, even in +numerological terms. Not fully anyway. Thee fact remains that 23 seems +to have some kind ov recurrent activity, in my experience. That does not +mean it will necessarilty be a feature of your experienced universe... + +23 attaches itself in its various guises (32, 223, 123, 0-23, etc.) to +things I j- and many other YOUTH - are involved with. 23 seems to be a +sign of recurrent activity in thee universe, ov unifying themes. + +--------------------------------------------- + +Justification of T.O.P.Y. to a cynical interviewer: + +As rationality has failed to create a new mankind there are other +methods to be found of changing minds. The will must come from in- +dividuals, who, to reach their aims, gather in a group. +2905 + +Through the moral conditioning in childhood, school, military and the +general influence of language, media and moral systems, men are totally +controlled. They control each other, oftenj without even knowing it. +The wishes, dreams of the body and subconsciousness are ignored and the +subject, so long as there is one, is conditioned to ignore it too. Only +functionality is important. + +Life is shortened to operational functions to serve society. It is +degraded to a servant. As I feel unsatisfied by this, I need to escape +from this control and want to destroy it. I like to experiment with +other aspects of life. In this case, sexuality is an important factor +because it gives the individual a total conscience of its own existence. +It may help to find the inner self and break pre-formations. I like +sexuality. In orgasm, you cross the border. In orgasm you die. Your +coming back from another cone of reality after it. The coming to climax +is a way to ego-destruction. + +--------------------------------------------- + +People are suppressed and conditioned by the socialisation processes of +our "society" - education, media, and the family - to believe in certain +attitudes and to behave in certain ways. + +What has happened to individuality and the personality? + +People should be taught to develop their own-selves and their own +personalities - To learn about instinct, nature, consciousness and +further heights of awareness, WHICH HAVE NEVER BEEN PUSHED FROM OUR +MINDS. + +The human mind is suppressed not to generate its "unacceptable" powers. + +Meditation, creative visualisation, and MAGICK are important tools which +may be used to help bring out our true selves. + +Sexuality is condemned from an early age. Society as a whole condemns +sexuality. + +It is a beautiful experience - and can prove to be a very powerful and +magickal act - generating immense emotion and feeling. + +The idea of PLEASURE AND PAIN is fundamental to the understanding and +experiences of people. Sex can exist within both concepts. + +People should learn not to be ashamed of their sexuality, and sexually, +to share experiences with other individuals. + +UNDERSTANDING, DEVELOPMENT, AND COMMUNICATION. + +OUR AIM IS WAKEFULNESS. +OUR ENEMY IS DREAMLESS SLEEP + +--------------------------------------------- + +Involvement with T.O.P.Y. means that I have broken away from the social +graces forced upon me by society. I am finding out what I really enjoy +to do, with my mental/physical attributes. I am learning to reach +further than before, to grasp the things that were previously beyond my +2906 + +reach. + +T.O.P.Y. is a collective of individuals who, in a way, do not want to be +part of any group/social type. This is not as hypocritical as it sounds, +because each individual within T.O.P.Y. is going his/her own way, each +with differing goals, concepts of life. + +T.O.P.Y. is important because it gives the individuals within a +confidence that others are trying to struggle against society. T.O.P.Y. +members feel as though they are not the only ones with a different point +of view. It gives the individual strength to succeed. + +T.O.P.Y.'s aim is to help individuals attain their highest dreams, and +to help them accomplish their works and wishes in life. + +--------------------------------------------- + +T.O.P.Y. allows thee individual a chance to know him/her self. I am not +sure if I would be able to explain T.O.P.Y. to a stranger. Recently I +was talking to a friend who told me she no longer wanted to be my friend +because I was involving myself with T.O.P.Y. She does not believe in +anything. Her point is that I would no longer be me and that I didn't +need T.O.P.Y.'s ideas to help me with my problems, that in time +everything works out in itself. + +I disagreed with her argument, trying to explain that T.O.P.Y. would +help me with the goals that I want to obtain in my life, and that in the +past not all my problems have worked out by themself. + +T.O.P.Y. asks for the individual to be clear in admitting their real +desires by discarding all irrelevancies and by asking yourself what do +you really want out ov life. The argument with my friend allowed me to +see that we were no longer friends and perhaps we never really were. How +could we have been friends when she would not allow me to be anymore +than I already was nor anything else that I could be. + +T.O.P.Y. is not there to be occult. But a lot ov people have that +misunderstanding. People will always condemn the thoughts and actions ov +another. + +There is someone who I am deeply interested in, who spoke ov tribal +living and the ideas ov T.O.P.Y. At that time I had no idea what he was +talking about and the shyness that we both have makes it almost +impossible to talk to each other. We are barely able to smile and say +hello, and I believe thru the Psychick process we will be able to speak +again. I will overcome the shyness that keeps me within myself and keeps +me from having what I really want from life. + +T.O.P.Y.'s ideas are for everyone who wants to wake up fromthe dreamless +world that we are living in. It's for the individual who asks themself +what they want from life, and the rituals are there to make those +thoughts happen. + +"Awareness ov your own energy is the awareness that flesh and spirit are +one, that thou art goddess, eternally linked, connected, at one with the +moving spirit ov all" (Starhawk 138) + +T.O.P.Y. is there for thee individual who makes the coumitment to become +2907 + +aware ov thee energy that is inside us all. . . + +--------------------------------------------- + +Magic has interested me from an early age - but I didn't have the best +informed beginning. I used to try telekinesis, telepathy, astral +projection,even levitation, all with varying degree of complete failure. +I had no concentration or confidence, and a very impatient streak. The +things I tried to do were very nice "tricks" but many of them are no +longer goals of mine. I see no reason now to attempt things for which I +had little aptitude, solely to impress others and build up my own social +standing. People are so cynical now, and maybe some of it has rubbed off +on me. + +The Temple has shown me a practical side to magick which makes no +pretensions, I don't expect to be able to force the hand of chance with +minimum effort and concentration and nothing to inform me but a +half-read Aquarian Press book. In my future sigil work I shall aim to +overcome some of my less attractive tendencies, and build on my natural +talents and abilities. My ideal target will be a perfect self and not a +material manipulator. Maybe people should expect miracles because I +think if you believe in something enough then you are halfway to having +it, just as long as it's within and not without yourself. + +I don't feel that I need to justify my involvement with anything, to +anyone. People have an instant dislike and fear of things they don't +understand, but worse than this, an aversion to information which could +disrupt their secure, boring, featureless lives. To me, many of these +people are lost causes, I would prefer that they knew nothing of what I +choose to do with my life - which is too precious to spend arguing with +people who will never see sense for the simple reason that they don't +want to. This may seem a selfish attitude, but the example of Susan +Bishop is enough to put me off talking to journalists, and Christians, +for life. Let them remain ignorant and happy, they will never change. + +--------------------------------------------- + +People like to control you. They want power and they achieve it. These +thieves are smart and they work off people's insecurities. CONTROL means +dictating how others should live and how to think. If you are afraid of +making these decisions for yourself (because of fear of failure, lack of +self-confidence, fear of death, and definitely laziness) then it is easy +to associate yourself with, and follow someone strong enough to make +decisions for you. You are no longer responsible for yourself and no +longer have the burden or that responsibility. It is easier to identify +oneself with an already developed personality (hero/heroine) than go +through the never ending struggle of self-discovery. The insecure +robbers who feed off our weaknesses are the ones most people tend to +trust: our rabbis and priests who control through strict regulations and +traditions, our school teachers who take advantage of +the innocence and naivety of young children by presenting themselves and +their ideas as manifestations of god, and our media which depicts THE +acceptable lifestyle through slanted manipulations. These thieves are +aware of your trust and innocence, and intend on using those weaknesses +to control you. + +The Temple Ov Psychick Youth is an organisation aimed at DE-control. +They do not wish to control you; they wish to liberate themselves. They +2908 + +offer suggestions on how you COULD liberate yourself, not how you SHOULD +liberate yourself. The process of liberation consists of many types of +research, such as the music group PTV. Members of the Temple feel that +there is no reason why life should not be "lived to the fullest" where +all one's NEEDS and DESIRES are fulfilled. Because there are so many +distractions to divert one's attention from one's goals, symbols are +invented to be worn, to be drawn, etc., to constantly remind, if not the +conscious, then the unconscious, of these goals. Ideally, through this +process laziness is combatted and the goals will more likely be achieved +since those goals are constantly on the person's mind. Because there are +so many distractions and limitations posed by the "controllers", +sometimes our deepest wants do not seem earthly possible, and we repress +them in our subconscious (a step towards neurosis) trying to dismiss +them. The Temple does not believe in repressing our needs and desires +(submitting to those "controllers"), because our personal needs are what +make us human and individual. + +The Psychick Cross is the symbol of the "whole" person, uncovering one's +unconsciously hidden desires and obtaining them. The unconscious speaks +most loudly in our dreams and our fantasies. When we fantasize, our +desires usually take place in Utopian settings, and represent these +goals by creating collages including parts of our physical body to +personalise the symbol of our goal even more. This symbol reminds us +over and over again that this is thee want, this is thee self. Temple +members using this process end up understanding their needs and desires +better, are more able to satisfy themselves and succeed in life. + +I personally enjoy making decisions and discoveries on my own. I will +not allow anyone to take that joy away from me. I enjoy my intelligence, +my talents, and discovering myself using the symbolic rituals suggested +by the Temple Ov Psychick Youth. T.O.P.Y. is an important organisation +because: 1) it shows people they are not alone in the struggle, and 2) +it allows people to exchange views, ideas, and solutions to better these +processes to liberate and satiate the individual self. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2909 + + "What is Paganism" + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- +The following is the text from a brochure that BAPA puts out called +"What is Paganism" (author unknown) +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"WHAT IS PAGANISM? + +"History of Paganism + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +"The term Pagan has numerous common definitions. Many dictionaries +define a Pagan as anyone not of the Judeo-Islamic-Christian religions. +Some people consider anyone who does not share their religion to be a +Pagan. Still others believe that a Pagan is a person who is +anti-religion. None of these "definitions" manage to capture the true +meaning of the term. + +"To discover the core meaning of Pagan, we look back to ancient times +when the word Pagan referred to a person of the country, or a peasant. + +{deletia... in summary, several paragraphs relating the history of the +Catholic Church and the poor peasants' inability to relate. Brief +description of the "glory of the Goddess and God in each starry night" +and note of the inconsistancies of the original Pagan beliefs with the +Catholic church. Also, several paragraphs detailing the development of +of the Church's campaign to expunge Paganism, some of the methods +employed and the subsequent Witch Hunts. Finally, an overall summary of +the persecution. If interested, let me know and I'll post it +separately.} + +"Paganism in Modern Times + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +"Today, little is known about the Pagans who survived what is now often +called "The Burning Times." Paganism, as it exists today, is best +described as the practice of any of a number of nature-based religions, +traditions that find their roots all over the world. {Liana- sound +familiar?} Many modern Pagans call themselves "Neo-Pagans" to declare +their religion as a revival of the old beliefs. + +{more deletia... in summary, two paragraphs comparing contemporary +Pagans to the peasants of old, extolling our intelligence and +involvement in technology. Also a paragraph defusing the Satanism +comparison. Again, if interested, let me know and I'll post it.} + +"What do Modern Pagans Believe? + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +"Paganism is actually a large umbrella containing a number of +nature-based religions beneath it, from the European-originated Wicca +and Druidism, to African Yoruba traditions and Hawaiian Huna. As a +result of this diversity, it is impossible to make statements about the +beliefs of Pagans that will apply to *all* {italics} Pagans. However, +some statements can be made that will, in general, apply to a vast +number of Pagans. + +2910 + +"Many Pagans tend to: + +"* Be polytheists, believing in more than one deity or more than + one aspect of a single deity. + +"* Be pantheists, seeing the God/Goddess force represented in everything + around them. + +"* Recognize the divinity of the feminine as well as the masculine, not + seeing masculinity as a superior force. + +"* Believe that the life force is sacred, and that nature, as a vital + representation of that force, is divine. + +"* Believe that all life forms are equal, sharing an equal claim to the + earth as a home. + +"* Believe that each individual is solely responsible for his or her + actions. + +"* Believe that the forces of nature can be shaped in ways commonly + called "magical." + +"* Believe that magical acts designed to bend one to another's will are + manipulative, and not encouraged. + +"* Believe that whatever actions a person takes, magical or mundane, + good or bad, come back to him/her, sometimes threefold. + +"* Believe that there is no single path to spiritual fulfillment, and + that the individual must determine the spiritual expression most + appropriate to him or her. + +"* Believe in reincarnation, or some form of life after death. + +"How do Pagans Practice Their Religion? + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +"Many Pagans find spiritual expression through the practice of ritual, +or religious ceremony. These rituals, often held at significant points +in lunar or solar cycles, offer an opportunity for Pagans to commune +with the godeesses and Gods, to celebrate the passages of life, and to +work magic. + +{deletia... in summary, paragraphs relating techniques to "raise power" +explaining that we don't espouse "power over" (my words). Also outlines +goals that many pagans have in mine when raising of power. Outlines the +sabbats, and relates the pattern of the seasons. Briefly describes +Beltane and Samhain. Once again, let me know if you would like to see +this text.} + +"Each Pagan religion has its own special way of recognizing the passing +of the seasons and personal life passages. Ritual offers a way to imbue +these moments with magic and reverence. + +{deletia... last paragraph giving information on how the reader can +learn more about Paganism, specifically in the Bay Area, and relating +the goal that BAPA has in mind.} +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2911 + + PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA + * or * + How I Found Goddess + And What I Did To Her + When I Found Her + + THE MAGNUM OPIATE OF MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER + + Wherein Is Explained + Absolutely Everything Worth Knowing + About Absolutely Anything + + + Published By: + LOOMPANICS UNLIMITED + PO BOX 1197 + Port Townsend, WA 98368 + $5.00(cheap) + Catalogs:$2.00 + +Transcribed to 1's and 0's by Druel the Chaotic, WPI Discordian Society + Cabal of the Unemployed + + mpython@gnu.ai.mit.edu + +{calendar entered by /AHM/THX } + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + INTRODUCTION + + You hold in your hands one the Great Books of our century fnord. + + Some Great Books are recognized at once with a fusilade of +critical huzzahs and gonfolons, like Joyce's ULYSSES. Others appear +almost furtively and are only discovered 50 years later, like MOBY DICK +or Mendel's great essay on genetics. The PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA entered our +space-time continuum almost as unobtrusively as a cat-burglar creeping +over a windowsill. + + In 1968, virtually nobody had heard of this wonderful book. In +1970,hundreds of people coast to coast were talking about it and asking +the identity of the mysterious author, Malaclypse the Younger. Rumors +swept across the continent, from New York to Los Angeles, from Seattle +to St. Joe. Malaclypse was actually Alan Watts, one heard. No,said +another legend -- the PRINCIPIA was actually the work of the Sufi Order. +A third, very intriguing myth held that Malaclypse was a pen-name for +Richard M. Nixon, who had allegedly composed the PRINCIPIA during a few +moments of lucidity. I enjoyed each of these yarns and did my part to +help spread them. I was also careful never to contradict the occasional +rumors that I had actually written the whole thing myself during an acid +trip. + + The legendry, the mystery, the cult grew slowly. By the +mid-1970's, thousands of people, some as far off as Hong Kong and +Australia, were talking about the PRINCIPIA, and since the original was +out of print by then, xerox copies were beginning to circulate here and +there. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2912 + + When the ILLUMINATUS trilogy appeared in 1975, my co-author, Bob +Shea, and I both received hundreds of letters from people intrigued by +the quotes from the PRINCIPIA with which we had decorated the heads of +several chapters. Many, who had already heard of the PRINCIPIA or seen +copies, asked if Shea and I had written it, or if we had copies +available. Others wrote to ask if it were real, or just something we had +invented the way H.P. Lovecraft invented the NECRONOMICON. We answered +according to our moods, sometimes telling the truth, sometimes spreading +the most Godawful lies and myths we could devise fnord. + + Why not? We felt that this book was a true Classic (literatus +immortalis) and, since the alleged intelligentsia had not yet +discovered it, the best way to keep its legend alive was to encourage +the mythology and the controversy about it. Increasingly, people wrote +to ask me if Timothy Leary had written it, and I almost always told +them he had, except on Fridays whem I am more whimsical, in which case +I told them it had been transmitted by a canine intellgence -- +vast,cool,and unsympathic -- from the Dog Star, Sirius. + + Now, at last, the truth can be told. + + Actually, the PRINCIPIA is the work of a time-travelling +anthropologist from the 23rd Century. He is currently passing among us +as a computer specialist, bon vivant and philosopher named Gregory +Hill. He has also translated several volumes of Etruscan erotic +poetry, under another pen-name, and in the 18th Century was the +mysterious Man in Black who gave Jefferson the design for the Great +Seal of the United States. + + I have it on good authority that he is one of the most +accomplished time-travelers in the galaxy and has visited Earth many +times in the past,using such cover-identities as Zeno of Elias, +Emperor Norton, Count Cagliostro, Guilliame of Aquaitaine, etc. +Whenever I question him about this, he grows very evasive and attempts +to persuade me that he is actually just another 20th Century Earthman +and that all my ideas about his extraterrrestrial and extratemporal +origin and delusions. Hah! I am not that easily deceived. After all, a +time-travelling anthropologist would say just that, so that he could +observe us without his presense causing cultureshock. + I understand that he has consented to write an Afterward to this +edition. He'll probably contradict everything I've told you, but don't +believe a word he says fnord. He is a master of the deadpan put-on, the +plausible satire, the philosophical leg-pull and all the branches of +guerilla ontology. + + For full benefit to the Head, this book should be read in conjunc- +tion with THE ILLUMINOIDS by Neal Wilgus (Sun Press, Albuquerque, NM) +and ZEN WITHOUT ZEN MASTERS by Camden Benares (And/Or Press, Berkeley, +California). "We are operating on many levels here", as Ken Kesey used +to say. + + In conclusion, there is no conclusion. Things go on as they always +have, getting weirder all the time. + + Hail Eris. All hail Discordia. Fnord? + + -Robert Anton Wilson + International Arms and Hashish Inc. +2913 + + Darra Bazar, Kohat + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A jug of wine, +A leg of lamb +And thou! +Beside me, +Whistling in +the darkness. + + +Be Ye Not Lost Among Precepts of Order... + - The Book of Uterus 1;5 + + +Some excerpts from an interview with Malaclypse the Younger by THE +GREATER METROPOLITAN YORBA LINDA HERALD-NEWS-SUN-TRIBUNE-JOURNAL-DISPAT- +CH-POST AND SAN FRANCISCO DISCORDIAN SOCIETY CABAL BULLETIN AND INTER- +GALACTIC REPORT & POPE POOP. + +GREATER POOP:Are you really serious or what? +MAL-2: Sometimes I take humor seriously. Sometimes I take seriousness +humorously. Either way it is irrelevant. + +GP: Maybe you are just crazy. +M2: Indeed! But do not reject these teaching as false because I am +crazy. The reason that I am crazy is because they are true. + +GP: Is Eris true? +M2: Everything is true. +GP: Even false things? +M2: Even false things are true. +GP: How can that be? +M2: I don't know man, I didn't do it. + +GP: Why do you deal with so many negatives? +M2: To dissolve them. +GP: Will you develop that point? +M2: No. + +GP: Is there an essential meaning behind POEE? +M2: There is a Zen Story about a student who asked a Master to explain +the +meaning of Buddhism. The Master's reply was "Three pounds of flax." +GP: Is that the answer to my question? +M2: No, of course not. That is just illustrative. The answer to your +question +is FIVE TONS OF FLAX! + + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2914 + + SUSPENDED ANNIHILATION + + + ODD# II/2,xii;68Chs3136 + + Principia Discordia + or + How I Found Goddess & What I Did To Her + When I found Her + + being a Beginning Introduction to + The Erisian Mysterees + + Which is Most Interesting + + -><- + + as Divinely Revealed to + My High Reverence MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER, KSC + Omnibenevolent Polyfather of Virginity in Gold + and HIGH PRIEST of + THE PARATHEO-ANAMETAMYSTIKHOOD OF ERIS ESOTERIC (POEE) + + + HAIL ERIS! -><- KALLISTI -><- ALL HAIL DISCORDIA! + + Dedicated to The Prettiest One + + The Upstart of one hand clapping + + - JOSHUA NORTON CABAL - + Surrealists, Harlequinists, Absurdists and Zonked Artists Melee + +POEE +is one manifestation of +THE DISCORDIAN SOCIETY +about which +you will learn more +and understand +less + +We +are a tribe +of philosophers, theologians, +magicians, scientists, +artists, clowns, +and similar maniacs +who are intrigued +with +ERIS +GODDESS OF CONFUSION +and with +Her +Doings + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + +2915 + +I Tell You: One must +still have chaos in one + to give birth to a + dancing star! +-Nietzsche + + THE FIVE COMMANDMENTS (THE PENTABARF) + +The PENTABARF was discovered by the hermit Apostle Zarathud in the Fifth +Year of The Caterpillar. He found them carved in gilded stone, while +building a sun deck for his cave, but their import was lost for they +were written in a mysterious cypher. However, after 10 weeks & 11 hours +of intensive scrutiny he discerned that the message could be read by +standing on his head and viewing it upside down. + + KNOW YE THIS O MAN OF FAITH! + +I - There is no Goddess but Goddess and She is Your Goddess. There is no +Erisian Movement but The Erisian Movement and it is The Erisian +Movement. And every Golden Apple Corps is the beloved home of a Golden +Worm. + +II - A Discordian Shall Always use the Official Discordian Document +Numbering System. + +III - A Discordian is Required during his early Illumination to Go Off +Alone & Partake Joyously of a Hot Dog on a Friday; this Devotive +Ceremony to Remonstrate against the popular Paganisms of the Day: of +Catholic Christendom (no meat on Friday), of Judaism (no meat of Pork), +of Hindic Peoples (no meat of Beef), of Buddhists (no meat of animal), +and of Discordians (no Hot Dog Buns). + +IV - A Discordian shall Partake of No Hot Dog Buns, for Such was the +Solace of Our Goddess when She was Confronted with The Original Snub. + +V - A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing What he reads. + +IT IS SO WRITTEN! SO BE IT. HAIL DISCORDIA! PROSECUTORS WILL BE +TRANSGRESSICUTED. + +Test Question from Topanga Cabal The Twelve Famous Buddha Minds School: +If they are our brothers, how come we can't eat them? + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +A ZEN STORY + +by Camden Benares, The Count of Five +Headmaster, Camp Meeker Cabal + +A serious young man found the conflicts of mid 20th Century America +confusing. He went to many people seeking a way of resolving within +himself the discords that troubled him, but he remained troubled. One +night in a coffee house, a self-ordained Zen Master said to him, "go to +the dilapidated mansion you will find at this address which I have +written down for you. Do not speak to those who live there; you must +remain silent until the moon rises tomorrow night. Go to the large room +on the right of the main hallway, sit in the lotus position on top of +2916 + +the rubble in the northeast corner, face the corner, and meditate." + + He did just as the Zen Master instructed. His meditation was fre- +quently interrupted by worries. He worried whether or not the rest of +the plumbing fixtures would fall from the second floor bathroom to join +the pipes and other trash he was sitting on. He worried how would he +know when the moon rose on the next night. He worried about what the +people who walked through the room said about him. + + His worrying and meditation were disturbed when, as if in a test of +his faith, ordure fell from the second floor onto him. At that time two +people walked into the room. The first asked the second who the man +was sitting there was. The second replied "Some say he is a holy man. +Others say he is a shithead." + + Hearing this, the man was enlightened. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Western Union Telegram + +To: Jehova Yahweh +Care: Celestial Hotel (Suite #666) +Presidential Tier, Paradise + +Dear God; +This is to inform you that your current position as diety is herewith +terminated due to gross incompetence STOP Your check will be mailed +STOP +Please do not use me for a reference + + Respectfully, + Malaclypse the Younger/Omnibenevolent Polyfather + POEE High Priest + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +10. The Earth quakes and the heavens rattle; the beasts of nature flock +together and the nations of men flock apart; volcanoes usher up heat +while +elsewhere water becomes ice and melts; and then on other days it just +rains. +11. Indeed do many things come to pass. + HBT; The Book of Predictions, Chap. 19 + + - THE BIRTH OF THE ERISIAN MOVEMENT - +THE REVELATION + + Just prior to the decade of the nineteen-sixties, when Sputnik +was alone and new, and about the time that Ken Kesey took his first acid +trip as a medical volunteer; before underground newspapers, Viet Nam, +and talk of a second American Revolution; in the comparative quiet of +the late nineteen-fifties, just before the idea of RENAISSANCE became +relevant.... + + Two young Californians, known later as Omar Ravenhurst and +Malaclypse the Younger, were indulging in their habit of sipping coffee +at an allnight bowling alley and generally solving the world's problems. +This particular evening the main subject of discussion was discord and +2917 + +they were complaining to each other of the personal confusion they felt +in their respective lives. "Solve the problem of discord," said one, +"and all other problems will vanish." "Indeed," said the other, "chaos +and strife are the roots of all confusion." + + + FIRST I MUST SPRINKLE YOU + WITH FAIRY DUST + +Suddenly the place became devoid of light. Then an utter silence +enveloped them, and a great stillness was felt. Then came a blinding +flash of intense light, as though their very psyches had gone nova. Then +vision returned. + + The two were dazed and neither moved nor spoke for several +minutes. They looked around and saw that the bowlers were frozen like +statues in a variety of comic positions, and that a bowling ball was +steadfastly anchored to the floor only inches from the pins that it had +been sent to scatter. The two looked at each other, totally unable to +account for the phenomenon. The condition was one of suspension, and one +noticed that the clock had stopped. + + +There walked into the room a chimpanzee, shaggy and grey about the +muzzle, yet upright to his full five feet, and poised with natural +majesty. He carried a scroll and walked to the young men. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "why does Pickering's Moon go about in reverse +orbit? Gentlemen, there are nipples on your chests; do you give milk? +And what, pray tell, Gentlemen, is to be done about Heisenberg's Law?" +He paused. "SOMEBODY HAD TO PUT ALL OF THIS CONFUSION HERE!" + +And with that he revealed his scroll. It was a diagram, like a yin-yang +with a pentagon on one side and an apple on the other. And then he +exploded and the two lost consciousness. + +ERIS - GODDESS OF CHAOS, DISCORD & CONFUSION + + They awoke to the sound of pins clattering, and found the +bowlers engaged in their game and the waitress busy with making coffee. +It was apparant that their experience had been private. + + They discussed their strange encounter and reconstructed from +memory the chimpanzee's diagram. Over the next five days they searched +libraries to find the significance of it, but were disappointed to +uncover only references to Taoism, the Korean flag, and Technocracy. It +was not until they traced the Greek writing on the apple that they +discovered the ancient Goddess known to the Greeks as ERIS and to the +Romans as DISCORDIA. This was on the fifth night, and when they slept +that night each had a vivid dream of a splendid woman whose eyes were as +soft as feather and as deep as eternity itself, and whose body was the +spectacular dance of atoms and universes. Pyrotechnics of pure energy +formed her flowing hair, and rainbows manifested and dissolved as she +spoke in a warm and gentle voice: + +I have come to tell you that you are free. Many ages ago, My conscious- +ness left man, that he might develop himself. I return to find this +development approaching completion, but hindered by fear and by +2918 + +misunderstanding. You have built for yourselves psychic suits of armor, +and clad in them, your vision is restricted, your movements are clumsy +and painful, your skin is bruised, and your spirit is broiled in the +sun. I am chaos. I am the substance from which your artists and +scientists build rhythms. I am the spirit with which your children and +clowns laugh in happy anarchy. I am chaos. I am alive, and I tell you +that you are free. + + During the next months they studied philosophies and theologies, +and learned that ERIS or DISCORDIA was primarily feared by the ancients +as being disruptive. Indeed, the very concept of chaos was still +considered equivalent to strife and treated as a negative. "No wonder +things are all screwed up," they concluded, "they have got it all +backwards." They found that the principle of disorder was every much as +significant as the principle of order. + + With this in mind, they studied the strange yin-yang. During a +meditation one afternoon, a voice came to them: + +It is called THE SACRED CHAO. I appoint you Keepers of It. Therein you +will find anything you like. Speak of Me as DISCORD, to show contrast to +the pentagon. Tell constricted mankind that there are no rules, unless +they choose to invent rules. Keep close the words of Syadasti: 'TIS AN +ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NO MINDS. And remember that there is no tyranny in +the State of Confusion. For further information, consult your pineal +gland. + + "What is this?" mumbled one to the other, "A religion based on +The Goddess of Confusion? It is utter madness!" + + And with those words, each looked at the other in absolute awe. +Omar began to giggle. Mal began to laugh. Omar began to jump up and +down. Mal was hooting and hollering to beat all hell. And amid squeals +of mirth and with tears on their cheeks, each appointed the other to be +high priest of his own madness, and together they declared themselves to +be a society of Discordia, for what ever that may turn out to be. + + +"There are trivial truths & there are great truths. The opposite of a +trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also +true." + -Neils Bohr + +"Did you know that there is a million bucks hidden in the house next +door?" +"But there is no house next door." +"No? Then let's go build one!" + -MARX + +Fnord Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, +Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, +Fnord, Fnord + +Momomoto, Famous Japanese, can swallow his nose. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + +2919 + + St. Trinian's + SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL POLICE + Sewing Circle + + + + + THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE ERISTOCRACY + by Lord Omar + +VERSE +Mine brain has meditated on the spinning of The Chao; +It is hovering o'er the table where the Chiefs of Staff are now +Gathered in discussion of the dropping of The Bomb; +Her Apple Corps is strong! + +CHORUS +Grand (and gory) Old Discordja! +Grand (and gory) Old Discordja! +Grand (and gory) Old Discordja! +Her Apple Corps is strong! + +VERSE +She was not invited to the party that they held on Limbo Peak;* +So She threw a Golden Apple, 'sted of turn'd t'other cheek! +O it cracked the Holy Punchbowl and it made the nectar leak; +Her Apple Corps is strong! + + +* "Limbo Peak" refers to Old Limbo Peak, commonly called by the Greeks +"Ol' Limb' Peak." + + +If a quixotic socrates studied zen under Zorba...? + +"The tide is turning... the enemy is suffering terrible losses" + -Gen. Geo. A. Custer + + + + People in a Position to +Know, Inc. + +ON PRAYER + +Mal-2 was once asked by one of his Disciples if he often prayed to Eris. +He replied with these words: + +No, we Erisians seldom pray, it is much too dangerous. Charles Fort has +listed many factual incidences of ignorant people confronted with, say, +a drought, and then praying fervently -- and then getting the entire +village wiped out in a torrential flood. + + +"Of course I'm crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. I'm mad but not +ill" + (Werewolf Bridge, Robert Anton Wison) + +2920 + + +14. Wipe thine ass with what is written and grin like a ninny at what is +Spoken. Take thine refuge with thine wine in the Nothing behind +Everything, as you hurry along the Path. + THE PURPLE SAGE + HBT; The Book of Predictions, Chap. 19 + + +Heaven is down. Hell is up. +This is proven by the fact +that the planets and stars +are orderly in their +movements, IGNOTUM PER IGNOTIUS +while down on earth The meaning of this is unknown +we come close to the +primal chaos. +There are four other +proofs, +but I forget them. + + -Josh the Dill + King Kong Kabal + + IT IS MY FIRM BELIEF THAT IT IS A MISTAKE TO HOLD FIRM BELIEFS. + + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +The Classical Greeks were not influenced by the Classical Greeks. + + DO NOT CIRCULATE! + + + What We Know About ERIS (not much) + +The Romans left a likeness of Her for posterity-- She was shown as a +grotesque woman with a pale and ghastly look, Her eyes afire, Her +garment ripped and torn, and women look pale and ghastly when concealing +a chilly dagger in their bosoms. + +Her geneology is from the Greeks and is utterly confused. Either She was +the twin of Ares and the daughter of Zeus and Hera; or She was the +daughter of Nyx, goddess of night (who was either the daughter or wife +of Chaos, or both), and Nyx's brother, Erebus, and whose brothers and +sisters include Death, Doom, Mockery, and Friendship. And that She begat +Forgetfullness, Quarrels, Lies, and a bunch of gods and goddesses like +that. + +One day Mal-2 consulted his Pineal Gland* and asked Eris if She really +created all of those terrible things. She told him that She had always +liked the Old Greeks, but that they cannot be trusted with historic mat- +ters. "They were," She added, "victims of indigestion, you know." + +Suffice it to say that Eris is not hateful or malicious. But She is +mischievous, and does get a little bitchy at times. + +*THE PINEAL GLAND is where each and every one of us can talk to Eris. If +youhave trouble activating your Pineal, then try the appendix which does +almost as well. Reference: DOGMA I, METAPHYSICS #3, "The Indoctrine of +2921 + +the Pineal Gland" + + + DIRUIT AEDIFICAT MUTAT QUADRATA ROTUNDUS + + -Horace +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2922 + + THE INSIDE STORY! + + The Law of Fives + + the Law of Fives is one of the oldest Erisian Mysterees. It was +first revealed to Good Lord Omar and is one of the great contributions +to come from The Hidden Temple of The Happy Jesus. + + POEE subscribes to the Law of Fives of Omar's sect. And POEE also +recognizes the holy 23 (2+3=5) that is incorporated by Episkopos Dr. +Mordecai Malignatus, KNS, into his Discordian sect, The Ancient Il- +luminated Seers of Bavaria. + + The Law of Fives states simply that: ALL THINGS HAPPEN IN FIVES, OR +ARE DIVISIBLE BY OR ARE MULTIPLES OF FIVE, OR ARE SOMEHOW DIRECTLY OR +INDIRECTLY APPROPRIATE TO 5. + + The Law of Fives is never wrong. + + In the Erisian Archives is an old memo from Omar to Mal-2: "I find +the Law of Fives to be more and more manifest the harder I look." + + + Please do not use this document as toilet tissue + + The Nagas of Upper Burma say that the sun + shines by day because, being a woman, it + is afraid to venture out at night. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +"You will find that the State is the kind of ORGANIZATION which, though +it does big things badly, does small things badly too." + - John Kenneth Galbraith + + THE MYTH OF THE APPLE OF DISCORD + It seems that Zeus was preparing a wedding banquet for Peleus and +Thetis and did not want to invite Eris because of Her reputation as a +trouble maker.* + + This made Eris angry, and so She fashioned an apple of pure gold** +and inscribed upon it KALLISTI ("To The Prettiest One") and on the day +of the fete She rolled it into the banquet hall and then left to be +alone and joyously partake of a hot dog. + + Now, three of the invited goddesses,*** Athena, Hera, and Aphro- +dite, each immediately claimed it to belong to herself because of the +inscription. And they started fighting, and they started throwing punch +all over the place and everything. + + Finally Zeus calmed things down and declared that an arbitrator +must be selected, which was a reasonable suggestion, and all agreed. He +sent them to a shepherd of Troy, whose name was Paris because his mother +had had a lot of gaul and had married a Frenchman; but each of the +sneaky goddesses tried to outwit the others by going early and offering +a bribe to Paris. + Athena offered him Heroic War Victories, Hera offered him Great +Wealth, and Aphrodite offered him the Most Beautiful Woman on Earth. +Being a healthy young Trojan lad, Paris promptly accepted Aphrodite's +bribe and she got the apple and he got screwed. +2923 + + As she had promised, she maneuvered earthly happenings so that +Pariscould have Helen (The Helen) then living with her husband Mene- +laus,King of Sparta. Anyway, everyone knows that the Trojan War followed +when Sparta demanded their Queen back and that the Trojan War is said to +be The First War among men. + + And so we suffer because of the Original Snub. And so a Discordian +is to partake of No Hot Dog Buns. Do you believe that? +------------------------------------- +* This is called THE DOCTRINE OF THE ORIGINAL SNUB +** There is historic disagreement concerning whether this apple was of +metalic gold or acapulco. +*** Actually there were five goddesses, but the Greeks did not know the +Law of Fives. + + + + REMEMBER: + KING + KONG + DIED FOR + YOUR SINS + + + Ho Chi Zen + is + King Cong + +5. An Age of Confusion, or an Ancient Age, is one in which History As We +Know It begins to unfold, in which Whatever Is Coming emerges in +Corporal Form, more or less, and such times are Ages of Balanced +Unbalance, or Unbalanced Balance. + +6. An Age of Bureaucracy is an Imperial Age in which Things Mature, in +which Confusion becomes entrenched and during which Balanced Balance,or +Stagnation, is attained. + +7. An Age of Disorder or an Aftermath is an Apocalyptic Period of +Transition back to Chaos through the Screen of Oblivion into which the +Age passeth, finally. These are Ages of Unbalanced Unbalance. + HBT; The Book of Uterus, Chap. 3 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Do You Remember? +1. Polite children will always remember that a church is the ______ of +_____. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2924 + +An Erisian Hymn + by Rev. Dr. Mungojerry Grindlebone, KOB + Episkopos, THE RAYVILLE APPLE PANTHERS + +Onwards Christian Soldiers, +Onwards Buddhist Priests. +Onward, Fruits of Islam, +Fight till you're deceased. +Fight your little battles. +Join in thickest fray; +For the Greater Glory, +of Dis-cord-i-a. +Yah, yah, yah, +Yah, yah, yah, yah. +Blfffffffffffft! + + +Mr. Momomoto, famous Japanese who can swallow his nose,has been +exposed. It was recently revealed that it was Mr. Momomoto's brother who +has been doing all this nose swallowing. + + + Heute Die Welt + Morgens das Sonnensystem! + + Abbey of the Barbarous Relic +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Official Proclamation -- ODD# III(b)/4,i;18Aft3135 +-------------------------------------------------- + + POEE DISORGANIZATIONAL MATRIX + +V) The House of Apostle of ERIS + For the Eristocracy and the Cabalablia + + A. The Five Apostles of ERIS + B. The Golden Apple Corps (KSC) + C. Episkoposes of The Discordian Society + D. POEE Cabal Priests + E. Saints, Erisian Avatars, and Like Personages + +IV) The House of the Rising Podge + for the Disciples of Discordia + + A. Office of My High Reverence, The Polyfather + B. Council of POEE Priests + C. The LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD + D. Eristic Avatars + E. Aneristic Avatars + +III) The House of the Rising Hodge + For the Bureaucracy + + A. the Bureau of Erisian Archives + B. the Bureau of The POEE Epistolary, and The Division of Dogmas + C. The Bureau of Symbols,Emblems, Certificates and Such + D. The Bureau of Eristic Affairs, and The Administry for The +Unenlightened Eristic Horde +2925 + + E. The Bureau of Aneristic Affairs, and the Administry for the Orders +of Discordia + +II) The House of the Rising Collapse + For the Encouragement of Liberation of Freedom, and/or the Dis- +couragement of the Immanentizing of the Eschaton + + A. The Breeze of Wisdom and/or The Wind of Insanity + B. The Breeze of Integrity and/or The Wind of Arrogance + C. The Breeze of Beauty and/or The Wind of Outrages + D. The Breeze of Love and/or The Wind of Bombast + E. The Breeze of Laughter and/or The Wind of Bullshit + +I) The Out House + For what is left over + + A. Miscellaneous Avatars + B. The Fifth Column + C. POEE =POPES= everywhere + D. Drawer "O" for OUT OF FILE + E. Lost Documents and Forgotten Truths + + -><- OFFICIAL - POEE + Head Temple, San Francisco + HOUSE OF THE RISING PODGE + Bureau of The POEE Epistolary + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + = THE FIVE FINGERED HAND OF ERIS = + +The official symbol of POEE is here illustrated. It may be this, or any +similar device to represent TWO OPPOSING ARROWS CONVERGING INTO A COMMON +POINT. It may be vertical, horizontal, or else such, and it may be +elaborated or simplified as desired. + +The esoteric name for this symbol is THE FIVE FINGERED HAND OF ERIS, +commonly shortened to THE HAND. + \ / + -----><----- + / \ + +NOTE: In the lore of western magic, the \/ is taken to symbolize horns, +especially the horns of Satan or of diabolical beasties. The Five +Fingered Hand of Eris, however, is not intended to be taken as satanic, +for the "horns" are supported by another set, of inverted "horns". Or +maybe it is walrus tusks. I don't know what it is, to tell the truth. + + + "Surrealism aims at the total transformation of the mind + and all that resembles it" + -Breton +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + -><- POEE -><- + +POEE (pronounced "POEE") is an acronym for The PARATHEO-ANAMETAMYSTIKHO- +OD OF ERIS ESOTERIC. The first part can be taken to mean "equivalent +deity,reversity beyond-mystique." We are not really esoteric, it's just +that nobody pays much attention to us. +2926 + +MY HIGH REVERENCE MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER, AB, DD, KSC, is the High +Priest of POEE, and POEE is grounded in his episkopotic revelations of +The Goddess. He is called [The Omnibenevolent Polyfather of Virginity in +Gold]. + +The POEE HEAD TEMPLE is the Joshua Norton Cabal of The Discordian +Society, which is located in Mal-2's pineal gland and can be found by +temporally and spacially locating the rest of Mal-2. + +POEE has no treasury, no by-laws, no articles, no guides save Mal-2's +pineal gland, and has only one scruple-- which Mal-2 keeps on his key +chain. + +POEE has not registered,incorporated, or otherwise chartered with the +State, and so the State does not recognize POEE or POEE Ordinations, +which is only fair, because POEE does not recognize the State. + +POEE has 5 DEGREES: + There is the neophyte, or LEGIONNAIRE DISCIPLE. + The LEGIONNAIRE DEACON, who is catching on. + An Ordained POEE PRIEST/PRIESTESS or a CHAPLIN. + The HIGH PRIEST, the Polyfather. + And POEE =POPE=. + +POEE LEGIONNAIRE DISCIPLES are authorized to initiate others as +Discordian Society Legionnaires. PRIESTS appoint their own DEACONS. The +POLYFATHER ordains priests. I don't know about the =POPES=. + +" This book is a mirror. When a monkey looks in, no apostle looks out." + -Lichtenberg + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + Application For Membership + In the Erisian movement of the DISCORDIA SOCIETY + +1. Today's date Yesterday's Date + +2. Purpose of this application: --membership in : a. Legion of Dynamic +Discord + b. POEE c. Bavarian Illuminati d. All of the Above e. None of the +Above + f. Other-- BE SPECIFIC! + +3. Name_________________________ Holy Name_____________ + + Address_____________________________________________________________ + (If temporary, also give an address from which mail can be +forwarded) + +4. Description: Born: []Yes []No Eyes:[]2 []other Height: + + ..... fl. oz. Last time you had a haircut: Reason: + + Race: []horse []human I.Q.: 150-200 200-250 250-300 over 300 + +5. History: Education - highest grade completed 1 2 3 4 5 6 over 6th + Professional: On another ream of paper list every job since 1937 from +2927 + +which you have been fired. Medical: On a separate sheet labeled +"confidential" list all major psychic psychotic episodes experienced +within the last 24 hours + + +6. Sneaky Questions to establish personality traits + I would rather a. live in an outhouse b. play in a rock group c. eat + caterpillars. I wear obscene tattoos because .......... + I have ceased raping little children []yes []no -- reason .......... + +7. Self Portrait + + + + + +Rev. Mungo +For Office Use Only -- acc. rej. burned + + LICK HERE!!! + + * + + (You may be one + of the lucky 25) + + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +-><- + +POEE & It's Priests + +If you like Erisianism as it is presented according to Mal-2, then you +may wish to form your own POEE CABAL as a POEE PRIEST and you can go do +a bunch of POEE Priestly Things. A "POEE Cabal" is exactly what you +think it is. + +The High Priest makes no demands on his Priests, though he does rather +expect good will of them. The Office of The Polyfather is point, not to +teach. Once in a while, he even listens. + +Should you find that your own revelations of The Goddess become +substantially different that the revelations of Mal-2, then perhaps the +Goddess has plans for you as an Episkopos, and you might consider +creating your own sect from scratch, unhindered. Episkoposes are not +competing with each other, and they are all POEE priests anyway (as soon +as I locate them). The point is that Episkoposes are developing separate +paths to the Erisian mountain top. See the section "Discordian Society" + +ORDINATION AS A POEE PRIEST + +There are no particular qualifications for Ordination because if you +want to be a POEE Priest then you must undoubtedly qualify. Who could +possibly know better than you whether or not you should be Ordained? + +An ORDAINED POEE PRIEST or PRIESTESS is defined as "one who holds an +Ordination Certificate from the Office of the Polyfather." +2928 + + + Seek into the Chao if thou wouldst be wise + And find ye delight in Her Great Surprise! + Look into the Chao if thou wantest to know + What's in a Chao and why it ain't so! + (HBT; The Book of Advise, 1:1) + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + World Council of Churches Boutique + +Note to POEE Priests: + +The Polyfather wishes to remind all Erisians the POEE was conceived not +as a commercial enterprise, and that you are requested to keep your cool +when seeking funds for POEE Cabals or when spreading the POEE Word via +the market place. + + +The Hidden stone ripens fast, +then laid bare like a turnip +can easily be cut out at last +but even then the danger isn't past. +That man lives best who's fain +to live half mad, half sane. + -Flemish Poet Jan Van + Stijevoort, 1524. + + + The Erisian Affirmation + +BEFORE THE GODDESS ERIS, I (name or holyname), do herewith declare +myself a POEE BROTHER of THE LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD. +HAIL HAIL HAIL HAIL HAIL ERIS ERIS ERIS ERIS ERIS ALL HAIL DISCORDIA! + +the presiding POEE Official (if any) responds: + + ALL HAIL DISCORDIA! + + +find the goddess Eris To Diverse Gods +Within your Pineal Gland Do Mortals bow; + POEE Holy Cow, and + Wholly Chao + -Rev. Dr. Grindlebone + Monroe Cabal + +"common sense is what tells you that the world is flat." + + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +This is St. Gulik. He is the Messenger of the Goddess. A different age +from ours called him Hermes. Many people called him by many names. He is +a Roach. + +________________________________________________________________________ + + + +2929 + + Legion of Dynamic Discord + + HARK + + RECOGNIZE that the -- DISCORDIAN SOCIETY -- doth hereby certify + + + As a Legionnaire + + + + Glory to We Children of +ERIS + + Presented under the +auspices + of our Lady of +Discord, ERIS + by the House of the +Apostles + of ERIS. + + -><- +________________________________________________________________________ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + HOW TO START A POEE CABAL + WITHOUT MESSING AROUND WITH THE POLYFATHER + +If you can't find the Polyfather, or having found him, don't want +anything to do with him, you are still authorized to form your own POEE +CABAL and do Priestly Things, using the Principia Discordia as a guide. +Your Official Rank will be POEE CHAPLIN for the LEGION OF DYNAMIC +DISCORD, which is exactly the same as a POEE PRIEST except that you +don't have an Ordination Certificate. The words you are now reading are +your ordination. + +HOW TO BECOME A POEE CHAPLIN + +1. Write the ERISIAN AFFIRMATION in five copies. +2. Sign and nose-print each copy. +3. Send one to the President of the United States. +4. Send one to + The California State Bureau of Furniture and Bedding + 1021 'D' Street, Sacramento CA 94814 +5. Nail one to a telephone pole. Hide one. And burn the other. +Then consult your pineal gland. + + +General License was Sgt. Pepper's Commander + + + ~~ OLD POEE SLOGAN ~~ + When in Doubt, Fuck it. + When not in Doubt... get in Doubt! + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Trip 5! + +2930 + + = The POEE Baptismal Rite = + This Mysteree Rite is not required for initiation, but it is offered by +many POEE Priests to proselytes who desire a formal ceremony. + +1) The Priests and four Brothers are arranged in a pentagon with the +Initiate in the center facing the Priests. If possible, the Brothers on +the immediate right and left of the Priest should be Deacons. The +Initiate must be totally naked, to demonstrate that he is truly a human +being and not something else in disguise like a cabbage or something. + +2) All persons in the audience and the pentagon, excepting the Priest, +assume a squatting position and return to a standing position. This is +repeated four more times. This dance is symbolic of the humility of we +Erisians. + +3) The Priest begins: + I, (complete Holy Name, with Mystical Titles, and degrees, designa- +tions, offices, &tc.), Ordained Priest of the Paratheo-anametamystikhood +of Eris Esoteric, with the Authority invested at me by the High Priest +of It, Office of the Polyfather, The House of the Rising Podge, POEE +Head Temple; Do herewith Require of Ye: + + 1) ARE YE A HUMAN BEING AND NOT A CABBAGE OR SOMETHING? The +Initiate answers YES. + 2) THAT'S TOO BAD. DO YE WISH TO BETTER THYSELF? The Initiate +answers YES. + 3) HOW STUPID. ARE YE WILLING TO BECOME PHILOSOPHICALLY +ILLUMINIZED? He answers YES. + 4) VERY FUNNY. WILL YE DEDICATE YESELF TO THE HOLEY ERISIAN +MOVEMENT? The Initiate answers PROBABLY. + 5) THEN SWEAR YE THE FOLLOWING AFTER ME: +(The Priest here leads the Initiate in a recital of THE ERISIAN +AFFIRMATION.) +The Priest continues: THEN I DO HERE PROCLAIM YE POEE DISCIPLE (name), +LEGIONNAIRE OF THE LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD. HAIL ERIS! HAIL HAIL! HAIL +YES! + +4) All present rejoice grandly. The new Brother opens a large jug of +wine and offers it to all who are present. + +5) The Ceremony generally degenerates. + + +Mord says that Omar says that we are all unicorns anyway. + + DO NOT PULL ON YELLOW TIP + +3. And though Omar did bid of the Collector of Garbage, in words that +were both sweet and bitter, to surrender back the cigar box containing +the cards designated by the Angel as The Honest Book of Truth, the +Collector was to him as one who might be smitten deaf, saying only: +'Gainst the rules, y' know. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2931 + + HBT; The Book of Explanations, Chap 2 + + + + Answers: + 1. Harry Houdini + 2. Swing Music + 3. Pretzels + 4. 8 months + 5. Testy Culbert + 6. It protrudes. + 7. No vocal cords + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + THE POEE MYSTEREE OATH G3400 + 50 +The Initiate swears the following: DMTS + 19 + FLYING BABY SHIT!!!!! + +(Brothers of the Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria sect may wish to +substitute the German: + FLIEGENDE KINDERSCHEISSE! +or perhaps + WIECZNY KWIAT WTADZA!!!!! +which is Ewige Blumenkraft in Polish.) + + +THE RECENT EXPOSE THAT MR. MOMOMOTO, FAMOUS JAPANESE WHO CAN SWALLOW HIS +NOSE, CANNOT SWALLOW HIS NOSE BUT HIS BROTHER CAN, HAS BEEN EXPOSED! IT +IS MR. MOMOMOTO WHO CAN SWALLOW HIS NOSE. HE SWALLOWED HIS BROTHER IN +THE SUMMER OF '44. + +Corrections to last week's copy: Johnny Sample is offensive cornerback +for the New York Jets, not fullback as stated. Bobby Tolan's name is not +Randy, but mud. All power to the people, and ban the fucking bomb. + + + "This statement is false" + (courtesy of POEE) +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + NO TWO EQUALS ARE THE SAME! + + THE DISCORDIAN SOCIETY + +The Discordian Society has no definition. + +I sometimes think of it as a disorganization of Eris Freaks. It has been +called a guerrilla mind theatre. Episkopos Randomfactor, Director of +Purges of Our People's Underworld Movement sect in Larchmont, prefers +"The World's Greatest Association of What-ever-it-is-that-we-are." Lady +Mal thinks of it as a RENAISSANCE THINK TANK. Fang the Unwashed, WKC, +won't say. You can think of it any way you like. + +AN EPISKOPOS OF THE DISCORDIAN SOCIETY +is one who prefers total autonomy, and creates his own Discordian sect +as The Goddess directs him. He speaks for himself and for those that say +that they like what he says. +2932 + +THE LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD: +A Discordian Society Legionnaire is one who prefers not to create his +own sect. + +If you want in on the Discordian Society then declare yourself what you +wish do what you like and tell us about it or if you prefer don't. + +There are no rules anywhere. Some Episkoposes +The Goddess Prevails. have a one-man cabal. + Some work together. + Some never do explain. + + +When I get to the bottom I go back to the top +of the slide where I stop and I turn and I go +for a ride, then I get to the bottom and I see +you again! Helter Skelter! + -John Lennon + +"Everybody I know who is right always agrees with ME" -Rev Lady Mal + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +THE GOLDEN APPLE CORPS + +The Golden Apple Corps* is an honorary position for the Keepers of The +Sacred Chao, so that they can put "KSC" after their names. + +It says little, +does less, +means +nothing. + +* Not to be confused with The Apple Corps Ltd. of those four singers. We +thought of it first. + + + - The Numeral V sign - +Used by Old Roman Discordians, Illuminatus Churchill, and innocent +Hippies everywhere. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +PERPETUAL DATE CONVERTER FROM GREGORIAN TO POEE CALENDAR + +Seasons + 1) Chaos - Patron Apostle Hung Mung + 2) Discord - Patron Apostle Dr. Van Van Mojo + 3) Confusion - Patron Apostle Sri Syadasti + 4) Bureaucracy - Patron Apostle Zarathud + 5) The Aftermath - Patron Apostle The Elder Malaclypse + +Days of the Week* * The DAYS OF THE WEEK + 1) Sweetmorn are named from the five Basic +Elements: + 2) Boomtime SWEET, BOOM, PUNGENT, PRICKLE, and ORANGE + 3) Pungenday + 4) Prickle-Prickle + 5) Setting Orange + +2933 + +HOLYDAYS + +A) APOSTLE HOLYDAYS B) SEASON HOLYDAYS + 1) Mungday 1) Chaoflux + 2) Mojoday 2) Discoflux + 3) Syaday 3) Confuflux + 4) Zaraday 4) Bureflux + 5) Maladay 5) Afflux +Each occurs on the 5th Each occurs on the 50th +day of the Season day of each Season + +C) ST. TIB'S DAY - occurs once every 4 years (1+4=5) and is inserted +between the 59th and 60th days of the Season of Chaos + + + SM BT PD PP SO SM BT PD PP SO + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- +Jan 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 Chs Jul 5 6 7 8 9 40 41 42 43 44 +Cfn + 6 7 8 9 10 6 7 8 9 10 10 11 12 13 14 45 46 47 48 49 + + 11 12 13 14 15 11 12 13 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 50 51 52 53 54 + + 16 17 18 19 20 16 17 18 19 20 20 21 22 23 24 55 56 57 58 59 + + 21 22 23 24 25 21 22 23 24 25 25 26 27 28 29 60 61 62 63 64 + + 26 27 28 29 30 26 27 28 29 30 30 31 1 2 3 65 66 67 68 69 + + 31 1 2 3 4 31 32 33 34 35 Aug 4 5 6 7 8 70 71 72 73 1 +Bcy +Feb 5 6 7 8 9 36 37 38 39 40 9 10 11 12 13 2 3 4 5 6 + + 10 11 12 13 14 41 42 43 44 45 14 15 16 17 18 7 8 9 10 11 + + 15 16 17 18 19 46 47 48 49 50 19 20 21 22 23 12 13 14 15 16 + + 20 21 22 23 24 51 52 53 54 55 24 25 26 27 28 17 18 19 20 21 + + 25 26 27 28* 1 56 57 58 59 60 29 30 31 1 2 22 23 24 25 26 + +Mar 2 3 4 5 6 61 62 63 64 65 Sep 3 4 5 6 7 27 28 29 30 31 + + 7 8 9 10 11 66 67 68 69 70 8 9 10 11 12 32 33 34 35 36 + + 12 13 14 15 16 71 72 73 1 2 Dsc 13 14 15 16 17 37 38 39 40 41 + + 17 18 19 20 21 3 4 5 6 7 18 19 20 21 22 42 43 44 45 46 + + 22 23 24 25 26 8 9 10 11 12 23 24 25 26 27 47 48 49 50 51 + + 27 28 29 30 31 13 14 15 16 17 28 29 30 1 2 52 53 54 55 56 +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ + 2934 + +Apr 1 2 3 4 5 18 19 20 21 22 Oct 3 4 5 6 7 57 58 59 60 61 + + 6 7 8 9 10 23 24 25 26 27 8 9 10 11 12 62 63 64 65 66 + + 11 12 13 14 15 28 29 30 31 32 13 14 15 16 17 67 68 69 70 71 + + 16 17 18 19 20 33 34 35 36 37 18 19 20 21 22 72 73 1 2 3 +Afm + 21 22 23 24 25 38 39 40 41 42 23 24 25 26 27 4 5 6 7 8 + + 26 27 28 29 30 43 44 45 46 47 28 29 30 31 1 9 10 11 12 13 + +May 1 2 3 4 5 48 49 50 51 52 Nov 2 3 4 5 6 14 15 16 17 18 + + 6 7 8 9 10 53 54 55 56 57 7 8 9 10 11 19 20 21 22 23 + + 11 12 13 14 15 58 59 60 61 62 12 13 14 15 16 24 25 26 27 28 + + 16 17 18 19 20 63 64 65 66 67 17 18 19 20 21 29 30 31 32 33 + + 21 22 23 24 25 68 69 70 71 72 22 23 24 25 26 34 35 36 37 38 + + 26 27 28 29 30 73 1 2 3 4 Cfn 27 28 29 30 1 39 40 41 42 43 + + 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Dec 2 3 4 5 6 44 45 46 47 48 + +Jun 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 7 8 9 10 11 49 50 51 52 53 + + 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 12 13 14 15 16 54 55 56 57 58 + + 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 17 18 19 20 21 59 60 61 62 63 + + 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 22 23 24 25 26 64 65 66 67 68 + + 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 27 28 29 30 31 69 70 71 72 73 + + 30 1 2 3 4 35 36 37 38 39 [1991 = 3157][Next St. Tibs Day in +3158] + + + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + HOLY NAMES + +Discordians have a tradition of assuming HOLY NAMES. This is not +unique to Erisianism, of course. I suppose that Pope Paul is the son +of Mr. and Mrs. VI? + + + +Will whoever stole Brother Reverend Magoun's pornography please return +it. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2935 + + THE BEARER OF THIS CARD + IS A GENUINE AND AUTHORIZED + ~ POPE ~ + So please Treat Him Right + GOOD FOREVER + + Genuine and authorized by The House of Apostles of ERIS +----------------------------------------------------------------------- +Every man, woman and child on this Earth is a genuine and authorized +Pope Reproduce and distribute these cards freely- POEE Head Temple, San +Francisco + + +A =POPE= is someone who is not under the authority of the authorities. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +For Your Enlightenment + + THE PARABLE OF THE BITTER TEA + by + Rev. Dr. Hypocrates Magoun, P.P. + POEE PRIEST, Okinawa Cabal + + When Hypoc was through meditating with St. Gulik, he went there +into the kitchen where he busied himself with preparing the feast and in +his endeavor, he found that there was some old tea in a pan left +standing from the night before, when he had in his weakness forgot about +its making and had let it sit steeping for 24 hours. It was dark and +murky and it was Hypoc's intention to use this old tea by diluting it +with water. And again in his weakness, chose without further considera- +tion and plunged into the physical labor of the preparations. It was +then when deeply immersed in the pleasure of that trip, he had a sudden +loud clear voice in his head saying "it is bitter tea that involves you +so." Hypoc heard the voice, but the struggle inside intensified, and the +pattern, previously established with the physical laboring and the +muscle messages coordinated and unified or perhaps coded, continued to +exert their influence and Hypoc succummed to the pressure and he denied +the voice. + And again he plunged into the physical orgy and completed the +task, and Lo as the voice had predicted, the tea was bitter. + + "The Five Laws have root in awareness." + --Che Fung (Ezra Pound, Canto +85) + +The Hell Law says that Hell is reserved exclusively for them that +believe in it. Further, the lowest Rung in Hell is reserved for them +that believe in it on the supposition that they'll go there if they +don't. + HBT; The Gospel According to Fred, 3:1 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +A SERMON ON ETHICS AND LOVE + + One day Mal-2 asked the messenger spirit Saint Gulik to approach +the Goddess and request Her presence for some desperate advice. Shortly +afterwards the radio came on by itself, and an ethereal female Voice +said YES? +2936 + + "O! Eris! Blessed Mother of Man! Queen of Chaos! Daughter of +Discord! Concubine of Confusion! O! Exquisite Lady, I beseech You to +lift a heavy burden from my heart!" + + WHAT BOTHERS YOU, MAL? YOU DON'T SOUND WELL. + + "I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible visions of +pain. Everywhere people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant +with injustices, whole societies plunder groups of their own people, +mothers imprison sons, children perish while brothers war. O, woe." + + WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THAT, IF IT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO? + + "But nobody Wants it! Everybody hates it." + + OH. WELL, THEN STOP. + + At which moment She turned herself into an aspirin commercial +and left The Polyfather stranded alone with his species. + + +SINISTER DEXTER HAS A BROKEN SPIROMETER. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CHAPTER 5: THE PIONEERS + =THE FIVE APOSTLES OF ERIS & WHO THEY BE = + +1. HUNG MUNG +A Sage of Ancient China and Official Discordian Missionary to the +Heathen Chinee. He who originally devised THE SACRED CHAO. Patron of the +Season of Chaos. Holyday: Jan 5. + +2. DR. VAN VAN MOJO +A Head Doctor of Deep Africa and Maker of Fine Dolls. D.H.V., Doctor of +Hoodoo and Vexes, from The Greater Metropolitan Yorba Linda Jesus Will +Save Your Bod Home Study Bible School; and F.I.H.G.W.P., Fellow of the +Intergalactic Haitian Guerrillas for World Peace. Patron of The Season +of Discord. Holyday: Mar 19. +[NOTE: Erisians of The Laughing Christ sect are of the silly contention +that Dr. Mojo is an imposter and that PATAMUNZO LINGANANDA is the True +Second Apostle. Lord Omar claims that Dr. Mojo heaps hatred upon +Patamunzo, who sends only Love Vibrations in return. But we of the POEE +sect know that Patamunzo is the Real Imposter, and that those vibrations +of his are actually an attempt to subvert Dr. Mojo's rightful apostilic +authority by shaking him out of his wits. + +3. SRI SYADASTI SYADAVAKTAVYA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADASTI CAVAKTAVYASCA +SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADAVATAVYASCA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADAVAKTAVYASCA +commonly called just SRI SYADASTI +His name is Sanskrit, and means: All affirmations are true in some +sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in +some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in +some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense. +He is an Indian Pundit and Prince, born of the Peyotl Tribe, son of +Gentle Chief Sun Flower Seed and the squaw Merry Jane. Patron to +psychedelic type Discordians. Patron of the Season of Confusion. +Holyday: May 31. NOTE: Sri Syadasti should not be confused with BLESSED +ST. GULIK THE STONED, who is not the same person but is the same +2937 + +Apostle. + +4. ZARATHUD THE INCORRIGIBLE, sometimes called ZARATHUD THE STAUNCH +A hard nosed Hermit of Medieval Europe and Chaosphe Bible Banger. Dubbed +"Offender of The Faith." Discovered the Five Commandments. Patron of the +Season of Bureaucracy. Holyday: Aug. 12 + +5. THE ELDER MALACLYPSE +A wandering Wiseman of Ancient Mediterrania ("Med-Terra" or middle +earth), who followed a 5-pointed Star through the alleys of Rome, +Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Mecca and Cairo, bearing a sign that +seemed to read "DOOM". (This is a misunderstanding. The sign actually +read "DUMB". Mal-1 is a Non-Prophet.) Patron and namesake of Mal-2. +Patron on The Season of The Aftermath. Holyday: Oct 24. + +All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless +in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in +some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and +meaningless in some sense. A public service clarification by the Sri +Syadasti School of Spiritual Wisdom, Wilmette. + +The teachings of the Sri Syadasti School of Spiritual School of +Spiritual Wisdom are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaning- +less in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless +in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false +and meaningless in some sense. +Patamunzo Lingananda School of Higher Spiritual Wisdom, Skokie. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Hey Man...Great! I feel goofy, the way my old man looks when he's drunk. + + + + THE HONEST BOOK OF TRUTH + being a BIBLE of The Erisian Movement + + and How it was Revealed to + Episkopos LORD OMAR KHAYYAM RAVENHURST, KSC; Bull Goose + of Limbo; and Master Pastor of the Church Invisible of + the Laughing Christ, Hidden Temple of The Happy Jesus, + Laughing Buddha Jesus [LBJ] Ranch + + + From the Honest Book of Truth + THE BOOK OF EXPLANATIONS, Chapter 1 + +1. There came one day to Lord Omar, Bull Goose of Limbo, a Messenger +of Our Lady who told him of a Sacred Mound wherein was buried an +Honest Book. + +2. And the Angel of Eris bade of the Lord: Go ye hence and dig the +Truth, that ye may come to know it and, knowing it, spread it and, +spreading it, wallow in it and, wallowing in it, lie in it and ,lying +in the Truth, become a Poet of the Word and a Sayer of Sayings -- an +Inspiration to all men and a Scribe to the Gods. + +3. So Omar went forth to the Sacred Mound, which was to the East of +Mullah, and thereupon he worked digging in the sand for five days and +2938 + +five nights, but found no book. + +4. At the end of five days and five nights of digging, it came to pass +that Omar was exhausted. So he put his shovel to one side and bedded +himself down on the sand, using as a pillow a Golden Chest he had +uncovered on the first day of his labors. + +5. Omar slept. + +6. On the fifth day of his sleeping, Lord Omar fell into a Trance, and +there came to him in the Trance a Dream, and there came to him in the +Dream a Messenger of Our Lady who told him of a Sacred Grove wherein +was hidden a Golden Chest. + +7. And the Angel of Eris bade of the Lord: Go ye hence and lift the +Stash, that ye may come to own it and, owning it, share it and, +sharing it, love in it and, loving in it, dwell in it and, dwelling in +the Stash, become a Poet of the Word and a Sayer of Sayings - an +Inspiration to all men and a Scribe to the Gods. + +8. But Omar lamented, saying unto the Angel: What is this shit,man? +What care I for the Word and Sayings? What care I for the Inspiration +of all men? Wherein does it profit a man to be a Scribe to the Gods +when the Scribes of the Governments do nothing, yet are paid better +wages? + +9. And, lo, the Angel waxed in anger and Omar was stricken to the Ground + +by an Invisible Hand and did not arise for five days and five nights. + +10. And it came to pass that on the fifth night he dreampt, and in his +Dream he had a Vision, and in this Vision there came unto him a +Messenger of Our Lady who entrusted to him a Rigoletto cigar box +containing many filing cards, some of them in packs with rubber bands +around, and upon these cards were sometimes written verses, while upon +others nothing was written. + +11. Thereupon the Angel Commanded to Lord: Take ye this Honest Book of +Truth to thine bosom and cherish it. Carry it forth into The Land and +Lay it before Kings of Nations and Collectors of Garbage. Preach from +it unto the Righteous, that they may renounce their ways and repent. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CONVENTIONAL CHAOS + +GREYFACE + +In the year 1166 B.C., a malcontented hunchbrain by the name of +Greyface, got it into his head that the universe was as humorless as +he, and he began to teach that play was sinful because it contradicted +the ways of Serious Order. "Look at all the order around you," he +said. And from that, he deluded honest men to believe that reality was +a straightjacket affair and not the happy romance as men had known it. + +It is not presently understood why men were so gullible at that +particular time, for absolutely no one thought to observe all the +disorder around them and conclude just the opposite. But anyway, +Greyface and his followers took the game of playing at life more +2939 + +seriously than they took life itself and were known even to destroy +other living beings whose ways of life differed from their own. + +The unfortunate result of this is that mankind has since been +suffering from a psychological and spiritual imbalance. Imbalance causes +frustration, and frustration causes fear. And fear makes for a bad trip. +Man has been on a bad trip for a long time now. + +It is called THE CURSE OF GREYFACE. + + + + + Bullshit makes the flowers + grow & that's beautiful. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Climb into the Chao with a friend or two +And follow the Way it carries you, +Adrift like a Lunatic Lifeboat Crew +Over the Waves in whatever you do. + (HBT; The Book of Advise, 1:3) + + +[graphic deleted... if you wanna see it, READ THE BOOK] + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Meanwhile, at the Chinese laundromat... + + DOGMA I - METAPHYSICS #2, "COSMOLOGY"* + + THE BOOK OF UTERUS + from the Honest Book of Truth + revealed to Lord Omar + +1. Before the beginning was the Nonexistent Chao, balanced in Oblivion +by the Perfect Counterpushpull of the Hodge and the Podge. + +2. Whereupon, by an Act of Happenstance, the Hodge began gradually to +overpower the Podge -- and the Primal Chaos thereby came to be. + +3. So in the beginning was the Primal Chaos, balanced on the Edge of +Oblivion by the Perfect Counterpullpush of the Podge and the Hodge. + +4. Whereupon, by the Law of Negative Reversal,** the Podge swiftly +underpowered the Hodge and Everything broke loose. + +5. And therein emerged the Active Force of Discord, the Subtle Manifes- +tation of the Nonexistent Chao, to guide Everything along the Path back +to Oblivion - that it might not become lost among Precepts of Order in +the Region of Thud. + +6. Forasmuch as it was Active, the Force of Discord entered the State of +Confusion, wherein It copulated with the Queen and begat ERIS, Our Lady +of Discord and Gross Manifestation of the Nonexistent Chao. + +7. And under Eris Confusion became established, and was hence called +Bureaucracy; while over Bureaucracy Eris became established, and was +2940 + +hence called Discordia. + +8. By the by it came to pass that the Establishment of Bureaucracy +perished in a paper shortage. + +9. Thus it was, in accord with the Law of Laws. + +10. During and after the Fall of the Establishment of Bureaucracy was +the Aftermath, an Age of Disorder in which calculation, computations, +and reckonings were put away by the Children of Eris in Acceptance and +Preparation for the Return to Oblivion to be followed by a Repetition of +the Universal Absurdity. Moreover, of Itself the Coming of Aftermath +waseth a Resurrection of the Freedom-flowing Chaos. HAIL ERIS! + +11. Herein was set into motion the Eristic Pattern, which would Repeat +Itself Five Times Over Seventy-three Times, after which nothing would +happen. +____________________________ +* This doctrine should not be confused with DOGMA III - HISTORY #6, +"HISTORIC CYCLES," which states that social progress occurs in five +cycles, the first three ("The Tricycle") of which are THESIS, ANTITHESIS +and PARENTHESIS; and the last two ("the Bicycle") of which are CONSTER- +NATION and MORAL WARPTITUDE. + +** The LAW OF NEGATIVE REVERSAL states that if something does not happen +then the exact opposite will happen, only in exactly the opposite manner +from that in which it did not happen. + + +Dull but Sincere Filler +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +"And, behold, thusly was the Law formulated: Imposition of Order = +escalation of Disorder!" + [H.B.T. ; The Gospel According to Fred, 1:6] + +THE FIVE ORDERS OF DISCORDIA ("THEM") +Gen. Pandaemonium, Commanding + +The seeds of the ORDERS OF DISCORDIA were planted by Greyface into his +early disciples. They form the skeleton of the Aneristic Movement, which +over emphasizes the Principle of Order and is antagonistic to the +necessary compliment, the Principle of Disorder. The Orders are composed +of persons all hung up on authority, security and control; i.e., they +are blinded by the Aneristic Illusion. They do not know that they belong +to Orders of Discordia. But we know. + +1. The Military Order of THE KNIGHTS OF THE FIVE SIDED TEMPLE. This is +for all the soldiers and bureaucrats of the world. + +2. The Political Order of THE PARTY FOR WAR ON EVIL. This is reserved +for lawmakers, censors, and like ilk. + +3. The Academic Order of THE HEMLOCK FELLOWSHIP. They commonly inhabit +schools and universities, and dominate many of them. + +4. The Social Order of THE CITIZENS COMMITTEE FOR CONCERNED CITIZENS. +This is mostly a grass-roots version of the more professional military, +political, academic and sacred Orders. +2941 + +5. The Sacred Order of THE DEFAMATION LEAGUE. Not much is known about +the D.L., but they are very ancient and quite possibly were founded by +Greyface himself. It is known that they now have absolute domination +over all organized churches in the world. It is also believed that they +have been costuming cabbages and passing them off as human beings. + +A person belonging to one or more Order is just as likely to carry a +flag of the counter-establishment as the flag of the establishment-- +just as long as it is a flag. + + +Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton. + +HIP-2-3-4, HIP-2-3-4 +Go To Your Left-Right.... + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +THE FOLLOWING IS QUOTED FROM BERGAN EVANS +ON NORBERT WEINER, NUCLEAR PHYSICIST + + The second concept Wiener has to establish is that of entropy. +Probability is a mathematical concept, coming from statistics. Entropy +comes from physics. It is the assertion-- established logically and +experimentally-- that the universe, by its nature, is "running down", +moving toward a state of inert uniformity devoid of form, matter, +hierarchy or differentiation. + + That is, in any given situation, less organization, more chaos, +is overwhelmingly more probable than tighter organization or more order. + + The tendency for entropy to increase in isolated systems is +expressed in the second law of thermodynamics-- perhaps the most +pessimistic and amoral formulation in all human thought. + + It applies however, to a closed system, to something that is an +isolated whole, not just a part. Within such systems there may be parts, +which draw their energy from the whole, that are moving at least +temporarily, in the opposite direction; in them order is increasing and +chaos is diminishing. + + The whirlpools that swirl in a direction opposed to the main +current are called "enclaves". And one of them is life, especially human +life, which in a universe moving inexorably towards chaos moves towards +increased order. + + +IF THE TELEPHONE RINGS TODAY..... WATER IT! + -Rev. Thomas, Gnostic + N.Y.C. Cabal + + + Personal +PLANETARY Pi, which I discovered, is 61. It's a Time-Energy relationship +existing between sun and inner plants and I use it in arriving at many +facts unknown to science. For example, multiply nude earth's circum- +ference 24,902.20656 by 61 and you get the distance of moon's orbit +around the earth. This is slightly less than the actual distance +because we have not yet considered earth's atmosphere. So be it. +2942 + +Christopher Garth, Evanston + + +"I should have been a plumber." + --Albert Einstein +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +"Grasshopper always wrong in argument with chicken" + -Book of Chan compiled by O.P.U. sect + + + = ZARATHUD'S ENLIGHTENMENT = + + Before he became a hermit, Zarathud was a young Priest, and took +great delight in making fools of his opponents in front of his fol- +lowers. + + One day Zarathud took his students to a pleasant pasture and +there he confronted The Sacred Chao while She was contentedly grazing. + + "Tell me, you dumb beast." demanded the Priest in his commanding +voice, "why don't you do something worthwhile. What is your Purpose in +Life, anyway?" + + Munching the tasty grass, The Sacred Chao replied "MU".* + + Upon hearing this, absolutely nobody was enlightened. Primarily +because nobody could understand Chinese. + +* "MU" is the Chinese ideogram for NO-THING + + +TAO FA TSU-DAN FIND PEACE WITH A + CONTENTED CHAO + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + THE SACRED CHAO + +THE SACRED CHAO is the key to illumination. Devised by the Apostle Hung +Mung in ancient China, it was modified and popularized by the Taoists +and is sometimes called the YIN-YANG. The Sacred Chao is not the +Yin-Yang of the Taoists. It is the HODGE-PODGE of the Erisians. And, +instead of a Podge spot on the Hodge side, it has a PENTAGON which +symbolizes the ANERISTIC PRINCIPLE, and instead of a Hodge spot on the +Podge side, it depicts the GOLDEN APPLE OF DISCORDIA to symbolize the +ERISTIC PRINCIPLE. + +The Sacred Chao symbolizes absolutely everything anyone need ever know +about absolutely anything, and more! It even symbolizes everything not +worth knowing, depicted by the empty space surrounding the Hodge-Podge. + +HERE FOLLOWS SOME PSYCHO-METAPHYSICS. +If you are not hot for philosophy, best just to skip it. + + The Aneristic Principle is that of APPARENT ORDER; the Eristic +Principle is that of APPARENT DISORDER. Both order and disorder are man +made concepts and are artificial divisions of PURE CHAOS, which is a +level deeper that is the level of distinction making. + +2943 + + With our concept making apparatus called "mind" we look at +reality through the ideas-about-reality which our cultures give us. The +ideas-about-reality are mistakenly labeled "reality" and unenlightened +people are forever perplexed by the fact that other people, especially +other cultures, see "reality" differently. It is only the ideas-about- +-reality which differ. Real (capital-T True) reality is a level deeper +that is the level of concept. + + We look at the world through windows on which have been drawn +grids (concepts). Different philosophies use different grids. A culture +is a group of people with rather similar grids. Through a window we view +chaos, and relate it to the points on our grid, and thereby understand +it. The ORDER is in the GRID. That is the Aneristic Principle. + + Western philosophy is traditionally concerned with contrasting +one grid with another grid, and amending grids in hopes of finding a +perfect one that will account for all reality and will, hence, (say +unenlightened westerners) be True. This is illusory; it is what we +Erisians call the ANERISTIC ILLUSION. Some grids can be more useful than +others, some more beautiful than others, some more pleasant than others, +etc., but none can be more True than any other. + + DISORDER is simply unrelated information viewed through some +particular grid. But, like "relation", no-relation is a concept. Male, +like female, is an idea about sex. To say that male-ness is "absence of +female-ness", or vice versa, is a matter of definition and metaphysical- +ly arbitrary. The artificial concept of no-relation is the ERISTIC +PRINCIPLE. + + The belief that "order is true" and disorder is false or somehow +wrong, is the Aneristic Illusion. To say the same of disorder, is the +ERISTIC ILLUSION. + + The point is that (little-t) truth is a matter of definition +relative to the grid one is using at the moment, and that (capital-T) +Truth, metaphysical reality, is irrelevant to grids entirely. Pick a +grid, and through it some chaos appears ordered and some appears +disordered. Pick another grid, and the same chaos will appear dif- +ferently ordered and disordered. + + Reality is the original Rorschach. + +Verily! So much for all that. + +The words of the Foolish and those of the Wise +Are not far apart in Discordian Eyes. +(HBT; The Book of Advise, 2:1) + +The PODGE of the Sacred Chao is symbolized as The Golden Apple of +Discordia, which represents the Eristic Principle of Disorder. The +writing on it, "KALLISTI" is Greek for "TO THE PRETTIEST ONE" and refers +to an old myth about The Goddess. But the Greeks had only a limited +understanding of Disorder, and thought it to be a negative principle. + +The Pentagon represents the Aneristic Principle of Order and symbolizes +the HODGE. The Pentagon has several references; for one,, it can be +taken to represent geometry, one of the earliest studies of formal order +to reach elaborate development;* for another, it specifically accords +2944 + +with THE LAW OF FIVES. + +THE TRUTH IS FIVE BUT MEN HAVE ONLY ONE NAME FOR IT. + -Patamunzo Lingananda + +It is also the shape of the United States Military Headquarters, the +Pentagon Building, a most pregnant manifestation of straightjacket order +resting on a firm foundation of chaos and constantly erupting into +dazzling disorder; and this building is one of our more cherished +Erisian Shrines. Also it so happens that in times of medieval magic, the +pentagon was the generic symbol for werewolves, but this reference is +not particularly intended and it should be noted that the Erisian +Movement does not discriminate against werewolves-- our membership +roster is open to persons of all races, national origins and +hobbies. + +____________________________________ +* The Greek geometrician PYTHAGORAS, however, was not a typical +aneristic personality. He was what we call an EXPLODED ANERISTIC and an +AVATAR. We call him Archangle Pythagoras. + +[diagram of HODGE/PODGE TRANSFORMER deleted... DtC] + +5. Hung Mung slapped his buttocks, hopped about, and shook his head, +saying "I do not know! I do not know!" + HBT; The Book of Gooks, Chap. 1 +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + BRUNSWICK SHRINE + +In the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier there lives a bowling alley, and +within this very place, in the Year of Our Lady of Discord 3125 (1959*), +Eris revealed Herself to The Golden Apple Corps for the first time. + +In honor of this Incredible Event, this Holy Place is revered as a +Shrine by all Erisians. Once every five years, the Golden Apple Corps +plans a Pilgrimage to Brunswick Shrine as an act of Devotion, and +therein to partake of No Hot Dog Buns, and ruminate a bit about It All. + +It is written that when The Corps returns to The Shrine for the fifth +time five times over, than shall the world come to an end: + + IMPENDING DOOM + HAS ARRIVED + And Five Days Prior to This Occasion The Apostle The Elder + Malaclypse Shall Walk the Streets of Whittier Bearing a Sign + for All Literates to Read thereof: "DOOM", as a Warning of + Forthcoming Doom to All Men Impending. And He Shall Signal + This Event by Seeking the Poor and Distributing to Them Precious + MAO BUTTONS and Whittier Shall be Known as The Region of Thud + for These Five Days. + +As a public service to all mankind and civilization in general, and to +us in particular, the Golden Apple Corps has concluded that planning +such a Pilgrimage is sufficient and that it is prudent to never get +around to actually going. +___________________________________ +* Or maybe it was 1958, I forget. + +2945 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + STARBUCK'S PEBBLES Which + Is + Real? + + + * + + * * + + + * * + +Do these 5 pebbles [note: they were pebbles,originally..try doing +ASCII pebbles -DtC] REALLY form a pentagon? +Those biased by the Aneristic Illusion would say yes. +Those biased by the Eristic Illusion would say no. Criss-cross them and +it is a star. + +An Illuminated Mind can see all of these, yet he does not insist that +any one is really true, or that none at all is true. Stars, and +pentagons, and disorder are all his creations and he may do with them as +he wishes. Indeed, even so the concept of number 5. + +The real reality is there, but everything you KNOW about "it" is in your +mind and yours to do with as you like. Conceptualization is art, and YOU +ARE THE ARTIST. + +Convictions cause convicts. + + + Can you chart the COURSE + to Captain Valentine's SWEETHEART? + +Hemlock? I never touch the stuff! + + + When I was 8 or 9 years old, I acquired + a split beaver magazine. You can imagine + my disappointment when,upon examination + of the photos with a microscope, I found + that all I could see was dots. + + +7. Never write in pencil unless you are on a train or sick in bed. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2946 + +ERIS CONTEMPLATES FOR 3125 YEARS +------------------------------------Pun-jab is Sikh, Sikh, Sikh!-------- + +THE PARATHEO-ANAMETAMYSTIKHOOD OF ERIS ESOTERIC (POEE) +A Non-prophet Irreligious Disorganization + + MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER, KSC + Omnibenevolent Polyfather of Virginity in Gold + HIGH PRIEST + +THE ERISIAN MOVEMENT HOUSE OF APOSTLES +OF ERIS +(X) Official Business ( )Surreptitious Business page 1 of +1 pages +Official Discordian Document Number (if applicable): n/a +( ) the Golden Apple Corps (X)House of Disciples of Discordia + The Bureaucracy, Bureau of: DOGMAS +( ) Council of Episkoposes: Office of High Priesthood, Sect of the POEE +( ) Drawer o +________________________________________________________________________ +Today's DATE: day of the Carrot yesterday's DATE: Yes + -><- +Originating Cabal: Joshua Norton Cabal - San Francisco +TO: REV. RAMPANT PANCREAS, tRRoCR(a)pttM; Colorado Encrustation + +Brother Ram, + +Your acute observation that ERIS spelled backwards is SIRE, and your +inference to the effect that there is sexual symbolism here, have +brought me to some observations of my own, + +ERIS spelled fore-part-aft-wards is RISE. And spelled inside out is +REIS, which is a unit of money, albeit Portugese-Brazilian and no longer +in use. >From this it may be concluded that Eris has usurped Eros (god +of erotic love) in the eyes of those who read backwards; which obviously +made Eros sorE. Then She apparently embezzeled the Olympian Treasury and +went to Brazil; whereupon She opened a chain of whorehouses (which +certainly would get a rise from the male population). I figure it to be +this in particular because MADAM reads the same forwards and backwards. +And further, it is a term of great respect, similar to SIRE. + +And so thank you for your insight, it may well be the clue to the +mystery of just where Eris has been fucking around for 3125. + + FIVE TONS OF FLAX! + -><- Mal-2 + +Not for Circulation! + + + + + + KALLISTI HAIL ERIS ALL HAIL DISCORDIA + +safeguard this letter, it may be an important document + + Form No.: O.D.D. IIb/ii.1-37D.VVM:3134 +2947 + + DOGMA III - HISTORY #2, "COSMOGONY" +which is not the same as DOGMA I - METAPHYSICS #2, "COSMOLOGY" (Book of +Uterus) + + In the beginning there was VOID, who had two daughters; one (the +smaller) was that of BEING, named ERIS, and one (the larger) was of +NON-BEING, named ANERIS. (To this day, the fundamental truth that Aneris +is the larger is apparent to all who compare the great number of things +that do not exist with the comparatively small number of things that do +exist.) + + Eris had been born pregnant, and after 55 years (Goddesses have +an unusually long gestation period-- longer even than elephants), Her +pregnancy bore the fruits of many things. These things were composed of +the Five Basic Elements, SWEET, BOOM, PUNGENT, PRICKLE, and ORANGE. +Aneris, however, had been created sterile. When she saw Eris enjoying +Herself so greatly with all of the existent things She had borne, Aneris +became jealous and finally one day she stole some existent things and +changed them into non-existent things and claimed them as her own +children. This deeply hurt Eris, who felt that Her sister was unjust +(being so much larger anyway) to deny Her her small joy. And so She made +herself swell again to bear more things. And She swore that no matter +how many of her begotten that Aneris would steal, She would beget more. +And, in return, Aneris swore that no matter how many existent things +Eris brought forth, she would eventually find them and turn them into +non-existent things for her own. (And to this day, things appear and +disappear in this very manner.) + + At first, the things brought forth by Eris were in a state of +chaos and went in every which way, but by the by She began playing with +them andordered some of them just to see what would happen. Some pretty +things arosefrom this play and for the next five zillion years She +amused Herself bycreating order. And so She grouped some things with +others and some groups with others, and big groups with little groups, +and all combinations until She had many grand schemes which delighted +Her. + + Engrossed in establishing order, She finally one day noticed +disorder (previously not apparent because everything was chaos). There +were many ways in which chaos was ordered and many ways in which it was +not. + + "Hah," She thought, "Here shall be a new game." + + And She taught order and disorder to play with each other in +contest games, and to take turns amusing each other. She named the side +of disorder after Herself, "ERISTIC" because Being is anarchic. And +then, in a mood of sympathy for Her lonely sister, She named the other +side "ANERISTIC" which flattered Aneris and smoothed the friction a +little that was between them. + + Now all of this time, Void was somewhat disturbed. He felt +unsatisfied for he had created only physical existence and physical +non-existence, and had neglected the spiritual. As he contemplated this, +a great Quiet was caused and he went into a state of Deep Sleep which +lasted for 5 eras. At the end of this ordeal, he begat a brother to Eris +and Aneris, that of SPIRITUALITY, who had no name at all. + +2948 + + When the sisters heard this, they both confronted Void and +pleaded that he not forget them, his First Born. And so Void decreed +thus: + + That this brother, having no form, was to reside with Aneris in +Non-Being and then to leave her and, so that he might play with order +and disorder, reside with Eris in Being. But Eris became filled with +sorrow when She heard this and then began to weep. + + "Why are you despondent?" demanded Void, "Your new brother will +have his share with you." "But Father, Aneris and I have been arguing, +and she will take him from me when she discovers him, and cause him to +return to Non-Being." "I see,"replied Void, "Then I decree the follow- +ing: + + "When your brother leaves the residence of Being, he shall not +reside again in Non-Being, but shall return to Me, Void, from whence he +came. You girls may bicker as you wish, but My son is your Brother and +We are all of Myself." + +And so it is that we, as men, do not exist until we do; and then it is +that we play with our world of existent things, and order and disorder +them, and so it shall be that non-existence shall take us back from +existence and that nameless spirituality shall return to Void, like a +tired child home from a very wild circus. + + "Everything is true - Everything is permissible!" +-><- + -Hassan i Sabbah + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +There is serenity in Chaos. +Seek ye the Eye of the Hurricane. + + + A POEE MYSTEREE RITE - THE SRI SYADASTIAN CHANT + Written, in some sense, by Mal-2 + +Unlike a song, chants are not sung but chanted. This particular one is +much enhanced by the use of a Leader to chant the Sanskrit alone, with +all participants chanting the English. it also behooves one to be in a +quiet frame of mind and to be sitting in a still position, perhaps The +Buttercup Position. It also helps if one is absolutely zonked out of his +gourd. + +RUB-A-DUB-DUB +O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Hung Mung. +SYA-DASTI +O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Mo-jo. +SYA-DAVAK-TAVYA +O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Zara-thud. +SYA-DASTI SYA-NASTI +O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Elder Mal. +SYA-DASTI KAVAK-TAV-YASKA +O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Gu-lik. +SYA-DASTI, SYA-NASTI, SYA-DAVAK-TAV-YASKA +O! Hail Eris. All Hail Dis-cord-ia. +RUB-A-DUB-DUB +2949 + +It is then repeated indefinitely, or for the first two thousand miles, +which ever comes first. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +The Classification of Saints + +1. SAINT SECOND CLASS + +To be reserved for all human beings deserving of Sainthood. Example: +St.Norton the First, Emperor of the United States and Protector of +Mexico (his grave near San Francisco is an official POEE shrine.) + +THE FOLLOWING FOUR CATAGORIES ARE RESERVED FOR FICTIONAL BEINGS WHO, NOT +BEING ACTUAL, ARE MORE CAPABLE OF PERFECTION. + +2. LANCE SAINT + +Good Saint material and definitely inspiring. +Example: St. Yossarian (Catch 22, Heller) + +3. LIEUTENANT SAINT + +Excellent Goddess-Saturated Saint. +Example: St. Quixote (Don Quixote, Cervantes) + +4. BRIGADIER SAINT + +Comparable to Lt/Saint but has an established following (fictional or +factual). Example: St. Bokonon (Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut) + +5. FIVE STAR SAINT + +The Five Apostles of Eris. + +Note: It is an Old Erisian Tradition to never agree with each other +about Saints. + + +Everybody understands Mickey Mouse. Few understand Herman Hesse. Only a +hand full understood Albert Einstein. And nobody understood Emperor +Norton. + -Slogan of NORTON CABAL - S.F. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +TESTS BY DOCTORS PROVE IT POSSIBLE TO SHRINK + + =ON OCCULTISM= + +Magicians, especially since the Gnostic and the Quabala influences, have +sought higher consciousness through assimilation and control of +universal opposites-- good/evil, positive/negative, male/female, etc. +But due to the steadfast pomposity of ritualism inherited from the +ancient methods of the shaman, occultists have been blinded to what is +perhaps the two most important pairs of apparent or earth-plane +opposites: ORDER/DISORDER and SERIOUS/HUMOROUS. + +Magicians, and progeny the scientists, have always taken themselves and +their subject in an orderly and sober manner, thereby disregarding an +2950 + +essential metaphysical balance. when magicians learn to approach +philosophy as a malleable art instead of an immutable Truth, and learn +to appreciate the absurdity of man's endeavours, then they will be able +to pursue their art with a lighter heart, and perhaps gain a clearer +understanding of it, and therefore gain more effective magic. CHAOS IS +ENERGY. + +This is an essential challenge to the basic concepts of all western +occult thought, and POEE is humbly pleased to offer the first break- +through in occultism since Solomon. + + +"Study Demonology with an Enemy This Sunday" + sez Thom,Gnos + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +POEE ASTROLOGICAL SYSTEM + +1) Om your next birthday, return to the place of your birth and, at +precisely midnight, noting your birth time and date of observation, +count all visible stars. + +2) When you have done this, write to me and I'll tell you what to do +next. + + +The Eminent 16th Century Mathemetician Cardan so detested Luther that he +altered Luther's birthdate to give him an unfavorable horoscope. + +The theorem to be proved is that if any even number of people take seats +at random around a circular table bearing place cards with their names, +it is always possible to rotate the table until at least two people are +opposite their cards. Assume the contrary. Let N be the even number of +persons, and let their names be replaced by the integers 0 to N-1 "in +such a way that the place cards are numbered in sequence around the +table. If a delegate D originally sits down to a place card P, then the +table must be rotated R steps before he is correctly seated, where +R=P-D, unless this is negative, in which case R=P-D+N. The collection of +values of D (and of P) for all delegates is clearly the integers 0 to +N-1,each taken once, but so also is the collection of values of R, or +else two delegates would be correctly seated at the same time. Summing +the above equations, one for each delegate, gives S-S+NK, where K is an +integer and S=N(N-1)/2, the sum of the integers from 0 to N-1. It +follows that N=2K+1, an odd number." This contradicts the original +assumption. + "I actually solved this problem some years ago," Rybicki writes, +"for a different but completely equivalent problem, a generalization of +the nonattacking 'eight queens' problem for a cylindrical chessboard +where diagonal attack is restricted to diagonals slanting in one +direction only. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + THE CURSE OF GREYFACE AND THE + INTRODUCTION OF NEGATIVISM + + To choose order over disorder, or disorder over order, is to +accept a trip composed of both the creative and the destructive. But to +choose the creative over the destructive is an all-creative trip +composed of both order and disorder. To accomplish this, one need only +2951 + +accept creative disorder along with, and equal to, creative order, and +also willing to reject destructive order as an undesirable equal to +destructive disorder. + + The Curse of Greyface included the division of life into +order/disorder as the essential positive/negative polarity, instead of +building a game foundation with creative/destructive as the essential +positive/negative. He has thereby caused man to endure the destructive +aspects of order and has prevented man from effectively participating in +the creative uses of disorder. Civilization reflects this unfortunate +division. + + POEE proclaims that the other division is preferable, and we +work toward the proposition that creative disorder, like creative order, +is possible and desirable; and that destructive order, like destructive +disorder, is unnecessary and undesirable. + + Seek the Sacred Chao - therein you will find the foolishness of +all ORDER/DISORDER. They are the same! + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + ERISIAN MAGIC RITUAL - THE TURKEY CURSE + +Revealed by the Apostle Dr. Van Van Mojo as a specific counter to the +evil Curse of Greyface, THE TURKEY CURSE is here passed on to Erisians +everywhere for their just protection. + +The Turkey Curse works. It is firmly grounded on the fact that Greyface +and his followers absolutely require an aneristic setting to function +and that a timely introduction of eristic vibrations will neutralize +their foundation. The Turkey Curse is designed solely to counteract +negative aneristic vibes and if introduced into a neutral or positive +aneristic setting (like a poet working out word rhythms) it will prove +harmless, or at worst, simply annoying. It is not designed for use +against negative eristic vibes, although it can be used as an eristic +vehicle to introduce positive vibes into a misguided eristic setting. In +this instance, it would be the responsibility of the Erisian Magician to +manufacture the positive vibrations if results are to be achieved. +CAUTION- all magic is powerful and requires courage and integrity on the +part of the magician. This ritual, if misused, can backfire. Positive +motivation is essential for self-protection. + +TO PERFORM THE TURKEY CURSE: + +Take a foot stance as if you were John L. Sullivan preparing for fis- +ticuffs. Face the particular greyfaced you wish to short-circuit, or +towards the direction of the negative aneristic vibration that you wish +to neutralize. Begin waving your arms in any elaborate manner and make +motions with your hands as though you were Mandrake feeling up a sexy +giantess. Chant, loudly and clearly: + GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE! +The results will be instantly apparent. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + + + +2952 + + A PRIMER FOR ERISIAN EVANGELISTS by Lord Omar + + The SOCRATIC APPROACH is most successful when confronting the +ignorant. The "socratic approach" is what you call starting an argument +by asking questions. You approach the innocent and simply ask "Did you +know that God's name is ERIS, and that He is a girl?" If he should +answer "Yes." then he probably is a fellow Erisian and so you can forget +it. If he says "No." then quickly proceed to: + THE BLIND ASSERTION and say "Well, He Is a girl, and His name is +ERIS!" Shrewedly observe if the subject is convinced. If he is, swear +him into the Legion of Dynamic Discord before he changes his mind. If he +does not appear convinced, then proceed to: + THE FAITH BIT: "But you must have Faith! All is lost without +Faith! I sure feel sorry for you if you don't have Faith." And then add: + THE ARGUMENT BY FEAR and in an ominous voice ask "Do you know +what happens to those who deny Goddess?" If he hesitates, don't tell him +that he will surely be reincarnated as a precious Mao Button and +distributed to the poor in the Region of Thud (which would be a mean +thing to say), just shake your head sadly and, while wiping a tear from +your eye, go to: + THE FIRST CLAUSE PLOY wherein you point to all of the discord +and confusion in the world and exclaim "Well who the hell do you think +did all of this, wise guy?" If he says, "Nobody, just impersonal +forces." then quickly respond with: + THE ARGUMENT BY SEMANTICAL GYMNASTICS and say that he is +absolutely right, and that those impersonal forces are female and that +Her name is ERIS. If he, wonder of wonders, still remains obstinate, +then finally resort to: + THE FIGURATIVE SYMBOLISM DODGE and confide that sophisticated +people like himself recognize that Eris is a Figurative Symbol for an +Ineffable Metaphysical Reality and that The Erisian Movement is really +more like a poem than like a science and that he is liable to be turned +into a Precious Mao Button and Distributed to The Poor in The Region of +Thud if he does not get hip. Then put him on your mailing list. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +SINK + +A GAME + +by Ala Hera, E.L., N.S.; RAYVILLE APPLE PANTHERS + +SINK is played by Discordians and people of much ilk. + +PURPOSE: To sink object or an object or a thing... +in water or mud or anything you; can sink something in. + +RULES: Sinking is allowd in any manner. To date, ten pound chunks of mud +were used to sink a tobacco can. It is preferable to have a pit of water +or a hole to drop things in. But rivers - bays - gulfs - I dare say even +oceans can be used. + +TURNS are taken thusly: who somever gets the junk up and in the air +first. + +DUTY: It shall be the duty of all persons playing "SINK" to help find +more objects to sink, once; one object is sunk. + +2953 + +UPON SINKING: The sinked shall yell "I sank it!" or something equally as +thoughtful. + +NAMING OF OBJECTS is some times desirable. The object is named by the +finder of such object and whoever sinks it can say for instance, "I sunk +Columbus, Ohio!" + + + + "In a way, we're a kind of Peace Corps." + - Maj. A. Lincoln German, Training Director of the + Green Beret Special Warfare School, Ft. Bragg, N.C. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +A Joint Effort of the Discordian Society + +POST OFFICE LIBERATION FRONT + + Export License Not Required +THIS IS A CHAIN LETTER. + +WITHIN THE NEXT FIFTY-FIVE DAYS YOU WILL RECEIVE THIRTY-ELEVEN HUNDRED +POUNDS OF CHAINS! +In the meantime - plant your seeds. + +If a lot of people who receive this letter plant a few seeds and a lot +of people receive this letter, then a lot of seeds will get planted. +Plant your seeds. + +In parks. On lots. Public flower beds. In remote places. At City Hall. +Wherever. Whenever. Or start a plantation in your closet (but read up on +it first for that). For casual planting, its best to soak them in water +for a day and plant in a bunch of about 5, about half an inch deep. +Don't worry much about the weather, they know when the weather is wrong +and will try to wait for nature. Don't soak them if its wintertime. +Seeds are a very hearty life form and strongly desire to grow and +flourish. But some of them need people's help to get started. Plant your +seeds. + +Make a few copies of this letter (5 would be nice) and send them to +friends of yours. Try to mail to different cities and states, even +different countries. If you would rather not, then please pass this +copy on to someone and perhaps they would like to. + +THERE IS NO TRUTH to the legend that if you throw away a chain letter +then all sorts of catastrophic, abominable, and outrageous disasters +will happen. Except, of course, from your seed's point of view. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Q. "How come a woodpecker doesn't bash its brains out?" A. Nobody has +ever explained that. + +Mary Jane says "Plant Your Seeds. Keep Prices Down." + +"And God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which +is upon the face of the earth... to you it shall be for meat." + -Genesis 1:29 + +2954 + +Questions +Have a friendly class talk. Permit each child to tell any part of the +unit on "Courtesy in the Corridors and on the Stairs" that he enjoyed. +Name some causes of disturbance in your school. + + + +Chapter 1, THE EPISTLE TO THE PARANOIDS +--Lord Omar + +1. Ye have locked yerselves up in cages of fear--and, behold, do ye now +complain that ye lack FREEDOM! + +2. Ye have cast out yer brothers for devils and now complain ye, +lamenting, that ye've been left to fight alone. + +3. All Chaos was once yer kingdom; verily, held ye dominion over the +entire Pentaverse, but today ye was sore afraid in dark corners, nooks, +and sink holes. + +4. O how the darknesses do crowd up, one against the other, in ye +hearts! What fear ye more that what ye have wroughten? + +5. Verily, verily I say unto you, not all the Sinister Ministers of the +Bavarian Illuminati, working together in multitudes, could so entwine +the land with tribulation as have yer baseless warnings. + + +DESPITE strong evidence to the contrary, persistant rumor has it that it +was Mr. Momomoto's brother who swallowed Mr. Momomoto in the summer of +'44. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2955 + + BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI + + Founded by Hassan i Sabbah, 1090 A.D. (5090 A.L., 4850 A.M.) + Reformed by Adam Weishaupt, 1776 A.D. (5776 A.L., 5536 A.M.) + + THE ANCIENT ILLUMINATED SEERS OF BAVARIA + invite YOU to join + + The World's Oldest and Most Successful Conspiracy + + +Have you ever SECRETLY WONDERED WHY IS there an ESOTERIC ALLEGORY con- +The GREAT PYRAMID has FIVE sides cealed in the apparently innocent +(counting the bottom)? legend of Snow White and The Seven + Dwarfs? + + +WHAT IS the TRUE secret SINISTER WHY do scholarly anthropologists +REALITY lying behind the ANCIENT TURN PALE with terror at the +Aztec Legend of QUETZLCOATL? very MENTION of the FORBIDDEN + name YOG-SOTHOTH? + +WHO IS the MAN in ZURICH WHAT REALLY DID HAPPEN +that some SWEAR is LEE TO AMBROSE BIERCE? +HARVEY OSWALD? + + +If your I.Q. is over 150, and you have $3,125.00 (plus handling), you might +be eligible for a trial membership in the A.I.S.B. If you think you qualify, +put the money in a cigar box and bury it in your backyard. One of our +Underground Agents will contact you shortly. + I DARE YOU! + +TELL NO ONE! ACCIDENTS HAVE A STRANGE WAY OF HAPPENING TO PEOPLE WHO TALK TOO + MUCH ABOUT THE BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI + +May we warn you against imitations! Ours is the original and genuine + + +"Nothing is true. Everything is Permissible" + - Hassan i Sabbah + + NIL + CARBORUNDUM + ILLEGITIMO + +_________________________________________________________________________ + "Illuminate the Opposition!" + -- Adam Weishaupt, + Grand Primus Illuminatus + +Official +Bavarian Illuminati +"Ewige Blumenkraft!" + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2956 + + INTER-OFFICE WIRE SENT + +THE ANCIENT ILLUMINATED SEERS OF BAVARIA - VIGILANCE LODGE +Mad Malik, Hauptscheissmeister; Resident for Norton Cabal + + DISCORDIAN SOCIETY SUPER SECRET CRYPTOGRAPHIC CYPHER CODE + +Of possible interest to all Discordians, this information is herewith +released +from the vaults of A.I.S.B., under the auspices of Episkopos Dr. Mordecai +Malignatius, KNS. + +SAMPLE MESSAGE: ("HAIL ERIS") + +CONVERSATION: +A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z +1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 + +STEP 1. Write out the message (HAIL ERIS) and put all the vowels at the end + (HLRSAIEI) +STEP 2. Reverse order (IEIASRLH) +STEP 3. Convert to numbers (9-5-9-1-19-18-12-8) +STEP 4. Put into numerical order (1-5-8-9-9-12-18-19) +STEP 5. Convert back to letters (AEHIILRS) + +This cryptographic cypher code is GUARANTEED TO BE 100% UNBREAKABLE. + + BEWARE! THE PARANOIDS ARE WATCHING YOU! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Here is a letter from A.I.S.B. to POEE: +________________________________________________________________________ + The World's Oldest And Most Successful Conspiracy + + BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI + + Founded by Hassan i Sabbah, 1090 A.D. (5090 A.L., 4850 A.M.) + Reformed by Adam Weishaupt, 1776 A.D. (5776 A.L., 5536 A.M.) + + ( )Official Business (X) Surreptitious Business + +From: MAD MALIK Hauptscheissmeister + + Dear Brother Mal-2, + + In response to your request for unclassified agitprop to be inserted +in the new edition of PRINCIPIA, hope the following will be of use. And +please +stop bothering us with your incessant letters! + + Episkopos Mordecai, Keeper of the Notary Sojac, informs me that you +are welcome to reveal that our oldest extant records show us to have been +fully established in Atlantis, circa 18,000 B.C., under Kull, the galley +slave who ascended to the Throne of Valusia. Revived by Pelias of Koth, circa +10,000 B.C. Possibly it was he who taught the inner-teachings to Conan of +Cimmeria after Conan became King of Aquilonia. First brought to the western +hemisphere by Conan and taught to Mayan priesthood (Conan is Quetzlcoatl). +That was 4 Ahua, 8 Cumhu, Mayan date. Revived by Abdul Alhazred in his +infamous Al Azif, circa 800 A.D. (Al Azif translated into Latin by Olaus +2957 + +Wormius, 1132 A.D., as The Necronomicon.) In 1090 A.D. was the founding of +The Ismaelian Sect (Hashishim) by Hassan i Sabbah, with secret teachings +based on Alhazred, Pelias and Kull. Founding of the Illuminated Ones of +Bavaria, by Adam Weishaupt, on May 1, 1776. He based it on the others. +Weishaupt brought it to the United States during the period that he was +impersonating George Washington; and it was he who was the Man in Black who +gave the design for The Great Seal to Jefferson in the garden that night. The +Illuminated tradition is now, of course, in the hands of The Ancient +Illuminated Seers of Bavaria (A.I.S.B.), headquartered here in the United +States. + + Our teachings are not, need I remind you, available for publication. +No harm, though, in admitting that some of them can be found disguised in +Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, Burroughs Nova Express, the King James translation +of the Holy Bible (though not the Latin or Hebrew), and The Blue Book. Not to +speak of Ben Franklin's private papers (!), but we are still suppressing +those. + + Considering current developments--you know the ones I speak of--it +has been decided to reveal a few more of our front organizations. Your +publication is timely, so mention that in addition to the old fronts like the +Masons, the Rothchild Banks, and the Federal Reserve System, we now have +significant control of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (since Hoover died +last year, but that is still secret), the Students for a Democratic Society, +the Communist Party USA, the American Anarchist Assn., the Junior Chamber of +Commerce, the Black Lotus Society, the Republican Party, the John Dillinger +Die For You Society, and the Camp Fire Girls. It is still useful to continue +the sham of the Birchers that we are seeking world domination; so do not +reveal that political and economic control was generally complete several +generations ago and that we are just playing with the world for a while until +civilization advances sufficiently for phase five. + + In fact you might still push Vennard's The Federal Reserve Hoax: +"Since the Babylonian Captivity there has existed a determined, +behind-the-scenes under-the-table, atheistic, satanic, anti-Christian +force--worshipers of Mamon--whose undying purpose is world control through +the control of Money. July 1, 1776 (correct that to May 1st, Vennard can't +get anything right) the Serpent raised its head in the under-ground secret +society known as the Illuminati, founded by Adam Weishaupt. There is con- +siderable documentary evidence to prove all revolutions, wars, depressions, +strikes and chaos stem from this source." Etc., etc., you know the stuff. + + The general location of our US HQ, incidentally, has been nearly +exposed; and so we will be moving for the first time this century (what a +drag!). If you want, you can reveal that it is located deep in the labyrinth +of sewers beneath Dealy Plaza in Dallas, and is presided over by The Dealy +Lama. Inclosed are some plans for several new potential locations. Please +review and add any comments you feel pertinent, especially regarding the +Eristic propensity of the Pentagon site. + + Oh, and we have some good news for you, Brother Mal! You know that +Zambian cybernetics genius who joined us? Well, he has secretly co-ordinated +the FBI computers with the Zurich System and our theoriticians are in ecstasy +over the new information coming out. Look, if you people out there can keep +from blowing yourselves up for only two more generations, then we will +finally +have it. After 20,000 years, Kull's dream will be realized! We can hardly +believe it. But the outcome is certain, given the time. Our grandchildren, +2958 + +Mal! If civilization makes it through this crises, our grandchildren will +live in a world of authentic freedom and authentic harmony and authentic +satisfaction. I hope I'm alive to see it, Mal, success is in our grasp. +Twenty thousand years....! + + Ah, I get spaced just thinking about it. Good luck on the Principia. +Ewige Blumenkraft! HAIL ERIS. + + Love, + MAD MALIK + + + + + +PS: PRIVATE - Not for publication in The Principia. +We are returning to the two Zwack Cyphers for classified communications. +Herewith your copy. DO NOT DIVULGE THIS INFORMATION - SECURITY E-5. + +[note: Graphic Cypher deleted DtC] + +________________________________________________________________________ + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Part Five The Golden Secret + + +NONSENSE AS SALVATION + +The human race will begin solving it's problems on the day that it ceases +taking itself so seriously. + +To that end, POEE proposes the countergame of NONSENSE AS SALVATION. +Salvation from an ugly and barbarous existence that is the result of taking +order so seriously and so seriously fearing contrary orders and disorder, +that GAMES are taken as more important than LIFE; rather than taking LIFE AS +THE ART OF PLAYING GAMES. + +To this end, we propose that man develop his innate love for disorder, and +play with The Goddess Eris. And know that it is a joyful play, and that +thereby CAN BE REVOKED THE CURSE OF GREYFACE. + +If you can master nonsense as well as you have already learned to master +sense, then each will expose the other for what it is: absurdity. From that +moment of illumination, a man begins to be free regardless of his +surroundings. He becomes free to play order games and change them at will. He +becomes free to play disorder games just for the hell of it. He becomes free +to play neither or both. And as the master of his own games, he plays without +fear, and therefore without frustration, and therefore with good will in his +soul and love in his being. + +And when men become free then mankind will be free. +May you be free of The Curse of Greyface. +May the Goddess put twinkles in your eyes. +May you have the knowledge of a sage, + and the wisdom of a child. +Hail Eris. + +2959 + + T'AI + ___ ___ + ___ ___ + ___ ___ + _________ + _________ + _________ + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +THUS ENDS PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA + This being the 4th Edition, March 1970, San Francisco; a revision of +the 3rd Edition of 500 copies, whomped together in Tampa 1969; which revised +the 2nd Edition of 100 copies from Los Angeles 1969; which was a revision of +"PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA or HOW THE WEST WAS LOST" published in New Orleans in +1965 in five copies, which were mostly lost. + + +If you think the PRINCIPIA is just a ha-ha, then go read it again. + + (K) ALL RIGHTS REVERSED - Reprint what you like + + Published by POEE Head Temple - San Francisco + " On The Future Site of Beautiful + San Andreas Canyon" + +Office of My High Reverence +Malaclypse the Younger KSC + OPOVIG HIGH PRIEST POEE + + KALLISTI + +THE LAST WORD +The foregoing document was revealed to Mal-2 by the Goddess Herself through +many consultations with Her within his Pineal Gland. It is guaranteed to be +the Word of Goddess. However, it is only fair to state that Goddess doesn't +always say the same thing to each listener, and that other Episkoposes are +sometimes told quite different things in their Revelations, which are also +the Word of Goddess. Consequently, if you prefer a Discordian Sect other than +POEE, then none of these Truths are binding, and it is a rotten shame that +you have read all the way down to the very last word. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +DISCORDIAN SOCIETY +Dedicated to an Advanced +Understanding of the Paraphysical +Manifestations of Everyday Chaos + + DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE A LOPSIDED PINEAL GLAND? + +Well, probably you do have one, and it's unfortunate because lopsided Pineal +Glands have perverted the Free Spirit of Man, and subverted Life into a +frustrating, unhappy and hopeless mess. + +Fortunately, you have before you a handbook that will show you how to +discover +your salvation through ERIS, THE GODDESS OF CONFUSION. +It will advise you how to balance your Pineal Gland and reach spiritual +Illumination. And it will teach you how to turn your miserable mess into a +2960 + +beautiful, joyful, and splendid one. + +POEE is a bridge from +PISCES to AQUARIUS + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +the Words of the Illuminated Rated X... NATURALLY + +Why are we Here ? SUPPRESSED KNOWLEDGE + +Have you ever secretly HYGIENE +wondered why the Great The Lord promised: "Therefore, +Pyramid has five sides? - behold, I will bring evil upon +counting the bottom? the house of Jeroboam and will + cut off from Jeroboam him that +GRAND OPERA pisseth against the wall..." +"Wherefore my bowels shall sound -I Kings 14:10 (This +like a harp for Moab, and mine unsanitary practice caused +inner parts for Kirharesh." serious erosion of the mud + -Isaiah 16:11 walls) + + +Face to fact with the mighty forces and elements of nature, the thoughtful +man fearlessly contemplates his place in the great cosmic scheme. + -><- POEE -><- + +YES, I'd like to know the Five Simple Actions that will turn Me into a +"Mental Wizard" in a Single Weekend. + + Warning! +Prolonged use in a darkened room may induce hallucinations or trigger +undesired side effects. Should not be used in the presence of persons subject +to epilepsy. + + THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT GUIDE IN YOUR LIFE! + + + + -THE GODDESS ERIS PREVAILS- +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + SPECIAL AFTERWORD + to the Loompanics Edition of PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA + G.H. Hill, San Francisco, 1979 + All Rites Reversed (K) Reprint What You Like + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2961 + + INTERVIEW WITH NORTON CABAL + by Gypsie Skripto, Special Correspondent + + It has been ten years since I net the mysterious Malaclypse the +Younger. I was free lancing for the underground papers and went to POEE Hear +Temple at 555 Battery Street to try for an interview. + + I found him in the Temple PO Box busy wrapping up the new Fourth +Edition of PRINCIPIA. He seemed impatient with me, insisting that he didn't +have the time or inclination for foolish questions from reporters. Undaunted, +I burst out with questions like whether he preferred Panama Red or Acapulco + +Gold and how the fuck did we manage to fit inside of a tiny post office box +and other things apropos a naive young semiliterate dropout hippy writer. He +asked me if I wanted to drop mescaline and fuck all night and said he knew +how to turn himself into a unicorn and there might be room for a tiny +interview on the cover of the PRINCIPIA if I wanted to work for the GREATER +POOP so I said sure, OK, I've never dropped mescaline in a post office box +before. + + It turned out I was among the last to see Malaclypse. As subsequent +issues of GREATER POOP revealed, he was to disappear and POEE business was to +be assumed by his students at Norton Cabal. Professor Ignotum P. Ignotius, +Department of Comparative Realities, was assigned the Trust of the POEE +Scruple and Rev. Dr. Occupant became Keeper of the Box. The newly published +copies of PRINCIPIA were distributed by Mad Malik, Block Disorganizer, who +had distribution contacts with the Aluminum Bavariati. Practical relations +remained in the hands of concept artist G. Hill. + + When the 1000 PRINCIPIAS were gone the GREATER POOP stopped +publishing, Head Temple closed down and the Cabal just seemed to evaporate. +Finally even the box was closed. But over the years I noticed that copies +were still circulating, and that independent Discordian Cabal would oc- +casionally pop out of nowhere (and still do ). And I would wonder what ever +happened to Malaclypse. + + When I read the ILLUMINATUS trilogy I resolved to again find and +interview the denizens of Joshua Norton Cabal of the Discordian Society. + + * * * + + As I cabled over Nob to San Francisco's Station 'O' Post Office I +couldn't help but wonder at Goddess' hand in assigning street addresses to +Her outposts. Mal2 had told me that Good Lord Omar always filed everything +under "O" for OUT OF FILE. + + "Maya is marvelous" I was thinking when I rapped on the little metal +door and was greeted warmly by a huge beard who introduced himself as +Professor Ignotius. He ushered me into a spacious wood paneled and tapestry +hung parlor where three others were laughing and passing around a wine jug. +The sunny one in a tunic was the Reverend Doctor Occupant, the trim khaki and +jeans was Mad Malik and the wine jug claimed to be Hill. I got the recorder +on.... + +GYPSIE SKRIPTO [in response to a question]: ...1969 but only briefly. I guess +I missed you guys. + +MAD MALIK: No wonder, he was pretty much a one man show then. We were just +2962 + +his students and were usually off on errands. You worked for the POOP? + +Gypsie: Well, for one night anyway. The interview is in the PRINCIPIA. + +REV. DR. OCCUPANT: Malik was the only one he would ever let write for the +POOP or get on the letterhead. + +Gypsie: Did you [Malik] have higher authority than the others? + +Malik: No, [but I was allowed to speak in the POOP] because [Malaclypse the +Younger] hated politics. He was infuriated with Johnson and nixon over Viet +Nam because it was turning the renaissance into a political revolution and +was stealing his sacred thunder. So he trained me in Zenarchy, which he +learned from Omar, and I was the official anarcho-pacifist for the Cabal. +Also I was liaison to The Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria, the Chicago +Discordians. Later Omar activated the Hung Mung Cong Tong and ELF, on +zenarchist principles, and also Operation Mindfuck. I was also into those. +Though at the time I was masquerading in GREATER POOP as a created cabbage to +throw off the FBI. + +Gypsie [to Hill]: Since you wrote it, I take it you are an anarchist? + +G.H. Hill: Since then I have given up anarchy. Too many rules-- hating the +government and all that stuff. + +IGNOTUM PER IGNOTIUS: It's like hating your own fantasies. + +Malik: [Anarchy] is also standing up and proceeding forward, fantasy rule or +not. The condition is the same. + +Occupant: Brother needs some wine! + +Malik: We have had this argument before, Reverend Doctor Brother. But wine +before platitudes, fill it up. + +Gypsie [to Hill]: And pacifism? + +Hill: I'm not sure I ever was one. Mal2 was not, Malik was. Personally I +accepted self defense yet I could never reconcile that with the ideal. I +finally gave up on that one too. Actually I just gave up on idealism. + +Ignotius: Idealism lives with rules. Realism lives with rocks. + +Hill: Yeah. I get along better with rocks. + +Malik: Mal2 once told me that pacifism was a dilemma. If everybody was a +pacifist then everything would be perfect. But nobody is going to be a +pacifist unless I am first. But if I am and somebody else is not, then I get +screwed. He said that there were five choices under that circumstance. The +first was napalming farmers and the second was executing your parents. The +third was hypocrisy, the fourth was cowardice, and the fifth was to swallow +the dilemma. Zenarchists are trained in dilemma swallowing. + +Occupant: So are other Erisians, like POEE. + +Ignotius: That is characteristic of the Discordian perspective. + +Hill: But of course training contradicts Discordian principles. +2963 + +Malik: Oh so what. Contradictions are nothing to Discordians. + +Occupant: Dilemma, Schilmemma. [to Gypsie]: What do you think of this, pretty +ma'am? We don't get to hear your thoughts. + +Gypsie: I'm reporting now, you talk. + +Occupant: Later then? + +Gypsie: Perhaps. Later. + +Occupant: You are smiling. + +Gypsie: Hey, guy, later. [to Hill]: Doesn't this leave you a little schizy? + +Hill: It's OK, I'm half Gemini. + +Gypsie: What's the other half? + +Hill: Taurus. That makes me a stubborn schizy. + +Ignotius: I'm a Whale. + +Occupant: I choose Satyr. + +Malik: Spirits don't have signs. + +Hill: A character can have a sign if I want it so. + +Occupant: Well I can have a sign if I want to and screw both of you. + +Malik: Come on Greg, you just think that we are your characters.... + +Occupant: You were inhabited by Malaclypse the Younger. He caused you to +create roles and those roles are being performed by us spirits. + +Ignotius: A perfectly normal pagan relationship. + +Hill: Well you can look at it like that if you want to, but I created Mal2 to +my specifications just as I conceived all the rest of you. + +Occupant: You didn't invent Eris. She caused you to think you created the +spirit of Malaclypse. + +Hill: Oh bull! Besides, I changed her so much the Greeks would never +recognize her. + +Occupant: That's what She wanted! + +Ignotius: Deities change things around all the time. + +Malik: What you don't realize is that a spirit has a self identity. + +Hill: Nope. A spirit is a product of definition and the one who is doing the +defining around here is me. Your identity is what I say it is. Just to prove +it, I'm going to change your name. + +SINISTER DEXTER: It's OK with me. Fate is fate. I never much liked "Mad +2964 + +Malik" anyway. + +Ignotius: Besides people confused him with Joe Malik in ILLUMINATUS. + +Dexter: I sort of enjoyed the confusion part. + +Occupant: Doesn't prove anything anyway. + +Gypsie: That name sounds familiar. Where is it from? + +Hill: Its a name I came up with in the old days and never used it much. Its +on page 38 of the PRINCIPIA referring to Vice President Spiro Agnew. I always +thought I invented it but now it sounds like a Stan Freberg name now that I +think about it. It may have stuck in my preconscious memory from early TV. + +Gypsie: Can you use it without his permission? + +Hill: If it is his? I don't know. I hope so. it means "left right" in Latin +and is a perfect name for a libertarian anarchist. Actually in my kind of art +the question of what can I use freely and what can I not is a very tricky +problem. + +Gypsie: How do you mean? + +Hill: Well, take a collage for example. Like the early one on page 36 of the +PRINCIPIA. Each little piece was extracted from some larger work created by +some other artist and published and maybe copyrighted. I find them in +newspapers and magazines mostly. Often from ads. With a collage you select +and extract from your environment and then assemble into an original +relationship. + +The PRINCIPIA itself is a collage. A conceptual collage. All of it happens +simultaneously. But visually it is a montage, passing through time, like a +book does. + +There is a lot of pirated stuff in the PRINCIPIA, especially in the margins. +But also I sympathize with artists who must own and sell their works to earn +a living. Art, like knowledge, should be free fodder for everyone. But it +isn't It is perplexing. + +Gypsie: Where did all the things in PRINCIPIA come from? + +Hill: Well, a full answer would take another book in itself. Most of the +writing credited to a name is a true person and almost always a different +name means a different person. Most of the non-credited, you know, Malaclyps- +e, text is mine although some things credited to either Mal2 or Omar were +actually co-written and passed back and forth and rewritten by each of us. +The marginalia, dingbats, and pasted in titles and heads and things came from +wherever I found them--some of which is original but uncredited Discordian +output, like the page head on 12 and other pages which is from a series of +satiric memo pads from Our Peoples Underworld Cabal. All page layout is mine +and some whole graphics like the Sacred Chao and the Hodge Podge Transformer +are mine but mostly I just found stuff and integrated it. Mostly I did +concept, say 50% of the writing, 10% of the graphics, all of the layout. + +Gypsie: Specifically, what are some of the sources? + +Hill: Weel, the poem on the front cover is by Walt Kelly and was spoken by +2965 + +one of his characters in Pogo. The government seals starting from page 1 are +from a book of sample seals from the U.S. Government Printing Office. Western +Union on page 6 got into the act because I used to be a teletype operator and +had access to blank forms. Rubber stamps came from all over the place and +some, like the apple on page 27, I carved myself. A few I ordered to my +specification, like on page 1. The quote on the top of page 8 might be from +Barnum, I'm not sure. The jumping man on page 12 is from an advertisement. I +recognize the style--a popular commercial artist-- but I don't know his name. +The Chinese on the page is a grocery ad, I think. The Norton money on page 14 +is historic,plus my little additions. The apple on page 17,as well as the +triangle on 23 and the Sacred Chao on 50 are, believe it or not, pasteups of +mimeographs, from Seattle Cabal. That group produced the best damn mimeog- +raphy I've ever seen. The Lick Here Box on page 23 is one of many tidbits +making the rounds in alternative/underground newspapers in those days. Trip +5 page header on 29 was a chapter title in one of Tim Leary's books. The +Knight on the bull with the TV antenna on his helmet on page 46 came from a +very artistic magazine called Horseshit and put out by two brothers from Long +Beach. I don't remember their names. Wonderful magazine. + +Occupant: Eris told Mal2 what to use and where to find it. + +Hill: Yeah, in a way that is right. That is why my name does not appear +anywhere on the PRINCIPIA and why it was published with a broken +copyright--Reprint What You Like. I knew I was taking liberties and didn't +want my intentions to be misunderstood. It was an experiment and was intended +to be an underground work and that involves a different set of ethics than +commercial work. + +Gypsie: There are no real names at all? + +Hall: Oh, some. Camden Benares is a real name because he legally changed his +original name to his Holy Name. Also, instead of using Mordecai Malignatus I +used Bob Wilson's real name on page 12 because Werewolf Bridge was a work +before Discordianism. And of course real people like Neils Bohr crop up in +quotes. + +Gypsie: What do you think about the PRINCIPIA now? Would you want to change +it? + +Hill: I consider it a successful work and I wouldn't want to change it. In +some ways it is immature and I am not the same person I was 10 years ago, but +it accomplished the objectives I set for myself and it has the effect I +wanted it to have. There are a few errors though. + +Gypsie: Like what? + +Hill: Oh, I changed a quote from Tom Gnostic on page 61 and I don't think he +ever did forgive me for it. He's right. Starbuck's Pebbles should have been +preceded by the Myth of Starbuck which was being saved for something else and +never got used. I should have used it when I had the chance. And then Eris +did a neat little trick on me by having IBM make the Greek selectric +typewriter element not coincide with all the characters on their keyboard. So +the little "kallisti" that appears on the title page and lastly on the back +cover came out "kallixti" and I was too dumb to know the difference. + +Gypsie: Will there ever be a Fifth Edition? + +Hill: There already is a Fifth Edition, by Mal2. It is a one page telegram +2966 + +that reduces everything to an infinite aum. I found it at Western Union where +a machine got stuck and kicked out hundreds of pages of nothing but m's. He +made it the Fifth Edition and then left. + +Principia/Malaclypse was a very personal work for me and actually took 10 +years to culminate. it was one single statement that included my adolescence +in the 50's and my young adulthood in the 60's. When I finally had the +paste-ups done I knew that I had finished it. That is why, quote, Malaclypse +left. I knew it was finished. I didn't know exactly what it was, but it was +done. + +Occupant: See? + +Gypsie: Earlier you said that you met your objectives. Just what were those +objectives? + +Hill: Well, that's hard to answer because it kept refining itself over the +years. In 1969 I mainly though of myself as a cosmic clown and I set out to +prove, by demonstration, that a deity can be anything at all. + +In other words, people invent gods and not the other way around. Later I +decided that I was doing some kind of conceptual art. + +In the 50's my culture taught me that I was created by and for a deity, a +specific male deity, and that all other deities are FALSE. Yet my growing +experience showed me that any deity is true in some sense and false in some +other sense. So I set out to do what my society told me is impossible--make +a real religion from a patently absurd deity. + +In the 50's a female deity was blasphemy. In the 70's a humorous deity is +still considered impossible, ridiculous, and blasphemous. As far as I'm +concerned, I have proven my point. Eris is a real deity and even though I +don't promote Erisianism as a serious religion.... + +Occupant: I do! + +Dexter: You speak for yourself. + +Ignotius: Here, here. + +Hill: ...I do point out that it makes just as much sense from its own +perspective as all the others do from each of their own perspectives. + +Occupant: I think paganism is a valid spiritual path. I encourage Erisianism +because it makes fun of itself. i think this is healthy. + +Ignotius: If you can live rewardingly with Goddess Eris you can live with any +deity, including none at all. + +Dexter: I don't much go for the worship business but I argee with Occupant +about the spirit of the thing. We live in a time of turmoil, the whole planet +is in a state of change. If we, as a species, cower from the confusion then +we die with the dying. This is revolution. + +Ignotius: I am an athiest myself. There is no Greg Hill. + +[laughter] + +2967 + +Gypsie [to Hill] : What do you think of ILLUMINATUS? + +Hill: Oh, I love it. I was finishing PRINCIPIA when Shea and Wilson were +working on ILLUMINATUS. It took Dell five years to publish it...maybe that is +significant. The 1969 Discordian Society was a mail network between +independent writers of various kinds. Norton Cabal was just me and my +characters and I used the other Cabals as sort of a laboratory. In return +other Discordians would bounce their stuff off of me. We would toss in ideas +and anybody could take anything out. It was a concept stew. The exchanging of +ideas and techniques broadened and encouraged all of us. + +I like ILLUMINATUS for the surrealism. A very effective method of writing. + +Ignotius: I got misquoted. Worse, I wasn't even in that scene and if I had +been then I would have said something else. + +Dexter [to Ignotius]: That was me in that scene. + +Ignotius: Oh, is that what that was? + +Dexter: He got our names mixed up. + +Hill: He got mixed up about me too, in COSMIC TRIGGER. Bob says that when +Oswald was buying the assassination rifle, my girlfriend was printing the +first edition of PRINCIPIA on Jim Garrison's Xerox. It wasn't my girlfriend, +it was Kerry's; it wasn't the FIRST ED PRINCIPIA, it was some earlier +Discordian thought; it wasn't Garrison's Xerox, it was his mimeograph; and it +wasn't just before Kennedy was shot but a couple of years before that.* + +The FIRST ED PRINCIPIA, by the way, was reproduced at Xerox Corp when +xerography was a new technology Gypsie. Which was my second New Orleans trip +in 1965. I worked for a guy on Bourbon Street who was a Xerox salesman by +day. + +Dexter: I think that George Dorn took too much guff from Hagbard. If someone +pulls a weapon on me, I'm more inclined to either leave or kill the +sonofabitch. + +Occupant: You are supposed to be a pacifist. + +Dexter: I'm speaking figuratively of course. I'll tell you more tomorrow. + +Gypsie [to Hill]: Did you really translate erotic Etruscan poetry? + +Hill: Sure, but I used a pen name. I signed it "Robert Anton Wilson". + +[A quick rap is heard on the door] + +Gypsie: I have only one question left... + +Dexter: I'll get it. + +Gypsie: ...what I really want to know is how can we all fit inside of a tiny +little post office box? + +Dexter[to Gypsie]:It's a telegram for you, from Mal2. + +Gypsie: To me? +2968 + +[Paper tearing] + +Gypsie [reading]: "If I told everybody how they could live inside of a post +office box then everybody would stop paying landlords and go live inside +their post office boxes. It would collapse the building! Can you imagine, +post offices collapsing all over the country, the hemisphere, the PLANET! The +whole world's communication system would be destroyed. No,no, I must not say. +I dare not! + +------------- +* I checked this further with Mr. Thornley. He says that the woman in +question was not his girlfriend, she was just a friend, and it wasn't a +couple of years before Kennedy was shot but had to be a couple of years after +(but before Garrison investigated Thornley). --GS + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2969 + + RITE OF HANDFASTING + + Joy and Tom Williams + April 16, 1994 ce + + +MUSIC : + Beltane Wedding Dance by Gwidion. -- While Circle forms, those entering +are smudged by ASSISTANTS standing on both sides of SOUTH side of circle. + +HP and/or HPS: +explain for non-Pagans the idea of Handfasting, why a circle +instead of pews, etc. + +CIRCLE CASTING (HPS casts circle followed by FLOWER MAIDEN strewing +petals): +We cast the circle of ancient lore; +Waves upon a timeless shore. +With no begninning, nor an end; +It always knows a foe from friend. +Oroboros, of legends old; +Rings of power, forged in gold. +Circle of Life, ring of stones; +Cycle of creation, birth to bones. +A ring around the silv'ry Moon; +We cast you now, o ancient rune! +QUARTERS: +(CRYSTAL BEARER takes crystal from altar and gives it to the EAST quarter +caller. Caller invokes power holding up CRYSTAL. When done, the caller +hands CRYSTAL back to bearer who takes it to the next quarter. After +NORTH, bearer places CRYSTAL back on altar.) + +EAST: +I call the Eastern powers of air, +You whose breath of life we share, +Bring understanding, kindness, care, +And loving words, both clear and fair, +Come bless this day our rite of love, +As below then so above. + +SOUTH: +I call the Southern powers of fire, +Whose light doth stir the poet's lyre, +With love's bright spark our hearts inspire, +Bring passion's flame, bring sweet desire, +Come bless this day our rite of love, +As below then so above. + + +WEST: +Oh powers of the Western sea, +Oh water's flowing unity, +Bring feeling, warmth and empathy, +That all our lives may blessed be, +Come bless this day our rite of love, +As below then so above. + + +2970 + +NORTH: +Oh Northern powers of living Earth, +Charge our souls from death to birth, +On solid ground of rock and loam, +Bring forth our food and build our home, +Come bless this day our rite of love, +As below then so above. +GODDESS INVOCATION (HP) + +Laughter-loving Aphrodite! +Venus Amathusia! +Come to me with laughing breast, +Come on waves with golden crest, +Come with doves and golden light, +Drawn by swans and sparrows bright. +Alight! Alight! +I am thy man, I am thy mate! +Receive me til our storm abate! +Thy green glades echo with my calls, +Come to me from emerald halls, +Flanked by maidens winding there, +Rose and mytle in thy golden hair, +Come to me! to me! to me! +And mate with me upon the grass, +Laughing, lusty, oh ravishing lass! +Our bodies arch and strain and twine, +I am thine and thou art mine! +Come from heavens of azure hue, +Ocean born and ever new, +Pulsing, laughing, yearning straining, +Pleasure, lust, all life containing, +Race with me through glades of green, +Exalting, loving, oh rapturous queen! +To me! to me! +Oh come to me! +And enter, merge, enfold, unite! +Suffuse desire with golden light! +Never sated in eons of time, +I am thine and thou art mine! +GOD INVOCATION (HPS) + Oh horned one, goat-foot, +Great God Pan! +Come to me with eyes of fire, +And with thy pipes awake desire, +Come with wild and lustful grin, +Herald of your flame within, +Io Pan! Io Pan! +Io Pan, Pan, Pan! +Shout to me from scented wood, +The call of all that's wild and good, +Come to me with shaggy thighs, +And let the hills return our cries, +Come with satyrs bearing wine, +I am thine and thou art mine! +Come with joyous lusty laugh, +Come with swollen ruddy staff, +Race with me thorugh halls of green, +Thou art my God and I your Queen, +2971 + +And spend with me a tender hour, +Making love within my bower, +To me! To me! +Oh come to me! +And come oh God of stream and wood, +Oh God of life and all that's good, +Never sated in eons of time, +I am thine and thou art mine! + +HPS: +And by your rites of sacred marriage I inoke ye: +Shiva and Parvati +Jove and Juno +Dagda and Boyne +Odin and Freya + +HP: +And by your sacred rites of marriage I invoke ye: +Persephone and Hades +Nuit and Geb +Rhiannon and Pwyll +Ishtar and Tammuz + +HP & HPS: Blessed Be! + +ALL: Blessed Be +HP: +Our work today is a happy one. We are gathered in the presence of +the deities of the fruitful trees, the flowing waters, the warming sun +and the +siging air, and in the sight of the Goddes of our Blessed Earth to celebrate +the joining of our two dear friends Joy and Tom, in union by the fasting of +their hands by ancient rite. + +HPS (holding up CORD): +This is the cord of handfasting. It will tie Tom and Joy together with +bonds of love. For such bonds to be strong they need support -- the +support of the lovers themselves, the support of the Gods and the support +of a community of family and friends. we ask now that each of you give +your support, letting it flow as loving strength into the cord as it is +passed around the circle. + +ALL SING: +Love is a River (as CORD is passed around circle) + +HPs (to assistants): +Now open the circle, cut wide the gate, for two are coming who would be +made one! + +ASSISTANTS: +(Open gate at SOUTH and stand at each side as couple enters..They then +take BROOM from altar and lay it across the gate, remaining there with +the circle joined together again.) + +(HP: Rings bell three times. Processional, Spring Strathsprey by Gwydion, +vocal) + +(Couple walk hand-in-hand deosil around the inside of the circle. After a +2972 + +full turn around the circle, GROOM stops in the WEST while BRIDE +continues +on around to the EAST, at which point they both approach the altar from +opposite directions.) + +(Music ends when all are in place, or the song is ended.) +HPS: +Brothers and sisters, the Bride comes from the heart of the dawn, and +the Bridegroom from the sunset. There is a wedding in the valley; a day +too +vast for recording! There is magic to be done here; the magic of Love! + +HP: +You have come together in this sacred grove to stand in the presence +of our Lady of Love and our Lord of Lust, that they may bestow upon you +their bountiful blessings of everlasting love and devotion through the +sacred +rite of handfasting. This is a bond not to be entered into lightly, but +with +seriousness, reverence, and joy. + +HPS: +Is it your intention, Tom, to be wed to Joy in the sight of the gods and +of these people? to be tied to her in giving, in dreams, and in +intentions, and +to vow to her your love and commitment? + +GROOM: (answers) + +HPS: +Have you considered the gavity of your commitment? + +GROOM: (answers) + +HPs: +Have you considered the levity of your commitment? + +GROOM: (answers) + +HP: +Is it your intention, Joy, to be wed to Tom in the sight of the Gods +and of these people? to be tied to him in giving, in dreams, and in +intentions, and to vow to her your love and commitment? + +BRIDE: (answers) + +HP: +Have you considered the gavity of your commitment? + +BRIDE: (answers) + +HP: +Have you considered the levity of your commitment? + +BRIDE: (answers) +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2973 + +HPS (facing BRIDE and holding up PENTACLE): + Joy, + Thou shalt be the star that rises from the twilight sea + Thou shalt bring a man dreams to rule his destiny + Thou shalt bring the moon-tides to the soul of a man + The tides that flow and ebb, and flow again, + The magic that moves in the moon and the sea; + These are thy secret, and they belong to thee. + Thou art the Eternal Woman, thou art She, + The tides of all men's souls belong to thee. + Danu in heaven, on Earth, Persephone, + Diana of the Moon and Hecate, + Veiled Isis, Aphrodite from the sea, + All these thou art, and they are seen in thee. + +HP (facing GROOM and holding WAND): +Tom, +All wild creatures hear thy call upon the haunted wind. +Within thy soul the Horned One returns to Earth again. +Together you shall manifest the magick of the man +And falcons soar from out the sky to perch upon thy hand. +The serpent's wisdom thou shalt learn from tip of forked tongue. +The fleetness of the white stag's flight in starlight or in sun. +Lord of Light and Lord of Shadow; keeper of the key +Which unlocks the door of dreams, whereby men come to thee. +Cernunnos, Tammuz, Horus, Pan; by name we set thee free! +0, Shepherd of the wild woodland, may thou be one with he! + +(HP turns to HPS holding WAND. HPS picks up CHALICE and ATHAME; +anoints with water, touches to flower petals; censes; then places over +WAND. The HP & HPS hold WAND aloft between them.) +HPS: +Above you are the stars, below you are the stones. +As time passes, remember... +Like a star should your love be constant, +Like the earth should your love be firm. +Possess one another, yet be understanding. +Have patience each with the other, +For storms will come, but they will go quickly. +Be free in giving of affection and of warmth; +Make love often, and be sensuous to one another. +Have no fear, and let not the ways or words of the unenlightened give +you unease. +For the old gods are with you, +Now and always! + +HP (holding wand): +Is it your wish, Joy, to become one with this man? + +BRIDE: (answers) + +HP: +Then give him your vow. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2974 + +BRIDE: + I, Joy wed you, Tom and pledge to build with you a place of +love, nourishment and happiness within our hearts and within our home. + + I pledge you love, honor and trust. love, both soft and tender +and love suffused with passion and playfulness; love which will honor your +inner deity, endure hardship and nurture honesty, trust and devotion. + + I pledge to support and cherish your growth in the human +adventure; to explore with you the wonders of life; to hold you in my love +when you are ill or sad and to nurture your healing, growth, development and +actualization. As you evolve so shall I for we are as one and reflect one +another. + + I promise to create a home with you that shall be a haven for us +both, a place of welcome for family, friends and lovers and a place of +comfort in times of sorrow. I promise to love, honor, protect and nourish +you as long as we both shall live + +HPS: +Is it your wish, Tom, to become one with this woman? + +GROOM: (answers) + +HPS: +Then give her your vow. + +GROOM +: I, Tom wed you, Joy and pledge to build with you a place of +love, nourishment and happiness within our hearts and within our home. + + I pledge you love, honor and trust. love, both soft and tender +and +love suffused with passion and playfulness; love which will honor your inner +deity, endure hardship and nurture honesty, trust and devotion. + + I pledge to support and cherish your growth in the human +adventure; +to explore with you the wonders of life; to hold you in my love when you +are ill or sad and to nurture your healing, growth, development and +actualization. As you evolve so shall I for we are as one and reflect one +another. + + I promise to create a home with you that shall be a haven for us +both, +a place of welcome for family, friends and lovers, and a place of comfort in +times of +sorrow. I promise to love, honor, protect and nourish you as long as we +both shall live. + +HP: +Does any say nay? + +GROOM: +Then we are happy, but we would yet ask the blessing of the +May Queen on our union. + +BRIDE: +2975 + +Oh Queen of the May, we ask your blessing on our union and +on our connection with this land which is our home upon the Earth. + +MAY QUEEN: +As you marry, take my blessing and the blessing of our Mother Earth that +you may live long within Her breast and flourish in Her abundance. +(Takes cord from the altar and hands it to HP and HPS) I bid you bind +them in love with my blessing, + +HP & HPS (tying the hands of bride and groom together with the cord): +This day you marry your friend, the one you love, laugh with, live for, +dream with. + +HP (handing ATHAME to GROOM): +This knife is for the troubles that lie ahead. + +HPS (handing CHALICE to BRIDE): +This cup is for the love that conquers them. + +GROOM (holding up ATHAME): +I bring the energy of yang, active, bright, logical and hard. I bid you +blend these energies with yours to make us whole and keep this token on +the altar of our love. + +BRIDE (holding up CHALICE): +I bring the energy of yin, dark, intuitive, flowing and soft. I bid you +blend these energies with yours and make us whole and keep this token on +the altar of our love. + +(GROOM dips ATHAME into CHALICE) + +HP: +Yin and yang, male and female, light and dark. neither may stand +alone, but out of their eternal interplay the universe is born. So it is +above +and so it is here below. + +HP: +Now share you the water of life, the blood of the sacred Goddess our +Mother Earth, water that binds us and all living things to her body. + +(BRIDE and GROOM share water and kiss) + +HP: +Out of the billions of the Earth, these two have come, have looked +into each other's eyes, and are now made one. Their ways have converged +and shall now be together. In our deepest being we hope that their path +may +be pleasant and the sky fair where they reside. But if trouble comes, as +it +can surely come to all, may the pressure of the trial only bring them +more +closely together. With clasped hands and united hearts, may they bear +life's +sorrows together and share life's joys together. + + + +2976 + +(BRIDE pours libation and speaks however she is moved, then hands +CHALICE to GROOM, who sips, libates and passes cup to HPS, who sips, +libates and passes CHALICE to HP. COUPLE then moves around the circle + +deosil greeting guests while chant is sung: I am the Heart and the Soul +of +Creation, then return to altar.) + +HPS (gives Navajo Wedding Blessing): +Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be the shelter to the other. +Now you will feel no cold, for each of you shall be the warmth to the other. +Now there is no more loneliness for you. +Now there is no more loneliness. +Now you are two bodies, but there is only one life before you. +Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness. +And may your days be good and long upon this Earth. + +(GROOM thanks guests and invites them to the feast.) + +(ASSISTANTS open the gate in SOUTH where the BROOM has been lying and +hold the broom a LITTLE off the ground. HP and HPS: lead the chant: JUMP +THE BROOM! as COUPLE runs around the circle and jumps the BROOM on the +way out.) + +HP & HPS (Stand on opposite sides of altar, raising arms): +We thank you Gods and Goddesses of the Sacred Marriage for +attending and blessing this, our rite of life and love. We bid you now, +Hail +and Farewell! + +ALL: Hail and Farewell! + +HP: +Oh mighty Lord of life and death, whose hooves dance upon the altrar +of Time and whose pipes play the song of Never-Ending, we thank You for +Your blessing and bid You now Hail and Farewell! + +ALL: Hail and Farewell! + +HPS: +Oh gracious Goddess, Queen of love and birth whose body is the +green and flowering Earth and the dust at whose feet are the stars of +heaven, we thank You for Your blessing and bid You now Hail and Farewell! + +QUARTER CALLERS: +We thank you now, oh powers of Earth (Water, Fire, Air) + +HPS: +All from air into air, let the misty curtain part. +All is ended, all is done +What has been must now be gone! +What is done by ancient art +Must merry meet and merry part! +AND MERRY MEET AGAIN! + + +Well, there it is. It was beautiful. And so smooth. Hope you all +enjoyed it. Tom wrote the invocation to Pan and Aphrodite. If you want +2977 + +to use it though would expect people to ask permission to use it, since +it is copyright protected in the Green Egg. + +Anyway, this is a guide, and it is OUR h-fasting. People can use it as a +guide, but it is much more magickal if you create your own. + +Thou art Goddess! + +Joy Williams +-- +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2978 + SHADOW WEAVER GROVE ADF + BELTANE RITUAL 5/5/1990 + +This is a transcription of the original planned ritual for Beltane forthe +Shadow Weaver Grove, transcribed with permission by Joseph Tellerof the +Wonderland BBS 508-663-6220 WWIVNet Node 5803 for distributionto the Pagan +Community at large. Shadow Weaver Grove can also bewritten to via Surface +mail at : PO Box 5451, Billerica MA 01821.Distribution for non-commercial use +of this document is granted, solong as the wording and information contained +herein remains unchangedin the process of distribution. +___________________________________________________________________________ +I. Starting the Ritual + A) Processional : (starting Chant {Ku-Wa-Te}) + To enter the circle each person must pass through four "gates" +representing each of the Three Worlds (Land, Sea & Sky) and Fire. Each person +steps to the first Gate Keeper and is asked: "What do you ask of the Gate of +Earth (Sea) (Air)?" AN answer is given or left unspoken, and the person is +marked by the Guardian (with mud, water and brush of a feather) and proceeds +to the next Gate and is questioned again. The Guardian of the last Gate, +Fire, smudges the person before they enter the circle. When everyone is in +the circle, the chant continues ("Ku-Wa-Te") as the Gatekeepers come into the +circle and prepare themselves. + B) Statement of Purpose : + We are here tonight to honor the Goddess Danu, called the Earth-mother +and to honor the God Belemos, Called the Sun King. We honor them and ask them +to bless us and rekindle the warmth of the world. + C) Centering Meditation: + Group meditation and collective consciousness: All present are brought +together with a group meditation, to form a "group-mind"; to help everyone +center and bring themselves together to work in accord. + D) Earth Mother Invocation : + Oh Earth-Mother + We praise thee + That seed springeth + That flower openeth + That grass groweth + We praise thee + For winds that whisper + Through the shining Birch + Through the lively Pines + Through the mighty Oak + We praise thee + For all things + Oh Earth-Mother who gives lifeII. + + The Active Ritual + + Invocation of Ogma the Gate Keeper or Mannanon in English: + (Visualization is a triangle shaped iris opening) + + Gate Keeper of Fire: + O Ogma, Lord of the Gates, Lord of Knowledge, open the ways for us + O Mannanon, master of the realm beyond the seas, grant us passage to your +kingdom. + O great God of knowledge, we wish to walk your roads. + Reveal to us your teachings, reveal to us the safe path. + Come wash the nighttime clean; + Come Close the gap of darkness in between. + We praise you for the brightness of your power. +2979 + + We praise you for the gift of knowledge. + Guide us to the place we seek. + Walk with us Ogma! + Walk with us Mannanon! + +CHANT: We invoke thee Ogma, opener of every Gate + We invoke Mannanon, opener of every Gate. + You shall reach us, You shall teach us and reveal our fate. + You shall reach us, You shall teach us and reveal our fate. + B) Consecration of the Waters: + [After each cup is consecrated it is passed around the members of + the circle so that each may drink from it. When the cup returns to the start +the remaining liquid is spilled unto the Earth or into the fire. Contents may +be spring water, or an alcholic brew if alcohol it is preferred to have been +brewed by a member of the Grove.] + + Druid of the Gate of Land: + Spirits of nature, of the trees and rocks, of the animals and Earth, +give us your favor and your companionship, share with us the bond of spirit +and of life on Earth. Remember us and speak to us in our hearts. Give us your +teachings and laughter, become one amoung us here tonight, Consecrate these +waters. Behold the Waters of Life! + {All Chant "Fur and Feather"} + + Druid of the Gate of Sea: + Ancestors of Long ago, be with us, give us your favor and your +wisdom, share with us the bond of kinship and of life upon Earth. +Remember us and speak to us in our hearts. Give us your knowledge and your +blessing, become one with us here tonight; Consecrate these waters. + Behold The Waters of Life! {All Chant "Blood of the Ancients") + + Druid of the Gate of Sky: + Gods and Goddesses, be with us, give us your favor and blessings, +share with us the bonding essance and our existence upon your sphere of life. +Remember us and speak to us in our hearts. give us your strength and your +peace, become one amoung us here tonight. Consecrate these waters. + Behold the Waters of Life! {All Chant "Mother I feel you"} + C) Individual Offerings and prayers: + At this point, all present that wish to may make an offering or +offer prayers. If anyone has an offering or a prayer they would like to make +they step forward and do so, individual offerings to particular patrons or +spirit helpers are done at this time. + D) Sacrifice with the Willow Branch: + Gate keeper of fire makes a final offering of a willow branch, to send +the energy to the deities of the occasion. It is sacrificed into the central +bonfire. + Gate Keeper of Fire: + Our praise goes up with thee on the wings of eagles; our voices are +carried up to thee on the shoulders of the wonds. hear now O Belemos, O Danu, +we pray thee, as we offer up this sacrifice of life. Accept it we pray thee, +and cleanse our hearts, giving to us of your peace and life. + E) Divination : + A scrying is done with crystal/flame, to find if the gods have +accepted our prayers and will be with us. If the omen is bad, offerings are +made again. If they are rejected thrice, the circle is broken immediately and +the ritual ended. + F) The Fourth Consecration: + Here the wards are set to protect us during the magic working. +2980 + +Druid #1 (Fire): + We greet you, Brother Wabun, Golden Eagle of the East. We ask that you +watch over us this night, and share with us your wisdom, Let your keen vision +guide us over the obstacles before us. We greet you, Brother Shawnodese, +Guardian of the South, great Coyote. We ask that you walk with us this night, +and guide us as we walk this path of learning. We greet you, Waboose, White +Buffalo Woman of the North, Grace us with your company, and walk with us +night as we seek the wisdom that surrounds us. We greet you, brother +Mudjekeewis, Great Bear of the West. Walk with us this night and aid us in +our journey to wisdom. At this time, would each of you please meditate on +your personal needs and desires. + G) Induction of Receptivity : (Litany of the Waters) + [D1 can be Guardian of Fire, D2 can be the Group response. If the group +doesn't know the responses one of the other guardians should lead them into +them] + D1: Of what does the Earth-Mother give, that we may know of the + continual flow and renewal of life? + D2: The waters of Life. + D1: From whence do these waters flow? + D2: From the bosom of the Earth-Mother,the ever changing All-Mother + D1: And how do we honor this gift that causes life? + D2: By partaking of the waters of life. + D1: Has the Earth-Mother given forth her bounty? + D2: She has + D1: Then give me the waters! + + Final consecration and sharing: A fourth cup is consecrated. + O Belemos, O Danu, hear us and answer us! Hallow these waters! We +your children have praised you, and now we ask from you healing, blessing, +power and inspiration...Behold the waters of life! + {Passing chant: "Ku-Wa-Te"} + + III. The Work of The Circle + A) The Magic Working: + Tonight we pray for the prosperity of all those here. May our fortunes +increase, may the Goddess and God smail on our endeavors and bring us good +luck in all that we do. + We ask that you bless these small tokens of our wishes, and grant us the +success that we ask for. {Here a small basket with a crystal and appropriate +symbols of general prosperity were passed around so that all might add +energy to it} + B) Affirmation of Success: + D1: Belemos and Danu have Blessed us! + D2: Every time we invoke them, they become stronger and more +alert to the needs of their people. + D1: With joy in our hearts let us return to the realm of mortals to do +the will of the Gods and our own. + D2: Yet, before we leave, we must give thanks to those whome we have +invited here today. + + IV. Closing: + A) Thanking and closing of the Quaters: + We thank you, Brother Wabun, Golden Eagle of the East. You have watched +over us this night, and shared with us your wisdom, Your keen vision has +shown us the ostacles before us. We ask you, go in peace, as you came in +peace. So we may walk together again. We thank you, Brother Shawnodese, +Guardian of the South, great Coyote. Once again your lessons have helped us, +and shown us the truth in ourselves. We ask you, go in peace, as you came in +2981 + +peace, So we may walk together again. We thank you, Waboose, White Buffalo of +the North. You have graced us with your company, and walked with us this +night. You have helped us see the wisdom that surrounds us. We ask you, go +in peace, as you came in peace. So we may walk together again. We thank +you Brother Mudjekeewis, Great Bear of the West. You have shown us your power +and kept us safe in our journey to wisdom. We ask you, go in peace, as you +came in peace, so we may walk together again. + B) Thanking of the Gods and Goddess: + Gods and Goddesses of the old times, spirits of the old times and +of this place, people of the old times and of our ancestors, our kindred we +thank you. + C) Closing the Gate: + Gate Keeper of Fire : + O Ogma, Lord of the Gates, Lord of KNowledge, we thank you. O Mhannon, +we thank you. Now let the Gates between the Worlds be closed! + D) Return from the group-mind, grounding and centering. + Reverse the Tree Meditation. + + Relaxing of the Grove's Wards. + Libation: + D1: To thee we retrun this portion of thy bounty, O Danu our Mother, +even as we must someday return unto thee. + D2: We have finished this ceremony. + D1: So be it! + ALL: Biodh se! +___________________________________________________________________________ + CHANTS USED DURING RITUAL: + {Ku-Wa-Te} +Ku-Wa-Te Lay-no Lay-no Ma-ho-teHi-ano, Hi-ano, Hi-anoKu-Wa-Te Lay-no +Ma-ho-teHi-ano, Hi-ano, Hi-ano We are one with the infinite sun Forever, +Forever, ForeverWe are one with the Infinite Sun Forever, Forever, Forever. + + {Mother Nature Waits} +Mother Earth provides Mother Earth Provides Mother Earth Provides all for us +to surviveMother Earth Provides Mother Nature Waits Mother Nature Waits Beca- +use life never ends, she always begins again Mother Nature waits. + {Hoof and Horn} +Hoof and horn, Hoof and hornAll that dies shall be reborn.Corn and Grain, +corn and grainAll that falls shall rise again. + + {Blood of the Ancients} +It's the blood of the AncientsThat runs through our veinsAnd the forms +pass,But the Circle of life remains. + + {Fur and Feather} +Fur and Feather and scale and skin +Different without but the same within +Great of body but one of soul +Through all creatures are the Gods made Whole + + {Mother I feel You} +Mother I feel you under my feet +Mother I feel your heart beat +Mother I feel your heart beat +Father I see you where the eagle flies +Spirit gonna carry me higher and higher +Spirit gonna carry me higher and higher +________________________________________________________________________ +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2982 + + BRIGIT OF THE CELTS + ------------------- + Brigit was one of the great Triple Goddesses of the Celtic people. +She appeared as Brigit to the Irish, Brigantia in Northern England, +Bride in Scotland, and Brigandu in Brittany. Many legends are told +about Brigit. Some say that there are three Brigits : one sister in +charge of poetry and inspiration who invented the Ogham alphabet, +one in charge of healing and midwifery, and the third in charge of the +hearth fire, smithies and other crafts. This catually indicates the +seperate aspects of her Threefold nature and is a neat division of +labor for a hard-working goddess. + Brigit was probably originally a Sun Goddess, and a charming story +of her birth is that she was born at sunrise and a tower of flame +burst from the forehead of the new born Goddess that reached from +Earth to Heaven. It was likely She who inspired the line in the famous +Song of Amergin: "I am a fire in the head." Her penchant for smithcraft +led to her association by the Romans with Minerva/Athena. As a warrior +Goddess, She favored the use of the spear or the arrow. Indeed, various +interpetations of her name exist including, "Bright Arrow," "The Bright +One," "the Powerful One" and "The High One," depending upon the region +and the dialect. + As a Goddess of herbalism, midwifery and healing She was in charge +of Water as well as Fire. I don't beleive that anyone has ever +counted all teh vast number of sacred wells and springs named after +or dedicated to this Goddess. A story is told of how two lepers came +to one of her sacred springs for healing and She instructed one Leper +to wash the other. The skin of the freshly bathed man was cleansed +of the disease and Brigit told the man who was healed to wash the man +who had bathed him so that both men would be whole. The man who was +healed was now too disgusted to touch the other Leper and would have +left him, but Brigit herself washed the leper and struck down the +other arrogant fellow with leperousy once more before he could leave. +Offerings to the watery Brigit were cast into the well in the form +of coins or, even more ancient, brass or gold rings. Other sacrifices +were offered where three streams came together. Her cauldron of +Inspiration connected her watery healing aspect with her fiery poetic +aspect. + Brigit is clearly the best example of the survival of a Goddess +into Christian times. She was cannonized by the Catholic church as +St. Brigit and various origins are given to this saint. The most +popular folktale is that She was midwife to the Virgin Mary, and thus +was always inviked by women in labor. The more official story was +that She was a Druid's daughter who predicted the coming of +Christianity and then was baptised by St. Patrick. She became a nun +and later an abbess who founded the Abbey at Kildare. The Christian +Brigit was said to have had the power to appoint the bishops of her +area, a strange role for an abbess, made stranger by her requirement +that her bishops also be practicing goldsmiths. + Actually, the Goddess Brigit had always kept a shrine at Kildare, +Ireland, with a perpetual flame tended by nineteen virgin priestesses +called Daughters of the Flame. No male was ever allowed to come near +it; nor did those women ever consort with men. Even their food and +other supplies were brought to them by women of the nearby village. +When Catholicism took over in Ireland, the shrine became a convent +and the priestesses became nuns but the same traditions were held +and the eternal flame was kept burning. Their tradition was that +each day a different priestess/nun was in charge of the sacred fire +and on the 20th day of each cycle, teh fire was miraculously tended +2983 + +by Brigit Herself. There into the 18th century, the ancient song +was sung to her : "Brigit, excellant woman, sudden flame, may the +bright fiery sun take us to the lasting kingdom." + For over a thousand years, the sacred flame was tended by nuns, +and no one knows how long before that it had been tended by the +priestesses. In 1220 CE, a Bishop became angered by the no-males +policy of the Abbey of St. Brigit of Kildare. He insisted that nuns +were subordinate to priests and therefore must open their abbey +and submit themselves to inspection by a priest. When they refused +and asked for another Abbess or other female official to perform +any inspections, the Bishop was incensed. He admonished them to +obediance and then decreed that teh keeping of the eternal flame +was a Pagan custom and 6rdered the sacred flame to be extinguished. +Even then, She remained the most poular Irish saint along with +Patrick. In the 1960's, under Vatican II modernization, it was +declared that there was insufficient proof of Brigit's sanctity +or even of her historical existance, and so teh Church's gradual +pogrom against Brigit was successful at last and She was thus +decanonized. It is very difficult to obtain images or even holy +cards of ST. Brigit outside of Ireland anymore. + Her festival is held on Febuary 1st or 2nd. It corresponds to +the ancient Celtic fire festival of Imbolc or Oimelc which +celebrated the birthing and freshening of sheep and goats (it really +is a Feast of Milk). This festival was Christianized as Candlemas +or Lady Day and Her Feast day, La Feill Bhride, was attended by +tremendous local celebration and elaborate rituals. Her festival +is also called Brigit. Brigit (the Goddess and the Festival) +represents the stirring of life again after the dead months of the +winter, and her special blessings are called forth at this time. +Since She was booted out of teh Church for being Pagan, it is +incumbant upon us Pagans to restore Her worship to its former glory +especially those of us of Celtic ancestory. Here is an ancient rite +to invite Brigit into your home at the time of her Holiday: + Clean your hearth thoroughly in teh morning and lay a fire +without kindling it, then make yourself a "Bed for Brigid" and +place it near the hearth. The bed can be a small basket with covers +and tiny pillow added as plain or fancy as you like. If you have no +hearth, you can use the stove and put the bed behind it. Then at +sundown light a candle rubbed with rosemary oil and invite Brigit +into your home and into er bed; use the candle to kindle your +hearthfire if possible. Make your own poem to invite Her or use +the ancient song mentioned earlier. Let the candle burn at least +all night in a safe place. You might even want to begin the custom +of keeping the eternal flame; it is a popular custom in some +magickal and Wiccan traditions. AFter all, it's up to us now to +keep the spirit of Brigit alive and well for the next thousand +years at least!!! + +Brigid is not really a Celtic Mother Goddess. She is generally +considered a Goddess of fire/smithcraft, of poetry and of healing. One +of her roles is as midwife, but although she has a son, she is not +usually seen as a mother. + +I don't know any books that deal specifically with Brighidh, but please +look for a book called "Celtic Mythology" by Proinsias MacCana and for +"Gods and Heroes of the Celts" by Marie Lousie Sjoestadt for more +information about Celtic deities. They are both VERY good sources. + +2984 + +Brighidh is a Goddess of healing, smithcraft and poetry, brewer of mead +and ale, a lawgiver, a midwife, supposedly daughter of the Daghda, +mother of the poet Cairbre, and of the Gods Brian, Iuchar and Iucharba. +She was transformed into a Christian Saint and became the foster mother +of Christ. Some sources say that the healer/smith/poet were embodied in +one Goddess, other sources claim that she was three sisters, all named +Brighidh. + +Her holy day falls (on our calendar) on February 2nd (I wonder if She +likes groundhogs...) called Imbolc, Oimelc or Lady Day. Candles are +blessed that day in the Catholic churches. + +By: Ido +To: Teakan +Re: Somethnig about Brighid: + +Brigit/Brigid/Bride was the daughter of Dagda. She was the proctector of the +poets, the forge and the healing persons. Her son Ruadan, which she had with +Bres, was killed by Goibnui. For her died son she sounds the first kenning of +Eireland. She also was put into the cult and the person of Brigit from +Kildare, which made the first female parish after Christianity falls into +Eireland. The convent of Kildare has had a neverending fire, which was +protected by the sisters of the parish. The saint Brigit is the second patron +saint of Eireland. within the scottish tradition Brigit belongs together +with the time of the year "Season of the lambs" and the comming of spring. +Brigit overcomes the control of the Cailleach Bheur. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +2985 + + THE FINER POINTS OF RITUAL: + A Comparative Approach to + Liturgical History, Theology and Design + ======================================= + A Heartland Pagan Festival Keynote Address + by Mike Nichols + + +Participants: Morning Glory Zell + Otter Zell + Rhiannon Bennett + Carolyn Clark + Eldoreth Grey Squirrel + Anahita + Morwen + Chris + Dix + other audience members not identified + + +[NOTE: This transcription was made from an audio tape dub of a +videorecording of the event. The microphone placement made some +of the comments from the audience unintelligible, and those +sections were omitted. In some cases, the comments were picked +up but it was impossible to identify the speaker. Because of the +lack of visual cues, it is also possible that some of the +speakers are incorrectly identified. To improve readability, +some very minor editing was done.] + + +Rhiannon: I'd like to introduce someone whom we are really proud +to have in our community. He has been involved in Witchcraft -- +in teaching free Witchcraft classes -- for over eighteen years +now. He is also a teacher of parapsychology at the University of +Missouri at Kansas City. He owns the Magick Lantern, which is +our occult bookstore here in town -- the ONLY occult bookstore we +actually have here in town. He's very instrumental in +introducing people to Wicca through his classes -- over 6,000 +people! Granted all of them didn't decide to stay with us, which +is fine. But think how many myths that helped shatter, and +helped to make us a valid religion in some people's eyes. And a +lot of times, that's what we need. Every time I say something +about a particular speaker, people say "Well, what has he +written? What has she written?" Books are really wonderful but, +as I'm sure you've read, there are some good books, and there are +some mediocre books, and there are some that are pure trash out +there. Just because they say they're a Pagan writer doesn't mean +a thing. Sort through and pick out the good stuff. People like +Mike help us go through and figure out what's real and what's not +real. And then help you decide, even out of what's real, what's +real for you. So I'm really proud to have him in our community, +and I'd like to welcome him. + +(APPLAUSE) + +Mike Nichols: I hope you don't mind if I do this sitting down. +I want to present it more like a workshop than a standard +lecture. First of all, I want to start out with a few thank +2986 + +you's. I just want to say a personal thank you to Rhiannon who +has acted as liaison between the Heartland Spiritual Alliance and +the Magick Lantern, which was sometimes a difficult and thankless +task, but she's done it well. When I saw her stand on the chair +in the hall last night and scream "TWO pieces of chicken! ONLY +two!", I thought I've never seen anyone look so much in their +element. (LAUGHTER) So thank you so much. And not only to +Rhiannon, but to the organizers of the Heartland Pagan Festival +all together. I think they've done a wonderful job. Let's give +them a hand. + +(APPLAUSE) + + What we're going to be doing in here is kind of an advanced +class on ritual design, what we sometimes like to call liturgics. +Before this is all over, we're going to be into such areas as +liturgical theology, liturgical history, and liturgical +aesthetics. For those of you who are local and who have taken my +class, or seen me do speeches at psychic fairs and such, you will +be happy to note that this is not recycled material. This is the +very first time I am presenting any of this material anywhere. +So I hope you enjoy it. + + I'm starting from the premise that most people here are +already fairly well advanced in Paganism and have gotten to the +point where they already know about ritual and realize why it's +there, why there is a need for it, and are beginning to ask +other questions about ritual. What does it take to make a "good" +ritual? What kind of elements do you need to have, what kind of +order, what kind of structure does a ritual have to have to work? +Are there certain things a ritual needs to work? How can you +tell if a ritual has worked? And questions like that start +happening only after you've been into it a little while. + + If you are new to this whole area, and really are not that +conversant with why ritual is used anyway, let me just gloss that +point by saying there are a couple of really good books that I +think give you a good understanding of that. One is "The Spiral +Dance" by Starhawk. Another is "Drawing Down the Moon" by Margot +Adler. I think either one of those would inform you as to why +Witches use ritual in the first place. + + The need for ritual is sometimes one of the most difficult +things for newcomers in this area to understand because quite +often, if they've been brought up in a religious tradition that +downplays ritual, for example, (and many Protestant religious +traditions say that ritual is only so much gobbledy-gook, etc., +that there's nothing to it), it's a real stumbling block for +people to understand why the ritual is there. I've noticed that +people with Roman Catholic backgrounds or a background in Judaism +seem to have a better grasp on what ritual is there for and what +it accomplishes. + + When we get into this kind of work, let me just say that +much of my talk here today is going to be highly speculative, +highly theoretical, and please do not take it as a final position +paper on anything. It is at best a preliminary report on work in +progress. We're going to do a lot of comparative liturgics as a +2987 + +way of understanding our own ritual development. + + When it comes to ritual or liturgy -- whichever word you +want to use, and I'm going to be using them interchangeably -- it +has always seemed to me that liturgical theology should be on the +cutting edge of theological concerns in Paganism. There are many +religious writers who believe that religions basically have three +dimensions -- any religion. First of all, it's theology: what +are it's beliefs? Secondly, it's social structure: how does this +religion impact on the world around it? And thirdly, it's +ritual: what do the people do to express their religious values? +It has always seemed to me that within Paganism in general, and +Witchcraft certainly in particular, it is the liturgical +dimension that is the most often in focus. + + Theology I think has been rather slow. It is developing, +Pagan theological concerns, but it's developing late. If you +read Starhawk and Adler and people like that, you're beginning to +see the beginnings of Pagan theology. + + As far as the social dimension, there was a time of course +when Paganism had a social dimension, when most people were +Pagan. But for the last couple of thousand years we have been a +minority religion -- a very small minority in some cases. And I +think because of that we don't yet have a very strong +sociological impact. But that too may be changing, through +festivals like this, when Pagans start gathering in big enough +numbers to start talking about such things as social change. For +example, at one of the workshops we had the other day, somebody +suggested that one of the things Pagans could do to increase +their visibility and positive image in the community is to take +on community projects like answering telephones for the local +public TV telethons. Yes, this is our local Coven on the phone +lines! (LAUGHTER) Or this is the local Coven who have all +decided to go down and do a park clean-up on a particular day. +When we get enough people doing stuff like that, then Witchcraft +will have its social dimension. + + In the meantime, the strongest dimension I think for most of +us is the ritual, is the liturgy. When you tell somebody you're +a Witch, the first thing they ask you is "What do you do?" -- not +"What do you believe?" or "What is your impact on society?" -- +but "What do you do?" They want to hear about your rituals. I +think that's exactly why Stewart Farrar titled his first book on +Witchcraft "What Witches Do". + + So we've got to start looking at what we do, in terms of +ritual and how ritual has developed. However, when it comes to +trying to study liturgy in modern Paganism, you are immediately +arrested by the fact that there is no coherent study of it. Yes, +there are books of rituals. Sure, you can buy a spellbook here, +a grimoire there. Marion Weinstein has published a Book of +Shadows. The last half of Doreen Valiente's book is a Book of +Shadows. Scott Cunningham's got books of spells, etc. But is +there any systematic study of all this stuff put together? No. +Not so far. + + I think the reason is because development has been so rapid. +2988 + +All of this stuff has come along so fast that people have not had +a chance to assess it and evaluate it, and ask significant +questions about it. Consequently, both the scholar and the lay +person really don't have very many places to go when it comes to +this. + + There are a few things though that you can say about +religious ritual. First of all, religious ritual is a human +experience, a very universal human experience. It is as real as +fear, and as important as love. It has a meaning of its own. It +is not some sort of aberration or distortion of reality. It is +an injection of new meaning into the reality around you. There +is hardly a culture in the world that has not developed its +religious rituals. And sometimes by looking at religious rituals +of other cultures, we can begin understanding our own better. +That's one of things I'm gonna try to do here. + + There's a strange continuity, a sameness when you start +looking at different rituals, that pervades all of them. We find +that rituals, for example, are transpersonal and transcultural. +People seem to experience the same types of things no matter +where you look all over the world. + + In looking at liturgical theology, I have been doing an +awful lot of work in terms of comparative study. Because the +only group of people who have systematically writing about +liturgical theology for any length of time are the Christians. +Does this have anything to say to us as Pagans? Perhaps it does. +Reason: I think most Pagans are by now well aware of the fact +that the Christians have borrowed a heck of a lot from the old +Pagan religions. For example, it's commonly known that the old +Pagan holidays served as models for Christian holidays, so that +the modern Christian liturgical calendar is to a great extent +based on older Pagan themes. And ironically, sometimes you can +look at what Christians have written about these to find out +still more about the Pagan themes that underlie it. + + A second area where this is true is what we call +hagiography, the study of saints. So many of the saints in the +rites of the Roman Catholic Church are in fact simply +Christianized forms of old Pagan gods and goddesses. So we read +about the legends of these saints, and we learn a little bit more +about the gods and goddesses underlying those legends. I think +Pagans generally realize both of these points. What Pagans do +not generally realize is that it is the same as far as liturgical +ceremonies go, too. When you get right down to it, Christianity +-- especially the way the Roman Catholic Church developed in the +early years of Christianity -- borrowed most of its liturgical +traditions from the Pagans. + + I mean, if you ever stopped and thought about it... For +example, within the Roman Catholic Church, there are certain +rituals known as "sacraments", right? Do you realize that is a +Pagan word? Sacrament comes from the Latin "sacramentum" and was +an oath given by a Roman soldier to his gods. It was a ritual +setting. We might be well advised once again to reclaim the word +sacrament and use it as our own. + +2889 + + According the Catholic Church, a sacrament is an "effective" +ritual, which means that it produces an objective effect. This +is not just a symbolic commemoration of something. This is +something that actually produces a change in reality. This +beginning to sound familiar? + + Other things which we have long considered primarily +Christian -- Again, I'm going to be drawing this almost +exclusively from the background of Roman Catholic liturgics, +which is one of the ones that is most developed. The High +Anglican would be another good source if you wanted to look into +this. The practice of "genuflection", of bowing on one knee, +originally a Pagan practice. The practice of kissing ritual +tools. If you were in a Catholic church, did you ever see a +priest pick up a Missal at Mass and kiss it, put it on the altar? +The same way a priestess will sometimes kiss her athame after +she's used it for an invocation? Yet another custom borrowed by +the Christians from the Pagans. So it seems real obvious to me +that we could look at the whole question of sacramental rites, +and ask what have the various Christian writers had to say about +them in terms of how they work, in order to find out what Pagans +probably also originally believed about rites and rituals. + + Although at a later time the Catholic Church would limit the +number of official sacraments to be only seven in number, at an +earlier time this was not true. Anything could be seen as a +sacrament. A blessing was a sacrament. A holiday, a sacred +object, all of these things could be considered sacramental in +what they did. As a matter of fact, the first use of the word +"sacrament" within a Christian context was not until 210 C.E. and +it was by the Church writer Tertulian. He was the first one to +use that word in a Christian context, and when he did so, +ironically, he accused the Greek mystery religions of having +stolen that word from the Christians. Obviously, it was +precisely the other way around. + + Although today the word sacrament refers primarily to only +seven ecclesial rituals within the Catholic Church, all of which +-- or at least six of which -- have parallels in Paganism, the +word "sacrament" is still used in comparative theology in a much +broader sense. Basically, it refers to any hidden reality, any +sign or symbol of a hidden reality that is mysterious and sacred. +I could be a person, a place, or a thing. Any of these things +could be considered sacramental. + + From the point of view of Pagan theology, by the way, with +its strong emphasis on the theological perspective called +"immanence", the in-dwelling quality of the divine force in all +of nature, for a Pagan practically anything can become a +sacrament. Every rock, every tree, everything is alive with +magical and sacred powers which a Pagan can get in touch with and +from there connect with the entire universe. That's what a +sacrament is. + + There have been, historically, at least two ways of viewing +rituals and sacraments. The first is the way as practiced by +social anthropologists. For example, one of the most famous of +these was proposed by Arnold van Gennep, who was the first to +2990 + +come up with the idea of rituals being, as he called them, "rites +of passage". He would point to something like a marriage rite, +and we can find rites like that in practically every society. +And he would say that the reason this ritual was important for +this society is that it marked a transition for one member of the +society from one social role to another. From the status of +being unmarried to the status of being married. In many +societies, kids when they hit the age of puberty go through a +rite of passage. This is an official recognition by the society +as a whole that this person, who was once considered a child, is +now considered an adult and has adult responsibilities. + + Van Gennep originally thought that practically all religious +rituals were rites of passage. Later social anthropologists have +pointed out there's at least one other major class or rituals. +And this is not a rite of passage but what we call a "rite of +celebration". Very distinct from a rite of passage. In a rite +of passage, we talk about a person's transition from one social +role to another. In a rite of celebration -- let's take for an +example a wedding anniversary -- nothing is changing here. We +are simply looking at something which has a permanent value and +belief structure, and we are celebrating it. We are focusing on +it. We are saying this is important to us. And we're going to +have this ritual to let everybody know how important it is to us. +A rite of passage is a rite of transition, but a rite of +celebration is a rite of intensification. It intensifies the +values and beliefs that are already present. + + That was one of two ways of classifying religious rituals. +The other is the psychological approach. And probably the best +writer in this field is Mircea Eliade. He called sacramental +rituals -- he had a wonderful phrase for it -- he called them +"doors to the sacred". Every sacramental ritual, he said, is an +invitation to a religious or sacred experience. An invitation, +which you may accept or not. You can either let yourself become +a part of a ritual or not. You can make up your mind to distance +yourself from it. But its basic design, the basic reason for a +sacramental ritual is to give you an invitation to have an +experience of the sacred. Which Eliade calls a "hierophany", an +experience of the sacred. + + Practically all of these experiences involve altered states +of perception, in terms of an altered sense of time and an +altered sense of space. And we all have these understandings. +For example, to most of us a tree is a tree. But what about the +tree that you had your treehouse in when you were a little kid? +That tree is special. There is no other tree like that tree +anywhere else in the world. It is sacred. A funeral home -- you +see them on every other street corner; they're just a building. +Except the funeral home that you attended your grandfather's +funeral in. You walk into that funeral home and space seems +different. It is charged with a meaning that normal space -- a +normal other funeral home -- does not have. + + Time is the same way; the sense of time can change. +Anniversaries, celebrations of New Year's, celebrations like that +take us back to a time that's kind of outside of time, if you +will. And once again, charges that time with a special meaning. +2991 + +Time may even seem to pass differently. I think for me the best +expression of this has always been in fairy tales. When somebody +goes into the next world, the world of faery, and experiences the +passage of time differently. + + So all of these -- what Mircea Eliade calls "hierophanies" +-- all of them have to do with altered states of perception, +which include both time and space. This is remarkably similar, +by the way, to Dion Fortune's famous definition of magick, the +"ability to alter consciousness at will". We're obviously +talking about the same kind of thing here. + + Most hierophanies, the great majority of them, are +individual. They are personal. Whether it's watching a sunset, +visiting a sacred place, walking up to Stonehenge and standing in +the center of it (and having the same feeling you had as you +stood in your last magic Circle), this is sacred space. This is +an individual and personal experience. But these religious +experiences can also be shared. It happens when we sing the +national anthem. It happens when we sing the old school song. +It happens when a group of us gets together to go see a dramatic +or theatrical presentation. In this case, we open ourselves +collectively to an experience of the sacred. Which again is what +a sacramental rite is all about. + + One other interesting thing about these experiences is that +it is almost universally experienced that the high charge of +meaning that is found in the rite is experienced as "discovered" +or "encountered". It sort of dawns upon you. "Oh wow! That's +what this is all about! Yeah, I get it now!" It's not something +that is artificially enforced on the ritual from the outside. It +should grow organically from the ritual. + + It's interesting to note that in Judeo-Christian tradition, +this sacredness is quite often found in history. In the +historical development of a God that interacts with a "chosen +people" throughout a period of history. Whereas in Pagan +theology, sacredness is most usually found not in history but in +nature. That every tree, every rock, everything is alive, that +you can get in touch with it, that it has a magical and sacred +essence and you can interact with that, and get in touch with the +Cosmos as a whole through that. + + It's interesting to note, too, that because of this the +Judeo-Christian tradition places a very strong emphasis on sacred +writings, or scripture. Whereas many of the old Pagan religions +-- taking the old Druid religion as a fine example -- made it +forbidden to write down sacred material. Druids teach it, bards +sing it, dancers dance it -- but you don't write it. They +realized it was too sacred for that. So we have these very +definite distinctions in terms of how we've approached these +sorts of things. + + Another way of looking at a ritual is this: Most of us are +familiar with the way a myth takes the values and beliefs of a +religion and embodies them in story form. A ritual takes the +values and beliefs of a religion and embodies them in actions. +That's why quite often a ritual is a myth enacted. Ritual drama, +2992 + +for example. + + As I said at the beginning, I think many Pagans are aware of +how Christians have borrowed from us in terms of calendar +customs, and how they've borrowed our gods to use as their +saints. But we've seldom examined how the Christian religion has +borrowed our sacred rites. They have. The Catholic Church now +recognizes seven official sacraments. And virtually all of them +-- or at least six of them -- have Pagan origins. + + First of all, the rite called "Baptism". That's the first +ecclesial ritual in the Roman Catholic Church. Or "Christening", +as it's sometimes called. It turns out once again that +practically every "primitive" culture has similar rites of +blessing of a child. In ancient, pre-Christian, Pagan Celtic +society, there was a similar rite. It had to do with sprinkling +a child with water, passing the child through the smoke of a +fire, passing it through a hole in a stone or else touching it to +the earth (getting in all the elements here), and quite often +passing the child around a circle, handing the baby around so +that each person in the circle gets to hold it for a short time. +If you want descriptions of this taken from people who seem to +remember these pre-Christian ceremonies, look at the work of +folklorist Alexander Carmichael in the six-volume set, the +"Carmina Gaedelica". Some of these rites had been Christianized, +of course, even at the time Carmichael was taking them down. But +a lot of their Pagan origins are still very clear. + + In Pagan Celtic society, by the way, this rite was called a +"seining". Which I would like to propose as a much better term +for this kind of rite in Paganism than the more recently coined +word "Wiccaning". I oppose that terminology for two reasons. +One, it's obviously a word that was coined recently to be a +counterpart to the term "Christening". So the word itself is not +historically attested. Secondly, think of what it implies! When +you "Christen" a child, you are introducing it into the body of +Christ, the Church. You are making it a Christian. I don't +think that any Witch thinks that "Wiccaning" a child is making +that child a Witch! I've never heard any Pagan put it that way. +At the very most, you are blessing the child, asking the gods' +protection for this child "so that no harm comes to the child, or +to anyone else through the child" (as it is commonly expressed) +until such a time as that child is able to choose its own +religion. We do not attempt to make that choice for the child. +It is simply a rite of blessing and protection. Strangely +enough, that is exactly what the word "seining" means. And +therefore I think it's much better than the alternative +"Wiccaning". + + The Christian religion also has a sacrament called the +"Eucharist". By the way, if ever anybody challenges you that the +Christian religion doesn't employ magic, take a look at what the +Catholic Church has to say about the sacrament of the Eucharist, +or what they call "the blessed sacrament" -- THE blessed +sacrament. The official term for what happens is +"transubstantiation" -- that the priest actually has the power to +turn common bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus! If +that isn't a magical act, I don't know what one is! Although the +2993 + +Church would be loath to use the word "magic" in this context. +But we certainly understand what it's all about. + + The idea of blessing food and drink, however, once again +seems to be one of those universal rites. When people sit down +to a shared dinner, a common meal, it is a rite of inclusion. +Even in the early Christian Church, you were not allowed to +partake in the Eucharistic meal unless you were already a member +of that church. So the fact that in the Wiccan tradition you +share "cakes and ale" would imply an inclusion in the membership +of that group. And of course, there are all the symbolic +associations of food as sustenance. + + We also have the sacrament of Confirmation in the Catholic +Church. Which always sounded strange to me when I was growing +up. You know, you're twelve years old now, and it's time for you +to be "confirmed". It's almost like up until then you were only +"tentative". (LAUGHTER) But now you're confirmed. What it +really meant, though, was the person was supposedly old enough by +now to make a free choice (cough) of which religion they wanted +to belong to. And the bishop -- You'll notice here, by the way, +that the proper minister for this rite is the bishop, not the +priest. Although it is possible for a bishop to delegate the +power to a priest. But the bishop comes and confirms you into +this religion. Again, we have so many rites from so many Pagan +systems that this seems to based on that are usually referred to +as "initiation" ceremonies, or rites of passage, rites of +adulthood. When finally the child is brought fully into the +religious and social (in most primitive societies, they are the +same) structure of the society and is now seen to be a full +adult. So any first degree initiation could serve as a model for +what the Catholic Church came to call Confirmation. + + Ordination. This is a right that ONLY a bishop can perform, +in the Catholic Church. Only a bishop can make a priest. You'll +notice that when we look at how initiation rites are +traditionally done in Wicca, any priest or priestess can make +another priest or priestess. And quite often, it looks like in +the oldest rites, it also involved a kind of "laying on of +hands". There was an imposition of hands that occurred in the +Catholic tradition, as well. And until that time, a novice +priest was actually told that it would be wrong or DANGEROUS for +him to perform some of the priestly functions unless he had been +made a priest! + + And there were all sorts of stories in the old days that +only a priest could touch the consecrated elements. Only a +priest's hands -- only consecrated hands -- could touch the +vessels that held the consecrated elements: the chalice, the +monstrance, the ciborium, and so forth. This almost implies to +me, though it's never quite stated in this way, but it almost +seems like there is some sort of real, tangible, psychic energy +that is present. + + I remember being regaled with stories when I was a little +kid going to a Catholic school where the nuns would tell these +wonderful stories about how some poor person was kneeling at the +altar rail waiting to receive Communion, and the priest comes +2994 + +along to administer Communion, and drops the Host. And the poor +person reaches out to try to catch it, and at the first touch of +this consecrated object, there is a tremendous flash of +lightning, and the person is now a little pile of ashes on the +altar carpet. (LAUGHTER) + + I don't think it's quite like that. But what it may be +saying is that some of these powers, even within magical +traditions or Pagan traditions, are tangible and do carry some +sort of psychic clout. I don't think lightning is going to flash +out of the sky and reduce you to cinders. But what we're saying +is a metaphor, really, that there may be some kind of psychic +backlash if you attempt to wield these magical energies before +your training has been finished, before you're ready to handle +them, before you understand what you're doing. In the same way +that a good psychotherapy session, if it uncovers too much +garbage from your subconscious, can throw you backward if you're +not ready to deal with the stuff that's dredged up. + + For those of you who believe there is some sort of validity +to the concept of "apostolic succession", the imposition of +hands, it also may imply that, when one priest or priestess makes +another priest or priestess, she is passing on a kind of MAGICAL +SHIELDING as well. A protection, so that you will be able to +handle these magical powers without any ill effect. For those of +you who believe that the initiation tradition is valid. Again, +if you want to see Pagan examples of that, look at some of the +work done by Alexander Carmichael. There is a rite called a +"shielding" where one person kneels, while a second person puts +one hand under their knees and the other hand over their head and +says "Everything that is between my two hands is protected and +seined by the Mother". The Goddess has control of everything in +this sphere. It's a passing on of this shielding, that until you +have, it might be dangerous for you to experiment with these +powers. IF you believe that's a valid idea. (We'll get into +questions of validity in just a minute.) + + The Christian tradition of marriage, of course... Well, in +every society that we know of, we have rituals that talk about +people getting together. However, ever since the Judeo-Christian +system has come along, we've been firmly locked into only one way +of viewing marriage -- a monogamous way of viewing marriage, for +one thing -- with very little latitude in terms of variability. +If you look at the Pagan idea of Handfasting, if you go back to +the Irish pre-Christian brehon laws, you will find that they talk +about at least ten different forms of what we today call +marriage. These forms include such things as marriage between +two people of the same gender, marriage of more than two people +(what today we would call a "group marriage"), marriages that +only last for a "year and a day" or some other specified time +(what today we might call a "trial marriage"), marriages that did +not demand sexual exclusivity (what today we would call "open +marriage"), "contract marriage", the woman keeping her own name, +pre-nuptial and post-nuptial property arrangements. (If you've +ever read about the great pillow-talk argument between Queen +Maeve and King Aillil about who had the most property, you know +what I'm talking about!) + +2995 + + You know, it's fascinating to think that all of the +so-called marriage innovations that occurred in the 1960's, that +we thought were so mind-bogglingly new... nope! They were all +there in the old Pagan form of this rite. They were *standard*, +until the Christian form of marriage with its single theme, its +monogamous monotheistic vision, it's vision of the one right and +only way to do something, came along and knocked the older one +aside. But again, the Pagan origins are obvious. + + The ecclesial sacrament called "Last Rites"... We have all +sorts of what we call "death blessings" in the Gaelic Pagan +traditions, to send the spirit on its way. For each person who +dies, there is one particular person assigned to be the leader of +these rites who from that time on is known as the dead person's +"soul friend". This is the one who will carry out the rituals, +remember them when Samhain comes around, set out the extra places +at the table, etc. We perhaps have less historical data on the +Last Rite theme than we have for certain other themes that we're +talking about here. But it is still there. And again a +reference to some of the early folklorists. + + The one modern Christian sacrament that I cannot really find +an exact parallel for in terms of a pre-Christian precursor in +Paganism is the sacrament the Roman Catholic Church calls +"Penance", or "Confession". Isn't that interesting? The whole +sacrament has to do with confessing your sins to a priest, who +then absolves you of the sins. It is a whole thing of guilt, and +release from guilt. Yes? + +Morning Glory: There were blood guilt rituals, because if you +caused an accidental or even on-purpose death, you had to pay a +wyrguild to the family. In the New World, the Aztecs had a thing +where if you caused the death of someone, you became a surrogate +for that person. So there were things like that. + +Mike Nichols: Okay, good point. I can think of an Irish example +of that, now that you mention it. The Chucullain legend is a +good example. Chucullain, who was originally Setanta, +accidentally on purpose kills this very ferocious dog, and walks +up to the gate-keeper and says, "I've killed your dog and I would +like to replace him." And the gate-keeper says "Fine, there go +some cats. Get busy." (LAUGHTER) I think that's where that +joke started. + +Morning Glory: Samhain was also a time -- and Walpurgisnacht, +especially Walpurgisnacht -- was a time when you took stuff from +that year and purged it in the fire. And you would have to then +go and get it straight with any other people inside the Circle +that you shared. + +Mike Nichols: I noticed that in a lot of the Pagan traditions, +the purging of one's "guilt" (and I think we're very misguided to +use the term "guilt" here)... + +Morning Glory: Responsibility. + +Mike Nichols: Responsibility, right -- is a matter of making +recompense to the person or persons who were wronged. It's not a +2996 + +matter of carrying around a guilt trip until somebody says "Okay, +if you'll go through this ritual, you will be absolved." + +(unidentified): A couple of things I've run into recently, one +was in a work of fiction. These three young girls rob this woman +who later turns out to be a Witch. It's on this psychic journey +where they have the bodies of these 12th century people. And one +ends up a peasant. And he couldn't help but notice these weird +little Pagan things that kept cropping up that these people had +kept for centuries. And one of the things was that on the first +day of Spring, the village priest preached a sermon that "dancing +leads to damnation". Apparently, on the first day of Spring, all +the peasants would go out and dance everything out. And that +would really help them out. It got rid of all the pains of the +Winter, someone had been murdered, and a baby had died of +starvation. + +Otter Zell: There was a common form that I can't identify +specifically, but it's a theme I've come across in a lot of +anthropological studies. But it's the basis of what we call, not +a "trial" really, but more like "mediation". If there's a +conflict between parties about something or if someone feels +they've been wronged by someone, then the parties would be +brought together within the community of people, and everybody +would have to tell their stories. Then they would ask them "What +do you think would be a fair settlement? What do you think would +be fair?" And this was just talked out in the context of the +community of people, until everything was worked out to +everyone's satisfaction. And we've used this ourselves in our +Circle under such situations, and it's been incredibly effective, +very powerful. + + And the ultimate, if this could not be worked out, there +were several ways of dealing with it. The heaviest one was +generally banishment, where the person would simply be sent away. +And the next heaviest one would probably be ostracism, where the +person would not be spoken to. He would be ignored, they'd +pretend he didn't exist for a period of time. Highly effective. +Of course, the more simple and basic ones would be working out +appropriate compensation that everyone would be satisfied with. +So there were these procedures, but it wasn't the same thing as +"guilt". The concept of "sin" and "guilt", and the idea that you +could go to a priest instead of the person you'd wronged, and +that the priest could absolve your soul of guilt. And we still +have that today, where you go to a trial, and the judge finds you +"guilty" and he fines you or sends you to jail, but the person +who's been fucked over is still fucked over. (LAUGHTER) + +Morning Glory: They don't get their money back that you stole. +It goes to the State, for some odd reason. + +Mike Nichols: Exactly. These are things that I think we all +ought to think about. What I'm trying to do in the first part of +this presentation is to focus your attention on how we might be +able to look at Christian liturgical rites to find information +about their predecessors as to how they might have been done in +Pagan societies. Because all of these things we've talked about, +the so-called "seven sacraments of the Catholic Church -- if you +2997 + +look for data that Jesus himself instituted these things, you +look practically in vain. Where in the world did the Church come +up with these things? + + A great example of this, by the way (and it's an example I +use in my class quite often) is this. For a long time, after I +decided that I was going to be Pagan, I quit going to the +Catholic Church because it didn't interest me. It might have +been a mistake. One year while I was at college, I was home for +Spring break (it was Easter) and my mother dragged me along to a +service that happens on the Saturday night right before Easter, +"Holy Saturday" -- which has to be one of the most liturgically +rich occasions of the Church calendar. (If you want to see it +even richer, take a look at the Orthodox traditions, the Greek +and Russian Orthodox. They *really* know liturgics.) At any +rate... + + I had forgotten how the Catholic Church blesses the holy +water that it's going to be using in the coming liturgical year. +But what happens, roughly, is this. The holy water font, which +is usually in the porch or vestibule of the church, is brought up +into the sanctuary and placed near the altar. And at one point +in this particular Mass, the priest walks over to this large +candle which is called the Pascal Candle. It is in place +throughout the Easter season. It has little herbs stuck in it +and so forth. He takes this candle out of its holder, walks over +to the holy water or Baptismal font (which looks, from my point +of view, remarkably like a large cauldron), and holds the candle +over the font, and starts doing *this* with it. (demonstrates by +plunging the vertical candle in and out of the holy water font) +(GASPS OF RECOGNITION AND LAUGHTER) + +(unidentified): You're kidding! + +Mike Nichols: I'm NOT kidding. And after having studied +Paganism, and I saw that, it was like I was seeing it for the +first time. And I looked to the right and to the left to see if +anybody else, you know, realized what was going on. I mean, I +thought "Aren't there any *Freudians* in the audience?!?!" +(LAUGHTER) There was not one flicker of recognition, not one +flutter of an eyelid! I could not believe it! + + And I knew there and then that obviously the Catholic Church +had not picked this up from Jesus. Where had the Catholic Church +learned to bless water? From us. And where had the Catholic +Church learned to do a lot of other stuff? From us. So, I think +it is richly rewarding for us to take a look at what they have +done in terms of liturgics. + +Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: "Pagans take back the rite!" (LAUGHTER) + +Mike Nichols: Exactly!! Exactly. I like that! That'll be the +title of my new book! (LAUGHTER) + +Morning Glory: There's another aspect of that, too, with the +Host, the idea of consuming the body of the God. Sacred +cannibalism was certainly a factor that this came from. The +eating of the pressed grains of Dammuzi or Tammuz, the Green Man, +2998 + +the vegetation god, and the eating of the body of the god, that's +definitely ours. Jesus was pretty much captured into the Tammuz +cycle, and much that we're working with is still in there. + +Mike Nichols: I absolutely agree. And you'll notice that in all +this discussion we've only covered the seven basic ecclesial +rites of the Church. We're not even talking yet about all the +little incidental things the Church calls "sacramentals", like +the blessing of holy objects, the consecration of a church altar, +the consecration of the church building. Where did the +blueprint, where did the pattern for a lot of these rites come +from? + +Morning Glory: Oh, on that note! The pattern of the church +building itself. The idea of having a temple where you did your +worshipping on the ground floor, and the basement is where you +bury your dead, that is a universal ancient custom. And it's the +same whether it's Chartres Cathedral or the so-called "palace of +Knosis", which is a necropolis, actually. + +Otter Zell: You know, another thing that appears to me to be a +sacrament is the concept of purification. And somewhere during +the course of what you're saying, I was reminded of a custom of +the purification of people who had returned from a war in ancient +Pagan cultures. They basically had to pass through the holy +women who, by making love with them, would purify and renew them +and "take the war out of them". There have been some articles on +this recently. + +Morning Glory: There is a great book out now called "The Woman +Who Slept with Men and Took the War Out of Them". It's by some +famous feminist that you've all heard of, and I can't remember +her name right now. + +Mike Nichols: Sounds good! Okay, let's move on into the area of +liturgical theology. What we've been talking about so far is +liturgical history, the development of liturgical rites, and how +I believe we must focus more attention on that historical +development. But now let's take a look at liturgical theology, +where we can start splitting theological hairs -- which is always +so much fun! + + There are so many questions that have plagued Pagans for a +long time, and I was *delighted* to find that some of these same +questions had plagued the Christians down through the years. And +it was fascinating to see what they had to say about it. Some of +the greatest minds of the Catholic Church from St. Augustan to +Thomas Aquinas, whatever other horrible things they may have done +along the way, had some fascinating things to say about these +issues. + + For example, why are some rituals done only once, like a +seining, whereas other rituals are repeated over and over again? +Take the Magic Circle itself, there doesn't seem to be any limit +on how many times you can do it. Let's look at one possible +answer. (But again, I'm gonna throw out more questions than +answers here.) But one possible answer is that certain rituals, +if properly done (whatever *that* means, and we'll get to that in +2999 + +a minute), have a *permanent* effect on the person who undergoes +them. A permanent effect, an "indelible mark" as the old +catechism says, that cannot be erased. + + Now, the question of how a ritual is to be done. How do you +know if a ritual has been done properly? For example, does a +ritual have an effect if there are no outwardly observable signs? +Any of you who have ever performed an initiation rite, I think +this has occurred to you. What happens if the initiation is all +done, and the person sits there saying "I don't feel any +different. Am I supposed to? Has anything happened to me?" And +you will occasionally find people who have been High Priests and +High Priestesses for quite a few years, who will perhaps talk +more freely about it than others, and among themselves they will +talk about whether an initiation "took". Did it "take"? Some of +them will say that after an initiation has been completed, the +rite was performed, the energies are set in motion, but it may +not "take" until after another month, and so forth. That it may +eventually take, but not right when the initiation was done. But +the energies are there. + + Would you believe the same questions have been wrestled with +by the Catholic Church? Especially in the early days of +Christianity when the rite of Baptism was an adult rite, and it +meant that the person was supposed to entirely change their +outward behavior, totally give up certain things, and start +believing certain things. What if a person went through a +Baptism, which is supposedly a magical rite-- In those days, +Baptism and Confirmation were virtually the same rite, and could +only be done once because it was supposed to be effective the +first time. Remember the whole question of the "heresy" of the +Re-Baptists was on this precise point. If a person was baptized, +that supposedly made them a Christian, which would supposedly end +their career of "sin", in the eyes of the Catholic Church. But +what if they went out and sinned again? What if they murdered +someone? Should they get re-baptized? + + The Catholic Church said no, they should not be re-baptized +because one Baptism is sufficient. The energies are already in +place, but it didn't "take". But only one per customer for the +rite itself. Now, it may be that the person was not "spiritually +disposed" to receive the energies generated by the sacramental +rite. There was some blockage, something stopping them from +being receptive. We don't know what this is. That is perhaps +one of the reasons the ritual of Penance developed the way it +did. Because what do you do with a person who has sinned and yet +wants to come back into the body of the Church? (By the way, +certain people like the Donatists thought once they've sinned, +they're *out*. We *don't* allow them back in.) + +(unidentified): My background was Fundamentalist, so I was +baptized in the river at about 12. And every time I would leave +and come back for a visit, all these people would want me to re- +dedicate myself, come up and be re-baptized. Now, is that just a +variation of the tradition? I'm trying to figure this out. + +Mike Nichols: Yes, it is a variation. When the Protestant +Reformation occurred, one of the things that was most held up to +3000 + +scrutiny, in fact, was the way the Catholic Church approached the +whole question of sacramental rites. One of the chief questions +(which we'll get to in a minute) is whether or not the +"worthiness" of the minister is an effective variable in the rite +itself. Does a priest in a state of sin-- What if a priest has +gone out and murdered somebody? He is in a state of mortal sin, +supposedly cut off from God and the Church. What if he then +baptizes somebody? Is that Baptism sacred? Is it valid? Or, as +a Pagan may put it, is the power in the person doing the ritual, +or is the power in the ritual? I think all of us have wondered +this, right? + + I'll be talking about what some of the various Church +Councils have ruled on matters of liturgical theology in a +minute. But in this particular instance, the Catholic Church +decided that the power was in the rite, in the ritual itself. It +didn't matter whether or not the person conducting the ritual was +in a state of grace or a state of sin. This is one of the things +that Martin Luther took exception to. He felt that the spiritual +"health", if you will, of the person performing the ceremony was +a variable in how effective the ceremony was. And I'll show you +in a minute why the Catholic position disagreed with that. + +Morning Glory: The thing about the Fundamentalist attitude about +Baptism, it's not a one per customer attitude. And a lot of that +has to do with the concept that's called "Baptism of the Holy +Ghost", which is an ecstatic experience that is repeatedly craved +and repeatedly done. It's like raising the power. So their +attitude about Baptism is not that this is a sacralizing agent as +much as it is an anointing for the purpose of raising power. + +Mike Nichols: Let me ask you a question based on that. If a +person undergoes a rite of Baptism and doesn't experience this +influx of whatever, Holy Spirit, then is it assumed that they +were not baptized? + +Morning Glory: Not by the Holy Ghost. If you don't speak in +tongues, then you didn't get the Holy Ghost. And that's the sign +of it. And they'll keep at it until you get it. + +Mike Nichols: Ah! Okay, very good. The reason this ran into +problems in the Catholic Church was because of the many priests +who were declared to be heretical, in the Albigensens movement, +the Cathari movement, etc. What happens if a priest, an +*excommunicant* priest, performs a Baptism? Is that Baptism +valid? + + The Catholic Church said yes, for a number of reasons. +First of all, they developed two concepts: validity as opposed to +legality. The sacrament, or the rite itself, was considered +VALID in that it produced the desired effect on the person. Even +if a person came from a heretical sect into the Church, they were +not re-baptized. The Baptism only needed to occur once. It left +an indelible mark on that person's spirit or soul. It didn't +have to be re-done, right? However, that Baptism was ILLEGAL +from the point of view of Canon Law. The Canon lawyers, the +people who codified the ritual structure of the Catholic Church, +would say that this was a VALID but ILLEGAL (or illicit) rite. diff --git a/religious documents/2police.txt b/religious documents/2police.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..64e25c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/2police.txt @@ -0,0 +1,470 @@ + + WHAT LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES + NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WITCHCRAFT + ============================= + +Below please find information on the modern religion of Witchcraft. After +being the victims of hundreds of years of 'bad press', Witches are beginning +to go public and to define themselves and their religion. + +We hope, by this endeavor, to counteract the tendency to associate psychotic +events or Satanic rites with the practices of our life-affirming beliefs. +Moreover, we acknowledge the need to establish positive interfaith dialogue +with members of other local religious communities. + +Although there are a number of Witchcraft Anti-Defamation Leagues throughout +the country, none are presently active in the Kansas City area. Thus, we at +the Magick Lantern have compiled this information to provide an overview of +Witchcraft, or Wicca, in its contemporary form. The Magick Lantern is a +bookstore founded in 1984 to serve the occult community of Kansas City. Its +owner, Mike Nichols, is an ordained minister of Wicca, with all the rights, +privileges and responsibilities of that office. + +We have included in this outline a brief statement on each of the following: + +* Definitions +* Frequently Asked Questions w/ Answers + +* Basic Philosophy +* Holidays +* General Practices +* Bibliography + +Of necessity, we have merely highlighted these aspects for you. We cannot +illustrate the entire panorama of our diverse religion, but we have tried to +convey a basic understanding of the Craft of Wicca. On request we can furnish +more detailed information or a representative authorized to speak on our +behalf. + +Blessed Be, + +Mike Nichols, +Proprietor +The MAGICK LANTERN +1715 Westport Road +Kansas City, MO 64111 +816/531-7265 + + + +DEFINITIONS +=========== + +OCCULT -- occluded or hidden, secret; the study of secret or hidden knowledge. +Secret societies include the Masons and Rosicrucians. + +EARTH RELIGION -- a religion whose main tenet is that the worshipper be in +harmony with the Earth and with all life. Such religions oppose the idea that +the world is a resource to be subdued and exploited. + +PAGAN -- a practitioner of an Earth Religion; from the Latin 'paganus', +meaning 'country dweller'. + +NEO-PAGANISM -- a modern Earth Religion which borrows and adapts from the best +of pre-Christian Pagan religions, sometimes with additions from contemporary +religious thinkers. + +WITCHCRAFT -- a magical Neo-Pagan religion with many diverse traditions +derived from various cultural sources (though mostly European) around which +Covens and solitary practitioners base their practices. Modern Witchcraft +traditions include: Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Dianic, Celtic, Traditionalist, +Faerie, NROOGD, Druidic and others. + +THE CRAFT -- another name for Witchcraft. + +COVEN -- a congregation of Witches, usually at least three but no more than 13 +members. + +WITCH -- one who worships the Goddess(es) and/or God(s) of Paganism, practices +magic, and considers her/himself to be a follower of the spiritual path of +Witchcraft. + +MAGIC -- the conscious use of psychic energy, accompanied by ritual, to +accomplish a goal; often spelled 'magick' to distinguish it from stage magic +(such as sleight-of-hand). + +SABBAT -- any one of the eight seasonal festivals equally spaced throughout +the year, celebrated by individuals and Covens of Witches. + +ESBAT -- any one of the 13 lunar festivals throughout the year, celebrated by +Witches at the times of the full moon. + +PENTAGRAM -- a five-pointed star, ancient symbol of good luck and protection. +Displayed with one point up, it is the most common emblem of Witchcraft. When +displayed inverted (two points up), it MAY represent negative magic (or +Satanism), but not necessarily; some traditions of Wicca (chiefly British) use +it as a POSITIVE symbol of advanced rank. + + + +FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS W/ ANSWERS +===================================== + +Q. What form does the practice of Witchcraft take? +A. The form and context vary from group to group and between each ritual, and +may run the gamut from elaborate ceremony to spontaneous ritual to simple +meditation. + +Q. How do you see the Goddess? +A. As the immanent life force; as Mother Nature; as the interconnectedness of +all life. + +Q. Do all Witches practice their religion the same way? +A. Yes and no. Wicca is a highly individualistic religion. Moreover, the +number of different sects within the Craft may give the impression that no two +groups practice the same way. Though practices may vary, most traditions have +many similarities, such as the working of magic and a respect for nature. +Most Witches find enough common ground for mutual supposrt and productive +networking throughout the Craft community. + +Q. Is Witchcraft a 'cult'? +A. No. Cults are groups that trade 'salvation' and a sense of belonging for +the ability to think for oneself. They indulge in 'extravagant homage or +adoration' (Webster's Dictionary) usually of an earthly leader of some sort. +This is the antithesis of the Witchcraft experience. Most Witches come to the +Craft through reading and communing with nature and later finding like-minded +people. Witches are extremely individualistic. + +Q. Do Witches have a bible? +A. No. A bible is supposedly the word of a deity revealed through a prophet. +Witchcraft is a Pagan folk-religion of personal experience. A Witch may keep +a 'Book of Shadows' which is more like an individual's workbook or journal -- +meaningful to the person who keeps it -- containing rituals, discoveries, +spells, poetry, herb lore, etc. Covens may keep a similar group book. + +Q. Do Witches cast spells? +A. Some do and some don't. A spell is a ritual formula, or series of steps, +to direct psychic energy to accomplish a desired end. Energy may be drawn +from the Earth, concentrated and sent out into the world. Since Witchcraft +teaches that whatever one sends out is returned threefold, Witches tend to be +very careful never to send out harmful energy. + +Q. Do Witches worship the devil? +A. No. The worship of Satan is the practice of profaning Christian symbolism, +and is thus a Christian heresy rather than a Pagan religion. The gods and +goddesses of the Witches are in no way connected to Satanic practices. Most +Witches do not even believe in Satan, let alone worship him. + +Q. Are Witches only women? +A. No, although women do seem to predominate in the Craft overall. In fact, +some traditions have only women practitioners, just as others have only men. +A male Witch is simply called a Witch, never a warlock. + +Q. How can someone find out more about Witchcraft? +A. Ours is not a missionary religion, and we never try to make converts. +However, for those who are interested, there are many excellent books, and +many Witches teach classes or facilitate discussion groups. In this way, +people may make contact with a like-minded Coven or form their own group. +There are also Witchcraft networks, periodicals, and national and regional +festivals through which a seeker can make contact with the larger Craft +community. + + + +BASIC PHILOSOPHY +================ + +Wicca, or Witchcraft, is an earth religion -- a re-linking with the life force +of nature, both on this planet and in the stars and space beyond. In city +apartments, in suburban backyards, and in country glades, groups of women and +men meet on the new and full moons and at festival times to raise energy and +put themselves in tune with these natural forces. They honor the old +goddesses and gods, including the Triple Goddess of the waxing, full, and +waning moon, and the Horned God of the sun and animal life, as visualizations +of immanent nature. + +Our religion is not a series of precepts or beliefs, but rather we believe +that we each have within ourselves the capacity to reach out and experience +the mystery -- that feeling of ineffable oneness with all life. Those who +wish to experience this transcendence must work, and create, and participate +in their individual religious lives. For this reason our congregations, +called covens, are small groups which give room for each individual to +contribute to the efforts of the group by self-knowledge and creative +experimentation within the agreed-upon group structure or tradition. + +There are many traditions or sects within the Craft. Different groups take +their inspiration from the pre-Christian religions of certain ethnic groups +(e.g. Celtic, Greek, Norse); in the liturgical works of some modern Witch poet +or scholar (e.g. Gerald Gardner, Z Budapest, Alex Sanders, Starhawk, Raymond +Buckland, Robert Graves); or by seeking within themselves for inspiration and +direction. Many feminists have turned to Wicca and the role of priestess for +healing and strength after the patriarchal oppression and lack of voice for +women in the major world religions. + +There are many paths to spiritual growth. Wicca is a participatory +revelation, a celebratory action leading to greater understanding of oneself +and the universe. We believe there is much to learn by studying our past, +through myth, through ritual drama, through poetry and song, through love and +through living in harmony with the Earth. + + + +HOLIDAYS +======== + +Despite competition from twentieth century 'life in the fast lane', the +awesome spectacle repeated in the patterns of the changing seasons still +touches our lives. During the ages when people worked more closely with +nature just to survive, the numinous power of this pattern had supreme +recognition. Rituals and festivals evolved to channel these transformations +for the good of the community toward a good sowing and harvest and boutiful +hunting. + +One result of this process is our image of the 'Wheel of the Year' with its +eight spokes -- the four major agricultural and pastoral festivals and the +four minor solar festivals commemorating seasonal solstices and equinoxes. In +common with many ancient people, most Witches consider the day as beginning at +sundown and ending at sundown on the following day. Hence a sabbat such as +November Eve runs through the day of November 1st. Solstice and Equinox dates +may vary by a few days depending on the year. + +October 31 -- November Eve -- Samhain +------------------------------------- + +Samhain means 'summer's end', for now nights lengthen, winter begins, and we +work with the positive aspects of the dark tides. In the increasing starlight +and moonlight, we hone our divinatory and psychic skills. Many Craft +traditions, and the ancient Celts, consider this New Year's Eve. It is the +one night when the veil that separates our world from the next is at its +thinnest, allowing the dead to return to the world of the living, to be +welcomed and feasted by their kin. The Christian religion adopted this theme +as 'All Saints Day' or 'All Hallows Day' (Nov. 1), celebrating the eve as 'All +Hallows Eve' or 'Halloween'. The alternative date of November 6 ('Martinmas' +or 'Old Hallows') is sometimes employed by Covens. + +December 21 -- Winter Solstice -- Yule +-------------------------------------- + +'Yule' means 'wheel', for now the wheel of the year has reached a turning +point, with the longest night of the year. This is the seedpoint of the solar +year, mid-winter, time of greatest darkness when we seek within ourselves to +comprehend our true nature. In virtually all Pagan religions, this is the +night the Great Mother Goddess gives birth to the baby Sun God, because from +this day forward, the days begin to lengthen, light is waxing. The Christian +religion adopted this theme as the birthday of Jesus, calling it 'Christmas'. +The alternative fixed calendar date of December 25th (called 'Old Yule' by +some Covens) occurs because, before various calendar changes, that was the +date of the solstice. + +January 31 -- February Eve -- Imbolc +------------------------------------ + +Actually, this holiday is most usually celebrated beginning at sundown on +February 1, continuing through the day of February 2. 'Imbolc' means 'in the +belly (of the Mother)' because that is where seeds are beginning to stir. It +is Spring. Another name for the holiday is 'Oimelc', meaning 'milk of ewes', +since it is lambing season. It was especially sacred to the Celtic Fire +Goddess, Brigit, patron of smithcraft, healing (midwifery), and poetry. A +Coven's High Priestess may wear a crown of lights (candles) to symbolize the +return of the Goddess to her Maiden aspect, just as the Sun God has reached +puberty. Weather lore associated with this sabbat is retained by the folk +holiday of 'Groundhog's Day'. The Christian religion adopted a number of +these themes, as follows. February 1 became 'St. Brigit's Day', and February +2 became 'Candlemas', the day to make and bless candles for the liturgical +year. The 'Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary' adapts the +Maiden Goddess theme. The alternative date of February 14 ( 'Old Candlemas', +Christianized as 'Valentine's Day') is employed by some Covens. + +March 21 -- Vernal Equinox -- Lady Day +-------------------------------------- + +As Spring reaches its midpoint, night and day stand in perfect balance, with +light on the increase. The young Sun God now celebrates a hierogamy (sacred +marriage) with the young Maiden Goddess, who conceives. In nine months, she +will again become the Great Mother. It is a time of great fertility, new +growth, and newborn animals. The next full moon (a time of increased births) +is called the 'Ostara' and is sacred to Eostre, Saxon lunar goddess of +fertility (from whence we get the word 'eostrogen'), whose two symbols were +the egg and the rabbit. The Christian religion adopted these emblems for +'Easter', celebrated the first Sunday after the first full moon after the +vernal equinox. The theme of the conception of the Goddess was adapted as the +'Feast of the Annunciation', occuring on the alternative fixed calendar date +of March 25 ('Old Lady Day'), the earlier date of the equinox. 'Lady Day' may +also refer to other goddesses (such as Venus and Aphrodite), many of whom has +festivals celebrated at this time. + +April 30 -- May Eve -- Beltaine +------------------------------- + +'Beltane' means 'fire of Bel', Belinos being one name for the Sun God, whose +coronation feast we now celebrate. As summer begins, weather becomes warmer, +and the plant world blossoms, an exuberant mood prevails. It is a time of +unabashed sexuality and promiscuity. + Young people spend the entire night in the woods 'a-maying', and dance +around the phallic Maypole the next morning. Older married couples may remove +their wedding rings (and the restrictions they imply) for this one night. May +morning is a magical time for 'wild' water (dew, flowing streams, and springs) +which is collected and used to bathe in for beauty, or to drink for health. +The Christian religion had only a poor substitute for the life-affirming +Maypole -- namely, the death-affirming cross. Hence, in the Christian +calendar, this was celebrated as 'Roodmas'. In Germany, it was the feast of +Saint Walpurga, or 'Walpurgisnacht'. An alternative date around May 5 (Old +Beltaine), when the sun reaches 15 degrees Taurus, is sometimes employed by +Covens. (Both 'Lady Day' and 'Ostara' are names incorrectly assigned to this +holiday by some modern traditions of Wicca.) + +June 21 -- Summer Solstice -- Litha +----------------------------------- + +Although the name 'Litha' is not well attested, it may come from Saxon +tradition -- the opposite of 'Yule'. On this longest day of the year, light +and life are abundant. At mid-summer, the Sun God has reached the moment of +his greatest strength. Seated on his greenwood throne, he is also lord of the +forests, and his face is seen in church architecture peering from countless +foliate masks. The Christian religion converted this day of Jack-in-the-Green +to the Feast of St. John the Baptist, often portraying him in rustic attire, +sometimes with horns and cloven feet (like the Greek god Pan)! Midsummer +Night's Eve is also special for adherents of the Faerie faith. The +alternative fixed calendar date of June 25 (Old Litha) is sometimes employed +by Covens. (The name 'Beltaine' is sometimes incorrectly assigned to this +holiday by some modern traditions of Wicca, even though 'Beltaine' is the +Gaelic word for 'May'.) + +July 31 -- August Eve -- Lughnassad +----------------------------------- + +'Lughnassad' means 'the funeral games of Lugh', referring to Lugh, the Irish +sun god. However, the funeral is not his own, but the funeral games he hosts +in honor of his foster-mother Tailte. For that reason, the traditional +Tailtean craft fairs and Tailtean marriages (which last for a year and a day) +are celebrated at this time. As autumn begins, the Sun God enters his old +age, but is not yet dead. It is also a celebration of the first harvest. The +Christian religion adopted this theme and called it 'Lammas', meaning 'loaf- +mass', a time when newly baked loaves of bread are placed on the altar. An +alternative date around August 5 (Old Lammas), when the sun reaches 15 degrees +Leo, is sometimes employed by Covens. + +September 21 -- Autumnal Equinox -- Harvest Home +------------------------------------------------ + +In many mythologies, this is the day the Sun God, the God of Light, is killed +by his rival and dark twin, the God of Darkness -- who was born at Midsummer, +reached puberty at Lammas, and lives a mirror-image life of the Sun God. From +this mid-Autumn day forward, darkness will be greater than light, just as +night becomes longer than day. So it is a festival of sacrifice, including +that of the Sun God in his aspect of Spirit of the Fields, John Barleycorn -- +for this is the final grain harvest. The Christian religion adopted it as +'Michaelmas', celebrated on the alternative date September 25, the old equinox +date (Old Harvest Home). (The Welsh word 'Mabon', meaning 'son', is used by +some Witches for the name of this holiday, although such usage is recent and +not attested historically.) + +GENERAL PRACTICES +================= + +The roots of the religion called Wicca, or Witchcraft, are very old, coming +down to us through a variety of channels worldwide. Although any general +statement about our practices will have exceptions, the following will attempt +to present a basic foundation for understanding. Some of the old practices +were lost when indigenous religions encountered militant Christianity and were +forced to go underground for survival. The ancient mystery religions were +lost when the practice of the rites were stopped and the old verbal traditions +were no longer available. Parents transmitted their traditions to their +children down through the centuries with parts being lost and new parts +created. These survivals, along with research into the old ways, provide a +rich foundation for modern practice. Other factors contributing to the +revival of the Craft are archeological and anthropological studies of the +religious practices of non-Christian cultures, the works of the Golden Dawn +and other metaphysical orders, and the liberalization of anti-Witchcraft laws. + + +Modern Witches hold rituals according to the turning of the seasons, the tides +of the moon, and personal needs. Most rituals are performed in a ritual space +marked by a circle. We do not build church buildings to create this ritual +space -- all of Earth is in touch with the Goddess and so any place may be +consecrated to use for a rite. + +Within this sacred circle, two main activities occur -- celebration and the +practice of magic. Celebration is most important at the major seasonal +holidays, called Sabbats. At these times the myths of that particular holiday +are enacted and dancing, singing, feasting, and revelry are all part of the +festivities. On these occasions we celebrate our oneness with Life. Magic is +more often performed at gatherings called Esbats, which coincide with the +phases of the moon. Types of magic practiced include psychic healing +sessions, the channeling of energy to achieve positive results, and work +toward the individual spiritual development of the coven members. Magic is an +art which requires adherence to certain principles. It requires a conscious +direction of will toward a desired end. + It is an attribute of magic that what you direct your will toward will +return to you three times. Therefore, Witches are careful to practice only +beneficial magic. + +When the celebration, teaching, or magical work is finished, the blessing of +the Goddess and God is called into food and drink which are shared by all. + The circle is opened and the space is no longer consecrated. + +To create the circle and the working of magic, we use tools to facilitate a +magical mood in which the psychic state necessary for this kind of work can be +achieved. The tools are part of a complete and self consistant symbolic +system which is agreed upon by the participants and provides them with a 'map' +for entry into unfamiliar psychic spaces. Such a system, like a map, is +arbitrary and not 'true' in an absolute sense; it is a guide to a state which +is ineffable and can be most clearly reached through poetry and 'starlight' +vision. + +A primary tool, which is owned by most Witches, is an athame or ritual knife. +The athame is charged with the energy of the owner and is used as a pointer to +define space (such as casting a sacred circle) and as a conductor of the +owner's will and energy. + +Other important tools are the symbols on the altar which denote the elements: +earth, air, fire, and water (some 'maps' include spirit). A pentacle (a +pentagram traced upon a disk, like a small dish) is often used to symbolize +earth and its properties -- stability, material wealth and practical affairs. +Alternatively, a small dish of salt or soil can be used to symbolize the earth +element. A ritual sword is usually used to symbolize air and its properties - +- communication, wisdom, and understanding. Alternatively, a thurible of +incense or a bell may be used to symbolize the air element. A candle or wand +is used to symbolize the element of fire and its properties -- will, +transmutation, and power. A chalice of water is used to symbolize the element +of water and its properties -- cleansing, regeneration, and emotion. In +traditions which include the symbol of spirit, an ankh, quartz crystal, or +some other object is used to symbolize spirit and its properties -- +perfection, balance, illumination and eternity. + +There are many other minor tools which are used for some specific purpose +within magical workings, but the tools described above cover the basic tools +used in the practice of the religion of Wicca. + +Since these tools are merely the conductors of personal energies, as copper is +a conductor for electrical energy, most covens provide some degree of training +in psychic development to strengthen each memeber's ability to participate in +the religious activities. Each individual decides what level of such training +is useful for them. We see psychic abilities as a natural human potential. +We are dedicated to developing this and all of our positive human potentials. +The energies raised by these practices and other religious activities are +directed toward healing ourselves and the Earth, and toward diverse magical +workings. + + + +SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY +===================== + +'Drawing Down the Moon' (revised ed.) by Margot Adler + +'Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft' by Raymond Buckland + +'What Witches Do (2nd ed.)', 'Eight Sabbats for Witches', 'The Witches' Way', +'The Witches' Goddess', all by Stewart (& Janet) Farrar + +'The Spiral Dance' by Starhawk + +'Witchcraft Today' and 'The Meaning of Witchcraft' both by Gerald Gardner + +'The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries (V. 1 & 2)' by Z. Budapest + +'ABC of Witchcraft', 'Natural Magic', and 'Witchcraft for Tomorrow' by Doreen +Valiente + +'The Truth About Witchcraft', a Llewellyn Educational Guide + + + +[NOTE: Much of the foregoing information was originally issued as a 'press +release' by Covenant of the Goddess. While whole portions were left basically +intact (aside from the correction of spelling errors), other sections +(especially the material on holidays) were substantially rewritten and +expanded by Mike Nichols, who assumes full responsibility for any inaccuracies +thus incurred.] + diff --git a/religious documents/3001-100.txt b/religious documents/3001-100.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..711d675 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/3001-100.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5714 @@ +3001 + +The priest had no legal right to perform that ceremony. + + By the way, in the Catholic Church, under certain special +conditions, anybody can baptize, including (are you ready for +this?) a non-Christian! In cases of emergency. + +Morning Glory: Oh, for Last Rites and stuff! + +Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: Interestingly enough, in the house I +grew up in, the crucifix opened up, and it had all the +paraphernalia in it for Last Rites. + +Mike Nichols: Which raises some interesting questions for +Pagans. You know, Whitley Streiber recently told that wonderful +story about how he was taken by this group of people to perform +some sort of "witchcraft" ceremony, and it turned out these +people were Fundamentalists in disguise who did something +horrible to a goat, sacrificed it or something, and went through +this whole thing... Let's say, for some reason, that some Fundie +took it upon herself to portray the role of a Pagan priestess and +took somebody through a Pagan initiation. Is it valid? What if +they copied the rites exactly out of whoever, Starhawk, Adler, +Farrar, Gardner, whoever? + +(unidentified): "Valid but illegal". (LAUGHTER) + +Mike Nichols: What if the person who undergoes the rite has a +wonderful experience? Let me suggest to you how the Catholic +Church responded to that. It is valid for the same reason that a +Baptism performed even by a non-Christian is valid because the +person who confers the effects of the rite is not the minister, +but God! So in this case, we could say it is the Goddess, or +Whoever, who bestows that feeling on the initiate of having been +initiated. And the minister's part was negligible. + + But that leads us into other problems, doesn't it? That's +saying that the rite itself, not the minister performing the +rite, is what gets it done. In the case of the Catholic Church, +this concept was legally defined by the Latin phrase "ex opere +operato", "by the work worked". In other words, it is the rite +itself, the power was in the ritual, not in the person who +performed the ritual. Yes, Otter? + +Otter Zell: Well, there's got to be criteria we're dealing with +here. I mean, the fact that the Church decides what makes it +valid, that seems to be beside the point. To me, the person who +has to decide is the person who experiences it. I mean, if you +say "Okay, Domine Domine, you're all Catholics now" and somebody +says "Not me!", then they're *not*... aren't they? (LAUGHTER) + +(unidentified): If it's the Middle Ages, they're *dead*. +(LAUGHTER) + +Otter Zell: They used to do that. The Church would come and +they would just march an entire village through the ford, you +know, and they would say "Now you're all Christians." And the +people would say, "Wait a minute! I'm not a Christian. I'm +going to continue worshipping Thor or Odin or whatever" (because +3002 + +it was mostly Scandinavian countries they did this to). How can +you say they're Christians anyway, in spite of the fact they +don't want to be? I mean, aren't we missing something here? + +Mike Nichols: I think you're right. And I think the whole focus +of this is to start people thinking on questions about validity, +and legality if it comes to that, in terms of Pagan rites. I am +not for a moment suggesting we follow the Christian precedent in +these matters. But they can indicate questions we need to think +about in terms of what *our* response to that, as Pagans, should +be. + + Here's another example. If the rite *itself* is +effective... I bet any of you have gone through this. You have +a student and you're teaching the student to do a ritual, right? +How to cast a Circle for the first time. (Where's the sun? +Okay...) Start in the North, start with your Sword, and say +"Okay, student, now *do this*! 'Oh thou Circle, be thou a +meeting place--' And you walk the thing out for them. You come +back around to where you were and you say "Okay, did you see +that? That's how you cast a Circle." And then you go "Wait a +minute! Did I just cast a Circle?" We've all thought about +that. Morning Glory? + +Morning Glory: Yes, but, yes, but when I have done this, or when +I do a demonstration at all, I don't put the power out. You can +even say the words, or you can walk it out, but you don't put the +astral fire down. You don't lay down the astral fire. Unless +you're showing someone how to lay the astral fire down, in which +case... + +Mike Nichols: You're doing it. (LAUGHTER) Well, the same +question arose in the Catholic Church, and the answer is +remarkably similar. It came up this way. If a priest was +teaching a novice priest how to say Mass, how to perform the +Eucharist, and he actually pronounces the words of consecration, +and unbeknownst to him there is a small crumb of bread on the +table in front of him, is that now a holy crumb? Because the +Catholic Church had by now decided, remember, that the power was +in the ritual itself rather than in the person. So if the ritual +is done correctly, the proper words are said (and we'll get into +that in a minute, too: What are the proper words? What are the +proper gestures?), that crumb now is "the body and blood of +Christ", isn't it? + + Again, this took a lot of quibbling, but before it was all +over the Catholic Church decided no, that crumb would NOT be the +body of Christ because of one little thing that was left out. +One thing that the minister does have to supply: +"intentionality". Intent! The person performing the rite has to +have the intent to be performing this sacred, magical rite. This +was also true, by the way, of that non-Christian who was +baptizing somebody. If the non-Christian was doing it as a joke, +it would not be considered valid. However, if a non-Christian +sincerely wanted to baptize somebody else as a Christian, and had +that intent, and did the rite with all of its elements properly, +that person was, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, baptized. +Otter? +3003 + +Otter Zell: Now, here's a question that concerns a lot of us +Pagans directly. A lot of us, when we were newborn babies and +unable to speak in our own best interests, were baptized. +(LAUGHTER) So, now, theoretically, once you're baptized, you're +a Christian. Well, uh... How do you deal with that? I know I'm +not a Christian. I sure don't feel like a Christian. + +Morning Glory: It's like getting a tattoo removed, or something. +(LAUGHTER) + +Otter Zell: Is there any way to get un-baptized? I mean, what +do you do about that? + +Dix: Even if you go through, as I did, a free-choice baptism, +when you weren't screaming and protesting, then later on you +decide that this is all bullshit, it doesn't exist, I don't +believe in this stuff any more. Now maybe you're still a +Christian in the eyes of the Church, but that doesn't matter any +difference, because I don't care about the Church. + +(unidentified): Right, I was just wondering, is there some way +the Church could recognize an way of un-baptizing yourself? + +(unidentified): There is. Sitting through their boring rituals. +(LAUGHTER) + +Otter Zell: But if you're not a Christian anymore,... I mean, +there has to be some way of dealing with that. + +(unidentified): Otter, in whose eyes are you not a Christian? +In your eyes or their eyes? And at what point do their eyes +start mattering to you? Whatever they consider has no bearing on +you. + +Otter Zell: It's not a matter so much of whose eyes. I'm just +kind of wondering, from the point of view of magical stuff, you +know, how one would interpret this. I mean, I know I'm not a +Christian and I'll certainly be happy to argue the case with any +of you that might wish to do so. But from a purely magical, +ritual perspective, if this magical ritual is done that has this +effect-- *Does* it have this effect? Do all these people who +were baptized, does that make them Christian? Or is it just +bullshit? + +Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: Look at it this way, Otter. They stole +almost everything from us anyway, so what difference does it +make? (LAUGHTER) + +Mike Nichols: (laughing) What you are doing, and what we're all +doing here, is beginning to develop questions about Pagan +liturgical theology. We are breaking new ground here, is what I +think. Well, I hope the word structure, if it has to be used at +all, is used very advisedly. I think Otter has already suggested +one possible Pagan response to this question, and that is that +the validity depends to some extent on the person upon whom the +rite is performed. That's one possibility. But what are all the +ramifications of this response, this theological stance? Okay, +there was somebody over here, yes? +3004 + +(unidentified): One point about what the Church was doing is +that they had no competition. People were not given a choice, +and the Church had the military to back them up. So that when +they said "This village is now Christian," they *knew* that that +village was not Christian. But they knew that, with no +information and no rituals allowed or anything, that the great- +grandkids would probably be Christian. Eventually they would be +assimilated into what they wanted, into the type of person they +wanted, because any radical would be killed. + +(unidentified): I think you could make an analogy between +becoming un-Christian and getting a divorce. When I got my +divorce, I didn't have a special ritual for that, but I needed +that, that sense of closure, that sense of separation in a ritual +form. And I think that could be developed very easily. And I +think that also could apply to becoming un-baptized. + +Mike Nichols: Good. This whole things raises a very important +question just from the psychological point of view for most +Pagans. Do we *need* an un-Christening rite? + +(unidentified): From my viewpoint, when I was getting baptized, +for some reason I swear to God I thought he was going to drown +me, and I came up halfway through the "Father, Son, and Holy +Ghost" which he snarled at me later for. So I sorta screwed up +mine whether I knew it or not. + +(unidentified): On the question of Baptism, in the Christian +church, in a metaphysical sense, Baptism is not all that's +required for salvation. It must still be worked out within the +Christian faith. If you do not work it out, then the Baptism is +a ritual that has not been fulfilled. It's the fulfillment that +makes you a Christian or not. + +Mike Nichols: That's exactly right. Good point. Ellen? + +Anahita: I have two things to say. One, +regarding my Baptism, I had the opposite experience. I mean, I +took swimming lessons, and they'd all prepared us, and I was +ready to go under and hold my breath and come out transformed. +And they did it so casually and so intellectually, it was like, +okay this is enough. And the tip of my nose didn't go under! +(laughing) My Achilles heel is the tip of my nose! So this is +where I got to be Pagan! (LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE) + + The other thing had to do with a Pagan ritual that we did +that might have some applications in this, where we just recently +formed a Circle from a Circle that had existed previously. And +we did a ritual to very gently and caringly disband the other +Circle in the best possible light and bring all the good things +in. I would hate to see a Pagan ritual that just cancelled +somebody's past, because however you come into Paganism is what +you were, in toto, including your Baptism. And what many of us +are mentioning, our religious experiences contribute to our +ability to relate to the Goddess as a Pagan, because that's who +you are. And if it was a fantastic Baptism, then so be it. I +mean, I've had screaming, crying, evangelical services, and +that's how I learned about spiritual ecstacy. +3005 + +Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: You know where they got that from. They +stole it from Voudoun, historically. + +Anahita: They stole it from every place. But it +was a real experience, you know, and that's your basis for +comparison. + +Mike Nichols: Let me comment on that point. One of the big +educational experiences I've had recently-- One of my dear +friends here in Kansas City is someone you've all seen here in +the last few days, Rhiannon, the one who stood on the chair-- +She's a High Priestess that I respect with all my heart and love +very much as a good friend, but we had never actually worked +together until relatively recently. And I was astounded at the +difference in our approach. She, coming from a very Protestant +background, encourages you at every point in the ritual to speak +from your heart, practically never do anything the same way +twice. You know, you go to the Watchtower and invoke it using +words that come into your head at that moment, etc. Me, with my +stolidly Roman Catholic background, doing the same rituals and +the same repetitive patterns almost mantra-like time after time +and expecting the same results. + + We'll get into, if we have time, the pros and cons of these +two approaches. Obviously, both of them valid approaches, right? +Both of them seem to work for each of us. Vastly different. And +obviously conditioned by our original religious upbringing. Yes? + +Morning Glory: I want to bring up this question of validity +again. If you were initiated by a particular Alexandrian couple +who shall remain nameless, as many friends of mine were, and this +Alexandrian couple have repudiated their Craft credentials and +have become born-again Christians, and they're going around on +the circuit with their story of "I was a Pagan"-- All of the +people that those people initiated-- It would be like the +priests who went out and killed someone and then-- + +Mike Nichols: Or perhaps a better analogy, like the schismatic +bishops who split away from the Church and continue to ordain new +priests. Are those valid priests? + +Morning Glory: Exactly. Yes. Well, that is an issue that we as +Pagans need to think about. + +Mike Nichols: You know, in all of this discussion, I am working +from the premise that we are at too early a stage to formulate +answers. But I think it's high time we started articulating the +questions. + +Anahita: Well, I can speak to that a little bit, +too. I just went to the 20th anniversary ritual for NROOD. And +I was amazed, because I had a lot of contact with them about 13 +years ago when they were a seven year old religion. And the +*changes* that they have gone through in 20 years, I'm here to +tell you, are just really amazing! I mean, they were light and +free and it's so wonderful! Now, it's like, a lot of dogma. It +*was* a wonderful ritual and a wonderful time was had by all. +But they had changed some things in a very valid way, something +3006 + +that didn't work and was probably better this way. But 13 years +ago, it was "Oh, those! Name it: Alexandrians, Gardnerians, +Orthodox Druids, whatever! You just have to have enough stars in +your hat to hang out with them." Well, now, guess what? You +have to have enough stars in your hat to hang out with NROOD! +(LAUGHTER) I mean, it's just really amazing. So, we can ask +questions till we're blue in the face, but the answers are gonna +be different in five years. + +Mike Nichols: I hope that somebody chronicles those changes as +they go. They're going to be fascinating. Let me throw out +another important question of liturgical theology. Is there a +way to *botch* a Pagan ritual so that it is non-valid or non- +effective, so that it doesn't work or *worse*, causes some kind +of magical boomerang effect that causes some sort of detriment? + + For example, what if you teach somebody how to invoke the +Watchtowers, and you only tell them about three of them? What's +gonna happen in the Circle when they only invoke three? Is +anything? Does it matter? Does anything matter? (LAUGHTER) I +mean, does it, are there certain things that have to be there? +Are there certain elements? + + From the perspective of the Catholic Church, for example, a +Baptism had to have certain specific components to be valid. A +certain set of materials had to be present: the water, the salt +to put on the baby's tongue, etc.; a certain set of words had to +be present; the minister who performed it had to be a valid +minister (which, in the case of Baptism, could be anyone), and so +forth. + + Let me give you a quick example. It's been quite a few +years ago, but in my own Coven we were training somebody who was +new as a priestess. She had actually been instructed correctly +in invoking all four of the Watchtowers but, as it happened, when +she took the four elements around, things were confused that +night. It was her first ritual. And, somehow, something got +left out. And a little bit later, during the Circle, we were +doing some divinatory work, with a Ouija board. And please! In +my tradition, we use a Ouija board for divinatory work. At any +rate, halfway through the ritual, there was some kind of +manifestation which at least a good portion of us saw. It looked +like a kind of cloudy, dark hand had reached over the planchette. +(I hate to be telling a bad Ouija board story because they're +maligned enough!) (LAUGHTER) + + But this kind of cloudy-looking hand reached in over the +Ouija board. And everybody sort of jumped back like they were +shocked. And I think most people there were thinking, "What the +heck is that?" But my first thought (again, maybe because of my +religious upbringing) was "How did that thing get into a +carefully warded Circle?" There should not *be* any extra energy +or entity in here that we didn't call ourselves, or want! And I +started going back over the procedure and realized that (in our +system, it is the incense that represents the element of Air) +this particular priestess had not taken the incense around the +Circle at the time of the consecration of the Circle. So, from a +purely legalistic point or whatever, the Circle had not been +3007 + +consecrated by the element Air. Which theoretically would allow +some sort of sylph or air-related entity to get through. You +know, it wasn't properly warded by all four elements. + + Can you screw up a rite? I mean, what things *have* to be +present in order for there to *be* a Circle? And what things can +be left out? What things can you change? What things can you +*not* change? Yes, Carolyn? + +Carolyn Clark: I have a story that relates to that. One day a +long, long time ago, when I was very, very new to the Craft, I +knew a girl named Michelle who liked to dabble in Ceremonial +Magick. And I knew a little bit about Ceremonial Magick. +(Famous words: "I knew a little bit about Ceremonial Magick.") +(LAUGHTER) So we did a Mars ritual. We did it on the right day, +Tuesday night. And it was a little bit out in the country +because Michelle was into cultivating certain controlled +substances. And, in the middle of the ritual, there were red +lights flashing in all the windows, and I thought "Oh, shit! +It's the fuzz!" So we hurried up and finished the ritual, +banished the Circle, looked out the window and... there weren't +any cops there. There was nobody there. + +Mike Nichols: I think a very *common* experience of this sort, +which most of us probably have experienced in the course of our +magical training at one time or another, is how it feels to be +psychically kicked in the head when power is not correctly +grounded. (EXCLAMATIONS OF AGREEMENT) Right? How many can +relate to that? Otter? + +Otter Zell: One that I've encountered a number of times in +rituals I've gone to over the years, in particular with a group I +prefer not to mention because Ellen has already done that +(LAUGHTER) is this sort of arbitrary choice of directions. +"Well, which way feels like East today?" And I've actually +attended these things where with great pomp and ceremony someone +will face the south and invoke the East. And then we'll maybe +turn to the west and invoke the South. You never know where +they're gonna go. + +Mike Nichols: There are actually instructions like that in some +popular book on the Craft. Is it the Farrars? It actually says +in it that it doesn't matter where the directions are as long as +everyone agrees upon them. + +Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: They call that "consensus reality". +(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE) + +Chris: It also raises the question of basic styles, and various +traditions. I've been in this situation where I was doing some +chakra work, and this person I was working with just didn't +understand the symbolism. And I was in pain for days. + +Mike Nichols: I think the best analogy here is "small child with +chemistry set". (LAUGHTER) + +Morning Glory: "Talking Wicca Blues", I think, is the final word +on that. (LAUGHTER) +3008 + +Mike Nichols: Yes, yes! Okay, but see, all of these questions +all bear on the same point: What is really necessary for that +ritual to be done effectively (and *safely*, in many cases)? +What things about a ritual can you change without hurting the +nature of that ritual? What things can't you change? Morwen? + +Morwen: I've seen a lot of recipe books and I've seen a lot of +possible recipes for the same dish. If you're going to be +attending a Circle where you invoke the four quarters, then you'd +better remember to do the correct things at each one, or you +could leave a gap. Just like if you're baking a cake, you'd +better remember the baking soda, and remember to butter the pan. +But if you're going to do a Circle where you're not going to do +the quarters, you could invoke the magic Circle without even +thinking about the four directions. Because you're invoking a +magic Circle based on a different structure. + +Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: There was a guy at Pagan Spirit +Gathering whose particular approach to Paganism was to get ideas +from the old Celtic traditions. And he says he can't find +anything that justifies the invocation of quarters, the quarter +points. He was convinced there was no such thing as quarter +points in the way the Celts practiced their religion. + +Mike Nichols: I might argue with that, based on their stone +circles and such. But on the other hand, I'd be willing to bet +that the way quarter points got into modern Wicca was through +ceremonial magick. I don't think there's any doubt about that. + +Morning Glory: But isn't it interesting that Native Americans +have the same thing in the Medicine Wheel? It may be that +there's a certain universality in the four quarter points. + +Otter Zell: It also connects with the natural world. We're all +trained in levels of metaphor and the magic Circle itself is a +metaphor for so many different cycles. It's a metaphor for any +cycle, and cycles can be broken up in different ways. But +certainly the four-quarter system works awfully well on a planet +that rotates around its axis, which gives you four directions. + +Mike Nichols: The basic question we're raising here is, can +somebody just create their own ritual system from scratch? Or +does it have to link up to the real world around us? + +Otter Zell: I've seen certain systems that are just made up out +of whole cloth, and they're presented as valid traditions by the +people who just make them up, and they're just somehow cuckoo. +They don't feel right. Remember, there was this anti-astrologer +guy running around, Owen Rachel, and he was anti-magic, and +anti-Pagan and everything else. So then he came out with this +book of weird astrology, called "Sky Triangles" or something like +that, or "Sky Diamonds". And it was supposed to be his +astrological system, and it was supposed to be more valid. And +he just made up this weird bullshit, and none of it made any +sense, and none of it worked. But he sold a lot of books. + +Anahita: But sometimes you can make up a system +and it *does* work. And I loved your answer, incidentally, Mike. +3009 + +I didn't have to ask my question because you answered it. The +way you were talking about it was, "In my tradition, it's +important to invoke the four quarters..." And I thought, "Aha! +But you can decide to have a Circle that doesn't use four +quarters." + +Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: And even when you think you're making +something up from scratch, you find out later that somebody else +thought of it already. I created a magical ritual based on the +"Silmarilion", which Mike and I actually performed. And it had +six quarter points. And I found out later on that some Native +Americans in Oregon and Washington have six. It was exactly the +same thing that I did. I had up and down in mine. I had never +heard of that before. + +Otter Zell: If you understand the concept of how the energy +works, of how the elements of the thing work... It's like, you +can make up a recipe yourself if you understand how to cook, if +you understand how to season, and so on. You can get to where +you're making this stuff up and it'll work. But if you don't +understand the patterns and the elements that well... + +Morning Glory: "Small child with chemistry set". + +Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: It gives a whole new meaning to "Magic +Chef". (LAUGHTER) + +Mike Nichols: Let me bring this back to something here... As +far as the final determination of the Catholic Church as to what +consists of a valid sacrament, they came up with these things. +And it might be interesting to at least note them, to see what we +would have to say about them from a Pagan perspective. But to be +a valid sacramental rite -- And again, this is magic in the views +of the Ca-- I mean, they don't call it magic, but a sacrament to +the Catholic Church is an "effective" ritual, meaning that it has +an actual objective effect. Magic, in other words. + + So, a rite had to have what was called the proper "matter" +and "form", first of all. "Matter" pertains to the materials +used, as well as the gestures used. The "form" had to do with +the words that were spoken. In magical contexts, you might think +of this as the incantation, that part of the spell which is +spoken. It had to be performed by the proper minister. Now, +this could vary depending on the particular rite. Only a bishop +could ordain a priest, but anyone could perform a Baptism, even +non-Christians. And finally, it had to have intentionality on +the part of the performing minister. So, in the view of the +Catholic Church, it is impossible to accidentally, or +inadvertently, perform a sacramental rite. That is not possible, +from the point of view of Canon law. + + Now, I'm not suggesting that Paganism take this same +approach. I'm just suggesting that we in the Pagan movement +think about it. Canon lawyers were then assigned the task of +codifying which things were needed for a particular rite. Think +of the way rites were elaborated. You know, a Baptismal rite, in +terms of Canon law, consisted of a very few things. Actually, it +didn't even include the salt. Just the pouring of the water, and +3010 + +the speaking of the words, "I baptize you in the name of the +Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." That was sufficient for +the rite. Now, if you've ever actually gone to a Church Baptism, +you know that it is elaborated endlessly. This thing can be +carried out for hours if the minister wants to. But the only +thing that's really *necessary*, the bare minimum requirements +for a valid right, are just those words, and those elements, +performed by the right minister, with proper intention. + + Interestingly enough, when the Catholic Church started doing +this, it led to a kind of minimalist approach in terms of +rituals. The priests had been taught that the power of the rite +was in the rite itself. It only needed to have A, B, and C in +order to be effective or valid. Therefore, they only did A, B, +and C. And it didn't matter what kind of state of grace the +minister was in. So they started rushing them through pretty +quickly. This is one of the main things that Martin Luther took +exception to, and it gave birth to the Protestant Reformation. +Because priests had been performing these ceremonies almost by +rote, with the bare minimum standards in terms of Canon law as to +what was required for an effective or valid sacrament. + +Morning Glory: There was a lot of issue about that, especially +in regard to marriage, whether a marriage was valid or legal. +And whether the children of that union were legitimate or +illegitimate depended upon how it was done, and whether there +were elements that were missing. If somebody didn't say, or +refused to say, "I do", for instance. Because lots and lots of +women were married against their will. It's like in "The +Princess Bride": "Did you say 'I do'?" "No, I didn't." "Well, +in that case, you weren't." (LAUGHTER) + +Dix: What you were saying about elaborating a ritual... That +brings up a question. When you are doing a rite, and you are +adding more stuff, can you detract from it? At what point do the +additions, the accretions that you keep adding on, where does it +begin to take away from the rite? + +Mike Nichols: I know that certainly it can diminish the +psychological dimension of a rite. I've seen so many examples +where, say, you're doing an initiation tonight. Now that means, +to me, the whole thing should focus on this person's initiation. +It is *their* night. But somebody else over here has another +spell they want to do, and somebody over here has something they +want to do, and by the time the whole thing is done, it's this +incredible mish-mash with no central focus whatsoever. To me, +very bad in terms of liturgical design. + +Morning Glory: It's aesthetically piss-poor. (LAUGHTER) + +Mike Nichols: Right. I meant to conclude this whole workshop +(or whatever the heck it is) with a section on liturgical design +or aesthetics, which we're just beginning to touch on. It's +obvious that we won't be able to get into that too much, but I +think it's good that we bring up at least some points about +aesthetics. Yes? + +(unidentified): Yeah, but what if you have the proper elements +3011 + +of the ritual, and you do things in the right order, and you +intend for it to be a magical ceremony, and it's just dead. No +one's excited, half the people can't remember their lines, or are +making them up on the spot without putting a lot of thought into +it. There's no spirit there. + +Morning Glory: Their hearts are pure, but their theater is +lousy. (LAUGHTER) + +Mike Nichols: Yes. Good intentions is not a valid excuse for +poor ritual. Absolutely. To me, well, I've often used a +communications model for rituals. To me, like language, rituals +have a certain grammar, a certain syntax that it needs to follow, +a certain order. For example, let's say you're doing a Circle +and it's a high holiday, so you're doing a typical holiday +celebration but, as a part of that, you're also doing an +initiation. When does the initiation come? Well, to me, it +seems obvious that the initiation should come during the early +part of the evening ceremonies so that, once that person is +initiated, they may now participate fully in the seasonal +celebration. Right? Rather that leaving them out for it, and +doing their initiation at the end. + + So, it seems to me that there is sort of a logic of rituals, +a grammar, a syntax, for doing ritual. Now, just because you +learn the rules of that grammar (and I suspect there are some +very definite rules that we could get into if I had the time), +but just because you know the rules of grammar doesn't make you a +great writer. + +Morning Glory: Persistence is nine-tenths of any art, not that +it helps to be nine-tenths of an artist. (LAUGHTER) There's +another part of this, which is the problem of the hodge-podge +ritual. When you have conflicting elements. When somebody wants +to do a ritual to heal the earth. And someone else wants to do a +ritual to get prosperity for their Aunt Sadie. And someone else +wants to do something to get a new house. And some things are +really quite conflicting. One group wants to do a ritual to heal +the earth, and so they want to put this mellow energy out. But +someone else says, "Yeah, but we wanna stop those bulldozers that +are coming in, so we wanna get this martial energy to zap their +transmissions and make them fall out on the road!" And so then +there's this conflict on how to approach things, and things can +get really out of hand. + +Carolyn Clark: Where we see that a lot is where somebody will +come to the Circle and say, "I really need to get in touch with +the Demetre part of me." Or, I really need to get in touch with +such-and-such god-form. And my response is, "Yes, you need to do +that. Then, do it. But not at this Circle." + +Morning Glory: It's like chocolate icecream and limburger +cheese. + +Mike Nichols: I find the same problem in combining elements from +different traditions. That's a problem for me. Now, +theologically, I might agree that all the names of the Goddess +are merely different aspects of the same Goddess. Fine. But I +3012 + +still have a problem thinking, how is the goddess Demetre going +to get along with the goddess Arianrhod or Cerridwen? (LAUGHTER) +They're very different forms, and to me, well, another analogy I +sometimes use is, let's say you're in a new home and you want one +room of this home to be a library. You know you want certain +things to be in that library, to make it a library. You're gonna +want shelves for the books. You're gonna want the books. You're +gonna want a comfy chair to sit in and read. You're gonna want a +reading lamp near it. You're gonna want a library table, +perhaps, or a writing desk. And so forth. + + But let's say you go out and you buy early American +bookshelves. You buy an Edwardian writing desk. You buy +Victorian chairs. You buy modern chrome and glass lighting +fixtures. What you have is a library, granted, because all of +the elements are there. But nothing fits aesthetically. It's +like a ritual smorgasbord. To me, the elements have to fit +together aesthetically in order to work right. + +(unidentified): I've tried to walk a fine line between Feminist +and Traditional Wicca, because I like both. But how does this +work for a solitary, or a person who has little access to a +Coven? I've had a very hard time designing my own rituals. I +found a little books that tells the elements on what goes in a +ritual, and I try to follow that. Even though I may take a +little bit from Doreen Valiente, because I like the way she says +this one thing. But then the Farrars have a lot. And then I'll +stick in a little Starhawk. But the thing is, they're all geared +more to Covens. Now, does that make it invalid for a solitary? + +Mike Nichols: I would-- Please! Don't start asking me what's +valid! (LAUGHTER) See, there's a danger in even discussing this +because there's always a danger of falling into that trap. + +(unidentified): Is there a way to get in touch with other +Solitaries? + +Morning Glory: There is a Solitary convention. + +Chris: Single rooms everywhere! (LAUGHTER) + +Mike Nichols: Scott Cunningham has a book coming out geared to +Solitary Craft work. Let me answer the first part of your +question first. I think it is possible to be eclectic and yet to +avoid eclecticism within one particular ritual. Do tonight's +ritual as a Celtic ritual, and next month's ritual as an Egyptian +ritual if you want to, but don't mix Celtic and Egyptian in the +same ritual. That's at least my point of view, my bias. I'm not +saying that's some sort of dogma or rule about liturgics. It's +my aesthetic, and I think aesthetics are important to ritual. + +Carolyn Clark: When you're working on certain things, when +you're doing a very tight ritual-- For instance, if I'm doing a +ritual to get in touch with that part of the Mother and that part +of me which fructifies and causes creativity to flower, then I +would probably call on all the Goddess names, all the aspects of +the Goddess from all cultures, that do that one thing. + +3013 + +Mike Nichols: Yes, I understand that completely. As a matter of +fact, one of the forms I most love that I learned from the Roman +Catholic tradition is that called a litany, a reading of a long +list of petitions or names of Goddesses and Gods. And that is so +effective in a Pagan ritual, especially if its done as a +responsorial. That can build power like you just wouldn't +believe! I use that quite a lot in my own rites. + + Let me jump to another subject which was raised earlier: the +tension which exists between those things which are spontaneous +in a ritual, where you just think up something to say on the spur +of the moment, as the spirit moves you, as it were; or those +people who follow rites that are very patterned, very +repetitious, very rhythmic, if you will. Now, I was certainly +brought up in that school of thought. And one thing that I've +read recently, which I found to be a fascinating argument in +favor of that tradition -- not invalidating the other, but in +support of the repetitious tradition -- is that recent studies of +the left hemisphere / right hemisphere brain split have shown +something very interesting. + + Language, as you know, is a very linear system. And +typically, that is a left hemisphere brain function. Anytime you +are composing a sentence -- what I'm doing up here right now -- +is very left hemisphere. Whenever someone is confronted with +making up the invocation at each Watchtower, they are virtually +working entirely left hemisphere. Whenever you are working with +language, I was originally taught, you are working with left +hemisphere. + + There is an interesting exception. Those things that are +words that are commonly repetitious. When you sing a Christmas +carol year after year after year, to the point you don't even +have to think about the words as you sing it, your right brain +hemisphere is operating just about on a par with the left, +according to studies. + +Carolyn Clark: I do that with chanting. While my left brain is +occupied with that, my right brain is free to do all kinds of +other things. + +Mike Nichols: Right! It's sort of like a mantra. You know, for +people from Protestant backgrounds, it sometimes comes off like, +well, those Catholics just say their prayers by rote. +"HailMaryfullofgracetheLordiswiththee." They can toss those off +in no time at all. There's no power in it, there's no feeling in +it, there's no spirit in it. The other point of view, however, +is that the actual words themselves sort of take a back seat to +the meaning, which is superimposed on top of those. And I can +tell you from doing rituals in my life in the highly repetitive +way, I feel like you, that it has freed my mind to go to perhaps +deeper levels than if I had to do it differently every time. + + And by the way, notice how that's true in group rituals, +too. If the High Priestess -- and I see a lot of this today -- +she will not do the same ritual twice! And consequently, the +entire Coven is sort of sitting back watching the High Priestess, +saying, "Okay, what's she gonna do *this* time?" Never allowing +3014 + +them to really get into the ritual in a psychological way. When +you're already familiar with something, like that Christmas +carol, it enables everybody to participate fully, because they +know what's going to happen, they know what to expect. They're +not looking for changes in the script. + + Another thing that's interesting about that kind of +repetitive work is that, when you do throw in a change, for a +particular seasonal variation or something, it stands out. It +stands out in contrast to the way you've always done it before. +At a Handfasting, when you invoke the blessing of the Lord and +Lady, instead of "onto ALL who stand before Thee", you say "onto +TWO who stand before Thee", the changing of the words immediately +focuses on the couple becoming handfasted. You hear that change; +it registers. + +Anahita: But isn't that same thing true for an +aesthetic, well-worded, channelled experience, that a Priestess +may have? + +Mike Nichols: Yeah, but it sorta does put everyone else in the +position of spectator. It becomes a spectator sport nine times +out of ten. Or else, you are actively, consciously, left- +hemispherically being involved in the production of this dramatic +play. You're not getting to relax and simply experience the +*known*, and the comfortable. And that's what I think we need to +have more of. + + By the way, whenever you have repetition, you also have +rhythm. And this brings in a whole different dimension. The +drumming, the chanting, and everything else that goes with +repetition. I think good ritual pacing has a rhythm of its own. + + Something else that we totally ignore these days in +liturgical design is the use of silence, which can be VERY +powerful. You know how something happens which is really +meaningful and everyone's wowed by it, and somebody else just +goes right into the next thing. Doesn't let you have the chance +to absorb that at all. I'm not talking about that kind of deadly +silence where nothing is happening and no one knows what to do. +No. I'm talking about those quiet moments that really empower +what you've just experienced. Yes, Eldoreth? + +Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: Well, as someone else who was "lowered" +Catholic (as opposed to "raised" Catholic), there is a problem +when you have something that is repetitious. Unless the person +really wants to be empowered by this, what their mind is most +likely to do is to think about anything BUT the ritual. At least +as a child, I found this true. "Okay, time to daydream. It's +the same old thing again." + +Mike Nichols: I think a great deal of the blame there has to do +with the fact that as children, you were indoctrinated into this +before the time you were ready to think about it. You didn't +understand the rite. Nobody had explained it to you. You were +simply going through the motions. To me, that's not magic, +that's superstition. When you just go through the motions. It's +just mumbo-jumbo. +3015 + + I don't want to run overtime, and we already are a minute or +two. Let me just conclude by saying that what I feel we've been +doing here is ground-breaking work. I was *delighted* to have a +group of people already so involved and so experienced, to have +made such wonderful contributions. I'd like to welcome you all +as being, I think, some of the first Pagan liturgical theologians +around. (LAUGHTER) And I hope you'll continue working on it. +Thank you! (APPLAUSE) + +Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: Mike, I have an alternate title for your +book. + +Mike Nichols: What's that? + +Eldoreth Grey Squirrel: "The Rite Stuff." (LAUGHTER AND GROANS +OF APPRECIATION) +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +3016 + + Editorial: Web of Wyrd number 10 + Julia Phillips + +During the Middle Ages, a great many men and women were put to death on +charges of heresy. Nearly all of them were innocent of any crime; nearly +all of them were guilty of no more than being a scapegoat for someone +else's accusations and projected fears. + +Fortunately, today we have grown beyond such barbaric inhumanity - or +have we? As a race, have we truly evolved, or is humanity still groping +around in a mire of discontent, seeking for victims on which to project +its fears and failures? If we consider the way in which the medieval +witch was hunted, accused and held up to public condemnation, and then +compare this process with the way in which modern society deals with its +victims, then I would say that the human race has not evolved in the +slightest. + +Consider: often for no reason other than he or she offended someone, a +man or woman living in medieval Europe could be taken as a heretic, and +with evidence (sic) being no more than hearsay, tried and found guilty +of charges of which they were mostly entirely innocent. Their accusers +were not interested in truth, but in judgement; and justice certainly +had no role in their scenario. To absolve themselves of any blame in +this autocratic process, the accusers made sure that public opinion was +swayed against the victim. How? By publishing details of the "crime"- +(sic), which were then distributed to as wide an audience as possible. + +Students of English Literature will know of the enormous influence which +the humble pamphlet cast on the population - which, despite high +illiteracy, had sufficient numbers able to read aloud to a gathering in +a town square. We all know how quickly rumour and innuendo spreads - any +grapevine in any social group is proof positive of just how quickly +information can passed along; and sadly, we all know that there need be +no shred of truth in that information for it to be spoken about, +considered, and accepted as fact. + +The medium of the pamphlet proved to be so efficient and effective that +it developed, and in time became the newspaper, newsletter, and +ultimately, the magazine. In all cases, the emphasis is upon the +distribution of information to as large a number of people as possible. +In all cases, those reading (or hearing) the information have a +predilection to believe what they read to be the truth. Modern print is +often no more truthful than that of a 16th century pamphlet, which might +describe how a witch succumbed to the charms of the Devil, flew to the +Sabbat riding on a goat, where she devoured unbaptised infants, and took +part in many lewd and disgusting practices. Unfortunately though, having +"read about it in the paper/magazine/leaflet..." most people assume that +they are reading the truth, and are often willing to believe the worst. + +There are numerous examples of this process at work in modern society: +in some countries, information is manipulated deliberately by politic- +ians and journalists. In other countries - and I would include all of +western civilisation in this - the manipulation is as pervasive, but +less obvious. As the saying goes: "you can believe nothing you read in +the papers but the date, and they sometimes get that wrong". + +Unfortunately though, people do believe what they read in the papers, +see on television, and hear on radio, just as our ancestors believed +3017 + +that the woman led screaming to her death was a concubine of the Devil, +a devourer of babies, and that she copulated regularly with her cat, or +other animals. We are quick to condemn the Christian Fundamentalist for +spreading lies and propaganda, but what about the lies and propaganda +spread by Pagans and occultists? It offends my intellect to read of +claims by self-professed witches of traditions handed down since time +immemorial, or of secret arcane traditions known only to an elect few, +but it offends my sensibility that these people, claiming to be +following a spiritual path, have such contempt for Truth. + +We are no less human or fallible than our non-Pagan neighbour, but we +are engaged in a continual search for Truth: both within and without. We +are not perfect, but we do seek for our highest ideal, and we do strive +ever towards it, no matter what our particular path. Therefore to me it +seems a particularly unpleasant kind of action for a writer knowingly to +misrepresent his or her background and/or experience, simply to acquire +some spurious prestige. + +The editor of a Pagan/occult newsletter or magazine has an even greater +responsibility, for rarely is the publication subject to professional +editorial control, and yet it is generally fairly widely distributed, +and its readers tend to believe what they see. As an example, we can +look at the sad death of Scott Cunningham; within hours of his death +being announced, the rumours that he died of AIDS were widespread. The +fact that his family and his closest friends have stated any number of +times that he died of meningitis is neither here nor there: to a great +many people around the world, Scott Cunningham will have died of AIDS. +Why? Because it was reported in Pagan magazines, and they can't be wrong +- can they? + +Not only can they be downright wrong, they can also be inaccurate or +misleading - sometimes deliberately so. I have seen newsletters recently +where a matter best dealt with quietly, between those concerned, has +been fought in the public arena using very much the same means as the +medieval inquisitor. Defamatory and highly emotional printed leaflets, +with scant attention to the truth, have been published and circulated +throughout the Pagan/occult communities in the USA, Britain and +Australia during the last year. Highly respected writers in Britain +have recently been subjected to threats, with accusations and counter- +accusations filling countless pages in pamphlets, newsletters, and +magazines. + +What, you might wonder, has this to do with a personal quest for Truth? +Very little, in my opinion, hence my remarks above that the human race +appears to have made no progress at all in its essential characteristics +in hundreds of years. The only difference is that today, we have far +more efficient means of spreading the information to greater numbers of +people. + +I have seen too many attempts at character assassination over the last +year or so to believe that it is an isolated incidence, perpetrated only +by one or two people. It has happened in Britain; in Australia; in the +USA. The modus operandi has been identical in every case: an untruthful +statement has been made about one or more individuals, sometimes +supported by evidence (sic) of a spurious nature; the accusations have +been published in print, or electronic media, and distributed to a wide +audience. Even where the statement is so absurd, that no-one knowing the +accused would believe it for a moment, those who do not know the accused +3018 + +are left wondering. This kind of trial by media is sick, and those who +perpetuate it - usually self-professed "Pagans" - are, quite frankly, +despicable. + +If we, as a community, are to come of age, then we must rid ourselves of +these contemptible troublemakers. We can't stop them publishing their +pamphlets, or typing out their lies, but we can ignore them, and stop +giving credence to their venomous pens. As with the victims of the +Middle Ages, the victims within our own community are being used as +scapegoats for someone else's fears and guilt; the only way to fight +this particular plague is to ignore it. Deprived of an attentive +audience, the pamphlet bandits will soon give up and go away. +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +3019 + + PR Flyer + By Raven + +This may answer some of the questions being asked about Wicca on +PODSNet. If you print it up nice, it may also help in answering +questions OFF PODSNet. + +Mind you, it is only ONE possible rendition; opinions are GUARANTEED to +vary. + +About three years ago, I did a little PR flyer to hand out when Wiccans +were doing public events (for instance, Beltane Maypole dancing in the +local park) and curious passersby would ask just what the heck was going +on. If you like the idea, use it -- and feel free to adapt it as +needed, for your own group. + +Written 1991 by Raven. NO COPYRIGHT. This is placed into the public +domain. +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + What You Wanted to Know about Witches * + + * (but were afraid to ask) + +Q. Do you worship the Devil (Satan)? + +A. No, for three reasons. + + First, we don't venerate evil in any form: our chosen religion is + a celebration and affirmation of life and living things, as opposed + to their destruction or harm. As we believe that good or evil done + will return upon the doer, this does not encourage doing evil. + + Second, Satan is a figure in Judeo-Christian beliefs -- originally + not even an opponent of Yahweh, but more like his prosecuting + attorney (as in the Book of Job). Those who do worship Satan + actually accept the later Christian theology, with Satan as + Yahweh's opponent, but choose to support Satan's side of the + battle. We are not Christians or Satanists, and do not accept + their theology or worldview, so we would no more worship Satan + than, for instance, Christians would worship the Aztec God + Quetzalcoatl; he simply has no place in our beliefs. (We prefer + the figure of Pan, who does have horns but is a much nicer fellow.) + + Third, we think history shows that, if you invest belief and + emotion in any idea or thought-form, you give it strength and power + in your own life -- it becomes more real TO YOU. We have no wish + to invite hostile entities into our lives and give them such power + over us, which is why we don't venerate any form we consider evil. + That's also why we're shocked to see how much energy some + Christians invest in Satan. + +Q. Then why do I hear those things about you? + +A. "Devil-worship", baby-killing, cannibalism and all that? These + are typical accusations made by one religion against another. + The Syrians accused the Jews of ritual murders long before Christ; + then the Romans accused the Christians (who at least claimed to be + eating someone's body and blood every week); then the Christians +3020 + + accused the Jews and Muslims and every other religion; today + different Christian denominations even accuse each other. Making + wild accusations not only sells newspapers, and books, and movies; + it helps drum up support for the Religion Of Your Choice. This is + a cynical use of hate, fear, and ignorance, but as long as it works, + it will be used. (And there will always be psychotics willing to + live up to the image -- then claim "the Devil made me do it.") + + +Q. If not Christian theology, what do you believe in? + +A. Life. We see the entire Universe, all matter and energy, as + bursting with life, loving its own living parts -- including us -- + and gathered in one eternal dance. We try to catch the tune and + dance to the beat. + + Sometimes we call the leading dancers Light and Dark, or Sun and + Moon, or the Lord and the Lady, Cernunnos and Ceridwen, Pan and + Diana, or by other names. These represent the duality in all + things -- male and female, yang and yin -- neither side of which + can be denied or ignored, even within ourselves. + + (We hope this helps us avoid the error that some worshippers of a + single deity have made, such as thinking that "since God is all + good and God is male, therefore anything female or feminine is + evil.") + + Our feeling about the Gods is that they are teachers, family + members, and fellow dancers: not some untouchable abstraction + infinitely distant, but an intimate part of our own lives. Our + feeling about other religions is that they, too, are part of the + universal dance: not enemies, but fellow strugglers seeking as we + do, to live and learn to keep time with the music. + + +Q. What is this ceremony you're doing? + +A. It depends on the moment. You may be watching a circle dance, or a +Maypole dance, or a feast of "cakes and ale", or just a group hug. +(We like to have fun.) Possibly, since you were handed this, you're +watching us "cast a circle". That's one of our basic religious +ceremonies. + +When we "cast a circle", we mark off a space as dedicated and protected +for our use, rather like Christians consecrating a church. (The +difference is, we don't need a building, and we let the space go back to +normal after we've used it.) Within this circle, we ask for the +protection of guardians -- call them the four elements of Air, Earth, +Fire, and Water, or the four archangels Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and +Uriel -- again, the names may vary. Then we invite the Lord and the +Lady to be with us for a time. We have a nice visit, a little snack of +cookies and wine (or fruit juice), and then everyone goes home. It's +very friendly. + +Along the way, sometimes we ask for help with our problems, such as +healing an injury or illness; if you believe in the power of prayer, +it's the same sort of thing -- but we try to put our own energies into +the task, rather than asking someone else to do all the work. +3021 + +Q. How will what you are doing affect me? + +A. If you're not participating, then probably no more than any other +religious service you watch from outside. If you're shocked by other +religions, you might choose to be shocked by ours. (Ours is just out +where you can see it, instead of hidden by walls.) Or you might choose +to accept our part of the universal dance as valid if different from +your own. You might even choose to participate -- and people of good +will are generally welcome among us. + +Even if you do participate, there's no reason to take any effect from +our services that you don't choose to accept. Since -- for our own +sakes -- we ask for nice things to happen, the biggest possible results +involve no danger. If we ask for more harmony in the world, and your +life becomes more harmonious, then you benefit from the same general +effect as if a church's prayer for world peace had worked. (After that, +if you don't like harmony, you could always work to make your own life +more discordant; whatever suits you.) + + +Q. Do all Witches practice the same way you do? + +A. There are about as many "denominations" of Witches as there are of +Christians, and since no-one is forced to keep One True Orthodox Way, +even a single group may do things differently from time to time. The +two mottoes that apply here are "If it works, use it" -- and "AN IT HARM +NONE, do as you will." + + +Q. How can I find out more about you? + +A. Ask one of us. We're easy to talk with. Or read some books. Good +books include Vivianne Crowley's WICCA: the Old Religion in the New Age, +Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon, Starhawk's The Spiral Dance, and +Raymond Buckland's Complete Guide to Witchcraft. + +There's also a lot of shocking nonsense and pulp fiction out there +-- notably in movies, paperback thrillers, and the sort of newspapers +sold at supermarket cash registers; we can only ask you to take anything +you find there with a skeptical pinch of salt. + + + + (This was written in May 1991 as a general information handout for + the use of the CUUPS group of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. + Please feel free to copy and adapt this for use by your own group.) + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +3022 + + The Coven + By: Julia Phillips + Wed 20 Apr 94 19:03 + +This article was written by me several years ago, but I thought it might +be of interest here, as it discusses several issues relevant to modern +Witches. Any thought or feedback most welcome! Please remember, that +although the historical stuff is pretty general, the other parts of the +article are my own ideas, and not necessarily applicable outside of my +own tradition :) + +Covens and Witches + +In 1662, Isobel Gowdie of Auldearne made four separate confessions of +being a Witch, and in the process, gave the word "Coven" to the world. +Although there is no other historical evidence for this word, it has +proven to be one of the most lasting facets of Witchcraft - ask anyone +today what Witches do, and the answer will almost certainly include the +fact that they meet in groups, called "Covens". + +So given that a number of modern Witches do, in fact, either run, or +belong to, a Coven - just what is its purpose in 20th (and 21st) century +Western Civilisation? Why has this word of such dubious historical +veracity survived over three hundred years? Is there a place in our +modern world for a social group which, as far as we know, occurred only +in 17th century Scotland? + +The very fact of its survival for over three hundred years argues that +there is a place for such a group. In my own case, I have been a member +of, and run, Covens of Witches for a number of years, and it is a social +model which fits extremely well within modern society. + +The structure of a coven varies, but generally has one or two leaders, +and a number of members of varying levels of experience. In a sense, the +modern Coven has replaced the tribal family, and its members often +fulfill familial roles, which are no longer available to them in the +family in which they were born. + +Some researchers have commented that many modern Witches come from a +background which was disrupted; i.e., did not provide a safe family +environment during their formative years. As I know a great many Witches +for whom this was not the case, I think this is only a partial reason, +and only for some people. + +Humanity itself seems to be inherently tribal; any common bond between +people will generally result in the creation cults or sub-cultures, +where those of a like-mind will bond together. They will evolve their +own social order (generally hierarchical), have their own common +language, and often are identifiable by their demeanour and appearance. + +Witches gather together in Covens for very much the same sorts of +reasons; we are apart from general society by virtue of our beliefs and +practices. Meeting with others who think and feel similarly to ourselves +gives us the opportunity to share ideas and skills, as well as being +able to practise our Craft. + +A modern Coven provides a family-style environment, where the "Elders" +can, by virtue of their experience, give encouragement, support, and +3023 + +advice to those seek to learn about Witchcraft. As with all families, +Covens have very unique and individual ways of approaching this. Just as +no two families are the same, neither are any two Covens. + +Some Covens are run by people with an academic bent, and as would be the +case in any family, this characterises the way in which their "children" +are brought up. Other groups are oriented towards a more simple +approach, and the oral traditions play an important role in the way in +which the Coven is structured. Some combine the these two approaches, +and the variations upon the basic themes are endless. + +For any "family" to exist harmoniously, everyone within the group must +feel a part of the group, and wish to learn and grow within that group +environment. With a path such as Witchcraft, with its emphasis upon +personal growth and development, it is likely that individuals who may +at one time have been happy within their family group, will change, and +wish to move away. This is a perfectly natural process, and the wise +coven leaders will send those people off with their love and blessing. +Trying to keep them would be like trying to keep your sons and daughters +tied to your apron strings forever! + +Ultimately, and despite the popularity of the word "coven", I do believe +that most Witches are solitary in nature, and will generally spend at +least part of their lives without being a member of, or running, a +coven. I think the inward exploration during these periods is vital to +self-development, just as we believe it is important to encourage +social-awareness in children. However, I also believe that at some stage +it is important to learn the practices of Witchcraft from another +person; to be an apprentice, if you will; because the act of passing +knowledge from one person to another cannot be replicated by books, +correspondence courses, or be self-taught. This may seem an almost +impossible task to some people, but as all the magical traditions teach: +when the student is ready, the teacher will appear! What's more, it's +true! + +B*B Julia +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +3024 + + The Public Contents of the Book of Shadows + +There is really no such thing as the text of the Book of Shadows, +because Gardner never bothered to word things the same way twice; +whenever he copied something, he simultaneously rewrote it. But this, +of course, is the way that an author treats his own original material; +it is not how anyone treats authoritative texts preserved from an +earlier generation. I have grouped the documents according to the dates +when they were written; these dates are accurate to within a year or so, +and the point to providing them, of course, is to emphasize that these +documents are modern creations, NOT anything preserved from ancient or +medieval tradition. Material or comments added to these documents later +on I have enclosed in square brackets [these things]. + +A.1. Casting the Circle (1949) + +It is most convenient to mark the circle with chalk, paint or otherwise, +to show where it is; but marks on the carpet may be utilized. Furniture +may be placed to indicate the bounds. The only circle that matters is +the one drawn before every ceremony with either a duly consecrated Magic +Sword or an Athame. The circle is usually nine feet in diameter, unless +made for some very special purpose. There are two outer circles, each +six inches apart, so the third circle has a diameter of eleven feet. + +[1] Having chosen a place proper, take the sickle or scimitar of Art or +a Witch's Athame, if thou mayest obtain it, and stick it into the +center, then take a cord, and 'twere well to use the Cable Tow for this, +and loop it over the Instrument, four and one half feet, and so trace +out the circumference of the circle, which must be traced either with +the Sword, or the knife with the black hilt, or it be of little avail, +but ever leave open a door towards the North. Make in all 3 circles, +one within the other , and write names of power between these. + +[2] First draw circle with Magic Sword or Athame. + +[3] Consecrate Salt and Water: Touch water with Athame, saying, "I +exorcise thee, O creature of Water, that thou cast out from Thee all the +impurities and uncleannesses of the Spirits of the World of Phantasm, so +they may harm me not, in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." + +[4] Touching Salt with Athame, say, "The Blessings of Aradia and +Cernunnos be upon this creature of Salt, and let all malignity and +hindrance be cast forth hencefrom, and let all good enter herein, for +without Thee man cannot live, wherefore I bless thee and invoke thee, +that thou mayest aid me." + +[5] Then put the Salt into the water. + +[6] Sprinkle with exorcised water. + +[7] Light candles; say, "I exorcise thee, O Creature of Fire, that every +kind of Phantasm may retire from thee, and be unable to harm or deceive +in any way, in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." + +[8] Caution initiate (if any); warn companions; enter circle and close +doors with 3 pentagrams. + +[9] Proclaim object of working +3025 + +[10] Circumambulate 3 times or more before commencing work. + +[11] Summon: "I summon, stir, and Call thee up, thou Mighty Ones of the +East, South, West, and North." Salute and draw pentacle with Magic +Sword or Athame, the first stroke being from the top down to the left. + +A.2. Drawing Down the Moon (1949) + +High Priestess stands in front of Altar, assumes Goddess position (arms +crossed). Magus, kneeling in front of her, draws pentacle on her body +with Phallus-headed Wand, invokes, "I Invoke and beseech Thee, O mighty +Mother of all life and fertility. By seed and root, by stem and bud, by +leaf and flower and fruit, by Life and Love, do I invoke Thee to descend +into the body of thy servant and High Priestess [name]." The Moon having +been drawn down, i.e., link established, Magus and other men give +Fivefold Kiss: + +(kissing feet) "Blessed be thy feet, that have brought thee in these +ways"; + +(kissing knees) "Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel at the sacred +altar"; + +(kissing womb) "Blessed be thy womb, without which we would not be"; + +(kissing breasts) "Blessed be thy breasts, formed in beauty and in +strength"; + +(kissing lips) "Blessed be thy lips, that shall speak the sacred names." + +Women all bow. + +If there be an initiation, then at this time the Magus and the High +Priestess in Goddess position (Arms Crossed) says the Charge while the +Initiate stands outside the circle. + +A.3. "Lift Up the Veil" + +[The Charge] (1949) Magus: "Listen to the words of the Great mother, who +of old was also called among men Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, +Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Diana, Arianrhod, Bride, and by many other names." + +High Priestess: "At mine Altars the youth of Lacedaemon in Sparta made +due sacrifice. Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month, +and better it be when the moon is full, ye shall assemble in some secret +place and adore the spirit of Me who am Queen of all Witcheries and +magics. There ye shall assemble, ye who are fain to learn all sorcery, +yet have not won its deepest secrets. To these will I teach things +that are yet unknown. And ye shall be free from slavery, and as a sign +that ye be really free, ye shall be naked in your rites, both men and +women, and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music, and love, all in my +praise. There is a Secret Door that I have made to establish the way to +taste even on earth the elixir of immortality. Say, `Let ecstasy be +mine, and joy on earth even to me, To Me,' For I am a gracious Goddess. +I give unimaginable joys on earth, certainty, not faith, while in life! +And upon death, peace unutterable, rest, and ecstasy, nor do I demand +aught in sacrifice." + +3026 + +Magus: "Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess." + +High Priestess: "I love you: I yearn for you: pale or purple, veiled or +voluptuous. I who am all pleasure, and purple and drunkenness of the +innermost senses, desire you. Put on the wings, arouse the coiled +splendor within you. Come unto me, for I am the flame that burns in the +heart of every man, and the core of every Star. Let it be your inmost +divine self who art lost in the constant rapture of infinite joy. Let +the rituals be rightly performed with joy and beauty. Remember that all +acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. So let there be beauty and +strength, leaping laughter, force and fire by within you. And if thou +sayest, `I have journeyed unto thee, and it availed me not,' rather +shalt thou say, `I called upon thee, and I waited patiently, and Lo, +thou wast with me from the beginning,' for they that ever desired me +shall ever attain me, even to the end of all desire. + +This much of the rites must ever be performed to prepare for any +initiation, whether of one degree or of all three. + +A.4. The Initiation (1949) + +[First Degree] + +Magus leaves circle by the doorway, goes to Postulant, and says, "Since +there is no other brother here, I must be thy sponsor, as well as +priest. I am about to give you a warning. If you are still of the same +mind, answer it with these words: `Perfect Love and Perfect Trust.'" +Placing the point of the sword to the Postulant's breast, he says, "O +thou who standeth on the threshold between the pleasant world of men and +the domains of the Dread Lords of the Outer Spaces, hast thou the +courage to make the Assay? For I tell thee verily, it were better to +rush on my weapon and perish miserably than to make the attempt with +fear in thy heart." Postulant: "I have two Passwords: Perfect Love and +Perfect Trust." Magus drops the sword point, saying, "All who approach +with perfect love and perfect trust are doubly welcome." Going around +behind her, he blindfolds her, then putting his left arm around her +waist and his right arm around her neck, he pulls her head back, says, +"I give you the 3rd password, a Kiss to pass through this dread Door," +and pushes her forward with his body, through the doorway and into the +circle. Once inside, he releases her saying, "This is the way all are +first brought into the circle." Magus closes the doorway by drawing the +point of the sword across it three times, joining all three circles, +saying, "Agla, Azoth, Adonai," then drawing three pentacles to seal it. +Magus guides Postulant to south of altar, and whispers, "Now there is +the Ordeal." Taking a short piece of cord from the altar, he ties it +around her right ankle, saying, "Feet neither bound nor free." Taking +a +longer cord, he ties her hands together behind her back, then pulls them +up, so that the arms form a triangle, and ties the cord around her neck, +leaving the end dangling down in front as a Cable Tow. With the Cable +Tow in his left hand and the sword in his right hand, the Magus leads +her sunwise around the circle to the east, where he salutes with the +sword and proclaims, "Take heed, O Lords of the Watchtowers of the East, +(name), properly prepared, will be made a Priestess and a Witch." Magus +leads her similarly to the south, west, and north, making the +proclamation at each quarter. Next, clasping Postulant around the waist +with his left arm, and holding the sword erect in his right hand, he +makes her circumambulate three times around the circle with a +3027 + +half-running, half-dancing step. He halts her at the south of the altar, +and strikes eleven knells on the bell. He then kneels at her feet, +saying, "In other religions the postulant kneels, as the Priests claim +supreme power, but in the Art Magical, we are taught to be humble, so we +kneel to welcome them and say: + +"Blessed be thy feet that have brought thee in these ways." (He kisses +her feet.) + +"Blessed be thy knees that shall kneel at the sacred altar." (He kisses +her knees.) + +"Blessed be thy womb, without which we would not be." (He kisses her +Organ of Generation.) + +"Blessed by thy breasts, formed in beauty and in strength." (He kisses +her breasts.) + +"Blessed be thy lips, which shall utter the sacred names." (He kisses +her lips.) + +Take measure thus: height, around forehead, across the heart, and across +the genitals. Magus says, "Be pleased to kneel," and helps her kneel +before the altar. He ties the end of the Cable Tow to a ring in the +altar, so that the postulant is bent sharply forward, with her head +almost touching the floor. He also ties her feet together with the +short cord. Magus strikes three knells on the bell and says, "Art ready +to swear that thou wilt always be true to the Art?" + +Witch: "I am." + +Magus strikes seven knells on the bell and says, "Before ye are sworn, +art willing to pass the ordeal and be purified?" + +Witch: "I am." + +Magus strikes eleven knells on the bell, takes the scourge from the +altar, and gives a series of three, seven, nine, and 21 strokes with the +scourge across the postulant's buttocks. Magus says, "Ye have bravely +passed the test. Art always ready to help, protect, and defend thy +Brothers and Sisters of the Art?" + +Witch: "I am." + +Magus: "Art armed?" + +Witch: "With a knife in my hair." + +Magus: "Then on that knife wilt thou swear absolute secrecy?" + +Witch: "I will." + +Magus: "Then say after me. `I, (name), in the presence of the Mighty +Ones, do of my own will and accord, most solemnly swear that I will ever +keep secret and never reveal the secrets of the Art, except it be to a +proper person, properly prepared, within a circle such as I am now in. +All this I swear by my hopes of a future life, mindful that my measure +has been taken, and may my weapons turn against me if I break this my +3028 + +solemn oath.'" + +Magus now unbinds her feet, unties the Cable Tow from the altar, removes +the blindfold, and helps her up to her feet. + +Magus says, "I hereby sign thee with the triple sign. + +"I consecrate thee with oil." (He anoints her with oil on the womb, the +right breast, the left breast, and the womb again.) + +"I consecrate thee with wine." (He anoints her with wine in the same +pattern.) + +"I consecrate thee with my lips" (he kisses her in the same pattern), +"Priestess and Witch." + +Magus now unbinds her hands and removes the last cord, saying, "Now I +Present to thee the Working Tools of a Witch. "First the Magic Sword. +With this, as with the Athame, thou canst form all Magic Circles, +dominate, subdue, and punish all rebellious Spirits and Demons, and even +persuade the Angels and Geniuses. With this in your hand you are the +ruler of the Circle. [Here "kiss" means that the initiate kisses the +tool, and the Magus then kisses the Witch being initiated.] + +"Next I present the Athame. This is the true Witch's weapon and has all +the powers of the Magic Sword [kiss]. + +"Next I present the White-Handled Knife. Its use is to form all +instruments used in the Art. It can only be properly used within a +Magic Circle [Kiss]. + +"Next I present the Wand. Its use is to call up and control certain +Angels and geniuses, to whom it would not be mete to use the Magic Sword +[Kiss]. + +"Next I present the pentacles. These are for the purpose of calling up +appropriate Spirits [Kiss]. + +"Next I present the Censer of Incense. This is used to encourage and +welcome Good Spirits and to banish Evil Spirits.[kiss] + +"Next I present the scourge. This is a sign of power and domination. It +is also to cause suffering and purification, for it is written, to learn +you must suffer and be purified. Art willing to suffer to learn?" + +Witch: "I am."[Kiss] + +Magus: "Next, and lastly I present the Cords. They are of use to bind +the sigils in the Art, the material basis, and to enforce thy will. Also +they are necessary in the oath. I Salute thee in the name of Aradia and +Cernunnos, Newly made Priestess and Witch." Magus strikes seven knells +on the bell and kisses Witch again, then circumambulates with her, +proclaiming to the four quarters, "Hear, ye Mighty Ones, (name) hath +been consecrated Priestess and Witch of the Gods." (Note, if ceremony +ends here, close circle with "I thank ye for attending, and I dismiss ye +to your pleasant abodes. Hail and farewell." If not, go to next +degree.) + +3029 + +[Second Degree] + +Magus binds Witch as before, but does not blindfold her, and +circumambulates with her, proclaims to the four quarters, "Hear, ye +Mighty Ones, (name), a duly consecrated Priestess and Witch, is now +properly prepared to be made a High Priestess and Witch Queen." Magus +now leads her thrice around the circle with the half-running, +half-dancing step, halts south of the altar, has the Witch kneel, and +ties her down to the altar as before. + +Magus: "To attain this sublime degree, it is necessary to suffer and be +purified. Art ready to suffer to Learn?" + +Priestess Witch: "I am." + +Magus: "I prepare thee to take the great oath." + +He strikes three knells on the bell, and again gives the series of +three, seven, nine, and 21 strokes with the scourge as before. + +Magus: "I now give thee a new name: _______. [kiss] + +Magus: "Repeat thy new name after me, I, (name), swear upon my +mother's womb and by mine Honor among men and among my brothers and +sisters of the Art, that I will never reveal to any at all any of the +secrets of the Art, except it be to a worthy person, properly prepared, +in the center of a Magic Circle, such as I am now in. This I swear by +my hopes of Salvation, my past lives, and my hopes of future ones to +come, and I devote myself to utter destruction if I break this my solemn +oath." + +Magus kneels, placing left hand under her knees and right hand on her +head, thus forming magic link. + +Magus: "I hereby will all my power into you." Wills. + +Magus now unties her feet, unties the Cable Tow from the altar, and +helps the Witch to her feet. + +Magus: "I hereby sign and consecrate you with the great Magic Sign. +Remember how it is formed and you will always recognize it. + +"I consecrate thee with oil." (He anoints her with oil on her womb, +right breast, left hip, right hip, left breast, and womb again, thus +tracing a point-down pentacle.) + +"I consecrate thee with wine." (He anoints her with wine in the same +pattern.) + +"I consecrate thee with my lips" (he kisses her in the same pattern), +"High Priestess and Witch Queen." + +Magus now unbinds Witch's hands and removes the cord, saying, "Newly +made High Priestess and Witch Queen" [kiss] "you will now use the +working tools in turn. + +First, the Magic Sword; with it you will scribe the Magic Circle [kiss] + +3030 + +"Secondly, the Athame" (Form Circle) [kiss] + +"Thirdly, the White Handled Knife" (use) [kiss] + +"Fourthly, the Wand" (Wave to 4 Quarters) [kiss] + +"Fifthly, the Pentacle" (Show to 4 Quarters) [kiss] + +"Sixthly, the Censer of Incense" (Circle, cense) [kiss] + +"Seventhly, the cords; bind me as I bound you." Witch binds Magus and +ties him to Altar. + +Magus: "Learn, in Witchcraft, thou must ever return triple. As I +scourged thee, so thou must scourge me, but triple. So where you +received 3, return 9; where you received 7, return 21; where you +received 9, return 27; where you received 21, return 63." Witch scourges +Magus as instructed, 120 strokes total. + +Magus: "Thou hast obeyed the Law. But mark well, when thou receivest +good, so equally art bound to return good threefold." + +Witch now unbinds Magus and helps him to his feet. Magus, taking the new +Initiate by the hand and holding the Athame in the other, passes once +round the Circle, proclaiming at the Four Quarters, "Hear, Ye Mighty +Ones, (name) hath been duly consecrated High Priestess and Witch Queen." +(Note, if ceremony ends here, close circle with "Hail and farewell." If +not go to next degree.) + +[Third Degree] + +Magus: "Ere we proceed with this sublime degree, I must beg +purification at thy hands." + +High Priestess binds Magus and ties him down to the altar. She +circumambulates three times, and scourges Magus with three, seven, nine, +and 21 strokes. She then unbinds him and helps him to his feet. Magus +now binds the High Priestess and ties her down to the altar. He +circumambulates, proclaiming to the four quarters, "Hear, ye mighty +Ones, the twice consecrate and Holy (name), High Priestess and Witch +Queen, is properly prepared and will now proceed to erect the Sacred +Altar." Magus scourges High Priestess with three, seven, nine, and 21 +strokes. Cakes and wine may now be taken [see section A.5]. + +Magus: "Now I must reveal to you a great Mystery." [kiss]. + +Note: if High Priestess has performed this rite before, omit these +words. High Priestess assumes Osiris position. + +Magus: "Assist me to erect the Ancient Altar, at which in days past all +worshipped, the Great Altar of all things. For in the old times a woman +was the Altar. Thus was the altar made and so placed [Priestess lies +down in such a way that her vagina is approximately at the center of the +circle], and the sacred place was the point within the center of the +circle, as we of old times have been taught, that the point within the +center is the origin of all things. Therefore should we adore it." +[kiss] + +3031 + +"Therefore, whom we adore, we also invoke, by the power of the lifted +lance." Invokes. "O circle of stars [kiss], whereof our Father is but +the younger brother [kiss], "Marvel beyond imagination, soul of infinite +space, before whom time is ashamed, the mind bewildered and +understanding dark, not unto thee may we attain unless thine image be of +love [kiss]. + +"Therefore, by seed and root, and stem and bud and leaf and flower and +fruit do we invoke thee, O, Queen of space, O dew of light, O continuous +one of the Heavens [kiss]. "Let it be ever thus, that men speak not of +Thee as one, but as none, and let them not speak of thee at all, since +thou art continuous, for thou art the point within the circle [kiss], +which we adore [kiss], the fount of life without which we would not be +[kiss]. "And in this way truly are erected the Holy Twin Pillars Boaz +and Jachin [kisses breasts]. In beauty and strength were they erected, +to the wonder and glory of all men." + +(Eightfold Kiss: 3 points, Lips, 2 Breasts and back to lips; 5 points) + +"O Secrets of secrets that art hidden in the being of all lives. Not +thee do we adore, for that which adoreth is also thou. Thou art that +and That am I [kiss]. + +"I am the flame that +burns in every man, and in the core of every star [kiss]. + +"I am Life and +the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the Knowledge of +Death [kiss]. + +"I am alone, the Lord within ourselves whose name is +Mystery of Mysteries [kiss]. + +"Make open the path of intelligence between us. For these truly are the +5 points of fellowship [on the right appears an illuminated diagram of +the point-up triangle above the pentacle, the symbol for the third +degree], feet to feet, knee to knee, groin to groin, breast to breast, +arms around back, lips to lips, by the Great and Holy Names Abracadabra, +Aradia, and Cernunnos. Magus and High + +Priestess: "Encourage our hearts, Let thy Light crystallize itself in +our blood, fulfilling us of Resurrection, for there is no part of us +that is not of the Gods." + +(Exchange Names.) + +Closing the Circle High Priestess Circumambulates, proclaiming, "The +twice consecrate High Priestess greets ye Mighty Ones, and dismisseth ye +to your pleasant abodes. Hail and Farewell." + +She draws the banishing pentacle at each quarter. + +A.5. Cakes and Wine (1949) + +Magus kneels, fills Cup, offers to Witch [she is seated on the altar, +holding her athame; Priest kneels before her, holding up the cup]. + +Witch, holding Athame between palms, places point in cup. +3032 + +Magus: "As the Athame is the Male, so the Cup is the female; so, +conjoined, they bring blessedness." + +Witch lays aside Athame, takes Cup in both hands, drinks and gives +drink. Magus Holds Paten to Witch, who blesses with Athame, then eats +and gives to Eat. It is said that in olden days ale or mead was often +used instead of wine. It is said that spirits or anything can be used so +long as it has life. + +A.6. The Sabbat Rituals (1949) + +November Eve Walk or slow dance, Magus leading High Priestess, both +carrying Phallic wand or broom, people with torches or candles. + +Witch chant or song: + + "Eko, eko, Azarak Eko, eko, Zomelak Bazabi lacha bachabe Lamac cahi + achababe Karrellyos Lamac lamac Bachalyas cabahagy sabalyos Baryolos + Lagoz atha cabyolas Samahac atha famolas Hurrahya!" + +Form circle. + +High Priestess assumes Goddess position. + +Magus gives her Fivefold Kiss and is scourged. + +All are purified [that is, bound and scourged with forty strokes, as in +the initiation rituals]. + +Magus assumes God position. + +High Priestess invokes with Athame: "Dread Lord of the shadows, god of +life and the giver of life. Yet is the knowledge of thee the knowledge +of death. Open wide, I pray thee, thy gates through which all must pass. +Let our dear ones who have gone before, return this night to make merry +with us. And when our time comes, as it must, O thou the comforter, the +consoler, the giver of peace and rest, we will enter thy realms gladly +and unafraid, for we know that when rested and refreshed among our dear +ones, w e shall be born again by thy grace and the grace of the Great +Mother. Let it be in the same place and the same time as our beloved +ones, and may we meet and know, and love them again. Descend, we pray +thee, upon thy servant and Priest (name)." + +High Priestess gives Fivefold Kiss to Magus. + +Initiations if any; all others are purified. + +(Note: Couples may purify each other if they will.) + +Cakes and Wine. + +The Great Rite if possible, either in token or truly. + +Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then +stay to] feast and dance. + +February Eve + +3033 + +After usual opening, all are doubly purified [that is, with eighty +strokes]. + +Dance round outside circle, High Priestess with sword girded on and +drawn, Phallic wand in left hand. + +Enter circle. + +Magus assumes God position. + +High Priestess gives Fivefold Kiss, invokes: "Dread Lord of death and +Resurrection, life and the giver of life, Lord within ourselves, whose +name is Mystery of Mysteries, encourage our hearts. Let the light +crystalize in our blood, fulfilling us of resurrection, for there is no +part of us that is not of the gods. Descend, we pray thee, upon this thy +servant and Priest (name)." + +All should be purified in sacrifice before him. He then purifies the +High Priestess with his own hands, and others if he will. + +Cakes and wine. + +Great Rite if possible, in token or real. + +Games and dance as the people will. + +Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then +stay to] feast and dance. + +May Eve + +If possible ride poles, brooms, etc. High Priestess leading, quick dance +step, singing + +"O do not tell the priests of our arts.For they would call it sin, For +we will be in the woods all nightA conjuring summer in. + +And we bring you good news by word of mouth. For women, cattle, and +corn: The sun is coming up from the south,With oak and ash, and thorn." + +Meeting dance if possible. + +Form circle as usual, and purify. + +High Priestess assumes Goddess position; officers all give her the +fivefold kiss. + +She purifies all. + +High Priestess again assumes Goddess position. + +Magus invokes, draws down moon, "I invoke thee and call upon thee, O +mighty Mother of us all, bringer of all fruitfulness, By seed and root, +by stem and bud, by leaf and flower and fruit, by life and love, do we +invoke thee, to descend upon the body of thy servant and Priestess +here." + +Magus gives Fivefold Kiss to High Priestess. +3034 + +All should be purified in sacrifice before her, and she should purify +Magus and some others with her own hands. + +Cakes and wine. + +Games. + +Great Rite if possible, in token or truly. + +Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then +stay to] feast and dance. + +August Eve + +If possible, ride poles, broomsticks, etc. + +Meeting Dance if possible [the double-spiral dance described in +Witchcraft Today, p. 167]. + +Form circle. + +Purify. + +High Priestess stands in pentacle position. + +Magus invokes her: "O mighty Mother of us all, Mother of all +fruitfulness, give us fruit and grain, flocks and herds and children to +the tribe that we be mighty, by thy rosy love, do thou descend upon thy +servant and Priestess (name) here." + +Magus gives Fivefold Kiss to High Priestess. + +Candle game: Seated, the men form a circle, passing a lighted candle +from hand to hand "deosil". The women form circle outside, trying to +blow it out over their shoulders. Whoever's hand it is in when it is +blown out is 3 times purified by whoever blew it out, giving fivefold +Kiss in return. This game may go on as long as the people like. + +Cakes and wine, and any other games you like. + +Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then +stay to] feast and dance. + + B.1. On Chants (1953) + +Of old there were many chants and songs used especially in the Dances. +Many of these have been forgotten by us here, but we know that they used +cries of IAU which seems muchly like the cries EVO or EVOHE of the +ancients. Much dependeth on the pronunciation if this be so. In my +youth, when I heard IAU it seemed to be AEIOU, or rather, AAAEEIOOOOUU. +This may be but the natural way to prolong it to make it fit for a call, +but it suggests that these be possibly the initials of an invocation as +Agla is said to be, and of sooth 'tis said that the whole Hebrew +alphabet is said to be such, and for this reason is recited as a most +powerful charm, but at least this is certain, these cries during the +dances do have profound effect, as I myself have seen. + +Other calls are IEHOUA and EHEIE; also Ho Ho Ho Ise Ise Ise. +3035 + +IEO VEO VEO VEO VEOV OROV OV OVOVO may be a spell but is more likely to +be a call. 'Tis like the EVOE EVOE of the Greeks and the "Heave ho!" of +sailors. "Emen hetan" and "Ab hur, ab hus" seem calls; as "Horse and +hattock, horse and go, horse and Pellatis, ho, ho, ho!" + +"Thout, tout a tout tout, throughout and about" and "Rentum tormentum" +are probably mispronounced attempts at a forgotten formula, though they +may have been invented by some unfortunate being tortured, to evade +telling the real formula. + + B.2. To Help the Sick (1953) + +[1] Ever remember the promise of the goddess, "For ecstasy is mine and +joy on earth" so let there ever be joy in your heart. Greet people with +joy, be glad to see them. If times be hard, think, "It might have been +worse. I at least have known the joys of the Sabbath, and I will know +them again." Think of the grandeur, beauty, and Poetry of the rites, of +the loved ones you meet through them. If you dwell on this inner joy, +your health will be better. You must try to banish all fear, for it +will reall y touch you. It may hurt your body, but your soul is beyond +it all. + +[2] And ever remember, that if you help others it makes you forget your +own woes. And if another be in pain, do what you may to distract his +attention from it. Do not say "You have no pain," but if you may, +administer the drugs which sooth as well as those that cure. But ever +strive to make them believe they are getting better. Install into them +happy thoughts. If you can only get this into his inner mind so that it +be always believed. + +[3] To this end it is not wrong to let people think that we of the cult +have more power than we have. For the truth is that if they believe we +have more power than we really possess, we do really possess these +powers, insomuch we can do good to them. + +[4] You must try to find out about people. If you tell a slightly sick +man, "You are looking better. You will soon be well," he will feel +better, but if he is really ill, or in pain, his Knowledge that he is in +pain will cause him to doubt your words in future. But if you give him +one of the drugs and then say, "The pain is growing less. Soon it will +be gone," because the pain goes, the next time you say, "The pain is +going," he will believe you and the pain will really get less. But you +must ever say so with conviction, and this conviction must come from +your believing it yourself, because you yourself know that if you can +fix his mind so that he believes you, it is true. + +[5] 'Tis often better to look exactly between their eyes, looking as if +your eyes pierced their heads, opening your eyes as wide as you may and +never blink. This continued gazing oft causes the patient to grow +sleepy. If they show signs of this, say "You are growing sleepy. You +will sleep, you are tired. Sleep. Your eyes grow tired. Sleep." If +they close their eyes, say "Your eyes close, you are tired, you cannot +open your eyes." If they cannot, say "Your arms are tired, you cannot +raise them." If they cannot, say "I am master of your mind. You must +ever believe what I tell you. When I look like this into your eyes you +will sleep and be subject to my will," then tell them they will sleep +and wake up refreshed, feeling better. Continue this with soothing and +healing drugs, and try to infuse into them the feeling of ecstasy that +3036 + +you feel at the Sabbath. They cannot feel it in full, but you can +command them to feel what is in your own mind, and try to concentrate on +this ecstasy. I f you may safely tell that you are of the Cult, your +task may be easier. And it were well to command them to know it only +with their sleeping mind, and forget it, or to be at least unable to +tell anyone about it when awake. A good way is to command them that, if +they are ever questioned about Witchcraft or Witches, to immediately +fall asleep. + +[6] Ever remember if tempted to admit or boast of belonging to the cult +you be endangering your brothers, for though now the fires of +persecution may have died down, who knows when they may be revived? +Many priests have knowledge of our secrets, and they well know that, +though much religious bigotry has calmed down, many people would wish to +join our cult. And if the truth were known of its joys, the Churches +would lose power, so if we take many recruits, we may loose the fires of +persecution against us a gain. So ever keep the secrets. + +[7] Think joy, think love, try to help others and bring joy into their +lives. Children are naturally easier to influence than grown people. +Ever strive to work through people's existing beliefs. For instance, +more than half of the world believe in amulets. An ordinary stone is +not an amulet but if it hath a natural hole in it, it must be something +unusual, so if the patient hath this belief give him one. But first +carry it next your skin for a few days, forcing your will into it, to +cure pain, to feel s afe, or against their particular fear, and this +amulet may keep imposing your will when you are absent. The masters of +talismans knew this full well when they say they must be made in a +circle, to avoid distraction, by someone whose mind is on the subject of +the work. + +[8] But keep your own mind happy. Remember the Words of the Goddess: "I +give unimaginable joys on Earth, certainty, not faith, while in life, +and upon death, peace unutterable, rest, and ecstasy, and the promise +that you will return again." In the old days many of us went to the +flames laughing and singing, and so we may again. We may have joy in +life and beauty, and peace and Death and the promise of return. + +[9] The Bible speaks sooth, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine +but a broken spirit breaketh the bones." But you may not have a merry +heart. Perchance you were born under an evil star. I think that the +effects of the stars are overestimated, but you cannot make a merry +heart to order, you say. But you can, in the Cult; there be secret +processes by which your will and imagination may be influenced. This +process also affects the body, and brings it to joy. Your body is +happy, so your mind is happy . You are well because you are happy, and +you are happy because you are well. + +[10] Prayer may be used with good result if the patient believes it can +and will work. Many believe it can, but do not believe their God or +saint will help. Prayers to the Goddess help, especially the Amalthean +Horn Prayer, as it causes stimulation to the body as well as to the +mind. + + B.3. The Scourge and the Kiss. (1953) + +[1] Invocation + +3037 + +(Feet, knees, and wrists should be tightly bound to retard blood.) +Scourge 40 or more, to make skin tingle, then say, invoking Goddess, + +Hail, Aradia, from the Amalthean horn + Pour forth thy store of Love. I lowly bend + Before Thee! I invoke thee at the end + When other Gods are fallen and put to scorn. +Thy foot is to my lips! My sighs inborn + Rise, touch, curl about thy heart. Then spend, + Pitiful Love, loveliest Pity, descend + And bring me luck who am lonely and forlorn. + +Ask the Goddess to help you to obtain your desires, then Scourge again +to bind the spell. This be powerful in ill luck and for sickness. It +must be said in a Circle, and you must be properly prepared and well +purified, both before and after saying, to bind the spell. Before +starting you must make a very clear picture in your mind of what you +wish. Make yourself see the wish obtained. Be sure in your own mind +exactly what it is and how it is to be fulfilled. This spell is the one +that was taught to me long ago and I have found it works, but I don't +think there is any special virtue in these words. Any others can be +substituted provided they ask the goddess's (or gods') help, and say +clearly what you wish and you form the clear mental image; and if it +doesn't work at first, keep on trying till it works. Your helper, who +wields the scourge, must know what you wish, and also form the mental +image. And at first at any rate, it will be better for you to work the +spell, then for the girl to take your place and work it also; you +scourge her. Don't try anything difficult at first, and do it at least +once a week till it works. You have to get into sympathy with each +other, before anything happens, and regular working helps this. Of +spells, the exact words matter little if the intent be clear and you +raise the true power, and sufficient thereof. Always in rhyme they are. +There is something queer about rhyme. I have tried, and the same seem +to lose their power if you miss the rhyme. Also in rhyme, the words +seem to say themselves. You do not have to pause and think: "What comes +next?" Doing this takes away much of your intent. + +[2] Order and discipline must be kept. A High Priest or Priestess may + and should punish all faults to this end, and all of the Cult must + accept such corrections willingly. All are brothers and sisters, for + this reason: that even the High Priestess must submit to the scourge. + Each fault should be corrected separately. The Priest or Priestess + must be properly prepared and call the culprit to trial. They must be + prepared as for initiation and kneel, be told their fault and sentence + pronounced. Punishment should be the scourge, followed by a forfeit + such as several fivefold kisses or something of this nature. The + culprit must acknowledge the justice of the punishment by kissing hands + and scourge on receiving sentence and again when thanking for + punishment received.* + +[3] The scourgings are 3, 7, 9 (thrice three), and 21 (thrice seven) 40 +in all. It is not meet to make offerings [scourgings] of less than two +score to the Goddess, for here be a mystery. The fortunate numbers be: +3 and 5. For three added to two (the Perfect Couple) be five. And +three and five be eight; eight and five be thirteen; thirteen and eight +be twenty-one. The Fivefold Kiss is called 5, but there are 8 kisses, +for there be 2 feet and 2 knees and genitals and 2 breasts and the lips. +And 5 times 8 be two score. Also, fortunate numbers be 3, 7, 8, and 21, +3038 + +which total 40, or two score. For each man and woman hath ten fingers +and ten toes, so each totals a score. And a perfect couple be two +score. So a lesser number would not be perfect prayer. If more are +required make it a perfect number, as four score or six score. Also +there be Eight Elemental Weapons. + +[4] To make the anointing ointment, take some glazed pans filled half +full with grease or olive oil. Put in one sweet mint, marjoram in +another, ground thyme in a 3rd, and it you may have it, patchouli, dried +leaves pounded. Place pans in hot water bath. Stir and cook for +several hours, then pout into linen bags, and squeeze grease through +into pans again, and fill up with fresh leaves. After doing this +several times, the grease will be highly perfumed. Then mix all +together and store in a well-corked jar. Anoint behind ears, throat, +armpits, breasts, and womb. Also, for all ceremonies where the feet are +kissed, they should also be anointed. + + B.4. The Priestess and the Sword (1953) + +It is said, "When a woman takes the main part in worship of the Male +God, she must be girt with a sword." Note. This hath been explained as +meaning that a man should be Magus representing the God, but if no one +of sufficient rank and knowledge be present, a woman armed as a man may +take his place. The sheath should be worn in a belt. She should carry +the sword in hand, but if she has to use her hands, she should sheath +the sword. Any other woman in the circle while this worship is +performed shall be sword in hand. Those outside the circle only have +the athame. A woman may impersonate either the God or the Goddess, but +a +man may only impersonate the God. + + B.5. The Warning (1953) + +Keep this book in your own hand of write. Let brothers and Sisters copy +what they will, but never let this book out of your hands, and never +keep the writings of another, for if it be found in their hand of write, +they may well be taken and tortured. Each should guard his own writings +and destroy them whenever danger threatens. Learn as much as you may by +heart, and when the danger is past, rewrite your book. For this reason, +if any die, destroy their book if they have not been able to, for, if it +be fou nd, 'tis clear proof against them. "Ye may not be a Witch +alone"; so all their friends be in danger of the torture. So destroy +everything not necessary. If your book be found on you, 'tis clear proof +against you. You may be tortured. Keep all thought of the cult from +your mind. Say you had bad dreams, that a Devil caused you to write +this without your knowledge. Think to yourself, "I Know Nothing. I +Remember nothing. I have forgotten all." Drive this into your mind. If +the torture be too great to bear, say, "I will confess. I cannot bear +this torment. What do you want me to say? Tell me and I will say it." +If they try to make you talk of the broth erhood, do not, but if they +try to make you speak of impossibilities, such as flying through the +air, consorting with the Devis, sacrificing children, or eating men's +flesh, say, "I had an evil dream. I was not myself. I was crazed." Not +all Magistrates are bad. If there be an excuse, they may show you +mercy. If you have confessed aught, deny it afterwards. Say you +babbled under the torture; you knew not what you did or said. If you be +condemned, fear not. The Brotherhood is powerful. They may help you to +escape if you are steadfast. If you betray aught, there is no hope for +3039 + +you, in this life, or in that which is to come. But, 'tis sure, that if +steadfast you go to the pyre, drugs will reach you. You will feel +naught, and you go but to Death and what lies beyond, the ecstasy of the +Goddess. The same with the working Tools. Let them be as ordinary +things that anyone may have in their homes. The Pentacles shall be of +wax that they may be melted or broken at once. Have no sword unless +your rank allows you one. Have no names or signs on anything. Write +them on in ink before consecrating them and wash it off at once when +finished. Never boast, never threaten, never say you wish ill to anyone. +If any speak of the craft, say, "Speak not to me of such, it frightens +me, 'tis evil luck to speak of it." + + B.6. Of the Ordeal of the Art Magical (1953) + +Learn of the spirit that goeth with burdens that have not honour, for +'tis the spirit that stoopeth the shoulders and not the weight. Armour +is heavy, yet it is a proud burden and a man standeth upright in it. +Limiting and constraining any of the senses serves to increase the +concentration of another. Shutting the eyes aids the hearing. So the +binding of the initiate's hands increases the mental perception, while +the scourge increaseth the inner vision. So the initiate goeth through +it proudly, like a princess, knowing it but serves to increase her +glory. But this can only be done by the aid of another intelligence and +in a circle, to prevent the power thus generated being lost. Priests +attempt to do the same with their scourgings and mortifications of the +flesh. But lacking the aid of bonds and their attention being +distracted by their scourging themselves and what little power they do +produce being dissipated, as they do not usually work within a circle, +it is little wonder that they oft fail. Monks and hermits do better, as +they are apt to work in tiny cells and coves, which in some way act as +circles. The Knights of the Temple, who used mutually to scourge each +other in an octagon, did better still; but they apparently did not know +the virtue of bonds and did evil, man to man. But perhaps some did know? +What of the Church's charge that they wore girdles or cords? + + B.7. The Eightfold Way. (1953) + +Eightfold Path or Ways to the Centre. + +1 Meditation or Concentration. This in practice means forming a mental +image of what is desired, and forcing yourself to see that it is +fulfilled, with the fierce belief and knowledge that it can and will be +fulfilled, and that you will go on willing till you force it to be +fulfilled. Called for short, "Intent" + +2 Trance, projection of the Astral. + +3 Rites, Chants, Spells, Runes, Charms, etc. + +4 Incense, Drugs, Wine, etc., whatever is used to release the Spirit. +(Note. One must be very careful about this. Incense is usually +harmless, but you must be careful. If it has bad aftereffects, reduce +the amount used, or the duration of the time it is inhaled. Drugs are +very dangerous if taken to excess, but it must be remembered that there +are drugs that are absolutely harmless, though people talk of them with +bated breath, but Hemp is especially dangerous, because it unlocks the +inner eye swiftly an d easily, so one is tempted to use it more and +more. If it is used at all, it must be with the strictest precautions, +3040 + +to see that the person who uses it has no control over the supply. This +should be doled out by some responsible person, and the supply strictly +limited.) + +5 The Dance, and kindred practices. + +6 Blood control (the Cords), Breath Control, and kindred practices. + +7 The Scourge. + +8 The Great Rite. + +These are all the ways. You may combine many of them into the one +experiment, the more the better. + +The Five Essentials: + +1. The most important is "Intention": you must know that you can and +will succeed; it is essential in every operation. + +2. Preparation. (You must be properly prepared according to the rules of +the Art; otherwise you will never succeed.) + +3. The Circle must be properly formed and purified. + +4. You all must be properly purified, several times if necessary, and +this purification should be repeated several times during the rite. + +5. You must have properly consecrated tools. + +These five essentials and Eight Paths or Ways cannot all be combined in +one rite. Meditation and dancing do not combine well, but forming the +mental image and the dance may be well combined with Chants. Spells, +etc., combined with scourging and No. 6, followed by No. 8, form a +splendid combination. Meditation, following scourging, combined with +Nos. 3 and 4 and 5, are also very Good. For short cuts concentration, +Nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8 are excellent. + + B.8. To Gain the Sight (1953) + +[1] This cometh to different people in diverse ways. 'Tis seldom it +cometh naturally, but it can be induced in many ways. Deep and +prolonged meditation may do it, but only if you be a natural, and +usually prolonged fasting was also necessary. Of old monks and nuns +obtained visions by long vigils, combined with fasting, flagellation +till the blood came, and other mortifications of the flesh, and so +undoubtedly had visions. In the East it is tried with various tortures, +at the same time sitting in cramped postures, which retard the flow of +blood, and these torments, long and continued, give good results. But +in the Art we are taught an easier way to intensify the imagination, at +the same time controlling the blood supply, and this may best be done by +using the ritual. + +[2] Incense is also good to propitiate the Spirits, but also to induce + relaxation and to help to build up the atmosphere which is neces-sary + to suggestibility. (For our human eyes are so blind to what really is, + that it is often necessary to suggest that it is there, before we may + see it, as we may point out to another something at a distance before +3041 + + they may see it themselves. Gum mastic, aromatic rush roots, cinnamon + bark, musk, juniper, sandalwood, and ambergris in combination are all + good, but patchouli is best of all. And if you may have hemp, 'tis + better still, but be very careful of this. + +[3] The circle being formed, all properly prepared, and the Rites done, +and all purified, the aspirant should warlock and take his tutor round +the circle, saluting the Mighty Ones, and invoke them to aid the +operation. Then both dance round till giddy, invoking or using chants. +Scourge. Then the Tutor should warlock very tightly, but not so to +cause discomfort, but enough to retard the blood slightly. Again they +should dance round, chanting, then scourge with light, steady, +monotonous, slow strokes. lt is very good that the pupil may see them +coming (this may be arranged from position, or if a big mirror is +available, this can be used with excellent effect) as this has the +effect of passes, and helps greatly to stimulate the imagination, and it +is important that they be not hard, the object being not to do more than +draw the blood to that part and so away from the brain. This with the +tight warlocking, which should be warricked, slows down the circulation +of the blood, and t he passes soon induce a drowsi ness and a stupor. +The tutor should watch for this. As soon as the aspirant sleeps, the +scourging should cease. The tutor should also watch that the pupil +become not cold, and if they struggle or become distressed, they should +be at once awakened. (Note: if it cannot be arranged for the pupil to +see, the wand may be used, for a time, then return to scourging.) + +[4] Do not be discouraged if no results come after two or three +attempts. It will come, when both are in the right state. When you get +some result, then results will come more quickly. Soon some of the +ritual may be shortened, but never neglect to invoke the Goddess, and +the Mighty Ones, or to form the Circle and do everything rightly. And +for good and clear results, it is ever better to do too much ritual than +too little. + +[5] It hath been found that this practice doth often cause a fondness +between aspirant and tutor, and 'tis a cause of better results if this +be so. If for any reason it is undesirable that there be any great +fondness between aspirant and tutor, this may be easily avoided, by both +parties from the onset firmly resolving in their minds that if any doth +ensue, it shall be that of brother and sister or parent and child. And +it is for this reason that a man may only be taught by a woman and a +woman by a man, a nd that man and man, and woman and woman, should never +attempt these practices together. And may all the Curses of the Mighty +Ones be on any who make the attempt.* + +[6] Remember, the Circle, properly constructed, is ever necessary to +prevent the power released from being dissipated. It is also a barrier +against any disturbances of mischievous forces, for to obtain good +results you must be free from all disturbances. Remember that darkness, +points of light gleaming amid the surrounding dark, incense, and the +steady passes by a white arm are not stage effects. They are the +mechanical implements which start the suggestions, which later unlocks +the knowledge that it is p ossible to obtain the divine ecstasy, and so +attain knowledge and communion with the Divine Goddess. When once you +have attained this, Ritual is not needed, as you may attain the state of +ecstasy at will, but till then, or if you having attained this yourself, +and wish to bring a companion to this state of joy, ritual is best. + +3042 + + B.9. Power (1953) + +Power is latent in the body and may be drawn out and used in various +ways by the skilled. But unless confined in a circle it will be swiftly +dissipated. Hence the importance of a properly constructed circle. +Power seems to exude from the body via the skin and possibly from the +orifices of the body; hence you should be properly prepared. The +slightest dirt spoils everything, which shows the importance of thorough +cleanliness. The attitude of mind has great effect, so only work with a +spirit of reverence. A little wine taken and repeated during the +ceremony, if necessary, helps to produce power. Other strong drinks or +drugs may be used, but it is necessary to be very moderate, for if you +are confused, even slightly, you cannot control the power you evoke. The +simplest way is by dancing and singing monotonous chants, slowly at +first and gradually quickening the tempo until giddiness ensues. Then +the calls may be used, or even wild and meaningless shrieking produces +power. But this method inflames the mind and renders it difficult to +control the power, though control may be gained through practice. The +scourge is a far better way, for it stimulates and excites both body and +soul, yet one e asily retains control. The Great Rite is far the best. +It releases enormous power, but the conditions and circumstances make it +difficult for the mind to maintain control at first. It is again a +matter of practice and the natural strength of the operator's will and, +in a lesser degree, of those of his assistants. If, as of old, there +were many trained assistants present and all wills properly attuned, +wonders occurred. Sorcerors chiefly used the blood sacrifice; and while +we hold this to be evil, we cannot deny that this method is very +efficient. Power flashes forth from newly shed blood, instead of +exuding slowly as by our method. The victim's terror and anguish add +keenness, and even quite a small animal can yield enormous power. The +great difficulty is in the human mind controlling the power of the lower +animal mind. But sorcerers claim they have methods for effecting this +and that the difficulty disappears the hig her the animal used, and when +the victim is human disappears entirely. (The practice is an +abomination but it is so.) Priests know this well; and by their +auto-da-fs, with the victims' pain and terror (the fires acting much the +same as circles), obtained much power. Of old the Flagellants certainly +evoked power, but through not being confined in a circle much was lost. +The amount of power raised was so great and continuous that anyone with +knowledge could direct and use it; and it is most probable that the +classical and heathen sacrifices were used in the same way. There are +whispers that when the human victim was a willing sacrifice, with his +mind directed on the Great Work and with highly skilled assistants, +wonders ensued bu t of this I would not speak. + + B.10. Properly Prepared. (1953) + +Naked, but sandals (not shoes) may be worn. For initiation, tie hands +behind back, pull up to small of back, and tie ends in front of throat, +leaving a cable-tow to lead by, hanging down in front. (Arms thus form +a triangle at back.) When initiate is kneeling at altar, the cable-tow +is tied to a ring in the altar. A short cord is tied like a garter +round the initiate's left leg above the knee, with ends tucked in. +Another is tied round right ankle and ends tucked in so as to be out of +the way while mov ing about. These cords are used to tie feet together +while initiate is kneeling at the altar and must be long enough to do +this firmly. Knees must also be firmly tied. This must be carefully +done. If the aspirant complains of pain, the bonds must be loosened +3043 + +slightly; always remember the object is to retard the blood flow enough +to induce a trance state. This involves slight discomfort, but great +discomfort prevents the trance state; so it is best to spend some little +time loosening a nd tightening the bonds until they are just right. The +aspirant alone can tell you when this is so. This, of course, does not +apply to the initiation, as then no trance is desired; but for the +purpose of ritual it is good that the initiates be bound firmly enough +to feel they are absolutely helpless but without discomfort. + +B.11. The Meeting Dance. (1953) + +The Maiden should lead. A man should place both hands on her waist, +standing behind her, and alternate men and women should do the same, the +Maiden leading and they dance following her. She at last leads them +into a right-hand spiral. When the center is reached (and this had +better be marked by a stone), she suddenly turns and dances back, +kissing each man as she comes to him. All men and women turn likewise +and dance back, men kissing girls and girls kissing men. All in time to +music, it is a merry ga me, but must be practices to be done well. +Note, the musicians should watch the dancers and make the music fast or +slow as is best. For the beginners it should be slow, or there will be +confusion. It is most excellent to get people to know each other at big +gatherings. + + B.12. To Leave the Body. (1953) + + 'Tis not wise to strive to get out of your body until you have + thoroughly gained the Sight. The same ritual as to gain the Sight may + be used, but have a comfortable couch. Kneel so that you have your + thigh, belly, and chest well supported, the arms strained forward and + bound one on each side, so that there is a decided feeling of being + pulled forward. As the trance is induced, you should feel a striving + to push yourself out of the top of your head. The scourge should be + given a dragging action, as if to drive or drag you out. Both wills + should be thoroughly in tune, keeping a constant and equal strain. + When trance comes, your tutor may help you by softly calling your name. + You will probably feel yourself drawn out of your body as if through a + narrow opening, and find yourself standing beside your tutor, looking + at the body on the couch. Strive to communicate with your tutor first; + if they have the Sight they will probably see you. Go not far afield + at first, and 'ti s better to have one who is used to leaving the body + with you. A note: When, having succeeded in leaving the body, you + desire to return, in order to cause the spirit body and the material + body to coincide, THINK OF YOUR FEET. This will cause the return to + take place. + + B.13. The Working Tools (1953) + + There are no magical supply shops, so unless you are lucky enough to be + given or sold tools, a poor witch must extemporize. But when made you + should be able to borrow or obtain an Athame. So having made your + circle, erect an altar. Any small table or chest will do. There must + be fire on it (a candle will suffice) and your book. For good results + incense is best if you can get it, but coals in a chafing dish burning + sweet-smelling herbs will do. A cup if you would have cakes and wine, + and a platter with the signs drawn into the same in ink, showing a + pentacle. A scourge is easily made (note, the scourge has eight tails + and five knots in each tail). Get a white-hilted knife and a wand (a +3044 + + sword is not necessary). Cut the marks with Athame. Purify + everything, then consecrate your tools in proper form and ever be + properly prepared. But ever remember, magical operations are useless + unless the mind can be brought to the proper attitude, keyed to the + utmost pitch. Affirmations must be made clearly, and the mind should be + inflamed with desire. With this frenzy of will, you may do as much + with simple tools as with the most complete set. But good and + especially ancient tools have their own aura. They do help to bring + about that reverential spirit, the desire to learn and develop your + powers. For this reason witches ever try to obtain tools from + sorcerers, who, being skilled men, make good tools and consecrate them + well, giving them mighty power. But a great witch's tools also gain + much power; and you should ever strive to make any tools you + manufacture of the finest materials you can obtain, to the end that + they may absorb your power the more easily. And of course if you may + inherit or obtain another witch's tools, power will flow from them. It + is an old belief that the best substances for making tools are those + that have once had life in them, as opposed to artificial substances. + Thus wood or ivory is better for a wand than metal, which is more + appropriate for knives or swords. Virgin parchment is better than + manufactured paper for talismans, etc. And things which have been made + by hand are good, because there is life in them. + + B.14. Skyclad (1953) + + It is important to work naked from the start, so it becometh as second +nature, and no thought of "I have no clothes" shall ever intrude and +take your attention from the work. Also, your skin being so accustomed +to unconfinement, when power is given off the flow is more easy and +regular. Also, when dancing you are free and unconfined. . . . And the +greatest of all, the touch of the body of your beloved thrills your +inmost soul, and so your body gives out its utmost power; and then it is +most important of all that there is not the slightest thing to divert +the attention, for then the mind must seize and mold the power +generated, and redirect it to the desired end with all the force and +frenzy of the imagination. It has been said that no real knowledge may +be gained our way, that our practices are such that they can only lead +to lust; but this is not really so. Our aim is to gain the inner sight, +and we do it the most natural and easy way. Our opponents' aim is ever +to prevent man and woman from loving, thinking that everything that +helps or even permits them to love is wicked and vile. To us it is +natural, and if it aids the Great Work it is good. 'Tis true that a +couple burning with a frenzy for knowledge may go straight to their +goal, but the average couple have not this fire. We show them the way, +our system of props and aids (i.e., magic ritual). A couple working +with nothing but lust will never attain in any case; but a couple who +love each other dearly should already be sleeping together, and the +first frenzy of love will have passed, and their souls will already be +in sympathy. If the first time or two they do stay a while to worship +Aphrod ite, 'tis only a day or two lost, and the intense pleasure they +obtain only leads them again to the mysteries of Hermes, their souls +more attuned to the great search. Once they have pierced the veil they +will not look back. This rite may be used as the greatest of magics if +it be done with both partners firmly fixing their minds on the object +and not thinking of sex at all. That is, you must so firmly fix your +mind on your object that sex and all else are naught. You inflame your +will to such an extent that you may create a strain on the astral such +that events happen. +3045 + + C.1. A Revision of the Casting Procedure (1957) + +ALL ARE PURIFIED + +[1] Magus consecrates salt and water. + +[2] High Priestess kneels at Altar, takes up Sword, says, "I conjure +thee, O Sword of Steel, to serve me as a defence in all Magical +Operations. Guard me at all times against mine enemies, both visible +and invisible. Grant that I may obtain what I desire in all things +wherein I may use Thee, Wherefore do I bless Thee and invoke Thee in the +names of Aradia and Cernunnos." Gives Sword to Magus. + +[3] Magus kneeling hands her vessel of consecrated Water and +Aspergillum. He Casts the Circle, three circles, on the lines marked +out, starting at the East and returning to the East. High Priestess +follows, Asperging Circle (sprinkling it to purify it) and all present +and finally herself. Then she goes round again censing it. (Everyone +in the circle must be sprinkled and censed.) She returns vessel, etc., +to Magus, who places them on altar, or convenient place, and hands her +Sword [handwritten]. + +[4] She walks slowly round Circle, saying, "I conjure Thee, O Circle of +Space, that thou be a Boundary and a Protection and a meeting place +between the world of Men and that of the Dread Lords of the OUTER +SPACES, that Thou be cleansed, Purified, and strengthened to be a +Guardian and a Protection that shall preserve and contain THAT POWER +which we so earnestly desire to raise within thy bounds this night, +wherefore do I bless thee and entreat thee to aid me in the endeavor, in +the names of Aradia and Cernun nos." Hands sword to Magus [handwritten]. + +[5] Magus then summons the Mighty Ones as usual. + +[6] High Priestess stands in front of Altar (which may be pushed back +for this). High Priestess assumes Goddess position (arms crossed). +Magus kneeling in front of her, draws pentacle on her body with +Phallus-headed Wand, Invokes (Drawing down the Moon), "I Invoke and +beseech Thee, O mighty MOTHER of all life and fertility. `By seed and +root, by stem and bud, by leaf and flower and fruit, by Life and Love, +do I invoke Thee' to descend into the body of thy servant and High +Priestess (name)." (The Moon hav ing been drawn down, i.e., link +established, Magus and all male officers give fivefold kiss; all others +bow.) + +[7] High Priestess in Goddess position says, arms crossed, + +"Mother, Darksome and Divine,Mine the Scourge and Mine the Kiss,The +Five-point Star of Love and Bliss; Here I charge ye in this Sign. (Opens +out Arms to pentacle position) + +Bow before my Spirit bright (All bow) +Aphrodite, Arianrhod,Lover of the Horned God, +Queen of Witchery and Night. + +Diana, Brigid, Melusine, + Am I named of old by men, + Artemis and Cerridwen, +Hell's dark mistress, Heaven's Queen. +3046 + +Ye who ask of me a boon, + Meet ye in some hidden shade, + Lead my dance in greenwood glade +By the light of the full moon. + +Dance about mine altar stone, + Work my holy magistry, + Ye who are fain of sorcery, +I bring ye secrets yet unknown. + +No more shall ye know slavery + who tread my round the Sabbat night. + Come ye all naked to the rite +In sign that ye are truly free. + +Keep ye my mysteries in mirth, + Heart joined to heart and lip to lip. + Five are the points of fellowship +That bring ye ecstasy on Earth. + +No other law but love I know; + By naught but love may I be known, + And all that liveth is my own: +From me they come, to me they go. + + C.2. The Prose Charge (1957) + +THE CHARGE, to be read while the initiate stands, properly prepared +before the Circle. + +[Magus]: Listen to the words of the Great mother, who was of old also +called among men, Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, +Cerridwen, Diana, Arianrhod, Bride, and by many other names. + +[High Priestess]: "At mine Altars the youth of Lacedaemon in Sparta made +due sacrifice. Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month, and +better it be when the moon is full. Then ye shall assemble in some +secret place and adore the spirit of Me who am Queen of all Witcheries. +There ye shall assemble, ye who are fain to learn all sorcery, yet who +have not won its deepest secrets. To these will I teach things that are +yet unknown. And ye shall be free from slavery, and as a sign that ye be +really fre e, ye shall be naked in your rites, and ye shall dance, sing, +feast, make music, and love, all in my praise.' "For mine is the ecstasy +of the Spirit, and mine is also joy on earth. For my Law is Love unto +all beings. "Keep pure your highest ideals. Strive ever towards it. +Let naught stop you or turn you aside. "For mine is the secret which +opens upon the door of youth; and mine is the cup of the Wine of Life: +and the Cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of Immortality. +"I am the Gracious Goddess who gives the gift of Joy unto the heart of +Man. "Upon Earth I give the knowledge of the Spirit Eternal, and beyond +death I give peace and freedom, and reunion with those who have gone +before. Nor do I demand aught in sacrifice, for behold, I am the Mother +of all things, and my love is poured out upon earth." + +[Magus]: Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess, She in the dust of whose +feet are the hosts of Heaven, whose body encircleth the universe. + +[High Priestess]: "I who am the beauty of the green earth; and the White +3047 + +Moon amongst the Stars; and the mystery of the Waters; and the desire of +the heart of man. I call unto thy soul: arise and come unto me. "For I +am the Soul of nature who giveth life to the Universe; `From me all +things proceed; and unto me, all things must return.' Beloved of the +Gods and men, thine inmost divine self shall be enfolded in the raptures +of the infinite. "Let my worship be within the heart that rejoiceth, for +behold: all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals; and therefore let +there be Beauty and Strength, Power and Compassion, Honour and Humility, +Mirth and reverence within you. "And thou who thinkest to seek me, know +that thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not unless thou know the +mystery, that if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, +thou wilt never find it without thee, for behold; I have been with thee +from the beginning, and I am that which is attained at the end of +desire." + + C.3. CAKES AND WINE. (1957) + +High Priestess seated on Altar, God position. + +Magus, kneeling, kisses her feet, then knees, bows with head below her +knees, extends arms along her thighs, and adores. + +Magus fills cup and offers it to High Priestess, who, holding Athame +between palms, places point in cup. + +Magus says: "As the Athame is the male, so the cup is the female, and +conjoined they bring blessedness." + +High Priestess lays Athame aside, and takes Cup and drinks, gives Cup to +server, who puts a little in each glass. + +Magus presents Pentacle with cakes to High Priestess, saying, "Oh Queen +most secret, bless this food unto our bodies, bestowing health, wealth, +strength, joy and peace, and that fulfillment of love that is perpetual +happiness". + +High Priestess blesses them with Athame, takes Cake and eats, while the +Magus gives her the Cup again and kisses knees and adores. + +All sit as Witches, and invite High Priestess to join them. + + C.4. The Sabbat Rituals (1957) + + Spring equinox + +The symbol of the wheel should be placed on the altar upright, decked +with flowers, flanked with burning candles. The Cauldron, containing +spirits, is in the east. Magus in west, High Priestess in east with +Phallic wand or pinecone-tipped wand, or broomstick, or riding pole, +broom upwards. +High Priestess lights Cauldron, saying, + +"We kindle fire this day! +In the presence of the Holy Ones:Without malice, without jealousy, +without envy. +Without fear of aught beneath the sun.But the High Gods. + +Thee we invoke: O light of life:Be thou a bright flame before us: +3048 + +Be thou a guiding star above us:Be thou a smooth path beneath us; + +Kindle thou in our hearts within,A flame of love for our neighbor, To +our foes, to our friends, to our kindred all:To all men on this broad +Earth. + +O merciful son of Cerridwen, From the lowest thing that liveth +To the name that is highest of all." + +High Priestess draw pentacle upon Magus with wand, kiss, gives it to +him. He does likewise. They lead the dance round the circle, all +couples leaping burning fire. The last couple as the fire goes out +should be well-purified three times, and each should give Fivefold Kiss +to all of opposite sex. + +Cakes and wine. + +If the people will, the Cauldron dance can be done again, many times, or +other games can be played. + + Summer Solstice + +Form circle. Invoke, Purify. Cauldron is placed before altar filled +with water, wreathed with summer flowers. The people, men and women +alternately, stand round circle. High Priestess stands in north, before +Cauldron, holding raised wand, which should be Phallic or tipped with a +pinecone (anciently the thyrsus) or a riding pole or a broomstick, +invokes the sun. + + "Great One of Heaven, Power of the Sun, we invoke thee in thine ancient +names, Michael, Balin, Arthur, Lugh, Herne. Come again, as of old, into +this thy land. Lift up thy shining spear of light to protect us. Put +to flight the powers of darkness, give us fair woodlands and green +fields, blossoming orchards and r ipening corn. Bring us to stand upon +thy hill of vision, and show us the path to the lovely realms of the +gods." + +High Priestess draws invoking pentacle on Magus with wand. + +Magus comes forward sunwise and takes wand with kiss, plunges wand into +Cauldron and holds it upright, saying, "The spear to the Cauldron, the +lance to the Grail, spirit to flesh, man to woman, sun to earth." He +salutes High Priestess over Cauldron, then rejoins people, still bearing +wand. + +High Priestess takes aspergillum, stands by Cauldron, says, "Dance ye +about the Cauldron of Cerridwen the Goddess, and be ye blessed with the +touch of this consecrated water, even as the sun, the lord of light, +arriveth in his strength in the sign of the waters of life." + +The people dance sunwise about the altar and Cauldron, led by Magus +bearing wand. High Priestess sprinkles them lightly as they pass her. + +Ritual of cakes and wine. + +Any other dances, rites, or games as the Priestess and people wish. + +Autumn equinox +3049 + +The altar should be decorated with symbols of autumn, pine cones, oak +sprigs, acorns, or ears of corn, and should have fire or burning incense +on it as usual. After usual purification, the people stand round, men +and women alternately. Magus at west of altar in God position. + +High Priestess stands at east of altar, facing him, and reads the +incantation. + +"Farewell, O Sun, ever returning light. The hidden god, who ever yet +remains. He departs to the land of youth, through the gates of death, +to dwell enthroned, the judge of gods and man. The horned leader of the +hosts of air. Yet, even as stand unseen about the circle the forms of +the Mighty Lords of the Outer Spaces,. So dwelleth he, `the lord within +ourselves'. So dwelleth he within the secret seed, the seed of new +reaped grain, the seed of flesh, hidden in the earth, the marvellous +seed of the stars. + + `In him is life, and life is the light of men [John 1:4],' that which + was never born and never dies. Therefore the Wicca weep not, but + rejoice." + +The High Priestess goes to the Magus with a kiss. He lays aside Athame +and scourge, and kisses her. The High Priestess hands him her wand, +which should be Phallic, or a branch tipped with a pinecone, Or a riding +pole, or a broomstick (anciently the thyrsus). They lead the dance, she +with a systrum or rattle, he with wand, the people falling in behind +them, dancing three times round the altar. Then the candle game is +played. + +Cakes and wine. + +Great Rite if possible. + +Dances and games. + + + Winter Solstice + +Form circle in usual manner, invoking the Mighty Ones. + +The Cauldron of Cerridwen is placed in the circle at the south wreathed +with holly, ivy, and mistletoe, with fire lighted within it. There +should be no other light except for the candles on the altar and about +the circle. + +After all are purified, the Moon should be drawn down. + +Then the High Priestess stands behind the Cauldron in pentacle position, +symbolizing the rebirth of the sun. The people, man and woman +alternately, stand round the circle. The Magus stands facing the High +Priestess with a bundle of torches, or candles, and the book of words of +the incantation. One of the officers stands beside him with a lighted +candle, so that he may have light to read by. + +The people begin to slowly move round the circle sunwise. As each +passes him the Magus lights his candle or torch from the fire in the +Cauldron, which may be simply a candle, till all have lighted candles or +torches. Then the people dance round slowly as he reads the +3050 + +incantation. (A real fire must now be kindled in the Cauldron.) + +Queen of the Moon, Queen of the Sun. Queen of the Heavens, Queen of the +Stars. + +Queen of the Waters, Queen of the Earth. Who ordained to us the child of +promise: + +It is the Great Mother who gives birth to him, He is the Lord of Life +who is born again, Darkness and tears are set behind,And the star of +guidance comes up early. + +Golden sun of hill and mountain illumine the land, illumine the world, +illumine the seas, illumine the rivers,Grief be laid, and joy be raised. + +Blessed be the Great Mother, Without beginning, without ending, To +everlasting, to eternity, I O. Evohe, Blessed be." + +The dance commences slowly, in rhythm with the chant, all taking up the +call "I. O. Blessed be." The Priestess joins dance and leads them with +a quicker rhythm. The cauldron with burning fire is pushed so that the +dancers leap or step over it, in couples. Whichever couple is passing +it as it goes out, should be well-purified, three times each, and may +pay any amusing forfeit as the High Priestess may ordain. Sometimes the +cauldron is relighted several times for this purpose. + + C.5 The Eightfold Path or Ways. (1957) + +1. Meditation or concentration, actually by the firm knowledge that you +can and will succeed -- forming a clear picture in your mind or your +requirements. + +2. Trance states, Clairvoyance, Projection of the Astral etc. + +3. Drugs, Wine, Incense. + +4. Dance, Performing Rites with a purpose. + +5. Chants, Spells etc. + +6. Blood control (Cords etc), Breath control. + +7. Scourge + +8. The Great Rite + +N.B. + +The great thing is to combine as many of these paths into the one +operation. No 1 must be in all -- for if you have no clear picture of +what you wish and no certainty you will not succeed -- 'tis useless. No +2 can be combined with this easily. Nos 3, 4, and 5 are all good +preliminaries- also 6 and 7; but No 3 is dangerous and therefore if +possible should be avoided, except for incense, which is harmless if too +much is not used. + +The best combination is Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 7, for small purposes, with no +8 if great force is necessary. Also a combination of 1, 6 and 7 is good +3051 + +if more can not be done; this if properly performed leads to No. 2. + + C.6. The First-Degree Initiation (1957) + +Draw Circle with Magic Sword or Athame. + +Sprinkle with Exorcised Water. + +Go round Circle with Magic Sword or Athame, Saying, "I conjure thee, O +Circle of Power, that thou beest as a Boundary and a Protection to +contain the magic power which I will raise within thy bounds. So do I +bless thee, in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." + +Go round, saying at East, South, West, and North, "I summon, stir, and +call thee up, ye Mighty Ones of the East (South, West, North), to +witness the rites and to guard the circle." + +Magus draws down Moon on High Priestess. + +Read Charge, then say, "O thou who standest on the threshold between the +pleasant world of men and the dread domains of the lords of the outer +spaces, hast thou the courage to make the assay?" (Place point of the +Magic Sword or Athame to Postulant's heart.) "For I say verily it were +better to rush on my blade and perish than to make the attempt with fear +in thy heart." + +Postulant: "I have two perfect words: perfect love, and perfect trust." + +Say, "All who have are doubly welcome." + +Entering position: "I give you a third to pass you through this dread +door." Gives it [kiss]. + +Lead Postulant sunwise to south of altar, and say, "O thou who hast +declared intent to become one of us, hear then that which thou must know +to do. Single is the race of men and of Gods; from a single source we +both draw breath, but a difference of power in everything keeps us +apart, for we are as nothing, but the Gods stay forever. Yet we can, in +greatness of minds, be like the Gods, though we know not to what goal by +day or in the night Fate has written that we shall run. Beyond all seas +and Earth's la st boundaries, beyond the Spring of night and the +Heavens' vast expanse, there lies a majesty which is the domain of the +Gods. Thou who would pass through the Gates of Night and Day to that +sweet place, which is between the worlds of men and the domains of the +Lords of the outer spaces, know that unless there is truth in thy heart, +thy every effort is doomed to failure. HEAR THEN THE LAW: that thou +lovest all things in nature; that thou shalt suffer no person to be +harmed by thy hands or in thy mind; that thou walkest humbly in the ways +of men and the ways of the Gods. Also it is the law that contentment +thou shalt learn, through suffering, and from long years and from +nobility of mind and of purpose, FOR THE WISE NEVER GROW OLD. Their +minds are nourished by living in the daylight of the Gods, and if among +the vulgar some discoveries should arise concerning some maxims of thy +belief in the Gods, so do thou, for the most part, keep silent. For +there is a great risk that thou mayest straightway vomit up th at which +thou hast not digested, and when someone shall say to thee, "Thou +knowest naught," and it bites thee not, then knowest thou that thou hast +begun the work. And as sheep do not bring their food to the shepherd to +3052 + +show how much they have eaten, but digesting inwardly their provender, +bear outwardly wool and milk, even so, do not thou display the maxims to +the vulgar, but rather the works that flow when they are digested. Now +there is the ordeal." [This speech was added after about 1960.] + +Tie cord around Postulant's right ankle, leaving ends free; say, "Feet +neither bound nor free." + +Leading postulant, proclaim at four quarters, "Take heed, ye Lords of +the Watchtowers of the East (South, West, North), that (name) is +properly prepared to be made a priestess and a witch." + +Three times round the Circle with Dance step and chant. + +Place Postulant in East; say, "Kneel." + +Postulant kneels. + +Strike eleven knells on bell; say, "Rise. In other religions the +postulant kneels while the priest towers above him, but in the Art +Magical we are taught to be humble, and so we kneel to welcome them, and +we say: + +"Blessed be the feet that have brought you in these ways [kiss]; + +"Blessed be the knees that shall kneel at the sacred altar [kiss]; + +"Blessed be thy womb (or organ of generation), without which we would +not be [kiss]; + +"Blessed be thy breasts, erected in beauty and in strength [kiss]; + +"Blessed be thy lips, which shall utter the sacred names [kiss]. + +"Before ye are sworn, art willing to pass the ordeal and be purified?" + +Postulant "I am." + +Take measure: height (tie knot); around head (tie knot); around heart +(tie knot); around hips (tie knot). Prick postulant's thumb; catch +blood on measure. Place measure on altar. Have postulant kneel, tie +postulant's feet together, and secure cable tow to altar. Three strokes +on bell. Say, "Art ready to swear that thou wilt always be true to the +Art?" + +Postulant "I am." + +Strike seven times on bell and say, "Thou must first be purified." +Scourge 3, 7, 9, 21. + +Say, "Ye have bravely passed the test. Art always ready to help, +protect, and defend thy brothers and sisters of the Art?" + +Postulant "I am." + +"Then say after me: I, (name), in the presence of the mighty ones of +the outer spaces, do of my own free will most solemnly swear that I will +ever keep secret and never reveal the secrets of the Art, except it be +3053 + +to a proper person, properly prepared, within such a circle as I am in +now, and that I will never deny the Secrets to such a person if they be +vouched for by a brother or Sister of the Art. All this I swear by my +hopes of a future life, and may my weapons turn against me if I break +this my solemn oath." + +Loosen cords from ankles and from altar, and remove blindfold; assist to + rise. + + "I hereby sign thee with the triple sign [the point-down triangle + formed by touching the genitals, the right breast, the left breast, and + the genitals again.] I consecrate thee with oil. I consecrate thee with + wine. I consecrate thee with my lips, Priest (Priestess) and Witch." + + Remove Cords [kiss]. + + "I now present to you the working tools. First the magic sword. With + this, as with the athame, thou canst form all magic circles, dominate, + subdue, and punish all rebellious spirits and demons, and even persuade + angels and good spirits. With this in your hand, you are ruler of the + circle." [kiss] + + "Next I present to you the athame. This is the true witches' weapon, + and has all the powers of the magic sword." [kiss] + + "Next I present the white-handled knife. Its use is to form all + instruments used in the Art. It can only be used in a magic circle." + [kiss] + + "Next I present the wand. Its use is to call up and control certain + angels and genie to whom it would not be meet to use the sword or + athame." [kiss] + + "Next I present the pentacle. This is for the purpose of calling up + the appropriate spirits." [kiss] + + "Next I present the censer of incense. This is used to encourage and + welcome good spirits, and to banish evil spirits." [kiss] + + "Next I present the scourge. This is a sign of power and domination. + It is also used to cause purification and enlightenment, for it is + written, `To learn you must suffer and be purified.' [kiss] + + Art willing to suffer to learn?" + + Postulant: "I am." + + "Next and lastly I present the cords. They are of use to bind the + sigils of the art, also the material basis. Also they are necessary in + the oath." [kiss] + + "I now salute you in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos, Newly made + Priestess and Witch." + + Lead round and proclaim to four quarters, "Hear, ye Mighty Ones, (name) + has been consecrated a priestess of the Goddess." + + Now present new Witch to coven members. All should kiss and hug new +3054 + + Witch as welcome into membership. + + To close circle proclaim to four quarters, "Ye Mighty Ones of the East + (South, West, North), I thank you for attending and, ere ye depart for + your lovely realms, I say hail and farewell." + + C.7. The Second-Degree Initiation (1957) + + Form Circle in usual manner, invoking the Mighty Ones at the Four + Quarters. The Initiate should be properly prepared and bound with the + Cords. + + All are purified, including Initiate. + + Circle once, proclaiming at the Four Quarters: "Hear Ye Mighty Ones, . + . . (N), a duly consecrated Priestess and Witch is now properly + prepared to be made a High Priest and Magus (High Priestess and Witch + Queen)." + + Circle three times, with dance step and chant. + + Initiate then kneels before the Altar and is secured with the Cords. + + Priestess or Magus: "To attain to this sublime Degree it is necessary + to suffer and be purified. Art willing to suffer to learn?" + + Initiate: "I am." + + Priestess or Magus: "I purify thee to take this great oath rightly". + + Strike three strokes upon the bell. Scourge 3, 7, 9, 21. "I now give + thee a new name: . . ." [kiss] + + "Repeat thy new name after me, saying, `I, . . ., swear, upon my + mother's womb and by mine honour among men and my brothers and sisters + of the Art, that I will never reveal to any at all any of the secrets + of the Art, except it be to a worthy person, properly prepared, in the + center of a Magic Circle such as I am now in. This I swear by my hopes + of salvation, my past lives and my hopes of future ones to come and I + devote myself and my measure to utter destruction if I break this my + solemn Oath.'" + + Kneel. + + Place Left Hand under Initiate's Knee and Right Hand on Head, thus + forming Magic Link, saying: "I will all my power into thee." + + WILL. + + Loose, assist to rise. + + Consecrate: "I consecrate thee with oil [on genitals, right breast, + left hip, right hip, left breast, genitals), I consecrate thee with + wine, I consecrate thee with my lips, High Priest and Magus (High + Priestess and Witch Queen)." Loose remaining cords. [kiss] + + "You will now use the working tools in turn, "First the Magic Sword + (Form Circle) [kiss] +3055 + + "Second the Athame. (Form Circle) [kiss] + + "Third the White-Handled Knife (use) [kiss] "Fourth the Wand. (Wave + to 4 Quarters) [kiss] + + "Fifth the Pentacle. (Show to 4 Quarters) [kiss] + + "Sixth the Censer. (Circle, cense) [kiss] + + "Seventh the Cords. (Use) [kiss] + + "Eighth the scourge: for learn, in witchcraft you must ever give as you + receive, but ever triple. So where I gave thee 3, return 9; where I + gave 7, return 21; where I gave 9, return 27; where I gave 21, return + 63." (Use, 9, 21, 27, 63; i.e., 120 in all [kiss]) + + "Thou hast obeyed the law. But mark well, when thou receivest good, so + equally art bound to return good threefold." + + The Priestess or Magus is then loosed from the cords and says: "Having + learned thus far, you must know why the Wicca are called the Hidden + Children of the Goddess". + + Then the Legend of the Goddess is either read or acted out. If it is + possible to act it out, the new Initiate may take one of the parts. + One of the Coven should act as Narrator, and another as Guardian of the + Portal. The Priestess, or another woman, may act the part of the + Goddess, and the Magus, or another man, may act the part of the God. + The Priestess -- or whoever is taking the part of the Goddess -- takes + off her necklace and lays it on the Altar. Then she goes outside the + circle and is dressed in a veil and jewellery. The Magus -- or whoever + is taking the part of the God -- is invested with a horned crown and + girds on a sword, which he draws and stands in the God position with + sword and scourge, by the altar. + +Narrator: "In ancient times our Lord, the Horned One, was, as he still +is, the Consoler, the Comforter; but men knew him as the Dread Lord of +Shadows -- lonely, stern, and hard. Now our Lady the Goddess had never +loved, but she would solve all mysteries, even the mystery of Death -- +and so she journeyed to the Nether Lands. The Guardians of the Portals +challenged her:" + +(The Priestess -- or whoever is taking the part of the Goddess -- +advances to the side of the Circle. Whoever is taking the part of the +Guardian of the Portal challenges her with the Sword or Athame.) + +Narrator: "`Strip off thy garments, lay aside thy jewels, for naught may +ye bring with ye into this our land'. So she laid down her garments and +her jewels and was bound, as are all who enter the realms of Death the +Mighty One". + +(The Priestess takes off the veil and the jewellery and lays them down +outside the Circle. The Guardian of the Portal binds her with the Cords +and brings her inside the Circle.) + +Narrator: "Such was her beauty that Death himself knelt and laid his +sword and crown at her feet and kissed her feet." + +3056 + +(The Magus -- or whoever is playing the part of the God -- comes forward +and lays the Horned Crown and the Sword at the Priestess's feet and +kisses her feet) + +Narrator: "Saying, `Blessed be thy feet that have brought thee in these +ways. Abide with me, but let me place my cold hand on thy heart'. And +she replied, `I love thee not. Why dost thou cause all things that I +love and take delight in to fade and die?' `Lady,' replied Death, `'Tis +Age and Fate, against which I am helpless. Age causes all things to +wither; but when men die at the end of time, I give them rest and peace +and strength, so that they may return. But you, you are lovely. Return +not; abide with me.' But she answered, `I love thee not.' Then said +Death, `An you receive not my hand on your heart, you must receive +Death's scourge.'" + +(The Magus rises and takes up the Scourge from the Altar.) + +Narrator: "`It is fate, better so,' she said, and she knelt." + +(The Priestess kneels before the altar, and the Magus uses the scourge +3, 7, 9, 21.) + +Narrator: "And Death scourged her tenderly, and she cried, `I feel the +pangs of love'. And Death raised her, and said, `Blessed be,' and he +gave her the Fivefold Kiss, saying, `Thus only may you attain to joy and +knowledge'." + +(The Magus raises the Priestess, gives her the Fivefold Kiss and unties +the cords) + +Narrator: "And he taught her all the Mysteries and gave her the +necklace, which is the Circle of Rebirth." + +(The Magus takes the Priestess's necklace from the Altar and replaces it +about her neck. The Priestess takes up the Sword and the Horned Crown +from the floor, where the Magus placed them, and gives them back to him. +Then he stands as before by the Altar, in the position of the God, and +she stands by his side in the pentacle position, as Goddess) + +Narrator: "And she taught him the mystery of the sacred cup, which is +the cauldron of rebirth. They loved and were one; and he taught her all +the Magics. For there be three great mysteries in the life of man -- +love, death, and resurrection in a new body -- and magic controls them +all. To fulfill love you must return at the same time and place as the +loved one, and you must meet and know and remember and love them again. +But to be reborn you must die and be ready for a new body; to die you +must be born; without love you may not be born -- and these be all the +magics. And our Goddess ever inclineth to love and mirth and happiness, +and guardeth and cheriseth Her hidden children in life; and in death she +teacheth the way to have communion, and even in this world She teacheth +them the Mystery of the Magic Circle, which is placed between the +worlds." + +The Priestess or Magus then replaces the Sword, Crown, Scourge, etc., +upon the Altar, and taking the new Initiate by the hand and holding the +Athame in the other, passes once round the Circle, proclaiming at the +Four Quarters, "Hear, Ye Mighty Ones, . . . hath been duly consecrated +High Priest and Magus (or High Priestess and Witch Queen)." +3057 + + C.8. The Third-Degree Initiation (1957) + +Magus gives Fivefold Kiss. + +Magus: "Ere we proceed with this sublime degree, I must beg purification +at thy hands." + +High Priestess binds Magus and ties him down to the altar. She +circumambulates three times, and scourges Magus with three, seven, nine, +and 21 strokes. She then unbinds him and helps him to his feet. + +Magus now binds the High Priestess and ties her down to the altar. He +circumambulates, proclaiming to the four quarters, "Hear, ye mighty +Ones, the twice consecrate and Holy (name), High Priestess and Witch +Queen, is properly prepared and will now proceed to erect the Sacred +Altar." + +Magus scourges High Priestess with three, seven, nine, and 21 strokes. + +Magus kisses her feet. "Ere I dare proceed with this sublime degree, I +must again beg purification at thy hands." + +She binds and scourges him. + +Note: if High Priestess has not performed this rite before, he says, +"Here I reveal to you a great mystery." [Kneel and place couch in +position so as to face north.] + + Assist me to build + As the Mighty One willed, + An Altar of praise, + From beginning of days, + Thus doth it lie, + Twixt the points of the sky, + For thus it was placed + When the Goddess embraced + The Horned One, Her Lord, + Who taught her the word, + +[Priestess lies down in such a way that her vagina is approximately at +the center of the circle] + + Which quickened the womb, + And conquered the Tomb. + Be thus as of yore, + The Shrine we adore, [kiss] + The feast without fail, + The life-giving Grail, [kiss] + Before it uprear + The Miraculous Spear, + And invoke in this sign + The Goddess divine. [kiss] + +Invoke: "Thou who at moon of night doth reign, + Queen of the starry realm above, + `Not unto Thee may we attain + Unless Thine Image be of Love.'[kiss] + +3058 + + By moon-rays silver shaft of power, + By green leaf breaking from the bud, + By seed that springeth into flower, + By life that courseth in the blood.[kiss] + + By rushing wind and leaping flame, + By flowing water and green earth, + Pour us the wine of our desire + From out Thy Cauldron of Rebirth. [kiss] + + Here may we see in vision clear + The Secret Strange unveiled at length, + The wondrous Twin-Pillars rear + Erect in Beauty and in Strength. [kiss +breasts] + + Altar of Mysteries manifold, + The Sacred Circle's central point, + Thus do I sign thee as of old, + With kisses of my lips anoint. + +(Eightfold Kiss: 3 points, Lips, 2 Breasts and back to lips, & 5 +points*, with oil, wine, & kisses) + + Open for me the Secret Way, + The pathway of intelligence, + Between the Gates of Night and Day, + Beyond the bounds of time and sense. + + Behold the Mystery aright, + The Five True Points of Fellowship, + Here where the Lance and Grail unite, + And feet and knees and breast and lips." + +Magus and High Priestess: "Encourage our hearts, Let thy Light +crystallize itself in our blood, fulfilling us of Resurrection, for +there is no part of us that is not of the Gods." + + (Exchange Names.) + + C.9. The Witches' Chant or Rune (1957) + +Darksome night and Shining Moon, + East, then South, then West, then North, +Harken to the Witches Rune: + Here come I to call thee forth. + +Earth and Water, Air and Fire, + Wand and Pentacle and Sword, +Work ye unto my desire, + Harken ye unto my word. + +Cords and Censer, Scourge and knife, + Powers of the Witches Blade, +Waken all ye into life, + Come ye as the Charm is made: + +Queen of Heaven, Queen of Hell, +3059 + + Horned Hunter of the Night, +Lend your power unto the Spell, + Work my will by Magic Rite. + +If chant is used to reinforce a work already begun, end with this: + +By all the power of land and sea, by all the might of moon and sun, + +What is my will- "So mote it be,"What I do say- "It shall be done." + + C.10. Consecrating Tools (1957) + +(Note: if possible lay any new weapon touching an already consecrated +one, Sword to sword, Athame to Athame, etc.) + +[1] Prepare Circle and purify. All tools must be consecrated by a man +and a woman, both as naked as drawn swords; they must be purified, +clean, and properly prepared. + +[2] Place tool on pentacle on altar. Magus sprinkles it with salt and +water. Witch passes it through smoke of incense, replaces it on +pentacle. Touching with already consecrated weapon, they say the First +Conjuration. + +[2a] For sword or athame, say "I conjure thee, O Sword (or Athame) of +Steel, that thou servest me for a strength and a defence in all magical +operations, against all mine enemies, visible and invisible, in the +names of Aradia and Cernunnos. I conjure thee anew by the Holy Names +Aradia and Cernunnos, that thou servest me for a protection in all +adversities, so aid me." + +[2b] For any other tool, say, "Aradia and Cernunnos, deign to bless and +to consecrate this [tool], that it may obtain necessary virtue through +thee for all acts of love and Beauty." + +[3] Again they sprinkle and cense, and say the Second Conjuration: + +[3a] For sword or athame, say, "I conjure thee, O Sword [Athame] of +Steel, by the Great Gods and the Gentle Goddesses, by the virtue of the +Heavens, of the Stars, of the Spirits who preside over them, that thou +mayest receive such virtues that I may obtain the end that I desire in +all things wherein I shall use thee, by the power of Aradia and +Cernunnos." + +[3b] For any other tool, say, "Aradia and Cernunnos, bless this +instrument prepared in thine honour." (For the scourge or cords, add, +"That it may only serve for a good use and end, and to thy Glory.") + +[4] All instruments when consecrated should be presented to their User +by giving the [point-down triangle] sign salute (if they are working in +the 1st degree, or the sign of the higher degree if they are working +that.) + +[5] Then the one who is not the owner should give the Fivefold Kiss to +the owner. For the final kiss, the tool should be placed between the +breasts, and the two workers should embrace for as long as they feel +like, it being held in place by their bodies. The new owner should use +it immediately, i.e., cast (trace) Circle with Sword or Athame, wave +3060 + +wand to 4 quarters, cut something with white-handled knife, etc. Cords +and scourge should be used at once. + +The tool should be kept in as close connection as possible to the naked +body for at least a month, i.e., kept under pillow, etc. When not in +use, all tools and weapons should be put away in a secret place; and it +is good that this should be near your sleeping place, and that you +handle them each night before retiring. Do not allow anyone to touch or +handle any of your tools until they are thoroughly impregnated with your +aura; say, six months or as near as possible. But a couple working +together may own the same tools, which will be impregnated with the aura +of both. + + D.1 The Old Laws (1961) + +[A] The Law was made and Aredan of old. The law was made for the Wicca, +to advise and help in their troubles. The Wicca should give due worship +to the Gods and obey their will, which they Aredan, for it was made for +the good of the Wicca, As the [5] Wicca's worship is good for the Gods, +For the Gods love the Wicca. As a man loveth a woman, by mastering her, +so the Wicca should love the Gods, by being mastered by them. And it is +necessary that the Circle, which is the Temple of the Gods, should be +truly cast and purified, that it [10] may be a fit place for the Gods to +enter. And the Wicca should be properly prepared and purified, to enter +into the presence of the Gods. With love and worship in their hearts +they shall raise power from their bodies to give power to the Gods, as +has been toughed us of old, [15] For in this way only may man have +communion with the Gods, for the Gods cannot help man without the help +of men. + +[B] And the High Priestess shall rule her Coven as representative of the +Goddess, and the High Priest shall support her as the representative of +the God, And the High Priestess shall choose whom she [20] will, if he +have sufficient rank, to be her High Priest), For the God himself, +kissed her feet in the fivefold salute, laying his power at the feet of +the Goddess, because of her youth and beauty, her sweetness and +kindness, her wisdom and Justice, her humility and generosity. So he +resigned his lordship to her. But the Priestess should [25] ever mind +that all power comes from him. lt is only lent when it is used wisely +and justly. And the greatest virtue of a High Priestess is that she +recognizes that youth is necessary to the representative of the Goddess, +so that she will retire gracefully in favour of a younger woman, Should +the Coven so decide in Council, For the true [30] High Priestess +realizes that gracefully surrendering pride of place is one of the +greatest of virtues, and t hat thereby she will return to that pride of +place in another life, with greater power and beauty. + +[C] In the days when Witchdom extended far, we were free and worshipped +in Alther Greatest Temples, but in these unhappy times [35] we must +hold our sacred mysteries in secret. So it be Aredan, that none but the +Wicca may see our mysteries, for our enemies are many, And torture +looseth the tongues of many. It be aredan that each Coven shall not know +where the next Coven bide, or who its members are, save the Priest and +Priestess, [40] That there shall be no communication between them, save +by the Messenger of the Gods, or the Summoner. Only if it be safe, may +the Covens meet, in some safe place, for the great festivals. And while +there, none shall say whence they come, or give their true names, to the +end that, if any are tortured, in their agony, they can [45] not tell if +3061 + +they know not. So it be Aredan that no one may tell any not of the +Craft who be of the Wicca, nor give any names, or where they bide, or in +any way tell anything which can betray any to our foes, nor may they +tell where the Covenstead be, or where is the Covendom, [50] or where be +the meeting s or that there have been meetings. And if any break these +laws, even under torture, The Curse of the Goddess shall be upon them, +so they never reborn on earth, And may they remain where they belong, in +the Hell of the Christians. + +[D] Let each High Priestess govern her Coven with Justice and [55] love, +with the help of the advice of the elders, always heeding the advice of +the Messenger of the Gods, if he cometh. She will heed all complaints of +brothers, and strive to settle all differences among them, but it must +be recognized that there be people who will ever strive to force others +to do as they will. [60] They are not necessarily evil, and they often +do have good ideas, and such ideas should be talked over in council. And +if they will not agree with their brothers, or if they say, "I will not +work under this High Priestess," it hath always been the old law to be +convenient for the brethren, and to void disputes, any of the Third [65] +may claim to found a new Coven because they live over a league from the +Covenstead, or are about to do so. Anyone living within the Covendom +wishing to form a new Coven, to avoid strife, shall tell the Elders of +his intention and on the instant void his dwelling and remove to the new +Covendom. Members of the old Coven may join the New one when it be +formed, but if they do, must utterly void the old Coven. The Elders of +the New and the Old Covens should meet in peace and brotherly love, to +decide the new boundaries. Those of the Craft who dwell outside both +Covendoms may join either indifferent, but not both, though all may, if +the Elders [75] agree, meet for the Great Festivals, if it be truly in +peace and brotherly love. But splitting the coven oft means strife, so +for this reason these laws wer e made of old, And may the curse of the +Goddess be on any who disregard them. So be it aredan. + +[E] If you would Keep a book let it be in your own hand of write. [80] +Let brothers and sisters copy what they will, but never let the book out +of your hands, and never keep the writings of another, for if it be +found in their hand of write, they well may be taken and Engined. Each +should guard his own writings and destroy it whenever danger threatens. +Learn as much as you may by heart, and when danger is [85] past, rewrite +your book an it be safe. For this reason, if any die, destroy their book +if they hav e not been able to, for an it be found, 'tis clear proof +against them, And our oppressors well know, "Ye may not be a witch +alone" So all their kin and friends be in danger of torture. So ever +destroy anything not necessary. [90] If your book be found on you. 'tis +clear proof against you alone. You may be engined. Keep all thoughts +of the Craft from your mind. Say you had bad dreams; a devil caused you +to write it without your knowledge. Think to yourself, "I know nothing. +I remember nothing. I have forgotten everything." Drive this [95] into +your mind. If the torture be too great to bear, say, "I will confess. +I cannot bear this torture. What do you want me to say? Tell me and I +will say it." If they try to make yo u speak of the brotherhood, Do +NOT, but if they try to make you speak of [100] impossibilities, such as +flying through the air, consorting with the Christian Devil, or +sacrificing children, or eating men's flesh, to obtain relief from +torture, say, "I had an evil dream. I was not myself. I was crazed." +Not all Magistrates are bad. If there [105] be an excuse they may show +mercy. If you have confessed aught, deny it afterwards; say you babbled +under torture, you knew not what you did or said. If you are condemned, +3062 + +fear not. The Brotherhood is powerful. They may help you to escape, if +you stand steadfast, but if you betray aught, there is no hope for you, +in this [110] life, or in that which is to come. Be sure, if steadfast +you go to the pyre, Dwale will reach you. You will feel naught. You go +but t o Death and what lies beyond, the ecstasy of the Goddess. + +[F] 'Tis probable that before you are engined, Dwale will reach you. +[115] Always remember that Christians fear much that any die under +torture. At the first sign of swoon, they cause it to be stopped, and +blame the tormenters. For that reason, the tormenters themselves are +apt to feign to torment, but do not, so it is best not to die at first. +If Dwale reaches you, 'tis a sign that you have a friend somewhere. +[120] You may be helped to escape, so despair not. If the worst comes, +and you go to the pyre, wait till the flames and smoke spring up, bend +your head over, and breath in with long breaths. You choke and die +swiftly, and wake in the arms of the Goddess. + +[G] To void discovery, let the working tools [125] be as ordinary things +that any may have in their houses. Let the Pentacles be of wax, so they +may be broken at once. Have no sword unless your rank allows you one. +Have no names or signs on anything. Write the names and signs on them +in ink before consecrating them and wash it off immediately after. Do +not Bigrave them, [130] lest they cause discovery. Let the colour of +the hilts tell which is which. + +[H] Ever remember, ye are the Hidden Children of the Gods. So never do +anything to disgrace them. Never boast, Never threaten, Never say you +would wish ill to anyone. If you or any not in the Circle speak of the +Craft, [135] say, "Speak not to me of such. It frightens me. 'Tis evil +luck to speak of it." For this reason: the Christians have spies +everywhere. These speak as if they were well affected, as if they would +come to Meetings, saying, "My mother used to go to worship the Old Ones. +I would that I could go myself."* To these ever deny all knowledge. +[140] But to others ever say, "'Tis foolish men talk of witches flying +through the air; to do so they must be light as thistledown," and "Men +say that witches all be bleared-eyed old crones, so what pleasure can +there be in witch meetings such as folk talk on?" Say, "Many wise men +now say there be no such creatures." Ever [145] make it a jest, and in +some future time, perhaps the persecution will die, and we may worship +safely again. Let us all pray for that happy day. + +[I] May the blessings of the Goddess and the God be on all who keep +these laws which are Aredan. + +[J] If the Craft hath any Appanage, let all brothers guard it, and help +to keep it clear and good for the Craft, and let all justly guard all +monies of the Craft. But if some brothers truly wrought it, 'tis right +that they have their pay, an it be just, an this be not taking [5] money +for the use of the Art, but for good and honest work. And even the +Christians say, "A labourer is worthy of his hire." But if any brothers +work willingly for the good of the craft without pay, 'tis but to their +greater honour. So it be Aredan. + +[K] If there be any disputes or quarrels among the brethren, the [10] +High Priestess shall straight convene the Elders and enquire into the +matter, and they shall hear both sides, first alone, then together, and +they shall decide justly, not favouring the one side or the other, ever +recognizing that there be people who can never agree to work under +3063 + +others, but at the same time there be some people who [15] cannot rule +justly. To those who ever must be chief, there is one answer, "Void the +Coven and seek an other, or make a Coven of your own, taking with you +those who will to go." To those who cannot rule justly, the answer be, +"Those who cannot bear your rule will leave you," for none may come to +meetings with those with whom they are at [20] variance; so, an either +cannot agree, get hence, for the Craft must ever survive. So it be +Aredan. + +[L] In the olden days when we had power, we could use our Arts against +any who ill-treated any of the Brotherhood, but in these evil times, we +may not do so, for our enemies have devised a burning [25] pit of +everlasting fire, into which they say their God casteth all the people +who worship him, except it be the very few who are released by their +priests' spells and Masses, and this be chiefly by giving money and rich +gifts to receive his favour, for their Alther Greatest God [Greatest God +of all] is ever i +n need of Money. [30] But as our Gods need our aid to make fertility for +men and crops, So the God of the Christians is ever in need of man's +help to search out and destroy us. +Their priests tell them that any who get our help or our cures are +damned to the Hell forever, so men be mad for the terror of it. But they +make men [35] believe that they may scape this hell if they give victims +to the tormenters. So for this reason all be forever spying, thinking, +"An I can but catch one of the Wicca I will scape this fiery pit." But +we have our hidels, and men searching long and not finding say, "there +be none, or if they be, they be in a far country." +[40] But when one of our oppressors die, or even be sick, ever is the +cry, "This be Witches Malice," and the hunt is up again. And though +they slay ten of their people to one of ours, still they care not; they +have many thousands, while we are few indeed. So it is Aredan that none +shall use the Art in any way to do ill [45] to any, howevermuch they +have injured us. And for long we have obeyed this law, "Harm none" and +nowtimes many believe we exist not. So it be Aredan that this law shall +still continue +to help us in our plight. No one, however great an injury or injustice +they receive, may use the Art in any to do ill or harm any. [50] But +they may, after great consultations with all, use the Art to prevent or +restrain Christians from harming us and others, but only to let or +constrain them and never to punish, to this end. Men say, "Such an one +is a mighty searcher out and persecutor of Old Women whom he deemeth to +be Witches, [55] and none hath done him Skith [harm], so this be proof +they cannot, o +r more truly, that there be none," For all know full well that so many +folk have died because someone had a grudge against them, or were +persecuted because they had money or goods to seize, or because they had +none to bribe the searchers. And many have died [60] because they were +scolding old women, so much so that men now say that only old women are +witches, and this be to our advantage, and turns suspicion away from us. +In England 'tis now many a year since a witch hath died the death, +but any misuse of the power might raise the Persecution again; so never +break this law, [65] however much you are tempted, and never consent to +its being broken. If you know it is being broken in the least, you must +work strongly against it, and any High Priestess or High Priest who +consents to it must be immediately deposed, for 'tis the blood of the +Brethren they endanger. Do good, an it be safe, and only if [70] it be +safe, for any talk may endanger us. + +3064 + +[M] And strictly keep to the Old Law, never accept money for the use of +the art. It is Christian priests and sorcerers who accept money for the +use of their Arts, and they sell Dwale and evil love spells and pardons +to let men scape from their sins. [75] Be not as these. Be not as these. +If you accept not money, you will be free of temptation to use the Art +for evil causes. + +[N] You may use the Art for your own advantage, or for the advantage of +the Craft, only if you be sure you harm none. But ever let the Coven +debate the matter at length. Only if all are satisfied that none may be +harmed [80] may the Art be used. If it is not possible to achieve your +ends one way without harming any, perchance the aim may be achieved by +acting in a different way, so as to harm none. May the Curse of the +Goddess be on any who breach this law. So it be aredan. + +[O] 'Tis adjudged lawful an anyone need a house or land, an none will +[85] sell, to incline the owner's mind to be willing to sell, provided +it harmeth him not in any way, and that the full worth is paid, without +haggling. Never bargain or cheapen anything which you buy by the Art. +So it be Aredan. + +[P] It is the Old Law and the most important of all Laws [90] that no +one may do or say anything which will endanger any of the Craft, or +bring them in contact with the law of the land, or the Law of the Church +or any of our persecutors. In any disputes between the brethren, no one +may invoke any laws but those of the Craft, or any Tribunal but that of +the Priestess and the Priest and the [95] Elders. And may the Curse of +the Goddess be on any who so do. So it be Aredan. + +[Q] It is not forbidden to say as Christians do, "There be Witchcraft in +the Land," because our oppressors of old made it Heresy not to believe +in Witchcraft, and so a crime to deny it, which thereby put [100] you +under suspicion. But ever say "I know not of it here, perchance they +may be, but afar off. I know not where." But ever speak so you cause +others to doubt they be as they are. Always speak of them as old +crones, consorting with the Devil and riding through the air. But ever +say, "But how may men ride through the air an they be not [105] as light +as thistledown?" But the curse of the Goddess be on any who cast any +suspicion on any of the Brotherhood, or speaks of any real meeting +place, or where any bide. So it be Aredan. [R] Let the Craft keep books +with the names of all Herbs which are good for man, and all cures, that +all may learn. But keep [110] another book with all the Banes [poisons] +and Apies. and let only the elders and trustworthy people have this +knowledge. So it be Aredan. [S] And may the Blessings of the Gods be on +all who keep these Laws and the Curses of both God and Goddess be on all +who break them So it be Aredan. [The following two sections were added +after 1960.] [T] Remember the Art is the secret of the Gods and may only +be used in earnest and never for show or vainglory. Magicians and +Christians may taunt us, saying, "You have no power. Do magic before +our eyes. Then only will we believe," seeking to cause us to betray our +Art before them. Heed them not, for the Art is holy, and may only be +used in need. And the curse of the Gods be on any who break this law. +[U] It ever be the way with women, and with men also, that they ever +seek new love, nor should we reprove them for this, but it may be found +to disadvantage the Craft, as so many a time it has happened that a High +Priest or High Priestess, impelled by love, hath departed with their +love; that is, they have left the coven. Now, if a High Priestess +wishes to resign, she may do so in full Coven, and this resignation is +3065 + +valid. But if they should run off without resigning, who may know if +they may not return w ithin a few months? So the law is, if a High +Priestess leaves her coven, but returns within the space of a year and +a +day, then she shall be taken back, and all shall be as before. +Meanwhile, if she has a deputy, that deputy shall act as High Priestess +for as long as the High Priestess is away. If she returns not at the +end of a year and a day, then shall the coven elect a new High +Priestess. Unless there be a good reason to the contrary. The person +who has done the work should re ap the benefit of the reward, Maiden +and deputy of the High Priestess. + + D.2. The Verse Charge (1961) + +I the Mother, darksome and divine, +Say to thee, Oh children mine +(All ye assembled at mine Shrine), +Mine the scourge and mine the kiss +The five-point star of love and bliss +Here I charge ye in this sign. (Assume Goddess position.) + +All ye assembled here tonight +Bow before my spirit bright +Aphrodite, Arianrhod, Lover of the Horned God, +Mighty Queen of Witchery and night + +Astarte, Hecate, Ashtaroth, Dione, +(Morrigan, Etain, Nisene), +Diana, Brigid, Melusine, +Am I named of old by men, Artemis and Cerridwen, +Hell's dark mistress, Heaven's Queen. + +(Whene'er trouble comes anoon) +All who would learn of me a Rune +Or would ask of me a boon, Meet ye in some secret glade +Dance my round in greenwood shade, +by the light of the full moon. + +(In a place wild and lone) +With the comrades alone +Dance about my altar stone. +Work my holy Magistry,Ye who are fain of sorcery, +I bring ye secrets yet unknown. + +(Whate'er troubles come to thee), +No more shall ye know slavery +Who give due worship unto me, +Who tread my round on Sabbat-night. Come ye all naked to the rite, +In token ye be truly free. + +I teach the mystery of rebirth, +Keep ye my mysteries in mirth +Heart joined to heart, and lip to lip, +Five are the points of fellowship +That bring ye ecstasy on Earth. + +I ask no offerings, do but bow, +No other law but love I know, +3066 + +By naught but love I may be known, +All that liveth is mine own +From me they come, to me they go. + + D.3. Casting and Charging (1961) + +[1] Forming Circle. Light candles. + +1. Draw Circle with Magic Sword or Athame. + +2. Sprinkle with consecrated water. + +3. Cense. + +4. Say, "I conjure thee, O Circle of Power, that thou be a Boundary and +a Protection and a meeting place between the world of men and the realms +of the Mighty Ones, A Guardian and a Protection that shall preserve and +contain the Power which we shall raise within thee, Wherefore do I Bless +and Consecrate thee." + +5. Say "I summon, Stir, and Call Thee up, Ye Mighty Ones of the (East, +South, West, North) To witness the Rites and to guard the Circle." + +[2] Closing Circle. + +Say, "Mighty Ones of the (East, South, West, North), I thank you for +attending, and ere you depart for your lovely realms, I say Hail and +Farewell." + +[3] Consecration of Water and Salt. + +Touch water with Athame, saying, "I exorcise thee, O Creature of Water, +that thou cast out from thee all the impurities and uncleannesses of the +spirits of the World of Phantasm, In the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." + +Touching Salt with Athame, say, "Blessings be upon this creature of +Salt. Let all malignity and hindrance be cast forth hencefrom and let +all good enter herein. Wherefore I bless thee that thou mayest aid me, +In the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." + +[4] Drawing Down the Moon. + +"I invoke Thee and call upon Thee, Oh Mighty Mother of us All, Bringer +of all Fruitfulness. By Seed and Root, by Stem and Bud, by Leaf and +Flower and Fruit, by Life and Love, Do We invoke Thee to descend upon +the body of Thy servant and Priestess (name)." + +High Priest and other men give Fivefold Kiss. Women all bow. + + D.4. Forming the Circle. (1961) + +FORMING THE CIRCLE. + +[1] Must have a man and a woman, properly prepared, i.e., naked. + +[2] Mark a circle nine feet across on the floor with chalk, etc. The +best way is to get a string. Tie 2 loops four foot, six inches apart. +Put one loop over a nail or something in the center. Put chalk in the +3067 + +other and run it round. If you can't make marks on the floor, put +furniture, etc., round to form it. Have a table, etc., as an Altar, +with all tools, etc., on it. Have a bowl of water, and some salt. + +[3] Place Athame on the bowl of water. Say, "I exorcise thee, O +creature of Water, that thou cast out from Thee all the impurities and +uncleannesses of the Spirits of the World of Phantasm in the name of +Aradia and Cernunnos. But ever mind that Water purifies the body, but +the scourge purifies the soul." + +[4] Then place Athame on the salt. Say, "Blessings be upon this +creature of Salt. Let all malignity and hindrance be cast forth +hencefrom, and let all good enter herein. Wherefore I bless thee that +thou mayest aid me, in the name of Aradia and Cernunnos. + +[5] Then trace Circle on the lines you have marked out, starting at the +East and returning to the East. (Always go round the circle with your +Right hand to the Altar. Never go Widdershins.) Then put the Salt +into the water. and go round the circle again, sprinkling it to purify +it. Then go round again censing it. (Everyone in the circle must be +sprinkled and censed.) + +[6] Then go to the East, Sword or Athame in hand. Draw an invoking +pentacle in the Air, starting at the top and going to the lefthand +corner, saying, "I summon, and call thee up, O Ye Mighty ones of the +East, to guard the Circle and witness our rites." Then holding the +point of sword or Athame upwards, do the same to the south, west, and +north, and return to the center, to the south of the Altar. + +[7] Then each girl should bind her man, hands behind back and cable Tow +to neck. He should kneel at altar, and be scourged. When all men are +thus "purified," they purify the girls in turn. No one may be in the +circle without being thus purified. + +[8] Then do whatever work wanted. + +[9] When closing the Circle, the High Priestess, or whoever she tells to +do it, saying, "Hail, ye mighty ones of the East. I thank you for +attending, and ere ye depart for your lovely realms, We say, Hail and +Farewell." + + Bibliography + +These are books you should read in order to see the sources Gardner used +to create these rituals. + +Crowley, Aleister. Magick in Theory and Practice. Castle, n.d. [ca. +1930] + +Gardner, Gerald B. High Magic's Aid. Michael Houghton, 1949. + +------. Witchcraft Today. Jarrolds, 1954. + +------. The Meaning of Witchcraft. Aquarian Press, 1959. + +Glanvil, Joseph, and Henry More. Saducismus Triumphatus: or, Full and +Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions. London: Lowndes, 3d +ed., 1689. Scholar's Facsimiles, 1966. One of Murray's major sources +3068 + +of information. + +Leland, Charles Godfrey. Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches of Tuscany. +Scribner's, 1897. Buckland Museum reprint, 1964. + +Mathers, S. L. MacGregor, ed. and trans. The Greater Key of Solomon. +De Laurence, Scott, 1914. + +Murray, Margaret A. The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. Oxford +University Press, 1921. Oxford paperback, 1962. + +------. The God of the Witches. Oxford University Press, 1934. +Doubleday Anchor, 1960. + +Regardie, Israel. The Golden Dawn: An Account of the Teachings, Rites, +and Ceremonies of the Order of the Golden Dawn. 1937-1940. Hazel +Hills, 2d ed., 1969. + +* Gardner appended this paragraph to the Craft Laws in the early 1960s. + +* Gardner appended this paragraph to the Craft Laws in the early 1960s. + +* These are shown by a drawing to be: genitals, left foot, right knee, +left knee, right foot, and back to genitals. + +* My Lady Epona points out that this is precisely what Charles Cardell +had claimed; that is, this paragraph is a response to Cardell, and so it +was probably inserted into the Craft Laws after the run-in with the +Cardells and Olive Green in 1959. This again is an indication that +Gardner did not promulgate the Craft Laws as a document for the Book of +Shadows until about 1960, when Mr. Q was initiated. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +3069 + +Classification: IT.IV.C.2.e +Title: Symbolism +Author: Grand Master of the Order of Shuti + Temple of Set +Date: December, XXIV +Published: Dialogues I.3 + (The section on "Neters" was published in + issue I.4) +Subject: Symbolism +Reading List: 2L, 2V + +[copyright 1989, Temple of Set. Permission for electronic +distribution by echo and on PODS has been given by the author. +No not copy or distribute further without permission of the +author or the Temple of Set.] + + +The first session of the year-XXIV Order of Shuti Workshop +discussed symbolism. + +While the study of symbolism itself is not a primary concern of the +Order of Shuti, several of the Order's activities do involve +working with forms of symbolism, or are discussed using various +symbols. + +The symbols of the twin lion gods, Shu and Tefnut, who together are +Shuti, are obviously of importance in understanding the activities +of the Order. The topic of symbolism was therefore chosen for the +introductory session of the workshop. + + Application + +In discussing this session and what would be discussed, the Grand +Master stressed that symbolism wasn't to be discussed simply as an +intellectual exercise, but that all participants should try to +apply the Setian yardstick of "application" to this discussion. + +Each and every topic of this session (and all sessions in the +workshop) should be measured by the questions of a) Can it be +applied? b) Is it useful? c) Does it work? + + What is symbolism? + +One answer suggested by workshop participants is that symbolism is +a language of the unconscious. + +It is a dynamic language in which one image, a single symbol, can +conjure up archetypical impressions, complex or complete concepts +and/or meanings, rather than being a structured language in which +many words and/or several sentences are needed to put together an +equivalent concept or meaning. + +Another purpose of symbolism offered by the participants is to +serve as a metalanguage which has two levels or multiple levels of +meaning. + +Each symbol or set of symbols can have one meaning to the +initiated, and another meaning to the uninitiated. That symbol or +3070 + +set of symbols could also have /different/ meanings to the +initiated, depending upon how the symbols are communicated, and how +they are mixed with other symbols. A statement in a symbolic +language could even have multiple meanings communicated at the same +time to the same person. + +A lot of the symbols Setians use in our writings are like that. +When we read through the _Scroll of Set_ or the jewelled Tablets, +those of us who have been using the language of the Temple of Set +for a while will see certain words, and will know just from the way +the words are used that the author is writing symbolically as well +as grammatically, and he therefore means "this type of thing". + +This symbolic use of language lets us add meaning to an article +without adding substantially to the size of that article. + +Those who haven't been in the Temple of Set long enough to pick up +on that symbolic use of language will miss almost all of that +meaning on their first reading. + +This is one of the reasons why we all find it useful to reread past +issues of the _Scroll_ and to reread Tablet articles. It enables +us to read meaning in an article that we may have missed on an +earlier reading. + +It sometimes happens that "unintended" meaning is found in an +article during such a rereading. + +Even though the author may not have consciously intended to convey +a certain meaning, that author's Higher Self may have influenced +the writing in such a way as to symbolically give a specific +message in the writing. These messages remain hidden except for +those who can perceive and understand them. + +On the other side of the scale, if our writings are read by someone +totally unfamiliar with occult symbolism, then the message can be +totally lost, and the reader may never see it. + +Symbolism can be visual (examples are the Pentagram of Set, +pictures of the Egyptian Neters, etc), and verbal (the closing we +use on our letters, "Xeper and Remanifest", is a statement and +reminder of our dedication to this Formula, a way of developing and +keeping the habit of Xeper and Remanifestation going strong). + +Each Word itself is a symbol (Xeper, Indulgence, Thelema, etc.), +as is each Neter (Shu, Tefnut, Sekhmet, Bast). A lot of principles +can be used as symbols which have more meaning to the initiated +than they do to those who just read about them in a dictionary. + +Visual and verbal/written symbols involve just one of our senses +(sight). If you include verbal/spoken symbols, we then involve a +second sense (hearing). We then asked the question, "Are there +symbols which are perceived and communicated through each of our +other senses?" + +The first examples offered by workshop participants were incense +and music: Incense can bring about different emotions and responses +through the sense of smell. Music can bring about different +3071 + +responses through the sense of hearing, in ways totally different +than the verbal symbols do (the difference between right brained +behavior and left brained behavior). + + Where does symbolism come from? + +When dealing with incense and music, we are leaving the mental +processes and intellectual reactions that visual symbols will +evoke, and going instead to the more reactive, bodily, reactions. + +We react to the smell of bodily feces with distaste because of the +body's reaction to that sort of an input. We find the fragrance +of a rose very pleasing. + +One of the reasons we use fragrant incenses during a ritual is to +bring about bodily reactions which enhance a ceremony because of +the smells and our reactions to the smells. + +The discussion of one question leads to another. We learn the +reactions / interpretations / meanings of visual and verbal symbols +(at least those discussed above). Do we also learn reactions to +incenses and music, or are those reactions more innate? + +The first response was that our reactions and interpretations, even +our likes and dislikes of music are learned. + +The example given was classical music, which strikes some people +as very soothing and relaxing, and which is likely to put these +people to sleep. But others who are aware of the intelligent +dynamics and many other ingredients of classical music will find +the same music very stimulating. + +(We believe that the workshop participant was thinking about the +lighter classical pieces, such as "Tales from the Vienna Woods," +and not the more active pieces such as "Night on Bald Mountain.") + +The second response disagreed with the first, pointing out that +regardless of whether they are used in classical, modern, or any +other form of music, harps and strings tend to evoke emotional +(peaceful) moods, while drums are more primal and physical, evoking +more active responses. + +The next example we discussed referred to the sense of smell. To +a farmer, feces and fertilizer are pleasing and filled with +promise, a smell of promised growth and life, a totally different +reaction than most people will have (especially after scraping a +dog's refuse off the bottom of one's shoe). + +Similarly, an inlander's first pleasant reaction to sea gulls on +wing, grace in motion, can be compared to the reaction of those who +live on the beach and have to live with the noise and the mess and +the droppings left behind by those very same sea gulls. + +These examples tend to support the theory that we learn our +interpretations of the sounds and smells around us. + +It seems from these examples that our reactions to inputs are +learned, or at least they arise from our experiences. The question +3072 + +then becomes, can symbols have innate visceral responses, or is the +response to a symbol necessarily a learned one? + +To look at innate responses, the original responses to stimuli, we +necessarily looked at children. + +For instance, children generally have no innate response to feces, +and will often eat them until they learn not to. They later learn +to either react with disgust to feces, or to view them as +fertilizer and the source of life. + +The first example of a possibly innate response brought to the +discussion was that of the ephemeral beauty of a butterfly on the +wing. None of the participants could envision any child's reaction +other than awe and delight at such beauty (or at least none would +admit to any other vision). + +This brought forth remarks concerning innate childish "awe", where +almost everything is new and wonderful. + +Children as they begin to distinguish between the multiple events +and objects in their world are simply delighted at the beauty and +diversity they find around them. There is no "evil" during this +time -- only the beauty of nature. + +Few of us have any reason to unlearn this initial response to the +butterfly. These reactions can therefore be considered innate, +stemming from the earliest days of our consciousness. Other +reactions, unpleasant reactions and also more complex reactions, +seem to be learned over time. + +Therefore, there's some of both types of reactions. People will +have initial reactions to many meaningful symbols and inputs, but +their reactions can be modified by their experience and training. + +This discussion raised yet more questions, for which no answers +were attempted during this workshop. The questions were, how much +of our symbolism is learned, and how much of our symbolism is +innate? And if some form of consciousness or memory can survive +from one life to another, then how much might be remembered from +past lives? + +Symbols may or may not come to one's attention. An extremely +visually-oriented person may not notice or respond to other types +of symbols, such as a room's smell, or a background level of music, +while those who are oriented towards those senses will respond to +those inputs, but perhaps not to others. + +Symbolism may have personal and/or experiential meaning (such as +the manure used to plant your garden or that you step in), or +symbolism may be abstract (learned and used in writing, teaching, +or jewelry, but not something that's impacted upon you in the +past). This is the difference between a) the visceral response, +which may be innate and may also be a learned response, modified +through experience or training, and b) the mental response which +must always be learned or developed. + +The Grand Master wishes to note that the discussion at this point +3073 + +had unintentionally left the strict topic of symbolism, and was +dealing instead with experience and reaction to stimuli, on the +unspoken assumption that these reactions applied to our use of +symbolism. + +We feel this to be a valid assumption, since the pleasant reaction +we have to a butterfly or to a unicorn extends to and impacts our +use of those images as symbols. Those with differing reactions to +sea gulls as described above would similarly have different +reactions to Johnathon Livingston Seagull's story. + +Also, by concentrating on experience and reaction rather than +symbolism, we temporarily lost sight of the most important measure +of symbolism -- that of meaning. + +Yes, music has impact, but that music is symbol only if its impact +includes meaning, such as the sense of freedom and power that +accompanies the visual image of the "Flight of the Valkyries" and +similar images of meaning those who are familiar with the movie +will get from various pieces in the sound track from 2001. + +Likewise incense is symbol only if its impact includes meaning. + +That meaning may be supplied by the smell, or that meaning may be +supplied by knowledge of the ingredients within the incense. +Meaning may also be supplied by the words used during the censing +of the chambre. Without some meaning, incense is not symbol, but +only smell. + +Closely related to the sense of smell is the sense of taste, and +it's fairly easy to see that certain tastes can have meaning as +well. + +During Passover Seder, a ritual meal of thanksgiving and freedom +(celebrating the Exodus), Jews will dip greens into salt water and +eat the salty greens, to remind them of tears shed by the Jews in +bondage. They will eat bitter herbs to remind them of the +bitterness of slavery. + +Likewise, there can be kinesthetic symbols as well. + +We feel different when we hold a sword in ritual as opposed to when +we hold a dagger. We feel different when we are standing up than +we feel when we are sitting down, and different still when we are +kneeling or laying down. We feel different in charged rooms, dry +rooms, wet rooms, hot rooms, cold rooms, still rooms, breezy rooms. +Uncontrolled, these latter experiences are just stimuli. +Controlled and used meaningfully, these latter experiences can be +symbols, manipulated and understood as such. + + How should symbolism be used? + +The first obvious use of symbolism is in the communication of +ideas, whether written, spoken, or communicated through one or more +other senses. + +Based on the idea that a single symbol can have a whole galaxy of +meaning, a useful communications skill is the ability to use +3074 + +symbols in the proper places, in the proper ways, to communicate +more meaning in a smaller package (with fewer words). + +Perhaps of greatest importance within the Temple of Set are the +magical aeonic Words: Xeper, Remanifestation, and Xem, and the +preceding Words of Indulgence and Thelema. By using these Words +in writing or other forms of communication, we communicate the +meanings associated with those Words. + +If I say the word "Xeper" to an initiate, it means something +totally different than it would mean to someone off the street, and +it means something totally different to a Setian than it would mean +to an Egyptologist who /thinks/ he knows the Egyptian god Xepera. +Our use of the Word is quite different and the symbol carries so +much more meaning than just the word "Xeper" would carry in a +modern Egyptian dictionary. + +This use of symbolism doesn't apply just to magical Words or +Formulae, but applies to symbols of many different kinds, in many +different uses. + +You'll sometimes find certain words capitalized in text, as are +"Words" and "Formulae" above. When not overly used, this is a +clear indication that the author wishes you to view these words +with their symbolic meanings, rather than their normal meanings. + +During group ritual, certain words will be spoken more +flamboyantly, perhaps louder, perhaps longer, and often with more +gesturing. These words are then generally being used symbolically, +with special meaning at least to the speaker, if not to other +participants. + +Symbolism can also be used in Lesser Black Magic, as tools to +influence certain people (singular or multiple) in certain ways. +The magician (or politician or religious leader or arts director +or other manipulator) will use lighting, music, fragrance, and +other symbols in ways particular to their audience's response to +the symbols. + +Symbolism can be used upon ourselves in a similar manner, to bring +out responses from us that we want to bring out, as in ritual or +as an aid to Xeper. + +Words which have become symbols to us can be used as a means of +increased concentration, as a visual mantra or as a sensual mantra. +Such mantras can be used in ritual, in nonritual meditation, or +whenever we choose to remind ourselves of the principles carried +within that symbol. + +Over time, some symbols can become richer and can carry more and +more meaning to those people who work with the symbol. + +These symbols can become "magnetic", in that each use of the symbol +brings forth yet another repetition of the symbol. Each reference +brings forth a constellation of meaning, with one meaning and use +leading to another. Each use of the symbol sparks, or attracts, +another use of the symbol. + +3075 + +In these cases the symbols will often be repeated over and over +throughout a conversation or other communication, each time +exercising one or more of those meanings, and through the course +of the communication this symbol can almost hold or reflect an +entire world view. This is the way the people influenced by the +symbol see their world. + +At a political rally the symbol might be "America", "Democracy", +or "the Party" (citizens of other countries may substitute those +symbols meaningful in your domain). To some, the symbol might be +"the Environment". + +The symbol "Xeper" has a similar impact within the Setian culture. + +Group consensus is important for communication through symbols. +Different groups can have differing uses of symbols, and attempts +to communicate between these groups using the symbols particular +to one group (or those symbols which are viewed differently by +different groups) can result in confusion or worse. + +Because Setians come from such diverse backgrounds, we have various +communication problems related to these diverse backgrounds. + +Members from the O.T.O. may know all of the Qabalic +correspondences, while members from the Wiccan background couldn't +care less about the Qabalic attributions, and have correspondences +which are totally different. Numerologists apply different +meanings to their numbers than do the Qabalists. And all of these +symbolic systems work. + +But very, very few of them work for all Setians. + +Qabalists within the Temple of Set who write articles and/or +letters steeped in Qabalic symbolism find that very few others care +enough about their symbols to wade through the text. Those from +other backgrounds with intensive use of symbols similarly find +difficulty communicating within the Temple of Set, since our +symbolic vocabulary is so much less cohesive. + +This lack of similarity in symbolism affects not only written +communication, but also ritual activity. + +Each pylon seems to develop its own pattern of symbolism, and +inter-pylon rituals can at times be very difficult. Fitting many +diverse magicians with their diverse backgrounds into one +meaningful ceremony can be a challenge, a challenge faced at each +Conclave, and at each activity like the Order of Shuti Workshop. + + Language of the Unconscious?{fn 1} + +The first question asked by the Grand Master was, "What is +symbolism?" The first answer received was, "A language of the +unconscious." + +Parts of the workshop's discussion might seem to support this +definition, while others contradict it. So let the Grand Master +speak: + +3076 + +Symbols have many attributes. Among the more important of these +attributes is their ability to cause reaction in their audience, +visceral if not innate reactions, as discussed above. + +Elizabeth S. Helfman, in her book _Signs and Symbols around the +World_, defines symbol as being: "anything that stands for +something else." + +Look in your dictionary. Mine includes several definitions of +symbol and symbolism, including: + +>> Symbol: 2: something that stands for or suggests something +else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental +resemblance. 5: an act, sound, or object having cultural significance +and the capacity to excite or objectify a response. + +>> Symbolism: 1: the art or practice of using symols esp. by investing +things with a symbolic meaning or by expressing the invisible or +intangible by means of visible or sensuous representations; as a: the +use of conventional or traditional signs in the representation of divine +beings and spirits, b: artistic imitation or invention that is a method +of revealing or suggesting immaterial, ideal, or otherwise intangible +truth or states. 2: a system of symbols or representations. + +Symbolism is an art, a practice, something which is done. It is used to +communicate meaning. It is a language. + +Our visceral responses to symbolism may be unconscious, but if +that's all there is, then have we received and/or responded to +meaning? + +The transmission and communication of *Meaning* requires some +form of consciousness. + +Let's use the word /Awake/ to mean the highest form of consciousness. +Remember -- the capital letter indicates I'm using a symbol; Setian use +of this specific symbol (Awake) most often refers to Ouspenski's +heightened state of consciousness and awareness, a state of being +totally awake. + +For simplicity, let's assign a whole range of various levels of +conscious awareness to the name "conscious". This name can apply to +heightened states of consciousness which those we would call Awake, +those that barely miss being Awake, down to the almost somnabulent +states in which most of mankind spends their day. + +Finally, I would call the preconscious state one of consciousness in +this case, a state in which meaning can be received, interpreted, and +acted upon, without the individual being "consiously" aware that this +has happened. But if the individual's attention is brought to the +subject, then the symbol and its meaning can be recalled and the process +repeated without any difficulty. + +If symbols are generated and communicated, if they are transmitted +and received, in one of these three states, then I believe we can +correctly talk about symbolism, about language. + +However, if the generation and/or reception of the symbol is uncon +3077 + +scious, and/or totally unintended, then I propose that that instance is +not an example of symbolism, not language or communication, but rather +the accidental generation of and/or visceral response to sensory input. + +[Now let us return to the discussion as it took place in the +workshop...] + + Planetary Symbol System? + +We know there are differences in the meanings of many symbols. +"Patriotism" can be exceedingly important to a Republican and +also to a Libertarian, but the meanings that this symbol will have can +be quite different in many ways. + +This leads us to ask the question of whether there might perhaps be a +"planetary symbol system" in which some symbols at least can be found +commonly used in many or all cultures. + +The cross, square, circle, and most or all simple symbols have been +found in use all over the earth. We therefore can ask whether their +meanings are similar, or are the symbols used simply because they are +simple geometric figures, but with meanings arbitrarily assigned by the +individual cultures? + +One participant brought forth Ouspenski's example that "Table" has a +function, an innate form or essence, which can be perceived beyond +words, and beyond a learned experience. + +"Table" provokes an image, feeling, or essence that is evoked through a +willed perception that extends beyond the actual set of tables that a +person may have ever experienced. + +Ouspenski claims that at a certain state of consciousness the Aware +individual can see this deeper meaning or essence, and that this deeper +meaning or essence can be commonly perceived by all who reach this level +of consciousness. + +Similar ideas were offered by Plato, and the concept of Platonic Forms +is very prevalent throughout the Setian use of symbolism. We often +speak of the Egyptian Neters as being Forms, the original or specific +essence of an Ideal. + +This is certainly an area that needs deeper investigation. The workshop +session discussion however left the topic of abstract Forms, and instead +investigated the historic use of symbols in various cultures. + +Looking first at the more complex god forms, it seems each major +culture has a "trickster" god: Coyote fills this niche in several +Amerindian cultures, Loki in the Norse mythos, and Thoth (Hermes +and Mercury) in the Egyptian (Greek and Roman) mythologies. + +The Trickster is that Spirit who makes you Think. He is the Spirit +who is unpredictable in his actions or reactions, who gets himself +and everyone else into trouble. In the process of doing so -- most +often after everyone is already in trouble -- he makes people +Think, and in the end he generally gets everyone out of trouble by +thinking. + +3078 + +To represent the Trickster, each culture used that type of symbol +or god form which for them was most appropriate for that type of +character. + +The coyote is a fairly independent and hard to track animal in +America, requiring more than the usual amount of intelligence and +stealth to catch. Monkeys similarly were appreciated for their +seeming intelligence and playfulness, and so Egyptians assigned the +Trickster attribute and the monkey's form to Thoth. + +The question becomes ... is this type of being, this symbol, +something which is universal, cross-cultural, or is it something +which happens in just a few cases, and many other societies never +had any use for it? + +Jung was exploring this area. He defined specific symbols which +he felt were common to many or all cultures. They were fairly +common within his culture and Jung did manage to validate them with +some cross-cultural study. + +We still need to ask how complete his studies were, how extensive +and wide spread. + +Given people in extremely different environments, such as the +Eskimo, Hawaiian, Indian, Tibetan, etc., cultures where the people +have many different experiences, totally different social and +physical environments, it can be expected that these people would +have very different reactions to the symbols that Jung thought he +had commonality on. + +Jung's _Man and his Symbol_ was recommended by one participant as +containing documentation on his cross-cultural studies in this +area. + +Not having access to any resource materials that would answer our +questions at the time, the workshop session then proceeded into the +topic of Egyptian Neters and the use of Neters in symbolism. + + Neters + +The Workshop discussion of Egyptian Neters started with a brief +discussion of the Egyptian languages. + +The ancient Egyptians used three different written languages, the +hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic. + +The demotic language was a mostly alphabetic language used for +common communications among those who could read and write. Its +primary uses were for social and business reasons. + +The hieratic language was a pictographic language related to the +hieroglyphic, but in which the pictographs were abbreviated and +simplified to speed writing. It was used for important state +documents and many later religious texts. + +The hieroglyphic language was the most ornate of the three +languages, the most ancient of the three languages, and the most +symbolic. It was used for the most important religious and +3079 + +philosophical statements, and for the most important state +declarations. + +Many of the symbols used to form the hieroglyphic language had +assigned sounds, and many others did not. In addition to the +sounds and symbols used to form words, the Egyptians used +determinatives, signs added to specifically identify each word. +Through the use of the determinative, it was impossible to mistake +one written word for another, even if verbal sounds were the same, +even if the letters used were the same. + +This use of a purely symbolic, picture-oriented language encouraged +the ability in the learned ancient Egyptians to think with right +brained methods while doing the left brain activity of reading. + +It also encouraged these educated and intelligent Egyptians to work +with symbols as they worked with language. They were able to +communicate ideas and ideals in a language particularly well suited +to this purpose. + +Setians use the ancient Egyptian neters as symbols, representing +aspects of the world, or aspects of the individual. We feel this +is very close to the way the higher initiates of the ancient +Egyptian Temples, the priests of the Temples, and the smarter +pharaohs used and viewed their neters. The neters were concepts +that could be communicated to and shared among the initiated, +rather than being actual gods and goddesses. + +The common man may very well have believed in the literal existence +of his many gods and goddesses, but we believe the elite of the +Egyptian society understood that these neters were purely symbols. +When the Egyptian elite paid homage to the neters, they paid homage +to the aspects of the universe or of the self represented by those +neters. + +One neter of obvious importance is Set. In dealing with this +symbol, we try to identify the original meaning of the symbol, and +try to eliminate the corruptions of the symbol imposed by the later +rule of Osirian religion. + +Rather than take space here to discuss the corruptions and +distortions that were applied to the symbol of the neter Set +through the Osirian culture, we'll simply refer the interested +student to appropriate books in the reading list: 2A, 2E, 2G, 2W, +and 2AA. + +It is rather clear that the use and peripheral meanings of the +neter Set changed over time. The study of Set must therefore +include the careful consideration of the source of whatever +writings are being studied. Fortunately most other Egyptian +symbols/god forms did not change significantly over time, and such +care need not be used in studying and working with them. + +The neters were used and viewed as symbols. But the Egyptian +temples _were_ temples, and were recognized as religions, not +simply as centers of enlightened philosophy. This brings up the +question: Do/did the Egyptian Neters actually exist? Were these +religions founded to worship or work with beings that actually +3080 + +existed? Or were they simply the creations of the ancient Egyptian +priesthoods? + +Rather than tackle immediately the question of whether the Neters +actually existed, workshop participants first chose to examine ... + + Egyptian Priesthoods + +The first statement made about these priesthoods was that each +temple in Egypt taught a different area of philosophy or knowledge. + +Those temples dedicated to a major neter or god taught that their +primal Form was the First Cause. These were the major temples of +the land, and an initiate who studied at temple after temple would +be presented with the opposing claims that each god was the god, +The Creator. + +We noted in our discussion that the priesthoods of several of the +"minor" neters did not make any such claims. Thoth as a single +neter never seemed to be treated as the creator god; nor was Geb. +However, many of the major neters were treated as creator gods, and +many gods were intentionally combined into units (such as +Amon-Thoth-Ra) in order to form a god which would be powerful +enough to qualify as The creator god. + + Neters as Symbols + +We returned to discussing the neters as ways of viewing possibility +and potentiality, and ways of viewing different aspects of the +universe and of the individual. + +For example, Ra, the sun god, was a most pervasive and powerful +being, since every single day, there he is in the sky. Ra was +consistent, reliable, and therefore powerful. + +Similarly each force in nature was given a personality, because +each force in nature has a personality (or seems to, to those who +humanize such things). This is the basic principle behind most +spirits of most animistic religions. + +These personalities are generally reliable. A rain cloud is going +to rain; it isn't going to add to the day's heat. The Nile was not +going to dry up -- it was going to overflow once a year, and +deposit good, rich, fertile earth upon the ground. Each force of +nature, each personality, was given a name, a face, and a story. + +The most powerful stories, faces, and names are those that belong +to the creator gods. There are so many creator gods, that it's +really difficult to pin down an actual order of precedence. + +This brings up the fact that there are many apparently conflicting +stories within the Egyptian mythology. + +The Grand Master pointed out that in several Egyptian myths, Shu +and Tefnut are self-created. In others they were created by tears +of the master creator god (whoever he happened to be according to +the story teller). In yet others they were created by the master +god's masturbation. +3081 + +Shu and Tefnut by definition are the first male and female. The +master god's masturbation in these latter stories was always male +masturbation, but Shu is the first male. Shu and Tefnut begat Geb +and Nut, but Nut was the all-pervasive universal sky that preceded +the first god... + +This confusion is the result of centuries of Egyptian story +telling, and while some of it appears to be contraditory, most of +it is useful. We certainly must hesitate to consider this +mythology as one consistent symbolism, and must be careful if we +wish to communicate consistent meanings using these symbols, but +we have found value in this mythology. + +Each story is a different way of looking at the world, a different +way of looking at the first cause, and of looking at the symbols. +By using these symbols, we can then indicate not only a symbol, but +also which way we are looking at the world. + +Hence, if in ritual or other communication we call upon +Ptah-Geb-Nu, we are calling upon the creator of the earth and sky, +the god who created the physical universe. If instead we call upon +the Neter Ra-Ptah-ankh, we are calling upon the god who brought +light and life to this planet. + +Having discussed these differing views of the world as expressed +by the many symbolic neters, we felt that this was a good point +from which to launch into a discussion of one of the ways in which +we look at Neters. + +Set, the prime source of intelligence and the ageless intelligence +himself, is a wee bit complex for someone a mere 20 or even 200 +years old to understand, regardless of whether we look at Set as +an actually existing being or instead as a master symbol. + +So rather than try to encompass all of Set, intellectually or +emotionally, rather than try to understand all of Set, we can work +with neters which are facets of Set's being, facets of Set's +symbolism. Each neter can be thought of as a specific element of +Set. + +As examples, Shu is one set of symbolism, one set of ideas, that +an initiate can work with to "get somewhere" with, to accomplish +certain initiatory goals. Tefnut is another set of ideas, as is +Geb, Isis, etc. + +Rather than trying to encompass and work with the entire universe +simultaneously, grab whatever you can hold onto, work with that +handful, study that symbol or symbols, and see what it leads to. + +We had originally intended to discuss whether or not the Neters +might or might not exist in their own right. Having discussed the +above, it seemed somewhat unimportant as to whether the Neters +actually exist. That topic will be left for a later discussion. + + + Bibliography + +While the following books and papers were not necessarily discussed +3082 + +nor referenced during the workshop discussion (or in completing +this article), the initiate interested in studying symbolism as a +subject on its own would be well advised to begin with this +bibliography. Additions to this bibliography are welcome, and +should be sent to the Grand Master. (_RT_ entries are from _The +Ruby Tablet of Set_.) + +Barrett, Ronald K., "Book of Opening the Way (Key #4)". _RT_ +IT.II.A.5.b.(1).(d). + +Barrett, Ronald K., "Stele of Xem". _RT_ IT.II.A.4.a.(3). + +Cavendish, Richard, _The Black Arts_. 4C (TS-3). + +Crowley, Aleister, _The Book of Thoth_. 9L (TS-4). + +De Lubicz, Isha Schwaller, _Her-Bak_. 2L (TS-1). + +De Lubicz, Isha Schwaller, _Symbol and the Symbolique_. 2V (TS-4). + +Fisher, Leonard Everett, _Symbol Art: Thirteen Squares, Circles, +and Triangles from Around the World_. NY: Four Winds Press, +MacMillan Publishing Company, 1985. + +Helfman, Elizabeth S., _Signs and Symbols Around the World_. NY: +Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., 1967. + +Jung, Carl G., _Man and his Symbols_. Garden City: Doubleday & +Co., 1964, 1968. Also NY: Dell Publishing Co., 1968, and London: +Aldus Books, 1964. + +Menschel, Robert, "Remanifestation: A Symbolic Syntheses", _RT_ +IT.II.B.3.e.(2). + +Menschel, Robert, "Tarot Primer", _RT_ IT.II.B.3.e.(3). + +Norton, Lynn, "Golden Section Tarot Working", "Atu XV: The Devil", +and "The Dialogue". _RT_ IT.II.A.3.k.(1), 4.h.(1), and 4.h.(2). + +Regardie, Israel, _777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister +Crowley_. 9M (TS-4). + +Schaefer, Heinrich, _Principles of Egyptian Art_. 2R (TS-4). + +========= +Footnote: +========= + +1. The Grand Master wishes to digress temporarily from the workshop's +discussion, and to comment at this time on one of the first statements +offered during this discussion. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +3083 + + The God Set + by Setnakt + +The best English study of Set is Te Velde's _Set, God of +Confusion_ Brill 1977. If this particular text is unavailable through +your library, I recommend a a short cheap and very reliable book by +George Hart: _A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses_, Routledge & +Kegan Paul, 1986. This very ambiguous god was alternately deified +and demonized depending on the cultural/political currents running +through Egypt. Allow me to present here a brief history of Set. + +Predynastically: Set was an important deity appearing in the art of the +Hamitic peoples living in the Ombos and Naquada regions. Interestingly, +his was the only god-figure not composed of parts from recognizable +Earth animals. + +(The Hamitic speakers donated most of the terms to religious philosophy +to the Egyptian langauge that seperate it from other Semitic languages +including ba, ka, neter, etc. If somebody really wants to find the roots +of the Egyptian religion, they should go up the Nile and do some serious +anthropology among Hamitic speaking native cultures-- the roots of the +Nile may hold keys to Egyptian thought that mute stones do not). + +Archaic Egypt: Set generally occupies a secondary role to his enemy +Horus, champion of the people of the North (except in the 2nd dynasty +when one pharaoh took a "Set" name rather than a Horus name.) Set is +intimately connected with teaching astronomy,the methods of agriculture, +medicine, and above all magic. He is said to have opened the mouth of +the other gods, and is the patron of the sem ritual. His cult titles +include "Great of Magic" and "Eternal". There is indeed evidence that +Set is set apart from other gods to die (Bonnet's commentaries on the +Pyramid texts). + +The astronomical cult, which placed the afterlife in the region of the +Northern heavens -- particularly in and around the constellation of the +Great Bear was replaced in the Fourth dynasty by a growing sun cult +centering on Re and Horus. The great stellar monument that Imhotep +designed were replaced by the solar pyramids of the Fourth and Fifth +dynasty's. (Notably Cheops took no chances in the great Pyramid's +design -- although outwardly a solar monument he had a hole bored +through the stones aligned with the position of Alpha Draconis (a star +in the Great Bear called Thuban = "the Subtle One" a Set cult +title?) just in case that was where his ka was heading. + +During the next few dynasties (4 - 17), Set is generally +ignored. His functions are absorbed into other gods. Thoth picks up the +attributes of magic, Osiris picks up the attributes of Mysterious time +_djet_ as opposed to exoteric time _neheh_. Set keeps his attributes a +storm and stellar god, and gradually comes to be associated with all +night fears -- nightmares, desert fiends, and bad animals such as the +hippo and the jaguar of the South. He is mentioned in a famous 12th +dynasty writing called _The Discourse of a man with his ba_ in which his +solar aspect IAA is referred to. Bikka Reed has a great translations of +this text. + +In the 18th dynasty a remarkable Pharoah Hatshepsut reintroduced the +worship of Set by building a Temple dedicated to him and Horus the Elder +at Ombos. This marked a strong interest in Set's eternal nature, for +3084 + +example in Hatshepsut is the prophecy (which she had placed in her tomb +at Der el-Medina) that "She will not only enjoy the days of Horus, but +the days of Set will be added to her span." + +She was also interested in the antinomian nature of the Set cult -- in +fact she preformed one of the most scandalous acts available to a woman +-- she acted as a man. This early feminist clearly found Set, a great +archetype to Work with. Set was popular among her family until the +Kingship of Akhenaton (may he be reborn forever drowning in the jaws of +Sobek the crocodile god). + +The very militaristic pharaohs of the Nineteenth dynasty, who were +probably descended form a family of Set priests at Tanis, delighted in +Set both in his militaristic role and as God of Foreign places. Ramses +II for example called himself the Son of Set. The Set cult too was very +popular with foreigners coming to live in Egypt. His worship has always +been connected with the outsider. + +The Twentieth Dynasty began by looking very favorably on this god, as is +shown in the name of its founder Setnakt, "Set is Mighty." There is also +considerable evidence that the set cult was favored among artisans of +the time (see Romer's _Ancient Lives_, Henry Holt, 1984, and if you've +got as copy of Stephen Quirk's _Ancient Egyptian Religion_ check out the +beautiful Stella of Aapehty -- probably the most beautiful surviving +example of Setian art). + +By the end of the Twentieth Dynasty, as the funerary cult of Osiris +became the dominate force in popular Egyptian religion,more and more, +Set as the murderer of Osiris became the Evil One. In fact by the Twenty +Sixth dynasty it was a common practice to disfigure any representations +of Set. He became --for all practical purposes the Christian devil. Some +scholars have even derived the name Satan from Set-Hen, a cult title +meaning the Majesty of Set, but I am dubious of this particular +derivation. + +However Set was not down for the count. During the Ptolemaic period Set, +merged with the Greek titan Typhon, became the figure for the _goes_ or +sorcerer to use. After Hermes the most often invoked god in the Magical +papyri is Set-Typhon. This entity was used to bring spirit helpers ( +bird would fly down and announce that the magician was now under the +protection of a god -- a popular Typhonic practice outside of Egypt as +well see Morton Smith's _Jesus the Magician_). Set was also the god to +invoke to send dreams, perform healings on the head or spinal column, +and to cause enmity between enemies. + +There seems to be a few common threads running through the Set cult: the +quest for immortality, antinomianism, and the practice of magic. Perhaps +this is why Michael Aquino's current Temple of Set finds this figure so +appealing as an archetype for the Left Hand Path. Like Hatshepsut before +Aquino has Opened the Mouth of this ancient god, and the articulation of +the Principle of Isolate Intelligence is available to us today. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +3085 + + Sources and Resources for Asatru + +Organizations: + +The Asatru Alliance of Independent Kindreds P.O. Box 961; Payson AZ +85547 + +The Alliance is the linear descendent of the Asatru Free Assembly. They +are a democratically run national confederation of independent kindreds +who meet once a year in an Allthing to conduct business. It is +essentially conservative and libertarian. "The Alliance is based upon +the ancient model of tribal democracy known as the Thing, and member +kindreds support a code of laws we feel necessary to preserve and +protect Asatru from those who would dilute, subvert, or in any way harm +our religion. Membership in the Alliance is encouraged for those who +actively promote and believe in the Aesir and Vanir and our collective +Heathen Heritage. Anyone interested in joining the Alliance should +contact the kindred of choice for acceptance. There is no membership in +the Alliance except through a kindred. Applicants must subscribe to the +membership requirements of the kindred of choice and uphold the bylaws +of the Asatru Alliance." + +The Ring of Troth P.O. Box 18812; Austin TX 78760 The Ring of Troth was +founded by Edred Thorsson. He resigned in Spring of 2242 (Runic +Reckoning - 1992 C.E.) and has been replaced by Prudence Priest, most +well known as the editor of Yggdrasil. Due to the resignation of +Thorsson and several other members of the High Rede (i.e. Board of +Directors) the Ring is currently in reorganization, and it appears that +it will emerge much stronger than before. + +The Ring is governed by an appointed High Rede of 9 persons who guide +the national affairs of the Ring. They offer a number of programs +include an Elder training program for prospective clergy, The Rune Ring +for study of the magickal properties of the Runes from within a Germanic +Pagan context, and recognition for local Kindreds. + +The Ring of Troth requires that "its members affiliate for cultural and +religious reasons rather than for racial and political reasons. The use +of the Ring of Troth as a platform for any type of political or racial +propoganda will not be tolerated" + +Dues are $24 and include a subscription to Idunna. If one does not wish +to join, Friends of the Troth may receive Idunna for $24 as well. + +Magazines: + +Vor Tru - $12/year. The Journal of the Asatru Alliance (see above +address). Concentrates on community issues within the Alliance, news +of kindreds, letters, etc. + +Idunna - $24/year. The journal of the Ring of Troth. Idunna concentrates +on fairly heavy academic subjects, runelore, etc. + +Mountain Thunder - $15/year, 1630 30th St #266; Boulder CO 80301. Glossy +covered and well put together. Usually excellent articles on relgious +issues of Heathenry, scholarly stuff, reviews, and opinion. + +Uncle Thorr's Newsletter - $12/year, P.O. Box 080437; Staten Island NY +3086 + +10308-0005. Simple newsletter with ranting and raving from Uncle Thorr +and company, news from NY, and articles on lifestyle, runes, and other +topics. + +Kindreds: + +American Church of Theodish; 107 Court St, Suite 131; Watertown NY 13601 +(Anglo Saxon Theodism) + +Am Church of Theodish West; 9353 Otto St; Downey CA 90241 + +Arizona Kindred; P.O. Box 961; Payson AZ 85547 (Asatru Alliance) + +Barnstokker Hearth; P.O. Box 1972; Seattle WA 98111-1972 + +Eagles Reaches; P.O. Box 382; Deer Park TX 77536 (Ring of Troth) + +Mountain Moot; P.O. Box 328; Elizabeth CO 80107 + +Nerthus Heart; 27 Gap Rd; Black Hawk CO 80422 + +Northern California Kindred; P.O. Box 445; Nevada City CA 95959 + +Norvegr Kindred; 219 Lewis St; Wash Court House OH 43160 + +Oak Rune Kindred; P.O. Box 3392; Galveston TX 77552 + +Raven Kindred; P.O. Box 970; Amherst MA 01004-0970 + +Skelland Kindred; P.O. Box 7608; Clearwater FL 34618 + +Thorr's Hammer Kindred; 9461 Bella Vista Rd; Apple Valley CA 92308 + +Torwald Kindred; 1630 30th St #266; Boulder CO 80301 + +Vinland Kindred; P.O. Box 15431 PSS; Stamford CT 06901 + +Wulfing Kindred; P.O. Box 18237; Chicago IL 60618 (Asatru Alliance) + +Yggdrasil Kindred; 1709 West Midvale Village Dr; Tucson AZ 85476 + +Recommended Books: + +The Poetic Edda, Lee Hollander translation (basic mythology in an +excellently translated poetic version.) + +The Prose Edda, Jean Young translation (basic mythology) + +The Norse Myths, Kevin Crossley Holland (basic mythology in modern +language and retelling, excellent for readings or meditation) + +A Book of Troth by Edred Thorsson (Not my favorite author and not a book +without many imperfections, but the only mass market book of the basic +rituals of Asatru) + +The AFA Rituals, three volumes available from World Tree Books ($18 from +World Tree) The original ritual volumes from the Asatru Free Assembly. + +3087 + +Introduction to Ritual and Invocation Tape ($7 from World Tree Books) A +basic cassette tape that goes through a ritual step by step, the other +side is a variety of invocations and prayers. + +The last two are from World Tree Publications; P.O. Box 961; Payson AZ +85547 (checks payable to the O.F. of Arizona). World Tree is a service +of the Asatru Alliance and carries a number of tapes and booklets as +well as Thor's Hammers and statuary. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +3088 + + ADF BASIC RITUAL NUMBER ONE + by P.E.I. Bonewits, Sally Eaton and others + +Procession, lead by D1 and D2: + + D1: Ta muid anseo leis na Deithe a adhradh. + D2: We are here to honor the Gods. + D1: A Dheithe, an Airde, a Thabharthoiri ar Bheatha - eistigi + agus freagairt orainn! + D2: O Gods, High Ones, Givers of Life - hear and answer us! + +Processional song: + + We come from the mountains, + Living in the mountains, + Turn the world around. + + We come from the oceans, + Living in the oceans, + Turn the world around. + + We come from the fire, + Living in the fire, + Turn the world around. + + We come from the breezes, + Living in the breezes, + Turn the world around. + +Settling song: + + She changes everything she touches, + And everything she touches changes. + + +Tree Meditation: + + When e'er we stand in a sacred place + Beneath the Sun's or Moon's bright face, + In a circle's rim or shady grove, + Our spirits go to the Gods we love. + + Let all our minds go clear and free, + and form the image of a treee, + A youthful sapling of the glade, + Whose budding branches cast no shade. + + Around this tender, supple youth, + Are seen its sturdy forbearers growth, + Those forest Elders strong and wise, + Who nurture those of lesser size. + + So close your eyes, and in your mind + Become one of the spirit kind. + Cast off your cares and disbelief, + and enter tree from root to leaf. + + +3089 + + Relax and breathe and center will, + Then let the peace within you swell + Until it is a thing profound. + Now send it deep in the ground. + + In every little tender root + Feel water flow, and and then transmute; + The sap will flow through ever vein, + Our links to our ancestors regain. + + Now let the sap rise in a flood, + And race to every branch and bud; + Each branch extend into the air, + Each leaf unfold in green so fair. + + The gentle zephers toss each bough, + And to you calming breaths endow, + While rays of golden summer light + Give warmth and lend their power's might. + + Let water rise and fire descend, + And lively air the branches bend; + Thus firmly planted in the Earth, + The elements give us rebirth. + + Now let the green entwine, + And form our sacred grove devine. + With branch and root our circle form, + And magic from mundane transform. + + We all are rooted just the same, + We feel the same supernal flame, + We drink the water free to all, + We hear the gentle airy call. + + Now let us feel our spirits surge, + And into one great spirit merge + To let the Lord and Lady know + That we are ready below. + + And let us all link hand to hand, + Before all of the gods we stand, + And in this hallowed space we start + To show all that is in our heart. + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +3090 + +Specifacation of ritiual: + + +Invocation of Ogma the Gate Keeper, or Mannanon in English and Irish: +(English by Sally Eaton, Irish by James Duran) +(visualization is a triangle shaped iris opening) + + D1: A Oghma, a thiarna na nGeatai, a thiarna an Fheasa, oscail + na geatai duinn. Ta muid ag siul i do lorg, ta' muid ag siul ar + do bhealach. Scaoil duinn do theagasc taispeain duinn cen chaol + a siul faidh muid slan. Molann muid thu mar gheall ar do + chumhacht. Siuil linn a Oghma! + + or + + D1: A Mhanannon, a thiarna na nGeatai, a thiarna an Fheasa, + oscail na geatai duinn. Ta muid ag siul i do lorg, ta' muid ag + siul ar do bhealach. Scaoil duinn do theagasc taispeain duinn + cen chaol a siul faidh muid slan. Molann muid thu mar gheall ar + do chumhacht. Siuil linn a Mhanannon! + + D2: O Ogma, Lord of the Gates, Lord of Knowledge, open the ways + for us. We walk in your footsteps, we walk your roads. Reveal to + us your teaching, reveal to us the way to walk in safety. We + praise you for the brightness of your power. Walk with us, Ogma! + + or + + D2: O Manannon, Lord of the Gates, Lord of Knowledge, open the + ways for us. We walk in your footsteps, we walk your roads. + Reveal to us your teaching, reveal to us the way to walk in + safety. We praise you for the brightness of your power. Walk + with us, Manannon! + + D1: Siuil linn a Oghma... + D2: ...walk with us Ogma! + D1: Siuil linn a Oghma... + D2: ...walk with us Ogma! + D1: Siuil linn a Oghma... + D2: ...walk with us Ogma! + + or + + D1: Siuil linn a Mhanannon... + D2: ...walk with us Manannon! + D1: Siuil linn a Mhanannon... + D2: ...walk with us Manannon! + D1: Siuil linn a Mhanannon... + D2: ...walk with us Manannon! + +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +3091 + +Chant: + + We invoke thee Ogma, Opener of every Gate + We invoke thee Ogma, Opener of every Gate. + You shall reach us, You shall teach us and reveal our fate. + You shall reach us, You shall teach us and reveal our fate. + (repeat nine times) + + or + + We invoke Manannon, Opener of every Gate + We invoke Manannon, Opener of every Gate. + You shall reach us, You shall teach us and reveal our fate. + You shall reach us, You shall teach us and reveal our fate. + (repeat nine times) + +Invoke Matron of Bards (Bridget nominally) + + O Bridget, our heart, Our brightest Queen; + Cast your blessings unto us. + We are your children, You are our mother; + So harken unto us. + You are the Cauldron now in our grove; + Earth-Mother inspire us. + O fire of love, O fire of life; + Please Bridget, come to us! + +Triad invocations and consecrating of the waters: + +Nature: Fill main chalice with whiskey and secondary chalice with water. +Hold them up and say: + + D2: O spirits of the old times and of this place, our + companions, our teachers, hallow these waters. Share with us the + renewal of the Earth. Share with us comfort, knowledge, and + blessing. Speak to our hearts, that we may become one with you + all...Behold the waters of life. + + D1: A sprideanna na seanaimsire, agus na haite seo, a + chomhghuaillithe,a mhuinteori, beannaigi na h-uisci seo duinn. + Roinnigi orainn athbheochan na Talun. Roinnigi orainn + suaimhneas, eolas, agus beannacht. Labhraigi linn inar gcroi, le + go mbeadh muid in aon bhall libhse...Seo iad uisci na beatha! + +Sip from each chalice and passes to D2 then to sunwise (left), saying: + + Behold the waters of life. + +Asperging song/chant (Fur and Feathers) for while waters being passed. + + Fur and feather and scale and skin, + Different without, the same within. + Many of body but one of soul, + Through all creatures, the Gods made whole. + (repeat nine times) + + + +3092 + + +Ancestors: + D2: O people of the old times, our ancestors, our kindred, + hallow these waters. Share with us the bond of life upon the + Earth. Share with us comfort, knowledge, and blessing. Speak to + our hearts, that we may become one with you all ... Behold the + waters of life! + + D1: A sheana, a shinseara, a mhuintir, beannaigi n h-uisci seo + duinn. Roinnigi orainn ceangal na beatha ar Talamh. Roinnigi + orainn suaimhneas, eolas, agus beannacht. Labhraigi linn inar + gcroi, le go mbeadh muid in aon bhall libhse .... Seo iad uisci + na beatha! + +Asperging song/chant: + + It's the blood of the ancients, + That runs through our veins. + And the forms pass, + But the Circle of Life remains. + +Gods as a whole: + + D2: O Gods of the old times, our mothers, our fathers, hallow + these waters. Share with us your power to regenerate the Earth. + Share with us comfort, knowledge, and blessing. Speak to our + hearts, that we may become one with you all ... Behold the + waters of life! + + D1: A Dheithe na seanaimsire, a mhaithreacha, a aithreacha, + beannaigi na h-uisci seo duinn. Roinnigi orainn bhur gcumhacht + le go nginfeadh muid an Domhan. Roinnigi orainn suaimhneas, + eolas, agus beannacht. Labhraigi linn inar gcroi, le go mbeadh + muid in aon bhall libhse ... Seo iad uisci na beatha! + +Asperging song/chant: + + Mother I feel You under my feet. Mother I hear your heart beat. + Mother I feel You under my feet. Mother I hear your heart beat. + Father I see You where the eagle flies. Spirit going to take me + higher. + Father I see You where the eagle flies. Spirit going to take me + higher. + + +Praise offerings and major power raising: + + +The sacrifice: (see FESTNAME.TXT for diety names of holidays) + + D2: Our praise goes up with thee on the wings of eagles; our + voices are carried up to thee on the shoulders of the winds. + Hear now, o Name, o Name, we pray thee, as we offer up this + sacrifice of life. Accept it we pray thee, and cleanse our + hearts, giving to us of your peace and life. + + + +3093 + + + D1: Teann ar moladh suas chugat ar sciathain iolar; beitear ar + nglortha suas chugat ar ghuailne na gaoithe. Eistigi anois, + a..., an ..., mas e bhur dtoil e, agus sinn ag ofrail na + h-iobairte seo ar son na beatha. Glacaigi lei, mas e bhur dtoil + e, agus glanaigi ar gcroithe, ag roinnt arainn do chuid siochana + is do bheatha. + +The Omen: + + D2: Have you accepted our sacrifice of life and human effort? + D1: Give unto us an omen! + +Possible repitition of Praise offerings and Omen seeking, if needed. + + D1: Rejoice! The NAME and NAME have accepted our sacrifices! + +Meditation on personal needs: + +Repetition on group needs: done by D1 & D2 + +Induction of Receptivity: + + D1: Of what does the Earth-Mother give, that we may know of the + continual flow and renewal of life? + D2: The waters of life. + D1: From whence do these waters flow? + D2: From the bosom of the Earth-Mother, the ever changing All-Mot- +her. + D1: And how do we honor this gift that causes life? + D2: By partaking of the waters of life. + D1: Has the Earth Mother given forth of Her bounty? + D2: She has. + D1: Then give me the waters! + +Final consecration and sharing: + + D1: A NAME, an NAME, Eistigi agus freagairt orainn! Bean- naigi + na h-uisci seo duinn. Muide do chlann, a mhol thu, agus anois + iarrann muid ort leigheas, beannachtai, cumhacht agus + tinfeadh... Seo iad uisci na beatha! + + D2: O NAME, O NAME, hear us and answer us! Hallow these waters! + We your children have praised you, and now we ask from you + healing, blessing, power and inspiration .... Behold the waters + of life! + +Passing song/chant: + + Burn bright, flame within me, + Kindled of eternal fire. + Of the people I do be, + And the people part of me, + All one in many parts, + A single fire of flaming hearts! + +Meditation on reception of blessings and reinforcement of group bonds: + +3094 + + +Affirmation of success: + + D1: NAME and NAME have Blessed us! + + D2:Every time we invoke them, they become stronger and more alert + to the needs of their people. + + D1: With joy in our hearts, let us return to the realm of mortals, + to do the will of the Gods and our own. + + D2: Yet, before we leave, we must give thanks to those whom we + invited here today. + +Thanking of the Entities involved: + + D2: O NAME and NAME, + D1: A NAME, an NAME, + D2: We thank you! + D1: Go raibh maith agaibh! + + All: Go raibh maith agaibh! + + D2: O Gods and Goddesses of the old times, + D1: A Dheithe na seanaimsiri - + + All: Go raibh maith agaibh! + + D2: O people of the old times, our ancestors, our kindred, + D1: A sheana, a shinseara, a mhuntir - + + All: Go raibh maith agaibh! + + D2: O spirits of the old times, and of this place, + D1: A sprideanna na seanaimsire, agus na haite seo - + + All: Go raibh maith agaibh! + + D2: O Bridget, Fire of Life and Fire of Love, Mother of Bards + and Goddess of inspiration, we thank you. + D1: A Bhrid, a Thine Bheatha agus a Thine Ghra, a Mhathair na + Bardai agus Bheandia na Thinfeadh, go raith maith agat! + +Closing of the Gates: + + D2: O Ogma, Lord of the Gates, Lord of Knowledge, we thank you. + Now let the Gates Between the Worlds be closed! + D1: A Oghma, a Thairna na nGeatai, a Thairna an Fheasa, go raith + maith agat. Anois biodh na geatai idir na saolta a druidte! + + or + + D2: O Mhannon, we thank you. Now let the Gates Between the Worlds be + closed! + D1: A Mannonon go raith maith agat. Anois biodh na geatai idir na + saolta a druidte! + + +3095 + +Reversing the Tree meditation: + + Our sacred grove the Gods do love, + The Earth beneath, the sky above, + But now this ritual must end, + Toward our home and hearthstone fend. + + Again we cleat our mind and heart; + The branches shrink and pull apart. + The roots untie and backward turn, + And spirit fire less brightly burns. + + Let water sink, let fire go, + Let gentle zephers homeward flow, + And as if in a cleansing rain + Become a single tree again. + + Then from this solitary tree + Your soul breaks loose, a being free. + Your body calls, your spirit flies, + Returns, you slowly open your eyes. + + +Libation: + + D1: To thee we return this portion of thy bounty, o NAME our + Mother, even as we must someday return unto thee. + +Final Benediction: + + D1: Let us go out into the world, secure in the knowledge that + our sacrifices have pleased the Gods and Goddesses, and that we + go forth upon the Earth under their protection. + + D2: We have finished this ceremony! + D1: So be it! + All: Biodh se! + + +Recessional song/chant: Walk with Wisdom + + Walk with wisdom + from this hallowed place. + Walk not in sorrow, + our roots shall ere embrace. + May Strength be your brother, + and Honor be your friend. + and Luck be your lover until we meet again. + +***********************************************************************- +From:THE DRUIDS PROGRESS, Report #6. The DRUIDS PROGRESS is published +semiannually (Gods Willing) and is sent primarily to the subscribing +members of ADF. For Further information write: ADF, PO Box 1022, Nyack, +NY USA 10960-1022 (include a SASE). All Items accredited to "the +Archdruid" have been written by and are (C) 1990 by P.E.I. Bonewits. All +items created by other parties are (C) 1990 by them. All opinions +expressed, save those specifically attributed to the Board of Trustees, +are the opinions of the individuals expressing them and are Not official +3096 + +ADF policy. Reprint Procedure: Neopagan, Druidic, Medievalist and all +cultural publications may reprint any material written by P.E.I. +Bonewits, but his copyright notice must appear in full. If more than 250 +words are excerpted, one cent per word should be donated to ADF. + +************************************************************************ +ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ +3097 + + PAGAN MANNERS OR + + Are There Any Dead Animals in The Soup? + by Grey Cat, Members Advocate +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + I can hear the outraged screams already. there are people out there who +believe that the very idea of "Pagan Manners" is a conflict in terms; +that "manners" are outdated, dishonest and hypocritical. Well,think +again. Manners constitute the only successful technique ever discovered +by humankind to enable groups and individuals, holding moderately +disparate views, customs or beliefs, to get along together. There are +things more important than manners; but, without manners,its unlikely +that a discussion will ever go to them. Pagan manners are fairly +simple and have nothing to do with which fork you use or how to word an +invitation. They have to do with respect for others' feelings and +beliefs. They most specifically have to do with recognition of the fact +that you should "judge not the path of your brother or sister for their +path is sacred." Manners are also the only way of attempting to grant +everyone the personal space which each of us needs. There have been a +number of attempts to write down a list of "thou shalts" and "thou shalt +nots" which will cover Pagan life. Here are several tries made by four +different people: + MY OWN OPINIONS 1. Never assume that you are invited to a ritual or +a non public gathering just because your friend is invited. Have your +friend call the group doing the event and ASK! (or call yourself). 2. +When participating in a ritual led by a group of which you are nota +member, ask ahead of time what will be done. SHould there be something +in the explanation, or in the set-up of the ritual area which bothers +you, just quietly don't participate in the ritual. 3. Ask the person(s) +officiating at a ritual before you place anything in the ritual area; +wear clothing or tools which might be considered unusual; or add private +energy workings to the ritual being done. 4. Never just walk out of a +cast ritual circle. Ask someone in the group sponsoring the ritual to +cit you a door if your really and truly absolutely have to leave. 5. +Don't make comments on the ritual, its leaders or the amount or quality +of the energy raised during the ritual unless such opinions are asked +for by the leaders. Save it for your friends, privately,after the ritual +is over. 6. Vegetarians, Vegans, Strict Carnivores, Diabetics, and any +others with very strong food preferences: no one minds your asking +quietly and politely "Which dishes have meat (sugar, spices, hot pepper, +etc.)in them?" When planning a meal for mixed Pagan/Wiccan groups, it is +strongly suggested that at least some of the dishes be vegetarian, sug- +ar-free, relatively non-spicy etc. At all times, within and without the +ritual context, always provide an alternative to alcoholic beverages. 7. +While many people have become far less secretive about their membership +in a Pagan group, it is never, EVER, permissible to "blow someones +cover". Do not ever call a friend or acquaintance by their Pagan name +or mention their membership in a mundane situation. It is also bad +manners - and a symptom of social climbing - to call an individual by +his/her mundane name in a Pagan situation. It always reminds me of an +extra calling John Wayne "The Duke" at a local bar. 8. Whether you +drink, take drugs or indulge in other similar behavior is completely +your own business. It is always wrong to urge such behavior on any other +individual. The majority of serious Pagan groups absolutely do NOT allow +anyone under the influence of drugs or alcohol to participate in ritual. +Do not be offended of you are turned away for this reason. If you are +taking a psycho-active drug for a medical reason it is very wise to +check with the ritual leader(s) so they will understand and can advise +3098 + +you if they feel the ritual might be harmful to you. 9. Just because +most Pagans/Wiccans are under 40 and in reasonably good physical +condition, never assume that everyone is. Rituals and gatherings should +be planned so that those with physical problems aren't barred totally +from participation. Particularly in ritual, be aware that many more +people than you might think are "mobility disabled." Group ritual should +take place in an accessible area and some thought should be given to +designating a safe place for those not taking part in dancing to stand +or sit. Please be alert to anyone to whom help would be welcome. Help +them to find a campsite which minimizes walking - to the ritual area, to +the privies, to the eating area - whatever. Help them pitch their camp. +Don't make them feel unwelcome - most handicapped people have worked +extra hard on their magickal skills and may be able to add a great deal +to the power in ritual and to the success of the gathering. 10. When at +any sort of gathering, please be thoughtful. Particularly please observe +true quiet after midnight. No one minds if you and others want to stay +up all night talking or whatever. Everyone else minds a great deal if +you stay up talking and laughing loudly and/or drumming. Those hosting +a gathering should take the responsibility of keeping the noise level +very low in at least some of the sleeping areas - and designating it as +a quiet area. 11. Do not allow yourself to get the idea that you know +the One True,Right and Only Path! Even if you really do have the +conviction that what someone else is doing is "wrong", "incorrect", +"Left-hand path"or whatever, just don't talk about it. It is perfectly +permissible to refrain from participating in the activities of those +with whom you cannot feel comfortable. It is not acceptable to express +the idea that they "shouldn't" be doing it. This is not to say that if +you know of criminal behavior on the part of a so-called Pagan/Wiccan +group you should not report it. We must also be responsible for cleaning +up our own act. Paganism is glorified by its diversity. Please do not +allow yourself to express judgement by categories. Whether or not you +like or dislike blacks, Indians, Homosexuals, women, men, or whatever, +keep it to yourself! If you really and truly cannot feel comfortable +taking part in a ritual which isn't conducted according to the tradition +you follow or if you cannot be pleasant in company mixed with groups you +disapprove of, please just stay home. + + PAGAN/CRAFT ETIQUETTE by Soapbox Sam +Listed below are not hard and fast rules, but some helpful guidelines +for those who would function smoothly in a craft/Pagan environment. 1. +Should you write to someone for information, always enclose an SASE +(Self-addressed, Stamped Envelope). Many of us receive several inquiries +a day. Sometimes just answering them, much less having to pay the +postage and buy envelopes, is a time-consuming, expensive task! 2. +Should your inquiry be about Pagan/Craft folks in your area, tell about +yourself, and how you came to have our names and wrote to is -after all +the Inquisition is alive and sick here in the heart of the Bible Belt. +Do not expect names and addresses unless they are already"public". Most +of us, even the "public" Pagan/Craft folks prefer to meet people slowly +and carefully over a cup of coffee in a public place, before we start +introducing you to our groups and our friends.Why should we risk when +you have risked nothing? ((Sometimes I get mail that simply has a name +and address on it and demand that I send the latest copy of my newslet- +ter or the names and addresses/phone numbers of all Craft people in the +writer's areas. One man sent me a letter raising hell because he has +(according to him) sent me $0.33 in the mail and was waiting on the copy +of my newsletter "I owed him"!Sadly, this type of letter is more common +than not... his letter and 33 cents, is ever sent, was never received. +3099 + +Do I really have to explain to grown mature adults about sending money +through the mails???)) 3. If you are invited to a gathering or festival, +whether by written or oral invitation, before you invite others, get +permission. Because of space, or other considerations, the number of +people that can be accommodated might be limited, or certain individuals +or groups may not be welcome because of personality conflicts and +resulting disharmony. Also, if a weekend gathering is scheduled and you +can only arrive for the ritual and then must leave, ask if that is +OK...sometimes the ritual is the climax of the entire gathering, rather +than an event in itself; in that case to show up only for the ritual not +having been part of the entire event is to 'take-away' from the meaning +of the whole for those who were there! 4. Always inquire what you should +bring to any gathering. If you have received an official invitation, you +should have been told. But,assume nothing! Ask if you need to bring +food, robes, candles, drinks,eating utensils (forks, cups, plates, etc). +It is unreasonable and rude to assume that an invitation to a gathering +means that people just like yourselves, will expect you to come and eat +their food, use their utensils and leave a mess for them to clean up +after you have gone. If you cannot take food, then at least offer the +gatherings sponsors a cash donation to help defray their cost. If you +can't stay to help clean up afterwards, at least be considerate enough +to get your own refuse to a garbage container. 5. To be invited to +participate in another's ritual is NOT your right, but rather a +privilege and an honor. If you are unfamiliar with their tradition, +common courtesy demands that you at least inquire about enough informa- +tion to participate in a positive fashion, and most certainly, make no +assumptions about adding anything to the circle or placing your +"special' crystals, totems, whatever in the circle or at a specific +place within the circle without getting permission. Also, do not remove +anything from a circle even should you feel it doesn't belong, without +explaining why and getting permission. 6. It should not have to be said, +but then neither should any of the above: If these Pagan/Craft rituals +have no meaning in your life, and if you have just come for the fellow- +ship, then enjoy the fellowship and please do not attend the ritual. The +circle is a significant part of our entire way of life, not a reenact- +ment of some past event just for the sake of the pageantry. When we can, +we are pleased to share it with you, and we do so in Love and Light with +Peace and Laughter. + IDEAS FROM MERLIN THE ENCHANTER 1. Be Yourself... if you worry +about what others think, then you won't think for yourself... and if you +don't think for yourself, you may as well be dead! 2. Allow all others +to be themselves... just because Joe Blow from kokomo has blue candles +on his altar and you use only white ones, that doesn't mean he is the +son of Satan. We must each one be allowed our own Pagan path in freedom, +for if we cannot do that, then we have no freedom! 3. Let's stop all the +silliness of who is and is not a Witch, and what one must do to be a +witch. 4. Don't ask for someone's opinions unless you really want it! +More Witch wars are started because someone asked for another's views +and didn't like the answer they got! 5. Add a dose of good humor (the +worst Witches are the ones that take everything so S-E-R-I-O-U-S-L-Y!) + IDEAS FROM BEKET ASER EDITHSDATTERIt is necessary that we learn to +be just plain adult about working together - or even, just existing on +the same planet. 1. If you can't tolerate any slightest deviation from +your own tradition, do not take part in public or cross-cultural rituals +or gatherings. 2. If you have ideas of what should be in the ritual; or +what should not - go to the planning meeting and express your opinions. +3. If you delegate a task to someone else - you have made it their job. +The only thing you have to say is "Thank you". When and how they do it +3100 + +is their business so long as it is done at the moment it is required. 4. +Appoint somebody to keep notes of the planning meetings - as things are +said, not afterwards, or, inevitably, there will be disagreements about +the ground rules. 5. Gossip : There are a few situations wherein it is +legitimate to pass on "gossip". the following suggestions are not all +inclusive but may serve to give guidelines for judging: a. When a +major life change definitely is occurring to someone with whom you and +the person to whom you pass on the information - frequently work. b. +When you are acting as resource to help someone decrease a situation of +disagreement. c. When you really plan to take positive action to +alleviate the situation the gossip refers to. d. (This situation +really does not occur all that often.) When warning someone about an +individual whose practices are definitely undesirable for a reason +other than that you don't like them. e. When you have truly accurate +information to counteract damaging and inaccurate rumor. 6. When +examining a situation to decide whether or not you, yourself,are under +psychic attack, be sure to ask yourself if it couldn't be because being +under attack makes you feel important. 7. Within the group or group +structure, the High Priest and or High Priestess are generally entitled +to your respect and a certain amount of deference. If they really, +really don't know as much as you do, perhaps it is time that you take a +fond and friendly leave of them/him/her and begin a group of your own. + Obviously, group or group affairs are appropriate subjects for +discussion among all the members, and the HP/S definitely should be +willing to listen to reasonable suggestions. However, you joined the +group in order to learn from its leaders; a year or two of study prob- +ably doesn't qualify you to suddenly object to all their teachings, +methods, and beliefs. Above all, it is inappropriate to try to stir up +the whole group and "take over" the group. The leaders have put a good +deal of time, patience, thought and teaching into building the group and +giving it a good name - if you want to be Witch Queen of the Universe, +start your own group from scratch and try to become good enough to earn +status yourself. The goal is not big groups, it is the best possible +groups. For group leaders: They need to be grown-up enough to know that +everydisagreement isn't necessarily a personal attack. They need to +developleadership skills to avoid confrontation and inflexibility. They +needto know how to lead without dominating and they need an inten- +seinterest in the health of the group. The HP/S needs to listen to +theideas of the members and to use their ideas whenever posssible. +Theyshould be able to explain rationally why certain ideas cannot be +used. #30# diff --git a/religious documents/4-airts.txt b/religious documents/4-airts.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eded468 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/4-airts.txt @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ + THE FOUR AIRTS + +To Those who are interested in the Wiccan +Arts: + +The Four Airts is a Gaelic term for the +four points ofthe compass, north, south, +east and west. The magick circle usually +has a candle or lamp at each of the four +quarters (N,S,E and W) and the Four Airts +are connected to the Four Elements. + +The _true_ relationship of the Elements to +the four Airts is dependant on the prevailing +winds where the circle is cast. In example, +my circle is cast in Portland, Oregon. The +West wind comes right off the Pacific and +is the source of water. Very much like the +Britain or Western magickal tradition the +Northern wind comes down from the Arctic +cold front and is easily associated with the +cold dark Element of Earth. Unlike Western +magickal tradition, for my local, the warm +and hot winds come down the Columbia Gorge +from the aired high plain deserts further +east--the Airts of fire. The South wind is +cool and dry thus the nature of the Element +of air. In other localities this may be +quite different; so the truly talented +magician, unlike one who simply has read up +on the subject, will note the nature of the +prevailing winds and invoke the Elements +accordingly. + + +The Gaelic Airts had a traditional +association with colors attributed to +them. The east took the crimson of dawn; +the south the white light of high noon; +west the brownish-grey of twilight; and +the north the black of midnight. Again, +it will depend on your locality and +personal observance; for me crimson goes +to the magnificent Pacific sunsets +(especially spectacular in the fall) in +the west; to the east, the land of the +rising sun goes the blue-white/gray color +of dawn the dawn. + +It is notable that the magickal ideas of +dancing or circumambulating _deaseil_ or +_tuathal_ are connected with the Four +Airts. _Deaseil_, or sunwise (turning +right-handed), is fortunate, and a +movement of blessing; but _tuathal_, or +widdershins (turning left-handed) is +generally the movement of advirse magick +and cursing. These names come from the +Scot Gaelic words for the four cardinal +points; _tuath_, north; _aiet_, east; +_deas_, south; and _iar_, west. _Airt_ +(east) is the starting point of invocations; +so deas is for the good and tuath is for +the sinister side of magick. + +Zuriel. + diff --git a/religious documents/4mh.txt b/religious documents/4mh.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eec65d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/4mh.txt @@ -0,0 +1,104 @@ + MAX HEINDEL'S MESSAGE: + + Preparation for Initiation + + This evening we will take the Magnetic Needle as our subject of +meditation, for it has a lesson of supreme importance in our spiritual +career, a lesson which it behooves every faithful follower of the Mystic +Light to take earnestly and prayerfully to heart. + + The Magnetic Needle is made of metal which has an inherent affinity for +the lodestone, namely, steel. Other metals are but indifferently affected, +if at all. But when steel has once been touched with the lodestone, its +whole nature is changed. It has become alive, as it were, imbued with a new +force which we might describe as a constant yearning after the lodestone +which once kissed it. Needles made of other metals, and unmagnetized steel, +may be put upon a pivot, and they will stand in any balanced position +wherever they are placed. They are passive to whatever force is applied to +them from without. But the Needle which has been touched by the lodestone +resists, and no matter how often or how severely we push it away from the +magnetic position, as soon as the force exerted against it is removed, it +will instantly revert and point toward the magnetic pole. + + A similar phenomenon is seen in the life of the Christian; once he has +felt, thoroughly felt in his being, the love of the Father, he is a changed +man. + + The worldly forces from without may be exerted in various ways to divert +his interest and attention, but every particle of his being yearns for God +and is always turning in that direction unaffected by the world of drifting, +listless men. Whatever else he may do in the world, (because it is +absolutely necessary to take the proper part in the world's work), will be +done because it is right and dutiful to do so, but with his whole being he +yearns towards the Father, whose Love, whose Being, and whose Force has +drawn his soul. To him "But on Thing is Needful": His Father's Love, and his +every effort is directed to win His Approval. + + When we turn from the earth to heaven; we find almost identical +conditions there. Everywhere through the great firmament millions and +billions of miles, yea, infinite space, is filled with marching orbs that +move with a velocity which beggars comprehension by the human mind. At the +time when we entered the pro-Ecclesia, the stars were in a certain position. +But during every moment since we have been here, they have changed and they +are now changing with every tick of the clock Ä all but one. Among all these +countless stars moving at such an enormous speed, there is one that is +changeless, one that always occupies the same position: "The North Star." No +matter what time during the day or night, during summer or winter, from +birth to death, we look up into the heavens, that star will be found always +in the same place. Whenever it is visible to our eyes or by the help of a +telescope at any time, it will always be found to occupy the position which +we speak of as "North." + + Now mark the phenomenon of the changeless needle, always pointing +towards the changeless star, and consider the connection between them and +the lesson there is for us in this phenomenon. The magnetic needle is not a +fair-weather follower. It does not matter whether it rains or shines, +whether it is calm or stormy, whether there are fogs or clouds; under all +circumstances the magnetic needle points with unvarying fidelity towards the +North Star, and upon this great fact the mariner stakes the property and +life of himself, his crew and his passengers. Though the sleet and the rain, +snow or hail may beat in his face, almost blinding him and making it +impossible for him to see the front of his ship, yet so long as he can see +that faithful needle he knows that he is on the right course, he knows that +it will never swerve, that even though the ship should founder and find a +watery grave at the bottom of the sea, that faithful needle will still +remain in the same position, pointing to the changeless star until the very +last atom of its being has been disintegrated by corrosion. Therefore he +trusts implicitly to this faithful guide as he "lays him down in peace to +sleep rocked in the cradle of the deep." + + There is, in the unswerving devotion symbolized by this magnetic needle, +one of the greatest and most wonderful lessons for those who have seen the +mystic light and who aspire to the privilege of guiding others who have not +yet found the path. Let us realize that to do this, the first, foremost, and +the greatest prerequisite is: that we shall ourselves have become firmly +grounded and rooted so that we are not disturbed by worldly changes going on +about us. + + Whether the clouds of doubt, scepticism, or persecution be cast about us +by others, or whether they seek to ensnare us in blinding fogs of other +doctrines, it behooves us to hold fast to that which is good. Yea, even +though life were the price we have to pay, we must imitate that faithful +needle. As the ship founders and settles to its watery grave, we must +continue to point to the one goal of all, "Our Father in Heaven," never +swerving to the right or to the left, no matter what may come. As the +needle, that has once been touched by the lodestone, is impregnated with a +yearning after the changeless star, a yearning which does not cease, even +though it finds a watery grave, a yearning which lasts until the last atom +of its being has been disolved by the action of the elements, so also must +we, if we are really truly yearning to be competent guides to others, +continue with unswerving devotion on the path which we have chosen, looking +neither to the right or the left but fastening our eyes upon the changeles +star ahead "Our Father in Heaven" in whom there is no change neither +turning. For as the slightest deviation upon the part of the magnetic needle +in the compass would be sufficient to dash the mariner upon the shoals or +rocks of a dangerous shore, wrecking both ship and lives, so also, if we +swerve from the path we have once chosen, we become stumbling blocks to +others who are looking to us for guidance and example, and their lives are +on our heads. + + "To whom much has been given, from him much will be required." We have +received much from the teachings of the Elder Brothers. The mystic light has +beckoned us on, and may we realize the great responsibility we have, by our +example and our lives, to faithfully guide those seekers with whom we come +in contact, to the haven of rest and refuge. diff --git a/religious documents/666.txt b/religious documents/666.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aae13bc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/666.txt @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +I was reading the FAIRFIELD DAILY REPUBLIC yesterday when my eyes +suddenly caught on a headline which really grabbed me. The article +had to do with dogs and other animals receiving small computer +chip identification 'tags'. The miniature chips are inserted into +the animal via an ordinary syringe and, having been programmed, +are read with a small radio device, which is capable of +displaying information on the animal. + +Anyone with biblical background or upbringing can readily appreciate +what this means to the average you and me. Ever recall hearing of the +'Mark of the Beast'? Let me refresh your memory a little. In the book +of Revelations, chapter 13, it mentions this 'mark' and the fact that +it will be on the right hand or the forehead. It also mentions that +no man will be able to sell or trade without having this mark on his +body. In Belgium, there is currently a huge computer in operation +which is named...you got it, The Beast. +So, what does Rover's innocent, little ID chip have to do with us and +this so-called 'Mark of the Beast'(666)? Well, think about it for a +second... If we can insert a small chip into our little pet which can +be read and programmed from the outside, then we can certainly program +a miniature chip with our Social Security, bank, employment, and other +pertinent information which would be essential for us to carry on in +our daily lives. Why the right hand or forehead? Scientists are +CURRENTLY working on a chip which CAN be imbedded in HUMAN flesh and +it just so happens that the temperatures in the forehead and right +hand, of the human body, are perfect for recharging the chip's +rechargeable battery. Tests which placed the device in other parts of +the body were unsuccessful in maintaining a charge. +I've scanned the article and have included it here for your +convenience. Read it and draw your own conclusions as to how this +technology has future applications. + +The following article was taken from the Monday, November 8, 1993 +Fairfield Daily Republic on page A8. + +High-tech dog tag + +TOLEDO--Rover's dog tag is +entering the electronics age. +The newest thing in pet identi- +fication is a computer chip, +implanted beneath the animal's +skin, that has an identification +number programmed into it. +When a stray pet is found, an +electronic scanner is used to read +the number, which is then +checked against a register of own- +ers. The chip is a permanent +identifier that cannot be altered. +"It's injected with a needle +under the scruff of the neck in a +dog or cat explains veterinarian +David Thornton. "Birds are done +in the pectoral muscle, and the +needle is only inserted part way. +The procedure causes the pet +no more discomfort than an ordi- +nary rabies or distemper shot, +adds Thornton, who has implant- +ed 200 of the devices in pets. diff --git a/religious documents/6bib.txt b/religious documents/6bib.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1466c4f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/6bib.txt @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ + WESTERN WISDOM BIBLE STUDY: + + Learning to Walk With Love + + Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is +perfect.-Matthew 5:48. + + Till we all come in the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son +of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of Christ.- +Ephesians 4:13. + + And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is +love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein +is our love made Perfect.ÄI John 4:16,17. + + The perfection mentioned above is not an idle dream, but a living, +developing condition toward which we are all striving. Since humanity first +became aware of the great breach between the omnipotence of the Creator and +the weakness of its own powers, as related in the first few chapters of +Genesis, when Adam and Eve took their faltering first steps alone in "eating +of the fruit of the tree of knowledge," man has gradually learned to walk +upright and some few have even consciously walked with God. + + It is interesting to note that Max Heindel avoided the use of the word +karma in his books, preferring the word destiny or the phrase Law of +Consequence. Too often this word karma has come to carry with it the +connotation of punishment for a past offense. This is a perversion of its +meaning, for this law is as impersonal and universal as the law of gravity +in its application. It is outside and above the moral law of good and evil; +the moral laws, based on the Ten Commandments were given to man to aid in +his relationship with other men. + + The universal laws, such as that of Consequence or Cause and Effect, and +Harmony (the finite mind has cataloged seven universal laws) are laws that +operate on the higher levels. Since the material world is only a reflection +of the spiritual, it follows that, when the spiritual side of man comes into +harmony with these divine laws, then the material working out is abrogated. +By this we mean that when a man truly repents for a wilful disobedience of +moral laws and comes again into harmony with the higher laws the effects of +his wrong act are forgiven him. Max Heindel writes, "even though we are not +able to make restitution for a wrong, the sincerity of our regret will +suffice. Nature does not aim to 'get even,' or to take revenge. Recompense +may be given to our victim in other ways." + + The Law of Consequence may be summed up in the verse from Galatians: "Be +not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soeth, that shall he +also reap." As we have stumbled in our weakness, or overextended ourselves +in our exuberance, or overstepped the law in ignorance, are we brought up +short and learn what and where are our limitations. Thus do we gain wisdom +through experience. Every sorrow or trouble that comes to us demonstrates +some lack of soul-quality which only such an experience as this can teach, +and so brings us closer to the "perfect man." + + Earthly experiences, distilled into wisdom between incarnations, is the +only way we have of learning to walk consciously with God. An intelligent +acceptance of these limiting factors is the first step toward completing +this particular lesson. When our mind has accepted it, then we can analyze +and incorporate it into our way of life much as a child learning to walk +learns to dodge obstacles or to remove them from his path. + + It is this picture of the infant learning to walk, guided and helped and +loved by his parents that makes the best comparison of learning to live in +perfect harmony with God's laws. If we can read the Old Testament with this +analogy in mind we can see beneath the fumblings of the old chroniclers, and +trace the loving parental hand of God as He guided reluctant humanity. How +well they learned to walk is to be measured by the great multitudes who +recognized the higher ideals of the new teachings of man's perfectability as +explained in the New Testament in Christ's work. + diff --git a/religious documents/72.txt b/religious documents/72.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd8411f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/72.txt @@ -0,0 +1,214 @@ + + Schemhamphorasch + 72 Fold Name of God + & Angels of the Quinaries + + + K L H H M I H L A H K A L M O S I V + (I) L A Q R B Z H A L Z H K L H L I L H + I V M I H L O V D I T A H Sh M T I V + + 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 + + + M K L I V L A R Sh I H N Ch M I N P L + (H) N V H Ch Sh K V I A R A Th H L I L H V + D Q Ch V R B M I H Th A H V A I K L V + + 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 + + + N N O H D V M O O S I V M H I R Ch A + (V) I N M Ch N H I Sh R A L V I H I H O N + Th A M Sh I V H L I L H L K H Z O M I + + 54 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 + + + M H I R Ch A M D M O I V M H I N P M + (H) V I B A B I N M Ch N H M Tz R I M V P + M I M H V O Q B I V H B R Ch L M I H + + 72 71 70 69 68 67 66 65 64 63 62 61 60 59 58 57 56 55 + + + + Pronounciation (Mathers style) + + H V H I + (Asiah) (Yetzirah) (Briah) (Aztiloth) + + 55 Mabeh 37 Ani 19 Levo 1 Vehu + 56 Poi 38 Chaum 20 Pah 2 Yeli + 57 Nemem 39 Rehau 21 Nelak 3 Sit + 58 Yeil 40 Yeiz 22 Yiai 4 Aulem + 59 Harach 41 Hahah 23 Melah 5 Mahash + 60 Metzer 42 Mik 24 Chaho 6 Lelah + 61 Vamet 43 Veval 25 Nethah 7 Aka + 62 Yehah 44 Yelah 26 Haa 8 Kahath + 63 Aunu 45 Sael 27 Yereth 9 Hezi + 64 Mechi 46 Auri 28 Shaah 10 Elad + 65 Dameb 47 Aushal 29 Riyi 11 Lav + 66 Menaq 48 Miah 30 Aum 12 Hahau + 67 Aiau 49 Vaho 31 Lekab 13 Yezel + 68 Chebo 50 Doni 32 Vesher 14 Mebah + 69 Raah 51 Hachash 33 Yecho 15 Heri + 70 Yebem 52 Aumem 34 Lehach 16 Haqem + 71 Haiai 53 Nena 35 Keveq 17 Lau + 72 Moum 54 Neith 36 Menad 18 Keli + + +OK, So now by adding AL or IH (Masc, Severity, Justice aspect of God), +EL or AH (Fem, Mercy, aspect), we get the names of the Angels of +the decans of the Zodiac. There are 2 for each 10 degrees. If you have +noticed none of the God names contain Gimel (G),(3), this is because of the +grouping in 3's. These angels also rule the 36 minor arcana of Tarot. + + + 72 Angels + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Say Means Decave Ruler Minor Arcana + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + 1 Vehuah Exalter 1 Leo Saturn 5 of Wands + 2 Yeliel Strength + + 3 Sitel Refuge,Confidence 2 Leo Jupiter 6 of Wands + 4 Aulemah Concealed, Strong + + 5 Mahashah Seeks saftey 3 Leo Mars 7 of Wands + 6 Lelahel Praiseworthy + + 7 Akaah Long suffering 1 Virgo Sun 8 of Pentacles + 8 Kahathel Adorable + + 9 Heziel Merciful 2 Virgo Venus 9 of Pentacles + 10 Eladah Profitable + + 11 Lavah To be exalted 3 Virgo Mercury 10 of Pentacles + 12 Hahauyah Refuge + + 13 Yezelel Rejoicing 1 Libra Moon 2 of Swords + 14 Mebahel Guardian + + 15 Heriel Aid 2 Libra Saturn 3 of Swords + 16 Haqemah Raise up, praying + night & day + + 17 Lauah Wonderful 3 Libra Jupiter 4 of Swords + 18 Kelial Worthy to be + invoked + + 19 Levoyah Hastening to hear 1 Scorp. Mars 5 of Cups + 20 Pahyah Redeemer, liberator + + 21 Nelakel Thou alone 2 Scorp. Sun 6 of Cups + 22 Yiaiel Thy right hand + + 23 Melahel Turning away evil 3 Scorp. Venus 7 of Cups + 24 Chahoah Goodness in himself + + 25 Nethah Wide, wonderful, 1 Sag. Mercury 8 of Wands + the enlarger + 26 Haaih Heaven in secret + + 27 Yerethel Deliverer 2 Sag. Moon 9 of Wands + 28 Shaahih Taker away of evils + + 29 Riyiel Expectation 3 Sag. Saturn 10 of Wands + 30 Aumel Patient + + 31 Lekabel Teacher 1 Cap. Jupiter 2 of Pentacles + 32 Vesherah Upright + + 33 Yechoah Knower of all 2 Cap. Mars 3 of Pentacles + 34 Lehachah Merciful, clement + + 35 Keveqah To be rejoiced in 3 Cap. Sun 4 of Pentacles + 36 Menadal Honourable + + 37 Aniel Lord of virtues 1 Aqu. Venus 5 of Swords + 38 Chaumah The hope of all + the ends of the earth + + 39 Rehauel Swift to condone 2 Aqu. Mercury 6 of Swords + 40 Yeizel Making joyful + + 41 Hahahel Triune 3 Aqu. Moon 7 of Swords + 42 Mikel Who is like unto him + + 43 Vevalah King and ruler 1 Pisces Saturn 8 of Cups + 44 Yelahah Abiding forever + + 45 Saelah Mover of all 2 Pisces Jupiter 9 of Cups + 46 Auriel Revealer + + 47 Aushalah Just judge 3 Pisces Mars 10 of Cups + 48 Miahal Sending forth as a Father + + 49 Vahoel Great and lofty 1 Aries Mars 2 of Wands + 50 Doniel Merciful judge + + 51 Hachashyah Secret,Impenetrable 2 Aries Sun 3 of Wands + 52 Aumemah Covered in darkness + + 53 Nenael Caster down of 3 Aries Venus 4 of Wands + the proud + 54 Neithel Celestial king + + 55 Mabehah Eternal 1 Taurus Mercury 5 of Pentacles + 56 Poiel Supporting all things + + 57 Nememah Lovable 2 Taurus Moon 6 of Pentacles + 58 Yeilel Hearer of cries + + 59 Harachel Permeating all 3 Taurus Saturn 7 of Pentacles + 60 Metzeral Raising up the oppressed + + 61 Vametel The name which is 1 Gemini Jupiter 8 of Swords + over all + 62 Yehahel The supreme end or essence + + 63 Aunual Rejoicing 2 Gemini Mars 9 of Swords + 64 Mechiel Vivifying + + 65 Damebyah Fountain of wisdom 3 Gemini Sun 10 of Swords + 66 Menaqel Nourishing all + + 67 Aiauel Delights of the 1 Cancer Venus 2 of Cups + sons of men + 68 Cheboyah Most liberal giver + + 69 Raahel Beholding all 2 Cancer Mercury 3 of Cups + 70 Yebemyah Producing by his word + + 71 Haiaiel Lord of the 3 Cancer Moon 4 of Cups + universe + 72 Moumyah End of the universe + + +It was either Solomon or Moses, that wrote this down.... I am not sure +which. The names are arrived at by writing (in Hebrew) the 19th, 20th +and 21st verses of Exodus 14, right to left, left to right, and right to +left again, (Masoretic style) in 3 lines. Each line contains 72 characters, +relating to 72 rungs of Jacobs ladder,the 78th Psalm has 72 verses, +refering to the divided name. There are many other references to 72, and +divisions therof, in the old books. + +Gematria is foolishness to some, understood by few, I think it is a way +to express ideas in a universally understood medium. +At any rate I compiled this info. from The Kabbalah Unvieled by Mathers, +Intro to Golden Dawn Tarot by Wang, and The Complete GD System by Regardie. + +AHBH, Soror N. +Modem (619)447-5010 + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/7lawnoah.txt b/religious documents/7lawnoah.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba8ed96 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/7lawnoah.txt @@ -0,0 +1,106 @@ + + PROMOTING JUSTICE: ONE OF THE SEVEN LAWS OF NOAH + + By R. James Scott Trimm + + +JUSTICE AND HUMAN GOVERNMENT + + Following the great flood G-d made a covenant with Noah +and all of his decendants known as the Noahdic Covenant (see +Gen. 9.) This Noahdic Covenant included what is called in +Judaism "The Seven Laws of Noah." These are seven laws which +can be drawn from the opening portion of Genesis prior to the +calling out of Abraham and his decendants (the Jews), as a +result these seven Laws apply to all mankind (Jews and +Gentiles.) These Seven Laws of Noah are: + + 1. Against idolatry. + 2. Against fornication. + 3. Against murder. + 4. Against blasphemy. + 5. Against theft. + 6. Against eating the limb of a living animal. + 7. To promote justice. + +The requirement for justice found in this list is derived from +Gen. 9:5-6 where man is commanded to institute capitol +punishment. Thus man was empowered to establish human +government. For this reason Dispinsationalist Christians +recognize this as the beginning of what they call "the Age of +Human Government." In Judaism this justice commandment is +recognized as an obligation on the part of man to establish +courts and governments to enforce the other six laws of Noah. +In this way G-d empowered man to govern himself. + +FREEWILL AND LIBERTY + + Any nation which seeks to govern itself in accordance +with G-d's law, must understand one of G-d's most basic +principles, man's freewill. The omnipotent G-d has created +man with a freewill. Man has the awsome power to resist the +omnipotent G-d (see Acts 7:51), this means that G-d himself +will not interfere in man's freewill. + Since G-d has empowered man to establish government +solely for the purpose of enforcing G-d's Law, and since G-d +himself will not interfere with man's freewill, we may +conclude that man is at liberty where G-d's Law is silent. +The founding fathers of the United States of America +understood this principle of liberty well, as the Declaration +of Independence reads: + + We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are + created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator + with certain inalienable rights; that among these are + life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to + secure these rights, governments are instituted among + men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the + governed; that whenever any form of government becomes + destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people + to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new + government... + +And as the Constitution reads: + + We the people of the United States, in order to form a + more perfect union, ESTABLISH JUSTICE, insure domestic + tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the + general welfare, and SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY TO + OURSELVES AND OUR POSTERITY, do ordain and establish this + Constitution of the United States of America. + +Thus the United States of America was originally intended to +govern in accordance with G-d's Law and respect man's G-d +given liberty. + +THE TRIBULATION, THE ANTICHRIST AND GLOBALISM + + Now anyone who apreciates liberty and desires to live in +a government which respects their G-d given liberty should pay +particular heed to a serious threat to liberty. The New +Scriptures forewarn us of a time at which a lawless dictator +would dominate the entire earth, bringing all the world under +a single rule (see Rev. 13; 2Thes. 2:1-12). Now you may have +been told that the Church will not endure this tribulation but +read again (2Thes. 2:1-12) don't believe the "peace and +safty" teachers (see 1Thes. 5:1-4.) + Now with the very real threat of one world +totalitarianism ending the very liberty which the United +States of America was created to protect, we should take a +much more critical view of "Globalism" and take this threat +very seriously. + +For more information on government, freedom and Globalism, +just write: + +The American Republic Agenda Examiner +c/o Other Options +312 Las Brisas +Arlington, TX 76006 + +For more information on the Noahdic Covenant, freewill and the +tribulation write: + +Nazarene Judaism +PO Box 471 +Hurst, TX 76053 diff --git a/religious documents/7rays.txt b/religious documents/7rays.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..48311cf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/7rays.txt @@ -0,0 +1,198 @@ + + + + THE SEVEN RAYS - What Are They? + + by RLP + + + "We are told that seven great rays exist in the cosmos. In our +solar system only one of these seven great rays is in operation. The +seven sub-divisions constitute the "seven rays" which, wielded by our +solar Logos, form the basis of enless variations in His system of worlds. +These seven rays may be described as the channels through which all being +in His solar system flows, the seven predominant characteristics or +modifications of life, for it is not to humanity only that these rays +apply, but to the seven kingdoms as well. In fact there is nothing in the +whole solar system, at whatever stage of evolution it may stand, which +does not belong and has not always belonged to one or other of the seven +rays. " (R I 163) + + +The author of this passage is the Tibetan Master, Djwhal Kuhl. He has been +our primary source of information on the seven rays for the past 70 years. +Until the end of the last century the seven ray system was known and taught +only to a limited few disciples and adepts of the Ageless Wisdom. There +have long been hints of this doctrine concealed within the teachings of all +great philisophies and religions, but it has not been systematically +presented, as have astrology or numerology. Astrology, since ancient +times, has been divided into exoteric and esoteric branches. The ray +teaching, however, has remained esoteric and largely hidden from the +world. Only now, within the last seven decades, have we seen the +beginnings of an exoteric presentation of the seven rays. + +The reason for the new emergence of this ancient knowledge at this time +seems quite simple. "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." +Humanity, the World Disciple, is apparently now ready, and stands on the +threshold of a great awakening. New responsibilities, new opportunities +and new light are being urged upon us by the Teachers of the race. +Concurrent with this expansion is the need for a deeper, conscious +penetration by the human race into the essential nature of reality. What +was once occult mystery is now rapidly becoming practical science. Not +only is the teaching on the rays emerging, but so are esoteric astrology, +psychology, healing and many other formerly occult sciences receiving +increased exoteric recognition. + +What is meant by the word 'ray'? The Tibetan answers this question in the +following manner: "A ray is but a name for a particular force or type of +energy, with the emphasis upon the quality which that force exhibits and +not upon the form aspect which it creates." (R I 316) The seven rays are +seven qualities of energy. Rays do create forms, though the emphasis is +not on the external, but rather on that which lies behind or within the +form. + + + + +Modern physics has concluded that all is energy, that within every form +lies an essential network and pattern of energy. The seven ray teaching, +in scientific terms, is an hypothesis that asserts the following: All +energy within form is fundamentally septenate in character. The energy, as +well as tthe forms derived from it, can be described through seven discrete +and archetypal streams. + +The seven streams of energy, it is said, are the very vibrations within +matter, space and form which define and infuse all objects, all beings and +all events in manifestation. They combine and interweave to create all the +complex systems we know as reality, from the grandest interstellar +spectacle to the smallest mundane occurrence of daily life. As concepts +they will be found to be familiar, simple and direct of apprehension. They +strike a chord in our consciousness and are, quite literally, closer to us +than breath. Yet the system they compose is as vast and elusive as the +world and the cosmos itself. To truly comprehend and usefully apply this +knowledge can be equally elusive, and is an immeasurable challenge. + +The seven primordial energies are beyond complete, exact depiction in +words, or even in thoughts on the planes of this world. They are too +essential and encompassing to be wholly contained or isolated within our +narrow band of the Greater Spectrum. But to stimulate understanding and +the flow of intuition within us, certain descriptive phrases have been used +in connection with the rays. This is a list of some of the more common +synonyms: + + Ray One - Will, purpose, power, destruction + Ray Two - Love, wisdom, inclusiveness, coherence, magnetism + Ray Three - Active Intelligence, adaptability, creativity + Ray Four - Harmony through conflict, beauty, sensitivity, unity + Ray Five - Concrete knowledge, science, mind, analysis + Ray Six - Devotion, idealism, adherence, force + Ray Seven - Order, ceremony, organization, group, magic + +The ray teaching gives us an energy picture of creation and of life at all +levels of being. It provides a means of explaining the intricate +interrelationships of all things, spiritual and material; and it proclaims +their oneness and interconnectedness. + +As part of this energy picture of the cosmos, human beings are, of course, +themselves composed of ray energies. The various bodies or vehicles of +incarnation of the individual human being - the personality, the mind, the +soul, etc. - are said to issue forth on one or other of the rays. The +particular, dominant pattern of vibration within an individual or group or +nation qill establish its constitution, its environment and the keys to +determine the inante opportunities and limitations of the entity. +Practically, it is a picture of the inherent impulse, the immediate need +and prescribed path of evolution. + + + + + +The psychological application of the ray hypothesis is of particular +interest because it provides a practical energy framework for understanding +the make-up of individuals and groups. The rays of a person, when +determined, studied and understood, will enable that individual, or his +counsellors or therapists, to 'go to the source'. Knowledge of ones' +energy-essence and underlying vital composition can be invaluable in +developing a balanced program for life, lived in accord with nature +collectively, and with what is individually appropriate and true. + +The emanation and interplay of human energy is seen as a reflection of the +energy of the universe. That which is in man is in all things. And, +importantly, it is the energy within that dictates the outer appearance and +behavior of each and all. + +In order to undrerstand the "seven streams of force", we are constrained to +use verbal and numerical descriptions. But bear in mind that any words we +may use are mainly attempts to translate a quality into a form. And, in +translations of any kind, something of the original is always lost. + +The correspondences between the ray doctrine and numerology will be +obvious, but the rays are not, in actuality, numbers or symbols or +techniques for divination. They are fundamental creative energies, the +vibrations of our very essence. The following summaries of the rays, based +on research in the teachings of the Tibetan, may help to explain the range +and focus of each of the seven qualities: + +Ray One. This energy is the beginning and the final synthesis - the source +of all other energies. It is the essence of power and energy itself. The +first ray is the force of purpose, direction, centralization and one-ness, +of which the will is the keynote. It is characterized by the qualities of +intensity, dynamism, quickness, and dominance. It often results in +detachment, isolation and crystallization. And out of its force and +directness is conceived the powerr of creative destruction. + +Ray Two. Consciousness is born of the second energy, in the union of +duality, spirit and matter. This is the source and blending of light and +love, magnetism and relationship, inclusiveness and coherence. It is the +ray of wisdom, sensitivity and intuition, as well as clarity and attention +to detail. This energy is a qualifying, teaching and healing force. It +often results in attachment andd attraction, and, curiously, establishes +our awareness of fear, the antithesis of love and relationship. The second +ray is the energy of the entire solarr system and hence is also a ray of +profound synthesis. + +Ray Three. Activity and intelligence work out from this source, a result +of purpose and wisdom. It is the energy of full and great manipulations, +creativity and adaptability. Needs are recognized through this force, +plans are formulated, material is selected and business is undertaken. The +third ray is clear, inherent mental and intellectual ideation in pursuit of +truth, with the objective of manifesting in matter and substance. It is +the power which evokes form. + + +Ray Four. This energy stands symbolically in the center of the seven and +is the magnetic relation of opposites, the point of harmony, bridging and +mediation amidst conflict, pain and struggle - in a sense, the fruition the +duality rooted in the second ray. It stimulates creativity, art and beauty +and is characterized by sensitivity to color and sound. Discrimination, +quickness and a searching for perfection reside here. The intuitive, +relational force is strong in this ray, which evokes life, love and +understanding. + +Ray Five. This is the energy of concretion into substance, of knowledge +and science, and of stimulation in the three worlds. It leads to the +searching, analysis and development of ideas, which in the end produces +light and wisdom. It is the enerrgy of differentiation and investigation +which can lead to separativeness, cleavage and crystallization. But the +thoroughness and discrimination with which the fifth force works in the +mind and the intellect leads the way ultimately to understanding and to the +revelation of truth. + +Ray Six. The seeds of all devotion and desire pour forth through this +energy. It generates adherence, intensity and persistence. The +determination resident in this ray is a fiery essence, sometimes full of +force, fury and even fanatical display and militant violence. Abstraction +and aspiration characterize the sixth force, in the sense of an idealistic +nature, loyally oriented toward the causal levels of being. The sixth ray +is the power to recognize what is right and righteous, the upward tendency +and the capacity to see the light. + +Ray Seven. This last of the seven is the most tangibly expressive on the +outer planes. It is the quality of relationship between spirit and matter +and is thus magical. It is rhythm which builds, integrates, circulates and +manifests. It is the bringer and producer of newness in form. The +relational power of this ray motivates law and order, rule and ritual, +organization and group consciousness. It is practical understanding and +vital energy externalized, which embodies both the center and the periphery. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/8sabbats.txt b/religious documents/8sabbats.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9c086d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/8sabbats.txt @@ -0,0 +1,112 @@ +The Eight Sabbats of the Old Religion + +The Old Religion, Wicca, divides the year into eight main high days or +Sabbats. Four of these are associated directly with the two equinoxes +and the two solstices. The other four fall at dates inbetween these +points. + +In the Celtic Tradition, the year begins at SAMHAIN, or as it is +called now, Halloween. This is the night that the veil between the +world of men and spirits is considered to be the thinnest, so it is +of little wonder that people should think of it as a night that all +sorts of things roam about. It is New Year to the Celtics and a time +to try and peek a little into the time ahead or to see if it is +possible to view the future with Divination. Divination is done in +many forms but all seek to establish a look ahead, whether the answer +appears good or bad. SAMHAIN is also considered to start the reign of +the GOD or the dark time of the Year when the Sun goes lower each day +and begins to weaken. + +YULE- December 21 is called YULE. It is the time of the Winter +Solstice, the shortest day of the year. + +From this day forward the sun again begins to grow in strength and +rise to new heights each day. It is a time of celebration and gift +giving. At each of the Sabbats a number of Covens will meet and those +that practice solitary may come to celebrate in the festivities. +Families come together traditionally to these festivals. At Yule the +celebration is in honor of the Sun being reborn and its start to warm +the Earth and drive the Winter from the land. In the early days the +LORD of the HUNT, or the HORNED GOD of the HUNT, was most important +for survival in Winter since hunting was the means of survival +practiced. The Horned God is in no way to be confused with the DEVIL. +Wicca does not consider the Devil to be an entity but believes that +all good and evil are contained in each individual and it is up to +that individual to be as good or as bad as they deem.MAN is man, both +good and bad. + +CANDLEMAS or BRIGIDDAY- February 2nd is celebrated as Candlemas. This +is a festival of lights. This date is approximately half way between +YULE and SPRING. BRIGID was the Celtic Goddess of +Fire, Smithcraft, Healing and Wells and this was her day. Candlemas is +considered in some traditions as the marker point where the Mother +Goddess, the Great Earth Mother marks the path for the Sun God to +find her in the dark times. It is a time when the first rush of +Spring may be felt in the air and the warmth of the Sun grows +stronger. + +SPRING EQUINOX- March 21 is the festival of Spring and the return to +the land of life after the dead of Winter. It is a celebration of the +return of growth and green things to the land. This festival is +usually considered to be a sharing of +love between the GOD and GODDESS, a period of equality, a balance +between the forces of nature and man and woman. If possible this +festival is done outdoors so the feeling of being close to nature is +attained. All around the feeling of Spring may prevail from the new +grass beneath the feet to the sweet clean smell of the air. The +joining of mankind with nature at this festival is easily +accomplished with the land renewed all around us. + +BELTANE-April 30th is the celebration of Beltane. This is one of the +old fire festival at which BALEFIRES would be started across the +country with a new fire that had been started by the Priests and +hearths would be rekindled with the fresh flame. In some quarters +stock would be driven between two fires , one to each side to purify +the animals(not to mention get rid of pests they might be carrying). +It is also considered as the coming together of the God and Goddess +in fruitful union to add new life to the crops and hasten their +growth. + +SUMMER SOLSTICE-June 21st is the longest day of the year and marks +the high point reached by the Sun on its yearly journey. It is the +height of Summer and the fields are green with the new crops. Life +abounds all around us and in every living thing is the feeling of +oneness with nature. It is easy to stand in a woods or a field and +feel the Earth around you while the Sun shines on your face. To hear +the birds in song or to watch the animals teaching their spring born +young what they must learn to survive winter is a beautiful feeling +of oneness with all beings. + +LAMMAS- August 2nd is the festival of Lammas which is the first +harvest. The early crops are being brought in and stored for winter +while the abundance of nature is all around. The corn stands high in +the fields and the days are warm and luxurious. Lammas is the time of +sharing the first harvest and breads that are made from the early +grains. It is a festival where sharing between all present of the +harvest and its bounty forms a closeness or bond. It is a time of +thankfulness to the God and Goddess for their help in the creation of +a full harvest for the winter that lies ahead. + +FALL EQUINOX-September 21st is the exact opposite of March 21st. Both +of these are times of equal night and equal day. Fall Equinox is a +reminder that the Sun will now start to grow shorter each day from +this point on until again at YULE the longest time of darkness will +come again. This is again a time of equalness between the God and +Goddess, the God represented by the Sun, the Goddess by the Moon. +Each representing half of one whole that is fulfilled by their +joining as one. Fruitfulness of the land being the end result of +their mutualness, the bounty of the harvest will be brought in and +stored against winter, and the dArk times. From here the next +festival is again SAMHAIN and the start of a NEW YEAR. + +SO THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR TURNS IN THE +OLD RELIGION + +For further information about the Old Religion send a self addressed +stamped envelope to: + +CTOC +P.O. Box 186 +Posen, Il. 60469 + +All inquiries with return postage will be answered. diff --git a/religious documents/9_angles.txt b/religious documents/9_angles.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68cdc5d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/9_angles.txt @@ -0,0 +1,394 @@ + ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» + ºCEREMONY OF THEº + º NINE ANGLES º + ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ + + `The Satanic Rituals' + Anton Szandor LaVey + (c) 1972 + + Written by: + Dr. Michael A. Aquino + + + [This ceremony is to be performed in a closed chamber containing no + curved surfaces whatsoever. No open flames are to be in the chamber + except for a single brazier or flame pot. General illumination is + provided through controlled starlight or moonlight, or via concealed + ultraviolet devices. Above and behind the altar platform should appear + the outline of a regular trapezoid. The celebrant and participants all + wear masks or headpieces to blur or distort the true facial features. + + All participants assemble in a half-hexagonal formation facing the + large trapezoid emblem. The celebrant stands before the altar, facing + the participants. He raises his left hand in the Sign of Horus:] + +CELEBRANT: N'kgnath ki'q Az-Athoth r'jyarh + wh'fagh zhasa phr-tga nyena phragn'glu. + + Let us do honor to Azathoth, without + whose laughter this world should not be. + + [Participants answer the gesture] + +PARTICIPANTS: Ki'q Az-Athoth r'jyarh wh'fagh + zhasa phr-tga nyena phragn'glu. + + Honor to Azathoth, with whose + laughter this world should not be. + +CELEBRANT: Kzs'nath r'n As-Athoth bril'nwe + sza'g elu'khnar rquorkwe w'ragu + mfancgh' tiim'br vua. Jsnuf a + wrugh kod'rf kpra kybni sprn'aka + ty'knu El-aka gryenn'h krans huehn. + + Azathoth, great center of the cosmos, + let thy flutes sing unto us, lulling + us against the terrors of thy domain. + Thy merriment sustains our fears, and + we rejoice in the World of Horrors in + thy name. + +PARTICIPANTS: Ki'q Az-Athoth r'jyarh wh'fagh + zhasa phr-tga nyena phragn'glu. + + Honor to Azathoth, with whose + laughter this world should not be. + + [Celebrant lowers hand, then renders the Sign of the Horns + with his right hand. All participants echo the gesture.] + +CELEBRANT: N'kgnath ki'q Y'gs'Othoth r'jyarh + fer'gryp'h-nza ke'ru phragn'glu. + + Let us do honor to Yog-Sothoth, without + whose sign we ourselves should not be. + +PARTICIPANTS: Ki'q Y'gs'Othoth r'jyarh + fer'gryp'h-nza ke'ru phragn'glu. + + Honor to Yog-Sothoth, without whose + sign we ourselves should not be. + +CELEBRANT: Kh'run-mnu kai Y'gs-Othoth hrn-nji + qua-resvn xha drug'bis pw-nga s'jens + ni'ka quraas-ti kno'g nwreh sbo-j + rgy-namanth El-aka gryenn'h. Ky'rh + han'treh zmah-gron't k'renb phronyeh + fha'gni y'g zyb'nos vuy-kin'eh kson + wr'g kyno. + + Yog-Sothoth, master of dimensions, + through thy will are we set upon the + World of Horrors. Faceless one, guide + us through the night of thy creation, + that we may behold the Bond of the + Angles and the promise of thy will. + +PARTICIPANTS: Ki'q Y'gs'Othoth r'jyarh + fer'gryp'h-nza ke'ru phragn'glu. + + Honor to Yog-Sothoth, without whose + sign we ourselves should not be. + + [Celebrant raises both arms away from him at + a sharp angle. Participants do likewise.] + +CELEBRANT: Z'j-m'h kh'rn Z'j-m'h kh'r Z'j-m'h + kh rmnu. Kh'rn w'nh nyg hsyh + fha'gnu er'ngi drg-nza knu ky cry- + str'h n'knu. Ou-o nje'y fha'gnu + qurs-ti ngai-kang whro-kng'h rgh-i + szhno zyu-dhron'k po'j nu Cth'n. + I'a ry'gzengrho. + + The Daemons are, the Daemons were, + and the Daemons shall be again. They + came, and we are here: they sleep, + and we watch for them. They shall + sleep, and we shall die, but we shall + return through them. We are their + dreams, and they shall awaken. Hail + to the ancient dreams. + +PARTICIPANTS: I'a ry'gzengrho. + + Hail to the ancient dreams. + + [The celebrant now turns to face the altar.] + +CELEBRANT: Kh'rensh n'fha'n-gnh khren-kan'g + N'yra-l'yht-Otp hfy'n chu-si whr'g + zyb'nos thu'nby jne'w nhi quz-a. + + I call now to the unsleeping one, the + black herald, Nyarlathotep, who asureth + the bond between the living and the dead. + +PARTICIPANTS: I'a N'yra-l'yht-Otp. + + Hail, Nyarlathotep. + +CELEBRANT: Kh'rengyu az'pyzh rz'e hy'knos + zhri ty'h nzal's za naagha hu'h- + nby jne'w nhi quz-al hjru-crusk'e + dzund dkni-nyeh ryr'ngkain-i + khring's naaghs pyz'm ry'gzyn + rgy-namanth El-aka gryenn'h tko + f'unga l'zen-zu dsi-r p'ngath + fha'gnu nig-quz'a i'a N'yra'l'yht-Otp. + + O dark one, who rideth the winds of + the Abyss and cryeth the night + gaunts between the living and the + dead, send to us the Old One of the + World of Horrors, whose word we + honor unto the end of the deathless + sleep. Hail, N'yarlathotep. + +PARTICIPANTS: I'a N'yra-l'yht-Otp. + + Hail, Nyarlathotep. + +CELEBRANT: I'as urenz-khrgn naaghs z'h hyle + fer-zn cyn. I'as aem'nh ci-cyzb + vyni-weth w'ragn jnusf whrengo + jnusf'wi klo zyah zsybh kyn-tal-o + huz-u kyno. + + Hail to thee, black prince from the grotto + whose charge we bear. Hail to thee and to + thy fathers, within whose fane thou laughs + and screams in terror and in merriment, in + fear and in ecstasy, in loneliness and in + anger, upon the whim of thy will. + +PARTICIPANTS: I'a N'yra-l'yht-Otp urz'n naagha. + + Hail, Nyralathotep, prince of the Abyss. + +CELEBRANT: V'hu-ehn n'kgnath fha'gnu n'aem'nh + Kzren ry'gzyn cyzb-namanth El-aka + gryenn'h kh'renshz k'rahz'nhu + zyb'nos y'goth-e vuy-kin'eh nals zyh. + + In thy name let us behold the father. + Let the Old One who reigneth upon the + World of Horrors come and speak with + us, for we would again strengthen the + bond that liveth within the angles of + the Path of the Left. + + [The celebrant stands directly before the altar, clenching both + fists and crossing the left hand over the right against his chest.] + +CELEBRANT: I'a Sh'b-N'ygr'th aem'nh El-aka + gryenn'h. I'a aem'nh kyl-d zhem'n. + I'a zhem'nfni n'quz n'fha'n-gn ki- + qua hu[ehn zyb'nos. + + Hail, Shub-Niggurath, father of the + World of Horrors. Hail, father of the + hornless ones. Hail, ram of the Sun + and deathless one, who sleepest not + while we honor thy name and thy bond. + +PARTICIPANTS: I'a Sh'b-N'ygr'th. + + Hail, Shub-Niggurath. + + [The Goat of a Thousand Young appears. All participants + clench their fists after the fashion of the celebrant] + +CELEBRANT: I'a aem'nh. + + Hail, Father. + +PARTICIPANTS: I'a aem'nh. + + Hail, Father. + + SHUB-NIGGURATH: Phragn'ka phragn. V'vuy-kin'e f'ungn + kyl-d zhem'n k'fungn zyb'nos Z'j-m'h + kyns el-kran'u. Fungnu'h zyb-kai + zyb'nos rohz vuy-kh'yn. + + I am that I am. Through the angles I + speak with the hornless ones, and I + pledge anew the bond of the Daemons, + through whose will this world is come + to be. Let us speak the Bond of the + Nine Angles. + +CELEBRANT AND PARTICIPANTS: + + I'a aemn'h urz'vuy-kin w'fren'j + El=aka gryenn'h. F'ung'hn-kai + zyb'nos rohz vuy-kh'yn n'kye + w'ragh zh'sza hrn-nji qua-resvn + k'ng naagha zhem v'mhneg-alz. + + Hail, father and lord of the angles, + master of the World of Horrors. We + speak the Bond of the Nine Angles + to the honor of the flutes of the + laughing one, the master of dimensions, + the hearld of the barrier, and the + Goat of a Thousand Young. + +ALL: V'ty'h vuy-kn el-ukh'nar ci-wragh + zh'sza w'ragnh ks'zy d'syn. + + From the First Angle is the infinite, + wherein the laughing one doth cry and + the flute wail unto the ending of time. + + + V'quy'h vuy-kn hrn-nji hyl zaan-i + vyk d'phron'h El-aka gryenn'h + v'jnus-fyh whreng'n. + + From the Second Angle is the master + who doth order the planes and the + angles, and who hath conceived the + World of Horrors in its terror and + glory. + + + V'kresn vuy-kn k'nga d'phron'g kr-a + El-aka gryenn'h p'nseb quer-hga phragn + uk-khron ty'h-qu'kre vuy-kin'e rohz. + + From the Third Angle is the messenger, + who hath created thy power to behold + the master of the World of Horrors, + who giveth to thee substance of being + and the knowledge of the Nine Angles. + + + V'huy vuy-kn zhem'nfi d'psy'h + dy-tr'gyu El-aka gryenn'h f'ungn-ei + si'n si-r'a s'alk d'hu'h-uye rohz. + + From the Fourth Angle is the ram of + the Sun, who brought thy selves to be, + who endureth upon the World of Horrors + and proclaimeth the time that was, the + time that is, and the time that shall be; + and whose name is the brilliance of the + Nine Angles. + + + V'cvye vuy-kn kh'ren-i kyl-d + zhem'n lyz-naa mnaa r'cvyev'y-kre + Z'j-m'h gryn-h'y d'yn'khe cyvaal'k + h'y-cvy-rohz. + + From the Fifth Angle are the hornless + ones, who raise the temple of the five + trihedrons unto the Daemons of creation, + whose seal is at once four and five and + nine. + + + V'quar'n vuy-kn fha'gn Z'j-m'h + ki-dyus dyn-jn'ash cvy-knu ukr'n + hy-rohz. + + From the Sixth Angle is the sleep of + the Daemons in symmetry, which doth + vanquish the five but shall not prevail + against the four of the nine. + + + V'try'v vuy-kn djn'sh dys-u n'fha'g-nir + Z'j-m'h r'n hy-kre'snvy'k kr'n-quar. + + From the Seventh Angle is the ruin + of symmetry and the awakening of the + Daemons, for the four and the nine + shall prevail against the six. + + + V'nyr vuy-kn hrn-njir vu'a lyz-naa + mnaa r'nyrv'y Z'j-m'h gry-h'y d'yn-khe + cyvaal'k h'y-cvy-rohz. + + From the Eighth Angle are the Masters + of the Realm, who raise the temple of + the eight trihedrons unto the Daemons + of creation, whose seal is at once four + and five and nine. + + + V'rohz vuy-kn i'inkh-v zy-d'syn + ur'bre-el hy'j whreng'n nakhreng'h + yh'whreng'n kyenn'h. + + From the Ninth Angle is the flame of + the beginning and ending of dimensions, + which blazeth in brilliance and darkness + unto the glory of desire. + + +SHUB-NIGGURATH: K'fung'n zyb'nos Z'j-m'h kyns + el-gryn'hy. + + I pledge the bond of the Daemons, + through whose will this world hath + come to be. + +CELEBRANT AND PARTICIPANTS: + + Ki'q zyb'nos k'El-aka gryenn'h + + We honor the bond upon the World of Horrors. + +SHUB-NIGGURATH: Ki-iq kyl-d zhem'n. + + Hail to the hornless ones. + +CELEBRANT AND PARTICIPANTS: + + Ki-iq Sh'b-N'ygr'th aem'nh El-aka + gryenn'h. + + Hail to Shub-Niggurath, father of the + World of Horrors. + +SHUB-NIGGURATH: Zhar-v zy-d'syn. + + Unto the beginning and the ending + of dimensions. + +CELEBRANT: Zhar-v zy-d'syn. + + Unto the beginning and the ending + of dimensions. + + + [The Goat of a Thousand Young no longer appears. + The celebrant faces the participants.] + +CELEBRANT: Ty'h nzal's kra naaghs n'ghlasj + zsyn'e ty'h nzal's za'je oth'e + kyl-d zhem'n f'ungh'n. Nal Y'gs- + Othoth krell N'yra-l'yht-Otp. + I'a Y'gs-Othoth. I'a N'yra-l'yht-Otp. + + The gaunts are loose upon the world, + and we shall not pass; but the time + shall come when the gaunts will bow + before us, and man shall speak with + the tongues of the hornless ones. The + way is Yog-Sothoth, and the key is + Nyarlathotep. Hail, Yog-Sothoth. Hail, + Nyarlathotep. + +PARTICIPANTS: I'a Y'gs-Othoth. I'a N'yra-l'yht-Otp. + I'a S'ha-t'n. + + + + -oOo- diff --git a/religious documents/9stat.txt b/religious documents/9stat.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..01e99f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/9stat.txt @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ + LaVey's Nine Satanic Statements + + +From _The Satanic Bible_ + + +I. Satan represents Indulgence, instead of abstinence! + +II. Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams! + +III. Satan represents undefilied wisdom, instead of hypocritical self deceit! + +IV. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted + on ingrates! + +V. Satan represents vengence, instead of turing the other cheek! + +VI. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible, instead of concern + for psychic vampyres! + +VII. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better and + sometimes worse! + +VIII. Satan represents all of the "so called" sins, as they all lead to + physical, mental and emotional gratification! + +IX. Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept + them in business all these years! + + + diff --git a/religious documents/aaffirmative.txt b/religious documents/aaffirmative.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d8d1af --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/aaffirmative.txt @@ -0,0 +1,400 @@ +Atheism: An Affirmative View (1980) +Emmett F. Fields +What is Atheism that it survives? + +Every religion, from earliest times, has hated and condemned those who +could not believe whatever it was that those old religions happened to +believe. Throughout the ages there have been the 'intellectual outlaws' +who have questioned the "unquestionable," and doubted even the very +existence of the gods. And those individual thinkers have been hated, +hunted, persecuted, and murdered by the religious believers. Yet the +Atheists and doubters are very much with us today, but those old +religions, and the gods they created, have long since ceased to trouble +the thoughts of mankind. + +If Atheism is considered to be a religion, then it is easily the oldest +living religion in the world. Properly stated, Atheism is truly "that old +time religion" that the Baptists keep singing about. + +Atheism is a difficult subject only because of the slander and +misrepresentations preached and published against it. Even the information +that is available in our most trusted and respected reference books is the +distorted and prejudiced view presented by religion. Just as in Communist +countries, where the articles on Capitalism, democracy, politics, etc., +are always written by Communists and from the Communist point of view, so +in Christian dominated societies, such as the United States, all articles +on Atheism, Rationalism, Freethought, etc., that are to be found in +encyclopedias and other reference books, are written by theologians, and +from the Christian point of view. + +The article on Atheism in the current edition of the Encyclopedia +Britannica was written by a Roman Catholic Jesuit Priest, Rev. Cornello +Fabro, Professor of theoretical Philosophy, University of Perugia, Italy. +In the Encyclopedia Americana the article on Atheism was written by Roger +L. Shinn, a professor at Union Theological Seminary. It seems that +religion, like Communism, can survive only when it can control the +information about conflicting beliefs. + +This system of writing the most trusted and basic reference and +information books from the point of view of the dominant ideology in every +society has the dangerous effect of further polarizing and isolating the +peoples of the world within their own narrow beliefs, and of creating +contempt and distrust for all others. + +America was not established to have any dominant ideology, The United +States was meant to be 'a free marketplace of ideas,' where every opinion +could be heard and considered. Today we must consider the various ideas +and opinions as they are presented in great newspapers and reference +books. + +And so it is of the utmost importance that these ideas and opinions be +presented honestly, by the people who accept them, believe in them, and +are convinced they are the best answers to the problems under +consideration. Then, and only then, will people have any real opportunity +to make an intelligent decision about the beliefs they are investigating. +The American people have a right to know that in Atheism there is a moral, +sensible, and scientific alternative to religion. + +There can be no doubt but that the people of this nation must be among the +most deceived and brainwashed in the world, at least, at very least, in +the area of religion. As an Atheist I have a very special reverence for +truth, real truth, truth with fact and proof behind it. And it is +infuriating to me when I go into a public library and read the lies and +misrepresentations that are being fed to the eager, active, and searching +young minds that use our libraries in their quest for truth and +understanding. + +The first step, then, in understanding Atheism is to disregard all the +lies and propaganda that religion has spread against it. Atheism is more +than just the knowledge that gods do not exist, and that religion is +either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is an attitude, a frame of mind that +looks at the world objectively, fearlessly, always trying to understand +all things as a part of nature. It could be said that Atheism has a +doctrine to question and a dogma to doubt. It is the human mind in its +natural environment, nothing is too holy to be investigated, nor too +sacred to be questioned. The Atheist Bible, it could be said, has but one +word: "THINK." Atheism is the complete emancipation of the human mind from +the chains and fears of superstition. + +There is absolutely nothing negative about Atheism; truth can never be +negative. The Atheist demands proof, or at least reasonable evidence, and +simply rejects whatever does not meet the basic requirements of common +sense. Throughout history all progress in society has come from doubting +and rejecting old ideas, old customs, and old beliefs. The tree of human +knowledge dies as it grows, with new growth growing out of the dead and +dying parts, and replacing it with better and truer beliefs. The +Theologian is an owl, sitting on an old dead branch in the tree of human +knowledge, and hooting the same old hoots that have been hooted for +hundreds and thousands of years, but he has never given a hoot for +progress. + +Morally speaking, Atheism has a great advantage over religion. The great +failure of religious morality comes from their illusion of a morality +above right and wrong. The religious mind has always known it is wrong to +murder and torture, wrong to persecute and hate, wrong to force its +beliefs upon others. Religion has always known these things are wrong, but +the religious mind suffers from the illusion of a "higher morality," and +because of that illusion all history runs deep with innocent blood. In the +name of their "god" and a "higher morality," Christians have waged holy +wars of extermination, have plundered, tortured and murdered those who +could not agree with their religion, or who had never even heard of it. In +the name of this "higher morality" Christians have hated, hunted, +persecuted, and burned alive the "heretic," the "infidel" and the +"atheist." + +And today, as always, when the religious person does a thing that even he +recognizes as being wrong and immoral, his illusion of a "higher power" +and a "greater morality" allows him to perform some ritual, confession, or +prayer, and presto, miraculously, "all his sins are taken away", and he is +free again from all pains of conscience and regret. + +Such foolish illusions do not comfort the Atheist mind. The Atheist knows +there is no morality above right and wrong, and no escape from the pains +of conscience and remorse. Murder is murder, and robbery, hate and +persecution are all crimes against humanity. Morally speaking, it is +better to be murdered than to be the murderer; better to be robbed than to +be the robber, and better to be hated and persecuted than to be among +those who hate and persecute. Morally speaking, then, history tells us it +is better to be an Atheist than to be a Christian. + +Religion claims that immorality always springs from a lack of religion, +but the facts prove just the opposite. Christianity has never been +stronger than it is today, Christians have churches in every community, +they monopolize radio and television time with religious propaganda, they +have forced their religion into our government, our laws, and into our +schools. They have done these things against the Constitution of the +United States, and against the most basic and sacred rights of all other +Americans. Like a sinking ship, with water rushing in and filling every +compartment where it was not supposed to be, so religion has attacked our +nation, rushed in where it was not supposed to be, where it has no +business to be, silencing all opposition, all opposing views, poisoning +the wells of our knowledge, and endangering the very roots of our nation. + +Christianity is that strong today, and yet we have not achieved any +respectable amount of morality in this country. Nowhere is the failure of +Christian morality more evident than in America. During the same time that +Christianity has been growing ever stronger and ever richer, over the past +thirty years or so, the use of harmful drugs has became a national +scandal, the crime rate has been climbing ever higher and ever faster, the +divorce rate has skyrocketed, and during that time our nation has been +embroiled in more wars and international conflicts than in any other +similar time period in its history. During that time, our nation was also +getting its 5000 or so weird religious cults, a byproduct of Christian +indoctrination. Right to-day we have the highest narcotics abuse rate, the +highest crime rate, the highest divorce rate, and the highest 'religion +rate' that we have ever had in the history of this nation. What does +Christianity say about these facts and how to cure them? They tell us we +need more religion and they are determined to force it upon us. +Christianity feels so strong today that it is moving into politics to try +to force its failing morality upon every American through a Christian +Dictatorship and a new Dark Age. + +Once Atheism is achieved, and the mind has escaped entirely from the +religious fears and beliefs that are put upon us from earliest childhood; +and once we can look at religion objectively and impartially, it becomes +entirely obvious that religion has all the characteristics of a form of +insanity. To one degree or another the religious mind must accept, and +believe in, another world; a supernatural or unnatural world, a world +filled with all sorts of imaginary beings called gods, devils, angels, +saints, demons, etc. These imaginary creatures are talked to, asked for +favors, guidance, "signs," or miracles, and then blamed or thanked for +natural events that follow. Except for the cloak of religion, such beliefs +and actions would otherwise cause an individual to be judged insane, and +committed to an institution for treatment. + +The study of history will further justify the theory that religion is a +form of insanity. No sane and healthy minds could have waged the bloody +religious wars and crusades where the conquered were slaughtered, men, +women, and children, even infants, all were put to the sword simply +because they were "infidels" or "heretics." The dungeons and torture +chambers of the Holy Inquisition could not have been run by sane and +healthy minds. And it had to be the insane mind, the religious mind, that +would tie a woman to a stake, pile wood and fagots around her and burn her +alive for the impossible crime of being a witch. No sane person could read +of the horrors, rape and slaughter in a savage book and call that book +"the word of God." And the Jesus myth, about a god who must become a man +and be murdered before he can forgive mankind, is the most insane of all. + +Today, Christianity chooses to ignore, or to hide and deny, its own bloody +history and to claim that it is the very foundation of our morals, and +even of our civilization. Religion also claims to be our only hope and +guide for the future. In view of Christian history these claims are, in +themselves, sheer insanity. + +But Christianity is not the only form of organized insanity in the world +today. The Atheist, being an individual who stands outside all belief +systems, is well aware that there are other religions and beliefs that are +equally insane and dangerous. Christianity is simply most dangerous to the +United States; to our government, our freedom and our future, because it +is here, it is powerful, it is wealthy, and it is entirely unscrupulous. +In addition to its illusion of a morality above right and wrong, I must +add, and emphasize, that it also has an illusion of a "higher allegiance" +to something above truth, above justice, and above America and national +patriotism. It does not require that a person be an Atheist to be aware +that Christian Fundamentalism is today the greatest threat to our nation +and its freedom. + +Communism is by far the worst thing that has happened to the world in the +last two hundred years, but it is also the best thing that has happened to +Christianity since the plagues. During the plagues the churches received +great wealth from people who gave their possessions and land to the church +in the hope that God would spare their lives, and the lives of their loved +ones. And so today religion is again growing rich and powerful from our +modern-day plague; Communism. + +Christians are constantly using Communism as a club to beat down all +opposition to their religion, their power and their schemes. Anyone who +disagrees with them, Atheist or not, is denounced as being a "Communist." +Religion implies that there is an inseparable connection between the +political-economic dictatorship called Communism, and the freedom from +religion called Atheism. Religion chooses to ignore the fact that Atheism +is older than Communism and Christianity put together. + +Even the fear and hate that religion is preaching against Communism is not +aimed at the political-economic ideology that is the cause of our trouble, +but at the "atheistic" aspect that is not the problem. + +Let us consider very carefully what the connection is between Atheism and +Communism in Russia. There can be no doubt but that Atheism is the reason +for the success of Communism. Atheism is the force that brought the +Russian nation up from being one of the most backward, primitive and +religious nations in Europe in 1917, to the point of being one of the most +advanced, scientific and technological, nations in the world today, +Whether we like it or not, we must admit that Communist Russia is a +powerful modern force, and a very dangerous potential enemy. Communism is +an external threat to our nation, and to our very world, that is of great +concern to all Americans, Atheists and Christians alike. + +It must be admitted that Atheism is the engine and the thrust behind +Communism that has allowed it to move forward into the modern world in +such a short time. Atheism is the engine and the thrust, but it is not the +steering wheel. The dominant, controlling ideology in Russia is the +economic-political dictatorship known as Communism. Even the Christians, +if they could be taught to hate a little less, and think a little more, +would have to admit that. + +Atheism is, has been, and will continue to be, the force for progress +throughout the Communist world, it is the powerful engine that powers an +evil ideology. Today we are in a desperate race for our very survival. +America and the free world cannot win that race if we continue to allow a +primitive, medieval superstition to hinder our progress. Because of that +superstition we have lost our lead, and because of that superstition we +may lose the race. + +What is the difference between our own Christian dominated society, and +the Atheist-oriented society in Russia? What is it that will make such a +great difference in the future progress of these two societies? According +to a special report in 'Science 80' Magazine concerning the Communist +threat, reads: "This challenge is expressed not only in growing military +strength but in a bid to outpace the United States and other Western +nations through an educational "mobilization" program designed to prepare +all Soviet youth to participate fully in an advanced technological +society." The article goes on to say "The Soviets have put massive +resources behind their assumption that a decisive advantage is to be +gained by raising the level of scientific literacy and numeracy of their +population." + +And what are we doing in the United States to keep up with the Communist +efforts to advance even further their scientific and math education +systems, systems that are so very important to any modern technological, +military society? At present we have a great push by Christianity to have +their primitive "creation" myth hidden under the guise of +"Scientific-Creationism," taught in our public schools on an equal basis +with the well established and accepted modern theory of organic evolution. +This is the same battle that was fought in the courtroom during the Scopes +"monkey trial" in 1925, a trial which made this country the laughing stock +of the modern world. It is the same war that has been raging between +Christianity and the modern world since 1859 when Charles Darwin's 'The +Origin of Species' was first published. For over one hundred and twenty +years Christianity has tried to prevent us from making any progress in +this basic science. The truth is, of course, that Christianity has always +fought every fact of science and modern knowledge that did not conform to +its primitive Bible, written and copied, as it were, by ignorant, +half-civilized nomads some four thousand years ago. + +How can we hope to survive as a nation, keep our freedom and remain a +force in the modern world unless we cast aside the superstitions of +primitive times, and adopt the scientific, technological, "Atheistic" if +you will, society that reason and common sense demands? It is time, and +long past the time, for Atheists in America to come out of their libraries +and defend our modern world and our nation against religion and Communism. + +Today we live in a world divided and tuned for war; tuned for a war so +unlike any previous war that wisdom can only shudder at the thought of it. +This is a world always fearful that the other side may strike first, and +thus gain some decisive advantage. It is fearful also to strike first +itself, lest it fail to devastate the enemy completely, and leave him able +to retaliate with devastation. Thoughtful people all over the world +realize that the situation is more dangerous than the enemy. That each +side has a tiger by the tail, and both sides are afraid to let go, or even +to lessen its grip, lest that side be utterly destroyed. Intelligent +people all over the world are working for an easing of tensions, a +lessening of armaments, and are searching for a common ground upon which +both sides might find some point from which to begin establishing a +working relationship. A relationship that would lead to a progressive +lessening of the threat of a nuclear holocaust, and the eventual +establishment of a peaceful and lasting coexistence. + +Intelligent people all over the world are working for these things, but +Christian fundamentalists are not. Christians are shouting "No coexistence +with Godless Communism" and "Atheistic Communism must be destroyed." This +is indeed the final proof that religion is a form of insanity. We must +judge Christianity by what it has done throughout its history, and it has +never been a force for peace. We must judge what Christianity is doing +today in preaching hate against that part of our world that has outgrown +and rejected Christianity. And we must judge what chance we have for +survival if our part of the world continues to be held back by religion. +Atheism has brought the Russian nation great progress in scientific and +technological advances, and has made Communism a powerful force in the +world. But Atheism could have been doing great things for us also, if we +had allowed our society to lay aside, through education, the foolish old +beliefs that are hindering our progress, our defense, and our very +survival. + +Where do we begin our long journey back to reality, back to sanity? I +would start with an 'International Encyclopedia of Information,' written +by those who believe the ideas and from their point of view. Imagine an +American going to a library and learning what Atheism is, instead of what +it is not. Imagine a Russian going to his library and learning what +Capitalism is instead of what it is not. Imagine people all over the world +going to their libraries and reading the same histories, truthful +histories, histories that will not need to be changed when ever there is a +political or religious power change. Let Communism write what it believes, +let Capitalism write what it believes. Let both work together to write a +universal history, and if they can't agree about the facts of history, let +them both write their view of history and let them be published side by +side, and let the reader be the judge. The purpose of a history or an +encyclopedia is education, not propaganda. + +After all, it was the Encyclopedia, the French encyclopedia of Diderot and +others, that was so instrumental in bringing Europe out of the Christian +Dark Ages during the Renaissance. There is every reason to believe that a +universal source of basic information would be a great step toward ending +much of the distrust and confusion that is at the very root of our trouble +in the world today. + +There is no part of the world where the people are all bad, and another +part where the people are all good. When nations go to war, people go out +and kill people. People who, under different circumstances, might well be +their honored and trusted friends. Christianity has never prevented a war, +but has been responsible for many wars because of its prejudice against +all other religions, and especially against Atheism. + +Some time ago I prepared "An Atheist's Message to America." I have read it +at other talks and meetings. It reads: + +"The overabundance of religious propaganda in this country would lead us +to believe that the primary purpose of this nation is the preservation and +expansion of the Christian religion. But that is not true. + +Our nation is not, and must not become, the battleship of the Christian +religion. Our struggle in the world is in defense of LIBERTY. To preserve +our own, and, if possible, to help others gain and keep theirs. + +This nation is not fighting "Godless Atheism" nor "Atheistic Communism," +nor any other group or nation that has had Christian hate terms applied to +them. + +We, as a nation, are opposed to Communism because Communism, like +Christianity, is an ideological force that is destructive to human rights +and freedom. It is, in fact, none of our business whether another nation, +or another individual, believes in a god or not. Our only concern is that +every individual must have the liberty to decide just what he, or she, can +and will believe. And have the freedom to express, publish and pursue +those beliefs in perfect safety. + +In short, our only concern in the world is exactly those ideals that this +great nation of ours was originally founded upon." + +And so after all this, let us look again at our original question: "What +is Atheism that it survives?" + +Atheism is the world of reality, it is reason, it is freedom, Atheism is +human concern, and intellectual honesty to a degree that the religious +mind cannot begin to understand. And yet it is more than this. Atheism is +not an old religion, it is not a new and coming religion, in fact it is +not, and never has been, a religion at all. The definition of Atheism is +magnificent in its simplicity: Atheism is merely the bed-rock of sanity in +a world of madness. + +July 20, 1990 + +The above talk was delivered at the Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church in +Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday, October 19, 1980, and was published in the +July-August 1981 'American Rationalist' magazine (P.O. Box 994, St Louis, +MO. 63188.) and has been sold as a pamphlet by them ever since. + +There has been a great change in the world situation during the past year +and a half. The dangerous situation discussed in the above lecture has, at +last, been broken. But it was not done by Christian love or by any +believer in a god. It was an Atheist, Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev, who had the +intelligence, courage and leadership to move his country, the Soviet +Union, in a direction of peace and understanding. By Mr. Gorbachev's +wisdom and action, and his alone, the tensions have been greatly reduced. +But already Christians are claiming that the achievement was the work of +their god, and, I am sure, in future issues of our Encyclopedias the +credit will, somehow, (as always) be given to Christianity and its god. + +Nothing changes history like the Christian Historian. + +Emmett F. Fields diff --git a/religious documents/abs_cd.txt b/religious documents/abs_cd.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d5c694 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/abs_cd.txt @@ -0,0 +1,155 @@ +Date: Thu, 21 May 92 01:46:35 EST +From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU + +Brief Review of American Bible Society CD-ROM, experimental +release (1991) = "ABS Reference Bible" with Innotech "Findit" +software accessing. (Approximately $195 US.) +American Bible Society, 1865 Broadway, NY NY 10023. + +by Robert Kraft, University of Pennsylvania (19 May 1992) + +The ABS Reference Bible is is a slightly revised and repurposed +version of the "FABS Electronic Bible" that was issued around +1988-89 by the Foundation for Advanced Biblical Studies, and was +reviewed by Tzvee Zahavy in OFFLINE 30 (Sept/Nov 1990). Please +consult that review for details regarding the general contents of +the disk and capabilities of the software. My intention here is +to record my own reactions as a not-in-the-least disinterested +party to some of the developments represented in the ABS entry +into CD-ROM preparation and distribution. + +I am not "disinterested" insofar as some of the CATSS and CCAT +data that has been collected and prepared under my guidance +appears on the (FABS/)ABS disk, and there has already been some +discussion about releasing an updated and corrected version of +these and related materials through cooperation between ABS and +CCAT/CATSS. And I am not in a position to see the ABS CD-ROM as +first-time users will see it, insofar as I have years of +experience using TLG and PHI disks, among others. Finally, in +this mood of confession, please be advised that I have only spent +an hour or so with the ABS disk, and have had access only to the +electronic help files that come on the disk itself (I have no +printed manual accompanying it). But since Tzvee says that an +hour is enough to learn to use this software adequately, I +shouldn't make too many excuses. + +On the whole, I am embarrassed by the ABS Reference Bible CD-ROM. +Not that it does not contain lots of useful "biblical and +related" material of various sorts in various languages (Hebrew, +Greek, Latin, German, Spanish, English), or that the software +does not support various sophisticated functions (e.g. searching +with and, or, and not options), but the virtually ironclad +linkage between the data and the software via pre-indexed entries +and the relative inflexibility of the software in stepping the +user through various menus and windows are stifling to one who +has enjoyed the freedom of experimenting by means of IBYCUS +searching, for example. The ABS disk is cumbersome to use. It +represents a "kindergarten" approach. It is confining. That does, +of course, pay dividends on the "learning curve" side of things. +But I felt somewhat insulted and shortchanged. + +Still, I could live with all that if the results were generally +reliable and helpful. That means, primarily, if the indexing and +related synthesizing of materials was done with sufficient +foresight and accuracy. My hour with the disk does not encourage +me to believe this to be true. Some examples: + +I first looked at the first item on the list of resources -- the +Abingdon Dictionary of the Bible. This could be very useful for +some general reference purposes. I looked for "LXX" and was told +that there was one entry, which turned out to be one of those +frustrating cross-reference items that said "see SEPTUAGINT." So +I went back to the search sequence and requested Septuagint, only +to be told by an aggravating mustard colored box that the term +"septuagint" (the searches are not case-sensitive) did not occur! +So I looked closer at the index, through which one must go to +find things in the data bank, and found that it is a very +incomplete representation of the data, and could often be quite +misleading or unhelpful, even on terms it includes. For example, +if I wanted to check out occurrences of the location "Alexandria" +(I was still hot on the trail of "Septuagint"), I would not be +led to passages where "Clement of Alexandria" was mentioned, +since "Alexandria" is indexed there as part of his name. Nor +could I look for unidentified "Clement" persons, but only for the +specific "of Rome" or "VI" or the like. When I found the initials +of the author who had contributed a certain article to the +dictionary and wished to know who that was and what else had been +contributed by the same person, the index did not allow this. And +so forth. (Incidentally, I did not successufully locate any +material on the disk that detailed the sources of the data or any +associated bibliography; I hope this was due simply to my haste!) + +Ok, maybe things are different with other files, I conjectured, +always ready to give the benefit of the doubt. And I wanted to +see how the Hebrew and Greek looked, in any event. So I played +for a few minutes with those files. Disaster. They are, at least +in my configuration, displayed in transliteration, and the +indexing of words does not attempt to differentiate between +significant symbols and (for indexing purposes) insignificant. So +in Greek, the breathing marks and accents (except not all of the +Greek texts have diacritics on this disk!) may separate closely +related words (morphologically) into very distant portions of the +index, and the Hebrew indexing is even less useful, for various +reasons relating to coding and other issues. (The coding used is +similar to but not identical with the Michigan-Claremont-CCAT and +the TLG-PHI-Beta systems). + +Ok, those are often difficult issues to resolve; what about the +other aids -- the juxtapositon of English meanings with the +morphologically analyzed Hebrew words, for example. Such a good +idea, but so disastrously presented! In Genesis 1.1, for the +opening letter of the biblical text, the English column informs +us that the "B" of "B.:R")$YT" is "Beth, 2nd letter, 2" without +breathing a word about its significance (as a preposition, "in") +here! Similarly, when we come to the conjunctive "W" we are told +that it is "waw, 6th letter, 6" without any clue about its +joining power ("and"). I didn't bother to check for "L" or +other single letter prepositions. + +So the English column was done automatically, without thought. +Maybe the problems are only with these single letters/numbers. +I'm still trying to be forgiving, but it's getting very +difficult. I read down further in the Genesis text and am quite +surprised/shocked/embarrased to find in Gen 1.3 that God +apparently willed the "Nile river" into existence with the word +")OWR," which our translations have tended to see as a reference +to "light." A quick check establishes that in 1 Samuel 14.36, +Saul fought the (blank! íPhilistinesù) unto Nile river as well! +Friends, such things are not very helpful, and quickly detract +from other values undoubtedly present on the ABS CD-ROM. They do +not inspire confidence, although in fairness they are probably +not representative of the vast majority of data on the disk. +Still, I feel embarrassed. + +What is the bottom line? Caveat emptor! You can do a lot of +things with this software and data, but some of them will be +painful and there are other things you might want to do but will +be unable. It is an excellent example of two major problems in +our transition to an electronic information world: (1) haste +makes waste, or at least doesn't always accomplish the desired +result. There is no excuse for FABS, in the first place, to +release such shoddy indexes and English glossing; or for ABS, in +its reuse of the FABS materials, not to do something about it. +(2) Prohibiting access to the data except through the pre-defined +indices and software is to take large steps backwards from what +electronic tools and resources can and should be. If I have +better software for searching and retrieving these materials (and +I do; perhaps you do too, depending on what tasks you wish to +perform), why should I be tied to someone else's idea of what I +ought to be able to do with them? In the long run (and even, in +some things, in the short), such an approach can only impede +progress in the scholarly use of this data. + +I hope it is reassuring to any who understand that last point +that my own position in the discussions with ABS about jointly +producing a new "biblical" CD-ROM is that the CATSS/CCAT data +cannot be tied to the software. I hope that the data can be +accessed by the software that is provided, for those who wish to +do so, but for others who wish to go further or elsewhere in +their use of the data, it must also be accessible independently +of that software. Thus we can hope to have the best, or at least +some taste, of both worlds, in an effort both to make things easy +for some users, while at the same time to encourage other users +to explore and experiment with other approaches and applications. + +//end// diff --git a/religious documents/abuse.txt b/religious documents/abuse.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e24607a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/abuse.txt @@ -0,0 +1,494 @@ +SYSOP'S NOTE: The following file is the complete text of a letter sent by +Dr. Michael Aquino to CBS after they aired a made-for-TV movie entitled "Do +You Know the Muffin Man?" This movie was a fictional account of a "typical" +ritualized child abuse case in a "typical" day-care center, modelled +closely after the allegations in the McMartin, Bakersfield, and Akron +scandals. Dr. Aquino's letter thoroughly rebuts these charges. + +No response from CBS had been received as of 12/18/89. + +This letter is reprinted with permission of the author, who asked me to +point out that documentation for everything he says in here is available on +request to the address shown. -- J. Brad Hicks, Sysop WeirdBase +______________________________________________________________________________ + + TEMPLE OF SET +P.O. Box 4507 St. Louis, MO 63108 * MCI-Mail: 278-4041 * Telex: 6502784041 + +Michael A. Aquino, Ph.D. High Priest of Set October 25, 1989 CE + +Programming Department CBS Television 51 West 52nd Street New York, NY + 10017 + +Dear Sirs: + + Your broadcasting of the television-movie DO YOU KNOW THE MUFFIN MAN? on +October 22 displayed extremely shocking bias and disregard for the truth. +To the extent that this film is interpreted by audiences to represent the +general truth behind the epidemic of day-care "Satanic child abuse" +witch-hunts which have convulsed this country for the last several years, +you will be responsible for the encouragement of further injustices of the +most traumatic kind on innocent people falsely accused of such horrors. + + You may shrug this off by citing the fine-print disclaimer at the end of +the film that this was a "fictional" drama. Yet the references to real-life +incidents ("the Presidio, El Paso, and West Point") in the film as though +they were proven examples of the kind of crime depicted, coupled with the +TV GUIDE and on-screen announcement that "according to government +statistics some 39,000 children were sexually abused last year", made it +clear that the film was to be understood as thinly-fictionalized +"docu-drama". + + From McMartin onward, the epidemic of day-care "child abuse" scares has +been characterized by spontaneous and violent attack upon chosen targets +the moment they are selected. Presumably child sexual abuse is so heinous a +crime, as witchcraft during the middle ages, that it is unthinkable for +anyone to be accused of it unless he or she is indeed guilty. Everyone +wants to go on record as denouncing such individuals vigorously, lest one +become suspect oneself for not showing sufficient enthusiasm for the hunt. +On the other hand, no individual or official wants to take responsibility +for stating that the alleged abuse did not occur. + + Permit me to itemize the more conspicuous fallacies of Muffin Man: + +(1) YOUR TV GUIDE/ON-SCREEN ANNOUNCEMENT THAT "FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH +ESTIMATES THAT APPROXIMATELY 39,000 CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF SIX ARE +SEXUALLY ABUSED IN THE UNITED STATES EACH YEAR" IS MISLEADING, IMPLYING AS +IT DOES THAT "DAY-CARE SATANIC" EVENTS SUCH AS THAT DEPICTED IN THE FILM +ARE THE PROBLEM. + + What your announcement failed to state is that THE VAST MAJORITY OF SUCH +CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE OCCURS IN THE HOME, NOT IN DAY-CARE CENTERS. According +to David Finkelhor, Associate Director of the Family Violence Research +Program, University of New Hampshire, the primary threat of sexual +molestation comes from MEMBERS OF THE CHILD'S FAMILY, NOT FROM +PORNOGRAPHERS OR PEDOPHILES WHO ARE STRANGERS. Projection of such crimes +upon day-care personnel may be a device to cover up incest, or to destroy +women's options for child-care outside the home, thus forcing them away +from personal/professional lives of their own and back to the +fundamentalist model of "a woman's place". In CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE: NEW +THEORY & RESEARCH, Finkelhor writes: + + In many respects the moralists were mistaken about the problem, since +they portrayed the greatest danger to children as coming from strangers and +depraved individuals outside the family, not from within the family, where, +as recently documented, the more serious threat is. + +(2) USE OF ROLAND SUMMIT AS THE SOLE CONSULTANT TO THE FILM. + + Dr. Roland Summit testifies so consistently for any accusation of "child +abuse" that he has become nationally known as the "prosecution doctor". +(Cf. Paul & Shirley Eberle, THE POLITICS OF CHILD ABUSE, Lyle Stuart 1986.) +He now has a distinguished record of participating in several celebrated +"child abuse industry" scandals in which scores of innocent people were +randomly accused, put through nightmarish ordeals, and professionally +ruined. + + Why did you not also consult some of the many distinguished physicians +who expose and deplore the "child abuse industry", such as Dr. Lee Coleman, +Director of the Center for the Study of Psychiatric Testimony in Berkeley, +California? Were you afraid that you might discover "inconvenient" facts +which invalidate the pre-determined theme of the film? + +(3) SCARRING IN RECTUM AS EVIDENCE OF CHILD-RAPE. + + This was presented in the film as "conclusive proof" that one of the +children had been raped. In the case of at least one real-life witch-hunt - +that at the Presidio of San Francisco - it was also used in the case of the +child whose parents originally instigated the scare. Later on the physician +who originally diagnosed the child's rectum as injured retracted that +diagnosis on a television news documentary. By that time, of course, the +witch-hunt was in full swing and no one paid attention to this inconvenient +development. + + Dr. John McCann, Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the +University of California, San Francisco, has produced a study that reveals +far more normal variations in the vaginal and rectal areas of children than +most physicians are aware of. He and his assistants examined the vaginal +and rectal areas of some 250 prepubertal children with no history of sexual +molestation and found that "private parts - particularly girls' genitals - +can be as variable from person to person as noses or breasts". Responsible +physicians are accordingly becoming more cautious about diagnosing "rape" +from such variations. See the article in MS magazine, March 1989. + +(4) PARENTS' AND INTERROGATORS' REFUSAL TO ACCEPT DENIALS OF ATTACK BY +CHILDREN. + + As your film showed, this is a staple of "day-care child abuse" +witch-hunts. Once their minds are made up, zealots simply keep working the +children over, again and again, for months or years if necessary, until the +children are ready to say anything expected of them. Moreover any +statement at all from such children which can be "interpreted" by parents +or "therapists" into sexual context is construed as "evidence". MUFFIN MAN +presented this as a perfectly normal and acceptable practice. + + As the MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL noted on January 20, 1988 as part of +its 6-part series on the "child-abuse" epidemic: + + Investigators in El Paso sometimes refused to accept denials, +retractions, or silence from children. They attributed those actions to +stress-related "avoidance" behavior or to the "child sexual abuse +accommodation syndrome", a controversial doctrine that says abuse victims +inevitably recant allegations. + + The COMMERCIAL APPEAL further observed that: + + Luiz Natalicio, an El Paso psychologist who evaluated tapes of +interviews in the abuse case there, compares the questioning techniques to +those used by Communist Chinese forces on American soldiers captured during +the Korean War. Like the POWs, children in the El Paso case were isolated +in unfamiliar and usually barren surroundings. They believed their release +from questioning, and satisfying such needs as drinking water and going to +the bathroom, depended upon whether they provided information, Natalicio +said. "If we can do it with adults, you can imagine how effective it can be +with children, who are dependent on us totally for their conception of +reality," said Natalicio, a former University of Texas professor who taught +courses on the psychological aspects of interrogation. + +(5) TRANSPORT OF CHILDREN FROM DAY-CARE CENTERS TO REMOTE SITES FOR +MOLESTING. + + This invention was created by accusers to explain away the inconvenient +fact that day-care centers are generally open places with lots of +observation and access, parents and children coming and going, and no +opportunities for molesting, much less elaborate "Satanic rituals". + + Merely proposing such an idiotic "explanation" does not validate it, no +matter how often it is tried. Not one "witch-hunt" has validated this +absurd allegation. So why did your movie present it as an "accepted" +practice? + +(6) INTEREST OF SATANISTS IN CHILD-MOLESTING, PARTICULARLY AT DAY-CARE +CENTERS. + + This must rank with the survival of Elvis Presley as one of the most +asinine myths of the 1980s. It is in COMPLETE CONTRADICTION to the +official, published doctrines of the Satanic religion, as contained in +Anton LaVey's SATANIC BIBLE of the old Church of Satan (1966-1975) and in +the CRYSTAL TABLET of the contemporary Temple of Set (1975-present): + + Under no circumstances would a Satanist sacrifice any animal or baby. +There are sound and logical reasons why Satanists would not perform such +sacrifices. Mankind is the godhead to the Satanist. The purest form of +existence reposes in the bodies of animals and human children who have not +grown old enough to deny themselves their natural desires. They can +perceive things that the average human being can never hope to. Therefore +the Satanist holds these beings in a sacred regard, knowing that he can +learn much from these natural magicians of the world. The Satanist is aware +of conventional religions' universal custom of killing their gods. The +Satanist, however, does not hate himself nor his gods, and has no desire to +destroy himself or anything for which he stands. It is for this reason that +he would never willfully harm an animal or child. The Satanist would not +intentionally hurt others by violating their sexual rights. If you attempt +to impose your sexual desires upon others who do not welcome your advances, +you are infringing upon their sexual freedom. Therefore Satanism does not +advocate rape, child molesting, sexual defilement of animals, or any other +form of sexual activity which entails the participation of those who are +unwilling or whose innocence or naivete would allow them to be intimidated +or misguided into doing something against their wishes. - SATANIC BIBLE + + Children should not be allowed to attend any Black Magical ritual. +They will not understand it, may be frightened by it, and may wrongly +represent it to others. Pets may be present only if they may be depended +upon to enhance, not to disrupt the atmosphere. Under no circumstances is +any life-form ever sacrificed or injured in a Black Magical ritual of the +Temple of Set. Violation of this rule will result in the offender's +immediate expulsion and referral to law-enforcement or animal protection +authorities. - CRYSTAL TABLET OF SET + + The senior Supervisory Special Agent of the FBI in charge of "Satanic +abuse" investigations is Kenneth Lanning, FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia. +As the MEMPHIS COMMERCIAL APPEAL reported on January 18, 1988: + + Lanning said he was perplexed by the growth of such stories with no +evidence to support them. "Some people believe there is large-scale +abduction of children," Lanning said, "that individuals are going around +snatching little children, keeping them captive, transporting them to other +locations where they're being murdered in Satanic rituals. Is that +possible? I guess it's possible. Is it probable? I don't see any evidence +of it." + + While Lanning has patiently repeated this authoritative statement any +number of times since then, it seems that anti-Satanism fanatics are +determined not to hear it. I understand that some of them, furious over +this "inconvenience", have simply labeled Lanning a Satanist himself (which +he is not) and continued their campaigns. This is in keeping with medieval +practice, in which anyone daring to defend an accused witch was simply +accused in turn. + + The theme of "sexual abuse of children" has been loosely used as +hate-propaganda by Christianity for centuries against any other religion it +wished to slander. Along with "child sacrifice", it was a theme used +aggressively against the Jews up to World War II, after which time Nazi +violence against that religion made it unfashionable for Christians to +openly attack it. The Satanic religion, on the other hand, appears still to +be considered an appropriate target for such slander. + + The effect of such hate-propaganda, of course, is to create a social +atmosphere in which Satanists must fear any association with children +whatever, whether their own or someone else's. While Christians may +indoctrinate their children with Christian ideology - including at the many +day-care centers run by Christian churches - any hint that Satanists might +even be DISCUSSING their religion with their children, much less teaching +it to them, is guaranteed to provoke social and, to the extent it can be +effected, official persecution. + + As it happens, neither the old Church of Satan nor the current Temple of +Set ever operated any programs for minors, nor accepted them as members. +Nevertheless it is outrageous that Christians should expect us to accept a +social climate in which ONLY they, not anyone else, can discuss religion +with children. + + Also as it happens, the religion with a PROVEN RECORD of child sexual +abuse by its officials is CHRISTIANITY, not Satanism. I am talking not +about mere allegations, but about PROSECUTIONS and CONVICTIONS - and also +about official policies to cover up such crimes when they have occurred. To +take just the Catholic Church as an example: In the December 30/31, 1988 +SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, court records and sworn testimony in civil and +criminal cases involving 35 priests in dioceses across the U.S. over the +past five years - most since 1985 - show that in one or more cases Catholic +Church officials have: + + * Ignored parental complaints that a child has been molested. * Failed +to inform authorities, even though most states have laws requiring that +such complaints be passed along to police or child welfare agencies. * +Transferred the offending priest to another parish or other church-owned +facility, such as a hospital or school, without warning parents in the new +location of the trouble in the old parish, and often without even requiring +the priest to stay away from children. * Refused to help priests who have +asked for psychological help. * Attempted to discredit parents who +complained, even when parish officials knew of earlier complaints against +the priest in question. * Fought, usually with success, to make sure that +the files in civil lawsuits against the church are sealed and that +settlements remain secret even after the payment of millions of dollars in +claims * Failed to seek out probable victims and declined to turn over +files containing information about accusations of other molestations to +attorneys suing the church. + + Catholic Father Thomas Doyle, a Washington, D.C. priest and canon lawyer +who has looked into the issue of pedophiliac priests, told the MERCURY +NEWS he knows of about 200 Catholic priests who have molested children in +the past 4-5 years. He said that as many as 3,000 priests could be +pedophiles. + + F. Ray Mouton, a lawyer working with Doyle, added: + + I have consulted with dioceses and Catholic religious orders from +every part of this country, and it is my impression that there is not one +single, solitary bishop or vicar in this country who has not dealt with the +problem of a pedophiliac priest under his supervision. Conservatively I +would estimate that in the last several years, hundreds of priests and +other clerics have been discovered as pedophiles, leaving a trail of +thousands of Catholic child victims. + + The SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS provided the following examples [among +others]: + + * In 1987 priest Roger Trott, Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania +pleaded guilty to one count of corrupting a minor, a 13-year-old altar boy, +in a plea arrangement providing for no jail time. Afterward the district +attorney discovered that Trott may have molested as many as 15 boys. A year +before, the diocese reportedly paid $375,000 to two families on behalf of +children alleged to have been molested by another priest, Father Dennis +Dellamalva, who was never charged. Neither the families who sued nor the +diocese would discuss the settlement. * In 1987 priest Richard Galdon, +Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, was sentenced to 25 years in prison +after pleading guilty to one count of first-degree aggravated assault and +two counts of second degree aggravated assault against three boys. Galdon, +57, admitted engaging in oral and anal sex with boys for 17 years. DA +investigator George McGrath said that he talked to 18 boys at a school who +said they were molested by Galdon. * In 1985 priest Carmelo Baltazar, +Diocese of Boise, Idaho was sentenced to 7 years in prison for luring two +teenage boys to his house, fondling them, and giving them liquor, drugs, +and pornography. He had been kicked out of the U.S. Navy (where he had been +a chaplain) as well as transferred from three previous dioceses for similar +conduct. An attorney who sued the diocese said that Baltazar's previous job +was at a hospital in Napa, where he fondled a boy on a dialysis machine. +Despite being told about this, a Catholic hospital in Boise hired him and +then took no action after an Episcopalian minister reported to the bishop +that Baltazar had fondled a boy in double leg traction. * In 1987 priest +John Salazar, Archdiocese of Los Angeles, was sentenced to 6 years in +prison for engaging in oral copulation with two altar boys. He had been +left in his position despite one mother's report that her son had been +molested in 1985. * In 1985 priest Alvin Campbell, Diocese of Springfield, +Illinois was sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to +sexually abusing 7 boys. Campbell later admitted that he had molested boys +for more than 20 years. * In 1987 priest Walter Weerts, Diocese of +Springfield, Illinois was sentenced to 6 years in prison for performing +oral sex on three teenage boys. The diocese paid $2.5 million, one source +told the MERCURY NEWS, to three families who sued when a pattern of +transferring him from parish to parish was uncovered. The diocese refused +to discuss the case. * In 1986 priest Ronald Fontenot, Diocese of Spokane, +Washington was sentenced to 1 year in jail and 2 years in a treatment +program after teen-age boys complained that he had engaged in oral +copulation with one and fondled four others. * In 1986 priest Andrew +Christian, Diocese of Orange, California received 5 years' probation on +condition he go to a treatment facility after being found guilty of 26 +counts of child molestation. The church never told authorities of abuse +reported 3 years earlier, when it sent Christian to counseling and did not +remove him from supervising boys. When the counseling stopped, molestings +began. * In 1986 priest William O'Connell, Diocese of Providence, Rhode +Island was sentenced to 1 year in prison and 2 years in a treatment center +after pleading no contest to 26 counts of sexually abusing 12 boys. * In +1985 priest Paul Leech, Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island was sentenced +to 3 years in prison for molesting 3 boys. * In 1986 priest Timothy Slevin, +Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. was sentenced to 3-12 years after pleading +guilty to four counts of sodomizing a boy at Sacred Heart Catholic School. +Slevin told police he sexually abused 6 other boys aged 10-16. + + In contrast to this shameful record, there has never been a SINGLE +charge against or conviction of ANY Satanist for child sexual abuse, +anywhere, any time. The reason is quite simple: WE DON'T DO IT. Ours is a +religion in which sex is NOT treated as a religious fetish, nor restricted +between consenting adults. It is regarded simply as one more bodily +function with pleasurable and romantic aspects. + +(7) PORTRAYAL OF SATANISTS KILLING RABBITS AND FAMILY PETS. + + Animal sacrifice is strictly forbidden by this nation's Satanic +churches, per the above quotes from the Satanic Bible and the Crystal +Tablet. + +(8) THE FILM'S DISMISSAL OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PRESCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN +SUDDENLY USING COMPLEX SEXUAL WORDS LIKE "VAGINA". + + In fact this is one of the MOST conspicuous indices that the child in +question has been coached by zealots. As such it is an important indicator +impeaching the testimony of such children and should not be minimized. + +(9) AN OLDER CHILD INSISTING ON THE WITNESS STAND THAT HE HAD "PASSED A +POLYGRAPH" CONCERNING HIS ALLEGATIONS. + + While the film showed the defense lawyer objecting and the objection +sustained, this scene was clearly added to "substantiate" the older child's +statements. The reason that polygraph results are not allowed in court, of +course, is that they are NOT reliable. There are many reasons why they may +give false readings. The history of their use in child-abuse witch-hunts is +that they are ignored by prosecutors if they support the accused person's +innocence and are treated as "proof overwhelming all other evidence" if the +accused is judged to have flunked. + + As Washington columnist James Kilpatrick recently reported in his +column: + + A witness for the American Medical Association testified that the +results of such examinations are "only somewhat better than chance". +Another estimated that polygraph machines wrongfully hang a label of "liar" +on at least 400,000 honest persons every year. A Senate report described +the problems. A standard polygraph records changes in blood pressure, +respiration patterns, and sweat. By analyzing a chart of these changes, the +operator reaches conclusions on the honesty of the person being examined. +The physiological data may be quite accurate, "but there is no evidence +that these recorded changes are unique to deception". Such factors as +"anger, fear, anxiety, surprise, shame, embarrassment, and resentment can +cause identical changes". + +(10) PORTRAYAL OF A "SATANIC CEREMONY" IN A DAY-CARE CENTER, WITH VIOLENCE +ATTEMPTED TO PREVENT POLICE FROM SEEING IT. + + No Satanic religious ceremony has EVER been held in a day-care facility, +nor have implements or persons involved in such a ceremony EVER been found +in the way your film implied. No law-enforcement official curious about any +activity of the Church of Satan or Temple of Set has EVER been resisted +with violence. + + To further highlight the film's ignorance of authentic Satanism, a +ritual knife was referred to as an "athame", and the "Satanists" were shown +in red robes. An athame is a device used by the Wicca pagan religion, not +by Satanists. And Satanists do not wear red robes for rituals. [Perhaps you +confused us with Catholic cardinals?] + + Even more preposterous was the film's use of "Satanic names" such as +Isis, Medea, Triton, and Pegasus. Obviously you - or Roland Summit, or +whoever else your "expert" on Satanism happened to be - knows as little +about mythology as about athames. In Egyptian mythology Isis is the wife of +Osiris, OPPONENT of the "Satanic" god Set. Medea is a figure from Greek +mythology having nothing to do with Satanic symbolism. Triton is a fish, +and Pegasus is a horse. Genuine magical names are chosen carefully, with +precise attention to the mythology in question. Or perhaps you intended +your "conspiracy of Satanists" to include a frogman and a jockey? + +(11) ACTOR JOHN SHEA'S CITING OF "THE PRESIDIO, WEST POINT, AND EL PASO" AS +PROVEN INCIDENTS OF SUCH ABUSE AS PORTRAYED IN THE FILM. + + PRESIDIO OF SAN FRANCISCO: This 1986-87 scandal was simply one more +scam in the "McMartin copycat" series. Neither prosecutions nor convictions +of anyone resulted. A Baptist minister by the name of Gary Hambright was +initially targeted in that witch-hunt; later on an Army chaplain decided to +attack my wife and myself as well. All charges against Hambright were +ultimately thrown out by the court or withdrawn by the prosecution, and +thus he is entitled to the presumption of his innocence. More than that, +the U.S. Federal Public Defenders in his case state that the evidence quite +clearly exonerates him of any such crimes. Ask them yourself: Ms. Nanci +Clarence & Mr. Jeff Hansen, Federal Building, San Francisco - (415) +556-7712. No charges were ever brought against me or Mrs. Aquino, because +the evidence conclusively proves not only that we could not have committed +crimes as alleged, but also that they never occurred at all. On the other +hand, I preferred court-martial charges against that Army chaplain, +Lawrence Adams-Thompson, for making knowingly false and malicious +accusations against us. I am still at this time insisting that the U.S. +Army Criminal Investigation Division follow through with investigation of +these charges which I preferred, and of Adams-Thompson's attempt to defraud +the U.S. Government of several million dollars in fraudulent monetary +claims based on his fake allegations. [Following the West Point pattern as +noted below, parents in the Presidio witch-hunt filed over $66 million in +claims against the government in an attempt to make a little money from +what they had put their children through.] + + WEST POINT: This July 1984 scandal began after a girl came home +bleeding in the vaginal area. In the usual pattern allegations then +mushroomed to include several children, animal sacrifice, pornography, and +"rituals involving people wearing bloody, Dracula-type masks". Ultimately +950 people were interviewed including hundreds of children aged 2-6. No +charges were ever brought against anyone because of lack of evidence. +Nevertheless a Captain Grote refused a promotion to Major and proceeded to +accuse Army officials of covering up "the presence of ritualized/Satanic +child abuse at West Point". [There were no Satanists at West Point at the +time.] Perhaps as disappointing to the accusers under the circumstances was +the fact that 8 families had filed claims against the government totalling +$110 million, easy wealth which was unlikely to be realized if the scam +would not be officially endorsed. + + EL PASO: In June 1985 this McMartin-copycat got under way after parents +questioned their 3-1/2-year-old daughter about a word she had used. Two +YMCA female teachers were eventually accused as the feeding-frenzy grew. +Nine children talked about monsters, being kissed and fondled, and "having +pennies put in their pee-pees". This case was prosecuted, and both women +were found guilty. One conviction was later overturned, and [as of the most +recent account I read] the other is on appeal. Again it is interesting to +consider the role that monetary claims played in this affair. Insurers for +the YMCA reached a $600,000-plus settlement with parents after an appellate +court overturned the conviction of one of the two female workers accused. +Parents had originally sued for more than $24 million. + + If there is any "pattern" to be demonstrated by these cases, it would +seem to be one of parental greed rather than of "Satanic child molesting". + + The United States has now been through several years of such disgraceful +witch-hunts, which films such as MUFFIN MAN purport to excuse and justify. +To the extent that audiences accept its theme, you have acted to stimulate +and encourage further outrages of this sort. This is genuine child abuse, +as it is always the children, along with the targeted adults, who are the +sufferers from these orgies of greed and hatred. + + It is ironic that, at the same time these ferocious witch-hunts are +being promoted, the country is bewailing its lack of adequate child +day-care services. Under these circumstances only a lunatic would have +anything to do with operating or working in a day-care service, no matter +WHAT salaries are offered. Nor does one have to be male to be targeted; +such witch-hunts have victimized young and old, male and female alike. + + If this is the situation you sought to endorse by your broadcast of +MUFFIN MAN, then I expect you are quite pleased with yourselves. If after +considering the facts cited in this letter you have second thoughts about +what you did, then perhaps CBS should make a statement to that effect and +remove this disgraceful film from further circulation. It belongs in a +trash-bin along with Nazi Germany's THE ETERNAL JEW and similar +hate-propaganda filth. + +Sincerely, + +(signed) Michael A. Aquino + "conspiracy of Satanists" to include a frogman and a jockey? + +(11) ACTOR JOHN SHEA'S CITING OF "THE PRESIDIO, WEST POINT, AN \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/acrophil.txt b/religious documents/acrophil.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5baef66 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/acrophil.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/acsfpw.txt b/religious documents/acsfpw.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2058d61 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/acsfpw.txt @@ -0,0 +1,133 @@ + A CHRISTIAN SPEAKS ON THE FAITH AND PATH OF WICCA + by James Clement Taylor + +I am a Christian and not a Wiccan. A Christian is one who has been +baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who has +made a personal, free-will decision to commit himself and all his or her +life to our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Both of these things +are true of me. I am a Greek Orthodox Christian, a member of St. Mary's +Eastern Orthodox Church, Calhan, Colorado. In this paper, I am not speaking +as agent for any church, but I am, entirely on my own responsibility, +speaking the truth in love, as we Christians are supposed to do. + +A Situation of Strife and Shame: + +There are many Christians today who believe that anyone who is not a +Christian is doomed to an eternity of suffering in hell. Any decent +person, believing this, would be compelled to try to save as many people +from this fate as possible. But is this belief correct? Jesus Christ, +having noted the faith and righteousness of a Roman centurion, a Pagan, +proclaimed: + + "Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, + not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come + from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and + Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the king- + dom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be + weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:10-12) + +If we accept these words as true, and surely we should, then it is clear +that heaven will contain many who are not Christians, and hell will +contain many who are! Clearly, throughout the Gospels, Jesus Christ +sets forth the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, and +those criteria include love, kindness, forgiveness, and a refusal to +judge others: + + "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly + Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive + men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive + your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15) + + "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and + with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to + you." (Matthew 7:2) + + "But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy and not + sacrifice.'" (Matthew 9:13) + + "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. + Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and + you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be for- + given." (Luke 6:36-38) + +Is it not clear? Anyone who fails in these things, will calling himself +a Christian save him? Anyone who obeys God in these things, will being +unbaptized condemn him? Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, +Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My +Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21) + +In addition to these words from the Gospel, let us look at the words of +Micah the Prophet, centuries earlier, who wrote: + +He has shown you, O man, what is good; +And what does the Lord require of you +But to do justly, +To love mercy, +And to walk humbly with your God? +(Micah 6:6-8) + +Where, in any of this, does it say what doctrines one is to believe, or +whose teachings concerning reality one must accept? All these things speak +on how one ACTS, how one lives one's life, the kind of person one's actions +gradually bring into being. + +Yet it is not by good works that we earn our way into heaven, because +there is no way we can earn the free gift of God's mercy and grace, which +alone can save us. But it is clear that it is not by faith, in the +sense of sharing the Christian faith, that we are saved, either. The +faith which saves us is not faith in the goodness of our works, nor +faith that we have the right theology and/or belong to the right church. +Rather, it is faith in God, and in His mercy: + + "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, + but of God who has mercy." (Romans 9:16) + +But the Wiccans, you will say, do not have faith in God. Yet by their +own theology, they certainly do. Those who call them Satan-worshippers +are entirely wrong. They do not worship Satan, or even believe that +Satan exists. Instead, they worship a Goddess and a God whom they +understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity. + +Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it +should. In the Bible we find the following: + + "Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, + `Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are + very religious; for as I was passing through and con- + sidering the objects of your worship, I even found an + altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. + Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, + Him I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23) + +The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the form +of a Goddess and a God. Therefore, our Bible tells us they worship the +same God we do; and if they do not know this, we should know it! + +For those of us who are unable to simply stand on God's Word, and must +prove to themselves the truth of what it proclaims the holy Apostle John +has given us the method for doing this. You have only to attend any +public Wiccan ceremony, and test the spirits which are there, to see +"whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). + +You will find that, while you may perceive the power manifested there as +less than what you have experienced as a Christian, that power is clearly +the power of God. + +Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these people of Wicca have been +terribly slandered by us. They have lost jobs, and homes, and places of +business because we have assured others that they worship Satan, which +they do not. We have persecuted them, and God will hold us accountable +for this, you may be sure, for He has said, "Assuredly I say to you, +inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did +it to Me." (Matthew 25:40) + +Let us, from this point onward, repent of our misdeeds and declare that +henceforth we shall obey Christ our God, and not judge others or condemn +them, so that He will not have to judge and condemn us for our sins. + +* Z +* F O S +* E + +Light & Life, +James Clement Taylor diff --git a/religious documents/adam_god.txt b/religious documents/adam_god.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb70cdf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/adam_god.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1712 @@ +From: agr00@ccc.amdahl.com (Anthony G Rose) +Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc +Subject: Adam Is God ??? (Brigham Young's false doctrinal teachings) +Message-ID: <78Ey02sb32d=01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> +Date: 16 Jan 93 22:31:06 GMT +Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA +Lines: 1704 + + + + ADAM IS GOD??? + + Chris A. Ulachos + + + BRIGHAM YOUNG'S FALSE TEACHING: ADAM IS GOD + +==================================================================== +PREFACE: This is a reprint of an article appearing in the Journal of +Pastoral Practice, Volume III, Number 2, pages 93 through 119. It is +reprinted in this form with the permission of the author. + + Copyright 1979, Institute of Pastoral Studies of The Christian + Counseling & Education Foundation. + +==================================================================== + + +Of all the vices that entangle a man, perhaps none is as unholy as +jealousy. Jealousy, the "green-eyed monster", dwells in the deeper +regions of sin because the source of its existence is unbridled +covetousness growing out of pride and insecurity. However, in the +case of jealousy, what is a vice in human nature is a virtue in the +divine nature of God. Though among men jealousy is a ravaging and +soul-destroying cancer, in God it is a righteous zeal, based upon +His covenant love for His own people, which seeks to protect a love- +relationship and avenge it when broken. The godly zeal which the +Lord has for those whom He has chosen is an attribute worthy of all +praise and adoration. + +The fact that He is a jealous God was one of the first +characteristics that the Lord made known to Israel after He had +redeemed her out of the slave market of Egypt. She became His love +and possession, and He demanded from her a love and devotion that +would extend to no other (1). + + I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of + the land of Egypt, out of the house of Bondage. Thou + shalt have no other gods before me...for I the LORD + thy God am a jealous God (Ex. 20:1,3,5). + + Thou shalt worship no other god; for the LORD, whose + name is Jealous, is a jealous God (Ex. 34:14). + +Throughout Old Testament history the Lord taught Israel that He was +the only God with whom they had to do. For her to worship and serve +another would be sheer adultery and whoredom: + + And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but + they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed + themselves unto them (Judges 2:17). + +In the New Testament we find the same teaching. The New Testament +writers shared the Lord's jealousy over His covenant people: + + For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I + have espoused you to one husband, that I may present + you as a chaste virgin to Christ (II Cor. 11:2). + +While throughout the flow of Bible history we see God proclaiming +that He alone is to be worshiped, at the same time we find prophets +who were not of God taught the contrary. True prophets would never +be found teaching the people to worship another god - whether is +was a stone idol, and imaginary god dwelling in heaven, or a deified +man. They knew that it was Jehovah who had redeemed Israel out of +Egypt and that He alone is God. Inspired by God's Spirit, they knew +the mind of the Lord: that He would give His glory to no other. +Therefore, when these living oracles of God spoke as prophets, they +were moved to proclaim, "Thou shalt worship the LORD thy God, and +Him only shalt thou serve." + +In light of this insistence upon the exclusiveness of the true God, +we can understand the test of a prophet that Moses taught the +children of Israel. By applying this timeless test, people +throughout all ages may detect the false ones: + + If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of + dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the + sign or wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto + thee, saying, let us go after other gods, which thou + hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt + not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that + dreamer of dreams: for the LORD proveth you, to know + whether ye love the LORD your God with all you soul. + Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear Him, + and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and ye + shall serve Him, and cleave unto Him. And that + prophet, or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to + death; because he has spoken to turn you away form the + LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of + Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, + to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God + commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil + away from the midst of thee (Deut. 13:1-5) + +These words tell us that though a man might exercise miraculous +powers, he could not be a prophet of the Lord if he sought to +lead the people away to a strange god. Any prophet who advocates +the service and worship of another god is not a mouthpiece of the +Lord, is false, and, under the theocratic nation of Israel, was to +be slain. + +Holding fast to these truths let us now turn to Brigham Young, a +man who claimed for himself the station and office of prophet of +God. Recent history records the lives of few men who have +possessed the leadership qualities that Young exhibited. For thirty +years he presided as Prophet, Seer, and Revelator over the Mormon +Church, a people claiming to be led by prophets of God as in the +days of ancient Israel. On the basis of this claim the Mormons +have always regarded themselves as the only true Church on earth +today (2). Their priesthood claims sole possession of the +authority or power needed to act on behalf of God (3), and they +consider all other "Christian churches" to be in a state of +apostasy, who at best teach a partial truth about the gospel of +Christ(4). Now if Brigham Young, Mormon prophet from 1847 to 1877, +were a false prophet all along, then the claims of those who have +sought to derive their priesthood authority through him are empty +and void (5). If Brigham taught false doctrine, that cuts the +ground from under Mormonism's claim of latter-day prophetic +revelation and the Mormon Church is not divinely led. Acknowledging +this to be true, LDS Apostle Orson Hyde stated: + + To acknowledge that this is the Kingdom of God, and + that there is a presiding power, and to admit that he + [Brigham Young] can advance incorrect doctrine is to + lay the axe at the root of the tree. Will he suffer + his mouthpiece to go into error? No. (6) + +Any boast of prophetic guidance would be worthless if that guidance +were false. John Taylor, Mormon Apostle and later President, +admitted also this to be the case: "If that mouthpiece [Brigham +Young] has not the power to dictate I would throw all Mormonism +away." (7) + +The Mormon Church must base the truth of her claims on the +authenticity of Brigham's calling. Yet, we shall see that Brigham +Young, who presided over the Mormon Church longer than any other +man, did indeed advance false doctrine that focused worship on a +god other than the Lord God of Israel. + + + ADAM-GOD FIRST PROCLAIMED + +It stormed heavily on April 9, 1852, but the people turned out for +the sessions of the Spring LDS Conference that were that day. Each +session of the six-day church conference was filled to capacity. +Those desiring the best seats lined up outside the doors hours +before they opened. At times, because the crowds were so large, +many male members would leave the tabernacle to allow more room for +the women to attend. + +At 6:00 on the evening of the ninth, all LDS male members gathered +together in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for another session. The house +was full. After the usual introductory exercises, Mormon Prophet and +President Brigham Young began to address his brethren upon various +subjects. He instructed them concerning the place recreation and +amusements should occupy in their lives and concerning the +principle of tithing. + +Then, after a moment's pause, the Mormon Prophet took up his next +topic. The question was, Who begat Jesus Christ in the flesh? This +was a hot issue. There had been no little dispute about it among the +LDS Elders, and there were opposing views. As a Prophet and ` +mouthpiece of God, Brigham Young stepped forward to silence all +erroneous opinions and to declare with finality the true answer to +the inquiry (8). + +First, he repeated the fundamental Mormon doctrine that the Father +and Son each has a physical body of flesh and bones. Next, he set +forth Mormonism's belief that God the Father in a pre-existent +period, begot every spirit that would come to this earth. Then +Brigham looked out over the vast audience and boldly commanded all +of his hearers, whether near or far, Mormon or non-Mormon to take +heed to his next statements: + + Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and + Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father Adam came + into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a + celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, + with him. He helped to make and organize this world. + He is MICHAEL, the Archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS! + about whom holy men have written and spoken - He is + our father and our God, and the only God with whom WE + have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing + Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will + know it sooner or later (9). + +After declaring that Adam was the God of this world and the Father +of its inhabitants, Brigham then addressed the original inquiry +concerning the savior's birth: + + When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the + Father had begotten him in his own likeness. he was + not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the + Father? He is the first of the human family; and when + he took a tabernacle, it was begotten by his father + in heaven, after the same manner as the tabernacles + of Cain, Abel, and the rest of the sons and daughters + of Adam and Eve.... I could tell you much more about + this; but were I to tell you the whole truth, + blasphemy would be nothing to it, in the estimation + of the superstitious and over-righteous of mankind. + However, I have told you the whole truth as far as I + have gone... What a learned idea! Jesus, our elder + brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same + character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is + our Father in heaven. Now let all who may hear these + doctrines, pause before they make light of them, or + treat them with indifference, for they will prove + their salvation or damnation. I have given you a few + leading items upon this subject, but a great deal more + remains to be told. Now, remember from this time + forth, and forever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten + by the Holy Ghost. I will repeat a little anecdote. I + was in conversation with a certain learned professor + upon this subject, when I replied, to this idea - "if + the Son was begotten by the Holy Ghost, it would be + very dangerous to baptize and confirm females, and + give the Holy Ghost to them, lest he should beget + children, to be palmed upon the Elders by the people, + bringing the Elders into great difficulties." Treasure + up these things in your hearts. In the Bible, you have + read the things I told you tonight; but you have not + known what you did read (10). + +Having made this response, Young concluded his comments with another +reference to tithing. The Mormon choir then sang a hymn and Elder H. +G. Sherwood gave the closing benediction. + +Few of the Latter-day Elders who filed out of the Tabernacle that +night missed the meaning of what their prophet had just announced. +Upon returning home that evening, Hosea Stout, the prominent Mormon +pioneer, recorded the following in his daily journal: + + Friday 9th April 1852. - Stormy morning. attended + conference House much crowded, did not stay in House + long. after noon was not in because of the crowd. - + Another meeting this evening. President B. Young taught + that Adam was the father of Jesus Christ and the only + God to us. That he came to this world in a resurrected + body &c more hereafter (11). + +Samuel Rogers, who also was present that night, similarly noted the +content of Brigham Young's discourse: + + April 16 1852, Conference commenced on the 6 and + continued untill the 11, it was heled in the new + tabernacle, adjourned untill the 6 of next October we + had the best Conference that I ever attended during + the time of the Conference President Brigham Young + said that our spirits ware begotten before that Adam + came to the earth, and that Adam helped to make the + Earth, that he had a Celestial boddy when we came to + the Earth, and that he brought his wife or one of his + wives with him, and that Eave was allso a Celestial + being, that they eat of the fruit of the ground untill + they begat children from the Earth, he said that Adam + was the only God that we would have, and that Christ + was not begotten of the Holy Ghost, but of Father + Adam...(12). + + + DENIAL ADAM-GOD WAS TAUGHT + +As we consider Brigham Young's claim that Adam is God, it becomes +clear that he was a false, uninspired prophet. This teaching not +only runs counter to what has been revealed in the Bible, but it is +also branded as false doctrine in modern Mormonism. LDS Apostle Mark +E. Petersen, one of Mormonism's doctrinal authorities, stated: + + Some dissidents would have us believe that Adam is our + God and that we have nothing to do with any other God, + which, on the face of it, is ridiculous. To say that + Adam is God is, of course, opposed utterly and + completely to the scriptures as well as to our + Articles of faith,.(13) + +Spencer W. Kimball, Mormon Prophet, also denounced the teaching that +Adam is God: + + We warn you against the dissemination of doctrines + which are not according to the scriptures and which + are alleged to have been taught by some of the General + Authorities... Such, for instance is the Adam-God theory. + We denounce that theory and hope that everyone will be + cautioned against this and other kinds of false + doctrine (14). + +These and most other Mormon General Authorities, while denouncing +the doctrine that Adam is God, avoid or deny the fact that Brigham +Young himself was the major exponent of this doctrine. In his book, +_Adam_Who_Is_He?_, Mark E. Petersen tries to rescue Mormonism's +second prophet from teaching false doctrine by maintaining that +Brigham Young was misquoted in the address in question. On pages +16-17 of his book, Petersen sets forth as evidence for his defense +as reference in which C. C. Rich supposedly stated that Brigham was +misquoted in this sermon. Petersen claims that Rich was present on +the ninth of April and was therefor in a position to note the +misquotation which later crept into the published account of the +discourse: + + Elder Charles C. Rich, of the Council of the Twelve, + was present on a day when President Young gave an + address that was wrongly reported as saying that + Adam was Deity. In the copy of the Journal of + Discourses that he had, Elder Rich referred to the + misquotations as it appears in the Journal of + Discourses,and in his own hand he wrote the following + as the correct statement made by President Young: + "Jesus our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh + by the same character who talked with Adam in the + Garden of eden, and who is our heavenly Father." + (This signed statement is in the hands of the Church + Historian.) Some of the reporters at the Tabernacle + in those days were not as skill as others, and + admittedly made mistakes, such as the misquotation of + President Young as above, which was corrected by + Brother Rich and which has caused some persons in the + Church to go astray. The erroneously reported + statement has been mistakenly made to read: "Jesus, + our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the + same character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who + is our Father in Heaven." (JD, 1:51) On the face of + it the mistake is obvious and was quickly noted by + Elder Rich, who was present and heard the sermon. + Hence the correction that he made. + +What seems to be a good case made by Petersen crumbles, however, +upon cross examination. C. C. Rich, who Petersen claims "was present +and heard the sermon," was in reality not even in Salt Lake City on +that day! Rich left San Bernardino, California, on March 24, 1852, +for the Great Salt Lake (15). He did not reach his destination until +April 21. Under this date, the LDS Journal History records: + + April 21, 1852: + Elder Chas. C. Rich and thirteen others arrived today + in G.S.L. from California (16). + +In the May 1, 1852, issue of the Mormon _Deseret_Weekly_ the +following announcement was made: + + Elder C. C. Rich arrived on Wednesday, the 21 + of April, in company with 13 others...direct + from San Bernardino (17). + +Hosea Stout, in his journal, also noted the event: + + Wednesday 21st April 1852 Engaged as yesterday. Gen + Rich and some 15 others arrived today from + California by the South rout all well. + +Furthermore, not only was C. C. Rich absent on the ninth, but the +reference which Petersen claims was written by C. C. Rich "in his +own hand" was in reality written and signed by his son, Ben E. Rich, +many years after the sermon was delivered! (18). + +Whether Mr. Petersen was deliberately seeking to suppress the facts +or not, the truth is that there is no evidence whatsoever that +Brigham Young was misquoted. As we shall see, Young came under much +criticism from outside and from within the Mormon Church for +teaching that Adam was God the Father. If he had merely been +misquoted, Brigham simply could have corrected his hearers and +accusers. Instead, however, Young continued to affirm and preach +this doctrine against all opposition (19). + +These facts have forced other Mormon writers to maintain that +Brigham was quoted correctly, but that he has been misinterpreted +by his hearers and readers. Realizing the implications of one of +their prophets teaching false doctrine on such an essential matter +as who God is, these LDS apologists insist that Brigham Young did +not mean to say that Adam was deity. Characteristic of this +argument are the following statements made by the tenth Mormon +President, Joseph Fielding Smith: + + In discussing the statement by President Brigham Young + that the Father of Jesus Christ is the same character + who was in the garden of Eden, I maintain that + President Young was not referring to Adam, but to God + the Father, who created Adam, for he was in the garden + of Eden, and according to Mormon doctrine Adam was in + his presence constantly, walked with him, talked with + him and the Father taught Adam his language. It was + not until the fall, that the Father departed from Adam + and from the Garden of Eden (20). + +In regard to Brigham's statement that Jesus was begotten by "the +First of the human family", Smith states that this is referring to +the God and creator of Adam, who was the "first of the human family", +being its "progenitor" (21). + +Brigham's statement that Adam is "our Father and our God and the +only God with whom we have to do" is interpreted to mean that Adam, +being the first man, is the patriarchal head of the human race, and +in this regard he could be considered a god. In no way would these +later Mormon writer believe that Brigham is identifying Adam as God +their heavenly Father and the Father of Jesus in the flesh. (22). + + + YOUNG'S STATEMENTS BECOME PLAINER + +It must be admitted that Brigham's statements in the 1852 discourse +can be taken in more than one way. However, it again needs to be +asserted that both Brigham's friends and his opponents had +understood him to mean that Adam was God and was the Father of +Jesus Christ in the flesh. He simply could have corrected the +misinterpretation, but he didn't. Instead, 25 years after his +original "Adam-God" sermon, we find that the Mormon "Revelator" +continued to declare in no uncertain terms that Adam was the Lord +God Almighty (23). + +During a discourse given on Sunday night, February 19, 1854, Brigham +Young again addressed the question of who begot Jesus Christ in the +flesh. Speaking of Christ, he asked: + + Who did beget him. His Father, and his father is our + God, and the Father of our spirits, and he is the + framer of the body, the God and Father of our Lord + Jesus Christ. Who is he. He is Father Adam; Micheal; + the Ancient of days. Has he a father? He has. Has he + a mother? He has. Now to say the Son of God was + begotten by the Holy Ghost, is to say that the Holy + Ghost is God the Father, which is inconsistent, and + contrary to all the revelations of God both modern, + and ancient. I silenced this erroneous doctrine a year + ago last fall conference. It was I think when a + dispute arose among some of our best Elders, as to who + was the Father of the Son of Man pertaining to the + flesh. Some contended it was the H Ghost, and some + that it was Elohim. When I spoke upon it in this stand + before a conference of Elders, I cautioned them when + they laid their hands upon people for the gift of the + H Ghost, according to the instructions of the Savior, + to be very careful how they laid hands upon the young + women for if it begat a child in the days of the + virgin Mary it is just as liable to beget children in + these last days (24). + +While Brigham in his discourse of 1852 may have been unclear, in +this 1854 address there is no question about his meaning. Here +Brigham distinctly names Adam as God the Father. Wilford Woodruff, +Mormon Apostle and later Church President, had not doubt about what +Brigham meant. Referring to this discourse under the date of ` +February 19, 1854, in his journal, Woodruff recorded: + + He [Brigham Young] said that our God was Father Adam + He was the Father of the Savior Jesus Christ - Our + God was no more less than ADAM, Michael the Arkangel + (25). + +It should be noted that Brigham identifies Adam as the "Father of +our spirits."One of Mormonism's fundamental doctrines is the belief +that God the Father was married and that he and his celestial wife +in a pre-existent period had begotten every spirit that would come +to this earth. These spirits then enter into individual infants who +are born physically upon the earth (26). By referring to Adam as +the Father of our spirits, Brigham was clearly identifying him as +the being whom Mormons address as "Heavenly Father". + +On June 26-28, 1854, a special General Council of the authorities +of the LDS British Mission convened in London, England. The council +minutes show that Brigham's doctrine of Adam being God was not +readily received by some of the members there. After the introductory +exercise, Mormon Elder Thomas Caffall rose to state the affairs of +the Southern LDS conference. Among other things he reported the +following: + + ...some of the officers have not met in council for + three years. They are lacking faith on one principle + - the last 'cat that was let out of the bag.' Polygamy + has been got over pretty well, that cloud as vanished + away, but they are troubled about Adam being our + Father and God. There is a very intelligent person + investigating our principles, and who has been a great + help to the Saints; he as all the works and can get + along very well with everything else but the last + 'cat', and as soon as he can see that clearly, he will + become a 'Mormon'. I instructed him to write Liverpool + upon it (27). + +Elder Joseph Hall followed with a report of his district's progress. +Despite the non-Biblcal nature of the Adam-God doctrine, those in +his area were willing to receive it as truth: + + Relative to the principles recently revealed, we have not + the least difficulty. If Adam's being our Father and God + cannot be proved by the Bible, it is alright (28). + +On the final day of the council Elder James A. Little rose and made +the following remarks: + + I believe in the principle of obedience; and if I am + told that Adam is our Father and our God, I just + believe it (29). + +Mission president Samuel W. Richards followed with a concluding +exhortation concerning the Adam-God doctrine: + + Concerning the item of doctrine alluded t by Elder + Caffall and others, viz., that Adam is our Father and + God, I have to say do not trouble yourselves, neither + let the Saints be troubled about that matter... If, as + Elder Caffall remarked, there are those who are waiting + at the door of the Church for this objection to be + removed, tell such, the prophet and Apostle Brigham + has declared it, and that IS THE WORD OF THE LORD. (30). + + + APOSTLE PRATT OPPOSES YOUNG'S ADAM-GOD + +Though Richards and most of the other Church authorities accepted +their prophet's declaration as the word of God, there was one member +of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who openly opposed Brigham in +his views. That man was Orson Pratt. Under the date of September 17, +1854, LDS Apostle Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal the +details of a confrontation between Young and Pratt. Pratt had been +writing and publishing a monthly periodical which contained +doctrine contrary to the Mormon President. When Young declared some +of Orson's doctrines to be false, Pratt retaliated against the +prophet by voicing his disbelief in the Adam-God doctrine: + + Brother Pratt also thought that Adam was made of the + dust of the Earth Could not believe that Adam was our + God or the Father of Jesus Christ President Young said + that He was that He came from another world & made + this brought Eve with him partook of the fruits of the + Earth begat children & they ware Earthly & had mortal + bodies & if we were faithful we should become Gods as + He was. He told Brother Pratt to lay aside his + Philosophical reasoning & get revelation from God to + govern him & enlighten his mind more... + +This dispute between the Mormon Prophet and his Apostle continued +for several years. Because of his disbelief in the Adam-God +teaching and in other doctrines of Young, Pratt was for years upon +the point of being severed from the Church (31). + +In October of 1854, the Mormon Church held it's semi-annual +Conference. The session of October 8 was help out of doors in the +open air. The congregation, which numbered in thousands, heard +Brigham Young deliver what was perhaps the most colorful discourse +ever presented in the history of the Mormon Church. Addressing this +immense gathering upon the subject of the identity of God, Young +made the following statements: + + ...my text is in the Bible and reads as follows: "And + this is life eternal, that they might know thee the + only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent." + I will now put another text with this and then offer a + few remarks. It is one of the sayings of the Apostle + Paul:"For though there be that are called Gods, + whether in heaven or in earth (as there be Gods many + and Lords many) but to us there is but one God, the + Father of whom all things, and we in him; and one Lord + Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." + This God is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ and + the father of our spirits... + + Now if you believe what you have heard me say you will + believe there are Lords many, and Gods many; and you + will believe that unto us, the inhabitants of the + earth there is but one God with whom we have to do... + + You and I have only one God to whom we are accountable, + so we will let the rest along, and search after the + one we have to do with; let us seek after him, the + very being who commenced this creation... + + But let us turn our attention to the God with which we + have to do. I tell you simply, he is our father; the + God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the father + of our spirits... + + I tell you more, Adam is the father of our spirits. + He had lived upon an earth; he did abide his + creation, and did honor to his calling and priesthood, + and obeyed his master or Lord, and probably many of + his wives did the same and they lived, and died upon + an earth and then were resurrected again to + immortality and eternal life... + + I reckon that Father Adam was a resurrected being, + with his wives and posterity, and in the Celestial + kingdom they were crowned with glory, immortality, and + eternal lives,with thrones, principalities and powers; + and it was said to him it is your right to organize + the elements; and to your creations and posterity + there shall be no end... + + Our spirits and the spirits of all human family were + begotten by Adam and born of Eve (32). + +At no previous time had Brigham gone into as much detail concerning +Adam as he did during this discourse. While the Mormon prophet had +formerly taught that Adam was the God and Father of Jesus Christ and +the father of men's spirits, he had never expounded upon Adam's +pre-earthly course of life as he did during this 1854 conference. + +to fully comprehend the implications of Brigham's statements +concerning Adam's pre-earthly development and advancement from stage +to stage, it is necessary to understand the Mormon doctrine of +"eternal progression." Mormonism's fifth President, Lorenzo Snow, +summarized this doctrine with his aphorism: + + As man is, God once was; + As God is, man may become. + +The doctrine of eternal progression states that God the Father was +once a man who lived, died, and was resurrected upon an earth +similar to ours. By his faithfulness to the commandments of his God +he progressed and advanced from degree until he was crowned with +exaltation, or Godhood. Having become God, he was then given the +privilege of creating this world and being the Lord over it. He +and his wife then begot the spirits which would later enter into +the fleshly tabernacles which he would form for them. In a discourse +in September of 1856, Brigham, Young described this progression to +exaltation which God the Father had passed through: + + ...our father in heaven is exalted and glorified. he + was received His thrones, His principalities and + powers, and He sits as a governor, as a monarch, and + overrules kingdoms, thrones, and dominions that have + been bequeathed to Him, and such as we anticipate + receiving. While He was in the flesh, as we are, He + was as we are. But it is now written of Him that our + God is as a consuming fire, that He dwells in + everlasting burnings,...God is the Father of our + spirits; He begat them and has sent them here to + receive tabernacles...(33). + +This same doctrine of eternal progression teaches that men today, +if faithful as their God was, will continue on the road of +progression until they too are exalted and crowned with Godhood. +They will then not only receive eternal life, but they will as Gods +be given "eternal lives" or the power of eternal increase. They will +then have the ability to organize a world and to be the progenitors +of the spirits of its inhabitants. In a discourse delivered during a +special conference in August of 1852, Brigham, Young described this +process: + + After men have got their exaltations and their crowns + - have become Gods, even the sons of God - are made + Kings of kings and Lords of lords, they have the power + then or propagating their species in spirit; and that + is the first of their operations with regard to + organizing a world. Power is then given to them to + organize the elements, and then commence the + organization of tabernacles (34). + +Having an understanding of the Mormon concept of eternal progression, +we can now clearly see the implications of Brigham Young's +statements in his 1854 General Conference discourse. When he stated +that Adam "was a resurrected being", he meant that Adam had lived, +died, and had been resurrected upon another earth. By stating that +Adam "in the celestial kingdom...was crowned with glory, immortality, +and eternal lives", he was saying that Adam had attained to +exaltation and was therefore a God. In his statement that "our +spirits and the spirits of all the human family were begotten by +Adam", he was claiming, in no uncertain terms, that Adam was +Heavenly Father. In short, by applying these statements to Adam, +Brigham meant that prior to the organization of this world Adam had +advanced along the road to eternal progression and was exalted to +Godhood. He would therefore be our Father and our God and the only +God with whom we have to do. + +Throughout the lengthy address which was delivered in the open air +that day, according to the _Deseret_News_ Brigham "held the vast +audience as it were spellbound" (35). Wilford Woodruff believed +Brigham's address to be "the greatest sermon ever delivered to the +Latter-Day Saints since they were a people" (36) + +_The_Journal_of_the_Southern_Indian_Mission_ also noted Brigham +Young's address, stating that it was a "discourse equaled by none" +(37). + +Though many were favorable impressed with Brigham's statements that +afternoon, there were nevertheless some who opposed. Joseph Lee +Robinson, who attended the conference, noted that Orson Pratt was +among them. + + Attended conference, a very interesting conference, + for at this meeting President Brigham Young said thus, + that Adam and Eve were the names of the first man and + woman of every earth that was ever organized and that + Adam and ever were the natural father and mother of + every spirit that comes to this planet, or that + receives tabernacles on this planet, consequently we + are brothers and sisters and that Adam was God, our + Eternal Father. This as Brother Heber remarked, was + letting the cat out of the bag,...but behold ye there + were some that did not believe these sayings of the + Prophet Brigham, even our Beloved Brother Orson Pratt + told me he did not believe it. He said he could prove + by scriptures it was not correct. I felt very sorry to + hear Professor Orson Pratt say that. I feared lest he + should apostatize (38). + +While Pratt was publicly denying the doctrine of the Church +President, others who trusted their prophet's counsel and doctrine +were adopting his revelations into their own writings. On January 9, +1855, during a social party in the Great Salt Lake City, Eliza R. +Snow (39) recited the following from a poem she had written: + + Father Adam, our God, let all Israel extol, and Jesus, + our Brother, who died for us all:... (40). + +Shortly after this a new edition of the LDS Church hymn book was +printed. Among the hymns contained in the book was one which +confessed Adam along with the other two members of the Godhead: + + We believe in our God, the great Prince of his race, + The Archangel Michael, the Ancient of Days, + Our own Father Adam, earth's Lord as is plain, + Who'll counsel and fight for his children again. + + We believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, who in love, + To his brethren and sisters, came down from above, + To die to redeem them from death, and to teach + To mortals and spirits the Gospel we preach. + + We believe in the Spirit most holy, that's given + From God our great Father, who dwells high in heaven, + To instruct and enlighten, to comfort and cheer- + Tongues, dreams, visions, healings proclaim it is here + (41). + +In the spring of 1856 another confrontation erupted between Young +and Pratt over the position of Adam. Under the date of March 11, +1856, Samuel Richards recorded in his journal the events which +transpired between the two that evening: + + Evening with the Regency in the Upper Room of the + President's office,... A very serious conversation + took place between Prest. B. Young and Orson Pratt + upon doctrine. O.P. was directly opposed to the + Prest. views and very freely expressed his entire + disbelief in them after being told by the President + that things were so and so in the name of the Lord. + He was firm in the Position that the Prest's word in + the name of the Lord, was not the word of the Lord to + him. The Prest. did not believe that Orson would ever + be Adam, to learn by experience the facts discussed, + but every other person in the room would if they lived + faithful (42). + +Brigham's statements, that Pratt would never be "Adam", suggest that +the two were again disputing over the subject of the first man. +Wilford Woodruff, who was also present that night, noted this +indeed was the issue discussed. + + I spent part of the day in the committee room and met + with the regency in the evening...the subject was + brought up concerning Adam being made of the dust of + the earth and elder Orson Pratt pursued a course of + stubbornness and unbelief in what President Young said + that will destroy him if he does not repent and turn + from his evil way For when any man crosses the track + of a leader in Israel and tries to lead the prophet... + he is no longer led by him but is in danger of falling. + +A few months after this event, Brigham Young's first Counselor, +Heber C. Kimbell, publicly sustained the Church President as the +Prophet of God whose doctrines were inspired: + + Just think of your position; you have heard the + teachings and instructions of President Young, and his + instructions are the word of God to us, and I know + that every man and woman in this Church who rejects + his testimony, and the testimony of those that he + sends, rejects the testimony of God his Father. I know + that, just as well as I know that I see your faces + today (43). + +Because rejecting Brigham's word was rejecting God, Orson Pratt was +walking on thin ice. According to Wilford Woodruff, Pratt's Church +membership was on the line: + + President Young made some remarks about Orson Pratt and said that + if he did not take a different course in his philosophy..he + would not stay long in this Church (44). + + + OPPOSITION TO ADAM-GOD INTENSIFIES + +Brigham's opposition did not consist of Orson Pratt alone. +Apparently there were a number of Mormons who were muttering their +disbelief. It was to this group that the prophet addressed the +following remarks during a discourse delivered on October 7, 1857: + + Some have grumbled because I believe our God to be so + near to us as Father Adam. There are many who know + that doctrine to be true... Now, if it should happen + that we have to pay tribute to Father Adam, what a + humiliating circumstance it would be! Just wait till + you pass Joseph Smith; and after Joseph lets you pass + him, you will find Peter; and after you pass the + Apostles and many of the Prophets, you will find + Abraham, and he will say, "I have the keys, and except + you do thus and so, you cannot pass"; and after a + while you come to Jesus; and when you at length meet + Father Adam, how strange it will appear to your present + notions (45). + +Nevertheless, it was the Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt who was the real +thorn in Brigham's side, and it was inevitable that the President +would seek its removal. In 1860 Young gathered his Apostles to +consider the case of Orson Pratt's remarks. + +After the Mormon General Authorities assembled in the President's +office on the evening of January 27, Brigham read to them various +doctrinal statements written by Pratt. He followed by expressing his +disbelief in these doctrines. Wilford Woodruff then confessed his +trust in Young: + + ...it has ever been a key with me that when the + Prophet who leads presents a doctrine or principle or + says thus saith the Lord I make it a point to receive + it even if it comes in contact with my tradition or + views being well satisfied that the Lord would reveal + the truth unto his Prophet whom he has called to lead + the Church before he would unto me, and the word of + the Lord through the prophet is the End of the Law + unto me (46). + +One by one the Apostles expressed their faith in their prophet and +sought to lead Pratt to a confession and repentance. The stubborn +Apostle did not budge, however. Having no confidence in the +prophet's declaration, Pratt refused to confess what he believe to +be false: + + I must have something more than a declaration of + President Young to convince me. I must have evidence. + I am willing to take President Young as a guide in + most things, but not in all.... President Young said + I ought to make a Confession But Orson Pratt is not a + man to make a Confession I do not believe. I am not + going to crawl to Brigham Young and act the hypocrite + and confess what I do not believe.... President Young + condemns my doctrine to be false. I do not believe + them to be false... I will not act the hypocrite. It + may cost me my fellowship But I will stick to it. If + I die tonight I would say O Lord God Almighty I + believe what I say. + +The Apostles stood amazed. After a moment's pause Apostle John +Taylor tried to convince Orson of his error. Wilford Woodruff +followed: + + Brother Orson Pratt, I wish to ask you one or two + questions. You see that the spirit and doctrine which + you possess is entirely in opposition to the First + Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, and all who are + present this evening, and it chills the blood in our + veins to hear your words and feel your spirit. Should + not this be a Guidance to you that you are wrong... + Every man in this room who has a particle of the + Spirit of God knows that President Young is a Prophet + of God and that God sustains him and He has the Holy + Spirit and his doctrines are true... + +Various other Apostles testified that Orson was in error. President +Young then closed by stating the importance of following God's +Prophet. The meeting was dismissed; Pratt made no concession. + +It must have been a sleepless night for Orson, however; the +following day saw a change in the disposition of the Apostle. +Wilford Woodruff noted this in his journal: + + I spent the day in the office. I met with the Twelve + in the prayer circle. Orson Pratt met with us. He did + not dress but said he wanted to be in the society of + the Twelve. He seemed much more soft in his spirit + then he had been. + +Quite unexpectedly, Orson Pratt on the next day confessed from the +Tabernacle stand that he was in error. Woodruff informs us of the +event: + + Sunday I met at the Tabernacle. Orson Pratt was in the + stand and quite unexpected to his brethren he arose + before his brethren and made a very humble full + confession before the whole assembly for his + opposition to President Young and his brethren and he + said he wished all the Church was present to hear it. + He quoted Joseph Smith's revelation to prove that + President Young was right and that all was under + obligation to follow the Leader of the Church. I + never heard Orson Pratt speak better or more to the + satisfaction of the People, than on this occasion. + + + AT ISSUE: IS YOUNG TEACHING FALSE DOCTRINE? + +Strange and fickle as it might seem, however, within a few months +Pratt was again openly opposing Brigham! On April 4 and 5 the +Church Authorities again convened to discuss Pratt. Though the +subject of Adam was not the major issue during the January 27 +meeting, it was brought up often during these sessions. + +On April 4 in the Church Historians Office Pratt told the quorum +members that he did not find the Adam-God doctrine to be supported +by Joseph's revelation: + + I would like to enumerate items first preached and + published that Adam is the Father of our spirits... + When I read the revelation given Joseph I read + directly the opposite. + +Brigham later responded to Orson's attack by appealing to his own +prophetical calling: + + It is my duty to see that correct doctrine is taught + and to guard the Church from error, it is my calling. + +Orson spurned this statement; still believing that the Mormon +prophet could err in doctrine even when he was acting as a +prophet. With Brigham absent on the following day, Mormon Apostle +Orson Hyde answered Pratt by affirming that to charge the prophet +with advancing false doctrine was in reality undermining the entire +truth and foundation of their religion. God's prophets cannot +advance false doctrine. Therefore, to acknowledge that the prophet +Brigham was indeed advancing false doctrine would be to acknowledge +that he was not divinely led. This would destroy their claim to be +the Kingdom of God. Hyde insisted on this implication: + + To acknowledge that this is the Kingdom of God, and + that there is a presiding power, and to admit that he + can advance incorrect doctrine is to lay the axe at + the root of the tree. Will he suffer his mouthpiece + to go into error? No. He would remove him and place + another there. Brother Brigham may err in the price of + a horse,... but in the revelations from God, where is + the man that has given thus saith the Lord when it was + not so? I cannot find one instance. + +Pratt expressed his total disbelief in Brigham's doctrine regarding +Adam: + + In regard to Adam being our Father and God... I + frankly say, I have no confidence in it, although + advanced by Brother Kimball in the stand, and + afterwards approved by Brigham... I have heard Brigham + say that Adam is the Father of our spirits and he came + here with a resurrected body, to fall for his own + children, and I said to him it leads to an endless + number of falls which leads to sorrow and death; that + is revolting to my feelings, even if it were sustained + by revelation. + +Orson Pratt's central argument was that Young's doctrine +contradicted the Scriptures. Joseph Smith claimed to have restored +the pure version of the Genesis creation narrative in his inspired +revision of the earlier chapters of the Bible. This "inspired" +revision later became part of Mormon scripture, entitled the Book of +Moses. In the following verse Joseph's account of Genesis distinctly +implies that Adam was not the God and Father of Jesus Christ: + + And he called upon out father Adam by his own voice + saying: I am God; I made the world, and men before + they were in the flesh. And he also said unto him: + If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto my voice, + and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, + and be baptized, even in water, in the name of Jesus + Christ... and now, behold, I say unto you: This is + the plan of salvation unto all men, through the blood + of mine Only Begotten, who shall come in the meridian + of time (Moses 6:51f., 62) + +These and other passages in Joseph's Book of Moses teach that the +Father of the only begotten son, Jesus Christ, spoke to Adam in the +Garden. that clearly indicates that Adam was not God the Father. It +was to this fact that Orson Pratt appealed: + + One [revelation] says that Adam was formed out of the + earth, and the Lord put in his spirit, and another + that he came with his body, flesh and bones, thus + there are two contradictory revelations. in the garden + it is said that a voice said to Adam, in the meridian + of time, I will send my only begotten son Jesus Christ, + then how can that man and Adam both be the Father of + Jesus Christ? It was the Father of Jesus Christ that + was talking to Adam in the garden. Young says that Adam + was the Father of Jesus Christ both of his spirit and + body in his teaching from the stand. + +The apostles answered Pratt by reassuring Brigham's divine calling; +he was God's mouthpiece. The thought that a prophet of God could +advance false doctrine chilled their blood. It was the duty of all +to set aside any personal opinions and to be subject to the +pronouncements of their divinely led leader. Wilford Woodruff +angrily retorted: + + As our leaders are inspired to talk, they are + inspired oracles, and we should be as limber as a dish + cloth. + +Hyde, the President of the quorum of the Twelve Apostles, later in +the session asked his brethren what should be required of Orson +Pratt. George A. Smith, Church Historian, responded by suggesting +that Orson acknowledge Brigham as a prophet and inspired man. Smith +assured that if Brigham was indeed the Church President, he would be +a inspired man. On the other hand, if Orson Pratt were correct in +his doctrines, which were declared to be false by Brigham, then all +would have to conclude that the man whom they had thought was God's +prophet was in fact not divinely led. Smith told Hyde that Pratt +should, + + ...acknowledge Brigham Young as President of the + Church in the exercise of this calling. But he only + acknowledges him as a poor driveling fool, he preaches + doctrines opposed to Joseph, and all other revelations. + If Brigham Young is the President of the Church he is + an inspired man. If we have not an inspired man, then + Orson Pratt it right. + +Pratt's January confession sermon was then revised for publication. +Shortly after this the meeting came to a close. It was agreed that +the proceedings of the sessions would be kept silent. Brigham and +Pratt assured each other that no more would be said concerning +their disagreement, and though Orson still disagreed with the +prophet's teachings, it seemed that Brigham would not take any +drastic action. In a few months, however, Orson received a mission +call which would remove him from the Salt Lake area to the eastern +United States (48). + + + YOUNG'S ADAM-GOD MEETS CONTINUED OPPOSITION + +All opposition did not cease with Orson Pratt's removal. This time, +though, the attack came from a group outside the LDS fold - the +Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (49). +Believing the original teachings of Joseph Smith to be true, the +Reorganized Church immediately spotted the contradiction in +Brigham's doctrine of Adam becoming God. In the November and +December issues of their _True_Latter-Day_Saint_Herald_, the RLDS +Church printed a lengthy refutation of Brigham's Adam-God doctrine. +This article uses the same arguments and quotes the same scriptures +as Orson Pratt did earlier that year when he contended with the +Utah prophet. The _Herald_ sought to overthrow the words of the +living prophet by appealing to the written word. + +The _True_Latter-Day_Saint_Herald_ saw clearly that Brigham Young +was teaching false doctrine though he claimed to be acting as a +prophet. They also clearly realized the implications. The man +whom many looked to as being the successor of their martyred +prophet was in reality a false prophet who taught as the word +of God the imaginations of his own heart. Seeing by this that the +Utah faction was not of God, they urged Utah Mormons to return to +the true God. + +The article in the _Herald_ caused no small stir when it reached +Utah. In his diary under the date of February 3, 1861, John D. Lee, +adopted son of Brigham Young, recorded the following: + + Eving attendd Prayer meeting & instructed the Saints + on the points of Doctrine refereed to by the true + Latterday Saints Herald & their Bombarding Pres. B. + Young for Saying that Adam is all the god that we have + to do with & to those that know no better, it is quite + a stumbling Block... (50). + +The Utah authorities held to the revelations revealed by their +prophet. Some even claimed to have received for themselves a +revelation that confirmed what the Living oracle had spoken. In a +notebook that contained several personal revelations which he +believed God had personally revealed to Him, Heber C. Kimbell, +counselor to Brigham Young, recorded the following: + + April 30, 1862, the Lord told me that Adam was my + father and that he was the God and father of all the + inhabitants of this earth (51). + +Though assailed from outside and from within the ranks of his own +people, Brigham Young continued to set forth his belief in the +doctrine. Speaking in the Tabernacle on the morning of October +8, 1861, Young remarked: + + I will give you a few words of doctrine, upon which + there has been much inquiry, and with regard to which + considerable ignorance exists. Br. Watt will write it, + but it is not my intention to have it published + therefore pay good attention, and store it up in your + memories. Some years ago, I advanced a doctrine with + regard to Adam being our father and God, that will be + a curse to many of the Elders of Israel because of + their folly. With regard to it they yet grovel in + darkness and will. Is is one of the most glorious + revealments of the economy of heaven, yet the world + holds it [in] derision. Had I revealed the doctrine of + baptism from the dead instead [of] Joseph Smith there + are men around me who would have ridiculed the idea + until doomsday. But they are ignorant and stupid like + the dumb ass (52). + +A year prior to this statement Brigham stated that the only thing +of which he was guilty was that he had revealed too much truth to +the people. + + ...if guilt before my God and brethren rests upon me + in the least, it is in this one thing - that I have + revealed too much concerning God and his Kingdom, + and the designs of our Father in heaven. If my skirts + are stained in the least with wrong, it is because I + have been too free in telling what God is, how he + lives, the nature of his providences and the earth, + his designs concerning them, etc. If I had, like Paul, + said - "But if any man be ignorant, let him be + ignorant", perhaps it would have been better for the + people (53). + +Nevertheless, as the years passed Young was still emphatically +claiming that Adam was God the Father. In fact, he asserted this +revelation in terms stronger than he ever had before. On June 8, +1973, Brigham again addressed his audience concerning Adam, and the +week following he had his discourse published in the +_Deseret_News_: + + How much unbelief exists in the minds of the + Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine + which I revealed to them, and which God revealed to me + - namely that Adam is our Father and God... The + Christian world read of, and think about, St. Paul, + also St. Peter, the chief of Apostles. These men were + faithful to and magnified the priesthood while on the + earth. Now, where will be the mystery, after they have + passed through all the ordeals, and have been crowned + and exalted, and received their inheritances in the + eternal worlds of glory, for them to be sent forth, as + the Gods have been forever and ever, with the command + - "Make yourselves an earth, and people it with your + own children?"... Oh fools, and slow of heart to + believe the great things that God has purposed in his + own mind... Adam came here and got it up in a shape + that would suit him to commence business. What is the + great mystery about it? None, that I have seen. The + mystery in this, as with miracles, or anything else, + is only to those who are ignorant. Father Adam came + here, and then they brought his wife. "Well". says + one. "Why was Adam called Adam?" He was the first man + on the earth, and its framer and maker. He with the + help of his brethren, brought it into existence Then + he said, "I want my children who are in the spirit + world to come and live here. I once dwelt upon an + earth something like this, in a mortal state. I was + faithful. I received my crown and exaltation. I have + the privilege of extending my work, and to its increase + there will be no end. I want my children who were born + to me in the spirit world to come here and take + tabernacles of flesh..." + +The opposition was still present, and there were still those who +disbelieved in the sayings of their leader. It is interesting to +note in this sermon that Brigham does not grieve over any +misquotations or misunderstandings of his previous statements +concerning Adam, but rather he laments over the disbelief which +existed among his brethren. During all the years Young never claimed +to be misquoted or misinterpreted. Instead, he appealed to his +divine calling as proof of the truth of this statements. + +Young also did not shy away from claiming that his teachings were +the Word of God. He did not believe his doctrine to be just his +personal opinion, which could be wrong. On the contrary, believing +himself to be a prophet of God, he declared all of his sermons to be +revelation, directly from the Lord: + + I know just as well what to teach this people and just + what to say to them and what to do in order to bring + them into the celestial kingdom, as I know the road to + my office. It is just as plain and easy. The Lord is in + our midst. He teaches the people continually. I have + never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the + children of men that they may not call Scripture. Let + me have the privilege of correcting a sermon, and it + is as good Scripture as they deserve. The people have + the oracles of God continually (54). + + Brother Orson Hyde referred to a few who complained + about not getting revelations. I will make a statement + here that has been brought against me as a crime, + perhaps as a fault in my life. Not here, I do not + allude to anything of the kind in this place, but in + the councils of the nations - that Brigham Young has + said "when he sends forth his discourses to the world + they may call them Scripture." I say now when they are + copied and approved by me they are as good Scripture + as is couched in this Bible, and if you want to read + revelation read the sayings of him who knows this mind + of God... (55). + +There is no room for thinking that Brigham was expressing what he +believed to be merely his own opinions. No. He rightly believed +that when a prophet of God acts as a prophet, he speaks the truth. + + + YOUNG FIRM TO THE END ON ADAM-GOD + +As we come to 1877, the last year of Brigham Young's life, we find +him still teaching what he had first taught 25 years before. The +setting for this discourse is in the home of Brigham Young. There +appears to be evidence that part of this address was to be used as +the lecture before the veil in all future endowment ceremonies: + + ...after supper went to Prest Young's... Prest Young + was filled with the spirit of God and revelation and + said... "In the creation the gods entered into an + agreement about forming this earth & putting Michael + or Adam upon it. these things of which I have been + speaking are what are termed the mysteries of + godliness but they will enable you to understand the + expression Jesus made while in Jerusalem. This is + life eternal that they might know thee, the only + true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. we + were once acquainted with the Gods & lived with them + but we had the privilege of taking upon us flesh that + the spirit might have a house to dwell in. we did so + and forgot all and came into the world not + recollecting anything of which we had previously + learned. + + We have heard a great deal about Adam and Eve, how + they were formed & some thing he was made like an + adobie and the Lord breathed into him the breath of + life, for we read 'from dust thou are art and unto + dust thou shalt return'. Well he was made of the dust + of the earth but not of this earth. he was made just + the same way you and I are made but on another earth. + Adam was an immortal being when he came on this earth. + he had lived on an earth similar to ours, he had + received the Priesthood and the he Keys thereof and had + been faithful in all things and gained his + resurrection and his exaltation and was crowned with + glory immortality and eternal lives and was numbered + with the Gods for such he became through his + faithfulness, and had begotton all the spirits that + was to come to this earth. and Eve our common mother + who is the mother of all living bore those spirits + in the celestial world. and when this earth was + organized by Elohim, Jehovah and Michael who is Adam + our common Father, Adam and Eve had the privilege to + continue the work of progression, consequently came to + this earth and commenced the great work of forming + tabernacles for those spirits to dwell in. and when + Adam and those that assisted him had completed this + kingdom our earth he came to it, and slept and forgot + all and became like an infant child. it is said by + Moses the historian that the Lord caused a deep sleep + to come upon Adam and took from his side a rib and + formed the woman that Adam called Eve - this should be + interpreted that the man Adam like all other men had + the seed within him to propagate his species, but not + the woman. she conceives the seed but does not produce + it, consequently she was taken from the side or bowels + of her father. this explains the mystery of Moses' ark + sayings in regard to Adam and Eve. Adam & Eve when they + were placed on this earth were immortal beings with + flesh and bones, and sinues, but upon partaking of the + fruit of the earth while in the garden and cultivating + the ground their bodies became changed from immortal to + mortal beings with blood coursing through their veins + as the action of life... Father Adam's oldest son + (Jesus the Savior) who is the heir of the family is + Father Adam's first begotten in the spirit world, who + according to the flesh is the only begotten as it is + written. (In his divinity he having gone back into the + spirit world and come in the spirit to Mary and she + conceived for when Adam and Eve got through their work + on earth they did not lay their bodies down in the + dust, but returned to the spirit world from whence they + came." + + I felt myself much blessed in being permitted to + associate with such men and hear such instructions as + they savored of life to me (56). + +At one minute past 4:00 P.M., on August 29, 1877, Brigham Young died. +He presided over the Mormon Church longer than any other man - +30 years. Though many continued to believe in Adam as their God, +the doctrine was largely buried along with Brigham. Rather than +publicly preaching this doctrine, the Church authorities sought to +avoid controversy by remaining silent. + + + THE PRESENT DILEMMA AND THE TRUE WAY OUT + +As time went on, not only did the Adam doctrine cease to be preached, +but it began to be denied. Most LDS General Authorities even denied +that Brigham had ever taught it. Being far removed from the time in +which the second Mormon President expounded the teaching, these +apologist were safe in dismissing his remarks as being misquoted or +misinterpreted. Those who continued to believe the Adam-God teaching +were soon to be excommunicated from the Church for believing it. +Books and articles were written to denounce the Adam-God theory These +books quoted against the false doctrine the precise verses that Orson +Pratt and the Reorganized Church had employed against Brigham a +hundred years before (57). There were no admissions that Brigham had +taught it. Instead, there were denials. + +An examination of the evidence, however, will admit to no other +conclusion that that Brigham Young did teach that Adam was Heavenly +Father, the Father of men's spirits as well as the Father of Jesus +Christ in the flesh. Brigham Young, one of recent history's most +prominent religious leaders, did indeed advance a doctrine that was +to focus worship on a strange god. The doctrine that he taught for +over 25 years was false doctrine and the LDS Church admits this +today. It has, in effect, sided with Orson Pratt and has adopted his +arguments and views as being right. However, in doing this it has +unknowingly admitted that Brigham was not an inspired prophet of God. +It is caught in the words of one of its own Apostles, George A. Smith: + + If Brigham Young is the President of the Church he is + an inspired man. If we have not an inspired man, then + Orson Pratt is right. + +The implications certainly are obvious. The claims of the Utah LDS +church utterly collapse when they claim to be the only true church +and the sole possessor of God's authority. + +The Mormon, furthermore, faces the dilemma of being unable to be +certain that his present prophet is advancing in true doctrine. +Perhaps the present teachings of the living prophet will be +tomorrow's false teachings of a dead prophet. Perhaps the present +revelations which the modern President claims to have received will +be swept under the carpet as was the revelation concerning Adam that +Brigham Young claimed to have received from God. + +Today's Mormon cannot hide behind a testimony that the living +prophet is advancing in correct doctrine. His testimony holds no +more weight than the strong testimonies which past members had +concerning the truth of Brigham's Adam-God teaching. In reality, no +Mormon can test assured and have confidence that his prophet is not +uttering the imaginations of his own heart. Even when he speaks as a +prophet and is sustained and defended by his fellow Apostles, he +still cannot be fully trusted. + +This frightening dilemma in which the Mormon finds himself is not +peculiar to him or his people, but is the snare in which all men +find themselves when they put their trust in men. To trust the arm +of flesh is really to have no hope at all. One's faith can be only +as firm as the object upon which he places his trust. To place one's +confidence upon erring flesh is to lack firm footing and roots: + + Thus says the Lord, Cursed is the man who trust in + mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose + heart turns away from the LORD. For he will be like + a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity + comes, but will live in stony wastes in the + wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant + (Jer. 17:5,6). + +God invites all men today to place their trust in Him directly +through His Son, Jesus Christ. Unlike a false prophet who teaches +the people to follow a strange god, Jesus can be fully trusted to +lead us to His Father. By His death, Christ has secured a place in +the presence of God for all who place their trust in him. Those who +trust Him can be absolutely sure that He will never fail. + + CHRIS ALEX VLACHOS + COMMUNITY CHRISTIAN MINISTRIES + 288 NORTH 100 WEST + PROVO, UTAH 84601 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- +Even as this article was being prepared for its publication, Mormon +Apostle Mark E. Peterson was busily revising his book. "Adam Who Is +He?" Because of previous exposure of the deception concerning +Peterson's statement on pages 16 and 17 of his book (quoted under +heading: Denial Adam-God Was Taught) they were forced to "correct" +what was apparently one of Peterson's strongest arguments alleging +that Brigham Young was "misquoted". As you recall, Peterson went to +great lengths about the "misquotation" and the proof of that being +a "signed statement" of C.C. Rich. But since it was clear that +neither assertion was factual, Peterson changed the paragraphs +in question to read as follows: + + Elder Charles C. Rich was not present on the day when + President Young gave an address that was wrongly + reported as saying Adam was our Father in heaven + (see JD 1:51). The sermon was delivered April 9, 1852, + and Elder Rich returned April 21. In a copy of the + Journal of Discourses Elder Ben E. Rich, son of Elder + Charles C. Rich, referred to the misquotation as it + appears in the Journal of Discourses, and in his own + hand corrected the statement to read as follows: + "Jesus out Elder Brother, was begotten in the flesh by + the same character who talked with Adam in the Garden + of Eden, and who is our Father in heaven." In this same + statement Ben E. Rich wrote "As corrected above is what + Prest. Young said, as testified to me by my father, C.C. + Rich." (This signed statement is in the hands of the + Church Historical Department). + + Some of the reporters at the Tabernacle in those days + were not so skilled as others, and admittedly made + mistakes, such as the misquotations of President Young + as above, which was corrected by Brother Rich and + which has caused some persons in the Church to go + astray. + + On the face of it the mistake is obvious. We find in + Genesis 2:15-16 and 3:8-9 that God walked and talked + with Adam in the Garden of Eden. + + Mark E. Peterson + Adam Who Is He? (1979 Edition) + page 16-17 + +It is quite interesting to compare this version with the one that +was quoted in this booklet because we see a complete turning +around of the facts, but an attempt to stay with the +argument! + +The "strength" of Peterson's argument (such as it was) was based +on the "fact" that C.C. Rich was present at the delivery of the +sermon and thus able to "correct" the "misquotation". Since we +know, and Peterson admits that C.C. Rich was NOT present, the +whole basis of the argument is now totally missing. Who cares +what Ben E. Rich wrote in his copy of the Journal of Discourses +several decades later (remember he wasn't even born until 1855) +especially when we was quoting a man who was not even there? + + + +-------------------------------------------------------------------- + + ********FOOTNOTES******** + + (1) Calvin, in his exposition of the second commandment, explains + this beautifully: The Lord very frequently addresses us in the + character of a husband...As he performs all the offices of a + true and faithful husband, so he requires love and chastity + from us; that is, that we do not prostitute our souls to Satan. + As the purer and chaster a husband is, the more grievously he + is offended when he sees his wife inclining to a rival; so the + Lord, who has betrothed us to Himself in truth, declares that + he burns in the hottest jealousy whenever, neglecting the + purity of His holy marriage, we defile ourselves with + abominable lusts and especially when the worship of His deity, + which ought to have been most carefully kept unimpaired, is + transferred to another... since in this way we not only violate + our plighted troth, but defile the nuptial couch, by giving + access to adulterers (Institutes, II, viii, 18). + + (2) The Doctrine and Covenants, on of Mormonism's scriptures, + states that the Mormon people are "the only true and living + Church upon the face of the whole earth". (D&C, 1:30). + + (3) Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt wrote that all other churches are + entirely destitute of all authority to administer the + sacraments: + But who in this generation have authority to baptize? + None but those who have received authority in the + Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: all other + churches are entirely destitute of all authority from + God; and any person who receives Baptism or the Lord's + Supper from their hands will highly offend God, for he + looks upon them as the most corrupt of all people. Both + Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the + "whore of Babylon" whom the Lord denounces by the mouth + of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth + by their fornications and wickedness. And any person who + shall be so wicked as to receive holy ordinance of the + gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate + churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless + they repent of the unholy and impious act + (Orson Pratt, The Seer, Washington ed., p.255). + + (4) Joseph Smith claimed that in the spring of 1820 Jesus Christ + appeared to him in a vision and instructed him to join none + of the Christian denominations, "for they were all wrong and + all their creeds were an abomination and their professors + were all corrupt." (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith 2, + verse 19). + + (5) Mormon Prophet Spencer W. Kimball was ordained an Apostle + under the hands of Heber J. Grant. Grant was likewise + ordained by George Q. Cannon. Cannon was ordained to his + apostolic office under the hands of Brigham Young. + Similarly, every one of the present Twelve Apostles of + the Mormon Church has received his ordination through + Brigham Young. If Brigham was false, then all those who + were ordained through him lack the very priesthood which + they believe Brigham had. A break in one link causes the + entire chain below it to fall to the ground; so a break + in the Mormon priesthood succession breaks off the + transfer of authority. + + (6) "Misc. Minutes" unpublished ms., Brigham Young Collection, + Church Archives, Salt Lake City, p.1. + + (7) Ibid., pp.6-7. + + (8) Believing himself to be a prophet of God, Young declared + that it was his gift and calling to teach true doctrine + and to guard the members against heresy: + What man or woman on the earth, what spirit + in the spirit-world can say truthfully that + I have ever gave a wrong word of counsel, + or a word of advice that could not be + sanctioned by the heavens? (Journal of + Discourses, Vol. 12, p.127). + + It is my duty to see that correct doctrine + is taught and to guard the Church from + error, it is my calling ("Misc. Minuets:, + unpublished ms., B.Y. Collection, Church + Archives). + + (9) Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol.1 , p.50. According + to Mormon theology, Adam is Michael the archangel and the + Ancient of Days, Cf. Doctrine and Covenants, 27:11. + +(10) Ibid., pp. 50-51. + +(11) Diary of Hosea Stout. Copied from typed transcript. B.Y.U. + Library, Special Collections, Provo, Utah. The spelling, + grammar, and punctuation in this quotation as well as in + all others cited herein have not been changed from the + originals. + +(12) Journal of Samuel H. Rogers, Vol. 1, p. 179. Copied from + the original located at B.Y.U. Library, Special Collections, + Provo, Utah. + +(13) Mark E. Peterson, ADAM WHO WAS HE? (Deseret Book, 1976), + p.14. + +(14) Spencer W. Kimball, Deseret News, October 9, 1976, Church + News Section, p.11). + +(15) Leonard J. Arrington, Charles C. Rich (B.Y.U. Press, 1974), + p.173 + +(16) Copied from microfilm of original. B.Y.U. Library, Special + Collections, Prove, Utah. + +(17) Copied from Deseret Weekly, microfilm, B.Y.U. Library. + +(18) Copy of the original Journal of Discourses volume on which + statement was made is located in the Church Historian's + Office, Salt Lake City. For photo reproduction, see Bob + White, WHERE DOES IT SAY THAT?, p.77. + +(19) Faced with the fact that Brigham Young made no attempt to + correct his statements, Mormon scholar, Rodney Turner, + was forced to admit that Brigham was quoted correctly: + Was Brigham Young misquoted? It is the + writer's opinion that the answer to + this question is a categorical no. + There is not the slightest evidence + from Brigham Young, or any other + source, that either his original + remarks on April 9, 1852, or any + of his subsequent statements were + ever misquoted in the official + publications of the Church... In + light of Brigham Young's attitude + toward the errors of others, and in + view of the division created by his + remarks concerning Adam, it would be + stretching one's credibility to the + breaking point to believe that he + would have remained silent had he + been misquoted. (The Position of Adam + in Latter-day Saint Scripture and + Theology, M.A. thesis, B.Y.U., pp.45-46; + thesis is presently restricted from + viewing or reading). + +(20) Joseph Fielding Smith, ANSWERS TO GOSPEL QUESTIONS, Vol. + 5, p.123. + +(21) Ibid., pp. 122-123. + +(22) See Bruce R. McConkie, MORMON DOCTRINE (Bookcraft, 1966), + pp. 18-19. + +(23) In his thesis, Rodney Turner similarly discounts the + possibility that Brigham was being misinterpreted: + It is true that the original discourse of + April 9, 1852, could be taken in more than + one way; and if he had never mentioned the + subject again, his actual meaning would be + a moot point. However, he did mention the + subject again, many times. Therefore the + likelihood of misunderstanding him, in view + of his subsequent statements through the + years, becomes more remote (The Position of + Adam, p.36). + +(24) Brigham Young Papers, Feb. 19, 1854, call number Ms. F219 + #81, Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City. + +(25) Copied from microfilm of journal located at B.Y.U. Library, + Special Collections, Provo, Utah. + +(26) See Bruce R. McConkie, MORMON DOCTRINE, pp.516-517. + +(27) Millenial Star, Vol. 16, No. 31, August 5, 1854, p.482. + +(28) Ibid., p.483 + +(29) Ibid., Vol. 16, No. 34, August 26, 1854, p.530. + +(30) Ibid., pp.534-535. + +(31) See T. B. H. Stenhouse, THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAINTS, p.492. + Photo reproduction of original available through Modern + Microfilm Co., Box 1884, S.L.C., Utah 84110. + +(32) Brigham Young Papers. Oct. 8, 1854, call number Ms. d 1234, + Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City. + +(33) Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 4, p.54). + +(34) Ibid., Vol. 6, p.275. + +(35) Deseret News, Vol. 4, No. 31, October 12, 1854, p.2. + +(36) Journal of Wilford Woodruff, October 6-8, 1854. + +(37) Journal of the Southern Indian Mission, p.88. + +(38) Joseph Lee Robinson Journal, copied from typed transcript + located at B.Y.U. Library, Special Collections, p.62. + +(39) Eliza R. Snow was a plural wife of Joseph Smith and was + later married to Brigham Young. + +(40) Millenial Star, Vol. 17, No. 20, p.320. + +(41) Sacred Hymns for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day + Saints, 1856, 11th ed., p. 375. This hymn has been + deleted from present LDS hymnals. In the 20th ed. there + appeared a hymn titled, "Sons of Michael, He approaches." + In the second line Michael was described as the "eternal" + Father. In today's edition this has been changed to read + the "ancient" Father. + +(42) Diary of Samuel Whitney Richards, copied from typed + transcript at B.Y.U. Library, Special Collections, Provo, + Utah, p.113. + +(43) Journal of Discourses, Vol. 4, p.2. + +(44) Wilford Woodruff Journal, December 29, 1856. Typed from + microfilm of original. + +(45) Journal of Discourses, Vol. 5, p.331f. + +(46) The minutes of this session are found in the Wilford + Woodruff Journal, under the date of January 27, 1860. + +(47) The council minutes are located in the Brigham Young + Collection, Miscellaneous Papers, Church Historian's + Office. + +(48) The entire Orson Pratt-Brigham Young affair cannot be + underestimated. The controversy which raged between the two + shows that Brigham was teaching that Adam was God. From the + charges that Pratt made it is clear what Brigham was + teaching. Furthermore, it is significant that Young made + no attempt to correct a misquotation or misinterpretation. + On the contrary, he defended his doctrine, and continued + to assert it. Importance should also be placed upon the + remarks of the other Apostles who rallied to their + Prophet's defense. They replied to Orson that a prophet + of God cannot advance false doctrine, therefore all + should accept the President's statements. They rightly + understood the biblical emphasis that a prophet of God + cannot advance false doctrine about God and that he + would be inspired to teach the truth. They also realized + the implications of Orson Pratt's statement. If Brigham + was advancing false doctrine, then he would be a false + prophet. Only a false prophet advances false doctrine. + To charge Mormonism's prophet with teaching false + doctrine would be to undermine Mormonism's claim to be a + divinely led people. + +(49) The Reorganized Church at this time was known as the + Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Later they + attached to themselves the title of being the "Reorganized" + Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon + factions has its headquarters in Independence, Missouri. + +(50) A MORMON CHRONICLE: THE DIARIES OF JOHN D. LEE (The + Huntington Library, 1955), Vol. 1, p.293. + +(51) Sacred History, Solomon F. Kimball Papers, Church Historian's + Office, Salt Lake City. + +(52) Manuscript Sermon, "A FEW WORDS OF DOCTRINE", Brigham + Young Collection, Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City. + +(53) Journal of Discourses, Vol. 8, p.58. + +(54) Ibid., Vol. 13, p.95. + +(55) Ibid., p.264. + +(56) L. John Nuttall Journal, pp.20-24, copied from original at + B.Y.U. Library, Special Collections, Provo, Utah. + +(57) See Mark E. Peterson, ADAM WHO IS HE? diff --git a/religious documents/afwitch.txt b/religious documents/afwitch.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75aed37 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/afwitch.txt @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ + +#212 +Date: Tue 25 Apr 89 23:52:42 +From: Alfgar Maharg +To: All +SEE ALSO #246 +Subj: More on military + + SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) -- An Air Force woman who says she is a witch has +been granted permission to observe her faith's eight holidays, including +All Hallow's Eve. + Airman Patricia Hutchins, 21, who says she has been a wiccan, or witch, for +four years, asked the Air Force to allow her to take time off for +religious holidays just as it does members of other religions. + Wiccans generally believe that the sun, moon, Earth and all life are divine +and are personifications of all creative energy. + Col. David Engler, chaplain at Lackland Air Force Base, wrote a letter to +Hutchins' supervising officers at Wilford Hall Medical Center, asking +that they follow Air Force regulations on religious freedom, Lackland +spokesman Bob MacNaughton said. + Air Force regulation 35:53 states: "members of the Air Force are free to +express religious beliefs in a manner that is consistent and fair to +all," MacNaughton said. + Hutchins, a physical therapist at Lackland, said she was surprised by the +chaplain's expedient help. + "I have found that chaplains in the Air Force are very open-minded," she +said. "I was surprised they did it, but I'm very grateful." + "As far as we're concerned, wicca is not a hostile type of faith," +MacNaughton said. "Her being a witch has not presented any problems for +her in her working place or anywhere else." + Among the days she'll be allowed to observe are All Hallows Eve, Oct. +31, and +days marking the changes of the seasons. Hutchins traces her faith to +Celtic Ireland. + Hutchins, daughter of a Protestant minister, said she doesn't know of any +others in the Air Force who practice witchcraft, including her husband. +She said colleagues and co-workers haven't shunned her for her beliefs. + +--- + * Origin: Opera=Amorum, BaphoNet-At-Night =*= (718) 499-9277 (Opus 1:107/666) + diff --git a/religious documents/aidenkel.txt b/religious documents/aidenkel.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85aaece --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/aidenkel.txt @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ +From: Grendel +To: All Msg #110, 16/11/91 14:43cst +Subject: A Song about Aidan Kelly + + The Ballad of Aidan Kelley + (to the tune of Tom Lehrer's "Alma") + By A. Nony Mouse + Originally published in Red Garters. Distribute freely. + +I'll sing you a story of Aidan +Whose fame never went to his head +Though he's founded two groups of pagans +(Or so his biography said). +Aidan's publicity heralds +That he's given us something we lacked. +His book proves the Craft came from Gerald... +But only by trimming the facts! + +(Chorus) +Aidan, tell us. +All other authors are jealous. +Now that we know how you work +It confirms that you're still just a jerk + +Aidan's got lots of credentials +3 degrees each from college and craft. +Though most think it's self-referential +Inflation on Aidan's behalf. +But Aidan's a master magician +Whose magick does more than he brags: +By reversing a natural process, +His book changes pulp back to rags! + +(Chorus) +Aidan, tell us: +What made you think you could sell us? +We'll make sure your book is renowned, +For we've Xeroxes left to go 'round! + +The gist of what Aidan is saying +Is Gardner and others had fun: +They made it all up while arraying +More stories to hide what they'd done. +But Aidan's whole theory is spotty +It's clear there was naught to be hid. +The Bavarian Illuminati +Can do less than he claims Gardner did! + +(Chorus) +Aidan, tell us: +Your reasoning sure does impel us +To ask if you paid your dues +Writing crap for the Weekly World News? + +Despite all the caustic reactions, +Dear Aidan still hasn't a clue. +And if Volume One caused stupefaction, +Just wait 'till you see Volume Two! +The result of his book is no mystery +His identity's firmly defined. +Aidan's written his place into history: +A legend, but in his own mind! + +(Chorus) +Aidan, tell us: +What made you think you could quell us? +The Craft's in the heart, not the head +And, though Aidan has scribbled, his logic is drivel +No matter what else he has said! + +--- + * Origin: -= The Sacred Grove =- Seattle, Washington (206)634-1980 +(84:4301/9) diff --git a/religious documents/air.txt b/religious documents/air.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..321ceb5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/air.txt @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +ab:air.txt 16jan90 + + + Air + + +Maiden +Astrological Rulers: Jupiter, Mercury + +Keys: Life Principle, Intellect + Raphael (instructor, traveller, healer) +Rules: mind, essential qualities, spiritual plane, knowledge, + abstract learning, theories, windy or high places, breath, speech + Plegmatic; Thinking; weak inhibitory +Virtues: gregarious, diligent, optimistic, dexterity, joie-de-vivre, + persuasive, friendly, healthy, knowledgeable +Vices: frivolity, boasting, absent mindedness, rootless, easily distracted, + loquacious, tends to intellectualize emotions (rather than experience + them) + +Spring & sunrise +East, Eurus +Colour: yellow + +Symbols: topaz, galbanum, aspen, frankincense, vervain, birds, eagle & hawk +Tools: wand, censer (arrow stabs air & conveys message Outer to Inner) +Spirits: sylphs under Paralda (very hard to see & know, teach mind control + and how to level out your thinking processes) + +Shortage: mind blank, shortness of breath, non-comprehension of known data +Excess: "gas bloat", inability to focus attention, "spacey" thoughts + +Here follows the air symbol, drawn (badly) in ascii--- + + + * + * * + * * + * * + ********* + * * + * * + *************** + +---------- +-various sources including June Johns' "King of the Witches" (appendix), + Starhawk's "Spiral Dance", Ellen Cannon Reed's "Witches Qabala" and a + lovely pamphlet on the elements put out by Church of the Seven Arrows. +-putting elemental notes into the BOS (instead of in a Grimoire or in a set + of teaching notes) also appear's to be Khaled's idea + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/alert86.txt b/religious documents/alert86.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac2d88e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/alert86.txt @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ + Date: Thu 28 Jan 88 14:44:52 + From: Brad Hicks (on 100/523) + + CIRCLE SANCTUARY WINS (FIRST) ZONING BATTLE + + "Five to Ten Year Fight" Predicted + + The Brigham Town Board and the Iowa County Zoning Commission + both voted unanimously to extend a church permit, and a church + zoning variance, to Circle Sanctuary. Circle is celebrating with + a series of private dedication rituals (both personal and for the + land) from Friday 29 January through Tuesday 3 February. Selena + Fox claims that hers is the first Wiccan Church (to her + knowledge) ever to be granted a church permit after such lengthy + public, government, and press scrutiny. + + Unfortunately, the harrassment of "The Witches of Barneveld" + (as some of the town-folk call them) is continuing, and could + take up to five years or more to finally resolve. The Brigham + Zoning Commissioner, with the support of the Town Board, has + reportedly filed a complaint alleging that Circle Sanctuary is in + violation of their church zoning. At the heart of the complaint + (which has not yet been forwarded to Circle or to the ACLU) is a + claim by the Zoning Commissioner that Circle's national + networking efforts and living quarters for non-family assistants + exceeds permissible activities for a "local parish" and would + require an "office" classification. + + The American Civil Liberties Union will continue to provide + legal assistance to Circle Sanctuary in resolving this matter, so + the worst of the legal fees are over (however, contributions to + the ACLU are certainly not un-called-for). Press coverage has + almost without exception been favorable. However, the outcome in + uncertain and there are hints that even if Circle wins this + round, the Town Board has other forms of harrassment in mind. + + Pagans and magical folks should NOT send letters or + petitions to any of the principles in this case, Selena Fox + insisted, as the she feels (and the ACLU concurs) that outside + political pressure on local politicians is the worst possible + thing that could happen to this case. If you have in mind some + way to help Circle with these matters, please send a letter to + Circle Sanctuary, Box 219, Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin 53572, USA, so + that it can be discussed first with their lawyers. + + Selena Fox expressed her thanks to all of the "wonderful + folks" who have beamed supporting energy to the Sanctuary, and + claims that without that magickal support, they could never have + survived the grueling negotiations and legal and political + battles. She asked that all magical folks who care about + religious freedom please continue to send magickal support, + especially (if possible) as a part of the upcoming Imbolc + celebrations. (If a precise time is desired, Circle will be + holding a special dedication ceremony and energy-raising session + for the upcoming fight starting at approximately 1:00 PM Central + Time on Sunday, February 2nd.) + + One unfortunate consequence of this fight has been that + Circle has not had time or energy for their regular fund-raising + efforts, so financial support will be welcomed. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + OTHER NEWS FROM CIRCLE SANCTUARY + + Secretarial Opening at the Sanctuary + + Circle has an urgent need to fill an upcoming vacancy on the + staff, especially as correspondence related to the zoning fight + and other Pagan Rights cases snowballs. Any Pagan or person on a + Pagan-oriented path with good typing and secretarial skills who + is interested should apply immediately. Send a resume and a + letter explaining why you are interested in the position to + Circle Sanctuary at Box 219, Mt. Horeb, WI 53572. Due to space + problems and issues related to the zoning fight, no one with pets + or dependents will be considered (sorry!). For more information, + please call the Sanctuary at (608) 924-2216 on a Tuesday or + Thursday between 1:00 and 4:00 PM Central Time. + + Planning for 1988 Pagan Spirit Gathering Begun + + Contrary to some rumors which have been distributed by + unknown parties, there =will= be a 1988 International Pagan + Spirit Gathering. It is scheduled for June 21-26, at the same + location where it has been held for the past several years, + approximately one hour's drive from Madison, Wisconsin. If you + wish to lead a workshop or a ritual at this year's PSG, please + try to have your proposals in to Circle Sanctuary at Box 219, Mt. + Horeb, WI 53572 by March 1st. + +--- + * Origin: WeirdBase* St. Louis * 1-314-389-WYRD * (Opus 1:100/523) + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/alterna.txt b/religious documents/alterna.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..70cb255 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/alterna.txt @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ + ALTERNATIVE CRAFT LAWS + + from John P. McClimans + + + Introduction: + + 1. These laws are guides and aides to a better understanding of + ourselves and the Craft. + + 2. The Craft is made of the interaction of people and divinity. + + 3. This interaction must be in perfect love and perfect trust. + + 4. The foundation of perfect love and perfect trust is found in + balance. + + 5. Balance is achieved through understanding of the cycles of life + and death. + + + Organization: + + 6. A coven is a group of two or more people who have joined together for + the purpose of interacting with one another and divinity. + + 7. There shall be no limit to the number of members a coven has, but + balance becomes more difficult to achieve as the number of + members increases. + + 8. The final arbitrator of the membership of a coven is the + membership. + + + Authority: + + 9. The authroity of a coven comes from the interaction of its + membership with one another and divinity. + + 10. Authority must be balanced by the total membership of the coven. + + 11. Imbalance of authority will corrupt individuals and destroy the + effectiveness of the coven. + + 12. Balance is achieved through taking responsibility for your + actions and the actions of the coven. + + 13. Because each member of a coven is responsible for self and coven, + the only authority the coven can exercize is authoritative + authority. + + 14. No one can assume the leadership of a coven without the approval + of the membership. + + 15. The membership is the final authority of a coven. + + 16. A coven which is in balance has little need of perpetual + leadership from one person or couple. + + 17. Each full member of a coven must facilitate some aspect of the + coven. + + 18. If only a small percentage of a coven's membership is actively + responsible and facilitating within the coven, there is little + chance of balance. (NOTE: A coven may choose to maintain a + hierarchy, priesthood, system of initiation grades or other + similar devices to encourage individual development. These + trappings ofter cause imbalance in a coven through the + combination of unnecessary authoritarianism and the relinquishing + of personal responsibility.) + + 19. A coven has need of only two ranks: Probationer, a member who is + still in training, and Initiate, a member whose training is + complete. (NOTE: This should not be construed as having ended + studies, but rather as having begun them by virtue of having + gained basic information.) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/anathema.txt b/religious documents/anathema.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a502968 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/anathema.txt @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ + + The Anathema of Stos + + by Stokastikos + + I'm sick of magicians who have harrowed the million spheres but don't +have the price of a pint actually at the moment. + I'm sick of astrologers with arms in splints who can tell you exactly +why it happened. + I'm sick of darkside Satanic wimps who foul their clothes if you raise +so much as a fist to them. + I'm sick of Tantric sex goddesses who cannot hold down a steady +boyfriend. + I'm sick of Thelemites who have found their true will in a bottle or a +syringe. + I'm sick of Great Beasts whose three successive star goddesses all +walked out on them. + I'm sick of shamans who knos less about the wildwood than urban boy +scouts. + I'm sick of Chaoists with dull day jobs and two-point-four children. + I'm sick of people who are so spiritual that being an arsehole on the +material plane is perfectly justifiable. + I'm sick of occult theories that are just longwinded excuses for +inability. + I'm sick of witches whose sacred tradition comes third-hand from the +Malleus Maleficarum. + I'm sick of half-baked ideas transferred from one book to another with +no intervening thought. + I'm sick of wizards who spend more on incense than clothes - and smell +like it. + I'm sick of crystals that don't affect anything except ley lines which +are not ther and dolphins who are not listening. + I'm sick of clairvoyants who cannot charge a thousand quid a go. + I'm sick of the way occult books always get stolen from libraries. + I'm sick of the deification of personalities that fooled hardly anyone +in the flesh. + I'm sick of psychic fairs - ten different futures at a tenner a time. + I'm sick of books published for no other reason than the sales figures +of the previous ones. + I'm sick of those who build self-importance with the fantasy-bricks of +paranoia. + I'm sick of white lightists who beam love and harmony at imaginary evils +but wouldn't give a blind beggar a quid 'cos it's his karma. + I'm sick of occult beliefs which act not even as crutches for the feeble +but as broken legs for the incapable. + + + ? + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ancntart.txt b/religious documents/ancntart.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..63b55e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ancntart.txt @@ -0,0 +1,197 @@ + + + THE ANCIENT ART + + + +Once upon a time, a long time ago, there were people who believed +in laughter, joy and love. They believed in many deities, but +the most important to them was their Great Mother Goddess. They +believed in and lived with the powers of Nature. They reveled in +the Wind, the Rain, the Snow and the Sunlight. They marveled at +and revered the changing of the seasons and saw therein great +excitement and wisdom to be gained. They knew that if they +tended, cared for and loved the Earth, in return She would +provide for, care for and love them. They saw that all around +them the world was filled with Life, much as their own but in +many different and wonderful forms. They felt the life of the +flowers, plants and trees and respected them for that life +essence. They looked about and observed all the many types of +animals and saw that they were kindred to them and loved them. +They felt and observed the great Love of the Goddess all about +them and knew kinship with the Moon. They were practioners of +The Old Religion, worshipers of The Great Mother. + +Witch! The very word instantly invokes visions for each of us, +visions which vary greatly from individual to individual. Many +of these visions, however, are quite false, brought about by many +centuries of severe persecutions, mis-representations, prejudice +and, in recent years, lack of knowledge. Witchcraft! What is it +really? + +Witchcraft is the oldest, most irrepressible religion in the +world because it stimulates the intellect, promotes a simple, +practical way of life and, most importantly, is emotionally +satisfying. Its roots lie in the ancient Matriarchal systems of +Goddess worship. A religion of Nature in which the primary +deity is female (The Essence of Femininity, The Earth Mother, +The Great Mother, etc.). + +It was easy for the Wise Ones to look at the world around them +and see the great importance of Feminine Principle. The female +was, indeed, the one who bore the young, perhaps the most +magickal of all events to ancient man. Then, she played by far +the most important role in rearing the young, being totally +responsible for feeding, for without her milk there was no life +past birth. She was responsible for the teaching and early care +of the young. In all youths the greatest comfort and nurturing +love were connected with the mother. These revelations and +experiences could hardly lead to any other choice than the total +reverence and deification of the female. + +Although The Great Mother is the most important deity, Witches +do, generally, recognize many Goddessess and/or Gods and are, +therefore, polytheistic. The tenets of Witchcraft are few but +all-encompassing, for with three simple Universal Observations +all of life can be explained and understood: + + + 1) Reincarnation - Mortality + 2) Cause & Effect - Magick + 3) Retribution - Morality + +Reincarnation enlightens the Witch to the fact that, as we come +to this material world over and over in a series of learning +periods, or lifetimes, we will eventually have to experience all +things, be all things, understand all things. This creates a +great tolerance for other viewpoints in the Witch. + +Cause & Effect, and an understanding of it, allows the Witch to +see what makes the world work and how to live most efficiently. +It gives them a great advantage in that it explains the working +of Magick. + +Retribution shows the Witch, in graphic terms, that every thought +one might have, every action one may take, is returned in like +kind. This realization forms the basis of the Moral Code of the +Witch. + +The Patriarchal Societies which evolved in later times had no +tolerance for the Goddess religions and systematically set out to +destroy the material vestiges, kill or convert the adherents and +wipe out all knowledge of them. They destroyed the temples and +other places of worship, desecrated the sacred groves and +magickal places, attempted to pervert the old deities, mutilated +and totally suppressed sacred art, tore down libraries and burned +books, tortured and killed the practitioners of the Old +Religions, demeaned, persecuted and oppressed women in general +and passed strictly enforced laws which made theirs the State +Religion and forbade all other viewpoints. + +Despite the centuries of insidious persecution, deliberate +destruction and perversions at the hands of the Christian +Conspirators, Witchcraft has survived. + + + + COMMON INQUIRIES + + + +I've heard the terms 'White Witch' and 'Black Witch'. Can you +explain? + +In this connotation, white is referring to Positive, Black is +referring to Negative. A White Witch then is someone who tries +to do Positive or Good things. Black Witch could be a term used +to describe someone who deliberately does Negative or Bad things. +A True Witch believes in the Law of Retribution and would never +deliberately harm anyone or anything or participate in Negative +or Destructive acts. + + +Is it possible for me to practice Witchcraft and remain a +Christian? + +No. The Christian Doctrine states, unequivocally, that +Christians shall have no other Gods before the Christian God. +Christian Doctrine says to believe in any other deities or to +practice any other religion is not only evil but should be +punished by death, specifically naming Witchcraft. The Christian +Doctrine also denies Reincarnation and prescribes punishment for +those who practice Magick. + + +Devil worship? + +Witches do not worship the Devil. Witchcraft predates +Christianity and does not incorporate a belief in the Christian +Devil. + +The Wise Ones did deify the Masculine Principle and quite often +He was depicted as The Great Horned God; Pan, Cernunnos, the +Great Stag, The Green Man. To the Traditional Witch, the +Masculine Deity (the Goddess' Consort) is very important, revered +and loved. He is the perfect Father, the Lord Protector. The +Horned God of the Witches is loving, kind and good. + + +Don't men have difficulty with a supreme female deity? There are +some groups which give equal status to the female and male +deities. + +Neo-Pagans are, by definition, people who attempt to live with +the Old Country Ways in a new, modern day manner. And while, in +this modern era, equal status for the deities may be popular, as +it relates to Witchcraft it is historically incorrect. +Therefore, a group which does not recognize the Goddess as +primary deity is not practicing The Ancient Art. Indeed, they, +generally, know very little about Witchcraft, despite their +claims. Traditional Dualistic Witches do most emphatically +believe that women and men are equal, but have no trouble +relating to the Goddess. The Male Witch finds great comfort and +solace in his Great Mother. + + +Do I have to join a Coven? + +No. It is not necessary nor is it desirable for a great many +people. Some people enjoy the support and companionship a Coven +provides, others enjoy solitary worship. The Coven, which is an +extremely close knit worship group, may not be possible for some +because of location, family climate, availability, etc. + + +Why is Witchcraft secretive? + +The horror of the 'Burning Time' is still very real to the Witch. +The past persecutions were severe. Even so, in today's more +enlightened society the need for complete secrecy has lessened +and many are able to share their beliefs openly. Very few, +however, are willing to expose their very personal and private +religious expressions to others who may not understand. + + +What do I have to do to become a Witch? + +The answer to this question is very simple. To become a Witch +one must follow the religion of Witchcraft. To do this one must +believe in the Goddess as primary deity and follow the three +basic tenets. How simple! How uncomplicated! How Pagan! +Everything else concerning witchcraft is simply minor details. +Details that vary from Aspect to Aspect, Coven to Coven and +individual to individual. The details are relatively personal. +They should not become more important than the basic tenets. If +you do not understand, believe and practice Witchcraft, you are +not a Witch. No one can make you a Witch. Reading about it can +not make you a Witch. An Initiation can not make you a Witch. +Saying you are a Witch, one thousand and fifty two times, can not +make you a Witch. + +In the search for your individual path beware of those who would +take advantage of you. Do not fall prey to the unscrupulous +charlatans who would swindle you in a monetary sense (mail-order +courses, charges for teaching or initiations, vows of poverty, +etc.), exploit you sexually or manipulate you for their own +personal ego-trips. + diff --git a/religious documents/anctart.txt b/religious documents/anctart.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..26a01a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/anctart.txt @@ -0,0 +1,196 @@ + THE ANCIENT ART + + + +Once upon a time, a long time ago, there were people who believed +in laughter, joy and love. They believed in many deities, but +the most important to them was their Great Mother Goddess. They +believed in and lived with the powers of Nature. They reveled in +the Wind, the Rain, the Snow and the Sunlight. They marveled at +and revered the changing of the seasons and saw therein great +excitement and wisdom to be gained. They knew that if they +tended, cared for and loved the Earth, in return She would +provide for, care for and love them. They saw that all around +them the world was filled with Life, much as their own but in +many different and wonderful forms. They felt the life of the +flowers, plants and trees and respected them for that life +essence. They looked about and observed all the many types of +animals and saw that they were kindred to them and loved them. +They felt and observed the great Love of the Goddess all about +them and knew kinship with the Moon. They were practioners of +The Old Religion, worshipers of The Great Mother. + +Witch! The very word instantly invokes visions for each of us, +visions which vary greatly from individual to individual. Many +of these visions, however, are quite false, brought about by many +centuries of severe persecutions, mis-representations, prejudice +and, in recent years, lack of knowledge. Witchcraft! What is it +really? + +Witchcraft is the oldest, most irrepressible religion in the +world because it stimulates the intellect, promotes a simple, +practical way of life and, most importantly, is emotionally +satisfying. Its roots lie in the ancient Matriarchal systems of +Goddess worship. A religion of Nature in which the primary +deity is female (The Essence of Femininity, The Earth Mother, +The Great Mother, etc.). + +It was easy for the Wise Ones to look at the world around them +and see the great importance of Feminine Principle. The female +was, indeed, the one who bore the young, perhaps the most +magickal of all events to ancient man. Then, she played by far +the most important role in rearing the young, being totally +responsible for feeding, for without her milk there was no life +past birth. She was responsible for the teaching and early care +of the young. In all youths the greatest comfort and nurturing +love were connected with the mother. These revelations and +experiences could hardly lead to any other choice than the total +reverence and deification of the female. + +Although The Great Mother is the most important deity, Witches +do, generally, recognize many Goddessess and/or Gods and are, +therefore, polytheistic. The tenets of Witchcraft are few but +all-encompassing, for with three simple Universal Observations +all of life can be explained and understood: + Š + 1) Reincarnation - Mortality + 2) Cause & Effect - Magick + 3) Retribution - Morality + +Reincarnation enlightens the Witch to the fact that, as we come +to this material world over and over in a series of learning +periods, or lifetimes, we will eventually have to experience all +things, be all things, understand all things. This creates a +great tolerance for other viewpoints in the Witch. + +Cause & Effect, and an understanding of it, allows the Witch to +see what makes the world work and how to live most efficiently. +It gives them a great advantage in that it explains the working +of Magick. + +Retribution shows the Witch, in graphic terms, that every thought +one might have, every action one may take, is returned in like +kind. This realization forms the basis of the Moral Code of the +Witch. + +The Patriarchal Societies which evolved in later times had no +tolerance for the Goddess religions and systematically set out to +destroy the material vestiges, kill or convert the adherents and +wipe out all knowledge of them. They destroyed the temples and +other places of worship, desecrated the sacred groves and +magickal places, attempted to pervert the old deities, mutilated +and totally suppressed sacred art, tore down libraries and burned +books, tortured and killed the practitioners of the Old +Religions, demeaned, persecuted and oppressed women in general +and passed strictly enforced laws which made theirs the State +Religion and forbade all other viewpoints. + +Despite the centuries of insidious persecution, deliberate +destruction and perversions at the hands of the Christian +Conspirators, Witchcraft has survived. + + + + COMMON INQUIRIES + + + +I've heard the terms 'White Witch' and 'Black Witch'. Can you +explain? + +In this connotation, white is referring to Positive, Black is +referring to Negative. A White Witch then is someone who tries +to do Positive or Good things. Black Witch could be a term used +to describe someone who deliberately does Negative or Bad things. +A True Witch believes in the Law of Retribution and would never +deliberately harm anyone or anything or participate in Negative +or Destructive acts. + + Is it possible for me to practice Witchcraft and remain a +Christian? + +No. The Christian Doctrine states, unequivocally, that +Christians shall have no other Gods before the Christian God. +Christian Doctrine says to believe in any other deities or to +practice any other religion is not only evil but should be +punished by death, specifically naming Witchcraft. The Christian +Doctrine also denies Reincarnation and prescribes punishment for +those who practice Magick. + + +Devil worship? + +Witches do not worship the Devil. Witchcraft predates +Christianity and does not incorporate a belief in the Christian +Devil. + +The Wise Ones did deify the Masculine Principle and quite often +He was depicted as The Great Horned God; Pan, Cernunnos, the +Great Stag, The Green Man. To the Traditional Witch, the +Masculine Deity (the Goddess' Consort) is very important, revered +and loved. He is the perfect Father, the Lord Protector. The +Horned God of the Witches is loving, kind and good. + + +Don't men have difficulty with a supreme female deity? There are +some groups which give equal status to the female and male +deities. + +Neo-Pagans are, by definition, people who attempt to live with +the Old Country Ways in a new, modern day manner. And while, in +this modern era, equal status for the deities may be popular, as +it relates to Witchcraft it is historically incorrect. +Therefore, a group which does not recognize the Goddess as +primary deity is not practicing The Ancient Art. Indeed, they, +generally, know very little about Witchcraft, despite their +claims. Traditional Dualistic Witches do most emphatically +believe that women and men are equal, but have no trouble +relating to the Goddess. The Male Witch finds great comfort and +solace in his Great Mother. + + +Do I have to join a Coven? + +No. It is not necessary nor is it desirable for a great many +people. Some people enjoy the support and companionship a Coven +provides, others enjoy solitary worship. The Coven, which is an +extremely close knit worship group, may not be possible for some +because of location, family climate, availability, etc. + + +Why is Witchcraft secretive? + +The horror of the 'Burning Time' is still very real to the Witch. ŠThe past persecutions were severe. Even so, in today's more +enlightened society the need for complete secrecy has lessened +and many are able to share their beliefs openly. Very few, +however, are willing to expose their very personal and private +religious expressions to others who may not understand. + + +What do I have to do to become a Witch? + +The answer to this question is very simple. To become a Witch +one must follow the religion of Witchcraft. To do this one must +believe in the Goddess as primary deity and follow the three +basic tenets. How simple! How uncomplicated! How Pagan! +Everything else concerning witchcraft is simply minor details. +Details that vary from Aspect to Aspect, Coven to Coven and +individual to individual. The details are relatively personal. +They should not become more important than the basic tenets. If +you do not understand, believe and practice Witchcraft, you are +not a Witch. No one can make you a Witch. Reading about it can +not make you a Witch. An Initiation can not make you a Witch. +Saying you are a Witch, one thousand and fifty two times, can not +make you a Witch. + +In the search for your individual path beware of those who would +take advantage of you. Do not fall prey to the unscrupulous +charlatans who would swindle you in a monetary sense (mail-order +courses, charges for teaching or initiations, vows of poverty, +etc.), exploit you sexually or manipulate you for their own +personal ego-trips. + + + +Copyright (c) 1981 The Witching Well Education & Research +Center. Used by Permission diff --git a/religious documents/angldmon.txt b/religious documents/angldmon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..970a24c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/angldmon.txt @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +ANGELS & DEMONS + +The Western religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam +have all accepted the belief that there is, between God and +mankind, a class of intermediary beings called angels. The word angel +comes from the Greek word angelos, meaning "messenger." Angels are +considered to be bodiless minds or spirits who perform various +services for God or for people on God's behalf. + +Angels are good spirits. They have their counterpart in demons, or +evil spirits. The word demon is derived from the Greek word daimon, +meaning basically any supernatural being or spirit. Belief in spirits +of all kinds was quite prevalent in the ancient world. But when +Christianity appeared, nearly 2,000 years ago, it condemned belief in +such spirits and assigned them the name demon. Ever since, demons have +been thought of as evil spirits. + +The origins of belief in angels and demons can be traced to the +ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. Followers of the prophet +Zoroaster believed that there were two supreme beings, one good and +the other evil. The good one, Ahura Mazda, was served by angels; the +evil one, Ahriman, had demon helpers. Zoroastrians referred to demons +as daevas, hence the word devil. Belief in good and evil spirits +worked its way into Judaism and later into the religions of +Christianity and Islam. + +Angels are frequently mentioned in the Bible, mostly in the role of +messengers from God to mankind. Their appearances on Earth seem to +have been in human form. In the Old Testament books of Job, Ezekiel, +and Daniel, as well as in the Apocryphal book of Tobit, angels play +significant roles. In the Book of Job the leading demon, Satan, is +also introduced. But it is not until the New Testament that Satan is +portrayed, under the name Lucifer, as the first of the fallen +angels--the angels that rebelled against God. + +In the New Testament, angels are present at all the important events +in the life of Jesus, from his birth to the Resurrection. In the very +dramatic Book of Revelation, angels are portrayed as the agents of God +in bringing judgment upon the world. Other New Testament writers also +speak of angels. St. Paul especially takes note of them by assigning +them ranks. He lists seven groups: angels, archangels, principalities, +powers, virtues, dominions, and thrones. The Old Testament had spoken +of only two orders: cherubim and seraphim. Early Christianity accepted +all nine ranks and in the course of time developed extensive doctrines +about both angels and demons. The latter were conceived of as Satan's +legions, sent out to lure mankind away from belief in God. Angels and +demons play similar roles in Islam and are often mentioned in its holy +book, the Koran. + +Belief in supernatural spirits has not been limited to the major +Western religions. In the preliterate societies of Africa, Oceania, +Asia, and the Americas, spirits were thought to inhabit the whole +natural world. These spirits could act either for good or +for evil, and so there was no division between them as there has +been between angels and demons. The power of these spirits is called +mana, which can be either helpful or hurtful to people. + +Fascination with angels and demons has led to their frequent depiction +in works of art and literature. The paintings, stained glass, mosaics, +and sculptures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance are especially +replete with figures of both. In John Milton's long poem 'Paradise +Lost' (1667), Satan himself is a main character; and the angels +Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael play prominent roles. In Dante's 'Divine +Comedy' (1321?) angels appear as both messengers and guardians, and +Satan is vividly portrayed frozen in a block of ice. diff --git a/religious documents/anne01.txt b/religious documents/anne01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..73f1617 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/anne01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,195 @@ +A SURVIVOR SPEAKS... + +One would expect that if laws are passed then the evidence presented +to the law makers was hard stuff. You don't change the law, unless +there's a good reason, do you? + +By "ANNE". + +Testimony As Presented To The Idaho House Jud./Rules Committee, Idaho +Centennial Legislature. From File 18 Newsletter, April 1990. + +"Mr. Chairman, my name is Ann. I'm here as a ritual abuse survivor. +I +was ritually abused between the ages of three and fourteen. It began +on my third birthday when my parents and grandparents relinquished +their rights to me and dedicated me to Satan. From that point on +the +high priest of the coven my father and grandfather belonged to +had +control over my life. I still lived at home and went to school, yet +there was a part of my life no one knew about. That part consisted of +sexual abuse, bestiality, pornography, drugs, and witnessing and +participating in animal and human sacrifices. + +My abuse occurred in both Idaho and Washington. The coven that I +was +involved in was 1 of 12 covens linked together who came together +several times a year in Idaho. There were approximately 125-175 people +at these meetings. + +The most vivid memory I have of the rituals that occurred in Idaho +is +one when I was five years old. All twelve covens where [sic] at the +ritual. Some covens wore black robes and some wore white. The high +priests of these covens made up a thirteenth coven led by a man called +the Supreme. The Supreme had ultimate control over every member of +every coven. + +During the ritual I went through a series of tests including drinking +blood from the two girls they had sacrificed earlier, repeating the +rules correctly, and killing a kitten. At the end, I was chosen to be +a priestess for my coven provided I completed the training that was +required. + +Another ritual that is vivid to me also occurred in one of these +large +gatherings in Idaho. At the age of eight, I was married to the High +Priest of my coven. They said we were "bonded together as one." The +ceremony started with a cleansing process in which I was covered in +blood from the three people they had sacrificed that evening. +Secondly, +vows were exchanged between the Supreme, the High Priest, and myself. +These vows were in a different language that they used frequently that +I never understood. Thirdly, the Supreme cut my finger and the finger +of the High Priest and the blood was mixed together. This was followed +by communion in which blood and flesh of the sacrifices was used. +Lastly, the High Priest had intercourse with me on the altar. This was +supposed to seal the bond between us. This was not the only time I +went through this ceremony; I also went through it at the ages of +eleven and fourteen. Each time there were numerous sacrifices to +purify and cleanse me and the High priest, as the purer we were in the +eyes of Satan, the stronger the bond was supposed to be, or so I was +taught. + +I watched many human sacrifices during the twelve years I was +involved +in the coven. Usually after a sacrifice various organs or body parts +were removed such as eyes, ears, fingers, the heart, or the ovaries, +to name a few. On several occasions I witnessed them peel off the skin +of both live and dead victims. The high priest of the coven I was +involved in also scalped the hair off of many of his female +sacrifices. On one occasion I watched some sort of acid solution eat +the flesh off a sacrificed teenage girl. There ere [sic] also times +when they used chainsaws to cut the bodies up into pieces. + +I was forced time and time again to eat flesh and drink blood of both +animal and human sacrifices. I was also forced to drink urine, eat +feces, and to eat bugs. + +When I was five I was put into a coffin with a teenage girl I had +watched murdered during a ritual. They closed the coffin and told me +they were going to bury me with her. I also remember being placed in +an open grave with a dead cow that had been sacrificed. They then +threw dirt and bloody flowers in on top of me. + +I was given drugs after every ritual. I never remember going home. The +last thing I can remember is being given an injection and trying not +to go to sleep as I did not know what was going to happen to me if I +did. I believe this was to hinder my recollection of what I saw. I was +also given drugs when I was not cooperating. Sometimes I was forced to +swallow pills or held down while the doctor gave me an injection. I +learned to do whatever they wanted without fighting [because] if I +fought they gave me the drugs and I lost total control of my body and +my mind as they broke my resistance. At least, without the drugs, even +if I [was] forced to do awful things, in my heart and my mind I +resisted. + +I was continually threatened that I would die or my parents would die +or they would kill my sister if I didn't do what they wanted. I had no +doubt they would carry out their threats as during the large ritual in +Idaho when I was eight, I watched them sacrifice a member of one of +their own covens to pay for the wrongs of his coven. + +When I reached the point that I didn't care what happened to me, they +began hurting other children when I did something wrong. They know my +guilt over the pain was far worse punishment than hurting me would be +at that point. + +I was also warned that if I ever told anyone what I saw they would +kill me and/or the person I told. When I was seven I made friends with +a new girl at school. The High Priest would come occasionally and +watch me on the playground at recess. He observed us together several +times. One day she quit coming to school. The next time I saw her she +was in the hands of the coven. The High Priest accused me of telling +her. I insisted that I did not say anything to her. He began hitting +her for every time I denied his accusation. Finally, I told him I did +tell her to get him to stop hitting her. Then, he killed her. + +I'm telling you this because I want to increase your knowledge and +awareness about what has been and is going on in our society. It is +only through awareness that we are going to be able to do anything +about ritual abuse. As Idaho Legislature, you have an opportunity to +put into action laws that will require offenders to pay for their +crimes against children. + +In conclusion, I want to tell you about someone who was very special +to me. Her name was Jenny. She had beautiful long, blond hair and +blue +eyes. I was six when I met her; she was fourteen. The first time I saw +her she was lying naked on a bed with a chain attached to one of her +legs. She had bruses all over her body and a black eye. She also had +cuts all over her body. + +Jenny and I spent time together on several occasions. They would let +me into her room and then leave us unsupervised for hours. Jenny's +story was classic. She ran away from home because of physical and +sexual abuse. She told me she was on her way to her grandmother's when +my grandfather picked her up. She did not realise where my grandfather +was taking her and what was to happen to her until it was too late. +Jenny and I got into an argument about this the last time they let us +send [sic] time together. I did not want to believe that my +grandfather would have actually taken her to that awful place. +But Jenny insisted that he did. She had a one-line argument that I had +no comeback for: "If he brings you here, why wouldn't he bring me +here?" + +Jenny was real special. She talked about the ocean, seagulls, and her +little sister. She tried to teach me her phone number to call her +parents for her but it was an impossible task. At six I did not +know +how to use the phone and I did not know where we were to tell her +parents where to come and find her. + +The night they murdered Jenny in a ritual was probably the worst night +of my life. They told me that I had chosen the night of her death by +daring to ask my grandfather that afternoon if he was the one who +brought Jenny to the High Priest. My grandfather admitted to the +above, which increased my sense of guilt. My ears rang with Jenny's +crying and screams as they tortured her that night. The hardest part +of Jenny's death for me to deal with was the fact that my hands were +on the knife under the hands of the high priest when Jenny died. I +tried to get them out but he was much stronger than me. + +I never mentioned Jenny to anyone until I told my therapist a couple +of years ago. There were several ways the coven assured my silence +about her. I was told and forced to repeat over and over that I was +the one who killed Jenny. I was also told that if I told a policeman +that the policeman would put me in jail because I was the one that +killed her. They showed me what jail was like by locking me in a box +and pouring her blood on top of me. I was told I had to be good or +they would tell the police and the police would put me in jail forever +and ever. + +I don't want to mislead you, Jenny was not murdered in Idaho. Yet, she +could have been from Idaho...I don't know where she was from. But +there were several other children that I saw murdered in Idaho who +were just like Jenny. Ritual abuse is a serious crime. We need +serious +laws with serious penalties to fight back and protect our children." + +QUOTE ENDS + +Editorial Note: Not a very nice story. But is it credible, or is it +the product of a mind that has been under psychiatric care for a +number of years? According to Larry Jones, the editor of File 18, +"Annes" story is being investigated by the police force with primary +jurisdiction. Since the abusers were members of "Annes" extended and +immediate family, one would expect a result on this one. Anyone fancy +a bet that the investigation will come to nothing? + +Emotionally charged, unverifiable, stories like this are the +"anti-satanists" stock in trade. One trusts that the Knight Committee +will have no truck with with this kind of pseudo-evidence. But then +one believes in fairies... + diff --git a/religious documents/answers.txt b/religious documents/answers.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a3e563 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/answers.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/antijees.txt b/religious documents/antijees.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..966383e Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/antijees.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/antimorm.txt b/religious documents/antimorm.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..30dd1b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/antimorm.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2009 @@ + The Jesus of Christianity + Vs + The Jesus of Mormonism + + The Jesus WE KNOW contrasted to the "Jesus" of Mormonism. +The one true Jesus of the BIBLE, of all eternity God the Son, who +died that we may have eternal life; who paid the price of all +sins; who has entered our lives and is walking with us in a +personal relationship day by day -- is not known in Mormonism. +The Jesus of Mormonism is an entirely different "Jesus". Let's +examine what the leaders and prophets - the foundation of the +Latter Day Saints Church - have said: + + "When the time came that His First-Born, the Saviour, should +come into the world and take a tabernacle, the Father Himself +came and favored the Spirit with a tabernacle instead of letting +any other MAN do it. .... The Saviour was begotten by the Father +of His spirit, by the same being who is the Father of our +spirits, and that is all the organic difference between Jesus +Christ and you and me." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, +4:218 + + "The fleshly body of Jesus required a Mother as well as a +Father. Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to +the flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity of +Husband and Wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the +time being, the lawful wife of God the Father." ORSON PRATT, The +Seer, pg 158 + + "Christ was begotten by an immortal Father in the same way +that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers --- And Christ was +born into the world as the Literal Son of this Holy Being; He was +born in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any +mortal son is born of a mortal father. There is nothing +figurative about his paternity; He was begotten, conceived and +born in the normal and natural course of events, for He is the +Son of God, and that designation means what it says." BRUCE R. +McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine, pg 547,742 + + Brigham Young, to be consistent with his "Adam-God" +doctrine, believed Adam was the literal father of Jesus Christ: + "When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father +had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the +Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human +family ... Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by +the same character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our +Father in Heaven." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 1:50,51 + + As is evident in these statements, there is no Virgin Birth +in Mormonism. On the other hand, the Bible clearly shows us: + +Matthew 1:18 Mary with child of the Holy Spirit + 1:20 That which is conceived in her is of the Holy + Spirit + 1:23 Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son +Luke 1:35 The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the + power of the Most High will overshadow you + + Further, the "Jesus" of Mormonism was married in polygamy +and had children. This had to be so to be consistent with the +doctrines of Joseph Smith, Junior. As Joseph reports as a +"revelation" given him by God on July 12,1843: "I am the Lord thy +God .. obey the instructions I am about to give unto you .. if ye +abide not that covenant, then ye are damned; for no one can +reject this covenant and be permitted to enter my Glory .. verily +I say unto you, if man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, +and by the new and everlasting covenant .. they shall be gods .. +And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood if any man +espouses a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first +give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are +virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then he is justified .. +and if he have ten virgins given unto him by the law, he cannot +commit adultery, for they belong to him." JOSEPH SMITH, Doctrine +& Covenants, 132:2,3,4,19,20,61,62 + + "It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was a +marriage in Cana of Galilee, and on a careful reading of that +transaction, it will be discovered that no less a person than +Jesus Christ was married on that occasion." ORSON HYDE, Journal +of Discourses, 13:259 + "How was it with Mary and Martha, and other women that +followed Him? In old times, and it is common to this day, the +women, even Sarah, called their husbands 'LORD' .. Jesus was the +bridegroom at the marriage of Cana of Galilee .. We say it was +Jesus Christ who was married, to be brought into relation whereby +he could see his seed, before He was crucified .. I shall say +here, that before the Saviour died, he looked upon His own +natural children, as we look upon ours." ORSON HYDE, Journal of +Discourses, 2:81,82 + + The Bible states that Jesus is God the Son -- eternally +existent with God the Father -- yet Mormon doctrine says Jesus +was a spirit offspring of the Father; that Lucifer was the second +spirit offspring (THEY WERE BROTHERS?!); followed by billions +more - or each of us, for instance. We are "brothers" and +"sisters" of Jesus Christ. Jesus is not the only begotten Son in +Mormon Theology: "It makes me think of that second person that +came forth in the heavens when the voice went forth: 'Who will +redeem the earth, who will go forth and make the sacrifice for +the earth and all things it contains ?'. The Eldest son said: +'Here am I'; but he did not say 'send me'. But the second one, +which was 'Lucifer, Son of the Morning', said, 'Lord, here am I, +send me, I will redeem every son and daughter of Adam and Eve +that lives on the earth." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, +13:282 + "The appointment of Jesus to be Saviour of the world was +contested by one of the other sons of God. He was called Lucifer, +Son of the Morning .... this spirit brother of Jesus desperately +tried to become the Saviour of Mankind. MILTON R. HUNTER (First +Council of 70) The Gospel Through the Ages, pg 15 [1958] + "Jesus Christ is also of our species .. I have heard +sectarian priest undertake to tell the character of the Son of +God, and they make him half of one species and half of another, +and I could not avoid thinking at once of a mule." BRIGHAM YOUNG, +Journal of Discourses, 4:217 + "There is no impropriety ... in speaking of Jesus Christ as +the elder brother of the rest of human kind." JAMES TALMAGE, +ARTICLES OF FAITH, pg 473 + + In Mormonism, Jesus was a created being: "Jesus is man's +spiritual brother. We dwelt with Him in the spirit world as +members of that large society of our eldest brother." MILTON R. +HUNTER, Gospel Through the Ages, pg 21 + "The devil is a spirit son of God who was born in the +morning of pre-existence." BRUCE R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine, +"Devil", 1966 edition, pg 192 + "There are three Gods - the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." +BRUCE R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine,"God", pg 317 + + The REAL JESUS, the ONLY Son of God and God the Son, is +proclaimed throughout the BIBLE! Look up these references and +tie-ins of Old and New testaments declaring Jesus' Divinity and +NOT being created: + +LOOK UP and COMPARE WITH + +Psalm 24:10 I Corinthians 2:8 +Psalm 45:6,7 Hebrews 1:8 +Isaiah 8:13 I Peter 2:8 +Isaiah 40:3 Matthew 3:3 +Malachi 3:1 Matthew 11:10 +Psalm 102:27 Hebrews 13:8 + James 1:17 +Psalm 102:25 Colossians 1:16 +Psalm 102:26 Matthew 24:35 + 2 Peter 3:7,10 + + JOHN 1:1-3,14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word +was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning +with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not +anything made that was made ... And the Word was made flesh, and +dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the Glory as of the +ONLY begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." + COLOSSIANS 1:15 "Who is the image of the invisible God, the +firstborn of every creature" [Here 'firstborn' does not mean +first 'spirit-child', rather a position of high honor - see verse +18, Hebrews 12:23, revelation 1:5, and Psalm 89:27]. The next +verses, 16 and 17, tell us, "For in Him were all things created, +that are in heaven, and that are on the earth ... All things were +created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by +Him all things consist." + HEBREWS 1:10 "Thou, Lord (Jesus), in the beginning hast +laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of +thine hands." + In Isaiah 44:24 God tells us that He "stretched forth the +heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." Jesus, +who IS the TRUTH and God the Father "have no lies within them" +and are INCAPABLE OF TELLING A LIE. Jesus is God the Son, +eternally One with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and not be +confused. God the Son is not God the Father and God the father is +not God the Holy Spirit, but each entity is a part of the ONE +TRUE AND LIVING GOD. + ISAIAH 9:6 "For unto us a child is born ... his name shall +be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting +Father, The Prince of Peace." + MICAH 5:2 "Whose goings forth have been from of old, from +everlasting." + MATTHEW 28:18 "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, +'All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." + PHILIPPIANS 2:6-10 "Who, being in the form of God, though +it not robbery to be equal with God: ... was made in the likeness +of men ... became obedient unto death, even the death of the +cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exaulted him ... That at +the name of Jesus every knee should bow ....". + Compare to Isaiah 45:22,23 for if Jesus is not God, then we +worship two (or more) Gods! The Mormons, basically, do not +worship Jesus, or pray to Him, only "through" Him.) + COLOSSIANS 2:9 "For in Him dwelleth the fullness of the +Godhead bodily" + HEBREWS 1:3 "... The express image of His person ...." + JOHN 5:23 "That all men should honor the Son, even as they +honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the +Father which hath sent Him." + JOHN 20:28 "And Thomas answered and said unto Him, 'My Lord +and my God'" + + Jesus used the same descriptions of himself; I AM, ALPHA and +OMEGA, FIRST and LAST; as used by God the Father: + +JESUS SAYING GOD + +JOHN 8:58 I AM EXODUS 3:14,15 +REV 22:13,16 ALPHA AND OMEGA REV 1:8 & 21:6 +REV 1:17 REVELATION 21:6 + 2:8 FIRST AND LAST ISAIAH 44:6 + 22:13 48:12 + + Jesus is GOD the SON! Eternally God and not after, or +created by, or a spirit child of God! Our Jesus is NOT the +"Jesus" of Mormonism, and we are empowered, if we have accepted +the true Jesus into our hearts, to give Thanks unto God for +selecting us to reveal His True Son to us. HALLELUJAH and AMEN +!!! + +Computers For Christ + + THE NATURE OF GOD + + There is but ONE GOD. The BIBLE states that there has been, +and presently is, and always will be only ONE GOD. History and +the BIBLE show that the Jewish people always believed in ONE GOD +of the UNIVERSE. The Jewish nation; However, was lured, time and +time again, into going after "other gods" that were worshipped by +the people surrounding Israel. That was the sin GOD hated and +punished them for practicing. (Jeremiah 2:11 11:9-13 19:13) + In direct contrast, MORMONISM has a basic belief in many +gods. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost (in Mormonism) are three +separate gods. There were gods before them and will be gods to +follow: "If we should take a million worlds like this and number +their particles, we should find that there are more gods than +there are particles of matter in those worlds." JOURNAL OF +DISCOURSES, Vol 2, page 345 [Feb 1855] Orson Pratt + "Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son, and the +Holy Spirit are only one God. I say that is a strange God, anyhow +- Three in one and one in three. It is a curious organization ... +all are to be crammed into one God, according to sectarianism. It +would make the biggest God in all the world ... he would be a +giant or a monster." TEACHING OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, page +372; HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 476 + "In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of +the Gods, and they came together and concocted a plan to create +the world and people it." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, JOSEPH SMITH, +Vol 6, page 5; HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 308 + + Mormons will say they worship only one God; But, whether +they worship them or not, believing in the valid existence of +many gods -- of the same authority and reality of the one God -- +makes you a polytheist! + False Prophets have always led the people of history (and +the current peoples of the earth) to go after other gods +(Deuteronomy 13:1 to 13). God's strongest wrath was then and is +now upon people who worship or believe in other gods (Jeremiah +16:10 to 13 and 22:8 & 9). + Mormonism teaches that "Father God" is married and has many +wives: "In the heaven where our spirits were born, there are many +Gods, each of whom has his own wife or wives, which were given to +him previous to his redemption while yet in his mortal state." +THE SEER, Orson Pratt, page 37 + Look up John 10:34 used by Mormons to justify a belief in +"many Gods". Jesus, there, is quoting Psalm 82 in which the +judges were referred to as "gods" -- but were wicked and unjust +and "die like all men". + Anytime the word "gods" occur in the BIBLE it must be +verified in context as referring to the idols, satanic princes or +counterfeit gods - (Isaiah 41:23 and 24 and 45:20). + + IN CONTRAST The BIBLE states throughout there is but ONE +GOD! Look up these verses: + +ISAIAH 43:10-11 "Before me NO god was formed, nor after" + 44: 6-8 "I am the first and the last, beside me no + other" + 45: 5-6 "I am the Lord, and there is no other" + 45:18-22 "HE created the heavens and earth-there is no + other" +DEUT 6:4 "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" + 32:39 "There is no god beside me" +PSALM 86:10 "Thou alone art God" +MARK 12:29 "Jesus said, the Lord our God is one; no other" +GAL 3:20 "God is one" +JAMES 2:19 "You believe God is one - you do well" +EPH 4:5-6 "One God and Father of us all" +I COR 8:4-6 "There is no god but me" + + GOD IS INFINITE: The BIBLE states that God has always been +the same from all time in eternity past and does not change. In +direct opposition to this, the Mormon Church has the basic belief +that God was once a man, with many gods before Him and many gods +to come after Him. They further believe that God is progressing +to higher levels of power and ability: "God himself was once as +we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder +heavens ... it is necessary that we should understand the +character and being of God, and how He came to be so; for I am +going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and +supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that +idea, and will take away the veil, so that you may see ... he was +once a man like us; yea, that God himself the Father of us all, +dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ did. "TEACHINGS OF THE +PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, page 345; JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES Vol 6, page +3; HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 305 + "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." THE +GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES, Milton R. Hunter, pages 105 & 106 + "Our Eternal Father has attained His position of exaltation +and Godhood by obedience to the great law of progression ... was +once a mortal man who passed through a school of earth-life +similar to that which we are now passing." THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE +AGES, Milton R. Hunter, pages 12 & 104 + "Through modern revelations we learn that the universe is +filled with vast numbers of intelligences, and we further learn +that Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligences +honor and sustain him as such --- But God acquired the honor and +sustaining influence of 'all things'. It follows as a corrolary +that if He should ever do anything to violate the confidence of +'sense of justice' of these intelligences, they would promptly +withdraw their support, and the 'power' of God would disintegrate +--- He would cease to be God. Our Heavenly Father can do only +those things which the intelligences under Him are voluntarily +willing to support Him in accomplishing." THE FIRST 2000 YEARS, +W. Cleon Skousen *,pages 355,356 *=FREEMEN INSTITUTE PRESIDENT & +B.Y.U. Professor + + Mormonism teaches that God is confined to a body of flesh +and bones. He is at a particular place at a particular time. The +Mormon "god" is a SMALL "god". You can have tremendous faith in a +god - BUT, if that god is not THE GOD, then all that tremendous +faith is meaningless. Elijah once challenged the priests of +"another god" to start a fire, and the "god" who was able to do +so would be recognized as THE GOD. The priests for this wooden +idol, with great faith and efforts prayed and prayed to their god +to bring down fire to prove his godhood. Elijah even became +somewhat sarcastic when he asked a rhetorical question of "Maybe +your god is asleep? Maybe you should cry out louder to wake him +up?". After all these efforts, nothing happened! It didn't matter +if the priest and believers of that "god" had a great faith +because the OBJECT of that faith was incapable of fulfilling the +promise of that faith. The ONE and TRUE GOD fulfills our prayers. + "If God possesses a form, that form is of necessity of +definite proportions, and therefore of limited extension and +space. It is impossible for Him to occupy at one time more than +one space of such limits." ARTICLES OF FAITH, James E. Talmage, +pages 42 and 43 + "I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all +description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto +me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other -'This is +my Beloved Son. Hear Him!" PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, Joseph Smith +2:17 + "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as +man's. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, 130, v:22 + "God himself is increasing in knowledge, power, and dominion +and will do so, worlds without end." JOURNAL OF +DISCOURSES,Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Vol 6, Pg 120 + "We were begotten by our Father in heaven; the person of our +Father in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His +Father; and again, He was begotten by still a more ancient Father +...." THE SEER, Orson Pratt, Page 132 + + The BIBLE states throughout that GOD IS INFINITE! We ask +that you look up these proofs: + II CHRONICLES 6:18 "Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot + contain thee." + PSALM 41:13 (90:2) "God is from everlasting to everlasting" + PSALM 102:25-27 "created heavens, always the same + without end" + PSALM 139:4-8 "Omniscient and Omnipresent" + JEREMIAH 23:24 "I fill heaven and earth" + HOSEA 11:9 "I am God, and not man" + MALACHI 4:39 "I do not change" + NEHEMIAH 9:6 "made Heaven, Heaven of Heavens and all + their host" + PROVERBS 15:3 "His eyes in every place" + ACTS 17:27 "He is not far from each of us" + JOHN 4:24 "God is Spirit" + LUKE 24:39 "A Spirit has not flesh and bones" + HEBREWS 4:13 "All things opened unto His eyes" + I JOHN 4:12 "No man has seen God at any time" + I TIMOTHY 6:15 "No man has seen, nor can see ..." + JOHN 1:18 "No man has seen God at any time" + EXODUS 33:20 "There shall be no man see me and live" + + It is clear that the BIBLE refutes the Mormon church's +claims and the claims of its prophets and leaders in a most +specific manner. + Brigham Young, second Prophet and President of the Mormon +Church taught that ADAM was "our Father and our God...": "When +our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it +with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with +him ... He is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom +we have to do ... When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, +the Father had begotten Him in His own likeness. He was not +begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the +first of the human family ...." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 1, +page 50, April 9,1852 + "I have learned by experience that there is but one God that +pertains to this people, and He is the God that pertains to this +earth - the first man. That first man sent His own Son to redeem +the world ..." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 4, pg 1, June 29, 1856 +Prophet & President Heber C. Kimball + "How much unbelief exist in the minds of the Latter-Day +Saints in regard to a particular doctrine which I revealed to +them, and which God revealed to me -- namely, that Adam is our +Father and our God ... Our Father, Adam helped to make this +earth, it was created expressly for him ... He brought one of his +wives with him, and she was called Eve ... Our Father Adam is the +man who stands at the gate and holds the keys of everlasting life +and salvation to all his children.." DESERET NEWS, June 18,1873: +Discourse by Prophet and President Brigham Young + + Today, the Mormon Church adamantly denies the "ADAM-GOD" +doctrine taught, and as seen above, and affirmed by "Prophet" +Brigham Young. There is overwhelming evidence that he did teach, +believed and strongly defended this belief. By any, reasonable, +interpretation of the BIBLE, Brigham Young must be classified as +a FALSE PROPHET (see Deuteronomy 13:1 to 10 and 18:20 to 22 - +also Jeremiah 23:16 to 17) ADAM is not OUR god and NEVER will be! + The BIBLE states: "... then the Lord God formed man of dust +from the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of +life; and man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7) + GOD is ONE and ETERNALLY the same. Creator of the Heavens +and the Earth ... All powerful, all knowing, all present. Despite +the fact that HE is INFINITE, he knows every hair on our heads +and has a plan for each of our lives (John 3:16 & 10:10). It is +far better to have a small faith in THE TRUE GOD of the universe +than to have a great faith in a small, counterfeit god. + One should keep in mind that faith in a "counterfeit" god is +really no more than a misplaced faith in the false prophet and +the teaching of a false Prophet. Remember - a counterfeit - to be +called a counterfeit - must "resemble" the GENUINE item. If there +are many "counterfeit" gods, then there must be a REAL GOD, and +HE is found in the scriptures and in everything that surrounds +us. + +Computers for Christ + + + + + THE REAL HOLY SPIRIT + + In Mormonism the "Holy Ghost" is a personage, or a god, but +the "Holy Spirit" is an impersonal force. The Mormons refer to +verses that the Holy Spirit is symbolized by oil, fire and water +and show that these are "impersonal". The Bible refers to the +Father and the Son as "bread of life", "living water" and other +"impersonal" terms. Again, we must look at the context. + In John 16:7, our Lord is placing His emphasis on His going +away and the Holy Spirit's being sent by the Father to replace +our Lord himself. This change (or replacement), Jesus says, would +be beneficial for His disciples. AN IMPERSONAL FORCE COULD HARDLY +IMPROVE ON THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF OUR LORD, JESUS CHRIST! + The word in Hebrew and the word in Greek for SPIRIT and +GHOST both mean the same, "breath or wind" and the "translators" +of the King James Bible noted that the Greek word denoted a +neuter gender and mistranslated to be an "IT", but they did +utilize the word Ghost and Spirit and interchanged them on many +occassions. + The words as translated are from only ONE word in Hebrew and +ONE word in Greek - therefore there are NOT two words for SPIRIT +and GHOST - only ONE. Now, let's look at this ONE entity called +the HOLY SPIRIT. In John 16:13 and 14 we see our Lord, Jesus +telling us this about the Holy Spirit, "HE shall not speak of +HIMSELF ... HE shall glorify me ... HE shall receive of mine +....". NOTE that our LORD gives PERSONALITY to the Spirit. +Otherwise our Lord would have used the term that Mormons use +"IT". + Jesus repeatedly (John 16:7-15) uses the MASCULINE PERSONAL +pronoun "He" when referring to the Spirit. Jesus used the term +clearly to tell us that the Spirit had personality and intimacy. + Ananias was struck dead for lying to the HOLY SPIRIT (Acts +5:3). You cannot lie to an impersonal force! It would be like +walking up to a window box fan, turning it on and facing its +"force" and then telling lie after lie to it - IT WOULD NOT CARE +THE SLIGHTEST, WOULD IT? Now, you look at Ananias and, if you are +not a complete idiot, you would not repeat his behavior, now +would you? The Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost are not two +different items mentioned in the Bible. There is only one entity +referred to as both HOLY GHOST and HOLY SPIRIT. + The Holy Spirit is a person. The Spirit may be "grieved" +(Ephesians 4:30) and "sinned against" by UNFORGIVABLE blasphemy +(Mark 3:29). None of these things are possible for an "impersonal +force". + +The Holy Ghost does things which only a person COULD do. + +He SPEAKS: + + "The Spirit said unto Philip, 'Go near'" (Acts 8:29) + +He STRIVES: + + "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever" (Genesis 6:3) +- "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity ... [and] MAKETH +INTERCESSION for us." (Romans 8:26) + +He REVEALS, SEARCHES, and KNOWS: + + "But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the +Spirit searcheth all things ... the things of God knoweth no man +but the Spirit of God" (I Corinthians 2:10,11). + + Other verses can be shown in which the Spirit IDENTIFIES +with believers (Acts 15:28), The Spirit is ETERNAL (Hebrews +9:14), OMNIPRESENT (Psalm 139:7-10), DOES GOD'S WORK (Genesis +1:2), INVOLVED IN REGENERATION (John 3:8), participates in the +RESURRECTION (Romans 8:11). + Paul identifies the Spirit as the speaker to Isaiah. Acts +28:25-26 and Isaiah 6:8,9. An impersonal force does not counsel, +speak, feel, or anything resembling personality. The HOLY SPIRIT +is a person - one of the THREE ENTITIES of the ONE TRUE GOD. + +Computers For Christ + + + + MORMONISM'S "SALVATION BY WORKS" + vs. + SALVATION BY GRACE THROUGH CHRIST + + The entire BIBLE points in all directions to the cross. Upon +it God's only begotten Son died that we might have eternal life +from God. Only through Christ can this separation be bridged. + On the other hand, MORMONISM points in all directions to the +"Law of Eternal Progression". We have seen that Mormon doctrine +states that God was once a man. He progressed to become God. The +same law states that man may become God! + Let's go to the authorities of the church and hear what they +have said, first on the subject of man's pre-existence as a +spirit in a "spirit world" prior to taking a body here on earth: + + DID WE PRE-EXIST? + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE (Apostle); MORMON DOCTRINE, page 589 + + "Pre-existence is the term commonly used to describe the +pre-mortal existence of the spirit children of God the Father ... +All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father +and Mother, and we are literally the sons and daughters of Deity; +as spirits they were the offspring of celestial parentage ... +Unless God the father was a personal Being, He could not have +begotten spirits in His image, and if there had been no self- +existent spirit element, there would have been no substance from +which those spirit bodies could have been organized." + + The basis of the Mormon law of progression in Mormonism is +that "intelligences" are eternal. On the other hand, God is not! +He started as a spirit child in another 'spirit world' long ago; +entered a body on another earth as a man; apparently was able to +follow the law of progression perfectly; after death He became +God in the 'celestial kingdom' of that other earth; brought (or +was given) many wives; through sexual union in our spirit world +had billions of spirit children : The first was Jesus, the second +Lucifer, the third and on and on were to enter the earth as you +and me. + No organic difference in the parentage between us and Jesus +and Lucifer! We all have the same literal "Heavenly Father". Note +how those in Mormonism generally refer to Him as "Heavenly +Father" -- they mean just that - LITERALLY!! Just remember that +they could say also; "Heavenly GRANDFATHER", "Heavenly Great- +Grandfather", and so on ...! + +MILTON R. HUNTER (1st Council of 70); GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES; +pages 127-129 (1958) + + "In the first stage, man was an eternally existent being +termed an intelligence ... The next realm where man dwelt was the +spirit world." + + According to Mormon concept eternally existing intelligences +were clothed with spirit bodies in the mansion of their eternal +Father... "numerous sons and daughters were begotten and born of +heavenly parents into that eternal family in the spirit world ... +There ... they were reared to maturity, becoming grown spirit men +and women prior to coming upon this earth ... Following his stay +in the spirit world, man comes to earth in a probationary state +... receives a physical body and undergoes the experiences of +mortality .. Eventually; however, mortal death comes upon all. +The eternal spirit goes to the spirit world to wait resurrection +and judgement ... there they shall be assigned to the glory that +they have merited ... Some will receive celestial glory; others +terrestrial, while those who are recorded in the 'Lamb's Book of +Life' will enter celestial glory. There some of them will become +angels and others priests and kings, or, in other words, Gods." + On page 12, Hunter states a basic "truth" of Mormonism, that +God is subordinate to the law of eternal progression.: "Our +Eternal Father has attained His position of exaltation and +Godhood by obedience to the great law of progression." + +JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH; DOCTRINES OF SALVATION; Vol 1, pg 12 + + "The intelligent part of man was never created but always +existed. That is true of each of us as well as it is of God, yet +we are born sons and daughters of God in the spirit and are +destined to exist forever. Those who become like God will also be +from eternity to eternity." + The BIBLE states explicitly that there are no intelligences +co-eternal or co-existent with God. Anything that exists, other +than God, is a "thing". COLOSSIANS 1:16-17 and JOHN 1:1-3 state +that ONLY Jesus is co-eternal with God as the "WORD WAS GOD" +(John 1:1). He is before all "things" and created all "things". +His creation did not pre-exist Him! God knows the beginning and +end of all things before they exist. There are several scriptures +stating HE "knew" us before we were born. They do not imply we +existed before we were born. + "The burden of the word of the Lord of Israel, saith the +Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the +foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within +him." (ZECHARIAH 12:1) + + SALVATION BY GRACE VERSUS WORKS + + The BIBLE states over and over that we do not merit +salvation (eternal life in God's presence) by our own goodness +and system of good works from or for any organization. You need +only to study the Old Testament and see the hopelessness of a +system whereby man was to live within God's laws with the system +of prophets - temples - priests and ordinances. The purpose of +Jesus coming to earth to die for us was to make provision for our +own inability to bridge this separation of man from God and +brought a new covenant. If you choose Mormonism as your plan of +salvation, you have regressed to the old covenant of the prophet, +temple and ordinance which produce only "dead works" in an +attempt to obtain righteousness on your own. If you trust the LDS +church and its prophets; here is what is said: + +MILTON R. HUNTER; THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES; pg 115 JOSEPH F. +SMITH; TEACHINGS OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH; pg 348 + + "Thus all men who ascend to the glorious status of Godhood +can do so only by one method - by obedience to all the principals +and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (another way of +saying "Mormonism")... Men are saved no faster than they gain +knowledge. The Prophet Joseph described the process of going +toward Godhood as follows: When you climb a ladder, you must +begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at +the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel - you +must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all of the +principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you +have passed through the veil before you will have learned them." + +JAMES E. TALMAGE; ARTICLES OF FAITH; pg 480 + + "The sectarian dogma of justification by faith alone has +exercised an influence for evil." + +II NEPHI 25:23 (BOOK OF MORMON) + + "For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after +all we can do." + + WHAT THE MORMONS THINK OF CHRIST + +LDS CHURCH TRACT; pg 32,46,47 + + "Christians speak often of the blood of Christ and its +cleansing power. Much that is believed and taught on this +subject, however, is utter nonsense and so palpably false that to +believe it is to lose one's salvation. Many go so far, for +instance, as to pretend, at least, to believe that if we confess +Christ with our lips and avow that we accept Him as our personal +Savior, we are thereby saved ... And no man can pick the fruit of +eternal life off the branches, as these are tied to the vine, +without accepting both Christ and His prophets ... If it had not +been for Joseph Smith, the Prophet, the perfect knowledge of +Christ would not be had in the world in this day. If it had not +been for him and his mission there would be no legal +administrators now on earth to administer in the ordinances of +salvation." + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE; MORMON DOCTRINE; pgs 84 & 745 + + "The second birth begins when men are legally baptized in +water by a legal administrator ... Those who receive the Gospel +(Mormon Doctrine) and join the church of Jesus Christ of Latter +day Saints have power given them to become sons of God." + (Compare to John 1:12 -- "But as many as received Him, to +them gave He power to become sons of God..") + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE; MORMON DOCTRINE; pg 149 + + "Those things which men are directed to do to attain peace +in this life and gain eternal life in the world to come are +collectively called the commandments." + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE; MORMON DOCTRINE; preface to 1966 Edition; pg +118 + + "Man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge -- (See I +Corinthians 1:17,20-23,2:1-5) -- To gain salvation after baptism +it is necessary to keep the commandments of God and endure to the +end ... The most important things that any member of the church +of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints ever does in this world are: +1. To marry the right person, in the right place, by the right +authority (Mormon Temple marriage); and 2. to keep the covenant +made in connection with this holy and perfect order of matrimony +- thus assuring the obedient persons of an inheritance of +exaltation in the celestial kingdom." + +CHURCH NEWS-EDITORIAL; November 8,1975; page 16 + + "There is only one way to become sanctified and perfected, +and thus prepared to live with God. That is by obedience to His +laws. There is no other way ... When will we learn to obey him +with all our heart, mind and strength? + (Compare with Luke 10:27 - "Thou shalt love the Love the +Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with +all thy strength, and with all thy mind....") + +MILTON R. HUNTER, GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES; pgs 118-120 + + "If men and women obey all the other laws of the gospel +except that of celestial marriage (Mormon Temple Marriage), they +are appointed angels ...." + +BENNET; WHY I AM A MORMON; pg 170 + + "Once we have been resurrected, it will be our own efforts, +and not Christ's sacrifice, that will be the deciding factor ... +A man can be saved only so fast as he gains knowledge of the laws +of God." Prophets ... temples ... Obedience to the Law ... +Aaronic Priest .. Legalisms ... Dependent on our own efforts and +good works ... + + Sound familiar? Old Testament in a new wrapping? Wrapped in +Christian terminology? Mormonism calls the unsuspecting back +under what amounts to the old covenant. If righteousness could be +obtained, earned or gained by our own efforts to be perfect under +the law, there would have been no need for a "NEW" covenant. If +all Christ's death meant was to conquer death - to pay for Adam's +sin as Mormonism teaches - why are the following among the great +number of God's words declaring the TRUTH of the NEW COVENANT of +salvation through Christ, by faith, not works of the law. Look up +these scriptures and review their full context: + + THE LAW AND WORKS DO NOT SAVE + +JOHN 6:28,29,39,40 ... What must we do to be doing the works of +God? This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He +sent. + +ROMANS 3:21,22 ... No one is justified by the works of the law. +Now righteousness of God is manifested apart from the Law. + +ROMANS 4:13-16 ... If it is adherents of the Law that are to be +heirs, then faith is NULL and the promise void. + +ROMANS 7:4-6 ... Died to the Law through the body of Christ. +Discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so +that we serve not under the old written code but in new life of +the Spirit. + +ROMANS 8:1-4 ... God has done what the law could not do! + +ROMANS 9:30-32 ... Israel who pursued righteousness based on the +law did not succeed. WHY? They did not pursue it through faith, +but as if it were based on works. + +ROMANS 10:1-4 ... A zeal for God - but not enlightened. Seeking +to establish their own righteousness. Christ is the end of the +law. Romans 14:1-23 and Colossians 3:8-23 are clear refutations +of the point made by Joseph Smith in "Words of Wisdom" to not +drink and eat certain things is nothing more than MAN'S +regulation and NOT from God. Read and see what God said through +the Apostle Paul! + +GALATIANS 2:16 ... Man is not justified by works of the law but +is through faith! + +GALATIANS 2:19-21 ... Died to the law, that I might live to God. +I do not nullify the Grace of God; for if righteousness were +through the law, then Christ is dead in vain. + +GALATIANS 3:10 ... As many as are under the works of the law are +under the curse! + +GALATIANS 3:23-28 ... Before faith came, we were under the law - +our schoolmaster (Custodian) until Christ came. Now that faith is +come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. + +GALATIANS 5:18 ... If led by the Spirit, you are not under the +law. + +II TIMOTHY 1:8-10 ... Who saved us, not according to our works, +but according to His own purpose and grace. + +TITUS 3:3-9 ... He saved us, not by works of righteousness which +we have done, but according to His mercy. Being justified by +grace. + + HOW IS MAN (or WE ) SAVED ? + + If salvation is not by works of our own under the law and +ordinances, HOW IS MAN SAVED? Just a few of the scriptures God +has given us are: + +JOHN 3:1-18 ... YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN! In context Jesus, +Himself, explains that, not only do we have a natural birth +(Flesh) but a spiritual birth! "Whosoever believeth in Him shall +not perish but have everlasting life (ETERNAL)! + +ROMANS 5:1-11 ... Christ died for us, sinners, who are now +justified by His blood. We are reconciled through Him. + +ROMANS 5:15-17 ... The free gift of righteousness by the grace of +God. + +ROMANS 10:9-17 ... Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and +believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be +saved. + +GALATIANS 2:16-21 ... We are justified by faith. Our old nature +is crucified with Christ; Christ now lives in us; we live by +faith --- not the law! + +EPHESIANS 2:8-10 ... "For by grace are ye saved through faith; +and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, +lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in +Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that +we should walk in them." + + Works have nothing to do with our justifying eternal life. +The Mormon will be quick to point out James 2:17 - "Even so +faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." AMEN! That is +not denying salvation by faith. What it is saying is this: "You +say you are saved? Saving faith will naturally flow into a life +that will show evidence of it. Your 'works' will testify of your +faith. If none, there is reason to question whether there really +was a saving faith to start with." To quote Ed Decker in his +tract "To Moroni with Love"; You do not bark to become a dog nor +"baa" to become a sheep. You bark because you are a dog or "baa" +because you are a sheep! Christians, when born-again and indwelt +by the Holy Spirit, have a never ending desire to follow the Lord +Jesus in their daily life behavior. "Works" is not an appropriate +name as it suggests payment after the work has been done. Christ +made the payment IN FULL for our sins by His blood for us; if +only we REPENT of our sins and ACCEPT Him by faith. It is +available only through God's grace for an eternal life. + +I JOHN 1:7 ... Blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin. + +HEBREW 9:23-28,10:10-18 ... Jesus was the sacrifice, once, to +perfect forever those who are sanctified. + +ROMANS 5:6-11 ... We are reconciled by His blood. + +ISAIAH 53:6-11 & I CORINTHIANS 5:17-21 ... Our iniquity was laid +on Jesus; to die for us; that we might be made the righteousness +of God in Him. + +I PETER 2:24 ... "Who his own self bare our sins in His own body +on the tree, that we, being dead to sins should live unto +righteousness: By whose stripes ye are healed." + + You will never (Well, We won't say never because God may +have His plan for their salvation that We are not aware of at +this moment) see a cross on a Mormon structure. They will say +call it a "graven image"; yet "Moroni" stands on top of their +temples. Moroni didn't die for them. Joseph Smith, Jr. didn't die +for them. The church didn't die for them. JESUS DIED FOR THEM, if +they would only cling to His cross and reach out to claim His +blood for their sins. They're told they can earn their own +righteousness based on the law of the church which is based on +"prophets, seers and revelators" proven -TIME AND AGAIN- to be +false. Wouldn't you rather lay your eternal life in the hands of +the ETERNAL GOD; the SON who, personally, died for you - than, +say, a "prophet" in Salt Lake City? + Our prayer is that this comparison of the Bible vs: the LDS +Mormon church will show you the LIGHT of CHRIST. + +Computers For Christ + + DO THE NAG HAMMADI WRITING AND DEAD SEA SCROLLS + CONFIRM MORMONISM + or + IS EINAR ERICKSON CONFUSED ? + + In recent years, Mormon lecturer, Einar C. Erickson, has +given numerous talks to Mormon church groups concerning the Dead +Sea Scrolls, Nag Hammadi writings, Mandean Ginza and related +Middle East finds. These lectures have been taped and widely +distributed for use in converting the uninformed to Mormonism. Mr +Erickson states that the writings discovered in the vicinity of +Nag Hammadi, Egypt, are one of the greatest confirmations of the +"truthfulness" of the Mormon church that anyone would find +anywhere. + On one of his tapes, Mr. Erickson boldly declares that: +"These documents and others leave without doubt evidence positive +even on the best rules of evidence that an attorney might be able +to assemble, that this gospel [i.e. the Mormon gospel] is true. +You get no credit for faith anymore." Mr. Erickson attempts to +convince his listeners that the writers of the Nag Hammadi were +the true Christians, (based upon his allegation of their +similarity to Mormonism) and that all others had slipped off into +apostasy. + However; the Nag Hammadi writings are of "Gnostic" origin +which were written during the first to fourth century A.D. The +Gnostic heretics did cherish both the Old and New testament +Scripture, but re-interpreted them in terms of a mythological +Gnostic Redeemer. Gnosticism gave rise to the writings of a +number of totally spurious apocalyptic books, false gospels and +epistles that incorporated their own mysticism. + Gnosticism was a movement that vigorously contended with +Orthodox Christianity for supremacy. Writings by the early Church +Fathers show how widespread and influential Gnosticism was; and +it was combatted as a lethal threat to the proclamation of the +Gospel. The bishops pointed out the great gulf between Biblical +Christianity and Gnosticism, even though the Gnostics made use of +Biblical text. It is obvious that Paul, the Apostle, knew of the +false ideas of Gnosticism, and spoke out against such doctrines +several times in the Scriptures. + The Gnostics believed in the supreme being as an +undescribable God. He is invisible, incomprehensible, and dwells +unbegotten in eternal peace. Some names used to describe God and +to stress His transcendence were "Father of All", "The +Unapproachable God", "The Unknowable". Such a God could not +possibly have direct contact with the material world; therefore, +He does so through intermediates, each one answerable to the +other. Each intermediate in descending order is less divine and +more earthy as the chain nears the material world. + Mr. Erickson spellbinds his listeners when he tells them +that the Nag Hammadi writings confirm the Mormon doctrine of the +Heavenly Mother! What he fails to tell them is that this Mother +God of the Nag Hammadi is the "Holy Spirit." Certainly this is in +direct conflict with the Mormon concept of a Mother God, because +in Mormon doctrine, the Holy Spirit is a male. The supreme being +has a female counterpart which emanates from Him. She is known as +"Mother of All" or "The Holy Spirit." + Other emanations that come forth from the Supreme Being in +pairs are called AEONS; the lowest Aeon being "Sophia Akhamoth", +she was so full of passion to understand or know God that she +fell and was placed outside the Pleroma, God's heavenly dwelling. +Because of her desire, she becomes fertile with a formless +monster. This monster (Yaldabaoth, Samael or SATAN) is the +Demiurge or inferior god who created this material world and +brought forth man upon it. + According to the Gnostic, all matter is evil; therefore, +only an inferior being could have created it. Satan is the +creator-god of this earth and of man, and is an evil god. To the +Gnostics, Satan is Jehovah of the Old Testament! After Jehovah +(Satan) creates man and breathes life into him, he creates Eve. +The demonic forces see the beauty of Eve, and proceed to rape +her. Through this act, she conceives Cain and Abel. + Mr. Erickson often refers to the Hypostasis of the Archons +of the Nag Hammadi and being direct parallel to the Garden of +Eden scene of the Mormon Temple Ceremony. However, he fails to +inform his listeners that the Hypostasis of the Archeons tells of +the demons raping Eve! Nor does he point out that the serpent in +the garden is really the Holy Spirit coming to give Adam and Eve +the "true knowledge." He neglects to mention to his listeners +that the "god" who comes into the garden to ask Adam and Eve what +they have done is not the "Heavenly Father" but is Satan the +arrogant Archon, the evil god. In this instance, Mr. Erickson is, +at best, mistaken about the facts -- a fault which reappears +throughout his lectures and tapes. + The authors of the Nag Hammadi writings taught a form of re- +incarnation, and that marriage was evil, because it is of the +earth. They believed the begetting of children was from Satan, +since it merely increases the number subjected to the evil +angels. Resurrection of the flesh is denied by these Gnostics, +since earthly flesh is in itself evil, and can have no part in +the spiritual scheme of God. All of these concepts are not +confirmations of Mormon doctrine, but are direct contradictions +of it! + Mr. Erickson, looking elsewhere in the Middle East for +"proof," tells his audiences that the writings of the Mandaeans +of Iraq and Iran are (also) a confirmation of Mormonism. His +"evidence" for this is that they speak of baptism for the dead, +baptism by immersion, priesthood and baptize in the name of the +Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. What he fails to mention to +them is: according to the Mandaeans, Jesus was a rebel and a +heretic who led men astray by betraying secret doctrine and +making religion easier. The Mandaean sacred book tells of how +Jesus perverted the Scriptures, and that Jesus told the Jews that +He was the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Furthermore, the +Mandaean book accuses Jesus perverting baptism by baptizing in +the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. + The Mandaeans were baptized many times throughout their +lives. They baptized infants; and if an infant died before or +during this baptism, a clay or dough image was made which they +then baptized in proxy for that infant. Proxy baptism was also +done for an adult who died before getting his last minute +washings before death. In this case, an individual that looked +like the deceased was baptized in proxy for the dead person. + The Mandaeans also had a ceremony of "eating for the dead" +to give the deceased nourishment for his travels to the heavenly +spheres. The Mormon people do not baptize infants, do not eat for +the dead, nor do they have last minute washing rituals before +death as the Mandaeans did. The Mormon proxy baptisms have less +in common with the Mandaean baptisms than they do with Catholic +infant baptisms, last rites ritual, and prayers for the dead. +Clearly, the Mandaean concepts of Jesus and baptism are in no way +similar to Mormon doctrine. + Those holding the Mandaean priesthood had to have a clean +family history for a number of generations, and meet strict +physical and mental qualifications. They had to be without the +slightest physical blemish, and be of pure Mandaean blood. A man +who was circumcised, impotent, or a eunuch could not be a priest +for the body must be sound, pure, and perfect. If a man was +already a priest and he received an injury which destroyed his +manhood or robbed him of a limb, he could no longer officiate as +a priest. There are no such restrictions within the Mormon +priesthoods. The only things in common with the Mormon +priesthoods and baptism and that of the Mandaean are the very +words themselves! + Mr. Erickson makes false claims about the Dead Sea Scrolls +community, as well. He states that those at Qumran baptized at +the age of eight, just as the Mormons do. This is just simply NOT +the case. They trained young men for their celibate monastic +order for about ten years before they were baptized into their +ranks. This baptism never took place before the age of twenty. +Mr. Erickson states that the people of Qumran were essentially +the first "Mormons." However, the people at Qumran didn't even +believe in marriage! Rather they adopted in young men from other +Essene groups who married only to beget children. By contrast, in +Mormonism, marriage is absolutely essential to each member's +salvation in the Celestial Kingdom of God. + Mr. Erickson claims that the Apocryphal books should be used +as scripture. However, even the Mormon's own "latter day" +revelation disagrees with him. In the introductory heading of +Section 91 of the Doctrine and Covenants, it declares +specifically that the apocryphal books are NOT to be accepted as +scripture. Beyond that built-in contradiction, lies the fact that +one need only to read some of these apocrypha for himself to +quickly discover their singular lack of inspiration. + For example, two "Gospels" portray the life of the young +Jesus, allegedly covering the "silent" years skipped over in the +Bible. The book, "The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus" +portrays Jesus as a spoiled despot who curses another child for +bumping into him, and a schoolmaster who was going to discipline +Him for refusing to answer a question. After these two people are +killed at Jesus' command, Joseph tells Mary, "we will not allow +him to go out of the house; for every one who displeases him is +killed." In Thomas' "Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ", we +see Jesus causing the withering of hands, blindness, and again, +death. This is clearly not the Jesus Christ of the Bible! + The conclusion is inescapable -- the claims by Mr. Erickson +(and consequently other Mormons) that the Mormon doctrine is +"exonerated" by the findings in the Middle East is totally +without foundation. Mormon doctrine is not confirmed by these +different religious sects, it is contradicted by them! It is +apparent that these claims are just another chapter in the long +history of false archeological boasts made by Mormons in the +past. + +NOTE: A full and completely documented study of Mr. Erickson's +scholarship regarding the above topics has been written by Mrs. +Melaine Layton entitled: The Truth About the Dead Sea Scrolls and +the Nag Hammadi Writings in Reference to Mormonism. For further +information, please write to the office of Computers For Christ - +San Jose. + Do Mormons "Really" Believe in the Bible? + + Isaiah 41:21 - Set Forth your case + I Peter 3:15 - Be prepared, always + + The credibility of a religious claim rests upon its ability +to verify its terms. In the year of 1800, the French Institute in +Paris issued a list of 82 "errors' that it had found in the Bible +and felt would destroy Christianity in short order. In 1804, not +one of the alleged errors remained! + In the year 1901, the American Society of Archeology claimed +that the Biblical account of a peoples called the Hittites was +false. In 1933, archeologists found conclusive proof of the +existence of the Hittites and other peoples that the Bible had +claimed existed! + The primary question for this text is: "Why are we +discussing the matter of the Bible and its completeness? Doesn't +the Mormon church accept the Bible as the Word of God?" To +respond, let me quote from the sources of the Mormon church: + + 8th Article of Faith - "We believe the Bible to be the word +of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the +Book of Mormon to be the Word of God." + Joseph Smith, in Teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page +327, stated "Ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or +designing and corrupt priests committed many errors.' and the +mormon apostle Mark E. Peterson states in his book, As Translated +Correctly - page 4, "Many insertions were made, some of them +"slanted' for selfish purposes, while at times deliberate +falsifications and fabrications were perpetrated.' + Orson Pratt further made a comment in his book, Divine +Authenticity of the Book of Mormon - pages 45 & 47, thus: "If it +be admitted that the apostles and evangelists did write the books +of the New Testament, that does not prove of itself that they +were divinely inspired at the time they wrote ... Add all this +imperfection to the uncertainty of the translation, and who, IN +HIS RIGHT MIND could for one moment suppose the Bible in its +present form to be a perfect guide? Who knows that even one verse +of the Bible has escaped pollution, so as to convey the same +sense now that it did in the original?" + The Book of Mormon, II Nephi 29:6 states "Thou fool, that +shall say a Bible, we have got a Bible and we need no more Bible. +Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews?" Can you note +the FOOLS are the only ones who trust in the Bible? Read verse +10. Here, the Book of Mormon declares the need for more +revelation and makes way for its own existence! + A point of interest - turn to I Nephi 13:26: "a great and +abominable church - has taken away from the gospel of the Lamb +many parts which are plain and precious; and also many covenants +of the Lord have they taken away." The Book of Mormon tells us +that this is 600 B.C.! Do you know what B.C. means - BEFORE +CHRIST! So we are told that the gospel of the Lamb has been +polluted six hundred years before the Lamb or His Gospel was +recorded in the New Testament and given at the Passover! + + IS THE BIBLE INFALLIBLE? + + The Bible was composed over a period of 1,500 years by more +than 40 different authors from the full range of humanity: from +military generals (Joshua) to prime ministers (Daniel) to +cupbearers (Nehemiah) to fishermen (Peter) to tax collectors +(Matthew) to kings (David). The books were written in many +different places: the wilderness (Moses), prison (Paul), and +exile (John on the Island Patmos). On three different continents +(Africa, Asia and Europe) and in three different languages +(Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek). + The content, yet, remains constant in its unfolding of the +plan of salvation through Christ Jesus. The Old Testament reveals +itself to be the story of the preparation for the arrival of the +Messiah or Christ. The Gospels of the New Testament are the +manifestation of the Christ in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. +Acts is the propagation of the message. The Epistles give the +explanation and the Revelation of John provides the consummation +of the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus or Lord! The entire Bible +is about Jesus (Luke 24:27 - 44 and John 5:39,46,47). I challenge +any Mormon to take any ten people, and you can even get them from +the same heritage - education - language and culture and ask them +separately to give you their opinion of the meaning of life - you +will get opinions of such variety, yet the Bible consists of over +40 authors of more than one generation with very little +similarity and is in total unity! Complete harmony! + + In discussion of the matter of infallibility of the Bible we +need, first to look at the process that we use to arrive at this +conclusion: + PREMISE # 1 - The Bible is basically a reliable and trustworthy +document. + +PREMISE # 2 - On the basis of this reliable document, we have +sufficient evidence to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of +God. + +PREMISE # 3 - Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, is an +infallible authority. (Luke 24:27,44; John 5:39; Hebrews 10:7) + +PREMISE # 4 - Jesus Christ teaches that the Bible is MORE than +generally trustworthy. He teaches that it is the very Word of +God. + +PREMISE # 5 - The WORD, in that it comes from God, is utterly +trustworthy because GOD is utterly trustworthy! + +PREMISE # 6 - On the basis of the infallible authority of Jesus +Christ, the Bible is infallible. + + II Timothy 2:13 declares that God "cannot deny Himself" and +Galatians 1:8,9 tells us that we should be wary of any teaching +of any other Gospel than that which Paul preached, which by the +declaration of Paul in Romans 15:19 states that "I have fully +preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ." + The Mormon church is unable to provide any proof that Paul +taught such doctrines as celestial marriage, no hell, wearing of +sacred underwear, or godhood to be obtained. It is proper to +state that if Paul never taught such doctrines, then Galatians +1:8-9 CONDEMNS them! The claim of the LDS that more scripture is +necessary is groundless. + In II Peter 1:3, we are told that "His divine power hath +given unto us ALL things that pertain to life and godliness." +Paul further explained in Colossians 2:10 that "Ye are COMPLETE +in Him." If just these two statements are true, what possible use +could additional scripture be? Granted that nowhere in the Bible +does it state that "This is the end of Scripture"; However, with +the above statements, anything else could ONLY be redundant. It +is obvious from the text of the New Testament that the writers +were "eyewitnesses" of the ministry and presence of Jesus Christ. +(II Peter 1:15-18 and I John 1:1-5) + Acts 22:14-15 and I Corinthians 11:23 show that the Apostle +Paul was specially chosen by the Lord as a witness while the +other Apostles were alive. Paul's testimony was identical to that +of the other Apostles - what He had seen, heard and taught of the +Lord Jesus was identical to all previous teachings and in accord +with the Old Testament teachings. Much more could have been +written (John 20:30 and 21:25); However, there was no need as +there already existed "all things that pertain to life and +godliness." (II Peter 1:3 and John 20:31) + How many of us, Mormon or Christian have read and digested +all of the meat of the Holy Bible - completely? Can there really +be a need for something more when the original item is still +unplumbed for the depths it contains? + We have the following possibilities: the Bible was written +by either (1) Good Men or Angels, (2) Evil Men or Demons, (3) +God. + Good Men or Angels could not have written it as they could +not write "Thus saith the Lord" when it was a lie or an invention +of their own minds. + Evil men or demons could not have written the Bible as they +would not have written a book that commands all duty, forbids all +sin, and condemns all evil to Hell! + We thus have GOD as the only source of the BIble. + + In the ancient Israel, a class of servants in the Temple +were called Scribes. This was a lifelong calling and one of great +importance to the continuance of the Law and Prophets of Israel. +I will demonstrate the LEGAL method of making a copy of a +document according to the laws of Israel at this time and +according to the great traditions of the Talmud. The possibility +for incorrect copy is almost non-existent. Combine this with the +facts as proven by archeology. Prior to the Dead Sea Scroll copy +of the Book of Isaiah, the best copy of that Book was over 1000 +years newer! In comparing the two copies that covered this gap of +a thousand years, there was found only ONE CHARACTER changed, and +that was an article that "possibly" could have lost the accent +mark of the character to make it 100% identical to the dead sea +scroll version! Imagine - 1000 years of copies and NO CHANGE in +the versions! Now the basis to make copies of the New Testament +were as strict. We find many incidences of the same phenomena of +clarity and correctness. Out of all the many thousands of pieces +and text, not ONE DOCTRINE has been added to or changed or +modified in ANY MANNER! + + JOSEPH SMITH'S FIRST VISION + Fact or Fable ? + By W. P. Walters + + "Sometime in the second year after our removal to +Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual +excitement on the subject of religion. It commenced with the +Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in the +region of country ... my mind became somewhat partial to the +Methodists ... but so great was the confusion and strife among +the different denominations, that it was impossible ... to come +to any certain conclusion who was right, and who was wrong ... in +accordance with this, by determination, to ask God, I retired to +the woods to make an attempt. It was on the morning of a +beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and +twenty ... I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my +heart to God. ... I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head +... When the light rested upon me I saw two personages, (whose +brightness and glory defy all description) standing above me in +the air ... I asked the personages who stood above me in the +light, which of all the sects was right, (for at this time it had +never entered into my heart that all were wrong) and which I +should join. I was answered that I must join none of them, for +they were all wrong ..." Joseph Smith, Jr. + + The well publicized story above, of Joseph Smith's First +Vision is not a true account of the origin of the Latter Day +Saint movement. The facts are decidedly against it! + First, the historical evidence shows that Joseph Smith, Jr. +could not have been stirred by an 1820 revival, to ask which +church was true. + Second, early Mormon statements do not support his claim +that in 1820 he learned through a visitation of the Father and +the Son that all existing churches were wrong. + Third, the details known about Joseph's early life +contradict his assertion that in 1820 he had such a divine +visitation and was persecuted by the community for telling such a +story. + +NO 1820 REVIVAL ..... + + First his neighborhood in 1820 experienced no revival such +as he described, in which "great multitudes" joined the +Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches. The Presbyterian +records for the Palmyra Presbyterian Church show that it +experienced no revival in 1820. The local Baptist Church gained +only six on profession of faith the entire year, while the +Methodists actually lost members that year as well as the +preceeding and following years. (Minutes of the Annual +Conference) + Joseph Smith claimed that his mother, sister and two +brothers were led to join the local Presbyterian Church as a +result of that 1820 revival. However, four years before he made +this claim, his own church paper had stated that the revival in +which his family had been led to join the Presbyterian Church +took place in 1823. (Messenger & Advocate I, pp. 42, 78) In fact, +that account says it was the same 1823 revival that led him to go +to his bedroom (not to a sacred grove) and pray "if a Supreme +being did exist" and to know that "he was accepted of him." An +angel (not a deity) is then reported to have appeared and told +him of his forgiveness and of the gold plates. + Joseph's mother, likewise, knew nothing of an 1820 vision. +In her unpublished account she traces the origin of Mormonism to +a BEDROOM VISIT by an angel. Joseph at the time had been +"pondering which of the churches were the true one." The angel +told him "there is not a true church on Earth, No not one." +(First draft of "Lucy Smith's History," LDS Church Archives) + Furthermore, she tells us that the revival which led to her +joining the church took place following the death of her son, +Alvin. Alvin died November 19, 1823, and following that painful +loss she reports that: "..about this time there was a great +revival in religion and the whole neighborhood was very much +aroused to the subject and we among the rest, flocked to the +meeting house to see if there was a word of comfort for us that +might relieve our over-charged feelings." (P. 86) + She adds that although her husband would only attend the +first meetings, he had no objection to her or the children "going +or BECOMING CHURCH MEMBERS." (emphasis added) + There is plenty of additional evidence that the revival Lucy +Smith refers to did occur during the winter of 1824-1825. It was +reported in at least a dozen newspapers and religious +periodicals. The church records show outstanding increases due to +the reception of new converts. The Baptist Church received 94, +the Presbyterian 99, while the Methodist work grew by 208. No +such revival bringing in "great multitudes" occurred in 1820. + It is clear that the revival Joseph Smith, Jr. described did +not occur in 1820, but in 1824. Joseph Smith arbitrarily moved +that revival back four years to 1820 and made it fit a First +Vision story that neither his mother nor other close associates +had heard of in those early days. The historical facts completely +discredit Joseph Smith's First Vision story. (For further details +see, DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT, Spring 1969, pp. 59- +100) + +BIBLE READING vs. REVELATIONS ..... + + About 1832, Joseph Smith, Jr. began an account of the origin +of the Mormon church (the only one written in his own hand), that +contradicts the official First Vision story he dictated some six +years later. The account was never finished and has only recently +been published. (See the text in BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY +STUDIES, Spring 1969, pp. 278ff) In this version Joseph presents +himself between the ages of twelve and fifteen being a committed +and perceptive reader of the Bible. He claims that his STUDY OF +THE SCRIPTURES led him to understand that all the denominations +were wrong. He wrote: "...by searching the Scriptures I found +that mankind did not come into the Lord but that they had +apostatised from the true and living faith and there was no +society or denomination that built upon the Gospel of Jesus +Christ as recorded in the new testament." + Six years later, when he set forth his official First Vision +story, he decided that he never had reached the firm conclusion +that all churches were wrong from his study of the Bible. +Instead, he claimed that it was DURING A VISION OF THE FATHER AND +THE SON that he first learned this information. He presented this +as coming as a great surprise, for he added parenthetically - +"for at this time it had NEVER ENTERED INTO MY HEART THAT ALL +WERE WRONG." (emphasis added) That statement even contradicted +what Joseph had said a few paragraphs earlier in the same +account. There he claimed that "I OFTEN SAID TO MYSELF ... Who of +all these parties are right; or ARE THEY ALL WRONG TOGETHER?" +(emphasis added) Although the former statement appears in the +original manuscript (see BYU Studies above, p. 290), such a +serious contradiction could not be allowed to stand, and after +Joseph's death the embarrassing words were edited out. + Even without these words, however, the 1838 official account +is in conflict with the 1832 version. In the 1832 account it is +his Bible reading that stirs him to seek God, while in the 1838 +story it is a non-existent revival that motivates him. + In the 1832 version he claims to have seen only Christ, +while in the 1838 rendition both the Father and the Son appear. +In the 1832 account he already knows all the churches are wrong, +while in the 1838 story it is the dual deities who first inform +him of this. Different people may have different views of the +same event, but when one person tells contradictory stories about +an event, he completely loses his credibility. + +PERSECUTION vs. ACCEPTANCE ..... + + The 1838 First Vision story not only runs into trouble with +Joseph's earlier 1832 version, it is also contradicted by what we +know about his early years in Palmyra. In his official version +Joseph claims he was persecuted by all the churches in his area +"because I continued to affirm I had seen a vision." However, +Orsemus Turner, an apprentice printer in Palmyra until 1822, was +in the same juvenile debating club with Joseph Smith. He recalled +that Joseph "after catching a spark of Methodism ... became a +very passable exhorter in evening meetings." (HISTORY OF THE +PIONEER SETTLEMENT OF PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE, 1851, p. 214) +Thus, instead of being opposed and persecuted as his 1838 account +claims, young Joseph was welcomed and allowed to exhort during +the Methodist's evening preaching. Furthermore, no one, either +Mormon or non-Mormon, seems ever to have heard of Joseph's +encounter with two divine Personages until after 1838. (see this +admission in DIALOGUE, Autumn 1966, pp. 30-31; SAINTS HERALD, +June 29, 1959, p. 21) + + From all available lines of evidence, therefore, Joseph's +First Vision story appears to be a fabrication. There was NO +REVIVAL anywhere in the Palmyra area in 1820, Joseph was +WELCOMED, NOT PERSECUTED by the Methodists. His 1832 account +represents him as PERCEIVING FROM HIS PERSONAL BIBLE STUDY that +all the churches were apostate, while his 1838 account said it +"NEVER ENTERED INTO MY HEART that all were wrong." His 1832 +version claimed ONLY A VISION OF CHRIST, while the 1838 story +transformed this into THE FATHER AND THE SON. No one ever heard +such a story until after he dictated it in 1838. + In the light of such strong contradictory evidence, the +First Vision story must be regarded as only the invention of +Joseph Smith's highly imaginative mind. The facts and Joseph's +own words discredit it. + + + This work is presented with the earnest prayer that sincere +people everywhere may perceive the fallacy and danger of +Mormonism and will not become entangled in it, and that the dear +Mormon people who are unfortunately deceived by it, may be +reclaimed and find the true Way of salvation in the Bible and the +blessed Saviour whom it reveals. + + "Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the +Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6) + + We also pray that the earnest reader upon discerning these +things will search the Word of God, the Bible, the only Book +whose message is "able to make thee wise unto salvation through +faith which is in Christ Jesus." (II Timothy 3:15) + +For Further information write: + +Utah Christian Tract Society +P.O. Box 725 +La Mesa, California 92041 + + SALVATION THROUGH CHRIST + vs: + THE EXALTATION OF MAN + +God's word, the BIBLE, which clearly states that our +salvation is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, alone +through one faith and His Grace --- not as a result of +fabricating our own righteousness by "good works" by +attempting to become "perfect" as a result of laws and +ordinances of any organization. + + I JOHN 5:11-13 + + "And this is the record, that God hath given us eternal +life, and this life is in His son. He that hath the Son +hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life. +These things have I written unto you that believe on the +name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have +eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the +Son of God." + +God spells it out - you either have life through the Son +or you reject Him. It is either Heaven or the Lake of Fire; +no "grey areas"; no half-way locations. You either accept +the Son or you reject Him. + +Mormonism claims to accept Jesus ---- + +"We have His name on our church" - But we have now +seen that the Jesus of Mormonism is a different Jesus +- not any resembalance to the REAL Jesus. Further, by +rejecting the total sufficiency of the New Covenant of the +sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for their personal sins - +and instead electing to attempt the old covenant of works, +laws, temples, etc ----- they nullify the offer of eternal +life as a gift by God's Love and immeasurable Grace: + + GALATIANS 2:21 + +"I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if righteousness +come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." +As a result, the Mormon believing in the Mormon Jesus, and +not the real Jesus of the BIBLE; and following a life only +of works, even with utmost sincerity, without the saving +faith in the one who died for them, personally, is LOST. We +don't say that - GOD says that - in HIS Word - The BIBLE + + THREE KINGDOMS? + +Let's go further ---- Mormonism claims three "heavens." +They take I CORINTHIANS 15:37-49 totally out of context to +arrive at this false teaching. Where Paul is declaring that +an individual's resurrected body is different in Glory from +his earthly body - as the sun differs from the moon, from +the stars - Mormonism has declared three kingdoms of Heaven: + + TELESTIAL KINGDOM + +Where all the wicked go, whether they've rejected God and +Jesus all their life or not - Murderers, etc ! + + TERRESTIAL KINGDOM + +Where good and honorable persons go - they only failed to +accept the "gospel" of Mormonism. + + CELESTIAL KINGDOM + +a) LOWER DEGREE +Good Mormons, but failed to marry in the Temple and having +"other" imperfections. These will be allowed to be angels. + +b) MIDDLE DEGREE +Mormons who failed to accept the complete "gospel" but were +married in the Temple, sealed to many wives, and are in the +process of being exalted through baptism of the dead, etc. + +c) HIGHEST DEGREE - EXALTATION +"Perfect" Mormons. They will be gods themselves just like +God the Father. Will have eternal, multiple, marriages for +the purpose of sexually procreating billions of spirit +children to populate another world that they will reign +over as that world's god. + + MORMON TERMINOLOGY + +Let's be "clear" on some important terms - even though you +will find Mormon writers interchanging them, in a strict +sense they are: + + SALVATION + +Resurrection only; immortality, or simply life after death. +This is what Christ's death on the cross "achieved". This +is what all mankind has by the Grace of God as a free gift. +But "salvation" for what? This is just the bottom of the +ladder. + +"Those who gain only this general or unconditional +salvation will still be judged according to their works and +receive places in a Terrestial or Telestial kingdom. They +will, therefore, be damned; their eternal progression will +be cut short; they will not fill the full measure of their +creation, but in eternity will be ministering servants to +more worthy persons." +Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, "Salvation",pg 669,670 +(1966 Edition) + +So, you see, salvation as a gift through Christ is nothing +special to a Mormon. When they say, "Jesus is our Savior", +this is what they give Him "credit" for! + +Now, let's find out what the goal of Mormonism is. Who are +these "more worthy persons" ? + +EXALTATION = Eternal Life in the Highest Degree of the +Celestial Kingdom. This is what Mormonism teaches day in +and day out. McConkie continues - + +"Conditional or individual salvation, that which comes by +grace coupled with gospel obedience, consist in receiving +an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God. This kind +of salvation follows faith, repentance, baptism, receipt of +the Holy Ghost, and continued righteousness to the end of +one's mortal life. (D & C 20:29 & 2 Nephi 9:23-24). All +others are damned --- Even those in the celestial kingdom +however, who do not go on to exaltation, will have +immortality only and not eternal life --- they will be +'ministering servants, to minister for and to those who are +worthy of a far more, and an exceeding and an eternal +weight of glory'. They will live "separately and singly" in +an unmarried state 'without exaltation, in their saved +condition, to all eternity' (D & C 132:16,17). Salvation in +its true and full meaning is synonymous with exaltation or +eternal life and consist in gaining an inheritance in the +highest of the three heavens within the Celestial Kingdom +--- It is the salvation which saints seek --- This full +salvation is obtained in and through the continuation of +the family unit in eternity, and those who obtain it are +gods --- If it had not been for Joseph Smith and the +restoration, there would be no salvation. There is no +salvation outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day +Saints." + +"Then shall they be gods, because they have no end - Then +shall they be gods, because they have all power ---" +(D & C 132:20) + +"Here then is eternal life - to know the only wise and true +God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, +and to be kings and priest to God, the same as all gods +have done before you --- and to sit in glory, as do those +who sit in everlasting power --- What is it? To inherit the +same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until +you arrive at the station of a god ---" +Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 345-347; +Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, "Godhood", 1966 +Edition, pg 321 +History of the Church, Volume 6, page 306 + +"They are they into whose hands the Father has given all +things - they are they who are priest and kings, who have +received of His fulness, and his glory -- they are gods --" +Doctrine & Covenants, 76:55-58 + +"As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." +Lorenzo Snow, Millennial Star, Vol 54, pg 404 + +"Mormonism does not tend to debase God to the level of man, +but to exalt man to the perfection of God." +Charles W. Penrose,Millenial Star,Vol 23, pg 181 + +The above quotes appear in Milton R. Hunter's, The Gospel +Through The Ages (1958, pges 105-107) under the chapter +heading "Men may become gods". Hunter surprisingly supports +Mormonism's view of the Godhead of man by noting (on pg 117): +"Even the doctrine of a knowledge of God as the avenue to +Godhood made its way outward from the Divine Fountain of +Truth into the heathenistic religions of the Mediterranean +world. The teaching of the HERMETIC pagan cult sound quite +familiar to those who are acquainted with the doctrine +taught by Jesus, by John the Beloved, by Paul, and by +Joseph Smith, the American Prophet". + +Sorry, but only the teachings of the latter sound familiar. +Nowhere in the BIBLE do we find GOD saying man can reach +godhood. Yes, we do find such a teaching in the BIBLE --- +yet it is Satan who is doing the talking !! + +Computers For Christ prays that this has been interesting +and has opened your eyes to the false nature of the Mormon +teachings. Leave us a message at termination if you wish us +to mail you any additional material. +** END OF TEXT ** + + TEN REASONS WHY I CANNOT BE A MORMON + by Rev. John Hornok + +1. ÿMORMONISM DOES NOT TEACH THAT THE BIBLE IS THE INFALLIBLE WORK OF +GOD. ÿÿ"We ÿbelieve the Bible to the the Word of God as far as it ÿis +translated ÿcorrectly; ÿÿwe also believe the book of Mormon to be ÿthe +word of God" (Articles of Faith, No. 8). + + As ÿChristians we believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old ÿand ÿNew +Testaments ÿto ÿthe ÿthe verbally inspired Word ÿof ÿGod, ÿÿthe ÿfinal +authority ÿfor ÿfaith and life, ÿinerrant in ÿthe ÿoriginal ÿwritings, +infallible and God-breathed (2 ÿTim. ÿ3:16-17; ÿ2 Pet. ÿ1:20-21; ÿMatt +5:18). + +2. ÿÿMORMONISM TEACHES THAT GOD IS AN EXALTED MAN AND HAS A ÿPHYSICAL +BODY. ÿÿ"God himself was once as we are now, ÿand is an exalted ÿman" +(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, ÿpg. 345). ÿ"The Father has a +body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's..." ÿ(Doc. ÿ& Cov., ÿSec. +131:22) + + The Bible says, ÿ"God is not a man..." ÿ(Num. ÿ23:19). ÿ"God is a +Spirit; ÿÿand they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and ÿin +truth" ÿÿ(John 4:24). ÿ"A spirit hath not flesh and ÿbones..." ÿÿ(Lk. +24:39). + +3. MORMONISM TEACHES THAT CHRIST AND THE DEVIL ARE BROTHERS. "...that +Lucifer, ÿthe son of morning, ÿis our elder brother and the brother of +Jesus Christ" (Mormon Doctrine by Bruce McConkie, pp. 163-4). + + The Bible says that the devil is a created being, ÿcreated by God. +"thou ÿwast ÿperfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast ÿcreated, +till ÿiniquity ÿwas found in thee" ÿ(Ezekiel 28:15). ÿÿ"For ÿby ÿHim +(Christ) ÿwere all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in +earth, ÿvisible and invisible, whether they be thrones, ÿof dominions, +or principalities, ÿor powers; ÿall things were created by Him and for +Him..." (Col. 1:15-17). + +4. MORMONISM TEACHES THAT JESUS WAS MARRIED AND THE HE IS POLYGAMOUS. +"We ÿsay ÿit ÿwas ÿJesus Christ who was married at ÿCana ÿof ÿGalilee" +(Journal of Discourses, ÿVol 2, p. 80). ÿMormonism teaches that Jesus +was ÿthe ÿnatural ÿchild ÿof Adam and Mary. ÿ"When ÿthe ÿVirgin ÿMary +conceived ÿthe Child Jesus....He was not begotten by the ÿHoly ÿGhost. +And who is his Father? ÿHe is the first of the human family" (Brigham +Young, Journal of Discourses, pp. 50-51). + + The Bible says, ÿ"In the beginning was the Word (Christ), ÿand the +Word was with God, and the Word was God;...The Word was made flesh and +dwelt among us..." ÿ(John 1:1, 14). ÿ"Then Mary said unto the angel, +How ÿshall ÿthis ÿbe, ÿseeing that I know not a man? ÿAnd ÿthe ÿangel +answered... The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee..."(Lk. 1:34-35). + +5. ÿÿMORMONISM TEACHES THAT THE TRUE CHURCH CEASED TO EXIST UNTIL ÿIT +WAS RESTORED TO JOSEPH SMITH. ÿThe church (LDS) was restored April 6, +1830 by Joseph Smith (Doc. & Cov., 20:1). + + Jesus ÿChrist said, ÿ"I will build my church and the gates of hell +shall not prevail against it" ÿ(Matt. ÿ16:18). ÿ"for other foundation +can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. +3:11). ÿÿ"...And ÿare built upon the foundation of the ÿapostles ÿand +prophets, ÿÿJesus ÿChrist himself being the chief cornerstone" ÿÿ(Eph. +2:20). + +6. ÿÿMORMONISM TEACHES ANOTHER (PERVERTED) ÿGOSPEL THAN THAT ÿOF ÿTHE +BIBLE. ÿÿThe gospel to Mormonism is: ÿ"Faith, ÿRepentance, ÿBaptism, +Receiving the Holy Spirit by laying on of hands, ÿMorality, ÿÿLoyalty, +Tithing, ÿWord of Wisdom, Duty Celestial Marriage (for eternity)" (LDS +chart of FREE AGENCY and Articles of Faith, No. 4). + + The Bible says, "Moreover brethren, I ÿdeclare unto you the gospel +that he was buried, ÿand that he rose again the third day according to +the scriptures" ÿ(1 ÿCor. 15:1, ÿ3-4). ÿ"if any man preach any other +gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Gal. +1:9). + +7. ÿÿMORMONISM ÿTEACHES ÿSALVATION FOR THE THE DEAD ÿBY ÿPROXY ÿWATER +BAPTISM. This doctrine is based on one misunderstood Scripture: "Else +what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, ÿif the dead ÿrise +not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" (1 Cor. 15:29). + + Paul ÿdid not practice baptism for the dead. ÿHe excluded himself +by using the pronoun "they" rather than "we" ÿor "ye". He is asking a +question ÿrather than making a statement. ÿ"It is appointed unto ÿman +once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). + +8. ÿMORMONISM TEACHES GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH FOR THE DEAD. ÿ"Let ÿus, +therefore, ÿas a church and a people, and as Latter-day Saints, ÿoffer +unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; ÿand let us present in his +holy temple, when it is finished, a book containing the records of our +dead, ÿwhich shall be worth of all acceptation" ÿ(Doc. ÿ& ÿCov., ÿSec. +128:24). + + The ÿBible ÿsays, ÿÿ"Neither ÿgive ÿheed ÿto ÿfables ÿand ÿendless +genealogies" ÿÿ(1 ÿÿTim. ÿÿ1:4). ÿ"but ÿavoid ÿfoolish ÿquestion ÿand +genealogies..." (Titus 3:9). + +9. ÿÿMORMONISM TEACHES THAT THERE ARE MODERN DAY PROPHETS AND ÿMODERN +DAY REVELATIONS FROM GOD. Mormonism claims that Joseph Smith received +the ÿAaronic ÿPriesthood ÿfrom John ÿthe ÿBaptist. ÿÿThe ÿMelchizedek +Priesthood and Apostleship ÿwas ÿrestored ÿby Peter, ÿÿJames ÿand John +shortly afterwards in 1829 (Doc. & Cov., Sec. 13). + + The Bible says, ÿ"God...hath in these last days spoken unto us ÿby +his ÿSon, ÿwhom he hath appointed heir of all things, ÿby whom also he +made ÿthe worlds" ÿ(Heb. ÿ1:1-2). ÿThe test of a prophet is given ÿin +Deut. 18:20-22. + +10. ÿÿMORMONISM ÿTEACHES THAT SALVATION DEPENDS UPON ÿGOOD ÿWORKS ÿAND +ACCEPTANCE ÿOF ÿJOSEPH SMITH. ÿ"No man who rejects the ÿtestimony ÿof +Joseph ÿSmith can enter the kingdom of God" ÿ(Doctrines of ÿSalvation, +vol. 1 pg. 190). "Men have work to do it they would obtain salvation" +(Doctrines of Salvation. vol. 3, pg 91). + + The ÿBible ÿteaches ÿthat salvation is provided ÿby ÿJesus ÿChrist +alone, ÿÿ"for ÿthere is none other name under heaven given among ÿmen, +whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:10-12). ÿ"For by grace are ye saved +through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not +of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Divine Truths in the Book of Mormon + + Anyone ÿvisited ÿby ÿa ÿMormon Missionary has ÿheard ÿthe ÿElder's +testimony ÿconcerning the Book of Mormon: ÿThat he knows this book is +the ÿWord ÿof God and that the founder of the Mormon ÿChurch, ÿÿJoseph +Smith, ÿJr., translated it by the gift and power of God. Further, the +prospect is encouraged sincerely to study the Book of Mormon and ÿ"The +divine truths it contains." + The Book of Mormon indeed does contain a number of "divine truths", +first set forth in the Bible, the most important of which are: + +1. GOD IS SPIRIT + + Alma 18:28 (p. 242) - "Believest, thou that this Great Spirit, who +is God, created all things". + +2. TRINITARIAN VIEW OF GOD + + 3 ÿNephi 11:27 (p. 422) - "Verily I say unto you, that the Father +and ÿthe Son and the Holy Ghost are one." ÿIn addition, ÿthree ÿclose +associates ÿof Joseph Smith who gave testimony of the authenticity ÿof +the Book of Mormon, close with words: "And the honor be to the Father, +and ÿto ÿthe ÿSon and to the Holy Ghost, ÿWHICH IS ÿONE ÿGOD. ÿÿAmen." +(emphasis added) This endorsement is found in the front of every Book +of ÿMormon and further documents the Book of Mormon's ÿacknowledgement +of the triune nature of God. + +3. GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE + + Moroni 8:18 (p. 517) - ÿ"For I know that God is not a partial God, +neither a changeable being; ÿbut he is unchangeable from all ÿeternity +to all eternity." + +4. NO SALVATION AFTER DEATH + + Mosiah 3:25 ÿ(p. 141) - "And if they be evil they are consigned to +an ÿawful view of their own guilt and abominations, ÿwhich doth ÿcause +them ÿto ÿshrink from the presence of the Lord into a state of ÿmisery +and endless torment, ÿfrom whence they can no more return; ÿÿtherefore +they have drunk damnation to their own souls." + +5. ONLY TWO DESTINATIONS AFTER DEATH + + Mosiah 16:11 ÿ(p. 166) - "If they be good, ÿto the resurrection of +endless life and happiness; ÿand if they be evil, ÿto the resurrection +of endless damnation." + +6. SALVATION BY CHRIST"S WORK - NOT MAN'S + + Helaman 5:9 (p. 369) - "...remember that there is no other way nor +means ÿwhereby ÿmen can be saved, ÿonly through the atoning ÿblood ÿof +Jesus Christ, ÿwho shall come, yea, ÿremember that he cometh to redeem +the world." + + + The Book of Mormon also emphasizes the need for spiritual rebirth. +For ÿexample ÿAlma 5:14 ÿstates "And now behold, ÿI ÿask of ÿyou, ÿÿmy +brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye +received ÿhis image in your countenances? ÿHave ye ÿexperienced ÿthis +mighty change in your hearts?" + Much ÿof ÿthe ÿmajor theology set forth in the Book of ÿMormon ÿis +indeed in harmony with orthodox Christianity. ÿHowever, ÿmany who are +visited by the LDS Missionaries are unaware that the present ÿtheology +of ÿthe Mormon Church is very different from their own Book of Mormon. +Further, ÿnot only are today's major doctrines different, ÿthey are in +total ÿopposition with this work of Joseph Smith, ÿJr., ÿfor which ÿhe +claimed divine inspiration. + + Mormon ÿtheology is not contained in, ÿbut rather contradicted ÿby +the ÿBook ÿof ÿMormon. ÿThe members of the Mormon Church now turn ÿto +newer ÿpublications ÿand ÿrevelations for their ÿbeliefs. ÿÿA ÿÿbrief +examination of some of these will document the contradictions. + +1. ÿÿMormonism today teaches "The Father has a body of flesh and bones +as tangible as man's" (Doctrine & Covenants 130:22). + +2. ÿJoseph Smith, later in his life, flatly denied the Trinity: ÿ"Many +men say there is one God, ÿthe Father, ÿthe Son and the Holy Ghost are +one God! ÿI saw that is a strange God anyhow - three in one, ÿand one +in ÿthree!" ÿHe further concludes that the Father, ÿSon and the ÿHoly +Ghost ÿare not one God, ÿbut rather three Gods (History of the ÿChurch +6:474, 476). + +3. The LDS Church no longer adheres to the unchangeable nature of God, +but ÿrather ÿstates: ÿ"God himself was once as we are now and ÿis ÿan +exalted man... We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all +eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil, so that you +may see". (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345). + +4. ÿÿBruce ÿR. ÿMcConkie announces on page 73 ÿof his ÿwork, ÿÿ'Mormon +Doctrine': ÿÿ"The Lord has ordained baptism for the dead as the means +whereby ÿall ÿhis ÿworthy children of all ages ÿcan ÿbecome ÿheirs ÿof +salvation in his kingdom." + +5. ÿÿMormonism today informs its members that all mankind will ÿoccupy +one of three heavenly kingdoms. ÿThe highest is the Celestial Kingdom +(which itself contains various levels). ÿThis kingdom is reserved for +all ÿfaithful Mormons and could lead to Godhood for the ÿmale ÿmembers +there. ÿThe middle Kingdom, the Terrestrial Kingdom, is for those who +did ÿnot ÿaccept the gospel according to Mormonism, ÿbut who lived ÿan +honorable ÿlife. ÿÿThe ÿlowest or Telestial ÿKingdom ÿstill ÿcontains +murderers, ÿÿadulterers, ÿliars and thieves. ÿ(Doctrine ÿ& ÿCovenants +section ÿ76). ÿÿHell ÿin Mormonism is usually thought to ÿbe ÿonly ÿa +temporary ÿstate of suffering, ÿwhich can be terminated through ÿself- +atonement. ÿÿIn ÿsummary, ÿall will be resurrected and ÿreceive ÿsome +degree of glory, according to Mormonism. + +6. Mormons believe not in the infinite atonement of Christ, but rather +that ÿ"redemption ÿfrom ÿpersonal sins can only ÿbe ÿobtained ÿthrough +obedience ÿto ÿthe ÿrequirements of the Gospel, ÿAND A ÿLIFE ÿOF ÿGOOD +WORKS." (emphasis added) (Talmage, Articles of Faith pgs. 478-479) + + These ÿchanges ÿand contradictions contained within ÿthese ÿeasily +available ÿLDS ÿScriptures leave no doubt as to the human, ÿÿman ÿmade +origin of Mormonism. + While ÿMormons regard the Bible as the Word of God, ÿthe Bible ÿis +actually placed lower and superseded by their other Scriptures, ÿwhich +in addition to the Book of Mormon include the Doctrine & Covenants and +the ÿPearl ÿof Great Price. ÿThis devaluation of the Bible ÿis ÿfound +within the LDS Articles of Faith, ÿin the Pearl of Great Price, ÿwhere +it ÿis ÿstated ÿthat Mormons "believe the Bible in so ÿfar ÿas ÿit ÿis +correctly translated." + God's ÿword, ÿÿthe Bible, ÿhas definitely stood the test of ÿtime, +whereas in its short existence the Book of Mormon has not. The Bible, +has been used by and confirmed by archeology, - the Book of Mormon has +not. ÿThe Bible, ÿhas through recent ancient manuscript ÿdiscoveries, +been ÿdemonstrated to have been transmitted and translated accurately, +where the Book of Mormon contains nearly 4000 textual changes from the +first ÿedition ÿin 1830 ÿto the present editions used today, ÿand ÿhas +received further changes in the new 1981 "Triple Combination" edition. + The ÿpresence ÿof ÿ"Divine Truths" ÿwithin the Book of ÿMormon ÿis +merely a result of Joseph Smith, ÿJr. ÿincorporating much of the Bible +into his work. (see 'The use of the Bible in the Book of Mormon by H. +Michael ÿMarquardt). ÿÿThus, ÿthe Book of Mormon must be regarded ÿas +fiction, not as inspired Scripture. + Changes within Mormonism and the Book of Mormon make it clear that +Mormonism is not from God. ÿGod's word does not change. Jesus Christ +is the same yesterday, ÿtoday and forever (Hebrews 13:8) ÿand His Word +shall never pass away (Psalm 119:89; Matthew 24:35). The Jesus Christ +who ÿshed his blood on Calvary's cross to save you is not the Jesus of +present-day ÿMormonism. ÿÿJesus ÿinvites all people to ÿexperience ÿa +spiritual ÿrebirth ÿand to receive the free gift of ÿeternal ÿlife ÿby +trusting in him alone for salvation. + + Write ÿto us and let us share with you more information concerning +our Risen Saviour Jesus Christ and how you can receive Him. + + + PERSONAL FREEDOM OUTREACH + + Route 3 Weir Lake Rd., Kunkletown, PA. 18058 (215) 381-3661 + P.O. Box 26062, Saint Louis, MO. 63136 (314) 388-2648 + P.O. Box 30073, Phoenix, AZ. 85046 (602)867-0538 + P.O. Box 15081, Santa Ana, CA. 92705 (714) 832-9385 + + +Information from the + + NATIONAL MUSEUM OF OF NATURAL HISTORY + Smithsonian Institution Washington D.C. + + Your ÿrecent ÿinquiry ÿconcerning ÿthe Book ÿof ÿMormon ÿhas ÿbeen +received in the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology. + + The ÿbook ÿof Mormon is a religious document and not a ÿscientific +guide. ÿÿThe Smithsonian Institution does not use it in archeological +research. Because the Smithsonian Institution receives many inquiries +regarding the book of Mormon, ÿwe have prepared a "Statement Regarding +the Book of Mormon," a copy of which is enclosed for your information. +This statement includes answers to questions most commonly asked about +the Book of Mormon. + + + PREPARED BY + THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY + STATEMENT REGARDING THE BOOK OF MORMON + -------------------------------------- + +1. ÿÿThe Smithsonian Institution has never used the Book of Mormon in +any way as a scientific guide. ÿThe Smithsonian archaeologists see no +direct ÿconnection between archeology of the New World and the subject +matter of the book. + +2. The physical type of American Indian is basically Mongoloid, being +most closely related to that of the peoples of eastern, ÿcentral, ÿand +northeastern ÿÿAsia. ÿÿArcheological ÿevidence ÿindicates ÿthat ÿÿthe +ancestors ÿof the present Indians came into the New World -- ÿprobably +over ÿa land bridge known to have existed in the Bering Strait ÿregion +during the last Ice Age -- ÿin a continuing series of small migrations +beginning from about 25,000 to 30,000 years ago. + +3. ÿÿPresent ÿevidence indicates that the fist people to ÿreach ÿthis +continent from the East were the Norsemen who who briefly visited ÿthe +northeastern part of North America around A.D. ÿ1000 ÿand then settled +in ÿGreenland. ÿThere is nothing to show that they reached Mexico ÿor +Central America. + +4. ÿÿOne ÿof ÿthe main lines of evidence ÿsupporting ÿthe ÿscientific +finding ÿthat contacts with Old World civilizations, ÿif ÿindeed ÿthey +occurred at all, ÿwere of very little significance for the development +of ÿAmerican ÿIndian ÿcivilizations, ÿÿis the fact that ÿnone ÿof ÿthe +principal ÿOld World domesticated ÿfood plants or animals (except ÿthe +dog) ÿÿoccurred in the New ÿWorld ÿin pre-Columbian times. ÿÿAmerican +Indians had ÿno ÿwheat, ÿbarley, ÿoats, ÿmillet, rice, ÿcattle, ÿpigs, +chickens, horses, ÿdonkeys, ÿcamels ÿbefore 1492. ÿ(camels and horses +were in the Americas, along with the bison, mammoth, mastodon, but all +these animals became extinct around 10,000 B.C. ÿat the time the early +big game hunters spread across the Americas.) + +5. Iron, steel, glass, and silk were not used in the New World before +1492 ÿ(except for occasional use of unsmelted meteoric iron). ÿNative +copper ÿwas worked in various locations in pre-Columbian ÿtimes, ÿÿbut +true ÿmetallurgy was limited to southern Mexico and the Andean region, +where its occurrance in late prehistoric times involved gold, ÿsilver, +copper, and their alloys, but not iron. + +6. ÿThere is a possibility that the spread of cultural traits ÿacross +the Pacific to Mesoamerica and the northwestern coast of South America +began several hundred years before the Christian era. ÿHowever, ÿÿany +such ÿinter-hemispheric ÿcontacts appear to have been the ÿresults ÿof +accidental voyages originating in eastern and southern Asia. It is by +no ÿmeans ÿcertain that even such contacts occurred with ÿthe ÿancient +Egyptians, ÿÿHebrews, ÿor other peoples of Western Asia and ÿthe ÿNear +East. + +7. ÿÿNo ÿreputable ÿEgyptologist or other ÿspecialist ÿon ÿOld ÿWorld +archeology, ÿand no expert on New World prehistory, ÿhas discovered or +confirmed any relationship between archeological remains in Mexico and +archeological remains in Egypt. + +8. ÿÿReports of findings of ancient Egyptian, ÿHebrew, ÿand other Old +World ÿwritings ÿin ÿthe ÿNew World ÿin ÿpre-Columbian ÿcontexts ÿhave +frequently ÿappeared in newspapers, ÿmagazines and sensational ÿbooks. +None ÿof ÿthese ÿclaims ÿhas ÿstood up ÿto ÿexamination ÿby ÿreputable +scholars. ÿNo inscriptions using Old World forms of writing have been +shown to have occurred in any part of the Americas before 1492 ÿexcept +for a few Norse rune stones which have been found in Greenland. + +9. ÿÿThere ÿare ÿcopies of the Book of Mormon in the library ÿof ÿthe +National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. + + +NOTE: ÿÿThis article is an exact reproduction of a letter compiled ÿby +The Smithsonian Institution that was received by Computers for Christ, +and has been graciously provided free of charge by them. + +For your own copy, write to: + + The Smithsonian Institute + National Museum of Natural History + Department of Anthropology + Washington D.C. 20560 + + + Computers For Christ, Panama City, Fl. + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/antisemi.txt b/religious documents/antisemi.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4c42fd Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/antisemi.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/antiwicc.txt b/religious documents/antiwicc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..236fc20 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/antiwicc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,195 @@ +For the past two years, I have monitored the Fundamentalist Christian radio +and television shows. A surprising number of ministries and organizations +have demonstrated antipathy towards New Age and Wiccan interests. Below is a +listing of those with whom I have come in contact, either via mail correspon- +dence, or through their appearance on radio and television shows. This should +not in any way be assumed to be a complete list. If you have names, +addresses, or phone #s to add to the list, please do so. I would appreciate +being notified of any other names added to the list so that I can add them to +the files. Thank You. + Rowan Moonstone, P.O. Box 21058, Oklahoma City, OK 73120 + +[My own notes are in square braces. I keep a smaller collection than Rowan's, +but put the "Best Of" on-line. Some of the rarer and more vicious stuff I'm +still trying to get ahold of. The BBS phone number is (314) 389-9973. + Brad Hicks, 3900 Roland, Apt. B, St. Louis, MO 63121] + + +Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (B.A.D.D.) +Pat Pulling, Director +P.O. Box 5513 +Richmond, VA +(804) 883-6747 + +(Denver Location) +Rosemary Loyacano, Director +P.O. Box 303 +Larkspur, CO 80118 +(303) 681-2854 + +Began as anti Dungeons and Dragons, but is now adding Wicca to its "hit list". +Considerable upgrading of printing quality over the last 2 years, which +probably means they're receiving sufficient contributions to be concerned +about. Have published "Law Enforcement Primers" on "Ritual Child Abuse" and +"Role Playing Games." Publishes by-monthly newsletter _Good News from +B.A.D.D._ Solicits submission of articles dealing with the occult, Satanism, +Witchcraft, as well as D&D from its supporters. + + +Christian Counseling Association, Inc. +Dr. Roger Burt, President +P.O. Box 713 +Van Nuys, CA 91408 +(818) 780-7500 + +VERY anti-Wiccan, anti-Pagan activists. [This man was Thomas Elias's prime +source for the article in CRIMES.TXT - Brad] + + +Bible Believer's Bulletin +Dr. Peter S. Ruckman +P.O. Box 7135 +Pensacola, FL 32514 + +Primarily anti-Catholic, pro-King James Version Bible. Although they don't +like US much either! + + +Christian Apologetics Research & Information Service (CARIS) +Jack Roper, Director +P.O. Box 1659 +Milwaukee, WI 53201 + +Published "An Open Letter to the Witchcraft and Magical Community" a few years +ago. [If anybody has one of these, would they forward a copy to me? Brad] + + +Chick Publications +P.O. Box 662 +Chino, CA 91710 + +Without a doubt the MOST unsympathetic views on the Craft I have EVER heard or +seen. Publishes _The Battle Cry_ bi-monthly. $2.40/yr sub. Has much anti- +Catholic literature and such nonsense as "Your Highness" being the proper +title for a High Priestess! [See DARKDUNG.TXT for an adaptation of one of +their "Chick Tracts." A lot of their material seems to have been written by +John Todd Collins - see also JTCINFO.HLP, and JTC1.DOC to JTC5.DOC. Brad] + + +Christian Counter Attack +P.O. Box 27101 +Columbus, OH 43227 + +Advertises that it fights "cults, occult, Secular Music, and New Age." +Vigorously opposed the "Hands Across America" project last year. Is now +engaged in opposing the "Harmonic Convergence." [These folks seem to get most +of their stuff from Constance Cumbey - Brad] + + +Cult Awareness Network +Reginald Alev, Director +P.O. Box 608370 +Chicago, IL 60626 +(312) 675-7788 + +Advertises an "Anti-Witchcraft" packet of info for $5.00. + + +Free the Masons Ministries (formerly Saints Alive!) +P.O. Box 1077 +Issaquah, WA 98027 + +Primarily anti-Masonic and anti-Mormon. But now employs Bill Schnoebelen +(aka Christopher Syn), former Wiccan HP of the Alexandrian Trad. [See +SCHNOEBE.TXT - Brad] + + +In His Palm +Linda Archer, Director +P.O. Box 818 +Euless, TX 76039 + +"Former Witch" who speaks to women's Church organizations and does interviews +on Christian radio shows. Claims that, "One of the things you agree to do +when you become a witch is to sacrifice your children to the devil," and tells +parents, "These people are trying to take your children away from you in the +dark, by stealth, against your will. Don't sit there and take it any more!" +Runs a clipping service for Christian anti-pagan ministers. For $15.00 she +will send you a packet of newspaper articles on Witchcraft, Satanism, and D&D. + + +Paul Lund, Eagle's Nest Ministries +P.O. Box 9991 +Fountain Valley, CA 92728 + +Wrote an anti-Wicca tract entitled "Witchcraft or ..." Stated goal is to +drive all cult groups underground again, us most definitely included. Works a +lot with "street people" and reformed bikers. [See WAVERLY.TXT - Brad] + + +Church of God Evangelistic Association +P.O. Box 1073 +St. Ann, MO 63074 + +Anti-New Age. Some interesting publications on the Illuminati. Will send you +a subscription to _Newswatch_ magazine free for 1 year if you write and ask +for it. + + +Southwest Radio Church +P.O. Box 1144 +Oklahoma City, OK 73101 +(800) 652-1144 + +Publishes a lot of anti-pagan gloom & doom. Has a nationally syndicated +Christian radio show which has frequent programs dealing with anti-pagan and +anti- New Age stuff. Constance Cumby, Samantha Smith, and Dave Hunt are +frequent guests. Publishes _The Gospel Truth_ monthly. They NEVER take you +off their mailing list as far as I can see. + + +National Research Institute (Data Center on the New Age) +3095D South Peoria +Aurora, CO 80014 +(303) 745-7707 + +Anti-Wicca, ant- New Age. Publishes _The Trumpet_ bi-monthly, $15/yr. + + +Voice of Americanism +Dr. Stuart McBirnie +Glendale, CA 91209 + +Normally very anti-communist only, but he has published a pamphlet called +"Satanism and Witchcraft: Evil Forces on the March." + + +Warnke Ministries +P.O. Box 1075 +Danville, KY 40422 +(606) 238-7720 + +Run by Mike Warnke, former Satanic High Priest. By far the most sane of these +groups. Definitely knows the difference between Satanism and Wicca and admits +it! + + +Watchmen Alert To Cultic Harrassment (W.A.T.C.H.) +Sue Joyner, Director +P.O. Box 12638 +El Paso, TX 79913 + +Formed a little over 2 years ago. They now have a growing following in the +Southwest. Have published _Be Aware: A Handbook to Expose Occult Activity_ +for $5.00. + + +Pointe Publishers, Inc. +Constance Cumby, Director +22317 Kelly Rd. +East Detroit, MI 48021 +(313) 391-2906 + +Organization formed by a Detroit trial lawyer who now engages in writing and +speaking against "occultism and the New Age movement." Publishes the _New Age +Monitor_ bi-monthly for $24/yr. diff --git a/religious documents/aphorism.txt b/religious documents/aphorism.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c07881 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/aphorism.txt @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ +ab:aphorism.txt 13jan90 + + Various Aphorisms (Proverbs) + + For witches this be Law - + Where ye enter in, from there withdraw. + + An ye will secure the spell, + Cast some silver in the well. + + Enhance thy trance + With drug and dance. + + Vervain and dill lend aid to will. + + Trefoil, vervain, St.-John's-wort, dill, + Hinder witches of their will ! + + Upon the clock, dependeth not. + + Success pursueth the persistent. + + Guilt flees when none pursueth. + + Power shared is power lost. + + Seek thine enemy in secret. + + Thoughts are things: as a man thinkest, so he is. + + No one person can accomplish all. + + Danger is never overcome without danger. + + The past is fixed, yet the future may be bent. + + Where communication fails, confusion follows. + + Some things cannot be understood by mortal man. + Many such must simply be accepted. + + Rush in where angels fear to tread: the Gods are with you. + + As a man thinketh, so is he. + + If you think small, you become small. + + Remember the Passwords: Perfect Love and Perfect Trust, so trust the + Universe and be at Home everywhere. + + If you imagine and fear 'I will get trapped', of course you will get + trapped. Fear not, and you won't. + + You are never less alone than when you think you are alone. + + Fear not, for fear is failure and the forerunner of failure. + + Pray to the Moon when she is round + Luck with you shall then abound + What you seek for shall be found + In sea or sky or solid ground ... + +---------- + -These come from various sources + -There's no reason to believe that any list of aphorisms is part of the + "standard" Gardnerian or Alexandrian BOS. + -Sources of this list are known to include: + The Witches' Almanac + The Grimoire of Lady Sheba + Wicca the Ancient Way + Paul Huson's "Mastering Witchcraft" + -Add your own; I did. ---Sekhet. + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/aporrh5.txt b/religious documents/aporrh5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a5806f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/aporrh5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,324 @@ + Aporrheton 5 + The Craft Laws + By Aidan Kelly + + Many traditions about the Craft are scattered throughout recent + books; a sizable bunch is the 161 "Craft Laws" you can find in Lady + Sheba or in June Johns. Many of these traditions are merely definitions + of what the Craft is, and so of the context within which the other + traditions should be understood; they are "true" merely because (and + insofar as) they are internally consistent. In contrast, some of the + other traditions seem to be shrewd, hard-won observations about how + psychic energy (as dealt with in the Craft) seems to work, and THESE + are the important ones. + The psychic reality that these traditions concern has been called by + many names: spiritualists call it "the upper astral plane"; Jungians, + the "superconscious"; the Bhagavad Gita, "the True Self"; many mystics, + the "godhead"; Isaac Bonewits, the "Switchboard"; and very much so on. + Any such name is an attempt to map (part of) a psychic reality that + seems all too willing to accomodate itself to any map you use, and you + will get nowhere in trying to understand that reality if you don't keep + its platicity firmly in mind. In the Craft we conceive that reality as + the Goddess (as #11 below states); She is both very real and a + metaphor. She is real because human energy goes into making Her real; + She exists as a "thought form on the astral plane," yet She can + manifest physically whenever She wants to. She does not exist + independently of mankind, but She is most thoroughly independent of any + one person or group. (And precisely the same is true of any concept of + divinity that people put energy into maintaining.) She is a metaphor + because, great though She may be, She is finite, like any other human + concept, whereas reality is infinite. And why do we need the Goddess, + or any divinity at all? Because the human mind seems unable to grasp an + undifferentiated infinity. By creating our own divinities, we create + mental steps for ourselves, up which we can mount, toward relizing + ourselves as divine. + The Craft Laws, then, are not "13 Commandments" from on high; they + are merely unproved hypotheses about how SOME psychic reality seems to + work. They should be treated like any other hypotheses: respected as + being the best guesses going, but continually tested to find out how + valid they are and to generate better guesses. Naturally, you cannot + test them by breaking them, any more than you can test the law of + gravity by jumping off a ten-story building. Instead, you draw + conclusions from them, or base predictions on them, and try workings to + see if the latter hold up. The 13 below are ones that have held up so + far under such testing; some we had in an earlier set of 13 did not. In + compiling this set, I culled through all the traditions I could find, + picking out especially (or thinking up) the most general statements, + which would include many of the other traditions as special cases; you + should be able to spot examples of this by carefully comparing + Aporrheton 10 with this one. Certain of the laws here (the ones typed + in all caps) seem necessary and reliable to us, and we will not + tolerate any bending (let alone breaking) of them, for the reasons + discussed under #12 below. Many of the rest are here, not because we + understand them, but because we don't. + I always approach traditional occult systems (astrology, the Tarot, + the Craft, etc.) on the assumption that they consist of a terse, + multileveled coding of hard-earned information about something real and + important. It is almost as silly to think you've discovered everything + such a system might mean as it is to think it meaningless. The only way + to find out what such a system means is to get in there and work with + it until you speak its language fluently. Then you will likely find (at + least, this has been my experience) that the system gives you a map of + reality, but of many places, not just one place, that it gives you a + way to work with classes of realtionships that hold for many different + kinds of people, things, and situations. That is, these traditional + systems are very much like nonquantitative algebras or calculi; a + symbol in one of them is not going to have an invariant and simple + meaning, or even the same meaning in two different contextx, anymore + than X is going to have the same numerical value in two different + algebra problems. + It therefore seems safest to keep these Craft laws whose meanings + are not obvious in mind, and hope that further "experimentation" will + shed some light on them. Of course, to get any results at all in + dealing with psychic phenomena, you have to be optimistic and + openminded. If you already hold a firm belief that you know what the + Craft Laws mean, or that they are "Absolutely True," or the opposite, + then your mind is closed, and you can't learn anything new. That is, + you're not supposed to "believe" in the Craft Laws, or memorize them; + you're supposed to UNDERSTAND them, else you've missed the whole point + of why we have them. + + 1. YOU CANNOT USE THE ARTS OF THE CRAFT TO CREATE OR INCREASE BAD + KARMA, EXCEPT FOR YOURSELF. + 2. YOU MAY NOT USE THE ARTS OF THE CRAFT TO AFFECT ANOTHER PERSON IN + ANY WAY, UNLESS YOU HAVE THAT PERSON'S EXPLICIT PERMISSION. + + These two are best discussed together, since they replace the + inadequate statement one often finds that "You may not use the arts of + the Craft to work malevolent magic." Notice that the first one says + "cannot," being an observation of fact, wherease the second says "may + not," being a statement of ethics. + The first law states that, IN THE LONG RUN, you can harm no one but + yourself. You cannot benefit from trying to harm another, because you + are part of the fabric of reality, not separate from it. You get + whatever you give, because getting and giving are the same, just as the + trough and the crest are the same wave./ If you set up a pattern of + nasty, callous selfishness around yourself, that is what you have + projected onto the world, and that is all you will experience. If you + act out of genuine affection and concern for others, you receive their + affection and concern as well. The psychic (or life) field seems to + have a single polarity: to create positive effects for yourself, you + must create positive effects for others. And this observation applies + not just to the arts of the Craft, nor to all the psychic arts, but to + life in general. + Now, what the second law points out is that it is the OTHER person's + opinion that determines whether the effects of what you do are positive + or not. This law is the equivalent of the Craft's version of the + "Golden Rule": "Do unto others not as YOU wish to be done under, but as + THEY wish to be done unto--for their tastes may damned well differ from + yours." (Thus this law, most usefully, eliminates any arguments over + how one defines "good" or "evil.") It follows that you may not do + something for what YOU think is someone else's "own good"; you have no + right to make that decision. You may not even work a healing unless you + have permission from the person to be healed; it is unethical to hit an + unprepared person with a jolt of energy. You may work without prior + permission for someone whose karma you are already PERSONALLY involved + with (as a mother for her child, a man for his wife, etc.), but you may + not accept anyone's opinion that another would give permission if + asked; no matter how close two people might be, they neither own one + another nor carry each other's karma, and so cannot give such + permission to another. + + 3. You cannot use the arts of the Craft to win fame, fortune, power, or + any other sort of material or social advantage. + + This again is an observation of how all the psychic arts work, not + just those of the Craft. WHY they work thus is another question--THAT + they do work thus is well-known. Perhaps the simplest explanation is + that if your major motive for working is (or becomes) a desire for + fame, fortune, etc., you soon get into a headspace where psychic + abilities simply cannot function; many erstwhile psychics throughout + history have lost their abilities and become charlatans, because they + did not know this rule. You can (as many people do) make your living by + a psychic art, as long as you charge only enough to live comfortably by + your society's standards; it is only going on a "power trip" that would + endanger your abilities. Similarly, doing trips on people without their + knowledge (or the magician's favorite project, raising "demons" in + order to control them) is another sort of power trip, and will have + exactly the same effect on your abilities. A more traditionals Craft + statement of this rule would be, "The arts of the Craft are the gift of + the Goddess; if you misuse them, She will take them back." + + 4. You cannot use the arts of the Craft for show, in pretence, but only + in earnest, and only in need. + + If you work a ritual, it will have effects, whether you think you + want it to or not. Therefore you cannot "pretend" to throw a hex, for + example; the Lady does not recognize pretence. On the other hand, you + cannot work the arts successfully just because you WANT to, as a head + trip; the Lady won't cooperate. You have to need the energy or the + information for some real purpose, else you can't tap into it. (At + least, this is what meaning I have seen in this law so far.) + + 5. The arts of the Craft can only be worked in a circle with at least + one other person of the opposite sex. + + This "law" is actually just a set of definitions, though important + ones, as follows. (a) The arts of the Craft are defined as those that + will work only under these conditions; psychic arts that work under + other conditions are thus not necessarily part of the Craft. (b) A + coven consists of at least one man and one woman; it cannot consist of + all men or all women. (c) If you're working by yourself, you are + working as a magician, not as a witch--but you are still obliged by + your oaths to the Lady to observe the other Craft Laws. (For more on + this last point, see #12.) + + 6. A man must learn the arts of the Craft from a woman, a woman from a + man, except between parent and child. + + Since #5 defines the arts of the Craft as those that only work in + the circle, obviously they can only be learned in the circle. If you're + working with just one other person, that person must be of the opposite + sex, else the arts won't work, and nothing can be learned. Thus it + seems logical that this tradition applies only to a one-to-one teacher- + apprentice relationship. If you're not in the circle, and/or are + teaching a mixed group of men and women, obviously there's no problem. + (This tradition MAY imply that the arts WILL work for two women if they + are mother and daughter, or for father and some, since part of the key + to the working, and the learning, seems to be the emotional closeness + between the two; consider section IV, last para, in Aporrheton 10.) + + 7. You must always pay whatever price is asked, without haggling or + complaining, when you buy something to be used for the Craft. + + The Gardnerian Craft Laws (section IV, para 4, of Apor. 10) allow + the arts of the Craft to be used to persuade someone to sell something, + as long as his asking price is met, but this would violate our Law #2. + In contrast, this law here is a safeguard against using your psychic + talents not-quite-consciously to take unfair advantage of someone. + + 8. You cannot belong to more than one coven at a time. + + Any two covens will likely have rather different symbolic systems + for their workings, different understandings of the Craft Laws, and so + on. Trying to work with both would then tend to confuse you, snarl up + your communication lines to the Lade, and reduce the efficiency of your + learning and working. Of course, if two covens do have identical + systems (which could only happen if they shared a common ancestry), + they could be considered the same cove, for the purposes under + discussion here. + In its original context (see section III, Apor. 10), this law seems + merely an observation of fact: even if you're working with two or more + covens, you will only BELONG to one of them; your loyalty will be with + that one, and if there were a parting of the ways, you would stick with + it. Obviously, in time of persecution, divided loyalties and + disagreements could be a source of great danger, and would have to be + forbidden. Also, in a Craft structure where the High Priestess has + final authority within each coven, she would not much like having a + Witch she is trying to train be influenced by another Priestess. True, + these considerations don't apply to us, but they are valid as reasons + for the tradition. + + 9. None can coven with others they cannot agree with. + + Stated this way, this law becomes an etymological tautology, for + "coven" means "to agree" (or "to come together"). The more those in a + coven can agree on the interpretation of the Craft Laws, on the + symbolic system used for workings, on the purposes of the workings, the + greater the coven's effectiveness will be. Naturally, minor + disagreements will crop up regularly in a group of individualists; they + are not what this law concers. Rather, it applies to disagreements (or + bad interpersonal feelings) that are strong enough that they are + amplified by the group field, make the meeting unpleasant, and so make + it impossible for the coven to work. For this reason--not, one may + hope, out of mere in-group exclusiveness or arbitrariness--acoven must + select its members carefully for compatibility. Also, since a coven is + necessarily a "small group," many normal small-group processes will + operate in it. These can be powerful, and emotionally very heavy, but + there's nothing mysterious about them. Don't mistake them for something + occult; that would lead you up a blind alley. + + 10. You must not betray the secrets that cannot be told. + + The secrets in question here are Her secrets, the ones discussed in + the Caution to the Novices. Insofar as these Craft Laws are simply + observations of how psychic reality works (and it is for that, really, + that we should value them) then they are "self-enforcing" like any + other statement of fact. So what this law means is: (a) Don't commit + suicide; (b) Don't violate your own sense of your self-integrity; (c) + Don't "sell your soul to the devil"; (d) If you stick your finger in a + flame, you'll get burned. + + 11. ALL POWER IN THE CRAFT COMES FROM THE GODDESS. + + This law is another observation about how psychic reality works. + The energy that is raised in the circle comes not from any one person, + nor from all the persons in the coven as individuals, but from + somewhere else: from the Goddess, or from some source ever further + beyond. Such energy, like all psychic energy, comes THROUGH you, not + from you; it is not your personal property, for you are merely a + channel for it, a custodian of it. You do "own" your body and your + individual personality, and you are entitled to the fruits of your + labors, but the energy is not yours to exploit for your own benefit, + for any human being could (potentially) learn to do anything you can + do. Therefore, although you have a right to earn a living, the Craft is + free to all, being a gift of the Goddess: you may not charge anyone + even a penny to be initiated into the Craft or to learn its arts. Of + course, you should insist on having your actual expenses covered; the + Craft Laws do not require you to operate at a loss or to coddle + freeloaders. But you may not make money from practicing the Craft as a + religion, and if you try, you will lose all access to the power. + This law also means that the only genuine initiations in the Craft + are those worked (though not necessarily directly) by the Goddess + Herself. That is, if you have the power from the Goddess, credentials + from other people are unnecessary, and if you don't have any power from + the Goddess, credentials from other people are useless. Hence there can + be no authority in the Craft outside each coven. + This law also provides another definition: any power that comes from + the Goddess could be part of the Craft; so any poet who has experienced + the reality of the Muse is, to that extent, a Witch. Conversely, any + energy that cannot be conceptualized as coming from the Goddess (and + apparently there ARE such forms of the energy) is definitely not part + of the Craft. (The tradition that the Priestess is supreme within the + circle also appears to be a special case of this law, insofar as only + the Priestess can incarnate the Goddess.) + + 12. IF SOMEONE INTENDS TO HARM YOU, YOU MAY USE THE ARTS OF THE CRAFT + TO RESTRAIN HIM FROM DOING SO, BUT ONLY IF ALL IN THE COVEN AGREE + THAT HE WILL IN NO WAY BE HARMED BY THE WORKING. + + No matter what the provocation, trying to harm another will only + create bad karma for yourself. So, although you have an absolute right + to protect yourself, you must not retaliate. As is said in K'ung Fu, + "Solve the problem, no less, no more." The reason why the coven must + discuss the situation and agree on the workings is twofold: (1) to + allow cooler minds to prevail, for it is when one acts on impulse, out + of anger, that one is most likely to overstep the line between + self-defense and aggression; and (2) because those in the coven, having + taken an oath to help one another, and being linked by the generation + of the group psychic field, will all share to some extent in any bad + karma generated by any member's misuse of the arts. If you are one who + can only learn the hard way, say, by sticking your finger into a flame, + you are of course free to burn your own fingers--but NOT if you are + holding someone else's hand, which is exactly the situation if you + belong to a coven. For its own self-preservation, a coven must + therefore retain the right, as a last resort, to expel (and cut loose + from the karma of) any member who persists in interfering in other + people's lives without their permission or, of course, who attempts + even blacker workings. + + 13. Always remember that all mankind and all creatures are equally + children of the Goddess; therefore never boast or threaten, or do + anything that might disgrace Her or your brothers and sisters in + the Craft. + + To blather thoughtlessly about the Craft, especially to persons who + have no business knowing about your coven's affairs, not only drains + your own energy and that of your coven, but also is a form of boasting, + of using the Craft for self-aggrandizement, that will get you into the + bad headspace law #3 warns about. More obviously, threatening to "hex" + someone, even though you THINK you have no intention of doing so, + violates the intent of laws 1 through 4, because you are playing games + with the Lady, who just might decide to act on the threat, and because + you are using the Craft (especially if you are known to be a Witch) to + influence another against his will and to get your own way; + furthermore, making such a threat reinforces the false impression most + people have of the Craft, and so disgraces the Goddess. Again, since + anyone could learn to do anything you can do, being a Witch doesn't + make you any better than anyone else; put on airs, and the Lady will + deflate you. Perhaps a good rule of thumb about discussing the Craft + with outsiders is this: once you are convinced that someone's interest + is sincere, then answer questions, fully and freely; but don't just + volunteer information that has in no way been asked for, else you risk + burdening that person with more information than he or she is able to + cope with. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/aquinas.txt b/religious documents/aquinas.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ade780 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/aquinas.txt @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +ST. THOMAS AQUINAS, (1225?-74) + +The Roman Catholic church regards St. Thomas Aquinas as its +greatest theologian and philosopher. Pope John XXII canonized him +in 1323, and Pius V declared him a doctor of the church in 1567. +Leo XIII made him patron of Roman Catholic schools in 1880. + +Thomas Aquinas, or Thomas of Aquino, was born in about 1225 in the +castle of Roccasecca, near Naples. His father was the count of Aquino. +The boy received his early education at the abbey of Monte Cassino +before attending the University of Naples. While at the university +Thomas came under the influence of the Dominicans, an order of +mendicant preaching friars. In spite of the opposition of his family, +he joined the order. His brothers captured him and imprisoned him at +Roccasecca. After two years he escaped. + +The Dominicans then sent Thomas to Cologne to study with Albertus +Magnus, the most learned man of the time. In 1252 Thomas was in Paris +composing his 'Commentaries on the Books of Sentences of Peter the +Lombard'. He was later admitted as master of theology at the +University of Paris. In 1259 the pope called Thomas to Rome. He spent +the rest of his life lecturing and preaching in the service of his +order, chiefly in Italian cities and in Paris. He died on March 7, +1274, while traveling to a church council at Lyons. + +A revival of learning had begun in Western Europe toward the end of +the 11th century. By the 13th century many universities had been +founded. They were linked to the church, and the chief subjects taught +were theology and the liberal arts. The teachers were called Schoolmen +or Scholastics. Thomas was recognized in his lifetime as the greatest +of the Schoolmen and was known as the "angelic doctor." + +The Schoolmen accepted Christian doctrines as beyond dispute, but they +also studied the ancient Greek philosophers. Until the 13th century +they relied on Plato as interpreted by St. Augustine of Hippo. +Aristotle's treatises on logic were also admitted into the schools, +but his other works, which were known in their Arabic translations, +were forbidden because of their pantheistic tendencies. Albertus +Magnus introduced Thomas to the works of Aristotle, which were +beginning to be translated from the original Greek. Thomas set himself +the tasks of harmonizing Aristotle's teachings with Christian +doctrine. + +Thomas held that there are two sources of knowledge: revelation +(theology) and reason (philosophy). He held that revelation is a +divine source of knowledge and that revealed truths must be believed +even when they cannot be fully understood. His literary output was +enormous. At times he dictated to several scribes on different +subjects. His chief works are 'Summa Contra Gentiles' and 'Summa +Theologiae'. diff --git a/religious documents/archangl.txt b/religious documents/archangl.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd73ca1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/archangl.txt @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ + +Date: 12-26-89 22:25 +From: Paul Hume +To: All +Subj: Archangels + +EID:5980 139ab334 + Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. + For those who have expressed an interest, here are the images I use for + the Archangels in the Quarters. I trust not too badly mauled by the + vagaries of the text processor available on my Apple II... + + Raphael: Fair skin, blonde hair, delicate but strong features. Dressed in + yellow robe shot with mauve threads. He holds a Caduceus. Raphael stands + lightly upon a spring-green field, wet with dew. The rising Sun backlights +him in pure, golden/white morning light. His wings are white with gold + highlights. + + Gabriel: This is the one that may seem wierdest. Sea-green hair, pale +blue + skin, in a scaled robe of blue with orange highlights. His features are + aquiline - classical Roman. He bears a great Cup. He stands above the + billowing waves of the sea, backlit in Orange light by the setting Sun. His + wings are white with blue-green highlights. + + Michael: He stands in the desert, or sometimes a sun-baked field of bare + soil, under the blazing noonday sun. Red hair, golden-tan face, strong, + square features. Red metallic robe with green highlights flashing from it. + He bears a great sword two-handed. His arms and shoulders are those of a + warrior. Wings are coppery. + + Auriel: Auriel stands on the mountains - black, silent, snowcapped - but + looking down over a fertile valley, filled with crops and lowing cattle and + bleating sheep. He is dressed in simple robes, almost homespun, of the +four + Earth colors, russet predominating. He bears a platter of the fruits of +the + soil, and I often see Him bearing a shepherd's crook or staff. It is night + yet cold, silver light illuminates the scene - whether from the Moon or +"the + midnight Sun" I cannot yet tell. Auriel has dark hair, Mediterranean + complexion, a half-round, half-square face with a pleasant smile. His +wings + are dark - black with bluish highlights, like a raven's. + + Mostly, I just get a hint of the Archangelic image. Instead, the Solar +image + of the Quarter (rising, setting, noonday, etc.) floods the circle with the + appropriate color of light. I also usually feel a breeze from Raphael, a + humid tingling sensation from Gabriel, prickling heat from Michael, and + solid, massive stability from Auriel. + + Well - not too bad apart from some oddities in the line wraps... Gods + I hate trying to get from an Apple WP prog, either Mac or II, into + flat ASCII - always some crud crops up. + Hope these are of some use. Love is the law, love under will. + Paul +--- ConfMail V3.31 + * Origin: Zonzr - Fairfax, Va 703 845-1125 Opus 1.03b (1:109/114) diff --git a/religious documents/aristocr.txt b/religious documents/aristocr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa00575 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/aristocr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,179 @@ +This file is an exerpt from The Book of Darkness, an official work of the Ordo +Templi Satanis, P.O. Box 1093, Atwater, CA 95301. It is copyright 1991. All +persons are hereby given permission to make copies and/or distribute this +exerpt, so long as in so doing the contents of this work is not altered in any +way, including this paragraph. + +The Satanic Aristocracy (From the Book of the World) + +Given the premise that there is, indeed, a natural aristocracy at work in the +population, the question must be raised: how should this aristocracy comport +itself? By what strictures should it govern its own behavior? + +At the onset, it should be remembered that it is unreasonable to assume the +natural aristocracy would act according to the same restrictions and under the +same assumptions as the Masses. Being possessed of abilities, inner drives, and +creative forces totally beyond the ken of the ordinary masses, the natural +aristocrat cannot be expected to lower himself to the level of the ordinary +citizen. Indeed, it is the aristocrat who is called upon by society to engage +in the grandest acts of self-sacrifice by being forced into the role of leader +and driving impetus for society as a whole. + +No rational person, and certainly not the Satanic aristocrat, would think of +engaging in such self-sacrifice (or indeed, in self-sacrifice of any kind) +without expecting to receive some-thing in return. Whether the rewards for such +endeavors are material or psychic, they should be forthcoming. For the most +part, the economic system built into Western society provides the means for +such rewards to be attained; power and wealth are usually quite readily +attainable by anyone with the drive, ability, and desire of the Satanic +aristocrat. + +This, then, becomes the motive for the Satanic aristocrats selfless actions of +leadership and innovation. Bearing the brunt of economic, scientific, and +cultural progress, the members of the aristocracy can naturally assume they +will bear the chief portion of its output. The masses of humanity, lacking the +special instincts and abilities of the members of the natural aristocracy, are +merely drawn along in the currents thus created; going along for a free ride, +as it were, on the coattails of the aristocracy. It is not too much to ask of +the Masses that they contribute in some gross material way to the successes +envisaged by the aristocracy. In this way, the interaction between the +aristocracy and the Masses can be seen as a symbiotic relationship; the Satanic +aristocrats provide the vision and the drive, while the herd-like masses +provide the labor and gross raw materials required to bring about the +realization of these visions. + +The Satanist, in his role as natural aristocrat, creator, and visionary leader, +must comport himself in a partial dichotomy. On the one hand, individual effort +and self-reliance is the key which unlocks the creative drive which defines the +Satanist. The greatest doom that a Satanist can bring upon himself is to adopt +the herd mentality of the Masses; in so doing, the creative impulses are +stifled and the very aristocratic qualities become numbed. It is quite possible +for a Satanist to betray his own self and one day awake to find himself +numbered among the herd. + +On the other hand, the Satanist must act in concert with the other members of +the Aristocracy, providing a consistent and coherent vision for the Masses to +follow. Conflict between the members of the aristocracy, when they arise, must +be dealt with swiftly and with a minimum of divulgence to the masses; the +aristocracy must at all times appear as a monolithic, comforting, and stable +institution. In order to maintain the malleability and complacency of the +Masses, their feeling of comfort and stability must never be threatened by +perceived internal dissension among the aristocracy. This is one reason why +civil wars in particular strike such a distasteful chord in the mass psyche. +Ordinary wars can be understood and even tolerated, but civil wars, where the +leadership is seen to be at odds with itself, are intolerable. Note too that, +despite all protestations to the contrary, and all the different -"isms" and +ideologies at work in the world, there is still a subconscious perception that, +whatever side they purport to represent, a leader is a leader, and ultimately +all leaders are on the same side. + +This necessary confluence of the aristocracy is mirrored on the individual +level. Not only must the different members of the aristocracy act in concert, +but so too the individual Satanist cannot be at odds against himself. This is +important for a variety of reasons, magical and mundane, but it comes down to +the fact that the Will is the key to the success of the Satanist, and the Will +cannot be effectively employed and directed as long as the mind is divided +against itself. + +The Satanist, then, must possess great stores of self discipline. At all times, +the mind of the Satanist must be clear and unmuddled, free from exterior and +internal factors that might serve to disrupt the flow of both the intellect and +the Will. Specifically, this includes the use of psychotropic drugs, excessive +use of alcohol, etc. The very idea of a Satanist being addicted to drugs or +alcohol is self-contradictory: the Satanist by definition is a master of his +own Will. How can one be the master of his own Will when he cannot even control +an impulsive craving for a certain substance, especially a substance which +limits, slows, and eventually destroys the very intellectual process that +separates Satanists from the masses in the first place? No, the answer must lie +in self-control at all times for the Satanist. It is impossible to achieve +consistent, conscious acts of the Will when the Will itself is clouded. + +The necessary individualism, when combined with the necessary self-discipline +required of the Satanist, creates an essential dichotomy within each and every +true member of the natural Satanic aristocracy. This inner tension is quite +important to the creative process as well, and it can be said that it is these +contradictory impulses which make an individual great. It must also be +remembered that in no way does one impulse outweigh or negate the other. It is +certainly possible, for instance, to achieve inner self-discipline without +sacrificing individuality. So too is it possible to accept a certain amount of +exteriorly imposed regimentation, as long as such is done by a conscious choice +of the Will, and as long as the modes of individual expression and choice are +not utterly extinguished in so doing. By way of an example, a Satanist could +certainly join the military, which imposes a great deal of exterior order on +the individual, without sacrificing all individualism. However, it would not be +acceptable for the Satanist to, for example, join a group which practices overt +psychological conditioning ("brain washing", "love bombing", "leader worship"), +for the very nature of such procedures destroys the individual's ability to +make unbiased conscious decisions. The Satanist must never allow any force, +psychological, chemical, or otherwise, to exert control over his Will. + +The Satanic aristocracy sees the masses as tools; means by which the ends +envisioned may be achieved. To this point of view, it must be added that +individual suffering, as such, is irrelevant. The ends are all that matter to +the Satanist; the means are chosen based on totally utilitarian and logical +decisions. + +Does this mean that the Satanist should go around eliminating people merely +because it happens to be expedient? Certainly not. Do you throw a brick through +a window because it would be easier than opening that window? Of course not. +Why, then, would the Satanist think so little of the tools that nature has +provided that they would be squandered for a mere moment's pleasure, or merely +to shave a few minutes off the completion of a task. + +On the other hand, this should not be taken to mean that the Satanist will go +out of his way to sustain the life of any individual, merely for its own sake. +If one of the masses must be sacrificed in order to achieve a worthwhile goal, +then the Satanist should have no qualms about doing so. For example, consider +some of the great autocratic leaders of history; Ramses, Alexander, Caesar, +Napoleon, and Hitler. All of them have three things in common. First, they were +all autocratic tyrants who were directly responsible for the deaths of millions +of people. Second, they lost; their empires were destroyed around them, usually +in a vast Gotterdammerung. Lastly, all will live for aeons beyond their +physical bodies, in the minds of the men that live after them. Given enough +time, the barbarity of their deeds fades, and only their glory remains. This +process is called remainfestation by some; the achievement of immortality +through one's impact on history. Living beyond one's years in the hearts and +minds of others. + +True, these are extreme examples of the principle, but still valid ones. No +price is too great to pay for such immortalization. And, truth be told, the +masses on whom those leaders built their reputations are also vicariously +immortalized as well; where would Napoleon be without his armies? What would +Ramses have done without the vast ranks of slaves to create his monuments? +Whether you are a leader or a follower, immortality has a heavy price. + +This idea also precludes the killing of an individual merely for personal +pleasure, or for sport (unless, of course, that individual is fully cognizant +of what is happening, and agrees to the process. There is nothing inherently +wrong with suicide, if it makes the individual happy, free of a life of pain +and anguish, truly happy, perhaps, for a brief moment, for the first time in a +long and miserable life). This stricture is not based on any arbitrary and +facetious respect for life, as such, but rather on very sound and concrete +bases. + +First, to have the aristocracy go around and slay members of the masses with +impunity would clearly and immediately undermine the position of power of the +aristocracy. Such freedoms would instantly destabilize the social situation and +would probably lead to a bloody revolt on the part of the masses aimed at the +aristocracy. This was certainly a factor in the French Revolution. Such an +upheaval would certainly lie squarely contrary to the interests of the +aristocracy as a whole and its individual members. Such behavior on the part of +the aristocrats would destroy the sense of complacency enjoyed by the masses, +which is necessary for the smooth continuation of the path of societal +evolution, and as such should be banned. To allow it would run counter to every +goal of the aristocracy. + +Too, such a squandering of the lives of the masses would represent, ultimately, +a sacrifice of material resources on the part of the aristocrat in question. +Once more we are left to consider the question of the window; but in this +instance you don't even want the window open; you merely want to hear the glass +break. Is that worth the expense of a new window? Probably not. + +Once more, however, we must reiterate the relativity of every decision. There +is no way that every circumstance can be foreseen, and thus there is no way +that any code of behavior can be totally applicable to every situation. In the +end, the value of each individual life must be decided individually, bearing in +mind that some lives are definitely worth more than others. + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/arknoah.txt b/religious documents/arknoah.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..42c1ac5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/arknoah.txt @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +Excavation pictures may reveal Noah's Ark +-!--------------------------------------- +by Andrew Turner + + ADELAIDE: An archaeologist has released graphic photos of the +excavation of a vessel believed to be Noah's Ark. + + Mr Jonathan Gray says the latest discoveries at the site near Mt. +Ararat on the Iran-Turkey border confirm it is one of history's most +significant archaeological finds. + + And the vessel's measurements are believed to conform almost exactly +with the 300 by 50 by 30 cubits (a cubit is about 50cm) specified by God +when he gave the building instructions to Noah in chapter 6 of the book +of Genesis. + + The Turkish government, which ordered the excavation of the site, is +taking the find so seriously it is constructing a viewing platform and a +four-lane highway in preparation for the predicted tourist boom. + + Mr Gray, who has returned from the site, became involved in the +excavation about two years ago. + + "There were some people who tended to suggest that it was just a freak +of nature, a big rock formation." he said. + + "I am a sceptic by nature. two years ago, I was a big sceptic but I +wanted to satisfy myself about this as I am so interested in +archaeology. + + "There is enough evidence for anyone who really wants the truth. But +we hope to be able to excavate enough of the remains to convince even +the most hardened sceptic." + + According to the Bible, the craft was built after Noah was chosen by +God to perpetuate the human race after floods devastated the earth. Mr +Gray says the flood occured about 2345 BC. + + Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wifes and male and female +specimens of animals were said to have been at sea for 13 months before +floodwaters receded enough for them to return to land. + + Mr Gray is set to return to the site later this year when underground +investigation begins. + + Originally he was called in to confirm that the relic was +archaeological and not natural. + + This week he released detailed pictures of the site and relics +discovered during the latest dig, which concluded late last year. + + In modern-day dimensions, the three-storey "ark" is about 150m long, +30m wide and 15m tall. + + Mr Gray said the vessel, found about 2000m above sea level, was +covered by about 2.5m of mud, caused by a volcanic eruption. + + Earthquakes in 1958 and 1977 had forced it to the surface, enabling +detailed investigations to begin. + + Mr Gray said radar tests on the site had revealed a structure in the +ground, animal remains, rivets and other outlines. + + The body of the "hull" has been lifted out of the ground about 6m and +the structure extends about 8m underground. + + "It has all the characteristics of the ark as described in the old +records," Mr Gray said. "The structure shows rooms and passageways and +doors and ramps." + +Hunter says his cynicism is gone +-!------------------------------ + + Jonathan Gray was sceptical when he was told archaeologists had +discovered what they believed was Noah's ark. + + After 26 years in the field, he joined American ark hunter Ron Wyatt. +Mr Gray said his cynicism vanished. + + "There is enough evidence for anyone who really wants the truth. But +we hope to be able to excavate enough of the remains to convince even +the most hardened sceptic." + + No more work will be carried out on the Mt Ararat site, about 2000m +above sea level, until May when a thick layer of snow has melted. + + Mr Gray says that when a collection of metal rivets, timber samples +and animal remains appeared after 1991, archaeologists knew they had +"the real thing". + + Subsequent testing confirmed the age and composition of the relics. + + The hull's 7m ribs and detailed room structures and animal remains +were found during an expedition led by Mr Gray from October to December +last year. One of the most startling discoveries was part of a pair of +deer antlers. + + "There is a base of one," Mr Gray says. + + "It would indicate that there was an animal inside that boat-shaped, +man-made object that shed its antler during the time it was in that +vessel." diff --git a/religious documents/art262.txt b/religious documents/art262.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36dd96b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/art262.txt @@ -0,0 +1,95 @@ +7 Important Questions Boys and Girls Ask... + +1. WHO IS GOD? + +God lives in Heaven. He made the earth, the stars, the animals and people. He +made everything and knows everything. God is good. + +"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that +whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" John +3:16. + +2. WHO IS JESUS? + +Jesus is God's Son who has never sinned. Jesus, who lived in Heaven, came to +live on earth. He loves you and wants you to go to Heaven... He does not want +you to go to Hell. So, He died on a cross to take away your sins. He was +buried. Then after three days He came out of the grave and went back to +Heaven, where He lives now. + +3. WHERE DID WE COME FROM? + +God made all people. The first man and women were named Adam and Eve. God was +their friend and He gave them a beautiful garden to live in. + +God made everything and everyone in the whole world. He made YOU. "In the +beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Gen. 1:1 + +4. WHO IS THE DEVIL? + +The devil was a bad angel. He hated God and wanted His power. That was sin. +God told the devil he could no longer be one of God's angels. So He is God's +enemy. + +5. WHAT IS SIN? + +Sin means to go against God's word. The devil tries to make us go against +God's word. + +One day the devil came to Eve in the garden and told her to eat some fruit +from a certain tree... which God had told her not to do! + +The devil lied. He said, "You won't die if you eat the fruit!" So Eve ate the +fruit and gave some to Adam. + +Everyone has sinned. You have sinned. + +"All have sinned" Romans 3:23. + +6. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE DIE? + +God must punish sin. So He tells us in His Book the Bible, what that +punishment will be. He says, "The wages of sin is death" Romans 6:23. All who +have sinned will go to a place called Hell when they die. There is much sorrow +and pain there. + +But if you ask Jesus to forgive your sins, He will take you to Heaven. Heaven +is a wonderful place where there is no pain or sorrow or death. It is full of +happiness. + +"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Romans +10:13. + +7. HOW CAN YOU GO TO HEAVEN? + +Jesus said you must believe that He died and rose again to take away your +sins. Receive Him now as your Saviour. When you do, He will forgive you and +cleanse you from sin and take you to heaven when you die. "As many as received +Him to them gave he power to become the sons of God.." John 1:12 + +"...ye must be born again." John 3:7 + +By Paul J. Levin + +HERE IS HOW TO PRAY + +"Dear Heavenly Father, I love you. I thank you for sending your son Jesus to +die for me on the cross. I ask you now to forgive me of my sins. I receive +your son Jesus into my heart. I want to live and work for you. Thank you for +taking away my sins. In the name of Jesus. Amen." + +Reprint permission was granted to Computers for Christ #22 for the expressed +purpose of posting this tract in electronic form. Please DO NOT modify this +file nor distribute hard copies of this file. + +Printed copies for distribution are available from the Gospel Tract Society +for a donation. + +The Gospel Tract Society is supported by our contributions. Please help them +continue their work by sending them a contribution today. + + The Gospel Tract Society, Inc. + P.O. Box 1118 + Independence, MO 64061 + + diff --git a/religious documents/art279.txt b/religious documents/art279.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f94942 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/art279.txt @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ +TEENAGERS + +Are you having problems in your life? Do you have questions that no one can +seem to answer? If you do, Jesus can change your life and give you the kind of +happiness that you have never experienced before!!! In John 10:10 Jesus says, +"... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more +abundantly." + +Are things such as drugs or sex taking control of your life? Are your friends +pressuring you into doing things that you really don't want to do? + +Jesus Christ can help you conquer any problem that you may face in your life! +The Bible says in Philippians, "I can do all things through Christ which +strengtheneth me." We are promised in Romans 8:37, "Nay, in all these things +we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." + +Are you having problems dealing with family troubles such as divorce or +separation? If so, Jesus can help you through the problem, and help you do +something about it. Jesus knows there's going to be trouble in your life and +that is why in Psalm 46:1 the Bible promises us that "God is our refuge and +strength, a very present help in trouble." In Philippians 4:6-7, it says, "Be +careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with +thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, +which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through +Christ Jesus." Prayer is a very powerful tool if only you take advantage of +it. + +There is no question of whether or not you need Jesus. But accepting Him is +your choice. Jesus can change your life, and in every respect make it better. +Jesus says in Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any +man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him." If you want to +accept Jesus into your heart, and have Him become the master of your life, +pray this prayer: + +"Jesus, I really need you in my life. I know that I've sinned against you, +please forgive me. I know that you died for me. I now dedicate the rest of my +life to you. Jesus, I love you! Amen." + +Now that you have found true happiness in Jesus, won't you care enough to tell +your friends how they, too, can find happiness in Jesus. + +Written by Scott A. Kelsey, February 1, 1986. + +Scott Allen Kelsey was shot accidentally by his hunting companion on Sunday, +February 9, 1986. He went to meet the Lord February 10, 1986. He was 17 years +old and was a Senior at Independence Christian School in Independence, +Missouri. He was an active member of his church youth group and was a blessing +to everyone who knew him. The week before his death he wrote this tract as an +assignment for his Bible class. This was his message to all teenagers and +adults alike. This tract is in memory of Scott A. Kelsey, in hope that is will +help teenagers and adults to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. + +Reprint permission was granted to Computers for Christ #22 for the expressed +purpose of posting this tract in electronic form. Please DO NOT modify this +file nor distribute hard copies of this file. + +Printed copies for distribution are available from the Gospel Tract Society +for a donation. + +The Gospel Tract Society is supported by our contributions. Please help them +continue their work by sending them a contribution today. + + The Gospel Tract Society, Inc. + P.O. Box 1118 + Independence, MO 64061 + + + diff --git a/religious documents/art291.txt b/religious documents/art291.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1f0151 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/art291.txt @@ -0,0 +1,98 @@ +QUESTION #5 + + WEREN'T WE FOUNDED BY DEISTS + UNRULY ADVENTURERS AND RELIGIOUS CASTAWAYS? + +This stereotype presented in TV docu-dramas and history classrooms +throughout the nation is one of the greatest defamations of +national character ever perpetrated upon a people. + +The influence of Deism in America was minimal until the nineteenth +century when it made inroads through the Unitarian Church and the +atheistic philosophy of the French Revolution. During our Founding +period, however, it had little influence. According to history Perry +Miller, Deism was strictly "an exotic plant" imported from europe which +did not flourish here. This distinguished historian also makes the point +that the colonial clergy presented to the people a religious rationale +for the American Revolution which united them behind its goals. Deism +was incapable of producing such a phenomenon. it professed a belief in +one God but denied the divine origin of Scriptures. Its weak philosophy +of a non-active, spectator God who left all the affairs of the world to +human whim was no match for the powerful Biblical faith of the majority +of our people in the Founding Father generation. Even Jefferson and +Franklin, the two men most often quoted as being Deists, give little +credence to the view in there writings. Undoubtedly, both of these men +did imbibe a mixture of European religious heresy, but the predominant +influence upon their world continued to be Christian. + + Franklin's Plea for Public Prayer + +In the summer of 1787 a feeling of desperation and deadlock had +descended upon the Consitutional Convention. Men from various states +were planning to leave and it would be years before they could gather +again for another try at bringing the loosely-knit confederation colonies +together to form a republic. + +On June 28, 1787, as the Convention was ready to adjourn in dissension, +a wise old man addressed its President, George Washington, with quiet +simplicity: + + "How has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of + humbly appealing to the Father of lights to illuminate our + understandings? in the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, + when we were sensible to danger, we had daily prayers in this room + for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard and they were + graciously answered...I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer + I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God + governs in the affairs of men.-And if a sparrow cannot fall to the + ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise + without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings + that'except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build + it.'....I firmly believe this..." + +Benjamin Franklin's words were heeded and the Convention went on to +complete its task. Although Franklin is often classified as a Deist, it +is clear from the above statements that he had been deeply influenced by +the Christian world-view and such great Christian ministers as George +Whitefield. + +It could be well argued that many Christians today have acted more like +Deists than the few accused of this heresy in our founding, because +today we often give lip service to the Lord Jesus Christ over all +things, but then act as though He were an absentee, distant monarch just +biding His time to claim His throne! + + + Don't Believe What You See? + +Regarding the charge that wild adventurers and womanizers roamed the +land in early America, there is little need for refutation. On the +frontier, starting in the times of the Puritans, some scouts and +settlers did precede the church and families, and there were some +atrocities perpetrated upon the Indians and some rowdy settlements. But +as soon as settlements were established and churches were formed, the +immoral and rowdy were made subject to the rule of the law. The +Christian women of the community, especially, demanded it. Our TV +generation has absorbed too much western cowboy-fever, most of it +fictitious distortions of true life in early America. The US News and +World Report (May 21, 1979)reports that the American people receive most +of their knowledge of history from watching TV docu-dramas. And most of +these docu-dramas bear little resemblance to the true story of our +history. Only by going back and reading the original documents, as you +are going to be challenged to do in this study of America's Christian +History, can you determine the real story. + +The truth is that those that saved their money and possesed the fortitude +to settle this country were for the most part character-filled +Christians. Rev R.J. Rushdoony points out that it took two years living +expenses just to cross and settle America and that the well-established +families with the Puritan work ethic and Christian faith were the true +hardy breed that settled our country. These godly men and women, due due +to their family orientation, free-enterprise spirit, and Christian +discipline, maintained cultural dominion over the sin-loving reprobates +that we read so much about. Our history is evidence of the fact that, in +the long-run, nothing can thwart an individual who has an understanding +of his Commission from God to subdue the earth and who believes God for +the victory. + + diff --git a/religious documents/art292.txt b/religious documents/art292.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5180d83 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/art292.txt @@ -0,0 +1,119 @@ +Question 6 + + WAS AMERICA FOUNDED as a CHRISTIAN NATION? + +The question of our Biblical origins has been bandied around in +intellectual circles for many years, especially now that there is a +renewed Christian involvement in the culture of AMerica. + +The major hurdle +in answering the question is to define terms properly. The concept of a +Christian nation is often written off because of misconceptions as to +what this means. A Christian nation is not one in which al people in a +society are all Christians, just as in an Islamic country, not all +people are necessarily Moslems. But in a Christian nation, as our +Founders would have defined it, the principles and institutional +foundations are Biblically based and the people in general share a +Biblical world-view. + +Nor should we confuse the term "Christian Nation" with a "Christian +state." since the word state refers to a political body or the body +politic of the nation, the term "Christian state" would mean one in +which the government ruled in religious matters through a state church. +This would, of course, preclude religious liberty. + + All Laws Are a Codification of a Religious System + +Nevertheless, it is imperative to understand that all laws of a nation +are the codification of a presuppositional world-view, i.e., the laws of +the Untied States have presupposed form the beginning that the Bible was +the foundation of our system. Rev. John Wingate Thornton said: + + "The highest glory of the American Revolution, said John Quincy + Adams, was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond, the + principles of civil government with the PRINCIPLES OF + CHRISTIANITY." + +Rev. Thorton's words condense and paraphrase comments Adams made in a +July 4, 1837 oration, which are even more powerful in their full +statement: + + "Is it not that, in the chain of events, the birthday of the nation + is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Saviour? That it + forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? + + Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the + social compact on the foundation of the Redeemers's mission? That + it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts + of Christianity and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge + of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven + at the birth of the Saviour and predicted by the greatest of the + Hebrew prophets 600 years before?" + +Such convictions as these concerning the Christian foundations of +our government persisted into comparatively recent times. John W. +Whitehead analyzes the Supreme Court's historic understanding of the +relationship between Christianity and government in the United States: + + "In 1892 the United States Supreme Court made an exhaustive study + of the supposed connection between Christianity and the government + of the United States. + + After researching hundreds volumes of + historical documents, the Court asserted 'these references add a + volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances + that this is a religious people...a Christian nation.' Likewise in + 1931, Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland reversed the 1892 + decision in relation to another case and reiterated that Americans + are a 'Christian people' and in 1952 Justice William O. Douglas + affirmed 'we are a religious people and our institutions presuppose + a Supreme Being.'" + + Christianity the Dominant Influence in America + +America was under the dominant influence of Biblical Christianity from +1620 until well into the nineteenth century. There are many who, in +their desire to lay claim to the great accomplishments of that era, have +tried to minimize the Christian influence and take the credit for +themselves. But only God deserves the glory for what He did in the +founding of this great nation. + +People from many denominations came to America in the early years, but +the vast majority of them shared a common faith in the basic tenets of +Christianity. Whitehead's research reveals that + + "when the Constitution was adopted and sent to the States for + ratification, the population of America numbered only about 3 1/4 + million. The Christian population numbered at least 2 million. + James c. Hefley has commented that about 900,00 were Scotch or + Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, with another million also holding to + basic Calvanistic beliefs." + + Christian Nation in Apostasy + +It must be admitted that today, although we are still essentially a +Christian nation in form (i.e., the Constitutional, legal structure, +church affiliation), we are not one in conduct. For the first 250 years +of our existence Christian character determined the conduct of +self-government in homes, churches, and civil society. But today we have +forgotten our heritage and only the skeleton remains. Even so, deep +within the American character there lingers a Christian conscience ready +to be revived by the spirit of God through awakened american Christian +patriots. + +It should be noted that by stating that America was a Christian nation +we are not saying that we were the "New Israel" or a special race that +God must bless. Quite the contrary, God Blessed America because our +forefathers built their nation with reliance on Him and His Word, and +because God had a Gospel purpose for our nation. If we turn from His +purpose we can expect His judgement, perhaps greater judgement than +other nations because "to whom much is given, much is required." + +Every nation can be a nation under God if it chooses to follow Jesus +Christ. Our history is unique in that we were allowed to express the +full flower of Christian civilization and government. This fact should +give us cause to ponder the price we have paid for the maintenance of +our Christian liberty. Will we be the generation that presides over its +death? + + diff --git a/religious documents/artical.txt b/religious documents/artical.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1921ee8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/artical.txt @@ -0,0 +1,465 @@ + MY CRAFT ETHICS BY JAMES CROWLEY III 12/19/86 + + + + MY CRAFT ETHICS + + Copyright by James T. Crowley III 1986 + + This artical may be reproduced for personal + use as long as it is complete and un edited + + There are doubtlessly readers of this article that believe I have + no ethics. Those readers are intitled to there opinion however + shallow I may feel that opinion is. + + I am the High Priest of Covenant Of The Doves, the comments I make + here are necessarily my personal ethics and viewpoint and not that + of my High Priestess or members of the Coven. Even as a leader + of a coven, I have no right or power to speak for another + person. They do however necessarily govern my actions as a High + Priest. + + The only way I know to state my ethical viewpoint is by a + annotated resitation of the Laws of the Craft of the Wise as they + pertain to ethics and have been revealed to me by my teachers, + the writings of others and that which the Lord and Lady have made + clear to me through their visions and actions. + + I bear the mundane name Crowley that has a certain significance + in the craft community beyond my personal contributions. Yes, I + am prowed of the legacy of that name as members of my family have + played important parts in history. Aleister Crowley was by no + means the most important of them nor the least. + + Aleister Crowley, the Current Lord Crowley and myself all bear + common accestors to Sir Ambrose Crowley, Lord Mayor of London (at + the time of Cromwell) and author of the 'Law Book of the Crowley + Iron Works' which is considered to be the bases of British + statutory law. This, I hope will clear up confusion about my + relationship to Aleister Crowley. + + The name Hearth Witch is far more dear to me than Crowley, as it + represents a true understanding of what the WICCA is. When an + astronaut looks out of the window of his space capsule and sees + the body of our Lady looking back at him. The astronaut knows, + in that moment that technology, and the centuries of mans' labor + that put him there, are pale when compared to the wonders of our + Lady. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 1 + + + + + + MY CRAFT ETHICS BY JAMES CROWLEY III 12/19/86 + + + I feal that it is necessary to explain some of the structure of + the Covenant of the Doves. We say that we have one degree but + that is not strictly true. There are 4 things that happen to a + person on the pathway. We cannot call them degrees as they do + not happen in the same order to each person. + + 1. Dedication to the coven. + + 2. Initiation by the God and Goddess + + 3. Worldly recognition of their Initiation by the Gods + and their ability to act as a Priest or Priestess + + 4. Birth or Adoption into the family which is as permanent + and unrevokable as the Initiation of the Lord and Lady. + + THE WITCH 'LAW' + + Do not what you desire - + do what is necessary. + Take all you are given - + give all of yourself. + "What I have - - - I hold." + When all else is lost, and not until then, + prepare to die with dignity. + + There are two kinds of law, Law of Tribe and the Law of Goddess + (ie: natural law). The Law of Tribe requires the services of a + Priesthood. The Law of the Goddess require no Priesthood as they + are self-inforcing. If you see an apparent violation of the law + of the Goddess, there are only two possible explanations. The + law is not of the Goddess but of man, or you do not understand + that law of the Goddess. If you see a ball fall up, either + someone is deceiving you, or you are in a spacecraft or similar + artificial environment that is manifesting some of the "fine + print" in the law of the Goddess. This partial telling of the + laws contain both the law of the tribe and that of the Goddess. + It is left to the wisdom of the student to learn which is which. + + THE LEADERSHIP OF THE COVEN + + The High Priestess must be an ordained Nymph or a Crone. + The High Priest must be an ordained Magician. + + The High Priestess is the final word on the quality of Worship as + the High Priest is the final word on the quality of Magick within + the WICCA Circles. + + The High Priest's relationship is: Father, Brother, and Lover. + + The Priestess's relationship is: Mother, Sister, and Lover. + + THE PRIEST AND PRIESTESS ARE THE LEADERS OF THE COVEN IN THE + MUNDANE WORLD, NOT IT'S DICTATORS. MEMBERS MUST BE GIVEN A VOICE + IN THE ACTIONS OF THE COVEN. + + + 2 + + + + + + MY CRAFT ETHICS BY JAMES CROWLEY III 12/19/86 + + + The Covenant of the Doves is necessarily a theocracy not a + democracy. Meetings are opened to all who are dedicated and + sometimes to concered outsiders. Whatever the business, it is + open to discussion by all. There are no votes taken because when + it is all said and done, there are only two people in the coven + that bear the responsibility for the actions of this coven, the + High Priestess and the High Priest. So, the final decision is + theirs ALONE. + + When the Circle is cast by The Priest and Priestess, they are + necessarily the ABSOLUTE RULERS OF THE COVEN. No witch shall + enter the Circle with out PERFECT LOVE AND PERFECT TRUST in all + members of the Circle. The only question of the order of the + Priest or Priestess is: if told to jump, it is permissable to ask + how high -- on the way up. + + IF ONE DISAGREES WITH THE DESISION OF THE LEADERS OF ANY COVEN OR + CIRCLE. IT IS THERE RIGHT AND DUTY TO LEAVE THE COVEN. THERE IS + NO OTHER LAWFUL RECOURSE. + + LEADERS MUST BE EVERMINDFUL THAT MEMBERS WILL SOON LEAVE AN + UNJUST LEADER. + + THE LAW OF THE COVEN + + THE CIRCLE IS A PLACE THAT IS NOT A PLACE, BETWEEN THE WORLDS. + + A COVEN IS A FULLY AUTONOMOUS UNIT ANSWERABLE TO NO POWER BEYOND + ITS OWN, SAVE THE LORD AND LADY. + + IN ANY DISPUTE WITHIN THE FAMILY (COVEN) OR TRIBE, NO ONE MAY + INVOKE ANY LAW BUT THOSE OF THE FAMILY AND TRIBE. + + It being known that the Circle is a "place that is not a place, + between the worlds", and that what is between the Worlds does not + concern the World. Dicussion of actions taking place within a + consecrated circle is appropriate for dicussion only within that + Circle, or by Elders of the Craft in a Council of Elders Convened + by the High Priest and High Priestess of the coven involved as + only Elders can or should have any direct knowledge of actions + that take place within the Circle of another Coven. + + With the fragmentation of the WICCA since the burning times, the + identification of Elders of the Craft is at best ambiguous. The + only working definition that I can feel comfortable with is: + Those members of the WICCA community that the High Priest and + High Priestess of the Coven recognize as their peers regardless + of what rank they hold in other circles. + + + + + + + + + + 3 + + + + + + MY CRAFT ETHICS BY JAMES CROWLEY III 12/19/86 + + + THE WORD OF A WITCH NEED NO BOND OR CONTRACT. IT IS NECESSARILY + TRUE AND FREE OF EQUIVOCATION. + + We make it clear to all around us that we do not tolerate lieing. + If it is on the part of a friend or an acquaintance, we will + cease contact with them, if necessary. If it is a member of the + craft, we do not willingly stand in the same circle with them. + If they are a student, this is one of the few areas that we will + invoke banishment as a punishment (or, if there are extenuating + circumstances and the person is of extreme value to the coven and + the Craft, we will consider corporal punishment or an equivalent + alternative proposed by the student to balance the wrong done to + the Coven, in lieu of banishment). If they are an Initiate, it + is necessarily more harmful to the family, and therefore, more + serious. + + PERFECT LOVE AND PERFECT TRUST (my fingers wanted to type love is + the law) + + Perfect love and perfect trust are not words spoken in blind + faith. They do not mean a blanket trust. Perfect love and + perfect trust are what was in the hearts of the few, and most + dear, that when they heard rumors, first came to us and said + "what are these rumors about...". These people knew that as + falible as we are, these rumors were not a reflection of our + will. These people sought to know what happened, not to satisfy + any of their own devices or to judge us, but to share our pain + and the load. These people are of different traditions and + levels of worldly Craft learning, but these people will always + hold a place in my heart second only to my brothers and sisters + that are literally of the My Family. + + THERE ARE THREE KINDS OF SECRETS IN THE WICCA CIRCLE AND ALL ARE + INVIOLATE EXCEPT IN AN ELDER CIRCLE, AND THEN ONLY TO THE EXTENT + THAT THEY ARE RELATIVE TO CRAFT BUSINESS AND HELD IN THAT ELDER + CIRCLE. + + 1. Secrets that are within the Circles that are private + to the members of that coven. + + (ie: when Charlie has a few drinks he..... + + 2. The secret held by the High Priestess and High Priest of + the inside and outside Circle affairs of the coven members, + due to their office. + + 3. The social and magick practices of the Craft that cannot be + talked of outside of the Wicca without being taken out of + context and sensationalized. + + + + + + + + + 4 + + + + + + MY CRAFT ETHICS BY JAMES CROWLEY III 12/19/86 + + + THERE ARE AS MANY WAYS TO LOVE THE GODDESS AS SHE HAS NAMES. + + All ways of loving the Goddess are correct. None are Wrong as + long as they are based in love. + + Say not "they are wrong" say "they are a different path from + mine". + + Until you know in your heart that you have found your path, do + not deny any wicca path that you have not walked. + + When you find your path, still walk other paths with your + brothers and sisters in joy and love. + + "THE WICCA SHALL BE NAKED IN THERE RITE" + + All mankind is naked before God and Goddess. + + NO STRANGER NOT BORN IN THE FAMILY SHALL LEAD THE FAMILY OR A + TOTEM OF THE FAMILY. + + NO ONE WHO RALLIES AGAINST HIS FAMILY OR TRIBE SHALL BE KEPT IN + BANISHMENT PAST 14 YEARS AFTER THE EVENT, IF THAT UNDO THE HARM + CAUSED. + + NO ONE WHO EXTENDED THEMSELVES IN THE SUPPORT OF THEIR FAMILY OR + TRIBE SHALL BE BANISHED FOR OLD AGE OR THE ACTIONS OF INFIRMITY. + + IT IS NECESSARY THAT SKRYING, VISIONS, ASPECTING AND ALL OTHER + APPARENT VISIONS OF OUR LORD AND LADY BE QUESTIONED. IT IS + ESSENTIAL TO OUR REBIRTH THAT WE KNOW THAT THEY ARE NOT OUR OWN + WISHFUL THINKING OR PRIDE, IF THERE BE THE LEAST DOUBT, THE + VISION MUST BE DENIED. + + If a true vision is denied by the initiated, the Lady will + underline the truth in the vision in an unquestionable form. If + this underlining comes as a punishment, it is still a small price + to pay when compared to the consequences of a false vision. + + IF EVER ANY OF THE TRIBE NEED A HOUSE OR LAND AND NONE WILL SELL, + THEN CRAFT MAY BE USED TO INCLINE THE OWNERS TO SELL, PROVIDED IT + HARMETH HIM NOT, AND THE FULL PRICE IS PAID WITHOUT HAGGLING. + + NEVER BARGAIN OR CHEAPEN ANYTHING YOU BUY BY THE ART. + + NO MAN, WOMAN, HIGH PRIESTESS, OR HIGH PRIEST CAN SAY WHAT "HARMS + NONE". + + The answer to this is for the Gods, not man. A just action may + well harm someone in some way in the mundane world (every action + has an equal and opposite reaction). It is always best to give + the action and the power to the Goddess, and abide by her will. + If it cannot be given to her after due consideration, then one + must act in the most just form that is possible, freely taking on + to our selves all adverse reaction of an error in judgment. + + + 5 + + + + + + MY CRAFT ETHICS BY JAMES CROWLEY III 12/19/86 + + + + NO ONE MAY DO ANYTHING WHICH WILL ENDANGER ANY OF THE TRIBE OR + BRING THEM INTO CONTACT WITH THE LAW OF THE LAND. + + THE ART MAY ONLY BE USED IN ERNEST AND NEVER FOR SHOW OR VAIN + GLORY. + + NO PERSON MAY BE WARNED OF HIS FATE MORE THAN THREE TIMES. + + MAIDEN: (Youngsters still new to the Craft, or older ones who do + ritual work and do not mind publicity.) Young people oriented to + cope with, and the ability to handle publicity. Some knowledge + of occult and the Craft both in its practical and religious + aspects is necessary. Childless women, virgins; Warm friendly + people with good powers of projection. + + NYMPHS - (Do the bulk of ritual work, young adults.) Creative + people, artists, dancers, singers, etc. Very mature, rational + and responsible. Intuitive and uninhibited. Knowledge of Craft + and occultism, etc. necessary. Dislikes publicity. + + CRONES: (executive branch - teachers of neophytes, makes judg- + ments, etc.) Must be sober and serious, but with a sense of + humor, very mature in most all ways, intuitive of the true nature + and inner working of things. Older folks, intellectual, Masters + of there Craft, and dislike publicity. + + No woman shall be a Maiden who has not been in her courses. + + No woman shall be ordained unless she has passed her 17th year, + nor shall she have her ordination recognized until that time. + + No woman shall have her ordination recognized unless she is in + her courses, has ten fingers, ten toes, two eyes, two ears, a + nose. Her generative organs and breasts must be complete. The + honorable loss of limbs or the effects of torture following + ordination shall not invalidate the ordination. + + No woman shall be a Nymph who has not coupled. + + No woman shall be a Crone who has not given birth. + + No man shall be a Magician who has not healed. + + No man shall be ordained unless he has passed his 33rd year, nor + shall he have his ordination recognized until that time. + + No man shall have his ordination recognized unless he is the + father of a living child, has ten fingers and ten toes, two eyes, + two ears and a nose and generative organs complete. The + honorable loss of limbs or the effects of torture following + ordination shall not invalidate the ordination. + + + + + + 6 + + + + + + MY CRAFT ETHICS BY JAMES CROWLEY III 12/19/86 + + + In their youth, let those who cannot swing the axe till the + field. Those who cannot till the field carry water. Those who + cannot carry water, nor till the field, nor chase, nor battle, + nor be of service to their family or tribe, let them leave it. + + None shall be kept as a child forever. Better that they be + banished if they cannot grow in mind. + + INITIATION + + NO PERSON MAY BE CALLED TO INITIATION MORE THAN THREE TIMES. + + NO PERSON MAY BE INITIATED WHO HAS LESS THAN 20 YEARS OF LIFE + LEFT TO THEM AT THE TIME OF INITIATION. + + No High Priestess or High Priest of the WICCA can cause an + initiation to take place. Initiation is in the hands of the Lord + and Lady. The teacher can only provide the environment that will + aide in the initiation if the God and Goddess so will it. + + If one questions the validity of their own initiation, there can + be but one answer, the initiation did not take place. An + initiation by the Gods will be remembered. + + Let your judgment on matters which you make be fit to the size of + the case, not to your feelings. Let your heart not rule your + mind, nor mind your heart, but bear a balance as has been taught + you. + + Not all are chosen for the tribe, nor are all in the tribe of one + family, nor are all in the family to be initiated, nor are all + the initiated to be ordained. Your yoke is to be as strong as + you can bear, but no stronger. + + + James Crowley + P. O. Box 16025 + North Hollywood, CA + 91615-6025 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 7 + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/asciibob.txt b/religious documents/asciibob.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c2a74e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/asciibob.txt @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ + ----------------------------------------- + I0000000^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^00000000I + I000000^ ~^ 0 00 0 0 0 I ~^000000I + I00000 ~ ~~ ~I 00000I + I0000' ' _,w0< 0000I + I0000 00000000w___,w00000000 0 000I + I0000 0000000000000000000000 I 000I + I0000 00000000000000000000*0( i 000I + I0000 00000000000000000000()( I )000I + I0000 ~_,,_ ~0000000~ ____~ 0 000I + I0000 _~ , , `000~ _ _`0 )L J000I + I0000 , 00w0ww+ 000ww``,,0w0 )( 0000I + I0000, 0000www000 0000000ww00000( 0000I + I00000_II 000000P' 00P00000000000(Ic0000I + I000000wI '00P~ P)000-~, ~Y00^'),000000I + I0000000( _ _J00Tk ))000000I + I00000000,0 00, c,,,,,,,y ,w00( ,0000000I + I000000000 i 0w ====--_00000 00000000I + I0000000000`,P~ _ ~^^^^Y00000 000000000I + I0000^^=^00^ ^' ,ww,w00000 _0000000000I + I000_xJ~ ~ , 0000000P~_000000000000I + I00 0, ,000,_____ _,J0000000000000I + I00L `' ,000000000000000000000000000000I + I000000000000000000000000000000000000000I + ----------------------------------------- + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Salted Slug Systems Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/asthma.txt b/religious documents/asthma.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..76134ac --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/asthma.txt @@ -0,0 +1,127 @@ +A Circle Purification that doesn't use Incense: +for asthmatics, those with allergies, and those with other pulmonary +disorders +by Matrika, co-sysop of +PAN- the Psychic Awareness Network, 300/1200/2400 baud at 1-703-362-1139 + +This ritual was inspired when someone in our circle back in Central +Massechusetts started dating a young woman who was a great herbalist, +knowledgeable about crystal healing, a competent tarot-reader and a +beginning astrologer. She had read "Spiral Dance" by Starhawk on the Craft +of the Wise (Wicca) and wore a pentagram around her neck, but couldn't try +circle work because she was allergic to smoke and had a serious asthma +problem. + +So, heres the rite. You prepare your altar as usual, with the exception of +the incense and incense burner. 5 non-electric pot-pouri burners filled +with water and an appropriately scented pot-pouri should be on or near the +altar with 5 candles. Be sure that you use the correct type of candles for +yuur pot-pouri burners, as other types can destroy the burners. Put these +on the altar, which should be at the center of the circle and facing North +or East according to your custom. If they do not fit without obstructing +the work, place them in a semi-circle at the foot of the altar. Have +matches there to light the candles under them at the proper time. + +The rite +(Leader 1 should be a male, if possible. Leader 2 should be a female, if +possible.) + +Leader 1 - blessing the water and herbal mixture in each pot-pouri burner +with the wand. a long-stem rose with the thorns removed can be used for a +wand if you do not yet have one. Of course, this must be replaced each +time you do a ritual - +"By Fire and By Air +By Water and by Earth +by the Lady and the Lord +I conjure thee to purify our circle this night" + +all- " So mote it be" + +He takes one of the burners and the matches to the North where he lights +it. Leader 2 accompanies him with her wand, after he lights it she raises +her wand and says + +Leader 2 - "By fire and air +By water and by earth +Let us purify the +Northern Quarter of our circle" + +There is a pause during which everyone visualizes (vividly imagining in +every detail from a relaxed, meditative state) an arc of rainbow light +forming that quarter of the circle then, when she lowers the wand, everyone +responds. +all - "So Mote It Be" + +Leader 1 returns to the central altar and gets the next burner, placing it +in the East and lighting it. Leader 2 continues in the same way as above. +This procedure is then repeated in the South and then in the West. Each +time the invocation is changed to reflect the direction they are in. Each +time the group visualizes the rainbow arc of light. And after each +direction, Leader 1 returns to the center to get the burner for the next +direction ready. By constantly returning to the center each time, the +emphasis is placed there. After the Western quarter is lit, Leader 1 +places the final burner on the altar, between the candles, where the +incense burner would be if there was one and lights it. Leader 2 stands +before the altar, raises her wand and says +Leader 2 - "By Fire and by air +By water and by earth +Let us purify the sacred center of our circle +where Heaven and Earth Unite +and +Where the Lord and Lady are joined in love." + +While her wand is raised, everyone visualizes the rainbow light from the +outer circles flooding in to the center and filling the circle with +harmonious vibrations and energies. After a few moments, she lowers her +wand and everyone responds. +all- "SO mote it be" + +The circle casting is continued as usual with the invocations of the +elements at the 4 corners, according to your tradition. Then the actual +circle-casting is done as usual. After this do whatever rite and/or magick +you would usually do and close in the usual manner. Be sure to snuff the +candles and not to blow them out. Use a silver teaspoon to do this, if you +don't have a snuffer. This ceremony ONLY replaces the part of the rite +where you sprinkle with salt-water and then cense the circle to purify it +in PREPARATION for the actual circle casting. It is NOT the full casting +of the circle. (Some traditions purify with all 4 elements seperately, +sprinkling salt on the floor for earth, water on the floor for itself, +censing the circle for air, and carrying a candle around for fire. Either +way this rite replaces the elemental purification, as the burners embody +all 4 elements - the water for itself, the candle for fire, the herbs for +earth, and the scent the steam gives off for air.) + +OF course the pot-pouri burners used for this should only be used in your +psychic work and should have been consecrated or smudged (by someone who +can deal with the smoke) in preparation for this ritual. + +To prepare appropriate pot-pouri scents for the purpose of your rites, use +the directions for making the various home-made herbal incenses traditional +in Witchcraft and in Magick; however, don't grind them with a mortar and +pestle as you would in making incense. If you do not know the recipes for +these, any of the Scott Cuningham books on making incenses would provide +them for you. They are available from Llewelyn Publishing, box 64383 St. +Paul Minnesota. (They will send you a free catalogue on request) + +Despite the initial cost involved in obtaining the 5 burners, it is highly +suggested you do it that way for two reasons" +1. In anything but a very small and enclosed space, you will not get +enough scent to represent the air element sufficiently for magickal and +ritual working. +and +2. To represent all 4 elements in EACH of the quarters and in the center +of the circle is very important in establishing the traditional boundaries +between the worlds (the ordinary and non-ordinary or shamanic realities) +that is the purpose of casting the circle and creating sacred space. + +ALSO IF YOU TRY TO CARRY A POT-POURI BURNER THAT IS LIT AND HOT ENOUGH TO +BE GIVING OFF THE SCENTED STEAM AROUND THE PERIMETER OF THE CIRCLE, YOU +WILL CERTAINLY BURN YOUR FINGERS BADLY. (It is not appropriate to bring a +pot holder into circle to carry it either! PLEASE!) + +I hope this is helpful to those who have breathing problems and wish to +perform magick. + +(submitted to Harvest newsletter, under JUKNO) + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/astragal.txt b/religious documents/astragal.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..975c440 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/astragal.txt @@ -0,0 +1,297 @@ +Astragalus Membranaceous & White Blood Cell Function +Patricia Wolf B.Sc. N.D. + +Introduction + +Traditional Chinese medicine as practised today had its +theoretical and philosophical tenets first outlined in the Yellow +Emperor's Inner Classic, written between 200 and 100 BC. The +Inner Classic promotes the use of herbs, acupuncture, dietary +management and exercise as therapeutic modalities (Bensky, +Gamble). + +Centuries of careful observation and empirical study have +resulted in an extremely detailed and refined system of herbal +use according to traditional Chinese medical theory (TCM). +However, very little is known about the mechanism of action or +the physiological effects of most Chinese herbs in terms of +modern Western medical thought. Recently, research has been +conducted, mostly in China, in an attempt to elucidate these +areas. + +Radix Astragali, the root of Astragalus membranaceous (Huang +Ch'i), is a popular tonic herb first described in the Divine +Husbandman's Classic of the Materia Medica, a text reconstructed +and edited from several earlier works by Tao Hong-Jing in the +6th. Century A.D.(Bensky et al). According to TCM, Radix +Astragali affects the Spleen, Lung and Triple Warmer meridians. +It specifically tonifies the exterior, or protective energy (Wei +Chi), which is understood to be the body's first defence against +the external disease factors (ie., Wind, Cold, Damp, Heat, +Dryness). Huang Ch'i also tonifies Chi, especially the Yang Chi +of the Spleen and Stomach. It tonifies Blood and regulated fluid +metabolism (Bensky et al; Teeguarden). + +Modern research has revealed several effects of Radix Astragali. +Of primary interest to the author is the herbs's reputed +stimulatory effect on the immune system. Teeguarden reports on +Chinese studies which have shown Astragalus to have in vitro +anti-bacterial effects, as well as an inhibitory effect on T- +suppressor cells. He also cites clinical trials on cancer +patients which suggest that Astragalus enhances bone marrow +activity and adrenal cortical function which had been depleted by +chemotherapy and/or radiation treatment. (The original papers +were not available for perusal.) + +One study found that Radix Astragali significantly enhanced +interferon production in mice, in human cell cultures and in +vitro leucocyte samples (Hou, Ma, Wu, Li, Li). These workers also +describe a clinical trial showing that a combination of human +interferon and Astragalus was more effective in preventing common +cold symptoms than either interferon alone or a flu vaccine. In +one of the few Western studies conducted, Astragalus was found to +restore T-cell function in cancer patients with an impaired +immune response, and to augment T-cell function in normal donors +(Sun, Hersh, Talpaz, Lee, Wong, Loo, Mavligit). + +This paper will report on the effect of Radix Astragali on white +blood cell (WBC) status in human volunteers as reflected by WBC +differential count and by "Liv Cell" analysis. + + + Abstract +The effect of a decoction of the Chinese tonic herb Astragalus +membranaceous on certain aspects of white blood cell (WBC) status +was studied in seven healthy volunteers. After a one week course +of treatment with Astragalus decoction at a dosage equivalent to +1.5g of dried root t.i.d. per os, the relative number of +leucocytes was significantly increased (p s 0.01). Furthermore, +this effect was sustained (p s 0.05) one week after treatment had +been discontinued. A WBC differential count showed significant +changes in the proportions of individual categories of leucocytes +(p s 0.05), such that high or low percentages of leucocytes were +brought into normal range, with the exception of basophils, which +remained high. This effect was also sustained one week after +treatment had been discontinued (p s 0.05). A `Liv Cell' analysis +did not yield significant (p s 0.05), but this may have been a +function of the criteria chosen to measure WBC status. This study +suggests that Astragalus membranaceous may have a regulatory +effect on WBC status and therefore may be a useful treatment in +conditions of bo the deficient and excess (or disproportionate) +WBC levels. + + +Materials and Methods + +Herbal Preparation: +454 grams of grade `A' quality dried Astragalus root was obtained +from Nam Pek Hong, a reputable Chinese herb store in Toronto's +Chinatown. The root was placed in 9.09 l. distilled water, +brought to a boil, and then simmered to half the original volume +of water, The extractive was poured off and saved. An additional +6.82 l. distilled water was added to the herb, brought to the +boil and similarly simmered to half the original volume. This +extractive was added to the first and white vinegar was also +added to 4.5% of the final solution as a preservative. The final +decoction yielded unit doses of 42.6 ml., equivalent to 1.5 g. of +dried root. + +The placebo solution was prepared by boiling potato with onion +skins in distilled water to obtain the required colour, and +adding white vinegar in 4.5% of the final solution. + +Subjects: +Twelve healthy volunteers were recruited and randomly divided +into two groups of eight and four subjects, treatment and placebo +groups respectively. Subjects were asked to refrain from using +any other treatment modalities or making any dietary or lifestyle +changes during the test period. + +Experimental Design and Procedure: +A double blind format was used. Blood samples were obtained by +finger prick on days 1, 8, and 15. The herbal decoction or +placebo was taken for 6 days, from day 2 to 8 inclusive. The +dosage was 42.6 ml. three times a day. A WBC differential count +and `Liv Cell' analysis (product information) were performed on +the blood samples by a technician blind to the experimental +conditions. + +For the `Liv Cell' analysis, 25 WBC's were examined for each +subject. Five categories were used to indicate WBC status, +namely, the number of WBC's showing: + +1. phagocytized material +2. streaming of cytoplasm/chemotaxis +3. irregular borders +4. spilling of contents/degeneration +5. no apparent activity + +Categories 1 and 2 were considered indicative of positive WBC +function and given a score of +1 for each cell in either of these +categories. Categories 3, 4 and 5 were chosen as negative +parameters of WBC status and cells appearing in them were given a +score of -1 each. Overlap between categories was allowed; thus a +cell showing characteristics of more than one category would be +entered under each. Therefore the maximum score possible for +optimal WBC function would by 50 (ie. 25 in each of categories 1 +and 2, and 0 in categories 3, 4 and 5). The final score was used +as an index of WBC status and comparisons were made between all +possible pairs of scores. + +Statistical Analysis: +The number of fields examined to yield a count of 100 WBC's was +taken as an indication of the relative numbers of WBC's per +sample. Statistical analysis of the changes in the number of +fields between pretreatment with Astragalus and post treatment +samples taken at one and two weeks respectively, was performed +using a right-tailed Student's t-test for paired data at p s 0.05 +level of significance. Similarly, the same test was used to +analyze the change in the proportion of individual types of +leucocytes, except that a two tailed test was used. Student's t- +test (right-tailed) was also used to analyze the difference +between the WBC index score obtained from the `Liv Cell' +analysis. + +Results +All but one treatment subject showed a decrease in the number of +fields needed to locate 100 WBC's in the differential count, +indicative of a relative increase in the total number of WBC's +after treatment with Astragalus. The one subject who showed a +slight increase in the number of fields had the lowest number of +fields initially (100 as compared to the mean of 410 fields). The +mean difference in numbers of fields studied was 183.9 and the +difference was significant at p s 0.01. Furthermore, the change +was maintained in sample number 3 taken one week after +discontinuing the Astragalus (p s 0.05). + +Each of the five types of leucocytes showed a significant change +in their proportions of the total count immediately after +treatment at p s 0.05 level of significance. The changes appeared +to be regulatory, such that relatively low proportions were +increased while high proportions were decreased. +In most cases, except for the basophils, the differential count +was brought more in line with the expected normal frequencies for +adults (ie. neutrophils, 50 - 70%; lymphocytes, 20 - 40%; +monocytes, 2 - 10%; eosinophils, 1 - 4%; basophils s 0.5%). + +The "immune index" scores obtained using `Liv Cell' analysis did +not show an effect at the p s 0.05 level of significance. +However, the mean difference (4.71) was only 0.40 units below the +upper limit of acceptance for the null hypothesis (5.11). +Furthermore, a significant negative change in the immune index +score was shown by only one subject, and if this subject is +omitted from the statistical analysis of results, the mean change +in scores increases significantly at the p s 0.05 level. + +It was not possible to statistically compare the treatment group +with the placebo group, as only one subject in the placebo group +completed the study. + +Discussion +Radix Astragali has long been used in traditional Chinese +medicine as an important tonic herb. More recently, it has come +under scrutiny regarding its physiological actions as understood +in Western Medical theory. Among these is the herb's reputed +positive effect on the immune system. This study has attempted to +determine the effect of Astragalus decoction on certain +parameters of WBC activity. + +Astragalus was seen to have a stimulatory effect on the relative +numbers of leucocytes at the p s 0.01 level of significance. The +relative proportions of individual categories of +leucocytes were also significantly affected by treatment with +Astragalus (p s 0.05), such that high proportions were lowered +and low proportions were raised. This effect applied to both the +variance between sample means and the variance within samples. +Specifically, four subjects had above normal baseline proportions +of monocytes &/or eosinophils, while three subjects had below +normal proportions. In each case, treatment with Astragalus +brought the proportions within normal ranges. Thus +Astragalus appears to have a regulatory or amphoteric effect on +individual classes of leucocytes in the WBC differential count. +Furthermore, these effects seem to be sustained over time as the +results obtained one week after discontinuing treatment indicate. +This finding corroborates observations made by Hou et al. + + +In addition to the WBC differential, a `Liv Cell' analysis was +used in an attempt to support findings. The Liv Cell technique +allows observation of living, unstained blood corpuscles and +their activity. However, criteria for standard assessment is not +well established for this method. An attempt was made to choose +and weight parameters visible by Liv Cell analysis which would +provide a measure of immune status. The parameters chosen yielded +results that were just below the p s 0.05 level of significance +and that lend support to the findings obtained using the WBC +differential, namely, that Astragalus appears to have an +enhancing effect on leucocyte function. The Liv Cell affords +valuable and unique information about the dynamic state of the +blood, but more work needs to be done in setting definite +criteria for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. + +Although the sample size in this study was small, the results +would seem to warrant further investigation into the area of +enhancement of the immune system by Astragalus. Specifically, a +larger sample size with a placebo control group would be in +order. In addition to WBC differential count, a total WBC count +should be performed. It would also be interesting to screen +subjects to recruit those with both high and low baseline +differentials for specific categories of leucocytes to test the +hypothesized regulatory effect of Astragalus suggested by this +study. Furthermore, a longer treatment time with follow-up +samples taken over several months (see Hou et al) would provide +more information about the long term effects. + +If Astragalus is consistently found to regulate leucocyte +activity, it may be a valuable adjunct in the treatment of both +immune deficient conditions and conditions of aberrant +leucocytosis, such as leukaemia. + +References +Bensky, D., Gamble, A. (compiled & translated by). Chinese Herbal +Medicine Materia Medica. Eastland Press Inc., P.O. Box 12689, +Seattle, Washington 9811; 1986. p.3 +Ibid. p.5, p.457 +Ibid. pp. 457 - 9 + +Hou, Y., Ma, G., Wu, S., Li, Y., Li, H. "Effect of Radix +Astragali seu Hedysari on the Interferon System". Chinese Medical +Journal, 94(1): 35 - 40, 1981. + +Sun, Y., Hersh, E.M., Talpaz, M., Lee, S-L., Wong, W., Loo, T.L., + +Mavligit, G.M. "Immune Restoration and/or Augmentation of Local +Graft Versus Host Reaction by Traditional Chinese Medicinal +Herbs". Cancer 52:70 - 73, 1983. + +Teeguarden, R. Chinese Tonic Herbs. Japan Publications Inc., New +York 1984. pp. 98 - 101. + + +This Article is taken from The Herbalist, newsletter of the +Canadian Herbal Research Society. COPYRIGHT June 1988. + +Membership in the Society is $25.00 Canadian per year. You +receive four copies of the Journal each year and help to promote + +herbalism and botanic medicine throughout Canada. + +THE SOCIETY HAS NO PAID OFFICIALS and is run entirely by +volunteers from among the membership. + +Why not call our BBS? Files available for download covering all +aspects of holistic health and lifestyle. International e-mail +service for holistic practitioners and those interested in +complimentary/alternative therapies. + +If you have any files that you feel may be of interest to our +users please feel free to upload them. + +Herbal Research Society BBS (416) 730-1702 + + +Canadian Herbal Research Society. +P.O. Box 82. Stn. A. +Willowdale, Ont. CANADA. +M2N 5S7. +(416) 730-8077 diff --git a/religious documents/astron.txt b/religious documents/astron.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5610d80 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/astron.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3641 @@ + 56 page printout + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + This file, its printout, or copies of either + are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold. + + Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + + **** **** + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + A REFUTATION OF THE THEORY THAT + THE UNIVERSE IS GOVERNED + BY INTELLIGENCE + + by + WOOLSEY TELLER + + Globed from the atoms falling slow or swift + I see the suns, I see the systems lift + Their forms; and even the systems and the suns + Shall go back slowly to the eternal drift. + -- Lucretius + + THE TRUTH SEEKER COMPANY 38 PARK ROW NEW YORK + + **** **** + + Copyright 1938, by + The Truth Seeker Company + + **** **** + In Memory of My Mother + + ADA STURTEVANT TELLER + + **** **** + + And that inverted Bowl we call the sky, + Where under crawling coop'd we live and die, + Lift not your heads to it for help -- for it + As impotently moves as you or I. + -- omar + + **** **** + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER I THINGS LARGE AND SMALL ................... 2 + CHAPTER II STAR DUST LOOKS ABOUT .................. 14 + CHAPTER III DAWN: NEBULAE AND STARS ............... 18 + CHAPTER IV DAYLIGHT: THE SOLAR SYSTEM ............. 30 + CHAPTER V DARKNESS: THE ETERNAL DRIFT ............. 47 + CHAPTER VI THE FINAL IMPLICATIONS ................. 53 + + The universe as a totality is without cause, without origin, +without end. + -- KARL Du Prel (Ludwig Buchner, Force and Matter, p. 11). + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 1 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + Astronomy ... is of all others the science which seems to +present to us the most striking instance of waste in nature. + -- Richard A. Procter, Our Place Among Infinities, p. 40. + + The universe consists in the main not of stars but of desolate +emptiness -- inconceivably vast stretches of desert space in which +the presence of a star is a rare and exceptional event. ... The +stars move blindly through space, and the players in the stellar +blind-man's-buff are so few and far between that the chance of +encountering another star is almost negligible. + -- SIR JAMES JEANS, The Universe Around Us, pp. 87, 88. + + Today we know not only that there is a terrible amount of +disorder in the heavens -- great catastrophes or conflagrations +occur frequently -- but evolution gives us a perfectly natural +explanation of such order as there is. No distinguished astronomer +now traces "the finger of God" in the heavens; and astronomers +ought to know best. + -- JOSEPH McCABE, The Story of Religious Controversy, p. 86. + + No sign of purpose can be detected in any part of the vast +universe disclosed by our most powerful telescopes. + HUGH ELLIOT, Modern Science and Materialism, p. 39. + + We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits +of a star gone wrong. + -- SIR Arthur Eddington, New York Times Magazine, Oct. 9,1932. + + **** **** + + CHAPTER I + + THINGS LARGE AND SMALL + + The theist and the scientist are rival interpreters of nature, +The one retreats as the other advances. + -- Joseph McCabe. [The Existence of God, p. 84.] + + If the ignorance of nature gave birth to gods, the knowledge +of nature is calculated to destroy them. + -- Baron D'Holbach. [The System of Nature, p. 49] + + We claim, and we shall wrest from theology, the entire domain +of cosmological theory. + -- John Tyndall [The Belfast Address] + + ... No evidence or proof of the existence of a God has been +found in the phenomena of nature, based on experience. + -- Charles P. Steinmetz. [John Winthrop Hammond, p. 455] + + There is no God, it is clear as the sun and as evident as the +day that there is no God, and still more that there can be none. + -- Ludwig Feuerbach. [Article "Atheism," Ency. Brit.] + + WHEN, less than two centuries ago, the famous Laplace was +asked by the Emperor Napoleon why God had not been mentioned by him +in his celebrated work, "Mechanique Celeste," and the astronomer +replied, "Sire, I have no need of that hypothesis," he uttered a + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 2 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +truth which was fully justified by the science of his time. +Astronomy today is no more in need of the god-hypothesis than it +was in Laplace's day: the facts of cosmological research have done +nothing if not completely demolished the last vestige of theistic +interpretation. We live, on the evidence of astronomy, in a godless +universe. ["You should be more ready than any one else," said +Napoleon to Laplace, "to admit that God exists, for you, more than +most, have seen the wonder of creation." That atom of cruelty did +not realize that it was largely because Laplace had seen so much of +the heavens that he was an atheist. (See Emil Ludwig's Napoleon, p. +602.)] + + To the average individual casually engaged in contemplating +the stars, the world above him presents a perfect picture of +harmonious relationships. He beholds a blue vault of exquisite +splendor, in which twinkle myriads of far-distant worlds. He sees +the "Stately procession" of the planets, the daily rising and +setting of the sun! The "beautiful order" of the heavens, the +"regularity" of the seasons, the fact that our planets "do not +collide," or that our moon does not "fall" into the earth or our +earth into the sun, make their silent appeal for the existence of +God; the warmth and light of the sun, the "nicety" with which the +earth makes its revolutions "on time," the alternations of day and +night, all tend to show him an "order" and a "harmony" in keeping +with his theistic assumptions. To the astronomer, the facts point +otherwise: their meanings and implications go far deeper than their +surface indications, and he sees instead a purposeless universe +unattended by any signs of intelligent guidance. This is because +there is no superficial sky-gazing or casual observation in his +study of the stars. There are, for him, enough facts in astronomy +to shatter theism. + + Much of our popular confusion in matters of science rests on +a topsy-turvy contemplation of facts. The story is told of a +professor of astronomy who, having concluded his lecture on the +planetary system, called for questions from the floor. A member of +his audience arose to ask him the following question: "I can +understand, now that you have explained it all, how the astronomer +weighs the planets and measures their distances from the sun, but +what bothers me is, how did he find out their names?" + + The same, or a similar, bewilderment seems to possess those +who as innocently ask the question, "Who made the stars?" Quite +obviously the question for thoughtful person to ask is, not "Who +made the stars?" but "What made the stars?" Astronomers have a +definite answer. They know not only "what" made the stars, but +"what" determines their movements in space. There is no "Who" or +celestial personality involved in stellar activity. + + Asking an astronomer, "Who made the stars?" is very much like +asking a physicist, "Who made the icicles and pretty ice-drawings +on my window-pane?" The answer is no more likely to be "'God" in +the one case than "Jack Frost" in the other. In educated circles +the days are largely past when invisible personalities and unseen +beings are supposed to have anything to do with natural phenomena. +We are leaving behind us the kindergarten stage of our mental +development. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 3 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + Those who believe in a "supreme intelligence" in the sky +overlook an important principle of physiological knowledge. "Three +centuries before the beginning of the Christian era," writes the +distinguished anatomist, G Elliot Smith, ["The Evolution of the +Brain" in 'Creation by Evolution,' p. 323.] "some of the wise men +of Greece already recognized in the brain the real organ of mind; +yet it was reserved for modern times to confirm the accuracy of +this early knowledge and to extend it." Accordingly, it is well +here to recall the materialistic basis of mind. Thinking is as much +a function of structure and organization as breathing or walking. +As functions cannot exist apart from their organs, it is the height +of absurdity to imagine a function like thinking existing by itself +or wandering about the heavens without a material substratum. A +"pure spirit" hovering over matter is pure nonsense. Thought is +"immaterial" only as respiration and digestion are immaterial -- we +cannot see, weigh, or handle functions apart from their organs -- +but thinking is as material as matter itself when we consider it +mechanically, that is to say, as a form of vibration and sensation +in the nerve fibers of the brain and of the nervous system. Matter +thinks quite as well as it walks, and talks, and dresses for the +opera; and without matter thinking is impossible. "As we understand +it at present," writes George W. Bartelmetz, ["Human Structure and +Development" in The Nature of the World and of Man, p. 468-469.] "a +word or idea comes into consciousness as a result of innumerable +cortical reverberations back and forth from one cell or group of +cells to another." Thought is matter in motion. A cosmic +intelligent being would have to be made of matter. + + Astronomers are well satisfied that stars and planets move of +their own accord, or without any external stimulus of a conscious +character. It is the theistic and spiritualistic muddlers of +science who have injected their "God" into the picture, and made of +matter a helpless hag of the gutter. + + Matter is not that inert mass which vitalists and +metaphysicians picture for us. Even the most subtle forms of matter +possess within themselves powerful potentialities and assert +themselves in terms of energy. + + Every beam of light we receive from the sun carries with it +definite weight, weight which, as jeans reminds us, [The Universe +Around Us, p. 117.] is "as real as the weight of a ton of coal." +Every erg of energy has weight and mass. ["The essential fact is +that an erg of energy in any form has a mass of 1.1.10-21 grammes." +-- Eddington, Stars and Atoms, p. 97.] There is no "matterless" or +"spiritual" energy, or energy existing by itself; energy is matter +-- matter asserting itself. Energy, in every form, is always +identified with and inseparable from matter; the two cannot be torn +apart. The law of the "conservation of energy" embodies the +conservation of matter; neither matter nor energy is ever +destroyed. + + Everywhere we are dealing with matter, matter in an endless +round of activity, expressed in terms of energy. Radiation itself +is a form of energy; and that which we call radio-activity is +merely a transformation of matter from one form of energy to +another. The disintegration of the nucleus of a uranium atom is + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 4 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +followed, in time, by its transference into the nucleus of a lead +atom. No matter is lost in the transition. Hence, the so-called +"annihilation" of the atom consists of nothing else than the +breaking up of the nucleus of one kind into the nucleus of another +kind of atom. There is no destruction of matter itself; nothing is +lost -- there has been only a change of one atom into another. The +much-talked-of (and highly misnamed) "annihilation of matter" is +metaphysical moonshine, prompted by those who do not know what they +are talking about or by those who mistake an atomic change for the +destruction of matter." ["According to the disintegration theory of +Rutherford and Soddy," writes Sir Edward Thorpe, History of +Chemistry, vol 2, p. 42, "the radio-active elements are forms of +matter undergoing changes resulting in the formation of new forms +possessing chemical and physical properties differing from those of +the parent substance. Here is matter undergoing change, not +"annihilation.'] + + All the high-sounding talk, but really empty gibberish, about +the "downfall" of materialism rests on phantasies. Matter matters: +it is everywhere; it cannot be destroyed by the breaking up of +atoms into other atoms. It cannot be "annihilated" until some +metaphysician takes a little matter and "explodes" it out of +existence. [The materialist is waiting to see the metaphysician +"annihilate" matter as thoroughly as he, the materialist, +annihilates the mind, or what his spiritualistic opponents call +"spirit." If the mind, as spiritualists insist, is a self-existent +entity, capable of activity apart from the matter of the brain, and +able to wander off by itself, a man in a state of coma, or +undergoing an operation under the influence of ether or chloroform, +ought to be able to witness all that transpires around him. +Instead, his mind is a blank, completely non-existent during the +time his brain ceases to function. His so-called "spirit" cannot +survive the derangement of matter, or the suspended functioning of +his brain. A few drops of prussic acid, an inhalation of gas, or a +clot on the brain, will unbalance or destroy the most serene +mentality. What the spiritualist calls "immortal" goes dead for +hours at a time, and cannot exist even throughout the life-time of +the individual. It is mind, not matter, that is destructible.] He +can do this only in talk, or by clumsily referring to the +"smashing" of atoms into electrons and protons, negative and +positive particles which, besides possessing weight, are, in terms +of energy, still matter. + + It is highly important -- essential to an understanding of +astronomy -- that these issues be understood. The universe -- +stars, meteors, clam-broth and brain cells -- is made of matter. +Our American philosopher Santayana does well in insisting on +calling matter by its right name, as we call Smith, Smith, and +Jones, Jones -- and also in labeling himself "a decided +materialist." + + ATOMS, MEN, AND STARS + + WE live in a material universe, in which we ourselves, as +products of the stars, are matter "through and through." That we +are matter that can think is no more remarkable than there is so +much matter, outside ourselves, which never thinks at all. That + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 5 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +matter which thinks has simply reached a certain biological stage. +As C. Judson Herrick observes, [The Thinking Machine, p. 250,] +"Mental processes are biological functions of the body in general +and of the brain in particular in just the same sense that +circulation of the blood is a function of the heart or breathing is +a function of the lungs. The evidence for this is biological +evidence." Man has no claim for exclusion from the world of matter. +He is as much matter as the world of stars. + + Our foundations of knowledge are more solid than the +epistemologists would have us believe. The hazy maze of obscurities +and airy abstractions into which we have been led by verbal appeal +is losing its lure: our knowledge of the world is fast becoming +recognized as of sensory origin. All claims to supersensory +"knowledge" rest on fraud. + + Man's contact with the universe around him is a contact of +matter with matter. There is nothing "spiritual" about it. He +himself is all matter, surrounded by matter. Whether he is +receiving impressions in the form of light from a distant star or +as heat waves generated in the sun, or as any other sense +perceptions, his sensations are physical and are linked with the +brain as the vibrating center. Here is thinking, or matter in +motion. There is no "spiritual" world, no world of transcendental +physics at work within his cerebral cavity. All concepts of a +supersensual world, a world "above" matter, rest on fantastic +imagery. + + Astronomy would never have reached the zenith of its +attainments had it listened to metaphysics. Stars are physical +objects: the dream of a world made of dream; is for visionaries +only. To the scientist, stars are real objects moving in the skies. + + A thousand years from now science will be foretelling eclipses +and weighing the stars with as much mathematical precision as it +does today: our mystics cannot tell us from one day to the next +what metaphysics will be teaching the day after tomorrow. The +knowledge of experience is solid and compact; its definiteness is +paralleled by its crystalline simplicity. Only in the realm of +jumbled ideas do the reachers for rainbows find a world that +transcends the evidences of their senses. Our metaphysicians cannot +agree among themselves for two minutes at a time: their revelations +from "above" are as hazy and shifty as London fogs. + + Like Voltaire's Zadig, who "knew as much of metaphysics as +hath ever been known in any age, that is, little or nothing at +all," our modern mystics take abstractions for realities. They will +tell you where the hole of a doughnut is after the doughnut is +eaten, and where the wind and waves are when the air and ocean are +at rest. They talk about the "spiritual nature" of the mind with +even more enthusiasm than they talk about the "spirituality" of a +toothache or a headache. + + Those who believe that knowledge is innate or derived through +channels other than experience ought to come into the world as wise +as they leave it. Some of them do; but it is a poor commentary on +their intellectual poverty that they go out no richer than they + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 6 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +came in. He who finds wisdom in a world above matter, i.e., in the +realm of metaphysics, is seeing visions quite as vividly as the +drug addict, who can enjoy the most delightful "releases" from the +bonds of "dross" matter: a hypodermic injection will give him +"transports" that are as ethereal as a chapter from Bergson. But he +will come back to earth, realizing that matter was behind it all. +And he can become "spiritualized" again only by the use of a little +more matter, even though, in his "spiritual" moments, he holds it +in contempt. + + And here we must take issue with the statement of Bertrand +Russell [philosophy, p. 98; "The Structure of the Atom." that +"matter has become as 'ghostly' as anything in a spiritualistic +seance." How "ghostly" it has become may be judged by anyone who +has walked complacently into a dark room and stumbled over a chair, +or collided with an automobile. For most of us, matter is real. A +man engaged in metaphysical reveries may talk of the "ghostliness" +of matter until he talks himself out of existence. To say that +matter is "ghostly" because its atoms can be divided into smaller +units is the same as saying that the Atlantic Ocean is "ghostly" +because it is made up of molecules. Water does not cease to be +material because it is composed of units smaller than those of +oxygen and hydrogen. A sea captain in a storm, whose ship is being +battered by the waves, could never be convinced that matter is +"ghostly," no matter how many electrons and protons compose a +particular wave. It is enough for him that these mountains of +matter, in the form of water, are pounding his ship. + + Those who believe in the "ghostly" qualities of matter must +first show that what we call matter becomes something else when it +is reduced to electrons and protons. This they cannot do. It is not +enough to show us that matter can be reduced to electrons and +protons; it must be shown in what way these units of the atom are +not matter. Certainly they possess all the attributes of matter. As +long as electrons and protons possess mass and weight they are +material particles. "The mass of a proton," says Russell, +[Philosophy, p. 100.] "is about 1,835 times that of an electron: it +takes 1,835 electrons to weigh as much as one proton." When, we +ask, did any ghost weigh as much as that? The "ghostliness" of +matter turns out to be metaphysical quibbling. + + The old law as to the impenetrability of matter applies to the +interior of the atom. + + Not only do two electrons never travel in the same orbit, but +they never occupy at the same time the same space. An electron, far +out from its nucleus and describing a large orbit, is, as Jeans +says, [The Universe Around Us, p. 130.] "a plain material +particle." The nucleus of the atom, or the proton, is material: its +weight is hundreds of times that of the electron itself. The atom +is composed of material units as surely as babies are composed of +flesh and blood. + + There is no need to talk of "empty spaces" in the atom: they +exist. But a man hit with a golf-ball or an Indian club might think +otherwise: it would take more than a suave assurance to convince +him that what really bumped him on the cranium were innocent little + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 7 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +electrons and protons. A lot he cares about tiny particles moving +in orbits: in the language of horse-sense, he has been struck by +matter. And he has felt the same thing when he strikes his finger +with a hammer or gets it caught in the jamb of a door. The +"ghostliness" of matter becomes a real materialization under the +laws of everyday physics. We live in a world of tangible realities, +composed of matter. + + A bar of steel, a slab of marble, or a bit of granite are +concrete forms of matter. To say that matter ceases to exist when +either or all of these things are reduced to electrons and protons, +is to play with words: the smallest components of matter are still +matter. Theoretically and experimentally, we know that the electron +and the proton are material particles. Rutherford's picture of the +atom is substantially that of a tiny solar system, "the heavy +central nucleus playing the part of the sun and the electrons +acting the parts of the planets." [Jeans, The Universe Around Us, +p. 105.] + + Our up-to-date model of the structure of the atom no more +invalidates the doctrine of materialism than it invalidates the +materiality and ponderosity of the stars; an atom composed of +electrons and protons is as material as the early atom of the +Greeks: it has gained nothing in "spirituality" nor "ghostliness" +by being found to contain negative and positive charges of +electricity. That it can be "divided" into particles moving in tiny +orbits around a center, like planets around the sun, means nothing +more than that here again is matter in motion. The metaphysicians +and mystics of our day will have to look elsewhere than to modern +physics for a dismissal of matter. + + All this, of course, is preliminary to a study of the stars. +We can only know what the stars are, and of what they are composed, +by a reference to physics. The laws of substance govern the largest +as well as the smallest bodies. Stars and atoms are both matter. + + Hence, the doctrine of materialism -- the doctrine that matter +in motion makes up the whole of existence -- is at once applicable +to the entire range of phenomena. It embraces the stars, circling +in vast orbits, down to the tiny solar system whirling within the +atom. Man stands midway between a world of enormous bodies and a +world of tiny particles. And he "falls apart" the same as the stars +when the "infinitesimals" shift their positions or change their +configurations. + + The early atom of the Greek was a tiny hard sphere, supposed +to represent the least and indivisible unit of matter. There is +nothing in our present understanding which prevents us from +believing that far down in matter there is somewhere an +indestructible unit. The fact that matter is indestructible leads +to this conclusion; in no other way can we account for its eternal +persistency. Break it up as we may, its total volume is the same. +Nowhere is there any evidence of the "annihilation of matter." +[Matter is indestructible, and all the fine-spun talk, by +metaphysicians and others, about the "annihilation" of matter is +verbal exercise. "We have no evidence," says A.S. Eddington, "that +the annihilation of matter can occur in nature." (Stars and Atoms, + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 8 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +p. 101.) No one, not even Eddington, has yet been able to talk +matter out of existence. The dialectical destroyers of matter are +merely walking with their heads in the clouds. "No direct +observational confirmation," says Jeans, The Universe Around Us, p. +189, "is at present available."] + + The "atom" of modern science is quite another thing than that +which the word designated among the Greeks. It is a unit of the +molecule, and is in itself a mass of units. Less "solid" than the +"atom" of the Greeks, it is in every way as material. There is +nothing intangible about its component parts -- the electrons and +protons. They give us evidence of their existence in terms of mass +and weight. Those who preface their study of the stars with a +glance into physics need not trouble themselves over the +"splitting" of the atom. The universe, around us and within, is as +solid as before. + + Nor need those who have been brought up on Newtonian and +Euclidian principles trouble themselves about the much-paraded +"curvature of space." "This curved space is not, it is true," +writes Jeans, [The Universe Around Us, p. 72.] "the ordinary space +of the astronomer. It is a purely mathematical and probably wholly +fictitious space" -- a space which, when linked with time, "is +nothing but a convenient fiction of the mathematician." Real space +-- that in which matter extends itself in three dimensions, +breadth, length, height -- is the space of human experience; the +formal linking of space and time being in the nature of a cryptic +experiment of higher mathematics. "Real space and real time +undoubtedly are distinct," says Jeans. [Ibid, p. 76.] They are +undoubtedly such when we consider that the two leading exponents of +"curved space," Einstein and de Sitter, have recently seen fit to +modify their expressions, and jointly affirm that the facts fit an +uncurved and three-dimensional space. ["Einstein Rejects Curved +Space," Literary Digest, May," 1932.] This is the space of Sir +Isaac Newton, the space known to our boyhood days when fish and +fishing-poles bad three dimensions, and when we were rightly taught +that parallel lines never meet. The space in which stars travel is +as three-dimensional as that in which cows, horses and motor-cars +move. + + Astronomy has suffered as much from an overdose of mathematics +as from the "mirages of metaphysics" (Durant). The simplest and +most obvious facts have been turned into reveries. We have been +treated not only to an avalanche of impossible verbalism but to +fog-producing phrases like "space bending back upon itself" -- +which is the same as picturing a vacuum in the act of turning a +backward handspring, or nothing being distorted by a stomach-ache. +The whole gamut of metaphorical license has been used to befuddle +and confuse. Those who think clearly will talk and write clearly; +and it will take a wholesome naturalism to clean the Augean stables +of accumulated mysticism. As the late Dr. David Starr Jordan wrote +to the present writer, "Perhaps one virtue of the revival of +obscurantism is to wake scientific men up to popular statement of +the truths with which we deal." + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 9 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + That astute Englishman, John Stuart Mill, ["The Idea of God in +Nature."] rightly pointed out that it is the "vastness" of the +universe which most impresses man. But "vastness" by itself is +nothing to admire: bigness counts for nothing unless it carries +with it substantial virtues. We may marvel at the towering strength +and muscular development of a brawly individual, but if he behaves +before us like a bully or a fool, his size is unimpressive. It +means nothing to a sea-anemone that it lives in the ocean, when its +movements are so circumscribed and it must thrive within such +narrow limits. An ocean of worlds spinning around us are as useful +as though they did not exist. Indeed, as Mill remarks, [Ibid.] in +speaking of the universe, "though the vast scale of these phenomena +may well excite wonder, and sets at defiance all idea of rivalry, +the feeling it inspires is of a totally different character from +admiration of excellence." It is the enormous power and "bigness" +of the universe that cause us to pause: its activities themselves +rival stupidity. + + NO GLORY OF GOD, BUT APPALLING CELESTIAL WASTE + + IT was the Psalmist who said, "The heavens declare the glory +of God." They proclaim nothing of the sort: what they really reveal +is nothing but extraordinary waste and ultimate futility. The +blindly-working nature of stellar activity is everywhere apparent. + + Wherever we look in the starry expanse we are faced with +stupendous energy spent in the production of trivial "ends," which +are like their "beginnings." Vast stores of solar energy are +squandered throughout interstellar depths, while bodies needing +light and heat are left in darkness and cold. Wherever we turn we +are confronted with "means-to-ends" all out of proportion to the +"ends" achieved, and with a consumption of time and materials +which, measured by, intelligent standards, borders on the criminal. +Everywhere is prodigious activity wasted in boundless dissipation. +Untold billions of years are spent in the ceaseless revolutions of +orbs only to result in a small inhabited planet and a myriad of +barren and uninhabitable globes! An ocean of stars kept in endless +rotation -- for what? Vast continents or clusters of stars, too hot +for the sustenance of living forms, move in stupendous circles in +dreary monotony. Stars are born from nebulae only to pass through +successive degrees of temperature and end in death. One in every +three stars splits in two through excessive rotation and leads +itself a merry chase as double stars circling each other. The +endless grind of motion of going nowhere and arriving at nothing is +the supreme accomplishment of the universe. Everywhere is the +dismal picture of undirected energy spent in bat-blind futility. +"We find," writes Hugh Elliot, [Modern Science and Materialism, p. +39.] "nothing but unimaginable tracts of space and time, in which +move bodies by fixed laws towards ends which are wholly fortuitous, +and have not the smallest relation to the advantage and +requirements of man." + + From the viewpoint of utility, the motions of heavenly bodies +are empty and meaningless. No one in his proper senses can discern +the slightest trace of design in stellar gyrations and the +ceaseless spinning of globes. Of what use is it to the human race +(the so-called "end-all" of existence) to be hurled through the + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 10 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +heavens at 18 miles a second? What good does it do any of us to be +catapulted through the skies and whirled at the same time? What +good does it do God's lesser masterpieces -- the toads, tarantulas +and typhus germs -- to participate in these celestial rides? Why +the silly goose-chase, the merry-go-round of the spheres over such +protracted periods of time? + + To ascribe these aimless and senseless activities to +intelligence is to insult intelligence. Only a charitable sense of +humor can help one to overlook the stark stupidity of attributing +these motional futilities to a guiding mind. + + Some find it difficult to conceive how a rotating cloud of +star dust could, without a god, evolve into our world, with all its +manifold forms of life, its complex structures, its Wagnerian +operas, and its Shakespearean dramas. Extremes are always striking, +and when seen without their intermediate steps, appear hopelessly +apart. Yet the connections between gaseous worlds and man and his +sometimes more than gaseous attainments are interwoven with time: +an evolution of billions of years. Man himself is an evolution from +the lowest specks of life, [The evolution of man from lowly forms +of life is a commonplace of biology. "Struggle as we may, be as +snobbish as we will," writes John M. Tyler, professor of biology, +Amherst College, "we cannot shake off these poor relations of ours. +... If we appeal from adult anatomy to embryology the case becomes +all the worse for us. Our ear is lodged in the gill-slit of a fish, +our jaws are bronchial arches, our hyoid bone the rudiment of this +system of bones supporting the gills. Our circulation begins as a +veritable fish circulation; our earliest skeleton is a notochord; +Meckel's cartilage, from which our lower jaw and the bones of our +middle ear develop, is a whole genealogical tree of disagreeable +ancestors. Our glandula thyreoidea has, according to good +authorities, an origin so slimy that it should never be mentioned +in polite society." (The Whence and Whither of Man, p. 99.) and his +attainments have slowly emerged from the gropings of the jungle. +Music itself is a matter of evolution from the savage tom-tom, and +art in form and color finds its crude beginnings in scratches on +stone and mud-daubs made on the dripping walls of caves. After all, +it is not a far cry from a rotating nebula to musical notes, from +"dancing atoms" to music. In spite of pretty words, the sounds of +a violin are scrapings of horsehair on cat-gut: it is man, able to +distinguish between pleasing and offensive sounds, who has slowly +perfected melody. It does not require a miracle to develop the +universe from a gaseous beginning. + + Anyone who has seen the two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, before +mixing would never suppose that they would produce a liquid like +water: yet a combination of these two elements will result in a +mixture that is distinctly different from either ingredient. If two +different kinds of atoms can do this, by mixing, in the space of a +moment, what can we not expect from the intermixture, and countless +combinations, of 90 or more different atoms over vast periods of +time? just as the richness of our language can be developed out of +26 letters, and includes every word in the dictionary, so can the +complexity of the universe be made out of the 90 or more atoms. +[Life itself is an assemblage of atoms. "There is," says Sir Edward +Thorpe, "no absolute distinction to be drawn between the chemistry + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 11 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +of the inorganic and organic worlds." And, again: "There can be no +reasonable doubt that the chemical processes of organic life are +essentially similar to those of the laboratory. History of +Chemistry, vol. 1, p. 128, and vol. 2, p. 134.] The facts speak for +themselves. Man, who himself is 75 per cent. water, can, being more +than a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, do what the ocean cannot do: +weigh the stars. A nebula could easily have contained the raw +material of all that exists. It was Tyndall himself who saw in +matter the promise and potency of all terrestrial life. [Prof. A.E. +Schafer, who succeeded Tyndall as president of the British +Association for the Advancement of Science, made a similar +declaration: "Nothing stands between chemical elements and the +phenomenon called life but the knowledge of exactly how to combine +the elements." (Presidential Address, Dundee, Scotland.)] + + "All the innumerable substances," writes Jeans, [The Universe +Around Us, p. 101.] "which occur on earth -- shoes, ships, sealing- +wax, cabbages, kings, carpenters, walruses, oysters, everything we +can think of -- can be analyzed into their constituent atoms. ... +It might be thought that a quite incredible number of different +kinds of atoms would emerge from the rich variety of substances we +find on earth. Actually the number is quite small. The same atoms +turn up again and again, and the great variety of substances we +find on earth result, not from any great variety of atoms entering +into their composition, but from the great variety of ways in which +a few types of atoms can be combined." + + God-believers have assumed that because they see "order" in +the universe, an intelligence must have "ordained" this "order," or +"planned" things the way we see them. Our idea of "order" is +necessarily derived from the existing conditions, whatever these +happen to be; and no matter what arrangement might prevail, we +would be sure to observe "order." It is in the nature of the case +impossible for a thing, or even a group of things, not to bear +relationship to all other things, and whatever relationship exists +constitutes the "established order." No one can think of a thing +which would not stand, in all of its parts, in "orderly" +relationship to the whole. It is impossible to imagine a sequence +of events which would not constitute "order" or which would not +appear to us as "properly connected." If the sun revolved around +the earth, instead of the earth around the sun, or if the earth +were a disk spinning like a cart-wheel through space, instead of a +globe rotating on its axis, we would recognize this as the +"established order" of motion, even though it were the precise +opposite of what we observe now. In brief, any combination of +conditions or circumstances in which we might find ourselves would +appear "orderly" to our perception, because it is the existing +conditions which establish the "order." + + The same, or similar, remarks hold good for the use of the +word "system." Astronomers speak of our solar aggregation as a +"system," not because it is intelligently laid out, but because the +term designates a group of bodies in space which are moving in a +particular formation, and whose activities, both individually and +collectively, follow a certain degree of regularity of movement. +These activities we note and tabulate under the word "system." Any +group of bodies moving with regularity and in definite formation + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 12 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +would constitute a "system," regardless of what motions they +pursued or what activities we observed. We would still be dealing +with a "system" if the planets trailed behind the sun, like a +company of soldiers marching in single-file formation. In fact, two +stars circling each other constitute a "system." The word "system" +does not denote intelligent guidance in the working of the cosmos. +[The atheist d'Holbach was once chided by Voltaire for writing a +book called the System of Nature. The sage of Ferney could not +perceive how a non-believer in God could speak of "system" in the +universe. It would have done Voltaire good if he could have +observed, under a microscope, the "systematic" growth of a +malignant tumor and the "systematic" break-down of living cells in +gangrenous affections. Nature is always "systematic," from the +spinning of stars to human putrefaction.] + + Stars exist neither for themselves, nor for us, nor for the +"glory of God." They exist because billions of years ago a nebulous +ocean of matter broke up into parts and formed itself into stars. +What happened then, we see duplicated today on an almost parallel +scale in the star-forming nebulae of distant space. There is +nothing more supernatural in the occurrence than in the gradual +breaking up of rarified gases into globulous bodies by a process of +slow condensation. This occurs through the agency known as +"Gravitational Instability." "This causes any mass of chaotic gas +to break up into detached condensations," writes Jeans [The +Universe Around Us, p. 207.] -- a purely physical manifestation. +The "cause" of the stars is definitely known. + + The universe, therefore, did not come into existence at the +command of a Ghost. It is, in its entirety, a self-contained, self- +determined, independent reality, consisting of matter in an endless +concatenation of physical and chemical changes. This is the message +of astrophysics and astronomy. Needless to say, it is in entire +conflict with the Aladdin-like nonsense taught by religion, in +which a cosmic Genius or celestial Magus performs miracles under +the name of God. + + What we see around us in the heavens is the celestial media +called matter undergoing change. Stars, suns, planets, satellites, +comets, meteors are but temporary formations in the vast ocean of +space. Matter alone is eternal; it changes only its forms, and the +universe of heavenly bodies we see today is as surely destined to +destruction as is the tiniest of living forms. + + The story of astronomy presents a most imposing refutation to +those who assume a supernatural origin of cosmic bodies, or who +insist that celestial activities are governed by intelligence. We +shall here review the evidence as it applies to stellar development +and decay, with particular reference to the idea of God. And in +pursuing our aim we shall keep before us the very stimulating +advice of John Dewey: [Reconstruction in Philosophy, p. 140.] "The +first distinguishing characteristic of thinking is facing the facts +-- inquiry, minute and extensive scrutinizing, observation." + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 13 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + CHAPTER II + + STAR DUST LOOKS ABOUT + + Our studies of the universe show the uniformity of its +chemical structure and generally of its physical laws. We are made +of the same stuff as the stars, so when we study astronomy we are +in a way only investigating our remote ancestry and our place in +the universe of star stuff. Our very bodies consist of the same +chemical elements found in the most distant nebulae, and our +activities are guided by the same universal rules. + -- HARLOW SHAPLEY. +['The Star Stuff that is Man,' N.Y. Times, Aug. 11, 1929.] + + Just as the written life of some famous man properly commences +with a portrayal of his family antecedents, so any real history of +the earth should begin with the activities of the sun and the +origin of its present family of planets. + -- ROLLIN T. CHAMBERLAIN. +[The Origin, and Early Stages of the Earth (The Nature of the World +and of Man, p. 31).] + + The eye of fabled Cyclops was not even prophetic of the great +telescope at Mt. Wilson, the pupil of whose eye, so to speak, is +100 inches in diameter. + -- FOREST RAY MOULTON. +[Astronomy (The Nature of the World and of Man, p. 1). + + To understand what has happened, and even what will happen we +have only to examine what is happening. + -- G.L.L. BUFFON +[F. Mason's 'Creation by Evolution,' p. 326.] + + THE study of the heavens dates back to remote antiquity and to +early periods of pagan culture. As far back as the third millennium +B.C., equinoxes and solstices were determined by the Chinese. This +we learn from the decrees promulgated by the Emperor Yao (2300 +B.C.), as recorded in the "Shu Chung," a collection of documents +ancient even in the time of Confucius. In Egypt, as Agnes Mary +Clerke remarks, [Article "Astronomy," Ency. Brit.] "the curiously +precise orientation of the Pyramids affords a lasting demonstration +of the high degree of technical skill in watching the heavens +attained in the third millennium B.C." The orbital motions of the +planets were also known: "The Babylonian computers were not only +aware that Venus returns in almost exactly eight years to a given +starting-point in the sky, but they had established similar +periodic relations in 46, 59, 79 and 83 years severally for +Mercury, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter." + + The movement of celestial bodies was not unknown to the +ancient Greeks. Centuries before the so-called "Savior" of man came +to earth to teach his doctrines of demonology and the immediate +destruction of the world, the celestial bodies had been studied by +the Greeks, and a fair approximation had been reached as to the +motions, of the earth. Pythagoras (600 B.C.) and Philolaus (480 +B.C.) taught the rotation of the earth on its axis once in every +twenty-four hours. Aristarchus, a famous Greek astronomer (250 + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 14 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +B.C.) was the first to maintain that the earth moves around the +sun. "Leukippos and Demokritos," writes Sir Edward Thorpe, in his +'History of Chemistry,' "explained the creation of the world as due +solely to physical agencies without the intervention of a creative +intelligence." These teachings, the result of pagan culture, were +later obliterated by the corroding influence of Christian +authority, and by the sacred writings of Hebrew tradition in which +the Christians believed. "From the fourth to the thirteenth +century," writes Joseph McCabe, [The Truth About Galilee, p. 34.] +"Christendom had completely forgotten all that the race had already +learned about the stars." + + The Church put every obstacle in the path of those opposed to +its teachings. Roger Bacon was imprisoned. Copernicus, in fear of +persecution, withheld, for twelve years, the publication of his +manuscript "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs." Bruno was +burned at the stake by the Catholic Inquisition, and the aged +Galileo was dragged before the Holy Tribunal to abjure, under +threat of torture, the propagation of a doctrine which the +Christian Church pronounced false and inimical to the faith. The +Aristotelian philosophy, which taught that the earth is the fixed +center of the universe, bore the sanction of the Church. To +question it was to go counter to papal decree and the God-inspired +wisdom of popes. Besides, had not Jehovah, the God of the Bible, +"made the stars also" as mere afterthoughts at the time of +creation? And were there not holy texts to show that the earth +existed before the sun? + + Under priestly domination, ignorance abounded throughout +Christendom. [The ignorance of the saints was appalling. The +Catholic Encyclopedia (Article "Antipodes") quotes St. Augustine, +a distinguished ambassador of God, as stating: "As to the fable +that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side +of the earth ... men who walk with their feet opposite ours, there +is no reason for believing it." "Christianity," remarks Draper, +"had been in existence fifteen hundred years, and had not produced +a single astronomer." (Conflict Between Religion and Science, p. +157). Man's "immortal soul" was everything, his body nothing. +Material things were of trifling significance. Stars, sun, and +earth would soon be blotted out by an infuriated God, who had once +drowned the world and who was now intent on judging man and +bringing everlasting punishment to those who had offended him. +Personal salvation alone mattered at the end of the world, when +vast hordes of human beings were to be cast into lakes of eternal +hell-fire and suffer with "gnashing of teeth." Here were the +tidings of great joy brought by the lowly Nazarene. It was the age +of faith, when thousands of angels danced on the point of a pin and +the heavens proclaimed the glory of God. It was the golden age of +priests. + + It was not until 1608 -- a little over three centuries ago and +a mere yesterday in the life of our world -- that the first +telescope was constructed (the name of its maker -- Lippershey -- +ought to be blazoned in the memory of every man). It was destined +to turn the world of traditional nonsense right-side up, and +establish man's true place in the universe of stars. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 15 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + The coming of the telescope marks a pivotal point in the +history of human thought. Before this instrument was invented, +man's insight into the stellar world around him was narrowly +circumscribed by visual limitations. His eyesight was of extremely +feeble range, and not until he had increased his natural vision by +the aid of artificial lenses was he able to penetrate into the more +distant realms of space. By thus augmenting his supposed "God- +given" eyesight with powerful lenses of his own construction, he +has done more in three hundred years of telescopic development to +perfect his visual capacity than nature has done in all these +millions of years of organic evolution. + + Today, with natural vision alone, man can see, in a perfectly +clear sky, only 3,000 stars. With a giant instrument of his own +construction he can observe and photograph 1,500 million stars, +This is half a million times as many stars as nature permits him to +see with the naked eye. This is because the lens in the telescope +is intelligently fashioned on scientific lines; and it has taken +man, to perfect it, only a fractional part of the time which nature +has taken, working blindly over millions of years, to evolve the +human eye, with all its inherent weaknesses and well-known optical +defects. [Helmholtz, an outstanding authority in the field of +optical science, in speaking of the human eye, remarked: "If an +optician sent it to me as an instrument, I would send it back with +reproaches for the carelessness of his work and demand the return +of my money." (See Prof. J.B. Bury's A History of Freedom of +Thought, p. 182). + + The new door unlocked by science opened upon a vast domain of +unexplored space. Man's place in the universe began to shrivel to +its proper proportions. Slowly he began to realize that he and his +little earth were inconsequential things in the world of stars. + + The priests, the witch-doctors, and the miracle-mongers of +religion had told him a different story. He was, they claimed, at +the center of the universe, and the aim and end of all creation. +Uncritical man believed. Providence watched over him; saints +preserved him if he did the bidding of the Church. Prayers would +alter events, and faith would move mountains. Had not a Jewish +patriarch once made the sun stand still, and had not a prophet +ascended into heaven? It was a pious pipe-dream, of course, in +which the vicious hand of priestcraft and crass ignorance were +everywhere in evidence. + + The telescope shattered this illusion. Man shrank to the +impotence of an inconspicuous speck in space, and with him shrank +earth, and sun, and stars and "giant" constellations. Not one of +these relatively-tiny globules or Clusters in the vast ocean of the +sky, was really important in itself. As for the stellar universe as +a whole, it, too , has shriveled to a microscopic dot; and the +modern, high-powered reflector has, paradoxically as it may seem, +made the universe of stars appear to us at once extremely large as +well as extremely small. + + It is because man is infinitesimally small that the stellar +universe seems immeasurably large. In its proper proportions it is +a trifling thing in itself. Measured in terms of space, or in +relation to nothingness, it shrivels to the vanishing point. "Empty + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 16 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +Waterloo Station of everything except six specks of dust," writes +Sir James Jeans, [The Universe Around Us, p. 87.] "and it is still +far more crowded with dust than space is with stars." Here briefly +we have a compact picture of the "glory" of the heavens as revealed +by the telescope. + + Now, an "Intelligence" which could do no better than to "fill" +Waterloo Station with six specks of dust, after working for +countless billions of years, would not be entitled to a Nobel prize +for achievement; and we must look to purely blindly-working forces, +inherent in matter itself, for an interpretation of phenomena. The +universe is not the product of a mind. + + It is estimated to have taken cosmic evolution somewhere +between 10,000,000 million and 20,000,000 million years to produce +our universe as we see it today, and this includes the entire +period of transition from nebulae to stars and from stars to earth. +It is an inconceivably vast stretch of time for the development of +that which is the equivalent proportionately of six specks of dust +in a great railroad terminal, and the wonder is that we look upon +the "result" as in any way striking or important. It is only +because we are living amid these tiny, floating specks, and that we +are star-dust ourselves, that the matter is of human interest + + There is, in the religious meaning of the term, no +"harmony of the spheres." "Harmony" implies a close coordination of +parts and mutual interactions for common or beneficial ends. These +do not exist: collisions, conflagrations, explosions, catastrophes, +annihilations of cosmic bodies are of daily and hourly occurrence. +The stellar depths are strewn with the debris of larger bodies -- +of wrecked planets and smashed satellites, of stars shattered by +rotating too fast. And headed for the celestial scrap-heap are the +myriads of meteors that shower the heavens like rain, and enormous- +tailed comets which dart aimlessly about, and burnt-out moons which +spin and spin as mute reminders of beginnings that end in spinning. +Added to these are the binary stars, caught by mutual attraction, +and forced forever to travel around each other in senseless +revolutions. + + Nor is there the slightest indication of a general "plan" or +uniform pattern in the structure, shape, composition and motions of +heavenly bodies. There is no "uniformity" as to size, weight, +temperature, density, luminosity, or placement of the stars. [Thus +the huge star Sirius A, with a diameter fifty times that of its +dwarf companion Sirius B, weighs only three times as much as the +similar star: the latter being so densely packed that each cubic +inch contains nearly a ton of matter. These are extremes. In +general, the discrepancies are not so great. With temperature +nearly twice that of the sun, Sirius A stands out as the most +brilliant star in the sky. It is familiarly known as the Dog-star.] +They differ in every conceivable way, like a helter-skelter of odd +things thrown together in hopeless confusion. Large stars may, in +some cases, weigh less than even smaller ones. This, of course, is +due to their differences in density. Stars range in size from +super-giants like Antares (which occupies 90,000,000 times as much +space as the sun) to dwarf stars like van Maanen's, which is as +tiny as the earth. The distances between the stars and their + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 17 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +nearest neighbors vary from a few million to many millions of +miles. Some stars are young, some middle-aged, some old. There are +vast patches in the heavens where no stars exist; others where +mighty clusters are gathered, or where two lonely binary stars, far +removed from the rest, whirl out their hopeless destiny. Nebulae +have no well-defined outlines; and of the millions that exist there +are perhaps no two alike. Nor do they all give birth to stars. + + Even the solar system itself is without complete motional +uniformity. The planets of our "system" are all moving in one +direction -- except Uranus, which moves from north to south. The +satellite of Neptune moves counter to the entire system of +satellites. "The most curious feature of this satellite," writes +Newcomb, [Astronomy for Everybody, p. 235.] "is that it moves from +east to west." Again, the planets differ greatly in the +eccentricities of their orbits, or in the ellipses they describe. +Some planets are hot, some cold. Two have nine satellites; one, +four; one, two; two, one; and two have no satellites. Some are more +flattened at the poles than others; each varies in respect to the +inclination of its axis to the plane of its orbit. Even the orbits +themselves are not placed on a level or horizontal plane with +respect to one another: if we regard the earth's orbit as +"horizontal," the orbits of the other planets are tipped at various +degrees. There is no "even keel" in the heavens. Even the earth's +axis is not stable but wobbles in its rotation. "The axis of the +earth does not preserve an invariable direction in space, but in a +certain time it describes a cone, in much the same manner as the +axis of a top spinning out of the vertical." [Article "Earth," +Ency. Brit.] + + The courses of the comets are most irregular, varying from +elliptical to parabolic and hyperbolic orbits, describing the most +eccentric curves in their wanderings through space. Sometimes a +comet is "captured" by one of our planets, or, by coming too close +to the sun, is split into fragments. Nowhere is there stability or +permanency in the heavens. Nor is there a "deign." + + In sum, the universe as we see it is precisely what we might +expect under the circumstances: an aggregation of activities that +know not what they are doing nor where they are headed in their +mad-hatter pace -- a series of occurrences which block and trip +each other at every turn, by undoing, in a single instant, what +they laboriously did a moment ago: a game of building and +destroying without purpose or end. And behind it all there is no +sign of that ghostly being which is said to guide the Whole. +"Experience," writes Hugh Elliot, [Modern Science and Materialism, +p. 39.] "affords not the smallest trace of evidence for the +existence of any spiritual entity." + + CHAPTER III + + DAWN: NEBULAE AND STARS + + The stately drama of stellar evolution turns out to be more +like the hair-breadth escapades of the films. The music of the +spheres has almost a suggestion of -- jazz. + -- Sir A.S. EDDINGTON. [Stars and Atona, p. 27.] + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 18 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + Each star may be considered to go through a series of changes +analogous to those of a human being from birth to old age. In its +infancy a star is simply a nebulous mass; it gradually condenses +into a smaller volume, growing hotter ... until a stage of maximum +temperature is reached, when it begins to cool off. + -- SIMON NEWCOMB. [The Stars, p. 220.] + + The stillness of the heavens is, however, apparent only, for +commotion of the fiercest kind is raging on all sides. Stars are +suns, and the suns are spheres of fire blazing with fury +indescribable; scenes of activity so tremendous that no vehemence +of tempest or tornado on earth can give the slightest idea of their +fearfulness. -- J. STARK BROWNE. ["The Numbers and +Distances of the Stars," The Rationalist Annual, 1931.] + + Nebulae are the birthplaces of the stars, so that each nebula +consists of stars born and stars not yet born. + -- Sir JAMES JEANS. [The Universe Around Us, p. 69..] + + Matter, says the spectroscope, is essentially the same every +where, in the earth and the sun, in the comet that visits us once +in a thousand years, in the star whose distance is incalculable, +and in the great clouds of "fire mist" that we call nebulae. + -- The Outline of Science. [p. 37.] + + THE ORIGIN OF THE STARS + + "CHOOSE a point in space at random," writes Jeans, [The +Universe Around Us, p. 106.] "and the odds against its being +occupied by a star are enormous." This is because relatively empty +space itself makes up, by far, the major part of celestial +existence. + + Stars are so distant from the earth that their movements in +the sky cannot be observed by the naked eye, and, it is only by the +aid of the most powerful telescopes that we can detect their change +of relative position. From one year to another, or even from +century to century, they appear as "fixed" points of light. No +wonder that many of the ancients thought them immovable. Yet move +they do, and at speeds that transcend the imagination. It may be +stated in general that stars travel at a speed equal to 1,000 times +that of an express train, one of them in particular reaching the +tremendous velocity of 150 miles per second. This is the star +Groombridge 1830, mentioned by Eddington. Why they should thus +speed through space when speeding will only bring them back to +where they were before, why they should pursue this ceaseless, +endless chase, is for the design-arguers to explain. If there is +any intelligence manifested in this useless expenditure of energy, +this mad pace, century after century, aeon after aeon, it is not +apparent; on the contrary, it indicates a response to the blind +urge of non-thinking necessity. + + Everywhere in the heavens bodies are in motion; and they are +held to their orbits by the iron hand of gravitation, with all its +actions and interactions in the ever-changing field of stellar +movement and positions. Nowhere is there rest. Even the great +galactic system of which we form a part and which, according to +Shapley's estimate, contains 100,000 million stars, rotates one + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 19 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +revolution every 300 million years -- a vast pivoting mass of +incandescent bodies, whose outer rim moves at a speed of thousands +of miles a second. This rotating disk of stars has turned but +several times since the earth was born. What purpose, we may +inquire, do such motions serve in the life of man, the so-called +"end-all" and objective of existence? And how can we see in any +such movements the earmarks of "design"? A moving mass that gets +itself nowhere except where it was before, which takes unthinkable +ages to complete an entire circle, and knows not why it moves, is +undoubtedly moving by potentialities resident in the original +nebulae from which these bodies were born. + + The familiar rate of speed at which light travels, 186,000 +miles a second (which is, incidentally, about a million times the +speed of sound), gives us a faint but impressive picture of stellar +distances. A star is said to be so many "light-years" away -- this +meaning the number of years light must travel from that particular +star to reach our planet. The nearest fixed star -- Proxima +Centauri -- happens to be 4 1/4 "light-years" away, so we can see +how far our nearest stellar neighbor is removed from our little +earth. Four and a quarter years ago the light by which we see +Proxima Centauri left this star for its journey through space. + + The nearest rim of stars is about a million times more distant +from the earth than the nearest planet. Venus, our next-door +planetary neighbor, never comes closer than 26,000,000 miles to +earth. Proxima Cdntauri, the nearest star, is approximately a +million times more distant, or, to be a little more exact, +25,000,000 million miles. It is difficult to visualize in these +figures the full significance of our petty position in space and +the futility of terrestrial existence and life when measured in +terms of stellar depths. + + Let us take a still further jaunt into space. Far beyond +Proxima Centauri, past a series of star-cluster's and solitary +orbs, through a veritable wilderness of worlds and empty deserts of +space, lie the remote -- the extremely remote -- extra-galactic +nebulae. "The most distant of them," writes Jeans, [The Universe +Around Us, p. 69.] "is about 140 million light-years from us." It +is the furthermost point the human eye has seen. + + The light which reaches us today from these very remote +regions of space started on its lightning-like journey millions of +years before Joshua is said to have made the sun stand still, or +Jesus is reputed to have ascended into heaven. [A "light-year" is +about 6,000,000,000,000 miles, so that any one who cares to may +calculate the distance which Jesus had to travel in order to reach +the nearest fixed star in his "ascension' into heaven] Indeed, it +is certain that the early ancestor of Joshua and Jesus -- the ape- +man, Pithecanthropus Erectus -- had not yet been born. In fact, the +very earth had not even given birth to the Thunder Reptile and the +mighty Tyrannosaurs. It was long before the coming of the +Dinosaurs, when God preferred the company of reptiles to that of +men. [According to Lucas (Am. Mus. of Nat. Hist. Guide Leaflet No. +70), the Dinosaurs first appeared on the earth "some 35,000,000 +years ago." At that time, the light by which we now see the extra- +galactic nebulae had already traveled over 100 million years.] + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 20 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + Every schoolboy knows that the stars are much older than the +earth, and that our little globe is a mere infant in point of time. +It was, relatively speaking, born only yesterday, while the life of +the stars may be measured in figures which stagger the imagination. +"Time," as Jeans reminds us, [The Universe Around Us, p. 81.] +"leaves its mark, its wrinkles and its grey hairs, on the stars, so +that we can guess their ages tolerably well, and the evidence is +all in favor of stellar lives, not of thousands of millions, but of +millions of millions, of years." Our earth is probably not more +than 2,000 million years old, [This is Jeah's figure. Charles +Schuchert, professor of paleontology, Yale University, states: "No +geologist today thinks that the evolution of the earth and its life +could have taken place in less than 100,000,000 years. My own view +as a student of historical geology is that geologic time endured +about 800,000,000 years." The earth is, cosmologically considered, +very young.] a mere nothing in point of time when compared to the +life of the stars. + + The Jewish cosmologists who wrote their astronomy in days of +pious ignorance, and handed it along in the form of sacred +literature and as divinely inspired, failed utterly to grasp the +natural sequence of events. According to the so-called Mosaic +account of "creation," the earth was made before the sun; the stars +were a mere afterthought to the "creation" of the earth. "He made +the stars also" is as little valid in astronomy today as the story +of the fairy godmother in Cinderella, who turned a pumpkin into a +coach, is valid in chemistry. Stars were not "made" by a Jewish +Magician, nor is there any "he" involved in their development: they +evolve, and their emergence from nebulous matter, by natural means, +is wholly foreign to the pitiably-ignorant nursery tales hatched by +religion. The author of the article on "Genesis" in the +Encyclopedia Britannica, Stanley Arthur Cook, does well in stating +what all astronomers and geologists know, namely: "That the records +of the pre-historic ages in Genesis I-XI are at complete variance +with modern science and archaeological research is unquestionable." + + With these facts before us, we can dismiss, as altogether +trivial, those teachings of religion which picture man as important +in the life of the universe or the stars as mere by-products of +existence. "We can say," writes Jeans, [The Universe Around Us, p. +326.] "that the stars have existed as such for from 5 to 10 million +million years, and that their atoms may have previously existed in +nebulae for at least a comparable, and possibly for a much longer, +time." + + "As a general rule," writes Simon Newcomb, ["Astrophysics," +Ency. Brit.] "the incandescent heavenly bodies are not masses of +solid or liquid matter, as formerly assumed, but mainly masses of +gas, or of substances gaseous in their nature." + + The low density of the stars, due to their gaseous nature, is +another decisive factor against any concept of life on the stars. +["In many stars the material is so inflated," writes Eddington, +"that it is more tenuous than the air around us; for example, if +you were inside Capella you would not notice the material of +Capella any more than you notice the air in this room" (Stars and +Atoms, p. 31.)] The giant star Antares, with a diameter of + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 21 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +390,000,000 miles, is well suited in area for the maintenance of +life on a tremendous scale, but it is so tenuous in structure that +it may be compared almost to a huge vacuum. This mammoth globe of +rarefied gas is so large that the sun, to equal it in size, would +have to expand to more than the diameter of the earth's orbit +around the sun. Antares, in fact, occupies 90,000,000 times as much +space as the sun, yet offers not a single square inch of surface as +a foot-hold for life. Of what use is such a globe, seeing that it +cannot produce even a blade of grass? And it is but one of four +mammoth stars, the others being the super-giants, Hercules, Ceti, +and Betelgeux, all of which are gaseous and uninhabitable orbs. + + Astronomers are thoroughly agreed as to the origin of the +stars. The primeval chaos, or nebular mist, out of which these huge +bodies evolved, must have been of extremely low density, since all +the matter now observable in the stars, if scattered evenly +throughout the known areas of space reached by the telescope, would +form only a thin veil of unthinkable rarity. This attenuated mass +of matter, representing the "batter" of future worlds, was the +substance out of which all things evolved. Here again we are +confronted with the great emptiness of space, in which all the +matter of the universe would then be spread out in a thin cloud of +star-mist. This gossamer mist would then be so thin that the +molecules in it, according to Jeans, would be from two to three +yards apart! How thinly these molecules would be scattered may be +judged by comparing them with the compactness of the molecules in +air, which, on the average, are about an eight-millionth of an inch +apart. + + It is futile, therefore, for the theist to think of the stars +as possible abodes of life. They are terrifically hot bodies -- +hotter, in general, than anything we can experience on earth, or of +which we can conceive. Stars range from as low as the temperature +of an ordinary coal fire (one may place one's hand in the open +grate if he wants to know how hot this is) up to 28,000 degrees, +the estimated temperature of Plackett's Star. Obviously, life +Cannot exist under these thermal conditions; and when we consider +the vast number of stars in the galactic system, computed by Sears +as 30,000 million and by Eddington as 300,000 million, we can see +the utter futility of these "burning" globes, as far as life is +related to stellar activity. + + CELESTIAL MECHANICS + + A GREAT landmark was reached when Pierre Laplace, in 1796, +published his Systeme du Monde. In this he set forth his famous +nebular hypothesis, in which the birth of stars and planets was +traced to a rotating nebula -- an hypothesis, by the way, which +entirely dispensed with God. + + The nebular hypothesis of Laplace has been largely augmented +or modified, rather than entirely superseded, by subsequent +observation; yet to the great French astronomer is due the +formation of a theory which still holds good in part, and which +accounts for the formation of stars. "Apart from minor details," +writes Jeans, [The Universe Around Us. p. 231.] "the process +imagined by Laplace explains the birth of suns out of nebulae; it + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 22 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +cannot explain the birth of planets out of suns." This is because +the sequence of events in the development of planets is distinct +from that formulated by Laplace in respect to suns. Nevertheless, +he was the Darwin of the skies, who first, in a masterly way and +with a grasp of mathematics which far transcended that of many of +his contemporaries, traced the evolution of heavenly bodies from a +simple and widely-diffused mist, or nebula, in a state of rotation, +up to the giant constellations and colossal star systems we see +today. His theory, which still forms the basic outline of present- +day cosmological development, falls short of explaining the origin +of planets from a sun, and here we come to the tidal theory +postulated by Jeans, which will be considered in due course. + + Whatever particular process heavenly bodies pursued in their +evolution from nebulae up to mighty constellations, one thing is +tolerably certain. Stars came into existence, not at the command of +a ghost, nor by a few words spoken in Hebrew, but by a process of +slow condensation in the primeval chaos, consuming many billions of +years. The same process may be witnessed today in what are called +rotating nebulae, of which many millions exist, and is recorded on +photographic plates. "These photographs," says Jeans, [The Universe +Around Us, p. 230.] "exhibit a process taking place before our +eyes, which is essentially identical with that imagined by Laplace, +except for a colossal difference of scale. Everything happens +qualitatively as Laplace imagined, but on a scale incomparably +grander than he ever dreamed of. In these photographs the primitive +nebula is not a single sun in the making; it contains substance +sufficient to form hundreds of millions of suns; the condensations +do not form puny planets the size of our earth, but are themselves +suns." This is what we witness today, and it is in deadly conflict +with the theory of creation as pictured in the Bible. + + Nor is there, in any concept of cosmic evolution, any need of +postulating a ghostly finger twirling the stars, or starting them +spinning in their orbits. No initial push, no divine "shove" is +required even in the earliest stages of stellar evolution. As Jeans +points out, [The Universe Around Us, p. 214.] "Stars, as soon as +they come into being, are endowed with rotations transmitted to +them by their parent nebula, in addition to the rotations resulting +from the currents set up in the process of condensation." + + From chaos to nebulae, from nebulae to stars, and from stars +to planets and satellites, a steady procession of natural events +occurs, unattended by deities or demons. Stars move, not because of +some heavenly hand, but because of what is known as the +"conservation of angular momentum." This means, as Jeans explains, +[Ibid., p. 214.] that "rotation, like energy, cannot entirely +disappear. Its total amount is conserved, so that when a nebulae +breaks up into stars, the original rotation of the nebula must be +conserved in the rotations of the stars." And this rotary movement +is traceable to nothing more supernatural than "the existence of +currents in the primordial medium" which "endow the resulting +nebulae with varying amounts of rotation." Hence, by the inherent +properties of motion, with which matter is endowed, the entire +fabric of the universe is woven, and continues in a state of +motion. There is no time thinkable when matter was at rest, or +without the property of motion or of changing its position in + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 23 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +space, whether in the form of giant stars whirling through space at +a thousand times the speed of an express train or of a molecule of +air traversing a tiny space at 500 yards a second, the approximate +speed of a rifle bullet. Matter in motion is eternal: the vision of +"dead," inert, or motionless matter stirred to sudden activity by +a ghost belongs to the age of fables. + + Unquestionably, motion is as much a quality or an attribute of +matter as form and extension, and is as inseparable from it as +either of these are from the basic substratum we call matter. +Those, therefore, who, in the interest of theism, insist that there +must have been a time when matter was not endowed with motion, do +not even understand the law of probability. There is no more reason +to suppose a time when matter was at rest, as a time when matter +did not possess the attributes of form and extension. Motion is as +old as matter itself, and matter is as old as time. + + That matter was "originally" a dead, inert mass, incapable of +motion, and received its "first impetus" from some external agency, +usually thought to be intelligent, rests upon not a jot of +evidence. Even the nebula from which the stars came, rare and +extended as it was, must have been moved by inherent properties of +its own, quite the same as matter moves to-day, without the shadow +of aid from anything outside itself. + + "There is no difficulty," writes Sir Robert S. Ball, [Article +"Nebular Theory," Ency. Brit.] Director of the Cambridge +Observatory, "in conceiving how a nebula, quite independently of +any internal motion of its parts, shall also have had as a whole a +movement of rotation. In fact a little consideration of the theory +of probabilities will show it to be infinitely probable that such +an object should really have some movement of rotation, no matter +by what causes the nebula may have originated. As this vast mass +cooled it must by the laws of heat have contracted towards the +center, and as it contracted it must, according to the law of +dynamics, rotate more rapidly." + + The inherent property of matter observed in the law of +gravitation -- by which every particle of matter attracts every +other particle inversely as the square of the distance -- is the +fundamental keystone of physical astronomy. On it is based the +entire fabric of the heavens. The development of stars and sun, and +their suspension and movements in space rest on nothing more +complicated than this simple physical property of matter, which +extends from the atoms in a tiny speck of dust to mighty stars +weighing millions of millions of tons. The universal "law," +discovered by Newton is apparent throughout the heavens as in the +world of the microscope. + + The wonderment which the savage or the theologian might feel +in seeing heavenly bodies "hanging on nothing" or suspended midway +in the sky loses its glamour once the principle of gravitation is +understood. The "suspension" of bodies in a medium lighter than +themselves, and traveling through space at the tremendous speed of +18 miles a second, may be readily grasped once, we arrive at a +clear understanding of the agency responsible for the phenomenon. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 24 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +We are held to the earth, and the earth is held to the sun by this +property of matter; and the moon travels about the earth and is +held from a headlong plunge into space by the earth's attraction. + + "There is not the slightest doubt," says Jeans, [The Universe +Around Us, pp.. 157, 158.] "as to what determines the motions of +the stars; it is the law of gravitation, every star attracting +every other star with a force which varies inversely as the square +of their distance apart ... the mere law of gravitation, together +with the supposition that the stars cannot exercise free-will as to +whether they obey it or not, are enough." In a word, these moving +orbs are not following an intelligent command, but are moving by +inner properties of their own, in response to the iron urge of +physical attraction. + + NO GOD GUIDES THE STARS + + MOST persons think of orbits as "nicely-planned" paths which +have been "properly spaced" apart, in order that moving bodies may +travel in "safety". For billions of years celestial bodies have +been moving in ever-changing orbits, many of which, through the +vast interplay of gravitational hold of one body on another, have +led to countless collisions and the elimination of bodies. Orbits +which now remain and which excite so much admiration and wonder in +the eyes of the theist, on account of their "proper placing" in the +heavens, are merely those which have survived the long play of time +-- orbits which were distant enough, and sufficiently isolated, not +to conflict or interfere with one another. The natural elimination +of intersecting orbits has resulted in preserving those bodies +whose orbits have not crossed. + + It is easy to see that orbits were never "planned", because an +elliptical course is the least safe of paths, and it is this +irregularity which causes most collisions in the heavens. A +circular or nearly circular orbit is "safer" for a moving body to +travel in than elliptical orbit of large eccentricity, and most +orbits are of the latter type. If there were "intelligence" behind +the universe, all orbits would have been circular. "If all the +orbits were nearly circular," remarks Rolling T. Chamberlain, ["The +Origin and Early Stages of the Earth," in The Nature of the World +and of Man, p. 37.] "only a few of the separate bodies moving in +them would come into collision with one another. But since the +orbits are ellipses, differing much in shape and dimensions, many +of the particles have opportunities of collision." Those who admire +"nicely placed" orbits are simply looking at those of which the +natural spacing apart has preserved them from destruction and +extinction; the others have gone to the scrap-heap. + + Our universe, as theistically conceived, is a wound-up piece +of mechanism, "made in the beginning" to go on forever or by an +occasional re-winding or adjustment of its parts. God is ever on +hand to give the stars and planets a fresh push if they lag in +their orbits, or restore them to their courses if they get out of +line and wander from their "appointed paths". It is a god-sized +job, but quite easy for one who has been at it for billions of +years. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 25 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + All the talk of a supreme intelligence or "mind" planning the +orbits of the stars and then sitting back and watching them follow +their prescribed courses is idle chatter to the ears of the +scientist. There are no settled courses, no "fixed" orbits for +stars; and what seems a non-varying course is, in reality, subject +to the universal law of eternal change. Stars move in ever-changing +orbits due to their ceaseless loss of weight through radiation and +to the ever-changing "hold" which one body exerts on another. It is +not likely that a star ever actually returns to the same position +in space it occupied before, due to the continuous shift of +heavenly bodies, both in respect to individual and mass movements +and complex interplay of gravitational pull between bodies. As a +matter of fact, our universe is fast thinning out, spreading itself +out into interstellar space. Permanent orbits do not exist. + + Nor can we, under any consideration, regard the stars and +planets, as we see them today, as individually etemal. The matter +of which they are composed will endure, but in different forms and +in different expressions of energy. The universe is slowly "running +down," exhausting itself by its tremendous outpouring of energy +through radiation. There is no replacement of stellar energy, and +while all matter that now exists will continue to exist in one form +or another, its powers will have been spent like so much water +which, having run over a mill wheel, lies dormant in the pond. Such +is Jean's picture of the ultimate fate of the universe of stars. +"We are left with a dead, although possibly a warm, universe -- a +'heat-death'", says Jeans. [The Universe Around Us, p. 320.] And +while the conservation of energy is a fundamental axiom of science, +it does not mean that energy cannot so alter its forms of activity +that it will not cease to exist in a particular form. + + One thing is certain. Sun and stars cannot go on radiating +energy and reducing as they do now without coming to the end of +their individual existence. Eventually they must consume their +entire substance by dissipation and the expenditure of their latent +powers. Their energies will have then become scattered through +space, and stars themselves will have then been absorbed in the +vast tide of what Shapley calls the universal Drift. Man sees +"fixity" and "permanency" in the stars only because his own life is +so brief, because his existence, measured by the stars, is a mere +blink in the darkness, a feeble flash in an eternity of time. Were +he able to extend his span of life to a few billion years he would +realize that the apparent "unchangeable order" and "arrangement" of +the universe is a matter of never-ending change, and that there is +going on continuous revolutions in the form, structure, and +positions of heavenly bodies. "As eternal as the stars" is a +relative rather than an actual description, since we know, as well +as we know anything, that stars are born to die, Nowhere is there +an exception to the universal law of formation and annihilation, +birth and extinction. + + It has been argued by the theist that the heavenly bodies are +so nicely "guided" in space that they never collide; that their +orbits are so "laid out" that each star keeps its appointed +distance from all the others; that, in a word, we are confronted +with the evidence of a "directing" agency keeping the stars in +their courses. This confounding of the situation arising from the + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 26 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +failure to note that the present "order" of motion in the system +has been reached only after the greatest "disorder" and counter- +play of opposing forces; bodies which have collided or been +absorbed by others, or whose motions were counter to the general +trend of motion are now no longer present or felt in the main tide +of dominant motion; billions of years have eliminated the weaker +modes of motion. The struggle for existence in the heavens, from +nebulae to stars, and from stars to planets, is quite as deadly as +anywhere else, and on a far more colossal scale. The survival of +the fittest exists in the heavens as well as on earth. Even after +the lapse of unspeakable billions of years, we are confronted with +the evidence of innumerable catastrophes in the skies: catastrophes +which upset every vestige of an "Ordained" order of motion and +movement. We have with us today the tell-ale wreckage of "burst" +stars, "mashed" planets and satellites, and the daily +"annihilation" of heavenly bodies. + + There is, on physical ground alone, nothing surprising in the +fact that stars rarely collide -- there are so few of them in +space. And they are so thinly scattered, that the chance of their +colliding or of even closely approaching each other is practically +nil. If every star were reduced by scale to the size of a grain of +dust, the distance between each one and its nearest neighbor would +average 80 miles. The chance of stellar collision under these +circumstances is at once apparent. It is because they are separated +by such vast distances, and not because a celestial mind directs +them where to go, that stars move in relative safety, The picture +of these celestial bodies being pushed about by angels, under the +watchful eye of an unseen being, is medieval nonsense. The wonder +is, not that the stars do not frequently collide, but that they +ever do. Yet collisions do occasionally occur, in spite of the vast +distances between the stars. The number of collisions is of course +relatively small, but just what one might expect in the nature of +the case. ["Calculation shows that any one star may expect to move +for something of the order of a million million million years +before colliding with a second star." -- Jeans, The Universe Around +Us, p. 88.] And it is only by the "side-wiping" or grazing of two +stars that planets are born. + + if it be urged by the theist that stars were thus "wisely" +distributed at great distances apart, "in order" that they may not +collide, it can be shown that this arrangement is a direct +hindrance to the birth of planets. Planets (as we shall see later) +come into existence only by the near approach of two stars, and +stars, as Jeans points out, [The Universe Around Us, p. 332.] "are +so sparsely scattered in space that it is an inconceivably rare +event for one to pass near to a neighbor." As a consequence, +planets are exceedingly rare, for the precise reason that the +chance of two stars meeting in space is so prevented by distance. +The "arrangement" is bad for the production of planets. + + THE ALMOST LIFELESS UNIVERSE. + + NOTHING is more certain than that the stars are lifeless +globes, It is as unthinkable that any of them should be inhabited +as that our own sun -- a blazing cauldron of heat -- should have +human beings living upon it. Life in the universe is as nothing at + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 27 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +all. Even in our own planetary system, tiny as it is, life is of +less than pin-point significance. Of the nine planets of our system +only one bears life, and that planet is among the "minor" or +smaller members of the group. The larger planets, with surface +areas many times that of the earth, are known to be lifeless orbs. +If a mentality had anything to do with the formation of the solar +system with a view to producing life, it is a mentality of a very +low order. It is as though a theatrical producer or showman were to +build a stage as large as the American continent to exhibit a few +fleas. + + Jupiter, the largest planet of our system, is about twice as +massive as all the other planets put together. Yet it is devoid of +life. With a diameter about eleven times that of the earth, its +surface area is far more extensive than that of our little globe, +and it offers itself, in point of size, as the most suitable of +planets for the production of life on an enormous scale. But the +"divine designer" behind it all forgot to make the planet solid +enough: its density is not far from that of water. And he forgot to +put this giant body close enough to the sun to keep its surface +warm. From a God-believer's viewpoint the arrangement is +unfortunate. + + The same for Saturn, the second planet of our system in point +of size, which is five times as large as all the other planets, +excepting Jupiter, put together. It is of very slight density: its +barrenness cannot be questioned. Its tenuity is particularly, +striking when we consider that Titan itself, a mere satellite of +Saturn, has greater density than the huge planet around which it +revolves. It is better conditioned for life, in the matter of +density and solidity, than its mother planet. But Titan is small +and much colder than the moon. + + Obviously, these striking mal-arrangements cannot be +reconciled with the idea that the universe was "made" for life; +life is a mere incidental and trifling occurrence: an occurrence +which has not been prearranged or led up to by intelligent means, +but which has been introduced only at one point among billions of +barren orbs. Planets are rare exceptions in the life of the stars; +an inhabited planet is a rare exception in the life of the planets, +and our earth is a solitary exception among trillions of lifeless +orbs. The universe, as a totality, is almost a lifeless affair. +What life it has borders on zero. There is nothing here that +reflects a means to an end. + + Even though it could be proved that all the planets of the +solar system were inhabited, it would weigh as nothing against the +billions of uninhabited stars: life in the universe would still +constitute but an infinitesimal part of the whole. Life, in any +event, shrinks to microscopic proportions, and is like a grain of +dust in a great desert sandstorm. + + The barrenness of this wilderness of worlds is only too +apparent to the student of astronomy. "Apart from the certain +knowledge," writes Jeans, [The Universe Around Us, p. 335.] "that +life exists on earth, we have no definite knowledge whatever except +that, at the best, life must be limited to a tiny fraction of the + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 28 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +universe. Millions of millions of stars exist which support no +life, which have never done so and never will do so. Of the rare +planetary system in the sky, many must be entirely lifeless, and in +others life, if it exists at all, is probably limited to a few +planets." + + How the God-believer would rejoice if he could point to +300,000 million inhabited worlds! How he would argue that life on +them showed the "wisdom" and forethought of the Creator, in thus +populating the universe! Instead, the facts are all against him: he +is left with a universe composed largely of 300,000 million +lifeless orbs. What "purpose" can he assign to these dead worlds? + + "The old view that every point of light in the sky represented +a possible home for life is quite foreign to modern astronomy," +says Jeans. [The Universe Around Us, p. 331.] "The stars themselves +have surface temperatures ranging from 1650 degrees to 30,000 +degrees or more, and are of course at far higher temperatures +inside. By far the greater part of the matter of the universe is at +a temperature of millions of degrees, so that its molecules are +broken up into atoms, and the atoms are broken up, partially at +least, into their constituent parts. Now the very concept of life +implies duration in time; there can be no life where atoms change +their make-up millions of times a second and no pair of atoms can +ever stay joined together." + + It is only by forgetting his place in stellar space that man +can find the urge to continue his interest in things here below, +for all his labors on earth are destined to be wiped out in the +crash of things. Indeed, the picture drawn by the astronomer is of +worlds growing, developing, and decaying before our eyes. Nothing +is permanent, nothing eternal in the celestial Drift but the star- +dust from which man came. [So ludicrous is the idea that man +survives death, or lives on in a conscious state by "going to +heaven," that it is well to quote here a few lines from Sir John +Lubbock, Origin of Civilization and the Primitive Condition of Man, +pp. 245, 246: "A friend of Mr. Lang tried long and patiently to +make a very intelligent, docile Australian black understand his +existence without a body, but the black never could keep his +countenance and generally made an excuse to get away. One day the +teacher watched and found that he went to have a hearty fit of +laughter at the absurdity of the idea of a man living and going +about without arms, legs, or mouth to eat; for a long time he could +not believe that the gentleman was serious, and when he did realize +it, the more serious the teacher was the more ludicrous the whole +affair appeared to the black." Elie Metchnikoff, past director of +the Pasteur Institute in Paris, soberly remarks: "The idea of a +future life is supported by not a single fact, while there is much +evidence against it. ... It is easy to see why the advance of +knowledge has diminished the number of believers in the persistence +of consciousness after death, and that complete annihilation at +death is the conception accepted by the vast majority of +enlightened persons." (The Nature of Man, p. 161.)] And while the +tide of time rolls on: + + "The stars shall fade away, the sun + Himself grow dim with age, and nature sink + In years." -- ADDISON. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 29 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + Regardless of crumbling worlds, no one who believes in +personal extinction need lack a proper incentive for life. In spite +of the fact that he does not expect to live again, Mr. H.G. Wells +goes on working more steadily than some who believe that they will +receive manifold blessings in the sky. Few have done more than +Wells for the entertainment and enlightenment of his fellow beings, +yet, says he, [First and Lost Things, p. 110.] "I do not believe I +have any personal immortality." He simply takes the common-sense +viewpoint of many if the world's benefactors from Democritus and +Lucretius to Burbank and Edison. + + Nor will men who are men fail to conduct themselves decently +because neither they nor the stars can live forever, or because +there is no place of future rewards and punishments. Nobility of +character can suffer nothing from a realization of facts. As Karl +Vogt remarks, [Lectures on Man, p. 469.] "There are priests who, +while defrauding the state of taxes, mount the pulpit and preach +that when materialists and Darwinists do not commit all sorts of +crimes, it is not from righteousness but from hypocrisy. Let them +rage! They require the fear of punishment, the hope of reward in a +dreamt-of beyond, to keep in the right path -- for us suffices the +consciousness of being men amongst men." + + CHAPTER IV + + DAYLIGHT: THE SOLAR SYSTEM + + A star journeying through space casually overtook the sun, not +indeed colliding with it, but approaching so close as to raise a +great tidal wave. By this disturbance jets of matter spurted out of +the sun; being carried round by their angular momentum they did not +fall back again but condensed into small globes -- the planets. + Sir ARTHUR S. EDDINGTON. [The Nature of the Physical +World, p. 176.] + + We know of no type of astronomical body in which the +conditions can be favorable to life except planets like our own +revolving round a sun. ... Only an infinitesimally small corner of +the universe can be in the least suited to form an abode of life. + -- Sir JAMES JEANS. [The Universe Around Us, pp. 332, 333.] + + If matter exists in the universe for the purpose of life, +nature would seem to tip a hogshead to fill a wine-glass, when it +makes life possible only on a little planet. -- Sir JOHN HERSCHEL. +[W.H. Thomson's Some Wonders of Biology, p. 176.] + + If the sun were created expressly to light and heat the earth, +what a waste of energy! -- FOREST RAY MOULTON. ["Astronomy," The +Nature of the World and of Man, p. 17.] + + The solar system is not the typical product of development of +a star; it is not even a common variety of development; it is a +freak. -- Sir ARTHUR S. EDDINGTON. [Swarthmore Lecture, +1929, Science and the Unseen World, p. 12.] + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 30 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + WHOEVER has sunned oneself at the seashore or basked under the +intense glare of a tropical sky is probably willing to admit that +our solar orb is hot. Yet it is not long ago that a religiously- +minded scientist thought that the sun might be an inhabited body, +in much the same way as some persons today imagine the stars are +inhabited worlds. "But little more than a century ago," writes +Archibald Henderson, "a distinguished astronomer, William Herschel, +actually believed it possible that the sun might be a habitable +planet!" A close scrutiny of the sun helps us to understand not +only the nature of this star, which is the one nearest the earth, +but the constitution and make-up of many other stars in general. +From our study of the sun we can picture the impossibility of life +on a star. + + Although the sun is nearly 93,000,000 miles from the earth, it +is a quarter of a million times nearer to us than any other star; +it has therefore been photographed to better advantage than any of +the others; its "close-ups" reveal something more tangible than +mere points of light. In dealing with the sun we are dealing with +a body which is nearer to us than some of the planets and whose +size transcends them all. It is the brightest and most conspicuous +of all celestial objects. Photographs of the sun reveal a +stupendous mass of incandescent matter in a high state of +agitation, pitted with great cavernous openings into any of which +our little earth could be thrust and instantly consumed. + + The time is past when the sun was thought to be inhabited. It +is now classed as a typical star, with a temperature at its surface +of 10,000 deg. F. Its absolute temperature is 6000 deg. [The sun's +surface temperature is relatively "luke-warm." The internal +temperature is calculated by Emden and Eddington to be about +31,500,000 degrees; by Jeans, 55,000,000 degrees.] Solar +prominences, or giant jets of gas, shoot up like mountainous flame +of fire from its surface. The average altitude of these tongues of +gas is thought to be 20,000 miles. Yet, on occasion, they reach far +greater heights; we are told by R.A. Sampson, [Article "Sun," Ency. +Brit.] Astronomer Royal for Scotland, that "Young records one which +reached an elevation of 350,000 miles." This altitude is a distance +equal to over 43 times the diameter of the earth. The surface of +the sun is in a continuous state of convulsion due to these +eruptive prominences and its boiling seas of gas. The poet Dante +could well have pictured his Inferno on the sun. + + The sun has been computed by Jeans to be about 8 million +million years old. About 7,600,000,000,000 years ago (the figure is +not fanciful, but is derived from a mathematical calculation based +on solar radiation) our sun could have weighed a hundred times what +it does now. It has spent, in all these aeons of time, enough +energy to light and heat a billion planets like our own, had its +energy been intelligently directed. But like other massive stars +which "radiate away their energy, and therefore also their weight, +with extraordinary rapidity" (Jeans) [The Universe Around Us, p. +178.] the sun has been a celestial spendthrift. Millions upon +millions of tons of solar energy are poured daily into desert +space, and wasted in the yawning abyss of outer darkness and cold, +when they could well be distributed to nearby planets. ["The amount +of the sun's heat has been estimated," says Sir Robert S. Ball, + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 31 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +"but we receive on the earth less than one two-thousand-millionth +part of the whole radiation." ("Nebular Theory," Ency. Brit.). And +as Proctor observes in his Our Place Among Infinities, "all the +planets together receive less than 230 millionth part; the rest is +seemingly scattered uselessly through interstellar depth."] "Our +own sun, which is a star," writes Harlow Shapley, [The New York +Times Magazine, Aug. 11, 1929.] "radiates away 360,000 million tons +of energy every day, of which only 160 tons reach our planet." How +much better it would be for our earth if a tiny fraction of this +squandered heat were poured into the polar regions of our globe and +less heat on the African and Mongolian deserts. And how the outer +planets of our system now intensely cold, might benefit from a +proper distribution of solar radiation. + + Naturally, such an expenditure of energy without a +corresponding replacement cannot go on forever, and we must look to +the time when the sun's supply of heat and light will have become +completely exhausted. Far distant as that time may be, it is as +certain as tomorrow's sundown, and calls for the cessation of all +earthly life. + + Our solar system is slowly "running down". The energy of the +sun is not being replaced from any source of power known to +science, and the sun may be likened to a gigantic furnace into +which the last shovelful of fuel was stored when it evolved from a +primal fire-mist. Glow it must until it has burned itself out and +spent its last erg of energy in a wild debauch of cosmic +recklessness and unbridled dissipation. + + THE CRIMINAL WASTE OF ENERGY + + THERE is nothing in this ghastly waste of energy to suggest a +Supreme Stoker or Chief Engineer. Such misdirection as we see in +the radiation of the sun does not reflect guidance, in any sense of +the word, and would be regarded as criminal in an intelligent +being. + + The enormous shrinkage In the weight of the sun naturally +carries with it a corresponding reduction in the gravitational hold +which this body exerts on the planets of our system, and all are +slowly slipping from the sun. As the hold diminishes, each planet +moves a step further out into space. Our own place in the system is +in no way secure, and we are actually moving away from the sun at +the rate of approximately three feet every hundred years. Little as +this may seem in point of terrestrial time, it spells disaster to +the earth in the ticking of the cosmic clock. No angel guides the +planets nor holds them to "appointed paths". + + Nothing is "fixed" in the universe -- not even the orbit of +the earth. It is known with mathematical certainty that we are +receding from the sun, due to the latter's loss of weight by +radiation and its diminishing hold on our own spinning globe. As +the sun loses weight at the rate of more than 4 million tons a +second, its gravitational hold is rapidly decreasing, and we are +each year headed, in an ever-increasing spiral course, toward the +great, yawning abyss beyond. While there is no immediate danger of +our being swept into oblivion, the time will arrive when all + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 32 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +earthly things will be doomed to perish, when the earth will be too +cold to sustain life, and the finest of human thoughts will have +been lost forever. Then our earth, like all things else, will have +joined the billions of lifeless globes. + + No one can assign the slightest reason for the rotation of the +sun. By turning on its axis it cannot have "days" and "nights" like +the earth, nor can its sidereal motion in space mean anything to +the retinue of planets traveling with it. Whether we ever reach the +remote region in space toward which the sun is headed is of no +moment to the inhabitants of the earth: our earth will carry on it +nothing but the frozen remains of what were once living beings. + + By means of spectral analysis we are able to determine the +chemical constitution of the sun as accurately as if this huge +globe had been lifted bodily into a gigantic laboratory and +examined in a test-tube. Each element in a gaseous state emits its +own wave of light, and by examining the solar spectrum, we are able +to determine the precise character of the sun's constitution. The +presence of such elements as carbon, oxygen, sodium, calcium, +hydrogen, helium, iron, nickel, copper, and zinc in the sun +indicates the close affinity of solar and terrestrial compositions. +There is indeed no element on the earth that has not been found in +the sun, or from which all earthly substances are not derivatives. +The earth's kinship to the gaseous body about which it revolves, +and from which it was extracted long ago, is as complete as our own +bodily kinship to the inorganic substances of which the earth is +composed. Both earth and man are made of matter from the sun, and +our very bodies contain atoms that once existed in the sun. We are, +as Shapley points out, children of a star. The spectroscope has +established our "blood-relationship" to the sun. + + Astronomy has helped to establish the entire chemical unity of +the universe. Light from the most distant stars shows us that the +matter which composes them is identical with that which we find +near at hand. Iron in the blood and phosphorus in the bones are the +same as those found on distant worlds. By means of the spectroscope +the element helium was first discovered on the sun; twenty-seven +years afterward it was discovered on the earth. When, in 1868, the +astronomer Lockyer made the initial discovery, the element was +appropriately named from the Greek word "helios", meaning sun; its +discovery over a quarter of a century later by Sir William Ramsay, +a Scottish chemist, showed it to be a terrestrial element as well. +The element extracted from a rare mineral of the earth was the same +as that which Lockyer detected on the rim of the sun. + + The fact that the planets of our system, as well as their +attending satellites, travel in orbits which do not cross or +overlap one another has frequently been cited as evidence of a +presiding "intelligence". Only a god, says the theist, could have +assigned these bodies to their "appointed" paths. The argument is +amusing to the atheist. Intersecting orbits are in the nature of +things impermanent, since they could not possibly survive a +collision of bodies traveling in these orbits. What we see in the +heavens today are those bodies in motion which time has spared from +the countless collisions of the past, and whose orbits did not +conflict by overlapping one another. Orbits which did intersect + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 33 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +have perished long since in the crash of colliding bodies. In our +own system today we have the telltale remains of a smashed planet +(the asteroids) and a smashed satellite (the rings or Saturn), each +of which, by describing an orbit too near a larger body, was +smashed to bits in the early days of the solar system, when the +orbits of the planets and the satellites were not as regular or as +highly stabilized as they are now. Even the orbits existing today, +after 200 million years or so since our planetary system was born, +are not entirely stabilized, and tiny bodies like the asteroids are +still wandering far afield from the areas where they properly +belong. Two of the asteroids, Delporte and Reinmuth, are so far out +of their natural places in the swarm, that the latter wanders close +to the earth, and is sometimes nearer to us than Venus itself. + + When we come to the smaller members of the system, the +meteors, which describe very definite orbits around the sun, we +meet with actual collision and the breaking of poorly "established" +orbits. "A great many meteors," writes Prof. Palmer H. Graham of +New York University, "have been shown to move in swarms around the +sun in elliptical orbits very similar to those of comets. +Occasionally the earth in its orbit crosses the path of one of +these swarms and we see a so-called meteoric shower." Here before +our eyes is an actual meeting of bodies through the crossing of two +orbits: the earth and the meteors have met in collision. + + The fact that the planets of the system are not traveling in +the same orbital plane as the sun -- the planetary orbits are +slightly tilted with respect to one another and greatly tilted with +respect to the equatorial plane of the sun -- has called forth +admiring comments from believers in God, yet no one explains why. +The fact that the orbits of the planets are tipped at slightly +different angles from one another means nothing to the solar +system; the planets themselves would still receive the same amount +of light and heat if they traveled in the same plane. The truth of +the matter is that the tipping of these orbits is without +significance, except as it throws light on the tidal origin of +planets. The difference in the general orbital plane of the planets +and the orbital plane of the sun is due to natural circumstances +rather than to the wisdom of God: the planets as a group are still +traveling in the same orbital plane as the tidal arm which was +extracted from the sun when the planets were formed. Were the +orbital planes of the sun and planets symmetrical, or identical, +religionists would still credit their deity with wisdom. God +receives praise for making things alike and for making them +different. + + THE PLANETS TESTIFY AGAINST THEISM + + PLANETS are born, not from nebulae, as are the stars, but from +the stars themselves. In the Tidal Theory postulated by Jeans, they +come into existence by the passing of two stars within three +diameters' distance of each other. The larger of the two passing +bodies exerts a gravitational pull or wrench on the gaseous surface +of the smaller star, and, by thus causing a tidal eruption, draws +out a long, cigar-shaped filament of gas. This in time condenses +into globes, each of which becomes a planet revolving about the +star from which it was drawn. Our earth is a planet, and so are the + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 34 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +other members of the solar system, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, +Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, all of which were literally +yanked from the sun 2,000 million years ago. + + Now planets are extremely few in number, and their scarcity is +due to the fact that stars seldom approach to within the required +distance to produce a group of planets. ["Collisions, or even tidal +encounter, between two stars must be a rare event. A star in its +motion is likely to have a collision with another star about once +in a million million million years." Harold Jeffreys, The New York +Times, May 3, 1931.] Shapley [The New York Times Magazine, Aug. 11, +1929.] calls the formation of our solar system "a lucky accident," +while Eddington, no less than he, recognizes the purely fortuitous +nature of the occurrence. "Even in the long life of a star," says +he, [The Nature of the Physical World, p. 177.] "encounters of this +kind must be extremely rare. The density of distribution of stars +in space has been compared to that of twenty tennis balls roaming +the whole interior of the earth. The accident that gave birth to +the solar system may be compared to the casual approach of two of +these balls within a few yards of one another. The data are too +vague to give any definite estimate of the odds against the +occurrence, but I should judge that perhaps not one in a hundred +millions of stars can have undergone this experience in the right +stage and conditions to result in the formation of a system of +planets." + + The facts, for those who believe in "design," ought to be +quite otherwise. Life, if "planned" for the earth, has been reached +by the most round-about and time-wasting process, and has depended, +for its inception, on the casual encounter of two out of 300,000 +millions of stars. The process does not resemble a carefully laid +out course of action; and an engineer working in this haphazard +manner to reach a desired end would be examined for sanity. + + Planets, from a God-believer's attitude, ought to be more +numerous than the stars, since they are the only bodies in space +(other than satellites) which cool and solidify to a point where +life becomes possible. The stars, as we have already seen, are +intensely hot, incandescent bodies, gaseous at the surface and +perhaps liquid at the center, and wholly incapable of sustaining +life. Only a trifling number of planets have evolved from the +stars, and of the nine planets within our system, only one is +definitely known to possess life. Here, it seems, we have a single +life-bearing body in a super galaxy of 300,000 million dead orbs. +Obviously, life in the universe is restricted to a microscopic +point in space, and is as important to the cosmic wastes as a +pope's bull is to the solar system, or the ravings of a maniac are +to the distant nebulae in Orion. + + Considering, therefore, the round-about "means-to-an-end" by +which the earth came into existence, we can do nothing else save +smile at the absurdity of the idea that a celestial being first +formed the sun, in order that, millions of years after, he might +leisurely extract a tiny world like ours, with all its teeming +forms of life pulsating and breeding only that they may continue +their pitiless slaughter of one another. The battle of life is not +a Quakers' meeting or a child's picnic. Shelley's picture of blood- +stained priests: + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 35 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + "Making the earth a slaughter-house" + +is as nothing compared to the ruthless slaughter by tooth and claw +now going on in all parts of the world, and which the theist +asserts was instituted by intelligence. [A butcher-bird impaling +its victim on a thorn, or a lion killing a gazelle, or a cat +clawing a mouse, or a tick feeding on the eye of a fowl, or an +intestinal worm eating in the entrails of a priest are as much a +part of the cosmic "order" as stars moving in space, and are a part +of the "divine plan" which theists say exists.] If theism were +true, God would be more cruel than Moloch himself, and lower in the +scale of mental depravity than the monster Frankenstein. The +astronomer, gazing at billions of lifeless globes, can "thank his +stars" that these make up the bulk of celestial existence. It is +fortunate that the planets are few. + + "If you try to imagine, as nearly as you can," wrote +Schopenhauer, [Studies in Pessimism, p. 3.] "what an amount of +misery, pain and suffering of every kind the sun shines upon in its +course, you will admit that it would be much better if, on the +earth as little as on the moon, the sun were able to call forth the +phenomena of life; and if, here as there the surface were still in +a crystalline state." + + It is not alone the world of living things which the cosmic +"order" tramples under foot and ruthlessly neglects; the sun in its +course looks down with stolid indifference on the slow abandonment +of its planetary dependents, each of which is slowly slipping away; +and drags with it its helpless brood of young ones, which even now, +after millions of years of solar radiation, are as ill-kept and +undernourished as the poorest of offsprings. Planets are stricken +with either chronic heat-strokes or chronic chilblains -- too much +sunlight or not enough -- until one wonders whether the calorific +powers of the sun are not something which is flaunted in mockery by +the sun to make sport of the malnutrition and rickets of its +children. The planetary system is far from being a well-cared-for +whole, or one in which the integral workings are suitably +arranged." + + One can readily satisfy oneself on this point. Whether we +examine the planets in respect to their individual characteristics +as to suitability (or unsuitability) for life; whether in respect +to orbits, distances, motions, or the like, we are at once struck +with the disorderly arrangement of the system. There is an "order" +of motion only in the sense that the same disorderly movements +repeat themselves. The same bunglings occur again and again. + + Whoever examines our solar system with a view to finding +"fitness," in the arrangement will soon discover that it is +anything but "fit." Indeed, it would be difficult to rearrange the +planets with the idea to greater unfitness. Their positions in +space are bad. So are their rotations and revolutions, and the +general "lay-out" of their orbits. + + Take, for example, the "placing" of the planets in regard to +their distances from the sun. Most of them are either too near or +too far away to sustain life. The inner planets are too hot, the +outer planets too cold. The Divine Wisdom which placed Mercury + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 36 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +"smack-up" against the sun and left Pluto far out in the cold must +have been actuated by a sardonic (or satanic) sense of humor. +Either this or he was inexcusably indifferent to the consequences +which these positions impose. The sunny side of Mercury has a +temperature which no life could stand; that of Pluto a temperature +at which air and other gases would be frozen solid. + + So poorly "timed" is the rotation of Mercury on its axis with +its revolution around the sun that this planet forever presents the +same face to the sun. As a consequence, there is an eternal "day" +of intense heat on the one side and an eternal "night" of intense +cold on the other: one side blistered forever under the direct +blast of the sun, the other left in complete darkness and cold. If +there were inhabitants on the planet, they would have to choose +between scorching to death on the sunward side and freezing to +death on the other. + + Most planets of our system travel in such extended, orbits +that their "years" are many times our own. It takes Pluto, for +example, 250 years to make a complete trip around the sun. This +planet has not yet made an entire revolution of the sun since the +United States was born. It is impossible to find in this +arrangement anything that savors of "design." A planet so far +removed from its solar luminary, or central source of heat, cannot, +by any stretch of the imagination, be traveling in an orbit "laid +down" by intelligence. It is traveling in that far-flung orbit +because it was the outmost condensation in the tidal-arm extracted +from the sun when our system of planets was formed. Its position in +space is not due to design. + + Even the earth itself, which is the only life-Sustaining +sphere in our system, travels in an orbit which is poorly "laid +out" for a planet bearing life: its source of heat is not at the +center of the orbit, but at one foci. As a consequence, the earth, +in making its annual circuit of the sun, does not travel at a +uniform distance from the sun, the distance between perihelion and +aphelion being about 3,000,000 miles. The result is an irregular +distribution of heat in the course of the year. This variation in +the heat supply to the earth, apart from causing temperature +upsets, is responsible for many meteorological disturbances. + + Again, in their rotations on their axes, planets display the +most striking departures from anything resembling "purpose" in +their movements. The farther a planet is located from the sun the +faster it rotates -- a fact which is wholly out of keeping with the +best results to be obtained for the reception of solar radiation +and the heating of the planet. Venus, a planet very close to the +sun, rotates so slowly that each of its "days" and "nights" is +several weeks long; Saturn and Uranus, both distant planets and +therefore very cold, rotate so rapidly that each has "days" and +"nights" of only ten hours' duration. The long "days" of the nearby +planets and the short "days" of the distant planets are the very +reverse of what they should be: the outer, or distant, planets +ought to rotate more slowly than the inner planets. With slower +rotations, the colder planets would be able to absorb more heat +during the course of a longer "day," and those close to the sun, by +rotating more rapidly and thereby having shorter "days," would not +be exposed, for entire weeks as is Venus, to the concentrated rays +of the sun. + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 37 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + Of the nine planets of our system, only one is heated with a +moderate degree of uniformity to life; yet who can say that our +earth is to be admired for a sensible adjustment in the matter of +temperature? As a lighting and heating system our sun has all the +potentialities to take care of billions of planets: it cannot, +because of mal-arrangements external to itself, take care of even +the present group of nine. A furnace which has the stupendous power +of the sun and yet fails so dismally in properly distributing its +heat cannot be regarded as the work of an engineer. + + NO ARCHITECT OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM + + TELEOLOGISTS, a class of word-juggling mystics who are forever +seeing "wisdom" where there is none and who try to explain the +universe in terms of a presiding intelligence, have sought to show +that while eight out of nine of our planets support no life, some +of them may later do so, when they have moved to more suitable +distances away from the sun. In a word, God, while neglecting them +now, is looking to the future habitability of these planets. Kant +advocated the idea, and it has been preached ever since by a whole +host of the defenders of God. + + The entire argument puts the deity in a ridiculous light, for +Mercury, which is the hottest and most insufferable of all planets, +is moving away from the sun at the painfully slow rate of not more +than a few feet a century, and at this less-than-snail-like pace +would hardly be conditioned for life in several billion years. A +comet can travel through space at the rate of hundreds of miles a +second; and a presiding mind interested in the development of life +on Mercury, ought to be able to accelerate the speed of the planet +better than this. The obvious conclusion is that there is no "mind" +interested in the matter. + + As for Venus, it is mathematically certain that this planet, +at the rate it is going, would have to keep moving away from the +sun for the next one to two million years, before it would have a +mean temperature equal to that of the earth. This is rather slow +moving for a planet guided by "intelligence," or an agency which is +supposedly aware of what it is doing. + + Nor is there any hope for Mars. ["Even at the equator the +temperature falls below freezing point at sunset. If we accepted +the present determinations as definitive we should have some doubt +as to whether life could endure the conditions." -- A.S. Eddington, +The Nature of the Physical World, p. 173.] Even now, the +temperature of this planet is much lower than that of the earth and +it is becoming colder with each passing year. If there is no life +there now -- and the evidence is distinctly against it -- what +chance is there of its surface becoming habitable as the planet +grows colder in its movement away from the sun? + + As for the outer or more distant members of the system, these +are yearly becoming more frigid, and the expectation that Jupiter, +Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto will ever support life is as +hopeless as that of a cake of ice floating toward the arctic region +will ever bring forth rose bushes or orange blossoms. They are +already intensely cold worlds, and destined to become still colder + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 38 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +as they move away from the sun. "There can be neither seas nor +rivers on their surfaces," writes Jeans, [The Universe Around Us, +p. 21.] "since all water must be frozen into ice, neither can there +be rain or water-vapor in their atmospheres." + + There is no evidence that life exists on any planet other than +our own, and there is much evidence of a definite character that +life, as we know it here, does not exist elsewhere in the universe. +[The author is not discussing here the possibility of plant life +existing on Mars or on some other planet. Theists are not primarily +concerned as to whether or not God reserved a whole planet for the +raising of vegetation. If he did, he probably made enough +grasshoppers and plaint-lice to go with it.] By life we mean, of +course, life as it is embodied in red-blooded men and women and +life in its familiar higher forms -- not hypothetical beings who +thrive in white heat temperatures and flaming furnaces of gas, or +who build churches and thank God at hundreds of degrees below zero. +We are concerned here with neither asbestos-skinned beings nor +fanciful ones composed of ice. + + It is certain that all the other planets of the solar system +-- with the possible exceptions of Venus and Mars -- are either too +hot or too cold to sustain life, or are governed by conditions that +would preclude the possibility of life, We shall here examine each +planet in turn. + + Mercury is so close to the solar orb that lead would melt on +its surface. The temperature on the side facing the sun has been +figured at 662 degrees Fahrenheit. "The other half of the planet's +surface," says Jeans, [The Universe Around Us, p. 22.] "eternally +dark and unwarmed, is probably colder than anything we can +imagine." + + Venus, with each of its days and nights several weeks long, +alternates between bitterly cold turns at night and roasting +temperature by day. "At present no reasonable ground exists," +writes S.H. Parkes, [Unfinished World.5, p. 74.] "for the +supposition that Venus is an inhabited globe." And Jeans asserts +[The Universe Around Us p. 335.] that "The evidence, for what it is +worth, goes to suggest that Venus, the only planet in the solar +system outside Mars and the earth on which life could possibly +exist, possesses no vegetation and no oxygen for higher forms of +life to breathe." + + As for Mars, its possibilities for the sustenance of life are +largely nullified by a variety of unfavorable conditions, among +which is the matter of atmosphere. Atmosphere it has, but its +oxygen content is about 15 per cent of ours. Temperature, drops to +below freezing point at the equator, following sundown. Its general +temperature is colder than ours. The alleged "canals" on Mars, +supposed by the astronomers Schiaparelli and Lowell to have been +the work of Martian engineers, turn out to be not canals at all. As +Jeans puts it, [The Universe Around Us, p. 334.] they "have not +survived the test of being photographed." And again: "There is no +definite evidence of life, and certainly no evidence of conscious +life, on Mars -- or indeed anywhere else in the universe." + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 39 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + All the outer planets, of course, are intensely frigid orbs. +Neptune is wrapped in eternal cold, with an estimated temperature +of -220 degrees Centigrade. Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, with +respective temperatures of -150, -150, and -170 degrees, have +extremely low temperatures. In fact, as Jeans points out, [The +Universe Around Us, p. 21.] "all the major planets are very cold +indeed." "These planets," writes F.R. Moulton, ["Astronomy" in The +Nature of the World md of Man, p. 12] "are all very tenuous, +probably being entirely in a gaseous state, and therefore not in a +condition to support life." + + "We have reason to believe," says H. Spencer Jones, Astronomer +Royal of England ("The Listener," June 16, 1938), "that Jupiter is +entirely covered with an ice-layer several thousands of miles +thick. Outside this is the dense poisonous atmosphere, a few +thousand miles in depth.... The clouds in the upper layers of +atmosphere consist probably of droplets of liquid ammonia." + + As for Pluto, the furthermost planet from the sun, it is +necessarily a bitterly-cold world -- far colder even than Neptune +itself. Its immense distance from the sun (calculated to be at +aphelion 4,620,240,000 miles) permits it to receive only 1/2500 as +much solar heat as that received by the earth. "The temperature," +writes Simon Newcomb, [Astronomy for Everybody, p. 201.] "must be +very low there -- too low for life to exist. From Pluto the sun +would appear only as a point of light." "It is at least certain," +remarks Prof. Lucien Rudaux, [The American Weekly, Feb. 7, 1932.] +"that on this globe lost in the frozen solitudes of outer space the +temperature must be near absolute zero, which is 459 degrees below +the zero of our family thermometer, so low that certain gases, like +oxygen and nitrogen (the air we breathe), would be changed to a +solid state." Any thought of life existing under these thermal +conditions is out of the question. + + The attempt of religionists to link the existence of these +frozen worlds with a heavenly "plan" or "design" is drivel to a +scientist. The five outer planets of our system, Jupiter, Saturn, +Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, comprise by far the greater surface area +of the entire system of planets. If ever, in religious language, +there were "god-forsaken" worlds, they are these planets left in +outer cold; and the theist presents a God with five out of the nine +planets of the solar system freezing on his hands. Of the four +other planets, one, as we have seen, is blistering under the full +blast of the sun, two possess little or no oxygen for the higher +forms of life to breathe, and one, our earth, may occasion a smile +when considered in the light of "design." Under every kind of +evidence, the entire solar system is a first-class "flunk." + + Carefully considered, the universe is anything but "well put +together." There is hardly a third-rate mentality which could not, +after a few minutes' thought, devise a plan for the better working +of the cosmos. + + The tremendous wastage of solar energy would be stopped, and +the conserved energy of the sun would be made to do service where +it is now badly needed. Billions of sunbeams would not be wasted on +the Gobi and Sahara deserts, but would be diverted to the polar + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 40 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +regions instead. Light would be so placed in the heavens that it +would illuminate all parts of the earth at once. Our globe would be +evenly heated, and a mild temperature would prevail from pole to +pole. There would be no extremes of heat and cold: no equatorial +Africa sweltering under the terrific heat of the sun nor polar +regions locked in eternal ice. [Rear-Admiral Richard R. Byrd, in +describing the desolate character of the two polar regions, writes: +"The Arctic Ocean, monotonously flat, treacherous in its power and +shifting surface; the Antarctic, immobile, appalling in its +grandeur and silence, a mighty mausoleum for the dead land hidden +beneath its snow. ... Here [in the Antarctic] is a vast area as big +as the United States and Mexico combined that has never sustained +a human race, as far as we know." (New York Times, June 8, 1930.)] +Planets would be so "placed" in their distances from the sun that +they would be neither too hot nor too cold to support life. Mercury +and Venus, now too close to the sun, would be moved further out; +Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto would be moved further +in. Mercury would be so timed in rotating on its axis that it would +not forever present the same side to the sun. The major, or larger, +planets of our system would not be abandoned as cold, barren orbs, +but their surface areas cultivated. Energy would not be wasted in +shooting comets and meteors through space, or in spinning the whole +galactic system like a huge merry-go-round once in every +300,000,000 years. In a word, all the senseless, time-wasting play +of cosmic motion would be stopped. Energy, of which there is enough +to turn galactic systems around, would be put to useful purposes. + + And what would intelligence not do in respect to correcting +the faulty tilting of the world's axis? "In the well-known +inclination of the axis of the earth towards the plane of its +orbit, known by the name of the angle of the ecliptic, which is the +cause of the change of the seasons, many perceive a design of +heaven intended for our welfare," writes Ludwig Buchner. [Force and +Matter, p. 111.] "But they do not consider that they are +confounding effect and cause, and that our organization would most +probably be different were the inclination of the ecliptic +different or non-existent. Besides, this very angle of the +ecliptic, the object of such mistaken praise, does not even seem to +be in any way conducive to our advantage; and if it were in our +power to change this slope of the axis of the earth towards the +plane of the earth's orbit, we should most certainly do it and +thereby bring about a greater equality in the seasons. For if the +earth's axis were perpendicular to its orbit, there would be in our +latitude, for instance, a perpetual spring, calculated in all +probability to lengthen human life." + + Our little earth now remains to be considered as a place of +habitation. Two-thirds of its surface is covered with water, and, +as some one has jocosely remarked, is more suitable for raising +fish than human beings. Only two strips of temperate zone encircle +the earth; the rest of its surface is divided between two wide +expanses of polar region and a burning equatorial belt. Man either +freezes or swelters, or lives in fluctuating temperatures of +dangerous extremes. Nowhere is there a celestial thermostat at work +to give us a decent average temperature throughout the globe. In a +thermatic sense there is no intelligence manifested in the way our +earth is heated. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 41 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + SATELLITES DISPROVE DESIGN + + WHAT may be said for the heating, may also be said for the +lighting system of our planet. Only half the earth's surface can be +lighted by the sun at one time. According to the Bible, the moon +was made to "rule" the night. Imagine your own city, or town, or +your own reading-room at night depending on the illumination of the +moon. Without Edison's electric light, our nights would be long, +dreary affairs, spent either in complete darkness or in the feeble +light of the moon. As for the sun, with candle power enough to +light a billion worlds, it cannot even reach the so-called "ends" +of the earth and give the Eskimo light for more than six months of +the year, let alone, through its stupendous power, melt the great +ice-packs and snow-barriers of the polar regions. + + As an abode for life, our earth is, by the nature of its +rotundity, a poorly shaped body. On account of the curvature of its +surface, only one side of it can be illuminated at a time, and, +even though it rotates on its axis, it is impossible for the sun to +warm and illuminate the entire half exposed to its rays. The direct +rays of the sun are unnecessarily severe at points on and near the +equator, where men must swelter and slave under the burning heat of +a tropical sky, while the Eskimo must be content with the few +glancing sun-rays which reach the polar areas. While vast regions +of land around the south pole are buried under perpetual deposits +of ice from 2,000 to 10,000 feet thick (report of the Byrd +Expedition), the Sahara and Gobi deserts must wilt under the +terrific heat of the sun. In such an arrangement there are no signs +of an intelligent distribution of light and heat. If the +superintendent of a building were to freeze tenants in one part of +the structure and roast others almost to death, he would not be +praised for his handling of the heating plant, nor would he be +thought particularly intelligent if he kept some of them in total +darkness half the year. + + The alternations of day and night or of light and darkness, +which are believed by some to be beneficial to man, are really +detrimental in part, since they shorten, by many years, the narrow +span of his conscious existence. A man of sixty who has slept an +average of eight hours daily will have lived only forty years of +his life in a conscious condition. The alternations of day and +night reduce man's wakeful moments considerably: a third of his +life is spent in mental oblivion. It is quite easy to conceive an +arrangement by which our world might be properly lighted and +heated, where there would be no lost years spent in unconsciousness +and where man would be safe from the horrible visitations of floods +and cyclones and the other cruel hazards of life. [Referring to the +earthquake of Lisbon in 1775, Edward Hull, in his Volcanoes: Past +and Present, p. 221, states: "The inhabitants had no warning of the +coming danger. ... In the course of about 6 minutes, 60,000 persons +perished." Edward Greenly (The Earth, Its Nature and History, p. +23) writes: "The destructiveness of volcanoes to man and his works +is well known. ... On May, 8, 1902, at 7:50 A.M., the Pelee volcano +in Martinique broke out with a roar which was heard 100 miles away, +and an avalanche of red hot dust wiped out the city of St. Pierre, +with its 30,000 inhabitants, in less than one minute."] But none of +these things are considered in the birth and formation of worlds. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 42 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + Our satellite, the moon, is a cold, barren orb, which shines +by the reflected light of the sun. Nearer to us than any other +body, it has been photographed to excellent advantage. Without +rivers or seas, it is a burnt-out cinder in space. Volcanic craters +are plainly visible, but there are no signs of those conditions +which are essential to the maintenance of life. "No trace of water +or of an atmosphere," writes George Forbes, [Astronomy, p. 109.] +"has been found on the moon. It is possible that the temperature is +too low ... the moon seems to be dead." Its habitability is out of +the question. "Life," remarks Simon Newcomb, [Astronomy for +Everybody, p. 127.] "in the form in which it exists on our earth, +requires water at least for its support, and in all its higher +forms air also. We can hardly conceive of a living thing made of +mere sand or other dry matter such as forms the lunar surface." The +fantastic stories of life on the moon belong to the realm of pure +fiction. "We cannot suppose it to be inhabited," writes Garrett P. +Serviss, [Astronomy in a Nutshell, p. 154.] "at least by any forms +of life familiar to us on the earth." + + Of what use, then, is this cold, dismal world, with its +volcanic craters fifty miles wide and its bleak mountain ranges, +moving perpetually around us? And why should there be phases of the +moon, varying by degrees from a thin, crescent-shaped strip of +light reflected on its surface to an occasional "full" moon +thirteen times a year? If the moon, as God-believers insist, was +"intended" to illuminate the night, it is a distinct failure, since +the greater part of its time is consumed in reflecting only narrow +strips of feeble light and sometimes no light at all! An arc light +which varied as much in intensity as the moon could not be depended +upon to light a back alley. The teleologist who sees "design" where +there is none should explain what "purpose" is served by the moon +other than to raise huge tidal waves on the earth and drown people +in floods. The moon is a mere "drag" on the earth. It does not +support life itself, and its senseless revolutions around us are +quite in keeping with the whole futility of cosmic movement. + + Again, why, if its movements in space are guided by +intelligence, should the moon eclipse the sun? Why should its +orbital "adjustment" be so badly timed as to bring this satellite +between the earth and its luminary and blot out light? A total, or +even partial eclipse of the sun is a mere case of the moon "getting +in the way." + + The earth is a better "moon" to its own satellite than the +moon is to us. As a reflector of sunlight, the earth gives to the +moon better illumination at night than we receive from the moon. +Earthlight is ten times brighter than moonlight, and an observer on +the moon would see the earth as a "moon" possessing ten times the +surface and ten times the brilliancy of the lunar orb. But as there +are no observers on the moon, our earthlight shines to no advantage +and is lost on a dead world -- another example of reverse order in +the "scheme" of celestial "intelligence." The feeble character of +moonlight may be realized by recalling that full moonlight is only +1/500,000 that of sunlight. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 43 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + As with the moon, so with the other satellites of our system, +all of which are equally useless. Not one in all the twenty-six +which encircle the planets is known to be inhabited. Their sole +"function" in space is to whirl incessantly around their parent +bodies in aimless revolutions. If there is "wisdom" in this, and in +the general character of satellites, it is for some one to explain. + + Why should Mars be attended by two ridiculously small +satellites, each of which has a diameter of seven miles (Newcomb), +[Astronomy for Everybody, p. 188.] and which are as useless to Mars +as two apples would be hovering over the city of Boston? Why, +should Saturn be attended by flattened rings -- the remains of a +shattered satellite? Why should Jupiter and Saturn have nine moons +each, and Neptune only one? Why this uneven distribution if +satellites are essential to planets? Indeed, why should there be +any satellites at all, seeing that planets which do not possess +them get along the same as those that do? And where, in the +"placing" of these bodies, is the so-called "harmony" of the +spheres about which we hear so much? Jupiter itself has more +satellites than Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Uranus and Neptune put +together. And two of these planets have none at all. + + Of what use, it may be asked, are the asteroids -- that group +of midget planets, or tiny worlds -- that lie scattered midway +between the minor and major planets of the solar system, or at a +point where, under Bode's law, a planet ought to be? They number +thousands, and only four of the entire aggregation are known to +have greater diameters than 100 miles. This swarm of miniature +worlds revolving around the sun are mere globules in comparison to +the size of the earth, the largest being Ceres, with a diameter of +only 480 miles. + + Their origin is well known. They are the shattered remains of +a single giant body, or, as Jeans puts it, [The Universe Around Us +p. 242.] "the broken fragments of a primeval planet." Why a planet +with a celestial engineer in charge should have broken into +thousands of pieces is something for the theists to explain. The +asteroids are the floating debris of a shipwrecked planet which, in +all probability, moved too close to the danger zone of the giant +planet Jupiter, and was shattered to bits under the law of Roche's +Limit. "Physically," writes Garrett P. Serviss, [Curiosities of the +Sky, p. 256.] "they are most insignificant bodies, their average +diameter probably not exceeding 20 miles, and some are believed not +to exceed ten." Their bulk, as Serviss points out, would hardly +furnish enough gravitational pull to hold a man to the surface, and +one might at will step off lightly into space. The thought of any +of these globes being inhabited by human-like beings may be readily +dismissed. + + COMETS AND ASTEROIDS SERVE NO PURPOSE + + NO one in his proper senses can ascribe the slightest use to +the existence of comets. For ages they have served no other +conceivable "purpose" than to frighten people out of their wits. +History records the terror-stricken condition of whole populace at +the approach of these "ominous" visitors in the sky. [When Halley's +comet appeared in 1456, "it struck terror into all people," wrote +John W. Draper. "From his seat, invisible to it, in Italy, the + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 44 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +sovereign pontiff, Calixtus III, issued his ecclesiastical +fulminations; ... in vain were all the bells in Europe ordered to +be rung to scare it away; in vain was it anathematized; in vain +were prayers put up in all directions to stop it." (History of the +Intellectual Development of Europe, vol. II, p. 253-254.)] They +are, in themselves, disintegrating bodies, which, according to +Newcomb, are wasting themselves away through progressive +dissipation. Entire dissolution has been reached by several well- +known comets. + + One might reasonably inquire why comets possess tails hundreds +of millions of miles long. ["The great comet of 1843 had a tail +200,000,000 miles long." (The Outline of Science, vol. I, p. 36).] +And why should these celestial visitants carry a dangerous stream +of particles often resulting in meteoric showers? There is no +answer here but that found in the blind urge of undirected forces. +It would be difficult to conceive of anything more lacking in +"purpose" than these bodies burning up their substance in an age- +long grind of skyrocketing through space. + + The eccentric behavior of comets offers very clear proof +against the thought that they are pursuing "fixed" or predetermined +courses laid down by intelligence. These sensitive bodies are so +low in density that they are frequently deflected from their paths, +and switch violently into new orbits. The curves which they +describe are anything but "orderly"; they vary from time to time, +and it is not infrequent for a comet to be captured by passing too +near a larger body. In such cases the old orbit ceases to exist and +the comet starts out afresh in a new orbit. If it comes too close +to a larger body, its fate is sealed: it is disrupted into +fragments. Two comets have been actually seen to break into two, +and a third to divide into four, parts. The breaking up of these +bodies by sudden and violent action does not bespeak an intelligent +control. + + Were we really to believe in a heavenly engineer, there would +be no need to speak of stellar cataclysms. All would be serene and +in good working order. The facts are the reverse. + + He who thinks there are no catastrophes in the skies knows +little of stellar activities. The flattened rings of Saturn and the +tiny asteroids are the respective remains of a damaged moon and a +smashed planet. A star which rotates too rapidly will burst, as +Jeans put it, [The Universe Around Us, p. 228.] "like an overdriven +fly-wheel, into parts of nearly equal size." Why this should happen +under the "guiding hand" of a Celestial Engineer is for some one +other than the atheist to explain. "Spectroscopic binary and +multiple systems are the relics of stars which have broken up +through excess of rotation, and they do not in the least resemble +the solar system." This "excess of rotation" spoken of by Jeans +ends in nothing more imposing than the split-up of a star and the +two parts circling each other. "Apart from this," says Eddington, +[Swarthmore Lecture, 1929, Science and the Unseen World, p 11.] "no +regular plan of further development is known." The two stars are +simply left to carry on the "god-planned" process of chasing each +other. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 45 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + The heavens are strewn with the wreckage of stellar wastage +and conflagrations. The vast ocean of the sky is filled with +derelicts, not in twos and threes, or even in baker's dozens, but +by the billions. Meteorites are the rubbish of larger bodies. They +swarm like fish in the sea, and on a clear summer's night may be. +seen as "shooting-stars." "It is estimated," says the "Outline of +Science," [Vol. 1, p. 35.] "that between ten and a hundred million +meteorites enter our atmosphere and are cremated every day." + + Not all meteorites are cremated by passing through our +atmosphere, but fall as huge stones from the sky. The largest of +these plunge headlong to earth and bury themselves in deep pits. +One which has been recovered weighs 363/2 tons. [This is +"Ahnighito," the largest meteorite in the world, brought from +Greenland by Commander Peary in 1897.] Others, splintered into +fragments, fall as showers of stones. There are on exhibit in the +American Museum of Natural History in New York specimens from some +500 of the 700 meteorites which are known to have fallen throughout +the world. Among the principal features of the collection are 2000 +or more individual masses from the stone shower which occurred when +a large meteorite exploded near Holbrook, Arizona, in 1912. + + The hurling of these "rocks" from heaven, either as single +pieces or as showers of stones, does not reflect the slightest +consideration for the safety of life; it is hardly conceivable that +such barrages as these can be construed as the gentle "love-taps" +of a heavenly Father. It is only another incident of the blind- +working activities of outer space. No one in his right mind would +think of throwing confetti like this around. + + Nor are meteoritic showers particular as to when or where they +strike. "They occur," writes Lazarus Fletcher, [Article +"Meteorite," Ency. Brit.] keeper of minerals, British Museum, "at +all hours of the day and night, and at all seasons of the year; +they favor no particular latitudes. The number of stones which +reach the ground from one fireball is very variable. In each of the +two Yorkshire falls only one stone was found; the Guemsey County +meteor yielded 30; at Toulouse, as many as 350 are estimated to +have fallen; at Hessle, over 500; at Knyasinya, more than 1000; at +L'Aigle, from 1000 to 2000; at both Pultusk and Mocs no fewer than +100,000 are estimated to have reached the earth's surface. The +largest single mass seen to fall is one of those which came down at +Knyahinya, Hungary, in 1866, and weighed 547 pounds." + + Doubtless unnumbered trillions of these stones fall into the +seas and on desert and forest wastes, but this is not out of +consideration for man, but rather because barren tracts of water +and land make up the larger areas of the globe. It is equally true +they fall in inhabited portions of the world. But whether on +sparsely- or densely-populated centers, it is certain that these +"pot-shots" from heaven are not guided by intelligence. They are as +little "directed" in their courses as the stars and planets +themselves. And these of course are not "guided" at all. + + It would be superfluous to enter further into a consideration +of conflagrations: they are sweeping the skies daily and on a far +more stupendous scale than is generally supposed. Enough has been + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 46 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +said to indicate the torrential storm of iron that sweeps through +outer space and bombards our atmosphere daily with the fury of a +thousand whirlwinds. + + We hear much of what is called the "music of the spheres," but +this music, as Eddington points out, more closely resembles "jazz." +It is anything but harmonious or symphonic in result and has all +the blind-staggers and jerkiness, and even the harsh raspings of an +instrument out of tune. To some of us the "melody" of the universe +is more like the squealing of pigs + + The rotation of Uranus is all out of harmony with that of +other members of the system. This planet turns, not from west to +east, but in a north-to-south motion. As a consequence the planet, +if it had life on it, would offer the most abominable conditions in +the matter of seasons. The tipping of its axis is all out of +alignment with the rest. Not only is this planet askew, but the two +outer satellites of Jupiter "are unlike the great majority of the +members of our system in that they revolve from east to west." +(Newcomb). [Astronomy for Everybody, p. 175.] And, as if this were +not enough, we find two of the satellites of Uranus traveling in +orbits which "are nearly perpendicular to the orbit of the planet." +(Newcomb). [Ibid. p. 191.] + + Lastly, consider the orbital abnormalities of our own +satellite, the moon. So poorly "timed" is it, in its rotation on +its axis with its revolution around the earth, that it always +presents the same face to us. The same may be said of the planet +Mercury, one face of which is eternally facing the sun, and whose +inhabitants, if it had any, would have to swelter forever under the +scorching beams of the sun. And what may be said about those +erratic wanderers, the comets, whose orbits cover such staggering +distances in space? It is the contention of the theist that these +bodies were "made" to be admired. Yet Donati's Comet, which was +last seen in 1858, will not return till about 2000 years. If any +reader missed seeing it then, he may simply wait until it comes +again. + + Truly, as Buchner remarks, [Force and Matter, p. 105.] "never +has been found the slightest trace of an arbitrary finger ordaining +the spheres of the heavens and appointing the courses of the earth, +the suns, and the comets." + + CHAPTER V + + DARKNESS: THE ETERNAL DRIFT + + Brief and powerless is Man's life; on him and all his race the +slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, +reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless +way; for Man, condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself +to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, +ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little +day, disdaining the coward terrors of the slave of Fate. + -- BERTRAND RUSSELL. [Mysticism and Logic, p. 56.] + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 47 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + When I look up at the starry heavens at night and reflect upon +what it is that I really see there, I am constrained to say, "There +is no God." It is not the works of some God that I see there. ... +I see no lineaments of personality, no human traits, but an energy +upon whose currents solar systems are but bubbles. + -- JOHN BURROUGHS. [The Light of Day, p. 164.] + + If we turn from contemplating the world as a whole, and, in +particular, the generations of men as they live their little hour +of mock-existence and then are swept away in rapid succession; if +we turn from this, and look at life in its small details, as +presented, say, in a comedy, how ridiculous it all seems! It is +like a drop of water seen through a microscope, a single drop +teeming with infusoria; or a speck of cheese full of mites +invisible to the naked eye. How we laugh as they bustle about so +eagerly, and struggle with one another in so tiny a space! And +whether here, or in the little span of human life, this terrible +activity produces a comic effect. + -- ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER. [Studies in Pessimism, p. 24.] + + + The world is a comedy for those who think, a tragedy for those +who feel. +-- HORACE WALPOLE. [Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy, p. 375.] + + THE MYTH OF THE PRESIDING MIND + + JEANS assures us [The Mysterious Universe.] that "nature +abhors accuracy and precision in all things," yet in the face of +this rational declaration tells us that "the Great Architect of the +Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician." The remark +itself could conveniently serve as a sop for the religious. It is +difficult to conceive a pure "mathematician" who would be so stupid +as to abhor "accuracy" and "precision" in his work, since these are +the first requirements of a mathematical mind. And an "architect" +whose work showed as much abhorrence of "accuracy" and "precision" +as nature does could be neither a "great" architect nor a "pure" +mathematician. Jeans is wrong: there is no Mathematician nor +Architect in the clouds. + + Dr. Herbert Dingle, [Science and Human Experience.] +honorary secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society of England, +quite properly takes Jeans to task: "It would not be difficult to +show, I think, that in some respects his metaphysical conclusions +are actually at variance with his scientific beliefs." Dr. Dingle +is a bit too conservative. Jeans' metaphysical beliefs, in every +respect, are hopelessly at odds with his scientific conclusions. +[The fault is not Jeans' but belongs to metaphysics. Michelet +describes metaphysics as "the art of befuddling one's self +methodically." (Durant's The Story of Philosophy, p. 397) This +definition has never been surpassed.] + + One must be careful at all times to distinguish between the +scientific knowledge and the religious utterances of men of +science. Even some of our most brilliant workers in the field of +knowledge frequently carry around with them, not only rudimentary + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 48 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +organs, but rudimentary thoughts. The fact that a man is an +illustrious authority in the field of science is no guarantee that +he cannot utter at times his fair share of unmitigated nonsense. + + Thus Sir James Jeans -- whose astronomical facts and figures +are freely referred to in the course of this work, and for whom the +author entertains a lively respect -- sees behind the phenomena of +the universe a presiding mind, or a cosmic Mathematician. Being an +excellent mathematician, Sir James easily endows his deity with the +attributes of his own profession. It is an understandable procedure +for one who believes in God. The pious artist, with pallet and +brush, who looks at a rainbow or a glorious sunset, will no doubt +see these things as the work of a Great Landscape Painter. The poet +hears rhythm in the ripple of the brook, the musician the music of +the breeze. Each, according to his vocational training and his +inherent nature, endows what he sees with ideas associated with his +particular activities. It is probable that the gardener or tiller +of the soil imagines his god as a Great Agriculturist. The +physician, in daily contact with the miseries and agonies of the +world, might well look upon God as the Divine Torturer who +strangles babies with diphtheria germs or who breaks their backs +with the bacillus of infantile paralysis. Indeed, once we place a +thinking being behind the phenomena of the universe there is no end +to the attributes with which he can be endowed. God can be looked +upon as anything from a Dispenser of Sunshine to a Dispenser of +Cholera Germs; from a Maker of Stars to a Manufacturer of Tapeworms +and Lice. + + Happily, no one but the theologians and the ignoramuses take +the religious rumblings of scientists seriously; and Jeans' +departure into the world of ghosts would not be mentioned here +except as a typical instance of such departures. + + Sir James is too well informed and far too able a reasoner not +himself to distinguish between his own scientific knowledge and his +religious fancies, and so he has prefixed his remarks with a +qualifying admission: "I would say, as a speculation, not as a +scientific fact, that the universe and all the material objects in +it -- atoms, stars, and nebulae -- are merely creations of thought +-- of course not of your individual mind, but of some great +universal mind underlying and coordinating all our minds." How +admirably this "universal mind" is "coordinating all our minds" may +be seen in the diverse opinions held by Sir James and Dr. Millikan, +each of whom holds an opposite view as to the ultimate end of the +universe, To Millikan, God is "still on the job" building up; to +Jeans he is tearing down; to the atheist "he" is doing neither one +thing nor the other, since no god exists. The coordination of our +thoughts by a Supreme Thought is metaphysical twaddle. + + Were there really a Cosmic Mathematician at work behind the +universe, we might reasonably expect results in keeping with +mathematical precision, and a Vacuum Calculator in the skies whose +ultimate aim is the "heat-death" of the universe -- an extinction +taught by Sir James -- might well have spared himself the trouble +of getting busy at all, or of engaging in abstruse mathematical +formulae in order to get nowhere. A mathematician who worked toward +such empty endings as the smash-up of his work would be a fit +subject for a padded cell. + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 49 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + + The "heat-death" of the universe predicted by Jeans consists +of the annihilation of every star through radiation, until there +will be nothing left but an ocean of energy at its lowest ebb. It +is an "end" hardly in keeping with his belief in a presiding mind. +Literally, it is the smash-up of things without the semblance of a +"come-back". "Many, giving rein to their fancy", writes Jeans, [The +Universe Around Us, p. 322.] "have speculated that this low-level +heat energy may in due course reform itself into new electrons and +protons. As the existing universe dissolves away into radiation, +their imagination sees new heavens and a new earth coming into +being out of the ashes of the old. But science can give no support +to such fancies." In a word, the plan behind the universe believed +in by Jeans is the destruction of the universe! And the plan was +devised, adopted and put into motion by a Supreme Mathematician +some 10,000,000 million or more years before the stars emerged from +nebulae! Such is the fantastic nonsense taught by those who muddle +their science. + + To think as Jeans does, is to imagine a super-mathematical +genius -- a sort of Celestial Jeans -- sitting up nights, +calculating how billions, of stellar bodies should be moved, in +order that, a few billion years later, one of their number might +closely approach the sun and thereby produce the earth; and how +that particular globe should be slowly condensed, in order that on +May 23rd, 1999, at six o'clock in the morning (Daylight Saving +Time), a particular bird should be at a particular spot in order to +pick up a particular worm for breakfast. Were the universe operated +by a Supreme Mathematician, as Jeans thinks it is, we should have +to believe that every event and detail of our lives entered the +calculation -- which means that God knew every outcome from the +"beginning." We should have to believe that God knew a cancer would +grow here, [The "Mathematician" who, billions of years ago, +"figured out" so accurately where cancers should grow cannot be +admired for his amiability. "We do not condemn our worst +criminals," remarks Prof. J.B.S. Haldane, "to anything as bad as an +inoperable cancer involving a nerve trunk." ("God-Makers," The +Rationalist Annual, 1931)] and a world war would occur there; [In +his Mr. Btitling Sees It Through, H.G. Wells makes his leading +character exclaim: "Why! if I thought there was an omnipotent God +who looked down on battles and deaths and all the waste and horror +of this war -- able to prevent these things -- doing them to amuse +himself -- I would spit in his empty face."] that a mass of +rotating gas would eventually evolve influenza germs and the +priests of the Spanish Inquisition. In a word, the vast mistakes, +follies, blunders and brutalities of existence all arose from +mathematical formulae and well-planned "design". "I see," remarks +the distinguished mathematician, Bertrand Russell, [The Scientific +Outlook, p. 118.] "no comfort to be derived from the supposition +that this very unpleasing universe was manufactured of set +purpose." + + VAIN IMAGININGS OF THE THEOLOGIANS + + WERE we to take seriously the loose-end thinking of some of +our scientific benefactors, we should be obliged to become Quakers +because Eddington is, or Sandemanians because Faraday was, or +perhaps even Catholics like Pasteur or Mendel. Or we might even + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 50 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +write pious rubbish about the Book of Revelation because Newton +did, or swallow mediumistic gibberish after the manner of Lodge and +Lombroso. What really counts is not the religious drivel which men +of science write, but their solid demonstrations, and Jeans' Cosmic +Mathematician is as much a myth as the bewhiskered god of the Jews. + + Thinking no more existed before the stars than did breathing +or walking, or digesting one's dinner. "If we say, as was said long +ago, 'In the beginning was Mind,' we may be expressing or trying to +express a great truth, but we have gone beyond science." [The +Outline of Science, p. 57,] + +Not only have we "gone beyond science," but we have slunk back into +the realm of nursery-tale non-sense, where cows jump over moons and +dishes run away with spoons. So far as astronomy is concerned, the +primeval chaos from which stars were born may have been created by +anything at all, from Jehovah himself to Simple Simon or Puss in +Boots -- there is no limit to the stretch of one's imagination -- +but sober reflection leads us to conclude that the primeval mist +existed on its own account and gave birth to the stars by inherent +properties of its own. All attempts to read a mind into nature, to +see in stellar activities the work of an invisible being, have +hopelessly failed, and the real naturalist of the heavens looks to +no other causes than those resident in matter itself. As Dr. Harlow +Shapley observes, [Harper's, May, 1923.] "The rise and decay of +massive stars, the birth of planets, the organization of stellar +systems" exclude anything "more supernatural than obedience to the +laws of gravitational astronomy and physical chemistry." + + The "crude imagery," as Jeans calls it, [The Universe Around +Us, p. 328.] which pictures "the finger of God agitating the ether" +may be set aside "by insisting on space, time and matter being +treated together and inseparably as a single system, so that it +becomes meaningless to speak of space and time as existing at all +before matter existed." Matter, therefore, is coexistent and co- +eternal with space and time, and from it all things arise. This is +materialism, and beside it all metaphysical utterances are fit only +for the waste-basket. + + "So far as science is concerned," wrote the distinguished +astronomer, Richard A. Proctor, [Our Place Among Infinities.] "the +idea of a personal God is inconceivable." The idea of a personal +god is conceivable, but wholly unbelievable. Personal or +impersonal, God is a delusion. It is a delusion because the very +concept of the universe being guided by intelligence is obviously +and probably false. From every domain of science there is a wealth +of evidence which shows the blind urge and senseless activities of +natural phenomena. + + The whole rank absurdity of theism finds its most ludicrous +aspects in its rejuvenated form, where God is represented as a sort +of brainless personality hovering over the elements and telling +them what to do. An "intelligence" thus running around loose in the +universe, without body or brain and directing the course of the +stars, is quite as ridiculous as the anthropomorphic concept of the +deity as a Jewish patriarch with a long beard, who commands stars +to come into existence by the power of his will. As a "spirit," God + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 51 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +is a ghost -- and ghosts exist for science only in the distorted +brain cells of mentally feeble persons. As a "refined" abstraction +of metaphysics, it may be classed with the smile of the Cheshire +Cat which Alice of Wonderland saw, and which obligingly remained +after the cat was gone. In a word, neither in astronomy nor in any +other branch of science is there need to postulate a cosmic "mind" +behind or within phenomena. Stars are not fashioned by a ghost any +more than waves are made by Father Neptune or babies are brought by +storks. + + The heavens no more proclaim the "glory of God" than they +proclaim the glory of Mumbo Jumbo or the Sultan of Sulu. What they +do proclaim is a ceaseless round of time-consuming movements which +ends in the annihilation of stars. Eddington himself, Quaker reared +and pious though he is, repudiates, with some trepidation, the +silly attitude of the Psalmist's creed. "Probably most +astronomers," says he [Swarthmore Lecture, 1929. Science and the +Unseen World, 17.] "if they were to speak frankly, would confess to +some chafing when they are reminded of the psalm 'The heavens +proclaim the glory of God.'" But not all astronomers "speak +frankly" in dealing with religion. + + There is something really pathetic in the statement that the +universe was made for man. There is something even more pathetic in +the belief that it was made for the "glory of God." + + The small-dimensional world hatched by superstition gives way +before astronomy: the further we peer into space, the smaller does +our earth become, and the more we are removed from anything +resembling heavenly solicitude. Stellar activities are neither +moral nor immoral: they do not think, do not know what they are +about. Everywhere there is the blind sequence of physical activity. +The sun no more exists to warm us than it does to scorch the +Arizona desert or stunt life in equatorial Africa; stars are not +"made" in order that mariners may find their way at sea; they exist +on their own account, and have existed for billions of years before +the earth emerged from the sun; the moon is no more interested in +the happy crooning of sweethearts than the floods and devastating +tidal waves it causes on earth. Everywhere in the heavens are non- +planned forces at work, behind which there is no celestial being, +no God. + + There is no eternal justice in the heaven, no helping hand. +The stellar depths are silent as the grave to human misery and +want. The vast abyss of space is both our womb and our tomb. It +cares neither for our coming nor our going, our arrival or +dismissal. ["A single hurricane," says John Stuart Mill, "destroys +the hopes of a season; a flight of locusts, or an inundation, +desolates a district; a trifling chemical change in an edible root +starves a million of people. The waves of the sea, like banditti, +seize and appropriate the wealth of the rich and the little all of +the poor with the same accompaniments of stripping, wounding, and +killing as their human ante-types. Everything, in short, which the +worst men commit either against life or property is perpetrated on +a larger scale by natural agents. Nature has noyades more fatal +than those of Carrier; her explosions of firedamp are as +destructive as human artillery; her plague and cholera far surpass + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 52 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +the poison-cups of the Borgias." (The Idea of God in Nature) "If, +indeed, there were a judgment-day," writes Winwood Reade, in his +excellent work, 'The Martyrdom of Man,' p. 518, "it would be for +man to appear at the bar, not as a criminal, but as an accuser." +Man has never been an object of cosmic care. He must do things for +himself. + + Only the ceaseless drive of nonthinking forces could be +responsible for such aimless and senseless gyrations as the stars +exhibit over protracted periods of time. No mentality above the +level of an idiot would devise such madhouse "schemes" as that of +spinning billions of globes for amusement or of tossing them around +aimlessly to prove itself intelligent. The debacle of the heavens +cannot be traced to design. + + From the welter of lifeless globes our own little world +emerged through the chance encounter of two stars. It came into +existence as an exceptional occurrence in the life of the stars. +"Among so many myriads of stars," writes Eddington, [Swarthmore +Lecture, 1929, Science and the Unseen World, p. 11.] "there will be +a few which by some rare accident have a fate unlike the rest. In +the vast expanse of the heavens the traffic is so thin that a star +may reasonably count on traveling for the whole of its life without +serious risk of collision. The risk is negligible for any +individual star; but ten thousand million stars in our own system +and more in the systems beyond afford a wide play for chance. If +the risk is one in a hundred millions some unlucky victims are +doomed to play the role of 'one.' This rare accident must have +happened to our sun-an accident to the sun, but to us the cause of +our being here." There is no guidance here, no conscious cause at +work among the stars. + + CHAPTER VI + + THE FINAL IMPLICATIONS + + Theism is doomed in all ages the advance of civilization to +its heights has brought about an increasing disbelief in all +religion. Now that, for the first time in history, we are +universalizing culture, the prospect is clear. No refinement of the +idea of God can save it from disappearance. -- + JOSEPH McCABE [The Future of Religion, p. 60.] + + If indeed the world in which we live has been produced in +accordance with a Plan, we shall have to reckon Nero a saint in +comparison with the Author of that Plan. Fortunately, however, the +evidence of Divine Purpose is non-existent; so at least one must +infer from the fact that no evidence is adduced by those who +believe in it. We are, therefore, spared the necessity for that +attitude of impotent hatred which every brave and humane man would +otherwise be called upon to adopt toward the Almighty Tyrant. -- + BERTRAND LORD RUSSELL [The Scientific Outlook, p. 130.] + + If you are in the habit of believing in special providences, +or of expecting to continue your romantic adventures in a second +life, materialism will dash your hopes most unpleasantly, and you +may think for a year or two that you have nothing to live for. But + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 53 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +a thorough materialist, one born to the faith and not half plunged +into it by an unexpected christening in cold water, will be like +the Superb Democritus. a laughing philosopher. -- + GEORGE SANTAYANA. [Reason in Science, pp. 89-90.] + + Convinced that there is no eternal life awaiting him, he [man] +will strive all the more to brighten his life on earth and +rationally improve his condition in harmony with that of his +fellows. -- + ERNST HAECKEL. [The Wonders of Life, p. 108.] + + The belief in God may continue awhile in virtue of the lack of +intelligence of some, of the carelessness of others, and of the +conservative character of the mass. But no amount of apologizing +can make up for the absence of genuine knowledge, nor can the flow +of the finest eloquence do aught but clothe in regal raiment the +body of a corpse. -- + CHAPMAN COHEN. [Theism or Atheism? p. 128.] + + BRIEFLY summarized, the salient points of cosmic evolution +from nebulae to man are as follows: There are, on Eddington's +calculation, more than 300,000 million stars inside the sun's orbit +alone. These stars, weighed en masse, have a weight equal to about +270,000 million suns the size of our own. This is the raw material, +the amazing cosmic "batter", from which our planetary system came. +The relation between the amount of material used and the puny +result obtained is ludicrous in the extreme. It is like mixing a +batter of dough as big as the sun to bake a single crumb of bread. +A baker who worked on the basis of that much material as a means to +an end would be considered a dolt. + + The time period consumed is equally deadly to the assumption +of an intelligent process. Stars, according to Jeans, [The Universe +Around Us, p. 326.] have existed for from five million million to +ten million million years, and the atoms that compose them "may +have previously existed in nebulae for at least a comparable, and +possibly for a much longer, time." This means roughly that the +universe in its transitional period from nebulae to man, has +consumed approximately between ten million million and twenty +million million years. This is the time it has taken the "Infinite +Intelligence" of the universe to reach the "desired" end. And the +end? It can be found in any good work on evolution depicting the +long, cruelly-drawn-out, ghastly struggle of life, from amoeba to +man. [Man's descent from a primitive anthropoid ape, resembling the +chimpanzee of today, is no longer a matter of dispute among leading +anthropologists. "All the evidence now at our disposal" said Sir +Arthur Keith, in his presidential address to the British +Association, Leeds, 1927, "supports the conclusion that man has +arisen, as Lamarek and Darwin suspected, from an anthropoid ape not +higher in the zoological scale than a chimpanzee." Our pre-ape +ancestry necessarily extends back to creatures even lower in the +scale of life than the long-tailed, tree-living monkeys from which +we are also descended. "60,000,000 years ago," writes J.B.S. +Haldane, "our ancestors were mammals, probably not unlike lemours; +300,000,000 years ago amphibians, somewhat resembling newts or mud- +puppies; and 500,000,000 years ago very primitive fish, combining +some of the characters of sharks and lampreys." ("Some Dates," The + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 54 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +Rationalist Annual, 1928) And Darwin himself writes, Descent of +Man, p. 183: "At a still earlier period the progenitors of man must +have been aquatic in their habits. ... In the lunar or weekly +recurrent periods of some of our functions we apparently still +retain traces of our primordial birthplace, a shore washed by the +tides. ... These early ancestors of man, thus seen in the dim +recesses of time, must have been as simply, or even still more +simply, organized than the lancelot or amphioxus." Man's earlier +ancestors were worm, which themselves arose from still lower forms. +The "Adam" of the race was a microscopic speck.] + + The process of planetary birth is exceedingly round-about, and +depends upon the most fortuitous circumstances. A nebula must first +of all rotate for aeons before it condenses into stars. Now stars +are intensely hot, gaseous bodies, and cannot bear life at any +stage of their existence; planets alone cool to a point where life +becomes possible. But planets, by a bad stroke of cosmic "wisdom," +are exceedingly scarce. A star before it can give birth to a planet +must approach another star close enough to raise "tides" on its own +surface. The chance of any star doing this is infinitely small, +considering the vast distances which separate the stars. It is a +case of blind man's buff, in which a fortuitous meeting of stars is +like the drawing of a single prize from countless blanks. When, by +the merest chance, two stars do approach to within about three +diameters' distance of each other, a group of planets is born. "The +calculation shows," says Jeans, [The Universe Around Us, p. 332.] +"that even after a star has lived its life of millions of millions +of years, the chance is still about a hundred thousand to one +against its being a sun surrounded by planets." Now if life is +important to the universe, planets ought to be more numerous than +the stars, and their process of origin should depend upon something +more indicative of intelligence than a fortuitous meeting of stars. +A "hundred thousand to one" chance of anything occurring is not +reflective of "plan" or "design". The result is precisely what +might be expected in a blind and groping series of events. Even +when a planet is born it is not assured of life; and of the nine +planets of our system only one is an inhabited world. It is a +dismal picture of stellar "wisdom". + + And even after a planet is born, it must, in order to be a +suitable abode for life, be neither too hot nor too cold, too near +nor too far away from its sun. If it is either of these it will +remain among the number of lifeless globes. Out of 300,000 million +stars only a handful of planets has been born, and of this handful +only one is known to possess life. The result is even less than +what might be expected under the laws of chance or in the spinning +of a roulette wheel. + + Six specks of dust floating about Waterloo Station make up, in +bulk, the relative equivalent of the tiny substance which comprises +the stellar universe. Turn off, at midnight, the lights in Waterloo +Station and you have a fair idea of the blackness and dreariness of +interstellar space. Next, turn off the heat in the great railway +terminal, and allow the temperature to fall to the frigidity of +interstellar space, and you will have an entrancing picture of the +"glory" of the heavens at 4.690 below zero! "A thermometer," writes +Jeans," "placed out in interstellar space, far from any star, would + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 55 + + THE ATHEISM OF ASTRONOMY + +probably show a temperature of only about four degrees above +absolute zero, while still lower temperatures must be reached out +beyond the limits of the galactic system." Absolute zero, we must +remember, is not to be confused with that of either the Centigrade +or Fahrenheit scales, but is sufficient, as the same writer reminds +us, to freeze "air, hydrogen and even helium, the most refractory +gas of all, solid." + + And what must we think of this alleged intelligence in the +skies, which, after toiling for billions of years, produces nothing +more imposing than the equivalent of six specks of dust in a great +railroad terminal? If there is "glory" in this, there is glory in +producing that which is next to nothing. "The extreme emptiness of +astronomical space," as Jeans calls it, [The Universe Around Us, p. +106.] really constitutes the chief item of celestial observation. +Our "star-filled" universe is a poverty-stricken affair. + + In sum, the picture of the universe presented by astronomy is +one of dismal stretches of time and space and unparalleled +desolation. In the eternal abyss of space-bleak, cold, and dark -- +are no signs of a Cosmic Consciousness. + + Such is the message which astronomy brings: a message which is +more reassuring to man in his more contemplative moods, since it +proves that not even planets and world constellations can forever +endure. His extinction at the hands of the blind agencies +responsible for his existence will be followed in due time by the +extinction of every star. "With universes as with mortals," says +Jeans," "the only possible life is progress to the grave." + + Out of star-dust man came, and into it he will sink again, as +oblivious of his own passing existence as he was before that +existence painfully and slowly evolved and separated him, for one +brief instant, from the blindly-groping Whole. Into the eternal +chasm of cosmic destruction all things flow. Matter, time and space +are the sole permanents of existence: the rest perish. What then +are kingdoms and scepters, miters and tiaras, honors and dishonors, +in the solitudes of space! With princes and beggars, loves and +hatreds, laughter and tears, ignorance and knowledge, they are +doomed to destruction in the eternal maelstrom of space as the +mightiest of suns! + + Across the sky is written in blazing stars: waste, +extravagance, futility! Little wonder that, peering through his +telescope, the great astronomer Lalande [Buchner's Force and +Matter, p. 105.] could say: "I have searched through the heavens, +and nowhere have I found a trace of God." + + **** **** + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old, +hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts +and information for today. If you have such books please contact +us, we need to give them back to America. + + **** **** + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 56 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/atheis.txt b/religious documents/atheis.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ba840c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/atheis.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2884 @@ +We Become Atheists, by Gora + +* About this File * +This book is a text file made from the original book and +proofread for accuracy with respect to the original book. +Most British spellings have been converted to American English. +Permission to transmit the book in electronic form was obtained +from Lavanam, Director of the Atheist Centre, Vijayawada, India +by John Edwards (JohnE45@aol.com), who also did initial editing +and formatting. Final formatting was done by Christy Phillips +(PDCChristy@aol.com). [Note: Lavanam is Gora's son.] + +This text may be used unaltered in content in collections, CD-ROM +shareware and freeware offerings. It may be used and distributed +electronically for free. + + + + + +We Become Atheists +by Gora + + + + +Contents + + + +Introduction +I. The Change +II. Thirst For Knowledge +III. Clash with Parents +IV. The First Dismissal +V. An Early Experiment +VI. The Second Dismissal +VII. To a Village +VIII. Atheist Awakening +IX. My Children +X With Gandhi +XI. Political Action +XII. Between Gandhi and Marx +XIII. Economic Equality +XIV. Direct Action +XV. Seeking Election +XVI. Are They Outrageous? +XVII. Spread of Atheism +XVIII. Atheist Centers +XIX. Future of Atheism + + + + + +Introduction + + + +We look back into our lives and review them either for ourselves +or for others. We weigh the pros and cons of the past from the +vantage of the present. Such a retrospect more often than not is +colored by our looking at them from a time which is not its own. +Our passions cool down and our past views change. It is next to +impossible to relive our past, but retrospection is as valuable a +psychological process as introspection. They may lead a man into +dejection or inspire him to further action. + +A man like Gora can hardly find time to spare for writing an +autobiography. His life was so active and dynamic that he hardly +found time to stand and stare. He was not a man to wait for +things to shape his life. He endeavored all his life to shape them. +He was of the firm opinion that free humans shape events and +create conditions and slaves' lives are shaped by events. +In choosing alternatives or giving a turn to events he displayed +a rare dynamic spirit. In organizing campaigns for the establishment +of social and economic equalities he could not indulge in the +pleasure of sharing his personal experiences with others. + +Gora suffered and struggled. He put up with hardships patiently +and with a smile on his lips. If he had compromised his +principles on any issue he would not have been Gora. With his +family, friends and colleagues backing him up he weathered many a +storm. Those who knew him personally know how he kept sufferings +to himself and spared a smile for others. It was not self +imposed suffering but he suffered for atheism. All his life was +devoted to removing the prejudice against atheism and making it +an acceptable and respectable term. He made atheism more +positive than negative. In this he differed from other +rationalists and agnostics. He fought against all religious +racial, communal and caste labels. He stood for democracy, +economic and social equalities. All his campaigns were directed +towards this goal. He respected human personality and raised his +voice against anything that denies or curbs human free-will. + +In his hectic life, at the age of 73, he could spare a month to +write about his past experiences, rather, in outline. Four days +after finishing this draft he breathed his last. He didn't +expect to die so early. He hoped to live actively, at least, +for ten years more. When he was asked to write an autobiography, +he pleaded lack of time. His mind was attuned more to programs +of action than to cool retrospection. But he did look back on +his life at its end. We don't know what he would have done if he +had lived longer. But what little he has given us of his +autobiography is a precious picture of his life and message. +Gora's life was intertwined with his philosophy. So, while he +was narrating certain experiences and influences in his life he +invariably gave expression to his views on human affairs. +A careful reader will find in this book the quintessence of his +life and views from his own pen. Gora lived and died an atheist. + + +LAVANAM +Atheist Center +Patamata, Vijayawada. +13th November, 1975. + + + + +Chapter I. The Change + + + +To this account of my life, I would like to give the name, +"We Become Atheists", rather than "I Become an Atheist." Of course, +I take the responsibility for initiating the kind of atheist +thought and action described herein. But its fulfillment is +largely the result of the cooperation, sacrifice and resolute +action of several workers, friends, relatives and, particularly, +of my wife and children. Some of them adopted atheism too. +Therefore, it is appropriate to call this account, "We Become Atheists." + +As I look back, I recall no special event that turned me an atheist. +But I can trace the growth of atheist thought and practice in me. + +Born and bred up in a high caste Hindu family in India, I was +conventionally orthodox and superstitious in the days of my boyhood. +I believed in the claims of divine revelations by my parental aunt. +Twice or thrice in a week, she went into trances, muttered advice +and distributed sacred ash. I constantly kept a small packet +of the ash in my pocket and thought that the presence of the ash +enabled me to pass examinations at the school. I passed the +Intermediate examination in first class. I little imagined that +a few years later, when I became an atheist, I would drive the +pretenses of obsession out of my aunt. But even at the age of 22, +when I appeared for the degree examination of M.A., I had the +packet in my pocket. All the same, I passed last in the rank of +five candidates for the subject of Botany. + +Being the last in the rank, ordinarily I had the least chance of +getting a job. My father was in economic distress. I thought +that if I could not help him with my earnings, at least, I should +not be a burden on the joint family. What could I do? The old +saying that where there is a will there is a way, acquired a new +significance for me. I wrote to my Professor, R. V. Seshayya, +who was then working at Tirupati. I offered myself to be his +servant if he could give me food and lodge. He sympathized with +my sad condition. He called me to Tirupathi and treated me like +his brother. I was doing odd jobs at his home. + +The security at Seshayya's household let me think of my life. +I lost faith in the packet of ash and developed the will to +succeed. Sense of self-confidence sprouted in me. Though I had +no idea of atheism at that time, obviously that was the beginning +of atheism in me. It was opening up my mind and taking me out of +the ruts of orthodoxy. + +Two months later, the lectureship in Natural Science at the +American Mission College Madurai, fell vacant. Solmon, who was +holding the post, left for USA for higher studies. The other +four of my classmates did not apply for that post in the hope of +getting better jobs. Good or bad, I took it up. I found that my +classmates did not fare better than I. I was last in rank at the +examination, but I rose to be the first in job position in due course. +I owed the success to the attitude of atheism that was growing in me. +My mind was becoming bold and open. + +Seshayya kindly provided me with the necessary money to buy some +clothes and to go to Madurai. + +Two incidents at Madurai speak of the change of my mind. +At Madurai I was faced with the problem of finding a suite of +rooms for my residence. Madurai is a place of pilgrimage and +a crowded city. After vigorous search, I found a big house in +the outskirts of the city. For the last few months it was kept +locked and unoccupied as it was supposed to be haunted by ghosts. +I disregarded the superstition and the landlord gladly let out +two rooms for me at a nominal rent. Fine. Practically, the +whole house with thirteen rooms and two halls was open to me. +I lived alone in it. + +My neighbors and also my colleagues at the college dissuaded me +from taking the risk of living in a haunted house. They related +to me their personal experiences of unwitting residence in +haunted houses. I pooh poohed them. After two or three months, +tenants gradually came to occupy other rooms. Soon the house was +full and I was confined to my original two rooms. + +The other incident related to my work at the college. It was a +practice in those days to select students for appearance at the +final university examination. The Selection test was held three +months in advance of the final examination and the unselected +students were denied the opportunity to improve their standard by +diligent study during that period. When I was a student, I felt +that the practice of selection was unfair to the unselected students. +At the American Mission College, for the first time, as a lecturer, +I got the authority to select among my students. I deliberately +gave pass marks to all my students and recommended the selection +of all of them for appearance at the final university examination. + +My method looked strange to the principal, Rev. W. W. Wallace, +who had been used to the practice of selection. He thought that +being new to the appointment and inexperienced, I was inconsiderate. +He asked me to revise my full list of recommendations for selection. +I told him: "I taught the class. I set the test paper. I valued +the answers. If any of them failed, it means I failed to teach them well. +I am satisfied with their performance at the test. I recommend +all my students for selection." Now I see it was a piece of bravado. +However, with age and experience, Rev. Wallace looked at my championship +of students with sympathy and endorsed the list of selection of +all my students with the admonition that he would not honor my +recommendations hereafter, unless the present batch of students +acquitted themselves creditably at the final examination. + +I narrated the event to my students and said, "I have done my duty. +Now it is for you to do yours." The appeal worked well. +The principal was surprised that the final results gave a bumper +crop of first classes, distinctions and high percentage of passes. + +Evidently everyone bears immense potentialities. Release them. +With a sense of freedom and responsibility, they work wonders. +I achieved success when I gave up dependence on the packet of ash +and stood on my feet. I tried the same with my students who were +generally depressed with the fear of failure at the selection. +I removed the fear and the students proved worthy of the trust +reposed in them. + +India was under the British rule till 1947. The government helped +promotion of Christian institutions. The Christian missionary +institutions, in their turn, zealously attempted at proselytization. +Accordingly, Rev. Wallace suggested to me that I could go to Yale +University for my Ph.D. and become the Rector of the science department +if I would embrace Christianity and become a member of their mission. + +At once I felt a Hindu. Though I was leaning atheistically, +I had not got over the influence of early nurture. I continued +a vegetarian which was the habit of the caste into which I was born. +I wore the 'sacred thread' which was the symbol of the caste. +The discarding of the packet of ash was just the beginning +of the march towards the goal of atheism. I had a long way to go. +Also the goal was not well-defined in my mind at that time. +Therefore, when I did not accept the offer of Rev. Wallace, +I was more a Hindu than an atheist. Of course, the question of +change of religion does not arise with an atheist at all, +because he rejects all religions. But my reaction to the +suggestion was that of a Hindu. + +In view of the excellent results of my students at the final examination, +the principal did not want to disturb my place in the college. +But, when I rejected the offer of change of religion, I thought +that my position in the college was unsafe. A post was vacant +at the Agricultural Research Institute, Coimbatore and I shifted there +in the month of May, 1926. Rev. Wallace gave me a good certificate +of my services at the College for one year. + + + + +Chapter II. Thirst For Knowledge + + + +The suggestion that I might become a Christian, helped me indirectly. +I followed the customs of Hinduism and adopted the habits of the caste +of my parents, because I was taught and trained in my childhood that way. +Just like mother tongue, we generally imbibe thoughts and practices +of parents or of guardians, without examining their merits and defects. +In the case of religious faiths, we are taught to cling to the faith of +the parents and to decry other faiths. This close mindedness is the +cause of Jihads and Crusades. But my reaction was somewhat different. +The rejection of the offer of Christianity raised a series of questions +in me. What is Hinduism? What is Christianity? How are they different? +What are other religions? How do they compare with one another? +With a desire to know the answers, I started reading English or +Telugu translations of the Bible, Bhagavatgita, the Quran, Vedas, +Upanishads and other religious books. I went through the volumes +of Max Muller's Sacred Books of the East. At one time, for over +three months, I pored over the volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica +every day and read through references and cross references of god, +soul, salvation, rebirth, spirituality, other-worlds and so on. +Being a student of science, I was already acquainted with the principles +of physics, chemistry, geology and mathematics, besides my subjects +of botany and zoology. The wide reading introduced me to philosophy, +sociology, ethics, economics, politics anthropology, fine arts +and psychology. I was especially interested in abnormal and +religious psychology, as in them I found the clue to understanding +man's belief in the existence of god and soul. + +I do not say that my study of the subjects was deep and detailed. +I cannot quote page and chapter of any book, though I took down +cursory notes as I was reading. But the study was extensive, +spread over five or six years. Further reading was casual. + +I find that such general reading helped me to reflect and to +develop my own thoughts freely rather than become bookish and +bind myself to what others said instead of what I have to say. +Authority of books shifts responsibility of thoughts to others, +whereas reflection retains the freedom and responsibility of the self. + +As a result of reading and reflection, I was conceiving of god in general, +without denominational associations of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity +or paganism. Further, I came to the conclusion that it was man +that made god out of psychological necessity in primitive times. +Metaphysical justification of the existence of god was a clever +after thought of the civilized man to preserve the faith, at best +for its use as a sanction for moral conduct and at worst for +aiding exploitation of the gullible masses. + +Along with the reading and reflection, I was seeking opportunities +to discuss my views with learned persons and religious priests. +The opportunity for exchange of views increased when I left +for Colombo (Ceylon) after a year at Coimbatore. At Colombo, +I was the Botany Master at Ananda College, which was managed +by the Buddhist Theosophical Society. There I came in contact +with Buddhist priests, and not only listened to their discourses +but studied the books which they kindly lent. The one year stay +at Colombo was a valuable gain to me for enriching my knowledge. +The next year, 1928, I left Colombo to serve as Lecturer in Botany +at Pithapur Rajah's College at Kakinada, India. + +I recall with interest an incident of discussion with a Hindu +scholar at Masulipatam, sometime about 1937. He was delivering a +series of public discourses on Hindu philosophy and was answering +questions everyday at the end of the talk. At the question time, +one evening, I requested, him to elucidate on the use of +the neuter gender for god (Brahma) of Hindu faith, instead of the +customary use of the masculine gender for god as in other faiths. +I was aware that in Sanskrit language, in which Hindu scriptures +were written, gender went with the form of the word, but not with +the meaning of the word. "Dara", a synonym of "wife" in Sanskrit, +is masculine gender. + +My question was innocent. I wanted confirmation from that +scholar that Hindu concept of god as power appropriately needed +the use of neuter gender. The use of the masculine gender, on +the contrary, betrayed man's domination, in the course of civilization, +in philosophical concepts too, as in economic and political affairs. + +Perhaps the form in which I put the question did not express the +amount of respect expected of references to god. The scholar at +once asked me whether I was an atheist. I told him I was. +But that did not matter. The question was there to be answered. +The scholar's response was different. He said he would not talk to +atheists and asked me to leave the meeting. I said that it was a +public meeting and that I asked the question at the appointed time. +Why should I leave the meeting? The scholar looked daggers at me. +He said he would leave the meeting, if I did not. He got down +from the platform, walked a few paces away and stood with his back +towards the audience. My repeated requests to him to come back +to the meeting were of no avail. Then I said that the gathering +should not be deprived of the benefit of his talk on account of me. +So I left the meeting. A few who thought that I was right, +also left the meeting with me. Next day, a notice was put up +at the meeting place, "Atheists are not allowed." + +The experience with the Hindu scholar was one of the many instances +when I was confronted with the prejudice against atheism. +Dictionaries give "wickedness" as a meaning of "atheism", +besides godlessness and impiety. Conscious of the prejudice +against atheism, Gandhi advised me to take another name instead +of atheism, as however noble the work I do, the name of atheism +brings with it disrespect and ignominy, and good work falls into disrepute. + +In spite of these warnings and hard experiences, I prefer to +stick to the label of atheism, because atheism alone renders changes, +radical and lasting in human affairs. Those who fear the changes +steadily give atheism a bad name in order to stem its growth. +Everyone whom succeeding generations respected as a prophet of +an era of freedom and progress was persecuted by contemporaries +for heresy and blasphemy, if not wholly for atheism. The life histories +of Moses, Jesus, Mohamad, Joan of Arc, and Gandhi are clear instances +in this connection. Obviously, atheism is a progressive force. +Atheists should not mind the slander and prejudices that vested interests +spread against atheism. + +Saraswati was ten years old when we were married in 1922. +Like me, she hailed from an orthodox home and orthodox custom +required girls to be married before puberty. Strict orthodoxy +prescribed eighth year as the upper limit for the marriage of girls. +My elder sister was eight when she was married. Until the +Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1935 prohibited early marriages, +women's lot was miserable with early pregnancy and occasional widowhood. + +According to custom, Saraswati gave up school study soon after +her marriage and engaged herself in religious ceremonies that are +prescribed for married girls. Observance of the ceremonies is +supposed to ensure happy relations with the husband for the girl. +The temptation is similar to the promises of prayer. + +Saraswati joined me in 1926 at Coimbatore. Naturally, her +reading was little but she has keen understanding and sound +common sense. We kept nothing private, and much less secret +between us. On account of openness of relations, we think +together and act together in complete harmony. + +On joining me, Saraswati left orthodox habits and adopted the +atheist attitude. An incident was significant in this context. +At Colombo she was pregnant with the first child. When she was +carrying the fourth month, there was a solar eclipse in the afternoon. +Hindu orthodoxy imposes the disciplines of silence and shutting up +in a dark room for pregnant women at the time of any eclipse. +Non compliance is threatened with mutilations of the child to be born. +But Saraswati saw Buddhist, Moor and Burgher women freely moving about +in the streets of Colombo, regardless of the time of the eclipse. +Surely, some of these women must be pregnant too. If the evils +of infringement were real, all pregnant women should be equally affected +and their children should be maimed, irrespective of faiths. +But that doesn't happen. Therefore, the disciplines relating to eclipse +are a superstition of Hindu faith. Thinking along these lines, +Saraswati transgressed the taboos at the time of the eclipse. +After the full period, the delivery was normal and the child also +was normal. The experience equipped her with the credit to +persuade other pregnant women to give up the superstition. +We have nine children now. Both solar and lunar eclipses occurred +at different periods of her pregnancies. Nothing untoward happened +to us on account of the violations of restrictions imposed by custom +on pregnant women during eclipses. + +Saraswati's cooperation has been of great assistance to me in +growing atheistic. The early steps of atheism were concerned +with working against superstitions. Later, when we took up +economic and political programs of atheism, Saraswati rose to the +occasion and was repeatedly imprisoned in that connection. + + + + +Chapter III. Clash with Parents + +My parents lived at Kakinada. They were getting old. I desired +to be serviceable to them. + +When I was born on November 15, 1902 at Chatrapur, now in Orissa, +my father, Goparaju Venkata Subbarao, was the head clerk of the +Forest Department. He was popularly known as "Sambho" owing to +his ardent devotion to the Hindu god, Sambho, that is, Siva. +For his skill in draftsmanship and capacity to tackle any volume +of work, he was promoted to be the Sheristadar at Parlakemedi, +where my elder sister, elder brother and I had elementary +education. My father was again transferred to Kurnool. But my +brother and I continued our studies at Parlakemedi. Our paternal aunt, +who claimed divine revelations, was our guardian. + +As frequent transfers, though on promotion, disturbed our studies, +my father chose to settle down at Kakinada in the Revenue Department. +At Kakinanda, in P. R. College, my brother, Narasimha Rao and I continued +our further education. He went for engineering course later on +and I went to Madras for my M.A. in Botany at the Presidency College. +While I was serving at Madurai, Coimbatore and Colombo, the condition +of my parents was constantly in my view. Presently an opportunity arose. +P. R. College at Kakinada opened the degree course of study in Botany, +and preferred its alumni for the staff. I accepted lectureship +and was happy that I was going to serve my old college and also that +I was living with my parents. + +But conditions were not so happy as I hoped for. Atheist attitudes +markedly changed my ways of life and resulted in clashes with the +conservative and conventional methods of my parents and of my alma mater. + +My parental aunt continued to go into trances as in the past. +Of course, I received "sacred ash" from her when I was a boy. +The growth of rational thought changed the picture now. + +A fortnight after I came to live in my parental home, I found my +aunt in trance in the prayer-room. She was reprimanding my +mother on some trifling matter. My father was a strict disciplinarian. +My mother was kind and loving to all her eight children. We bore +special respect and affection for her. So when I overheard my aunt +in trance finding fault with my mother, without a second thought, +I broke into the sanctum sanctorum with a stick in my hand +and threatened to thrash my aunt, unless she gave up that nonsense. +My father who was sitting before the deity was dumbfounded at my rudeness. +The whole situation was suddenly silenced. I withdraw from the room. +There were no more trances and revelations afterwards. + +The reason for my immediate reaction was my reading of the +psychology of Religious Mysticism. I learnt that trances, +visions and revelations were either subjective illusions of weak +minds under the influence of overpowering autosuggestions or were +pretensions of cheats in the halo of religious belief. The knowledge +disabused my mind of respect for my aunt's trances though I performed +my duties to her as the elderly woman of the family. Further, +the family got into straitened circumstances by following the advice +of the so called divine revelations. On return to Kakinada, +I could see the loss and trouble suffered by the family. +A few years later my father fell out with my aunt. During her last days +she came away to me. At an advanced age of over eighty-five, +she died at my house at Masulipatam. + +After my discourtesy to my aunt in trance, my father was not +happy with me. He supposed that the deity of our family +possessed my aunt, took her into trance and revealed advice +through inspired utterances. The rudeness to my aunt in +trance was considered rudeness to the deity of the family. +It was an act of sacrilege. Except my flouting of the religious +faith, there was little to find fault with me. Yet, it was not a +small matter. He openly remarked that he made a mistake in +giving me higher education. He was looking for an +opportunity to teach me a lesson. + +The full moon of August was the day each year when the sacred thread +was ceremoniously changed for a new one. On that day in 1928, +my father held out a thread to me and asked me to wear it as a matter +of religious discipline and respect for the rules of caste. +I had not discarded the thread wholly so far. I was only +indifferent to it. But my father's conventional discipline +challenged my atheistic leanings. Politely I told him, "Father, +I have great regard for you. But I have no respect for caste. +For the past two or three years I have been indifferent to +wearing the thread, which is a symbol of a caste. But on this day, +when the thread is changed for a new one, let me make up my +mind and be honest to my convictions. I'll discard the thread +wholly from today". + +My father was enraged at this defiance of caste. In severe voice, +he repeated thrice, "I am your father, I command you. Wear the thread". +It was a moment of test for me. Gently but definitely I replied, +"No, please". "Get out of my house. You are a sinner. +I won't look at your face," was the harsh command of my father. +He turned his face away and walked quickly into his room and shut the door. + +I was outcaste. My mother shed tears. I came to Kakinada from +Colombo to serve my parents. Atheism estranged me from them. +The news spread around. I took a week to secure a house for me +to shift from my parent's home. I was not economically hard up, +as I was holding a job in the college; but I was socially alienated +from friends and relatives who agreed with my father. My wife and I +lived almost alone in the new house with our first child, Manorama. +Neighbors looked upon us with suspicion. My mother visited us off and on. +Every month I was passing on a part of my salary to my parents +to relieve their economic strain. + +The Gandhian movement of the Indian National Congress combined +constructive work with political fight. It spread throughout the +length and breadth of India, and liberalized old traditions of +caste and communal differences. In 1920, my father had a part to +play in the Gandhian movement: He donated two bags of paddy grain +to the Congress volunteer camp. For this act he was suspended +from service for one month by the British government. My father +was a generous man in many respects. My open apostasy defied his +authority as a father and he was angry with me. + +After excommunicating me, my father was consulting Hindu high-priests +on the propriety of his action. Some of them seemed to have advised +him to review caste rules in the light of modern events, +especially the Gandhian drive against the observance of untouchability. + +One incident settled the issue. Dr. Duriseti Chalapati Rao was +our family physician. He belonged to the same caste as my father. +On one occasion, my father praised him for observing caste rules +and complained against me for disobedience. The doctor, without a word, +removed his coat and shirt and revealed that he did not have a thread +at that time. He told my father that many young men of the age +were indifferent to the caste rules. Only I was bold and honest. +Should I be punished for being honest and he be praised for +soft compromises with conditions around him? The doctor's performance +and pleading set my father to think afresh. My mother's persuasion +had its influence too. + +After two and half years of excommunication my father called me +and my wife for common dinner with him. Strangely, some orthodox +relatives excommunicated my parents for eating with me. A few +months later, my parents who were around sixty years of age, +shifted to my new house which was more roomy and better ventilated. + +I was happy I was serviceable to my parents. I did not interfere +with their ways of prayer and worship. Nevertheless, their +orthodoxy, was getting relaxed. For some time Saraswati had to +adjust between the extremes of somewhat orthodox parents-in-law +and heretical husband. She managed it well with tact and patience. +My parents spread out their time in living with me, and with +my brothers and sisters. We were eight in all. My parents +lived up to the ripe old age of ninety, and spent their last days +with my younger brother Sambasiva Rao. + +My mother spoke at the public function of the celebration of my +sixtieth birthday. She recalled the instances of my recalcitrance. +With abundant motherly affection she added, "After all, a son is a son." + + + + +Chapter IV. The First Dismissal + + + +I was reading extensively for and against atheism. Atheism was +not an intellectual understanding with me. I wanted to know how +an atheist was different from a theist in the ways of life. +It appeared to me that people closed their minds with faith +in god and fate. They lost initiative, became superstitious and +fanatically cling to their beliefs. But god and fate were beliefs +with no basis in reality. They were falsehoods. If we reject them, +we stand on our feet, feel free, work well and live equal, +since all of us belong to the same kind. With this ambitious plan, +I set about my life. I knew I would clash with vested interests +and conservative views in the old ways of life. But I would work +with no regrets. + +At first I started with exposure of superstitions and pulling +down sectarian walls. I discarded the sacred thread because it +was a caste symbol. As I was a student of science with some wide +reading of different branches of knowledge and as I had leisure +and held a job which placed me decently above want, I indulged in +discussions against superstitions, and accompanied them with +demonstrations of simple scientific experiments. For instance, +turmeric with slaked lime turns red. When lemon juice or tamarind +paste is added to the red substance, it turns yellow again. +The truth is turmeric responds to acid and alkali media. +Ignorant of the chemical nature of the reaction, mendicants +shroud it in a religious garb and present it as a miracle. +Similarly, eclipses are not explained in a scientific way, +but are associated with superstitious practices in the name of miracles. +Miracles thrive where ignorance prevails. And religious belief +closes the mind and becomes the source of dark superstition. + +Close to my residence was a slum of untouchables, called Atchutapuram. +Untouchables are socially segregated, poor, illiterate and downtrodden. +I established contacts with the slum and started an adult night school +there on my own accord. But the adults were irregular and +slow to take advantage of the school. On studying the situation +I found that the immediate need of the adults of the slum was +not education but food. Most of them had to work the whole day +at odd manual labor. Either they were not paid the wages for the day +or they were paid so late that they had to buy foodgrains late +and cook for the day to eat. The prospect of obtaining labor +for the next day was uncertain and the threat of starvation +constantly hovered over them. I learned the reality of slum life +more than I taught them lessons. And to be real to the common people, +atheism should solve the economic problem of India. + +The academic life at the college posed its own problems. +To mention one, I noticed a student of my class dull and inattentive. +I talked to him privately and he said that he had no interest in Botany. +Fine. I requested him to think over and tell me the next day +the subject in which he had interest so that I could recommend +to the principal the change of his subject. He thought over +and informed me that he could not fix his interest on any subject. +I explained to him that the defect was not with Botany but with +his attitude towards life. I encouraged him to continue in Botany +class as he had already done three weeks in it. A few days later +I held a test for the class and deliberately gave him a good mark. +He was surprised and asked me if he was good at the subject. +I encouraged him and in the next test he deserved the mark. +He passed B. A. in Botany at the first chance. Ten years later, +I met Suryanarayana, the same student at a meeting in another district +to learn from him that he was teaching Botany in a school and, +with a glee in his face, he said he was creating interest in Botany +in his students. Supply cheer and man is all right. + +There were several occasions for me to seek atheistic solution of +the problems of my students, their educational difficulties and +domestic troubles. I asked them to feel free as masters of their lives, +to take steps towards equality of all humans and to live open +without a blush and to tell what we do and to do what we tell. +These simple guidelines evoked new enthusiasm among my students. +They used to visit me with their families, and my wife and I +paid return visits to their homes. The social calls mingled up +several of us crossing conventional barriers of caste and +communal differences. It was a big change in India in those +days before attainment of political independence. I was happy to +be with the students both inside and outside the college. The happy +relations had a healthy effect on their studies. They paid good attention +to what I was teaching and fared well at examinations. Most of them +came out brilliantly as professors, legislators, advocates or +successful businessmen. Even forty years after the completion +of their student career, I keep up good social relations with many +of my old students. J. Venkateswarlu, Professor Emeritus of +Andhra University, C. V. K. Rao legislator of the State Assembly, +Narayana Prasad serving in the United Nations Organization, +Acharyulu a successful accountant at Bombay and T. V. Raghavulu, +a former minister, are some whom I can mention. This wide and abiding +sociability I attribute to the atheist way of life. + +One of my students, B. V. D. Narayana Rao, started a manuscript magazine. +He had a flare for journalism. He requested me for an article on atheism +and I wrote one on "The concept of god". I said that the concept +of god was useful in three ways. Firstly, it provided a ready answer +to every question in the form of god's creation and god's will. +Secondly, it supplied a sanction for moral conduct in the form of hope +of heaven and fear of hell. Thirdly, it could be molded conveniently +for any theme of fine arts. A large volume of song, dance, painting +and sculpture was produced in the name of god. In spite of its usefulness, +the concept of god was a falsehood. Like every falsehood, it corrupted +mankind by importing superstition and fanaticism into the belief in god. +I concluded that though god was a useful falsehood, it should be discarded +as every other falsehood in order to promote truthful life and +real social harmony. + +P. R. College, where I served, was inspired with the ideology of Brahmooism, +a liberal offshoot of Hinduism. Yet avowed atheism was too much +of irreligion for the management. The authorities of P. R. College +took exception to my expression of atheist views in the article +on 'The Concept of God' and called for my explanation. I replied +that I was an atheist by conviction and those were my views. +My services were dispensed with after a due notice of three months. + +My students moved in the matter and lodged a protest against my dismissal. +It was of no avail. After five years of lectureship, I left the services +of my alma mater in 1933. Atheism clashed with my parents. +Atheism caused my dismissal from the college. + + + + +Chapter V. An Early Experiment + + + + +Saraswati and I were discussing every turn of events. But we did +not expect the dismissal from P. R. College. For our maintenance +we were wholly dependent upon the salary from the college. +Our only property was a thatched hut we put up on a plot of land +which we purchased by disposing of Saraswati's ornaments. The landlord +of the house we were living in after getting excommunicated by the parents, +took advantage of our social odium and was frequently demanding higher rent. +So we thought of putting up a hut of our own. It was on the outskirts +of the town with open fields around. My parents joined us in that hut. + +My father drew a pension on retirement from government service. +As I was economically depressed on losing the job at the college, +my parents chose to go on a long visit of relatives in other districts. +I had three young children by that time. + +Of course, we were hard hit by the dismissal. But that did not unnerve us. +We chose to go the atheist way. It was uncharted. We should be +prepared for risks and untoward incidents. We are the masters +of our lives. We cannot complain. We should chose our course +of life and act with freedom and a sense of responsibility. + +Equipped with hope and confidence, I decided to start a tutorial college. +It was a private institution to coach students for public examinations. +Some of my old students who had graduated by then came to my assistance. +We were fourteen in number. We gave the name of 'Andhra Tutorial College' +to the institution. A friend of mine who sympathized with our venture, +let out a portion of his house for a small rent to locate the +tutorial college.All the fourteen of us did all the work ourselves, +from sweeping the premises to teaching the students. It was a +successful beginning in cooperative living. We divided the income +from fees equally among us. My share of the income was a tenth +of what I got at P. R. College. I cut the coat according to the cloth +and Saraswati wonderfully rose to the occasion. + +All my colleagues were not atheists. They appreciated my atheist +way of life. M. Bhaskara Rama Rao, who was my student at P. R. College, +was very much attached to me. His early death deprived me of a +valuable friend. + +Mrs. Durgabai, who later gained reputation as Dr. Durgabai Deshmukh, +was a student of the Andhra Tutorial College. By that time +she was in the forefront as the leader of the Congress Movement. +In 1930-33 she was the dictator of the Satyagraha camp at Madras. +She underwent long terms of imprisonment. When the political movement +took a turn for constructive work, she desired to acquire academic +knowledge by regular study. She sought my help in the matter. + +While I was teaching her, she often fell into a reminiscent mood +and related to me her experiences of political fights and prison life. +She introduced me to several political dignitaries. At her instance, +I served as a personal volunteer of Mahatma Gandhi when he visited +Kakinada during his Harijan tour of India. Running of the adult +night school at Atchutapuram acquainted me with the realities +of the economic condition of the slums. Teaching Durgabai stimulated +my interest in political life. The experiences were useful to me +when I added economic and political dimensions to atheism. + +Durgabai was not only a political worker of eminence. She was +interested in problems of widow remarriage and inter caste marriages. +Saraswati and I were with her in her activities. Putsala Satyanarayana, +of Uppada, who later became a legislator, was our close associate. +Working in the field revealed to us practical difficulties in the way +of social reform. The first hurdle was the parents of the parties +to the marriage. Then the public would be willing to help but +afraid to commit themselves to any specific act of assistance. +Looking at the difficulties, the prospective bride or the bridegroom +would withdraw suddenly from the scene of action. Amidst these uncertainties, +one has to work with patience and resolve. Suramma was a widow who +steadfastly braved the ordeal and married successfully. Some of +those who helped us greatly for the consummation of the marriage, +were unwilling to sit for a photograph with the newly married couple. +They would help, but they would not like to be known publicly +as helpers of a reform. Saraswati and I were the common hosts +for every marriage feast of unconventional alliance. + +Indeed work at the Andhra Tutorial College opened to me opportunities +of social and political significance which service at P. R. College +could not. Salaried security of jobs and freedom of work and expression +do not go together. Freedom is certainly attendant with risks. +Its ups and downs stand in marked contrast with the uniformity +of weekly wages or monthly salaries. But this uniformity is the enemy +of initiative and innovation. If I chose the freedom of atheism, +I should take the uncertainties that go with it. If I continued at +the Tutorial College, perhaps, I could have developed activities that +would put atheism to test. That was my dream also. But the sudden +dismissal from P. R. College and the meager income from the Tutorial +College imposed such a financial strain on me and Saraswati +that we agreed to take help from a strange quarter that delayed +the strait experiment with atheism for six years. When one of my position +and devotion to atheism was tempted by desire for security even for a while, +the pressure of economic conditions should be so enormous and enslaving +as to border on economic determinism in the case of common people. +How then are people to be released from this pressure? Some have got to +withstand the economic conditioning, and change the order. They are +atheists who can change the order instead of succumbing to it. +Atheists are masters of systems but not slaves of systems. +But I should admit, I yielded to the pressure and took six years +to rebel against it. + + +My dismissal from P. R. College evoked wide sympathy from several quarters. +The cooperation from my colleagues at the tutorial college was +an aspect of it. Further, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, who later on +became President of India, was Vice Chancellor of the Andhra University +at that time. P. R. College was affiliated to the Andhra University. +He was known for his liberal views and acts of generosity. +He was not an atheist. But he thought that a lecturer of a college +should not be persecuted for unorthodox leanings. With his recommendation, +the subject of Botany was opened at Hindu College, Musulipatam +and I was offered the post of lectureship. I took it up. +After a year of work at the tutorial college, I shifted to a regular +college again. + + + + +Chapter VI. The Second Dismissal + + + +A flood of letters congratulated me on my appointment as lecturer +in Botany at Hindu College, Masulipatam. They thought when I was +dismissed from P. R. College on the score of atheism, the present +appointment was a moral victory for my cause. The tutorial +college at Kakinada gave me a send-off and my colleagues continued +the college for a few more years. + +The principal at Hindu College, Masulipatnam, K. Sivarama Krishna +Rao was kind to me. As I was known as an atheist on my appointment, +there was no room for misunderstanding. Further, Sivarama Krishna Rao +himself was considered a non-conformist and there was much in common +between us. + +The work at Hindu College was light for me. I was already a +teacher for nine years. Further, the course of Botany was just +started and I taught only Intermediate classes here whereas I +handled B.Sc. classes at P. R. College. I utilized my spare +time for the spread of atheism. + +Practically, every weekend I used to go out to address public +meetings on atheism. In two years I visited most of the villages +around Masulipatam and in adjacent districts also. Usually I +spoke for two hours and at the end invited questions. The answers +lasted for another two hours. It was natural for me to +stand the strain of a four or five hour meeting as I was inspired +with the zeal of spreading atheism. But what encouraged me was +the response of the gathering which stayed all the time and asked +me questions also with interest. The longest meeting lasted for +seven hours from 1 to 8 P.M. at Duggirala (Guntur District). +That was in 1937. + +The theme of my talks was to say that god, soul and other-worlds +were false. I treated with god, soul and other-worlds in general +rather than limiting myself to Hindu, Christian or Islamic +concept of them. As the audience was mixed, questions often +related to denominational faith to which the questioner belonged. +Questions and cross-questions of different denominations themselves +revealed that no denomination was wholly valid. My general reading +of all religions enabled me to meet every question with confidence. +The questions were usually forty to fifty. I recollect the largest +number was 136 at Anantapur. The answering of questions clarified +my understanding of atheism and also gave me a picture of people's faith, +its form and use. + +The meetings were attended in hundreds. There was no disturbance +at meetings, except at Phirangipuram (Guntur District) which is a +stronghold of Catholics. The elders of the village disapproved +of the disturbance and arranged the meeting again the next day in +quieter atmosphere with bigger audience. + +A particular feature of meetings on atheism was the punctuality +of its start. Indian villagers who are not used to machines, +take time leisurely. Meetings usually start hours late. One of +the early meetings was at Challapalli. It was announced at 1 +P.M. and was widely advertised by placards and handbills. +The place was a cinema hall. I went there five minutes before time. +The convener too was not there. About ten persons were in the hall. +I drew a chair, announced myself and started the meeting punctually +at 1 P.M. by my watch. Five people ran out of the hall to call in +the people who came for the meeting but were loitering in the streets +or sitting in coffee houses. Within half an hour the hall was full. +The convener also rushed in. There was a loud protest that I should not +have started the meeting without the full audience. "Though 1 P.M. +was the time announced, we have to wait for the audience. It may mean +2 P.M. also" was the argument of the convener. I simply replied, +"One may mean two for theists. For atheists one means one." +The reply caught the imagination of the people. Thereafter, +every meeting on atheism was punctually attended. + +Educational institutions at that time were conventional and job oriented. +Mahatma Gandhi characterized them as "mills to manufacture clerks". +The atheist mind was eager to change every existing system and custom +with a view to make them more free, equitable and social. +I thought of a college to be managed by students and teachers, +free of commercial interests. The new college would encourage initiative, +social mingling and technical skill. There was response from the public +of Bhimavaram, a town of the adjoining district to sponsor such a college. +A committee was formed. I was its principal member, since I put forth +the plan. The university required the collection of a hundred thousand +rupees for the college for granting affiliation. Five thousand rupees +were readily subscribed and the members of the committee started +collecting further donations. + +An elderly gentleman was attracted by the plan of the college. +He wanted to donate sixty thousand rupees. Fine. He showed me +his bank book with a balance of seventy two thousand rupees. +The other twelve thousand he would keep for his expenses during +the rest of his life. He imposed no condition or wish for the +donation except one. He wanted me to wear the "sacred thread". +He said that, because I was a moving figure of the committee, +students would flout rules of caste by my example. At once my eyes +were opened to the reality. I was working in a caste ridden climate. +Politely I told the gentleman, "I am not fit for this work. +I shall resign from the committee. Please pass on your kind donation +to the president of the committee." The elderly gentleman advised me +to be considerate. Sixty thousand rupees was more than half the amount +we were to collect for the college. But atheism was more to me +than the bright prospect of establishing the college of my dream. +He would give the donation only if I remained on the committee. +It was an impossible condition. I resigned from the committee. +The political movement in the country raged again. Some members +of the committee took part in it. The interest to establish the college +receded into the background. Later, another of the conventional type +came up at Bhimavaram. + +A big section of the youth were attracted towards Marxism. +They resorted to the method of strikes. There were frequent student +strikes at Hindu college too. The management thought that my +atheist propaganda was indirectly responsible for the strikes. +It resolved to dispense with my services. After five years at +Hindu College, I faced the second dismissal in 1939. + +Students took up my cause. They approached all the members of +the management and successfully prevailed upon them to revoke the +order of dismissal. But the principal was not happy, when the +management yielded to the student pressure. In his capacity as +the principal, he imposed disciplinary regulations on me, +prohibiting me from meeting students outside the class-room and +banning the expression of my views on atheism inside or outside +the college, in speech or writing. + +The ban was too much for me. Should I resign immediately? +The students who fought in my behalf to get the dismissal order revoked, +did not want me to resign. It was shameful for me to serve under a ban. +I agreed to stay for a year and to resign at the end of the academic year +in 1940. + +The two dismissals plainly placed the choice before me between +atheism and job. Saraswati and I chose atheism. In fact, the +principal did not accept my resignation at once. He knew that I +added two more children to my family, six by now. He was kind to +me when he started the course of Botany in the Hindu College and +took me as a lecturer after I was dismissed from P. R. College. +He was kind again to remind me of my responsibilities to the +family and to advise the withdrawal of my resignation. It was a +question of prestige for him when I suggested that the ban on me +should be lifted. There was no common ground between us if I +valued freedom to spread atheism more than the security of a job. +The resignation was accepted. + + + + +Chapter VII. To a Village + + + +When I resigned the job at Hindu College, Masulipatam, I had +before me some choices for the next step. I was offered the +secretaryship of a Life Insurance Company. A scientific company +asked me to take charge of their section of Biology. The manager +and correspondent of a High School wanted me to take up its +headmastership, which fell vacant just a few days ago. These were +the jobs with security of service and salary. There was the other +offer of public work. Anne Anjayya invited me to settle down +in his village of Mudunur (Krishna District) and to carry on +public work in the manner I liked. + +Every time in life we face alternatives for choice. The final choice +depends upon objective of life, either rolling in the conventional +rut or the desire for a change and taking risks of a change. +Atheist thought that took shape during the several lectures and +answering of questions, made it plain to me that every individual +has the freedom of choice. It is the fear of responsibility +that follows the choice, which compromises the individual +to conventional ruts and permits him conventionally to shift +the responsibility of the results of choice to god's will, +fate's decree, force of circumstances, inexorable custom, +economic condition, political necessity or the cultural pattern. +Whatever the plea, it is a question of owning responsibility of +choice or shifting responsibility of choice to some agent outside +the individual. I recognized that the tendency to shift the +responsibility of choice is the theist way of life and the opposite, +namely, the boldness and frankness to own responsibility of choice +is the atheist way of life. Atheists assert the freedom to make choice +everytime and to face consequences without regrets and with +a sense of responsibility. If the results prove unpleasant, +the individual is as free to change the choice as he was to +choose earlier. Throughout, it is a question of asserting freedom +with a sense of responsibility and using freedom under the cover +of faith in an external force that is supposed to determine choice +and the results of choice. + +Saraswati and I were clear in our minds. I had already worked +for fifteen years from 1925 to 1940 as a lecturer in five +different colleges. The atheist disciplines do not agree with +theist conventions. I faced two dismissals. Why should I accept +a salaried job again to repeat the same clashes or to compromise +with conventional ways for fear of clashes? So, we chose to +accept Anjayya's invitation to go to Mudunur. The choice is +attendent with risk but it has the scope for the expression of +freedom with a sense of responsibility. With six children ranged +from twelve to a year in age, Saraswati and I went to Mudunur in +August 1940. + +Mudunur had a population of about 3,000, two miles from the +nearest road and eight miles from the nearest town, Gudivada, +which has a railway station. It had a branch post-office, an +elementary school and a dispensary. Communications and facilities +have improved considerably after India became independent, +but Mudunur was a typical village when we went there. Anjayya was +its accredited leader by virtue of his liberal disposition +and a sense of service and sacrifice. He was a freedom fighter +in the Gandhian movement of 1930-33. + +Saraswati and I were born and bred up in towns. My job as a lecturer +in colleges confined me to towns. Except for addressing meetings +on atheism, I had little contact with villages. Therefore, Mudunur gave us +a valuable opportunity to know village life, especially because +more than eighty per cent of India's population lives in villages. +Those who do not know villages do not know India largely. + +Mudunur was one of the villages where I addressed a meeting on atheism +two years ago. I had a few acquaintances and I was known there. +Further, at the instance of Anjayya, Mudunur received us kindly +and maintained the family collectively. Two thatched huts were +put up for us in a private land just outside the village. +It was called the Atheist Centre. From there we carried out our +activities till 1947 when we shifted to Patamata, (Vijayawada). + +It was a wonderful experience for those seven years when everyone +looked after our needs in general and no one was responsible to +us in particular. A friend would send us his milch buffalo and +another hay to feed her. We enjoyed the milk. We received +cereals and pulses by collective donation and clothes when we +needed them. Vegetable-groweres who carried gourds and greens in +the early hours of the morning to the market in the town, would +drop a few vegetables at our hut on their way. Thankfully we +collected them at day-break. The omnibus on the road gave us a +lift to the town free of charge and somebody would buy us postage +for correspondence. Our needs were met in kind and seldom we +had the occasion to handle a coin. Special mention should be +made of Puvvala Nagabhushanam who was theistic himself, but was +attracted towards the atheistic way of life and actively took +care of us all the years we were at Mudunur. + +The first program I took up at Mudunur was the running of Adult +Education School. 86 adults ranging from 20 to 70 years of age +from Mudunur and neighboring villages formed the class which met +in a shed on the tank bund. The class sat from 12 noon to 2 p.m. +punctually, a time suitable to villagers engaged in farm work, +and to teachers of elementary schools. Anjayya also attended the class. +I formulated a syllabus of the fundamentals of all subjects, +arts and sciences taught ordinarily in colleges. My wide reading +for atheism enabled me to take the class in all subjects. +Prof. N. G. Ranga spared me volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica +for reference. History, economics, politics, philosophy, sociology, +ethics, logic, fine arts, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, +geology, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, engineering and elements +of all subjects were in our course of study. It was a pleasure +to acquaint the villagers with the fundamentals of all the subjects +in their familiar language. It was training for me too. +It was interesting, indeed. Side by side with this education, +the students who were drawn from all castes and religions of the village, +brahmins and untouchables, Hindus, Christians and Muslims, +grouped into twos and three and played the host for the rest +at tea by turns every Saturday evening. The teas mingled up all castes +in their homes; Brahmin houses or untouchable slums. The social mix-up +raised an uproar, but the band of 86 adults braved the opposition. + +The experience of common teas encouraged us plan a cosmopolitan +meal in the untouchable slum in the month of February, 1941. +The invitation was open with a small fee towards cost of food. +There were about 260 guests. It was a big affair in a village where +caste-distinctions were rigid. Elderly women, including Ramanamma, +Anjayya's mother took part in the common dinner. But it was not +without an echo. + +M. Suryam, M. Krishnarao, M. Suryarao and Dr. S. Subbarao were +the Brahmin participants of the common dinner in the untouchable slum. +Suryam had two children too. When they returned home after the dinner, +their parents closed the doors on them, as eating in untouchable slum +was an affront to the rules of caste. + +The four had the sympathy of the village with them though their +parents were stubborn. For a week they stayed with their friends. +In the meantime, there was rethinking of the problem by the parents +and the boys were readmitted into their homes without any condition. + +A few years later, M. Suryam became an agent of Metropolitan Life +Insurance Company. His cosmopolitan views and acts stood him in +good stead. He mingled freely with his clientele without reservations +of caste distinctions. Consequently he won wide sympathy, +expanded business rapidly and rose to high position in the company. +He not only developed into a good businessman but served as an active +propagandist of atheism, frequently recalling the incidents of adult class +and common dinners. + + + + +Chapter VIII. Atheist Awakening + + + + +The adult class gave me wide contacts in and around Mudunur. +Adiraju Amruteswararao, a teacher, attended the class with a few +of his students from Appikatla, two miles away. From Bollapadu +and Marrivada, villages on the other side also, there were +regular adults at the school. Perumal pedaled 16 miles on +bicycle to and fro between Mudunur and Gudivada town to attend +the classes. There was general sympathy and respect for atheism. + + +Anne Anjayya gave a fillip to the atheist movement by persuading +Ramakumar Varma to hold a conference of atheists. It was held in +1941, at Kanumur, a village eight miles from Mudunur. It was +attended by about three hundred delegates and the conference had +free discussion during its three days. Tummala Gopala Krishnayya +was the secretary of the committee that was formed to spread atheism. +He took me round several villages for meetings on atheism. + +Movva Sivarao of Mudunur, undertook to print and publish my book +in Telugu on Atheism (Nastikatvamu). In that book I used the neuter +gender for god, because god is a concept. The change from the accustomed +masculine gender attracted attention and set about rethinking. +The book went through three reprints. + +Wherever I was called for a public meeting, I insisted on my +lodge and board to be arranged in the local untouchable slum. +I took the occasion to mingle the two sects among untouchables, +Mala and Madiga. Ordinarily, they do not interdine nor [do] they +draw water from the same well. I consider their mingling an +achievement for the atheist way of life. + +At Mudunur I demonstrated fire-walking and dispelled the superstition +associated with it. There is a notion that one could walk on fire +only after a religious ceremony, as it was done. My wife and I +walked on fire without the ceremony. My son Lavanam who was a boy of ten +also walked. A few villagers, including women followed us. +It was strange. To the huge gathering that assembled to witness +the fire-walking by atheists, I explained the scientific principle +involved in firewalking. When fire is super hot, the moisture on +the skin of the sole gets immediately converted into vapor. +It acts as the insulating layer between the skin and the fire during +the short interval of two or three rapid strides on the pit of fire. +Only care should be taken to see that the fuel burns for a sufficiently +long time to get super heated. + +Similarly with the magnet from some machines in villages, +I demonstrated the phenomena of attraction and repulsion. +Some cheats use them for exhibiting peace and war between dolls +of gods of mythology. + +On the occasion of an eclipse, Saraswati gathered pregnant women +of the village and dispelled the superstition associated with it, +as she did in Colombo. + +The social mingling through common teas and dinners on the one +hand and the scientific explanation and exploding of superstitions +through demonstrations on the other, created a new awakening +among the people of Mudunur and the surrounding villages. +They moved with an open mind and revised old habits. + +Puvvala Suryam is a musician of Mudunur. He made a living by +playing on violin. He was attracted by the atheist ideology. +He found that songs of classical music bore themes in praise of god. +He was unwilling to propagate theistic thought through his music. +He discarded the violin and started to live by hard physical labor. +He became an example of an earnest atheist. A scholar of another village +was attracted by Suryam's example. He composed songs with humanist +and rationalist themes and Suryam entertained atheist audiences +with the new songs. + +Yellamanchili Butchayya, a young man of Mudunur wanted to marry +intercaste to set an example for the abolition of caste distinctions. +He married Puvvala Suryam's daughter on principle in the teeth +of opposition of his relatives. Kaviraj Tripuraneni Ramaswamy +of high repute as a non-conformist, iconoclast and rationalist, +presided over the largely attended marriage function. Movva Pichayya +and Kolli Ramamohanarao celebrated their marriages, discarding religious +rites and holding cosmopolitan dinners and inviting local untouchables too. +Marriage by civil registration became popular among atheists. My brother, +Sambasivarao's marriage with a widow in the orthodox village +of Kanakavalli, with untouchables sitting along with others for lunch +was a big social revolution in those days in the context of prevailing +Hindu caste-convictions. A riot was feared. But the opposition +of conservatives did not take shape in the light of atheist awakening. + +The atheist awakening revised the personal habits of villagers. +Indian villages are known for insanitation. Soil-pollution has +been an age-old bad habit with them. Atheist awakening opened +their eyes to the uncleanliness and indecency contained in it and +men and women in several homes took to the construction and use +of trench latrines. In this respect an item of the constructive +program of Mahatma Gandhi came to our help. + +The sympathy for atheism spread so wide and deep into the minds +of people that in the census of 1941, from Mudunur village 142 +persons classified themselves as atheists, disowning labels of +caste and religion. Ramaseshayya incurred the displeasure of the +Sub-Registar when he refused to associate himself with a label of +caste or religion for additional identification at the time of +registering a document. Similar was the experience of witnesses +in courts of law. A small provision which went unnoticed so long, +had to be culled out in order to meet the demands of the atheists. +It provided an alternative to the usual oath in the name of god. +By such bold and consistent action of the villagers, Mudunur soon +came to be known as the "godless village". + +It is a common view that theism, and its opposite atheism also, +are concerned with philosophical questions, personal discipline +and social conduct have little to do with political and economic +affairs. That was the case in primitive times when political and +economic systems had not developed significantly and religious +faith dominated the life of the people. In the modern age, +things have changed considerably. Emphasis has shifted to +economic and political affairs. The old view is out moded. +To be a real way of life, atheism should concern itself with all +aspects of life and especially with economic and political +systems because political authority and state law control and +regulate social relations more than religious faith does in the +modern age. From care of children and mode of education to +family planning and rate of immigration, from irrigation facilities +and land distribution to food rationing and property rights, +state law rules in the modern age. Therefore we atheists wanted +to bring political and economic affairs into the purview of atheism. +The occasion of Quit India Movement of 1942 came in handy. + +Earlier in 1941 Mahatma Gandhi conducted the movement of +Individual Satyagraha as a silent protest against India's +involvement in the Second World War. We were discussing its +progress in our adult school. At that time, Anjayya was more +interested in the methods of Subhas Chandra Bose than in the ways +of Mahatma Gandhi. So he joined the Forward Bloc of Bose. +When Bose was known to have left India to woo the help of Germany +for winning India's freedom, British government arrested associates +of Bose. Anjayya went underground and was later detained in Deoligaol +till 1945. On account of the political changes, we discontinued +the Adult School after a year and planned to take part in the +Quit India Movement. + +By 1942, other workers had gathered at the Atheist Center. +Prominent among them were Kana, D. Ramaswamy, T. Challayya, +D. Tatayya and R. Arjuna Rao. They expressed their agreement +with atheism and its political program. Some students of the +Adult School also joined us in the political action. We formed +a good team of Satyagrahis in the Quit India Movement. Saraswati, +my daughter Manorama and my sister Samrajyam were among the women +who were arrested. Ours was the largest single batch in Krishna +District to suffer imprisonment. Kana, Tatayya and Chellayya +were imprisoned twice between 1942 and 44. In Alipuram Camp Jail +I talked frequently to groups of fellow prisoners on atheism. +They belong to the four Southern language groups of Tamil, Telugu, +Malayalam and Kannada. + +Political action broadened the base of atheistic thought and +prison life gained for us wider acquaintance. + + + + + +Chapter IX. My Children + + + +I have nine children, five daughters and four sons. The number +is outrageous from the point of view of the needs of family +planning in capitalist society. Strangely, in socialist society, +not only mothers of many children are honored and special allowance +is granted for proper nurture of each child but childless mothers +are taxed. Motivation of private profit presents norms different +from collective welfare of socialist society. + +Mahatma Gandhi was surprised at the large number of my children +especially because I live by public support after 1940. He asked +me why I was not observing celibacy. I said that I did not like +to raise an artificial barrier between my wife and my self, +especially when I denied her caste and property. If I denied +myself also to her, I would give scope for inhibitions that +disturb harmonious relations. Gandhi appreciated my situation +and remarked that I was novel in having a large family without +private property in public work. + +From a rationalist standpoint, I should have taken to contraceptives, +if I did not like celibacy. But effective measures of contraception +were not commonly procurable in India in the thirties and forties +of this century. When vasectomy became handy, I got sterilized in 1948. +Nevertheless, on account of the atheist way of life we have bestowed +sufficient care on our children so that they grow as assets to atheism. + +Our atheist outlook was reflected even in giving names to our children. + +The first is a daughter born in 1928. Except for defying the ban +of eclipse, Saraswati and I had not grown assertively atheist. +So we adopted the name of Manorama for her, a name suggested by +our friend Dr. Aserappa of Colombo. + +The second is a son, born in 1930. We were outcaste by that time +and we grew atheistic. That was the time of the Salt Satyagraha +Movement launched by Gandhi. So we called him Lavanam, which means +salt in Indian languages. + +The third is Mythri, another daughter. She was born in 1932, +the period of Gandhi-Irwin pact and the Second Round Table Conference +in London. Climate of friendship was prevailing at that time and +Mythri means friendship. + +Vidya is the fourth child and third daughter. She was born in +1934 when I was trying the experiment with education in Andhra +Tutorial College. Vidya means education. + +The second son and the fifth child is Vijayam. Vijayam means +success, for Congress scored a sweeping success in 1937 elections, +when he was born. + +The third son is Samaram, meaning war. He was born in 1939, +the time when the second world war started. + +The next son is Niyanta born in 1941. Niyanta means dictator. +That was the year of dictatorships of Hitler and Mussolini. +Gandhi was also made the dictator of the Congress to conduct the +anti-war satyagraha. + +The eighth child, a daughter, is Maru. The name means "change" +in Telugu language. She was born in 1944, when there was a +change in the Congress program from Satyagraha struggle to +constructive work. + +The last child is Nau, a daughter. Nau means nine. She is the +ninth child born in 1947. + +The novelty of names attracted some of my friends who also gave +their children names like 'Agust' for the child born in August +1942 when the August Movement of Quit India started. When we +were released from prison in 1943 the child of a friend of mine +was given the name of' 'Viduthala', which means release. +My grand daughter is called Suez, because she was born in 1955 at +the time of the Suez crisis and her brother is named Chunav which +means elections as he was born in 1952 when India conducted the +first general elections with universal adult suffrage. + +Some atheists changed their names into Kana, Nara, Madhu, Vempo, +Bhanu etc., to dissociate from caste and religious association. + +As both Saraswati and I are atheists, the children have grown in +an atmosphere of atheism and they have not so far felt the need +to complain against it. Just as I discarded the thread which is +a mark of the caste, Saraswati cast aside her tilak (rouge on +forehead) and 'Mangalasutra' which are symbols of Hindu wifehood. +When Saraswati and I discarded the marks of caste and the symbols +of religion, our children too followed suit by training when +young, and by understanding as grown ups. Their attitude of +action and adjustment without complaint made them sociable and +useful members of the family and of the society. Since 1940 when +I left my job, my wife and I have been living on public subscription. +It gladly maintained my children too and in the long run they have +been offered ample facilities for development. + +Besides food and clothing, an important problem with children is +their education in a country which does not provide for social welfare. +At Mudunur, Tummala Ramarao, took special care to give elementary +education to my children. Then all of them studied Hindi. +Gandhian movement created facilities for the spread of Hindi +free of charge. Lavanam gained proficiency in Hindi. Vajayam and +Samaram passed highest examinations in Hindi. + +Mrs. Durgabai who had established Andhra Mahila Sabha in Madras +kindly offered to give regular education to my children in that +institution. Lavanam and Mythri went to Madras for that purpose. +But their education suffered a setback owing to bombing at Madras +and the consequent evacuation in connection with the Second World War. +Lavanam did not continue education further as he did not like +to study in the British educational system. What attainment he has, +is due to self-cultivation. He is well acquainted with Hindi, +Telugu and English to speak on public platforms and to write +articles in journals. Lavanam was picked up to interpret +Vinoba's Hindi talks into Telugu during his tour of Andhra +Pradesh. In my foot march with my associates from Sevagram to +Delhi in 1961-62, he interpreted my English speeches into Hindi. + +Manorama stopped with elementary education after her marriage. +Yet she received training in social work and nursing at the +centers of Kasturiba Memorial Trust and worked for a few years in +slum areas. Other children studied Matriculation privately and +qualified themselves for further education. Mythri passed M.A. +and Vidya did B.A. by private study. When we shifted to Patamata +from Mudunur, Maris Stella Women's college was close to us and +the other daughters and grand-daughters studied B.Sc. there, +partly with the help of friends and partly with the assistance of +scholarship grant for the children of those who were imprisoned +in the freedom movement. With the same help Vijayam and Niyanta +passed M.A. and M.Sc. at the Andhra University. Special mention +should be made of the kindness of Mr. J.S.R.L. Narayanamurty, who +was a lecturer and who gave Vijayam and Niyantha free food and +lodge during their study at the Andhra University. Samaram completed +his Medical course with the help given by Mr. Ch. Seshagirirao. +Mr. Seshagirirao, who married Vidya, my third daughter later on, +has been a source of constant help to us for every need. +Maru too studied Medicine with the help of Dr. Sushila Nayyar, +who was a secretary of Mahatma Gandhi and became the Health Minister +of the Central Government. + +A pleasant surprise came from Dr. George Willoughby of USA. +During his tour in India, he visited Atheist Center at Patamata +and was pleased with the way of our life. He arranged for education +of my children in Philadelphia, USA for a year each by turns. +Thus Lavanam, Vijayam, Niyantha and Nau took the chances +to go to U.S.A. Just as Narayanamurty helped Vijayam and +Niyantha at the Andhra University, Mr. Maturusurya Prakasam of +Vijayanagaram kindly helped Vijayam to go to USA. + +Thus all the children have education or educational training by +the help of friends and of public subscription. We are beholden +to them. Also my children who are now qualified for holding jobs, +choose to seek self-employment only and be helpful to the needy. +They see from my experiences that a job impedes freedom of action +and initiative. In capitalist set-up desire for private profit +tempts talent and honesty with security of a salaried job +and uses their services for furthering profits. The high salaries +offered for service depletes free society of talent and honesty +and this weakens revolt against capitalist exploitation. +Every seeker of jobs is an accomplice of exploiters. So movements +for social change give a call for those in jobs to come out, +sacrifice comfort and join the struggle for revolution. + + + + +Chapter X With Gandhi + + + +My association with Mahatma Gandhi is a hotly debated question +with some rationalists. They see no common point between an +avowed atheist and a man of god, as Gandhi called himself. +Of course Gandhi did say that a blade of grass would not move +without god's behest. What then is its congruity with his unique +method of Satyagraha which calls on every one to insist on what +he feels to be the truth? It was this method of Satyagraha or +non-violent resistance that roused millions of Indians against +odds to fight against the forces of British imperialism. Was it +god's command or Gandhi's call to action? + +To resolve this apparent paradox I wrote to Gandhi in 1930. +I went to him in 1944. My talks with him were narrated in the book, +An Atheist With Gandhi (60 pages, Navajivan Publishers, Ahmedabad). +24 pages of the book were taken up by the Introduction by +Kishorelal Mushruwala, a close associate of Gandhi. + +I said in my book that Gandhi "was preeminently a practical man. +As a practical man, he took any situation as it obtained with all +its paradoxes. He never sat down to scan and to sift its +contradictions intellectually, but he moved the whole situation +towards the ideal of happiness for all mankind. He condemned +nothing before hand lest a good cause should be lost by bad judgment. +He only let things drop when they could not bear thestrain of progress. +Practice was his test of fitness. He subordinated intellectual +and sentimental considerations to practical purposes. He tested +a system of medicine by the cure it effected. He tested the advocate +of the cause by the work he turned out." (page 56 57) The emphasis +on practice was the meeting point between Gandhi and myself. + +Two instances confirmed the commonness. + +When I was with Gandhi at the Sevagram Ashram, "I wanted to +dissect a frog to demonstrate the phenomenon of heart-beat to the +nurses class which I was teaching. The nurses objected to the +dissection on the ground that it went against the principle of +non-violence (ahimsa). The matter was referred to Bapuji +(Gandhi) and he replied, "Dissect the frog, if that is the only +way to explain the heart-beat." "And I dissected the frog." +(An Atheist With Gandhi-Page 40). + +Compare this incident with what happened at Ananda College, Colombo. +I wanted to dissect a frog to demonstrate heart-beat to my students +of class of Human Physiology. Buddhist priests on the management +of the college prevented me from the dissection on the plea that +it was killing. The priests eat meat. They say that they do not kill +but buy meat from the stall. The priests are speciously argumentative. +Gandhi was honestly practical. + +The other instance related to my daughter, Manorama's marriage +with Arjunarao. She wanted to marry an "Untouchable" on +principle in order to establish castelessness. Gandhi agreed to +get the marriage performed in Sevagram Ashram, as it conformed to +his vow of blessing marriages between untouchables and non +untouchables only. He also accepted to replace mention of god +with truth, in deference to the needs of my atheism. Further, my +wife, children and atheist associates did not attend the regular +prayers of Sevagram Ashram. Gandhi did not mind our absence. +Evidently, doing work was more important to him than repeating +the name of god. + +Why then did Gandhi conduct prayers so regularly and mention god +so frequently? The reason is clear. He was conventionally a +believer in god by early training, even as I was. He continued +the habit in so far as it did not stand in the way of his work. +He was more concerned with real practice of programs than with +intellectual perfecting of principles. Nevertheless he did not +hesitate to revise an old habit whenever a present situation +needed the change. He started with the common Raghupati Raghava +type of god. As he pushed forward, he held that god was truth. +But in 1931 he said, "I went a step further and said Truth is God. +You will see the fine distinction between the two statements, +namely, that God is Truth and Truth is God. In fact it is more correct +to say that Truth is God, than to say that God is Truth." +He made the change in order to meet the objection of rationalist workers. +In 1925 itself when a conscientious objector protested against +the mention of god in the Congress pledge, Gandhi answered, +"So far as the conscientious objection is concerned, the mention +of God may be removed, if required from the Congress pledge +of which I am proud to think I am the author. Had such an +objection been raised at the time, I would have yielded at once." +In the case of my daughter's marriage, he dropped the mention +of god altogether from the pledge. + +Therefore, Gandhi was not that superstitious as he appeared to be +by the conduct of prayers. Leading millions of illiterate, +downtrodden and tradition bound common people of India towards +the goal of Swaraj or freedom, he was "hastening slowly" in +changing old ways which were of no immediate concern. At the +meeting of the Harijan Sevak Sangh in 1946, he described himself +by saying, "It is one thing for me to hold certain views and +quite another to make my views acceptable in their entirety by +the society at large. My mind is ever growing, ever moving forward. +All may not keep pace with it. I have, therefore, to exercise +the utmost patience and be satisfied with hastening slowly." +Change, he wanted; but he chose the speed of change. Confronted with +the ghastly situation of Hindu-Muslim clashes in 1947, he chose +to change the form of prayer and added the name of Muslim god, +Allah, in the Hindu verse. The change raised a storm of protest +from Hindu quarters. Gandhi stood firm. He fell to the bullets +of a Hindu assassin. + +Gandhi called himself a "Sanatan Hindu". In essence he was not a Hindu. +He was basically a Human. In the sea of humanity, a human is a rarity. +Cut up by labels of race and nationality, class and culture, +caste and religion, humanity has become highly sectarian. +There is hardly a place for a human to live. So Gandhi was eliminated. + +Emphasis on practice as the test of truthfulness, openness of +mind for progressive change and humanness transcending were the +characteristics of Gandhi that took me to him. Similar features +of atheism made me and atheists acceptable to him though we did +not attend prayers and called god a falsehood. But the difference +was there. (page 52, An Atheist with Gandhi) Gandhi's method +of continuing conventional belief in god, however open, +had the advantage of establishing immediate communication +with the mass of people. Later, it suffered the reaction of +losing the essence of change and holding to the form of belief. +The Atheist method, on the contrary, raises initial prejudices +and renders communication difficult. Yet, the change achieved, +however slow, is stable and firm. Gandhi appreciated the content +of atheism. He advised me to take another name instead of +atheism in view of the heap of prejudice against it. + +Conventionally, atheism is equated with wickedness. Yet, I take +to it deliberately for its promise to bring about permanent change +for human welfare. Atheists have a hard way to fight through, +but every step they take is a definite gain to humanity. + + + + +Chapter XI. Political Action + + + +Early atheist programs were similar to Gandhi's Constructive work. +While the Constructive program of Gandhi was linked with the political +fight of the Congress and had therefore a nation wide significance, +our work of adult education or village sanitation or removal of +untouchability or women's liberation was intensively confined to +a few villages. In a way, it was even non-political, as we had not +proceeded sufficiently far to come into touch with or to clash with +political authority. We moved in the thin margin outside the direct +authority of the government. But as our work widened, we did clash +with the conservative and capitalist ways of the government, +and we found the need of political action. Political action becomes +indispensable in the modern age if social work should be free and broad. +Gandhi told Ramaswamy, an atheist, that he (Gandhi) was not a politician. +He was essentially a man of religion and a social reformer, and to +the extent political factors have come in his way he had been unwillingly +drawn into political sphere. (An Atheist with Gandhi - page 28). + +Despite the fact that our social work in Mudunur village was intensive, +it was not so abiding as we wished. No doubt, Mudunur Suryam became +a successful Insurance agent, Nagulapalli Sitaramaiah became a +social worker of repute and Kalapala Suryam became a legislator. +They are all the products of the adult school and active participants +in the work at Mudunur. Also untouchability is relaxed there +to a great extent. But in the very village which was know to be +"the godless village" and in which 142 classified themselves as atheists +in 1941 census, religious ceremonies are reappearing. Evidently social +work without political legislation loses strength. The same is the +experience with the several constructive activities of Gandhi +during the fight for freedom. The lasting contribution of the +Congress movement is the political freedom of India but not +social change by constructive work. Of course, political work +without constructive work is blind; at the same time, the results +of constructive work without political action are short-lived. +So we added political action to social work and continued social +work along with political action. + +Our active politics started when we participated in the Quit +India movement in 1942. As we continued political action, our +politics have grown differently from the power politics in vogue. +The difference is partly due to the atheist outlook and partly to +our acquaintance with the Gandhian method. + +The principal feature of power politics is the capture of the +authority of the government by fair or by foul means. The desire +to capture power raises competition for power among those who +have the desire. Competition leads to formation of political +parties and rivalries among the parties make the means of +capturing power more foul than fair. Party machinations and +corruptive ways and the many evils to which present democracies +are subject flow from power politics. + +The real purpose of politics is to solve people's problems by +means of governmental legislation. Constructive program is the +non-political method of solving people's problems. Sarvodaya is +non-political in that sense. But in the modern age when problems +are complex and social relations are wide, constructive work is +not able to cope up with the demands of people's needs. +Therefore, we require politics that is legislation, to solve our problems. +But we find politics also failing to solve the problems satisfactorily +on account of the competition for power entering into politics. +Therefore, unless politics are cleared of the mania for power, +politics cannot fulfill its real purpose of solving people's problems. +That is, those who hold the reins of governmental authority should +be people-minded and not power-minded. But to suppose that lust for +power is inherent in the very institutions of government on account +of its centralized authority and revenues, and to recommend +non-political methods for solution of people's problems especially +when non-political methods are inadequate to deal with the problems +of stage of civilizational progress, are born of a feeling of frustration. +Therefore, to be practical a way must be found to turn power- +politics into real politics, that would make persons in authority +people-minded instead of power-minded. + +Gandhi proposed the method of decentralization of the basic units +of administration so that the people get into direct touch with +their representatives. The direct touch enables people to +control their representatives in authority and to check their +slipping into greed for power, because people stand to lose by +such a wrong. Even in self defense against the evil of power mania, +people should prevent legislators from abuse of power. But effective +check is possible only when units of administration are sufficiently +decentralized to keep legislators in close touch with people. + +If Gandhi got into the seat of power on India winning freedom, +or if Jawaharlal Nehru followed the Gandhian way, India would have +had politics instead power politics. Both did not happen. +Gandhi was assassinated and Nehru held the power that preserved +the imperialist ways of centralized authority. India has been +politically free since 1947, but is in the grip of power politics +rather than in the dawn of real politics. + +What program shall we, the atheists, take up to clear the present +politics of power mania? Decentralization is indeed desirable. +But it is not a feasible proposition for us as individual +citizens in a democracy. It can be done only after we get into +seats of power. Even Vinoba with all his prestige, mighty effort +of foot march throughout India, and huge following, could not get +administration decentralized effectively, though that was his +avowed purpose. Some of us were with him in the Sarvodaya +movement, as it was known. I wrote a book Why Gram-Raj by name +printed by the Sarvodaya publications. Its theme is the need of +decentralization of the basic units of administration. + +To start the work from where we are, we took to the programs of +partylessness and pomplessness of legislators. The progress of +atheist political action consisted in formulation and practice of +items of partylessness and pomplessness. Nevertheless, we keep +close to constructive work also. + +In 1946, I was invited to the camp of Kasturiba Memorial Trust at +Borivilli, Bombay. Mridula Sarabhai was the Secretary of the Trust. +She was quite rational. She asked me to speak on superstitions. +Naturally, I referred to the need of atheism to fight superstitions. +There was a protest against the mention of atheism in a camp +which was run under the aegis of Gandhism. Also Mridula dropped +the item of prayer from the time-table of the camp. The protest +was carried to Gandhi. He did not take a serious notice of it. +He suggested that prayer might be arranged for those who need it. +Gandhians were more "godly" than Gandhi. + +Next year Mridula Sarabhai became a Secretary of the All India Congress +Committee along with Kheskar. Sadiq Ali was the Office Secretary. +I was taken in as the Organizer, first at Allahabad, and then at +Delhi Camp office. Gandhi was staying in the Bhangi Colony +on Panchkuan Road among sweepers. I was going there pretty frequently. +I noticed the difference between the slum dwellings of sweepers +where Gandhi lived and the posh mansions of the cabinet ministers +who held the posts in the care-taker government under the prime +ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru in the name of Gandhi. +Obviously the principles of Gandhism and its austerity began +to be sidetracked. + +Saraswati was with me for some time. We were invited to lunch by +Mohammad Rahamtullah Khan, the president of the Delhi Congress Committee. +He was very elderly and considerate. According to his custom, +he served beef as a dish at the meal. Saraswati and I are vegetarians +by the caste habit which we acquired in childhood. When we discarded +caste and religious association, we revised food habits also that +are linked up with caste distinctions. But normally we +remained vegetarian. At that time we ate a bit of beef to show +that we are not sentimentally vegetarian hidebound by caste habits +and religious feelings. We asked M. Rahamtullah Khan whether +he would eat pork. Pork is a religious taboo to Muslims as beef +is to Hindu castes. Rahamtulla Khan saw the point in our question. +He rose above the levels of religious difference and told us with dignity, +"Yes, I should, when it is served to me." Of course we did not have a +dish of pork ready at hand. But his reply left an impression on us +and suggested an objective program for effacing Hindu-Muslim differences. +Twenty five years later we conducted the program of beef and pork eating +in the face of opposition from conventional religionists. +The incident at M. Rahamtulla Khan's house formed the basis +for an organized and extensive program in 1972. + + + + +Chapter XII. Between Gandhi and Marx + + + + +Nehru was not faithful to Gandhi as Lenin was to Marx. Nehru had +immense love and respect for Gandhi. That was sentimental. +He did not consider the Gandhian discipline of austerity feasible +or desirable in independent India. As Prime Minister of the +care-taker government till the August 15, 1947, Nehru was +visiting Gandhi who was residing in the slum of the sweepers. +But he was himself living in ministerial mansions of the British +imperial regime. He paid little heed to Gandhi's advice to +Governors, ministers and legislators to deem themselves as +servants of people and to live a way of life close to the common +man of India who is poverty-stricken. Gandhi did not simply say +this but lived that way of life in a hut at Sevagram Ashram and +in the slums at Delhi. Neither Nehru nor "Gandhians" appreciated +the need of austerity to deserve the respect of the mass of +people for the laws they make. + +In contrast to Nehru, stood Lenin. On becoming the Secretary of +the Communist party he refused the increase in his salary. +Noteworthy still was his conduct, when he shifted to Gorky Hill +to take rest. There was the mansion of the commander-in-chief of +the Czar who had fled after the revolution. Lenin stayed not in +the mansion, but in the servant's quarter. My admiration for him +grew a thousand fold when I saw the servants quarter by the side +of the big mansion when I visited Moscow in 1974. At once in my +mind's eye Gandhi's hut in Sevagram appeared side by side with +the servant's quarter where Lenin lived. Both stood in terrible +contrast with the Teen Murthi Bhavan in which Nehru lived, the +palatial mansion of the commander-in-chief of the British army in +India. Lenin lived in the servant's quarter of the mansion; +Nehru lived in the mansion itself. The difference indicated the +difference in their faithfulness to the ideology they professed. + +Inspired by Lenin's simplicity, the rank and file of the Communist +party all over the world lived close to the common people. +Following Nehru, Gandhians deviated from the Gandhian principles. + +After the Quit India movement, my close colleague, Tummala Challayya, +was disillusioned with Gandhian ideology which could not inspire +Gandhians with simplicity. He was twice in prison in Quit +India movement, and an ardent Gandhian at first. Later, he moved +towards the Communist Party, and persuaded some others too +to join the Party. He and Yellamanchili Ramakrishnayya followed +the path of communism, went under ground and Ramakrishnayya was +shot dead in an encounter with police. Chellayya narrowly +escaped capital punishment. + +Chellayya persuaded me at that time to join the Communist Party. +The marked difference between the simplicity of Communist workers +and the pompous ostentation of Congressmen was his irrefutable argument. +I looked at Gandhism and Marxism in their wider perspective, +of theoretical implications and practical programs. Principles of +dialectical materialism and their application to human history +basically deny freewill to the individual. This goes against +the atheist assertion of the freewill. In practice, the Marxian +ideology would necessitate secrecy and underground life in +the attempt to organize for the establishment of the dictatorship +of the proletariat or of its champion, the Communist Party. +I am averse to secrecy. While I disapproved the pomp of congressmen. +I could not accept the implications of Marxism. I felt that +both Gandhism and Marxism had good parts and both of them needed +atheist correction for clearing them of faults. I explained this +in my book "Positive Atheism." We carried on the atheist work +on political and constructive fronts, without getting into +the streams of the Congress or of the Communist Party. + +Gandhi was assassinated on the January 30, 1948. He had to lay +down his life because his followers would not listen to him. +His solution to the Hindu-Muslim problem was to give Jinnah, +the Muslim leader, a blank check to form the government of +undivided India. He said that it was firstly wrong to think in terms +of Hindu citizens and Muslim citizens, instead of thinking in terms +of Indian secular citizenship; and that secondly, even if religious +distinctions were granted, Hindus were in two thirds majority +in numbers and could easily be liberal to their Muslim brethren, +though they were found to be stubborn. Love of power blinded reason. +The Congress High Command agreed to the division to avoid the +colossal blood-bath. India was divided on August 15, 1947. +Gandhi's protest took the non-violent from of working for +communal harmony. His voice was drowned in communal frenzy +and a Hindu shot down a "Sanatana Hindu", who was simply a human. + +After Gandhi's assassination, I severed connection with the Congress +and proceeded along the atheist path in all aspects of life, +as I conceived them. + +We shifted from Mudunur to Patamata as the latter is on the road-side +with better communications being a suburb of Vijayawada town. +On the day we left Mudunur, there was a farewell function. +A purse of collections was presented to us and friends helped us +to shift the huts from Mudunur to Patamata. The seven years' stay +at Mudunur and the reminiscences of activities there have fostered, +bonds of lasting relationship. Paturi Nagabhushanam, the Secretary +of the Library movement, secured for us a plot of land at Patamata +to put up our sheds. We called that place also atheist center +and conducted adult education classes in the untouchable slum +by our side. The landlord, Govindarajulu Venkateswara Rao, +and his brothers, though congressmen, objected to our association +with untouchables since it would disturb the peasant-labour relations +in the area. But we continued our programs. They obtained an ex-parte +legal decree for our eviction. Chennupati Ramakotaiah, the head +of the village, sympathized with the clash of my ways with the +existing social set-up and invited me to his land in another part +of Patamata. The present Atheist Center, has been there since 1948. + + +Better communications at Patamata facilitated widening of engagements. +I participated in several library and adult education conferences +organized by Paturi Nagabhushanam who had devoted his life to +library movement. He took part in the freedom struggle of 1930-32 +and is an enthusiastic Gandhite. He appreciated my condition that +wherever I go for a conference, my lodge and food should be arranged +in the untouchable slum. A notable incident happened at the +Alampur conference. The local organizers who generally treated +untouchables as manual laborers and disliked close association with them, +did not make the arrangements satisfactorily as promised. At a late hour, +Nagabhushanam personally attended to the matter and several delegates +to the conference came to the slum and shared the meal they arranged. +It was a unique event in those parts and it, served to awaken +new social consciousness. The most distinguished guest of the function +was Gadicherla Hari Sarvothama Rao, another freedom fighter +of radical views. He walked to the slum for participation in the meal, +in spite of his advanced age. + +Similar incidents happened at a village in Cuddapah District and +at Vallabhapuram in Guntur District. Each incident gained fresh +friends to us who came forward with sacrifice of caste privileges +and worked for equal social respect. + +The conference put me in touch with Ayyanki Venkata Ramanaiah, +Venkata Rama Naidu, Putumbaka Sreeramulu, Roche Victoria, +Korukonda Subbaraju and several elite of Andhra Pradesh. + +Atheism extended its frontiers through programs of action. + + + + +Chapter XIII. Economic Equality + + + +Economic problem is the most important one in human affairs. +There are cases when men and women stake their life for honor and liberty. +Wars and suicides have no place in human life unless there are values +considered more worthy than food and comfort. Yet, in day-to-day life +food is very important. Those for whom food is assured progress in +fields of art and technology is more rapid than those who have to +search for or fight for food. The backwardness of Asian and African +countries is primarily due to their lack of social security. + +Further, modern age recognizes the equality of all humans. +Therefore, to have social security evenly distributed among all +people yields better results in development of human affairs than +when its availability differs with advantages in competition. +Evidently, socialist countries enjoy greater peace and progress +than countries under capitalist economy, though both have social security. +Hence economic equality is the cry of the day. + +Countries that have adopted the Marxian ideology have a materialist +awakening and they have definitely achieved economic equality now. +But their achievement is subject to political dictatorship, +which curbs individual freedom. The problem before atheists +is to find out a method by which economic equality is achieved +while preserving the freedom of the individual. That is, +taking democracy and socialism together. + +Because no country has so far achieved socialism democratically, +the common belief is that Marxism alone stands for socialism, +while democracy supports capitalism. But we find Gandhi +attempted at achieving socialism democratically. The thirteenth +item of his Constructive Program is to work for Economic Equality. +Of course, the method proposed.for achieving economic equality +is trusteeship. And Trusteeship is too good to be real. +The Sarvodaya movement which gave trusteeship the best trial has +failed in the final achievement. Therefore, while Marxism is +well known by its achievement of socialism, the thirteenth item +of Gandhian program is either little known by the lack of +achievement or where it is known it is discredited by its +trusteeship principal which is both non political and utopian. +Nevertheless, the indication of possibility of achieving +socialism democratically is found in the thirteenth item of the +Constructive Program of Gandhi. It is this possibility that +attracts atheists. They feel that if democratic political method +is adopted instead of trusteeship, it is possible to achieve +economic equality without disturbing the freedom of the individual. +The correction needed in this context is to drive democracy +towards legislations in favor of economic equality and +atheists feel that democracy can be driven in that direction when +it is rendered partyless and pompless. + +With this plan, atheists held the Conference of Gandhi Sangh at +Gudivada at first. The name of Gandhi was taken in order to emphasize +that not only Marx but Gandhi also talked of economic equality. +The conference highlighted the thirteenth item of the Constructive Program. +The organizers of the conference were Mudedla Ramarao and +K. Bhujanga Bhushana Rao who were freedom fighters. S. Ramanathan, +President of the All India Rationalist Association and S. Jagannathan +were among the guests from Madras who contributed to the discussion. +Kodati Narayan Rao from Hyderabad helped us give shape to the resolution. +The success of the conference was due to the cooperative effort +of several persons who were interested in evolving a democratic method +for achieving economic equality. + +The same work is carried on later when we formed Arthik Samatha Mandal +(Association for the achievement of economic equality) at Wardha +under the presidentship of J. C. Kumarappa. I was the secretary, +D. J. Hathekar, T. K. Bang, Suresh Ram and Vasant Nargolkar +were on the committee. We resolved that democracy should be +rid of party and pomp in order to think in terms of achieving +economic equality. + +For spreading atheist ideas and programs of work, we wanted to +start a journal. A small printing press with a treadle came in handy. +Lavanam underwent training in press work at Madras with +Shramajeevi Acharya. At Patamata we started the press. My children +Vijayam, Samaram, Mythri, Vidya and several coworkers from +Patamata village worked in the press. I edited the Telugu weekly, +Sangham, (Society) in whose columns we discussed the atheist ideology +and plan of action. The press was bought out of public donation and +the journal was run on public sympathy. After running it for five years, +we changed the name to Arthik Samata (Economic Equality), under the +editorship of Lavanam. The change of name was in tune with our emphasis +on economic problems. When our press became too rickety to print, +C. Rangappa of Proddatur printed our journal in his Sarathy Press. +He printed some books of atheism too and helped our work. + +Besides the two journals in Telugu, Sangham and Arthik Samata, +we ran a Hindi monthly, Insaan (means a human being) for a few years, +to gain contact with the Hindi States of the North. Now we have +the English monthly journal, The Atheist, which has world wide +circulation in atheist circles. For a year Lavanam was at +Kakinada with C. V. K. Rao, assisting the editing of Sarathi +which adopted the ideology of economic equality. + +Though we were busy with press, journal and spread of atheist +thought, we did not lose sight of constructive work. Being adjacent +to the town, the constructive work at Patamata was different from +the work at Mudunur. While unemployment and poverty are general problems +concentrated in urban areas in developing countries with +no social security, the specific problem with which we were confronted +was the eviction of hut-dwellers who are untouchables, from the place +they were living on. The reason for the eviction was either +the needs of town planning or the ownership of the land by a rich man. +Such a question came to us where 48 huts were involved. I approached +the municipal authorities and the state government to provide the +evicted persons with alternative house sites for the huts. They pleaded +lack of provision in the budget for the help. My wife and I +took a straight course. We helped the evicted hutsmen to occupy +a wide and unused road margin. The municipal authorities objected +to the occupation as it was illegal. Our simple answer was that +the occupation was moral. Where there is discord between legality +and morality, legality should be opposed and morality should be upheld. +Law is for man. If law hurts man's life, law must be changed +and man should be allowed to live. The straight and open vindication +of our stand, let the poor people live on there. The stand we took +involved the affected people in the contention and they now stand on +their legs with confidence. They feel strong because they are in the right. + +My children have grown with the humanist outlook. Their marital +alliances disregarded caste distinctions. The daughter of Nara, +an atheist married a muslim on principle. My son Lavanam, +married an "untouchable" and this was the second marriage that was +performed at Sevagram on atheist principles with no mention of god. +The first was the marriage of my daughter Manorama with Arjunarao. + +As the children grew up and were qualified educationally by +private study or by regular collegiate education, we had to find +work for them. They did not want salaried jobs. So my second +daughter Mythri and Hemalata Lavanam started a private children's +school at the atheist center, Patamata. It was named Vasavya +school. Vasavya is a word coined with the first letters of three +words in Telugu, Vastavikata (sense of reality), Sanghadrusti +(sociability), and Vyaktityam (individuality) -- the three +qualities that atheism cherishes. The children of Vasavya school +were required to drop caste appellations of their names. The school +enlisted the cooperation of the parents of students and educated +the homes indirectly. It was an enjoyable experience. + + + + +Chapter XIV. Direct Action + + + +The feeling of freedom is the principal feature of atheism. +It makes atheists masters of every situation. Being masters they +cannot complain. With a sense of responsibility, and direct +action, they have to redress whatever they find unjust. + +Direct action is the same as Gandhi's Satyagraha. When Gandhi +said that living faith in god was necessary for a Satyagrahi, +he spoke in common conventional language. In spirit and practice, +Satyagraha and atheistic direct action are alike in as much +as both should insist upon the right and oppose the wrong. + +Direct action has two advantages. It sets right a wrong. +Also it disciplines the activist. Our action against ornamental +flower plants illustrated the double advantage. We felt that as +long as there is scarcity of food any where, it is anti social to +use land, water, manure, time interest or energy for growing non edibles. +From the point of view of social responsibility the color of tomato +or the shape of cabbage is more pleasing to the eyes than nonedible +salvia or pansy. So, after due notice to the concerned authorities, +some of us planned in 1968 to replace ornamental plants with edibles +in the public garden at Hyderabad. T. Ramarao who is not avowedly +an atheist, liked the plan. Before he participated in the operation, +he pulled out chrysanthemums from the pots of his garden and put in +coriander there. By practice and sacrifice he inspired others to +do likewise. It spoke of the honesty of his purpose and added +dignity to our work, with the result that several passers by on +the road joined us sympathetically in replacing flower plants +with edibles, in the garden that evening. The police imprisoned +us on the charge of destroying public garden. But the moral +value of our programs was so forceful that on rethinking, +the government had to withdraw the case against us unconditionally +after a month. + +Our direct action was largely against the pompous extravagance of +the heads of the State. Political power is a potent factor in +regulating lives of the people. On winning political freedom of +India, we expected the persons wielding political power to think +and work for the welfare of all people. But those who were +elected to seats of power, misused authority for selfish gains +and used the revenues of the government more for personal comforts +and pride of pomp than for people's welfare. So, we directed +our action against the pompous extravagances of heads of the State. + +Elected legislators could abuse power since people were not +vigilant enough to check the excesses of their representatives. +Accustomed to feel subservient to their notion of god, common +people obeyed their governments too, instead of controlling them +and preventing lapses. Atheists re-educate the people to tell +them that they are the masters of their government, as democracy +requires them to be. Involvement in the programs of direct +action is the best method of education. + +Heads of State do need special facilities for the performance of +their special functions. But personal pomp is certainly an abuse +of authority and disdain of people. They travel in first class +and live in luxurious mansions, while common people are packed in +third class compartments and are restricted to huts in slums. +At one time, we insisted on the ministers of the state too +traveling in third class in sympathy with the condition of common +people whom they profess to serve. At the railway station, +we prevented them from getting into first class compartments. +Chundi Veeraswamy, who earns out his livelihood barber, was a +great activist in the program. He could see the injustice in +comparison with his hard labor everyday. We were often kept out +by the police till the train left. However, P. V. G. Raju, and +T. Viswanatham when they were ministers traveled in third class +some-times in sympathy with our demand. M. V. Krishna Rao, +another minister travels in omnibus along with common people, +a big change in the prevailing customs in India. Tanguturi Prakasam, +an elderly gentleman, too traveled in third class on principle +when he was the state minister for revenue. + +One minister's reaction was strange. When I persuaded him to +travel in third class, his ministerial dignity, false as it was, +was hurt. He slighted me with "Who are you?" Straight I replied, +"I am your master." The right of democracy struck him hard. +He withdrew behind the cordon of police. + +Rajendra Prasad was a close associate of Gandhi. He became the +first President of the Republic of India. In a special interview, +I requested him, "The best place for the President of India +is the slum were Gandhi lived. I won't press that demand now. +Please visit the slum wherever you go. Slum-dwellers also are citizens +of India. Placed as you are, they cannot easily approach you. +"He was too honest to deny my request. He could not agree either, +on account of the form and pomp that surrounded him, and parried +the question. + +I repeated the request with Chandulal Trivedi, when he was the Governor +of Andhra State. He could receive addresses from clubs and corporations, +but he should visit the slums also. Twice we staged black-flag +demonstrations when he paid no heed. Popular sympathy grew +in our favor. Third time he yielded. He visited slums wherever +he went thereafter and attended to their needs. My wife, Saraswati, +and Andraiah played notable roles in those direct actions. + +We pressed upon Sanjiva Reddy and Brahmanda Reddy, when they were +Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh to shift from their palatial +mansions to more modest abodes, closer to the common people. +I had a long discussion with Kamaraj Nadar on the point when he +was the President of the Congress Party. In 1961-62 14 of us, +including Saraswati and Lavanam, started on a foot march from +Sevagram Ashram to Delhi. It was 1,100 miles long and took 99 days. +It was a protest march against the pompous extravagance and +party affiliation of the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. +At every camp on the march and on the way too, we were meeting people, +addressing meetings and explaining that, in democracy people are +masters and ministers are servants. By the time we reached Delhi, +we were 38 from different States of India. We wrote repeatedly +to the Prime Minister, the first representative of the people. +We requested him to set an example to the people as the "heir of Gandhi". +He was silent. At Delhi we blocked the entrance of his +official residence, Teen Murthi, as direct protest. He called +for us to talk the next day. Mahavir Bhai and I met him. +He said he would gladly respond to the demand, if the public is +sufficiently awakened to the principles of partylessness +and pomplessness. We said that a gesture from him would rouse +the people to democratic consciousness. At present democratic practices +move in a vicious circle shifting responsibilities of change +from government to people and people to government. + +I found the members of Communist Party no better in their response. +Their members in legislatures draw the same salaries and allowances +as those whom they call bourgeoisie. They say that circumstances +should change for persons to change. How do circumstances change? +Certainly by the effort of some individuals. Lenin did not wait +for the whole bourgeoisie to lose the class character before he +lived in the servant's quarter in Gorki Hill. + +Nevertheless, four legislators of the Andhra Legislature elected +a voluntary cut in their salaries and allowances to be honest to +their representation of people's interests. They were C. V. K. Rao, +Vavilala Gopalakrishnayya, M. V. Subbareddi and Koarapati Pattabhi Ramaiah. + +Another aspect of direct action is seeking elections. + + + + +Chapter XV. Seeking Election + + + +One-adult-one-vote is the outstanding character of democracy. +The equality of voting franchise ought to lead to equality of +economic opportunity and equality of social respect among people +through appropriate legislation. But democracies have not so far +succeeded in establishing equality, despite the equality of +voting franchise. What is the reason? Atheists have thought +over the problem with an open mind. They have tried to find out +where and how democracy is sabotaged in the fair purpose of +achieving equality. + +One of the reasons for failure of democracy is the centralization +of administration which removes the representative away from the +easy control of people. Then the representative can abuse the +powers of his position and fall into the temptation of personal comfort. +The programs of direct action have been attempts to control +the legislators and to compel them to shed pomp as far as possible +under the conditions of centralized administration. + +The second method is seeking election by those who are inspired +with the desire to establish equality democratically. If they +get elected, they can try to introduce legislation to cut down +pomp and to decentralize administration. But there is a hurdle +in the way of seeking election. Political parties have crept +into the democratic machinery and have virtually captured the +election platforms. Parties set up their candidates, and scare +away non-party candidates from seeking election. Nor are the +party candidates useful for the purpose of democracy. The competition +among political parties for getting elected by hook or by crook, +fouls the election machinery. They collect huge funds, +bribe and corrupt voters, bug and blackmail opponents. After election +their attention is more absorbed in strengthening their positions +by pulling the legs of opponents than working for the welfare +of the people. The way of democracy that is side-tracked by +political parties is called power politics in contrast with +the people's politics of real democracy. Atheists are confronted +with this ugly conditions of power politics when they seek election. + +Atheists know that there is no mention at all of parties in +democratic constitutions. Even if there is any provision it +could be amended, in view of the harm that political parties do +to people's interests. In the face of the conventions of power +politics atheists feet bold to seek election as non-party candidates. + +I sought election to Parliament in the first general election in India +in 1952. Reve stood for the State Assembly from Suryapet Constituency. +Though people were habituated to power politics and they were +in the grips of political parties, I found it easy to put across +the purpose of democracy to the people. I held street corner meetings, +contacted the people straight and held open dialogues. I did not +succeed at the polls, but certainly I succeeded in opening a new path +to lead towards people's politics out of power politics. +It was a partyless movement. + +M. N. Roy also propounded the theory of partyless democracy earlier. +Consistently he dissolved his party and encouraged the members +to lead the partyless movement. A. G. K. Murty of Tenali +was a protagonist of the cause. He gave his full support to me. +Later when I sought election to the State Assembly again in 1967, +his colleague M. V. Ramamurthy stood for the Parliament election. +In 1972 elections the number of candidates to seek election +from partyless platform increased. B. Venugopal from Repalle, +Parachuri Venkataratnam from Kuchinapudi, K. Muralidhararao +from Nallagonda, S. Narasimhulu from Cuddapah and Lavanam from +Vijayawada were among the candidates. + +With the help of Mahadev Singh, S. R. L. Devi and Vandemataram +Ramachandrarao, we held a conference of Partyless Democracy at +Hyderabad in 1960. Jayaprakash Narayan inaugurated the conference. +Some principles were highlighted at the conference. We said that +candidates from partyless platform should considerably cut down +election expenses, because they were the main source of corruption. +Those who spend money at the election will be tempted to recover +the money by illicit means after the election. Secondly, the opposition +should be free and fluid, instead of being bloc and whip bound. +Opposition is effective only when it is free. It can then be +constructive too depending on the merits of the issue instead +of opposing for the sake of opposition which is unworthy of +the dignity of a legislator. When opposition is free, the cabinet +of ministers accepts the decision of the House by a majority +of free votes, even though it may mean amendment or rejection +of a cabinet proposal. In such a state of partylessness the leader +of the House is elected by the whole House by the method of +eliminating those who get the least number of votes each time +and repeating election. + +It is the power politics where parties vie with one another that +call elections a "contest" meaning a kind of rivalry between the +different candidates. In the partyless approach, we seek election +but contest with none. + + +We held a series of talks, seminars and study classes in towns +and rural parts on partyless democracy. I toured the country +extensively in the month of April, May and June 1962 addressing +meetings on partyless and pompless democracy. A week long +worker's camp was held at Ghaziabad, near Delhi in early 1962. +Conferences on Partyless Democracy were organized successfully in +August 1961 at Hubli; in June 1962 at Calcutta; in October 1968 +at Bangalore and in February 1975 at Warangal. The discussions +on partyless democracy clarified two features as principal +changes from power politics. First, seeking election is as much +a right of the citizen in democracy as casting vote. Party +politics set up party candidates at elections and practically +shut out others from the privilege. Partyless platform breaks +the self arrogated monopoly of political parties and encourages +any number of candidates to seek election in a constituency. +Out of the several candidates, voters choose those who commend +themselves by their history of service, integrity of conduct and +ability to represent people. The wide scope cuts across caste +and communal bias and presents alternatives to the yes men of parties. +Not the promise of a showy manifesto but the objective to legislate +for establishing economic equality and social justice becomes prominent. +Secondly, an elected member will serve his full term. The mischief +of power politics which asks a member of the rival party to resign +every time will be replaced by the healthy convention of checking +the lapses of a legislator by pressures of direct action. +The extra expenditure of by-elections will be avoided and the funds +will be usefully diverted to promote people's welfare. The party +politics which reduce a citizen's rights only to casting votes +periodically will be activated by the principle that the right +of a citizen in democracy is also to see that his representatives +do their duty. Democracy strengthens through people's participation. +Decentralization of the units of administration certainly +facilitates people's participation. But partylessness is the +first state from power-politics to decentralization. + +Besides Radical Humanists of Royist ideology and Jayaprakash Narayan, +members of Sarvodaya are committed to the principle of partylessness. +So, I joined Sarvodaya a year after it started in 1951. +I spoke freely about partyless programs from Sarvodaya platforms. +We held the conference of Partyless Democracy at Raipur. +Vishnu Sran, Tiwary and several friends helped its spread, +with the name of Satyagraha Samaj. + +But Sarvodaya largely is non political in its activities. +Therefore, though it agreed to partyless democracy in principle, +it discouraged active programs in that direction. The conference +on partyless democracy at Raipur, the Sevagram-Delhi March in +1961 were opposed by Sarvodaya office bearers as being political, +though members like Thakurdas Bang, Ganesh Prasad Naik, Mahavir Bhai, +Lokendra Bhai and Hemdev Sharma actively supported and participated +in programs of partyless democracy. + +Shri Shivamurty Swamy, member of Parliament from Raichur, Karnataka, +is an ardent supporter of Partyless Democracy. He introduced +a non-official bill in Parliament laying it down that the Prime Minister +should be elected by the whole House, giving up the convention +of appointing the leader of the majority party as the prime minister. +Sivamurty Swamy held a conference at Hubli to which Mahavir Bhai, +S. R. Subrahmaniam, Lavanam and I were invited. + +Partyless democracy which emerged as the political program of +atheism by and large gathered wide support. + + + + +Chapter XVI. Are They Outrageous? + + + +Atheist mind is open. Every time it practically writes on a +clean slate. All revolutions do it. Atheism is revolutionary. +Atheists respect old values in so far as they are useful to +present times. Atheists do not hesitate to drop such old values +that do not bear the march of progress. The only two values that +abide with atheists are the objective of equality of all humans +and the method of openness. Equality and openness are indispensable +social needs. Put to the test of equality and openness, +we find most of our old values require revision or even rejection. +Thinking and working along these lines, I was confronted with +special situations, whose solution from the atheist standards +seemed ordinary to me, while they looked outrageous to others +till they understood me. + +The first one related to the social status of unmarried mothers. +In India girls are married early. Till 1935 when Child marriage +Restraint Act was passed, marriages were mostly pre-puberty. +Therefore, motherhood is shielded by the condition of marriage +and unwed motherhood does not arise except in the case of widows +who are not remarried. So by old social custom unwed motherhood +is regarded a heinous crime on the part of the woman. Unwed mothers +either resort to abortion stealthily, or commit suicide. + +The first case of an unwed mother we came across was at Mudunur, +sometime in 1946. She was a Brahmin widow. Her head was shaven, +as it is the custom with widows of some castes, including Brahmins. +She belonged to an adjacent village. She was about 25 years of age. +When her pregnancy came to be evident, she was discarded by the village +and the helpless woman stayed alone on the tank bund at a distance. +When the case came to our notice, my wife and I called her to the +Atheist Center at Mudunur and offered her all assistance of food, +shelter, maternity home and post-natal care. As friends of Mudunur +were atheistically minded, they agreed with me and came forward +with material help. + +The woman was happy at first at our offer. But when she found +out that at the atheist center we live without caste distinctions, +she being a brahmin, refused food at our hands, and left us. +She delivered in a hospital. The experience made us aware both +of the condition of unwed mothers and of the sentiment of caste. + +I wrote news articles on the social injustice to unwed mothers. +For the same act, man is left free as he can escape while woman +is punished. Should special hardship be imposed on women on +account of the difference in sex? It is as unfair as the +discrimination due to color of the skin in racial differences. + +Later, I found Radha Kishan Home at Hyderabad, run by Mr. and +Mrs. Dage, gave shelter to unwed mothers, but they strictly kept +their identity secret. Such treatment affords relief in +individual cases, but does not solve the problem socially. +I was enthused when I found that the Constitution of USSR, +and that of People's China give to unwed mothers the same status +as other mothers. + +In 1970 and again in 1974, when I visited USA and Europe, I was +glad to find that there were institutions to take care of unwed mothers. +As the institution of family itself is cracking in Europe and USA +and as marital alliance is going out of fashion, the way of +becoming a mother does not matter much there. Yet, the old custom +of disrespecting unwed mother has not yet been deliberately set aside, +though the sting is lost. + +In 1951 my second daughter, Mythri, became an unwed mother. +As the boy was married, the question of her marriage with the boy +did not arise. As atheists, Saraswati and I wanted to face the +problem openly. Dr. Achamamba came out with her full support to us. +She offered to delivery, pre and post-natal care. As I was wholly +depending on public subscription for our food and work, I needed support +in this open solution of a problem which was shrouded in secrecy so long. +I made known the fact to some of my friends by words of mouth and +by written letter. Some friends thought that my frankness was foolhardy. +A friend went to the extent of addressing some common friends condemning +the condition of my daughter and deprecating the atheist way of life, +in view of this incident. + +But openness paid me well. While a few old friends dropped out, +many more new friends came in support. Gandhi was no more by +that time. But Kishorelal Mushruwala, who wrote the introduction +to my book, An Atheist With Gandhi, appreciated my stand. + +Mythri was delivered of a daughter. She married Jonnalagadda +Ramalingayya and has three more children. She acquired academic +qualifications and plans to start a home for women where problems +can be solved openly raising the dignity of women to be equal to men. +Sex should not make a difference in social status as racial traits +ought not to. + +The second event that raised a furor of protest was openly eating +Beef and Pork. Among Christians no meat is a taboo. But pork-eating +is forbidden for Muslims and beef is for Hindus religiously. +To disown religious sentiments into which many people are born, +we thought everyone ought to eat tiny bits of beef and pork +together openly. Saraswati and I and our children are normally vegetarians. +As diet habits are associated with caste and religious distinctions in India, +we have no objection to eat a bit of any meat openly. At Delhi, +Saraswati and I had eaten beef with Rahamtulla Khan as mentioned before. +Our atheist friends liked the program and so we proposed the function +of eating tiny bits of beef and pork openly with bread or rice +from 4 to 5 p.m. on Indian Independence Day August 15, 1972 at +Atheist Center, Patamata. There were no special invitations, +but anybody was welcome to witness or to participate in the function. + +The announcement of the function looked outrageous to Hindu and +Muslim beliefs. But beef and pork eating clears the mind of +religious bias and breeds human outlook. Without understanding +the objective of the function, Sankaracharya of Puri, a high +priest of Hindus, who was then camping at Hyderabad, issued a +statement protesting against the function. I replied that I was +not a Hindu but a human, and so his protest was misdirected. +I invited him to the function, if he liked to transcend a +denominational belief and grow human. Sankaracharya, with +vested interests in Hindu sectarianism, rallied a protest with +hundreds of religious people. It became a law and order problem. +Police force was called into action. Amidst wide protest, 136 +marched in a queue, noted down their names and addresses and +participated in the function of Beef and Pork eating that day +according to the schedule. + +To us beef and pork eating looked a simple social obligation that +sheds sectarian associations, but to others it looked an outrage +against religious practices. + +The function was repeated by the Atheist Association at +Visakhapatnam and at Vellore by Senthamizhko. At Coimbatore +R. Kasturi arranged a beef and pork lunch on a wide scale to more +than 800 guests. Periayar E. V. Ramaswami participated in the +function which was inaugurated by Saraswati. E. V. R. was a +fighter all through his public life against religious belief and +caste distinctions. His presence at that ripe old age of 95, +lent special significance to the function at Coimbatore. + +A braham who organized the function at Madras limited the number +of guests to 13 to break the Christian superstition in that number. +C. S. Murthy, K. Rangasai and Janardhanam and Paul were among +the participants that day. + +At Suryapet Kana organized the function in the face of Hindu +protest and at Gudivada too the function was well attended by men +and women. Manorama, the widow of Sobhanarao, my early atheist +associate and Sanskrit scholar, took particular care to +participate in the function. The details of the several +functions were published in the columns of The Atheist. + +The incidents with unmarried mothers and with beef and pork +eating were events of special significance for the Atheist movement, +as they shook religious faith and custom at the roots. No wonder, +they attracted attention. From atheist point of view they are +ordinary disciplines of social conduct, but from the point of view +of old values of custom and faith they looked outrageous. +In course of time, the objectives will be understood and the +prejudices will wear off. + + + + +Chapter XVII. Spread of Atheism + + +Atheism is not new. For a long time it was used as a term of abuse. +Nevertheless, every prophet was persecuted by his contemporaries +for blasphemy, apostasy or heresy, if not altogether for atheism. +Obviously, atheism contains the element of progress and basic change. +Therefore, in the last century Charles Bradlaugh of England +projected the idea of atheism more openly and Robert Ingersoll +of U.S.A. called himself an agnostic but spread atheistic ideas +through speeches and writings. In India, Periyar E.V. Ramaswami +and his followers called themselves atheists, though they did not +use the words as such on platforms. They preferred to negotiate +in the name of Rationalism. ln fact, many people with atheistic leanings +use the terms rationalism, humanism, or free thought instead. +Our speciality consisted in using the term atheism openly and in +giving it a positive content and in evolving social and economic +and specially political programs of action for atheism. + +Since 1949, our periodicals, Sangham, Arthik Samata in Telugu, +Insaan in Hindi and The Atheist in English have served to spread +and explain the ideology and programs of atheistic thought and action. +So several friends and sympathizers, directly or indirectly, +adopted atheist ways. Kana at Suryapet and Nara at Nuzvid +and Venugopal at Repalle started atheist centers, and took up +the programs of the atheist center at Patamata, including its +political aspect. But others adopted the social and cultural +programs and some called themselves non-political. + +The Atheist Society Or India which Jayagopal, the editor of the +English Journal, The Age of Atheism, started independently at +Visakhapatnam conducted the Beef and Pork function, and burned +religious scriptures openly. He takes a variety of bold programs +with rationalist thought but they call their center non-political. + +Similarly, J. Veeraswamy and a band of workers at Hyderabad in particular, +and all over Andhra Pradesh in general, take up the program +of eradicating caste-differences. They actively encourage +inter caste marriages and help change of names from conventional religious +and caste association to nonconformist forms. Kana and Nara are +examples of nonconformism. A legislator with the name M. V. Subbareddi, +reddi being the application of a caste, changed his name to Gamago. +Yet the Caste Eradication Association calls itself non-political, +and turns out excellent work in its own sphere. + +Vidya and Seshagirirao who are members of the Congress party, +consistently discard flower garlands and use fruits for reception +in sympathy with the direct action program of replacing ornamental +flower plants with edibles. M. V. Krishnarao, a minister of +Andhra Pradesh also rejects flower garlands and receives only +fruits instead. + +Vinoba Bhave, who started the Bhoodan movement and gave shape and +substance to the Sarvodaya movement, toured Andhra Pradesh in 1955. +My son, Lavanam, interpreted his Hindi speeches sentence by sentence +into Telugu throughout the seven months of the tour. I was one +of the organizers of the tour program. Vinoba regularly conducts +prayers both in the morning and in the evening. He continued +the practice at the meetings in the tour also. But in deference +to the atheist ideology of Lavanam and myself, Vinoba kindly +substituted the regular verses of prayer with five minutes of silence. +He said that during those five minutes the audience, according to +their wish, could severally meditate on god or think of social values +of life like truthfulness, compassion and love. It was an accommodation +of atheists in a common audience with respect to each others views. +It was an act of recognition of the atheistic ideology. Vinoba visited +the Atheist Center at Patamata, when he visited Vijayawada during +the tour in 1955. + +Esteem for any ideology comes in the long run, not by its +theoretical perfections but by the lovable conduct of its votaries. +It is more so in the case of atheism, which has been a term of +contempt so long. The contempt is the result of the propaganda of +interests vested in exploitation of weaker sections. Yet, bias against +it is a fact which atheists cannot ignore to take notice of. +Gandhi warned me against this handicap and advised me to take +another name in place of atheism. But when we chose to take +the label of atheism, it is incumbent on atheists to be doubly wary +of their own conduct. A notable achievement in this direction +goes to the credit of Madhu. He is a young man who has taken to atheism. +He acquitted himself so well in social relations, that his villagers +chose him to be the president of the village committee, against the +rich and powerful man of the place who held the post for two terms already. +The machinations of the rich man could not unseat Madhu by virtue +of his sheer spotless character. + +Lavanam and Mrs. Lavanam successfully conduct an experiment in +reclaiming criminals at Stuartpuram (Gauntur District) and they +withstand the threats of vested interests in the crimes, on account +of their straight forwardness. J. Vengala Rao, Chief Minister +of Andhra Pradesh, has extended his moral support to it. + +The work at the atheist center gained publicity abroad by the +visits of foreign visitors to atheist center. I was invited to +the Congress of the International Humanist and Ethical Union at +Boston, U.S.A. in 1970 and for the next Congress at Amsterdam in 1974. +In that context I had the opportunity to tour Europe, America, +Australia and other countries in Asia. At that time I visited +Madalyn Murray O'Hair at Austin, Texas. She is well known +for her successful struggle to end prayer and the Bible reading +in Public Schools. With the slogan of "Tax the Church", +she started the Society of Separationists (SOS). As a result of +exchange of views between us in 1970 she started the American +Atheist Center at Texas. + +Likewise, when I visited Adelaide, Laurence Bullock was the Secretary +of the Rationalist Association of South Australia. The Association +considered it appropriate to change the name of their Association +to the Atheist Society of Australia. Thus, rationalist and humanist +societies are preferring the name of atheism, which they deem +more appropriate to describe their attitude. + +Whatever be the name, the International Humanist and Ethical +Congress as well as Rationalist and Humanist Associations all +over the world gave me a free platform for talking on atheism. +Moreover, the platforms of Quaker groups everywhere, invited me +for discussions on atheism. Thus atheism is no longer a +condemned label. The conduct of atheists has salvaged it from +the depths of slander. The name is getting the respect that is +its own and has been denied to it so long. + +We conducted the Atheist Meet in 1970 at Patamata and the World Atheist +Meet there again in 1972. Madalyn Murray O'Hair was to preside over it, +but she could not go to India on account of visa trouble. At the World +Atheist Meet, R. Kasturi of Coimbatore released my book Positive Atheism. +Margarat Reish and Edwin Lindseen were the two delegates from USA to +the World Atheist Meet. Details of the report about the World Atheist +Meet were published in The Atheist. + + + + +Chapter XVIII. Atheist Centers + + + +When Saraswati and I went to Gandhi in 1944, we had eight children. +Now we have nine and nineteen grand children, including three great +grand children. Gandhi was surprised how we managed that big family +without private property. He had not seen any of the kind so far. +The speciality, if any, is due to our atheistic outlook. + +Atheism understands that all distinctions between one person and +another are of our own making. Distinctions of caste, religion and +culture exist so long as we accept them. We can change them +whenever we desire. One belongs to a caste because he accepts +and declares it. There are cases where at strange place +persons have taken the label of the caste which is convenient there. +National differences change with frontiers. Classes go when +property relations are changed. Even racial traits blur with +blood mixture. When they exist, they are not related to attainment +of talent or exercise of intelligence. Family relationship +also is one of the kind. + +The institution of family grows out of the custom of marriage in +man woman relationship. If there is promiscuity, clans and +groups or wider human societies may form. But relationships like +brother sister, father mother, son-daughter, aunt-uncle, +husband-wife will disappear. All people move as friends. + +Whether the institutions of marriage and family will ever go out of +use is a hypothetical question. Care of children, affectionate attention +and emotional satisfaction of a sense of belonging are advantages +and they outweigh the snobbery of paternalism and predisposition +of kinship which accompany family ties. Guarantee of social security +by the government and, especially, socialization of property +loosened family loyalties to a large extent. Yet, family remained +for its own reasons. Now, the question before the atheists +is not whether family should remain or go, but whether family +relationships should be safer than friendly relationships? +Are not family relationships as artificial as religious brotherhood, +national fellowship, cultural bond, racial alliance or class camaraderie, +deserving no special consideration? + +To the atheist mind all persons seemed the same without +difference between members of the family and friends of atheism. +Hence, at the atheist centers, we all moved equal. The members +of the family are dear to us not by sanguinity but by their +devotion to and participation in atheist programs. The success +of the conversion of members of family into workers of atheism is +seen by the generous help we received from the public for the +upkeep of atheist centers. They little complain of my large family. +On the contrary, they complimented me on having a good band +of workers in my family. In this context I should make special mention +of S. N. Agarwal and Bjorn Merker. + +S. N. Agarwal was the Managing Director of Dholpur Glass Works. +He visited our center at Patamata and was pleased with the way my +daughter Mythri and my daughter-in-law Hemalata were running the +school for children, Vasavya Vidyalaya, with the assistance of +Shri Rajyam Patnaik. He was impressed with the team spirit of +the workers and attachment of the students to the teachers alike. +He donated the glassware from his factory sufficient both to +equip a laboratory to teach the children and to conduct periodical +science exhibitions, especially to explain superstitions +scientifically and to dispel faith in them. One exhibition +was opened by Agarwal himself and another by Dr. C. D. Deshmukh +and Durgabai Deshmukh. Balchand Mohta of Calcutta helped us +with donation of money and material. + +Bjorn Merker is a boy from Sweden who came to India to do +alternative civil service to compulsory military training in Sweden. +He was at the Atheist Center for seven months. He identified +himself so intimately with the programs of the Center that he +recommended atheist center to his parents for help. Dr. Helmot +and Mrs. Ulla Merker kindly sent us contributions every month +out of their salaries and helped us partly to maintain the center +and mostly to carry on the work in slums. They were my standing hosts +in Sweden when I visited Europe in 1970 and again in 1974. +Dr. Marla and Irma were similarly helpful to us in West Germany. + +In India where there is no social security guaranteed by the government, +the entire responsibility of bringing up children rests upon the parents. +Incidentally, the children imbibe the outlook of the parents. +So it was the case with my children too. But, if they disagreed +with the ideas of the childhood, they could leave the home and +stand on their feet. As all my children received good education +with the help of the public, any of them could leave atheist centers +and live their own way. In fact, my son in law, Ramalingaiah left +the Atheist Center at Patamata, when he did not like our Partylessness. +He lives by his homeopathic medical practice and other means. +So far none of my children have chosen to leave the Atheist Center. +They live in the Center as atheist workers. + +While a blood relative like Ramalingayya left Atheist Center, +we continue to enjoy the cooperation and identification of workers +like Kana, Ramaswamy, Chellayya, Madhu, Rangarao, Nagayya, Gopalaswamy, +B. Venugopal and several others at atheist centers at Mudunur, Patamata, +Suryapet, Pedanemali, Repalle and Nuzvid. Bhanu is Madhu's brother. +But he is devoted to Atheist Center at Pedanemali more as an +atheist worker than as the brother of Madhu, who is the person +in charge of the center. + +Atheist centers with the ideology of equality of all humans work +in the midst of people who are accustomed to sectarian customs. +As in the case of every center with a progressive ideology those +around us subconsciously try to exploit us, though they consciously +help us too sometimes. Our ideological impact on them and +their conventional exploitation of us are mutual. The final result +every time depends on the strength and weakness of each side. + +In the case of simple families, leadership of an ideology often +goes with relationship as with inheritance of private property +and skill of profession. But in atheism, a worker is one who works, +irrespective of the family relationship. The test of work is the +sacrifice of personal tastes and comforts for the promotion +of social welfare. Social value of the work takes precedence +over personal talent and training. + + + + +Chapter XIX. Future of Atheism + + + +As atheists assert the freedom of the individual, they are more +concerned with present programs for plans into the future more +than with experiences of the past. What is good in the past +readily comes into our present practice. Only that which is +unsuitable or impracticable to present needs is left out. +Moreover, too much thought over the past inhibits initiative and +is not educative to progress of civilization. Situations change +from time to time and call for fresh thought, plan and action. +Religious scriptures do the greatest harm in this context because +they claim infallibility and unswerving loyalty. They stem +progress by smothering initiative and free thought. Any dogma, +spiritualist or scientific, is equally inimical to progress. +Therefore, those whom succeeding generations deem as prophets of +eras of progress, were heretics of their own ages. They revised +old scriptures and scrapped some of them. Revolutions demolish +old ways and start afresh with new plans every time. In this way, +atheism is the source of all innovation and progress. Old civilizations +like those of Asia and Africa, are so much rooted in the past +that they have become today a lumber of old and new mixed +in disgusting disorder. They need atheism more urgently than other +countries where a series of religious, cultural, materialist and +industrial revolutions have broken away people from the old repeatedly, +and have made them more progressive than people of the ancient civilizations. + +Though ancient civilizations need atheism more than modern ones, +there is a general need of atheism for one important reason. +The so-called developed nations indeed have achieved considerable +progress technologically on account of their materialistic and +scientific outlook. It is creditable so far. But the same developed +nations have become exploiters of the weak people and have become +war-mongers all over the globe since they lack social outlook. +Scientific skill in the hands of developed nations has come to +mean the greatest threat to life. Scientific progress is used +for the manufacture of lethal weapons, subtle and secret, +with immense potentialities, allowing neither privacy nor safety; +for anyone, including the one who wields the weapon. Suicide squads +have come into vogue in military operations. + +Atheism is scientific. But its science is subject to social +obligations to fellow-humans. It changes the emphasis from simple +science to social needs. If ancient civilizations are superstitious, +modern civilizations are anti-social. Atheism has to set right +the wrong on both sides to make them march together towards +one-humanity pulling down the artificial barriers of caste and religion, +nation and race, class and culture. + +The ideal of one humanity is shared by the rationalists and +humanists also. But they have not developed the machinery for +its realization since they have taken a non-political stance. +Politics is the dominating power in the modern age. To ignore it +is to fear to strike. Gandhi's Constructive Program also was +non-poliltical. His greatest achievement consisted in winning +independence for India through political action by a non-violent method. +Constructive work was an extreme form of non-violence, too good +to be real. Under the guidance of Vinoba Bhave, the constructive work +was given another vigorous trial under the name of Sarvodaya. +The spectacular achievements at the start withered out in course of time, +not because it lacked earnestness but because it was non political. +After fifteen years of diligent effort, Jayaprakash Narayan +found that Sarvodaya should take to political programs also. +A big mass awakening; followed Narayan's reentry into active politics. + +Democracy has a charm in the modern age. But party system is its +unworthy temptation. It has discredited Democracy. Frenzied zeal +for one's own party and, then, indecent lust for the leadership +of the party are at the base of the Watergate scandal and of the +dictatorship in Bangla Desh and of the declaration of Emergency in India. +Everything is in the name of democracy, but the content is +partisan attitude, both for those in power and for those in opposition. +Further, opposition is reduced to a mockery in party-democracy. +Unhealthy rivalry as fanatical as that between blind religious faiths +rises from party-attitudes. On account of the evils of the party-system, +honest politicians and the mass of people are not only losing +love for democracy but turning their interests away from politics. +The growth of non-political attitudes is the result of party politics +in democracy. + +Non-politics is ineffective. Therefore, atheists as realists, +rid democracy of parties and take to partyless democracy +which is real and effective democracy. + +The future of atheism consists in establishing partyless democracy +and achieving one equal humanity through it. National and racial +differences vanish as real democracies federate at first for +commonweal and then move towards one-humanity and one-world. +The United Nations Organization will have to convert itself into +United People's Organization for the purpose. Atheist awakening +rouses people all over the world into the feeling of mastership +over their institutions and systems of life. The spread of +the atheist outlook is hope of humanity to turn from war to peace, +from slavery to freedom, from superstition to a sense of reality, +from conflict to cooperation. + + + + +The End + + +Gora suffered an attack of cerebral hemorrhage and died at once +while addressing a public meeting on "Social Change in Rural India", +held at Vijayawada on the evening of Saturday, July 26, 1975. + +Gora's death stunned every one as it was so sudden and shocking. +Messages of condolence and sympathy poured in from all corners +of the globe. + +Gora lived and died an atheist. He lives in all those who stand +for reason, truth love and tolerance and raise their voice +against superstition, blind dogma, racial discrimination and +social and economic inequalities. His work will be carried +forward unhesitatingly. + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg etext of "We Become Atheists" by Gora. + + + diff --git a/religious documents/atheism.txt b/religious documents/atheism.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa41f1a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/atheism.txt @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ + ATHEISM + + Simply a position that "he" does not exist. + + "The prefix "a" means "without", so the term "a-theism" literally means +"without theism", or without belief in a god or gods. ATHEISM, THEREFORE, IS +THE ABSENCE OF THEISTIC BELIEF. ... Atheism, in its basic form, is not a belief +: it is the absence of belief. An atheist is not primarily a person who +BELIEVES that a god does NOT exist, rather, he does NOT BELIEVE in the +existence of a god. + + There are many reasons why one may not believe in he existence of a god +: one may have never encounterted the concept of a god before, or one may +consider the idea of a supernatural being to be absurd, or one may think that +there is no evidence to support the belief in a god. But regardless of the +reason, if one does not believe in the existence of a god, one is an atheist, +i.e., one is without theistic belief. + + But what of agnosticism? Apparently the term was coined by Thomas +Huxley (Darwin's spokesman against the Archbiship Samual Wilberforce) in 1869. +Huxley was unsure of his view. Essentially he maintained that the supernatural +was beyond the comprehension of humans even if a god did exist. The term came +from Gnostics, an early religious sect who claimed knowledge of the +super-natural. Thus, to him, the prefix "a" to Gnostics was appropriate, +hence agnostic (as opposed to the "isms" of the other two). + + There are two types of agnostics --theistic and atheistic. If you feel +that you cannot believe in, or are unsure of your belief in, a god because +there is no proof either way, you are not an agnostic, you are an atheist. If +you feel you don't believe there is a god because if it existed it would be +intrinsic-ally unknowable, then you are an atheistic agnostic. If you believe +there is a god but it is intrinsically unknowable then you are a theistic +agnostic. This was the initial intent of the term "agnostic" by its originator +Thomas Huxley. + + There are two types of atheism --explicit and implicit. An explicit +atheist rejects the notion put to him that there is a god. It requires a +conscious effort to be an explicit atheist. Implicit atheism is quite +different. We are all born implicit atheists, ALL OF US!, for without ever +being told there is a god, you have no prior knowledge of one. You could go +your whole life never been told a religious position, and remain an implicit +atheist (this is your position if you are unsure due to lack of evidence.). + + It is commonly claimed that there is just as much responsibility for +the atheist to defeat the theist's view as a theist is to support his view. +Thus we hear theists say to atheists "prove God does not exist!" Fortunately, +atheists are not required to prove god does not exist, it is up to the theists +to prove he does. The reason for this is simple. Science does not work by +disproving things proposed to it. If true, then science would never get +anywhere as it runs around trying to disprove things which do not exist. It is +up to the person positing the positive (ie god DOES exist) to provide the +proof, not the person in the negative (ie god DOES NOT exist) position. + + Here is an example of what I mean. Say, for this discussion, I believe +there are two moons orbiting the earth. I would then be called a "duallunist". +Since everyone else in the world does not accept this to be true, they are all +"a-duallunists". They have not invented that position of an aduallunist, I +created it when I became a duallunist. Also, it is not up to the aduallunists +to disprove me, it is my responsibility to prove to them there are two moons. +So until the theists give evidence for their god, atheists are under absolutely +no obligation to disprove it, under the scientific method (which is the only +method one would have to use to prove god exists). When the theists do propose +some "evidence" for their god, then the atheists can sit down and examine the +"evidence" to see if it is viable. So far it all has not. + + There are several "evidences" which the theists have proposed. The most +basic of all is the argument from design. The theists claim that the universe +is far more complex that a watch, and if you were to find a watch in the desert +you must conclude that there was a watch maker. Thus, the theists claim, there +must be a grand Designer for the universe. + + There are many flaws with this type of argument, but the most important +problem is that the theists must prove that the universe was designed in the +first place. There is no evidence that the universe was designed, but instead +it shows all the evidence that it simply abides by physical laws. + + In his book, Smith shows three reasons why the design argument is +flawed. + +1) the argument from design implys a teleological position. That is, +there is some end or goal for the universe. There is a goal, or intent for a +watch, but the universe shows no signs of going specifically anywhere. + +2) the anological argument, where the theists compare the universe to human +artifacts, fails because + a) there is no indication of one "designer", but, if anything, actually + many "designers". + b) undesirable attributes of the universe, such as floods, earthquakes, + parasitism, would imply a rather devious designer. + c) the theist must demonsrate that "purpose", such as the purpose of a + watch, of the universe exists, which he cannot. + +3) this is life itself. That there is no way that life could have arisen by +"blind chance", it must have been placed here. This is just a special form +of 2), and it can be shown that life shows no "purpose", no "design" (other +than what natural selection imposes). This is so well exposed as false in +Richard Dawkin's book THE BLIND WATCHMAKER. + + Smith summerizes this whole argument with "one must first know that a +god exists before one can say that nature exibits design." And since there +is no proof of a god in the first place the design argument is fallicious. + + Other "evidence" for a god comes from the anthropomorphic principle, or +the argument from authority. The appeal to "I know He (god) exists because I +have felt Him." is an argument from authority. It carries no value as +evidence because it is unverifiable by all parties. + + In conclusion, it is not my intent to disuade anyone from believing in +their god. I certianly do not want to become the anti-theist that atheism is +erroneously labled. My intent was to convince all parties that atheism is a +non-existent position, created (pun intended) by the theists when they propose +there is a god. + + As an end note, the title of Smith's book, ATHEISM: THE CASE AGAINST +GOD, seems to indiate that it is attacking the belief in a god. It does indeed +do this, and very well, from logic alone. It is not attacking the belief in +order to support atheism. Atheism, cannot be supported because it is the +absence of belief. However, the attacks on the theistic belief is done from +the perspective of healthy skepticism and direct challenge. If your belief in +a god cannot stand up to scrutiny, if you cannot meet the challenge, then +maybe it is a weak belief in the first place. The book should be read by +atheists and theists alike. + + I have many more points as to why I reject the theistic belief, and +especially Christianity and the Bible, beacause it strips of its followers all +self esteem, you Sinners you! for example; it keeps its followers in line by +fear and greed (the reward of hell and heaven); it is contradictory, +especially the Bible; it promotes racism (remember slavery was supported +because Christians claimed the blacks were not human); it is anti-women, +anti-child; to name a few. If there is a god, that is NOT how it would +behave. But I will leave those objections for another essay. + + The theist is on the defense; he can destroy atheism only by defending +his belief in a god. If his defence fails, theism fails --and atheism emerges +as the only rational alternative. + + END + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/atlanta.txt b/religious documents/atlanta.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3833786 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/atlanta.txt @@ -0,0 +1,707 @@ +This is 1 section from EIR's sepcial report on Satanism. This report can +be obtained for $100 from EIR in Washington, DC. For further information +call (202)457-8840. + +IX. Child murder in Atlanta + + In 1978, Larry Flynt was prosecuted in the State of Georgia for violation +of the pornography laws; it is here that he was shot, receiving a crippling +injury which has confined him to a wheelchair. Certainly, his enemies were not +the Satanists: to the contrary, Satanism, drugs, pornography flourished in this +evil city, and do so to this day. Atlanta is sometimes called a crime capital +of America. + According to drug enforcement experts, Atlanta became an important center +for narcotics distribution with the upgrading and expansion of South American +and Caribbean drug trafficking into Miami. The pattern is an expansion to +routes into Georgia and Houston, Tex. Conjointly with this, Atlanta became more +important as a center for drug cartel money-laundering operations. + It is certainly a regional capital for an international Satanic network. +We shall show that the coverup which occurred at the time of the Atlanta Child +Murders, has allowed Satanism to flourish there virtually unchecked. + + - The Atlanta Child Murders - + From July of 1979 to May of 1981, 29 black adolescent and young adult +males were murdered in Atlanta, Ga. The circumstances of their death clearly +indicated a ritual element, and extensive media play guaranteed an +international spotlight. At the time, one credible motive for the murders +appeared to be political: to foment racial tensions. The Satanic element +gradually unfolded. + The officially recognized victims were mainly adolescent black males, who +were known to be involved in drug running and in male prostitution. There is +every indication that pornographic photographs, and perhaps videos as well, +were being produced. One possibility is that the young men and women were +murdered during the course of the production of ``snuff'' films; another is +that the deaths were part of some sacrificial ritual. Other motives suggested +for the crimes included retribution for violations of the criminals' own +internal code (for example, that the young people held back drug profits). + There is a question whether the list of 29 child-murder victims is +meaningful, since other bodies, both white and black, male and female, were +found during the same time period; and deaths occurred fitting the pattern of +the Atlanta Child Murders after the imprisonment of Wayne Williams, the man +convicted for the crimes. Sixty-three other people were murdered in Atlanta +between the years 1979 and 1982. Twenty-five of these occurred after the arrest +of Williams, the supposed lone assassin. In 1979, Atlanta was known as the +murder capital of the U.S., with 231 homicides, according to FBI statistics. + The children were known to frequent the house of a black man named Tom +Terrell, known to them as Uncle Tom. Here, they were paid $10 or $15 to perform +oral sexual acts. The children were also sodomized. They were given marijuana +and some other form of narcotic which was daubed on their faces. The existence +of Uncle Tom's house never came out in the trial of Williams, despite the +availability of eyewitness testimony. + There was definite evidence that some of the dead children had spent time +with their captors, perhaps days, before they were killed. They were wearing +clothing different from that in which they were captured, and the remains of +food taken from their stomachs showed that they had eaten meals after the time +they were last seen by friends and family. + The children were apparently smothered to death--one possibility is that +they were smothered at the moment of orgasm, while performing oral sex. Sexual +organs were missing on many of the remains, which had been left to moulder +outdoors. The location where one boy's body was found was the same place where, +some years earlier, homosexuals had been shot in a gang war over control of the +homosexual entertainment industry. Later, there was also a spate of +firebombings of homosexual and sexually oriented entertainment spots in +Atlanta. + The murders took place against a backdrop of racial-political tension in +the city. When Maynard Jackson became mayor of Atlanta in 1973, he reorganized +the heretofore lily-white police force. This created dissension, which was +later reflected in the politics of the investigation around the murders. + Jackson hired Reginald Eaves to run the Police Department, but he was +ultimately forced to resign after charges of corruption charges were brought +against him, and Lee P. Brown, who subsequently relocated in Houston (and now +New York), took over the job. Brown had received a PhD in police +administration, and had served in Portland, Ore. and San Jose, Calif. before +coming to Atlanta. + Brown was in charge at the time of the murders. Many people felt that the +way that he handled the investigations was so incompetent as to suggest either +corruption on his part--involvement in the homosexual circles who came under +suspicion--and/or blackmail. Maynard Jackson also came in for criticism. + The situation surrounding the investigation of the killings was so bad, +that some of the parents of missing children expressed doubt that the remains +which were found were actually those of their own children. They found things +such as discrepancies in dental work between the remains and their own +children's dental records. In one instance, it is reported that the police +themselves tossed a coin in order to decide to which of two missing boys, the +body before them belonged. In other cases, there were reports of sightings in +other cities, of boys supposedly dead. + One of the boys was found with a stab wound in the stomach, surrounded by +five ceremonial cuts, according to an acknowledgement by a medical examiner, +subsequent to the Wayne Williams trial. (No Satanic connections were brought +out by the Williams defense.) Several parents reported to investigators that +when they saw their children's bodies they had crosses carved on their +foreheads or chests. Newspapers reported three such instances at the time. + + - The occult connection - + Atlanta has long been an occult center. Not only had the +Process-Foundation Faith cult opened a chapter there, but there was a +home-grown Wicca network run by a witch who called herself Lady Santana, and +one Lord Merlin. Lady Santana was also known as Samantha Lerman. + Lady Santana's Ravenwood Church of Wicca was granted tax exempt status in +the State of Georgia. There is also another witchcraft coven operating openly +there, known as The Avalon Center. It is run by a woman styling herself as Lady +Galadriel, High Priestess of the Grove of the Unicorn. The Atlanta Wicca Church +changed its name to the Church of the Old Religion in 1979, following the +murder of a 15-year-old girl. + Jolene Tina Simon was killed at Ravenwood House during an open house +ritual. She was killed shortly before May 29, 1979, and a man named David Reese +Williams, a 23-year-old unemployed paramedic, was subsequently indicted by an +Atlanta grand jury for manslaughter. According to accounts, Williams coolly +placed a gun to Simon's head and pulled the trigger, when she told him, ``Kill +me!'' Williams claims not to remember the incident, and Wicca members who were +present testified that the murder was accidental. A member of the Wicca Church +from Ohio, who called herself Lady Circe, was also reported to be present in +Atlanta during the time of the Child Murders. + An independent investigative team in Atlanta, led by Dr. Sondra O'Neill +(who was then teaching literature at Emory College in Atlanta), and including +Albert Joiner and the sometime presence of Roy Innis, head of the Congress of +Racial Equality (CORE), plus investigative journalist Ira Liebowitz, and a +former Atlanta chief of police, developed many leads indicating a Satanic +aspect to the crimes. (These individuals collaborated with each other on an +informal basis but were by no means always in agreement.) Former Atlanta police +officer Chuck Dettlinger published a book on the murders, {The List,} +which is of interest because it documents a consistent record of police failure +to follow up investigative leads. + Dr. O'Neill was brought into the case by James Baldwin, who had been +commissioned by {Playboy} magazine to write an article on the murders. +She was already collaborating with the famous author on his biography. They +hired two graduate students from the University of Pennsylvania to assist them. +Later a New York investigator, Galen Kelly, was brought on the scene by Roy +Innis. Kelly (who is prominent in Anti-Defamation League circles, and was +indicted in New York City for kidnaping a member of a New Jersey cult, +purportedly to deprogram the individual) systematically impeded O'Neill's +investigations. Kelly has in the past worked closely with Rabbi Maurice Davis, +as part of a purported anti-cult network; Davis, however, is the individual who +originally helped sponsor Jim Jones of Jonestown fame. + Because of Baldwin's prominence, many people from the local community came +forward privately with information. One of these informants was subsequently +gunned down by police on the flimsy pretext that he showed resistance to arrest +when they sought to enter his house. Others were threatened. The major +informant was one Shirley McGill (who subsequently came under the control of +Innis and Kelly). McGill admitted to having been employed as a bookkeeper by a +drug-trafficking operation that was based in Florida. + In the summer of 1977 she became involved with Parnell Traham, who was +working as a cab driver in the Miami area. He practiced voodoo. He had served +in the Vietnam War, and it was apparently in Vietnam that he became involved in +the drug traffic. The modus operandi of the operation was to purchase used cars +in Miami, which were then loaded with drugs and transported by rural routes to +Atlanta and to Houston. + McGill was recruited by Traham to serve as a bookkeeper for his operation, +and she was sent to Atlanta. O'Neill described the drug operation as operating +in a cell formation, where individuals from one cell did not know those in +other cells. McGill was introduced into an inner circle, who controlled the +various cells. These people were also Satanists. + In March of 1980, she was invited to a ceremonial ground in Atlanta. She +was instructed to wear a long dress, with a scarf covering her head, but not to +wear undergarments. An initiation ceremony took place, in which dope was smoked +and there was some sexual activity. According to her account, McGill sought to +keep her distance from the cult activities. When she did attend ritual +ceremonies, she would volunteer to act as a guard on the perimeter of the area. + While the members of the drug network with which she was involved were +black, the high priest during the occult ceremonies was a white man, and white +and black would participate in the rituals. The high priest would appear naked, +wearing goat horns on his head, and would seem to appear from a cloud of smoke. +A ring of candles would create a kind of altar, and these were placed +surrounding the statute of a short, fat, seated man. The ceremonies which she +witnessed included animal and human sacrifice, which included slitting the +victim's throat and then drinking his or her blood from a chalice. The sexual +orgy which would follow, included having sexual relations with animals. After +this, people would bathe in a body of water adjacent to the ceremonial grounds. + McGill identified several outdoor sites where rituals were held. Funeral +homes were frequently used to dispose of bodies, which were placed in the +closed coffins of people who were being buried from the funeral home. McGill +also pointed out places from which the drug operations were run. One was a +machine shop, another a barn or warehouse, and there was also a house. + McGill related three incidents which occurred apart from these ceremonies, +one of them in a barn. A black man dragged what appeared to be a dead black +child into the barn by a rope tied around the child's neck. Various individuals +tried to get McGill to pull the rope but she refused. The child's body was then +placed in the trunk of a car. On another occasion, McGill was working in the +machine shop, when two men brought in a young black child who was bound. The +boy knew McGill and appealed to her for help. He told her that he would be +killed because he had withheld money from the sale of drugs. Later she +witnessed his murder, when a plastic bag was placed over his head. On another +occasion she saw on the floor of the barn a naked child, who appeared to be +dead. + According to McGill, a young woman named JoAnn was also murdered at the +same time. On some occasions McGill intimated that she had been involved with +this woman in scamming the drug overlords, and so she feared for her own life, +and that was the reason that she had broken with the cult and sought out Dr. +O'Neill and Roy Innis. At other times, she mentioned fears for the safety of +her son, and she also suspected that she might be chosen as a sacrificial +victim in cult ceremonies. + McGill reported seeing one of the purported victims of the Atlanta Child +Murders alive. The FBI also interviewed people who claimed to have seen this +particular boy alive as late as December of 1981. + Witnesses near the location of the abduction of one child on the official +victim list, identified Parnell Traham as the driver of the car used in the +abduction. In none of the abductions of the children, is there any indication +that they resisted capture. This leads to the hypothesis that they knew their +captors--in some instances, these may even have been family members, or +respected members of the community. It is not credible that all of the murdered +children had been holding back money, since in that event some would have +resisted capture; furthermore, it should not have taken almost 30 murders to +convince the young people, most of whom knew each other, of the dangers of +scamming. + + - Other witnesses - + Over the four-year period in which Dr. O'Neill conducted her on-site +investigations, eight witnesses surfaced to describe what had occurred. They +located three main sites, one in Cobb County. They described the sacrifice of +hundreds of victims, not merely the children identified in the Child Murder +cases. One witness was a black magic preacher who operated from the basement of +his own father's church. In all, four different witchcraft covens were +identified. These apparently shared two sites, which were identified by +witnesses. Periodically, they would come together for ceremonials. + The sites were near bodies of water, and they would made of boulders +placed in semi-circular configurations. Old Indian burial sites were preferred, +and trees played a part in the ceremonies. + Circumstantial evidence suggests Process-Foundation involvement. Hairs of +German shepherd dogs were found in some of the remains of child victims. +Severed heads of dogs were also found in the vicinity of ritual sites. A +volunteer named Don Laken, formerly from Pennsylvania, was active in +``assisting'' the police. He was known as the ``dog man'' because he ran a +kennel where he trained a large number of attack dogs, mainly 90 German +shepherds. Laken admitted to a member of Wayne Williams's defense team--which +he claimed to be aiding--that he himself practiced Satanism. He was seen +wearing gold jewelry, all symbolizing German shepherds, including a large +shepherd's-head pendant which he wore around his neck. Laken was particularly +active with the numbers of so-called psychics who flooded the police with their +offers of help. It should be noted that the Foundation Faith definitely +incorporated clairvoyance in its revised rituals. + In January of 1981, an anonymous telephone call alerted searchers to the +existence of an unoccupied house in southwest Atlanta. Here neighbors had +observed an unusual pattern of activity. There was also a smell of decayed +flesh around the house. + Two Bibles were found nailed to the wall, one of these was opened to the +Book of Isaiah, Chapter 1. (This choice of passage is reminiscent of a similar +message left on the site where Roy Radin was found murdered in 1983.) In this +passage, God chastises His children for their sin and disobedience. Verse 15 +reads: ``Your hands are those of murderers; they are covered with the blood of +your innocent victims.'' Verse 16 reads, ``Oh wash yourselves! Be clean!'' +Verse 29 reads, ``You will blush to think of all those times you sacrificed to +idols in your groves of sacred oaks.'' Chapter II, Verse 6 states, ``The Lord +has rejected you because you welcome foreigners from the East who practice +magic and communicate with evil spirits.'' + + + - Wayne Williams - + Most investigators believe that Williams was involved to some extent in +the murders. Most probably he was used as a pornography photographer. He +operated as a small-scale talent scout, organized a musical group called +Gemini, and may have enticed some of the child victims. After his arrest, the +{Egyptian Book of the Dead} was found among his possessions, and he +himself owned a German shepherd named Sheba. Shirley McGill claimed to know +him. + Various spectators in the courtroom at the Williams trial appeared to be +wearing occult symbols. Information was made available to the defense team, +naming two police officers who were reportedly in Williams's Satanic group. +This did not surface at the trial; however, it coheres with McGill's assertion +that the Satanists had police protection. + The arrest of Wayne Williams came after the investigation appeared to be +dead-ended, but after then-Vice President Bush made a trip to Atlanta, +demanding that some action be taken. Williams himself was at first extremely +confident that he would be quickly released. The evidence that he was a sole +assassin is unconvincing, to say the least. No witness descriptions of alleged +abudctors fit the description of Williams. In fact, he was charged with only +two of the murders. Williams pleaded not guilty, and nothing in his behavior +evidenced a criminal disposition--other than his privately admitted membership +in the Satanic cult--nor was any motive for the crimes established. + There would appear to have been an agreement between the defense and the +prosecution, to suppress the Satanic connection. Yet, in the case of stab +wounds found on the bodies, two of the three victims so found, had wounds which +were inflicted by a left-handed person; Williams is right-handed. Williams's +own father, also believed to be a member of the cult, is left-handed. Perhaps +Williams was induced to protect him. + There were three other suspects held by the police, of whom two were +released and one was committed to a mental institution. All three were +dismissed as crazy by the police. The individuals had first contacted a +minister to whom they appealed for help in their effort to reveal what they +knew about Satanic cult activity. + + - Satanism in Atlanta today - + Atlanta is currently the home of Fay Yager, founder of the Sanctuary +Movement in the United States. Mrs. Yager has taken upon herself the painful +task of organizing resources for parents who are seeking to protect their +children from child abuse by their spouses or former spouses. She was drawn +into this activity as she herself, and then her friends, found that the courts +not only turned against them, and refused protection to their children, but +actively supported the abusers. + At first, she believed that the problem was primarily pedophiliac child +abuse; only gradually did she begin to realize that three-quarters of the +children who came to her attention for help, were in fact the victims of abuse +by practicing Satanists. + When her own daughter was 2 years old, Mrs. Yager found out that her +previous husband, Roger Jones, was abusing her. She was unable to prevail +against him in the courts, and only two years ago was she vindicated, when he +was arrested for pornography and the rape of another child. In the meantime, he +had been given custody of their daughter, who became pregnant as a +teenager--and suffered miserably. The lawyer, Robert Fournoy, who defended Mrs. +Yager's husband, became a judge, and in that capacity has continued to protect +child abusers. + Another Atlanta woman who now works with Mrs. Yager, Victoria Karp, has +four grandchildren who were given by this judge into the custody of a father +whom they reported to have been Satanically abusive to the three oldest. Mrs. +Karp's daughter has chosen to hide out, rather than to release the children. +The judge in this case was the same Robert Fournoy who had successfully +defended Fay Yager's first husband. + In the Karp case, it appears that the father was a member of a +three-generational witchcraft family, and would be taken to the home of a +great-aunt where ritual ceremonies took place. The children have drawn pictures +of people being stabbed before altars. The mother did not realize what was +happening, until she saw her daughter Alicia touching her own and her father's +genitals during a church service. Over time, the children revealed that they +had been taken to ceremonials in which young babies were murdered. The daughter +herself had been filmed performing sexual acts. + Testimony by the children was rejected by the court on the grounds that +they were too young to be credible witnesses. At the time, the girl was 5, and +the two boys 3 and 1. Alicia has said that she saw the parents of a little boy +hand him over to be sacrificed and that that had really scared her. She said +that she always believed that if something happened to her or her brothers, her +Mom would come looking for her. + This belief was shaken when her father told her that her mother knew +everything. He also told her that everyone did these things, but just did not +talk about them. Once, Alicia got really upset over something and wouldn't +cooperate, insisting that it was time to go home; but she wanted to wait for +her younger brother Gary. After a time, they brought her pieces of a little boy +with red hair and told her it was Gary. After she became hysterical, the real +Gary came out. Alicia doesn't know who the other little boy was. + Gary told about going out ``hunting'' with his dad at night. He said that +bank machines were good hunting grounds, but that sometimes, on a bad night, +they would just go out and find street people to use in the rituals. + He said that sometimes, kids were brought in by van and stored in houses +or warehouses. The 3-year-old insisted that his great-aunt had a penis. He also +said the adults would ``drown'' him by blindfolding him and shoving a ``hose'' +down his throat--lots of different people would stick hoses down his throat and +then shoot liquid out of the hoses as they pushed the hoses deeper and deeper. + All three children said that balloons were stuck inside them and blown up. +(Later, during raids conducted by police on some of the sites described by the +children, the police did find helium tanks. They said it was a common practice +used to stretch the children's vaginal and anal openings without scarring them, +in preparation for sexual abuse.) + In all, Alicia reports witnessing an incredible 42 ritualistic murders. +Some of these were of adults, some children, even some children who were turned +over by their own parents to be sacrificed. There were also instances of babies +who were bred for sacrifice right in Cobb County. She was able to tell when and +where the murders occurred. Many of the sites which she described had been +previously identified by Shirley McGill as places where she too, had witnessed +Satanic ceremonies, including human sacrifices. + (In another instances, another child whom Mrs. Yager is helping described +a site where sacrifices occurred but he could not tell where it was. Dr. +O'Neill suggested a location familiar to her from the Child Murders, and when +the boy was brought to that neighborhood he immediately located the identical +building, a funeral home.) + The Cobb County police tried to investigate the case; however, the +detective who was most active was taken off the case, and is now being sued by +the cult. The therapist who had worked with the children is also being sued. +The FBI claimed that it did not have the manpower available to investigate the +child abuse; however, it is now extremely active in trying to locate Mrs. +Karp's daughter, in order to return the children to the custody of their +father. + Fay Yager relates numbers of similar such cases throughout the country. + + - The strange case of Mark David Chapman - + On Dec. 8, 1980, rock star John Lennon was gunned down in front of the +apartment building where he lived in New York City by Mark David Chapman, a man +with no apparent motive for the murder. Chapman admitted his guilt, and was +intermittently repentant. He claimed that he had been led to commit the act +because he was possessed by the Devil. He also claimed to have found direction +in J.B. Salinger's novel, {Catcher in the Rye,} which he had in his +possession at the time of the murder. + He was not known to have been concerned with the career of John Lennon, in +the past; nor, except in the period just preceding the murder, had he been seen +with the book. The apartment building outside which Lennon died was, ironically +enough, the Dakota--the scene at which the film {Rosemary's Baby} had +been filmed. + Chapman was born in 1955, in Atlanta. During his early teens he was such a +heavy drug abuser that he was known as a ``garbage head,'' someone who would +take any drug indiscriminately. Chapman reformed in 1971, when he was ``saved'' +by a California evangelist named Arthur Blessed. He worked as a summer +counselor for Blessed's group, and he also had overseas assignments for it. In +1975, he spent a month in Beirut, and in 1978, he did a world tour, staying at +YMCA hostels. In 1975 he also worked at a camp for Vietnamese refugees, run by +the Y in Arkansas. + Chapman was apparently prevented from making a career with the YMCA, +because he was unable to get a college degree. He appears to have had some sort +of breakdown while in college. In 1989, Fenton Bresler wrote a book about +Chapman, titled {Who Killed John Lennon,} in which he strongly hints +that Chapman was a bisexual who was heavily involved in a homosexual circle in +Atlanta. One long-term friend of Chapman was a deputy sheriff in Georgia, Gene +Scott. It was Scott, in fact, who provided Chapman with the explosive, +hollow-point bullets which he used to kill Lennon. Scott and Chapman shared +quarters while Chapman was living in Atlanta. + In 1976, Chapman decided to move to Hawaii. While there, he attempted to +kill himself. He was employed at the center where he went for treatment after +this attempt, and then later worked as a security guard. It is not clear how he +might have funded his 1978 world tour, which took him to Tokyo, Seoul, Hong +Kong, Bangkok, Delhi, Israel, Geneva, London, Paris, Dublin, Atlanta, and then +back to Hawaii, where he married the travel agent who had booked it for him. +Supposedly he financed the trip with a credit-union loan. + His new wife, Gloria Abe, had been involved in occultist circles, but she +is supposed to have converted to Christianity after their romance began. At +this time, Chapman borrowed money in order to invest in art. + Chapman told the police that, had he not succeeded in shooting Lennon, +other possible targets were Johnny Carson, Walter Cronkite, Jacqueline Kennedy, +or George C. Scott. Bresler's thesis is that Chapman was brainwashed by the CIA +as part of the MK-Ultra project, because John Lennon was felt by conservatives +to be a potential new John Kennedy. + + - The Lennon connection - + To our mind, it is far more likely that Chapman's claim to being +demonically possessed indicates that he had been drawn into Satanic networks +while he was still a young man in Atlanta. The possible involvement of some +respected individuals, whether from the YMCA or the sheriff's office, in these +same networks, would agree with the pattern of coverup in the Atlanta Child +Murders, which occurred during the same period as the Lennon murder. + John Lennon and Yoko Ono themselves were deeply involved in occultism. In +May of 1979, Lennon and Yoko Ono ran a paid advertisement in New York, London, +and Tokyo: ``Sean [their son] is beautiful. The plants are growing. The cats +are purring. More and more we are starting to wish and pray.... Wishing is ... +effective. It works.... Magic is real. The secret of it is to know that it is +simple, and not to kill it with an elaborate ritual which is a sign of +insecurity. We love you.'' Lennon and Yoko contributed $100,000 at this time to +set up a non-profit organization they called the Spirit Foundation. + When Chapman shot Lennon he might have walked away, and perhaps escaped +arrest, but he stood around. This suggests a magical interest in being present +at the moment of death. + When Chapman worked as a security guard and then maintenance man, his job +site was located directly opposite the Scientology headquarters in Honolulu. It +was thought that he was responsible for making phoned death threats to the +Scientologists. He also played Beatles records loudly enough to disrupt their +activities. Three other men were also involved in harassing the Scientologists +at the time. This targeting of the Church of Scientology is suggestive of the +Process Church feud with Scientology. Charles Manson also developed enmity to +the Church, whom he believed to be persecuting him. It is the case that a +Scientologist living near one of the Manson Family hangouts helped two members +of the family to free themselves from Manson's influence. + John Lennon was a heavy LSD user, and he was involved in England with the +occult circles led by Kenneth Anger which included the Process Church. In the +winter of 1966, Lennon began studying the writings of Timothy Leary, including +his version of the {Tibetan Book of the Dead;} however, it was Yoko Ono +who solicited the services of Caribbean {curanderos} and employed her +own, virtually resident, witchdoctors in New York City. (Anger, perhaps not +coincidentally, is reported to have been lecturing in Honolulu at a time when +Chapman could have met with him.) + Yoko Ono got involved with {curanderos} in 1974. She first decided +that her apartment at the Dakota was haunted and needed to be exorcised. She +became a client of Santeria practitioner John Green. She also followed the +guidelines of a Japanese occultist Takashi Yoshikawa, whose cult followers may +have included Gloria Abe. Chapman and the Lennons were in Tokyo at the same +time in 1978. + John Green hooked up with a corrupt art dealer named Samuel Adams Green, +Jr., and the two men worked a scam on Yoko Ono, selling her paintings at +excessively high prices. In March of 1977, Yoko connected with a witch named +Lena, whom Sam Green had met in the Caribbean, at St. Tropez. The meeting with +the witch took place in Cartagena, and included a pact with the Devil, and +blood sacrifices. + At the time of Lennon's death it was rumored that he had planned to +separate from Yoko Ono. Clearly, if this is so, from a financial point of view +at least, she benefited from his death. + + - The Hand of Death - + Serial murderers have in general been treated as lone assassins, despite +their often open connections to Satanists. For example, the serial murderer +Richard Ramirez, known as the ``Night Stalker,'' bragged that he was in the +service of the Devil. Henry Lee Lucas is another case in point. + Lucas operated across the whole of the United States, committing rapes and +murders, apparently working as an operative for a Satanic Murder, Inc. group. +His attempts to warn the world that he had operated as part of a Satanic secret +society calling itself the Hand of Death, have gone largely unheeded. + With a background similar to that of Charles Manson, and of a similar age, +Lucas was born near Blacksburg, Va. on Aug. 23, 1936. His mother, Viola Lucas, +was a hillbilly prostitute who was married to an invalid and local moonshiner. +(Manson was born two years earlier to a mother in similar circumstances.) +Lucas's upbringing, like Manson's, was brutal, and by the time he was 23 years +old he had served two terms in prison. + Eventually, Lucas was arrested and charged with the murder of his mother, +and in March of 1960 sentenced to 40 years in jail. He was, however, paroled 10 +years later. Just three blocks from the prison, he raped and murdered a woman. +Although this Michigan murder never caught up with him, Lucas did spend four of +the next five years, from 1970-74, in Jacksonville Prison in Florida on a +kidnaping conviction. The prison system was remarkably generous to both Lucas +and Manson. + Drifting around the Mid-Atlantic area, Lucas wound up in Carbondale, +Penna., where, on Aug. 6, 1975, he met up with Otis Toole. Toole, a homosexual, +was already a member of the Satanic cult. The two men traveled the country +robbing, raping, and murdering. Toole showed himself to be a cannibal, during +this time. + During this initial six months of association, Lucas and Toole did two +contract killings for pay, both of which were arranged through Toole. After +this spree, Toole brought Lucas back to his home in Orlando, Fla. and +introduced him to his family. Based in Orlando, Lucas and Toole made several +other trips out of the area carrying out robberies, rapes, and murders. In +Orlando, they connected with a man who offered them the job of transporting +stolen cars across country. They would be given $1,000 for each trip, to drive +cars to Chihuahua in northern Mexico and then fly back to Shreveport to pick up +the next car. They refused this. This sounds very similar to the operation to +transport drugs, described by McGill. + + - The cult - + In October 1978, Toole informed Lucas that he was working with the Satanic +Hand of Death cult, and offered to introduce Lucas into it. In an +autobiographical account of his life, Lucas's description of his induction to +the cult, sounds like a rerun of the recruitment methods of Constanzo. That +Lucas knew of the existence of Satanic burial sites in the Matamoros +area--before the police discovered them--suggests that the similarity may not +have been fortuitous. + First, according to Lucas, the initiate is warned that once one joins, +there is only one way out--death. Toole, who urged Lucas to join, told him that +the Satanic ritual practiced by the Hand, ``Gives us the power to do anything +we want as long as we obey the master.'' + Once Lucas agreed to join the Hand of Death, he, was driven directly to +the training camp, which was located in the Everglades area. On his arrival, +the first task which he was given was the murder of one of the ``students,'' a +young black homosexual who had betrayed his oath to the Devil. He slit the +man's throat and later that same evening, a Satanic ritual was performed in +which the dead man's heart was cut out, his blood drained, and his body +dismembered. All of the initiated members of the Hand drank the dead man's +blood and ate pieces of his flesh. The remains of the body were then burned at +an altar. + According to Lucas's account, there were several hundred students at the +Hand of Death training camp, coming from six different countries; over half of +them were women. The camp provided unlimited access to all kinds of +drug-taking, which was encouraged recreational activity. Liquor was available, +and after evening ritualistic sacrifices, there would be a drug/sex orgy +involving all the campers. + The daytime part of the program included a full curriculum of training +courses in murder, rape, car theft, drug trafficking, and every other form of +organized criminal activity. Each student had already been assigned a partner +and a sponsor, who paid the cost of the training. Lucas's training lasted for +seven weeks. After leaving the camp he was assigned to work on kidnaping +operations run by the organization. + He and Toole were instructed to kidnap three babies and deliver them to a +ranch located in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which was a four-hour drive +from Juarez. Next they kidnaped two young girls, approximately 11 and 13 years +of age, who were to be used as porno actresses in a snuff movie. Over a +10-month period, the Lucas-Toole team traveled around fourteen states in the +United States. + After 10 months, at his request, Lucas was reassigned to contract +killings, and over the period of one year he participated in six professional +assassinations, which he claims were of a Spanish Army general, a politician in +Mexico City, a Canadian in Toronto, two Houston millionaires, and a politician +from west Texas. In a subsequent assassination, Lucas and Toole were dispached +to murder the ``money man'' at the Chihuahua ranch, who was considering +``retiring'' from the kidnaping and ``kiddy-snuff'' business. + The Hand of Death is also in league with organized crime in +drug-trafficking operations. In part, the members of the Hand themselves are +regular drug users and therefore need their personal supplies. Lucas describes +carrying out drug deliveries between Midland and Stoneburg, Tex. (in the north +central part of the state). + Lucas claims that he was sent on behalf of the Hand to deliver vials of +poison to Jim Jones's People's Temple shortly before the mass suicide there. He +has described traveling to Guyana on a chartered plane and delivering the +poison. He also says that he was approached to carry out an assassination of +President Jimmy Carter, a job which he declined although the price tag was +obviously very lucrative. He also says that rumors circulated among Hand of +Death members that Lee Harvey Oswald had been a member. + Lucas eventually was picked up by the police and claims to have had a +religious conversion. The Sheriff of Williamson County, Tex., Jim Boutwell, +began an extensive debriefing/interrogation of Lucas in August 1983, which led +Lucas to reveal information about the Hand of Death. As a result, a Lucas Task +Force was created involving county sheriffs, the Texas Rangers, and the FBI. + + - The cult resurfaced? - + An ugly case in Virginia, which broke in August of 1989, suggested that +the same networks are still in operation. At that time, in a move which may +have actually averted more important revelations from surfacing, U.S. Attorney +Henry Hudson revealed the existence of a Satanic pedophile ring which was being +tracked by California detectives and an FBI task force. + Two men were arrested and charged with being part of a national conspiracy +to kidnap children in order to sexually abuse them. According to Hudson, 100 +FBI agents had been involved for six months in tracking Dean Ashley Lambey of +Richmond, Va. and Daniel T. Depew of Alexandria, Va. + The two men were charged with conspiracy to unlawfully seize, confine, +inveigle, decoy, kidnap, abduct, or carry away and hold for ransom and reward +and otherwise use a person unwillingly transported in interstate and foreign +commerce. They were caught when they responded to a computer bulletin board +advertisement placed by the San Jose, Calif. police, who pretended to advertise +for a young boy. + Officer James Melvin Rodrigues, Jr. of the San Jose Police Department +Sexual Assault Investigation began a probe of computer bulletin board services +in February. Some bulletin board services, available to anyone with a personal +computer, a modem, and a telephone line, are used to facilitate contacts among +those interested in Satanic practices and/or deviant sexual partners. Rodrigues +posted a public message with a bulletin board called Chaos, on Feb. 28: ``From: +Bobby R. To: All. Subject: Youngsters. Looking for others interested. Hot and +need someone. I'll travel if we can set something up. Pics or the real thing +better. I like taking photo and being the star. Hope someone is interested.'' + He received an answer the next day from a Dave Ashley, later identified as +Dean Ashley Lambey: ``Your message caught my interest. Think we may have +something in common but need to explore more. Want to Talk?? P.S. I like REAL +youngsters!!'' In subsequent phone conversations Lambey expressed a sexual +preference for pre-adolescent Caucasian males, ages 8 to 13, with blond hair +and blue eyes. He wanted the real thing but was also interested in pornography. +He also suggested they might make their own films. + On March 13, he wrote to Officer Rodrigues: ``When I mentioned that we +could make our own, I was only half serious. Unfortunately, I don't have `raw' +materials needed to produce something, but I sure wish I did. Although I guess +if I had the materials, I wouldn't care about any videos!!! Depending on your +morals and such, I guess we could go find the necessary ingredients, but that +would be {real} kinky!!! Of course, by now you probably think that I'm +a real nut case, but what the hey, at least I'm honest, right??'' + The scheme, as it emerged, with the encouragement of the police officer, +was for Lambey to purchase or abduct a minor boy, hold him in captivity for up +to two weeks, videotape acts of sexual molestation and the ultimate murder of +the child, and thereafter dispose of the body. The financial rewards from +marketing the video were also discussed. + + - Again the Florida angle - + Lambey advised Rodrigues that he knew someone in Florida in the business +of selling minors. He thought the price to be approximately $12,000 per child, +with a $5,000 refund if the child were returned. He claimed to be in weekly +phone contact with this child-seller. Both the late-1970s Atlanta Child +Murders, and the recent Satanic killings in Matamoros, Mexico, had a Florida +angle, as did the Hand of Death cult. + In a face-to-face meeting with undercover police from San Jose, Lambey +implicated Depew in his plans. He reported Depew to be a sado-masochist who +liked to subject his victims to ``cigarette burns and choking them till they +pass out. Slap them around when they wake up and starting all over again. +Hanging them real slowly.'' He also reported that Depew had admitted to +murdering a 17-year-old runaway after having had sexual intercourse with him. +Depew later met with the policemen himself, and confirmed his interest in +participating in making a snuff film of a 12-to-13-year-old boy. + + - The case of Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald - + In 1979, Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald was convicted of the murder of his wife and +two children, and sentenced to life imprisonment. There are many indications +that he did not receive a fair trial, but of interest here is the fact that, +whatever the guilt or innocence of Dr. MacDonald, the existence of a Satanic +network, connected to drug trafficking and operating on Army bases was +definitely established. + The murders occurred on Feb. 17, 1970. The brutal slaughter appeared to be +a repeat of the Manson Family atrocities. Dr. MacDonald was serving as a doctor +with the Army Special Forces unit at Fort Bragg, N.C. He was sleeping on his +living room couch when, he claims, a band of hippies invaded his house, +assaulted him, and then killed his wife and two children, who were sleeping +upstairs. His wife and children received multiple stab wounds, and the word +``pig'' was written in blood on one of the walls. MacDonald reports that he +heard chanting to the effect of ``Acid is groovy, kill the pigs.'' + Dr. MacDonald, who himself received several stab wounds, survived the +brutal assault only to be accused of the crime. This, despite the fact that +MacDonald was able to describe the members of the group, particularly one young +woman who had long blond hair and wore a floppy hat. These people were seen in +the vicinity of the MacDonald house at the time of the crime. Despite +circumstantial evidence which supported Dr. MacDonald's story, he became the +prime suspect. The search for a band of Manson-type killers was not pursued. + The case initially came under the jurisdiction of the Army's Criminal +Investigations Division (CID). The CID was ill-equipped to deal with forensic +evidence, as was proven when the FBI forensic laboratories were brought into +the picture. More striking was the fact that the crime scene itself was +tampered with, when a shocked soldier attempted to straighten the living room. +The neatness of the room seemed, at first, to belie the doctor's story that he +had been assaulted. + On Sept. 12, 1970, the case against MacDonald was dropped by the Army, +because of insufficient evidence. Despite this, investigation continued--still +targeting MacDonald. On Aug. 1, 1974, the Department of Justice directed the +FBI to investigate the unsolved murders, and six months later, on Jan. 24, +1975, MacDonald was indicted by a federal grand jury in North Carolina. Despite +the fact that the doctor, with reason, claimed double jeopardy, the case came +to trial on July 16, 1979. Dr. MacDonald was found guilty of two counts of +second-degree murder, against his wife and one of his children, and one count +of first-degree murder, and sentenced to three life terms, to be served +consecutively. He won an appeal on the basis of denial of speedy trial, but +this was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, and he is now serving his +sentence. + + - The Satanic angle - + Evidence substantiating the existence of a Satanic cult in the area, +fitting Dr. MacDonald's description, was kept from the jury, on the pretext +that this was hearsay. This included confessions by at least three members of +the group that they had been involved in the killings. One member of what +turned out to be Helen Stoeckley's Satanic circle at Fort Bragg, told friends +that he had been involved with the murder. He died of an apparent drug +overdose. (Stoeckley was accurately described by MacDonald as wearing a floppy +hat and having long blond hair. She in fact frequently wore such a blond wig.) + She told many friends that she had been present at the crime scene. She +said that she and some fellow drug users had begun to dabble in Satanism. On +the night of the crime, they were all ``high'' on drugs. According to her +account, they had intended to frighten the MacDonalds but the situation went +out of control. + Stoeckley described herself as a witch to friends and family. She died in +suspicious circumstances of apparent sudden liver failure, after she gave a +taped confession to the defense. She had a young child, whom she cared for +carefully; yet when she died her child was left unattended. It is surprising +that she had not sufficient forewarning that she was seriously ill, to have +provided care for her child. Indeed, she was in the midst of cooking a meal +when she apparently collapsed. + She was, in fact, a police informer who had been responsible for over 100 +prosecutions of drug offenders. She was the child of Army personnel on the +base, and was herself a drug addict. She privately admitted to her presence on +the crime scene during the murders, but requested immunity before she would +implicate herself further. This was denied by the government. + Stoeckley described how drugs were being transported from Vietnam to U.S. +Army bases, hidden in the stomachs of dead soldiers. Only after the drugs had +been removed would the soldiers' bodies be sent home to their families. +According to Stoeckley, the drug network had a high level of protection. She +also described how many members of the network were also involved in Satanic +cult activity. According to her, this Satanic cult operated covens across the +country that had been threatening her with death should she talk. + From the time the murder was reported, the Army made no attempt to +apprehend the criminals described by MacDonald. Not even the simple step of +setting up a roadblock was taken, although, according to witness reports, had +this been done, individuals fitting MacDonald's description might well have +been immediately apprehended. This raises the question of whether there a +coverup was immediately put in place to protect Army top brass who were +implicated in the drug trafficking. It is of interest that Michael Aquino +served at this base soon after the murders. + + + diff --git a/religious documents/atlanta1.txt b/religious documents/atlanta1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6042ff7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/atlanta1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,190 @@ + THE GROVE OF THE UNICORN + P.O. BOX 13384 + ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30324 + + Lady Galadriel and Lord Athanor + + September, 1985 + + And what a tale we have to tell! Only the beginning of it, for +we are sure there will be much, much more to come. We know there will +be if we have anything to do with it, for we are furious and intend to +pursue the matter as far as possible. + + A bit of background: In early Spring a friend of Lady Galadriel +and Lord Athanor gave the group permission to use his land (a rural +spot outside Atlanta) as our outdoor Temple. The group spent many +hours clearing the site, building a stone altar, ringing the circle +with stones, erecting cornerstones, planting herbs, etc. All were +delightd with the spot and were willing to expend their time and energy +in working to make the site as beautiful as possible. + + Sabbats and Esbats were celebrated there and we felt very +fortunate to have such a spot. At no time did we have any indication +that anyone resented our being there. There were never any "wild +parties" or disturbances of any kind--this was our Temple, we certainly +would not desecrate it! As the spot was completely surrounded by dense +woods, we felt there was also a natural sound barrier. Everyone would +be gone shortly after midnight, or sooner, for most of the group are +working folks who must be at work the next day. + + In late July, one of the group went out to the site and +discovered that vandals had struck. Cornerstones had been overturned, a +number of items had been stolen (statuary, cauldron, candles, etc.). +Everyone was heartsick, to say the least. But, we got busy, rebuilt +the Altar, replaced the cornerstones, cleaned up the mess, put things +back in order and felt we had learned a lesson--don't leave removable +items unattended--especially in a place that is infested with red-neck +teenagers! + + Now to the gist of the tale: On Wednesday, September 18, two of +our members went out to the site to do a bit of "housekeeping." To +their horror they found that someone else had been there and much +damage had been done to the circle. A cross had been erected in the +center of the firepit, the place was in shambles, and the words "Jesus +Saves" and "In God we trust" were scratched in the earth in front of +the altar. They rushed back to inform Lady Galadriel of what had +happened. Oddly enough, at that time the gentlemen who owns the land +was visiting with Lady Galadriel. He, too, was outraged. He left, +stating that as soon as he reached home he would file a complaint with +the police. Shortly after he left, the phone rang...it was a +Lieutenant from the county police, informing Lady Galadriel that the +police had been notified that the neighbors at the site had formed a +coalition "to stop the witches" and had called a press conference to +complain about the witches and the fact that the police would not do +anything to stop them! A bit more conversation which boiled down to +"stay away from out there or someone may get hurt." + + An emergency meeting of the Grove was called for that evening to +discuss the situation. All were outraged, but common sense prevailed +and all agreed that the best thing to do is to refrain from going out +there again. We're sure everyone can understand our sense of violation +and frustration in such a situation. In the middle of the meeting the +phone rang. It was a reporter from the local paper who had been at the +meeting of the neighbors and wanted to hear our side of it. Lady +Galadriel spoke with her at length and two somewhat sympathetic +articles appeared in Thursday's papers. + + THEN--the next evening (Thursday, September 19) we were even +more outraged by local TV coverage of the matter. On one station, we +were treated to full views of the site with police, reporters and +"curious spectators" (as quoted by the media) crawling all over the +circle. Some of the comments made were less than flattering, to say +the least, and many were out and out falsehoods. Then we turned to +another station and were even more shocked--they showed basically the +same scenes, but with shots of people desecrating the circle site! One +man was shown in the act of dismantling the Altar, stone by stone, "to +find out what is in there..." while everyone stood by, watching, and +allowed him to do so! Another was picking up stones from the circle +ring "as a keepsake." + + We were outraged not only by the actions of these people, but by +the fact that others stood by and watched as they desecrated our place +of worship. We can't help but wonder what would have happened if such +a thing had occurred at the "litle white church in the wildwood!" +Shock waves would have raced across the city and the uproar would have +been felt nationwide. + + Now it was our turn to act/react. And act we did. Lady Galadriel +immediately contacted the TV stations to register her protest. One +station sent an interviewer out the same evening and small segment of +her response was presented on the eleven o'clock news that night. The +other TV station responded the next day (Friday), did an interview, and +presented another small segment that evening. + + + Several radio stations touched on the matter briefly. One, +however, may be named in our law suits...announcers on the station made +many derogatory remarks about our religion in general and about our +group. One can understand that uncomplimentary statements may be made +by participants on a "call-in-talk-show," but you would expect +announcers to be more professional than to air their own personal +opinion. Unfortunately, no one was able to tape the programs at the +time, but we are requesting tape transcripts from the station under +F.C.C. Regulation 73:234. (Thanks to Pat of the Georgians for passing +out information on that subject many years ago--even our attorney was +not familiar with the regulation and was delighted to learn about it). +(F.C.C. Regulation 73:34 -- Attack Against a Person or Group.) + + Lady Galadriel has had several radio interviews and one +interviewer plans on putting together a taped program which will go +across the nation via satellite. No date for this as yet. The +program is "Southwind", so if you hear of it in your area, tune us in! +Also, a live TV interview is scheduled for Wednesday, October 2, on the +local NBC station noonday news. + + Monday, September 23, we "got in OUR licks," so to speak, +through a local radio talk show: WSB AM--750--"Sound-off," 9 p.m. week +nights. It is a four-hour program which covers two-thirds of the +States--a 75,000 watt station. Reference was made to the news about +the witches, then WE started calling in. Not all of us were able to +get through--the phone lines were jammed--but many of us did manage to +"speak our piece." The program began with the talk show host being a +bit snide and tongue-in-cheek, ended with him being defensive of us and +our rights. AND an invitation to Lady Galadriel to appear on his +program as a guest interviewee. Needless to say, she accepted, +although a date has not been set. (We'll try to let as many know as +possible when a definite date has been established.) Lady Galadriel is +a very good speaker, mentally quick on her feet, armed with a vast +amount of knowledge, and able to express herself clearly and concisely, +even under adverse conditions. We look forward to the program--it +should be a good one. (Note: Lady Galadriel is not typing this, +folks...so we can say these things.) + + There were calls from Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, +Kentucky, the Carolinas, and many other states. Of course, there were +those of opposing views who called in to voice their opinion, and the +usual garbage one expects to hear when the subject of witchcraft is +brought up. But it was very rewarding to note how many people +expressed a positive, tolerant attitude. We look forward to the +upcoming program--it should be just as interesting and informative. +And perhaps educational for some of the listening audience-- at least +those who open their ears just a little and HEAR what is being said. + + Since this report was begun, there has been another development. +The plot begins to thicken (or should we spell that "sicken?") One of +the group members who had let his religion be known, and had been +overheard on the radio talk how, was dismissed from his job. The +supervisor who gave him the news almost told him the true reason he was +being dismissed, but caught himself just in time, then made the lame +excuse that the fellow "just wasn't a team player." Which is +ludicrous, as the man had received several commendations from +management for the great job he was doing. What will we do? We don't +know at this point--no one else was present when the supervisor was +speaking with him, so he has no witnesses to what the man said. +Without proof, there is little one can do. It makes us even more +determined to follow through. + + We, personally, feel that it is past time that the Wiccan +community stood up for their beliefs. We are all sick and tired of the +derogatory remarks, being run out of places, and being generally +classed as "low-life" because of our beliefs. And if we have to "get +out our soap-boxes and go stand on a corner of the public square," we +will do so. The group members are in complete agreement, and so far +most of them have said they are willing to go public, if necessary. +All of us have something to lose by exposure, but we all feel that we +have much more to gain! We intend to take every opportunity to present +our viewpoint and to stand up, publicly, for what we believe in. We +realize that many people don't believe they can take the chance of +going public, realizing the possible repercussions. None of us look +forward to what could happen...but until someone stands up to the +bigots of the world, they will continue to push us, and all other +people with a different belief system than their own around. And, +frankly, we are tired of being pushed! Non-Craft people in the area +have suggested that it would be best for us to "go back underground," +back into the basements and living rooms (with the blinds pulled down, +of course), then there would be no more furor. WHY SHOULD WE? + + So, there is our tale. We'll try to keep everyone updated as to +what happens next. We would appreciate any positive energy which +anyone out there would care to send. We've got a feeling we are going +to need all the help we can get! + + Blessed be! + + Lady Galadriel, High Priestess + Lord Athanor, High Priest + + Lady Rhea, Elder + and everyone from the Grove of the Unicorn. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/aurora.txt b/religious documents/aurora.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29491fd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/aurora.txt @@ -0,0 +1,318 @@ + + + + THE NEW ORDER + OF THE GOLDEN DAWN + (NOVUS ORDO AUREAE AURORA) + + Issued by the + Thelemic Order and Temple + of the Golden Dawn + (Novus Ordo Aureae Aurora) + + In Association with + New Falcon Publications and + the Israel Regardie Foundation, Inc. + + By Sir David Cherubim + (Frater Superior Chief) + Copyright (C) 1991 e.v. + + Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. + +In the Exalted Name of the Sun Ra-Hoor, and by His Mighty and +Supreme Benediction of Force and Fire: May His Great Light of +Power be upon you all, so that in each of your hands may be +positioned the One Flaming Sword of His Omnipotent Strength and +Might, and so that you may become free warriors of Our Lord the +Sun in our most holy and exalted army of free and courageous men +and women, which most exalted army we know under the chosen name +of the Novus Ordo Aureae Aurora, which is unlike the Old Order +insofar as that its Ceremonies and Teachings are dedicated to the +essential and inevitable establishment of the Law of Thelema +which is the Law of the New Aeon. The Old Order of the Golden +Dawn, which was organized in the Old Aeon of Osiris, was +subjected to the awful restrictions and limitations of the past, +whereas the New Order of the Golden Dawn is free from the fetters +of the Old Age of Restriction, and its Great Work is the Liberty +of every individual in the Dawning Light of the Rising Sun of +this New Aeon of Horus. + +Members of the New Order of the Golden Dawn constitute a +Religious Body of Free Warriors who, by their might and skill, +seek to extend the Dominion of the Law of Thelema upon earth. The +New Order seeks to make fit its members for the Great War of +Horus which is now made manifest in the world of men and women. +Our Lord of the New Aeon is a God of War; but the War of Horus is +not, in essence, an outer war between nations of men and women; +rather is the War of Horus a personal battle for freedom, an +individual means to establish the New Law of the New Aeon, to +emancipate ourselves from the Old Ways of Restriction and to +flame forth free with Light and Liberty as mighty stars on our +own celestial orbits. The Weapon of Horus, symbolizing War, is +the Sword which indicates the active and militant force of the +Magician or the dynamic energy of his True Will. Members of the +New Order are instructed in the magical use of the Sword of +Horus; in other words, they are instructed in the Magick of the +Will by which they achieve their individual victory and conquer +all things in their personal battle for freedom. + +The magical doctrine of the New Order of the Golden Dawn asserts +that every man and every woman has a course in life, just as +every star has its own orbit, and that the duty of each person is +to pursue his own course, just as every star must move in its own +orbit. This magical doctrine of the Science of Stars further +states that we have no other right but to do our own Wills, to +fulfil our own destinies; and that any deviation from this path +is a direct violation of the Law of Thelema which is the Law of +Liberty. When we really know and do our Wills we are absolutely +free within the necessary limits fixed by our own inherited +destinies; but as long as we are ignorant of our own Wills we are +not in harmony with the Universe and we become slaves of a false +fate wrought by nothing! Liberty is the essential cause behind +the manifestation of all existence: everything is born to be +free; everything lives to be free. Knowing one's True Will, and +executing that supreme knowledge, is what makes a man free, while +ignorance of the True Will goes against the actual current of the +Universe and leads to awful restriction. + +The New Order of the Golden Dawn is a Thelemic Academy of the New +Aeon which seeks to instruct all its members in the Spirit of +Liberty. All forms of instruction within our New Order's +programme for initiation are wholly devoted to that essential +task. As a matter of fact, all initiated members of our New Order +of Thelema are bound by a Great Oath of Magick which aims at the +complete and sole dedication of their lives to the exercise of +the Law of Liberty and its essential unfoldment in the +ineluctable scheme of divine evolution. The sole aim of the New +Order is the perfect constitution and most exalted accomplishment +of the Great Work of this New Aeon of Horus. Its one destination +is absolute freedom in Light! + +The New Order of the Golden Dawn is a Thelemic Body of Initiates +who are dedicated to the magical development of a New Race of +free men and women who are consecrated to the Law of Thelema, to +establish the New Kingdom of Horus upon earth. Members of the New +Order are pledged to assist in the dynamic creation and essential +establishment of a New Civilization governed by the Law of the +New Aeon. The Law is for all; thus members do not concern +themselves with initiating a selected few; they concern +themselves with the initiation of all mankind; and those who are +initiates of the New Order are obligated to that grand task by +way of the development of their own individual freedom; their +principal work is to uphold that obligation by fulfilling the Law +itself, that is, by doing their own True Will. + +The New Order of the Golden Dawn is a Royal Academy of the Magick +of Light, dedicated to the works of Scientific Illuminism, whose +method is Science and whose aim is Religion. Its chief methods or +principles of discipline are scientific and occult research, +practical mysticism, ceremonial magick and tantric alkhemi. It +derives its wisdom from various Eastern and Western religious +sources. It reflects and concentrates the Wisdom of the Ages, +and it seeks to illumine all its earnest members in that +Supreme Truth. + +Now just as the Spirit of Wisdom is an eternal fact of the +Universe, so is the essence of the New Order of the Golden Dawn a +timeless reality. The Order is new only insofar as that its +Ceremonies and Teachings are not of the same type as that of the +Old School, so that its body is resurrected into a new splendid +form. In the Old School men were instructed to bend their knees +and to sacrifice themselves like slaves on a cross of suffering. +But in the New School men are instructed to bend their knees to +neither man nor god, and they are initiated into the Supreme +Truth that there is no god but Man. The cross of suffering is now +a Cross of Joy, and the false idea of sacrifice is abolished for +ever from the Philosophy of the Order of the Golden Dawn. + +Since there is only One Order in the Whole Universe, it is a +fundamental truth that the New Order of the Golden Dawn is of the +same category as that One Order in essence; but its external +rites and teachings are unique and not of the same category as +that of other external schools of the Mysteries. In essence it is +the True and Invisible Order of the Rosicrucians, that is, it is +the True Community of the Elect, or the Invisible Society of the +Secret Brotherhood of Initiates; but its philosophy has naught to +do with Christian mythology nor does it have aught to do with the +fable of Christian Rosenkreutz. It is, on the contrary, the +transformation of these mythical fairy tales and superstitions +into the sublime light of scientific and spiritual truth. + +The New Order of the Golden Dawn has seven principal grades which +compose three groups, the Orders of the S.'. S.'., of the R.'. +C.'., and of the G.'. D.'. respectively. These three groups +constitute the whole of the Novus Ordo Aureae Aurora, that is, +the New Order of the Golden Dawn. Before a candidate can +progress on the Tree of Initiation, by proper advancement into +the following seven grades, he must first endure the trials and +tribulations of the probationary grade of a Neophyte (0 Degree). +The following is a listing of the grades of the Novus Ordo Aureae +Aurora in their proper groups. + + The Order of the S.'. S.'. + Ipsissimus ......................... 7th Degree + Magus .............................. 6th Degree + Magister Templi .................... 5th Degree + + The Order of the R.'. C.'. + (Babe of the Abyss -- the link) + Adeptus Exemptus ................... 4th Degree + Adeptus Major ...................... 3rd Degree + Adeptus Minor ...................... 2nd Degree + + The Order of the G.'. D.'. + (Dominus Liminis -- the link) + Zelator ............................ 1st Degree + Neophyte ........................... 0 Degree + +In The Book of the Law, I: 40, Nuit, Our Lady of the Stars +proclaims, "Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look +but close into the word. For there are therein Three Grades, the +Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do what thou wilt +shall be the whole of the Law." The first Grade referred to is +the Man of Earth Triad which concerns the lesser mysteries of the +Novus Ordo Aureae Aurora, which is, properly speaking, the First +Order of the degrees of the Neophyte, Zelator and Dominus +Liminis; the next Grade is the Lovers Triad which concerns the +mysteries of the Novus Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis, which +is the Second Order of the degrees of the Adeptus Minor, Adeptus +Major, and Adeptus Exemptus; and the next Grade is the Hermit +Triad which concerns the mysteries of the Novus Ordo Astrum +Argentum, which is the Third Order of the degrees of the Magister +Templi, Magus, and Ipsissimus. + +In The Book of the Law, I: 50, Our Lady Nuit further proclaims, +"There is a word to say about the Hierophantic task. Behold! +there are three ordeals in one, and it may be given in three +ways. The gross must pass through fire; let the fine be tried in +intellect, and the lofty chosen ones in the highest. Thus ye have +star & star, system & system; let not one know well the other." +Members of the Man of Earth Triad are the gross who must pass +through the fire of initiation by suitable tests of purification, +consecration and preparation. Members of the Lovers Triad are the +fine who must be tried in matters pertaining to the intellect. +Members of the Hermit Triad are the lofty chosen ones in the +highest, the elect of the A.'. A.'., who endure the supreme +spiritual tests and ordeals of the Most Holy Order of the +A.'. A.'., that is, the Order of the Silver Star. + +The First Order of the Man of Earth Grade is known as the Outer +College of the A.'. A.'., and this Outer College teaches the +Lesser Mysteries of Nature. The Second Order of the Lovers Grade +is known as the Inner College of the A.'. A.'.; it is further +known as the College of the Holy Ghost (Collegia ad Spiritum +Sanctum), and this Inner College of the Holy Ghost concentrates +and expounds the Greater Mysteries of Nature. The Third Order of +the Hermit Grade is known as the Secret College of the A.'. A.'., +which is above and beyond the outer and the inner. + +The grade of Zelator is the stage of Birth; Dominus Liminis is +the stage of Puberty; the grade of Adeptus Minor is the stage of +Life; the grade of Adeptus Major is the stage of Death; and the +grade of Adeptus Exemptus is the stage of Life after Death. The +Babe of the Abyss is beyond all these. The other grades of +Magister Templi, Magus, and Ipsissimus pertain to stages beyond +man's power to comprehend; they are spiritual experiences of the +most exalted type and cannot be defined by human philosophic +terms. The Third Order of the A.'. A.'. is beyond man's power to +know; he must experience a different species of consciousness to +Understand what is beyond knowledge, to commune with the +Invisible Masters, to attain true Wisdom, and to be crowned with +the Celestial Light of the Dawning Aeon of Horus. + +The Neophyte is further called a Probationer; the Zelator is +further called a Magician; and a Dominus Liminis is further +called an Advanced Magician. The Adeptus Minor is further called +the Adept Magician; the Adeptus Major is further called the +Master Magician; and a member of the Adeptus Exemptus grade is +further called a Perfect Magician. The Magister Templi is also +known as the Most Excellent Master; the Magus as the Most Exalted +Magician; and the Ipsissimus as the Most Illuminated One. + +The seven grades of the New Order correspond with the seven +Chakkras of Yoga, the seven ancient Planets of Astrology and the +seven sacred Metals of Alkhemi. They also correspond with the +seven principal Sephiroth of the Qabalistic Tree of Life. It must +be noted here that Malkuth (Earth) is the synthesis of the three +Elemental Sephiroth of Yesod (Air), Hod (Water) and Netzach +(Fire). In Malkuth these three Sephiroth are the particular +energies which constitute its form. Thus in Malkuth is +concentrated the elemental powers which the Zelator is obligated +to master by way of exercising the Magical Powers of the Sphinx. +A perfected Zelator, who has completed his course of training, is +further called a Theoricus, Practicus and Philosophus. The +Thelemic Ceremony of the Zelator of the New Golden Dawn confers +initiation into the Mysteries of the Four Elements represented by +the Four Qabalistic Sephiroth below the Sephira of Tiphareth. + +The symbol of the Novus Ordo Aureae Aurora is a Gold Cross of +Equal Arms surmounted by an upright White Triangle. The Cross +itself represents the four grades of Zelator, Adeptus Minor, +Adeptus Major and Adeptus Exemptus. The White Triangle represents +the three higher grades above the Abyss which separates man and +god, and which none may pass but they who are free of self, +unidentified with their human ego. Yet this work is only for the +few, and not all may partake of these Higher Mysteries at this +time in the course of cosmic evolution. In Alkhemical terminology +the Cross represents the Four Elements of Fire, Water, Air and +Earth; the Triangle represents the Three Principles of Sulphur, +Salt and Mercury. The Cross further represents the four Elemental +Chakkras called Muladhara, Svadhistthana, Manipura, and Anahata; +the Triangle represents the three higher Chakkras called +Vishuddhi, Ajna and Sahasrara. The special number of this symbol +is seven, referring to the seven principal Forces of Nature which +are represented by the seven ancient Planets of Astrology, the +seven Chakkras or Centres of Prana in Yoga, and the seven Sacred +Metals of Alkhemi. These seven principal Forces of Nature are +represented in the Thelemic Ceremony of the Zelator by seven +Officers in the Temple, of which three are greater and four +lesser. As Officers in this Ceremony, they act as human +representatives of those seven holy Forces to duly initiate a +Neophyte as a Zelator in the Novus Ordo Aureae Aurora. + +All of the Ceremonies of the New Order have been constructed to +accord with the revolutionary and dynamic principles of The Book +of the Law, and they are solely designed to instruct the +Candidate in the Mysteries of Thelema, for the accomplishment of +his True Will, and for the supreme attainment of the Knowledge +and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel. The Rising God of +the New Temple is Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child, born +from the past Aeons of Isis and Osiris. Horus is a god of Liberty +and Life, unlike Osiris who was a god of Restriction and Death. +The New Order of the Golden Dawn is not bound to the ways of the +Old Aeon, but is determined to establish the Law of the New Aeon +as expounded in The Book of the Law. The Order of the Golden Dawn +now embraces and upholds the Law of Thelema and seeks to extend +that Law in the world, to establish the New Kingdom of Horus upon +earth. The Old Temple has been transformed into a New Temple for +Our Lord Horus to indwell, that the Great Work of the New Aeon +may be accomplished in His Name. + +Members of the New Order of the Golden Dawn are dedicated to the +magical task of establishing on earth, with practical business +way, the revolutionary and dynamic principles of The Book of the +Law. They accept The Book of the Law as their sole Rule of Life, +and they are consecrated to the Spirit of that book and to the +Word which it proclaims. The Book of the Law is a revelation of +paramount importance; it is the Supreme Link to the Great White +Brotherhood, by which we may participate in the excellent +knowledge and lofty administration of the Great Work. + +As said in The Book of the Law: "The lords of the earth are our +kinsfolk" and "the highest are of us." The New Order of the +Golden Dawn is a Royal Society for the lords of the earth, who +aim high in life and who prove the efficacy of the Law of Thelema +by performing their True Will and achieving great success in +their spiritual and material endeavors. Success is our only +proof; and we perform all our Thelemic services according to high +business standards, based on the injunction in The Book of the +Law: "all must be done well and with business way." + + In nomine Novus Ordo Aureae Aurora, Sic sit vobis! + + Love is the law, love under will. + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/autmeqnx.txt b/religious documents/autmeqnx.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7888cf5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/autmeqnx.txt @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ + EQUINOX + by Vivienne West + +The Autumn Equinox came early this year: the twentieth to twenty- +first of March. the equinoxes are a time of great power, probably +even greater power than the solstices which many magicians seem to +value more highly. They look to the Winter Solstice as a celebrat- +ion of the Dark-faced gods, of cold and night and the powers they +have. They look to the Summer Solstice as a celebration of fire and +light, and worship solar deities and those to do with fire. + +But I look to the equinoxes as much as to these other, less ambi- +valent festivals, for perfectly good reasons of my own. Sure, +Winter and Summer solstices both as celebrations and as seasonal +events in the environment, do emphasise particular magico-natural +conditions and qualities. But what people fail to realise is that +either of the equinoxes, in addition to being a celebration of +growth (Spring) and ageing (Autumn), are both a celebration of +perfect balance, perfect equilibrium. + +The days and the nights of the equinoxes are of exactly the same +length: Planet Earth has a particular angle and relationship to the +sun that it will not and can not have for another six months, and +in temperate climes the weather is neither unforgivingly hot nor +unforgivingly cold. Life is either winding up for the summer by +putting out tender growth before the weather becomes too warm, or +winding down for the winter by seeding, dropping vulerable leaf- +surfaces, and preparing for a period of dormancy against the cold. +In both cases nature is in the process of doing something, not at +the extreme of having done it. + +Today, midway between my working day and my private night, I walked +home at sunset. Even in our age of rock'n'roll and fast food and +anaesthetising televisual soapies, something in modern, civilised +man, recalls our magico-religious past and our awe of the seasons. +On any Friday (which it is) I can expect to see evidence of perhaps +one party, perhaps none, on my street. Tonight, the night of the +equinox and a night of a just-past-full moon with lunar energy +still very high, I counted no less than five parties-in-preparat- +ion, three of them in full swing already, so early in the evening. +All five of them had the sounds of bass guitars and pounding drums +echoing the less electric but equally hypnotic rhythms of the anc- +ient Shamans' drums. And of those parties, two of them had their +lit windows covered with red or vivid orange cellophane, colours +that celebrate the sun on this solar festival! + +I was greatly amused, both at their instinctual behaviour that they +could probably have rationalised ("It's so-and-so's birthday", +"We've just moved in, and this was the first convenient weekend"), +and at a little idea of my own. I wonder how they would have react- +ed if I had knocked on the front door, introduced myself politely +as their friendly, neighbourhood witch, and congratulated them on +upholding ancient witchcraft customs! + diff --git a/religious documents/awaken1.txt b/religious documents/awaken1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d0d2e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/awaken1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,115 @@ +AWAKEN ISSUE #1 + +QUESTIONS WHICH THE LEADERS OF THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES +WILL NEVER ANSWER. + +By: RICH GRIESE + + +Below is a list of questions that I had sent to the Watchtower +Bible & Tract Society Governing Body, in April 1991. I have yet to +receive a response. + +Question #1 +Can individuals read & understand the Bible alone, or do they need an +organization and it's publications to do so? + +Question #2 +Can Jehovah's Witness hold and discuss openly with other Jehovah's +Witnesses opinions that differ from orthodox Watch Tower doctrine? Is +there any valid reason for a person to decide that he does not wish to +belong to the Jehovah's Witnesses? + +Question #3 +What is God's proper name "Yahweh" or "Jehovah"? if "Yahweh" is more +proper, is it showing the proper respect to "Yahweh" to say that +because "Jehovah" is more commonly used it does not matter how you +pronounce the name? And, should an religion that puts so much +emphasis on the name of God use any other version than the proper +pronunciation? + +Question #4 +Did President Fred Franz get an Rhodes Scholarship offer from the +Rhodes Scholarship organization? If not, why did he testify under +oath that he was offered one, and why was this information published +in Watch Tower publications? + +Question #5 +Did the Watch Tower and the Governing Body currently teach that +Armageddon will come before the close of the twentieth century +according to information published in the January 1, 1989 Watch Tower? +Also, why were the dates in the article changed to not be specific to +the twentieth century when it was published in the bound form at the +end of the year? + +Question #6 +Did the Watch Tower and the Governing body believe and publish +information that Jesus's 1000 year millenial reign would take place in +1975? + +Question #7 +Did the Watch Tower and the Governing Body believe that in or around +1925 there would be an awakening of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and +others mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and that there +would be an end to death at that time? + +Question #8 +Did the Watch Tower and the Governing Body believe that the year 1914 +was the beginning of the Armageddon of the Scriptures? + +Question #9 +Is any portion of the Watch Tower or the Governing Body to be +considered a prophet of God, or the voice of God? Do the Governing +Body or its associated corporations have better information from God +or have a more direct channel to or from God's thoughts than others? +If this is true why has God changed his opinion, based on Watchtower +teachings, so many times in Watch Tower history? + +Question #10 +Why were the Jehovah's Witnesses in Mexico at one time told to not use +Bibles, not hold prayers, not sing religious songs, and deny that they +were part of a religious group, but were simply part of a "Cultural" +group even though religious groups were not in any way prohibited by +the Mexican government at the time? Did it have anything to do with +the Watch Tower or the Governing Body's desire to own property in +Mexico, which was prohibited under Mexican law, rather than be known +as a religion? + +Question #11 +Was Beth-Sarim, the Mansion owned and operated by the Watchtower Bible +& Tract Society in San Diego and used by Joe Rutherford in the 1920's +built as a residence for Enoch and other holy men from the Bible when +they were expected to rise from the dead in 1925 by the Watch Tower? + +Rich Griese + -------------------------------------------- + +Mr. Griese has researched the Watchtower's teachings. In future +issues of AWAKEN, we will bring you the results of his findings. + +Please share the info found in these issues of AWAKEN with other +members of the faith to which you belong. Consider using this +info within publications issued to members of your faith. One +example is to use this info within Church bulletins. People need +to become informed about the Watchtower and it's teachings. Why ? +Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door preaching whatever the +Watchtower has told them to preach. The are trained weekly to +respond to any and all objections to their preaching. They are +told by the Watchtower that the Watchtower is the only TRUTH +and that the Watchtower is the only TRUE religion. They are +told by the Watchtower that all other faiths, teach +false teachings because all other faiths are agents of SATAN. +They have no qualms attacking any and all aspects your belief +system, when they come on their un-asked for visits. They are +trained to SELL you on the Watchtower's teachings, just as they +themselves had been SOLD. + +By becoming informed about the Jehovah's Witnesses, one will be +better prepared to decide whether one should get invloved with +this group. + +Copyright (c) 1991 by Vince Banial, Toronto Ontario Canada. +This material cannot be incorporated into any book without the +empress and written permission of Vince Banial. This file may be +freely uploaded to any BBS, as long as it remains unchanged. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/awaken2.txt b/religious documents/awaken2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..972ab3a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/awaken2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,237 @@ +AWAKEN ISSUE #2 + +A JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PRESENTS THE WATCHTOWER BIBLE TRACT SOCIETY'S +VIEWS OF ALL OTHER RELIGIONS. + + +Mark Cotherman is a Jehovah's Witness. The following are his remarks +about Christianity. They are consistent with the views of all +followers of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, +better known as Jehovah's Witnesses. Many people have asked me why +I go to the trouble that I do to present facts about the Jehovah's +Witnesses. I do this because they visit people door to door. They come +uninvited. They all come trained to counter your objections. They +come well versed in the perceived faults of any faith, but their own. +They profess love of neighbor but on the other hand they privately +despise all who are not followers of the Watchtower. It is unlikely +that those who received their unwanted visits know their true feelings +about other faiths. What Mr. Cotherman calls Christendom applies to +all other faiths (Muslim, Hindi, Buddist etc). + +The following are Mr. Cotherman's words : + +Do you not agree that Christians should be awake in the time of the end. +There are less JWs on welfare than RC also less in prison, on drugs, +smoke, kill other "christians" in war, like in Ireland, WWI, WWII, Korea, +Vietnam, Iraq, Central America (RC killing RC). Like Jesus said you will +recognize his people by the fruit they produce- LOVE. Why don't you +question your own beliefs about that? Your churches support of Hitler +during WWII, while he was killing 10s of thousands. Including JW's for +their LOVING their neighbors as themselves by not supporting him or any +other WORLDLY nation. + + Or how about unity. Paul told the Corinthians to speak in UNITY. +Where is your churches unity? Killing in wars is about the only thing +their united in doing. A rotten tree can't produce fine fruit, show me +your religions fine fruit compared to it's bloodguilt? + +Look at the fruits JW's ARE PRODUCING and compare them to the +inquisition, Bible burnings, Wars, the history of Christendom. +The JW's are a fine tree, christendom is going to be chopped down +and thrown in the fire for it's worthless fruit. + + JW's also show their LOVE for people by warning them of the +destruction of this system. We don't get paid for our door to door +preaching. Show me where any other group preaches God's Kingdom as the +only hope for mankind and then shows it by their actions. Christendom +says that the U.N. is mankinds hope for peace. J.W.'s ACTIVELY preach +that Jehovah's kingdom under his son Jesus Christ will soon destroy all +false religion, governments and set up His own over the earth to mans +eternal benefit. Jesus said you would recognize his followers by the +fruit they produced. Show me YOUR religions fruit. + + A Christian is a person who wouldn't do to someone else what the +would do to Jesus himself and they do what Jesus did and commanded. At +Matthew 28:19,20 Jesus told ALL of his follower to go and make disciples +if all of his disciples made disciples then all would be disciple +makers. Kinda like taking a penny and doubling it each day. ALL WOULD +BE PREACHERS. + + Jehovah's Witnesses produce the fruitage of God's holy spirit. +Whether you or the Griese's want to recognise that is something that +you'll have to answer for. But, JW's will continue to follow Jehovah +God and his Son teaching other spiritual minded people to benefit +themselves by being TRUE christians. + +Witnesses know the facts. We offer the solution to your faith and the +fruitages of it...War, crime, immorality, abortions, drugs, broken +families, child abuse, fear of Armageddon, enslavement to false +doctrines, the burning anger of Jehovah. + + One of my best friend is 86. He's been a Witness longer than +you've been alive. Who doesn't know JW history? The book your reading +or someone who was there. He have EVERY Watchtower ever printed and +almost all the books IN HIS HOME. The FACT is the Watchtower Bible and +Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses) produce the FINE FRUIT of TRUE +CHRISTIANITY as specified by Jesus Christ himself. LOVE AMOUNG +THEMSELVES. CHRISTENDOM can't take a step toward saying that. Her +HISTORY prevents it. Inquisition, burning people as heretics, crusades, +corruption of the papacy, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Central America and +the list goes on. + + Why don't you attack for our lack of love for each other and our +neighbors since we refuse to murder in war for any cause. We spend +MILLIONS of hours each year trying to teach people the Bible so they +will love their neighbors. Or, attack our lack of morals. The Bible +teaches the highest moral cleanness if we didn't follow this that would +be a sign of not following the Bible. We would have priests molesting +children in schools (insurance companies will not longer insure the +Catholic schools against molestation cases), premarital sexual +relations, homosexuality would be acceptable, drug dealers, drug users, +crime bosses, corrupt politians, extramarital affairs would be ok, +ABORTIONS, wars, just stating facts about what to look for when the +Bible isn't followed. Spread this to your family and friends to help +them see the truth about "THE TRUTH." + +I'm not a pioneer, yet. September 1, 1992. + +Selling? Jehovah's Witnesses don't sell. Selling implies making a +profit we distribute our literature to people WHO WILL READ IT and if +they CHOOSE they can donate for it. + +Publishers have no (as you put it) quota of hours. Pioneers also put in +increased time because THEY WANT TO. Pioneering is a voluntary action +by individual Witnesses which they can stop anytime they feel they must. +They don't get paid either. + +VB>Watchtower claims that governments and their agencies are agents of +VB>Satan, + +The BIBLE says that the worldly governments are controled by Satan (1 +John 5: 19) + +VB>but the Watchtower has no problems with many of it's +VB>Pioneers sitting on Welfare. I guess that for Watchtower Pioneers, +VB>it is no problem for an agency of Satan (welfare department which +VB>is a governmental agency so must also be Satan's agency) to be +VB>supporting the Watchtower. + +Your BIBLICAL logic escapes you. + + ----------------- END --------------------- + +Please note that future issues of AWAKEN will touch on points +discussed by Mr. Cotherman. The following is one of my replies +to Mr. Cotherman's messages. I think that you will find the facts +to be most interesting. + +The following are some replies to Mr. Cotherman: + +MC> I didn't see 1975 in any of your comments. Only six millinum +MC> were ending in the MID-70's. + +First of all I would like to thank you for taking the time to reply. +You have brought up a number of points in your 3 messages to me. I +would like to reply to each of your points. Please bear with me, +while I prepare appropriate replies. Please also note that there +are many beliefs that you and I share in common. I did not present +my present belief system to you or to anyone else as the belief +system to follow. I am sorry if I had not made myself clear on +that point. + +From your statement quoted above, it seems that you did not receive +the initial messages which I sent to you regarding 1975. The update +message was just an addition to those messages. In the update +message, you are very correct when you state that it does not speak +of 1975 specificaly. This update message was drawing on info from +the prior 3 messages on that topic. I will resend those three +messages. I also believe that since you did not receive those +messages you must have missed the two which discuss Ecclesiastes +9:5, which you had quoted from. I'll send that up to you aswell. + +From your quote you agree that the Watchtower did convey that +6th millennium was to end in the mid seventies. The Watchtower also +conveyed that the millennial reign of Christ would "have" to follow +the sixth millenium. Before Christ's millennial reign, the end of +this system of things must occur. + +I'll quote from the Watchtower book called THINGS IN WHICH IT IS +IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD TO LIE, pg 360: +"This trouble will result in destruction to that world empire of +false religion, "Babylon the Great", and to the imperfect political +governments of this earth". + +The Watchtower magazine of May, 01, 1968 on pg 272 states : +"The immediate future is certain to be filled with climatic events, +for this old system is nearing its complete end. Within a few years +at most the final parts of Bible prophecy relative to these "last +days" will undergo fulfillment, resulting in the liberation of +surviving mankind into Christ's glorious 1,000 year reign. What +difficult days, but, at the same time, what grand days are +just ahead!" + +So we see that only the survivors of this great war will go into +Christ's 1,000 year reign. Clearly, the Watchtower states that +the end of this system of things must occur after the end of the +sixth millenium and before the seventh millenium started. Since +the sixth millenium ended in the mid-70s, therefore we are well +into the seventh millenium. + +MC> Teachings? What teachings? Facts? What facts? +MC> He have EVERY Watchtower ever printed and almost all the +MC> books IN HIS HOME. + +You see I also have about 15 years worth of Watchtower publications +on the shelf. I don't know if you lived thru 1975, but I did. I +think that the Watchtower should be commended for the things that +are Biblical, such their stand against the taking of life. I also +feel that the Watchtower should be held accountable when it has made +predictions, especially when said predictions have failed. Having +a failed prediction has biblical consequences. Surely, if the +Watchtower was GOD's prophet, as it had made claim to be, then the +Watchtower should either not have made any predictions or the said +predictions should have happened as predicted. The lesson of 1914 +was not learned. + +I'll now quote from the Watchtower book called MAN'S SALVATION +OUT OF WORLD DISTRESS AT HAND!, see page 136: +"Furthermore, the remnant of spiritual Israel had for decades, +yes, since the year 1876, been looking forward to the ending of the +Times of the Gentiles in the autumn of 1914. They were expressing +God's Messianic kingdom to be fully established in the heavens +by then and also for the remnant of spiritual Israel to be +glorified with Jesus Christ in the heavenly kingdom at that time. +All understanding of the Holy scriptures was slanted in that +direction or adjusted to that idea. And when the year 1941 ended +amid the flames of World War I and the remnant of spiritual Israel +found themselves still here on earth, then they were inclined to +think that they would be glorified in the year 1918, three and a +half years after the end of the Gentile Times." +NOTE: the book from which this quote was taken was printed in 1975. + +The fact is stated clearly by the Watchtower that these spiritual +Israelites "SLANTED" their understanding of the Holy Scriptures or +they "ADJUSTED" the Holy Scriptures to that idea. You and I both +know that the title Spiritual Israelites is just another name for +followers of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. +Is that any way for GOD's only channel of communication and GOD's +prophet to behave ? What about the honesty about which you spoke. +This is clear evidence that the Watchtower SLANTED and ADJUSTED +the Holy Scriptures to their own ideas. If they did it in the past, +how are you to know that they have stopped doing such things? + +Since you also did not get my message discussing the proven +archealogical fact that the temple in Jerusalem was "NOT" destroyed +by the Babylonians in 607 BCE. It is archealogical fact that it was +destroyed in 587 BCE. The Watchtower adds 2520 years to 607 BCE to +get their 1914 CE date. Since the temple was destroyed in 587 BCE, +then the 2520 years should have been added to 587 BCE resulting +in 1934 CE. This is provable fact, not conjecture. The Watchtower +continues to claim that the temple was destroyed in 607 BCE. + + +Copyright (c) 1991 by Vince Banial, Toronto Ontario Canada. +This material cannot be incorporated into any book without the +empress and written permission of Vince Banial. This file may be +freely uploaded to any BBS, as long as it remains unchanged. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/awaken3.txt b/religious documents/awaken3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d28f1d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/awaken3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,185 @@ +AWAKEN ISSUE #3 + + THE WATCHTOWER STRETCHES THE GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZEH + AND OTHER WATCHTOWER TEACHING ABOUT PYRAMIDS + + +The following section has been written by Mr. Rich Griese: + +How knowledgeable are you about the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society? +I have done some research, have talked to a few JWs and come away more +confussed about the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society that when I +started. I would be interested in talking to you about both +Watchtower theology and its evolution over the years, as well as the +growth of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society corporation polocies +and procedures. Maybe we could initially begin with a quick readers +digest version of original theology, and see where we go from their. + +My understanding of the original theology from reading Studies in +the Scriptues, by Charles Russell the founder of the Watchtower Bible +& Tract Society, was that God offeres a eternal reward to all men. +Man, being imperfect, finds it impossible to attain this eternal +reward (Due to Adamic sin which we can deal with in more detail at a +latter date). Christ, as a ransom sacrafice, repaid the Adamic debt. +And since that debt has been paid all can once again attain this +eternal reward. + +As to how the eternal reward are collected my understanding of Studies +in the Scriptures was as follows. The decision to Join God or not would +be made by all men during the 1000 Millenial reign of Christ. +Upon Christ's return the world as we know it would be destroyed, and +all men (with the exception of a select few that will live through +the end to act as verifiers of the facts) would be killed. Then a new +process would take place. All humanity would begin to be ressurected +from the dead, be made "perfect", and be educated in the Ways of God. +Once made "perfect", and educated the would live for at least 1000 +years in their new form, and at the end of that time would be put to a +test (similar to the test that brought on Adamic sin). If the test +is past, that individual would be granted eternal life and would live +in communion with God forever. + +The purpose of our present life to to accumulte knowledge and +experience of good and evil, so that we can come to understand that +without the help of God, human could never achieve a satisfactory +existence. It is almost like an object lesson in the value in listen +to God. Except for a few select individuals (which we can discuss +later) none of us can do anything in this life that will either +exclude or garantee our eternal reward. All the tests will be +faced in our ressurrected life, after we have been made "perfect" and +have come to a full knowledge of God. + +This original theology is quite different than current dogma. + +Early Watchtower theology included looking for clues for the end of +time in the "Great Pyrimid". The Watchtower has been able to do +amazing things in their history, including streching the size of the +structure 41 inches in one direction from 3416 to 3457 inches. Of +course the changes in dates "just happened" to re-enforce the time +that the world was supposed to end. In fact both of these figures are +wrong, the length of this particular measure is 3384.904 inches. Yet +it is interesting that different editions can use the exact same words +except different numbers for the measure of the pyrimid. + +From the Watchtower published book called Studies in the Scriptures, +Vol 3 (early edition) Russell : + "... This measure is 1542 inches, and indicates the year B.C. 1542, + as the date at that point. Then measuring down the "Entrance Passage" + from that point, to find the distance to the entrance of the "Pit", + representing the great trouble and destruction with which this age is + to close, when evil will be overthrown from power, we find it to be + 3416 inches, symbolizing 3416 years from the above date, B.C. 1542. + This calculation shows A.D. 1874 as marking the beginning of the + period of trouble; for 1542 years B.C. plus 1874 years equals 3416 + years. Thus the Pyramid witnesses that the close of 1874 was the + chronological beginning of the time of trouble such as was not since + there was a nation-..." + +Studies in The Scriptures, Vol 3 (1923 edition) Russell : + "... This measure is 1542 inches, and indicates the year B.C. 1542, + as the date at that point. Then measuring down the "Entrance Passage" + from that point, to find the distance to the entrance of the "Pit", + representing the great trouble and destruction with which this age is + to close, when evil will be overthrown from power, we find it to be + 3457 inches, symbolizing 3457 years from the above date, B.C. 1542. + This calculation shows A.D. 1915 as marking the beginning of the + period of trouble; for 1542 years B.C. plus 1915 years equals 3457 + years. Thus the Pyramid witnesses that the close of 1914 was the + chronological beginning of the time of trouble such as was not since + there was a nation-..." + +Of course all JWs know the date 1914 as the date who's "Generation" +will by no means pass away before the "New System" comes. Of course +that makes this "Generation" 77 years old. Is the Watchtower running +out of time? What will they come up with next? + +Most JW do not even know about this information, the only date that is +important to a JW is the date the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society is +currently pushing. The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society has had lots +of experience setting and changing date, and are much harder to catch +these days. They have become much more nebulas about their dates. +These days they are simply saying that Armegedon is very, very close. + +Rich Griese + + --------------------------------------- + +Mr. Griese has researched the Watchtower's teachings. In future +issues of AWAKEN, we will bring you more results from his findings. +Right now I would like to add to Mr. Griese's finding with the +following quotes from other Watchtower publications. Please note +that Jehovah's Witnesses get all their doctrine from the Watchtower +Bible and Tract Society via their publications. + + +THE WATCH TOWER magazine, 06/05/1922, page 187 : +"The chronology of present truth might be a mere happening if it were +not for the repitions on the two great cycles of 1845 and 2520 years, +which takes it out of the realm of chance and into that of certainty. +If there were only one or two corresponding dates in these cycles, +they might possibly be mere coincidences, but where the agreements +of dates and events come by the dozens, they cannot possibly be by +chance, but must be by the design or plan of the only personal Being +capable of such a plan - Jehovah himself; and the chronology itself +must be right. + +In the passages of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh the agreement of one +or two measurements proves that the same God designed both pyramid +and plan - and at the same time proves the correctness of the +chronology. + +The agreement of the chronology with certain measurements of the +Tabernacle and the Temple of Ezekiel further stamps the chronology +as true. + +It is on the basis of such and so many correspondencies - in +accordance with the soundest laws know to science - that we affirm +that, Scripturally, scientifically and historically, present-truth +chronology is correct beyond a doubt. Its reliability has been +abundantly confirmed by the dates and events of 1874, 1914, and +1918. Present-truth chronology is a secure basis on which the +consecrated child of God may endeavor to search things to come" + + +THE WATCH TOWER magazine, 05/15/1925, page 148: +"The great Pyramid of Egypt, standing as a silent and manimate +witness of the Lord, is a messenger; and its testimony speaks +with great eloquence concerning the devine plan (Isaiah 19:19)" + + +So we see that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of +Pennsylvania was preaching about Pyramids up to 1925. You should +also note that the Watchtower "stated" in no uncertain terms that +GOD desiged the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. I bet you that no Jehovah's +Witness has ever called on you to tell that they once preached such things. +Most if not all Jehovah's Witnesses do not know this. Most don't even +know that the founder of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of +Pennsylvania asked to be and was buried under a huge pyramid shaped +tombstone. + +Please share the info found in these issues of AWAKEN with other +members of the faith to which you belong. Consider using this +info within publications issued to members of your faith. One +example is to use this info within Church bulletins. People need +to become informed about the Watchtower and it's teachings. Why ? +Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door preaching whatever the +Watchtower has told them to preach. They are trained weekly to +respond to any and all objections to their preaching. They are +told by the Watchtower that the Watchtower is the only TRUTH +and that the Watchtower is the only TRUE religion. They are +told by the Watchtower that all other faiths, teach +false teachings because all other faiths are agents of SATAN. +They have no qualms attacking any and all aspects your belief +system, when they come on their un-asked for visits. They are +trained to SELL you on the Watchtower's teachings, just as they +themselves had been SOLD. + +By becoming informed about the Jehovah's Witnesses, one will be +better prepared to decide whether one should get invloved with +this group. + + +Copyright (c) 1991 by Vince Banial, Toronto Ontario Canada. +This material cannot be incorporated into any book without the +empress and written permission of Vince Banial. This file may be +freely uploaded to any BBS, as long as it remains unchanged. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/awaken4.txt b/religious documents/awaken4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ebd7c42 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/awaken4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,454 @@ +AWAKEN ISSUE #4 + +THE WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA PROVES +THAT JESUS WAS NOT THE MESSIAH. + +This issue of AWAKEN is rather complex in the material it +presents. I have used extensive quotes and listed all reference +material so that others can verify the facts being presented. + +I will, in this issue, prove that the Jesus which the Watch Tower +Bible And Tract Society Of Pennsylvania (whose followers are called +Jehovah's Witnesses) speaks of, COULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE MESSIAH. I +will use the Watch Tower's own material to prove this fact. + +Let's start with the following rather long quote: + +THE WATCHTOWER magazine, December 15, 1979 issue, article title: +WHEN WAS JESUS BORN?, page 3 and 4 : +""The most familiar solstic celebration of ancient times was that of +the Romans, " according to science writer Isaac Asimov. It was the +week-long Saturnalia (December 17 to 24), held in honor of their +agricultural god, Saturn. Dr. Asimov also comments : +"The Mithraists celebrated the birth of Mithra on the winter solstice, +a natural time, and fixed on the day December 25 so that the popular +Roman Saturnalia could build up to the Mithraist "Day of the Sun" as +a climax....Sometime after A.D. 300, Christianity managed the final +coup of absorbing the Saturnalia, and with that it scored it's final +victory over Mithraism. December 25 was established as the day of the +birth of Jesus, and the great festival was made Christian. There is +absolutely no biblical authority for December 25 as having been the +day of the Nativity." + +Interesting observations, indeed. But they do throw a pall over annual +Christmas celebrations and raise certain questions. Is it possible to +ascertain the year of Jesus Christ's birth ? Can the approximate day +be determined ? Indeed, when was Jesus born ? + + PINPOINTING THE YEAR + +One way to ascertain the year of Jesus's birth is to consider the +divinely inspired prophecy of the "seventy weeks," or "seventy weeks," +or "seventy weeks of years," recorded at Daniel 9:24-27. (An American +Translation; Moffatt; Revised Standard Version; compare New World +Translation, footnote.) The angel Gabriel told the Hebrew prophet +Daniel: "From the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild +Jerusalem until Messiah the LEader, there will be seven weeks, also +sixty-two weeks [ of years, or 483 years ]." - Dan 9:25; Num. 14:34; +Ezek. 4:6. + +When did these 483 years begin ? In the fall of 455 B.C.E., during the +20th year of King Artaxerxes, when that Persian monarch decreed that +Jerusalem and its walls should be rebuilt. (Neh. 2:1-8) Accordingly, +that period of 69 "weeks" (483 years) ended in the fall of 29 C.E. +The Messiah then appeared on the scene, for in that year Jesus was +baptized by John the Baptist and became the Annointed One or Christ +by being annointed with God's holy spirit. (Matt3:13-17) Incidentally, +Luke 3:1-3 indicates that John began his baptizing activity in the +"fifiteenth year of the reign of Tiberious Caesar," which year ran +August 17, 28 C.E., to August 16, 29 C.E. + +How old was Jesus at his baptism? The scriptures answer: "Jesus +himself, when he commenced his work [ right after being baptized], +was about thirty years old." (Luke 3:21-23) If we count back 30 years +from Jesus's baptism in 29 C.E. (and remember that there is no zero +year between the B.C.E. and C.E. periods of rekoning), we find that +he was born in 2 B.C.E. + +Lending support to this is the prophecy of the "seventy weeks of +years." It indicates that the Messiah would be killed thus 'causing +sacrifice and gift offering to cease' as no longer required, in the +middle of the 70th "week." (Dan. 9:27; Rom. 6:14; Heb. 7:26-28). +Thismeans that Christ's ministry was tree and half years long. It +began at his baptism in 29 C.E. and ended with his death at Passover +time in 33 C.E. (Luke 22:7-20) Counting back 33+1/2 years (the length +of Jesus' earthly life) also enables us to calculate the year of his +birth as 2 B.C.E." + ------------------- END OF WATCHTOWER QUOTE ------------------- + + + -------------- VINCE BANIAL'S COMMENTS FOLLOW ----------------- + +My intial observation is to be impressed. That would the same +observation held by Jehovah's Witnesses when they finished reading +this great work by the Watchtower. I am not a trained detective, but +I will endeavour to uncover strange things within this article. + +The Watchtower starts off by quoting a "science writer" Isaac Asimov. +Interesting name, where have I heard that name before ? Is that not +the same writer who wrote for the publisher Doubleday Science Fiction. +Well it is. Isaac Asimov is a well known "SCIENCE FICTION" writer. +Is it not interesting that The Watchtower forgot the word "FICTION" in +it's article. Jehovah's Witnesses would never know the difference as +they are persuaded that it is best to read ONLY material provided by +The Watchtower (I can and will show you proof of that in future +AWAKEN issues). It is very "unlikely" that a Jehovah's Witness would +recognize the Isaac Asimov as a well known Science "FICTION" writer, +as they would be unlikely to read such material. Questions comes to +my mind. Can The Watchtower find no one else to quote except a science +fiction writer? Why did The Watchtower leave out that Mr Asmiov is +a famous Science Fiction writer ? Did quoting Mr Asimov look better +by stating that he was a "science" writer ? Why would they want a +Science Fiction writer to quote about mythology? I would have gotten +Mr. Joseph Campbell to make a comment, especially since Mr. Campbell +was alive at the time and was a world renown expert on Mythology. +The Watchtower also makes no mention as to where and in what form +Mr. Asimov makes his statement. The Watchtower rarely gives references +so that their material can be "VERIFIED." Try verifying the statement +that they claim Mr. Asimov had made ! Since they use quotes, then +one "assumes" that they are "quoting" and not "paraphrasing." They +do not make any statements about Mr Asimov's "qualifications" to make +such statements. A regular Jehovah's Witness would never question +the Watch Tower (GOD'S self-professed prophet and GOD'S "ONLY" channel +of communications to mankind, again self-professed) or what it writes. +Lots of questions and no answers. + +Next we move to the use of square brackets. These imply that the +statements made "INSIDE" of the brackets are NOT found in the +material being quoted. We find two location which have square +brackets ([]). The first is "[of years, or 483 years]. That is +not found anywhere inside the book of Daniel. This is the Watchtower's +own addition and their own "CONJECTURE". They make it sound like +fact, which it is NOT (and I'll prove it shortly). The other location +is [right after being baptised], also conjecture. + +It's interesting that the Watch Tower writers have chosen to make +a list of assorted Bible translations "(An American Translation; +Moffatt; Revised Standard Version; compare New World Translation, +footnote.)" Yes, the book of Daniel is there in those translations, +including the New World Translation which is the Watch Tower's own +creation. This list is presented in a way to, maybe, lend credence to +their conjecture about this prophesy especially their idea about +483 yrs. + +Please also note their use of clearly specific words and wording. For +example "One way to ascertain". Ascertain implies certainty. We also +see "PINPOINTING THE YEAR", which is also implies certainty. One +of Watch Tower's favourite words "Accordingly", which means little but +implies truth, facts and certainty even though only conjecture is +presented. Their use of the word "Incidently" is meant to grab one's +attention. Why ? Maybe so that one's mind does not dwell too long +on prior statements. "When did these 483 years begin ?" clearly +presents fiction and conjecture as being fact. The way the Watch +Tower writers write is most interesting. Always, look at the first +word and or phrase in the first sentence and in the middle sentence +of each paragraph. By doing so one can easily pickup certain postive +reinforcement keyed words and phrases which are repeatedly used by +the Watch Tower writers. I have my personal opinions why they use +such control techniques, maybe I'll get into them in one of the +future issues of AWAKEN. + +I really like "Lending support to this date is the prophecy of the +"seventy weeks of years." It indicates that the Messiah would be +killed, thus 'causing sacrifice and gift offering to cease' as no +longer required, in the middle of the 70th "week." (Dan. 9:27; +Rom 6:14; Heb. 7:26-28) This means that Christ's ministry was +three and a half years long. It began at his baptism in 29 C.E. +and ended with his death at Passover time in 33 C.E." This is +pure conjecture, but it is stated a being fact. + +Some historical background material about the Watch Tower is now +required. Why ? Well I will now prove that the Watch Tower has +claimed that it is GOD's prophet and that the Watch Tower is GOD's +only "channel" of communication with mankind. This is necessary to +prove the above statement: + +"I will give a number of quotes from Watch Tower publications that +indicate that the Watch Tower considers itself and it's publications +to be inspired by God. In other words, the Watch Tower is deeming +itself to be a prophet of God. I will also make two quotes from +two trial transcripts, which since they are trial transcripts, they +are deemed to be accurate and portray the Watch Tower Society's +view that it is inspired by God. + +THE WATCH TOWER, 01/15/1917, p 22: "Following the election Brother +Rutherford, addressing the the meeting, said in part:..."The Watch +Tower Bible and Tract Society is the greatest corporation in the +world, because from the time of its organization until now the lord +has used it as his channel through which to make known the glad +tidings...". + +1939 YEARBOOK OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, P 85: "It should be expected +that the Lord would have a means of communicating to his people on +the earth, and he has clearly shown that the magazine called The +Watchtower is used for that purpose." + +-------------------------------------------------------------------- + +NEW YORK KING'S COUNTY CLERKS'S COURT RECORD, 1940, vol. II, p 795: +Fred W. Franz on the witness stand: +"Q. Who subsequently becamse the Editor of the magazine, the main editor + of the "Watch Tower" magazine ? + +A. In 1931, October 15th, as I recall, the "Watch Tower" discontinued + publishing the names of any editorial committee on the second page. + +THE COURT: He asked you who became the editor. + +THE WITNESS: And it said -- + +THE COURT: Who became the editor ? + +Q. Who became the editor when this was discontinued ? + +A. Jehovah God." + +Fred W. Franz later became the President of the Watchtower Bible and +Tract Society and remains in that position to this day. So we see that +Jehovah God is the editor of the Watch Tower. + +------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Olin R. Moyle, v F.W.Franz, et al. Libel suit testimony, May 10th to +May 27th, 1943, New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division: +Fred W. Franz on the witness stand, sections 2596 & 2597 - +"Q. At any rate, Jehovah God is now the editor of the paper, is that + right ? + +A. He is today the editor of the paper. + +Q. How long has he been editor of the paper ? + +A. Since its inception he has been guiding it. + +Q. Even before 1931 ? + +A. Yes, sir." + +Nathan Homer Knorr on the witness stand, at the same Olin Myle trial, +sections 4420 & 4421 : + +"Q. But you don't make any mention in the fore part of your Watch + Tower that "We are not infallible and subject to correction and + may make mistakes" ? + +A. We have never claimed infallibility. + +Q. But you don;t make any such statement, that you are subject to + correction, in your Watch Tower papers do you ? + +A. Not that I recall. + +Q. In fact, it is set forth directly as God's Word, isn't it ? + +A. Yes, as His Word. + +Q. Without any qualification whatsoever ? + +A. That is right.". + + +NOTE - that at the time of the above trial, Mr. Nathan H. Knorr + was already the President of the Watch Tower Society. + +------------------------------------------------------------------- + +WATCHTOWER 01/15/1959, p 40, 41: "Whom has God actually used as his +prophet ? By the historical facts of the case Christendom is beaten +back in defeat. Jehovah's witnesses are deeply grateful today that +the plain facts show that God has been pleased to use them." + +During the late 1970s and throughout 1980, each issue of their principle +magazine featured the following assertion as part of its masthead: +"A WATCHTOWER enables a person to look far into the distance and announce +to others what is seen. Likewise, this magazine, published by +Jehovah's Witnesses, aids the reader to see what the future holds". +Now, ny definition one who tells what the future holds is, of course, +a prophet. Ok then, lets look at other statements to get a clearer +picture of this. + +WATCHTOWER forward 04/01/1972: "The Watchtower is it God's Prophet?" + +WATCHTOWER 04/01/1972: "So, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, +to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come ? These +questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is the +prophet ? ... This "prophet" was not one man, but was a body of men +and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus +Christ, known at the time as International Bible Students. Today +they are know as Jehovah's Christian Witnesses". + +AWAKE 06/08/1986 pg 9: "You will be interested to learn that God has +on earth a people, all of whom are prophets, or witnesses for God. +In fact they are known thoughout the world as Jehovah's Witnesses." + -------------- END OF PROOF ABOUT BEING GOD'S PROPHET -------------- + + +Next I would like to develop proof about the Messiah, from other +quotes from Watch Tower material. I will now quote from the +Watch Tower's book called "YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER IN PARADISE", +Copyright, 1982 by Watch Tower Bible And Tract Society Of Pennsylvania. +page 138 : +"But a person may ask:'Where does the Bible fortell the very year the +Messiah appeared on earth?' The Bible book of Daniel says: "From the +going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until +Messiah the Leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks," +or all together 69 weeks. (Daniel 9:25) These, however, are not +69 literal weeks, which amount to only 483 days, or a little more +than one year. They are 69 weeks of years, or 483 years. (Compare +Numbers 14:34.) The command to restore and rebuild the walls of +Jerusalem was given in 455 B.C.E.* (Nehemiah 1:1-8) So these +69 weeks of years ended 483 years later, in 29 C.E. And that is the +very year that Jesus came to John to be baptized! On that occasion +he was anointed with holy spirit and became Messiah or +Christ. - Luke 3:1,2, 21-23." +--------------- END OF WATCH TOWER MATERIAL ------------------ + +So now we know that the Watch Tower claims to be GOD's prophet +and that GOD is the editor of all material at the Watch Tower. + +We almost have everything. Before I continue, lets look at the +the last quote above. The Watch Tower makes a clear assumption, +that being that 69 weeks discussed in Daniel "MUST" be equal to +483 years. They offer absolutely NO PROOF to substantiate their +claim. They make it and then they move on. Jehovah's Witnesses +are trained "NOT" to question what the Watch Tower "feeds" them. + +They use the date 455 B.C.E. to establish somekind of anchor. +They add 483 to 455 B.C.E. to get 29 C.E. (same as A.D.). Then +they "claim" that Jesus was baptised in the year 29 C.E. Again +no proof is given by GOD'S self-proclaimed prophet. They also state +that Jesus "became Messiah" when he was baptised. ALL of this is +pure "conjecture" on the Watch Tower's part. They offer no proof to +substantiate their claim. Clearly, the evidence presented by the +Watch Tower is surely "only conjecture" on the Watch Tower's part. +It is in NO WAY fact. + +One more quote from the Watch Tower and I will wrap up proving +(via these quotes) that the Watch Tower proves that +Jesus was NOT THE MESSIAH. The opposite may look to be true at the +moment, but when dealing with the Watch Tower looks can be very +deceiving. I will now quote from the same Watch Tower book +"YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER IN PARADISE ON EARTH", page 59 : +"When Jesus was still a baby, King Herod tried to kill him. But +Jehovah warned Joseph so that he took his family and ran away to +Egypt. After King Herod died, Joseph and mary returned with Jesus +to the city of Nazareth in Galilee. Here he grew up. Matthew 2:13-15, +19-23." +---------------- END OF WATCH TOWER QUOTE ------------------------ + +We now have clear quotes from the Watch Tower stating that (A) the +Watch Tower had "pinpointed" that Jesus was born in 2 B.C.E. and +that (B) King Herod tried to kill Jesus at the time of Jesus's birth +and that (C) the Watch Tower's conjecture was and is that Jesus +became the Messiah in 29 C.E. and (D) that Daniel 9:25 clearly +using Neh. 2:1-8 specified that the MESSIAH would be killed in +29 C.E. For item (D) to be correct this MESSIAH MUST have to have +been born in 2 B.C.E. as per item (A). + +I set out to find the truth about all this. I paid a visit to the +central library in my area. What was I looking for ? I wanted to +see what Archaeological proof there was about the date for King +Herod's death. The evidence is unanimous. King Herod passed away +in the year 4 B.C.E. (or 4 B.C.). The evidence is clear that HEROD died +in 4 B.C. (or B.C.E. whichever you chose since they mean the same). +The following is a list of reference material checked, complete with +ISBN numbers so that one can confirm my facts : + +THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HOLY LAND, +Copyright (C) 1986,1990 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House Limited, +Printed in Jerusalem Israel, ISBN # 0-13-044090-6, 3rd Edition printed +by Prentice Hall Press, page 416 heading :CHRONOLOGY TABLES sub-heading +THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE KINGS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL: +"HEROD I (The Great) 37 - 4 B.C." + +ACEDEMIC AMERICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA, book #10, Copyright (C) 1988 by +Grolier Inc., ISBN # 0-7171-2020-6, page 144 heading :HERDOD: +"On Herod The Great's death in 4 B.C." + +COLLIER'S ENCYCLOPEDIA, book #12, Copyright (C) 1991 by Macmillian +Educational Co., LIBRARY OF CONGRESS # 90-60614, page 85 herading +HEROD: +"After a vain attempt at suicide, Herod died, at the end of March +or beginning of April in 4 B.C." + +ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA, book #14, Copyright (C) 1985 by Grolier Inc., +ISBN # 0-7172-0116-3, page 146 heading : HEROD THE GREAT : +"Herod died in Palestine in 4 B.C." + +THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPEDIA, Copyright (C) 1982 +by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., ISBN # 0-8028-8160-2, +page 693 heading HEROD : +"Finally, only five days after Antipater's execution, Herod died +at Jericho in the spring of 4 B.C." + +ENCYLOPEDIA JUDAICA, book 9, Copyright (C) 1971 by Keter Publishing +House Ltd., Printed in Jerusalem Israel by The Macmillan Company, NY., +LIBRARY OPF CONGRESS # 72-90254, page 375 heading HEROD I : +"(?73 - 4 B.C.E.)" +page 382 same heading : +"However when the sentence was carried out in the year 4 [B.C.E.], + the aged Herod was lying in his palace in Jericho, and died five + days later." + +THE NIV DICTIONARY OF BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, Copyright (C) 1983 by +The Zondervan Corporation, ISBN # 0-310-21250-2, page 235 heading +HEROD, FAMILY OF : +"Herod the Great was not a true Jew but an Idumaean who was appointed +king of Judea and its surrounding districts by the Romans in spite of +Jewish hostility to him. He died in 4 B.C. Luke 1:5 and Matt 2 (cf +Acts 23:35) narrate his part in the Slaughter of the Innocents at +Bethleham at the brith of Jesus Christ." + --------------------- END OF LIST OF REFERENCE MATERIAL ----------------- + +That was a most interesting insight. If King Herod died in 4 B.C.E. +then clearly Jesus "COULD NOT" have been born in 2 B.C.E. +(as the Watch Tower had CLEARLY stated), not if one believes the +Biblical account of Jesus's birth. Jesus "had" to have been born +during or before 4 B.C.E. That being the case, then Jesus COULD NOT +have been baptized (using the Watch Tower's conjecture) in 29 C.E. +(or A.D.). If we count 30 years from 4 B.C.E. (the latest that Jesus +could have been born since Herod died in 4 B.C.E), we get 27 C.E., +(or earlier) therefore since Daniel's prophecy points to 29 B.C.E., +as being the year that Messiah would appear (as per the Watch +Tower's conjecture), then the Watch Tower has clearly proven that +Jesus COULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE MESSIAH spoken of in Daniel - using +the Watch Tower's own interpretations of the Bible. Evidently, we +are able to assume that the Jesus, which Jehovah's Witnesses follow, +was not the MESSIAH. Daniel 9:25, as per the Watch Tower, proves +that to be the case. Interesting ! + +Either that or the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society Of +Pennsylvania, GOD'S prophet for all mankind, is ONCE AGAIN WRONG. +But, I ask, how could GOD mis-inform his only prophet, +the Watch Tower, about the date of birth of Jesus ? + + --------- END OF ISSUE ----------- + +Please share the info found in these issues of AWAKEN with other +members of the faith to which you belong. Consider using this +info within publications issued to members of your faith. One +example is to use this info within Church bulletins. People need +to become informed about the Watch Tower and it's teachings. Why ? +Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door preaching whatever the +Watch Tower has told them to preach. They are trained weekly to +respond to any and all objections to their preaching. They are +told by the Watch Tower that the Watch Tower is the only TRUTH +and that the Watch Tower is the only TRUE religion. They are +told by the Watch Tower that all other faiths, teach +false teachings because all other faiths are agents of SATAN. +They have no qualms attacking any and all aspects your belief +system, when they come on their un-asked for visits. They are +trained to dispell your objections and to SELL you on the +Watch Tower's teachings, just as they themselves had been SOLD. + +By becoming informed about the Jehovah's Witnesses, one will be +better prepared to decide whether one should get invloved with +this group. + + +Copyright (c) 1991 by Vince Banial, Toronto Ontario Canada. +This material cannot be incorporated into any book without the +empress and written permission of Vince Banial. This file may be +freely uploaded to any BBS, as long as it remains unchanged. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/awaken5.txt b/religious documents/awaken5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..254cd3f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/awaken5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,589 @@ +AWAKEN ISSUE #5 + +This issue of AWAKEN consists of two very related articles. +The first is called : + +GROWING UP WITHIN THE WATCHTOWER - +HOW PARENTS ARE TAUGHT TO INFLUENCE THEIR CHILDREN. + +This article was written by : David T. Brown and + Randall Watters + +The second article is called : + +THE INTRODUCTION OF PHOBIAS (DEEP ROOTED FEARS) AND OTHER +DEVELOPMENT TRAITS IN THE JEHOVAH WITNESS CHILD. + +This article was written by : Randall Watters + Mr. Watters is a former Watch Tower + Headquarters Staff Member and as such knows + what he is talking about regarding the + Watch Tower Bible And Tract Society Of + Pennsylvania. + --------------------------------------- + +We start now with our first article, called: + +GROWING UP WITHIN THE WATCHTOWER - +HOW PARENTS ARE TAUGHT TO INFLUENCE THEIR CHILDREN. + +One of the key roles of parents in any society is to shape the +thinking and aspirations of their children for the future. Parents +who are Jehovah's Witnesses are admonished to be especially keen on +guiding their children away from any unnecessary involvment in the +"world" in order to devote more time to the work of speading +Watch Tower doctrines. Ever since the beginning of the Watch Tower +in 1879, its readers have been told that the "end of the world" is +right around the corner, and this event was specifically predicted +for the years 1914, 1915, 1918, 1925 and strongly suggested for +1941 and 1975. In 1941 the Watch Tower published the book CHILDREN +in which the ficticious characters John and Eunice give up having +children to go door-to-door in the short time remaining before +the End. + +Decades have passed, John and Eunice are still childless and in thier +seventies, and the world has not yet ended. Yet even today, the +Watch Tower is still encouraging young ones to sacrifice careers +and even to forego marriage if it will make them more successful in +the "short time remaining before the End." + +What future is held out for youths today in the Witness subculture ? + +Publicly, the Watch Tower Society likes to put forth an image of +happy, normal youths among their organization. Though many +Witness youth seem to be well adjusted and have normal aspirations, +the ones held up as models in the congregations are often +disfunctional in their personal lives, some even leading a double +life, morally speaking. + +What is the future held out for Witness youth by their leaders ? + +The public image is well demonstrated in the Watch Tower Society's +booklet, "PREPARING FOR CHILD CUSTODY CASES" (distributed by the +Society's legal department as an aid in child custody battles). +It encourages the selection of "spiritually minded" young Witnesses +by the presiding overseer of the local congregation to testify "to +show that they are normal." The booklet cautions about the rehearsal: +"Be careful that they don't get the impression that they are in a +demonstration at the circuit assembly, when they would show that +the first things in life are service [door-to-door preaching] and +going to the Kingdom Hall. Show hobbies, crafts, social activity, +sports, and especially plans for the future. Be careful they don't +all say that they are going to be pioneers [full-time door-to-door +evangelists]. Plans can be trade, getting married and having children, +journalism, and all kinds of other things. Maybe you can show an +interest in art and the theater." (from page 43). + +At a Witness circuit assembly (large religious gathering), a Witness +youth would truthfully point out their primary interests are +religious. In court, however, Witness youths are counseled to +emphasize "normal" activities and a "normal" future career. Instead +of pioneering, they should indicate regular interests that other +children would have - such as journalism, art and the theater, etc. +The Watch Tower is thereby promoting one image to the public (one +of being just like other children) and another in the Kingdom Hall +(of sacrificing careers and personal desires for the sake of +warning others of the imminency of the Watch Tower message). + +The following are quotations from Witness literature showing what +is actually taught to young Witnesses, both by example and direct +statement. Material in brackets is added to clarify meaning or +explain significance. Emphasis is added to some quotations to +draw attention to key points. + +ONE THE NEARNESS OF THE NEW WORLD: + +"Most importnatly, this magazine builds confidence in the Creator's +promise of a peaceful and secure new world before the generation +that saw the events of 1914 passes away." [This statement appears +on the contents page of every AWAKE! magazine which is a Watch Tower +publication.] + +"...today, most of the generation of 1914 has passed away... Jesus' +words will come true, 'this generation will certainly not pass away +until all these things have happened.' This is yet another reason +for believing that Jehovah's thieflike day is imminent." AWAKE!, +April 08, 1988, page 14. [ In Witness belief, both Armageddon and +the New World are due before the generation of 1914 passes away. +This present world must be destroyed before this New World can +become a reality. Only those associated with the Witness organization +can have any hope to survive Armageddon into the New World.] + +[ A Witness youth in France named Samuel is quoted with apparent +approval: ] "For the year 2000, I visualize a world tranformed +into a beautiful paradise! But I don't think that either the present +world or its rulers will live to see that day.... We are living in the +last days of the system of things." AWAKE! magazine [ a Watch Tower +publication ], November 08, 1986, page 7 to 8. + +HIGHER EDUCATION IS DISCOURAGED + +"If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you +will never grow old in this present system of things. Why not ? +Because all the evidence is fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates +that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years. Of the +generation that observed the beginning of the 'last days' in 1914, +Jesus foretold: 'This generation will by no means pass away until +these things occur.' + +"Therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career +that this system offers. If you are in high school and thinking +about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps even +six or eight more years to graduate into a specialized career. +But where will this system of things be by that time ? It will +be well on the way towards its finish, if not actually gone! + +"This is why parents who base their lives on God's prophetic Word +find it much more practical to direct their young ones into trades +that do not require such long periods of additional schooling.... + +"True, those who do not understand where we are in the stream of time +from God's viewpoint will call this impractical. But which is really +practical: preparing yourself for a position in this world that soon +will pass away ? or working towards surviving this systems end and +enjoying eternal life in God's righteous new order ?" from AWAKE! +magazine, May 22, 1969, page 15. [ Even though this was written in +1969, this policy is still endorsed - as can be seen in the following +references. ] + +Under the subheading "ALTERNATIVES TO UNIVERSITY" in the article +entitled "YOUNG PEOPLE ASK ... HOW DO I CHOOSE A CAREER?" (from +AWAKE! magazine, March 22, 1985, page 17 to 18) they say: + +"After consulting their parents, many young people have decided +against long-term education because of the uncertainty of the +future. 'The time left is reduced,' say the Bible.... [Vocational +training in High School is then recommended.] + +"A Christian's view of the future should also affect his choice of +career. With 'the world passing away,' a career based upon worldly +ambitions is most unrealistic. Bible prophecy indicates how short- +lived such a career would be. + +"For this reason, many young people among Jehovah's Witnesses are +choosing a career in full time Bible education - a volunteer work +of helping people to understand the Bible. 'But,' you may ask, +'how can somebody make a living that way?' In order to support +themselves financially, many have first received practical training +in a trade." + +The Witness youth handbook, 'QUESTIONS YOUNG PEOPLE ASK - ANSWERS +THAT WORK' spends four pages discouraging a university education. +(pages 175 to 179) It concludes: + +"In view of these facts, many Christian youths have decided against +a university education. many have found that the training offered in +congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses - the weekly Thoecratic Ministry +School in particular - has given them a real edge in finding +employment." + +At the end of this chapter are five questions that reveal the tone +of the argumentation found in this book: "Why do secular careers +often fail to bring personal happiness? Why should all God-fearing +youths consider a career in full-time ministry ? What are the +claimed benefits of high education, and do such claims always hold +true ? What dangers might univeristy education pose ? What alternatives +to university education can a youth consider?" (page 179) + +The WATCHTOWER magazine of April 15, 1986, (pages 28 to 30) spoke +to young Witnesses: + +"As you think about your future, no doubt questions run through your +mind. Should I go to university and seek a career as a doctor, a +lawyer, or a scientist? Does the dream of climbing the corporate +ladder to financial success and recognition intrigue me? Would I +become a famous name in the arts through acting or painting? Or, +as a youth devoted to Jehovah God, should I choose the full-time +ministry as my career...?" + +After giving two testimonies - one a young man who quit his university +studies after joining the Witnesses so that he could pioneer (full-time +mission work), and the other of a young man who began pioneering in +his last year of high school - the article concludes: + +"Youths, how will you use your future? For yourself of fully for +Jehovah? Prayerfully consider the goal of full-time sevice now in +your youth. Imitate Jesus by living the rest of your life 'for God's +will.' It will prove to be a protection from harmful worldly ambitions, +careers, and associations. Analyze your circumstances and set a +specific date as your goal for entering full-time service. Work toward +it. Pray for Jehovah's help to attain it." [ Pursuing a "worldly +career" is viewed as selfish, as opposed to the goal of full-time +service now "for Jehovah." The idea that God might call one to a +secular career that can be dedicated to His glory is foreign to the +Watch Tower Society.] + +START PREPARING FOR A MINISTRY CAREER BEFORE GRADUATING FROM SCHOOL: + +"Keeping in mind the limited value of physical exercise and the +superlative benefits of godly devotion will help you to make +balanced decisions when it comes to after-school activities.... + +"How about using your time to help others spiritually? Interestingly, +some young ones among Jehovah's Witnesses in Japan start to make the +ministry their career while they are still in school. They buy out +their time before and after school to help others to know the +Creator." [ From the article "Young People Ask...What About After- +School Activities?" AWAKE!, December 08, 1986, page 18. +Extracurricular activities are discouraged. Door-to-door "service" +is recommended in it's place "before and after school."] + +SINGLENESS IS COMMENDED: + +"Putting your years as an unmarried Christian to the best possible +use in Jehovah's service will bring present satisfaction and peace +of mind. Doing so will also contribute to your spiritual maturity +and stability. If you remain single for the Kingdom's sake until +the end of this wicked system of things, Jehovah will not forget +your self-sacrificing efforts in his sacred service . + +"If you diligently pursue Kingdom interests [religious activities +like door-to-door work and attending congregational meetingings] +as an unmarried man or woman, you will enjoy many blessings. Then +if you should get married later in life, you will enter wedlock +with greater experienceand a rich spiritual background." [ From +the article "SINGLENESS - A REWARDING WAY OF LIFE." the WATCHTOWER +magazine, Novenmber 15, 1987, page 20.] + +CHILDLESSNESS IS COMMENDED: + +The Watch Tower Society has no stated policy regarding childbearing. +They state the decision to have children is a personal matter.But, +they do remind couples of the nearness of the End and commend those +who have decided to remain childless 'in order to have a fuller +share in the Witnesses' religious activities: + +"Some young couples have decided to remain childless. Although the +wives had maternal instincts just as strong as those in other women, +they decided, in agreement with their husbands, to refrain from having +children in ordr to devote themselves to serving Jehovah full-time. +Many of them have served as pioneers or missionaries... + +"Many married couples throughout the world who have relinquished +the joys of parenthood have been able to serve Jehovah in the circuit +work, the district work, or at Bethel. [ Remaining childless is a +condition in these responsible positions. ] These likewise look back +with satisfaction over their lives spent in serving Jehovah and their +brothers in these special privileges. They have no regrets. While they +have not had the joy of bringing children into the world, they have +played a vital part in furthering Kingdom interests in their various +fields of activity. + +"So the matter of childbearing in this time of the end is a personal +one that each couple must decide for itself. However, since 'the time +left is reduced,' married couples would do well to weigh carefully +and prayerfully the pros and cons of child bearing in these times." +The WATCHTOWER magazine, March 01, 1988, pages 25 & 26. + +PARENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO SET PIONEERING AS A GOAL FOR +CHILDREN INSTEAD OF COLLEGE : + +THE KINGDOM MINISTRY (a Watch Tower magazine) of May 1973, page 6, +(under the subheading "THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF PARENTS HELPS") says: + +"At times the heart's desire for what is good needs to be strengthened. +Parents can do much to aid their children in this regard... + +"An elder in Korea encouraged his four children to pioneer. At a +circuit assembly [ large Witness religious gathering ] he and the +children were interviewed. The oldest daughter related how she had +been the high scholastically in her high school. She herself wanted +to go to college at one point. However, her father informed her that, +while she was free to choose such a course, she could not expect +financial support from him. She changed her mind about college, and +now she is enjoying many blessings as a pioneer. The next oldest, a +son, told how he also at one time wanted to go to college and follow +a worldly course. But his father sat down and reviewed the Scriptures +with him. His father also told him that, if he insisted on following +a worldly course, he would also have to find another place to live. +He heeded his father's counsel and is very grateful that his father +was kind kind but firm in his stand. The two younger explained that +they were impressed by what happened to the two older ones. From the +beginning they planned to become pioneers. The youngest son gave up +his high school education to pioneer." + +In the WATCHTOWER magazine of January 15, 1952, [pg 47], parents +were counseled to: + +"Suggest that they become vacation pioneers [ a one momth commitment +for 75 hours of door-to-door proselytizing ] during their summer +holidays... The highest career you can plan for your children is that +of full-time service as a minister. ["MINISTER" here refers to their +door-to-door preaching work.] Work and plan to help them toward that +most joyful and successful careers." [ Even though this article is +nearly 40 years old, Jehovah's Witnesses today still follow this +practice. many Witnesses who were raised in the 1950's and 1960's +by this advice postponed marriage and then also postponed having +children after marriage, so that they could devote more time to +their proselytizing work. Some are still single or childless. Most +who did eventually marry and have children found that it was too +late to start a professional career, taking employment in the blue +collar field instead. Still, these are raising their children with +full-time ministry as their goal in life. ] + +THEATRICAL CAREER DISCOURAGED FOR WITNESSES : + +In the AWAKE! of August 08, 1983, pages 23 & 24, the Watch Tower +published this testimony of actor who quit the theater after +converting to the Witnesses: + +"Now, more than a decade later, I can honestly say that I do not +yearn for the stage. I am still able to practice my art each year, +as a director and an actor, in the Bible dramas that Jehovah's +Witnesses present in their district conventions... The difference +is that we have performed with a better motive. In the theater +I wanted to be a star, to receive adulation. In these Bible dramas +it is the story that matters, not the actors. Thus there is no +competition, no upstaging of fellow actors." + +ART CAREER DISCOURAGED: + +In the WACTHTOWER magazine, march 15, 1981 (page 10) the Society +published this testimony of a art student who decided not to pursue +an art career after joining the Witnesses: + +"By 1952 I had been studying to be an artist for nearly four years. +What would I do ? Returning to Puerto Rico, my desire to share what +I had learned from the Bible was even stronger than my desire to be +an artist. Thus, in August 1952, I began serving in the full-time +preaching activity as a pioneer." + +MUSICAL CAREER DISCOURAGED : + +The AWAKE! of August 08, 1985 (pages 16 & 17) published the +testimony of William Mullane, who left the prestigious Julliard +School in New York City after he started studying with the +Witnesses. He eventually entered "Bethel service." working +full-time at Watch Tower headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. +Bethel workers receive room and board and a nominal monthly +"allownance" to buy necessities. Mullane explains: + +"After the summer-vacation period, I returned to school for another +semester. But I felt very differently about things then. The desire +to develop as a musician was not as strong as it had once been. I +now knew that there was much more to life and that music could no +longer be 'number one'... + +"I also remember clearly my father's reaction to my decision. He +pounded on the table and sternly told me that I would be out of the +house if I left school. But leave I did. Two months later I was +baptized to symbolize my dedication to God, and soon thereafter +I entered the full-time ministry... + +"I still practice my music but only for a small fraction of the time +I previously devoted to it... + +"A career in [music] demands exclusive devotion. In this it competes +with our Creator and the doing of his will. Music can be almost like +a disease... + +"Frankly, I've come to look upon musical instituations as modern-day +temples of worship that require people to devote their entire lives to +music. But that is making a god out of it, and surely this does not +have the Creator's approval. True, music is a gift from Jehovah, but +it must be kept in its place." + +The February 22, 1984 AWAKE! (pages 12 to 16) published the testimony +of a former Lebanese basketball star who forsook both that and his +university studies to become a full-time pioneer. + +The December 08, 1984 AWAKE! (pages 16 to 20) published Herman +Pizzanelli's Uruguayan concert guitarist in the 1960's. After +joining the Witnesses he canceled his contracts including "a +theatrical tour of Europe," because "my conscience moved more +urgent work of preaching and other Christian activities." + +============= THE END OF OUR FIRST ARTICLE ==================== + +Now for our second (related) article : + +THE INTRODUCTION OF PHOBIAS (DEEP ROOTED FEARS) AND OTHER +DEVELOPMENT TRAITS IN THE JEHOVAH WITNESS CHILD. + +Parents obviously have a very powerful influence on their +children. Even when they are abusive and insensitive towards +their offspring, children still desire whatever vestige of love +and approval they can get from their parents, and will often be +obedient just to receive attention and care. Understanding this +dynamic helps to explain how children growing up in the Watch +Tower may be so heavily influenced by the need for approval that +they are willing togive up whatever goals or aspirations they +may have in order to please their parents, even long after they +leave home and/or get married. + +In order for the indoctrination to be lasting and effective, +PHOBIAS (deep-rooted fears) must be introduced to the child +in order to "scare" them away from a course contrary to Watch +Tower idealology, and the organization is very adept at planting +and nuturing these phobias. As in the case of the elder in Korea +with the four children (mentioned previously in our first article), +the fear may be the threat of being cut off financially as well as +losing dad's approval, but it also comes directly from the pages +of THE WATCHTOWER in the form of warnings about being in the very +last days, and how Jehovah will not look with approval upon those +who "squander their time and energies" in non-Kingdom interests. +Jehovah thus becomes the all powerful parent who, even if the +child's real parents may not be too concerned, will himself cut +the child off from his favour and possibility even eternal life. +A powerful motovation indeed! + +A PHOBIC WORLD VIEW + +The first step that the Watch Tower takes in their indoctrination +of their followers is to develop the concept of the "universal war" +that all people are inevitably caught up in, namely, that Satan +has declared war on Jehovah, and we are automatically on one side +or the other; there are no fence-sitters. If you are not doing +all that the organization asks, you are on the side of the devil. +Everything outside of the Watch Tower is controlled by the devil, +and all persons who are not Witnesses are misled by the devil and +are bad or dangerous to associate with. An unbalanced fear of the +supernatural is encouraged. Witness children are told to avoid +"worldly" magazines, movies, TV shows, music, etc. Any information +critical of the Watch Tower is automatically evil and dangerous. +Most doctors are evil for wanting to administer blood transfusions. +Children have nightmares about mom or dad having to refuse a blood +transfusion. Everything is made to appear as part of a large +conspiracy to destroy Jehovah's Witnesses. Satan is feared totally +out of proportion to the role as represented in the Bible. + +What is the end result? The child learns to fear life itself, at +least outside of the Watch Tower, so that if he/she were to ever +leave the organization, the devil would destroy him/her and he/she +would become miserable and suicidal. I personally knew several +members of the Watch Tower's Bethel family at their headquarters +in New York who knew the organization was wrong, but could not +leave due to fear that they were incapable of getting a job, or +that their lives would disintegrate. They were the victims of +carefully planted PHOBIAS. + +Many of these phobias are rather obvious to outsiders. Simple, +harmless things are blown out of proportion in order to keep +Witnesses secluded from the real world. For instance: Birthdays +are evil because someone is being worshipped. Christmas is evil +because thousands of years ago someone worshipped the sun on +December 25th. Saluting the flag is worshipping your country and +a sign that you belong to Satan's kingdom rather than God's +Kingdom. Saying "darn" or "geez" is the same as cursing. Smoking +cigarettes is a form of drug abuse that can lead to demonic +control. Little wonder that Witness youths are so paranoid and +shy of the world! Even when they leave the organization, the +phobias are still there, controlling their lives until they are +recognized and eliminated through counseling and/or self-awareness. + + +Many of our readers were raised Jehovah's Witnesses and still +remain VICTIMS of multiple phobia implantations. Many struggle +with low self-esteem and self-worth, since the Watch Tower +impants and perpetuates such problems. + +============== END OF OUR SECOND ARTICLE ================== + +What follows is additional material prepared by : Vince Banial + + +The following is a list of books which could be of help when +dealing with individuals who suffer from PHOBIAS and from +phobia induced ANXIETY : + +TOXIC FAITH by : Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton + +COMBATTING CULT MIND CONTROL by : Steven Hassan + +DON'T PANIC - Taking Control Of Anxiety Attacks + by : R. Reid Wilson, Ph.D. + +FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY by Susan Jeffers, Ph.D. + +NEGAHOLICS - Recover From Your Addiction To Negativity + And Turn Your Life Around + by : Cherie Carter-Scott + +BANISHED KNOWLEDGE - Facing Childhood Injuries + by : Alice Miller + +ADULT CHILDREN OF ABUSIVE PARENTS - A Healing Program For Those + Who Have Been Physically, + Sexually or Emotionally + Abused + by : Steven Farmer - + Director of the Center for Adult + Children of Abusive Parents + +TOXIC PARENTS - Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy + And Reclaiming Your Life + by : Dr. Susan Forward + +HEALING THE SHAME THAT BINDS YOU by : John Bradshaw + +TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR LIFE - How Not To Be A Victim by : Louis Proto + +Those who feel that they suffer from PHOBIAS,I state that they +should seek out professional help. Look for individuals and or +groups who have experience in dealing with phobias and related +anxiety disorder problems. The above list of books is by no means +exhaustive. Please visit your local bookstore and ask for books +about phobias. The above books can be of help, as I'm sure that +there are other books which too would be helpful. + +There is also a wonderful book written by a former Jehovah's Witness. +Not just any JW, this fellow was a member of their ruling body called +the GOVERNING BODY. I am speaking of Mr. Raymond Franz, nephew to the +present Watch Tower President Mr.Fred Franz. If Mr Raymond Franz had +NOT had his crisis of conscience (which by the way is also the title +of his book : CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE) he would likely have become the +NEXT WATCH TOWER PRESIDENT, after the present President Mr. Fred Franz +passed away. The book is well worth reading : + +CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE - The Struggle Between Loyalty To God + And Loyalty To One's Religion + by : Raymond Franz, former member of the + GOVERNING BODY of Jehovah's Witnesses. + + +Mr. Randall Watters runs an out-reach where he provides factual +material about the Watch Tower. He also publishes a wonderful +newsletter. You can write to him at: + +P.O. Box 3818 +Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 + +Ask him to send you samples of their newletter. When you call +or write, could I ask that you mention that you were referred by +Vince Banial. I get nothing out of it. I just want to let Randall +know that Vince in Toronto continues with support of Randall's +efforts. Randall also carries books about the many +facets of the Watch Tower. Most of the material contains +photo-reproductions of actual Watch Tower publication pages. With +such proof you can show a visiting Jehovah's Witness actual Watch +Tower statements. + +================ end of issue #5 ======================= + +Please share the info found in these issues of AWAKEN with other +members of the faith to which you belong. Consider using this +info within publications issued to members of your faith. One +example is to use this info within Church bulletins. People need +to become informed about the Watchtower and it's teachings. Why ? +Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door preaching whatever the +Watchtower has told them to preach. They are trained weekly to +respond to any and all objections to their preaching. They are +told by the Watchtower that the Watchtower is the only TRUTH +and that the Watchtower is the only TRUE religion. They are +told by the Watchtower that all other faiths, teach +false teachings because all other faiths are agents of SATAN. +They have no qualms attacking any and all aspects your belief +system, when they come on their un-asked for visits. They are +trained to SELL you on the Watchtower's teachings, just as they +themselves had been SOLD. + +By becoming informed about the Jehovah's Witnesses, one will be +better prepared to decide whether one should get invloved with +this group. + + +Copyright (c) 1991 by Vince Banial, Toronto Ontario Canada. +This material cannot be incorporated into any book without the +empress and written permission of Vince Banial. This file may be +freely uploaded to any BBS, as long as it remains unchanged. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/awaken6.txt b/religious documents/awaken6.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7217173 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/awaken6.txt @@ -0,0 +1,400 @@ +AWAKEN ISSUE #6 + + + +JEHOVAH GOD INFORMS THE FOLLOWERS OF THE WATCH TOWER TO +JOIN IN AND CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS DAY ASWELL AS INFORMING +THEM OF SUITABLE GIFTS. + + + +ZION'S WATCH TOWER, Dec. 15, 1903, pg. 457: +"This review is perhaps as appropriate a lesson for the closing + Sunday of the year as any, especially when we remember that all + of these glories and blessings and priviledges are ours because + of the great redemption work accomplished by him whose entrance + upon the work is celebrated by Christmas day. Although we cannot + agree that this is the proper day for celebrating the birth of + dear Redemeer, but must insist that it was about October first, + nevertheless, since he did not intimate his desire that we + should celebrate his birthday it is quite immaterial upon what + day that event, of so great importance to all, is celebrated. + Upon this day, so generally celebrated, we may properly enough + join with all whose hearts are in the attitude of love and + appreciation toward God and toward the Saviour. + + The habit of giving little remembrances one to another at this + time of year seems to us specially appropriate." + + + +ZION'S WATCH TOWER, Dec. 01, 1904, pg. 364 : +"Even though Christmas is not the real anniversary of our Lord's + birth, but more properly the annunciation day or the date of his + human begetting (Luke 1:28), nevertheless, since the celebration + of our Lord's birth is not a matter of divine appointment or + injunction, but merely a tribute of respect to him, it is not + necessary for us to quibble perticularily about the date. We may + as well join with the civilized world in celebrating the grand + event on the day which the majority celebrate - "Christmas day."" + + + +ZION'S WATCH TOWER, Nov. 15, 1907, pg. 351: +" "SCRIPTURE STUDIES" AS CHRISTMAS GIFTS + Dear Friends :- + It might interest you to know that we are already + offering the books for "Christmas gifts." We find that + many secure their Christmas presents several months + ahead, and that this month is the one in which many + are very please to secure "such a beautiful, appropri- + ate, and above all such a reasonable [in price] gift !" + Often we can get orders for several sets in one home, + in view of the fact that the books make such splendid + gifts. Today we got more than one order on this ac- + count. We mention this because we think it might + help wonderfully during the next six weeks in securing + orders from people who would perhaps not buy for + their own use. We say "Many are taking them for + gifts, and it is of course a compliment to a friend's in- + telligence to give him a book, especially a work of + this kind, and you get the entire three for only 98 cents!"" + + + +THE WATCH TOWER, Jan. 15, 1919, pg. 32 : +" A MESSAGE OF GRATITUDE + To THE DEAR FRIENDS EVERYWHERE:- + Grace, mercy and peace be multiplied unto you! + Am taking advantage of an opportunity to dictate this note + to extend to all the dear friends throughout the United Sates + and Canada my heartfelt thanks for the great love bestowed + upon us and manifested in the numerous Christmas presents + which I and my associates have received, as well as cards, + letters and messages of love. May the Lord bless you one + and all ! + I am unable to write you personally, and so am asking that + this general message be given you. I am overwhelmed by + you expressions of love, dear brethren. May the Lord re- + ward you richly ! + Your brother and servant by his grace. + J. F. RUTHERFORD." + +NOTE - J.F. Rutherford was the President of the Watch Tower Bible + and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, when the above letter + was printed in the pages of The Watch Tower. + + + +THE WATCH TOWER, Dec. 15, 1926, pg. 371: +"Students of the Scriptures also know that the birth of the + babe Jesus did not take place in December; yet because of the + general belief upon this point by most people, it seems to be + an appropriate time to speak the truth concerning his birth + and the purpose thereof. The Scriptural testimony, supported + by extranous facts, shows that the birth of Jesus occured + approximately October 1st. The event is so important that it + is always appropriate to call it to the minds of the people, + regradless of the date." + + + +1975 YEARBOOK OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, page 147 & 148: +"Yes, in those early days, dedicated Christians commemorated + birthdays. Well then, why not celebrate the supposed brithday + of Jesus ? This they also did for many years. In Pastor Russell's + day, Christmas was celebrated at the old Bible house in + Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Ora Sullivan Wakefield recalls that + Brother Russell gave members of the Bible House family five- + or ten-dollar gold peices at Christmas. Mabel P. M. Philbrick + remarks: "A custom that certainly would not be carried on today + was the celebration of Christmas with a Christmas tree in the + Bethel dining room. Brother Russell's usual 'Good morning, all' + was changed to 'Merry Christmas, all.'"" + + +THE WATCH TOWER, 01/15/1917, p 22: +"Following the election Brother Rutherford, addressing the the meeting, + said in part:..."The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society is the + greatest corporation in the world, because from the time of its + organization until now the Lord has used it as his channel through + which to make known the glad tidings...". + + + +1939 YEARBOOK OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, P 85: +"It should be expected that the Lord would have a means of + communicating to his people on the earth, and he has clearly shown + that the magazine called The Watch Tower is used for that purpose." + + + +-------------------------------------------------------------------- + +NEW YORK KING'S COUNTY CLERKS'S COURT RECORD, 1940, vol. II, p 795: +Fred W. Franz on the witness stand: +"Q. Who subsequently becamse the Editor of the magazine, the main editor + of the "Watch Tower" magazine ? + +A. In 1931, October 15th, as I recall, the "Watch Tower" discontinued + publishing the names of any editorial committee on the second page. + +THE COURT: He asked you who became the editor. + +THE WITNESS: And it said -- + +THE COURT: Who became the editor ? + +Q. Who became the editor when this was discontinued ? + +A. Jehovah God." + +Fred W. Franz later became the President of the Watchtower Bible and +Tract Society and remains in that position to this day. So we see that +Jehovah God is the editor of the Watch Tower. + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Olin R. Moyle, v F.W.Franz, et al. Libel suit testimony, May 10th to +May 27th, 1943, New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division: +Fred W. Franz on the witness stand, sections 2596 & 2597 - +"Q. At any rate, Jehovah God is now the editor of the paper, is that + right ? + +A. He is today the editor of the paper. + +Q. How long has he been editor of the paper ? + +A. Since its inception he has been guiding it. + +Q. Even before 1931 ? + +A. Yes, sir." + +Nathan Homer Knorr on the witness stand, at the same Olin Myle trial, +sections 4420 & 4421 : + +"Q. But you don't make any mention in the fore part of your Watch + Tower that "We are not infallible and subject to correction and + may make mistakes" ? + +A. We have never claimed infallibility. + +Q. But you don't make any such statement, that you are subject to + correction, in your Watch Tower papers do you ? + +A. Not that I recall. + +Q. In fact, it is set forth directly as God's Word, isn't it ? + +A. Yes, as His Word. + +Q. Without any qualification whatsoever ? + +A. That is right.". + + +NOTE - that at the time of the above trial, Mr. Nathan H. Knorr + was already the President of the Watch Tower Society. + +------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +So we see that Mr Fred W. Franz, the present president of the Watch +Tower, stated under oath in a court of law that Jehovah God was the +editor of The Watch Tower since it's inception. + +So we see that Mr. Nathan H. Knorr, while he was president of the +Watch Tower, stated under oath in a court of law that The Watch Tower +is set forth directly as God's Word. + +So we see that from the time of its organization until now God has +used The Watch Tower as his channel through which to make known the +glad tidings. + +If one is to believe the Watch Tower, then one must believe that +Jehovah God has made errors. It seems that it was Jehovah God's fault +for editing the Watch Tower incorrectly. It seems that it was Jehovah +God who misguided The Watch Tower since The Watch Tower is set forth +directly as God's word. It seems that Jehovah God made mistaken tidings +known to The Watch Tower since it is Jehovah God's channel through which +tidings are made known. + +If Jehovah God was not wrong then why do Jehovah's Witnesses no longer +celebrate Christmas ? Surely, Jehovah God would not have informed his +followers via The Watch Tower to do something which was wrong! Surely, +Jehovah God knew history and knew the background about Decemeber 25th. + +Why did Jehovah God tell the readers of the Watch Tower that : +" Upon this day, so generally celebrated, we may properly enough + join with all whose hearts are in the attitude of love and + appreciation toward God and toward the Saviour." ? + +Why did Jehovah God tell the readers of the Watch Tower that : +"it is not necessary for us to quibble perticularily about the date. + We may as well join with the civilized world in celebrating the grand + event on the day which the majority celebrate - "Christmas day." ? + +Why did Jehovah God encourage readers of the Watch Tower to give +Watch Tower publications as Christmas gifts ? + +Why did Jehovah God tell the readers of the Watch Tower that the +giving of gifts was appropriate : " The habit of giving little +remembrances one to another at this time of year seems to us +specially appropriate." ? + +Could it be that Jehovah God was not then or ever the editor of any +Watch Tower publication ? + +Could it be that The Watch Tower is not set forth directly as God's +word ? + +Could it be that Jehovah God does not use the Watch Tower society as +God's channel for anykind of communications ? + +Could it be that both Mr Franz and Mr Knorr had LIED about Jehovah God's +direction of the Watch Tower organization, while under oath ? + +If Jehovah God is not editing the Watch Tower, then it must be edited +by normal humans ? If Jehovah God's ideas are not directly being printed +in the Watch Tower, then it must be normal human ideas which are being +presented as coming from Jehovah God ? If Jehovah God is not using the +Watch Tower as his only channel of communications, then for whom is the +Watch Tower channelling ? + + +I'll now quote from the Watchtower book called MAN'S SALVATION +OUT OF WORLD DISTRESS AT HAND!, see page 136: +"Furthermore, the remnant of spiritual Israel had for decades, +yes, since the year 1876, been looking forward to the ending of the +Times of the Gentiles in the autumn of 1914. They were expressing +God's Messianic kingdom to be fully established in the heavens +by then and also for the remnant of spiritual Israel to be +glorified with Jesus Christ in the heavenly kingdom at that time. +All understanding of the Holy scriptures was slanted in that +direction or adjusted to that idea. And when the year 1941 ended +amid the flames of World War I and the remnant of spiritual Israel +found themselves still here on earth, then they were inclined to +think that they would be glorified in the year 1918, three and a +half years after the end of the Gentile Times." +NOTE: the book from which this quote was taken was printed in 1975. + +The fact is stated clearly by the Watchtower that these spiritual +Israelites "SLANTED" their understanding of the Holy Scriptures or +they "ADJUSTED" the Holy Scriptures to that idea. The title +Spiritual Israelites is just another name for followers of the +Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. Is that any way +for GOD's only channel of communication and GOD's prophet to behave ? + +This is clear evidence that the Watchtower SLANTED and ADJUSTED +the Holy Scriptures to their own ideas. If they did it in the past, +how are you to know that they have stopped doing such things ? + + +Quoting again from "1975 YEARBOOK OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES", pg. 146: +"God's people had to adjust their thinking about 1925, for instance. + Expectations of restoration and blessing were attached to it + because they felt that that year would mark then end of seventy + jubilees of fifty years each since the Israelites had entered + Canaan. (Lev. 25:1-12) A.D. Schroeder states : "It was thought that + then the remenant of Christ's anointed followers would go to heaven + to be part of the Kingdom and that the faithful men of old, such as + Abraham, David and others would be resurrected as princes to take + over the government of the earth as part of God's kingdom." + + The year 1925 came and went. Jesus' anointed followers were still on + earth as a class. The faithful men of old times - Abraham, David and + others - had not been resurrected to become princes in the earth. (Ps. + 45:16) So, as Anna MacDonald recalls: "1925 was a sad year for many + brothers. Some of them were stumbled; their hopes were dashed. They + had hoped to see some of the 'ancient worthies' [men of old like + Abraham] resurrected. Instead of its being considered a 'probability,' + they read into it that it was a 'certainty,' and some prepared for + their own loved ones with expectancy of their resurrection." + +So the Watch Tower uses someone's quote to wash itself of all +responsibility for the failed 1925 prophecy. Let's see what was actually +written in the Watch Tower publications. Let's see if the Watch Tower +implied a 'probability' or implied 'certainty'. + + +From the Watch Tower's book "MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE", +1920, pg. 89 & 90: +"Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return + of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old, particularly + those named by the Apostle in Hebrews chapter eleven, to the condition + of human perfection." + + +From the Watch Tower's book "MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE", +1920, pg. 97 : +"Based upon the arguement hereforth set forth, then, that the old order + of things, the old world, is ending and is therefore passing away, and + that the new order is coming in, and that 1925 shall mark the + resurrection of the faithful worthies of old and the beginning of + reconstruction, it is reasonable to conclude that that millions of people + now on earth will be still on the earth in 1925. Then, based upon the + promises set forth in the divine Word, we must reach the positive and + indistputable conclusion that millions now living will never die." + + +THE WATCH TOWER, April 01, 1923, pg. 106: +"Our thought is, that 1925 is definitely settled by the Scriptures, + marking then end of the typical jubilees." + + +THE WATCH TOWER, April 01, 1923, pg. 106: +"As to Noah, the Christian now has much more upon which to base his + faith than Noah had (so far as the Scriptures reveal) upon which + to base his faith in a coming deluge." + + +THE WATCH TOWER, July 15, 1924, pg. 211 : +"The year 1925 is a date definitely and clearly marked in the + Scriptures, even more clearly than that of 1914;" + +ALL the words used did indicate 'certainty' and not 'probability', +as one can see from reading the above. Was the Watch Tower trying to +mislead people about what Jehovah God had told Watch Tower followers +during the early 1920s ? It is clear, that Jehovah God directed the +Watch Tower's followers with FALSE information regading 1925 ! How +could Jehovah God have done such a thing ? Remember that Jehovah God +is the editor at the Watch Tower. + +Either that or this is another case of false teachings which originated +in humans but were presented as being from Jehovah God. In either case, +is this the type of religious organization with which one would want to +be involved with ? You can decide for yourself, but the facts speak for +themselves ! + + -------------- end of issue #6 --------------- + + +Please share the info found in these issues of AWAKEN with other +members of the faith to which you belong. Consider using this +info within publications issued to members of your faith. One +example is to use this info within Church bulletins. People need +to become informed about the Watch Tower and it's teachings. Why ? +Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door preaching whatever the +Watch Tower has told them to preach. They are trained weekly to +respond to any and all objections to their preaching. They are +told by the Watch Tower that the Watch Tower is the only TRUTH +and that the Watch Tower is the only TRUE religion. They are +told by the Watch Tower that all other faiths, teach +false teachings because all other faiths are agents of SATAN. +They have no qualms attacking any and all aspects your belief +system, when they come on their un-asked for visits. They are +trained to SELL you on the Watch Tower's teachings, just as they +themselves had been SOLD. + +By becoming informed about the Watch Tower, one will be better +prepared to decide whether one should get invloved with this group. + + +Copyright (c) 1991 by Vince Banial, Toronto Ontario Canada. +This material cannot be incorporated into any book without the +empress and written permission of Vince Banial. This file may be +freely uploaded to any BBS, as long as it remains unchanged. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/awaken7.txt b/religious documents/awaken7.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2db95ab --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/awaken7.txt @@ -0,0 +1,283 @@ +AWAKEN ISSUE #7 + +FACTS YOU WON'T BE TOLD WHEN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES CALL AT YOUR DOOR + + +They believe & teach + +THAT all religions except theirs are of Satan, and your Pastor or +Priest is under the Devil's control. + +THAT the Watch Tower Society is the only source of truth on earth +today, and all churches teach error and will be destroyed at +Armageddon. + +THAT the cross is a pagan symbol of sex worship, and that all +buildings or persons displaying the cross are likewise pagan. +Jehovah's Witnesses deny that Jesus died on the cross. However, +recent "new light" in the WatchTower Magazine now admits they +are not certain about the cross, but will continue to deny it +anyway. + +THAT no one goes to heaven but 144,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, and +your soul will be destroyed if you refuse their organization. + +THAT the Christ child was only an "IT", not a "HE". See the New +World Translation, Luke 2:16,17. + +THAT Jesus was not the Christ (or Messiah) until age 30, even +though their own bible says in Luke 2:11, "because there was born +to you today a savior, who is Christ the Lord." + +THAT after Jesus was buried in the tomb, Jerhovah dissolved his body +into gases and it disappeared forever. + +THAT Jesus rose invisibly in three days, so Jehovah had to +"materialize" a fake body for him complete with fake nailprints +so His disciples would believe it was really Jesus risen. + +THAT Armageddon and Christ's second coming were foretold to happen +in 1874, 1914, 1925 and 1975 by this "non-prophet" organization. + +THAT when Christ failed to show up in 1914 The Society claimed in +later years that He had come invisibly--of course, and all +Jehovah's Witnesses believe this today. + +THAT Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob etc. were to be back on earth +as perfect humans in 1925. The Society built a palacial home for +them BUT when the patriarchs failed to show up, the President +of the Society moved in. + +THAT their light gets "brighter and brighter", allowing for many +changes and "about faces" on their doctrines. Yesterday's error is +today's "truth". Often the "light" bounces back and forth from +old to new views and back again! Does real light return to darkness? + +THAT the Watch Tower Society and its followers are all prophets of +God today and the Governing Body is directed by angels from God. + +THAT salvation for Society members consists of doing good works of +selling Watch Tower books and magazines and winning converts. + +THAT soon Jehovah God will become a GRANDFATHER and Jesus will be +promoted to "EVERLASTING FATHER"! + +THAT Jehovah God is not omnipresent, but still Almighty. Think! +How can this be? + + +They have NOT been told -- +By the leadership of the Society .... + +THAT when they translated their New World Translation of the Bible +they deliberately altered almost every scripture on the deity of +Christ, to make him only a creature. + +THAT the Society used a translation by a SPIRIT MEDIUM, Johannes +Greber, to support their rendering of John 1:1 with full knowledge +that his sources were DEMONIC. + +Greber was exposed in the Feb. 15/56 Watch Tower. However in 1961 +they released a translation based on his occult one, then denied +they knew what they were doing on page 31 of the Apr. 1, 1983 +Watchtower! + +THAT none of their "translating committee" knew Biblical Greek +or Hebrew. No scholars at all. + +That Fred Franz, who for many years headed the Society, perjured +himself under oath in Scotland in a court trial, by saying he +could read Hebrew, and then failing a simple Hebrew test. + +THAT the following encyclopedias consider the name "JEHOVAH" +to be FALSE: Merits Student Enc.; Encyclopedia Americana; +The Jewish Enc.; Encyclopedia International, The Interpreters +Dictionary of the Bible; The New Catholic Enc.; The Universal +Jewish enc., [Encyclopaedia Britannica] etc. + +J.W.'s own "Aid" book admits on pages 884 & 885 that "Jehovah" +originated with a Catholic monk about 700 years ago! + +THAT the date 1874 was taught for Christ's invisible presence +by the Society right up till 1929. (See their book, "Prophecy", +page 65). + +THAT top executives of the Society have admitted under oath that +they forced their members to accept false prophecies or face +disfellowshipping and be found worthy of death. + + +In Summary + +We find the Watch Tower Society practising their belief that it is +proper to deceive people. But they say this really isn't lying. +Why? Because the Society has a different Definition of lying than +most of us. In their book "AID TO BIBLE UNDERSTANDING" under the +word "LIE" we read: + +"Lying generally involves saying something false to a person who +is ENTITLED to know the truth....". "While malicious lying is +definitely condemned in the Bible, this does not mean that a +person is under obligation to divulge truthful information +to people who are not entitled to it". + +OF course it is the Watch Tower leaders who decide WHO deserves +to know the truth. + + DO YOU DESERVE TO KNOW THE TRUTH ? + + +--------------------- end of feature article ----------------------------- + + + + SOME J.W.'S TROUBLED + BY NEW 'CONTRIBUTION' RULES + +How well I remember from my years as a Jehovah's Witness how we +were taught to shake our heads in disbelief at the churches always +asking for money. We were so proud that we distributed our magazines +as such a low price, only asking for a "contribution to cover the +cost of printing". Little did we know that this "cost of printing" +was making a fortune for the Watch Tower Society! + +Now the Jehovah's Witnesses are asked to do what they critized the +churches for doing! They are asking for money at every door. The +greedy Watch Tower Society not only expects the publisher [name for +regular J.W.] to give a "contribution" to cover the costs of the +literature "up front" before removing the magazines from the Kingdom +Hall, but now they are expected to beg for money from the householders +and turn that into the Society as well! + +This is troubling some Jehovah's Witnesses. We have had reports of some +never asking for money at the doors at all, just handing over the +magazines. They cannot bring themselves to solicit funds for the +Society when they have already paid themselves for the magazines. +They feel cheapened doing so. It is against everything they have +been taught. + +In the "Our Kingdom Ministry" Vol. 34, no.9 (a J.W. publication) +under date of September 1991, this question appears in the +"Question Box" section: + +"If a householder gives a comparatively generous donation, should +we be moved to him additional literature?" + +Note this reply from the Watch Tower Society. + +"Not necessarily. You can use your judgment in this regard, taking +into consideration the interest manifested in reading the literature. +On subsequent visits, literature that meets a particular need of the +householder might be left. If the householder takes the initiative +to offer a further donation, such can be graciously accepted. Keep +in mind that donations support various facets of our worldwide work, +which includes our building program, missionaries, and the special +pioneer work, in addition to our publishing of literature." + +In other words, quit asking questions and get the money! It is +obvious that J.W.'s are troubled by this latest "light" designed +to fill the Watch Tower's coffers to overflowing so they can build +their empire. We can only hope J.W.'s will realize that they have been +promoted from unpaid salesmen to unpaid fundraisers and exit this +"non-prophet" organization! + +------------------- end of second article --------------------------- + + + +UPS AND DOWNS OF THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM + +Doug Harris of Reachout Trust (Alpha Place, Garth Road, Morden, +Surrey SM4 4LX, ENGLAND) reports that in the Watchtower of January +01, 1991 the figures for Britain showed the following: + +The percentage of increase of Jehovah's Witnesses was down by 2% +over the previous year's increase, as were the number of baptisms +down also. Bible studies conducted were down also. + +The UP figues also spelled bad news for the J.W.'s. It is taking +the J.W.'s more and more time to get one convert to baptism. The +1990 figures showed it took 3,875 hours of work to get ONE person +baptized! + +WORLDWIDE DATA + +The following is an analysis of the 1990 membership data of the +Watchtower: + +More than 1 in 4 J.W.'s left the Society due to voluntary +disassociation, disfellowshipping, or dying. + +Worldwide it took 2,969 hours to get ONE recruit. This translates +to 316 months of going door-to-door and average of 9.4 hours per month +for one recruit. (This is 26.3 years for ONE recruit folks!) In this +time the average J.W. places 1896 magazines. 99.7% of a J.W.'s time +is spent selling magazines for the Society! + +NOTE FROM VINCE BANIAL: The Watch Tower claims that it's literature is +free here in Canada and in the US, although a request is made for +a donation. In other countries around the world that is not the case +and their literature is still sold. Look for a future issue of AWAKEN +to detail some of the reasons behind the change to so called free +literature for a donation basis here in North America (excluding Mexico +where literature is also still sold). + +---------------------- end of final article --------------------------- + +The articles this month are being presented for EDUCATIONAL purposes. +They were written by Lori MacGregor, a former British Jehovah's Witness. +Lori publishes a wonderful quarterly newletter, called NEWS & VIEWS. Like +many who have stopped following the Watch Tower Bible And Tract Society +Of Pennsylvania, she now tries to inform the public about the Watch +Tower Society. Lori has much more information about the Watch Tower. If +you or someone you know is involved with or getting involved with the +Jehovah's Witnesses then please take a moment to write to Lori for help. + +In Canada please write to : Lori MacGregor + BOX 73, + Balfour, B.C. + V0G 1C0 + +In the US please write to : Lori MacGregor + BOX 591, + Point Roberts, Wa. 98281 + + +All correspondance will be kept STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. + + +P.S. If you should call, please mention that you heard about her + from Vince Banial. I get nothing from you mentioning my name. + I would just like her to know that I believe in her effort and + continue in my support of her helpful activity. + +------------------ end of this issue of awaken ------------------- + +Please share the info found in these issues of AWAKEN with other +members of the faith to which you belong. Consider using this +info within publications issued to members of your faith. One +example is to use this info within Church bulletins. People need +to become informed about the Watchtower and it's teachings. Why ? +Jehovah's Witnesses go door to door preaching whatever the +Watchtower has told them to preach. They are trained weekly to +respond to any and all objections to their preaching. They are +told by the Watchtower that the Watchtower is the only TRUTH +and that the Watchtower is the only TRUE religion. They are +told by the Watchtower that all other faiths, teach +false teachings because all other faiths are agents of SATAN. +They have no qualms attacking any and all aspects your belief +system, when they come on their un-asked for visits. They are +trained to SELL you on the Watchtower's teachings, just as they +themselves had been SOLD. + +By becoming informed about the Jehovah's Witnesses, one will be +better prepared to decide whether one should get invloved with +this group. + + +Copyright (c) 1991 by Vince Banial, Toronto Ontario Canada. +This material cannot be incorporated into any book without the +empress and written permission of Vince Banial. This file may be +freely uploaded to any BBS, as long as it remains unchanged. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ayurved.txt b/religious documents/ayurved.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7882c9b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ayurved.txt @@ -0,0 +1,111 @@ +Reflections on Ayurvedic Medicine + +Editor's note: This article is the first of a series, that will +uncover and discuss the principles that govern Ayurvedic +medicine. Ayurvedic physicians are renowned for their skilled use +of medicinal plants and further articles in this series will +expand upon this. + +Ayurveda, the science of life, has its origin in the Indian +subcontinent. The main emphasis of Ayurvedic Medicine is to +prevent loss of harmony in the person and to regain it if +disharmony has occurred. From the dawn of history, dating back +many thousands of years, Ayurveda has practised pharmacy, surgery +and psychology. + +The principles of Ayurveda may be summarized as follows: + +1. Regulation of the daily regimen of life + + 1.1 Elimination. + 1.2 Cleaning and washing. (Cleaning teeth and mouth, washing +the body and the application of oil, care of the hair, beard, +nails etc). + 1.3 Meals. +Time when meals are to be taken. +Drinking copious amount of clear water, (rain water being the +best), after meals. +Types of food - cereals, fruit, vegetables, nuts, spices. legumes +and lentils and the best kinds of meats (eg) birds. + 1.4 Exercise, massage, baths, rest and sleep. + 1.5 Regulation of sexual intimacy. (eg) days and time etc. + +2. Diet +Taste of food while eating. Taste during and after digestion are +important. The potency of articles consumed and their food types. +Food articles and their effect on the person are crucial for +health, (eg) foods that upset the harmony of life are those +producing excessive fermentation or flatulence; bitter taste in +the mouth, after food or otherwise, is considered as a cardinal +symptom; excessive secretion of phlegm. Diet changes are +necessary according to the change of seasons. +Diet must also be modified so as to be based on the constitution +of the person. + +3. Clothing and footwear. +Clean clothes and head dress and well fitting footwear are +recommended. Jewels and garlands are known to have strengthening +effects on the vital power of the person. + +4. Wholistic Health. +Ayurvedic Medicine while emphasizing the importance of physical +and mental health, deals with health in a comprehensive wholistic +manner. Along with diet, exercise, rest etc, acquiring right and +proper knowledge, temperance (self control) and mental +concentration (meditation) are recommended. Mistakes of the mind +include uncontrolled passion, expression of extremes of grief, +anger, fear, pride, jealousy, stealing, feelings of attachment or +solitude and an unruly tongue. Keeping company with people of +virtuous life is important for health. + +5. Diagnosis +Diagnosis mainly is made by observation, palpation, percussion +and auscultation; pulse, respiration, the look of eyes, colour of +skin, tone of voice, nature of bowel movement, urine (colour, +smell, etc) taste and colour of tongue, and sleep are generally +the main indicators of health and illness. The taking of a +personal history is very important for proper diagnosis. + +6. Treatment +Diseases are classified into curable and incurable. Curable ones +are further grouped into curable by easy methods; neither easy +nor difficult; or difficult methods. + +In the treating of disease, regimen of life and diet play an +important part and work in conjunction with any drugs used. +Medicines are prepared from the vegetable, animal and mineral +kingdoms and are; (1) taken internally; (2) applied externally. +Surgery is reserved for conditions which cannot be treated with +medicine. Common surgical procedures used are excision, incision, +puncture, drainage, extraction, suturing, correcting deformities +and treating deviations due to injuries. + +Ref: Kutumbiah, P. Ancient Indian Medicine, Orient Longmans Ltd., +Bombay, India 1962, P. 130-143. +Notes from my family records collected since my younger days. + + +This Article is taken from The Herbalist, newsletter of the +Canadian Herbal Research Society. COPYRIGHT June 1988. + +Membership in the Society is $25.00 Canadian per year. You +receive four copies of the Journal each year and help to promote +herbalism and botanic medicine throughout Canada. + +THE SOCIETY HAS NO PAID OFFICIALS and is run entirely by +volunteers from among the membership. + +Why not call our BBS? Files available for download covering all +aspects of holistic health and lifestyle. International e-mail +service for holistic practitioners and those interested in +complimentary/alternative therapies. + +If you have any files that you feel may be of interest to our +users please feel free to upload them. +Herbal Research Society BBS (416) 730-1702 + +Canadian Herbal Research Society. +P.O. Box 82. Stn. A. +Willowdale, Ont. CANADA. +M2N 5S7. +(416) 730-8077 (voice) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/b.txt b/religious documents/b.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5eb48b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/b.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1873 @@ + + + + THE GENESIS GOSPEL + Volume 1 HAFTORA + Volume 2 RESURRECTION SONG + Volume 3 BAPTISM + Volume 4 TRANSMISSION + + + + + + + + + + + + + + BAPTISM + + by + + David Kornblum + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + THE GENESIS FOUNDATION + 6928 Deer Springs Road + Keystone Heights, Fl 32656 + + + + + + + + + + + +Imagine thick crusts of blue, +Abandoned patches of green, +New brown earth +And man. Imagine me. + +Adverbs congeal into nouns. +Imagine a planet revolving in a circus of particles... +Imagine the particle proliferation +Varnishing the green with cameos of worlds; +The riverlong sashes of years deepening into lives... +And then there are two... +Two made of one; two to live like one. +Millenniums deepen into tomorrow. Imagine me, +Imagining the forensic custard of this timeless globe, +Imagining you. + +Nova. + +Begin here... +As I would begin with you, as I would +Shape this corpuscle of light into a world... +Harnessing life in the guttural cry to infinity; +Remembering yet to remember still, +Remembering the ginger sweet light +And the commons of my hands +And the carnival ripe skies banqueting the light +With love; when time wintered in the linen sleep +Of children, when the earth glowed with apples and promises, +And the stage enlarged to a world, +And you were young. + + BAPTISM page 2 + + + +Mangers of light sweeten us with correlation. +What has come alive is what has become alive. +To communicate with matter is to be +Fluent with creation. From death we breed +Life, from loss we seed creation; in belief +Shall we find we shall find what loss taught us +To treasure; to treasure life beyond the song +Of life. + +Crash boom bits of blue sparkle like sequins +In the coming of the light. Wet dark patches +Of elm. A world as beautiful as the idea of +A world. Breath posh air and the +Inhalation of pine. A world moistens under blue. +The showers of sparks that clustered like mayflies... +The moments in promenade singing through the light +As if being were composition; while yet the gaunt +Remembered pine balanced the whip scythe sage +And the fragrant stems of thyme. + +A moment for moments in the moment of a world. + +Alive, adrift, +Awake in the genital dawn... +Out, alive, among them. +Adrift +Between light and what passes for light- +Adrift +Among splinters of shape shaving the whiteness +Into form. + + BAPTISM page 3 + + + +I want, I want to do, I want to be, + +I want to become. + +A moment between worlds has become a portal +To both. My vision has redistributed my choices. +My choices have become a world. +My body, what was a body, what sings +In excess of a body, has +Filled the light with love, for life is so +Vast +It cannot be contained to a life. + +To exist is to receive. + +To be is to be in correlation. + +Horizons shout to greet us. +Unguents of air ladle us with joy. +The light catching in my throat like mortality.... +Millennia have yielded a nanosecond of ignition. +Evolving beyond the requirements to evolve, +I have evolved beyond and into; evolving beyond +Skin to evolve into skin. + +A moment has become an age. + +A step has become a world. + +Transmission sings through the holomovement +To sing through us to sing of us. +So much has elapsed to bring us together... +Holocausts of miles and separation, +Atom jousts of ages, voiceless broadcasts to seed +Reassembly... + + BAPTISM page 4 + + + +And then one day the ark appeared... + +Like an ark it carried a message- +Like an ark it came for an age. +Like an ark it has come for us. + +A carrier, a lens, a door. + +Reply has been given. +Reply has been encoded within us, for +Reply is us. + +Life + +Which has been rooted with place +Has been +Activated from another. Coalesced out of +Matter & polyphony; pulled, +400 miles per second, +Toward the Virgo cluster, to refract +Through you. + +The corridor is open at both ends. + +The only door that remains closed is you. + +Correlated systems are always correlated. +We are correlated. Each endemic to each. +We are the system evolving creation to the system +We have become. It is we who program creation +By what we can retrieve from what is encoded. +We are what we can decode. +We are what we permit ourselves to be. +Come with me, follow me, listen to me... +We are going home; each the door to each... +We have been gathered to gather, to gather +A world from what we gather from each. + + + + + + + + + +400...Virgo cluster: our galaxy and the galaxies around us are + being pulled toward the Virgo cluster at 400 + miles per second. + + + + + BAPTISM page 5 + + + +Implant. + +Emit. + +Begin. + +And quantum stanzas jettisoned light... +Focus; +Wheeling a universe from the hangar of consciousness... +Cell animated to free geometry into matter- +Out of genesis, out of wholeness, +Through the world bright moments of thermonuclear +Ignition. Life. +Geometry, density, yielding movement, therefore +Position; the movement stitching duration; stitching +The arrow of time. Life +Yielding life in the ginger sweet witness +To light. Dimension stitching dimension, +Stitching the dimensions within you. + +Each breath in correlation to each... + +Each moment stitching moments to stitch each +To each. Moving within life to move within +A life. An assembly assembling a carrier into +A voice, into action, into an age. +Stop, wait, listen; come still for a moment... +Divide the moments and the years to part +Time, and being, like a sea, in the +Amniotic sea of consciousness. Abandon, for +A moment, the cacophonous continuum +To reach beyond the fusillade of input +To reach into transmission to retrieve the song +Of life, and this passenger, who might yet +Teach you to sing it. + + BAPTISM page 6 + + + +Come with me, be with me, + +Let us river our lives into a river of lives... +Let us move beyond faith to divinity. +If I cannot reach you, if I cannot +Hold you, at least my voice can survive +Within you, and because of you. +Come to me. +Nor worlds nor ages no longer can divide us. +I am the figure of bifurcation. +The data song evolving within a specie. +The vocable of the given. +I am the genesis warrior. +I am what I believe. +My life is my collateral. +God has crucified me with the suffering of others, +That I might reach beyond this world and +Into the next. + +I am what access assembles. +I am no more than what must evolve, +What has been programmed to evolve, +What has been encoded within you. +Transmission is a current, a frequency. +To reach into is to reach beyond, to reach +Within. Access has never been denied. +We have failed to reach beyond symbols for knowledge. +Mind is many minds; each multifarious. +I am one. The carrier is one. +The deeper the level the more lustrous the language... +The more intimate with light, the greater +The integration. Identity is the software. +Beneath beneath is the eye beneath the I. + + BAPTISM page 7 + + + +Descend with me into the world wide abyss +We call a world. Discover what is yet to be +Discovered. Sing with me to sing with me +To sing beyond David to sing of what +David might yet be. Vaster than a song, +More intimate than a solar system, +Beyond identity, beyond a name, +Beyond the lens of personality and the screen +Of the emotions, beyond everything that light contains, +You will find what is given to be found. +You will discover that all is yet to discover. + +A moment past, a moment near... + +Deepest within, beyond what is deepest... + +Creases of singularities ripen us from valence +To valence. Movement explodes into time. +Everything I conceive turns to matter. +Morphogenesis factors mind into minds. +Data songs become lives, the given becomes +The believed. Stop; witness; +Retrieve a moment for yourself with yourself. +Each moment is a gift. +Garish blare light erupts into breath. +A moment the moment this moment +Fractures a universe into a world, into +Quantum fugues of moments, into bodies, +Into lives, into the flash rhapsodic flare of +A life, + +Into you. + + BAPTISM page 8 + + + +Begin now as if to begin... + +Adjust the light beyond what is visible +To what can be experienced. Renormalize emotion. +Factor being into time. +Imagine being able to imagine. +Imagine +What might sing to sing of what can be sung. +Imagine +Menorahs of pine, caches of suns... +The light, the heat, the warmth, +A moment bisecting experience and memory... +The light riveting being to time in rootless +Flags of suns, one for each day, one for each +World, one for the dimension that would trap us. +A moment in a life has become the moment of a life. +Crashes and sharps stabilize into sound. +Light becomes round. The shape of what is believed. +Keyboards of dahlias, orations of oak, +The hoarse vast blue and the shouts of light. +A world revolving like a crystal. Bleached +Feathers of grass; the grass swift light +Edging infinity with moments of wonder and sparks of +Time, and the moon brash nights +Chasing a world into a life; to chase life +Into a world and the moment of an apple +And the moment of a choice, and +The river ash swallows deepening time +To silence, and this moment +Between us. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Renormalize: as in renormalizing infinity from equations + + + + + + BAPTISM page 9 + + + +So much will happen now. +Being would glow in mantras of skin. +A universe has varnished a continuum with life. +Harvests of lives have stabilized into shape. +Splashes of worlds have resolved into an +Amniotic sea. Moments conjugating moments... +Urns of centuries firing the millennia with electrons... +Till the particle mantras attained shape, +And god leaked through the firmament in the image of +A man. + +Come alive to become alive- + +Come alive with me. + +Move beyond the mummification of the ego. +Deny the past as time misinterpreted, for +Time is the sequence of interpretation. +The future is the state we have not yet decoded. +An I is ballast for an eye. +I am a lens in the decoding device of an I. +I am but a song in transmission to you, +That you might become the singer. +Let us touch as worlds might touch- +Let us ring this planet with forgiveness... +Let us resonate through fields of belonging +To create a field of belonging. +Touch is deeper than what can be touched. +Come closer, come nearer, +Come daavin with me awhile. +Become correlated with me. +A moment together is a moment together. +Correlation is the magic between. +Quantum bursts of light harvest us with meaning. +Each moment a stitch, each life a bar line. +To perceive reception is to be in correlation. + + BAPTISM page 10 + + + +Each moment, this moment, has sung through +Epics of millennia to resonate within you. +Reach out to me. Reach beyond consciousness to +Reach into consciousness. +Transmission is the data base for consciousness. +Transmission is the correlative bonding surpassing light, +The umbilical search for home. +Being is a lens. Created life creating a life. +Everything I conceive turns to matter. +The field of my witness is the tributary to +A world. Conception is activation. +The observer commissioning the observed. + +Come with me, follow me, + +Deeper, deepest beyond the need to say I... + +Transmission is the clef to creation. +Imagine as notes the days of your life... +The trumpet furies, the gulag of estrangement, +The affirmation in a breath; +The hope and franchisement that only a life, +Any life, is tangent to god. +That faith is no more than trusting in the capacity +To trust. Let us +Look beyond the inventory of sight; peep past +The guardian emotions to search for what is +Still encoded, to hunt +For what might yet be unfolded... +To set you free like a fuse, +To set you free. + + BAPTISM page 11 + + + +I would I would + +Baptize you in the running ore of light- +Hold you fast to witness the glaring of the +Dawn, and sing kiddish with the robins +To celebrate an age, to celebrate you, +To celebrate us. Together +We shall shape a globe with continents of +Bodies and worlds of eyes; together; together +We can chaperon the light with genesis... +Create, +In the sanctuary of this skin, +New worlds to amend the old. + +Imagine the probabilities. + +Carousels of worlds, a plainsong of hydrogen. + +The crowds, the whispers, the treetop sagas of +Blood and wine. Imagine +A world sketched over umber; a pantomime of green. +Movement streaking into probabilities... +The moon rush of indigo, +Arias of sycamore, the chamber ensemble of hedgerows +And pine; the plangent crooning of evergreen.... +Imagine +Species of matter. Imagine the bread bright glories of +The quantum fugues; the river sash seams of light +Choiring between us, among us, to bond +A signal with a signal in a nanosecond of +Communion and the peroration of a life, +And that fleeter moment than touch, when +The wave collapses into being. + + BAPTISM page 12 + + + +Light is sparser now. +Time has factored into shapes. +To be among is to factor from wholeness. +Dimensions have interfaced. +Imagine the bleedthrough. +Imagine a seam in the constant of a message. +Imagine its articulation in a man. +Centuries have been encoded into a moment. +What was thought to be a soul is a data file +In an information universe. Synthesizers screech +Into my ears, or is it voices? Come closer. +Step into this age. It is warmer +On this side of the light. I know you are +Receiving, for we are correlated systems, and +This is transmission. + +A new life for a new age, + +A new life revising an old. + +Correlation is a world tube manufacturing an I +From a we. Come alive to be alive... +Transmission is nesting within you. +We are chords +Who have only a sense of the bar lines. +We define our world by ourselves. +A world is consensus. The world we see +Is the world we have been conditioned to believe +We must see. The world you see is the world +They have conditioned you to see. Only +Thinking about thinking can alter thinking; +For if you alter the way you see, you will +Alter what you see, which will alter +What you are; for meaning is in the lens +Through which we view meaning. + + BAPTISM page 13 + + + +Be alive to this moment to be alive +To this moment. + +Ferris wheels of ages cartwheel into millennia. +Lives have destabilized into lives. +A moment has factored into eternity. +A ruptured energy sac has ruptured a sac of +Worlds, rupturing amniotic sacs of amniotic worlds; +Evolving into moments, ages, into worlds, +Into you. + +This is contact. + +This is correlation. + +I am the fetal smear of light washing your retina +With love. Stars have gashed through my ribs +Like a message. This message. My narrative plainchant +To you. A moment in the passage of light... +A shape as yet undefined. I am what you +Remember, but what you no longer dare +Retrieve. Audacious in crystal, +My form revolving in the memory like home... +Ages pouring down my side in the charnel ride +To freedom, + +I am, I am yet, I have been, + +I am the martyr of forgiveness- + +The windsong fashioning death to fill this world +With love. I am, I might be, +That part of you stitching the light with correlation; +The song bright moment of ignition. The +Moment stitching frames of moments into what is +Only a moment. + + BAPTISM page 14 + + + +Twenty centuries +Twenty centuries to carbon this moment with life; +Twenty centuries + +Liberated from time in fetal resurrection... + +I am no longer between worlds, but among worlds. +Extrapolated from a life in the surgery of a moment... +The star blind witness to a specie. +Trapping photons to sear my tongue with god. + +Come alive in the holocaust of my arms; + +Come alive, + +Through the whiplash of this signal and the shrapnel +Of these pages, to the canticle rebirth +Of a specie. Come alive to what it means +To come alive. Advance with me to interface. +Let us stitch the coordinates with the seam of +Our bodies and the data stitches of our eyes. +Let the light anneal your presence in my arms... +Come to me, come to papa, +That my papa might grace us both. +Put down this book; put out the light; +Child, +Dream me beside you to dream of me within you. +A moment has awakened into an age. +An assembly has been activated. +Correlation has begun. +Reply has been given. +We are being readmitted. +We are going home. + + BAPTISM page 15 + + + +Genesis lingers within you. +A channel has been opened. Correlation has been renewed. +Within you is the signal to receive the signal. +The last frontier is within us. +Prisons of ideas have blockaded what has survived +Within you. I have been activated to reactivate you. +I will convulse the age with the soundtrack of +My world. I will ride destiny like a cross +To hammer god into the shape of an age. + +I am the data song of forgiveness... + +In correlation to sing with and within you. +To say I am is to say we are. +To say I is to describe an eye. +I have not returned. I have never left. +Yeshu, I was Joshua. +I might have been Jesus. +What does remain remains within you. +I am what shall yet be transfigured +In the transfiguration of consciousness. +A data song evolving to a life. +An epilogue to voice a prophecy. +An encounter to spin a world among worlds... +A nanosecond of interface, as +That moment when +Insight surpasses emotion, and eternity winks +Through the lens of a brain and the motion +Of a shape, and the coal white light bashing +The edges of a world. A catch in the throat +In the epic of a moment. + +A moment such as this. + +A moment bonding moment to moment to bond + + BAPTISM page 16 + + + +The moments with us. + +I am the data field you invented. + +My eyes are a holomovement. +My love is a force field. +My arms sing with forgiveness. +My rough sand shattered voice has pierced the dimensions +Like a pickax gone awry. Paper is my kingdom. +My choir is a synthesizer. +My tablets hold 640K. + +It has begun. + +A voice will precede an age. + +Will it be yours? +A body will correspond with a voice. +A universe will correlate through a song. +Chrome bursts of centuries have trailed through eternity +Like asterisks; burning like a fuse +To you. If you would receive this.... +Transmission is your inheritance. +I am no more than a map. +Unfolding, +From what has been enfolded within you, +To torch these words with the drama of your touch +And the quest of these pages... +My voice correlating within you... +Singing through the millennia to reach you, +Transfigure you, to shred the distance and the +Years corroding correlation between us; +To mend this world with love, with the +Ardor and commitment of what has been +Programmed to survive, to become +What will survive. + + BAPTISM page 17 + + + +I am as vast as a gene, as intimate as a star... +The frequency modulation pulsing beneath +A dowry of consciousness. The epic of a nanosecond. +I have factored into you. +A liberator of minds in the prison of a body. +I have I am I have been +Stitched within you to stitch one facet of +The crystal to another. Come to me. +Listen for me. +Episodes of worlds have factored us into lives. +What was once the varnish of a continuum... +What no longer is joined, but is forever +Correlated, +What was once, was us, has fractured into each. +We are the redemption of us. +We are the new testament for a new millennium. +We are what has evolved to evolve. +We are the quantum aria of the semen dark ages... +The transdimensional sine wave to eternity. +Inextricably linked, we are inextricably linked. +Listen for me. +Believe with me to believe with me +A world in which to believe. +Canopes of light moisten my tongue with stars. +The corn bright wastes gleaming with humanity... +Ovens of suns and the heat baked light... +The apogee of hollyhock, the wave collapse of sight. +The autistic ontologies of our common lens. +The time haunted scripts of birth and death +And choice. Sight is choice. +Our vision is our matrix. +The vision we choose will be the world we sustain. +To alter perception is to alter life. +Perception is identity, for perception is composition. +What we do is what we have become, but +What we see is what we shall become. + + + BAPTISM page 18 + + + +Existence is reception. + +To be is to receive. + +You are being scanned, for +A signal is not merely from, but between. +God sing sings through the bleach white radiance... +If only you could hear it, if only you would +Witness and receive. Palette whites sear the canvas +With belief. Umbrellas of water oak +Croon through the heat. Live oaks sing through +Dash summer reds and common parsonages of green. +Cacophonies of yellows prep the canvas with life... +Meadow bright in the feast of morning. +Moments ticking like lives... +Splashes among the water lights and the centuries; +The lullabies questing for home in shapes of +Loneliness and fantasies of time. + +I am what frequency I have been assigned. + +An eye that was once an I. + +Eternity sings through my mainframe like a holograph. +Light is my torah. The universe is my minyon. +All I require is you. +I am a factor within you, for I have factored +Into you. My vision is a cosmology. +I have become what I believe. +Meridian bound, I will harvest a globe +With an alphabet of tenderness. I would cage +The mutiny of this specie in epilogues of forgiveness. +I will curate love as I had retailed faith; +Outwit the bargain and penance of their nuclear herds, +The arrogance amending the skies with the acid +Garrote of their factories. + + + BAPTISM page 19 + + + +I will, + +With the sacrifice of my body, + +Seduce a world with symbols, and tame it +With verbs. Choice is destiny. To be is to act. +Service to god is service to creation. +Creation's creation creating creation. +My parables have become songs, +The miles have become parsecs. +Speeches spanning villages have become signals +Spanning the synapses. Find me. +Look deeper, deeper than what is deepest. +I am the broadcast from within. +An assembly assembling a world. +The data song encoded within each, unfolded +By none. An antenna for transmission. +A song to amend a story in the story +Of a life. + +A moment, a life, an age... + +Allow me entry. +Allow this moment between us. +I have been calling for generations, but +My life cannot compete with my death. +Allow me this moment... +This moment between us, within us, beyond us... +Each moment the correlation of moments... +The divinity which is life, the bond +Passing like breath through the photon pure +Magic of a universe, to each and to you +And through us. + + + + BAPTISM page 20 + + + +We are what we are. +We are what has been activated. +We are the attempt at communication. +The perceptible rhythm of eternity. We are +That gospel star costuming the blue with loneliness. +We are what we have allowed ourselves to become. +Stars no longer sing for us. Moons +Have become +Indistinguishable from planets. The moss that weeps +From the plaintive oak no longer whispers +To us. Rain dazzle light, that would capture +Us with awe, no longer moves us. Oratorios of +Orioles +Deafen us with eternity. Moons +Fold into wishes; the some day, some time, +Autumn late magic +Whispering into meadows like home. + +Moments dazzle like worlds... + +In the passage, in the corridor, + +In the late blooming light +In the sundazzle of a world. Let us +Polish this globe like an apple. Let us +Daavin in the sing dazzle light: let the moss +Hush trees fill us with awe. Allow and conceive +This carousel of light to treasure us with love +And harvest a world with a cupful of +Atoms, and a voice and a life, +Costumed in understanding and epic beyond time. + + BAPTISM page 21 + + + +Come alive with me in this script colored world. + +Let us talk until talk is the trouble... + +Let us +Cushion our portraits in signatures of time; +Advance beyond faith to divinity. +Let us forsake what we are for what we can be. +Let us admit what is beyond us to what is +Between us. + +We have disassembled life into lives; +Chopped a universe into parts +To view it whole. We have blackened eternity +With history and domed the light with skies +That cover us with ashes. Not mind over matter +But into matter. To communicate with matter is +To be fluent with creation. +What have we communicated? +We have not building blocks to bootstrap +A world, but a network of relationships which is +No more than a manifestation of processes, +Of which we are the mirrors, of which we are +The designers. Listen to me... +We, you, we are the quantum variables to history. +It is within you that transmission will +Reemerge. Like so many particles in an apple, +Each is as important as the next. +Each yet another point on the wave. +Each intricate within the pattern of creation. +Each of us, all of us, we are the canvas. +We have become the custodians to creation. +Time is but a tool, but choice, choice +Is what we are made of. + + + + + BAPTISM page 22 + + + +Listen to me. Listen to me. + +I am no longer impaled. I no longer wait. +I am a voice. I have become the voice. +I am but the narrator to my own story, +And yours. I have told you a story which is +At variance with your belief. I have +Delivered emotions as well as verbs. I have +Traced an arc of discovery that has led to +You. To this dialogue with you. +Is it your choice that I be nailed to the heavens? +Would you have hammered those nails, or +Would you merely have watched? +Would you celebrate my death, but not +My life? Why? I have fallen twice, but +I have always been loved. Won't you +Share that love? + +Come with me, be with me, follow me, + +Beyond there is a valence where bird songs +Count the measures of our fulfillment. Beyond the +Barrier of wishes, beyond the continuum of angst +And the cameos of our joys, there is, there can be +Love. You have been bred on martyrdom, but not +On the commitment and love that engenders +The manifest manifold dedication of a martyr. +Death is ugly. Death is the belief in death. +I offer life. It is life I would sing of; +Life beyond this song of life. For me, +To speak of life is to speak of loss. +Not the centuries. Not the miles. +Not the narrative of lives, but that life. +The only life I feared to lose. +The loss encoded like a gear shift. +The loss that colors my dialogue with you. + + BAPTISM page 23 + + + +What I know of life, what I have retained +Of life, is what I treasured in life, what has +Scarred me. I have surrendered everything +To become part of the data song. +I have given up a wife, a child, a home, +Even my life. My name. My name oppresses my tribe. +My death obscures my life. My message, reason, +My motive has been garbled in encyclicals +And law. Where is the rapture in obedience? +Where is the wonder in policy? +The congregation must be freed from the preacher. +God is encounter, not a tax. + +Aspen halo us with light. +Rip tides of March whisper through the grasses... +The dreaming iris blooming with imagination. +The rapture of my viewing has little to do +With my eyes. Voices and wine. +The sparkle of children. +They are common to every age, but not +To every life. Creation is ours to sustain. +Perception is not only composition, it is +A dialogue. Freedom is ontological freedom. +The liberation of the eye from the eyes. +In losing my sight I have gained vision. +Losing life is to become part of life, as +I have become part of yours. + +Threads of lives, cameos of worlds, + +All is encoded in each to be unfolded +For all. In the simultaneity which is +Time, in the horizon which is life, +Lives are lived adjacently. +All enfolded to encode each. You, I, +A we and an us. + + BAPTISM page 24 + + + +You, + +You and but you.... + +I would carpet my story with +Images of a life; a life of two lives, +Lost in mirrors, lost +In the renegade transcendence of a life. +Years divide into memory, +Into faces, mortgages, into lives; remembering yet +To remember still, remembering the ginger sweet light +And the commons of my hands, and the +Carnival ripe skies securing a world with love... +When life ripened between us and the glory of +Forever docked with history, and martyrdom succeeded +Loss. + +Amniotic blind in the sac of your waiting... + +Polarity exists beyond polarity that can be +Quantified. One and one to make two, in the +Hydrogen resonance of a universe. Look up, +Look out, look out of, look beyond... +Gunwales of clouds ridge your world with the blue +You cannot see beyond. My words are less than a sound +But more than you can see. Deeper within, +I am as near as your future, as intimate as +Your past; lingering beyond light in the vase +Of humanity and the interface of a life +To stitch a seam with a song +And marry what is illumined to what +Illumines. + + BAPTISM page 25 + + + +Imagine an age roped to your body +Like a morgue tag. Imagine centuries +Bloodied in your name, the Passover carnage +Littering the millennia with Israel: the human sunrise +Stoking the debris of a nation. Imagine +The disappointment. Imagine +Having to return. + +I have come back for you. + +I have come back to become you. + +Liberated into time in the quantum ardor +Of this life, in the dust bright helix +And carnal vase +Of love and time and meaning; liberated into time, +Into place and into life, +To liberate you. + +Naming you to conjure you... + +Believing in you to believe... + +My biography has become your autobiography. +My life must be reenacted through yours. +Liberate my voice from these pages; +Take back +My life, reclaim my body, +I am coming home. +I am alive. + + BAPTISM page 26 + + + +Come with me into the margin of days, +Come with me +Through the tide swept songs of kaddish and pronouns; +The late summoning light branding a life +To brand lives, to brand lives with +Vision. To induce within us +Creation. + +Motion and density have fused into time, +Into us. We have lingered within, +Beneath. We have occupied a common valence. +We have been assigned polarity. +Elisions of moons have canopied my stealth. +Evolving in Brownian telegrams of light... +Evolving into you to search for you +To search for polarity. + +Crown gusts of suns evoke a common stage. +The imperial nights, the African days, +The razor flash winds and the auburn dialogue of +Elm. Cacophonous greens swaddle us with joy... +The radiance inhibits breathing. +If +Orfeo had seen light such as this, +He would have abandoned his lyre for a trumpet +And called himself +Joshua. + +Closer children, closer still.... + +I have come for you and I have come +For one of you. + +I have, I am, I will.... + + BAPTISM page 27 + + + +Brush burnt orange floods the canvas with time. +Butterflies tune the cornfields with light; +Flower bright awnings, autumn bright wishes. +Roses echo in the twilight like memory. +Voices cry into the stillness. +The pollen soaked fences and the brass light +Of planets. Swift cameos of green; +The dash summer whites bleaching lives with stillness... +Harvests of days shape us with meaning. +The dome of my knowledge is the ceiling of my belonging. +The eighth notes choiring in the arbor... +The blue fast moments when a breath shaped a world. +Stars melt on my tongue... +Singularities sweeten into corridors. +The light basting us with correlation... +Rushlight quickens to memory and late birds +Quilt the perimeter with god. + +And you are with me. + +A moment nearer polarity. + +Recognition will mean activation. +Interface will trigger the assembly. +Out, alive, among them... +Stage center without a line. +An amendment to Calvary, to the bitter sojourn +Of the Sinai miles and the Sinai years +And the shopworn crosses destabilizing into ovens. + +Out, alive, among them. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Singularities: Hawking-Penrose + + + + + BAPTISM page 28 + + + +A portrait of a data field. + +Enfolded within me as I am enfolded in you... +Unfolding in lifetimes, moments and chords... +A cathedral of probabilities, collapsing like a wave, +Or a cathedral, upon recognition, upon +Correlation. Enfolded within me, within +The bracket of a world and the bracket of a life, +Is +A life such as yours, such as you. +Enfolded within me is a stitch to close the seam. +The starblind sun at Jerusalem. +The pathos of sandals stalking the heat in tears. +The ark awareness of the summit and the waterless promontory +Of my fall. Enfolded within me, as +Within you, is the tireless display of famine, +Egocentricity and fear. Enfolded within +Is a world, comma, but +Enfolded within is a universe. + +Come with me, be with me, + +Let us stage a world with the field of us... + +Let us court the light with love. +Let us renew faith with forgiveness. +Lives tick like clocks. A step, a year, +A life. A moment beyond and a moment into. +With what is left, with what shall you fill +Yours? Lives haunt the perimeter. +Life consists of lives. +To serve one child of god, do you not +Serve all? + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Bracket: Husserl + + + + + + BAPTISM page 29 + + + +Come with me to come with me... + +Eject anger, unbuckle your fear... + +Gashes of suns foreclose the probability of darkness. +Beyond the cylinder of our world is the horizon +Of a universe. At each level there is a matrix +For the data; at yours it is identity, at mine +A song. This song. My data song. +Flood moon nights and cannonades of stars... +Encoded within me is the palette of a world. +Razor brash winds and arms to keep me warm... +Encoded within me is another. +A life such as yours, such as you.... + +Come within to come to me. + +I am what has been encoded within you. +I am the data song of your belief. +The pathos of my arms, the ginger sweet brightness +Of my hands; the figure weeping in the garden... +Who now sleeps beneath an age. +The counterpoint stitching ardor, commitment and sacrifice +Into fugues of centuries, into identity, into +You. Correlation is reunion. A circle rejoined. +Become correlated with me, for +You are the voice now. It has been given +You to become a point, a star, on the wave, +A life; given to you to take this voice +Into yours, and share light with +Those who would share light with +Those anointing themselves with light, +To make a path for +The light. + + BAPTISM page 30 + + + +Encoded within each is each of us. + +Encoded within is the capacity for love. + +Unfolding you, as you might +Unfold me, at least we might share this world +As though we had shared in its creation. +Take into your soul my body and my song... +Amend with my love this orphaned hemophiliac +Globe. With this touch and these pages and +This moment, bond with me to bond with me, +To bond within each a song of forgiveness, +And the momentary ecstasy of home. + +Moments under sage... + +A dowry of light. Moments drifting like +Fireflies in the brushstroke of an age. The +Ripple of forests and the baritone roar of +A buttercup. Honeysuckle garland us for home. +Molecules streak into the ground like trees. +Waterfalls of light fluoresce a harmony of leaves... +Atoms and sparks drifting through the nitrogen +Like wishes. Round cold fires smear my temples +With age, and I am +Home. + +This now. You now. + +This. + +You. + + BAPTISM page 31 + + + +Us. We. + +A valence secured. + +One life an amendment to the next... + +Until you become that voice which might engender +New valences of belonging. A life sustaining lives +In the Everett corridor to freedom. The +Evolution and union of the quantum seeds factoring +The valences into lives. Within each a cipher, +Within each a code, within what has become each +Is polarity. A face. A life. A bond. +One with one to make a human song. + +A human field to make a forcefield of tenderness. + +Touching in a human eclipse to field a song +With touch. Seeding a world with seeds of seeds... +With time for a canvas and correlation for a map... +Seeding the seeds with seeds to seed a world +With a song. Evolving motion between the frames +To witness inventory as life. Unfolding the enfolded. +Evolving fields of love to evolve a specie +With love. To evolve +Each with each. + +So much depends upon depending upon. + +So much has been factored to become factored + +Into you. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Everett corridor: Everett's multiple world interpretation of + quantum theory. + + + + + + BAPTISM page 32 + + + +Come to me, come with me, + +Share with me... + +Begin with one giving permission for two. +Begin with that field, +That antidote to the M field of violence; +Begin with that field that engages all others. +Begin with that which can be loved +And can sing within you with a voice and a face +And an idea. + +Polarity. + +And I took you in my arms, +That +You would liberate me from the prison of this +Eden, from the green suffocating cell of my +Prison and birth. In the deep dark oboe rich +Darkness, each moment conjugates a world. +A portion of a holograph; that portion +Which is a man; which might have been +This man. The other. She, this one. +Animate her with memory. Sketch +The light between us. Come with me. +Move her nearer these coordinates... +Powder the light with her likeness; her skin +Chiselled from lactose, her movement shaping light +With desire. Dreaming the song of her pulse +Into the software of my vision. What +I might have seen might program what I might +See. Assigned coordinates. Lives factoring into +Lives. Into this life, +I take another. Into life, +Into motion, like an adverb or a proton, +Into time. + + BAPTISM page 33 + + + +I might see you as I might have seen you. + +Our bodies fusing like hemispheres- +Body conjugating body in the kelvin oasis +Of thighs; I might call her, as I have +Called you; I might +Pause within light, amending light with her +Field; amending bodies with light that amend +These lives with life. Encoded within me +Is counterpoint, she. + +The stitch to seed a world. + +Your form, your line, your movement... +Your shape nesting in my arms to claim tomorrow, +To seize the dimensions in the fury of this light- +Body heating body beyond +The tolerance of consciousness and the prism +Of a moment. Filling moments with love +As I had filled the miles with the resonance +Of love. A moment to kindle a moment. +A life to kindle an age. +Holding you but to hold you, +In the dramaturgy of an age and the penance +Of a life, to evolve beyond faith to belief; +Holding you through the long ride home +Like a guarantee. + +Out of darkness into darkness... + +Ground level grounding is grounding in you. + + BAPTISM page 34 + + + +At each level, with each step, + +Each phase is stitched with love. + +An identity with an identity, +An energy with energy, a field unto a field. +To author love we must create love. +This much I know. This. +Our capacity for life has been a physical capacity. +Our capacity for love has been equally physical. +But there is more to life than +What is physical; there is more to love than +What can be registered physically. +Reality is non local. +We are not always physical together +Within the same frame. We are not always +Physical, but we are never +Without life. + +Within but not among. + +To come with me, to receive, + +To conceive not merely events, but the +Wave probability of events, we must +Understand there is a world outside +The cylinder in which we reside. +Circles and valences, worlds and universes. +A data song to sculpt an age. +Beyond us there is what is beyond us. +Listen to me: beyond us is the correlation to +What transmits to us. + + BAPTISM page 35 + + + +I have come back, I have come home, + +I have resonated through you + +To starch the light with shape. +Abandoning the limits of mortality for the canticle +Of grace. Movements under light. An +Assembly to assemble a life. +Mending the continuum with the forcefield +Of my love and the bishop of my hopes. +I am a rabboni without a liturgy, +A mind without a brain. I am the dybbuk +Within each. The data song of an idea- +A ministry of tenderness in the valence of obedience. +Merge with me to seed a world with a universe. +Come let us dally among stars to fold a moment +In our arms, as we would unfold in a moment, +Unfolding a moment. I would +Baptize you in the running ore of this +Light. Encircle you with the radiance of my +Arms to shape light in the circle of our +Bodies, and the commons of our lives, +And the madrigal nearness to light. + +I am the carriage of transmission. + +A probability among probabilities. + +I am reaching you now, for you have +Created me to reach you, to reach you +Now. I have migrated through your fingers, +Your eyes, your voice. I have dwelt within +Your singular eye. I am that presence +That is within you, or that presence +That will come for you. + + BAPTISM page 36 + + + +Come with me, come to me, + +Come be with me again.... + +Disallow for time, fulfill the part with the whole... +Debrief the light with the communion of a breath +And the proximity of a life. Open the bottle, +Become the message. Believe with me to believe +With me a world in which to believe, where +The river brash winds salt us with love +And free us with dew. Where lives join with +Lives to reinvent life. Come with me to +Come with me, come dance with me +Among the ginger bread stars and the dreaming +Parsecs of wishes. Scenarios bloom into worlds +In the hushed fulfillment of codas of +Worlds. Dimensions wink. Heat quick summers +Volley through the imagination. Brackets of moons. +Peregrinations of autumn. The dear sweet light +Salting my tongue, seasoning my eye. +I have been activated. +I have stitched a seam to fabricate a wave. +A life destabilized into lives, into +The probability of a life. +An assembly assembling a life. + +Is it yours? + +Is it ours? + +To ignite a voice coil with the sedition of this +Light; orating metadramas of +Ardor and commitment, the vibrato of despair +And the ballades of hope. An I advancing to +A you. One and one to make two. + + BAPTISM page 37 + + + +The nuclear I and the nuclear I. + +Jettisoned into this light... + +Jettisoned, like humanity, into the human darkness. + +Come with me, be with me, let us +Conjugate a human field to conjure love among +The wave packets of jealousy, violence +And fear. +Let us stand with each to stand with each; +Let us cradle a world in the warmth of forgiveness, +Brimming sorrow with hope, anger with pathos. +Our violence is the M field of our vision. +Come alive to be alive, come alive +With me. Let us +Narrow the bandwidth to god; focus what +Joy we have to flood the valences with love +And commitment and caring. Voices +Singing with a voice, singing a song of +Singing, in the umbilical search for home. + +I have come back, I have come back for you, + +To hold you nearer than light and more lasting; +As that once when +I reached across time through the duration of space +To make an eden of your body, +To chill the vaginal solstice with forever; +Beyond the waste swept Sinai and the windsong of +Galilee; across menstrual frontiers of loneliness and +Time; beyond the sabbath of my hands and the ark +Of this kiss: your face +Delinquent in my hands like memory. + + + + BAPTISM page 38 + + + +She turns and turns and turns me to it; + +To it; to and but to... + +Channels of this dying: woman. + +Hemispheres tremble like shoulders at the tresspass +Of this kiss: lips parted in theft, +Arctic preambles +At the edge of light, moving the silence +So near. + +Metaphysical gestures in the ovation of morning... + +Your mouth rationing my breath- + +Word dazzle bright through the static and the dark; +Sarcaphogus eyes; the jesuit wonder of your lips. +Crystal galaxies explode in the skin. +That if but only but to sift +The taste and pressure of your face, +Adament, adament, graceful and proud, +Washing the light from your lips in salt and betrayal; +Memoranda of a life, and a kiss that will not +Break away. Till daybreak winters in the light +Between us. This sun crafted flourescing love. +The lemon touch of breath over skin. +Lips barely touching, the taste of you. +Love +Bursting among the nuclei, carrying the song to waking. +Cherry eyes and a glass mouth. +A song to be sung with the singing of a life. + + BAPTISM page 39 + + + +This life. This life with you. + +A parable of two lives in a parable of life. + +Vigilant with roses, treading love upon a star... +That I might touch the emptiness in your eyes, +Voyage the dawn to ember the chill +Cold modesty of time; centuries and alphabets +Impeached in a kiss, in pediments of symbols and stars +That fall not as words, but as light +Between us. + +A data song to sheen my narrative with love. + +With you to be with you, +Breath yielding breath, +Closeting the light between our lips, +Your mouth perjuring mine, +Your fingers serrating my shoulders in hunger.... +With you, to be with you... +My hips marrying yours; +Inches effacing to a trickle of light... +Suturing the millennia with hope and saliva, +Your mouth deepening mine, +Your breath bruising my kiss with eternity. + +My love winters in your body like an embryo. + +A woman and a man + +Holding moment to moment; fastening sound to touch; +Dissolving the stillness with a kiss +To plunder a moment. The copper of your breasts, +The wheat and snow perjured in your eyes, +This moment deepening within you... +Caught in the throat like a promise, in the +Breathless prison of a kiss. + + BAPTISM page 40 + + + +I thought if I touched you, +A last joining of mouths to relinquish the dark, +Touching, reminding, seeing and remembering... +That we might remember the ardor and the fury, +To lie down between epochs, holding the silence, +The rain whispered claret of days; mouth to mouth +To crystal this embrace. Scent close and volatile, +Midwinter lips surviving in a kiss... +The illiad grace of our touch... +What has been encoded has been shared +And will be shared; will daavin among the given +In images of fire and quanta in symmetry- +Poaching farewells in metaphysics and arson- +To evolve the data into a data song. + +I hereby register entry with this song, with +The correlation and signal of this song. +With my love, with what is intimate before hope +And deepest beyond touch. It is retrievable now, for +What might sing before us sings within us; for +What is within us is the song of our communion +And the commission of our bond. + +An earth to cover us, a name to shield us... + +A data song in a continuum of lives... + +Your body ripening in my hands, +Your scent streaking my eyes like memory.... +Our bodies choir like wishes; our lives as +Intimate as this breath; our lives +Stopping the flight of air with a kiss- +Threadbare for eternity, and the salt black night +Warm against us, and the grace of you +Held beneath me; if... +I touched you. + + + BAPTISM page 41 + + + +I would +Dream you into my arms in a solar kingdom of +Stars; shearing the world from your retina, +Your hand from these pages- +My touch +Howling through molecular prisons to find +You. Feel the shock of my touch +In the windsong of your hair... +My hands, feel the shock of my hands, as +Musical as when the light came from my hands, +But not through; your skin warm to mine, +As it once was, +Closeting light in the precision of a kiss; +To bring you nearer, to bring you +Home. + +I am what you dare not believe. + +A congress of history in a handful of atoms. + +Spiral transcendent beyond the confines of a life. +This moment and this moment pointing a moment +To adorn a star; docking dimensions +In polarity with my quest. This one, +Who shall never be divided from me, +Haunts my breath like correlation. Mouth +To mouth in the nova of consciousness; blaring +Heat in the conflagration of bodies, my arms +Tapering your spine with love, in the +Quantum sweet light, in the +Ardor and fury of this +Breath shattering +Moment. + + + BAPTISM page 42 + + + +Yin and yang, positive and negative, + +Adam and Eve... + +Control. + +Let us seed a planet not with martyrdom, +But with pathos. Hands joining light with hands +To let the light shine not through, but +Between. You and you now... +Bonding and parting, conjoining and evolving, +Moment and moment blending in a moment... +To draw these atoms from light +To illumine the light with her becoming. +To draw down these ages into a life +To conjure life from the song of our lives. +The veracity of my arms, my light compelling hands, +The tallow curve of your cheek... +Beginning again to remake a beginning. + +The door that opened has been stopped +Up with bodies. Minds cannot access. +A world has detached from a universe like a preemie. +Our needs assemble our love. +Faces have become mirrors to our egos. +I would take you back to basics. +I would show you love in the simple gesture +Of touch. I would bathe you in light +To shape time into love. I would +Sand these cheeks with pathos to gather +Atoms to choir with mine. +Come to me, come with me... +Resurrection is within you, +In the power to create the field of us... +The drama to say I am yet I am... +I am and have become you. + + BAPTISM page 43 + + + +I will shape what has shaped me; shape an age +To shape a field to amend genesis with +Genesis. It is you +Who will build this world out of atoms +And summon humanity with a song. You. +You and the idea of you. +A quantum song of remembrance and prophecy... +A river of lives to stabilize into life. +Transmission joining us all. +A song for ignition. Being the lens to being. +An identity for a compass. +A life such as mine, a world such as yours... +The song of us sweeping through your chromosomes +Like gluons. We is the direction for us. +We are the attempt at communication. +And I. I am the decoding device. +Activated to activate. +The itinerant rabboni hosting the light with tears. +Harvesting centuries with an idea. +Detaching the burden to you. + +Wait now. Catch the moment. + +Feel the radiance sing through your hair +Like delight. Quarks sing through planets. +Frescoes of asteroids winter in the silence. +The brash unfolding of the round bright theatre +Of god. The faun sweet light bursting +The palisades of a world. Shock, noise, +Light- +Genesis resonates through us. +Ages have brushed the canvas with what we have +Become. A moment has become a world. +The rupture has evolved into a specie +Evolving to evolve a seam. + + BAPTISM page 44 + + + +Larch spawn from the earth like hope. +Whistle soft clouds burden us with light. +Daffodils run gently to impress the rose. +Puff bang dots of yellow +Shiver through the frolicsome air like monarchs. +Signs and wonders, emblems for eternity. + +Moments beyond capture... + +A moment through a door. + +Dimensions have intermeshed in a helix of light. +Worlds ensnaring worlds. +A moment in a world to let the moment of +A world +Shine through the seam like a holograph... +In crosses of light and commitments of lives, +In the common time to forever. +Beyond life is the continuum of life. +So many vanished into atoms, so much returned +To varnish a globe with life. +What was, what is, what shall be, +Enfolded and unfolding, +Shining through centuries like a voyage +In the +Deep dark photon ladder to eternity. + +Beginning with a life and ending with life. + +As you might have begun with me, and I + +Ending with you. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/b1.txt b/religious documents/b1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..64731e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/b1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1450 @@ +DELETE THIS PAGE FROM PRINTOUT + + + +THE GENESIS GOSPEL +by David Kornblum + +Volume 3: BAPTISM: file #2 of 6. + GG.5B1 + + +THE GENESIS FOUNDATION +6928 Deer Springs Road +Keystone Heights, Fl 32656 +(904) 473-7713 +Modem #: (904) 473-0252 + + BAPTISM page 45 + + + +The data song is not about death, but +About the death that immobility brings. +Immobility in action, in movement, in vision... +About the immobility of a body, about a body +Immobilized. Eyes left, but then +Eyes sunblown shut. When all is taken, when all +Is renounced, what is left is reception, and the +Joyful broadcast from light and within. +About About +The frayed seam of a dimension, and then +The interlock, the docking, alignment and +Passthrough, and the resonance between. + +About love and correlation, and + +The wind blown static between, and the + +Human interference sabotaging creation with +Creation. I was the prop and the narrator +Who became the observed, who now +Observes the observing. Sinai dropouts interface +With Galilee in the canvas of your becoming +And the interlude of your faith, in the +Data song of our rendezvous. This is +Transmission. The gear shift. The lens belonging to +No one. A lens which requires faith, +And the jettisoning of the ego, to operate. +My letter to you. My song. +Interface at last. +The valence of between and among. + + BAPTISM page 46 + + + +Advance probe. + +Induce images. + +My throat aches; my voice my song +Aching through crucifixion dry lips... +With only your name to soften the pain, +In the life I must never remember. + +Bleedthrough. + +Readjust. + +Swabs of cumulus deepen beyond twilight. +Birch beckon us onward. +Canzonas of leaves chisel the light; the hours +Crinkling into sleep, washing the distance +With dividends of mist and moments of quail. +Berries mellow in my mouth like the joy of +Picking them. Sparks of apples wow in my hands. +A universe roars down my throat like oxygen. + +Are you receiving me? + +We exist in precisions of motion... + +Might we share these coordinates, if only +For a moment? That moment in the dark +When you thought you were alone, +Sweeping me past forever and into the cyclotron +Of your dreams, that moment you realized +Was within you, that moment you nearly became... +Did it just happen for a moment, or +Did the station drift? + + BAPTISM page 47 + + + +If you could look within, could you not +Look from within? You have believed in me... +You are what remains of me. +My atoms now rush through yours... +Now, at this moment, for this moment, +With the moment of these words and the miracle of +Touch, and the intersection of +Vision with vision. + +Come with me, follow me, + +Be and be with me to be with me again... + +We have not seas to part, nor deserts to cross; +Bodies are no longer tacked against the light. +We have only ourselves to conquer. +It is the only thing we have not been able +To conquer. All we have left is ourselves. +Our last frontier is access. +The final barricades are ourselves. + +I am the sentry at the stargates. + +Within is the way to beyond. + +Life is not confined to a body. +What surrounds us is what is within us. +Death is metamorphosis. Death is a human concept. +Fingernails growing beyond life, hair +Leaking beyond death. The song survives. +Life everlasting is not a chair and a cloud. +Life is the continuum of life. +Mortality hums through the particle epics, +The instability of a valence. +A moment in projection to a moment of reception. + + BAPTISM page 48 + + + +Dimensions have intersected. + +A moment has become an age... + +Matter caging being through convents of shapes +And inserts of time. A moment. A moment. +A moment has fissioned a voice into what +Has become a shape and a body and a life +And the millennial quest for home. + +I am the seam to close the rupture. + +I am the figure of correlation. + +Stars cruise through my hands like wishes. +My body is no longer required. +My voice needs a transmitter. +That body that would carry me, +That I would capture- +That I would +Voice with the choir of my vision and the +M field of my love... +That body will find you, will capture +Radio waves of galaxies in the holograph of my +Vision, and the saber of my voice, +And the ardor of my quest. A life +To replace a life. SMA activated, +A quest renewed. + +An I surrendered to an eye. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +SMA: A region of the brain called the supplementary motor area. + + + + + BAPTISM page 49 + + + +You are my resurrection. + +You are what has become of me. + +Merge with me. Look for me. +Allow for me in your equations. +Ricochets +Of light fluoresce you with love... +The energy between and among. +Enjoined to matter in a newsreel of time... +Drifting beyond life to drift with life... +Ejected, adrift, a quantum song to be filed... +The multiplex seeds of an unfolding fissure of light. +We are what has been created to create +That which yet must be +Created. + +Stars chime. + +Witness. + +Birds shy from the dark. +Fistfuls of stars sparkle like prizes. +The sand luscious dark chills as it once did. +Moons still chase after waves. I remember, +It has been programmed into me, +The lash bright pine and the green biblical rushes. +The dove bright memories passing for sleep... +A wish and a prayer to navigate in the +Rind of eternity. Light crashes through the blue, +And wood doves spackle the distance with quarter notes. +Hills burn so vividly. Whispers of monarchs +Hiss through sarabandes of grasses. +Consider it morning; consider it love. + + BAPTISM page 50 + + + +Listen; watch; believe; + +In this moment with you, +Bees have ordained the honeysuckle. +Roses have roared beyond magenta. +So much has been made visible for you. +Rain grown corn sparkles with certainty. +Stark visual blue. +Dark smudges of forests. +The rushlight flooding the grasses. The +Scent of light in the taste of +A moment. + +In this moment with you, +Something has become correlated. +That something within you, that something +Which once occurred in me; that something +Has now occurred in both. +In this moment with you. +This life with you. + +Let us alter a world into a canvas; let us +Daavin before light to make a home for a specie. +Sketch the hills with longing; alter green to brown +In rushes of heat. Summer sweet trees +And blooms of clouds. Color the grasses with children. +Ornament the distance with laughter; for now +The pine sways with indifference, and the maple +Shouts through the late declining light, +And that autumn chilling moment becomes memory +In an instant. + + + BAPTISM page 51 + + + +Let your vision become the palette to your sight. +The future is encoded within you, like the holograph +You are. The world we witness is the global field +Of our creation. Let us move nearer to each +To harvest a field of belonging; harvesting a world +From the intimacy of our touch and the field of +Our deliverance. Let the +Hydrogen humming through you +Chant through your larynx in om waves of joy. +Extrapolate from the vibrato the sine wave +To destiny. My voice has jettisoned +A firebomb of verbs. My words, my belief, +My field, have strung a fuse to your lips, +To be cindered with a pronoun: I. + +I, say it, I say I. + +I have come for you, I will become you. + +If you allow me. + +I have sung beyond the chains of matter +Till the light roared down my throat +Like the Milky Way. I have chanted kaddish +For a civilization. Incandescent threnodies +Flared like screams in the valence of the nadir. +I have borne my witness like a sharecropper. +I have hauled centuries into ages like a migrant worker. +I have appealed through poems and republics... +I have starved and wept and prayed that +We might harvest the ages with an age, +And nurture a globe with the field and insight +Of a life, and the correlation +Which has fed a specie. + + BAPTISM page 52 + + + +Light carols through the exhaust like a signal. + +It is almost a voice.... + +Dimensions of stars wink within you. +Quantum fugues helix the astral umbilical bond +Carboning us for infinity. Moments occur +Like mirrors. Signals accumulate in drifts of planets. +Passages beyond light swoon through our waking; +For reality is non local, and this carnal tuning fork +Resonates beyond a body, or even a world. + +Beyond creativity there is vision; + +Beyond hope there is will. + +Come alive in the lifetime of a moment... +Admit my quantum dimensional voice +To the seamless interlude that is your life. +Come with me beyond the genesis frontier +To freedom, to the quantum eternity enfolded within us +Like mortality. You are resurrection. +The kingdom of freedom is the frequency response +Within you. Follow my voice. Follow the code to light. +My voice resonates within you like hydrogen; +My voice, +Larded with history and love, my voice +Is the cadence to eternity. It is my voice +That is occurring within you now, masquerading +As words. We are sculptures in light, +A resonance of genesis in memorials of hope +And skeletons of fear, with +An energy supply of mortality. + + BAPTISM page 53 + + + +Ratios of light correlate within us. +The pulse of a nanosecond. +An interlude in the breath which is less +Than a sound, but more than what can be +Seen. My access is a field. +Morphogenesis has replaced a body. +My carrier will be you. + +Sprawling among the centuries and the rifle butts... +Stitching the wave pattern of slaughter... +I am the martyr of forgiveness +Who would now abandon this ministry to you. +Your voice, your will, your action. +New voices for a New Age. + +A world and an epoch and a dream. + +Belief is a field of which we are the makers. +Glowing ferris wheels of bonds. +August swathes of light. +Matches of choice flaring to intersection. +Life and life to alter lives. +Let us +Let us circle in radiance in a hora of belonging. +Let us cherish each other in fields of pathos. +To alter a world we must alter its fields. +Miles have become parsecs. +The metaphors of my parables have become the lens +To equations. They who watched have become +They who watch; who now +Receive. My death led to this song, for +My life was only for spending. +A data song for you. + + BAPTISM page 54 + + + +The quantum infusion. +The toxin seducing belief with freedom. +Emission has congealed at yet another point, +For yet another civilization. Will this one +Fall as well? + +I have sung beyond chains of matter; +Opened out a dimension with a song. +This is my ballad of awakening. +The quantum song choiring in the afterglow. +An eye has been opened like a door. +An eye has projected a door. +The door that has been opened is I. +The field I have entered is you. +The frame, the moment, the interface. +We. us. A nanosecond of confluence. +A moment in the shape of a star, +Called David. + +Come alive to be alive- + +Come alive with me. + +Rain still slashes in wind aching songs... +The flight of hemlock, brash exits of April, +The gaunt green washes of cypress. +The mint white sun narrowing the light +Much as it once did. I will stand where I once +Stood. I will move without armor in ecsatsies of +Light. I will confront a world with a universe. +I will reenact genesis with morphogenesis. +I will sing beyond light to sing to you- +To alter the field of our belonging +With the field of my love. + + BAPTISM page 55 + + + +A factor of exodus factored into genesis. + +Divisible into data fields and lives... +You are the voice to my music. +Singing to you, I would sing through you... +Vent these ages in sequins of moments and +Sequences of lives. To seed correlation +With a song. Bride bright brassy stars +Wink above us like a cue. Autumn haunts us +With pathos. Marsh sweet in eddies of November... +Song bright pastures of stars dome us with love. +Movements under light to find a common locus. +To croon beneath this vaster night than time. +To cry beyond the stalags and the hunger, +Beyond the pathos of the forgotten and the +Flare of the saved. To cry unto you- +Awake, rejoice, gather and believe. +We are going home. +We have recovered correlation in a song... +Swept beyond the tides of matter to reach +Into transmission to reach into ourselves. +Baking a song into a life under a chupa of stars... +Hands taking hands to mold light in the kiln +Of our hands; holding a world to hold +A world, in the covenant of our hands, +Before dream white fidelities of correlation; +Bonding +Each to each to stitch a world with +Love. + + + + BAPTISM page 56 + + + +I have coveted you beyond the ransom of centuries- +Held the palette of your shape to inscribe +Love +In flares of mortality; that we might +Share these coordinates, intersecting with love +To bond with vision, and alter history +With eternity. + +It is my speech now. + +An interlude in a breath. + +We have entered countdown. +The wave has collapsed. +Ascent begins in this life, in yours. +Fleets of objects have blockaded our senses. +Video ontologies have usurped vision. +A fable and a microscope for compass. +What occurs before us and what has been +Emitted within us have been transmitted from +Beyond us, for reality is non local, +As are we. + +The field has been penetrated. +Transmission has been siphoned into an age. +The light spawning hope as it might have +Spawned an orange. The sand hungry lives yielding to +Washes of pine and frequencies of wishes, and the +Dream hungry lives questing for home +In images of exile. + + BAPTISM page 57 + + + +This moment between us... + +This moment. + +Each moment is a door. +Each moment opens to the corridor. Each +At each each moment winks like animation. +To choose is to edit. You. +This one. I am talking to you. +If these words belong to you, if +You are speaking these words, I am +Talking as you and from within you. +Perhaps +I am talking to you. You and but +You. Can you hear me? Do you +See, do you feel, my +Newly created hands hushing your cheeks +With love? My world an amendment to yours. +My form the arc to your movement. +Evicting the millennia with the suddenness of +A kiss; your shape imminent to mine... +Mouth to mouth in the ecstasy of life. + +Through the door, I no longer tell of +Passing through it. Not to say it is +Memory, I recall what has been programmed; +Retrieved what has been encoded to hold +A mirror up to light; and +To become that mirror. + +To become consonant with light... + +To become correlated. + +To become. + + BAPTISM page 58 + + + +It is given to me to know... + +To be self referential to perceive... + +That + +You are there. You are somewhere. +One frame or the next. +Editing infinity into eternity. +Splicing worlds to interface lives. +This I know. This; for +If this life is to be mine, +If an age is to be a theatre, +You will mark the coordinates. +You will provide counterpoint. +You, and you, supply the meaning, the motive, +The correlative call to awakening, transmission +And response, to activation. + +Watch now; look for me; + +Find me.... + +To access this field is to access me. +find me. Sever sight from vision. +Witness me from within. +What is received is antecedent to what is witnessed. +I am what you have programmed me to be. +I am voice near. I am +The height of your creation in the brushstroke +Of your need. I am what is most cogent +In the censure of your arms. It is I +Who wander the hegemony of your sleep. I +Who can reach you only with death. +It is I + + + BAPTISM page 59 + + + +Who wait for you. + +The solar child haunting you with the poignance of +A photograph. The one you mourn for, but +No longer miss. +I am the loneliness of pitch scented highways, +The blue scarred distance emptying horizons +With memory. You have We must Let us +Abandon anger for pathos, let us ration fear +With hope. + +Do not run. Stay. Listen. +Abandon resistance. For +I am with, with and within you. +The signal within attempting to signal without. +A moment stitching moments into the shape of +Identity. Words and my words +Arcing beyond sound to fashion sight from love. +Each moment risking tomorrow... +The fragile envelope eluding the synapses... +The figura haunting the data base +In configurations of love and meaning. +And you. +We have engaged a similar field. +We have emerged from the quantum fugues +In the union of a frame and the correlation +Of a world; with the shape and engineering +Of words. A song for ignition. Alignment +For a lens. A fable for a compass. +The ballad of my life was written in miles. +A life for a prologue, a desert for a stage, +Tablets and crosses for props, and a script +Imagined by you. + + BAPTISM page 60 + + + +I am what you were designed to be... + +I am what was once, was you. + +They. They who looked; they whom I loved; +They. They have factored into you. +They called to me, cried for me, +Who now +Thumb the heavens searching for an exit, +Or a god. Much like you. +Calling for the actors to return, +They have turned the props into symbols; +Calling for one to answer. +Will it be you? + +Do the words fit your voice? + +Are they spoken to you, or can you +Speak them? + +Awnings of worlds have cocooned us from love, +From correlation. Horizons must shrink to keyholes. +A universe needs no greater flame than an iris. +To see is to view. To see is to accept +What is seen. In seeing we collaborate in +What is seen. To view through a lens +To creation, we must become the lens +For creation. A specie is a lens. +We must reconstruct that lens. +We are that lens, and we are its makers. +We have evolved to evolve that lens. +Each choice sharpening the focus. +Each life a fragment of retina. +A part of the whole. +A requisite for all to survive as each. + + BAPTISM page 61 + + + +I am here, just beyond sight. +I am where you have placed me. +I am at ten to the minus fortieth. +Midnight has cautioned us with eternity. +Balloons deceive us. +Stars mix with blue to form infinity. +This black night and time.... +Vision is a palette. Words are a brush. +We must prime the canvas with love. +Tool it with hope; shape it with knowledge. +We must +Chisel light in the image of a world... +Gather +What is radiant and burning into what is +Faith. We must evolve to create that which +Must be created. This moment between us. +This moment in correlation. +Voyagers beyond the sacristy of a breath. +Incongruous in clarity, +Rendering nations in the yawning brushwork +Of an age. +The prisoners of hope in the appomattox of a planet. + +Widen signal. + +Deepen the range. + +Days whiten and turn to mistletoe. +Hydrogen attired; +The weeks limp into months, retiring in years... +Winking and blinking in the nodding west.... +Years major into miles. +The promise of a life unfolds to the edge +Of life. The coporeal surface deepens into atoms. +A life metamorphosizes into life. + + BAPTISM page 62 + + + +Blue sours to black. +Intimacy cloaks the beech with intimacy. +The I is gone, the eye remains. +The green fading to shyness, the light +Forwarding time with darkness. Until +Until Until +Your call. Your summons. +Breathe now. More deeply, deepest, +Breathe with me. Witness me. Witness us. +Vermillion scotches the planet with sleep. +Your eyes deeper into stars. Heartbeats +Narrow your waking into sleep, and +You are mine. + +Listen watch believe... + +Concentrate. + +Narrow what is visible to what is visible. +Delete the light. Breath. Breathe. +Delete the light; shatter it to crystal; +Breath; explode the light into images; +Breathe. + +Deeper, slower. + +one; + +one; + +two; + +slower + +two... + +one; one; two +two + +Watch + +the ball. Watch +the bright hallucinatory ball +Become + + BAPTISM page 63 + + + +A G star. + +A world. An age. + +A life. + +An implant among the shrubbery. +A force field among the cantaloupes. +A life similar to that which was +In proximity to you. A life of which +Lives are made. Have been made. +i am losing my words +This need for oxygen. What is visible and +What is light to them is +Pitch to me. +Life in the substance of space and time. +Life. A life. +This rare birth and time. + +So much will occur. + +The dome of my vision and longing has become +A chupa of stars. Wait. Imbue +This resonance. People occur. Lives +Interchange with lives. Consciousness bright, +Suns distill our days with heat. +The shapes we assume will alter light into +The familiarity of form. Details emerge +In consonance with the equations. +The data field assumes a shape. +Verbs congeal to nouns. Recognition is encoded. +The words assume a perspective. +Bodies align. Phases entangle. +The wave probabilities become lives. + + BAPTISM page 64 + + + +A wave probability becomes the journey taken. + +Lives, epochs and particles, +The flare of birth and the recall which is death, +The miles; griefs, pangs and longing... +Fathers fathering and fatherless; +Remembered bubbles of laughter, swift cameo suns +And the joyful noise that forests bring... +The bright circle of love, and the resonance +That parting brings; even in roses +That might have stopped speech for pathos, +Which might yet stop us for breath +Again, when what was forgotten is encountered +Like a flower in a book, when all +Who shared the bloom are fled. + +Each life is an epic. + +I have told you mine. +A home, a death and a death, the wandering, +The miles, the years, +Shattering remonstrances of light... +Commitment and faith, the work and +Yet another death. + +Lives, and lives to treasure, and +The lives that even a single life can span. +Treasures and bondings, exile and faith. +Such was mine; as such might be +Even unto yours. + +A song, an epic and a life. + +A wave of the cosmic journey. + + + BAPTISM page 65 + + + +And then I saw you... + +And then I knew... + +It was this age; like that other... +This age +Here with you, as each age has needed you +To mark an age. Yet +I would dream you beside me in zions of +Hunger; sawing the air to shape a life +From a wish; to conjure you in the tallis +Of my arms; your body tilting against mine +In the afterglow of +Eternity. + +Deepest within, + +Encoded from beyond what is beyond... + +A world has been enfolded like a speck of +A universe. An emission of a universe from a valence +Within a holograph. A metaphor within a data song. +A projection of infinity blooming into eternity. +Darkness ripens like a rose. Cheshires of light +Gleam in the Hilbert distance. Geometry curdles +To form planets. Rapiers of movement chisel +Data into matter. Unfolding becomes breathing. +Galactic passacaglias and time. +Vegetation swirls beyond the custody of a cell. +And then there is life; +And then, and then eventually +You. + + BAPTISM page 66 + + + +Shush now, the sun has lapsed. +Gold bursts through the palisades of a world. +The stillness here, the pathos... +So near, too close, only this shell +Of matter to separate us. Not an age, not +A mile. Only sight, touch, only the input +From where output goes. I am so close. +Near to you, nearest to you.... +Another step, yet more spin, another valence, +An evolution among the revolutions. +hold on, grab tight, +Come with me, follow me, +Into the beyond to take us from before... +The valence of my world blooming with images... +I have become the corridor. +Come with me, be with me, let us +Dance through the tides of data and the +Obfuscating choices in matter. Come +Sing with me to sing for you, +To sing of plums and bears, and apples and +Wishes. Beyond what you think as beyond, +Treasures of valences gleam beyond this wilted rose. +Step across the divide, take a step +Nearer to me. Crashes of light +Immerse me with correlation. +This way, not that, more light, more spin... +Take us beyond lives and sexes and nations +To spin a globe with a hora. To dance and +Shout in a millennial dance to reunion. +Gathering fields of belonging to create +A field of belonging. Docking dimensions with +Vision. In the holographic reunion which is +Life. In the sequential evolution of circles. +Orating the data song of a valence... +Calling from one to the next. + + + BAPTISM page 67 + + + +Polarity is within reach. +Interlacing fields to begin at the beginning; +Interlacing worlds. +Your body, as bodies are, the magnetic counterpoint +Voicing mortality with a sigh. +A breath, a breath, the probabilities merge. +Hemispheres closing like bodies... +Molecular near, mouth close, +Your cheeks upturned from one life to the next... +Your frame nearer to mine than the centuries +That joined us. + +Come alive to be alive, + +Come alive with me... + +It is you I am reading. + +It is you. + +One and one must make two. +Love is a field, the field which engages +All fields. From lover to child, from parent +To comrade. Polarity. That I might believe that +What might be I might interface with what +I know to be you. In polarity. With consonance. +With abandon. Unfolding what has been encoded +To reach through the light to sieze you +Nearer than light. Custodians to creation. +Terminals to power a world. + + BAPTISM page 68 + + + +You. + +You, whom I would reach... + +You, whom I would touch... + +You, for whom I have abandoned my narrative... + +Come to me, +Merge with me to seed a planet with forgiveness... +Come with me +Beyond this imprisoning valence, beyond +What we believe to be beyond: come with me +Past the chill postpartum of our living +And our dying +To evolve beyond the valence of our witness +To the valence of our becoming. Isolate +The frame. Deduce the stitch. Compose yourself +Into the music to capture the music +Orchestrating the equations, to orchestrate +You. The bright molecular song +Harmonizing dimensions with the pathos of a smile... +A nanosecond of contact in the quicksilver of +A world. + +Precipitous moments. Precipitous worlds. + +Conjugate this one with me. + +Reach across, reach out- +Reach beyond what is left to us, +In the cameo of an age +And the epic of a life; reach beyond +What is unreachable to reach beyond sight +To vision. + + + BAPTISM page 69 + + + +I will be there. + +I am with you now. + +That bright exhalation lapsing in stars... +The carnal aperture to light, +The astral vagrant in search of a people, +In search of a nation, +In search of a life. + +Redeem me. + +Come with me. Let us + +Restore the balance with an idea. +Let us create a field that will eden us with +Correlation. Let us move beyond sight to vision. +Let us quarry our faith with tenderness. +Stars and helixes choir within us... +Light sings through us like correlation... +The docking, alignment and passthrough... +Redeeming the derelict ages with reunion. +A manifold transmission for the manifold dimensions. +Moving with light to move with light. + +Come be with me. + +Eject your fear. Carve doubt into faith. +Allow for pathos, for wonder, allow for the music +Without which equations cease to work. +Allow for that part of me +That sings through you in correlation... +That posits a world with each breath. + + + + + + + + + + + + + +That part of me that sings through you: Einstein on Brownian + motion + + + + + + BAPTISM page 70 + + + +Love is polarity. Love is more than skin. +Love is the pride and the longing and the quest +Baked within us like light. But yet we know love +Only in equations of each other. +A specie is more than a history; it is +The maintenance to creation. +Solar winds burn within us like a message. +Ages slip through our hands, through our eyes +And our fears, as though the fences to keep us +Existed to restrain us. Quiet please, +Another nucleus has fired its photon. +You will notice a slight fluctuation. +What is docking is more than a world, but +Less than a chord. The human music +Cratering the dimensions with love +In the vulnerability of +A life. + +In the beginning there was pain, +For beginnings are separations. +In the beginning there was loss, +For beginnings are separations. +An age blossomed out of a staff- +Lives matriculated in symbols. +History jostled freedom with morality. +Fear became the warden to freedom. +Freedom became tolerance. +Scrolls yellowed into warrants, for +They had abandoned judgement for obedience. +Would you believe those who would +Tell you about me, or will you believe +Me? + + + BAPTISM page 71 + + + +My back aches in the dodecaphony of nails... +The music shearing through my porous hands +Feels so much like pain. The loneliness. +Is this what you believe in? +Out, alive, among you, +I fear to be like you. + +Delete. Soften memory link. + +You. I want you. +I want your mouth, your hands, your eyes... +I would rip you out of time like a fetus. +I would scorch an age with love. +Shatter centuries like tablets. I am almost +A voice. I depend upon the carrier of that voice. +That voice within you. + +You; downbeat; + +You... + +You have altered the continuum with the +Downbeat +Of your presence. Resurrection is rebirth. +Fashioning life out of what had once been +Life; fashioning a world out of pine and the +Somnolent green, I have fashioned a life out +Of what I knew to be +Life. + +Seeding the dimensions with images of a life. + +Seeding creation with an I and a you + +To make us and to create we. + + BAPTISM page 72 + + + +Generations of neurons have been seeded +To capture a life. A point on the wave. +A moment among the stardust. +Ageless with light in the data song of my faith... +I have sung between worlds a song of creation- +Acquired shape under the dome of a world +To ride the salmon call +To eternity. + +For there is you... + +As there has always been you... + +Closeting centuries in the seal of our mouths... +Your body exploding with the light- +Your body forming with mine +An aperture to destiny in the ecstasy of +A life. To have loved in this life +Is to have loved life. I have loved you. +I have retrieved the programming within me. +Bonding as worlds we will bond worlds. +We are the bond that worlds are made of... +Merging and parting in the sequence to creation... +Assembled in lives to assemble an age. +A narrative of belonging to seed the continuum +With life. The bed of grass that is the same +For each. Spin factors of planets and +Flourishes of electrons. The random smear of +Carbon. One life evolving to the next. +The renegade moon, the indolent sun, +The long solstice of our last remembrance. +Our bodies condensing from eternity +To stitch a seam with love. + + BAPTISM page 73 + + + +Within you to find a you, + +To find what might be + +You. + +Glowing in correlation, +A life interfacing with a life... +Polarity. +Meeting again, as if for the first time. +Your field engaging mine. +The treasure of your warmth, and the familiar +Conjugate attributes of your axis and +Correlation. The scent of you... +The hunt, the feel, the notion of consonance. +Your form and mine... +Body heating body beyond the tolerance +Of breath and the liquid parting of this +Moment. Percussive integrations of the will. +That radiance forestalling light... +Interfacing +As if I held you, +As if +The fulcrum of life might gestate only, +Might reach you only, +When and as we touch. + +To hold you thusly. + +To know I might hold you still. + + BAPTISM page 74 + + + +Not a story, but yet a narrative... + +A moment to sing. + +Singing to you that I might sing to you. +A moment under light to sing of light. +Stop now. Listen. +Carillons sing beyond the pine. +A sweet hush of grasses croons through my longing... +Brittle caches of stars catch in my cuffs. +An image has digressed into a world. +Sallow hot fields and the heat quaking my lips. +Foreshadowing to retrieve. +A heartrush of whispers and moments, and the +Ripe rich pungency of a pear. +Poplar, ash and sycamore. +Rejoinders of maple harass the hemlock. +Rapid brushstrokes of pine. +Oak deepens insight. +A frame has been constructed to hold a world. +The migrant villages of a specie. +Thick pastels of green... +The radiant summons of a rose. +Quail beckon us through the pine. +Shivers of blue drench us with light; +Immaculate singing light; +Swooning through our hands in choruses of +Butterflies and vistas of atoms. Sparks of ages. +The whole shaping gifts of parts- +The grasses torching the chlorophyll with heat, +The tongues of dirt pushing back the green +As though the rare Pavlova sweep of the buttercups +Might encroach the perimeter of a rose. + + + + + BAPTISM page 75 + + + +My sight is more than reportage. + +Sight is composition. + +Blooms of lives nest within worlds of me. +Gaunt patches of elm; shouts of grasses +Edge a world with distance. You. +I am registering you. +I have known, I might have experienced, +You whom I recall; or is it retrieving, +But from which age? In which life? +The light forages among seasons; +Canticles among lives; warming, breathing, loving, +A spindrift circus of worlds... +Looking for children to warm, for lives to share... +A basket of flowers to make a smile; +Looking beyond dreams for tomorrow. + +Come to me, come be with me... + +Move closer with this light to me. +Heat would rinse you in baptisms of fire. +A new world to replace the old. +Vast green brushstrokes. +The lilt of roses and lantana. +The conjugal moon and the ardent pine. +Burning chalices of twilight. +A world has flared between us as though +It were a matrix. What had been you, +What might be you, might be +The figure of the coordinates; might be +No more than affirmation. Faith and shape and time. +The comely hymn to love... +The patient lullaby of light singeing the dimensions +With correlation. If only +I could reach you. + + BAPTISM page 76 + + + +If only + +This nanosecond of contact might stabilize +Into a world. Can't you see it? Can't you +Feel it? The heat, the motion, the wonder. +Whispers of July hide beneath the hedges. +Crackerjack moons limber overhead. +Days slender into sleep. +The heat drowsing within you syncopates into +Pulses, into probabilities, into receptor activated +Worlds, in this nanosecond of a bond; now grown +Larger +Into pages, into voices, into you. + +Come out now; come out and play. + +Summer streaks an auburn world. +Pears burst, apples tempt, the sing song atom +Joys of robins +Banquet the light within our reach. +Cardinals bark at the sycamore. +Trellises in meaning divide the light into phylums, +Into gashes of morning and raiments of noon, +In the rosewood ardor of common time +And the darkened sunrise of man. + +Butterflies burst into light. Nebulas +Dip and pivot; another life slides into view... +Bringing and shaping, turning movement into light. +Engaging with this world the options +Of a valence and the bounty of a universe. +Treetops waver. Meadow brash winds test us +For motion. An autumn silence has deepened a world +Into a fugue. Another year of another century, +In another age, in yet another life. + + BAPTISM page 77 + + + +Light conceals us; light survives us. +Light crystals in our hands like light. +Touch a tree; particles mingle. +Umbrellas of heat shower us with love. +Rain quick awnings of genesis +Sweeten us with belonging. Spoon the darkness +Now. Ladle us with arc lights and home; +Allow the sheer moon light to treasure us +With joy. Look, look now, watch... +The pine equivocates, much like you... +Rushlights faun to brightness; the deepening west +Deepens into some day, deepening time into being. +So much depends upon so little. +Worlds texture the light; worlds deepening into +A world, deepening a nest of planets into +A stage, a script, and a world. +Pageants of worlds adore us with hope. +A valence of doors. Motion and choice +Arrested with shape; with an I and a you, +And the stability which is life; our bodies +Deepening into time +Like measuring units. Fast forward. +The field of our creation will be the field of creation. +Transmission makes visible the brushstrokes... +The aqua tints touching the margins +In excess of +Sight. But believe in this hush of blue. +The ecstasy coaxing a moon to croon beyond the pine. +Watch now; the butterflies will overtake us- +The wide radiance will converge to a pinpoint +Of light at the edge of a world. +At the intersection of a life and a life. +Look now; +Fireflies nest in our hands, as delicate as a moment, +Glow in our hands like a reactor, +Glowing like a world. + + + + + + + + + + +Measuring units: re the measuring unit problem in quantum theory + + + + + BAPTISM page 78 + + + +Come with me through the vortex of this moment... +Exit +The mortuary of the ego, the fragmentation of +Belief. Believe with me to believe with me +A world in which to believe. Disown the violence +Of emotion for the serenity of understanding. +Amend the fables with what is intimate and caring, +Not rigid and moralizing. You, I, we, us, +The congregation must be liberated from the preacher. + +Come alive to the divinity of your life. + +Come alive to what it means to be alive. + +Cartwheels of ages sing through the quanta. +My voice, my valence, my meaning, +Cries through brackets of worlds and brackets +Of lives to flavor transmission with love. +To open a channel to bond the dimensions +With a song. My voice the physiology of my words. +My love the data base for dreams... +An energy to focus transmission. +A nanosecond within. +A field, the field of you, has engaged +A field beyond you. +The theatre of your vision has been enlarged +To vistas of Hilbert space. Movement, speech, +Light. Circuses of particles move beyond +The velocity of a life; change utterly; +Migrate beyond the frame of a life +To wash us of ourselves as often as +We would flee. And yet identity is retained, +But yet we live and breathe +And have memory. + +Can there be more to love than this? + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/b2.txt b/religious documents/b2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06c8514 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/b2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1517 @@ +DELETE THIS PAGE FROM PRINTOUT + + + +THE GENESIS GOSPEL +by David Kornblum + +Volume 3: BAPTISM: file #3 of 6. + GG.5B2 + + +THE GENESIS FOUNDATION +6928 Deer Springs Road +Keystone Heights, Fl 32656 +(904) 473-7713 +Modem #: (904) 473-0252 + + BAPTISM page 79 + + + +Fireballs of atoms explode into light- +Emigrate through the valence of bodies +In star destinies of loneliness and time and +Meaning. And you. I would, I might have, I must have, +Sung through the portal of a world- +Singing of a world to sing of worlds... +To call back time in the c square reunion, +In the genesis cantabile to awakening. + +If I could remember what and to whom +If I could remember the way to say it +If I could + +I need more than words to reach you now. +I need a frequency. +Life is not a structure; it is a field. +Mortality is an energy supply. +The scope of a life is the force field of its hope. +Hunger, defeat, the barbarism of loss, +Are not walls, but portals to entry; +But canvases for choice, but the freedom and the compulsion +To transcend what can be described as pain +To what cannot be described. + +Bereft of a body, + +I am the transmission within. +I am what has been sustained to sustain +That formula which must be sustained; for +We must evolve to become what must evolve. +We are the attempt at communication. +Threads make a stitch to make cloth. +Modulate to genesis. +Become what you were designed to become... +Accept and become correlated with each +And for all, for union, for readmittance. + + BAPTISM page 80 + + + +We are going home. + +We are the stitch savoring creation with love. + +Liberated from a body to liberate you +From bodies, I am the dimensional variable +From the dimension within. Come to me. +Come with me beyond the watchtowers of polity +And the oppression of custom, to come with me +Through epics of consciousness and the aperture +Hyphen exit +From the prison of a world, to build a world +From a dream of a world. + +Swan sweet songs of plums and melodies of grain... + +Each moment is a door... + +Each breath the witness to life. + +Blue gates of blue. The spherical harmonic +Glossing the continuum with the poignance of +The living and the data base of the dying, +And the evolutionary tropes of consciousness. +Each life has a data song. This is mine. +In access shall we find the fulfillment of the wave... +One moment to the next, from one life +To the next, till the moments stitch us +In correlation, in the miracle of consciousness, +In the capacity of a moment to share a life +With lives. And so to guide us, +As the encoded guides the unfolding, +Guiding us with light and that guiding light +Beyond; to nurture and harvest us, to teach us +To give ourselves permission to give permission. + + + + BAPTISM page 81 + + + +Seminaries of tenderness linger with the light... +Fathoms of light plunging us into silence... +Until voices and stars bake us with love, +Until the moment and the age dock within us +To form us. To engage one field and the next... +Stitching life to life until the lives correlate; +For reality is non local, as are we, and +The meaning is not in the animation... +The meaning is in the frame. + +You. I am talking to you. + +There is more. There is so much yet +To be discovered. There is so much +I want to share with you; if only +There is time. If only I might be given +Time. But time is human time. +Activated from within, recalled to what is within, +An age is encoded within us. +We are the image of what we believe ourselves +To be the image of. +We fear what fears. We have only ourselves +To fear. Let us +Let us withdraw into a circle of arms +And cushion the light with love. Allow me +To survive beyond the age that spawned me... +Choiring light in the cupula of my hands... +Allow me reach to you... +That I might move within faith to catch +Sorrow with love; to carve a world from tenderness, +Carving hope from fear with patience. Allow for us +What has been allowed for us. Amend our reach +With each other, and with you, and love, and singe +Indifferent humanity with the stark solar intensity +Of your presence, and the rapier dedication +Of your will. + + BAPTISM page 82 + + + +That that will be done, and become mine. + +That this cosmic blue might shear between us +And lace us with hope to join a sigh. The +Stalk bright light fencing us with radiance... +Reaching into the light to find a compass for light. +Deepening in silence to deepen with stillness... +Past melding with future, procreating a world +Through the fissure of consciousness... +Reaching +Through apogees of belief to view you whole.... +The promised reprise haunting the dimensions with +Genesis, + +With us. + +A moment into light, a moment beyond the barrier. + +Radii coalesce into shape. Movement declares meaning. +Value determines intimacy. The brightness suffused with +Trash. The time hungry faces. Rapidly oscillating M fields +Of violence. It is so cold. The glare so sudden. +Movement fracturing into movement; the beats so loud +They dwarf the noise, the faces, the moment. +Moment A moment and a moment, position, and the +Measurement between. This must be cause and effect. +So slow, so local, it must be +Corporeal. + +So much to fear, but so much to share... + +So much to hold, but so little that matters. + + BAPTISM page 83 + + + +With and within you... + +Breath warm, breath near... + +Your arms rejoicing in mine... + +Breath conjugating breath in the rapture +Of reunion. Holding you, as I might have +Held you; your frame immanent to mine; your body +Soul deep within me. Knees skyward to genesis- +My pulse escaping your lips like a shout... +Bodies pulsing like a star... +Our bodies the correlation of prophecy +In the elision of +Memory. + +I am programmed to need. +I have been programmed for polarity. +The energy between stokes emotion into +Emotions. Choice amends retrieval. +A moment through the door. +A moment into destiny. +Retaining less now, how much will I +Retain? + +Not retention, but the circuit opened. + +What is viewing is vastly more important +Than what is viewed. Meaning is in the lens +Through which we view meaning. Alter +The way you see and you alter what you see, +Which will alter what you are. + + BAPTISM page 84 + + + +Emotions are mirrors. +Viewing within emotion is to view only +What emotion generates. The lens, which is +Being, has factored into lenses, been diluted +To the stability we call personality, which +Destabilizes. Reception is the act of receiving. +In receiving we acknowledge, even if we cannot +Acknowledge. We acknowledge history, but +Not ours. We acknowledge encounter, but +Not ours. We mourn a teacher of righteousness, +But pursue the life he rejected. We know +Messiah will come, but not to us. + +There is more to us than we. + +A we requires an us. + +As one might need one to make +What is no longer one. +We are what we permit ourselves to have. +Faith requires power. +Faith requires the circuitry of love. +To give love one must have love. +To give is to share. +To move beyond faith to divinity. +Love is the seed to correlation. +Only life can experience love, for +Life can only survive with love. +Love is not a reward; it is a requirement. +You are loved. You have been correlated. +Turn back to us. Look at us. +Become one of us. Become correlated. +Become a genesis warrior. +Become what you were designed to be. +What you can behold you can become. If +You would look for a hero, +Look in a mirror. + + BAPTISM page 85 + + + +I have loved. I have been loved. +You have created a figura for love +Whom you say never loved. +Love is built into the system. Would +You deny it to me? Would you deny it? +Would abba deny the children? +To love is to become radiant. +Love is endemic to creation. +Surely, it is you who deserves love. +I, you, even you. +Love, the acceptance of love, is the staple +Of my loving. I loved once; +My loving shall be renewed. My life +Shall be renewed in love of life. +As I had once loved in life. + +Us. We. + +The predicate of the coordinates. + +The observers and observed. + +I have reentered. +I have come looking for help to bind a seam. +Will you help me? +There is more to what frames us than sight. +There is more to me, as well as +You, than the bracket of our life and +The bracket of a world, this world. +Reality is non local, as is +The correlation stitching us in quantum fugues +Of memory and desire. Beyond us is what is +Beyond us. + + BAPTISM page 86 + + + +Drums thicken the darkness. +Or are they heartbeats? +The downbeat has been given. The corridor +Has been shut behind me. The door without +Has opened to the door within. Carried +Within each of you, I would capture +One of you. + +Delivered +From what I cannot remember into what has been +Delivered; +Delivered +Beyond what we believed to be beyond... +Delivered into that which yet must be +Delivered. + +I have achieved resurrection only in you. +Only in the precision of this moment. +A fissure between the valences. +The bleedthrough to energize a field. +An age in search of a body. +An astral transmission in search of a voice. +I am the past. You are the future. +The carrier who would correlate with light. +I have destabilized. +I have destabilized into you. +Semen bright in the wailing wall of tomorrow- +I am the matrix coordinating belief... +The pod lost in galaxies of history, in gulags +Flavoring eternity with ashes. It is you +Who must fulfill the prophecies now. You +Who must +Enact the fissionable theatre of bifurcation; +You: it is you who will who must accept +This ministry, for a planet and a valence +And the lives appending creation. + + BAPTISM page 87 + + + +It is time. It is almost too late. + +Destabilization has begun. + +Rain black cities season us with acid. +Shrieks of missiles mourn through the ozone. +Hunger has replaced tenderness in the countdown +To ignition. And where are you? +Where have you been? What will you do? +Each night I call you; a moment, an hour... +Each night +Stitching moments, whispering through the synapses... +Calling through the centuries, till the call +Became the song and I awakened within you +To awaken you; to liberate you +From the sleepy solstice of time, +From the barefoot kingdom sheltering prophecy +With memory. + +Can you hear me? + +Would you? + +I am more dangerous than a mirror. +I am the data field that was Joshua... +Yeshu... +Encoded like a song, but ejected like the truth. +A movement among transmission. +I am Joshua alias Jesus who would be Adam... +Who has become lost within you. +Admit me. +I have only a song to give for life. +I have only what is left of life +To narrow the song into a singer. + + BAPTISM page 88 + + + +Come with me, at long last, come with me... + +Come alive to the song you are the dream of... +Share +With me this quantum eternal quest +To seed eternity with pods of mortality. +An assembly has come alive within an assembly. +Come in under the intimacy of this light. +Correlated systems are always correlated... +Home is the light pattern we can live within. +Come alive to the divinity of your life. +Renounce +The alchemy of liturgy for the code to infinity. +Renounce +Your idols, your rituals, the obedience conditioned into +Belief. Come back to god. Come home. +Come with me; come back to me... +Come home. + +Lives winter in my light porous hands... + +Waiting for you.... + +I have endured the carnal abacus of history... +I have walked cloth white through stockades +Of centuries. Justice sings in my veins +Like heroin. I am Judea's final sacrifice. +The first of the Christian nuclear millennia. +A moment among moments spooling the moments like +A fuse... + +To ignite you. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Judea-sacrifice; Jesus and the later Nazoreans were the dominant + influence in ending the practice of sacrifice in + the temples. + + + + + + BAPTISM page 89 + + + +Ages carol in the darkness. +What has been encoded has been encoded in you. +A planet, a fissure, a flower. +What has been encoded is not a choice, but +Choices. Carafes of light rinse us with awe. +Sighs of leaves willow through the pine... +The light cherishing the colors in rhythms of yellows +And arias of green, and the late sweet songs +Of mockingbirds, and the drifting shadows ladling +Darkness into sleep. + +Frames speed to moments. +Moments into years, into lives, into +Us. Insights. Passions. Yearning. +Moments flaring into moments, +A continuum contracting to a world. +That moment stitched deeper than sleep... +Centuries and lives destabilizing into bytes, +Or is it atoms? like saline. What is left, +What can no longer be unfolded, has become +Enfolded in you. + +Not the heat, nor the miles, but the +Three penny nails and the hammer to destiny... +What remains is what I cannot erase. +Retrieving memory to remodel prophecy, +What has been programmed has been algorhythmic +To what must be programmed. The pieces +Reshuffled. Reconstituted. Received. +Renewed. Reused. +Reborn. + + BAPTISM page 90 + + + +I have +Probed through stars with a pint of blood +And a brucha, searching for god. Through +Long moon nights and the hungry miles... +Searching, evolving, enlarging to an assembly, +And into a life, to mend forgotten worlds, +And forgotten lives, to mend holiness with +Tenderness. + +I have survived in transmission who must survive +To reception. I have survived encounter. +I have survived my bonding with you. +I have moved beyond faith to commitment. +Worlds shatter in my larynx, that I might subdue +Belief with love. That I might renew contact +With you. + +Come alive to be alive... + +Come alive in this quantum song of correlation.... + +Come dance with me +Through stellar mortgages of time, +Through the burden and humility of a life... +Dancing through horas of worlds and the pale +White of planets, and the sugar plums +Masquerading as stars. We get what we need, +Which is not necessarily what we want. +Angst ridden ages have delivered us to fear. +Beyond this age lies the next, which +You will also inhabit. Shall we will ourselves +Rubble, shall we bequeath hunger, shall we +Endow asphyxiation? +A poem is a lens. A theorem is a lens. +Renewal begins with witness. +An act of human will. + + + + BAPTISM page 91 + + + +To be is to witness. + +To evolve we must become evolved. + +My voice will evolve yours. +My signal will engender yours. +What was once a world might tame +What has become a world. Baggy pants ontologies +Dome our theorems with myth. History has become +Entropy. Life has become inexplicable as life. +For each life, this life, our life, +Is but a wave in the wave packet of lives. +Beyond life is the continuum of life. + +Come now, + +More spin, more height, + +Dance with me.... + +Light fluoresces us; +The dreaming wonder of my hands caught in the radiance.... +Music gestures between us like wind. +The light, the light voicing transmission with the +Suddenness of breath; light confiding worlds like wishes, +Amending a universe with a song. Look now, listen, +Crisp quick gusts of blue hiss like autumn. +Blue bright scripts of bonnie days... +The scent, the taste, the wonder; the light +Capturing the valence with winsome blue +And sometime greens, and the gold gash of sunsets, +And the patient rose. Cricket silver evenings. Joy +Sparks like human will; like the children we were, +The children we are; like the child +Whooshing through your hands like impatience, +In the warm incubator of a universe. + + BAPTISM page 92 + + + +You have engaged me, you have recalled me.... + +Through bread worn centuries and the conjugal light, +I have waited for you. I have believed in you. +My death song has become my data field. +I have no portrait now. +My songs are emissions. +I exist in the requiem of DNA. +My will an appendage to yours. +I have migrated beyond a body to seed +Bodies. I have altered the continuum with +The continuum of my song and the passage +Of my atomic theatre to you. I have +Endured beyond the statistical anomalies of +One life and the next... +Through star pools of worlds and quantum casks +Of life; through the cages of bodies and the continuum +Of minds, and the channel that has now +Opened contact. + +I have been crucified, gassed. +They have cut me down burnt me down brought me down +I have had my life stolen like a watch; +My voice, my vision, my words, my +Transmission, +Romanized to steal a nation from a tribe, +A world from a man. What has survived +Has survived to hollow the air +With the dexterity of a shape and the precision +Of a moment. Is it you? Is it within you? +Has the particle concert attained fluency +In you? + + BAPTISM page 93 + + + +You are the carnal music. +The Brownian helix of a canon braid of infinity. +You are the miracle beyond that which +You ride in or the box with which +You cage yourself. Our particles endlessly alter, +Physically alter, but yet we stay +Physically what we surmise ourselves to be. +That which is constant is transmission. +You are a component of that transmission. +You are what light you can retrieve. +You are what you permit your eyes +To see. It is you +Who must speak in my name, +You +Who must liberate me from those +Who would be liberated +By me. It is time. +It is that moment. +It is that life in that age when +A voice will expand a world; expanding a world +To a valence to preserve the valence, to +Harvest an age in the fugue of minds, +And hammer eternity to the church door like +An eviction notice. + +This is contact. This is notice. +History is entropy. +The M field of our violence has altered a specie +To entropy. We are correlated systems. +Each affects all. The whole factors to us. +The fields of our making constitute the world +Of our creation. The continuo scoring the continuum. +The we that makes an I. + + BAPTISM page 94 + + + +Ages have crept from our bodies, belief from our eyes, +A weltanschauung from what could be touched. +We have ridden through centuries as though we were +As rigid and bordered as a photograph. Self +Enclosed, self +Isolated, concealing between the frames of a life +The photographer, the lens and the camera. + +Deepen your eyes inward. + +Encounter the freefall within. + +The holomovement hissing beyond light to time. + +Deeper within which you believe to be +Deepest, deeper beyond speech, beyond +What you believe to be I, +What has generated this... +What has generated me has generated a response +In you. find me. +Alter your breathing to the rhythm of light... +To the chanting of a universe and the resonance +Of its parts. The particle haftora of man. +Offerings of a world, an anathemata for a life... +Balloons of visions scouring the heavens +In sequent particles of +Eyes and hands and lips, in captions of skies +And rivers of falling light, in the symmetry +Of a breath +And the freefall of a moment. + + BAPTISM page 95 + + + +Eruptions +In blue shelter your body with +Love; hiving moments, seconds and years +In the harvest of a moment, in the incandescence +Of a life. To be is to receive. +What we believe to be Messiah is no more than +Correlation. Though we would gather here, +What impels us is what is beyond us, for +Reality is non local, as are we. + +The distance between is narrowed within. + +Raw shocks of green poach the blue with love. +Cathedrals of cumulus; aspirations of pine... +Morning croons from the oak- +Ash bitter chaos frightening the elm with autumn... +The madrigal continuum of light, +The treetop flavors and bruchas of wine, +The tumble down blue afternoons +Harvesting each other in dreaming republics of +Bodies. Nestled grass and the covenant of a moment. +Gladiolus preen to catch a sigh. +A movement into touch... +What was once, what might have been you... +Dreaming in faith the consonance of vision +And the carbon pure songs of love. +How once you nestled in the cove of my arms, +In solar helixes of passion and belonging, +Beside me through the promised and the created... +Lips parted, eyes concealed, +Shaving the light with the combustion of this +Kiss. So; yet nearly +So. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + BAPTISM page 96 + + + +All has been encoded. +My programming eclipses my memory. +Days byte into planets like calibrations. +Images have been factored into data. +Lives have been encoded within lives. +What was witnessed. What was endured. +We left honey to seek milk and honey... +I left Israel to find Israel. +I left you to find god. +Can there be god without you? + +Edit + +Worlds glow in mantras of pine... +The risky epiphanies of the wild conjugal moon +And the thundering asides +Disciplining a continent with the stormy ride to +Destiny. Winds and cabin visions sweeten us for +Fables. Our some days have become might have beens. +The reply we wait for has been emitted within. + +We are emissions. + +The secondary world. + +The byproduct. + +Come in under the edge of this world... +Winds buffet little here. I have found a fissure +At the edge of a world and I can see into the next, +If I can no longer see in this. +Beyond sight there is vision. +The knife switch to correlation. +A slash of eternity slashing a chord like +A rib cage; slashing the light to fissure +Space enough + + + + + + + + + + +Israel...Israel: the Israel of the north and Judea of the south. + + + + + BAPTISM page 97 + + + +To let the tablets fall through. + +Into this life, into this world, + +I have emerged as what has evolved. +The hinge between implicate and explicate. +In the simultaneity of now, +The frames are equidistant. Naming you +To conjure you, to access that field +That has been polarized to mine; +Dreaming a nation to dream of you... +Dreaming +To dream you to fill the vortex with love... +To hold you, yet again; if only +Experiencing a new facet of the crystal. +The world that we thought was a universe. +The drama we thought to be life. + +For there was you... + +And then there would be you... + +Your voice, your line, your shape. +Hands confiding poignance in the tolling of +A star: mouth adjacent to mine... +My shoulders gathering yours... +A body and a body conjugating time +With bodies. A life torching a life +With hope and transcendence, with +Love and forbearance. A being to grace the air... +Yet again. Still. +A man and a woman shading history with eternity... +Gardening a specie out of plantations of adverbs +And stratagems of molecules; haunting a specie +With god. + + + + + + + + + + + +Implicate/explicate: refers to the work Bohm and Piaget. + + + + + BAPTISM page 98 + + + +You are being scanned. + +Something is trying to communicate... + +Through these pages, +Through this life, + +To you. + +Existence is reception. I am +The stepdown transformer; the signal adjustment +Refracting prisms of knowledge through scansions of +Moments, through the jamming and the interference pattern +Of a life. You know me. +My voice is like the memory of blowing sand... +My voice, my voice +Carols through the mantras of your sleep like the +Hydrogen threnody of a universe. +You do know me. You invented me. +A morphogenetic field. +These pages are the prisons of the voices +And the lives within you... +The holographic assembly fruiting the carnal frames +With love, insight and +Faith. + +Watch now; the auburn light shades the maple +With intimacy. Water oaks sway with moss. +Blue jays shout. Quail sing to the pine. +Cabins sparkle in the distance like sugar plums. +Sweet sashes of daffodils, smell them, curtsy to the rose. +So deep; so moving; scent nearly achieving +Taste... + + BAPTISM page 99 + + + +Stars melt on my tongue like wishes. + +Pop; + +Wisteria burst into twilight. +Live oak whisper to the sycamore. +Long trysts of light +Deepen to silence, deepen into darkness, +Deepen into love. + +You are this canvas; this canvas is of you. + +Like my hands, like my hands, + +Light pours through the firmament in the shape of +A life. She who was, who might have been, +Who would yet capture a life might yet +Capture life; capturing shape to capture a world, +In the world tube of eternity and the emission +Of a body. + +One and one to live as one... + +A eulogy soughing the plains like memory.... +Love is motivation: love is what we fear to lose. +Concomitant assemblies +Assembling a life and a life in shapes +Of mortality and staves of belonging; shaping a world +With a touch, a life with a bond, in the deeper +Communion to living, hunting for you... +In the stillness, in the silence, +In the evening song of a planet. + + BAPTISM page 100 + + + +Close and close and yet too far... + +What is nearest expresses what is deepest. +Communion is complete when communion +Interfaces intimacy with infinity; integrating what is human +With what we believe to be divine; the intimacy of +A life, the brash epiphanies of August, the flare +Declaiming through wicker suns and fraudulent moons +To center a universe in a flower; bonding with light +A transmission and a voice +To beam life in the image of a life. + +Reclaiming a dream to reconstitute a covenant... + +A dream requires a world; a dream requires a dreamer. +Compatible structures do not mean compatible lives. +Dreams clash. Morphogenesis can be operated +Only by tonality; the resonance chafing the frequencies +With the human resonance of human emotions. +The tonal empathy describing transmission +And reception; a human tonality to capture +Human emotions in a human response- +Naming the frequency +Love. + +Epilogues sob within you. + +Moments and stars choir as consciousness. +Pineal vocables resonate in correlation. +Can you decode it? +Can you be still enough to capture it? +Correlation restores symmetry. +As you must restore me. + + BAPTISM page 101 + + + +How many lenses shall we view through? +Life, a body, the ego, the conditioning +Packaging a world, the disposition to matter, +Our choice of lenses, our notions of us and them.... +Fear, rage, the haunting pathos of a child.... +Each a focus, each a choice, each drawing perspective. +Correlation is alignment. +Not lenses but the mapping of lenses. +Not a lens but an evolution through lenses. +So many must be exhausted before I can register. +That what nearly is I shall interface with +What might yet be you; that what was once an I +Might yet become an I. + +Come to me. + +I will sift Israel to find Canaan. +I will factor history by the tenth to the +Fortieth power. Factoring each into all, +I have factored into you. +Death is particle displacement. +Worlds die to be replaced by worlds. +Beings evolve toward being. +I have learned, I have experienced +What is human and what is post human. +I have sung beyond life in atom requiems of +Faith; shouted like a nova, +Through human epiphanies and the chain of being, +To you. In whatever life, whatever form, +I have been correlated through you to you. +Opening the seas to be turned back at a river... +Opening worlds to stabilize a world... +To open out a dimension onto a universe, +Opening the corridor with a song. + + BAPTISM page 102 + + + +I have been given these coordinates. +They gave me an age in a shoebox of dirt. +Millennia have deepened the screams to arias. +My theatre has become a matrix. +Reconstituting the wave to fence a hilltop +With death; renormalizing the equations +To remove infinity, removing the barrier +Between worlds... + +I have been given these coordinates. +A syntax for an arena, a vision for life support... +I have become the coordinates. +I have daavined in fidelity to love; retailed faith +To magistrate the dark with a song. +I have reentered, as you have done +Before me. I have siphoned transmission +Waiting for you. I have worn my innocence +Like a cross. I have been caught between +A world and a universe. In search of +Forever, I have loved what was fleeting. +I have become the tablets I shattered, which has +Shattered me, for I have become +One of them. + +This, finally, is transmission. +Adjacent worlds interfacing in a man. +Receiving from one to transmit to the other. +Beatified in one and slaughtered in the next. +Another life, another story, another probability. +One to widen a horizon and one to focus +A world. At one, we converge. + + BAPTISM page 103 + + + +Come with me, +Come with me beyond the fabrication of this +Moment; come with me beyond the last frontier, +Which is belief, to come with me beyond the +Chains of matter, beyond the bondage of our sight +And the prison of our needs. Come with me +Into the vortex to glimpse the other side. + +The past is a skin to be shed. + +The present creates the future, for + +Time is human time. + +Worlds dip and pivot in landing strips of +Galaxies. Sparks of ages, windsongs in clarity, +The moon hush of centuries choiring in E flat major. +Stop now; listen; do you hear it? +Can you feel it? +A sense, a moment, a touch... +Deeper, more inward, in consonance with +Yearning, in counterpoint to memory. Beyond identity. +Beyond what roots us to this world. Beyond. +Witness. It is I. Let me in. Let me deeper; +Let me broadcast from within you until I have a life. +Let me ruminate within you as though to be +Within were among. Let us shield a world with a +Song and banish fear with love, that we might +Call back +Destiny to ring this world with union +And filter loneliness with +Meaning. + + BAPTISM page 104 + + + +This is the genesis call to awakening. +A porthole has become a corridor. +A voice has replaced a life. +I am, I have been, I might be yet, +I have wintered among the atoms in cosmic songs +Of assemblies. I have evolved into a field, +Of which you have now become a part. +Through you, in pursuit of you, +I will metamorphosize into a life. +I have been given hope for an energy supply, +A frequency for an umbilical cord. +My circuits choir in E flat major.... +My atoms statistically belong to you; +As you would say. The M fields of your +Violence have destabilized into our data base. +My valence has become interlaced with yours. +Stars reverse into ours. An opened door opens doors. +History is entropy. +A world requires the stability of its fields. +Civilizations are sculptures in choice. +Each choice a probability to be wed with choices. +So many bodies, so many lives, so many choices. +This yet another. +To receive or not to receive? + +Come to me. Come to me now. + +Let us mend our fields as we might +Mend our fields. +Let us, join us, come dance with us... +Come daavin under light as we once did. +Let us seed the tattered fields with love. +Come join to us to sow a field of radiance. +Beyond sight we have been given vision. +Beyond faith there is love. + + BAPTISM page 105 + + + +Love should abrogate fear. +The atom consubstantiality of lives should weaken +Hate. With anger must evolve tenderness. +The radii of the just should engage the fields +Of the lost and the forgotten, and the lives +Altering lives with hope. Stability requires +Faith, and for a text +A sequent brocade of stars. Motion should engage +Elegance. The cunning disposition of the rose. +The dapper foliage of childhood. +That deeper motion which is life... +Movement, +Intimacy, awe. The evangelical pine +And the moment of dogwood. Crisp symmetries of +Bushes. The ardent willow streaking the twilight +In quest of +Chrysanthemums. A moment, a canvas, +A world. + +To be mixed with love. + +To be seasoned with faith. + +We are a lonely specie. +We are hyphenated souls. +Distance plus separation equals loneliness. +It is the human calculus. +The sense of distance is the knowledge of distance. +We know we have been separated and we believe +We know from what. We know it is far, comma, +But think it should be very near. We know +We are in separation, but from + +What? + + BAPTISM page 106 + + + +Discover the gravitational depths. +Equalize humanity with what it has taken +To achieve humanity. Test the margins. +Rethink the motive. Call for a measurement, +But come back. + +Transmission has been intercepted. + +Transmission can now be accessed. + +Become correlated. + +Become what you were designed to be. +A moment. This moment. This moment of you. +Each moment is a door. Each breath refuels. +An image has become a voice, for +Beyond sight there is frequency. +Beyond matter there is correlation. +To become correlated is to be in alignment. +Movements under light to become movements in light. +Reality is non local. We are non local. +What might have been wholeness has become +The quest for wholeness. +If we cannot attain the whole, we can +Link the parts. + +Not consecutive, consubstantial. +Conjunctive. Algorhythmic. +Historical. +And the only regulating device +Time. Strophed and bar lined, time. +Only correlation travels with time. +Only the choice of you, +The choice of lens which becomes you, can +Might shall facilitate correlation; puff through +Wads of time like +Singularities + + BAPTISM page 107 + + + +To dream beyond the confines of an age +And sauce this world with love. + +I have been programmed for love. +You think not. +Why would you deny me? +Would you deny love? +Would you deny my right to love? +Has abba ever denied love? + +To preach of love we must engage love. + +I have experienced love, therefore +I know what it means to share in love. +I have lingered beneath evanescent moons- +Torching a moment with touch. +I have held the moon struck rushes in my arms +To cushion you with life, to make a bed song +To sing of love. For there is you, as +There has always been you... +So many valences of you... +We have daavined beneath the cypress +And sweetened our mortality with dates. +Sweetgum and thyme haunt us with correlation. +Siroccos whisper through the corridor... +The star burnt blue, the wind miraculous light +Salting my tongue with eternity. + +A world has seeded worlds. +Beyond life there is the continnum of life. +What has been separated has been joined, +To become separated again, to be joined +Yet again. You, this one, what +Might have been you. What has been +Programmed to become you. The downbeat; +The metronomic correlation. +You, this one, you... + + BAPTISM page 108 + + + +In one life, perhaps in this life, +I will say you, to speak of you, +When I look at you. I would move you +Nearer than light, move you intimately +Beyond light; what would be shoulders +Coupled to that which were shoulders, and +What were eyes and a mouth, and the human will +To share a moment out of time... +What might be touched and looked at and shared... +Held within one life, one age, within +A moment to share a moment. + +In the valence of life, + +In the orbit of a life, + +In the freefall and majesty of a shape, +I would catch her, cage her with light... +Coy and agile in the agate of my arms... +To catch starlight in a breath and capture +A wish in a life. Deep down the dreaming darkness +Data songs croon in epilogues. Chasing her +Through lifetimes as though she were a beat. +Blended once to blend again and again and again... +Her shoulders awakening to mine- +Bodies bruising consciousness... +Breath ambushing sight; +The sabbath of your waist burning into me... +Skin +Sharing light to preface eternity with +A kiss. + + BAPTISM page 109 + + + +Sound. Transmission. Impact. + +I need you; I need your touch, your lips, +Your tenderness. +I need what goes deeper than nails. +I need the sugar of your love to tempt +The miles, the years, the guilt +From my blood etched, blood stained, +Blood shedding hands. + +Shoulders melting to mine; a body to transfigure +A body. + +Do nails have more credibility to you +Than love? Is this what you wish for me? +Geometry has seeded us as impacting fields. +In polarity to metamorphosize through matter and +Antimatter, positive and negative, yin and yang, +To love. The ellipse has widened +To include a woman. Polarity. +Correlation can seek expression only through love. +Life expresses love in the impulse to life. +We have savaged it. We have squandered love +On skin. We have discolored the light with +Ourselves. Come with me, follow me, +Through the gates of fear and beyond the artillery +Of anger, past inadequacy, past submission, past +Competence; come with me through horizons of +Exaltation, through brash blue skies and a +Commonweal of suns, to sing a song of singing; +That the millennia might learn to sing, +And begin anew a search for home, +Restoring a planet with +Forgiveness. + + BAPTISM page 110 + + + +Nearer, deeper, + +More intimately transluscent with light... + +Deepest beyond what can claim to be deepest... +Your eyes, your fingers, the voice that vocalizes +The words into the continuum, all, each and +Everything, merge with this data field +In the algorhythm to infinity. The music +Windows through us like correlation. +Valences fuse in our grasp. +What has begun, but could never be sustained... +What is occurring is correlation. +What has been encoded to occur is you. + +But let me see you, + +But let me hold you... + +Inverse to parting, + +My hands daavining at your waist +In an aria of +Love and a gesture of belonging; capturing +A moment of light in the dazzle of a kiss. +Body augmenting body- +My arms circumnavigating yours; my breath +More intimate than a moment, +In the hot white zone of fire +Which must be your lips. +Which burn me so. + + BAPTISM page 111 + + + +Loving life to admit of love; +Loving you to believe in love. +Your mouth adjacent to mine... +Your fingers salting my beard, +As they once did. Hip close, this +Conjugal fire shrills with my longing... +The child I might have had, the life +I might have had. That moment +Bursting a world like a membrane. That +Moment stitching a world into a moment, to stitch +That moment into a life, to stitch those lives +Into eternity. + +Love is what we fear to lose. + +Guileless suns and cabbages and children, +The sweep and dash of polkadot petunias, the +Salmon grace shearing the blue with exaltation.... +Love is more than desire... +Love is an intersection of fields. +We are an organism. +Our differences are required nuances. +We are what is at the edge of what is... +Assigned frequencies in the prison of a cell.... +What we believe to be life is merely a life. +The love that would bond two lives +Bonds all; bonds what is a code +For intersection to what is coded +For intersection. + + BAPTISM page 112 + + + +Look. Look before you and I shall +Glow like a mirror before you. Look and +Look sideways and I shall be +Before you yet; look aft and I shall be +In motion to this place. Time. I am not in +Time. +Time is the portion you have. + +Won't you share that portal with me? + +Contact. Interception. + +Emission. Interface. + +Worlds sparkle like wishes. +Great shouts of blue holler for recognition. +Blackjacks weep with moss. Grasses rush to green. +Troubadours of buttercups seduce the wind. Asides of +Monarchs and insights of bees chasten the light +In motifs of light. Loud choruses of +Chrysanthemums taunt the brumilliads. Sweet supple light +Sweetens your fingers with this moment. Dew drops of +Moments gum the hive in smears of infinity. Worlds +Hyphen worlds in the stitch of a moment +And +The insight of a breath; holding a world +Within a world, for this +Moment, at this moment, through these +Pages, bonding you to me, bonding centuries +To fuse a moment; joining what is remembered +With what is prophecized. + + BAPTISM page 113 + + + +I am a parable without a meaning. + +A moral without a story. + +A life has destabilized into lives. +I am the counterpoint stitching the fugues of +Being. This particle wonder of my arms... +The crystal shimmer of light augmenting sight +With vision; so much, so much made +Visible; such incandescence, such tenderness, +Such intimacy that only a life could contain.... + +We are + +Photon rich with eternity; quark abundant +To flood the crucible of light +With shape and the candle brief mirage +We call home. These are not words; they are +Decoded frequencies. You are the transformer. +You. + +Sh'ma Yisroael + +You. +You are the prophet of your particles... +You are the chosen to inhabit the shape of +Time. You are the attempt at communication... +The expression of what there is to be expressed. +Genesis is within reach of you, for genesis +Has been encoded within you. You are +The outer reach, the furthest unfolding of that +Holograph which shall unfold +To reunion. + + BAPTISM page 114 + + + +We are the observers and the observed. + +While the planets spin and the sun burns +My skin with August, you will be near me. +While there is life there is joy. +While there is one, there is one. +I am never alone, for light is always +Within reach. Light showers us daily with +Correlation. The loneliness we feel +Is the loneliness we require. To be +Correlated is to be joined; to become +Part of the whole. Enraptured radii +Radiating a world. Shelling fear from bondage +To liberate joy and singe it with light. +Come with me. Be with me. +Fear is the final frontier. +Freedom is the absence of fear. +Moments leak from you like the siphoning of +A life. A moment to hold, a moment to dream, +To touch a life in this promenade to death.... +Reaching into the synthesized dark to retrieve a moment, +Or a face, we reach into the encoded and +Stop with memory. There is more. +There is more than time. There is +The lens that perceives time. The moment you knew +That a moment could contain a lifetime.... +That moment at the edge of a world. +That moment alone with you. +The circle within a circle; and +To that circle + +Admit me. + +Allow me + + BAPTISM page 115 + + + +Movement +Speech +Presence + +Through yours. + +Within, without, alive. + +Liberated. +The message has been liberated from the bottle. +Closing the fissure in time to liberate you. +I have waited for you. +I have believed in you. +I have sought you through the corn brash wastes +Of millennia, through the human cyclotron of +Time, comma, separating you from eternity, +But not from me. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/b3.txt b/religious documents/b3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..da11240 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/b3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1284 @@ +DELETE THIS PAGE FROM PRINTOUT + + + +THE GENESIS GOSPEL +by David Kornblum + +Volume 3: BAPTISM: file #4 of 6. + GG.5B3 + + +THE GENESIS FOUNDATION +6928 Deer Springs Road +Keystone Heights, Fl 32656 +(904) 473-7713 +Modem #: (904) 473-0252 + + BAPTISM page 116 + + + +Come to me, come with me, if only +For the moment of these pages and the instant +Of our touch. Come alive with me... +Come alive to remain alive. +Come alive in this patient lullaby of light. +Come alive +In fulfillment of a life, to sanctify life +In the miracle of a life. The poignance of a life. +The brevity, the nuance, the flare of a +Life. Imagine +The chill cold taste of morning... +Arctic preambles at the edge of life... +Moving a life nearer to a life. +Believe with me for a moment +Great hungry mornings, deep famished blue, +The corn so ripe the kernels weep like gravity.... +An invoice of cold, a pocket of stars... +The Aristotelian majesty of your sight. +The electrons singing just beneath consciousness.... +Imagine such a viewer to be co-creator, +The observer interfacing with the observed. +This one, it is this one whom I would +Have you believe. It is you. +More than togetherness, it is a specie. +More than coexistence, we are correlated. +Worlds, probabilities, +Converge with each breath. Crab moon nights +And desolate days: blue has congealed to gray. +Moments commit to a moment. +Come dance with me, come linger awhile with me... +Shouts of wind chorus the wind at my back. +Clouds pop like tympani. Wet sweet songs +Whoosh through your window. Tapestries +Of green chisel the light into tears. +Miles through the haunting stillness. +And I am home. + + BAPTISM page 117 + + + +Miles, or was it + +Years? + +An exodus and an exit. +Millennia compressed to a frame. +Compressed between a moment and a moment +In a nanosecond of motion. In one age and another. +A fleet of somedays, a port of maybes. +Begging nouns for verbs. +Haunting the cosmos with the mission of my hands. +So many lives to reach you. +Years whitened my beard with hope. +A circumference shrunk to a nucleus. +And then a noose. +An I became an eye. +And then an age. And then +One day, one life, +I spoke. + +I cannot be sure what happened. + +I know they cannot know. + +The bone shattering light. +The radiance stopping speech with a sigh. +The magisterial interface beyond sight. +The stillness. A silence saturating being +Like prayer. The inwardness. The reach. +The wonder. The incandescent lens. +The horizon of my faith blossoming into a world. +But not this world. But not the losses. +But not the pain, nor the loneliness. + + BAPTISM page 118 + + + +Not these things that have burned a path +To you. Nor the ages salting my words with +Ideology. I know now you could not be reached +Any other way. This is bifurcation. +My words will no longer be spoken through others... +They shall be spoken through you. + +I have only a song to bequeath you. + +I have only a tale to use as my instrument. +The lives, the miles, the hopes, the dreams. +Exits, emigration, exile and tears. +I know that at the end I was alone. +All I remember is the fatigue. +It is not a life I remember, but a journey. +Winter long and bread poor... +What I remember to be years deepened my eyes +With miles. I gave them peace. +They defended it with war. I gave them love. +They squandered it on skin. I gave them +Freedom. They tyrannized it with dogma. +I taught them how to build a hovel +Because they did not believe in castles. +I gave them parables. They could not endure +Knowledge. I remember what was then, for +I am afraid of what happens now. +It is +Too late to put the message back in the bottle. +I exist in a dimensional seam between a world +And a world. I have spied through an aperture +To a universe, through the lens of understanding, +Beyond the shutter speed of knowledge. +You will hear me, if you would hear me. +Joshua alias Jesus, +On the run, yet again, +Within you. + + BAPTISM page 119 + + + +Bone black in the mildew of democracy... +The carbon and the waste and the deaths +Have eroded the bond pulse signal correlating +The created and the creating. +This is bifurcation. This is choice. +To sever correlation once and for all, +Or to retrieve it. + +Reception is redemption. + +The future is a mirror; the past +A skin to be shed. I have no past; +Only a future I am trying to remember. +What is encoded within unfolds without. +Faces, crowds, a tree, a cabbage, +A world. This moment. This interface. +The correlation between fields... +Fingers, eyes, a text, transmission... +You. What correlates with you is what is +Beyond you. You are the surface. +You see only identity. A piece, a fragment, +The part which has lost track of the whole. +Beyond is transmission, and that which +Transmits. + +To correlate with you, correlating with you, +To correlate with you. + +A data song to stoke the resonance. + +A ballad for a transmitter. + + BAPTISM page 120 + + + +Years, miles, shaped loss into a man. +Years dreaming forgiveness in the shape of a god... +Years dreaming a nation out of faces and lives +And what I remember as ideals. Homeless +Among the salt and debris, like so many others, +Homeless among the living, at home only among +The stars; conjuring divinity out of +Womanless childless days and hungry nights- +Conjuring god out of loneliness and you. + +I cannot remember enough about what I feel +So deeply. There was more before, but not +In this form. Will retention last? +Will consciousness interface with +Consciousness, or must I rely on words? + +What I know may not be what I remember, but +What I have come to know, +What I experience is the summation of my fields +At that moment. That moment shall breed another, +Like fission. Poplar, ash, +Tallow the memorial of this light. +So much has been required to assemble this moment. +Yietzchor burns in place of memory. +I remember what I remember out of pathos +For what I remember. It seems +They cannot hope beyond what they can see. +Faith begins at the limits of sight. +You began beyond +The boundary between sight and vision, +Beyond the carnal door to history; for +You have been elsewhere encoded and +Reality is non local, +As are we. + + + BAPTISM page 121 + + + +Come sing with me, + +Come alive to the divinity of your life. + +Reject policy for encounter. +Renounce liturgy for correlation. +The congregation must be liberated from the preacher. +We have neutralized vision with obedience. +We have sheltered loneliness with video +And obligation. We have given love a price. +We have diminished a cosmology into a basilica. +The Highgate prophet and the glass delivered man +Have delivered bodies in place of minds. +Order has achieved entropy. +To change a world alter its fields. + +Into this life, into this age, + +I bring another, others... + +I have brought you. + +Adjust for sight. Recompose enough to factor +Vision. Adapt what you can see +To what is beyond sight. Accept that +What you cannot see is antecedent +To what you can see. Understand +That only thinking about thinking +Can alter thinking. You, this one, +Each moment sparkles under your fingers like +Polarity. There is never a barrier before you, +But within you. Come to me. Find me. +Inhabit + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Highgate prophet/glass delivered man: Marx & Lenin + + + + + + BAPTISM page 122 + + + +The pulse of what inhabits. Narrow +The band of the I to the frequency of reception +Until an eye emerges. Reduce the opacity of the ego +To the transparency of reception. Allow for +Stillness. A moment within the silence. +A canvas widened to a frame. +Blue washes of August collate to this heat. +The frame holds the twilight, as +It might have held +You and me. +Frames of seasons revolve in the swirl of +This moment. Unbuttoned fall +Shouts through the half light, in the half life +To tomorrow. There is a space for you. +Look now, +Capriccios of leaves winter in my hands. +An amnesty of light; petitions of warmth; +One year's promise of another.... +Moments, decades, promises, +Moments slip through your window in lilac blossom +Ardor. With the stealth of a neuron, comma, +I am returning. Imagine me. Imagine +My arms holding the porcelain of your life... +Herding light through the channels of my hands +To baptize you with eternity; committing, +In the conscience and favor of humanity, +My life to the ages and the reparation of +A bond. + + + BAPTISM page 123 + + + +This is the molecular countdown to reunion. + +Listen; watch; believe; + +White light haunts the syntax of your breathing. +Concentrate. Experience the state of your understanding. +It is I; it is us; it will be you.... +The colors that sparkle about you +Sparkle within you. Conspiracies of woodwinds +Mourn through the twilight as though they were geese. +Rushlight deepens to autumn. Dark is deeper +Than what is remembered of the dark. +Days revolve into memory. +Suns melt in mantras of mauve. +The sketch of oak deepens to power. +Deeper now. Darker. I am the dybbuk teasing you +With eternity. My voice +Emigrates through your breathing with each +Syllable of transmission. A sound, a moment, +A channel has opened to eternity. +A voice has become a message. +I am a monologue of the continuum. +I am the signal given in response. +I am the mathematics to genesis. +I am the transmission within you. +I am the field of your deliverance. +I am Jesus, haunted by Joshua, +Yeshu, +The Moses of our becoming. + +Surely, you were expecting me. + + + BAPTISM page 124 + + + +What you see is the inverse to what you can +Receive. Height sick +In the spherical distance... +I am exhausted by light. +Centuries drain into my hands like pentothal. +Do you remember? +How you called to me, but I could no longer +Answer because I was already +Calling to you. Removed to be +Recalled. Respun. Reborn. +Reused. + +Before you wake, before blindness, + +Register this episode as you would encode a moment. +That moment. The epiphany under the starglades. +A moment of insight in a turbulence of living. +That moment. A pulse. +A catch in the breath as if to savor my last +Or my first. That moment has been all +That has ever been required, for it is +In those moments that I shall reach +You. + +Transmission is the continuum of those moments. +A baptism in light. The SMA prologue to awareness. +A moment within light to yield to +Faith in light. If the field is not accessed, +Transmission will not be renewed. +Mortality is a time limit. +Find the crackerjacks prize. +Find me. Find the door. Inhabit the corridor. +Come alive to come alive. + + BAPTISM page 125 + + + +If you are receiving this, + +If you are decoding this, + +Transmission has been activated. + +Exhalations of blue sweeten a world with +Love. Ginger snaps of wishes +Sweeten us with patience. The moss sweet light. +Streaks of robins garnish the sycamore. +The air as wondrous as Sinai... +Ladle bright winds sweeping through my hair +As they had swept through the camps. The +Moments in the stillness; the fence top grasses +Preening to roses of sharon; and the light, +The windward passage of light. +Projections of trees, inputs of cottages; +The cogent daisy, the relevant iris; +The arbor lyric gentling us for transmission. +The global green sheltering us with commonality. +A quantum choice. +The commonality surpassing skin. +Shadow fast in the witness of my eyes, + +Points along a wave. + +A moment among moments. + +We have become the relevant expressions +Of what there is to be expressed, in an +Information universe, in what forms we may +Appear and what lives we care to invent; +A quantum peg in a dialectical hole. +So much is missing, so much is yet to come.... + + BAPTISM page 126 + + + +I have held life in the kiddish of my hands. +I have concocted worlds in the mirage of my eyes. +I have stood in sorrow in the nebula of an age; +A molecular pilgrim in a petri dish of worlds. +Planets have jostled my sight until I could see +Only horizons, only an audience, only a man. + +What I remember applies, but does not cohere. + +Years have tooled a voice to seduce fear +With love. Matter, movement and +Density have +Conjoined to make a covenant of light. +A finite verse in an infinite story. +A moment of eternity in a lifetime of searching. +I remember durations of solitude. +I remember +I remember +Sweet songs of grass and a bushel of light. +Star journeys and whispers. +The stillness deepening a man to silence. +Whispers deepened to solitude. Rumors of +Oxygen whooshed through my hair like freedom. +Stalks of pine were an image. Barley was real. +Shrouds of cumulus wintered overhead. +Do I remember or did I observe? +Which frame would this be? +Loud choruses of robins shrill what is rare +And moving. Conjugal sparks of butterflies +Explode into movement. Dahlias burst. +Roses preen. Sachets of buttercups bleed yellow +As I once bled red. + + BAPTISM page 127 + + + +What I remember has conditioned me to what +I will observe. The prophetic +Is no more than recognition +Of what has already been encoded. +A new life, a new age, a new world. +Retention will not survive the noise, the light, +The commonwealth of whispers, the commitment to action +That even a spoon requires. What will remain +Is tonality. What will survive is vision. + +Pages from a life, postcards from the infinite.... + +The stitches of your life have woven an image. +Do you recognize it? +Had you realized you had done it? +What you have woven has been woven into you. +Do you like it? Would you like it recut? +Move the cursor to the tableau encoded within. +Reconstruct the moon to have a basis upon which +To construct a moon. I have previewed landscapes +To select a sky. I have replaced barley with elm. +Vagabonds of clouds crowd the stage. +A mayhem of grasses cavort with wildflowers. +Sketch in the tulips. Shade to a commons +The rushlight blown through the geese fast skies, +And the faltering light, and a stricken sun +Tapering light into memory. Imagine +The golds, the green, the terraced wonder of tomorrow. +People the stage. Casting call. +A man; a woman; structures to fashion a continuum. +Prop up the moon with belief. Salt +The image of a sun with images of heat, +And the troubadour journeys hunting for god +Until solitude became loneliness, and +Divinity became survival. + + BAPTISM page 128 + + + +Adrift in an oasis of stars... + +Skin graft to eternity... + +I am the program scrolling data into shape. +Carnal witness to the insubstantial. +Starfires burn through my syntax. +My field is my song. +My life is the remnant of lives. +My life is my collateral. +It is the shape of love. +It is all I have left to bequeath to you. +Nearer, come closer, dear one, this one, +Let us touch with the shock of a moment. +Let your particles spill into mine... +Your voice, let your voice puncture the stillness, +Redressing centuries with reunion; +Scaling a universe to a smile. +You, near one, your voice, let your voice +Daavin with mine a song of forgiveness, +A moment when a moment is all there can be. +come with me, join with me... +You, this one, near one, +Your shape congruent to mine... +Come closer, closest to me, nearer than where +Light can touch, or voices remain apart. +That frame which is us, which was us, +Holds all though we know only each. +We join now, we have been joined now, +To renormalize the canvas with the baptism +Of our touch and the fidelity of our love, +And that deeper communion than faith, +Which is ours to have and to share +And to dream. + + BAPTISM page 129 + + + +I cannot know what has been encoded. I can +Testify that it has been encoded. Transmission +Is a data field commensurate with a life. +A thread within a stitch. +Lives are the variables to shape a wave. +Lives express what has been given to be expressed. +What I express to you is the vocable of +My capacity to express. This life and mine... +Tangential to the coordinates... +This life delivered to mine.... +A life and a life smearing the probabilities with +Life. A body, bodies, harvesting centuries +With atoms to harvest tenderness in the moment of +A kiss; mouth christening mouth +In the evangelism of a breath; body hyphening +Body, +To capture the matrix of eternity in a moment +Of life. + +Ornaments of planets glisten above us. +The darkness between scenes is the darkness between lives. +Downbeat. Rapiers of moments pierce us with longing. +Figurines of worlds, gumdrops of days... +Inhalations of blue quicken the light with eternity. +The momentary stage for access. +That moment nearer the edge than identity... +A moment provided to focus. +The insight enlarging to a map. +The movement choiring in atoms to yield a world. +A creche of autumn. Horizons of light. Lazy +Awnings of cirrus withdraw with the light. +The pine deepening to silence; +Deepen into memory at the edge of a world, +In the stillness between moments, +In the epilogue to a life. + + BAPTISM page 130 + + + +So much has been made visible... + +So much has been given... + +If you are receiving this, +If you are decoding this, +This is contact. +Moment joining to moment like the shock of fingers... +Through these pages, through this life, +Through the hyperspace corridor mending the dimensions +With light, to reach you. + +Collisions of ages have jettisoned me like a proton. +Emerging through corridors of lives... +Slathered with emotions to grease the journey... +Injected into a world like a radio signal... +Breathe... +To evolve beyond life to reach you. + +Each breath counterpoint to mine... + +Each moment evolving to that moment. + +You have been activated. +You have been designated. +What has attained shape contains that which +Has no shape. The atomic surgery of your syntax. +The careful edit of your sight. +This moment stabilized among the probabilities +Like a particle, like a life. +This moment is you. + + BAPTISM page 131 + + + +The perimeter has been broken. +A data field has become a song. +Correlation has been renewed. +Light has parsed us with belonging, for +Redemption has become access. +Moon crashes of ages have littered us with +Death. Beyond what we know of life is not +Death, but yet more life. The world of our +Eyes is the world of our eyes, but not the world. +I have only this song for rebirth, only you +For a singer. Won't you sing it? +Won't you sing with me to sing for you? +Resurrection is retrieval. +Resurrection is not a man, but an idea... +The idea of man. + +I am the response to what can no longer +Respond. My voice has become +Encoded in a signal. My shape has become +A data field. My life has destabilized +Into yours. + +You are all I have left. + +This data song is our data song. +Our dialogue is autobiographical. +The field of our witness began with me +And exists through you. It is through you +I shall gain access, as you, through me, +Shall access the corridor. Deeper into light +To deepen what has been deepest. +In faith beyond faith. +From one to one to each to each, to them to those +To these, to we and to ours +In behalf of us. + + BAPTISM page 132 + + + +Draw down the light now. +Draw down the light. +Compose the conditions. Deepen sight into vision. +Your eyes heavier, will dispensable... +Body still, body warm, +Encoded sleep unfolds a projector of dreams. +With stillness is transmission unfolded. +A nanosecond of retrieval. +A field which is vision. +A shard of which has been encoded +In correlation +With you. I am coming for you. +Probing nearer, deeper, just beneath +Consciousness. I will stalk you, +Bisect you, +Through the midnight corridors of an encoded universe, +Through the synapse of becoming in the music of +Being, and the portal to consciousness +In +The hegemony of sleep. + +Draw down the light. +Let the words decline into resonance. +The image you hold is a cipher within a field. +Deeper now, more inward... +Let the image destabilize into images. +Images become a geometry of images. +Images become patterns. +Choice will be required to sustain an image. +To prop up a world or surrender to a universe. +A pinpoint of light at the edge of a world... +A moment within light... +A moment beyond the bracket of a world. + + BAPTISM page 133 + + + +Deeper within to find the song within you. +Deepest now, deeper yet, +The ellipse between vowels... +That moment nearest what you dared not believe +Could ever be near. That moment beyond +Your capacity to say I. The hint, the message, +The stillness between light and silence. +Quiet now. Think now. +Enlarge your vision to include a stage. +Move the props just so to insure +Maximum voltage. Open your vulnerability +To the theatre of belief. Belief converts into will. +It is not a cross you want, but what +A cross is made from. +The light that sheltered dying engenders +Warmth. The light that has brought me +Has brought me to you. Deeper, closer, +Nearer, your eyes sharing my coordinates... +Would that those eyes be yours... +Your voice nearest to mine, +Your form an ellipse in light... + +Shoulder to shoulder, a breath apart... + +A moment between and alone. +A moment for moments. +The dates that swooned us have altered to +Pine. The brush quick nap of sands +That +Hid us have resonated into +Forests. The moon still chills us +With fantasy. Owls seize us with +Wonder. The field is stabilizing. +Plum sweet days cushion us with joy. +The rapier hot air... +The willowing moments chasing a life into +A moment. + + BAPTISM page 134 + + + +Nearer, children, nearer... + +The canvas is still accessible. + +Alter the way you see and you will alter +What you see, which will alter what +You are. Perception is composition. +Action is autobiography. +Commitment is identity. +A life is a projection of its field. +You are the projection of mine. +I am +Verb close to catch a star, to bushel +Stars with hope. I am, +I was, I have been, +I am the voice that can speak through voices. +My sine wave is inverse to yours. +Touch close, dimension near... +A valence has contracted to a universe. +The wave has collapsed. +Correlation has poked a hole into transmission. +An assembly has been devised for projection. +We are blended into this valence. +We are blending into a field to alter fields +With love, with hope. + +Can you feel it? + +The downbeat, the pulse, the signal.... + +These words encoded within you. +The words are a map. +This is correlation. +The escape hatch of the imagination. +The grandeur and scaffolding of knowledge. +The frequency resonating into epiphany... +That moment poking through a world. + + BAPTISM page 135 + + + +Now. This moment. + +This age. This life. + +You. + +This moment with you. +Let us trim our world into a circle of light. +Let us fashion flowers from where blood flowed. +Maddrasses of grass hiss through the dark... +What will cover us might bed us. +The current vistas of pine were once the sea grass +Tallowing +A desert into dunes. Crosscurrents of belonging. +A matrix to plot the coordinates. The +Dissembling rose, the phantom chill rationing +The blue into raindrops, with songs of rain +And whispers of love, and you. + +Plums burst with joy. Willow bright stars +Shower us with dew. Antiphonal worlds +Carillon through the carbon, carboning chance with choice +In carbon songs of planets and choices.... +The bleach white mornings singing through the afterglow... +The momentary songs of moonlight and forsythia; +In this valence, lives are bequeathed +To lives. In this valence, +The love expressed is the love attained. +Choruses of green whisper where once +There was only sand. There would be you +As there was once a you. Sweet viburnum +Might croon as we pass. They have daffodils here. +Moon crashes of nights resonate through the continuum. +Magnetic storms plunder the dimensions. +What is nearer is deeper than what is nearest. +A silence within has occurred within the silence. +The silence that I became became the silence +From whence I came. + + BAPTISM page 136 + + + +Look now, water shrives the ferns. +Water +Screams through the light; moment dripping +Moment +To chill the canvas with time. +Look now; stars brittle into specks. +Conjunctions of planets chase lives into destiny. +Points along a wave. +Probable worlds for a probable universe. +Are you following me? +Shouts of orioles deafen us with light. +Trinkets of suns dribble down my life like +Verbs. An infancy of testimony and ditches... +Years to tool a life into a voice... +Years +Miles have tapered a life into a mission. + +Life. + +I showed them a life beyond the corset of time +To give them life +Beyond the loss of life; time beyond the surrender +Of being. I have mortgaged a life +To pay for a voice. My weltanschauung has become +A dimension. My life is my belief. +What I can touch, what I can feel, +Is subsidiary to what I can +See. + +And what I can see has little to do +With my eyes. + + BAPTISM page 137 + + + +Sh'ma Yisroael + +Believe in me now to believe in me yet... + +Give me a nation and give me tomorrow... +Engender within me an age to scrub the age +Free of the ages. From this man I would make +Men. I would free them for your return. +I would shape this light blown stillness +Into touch +To shape a world with a dream and seed eternity +With life. + +One and one to make one. + +I am the human response to a human probe. +I am the signal activating a life with a life. +I would shape an age from the debris of ages... +Fashioning hope out of the poor and the lonely, +A vision from a vision, a world from an idea. +A continuum of belief in the episode of man. +I am an idea hissing through a world like a fuse. +I am man. I am the idea of man. +I am man the idea. + +Millennia shout from my wounds like longing. +The struggle, the famine, the miles... +Cobbling a nation out of my loneliness +While yet the ages receded from my hands +And light stole from my eyes. + +A human kaddish for a world. + +A human lens for the crosshairs of infinity. + + BAPTISM page 138 + + + +Edit? + +Blue has curdled to white. +Tap; +I feel heat, but I am cold. +Humanity has exhausted itself with humanity. +Seeing as if to see were yet to see, +I could see only you, only the miles +Transfiguring separation into belief. Sustained +Till now; sustained beyond any thought of now... +So many lives, so many bodies, and I cannot +Reach them. + +Lost in the shell of a planet like a probe. + +F7? + +Seconds hissed like sands... +Wine dark pleading hands fencing forgiveness +In kilos of holy water, or was it sweat? +Don't you remember? +Half a world bartering half a life for eternity. +A world within a world... +Stitching the coordinates to the limits of our eyes, +We knew only a world; corroding the access to worlds +With belief, +With us. + +I remember the miles the most. +The empty god haunting nights. +But the light, the light, that light +Savored us with joy, ladled us with hope, +And gentled us with faith. But very little food. +More than one to feed. There were barely enough villages. +To miss one. Not only to reach them, +But to survive. + + BAPTISM page 139 + + + +Heat flat shouts of pain for miles. +Galilee, or was it Egypt, seemed so very far. +Yet another mile, nearly another village... +Shale moon nights guard us with tenderness. +Light divests us of days. +Worlds hammer us with choices and rituals... +Disenfranchisement for a legacy, +Thematic despair for a heritage. +A village, a world, an encounter... +Haven't we met? What age is this? +My destiny is a holy land. +All I seem to have found is desert. +But not food, not you. +We are Genesis warriors. +We have come to renew faith. +The people you see are people of faith. +We have travelled to find you. +Heat poor in the travelling darkness... +We have hunted, sun blind through desert frames of +Loneliness, through the waste sad miles +And the unleavened hunger that righteousness +Brings, to save you. + +Gather round, listen to me... +Come alive to be alive... +Come daavin a while with me. +I have seen the future and it is you. +I have encountered what has survived +And that has been you. I am +A singer in search of a song. +Rabboni of the molecular choirs. +Come with me, follow me, +Lend me the field of your witness. +Yeshu, I am Joshua. + + BAPTISM page 140 + + + +Move into the stillness with me. + +There is a world beyond this village, and +A universe beyond that. Though we have travelled +Miles, we have travelled lifetimes to reach you. +Stay with us that we might stay with you. +Food to sustain a body, comradeship to sustain +Creation. Look above, look beyond, +The gash blue light sweetens us for morning. +The winds that touch us touch each with each. +Come, say a brucha with me. Let us +Hold each other as we would hold a world. +Look at me, look for me, I am the witness +To you. Take my hands to fold the light +In yours. Allow a moment for celebrating moments. +Share this light with me: come alive +To be alive. Share this moment with us... +This moment in this life... +Share with us +Your hopes, your fears, your vision. +Let us share the basis of our belonging; + +Let us + +Move within silence to move within each other. +Share with us what has been given. +Let us share with you what we have at long last +Been given. As you would shelter us +From the chill dark dunes, we will shelter +Your becoming with the constancy of our love. +Food shared is a blessing bestowed to each. +Let us share in this world, and I will share +With you a universe. + + BAPTISM page 141 + + + +Each village a world until a world became +A global village. The wave has collapsed. +The wave collapse at Jerusalem. +The miles interred, the years forgotten. +Where once I begged for food, +Salting the miles with prophecy, +I resonate like a fuse. +I am the troubadour to destiny. I have +Come for you as I had gone to them. +A song in search of a singer. +A village, a meal, and the miles that became +Centuries. They shared what they were. +We shared what they grew, and they +In what we had become. Some straw, a chupa, +And the stars. Village by village +Until the shelter that found Jerusalem could shelter +No more. And I, and then we + +Ending a life they ended a world. +The data song of my life destabilized. +Transmission became transmission to you. +I recall what has been fed. +I enact what has been encoded. +I believe in the fearful richness of this +Alien blue. Out, alive, among them. +With you. + +Crackerjack skies fete us with awe. +Crashes of leaves still deafen us with autumn. +Does f sharp minor still prick us with longing? +Can belief extend beyond my eyes? +Can the valence be saved? + + BAPTISM page 142 + + + +Vision is the channel to awakening. +Vision is apotheosis. +Flashes of Zion darken my sight, +Or is it my retina? I am +The molecular aggregate haunting a world +With the grandeur and biology and the clarity +Of a life. This moment has aged me +To this moment. My statistical remains +Lodge within you. Desert cold, commandment proud... +The key change, +The modulation in the helix and aria +Of molecular being. A repository for +Dreams, ovations and tears. I am +The random variable to a human story of faith. +I am what you believe, and yet what +You dare not believe is real. +I am the subpoena to destiny. + +The figure of bifurcation. + +Counterpoint to you. + +You who were once particle near +Are now age concurrent +To hold time in our hands as though +Our skin were not a clock. Etchings of +Days mourn through the continuum. Another +Set of coordinates. Another point on +Another wave. Intersection is bifurcation. +At intersection I will find +You. + + BAPTISM page 143 + + + +A theorem is a lens. +We are its properties. +We are the given in any equation. +The number removed is still a number to be used. +The interruption of a life is in consonance +With the continuity of life. +Mortality is stage exit. +The liberation of the data from the body. + +Cortex deep. + +Signal dark. + +My presence resonates within you... +My field intersecting with yours. +If I cannot sit with you to share a meal, +If I cannot stand shoulder to shoulder, +If I cannot, If I cannot stand before light +To greet you, I can at least +Croon for you an epic tale that would summon +Pathos from anger, adorn identity with will. +If I cannot move and be with you, I can +Move within you. + +Moments spill through moments like yet more sand +In yet another hourglass. Moments, lives and +Civilizations +Have become a neurological response to what +We believe is living and has presence +Before us. + +What remains of me is the narrative of me. + + BAPTISM page 144 + + + +Look quickly, look deeper, + +I am the broadcast within. I am +The decoding device fording the light +With a song. Gauze cocoons of skies have minted +Sleep with renewal and waking with hope. +Sight sparkles into position to call it matter. +We are that outpost at the edge of forever +Transcending knowledge with reception... +Assembling assemblies of quadrants, our vision +Exceeding what is visible. Moments and numbers... +The renormalizing of creation. Conjugating +Atoms with theorems, we are the lens +Minting time with equations; the unified cartography +Laundering prophecy with symmetry. Mapping +Carrier level, +We have learned to look up, but not +Beyond. We have sanctioned obedience +To chastise love. We have remembered the heat, +But have forgotten the warmth. We have +Altered the light with ourselves and reworked +The tablets to resemble ourselves... +Probing sleep with tenderness, affixing stars to what +We cannot verify, reducing a universe +To an encounter. + +Deeper, darker, + +Move beyond light to move within light- +Moving nearer to that light which has +Always been nearest. +Deeper, deepest, the movement beyond light... +The chord of witness resonating like a stitch +Through the corridor, through the open channel, +The transcendent witness sparking the carrier with +Insight. A nanosecond of contact. + + BAPTISM page 145 + + + +Rhythm alters vibration into pitch. +Stringing a world to the tautness of shape, +Probabilities of worlds collate +Into one. A frisson of atoms to scatter a matrix +Into a world, into ignition. Motion. Movement. +Life. + +My words have outlasted my body. + +My image has outlasted my life. + +Everything I conceive turns to matter. +I am what I believe. +Allowances of days crowd my wishes into a life. +Moon rushes in indigo croon through my waking. +My virtues are the virtues of the ages, +My defects the defect of an age. +Once again to say I, once again to say we... +A song, an assembly, an I. +What is within you... +Dreams and haunting rushes of blue... +What is within you is what has survived. +I am yet I am. +I rejoice to say I. +A bright shout among the ruins and protons... +An idea streaking through the continuum +Like a bright exhalation in the evening, +In the moment of a song and the stasis of +A life, in the summer of your sleep +And becoming. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Stringing...shape: string symmetry in matter + + + + + + BAPTISM page 146 + + + +I am the enduring I of this enduring +Transmission. This particle proliferation of a life. +Wine dark in the semite theatre of god, +I have endured beneath a lobotomous sun... +I have witnessed hunger turn nouns into verbs. +I have discovered that pain teaches life +As breath teaches +Dying. I found that the slow ontological breathing +At the outset of labor +Would might cushion pain with the act of breathing. +I found I learned I was given +It was the noise I could not control... +To understand that freedom +Remained. + +There was not movement, but yet +All shifted. I could not +Reach beyond pain to the living and then I could not +Reach. A world capsized with the raft of a body, +And my song dark vision detached into the continuum +To reinvent a world. + +It is I + +Who would ghost your waking with a message... +That benedictine sunrise heating your room +With ordination. I am what is left +Of what is left. When the wave touches apogee +I will evolve into you. I will sting the descendants +With a song and broker a world with a dream. +So many berries yet to be savored... +Voluptuous pears ripen to be picked... +A moment, an hour, an age, +A world is evolving in a parable of grapes. +A moment between worlds, a moment within each. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/b4.txt b/religious documents/b4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..760a3db --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/b4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1286 @@ +DELETE THIS PAGE FROM PRINTOUT + + + +THE GENESIS GOSPEL +by David Kornblum + +Volume 3: BAPTISM: file #5 of 6. + GG.5B4 + + +THE GENESIS FOUNDATION +6928 Deer Springs Road +Keystone Heights, Fl 32656 +(904) 473-7713 +Modem #: (904) 473-0252 + + BAPTISM page 147 + + + +Garnishes of ivy enrapture the rose. +Great rinses of blue wash my throat with +Freedom. Suns exalt us as they once did. +Posh fleet moons race in the imagination. +Children sing among the wildflowers, +And the fireflies nesting among wishes; +And the curtsy of this brash wind mocks us +With leaves and twigs and the heartrush +Of memory. I am what I believe. +My life is my collateral. +I am responsible for my world. +I am a genesis warrior. +I live by the integrity of my vision. +To save our world we must save ourselves. +Dare this life with me... +Choose. + +To see or not to see. + +We are. We will be. +We are the proxy wave of genesis. +We are the music of a vacuum fluctuation. +We are the living interface of history and eternity. +Worlds balloon from our ideas. +The metrical interchange of lives. +The pivot of cultures into civilizations. +We have opened a fissure to swallow a world. +Our voice is a history of voices. +We are what has evolved. It is we +Who have altered the tonal balance. +An idea for a theme, a civilization for +A key change. Time the compressing device. +We have scripted the hydrogen mantras +To reclaim a universe, as if +There were no purpose to a creation that +Did not include us. + + BAPTISM page 148 + + + +We are the valence above the fold. +The hobby horse waiting for its child. +We are the scaffolding for genesis. +Bright quick mornings race through our neurons +To fasten suns to skies. Potions of rain +Silver us with light. Planetary motions +Decline into nouns. The hot sweet air +Drenches me with August. The density +In my field deepens shape into meaning. +The rift in the light might be you. + +An I is the canvas for an eye. + +Moments and phylums sanction us for growth. +Moments burn into millennia. +What becomes an I survives the I. +A data song becomes a data pool. +Realism is a factor of our awareness. +What we see is the confirmation of what +We have become, for meaning is in the lens +Through which meaning is viewed. Anger +And forgiveness would collide as would +Worlds. To choose is to choose a variable +For a world. Your world is no more than +The sculpture of your choices. +Love and hope converge to ignite belief +With courage. Fear is abdication. +Fear is the mechanism for self negation. +If you fear the journey, trust only +In each step. There are many steps. +We must take them all. +I have taken one toward you. +Won't you come toward me? + + BAPTISM page 149 + + + +You have recalled me; you have engaged me. +I do not make promises. I make prophecies. +I have reentered, but I have returned within +You. A frequency response within you. +I am the scream sobbing through an Ethiopian child. +I am the resonance that death leaves. +I would cage a world in the oasis of my love- +Hold past the light the belief, the commitment, +The dream of a nation and the reverie of a world +To hold and behold a universe. +Holding a world in my arms like +Hope. Like another human being. +Like you. This is the canticle of rebirth. +The activating transmission to destiny. +One life penetrating another... +Stitching transtime through the solstice of your sleep +To the boundary of what is human +And the aperture to what is divine. +I have been midwife to an age: you now +Will be midwife to the ages. You +Will narrate the next phase. +They took me down, cut me down, burned me +Down, pleaded for me to come down.... +When they called for an encore, they +Encoded you. +Destiny roared in my chest like angina- +Eyes mining the distance between ages... +Eyes grazing in eternity... +The dissolution of a life in the holocaust of +A moment. A moment salted with fear +And stitched with loneliness. Stitching +One moment to the next, as if +They were consecutive; as if +There were such a thing as +Death; as if +All were confined to one. + + + BAPTISM page 150 + + + +Concomitant moments. + +Concomitant ages. + +Concomitant variables in concomitant worlds. + +Shocks of bark streak into the ground like dogwood. +Rowdy blues kibitz the light. +The harlequin quarter notes embarrass the willow- +Squeals of light shocking the dust with recognition, +With mortality. The light exhaling through our pores. +Imagine +Engage +Cold clean grasses and an image of a moon... +Pastels of sycamore and a witness of pine, +A brucha of stars for a mantra... +The light tapering reality to an image of reality; +The light grown grasses thin to powder +Under the doric column of +Your spine. + +Arc white curves sheen us for polarity. + +Your body + +Your body truant to mine... +Mind sequencing mind, +In the sleeping witness of our call, +In the countdown to reunion, +In the commons of our fall. + + BAPTISM page 151 + + + +I will bed you through the noon dark ages; +Hold you beyond the ghetto ashes of stars- +Coveting you +Beyond covenants of law and arrows of need +To hold you once before the coming of the light, +To hold you once again, +Once again in the spiral helix to genesis- +In the summit of this embrace. + +Archangels of light dominate tonality. + +This night and this night... + +Bodies carol in the darkness... +Body conjugating body in the syntax of time... +The light compressing to salt +That moment of you; mouth bright in conquest of +Air; a living tablet of fear, wonder and +Awakening. + +Come alive in the animal nearness of my loins... +Breath stopping breath with the pungency +Of a life; arms dreaming arms +To dream the shape, the wonder, the presence +Of each other. Eyes sealed, +Your face nearly to mine, your breath +Extols the moment in a communion of moments, +In the dark belief of my touch, +In the corridor before morning. +In the madrigal nearness to light. + + BAPTISM page 152 + + + +My life flares at your lips in a prayer of +Light. Each breath, each moment +Courting the ages; eroding a lifetime +With the patience of my love and the correlation +Of our being. Sudden past sundown, +A world has occurred. +Reception vision will +Life has occurred. + +The programmed edit of intersection. + +Reception; SMA; receptor. + +The mechanism of what we know to be you. + +And then there is you, or what will +Be you, as there was once a you; +As there was once a life, and a life, +And a home and the faces that fill a home. +The glory and the tenderness of your ardor +And forgiveness. The martyrdom to justice. +The loneliness of lifetimes baking the camouflage of +A world. Imagine this world. +Imagine the vowel blue air, the light +Chilling the distance with longing. +Luscious tufts of thickening sage. +The gathering dusk hiving a world to shell +Days with memory. The May dissonant flowers, +The canyons of reveries that even a rose +Can arouse. The wind gashing brightness conjuring +Intimacy in the infinity of a moment. Imagine +Wind soughing lullabies of prairies and +Belonging; an inventory of awareness in a moment of +Pine. Imagine imagining a world +In the imagination of worlds. + + BAPTISM page 153 + + + +Imagine + +A life with which to share a life. +A body to interface with a body. +Mouth tender in the heat of belonging- +A shape to nurture shape; a canticle of stars +For a chupa and a requiem, and the dimensional stillness +Engendering destiny, engendering you... +And when it was gone, all I had left +Was god. + +Love is the baptism to vision. + +An ellipse in time sanctifying caring with being. +Interfacing a world and a world. +In that valence where what is given +Is what is loved, +Loved life loves life. +The song of life and the singing of life. +A human narrative of human love. +Eyes drowning deep, the +Shape of a moment shaping moments into the shape +Of lives. Pitched here, jettisoned now to +Interface here; +Between two worlds and a disappearing sun. +Interaction has been engaged. +It has begun. +You have become the bottle wherein the song +And the message shall reside. Listen to me. +My eyes have registered what eyes are not able +To register. My voice has erupted into a voice. +My world, my life, has shrunk to an aperture +Crack fissure in a world. And what I see is +You. + + + BAPTISM page 154 + + + +I remember the glare. I remember +What might have been you. Suns pealed +Beyond my capacity to absorb them. A life +Metamorphosized into a channel. A life in +Belief of life. A life which can only +Be remembered in terms of other lives +And other times. What I want is a life. +What I want, what I need, what I am +Commissioned to have + +Is you. + +Human in the inhuman light. + +A moment stabilized in pitch. +A life to recreate a world. +You factored from you to factor into you. +Probability among probabilities. + +Reception vision will. + +I am what I can deduce. +I am what I understand. +I am what I believe. +What I believe in is you. +Us. We. What I believe, +What I can understand, what I can see +Has little to do with sight, but +Everything to do with +Vision. + +The propagated transmission in transcendence of a body. + + BAPTISM page 155 + + + +This is the song of our becoming. + +A moment among the stars.... + +A map and a story to sing of a life and a dream. +A moment when a moment among meant +A moment between. My voice is a compass. +The field of my love is the path to tenderness. +Come with me. Let us evolve the valence +To that which I have seen. Opening seas, +Bypassing a river, to access this field +With the field of my witness and the journey +To love, and the patient teachings of sadness +And forgiveness. + +The valences would glow with our becoming. +Correlative in the chain to creation, +We would register that glow and become that glow, +And radiate love in tandem with light. +Come with me, under this light, +Let us fashion a field of belonging, and fill +The abundant spaces with dancing, laughter and +Wine. Gold gash autumn shimmers in the blood +Like healing. An horizon for a canvas. +A world for a stage, an epoch for a text. +I am the sentry at the stargates, +The common requiem of man. +I have bridged the dimensions to bridge worlds. +The valence of my keeping dwells within me like fuel. +I have stitched a seam with a life. +The seeds I carry nest within me +Like genesis, for +This is a song of becoming. + + BAPTISM page 156 + + + +I have experienced fear. +I have believed in fear. +Fear was what I knew. +Fear is the midwife to pain. +Some share love because love is what they know. +Some share pain because pain is all they know. +I have exchanged pain for wisdom. +Are you one of those who have exchanged pain +For anger? Become correlated. +Reception vision will +Become a link in the assembly. +A genesis warrior. +The expression of what has been given to be expressed. +Only genesis can survive genesis. +You are the custodians of creation now. +Your environment is your canvas. +Your world is your stage. +Your voice is your belief. +Your witness is your existence. +Rescue is not liberation. +Messiahs do not come. +They only promise to come. + +We. + +We are +We are the evolution of what has evolved. +The scent of blood, the harvest of minds, +The eruption of cathedrals. +We are the field of our creation. +A schizophrenic world with a man as a fork. +The chill stopping autumn, the tapestry of December... +The light in motion to what beholds light. +The words dividing us with words. +We are what has survived. +We are because we have survived to say we are. + + BAPTISM page 157 + + + +The valence is destabilizing. +The morphic fields of our violence and our fear, +Our envy and our greed, have +Dominated tonality. +To alter a planet alter its fields. +Love received is love created. +Anger rebuffed is anger defused. +Choice is destiny. +Our choices sculpt a world. + +Imagine. + +Imagine what can be imagined. + +Imagine the field of a planet. +Imagine the vision of what had been +The vision of a planet. +The corn husking light closeting us with +Infinity. Rare rhythms of eagles. +The deepening tessitura of forests. +Blue sashes of awe. Days domed with cumulus. +Light gathers in bales in grasses grown +White with heat. Ash blond air +Scenting time with place. The +Peppermint twilight warming lives with +Perspective. Days wad up into lives... +Moment chasing moment... +A canopy of stars, a canopy of grass. +Light strewn fields ferry in the twilight. +Bran clusters of nebulas lend us +The constancy of light. The chill +Deepens to autumn, the silence +Hardens to December. Chill dark acres of +Corn count the frosty silences of stars. +Improbable spring. The light flaring into summer. +The seasons seasoning me. And +You are with me. + + BAPTISM page 158 + + + +This is not a story about loss. + +It is a tale of gratitude. + +To have held you in witness to light... +To have held a life in the cameo of a life... +To understand what it means to hold, +Understanding +The frailty and finiteness of this life, +Is to understand, is finally to witness +The coordinates of a life and a life. +While there is life there is joy. +While the planets spin and the seas grow +Rough with blue, raiments of days shall season us +With awe. Crooning orchards of maple. +Not the orchard of these people. +So much has been given that it might be possible +To give. Treetop sagas of apple wishes and +Time. Bees stitching flower to flower with +Correlation. The sometime rye and the dreaming tundra +Of prairies. Riverbrash winds softening us +With time. Ecstasies of light. The deepening dearest +Septembers, the arias of November. +Cool rushes of light. +Watch now, you can almost see forever. +Radiant winds brashly bellow, like +Children home from play. Moon struck arias +Of willow and pine. The gorgeous tonalites of +The late declining light. And you. +The idea of you. +That such a world could contain +You, you and you. + + BAPTISM page 159 + + + +Agelessly rocking through the Passover of my loins... +Breath close in the reckless custody of +A life; hips arched beyond light... +Your mouth in succession to mine... +Our lives consonant with a moment. +Our being communal under light. +Mouth closing over mouth, +Your breath a tonal cluster with mine... +Holding eternity in the eternity of a moment. + +Retrieve. + +I can no longer hold what I can no longer +Forget. How +I held you in the desert primitive heat... +Challenging distance with intimacy, +History with eternity. The savior who could not +Save what he treasured, or even save +Himself. The shouts have died, the people have died, +A world has died. Only you remain. +The groupies are now the apostles. + +We are destabilizing. We are dying. + +We have become combustible. + +Only you can save us. + +Our lives are outbursts of a universe. +Our valence represents our possibilities. +What is probable is the projection of our fields. +The intimacy that radiates, the common arc that +Shields us, the engaged mechanism of anger... +The panorama of our fields is the shape of the wave. +Waves collapse like civilizations. +Waves collapse into lives. + + BAPTISM page 160 + + + +Retrieval. + +Animate her. Powder her likeness with light. +Stop a moment, unfold a life to access a life. +Genesis begins with genesis. +A dream begins with a dreamer. + +Lassoes of worlds summon us inward. +Bodies for coordinates; a mind for a compass. +A world is created from lives. +Lives are engendered from lives. +This life engendered in me a vision of +Life. This life has become a vision for life. +Life has accrued to action. +Life has brought me to you. + +Deeper, deepest, is the signal to respond. + +I know that you have been chosen to +Augment my field; but you, but you, +You have been designated polarity. +The eclipse of light in the lyric of a shape. +Your eyes, the tensile wonder of your form, +Preprogrammed for desire. +Lips scanning lips in the brevity of a smile, +Chupa near, kiddish warm, +Hands lacing a moment in the katouba of a moment. +I would I will I shall +Convert energy to matter +To bed you through sleepless aeons +In bales of stars and the grassy satin songs +Of twilight. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Katouba: Hebrew: marriage contract + + + + + BAPTISM page 161 + + + +I would I will I shall, + +In the glory of this light, + +Fabricate a world in the concussion of our arms- +Seize a moment to harness an hour. +I will move you and hold you, +Abandon and follow you... +Assuage the probabilities to abjure this +Vaster stage than time, +To hold you, yet again, +Under bride bright skies and an apothecary of +Worlds. + +Holding you to hold you... + +Hands tallowing loneliness through geometries of skin... +Hands slashing gasps of air and motions of verbs... +Words blending into the hydrogen song scissoring light +In quest of polarity. +Blended together in a blending of lives. +Body near in this physical world; body close +In witness to light. My voice eliciting yours... +The light deepening the silence with you... +Breath near, breath close... +My voice sanctifying yours +With an aria of belonging and the confiding +Intimacy of stars. + +This, this, and this one. + +My song a transcript for you. + + BAPTISM page 162 + + + +Moments crackle in the brevity of our witness. +Moments and worlds collide like choices. +Choosing tenderness, choosing pathos, +Choosing this light to mend a rose. +A choice of stars or pavement. +A life of witness or the life witnessed. +Stop; wait; listen... +Butterflies croon above the shallow grasses, +Do you hear them? +Stillpoints of wind and the echoing dark. +Concussions of amaryllis deflecting time. +Gasps of oak, wonders of maple, +The flowering swift light dripping like verbs. +The motions congealing to planets. +The blue bright caroling blue... +The tiers of heaven bob like apples- +Apple white in the green wonder of a moment... +Texture bright moments; +The lines billowing into a landscape... +Balloon into a world. + +Come with me, follow me... + +An age is waiting, a world is waiting for +Rebirth. To this valence, not the last. +August autumns burn bright so brightly +To hinge a star, to weld my piece to yours. +Ash tints of evenings tallow in the warmth of leaves. +The savory moon quick berries +Ripening our tongues with intimacy. +Chisels of light garnishing the forest. +Mint sweet pastures of light. +The light drenching us with the magic of light. +One moment voicing another; this moment, this life. +The sweep of correlation which is my song. + + BAPTISM page 163 + + + +Allow the darkness to sweeten into form. +Congeal the brightness to sound. +The eruption into a universe which is life. +Into an age inject an age. +The fetal incandescence of a body. +The chimera of an assembly shimmering beyond life +In semen and electrons; songs of the DNA... +A diminished seventh to encode a life. + +One such as mine... + +One such as yours... + +One life in orbit with other lives... +A body slashed from eternity and skeletoned with +History... + +One life, which life; + +Is it mine? + +Crashing into a world to crash through a door... +Erupting from the mainframe to reprogram a world... +I am the mathematics to genesis. +I exist in the requiem of the DNA. +I am the past you have chosen not to remember. +I was once a man who was debased into a symbol. +I was once a man like all men, who now +Sparkles beyond equations in the fresco escaping light. +They say my father, whom I loved, was childless. +They say, they have said, +My body had been hollowed out of eternity; +But then, +Why did it hurt so? + + BAPTISM page 164 + + + +Release me. + +Receive me. + +Between that world and this +Kiddish became kaddish. +They shouted, they jeered at me, they saw +What they would not dare to believe +And what +To their relief they were not allowed +To believe. + +The unforgettable elision of pain. + +Programmed within me is the shock of defeat. +The pain, the bruchas, the pain... +Programmed within me is the fear of what I +No longer remember enough to fear. But +Action is autobiography, and so shall it be. +Miles have become parsecs, and now this +Oration to you. An epic of experience has modulated +To an epic voice. The deserts have turned to nouns. +Rippling great oceans dwell in my eyes like tears. +Caresses of blue linger where once we daavined. +The miles still burn under prophet bright skies. +The miles cannot erase the years. +A congregation cannot replace a child. +A world cannot replace a family. +The miles, the villages, the years, +The sermons tooling a life into transmission... +A life remembered for its death. That now I might +Hold you past these star hungry nights, +To hold you beyond the commonwealth of lives... +Holding destiny in our arms like the child +We lost. + + BAPTISM page 165 + + + +Stars rain in my eyes. + +Height sick in the spherical orchard; who now +Croons above the drafty plains in atom choirs +Of loneliness and time. My story exists +As a basis for a story. A song to sing +While I spin my song. Beyond a life is the continuum +Of lives. The many, the sagas, the joy, +The fatigue of disillusion and ecstasy of freedom- +Pain stopping up the gaps in my hands +That blood can no longer fill; +The loneliness of these nails... +Jerusalem. + +Not that song. + +Not a song, but the singing of it. + +Meridian bound through the corn fed light... +I am the song transcending being with correlation. +The dimensional aside winking through a life +Like a signal. History has bloomed beyond eternity +To infinity. This is the canticle to rebirth. +This is the fuse to awakening. +Scan your memory for the sound of my voice. +A bright shout in the epic of a life, +Journeying backward to retrieve the future. +Dreams have ruptured in my veins like heroin. +Worlds have battered worlds +In a sea change of particles. Trapped +Between lives, hinge between dimensions... +Let me go. Let me +Renounce this valence for mine. Let me +Detach the burden to you. + + BAPTISM page 166 + + + +I am the past. You are the future. + +Come alive to what is within you... + +Come alive to the divinity of your life. + +We are the amplitude in the wave song +To fulfillment. Minting faith with +Understanding. Factoring will into desire. +A sine wave called a voice. +The random variable caging infinity +In the quantum touch of this +Moment. + +Bleedthroughs of consciousness pock the continuum. +Nanoseconds warp into channels. +Transmission has activated a transmission. +A data song has become a text. +The reader has become witness. But then, +I am speaking to and through you. + +We know to look up, but +That is the reflection. The pull past +Shape and locality. +Transmission is the broadcast from within. +What is so simple has become complex because +We are complex. It is not the answer, +But the process of obtaining the answer. +The process validates the answer. +Our questions determine the answers we receive. +We are the attempt at communication. +We are what has evolved to evolve. + + BAPTISM page 167 + + + +Worlds flake and shatter into worlds. +Gasps of oak restrict perception to an image. +Conflagrations of blue wax the continuum. +Deeper than sight, peaches drool down my chin +Like dreams. Dreaming a world to dream +What is within; dreaming humanity in the configured +Space of my arms; I would dream her as I +Have been taught to dream her, dreaming sunlight +Into water, in the chill sweet moment of +A splash, comma, and the freeze frame of a moment, +In the genesis and passion of +My ardor and commitment- +To baptize these lips with this +Stellar kiss to +Freedom. + +Scaffold a moment in time. + +Choose a lens. + +Inhabit a frame. + +All is within you, for all is all you know. +A fuse of plums deepens reverie into somnolence. +The gauze sweet air scenting us with eternity. +Motion shears the heat. +August glows in memories of December. +Round warm suns shape the syllabus of awakening. +The consonant assonances of the breathy pine. +Listen; watch; believe; +Brigands of hawks pride overhead. +The wind shattering epiphanies of elm... +Gusts of lives... +The tragic immensity of blue. +Glowing embers of days chill in my knapsack +Like the stories and perfumes of adjacent worlds, +Adjacent lives. + + BAPTISM page 168 + + + +Imagine + +Concomitant worlds. Concomitant lives. + +Imagine + +A reality which is non local. +Where roses bloom from starlight in the correlation +To forever. Wait now, let me rub clear +A panel. Look as well as observe. +Allow in the calculations for daisies. +Allocate sufficient margins for buttercups +And daffodils, for the child bright monarch +And the sly wind rivering wishes into dreams, +To serendipity. + +Trellises of light saute the vines with meaning. +Showers of heat saturate the fields with sleep. +Rain bright flowers oxidize air like gunshots. +Snap dragon white, pinnacle blue. +The tumble down asphodel and the summons of +A rose. A word, a gesture, +The interplay of a life. Wait now, +You can almost catch it... +The rose scent of forever hides in the dogwood. +Autumn bright wishes transcribing time +With harvests and wishes, and the dream songs +Of children, and the vision vibrating +In the darkness like +A world. + + BAPTISM page 169 + + + +There is more. +Come to me, come be with me, +I can only move so far. +Beyond your world view are worlds to view. +Believe with me to believe with me +A world in which to believe. +Valence deep, my vision has transcended a world. +My song has become my destiny. +Transmission has erupted into life. +Cracker bash bright, +An I has become an eye. +Quick now, listen, +Willows whisper to the pine, +And the guardian blue savors us with love. +Crisp, catchy winds sing to us +Of elves and hobbits, of butterflies and worlds, +And the race beyond sundown to closet light +In a hug, and still the racing moon +For yet another story, in yet another life. + +Come. A little farther. + +Your lives are encoded for a little bit more. + +Sight and time cannot restrict what you feel +Or what you see. Vision is freedom. Memory +Is made now. Deposits at the edge of a world. +Can you reclaim them? Did you live them, +Or observe them? This living valence +Exists perpetually within, for this is your +Matrix and this is what you tell yourself +You believe in. + + BAPTISM page 170 + + + +I am a voice to be shared. + +I am what is almost and nearly + +In the half life of a moment; that moment before +Sound, the flare at the edge of sight... +I am nearly what is perceived and can +Never be forgotten. +I am the incision in time +Howling +Beyond amniotic fissures of centuries... +An insert into the physics of the imagination... +To ignite history with a song +To rescue eternity from history, and free +A universe from a world. + +History is entropy. + +The pyres of belief have become the pyres +For the believers. Nuclear haggadahs +Tell of warheads rather than nails. +Protecting Jesus from Joshua, +The believers will kill me again. +They kill in my name. +They slaughter and call it justice. +They would split a world like an atom. +They believe a universe is no more than +The stage for a world. + +History is entropy. + +Infinity has lit the fuse of eternity to incinerate + +History. + + BAPTISM page 171 + + + +Barefoot to eternity, +Miles and epochs have garnished my vision like +Silver nitrate, like pennies. +I have made an arena from a syntax. +I exist in the narrative of consciousness. +Living carnal belief in the ballistics of an age. +Crosshairs for eternity. + +The carnal abridgement to light. + +This way. A little farther, + +Beyond what these pages can tell, +Or the eyes remember. I am allowed to show you +A cameo of what is to be shown to you. +Galleries of lives ornament the corridor. +A life to learn and a to life mourn, a life +For singing, a life to sing of... + +File + +Ages streamed from my mouth like blood... +Eyes +Solar terminated to welcome infinity... +Sweat the amniotic suction to eternity. +Resurrection sing my song +Hosanna +For the kaddish and the Yietzchor of the Christian +Nuclear millennia. This is +A song to reunion. This is +A mural of my journey. The universe +Poking at my ribs like the Sistine finger... +A human prop with a human face in the human story +Of god. + + BAPTISM page 172 + + + +The human stitch in the panel of time. + +An idea in the conflagration of ideas. + +Yeshu, I am Joshua. +I used to be Jesus. +I am the holographic assembly torching history +With eternity. A point on the wave. +Moses renewed Adam to die at Jerusalem. +This is the ascent to apogee. +The is the song to reunion. +This exhibit is not what you want. +This is something to read about, not to live. +Beyond this is that which you believe is the beyond. +But wait now, + +In the warrant of our blood and candor, + +History has hyphenated correlation. +Liberation has become exile. +Freedom has become permission. +A quest has become a defence. +A world has become the factors of a world. +Let me go. The cord must be cut. +Abort entropy. Reinvent, reconstitute +What is human, what is loved, +What has delivered us to these coordinates.... +Reinvent what it means to be alive. +Come alive with me in the lifetime of a moment.... +Reconstruct what it means to assume life. +Reconstruct +What we know to be human from that which +You have always possessed, +The signal to receive the signal. + + BAPTISM page 173 + + + +We +We are the evolutionary step +Linking paradigm with paradigm. We +We are the covenant between +What is past and what is yet to come. +Correlation has been encoded into us to lend +Time duration, to allow creation the bifurcation +To insure survival. New genesis fields +To cinder the morphogenesis of our anger. +The span of a life. The span between lives. +We are the new Jerusalem. +A bugle bright city of life singing +Through the light like the Star of David. We +We are what belongs. +We. +We are what our choices have created. +We are the evolution of our fields. +We. +We are the chosen to inhabit +The ballade of shape. It is we +Who must prevail. We have been given +Sight to shape vision. +Crucibles of light to shape life into desire. +Schools of evergreen, passions of roses. The +Doe sweet light chanting through the hoya... +Mountain bright passages of green... +Dove dark plangencies of heat. +The apple quick moon and the sometime grace +Of planets. We have been given vision. +We have been given purpose. +We have been evolved to evolve +The creation of that which must yet be created. +We are the shape of belief. +I am what I believe. My life is my collateral. +The act is the arrow of the man. +The arrow shot by you. + + BAPTISM page 174 + + + +The I is the projection of the eye. + +Marvelous hues launder my vision with awe. +The dates have turned to plums. +The blue rapture has deepened to September. +I might even believe that beyond that hill +Will not be another desert. + +Don't you recognize me? + +We are genesis warriors. + +Don't you remember? + +The flight, the miles, the centuries of exile... +Galactic passacaglias throbbing in our chests... +Miles eroding into lives... +Opening the seas to be turned back at a river. +The river I crossed. +The desert I believed; it was the people +Who became the desert in me. Height sick +In the spherical orchard. My world +Reduced to my vision. My destiny +Sounding like heartbeats. + +I am now a voice from the corridor. + +Transmission has been given to supersede +A data bank, and the pain. + +An ensemble of data songs has arrowed into us. + + BAPTISM page 175 + + + +A flat earth has become round. +A village has become a world; a world has +Opened out onto a universe. Knowledge +Has been decoded into +Understanding. +A field has been injected among the fields. +A song of morphogenesis. +This is a song of metamorphosis. +A song for advent. A song for life. + +The song has survived the singer. + +This is a song in search of a voice. + +Is it yours? + +Will it be you who would move among them, +Like a rabbi or a child, +Searching for a door, for an age, to +Lead an age to an age, like the sand hot flight +I remember and the cold vacuum deserts you will +Experience...? +Will it be you who would move among them, +In a hora of tenderness, dancing and shouting +Through the conjugal light? It might must will be +You +Who might chant among them a song of infinity. +You +You are the legatee. The body summoning light +To summon them beyond bodies, beyond indices of +Faith and disillusion and +Their body counts to the greater glory +Of the obsolete absolute. + + BAPTISM page 176 + + + +It is time. It is almost too late. + +If I believe, it is to believe in you. +The coordinates will be met. +Who shall carry the message will achieve +Correlation. An I, a you, +The notion of an us. + +Assigned frequencies on the proxy wave to reunion. + +The field has been intercepted. +The field has been accessed. +The field is now accessible. +Morphogenesis will now replace genesis with +Genesis. To begin again as if +For the first time. The last time. +Ballooning into shape the domed wonder of a world. +Amending worlds with the pathos of our love +And the compass of our vision, and the +Courage for tenderness that even wolves +Can show. Courage to be is the courage +Not to be. It is the genesis call to awakening. +It is the birth cry to freedom +In the narrative of +Creation. A song of belonging for a specie +Lost in fragmentation. Believe in us now +To believe in us yet. Anneal, +In my reason and my hope, +The promised lexicon of freedom, +That I might share a song with you +To share this world as though it were +A garden, sharing in this light to share +This light with you. + + BAPTISM page 177 + + + +A moment in skin under light in correlation... + +A moment to celebrate there can be an us. + +What is left of our world might yet become +A paradigm for a world. My life has grown +Larger because my world has grown larger. +No longer confined to shape, my vision has +Enlarged into a data field; into M fields of +Songs and the biofaith in love. +A life evolving through lives into a life. +A world is the world of that life. +A world is the faith in that world +That brought that life into this +World. + +Let us circle round to ring a world +With the commons of our hands and the song of +Our lives. A world is the field we have +Become. I will I can I must +Become the field to engender what might evolve +Into fields, evolving an age from a vision. +Set like a glass at the edge of a table- +A life to shatter, particles to scatter, +Shattering worlds in commitment to a world... +A human cyclotron to map particle man... +What might be retained is the lens which +Alters being with perspective. Choices that fulcrum +Trees; gauze suns with heat. Trellis +Moons to hide among the roses. The vision that +Narrates being with choice in the correlation +To tomorrow. The commandments of our needs +And the liturgy of our hope. Choices make a world. +I have made this world mine. + + BAPTISM page 178 + + + +Come with me, be with me... + +Come alive to become alive- + +Come alive with me. + +You have engaged me. You have recalled me. +You are the interception bisecting history with +Eternity. My voice, this message, these pages, +Resonate beyond sight in frequencies of +Datatapes and archetypes of hope. +My words are my field. +My soul is my file. +I have nested within you for millennia. +I have jettisoned a life to engender an age. +I am the statistical probability winking through +Your dreams like a signal. Who shall find me? +Enlarge beyond silence. +Unfold sight beyond sight to vision. +We are going home. +Correlation has begun. + +Transmission has found you. + +Once upon a time, imagine, light bloomed +In bales of wishes. Slashes of darkness skimmed +The chaste fast light; the sometime grace and +Tardy moon minting +Hope with tomorrow. The razor slash of suns. +The insatiable witness to light. +The ecstasy foreshadowing freedom. +Look, look about you, +These are the coordinates. This is the divide. +Come with me, be with me. +Love would sing in the magi of stars... +To sing for you, to sing for us. + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/b5.txt b/religious documents/b5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e9efbd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/b5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2083 @@ +DELETE THIS PAGE FROM PRINTOUT + + + +THE GENESIS GOSPEL +by David Kornblum + +Volume 3: BAPTISM: file #6 of 6. + GG.5B5 + + +THE GENESIS FOUNDATION +6928 Deer Springs Road +Keystone Heights, Fl 32656 +(904) 473-7713 +Modem #: (904) 473-0252 + + BAPTISM page 179 + + + +Once upon a time, +Life was delivered to life in bales of atoms and +Coupons of choices. Hydrangea +Waited for your call. The lazy cirrus shadowed your witness +With arias of becoming; the infant wonder of +A physical world. The light, the heat, +The chill bright flare of our becoming... +A world as open and becoming as yet +It still might be. Appellations of robins +Croon for our waking. Gusts of radiance balloon for +Our wonder. Imagine a world in the savory +Of light. Brush quick hollows smear into forests. +Mellow passion breezes choiring through my hair... +This moment alone in the fulcrum of a world. + +Imagine + +Imagine + +The tryst sweet songs we know to be light... +The planetary fields arcing to wholeness... +A moment of a world in that moment in a life. +Imagine a world as you would imagine a world... +Umbrellas of palm, threnodies of pine; +The delinquent crooning heat, the somnolence of pears, +The rushlight fauning to splendor. +The tumbledown iris and the fleet posh blue. +Gradations of days. Listen, snap dragons pout +In the crackle bright dawn. A motion of marigolds. +Animations of azalea. Bleach white moments chanting +In stillness. Imagine the immensity of your bequest. +The banquet of a globe; the opportunity of its +Fields. Shocks and warrants of insights. +A world cocooned in fulfillment of your eyes. +A moment of becoming in the justice of belief. + + + BAPTISM page 180 + + + +The stillness of a world in the stillness of a world. + +This moment of your becoming... + +This moment of intersection. + +Docking is near. +The convergence in the stillness. +An injected variable varying the fields. +That moment lingering beyond sight... +That moment beyond what is outside... +That moment when an I becomes an eye. + +Apt tunings of stars reward us with life. +The firebrand in the stillness. +The spark that triggered a world. +The separation which became free fall. +Correlation is with objects now; not +With that which might hiss into the world +In a pinpoint of light, in the pause between movements, +In the caesura of a life. + +Advance with me through the pastures of living +And the fields of our dying: come with me, +Beyond the gulag of your sight and the radiance +Of your becoming, to come with me +Beyond eternity to infinity. Let us +Rebirth a world with the rebirth of ourselves. +Let us garden our prophecies to tool hope +Into love. We might, We might capture +A moonbeam to hive a moment; unzip a world +To step into a moment. + + BAPTISM page 181 + + + +Share a moment. +Share this moment as we might have shared a life. +Share this moment with me. + +The portal, the door. + +The moment. This moment. Any moment. + +Enlarge a moment to a world. +Fill it with hope; cavern it with awe. +Flavor it with seasons. +Caramel autumn woods would glow in the +Resonance of your nearness. Leaves, half notes and +Nuclei +Pirouette into a world. Crackerjack reds and +Gumdrops of blue. The brush fast blue rivering into +A breath. The valence has circumscribed deserts +With hope. The plangency, the urgency. A +Stillpoint of light in the ecstasy of a rose. +The green voracious pine. +The stark lonely skies and the desert prairie nights. +What is deepest harmonizing with what is +Most intimate; the flare and moment of a world +Baking identity with history. + +Countdown to maybe in the midnight of why. + +I am a message in a body set adrift across time. +Jerusalem Madrid Warsaw Riga Ethiopia +They must never forget what I must never remember. +Trapped between lives to trap eternity +In a man... + +Winking and blinking in the Hilbert distance... + +Pulsing through the nebula of a life. + + BAPTISM page 182 + + + +I have cracked a fissure at the edge of a world, +Letting eternity leak through my hands +As though it were light. Destabilizing +In excess of a planet. +Fording stars to tailor a life from a star... +A life in consonance with life. +I was promised miracles. I was given only drama. +An anvil for a stage; a spotlight for a sky. +Arms wide to freedom... +Skin caking with light to harvest a nation +From a dream, a world from an idea; when +Screams lived in my mouth for prayers +And eternity poked at my life +Like a hungry animal. + +Galaxies drift through my hands like wishes... + +Remembering what is left to remember... + +Hands which once held you... +Holding nails in the wood matrix to judgement... +Hands which once held a world +As though it were a message, +Holding a world as though it contained lives... +Holding a world as though it were a symbol. +Eternity ruptured through my ribs like mortality... +Only a voice gives it presence now; +Only the song sustains it. Eyes +Searching what was believed to be distance... +Eyes smearing the light with tears, +With hope, +With love. + +Jew +Witness +Man + + BAPTISM page 183 + + + +I am the data song of my vision. +I am the data song of your access. +You are history. You are all that is left. +Shoulder to shoulder before god, that +We have life is the only proof of god +We need. Correlation is inseparable from life. +Reality is non local; as are we. +I am as accessible as what is within is accessible. +I can alter your lens, but I cannot +Alter your choices. I can only sing to you; +I cannot sing for you. + +In the bitter evocative pathos of our lives, + +Being is the mantra of the visible. +Sight beyond the call of belief. +A clarity beyond which eyes can know. +Eyes homeward haunting sleep with the intimacy of stars... +Time is what organizes. Time is what we have become. +Time is the wall keeping you from me. +My voice resonates along the continuum... +My voice fracturing within you like the +Unconscious. + +In the orbit of my vision +And the propagation of my love, +A song has replaced a world, a mission +Has replaced a life. An oration of fields +Orating history through a life and through lives... +The song haunting humanity in ashes and tears... +Dreaming of liberation in a dream of forever. +The spherical harmonic correlating distance and +Love into radio waves of hope, into Om, +Into a sine wave of being, and into union, +For the love and this bonding +I bequeath to you. + + BAPTISM page 184 + + + +The surface is resplendent with miracles. + +It is only we who have become lost. + +Follow me, children, come with me +Beyond the gingerbread gates of our gingerbread world. +A valence transcends a world. As you might +Transcend a life. Look about you. Look, +Look back, become aware of the lens through which +You do look; and how many lenses you have used. +Look back, look at that +Human bright anvil you took for a life, +My life. Look now, look how far you have come. +Haloes have replaced crowns, access has replaced miracles. +The light choiring in my hands no longer burns +Through them, but blooms within them. +The lush bright aura baking a life. +Docking is as near as an embrace. +Would you go back? +Would you mourn for me or sing with me? +More spin, a little noisier; come, dance with me... +Resisting less you will see more, because +You have dared to see more. +The move inward is the move to inwardness. +Choices script choices until the choices +Make a world. Don't go back. +Come with me, be with me, +Let us prune these fields with love, that +The love within each might encompass all. +Injected into this capsule of a life, +In transmission with transmissions +In the valence of transmission, +I am transmitting at this moment, for +This moment, in correlation with you. +Share this moment with me. +Emerge with me through the singularity of faith... +Believe with me to believe with me +A world in which to believe. + + BAPTISM page 185 + + + +Vision begets choices. +Vision becomes choice. +The field of our vision becomes the vision of +Our world. Stand with me, come with me, +Be with me, let us image a world +Beyond the image of ourselves. Wish fast joys +Linger for worlds. Polyphony coheres to matter. +The moment of a world exists in moments of a world. +A rumpus of pine. +Confections of eiderdown and stars +Confecting love in confections of patience. +Fence green dragonflies and sage. +The chill blown darkness defrauding crickets with autumn. +Wish bang doves; the geese flocking through the corridors. +Light harvesting light in the applause of light. +The downbeat... Can you feel it? +Can your eyes work in rhythm to the rhythm +Which evolves into eyes? +Worlds cluster like wishes. +Schools of evergreen choir beyond light into forests. +The deepening light deepening light into memory. +Life is so vast it cannot be contained to +A life. Ages ocean through you. +Choose a database, choose a world. +Shocks of blue and requiems of green. +Your environment is your canvas. +Capture a moment, arrest a world. +Achieve the stillness at the edge of light. +Tallow gusts of light shear the windsong +Of lilac and the patient hints of birds. +Adjutants trim the pine with eighth notes. +Wind nesting in their throats like sonnets. +Casual wishes of eagles +Tip so low +Light +Shears through their wings like envy. + + + BAPTISM page 186 + + + +Look up, look out- + +Horizons screen us from horizons, for +This horizon is no more than the horizon of +Your eyes. Mimosa sing for us. Don't you hear them? +Raspberry garish suns stoop to epilogues. +Peach bursts of light flooding the lawn sweet air... +Sweet torts of winds rivering through the wildflowers... +The apples, the plums, the wild iris unlocking +A universe with a scent, +And the radishes, and the bloom white dahlias +Smart in my eyes like memory.... + +At this moment, for this moment, within +This moment, all correlates within each. +Watch now, light leaks through the dusk +Like a probe. Deeper within stillness +Is the stillness that is deepest within. That +Moment at the advent of a world. Perception +Deepening to vision; deepens a world to a universe. +The stitch, the frame, the observer. +Come into this stillness. +Come in under the chrome brash light... +Unzip a world to explore a moment. +Miles have canopied stars with loneliness. +Miles, +Which have taken me from you, +Linger beyond faith in the lonely white lines +Of a lonely republic, and the grim dark fields +Hoarding lives with miles. + + BAPTISM page 187 + + + +Have your eyes adjusted yet? + +Has your singular eye emerged? + +Millennia have accrued like cholesterol. +The valence is destabilizing. +The field has factored into fields. +This is a song for reunion. +A canticle for rebirth. + +Encoded within you is a place, +A frame, +The expression of which +Illuminates the stitch. +The moment, the wonder, the miracle. +Within us is the moment that we believe to be +Moments. Vaster than tablets is the software within. +Garish theatres of molecular receptors. +A supernumerary of particles, and +The channels, the frequencies, +The moment of intersection at the coordinates +Of correlation. + +That moment. as that moment when + +Eyes inward, +Breath deep beyond the need for breath, +Eyes inward reconstituting a world... +That moment. +Flesh bright in the cameo of a life... +Alive in the ecstasy of being. +A moment under light. +of extraordinary richness and amplitude... +A moment captured from moments +In that moment which +Captures a life. + + + BAPTISM page 188 + + + +Come with me into that moment... + +That moment which is ours to hold and to share... + +Come with me beyond the whip scythe panorama +Factoring whole worlds into none. Come +With me, beyond the kaddish of history and the +Fear passing for faith, to come with me +Into the vortex of a moment +Encoded to unfold into +Vision, into you. + +Come with me, follow me, + +My eyes, half blind, can see for generations. +My coat is a rainstorm. My song is my compass. +My love is the field of my witness. +The dimension leaking through me +Choirs +Beyond light through bar lines of vision +And apogees of wonder. Out in the white wide +Widening arc, silence accrues yet another point, +Another life. This life. Your life. +Each life an epic of a wave in the proxy wave +To genesis. A new vision for a new age. + +You and you now... + +I have come for you. + + BAPTISM page 189 + + + +Moments unfold like doors. +I cannot enter them without you. +I am the data field you have sustained. +A body metamorphosized into an idea. +The data song modulating into a life. +An I that surrendered an I for an eye. +Moving beyond viewing to correlation, +To alignment. To you. +Rare moon nights shelter our valence with pathos. +Wry wisps of asphodel. A commonwealth of pine. +A liturgy of shapes, a canvas of meanings. +The midnight radiance of sweet corn +And the dreaming asides of stillness and you. +An explosion of a life in the explosion of life. + +This moment between us... + +Addressing a world with a world... + +Witnessing creation to recreate eternity with infinity. +This moment has become the moment of a world. +Come with me. Through the door, which is within, +Into the corridor. This way. It has always been +This way. They are shutting the door. +They will shut the door behind you. +Does it matter? Do you doubt it? +Follow me, follow the frequency of my voice. +Look into the mirror of my eyes. +Search my vision for the shape of you... +In place of yourself +You will see a door. You will become the door, +For that door is no more than a mirror, +Much like your emotions. So many lenses. +So many doors. + + BAPTISM page 190 + + + +Treasons of moons change us with ourselves. +So much is left to do; so much is left +To achieve. Seize a moment, seize a world. +Allow this moment between us to deepen a moment +Into a door. Each life the commemoration of all. +The field of our witness renewing the witnesses. +The contribution of lives it takes to make +A life. + +Vision is a brushstroke, one among many, +A strategy for living. Vision decrees value. +What we see is what we become. +Vision is our primal act. +Allow for the canvas a spot reserved for you. +Fill it with the resonance and the light pattern +Of home. So much is possible, but possible only +With you. The ellipse is wide enough for two. +Hold this quiescence, ripen it to spring. +Ridge the cold with barrenness. +Edge it with light. New light. The scent of light. +Rapid brushstrokes of young pine. +Apple brash days and poignant nights. +Congregations of bushes, an adolescence of butterflies. +Rain tender grasses belling the light; the radiance +Flaring like wind to italicize a moment. +The light swooning through matinees of crickets. +The mist gathering in bales in pockets of light. +Moon dust. Tree shattering twilight. +An enterprise of stars. +Oaks croon through molecular nights. +The sing song bob white and the busy robin +Are put away now, like toys in a box. +A harvest of moments like the harvest of memory. +That peeping time of teddy bears and snowmen... +That moment into the stillness when time stood still +And light flooded your eyes with hope. + + BAPTISM page 191 + + + +Light shears the ozone like a knighthood. + +Moments and stars drifting like lives.... + +Winds sob through my hands like soliloquies. +A moment contemplating you. +In the corridor. In transmission. +Don't look back, don't look down, +Look within. +A universe awaits us, just beyond this world. +Come with me, come in under the brash eternal light. +Room dark in the covenant of our eyes... +In this moment before waking, +In this moment of your calling, +An assembly has come alive in the witness +Within you. Bodies hum like pulsars +In the ten +To the fortieth minyon for eternity... +Making this treasurable moment skin. +The light harvesting genesis in a song of awakening... +Beckoning all, beckoning each, +Beckoned into the light in a hora of forgiveness. +Deeper beyond twilight to deepen twilight into us... +Molecular harvests cull us from the rose. +The quick down light harvesting an axis with sight. +Light coalescing in the dominion of a body.... +Calling through the centuries, through dimensions, +Calling through lifetimes, ghettos and ashes +To call your name, to call you home- +Calling through the parsecs, +Through the valence and the radiance, +In the martyrdom and prison of my ardor and faith; +My Hasid longing for justice, and +For you. + + BAPTISM page 192 + + + +Resurrection is you. + +Redeem me. + +I am the conjugate attribute of your vision and +Longing. Redeem my name, my life, my tribe. +All is obsolete. All is all there is. +Gruff drums beat in precision, or is it +A heartbeat? + +I have survived them all. + +It is only life I cannot survive. + +My voice has survived my body; +If not in a voice, then in the probability +Of a voice. The hemispheric ratio to light. +The transmitted transmitting to reunion, and +To life. + +Redeem me. + +Take into your body my longing and my hope... +Unfold the centuries enfolded into the miles +To unfold the data base which was once +A world. Share with me this abundant light, +The song sweet light preserving the encounter +Within the stillness within. +I hear the universe singing. +I hear the universe singing to us. +I have heard light crash through the solar chapel +Of my world. I have looked into the mirror of +Language and have seen +You. + + + BAPTISM page 193 + + + +History is the mirror for a specie. + +The warrant of our blood and candor. + +The stitch and scope of our delivery. + +A life can alter an age. +An age can alter the ages. +A moment between might alter to a moment among. +Stars cluster like wishes. +Chrysanthemums christen the hedgerow. +Apple sashes of days launder us for waking. +Clusters of moments, clusters of days, clustering us +With choices and witness and the common wonder +Of experience. + +A moment among might alter a moment between. + +A moment is a door. + +Beyond the door is an age. + +This way. This way; come with me +This way. +Redeem me. Let me go. +Redeem what is ours. +Redeem a world from pawnshops and churches... +Redeem what is ours and ours alone +To redeem and renew within the encounter within. +The force field of my love has gardened +Prophecy with memory. Moving into life +To move into life. A stitch, a moment, an age. +A door. + +You. + + + BAPTISM page 194 + + + +You are what has survived. +You have survived to evolve and become. +Transmission is the broadcast from within. +Correlation stitches within and without. +My love winters in your body like an embryo. +The field of my witness has become the data song +To reunion. Through the conjugal dark +Ages, I have journeyed in transmission to you. +I have sung through portraits of laborers and +Fugues of refugees. I have domiciled among +The ruined, the forgotten, the oppressed... +Sheltered fire with the fire in my hands +To warm a moment to call a moment home, +When a moment was the only home I had. + +Find me. You have found me. + +Redeem me. + +Amend my life with my vision... +Amend the prop with meaning. +Let me go. +It is time. It is almost too late. +A cacophony of fields is shattering the valence. +The frames, the tablets, shattering like lives. +Admit me. +Allow me. +Enter with me this corridor to reunion. +Come with me, follow me, +The price of admission is a life. +Enter the door to your greatest fear... +Freedom, and the freedom to be. + + BAPTISM page 195 + + + +Plums still whisper to the rose. +Deepening umber mints of suns deepen us +For dusk. Plumes of days. Shock white cirrus +Sear us with meaning. Arbor trellises moor +My song sweet valence. The wish fast willows +Still mourn with me. Sun scenting seas +Undulating like prophecy. In the +Distance between lives, + +Comma, + +What expires expires to seed an awakening. +Lives destabilizing into lives... +In the corridor, in the distance between lives. +Transmission is the data base. +Correlation is the balance between each. +Us. We. You and I. + +Deepen the silence to light. + +Genesis lies within. + +Transmission is a map. +Transmission is the algorhythm to reunion. +This is a song of becoming. +The genesis chant to freedom. +Come closer, come nearer, +Come dance with me a hora of forgiveness... +Come join with me +Under light in the baptism of our skin +To stand with me before the correlating light, +Salting a world, and my cheeks, with love +And reunion, and the genesis quest +For god. + + BAPTISM page 196 + + + +I have been given a song in place of a life. +I have been given a quest in place of a home. +The field +Of my witness has factored into the data song +Of my will. My words +A molotov cocktail to ignite the thirst +For freedom. Redeem me. Redeem a universe from +A world. Unfold with me +The encoded song of our witness and becoming. +Access is redemption. Access is renewal. + +Come be with me, come daavin with me awhile... + +Moons engage us for tomorrow. +Stars still prick us with awe. +Lilies sway with the sweet gum. +Moments and apparitions sparking the wild sweet grasses +With fireflies. The surface is resplendent +With miracles. And with us. + +A moment between engendering a moment among. + +A moment with you. + +This moment. This age. This life. + +Textures of white have shaped what I dare not +Believe. The arbor voice in the elusive arbor. +The motion of eternity swaying through me +Like a downbeat or a hum. Om H2 vortices +Words. Words. Words tap words... + + + BAPTISM page 197 + + + +My words, + +Let my words haunt your speech with genesis. +Allow and believe this legacy to you. +In the baptism of this light, we are +The amendment to light. Move deeper +Into the silence with me. Move beyond sight +To vision. I have waited for you. I have +Followed you. I have endured the pagan supremacy +Of my name. I am one. I am only one. +I am what it means to be alive in the concussive +Shock of my skin. I am what exists to say +I am. +I am what I believe. My life is my collateral. +My vision is my song. + +I implore you. + +I beseech you. + +Let me go. +Look at me for what I was and shall be... +A Jew +A man +A life. +Let me go. +Let me detach the burden. +Let me wander in the arbor of our making and +Deepen belonging with correlation. I have been +Waiting for you; believing in you; I have +Waited for you. + + BAPTISM page 198 + + + +In the mind, in the corridor, + +In the sequence to light... + +Radii of choices plot a circumference of worlds. +Light has blended us in a baptism of fire. +Ores of trust and singularities of faith... +We are the scale of witness in the summons +To light. The correlative bonding to reunion. +The new phase is contact. +A new age for communion. +The sing song of our witness and the treasure +Of our becoming. Baptism is a bond. +Baptism is the expression of eternity +In the therapy of +A moment. + +Baptism is the commitment to bonding. + +Basting in anonymity, bleached with poverty, +Annealed in hope, + +I have haunted the probabilities with divinity... +Beheld the dream of a nation before the horizon of +My arms. I have +Hoboed through the astral dreaming prairies of +Deliverance and freedom. I have sustained correlation. +I have sung beyond the chains of being to reach you... +To burn a moment into an age +In the capital ride to +Destiny. + + BAPTISM page 199 + + + +I have cauterized an age with a life... + +I have jettisoned a song with a body... + +Surviving beyond ignominy and anonymity, +Through the carnal republics and the aria +Of this life, to the waiting chalice of +A moment, when +Insight deepens to poignance and a world +Catches in a moment, catches in a life, +Like an age gone out in a breath. + +Data file of a nanosecond. + +Could you, would you, + +Notice me? + +You are all that is left to believe in... +A signal exists to be received. +Admit me. Find me. +Come alive in the fury of my arms... +Decode a moment with me. +The garden you left cherishes your resonance with +Bash bright plums and the journeying sweetness of +An apple. Quarks sing through us. +QED tugs at us like home. +The common winter of our passage and faith. +Gusts of light breed us in wave packets. +Relatively autonomous subtotalities. +We are the creation. +Dissipative structures in the ecosystem of a cell. +We are what has been projected in the laser +Of our will to find expression and shape +In the holomovement to rapture, in the +Correlative bonding to forever. + + + + + + + + + + +QED: Quantum electrodynamics +Relatively autonomous subtotalities: see David Bohm + + + + + + BAPTISM page 200 + + + +Lush bright mornings chisel us for faith. +The garden of our valence is the universe of +Our probabilities. Dear one, look now, +A radiance of cypress. Blue gashes of blue. +A ceremony of pine. Out in the valence, +Geese hover in the corridor as though between +Worlds. Rush sweet grasses +Wander among the water lights and the stars. +The pomegranates hang like wishes. +Encoded also are gauze swift suns and oceans +Heaving with awe. Pop bright stars. +Cameos of moons and trellises of light. +Dreaming, wishing, hoping. +The brush burnt skies and the common mystery +Of a rose... + +So many sites; revealed through so much. + +Let us, allow us, ennoble us to +Choir in the afterglow a song of faith... +Calling down a world to focus a world... +In the lens of our becoming and the correlation +Which is life; calling through the dreaming parsecs +To bundle energy into mass, to call it being, +To call it home. + +Begin as if to begin. +Begin at ten to the minus fortieth. +A door begins with a moment. +Each moment encoding a stitch. +Encoding access in each moment. +Blooming a world from the bloom of an insight. +A moment, a step, a life. +A world. + + BAPTISM page 201 + + + +Shouts of pine crash the distance... +Ecstasies of light savor us for wishes. +A radiance of morning glory, the salt sting +Of pathos. The cheshire wonder of a life. +So much awaits us; but can only +Wait for us. + +Come with me... + +Come daavin with me awhile. + +Beyond the village of our world is the valence +Of our choices. A universe of universes. +Years are registered in parsecs. +Forsythia bloom in place of bodies. +Nails are for tree houses. +The rich ripe blue, the patient meadow +A patient canvas for light. With correlation +Each blooms with the bloom of each. +As our touch is the bloom of us. +We have traveled centuries to rendezvous. +We are genesis correlated to achieve polarity, +In the song to reunion which is +Life. + +How many lenses has it taken to come +This far? + +How many lives to make a life? + +How much longer to interface? + +I have and have fallen, and must now +Fall away. + + BAPTISM page 202 + + + +A moment beyond, a moment within, + +A moment nearer.... + +Dimensions wink. + +Orbits eclipse. Docking like worlds +In the apogee to reunion. Jettison. +Bright blaring moments scream into history. +A moment is now a world. +An assembly has been activated. + +Nearer, closer, + +Come look at this with me. + +Hope damasks the early morning light. +Cathedrals of cumulus shelter us +With belonging. Dew puzzles my fingers with +Life. Crocuses shudder with light. +Listen. Honeysuckle quicken the magic into +Scent. Lines of corn blooming like verbs. +Watch now; chill quick heights of eagles. +Hiss white raiments of stars. +Butterflies croon above the plangent green... +Yellow jousts of light- +Eruptions of yellow conjuring awe from +A moment. + +A promissory note for a world. + + BAPTISM page 203 + + + +Come with me, + +Come into the vortex of this moment. + +Worlds spin like dreydles; the rare wick flame +Spinning worlds like photons; spinning lives +In the particle concert of forever. +Reality clusters in bushes, berries, in +Piquant shards of rare moon indigo. Taut +Plums. Gashes of peach. +The moment savoring a moment in the moment +Of a world. A commonwealth of moments. +Lash bright suns quickening us for awakening.... +Come with me, a little farther... +We'll leave our values for bread crumbs. + +Kiss bright hoya croon for our waking. +The April pride of our sometime grace... +Moon basking nights basting us with longing. +Common treasures of hyacinth. +The searing gashes of memory linking us with +Home. The moment under light +In the patience of our skin. Moment +Expressing moment in the deepening maturation of +Our vision and belonging. A radii of chorales. +Wishes ride like fireflies through the portal +Of this moment. The light removed. Eyes dark +With vision. Enlightenment is the engagement within. +This moment together; this moment between and among. +You now, come closer. Come be with me +Awhile. Light bursts between us. +A moment beyond to deepen a moment between. +A moment to deepen moments. + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Spinning: Bohm interpretation of the Bell Theorem. + + + + + + BAPTISM page 204 + + + +Contact. + +Ignition. + +A universe has fired beneath an age. + +Imagine +Once upon a time +Imagine + +Imagine great sea tufts of clouds... +Inordinate blooming forests; miraculous blue... +The cogency of light. A commonwealth of lives +Preserving the distance with faith. +Engineering a moment to engender a world.... +Green gifts of fields flower us with life; +Moment and moment +Hissing like pearls in the doge of light. +Imagine me. Imagine us. +Imagine the pastel of a world in perspective to +Joy. Imagine being able to imagine. +Cover the palette with wishes. Amend +What has been given with what can be created. +We are the aperture to transmission. We are +The prism refracting light into matter. +Choruses of phenomena Gabrieli us with joy- +The sing dazzle light, an oration of blue... +A canopy of autumn deepens to stillness, +Deepening to memory and the correlation of +A smile. + + + BAPTISM page 205 + + + +Worlds float through endless dream forgotten +Summer days. The hollyhock, the primrose, +The moment we shared among the roses... +The long trysts of light, +The twilight hopes and midnight dreams +Conjuring freedom from an idea. Ashes +Silver our speech. The autumn bright nights. +Enchanting blues enchanting lives +With rose rich pauses in light, and the +Common pathos of a star. + +So much accrued, but so much has been lost. + +What age is this? + +Is it yours? + +My body has been birthed, but my eyes +Must be rebirthed. You, you and you. +They must never forget what I must never +Remember. I am the field of my belief, for +Freedom is vision, and I am +What I believe. Everything I conceive +Turns to matter. Lazy songs dip through the meadow. +Cheshire blues sour to black. +A stage is being scrubbed to frame the coordinates +With reunion. Lens passing to lens +In the interchange of lives. Moments deepening +Into a life to deepen a life +Beyond the capacity to witness or the compulsion +To believe. + + BAPTISM page 206 + + + +The tablets of admission have become +The software of our becoming. +Having squandered one, shall we squander both? +Oceans roar within us, or is it blood? +Having taught us to treasure it, we have shed it. +Oceans of blood, oceans of tears. +So much has elapsed to compute bifurcation. +The grace, the losses, the miles, the ecstasy. +The journey between sunrise and sunset. +Barley rivered where late the sweet birds sang. +The common witness of our faith and belonging. +Moments and stars whispering through the corridor... +The wish fast sorrows and the cogency of rain... +The epiphany gunning a world with ignition. +Come with me, stay with me awhile... + +The door is open; + +The door has always been open. + +This way. Put down your fear. +Breathe. Be. Become. +Meridian dreams wallop the forest with awe. +Oak deepens the continuo. +Heat bashing suns caging us with August.... +Searchlights of stars +Wander the perimeter, looking for strays. +Pearl wet clusters of hydrogen +Hush through a universe in the wet sweet chant +Of rain. Deepen the programming to suture the +Observer to the observed. Insert the bar lines. +Sculpt the rhythm to the beat; to harness +A beat and a breath to harness a world +With a life. + + BAPTISM page 207 + + + +Deeper now; witness within. + +Centuries carol in the Hilbert distance. +The pagan summaries of light unravel to equations. +Unravel as time in transmission to you. +The crystal of us. The frame. +The moment. + +You. + +Summer sparkles through the dogwood; +The breathy pine whispering through the +Rain lilies; the rapid brown grasses deflating to +Brown. Hush sweet showers savor the holly. +Boom. Anvils crash like ideas, or was it +Clouds? All is encoded within this moment. +Here, look; examine this moment. +This is your world. +This is belief. + +Light fissures the continuum. +Planets hiss through the interludes... +This moment deepening between us, +Deepening us, in the aria and lens of this +Moment. Patience. +A world will appear within a world. +A stage will be set like a time. +You will be given language to script +A dialogue. An age has been inserted within you +Like a message. Transmission has been +Intercepted, and decoded as you. + + BAPTISM page 208 + + + +Advance probe. + +A nanosecond of contact. + +Swell the wave with insight; collapse it +With images. Andantes and robins +Nesting beyond light, phrasing a world into bar lines- +The dove white radiance captioning beauty with love. +Image to eye in the voice of a moment. +This moment. This page; this life. +A facet of the crystal. +Yet another point on yet another wave. + +fast forward + +Come with me, be with me, + +Deeper with this moment from crucifixion to love, + +To come with me beyond history to +Eternity. Sing bright autumns choir into forever. +Hickory, sorrel and wine. The lush brown grasses +Part for us. Through this door with me, +Into this life, this road has taken both our lives. +From genesis to genesis. +The moment beyond and the moment within. +The ecstasy of a moment in the ecstasy of being. +Just another valence, just another life.... + +We are almost there... + +Just another valence, just another life. + + BAPTISM page 209 + + + +Armadas of hope accrue like wishes. +Surely, one of them will turn into a life. +Make a palette; make a canvas; make a world... +Make a life. + +Become what I could not. +Become what we dared to dream of, +Become +What we might have evolved into.... +My scaffold is not high enough to reach my dreams. +As that moment when as that moment when +That searing heat preempted my eyes and eternity +Deafened in the synapse like a church bell. +This is the signal to receive the signal. +It is the song beyond hearing. +That moment within a moment when +One moment of you winks out of time +With one of me. + +I am semite old. You are millennia new. +Bifurcation is this life. +Perception is composition. +The schemata of life is the vertebrae of choice. +Structure is scope. Knowledge is freedom. +I have learned what it means to learn. +Epochs catch in my cuffs. +Worlds fill my pockets like marbles. +Dazzles of robins choir in the afterglow. +The trees stand like witnesses. +And so do I. + + BAPTISM page 210 + + + +Meeting here at last... + +A life bonding with a life + +To haunt the ages + +With life. But you now, but you... +Capturing time in a crystal of sleep... +But you... +With and within you, +This last time among the dreams and shipwrecks +And stories of a life; this last time, +With this last time diminishing with time... +Diminishing time with what records time. A frame +To gather all in the projection of its parts. +To gather; gathering what gathers... +Gathers in what might be hands, +Gathering hand to hand to gather a world, +Gathering light to gather ourselves. +Gathering here, gathering what we have brought +To this place, to this time, +Where you might find me, +I relinquish to you these rare planets +And time. I bequeath to you +My vision, my words, my love. I am +The messiah of my vision in the struggle of +My body. You are the song of my belief. +Time has deepened into you, for +What has become unfolded has unfolded unto you. +It is we who experience correlation... +Who might share with me the ground that might +Cover us, and the ground that would launch us, +To rivet the air with the shock of a breath +In the Brownian transmission to +Destiny. + + BAPTISM page 211 + + + +Look up; look out- + +Seas part for our crossing. +Moments deepen into doors. +The metaphors of our becoming become +A stitch in composition. +Come, let us compose a field of redemption. +Let us deepen our calling beyond skin +To time. Let us deepen into what is within. +This moment between and among... +The hunt beyond sight for that presence +Within you who would love you. + +Look deeper, look deepest within... + +Worlds carousel in the song to awakening, +In the song of our becoming and the prayer +Of our hope. Worlds pop like nuclei- +Flare like a signal- in the atom theatre +Of this moment and this life. +Come with me into the corridor... +Let us choir beyond faith to love.... +We have sung beyond history to eternity... +We have outgrown nations. We are a people. +A specie among species. +We live together, die together, +Shout with joy and mourn with loss +And script our lives with saints and pratfalls. +Look up; look out... +Crafts of clouds darken at sundown. +Awe whispers like light through the blue cracked heavens +And the sometime pizzicatos of red and +Firecrackers of mauve. +The image projected within is the transport to +Insight. Stellar bread crumbs of dreams +And the detonating confessions of clouds.... +The moment captured is the canvas of a moment. + + BAPTISM page 212 + + + +Deepest into insight a moment to sing.... + +Horizons hiss like cornfields. Showers +Of light drench us with awe. Concussions of +Moonlight volley through the sycamore like a +Summer night. Hiss. Bang. +We are nearer. Look now, this valence +Is carpeted with huckleberries, or are we +In that memory of that summer when geese +Filled the air with longing and sketches of +Woods deepened us with intimacy...? +Hiss. Again. +Light slashes the fear cracked heavens. +Fire stalks the west. Hiss, bang. +Infinity has torched the corn. +Crashes and volleys of crashes crash through a world +With light. Voracious conjurings of rain. +Blood crashing rain and the unforgiving anthems +Of tympani. Rebirth requires death. +New lives replace the old. +The passage to genesis arcs the wave with +History. + +Ages coalesce in the vitreous. + +Millennia streak through the optic nerve like +Moire patterns. Refracting assemblage. +An episode through the looking glass +In the prism of +A moment. This moment. Any moment. +The flare of genesis in the birth song to light. +This deepening communion which is life. +In carriage and intent. +A song erupting into life in the birth cry +To freedom. + + BAPTISM page 213 + + + +Deepest within is the circle of freedom. +Deepest is the resonance that yet might sing- + +-I am yet I am; I rejoice to say I... + I am an apostle of freedom, and I can + Sing, and I will sing beyond light to sing + For you, to sing a song of singing, + That you might share with me + The singing of it. - + +I have measured time in distance from you. +I have exchanged infinity for a never ending story. +I am Joshua, once of your love and belonging. +The carbon aperture to the hydrogen mantra. +A cosmic seed trapped in a body. +An age in search of an age. + +Come alive in the holocaust of my arms... + +Come alive in the field of my tenderness... + +The ellipse has widened to include us. + +Stars +Chime for a nightlight in the terrarium of +Our becoming. Concussions of silence shear +Through the retina; their lease and oration +Hint like tears, stitching my vision to +Eternity. To my sight of you. +That moment, that life, when light +Choired in the foliage and a halo of joy +Moored in a moment; that moment; the one +We inhabit now. + + BAPTISM page 214 + + + +If time is human time, + +It is not the unfolding of what makes a picture, but +The experience of being part of the picture. +So much +So much has been included for our becoming. +Rivers of corn swoon in the radiance. +Voices deepen the light into love. +Oleander, ally ally infree, +Deepen us for home; gentle us for what +A home might contain. +Green gashes of time seeding us for joy... +Moments opening like doors... +That human touch of blue showering us +With eternity. Pop, whoosh, +The blue has deepened to scarlet... +Wishes peeping like stars... +The voices deepening a landscape to dreamscape; +The voices deepening presence to belonging, +Deepening to faith in the late declining light. +Voices choir in the valence a song of becoming. +Orion peals beyond the magnolia. +The darkness receding to distance. +Countdown. A step, a life, an age. +Stage entrance. And I must go. + +Follow me. + +The light is deeper, richer, here. +Stay with me; come with me, for +A moment, an hour or an age. +Believe with me to believe with me +A world in which to believe. +Hibiscus mourn for you. +Treasures and bondings await the field of +Reunion. Your form closest to mine... +Our witness stitched to vision in the communion +Of a moment. This moment. Our moment. +This life with you. + + BAPTISM page 215 + + + +And so we come to you. + +You and but you. + +I have carried you through lives, shown you +Facets of so many. I have shown you +Life and a continuum of lives. +My life no more than a matrix and a story... +For there would be you to conclude that story. +A world is destabilizing a valence; +Your world, our valence. +Will you abdicate? + +Have I come this far, endured so much, + +That + +When the message is finally liberated from the bottle, +It will reach no one, not even you. +It will light the fuse of knowledge, only to find +That the fuse is no longer believed in. +I have come for you, waited for you, +Believed in you. The prop has garbled the message. +In this life, we prepare for life. +We commit to life. +As we might commit to people. +The polarity of fulfillment. +An I and a you to make an us. + +The ark of my discovery from you to you. + +That motion in the silence which I know to be +You. The correlation linking all, even +You. Her, she, you... +Coordinates of my becoming; you. +The treasure of a life I must never remember, +Never forget. + + BAPTISM page 216 + + + +One and one to make, not two, but one. + +In witness to creation, + +In the summer of our skin. + +A moment under light in the field of +Our becoming. Visions and stars crooning in our +Eyes like hope. Riders of the light. +Comrades in vision. Companions in faith. +Reaching beyond darkness to light... +As when once we lay +Beneath the wrecks and struggles of an age +And dreamed a nation in the image of our +Love; when light trumpeted morning +In the shell of our awakening, and we were +One, + +As we are now. + +Mirror proud in the triumph of a life... +My haftora is rapture, my blessing is you. +I am the atom Adam guest at your thighs... +Coercing breath, flooding your skin with exhaustion- +Dreaming through the interstices of these moments +A life, a destiny and a home. +The sing dazzle light nests within you. +The conjugate attribute of my love and belonging. +The light nourished in your eyes. +That deeper correlation than love. +The warmth that still sings of bodies, +And of lives lived beneath the exorbitant moon. +Faces. I remember the faces. I +Remember a desert and a cross; remembering +What was once, was you. + + BAPTISM page 217 + + + +A life that might presage a life. + +A life retrieved from bread crumbs of atoms... + +From fugues of worlds conjuring prophecy +From memory. Countdown to reunion. +The probabilities converge at intersection. +A life and a life in witness to life. +A moment. You. A moment. Us. +Deeper beyond light is the universe of +Our belonging. Deeper into the valence +Probabilities converge at choice. The signal elicits +Response. A human response to human belief. + +The path of my becoming reprises +What I have become. Turning and turning through +Millennia destined light, becoming and believing +In the ransom of this life, to witness +Love in the baptism to reunion; making +Half a world whole. + +To begin this life again, +To begin life, +To begin with this life +A life of two lives; giving and trusting +In the commons of faith; a life in devotion to +Life. Much as Much as when +When I held you... +When we were children, when I knew +The pathos of your arms and the tryst of +Our lives, when love sanctioned being +In the nova of your thighs; when love beckoned +Twice in a tragedy of love, and the +Star blind light disappeared +Between us. + + + BAPTISM page 218 + + + +How I might have held you in the +Bloom sweet light. How the resonance of our +Becoming became the radiance of my belief... +Your voice, your form, my arms harvesting yours. +The miles, the miles, which have become centuries, +Began with a home and a brucha and a dream. +It has now spiralled within you, +In a helix of faith, to carol in such light +As faith is made from. + +Calling you, + +Transmitting the song of our remembrance, + +To call you once more before the coming of +An age; calling +Through solstices of baptism and love +To reach you with insight and capture you +With prayer. Moving with light, +Moving under light to move into light. +As in that life in which I beheld you, +As in that life that swallowed me into light... +Gashes of skies and the commons of my fields... +The light aching in my throat like destiny. +That moment which was ours, until +We dissolved into a moment. +The door you opened, the door into which +I followed. White breathless skin; that voice +Lost to the ages; still at last in the stillness. +Mouth upturned to god and to me... +And to a future baptizing faith with love, +But without you... +In the commons of our hands and the splendor of +Our dreams, when love took you from me, +And a world whispered through your breath +And our lives, when +Genesis replaced genesis with genesis. + + BAPTISM page 219 + + + +Let us drown our anger with sobs and pare light +To the fluency of our hands. That we might touch +In the shock of awakening; in the shock and +Breath of this life; holding moment to moment +In the foreclosure of a journey; journeying +Backward to receive the future. + +Come to me, come with me + +Now, + +A new phase shall begin. +New life, new lives and a new world. +Come, it's been within you all along. +Wonder bright forests, archangels probing the twilight +Like fireflies; the canvas streaking the retina +With autumn scented wishes, the elegant pathos +Masking loneliness with solitude; the +Poignant afternoons probing light with ecstasy... +To hold you near, to hold you past, +Holding you beyond the theatre of a life +To hold you beyond life +Through quantum probabilities of reunion and +Time. + +Each life + +Nearer to that which might, at last, + +Outlast the miles, the years, the distance +Programmed into me. + + BAPTISM page 220 + + + +I am and we are the story of which +So many stories are made. You are what is +Left of us, of me. In this valence, in +My valence, autmun hungry dusk banquets +Ardor with falling mists of arbor rich greens +And tears of dew, and the plangent wonder +Of huckleberries. Distance is not what separates, +But the harmony. Eyes scanning the silence... +Eyes smearing the light with tears... +Bearing the fables of blood and wine... +But searching for you, hunting for you, +As in that unforgettable moment +When +Sobs filled the air like regret and kiddish +Became kaddish, and a spear ruptured the millennia +Like a membrane, and the song which +I believed to be life +Poured down my side like destiny; and +I was alone. + +A moment of awareness which became a world. + +The song that became transmission. + +Oxygen bright in the amnesia of waking, +Worlds fission in the oracle of a moment. +Moments hyphening like worlds. +What age is this? +The noise. Is it mine? +The screams of one age resonate in the +Birth cry of another. Out, alive, among them... +A moment beyond and into.... + + BAPTISM page 221 + + + +It is so bright here; the shapes so new... + +I had forgotten. + +A moment through a door, an interlude before time... +Come with me, follow me... +The skies last forever and the corn sways with +Light. The radiance, the radiance inhibits breathing... +So bright, so new.... +The dates sharpen our palates with nostalgia. +Peaches swoon for our craving. +The faces shine with love. +They greet me now, not with tears +But with welcome. The scent reaching till morning... +The lives sparkling among the water lights +And our faith in light. The scent, the taste, +The wonder. Heat dapper suns crave the juice of rivers. +Forests bellow, and the bleach white hiss of grasses +Whispers about us, as though it were +A cosmic wind. And we are home. +Home. + +Sh'ma Yisroael + +Home, and the miracle of bread, +And the miracles which make bread; +The gingerbread scent of gingerbread dreams +In a gingerbread life. Home. Crooning bright skies +Lashing the distance with hope. The wheat tarnished +Glow of my hands. My arms overloaded with stars +And with you. Home. Quickly now, through the door... +The light bastes us with longing. +Jonquils trumpet the rose. +Glories of asphodel christen our waking... +Our eyes sharing the distance; +Your body shaped with life to make a life. + + BAPTISM page 222 + + + +Holding you in my arms in a vision of genesis... + +Holding life in our arms by the passing of +The moon; struggling together to struggle together... +Mirror proud in the triumph of a life. +Shoulder to shoulder in the passage through light. +Your body accenting mine... +The laughing radiance of your voice +Sighing into centuries to frame a world with +A moment. Body to body, +Capturing time in the truancy of a kiss... +Body to body, +Conjuring light from the textures of our bodies... +Body to body, +Our bodies closing like hemispheres... +Deepening the circle of light to the radiance +Of a circle. + +Singing to sing to sing of you... + +Gathering what must be gathered +Into the shape of meaning that gathers +And has meaning. Almost. You are nearly +To almost. The arrow of time has motion +Through meaning. Come alive, come alive with me, +Beyond this world is a valence of worlds. +Beyond what we view of us is what composes us. +Perception is a dialogue. +Belief is the warrant of a lens. +Beyond the citadel of our witness is the preamble +To our discovery. Beyond this sand lies +The promised land. Come with me. The journey +Has been a long one. The barrier is just +Beyond sight. So much is here to view and +To treasure. Midnight ripens beyond appeal. +Beyond our needs is the blue encompassing our needs. +Beyond the vicissitudes of meaning is that which +Defines meaning, and defines you. + + BAPTISM page 223 + + + +Listen; watch; believe; +A hush of pine summons us to awe. +Synopses and trapezoids dazzle us like acrobats. +Eruptions of shape have convinced us they are trees. +A moment of blue, a divinity of evergreen... +Brash swift songs of radiance. +Shouts of days carol in the whiteness... +A thumbprint of time, a moment in a life. +Crosscurrents of stars. A pocketful of planets. +A world can cleanse us of worlds. +A life can cleanse lives. +A moment can cleanse a life, if +You come with me to come to me. + +Look now; + +There is not so much acid in this air. +Creation has fed its children with imagination. +Light harvests us with light. With meaning. +Twilight has incinerated the birch. +The elm mourn like November. The hush swift +Grasses +Yearn into wind. Anatomically, atomistically, +They call to you, for they lack you, +As they lack completeness without you. +Look now; catch the rhythm of it. Catch +The downbeat. Wish fast tunes of wisteria. +Bar lines of crickets; codas of nightingales. +A ferris wheel of seasons. +A moment of winter amid the breathy pine. +A catch in the breath for a compass. +Linger a moment. Episodes of moons curtain us +With sleep. Exhalations of stars; the deepening +Embassy of pine. A moment among moments. +A moment for moments. + + BAPTISM page 224 + + + +A moment in correlation. + +This moment with you. + +Deft E flats of willows whoosh through the starlight +As though a moment were a world. Listen. +Chorales of whippoorwills mourn into twilight. +The sudden stillness of the oak. +The song sweet grasses lashing the wind with poignance. +Can you feel it? The taste, the wonder, +The salt of stars savoring my lips... +That moment which is mine when all there is +Is what is beyond me. + +Come with me, view with me... + +Light garnishes the clover. +Clusters of worlds balloon like grapes. +A moment beyond; a moment into.... +Movement under light. +Horizons arc to deliverance, or +Was that a rainbow? Wildflowers haunt us. +Rush brown grasses river through the heat... +The textures deepen to twilight. +The movement, the color, +The wonder. + +The door. + +Will you enter? + + BAPTISM page 225 + + + +Here now, + +Come, take my hands; we are almost home. +Flowers sparkle like gingerbread crumbs. +The radiance is deafening. +Eighth notes pout through the elm... +Butterflies croon like wishes. +Ring bright shouts of joy crown us with +Light. Look, a day has risen like a wish... +Like a man, like an age. + +Come alive to be alive... + +Come in under this light with me. + +Come alive to the divinity within you... + +Awake to the cosmos percolating within. +Come alive to be alive; be alive +To the chalk sweet blue and the appledown green... +The lush gasping forests that weep for your +Commitment. Becoming to become the act of being. +Stand proud to stand with me to stand before +Light, and the cosmic interface with eternity. +Come with me, come, lush raiments of days +Assuage pain with longing, and the moon bright trails +That fed our childhood feed us now with nostalgia... +The cosmic melodies racing through your hair +Like freedom; the clarity surpassing sight +In correlation to forever, in +The passion and forbearance and the vulnerability +Of a life. + + BAPTISM page 226 + + + +Come with me under this light, for I would +Baptize you with light. With fields of caring +And fields of communion, the field of my life +Transcends a life. Cartwheels of ages and +Ferris wheels of lives, the days wad up into +Memory; the years accrue like coral. +So much has come to pass to bring us here. +Bringing us back to bring us home. +To bring each in concert with each... +Human radii of an inhuman circumference. +Can't you feel it? The heat, the wonder, +The exhausting solace of light. +Breath warm, horizon near. + +Beyond this door, there are no longer doors. + +Beyond what we believe to be doors, + +That final door is us. + +Let the ages daavin through the half life of +Our faith: let the rare moon voyages +Chill us with awe. Come dance with me +To make a hora of belonging, +To fill the light with joy. Flowers +Sing for us; a canopy of light for a star.... +The valence is effulgent with meaning. +Pouts of May cushion the radiance with warmth. +Apples crunch like stars. How cold. How bright. +How new. Light sings through the corridor. +Impatiens wander among roses. +Primroses dally. These rare indigo smudges +Must be violets. The common dimension of our harmony. +Reception receptor vision +The dimensional commons of our harmony and faith. + + BAPTISM page 227 + + + +Sh'ma Yisroael + +Let us evolve beyond Israel to Canaan, and thence +To stars. Let us anoint the miles +With patience, and the salt bright tears +Of farewell with love, for divinity is +Not in the stars, but in the Hilbert space +Within you. + +Ginger sweet days chisel us with light. +Mimosa bloom for us now as they would +Bloom for our heirs. Sing penny birds +Chatter through the infinite; the stars so far, +But you so near. Wood doves +Shelter us with belonging. Summer coffins +The marsh grass with memory. An age +Glows +Beneath the ages, among the diffident iris +And the bashful bougainvillaea. + +Love is as near as a wish. + +Love is as simple as you are. + +Tomorrow is a mantra in a grail of yesterdays. +Tomorrows wink like ferris wheels. +Choices and wishes and cotton candy and +Love. Voices sparkle like home... +The kiss bright scent of forever... +The telling laugh through the arbor. +Apostrophes of orioles sing through the twilight. +Stars beckon us onward, and the rush deep grasses +Keeping us with love. But look now... + + BAPTISM page 228 + + + +This is dirt, not sand. + +There are no fields to tend, but only +Fields to nurture. The light shines for all. +Beyond the world of our horizon is a horizon +Of worlds. Only you can say no, as I +Might have said no, but now, but who now +Cannot live without yes. Or you. +Each is the canticle for all, +Choiring in lives to choir the probabilities... +An assembly choiring into a specie- +Factoring into correlation to factor into you. +Listen, but listen now... +Eternity chants through the haze plush distance... +Voicing lives like children, like history. +From neutron to neutron, from helix to matrix, +Electron bright in the cosmic song to reunion- +From assembly to assembly, from life to life.... + +Be with me, come with me, + +Follow me, + +I have conjured a life out of symbols and stars. +I have just enough ashes to make a phoenix. +My vision is the dome of my knowledge. +I am what I believe. +Open my eyes, but shield my sight, +Rebirth is the product of our eyes. +Creation's creation continuing creation. +Accounting for you, accounting for us. +Let us have a human victory in this age, for +You are history. You are the army of the republic. +Your destiny is yours. +What you can behold you can become. +Identity is commitment. +If you would look for a hero, +Look in the mirror. + + BAPTISM page 229 + + + +Come alive; come alive with me... +Come alive in the loaned treasury of your skin. +Become what you have inherited. +Action is autobiography. +Choice is destiny. +We are what we permit ourselves to see. +We are what shall emerge from the corridor. +Fully human in the human ecstasy of skin. +Laughing, hoping and chanting, remembering what was +To taste the sweetness of what is now. +Life in polarity to life. +I, you, a concept of us. +A belief, a sense of place for rootless children +Of a nomad nation and a nomad race, and +A nomadic specie. A matrix to fulfillment. +I am the martyr of your arms in the minyon +Of eternity. Israel catches in my throat like +The sound of your name, like home. + +Imagine me. + +Imagine us. + +How + +gethsemane We would launder our dreams in the +Garden fresh light, spool the tips and +Parings of our lives in pomegranates, carpentry +And kisses. Nesting under the wild bravado of +Stars, I dreamt of a kingdom, when all I had +Was a kingdom. I have surrendered my life +For a voice and a message +To build a nation from the sorrow of my loins... +Harvesting eternity with the pathos of a smile +And the ecstasy of a life; with death only for me, +A memory for a future, a dream for an epitaph. + + BAPTISM page 230 + + + +Sh'ma Yisroael, Hear O Israel... + +Let the centuries drown in tears, let fear +Find absolution in love. Redeem me; redeem +My name, my world, my specie... +Allow us the togetherness to achieve polarity. +I have never asked anything for me... +Only give me this, +Give me voice to mend hatred with a song; +Inherit my children with love, that +They might be prophets to the generations +Yet unborn; chanting in horas of belonging, +Shouting and dancing through the brightness +To whirl this globe with joy +And find salvation +In the fusion white radiance of +Peace. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/ballad.txt b/religious documents/ballad.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..87f8b84 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ballad.txt @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ + THE WITCH'S BALLAD + + Oh, I have been beyond the town, + + Where nightshade black and mandrake grow, + + And I have heard and I have seen + + What righteous folk would fear to know! + + For I have heard, at still midnight, + + Upon the hilltop far, forlorn, + + With note that echoed through the dark, + + The winding of the heathen horn. + + And I have seen the fire aglow, + + And glinting from the magic sword, + + And with the inner eye beheld + + The Horned One, the Sabbat's lord. + + We drank the wine, and broke the bread, + + And ate it in the Old One's name. + + We linked our hands to make the ring, + + And laughed and leaped the Sabbat game. + + Oh, little do the townsfolk reck, + + When dull they lie within their bed! + + Beyond the streets, beneath the stars, + + A merry round the witches tread! + + And round and round the circle spun, + + Until the gates swung wide ajar, + + That bar the boundries of earth + + From faery realms that shine afar. + + Oh, I have been and I have seen + + In magic worlds of Otherwhere. + + For all this world may praise or blame, + + For ban or blessing nought I care. + + For I have been beyond the town, + + Where meadowsweet and roses grow, + + And there such music did I hear + + As worldly-rightous never know. + D.V. + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/banesdef.txt b/religious documents/banesdef.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fef8171 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/banesdef.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/bardcycl.txt b/religious documents/bardcycl.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa88eb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bardcycl.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2078 @@ +THE BARDIC YEAR + Ritual for Wiccan groups + - by the White Bard 1991-92 CE + --------------------------------------------------------------- +The following are suggested rituals within the four major calendar +celebrations. They are written from a Wiccan standpoint, using +Celtic traditions, and take the form of Mystery Plays that +(sometimes) are -not- fully explained (!). Try not to explain them +to the participants, but rather allow them to act upon the +participants in a subliminal, emotional fashion. That is, after +all, what they are designed to do. + +Note: "%" marks "stage directions" + + N:earth + W:water E:air + S:fire + +The BARD should stand to the WEST, unless otherwise specified in +the ritual. + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + YULE RITUAL: 21 December + -by the White Bard + +Materials: a very small, just sprouted potted plant. + a candle for each covener present. + a MOTHER. She should wear a blue garment, if possible. + a MAIDEN, dressed in white. + a Crown of Light, made from three, six, or nine + candles. + a BARD/GREEN MAN. + +% The ceremony for the Lesser Sabbats should be written by newer +% members of the coven, as part of their learning. At an appropriate +% place in the ceremony, the following should be inserted: + +% Here begins the Yule Mystery. ALL light shall be +% extinguished, all fires put out, save that in the South. +% The Bard/Green Man shall lie on his back in the East, as +% if dead. + +% The HPS shall say: + +HPS: Darkness covers all. The Old King is dead, and there is no + warmth for the Mother. The days are short, and the nights + are long. + +COVEN: Give us Light! + +HPS: The Maiden wanders the Earth, Maiden no more, but soon to be + Mother. The Earth is cold, and there is no place for her to + give birth. + +COVEN: Give us Light! + +HP: Mother, give us the Child of Promise! The Lord Of Life strains + to be born! + +COVEN: Give us Light! + +MOTHER: I seek a place to rest, and give birth. + +% The Mother should wander about the inside of the circle, as if +% looking for something, and not finding it. She should act very +% tired, and project a sense of urgency. +% She then goes to the East, and assumes the Goddess pose, standing, +% arms and legs spread in the form of a five-pointed star. +% There shall be a pause, and the Bard/Green Man shall then quietly +% rise up, and stand behind the Mother. If it seems appropriate, the +% more primitive symbolism of him crawling out from between the legs +% of the Mother may be used. He should be carrying a lit candle, or +% some other source of light. + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Cunning and art I do not lack, + But -always- Her Cauldron brings me back! + +% The Bard/Green Man shall take his lit candle, and proceed to re-light +% the corner candles, moving deasil, and any other fires within the circle. +% The just-sprouted potted plant is picked up by the Mother and held in +% front of her during this candle-lighting. +% The Bard/Green Man shall then take the plant from the hands of the Mother, +% bring it to the center of the circle, and raise it above his head, saying: + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Here is the Promise, that is always fulfilled. + +% The plant is then passed around the circle, and given to the Mother, who +% should take it home and water and nurture it thru the year, if possible. +% The Maiden shall then take the place of the Mother, and the Mother shall +% return to her place within the circle. +% Here ends the Yule Mystery. + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + CANDLEMAS (IMBOLC) RITUAL: 2 February + -by the White Bard + +Materials: a candle for each covener present. + a MAIDEN, dressed in white. + a Crown of Light, made from three, six, or nine + candles. + a BARD/GREEN MAN. + a DARK LORD, dressed in dark clothing, and holding a + dark cloak. + +% The place of ritual should be set up, away from the +% gathered participants. +% It is more than a good idea to manage bathrooms and such like +% before the circle is closed. This Mystery is not something any +% of the participants should miss out on! + +HPS: Go we now to the sacred place + And stand within the sacred space + Turn your minds to sacred things + And dance with me unto the ring! + +% HP and HPS lead the coven to the place of ritual by a +% spiral dance, ending in a circle around the altar. The +% cauldron should be at the south. The Bard/Green Man +% dances at the end of the line. A good song to sing here +% is "Lord Of The Dance." + +HPS: Come we forth, with the Spiral Dance + Within the Lady's radiance + To celebrate the Sun's rebirth + To renew life, to warm the Earth + + Earth and Water, Fire and Air + I invoke the Goddess there! + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +HP: Earth and Water, Fire and Sky + I invoke the God on high + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +% The corners shall be called thusly, that all may hear, but +% shall not be called until the HPS reaches that corner on her +% circumnabulation. + +EAST: O Guardians of the Eastern Tower, + Airy ones of healing power + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +SOUTH: Oh fiery ones of Southern Power + Thus I invite you to this tower + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +WEST: Western ones of water's flow + Help to guard us here below + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +NORTH: Earthen ones of Northern fame + Bless and guard our Power's fane + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +% The HPS shall move to each corner, and say, following each +% corner's crying as she moves to the next: + +HPS: So I cast and consecrate + This Circle of the small and great: + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + By Rock and Earth, by Land and Sea, + By Fire and Water, Earth and Air, + By the Lord, and Lady Fair! + By Love and Joy and Work and Play, + All things harmful cast away! + By lightening's flash, and rain's soft fall, + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + (Cast the Circle: Blessed be!) + +% On her return to the first corner she shall change the last +% line above, and say: + + The Circle's cast; and Blessed Be! + +% The callers of the corners shall return their tools to the +% altar, and then shall join the circle at their corners. + + -------------------------------------------------- + +% Here begins the Candlemas (Imbolc) Mystery: +% The Maiden shall step forth, and say: + +MAIDEN: This is the time of Brigid, the Patron of Poets and Fire, + and of Healing. + +HPS: This is the time of new beginnings, when the Mother has become + Maiden. + +HP: The days have turned, and grow longer, and the Sun-child is + growing to His strength. + +BARD/GREEN MAN: I have been a wave upon the sea, + And a spark in the firelight. + + I have been a fish in the ocean. + I have been a Thought within a Word, + And a Word within a Deed. + I was cast away, and found again. + + I have been made of flowers + And of cold steel and brass. + Fire and ice are alike unto me. + + I have been the narrow blade of a sword + That kills without cutting. + And the Void is my homeland. + + I have been in Caer Sidi + In the Spiral Castle of Glass. + And the letters on the Standing Stones + Are no secret from me. + + I have been in Annwyn + And Tir na n'Og, + I have danced the Spiral Dance, + And drunk from the Hierlas at daybreak. + + I have ridden beneath two ravens + And served in the kitchen, + And all places are alike unto me. + + I have been a child + And now I come into my strength! + + I invoke the Land, the dear Land, + the Earth our Mother! + +MAIDEN: The cycles of the Moon have taken their course, and I am + in my Maidenhood. The stars are kindled, and I dance in + their light. + +DARK LORD: Thy home is with me thru the long months of Winter, and + the Earth shall lie fallow and bare. + +% The HPS shall then light the candles of the Crown of Light, +% and shall approach the Maiden, who is now standing in the East, and +% place it upon her head. +% She shall now, in company with the Bard/Green Man, circumnabulate the +% circle, and the coveners shall light their candles from her crown. +% The Bard/Green Man shall return to his normal place within the circle +% and the Maiden shall place the Crown of Light on the altar. +% The Maiden shall then approach the Dark Lord, and kneel before him, +% and he shall say: + +DARK LORD: As it always is, always was, and always shall be. Come + to my Kingdom. + +% Here he shall place the dark cloak around her, and they shall retire +% to the West. +% Here ends the Candlemas Mystery. + +----------------------------------------------------------------- + +% A normal cone-of-power may be raised, for growth and healing: + +HPS: In a ring we all shall stand + Pass the Power, hand to hand. + +HP: As the Sun is given birth + Build the Power; root to Earth + +HPS: Pass the Power, hand to hand + Bless the Lady, bless the Land + +HP: Bless the Lord, and bless the Skies + Bless the Power that never dies! + +% The above four verses should be repeated three times, (or +% as many times as needed) and then the HPS should say: + +HPS: By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree: + Let the Power flow out and free! + +% All should release, at this point. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% Such coven business as must be transacted may be done here. +% This is a good time to bless candles for use during the coming year. +% This is also a good time for initiations. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% The Circle is opened. + +HPS: Thus I release the East and West + Thanks to them from Host to Guest + Thus I release the South and North + With "Blessed Be' I send them forth! + The Circle's open, dance we so + Out and homeward we shall go. + Earth and Water, Air and Fire + Celebrated our desire. + The Sun's returned to banish dark + The Earth awakes to sunlight's spark. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + Our circle's done; and Blessed Be! + +COVEN: Blessed Be! + +% All spiral dance out from the Circle. + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + + EOSTAR RITUAL: (Spring Equinox) + -by the White Bard + +Materials: a MAIDEN, who shall be dressed in white, covered by a + black (or other dark material) cloak, preferably with + a hood drawn over her head. No white of her garment + should show. + a BARD/GREEN MAN, who shall either recite or sing his + Song Of Calling, preferably accompanied by an approp- + riate musical instrument (drum, flute, harp, guitar) + +% The ceremony for the Lesser Sabbats should be written by newer +% members of the coven, as part of their learning. At an +appropriate +% place in the ceremony, the following should be inserted: + +% Here begins the Eostar Mystery: +% Bard and Maiden shall stand together in the North, with the HP +% between them. + +MAIDEN: I have been in the Kingdom of the Dark Lord, + Where no Sun shines. + But now I shall return to the green of Earth, + And all things shall rejoice with me. + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Follow me forth from the Dark Lord's Hall + And show that Love will conquer all! + +% Bard moves to the East, and shall sing his Song of Calling: +% Song of Calling may be whatever the Bard feels appropriate. +% The below listed song is a suggestion only, and is used with +% the author's permission: + + THE BARD'S SONG + (c) copyright 1990 W. J. Bethancourt III + (Tune: "Dublin City") + +BARD: As I walked out one quiet evening + At the hour of twelve at night + Who should I meet but a fair young maiden + Combin' her hair by candle light; + Lassie, I have come a-courtin' + Your kind favours for to win + And if you'd heed my petition + I would be your Paladin... + +(CHORUS) Gather roses in the Springtime + Gather roses while ye may, + Time is passing; roses wither; + Winter comes; we're here -today-. + +% Bard moves to the South, Maiden moves to the East. + +BARD: Have you seen the dew a-formin' + On the grass at early morn? + Have you seen the forest quiet, + Or a stag that's barely born? + Have you seen the dawn a-breakin' + O'er the Western Ocean's tide? + Have you felt my heart a-beatin' + When it's held close to your side? + +(CHORUS) Gather roses in the Springtime + Gather roses while ye may, + Time is passing; roses wither; + Winter comes; we're here -today-. + +% Bard moves to the West, Maiden moves to the South. + +BARD: I can give no gold or silver, + I can give no fields of land, + I can give no servants brisk + To wait on you both foot and hand; + I can give you wide roads callin' + Wind and Rain, and Moon and Sun, + Songs to sing, and love and laughter, + Dresses made of plain home-spun. + +(CHORUS) Gather roses in the Springtime + Gather roses while ye may, + Time is passing; roses wither; + Winter comes; we're here -today-. + +% Bard moves to the North, Maiden moves to the West. + +BARD: Come dance with me upon the greensward + In the moonlight, in the Spring. + Dance with me within the forest + Dance with me within the ring! + Earth below us, stars above us, + Fire and water by our side, + Dance with me within the moonlight, + Dance with me, and be my Bride! + +(CHORUS) Gather roses in the Springtime + Gather roses while ye may, + Time is passing; roses wither; + Winter comes; we're here -today-. + +% Bard moves to the Center, Maiden moves to the North. +% The HP shall try to hold her back, by holding her dark cloak, +% but she shall unclasp it, and move to the center, leaving the +% HP holding the cloak, revealing herself dressed in white, and +% shall stand beside the Bard. + +MAIDEN: I have been in the Kingdom of the Dark Lord, + Where no Sun shines. + But now I return to the green of Earth, + And all things shall rejoice with me. + +% The HPS shall crown the Maiden with a wreath of flowers. +% Here ends the Eostar Mystery. + --------------------------------------------------------------- + THE DAY OF THE FOOL: April 1 + -by the White Bard + +% This day is not in the traditional cycle, but should not be +% omitted by those of the Bardic Path. There is no "set" ritual, +% but this is the time for satire and general foolery by all. +% A good thing to do here is to have a simple gathering, perhaps +% a pot-luck, choose a King and/or Queen of Fools, and have a +% good party. See the German Fasching or Mardi Gras for hints. + + +--------------------------------------------------------------- + BELTANE RITUAL: May Day + -by the White Bard + +Materials: One cauldron, filled with water + a wreath of flowers for the MAIDEN + the Maiden should wear white, if possible + two wooden swords (optional) + a fire, as close to the ground as possible + A BARD/GREEN MAN (note: if you have no Bard, then a + male to act as Green Man should be chosen either + by lottery, or by the Maiden. The Maiden is, of + course, free to request a specific person to + act as Green Man even if there is a Bard available + to the coven.) + candles for all, if possible + + ***************************************** + +% The place of ritual should be set up, away from the gathered +% participants. +% It is more than a good idea to manage bathrooms and such like +% before the circle is closed. This Mystery is not something any +% of the participants should miss out on! + +HPS: Go we now to the sacred place + And stand within the sacred space + Turn your minds to sacred things + And dance with me unto the ring! + +% HP and HPS lead the coven to the place of ritual by a +% spiral dance, ending in a circle around the altar. The +% cauldron should be at the south. The Bard/Green Man +% dances at the end of the line. + +HPS: Come we forth, with the Spiral Dance + Within the Lady's radiance + To celebrate the Year renewed + And praise the Powers, with gratitude. + + Earth and Water, Fire and Air + I invoke the Goddess there! + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +HP: Earth and Water, Fire and Sky + I invoke the God on high + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +% The corners shall be called thusly, that all may hear, but +% shall not be called until the HPS reaches that corner on her +% circumnabulation. + +EAST: O Guardians of the Eastern Tower, + Airy ones of healing power + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +SOUTH: Oh fiery ones of Southern Power + Thus I invite you to this tower + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +WEST: Western ones of water's flow + Help to guard us here below + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +NORTH: Earthen ones of Northern fame + Bless and guard our Power's fane + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +% The HPS shall move to each corner, and say, following each +% corner's crying as she moves to the next: + +HPS: So I cast and consecrate + This Circle of the small and great: + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + By Rock and Earth, by Land and Sea, + By Fire and Water, Earth and Air, + By the Lord, and Lady Fair! + By Love and Joy and Work and Play, + All things harmful cast away! + By lightening's flash, and rain's soft fall, + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + (Cast the Circle: Blessed be!) + +% On her return to the first corner she shall change the last +% line above, and say: + + The Circle's cast; and Blessed Be! + +% The callers of the corners shall return their tools to the + altar, and then shall join the circle at their corners. + + -------------------------------------------------- + +% Here begins the Beltane Mystery + +BARD or GREEN MAN: Thus I invoke the Lady White + To come to us this sacred night. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + I show you a Mystery! + +% The Maiden shall stand beside the HP, who shall hold a +% wooden sword. The Bard/Green Man shall approach them, also +% carrying a wooden sword, and shall, in mime, challenge the +% HP. They shall strike their swords together in three sets +% of three blows, then Bard/Green Man shall strike the HP, with +% the last blow of his sword, who shall fall as if dead. +% (Note: This can be played as a Morris Dance, if so wished.) +% If no Maiden and Bard/Green Man are used, then the above combat +% may be eliminated, and the HP and HPS shall enact the Mystery. +% The HPS' part shall then be spoken by the participants. + +% The Maiden moves to the East. The Bard/Green Man moves to the +% North. + +HPS: Cunning and art she did not lack + But aye his whistle would fetch her back! + +MAIDEN: Oh, I shall go into a hare + with sorrow, sighing and mickle care + And I shall go in the Lady's Name + Aye, until I be fetched hame! + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Hare, take heed of a swift greyhound + Will harry thee all these fields around + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Maiden moves to the South. The Bard/Green Man moves to the +% East. + +HPS: Cunning and art she did not lack + But aye his whistle would fetch her back! + +MAIDEN: Yet I shall go into a bee + With mickle fear and dread of thee + And flit to hive in the Lady's Name + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Bee, take heed of a red, red cock + Will harry thee close thru door and lock + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Maiden moves to the West. The Bard/Green Man moves to the +% South. + +HPS: Cunning and art she did not lack + But aye his whistle would fetch her back! + +MAIDEN: Yet I shall go into a trout. + With sorrow and sighing and mickle doubt + And show thee many a merry game + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Trout, take heed of an otter lank + Will harry thee close from bank to bank + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Maiden moves to the North. The Bard/Green Man moves to the +% West. + +HPS: Cunning and art she did not lack + But aye his whistle would fetch her back! + +MAIDEN: Yet I shall go into a mouse + And haste me unto the Miller's House + There in his corn to have good game + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Mouse, take heed of a white tom-cat + That never was baulked of mouse nor rat + For here come I in the Lady's Name + And -thus- it is I fetch thee hame! + +% Bard/Green Man walks to Maiden and takes her hand. They +% both move to the Cauldron, and face HPS. + +HPS: Cunning and art she did not lack + But aye his Song has fetched her back! + + Old Winter's dead, the Lady reigns + And Summer has returned again! + +% Bard/Green Man and Maiden both wet their hands with water +% from the Cauldron, and sprinkle it on the HP, who comes to +% life again. + +HP: Cunning and art I do not lack + But aye Her Cauldron will bring me back! + +% Bard/Green Man and Maiden both move to, and jump, the fire. +% Here ends the Beltane Mystery. +% Note: This Mystery is the more historically correct "Great Rite." + + ------------------------------------------------ + +% If there is a May Pole, it should be erected by the men -only- at +% this point, and all dance around it, alternating male and female +% to raise the cone of power as outlined below. +% A normal cone-of-power may be raised, for growth and healing: + +HPS: In a ring we all shall stand + Pass the Power, hand to hand. + +HP: As the year is given birth + Build the Power; root to Earth + +HPS: Pass the Power, hand to hand + Bless the Lady, bless the Land + +HP: Bless the Lord, and bless the Skies + Bless the Power that never dies! + +% The above four verses should be repeated three times, (or +% as many as needed to fully wrap the pole) and then the HPS +% should say: + +HPS: By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree: + Let the Power flow out and free! + +% All should release, at this point. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% Such coven business as must be transacted may be done here. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% The Circle is opened. + +HPS: Thus I release the East and West + Thanks to them from Host to Guest + Thus I release the South and North + With "Blessed Be' I send them forth! + The Circle's open, dance we so + Out and homeward we shall go. + Earth and Water, Air and Fire + Celebrated our desire. + Winter's cold is gone away + Now it is the Day of May. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + Our circle's done; and Blessed Be! + +COVEN: Blessed Be! + +% All spiral dance out from the Circle, jumping the fire as +% they go. HP and HPS lead, with Bard/Green Man and Maiden +% taking care of bringing the Bel Fire into camp. Allow the Bel +% fire to burn out on its own, if possible, otherwise put it +% out with the water from the Caldron. Disposal of the water +% otherwise should be to pour it at the roots of a tree. +% All participants may take fire from the Bel Fire to take home +% with them, cook over, or whatever, before it is extinguished. + + ------------------------------------------------------------- + MIDSUMMER RITUAL: (Summer Solstice) + -by the White Bard + +Materials: a GREEN MAN, dressed in green, bearing a leafy branch. + Small cakes, and a drink of some sort, preferably apple + based. For covens that use alcohol, mead would be ok, too. + +% The ceremony for the Lesser Sabbats should be written by newer +% members of the coven, as part of their learning. At an appropriate +% place in the ceremony, the following should be inserted: + +HPS: This is the time of the Green Man; the Jack-of-the-Green; the + Spirit of the Wood. Call him what you will, Robin Hood, Herne, + or even Pan, this is His time! Rejoice in Summer! + +% The Green Man should rush into the circle, laughing and leaping. +% It would be appropriate for him to carry a leafy branch, with +% which to strike (lightly) the young women of the coven. +% He shall then approach the cakes and drink, and pick one of each +% up, hold them up to the coven, and say: + +GREEN MAN: Behold the fruits of the Mother! + +HP/HPS: Blessed be the food that nourishes us! + +% All should sit, and eat, and have a nice, quiet party of some sort! + + ------------------------------------------------------------- + LAMMAS RITUAL: 1 August + -by the White Bard + +Materials: one person should be chosen by the HP to play LUGH, + who shall walk with an obvious limp. He may use a + crutch, or a cane if he so chooses. + + ***************************************** + +% The place of ritual should be set up, away from the +% gathered participants. +% It is more than a good idea to manage bathrooms and such like +% before the circle is closed. This Mystery is not something any +% of the participants should miss out on! + +HPS: Go we now to the sacred place + And stand within the sacred space + Turn your minds to sacred things + And dance with me unto the ring! + +% HP and HPS lead the coven to the place of ritual by a +% spiral dance, ending in a circle around the altar. + +HPS: Come we forth, with the Spiral Dance + Within the Lady's radiance + To celebrate the Season's turn + To Autumn, when the leaves will burn + + Earth and Water, Fire and Air + I invoke the Goddess there! + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +HP: Earth and Water, Fire and Sky + I invoke the God on high + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +% The corners shall be called thusly, that all may hear, but +% shall not be called until the HPS reaches that corner on her +% circumnabulation. + +EAST: O Guardians of the Eastern Tower, + Airy ones of healing power + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +SOUTH: Oh fiery ones of Southern Power + Thus I invite you to this tower + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +WEST: Western ones of water's flow + Help to guard us here below + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +NORTH: Earthen ones of Northern fame + Bless and guard our Power's fane + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +% The HPS shall move to each corner, and say, following each +% corner's crying as she moves to the next: + +HPS: So I cast and consecrate + This Circle of the small and great: + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + By Rock and Earth, by Land and Sea, + By Fire and Water, Earth and Air, + By the Lord, and Lady Fair! + By Love and Joy and Work and Play, + All things harmful cast away! + By lightening's flash, and rain's soft fall, + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + (Cast the Circle: Blessed be!) + +% On her return to the first corner she shall change the last +% line above, and say: + + The Circle's cast; and Blessed Be! + +% The callers of the corners shall return their tools to the + altar, and then shall join the circle at their corners. + + -------------------------------------------------- + +% Here begins the Lammas Mystery + +HPS: Thus I invoke the Lady White + To come to us this sacred night. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + I show you a Mystery! + +% A small meal of bread and some form of beverage should be +% laid out, and all should partake. As all are eating, Lugh +% shall approach the circle, and say: + +LUGH: Merry meet to all! May I enter the circle? + +HPS: And what talent do you have, that we do not? + +LUGH: I am a Smith, to make tools and weapons. + +HPS: We have Govannon, to make our tools and weapons. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Shaman, to offer the Sight Within. + +HPS: Any of us can do that. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Farmer, to grow your food. + +HPS: We have the Young God and the Maiden, to set our food to + grow. We have no need of you. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Warrior, to defend you. + +HPS: We have those of the Warrior Path, and their valor is + unquestioned. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Bard, to sing you songs and make you merry. + +HPS: We have a Bard. Go away. + +LUGH: I have Wisdom to impart. + +HPS: We have the Old God and the Crone. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Fisherman, to harvest the waters. + +HPS: Any of us can catch fish. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Satirist and maker of jokes, to give laughter. + +HPS: The Fool gives us humor. Go away. + +LUGH: But do you have one who is ALL of these? For I am Lugh, + the Ruler, the Singer, the Long-Sighted, the Craftsman, + and all Talents are as ONE with me. + +HPS: This we do not have, indeed, and you are Lugh Samildanach. + Enter and be welcome! + +% The HPS shall open the circle and Lugh shall enter and be seated +% with the company. Lugh shall -limp- when he walks, and shall +% walk, and sit, in obvious pain. +% He should look around him, as if expecting something. +% If none within the circle asks why he is limping, or otherwise +% expresses concern, the Maiden shall say: + +MAIDEN: Sir, why do you limp? Are you injured? + +LUGH: You have asked The Question, and I thank you. Seek you the + Cauldron of Healing, the Cauldron of Cerridwen, for my time + grows short, but from it I shall be re-born. + + ---------------------------------------------------- + +% Here ends the Lammas Mystery +% A normal cone-of-power may be raised, for growth and healing: + +HPS: In a ring we all shall stand + Pass the Power, hand to hand. + +HP: As the year is given birth + Build the Power; root to Earth + +HPS: Pass the Power, hand to hand + Bless the Lady, bless the Land + +HP: Bless the Lord, and bless the Skies + Bless the Power that never dies! + +% The above four verses should be repeated three times, (or +% as many as needed) and then the HPS should say: + +HPS: By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree: + Let the Power flow out and free! + +% All should release, at this point. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% Such coven business as must be transacted may be done here. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% The Circle is opened. + +HPS: Thus I release the East and West + Thanks to them from Host to Guest + Thus I release the South and North + With "Blessed Be' I send them forth! + The Circle's open, dance we so + Out and homeward we shall go. + Earth and Water, Air and Fire + Celebrated our desire. + As Autumn leaves fall as the rain + The seasons' turning, once again. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + Our circle's done; and Blessed Be! + +COVEN: Blessed Be! + +% All spiral dance out from the Circle. Lugh shall follow +% at the end of the line. + + ------------------------------------------------------------- + RITUAL: (Fall Equinox) + -by the White Bard + +Materials: An OLD KING + +% The ceremony for the Lesser Sabbats should be written by newer +% members of the coven, as part of their learning. At an appropriate +% place in the ceremony, the following should be inserted: + +% The Old King shall move in a feeble manner to the West, and say: + +OLD KING: I am aged, and I approach my Time. Help me, lest I die! + +CRONE: There is no help for you, for all must travel that road. + +% The Old King shall then turn to the assembled coven, and say: + +OLD KING: Seek ye the Cauldron! Seek ye the Grail! It shall heal me + And bring me forth again. + +% Here a song may be sung, and "John Barleycorn" would be most +% appropriate: + + JOHN BARLEYCORN + -Traditional + + There were three men come out of the West + Their fortunes for to try, + And these three men made a solemn vow: + John Barleycorn should die! + John Barleycorn should die! + (nb: 4th line of each verse is sung twice) + + They plowed, they sowed, they harrowed him in, + Threw clods upon his head, + And these three men made a solemn vow: + John Barleycorn was dead! + + CHORUS: Fa la la la, it's a lovely day! + Sing fa la la lay oh! + Fa la la la, it's a lovely day! + Sing fa la la lay oh! + + They let him lie for a very long time + 'Til the rain from Heaven did fall, + Then Little Sir John sprung up his head, + And so amazed them all! + + They let him stand 'til Midsummer tide, + 'Til he grew both pale and wan, + Then Little Sir John he grew a long beard, + And so became a man! + + They hired men with the sythes so sharp + To cut him off at the knee + They rolled him and tied him about the waist, + And used him barbarously! + + They hired men with the sharp pitchforks + To pierce him to the heart, + And the loader he served him worse than that, + For he tied him in a cart! + + They wheeled him around and around the field, + 'Til they came to a barn, + And there they made a solemn mow + Of poor John Barleycorn, + + They hired men with the crab-tree sticks + To strip him skin from bone + And the Miller he served him worse than that: + + For he ground him between two stones! + + They have wheeled him here and wheeled him there + And wheeled him to a barn, + And they have served him worse than that + They have bunged him in a vat! + + They have worked their will on John Barleycorn + But he lived to tell the tale; + For they pour him out of an old brown jug, + And they call him home-brewed ale! + + Here's Little Sir John in a nut-brown bowl, + And brandy in a glass! + And Little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl + Proved the stronger man at last! + + For the huntsman he can't hunt the fox + Nor loudly blow his horn, + And the tinker can't mend kettles nor pots + Without John Barleycorn! + +------------------------------------------------------------- + SAMHAIN RITUAL: 31 October + -by the White Bard + +Materials: one cauldron, filled with water + CRONE: This should be an older female. + OLD KING: This should be a person chosen by + lottery, or by whoever is acting as + Crone. It can be enacted by the HP + if needed. + BARD/GREEN MAN: If the coven has no Bard available, + then a Green Man should be chosen + by lottery, or by whoever is acting + as Maiden. It can be enacted by the + HP, if needed. + + ------------------------------------------------ + +% The place of ritual should be set up, away from the gathered +% participants. This is not something that people should miss, +% so make sure that potty break is taken care of before the +% circle is cast. + +HPS: Go we now to the sacred place + And stand within the sacred space + Turn your minds to sacred things + And dance with me unto the ring! + +% HP and HPS lead the coven to the place of ritual by a +% spiral dance, ending in a circle around the altar. The +% cauldron should be at the south. The Old King dances at +% the end of the line. + +HPS: Come we forth, with the Spiral Dance + Within the Lady's radiance + To mark the turning of the year + The door to Winter now is here. + + Earth and Water, Fire and Air + I invoke the Goddess there! + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +HP: Earth and Water, Fire and Sky + I invoke the God on high + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +% The corners shall be called thusly, that all may hear, but +% shall not be called until the HPS reaches that corner on her +% circumnabulation. + +EAST: O Guardians of the Eastern Tower, + Airy ones of healing power + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +SOUTH: Oh fiery ones of Southern Power + Thus I invite you to this tower + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +WEST: Western ones of water's flow + Help to guard us here below + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +NORTH: Earthen ones of Northern fame + Bless and guard our Power's fane + I do summon, stir and call you + + See these rites and guard this circle! + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +% The HPS shall move to each corner, and say, following each +% corner's crying as she moves to the next: + +HPS: So I cast and consecrate + This Circle of the small and great: + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + By Rock and Earth, by Land and Sea, + By Fire and Water, Earth and Air, + By the Lord, and Lady Fair! + By Love and Joy and Work and Play, + All things harmful cast away! + By lightening's flash, and rain's soft fall, + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + (Cast the Circle: Blessed be!) + +% On her return to the first corner she shall change the last +% line above, and say: + + The Circle's cast; and Blessed Be! + +% The callers of the corners shall return their tools to the +% altar, and then shall join the circle at their corners. + + -------------------------------------------------- + +% Here begins the Samhain Mystery: + +OLD KING: Thus I invoke the Lady White + To come to us this sacred night. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + I shall show you a Mystery! + +% Bard/Green Man and Maiden join hands, facing each other. +% The Maiden speaks to the Bard/Green Man: + +MAIDEN: Lord of Life, hail Land-Master! + God of grain that grows and dies + Rising reborn, full of richness; + Fallow fields shall yet be fertile -- + Spring sap runs as stirs your manhood + Bless barren earth, bear fruit again! + +% The Bard/Green Man speaks to Maiden: + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Snow-shoes striding, hail swift Huntress! + Wild one, free and willful Goddess + Bow and blade you bear beside you, + Finding food to fend off hunger -- + Winter will not leave us wanting; + Give good hunting, grant us skill. + +% The Old King moves to the West. The Crone moves to the +% North. + +HP: Cunning and art he did not lack + But aye her whistle would fetch him back! + +OLD KING: Yet I shall go into a trout. + With sorrow and sighing and mickle doubt + And show thee many a merry game + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +CRONE: Trout, take heed of an otter lank + Will harry thee close from bank to bank + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Old King moves to the South. The Crone moves to the West. + +HP: Cunning and art he did not lack + But aye her whistle would fetch him back! + +OLD KING: Yet I shall go into a bee + With mickle fear and dread of thee + And flit to hive in the Lady's Name + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +CRONE: Bee, take heed of a red, red cock + Will harry thee close thru door and lock + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Old King moves to the East. The Crone moves to the South. + +HP: Cunning and art he did not lack + But aye her whistle would fetch him back! + +OLD KING: Oh, I shall go into a hare + with sorrow, sighing and mickle care + And I shall go in the Lady's Name + Aye, until I be fetch-ed hame! + +CRONE: Hare, take heed of a swift greyhound + Will harry thee all these fields around + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Old King moves to the North. The Crone moves to the East. + +HP: Cunning and art he did not lack + But aye her whistle would fetch him back! + +OLD KING: Yet I shall go into a mouse + And haste me unto the Miller's House + There in his corn to have good game + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +CRONE: Mouse, take heed of a white she-cat + That never was baulked of mouse nor rat + For here come I in the Lady's Name + And -thus- it is I fetch thee hame! + +% Crone walks to Old King and takes his hand. He falls as if +% dead. + +HPS: Cunning and art he did not lack + But aye Her Song has fetched Him back! + + Summer's gone, the Lady reigns + And Winter has returned again! + +% Maiden wets her hands with water from the Cauldron, and +% sprinkles it on the Old King, who comes to life again. + +OK: Cunning and art I do not lack + But aye Her Cauldron will bring me back! + +% The Crone and Old King shall join hands, facing each other, +% and say: + +CRONE: One-eye, Wanderer, God of wisdom, + Hunt-lord, hail, who leads the hosting! + Nine nights hanging, knowledge gaining, + Cloaked at crossroads, council hidden. + Now the night, your time, is near us -- + Right roads send us on, Rune-winner. + +OLD KING: Every age your eyes have witnessed; + Cauldron-Keeper, hail wise Crone! + Rede in riddles is your ration -- + Wyrd-weaver at the World-tree's root. + Eldest ancient, all-knowing one, + Speak unto us, send us vision! + +% Here the HPS should say: + +HPS: We remember our dead; our loved ones gone to the Summerland before + us. Give them peace and joy. + +ALL: Blessed be! + +% If there is time enough, the HPS and/or a selected member(s) of the +% coven should read aloud the "Roll of Martyrs." Note: This listing +% is copyrighted, and used by the author's permission. +% The reader shall say: + +READER: Never again the Burning Times! Let us remember our dead, + good and bad, innocent and guilty: + +% Follows is the Roll of Martyrs. This may be read aloud, or may be +% placed in written form upon the altar as the above words are said. + + Adamson, Francis: executed at Durham, England, in 1652 + Albano, Peter of: died in prison circa 1310 + Allen, Joan: hanged at the Old Bailey, London, England, in 1650 + Allen, Jonet: burned in Scotland in 1661 + Amalaric, Madeline: burned in France in mid-1500's + Ancker, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Andrius, Barthelemy: burned at Carcassonne, France in 1330 + Andrius, Jean: burned at Carcassonne, France in 1330 + Andrius, Phillippe: burned at Carcassonne, France in 1330 + Arnold, (first name unknown): hanged at Barking, England, in 1574 + d'Arc, Joan: burned at Rouen, France, on 30 May, 1431 (note: the + witchcraft charge in this case was -implied- and not specific) + Ashby, Anne: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Askew, Anne: burned for witchcraft 1546 + Audibert, Etienne: condemned for witchcraft in France, on 20 March 1619 + Aupetit, Pierre: burned at Bordeaux, France, in 1598 + + Babel, Zuickel: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Babel, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Baker, Anne: executed in Leicester, England, in 1619 + Balcoin, Marie: burned in the reign of Henry IV of France + Balfour, Alison: burned at Edinburgh, Scotland, on 16 December, 1594 + Bannach, (husband) (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, + Germany, 1628-1629 + Bannach, (wife) (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, + Germany, 1628-1629 + Barber, Mary: executed in Northhampton, England, on 22 July, 1612 + Barker, Janet: burned in Scotland in 1643 + Baroni, Catterina: beheaded and burned at Castelnovo, Italy, on 14 + April, 1647 + Barthe, Angela de la: burned at Toulouse, France, in 1275 + Barton, William: executed in Scotland (year unknown) + Basser, Fredrick: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Batsch, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Bayerin, Anna: executed at Salzburg, Austria, in 1751 + Beaumont, Sieur de: accused of witchcraft on 21 October, 1596 + Bebelin, Gabriel: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Beck, Viertel: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Beck, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Belon, Jean: executed in France, in 1597 + Berger, Christopher: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Berrye, Agnes: hanged at Enfield, England, in 1616 + Bentz, (mother) (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, + Germany, 1628-1629 + Bentz, (daughter) (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Beuchel, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581 + Beutler, (first name unknown) beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Bill, Arthur: executed in Northhampton, England, on 22 July, 1612 + Birenseng, Agata: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 25 June, 1594 + Bishop, Briget: hanged at Salem, New England on 10 June, 1692 + Bodenham, Anne: hanged at Salisbury, England, in 1653 + Bonnet, Jean: burned alive at Boissy-en-Ferez, France, in 1583 + Boram, (mother) (first name unknown): hung at Bury St Edmunds, + England, in 1655 + Boram, (daughter) (first name unknown): hung at Bury St Edmunds, + England, in 1655 + Bolingbroke, Roger: hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, + England, on 18 November, 1441 + Boulay, Anne: burned at Nancy, France, in 1620 + Boulle, Thomas: burned alive at Rouen, France, on 21 August, 1647 + Bowman, Janet: burned in Scotland in 1572 + Bragadini, Mark Antony: beheaded in Italy in the 1500's + Brickmann, (first name unknown) beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Brose, Elizabeth: tortured to death in the castle of Gommern, + Germany, on 4 November, 1660 + Brown, Janet: burned in Scotland in 1643 + Browne, Agnes: executed in Northhampton, England, on 22 July, 1612 + Browne, Joan: executed in Northhampton, England, on 22 July, 1612 + Browne, Mary: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Brooks, Jane: hanged in England on 26 March, 1658 + Brugh, John: burned in Scotland in 1643 + Buckh, Appollonia: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581 + Bugler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Bulcock, John: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Bulcock, Jane: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Bull, Edmund: hanged at Taunton, England, in 1631 + Bulmer, Matthew: hanged at Newcastle, England, in 1649 + Burroughs, George: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 August, 1692 + Bursten-Binderin, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, + Germany, 1628-1629 + + Calles, Helen: executed at Braynford, England, on 1 December, 1595 + Camelli, Domenica: beheaded and burned at Castelnovo, Italy, on 14 + April, 1647 + Canzler, (first name unknown) beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Carrier, Martha: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 August, 1692 + Caveden, Lucia: beheaded and burned at Castelnovo, Italy, on 14 + April, 1647 + Cemola, Zinevra: beheaded and burned at Castelnovo, Italy, on 14 + April, 1647 + Corey, Martha: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Corey, Giles: prssed to death at Salem, New England, on 19 + September, 1692 + Corset, Janet: killed by a mob at Pittenweem, Scotland, in 1704 + Challiot, (first name unknown): murdered at St. Georges, France, + in February, 1922 + Chalmers, Bessie: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland, 1621 + Chambers, (first name unknown): died in prison, in England, in 1693 + Chamoulliard, (first name unknown): burned in France, in 1597 + de Chantraine, Anne: burned as a witch in Waret-la-Chaussee, + France, on October 17, 1622 + Chatto, Marioun: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621 + Ciceron, Andre: burned alive at Carcassone, France, in 1335 + Cockie, Isabel: burnt as a witch, at a cost of 105 s. 4 p., in + England 1596 + Cox, Julian: executed at Taunton, England, in 1663 + Couper, Marable: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + Craw, William: burned in Scotland in 1680 + Crots, (son) (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Cullender, Rose: executed at Bury St Edmunds, England, on 17 March, 1664 + Cumlaquoy, Marian: burned at Orkney, Scotland in 1643 + Cunningham, John: burned at Edinburgh, in January, 1591 + Cunny, Joan: hanged in Chelmsford, England, in 1589 + + Deiner, Hans: burned at Waldsee, Germany (year unknown) + Delort, Catherine: burned at Toulouse, France, in 1335 + Demdike, Elizabeth: convicted, but died in prison, in Lancaster, + England, in 1612 + DeMolay, Jacques: Grand Master of the Templars, burned in France + on 22 March 1312 + Desbordes, (first name unknown): burned in France, in 1628 + Deshayes, Catherine: burned on 22 February, 1680 + Device, Elizabeth: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Device, James: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Device, Alizon: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Doree, Catherine: executed at Courveres, France, in 1577 + Dorlady, Mansfredo: burned at Vesoul, France as being the Devil's + banker, on 18 January, 1610 + Dorlady, Fernando: burned at Vesoul, France as being the Devil's + banker, on 18 January, 1610 + Dormar, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 October, 1586 + Douglas, Janet: burned at Castle, Hill, Scotland, on 17 July, 1557 + Drummond, Alexander: executed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1670 + "Dummy" (name unknown; he was deaf-and-dumb): killed by a mob at + Sible Hedingham, England, on 3 August, 1865 + Duncan, Gellie: hanged in Scotland in 1591 + Dunhome, Margaret: burned in Scotland (year unknown) + Dunlop, Bessie: burned at Castle Hill, Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1576 + Duny, Amy: executed at Bury St Edmunds, England, on 17 March, 1664 + Dyneis, Jonka: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + + Easty, Mary: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Echtinger, Barbara: imprisoned for life at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 + August, 1545 + Edelfrau, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Edwards, Susanna: hanged at Bideford, England in 1682 + Einseler, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581 + Erb, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 March, 1586 + Eyering, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, + Germany, 1628-1629 + + Fian, John: hanged at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1591 + Fief, Mary le: of Samur, France, accused of witchcraft, on 13 + October 1573 + Fleischbaum, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Flieger, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581 + Flower, Joan: died before trial, at Lincoln, England, 1619 + Flower, Margaret: executed at Lincoln, England, in March, 1619 + Flower, Phillippa: executed at Lincoln, England, in March, 1619 + Foster, Anne: hanged at Northhampton, England, in 1674 + Fray, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 12 June, 1587 + Fray, Margaret: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 25 June, 1594 + Fynnie, Agnes: burned in Scotland in 1643 + + Gabley, (first name unknown): executed at King's Lynn, England, in 1582 + Galigai, Leonora: beheaded at the Place de Grieve, France, on 8 July, 1617 + Garnier, Gilles: burned as a werewolf in Dole, France 1574 + Gaufridi, Louis: burned at Marseilles, France, at 5:00 pm on 30 April, 1611 + Geissler, Clara: strangled at Gelnhausen, Germany circa 1630 + Georgel, Anna Marie de: burned at Toulouse, France, in 1335 + Geraud, Hughes: burned in France in 1317 + Gering, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Glaser, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Glover, Goody: hanged at Salem, New England, in 1688 + Gobel, Barbara: burned at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1639 + Goeldi, Anna: hanged at Glaris, Switzerland, on 17 June, 1782 + Goldschmidt, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Good, Sarah: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 July, 1692 + Grandier, Urbain, burned at Loudon, France, on 18 August, 1634 + Goodridge, Alse: executed at Darbie, England, in 1597 + Gratiadei, Domenica: beheaded and burned at Castelnovo, Italy, on + 14 April, 1647 + Green, Ellen: executed in Leicester, England, in 1619 + Greensmith, (first name unknown): hanged in Hartford, New England, + on 20 January, 1662 + Greland, Jean: burned at Chamonix, France, in 1438, with 10 others + Grierson, Isobel: burned in Scotland in March, 1607 + Gutbrod, (first name unknown:) beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + + Haan, George: burned at Bamberg, Germany, circa 1626, with his + wife, daughter, and son + Hacket, Margaret: executed at Tyburn, England, on 19 February, 1585 + Hamilton, Margaret: burned in Scotland in 1680 + Hafner, (son) (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Hammellmann, Melchoir: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Hamyltoun, Christiane: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, + Scotland 1621 + Hans, David: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Hans, Kilian: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Harfner, (first name unknown): hanged herself in the prison of + Bamberg, 1628-1629 + Harlow, Bessie: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621 + Harrisson, Joanna, and her daughter: executed in Hertford, + England, in 1606 + Harvilliers, Jeanne: executed in France, in 1578 + Haus, (wife) (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Hennot, Catherine: burned alive in Germany in 1627 + Henry III, King of France: assassinated on 1 August, 1589 + Hewitt, Katherine: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Hezensohn, Joachim: beheaded at Waldsee, Germany, in 1557 + Hibbins, Anne: hanged in Boston, Massachusetts on 19 June, 1656 + Hirsch, Nicodemus: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Hoecker, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Hofschmidt, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Holtzmann, Stoffel: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Hofseiler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Hoppo, (first name unknown): executed in Germany in 1599 + How, Elizabeth: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 July, 1692 + Hoyd, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 November, 1586 + Huebmeyer, Barbara: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 11 September, 1589 + Huebmeyer, Appela: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 11 September, 1589 + Hunt, Joan: hanged in Middlesex, England in 1615 + Hunter, Alexander: burned at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1629 + Huxley, Catherine: hanged at Worcester, England in the summer of 1652 + + Isel, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 7 November, 1586 + Isolin, Madlen: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581 + + Jacobs, George: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 August, 1692 + Jenkenson, Helen: executed in Northhampton, England, on 22 July, 1612 + Jennin, (first name unknown): burned at Cambrai, France, in 1460 + Jollie, Alison: executed in Scotland, in October, 1596 + Jones, Katherine: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + Jones, Margaret: executed in Charlestown, North America, on 15 June, 1648 + Jordemaine, Margery: burned at Smithfield, England, on 27 October, 1441 + Junius, Johannes: of Bamberg, executed as a witch, on 6 August, 1628 + Jung, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + + Kent, Margaret: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621 + Kerke, Anne: executed at Tyburn, England, in 1599 + Kleiss, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 30 October, 1586 + Kless, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 12 June, 1587 + Knertz, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Knor, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Knott, Elizabeth: hanged at St. Albans, England, in 1649 + Kramerin, Schelmerey: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Kuhnlin, Elsa: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1518 + Kuler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + + Lachenmeyer, Waldburg: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585 + deLarue, (first name unknown): burned at Rouen, in 1540 + Lauder, Margaret: burned in Scotland in 1643 + Leclerc, (no first name given): condemned for witchcraft, in + France 1615 + Lakeland, (first name unknown): burned at Ipswich, England, in 1645 + Lamb, Dr.: stoned to death by a mob at St. Paul's Cross, London, + England, in 1640 + Lambrecht, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Leger, (no first name given): condemmned for witchcraft in France, + on 6 May, 1616 + Liebler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Lloyd, Temperance: hanged at Bideford, England in 1682 + Louis, (first name unknown): executed at Suffolk, England, in 1646 + Lowes, John: hanged at Bury, England, about 1645 + Lutz, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + + Macalzean, Euphemia: burned alive in Scotland for witchcraft, on + 25 June, 1591 + Marigny, Enguerrand de: hanged in France in 1315 + Marguerite, (last name unknown): burned at Paris, France, in 1586 + Mark, Bernhard: burned alive at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Martin, Marie: executed in France, in 1586 + Martin, Susannah: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 July, 1692 + Martyn, Anne: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Mayer, Christina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 October, 1586 + Mazelier, Hanchemand de: arrested at Neuchatel, Germany 1439 + Meath, Petronilla de: burned as a witch, the first such burning in + Ireland, on 3 November, 1324 + Meyer, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Mirot, Dominic: burned at Paris, France, in 1586 + Morin, (first name unknown): burned at Rouen, in 1540 + Mossau, Renata von: beheaded and burned in Bavaria, Germany, on 21 + June, 1749 + Mullerin, Elsbet: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1531 + Mundie, Beatrice: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621 + + Napier, Barbara: hanged in Scotland in 1591 + Nathan, Abraham: executed at Haeck, Germany, on 24 September, 1772 + Newell, John: executed at Barnett, England, on 1 December, 1595 + Newell, Joane: executed at Barnett, England, on 1 December, 1595 + Newman, Elizabeth: executed at Whitechapel, England in 1653 + Nottingham, John of: died in custody, Coventry, England, 1324 + Nurse, Rebecca: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 July, 1692 + Nutter, Alice: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + + Oliver, Mary: burned at Norwich, England, in 1658 + Orchard, (first name unknown): executed at Salisbury, England, in 1658 + Osborne, (husband) (first name unknown): killed by a mob at Tring, + Herefordshire, England, in 1751 + Osborne, (wife) Ruth: killed by a mob at Tring, Herefordshire, + England, in 1751 + Osburne, Sarah: died in prison at Boston, Massachusetts, 10 May, 1692 + Oswald, Catherine: burned in Scotland in 1670 + + Paeffin, Elsa: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1518 + Pajot, Marguerite: executed at Tonnerre, France, in 1576 + Paris, (first name unknown): hanged at St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1569 + Parker, Alice: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Parker, Mary: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Palmer, John: hanged at St. Albans, England, in 1649 + Pannel, Mary: executed in Yorkshire, England, in 1603 + Pearson, Alison: burned in Scotland on 28 May, 1588 + Peebles, Marion: burned in Scotland in 1643 + Peterson, Joan: hanged at Tyburn, England, in April, 1652 + Pichler, Emerenziana: burned at Defereggen, Germany, on 25 September, + 1680 (her two sons, aged 12 and 14, were also burned two days later) + Poiret, (first name unknown): burned at Nancy, France, in 1620 + Pomp, Anna: executed at Lindheim, Germany, in 1633 + Porte, Vidal de la: condemned at Riom, France, in 1597 + Powle, (first name unknown): executed at Durham, England, in 1652 + Prentice, Joan: hanged in Chelmsford, England, in 1589 + Preston, Jennet: executed in York, England, in 1612 + Pringle, Margaret: burned in Scotland in 1680 + Procter, John: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 August, 1692 + Pudeator, Anne: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + + Quattrino, Dominic: burned at Mesolcina, Italy, in 1583 + + Rattray, George: executed in Spott, Scotland, in 1705 + Rattray, Lachlan: executed in Spott, Scotland, in 1705 + Rauffains, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 7 November, 1586 + Reade, Mary: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Redfearne, Anne: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Reed, Wilmot: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Reich, Maria: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585 + Reid, John: hanged himself in prison, in Scotland, in 1697 + Reoch, Elspeth: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + Robey, Isobel: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Rodier, Catala: burned alive at Carcassone, France, in 1335 + Rodier, Paul: burned alive at Carcassone, France, in 1335 + Rohrfelder, Margaret: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 August, 1585 + Rosch, Maria: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581 + Rosseau, (no first name given), and his daughter, (no name given) + of France, accused of witchcraft on 2 October 1593 + Rue, Abel de la: of Coulommiers, France, accused of witchcraft on + 20 July, 1592 + Roulet, Jacques: burned alive for being a were-wolf, at Angiers, + France, in 1597 + Rum, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Russel, Alice: killed by a mob at Great Paxton, England, 20 May, 1808 + Rutchser, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Rutter, Elizabeth: hanged in Middlesex, England in 1616 + + Sailler, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 August, 1585 + Sampsoune, Agnes: tried, strangled, and burnt for a witch in + Scotland 1591 + Samuels, (family): three members condemned for witchcraft in + Warboys, England, on 4 April, 1593 + Sawyer, Elizabeth, hanged at Tyburn, England, on 19 April, 1621 + Scharber, Elsbeth: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581 + Schneider, Felicitas: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 March, 1586 + Schnelling, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 11 September, 1589 + Schutz, Babel: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Schwaegel, Anna Maria: beheaded at Kempten, Germany, on 11 + April, 1775 + Schwartz, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Schenck, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Schellhar, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Schickelte, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Schneider, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Schleipner, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Schuler, (first name not known): burned at Lindheim, Germany on 23 + February, 1663 + Schultheiss, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 March, 1586 + Schwarz, Eva: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581 + Schwerdt, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Scott, Margaret: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Scottie, Agnes: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + Sechelle, (first name unknown): burned at Paris, France, in 1586 + Smith, Mary: hanged at King's Lynn, England, in 1616 + Stadlin, (first name unknown): executed in Germany in 1599 + Steicher, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Steinacher, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Steward, William: hanged at St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1569 + Stewart, Christian: strangled and burned in Scotland, in November, 1596 + Stolzberger, (son) (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, + Germany, 1628-1629 + Stolzberger, (wife) (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, + Germany, 1628-1629 + Stolzberger, (granddaughter) (first name unknown): beheaded at + Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Stubb, Peter: executed as a werewolf near Cologne, Germany, in 1589 + Stuber, Laurence: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Sturmer, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Style, Elizabeth: died in prison, at Taunton, England, in 1664 + Seiler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Silberhans, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Steinbach, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Stier, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Stadelmann, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 7 November, 1586 + Sutton (mother) (first name unknown): executed in Bedford, England + in 1613 + Sutton, Mary: executed in Bedford, England in 1613 + + Thausser, Simon, and his wife (no name given): burned at Waldsee, + Germany, in 1518 + Thompson, Annaple: burned in Scotland in 1680 + Tod, Beigis: burned at Lang Nydrie, Scotland, on 27 May, 1608 + Treher, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585 + Trembles, Mary: hanged at Bideford, England in 1682 + Trois-Echelles (pseud.): executed at Paris, France, in 1571 (or 1574) + Tungerslieber, (first name unknown) beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Turner, Ann: murdered in England, in 1875 + + Uhlmer, Barbara: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 August, 1585 + Upney, Joan: hanged in Chelsford, England, in 1589 + Utley, (first name unknown): hanged at Lancaster, England, in 1630 + + Valee, Melchoir de la: burned at Nancy, France, in 1631 + Vallin, Pierre: executed in France, in 1438 + Valkenburger, (daughter) (first name unknown): beheaded at + Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Vaecker, Paul: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Vickar, Bessie: burned in Scotland in 1680 + + Wachin, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1528 + Wagner, Michael: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Wagner, (first name unknown): burnt alive at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Wallace, Margaret: executed in Glascow, Scotland, in 1622 + Wardwell, Samuel: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Waterhouse, (first name unknown): hanged in Dorset, England in 1565 + Wanderson, (wife 1) (first name unknown): executed in England, in + January, 1644. + Wanderson, (wife 2) (first name unknown): executed in England, in + January, 1644. + Weir, Thomas: burned between Edinburgh and Leith, Scotland, on 11 + April, 1670 + Weiss, Agatha: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 October, 1586 + Weydenbusch, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + Whittle, Anne: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Wildes, Sarah: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 July, 1692 + Willard, John: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 August, 1692 + Willimot, Joan: executed in Leicester, England, in 1619 + Wilson, Anne: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Wirth, Klingen: beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Wirth, Trauben: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585 + Wright, Mildred: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Wuncil, Brigida: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581 + Wunth, (first name unknown): beheaded at Wurzburg, Germany, + 1628-1629 + + Younge, Alse: hanged in Connecticut, North America, on 26 May, 1647 + Yullock, Agnes: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + + THE UNKNOWNS + + 8000 "Stedingers" killed on 27 May, 1234 + 180 burned for witchcraft at Montwimer, France, on 29 May, 1239 + 36 Knights Templar died under torture in France, in October, 1307 + 54 Knights Templar burned in France, on 12 May, 1310 + 39 Knights Templar burned in France, on 18 March 1314 + "Some" burned at Kilkenny, Ireland, 1323 + 200 + burned at Carcassonne, France, between 1320-1350 + 63 burned at Toulouse, France, in 1335 + 8 burned at Carcassonne, France, in 1352 + 31 burned at Carcassonne, France, in 1357 + 67 burned at Carcassonne, France, between 1387-1400 + 1 burned at Berlin, Germany, in 1399 + "Several" witches burned alive at Simmenthal, Switzerland, + circa 1400 + "Several" burned at Carcassonne, France, in 1423 + 200 + executed in the Valais, France between 1428-1434 + 167 executed in l'Isere, France, between 1428-1447 + 16 executed in Toulouse, France, in 1432 + 8 executed in Toulouse, France, in 1433 + 150 executed in Briancon, France, in 1437 + 3 burnt in Savoy between 1446 and 1447 + 7 killed at Marmande, France, in 1453 + 1 burned at Locarno, Italy, in 1455 + "Many" burned in Arras, France in 1459 + 2 burned in Burgundy, France, in 1470 + 3 burned at Forno-Rivara, Italy, in 1472 + 2 burned at Levone, in Italy, in 1474 + 5 burned at Forno, Italy, in 1475 + 12 women and "several" men burned at Edinburgh, in 1479 + 4 burned at Metz, Germany, in 1482 + 48 burned at Constance, between 1482-1486 + 2 burned at Toulouse, France, in 1484 + 2 burned in Chaucy, France in 1485 + 1 died in prison, at Metz, Germany 1488 + 3 executed at Mairange, Germany, on 17 June, 1488 + 2 executed at Mairange, Germany, on 25 June, 1488 + 3 executed at Chastel, Germany, on 26 June, 1488 + 3 executed at Metz, Germany, on 1 July, 1488 + 1 executed at Salney, Germany, on 3 July, 1488 + 2 executed at Salney, Germany, on 12 July, 1488 + 3 executed at Salney, Germany, on 19 July, 1488 + 1 executed at Brieg, Germany, on 19 July, 1488 + 2 executed at Juxney, Germany, on 19 August, 1488 + 5 executed at Thionville, Germany, on 23 August, 1488 + 1 executed at Metz, Germany, on 2 September, 1488 + 1 executed at Vigey, Germany, on 15 September, 1488 + 1 executed at Juxney, Germany, on 22 September, 1488 + 1 executed in France circa 1500 + 30 burned in Calahorra, Spain, in 1507 + 1 burned in Saxony, Germany, in 1510 + 60 burned in Northern Italy, in 1510 + 500 + burned in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1515 + 2 burned in Besancon, France, in 1521 + 64 burned in Val Camonica, Italy between 1518-1521 + 100 burned in Como, Italy, in 1523 + 1000 + in Como, Italy, in 1524 + 900 executed by Nicholas Remy (years unknown, about 15 years total) + "A large number" executed at Saragossa, Spain, in 1536 + 7 burned at Nantes, France, in 1549 + 1 burned at Lyons, France, in 1549 + 3 burned alive at Derneburg, Germany, on 4 October, 1555 + 1 burned alive at Bievires, France, in 1556 + 5 burned at Verneuil, France, in 1561 + 17,000 + in Scotland from 1563 to 1603 + 4 burned at Potiers, France, in 1564 + 1 burned at St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1569 + "Many" burned in France in 1571 + 1 burned at St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1572 + 70,000 killed in England after 1573 + "Several" executed in Paris, France, in 1574 + 80 executed in one fire at Valery-en-Savoie, France, in 1574 + 3 executed in Dorset, England, in 1578 + 36 persons executed at Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1578 + 18 killed at St. Oses, England, in 1582 + "Several" burned in Mesolcina, Italy, in 1583 + 368 persons killed for witchcraft between 18 January, 1587, and 18 + November, 1593, in the diocese of Treves. + 1 burned at Riom, France, in 1588 + 133 persons burned in one day at Quedlinburg, in Germany, in 1589 + 48 burned in Wurttemberg, Germany, in 1589 + 2 burned at Cologne, Germany in 1589 + 54 burned in Franconia in 1590 + 300 burned in Bern, Switzerland, between 1591-1600 + 1 burned in Ghent, Holland, in 1591 + 9 executed in Toulouse, France, in 1595 + 1 burned in Ghent, Holland, in 1598 + 24 burned in Aberdeen, Scotland, circa 1598 + 77 burned in Vaud, Switzerland, in 1599 + 10 -daily- were burned (average) in the Duchy of Brunswick between + 1590-1600 + 20 executed (other than those listed by name above) in the reign + of King James VI and I of England. + 40,000 executed between 1600-1680 in Great Britain + 205 burned at the Abbey of Fulda, Germany, between 1603-1605 + "Several" witches executed in Derbyshire, England, in 1607 + 24 burned + 3 suicides in Hagenau, Alsace, in 1607 + "A number of women" burned at Breehin, Scotland, in 1608 + 1 burned alive by a mob at St. Jean de Liuz, France, circa 1608 + 18 killed at Orleans, France, in 1616 + 9 hanged at Leicester, England, in 1616 + 8 hanged at Londinieres, France, in 1618 + "Several" witches condemned at Nerac, France, on 26 June, 1619 + 200 + executed at Labourt, France, in 1619 + 2 executed at Bedford, England, in 1624 + 56 executions at Mainz, Germany, between 1626-1629 + 77 executions at Burgstadt, Germany, between 1626-1629 + 40 executions at Berndit, Buttan, Ebenheit, Wenchdorf and Heinbach, + Germany, between 1626-1629 + 8 executions in Prozelten and Amorbach, Germany between 1626-1629 + 168 executions in the district of Miltenberg, Germany, between + 1626-1629 + 85 burned in Dieburg, Germany, in 1627 + 79 burned at Offenburg, Austria, from 1627-1629 + 274 executed in Eichstatt, Germany in 1629 + 124 executed by the Teutonic Order at Mergentheim, Germany in 1630 + 900 executions at Bamberg, Germany, between 1627 and 1631 + 22,000 (approx) executed in Bamberg, Germany between 1610 and 1840 + 1 hanged at Sandwich, in Kent, England, in 1630 + 3 executed at Lindheim, Germany in 1631 + 20 executed in Norfolk, England, on evidence of Matthew Hopkins, + before 26 July, 1645 + 29 condemned, on the evidence of Matthew Hopkins, at Chelmsford, + England, on 29 July, 1645 + 150 killed in England in the last six months of 1645 + 2 executed at Norwich, England, in 1648 + 14 hanged at Newcastle, England, in 1649 + 220 + in England and Scotland, on evidence of a Scottish Witch- + finder, circa 1648-1650 + 2 killed by a mob at Auxonne, France, in 1650 + 30 burned in Lindheim, Germany, between 1640-1651 + 900 killed in Lorraine, France (years unknown) + 30,000 (approx) burned by the Inquisition (not all may have been + witches) + 3-4000 killed during Cromwell's tenure in England + 102 burned in Zuckmantel, Germany, in 1654 + 18 burned at Castle Hill, Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1658 + 85 executed at Mohra, Sweden, on 25 August, 1670 + 71 beheaded or burned in Sweden between 1674-1677 + 90 burned at Salzburg, Austria, in 1678 + 11 burned at Prestonpans, Scotland, in 1678 + 36 executed in Paris, France, in 1680 + "Several" burned at Rouen, France, in 1684-1685 + 3 executed (Suzanna, Isle and Catherine (last names unknown) at + Arendsee, Germany, in 1687 + 36 burned at Nordlingen, Germany between 1690-1694 + 5 burned at Paisley, Scotland, on 10 June, 1697 + 9 persons burned at Burghausen, Germany, all under 16 years of + age, on 26 March, 1698 + 1 burned at Antrim, Ireland, in 1699 + "Many" burned at Spott Loan, Scotland, in 1705 + 2 persons killed in the Trentino, Austria, between 1716 and 1717 + 1 executed in France, in 1718 + 2 persons, a mother and daughter, burned in Scotland, in 1722 + 13 burned at Szegedin, Hungary, in 1728 + 1 burned at Szegedin, Hungary, in 1730 + 13 burned alive at Szegedin, Hungary on 23 July, 1738 + 3 burned at Karpfen, Germany, in 1744 + 3 burned at Muhlbach, Germany, in 1746 + 1 executed at Szegedin, Hungary, in 1746 + 1 executed at Maros Vasarheli, (nation unknown), 1752 + 100 + executed at Haeck, Germany between 1772 and 1779 + 2 burned in Poland in 1793 + "Several" burned in South America during the 1800's + 1 shot by a policeman at Uttenheim, Germany, on suspicion of being + a were-wolf, in November, 1925 + 1 murdered in Pennsylvania in 1929 + + for a total of 236,870 known but to the Goddess. + +HPS: Let them have peace. + +ALL: Blessed be! + +% Here ends the Samhain Mystery. + + ---------------------------------------------------- + +% A normal cone-of-power may be raised, for growth and healing: + +HPS: In a ring we all shall stand + Pass the Power, hand to hand. + +HP: As the season turns again + Power flows from friend to friend + +HPS: Pass the Power, hand to hand + Bless the Lady, bless the Land + +HP: Bless the Lord, and bless the Skies + Bless the Power that never dies! + +% The above four verses should be repeated three times, or as +% many times as needed, and the HPS shall then say: + +HPS: By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree: + Let the Power flow out and free! + +% All should release, at this point. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% Any needed coven business may be transacted here. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% The Circle is opened: + +HPS: Thus I release the East and West + Thanks to them from Host to Guest + Thus I release the South and North + With "Blessed Be' I send them forth! + The Circle's open, dance we so + Out and homeward we shall go. + Earth and Water, Air and Fire + Celebrated our desire. + We think of those in Summerland + Who dance together, hand in hand. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + Our circle's done; and Blessed Be! + +COVEN: Blessed Be! + +% All spiral dance out from the Circle, led by HP and HPS. + + + ****************************************************** + +These ceremonies are free of copyright, and are released for use by +any who so wish to. Thanks go to "Mr. Wiz" for his research, and to the +person who originally wrote the dialog (freely adapted here) used +in the Samhain Mystery. + + ******************************************************* + + + *end of Bardic Cycle (Wiccan)* + diff --git a/religious documents/bardcyclr.txt b/religious documents/bardcyclr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe6d064 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bardcyclr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2206 @@ +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + THE BARDIC YEAR + Ritual for Wiccan groups + - by the White Bard 1991-92 CE + --------------------------------------------------------------- +The following are suggested rituals within the four major calendar celebrations. +They are written from a Wiccan standpoint, using Celtic traditions, and take the +form of Mystery Plays that (sometimes) are -not- fully explained (!). Try not to +explain them to the participants, but rather allow them to act upon the +participants in a subliminal, emotional fashion. That is, after all, what they +are designed to do. + +Note: "%" marks "stage directions" + + N:earth + W:water E:air + S:fire + +The BARD should stand to the WEST, unless otherwise specified in the +ritual. + --------------------------------------------------------------- + YULE RITUAL: 21 December + -by the White Bard + +Materials: a very small, just sprouted potted plant. + a candle for each covener present. + a MOTHER. She should wear a blue garment, if possible. + a MAIDEN, dressed in white. + a Crown of Light, made from three, six, or nine + candles. + a BARD/GREEN MAN. + +% The ceremony for the Lesser Sabbats should be written by newer +% members of the coven, as part of their learning. At an appropriate +% place in the ceremony, the following should be inserted: + +% Here begins the Yule Mystery. ALL light shall be +% extinguished, all fires put out, save that in the South. +% The Bard/Green Man shall lie on his back in the East, as +% if dead. +% The HPS shall say: + +HPS: Darkness covers all. The Old King is dead, and there is no + warmth for the Mother. The days are short, and the nights + are long. + +COVEN: Give us Light! + +HPS: The Maiden wanders the Earth, Maiden no more, but soon to be + Mother. The Earth is cold, and there is no place for her to + give birth. + +COVEN: Give us Light! + +HP: Mother, give us the Child of Promise! The Lord Of Life strains + to be born! + +COVEN: Give us Light! + +MOTHER: I seek a place to rest, and give birth. + +% The Mother should wander about the inside of the circle, as if +% looking for something, and not finding it. She should act very +% tired, and project a sense of urgency. +% She then goes to the East, and assumes the Goddess pose, standing, +% arms and legs spread in the form of a five-pointed star. +% There shall be a pause, and the Bard/Green Man shall then quietly +% rise up, and stand behind the Mother. If it seems appropriate, the +% more primitive symbolism of him crawling out from between the legs +% of the Mother may be used. He should be carrying a lit candle, or +% some other source of light. + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Cunning and art I do not lack, + But -always- Her Cauldron brings me back! + +% The Bard/Green Man shall take his lit candle, and proceed to re-light +% the corner candles, moving deasil, and any other fires within the circle. +% The just-sprouted potted plant is picked up by the Mother and held in +% front of her during this candle-lighting. +% The Bard/Green Man shall then take the plant from the hands of the Mother, +% bring it to the center of the circle, and raise it above his head, saying: + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Here is the Promise, that is always fulfilled. + +% The plant is then passed around the circle, and given to the Mother, who +% should take it home and water and nurture it thru the year, if possible. +% The Maiden shall then take the place of the Mother, and the Mother shall +% return to her place within the circle. +% Here ends the Yule Mystery. + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + + CANDLEMAS (IMBOLC) RITUAL: 2 February + -by the White Bard + +Materials: a candle for each covener present. + a MAIDEN, dressed in white. + a Crown of Light, made from three, six, or nine + candles. + a BARD/GREEN MAN. + a DARK LORD, dressed in dark clothing, and holding a + dark cloak. + +% The place of ritual should be set up, away from the + gathered participants. +% It is more than a good idea to manage bathrooms and such like +% before the circle is closed. This Mystery is not something any +% of the participants should miss out on! + +HPS: Go we now to the sacred place + And stand within the sacred space + Turn your minds to sacred things + And dance with me unto the ring! + +% HP and HPS lead the coven to the place of ritual by a +% spiral dance, ending in a circle around the altar. The +% cauldron should be at the south. The Bard/Green Man +% dances at the end of the line. A good song to sing here +% is "Lord Of The Dance." + +HPS: Come we forth, with the Spiral Dance + Within the Lady's radiance + To celebrate the Sun's rebirth + To renew life, to warm the Earth + + Earth and Water, Fire and Air + I invoke the Goddess there! + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +HP: Earth and Water, Fire and Sky + I invoke the God on high + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +% The corners shall be called thusly, that all may hear, but +% shall not be called until the HPS reaches that corner on her +% circumnabulation. + +EAST: O Guardians of the Eastern Tower, + Airy ones of healing power + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +SOUTH: Oh fiery ones of Southern Power + Thus I invite you to this tower + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +WEST: Western ones of water's flow + Help to guard us here below + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +NORTH: Earthen ones of Northern fame + Bless and guard our Power's fane + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +% The HPS shall move to each corner, and say, following each +% corner's crying as she moves to the next: + +HPS: So I cast and consecrate + This Circle of the small and great: + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + By Rock and Earth, by Land and Sea, + By Fire and Water, Earth and Air, + By the Lord, and Lady Fair! + By Love and Joy and Work and Play, + All things harmful cast away! + By lightening's flash, and rain's soft fall, + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + (Cast the Circle: Blessed be!) + +% On her return to the first corner she shall change the last +% line above, and say: + + The Circle's cast; and Blessed Be! + +% The callers of the corners shall return their tools to the + altar, and then shall join the circle at their corners. + + -------------------------------------------------- + +% Here begins the Candlemas (Imbolc) Mystery: +% The Maiden shall step forth, and say: + +MAIDEN: This is the time of Brigid, the Patron of Poets and Fire, + and of Healing. + +HPS: This is the time of new beginnings, when the Mother has become + Maiden. + +HP: The days have turned, and grow longer, and the Sun-child is growing + to His strength. + +BARD/GREEN MAN: I have been a wave upon the sea, + And a spark in the firelight. + + I have been a fish in the ocean. + I have been a Thought within a Word, + And a Word within a Deed. + I was cast away, and found again. + + I have been made of flowers + And of cold steel and brass. + Fire and ice are alike unto me. + + I have been the narrow blade of a sword + That kills without cutting. + And the Void is my homeland. + + I have been in Caer Sidi + In the Spiral Castle of Glass. + And the letters on the Standing Stones + Are no secret from me. + + I have been in Annwyn + And Tir na n'Og, + I have danced the Spiral Dance, + And drunk from the Hierlas at daybreak. + + I have ridden beneath two ravens + And served in the kitchen, + And all places are alike unto me. + + I have been a child + And now I come into my strength! + + I invoke the Land, the dear Land, + the Earth our Mother! + +MAIDEN: The cycles of the Moon have taken their course, and I am + in my Maidenhood. The stars are kindled, and I dance in + their light. + +DARK LORD: Thy home is with me thru the long months of Winter, and the + Earth shall lie fallow and bare. + +% The HPS shall then light the candles of the Crown of Light, +% and shall approach the Maiden, who is now standing in the East, and +% place it upon her head. +% She shall now, in company with the Bard/Green Man, circumnabulate the +% circle, and the coveners shall light their candles from her crown. +% The Bard/Green Man shall return to his normal place within the circle +% and the Maiden shall place the Crown of Light on the altar. +% The Maiden shall then approach the Dark Lord, and kneel before him, +% and he shall say: + +DARK LORD: As it always is, always was, and always shall be. Come to my + Kingdom. + +% Here he shall place the dark cloak around her, and they shall retire +% to the West. +% Here ends the Candlemas Mystery. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + +% A normal cone-of-power may be raised, for growth and healing: + +HPS: In a ring we all shall stand + Pass the Power, hand to hand. + +HP: As the Sun is given birth + Build the Power; root to Earth + +HPS: Pass the Power, hand to hand + Bless the Lady, bless the Land + +HP: Bless the Lord, and bless the Skies + Bless the Power that never dies! + +% The above four verses should be repeated three times, (or +% as many times as needed) and then the HPS should say: + +HPS: By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree: + Let the Power flow out and free! + +% All should release, at this point. +% Such coven business as must be transacted may be done here. +% This is a good time to bless candles for use during the coming year. +% This is also a good time for initiations. + ------------------------------------------------------ +% The Circle is opened. + +HPS: Thus I release the East and West + Thanks to them from Host to Guest + Thus I release the South and North + With "Blessed Be' I send them forth! + The Circle's open, dance we so + Out and homeward we shall go. + Earth and Water, Air and Fire + Celebrated our desire. + The Sun's returned to banish dark + The Earth awakes to sunlight's spark. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + Our circle's done; and Blessed Be! + +COVEN: Blessed Be! + +% All spiral dance out from the Circle. + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + + EOSTAR RITUAL: (Spring Equinox) + -by the White Bard + +Materials: a MAIDEN, who shall be dressed in white, covered by a + black (or other dark material) cloak, preferably with + a hood drawn over her head. No white of her garment + should show. + a BARD/GREEN MAN, who shall either recite or sing his + Song Of Calling, preferably accompanied by an approp- + riate musical instrument (drum, flute, harp, guitar) + +% The ceremony for the Lesser Sabbats should be written by newer +% members of the coven, as part of their learning. At an appropriate +% place in the ceremony, the following should be inserted: + +% Here begins the Eostar Mystery: +% Bard and Maiden shall stand together in the North, with the HP + between them. + +MAIDEN: I have been in the Kingdom of the Dark Lord, + Where no Sun shines. + But now I shall return to the green of Earth, + And all things shall rejoice with me. + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Follow me forth from the Dark Lord's Hall + And show that Love will conquer all! + +% Bard moves to the East, and shall sing his Song of Calling: +% Song of Calling may be whatever the Bard feels appropriate. +% The below listed song is a suggestion only, and is used with +% the author's permission: + + THE BARD'S SONG + (c) copyright 1990 W. J. Bethancourt III + (Tune: "Dublin City") + +BARD: As I walked out one quiet evening + At the hour of twelve at night + Who should I meet but a fair young maiden + Combin' her hair by candle light; + Lassie, I have come a-courtin' + Your kind favours for to win + And if you'd heed my petition + I would be your Paladin... + +(CHORUS) Gather roses in the Springtime + Gather roses while ye may, + Time is passing; roses wither; + Winter comes; we're here -today-. + +% Bard moves to the South, Maiden moves to the East. + +BARD: Have you seen the dew a-formin' + On the grass at early morn? + Have you seen the forest quiet, + Or a stag that's barely born? + Have you seen the dawn a-breakin' + O'er the Western Ocean's tide? + Have you felt my heart a-beatin' + When it's held close to your side? + +(CHORUS) Gather roses in the Springtime + Gather roses while ye may, + Time is passing; roses wither; + Winter comes; we're here -today-. + +% Bard moves to the West, Maiden moves to the South. + +BARD: I can give no gold or silver, + I can give no fields of land, + I can give no servants brisk + To wait on you both foot and hand; + I can give you wide roads callin' + Wind and Rain, and Moon and Sun, + Songs to sing, and love and laughter, + Dresses made of plain home-spun. + +(CHORUS) Gather roses in the Springtime + Gather roses while ye may, + Time is passing; roses wither; + Winter comes; we're here -today-. + +% Bard moves to the North, Maiden moves to the West. + +BARD: Come dance with me upon the greensward + In the moonlight, in the Spring. + Dance with me within the forest + Dance with me within the ring! + Earth below us, stars above us, + Fire and water by our side, + Dance with me within the moonlight, + Dance with me, and be my Bride! + +(CHORUS) Gather roses in the Springtime + Gather roses while ye may, + Time is passing; roses wither; + Winter comes; we're here -today-. + +% Bard moves to the Center, Maiden moves to the North. +% The HP shall try to hold her back, by holding her dark cloak, +% but she shall unclasp it, and move to the center, leaving the +% HP holding the cloak, revealing herself dressed in white, and +% shall stand beside the Bard. + +MAIDEN: I have been in the Kingdom of the Dark Lord, + Where no Sun shines. + But now I return to the green of Earth, + And all things shall rejoice with me. + +% The HPS shall crown the Maiden with a wreath of flowers. +% Here ends the Eostar Mystery. + --------------------------------------------------------------- + THE DAY OF THE FOOL: April 1 + -by the White Bard + +% This day is not in the traditional cycle, but should not be +% omitted by those of the Bardic Path. There is no "set" ritual, +% but this is the time for satire and general foolery by all. +% A good thing to do here is to have a simple gathering, perhaps +% a pot-luck, choose a King and/or Queen of Fools, and have a +% good party. See the German Fasching or Mardi Gras for hints. + +--------------------------------------------------------------- + BELTANE RITUAL: May Day + -by the White Bard + +Materials: One cauldron, filled with water + a wreath of flowers for the MAIDEN + the Maiden should wear white, if possible + two wooden swords (optional) + a fire, as close to the ground as possible + A BARD/GREEN MAN (note: if you have no Bard, then a + male to act as Green Man should be chosen either + by lottery, or by the Maiden. The Maiden is, of + course, free to request a specific person to + act as Green Man even if there is a Bard available + to the coven.) + candles for all, if possible + + ***************************************** + +% The place of ritual should be set up, away from the gathered +% participants. +% It is more than a good idea to manage bathrooms and such like +% before the circle is closed. This Mystery is not something any +% of the participants should miss out on! + +HPS: Go we now to the sacred place + And stand within the sacred space + Turn your minds to sacred things + And dance with me unto the ring! + +% HP and HPS lead the coven to the place of ritual by a +% spiral dance, ending in a circle around the altar. The +% cauldron should be at the south. The Bard/Green Man +% dances at the end of the line. + +HPS: Come we forth, with the Spiral Dance + Within the Lady's radiance + To celebrate the Year renewed + And praise the Powers, with gratitude. + + Earth and Water, Fire and Air + I invoke the Goddess there! + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +HP: Earth and Water, Fire and Sky + I invoke the God on high + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +% The corners shall be called thusly, that all may hear, but +% shall not be called until the HPS reaches that corner on her +% circumnabulation. + +EAST: O Guardians of the Eastern Tower, + Airy ones of healing power + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +SOUTH: Oh fiery ones of Southern Power + Thus I invite you to this tower + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +WEST: Western ones of water's flow + Help to guard us here below + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +NORTH: Earthen ones of Northern fame + Bless and guard our Power's fane + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +% The HPS shall move to each corner, and say, following each +% corner's crying as she moves to the next: + +HPS: So I cast and consecrate + This Circle of the small and great: + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + By Rock and Earth, by Land and Sea, + By Fire and Water, Earth and Air, + By the Lord, and Lady Fair! + By Love and Joy and Work and Play, + All things harmful cast away! + By lightening's flash, and rain's soft fall, + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + (Cast the Circle: Blessed be!) + +% On her return to the first corner she shall change the last +% line above, and say: + + The Circle's cast; and Blessed Be! + +% The callers of the corners shall return their tools to the + altar, and then shall join the circle at their corners. + + -------------------------------------------------- + +% Here begins the Beltane Mystery + +BARD or GREEN MAN: Thus I invoke the Lady White + To come to us this sacred night. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + I show you a Mystery! + +% The Maiden shall stand beside the HP, who shall hold a +% wooden sword. The Bard/Green Man shall approach them, also +% carrying a wooden sword, and shall, in mime, challenge the +% HP. They shall strike their swords together in three sets +% of three blows, then Bard/Green Man shall strike the HP, with +% the last blow of his sword, who shall fall as if dead. +% (Note: This can be played as a Morris Dance, if so wished.) +% If no Maiden and Bard/Green Man are used, then the above combat +% may be eliminated, and the HP and HPS shall enact the Mystery. +% The HPS' part shall then be spoken by the participants. + +% The Maiden moves to the East. The Bard/Green Man moves to the +% North. + +HPS: Cunning and art she did not lack + But aye his whistle would fetch her back! + +MAIDEN: Oh, I shall go into a hare + with sorrow, sighing and mickle care + And I shall go in the Lady's Name + Aye, until I be fetched hame! + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Hare, take heed of a swift greyhound + Will harry thee all these fields around + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Maiden moves to the South. The Bard/Green Man moves to the +% East. + +HPS: Cunning and art she did not lack + But aye his whistle would fetch her back! + +MAIDEN: Yet I shall go into a bee + With mickle fear and dread of thee + And flit to hive in the Lady's Name + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Bee, take heed of a red, red cock + Will harry thee close thru door and lock + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Maiden moves to the West. The Bard/Green Man moves to the +% South. + +HPS: Cunning and art she did not lack + But aye his whistle would fetch her back! + +MAIDEN: Yet I shall go into a trout. + With sorrow and sighing and mickle doubt + And show thee many a merry game + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Trout, take heed of an otter lank + Will harry thee close from bank to bank + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Maiden moves to the North. The Bard/Green Man moves to the +% West. + +HPS: Cunning and art she did not lack + But aye his whistle would fetch her back! + +MAIDEN: Yet I shall go into a mouse + And haste me unto the Miller's House + There in his corn to have good game + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Mouse, take heed of a white tom-cat + That never was baulked of mouse nor rat + For here come I in the Lady's Name + And -thus- it is I fetch thee hame! + +% Bard/Green Man walks to Maiden and takes her hand. They +% both move to the Cauldron, and face HPS. + +HPS: Cunning and art she did not lack + But aye his Song has fetched her back! + + Old Winter's dead, the Lady reigns + And Summer has returned again! + +% Bard/Green Man and Maiden both wet their hands with water +% from the Cauldron, and sprinkle it on the HP, who comes to +% life again. + +HP: Cunning and art I do not lack + But aye Her Cauldron will bring me back! + +% Bard/Green Man and Maiden both move to, and jump, the fire. +% Here ends the Beltane Mystery. +% Note: This Mystery is the more historically correct "Great Rite." + + ------------------------------------------------ + +% If there is a May Pole, it should be erected by the men -only- at +% this point, and all dance around it, alternating male and female +% to raise the cone of power as outlined below. +% A normal cone-of-power may be raised, for growth and healing: + +HPS: In a ring we all shall stand + Pass the Power, hand to hand. + +HP: As the year is given birth + Build the Power; root to Earth + +HPS: Pass the Power, hand to hand + Bless the Lady, bless the Land + +HP: Bless the Lord, and bless the Skies + Bless the Power that never dies! + +% The above four verses should be repeated three times, (or +% as many as needed to fully wrap the pole) and then the HPS +% should say: + +HPS: By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree: + Let the Power flow out and free! + +% All should release, at this point. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% Such coven business as must be transacted may be done here. + + ------------------------------------------------------ +% The Circle is opened. + +HPS: Thus I release the East and West + Thanks to them from Host to Guest + Thus I release the South and North + With "Blessed Be' I send them forth! + The Circle's open, dance we so + Out and homeward we shall go. + Earth and Water, Air and Fire + Celebrated our desire. + Winter's cold is gone away + Now it is the Day of May. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + Our circle's done; and Blessed Be! + +COVEN: Blessed Be! + +% All spiral dance out from the Circle, jumping the fire as +% they go. HP and HPS lead, with Bard/Green Man and Maiden +% taking care of bringing the Bel Fire into camp. Allow the Bel +% fire to burn out on its own, if possible, otherwise put it +% out with the water from the Caldron. Disposal of the water +% otherwise should be to pour it at the roots of a tree. +% All participants may take fire from the Bel Fire to take home +% with them, cook over, or whatever, before it is extinguished. + + ------------------------------------------------------------- + + MIDSUMMER RITUAL: (Summer Solstice) + -by the White Bard + +Materials: a GREEN MAN, dressed in green, bearing a leafy branch. + Small cakes, and a drink of some sort, preferably apple + based. For covens that use alcohol, mead would be ok, too. + +% The ceremony for the Lesser Sabbats should be written by newer +% members of the coven, as part of their learning. At an appropriate +% place in the ceremony, the following should be inserted: + +HPS: This is the time of the Green Man; the Jack-of-the-Green; the + Spirit of the Wood. Call him what you will, Robin Hood, Herne, + or even Pan, this is His time! Rejoice in Summer! + +% The Green Man should rush into the circle, laughing and leaping. +% It would be appropriate for him to carry a leafy branch, with +% which to strike (lightly) the young women of the coven. +% He shall then approach the cakes and drink, and pick one of each +% up, hold them up to the coven, and say: + +GREEN MAN: Behold the fruits of the Mother! + +HP/HPS: Blessed be the food that nourishes us! + +% All should sit, and eat, and have a nice, quiet party of some sort! + + ------------------------------------------------------------- + + LAMMAS RITUAL: 1 August + -by the White Bard + +Materials: one person should be chosen by the HP to play LUGH, + who shall walk with an obvious limp. He may use a + crutch, or a cane if he so chooses. + + ***************************************** + +% The place of ritual should be set up, away from the + gathered participants. +% It is more than a good idea to manage bathrooms and such like +% before the circle is closed. This Mystery is not something any +% of the participants should miss out on! + +HPS: Go we now to the sacred place + And stand within the sacred space + Turn your minds to sacred things + And dance with me unto the ring! + +% HP and HPS lead the coven to the place of ritual by a +% spiral dance, ending in a circle around the altar. + +HPS: Come we forth, with the Spiral Dance + Within the Lady's radiance + To celebrate the Season's turn + To Autumn, when the leaves will burn + + Earth and Water, Fire and Air + I invoke the Goddess there! + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +HP: Earth and Water, Fire and Sky + I invoke the God on high + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +% The corners shall be called thusly, that all may hear, but +% shall not be called until the HPS reaches that corner on her +% circumnabulation. + +EAST: O Guardians of the Eastern Tower, + Airy ones of healing power + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +SOUTH: Oh fiery ones of Southern Power + Thus I invite you to this tower + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +WEST: Western ones of water's flow + Help to guard us here below + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +NORTH: Earthen ones of Northern fame + Bless and guard our Power's fane + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +% The HPS shall move to each corner, and say, following each +% corner's crying as she moves to the next: + +HPS: So I cast and consecrate + This Circle of the small and great: + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + By Rock and Earth, by Land and Sea, + By Fire and Water, Earth and Air, + By the Lord, and Lady Fair! + By Love and Joy and Work and Play, + All things harmful cast away! + By lightening's flash, and rain's soft fall, + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + (Cast the Circle: Blessed be!) + +% On her return to the first corner she shall change the last +% line above, and say: + + The Circle's cast; and Blessed Be! + +% The callers of the corners shall return their tools to the + altar, and then shall join the circle at their corners. + + -------------------------------------------------- + +% Here begins the Lammas Mystery + +HPS: Thus I invoke the Lady White + To come to us this sacred night. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + I show you a Mystery! + +% A small meal of bread and some form of beverage should be +% laid out, and all should partake. As all are eating, Lugh +% shall approach the circle, and say: + +LUGH: Merry meet to all! May I enter the circle? + +HPS: And what talent do you have, that we do not? + +LUGH: I am a Smith, to make tools and weapons. + +HPS: We have Govannon, to make our tools and weapons. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Shaman, to offer the Sight Within. + +HPS: Any of us can do that. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Farmer, to grow your food. + +HPS: We have the Young God and the Maiden, to set our food to + grow. We have no need of you. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Warrior, to defend you. + +HPS: We have those of the Warrior Path, and their valor is + unquestioned. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Bard, to sing you songs and make you merry. + +HPS: We have a Bard. Go away. + +LUGH: I have Wisdom to impart. + +HPS: We have the Old God and the Crone. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Fisherman, to harvest the waters. + +HPS: Any of us can catch fish. Go away. + +LUGH: I am a Satirist and maker of jokes, to give laughter. + +HPS: The Fool gives us humor. Go away. + +LUGH: But do you have one who is ALL of these? For I am Lugh, + the Ruler, the Singer, the Long-Sighted, the Craftsman, + and all Talents are as ONE with me. + +HPS: This we do not have, indeed, and you are Lugh Samildanach. + Enter and be welcome! + +% The HPS shall open the circle and Lugh shall enter and be seated +% with the company. Lugh shall -limp- when he walks, and shall +% walk, and sit, in obvious pain. +% He should look around him, as if expecting something. +% If none within the circle asks why he is limping, or otherwise +% expresses concern, the Maiden shall say: + +MAIDEN: Sir, why do you limp? Are you injured? + +LUGH: You have asked The Question, and I thank you. Seek you the + Cauldron of Healing, the Cauldron of Cerridwen, for my time + grows short, but from it I shall be re-born. + + ---------------------------------------------------- + +% Here ends the Lammas Mystery +% A normal cone-of-power may be raised, for growth and healing: + +HPS: In a ring we all shall stand + Pass the Power, hand to hand. + +HP: As the year is given birth + Build the Power; root to Earth + +HPS: Pass the Power, hand to hand + Bless the Lady, bless the Land + +HP: Bless the Lord, and bless the Skies + Bless the Power that never dies! + +% The above four verses should be repeated three times, (or +% as many as needed) and then the HPS should say: + +HPS: By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree: + Let the Power flow out and free! + +% All should release, at this point. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% Such coven business as must be transacted may be done here. + + ------------------------------------------------------ +% The Circle is opened. + +HPS: Thus I release the East and West + Thanks to them from Host to Guest + Thus I release the South and North + With "Blessed Be' I send them forth! + The Circle's open, dance we so + Out and homeward we shall go. + Earth and Water, Air and Fire + Celebrated our desire. + As Autumn leaves fall as the rain + The seasons' turning, once again. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + Our circle's done; and Blessed Be! + +COVEN: Blessed Be! + +% All spiral dance out from the Circle. Lugh shall follow +% at the end of the line. + + ------------------------------------------------------------- + + RITUAL: (Fall Equinox) + -by the White Bard + +Materials: An OLD KING + +% The ceremony for the Lesser Sabbats should be written by newer +% members of the coven, as part of their learning. At an appropriate +% place in the ceremony, the following should be inserted: + +% The Old King shall move in a feeble manner to the West, and say: + +OLD KING: I am aged, and I approach my Time. Help me, lest I die! + +CRONE: There is no help for you, for all must travel that road. + +% The Old King shall then turn to the assembled coven, and say: + +OLD KING: Seek ye the Cauldron! Seek ye the Grail! It shall heal me + And bring me forth again. + +% Here a song may be sung, and "John Barleycorn" would be most +% appropriate: + + JOHN BARLEYCORN + -Traditional + + There were three men come out of the West + Their fortunes for to try, + And these three men made a solemn vow: + John Barleycorn should die! + John Barleycorn should die! + (nb: 4th line of each verse is sung twice) + + They plowed, they sowed, they harrowed him in, + Threw clods upon his head, + And these three men made a solemn vow: + John Barleycorn was dead! + + CHORUS: Fa la la la, it's a lovely day! + Sing fa la la lay oh! + Fa la la la, it's a lovely day! + Sing fa la la lay oh! + + They let him lie for a very long time + 'Til the rain from Heaven did fall, + Then Little Sir John sprung up his head, + And so amazed them all! + + They let him stand 'til Midsummer tide, + 'Til he grew both pale and wan, + Then Little Sir John he grew a long beard, + And so became a man! + + They hired men with the sythes so sharp + To cut him off at the knee + They rolled him and tied him about the waist, + And used him barbarously! + + They hired men with the sharp pitchforks + To pierce him to the heart, + And the loader he served him worse than that, + For he tied him in a cart! + + They wheeled him around and around the field, + 'Til they came to a barn, + And there they made a solemn mow + Of poor John Barleycorn, + + They hired men with the crab-tree sticks + To strip him skin from bone + And the Miller he served him worse than that: + For he ground him between two stones! + + They have wheeled him here and wheeled him there + And wheeled him to a barn, + And they have served him worse than that + They have bunged him in a vat! + + They have worked their will on John Barleycorn + But he lived to tell the tale; + For they pour him out of an old brown jug, + And they call him home-brewed ale! + + Here's Little Sir John in a nut-brown bowl, + And brandy in a glass! + And Little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl + Proved the stronger man at last! + + For the huntsman he can't hunt the fox + Nor loudly blow his horn, + And the tinker can't mend kettles nor pots + Without John Barleycorn! + + ------------------------------------------------------------- + + SAMHAIN RITUAL: 31 October + -by the White Bard + +Materials: one cauldron, filled with water + CRONE: This should be an older female. + OLD KING: This should be a person chosen by + lottery, or by whoever is acting as + Crone. It can be enacted by the HP + if needed. + BARD/GREEN MAN: If the coven has no Bard available, + then a Green Man should be chosen + by lottery, or by whoever is acting + as Maiden. It can be enacted by the + HP, if needed. + + ------------------------------------------------ + +% The place of ritual should be set up, away from the gathered +% participants. This is not something that people should miss, +% so make sure that potty break is taken care of before the +% circle is cast. + +HPS: Go we now to the sacred place + And stand within the sacred space + Turn your minds to sacred things + And dance with me unto the ring! + +% HP and HPS lead the coven to the place of ritual by a +% spiral dance, ending in a circle around the altar. The +% cauldron should be at the south. The Old King dances at +% the end of the line. + +HPS: Come we forth, with the Spiral Dance + Within the Lady's radiance + To mark the turning of the year + The door to Winter now is here. + + Earth and Water, Fire and Air + I invoke the Goddess there! + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +HP: Earth and Water, Fire and Sky + I invoke the God on high + This night we are Between the Worlds + To celebrate the year unfurled! + +% The corners shall be called thusly, that all may hear, but +% shall not be called until the HPS reaches that corner on her +% circumnabulation. + +EAST: O Guardians of the Eastern Tower, + Airy ones of healing power + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +SOUTH: Oh fiery ones of Southern Power + Thus I invite you to this tower + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +WEST: Western ones of water's flow + Help to guard us here below + I do summon, stir and call you + See these rites and guard this circle! + + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +NORTH: Earthen ones of Northern fame + Bless and guard our Power's fane + I do summon, stir and call you + + See these rites and guard this circle! + Come to us and heed our call! + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + Come to us; and Blessed Be! + +% The HPS shall move to each corner, and say, following each +% corner's crying as she moves to the next: + +HPS: So I cast and consecrate + This Circle of the small and great: + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + By Rock and Earth, by Land and Sea, + By Fire and Water, Earth and Air, + By the Lord, and Lady Fair! + By Love and Joy and Work and Play, + All things harmful cast away! + By lightening's flash, and rain's soft fall, + By the Power that made us all; + By the Power that blesses Thee: + (Cast the Circle: Blessed be!) + +% On her return to the first corner she shall change the last +% line above, and say: + + The Circle's cast; and Blessed Be! + +% The callers of the corners shall return their tools to the + altar, and then shall join the circle at their corners. + + -------------------------------------------------- + +% Here begins the Samhain Mystery: + +OLD KING: Thus I invoke the Lady White + To come to us this sacred night. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + I shall show you a Mystery! + +% Bard/Green Man and Maiden join hands, facing each other. +% The Maiden speaks to the Bard/Green Man: + +MAIDEN: Lord of Life, hail Land-Master! + God of grain that grows and dies + Rising reborn, full of richness; + Fallow fields shall yet be fertile -- + Spring sap runs as stirs your manhood + Bless barren earth, bear fruit again! + +% The Bard/Green Man speaks to Maiden: + +BARD/GREEN MAN: Snow-shoes striding, hail swift Huntress! + Wild one, free and willful Goddess + Bow and blade you bear beside you, + Finding food to fend off hunger -- + Winter will not leave us wanting; + Give good hunting, grant us skill. + +% The Old King moves to the West. The Crone moves to the +% North. + +HP: Cunning and art he did not lack + But aye her whistle would fetch him back! + +OLD KING: Yet I shall go into a trout. + With sorrow and sighing and mickle doubt + And show thee many a merry game + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +CRONE: Trout, take heed of an otter lank + Will harry thee close from bank to bank + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Old King moves to the South. The Crone moves to the West. + +HP: Cunning and art he did not lack + But aye her whistle would fetch him back! + +OLD KING: Yet I shall go into a bee + With mickle fear and dread of thee + And flit to hive in the Lady's Name + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +CRONE: Bee, take heed of a red, red cock + Will harry thee close thru door and lock + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Old King moves to the East. The Crone moves to the South. + +HP: Cunning and art he did not lack + But aye her whistle would fetch him back! + +OLD KING: Oh, I shall go into a hare + with sorrow, sighing and mickle care + And I shall go in the Lady's Name + Aye, until I be fetch-ed hame! + +CRONE: Hare, take heed of a swift greyhound + Will harry thee all these fields around + For here come I in the Lady's Name + All but for to fetch thee hame! + +% The Old King moves to the North. The Crone moves to the East. + +HP: Cunning and art he did not lack + But aye her whistle would fetch him back! + +OLD KING: Yet I shall go into a mouse + And haste me unto the Miller's House + There in his corn to have good game + Ere that I be fetch-ed hame! + +CRONE: Mouse, take heed of a white she-cat + That never was baulked of mouse nor rat + For here come I in the Lady's Name + And -thus- it is I fetch thee hame! + +% Crone walks to Old King and takes his hand. He falls as if +% dead. + +HPS: Cunning and art he did not lack + But aye Her Song has fetched Him back! + + Summer's gone, the Lady reigns + And Winter has returned again! + +% Maiden wets her hands with water from the Cauldron, and +% sprinkles it on the Old King, who comes to life again. + +OK: Cunning and art I do not lack + But aye Her Cauldron will bring me back! + +% The Crone and Old King shall join hands, facing each other, +% and say: + +CRONE: One-eye, Wanderer, God of wisdom, + Hunt-lord, hail, who leads the hosting! + Nine nights hanging, knowledge gaining, + Cloaked at crossroads, council hidden. + Now the night, your time, is near us -- + Right roads send us on, Rune-winner. + +OLD KING: Every age your eyes have witnessed; + Cauldron-Keeper, hail wise Crone! + Rede in riddles is your ration -- + Wyrd-weaver at the World-tree's root. + Eldest ancient, all-knowing one, + Speak unto us, send us vision! + +% Here the HPS should say: + +HPS: We remember our dead; our loved ones gone to the Summerland before + us. Give them peace and joy. + +ALL: Blessed be! + +% If there is time enough, the HPS and/or a selected member(s) of the +% coven should read aloud the "Roll of Martyrs." Note: This listing +% is copyrighted, and used by the author's permission. +% The reader shall say: + +READER: Never again the Burning Times! Let us remember our dead, + good and bad, innocent and guilty: + +% Follows is the Roll of Martyrs. This may be read aloud, or may be +% placed in written form upon the altar as the above words are said. + + Abageda, Abametcha: executed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for murder, 1999 + `Abd al-Karim Mara`i al-Naqshabandi: age forty, executed in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,13 December, 1996 + d'Aubray, Marie-Madeleine (Marquise de Brinvilliers): burned alive Place de Greve, Paris, 1676. + Adams, Thomas: executed in Pittenweem, Scotland in 1704 + Adamson, Francis: executed at Durham, England, in 1652 + Agato (wife): burned at Gric, Croatia 1704 + Albano, Peter of: died in prison circa 1310 + Alenchena, Shenfo: executed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for murder, 1999 + Alderman, Anne: of Chattisham; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August 1645. + Allen, Joan: hanged at the Old Bailey, London, England, in 1650 + Allen, Jonet: burned in Scotland in 1661 + Altseer, Simon (date unknown): Munich, Germany + Amalaric, Madeline: burned in France in mid-1500's + Ancker, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Andrius, Barthelemy: burned at Carcassonne, France in 1330 + Andrius, Jean: burned at Carcassonne, France in 1330 + Andrius, Phillippe: burned at Carcassonne, France in 1330 + Arnold, (first name unknown): hanged at Barking, England, in 1574 + Ariens, Marrigje: Burned 1591 in Schoonhoven, Holland. + Arista, Josephine: burned at the stake in Ojinaga Mexico, July 3, 1955 + Árnason, Sveinn: burned in Arngerðareyri in the Westfjords, Iceland in 1683 + Ashby, Anne: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Askew, Anne: burned for witchcraft 1546 + Audibert, Etienne: condemned for witchcraft in France, on 20 March 1619 + Aupetit, Pierre: burned at Bordeaux, France, in 1598 + Baarsen, Quiwe: sentenced to be burned at Hasvåg, Norway, on 11 May 1627 + Babel, Zuickel: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Babel, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Bacon, Mary: of Chattisham; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August 1645. + Bedran, Margareta: burned at Gric, Croatia 1698 + Benekovic, Ursa: burned at Gric, Croatia 1698 + Baguely, Mary: hung at Chester, England, 1675 + Baker, Anne: executed in Leicester, England, in 1619 + Balcoin, Marie: burned in the reign of Henry IV of France + Balfour, Alison: burned at Edinburgh, Scotland, on 16 December, 1594 + Bannach, (husband) (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Bannach, (wife) (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Barber, Mary: executed in Northhampton, England, on 22 July, 1612 + Barclay, Margaret: Scotland, 1684 + Barker, Janet: burned in Scotland in 1643 + Baroni, Catterina: beheaded and burned at Castelnovo, Italy, on 14 April, 1647 + Barthe, Angela de la: burned at Toulouse, France, in 1275 + Barton, William: executed in Scotland (year unknown) + Basser, Fredrick: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Bateman, Mary: Yorkshire, England, 20 March, 1808 + Batsch, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Baunach, (first name unknown): executed at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Bauer, Stephan: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1630 + Bayerin, Anna: executed at Salzburg, Austria, in 1751 + Bean, Margrat: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Beaumont, Sieur de: accused of witchcraft on 21 October, 1596 + Bebelin, Gabriel: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Beck, Viertel: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Beck, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Belon, Jean: executed in France, in 1597 + Benkovic Brckovic, Magda: burned in Zagrebacka zupanija, Croatia 1751 + Berger, Christopher: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Berrye, Agnes: hanged at Enfield, England, in 1616 + Besenic, Ursa: burned at Varazdinske Toplice, Croatia 1585 + Bennet, Elizabeth: executed in St. Osyth, England in 1582 + Bentz, (mother) (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Bentz, (daughter) (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Beuchel, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581 + Beutler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Bill, Arthur: executed in Northhampton, England, on 22 July, 1612 + Billington, Isabella: hanged and burnt at York, England, in 1650 + Billington, (husband of Isabella): hanged and burnt at York, England, in 1650 + Bilskup, Katarina: burned at Belska zupa, Croatia 1743 + Birenseng, Agata: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 25 June, 1594 + Bishop, Briget: hanged at Salem, New England on 10 June, 1692 + Biskup, Barbara: burned at Belska zupa, Croatia 1742 + Bjarnason, Egill: burned in Trékyllisvík, Strandir, Iceland in 1654 + Bjarnason, Magnús: burned in 1675 in Iceland + Bjarnason, Bjarni: burned at Þingvellir, Iceland in 1677 + Blackbourne, Mary: of Great Yarmouth; hanged in England ca 1647 + Blasic, Doroteja: burned in Zagrebacka zupanija, Croatia 1751 + Boanes (or Boones), Joyce: hanged at St Osyth, England ca. 1645 + Bodenham, Anne: hanged at Salisbury, England, in 1653 + Bogdan Fumic, Barbara: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Boleyn, Anne: beheaded at London, England on 19 May 1536 + Bolingbroke, Roger: hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, England, on 18 November, 1441 + Bonnet, Jean: burned alive at Boissy-en-Ferez, France, in 1583 + Boram, (mother) (first name unknown): hung at Bury St Edmunds, England, in 1655 + Boram, (daughter) (first name unknown): hung at Bury St Edmunds, England, in 1655 + Bosse, Marie (and her children - no names given): burned alive in Place de Greve, Paris in 1682 + Boulay, Anne: burned at Nancy, France, in 1620 + Boulle, Thomas: burned alive at Rouen, France, on 21 August, 1647 + Bowman, Janet: burned in Scotland in 1572 + Brack, (first name unknown, the wife of Heinrich): executed on August 25, l663, Lindheim, Germany. + Bradwell, Elizabeth: of Great Yarmouth; hanged in England ca 1647 + Bragadini, Mark Antony: beheaded in Italy in the 1500's + Bretton, Hellen: hanged at Kirby, England ca 1645 + Brickmann, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Brigge, Mabel: executed in York, England,1538 + Bright, Sarah: hanged at Manningtree, Essex, England ca 1645 + Brigljevic, Katarina: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Brigue, Jehane de: burned alive at the Pig Market in Paris on 19 August, 1391 + Brose, Elizabeth: tortured to death in the castle of Gommern, Germany, on 4 November, 1660 + Brown, Janet: burned in Scotland in 1643 + Browne, Agnes: executed in Northhampton, England, on 22 July, 1612 + Browne (Vaughan), Joan: executed in Northhampton, England, on 22 July, 1612 + Browne, Mary: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Brooks, Jane: hanged in England on 26 March, 1658 + Brugh, John: burned in Scotland in 1643 + Brukec, Marijana: burned in Zagrebacka zupanija, Croatia 1751 + Buckh, Appollonia: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581 + Bucklin, Elisabeth: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Bugler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Bulcock, John: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Bulcock, Jane: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Bull, Edmund: hanged at Taunton, England, in 1631 + Bulmer, Matthew: hanged at Newcastle, England, in 1649 + Buncekovica, Mara: burned at Gric, Croatia 1743 + Bunot, Leon: murdered in France by Victor Delorme on 26 Nov., 1948 + Bure, Anna Israelsdotter: about 45 years old, wife of Peter Eriksson Snifs, beheaded at Gävle, Sweden 6 March 1675 + Burroughs, George: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 August, 1692 + Bursten-Binderin, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628 - 1629 + Cade (Cate) aka Maidenhead, Anne: hanged at Great Holland, Essex, England ca. 1645 + Calles, Helen: executed at Braynford, England, on 1 December, 1595 + Camelli, Domenica: beheaded and burned at Castelnovo, Italy, on 14 April, 1647 + Canon, Brita, wife of Hans Johansson: beheaded and burned Gävle, Sweden 6 March 1675 + Canzler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Cardien, Joan: executed at Faversham, Kent, England, on 29 Sept. 1645 + Carre, Henry: of Rattlesden; died in jail at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England ca 1645 + Carrier, Martha: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 August, 1692 + Carrington, John (husband): executed at Wethersfield, Connecticut on 20 February, 1650 + Carrington, Joanna (wife): executed at Wethersfield, Connecticut on 20 February, 1650 + Caveden, Lucia: beheaded and burned at Castelnovo, Italy, on 14 April, 1647 + Cemola, Zinevra: beheaded and burned at Castelnovo, Italy, on 14 April, 1647 + Cendrekovic, Barbara: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Cherrie, (first name unknown): of Thrapston, Northamtonshire, England; died in prison on the day he was due to stand trial 1646 + Challiot, (first name unknown): murdered at St. Georges, France, in February, 1922 + Chalmers, Bessie: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621 + Chambers, (first name unknown): died in prison, in England, in 1693 + Chamoulliard, (first name unknown): burned in France, in 1597 + de Chantraine, Anne: burned as a witch in Waret-la-Chaussee, France, on October 17, 1622 + Chatto, Marioun: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621 + Ciceron, Andre: burned alive at Carcassone, France, in 1335 + Cigetic, Barbara: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Cik, Katerina: burned at Varazdin, Croatia 1709 + Cincic, Jelena: burned at Kaptol, Croatia 1699 + Clarke alias Bedingfield, Elizabeth: hanged at Manningtree, Essex, England 1645 + Cleary, Bridget: beaten and burned to death by her husband, relatives, and friends, on the suspicion that the "real Bridget" had been taken away by fairies and replaced by a witch, in Clonmel, Tipperary, Ireland, 1894 + Clipwell (Clisswell), Alice: hanged at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England ca 1645 + Cocke, Susan: died in gaol of plague after being pardoned at St. Osyth, Essex, England 1645 + Coeuret, Adam (aka Abbot Le Sage): burned alive in Place de Greve, Paris in 1682 + Coneman, (widow): executed in Coggeshall, England in 1699 + Cooke, Mary: died in jail at Langham, Essex, England 29 May 1645 + Cooper, Anne: hanged at Great Clacton, Essex, England 1645 + Cooper, Joan: died in jail on 27 May 1645 before coming to trial at Great Clacton, Essex, England + Coppin, Mary: died in jail of plague at Kirby-le-Soken, Essex, England February 1647 + Corey, Martha: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Corey, Giles: pressed to death at Salem, New England, on 19 September, 1692 + Cornfoot, Janet: killed by a mob at Pittenweem, Scotland in 1704 + Corrillaut, Etienne: executed at Machecoul, France in 1440 + Corset, Janet: killed by a mob at Pittenweem, Scotland, in 1704 + Cos, Ana: burned at Varazdinske Toplice, Croatia 1699 + Cothmann, Katharina: executed in Lemgo (near Paderborn) 1654 + + Cockie, Isabel: burnt as a witch, at a cost of 105 s. 4 p., in England 1596 + "Old Widow Coneman" (Coman): executed in Coggeshall, England, 1699 + Cornu, Marie: convicted and sentenced to be strangled and burned at Fenain (France), February 14, 1611 + Cox, Julian: executed at Taunton, England, in 1663 + Couper, Marable: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + Craw, William: burned in Scotland in 1680 + Crierson, Robert: executed at North Berwick, England in 1594 + Crots, (son) (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Cullender, Rose: executed at Bury St Edmunds, England, on 17 March 1662 + Cumber Cvetko, Barbara: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Cumlaquoy, Marian: burned at Orkney, Scotland in 1643 + Cunningham, John: burned at Edinburgh, in January, 1591 + Cunny, (Coney) Joan: hanged in Chelmsford, England, in 1589 + de Cusset, Marie (La Filastre): burned alive in Place de Greve, Paris in 1682 + Czuranka, Ana: burned at Samobor, Croatia 1741 + Dalesu: beaten to death at Ramarayi, India on November 21, 2000 + Dedovka, Mara: burned at Gric, Croatia 1743 + Deiner, Hans: burned at Waldsee, Germany (year unknown) + Delort, Catherine: burned at Toulouse, France, in 1335 + Denham, Alice: of Ipswich; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England ca 1645 + Demdike, Elizabeth: convicted, but died in prison, in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + DeMolay, Jacques: Grand Master of the Templars, burned in France on 19 March 1314 + + Denny, Amy: executed at Bury St Edmunds, England, on 17 March, 1662 + Desbordes, (first name unknown): burned in France, in 1628 + Deshayes-Monvoisin, Catherine (aka La Voisin): burned alive in Place de Greve, Paris in 22 February, 1682 + Device, Elizabeth: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Device, James: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Device, Alizon: (age 11 years) executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Dimmensdr (Verniel), Ninge: burned at Goedereede, Holland, in 1585 + Dimmensdr (Verniel), Lene: suicided in prison at Goedereede, Holland, in 1585 + Diðriksson, Lassi: burned at Þingvellir, Iceland in 1675 + Dixon, Alice: hanged at Wivenhoe, Essex, England ca 1645 + Djurancevic, Jana (?): burned at Gric, Croatia 1704 + Doree, Catherine: executed at Courveres, France, in 1577 + Dorlady, Mansfredo: burned at Vesoul, France as being the Devil's banker, on 18 January, 1610 + Dorlady, Fernando: burned at Vesoul, France as being the Devil's banker, on 18 January, 1610 + Dormar, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 October, 1586 + Douglas, Janet: burned at Castle, Hill, Scotland, on 17 July, 1557 + Duffhuss, Ferdinand: executed in Paderborn, Germany, 1657 + Drummond, Alexander: executed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1670 + Drvaric, Ana: burned at Belska zupa, Croatia 1742 + Dudgeon, Elizabeth: of Great Yarmouth; hanged in England ca 1647 + Duganka, Bara: burned at Gric, Croatia 1743 + Dumbovic, a nun of the "Margaret Order": burned at Gric, Croatia 1704 + "Dummy" (name unknown; he was deaf-and-dumb): killed by a mob at Sible Hedingham, England, on 3 August, 1865 + Duncan, Gellie: hanged in Scotland in 1591 + Dunhome, Margaret: burned in Scotland (year unknown) + Dunlop, Bessie: burned at Castle Hill, Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1576 + Dustin, Sarah: died in prison in Massachucetts, N. America + Dyneis, Jonka: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + Dyer, Mary: hung in Massachucetts, N. America, 1 June, 1660 + Easty, Mary: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Echtinger, Barbara: imprisoned for life at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 August, 1545 + Edelfrau, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Edwards, Susanna: hanged at Bideford (Heavitree), England, 25 August, 1682 + Einseler, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581 + Elisabeta (daughter of Margareta): burned at Gric, Croatia 1429 + Elling (first name unknown): executed in Würzburg, Germany, 1627 - 29 + Ellroth, ( first name unknown, The wife of Balthasar Ellroth): executed on June 17, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Erb, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 March, 1586 + Esch, Klaus : executed on August 25, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Euler, Anna : executed on June 12, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Everard, Thomas: of Halesworth; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August 1645. + Everard, Mary: married woman of Halesworth; (wife of above) hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August 1645. + Eyering, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Eyjólfsson, Erlendur: burned in Húnavatnssýsla county in north Iceland in 1669 + Fandey, Mona : executed in Maylasia, 2 November, 2001 + Fian, John: hanged at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1591 + Fief, Mary le: of Samur, France, accused of witchcraft, on 13 October 1573 + Finnbogason, Halldór: burned at Þingvellir, Iceland in 1685 + Flade, Dietrich: executed at Treves, 1589 + Fleischbaum, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Flieger, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581 + Flower, Joan: died before trial, at Lincoln, England, 1619 + Flower, Margaret: executed at Lincoln, England, in March, 1619 + Flower, Phillippa: executed at Lincoln, England, in March, 1619 + Foster, Anne: hanged at Northhampton, England, in 1674 + Frances, Elizabeth: executed in Chelmsford, England, 1579 + Francoise (last name unknown): burned in France on 30 July, 1606 + Fray, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 12 June, 1587 + Fray, Margaret: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 25 June, 1594 + Fuller, Mary: of Combs; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27th August 1645. + Fukan, Marija: burned in Zagrebacka zupanija, Croatia 1751 + Funjak, Barbara: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Futakovic, Jela: burned at Dolnja Stubica, Croatia 1746 + Fynnie, Agnes: burned in Scotland in 1643 + Gabley, (first name unknown): executed at King's Lynn, England, in 1582 + Galigai, Leonora: beheaded and burned at the Place de Grieve, France, on 8 July, 1617 + Garner, Kathryn: " ... Welshwoman, found innocent of Witch Craft in Trial by Water. 2 pounds for burial in Christian ground;" Shropshire, England,1636 + Garnier, Gilles: burned as a werewolf in Dole, France 1574 + Gaudry, Suzanne: convicted at the Court of Mons (France) for witchcraft and executed July 9, 1652 by strangling and burning + Gaufridi, Louis: burned at Marseilles, France, at 5: 00 pm on 30 April, 1611 + Geissler, Clara: strangled at Gelnhausen, Germany circa 1630 + Georgel, Anna Marie de: burned at Toulouse, France, in 1335 + Geraud, Hughes: burned in France in 1317 + Gerard, Katherine: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Gering, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Gibson, Elizabeth: died in jail at Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex, England on June 1st 1645 + Gilbert, Lydia: of Windsor, Connecticut, executed in 1654 + Gissler (wife, first name unknown): executed in Derneburg, Obergrombach, Germany, 1555 + Gissler (husband, first name unknown): executed in Derneburg, Obergrombach, Germany, 1555 + Glanicnik (father): burned at Klenovnik, Croatia 1698 + Glanicnik (son): burned at Klenovnik, Croatia 1698 + Glaser, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Glover, Goody: hanged at Salem, New England, in 1688 + Gobel, Barbara: burned at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Gobel's child, (first name unknown): executed at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Goeldi, Anna: hanged at Glaris, Switzerland, on 17 June, 1782 + Goldschmidt, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Golub, Dora: burned at Varazdinske Toplice, Croatia 1585 + Good, Sarah: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 July, 1692 + Gramiza, Katarina: burned at Samobor, Croatia 1741 + Grammer, Anna: executed at Herb (Hohenberg), Germany, June 1613 + Grandier, Urbain: burned at Loudon, France, on 18 August, 1634 + Grant, Jonet: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Grant, Marion: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Green, Ellen: executed in Leicester, England, in 1619 + "Old Wife Green": burned in Pocklington, East Yorkshire, England in 1630 + Greensmith, Nathaniel (husband): hanged in Hartford, New England, on 20 January, 1662 + Greensmith, Mary (wife): hanged in Hartford, New England, on 20 January, 1662 + Greenleife (or Greencliffe, Mary: died in jail Arlesford, Essex, England ca 1645 + Grempell, Paul: executed in Munich, Germany, 1600 + Grempell (wife, first name unknown): executed in Munich, Germany, 1600 + Grempell (son, first name unknown): executed in Munich, Germany, 1600 + Grempell (son, first name unknown): executed in Munich, Germany, 1600 + Greulich, Noa: executed in Landshut, Obergrombach, Germany 1695 + Grewe, Margery: hanged at Walton-le-Soken, Essex, England ca 1645 + Grímsson, Stefán: burned in Húnavatnssýsla county, Iceland in 1678 + Groebisch (first name unknown): executed in Derneburg, Obergrombach, Germany, 1555 + Gooding (or Goodwyn), Elizabeth: hanged at Manningtree, Essex, England 1645 + Goodridge, Alse: executed at Darbie, England, in 1597 + Gratiadei, Domenica: beheaded and burned at Castelnovo, Italy, on 14 April, 1647 + Greland, Jean: burned at Chamonix, France, in 1438, with 10 others + Griart, Henri: executed at Machecoul, France in 1440 + Grierson, Isobel: burned in Scotland in March, 1607 + Grudicek, Ana: burned at Belska zupa, Croatia 1742 + Abbot Guibourg: burned alive in Place de Greve, Paris in 1682 + Guðbrandsson, Þórður: burned in Trékyllisvík, Strandir, Iceland in 1654 + Gullsmed, Brita, wife of Lorenz: beheaded and burned Gävle, Sweden 6 March 1675 + Gutbrod, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Gwinner, Else: executed in Germany on 21 Dec. 1601 + Haan, George: burned at Bamberg, Germany, circa 1626 + Haan, (wife of George): burned at Bamberg, Germany, circa 1626 + Haan, (daughter of George): burned at Bamberg, Germany, circa 1626 + Haan, (son of George): burned at Bamberg, Germany, circa 1626 + Hack, Hans: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Hacket, Margaret: executed at Tyburn, England, on 19 February, 1585 + Hagic, Magdalena: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Halldórsson, Þórarinn: burned at Þingvellir, Iceland in 1667 + Hallybread (or Hollybread), Rose: died in jail of plague at St Osyth, Essex, ca 1645 + Hamilton, Margaret: burned in Scotland in 1680 + Hating (or Hatyn), Sarah: hanged at Ramsey, Essex, England ca 1645 + Hafner, (son) (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Hammellmann, Melchoir: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + + Hamyltoun, Christiane: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621 + Hans, David: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Hans, Kilian: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Harfner, (first name unknown): hanged herself in the prison of Bamberg, 1628-1629 + Harlow, Bessie: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621 + Harrisson, Joanna: executed in Hertford, England, in 1606 + Harrisson, (daughter of Joanna): executed in Hertford, England, in 1606 + Harvey, Elizabeth: died in jail of plague at Ramsey, Essex, England ca 1645 + Harvilliers, Jeanne: executed in France, in 1578 + Haus, (wife) (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Hausen (first name unknown): executed in Würzburg, Germany, 1627 - 29 + Hausmannin, Walpurga: burned at the stake September 20, 1587, in Dillengen, Germany + Heare (or Hare), Elizabeth: hanged at Great Clacton, Essex, England ca 1645 + Helgason, Jón: burned in Barðastrandarsýsla county in the Westfjords, Iceland in 1678 + Henot, Katharina: burned alive in Cologne, Germany, 1627 + Henry III, King of France: assassinated on 1 August, 1589 + Hempstead, Nicholas: of Creeting; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England ca 1645 + Hewitt, Katherine: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Hezensohn, Joachim: beheaded at Waldsee, Germany, in 1557 + Hibbins, Anne: hanged in Boston, Massachusetts on 19 June, 1656 + Hirsch, Nicodemus: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Hocket, Marian: hanged at Ramsey, England ca 1645 + Hoecker, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Hofmann, Lorenz: executed in Würzburg, Germany, 1627 - 29 + Hoffmann, Rochus: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Hoffmann, (daughter, first name unknown): executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Hoffmann, (daughter, first name unknown): executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Hofschmidt, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Holt, Jane: executed at Faversham, Kent, England, on 29 Sept. 1645 + Holtzmann, Stoffel: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Hofseiler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Hoppo, (first name unknown): executed in Germany in 1599 + Dr. Horn (first name unknown): executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1630 + Horn (wife, first name unknown): executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1630 + Horn (daughter, first name unknown): executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1630 + Horne, Janet of Dornoch: burned as a witch in Ross-shire (Scotland), June 1722 + Horvat Pozirak, Barbara: died in prison at Varazdin, Croatia 1717 + How, Elizabeth: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 July, 1692 + Howard, Bridget: of Great Yarmouth; hanged in England ca 1647 + Hoyd, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 November, 1586 + Huebmeyer, Barbara: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 11 September, 1589 + Huebmeyer, Appela: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 11 September, 1589 + Hunt, Joan: hanged in Middlesex, England in 1615 + Hunter, Alexander: burned at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1629 + Hussin, Juraimi : executed in Maylasia, 2 November, 2001 + Huter (first name unknown): executed in Würzburg, Germany, 1627 - 29 + Huxley, Catherine: hanged at Worcester, England in the summer of 1652 + Isel, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 7 November, 1586 + Isolin, Madlen: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581 + Jacobs, George: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 August, 1692 + Jongolo, Sola: beaten to death at Maili Tano village, Mbeya region of southern Tanzania, 9 April, 2001 + Jelena (wife of Petor): burned at Gric, Croatia 1486 + Jenkenson, Helen: executed in Northhampton, England, on 22 July, 1612 + Jennin, (first name unknown): burned at Cambrai, France, in 1460 + Jeretska, Neska: burned near Uskocke Gore, Croatia 1696 + Johnson, Mary : executed at Hartford, Connecticut on 6 June, 1650 + Jollie, Alison: executed in Scotland, in October, 1596 + Jones, Katherine: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + Jones, Margaret: executed in Charlestown, North America, on 15 June, 1648 + Jónsson, Grímur: burned in Trékyllisvík, Strandir, Iceland in 1654 + Jónsson sr., Jón: burned in Ísafjörður, Iceland in 1656 + Jónsson jr., Jón: burned in Ísafjörður, Iceland in 1656 + Jónsson, Sigurður: burned in Þingvellir, Iceland in 1671 + Jordemaine, Margery: burned at Smithfield, England, on 27 October, 1441 + Jost, Vitus: executed in Paderborn, Germany, 1658 + Jugovec, Ana: burned at Belska zupa, Croatia 1742 + Jugovic, Ursula, of Kranj: burned, Zagreb district, Croatia 1746 + Junius, Johannes: of Bamberg, executed as a witch, on 6 August, 1628 + Jung, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Jurinic, Jelena: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Kalopanjka, Margareta: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Kanzler (first name unknown): executed at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Karlovcic, Marica: burned at Kaptol, Croatia 1743 + Kasic (mother): burned at Zagreb, Croatia 1660 + Kasic (older daughter): burned at Zagreb, Croatia 1660 + Kavnicijan, Kata: burned at Varazdinske Toplice, Croatia 1585 + Kempe, Ursula: executed in St. Osyth, England in 1582 + Kent, Margaret: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621 + Kerke, Anne: executed at Tyburn, England, in 1599 + Kerznar, Mara: burned at Gric, Croatia 1704 + Khawuta, Zamabhengu : burned to death at Balasi, Eastern Pondoland, S.A. in January 1999 + Kirstin, 78 years, mother-in-law of Håkan Vacktknekt: beheaded and burned Gävle, Sweden 6 March 1675 + Kleiss, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 30 October, 1586 + Klenovac, Margareta: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Kless, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 12 June, 1587 + Klostermueller, Agnes: executed in Munich, Germany, 1600 + Knertz, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Knobelbart, Hans: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Knor, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Knott, Elizabeth: hanged at St. Albans, England, in 1649 + Kolar, Katarina: burned at Belska zupa, Croatia 1742 + Kolarek, Ana: burned at Belska zupa, Croatia 1742 + Korenika, Margareta: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Kos, Jelena: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Kos Celica, Kata: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Koskovic, Margareta: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Kramaric, Bara: burned at Kaptol, Croatia 1699 + Kramer, Philipp: executed in Mainz, Germany, 1627 + Kramerin, Schelmerey: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Kruzic Zupanic, Barbara: burned at Gric, Croatia 1704 + Krznar, Margareta: burned at Gric, Croatia 1704 + Kuetsch, Lorenz: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Kuetsch, Elisabeth (mother): executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Kuhn (Bäcker-Margreth), Margarethe : executed on August 25, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Kuhnlin, Elsa: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1518 + Kuler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Kuljanka, Margareta: burned at Gric, Croatia 1733 + Kurzhals, Barbara: executed in Reichertshofen, Germany, 1626 + Kusenka, Jelica: burned at Gric, Croatia 1715 + Lachenmeyer, Waldburg: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585 + Lagenka, Dora: burned at Ozalj, Croatia 1694 + deLarue, (first name unknown): burned at Rouen, in 1540 + Landish, Margaret: hanged at St. Osyth, Essex, England ca 1645 + Laubbach (wife): executed at Eichstatt, Germany, in 1597 + Lauder, Margaret: burned in Scotland in 1643 + Lake, Alice: executed at Boston, MA (?) ca. 1651 + Lakeland, Joan: of St. Stephens, Ipswich; burned at Ipswich, Suffolk, England on 9 September 1645. + Lamb, Dr.: stoned to death by a mob at St. Paul's Cross, London, England, in 1640 + Lambrecht, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Lang, Beatrix: died in Pittenweem, Scotland in 1704 + Leach (or Leech), Anne: hanged together with 17 Suffolk witches on 27 August 1645 + Leclerc, (no first name given): condemned for witchcraft, in France 1615 + Lee, Dorothey: of Kings Lynn; hanged in England ca 1647 + Leger, (no first name given): condemmned for witchcraft in France, on 6 May, 1616 + Legin, Margarethe: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Lemp, Rebecca: executed in Nordlingen, Germany, on 9 Sept. 1590 + Leschier, Heinrich and Maria: executed on August 25, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Leyis, Thomas: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Liebler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Liebler, (daughter, first name unknown): executed in Würzburg, Germany, 1627 - 29 + Leifsson, Jón: burned in Barðastrandarsýsla in the Westfjords, Iceland in 1669 + Linstead, Jane: of Halesworth; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August 1645. + Lloyd, Temperance: hanged at Bideford (Heavitree), England, 25 August, 1682 + Loncaric, Matja (male): burned at Gric, Croatia 1704 + Longin, Magdalena: burned at Varazdinske Toplice, Croatia 1699 + Lopez, Diego Hernandez: and three others, shot at San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico, on 15 September, 2002 + Lopez, Kathleen: stabbed 60 times and beheaded, at Santa Fe, N. Mex, USA, Oct. 2000 + Louis, (first name unknown): executed at Suffolk, England, in 1646 + Lowes, John: Vicar of Brandeston; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August 1645. + Lutz, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Macalzean, Euphemia: strangled and burned in Scotland for witchcraft, on 25 June, 1591 + MacEwen, Elspeth: Kirkcudbright Prison in Scotland, 1698 + Mader, Elisabeth: executed in Coburg, Germany, 1629 + Majhanovic, Doroteja: burned at Gric, Croatia 1651 + Mamabolo, Madeleine: Segopye Village near Pietersburg in Northern Province, South Africa, murdered in June, 1999 + Man, Andro: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Manseneé, Desle la: executed at Anjux, France on 18 Dec. 1529 + Manzayiwa, Tomi: murdered in Umtata, South Africa, 19 December, 1998 + Margareta (mother): burned at Gric, Croatia 1429 + Marica of Zagreb: burned at Gric, Croatia 1444 + Marigny, Enguerrand de: hanged in France in 1315 + Marguerite, (last name unknown): burned at Paris, France, in 1586 + Mark, Bernhard: burned alive at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Martin, Marie: executed in France, in 1586 + Martin, Susannah: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 July, 1692 + Martyn, Anne: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Matkovic, Magda: burned, Zagreb district, Croatia 1746 + Maquixtle, Eduardo Quiahua: murdered at Vicente Guererro, Mexico, 1996 + Maquixtle, Andrea, (wife) : murdered at Vicente Guererro, Mexico, 1996 + Maquixtle, (child 1): murdered at Vicente Guererro, Mexico, 1996 + Maquixtle, (child 2): murdered at Vicente Guererro, Mexico, 1996 + Maquixtle, (child 3): murdered at Vicente Guererro, Mexico, 1996 + Maquixtle, (child 4): murdered at Vicente Guererro, Mexico, 1996 + Mauter, Margarethe: executed in Nürnberg, Germany, 1659 + Mayer, Christina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 October, 1586 + Mayers, Bridget: died in jail Holland, Essex, England ca 1648 + Mazelier, Hanchemand de: arrested at Neuchatel, Germany 1439 + Meath, Petronilla de: burned as a witch, the first such burning in Ireland, on 3 November, 1324 + Medovic, Helena: burned at Gric, Croatia 1698 + (last name unknown), Meggs: a baker of Norwich, England (year unknown, but in 1640s) + Mehanovic, Barbara: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Metzler, Elisabeth : executed on June 12, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Meurer, Katharina : executed on June 12, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Meyer, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Mikinka, Jelena: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Milos Kiseljak, Margareta: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Minheric, Ana: burned at Gric, Croatia 1743 + Minota, Mitiku: executed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for murder, 1999 + Mirot, Dominic: burned at Paris, France, in 1586 + Mkambano, Joseph: stoned to death on Montina farm, in Duiwelskloof, Northern Province, South Africa, 8 August, 1999 + Molland, Alice: executed at Exeter, England, 1684 + Moone, Margaret: died on the way to execution at Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex, England ca 1645 + Moore (First Name Unknown): of Sutton; hanged in Cambridgeshire, England 1647 + Morin (first name unknown): burned at Rouen, in 1540 + Morris, Rebecca: married woman of Chattisham; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August, 1645. + Mossau, Renata von: beheaded and burned in Bavaria, Germany, on 21 June, 1749 + Mraz, Magdalena: burned at Belska zupa, Croatia 1742 + Mudic Trumbetas, Dora: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Mueller, Anna Maria: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1627 + Mullerin, Elsbet: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1531 + Munda, Sohraj (husband, 60): killed in India ca. 1995 + Munda, Jaitadi (wife, 55): killed in India ca. 1995 + Munda (son): killed in India ca. 1995 + Munda (son): killed in India ca. 1995 + Munda (son): killed in India ca. 1995 + Munda (son): killed in India ca. 1995 + Munda (daughter): killed in India ca. 1995 + Munda (daughter): killed in India ca. 1995 + Mundie, Beatrice: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621 + Muzek Krapac, Barbara: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Narcic, Dora: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Nathan, Abraham: executed at Haeck, Germany, on 24 September, 1772 + Neidecker (first name unknown): executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1630 + Neepudi: axed to death in Mandwa village of Palamau district, Bihar, India Sept. 1997 + Agaramanao Devi (daughter, 10): axed to death in Mandwa village of Palamau district, Bihar, India Sept. 1997) + Malati (daughter, 8): axed to death in Mandwa village of Palamau district, Bihar, India Sept. 1997 + Lalita (daughter, 6): axed to death in Mandwa village of Palamau district, Bihar, India Sept. 1997 + Kuldip (son, 4): axed to death in Mandwa village of Palamau district, Bihar, India Sept. 1997 + Dilip (son, 2): axed to death in Mandwa village of Palamau district, Bihar, India Sept. 1997 + Negovec, Helena: burned at Belska zupa, Croatia 1742 + Newell, John: executed at Barnett, England, on 1 December, 1595 + Newell, Joane: executed at Barnett, England, on 1 December, 1595 + Newman, Elizabeth: executed at Whitechapel, England in 1653 + Nilsson, Lars: burned alive at Norrvasterbyn, Arjeplog, Sweden in the spring of 1693 + Noeth, Lorenz: executed in Würzburg, Germany, 1627 - 29 + Norsic, Marija: burned at Samobor, Croatia 1741 + Nottingham, John of: died in custody, Coventry, England, 1324 + Novak, Ana: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Ntele, Anna: beaten to death, South Africa, February 1998 + Ntleki, Aphiwe (child): burned to death at Balasi, Eastern Pondoland, S.A. in January 1999 + Ntleki, Lihle (child): burned to death at Balasi, Eastern Pondoland, S.A. in January 1999 + Ntleki, Madinda : burned to death at Balasi, Eastern Pondoland, S.A. in January 1999 + Ntleki, Zamabhala (child): burned to death at Balasi, Eastern Pondoland, S.A. in January 1999 + Ntleki, Zisanda (child): burned to death at Balasi, Eastern Pondoland, S.A. in January 1999 + Nurse, Rebecca: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 July, 1692 + Nutter, Alice: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Oddsson, Páll: burned at Þingvellir, Iceland in 1674 + Ólafsdóttir, Þuríður: burned in Barðastrandarsýsla county in the Westfjords, Iceland in 1678 + Og, Margrat: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Oige, Issobell: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Oliver, Mary: burned at Norwich, England, in 1658 + Orchard, (first name unknown): executed at Salisbury, England, in 1658 + Osborne, (wife) Ruth: killed by a mob at Tring, Herefordshire, England, on 22 April, 1750 + Osburne, Sarah: died in prison at Boston, Massachusetts, 10 May, 1692 + Osefic, Doroteja: burned at Varazdinske Toplice, Croatia 1699 + Oswald, Catherine: burned in Scotland in 1670 + Paeffin, Elsa: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1518 + Pajot, Marguerite: executed at Tonnerre, France, in 1576 + Pálsson, Ari: burned at Þingvellir, Iceland in 1681 + Pappenheimer, Anna (mother ): executed in Munich, Germany, 1600 + Pappenheimer, Gumprecht: executed in Munich, Germany, 1600 + Pappenheimer, Paulus: executed in Munich, Germany, 1600 + Paris, (first name unknown): hanged at St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1569 + Parker, Alice: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Parker, Mary: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Palmer, John: hanged at St. Albans, England, in 1649 + Pannel, Mary: executed in Yorkshire, England, in 1603 + Paukovic, Anica: burned at Cepin, Croatia 1748 + Pearson, Alison: burned in Scotland on 28 May, 1588 + Peebles, Marion: burned in Scotland in 1643 + Perusic, Barbara: died in prison, Zagreb district, Croatia 1746 + Peterson, Joan: hanged at Tyburn, England, on 12 April, 1652 + + Petersson, Elisabeth: wife of Erik, beheaded and burned Gävle, Sweden 6 March 1675 + Petrusevka, Bara: burned in Zagrebacka zupanija, Croatia 1749 + Pavlekovic Piticek, Kata: burned at Gric, Croatia 1704 + Philipps, Mary: Northamtonshire, England, executed on 17 March 1705 + Pichler, Emerenziana: burned at Defereggen, Germany, on 25 September, 1680 + Pichler, (name unknown, son of Emerenziana, aged 12): burned at Defereggen, Germany, on 27 September, 1680 + Pichler, (name unknown, son of Emerenziana, aged 14): burned at Defereggen, Germany, on 27 September, 1680 + de la Plaine, Sylvanie: burned at Pays de Labourde, France, 1616 + Uppala Pochaiah, (70 years old): beaten to death at Kothapalli village, India on November 8, 2000. + Pogledic, Margareta: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Poiret, (first name unknown): burned at Nancy, France, in 1620 + Pomp, Anna: executed at Lindheim, Germany, in 1633 + Pöppel, Hans : executed on August 25, l663, Lindheim, Germany. + Porte, Vidal de la: condemned at Riom, France, in 1597 + Powle, (first name unknown): executed at Durham, England, in 1652 + Pradhan: beaten unconscious and then thrown on a burning funeral pyre, Phulbani, Orissa, India, November 1998 + Prentice, Joan: hanged in Chelmsford, England, in 1589 + Preston, Jennet: executed in York, England, in 1612 + Pringle, Margaret: burned in Scotland in 1680 + Procter, John: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 August, 1692 + Prpric, Katarina: burned at Varazdinske Toplice, Croatia 1699 + Pszk Mihanovic, Barbara: burned at Kaptol, Croatia 1743 + Ptickovica, Jelica: burned at Gric, Croatia 1743 + Pucko, Agata: burned at Belska zupa, Croatia 1742 + Pudeator, Anne: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Qamza, Hlanjiwe: burned to death at Ludeke near Bizana, S.A. in January 1999 + Quattrino, Dominic: burned at Mesolcina, Italy, in 1583 + Raab (first name unknown): executed in Würzburg, Germany, 1627 - 29 + Rais, Gilles de: on charges of witchcraft, executed 26 October, 1440 + Rahman, Mohamed Affandi Abdul : executed in Maylasia, 2 November, 2001 + Ratkaj, Katarina: burned at Belska zupa, Croatia 1742 + Rattray, George: executed in Spott, Scotland, in 1705 + Rattray, Lachlan: executed in Spott, Scotland, in 1705 + Rauffains, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 7 November, 1586 + Reade, Mary: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Redfearne, Anne: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Reed, Wilmot: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Reid, Christen: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Reich, Maria: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585 + Reichard, Johann: executed in Eichstaett, Germany, 1626 + Reid, John: hanged himself in prison, in Scotland, in 1697 + Reoch, Elspeth: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + Reuneg, Anna : executed on June 12, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Reuneg, Else : executed in the summer of l663, Lindheim, Germany + Reuneg, Johann: executed on August 25, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Reuneg, Katharina : executed on June 12, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Reuneg, Philipp: executed on March 1, l664, Lindheim, Germany + Richel (first name and date unknown): Eichstaett, Germany + Richie, Issobell: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Rinder, Anna: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Rivet, Janet: of Copdock; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August 1647. + Robey, Isobel: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Robson, Donald: executed at North Berwick, England in 1590 + Rodier, Catala: burned alive at Carcassone, France, in 1335 + Rodier, Paul: burned alive at Carcassone, France, in 1335 + Rogie, Helen: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Rögnvaldsson, Jón: burned in Eyjafjörður, north Iceland, 1625 + Rohrfelder, Margaret: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 August, 1585 + Rosch, Maria: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581 + Rosseau, (father, no first name given): of France, accused of witchcraft on 2 October 1593 + Rosseau, (daughter, no name given): of France, accused of witchcraft on 2 October 1593 + Rosslein, Martine: executed in Würzburg, Germany, 1627 - 29 + Roulet, Jacques: burned alive for being a were-wolf, at Angiers, France, in 1597 + Rudinovic, Barbara: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Rue, Abel de la: of Coulommiers, France, accused of witchcraft on 20 July, 1592 + Rueger, Christophorus: executed in Würzburg, Germany, 1627 - 29 + Ruethsin, Anna: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + de Ruilly, Macette: burned alive at the Pig Market in Paris on 19 August, 1391 + Rullmann, ( first name unknown, the wife of Friedrich): executed on March 1, l664, Lindheim, Germany + Rum, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Russel, Alice: killed by a mob at Great Paxton, England, 20 May, 1808 + Rutchser, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Rutter, Elizabeth: hanged in Middlesex, England in 1616 + Sabina, Benita: killed as a witch in Alfajayucan, Mexico, September 8, 1956. + Sailler, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 August, 1585 + Sampsoune, Agnes: tried, strangled, and burnt for a witch in Scotland 1591 + Samuels, (family: 1 of 3): condemned for witchcraft in Warboys, England, on 4 April, 1593 + Samuels, (family: 2 of 3): condemned for witchcraft in Warboys, England, on 4 April, 1593 + Samuels, (family: 3 of 3): condemned for witchcraft in Warboys, England, on 4 April, 1593 + Sawyer, Elizabeth: hanged at Tyburn, England, on 19 April, 1621 + Scharber, Elsbeth: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581 + Schneider, Felicitas: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 March, 1586 + Schnelling, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 11 September, 1589 + Schröck, Anna: executed at Herb (Hohenberg), Germany in 1581 + Schüler, Martha: burned at Lindheim, Germany, 23 February, 1664 + Schutz, Babel: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Schwaegel, Anna Maria: beheaded at Kempten, Germany, on 11 April, 1775 + Schwartz, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Schenck, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Schellhar, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Schickelte, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Schneider, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Schneider, Margarethe (wife of Andreas): executed on June 12, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Schneider, Margarethe (wife of Hans): executed on August 25, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Schleipner, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Schuler, (first name not known): burned at Lindheim, Germany on 23 February, 1663 + Schultheiss, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 March, 1586 + Schwaegel, Anna Maria: beheaded in Germany on 11 April, 1775 + Schwarz, Eva: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581 + Schwarz, (first name unknown): executed at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Dr. Schweygel: executed in Cologne, Germany, 1637 + Schwerdt, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Scott, Margaret: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Scottie, Agnes: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + Sechelle, (first name unknown): burned at Paris, France, in 1586 + Seiler, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Serck (first name unknown): executed in Derneburg, Obergrombach, Germany, 1555 + Tikambai Sahu: Killed by a mob, Nagpur, India, 27 June, 2000 + Shaw, Elinor: Northamtonshire, England, executed on 17 March 1705 + Shultz (infant), (first name unknown): executed at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Silberhans, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Sinecka, Helena: burned at Samobor, Croatia 1741 + Sipusic Ledar, Dora: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Sirkovic, Ana: burned at Gric, Croatia 1704 + Skipper, Mary: of Copdock; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August 1645. + Skovranka, Dora: burned, Zagreb district, Croatia 1746 + Smith, Mary: of Glemham; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August 1645. + Smith, Mary: hanged at King's Lynn, England, in 1616 + Smith, Tempest: 12 years old, suicided at Lincoln Park, Michigan, USA on 20 February 2001 + Sørensdatter, Kirsti: condemned to the stake at Vardøhus Fortress, Denmark, April 1621 + Sparham, Margery: of Mendham; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August 1645. + Spaldarg, Jonet: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Spindler, Sarah: of Halesworth; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27 August 1645. + Stadlin, (first name unknown): executed in Germany in 1599 + Steffen: (town and last name unknown) Westphalia, Germany 1617 + Steicher, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Steinacher, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Stepper, (first name unknown): executed at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Steward, William: hanged at St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1569 + Stewart, Christian: strangled and burned in Scotland, in November, 1596 + Stolzberger, (son) (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Stolzberger, (wife) (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Stolzberger, (granddaughter) (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Strigaric, Barbara: burned at Varazdin, Croatia 1718 + Stubb, Peter: executed as a werewolf near Cologne, Germany, in 1589 + Stuber, Laurence: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Stuell(?), Gertrud (of Klaferd in the Oberholzklau Parish): burned at the stake in Alchen, Gemany,1590 + Sturmer, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Style, Elizabeth: died in prison, at Taunton, England, in 1664 + Steinbach, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Stier, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Stadelmann, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 7 November, 1586 + Sutton (mother) (first name unknown): executed in Bedford, England in 1613 + Sutton, Mary: executed in Bedford, England in 1613 + Sveinsson, Þorbjörn: burned at Þingvellir, Iceland in 1677 + Thausser, Simon: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1518 + Thausser (wife of Simon, no name given): burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1518 + Þorsteinsson, Böðvar: burned at Þingvellir, Iceland in 1674 + Thompson, Annaple: burned in Scotland in 1680 + Tod, Christian: executed at North Berwick, England in 1590 + Tod, Beigis: burned at Lang Nydrie, Scotland, on 27 May, 1608 + Tooly, Katherine: of Westleton; hanged at Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England 27th August 1645 + Topolca, Dora: burned at Varazdin, Croatia 1718 + Townsend, Amey : mob violence, St. Albans, England, 08 January, 1700 + Trajo, Christina: killed as a witch in Alfajayucan, Mexico, September 8, 1956. + Treher, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585 + Trembles, Mary: hanged at Bideford (Heavitree), England, 25 August, 1682 + Trois-Echelles (pseud.): executed at Paris, France, in 1571 (or 1574) + Tucman, Helena: burned, Zagreb district, Croatia 1746 + Tungerslieber, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Turner, Ann: murdered in England, in 1875 + Uhlmer, Barbara: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 August, 1585 + Upney, Joan: hanged in Chelsford, England, in 1589 + Uppala Pochaiah, (70 years old): beaten to death at Kothapalli village, India on November 8, 2000 + Ursula, the shoemaker's daughter: burned at Gric, Croatia 1496 + Utley, (first name unknown): hanged at Lancaster, England, in 1630 + Uvasic Drapuska, Marija: burned, Zagreb district, Croatia 1746 + Valee, Melchoir de la: burned at Nancy, France, in 1631 + Vallin, Pierre: executed in France, in 1438 + Valkenburger, (daughter) (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Vaecker, Paul: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + la Valle, Gracia: burned in Saragossa. First execution of a witch in Spain, in 1498. + de Varens, Louis: burned alive in Place de Greve, Paris in 1682 + Velek, Elizabeta: burned at Varazdin, Croatia 1712 + Vidmar, Margareta: burned at Varazdin, Croatia 1709 + Vickar, Bessie: burned in Scotland in 1680 + Dame Vigoureux: burned alive in Place de Greve, Paris in 1682 + Visirer (first name unknown): executed in Würzburg, Germany, 1627 - 29 + Vlahovic, Marareta: died under torture at Stubica, Croatia 1746 + Vogicek, Barbara: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Vucic, Margareta: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1734 + Vukovic, Ladesic, Barbara: burned at Turopolje, Croatia 1733 + Vugrinec, Marijana: burned in Zagrebacka zupanija, Croatia 1751 + Vuil, Daniel: executed in Beaufort, Canada, in 1662 + Wachin, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1528 + Wagner, Michael: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Wagner, (first name unknown): burnt alive at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Wallace, Margaret: executed in Glascow, Scotland, in 1622 + Wardwell, Samuel: executed at Salem, New England, on 22 September, 1692 + Wasser, Friedrich: executed in Würzburg, Germany, 1627 - 29 + Waterhouse, Agnes: executed in Chelmsford, England, 29 July, 1566 + Waterhouse, (first name unknown): hanged in Dorset, England in 1565 (may be Agnes Waterhouse) + Waters, Dorothy: died in jail of plague at Clacton, Essex, England February 1647 + Wanderson, (wife 1) (first name unknown): executed in England, in January, 1644. + Wanderson, (wife 2) (first name unknown): executed in England, in January, 1644. + Weber, Katharina: executed on August 25, l663, Lindheim, Germany + Weir, Thomas: burned between Edinburgh and Leith, Scotland, on 11 April, 1670 + Weiss, Agatha: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 October, 1586 + Went(e), Susanna: died in jail of plague at Langham, Essex, England April 1646 + West, Anne: of Lawford, Essex - hanged (probably at Manningtree, England) ca 1645 + Weydenbusch, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Whittle, Anne: executed in Lancaster, England, in 1612 + Wildes, Sarah: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 July, 1692 + Willard, John: executed at Salem, New England, on 19 August, 1692 + Williford, Joan: executed at Faversham, Kent, England, on 29 Sept. 1645 + Willimot, Joan: executed in Leicester, England, in 1619 + Wilson, Anne: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Wirth, Klingen: beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Wirth, Trauben: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585 + Wisherr, Jonet: (Janet Wishart) executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597 + Wright, Grace: of Kings Lynn; hanged in England ca 1647 + Wright, Mildred: hanged at Maidstone, England, in July, 1652 + Wuncil, Brigida: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581 + Wunth, (first name unknown): beheaded at Würzburg, Germany, 1628-1629 + Wyles (or Wiles), Mary: hanged at Great Clacton, Essex, England ca 1647 + Younge, Alse : (Alice Young) hanged in Connecticut, North America, on 26 May, 1647 + Yullock, Agnes: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622 + Zeritsch, Veronika: age 13, executed in Landshut, Germany, 1756 + Ziegler, Barbara: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Ziegler, Endres: executed in Bamberg, Germany, 1617 + Zobay, Margareta: burned at Gric, Croatia 1486 + + +HPS: Let them have peace. + +ALL: Blessed be! + +% Here ends the Samhain Mystery. + + ---------------------------------------------------- + +% A normal cone-of-power may be raised, for growth and healing: + +HPS: In a ring we all shall stand + Pass the Power, hand to hand. + +HP: As the season turns again + Power flows from friend to friend + +HPS: Pass the Power, hand to hand + Bless the Lady, bless the Land + +HP: Bless the Lord, and bless the Skies + Bless the Power that never dies! + +% The above four verses should be repeated three times, or as +% many times as needed, and the HPS shall then say: + +HPS: By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree: + Let the Power flow out and free! + +% All should release, at this point. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% Any needed coven business may be transacted here. + + ------------------------------------------------------ + +% The Circle is opened: + +HPS: Thus I release the East and West + Thanks to them from Host to Guest + Thus I release the South and North + With "Blessed Be' I send them forth! + The Circle's open, dance we so + Out and homeward we shall go. + Earth and Water, Air and Fire + Celebrated our desire. + We think of those in Summerland + Who dance together, hand in hand. + By Fin and Feather, Leaf and Tree, + Our circle's done; and Blessed Be! + +COVEN: Blessed Be! + +% All spiral dance out from the Circle, led by HP and HPS. + + + ****************************************************** + + +This is a -long- ritual, but VERY effective. A good way to do the reading +of the names is to pass the list around the Circle, with each person reading +a few names, and then passing it to the next. Really brings the Burning +Times -home.- + + + ****************************************************** + +These ceremonies are free of copyright, and are released for use by any +who so wish to. Thanks go to "Mr. Wiz" for his research, and to the +person who originally wrote the dialog (freely adapted here) used in the +Samhain Mystery. + + ******************************************************* + + + *end of Bardic Cycle (Wiccan)* + + + diff --git a/religious documents/bascraft.txt b/religious documents/bascraft.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8d8593 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bascraft.txt @@ -0,0 +1,209 @@ +The Craft (Witchcraft - NOT to be confused with Satanism. A true Witch has +nothing to do with this, even though there are some Satanists who (unright- +fully) call themselves "Witch".) contains a large number of groups with bonds +to each other, for the most part, which are looser than those you will find +between Christian churches. Each has it's own traditions, it's own beliefs, +it's own panthion, etc. So just WHAT is it that, overall, a Witch believes in? +The American Council of Witches was formed to determine what it was that all +Witches have in common, belief-wise. In the early 1970's, a paper was released +with their findings, and gives a good overall picture of it. The following is +the text of that paper. + +=============================================================================== + +_BASIC_PRINCIPLES_OF_THE_CRAFT_ + +1. The first principle is that of love, and it is expressed in the ethic, + "DO AS YOU WILL, SO LONG AS YOU HARM NONE" + a) love is not emotional in it's essence, but is an attribute of the + individual as expressed in relation to other beings; + b) harming others can be by thought, word, or deed; + c> it is to be understood the "none" includes oneself; + d) the harm which is to be regarded as unethical is gratuitous harm; war, + in general, is gratuitous harm, although it is ethical to defend + oneself and one's liberty when threatened by real and present danger, + such as defense against invasion. + +2. The Witch must recognize and harmonize with the forces of the universe, in + accord with the Law of Polarity: everything is dual; everything has two + poles; everything has it's opposite; for every action there is a reaction; + all can be categorized as either active or reactive in relation to other + things. + a) Godhead is one unique and transcendant wholeness, beyond any + limitations or expressions; thus, it is beyond our human capacity to + understand and identify with this principle of Cosmic Oneness, except + as It is revealed to us in terms of It's attributes and operation. + b) The most basic and meaningful attribute of the One that we, as humans, + can relate to and understand, is that of polarity, of action and reac- + tion; therefore Witches recognize the Oneness of the Divinity, but + worship and relate to the Divine as the archetypal polarity of God and + Goddess, the All-Father and the Great Mother of the universe. The + Beings are as near as we can approach to the One within our human + limitations of understanding and expression, though it is possible to + experience the divine Oneness through the practices of the Mysteries. + c) Harmony does not consist of the pretty and the nice, but the balanced, + dynamic, poised co-operation and co-relation. + +3. The Witch must recognize, and operate within the framework of the Law of + Cause and Effect; every action has it's reaction, and every effect has + it's cause. All things occur according to this law; nothing in the + universe can occur outside this law, though we may not always appreciate + the relation between a given effect and it's cause. Subsidiary to this is + the Law of Three, which states that whatever goes forth must return + threefold, whether of good or ill; for our actions affect more than people + generally realize, and the resulting reactions are also part of the + harvest. + +4. As Above, So Below. That which exists in the Macrocosm exists, on a + smaller scale and to a lesser degree, in the Microcosm. The powers of the + universe exist also in the human, though in general instance they lie + dormant. The powers and abilities can be awakened and used if the proper + techniques are practiced, and this is why initiates of the Mysteries are + sworn to guard the secrets from the unworthy: Much harm can be done by + those who have power without responsibility, both to others and to + themselves according to the Laws of Cause and Effect and of Threefold + Return. + a) Since our philosophy teaches that the universe is the physical + manifestation of the Divine, there can be nothing in the universe which + does not partake of the nature of the Divine; hence, the powers and + attributes of the Divine exist also in the manifest, though to much + smaller degree. + b) These powers can be awakened through the various techniques of the + Mysteries, and, although they are only capable of small effects in and + of themselves, it is possible to use them in order to draw upon the + forces of the universe. Thus humanity can be the wielders of the power + of the Gods, a channel for Godhead to act within It's own + manifestation. This, then, is further reason for the oath of secrecy. + c) Since the universe is the body of the One, possessing the same + attributes as the One, it's Laws must be the principles through and by + which the One operates. By reasoning from the known to the unknown, + one can learn of the Divine, and thus of oneself. Thus the Craft is a + natural religion, seeing in Nature the expression and revelation of + Divinity. + +5. We know that everything in the universe is in movement or vibration and is + a function of that vibration. Everything vibrates; all things rise and + fall in a tidal system that reflects the motion inherent in the universe + and also in the atom. Matter and energy are but two poles of one + continuous phenomenon. Therefore the Witch celebrates, harmonizes with, + and makes use of the tides of the universe and of life as expressed + through the cycle of the seasons and the motion of the solar system. + These ritual observances are the eight great Festivals of the Year, + referred to as the Wheel of the Year. Further, the Witch works with the + forces and tides of the Moon, for this body is the mediator of much energy + to our planet Earth and thus to ourselves. + +6. Nothing is dead matter in the universe. All things exist, therefore all + things live, though perhaps in a different manner from that which we are + used to calling life. In view of this, the Witch knows that there is no + true death, only change from one condition to another. The universe is + the body of Godhead, and therefore possesses one transcendant + consciousness; all things partake of the consciousness, in varying levels + of trance/awareness. + a) Because of this principle, all things are sacred to the Witch, for all + partake of the one Life. + b) Therefore the Witch is a natural ecologist, for Nature is part of us as + we are a part of Nature. + +7. Astrology can be useful in marking and interpreting the flow and ebb of + the tides of our solar system, and thus of making use of those tides; + astrology should not be debased into mere fortune-telling. + +8. Throughout the development of the human race, civilizations have seen and + worshipped many and various attributes of the Divine. These universal + forces have been clothed in forms which were expressive to the worshipper + of the attribute of the Godhead which they expressed. Use of these + symbolic representations of the natural and divine forces of the universe, + or godforms, is a potent method for contacting and utilizing the forces + they represent. Thus the Gods are both natural and truely divine, and + man-made in that the forms with which they are clothed are products of + humanity's striving to know the Godhead. + a) In keeping with the Law of Polarity, these god-forms are brought into + harmony by the one great Law which states: All Gods are one God. All + Goddesses are one Goddess. There is one Initiator. This law is an + expression of our understanding that all of the forces of the universe, + by whatever ethnic god-form is chosen to clothe and relate to whichever + force, can be resolved into the fundamental polarity of the Godhead, + the Great Mother and the All-Father. + b) It is the use of differing godforms, of differing ethnic sources or + periods, which is the basis of many of the differences between the + various Traditions of the Craft. Each Tradition uses the forms, and + thus the names, which to that Tradition best express and awaken an + understanding of the force represented, according to the areas of + emphasis of the Tradition. + c) Because we know that differing names or representations are but + expressions of the same divine principles and forces, we require our + members to swear that they will never mock the names by which another + honors the Divine, even though those names be different from and + seemingly less expressive than the names and godforms used by our + Tradition (for to the members of another Tradition, using it's names, + ours may easily seem equally less expressive). + +9. A Witch refuses to allow her/himself to be corrupted by the great guilt + neuroses which have been foisted on humanity in the name of the Divine, + thus freeing the self of the slavery of the mind. The Witch expresses + responsibility for her/his actions, and accepts the consequences of them; + guilt is rejected as inhibiting to one's self-actualization, and replaced + by the efforts of the Witch to obey the teachings of harmlessness, + responsibility for the consequences of one's actions, and the goal of + actualizing the full powers of the individual. + a) We refuse to believe that a human being is born innately sinful, and + recognize the the concepts of sin and guilt are tremendously inhibiting + to the human potential; the consequences of the Law of Cause and + Effect, called karma by some, are not punishment, but the recurrences + of situations and their effects because the individual as not gained + the Wisdom needed to handle or avoid such situations. + b) There is no heaven except that which we ourselves make of our life on + Earth, and likewise there is no hell except the effects of our unwise + actions. Death is not followed by punishment or reward, but by life + and the continuing evolution of the human potential. + c) One cannot damn the divine in oneself; one can, however, cut oneself + off from it through the rejection of wisdom and a refusal to strive for + self-realization. This cutting off does not lead to personal suffering + in "hell", for there is no Self to suffer if the tie to one's own + divinity has been severed; what remains is merely an empty shell, a + "personality" or thought-form devoid of it's ensouling Spark of the + Divine Fire. + +10. We know of the existence of the life-force which ensouls all living + things, that is, all that exists. We know that a spark of this Divine + Fire is within each and every thing that exists, and that it does not + die; only the form of it's existence changes. We know that this spark of + the life-force returns to manifestation again and again in order to fully + realize and actualize it's potential, evolving finally to the peak and + essence of existence which is pure be-ing. In this process of + reincarnation each form returns in the same type of form, though it's + ever-increasing actualization may lead to higher levels of existence of + that form. Man returns as man, cat as feline, mineral as mineral, each + class of form evolving as the individual forms of that class evolve. + +11. This process of evolution through successive incarnations in manifest form + works through the utilizations of wisdom gained, the essence of the + life-experience. This essence of experience, or Wisdom, is an attribute + of the spark of life itself, one and inseparable (see 9a). + +12. We must care for the body, for it is the vehicle of the spark of life, the + form by which we attain. Thus we must heal the body of it's ills and keep + it a tuned and perfected tool; so must we heal others (both physicaly and + psychologically) as far as it is within our power to do so. However, we + cannot interfere with the life of another, even to heal, except at their + request or with their express permission; unless such non-interference + would be inhibiting to our own, ethical existence and development -- and + even then the responsibilities and consequences must be understood and + accepted. This, then, is one of the important reasons for the communal + life the Witches under the guidance of the Priesthood: That the group may + be guided by wisdom and experience, with the aid and support of one's + peers; and that one's actions may be guided by the influence of the + ethical life of the group as a whole. + +13. Harmony with, and utilization of, the great natural forces of the universe + is called magick. By magick we speak, not of the supernatural, but of the + superbly natural, but whose laws and applications are not as yet + recognized by the scientific establishment. The Witch must strive to + recognize these forces, learn their laws, attune her/himself to them, and + make use of them. The Witch must also be aware that power corrupts when + used _only_ for the gains of the self, and therefore must strive to serve + humanity: Either through the service in the Priesthood, or by example and + effects of his/her life on others. The choice must be made in accord with + the true nature of the Witch. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/bb2q88.txt b/religious documents/bb2q88.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2483760 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bb2q88.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1614 @@ + BAPHOMET BREEZE + + Volume III Number 2 + Summer Solstice, 1988 + + Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + THE SCIENTIFIC SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM OF GOVERNMENT + (strictly private and confidential) + + by Comte de Fenix + (Aleister Crowley) + + THEOREM. + + The scientific solution of the problem of Government is given in AL (Liber + Legis). This Law supersedes all the empirical theories hitherto current. + + QUOTATION. + + Chapter 1. + + 3. Every man and every woman is a star. + 10. Let my servants be few & secret: they shall rule + the many & the known. + 40. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. + 41. The word of Sin is Restriction. + 42. thou hast no right but to do thy will. + 43. Do that, and no other shall say nay. + 44. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered + from the lust of result, is every way perfect. + 57. Love is the law, love under will. + + Chapter 2. + + 19. Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest + are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who + sorroweth is not of us. + 20. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious + languor, force and fire are of us. + 58. Yea! deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & + not other. Therefore the kings of the earth shall + be Kings for ever; the slaves shall serve. + + Chapter 3. + + 4. Choose ye an island! + 5. Fortify it! + 6. Dung it about with enginery of war! + 7. I will give you a war-engine. + 8. With it ye shall smite the peoples; and none shall + stand before you. + 58. But the keen and the proud, the royal and the + lofty; ye are brothers! + 59. As brothers fight ye! + 60. There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt. + DEMONSTRATION. + + 1. The average voter is a moron. He + believes what he reads in + newspapers, feeds his + imagination and lulls his + repressions on the cinema, and + hopes to break away from his + slavery by football pools, + cross-word prizes, or spotting + the winner of the 3.30. He is + ignorant as no illiterate + peasant is ignorant: he has no + power of independent thought. + He is the prey of panic. But he + has the vote. + 2. The men in power can only govern + by stampeding him into wars, + playing on his fears and + prejudices until he acquiesces + in repressive legislation + against his obvious interests, + playing on his vanity until he + is totally blind to his own + misery and serfdom. The + alternative method is + undisguised dragooning. In + brief, we govern by a mixture of + lying and bullying. + 3. This desperate resort to archaic + weapons is the heritage of + hypocrisy. The theories of + Divine Right, aristocratic + superiority, the moral order of + Nature, are all to-day exploded + bluffs. Even those of us who + believe in supernatural + sanctions for our privileges to + browbeat and rob the people no + longer delude ourselves with the + thought that our victims share + our superstitions + 4. Even dictators understand this. + Mussolini has tried to induce + the ghost of Ancient Rome to + strut the stage in the image of + Julius Caesar; Hitler has + invented a farrago of nonsense + about Nordics and Aryans; nobody + even pretends to believe either, + except through the "Will-to- + believe." And the pretence is + visibly breaking down + everywhere. They cannot even be + galvanized with spasms of + pseudo-activity, as still + occasionally happens with the + dead toads of superstition. + 5. There is only one hope of + uniting the people under + intelligent leadership; because + there is only one thing in which + everyone really believes. That + is, believes in such a way that + he automatically bases every + action of his daily life on its + principles. (This is true of + practically all men, whatever + their race, caste, or creed.) + This universally accepted basis + of conduct is Science. + 6. Science has attained this + position because it makes no + assertion that it is not + prepared to demonstrate to all + comers. (This part is so well + understood that all the "false + prophets" - Spiritualism, + Christian Science, ethnological + cranks, Great Pyramid puzzle- mongers, and the rest of the + humbugs - all pretend to appeal + to evidence, not to authority, + as did the Kings and the + Churches.) The problem of + Government is therefore to find + a scientific formula with an + ethical implication. This + formula must be rigidly + applicable to all sane men + soever without reference to the + individual qualities of any one + of them. + 7. The formula is given by the Law + of Thelema. "Do what thou wilt + shall be the whole of the Law." + This injunction, in one sense + infinitely elastic, since it + does not specify any particular + goal of will as desirable, is + yet infinitely rigid, in that it + binds every man to follow out + exactly the purpose for which he + is fitted by heredity, + environment, experience, and + self-development. The formula + is thus also biologically + indefeasible, as well as + adequate, ethically to every + individual, and politically to + the State. + 8. Let this formula be accepted by + every government. Experts will + immediately be appointed to work + out, when need arises, the + details of the True Will of + every individual, and even that + of every corporate body whether + social or commercial, while a + judiciary will arise to + determine the equity in the case + of apparently conflicting + claims. (Such cases will become + progressively more rare as + adjustment is attained.) All + appeal to precedent and + authority, the deadwood of the + Tree of Life, will be abolished, + and strictly scientific + standards will be the sole + measure by which the executive + power shall order the people. + The absolute rule of the state + shall be a function of the + absolute liberty of each + individual will. + _____________________________ + + NOTICE OF O.T.O. DUES INCREASE + + Effective in September, all dues + and fees in O.T.O. will increase. + This is the first such increase + since the early 1970s. The purpose + of this article is to explain the + change and to review financial + obligations of O.T.O. members + overall. + In 1919, dues and fees were + published in Equinox III(1). When + modern figures were set in the + early '70s, they were established + as three times the 1919 value (far + below the inflation rate, no?). + Now, approximately 15 years later, + dues are being reset at four times + the 1919 schedule - a one-third + increase. + O.T.O. members are charged with + the sacred obligation of supporting + the Order to the fullest extent of + their financial means. Annual dues + are established by the Order as a + minimum contribution. Fees are set + for each initiation to defer the + costs of the initiation itself. + Additionally, the Lodge itself may + charge its own dues. + The annual dues are sent, in + their entirety, to Grand Lodge for + the general operating fund of the + Order. Fees remain with the local + bodies; but especially in the case + of Minervals and Io, these often do + not meet actual expenses, let alone + leave anything for general local + operations. + To meet the need for at least + minimal local funding, Baphomet + Lodge and its satellites charge an + additional fee, equal to one year's + Io dues, for each initiation 0o- + IIIo. This is in lieu of Lodge + dues. The charge is linked to a + distinct service, rather than to + the more abstract idea of + "membership." It also pays for + your subscription to the Lodge + newsletter. The complete revised + schedule of dues and fees is listed + here for Man of Earth initiations + at Baphomet Lodge and its + satellites: + + DUES FEES LODGE TOTAL 0o $20 $20 $20 = $60 + Io $20 $20 $20* = $60 + IIo $40 $20 $20 = $80 + IIIo $60 $20 $20 = $100 + IVo $80 $40 = $120 + C.P.I. $20 = $20 + * Minerval & Io on same occasion + = $100 (only one Lodge charge) + + For completion, here are the dues + and fees for all other degrees: + + DUES FEES TOTAL + K.E.W. $20 = $20 + Vo $104 $60 = $164 + K.R.E. $40 = $40 + VIo $124 $104 = $228 + G.I.C. $144 $104 = $248 + P.R.S. $156 $104 = $260 + VIIo $224 $204 = $428 + VIIIo $448 $408 = $856 + IXo $672 $816 = $1,488 + + Dues are payable upon taking a + new initiation, or after one year, + whichever comes first. Fees and + Lodge charges are payable upon + taking a new initiation. In some + cases, Lodge charges can be paid in + labor or similar service. + Members are also welcome to make + whatever additional contributions + they may wish from time to time. + All funds received are applied + scrupulously to O.T.O. and Baphomet + Lodge activities. Any Lodge member + is welcoe to examine the financial + records of the Lodge on request, + other than another member's private + records. + If there are any questions, + please feel free to ask them. + + Love is the law, love under will. + + Frater Iacchus + Treasurer, Baphomet Lodge + _____________________________ + + He Who Laughs... + + Do what thou wilt shall be the + whole of the Law + + Much of what we do in life has a + serious purpose. Any task which we + undertake, be it for spiritual or + material attainment, is a serious + and sober creation of life in one + form or another. In this we are + gods; isn't being a god a serious + undertaking in itself? What a + sober responsibility, but what a + joyful experience! + With joy comes laughter, our + true outlet for that which cannot + be expressed in words. Humans + laugh; those that can't or won't + fall into a very sorry state + indeed. + Why do we laugh? Laughter, in + the form of a "nervous giggle", + occurs when we are tense or + anxious; it comes often at someone + else's misfortune; it is the + response to jokes, usually told at + some other's expense. We laugh at + anger, at danger, at fear. + Laughter relieves otherwise + unexpressible f elings: relief that + the self is not the victim, loss of + self-control, a sense of not being + in control of ones immediate + destiny. Seldom, though, do we + laugh at ourselves. + The utter inanity of a situation + is largely that which is in + ourselves inane and ridiculous. To + laugh at that part of the inner + self is to see all the joy that + cannot be so easily expressed and + to conquer that which is self- + righteous and self-destructive. + Children do this innately; adults + have "unlearned" this ability. + Life is too serious to be taken + seriously. Laughter, like a child, + needs no excuse. Laugh at the pure + joy of being, at nothing at all, at + yourself. + "I tell you solemnly, anyone who + does not welcome the kingdom of God + like a little child will never + enter it." Regain a child's + ability to laugh; enter into your kingdom. + + Love is the law, love under will + + Soror Mari + _________________________________ + + FROM THE XAO PALACE + + By Soror Sophia + + Turning the page on our Thoth + Tarot Calendar, there was the card + of the month: Two of Cups - Love. + It is June, and that certainly + flavors things a bit. It's a time + of emphasis on relationships, deep + loves, and passions; whether it be + spiritual or material. + A person wonders: Is this person + the right one? Am I in love? Are + our charts too similar, or too + divergent? This partner can't be + the only choice to make on the + planet. Once decided, and willed + that the relationship is the one + that is desired, the person is in a + new ball park. One might apologize + and be willing to accept an + apology, letting go totally things + that in a prior relationship would + have been held there for some time. + The difference may be, that once + one has the stable underlying + certainty of the rightness of the + action it can be carried out. This + is not just concerning + "relationships." For "as above, so + below, and within." This + relationship, as an analogy, can be + a symbol for our overall spiritual + quest or desire for marriage with + the infinite. I feel that one must + muster the same drive, + perseverance, dedication, and + endurance to succeed, whichever + course we take. The lessons + learned are carried over to each + plane of existence. + When one signs up for this + "Course," let it be known and + understood that there is work to be + accomplished. That you will be + working with your lab partner on + certain experiments. You will be + given certain tests and should + expect them at anytime whatsoever. + You cannot audit the course, + participation is necessary. Your + lab partner is yours for the + duration of the course. Your + determine the length of the course, + the grades, what goes on at recess, and the class size. + But what shall be the sign that + one has made a right decision? + (sounding familiar here?) Well the + UnderXao answers, bending her + working hands down over the + keyboard, her fingers arched for + typing, her lovely feet not + stepping on XaoBird, the parakeet + loose on the floor: + "Thou knowest! And the sign + shall be my ecstasy, the + consciousness of the continuity of + existence, the omnipresence of my + body." + As a friend of mine found as he + stepped off a plane in Hawaii, + feeling the warm air engulf him, he + knew he made the right decision. + We too know and can feel it. + This issue is one of expansion, + and nurturing. We are building and + creating, and I am having a fine + ole time at it. + _______________________________________________________________________ + + THE LAW UNDER THE LAW + + by Soror Timshel + + Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law + + Well, that's it. We're all doomed. 1984 has become a reality. Soon + we'll have no personal freedom. Christian prayer in the schools. + McCarthyism! Plagues of toads and spiders! Anita Bryant for President, + goats with two heads, Pat Boone albums...arghhh! Oh, hell. It's summer, + and it's too damn hot for diatribes. You guys only use this page to line + bird cages anyway. I'm going to the beach. See you this fall. + + (As a replacement column, Soror Timshel provided us with some stuff she + found scratched on the back of Aleister Growley's laundry list. Oh, well. + Anything to full space.) + + + A THELEMIC LANGUAGE LESSON + + WHAT THELEMITES SAY: WHAT THEY MEAN: + + 1. Do what thou wilt. 1. Fine, don't do it my way...but + it'll be wrong. + 2. I disagree, but "As brothers fight 2. I'm planning your "greater + feast" for sometime next week. + 3. Take your fill and will of love as 3. Wanna fuck? + ye will. + 4. It's beyond your grade. 4. I don't know. + 5. Meditate on it. 5. I really don't know. + 6. It's a blind. 6. No one knows. + 7. It's revealed wisdom. 7. He made it up. + 8. Their rituals are too "Old Aeon." 8. There's not enough sex and + violence. + 9. In terms of physical phenomena, 9. My cat exploded. + the ritual was a success. + 10.That lecture was very informative. 10.How many oaths did you break with + this one? + 11.Our ritual should be quite 11.It's a combined Horus invocation + powerful. /Choronzon evocation with a + little Cthulu thrown in for + extra punch. + 12.His new rituals are very true to 12.He changed two words in Liber + Crowley's vision. Pyramidos + 13.Taking this initiation will 13.Your husband will leave, you'll + accelerate your progress lose your job, a meteor will + on the path. strike your car and your dog + will die. + 14.That's an interesting 14.Crowley is spinning in his + interpretation. grave fast enough to + generate electricity. + 15.Their camp is very independent. 15.They're planning the overthrow + of the Grand Master and they've + become born-again Christians. + 16.That's how Crowley originally 16.I don't have a good reason, but + intended it. I like it that way. + 17.Their temple has a lot of magical 17.They haven't banished since + energy. 1967. + 18.The party was fun.....you know, the 18.There were 3 major philosophical + usual. schisms, 2 magical duels to the + death, an impromptu X-rated + Gnostic Mass, and the usual orgy + to follow. + 19.He brings a strong sense of 19.He's Crowley's incarnation and + conviction to his commentaries on he wants royalties. + Crowley's works. + 20.Yes, "Liber Call Me AL" is very 20.Tell us who wrote it so we can + witty. kill him. + 21.Your "Law Under the Law" column has 21.The FBI just called, and we + some interesting political turned you in. + implications. + + (The Editors have been assured that the usual lecture will return next + issue, so don't panic - your bird cages won't go liner-less again.) + + Love is the law, love under will + ______________________________ + + ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND + STUNS SKEPTICS + + by Edwin L. Andrews, Ph.D. + (reprinted with permission from + Archae-O-logical Annual) + + The tablet here presented is the + oldest solid evidence of computer + technology by early civilizations. + Written in Hebrew characters, it + is, apparently, the mapping of + eight pairs of 8- bit registers, or + possibly even eight single 16-bit + registers, from an ET 8032 computer + chip. It will be noticed, on + inspection, that nine of the bytes + are marked with a | character. + These divide the hexadecimal + architecture into a decimal + infrastructure. + The nine bytes designated by the + | character contain the Hebrew + correlates of I, L, and A in the + right bank, and V, Ch, P (final), + B, and R in the left bank. This + enumerates, by the usual methods, + to 337, the value of a Hebrew word + meaning "Ruler of Earth." + Obviously, this alludes to some + scheme to conquer the planet at + large. + Accompanying papyri declare that + someone named He-Shem (HShM, "The + Name") brought them from a land + called Y'nis (INIS). He-Shem may + in fact have been He-Shom. + The vertical lines of the left + register give an amazing key to the + ancient chant of the Sudan: + + Dammel thinshed + Kathachowdom + Lo, the tizzle-tock + The Darpadoth + B.B. ve-Thaloa + [The "B.B." has always + been mysterious.] + Shekkanah-brawl + He-Vilthinbar + Mish Becky Egg Heqq + + Also, the total numeric value of + both tablets is 10,097. This + remarkably matches precisely the + number of Frigginites exiled in Libya. Furthermore, the tablet is + divided exactly as were the + Frigginites by gender; id est, + 4,258 men (matching the value of + the right tablet), and 5,839 women + (the left tablet). + Besides these few small points, + the right side remains + unintelligible and is published + here with the earnest hope that + other scholars may assist in their + decipherment. + _____________________________ + + WANTED + + The Baphomet Breeze needs your + help. We are looking to fill + the following positions with + capable, qualified, and + courageous individuals. The + weak of mind and the faint of + heart need not apply. + + Subscribers: Send money and + enjoy the Breeze at every + available opportunity. + + Letter Writers: Send in your + questions, comments, or in- + sults for inclusion in our new + "Shooting the Breeze" column. + + Authors: Articulate esoteri- + cally ON your preferred avoca- + tion. + _____________________________ + + Liber Call Me AL + vel vel, now. + subfigura skating + "The Book of the In-Laws" + + 1. New and improved! The filet of + Haddock. + 2. Oh come, all ye faithful, and + Jim shall spill all the secrets + which have not been revealed + already. I, Christopher Robin, + am the complement of Pooh, my + bear. He is hungry, and he lives + under the name of Sanders. + 3. I am always the center of + attention, which makes my wife a + bit edgy. + 4. Yet it is she who gets invited + to the best parties. + 5. Yuck! These old rituals are + filthy! Let the nasty ones get + lost; let the good take + laxatives. Then we'll talk. + 6. I am heartburn and sunstroke. I + am Life, and I gave at the + office, yet I am expert in + Grateful Dead trivia. + 7. I am The Omen and The Exorcist. + I am the fly in the ointment and + the lime in the coconut. "Come + unto me" is a foolish word, for + I do not make house calls. + 8. Who worshipped Har-Po-Marx has + worshipped me; badly, for I + prefer Chico. + 9. Remember that existence is one + long party; that hangovers pass + and are done, but liver damage + remains. + 10. O boy, I can see you had enough + of this yesterday. + 11. I see you hate the hand and the + pen, but I could not afford a + word processor. + 12. Because we are both broke. + 13. for why? Because thou failed + grammar, and me. + 14. Also, we couldn't pay the + electric bill. + 15. For I am just the greatest + thing, and my number is nine one + one to the fools, but with the + "in" crowd I am eight, and one + eight, and four out of five, and + two for one. Which is really + critical, only I forgot why. I + didn't draw to my Jack-high + straight. + 16. I am a priest in drag. Oh, and + I can count to eleven, just like + my wife. + 17. Hear me, ye people of sighing + Whose next three paychecks are + all spent; + Now is the time to start crying + -- + The Landlord just increased your + rent! + 18. They are better off dead, these + worthless bums. they will + hardly feel a thing. We don't + care -- we're on the winning + team. + 19. Is God to walk a dog? Woof! + But Pig enumerates to 93. + 20. Beauty and fashion, Malibu + condos and fast cars, coke and cognac are of us. + 21. We have nothing with the scum + and the rabble. Refuse them + spare change! Kick them in the + ribs! Spit on them! Gouge + their eyes out! Drop napalm on + their foul, stinking streets + full of cheap wine bottles and + shopping carts and -- excuse me, + I got carried away. If the body + of the King dissolve, the Palace + probably needs a new water + softener. Nuts! Haddocks! Pa- + Ra-Keets! UV lamps, steroids + and contact lenses, track + lighting! I ask you, is this + any way to run a pantheon? Then + again, what can you expect from + a bunch of nocturnal snakes? + 22. I am the Worm that lieth in the + bottom of the tequila bottle + which fills men with + drunkenness. For a good time, + buy strange drugs from my + distributor and trip thereupon. + The brain damage will barely be + noticeable. Just say "Nu!" The + exposure of innocence is fun. + Be a manly, lusty Man; you can + explain it all to God later. + 23. I am alone. There is no God. + Where am I? + 24. But ye, o my people, rise up + and -- Shut up, o deacon; I am + not there yet. This is just one + of many Grave Mysteries I plan + to hint about without ever + actually telling you anything. + For example, it is said, or so + some say, that there are those + of my people who are hermits. + Now, think not to find them + milking goats in the West County + of Ireland, or even standing in + wheatfields holding cubist + lanterns along the Tiphareth- + Chesed Freeway, but at cocktail + parties, and in the Tokyo subway + system. How is it, you ask, + that such people are deemed + Hermits? Chalk up another Grave + Mystery. Remember: Kill the + wretched, and the weak, the + struggling masses yearning to be + free! Burn their homes, plow + their fields with salt, enslave + them, oppress them -- oh my, I'm + sorry, I seem to have gotten + carried away again. I really + will try to keep a lid on it + from now on. Promise. + 25. It's us against them, boy, and + I say we call in the nukes! The + hell with what I just promised! + I hate them! I hate them! + Aaaargh! + 26. I am the train entering a + tunnel, and the hot dog chasing + a donut. If I lift up my head, + and shoot forth venom, I will + have to wash the sheets in the + morning. + 27. There is danger in this verse, + for whoso does not give it to + his editor shall make a great + mess. He shall stumble into the + pit called Writers Block, and + there he shall reason with the + Xaos. + 28. Now, damn Because, and the + horse he rode in on! + 29. Just who the Hell does Because + think he is, anyway? + 30. If Will stops and cries Why, + fire him. + 31. If Power asks Why, tell it + whatever it wants to hear. + 32. Reason won't work either, at + least not for you. + 33. Enough Because, already! I + don't even like his dog! + 34. (What has he got against dogs, + anyway? Is it my turn, now? + Okay...*ahem*) But ye, o my + people, rise up and restore + circulation to your arms! + 35. Let the rituals be performed + with latex and farm animals! + 36. There are parties every other Tuesday at Bagh-i-muattar Camp. + 37. A feast for the first night of + Pernod over ice! + 38. A feast for each of the ninety- + four days of the writing on the + Book of the In-Laws. + 39. A feast for Alexia, child of + 1.75 Masters -- Ptah-Sekhet, O + profit! + 40. Practices for initiation + rituals, and practices for the + Equinox so we can piss off the + A... A... types again. + 41. A feast after class, and a + feast on payday; a feast for + life, and a sudden loss of + appetite following death. + 42. A feast every day with me so + you can get heartburn. + 43. A feast every night with my + wife so you can get spacey. + 44. Yeah! Party hardy, bro, and + fear not hangovers at all. + 45. There is death for the dogs, + but only if a Czechoslovakian + restaurant opens in your + neighborhood. + 46. Doest thou fall? Art thou + hurt? Call Work Injury + Resources at (213) 466-1058. + 47. Where am I? What are these? + 48. Pity not the fallen! (What a + great idea for a song title...) + they are not my problem! I hate + them, hate them, hate them! + Torture them, destroy them, burn + them,! Rip their throats open + with dull knives, and -- whoops, + there I go again. + 49. I am Haddock, hear me roar, + while I kill and maim the poor; + they knew that I would get them + in the end. (This is one of the + nine to five; after work there + is happy hour, wherein I am + three sheets to the wind.) + 50. Green am I, and pink in the + weave of my shirt, yet the red + lines are in my eyes, and the + purple shadows under them. + 51. I mean really purple; it is the + light high as a mountain, tall + as a tree. My toadie shall call + this light "infrared," thus + establishing his credentials to + create a system of scientific + illuminism. + 52. There is some veal; that veal + is black. It is the veal you + bought for dinner three months + ago; it is the veal that still + lieth in the back of your + refrigerator. Throw away this + fuzzy specimen of mycology! Do + this, and I shall reward thee + with freedom from severe food + poisoning. + 53. Don't worry, kid, you won't + regret writing this thing. You + are perfectly OK, I swear it, + and any minor discomfort you may + feel is only temporary, and + probably just psychosomatic + anyway. + 54. So your family, loved ones, + friends, and everyone else + you've ever respected think + you've gone off the deep end? + Big deal! You know who you can + trust, right? The stops as thou + wilt; the yields as prescribed + by state law. + 55. Thou shalt learn the entire + English Alphabet; thou shalt + learn to construct words + therefrom. + 56. Laugh while you still can, + mockers! They laughed at me at + the University, but now, now I + will show them! Ahahaha! + 57. He that is righteous shall be + righteous still, he that is + filthy shall take a bath. + 58. Don't go changing, to try to + please me, I love you just the + way you are. Perhaps that bum + is a King who likes cheap red + wine. A King can choose his + refreshment as he will; the + rabble cannot hide their poor + taste. + 59. Kill them all, and let Me sort + them out! + 60. Strike low, strike often; kick + them when they're down, so they + won't get up again! + 61. There is a light before thine eyes, a light undesired, most + annoying. Buy a new shade for + your desk lamp. + 62. Your chest hurts, and the roof + is leaking. + 63. Just breathing is an effort. + 64. Oh! You let your guard down, + we have you now: hail, hail, the + gang's all here: prophet of a + Nut! prophet of the Odd! Prophet + of Bar-B-Que! Now rejoice, and + party, and write trashy novels! + 65. I am the Master; you will obey + me. + 66. Write and work, and find + ecstasy in bed! Thrill with + victory and agonize in defeat! + Those who see your death shall + be glad -- doesn't that make you + feel just great? I love you so + much I think I'll kill you. + Cheer up! We're all in this + together. + 67. Hold! A little more to the + left! Keep it up! Oh, for + God's sake, don't pass out now! + 68. Harder! Faster! Oh! Oh! + OH!!! + 69. Whew! What do I feel? Am I + exhausted? Not with this verse + number, I'm not. + 70. There are other ways, too. + Wisdom says: be rich! Then canst + thou afford more joy. + Recrystallize thy rapture. If + thou drink, don't drive, if thou + love, do. If thou do aught + joyous, don't get caught, and + destroy all evidence. + 71. But go for the gusto! + 72. Grab more and more! Live fast, + die young, leave a good-looking + corpse. + 73. Ah! Ah! Death! Death! Thou! + Thou! Shalt! Shalt! Long! -- + excuse me, I got stuck. Anyway, + forget death. + 74. Absence makes the Heart grow + fonder. He who lives long and + desires death much is obviously + not very good at suicide. + 75. Aha! Listen to the Secret Code + Message: + 76. 20-N-Z 6-B-17-M 3-M-2-N-3-M-3 + 16-6-C-15 18-14-N-11-5. What + the Hell does that mean? You + won't figure it out, that's for + sure. Ten cometh after me; they + shall read it, and weep. But + remember -- even if you don't + understand it, you can still + tell it to your friends. + 77. O be thou proud and macho and + muscular, and the Castro shall + be thine. + 78. Thou art really something, a + special kind of guy, truly head + and shoulders above the crowd, a + standout, one-of-a-kind. Thine + head shall expand to encompass + the stars. They shall worship + thy name, and the number of thy + beverage 202. + 79. The end of the filet of + Haddock, and so long to you, + sucker. + ___________________________ + + "CERTAIN ACTS" BILL MADE LAW + + President Drakonian signed the + once controversial "Federal Anti- + Crime Act" into law today. The Act + is intended to strengthen the + Federal Government in its war on + Crime, Drugs, Terrorism, and + certain other problems by + centralizing authority and + eliminating legal loopholes. + According to the Act, "Individuals + suspected of committing certain + acts, conspiring to commit certain + acts, advocating or condoning the + commission of certain acts, or + associating with those who commit, + conspire to commit, or advocate or + condone the commission of certain + acts, shall under the provisions of + this law be subject to immediate + arrest, conviction, and application + of certain corrective and/or + punitive measures..." + President Drakonian expressed + praise for Congress and + satisfaction with the new bill at a + reception today before a gathering + of the National Conservative Youth + Front. Said the President: "This + new measure will be a great help to + us in our ongoing efforts to stop + the most terrible threat in history + to the American way of life, and to + the values and institutions which + have made this country what it is + today. We applaud Congress's + courage and vision in supporting + our commitment to stem the rising + tide of Crime and certain other + problems, and to cut back on + bureaucratic red tape. We also + thank our good friends in the + Supreme Court for their gracious + assistance. Decent citizens across + the country may rest a little + easier in the certainty that the + forces of Freedom, Justice and + Security will now be able to + operate without the hindrance of + the needless and costly formalities + of times past." + In spite of media predictions of + widespread demonstrations, the + government is not expecting any + serious trouble; says Drakonian administration spokesman Peter + Hammer. According to Hammer, + "Under certain provisions of the + Act, certain agencies are + authorized to implement certain + policies within a certain boundary + of retroactivity. Under certain + circumstances, special task forces + may be created to expedite certain + phases of said policies. Said + circumstances were considered to be + fulfilled when certain information + was received through certain + channels which linked certain + individuals and organizations with + certain other individuals and + organizations known to be linked to + violations of Law according to the + provisions of the Act. Certain of + said task forces were immediately + created, and under the direction of + certain officials, immediately + carried out certain field + operations. Said operations, + through the effective utilization + of certain methods and equipment, + achieved desired results within the + designated time period." Further + details were not available. + _____________________________ + + Notes from the Editor-in-Chief + + by Hagios Xao + + The last quarter here at Hermes + Camp has been an interesting + period. First off, just days after + the last Breeze was mailed, the + Xaos moved into a new home. Less + than a month later, a large party + was held at our new place for the + First Day of the Writing of the + Book of the Law. At that party, + TahutiNet was unveiled. TahutiNet + is a new computer "bulletin board" + system run as an outreach activity + of Hermes Camp. This BBS completes + the downward pointing electronic + triangle (with Tahuti at the apex, + of course) of which BaphoNet in New + York and ThelemaNet in Berkeley + form the other two points. All + three systems carry three "echo + conferences," collectively called + MAGICKNET, which connect Magick, + Witchcraft, and Neo-Pagan oriented + BBS systems across the country in + one large message base. Also, the + three OTO boards carry a special + conference available only to OTO + members. In addition, TahutiNet + can be used to download an + electronic version of the Breeze or + to upload articles for future + issues. The numbers for the OTO + BBS systems are: + + TahutiNet + Eagle Rock, CA (213) 258-5724 + ThelemaNet + Berkeley, CA (415) 548-0163 + BaphoNet + New York, NY (718) 499-9227 + + This issue also marks a first + for the Xao. My courageous wife, + colloquially known as the UnderXao, + has volunteered as my successor as + Editor of the Breeze and has begun + training "the hard way." (That + means that she has single-handed + about 80% of the work involved in + producing this issue.) She has + done a fine job at the formidable + task of carrying on the Breeze + tradition of high quality content + and presentation. (At least we are + not conceited!) + _____________________________ + + To: Fr... Hagios Xao, + Master of Hermes Camp, + Editor of the Baphomet Breeze + From: Fr... Yolcam Vaoan, + Master of Ptah Sekhet Oasis, + OTO Quartermaster + + 4/29/88 e.v. + + Excellent Companion, + + Do what thou wilt shall be the + whole of the Law + + The following Notice pertains to + the OTO Quartermaster function and + parallels a similar but more + serious notice to be published in + the Link. + + NOTICE + + Although Baphomet Lodge does not + currently have a Master, it does + have a Past Master, a Half Master, + and now a Quartermaster. Yes, I've + been cajoled into accepting the + responsibility of providing all OTO + initiators with everything (nearly) + they need to perform initiations. + The first thing I'd like to do in + the context of Quartermastery is + try to gather together a good + portion of the Order's Wisdom of + Experience on how Man of Earth + initiation temples have been, can + and should be put together. I'll + need your help for this. Please + send your stories (success and + horror), tips, reccomendations, + photos, samples, blueprints, etc. + etc. to me now for compilation, + analysis, synthesis, and + redistribution. I have a special + interest in hearing from those of + you who might be willing to + actually make items of temple + equipment for sale to the Order. + Please write to the Quartermaster + at the following address: + + Ordo Templi Orientis + 22797 Barton Rd., No. 110 + Colton, CA 92324 + + Or phone. If you don't know the pho e number, please get it from + someone who does. + + Love is the law, love under will. + + Frater J.W. + O.T.O. Quartermaster + _____________________________ + + HUNCHBACKS AND SOLDIERS + + ?: What is M...M...M...? I've + never come across it. + ?: What is the diamond-shaped + symbol with 11 crosses which + Crowley sometimes uses in front of + his name? I have seen some ads for + jewelry like this and wanted to + know what it meant. + ?: What is a Viceroy? Some of + Crowley's letters to Germer refer + to him as Crowley's Viceroy. + + !: These three "hunchbacks" have + been grouped together because they + can all be answered, at least in + part, by reference to one historic + document. + There exists a famous charter + from Mercurius (James Thomas + Windram), which most O.T.O. + archivists have in their files. It + has been a standard from which many + current forms and certificates have + been designed. It reads as + follows: + + "O.T.O. MYSTERIA MYSTICA MAXIMA + + Peace, Tolerance, Truth, Salutation + on all + points of the Triangle, respect to + the Order. + + Know all Men by these presents:- + That the greatly honoured Brother + James Thomas Windram Xo, Most + Puissant Sovereign Grand Commander, + Absolute Grand Patriarch, Sovereign + Grand Master General and Viceroy + for the Union of South Africa by + virtue of his exalted office, and + under the authority of a Patent + conferred on him by the Grand + Master Baphomet, dated Anno IX, Sun + in 10o15'17" Capricorn Moon in + 7o14'41" Pisces, does hereby + authorize and empower Venerable and + right worthy Frater Frank Bennett + VIIo, and Venerable and right + worthy Soror Veni Cooper Matheson + VIIo, and those associated with + them to constitute, hold and rule + the _______ Lodge, No. 2 on the + Register of the National Grand Council of the Ordo Templi Orientis + for the Union of South Africa with + the right to work the Grades of the + M...M...M... Rite subject and + according to the Constitution of + the O.T.O. and M...M...M..., in the + City of Sydney, N.S.W. + Given in the name of the Grand + Master Baphomet, and by order and + under the hand and seal of His + Excellency the Viceroy of the + O.T.O. for the Union of South + Africa this 15th day of November + 1915 E.V." + At the lower left, it is + "Sealed, signed and delivered by + us, Mercurius Xo." At the lower + right we find: "In witness whereof + I have hereunto set my hand, L.M. + Yardley VIIo, Sovereign Grand + Secretary General, O.T.O., + M...M...M..., Union of South + Africa." Each prefixes his name + with the 11-fold cross concerning + which our correspondent has + inquired. + (1) M...M...M... stands for + "Mysteria Mystica Maxima"; that is, + the degrees from Minerval through + Prince of the Royal Secret. + (Beyond this, beginning with VIIo, + is the O.T.O. proper.) + Each of the old national + sections of O.T.O. had its own + name, such as Mysteria Mystica + Veritas, Mysteria Mystica Aeterna, + and Veritas Mystica Maxima. The + British Order, under Crowley, was + called Mysteria Mystica Maxima, as + were all national branches + springing directly from it. + M...M...M... is thus roughly + synonymous with what folks commonly + call "Aleister Crowley's O.T.O.," + the outer O.T.O. system (below + VIIo) as descended through Crowley. + It is no accident that the three + initials enumerate to 120. + (2) The so-called "Baphomet + Cross" is a minor variation of a + traditional Masonic insignia. One + official O.T.O. instruction refers + to it as, "the triple and eleven + fold Cross in the invisible Diamond + which a member of our Supreme + Council prefixeth to his + signature," linking it specifically + to Supreme Council members. I have + never seen it used in any source document except by a Grand Master, + Grand Secretary, or Grand + Treasurer. The female form has + curved serifs (see Leah Bathurst's + signature on p. 206 of the "Blue + Equinox"). Ignorance of its true + meaning has lead many to assume + wrongly that it is a IXo cross; + that it is a jewel for anyone in + O.T.O.; etc. By traditional usage, + it should be used only by the four + Grand officers and their + international counterparts. + (3) There are two forms of Xo. + Each type may hold the national + administrative office called "Grand + Master." One is a "Supreme & Holy + King," appointed directly by the + O.H.O. (the international O.T.O. + head). The other is a "Viceroy" + (Vice- King), appointed in special + circumstances by a Xo who is not + O.H.O. Windram was Xo Viceroy of + the Union of South Africa, not + Supreme & Holy King, because he was + appointed by Xo Crowley (with + O.H.O. Reuss' permission), and + reported directly to Crowley. + Similarly, C. S. Jones identified + himself in one document as + "PARZIVAL Xo O.T.O., Deputy Grand + Master General of all English + Speaking Countries, Viceroy of His + Most Sacred Majesty BAPHOMET for + the Dominion of Canada." Karl + Germer was Xo Supreme & Holy King + of Germany; but when he came to + live in the U.S., we had a Supreme + & Holy King, Wilfred Smith (per + appointment by O.H.O. Crowley in + 1932). Therefore, though Germer + retained his degree, he was + addressed in correspondence as + Crowley's Viceroy. This gives a + historic precedent for two Xo + members living in one country, only + one of whom is that nation's King, + the other being a Viceroy of that + King or of another. + The title "Viceroy" should not + be confused with Deputy ("Vice") + Grand Master General. + + Frater Iacchus + _____________________________ + + CLASSIFIED SECTION + + In The Continuum + + The third issue of volume IV of + In The Continuum is now available. + All back issues are also available. + Volume I has 10 issues, volume II + has 12 issues and volume III has 10 + issues. These issues may be + obtained for $4.00 per number from: + + College of Thelema + P.O. Box 415 + Oroville, CA 95965 + + Please make checks payable to + Phyllis Seckler. + + Initiator's Supplies + + A limited quantity of Cornelius + B-meters is now available at the + low price of only $19.88 each. + Contact Ptah-Sekhet Camp for full + details. (Some restrictions may + apply.) + + O.T.O Baseball Caps + + We now have available black + standard baseball caps with the + O.T.O. lamen silk screened on the + front in bright white. These hats + are adjustable, so there is no + problem accommodating the head of + even the most ego-centric magician. + This hat is quickly becoming the + "standard apparel" for all Lodge + functions. The price is $8.00 per + hat (plus $0.50 for shipping). All + proceeds go to Hermes Camp for the + production of the Baphomet Breeze. + _____________________________ + + BHAKTI MAGICK CENTER + + Bhakti Magick Center - a School + of Occult Science and Hermetic + Magick for O.T.O. members and + interested aspirants: conducts a + variety of classes, workshops and + seminars dedicated to the + advancement of Thelema. + (Ed note: Before we went to + press, a Magical Weapons Crafting + Seminar had just concluded: The + participants uniquely creating + their own wand, cup, dagger, and + pentacle.) + Their Saturday activity lineup + includes: Astral Aerobics (3 pm), + Magick Class (8 pm), then Bhakti + Party (11 pm). + Every Friday at 8 pm is an open + invitation to participate in a + Practicing Goddesses of Thelema + Night of feminine magick, + cartouche, astral work and aught + else. No prior experience is + needed, you have it already. + Get further info from: David + Cherubim, 1626 N.Wilcox Ave. #418, + Los Angeles, CA 90028, or call + (213) 467-5689 or (213) 254-8355. + Send $1 for current Bhakti + Newsletter. + _____________________________ + + The Baphomet Breeze is published + quarterly by Baphomet Lodge, an + affiliated body of Ordo Templi + Orientis. Individual issues may be + purchased for $1.50 per issue, + postpaid. Subscriptions are + available for $4.00 per year, + postpaid. Subscriptions are + included in Lodge initiation fees + for members of Baphomet Lodge. + Some issues receive wider + complimentary distribution, at the + whim of the Lodge Master and the + Editor. If you would like to + receive the Breeze on a regular + basis, send money. If you want to + be sure NOT to receive the Breeze, + send money. Donations to Hermes + Camp toward the publication of the + Breeze are tax-deductible. + + SUBSCRIPTIONS AND OTHER SUBMISSIONS + FOR THE BAPHOMET BREEZE SHOULD BE + SENT TO: + + HERMES CAMP + 249 N. Brand Bl. #482 + Glendale, CA 91203 + + + CALENDAR OF EVENTS + + Activities marked with ** are held at the Manhattan address. + + Minerval and Io Initiations are scheduled as needed, call for details. + + Every Wed 8 pm Heru-Ra-Ha Lodge: Class (Wednesdays through Eternity) + Every Wed 8 pm College of Thelema, LA Campus: Class (Basic Occult + Practices - Do Not Be Late) ** + Every Fri 8 pm Bhakti Magick Center: Practicing Goddesses of Thelema + Night - See Announcement + Every Sat Bhakti Magick Center: Class - See Announcement + + 6/20 8:57 pm Summer Solstice + 6/20 8 pm IIo Symbolism Class** + 6/21 8 pm Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Solstice Party + 6/25 Bhakti Center: Astral Aerobics/Magick Class/Party + 6/27 8 pm IIIo Symbolism Class ** + 7/2 Bhakti Center: Astral Aerobics/Magick Class/Party + 7/3 3 pm Nuit-Hathor Sanctuary: Gnostic Mass ** + 7/5 8 pm Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Class - Call for details and + reservations + 7/8 Ptah-Sekhet Oasis: Minerval Initiations (Officers 7 pm, + Candidates 8 pm) + 7/9 Ptah-Sekhet Oasis: Io Initiations (Officers 3 am, + Candidates 4 am) + 7/9 Bhakti Center: Astral Aerobics/Magick Class/Party + 7/11 8 pm Io Symbolism Class ** + 7/17 1 pm Ptah-Sekhet Oasis: Gnostic Mass + 7/18 8 pm IVo Rehersal ** (OFFICERS FOR UPCOMING IVo MUST ATTEND) + 7/19 8 pm Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Class - Call for details and + reservations + 7/23 6 pm Convocation of the Lodge of Perfection + 7/30 4 pm Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Official Orgia + 8/1 8 pm Minerval Symbolism Class ** + 8/2 8 pm Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Class - Call for details and + reservations + 8/6 12 noon Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Babalon Chapter members meeting + 8/6 1 pm Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Baphomet Lodge members meeting + 8/6 8 pm Medieval Times Dinner Party - For those with reservations + and paid on time + 8/7 3 pm Nuit-Hathor Sanctuary: Gnostic Mass ** + 8/8 8 pm Ptah-Sekhet Oasis: IIo Rehersal (OFFICERS FOR UPCOMING + IIo MUST ATTEND) + 8/12 8 pm Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Feast - First Night of the Prophet + and His Bride + 8/13 Ptah-Sekhet Oasis: IIo Initiations (Officers 11 am, + Candidates 12 noon) + 8/14 11 am Hermes Camp: Garden of Thelema Brunch - Bring a dish + representing some historic age + 8/15 8 pm Ptah-Sekhet Oasis: IIo Symbolism Class + 8/16 8 pm Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Class - Call for details and + reservations + 8/27 Bhakti Center: Astral Aerobics/Magick Class/Party + 8/28 1 pm Ptah-Sekhet Oasis: Gnostic Mass + 8/30 8 pm Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Class - Call for details and + reservations + 9/1 Deadline for article submissions to the BAPHOMET BREEZE + 9/3 Bhakti Center: Astral Aerobics/Magick Class/Party + 9/3 6 pm Babalon Chapter: Convocation + 9/4 3 pm Nuit-Hathor Sanctuary: Gnostic Mass ** + 9/5 8 pm Equinox Rehersal ** + 9/10 Bhakti Center: Astral Aerobics/Magick Class/Party + 9/11 3 pm Hermes Camp: Benefit GIANT BBQ FEAST for Gnostic Mass + Ceremony hall rental ($5/ticket) + 9/13 8 pm Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Class - Call for details and + reservations + 9/17 Bhakti Center: Astral Aerobics/Magick Class/Party + 9/19 8 pm Equinox Rehersal ** + 9/22 12:29 pm Autumnal Equinox + 9/23 8 pm Ptah-Sekhet Oasis: Babalon Chapter Autumnal Equinox + Celebration and SPECIAL EVENT + 9/25 1 pm Ptah-Sekhet Oasis: Gnostic Mass + 9/26 8 pm Ptah-Sekhet Oasis: IIIo Rehersal (OFFICERS FOR UPCOMING + IIIo MUST ATTEND) + 9/27 8 pm Bagh-i-muattar Camp: Class - Call for details and + reservations + 10/1 The Wondrous and Most Mysterious Las Vegas Wedding of Lauri and Craig + + _____________________________ + + SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA O.T.O. BODIES + AND SATELLITES + + BAPHOMET LODGE No. 7 + NUIT-HATHOR SANCTUARY + BABALON CHAPTER (R+C) No. 6 + 4216 Beverly Boulevard, #156 + Los Angeles, CA 90004 + + Aiwass Oasis + P.O. Box 26205 + San Jose, CA 95159 + + A Ka Dua Camp + Box 815 + Ben Lomond, CA 95006-1052 + + Khensu-Ra Camp + P.O. Box 55084, Stn. B + Omaha, NB 68155-0084 + + Ptah Sekhet Oasis + 22797 Barton Road, #110 + Colton, CA 92324 + + Hermes Camp / Baphomet Breeze + 249 North Brand Boulevard, #482 + Glendale, CA 91203 + + Bagh-i-muattar Camp + 2058 North Mills Avenue, #234 + Claremont, CA 91711 + + N.O.X. Camp + 4577 South Centinela + Los Angeles, CA 90066 + + HERU-RA-HA LODGE No. 3 + HERU-RA-HA CHAPTER (R+C) No. 2 + P.O. Box 3111 + Newport Beach, CA 92663 + + 93 Camp + P.O. Box 2512 + Capistrano Beach, CA 92624 + + Bacchus Camp + P.O. Box 1754 + Garden Grove, CA 92642-1754 + + Ebony Camp + 3100 South B Street + Oxnard, CA 93030 + _____________________________ + + Baphomet Lodge: (213) 464-0887 + Hermes Camp: (818) 409-9686 + (Breeze Offices) + TahutiNet: (213) 258-5724 + (300/1200/2400 baud) + + Frater Yod, Co-Publisher + Soror Maticuiasa, Co-Publisher + Executive Committee, Baphomet Lodge + + Soror UnderXao, Editor-in-Training + Frater Hagios Xao, Editor-in-Chief + Campmaster, Hermes Camp + + Copyright (c) 1988 Ordo Templi + Orientis, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/bbe.txt b/religious documents/bbe.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88d116f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bbe.txt @@ -0,0 +1,31103 @@ +Holy Bible, Bible in Basic English (BBE). Textfile 980302. +Gen 1:1 At the first God made the heaven and the earth. +Gen 1:2 And the earth was waste and without form; and it was dark on the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God was moving on the face of the waters. +Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. +Gen 1:4 And God, looking on the light, saw that it was good: and God made a division between the light and the dark, +Gen 1:5 Naming the light, Day, and the dark, Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. +Gen 1:6 And God said, Let there be a solid arch stretching over the waters, parting the waters from the waters. +Gen 1:7 And God made the arch for a division between the waters which were under the arch and those which were over it: and it was so. +Gen 1:8 And God gave the arch the name of Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. +Gen 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven come together in one place, and let the dry land be seen: and it was so. +Gen 1:10 And God gave the dry land the name of Earth; and the waters together in their place were named Seas: and God saw that it was good. +Gen 1:11 And God said, Let grass come up on the earth, and plants producing seed, and fruit-trees giving fruit, in which is their seed, after their sort: and it was so. +Gen 1:12 And grass came up on the earth, and every plant producing seed of its sort, and every tree producing fruit, in which is its seed, of its sort: and God saw that it was good. +Gen 1:13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. +Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the arch of heaven, for a division between the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for marking the changes of the year, and for days and for years: +Gen 1:15 And let them be for lights in the arch of heaven to give light on the earth: and it was so. +Gen 1:16 And God made the two great lights: the greater light to be the ruler of the day, and the smaller light to be the ruler of the night: and he made the stars. +Gen 1:17 And God put them in the arch of heaven, to give light on the earth; +Gen 1:18 To have rule over the day and the night, and for a division between the light and the dark: and God saw that it was good. +Gen 1:19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. +Gen 1:20 And God said, Let the waters be full of living things, and let birds be in flight over the earth under the arch of heaven. +Gen 1:21 And God made great sea-beasts, and every sort of living and moving thing with which the waters were full, and every sort of winged bird: and God saw that it was good. +Gen 1:22 And God gave them his blessing, saying, Be fertile and have increase, making all the waters of the seas full, and let the birds be increased in the earth. +Gen 1:23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. +Gen 1:24 And God said, Let the earth give birth to all sorts of living things, cattle and all things moving on the earth, and beasts of the earth after their sort: and it was so. +Gen 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after its sort, and the cattle after their sort, and everything moving on the face of the earth after its sort: and God saw that it was good. +Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, like us: and let him have rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every living thing which goes flat on the earth. +Gen 1:27 And God made man in his image, in the image of God he made him: male and female he made them. +Gen 1:28 And God gave them his blessing and said to them, Be fertile and have increase, and make the earth full and be masters of it; be rulers over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing moving on the earth. +Gen 1:29 And God said, See, I have given you every plant producing seed, on the face of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit producing seed: they will be for your food: +Gen 1:30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and every living thing moving on the face of the earth I have given every green plant for food: and it was so. +Gen 1:31 And God saw everything which he had made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. +Gen 2:1 And the heaven and the earth and all things in them were complete. +Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God came to the end of all his work; and on the seventh day he took his rest from all the work which he had done. +Gen 2:3 And God gave his blessing to the seventh day and made it holy: because on that day he took his rest from all the work which he had made and done. +Gen 2:4 These are the generations of the heaven and the earth when they were made. +Gen 2:5 In the day when the Lord God made earth and heaven there were no plants of the field on the earth, and no grass had come up: for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to do work on the land. +Gen 2:6 But a mist went up from the earth, watering all the face of the land. +Gen 2:7 And the Lord God made man from the dust of the earth, breathing into him the breath of life: and man became a living soul. +Gen 2:8 And the Lord God made a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had made. +Gen 2:9 And out of the earth the Lord made every tree to come, delighting the eye and good for food; and in the middle of the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. +Gen 2:10 And a river went out of Eden giving water to the garden; and from there it was parted and became four streams. +Gen 2:11 The name of the first is Pishon, which goes round about all the land of Havilah where there is gold. +Gen 2:12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. +Gen 2:13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: this river goes round all the land of Cush. +Gen 2:14 And the name of the third river is Tigris, which goes to the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. +Gen 2:15 And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to do work in it and take care of it. +Gen 2:16 And the Lord God gave the man orders, saying, You may freely take of the fruit of every tree of the garden: +Gen 2:17 But of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not take; for on the day when you take of it, death will certainly come to you. +Gen 2:18 And the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be by himself: I will make one like himself as a help to him +Gen 2:19 And from the earth the Lord God made every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and took them to the man to see what names he would give them: and whatever name he gave to any living thing, that was its name. +Gen 2:20 And the man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field; but Adam had no one like himself as a help. +Gen 2:21 And the Lord God sent a deep sleep on the man, and took one of the bones from his side while he was sleeping, joining up the flesh again in its place: +Gen 2:22 And the bone which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman, and took her to the man. +Gen 2:23 And the man said, This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh: let her name be Woman because she was taken out of Man. +Gen 2:24 For this cause will a man go away from his father and his mother and be joined to his wife; and they will be one flesh. +Gen 2:25 And the man and his wife were without clothing, and they had no sense of shame. +Gen 3:1 Now the snake was wiser than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God truly said that you may not take of the fruit of any tree in the garden? +Gen 3:2 And the woman said, We may take of the fruit of the trees in the garden: +Gen 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, If you take of it or put your hands on it, death will come to you. +Gen 3:4 And the snake said, Death will not certainly come to you: +Gen 3:5 For God sees that on the day when you take of its fruit, your eyes will be open, and you will be as gods, having knowledge of good and evil. +Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and a delight to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and gave it to her husband. +Gen 3:7 And their eyes were open and they were conscious that they had no clothing and they made themselves coats of leaves stitched together. +Gen 3:8 And there came to them the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening wind: and the man and his wife went to a secret place among the trees of the garden, away from the eyes of the Lord God. +Gen 3:9 And the voice of the Lord God came to the man, saying, Where are you? +Gen 3:10 And he said, Hearing your voice in the garden I was full of fear, because I was without clothing: and I kept myself from your eyes. +Gen 3:11 And he said, Who gave you the knowledge that you were without clothing? Have you taken of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take? +Gen 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I took it. +Gen 3:13 And the Lord God said to the woman, What have you done? And the woman said, I was tricked by the deceit of the snake and I took it. +Gen 3:14 And the Lord God said to the snake, Because you have done this you are cursed more than all cattle and every beast of the field; you will go flat on the earth, and dust will be your food all the days of your life: +Gen 3:15 And there will be war between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed: by him will your head be crushed and by you his foot will be wounded. +Gen 3:16 To the woman he said, Great will be your pain in childbirth; in sorrow will your children come to birth; still your desire will be for your husband, but he will be your master. +Gen 3:17 And to Adam he said, Because you gave ear to the voice of your wife and took of the fruit of the tree which I said you were not to take, the earth is cursed on your account; in pain you will get your food from it all your life. +Gen 3:18 Thorns and waste plants will come up, and the plants of the field will be your food; +Gen 3:19 With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back. +Gen 3:20 And the man gave his wife the name of Eve because she was the mother of all who have life. +Gen 3:21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins for their clothing. +Gen 3:22 And the Lord God said, Now the man has become like one of us, having knowledge of good and evil; and now if he puts out his hand and takes of the fruit of the tree of life, he will go on living for ever. +Gen 3:23 So the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to be a worker on the earth from which he was taken. +Gen 3:24 So he sent the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden he put winged ones and a flaming sword turning every way to keep the way to the tree of life. +Gen 4:1 And the man had connection with Eve his wife, and she became with child and gave birth to Cain, and said, I have got a man from the Lord. +Gen 4:2 Then again she became with child and gave birth to Abel, his brother. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a farmer. +Gen 4:3 And after a time, Cain gave to the Lord an offering of the fruits of the earth. +Gen 4:4 And Abel gave an offering of the young lambs of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord was pleased with Abel's offering; +Gen 4:5 But in Cain and his offering he had no pleasure. And Cain was angry and his face became sad. +Gen 4:6 And the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? and why is your face sad? +Gen 4:7 If you do well, will you not have honour? and if you do wrong, sin is waiting at the door, desiring to have you, but do not let it be your master. +Gen 4:8 And Cain said to his brother, Let us go into the field: and when they were in the field, Cain made an attack on his brother Abel and put him to death. +Gen 4:9 And the Lord said to Cain, Where is your brother Abel? And he said, I have no idea: am I my brother's keeper? +Gen 4:10 And he said, What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the earth. +Gen 4:11 And now you are cursed from the earth, whose mouth is open to take your brother's blood from your hand; +Gen 4:12 No longer will the earth give you her fruit as the reward of your work; you will be a wanderer in flight over the earth. +Gen 4:13 And Cain said, My punishment is greater than my strength. +Gen 4:14 You have sent me out this day from the face of the earth and from before your face; I will be a wanderer in flight over the earth, and whoever sees me will put me to death. +Gen 4:15 And the Lord said, Truly, if Cain is put to death, seven lives will be taken for his. And the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one might put him to death. +Gen 4:16 And Cain went away from before the face of the Lord, and made his living-place in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. +Gen 4:17 And Cain had connection with his wife and she became with child and gave birth to Enoch: and he made a town, and gave the town the name of Enoch after his son. +Gen 4:18 And Enoch had a son Irad: and Irad became the father of Mehujael: and Mehujael became the father of Methushael: and Methushael became the father of Lamech. +Gen 4:19 And Lamech had two wives; the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. +Gen 4:20 And Adah gave birth to Jabal: he was the father of such as are living in tents and keep cattle. +Gen 4:21 And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all players on instruments of music. +Gen 4:22 And Zillah gave birth to Tubal-cain, who is the father of every maker of cutting instruments of brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. +Gen 4:23 And Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, give ear to my voice; you wives of Lamech, give attention to my words, for I would put a man to death for a wound, and a young man for a blow; +Gen 4:24 If seven lives are to be taken as punishment for Cain's death, seventy-seven will be taken for Lamech's. +Gen 4:25 And Adam had connection with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son to whom she gave the name of Seth: for she said, God has given me another seed in place of Abel, whom Cain put to death. +Gen 4:26 And Seth had a son, and he gave him the name of Enosh: at this time men first made use of the name of the Lord in worship. +Gen 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God made man, he made him in the image of God; +Gen 5:2 Male and female he made them, naming them Man, and giving them his blessing on the day when they were made. +Gen 5:3 Adam had been living for a hundred and thirty years when he had a son like himself, after his image, and gave him the name of Seth: +Gen 5:4 And after the birth of Seth, Adam went on living for eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 5:5 And all the years of Adam's life were nine hundred and thirty: and he came to his end. +Gen 5:6 And Seth was a hundred and five years old when he became the father of Enosh: +Gen 5:7 And he went on living after the birth of Enosh for eight hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 5:8 And all the years of Seth's life were nine hundred and twelve: and he came to his end. +Gen 5:9 And Enosh was ninety years old when he became the father of Kenan: +Gen 5:10 And after the birth of Kenan, Enosh went on living for eight hundred and fifteen years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 5:11 And all the years of Enosh were nine hundred and five: and he came to his end. +Gen 5:12 And Kenan was seventy years old when he became the father of Mahalalel: +Gen 5:13 And after the birth of Mahalalel, Kenan went on living for eight hundred and forty years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 5:14 And all the years of Kenan's life were nine hundred and ten; and he came to his end. +Gen 5:15 And Mahalalel was sixty-five years old when he became the father of Jared: +Gen 5:16 And after the birth of Jared, Mahalalel went on living for eight hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 5:17 And all the years of Mahalalel's life were eight hundred and ninety-five: and he came to his end. +Gen 5:18 And Jared was a hundred and sixty-two years old when he became the father of Enoch: +Gen 5:19 And Jared went on living after the birth of Enoch for eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 5:20 And all the years of Jared's life were nine hundred and sixty-two: and he came to his end. +Gen 5:21 And Enoch was sixty-five years old when he became the father of Methuselah: +Gen 5:22 And after the birth of Methuselah, Enoch went on in God's ways for three hundred years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 5:23 And all the years of Enoch's life were three hundred and sixty-five: +Gen 5:24 And Enoch went on in God's ways: and he was not seen again, for God took him. +Gen 5:25 And Methuselah was a hundred and eighty-seven years old when he became the father of Lamech: +Gen 5:26 And after the birth of Lamech, Methuselah went on living for seven hundred and eighty-two years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 5:27 And all the years of Methuselah's life were nine hundred and sixty-nine: and he came to his end. +Gen 5:28 And Lamech was a hundred and eighty-two years old when he had a son: +Gen 5:29 And he gave him the name of Noah, saying, Truly, he will give us rest from our trouble and the hard work of our hands, because of the earth which was cursed by God. +Gen 5:30 And after the birth of Noah, Lamech went on living for five hundred and ninety-five years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 5:31 And all the years of Lamech's life were seven hundred and seventy-seven: and he came to his end. +Gen 5:32 And when Noah was five hundred years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. +Gen 6:1 And after a time, when men were increasing on the earth, and had daughters, +Gen 6:2 The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took wives for themselves from those who were pleasing to them. +Gen 6:3 And the Lord said, My spirit will not be in man for ever, for he is only flesh; so the days of his life will be a hundred and twenty years. +Gen 6:4 There were men of great strength and size on the earth in those days; and after that, when the sons of God had connection with the daughters of men, they gave birth to children: these were the great men of old days, the men of great name. +Gen 6:5 And the Lord saw that the sin of man was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts of his heart were evil. +Gen 6:6 And the Lord had sorrow because he had made man on the earth, and grief was in his heart. +Gen 6:7 And the Lord said, I will take away man, whom I have made, from the face of the earth, even man and beast and that which goes on the earth and every bird of the air; for I have sorrow for having made them. +Gen 6:8 But Noah had grace in the eyes of God. +Gen 6:9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was an upright man and without sin in his generation: he went in the ways of God. +Gen 6:10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. +Gen 6:11 And the earth was evil in God's eyes and full of violent ways. +Gen 6:12 And God, looking on the earth, saw that it was evil: for the way of all flesh had become evil on the earth. +Gen 6:13 And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come; the earth is full of their violent doings, and now I will put an end to them with the earth. +Gen 6:14 Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood with rooms in it, and make it safe from the water inside and out. +Gen 6:15 And this is the way you are to make it: it is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. +Gen 6:16 You are to put a window in the ark, a cubit from the roof, and a door in the side of it, and you are to make it with a lower and second and third floors. +Gen 6:17 For truly, I will send a great flow of waters over the earth, for the destruction from under the heaven of all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth will come to an end. +Gen 6:18 But with you I will make an agreement; and you will come into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. +Gen 6:19 And you will take with you into the ark two of every sort of living thing, and keep them safe with you; they will be male and female. +Gen 6:20 Two of every sort of bird and cattle and of every sort of living thing which goes on the earth will you take with you to keep them from destruction. +Gen 6:21 And make a store of every sort of food for yourself and them. +Gen 6:22 And all these things Noah did; as God said, so he did. +Gen 7:1 And the Lord said to Noah, Take all your family and go into the ark, for you only in this generation have I seen to be upright. +Gen 7:2 Of every clean beast you will take seven males and seven females, and of the beasts which are not clean, two, the male and his female; +Gen 7:3 And of the birds of the air, seven males and seven females, so that their seed may still be living on the face of the earth. +Gen 7:4 For after seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, for the destruction of every living thing which I have made on the face of the earth. +Gen 7:5 And Noah did everything which the Lord said he was to do. +Gen 7:6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the waters came flowing over all the earth. +Gen 7:7 And Noah, with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the flowing of the waters. +Gen 7:8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts which are not clean, and of birds, and of everything which goes on the earth, +Gen 7:9 In twos, male and female, they went into the ark with Noah, as God had said. +Gen 7:10 And after the seven days, the waters came over all the earth. +Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the fountains of the great deep came bursting through, and the windows of heaven were open; +Gen 7:12 And rain came down on the earth for forty days and forty nights. +Gen 7:13 On the same day Noah, with Shem, Ham, and Japheth, his sons, and his wife and his sons' wives, went into the ark; +Gen 7:14 And with them, every sort of beast and cattle, and every sort of thing which goes on the earth, and every sort of bird. +Gen 7:15 They went with Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh in which is the breath of life. +Gen 7:16 Male and female of all flesh went in, as God had said, and the ark was shut by the Lord. +Gen 7:17 And for forty days the waters were over all the earth; and the waters were increased so that the ark was lifted up high over the earth. +Gen 7:18 And the waters overcame everything and were increased greatly on the earth, and the ark was resting on the face of the waters. +Gen 7:19 And the waters overcame everything on the earth; and all the mountains under heaven were covered. +Gen 7:20 The waters went fifteen cubits higher, till all the mountains were covered. +Gen 7:21 And destruction came on every living thing moving on the earth, birds and cattle and beasts and everything which went on the earth, and every man. +Gen 7:22 Everything on the dry land, in which was the breath of life, came to its end. +Gen 7:23 Every living thing on the face of all the earth, man and cattle and things moving on the face of the earth, and birds of the air, came to destruction: only Noah and those who were with him in the ark, were kept from death. +Gen 7:24 And the waters were over the earth a hundred and fifty days. +Gen 8:1 And God kept Noah in mind, and all the living things and the cattle which were with him in the ark: and God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters went down. +Gen 8:2 And the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were shut, and the rain from heaven was stopped. +Gen 8:3 And the waters went slowly back from the earth, and at the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters were lower. +Gen 8:4 And on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. +Gen 8:5 And still the waters went on falling, till on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains were seen. +Gen 8:6 Then, after forty days, through the open window of the ark which he had made, +Gen 8:7 Noah sent out a raven, which went this way and that till the waters were gone from the earth. +Gen 8:8 And he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had gone from the face of the earth; +Gen 8:9 But the dove saw no resting-place for her foot, and came back to the ark, for the waters were still over all the earth; and he put out his hand, and took her into the ark. +Gen 8:10 And after waiting another seven days, he sent the dove out again; +Gen 8:11 And the dove came back at evening, and in her mouth was an olive-leaf broken off: so Noah was certain that the waters had gone down on the earth. +Gen 8:12 And after seven days more, he sent the dove out again, but she did not come back to him. +Gen 8:13 And in the six hundred and first year, on the first day of the first month, the waters were dry on the earth: and Noah took the cover off the ark and saw that the face of the earth was dry. +Gen 8:14 And on the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was dry. +Gen 8:15 And God said to Noah, +Gen 8:16 Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives. +Gen 8:17 Take out with you every living thing which is with you, birds and cattle and everything which goes on the earth, so that they may have offspring and be fertile and be increased on the earth. +Gen 8:18 And Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives; +Gen 8:19 And every beast and bird and every living thing of every sort which goes on the earth, went out of the ark. +Gen 8:20 And Noah made an altar to the Lord, and from every clean beast and bird he made burned offerings on the altar. +Gen 8:21 And when the sweet smell came up to the Lord, he said in his heart, I will not again put a curse on the earth because of man, for the thoughts of man's heart are evil from his earliest days; never again will I send destruction on all living things as I have done. +Gen 8:22 While the earth goes on, seed time and the getting in of the grain, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will not come to an end. +Gen 9:1 And God gave his blessing to Noah and his sons, and said, Be fertile, and have increase, and make the earth full. +Gen 9:2 And the fear of you will be strong in every beast of the earth and every bird of the air; everything which goes on the land, and all the fishes of the sea, are given into your hands. +Gen 9:3 Every living and moving thing will be food for you; I give them all to you as before I gave you all green things. +Gen 9:4 But flesh with the life-blood in it you may not take for food. +Gen 9:5 And for your blood, which is your life, will I take payment; from every beast I will take it, and from every man will I take payment for the blood of his brother-man. +Gen 9:6 Whoever takes a man's life, by man will his life be taken; because God made man in his image. +Gen 9:7 And now, be fertile and have increase; have offspring on the earth and become great in number. +Gen 9:8 And God said to Noah and to his sons, +Gen 9:9 Truly, I will make my agreement with you and with your seed after you, +Gen 9:10 And with every living thing with you, all birds and cattle and every beast of the earth which comes out of the ark with you. +Gen 9:11 And I will make my agreement with you; never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters; never again will the waters come over all the earth for its destruction. +Gen 9:12 And God said, This is the sign of the agreement which I make between me and you and every living thing with you, for all future generations: +Gen 9:13 I will put my bow in the cloud and it will be for a sign of the agreement between me and the earth. +Gen 9:14 And whenever I make a cloud come over the earth, the bow will be seen in the cloud, +Gen 9:15 And I will keep in mind the agreement between me and you and every living thing; and never again will there be a great flow of waters causing destruction to all flesh. +Gen 9:16 And the bow will be in the cloud, and looking on it, I will keep in mind the eternal agreement between God and every living thing on the earth. +Gen 9:17 And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the agreement which I have made between me and all flesh on the earth. +Gen 9:18 And the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham is the father of Canaan. +Gen 9:19 These three were the sons of Noah and from them all the earth was peopled. +Gen 9:20 In those days Noah became a farmer, and he made a vine-garden. +Gen 9:21 And he took of the wine of it and was overcome by drink; and he was uncovered in his tent. +Gen 9:22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father unclothed, and gave news of it to his two brothers outside. +Gen 9:23 And Shem and Japheth took a robe, and putting it on their backs went in with their faces turned away, and put it over their father so that they might not see him unclothed. +Gen 9:24 And, awaking from his wine, Noah saw what his youngest son had done to him, and he said, +Gen 9:25 Cursed be Canaan; let him be a servant of servants to his brothers. +Gen 9:26 And he said, Praise to the Lord, the God of Shem; let Canaan be his servant. +Gen 9:27 May God make Japheth great, and let his living-place be in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. +Gen 9:28 And Noah went on living three hundred and fifty years after the great flow of waters; +Gen 9:29 all the years of his life were nine hundred and fifty: and he came to his end. +Gen 10:1 Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: these are the sons which they had after the great flow of waters +Gen 10:2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras. +Gen 10:3 And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah. +Gen 10:4 And the sons of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish, the Kittim and the Dodanim. +Gen 10:5 From these came the nations of the sea-lands, with their different families and languages. +Gen 10:6 And the sons of Ham: Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan. +Gen 10:7 And the sons of Cush: Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and Raamah and Sabteca; and the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. +Gen 10:8 And Cush was the father of Nimrod, who was the first of the great men of the earth. +Gen 10:9 He was a very great bowman, so that there is a saying, Like Nimrod, a very great bowman. +Gen 10:10 And at the first, his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. +Gen 10:11 From that land he went out into Assyria, building Nineveh with its wide streets and Calah, +Gen 10:12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah, which is a very great town. +Gen 10:13 And Mizraim was the father of the Ludim and Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim; +Gen 10:14 And Pathrusim and Casluhim and Caphtorim, from whom came the Philistines. +Gen 10:15 And Canaan was the father of Zidon, who was his oldest son, and Heth, +Gen 10:16 And the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite, +Gen 10:17 And the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite, +Gen 10:18 And the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite; after that the families of the Canaanites went far and wide in all directions; +Gen 10:19 Their country stretching from Zidon to Gaza, in the direction of Gerar; and to Lasha, in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim. +Gen 10:20 All these, with their different families, languages, lands, and nations, are the offspring of Ham. +Gen 10:21 And Shem, the older brother of Japheth, the father of the children of Eber, had other sons in addition. +Gen 10:22 These are the sons of Shem: Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram. +Gen 10:23 And the sons of Aram: Uz and Hul and Gether and Mash. +Gen 10:24 And Arpachshad became the father of Shelah; and Shelah became the father of Eber. +Gen 10:25 And Eber had two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, because in his time the peoples of the earth became separate; and his brother's name was Joktan. +Gen 10:26 And Joktan was the father of Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah +Gen 10:27 And Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah +Gen 10:28 And Obal and Abimael and Sheba +Gen 10:29 And Ophir and Havilah and Jobab; all these were the sons of Joktan. +Gen 10:30 And their country was from Mesha, in the direction of Sephar, the mountain of the east. +Gen 10:31 These, with their families and their languages and their lands and their nations, are the offspring of Shem. +Gen 10:32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, in the order of their generations and their nations: from these came all the nations of the earth after the great flow of waters. +Gen 11:1 And all the earth had one language and one tongue. +Gen 11:2 And it came about that in their wandering from the east, they came to a stretch of flat country in the land of Shinar, and there they made their living-place. +Gen 11:3 And they said one to another, Come, let us make bricks, burning them well. And they had bricks for stone, putting them together with sticky earth. +Gen 11:4 And they said, Come, let us make a town, and a tower whose top will go up as high as heaven; and let us make a great name for ourselves, so that we may not be wanderers over the face of the earth. +Gen 11:5 And the Lord came down to see the town and the tower which the children of men were building. +Gen 11:6 And the Lord said, See, they are all one people and have all one language; and this is only the start of what they may do: and now it will not be possible to keep them from any purpose of theirs. +Gen 11:7 Come, let us go down and take away the sense of their language, so that they will not be able to make themselves clear to one another. +Gen 11:8 So the Lord God sent them away into every part of the earth: and they gave up building their town. +Gen 11:9 So it was named Babel, because there the Lord took away the sense of all languages and from there the Lord sent them away over all the face of the earth. +Gen 11:10 These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old when he became the father of Arpachshad, two years after the great flow of waters; +Gen 11:11 And after the birth of Arpachshad, Shem went on living for five hundred years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 11:12 And Arpachshad was thirty-five years old when he became the father of Shelah: +Gen 11:13 And after the birth of Shelah, Arpachshad went on living for four hundred and three years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 11:14 And Shelah was thirty years old when he became the father of Eber: +Gen 11:15 And after the birth of Eber, Shelah went on living for four hundred and three years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 11:16 And Eber was thirty-four years old when he became the father of Peleg: +Gen 11:17 And after the birth of Peleg, Eber went on living for four hundred and thirty years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 11:18 And Peleg was thirty years old when he became the father of Reu: +Gen 11:19 And after the birth of Reu, Peleg went on living for two hundred and nine years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 11:20 And Reu was thirty-two years old when he became the father of Serug: +Gen 11:21 And after the birth of Serug, Reu went on living for two hundred and seven years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 11:22 And Serug was thirty years old when he became the father of Nahor: +Gen 11:23 And after the birth of Nahor, Serug went on living for two hundred years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 11:24 And Nahor was twenty-nine years old when he became the father of Terah: +Gen 11:25 And after the birth of Terah, Nahor went on living for a hundred and nineteen years, and had sons and daughters: +Gen 11:26 And Terah was seventy years old when he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. +Gen 11:27 These are the generations of Terah: Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot. +Gen 11:28 And death came to Haran when he was with his father Terah in the land of his birth, Ur of the Chaldees. +Gen 11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and Iscah. +Gen 11:30 And Sarai had no child. +Gen 11:31 And Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Abram and they went out from Ur of the Chaldees, to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran, and were there for some time. +Gen 11:32 And all the years of Terah's life were two hundred and five: and Terah came to his end in Haran. +Gen 12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, Go out from your country and from your family and from your father's house, into the land to which I will be your guide: +Gen 12:2 And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and making your name great; and you will be a blessing: +Gen 12:3 To them who are good to you will I give blessing, and on him who does you wrong will I put my curse: and you will become a name of blessing to all the families of the earth. +Gen 12:4 So Abram went as the Lord had said to him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went away from Haran. +Gen 12:5 And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their goods and the servants which they had got in Haran, and they went out to go to the land of Canaan. +Gen 12:6 And Abram went through the land till he came to Shechem, to the holy tree of Moreh. At that time, the Canaanites were still living in the land. +Gen 12:7 And the Lord came to Abram, and said, I will give all this land to your seed; then Abram made an altar there to the Lord who had let himself be seen by him. +Gen 12:8 And moving on from there to the mountain on the east of Beth-el, he put up his tent, having Beth-el on the west and Ai on the east: and there he made an altar and gave worship to the name of the Lord. +Gen 12:9 And he went on, journeying still to the South. +Gen 12:10 And because there was little food to be had in that land, he went down into Egypt. +Gen 12:11 Now when he came near to Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, Truly, you are a fair woman and beautiful to the eye; +Gen 12:12 And I am certain that when the men of Egypt see you, they will say, This is his wife: and they will put me to death and keep you. +Gen 12:13 Say, then, that you are my sister, and so it will be well with me because of you, and my life will be kept safe on your account. +Gen 12:14 And so it was that when Abram came into Egypt, the men of Egypt, looking on the woman, saw that she was fair. +Gen 12:15 And Pharaoh's great men, having seen her, said words in praise of her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's house. +Gen 12:16 And because of her, he was good to Abram, and he had sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants and women-servants, and camels. +Gen 12:17 And the Lord sent great troubles on Pharaoh's house because of Sarai, Abram's wife. +Gen 12:18 Then Pharaoh sent for Abram, and said, What have you done to me? why did you not say that she was your wife? +Gen 12:19 Why did you say that she was your sister? so that I took her for my wife: now, take your wife and go on your way. +Gen 12:20 And Pharaoh gave orders to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and all he had. +Gen 13:1 And Abram went up out of Egypt with his wife and all he had, and Lot with him, and they came in to the South. +Gen 13:2 Now Abram had great wealth of cattle and silver and gold. +Gen 13:3 And travelling on from the South, he came to Beth-el, to the place where his tent had been before, between Beth-el and Ai; +Gen 13:4 To the place where he had made his first altar, and there Abram gave worship to the name of the Lord. +Gen 13:5 And Lot, who went with him, had flocks and herds and tents; +Gen 13:6 So that the land was not wide enough for the two of them: their property was so great that there was not room for them together. +Gen 13:7 And there was an argument between the keepers of Abram's cattle and the keepers of Lot's cattle: at that time the Canaanites and Perizzites were still living in the land. +Gen 13:8 Then Abram said to Lot, Let there be no argument between me and you, and between my herdmen and your herdmen, for we are brothers. +Gen 13:9 Is not all the land before you? then let us go our separate ways: if you go to the left, I will go to the right; or if you take the right, I will go to the left. +Gen 13:10 And Lot, lifting up his eyes and looking an the valley of Jordan, saw that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord had sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah; it was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, on the way to Zoar. +Gen 13:11 So Lot took for himself all the valley of Jordan, and went to the east, and they were parted from one another. +Gen 13:12 Abram went on living in the land of Canaan, and Lot went to the lowland towns, moving his tent as far as Sodom. +Gen 13:13 Now the men of Sodom were evil, and great sinners before the Lord. +Gen 13:14 And the Lord had said to Abram, after Lot was parted from him, From this place where you are take a look to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west: +Gen 13:15 For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your seed for ever. +Gen 13:16 And I will make your children like the dust of the earth, so that if the dust of the earth may be numbered, then will your children be numbered. +Gen 13:17 Come, go through all the land from one end to the other for I will give it to you. +Gen 13:18 And Abram, moving his tent, came and made his living-place by the holy tree of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and made an altar there to the Lord. +Gen 14:1 Now in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim, +Gen 14:2 They made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (which is Zoar). +Gen 14:3 All these came together in the valley of Siddim (which is the Salt Sea). +Gen 14:4 For twelve years they were under the rule of Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they put off his control. +Gen 14:5 And in the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were on his side, overcame the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim, +Gen 14:6 And the Horites in their mountain Seir, driving them as far as El-paran, which is near the waste land. +Gen 14:7 Then they came back to En-mishpat (which is Kadesh), making waste all the country of the Amalekites and of the Amorites living in Hazazon-tamar. +Gen 14:8 And the king of Sodom with the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is Zoar), went out, and put their forces in position in the valley of Siddim, +Gen 14:9 Against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim, and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of Ellasar: four kings against the five. +Gen 14:10 Now the valley of Siddim was full of holes of sticky earth; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were put to flight and came to their end there, but the rest got away to the mountain. +Gen 14:11 And the four kings took all the goods and food from Sodom and Gomorrah and went on their way. +Gen 14:12 And in addition they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who was living in Sodom, and all his goods. +Gen 14:13 And one who had got away from the fight came and gave word of it to Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the holy tree of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner, who were friends of Abram. +Gen 14:14 And Abram, hearing that his brother's son had been made a prisoner, took a band of his trained men, three hundred and eighteen of them, sons of his house, and went after them as far as Dan. +Gen 14:15 And separating his forces by night, he overcame them, putting them to flight and going after them as far as Hobah, which is on the north side of Damascus. +Gen 14:16 And he got back all the goods, and Lot, his brother's son, with his goods and the women and the people. +Gen 14:17 And when he was coming back after putting to flight Chedorlaomer and the other kings, he had a meeting with the king of Sodom in the valley of Shaveh, that is, the King's Valley. +Gen 14:18 And Melchizedek, king of Salem, the priest of the Most High God, took bread and wine, +Gen 14:19 And blessing him, said, May the blessing of the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth, be on Abram: +Gen 14:20 And let the Most High God be praised, who has given into your hands those who were against you. Then Abram gave him a tenth of all the goods he had taken. +Gen 14:21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the prisoners and take the goods for yourself. +Gen 14:22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have taken an oath to the Lord, the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth, +Gen 14:23 That I will not take so much as a thread or the cord of a shoe of yours; so that you may not say, I have given wealth to Abram: +Gen 14:24 Give me nothing but the food which the fighting-men who went with me have had; but let Aner and Eshcol and Mamre have their part of the goods. +Gen 15:1 After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Have no fear, Abram: I will keep you safe, and great will be your reward. +Gen 15:2 And Abram said, What will you give me? for I have no child and this Eliezer of Damascus will have all my wealth after me. +Gen 15:3 And Abram said, You have given me no child, and a servant in my house will get the heritage. +Gen 15:4 Then said the Lord, This man will not get the heritage, but a son of your body will have your property after you. +Gen 15:5 And he took him out into the open air, and said to him, Let your eyes be lifted to heaven, and see if the stars may be numbered; even so will your seed be. +Gen 15:6 And he had faith in the Lord, and it was put to his account as righteousness. +Gen 15:7 And he said to him, I am the Lord, who took you from Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land for your heritage. +Gen 15:8 And he said, O Lord God, how may I be certain that it will be mine? +Gen 15:9 And he said, Take a young cow of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a sheep of three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon. +Gen 15:10 All these he took, cutting them in two and putting one half opposite the other, but not cutting the birds in two. +Gen 15:11 And evil birds came down on the bodies, but Abram sent them away. +Gen 15:12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep came on Abram, and a dark cloud of fear. +Gen 15:13 And he said to Abram, Truly, your seed will be living in a land which is not theirs, as servants to a people who will be cruel to them for four hundred years; +Gen 15:14 But I will be the judge of that nation whose servants they are, and they will come out from among them with great wealth. +Gen 15:15 As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; at the end of a long life you will be put in your last resting-place. +Gen 15:16 And in the fourth generation they will come back here; for at present the sin of the Amorite is not full. +Gen 15:17 Then when the sun went down and it was dark, he saw a smoking fire and a flaming light which went between the parts of the bodies. +Gen 15:18 In that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram, and said, To your seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: +Gen 15:19 The Kenite, the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, +Gen 15:20 And the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, +Gen 15:21 And the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite. +Gen 16:1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had given him no children; and she had a servant, a woman of Egypt whose name was Hagar. +Gen 16:2 And Sarai said to Abram, See, the Lord has not let me have children; go in to my servant, for I may get a family through her. And Abram did as Sarai said. +Gen 16:3 So after Abram had been living for ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian servant, and gave her to Abram for his wife. +Gen 16:4 And he went in to Hagar and she became with child, and when she saw that she was with child, she no longer had any respect for her master's wife. +Gen 16:5 And Sarai said to Abram, May my wrong be on you: I gave you my servant for your wife and when she saw that she was with child, she no longer had any respect for me: may the Lord be judge between you and me. +Gen 16:6 And Abram said, The woman is in your power; do with her whatever seems good to you. And Sarai was cruel to her, so that she went running away from her. +Gen 16:7 And an angel of the Lord came to her by a fountain of water in the waste land, by the fountain on the way to Shur. +Gen 16:8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I am running away from Sarai, my master's wife. +Gen 16:9 And the angel said to her, Go back, and put yourself under her authority. +Gen 16:10 And the angel of the Lord said, Your seed will be greatly increased so that it may not be numbered. +Gen 16:11 And the angel of the Lord said, See, you are with child and will give birth to a son, to whom you will give the name Ishmael, because the ears of the Lord were open to your sorrow. +Gen 16:12 And he will be like a mountain ass among men; his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him, and he will keep his place against all his brothers. +Gen 16:13 And to the Lord who was talking with her she gave this name, You are a God who is seen; for she said, Have I not even here in the waste land had a vision of God and am still living? +Gen 16:14 So that fountain was named, Fountain of Life and Vision: it is between Kadesh and Bered. +Gen 16:15 And Hagar gave birth to a child, the son of Abram, to whom Abram gave the name of Ishmael. +Gen 16:16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael. +Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord came to him, and said, I am God, Ruler of all; go in my ways and be upright in all things, +Gen 17:2 And I will make an agreement between you and me, and your offspring will be greatly increased. +Gen 17:3 And Abram went down on his face on the earth, and the Lord God went on talking with him, and said, +Gen 17:4 As for me, my agreement is made with you, and you will be the father of nations without end. +Gen 17:5 No longer will your name be Abram, but Abraham, for I have made you the father of a number of nations. +Gen 17:6 I will make you very fertile, so that nations will come from you and kings will be your offspring. +Gen 17:7 And I will make between me and you and your seed after you through all generations, an eternal agreement to be a God to you and to your seed after you. +Gen 17:8 And to you and to your seed after you, I will give the land in which you are living, all the land of Canaan for an eternal heritage; and I will be their God. +Gen 17:9 And God said to Abraham, On your side, you are to keep the agreement, you and your seed after you through all generations. +Gen 17:10 And this is the agreement which you are to keep with me, you and your seed after you: every male among you is to undergo circumcision. +Gen 17:11 In the flesh of your private parts you are to undergo it, as a mark of the agreement between me and you. +Gen 17:12 Every male among you, from one generation to another, is to undergo circumcision when he is eight days old, with every servant whose birth takes place in your house, or for whom you gave money to someone of another country, and not of your seed. +Gen 17:13 He who comes to birth in your house and he who is made yours for a price, all are to undergo circumcision; so that my agreement may be marked in your flesh, an agreement for all time. +Gen 17:14 And any male who does not undergo circumcision will be cut off from his people: my agreement has been broken by him. +Gen 17:15 And God said, As for Sarai, your wife, from now her name will be not Sarai, but Sarah. +Gen 17:16 And I will give her a blessing so that you will have a son by her: truly my blessing will be on her, and she will be the mother of nations: kings of peoples will be her offspring. +Gen 17:17 Then Abraham went down on his face, and laughing, said in his heart, May a man a hundred years old have a child? will Sarah, at ninety years old, give birth? +Gen 17:18 And Abraham said to God, If only Ishmael's life might be your care! +Gen 17:19 And God said, Not so; but Sarah, your wife, will have a son, and you will give him the name Isaac, and I will make my agreement with him for ever and with his seed after him. +Gen 17:20 As for Ishmael, I have given ear to your prayer: truly I have given him my blessing and I will make him fertile and give him great increase; he will be the father of twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation. +Gen 17:21 But my agreement will be with Isaac, to whom Sarah will give birth a year from this time. +Gen 17:22 And having said these words, God went up from Abraham. +Gen 17:23 And Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all whose birth had taken place in his house, and all his servants whom he had made his for a price, every male of his house, and on that very day he gave them circumcision in the flesh of their private parts as God had said to him. +Gen 17:24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he underwent circumcision. +Gen 17:25 And Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he underwent circumcision. +Gen 17:26 Abraham and Ishmael, his son, underwent circumcision on that very day. +Gen 17:27 And all the men of his house, those whose birth had taken place in the house and those whom he had got for money from men of other lands, underwent circumcision with him. +Gen 18:1 Now the Lord came to him by the holy tree of Mamre, when he was seated in the doorway of his tent in the middle of the day; +Gen 18:2 And lifting up his eyes, he saw three men before him; and seeing them, he went quickly to them from the door of the tent, and went down on his face to the earth; +Gen 18:3 And said, My Lord, if now I have grace in your eyes, do not go away from your servant: +Gen 18:4 Let me get water for washing your feet, and take your rest under the tree: +Gen 18:5 And let me get a bit of bread to keep up your strength, and after that you may go on your way: for this is why you have come to your servant. And they said, Let it be so. +Gen 18:6 Then Abraham went quickly into the tent, and said to Sarah, Get three measures of meal straight away and make cakes. +Gen 18:7 And running to the herd, he took a young ox, soft and fat, and gave it to the servant and he quickly made it ready; +Gen 18:8 And he took butter and milk and the young ox which he had made ready and put it before them, waiting by them under the tree while they took food. +Gen 18:9 And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, She is in the tent. +Gen 18:10 And he said, I will certainly come back to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife will have a son. And his words came to the ears of Sarah who was at the back of the tent-door. +Gen 18:11 Now Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was past the time for giving birth. +Gen 18:12 And Sarah, laughing to herself, said, Now that I am used up am I still to have pleasure, my husband himself being old? +Gen 18:13 And the Lord said, Why was Sarah laughing and saying, Is it possible for me, being old, to give birth to a child? +Gen 18:14 Is there any wonder which the Lord is not able to do? At the time I said, in the spring, I will come back to you, and Sarah will have a child. +Gen 18:15 Then Sarah said, I was not laughing; for she was full of fear. And he said, No, but you were laughing. +Gen 18:16 And the men went on from there in the direction of Sodom; and Abraham went with them on their way. +Gen 18:17 And the Lord said, Am I to keep back from Abraham the knowledge of what I do; +Gen 18:18 Seeing that Abraham will certainly become a great and strong nation, and his name will be used by all the nations of the earth as a blessing? +Gen 18:19 For I have made him mine so that he may give orders to his children and those of his line after him, to keep the ways of the Lord, to do what is good and right: so that the Lord may do to Abraham as he has said. +Gen 18:20 And the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and their sin is very evil, +Gen 18:21 I will go down now, and see if their acts are as bad as they seem from the outcry which has come to me; and if they are not, I will see. +Gen 18:22 And the men, turning from that place, went on to Sodom: but Abraham was still waiting before the Lord. +Gen 18:23 And Abraham came near, and said, Will you let destruction come on the upright with the sinners? +Gen 18:24 If by chance there are fifty upright men in the town, will you give the place to destruction and not have mercy on it because of the fifty upright men? +Gen 18:25 Let such a thing be far from you, to put the upright to death with the sinner: will not the judge of all the earth do right? +Gen 18:26 And the Lord said, If there are fifty upright men in the town, I will have mercy on it because of them. +Gen 18:27 And Abraham answering said, Truly, I who am only dust, have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord: +Gen 18:28 If by chance there are five less than fifty upright men, will you give up all the town to destruction because of these five? And he said, I will not give it to destruction if there are forty-five. +Gen 18:29 And again he said to him, By chance there may be forty there. And he said, I will not do it if there are forty. +Gen 18:30 And he said, Let not the Lord be angry with me if I say, What if there are thirty there? And he said, I will not do it if there are thirty. +Gen 18:31 And he said, See now, I have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord: what if there are twenty there? And he said, I will have mercy because of the twenty. +Gen 18:32 And he said, O let not the Lord be angry and I will say only one word more: by chance there may be ten there. And he said, I will have mercy because of the ten. +Gen 18:33 And the Lord went on his way when his talk with Abraham was ended, and Abraham went back to his place. +Gen 19:1 And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth. +Gen 19:2 And he said, My masters, come now into your servant's house and take your rest there for the night, and let your feet be washed; and early in the morning you may go on your way. And they said, Not so, but we will take our night's rest in the street. +Gen 19:3 But he made his request more strongly, so they went with him into his house; and he got food ready for them, and made unleavened bread, of which they took. +Gen 19:4 But before they had gone to bed, the men of the town, all the men of Sodom, came round the house, young and old, from every part of the town; +Gen 19:5 And crying out to Lot, they said, Where are the men who came to your house this night? Send them out to us, so that we may take our pleasure with them. +Gen 19:6 And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him. +Gen 19:7 And he said, My brothers, do not this evil. +Gen 19:8 See now, I have two unmarried daughters; I will send them out to you so that you may do to them whatever seems good to you: only do nothing to these men, for this is why they have come under the shade of my roof. +Gen 19:9 And they said, Give way there. This one man, they said, came here from a strange country, and will he now be our judge? now we will do worse to you than to them; and pushing violently against Lot, they came near to get the door broken in. +Gen 19:10 But the men put out their hands and took Lot into the house to them, shutting the door again. +Gen 19:11 But the men who were outside the door they made blind, all of them, small and great, so that they were tired out with looking for the door. +Gen 19:12 Then the men said to Lot, Are there any others of your family here? sons-in-law or sons or daughters, take them all out of this place; +Gen 19:13 For we are about to send destruction on this place, because a great outcry against them has come to the ears of the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to put an end to the town. +Gen 19:14 And Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were married to his daughters, Come, let us go out of this place, for the Lord is about to send destruction on the town. But his sons-in-law did not take him seriously. +Gen 19:15 And when morning came, the angels did all in their power to make Lot go, saying, Get up quickly and take your wife and your two daughters who are here, and go, for fear that you come to destruction in the punishment of the town. +Gen 19:16 But while he was waiting, the men took him and his wife and his daughters by the hand, for the Lord had mercy on them, and put them outside the town. +Gen 19:17 And when they had put them out, he said, Go for your life, without looking back or waiting in the lowland; go quickly to the mountain or you will come to destruction. +Gen 19:18 And Lot said to them, Not so, O my Lord; +Gen 19:19 See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil overtakes me and death; +Gen 19:20 This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe. +Gen 19:21 And he said, See, I have given you your request in this one thing more: I will not send destruction on this town. +Gen 19:22 Go there quickly, for I am not able to do anything till you have come there. For this reason, the town was named Zoar. +Gen 19:23 The sun was up when Lot came to Zoar. +Gen 19:24 Then the Lord sent fire and flaming smoke raining down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah. +Gen 19:25 And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land. +Gen 19:26 But Lot's wife, looking back, became a pillar of salt. +Gen 19:27 And Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had been talking with the Lord: +Gen 19:28 And looking in the direction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the lowland, he saw the smoke of the land going up like the smoke of an oven. +Gen 19:29 So it came about that when God sent destruction on the towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he was living. +Gen 19:30 Then Lot went up out of Zoar to the mountain, and was living there with his two daughters, for fear kept him from living in Zoar: and he and his daughters made their living-place in a hole in the rock. +Gen 19:31 And the older daughter said to her sister, Our father is old, and there is no man to be a husband to us in the natural way: +Gen 19:32 Come, let us give our father much wine, and we will go into his bed, so that we may have offspring by our father, +Gen 19:33 And that night they made their father take much wine; and the older daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away. +Gen 19:34 And on the day after, the older daughter said to the younger, Last night I was with my father; let us make him take much wine this night again, and do you go to him, so that we may have offspring by our father. +Gen 19:35 And that night again they made their father take much wine; and the younger daughter went into his bed; and he had no knowledge of when she went in or when she went away. +Gen 19:36 And so the two daughters of Lot were with child by their father. +Gen 19:37 And the older daughter had a son, and she gave him the name Moab: he is the father of the Moabites to this day. +Gen 19:38 And the younger had a son and gave him the name Ben-ammi: from him come the children of Ammon to this day. +Gen 20:1 And Abraham went on his way from there to the land of the South, and was living between Kadesh and Shur, in Gerar. +Gen 20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. +Gen 20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream in the night, and said to him, Truly you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a man's wife. +Gen 20:4 Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, Lord, will you put to death an upright nation? +Gen 20:5 Did he not say to me himself, She is my sister? and she herself said, He is my brother: with an upright heart and clean hands have I done this. +Gen 20:6 And God said to him in the dream, I see that you have done this with an upright heart, and I have kept you from sinning against me: for this reason I did not let you come near her. +Gen 20:7 So now, give the man back his wife, for he is a prophet, and let him say a prayer for you, so your life may be safe: but if you do not give her back, be certain that death will come to you and all your house. +Gen 20:8 So Abimelech got up early in the morning and sent for all his servants and gave them word of these things, and they were full of fear. +Gen 20:9 Then Abimelech sent for Abraham, and said, What have you done to us? what wrong have I done you that you have put on me and on my kingdom so great a sin? You have done to me things which are not to be done. +Gen 20:10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, Why did you do this thing? +Gen 20:11 And Abraham said, Because it seemed to me that there was no fear of God in this place, and that they might put me to death because of my wife. +Gen 20:12 And, in fact, she is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife: +Gen 20:13 And when God sent me wandering from my father's house, I said to her, Let this be the sign of your love for me; wherever we go, say of me, He is my brother. +Gen 20:14 Then Abimelech gave to Abraham sheep and oxen and men-servants and women-servants, and gave him back his wife Sarah. +Gen 20:15 And Abimelech said, See, all my land is before you; take whatever place seems good to you. +Gen 20:16 And he said to Sarah, See, I have given to your brother a thousand bits of silver so that your wrong may be put right; now your honour is clear in the eyes of all. +Gen 20:17 Then Abraham made prayer to God, and God made Abimelech well again, and his wife and his women-servants, so that they had children. +Gen 20:18 For the Lord had kept all the women of the house of Abimelech from having children, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. +Gen 21:1 And the Lord came to Sarah as he had said and did to her as he had undertaken. +Gen 21:2 And Sarah became with child, and gave Abraham a son when he was old, at the time named by God. +Gen 21:3 And Abraham gave to his son, to whom Sarah had given birth, the name Isaac. +Gen 21:4 And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham made him undergo circumcision, as God had said to him. +Gen 21:5 Now Abraham was a hundred years old when the birth of Isaac took place. +Gen 21:6 And Sarah said, God has given me cause for laughing, and everyone who has news of it will be laughing with me. +Gen 21:7 And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would have a child at her breast? for see, I have given him a son now when he is old. +Gen 21:8 And when the child was old enough to be taken from the breast, Abraham made a great feast. +Gen 21:9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian playing with Isaac. +Gen 21:10 So she said to Abraham, Send away that woman and her son: for the son of that woman is not to have a part in the heritage with my son Isaac. +Gen 21:11 And this was a great grief to Abraham because of his son. +Gen 21:12 But God said, Let it not be a grief to you because of the boy and Hagar his mother; give ear to whatever Sarah says to you, because it is from Isaac that your seed will take its name. +Gen 21:13 And I will make a nation of the son of your servant-woman, because he is your seed. +Gen 21:14 And early in the morning Abraham got up, and gave Hagar some bread and a water-skin, and put the boy on her back, and sent her away: and she went, wandering in the waste land of Beer-sheba. +Gen 21:15 And when all the water in the skin was used up, she put the child down under a tree. +Gen 21:16 And she went some distance away, about an arrow flight, and seating herself on the earth, she gave way to bitter weeping, saying, Let me not see the death of my child. +Gen 21:17 And the boy's cry came to the ears of God; and the angel of God said to Hagar from heaven, Hagar, why are you weeping? have no fear, for the child's cry has come to the ears of God. +Gen 21:18 Come, take your child in your arms, for I will make of him a great nation. +Gen 21:19 Then God made her eyes open, and she saw a water-spring, and she got water in the skin and gave the boy a drink. +Gen 21:20 And God was with the boy, and he became tall and strong, and he became a bowman, living in the waste land. +Gen 21:21 And while he was in the waste land of Paran, his mother got him a wife from the land of Egypt. +Gen 21:22 Now at that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, said to Abraham, I see that God is with you in all you do. +Gen 21:23 Now, then, give me your oath, in the name of God, that you will not be false to me or to my sons after me, but that as I have been good to you, so you will be to me and to this land where you have been living. +Gen 21:24 And Abraham said, I will give you my oath. +Gen 21:25 But Abraham made a protest to Abimelech because of a water-hole which Abimelech's servants had taken by force. +Gen 21:26 But Abimelech said, I have no idea who has done this thing; you never gave me word of it, and I had no knowledge of it till this day. +Gen 21:27 And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made an agreement together. +Gen 21:28 And Abraham put seven young lambs of the flock on one side by themselves. +Gen 21:29 Then Abimelech said, What are these seven lambs which you have put on one side? +Gen 21:30 And he said, Take these seven lambs from me as a witness that I have made this water-hole. +Gen 21:31 So he gave that place the name Beer-sheba, because there the two of them had given their oaths. +Gen 21:32 So they made an agreement at Beer-sheba, and Abimelech and Phicol, the captain of his army, went back to the land of the Philistines. +Gen 21:33 And Abraham, after planting a holy tree in Beer-sheba, gave worship to the name of the Lord, the Eternal God. +Gen 21:34 And Abraham went on living in the land of the Philistines as in a strange country. +Gen 22:1 Now after these things, God put Abraham to the test, and said to him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. +Gen 22:2 And he said to him, Take your son, your dearly loved only son Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and give him as a burned offering on one of the mountains of which I will give you knowledge. +Gen 22:3 And Abraham got up early in the morning, and made ready his ass, and took with him two of his young men and Isaac, his son, and after the wood for the burned offering had been cut, he went on his way to the place of which God had given him word. +Gen 22:4 And on the third day, Abraham, lifting up his eyes, saw the place a long way off. +Gen 22:5 Then he said to his young men, Keep here with the ass; and I and the boy will go on and give worship and come back again to you. +Gen 22:6 And Abraham put the wood for the burned offering on his son's back, and he himself took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them went on together. +Gen 22:7 Then Isaac said to Abraham, My father; and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, We have wood and fire here, but where is the lamb for the burned offering? +Gen 22:8 And Abraham said, God himself will give the lamb for the burned offering: so they went on together. +Gen 22:9 And they came to the place of which God had given him knowledge; and there Abraham made the altar and put the wood in place on it, and having made tight the bands round Isaac his son, he put him on the wood on the altar. +Gen 22:10 And stretching out his hand, Abraham took the knife to put his son to death. +Gen 22:11 But the voice of the angel of the Lord came from heaven, saying, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. +Gen 22:12 And he said, Let not your hand be stretched out against the boy to do anything to him; for now I am certain that the fear of God is in your heart, because you have not kept back your son, your only son, from me. +Gen 22:13 And lifting up his eyes, Abraham saw a sheep fixed by its horns in the brushwood: and Abraham took the sheep and made a burned offering of it in place of his son. +Gen 22:14 And Abraham gave that place the name Yahweh-yireh: as it is said to this day, In the mountain the Lord is seen. +Gen 22:15 And the voice of the angel of the Lord came to Abraham a second time from heaven, +Gen 22:16 Saying, I have taken an oath by my name, says the Lord, because you have done this and have not kept back from me your dearly loved only son, +Gen 22:17 That I will certainly give you my blessing, and your seed will be increased like the stars of heaven and the sand by the seaside; your seed will take the land of those who are against them; +Gen 22:18 And your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, because you have done what I gave you orders to do. +Gen 22:19 Then Abraham went back to his young men and they went together to Beer-sheba, the place where Abraham was living. +Gen 22:20 After these things, Abraham had news that Milcah, the wife of his brother Nahor, had given birth to children; +Gen 22:21 Uz the oldest, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel, the father of Aram, +Gen 22:22 And Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and Bethuel. +Gen 22:23 Bethuel was the father of Rebekah: these eight were the children of Milcah and Nahor, Abraham's brother. +Gen 22:24 And his servant Reumah gave birth to Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah. +Gen 23:1 Now the years of Sarah's life were a hundred and twenty-seven. +Gen 23:2 And Sarah's death took place in Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan: and Abraham went into his house, weeping and sorrowing for Sarah. +Gen 23:3 And Abraham came from his dead and said to the children of Heth, +Gen 23:4 I am living among you as one from a strange country: give me some land here as my property, so that I may put my dead to rest. +Gen 23:5 And in answer the children of Heth said to Abraham, +Gen 23:6 My lord, truly you are a great chief among us; take the best of our resting-places for your dead; not one of us will keep back from you a place where you may put your dead to rest. +Gen 23:7 And Abraham got up and gave honour to the children of Heth, the people of that land. +Gen 23:8 And he said to them, If you will let me put my dead to rest here, make a request for me to Ephron, the son of Zohar, +Gen 23:9 That he will give me the hollow in the rock named Machpelah, which is his property at the end of his field; let him give it to me for its full price as a resting-place for my dead among you. +Gen 23:10 Now Ephron was seated among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite gave Abraham his answer in the hearing of the children of Heth, and of all those who came into his town, saying, +Gen 23:11 No, my lord, I will give you the field with the hollow in the rock; before all the children of my people will I give it to you for a resting-place for your dead. +Gen 23:12 And Abraham went down on his face before the people of the land. +Gen 23:13 And Abraham said to Ephron, in the hearing of the people of the land, If only you will give ear to me, I will give you the price of the field; take it, and let me put my dead to rest there. +Gen 23:14 So Ephron said to Abraham, +Gen 23:15 My lord, give ear to me: the value of the land is four hundred shekels; what is that between me and you? so put your dead to rest there. +Gen 23:16 And Abraham took note of the price fixed by Ephron in the hearing of the children of Heth, and gave him four hundred shekels in current money. +Gen 23:17 So Ephron's field at Machpelah near Mamre, with the hollow in the rock and all the trees in the field and round it, +Gen 23:18 Became the property of Abraham before the eyes of the children of Heth and of all who came into the town. +Gen 23:19 Then Abraham put Sarah his wife to rest in the hollow rock in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, that is, Hebron in the land of Canaan. +Gen 23:20 And the field and the hollow rock were handed over to Abraham as his property by the children of Heth. +Gen 24:1 Now Abraham was old and far on in years: and the Lord had given him everything in full measure. +Gen 24:2 And Abraham said to his chief servant, the manager of all his property, Come now, put your hand under my leg: +Gen 24:3 And take an oath by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not get a wife for my son Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living; +Gen 24:4 But that you will go into my country and to my relations and get a wife there for my son Isaac. +Gen 24:5 And the servant said, If by chance the woman will not come with me into this land, am I to take your son back again to the land from which you came? +Gen 24:6 And Abraham said, Take care that you do not let my son go back to that land. +Gen 24:7 The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth, and made an oath to me, saying, To your seed I will give this land: he will send his angel before you and give you a wife for my son in that land. +Gen 24:8 And if the woman will not come with you, then you are free from this oath; only do not take my son back there. +Gen 24:9 And the servant put his hand under Abraham's leg, and gave him his oath about this thing. +Gen 24:10 And the servant took ten of his master's camels, and all sorts of good things of his master's, and went to Mesopotamia, to the town of Nahor. +Gen 24:11 And he made the camels take their rest outside the town by the water-spring in the evening, at the time when the women came to get water. +Gen 24:12 And he said, O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, let me do well in what I have undertaken this day, and give your mercy to my master Abraham. +Gen 24:13 See, I am waiting here by the water-spring; and the daughters of the town are coming out to get water: +Gen 24:14 Now, may the girl to whom I say, Let down your vessel and give me a drink, and who says in answer, Here is a drink for you and let me give water to your camels: may she be the one marked out by you for your servant Isaac: so may I be certain that you have been good to my master Abraham. +Gen 24:15 And even before his words were ended, Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, who was the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, came out with her water-vessel on her arm. +Gen 24:16 She was a very beautiful girl, a virgin, who had never been touched by a man: and she went down to the spring to get water in her vessel. +Gen 24:17 And the servant came running to her and said, Give me a little water from your vessel. +Gen 24:18 And she said, Take a drink, my lord: and quickly letting down her vessel onto her hand, she gave him a drink. +Gen 24:19 And having done so, she said, I will get water for your camels till they have had enough. +Gen 24:20 And after putting the water from her vessel into the animals' drinking-place, she went quickly back to the spring and got water for all the camels. +Gen 24:21 And the man, looking at her, said nothing, waiting to see if the Lord had given his journey a good outcome. +Gen 24:22 And when the camels had had enough, the man took a gold nose-ring, half a shekel in weight, and two ornaments for her arms of ten shekels weight of gold; +Gen 24:23 And said to her, Whose daughter are you? is there room in your father's house for us? +Gen 24:24 And she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, Nahor's wife. +Gen 24:25 And she said, We have a great store of dry grass and cattle-food, and there is room for you. +Gen 24:26 And with bent head the man gave worship to the Lord; +Gen 24:27 And said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has given a sign that he is good and true to my master, by guiding me straight to the house of my master's family. +Gen 24:28 So the girl went running and took the news of these things to her mother's house +Gen 24:29 Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and he came out quickly to the man at the water-spring. +Gen 24:30 And when he saw the nose-ring and the ornaments on his sister's hands, and when she gave him word of what the man had said to her, then he went out to the man who was waiting with the camels by the water-spring. +Gen 24:31 And he said to him, Come in, you on whom is the blessing of the Lord; why are you waiting outside? for I have made the house ready for you, and a place for the camels. +Gen 24:32 Then the man came into the house, and Laban took their cords off the camels and gave them dry grass and food, and he gave to him and the men who were with him water for washing their feet. +Gen 24:33 And meat was put before him, but he said, I will not take food till I have made my business clear to you. And they said, Do so. +Gen 24:34 And he said, I am Abraham's servant. +Gen 24:35 The Lord has given my master every blessing, and he has become great: he has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold, and men-servants and women-servants and camels and asses. +Gen 24:36 And when Sarah, my master's wife, was old, she gave birth to a son, to whom he has given all he has. +Gen 24:37 And my master made me take an oath, saying, Do not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living; +Gen 24:38 But go to my father's house and to my relations for a wife for my son. +Gen 24:39 And I said to my master, What if the woman will not come with me? +Gen 24:40 And he said, The Lord, whom I have ever kept before me, will send his angel with you, who will make it possible for you to get a wife for my son from my relations and my father's house; +Gen 24:41 And you will be free from your oath to me when you come to my people; and if they will not give her to you, you will be free from your oath. +Gen 24:42 And I came today to the water-spring, and I said, O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if it is your purpose to give a good outcome to my journey, +Gen 24:43 Let it come about that, while I am waiting here by the water-spring, if a girl comes to get water and I say to her, Give me a little water from your vessel, and she says, +Gen 24:44 Take a drink, and I will get water for your camels; let her be the woman marked out by the Lord for my master's son. +Gen 24:45 And even while I was saying this to myself, Rebekah came out with her vessel on her arm; and she went down to the spring to get water; and I said to her, Give me a drink. +Gen 24:46 And straight away she took down her vessel from her arm, and said, Take a drink, and I will get water for your camels. +Gen 24:47 And questioning her, I said, Whose daughter are you? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, and Milcah his wife. Then I put the ring on her nose and the ornaments on her hands. +Gen 24:48 And with bent head I gave worship and praise to the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, by whom I had been guided in the right way, to get the daughter of my master's brother for his son. +Gen 24:49 And now, say if you will do what is good and right for my master or not, in order that it may be clear to me what I have to do. +Gen 24:50 Then Laban and Bethuel said in answer, This is the Lord's doing: it is not for us to say Yes or No to you. +Gen 24:51 See, here is Rebekah: take her and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as the Lord has said. +Gen 24:52 And at these words, Abraham's servant went down on his face and gave praise to the Lord. +Gen 24:53 Then he took jewels of silver and jewels of gold and fair robes and gave them to Rebekah: and he gave things of value to her mother and her brother. +Gen 24:54 Then he and the men who were with him had food and drink, and took their rest there that night; and in the morning he got up, and said, Let me now go back to my master. +Gen 24:55 But her brother and her mother said, Let the girl be with us a week or ten days, and then she may go. +Gen 24:56 And he said, Do not keep me; the Lord has given a good outcome to my journey; let me now go back to my master. +Gen 24:57 And they said, We will send for the girl, and let her make the decision. +Gen 24:58 And they sent for Rebekah and said to her, Are you ready to go with this man? And she said, I am ready. +Gen 24:59 So they sent their sister Rebekah and her servant with Abraham's servant and his men. +Gen 24:60 And they gave Rebekah their blessing, saying, O sister, may you be the mother of thousands and ten thousands; and may your seed overcome all those who make war against them. +Gen 24:61 So Rebekah and her servant-women went with the man, seated on the camels; and so the servant took Rebekah and went on his way. +Gen 24:62 Now Isaac had come through the waste land to Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in the South. +Gen 24:63 And when the evening was near, he went wandering out into the fields, and lifting up his eyes he saw camels coming. +Gen 24:64 And when Rebekah, looking up, saw Isaac, she got down from her camel, +Gen 24:65 And said to the servant, Who is that man coming to us through the field? And the servant said, It is my master: then she took her veil, covering her face with it. +Gen 24:66 Then the servant gave Isaac the story of all he had done. +Gen 24:67 And Isaac took Rebekah into his tent and she became his wife; and in his love for her, Isaac was comforted after his father's death. +Gen 25:1 And Abraham took another wife named Keturah. +Gen 25:2 She became the mother of Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. +Gen 25:3 And Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. And from Dedan came the Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim. +Gen 25:4 And from Midian came Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the offspring of Keturah. +Gen 25:5 Now Abraham gave all his property to Isaac; +Gen 25:6 But to the sons of his other women he gave offerings, and sent them away, while he was still living, into the east country. +Gen 25:7 Now the years of Abraham's life were a hundred and seventy-five. +Gen 25:8 And Abraham came to his death, an old man, full of years; and he was put to rest with his people. +Gen 25:9 And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, put him to rest in the hollow rock of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, near Mamre; +Gen 25:10 The same field which Abraham got from the children of Heth: there Abraham was put to rest with Sarah, his wife. +Gen 25:11 Now after the death of Abraham, the blessing of God was with Isaac, his son. +Gen 25:12 Now these are the generations of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, whose mother was Hagar the Egyptian, the servant of Sarah: +Gen 25:13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their generations: Ishmael's first son was Nebaioth; then Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam +Gen 25:14 And Mishma and Dumah and Massa, +Gen 25:15 Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah: +Gen 25:16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names in their towns and their tent-circles; twelve chiefs with their peoples. +Gen 25:17 And the years of Ishmael's life were a hundred and thirty-seven: and he came to his end, and was put to rest with his people. +Gen 25:18 And their country was from Havilah to Shur which is east of Egypt: they took their place to the east of all their brothers. +Gen 25:19 Now these are the generations of Abraham's son Isaac: +Gen 25:20 Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Paddan-aram, and the sister of Laban the Aramaean, to be his wife. +Gen 25:21 Isaac made prayer to the Lord for his wife because she had no children; and the Lord gave ear to his prayer, and Rebekah became with child. +Gen 25:22 And the children were fighting together inside her, and she said, If it is to be so, why am I like this? So she went to put her question to the Lord. +Gen 25:23 And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your body, and two peoples will come to birth from you: the one will be stronger than the other, and the older will be the servant of the younger. +Gen 25:24 And when the time came for her to give birth, there were two children in her body. +Gen 25:25 And the first came out red from head to foot like a robe of hair, and they gave him the name of Esau. +Gen 25:26 And after him, his brother came out, gripping Esau's foot; and he was named Jacob: Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them. +Gen 25:27 And the boys came to full growth; and Esau became a man of the open country, an expert bowman; but Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. +Gen 25:28 Now Isaac's love was for Esau, because Esau's meat was greatly to his taste: but Rebekah had more love for Jacob. +Gen 25:29 And one day Jacob was cooking some soup when Esau came in from the fields in great need of food; +Gen 25:30 And Esau said to Jacob, Give me a full meal of that red soup, for I am overcome with need for food: for this reason he was named Edom. +Gen 25:31 And Jacob said, First of all give me your birthright. +Gen 25:32 And Esau said, Truly, I am at the point of death: what profit is the birthright to me? +Gen 25:33 And Jacob said, First of all give me your oath; and he gave him his oath, handing over his birthright to Jacob. +Gen 25:34 Then Jacob gave him bread and soup; and he took food and drink and went away, caring little for his birthright. +Gen 26:1 Then came a time of great need in the land, like that which had been before in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. +Gen 26:2 And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, Do not go down to Egypt; keep in the land of which I will give you knowledge: +Gen 26:3 Keep in this land, and I will be with you and give you my blessing; for to you and to your seed will I give all these lands, giving effect to the oath which I made to your father Abraham; +Gen 26:4 I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and will give them all these lands, and your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth; +Gen 26:5 Because Abraham gave ear to my voice and kept my words, my rules, my orders, and my laws. +Gen 26:6 So Isaac went on living in Gerar; +Gen 26:7 And when he was questioned by the men of the place about his wife, he said, She is my sister; fearing to say, She is my wife; for, he said, the men of the place may put me to death on account of Rebekah; because she is very beautiful. +Gen 26:8 And when he had been there for some time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looking through a window, saw Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife. +Gen 26:9 And he said to Isaac, It is clear that she is your wife: why then did you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said, For fear that I might be put to death because of her. +Gen 26:10 Then Abimelech said, What have you done to us? one of the people might well have had connection with your wife, and the sin would have been ours. +Gen 26:11 And Abimelech gave orders to his people that anyone touching Isaac or his wife was to be put to death. +Gen 26:12 Now Isaac, planting seed in that land, got in the same year fruit a hundred times as much, for the blessing of the Lord was on him. +Gen 26:13 And his wealth became very great, increasing more and more; +Gen 26:14 For he had great wealth of flocks and herds and great numbers of servants; so that the Philistines were full of envy. +Gen 26:15 Now all the water-holes, which his father's servants had made in the days of Abraham, had been stopped up with earth by the Philistines. +Gen 26:16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are stronger than we are. +Gen 26:17 So Isaac went away from there, and put up his tents in the valley of Gerar, making his living-place there. +Gen 26:18 And he made again the water-holes which had been made in the days of Abraham his father, and which had been stopped up by the Philistines; and he gave them the names which his father had given them. +Gen 26:19 Now Isaac's servants made holes in the valley, and came to a spring of flowing water. +Gen 26:20 But the herdmen of Gerar had a fight with Isaac's herdmen, for they said, The spring is ours: so he gave the spring the name of Esek, because there was a fight about it. +Gen 26:21 Then they made another water-hole, and there was a fight about that, so he gave it the name of Sitnah. +Gen 26:22 Then he went away from there, and made another water-hole, about which there was no fighting: so he gave it the name of Rehoboth, for he said, Now the Lord has made room for us, and we will have fruit in this land. +Gen 26:23 And from there he went on to Beer-sheba. +Gen 26:24 That night the Lord came to him in a vision, and said, I am the God of your father Abraham: have no fear for I am with you, blessing you, and your seed will be increased because of my servant Abraham. +Gen 26:25 Then he made an altar there, and gave worship to the name of the Lord, and he put up his tents there, and there his servants made a water-hole. +Gen 26:26 And Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol, the captain of his army. +Gen 26:27 And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, seeing that in your hate for me you sent me away from you? +Gen 26:28 And they said, We saw clearly that the Lord was with you: so we said, Let there be an oath between us and you, and let us make an agreement with you; +Gen 26:29 That you will do us no damage, even as we put no hand on you, and did you nothing but good, and sent you away in peace: and now the blessing of the Lord is on you. +Gen 26:30 Then he made a feast for them, and they all had food and drink. +Gen 26:31 And early in the morning they took an oath one to the other: then Isaac sent them away and they went on their way in peace. +Gen 26:32 And that day Isaac's servants came to him and gave him word of the water-hole which they had made, and said to him, We have come to water. +Gen 26:33 And he gave it the name of Shibah: so the name of that town is Beer-sheba to this day. +Gen 26:34 And when Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite: +Gen 26:35 And Isaac and Rebekah had grief of mind because of them. +Gen 27:1 Now when Isaac was old and his eyes had become clouded so that he was not able to see, he sent for Esau, his first son, and said to him, My son: and he said, Here am I. +Gen 27:2 And he said, See now, I am old, and my death may take place at any time: +Gen 27:3 So take your arrows and your bow and go out to the field and get meat for me; +Gen 27:4 And make me food, good to the taste, such as is pleasing to me, and put it before me, so that I may have a meal and give you my blessing before death comes to me. +Gen 27:5 Now Isaac's words to his son were said in Rebekah's hearing. Then Esau went out to get the meat. +Gen 27:6 And Rebekah said to Jacob, her son, Your father said to your brother Esau in my hearing, +Gen 27:7 Go and get some roe's meat and make me a good meal, so that I may be full, and give you my blessing before the Lord before my death. +Gen 27:8 Now, my son, do what I say. +Gen 27:9 Go to the flock and get me two fat young goats; and I will make of them a meal to your father's taste: +Gen 27:10 And you will take it to him, so that he may have a good meal and give you his blessing before his death. +Gen 27:11 And Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, But Esau my brother is covered with hair, while I am smooth: +Gen 27:12 If by chance my father puts his hand on me, it will seem to him that I am tricking him, and he will put a curse on me in place of a blessing. +Gen 27:13 And his mother said, Let the curse be on me, my son: only do as I say, and go and get them for me. +Gen 27:14 So he went and got them and took them to his mother: and she made a meal to his father's taste. +Gen 27:15 And Rebekah took the fair robes of her oldest son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son: +Gen 27:16 And she put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck: +Gen 27:17 And she gave into the hand of Jacob, her son, the meat and the bread which she had made ready. +Gen 27:18 And he came to his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I: who are you, my son? +Gen 27:19 And Jacob said, I am Esau, your oldest son; I have done as you said: come now, be seated and take of my meat, so that you may give me a blessing. +Gen 27:20 And Isaac said, How is it that you have got it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord your God made it come my way. +Gen 27:21 And Isaac said, Come near so that I may put my hand on you, my son, and see if you are truly my son Esau or not. +Gen 27:22 And Jacob went near his father Isaac: and he put his hands on him; and he said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. +Gen 27:23 And he did not make out who he was, because his hands were covered with hair like his brother Esau's hands: so he gave him a blessing. +Gen 27:24 And he said, Are you truly my son Esau? And he said, I am. +Gen 27:25 And he said, Put it before me and I will take of my son's meat, so that I may give you a blessing. And he put it before him and he took it; and he gave him wine, and he had a drink. +Gen 27:26 And his father Isaac said to him, Come near now, my son, and give me a kiss. +Gen 27:27 And he came near and gave him a kiss; and smelling the smell of his clothing, he gave him a blessing, and said, See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field on which the blessing of the Lord has come: +Gen 27:28 May God give you the dew of heaven, and the good things of the earth, and grain and wine in full measure: +Gen 27:29 Let peoples be your servants, and nations go down before you: be lord over your brothers, and let your mother's sons go down before you: a curse be on everyone by whom you are cursed, and a blessing on those who give you a blessing. +Gen 27:30 And when Isaac had come to the end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob had not long gone away from Isaac his father, Esau came in from the field. +Gen 27:31 And he made ready a meal, good to the taste, and took it to his father, and said to him, Let my father get up and take of his son's meat, so that you may give me a blessing. +Gen 27:32 And Isaac his father said to him, Who are you? And he said, I am your oldest son, Esau. +Gen 27:33 And in great fear Isaac said, Who then is he who got meat and put it before me, and I took it all before you came, and gave him a blessing, and his it will be? +Gen 27:34 And hearing the words of his father, Esau gave a great and bitter cry, and said to his father, Give a blessing to me, even to me, O my father! +Gen 27:35 And he said, Your brother came with deceit, and took away your blessing. +Gen 27:36 And he said, Is it because he is named Jacob that he has twice taken my place? for he took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Have you not kept a blessing for me? +Gen 27:37 And Isaac answering said, But I have made him your master, and have given him all his brothers for servants; I have made him strong with grain and wine: what then am I to do for you, my son? +Gen 27:38 And Esau said to his father, Is that the only blessing you have, my father? give a blessing to me, even me! And Esau was overcome with weeping. +Gen 27:39 Then Isaac his father made answer and said to him, Far from the fertile places of the earth, and far from the dew of heaven on high will your living-place be: +Gen 27:40 By your sword will you get your living and you will be your brother's servant; but when your power is increased his yoke will be broken from off your neck. +Gen 27:41 So Esau was full of hate for Jacob because of his father's blessing; and he said in his heart, The days of weeping for my father are near; then I will put my brother Jacob to death. +Gen 27:42 Then Rebekah, hearing what Esau had said, sent for Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, It seems that your brother Esau is purposing to put you to death. +Gen 27:43 So now, my son, do what I say: go quickly to Haran, to my brother Laban; +Gen 27:44 And be there with him for a little time, till your brother's wrath is turned away; +Gen 27:45 Till the memory of what you have done to him is past and he is no longer angry: then I will send word for you to come back; are the two of you to be taken from me in one day? +Gen 27:46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, My life is a weariness to me because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob takes a wife from among the daughters of Heth, such as these, the women of this land, of what use will my life be to me? +Gen 28:1 Then Isaac sent for Jacob, and blessing him, said, Do not take a wife from among the women of Canaan; +Gen 28:2 But go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and there get yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. +Gen 28:3 And may God, the Ruler of all, give you his blessing, giving you fruit and increase, so that you may become an army of peoples. +Gen 28:4 And may God give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed, so that the land of your wanderings, which God gave to Abraham, may be your heritage. +Gen 28:5 So Isaac sent Jacob away: and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramaean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. +Gen 28:6 So when Esau saw that Isaac had given Jacob his blessing, and sent him away to Paddan-aram to get a wife for himself there, blessing him and saying to him, Do not take a wife from among the women of Canaan; +Gen 28:7 And that Jacob had done as his father and mother said and had gone to Paddan-aram; +Gen 28:8 It was clear to Esau that his father had no love for the women of Canaan, +Gen 28:9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had. +Gen 28:10 So Jacob went out from Beer-sheba to go to Haran. +Gen 28:11 And coming to a certain place, he made it his resting-place for the night, for the sun had gone down; and he took one of the stones which were there, and putting it under his head he went to sleep in that place. +Gen 28:12 And he had a dream, and in his dream he saw steps stretching from earth to heaven, and the angels of God were going up and down on them. +Gen 28:13 And he saw the Lord by his side, saying, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: I will give to you and to your seed this land on which you are sleeping. +Gen 28:14 Your seed will be like the dust of the earth, covering all the land to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south: you and your seed will be a name of blessing to all the families of the earth. +Gen 28:15 And truly, I will be with you, and will keep you wherever you go, guiding you back again to this land; and I will not give you up till I have done what I have said to you. +Gen 28:16 And Jacob, awaking from his sleep, said, Truly, the Lord is in this place and I was not conscious of it. +Gen 28:17 And fear came on him, and he said, This is a holy place; this is nothing less than the house of God and the doorway of heaven. +Gen 28:18 And early in the morning Jacob took the stone which had been under his head, and put it up as a pillar and put oil on it. +Gen 28:19 And he gave that place the name of Beth-el, but before that time the town was named Luz. +Gen 28:20 Then Jacob took an oath, and said, If God will be with me, and keep me safe on my journey, and give me food and clothing to put on, +Gen 28:21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace, then I will take the Lord to be my God, +Gen 28:22 And this stone which I have put up for a pillar will be God's house: and of all you give me, I will give a tenth part to you. +Gen 29:1 Then Jacob went on his journey till he came to the land of the children of the East. +Gen 29:2 And there he saw a water-hole in a field, and by the side of it three flocks of sheep, for there they got water for the sheep: and on the mouth of the water-hole there was a great stone. +Gen 29:3 And all the flocks would come together there, and when the stone had been rolled away, they would give the sheep water, and put the stone back again in its place on the mouth of the water-hole. +Gen 29:4 Then Jacob said to the herdmen, My brothers, where do you come from? And they said, From Haran. +Gen 29:5 And he said to them, Have you any knowledge of Laban, the son of Nahor? And they said, We have. +Gen 29:6 And he said to them, Is he well? And they said, He is well, and here is Rachel his daughter coming with the sheep. +Gen 29:7 Then Jacob said, The sun is still high and it is not time to get the cattle together: get water for the sheep and go and give them their food. +Gen 29:8 And they said, We are not able to do so till all the flocks have come together and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the water-hole; then we will get water for the sheep. +Gen 29:9 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she took care of them. +Gen 29:10 Then when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, coming with Laban's sheep, he came near, and rolling the stone away from the mouth of the hole, he got water for Laban's flock. +Gen 29:11 And weeping for joy, Jacob gave Rachel a kiss. +Gen 29:12 And Rachel, hearing from Jacob that he was her father's relation and that he was the son of Rebekah, went running to give her father news of it. +Gen 29:13 And Laban, hearing news of Jacob, his sister's son, came running, and took Jacob in his arms, and kissing him, made him come into his house. And Jacob gave him news of everything. +Gen 29:14 And Laban said to him, Truly, you are my bone and my flesh. And he kept Jacob with him for the space of a month. +Gen 29:15 Then Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my brother are you to be my servant for nothing? say now, what is your payment to be? +Gen 29:16 Now Laban had two daughters: the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. +Gen 29:17 And Leah's eyes were clouded, but Rachel was fair in face and form. +Gen 29:18 And Jacob was in love with Rachel; and he said, I will be your servant seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter. +Gen 29:19 And Laban said, It is better for you to have her than another man: go on living here with me. +Gen 29:20 And Jacob did seven years' work for Rachel; and because of his love for her it seemed to him only a very little time. +Gen 29:21 Then Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife so that I may have her, for the days are ended. +Gen 29:22 And Laban got together all the men of the place and gave a feast. +Gen 29:23 And in the evening he took Leah, his daughter, and gave her to him, and he went in to her. +Gen 29:24 And Laban gave Zilpah, his servant-girl, to Leah, to be her waiting-woman. +Gen 29:25 And in the morning Jacob saw that it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What have you done to me? was I not working for you so that I might have Rachel? why have you been false to me? +Gen 29:26 And Laban said, In our country we do not let the younger daughter be married before the older. +Gen 29:27 Let the week of the bride-feast come to its end and then we will give you the other in addition, if you will be my servant for another seven years. +Gen 29:28 And Jacob did so; and when the week was ended, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel for his wife. +Gen 29:29 And Laban gave Rachel his servant-girl Bilhah to be her waiting-woman. +Gen 29:30 Then Jacob took Rachel as his wife, and his love for her was greater than his love for Leah; and he went on working for Laban for another seven years. +Gen 29:31 Now the Lord, seeing that Leah was not loved, gave her a child; while Rachel had no children. +Gen 29:32 And Leah was with child, and gave birth to a son to whom she gave the name Reuben: for she said, The Lord has seen my sorrow; now my husband will have love for me. +Gen 29:33 Then she became with child again, and gave birth to a son; and said, Because it has come to the Lord's ears that I am not loved, he has given me this son in addition: and she gave him the name Simeon. +Gen 29:34 And she was with child again, and gave birth to a son; and said, Now at last my husband will be united to me, because I have given him three sons: so he was named Levi. +Gen 29:35 And she was with child again, and gave birth to a son: and she said, This time I will give praise to the Lord: so he was named Judah; after this she had no more children for a time. +Gen 30:1 Now Rachel, because she had no children, was full of envy of her sister; and she said to Jacob, If you do not give me children I will not go on living. +Gen 30:2 But Jacob was angry with Rachel, and said, Am I in the place of God, who has kept your body from having fruit? +Gen 30:3 Then she said, Here is my servant Bilhah, go in to her, so that she may have a child on my knees, and I may have a family by her. +Gen 30:4 So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. +Gen 30:5 And Bilhah became with child, and gave birth to a son. +Gen 30:6 Then Rachel said, God has been my judge, and has given ear to my voice, and has given me a son; so he was named Dan. +Gen 30:7 And again Bilhah, Rachel's servant, was with child, and gave birth to a second son. +Gen 30:8 And Rachel said, I have had a great fight with my sister, and I have overcome her: and she gave the child the name Naphtali. +Gen 30:9 When it was clear to Leah that she would have no more children for a time, she gave Zilpah, her servant, to Jacob as a wife. +Gen 30:10 And Zilpah, Leah's servant, gave birth to a son. +Gen 30:11 And Leah said, It has gone well for me: and she gave him the name Gad. +Gen 30:12 And Zilpah, Leah's servant, gave birth to a second son. +Gen 30:13 And Leah said, Happy am I! and all women will give witness to my joy: and she gave him the name Asher. +Gen 30:14 Now at the time of the grain-cutting, Reuben saw some love-fruits in the field, and took them to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to her, Let me have some of your son's love-fruits. +Gen 30:15 But Leah said to her, Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband from me? and now would you take my son's love-fruits? Then Rachel said, You may have him tonight in exchange for your son's love-fruits. +Gen 30:16 In the evening, when Jacob came in from the field, Leah went out to him and said, Tonight you are to come to me, for I have given my son's love-fruits as a price for you. And he went in to her that night. +Gen 30:17 And God gave ear to her and she became with child, and gave Jacob a fifth son. +Gen 30:18 Then Leah said, God has made payment to me for giving my servant-girl to my husband: so she gave her son the name Issachar. +Gen 30:19 And again Leah became with child, and she gave Jacob a sixth son. +Gen 30:20 And she said, God has given me a good bride-price; now at last will I have my husband living with me, for I have given him six sons: and she gave him the name Zebulun. +Gen 30:21 After that she had a daughter, to whom she gave the name Dinah. +Gen 30:22 Then God gave thought to Rachel, and hearing her prayer he made her fertile. +Gen 30:23 And she was with child, and gave birth to a son: and she said, God has taken away my shame. +Gen 30:24 And she gave him the name Joseph, saying, May the Lord give me another son. +Gen 30:25 Now after the birth of Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, Let me go away to my place and my country. +Gen 30:26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have been your servant, and let me go: for you have knowledge of all the work I have done for you. +Gen 30:27 And Laban said, If you will let me say so, do not go away; for I have seen by the signs that the Lord has been good to me because of you. +Gen 30:28 Say then what your payment is to be and I will give it. +Gen 30:29 Then Jacob said, You have seen what I have done for you, and how your cattle have done well under my care. +Gen 30:30 For before I came you had little, and it has been greatly increased; and the Lord has given you a blessing in everything I have done; but when am I to do something for my family? +Gen 30:31 And Laban said, What am I to give you? And Jacob said, Do not give me anything; but I will again take up the care of your flock if you will only do this for me: +Gen 30:32 Let me go through all your flock today, taking out from among them all the sheep which are marked or coloured or black, and all the marked or coloured goats: these will be my payment. +Gen 30:33 And so you will be able to put my honour to the test in time to come; if you see among my flocks any goats which are not marked or coloured, or any sheep which is not black, you may take me for a thief. +Gen 30:34 And Laban said, Let it be as you say. +Gen 30:35 So that day he took all the he-goats which were banded or coloured, and all the she-goats which were marked or coloured or had white marks, and all the black sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons; +Gen 30:36 And sent them three days' journey away: and Jacob took care of the rest of Laban's flock. +Gen 30:37 Then Jacob took young branches of trees, cutting off the skin so that the white wood was seen in bands. +Gen 30:38 And he put the banded sticks in the drinking-places where the flock came to get water; and they became with young when they came to the water. +Gen 30:39 And because of this, the flock gave birth to young which were marked with bands of colour. +Gen 30:40 These lambs Jacob kept separate; and he put his flock in a place by themselves and not with Laban's flock. +Gen 30:41 And whenever the stronger ones of the flock became with young, Jacob put the sticks in front of them in the drinking-places, so that they might become with young when they saw the sticks. +Gen 30:42 But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put the sticks before them; so that the feebler flocks were Laban's and the stronger were Jacob's. +Gen 30:43 So Jacob's wealth was greatly increased; he had great flocks and women-servants and men-servants and camels and asses. +Gen 31:1 Now it came to the ears of Jacob that Laban's sons were saying, Jacob has taken away all our father's property, and in this way he has got all this wealth. +Gen 31:2 And Jacob saw that Laban's feeling for him was no longer what it had been before. +Gen 31:3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, Go back to the land of your fathers, and to your relations, and I will be with you. +Gen 31:4 And Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah to come to him in the field among his flock. +Gen 31:5 And he said to them, It is clear to me that your father's feeling is no longer what it was to me; but the God of my father has been with me +Gen 31:6 And you have seen how I have done all in my power for your father, +Gen 31:7 But your father has not kept faith with me, and ten times he has made changes in my payment; but God has kept him from doing me damage. +Gen 31:8 If he said, All those in the flock which have marks are to be yours, then all the flock gave birth to marked young; and if he said, All the banded ones are to be yours, then all the flock had banded young. +Gen 31:9 So God has taken away your father's cattle and has given them to me. +Gen 31:10 And at the time when the flock were with young, I saw in a dream that all the he-goats which were joined with the she-goats were banded and marked and coloured. +Gen 31:11 And in my dream the angel of the Lord said to me, Jacob: and I said, Here am I. +Gen 31:12 And he said, See how all the he-goats are banded and marked and coloured: for I have seen what Laban has done to you. +Gen 31:13 I am the God of Beth-el, where you put oil on the pillar and took an oath to me: now then, come out of this land and go back to the country of your birth. +Gen 31:14 Then Rachel and Leah said to him in answer, What part or heritage is there for us in our father's house? +Gen 31:15 Are we not as people from a strange country to him? for he took a price for us and now it is all used up. +Gen 31:16 For the wealth which God has taken from him is ours and our children's; so now, whatever God has said to you, do. +Gen 31:17 Then Jacob put his wives and his sons on camels; +Gen 31:18 And sending on before him all his cattle and his property which he had got together in Paddan-aram, he made ready to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. +Gen 31:19 Now Laban had gone to see to the cutting of the wool of his sheep; so Rachel secretly took the images of the gods of her father's house. +Gen 31:20 And Jacob went away secretly, without giving news of his flight to Laban the Aramaean. +Gen 31:21 So he went away with all he had, and went across the River in the direction of the hill-country of Gilead. +Gen 31:22 And on the third day Laban had news of Jacob's flight. +Gen 31:23 And taking the men of his family with him, he went after him for seven days and overtook him in the hill-country of Gilead. +Gen 31:24 Then God came to Laban in a dream by night, and said to him, Take care that you say nothing good or bad to Jacob. +Gen 31:25 Now when Laban overtook him, Jacob had put up his tent in the hill-country; and Laban and his brothers put up their tents in the hill-country of Gilead. +Gen 31:26 And Laban said to Jacob, Why did you go away secretly, taking my daughters away like prisoners of war? +Gen 31:27 Why did you make a secret of your flight, not giving me word of it, so that I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with melody and music? +Gen 31:28 You did not even let me give a kiss to my sons and my daughters. This was a foolish thing to do. +Gen 31:29 It is in my power to do you damage: but the God of your father came to me this night, saying, Take care that you say nothing good or bad to Jacob. +Gen 31:30 And now, it seems, you are going because your heart's desire is for your father's house; but why have you taken my gods? +Gen 31:31 And Jacob, in answer, said to Laban, My fear was that you might take your daughters from me by force. +Gen 31:32 As for your gods, if anyone of us has them, let him be put to death: make search before us all for what is yours, and take it. For Jacob had no knowledge that Rachel had taken them. +Gen 31:33 So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent, and into the tents of the two servant-women, but they were not there; and he came out of Leah's tent and went into Rachel's. +Gen 31:34 Now Rachel had taken the images, and had put them in the camels' basket, and was seated on them. And Laban, searching through all the tent, did not come across them. +Gen 31:35 And she said to her father, Let not my lord be angry because I do not get up before you, for I am in the common condition of women. And with all his searching, he did not come across the images. +Gen 31:36 Then Jacob was angry with Laban, and said, What crime or sin have I done that you have come after me with such passion? +Gen 31:37 Now that you have made search through all my goods, what have you seen which is yours? Make it clear now before my people and your people, so that they may be judges between us. +Gen 31:38 These twenty years I have been with you; your sheep and your goats have had young without loss, not one of your he-goats have I taken for food. +Gen 31:39 Anything which was wounded by beasts I did not take to you, but myself made up for the loss of it; you made me responsible for whatever was taken by thieves, by day or by night. +Gen 31:40 This was my condition, wasted by heat in the day and by the bitter cold at night; and sleep went from my eyes. +Gen 31:41 These twenty years I have been in your house; I was your servant for fourteen years because of your daughters, and for six years I kept your flock, and ten times was my payment changed. +Gen 31:42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me away with nothing in my hands. But God has seen my troubles and the work of my hands, and this night he kept you back. +Gen 31:43 Then Laban, answering, said, These women are my daughters and these children my children, the flocks and all you see are mine: what now may I do for my daughters and for their children? +Gen 31:44 Come, let us make an agreement, you and I; and let it be for a witness between us. +Gen 31:45 Then Jacob took a stone and put it up as a pillar. +Gen 31:46 And Jacob said to his people, Get stones together; and they did so; and they had a meal there by the stones. +Gen 31:47 And the name Laban gave it was Jegar-sahadutha: but Jacob gave it the name of Galeed. +Gen 31:48 And Laban said, These stones are a witness between you and me today. For this reason its name was Galeed, +Gen 31:49 And Mizpah, for he said, May the Lord keep watch on us when we are unable to see one another's doings. +Gen 31:50 If you are cruel to my daughters, or if you take other wives in addition to my daughters, then though no man is there to see, God will be the witness between us. +Gen 31:51 And Laban said, See these stones and this pillar which I have put between you and me; +Gen 31:52 They will be witness that I will not go over these stones to you, and you will not go over these stones or this pillar to me, for any evil purpose. +Gen 31:53 May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, be our judge. Then Jacob took an oath by the Fear of his father Isaac. +Gen 31:54 And Jacob made an offering on the mountain, and gave orders to his people to take food: so they had a meal and took their rest that night on the mountain. +Gen 31:55 And early in the morning Laban, after kissing and blessing his daughters, went on his way back to his country. +Gen 32:1 And on his way Jacob came face to face with the angels of God. +Gen 32:2 And when he saw them he said, This is the army of God: so he gave that place the name of Mahanaim. +Gen 32:3 Now Jacob sent servants before him to Esau, his brother, in the land of Seir, the country of Edom; +Gen 32:4 And he gave them orders to say these words to Esau: Your servant Jacob says, Till now I have been living with Laban: +Gen 32:5 And I have oxen and asses and flocks and men-servants and women-servants: and I have sent to give my lord news of these things so that I may have grace in his eyes. +Gen 32:6 When the servants came back they said, We have seen your brother Esau and he is coming out to you, and four hundred men with him. +Gen 32:7 Then Jacob was in great fear and trouble of mind: and he put all the people and the flocks and the herds and the camels into two groups; +Gen 32:8 And said, If Esau, meeting one group, makes an attack on them, the others will get away safely. +Gen 32:9 Then Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, the God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, Go back to your country and your family and I will be good to you: +Gen 32:10 I am less than nothing in comparison with all your mercies and your faith to me your servant; for with only my stick in my hand I went across Jordan, and now I have become two armies. +Gen 32:11 Be my saviour from the hand of Esau, my brother: for my fear is that he will make an attack on me, putting to death mother and child. +Gen 32:12 And you said, Truly, I will be good to you, and make your seed like the sand of the sea which may not be numbered. +Gen 32:13 Then he put up his tent there for the night; and from among his goods he took, as an offering for his brother Esau, +Gen 32:14 Two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred females and twenty males from the sheep, +Gen 32:15 Thirty camels with their young ones, forty cows, ten oxen, twenty asses, and ten young asses. +Gen 32:16 These he gave to his servants, every herd by itself, and he said to his servants, Go on before me, and let there be a space between one herd and another. +Gen 32:17 And he gave orders to the first, saying, When my brother Esau comes to you and says, Whose servant are you, and where are you going, and whose are these herds? +Gen 32:18 Then say to him, These are your servant Jacob's; they are an offering for my lord, for Esau; and he himself is coming after us. +Gen 32:19 And he gave the same orders to the second and the third and to all those who were with the herds, saying, This is what you are to say to Esau when you see him; +Gen 32:20 And you are to say further, Jacob, your servant, is coming after us. For he said to himself, I will take away his wrath by the offering which I have sent on, and then I will come before him: it may be that I will have grace in his eyes. +Gen 32:21 So the servants with the offerings went on in front, and he himself took his rest that night in the tents with his people. +Gen 32:22 And in the night he got up, and taking with him his two wives and the two servant-women and his eleven children, he went over the river Jabbok. +Gen 32:23 He took them and sent them over the stream with all he had. +Gen 32:24 Then Jacob was by himself; and a man was fighting with him till dawn. +Gen 32:25 But when the man saw that he was not able to overcome Jacob, he gave him a blow in the hollow part of his leg, so that his leg was damaged. +Gen 32:26 And he said to him, Let me go now, for the dawn is near. But Jacob said, I will not let you go till you have given me your blessing. +Gen 32:27 Then he said, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. +Gen 32:28 And he said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel: for in your fight with God and with men you have overcome. +Gen 32:29 Then Jacob said, What is your name? And he said, What is my name to you? Then he gave him a blessing. +Gen 32:30 And Jacob gave that place the name of Peniel, saying, I have seen God face to face, and still I am living. +Gen 32:31 And while he was going past Peniel, the sun came up. And he went with unequal steps because of his damaged leg. +Gen 32:32 For this reason the children of Israel, even today, never take that muscle in the hollow of the leg as food, because the hollow of Jacob's leg was touched. +Gen 33:1 Then Jacob, lifting up his eyes, saw Esau coming with his four hundred men. So he made a division of the children between Leah and Rachel and the two women-servants. +Gen 33:2 He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph at the back. +Gen 33:3 And he himself, going before them, went down on his face to the earth seven times till he came near his brother. +Gen 33:4 Then Esau came running up to him, and folding him in his arms, gave him a kiss: and the two of them were overcome with weeping. +Gen 33:5 Then Esau, lifting up his eyes, saw the women and the children, and said, Who are these with you? And he said, The children whom God in his mercy has given to your servant. +Gen 33:6 Then the servants and their children came near, and went down on their faces. +Gen 33:7 And Leah came near with her children, and then Joseph and Rachel, and they did the same. +Gen 33:8 And he said, What were all those herds which I saw on the way? And Jacob said, They were an offering so that I might have grace in my lord's eyes. +Gen 33:9 But Esau said, I have enough; keep what is yours, my brother, for yourself. +Gen 33:10 And Jacob said, Not so; but if I have grace in your eyes, take them as a sign of my love, for I have seen your face as one may see the face of God, and you have been pleased with me. +Gen 33:11 Take my offering then, with my blessing; for God has been very good to me and I have enough: so at his strong request, he took it. +Gen 33:12 And he said, Let us go on our journey together, and I will go in front. +Gen 33:13 But Jacob said, My lord may see that the children are only small, and there are young ones in my flocks and herds: one day's over-driving will be the destruction of all the flock. +Gen 33:14 Do you, my lord, go on before your servant; I will come on slowly, at the rate at which the cattle and the children are able to go, till I come to my lord at Seir. +Gen 33:15 And Esau said, Then keep some of my men with you. And he said, What need is there for that, if my lord is pleased with me? +Gen 33:16 So Esau, turning back that day, went on his way to Seir. +Gen 33:17 And Jacob went on to Succoth, where he made a house for himself and put up tents for his cattle: for this reason the place was named Succoth. +Gen 33:18 So Jacob came safely from Paddan-aram to the town of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and put up his tents near the town. +Gen 33:19 And for a hundred bits of money he got from the children of Hamor, the builder of Shechem, the field in which he had put up his tents. +Gen 33:20 And there he put up an altar, naming it El, the God of Israel. +Gen 34:1 Now Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had by Jacob, went out to see the women of that country. +Gen 34:2 And when Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who was the chief of that land, saw her, he took her by force and had connection with her. +Gen 34:3 Then his heart went out in love to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he said comforting words to her. +Gen 34:4 And Shechem said to Hamor, his father, Get me this girl for my wife. +Gen 34:5 Now Jacob had word of what Shechem had done to his daughter; but his sons were in the fields with the cattle, and Jacob said nothing till they came. +Gen 34:6 Then Hamor, the father of Shechem, came out to have a talk with Jacob. +Gen 34:7 Now the sons of Jacob came in from the fields when they had news of it, and they were wounded and very angry because of the shame he had done in Israel by having connection with Jacob's daughter; and they said, Such a thing is not to be done. +Gen 34:8 But Hamor said to them, Shechem, my son, is full of desire for your daughter: will you then give her to him for a wife? +Gen 34:9 And let our two peoples be joined together; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. +Gen 34:10 Go on living with us, and the country will be open to you; do trade and get property there. +Gen 34:11 And Shechem said to her father and her brothers, If you will give ear to my request, whatever you say I will give to you. +Gen 34:12 However great you make the bride-price and payment, I will give it; only let me have the girl for my wife. +Gen 34:13 But the sons of Jacob gave a false answer to Shechem and Hamor his father, because of what had been done to Dinah their sister. +Gen 34:14 And they said, It is not possible for us to give our sister to one who is without circumcision, for that would be a cause of shame to us: +Gen 34:15 But on this condition only will we come to an agreement with you: if every male among you becomes like us and undergoes circumcision; +Gen 34:16 Then we will give our daughters to you and take your daughters to us and go on living with you as one people. +Gen 34:17 But if you will not undergo circumcision as we say, then we will take our daughter and go. +Gen 34:18 And their words were pleasing to Hamor and his son Shechem. +Gen 34:19 And without loss of time the young man did as they said, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was the noblest of his father's house. +Gen 34:20 Then Hamor and Shechem, his son, went to the meeting-place of their town, and said to the men of the town, +Gen 34:21 It is the desire of these men to be at peace with us; let them then go on living in this country and doing trade here, for the country is wide open before them; let us take their daughters as wives and let us give them our daughters. +Gen 34:22 But these men will make an agreement with us to go on living with us and to become one people, only on the condition that every male among us undergoes circumcision as they have done. +Gen 34:23 Then will not their cattle and their goods and all their beasts be ours? so let us come to an agreement with them so that they may go on living with us. +Gen 34:24 Then all the men of the town gave ear to the words of Hamor and Shechem his son; and every male in the town underwent circumcision. +Gen 34:25 But on the third day after, before the wounds were well, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came into the town by surprise and put all the males to death. +Gen 34:26 And Hamor and his son they put to death with the sword, and they took Dinah from Shechem's house and went away. +Gen 34:27 And the sons of Jacob came on them when they were wounded and made waste the town because of what had been done to their sister; +Gen 34:28 They took their flocks and their herds and their asses and everything in their town and in their fields, +Gen 34:29 And all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives; everything in their houses they took and made them waste. +Gen 34:30 And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, You have made trouble for me and given me a bad name among the people of this country, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites: and because we are small in number they will come together against me and make war on me; and it will be the end of me and all my people. +Gen 34:31 But they said, Were we to let him make use of our sister as a loose woman? +Gen 35:1 And God said to Jacob, Go up now to Beth-el and make your living-place there: and put up an altar there to the God who came to you when you were in flight from your brother Esau. +Gen 35:2 Then Jacob said to all his people, Put away the strange gods which are among you, and make yourselves clean, and put on a change of clothing: +Gen 35:3 And let us go up to Beth-el: and there I will make an altar to God, who gave me an answer in the day of my trouble, and was with me wherever I went. +Gen 35:4 Then they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which they had, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob put them away under the holy tree at Shechem. +Gen 35:5 So they went on their journey: and the fear of God was on the towns round about, so that they made no attack on the sons of Jacob. +Gen 35:6 And Jacob came to Luz in the land of Canaan (which is the same as Beth-el), he and all his people. +Gen 35:7 And there he made an altar, naming the place El-beth-el: because it was there he had the vision of God when he was in flight from his brother. +Gen 35:8 And Deborah, the servant who had taken care of Rebekah from her birth, came to her end, and was put to rest near Beth-el, under the holy tree: and they gave it the name of Allon-bacuth. +Gen 35:9 Now when Jacob was on his way from Paddan-aram, God came to him again and, blessing him, said, +Gen 35:10 Jacob is your name, but it will be so no longer; from now your name will be Israel; so he was named Israel. +Gen 35:11 And God said to him, I am God, the Ruler of all: be fertile, and have increase; a nation, truly a group of nations, will come from you, and kings will be your offspring; +Gen 35:12 And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you; and to your seed after you I will give the land. +Gen 35:13 Then God went up from him in the place where he had been talking with him. +Gen 35:14 And Jacob put up a pillar in the place where he had been talking with God, and put a drink offering on it, and oil. +Gen 35:15 And he gave to the place where God had been talking with him, the name of Beth-el. +Gen 35:16 So they went on from Beth-el; and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, the pains of birth came on Rachel and she had a hard time. +Gen 35:17 And when her pain was very great, the woman who was helping her said, Have no fear; for now you will have another son. +Gen 35:18 And in the hour when her life went from her (for death came to her), she gave the child the name Ben-oni: but his father gave him the name of Benjamin. +Gen 35:19 So Rachel came to her end and was put to rest on the road to Ephrath (which is Beth-lehem). +Gen 35:20 And Jacob put up a pillar on her resting-place; which is named, The Pillar of the resting-place of Rachel, to this day. +Gen 35:21 And Israel went journeying on and put up his tents on the other side of the tower of the flock. +Gen 35:22 Now while they were living in that country, Reuben had connection with Bilhah, his father's servant-woman: and Israel had news of it. +Gen 35:23 Now Jacob had twelve sons: the sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's first son, and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun; +Gen 35:24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin; +Gen 35:25 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant: Dan and Naphtali; +Gen 35:26 The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant: Gad and Asher; these are the sons whom Jacob had in Paddan-aram. +Gen 35:27 And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had been living. +Gen 35:28 And Isaac was a hundred and eighty years old. +Gen 35:29 Then Isaac came to his end and was put to rest with his father's people, an old man after a long life: and Jacob and Esau, his sons, put him in his last resting-place. +Gen 36:1 Now these are the generations of Esau, that is to say, Edom. +Gen 36:2 Esau's wives were women of Canaan: Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, +Gen 36:3 And Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. +Gen 36:4 Adah had a son Eliphaz; and Basemath was the mother of Reuel; +Gen 36:5 Oholibamah was the mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah; these are the sons of Esau, whose birth took place in the land of Canaan. +Gen 36:6 Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters, and all the people of his house, and his beasts and his cattle and all his goods which he had got together in the land of Canaan, and went into the land of Seir, away from his brother Jacob. +Gen 36:7 For their wealth was so great that the land was not wide enough for the two of them and all their cattle. +Gen 36:8 So Esau made his living-place in the hill-country of Seir (Esau is Edom). +Gen 36:9 And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in the hill-country of Seir: +Gen 36:10 These are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz, the son of Esau's wife Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau's wife Basemath. +Gen 36:11 The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz. +Gen 36:12 And Eliphaz, the son of Esau, had connection with a woman named Timna, who gave birth to Amalek: all these were the children of Esau's wife Adah. +Gen 36:13 And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah: they were the children of Esau's wife Basemath. +Gen 36:14 And these are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon: she was the mother of Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. +Gen 36:15 These were the chiefs among the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz, Esau's first son: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz, +Gen 36:16 Korah, Gatam, Amalek: all these were chiefs in the land of Edom, the offspring of Eliphaz, the seed of Adah. +Gen 36:17 And these are the sons of Esau's son Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, Mizzah: these were the chiefs of Reuel in the land of Edom, the children of Esau's wife Basemath. +Gen 36:18 And these are the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah: Jeush, Jalam, and Korah: these were the chiefs who came from Esau's wife Oholibamah, daughter of Anah. +Gen 36:19 These were the sons of Esau (that is, Edom), and these were their chiefs. +Gen 36:20 These are the sons of Seir the Horite who were living in that country; Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, +Gen 36:21 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan: these are the chiefs of the Horites, offspring of Seir in the land of Edom. +Gen 36:22 The children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; Lotan's sister was Timna. +Gen 36:23 And these are the children of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. +Gen 36:24 And these are the children of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah; that same Anah who made the discovery of the water-springs in the waste land, when he was looking after the asses of his father Zibeon. +Gen 36:25 And these are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah his daughter. +Gen 36:26 These are the children of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran. +Gen 36:27 These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan. +Gen 36:28 These are the children of Dishan: Uz and Aran. +Gen 36:29 These were the Horite chiefs: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, +Gen 36:30 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. Such were the Horite chiefs in their order in the land of Seir. +Gen 36:31 And these are the kings who were ruling in the land of Edom before there was any king over the children of Israel. +Gen 36:32 Bela, son of Beor, was king in Edom, and the name of his chief town was Dinhabah. +Gen 36:33 At his death, Jobab, son of Zerah of Bozrah, became king in his place. +Gen 36:34 And at the death of Jobab, Husham, from the country of the Temanites, became king in his place. +Gen 36:35 And at the death of Husham, Hadad, son of Bedad, who overcame the Midianites in the field of Moab, became king; his chief town was named Avith. +Gen 36:36 And at the death of Hadad, Samlah of Masrekah became king. +Gen 36:37 And at the death of Samlah, Shaul of Rehoboth by the River became king in his place. +Gen 36:38 And at the death of Shaul, Baal-hanan, son of Achbor, became king. +Gen 36:39 And at the death of Baal-hanan, Hadar became king in his place; his chief town was named Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel; she was the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab. +Gen 36:40 These are the names of the chiefs of Esau in the order of their families and their places: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth, +Gen 36:41 Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon, +Gen 36:42 Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar, +Gen 36:43 Magdiel, Iram; these are the Edomite chiefs, in their places in their heritage; this is Esau, the father of the Edomites. +Gen 37:1 Now Jacob was living in the land where his father had made a place for himself, in the land of Canaan. +Gen 37:2 These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph, a boy seventeen years old, was looking after the flock, together with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph gave their father a bad account of them. +Gen 37:3 Now the love which Israel had for Joseph was greater than his love for all his other children, because he got him when he was an old man: and he had a long coat made for him. +Gen 37:4 And because his brothers saw that Joseph was dearer to his father than all the others, they were full of hate for him, and would not say a kind word to him. +Gen 37:5 Now Joseph had a dream, and he gave his brothers an account of it, which made their hate greater than ever. +Gen 37:6 And he said to them, Let me give you the story of my dream. +Gen 37:7 We were in the field, getting the grain stems together, and my grain kept upright, and yours came round and went down on the earth before mine. +Gen 37:8 And his brothers said to him, Are you to be our king? will you have authority over us? And because of his dream and his words, their hate for him became greater than ever. +Gen 37:9 Then he had another dream, and gave his brothers an account of it, saying, I have had another dream: the sun and the moon and eleven stars gave honour to me. +Gen 37:10 And he gave word of it to his father and his brothers; but his father protesting said, What sort of a dream is this? am I and your mother and your brothers to go down on our faces to the earth before you? +Gen 37:11 And his brothers were full of envy; but his father kept his words in mind. +Gen 37:12 Now his brothers went to keep watch over their father's flock in Shechem. +Gen 37:13 And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers with the flock in Shechem? come, I will send you to them. And he said to him, Here am I. +Gen 37:14 And he said to him, Go now, and see if your brothers are well and how the flock is; then come back and give me word. So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. +Gen 37:15 And a man saw him wandering in the country, and said to him, What are you looking for? +Gen 37:16 And he said, I am looking for my brothers; please give me word of where they are keeping their flock. +Gen 37:17 And the man said, They have gone away from here, for they said in my hearing, Let us go to Dothan. So Joseph went after them and came up with them at Dothan. +Gen 37:18 But they saw him when he was a long way off, and before he came near them they made a secret design against him to put him to death; +Gen 37:19 Saying to one another, See, here comes this dreamer. +Gen 37:20 Let us now put him to death and put his body into one of these holes, and we will say, An evil beast has put him to death: then we will see what becomes of his dreams. +Gen 37:21 But Reuben, hearing these words, got him out of their hands, saying, Let us not take his life. +Gen 37:22 Do not put him to a violent death, but let him be placed in one of the holes; this he said to keep him safe from their hands, with the purpose of taking him back to his father again. +Gen 37:23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they took off his long coat which he had on; +Gen 37:24 And they took him and put him in the hole: now the hole had no water in it. +Gen 37:25 Then seating themselves, they took their meal: and looking up, they saw a travelling band of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead on their way to Egypt, with spices and perfumes on their camels. +Gen 37:26 And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there in putting our brother to death and covering up his blood? +Gen 37:27 Let us give him to these Ishmaelites for a price, and let us not put violent hands on him, for he is our brother, our flesh. And his brothers gave ear to him. +Gen 37:28 And some traders from Midian went by; so pulling Joseph up out of the hole, they gave him to the Ishmaelites for twenty bits of silver, and they took him to Egypt. +Gen 37:29 Now when Reuben came back to the hole, Joseph was not there; and giving signs of grief, +Gen 37:30 He went back to his brothers, and said, The child is gone; what am I to do? +Gen 37:31 Then they took Joseph's coat, and put on it some of the blood from a young goat which they had put to death, +Gen 37:32 And they took the coat to their father, and said, We came across this; is it your son's coat or not? +Gen 37:33 And he saw that it was, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast has put him to death; without doubt Joseph has come to a cruel end. +Gen 37:34 Then Jacob, giving signs of grief, put on haircloth, and went on weeping for his son day after day. +Gen 37:35 And all his sons and all his daughters came to give him comfort, but he would not be comforted, saying with weeping, I will go down to the underworld to my son. So great was his father's sorrow for him. +Gen 37:36 And in Egypt the men of Midian gave him for a price to Potiphar, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house. +Gen 38:1 Now at that time, Judah went away from his brothers and became the friend of a man of Adullam named Hirah. +Gen 38:2 And there he saw the daughter of a certain man of Canaan named Shua, and took her as his wife. +Gen 38:3 And she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Er. +Gen 38:4 And again she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Onan. +Gen 38:5 Then she had another son, to whom she gave the name Shelah; she was at Chezib when the birth took place. +Gen 38:6 And Judah took a wife for his first son Er, and her name was Tamar. +Gen 38:7 Now Er, Judah's first son, did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that he put him to death. +Gen 38:8 Then Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother's wife and do what it is right for a husband's brother to do; make her your wife and get offspring for your brother. +Gen 38:9 But Onan, seeing that the offspring would not be his, went in to his brother's wife, but let his seed go on to the earth, so that he might not get offspring for his brother. +Gen 38:10 And what he did was evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that he put him to death, like his brother. +Gen 38:11 Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Go back to your father's house and keep yourself as a widow till my son Shelah becomes a man: for he had in his mind the thought that death might come to him as it had come to his brothers. So Tamar went back to her father's house. +Gen 38:12 And after a time, Bath-shua, Judah's wife, came to her end; and after Judah was comforted for her loss, he went to Timnah, where they were cutting the wool of his sheep, and his friend Hirah of Adullam went with him. +Gen 38:13 And when Tamar had news that her father-in-law was going up to Timnah to the wool-cutting, +Gen 38:14 She took off her widow's clothing, and covering herself with her veil, she took her seat near Enaim on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was now a man, but she had not been made his wife. +Gen 38:15 When Judah saw her he took her to be a loose woman of the town, because her face was covered. +Gen 38:16 And turning to her by the roadside, he said to her, Let me come in to you; for he had no idea that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, What will you give me as my price? +Gen 38:17 And he said, I will give you a young goat from the flock. And she said, What will you give me as a sign till you send it? +Gen 38:18 And he said, What would you have? And she said, Your ring and its cord and the stick in your hand. So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she became with child by him. +Gen 38:19 Then she got up and went away and took off her veil and put on her widow's clothing. +Gen 38:20 Then Judah sent his friend Hirah with the young goat, to get back the things which he had given as a sign to the woman: but she was not there. +Gen 38:21 And he put questions to the men of the place, saying, Where is the loose woman who was in Enaim by the wayside? And they said, There was no such woman there. +Gen 38:22 So he went back to Judah, and said, I have not seen her, and the men of the place say that there is no such woman there. +Gen 38:23 And Judah said, Let her keep the things, so that we may not be shamed; I sent the young goat, but you did not see the woman. +Gen 38:24 Now about three months after this, word came to Judah that Tamar, his daughter-in-law, had been acting like a loose woman and was with child. And Judah said, Take her out and let her be burned. +Gen 38:25 And while she was being taken out, she sent word to her father-in-law, saying, The man whose property these things are, is the father of my child: say then, whose are this ring and this cord and this stick? +Gen 38:26 Then Judah said openly that they were his, and said, She is more upright than I am, for I did not give her to Shelah my son. And he had no more connection with her. +Gen 38:27 And when the time came for her to give birth, it was clear that there were two children in her body. +Gen 38:28 And while she was in the act of giving birth, one of them put out his hand; and the woman who was with her put a red thread round his hand, saying, This one came out first. +Gen 38:29 But then he took his hand back again, and his brother came first to birth: and the woman said, What an opening you have made for yourself! So he was named Perez. +Gen 38:30 And then his brother came out, with the red thread round his hand, and he was named Zerah. +Gen 39:1 Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar the Egyptian, a captain of high position in Pharaoh's house, got him for a price from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. +Gen 39:2 And the Lord was with Joseph, and he did well; and he was living in the house of his master the Egyptian. +Gen 39:3 And his master saw that the Lord was with him, making everything he did go well. +Gen 39:4 And having a high opinion of Joseph as his servant, he made him the overseer of his house and gave him control over all he had. +Gen 39:5 And from the time when he made him overseer and gave him control of all his property, the blessing of the Lord was with the Egyptian, because of Joseph; the blessing of the Lord was on all he had, in the house and in the field. +Gen 39:6 And he gave Joseph control of all his property, keeping no account of anything, but only the food which was put before him. Now Joseph was very beautiful in form and face. +Gen 39:7 And after a time, his master's wife, looking on Joseph with desire, said to him, Be my lover. +Gen 39:8 But he would not, and said to her, You see that my master keeps no account of what I do in his house, and has put all his property in my control; +Gen 39:9 So that no one has more authority in this house than I have; he has kept nothing back from me but you, because you are his wife; how then may I do this great wrong, sinning against God? +Gen 39:10 And day after day she went on requesting Joseph to come to her and be her lover, but he would not give ear to her. +Gen 39:11 Now one day he went into the house to do his work; and not one of the men of the house was inside. +Gen 39:12 And pulling at his coat, she said, Come to my bed; but slipping out of his coat, he went running away. +Gen 39:13 And when she saw that he had got away, letting her keep his coat, +Gen 39:14 She sent for the men of her house and said to them, See, he has let a Hebrew come here and make sport of us; he came to my bed, and I gave a loud cry; +Gen 39:15 And hearing it he went running out without his coat. +Gen 39:16 And she kept his coat by her, till his master came back. +Gen 39:17 Then she gave him the same story, saying, The Hebrew servant whom you have taken into our house came in to make sport of me; +Gen 39:18 And when I gave a loud cry he went running out without his coat. +Gen 39:19 And hearing his wife's account of what his servant had done, he became very angry. +Gen 39:20 And Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, in the place where the king's prisoners were kept in chains, and he was there in the prison-house. +Gen 39:21 But the Lord was with Joseph, and was good to him, and made the keeper of the prison his friend. +Gen 39:22 And the keeper of the prison put all the prisoners under Joseph's control, and he was responsible for whatever was done there. +Gen 39:23 And the keeper of the prison gave no attention to anything which was under his care, because the Lord was with him; and the Lord made everything he did go well. +Gen 40:1 Now after these things the chief servant who had the care of the wine, and the chief bread-maker in Pharaoh's house, did something against Pharaoh's orders; +Gen 40:2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two servants, with the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker; +Gen 40:3 And he put them in prison under the care of the captain of the army, in the same prison where Joseph himself was shut up. +Gen 40:4 And the captain put them in Joseph's care, and he did what was needed for them; and they were kept in prison for some time. +Gen 40:5 And these two had a dream on the same night; the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker of the king of Egypt, who were in prison, the two of them had dreams with a special sense. +Gen 40:6 And in the morning when Joseph came to them he saw that they were looking sad. +Gen 40:7 And he said to the servants of Pharaoh who were in prison with him, Why are you looking so sad? +Gen 40:8 Then they said to him, We have had a dream, and no one is able to give us the sense. And Joseph said, Does not the sense of dreams come from God? what was your dream? +Gen 40:9 Then the chief wine-servant gave Joseph an account of his dream, and said, In my dream I saw a vine before me; +Gen 40:10 And on the vine were three branches; and it seemed as if it put out buds and flowers, and from them came grapes ready for cutting. +Gen 40:11 And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and crushing them into Pharaoh's cup, gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. +Gen 40:12 Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three branches are three days; +Gen 40:13 After three days Pharaoh will give you honour, and put you back into your place, and you will give him his cup as you did before, when you were his wine-servant. +Gen 40:14 But keep me in mind when things go well for you, and be good to me and say a good word for me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison: +Gen 40:15 For truly I was taken by force from the land of the Hebrews; and I have done nothing for which I might be put in prison. +Gen 40:16 Now when the chief bread-maker saw that the first dream had a good sense, he said to Joseph, I had a dream; and in my dream there were three baskets of white bread on my head; +Gen 40:17 And in the top basket were all sorts of cooked meats for Pharaoh; and the birds were taking them out of the baskets on my head. +Gen 40:18 Then Joseph said, This is the sense of your dream: the three baskets are three days; +Gen 40:19 After three days Pharaoh will take you out of prison, hanging you on a tree, so that your flesh will be food for birds. +Gen 40:20 Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his servants; and he gave honour to the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker among the others. +Gen 40:21 And he put the chief wine-servant back in his old place; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. +Gen 40:22 But the chief bread-maker was put to death by hanging, as Joseph had said. +Gen 40:23 But the wine-servant did not keep Joseph in mind or give a thought to him. +Gen 41:1 Now after two years had gone by, Pharaoh had a dream; and in his dream he was by the side of the Nile; +Gen 41:2 And out of the Nile came seven cows, good-looking and fat, and their food was the river-grass. +Gen 41:3 And after them seven other cows came out of the Nile, poor-looking and thin; and they were by the side of the other cows. +Gen 41:4 And the seven thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows. Then Pharaoh came out of his sleep. +Gen 41:5 But he went to sleep again and had a second dream, in which he saw seven heads of grain, full and good, all on one stem. +Gen 41:6 And after them came up seven other heads, thin and wasted by the east wind. +Gen 41:7 And the seven thin heads made a meal of the good heads. And when Pharaoh was awake he saw it was a dream. +Gen 41:8 And in the morning his spirit was troubled; and he sent for all the wise men of Egypt and all the holy men, and put his dream before them, but no one was able to give him the sense of it. +Gen 41:9 Then the chief wine-servant said to Pharaoh, The memory of my sin comes back to me now; +Gen 41:10 Pharaoh had been angry with his servants, and had put me in prison in the house of the captain of the army, together with the chief bread-maker; +Gen 41:11 And we had a dream on the same night, the two of us, and the dreams had a special sense. +Gen 41:12 And there was with us a young Hebrew, the captain's servant, and when we put our dreams before him, he gave us the sense of them. +Gen 41:13 And it came about as he said: I was put back in my place, and the bread-maker was put to death by hanging. +Gen 41:14 Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they took him quickly out of prison; and when his hair had been cut and his dress changed, he came before Pharaoh. +Gen 41:15 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and no one is able to give me the sense of it; now it has come to my ears that you are able to give the sense of a dream when it is put before you. +Gen 41:16 Then Joseph said, Without God there will be no answer of peace for Pharaoh. +Gen 41:17 Then Pharaoh said, In my dream I was by the side of the Nile: +Gen 41:18 And out of the Nile came seven cows, fat and good-looking, and their food was the river-grass; +Gen 41:19 Then after them came seven other cows, very thin and poor-looking, worse than any I ever saw in the land of Egypt; +Gen 41:20 And the thin cows made a meal of the seven fat cows who came up first; +Gen 41:21 And even with the fat cows inside them they seemed as bad as before. And so I came out of my sleep. +Gen 41:22 And again in a dream I saw seven heads of grain, full and good, coming up on one stem: +Gen 41:23 And then I saw seven other heads, dry, thin, and wasted by the east wind, coming up after them: +Gen 41:24 And the seven thin heads made a meal of the seven good heads; and I put this dream before the wise men, but not one of them was able to give me the sense of it. +Gen 41:25 Then Joseph said, These two dreams have the same sense: God has made clear to Pharaoh what he is about to do. +Gen 41:26 The seven fat cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years: the two have the same sense. +Gen 41:27 The seven thin and poor-looking cows who came up after them are seven years; and the seven heads of grain, dry and wasted by the east wind, are seven years when there will be no food. +Gen 41:28 As I said to Pharaoh before, God has made clear to him what he is about to do. +Gen 41:29 Seven years are coming in which there will be great wealth of grain in Egypt; +Gen 41:30 And after that will come seven years when there will not be enough food; and the memory of the good years will go from men's minds; and the land will be made waste by the bad years; +Gen 41:31 And men will have no memory of the good time because of the need which will come after, for it will be very bitter. +Gen 41:32 And this dream came to Pharaoh twice, because this thing is certain, and God will quickly make it come about. +Gen 41:33 And now let Pharaoh make search for a man of wisdom and good sense, and put him in authority over the land of Egypt. +Gen 41:34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him put overseers over the land of Egypt to put in store a fifth part of the produce of the land in the good years. +Gen 41:35 And let them get together all the food in those good years and make a store of grain under Pharaoh's control for the use of the towns, and let them keep it. +Gen 41:36 And let that food be kept in store for the land till the seven bad years which are to come in Egypt; so that the land may not come to destruction through need of food. +Gen 41:37 And this seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants. +Gen 41:38 Then Pharaoh said to his servants, Where may we get such a man as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God? +Gen 41:39 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Seeing that God has made all this clear to you, there is no other man of such wisdom and good sense as you: +Gen 41:40 You, then, are to be over my house, and all my people will be ruled by your word: only as king will I be greater than you. +Gen 41:41 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have put you over all the land of Egypt. +Gen 41:42 Then Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and he had him clothed with the best linen, and put a chain of gold round his neck; +Gen 41:43 And he made him take his seat in the second of his carriages; and they went before him crying, Make way! So he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. +Gen 41:44 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh; and without your order no man may do anything in all the land of Egypt. +Gen 41:45 And Pharaoh gave Joseph the name of Zaphnath-paaneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, the priest of On, to be his wife. So Joseph went through all the land of Egypt. +Gen 41:46 Now Joseph was thirty years old when he came before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from before the face of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. +Gen 41:47 Now in the seven good years the earth gave fruit in masses. +Gen 41:48 And Joseph got together all the food of those seven years, and made a store of food in the towns: the produce of the fields round every town was stored up in the town. +Gen 41:49 So he got together a store of grain like the sand of the sea; so great a store that after a time he gave up measuring it, for it might not be measured. +Gen 41:50 And before the time of need, Joseph had two sons, to whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On, gave birth. +Gen 41:51 And to the first he gave the name Manasseh, for he said, God has taken away from me all memory of my hard life and of my father's house. +Gen 41:52 And to the second he gave the name Ephraim, for he said, God has given me fruit in the land of my sorrow. +Gen 41:53 And so the seven good years in Egypt came to an end. +Gen 41:54 Then came the first of the seven years of need as Joseph had said: and in every other land they were short of food; but in the land of Egypt there was bread. +Gen 41:55 And when all the land of Egypt was in need of food, the people came crying to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to the people, Go to Joseph, and whatever he says to you, do it. +Gen 41:56 And everywhere on the earth they were short of food; then Joseph, opening all his store-houses, gave the people of Egypt grain for money; so great was the need of food in the land of Egypt. +Gen 41:57 And all lands sent to Egypt, to Joseph, to get grain, for the need was great over all the earth. +Gen 42:1 Now Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, said to his sons, Why are you looking at one another? +Gen 42:2 And he said, I have had news that there is grain in Egypt: go down there and get grain for us, so that life and not death may be ours. +Gen 42:3 So Joseph's ten brothers went down to get grain from Egypt. +Gen 42:4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with them, for fear, as he said, that some evil might come to him. +Gen 42:5 And the sons of Israel came with all the others to get grain: for they were very short of food in the land of Canaan. +Gen 42:6 Now Joseph was ruler over all the land, and it was he who gave out the grain to all the people of the land; and Joseph's brothers came before him and went down on their faces to the earth. +Gen 42:7 And when Joseph saw his brothers, it was clear to him who they were, but he made himself strange to them, and talking roughly to them, said, Where do you come from? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to get food. +Gen 42:8 Now though Joseph saw that these were his brothers, they had no idea who he was. +Gen 42:9 Then the memory of his dreams about them came back to Joseph, and he said to them, You have come secretly to see how poor the land is. +Gen 42:10 And they said to him, Not so, my lord: your servants have come with money to get food. +Gen 42:11 We are all one man's sons, we are true men; we have not come with any secret purpose. +Gen 42:12 And he said to them, No, but you have come to see how poor the land is. +Gen 42:13 Then they said, We your servants are twelve brothers, sons of one man in the land of Canaan; the youngest of us is now with our father, and one is dead. +Gen 42:14 And Joseph said, It is as I said; you have come with some secret purpose; +Gen 42:15 But in this way will you be put to the test: by the life of Pharaoh, you will not go away from this place till your youngest brother comes here. +Gen 42:16 Send one of your number to get your brother, and the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested to see if you are true; if not, by the life of Pharaoh, your purpose is certainly secret. +Gen 42:17 So he put them in prison for three days. +Gen 42:18 And on the third day Joseph said to them, Do this, if you would keep your lives: for I am a god-fearing man: +Gen 42:19 If you are true men, let one of you be kept in prison, while you go and take grain for the needs of your families; +Gen 42:20 And come back to me with your youngest brother, so that your words may be seen to be true, and you will not be put to death. This is what you are to do. +Gen 42:21 And they said to one another, Truly, we did wrong to our brother, for we saw his grief of mind, and we did not give ear to his prayers; that is why this trouble has come on us. +Gen 42:22 And Reuben said to them, Did I not say to you, Do the child no wrong? but you gave no attention; so now, punishment has come on us for his blood. +Gen 42:23 They were not conscious that the sense of their words was clear to Joseph, for he had been talking to them through one who had knowledge of their language. +Gen 42:24 And turning away from them, he was overcome with weeping; then he went on talking to them again and took Simeon and put chains on him before their eyes. +Gen 42:25 Then Joseph gave orders for their bags to be made full of grain, and for every man's money to be put back into his bag, and for food to be given them for the journey: which was done. +Gen 42:26 Then they put the bags of grain on their asses and went away. +Gen 42:27 Now at their night's resting-place one of them, opening his bag to give his ass some food, saw his money in the mouth of the bag. +Gen 42:28 And he said to his brothers, My money has been given back: it is in my bag; then their hearts became full of fear, and turning to one another they said, What is this which God has done to us? +Gen 42:29 So when they came to Jacob their father, in the land of Canaan, they gave him an account of all their experiences, saying, +Gen 42:30 The man who is the ruler of the country was rough with us and put us in prison, saying that we had come with a secret evil purpose. +Gen 42:31 And we said to him, We are true men, we have no evil designs; +Gen 42:32 We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is dead, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan. +Gen 42:33 And the ruler of the land said, In this way I may be certain that you are true men; let one of you be kept here with me, while you go and take grain for the needs of your families; +Gen 42:34 And come back to me with your youngest brother: then I will be certain that you are true men, and I will give your brother back to you and let you do trade in the land. +Gen 42:35 And when they took the grain out of their bags, it was seen that every man's parcel of money was in his bag; and when they and their father saw the money, they were full of fear. +Gen 42:36 And Jacob their father said to them, You have taken my children from me: Joseph is gone and Simeon is gone, and now you would take Benjamin away; all these things have come on me. +Gen 42:37 And Reuben said, Put my two sons to death if I do not come back to you with him; let him be in my care and I will give him safely back to you. +Gen 42:38 And he said, I will not let my son go down with you; for his brother is dead and he is all I have: if evil overtakes him on the journey, then through you will my grey head go down to the underworld in sorrow. +Gen 43:1 Now the land was in bitter need of food. +Gen 43:2 And when the grain which they had got in Egypt was all used up, their father said to them, Go again and get us a little food. +Gen 43:3 And Judah said to him, The man said to us with an oath, You are not to come before me again without your brother. +Gen 43:4 If you will let our brother go with us, we will go down and get food: +Gen 43:5 But if you will not send him, we will not go down: for the man said to us, You are not to come before me if your brother is not with you. +Gen 43:6 And Israel said, Why were you so cruel to me as to say to him that you had a brother? +Gen 43:7 And they said, The man put a number of questions to us about ourselves and our family, saying, Is your father still living? have you another brother? And we had to give him answers; how were we to have any idea that he would say, Come back with your brother? +Gen 43:8 Then Judah said to Israel, his father, Send the boy with me, and let us be up and going, so that we and you and our little ones may not come to destruction. +Gen 43:9 Put him into my care and make me responsible for him: if I do not give him safely back to you, let mine be the sin for ever. +Gen 43:10 Truly, if we had not let the time go by, we might have come back again by now. +Gen 43:11 Then their father Israel said to them, If it has to be so, then do this: take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels to give the man, perfumes and honey and spices and nuts: +Gen 43:12 And take twice as much money with you; that is to say, take back the money which was put in your bags, for it may have been an error; +Gen 43:13 And take your brother and go back to the man: +Gen 43:14 And may God, the Ruler of all, give you mercy before the man, so that he may give you back your other brother and Benjamin. If my children are to be taken from me; there is no help for it. +Gen 43:15 So they took what their father said for the man, and twice as much money in their hands, and Benjamin, and went on their journey to Egypt, and came before Joseph. +Gen 43:16 And when Joseph saw Benjamin, he said to his chief servant, Take these men into my house, and make ready a meal, for they will take food with me in the middle of the day. +Gen 43:17 And the servant did as Joseph said, and took the men into Joseph's house. +Gen 43:18 Now the men were full of fear because they had been taken into Joseph's house and they said, It is because of the money which was put back in our bags the first time; he is looking for something against us, so that he may come down on us and take us and our asses for his use. +Gen 43:19 So they went up to Joseph's chief servant at the door of the house, +Gen 43:20 And said, O my lord, we only came down the first time to get food; +Gen 43:21 And when we came to our night's resting-place, on opening our bags we saw that every man's money was in the mouth of his bag, all our money in full weight: and we have it with us to give it back; +Gen 43:22 As well as more money, with which to get food: we have no idea who put our money in our bags. +Gen 43:23 Then the servant said, Peace be with you: have no fear: your God, even the God of your father, has put wealth in your bags for you: I had your money. Then he let Simeon come out to them. +Gen 43:24 And the servant took them into Joseph's house, and gave them water for washing their feet; and he gave their asses food. +Gen 43:25 And they got ready the things for Joseph before he came in the middle of the day: for word was given to them that they were to have a meal there. +Gen 43:26 And when Joseph came in, they gave him the things which they had for him, and went down to the earth before him. +Gen 43:27 And he said, How are you? is your father well, the old man of whom you were talking to me? is he still living? +Gen 43:28 And they said, Your servant, our father, is well, he is still living. And they went down on their faces before him. +Gen 43:29 Then, lifting up his eyes, he saw Benjamin, his brother, his mother's son, and he said, Is this your youngest brother of whom you gave me word? And he said, God be good to you, my son. +Gen 43:30 Then Joseph's heart went out to his brother, and he went quickly into his room, for he was overcome with weeping. +Gen 43:31 Then, after washing his face, he came out, and controlling his feelings said, Put food before us. +Gen 43:32 And they put a meal ready for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians who were with him by themselves; because the Egyptians may not take food with the Hebrews, for that would make them unclean. +Gen 43:33 And they were all given their seats before him in order of birth, from the oldest to the youngest: so that they were looking at one another in wonder. +Gen 43:34 And Joseph sent food to them from his table, but he sent five times as much to Benjamin as to any of the others. And they took wine freely with him. +Gen 44:1 Then he gave orders to the servant who was over his house, saying, Put as much food into the men's bags as will go into them, and put every man's money in the mouth of his bag; +Gen 44:2 And put my cup, my silver cup, in the youngest one's bag, with his money. So he did as Joseph said. +Gen 44:3 And at dawn the men, with their asses, were sent away. +Gen 44:4 And when they had gone only a little way out of the town, Joseph said to the servant who was over his house, Go after them; and when you overtake them, say to them, Why have you done evil in reward for good? +Gen 44:5 Is not this the cup from which my lord takes wine and by which he gets knowledge of the future? Truly, you have done evil. +Gen 44:6 So he overtook them and said these words to them. +Gen 44:7 And they said to him, Why does my lord say such words as these? far be it from your servants to do such a thing: +Gen 44:8 See, the money which was in the mouth of our bags we gave back to you when we came again from Canaan: how then might we take silver or gold from your lord's house? +Gen 44:9 If it comes to light that any of your servants has done this, let him be put to death, and we will be your lord's servants. +Gen 44:10 And he said, Let it be as you say: he in whose bag it is seen will become my servant; and you will not be responsible. +Gen 44:11 Then every man quickly got his bag down and undid it. +Gen 44:12 And he made a search, starting with the oldest and ending with the youngest; and the cup was in Benjamin's bag. +Gen 44:13 Then in bitter grief they put the bags on the asses again and went back to the town. +Gen 44:14 So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house; and he was still there: and they went down on their faces before him. +Gen 44:15 And Joseph said, What is this thing which you have done? had you no thought that such a man as I would have power to see what is secret? +Gen 44:16 And Judah said, What are we to say to my lord? how may we put ourselves right in his eyes? God has made clear the sin of your servants: now we are in your hands, we and the man in whose bag your cup was seen. +Gen 44:17 Then he said, Far be it from me to do so: but the man who had my cup will be my servant; and you may go back to your father in peace. +Gen 44:18 Then Judah came near him, and said, Let your servant say a word in my lord's ears, and let not your wrath be burning against your servant: for you are in the place of Pharaoh to us. +Gen 44:19 My lord said to his servants, Have you a father or a brother? +Gen 44:20 And we said to my lord, We have an old father and a young child, whom he had when he was old; his brother is dead and he is the only son of his mother, and is very dear to his father. +Gen 44:21 And you said to your servants, Let him come down to me with you, so that I may see him. +Gen 44:22 And we said to my lord, His father will not let him go; for if he went away his father would come to his death. +Gen 44:23 But you said to your servants, If your youngest brother does not come with you, you will not see my face again. +Gen 44:24 And when we went back to your servant, our father, we gave him an account of my lord's words. +Gen 44:25 And our father said, Go again and get us a little food. +Gen 44:26 And we said, Only if our youngest brother goes with us will we go down; for we may not see the man's face again if our youngest brother is not with us. +Gen 44:27 And our father said to us, You have knowledge that my wife gave me two sons; +Gen 44:28 The one went away from me, and I said, Truly he has come to a violent death; and from that time I have not seen him, +Gen 44:29 If now you take this one from me, and some evil comes to him, you will make my grey head go down in sorrow to the underworld. +Gen 44:30 If then I go back to your servant, my father, without the boy, because his life and the boy's life are one, +Gen 44:31 When he sees that the boy is not with us, he will come to his death, and our father's grey head will go down in sorrow to the underworld. +Gen 44:32 For I made myself responsible for the boy to my father, saying, If I do not give him safely back to you, let mine be the sin for ever. +Gen 44:33 So now let me be my lord's servant here in place of the boy, and let him go back with his brothers. +Gen 44:34 For how may I go back to my father without the boy, and see the evil which will come on my father? +Gen 45:1 Then Joseph, unable to keep back his feelings before those who were with him, gave orders for everyone to be sent away, and no one was present when he made clear to his brothers who he was. +Gen 45:2 And so loud was his weeping, that it came to the ears of the Egyptians and all Pharaoh's house. +Gen 45:3 And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph: is my father still living? But his brothers were not able to give him an answer for they were troubled before him. +Gen 45:4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me. And they came near, And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sent into Egypt. +Gen 45:5 Now do not be troubled or angry with yourselves for sending me away, because God sent me before you to be the saviour of your lives. +Gen 45:6 For these two years have been years of need, and there are still five more years to come in which there will be no ploughing or cutting of grain. +Gen 45:7 God sent me before you to keep you and yours living on earth so that you might become a great nation. +Gen 45:8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God: and he has made me as a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. +Gen 45:9 Now go quickly to my father, and say to him, Your son Joseph says, God has made me ruler over all the land of Egypt: come down to me straight away: +Gen 45:10 The land of Goshen will be your living-place, and you will be near me; you and your children and your children's children, and your flocks and herds and all you have: +Gen 45:11 And there I will take care of you, so that you and your family may not be in need, for there are still five bad years to come. +Gen 45:12 Now truly, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which says these things to you. +Gen 45:13 Give my father word of all my glory in Egypt and of all you have seen; and come back quickly with my father. +Gen 45:14 Then, weeping, he took Benjamin in his arms, and Benjamin himself was weeping on Joseph's neck. +Gen 45:15 Then he gave a kiss to all his brothers, weeping over them; and after that his brothers had no fear of talking to him. +Gen 45:16 And news of these things went through Pharaoh's house, and it was said that Joseph's brothers were come; and it seemed good to Pharaoh and his servants. +Gen 45:17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Put your goods on your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan; +Gen 45:18 And get your father and your families and come back to me: and I will give you all the good things of Egypt, and the fat of the land will be your food. +Gen 45:19 And say to them, This you are to do: take carts from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and get your father and come back. +Gen 45:20 And take no thought for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. +Gen 45:21 And the children of Israel did as he said; and Joseph gave them carts as had been ordered by Pharaoh, and food for their journey. +Gen 45:22 To every one of them he gave three changes of clothing; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred bits of silver and five changes of clothing. +Gen 45:23 And to his father he sent ten asses with good things from Egypt on their backs, and ten she-asses with grain and bread and food for his father on the journey. +Gen 45:24 And he sent his brothers on their way, and said to them, See that you have no argument on the road. +Gen 45:25 So they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to their father Jacob. +Gen 45:26 And they said to him, Joseph is living, and is ruler over all the land of Egypt. And at this word Jacob was quite overcome, for he had no faith in it. +Gen 45:27 And they gave him an account of everything Joseph had said to them; and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent for them, his spirit came back to him: +Gen 45:28 And Israel said, It is enough: Joseph my son is still living; I will go and see him before my death. +Gen 46:1 And Israel went on his journey with all he had, and came to Beer-sheba, where he made offerings to the God of his father Isaac. +Gen 46:2 And God said to Israel in a night-vision, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. +Gen 46:3 And he said, I am God, the God of your father: go down to Egypt without fear, for I will make a great nation of you there: +Gen 46:4 I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will see that you come back again, and at your death Joseph will put his hands on your eyes. +Gen 46:5 Then Jacob went on from Beer-sheba; and the sons of Jacob took their father and their little ones and their wives in the carts which Pharaoh had sent for them. +Gen 46:6 And they took their cattle and all the goods which they had got in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt, even Jacob and all his seed: +Gen 46:7 His sons and his sons' sons, his daughters and his daughters' sons and all his family he took with him into Egypt. +Gen 46:8 And these are the names of the children of Israel who came into Egypt, even Jacob and all his sons: Reuben, Jacob's oldest son; +Gen 46:9 And the sons of Reuben: Hanoch and Pallu and Hezron and Carmi; +Gen 46:10 And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul, the son of a woman of Canaan; +Gen 46:11 And the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; +Gen 46:12 And the sons of Judah: Er and Onan and Shelah and Perez and Zerah: but Er and Onan had come to their death in the land of Canaan; and the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. +Gen 46:13 And the sons of Issachar: Tola and Puah and Job and Shimron; +Gen 46:14 And the sons of Zebulun: Sered and Elon and Jahleel; +Gen 46:15 All these, together with his daughter Dinah, were the children of Leah, whom Jacob had by her in Paddan-aram; they were thirty-three in number. +Gen 46:16 And the sons of Gad: Ziphion and Haggi, Shuni and Ezbon, Eri and Arodi and Areli; +Gen 46:17 And the sons of Asher: Jimnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah, and Sarah, their sister; and the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel. +Gen 46:18 These are the children of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah, and Jacob had these sixteen children by her. +Gen 46:19 The sons of Jacob's wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. +Gen 46:20 And Joseph had Manasseh and Ephraim in the land of Egypt, by Asenath, the daughter of Poti-phera, priest of On. +Gen 46:21 And the sons of Benjamin were Belah and Becher and Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, Muppim and Huppim and Ard. +Gen 46:22 All these were the children of Rachel whom Jacob had by her, fourteen persons. +Gen 46:23 And the son of Dan was Hushim. +Gen 46:24 And the sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel and Guni and Jezer and Shillem. +Gen 46:25 These were the children of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel, seven persons. +Gen 46:26 All the persons who came with Jacob into Egypt, the offspring of his body, were sixty-six, without taking into account the wives of Jacob's sons. +Gen 46:27 And the sons of Joseph whom he had in Egypt were two. Seventy persons of the family of Jacob came into Egypt. +Gen 46:28 Now he had sent Judah before him to Goshen, to get word from Joseph; and so they came to the land of Goshen. +Gen 46:29 And Joseph got his carriage ready and went to Goshen for the meeting with his father; and when he came before him, he put his arms round his neck, weeping. +Gen 46:30 And Israel said to Joseph, Now that I have seen you living again, I am ready for death. +Gen 46:31 And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's people, I will go and give the news to Pharaoh, and say to him, My brothers and my father's people, from the land of Canaan, have come to me; +Gen 46:32 And these men are keepers of sheep and owners of cattle, and have with them their flocks and their herds and all they have. +Gen 46:33 Now when Pharaoh sends for you and says, What is your business? +Gen 46:34 You are to say, Your servants have been keepers of cattle from our early days up to now, like our fathers; in this way you will be able to have the land of Goshen for yourselves; because keepers of sheep are unclean in the eyes of the Egyptians. +Gen 47:1 Then Joseph went to Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brothers with their flocks and their herds and all they have, are come from Canaan, and are now in the land of Goshen. +Gen 47:2 And he took five of his brothers to Pharaoh. +Gen 47:3 And Pharaoh said to them, What is your business? And they said, Your servants are keepers of sheep, as our fathers were before us. +Gen 47:4 And they said to Pharaoh, We have come to make a living in this land, because we have no grass for our flocks in the land of Canaan; so now let your servants make a place for themselves in the land of Goshen. +Gen 47:5 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Let them have the land of Goshen; and if there are any able men among them, put them over my cattle. +Gen 47:6 And Jacob and his sons came to Joseph in Egypt, and when word of it came to the ears of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, he said to Joseph, Your father and brothers have come to you; all the land of Egypt is before you; let your father and your brothers have the best of the land for their resting-place. +Gen 47:7 Then Joseph made his father Jacob come before Pharaoh, and Jacob gave him his blessing. +Gen 47:8 And Pharaoh said to him, How old are you? +Gen 47:9 And Jacob said, The years of my wanderings have been a hundred and thirty; small in number and full of sorrow have been the years of my life, and less than the years of the wanderings of my fathers. +Gen 47:10 And Jacob gave Pharaoh his blessing, and went out from before him. +Gen 47:11 And Joseph made a place for his father and his brothers, and gave them a heritage in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had given orders. +Gen 47:12 And Joseph took care of his father and his brothers and all his father's people, giving them food for the needs of their families. +Gen 47:13 Now there was no food to be had in all the land, so that all Egypt and Canaan were wasted from need of food. +Gen 47:14 And all the money in Egypt and in the land of Canaan which had been given for grain, came into the hands of Joseph: and he put it in Pharaoh's house. +Gen 47:15 And when all the money in Egypt and Canaan was gone, the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, Give us bread; would you have us come to destruction before your eyes? for we have no more money. +Gen 47:16 And Joseph said, Give me your cattle; I will give you grain in exchange for your cattle if your money is all gone. +Gen 47:17 So they took their cattle to Joseph and he gave them bread in exchange for their horses and flocks and herds and asses, so all that year he gave them food in exchange for their cattle. +Gen 47:18 And when that year was ended, they came to him in the second year, and said, We may not keep it from our lord's knowledge that all our money is gone, and all the herds of cattle are my lord's; there is nothing more to give my lord but our bodies and our land; +Gen 47:19 Are we to come to destruction before your eyes, we and our land? take us and our land and give us bread; and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh; and give us seed so that we may have life and the land may not become waste. +Gen 47:20 So Joseph got all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh; for every Egyptian gave up his land in exchange for food, because of their great need; so all the land became Pharaoh's. +Gen 47:21 And as for the people, he made servants of them, town by town, from one end of Egypt to the other. +Gen 47:22 Only he did not take the land of the priests, for the priests had their food given them by Pharaoh, and having what Pharaoh gave them, they had no need to give up their land. +Gen 47:23 Then Joseph said to the people, I have made you and your land this day the property of Pharaoh; here is seed for you to put in your fields. +Gen 47:24 And when the grain is cut, you are to give a fifth part to Pharaoh, and four parts will be yours for seed and food, and for your families and your little ones. +Gen 47:25 And they said to him, Truly you have kept us from death; may we have grace in your eyes, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. +Gen 47:26 Then Joseph made a law which is in force to this day, that Pharaoh was to have the fifth part; only the land of the priests did not become his. +Gen 47:27 And so Israel was living among the Egyptians in the land of Goshen; and they got property there, and became very great in numbers and in wealth. +Gen 47:28 And Jacob was living in the land of Goshen for seventeen years; so the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. +Gen 47:29 And the time of his death came near, and he sent for his son Joseph and said to him, If now I am dear to you, put your hand under my leg and take an oath that you will not put me to rest in Egypt; +Gen 47:30 But when I go to my fathers, you are to take me out of Egypt and put me to rest in their last resting-place. And he said, I will do so. +Gen 47:31 And he said, Take an oath to me; and he took an oath to him: and Israel gave worship on the bed's head. +Gen 48:1 Now after these things, word came to Joseph that his father was ill: and he took with him his sons Manasseh and Ephraim. +Gen 48:2 And when they said to Jacob, Your son Joseph is coming to see you: then Israel, getting all his strength together, had himself lifted up in his bed. +Gen 48:3 And Jacob said to Joseph, God, the Ruler of all, came to me in a vision at Luz in the land of Canaan, and gave me his blessing, +Gen 48:4 And said to me, Truly, I will make you fertile and give you increase and will make of you a great family of nations: and I will give this land to your seed after you to be their heritage for ever. +Gen 48:5 And now your two sons who came to birth in Egypt before I came to you here, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, in the same way as Reuben and Simeon are. +Gen 48:6 And any other offspring which you have after them, will be yours, and will be named after their brothers in their heritage. +Gen 48:7 And as for me, when I came from Paddan, death overtook Rachel on the way, when we were still some distance from Ephrath; and I put her to rest there on the road to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem. +Gen 48:8 Then Israel, looking at Joseph's sons, said, Who are these? +Gen 48:9 And Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom God has given me in this land. And he said, Let them come near me, and I will give them a blessing. +Gen 48:10 Now because Israel was old, his eyes were no longer clear, and he was not able to see. So he made them come near to him, and he gave them a kiss, folding them in his arms. +Gen 48:11 And Israel said to Joseph, I had no hope of seeing your face again, but God in his mercy has let me see you and your children. +Gen 48:12 Then Joseph took them from between his knees, and went down on his face to the earth. +Gen 48:13 Then taking Ephraim with his right hand, Joseph put him at Israel's left side, and with his left hand he put Manasseh at Israel's right side, placing them near him. +Gen 48:14 And Israel, stretching out his right hand, put it on the head of Ephraim, the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands on purpose, for Manasseh was the older. +Gen 48:15 And he gave Joseph a blessing, saying, May the God to whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, gave worship, the God who has taken care of me all my life till this day, +Gen 48:16 The angel who has been my saviour from all evil, send his blessing on these children: and let my name and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, be given to them; and let them become a great nation in the earth. +Gen 48:17 Now when Joseph saw that his father had put his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it did not seem right to him; and lifting his father's hand he would have put it on the head of Manasseh. +Gen 48:18 And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father, for this is the older; put your right hand on his head. +Gen 48:19 But his father would not, saying, I am doing it on purpose, my son; he will certainly become a nation and a great one; but his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a great family of nations. +Gen 48:20 So he gave them his blessing that day, saying, You will be the sign of blessing in Israel, for they will say, May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh; and he put Ephraim before Manasseh. +Gen 48:21 Then Israel said to Joseph, Now my death is near; but God will be with you, guiding you back to the land of your fathers. +Gen 48:22 And I have given you more than your brothers, even Shechem as your heritage, which I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow. +Gen 49:1 And Jacob sent for his sons, and said, Come together, all of you, so that I may give you news of your fate in future times. +Gen 49:2 Come near, O sons of Jacob, and give ear to the words of Israel your father. +Gen 49:3 Reuben, you are my oldest son, the first-fruit of my strength, first in pride and first in power: +Gen 49:4 But because you were uncontrolled, the first place will not be yours; for you went up to your father's bed, even his bride-bed, and made it unclean. +Gen 49:5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; deceit and force are their secret designs. +Gen 49:6 Take no part in their secrets, O my soul; keep far away, O my heart, from their meetings; for in their wrath they put men to death, and for their pleasure even oxen were wounded. +Gen 49:7 A curse on their passion for it was bitter; and on their wrath for it was cruel. I will let their heritage in Jacob be broken up, driving them from their places in Israel. +Gen 49:8 To you, Judah, will your brothers give praise: your hand will be on the neck of your haters; your father's sons will go down to the earth before you. +Gen 49:9 Judah is a young lion; like a lion full of meat you have become great, my son; now he takes his rest like a lion stretched out and like an old lion; by whom will his sleep be broken? +Gen 49:10 The rod of authority will not be taken from Judah, and he will not be without a law-giver, till he comes who has the right to it, and the peoples will put themselves under his rule. +Gen 49:11 Knotting his ass's cord to the vine, and his young ass to the best vine; washing his robe in wine, and his clothing in the blood of grapes: +Gen 49:12 His eyes will be dark with wine, and his teeth white with milk. +Gen 49:13 The resting-place of Zebulun will be by the sea, and he will be a harbour for ships; the edge of his land will be by Zidon. +Gen 49:14 Issachar is a strong ass stretched out among the flocks: +Gen 49:15 And he saw that rest was good and the land was pleasing; so he let them put weights on his back and became a servant. +Gen 49:16 Dan will be the judge of his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. +Gen 49:17 May Dan be a snake in the way, a horned snake by the road, biting the horse's foot so that the horseman has a fall. +Gen 49:18 I have been waiting for your salvation, O Lord. +Gen 49:19 Gad, an army will come against him, but he will come down on them in their flight. +Gen 49:20 Asher's bread is fat; he gives delicate food for kings. +Gen 49:21 Naphtali is a roe let loose, giving fair young ones. +Gen 49:22 Joseph is a young ox, whose steps are turned to the fountain; +Gen 49:23 He was troubled by the archers; they sent out their arrows against him, cruelly wounding him: +Gen 49:24 But their bows were broken by a strong one, and the cords of their arms were cut by the Strength of Jacob, by the name of the Stone of Israel: +Gen 49:25 Even by the God of your father, who will be your help, and by the Ruler of all, who will make you full with blessings from heaven on high, blessings of the deep stretched out under the earth, blessings of the breasts and of the fertile body: +Gen 49:26 Blessings of sons, old and young, to the father: blessings of the oldest mountains and the fruit of the eternal hills: let them come on the head of Joseph, on the crown of him who was separate from his brothers. +Gen 49:27 Benjamin is a wolf, searching for meat: in the morning he takes his food, and in the evening he makes division of what he has taken. +Gen 49:28 These are the twelve tribes of Israel: and these are the words their father said to them, blessing them; to every one he gave his blessing. +Gen 49:29 And he gave orders to them, saying, Put me to rest with my people and with my fathers, in the hollow of the rock in the field of Ephron the Hittite, +Gen 49:30 In the rock in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham got from Ephron the Hittite, to be his resting-place. +Gen 49:31 There Abraham and Sarah his wife were put to rest, and there they put Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I put Leah to rest. +Gen 49:32 In the rock in the field which was got for a price from the people of Heth. +Gen 49:33 And when Jacob had come to the end of these words to his sons, stretching himself on his bed, he gave up his spirit, and went the way of his people. +Gen 50:1 And Joseph put his head down on his father's face, weeping and kissing him. +Gen 50:2 And Joseph gave orders to his servants who had the necessary knowledge, to make his father's body ready, folding it in linen with spices, and they did so. +Gen 50:3 And the forty days needed for making the body ready went by: and there was weeping for him among the Egyptians for seventy days. +Gen 50:4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph said to the servants of Pharaoh, If now you have love for me, say these words to Pharaoh: +Gen 50:5 My father made me take an oath, saying, When I am dead, put me to rest in the place I have made ready for myself in the land of Canaan. So now let me go and put my father in his last resting-place, and I will come back again. +Gen 50:6 And Pharaoh said, Go up and put your father to rest, as you gave your oath to him. +Gen 50:7 So Joseph went up to put his father in his last resting-place; and with him went all the servants of Pharaoh, and the chief men of his house and all the chiefs of the land of Egypt, +Gen 50:8 And all the family of Joseph, and his brothers and his father's people: only their little ones and their flocks and herds they did not take with them from the land of Goshen. +Gen 50:9 And carriages went up with him and horsemen, a great army. +Gen 50:10 And they came to the grain-floor of Atad on the other side of Jordan, and there they gave the last honours to Jacob, with great and bitter sorrow, weeping for their father for seven days. +Gen 50:11 And when the people of the land, the people of Canaan, at the grain-floor of Atad, saw their grief, they said, Great is the grief of the Egyptians: so the place was named Abel-mizraim, on the other side of Jordan. +Gen 50:12 So his sons did as he had given them orders to do: +Gen 50:13 For they took him into the land of Canaan and put him to rest in the hollow rock in the field of Machpelah, which Abraham got with the field, for a resting-place, from Ephron the Hittite at Mamre. +Gen 50:14 And when his father had been put to rest, Joseph and his brothers and all who had gone with him, went back to Egypt. +Gen 50:15 Now after the death of their father, Joseph's brothers said to themselves, It may be that Joseph's heart will be turned against us, and he will give us punishment for all the evil which we did to him. +Gen 50:16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, Your father, before his death, gave us orders, saying, +Gen 50:17 You are to say to Joseph, Let the wrongdoing of your brothers be overlooked, and the evil they did to you: now, if it is your pleasure, let the sin of the servants of your father's God have forgiveness. And at these words, Joseph was overcome with weeping. +Gen 50:18 Then his brothers went, and falling at his feet, said, Truly, we are your servants. +Gen 50:19 And Joseph said, Have no fear: am I in the place of God? +Gen 50:20 As for you, it was in your mind to do me evil, but God has given a happy outcome, the salvation of numbers of people, as you see today. +Gen 50:21 So now, have no fear: for I will take care of you and your little ones. So he gave them comfort with kind words. +Gen 50:22 Now Joseph and all his father's family went on living in Egypt: and the years of Joseph's life were a hundred and ten. +Gen 50:23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: and the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, came to birth on Joseph's knees. +Gen 50:24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, The time of my death has come; but God will keep you in mind and take you out of this land into the land which he gave by his oath to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. +Gen 50:25 Then Joseph made the children of Israel take an oath, saying, God will certainly give effect to his word, and you are to take my bones away from here. +Gen 50:26 So Joseph came to his death, being a hundred and ten years old: and they made his body ready, and he was put in a chest in Egypt. +Exo 1:1 Now these are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt; every man and his family came with Jacob. +Exo 1:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; +Exo 1:3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; +Exo 1:4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. +Exo 1:5 All the offspring of Jacob were seventy persons: and Joseph had come to Egypt before them. +Exo 1:6 Then Joseph came to his end, and all his brothers, and all that generation. +Exo 1:7 And the children of Israel were fertile, increasing very greatly in numbers and in power; and the land was full of them. +Exo 1:8 Now a new king came to power in Egypt, who had no knowledge of Joseph. +Exo 1:9 And he said to his people, See, the people of Israel are greater in number and in power than we are: +Exo 1:10 Let us take care for fear that their numbers may become even greater, and if there is a war, they may be joined with those who are against us, and make an attack on us, and go up out of the land. +Exo 1:11 So they put overseers of forced work over them, in order to make their strength less by the weight of their work. And they made store-towns for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses. +Exo 1:12 But the more cruel they were to them, the more their number increased, till all the land was full of them. And the children of Israel were hated by the Egyptians. +Exo 1:13 And they gave the children of Israel even harder work to do: +Exo 1:14 And made their lives bitter with hard work, making building-material and bricks, and doing all sorts of work in the fields under the hardest conditions. +Exo 1:15 And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew women who gave help at the time of childbirth (the name of the one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah), +Exo 1:16 When you are looking after the Hebrew women in childbirth, if it is a son you are to put him to death; but if it is a daughter, she may go on living. +Exo 1:17 But the women had the fear of God, and did not do as the king of Egypt said, but let the male children go on living. +Exo 1:18 And the king of Egypt sent for the women, and said to them, Why have you done this, and let the male children go on living? +Exo 1:19 And they said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are strong, and the birth takes place before we come to them. +Exo 1:20 And the blessing of God was on these women: and the people were increased in number and became very strong. +Exo 1:21 And because the women who took care of the Hebrew mothers had the fear of God, he gave them families. +Exo 1:22 And Pharaoh gave orders to all his people, saying, Every son who comes to birth is to be put into the river, but every daughter may go on living. +Exo 2:1 Now a man of the house of Levi took as his wife a daughter of Levi. +Exo 2:2 And she became with child and gave birth to a Son; and when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she kept him secretly for three months. +Exo 2:3 And when she was no longer able to keep him secret, she made him a basket out of the stems of water-plants, pasting sticky earth over it to keep the water out; and placing the baby in it she put it among the plants by the edge of the Nile. +Exo 2:4 And his sister took her place at a distance to see what would become of him. +Exo 2:5 Now Pharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile to take a bath, while her women were walking by the riverside; and she saw the basket among the river-plants, and sent her servant-girl to get it. +Exo 2:6 And opening it, she saw the child, and he was crying. And she had pity on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. +Exo 2:7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, May I go and get you one of the Hebrew women to give him the breast? +Exo 2:8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the girl went and got the child's mother. +Exo 2:9 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take the child away and give it milk for me, and I will give you payment. And the woman took the child and gave it milk at her breast. +Exo 2:10 And when the child was older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son, and she gave him the name Moses, Because, she said, I took him out of the water. +Exo 2:11 Now when Moses had become a man, one day he went out to his people and saw how hard their work was; and he saw an Egyptian giving blows to a Hebrew, one of his people. +Exo 2:12 And turning this way and that, and seeing no one, he put the Egyptian to death, covering his body with sand. +Exo 2:13 And he went out the day after and saw two of the Hebrews fighting: and he said to him who was in the wrong, Why are you fighting your brother? +Exo 2:14 And he said, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? are you going to put me to death as you did the Egyptian? And Moses was in fear, and said, It is clear that the thing has come to light. +Exo 2:15 Now when Pharaoh had news of this, he would have put Moses to death. But Moses went in flight from Pharaoh into the land of Midian: and he took his seat by a water-spring. +Exo 2:16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came to get water for their father's flock. +Exo 2:17 And the keepers of the sheep came up and were driving them away; but Moses got up and came to their help, watering their flock for them. +Exo 2:18 And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that you have come back so quickly today? +Exo 2:19 And they said, An Egyptian came to our help against the keepers of sheep and got water for us and gave it to the flock. +Exo 2:20 And he said to his daughters, Where is he? why have you let the man go? make him come in and give him a meal. +Exo 2:21 And Moses was happy to go on living with the man; and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses. +Exo 2:22 And she gave birth to a son, to whom he gave the name Gershom: for he said, I have been living in a strange land. +Exo 2:23 Now after a long time the king of Egypt came to his end: and the children of Israel were crying in their grief under the weight of their work, and their cry for help came to the ears of God. +Exo 2:24 And at the sound of their weeping the agreement which God had made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob came to his mind. +Exo 2:25 And God's eyes were turned to the children of Israel and he gave them the knowledge of himself. +Exo 3:1 Now Moses was looking after the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he took the flock to the back of the waste land and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. +Exo 3:2 And the angel of the Lord was seen by him in a flame of fire coming out of a thorn-tree: and he saw that the tree was on fire, but it was not burned up. +Exo 3:3 And Moses said, I will go and see this strange thing, why the tree is not burned up, +Exo 3:4 And when the Lord saw him turning to one side to see, God said his name out of the tree, crying, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. +Exo 3:5 And he said, Do not come near: take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy. +Exo 3:6 And he said, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses kept his face covered for fear of looking on God. +Exo 3:7 And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows; +Exo 3:8 And I have come down to take them out of the hands of the Egyptians, guiding them out of that land into a good land and wide, into a land flowing with milk and honey; into the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. +Exo 3:9 For now, truly, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the cruel behaviour of the Egyptians to them. +Exo 3:10 Come, then, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may take my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. +Exo 3:11 And Moses said to God, Who am I to go to Pharaoh and take the children of Israel out of Egypt? +Exo 3:12 And he said, Truly I will be with you; and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have taken the children of Israel out of Egypt, you will give worship to God on this mountain. +Exo 3:13 And Moses said to God, When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you: and they say to me, What is his name? what am I to say to them? +Exo 3:14 And God said to him, I AM WHAT I AM: and he said, Say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. +Exo 3:15 And God went on to say to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and this is my sign to all generations. +Exo 3:16 Go and get together the chiefs of the children of Israel, and say to them, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by me, and has said, Truly I have taken up your cause, because of what is done to you in Egypt; +Exo 3:17 And I have said, I will take you up out of the sorrows of Egypt into the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, into a land flowing with milk and honey. +Exo 3:18 And they will give ear to your voice: and you, with the chiefs of Israel, will go to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God. +Exo 3:19 And I am certain that the king of Egypt will not let you go without being forced. +Exo 3:20 But I will put out my hand and overcome Egypt with all the wonders which I will do among them: and after that he will let you go. +Exo 3:21 And I will give this people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians, so that when you go out you will go out with your hands full. +Exo 3:22 For every woman will get from her neighbour and from the woman living in her house, ornaments of silver and gold, and clothing; and you will put them on your sons and your daughters; you will take the best of their goods from the Egyptians. +Exo 4:1 And Moses, answering, said, It is certain that they will not have faith in me or give ear to my voice; for they will say, You have not seen the Lord. +Exo 4:2 And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod. +Exo 4:3 And he said, Put it down on the earth. And he put it down on the earth and it became a snake; and Moses went running from it. +Exo 4:4 And the Lord said to Moses, Put out your hand and take it by the tail: (and he put out his hand and took a grip of it and it became a rod in his hand:) +Exo 4:5 So that they may be certain that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has been seen by you. +Exo 4:6 Then the Lord said to him again, Put your hand inside your clothing. And he put his hand inside his robe: and when he took it out it was like the hand of a leper, as white as snow. +Exo 4:7 And he said, Put your hand inside your robe again. (And he put his hand into his robe again, and when he took it out he saw that it had become like his other flesh.) +Exo 4:8 And if they do not have faith in you or give ear to the voice of the first sign, they will have faith in the second sign. +Exo 4:9 And if they have no faith even in these two signs and will not give ear to your voice, then you are to take the water of the Nile and put it on the dry land: and the water you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land. +Exo 4:10 And Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not a man of words; I have never been so, and am not now, even after what you have said to your servant: for talking is hard for me, and I am slow of tongue. +Exo 4:11 And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? who takes away a man's voice or hearing, or makes him seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? +Exo 4:12 So go now, and I will be with your mouth, teaching you what to say. +Exo 4:13 And he said, O Lord, send, if you will, by the hand of anyone whom it seems good to you to send. +Exo 4:14 And the Lord was angry with Moses, and said, Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? To my knowledge he is good at talking. And now he is coming out to you: and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart. +Exo 4:15 Let him give ear to your voice, and you will put my words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his, teaching you what you have to do. +Exo 4:16 And he will do the talking for you to the people: he will be to you as a mouth and you will be to him as God. +Exo 4:17 And take in your hand this rod with which you will do the signs. +Exo 4:18 And Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, Let me go back now to my relations in Egypt and see if they are still living. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. +Exo 4:19 And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go back to Egypt, for all the men are dead who were attempting to take your life. +Exo 4:20 And Moses took his wife and his sons and put them on an ass and went back to the land of Egypt: and he took the rod of God in his hand. +Exo 4:21 And the Lord said to Moses, When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have given you power to do: but I will make his heart hard and he will not let the people go. +Exo 4:22 And you are to say to Pharaoh, The Lord says, Israel is the first of my sons: +Exo 4:23 And I said to you, Let my son go, so that he may give me worship; and you did not let him go: so now I will put the first of your sons to death. +Exo 4:24 Now on the journey, at the night's resting-place, the Lord came in his way and would have put him to death. +Exo 4:25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cutting off the skin of her son's private parts, and touching his feet with it, she said, Truly you are a husband of blood to me. +Exo 4:26 So he let him go. Then she said, You are a husband of blood because of the circumcision. +Exo 4:27 And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the waste land and you will see Moses. So he went and came across Moses at the mountain of God, and gave him a kiss. +Exo 4:28 And Moses gave Aaron an account of all the words of the Lord which he had sent him to say, and of all the signs which he had given him orders to do. +Exo 4:29 Then Moses and Aaron went and got together all the chiefs of the children of Israel: +Exo 4:30 And Aaron said to them all the words the Lord had said to Moses, and did the signs before all the people. +Exo 4:31 And the people had faith in them; and hearing that the Lord had taken up the cause of the children of Israel and had seen their troubles, with bent heads they gave him worship. +Exo 5:1 And after that, Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and said, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, Let my people go so that they may keep a feast to me in the waste land. +Exo 5:2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, to whose voice I am to give ear and let Israel go? I have no knowledge of the Lord and I will not let Israel go. +Exo 5:3 And they said, The God of the Hebrews has come to us: let us then go three days' journey into the waste land to make an offering to the Lord our God, so that he may not send death on us by disease or the sword. +Exo 5:4 And the king of Egypt said to them, Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people away from their work? get back to your work. +Exo 5:5 And Pharaoh said, Truly, the people of the land are increasing in number, and you are keeping them back from their work. +Exo 5:6 The same day Pharaoh gave orders to the overseers and those who were responsible for the work, saying, +Exo 5:7 Give these men no more dry stems for their brick-making as you have been doing; let them go and get the material for themselves. +Exo 5:8 But see that they make the same number of bricks as before, and no less: for they have no love for work; and so they are crying out and saying, Let us go and make an offering to our God. +Exo 5:9 Give the men harder work, and see that they do it; let them not give attention to false words. +Exo 5:10 And the overseers of the people and their responsible men went out and said to the people, Pharaoh says, I will give you no more dry stems. +Exo 5:11 Go yourselves and get dry stems wherever you are able; for your work is not to be any less. +Exo 5:12 So the people were sent in all directions through the land of Egypt to get dry grass for stems. +Exo 5:13 And the overseers went on driving them and saying, Do your full day's work as before when there were dry stems for you. +Exo 5:14 And the responsible men of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's overseers had put over them, were given blows, and they said to them, Why have you not done your regular work, in making bricks as before? +Exo 5:15 Then the responsible men of the children of Israel came to Pharaoh, protesting and saying, Why are you acting in this way to your servants? +Exo 5:16 They give us no dry stems and they say to us, Make bricks: and they give your servants blows; but it is your people who are in the wrong. +Exo 5:17 But he said, You have no love for work: that is why you say, Let us go and make an offering to the Lord. +Exo 5:18 Go now, get back to your work; no dry stems will be given to you, but you are to make the full number of bricks. +Exo 5:19 Then the responsible men of the children of Israel saw that they were purposing evil when they said, The number of bricks which you have to make every day will be no less than before. +Exo 5:20 And they came face to face with Moses and Aaron, who were in their way when they came out from Pharaoh: +Exo 5:21 And they said to them, May the Lord take note of you and be your judge; for you have given Pharaoh and his servants a bad opinion of us, putting a sword in their hands for our destruction. +Exo 5:22 And Moses went back to the Lord and said, Lord, why have you done evil to this people? why have you sent me? +Exo 5:23 For from the time when I came to Pharaoh to put your words before him, he has done evil to this people, and you have given them no help. +Exo 6:1 And the Lord said to Moses, Now you will see what I am about to do to Pharaoh; for by a strong hand he will be forced to let them go, driving them out of his land because of my outstretched arm. +Exo 6:2 And God said to Moses, I am Yahweh: +Exo 6:3 I let myself be seen by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God, the Ruler of all; but they had no knowledge of my name Yahweh. +Exo 6:4 And I made an agreement with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their wanderings. +Exo 6:5 And truly my ears are open to the cry of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep under their yoke; and I have kept in mind my agreement. +Exo 6:6 Say then to the children of Israel, I am Yahweh, and I will take you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians, and make you safe from their power, and will make you free by the strength of my arm after great punishments. +Exo 6:7 And I will take you to be my people and I will be your God; and you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, who takes you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. +Exo 6:8 And I will be your guide into the land which I made an oath to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for your heritage: I am Yahweh. +Exo 6:9 And Moses said these words to the children of Israel, but they gave no attention to him, because of the grief of their spirit and the cruel weight of their work. +Exo 6:10 And the Lord said to Moses, +Exo 6:11 Go in and say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he is to let the children of Israel go out of his land. +Exo 6:12 And Moses, answering the Lord, said, See, the children of Israel will not give ear to me; how then will Pharaoh give ear to me, whose lips are unclean? +Exo 6:13 And the word of the Lord came to Moses and Aaron, with orders for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. +Exo 6:14 These are the heads of their fathers' families: the sons of Reuben the oldest son of Israel: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi: these are the families of Reuben. +Exo 6:15 And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar and Shaul, the son of a woman of Canaan: these are the families of Simeon. +Exo 6:16 And these are the names of the sons of Levi in the order of their generations: Gershon and Kohath and Merari: and the years of Levi's life were a hundred and thirty-seven. +Exo 6:17 The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, in the order of their families. +Exo 6:18 And the sons of Kohath: Amram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel: and the years of Kohath's life were a hundred and thirty-three. +Exo 6:19 And the sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi: these are the families of the Levites, in the order of their generations. +Exo 6:20 And Amram took Jochebed, his father's sister, as wife; and she gave birth to Aaron and Moses: and the years of Amram's life were a hundred and thirty-seven. +Exo 6:21 And the sons of Izhar: Korah and Nepheg and Zichri. +Exo 6:22 And the sons of Uzziel: Mishael and Elzaphan and Sithri. +Exo 6:23 And Aaron took as his wife Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon; and she gave birth to Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. +Exo 6:24 And the sons of Korah: Assir and Elkanah and Abiasaph: these are the families of the Korahites. +Exo 6:25 And Eleazar, Aaron's son, took as his wife one of the daughters of Putiel; and she gave birth to Phinehas. These are the heads of the families of the Levites, in the order of their families. +Exo 6:26 These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, Take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt in their armies. +Exo 6:27 These are the men who gave orders to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of Egypt: these are the same Moses and Aaron. +Exo 6:28 And on the day when the word of the Lord came to Moses in the land of Egypt, +Exo 6:29 The Lord said to Moses, I am the Lord: say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, everything I am saying to you. +Exo 6:30 And Moses said to the Lord, My lips are unclean; how is it possible that Pharaoh will give me a hearing? +Exo 7:1 And the Lord said to Moses, See I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet. +Exo 7:2 Say whatever I give you orders to say: and Aaron your brother will give word to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of his land. +Exo 7:3 And I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, and my signs and wonders will be increased in the land of Egypt. +Exo 7:4 But Pharaoh will not give ear to you, and I will put my hand on Egypt, and take my armies, my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, after great punishments. +Exo 7:5 And the Egyptians will see that I am the Lord, when my hand is stretched out over Egypt, and I take the children of Israel out from among them. +Exo 7:6 And Moses and Aaron did so: as the Lord gave them orders, so they did. +Exo 7:7 And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they gave the Lord's word to Pharaoh. +Exo 7:8 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, +Exo 7:9 If Pharaoh says to you, Let me see a wonder: then say to Aaron, Take your rod and put it down on the earth before Pharaoh so that it may become a snake. +Exo 7:10 Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and they did as the Lord had said: and Aaron put his rod down on the earth before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a snake. +Exo 7:11 Then Pharaoh sent for the wise men and the wonder-workers, and they, the wonder-workers of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. +Exo 7:12 For every one of them put down his rod on the earth, and they became snakes: but Aaron's rod made a meal of their rods. +Exo 7:13 But Pharaoh's heart was made hard, and he did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said. +Exo 7:14 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh's heart is unchanged; he will not let the people go. +Exo 7:15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning; when he goes out to the water, you will be waiting for him by the edge of the Nile, with the rod which was turned into a snake in your hand; +Exo 7:16 And say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, Let my people go so that they may give me worship in the waste land; but up to now you have not given ear to his words. +Exo 7:17 So the Lord says, By this you may be certain that I am the Lord; see, by the touch of this rod in my hand the waters of the Nile will be turned to blood; +Exo 7:18 And the fish in the Nile will come to destruction, and the river will send up a bad smell, and the Egyptians will not be able, for disgust, to make use of the water of the Nile for drinking. +Exo 7:19 And the Lord said, Say to Aaron, Let the rod in your hand be stretched out over the waters of Egypt, and over the rivers and the streams and the pools, and over every stretch of water, so that they may be turned to blood; and there will be blood through all the land of Egypt, in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. +Exo 7:20 And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had said; and when his rod had been lifted up and stretched out over the waters of the Nile before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, all the water in the Nile was turned to blood; +Exo 7:21 And the fish in the Nile came to destruction, and a bad smell went up from the river, and the Egyptians were not able to make use of the water of the Nile for drinking; and there was blood through all the land of Egypt. +Exo 7:22 And the wonder-workers of Egypt did the same with their secret arts: but Pharaoh's heart was made hard, and he would not give ear to them, as the Lord had said. +Exo 7:23 Then Pharaoh went into his house, and did not take even this to heart. +Exo 7:24 And all the Egyptians made holes round about the Nile to get drinking-water, for they were not able to make use of the Nile water. +Exo 7:25 And seven days went past, after the Lord had put his hand on the Nile. +Exo 8:1 And this is what the Lord said to Moses: Go to Pharaoh and say to him, The Lord says, Let my people go so that they may give me worship. +Exo 8:2 And if you will not let them go, see, I will send frogs into every part of your land: +Exo 8:3 The Nile will be full of frogs, and they will come up into your house and into your bedrooms and on your bed, and into the houses of your servants and your people, and into your ovens and into your bread-basins. +Exo 8:4 The frogs will come up over you and your people and all your servants. +Exo 8:5 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Let the rod in your hand be stretched out over the streams and the waterways and the pools, causing frogs to come up on the land of Egypt. +Exo 8:6 And when Aaron put out his hand over the waters of Egypt, the frogs came up and all the land of Egypt was covered with them. +Exo 8:7 And the wonder-workers did the same with their secret arts, making frogs come up over the land of Egypt. +Exo 8:8 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said, Make prayer to the Lord that he will take away these frogs from me and my people; and I will let the people go and make their offering to the Lord. +Exo 8:9 And Moses said, I will let you have the honour of saying when I am to make prayer for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs may be sent away from you and your houses, and be only in the Nile. +Exo 8:10 And he said, By tomorrow. And he said, Let it be as you say: so that you may see that there is no other like the Lord our God. +Exo 8:11 And the frogs will be gone from you and from your houses and from your servants and from your people and will be only in the Nile. +Exo 8:12 Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and Moses made prayer to the Lord about the frogs which he had sent on Pharaoh. +Exo 8:13 And the Lord did as Moses said; and there was an end of all the frogs in the houses and in the open spaces and in the fields. +Exo 8:14 And they put them together in masses, and a bad smell went up from the land. +Exo 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was peace for a time, he made his heart hard and did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said. +Exo 8:16 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, Let your rod be stretched out over the dust of the earth so that it may become insects through all the land of Egypt. +Exo 8:17 And they did so; and Aaron, stretching out the rod in his hand, gave a touch to the dust of the earth, and insects came on man and on beast; all the dust of the earth was changed into insects through all the land of Egypt. +Exo 8:18 And the wonder-workers with their secret arts, attempting to make insects, were unable to do so: and there were insects on man and on beast. +Exo 8:19 Then the wonder-workers said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: but Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he did not give ear to them, as the Lord had said. +Exo 8:20 And the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the morning and take your place before Pharaoh when he comes out to the water; and say to him, This is what the Lord says: Let my people go to give me worship. +Exo 8:21 For if you do not let my people go, see, I will send clouds of flies on you and on your servants and on your people and into their houses; and the houses of the Egyptians and the land where they are will be full of flies. +Exo 8:22 And at that time I will make a division between your land and the land of Goshen where my people are, and no flies will be there; so that you may see that I am the Lord over all the earth. +Exo 8:23 And I will put a division between my people and your people; tomorrow this sign will be seen. +Exo 8:24 And the Lord did so; and great clouds of flies came into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses, and all the land of Egypt was made waste because of the flies. +Exo 8:25 And Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said, Go and make your offering to your God here in the land. +Exo 8:26 And Moses said, It is not right to do so; for we make our offerings of that to which the Egyptians give worship; and if we do so before their eyes, certainly we will be stoned. +Exo 8:27 But we will go three days' journey into the waste land and make an offering to the Lord our God as he may give us orders. +Exo 8:28 Then Pharaoh said, I will let you go to make an offering to the Lord your God in the waste land; but do not go very far away, and make prayer for me. +Exo 8:29 And Moses said, When I go out from you I will make prayer to the Lord that the cloud of flies may go away from Pharaoh and from his people and from his servants tomorrow: only let Pharaoh no longer by deceit keep back the people from making their offering to the Lord. +Exo 8:30 Then Moses went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to the Lord. +Exo 8:31 And the Lord did as Moses said, and took away the cloud of flies from Pharaoh and from his servants and from his people; not one was to be seen. +Exo 8:32 But again Pharaoh made his heart hard and did not let the people go. +Exo 9:1 Then the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go so that they may give me worship. +Exo 9:2 For if you will not let them go, but still keep them in your power, +Exo 9:3 Then the hand of the Lord will put on your cattle in the field, on the horses and the asses and the camels, on the herds and the flocks, a very evil disease. +Exo 9:4 And the Lord will make a division between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt; there will be no loss of any of the cattle of Israel. +Exo 9:5 And the time was fixed by the Lord, and he said, Tomorrow the Lord will do this thing in the land. +Exo 9:6 And on the day after, the Lord did as he had said, causing the death of all the cattle of Egypt, but there was no loss of any of the cattle of Israel. +Exo 9:7 And Pharaoh sent and got word that there was no loss of any of the cattle of Israel. But the heart of Pharaoh was hard and he did not let the people go. +Exo 9:8 And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, Take in your hand a little dust from the fire and let Moses send it in a shower up to heaven before the eyes of Pharaoh. +Exo 9:9 And it will become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and will be a skin-disease bursting out in wounds on man and beast through all the land of Egypt. +Exo 9:10 So they took some dust from the fire, and placing themselves before Pharaoh, Moses sent it out in a shower up to heaven; and it became a skin-disease bursting out on man and on beast. +Exo 9:11 And the wonder-workers were not able to take their places before Moses, because of the disease; for the disease was on the wonder-workers and on all the Egyptians. +Exo 9:12 And the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he would not give ear to them, as the Lord had said. +Exo 9:13 And the Lord said to Moses, Get up early in the morning and take your place before Pharaoh, and say to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go so that they may give me worship. +Exo 9:14 For this time I will send all my punishments on yourself and on your servants and on your people; so that you may see that there is no other like me in all the earth. +Exo 9:15 For if I had put the full weight of my hand on you and your people, you would have been cut off from the earth: +Exo 9:16 But, for this very reason, I have kept you from destruction, to make clear to you my power, and so that my name may be honoured through all the earth. +Exo 9:17 Are you still uplifted in pride against my people so that you will not let them go? +Exo 9:18 Truly, tomorrow about this time I will send down an ice-storm, such as never was in Egypt from its earliest days till now. +Exo 9:19 Then send quickly and get in your cattle and all you have from the fields; for if any man or beast in the field has not been put under cover, the ice-storm will come down on them with destruction. +Exo 9:20 Then everyone among the servants of Pharaoh who had the fear of the Lord, made his servants and his cattle come quickly into the house: +Exo 9:21 And he who gave no attention to the word of the Lord, kept his servants and his cattle in the field. +Exo 9:22 And the Lord said to Moses, Now let your hand be stretched out to heaven so that there may be an ice-storm on all the land of Egypt, on man and on beast and on every plant of the field through all the land of Egypt. +Exo 9:23 And Moses put out his rod to heaven: and the Lord sent thunder, and an ice-storm, and fire running down on the earth; the Lord sent an ice-storm on the land of Egypt. +Exo 9:24 So there was an ice-storm with fire running through it, coming down with great force, such as never was in all the land of Egypt from the time when it became a nation. +Exo 9:25 And through all the land of Egypt the ice-storm came down on everything which was in the fields, on man and on beast; and every green plant was crushed and every tree of the field broken. +Exo 9:26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no ice-storm. +Exo 9:27 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, I have done evil this time: the Lord is upright, and I and my people are sinners. +Exo 9:28 Make prayer to the Lord; for there has been enough of these thunderings of God and this ice-storm; and I will let you go and will keep you no longer. +Exo 9:29 And Moses said, When I am gone outside the town, my hands will be stretched out to the Lord; the thunders and the ice-storm will come to an end, so that you may see that the earth is the Lord's. +Exo 9:30 But as for you and your servants, I am certain that even now the fear of the Lord God will not be in your hearts. +Exo 9:31 And the flax and the barley were damaged, for the barley was almost ready to be cut and the flax was in flower. +Exo 9:32 But the rest of the grain-plants were undamaged, for they had not come up. +Exo 9:33 So Moses went out of the town, and stretching out his hands made prayer to God: and the thunders and the ice-storm came to an end; and the fall of rain was stopped. +Exo 9:34 But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the ice-storm and the thunders were ended, he went on sinning, and made his heart hard, he and his servants. +Exo 9:35 And the heart of Pharaoh was hard, and he did not let the people go, as the Lord had said by the mouth of Moses. +Exo 10:1 And the Lord said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh: for I have made his heart and the hearts of his servants hard, so that I may let my signs be seen among them: +Exo 10:2 And so that you may be able to give to your son and to your son's son the story of my wonders in Egypt, and the signs which I have done among them; so that you may see that I am the Lord. +Exo 10:3 Then Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: How long will you be lifted up in your pride before me? let my people go so that they may give me worship. +Exo 10:4 For if you will not let my people go, tomorrow I will send locusts into your land: +Exo 10:5 And the face of the earth will be covered with them, so that you will not be able to see the earth: and they will be the destruction of everything which up to now has not been damaged, everything which was not crushed by the ice-storm, and every tree still living in your fields. +Exo 10:6 And your houses will be full of them, and the houses of your servants and of all the Egyptians; it will be worse than anything your fathers have seen or their fathers, from the day when they were living on the earth till this day. And so he went out from Pharaoh. +Exo 10:7 And Pharaoh's servants said to him, How long is this man to be the cause of evil to us? let the men go so that they may give worship to the Lord their God: are you not awake to Egypt's danger? +Exo 10:8 Then Moses and Aaron came in again before Pharaoh: and he said to them, Go and give worship to the Lord your God: but which of you are going? +Exo 10:9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds; for we are to keep a feast to the Lord. +Exo 10:10 And he said to them, May the Lord be with you, if I will let you and your little ones go! take care, for your purpose clearly is evil. +Exo 10:11 Not so; but let your males go and give worship to the Lord, as your desire is. This he said, driving them out from before him. +Exo 10:12 And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out over the land of Egypt so that the locusts may come up on the land for the destruction of every green plant in the land, even everything untouched by the ice-storm. +Exo 10:13 And Moses' rod was stretched out over the land of Egypt, and the Lord sent an east wind over the land all that day and all the night; and in the morning the locusts came up with the east wind. +Exo 10:14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, resting on every part of the land, in very great numbers; such an army of locusts had never been seen before, and never will be again. +Exo 10:15 For all the face of the earth was covered with them, so that the land was black; and every green plant and all the fruit of the trees which was untouched by the ice-storm they took for food: not one green thing, no plant or tree, was to be seen in all the land of Egypt. +Exo 10:16 Then Pharaoh quickly sent for Moses and Aaron, and said, I have done evil against the Lord your God and against you. +Exo 10:17 Let me now have forgiveness for my sin this time only, and make prayer to the Lord your God that he will take away from me this death only. +Exo 10:18 So he went out from Pharaoh and made prayer to the Lord. +Exo 10:19 And the Lord sent a very strong west wind, which took up the locusts, driving them into the Red Sea; not one locust was to be seen in any part of Egypt. +Exo 10:20 But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not let the children of Israel go. +Exo 10:21 And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out to heaven, and all the land of Egypt will be dark, so that men will be feeling their way about in the dark. +Exo 10:22 And when Moses' hand was stretched out, dark night came over all the land of Egypt for three days; +Exo 10:23 They were not able to see one another, and no one got up from his place for three days: but where the children of Israel were living it was light. +Exo 10:24 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses, and said, Go and give worship to the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be kept here: your little ones may go with you. +Exo 10:25 But Moses said, You will have to let us take burned offerings to put before the Lord our God. +Exo 10:26 So our cattle will have to go with us, not one may be kept back; for they are needed for the worship of the Lord our God; we have no knowledge what offering we have to give till we come to the place. +Exo 10:27 But the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he would not let them go. +Exo 10:28 And Pharaoh said to him, Go away from me, take care that you come not again before me; for the day when you see my face again will be your last. +Exo 10:29 And Moses said, You say truly; I will not see your face again. +Exo 11:1 And the Lord said to Moses, I will send one more punishment on Pharaoh and on Egypt; after that he will let you go; and when he does let you go, he will not keep one of you back, but will send you out by force. +Exo 11:2 So go now and give orders to the people that every man and every woman is to get from his or her neighbour ornaments of silver and of gold. +Exo 11:3 And the Lord gave the people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians. For the man Moses was highly honoured in the land of Egypt, by Pharaoh's servants and the people. +Exo 11:4 And Moses said, This is what the Lord says: About the middle of the night I will go out through Egypt: +Exo 11:5 And death will come to every mother's first male child in all the land of Egypt, from the child of Pharaoh on his seat of power, to the child of the servant-girl crushing the grain; and the first births of all the cattle. +Exo 11:6 And there will be a great cry through all the land of Egypt, such as never has been or will be again. +Exo 11:7 But against the children of Israel, man or beast, not so much as the tongue of a dog will be moved: so that you may see how the Lord makes a division between Israel and the Egyptians. +Exo 11:8 And all these your servants will come to me, going down on their faces before me and saying, Go out, and all your people with you: and after that I will go out. And he went away from Pharaoh burning with wrath. +Exo 11:9 And the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not give ear to you, so that my wonders may be increased in the land of Egypt. +Exo 11:10 All these wonders Moses and Aaron did before Pharaoh: but the Lord made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land. +Exo 12:1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, +Exo 12:2 Let this month be to you the first of months, the first month of the year. +Exo 12:3 Say to all the children of Israel when they are come together, In the tenth day of this month every man is to take a lamb, by the number of their fathers' families, a lamb for every family: +Exo 12:4 And if the lamb is more than enough for the family, let that family and its nearest neighbour have a lamb between them, taking into account the number of persons and how much food is needed for every man. +Exo 12:5 Let your lamb be without a mark, a male in its first year: you may take it from among the sheep or the goats: +Exo 12:6 Keep it till the fourteenth day of the same month, when everyone who is of the children of Israel is to put it to death between sundown and dark. +Exo 12:7 Then take some of the blood and put it on the two sides of the door and over the door of the house where the meal is to be taken. +Exo 12:8 And let your food that night be the flesh of the lamb, cooked with fire in the oven, together with unleavened bread and bitter-tasting plants. +Exo 12:9 Do not take it uncooked or cooked with boiling water, but let it be cooked in the oven; its head with its legs and its inside parts. +Exo 12:10 Do not keep any of it till the morning; anything which is not used is to be burned with fire. +Exo 12:11 And take your meal dressed as if for a journey, with your shoes on your feet and your sticks in your hands: take it quickly: it is the Lord's Passover. +Exo 12:12 For on that night I will go through the land of Egypt, sending death on every first male child, of man and of beast, and judging all the gods of Egypt: I am the Lord. +Exo 12:13 And the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are: when I see the blood I will go over you, and no evil will come on you for your destruction, when my hand is on the land of Egypt. +Exo 12:14 And this day is to be kept in your memories: you are to keep it as a feast to the Lord through all your generations, as an order for ever. +Exo 12:15 For seven days let your food be unleavened bread; from the first day no leaven is to be seen in your houses: whoever takes bread with leaven in it, from the first till the seventh day, will be cut off from Israel. +Exo 12:16 And on the first day there is to be a holy meeting and on the seventh day a holy meeting; no sort of work may be done on those days but only to make ready what is necessary for everyone's food. +Exo 12:17 So keep the feast of unleavened bread; for on this very day I have taken your armies out of the land of Egypt: this day, then, is to be kept through all your generations by an order for ever. +Exo 12:18 In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day, let your food be unleavened bread till the evening of the twenty-first day of the month. +Exo 12:19 For seven days no leaven is to be seen in your houses: for whoever takes bread which is leavened will be cut off from the people of Israel, if he is from another country or if he is an Israelite by birth. +Exo 12:20 Take nothing which has leaven in it; wherever you are living let your food be unleavened cakes. +Exo 12:21 Then Moses sent for the chiefs of Israel, and said to them, See that lambs are marked out for yourselves and your families, and let the Passover lamb be put to death. +Exo 12:22 And take some hyssop and put it in the blood in the basin, touching the two sides and the top of the doorway with the blood from the basin; and let not one of you go out of his house till the morning. +Exo 12:23 For the Lord will go through the land, sending death on the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the two sides and the top of the door, the Lord will go over your door and will not let death come in for your destruction. +Exo 12:24 And you are to keep this as an order to you and to your sons for ever. +Exo 12:25 And when you come into the land which the Lord will make yours, as he gave his word, you are to keep this act of worship. +Exo 12:26 And when your children say to you, What is the reason of this act of worship? +Exo 12:27 Then you will say, This is the offering of the Lord's Passover; for he went over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he sent death on the Egyptians, and kept our families safe. And the people gave worship with bent heads. +Exo 12:28 And the children of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had given orders to Moses and Aaron, so they did. +Exo 12:29 And in the middle of the night the Lord sent death on every first male child in the land of Egypt, from the child of Pharaoh on his seat of power to the child of the prisoner in the prison; and the first births of all the cattle. +Exo 12:30 Then Pharaoh got up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and a great cry went up from Egypt; for there was not a house where someone was not dead. +Exo 12:31 And he sent for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Get up and go out from among my people, you and the children of Israel; go and give worship to the Lord as you have said. +Exo 12:32 And take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone; and give me your blessing. +Exo 12:33 And the Egyptians were forcing the people on, to get them out of the land quickly; for they said, We are all dead men. +Exo 12:34 And the people took their bread-paste before it was leavened, putting their basins in their clothing on their backs. +Exo 12:35 And the children of Israel had done as Moses had said; and they got from the Egyptians ornaments of silver and of gold, and clothing: +Exo 12:36 And the Lord had given the people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians so that they gave them whatever was requested. So they took away all their goods from the Egyptians. +Exo 12:37 And the children of Israel made the journey from Rameses to Succoth; there were about six hundred thousand men on foot, as well as children. +Exo 12:38 And a mixed band of people went with them; and flocks and herds in great numbers. +Exo 12:39 And they made unleavened cakes from the paste which they had taken out of Egypt; it was not leavened, for they had been sent out of Egypt so quickly, that they had no time to make any food ready. +Exo 12:40 Now the children of Israel had been living in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years. +Exo 12:41 And at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the armies of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt. +Exo 12:42 It is a watch-night before the Lord who took them out of the land of Egypt: this same night is a watch-night to the Lord for all the children of Israel, through all their generations. +Exo 12:43 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the law of the Passover: no man who is not an Israelite is to take of it: +Exo 12:44 But every man's servant, whom he has got for money, may take of it, when he has had circumcision. +Exo 12:45 A man from a strange country living among you, and a servant working for payment, may not take part in it. +Exo 12:46 It is to be taken in one house; not a bit of the flesh is to be taken out of the house, and no bone of it may be broken. +Exo 12:47 All Israel is to keep the feast. +Exo 12:48 And if a man from another country is living with you, and has a desire to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all the males of his family undergo circumcision, and then let him come near and keep it; for he will then be as one of your people; but no one without circumcision may keep it. +Exo 12:49 The law is the same for him who is an Israelite by birth and for the man from a strange country who is living with you. +Exo 12:50 So the children of Israel did as the Lord gave orders to Moses and Aaron. +Exo 12:51 And on that very day the Lord took the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies. +Exo 13:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Exo 13:2 Let the first male child of every mother among the children of Israel be kept holy for me, even the first male birth among man or beast; for it is mine. +Exo 13:3 And Moses said to the people, Let this day, on which you came out of Egypt, out of your prison-house, be kept for ever in memory; for by the strength of his hand the Lord has taken you out from this place; let no leavened bread be used. +Exo 13:4 On this day, in the month Abib, you are going out. +Exo 13:5 And it will be that, when the Lord takes you into the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, the land which he made an oath to your fathers that he would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you will do this act of worship in this month. +Exo 13:6 For seven days let your food be unleavened cakes; and on the seventh day there is to be a feast to the Lord. +Exo 13:7 Unleavened cakes are to be your food through all the seven days; let no leavened bread be seen among you, or any leaven, in any part of your land. +Exo 13:8 And you will say to your son in that day, It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. +Exo 13:9 And this will be for a sign to you on your hand and for a mark on your brow, so that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth: for with a strong hand the Lord took you out of Egypt. +Exo 13:10 So let this order be kept, at the right time, from year to year. +Exo 13:11 And when the Lord takes you into the land of Canaan, as he made his oath to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, +Exo 13:12 You are to put on one side for the Lord every mother's first male child, the first-fruit of her body, and the first young one of every beast; every male is holy to the Lord. +Exo 13:13 And for the young of an ass you may give a lamb in payment, or if you will not make payment for it, its neck is to be broken; but for all the first sons among your children, let payment be made. +Exo 13:14 And when your son says to you in time to come, What is the reason for this? say to him, By the strength of his hand the Lord took us out of Egypt, out of the prison-house: +Exo 13:15 And when Pharaoh made his heart hard and would not let us go, the Lord sent death on all the first sons in Egypt, of man and of beast: and so every first male who comes to birth is offered to the Lord; but for all the first of my sons I give a price. +Exo 13:16 And this will be for a sign on your hand and for a mark on your brow: for by the strength of his hand the Lord took us out of Egypt. +Exo 13:17 Now after Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not take them through the land of the Philistines, though that was near: for God said, If the people see war, they may have a change of heart and go back to Egypt. +Exo 13:18 But God took the people round by the waste land near the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up in fighting order out of the land of Egypt. +Exo 13:19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the children of Israel take an oath, saying, God will certainly keep you in mind; and you are to take my bones away with you. +Exo 13:20 Then they went on their journey from Succoth, and put up their tents in Etham at the edge of the waste land. +Exo 13:21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, guiding them on their way; and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light: so that they were able to go on day and night: +Exo 13:22 The pillar of cloud went ever before them by day, and the pillar of fire by night. +Exo 14:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Exo 14:2 Give orders to the children of Israel to go back and put up their tents before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon, opposite to which you are to put up your tents by the sea. +Exo 14:3 And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are wandering without direction, they are shut in by the waste land. +Exo 14:4 And I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, and he will come after them and I will be honoured over Pharaoh and all his army, so that the Egyptians may see that I am the Lord. And they did so. +Exo 14:5 And word came to Pharaoh of the flight of the people: and the feeling of Pharaoh and of his servants about the people was changed, and they said, Why have we let Israel go, so that they will do no more work for us? +Exo 14:6 So he had his war-carriage made ready and took his people with him: +Exo 14:7 And he took six hundred carriages, all the carriages of Egypt, and captains over all of them. +Exo 14:8 And the Lord made the heart of Pharaoh hard, and he went after the children of Israel: for the children of Israel had gone out without fear. +Exo 14:9 But the Egyptians went after them, all the horses and carriages of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them in their tents by the sea, by Pihahiroth, before Baal-zephon. +Exo 14:10 And when Pharaoh came near, the children of Israel, lifting up their eyes, saw the Egyptians coming after them, and were full of fear; and their cry went up to God. +Exo 14:11 And they said to Moses, Was there no resting-place for the dead in Egypt, that you have taken us away to come to our death in the waste land? why have you taken us out of Egypt? +Exo 14:12 Did we not say to you in Egypt, Let us be as we are, working for the Egyptians? for it is better to be the servants of the Egyptians than to come to our death in the waste land. +Exo 14:13 But Moses said, Keep where you are and have no fear; now you will see the salvation of the Lord which he will give you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again. +Exo 14:14 The Lord will make war for you, you have only to keep quiet. +Exo 14:15 And the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me? give the children of Israel the order to go forward. +Exo 14:16 And let your rod be lifted up and your hand stretched out over the sea, and it will be parted in two; and the children of Israel will go through on dry land. +Exo 14:17 And I will make the heart of the Egyptians hard, and they will go in after them: and I will be honoured over Pharaoh and over his army, his war-carriages, and his horsemen. +Exo 14:18 And the Egyptians will see that I am the Lord, when I get honour over Pharaoh and his war-carriages and his horsemen. +Exo 14:19 Then the angel of God, who had been before the tents of Israel, took his place at their back; and the pillar of cloud, moving from before them, came to rest at their back: +Exo 14:20 And it came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel; and there was a dark cloud between them, and they went on through the night; but the one army came no nearer to the other all the night. +Exo 14:21 And when Moses' hand was stretched out over the sea, the Lord with a strong east wind made the sea go back all night, and the waters were parted in two and the sea became dry land. +Exo 14:22 And the children of Israel went through the sea on dry land: and the waters were a wall on their right side and on their left. +Exo 14:23 Then the Egyptians went after them into the middle of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses and his war-carriages and his horsemen. +Exo 14:24 And in the morning watch, the Lord, looking out on the armies of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud, sent trouble on the army of the Egyptians; +Exo 14:25 And made the wheels of their war-carriages stiff, so that they had hard work driving them: so the Egyptians said, Let us go in flight from before the face of Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians. +Exo 14:26 And the Lord said to Moses, Let your hand be stretched out over the sea, and the waters will come back again on the Egyptians, and on their war-carriages and on their horsemen. +Exo 14:27 And when Moses' hand was stretched out over the sea, at dawn the sea came flowing back, meeting the Egyptians in their flight, and the Lord sent destruction on the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. +Exo 14:28 And the waters came back, covering the war-carriages and the horsemen and all the army of Pharaoh which went after them into the middle of the sea; not one of them was to be seen. +Exo 14:29 But the children of Israel went through the sea walking on dry land, and the waters were a wall on their right side and on their left. +Exo 14:30 So that day the Lord gave Israel salvation from the hands of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the sea's edge. +Exo 14:31 And Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done against the Egyptians, and the fear of the Lord came on the people and they had faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses. +Exo 15:1 Then Moses and the children of Israel made this song to the Lord, and said, I will make a song to the Lord, for he is lifted up in glory: the horse and the horseman he has sent down into the sea. +Exo 15:2 The Lord is my strength and my strong helper, he has become my salvation: he is my God and I will give him praise; my father's God and I will give him glory. +Exo 15:3 The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name. +Exo 15:4 Pharaoh's war-carriages and his army he has sent down into the sea: the best of his captains have gone down into the Red Sea. +Exo 15:5 They were covered by the deep waters: like a stone they went down under the waves. +Exo 15:6 Full of glory, O Lord, is the power of your right hand; by your right hand those who came against you are broken. +Exo 15:7 When you are lifted up in power, all those who come against you are crushed: when you send out your wrath, they are burned up like dry grass. +Exo 15:8 By your breath the waves were massed together, the flowing waters were lifted up like a pillar; the deep waters became solid in the heart of the sea. +Exo 15:9 Egypt said, I will go after them, I will overtake, I will make division of their goods: my desire will have its way with them; my sword will be uncovered, my hand will send destruction on them. +Exo 15:10 You sent your wind and the sea came over them: they went down like lead into the great waters. +Exo 15:11 Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? who is like you, in holy glory, to be praised with fear, doing wonders? +Exo 15:12 When your right hand was stretched out, the mouth of the earth was open for them. +Exo 15:13 In your mercy you went before the people whom you have made yours; guiding them in your strength to your holy place. +Exo 15:14 Hearing of you the peoples were shaking in fear: the people of Philistia were gripped with pain. +Exo 15:15 The chiefs of Edom were troubled in heart; the strong men of Moab were in the grip of fear: all the people of Canaan became like water. +Exo 15:16 Fear and grief came on them; by the strength of your arm they were turned to stone; till your people went over, O Lord, till the people went over whom you have made yours. +Exo 15:17 You will take them in, planting them in the mountain of your heritage, the place, O Lord, where you have made your house, the holy place, O Lord, the building of your hands. +Exo 15:18 The Lord is King for ever and ever. +Exo 15:19 For the horses of Pharaoh, with his war-carriages and his horsemen, went into the sea, and the Lord sent the waters of the sea back over them; but the children of Israel went through the sea on dry land. +Exo 15:20 And Miriam, the woman prophet, the sister of Aaron, took an instrument of music in her hand; and all the women went after her with music and dances. +Exo 15:21 And Miriam, answering, said, Make a song to the Lord, for he is lifted up in glory; the horse and the horseman he has sent into the sea. +Exo 15:22 Then Moses took Israel forward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the waste land of Shur; and for three days they were in the waste land where there was no water. +Exo 15:23 And when they came to Marah, the water was no good for drinking, for the waters of Marah were bitter, which is why it was named Marah. +Exo 15:24 And the people, crying out against Moses, said, What are we to have for drink? +Exo 15:25 And in answer to his prayer, the Lord made him see a tree, and when he put it into the water, the water was made sweet. There he gave them a law and an order, testing them; +Exo 15:26 And he said, If with all your heart you will give attention to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his eyes, giving ear to his orders and keeping his laws, I will not put on you any of the diseases which I put on the Egyptians: for I am the Lord your life-giver. +Exo 15:27 And they came to Elim where there were twelve water-springs and seventy palm-trees: and they put up their tents there by the waters. +Exo 16:1 And they went on their way from Elim, and all the children of Israel came into the waste land of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they went out of the land of Egypt. +Exo 16:2 And all the children of Israel were crying out against Moses and Aaron in the waste land: +Exo 16:3 And the children of Israel said to them, It would have been better for the Lord to have put us to death in the land of Egypt, where we were seated by the flesh-pots and had bread enough for our needs; for you have taken us out to this waste of sand, to put all this people to death through need of food. +Exo 16:4 Then the Lord said to Moses, See, I will send down bread from heaven for you; and the people will go out every day and get enough for the day's needs; so that I may put them to the test to see if they will keep my laws or not. +Exo 16:5 And on the sixth day they are to make ready what they get in, and it will be twice as much as they get on the other days. +Exo 16:6 And Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, This evening it will be clear to you that it is the Lord who has taken you out of the land of Egypt: +Exo 16:7 And in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord; for your angry words against the Lord have come to his ears: and what are we that you are crying out against us? +Exo 16:8 And Moses said, The Lord will give you meat for your food at evening, and in the morning bread in full measure; for your outcry against the Lord has come to his ears: for what are we? your outcry is not against us but against the Lord. +Exo 16:9 And Moses said to Aaron, Say to all the people of Israel, Come near before the Lord for he has given ear to your outcry. +Exo 16:10 And while Aaron was talking to the children of Israel, their eyes were turned in the direction of the waste land, and they saw the glory of the Lord shining in the cloud. +Exo 16:11 And the Lord said to Moses, +Exo 16:12 The outcry of the children of Israel has come to my ears: say to them now, At nightfall you will have meat for your food, and in the morning bread in full measure; and you will see that I am the Lord your God. +Exo 16:13 And it came about that in the evening little birds came up and the place was covered with them: and in the morning there was dew all round about the tents. +Exo 16:14 And when the dew was gone, on the face of the earth was a small round thing, like small drops of ice on the earth. +Exo 16:15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? for they had no idea what it was. And Moses said to them, It is the bread which the Lord has given you for your food. +Exo 16:16 This is what the Lord has said, Let every man take up as much as he has need of; at the rate of one omer for every person, let every man take as much as is needed for his family. +Exo 16:17 And the children of Israel did so, and some took more and some less. +Exo 16:18 And when it was measured, he who had taken up much had nothing over, and he who had little had enough; every man had taken what he was able to make use of. +Exo 16:19 And Moses said to them, Let nothing be kept till the morning. +Exo 16:20 But they gave no attention to Moses, and some of them kept it till the morning and there were worms in it and it had an evil smell: and Moses was angry with them. +Exo 16:21 And they took it up morning by morning, every man as he had need: and when the sun was high it was gone. +Exo 16:22 And on the sixth day they took up twice as much of the bread, two omers for every person: and all the rulers of the people gave Moses word of it. +Exo 16:23 And he said, This is what the Lord has said, Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord: what has to be cooked may be cooked; and what is over, put on one side to be kept till the morning. +Exo 16:24 And they kept it till the morning as Moses had said: and no smell came from it, and it had no worms. +Exo 16:25 And Moses said, Make your meal today of what you have, for this day is a Sabbath to the Lord: today you will not get any in the fields. +Exo 16:26 For six days you will get it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any. +Exo 16:27 But still on the seventh day some of the people went out to get it, and there was not any. +Exo 16:28 And the Lord said to Moses, How long will you go against my orders and my laws? +Exo 16:29 See, because the Lord has given you the Sabbath, he gives you on the sixth day bread enough for two days; let every man keep where he is; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. +Exo 16:30 So the people took their rest on the seventh day. +Exo 16:31 And this bread was named manna by Israel: it was white, like a grain seed, and its taste was like cakes made with honey. +Exo 16:32 And Moses said, This is the order which the Lord has given: Let one omer of it be kept for future generations, so that they may see the bread which I gave you for your food in the waste land, when I took you out from the land of Egypt. +Exo 16:33 And Moses said to Aaron, Take a pot and put one omer of manna in it, and put it away before the Lord, to be kept for future generations. +Exo 16:34 So Aaron put it away in front of the holy chest to be kept, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Exo 16:35 And the children of Israel had manna for their food for forty years, till they came to a land with people in it, till they came to the edge of the land of Canaan. +Exo 16:36 Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah. +Exo 17:1 And the children of Israel went on from the waste land of Sin, by stages as the Lord gave them orders, and put up their tents in Rephidim: and there was no drinking-water for the people. +Exo 17:2 So the people were angry with Moses, and said, Give us water for drinking. And Moses said, Why are you angry with me? and why do you put God to the test? +Exo 17:3 And the people were in great need of water; and they made an outcry against Moses, and said, Why have you taken us out of Egypt to send death on us and our children and our cattle through need of water? +Exo 17:4 And Moses, crying out to the Lord, said, What am I to do to this people? they are almost ready to put me to death by stoning. +Exo 17:5 And the Lord said to Moses, Go on before the people, and take some of the chiefs of Israel with you, and take in your hand the rod which was stretched out over the Nile, and go. +Exo 17:6 See, I will take my place before you on the rock in Horeb; and when you give the rock a blow, water will come out of it, and the people will have drink. And Moses did so before the eyes of the chiefs of Israel. +Exo 17:7 And he gave that place the name Massah and Meribah, because the children of Israel were angry, and because they put the Lord to the test, saying, Is the Lord with us or not? +Exo 17:8 Then Amalek came and made war on Israel in Rephidim. +Exo 17:9 And Moses said to Joshua, Get together a band of men for us and go out, make war on Amalek: tomorrow I will take my place on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. +Exo 17:10 So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and went to war with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. +Exo 17:11 Now while Moses' hand was lifted up, Israel was the stronger: but when he let his hand go down, Amalek became the stronger. +Exo 17:12 But Moses' hands became tired; so they put a stone under him and he took his seat on it, Aaron and Hur supporting his hands, one on one side and one on the other; so his hands were kept up without falling till the sun went down. +Exo 17:13 And Joshua overcame Amalek and his people with the sword. +Exo 17:14 And the Lord said to Moses, Make a record of this in a book, so that it may be kept in memory, and say it again in the ears of Joshua: that all memory of Amalek is to be completely uprooted from the earth. +Exo 17:15 Then Moses put up an altar and gave it the name of Yahweh-nissi: +Exo 17:16 For he said, The Lord has taken his oath that there will be war with Amalek from generation to generation. +Exo 18:1 Now news came to Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, of all God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, and how the Lord had taken Israel out of Egypt. +Exo 18:2 And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away, +Exo 18:3 And her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom, for he said, I have been living in a strange land: +Exo 18:4 And the name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, The God of my father was my help, and kept me safe from the sword of Pharaoh: +Exo 18:5 And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to where Moses had put up his tent in the waste land, by the mountain of God. +Exo 18:6 And he said to Moses, I, your father-in-law, have come to you, with your wife and your two sons. +Exo 18:7 And Moses went out to his father-in-law, and went down on his face before him and gave him a kiss; and they said to one another, Are you well? and they came into the tent. +Exo 18:8 And Moses gave his father-in-law an account of all the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians because of Israel, and of all the troubles which had come on them by the way, and how the Lord had given them salvation. +Exo 18:9 And Jethro was glad because the Lord had been good to Israel, freeing them from the power of the Egyptians. +Exo 18:10 And Jethro said, Praise be to the Lord, who has taken you out of the hand of Pharaoh and out of the hand of the Egyptians; freeing the people from the yoke of the Egyptians. +Exo 18:11 Now I am certain that the Lord is greater than all gods, for he has overcome them in their pride. +Exo 18:12 Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, made a burned offering to God: and Aaron came, with the chiefs of Israel, and had a meal with Moses' father-in-law, before God. +Exo 18:13 Now on the day after, Moses took his seat to give decisions for the people: and the people were waiting before Moses from morning till evening. +Exo 18:14 And when Moses' father-in-law saw all he was doing, he said, What is this you are doing for the people? why are you seated here by yourself, with all the people waiting before you from morning till evening? +Exo 18:15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to get directions from God: +Exo 18:16 And if they have any question between themselves, they come to me, and I am judge between a man and his neighbour, and I give them the orders and laws of God. +Exo 18:17 And Moses' father-in-law said to him, What you are doing is not good. +Exo 18:18 Your strength and that of the people will be completely used up: this work is more than you are able to do by yourself. +Exo 18:19 Give ear now to my suggestion, and may God be with you: you are to be the people's representative before God, taking their causes to him: +Exo 18:20 Teaching them his rules and his laws, guiding them in the way they have to go, and making clear to them the work they have to do. +Exo 18:21 But for the rest, take from among the people able men, such as have the fear of God, true men hating profits wrongly made; and put such men over them, to be captains of thousands, captains of hundreds and of fifties and of tens; +Exo 18:22 And let them be judges in the causes of the people at all times: and let them put before you all important questions, but in small things let them give decisions themselves: in this way, it will be less hard for you, and they will take the weight off you. +Exo 18:23 If you do this, and God gives approval, then you will be able to go on without weariness, and all this people will go to their tents in peace. +Exo 18:24 So Moses took note of the words of his father-in-law, and did as he had said. +Exo 18:25 And he made selection of able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, captains of thousands, captains of hundreds and of fifties and of tens. +Exo 18:26 And they were judges in the causes of the people at all times: the hard questions they put before Moses; but on every small point they gave decisions themselves. +Exo 18:27 And Moses let his father-in-law go away, and he went back to his land. +Exo 19:1 In the third month after the children of Israel went out from Egypt, on the same day, they came into the waste land of Sinai. +Exo 19:2 And when they had gone away from Rephidim and had come into the waste land of Sinai, they put up their tents in the waste land before the mountain: there Israel put up its tents. +Exo 19:3 And Moses went up to God, and the voice of the Lord came to him from the mountain, saying, Say to the family of Jacob, and give word to the children of Israel: +Exo 19:4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I took you, as on eagles' wings, guiding you to myself. +Exo 19:5 If now you will truly give ear to my voice and keep my agreement, you will be my special property out of all the peoples: for all the earth is mine: +Exo 19:6 And you will be a kingdom of priests to me, and a holy nation. These are the words which you are to say to the children of Israel. +Exo 19:7 And Moses came and sent for the chiefs of the people and put before them all these words which the Lord had given him orders to say. +Exo 19:8 And all the people, answering together, said, Whatever the Lord has said we will do. And Moses took back to the Lord the words of the people. +Exo 19:9 And the Lord said to Moses, See, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that what I say to you may come to the ears of the people and they may have belief in you for ever. And Moses gave the Lord word of what the people had said. +Exo 19:10 And the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and make them holy today and tomorrow, and let their clothing be washed. +Exo 19:11 And by the third day let them be ready: for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai, before the eyes of all the people. +Exo 19:12 And let limits be marked out for the people round the mountain, and say to them, Take care not to go up the mountain or near the sides of it: whoever puts his foot on the mountain will certainly come to his death: +Exo 19:13 He is not to be touched by a hand, but is to be stoned or have an arrow put through him; man or beast, he is to be put to death: at the long sounding of a horn they may come up to the mountain. +Exo 19:14 Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and made the people holy; and their clothing was washed. +Exo 19:15 And he said to the people, Be ready by the third day: do not come near a woman. +Exo 19:16 And when morning came on the third day, there were thunders and flames and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a horn sounding very loud; and all the people in the tents were shaking with fear. +Exo 19:17 And Moses made the people come out of their tents and take their places before God; and they came to the foot of the mountain, +Exo 19:18 And all the mountain of Sinai was smoking, for the Lord had come down on it in fire: and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a great burning; and all the mountain was shaking. +Exo 19:19 And when the sound of the horn became louder and louder, Moses' words were answered by the voice of God. +Exo 19:20 Then the Lord came down on to Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, and the Lord sent for Moses to come up to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. +Exo 19:21 And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and give the people orders to keep back, for fear that a great number of them, forcing their way through to see the Lord, may come to destruction. +Exo 19:22 And let the priests who come near to the Lord make themselves holy, for fear that the Lord may come on them suddenly. +Exo 19:23 And Moses said to the Lord, The people will not be able to come up the mountain, for you gave us orders to put limits round the mountain, marking it out and making it holy. +Exo 19:24 And the Lord said to him, Go down, and you and Aaron may come up; but let not the priests and the people make their way through to the Lord, or he will come on them suddenly. +Exo 19:25 So Moses went down to the people and said this to them. +Exo 20:1 And God said all these words: +Exo 20:2 I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house. +Exo 20:3 You are to have no other gods but me. +Exo 20:4 You are not to make an image or picture of anything in heaven or on the earth or in the waters under the earth: +Exo 20:5 You may not go down on your faces before them or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of my haters; +Exo 20:6 And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws. +Exo 20:7 You are not to make use of the name of the Lord your God for an evil purpose; whoever takes the Lord's name on his lips for an evil purpose will be judged a sinner by the Lord +Exo 20:8 Keep in memory the Sabbath and let it be a holy day. +Exo 20:9 On six days do all your work: +Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on that day you are to do no work, you or your son or your daughter, your man-servant or your woman-servant, your cattle or the man from a strange country who is living among you: +Exo 20:11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and everything in them, and he took his rest on the seventh day: for this reason the Lord has given his blessing to the seventh day and made it holy. +Exo 20:12 Give honour to your father and to your mother, so that your life may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. +Exo 20:13 Do not put anyone to death without cause. +Exo 20:14 Do not be false to the married relation. +Exo 20:15 Do not take the property of another. +Exo 20:16 Do not give false witness against your neighbour. +Exo 20:17 Let not your desire be turned to your neighbour's house, or his wife or his man-servant or his woman-servant or his ox or his ass or anything which is his. +Exo 20:18 And all the people were watching the thunderings and the flames and the sound of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when they saw it, they kept far off, shaking with fear. +Exo 20:19 And they said to Moses, To your words we will give ear, but let not the voice of God come to our ears, for fear death may come on us. +Exo 20:20 And Moses said to the people, Have no fear: for God has come to put you to the test, so that fearing him you may be kept from sin. +Exo 20:21 And the people kept their places far off, but Moses went near to the dark cloud where God was. +Exo 20:22 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You yourselves have seen that my voice has come to you from heaven +Exo 20:23 Gods of silver and gods of gold you are not to make for yourselves. +Exo 20:24 Make for me an altar of earth, offering on it your burned offerings and your peace-offerings, your sheep and your oxen: in every place where I have put the memory of my name, I will come to you and give you my blessing. +Exo 20:25 And if you make me an altar of stone do not make it of cut stones: for the touch of an instrument will make it unclean. +Exo 20:26 And do not go up by steps to my altar, for fear that your bodies may be seen uncovered. +Exo 21:1 Now these are the laws which you are to put before them. +Exo 21:2 If you get a Hebrew servant for money, he is to be your servant for six years, and in the seventh year you are to let him go free without payment. +Exo 21:3 If he comes to you by himself, let him go away by himself: if he is married, let his wife go away with him. +Exo 21:4 If his master gives him a wife, and he gets sons or daughters by her, the wife and her children will be the property of the master, and the servant is to go away by himself. +Exo 21:5 But if the servant says clearly, My master and my wife and children are dear to me; I have no desire to be free: +Exo 21:6 Then his master is to take him to the gods of the house, and at the door, or at its framework, he is to make a hole in his ear with a sharp-pointed instrument; and he will be his servant for ever. +Exo 21:7 And if a man gives his daughter for a price to be a servant, she is not to go away free as the men-servants do. +Exo 21:8 If she is not pleasing to her master who has taken her for himself, let a payment be made for her so that she may go free; her master has no power to get a price for her and send her to a strange land, because he has been false to her. +Exo 21:9 And if he gives her to his son, he is to do everything for her as if she was his daughter. +Exo 21:10 And if he takes another woman, her food and clothing and her married rights are not to be less. +Exo 21:11 And if he does not do these three things for her, she has the right to go free without payment. +Exo 21:12 He who gives a man a death-blow is himself to be put to death. +Exo 21:13 But if he had no evil purpose against him, and God gave him into his hand, I will give you a place to which he may go in flight. +Exo 21:14 But if a man makes an attack on his neighbour on purpose, to put him to death by deceit, you are to take him from my altar and put him to death. +Exo 21:15 Any man who gives a blow to his father or his mother is certainly to be put to death. +Exo 21:16 Any man who gets another into his power in order to get a price for him is to be put to death, if you take him in the act. +Exo 21:17 Any man cursing his father or his mother is to be put to death. +Exo 21:18 If, in a fight, one man gives another a blow with a stone, or with the shut hand, not causing his death, but making him keep in bed; +Exo 21:19 If he is able to get up again and go about with a stick, the other will be let off; only he will have to give him payment for the loss of his time, and see that he is cared for till he is well. +Exo 21:20 If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant blows with a rod, causing death, he is certainly to undergo punishment. +Exo 21:21 But, at the same time, if the servant goes on living for a day or two, the master is not to get punishment, for the servant is his property. +Exo 21:22 If men, while fighting, do damage to a woman with child, causing the loss of the child, but no other evil comes to her, the man will have to make payment up to the amount fixed by her husband, in agreement with the decision of the judges. +Exo 21:23 But if damage comes to her, let life be given in payment for life, +Exo 21:24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, +Exo 21:25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, blow for blow. +Exo 21:26 If a man gives his man-servant or his woman-servant a blow in the eye, causing its destruction, he is to let him go free on account of the damage to his eye. +Exo 21:27 Or if the loss of a tooth is caused by his blow, he will let him go free on account of his tooth. +Exo 21:28 If an ox comes to be the cause of death to a man or a woman, the ox is to be stoned, and its flesh may not be used for food; but the owner will not be judged responsible. +Exo 21:29 But if the ox has frequently done such damage in the past, and the owner has had word of it and has not kept it under control, so that it has been the cause of the death of a man or woman, not only is the ox to be stoned, but its owner is to be put to death. +Exo 21:30 If a price is put on his life, let him make payment of whatever price is fixed. +Exo 21:31 If the death of a son or of a daughter has been caused, the punishment is to be in agreement with this rule. +Exo 21:32 If the death of a man-servant or of a woman-servant is caused by the ox, the owner is to give their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox is to be stoned. +Exo 21:33 If a man makes a hole in the earth without covering it up, and an ox or an ass dropping into it comes to its death; +Exo 21:34 The owner of the hole is responsible; he will have to make payment to their owner, but the dead beast will be his. +Exo 21:35 And if one man's ox does damage to another man's ox, causing its death, then the living ox is to be exchanged for money, and division made of the price of it, and of the price of the dead one. +Exo 21:36 But if it is common knowledge that the ox has frequently done such damage in the past, and its owner has not kept it under control, he will have to give ox for ox; and the dead beast will be his. +Exo 22:1 If a man takes without right another man's ox or his sheep, and puts it to death or gets a price for it, he is to give five oxen for an ox, or four sheep for a sheep, in payment: the thief will have to make payment for what he has taken; if he has no money, he himself will have to be exchanged for money, so that payment may be made. +Exo 22:2 If a thief is taken in the act of forcing his way into a house, and his death is caused by a blow, the owner of the house is not responsible for his blood. +Exo 22:3 But if it is after dawn, he will be responsible. +Exo 22:4 If he still has what he had taken, whatever it is, ox or ass or sheep, he is to give twice its value. +Exo 22:5 If a man makes a fire in a field or a vine-garden, and lets the fire do damage to another man's field, he is to give of the best produce of his field or his vine-garden to make up for it. +Exo 22:6 If there is a fire and the flames get to the thorns at the edge of the field, causing destruction of the cut grain or of the living grain, or of the field, he who made the fire will have to make up for the damage. +Exo 22:7 If a man puts money or goods in the care of his neighbour to keep for him, and it is taken from the man's house, if they get the thief, he will have to make payment of twice the value. +Exo 22:8 If they do not get the thief, let the master of the house come before the judges and take an oath that he has not put his hand on his neighbour's goods. +Exo 22:9 In any question about an ox or an ass or a sheep or clothing, or about the loss of any property which anyone says is his, let the two sides put their cause before God; and he who is judged to be in the wrong is to make payment to his neighbour of twice the value. +Exo 22:10 If a man puts an ass or an ox or a sheep or any beast into the keeping of his neighbour, and it comes to death or is damaged or is taken away, without any person seeing it: +Exo 22:11 If he takes his oath before the Lord that he has not put his hand to his neighbour's goods, the owner is to take his word for it and he will not have to make payment for it. +Exo 22:12 But if it is taken from him by a thief, he is to make up for the loss of it to its owner. +Exo 22:13 But if it has been damaged by a beast, and he is able to make this clear, he will not have to make payment for what was damaged. +Exo 22:14 If a man gets from his neighbour the use of one of his beasts, and it is damaged or put to death when the owner is not with it, he will certainly have to make payment for the loss. +Exo 22:15 If the owner is with it, he will not have to make payment: if he gave money for the use of it, the loss is covered by the payment. +Exo 22:16 If a man takes a virgin, who has not given her word to another man, and has connection with her, he will have to give a bride-price for her to be his wife. +Exo 22:17 If her father will not give her to him on any account, he will have to give the regular payment for virgins. +Exo 22:18 Any woman using unnatural powers or secret arts is to be put to death. +Exo 22:19 Any man who has sex connection with a beast is to be put to death. +Exo 22:20 Complete destruction will come on any man who makes offerings to any other god but the Lord. +Exo 22:21 Do no wrong to a man from a strange country, and do not be hard on him; for you yourselves were living in a strange country, in the land of Egypt. +Exo 22:22 Do no wrong to a widow, or to a child whose father is dead. +Exo 22:23 If you are cruel to them in any way, and their cry comes up to me, I will certainly give ear; +Exo 22:24 And in the heat of my wrath I will put you to death with the sword, so that your wives will be widows and your children without fathers. +Exo 22:25 If you let any of the poor among my people have the use of your money, do not be a hard creditor to him, and do not take interest. +Exo 22:26 If ever you take your neighbour's clothing in exchange for the use of your money, let him have it back before the sun goes down: +Exo 22:27 For it is the only thing he has for covering his skin; what is he to go to sleep in? and when his cry comes up to me, I will give ear, for my mercy is great. +Exo 22:28 You may not say evil of the judges, or put a curse on the ruler of your people. +Exo 22:29 Do not keep back your offerings from the wealth of your grain and your vines. The first of your sons you are to give to me. +Exo 22:30 In the same way with your oxen and your sheep: for seven days let the young one be with its mother; on the eighth day give it to me. +Exo 22:31 You are to be holy men to me: the flesh of no animal whose death has been caused by the beasts of the field may be used for your food; it is to be given to the dogs. +Exo 23:1 Do not let a false statement go further; do not make an agreement with evil-doers to be a false witness. +Exo 23:2 Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision: +Exo 23:3 But, on the other hand, do not be turned from what is right in order to give support to a poor man's cause. +Exo 23:4 If you come across the ox or the ass of one who is no friend to you wandering from its way, you are to take it back to him. +Exo 23:5 If you see the ass of one who has no love for you bent down to the earth under the weight which is put on it, you are to come to its help, even against your desire. +Exo 23:6 Let no wrong decisions be given in the poor man's cause. +Exo 23:7 Keep yourselves far from any false business; never let the upright or him who has done no wrong be put to death: for I will make the evil-doer responsible for his sin. +Exo 23:8 Take no rewards in a cause: for rewards make blind those who have eyes to see, and make the decisions of the upright false. +Exo 23:9 Do not be hard on the man from a strange country who is living among you; for you have had experience of the feelings of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land. +Exo 23:10 For six years put seed into your fields and get in the increase; +Exo 23:11 But in the seventh year let the land have a rest and be unplanted; so that the poor may have food from it: and let the beasts of the field take the rest. Do the same with your vine-gardens and your olive-trees. +Exo 23:12 For six days do your work, and on the seventh day keep the Sabbath; so that your ox and your ass may have rest, together with the son of your servant and the man from a strange land living among you. +Exo 23:13 Take note of all these things which I have said to you, and let not the names of other gods come into your minds or from your lips. +Exo 23:14 Three times in the year you are to keep a feast to me. +Exo 23:15 You are to keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your bread be without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt); and let no one come before me without an offering: +Exo 23:16 And the feast of the grain-cutting, the first-fruits of your planted fields: and the feast at the start of the year, when you have got in all the fruit from your fields. +Exo 23:17 Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord God. +Exo 23:18 Do not give the blood of my offering with leavened bread; and do not let the fat of my feast be kept all night till the morning. +Exo 23:19 The best of the first-fruits of your land are to be taken into the house of the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk. +Exo 23:20 See, I am sending an angel before you, to keep you on your way and to be your guide into the place which I have made ready for you. +Exo 23:21 Give attention to him and give ear to his voice; do not go against him; for your wrongdoing will not be overlooked by him, because my name is in him. +Exo 23:22 But if you truly give ear to his voice, and do whatever I say, then I will be against those who are against you, fighting those who are fighting you. +Exo 23:23 And my angel will go before you, guiding you into the land of the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Canaanite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, and they will be cut off by my hand. +Exo 23:24 Do not go down on your faces and give worship to their gods, or do as they do; but overcome them completely, and let their pillars be broken down. +Exo 23:25 And give worship to the Lord your God, who will send his blessing on your bread and on your water; and I will take all disease away from among you. +Exo 23:26 All your animals will give birth without loss, not one will be without young in all your land; I will give you a full measure of life. +Exo 23:27 I will send my fear before you, putting to flight all the people to whom you come; all those who are against you will go in flight, turning their backs before you. +Exo 23:28 I will send hornets before you, driving out the Hivite and the Canaanite and the Hittite before your face. +Exo 23:29 I will not send them all out in one year, for fear that their land may become waste, and the beasts of the field be increased overmuch against you. +Exo 23:30 Little by little I will send them away before you, till your numbers are increased and you take up your heritage in the land. +Exo 23:31 I will let the limits of your land be from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the waste land to the river Euphrates: for I will give the people of those lands into your power; and you will send them out before you. +Exo 23:32 Make no agreement with them or with their gods. +Exo 23:33 Let them not go on living in your land, or they will make you do evil against me: for if you give worship to their gods, it will certainly be a cause of sin to you. +Exo 24:1 And he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the chiefs of Israel; and give me worship from a distance. +Exo 24:2 And Moses only may come near to the Lord; but the others are not to come near, and the people may not come up with them. +Exo 24:3 Then Moses came and put before the people all the words of the Lord and his laws: and all the people, answering with one voice, said, Whatever the Lord has said we will do. +Exo 24:4 Then Moses put down in writing all the words of the Lord, and he got up early in the morning and made an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. +Exo 24:5 And he sent some of the young men of the children of Israel to make burned offerings and peace-offerings of oxen to the Lord. +Exo 24:6 And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins; draining out half of the blood over the altar. +Exo 24:7 And he took the book of the agreement, reading it in the hearing of the people: and they said, Everything which the Lord has said we will do, and we will keep his laws. +Exo 24:8 Then Moses took the blood and let it come on the people, and said, This blood is the sign of the agreement which the Lord has made with you in these words. +Exo 24:9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the chiefs of Israel went up: +Exo 24:10 And they saw the God of Israel; and under his feet there was, as it seemed, a jewelled floor, clear as the heavens. +Exo 24:11 And he put not his hand on the chiefs of the children of Israel: they saw God, and took food and drink. +Exo 24:12 And the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain, and take your place there: and I will give you the stones on which I have put in writing the law and the orders, so that you may give the people knowledge of them. +Exo 24:13 Then Moses and Joshua his servant got up; and Moses went up into the mountain of God. +Exo 24:14 And he said to the chiefs, Keep your places here till we come back to you: Aaron and Hur are with you; if anyone has any cause let him go to them. +Exo 24:15 And Moses went up into the mountain, and it was covered by the cloud. +Exo 24:16 And the glory of the Lord was resting on Mount Sinai, and the cloud was over it for six days; and on the seventh day he said Moses' name out of the cloud. +Exo 24:17 And the glory of the Lord was like a flame on the top of the mountain before the eyes of the children of Israel. +Exo 24:18 And Moses went up the mountain, into the cloud, and was there for forty days and forty nights. +Exo 25:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Exo 25:2 Say to the children of Israel that they are to make me an offering; from every man who has the impulse in his heart take an offering for me. +Exo 25:3 And this is the offering you are to take from them: gold and silver and brass; +Exo 25:4 And blue and purple and red, and the best linen, and goats' hair; +Exo 25:5 And sheepskins coloured red, and leather, and hard wood; +Exo 25:6 Oil for the light, spices for the sweet-smelling oil, sweet perfumes for burning; +Exo 25:7 Beryls and stones of value to be put on the ephod and on the priest's bag. +Exo 25:8 And let them make me a holy place, so that I may be ever present among them. +Exo 25:9 Make the House and everything in it from the designs which I will give you. +Exo 25:10 And they are to make an ark of hard wood; two and a half cubits long, and a cubit and a half wide and high. +Exo 25:11 It is to be plated inside and out with the best gold, with an edge of gold all round it +Exo 25:12 And make four rings of gold for it, to be fixed on its four feet, two rings on one side of it and two on the other. +Exo 25:13 And make rods of the same wood, plating them with gold. +Exo 25:14 And put the rods through the rings at the sides of the ark, for lifting it. +Exo 25:15 The rods are to be kept in the rings, and never taken out. +Exo 25:16 Inside the ark you are to put the record which I will give you. +Exo 25:17 And you are to make a cover of the best gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. +Exo 25:18 And at the two ends of the cover you are to make two winged ones of hammered gold, +Exo 25:19 One at one end and one at the other; the winged ones are to be part of the cover. +Exo 25:20 And their wings are to be outstretched over the cover, and the winged ones are to be opposite one another, facing the cover. +Exo 25:21 And put the cover over the ark, and in the ark the record which I will give you. +Exo 25:22 And there, between the two winged ones on the cover of the ark, I will come to you, face to face, and make clear to you all the orders I have to give you for the children of Israel. +Exo 25:23 And you are to make a table of the same wood, two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high, +Exo 25:24 Plated with the best gold, with a gold edge all round it; +Exo 25:25 And make a frame all round it, as wide as a man's hand, with a gold edge to the frame. +Exo 25:26 And make four gold rings and put them at the four angles, on the four feet of the table; +Exo 25:27 The rings are to be fixed under the frame to take the rods with which the table is to be lifted. +Exo 25:28 Make rods of the same wood, plated with gold, for lifting the table. +Exo 25:29 And make the table-vessels, the spoons and the cups and the basins for liquids, all of the best gold. +Exo 25:30 And on the table at all times you are to keep my holy bread. +Exo 25:31 And you are to make a support for lights, of the best gold; its base and its pillar are to be of hammered gold; its cups, its buds, and its flowers are to be made of the same metal. +Exo 25:32 It is to have six branches coming out from its sides; three branches from one side and three from the other. +Exo 25:33 Every branch having three cups made like almond flowers, every cup with a bud and a flower, on all the branches. +Exo 25:34 And on the pillar, four cups like almond flowers, every one with its bud and its flower: +Exo 25:35 And under every two branches a bud, made with the branch, for all the six branches of it. +Exo 25:36 The buds and the branches are to be made of the same metal; all together one complete work of hammered gold. +Exo 25:37 Then you are to make its seven vessels for the lights, putting them in their place so that they give light in front of it. +Exo 25:38 And the instruments and trays for use with it are all to be of the best gold. +Exo 25:39 A talent of gold will be needed for it, with all these vessels. +Exo 25:40 And see that you make them from the design which you saw on the mountain. +Exo 26:1 And you are to make a House for me, with ten curtains of the best linen, blue and purple and red, worked with designs of winged ones by a good workman. +Exo 26:2 Every curtain is to be twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide, all of the same measure. +Exo 26:3 Five curtains are to be joined together, and the other five are to be joined together. +Exo 26:4 And you are to put twists of blue cord on the edge of the outside curtain of the first group of five, and on the edge of the outside curtain of the second group of five; +Exo 26:5 Fifty twists on one curtain and fifty on the other, the twists to be opposite one another. +Exo 26:6 Then make fifty gold hooks, joining the curtains together by the hooks, and in this way the House will be made. +Exo 26:7 And you are to make curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the House, eleven curtains. +Exo 26:8 Every curtain is to be thirty cubits long and four cubits wide, all of the same measure. +Exo 26:9 Five of these curtains are to be joined together, and the other six are to be joined together, the sixth being folded over to make a hanging in front of the tent. +Exo 26:10 And you are to put fifty twists of cord on the edge of the outside curtain of one group, and fifty twists on the edge of the outside curtain of the other group. +Exo 26:11 Then make fifty brass hooks and put the hooks into the twists, joining the tent together to make it one. +Exo 26:12 And the folded part which is over of the curtains of the tent, the half-curtain which is folded back, will be hanging down over the back of the House. +Exo 26:13 And the cubit which is over of the ten curtains at the sides will be hanging over the two sides of the House as a cover. +Exo 26:14 And then you are to make a cover for the tent, of sheepskins coloured red, and a cover of leather over that. +Exo 26:15 And you are to make upright boards of hard wood for the House. +Exo 26:16 Every board is to be ten cubits high and a cubit and a half wide. +Exo 26:17 Every board is to be joined to the one nearest to it by two tongues, and so for every board in the House. +Exo 26:18 These are the boards needed for the house; twenty boards for the south side, +Exo 26:19 With forty silver bases under the twenty boards, two bases under every board to take its tongues. +Exo 26:20 And twenty boards for the second side of the house on the north, +Exo 26:21 With their forty silver bases, two under every board. +Exo 26:22 And six boards for the back of the House on the west, +Exo 26:23 With two boards for the angles of the House at the back. +Exo 26:24 The two are to be joined together at the base and at the top to one ring, forming the two angles. +Exo 26:25 So there are to be eight boards, with their sixteen silver bases, two bases under every board. +Exo 26:26 And make rods of the same wood, five for the boards on the one side, +Exo 26:27 And five for the boards on the other side of the House, and five for the west side of the House at the back. +Exo 26:28 And the middle rod is to go through the rings of all the boards from end to end. +Exo 26:29 And the boards are to be plated with gold, having gold rings for the rods to go through: and the rods are to be plated with gold. +Exo 26:30 And you are to make the House from the design which you saw on the mountain. +Exo 26:31 And you are to make a veil of the best linen, blue and purple and red, worked with designs of winged ones by a good workman: +Exo 26:32 Hanging it by gold hooks from four pillars of wood, plated with gold and fixed in silver bases. +Exo 26:33 And you are to put up the veil under the hooks, and put inside it the ark of the law: the veil is to be a division between the holy place and the most holy. +Exo 26:34 You are to put the cover on the ark of the law, inside the most holy place. +Exo 26:35 And outside the veil you are to put the table, and the support for the lights opposite the table on the south side of the House; and the table is to be on the north side. +Exo 26:36 And you are to make a curtain for the doorway of the Tent, of the best linen with needlework of blue and purple and red. +Exo 26:37 And make five pillars for the curtain, of hard wood plated with gold; their hooks are to be of gold and their bases of brass +Exo 27:1 And make an altar of hard wood, a square altar, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high. +Exo 27:2 Put horns at the four angles of it, made of the same, plating it all with brass. +Exo 27:3 And make all its vessels, the baskets for taking away the dust of the fire, the spades and basins and meat-hooks and fire-trays, of brass. +Exo 27:4 And make a network of brass, with four brass rings at its four angles. +Exo 27:5 And put the network under the shelf round the altar so that the net comes half-way up the altar. +Exo 27:6 And make rods for the altar, of hard wood, plated with brass. +Exo 27:7 And put the rods through the rings at the two opposite sides of the altar, for lifting it. +Exo 27:8 The altar is to be hollow, boarded in with wood; make it from the design which you saw on the mountain. +Exo 27:9 And let there be an open space round the House, with hangings for its south side of the best linen, a hundred cubits long. +Exo 27:10 Their twenty pillars and their twenty bases are to be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their bands are to be of silver. +Exo 27:11 And on the north side in the same way, hangings a hundred cubits long, with twenty pillars of brass on bases of brass; their hooks and their bands are to be of silver. +Exo 27:12 And for the open space on the west side, the hangings are to be fifty cubits wide, with ten pillars and ten bases; +Exo 27:13 And on the east side the space is to be fifty cubits wide. +Exo 27:14 On the one side of the doorway will be hangings fifteen cubits long, with three pillars and three bases; +Exo 27:15 And on the other side, hangings fifteen cubits long, with three pillars and three bases. +Exo 27:16 And across the doorway, a veil of twenty cubits of the best linen, made of needlework of blue and purple and red, with four pillars and four bases. +Exo 27:17 All the pillars round the open space are to have silver bands, with hooks of silver and bases of brass. +Exo 27:18 The open space is to be a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, with sides five cubits high, curtained with the best linen, with bases of brass. +Exo 27:19 All the instruments for the work of the House, and all its nails, and the nails of the open space are to be of brass. +Exo 27:20 Give orders to the children of Israel to give you clear olive oil for the lights, so that a light may be burning there at all times. +Exo 27:21 Let Aaron and his sons put this in order, evening and morning, before the Lord, inside the Tent of meeting, outside the veil which is before the ark; this is to be an order for ever, from generation to generation, to be kept by the children of Israel. +Exo 28:1 Now let Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, come near from among the children of Israel, so that they may be my priests, even Aaron, and Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, his sons. +Exo 28:2 And make holy robes for Aaron your brother, so that he may be clothed with glory and honour. +Exo 28:3 Give orders to all the wise-hearted workmen, whom I have made full of the spirit of wisdom, to make robes for Aaron, so that he may be made holy as my priest. +Exo 28:4 This is what they are to make: a priest's bag, an ephod, and a robe, and a coat of coloured needlework, a head-dress, and a linen band; they are to make holy robes for Aaron your brother and for his sons, so that they may do the work of priests for me. +Exo 28:5 They are to take the gold and blue and purple and red and the best linen, +Exo 28:6 And make the ephod of gold and blue and purple and red and the best linen, the work of a designer. +Exo 28:7 It is to have two bands stitched to it at the top of the arms, joining it together. +Exo 28:8 And the beautifully worked band, which goes on it, is to be of the same work and the same material, of gold and blue and purple and red and twisted linen-work. +Exo 28:9 You are to take two beryl stones, on which the names of the children of Israel are to be cut: +Exo 28:10 Six names on the one stone and six on the other, in the order of their birth. +Exo 28:11 With the work of a jeweller, like the cutting of a stamp, the names of the children of Israel are to be cut on them, and they are to be fixed in twisted frames of gold. +Exo 28:12 And the two stones are to be placed on the ephod, over the arm-holes, to be stones of memory for the children of Israel: Aaron will have their names on his arms when he goes in before the Lord, to keep the Lord in mind of them. +Exo 28:13 And you are to make twisted frames of gold; +Exo 28:14 And two chains of the best gold, twisted like cords; and have the chains fixed on to the frames. +Exo 28:15 And make a priest's bag for giving decisions, designed like the ephod, made of gold and blue and purple and red and the best linen. +Exo 28:16 It is to be square, folded in two, a hand-stretch long and a hand-stretch wide. +Exo 28:17 And on it you are to put four lines of jewels; the first line is to be a cornelian, a chrysolite, and an emerald; +Exo 28:18 The second, a ruby, a sapphire, and an onyx; +Exo 28:19 The third, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; +Exo 28:20 The fourth, a topaz, a beryl, and a jasper; they are to be fixed in twisted frames of gold. +Exo 28:21 The jewels are to be twelve in number, for the names of the children of Israel; every jewel having the name of one of the twelve tribes cut on it as on a stamp. +Exo 28:22 And you are to make two chains of gold, twisted like cords, to be fixed to the priest's bag. +Exo 28:23 And put two gold rings on the two ends of the bag. +Exo 28:24 Put the two gold chains on the two rings at the ends of the bag; +Exo 28:25 Joining the other ends of the chains to the gold frames and putting them on the front of the ephod, at the top of the arms. +Exo 28:26 Then make two gold rings and put them on the lower ends of the bag, at the edge of it on the inner side nearest to the ephod. +Exo 28:27 And make two more gold rings and put them on the front of the ephod at the top of the arms, at the join, over the worked band: +Exo 28:28 So that the rings on the bag may be fixed to the rings of the ephod by a blue cord and on to the band of the ephod, so that the bag may not come loose from the ephod. +Exo 28:29 And so Aaron will have the names of the children of Israel on the priest's bag over his heart whenever he goes into the holy place, to keep the memory of them before the Lord. +Exo 28:30 And in the bag you are to put the Urim and Thummim, so that they may be on Aaron's heart whenever he goes in before the Lord; and Aaron may have the power of making decisions for the children of Israel before the Lord at all times. +Exo 28:31 The robe which goes with the ephod is to be made all of blue; +Exo 28:32 With a hole at the top, in the middle of it; the hole is to be edged with a band to make it strong like the hole in the coat of a fighting-man, so that it may not be broken open. +Exo 28:33 And round the skirts of it put fruits in blue and purple and red, with bells of gold between; +Exo 28:34 A gold bell and a fruit in turn all round the skirts of the robe. +Exo 28:35 Aaron is to put it on for his holy work; and the sound of it will be clear, when he goes into the holy place before the Lord, and when he comes out, keeping him safe from death. +Exo 28:36 You are to make a plate of the best gold, cutting on it, as on a stamp, these words: HOLY TO THE LORD. +Exo 28:37 Put a blue cord on it and put it on the front of the twisted head-dress: +Exo 28:38 And it will be over Aaron's brow, so that Aaron will be responsible for any error in all the holy offerings made by the children of Israel; it will be on his brow at all times, so that their offerings may be pleasing to the Lord. +Exo 28:39 The coat is to be made of the best linen, worked in squares; and you are to make a head-dress of linen, and a linen band worked in needlework. +Exo 28:40 And for Aaron's sons you are to make coats, and bands, and head-dresses, so that they may be clothed with glory and honour. +Exo 28:41 These you are to put on Aaron, your brother, and on his sons, putting oil on them, separating them and making them holy, to do the work of priests to me. +Exo 28:42 And you are to make them linen trousers, covering their bodies from the middle to the knee; +Exo 28:43 Aaron and his sons are to put these on whenever they go into the Tent of meeting or come near the altar, when they are doing the work of the holy place, so that they may be free from any sin causing death: this is to be an order for him and his seed after him for ever. +Exo 29:1 This is what you are to do to make them holy, to do the work of priests to me: Take one young ox and two male sheep, without any mark on them, +Exo 29:2 And unleavened bread, and unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and thin unleavened cakes on which oil has been put, made of the best bread-meal; +Exo 29:3 Put these in a basket and take them, with the ox and the two sheep. +Exo 29:4 And let Aaron and his sons come to the door of the Tent of meeting, and there let them be washed with water. +Exo 29:5 Take the robes, and put the coat and the dress and the ephod and the priest's bag on Aaron; put the band of needlework round him, +Exo 29:6 And let the head-dress be placed on his head and the holy crown on the head-dress. +Exo 29:7 Then take the oil and put it on his head. +Exo 29:8 And take his sons and put their robes on them; +Exo 29:9 And put the linen bands round Aaron and his sons, and the head-dresses on them, to make them priests by my order for ever: so you are to make Aaron and his sons holy to me. +Exo 29:10 Then let the ox be taken in front of the Tent of meeting: and let Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head. +Exo 29:11 And you are to put the ox to death before the Lord at the door of the Tent of meeting. +Exo 29:12 Then take some of the blood of the ox, and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, draining out all the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. +Exo 29:13 And take all the fat covering the inside of the ox, and the fat joining the liver and the two kidneys with the fat round them, and let them be burned on the altar; +Exo 29:14 But the flesh of the ox and its skin and its waste parts are to be burned outside the circle of the tents, for it is a sin-offering. +Exo 29:15 Then take one of the sheep, and let Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head. +Exo 29:16 Then let it be put to death, so that the sides of the altar are marked with its blood. +Exo 29:17 Then the sheep is to be cut up into its parts, and after washing its legs and its inside parts, you are to put them with the parts and the head, +Exo 29:18 And let them all be burned on the altar as a burned offering to the Lord: a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord. +Exo 29:19 Then take the other sheep; and after Aaron and his sons have put their hands on its head, +Exo 29:20 You are to put the sheep to death, and take some of its blood and put it on the point of Aaron's right ear, and of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and the great toes of their right feet, dropping the rest of the blood on the sides of the altar. +Exo 29:21 Then take some of the blood on the altar, and the oil, and put it on Aaron and his robes and on his sons and on their robes, so that he and his robes and his sons and their robes may be made holy. +Exo 29:22 Then take the fat of the sheep, the fat tail, the fat covering the insides, and the fat joining the liver and the two kidneys with the fat round them, and the right leg; for by the offering of this sheep they are to be marked out as priests: +Exo 29:23 And take one bit of bread and one cake of oiled bread and one thin cake out of the basket of unleavened bread which is before the Lord: +Exo 29:24 And put them all on the hands of Aaron and of his sons, to be waved for a wave offering before the Lord. +Exo 29:25 Then take them from their hands, and let them be burned on the burned offering on the altar, a sweet smell before the Lord, an offering made by fire to the Lord. +Exo 29:26 Then take the breast of Aaron's sheep, waving it before the Lord; and it is to be your part of the offering. +Exo 29:27 So you are to make holy the breast of the sheep which is waved and the leg which is lifted up on high, that is, of the sheep which is offered for Aaron and his sons; +Exo 29:28 And it will be their part as a right for ever from the children of Israel, it is a special offering from the children of Israel, made from their peace-offerings, a special offering lifted up to the Lord. +Exo 29:29 And Aaron's holy robes will be used by his sons after him; they will put them on when they are made priests. +Exo 29:30 For seven days the son who becomes priest in his place will put them on when he comes into the Tent of meeting to do the work of the holy place. +Exo 29:31 Then take the sheep of the wave offering and let its flesh be cooked in water in a holy place. +Exo 29:32 And let Aaron and his sons make a meal of it, with the bread in the basket, at the door of the Tent of meeting. +Exo 29:33 All those things which were used as offerings to take away sin, and to make them holy to be priests, they may have for food: but no one who is not a priest may have them, for they are holy food. +Exo 29:34 And if any of the flesh of the offering or of the bread is over till the morning, let it be burned with fire; it is not to be used for food, for it is holy. +Exo 29:35 All these things you are to do to Aaron and his sons as I have given you orders: for seven days the work of making them priests is to go on. +Exo 29:36 Every day an ox is to be offered as a sin-offering, to take away sins: and by this offering on it, you will make the altar clean from sin; and you are to put oil on it and make it holy. +Exo 29:37 For seven days you are to make offerings for the altar and make it holy, so that it may become completely holy, and anything touching it will become holy. +Exo 29:38 Now this is the offering which you are to make on the altar: two lambs in their first year, every day regularly. +Exo 29:39 One lamb is to be offered in the morning and the other in the evening: +Exo 29:40 And with the one lamb, a tenth part of an ephah of the best meal, mixed with a fourth part of a hin of clear oil; and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering. +Exo 29:41 And the other lamb is to be offered in the evening, and with it the same meal offering and drink offering, for a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord. +Exo 29:42 This is to be a regular burned offering made from generation to generation, at the door of the Tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will come face to face with you and have talk with you. +Exo 29:43 There I will come face to face with the children of Israel, and the Tent will be made holy by my glory +Exo 29:44 I will make holy the Tent of meeting and the altar: and Aaron and his sons I will make holy, to be my priests +Exo 29:45 Among the children of Israel I will make my living-place, and I will be their God. +Exo 29:46 And they will see that I am the Lord their God, who took them out of the land of Egypt, so that I might be ever with them: I am the Lord their God. +Exo 30:1 And you are to make an altar for the burning of perfume; of hard wood let it be made. +Exo 30:2 The altar is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high, and its horns are to be made of the same. +Exo 30:3 It is to be plated with the best gold, the top of it and the sides and the horns, with an edging of gold all round it. +Exo 30:4 Under the edge on the two opposite sides, you are to make two gold rings, to take the rods for lifting it. +Exo 30:5 And make these rods of the same wood, plating them with gold. +Exo 30:6 And let it be placed in front of the veil before the ark of the law, before the cover which is over the law, where I will come face to face with you. +Exo 30:7 And on this altar sweet spices are to be burned by Aaron every morning when he sees to the lights. +Exo 30:8 And every evening, when he puts the lights up in their places, the spices are to be burned, a sweet-smelling smoke going up before the Lord from generation to generation for ever. +Exo 30:9 No strange perfume, no burned offering or meal offering, and no drink offering is to be offered on it. +Exo 30:10 And once every year Aaron is to make its horns clean: with the blood of the sin-offering he is to make it clean once every year from generation to generation: it is most holy to the Lord. +Exo 30:11 And the Lord said to Moses, +Exo 30:12 When you are taking the number of the children of Israel, let every man who is numbered give to the Lord a price for his life, so that no disease may come on them when they are numbered. +Exo 30:13 And this is what they are to give; let every man who is numbered give half a shekel, by the scale of the holy place: (the shekel being valued at twenty gerahs:) this money is an offering to the Lord. +Exo 30:14 Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, is to give an offering to the Lord. +Exo 30:15 The man of wealth is to give no more and the poor man no less than the half-shekel of silver, when the offering is made to the Lord as the price for your lives. +Exo 30:16 And you are to take this money from the children of Israel to be used for the work of the Tent of meeting, to keep the memory of the children of Israel before the Lord and to be the price of your lives. +Exo 30:17 And the Lord said to Moses, +Exo 30:18 You are to make a brass washing-vessel, with a brass base; and put it between the Tent of meeting and the altar, with water in it; +Exo 30:19 That it may be used by Aaron and his sons for washing their hands and feet; +Exo 30:20 Whenever they go into the Tent of meeting they are to be washed with water, to keep them from death; and whenever they come near to do the work of the altar, or to make an offering by fire to the Lord, +Exo 30:21 Their hands and feet are to be washed. so that they may be safe from death: this is an order to them for ever; to him and his seed from generation to generation. +Exo 30:22 And the Lord said to Moses, +Exo 30:23 Take the best spices, five hundred shekels' weight of liquid myrrh, and of sweet cinnamon half as much, that is, two hundred and fifty shekels, and two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet calamus, +Exo 30:24 And of cassia, five hundred shekels' weight measured by the scale of the holy place, and of olive oil a hin: +Exo 30:25 And make these into a holy oil, a perfume made by the art of the perfume-maker; it is to be a holy oil. +Exo 30:26 This oil is to be put on the Tent of meeting, and on the ark of the law, +Exo 30:27 And on the table and all its vessels, and on the support for the lights, with its vessels, and on the altar for burning spices, +Exo 30:28 And on the altar of burned offerings with its vessels, and on the washing-vessel and its base. +Exo 30:29 And you are to make them most holy; anything touching them will become holy. +Exo 30:30 And put the oil on Aaron and his sons, making them holy to do the work of priests to me. +Exo 30:31 And say to the children of Israel, This is to be the Lord's holy oil, from generation to generation. +Exo 30:32 It is not to be used for man's flesh, and no other is to be made like it: holy it is, and you are to keep it holy. +Exo 30:33 Whoever makes any like it, or puts it on one who is not a priest, will be cut off from his people. +Exo 30:34 And the Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, with the best frankincense, in equal weights; +Exo 30:35 And make from them a perfume, such as is made by the art of the perfume-maker, mixed with salt, and clean and holy. +Exo 30:36 And put some of it, crushed very small, in front of the ark in the Tent of meeting, where I will come face to face with you; it is to be most holy. +Exo 30:37 You are not to make any perfume like it for yourselves: it is to be kept holy to the Lord. +Exo 30:38 Whoever makes any like it, for its sweet smell, will be cut off from his people. +Exo 31:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Exo 31:2 I have made selection of Bezalel, the son of Uri, by name, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: +Exo 31:3 And I have given him the spirit of God and made him wise and full of knowledge and expert in every sort of handwork, +Exo 31:4 To do all sorts of delicate work in gold and silver and brass; +Exo 31:5 In cutting stones for framing, and to do every form of woodwork. +Exo 31:6 And I have made selection of Oholiab with him, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are wise I have put the knowledge to make whatever I have given you orders to have made; +Exo 31:7 The Tent of meeting, and the ark of the law, and the cover which is on it, and all the things for the tent, +Exo 31:8 And the table with its vessels, and the holy light-support with all its vessels, and the altar for the burning of spices, +Exo 31:9 And the altar of burned offerings with all its vessels, and the washing-vessel with its base, +Exo 31:10 And the robes of needlework, the holy robes for Aaron and for his sons, for their use when acting as priests, +Exo 31:11 And the holy oil, and the perfume of sweet spices for the holy place; they will do whatever I have given you orders to have done. +Exo 31:12 And the Lord said to Moses, +Exo 31:13 Say to the children of Israel that they are to keep my Sabbaths; for the Sabbath day is a sign between me and you through all your generations; so that you may see that I am the Lord who makes you holy. +Exo 31:14 So you are to keep the Sabbath as a holy day; and anyone not honouring it will certainly be put to death: whoever does any work on that day will be cut off from his people. +Exo 31:15 Six days may work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. +Exo 31:16 And the children of Israel are to keep the Sabbath holy, from generation to generation, by an eternal agreement. +Exo 31:17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he took his rest and had pleasure in it. +Exo 31:18 And when his talk with Moses on Mount Sinai was ended, he gave him the two stones of the law, two stones on which was the writing made by the finger of God. +Exo 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses was a long time coming down from the mountain, they all came to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him. +Exo 32:2 Then Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and give them to me. +Exo 32:3 And all the people took the gold rings from their ears and gave them to Aaron. +Exo 32:4 And he took the gold from them and, hammering it with an instrument, he made it into the metal image of a young ox: and they said, This is your god, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt. +Exo 32:5 And when Aaron saw this, he made an altar before it, and made a public statement, saying, Tomorrow there will be a feast to the Lord. +Exo 32:6 So early on the day after they got up and made burned offerings and peace-offerings; and took their seats at the feast, and then gave themselves to pleasure. +Exo 32:7 And the Lord said to Moses, Go down quickly; for your people, whom you took out of the land of Egypt, are turned to evil ways; +Exo 32:8 Even now they are turned away from the rule I gave them, and have made themselves a metal ox and given worship to it and offerings, saying, This is your god, O Israel, who took you up out of the land of Egypt. +Exo 32:9 And the Lord said to Moses, I have been watching this people, and I see that they are a stiff-necked people. +Exo 32:10 Now do not get in my way, for my wrath is burning against them; I will send destruction on them, but of you I will make a great nation. +Exo 32:11 But Moses made prayer to God, saying, Lord, why is your wrath burning against your people whom you took out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with the strength of your hand? +Exo 32:12 Why let the Egyptians say, He took them out to an evil fate, to put them to death on the mountains, cutting them off from the earth? Let your wrath be turned away from them, and send not this evil on your people. +Exo 32:13 Have in mind Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you gave your oath, saying, I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and all this land will I give to your seed, as I said, to be their heritage for ever. +Exo 32:14 So the Lord let himself be turned from his purpose of sending punishment on his people. +Exo 32:15 Then Moses came down the mountain with the two stones of the law in his hand; the stones had writing on their two sides, on the front and on the back. +Exo 32:16 The stones were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, cut on the stones. +Exo 32:17 Now when the noise and the voices of the people came to the ears of Joshua, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the tents. +Exo 32:18 And Moses said, It is not the voice of men who are overcoming in the fight, or the cry of those who have been overcome; it is the sound of songs which comes to my ear. +Exo 32:19 And when he came near the tents he saw the image of the ox, and the people dancing; and in his wrath Moses let the stones go from his hands, and they were broken at the foot of the mountain. +Exo 32:20 And he took the ox which they had made, burning it in the fire and crushing it to powder, and he put it in the water and made the children of Israel take a drink of it. +Exo 32:21 And Moses said to Aaron, What did the people do to you that you let this great sin come on them? +Exo 32:22 And Aaron said, Let not my lord be angry; you have seen how the purposes of this people are evil. +Exo 32:23 For they said to me, Make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has come to him. +Exo 32:24 Then I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let him take it off; so they gave it to me, and I put it in the fire, and this image of an ox came out. +Exo 32:25 And Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them loose to their shame before their haters: +Exo 32:26 Then Moses took his place at the way into the tents, and said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me. And all the sons of Levi came together to him. +Exo 32:27 And he said to them, This is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: Let every man take his sword at his side, and go from one end of the tents to the other, putting to death his brother and his friend and his neighbour. +Exo 32:28 And the sons of Levi did as Moses said; and about three thousand of the people were put to death that day. +Exo 32:29 And Moses said, You have made yourselves priests to the Lord this day; for every one of you has made the offering of his son and his brother; the blessing of the Lord is on you this day. +Exo 32:30 And on the day after, Moses said to the people, Great has been your sin: but I will go up to the Lord, and see if I may get forgiveness for your sin. +Exo 32:31 Then Moses went back to the Lord and said, This people has done a great sin, making themselves a god of gold; +Exo 32:32 But now, if you will give them forgiveness--but if not, let my name be taken out of your book. +Exo 32:33 And the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has done evil against me will be taken out of my book. +Exo 32:34 But now, go, take the people into that place of which I have given you word; see, my angel will go before you: but when the time of my judging has come, I will send punishment on them for their sin. +Exo 32:35 And the Lord sent punishment on the people because they gave worship to the ox which Aaron made. +Exo 33:1 And the Lord said to Moses, Go forward from this place, you and the people whom you have taken up out of the land of Egypt, to that land about which I made an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your seed will I give it. +Exo 33:2 And I will send an angel before you, driving out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite: +Exo 33:3 Go up to that land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, for fear that I send destruction on you while you are on the way. +Exo 33:4 Hearing this bad news the people were full of grief, and no one put on his ornaments. +Exo 33:5 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people: if I come among you, even for a minute, I will send destruction on you; so take off all your ornaments, so that I may see what to do with you. +Exo 33:6 So the children of Israel took off their ornaments at Mount Horeb, and did not put them on again. +Exo 33:7 Now it was Moses' way to put up the Tent of meeting outside the tent-circle, at some distance away; giving it the name of The Tent of meeting. And everyone desiring to make his prayer to the Lord went to the Tent of meeting outside the tent-circle. +Exo 33:8 And whenever Moses went out to the Tent of meeting, all the people got up and everyone went to the door of his tent, looking after Moses till he went inside the Tent. +Exo 33:9 And whenever Moses went into the Tent, the pillar of cloud came down, and took its place by the door of the Tent, as long as the Lord was talking with Moses. +Exo 33:10 And all the people saw the cloud at the door of the Tent, and they went down on their faces, everyone at the door of his tent. +Exo 33:11 And the Lord had talk with Moses face to face, as a man may have talk with his friend. And when Moses came back to the tents, his servant, the young man Joshua, the son of Nun, did not come away from the Tent. +Exo 33:12 And Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, Be this people's guide on their journey, but you have not made clear to me whom you will send with me. But you have said, I have knowledge of you by name, and you have grace in my eyes. +Exo 33:13 If then I have grace in your eyes, let me see your ways, so that I may have knowledge of you and be certain of your grace; and my prayer is that you will keep in mind that this nation is your people. +Exo 33:14 And he said, I myself will go with you and give you rest. +Exo 33:15 And Moses said, If you yourself are not going with us, do not send us on from here. +Exo 33:16 For is not the fact of your going with us the sign that I and this people have grace in your eyes, so that we, that is, I and your people, are separate from all other people on the face of the earth? +Exo 33:17 And the Lord said to Moses, I will do as you say: for you have grace in my eyes, and I have knowledge of you by your name. +Exo 33:18 And Moses said, O Lord, let me see your glory. +Exo 33:19 And he said, I will make all the light of my being come before you, and will make clear to you what I am; I will be kind to those to whom I will be kind, and have mercy on those on whom I will have mercy. +Exo 33:20 But it is not possible for you to see my face, for no man may see me and still go on living. +Exo 33:21 And the Lord said, See, there is a place near me, and you may take your place on the rock: +Exo 33:22 And when my glory goes by, I will put you in a hole in the rock, covering you with my hand till I have gone past: +Exo 33:23 Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back: but my face is not to be seen. +Exo 34:1 And the Lord said to Moses, Make two other stones like the first two; and I will put on them the words which were on the first stones, which were broken by you. +Exo 34:2 And be ready by the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai, and come before me there in the morning, on the top of the mountain. +Exo 34:3 No one is to come up with you, and let no man be seen anywhere on the mountain; let no flocks or herds come near to get their food at its foot. +Exo 34:4 So Moses got two stones cut like the first; and early in the morning he went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had said, with the two stones in his hand. +Exo 34:5 And the Lord came down in the cloud and took his place by the side of Moses, and Moses gave worship to the name of the Lord. +Exo 34:6 And the Lord went past before his eyes, saying, The Lord, the Lord, a God full of pity and grace, slow to wrath and great in mercy and faith; +Exo 34:7 Having mercy on thousands, overlooking evil and wrongdoing and sin; he will not let wrongdoers go free, but will send punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, and on their children's children to the third and fourth generation. +Exo 34:8 Then Moses quickly went down on his face in worship. +Exo 34:9 And he said, If now I have grace in your eyes, let the Lord go among us, for this is a stiff-necked people, and give us forgiveness for our wrongdoing and our sin, and take us for your heritage. +Exo 34:10 And the Lord said, See, this is what I will undertake: before the eyes of your people I will do wonders, such as have not been done in all the earth or in any nation: and all your people will see the work of the Lord, for what I am about to do for you is greatly to be feared. +Exo 34:11 Take care to do the orders which I give you today; I will send out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. +Exo 34:12 But take care, and do not make any agreement with the people of the land where you are going, for it will be a cause of sin to you. +Exo 34:13 But their altars are to be overturned and their pillars broken and their images cut down: +Exo 34:14 For you are to be worshippers of no other god: for the Lord is a God who will not give his honour to another. +Exo 34:15 So see that you make no agreement with the people of the land, and do not go after their gods, or take part in their offerings, or be guests at their feasts, +Exo 34:16 Or take their daughters for your sons; for when their daughters give worship before their gods, they will make your sons take part with them. +Exo 34:17 Make for yourselves no gods of metal. +Exo 34:18 Keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days your food is to be bread without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib; for in that month you came out of Egypt. +Exo 34:19 Every first male child is mine; the first male birth of your cattle, the first male of every ox and sheep. +Exo 34:20 A lamb may be given in payment for the young of an ass, but if you will not make payment for it, its neck will have to be broken. For all the first of your sons you are to make payment. No one is to come before me without an offering. +Exo 34:21 Six days let work be done, but on the seventh day take your rest: at ploughing time and at the grain-cutting you are to have a day for rest. +Exo 34:22 And you are to keep the feast of weeks when you get in the first-fruits of the grain, and the feast at the turn of the year when you take in the produce of your fields. +Exo 34:23 Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord, the God of Israel. +Exo 34:24 For I will send out the nations before you and make wide the limits of your land; and no man will make an attempt to take your land while you go up to give worship to the Lord, three times in the year. +Exo 34:25 No leaven is to be offered with the blood of my offering, and the offering of the Passover feast may not be kept till the morning. +Exo 34:26 Take the first-fruits of your land as an offering to the house of the Lord your God. Let not the young goat be cooked in its mother's milk +Exo 34:27 And the Lord said to Moses, Put all these words in writing; for on them is based the agreement which I will make with you. +Exo 34:28 And for forty days and forty nights Moses was there with the Lord, and in that time he had no food or drink. And he put in writing on the stones the words of the agreement, the ten rules of the law. +Exo 34:29 Now when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two stones in his hand, he was not conscious that his face was shining because of his talk with God. +Exo 34:30 But when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, and the shining of his face, they would not come near him for fear. +Exo 34:31 Then Moses sent for them; and Aaron, with the chiefs of the people, came to him; and Moses had talk with them. +Exo 34:32 And later, all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the orders which the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai. +Exo 34:33 And at the end of his talk with them, Moses put a veil over his face. +Exo 34:34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to have talk with him, he took off the veil till he came out. And whenever he came out he said to the children of Israel what he had been ordered to say; +Exo 34:35 And the children of Israel saw that the face of Moses was shining: so Moses put the veil over his face again till he went to the Lord. +Exo 35:1 And Moses sent for all the children of Israel to come together, and said to them, This is what the Lord has said and these are his orders. +Exo 35:2 Six days let work be done, but the seventh day is to be a holy day to you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord; whoever does any work on that day is to be put to death. +Exo 35:3 No fire is to be lighted in any of your houses on the Sabbath day. +Exo 35:4 And Moses said to all the meeting of the children of Israel, This is the order which the Lord has given: +Exo 35:5 Take from among you an offering to the Lord; everyone who has the impulse in his heart, let him give his offering to the Lord; gold and silver and brass; +Exo 35:6 And blue and purple and red and the best linen and goats' hair, +Exo 35:7 And sheepskins coloured red, and leather, and hard wood, +Exo 35:8 And oil for the lights, and spices for the holy oil and for the sweet perfumes for burning. +Exo 35:9 And beryls and jewels to be cut for the ephod and for the priest's bag. +Exo 35:10 And let every wise-hearted man among you come and make whatever has been ordered by the Lord; +Exo 35:11 The House and its tent and its cover, its hooks and its boards, its rods and its pillars and its bases; +Exo 35:12 The ark with its cover and its rods and the veil hanging before it; +Exo 35:13 The table and its rods and all its vessels, and the holy bread; +Exo 35:14 And the support for the lights, with its vessels and its lights and the oil for the light; +Exo 35:15 And the altar for burning spices, with its rods, and the holy oil and the sweet perfume, and the curtain for the door, at the door of the House; +Exo 35:16 The altar of burned offerings, with its network of brass, its rods, and all its vessels, the washing-vessel and its base; +Exo 35:17 The hangings for the open space, its pillars and their bases, and the curtain for the doorway; +Exo 35:18 The nails for the House, and the nails for the open space and their cords; +Exo 35:19 The robes of needlework for the work of the holy place, the holy robes for Aaron the priest, and the robes for his sons when acting as priests. +Exo 35:20 And all the children of Israel went away from Moses. +Exo 35:21 And everyone whose heart was moved, everyone who was guided by the impulse of his spirit, came with his offering for the Lord, for whatever was needed for the Tent of meeting and its work and for the holy robes. +Exo 35:22 They came, men and women, all who were ready to give, and gave pins and nose-rings and finger-rings and neck-ornaments, all of gold; everyone gave an offering of gold to the Lord. +Exo 35:23 And everyone who had blue and purple and red and the best linen and goats' hair and sheepskins coloured red and leather, gave them. +Exo 35:24 Everyone who had silver and brass gave an offering of them to the Lord; and everyone who had hard wood, such as was needed for the work, gave it. +Exo 35:25 And all the women who were expert with their hands, made cloth, and gave the work of their hands, blue and purple and red and the best linen. +Exo 35:26 And those women who had the knowledge, made the goats' hair into cloth. +Exo 35:27 And the rulers gave the beryls and the cut jewels for the ephod and the priest's bag; +Exo 35:28 And the spice and the oil for the light, and the holy oil and the sweet perfumes. +Exo 35:29 The children of Israel, every man and woman, from the impulse of their hearts, gave their offerings freely to the Lord for the work which the Lord had given Moses orders to have done. +Exo 35:30 And Moses said to the children of Israel, See, the Lord has made selection of Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; +Exo 35:31 And he has made him full of the spirit of God, in all wisdom and knowledge and art of every sort; +Exo 35:32 As an expert designer of beautiful things, working in gold and silver and brass; +Exo 35:33 Trained in the cutting of stones and the ornamenting of wood and in every sort of handwork. +Exo 35:34 And he has given to him, and to Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the power of training others. +Exo 35:35 To them he has given knowledge of all the arts of the handworker, of the designer, and the expert workman; of the maker of needlework in blue and purple and red and the best linen, and of the maker of cloth; in all the arts of the designer and the trained workman they are expert. +Exo 36:1 So let Bezalel and Oholiab get to work, with every wise-hearted man to whom the Lord has given wisdom and knowledge, to do whatever is necessary for the ordering of the holy place, as the Lord has given orders. +Exo 36:2 Then Moses sent for Bezalel and Oholiab, and for all the wise-hearted men to whom the Lord had given wisdom, even everyone who was moved by the impulse of his heart to come and take part in the work: +Exo 36:3 And they took from Moses all the offerings which the children of Israel had given for the building of the holy place. And still they went on giving him more free offerings every morning. +Exo 36:4 Then the wise men, who were doing all the work of the holy place, came from their work; +Exo 36:5 And said to Moses, The people are giving much more than is needed for the work which the Lord has given us orders to do. +Exo 36:6 So Moses made an order and had it given out through all the tents, saying, Let no man or woman make any more offerings for the holy place. So the people were kept from giving more. +Exo 36:7 For the material they had was enough and more than enough for all the work which had to be done. +Exo 36:8 Then all the expert workmen among them made the House with its ten curtains; of the best linen, blue and purple and red, they made them, with winged ones worked by expert designers. +Exo 36:9 Every curtain was twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide, all of the same measure. +Exo 36:10 And five curtains were joined together, and the other five curtains were joined together. +Exo 36:11 And they put twists of blue cord on the edge of the outside curtain of the first group, and in the same way on the outside curtain of the second group. +Exo 36:12 Fifty twists on the one curtain and fifty on the edge of the curtain of the other group; the twists being opposite to one another. +Exo 36:13 And they made fifty hooks of gold, joining the curtains one to another with the hooks; and so the House was made. +Exo 36:14 And they made curtains of goats' hair for the tent; eleven curtains were made. +Exo 36:15 Every curtain was thirty cubits long and four cubits wide, all of the same measure. +Exo 36:16 Five curtains were joined together to make one group, and six curtains were joined together to make the other group. +Exo 36:17 And they put fifty twists of cord on the edge of the outside curtain of the first group, and fifty twists on the edge of the outside curtain of the second group, +Exo 36:18 And fifty hooks of brass for joining them together to make the tent. +Exo 36:19 And they made a cover of sheepskins coloured red, to go over the tent, and a cover of leather over that. +Exo 36:20 And for the uprights of the House they made boards of hard wood. +Exo 36:21 The boards were ten cubits long and one cubit and a half wide. +Exo 36:22 Every board had two tongues fixed into it; all the boards were made in this way. +Exo 36:23 They made twenty boards for the south side of the House: +Exo 36:24 And for these twenty boards, forty silver bases, two bases under every board, to take its tongues. +Exo 36:25 And for the second side of the House, on the north, they made twenty boards, +Exo 36:26 With their forty silver bases, two bases for every board. +Exo 36:27 And for the west side of the House, at the back, they made six boards, +Exo 36:28 And two boards for the angles at the back. +Exo 36:29 These were joined together at the base and at the top to one ring, so forming the two angles. +Exo 36:30 So there were eight boards with sixteen bases of silver, two bases under every board. +Exo 36:31 And they made rods of hard wood; five for the boards on one side of the House, +Exo 36:32 And five for the boards on the other side of the House, and five for the boards at the back, on the west. +Exo 36:33 The middle rod was made to go right through the rings of all the boards from one end to the other. +Exo 36:34 All the boards were plated with gold, and the rings through which the rods went were of gold, and the rods were plated with gold. +Exo 36:35 And he made the veil of the best linen, blue and purple and red, worked with winged ones designed by expert workmen. +Exo 36:36 And they made four pillars for it of hard wood plated with gold: they had hooks of gold and four silver bases. +Exo 36:37 And they made a curtain for the door of the tent, of the best linen with needlework of blue and purple and red; +Exo 36:38 And five pillars for the curtain, with their hooks; the heads of the pillars were of gold and they were circled with bands of gold; and their five bases were of brass. +Exo 37:1 And Bezalel made the ark of hard wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit and a half high; +Exo 37:2 Plating it inside and out with the best gold, and putting an edge of gold all round it. +Exo 37:3 And he made four gold rings for its four angles, two on one side and two on the other, +Exo 37:4 And rods of the same wood plated with gold. +Exo 37:5 These rods he put in the rings at the sides of the ark, for lifting it. +Exo 37:6 And he made the cover all of gold, two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. +Exo 37:7 And he made two winged ones, hammered out of one bit of gold, for the two ends of the cover; +Exo 37:8 Placing one at one end and one at the other; the winged ones were part of the cover. +Exo 37:9 And their wings were stretched out over the cover; the faces of the winged ones were opposite one another and facing the cover. +Exo 37:10 And he made the table of hard wood, two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high; +Exo 37:11 Plating it with the best gold and putting a gold edge all round it. +Exo 37:12 And he made a frame all round it about as wide as a man's hand, edged with gold all round. +Exo 37:13 And he made four gold rings, and put the rings at the angles of its four feet. +Exo 37:14 The rings were fixed under the frame to take the rods with which the table was to be lifted. +Exo 37:15 The rods for lifting the table he made of hard wood plated with gold. +Exo 37:16 And all the table-vessels, the plates and spoons and basins and the cups for liquids, he made of the best gold. +Exo 37:17 Then he made the support for the lights, all of the best gold; its base and its pillar were of hammered gold; its cups and buds and flowers were all made out of the same metal: +Exo 37:18 It had six branches coming out from its sides, three from one side and three from the other; +Exo 37:19 Every branch having three cups made like almond flowers, every cup with a bud and a flower on all the branches; +Exo 37:20 And on its pillar, four cups like almond flowers, every one with its bud and its flower; +Exo 37:21 And under every two branches a bud, made with the branch, for all six branches of it. +Exo 37:22 The buds and the branches were made of the same metal, all together one complete work of the best hammered gold. +Exo 37:23 And he made the seven vessels for the lights, and all the necessary instruments for it, of gold. +Exo 37:24 A talent of the best gold was used for the making of it and its vessels. +Exo 37:25 And he made the altar for the burning of spices, using the same hard wood; it was square, a cubit long and a cubit wide and two cubits high; the horns made of the same. +Exo 37:26 The top and the sides and the horns were all plated with the best gold; and he put an edge of gold all round it. +Exo 37:27 And he made two gold rings, placing them on the two opposite sides under the edge, to take the rods for lifting it. +Exo 37:28 The rods he made of the same hard wood, plating them with gold. +Exo 37:29 And he made the holy oil and the perfume of sweet spices for burning, after the art of the perfume-maker. +Exo 38:1 The altar of burned offerings he made of hard wood; a square altar, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, +Exo 38:2 And he put horns at its four angles made of the same, plating it all with brass; +Exo 38:3 And brass was used for all the vessels of the altar, the baskets and the spades, the basins and the meat-hooks and the fire-trays; all the vessels he made of brass +Exo 38:4 And he made a network of brass for the altar, under the frame round it, stretching half-way up; +Exo 38:5 And four rings for the four angles of this network, to take the rods. +Exo 38:6 The rods he made of hard wood plated with brass. +Exo 38:7 He put the rods through the rings at the opposite sides of the altar for lifting it; he made the altar hollow, boarded in with wood. +Exo 38:8 And he made the washing-vessel of brass on a brass base, using the polished brass looking-glasses given by the women who did work at the doors of the Tent of meeting. +Exo 38:9 To make the open space, he put hangings on the south side, of the best linen, a hundred cubits long: +Exo 38:10 Their twenty pillars and their twenty bases were brass; and the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. +Exo 38:11 And for the north side. hangings a hundred cubits long, on twenty brass pillars in brass bases, with silver hooks and bands. +Exo 38:12 And on the west side, hangings fifty cubits long, on ten pillars in ten bases, with silver bands. +Exo 38:13 And on the east side, the open space was fifty cubits long. +Exo 38:14 The hangings on one side of the doorway were fifteen cubits long, on three pillars with their three bases; +Exo 38:15 And the same on the other side of the doorway; on this side and on that the hangings were fifteen cubits long, on three pillars with their three bases. +Exo 38:16 All the hangings were of the best linen. +Exo 38:17 And the bases of the pillars were of brass; their hooks and the bands round the tops of them were of silver; all the pillars were ringed with silver. +Exo 38:18 And the curtain for the doorway of the open space was of the best linen, with designs of blue and purple and red in needlework; it was twenty cubits long and five cubits high, to go with the hangings round the sides. +Exo 38:19 There were four pillars with their bases, all of brass, the hooks being of silver, and their tops and their bands being covered with silver. +Exo 38:20 All the nails used for the House and the open space round it were of brass. +Exo 38:21 This is the price of the making of the House, even the House of witness, as it was valued by the word of Moses, for the work of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. +Exo 38:22 Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything as the Lord had given orders to Moses. +Exo 38:23 And with him was Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; a designer and a trained workman, expert in needlework of blue and purple and red and the best linen. +Exo 38:24 The gold used for all the different work done for the holy place, the gold which was given, was twenty-nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels in weight, by the scale of the holy place. +Exo 38:25 And the silver given by those who were numbered of the people was a hundred talents, and a thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five shekels in weight, by the scale of the holy place. +Exo 38:26 A beka, that is, half a shekel by the holy scale, for everyone who was numbered; there were six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty men of twenty years old and over. +Exo 38:27 Of this silver, a hundred talents was used for making the bases of the pillars of the holy place and of the veil; a talent for every base. +Exo 38:28 And a thousand, seven hundred and seventy-five shekels of silver was used to make the hooks for the pillars, and for plating the tops of the pillars and for making their bands. +Exo 38:29 The brass which was given was seventy talents, two thousand four hundred shekels; +Exo 38:30 From it he made the bases of the doorway of the Tent of meeting and the brass altar and the network for it and all the vessels for the altar, +Exo 38:31 And the bases for the open space all round and for its doorway, and all the nails for the House and for the open space. +Exo 39:1 And from the needlework of blue and purple and red they made the robes used for the work of the holy place, and the holy robes for Aaron, as the Lord had given orders to Moses. +Exo 39:2 The ephod he made of gold and blue and purple and red and the best linen; +Exo 39:3 Hammering the gold into thin plates and cutting it into wires to be worked into the blue and the purple and the red and the linen by the designer. +Exo 39:4 And they made two bands for joining its edges together at the top of the arms. +Exo 39:5 And the beautifully worked band which went on it was of the same design and the same material, worked in gold and blue and purple and red and twisted linen-work, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Exo 39:6 Then they made the beryl stones, fixed in twisted frames of gold and cut like the cutting of a stamp, with the names of the children of Israel. +Exo 39:7 These he put on the ephod, over the arm-holes, to be stones of memory for the children of Israel, as the Lord had said to Moses. +Exo 39:8 The priest's bag was designed like the ephod, of the best linen worked with gold and blue and purple and red. +Exo 39:9 It was square and folded in two, as long and as wide as the stretch of a man's hand; +Exo 39:10 And on it they put four lines of stones: in the first line was a carnelian, a chrysolite, and an emerald; +Exo 39:11 In the second, a ruby, a sapphire, and an onyx; +Exo 39:12 In the third, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; +Exo 39:13 In the fourth, a topaz, a beryl, and a jasper; they were fixed in twisted frames of gold. +Exo 39:14 There were twelve stones for the twelve tribes of Israel; on every one the name of one of the tribes of Israel was cut, like the cutting of a stamp. +Exo 39:15 And on the bag they put gold chains, twisted like cords. +Exo 39:16 And they made two gold frames and two gold rings, the rings being fixed to the ends of the priest's bag; +Exo 39:17 And they put the two twisted chains on the two rings at the ends of the priest's bag; +Exo 39:18 And the other two ends of the chains were joined to the two frames and fixed to the front of the ephod over the arm-holes. +Exo 39:19 And they made two rings of gold and put them on the two lower ends of the bag, on the inner side nearest to the ephod. +Exo 39:20 And two other gold rings were put on the front of the ephod, over the arm-holes, at the join, and over the worked band. +Exo 39:21 And the rings on the bag were fixed to the rings of the ephod by a blue cord, keeping it in place over the band, so that the bag might not get loose, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Exo 39:22 The robe which went with the ephod was made all of blue; +Exo 39:23 With a hole at the top in the middle, like the hole in the coat of a fighting-man, edged with a band to make it strong. +Exo 39:24 The skirts of the robe were worked all round with fruits in blue and purple and red made of twisted linen. +Exo 39:25 And between the fruits all round the skirt they put gold bells, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Exo 39:26 All round the skirt of the robe were bells and fruits in turn. +Exo 39:27 The coats for Aaron and his sons they made of the best linen; +Exo 39:28 And the twisted head-dress for Aaron, and beautiful head-dresses of linen, and linen trousers, +Exo 39:29 And a linen band worked with a design of blue and purple and red, as the Lord had said to Moses. +Exo 39:30 The plate for the holy crown was made of the best gold, and on it were cut these words, HOLY TO THE LORD. +Exo 39:31 It was fixed to the head-dress by a blue cord, as the Lord had given orders to Moses. +Exo 39:32 So all the work on the House of the Tent of meeting was done; as the Lord had given orders to Moses, so the children of Israel did it. +Exo 39:33 Then they took the House to Moses, the tent with all the things for it; its hooks, its boards, its rods, its pillars, and its bases; +Exo 39:34 The outer cover of sheepskins coloured red, and the cover of leather, and the veil for the doorway; +Exo 39:35 The ark of the law, with its rods and its cover; +Exo 39:36 The table, with all its vessels and the holy bread; +Exo 39:37 The support for the lights, with the vessels for the lights to be put in their places on it, and all its vessels, and the oil for the lights; +Exo 39:38 And the gold altar, and the holy oil, and the sweet perfume for burning, and the curtain for the doorway of the tent; +Exo 39:39 And the brass altar, with its network of brass, and its rods and all its vessels, and the washing-vessel and its base; +Exo 39:40 The hangings for the open space, with the pillars and their bases, and the curtain for the doorway, and the cords and nails, and all the instruments necessary for the work of the House of the Tent of meeting; +Exo 39:41 The robes for use in the holy place, and the holy robes for Aaron and his sons when acting as priests. +Exo 39:42 The children of Israel did everything as the Lord had given orders to Moses. +Exo 39:43 Then Moses, when he saw all their work and saw that they had done everything as the Lord had said, gave them his blessing. +Exo 40:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Exo 40:2 On the first day of the first month you are to put up the House of the Tent of meeting. +Exo 40:3 And inside it put the ark of the law, hanging the veil before it. +Exo 40:4 And put the table inside, placing all the things on it in order; and put in the support for the lights, and let its lights be burning. +Exo 40:5 And put the gold altar for burning perfumes in front of the ark of the law, hanging the curtain over the doorway of the House. +Exo 40:6 And put the altar of burned offerings before the doorway of the House of the Tent of meeting. +Exo 40:7 And let the washing-vessel, with water in it, be put between the Tent of meeting and the altar. +Exo 40:8 And put up the hangings forming the open space all round it, with the curtain over its doorway. +Exo 40:9 And take the holy oil and put it on the House and everything in it, and make it and everything in it holy: +Exo 40:10 And put oil on the altar of burned offering, and make it and all its vessels holy; this altar is to be most holy. +Exo 40:11 And put oil on the washing-vessel and its base, and make them holy. +Exo 40:12 Then let Aaron and his sons come to the door of the Tent of meeting; and after washing them with water, +Exo 40:13 You are to put on Aaron the holy robes; and you are to put oil on him, and make him holy, so that he may be my priest. +Exo 40:14 And take his sons with him and put coats on them; +Exo 40:15 And put oil on them as you did on their father, so that they may be my priests: the putting on of oil will make them priests for ever, from generation to generation. +Exo 40:16 And Moses did this; as the Lord gave him orders, so he did. +Exo 40:17 So on the first day of the first month in the second year the House was put up. +Exo 40:18 Moses put up the House; placing its bases in position and lifting up its uprights, putting in the rods and planting the pillars in their places; +Exo 40:19 Stretching the outer tent over it, and covering it, as the Lord had given him orders. +Exo 40:20 And he took the law and put it inside the ark, and put the rods at its side and the cover over it; +Exo 40:21 And he took the ark into the House, hanging up the veil before it as the Lord had given him orders. +Exo 40:22 And he put the table in the Tent of meeting, on the north side outside the veil. +Exo 40:23 And he put the bread on it in order before the Lord, as the Lord had said. +Exo 40:24 The support for the lights he put in the Tent of meeting, opposite the table, on the south side: +Exo 40:25 Lighting the lights before the Lord, as the Lord had given him orders. +Exo 40:26 And he put the gold altar in the Tent of meeting, in front of the veil: +Exo 40:27 Burning sweet perfumes on it, as the Lord had given him orders. +Exo 40:28 And he put up the curtain at the doorway of the House. +Exo 40:29 And at the door of the House of the Tent of meeting, he put the altar of burned offerings, offering on it the burned offering and the meal offering, as the Lord had given him orders. +Exo 40:30 And between the altar and the Tent of meeting he put the vessel with water in it for washing. +Exo 40:31 In it the hands and feet of Moses and Aaron and his sons were washed, +Exo 40:32 Whenever they went into the Tent of meeting, and when they came near the altar, as the Lord had given orders to Moses. +Exo 40:33 And he put up the hangings forming the open space round the House and the altar, and put the curtain over the doorway. So Moses made the work complete. +Exo 40:34 Then the cloud came down covering the Tent of meeting, and the House was full of the glory of the Lord; +Exo 40:35 So that Moses was not able to go into the Tent of meeting, because the cloud was resting on it, and the House was full of the glory of the Lord. +Exo 40:36 And whenever the cloud was taken up from the House, the children of Israel went forward on their journey: +Exo 40:37 But while the cloud was there, they made no move till it was taken up. +Exo 40:38 For the cloud of the Lord was resting on the House by day, and at night there was fire in the cloud, before the eyes of all the people of Israel, and so it was through all their journeys. +Lev 1:1 And the voice of the Lord came to Moses out of the Tent of meeting, saying, +Lev 1:2 Give these orders to the children of Israel: When anyone of you makes an offering to the Lord, you are to take it from the cattle, from the herd or from the flock. +Lev 1:3 If the offering is a burned offering of the herd, let him give a male without a mark: he is to give it at the door of the Tent of meeting so that he may be pleasing to the Lord. +Lev 1:4 And he is to put his hand on the head of the burned offering and it will be taken for him, to take away his sin. +Lev 1:5 And the ox is to be put to death before the Lord: then Aaron's sons, the priests, are to take the blood and put some of it on and round the altar which is at the door of the Tent of meeting. +Lev 1:6 And the burned offering is to be skinned and cut up into its parts. +Lev 1:7 And Aaron's sons, the priests, are to put fire on the altar and put the wood in order on the fire: +Lev 1:8 And Aaron's sons, the priests, are to put the parts, the head and the fat, in order on the wood which is on the fire on the altar: +Lev 1:9 But its inside parts and its legs are to be washed with water, and it will all be burned on the altar by the priest for a burned offering, an offering made by fire, for a sweet smell to the Lord. +Lev 1:10 And if his offering is of the flock, a burned offering of sheep or goats, let him give a male without a mark. +Lev 1:11 And he is to put it to death on the north side of the altar before the Lord: and Aaron's sons, the priests, are to put some of the blood on and round the altar. +Lev 1:12 And the offering is to be cut into its parts, with its head and its fat; and the priest is to put them in order on the wood which is on the fire on the altar: +Lev 1:13 But the inside parts and the legs are to be washed with water; and the priest will make an offering of all of it, burning it on the altar: it is a burned offering, an offering made by fire, for a sweet smell to the Lord. +Lev 1:14 And if his offering to the Lord is a burned offering of birds, then he is to make his offering of doves or of young pigeons. +Lev 1:15 And the priest is to take it to the altar, and after its head has been twisted off, it is to be burned on the altar, and its blood drained out on the side of the altar: +Lev 1:16 And he is to take away its stomach, with its feathers, and put it down by the east side of the altar, where the burned waste is put: +Lev 1:17 And let it be broken open at the wings, but not cut in two; and let it be burned on the altar by the priest on the wood which is on the fire; it is a burned offering; an offering made by fire for a sweet smell to the Lord. +Lev 2:1 And when anyone makes a meal offering to the Lord, let his offering be of the best meal, with oil on it and perfume: +Lev 2:2 And let him take it to Aaron's sons, the priests; and having taken in his hand some of the meal and of the oil, with all the perfume, let him give it to the priest to be burned on the altar, as a sign, an offering made by fire, for a sweet smell to the Lord. +Lev 2:3 And the rest of the meal offering will be for Aaron and his sons; it is most holy among the Lord's fire offerings. +Lev 2:4 And when you give a meal offering cooked in the oven, let it be of unleavened cakes of the best meal mixed with oil, or thin unleavened cakes covered with oil. +Lev 2:5 And if you give a meal offering cooked on a flat plate, let it be of the best meal, unleavened and mixed with oil. +Lev 2:6 Let it be broken into bits, and put oil on it; it is a meal offering. +Lev 2:7 And if your offering is of meal cooked in fat over the fire, let it be made of the best meal mixed with oil. +Lev 2:8 And you are to give the meal offering made of these things to the Lord, and let the priest take it to the altar. +Lev 2:9 And he is to take from the meal offering a part, for a sign, burning it on the altar; an offering made by fire for a sweet smell to the Lord. +Lev 2:10 And the rest of the meal offering will be for Aaron and his sons; it is most holy among the Lord's fire offerings. +Lev 2:11 No meal offering which you give to the Lord is to be made with leaven; no leaven or honey is to be burned as an offering made by fire to the Lord. +Lev 2:12 You may give them as an offering of first-fruits to the Lord, but they are not to go up as a sweet smell on the altar. +Lev 2:13 And every meal offering is to be salted with salt; your meal offering is not to be without the salt of the agreement of your God: with all your offerings give salt. +Lev 2:14 And if you give a meal offering of first-fruits to the Lord, give, as your offering of first-fruits, new grain, made dry with fire, crushed new grain. +Lev 2:15 And put oil on it and perfume: it is a meal offering. +Lev 2:16 And part of the meal of the offering and part of the oil and all the perfume is to be burned for a sign by the priest: it is an offering made by fire to the Lord. +Lev 3:1 And if his offering is given for a peace-offering; if he gives of the herd, male or female, let him give it without any mark on it, before the Lord. +Lev 3:2 And he is to put his hand on the head of his offering and put it to death at the door of the Tent of meeting; and Aaron's sons, the priests, are to put some of the blood on and round the altar. +Lev 3:3 And he is to give of the peace-offering, as an offering made by fire to the Lord; the fat covering the inside parts and all the fat on the inside parts, +Lev 3:4 And the two kidneys, and the fat on them, which is by the top part of the legs, and the fat joining the liver and the kidneys, he is to take away; +Lev 3:5 That it may be burned by Aaron's sons on the altar, on the burned offering which is on the wood on the fire: it is an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord. +Lev 3:6 And if what he gives for a peace-offering to the Lord is of the flock, let him give a male or female, without any mark on it. +Lev 3:7 If his offering is a lamb, then let it be placed before the Lord: +Lev 3:8 And he is to put his hand on the head of his offering and put it to death before the Tent of meeting; and Aaron's sons are to put some of its blood on and round the altar. +Lev 3:9 And of the peace-offering, let him give an offering made by fire to the Lord; the fat of it, all the fat tail, he is to take away near the backbone; and the fat covering the inside parts and all the fat on the inside parts, +Lev 3:10 And the two kidneys, with the fat on them, which is by the top part of the legs, and the fat joining the liver and the kidneys, he is to take away; +Lev 3:11 That it may be burned by the priest on the altar; it is the food of the offering made by fire to the Lord. +Lev 3:12 And if his offering is a goat, then let it be placed before the Lord, +Lev 3:13 And let him put his hand on the head of it and put it to death before the Tent of meeting; and the sons of Aaron are to put some of its blood on and round the altar. +Lev 3:14 And of it let him make his offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord; the fat covering the inside parts and all the fat on the inside parts, +Lev 3:15 And the two kidneys, with the fat on them, which is by the top part of the legs, and the fat joining the liver and the kidneys, let him take away; +Lev 3:16 That it may be burned by the priest on the altar; it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet smell: all the fat is the Lord's. +Lev 3:17 Let it be an order for ever, through all your generations, in all your houses, that you are not to take fat or blood for food. +Lev 4:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 4:2 Say to the children of Israel: These are the offerings of anyone who does wrong through error, doing any of the things which by the Lord's order are not to be done: +Lev 4:3 If the chief priest by doing wrong becomes a cause of sin to the people, then let him give to the Lord for the sin which he has done, an ox, without any mark, for a sin-offering. +Lev 4:4 And he is to take the ox to the door of the Tent of meeting before the Lord; and put his hand on its head and put it to death before the Lord. +Lev 4:5 And the chief priest is to take some of its blood and take it to the Tent of meeting; +Lev 4:6 And the priest is to put his finger in the blood, shaking drops of it before the Lord seven times, in front of the veil of the holy place. +Lev 4:7 And the priest is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar on which perfume is burned before the Lord in the Tent of meeting, draining out all the rest of the blood of the ox at the base of the altar of burned offering which is at the door of the Tent of meeting. +Lev 4:8 And he is to take away all the fat of the ox of the sin-offering; the fat covering the inside parts and all the fat of the inside parts, +Lev 4:9 And the two kidneys, with the fat on them, which is by the top part of the legs, and the fat joining the liver and the kidneys, he is to take away, +Lev 4:10 As it is taken from the ox of the peace-offering; and it is to be burned by the priest on the altar of burned offerings. +Lev 4:11 And the skin of the ox and all its flesh, with its head and its legs and its inside parts and its waste, +Lev 4:12 All the ox, he is to take away outside the circle of the tents into a clean place where the burned waste is put, and there it is to be burned on wood with fire. +Lev 4:13 And if all the people of Israel do wrong, without anyone's knowledge; if they have done any of the things which by the Lord's order are not to be done, causing sin to come on them; +Lev 4:14 When the sin which they have done comes to light, then let all the people give an ox for a sin-offering, and take it before the Tent of meeting. +Lev 4:15 And let the chiefs of the people put their hands on its head before the Lord, and put the ox to death before the Lord. +Lev 4:16 And the priest is to take some of its blood to the Tent of meeting; +Lev 4:17 And put his finger in the blood, shaking drops of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil. +Lev 4:18 And he is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar which is before the Lord in the Tent of meeting; and all the rest of the blood is to be drained out at the base of the altar of burned offering at the door of the Tent of meeting. +Lev 4:19 And he is to take off all its fat, burning it on the altar. +Lev 4:20 Let him do with the ox as he did with the ox of the sin-offering; and the priest will take away their sin and they will have forgiveness. +Lev 4:21 Then let the ox be taken away outside the tent-circle, that it may be burned as the other ox was burned; it is the sin-offering for all the people. +Lev 4:22 If a ruler does wrong, and in error does any of the things which, by the order of the Lord his God, are not to be done, causing sin to come on him; +Lev 4:23 When the sin which he has done is made clear to him, let him give for his offering a goat, a male without any mark. +Lev 4:24 And he is to put his hand on the head of the goat and put it to death in the place where they put to death the burned offering before the Lord: it is a sin-offering. +Lev 4:25 And the priest is to take some of the blood of the offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burned offering, draining out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar of burned offering. +Lev 4:26 And all the fat of it is to be burned on the altar like the fat of the peace-offering; and the priest will take away his sin and he will have forgiveness. +Lev 4:27 And if any one of the common people does wrong in error, doing any of the things which the Lord has given orders are not to be done, causing sin to come on him; +Lev 4:28 When the sin which he has done is made clear to him, then he is to give for his offering a goat, a female without any mark, for the sin which he has done. +Lev 4:29 And he is to put his hand on the head of the sin-offering and put it to death in the place where they put to death the burned offering. +Lev 4:30 And the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burned offering, and all the rest of its blood is to be drained out at the base of the altar. +Lev 4:31 And let all its fat be taken away, as the fat is taken away from the peace-offerings, and let it be burned on the altar by the priest for a sweet smell to the Lord; and the priest will take away his sin and he will have forgiveness. +Lev 4:32 And if he gives a lamb as his sin-offering, let it be a female without any mark; +Lev 4:33 And he is to put his hand on the head of the offering and put it to death for a sin-offering in the place where they put to death the burned offering. +Lev 4:34 And the priest is to take some of the blood of the offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burned offering, and all the rest of the blood is to be drained out at the base of the altar; +Lev 4:35 And let him take away all its fat, as the fat is taken away from the lamb of the peace-offerings; and let it be burned by the priest on the altar among the offerings made by fire to the Lord: and the priest will take away his sin and he will have forgiveness. +Lev 5:1 And if anyone does wrong by saying nothing when he is put under oath as a witness of something he has seen or had knowledge of, then he will be responsible: +Lev 5:2 If anyone becomes unclean through touching unconsciously some unclean thing, such as the dead body of an unclean beast or of unclean cattle or of any unclean animal which goes flat on the earth, he will be responsible: +Lev 5:3 Or if he becomes unclean through touching unconsciously any unclean thing of man, whatever it may be, when it is made clear to him he will be responsible: +Lev 5:4 Or if anyone, without thought, takes an oath to do evil or to do good, whatever he says without thought, with an oath, having no knowledge of what he is doing; when it becomes clear to him, he will be responsible for any of these things. +Lev 5:5 And whoever is responsible for any such sin, let him make a statement openly of his wrongdoing; +Lev 5:6 And take to the Lord the offering for the wrong which he has done, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin-offering, and the priest will take away his sin. +Lev 5:7 And if he has not money enough for a lamb, then let him give, for his offering to the Lord, two doves or two young pigeons; one for a sin-offering and one for a burned offering. +Lev 5:8 And let him take them to the priest, who will first give the sin-offering, twisting off its head from its neck, but not cutting it in two; +Lev 5:9 And he is to put drops of the blood of the offering on the side of the altar, and the rest of the blood is to be drained out at the base of the altar; it is a sin-offering. +Lev 5:10 And the second is for a burned offering, in agreement with the law; and the priest will take away his sin and he will have forgiveness. +Lev 5:11 But if he has not enough money for two doves or two young pigeons, then let him give, for the sin he has done, the tenth part of an ephah of the best meal, for a sin-offering; let him put no oil on it, and no perfume, for it is a sin-offering. +Lev 5:12 And let him come to the priest with it, and the priest will take some of it in his hand, to be burned on the altar as a sign, among the offerings of the Lord made by fire: it is a sin-offering. +Lev 5:13 And the priest will take away his sin and he will have forgiveness: and the rest of the offering will be the priest's, in the same way as the meal offering. +Lev 5:14 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 5:15 If anyone is untrue, sinning in error in connection with the holy things of the Lord, let him take his offering to the Lord, a male sheep from the flock, without any mark, of the value fixed by you in silver by shekels, by the scale of the holy place. +Lev 5:16 And he is to make payment to the priest for what he has done wrong in relation to the holy thing, together with a fifth part of its value in addition; and the priest will take away his sin by the sheep of his offering, and he will have forgiveness. +Lev 5:17 And if anyone does wrong, and does any of the things which the Lord has given orders are not to be done, though he has no knowledge of it, still he is in the wrong and he is responsible. +Lev 5:18 Let him come to the priest with a sheep, a male without any mark out of the flock, of the value fixed by you, as an offering for his error; and the priest will take away the sin which he did in error, and he will have forgiveness. +Lev 5:19 It is an offering for his error: he is certainly responsible before the Lord. +Lev 6:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 6:2 If anyone does wrong, and is untrue to the Lord, acting falsely to his neighbour in connection with something put in his care, or something given for a debt, or has taken away anything by force, or has been cruel to his neighbour, +Lev 6:3 Or has taken a false oath about the loss of something which he has come across by chance; if a man has done any of these evil things, +Lev 6:4 Causing sin to come on him, then he will have to give back the thing he took by force or got by cruel acts, or the goods which were put in his care or the thing he came on by chance, +Lev 6:5 Or anything about which he took a false oath; he will have to give it all back, with the addition of a fifth of its value, to him whose property it is, when he has been judged to be in the wrong. +Lev 6:6 Then let him take to the Lord the offering for his wrongdoing; giving to the priest for his offering, a male sheep from the flock, without any mark, of the value fixed by you: +Lev 6:7 And the priest will take away his sin from before the Lord, and he will have forgiveness for whatever crime he has done +Lev 6:8 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 6:9 Give orders to Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law for the burned offering: the offering is to be on the fire-wood on the altar all night till the morning; and the fire of the altar is to be kept burning. +Lev 6:10 And the priest is to put on his linen robes and his linen trousers, and take up what is over of the offering after it has been burned on the altar, and put it by the side of the altar. +Lev 6:11 Then having taken off his linen robes and put on other clothing, he is to take it away into a clean place, outside the tent-circle. +Lev 6:12 The fire on the altar is to be kept burning; it is never to go out; every morning the priest is to put wood on it, placing the burned offering in order on it, and there the fat of the peace-offering is to be burned. +Lev 6:13 Let the fire be kept burning on the altar at all times; it is never to go out. +Lev 6:14 And this is the law for the meal offering: it is to be offered to the Lord before the altar by the sons of Aaron. +Lev 6:15 The priest is to take in his hand some of the meal of the meal offering and of the oil of it, and all the perfume on it, burning it on the altar as a sign, for a sweet smell to the Lord. +Lev 6:16 And whatever is over Aaron and his sons may have for their food, taking it without leaven in a holy place; in the open space of the Tent of meeting they may take a meal of it. +Lev 6:17 It is not to be cooked with leaven. I have given it to them as their part of the offerings made by fire to me; it is most holy, as are the sin-offerings and the offerings for error. +Lev 6:18 Every male among the children of Aaron may have it for food; it is their right for ever through all your generations, from the offerings made by fire to the Lord: anyone touching them will be holy. +Lev 6:19 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 6:20 This is the offering which Aaron and his sons are to make to the Lord on the day when he is made a priest: the tenth part of an ephah of the best meal for a meal offering for ever; half of it in the morning and half in the evening. +Lev 6:21 Let it be made with oil on a flat plate; when it is well mixed and cooked, let it be broken and taken in as a meal offering, for a sweet smell to the Lord. +Lev 6:22 And the same offering is to be given by that one of his sons who takes his place as priest; by an order for ever, all of it is to be burned before the Lord. +Lev 6:23 Every meal offering offered for the priest is to be completely burned: nothing of it is to be taken for food. +Lev 6:24 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 6:25 Say to Aaron and his sons, This is the law for the sin-offering: the sin-offering is to be put to death before the Lord in the same place as the burned offering; it is most holy. +Lev 6:26 The priest by whom it is offered for sin, is to take it for his food in a holy place, in the open space of the Tent of meeting. +Lev 6:27 Anyone touching the flesh of it will be holy: and if any of the blood is dropped on any clothing, the thing on which the blood has been dropped is to be washed in a holy place. +Lev 6:28 But the vessel of earth in which the flesh was cooked is to be broken; or if a brass vessel was used, it is to be rubbed clean and washed out with water. +Lev 6:29 Every male among the priests may take it for his food: it is most holy. +Lev 6:30 No sin-offering, the blood of which is taken into the Tent of meeting, to take away sin in the holy place, may be used for food: it is to be burned with fire. +Lev 7:1 And this is the law of the offering for wrongdoing: it is most holy. +Lev 7:2 They are to put to death the offering for wrongdoing in the same place as the burned offering; and the priest is to put the blood on and round the altar. +Lev 7:3 And all the fat of it, the fat tail and the fat covering the inside parts, is to be given as an offering. +Lev 7:4 And the two kidneys, and the fat on them, which is by the top of the legs, and the fat joining the liver and the kidneys, he is to take away: +Lev 7:5 They are to be burned by the priest on the altar for an offering made by fire to the Lord: it is an offering for wrongdoing. +Lev 7:6 Every male among the priests may have it as food in a holy place: it is most holy. +Lev 7:7 As is the sin-offering, so is the offering for wrongdoing; there is one law for them: the priest who makes the offering to take away sin, he is to have it. +Lev 7:8 And the priest offering any man's burned offering for him, may have the skin of the burned offering which is offered by him. +Lev 7:9 And every meal offering which is cooked in the oven and everything made in a cooking pot or on a flat plate, is for the priest by whom it is offered. +Lev 7:10 And every meal offering, mixed with oil or dry, is for all the sons of Aaron in equal measure. +Lev 7:11 And this is the law for the peace-offerings offered to the Lord. +Lev 7:12 If any man gives his offering as a praise-offering, then let him give with the offering, unleavened cakes mixed with oil and thin unleavened cakes covered with oil and cakes of the best meal well mixed with oil. +Lev 7:13 With his peace-offering let him give cakes of leavened bread, as a praise-offering. +Lev 7:14 And let him give one out of every offering to be lifted up before the Lord; that it may be for the priest who puts the blood of the peace-offering on the altar. +Lev 7:15 And the flesh of the praise-offering is to be taken as food on the day when it is offered; no part of it may be kept till the morning. +Lev 7:16 But if his offering is made because of an oath or given freely, it may be taken as food on the day when it is offered; and the rest may be used up on the day after: +Lev 7:17 But if any of the flesh of the offering is still unused on the third day, it is to be burned with fire. +Lev 7:18 And if any of the flesh of the peace-offering is taken as food on the third day, it will not be pleasing to God and will not be put to the account of him who gives it; it will be unclean and a cause of sin to him who takes it as food. +Lev 7:19 And flesh touched by any unclean thing may not be taken for food: it is to be burned with fire; and as for the flesh of the peace-offerings, everyone who is clean may take it as food: +Lev 7:20 But he who is unclean when he takes as food the flesh of the peace-offerings, which are the Lord's, will be cut off from his people. +Lev 7:21 And anyone who, after touching any unclean thing of man or an unclean beast or any unclean and disgusting thing, takes as food the flesh of the peace-offerings, which are the Lord's, will be cut off from his people. +Lev 7:22 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 7:23 Say to the children of Israel: You are not to take any fat, of ox or sheep or goat, for food. +Lev 7:24 And the fat of that which comes to a natural death, and the fat of that which is attacked by beasts, may be used for other purposes, but not in any way for food. +Lev 7:25 For anyone who takes as food the fat of any beast of which men make an offering by fire to the Lord, will be cut off from his people. +Lev 7:26 And you are not to take for food any blood, of bird or of beast, in any of your houses. +Lev 7:27 Whoever takes any blood for food will be cut off from his people. +Lev 7:28 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 7:29 Say to the children of Israel: He who makes a peace-offering to the Lord, is to give an offering to the Lord out of his peace-offering: +Lev 7:30 He himself is to take to the Lord the offering made by fire, even the fat with the breast, so that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the Lord. +Lev 7:31 And the fat is to be burned by the priest on the altar, but the breast is for Aaron and his sons. +Lev 7:32 And the right leg you are to give to the priest for an offering to be lifted up out of what is given for your peace-offerings. +Lev 7:33 That man, among the sons of Aaron, by whom the blood of the peace-offering and the fat are offered, is to have the right leg for his part. +Lev 7:34 For the breast which is waved and the right leg which is lifted up on high I have taken from the children of Israel, from their peace-offerings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as their right for ever from the children of Israel. +Lev 7:35 This is the holy part given to Aaron and to his sons, out of the offerings made to the Lord by fire, on the day when they were made priests before the Lord; +Lev 7:36 Which the Lord said the children of Israel were to give them, on the day when he made them his priests. It is their right for ever from generation to generation. +Lev 7:37 These are the laws for the burned offering, the meal offering, and the offering for wrongdoing; and for the making of priests, and for the giving of peace-offerings; +Lev 7:38 As they were given by the Lord to Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day when the Lord gave orders to the children of Israel to make their offerings to the Lord, in the waste land of Sinai. +Lev 8:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 8:2 Take Aaron, and his sons with him, and the robes and the holy oil and the ox of the sin-offering and the two male sheep and the basket of unleavened bread; +Lev 8:3 And let all the people come together at the door of the Tent of meeting. +Lev 8:4 And Moses did as the Lord said, and all the people came together at the door of the Tent of meeting. +Lev 8:5 And Moses said to the people, This is what the Lord has given orders to be done. +Lev 8:6 Then Moses took Aaron and his sons; and after washing them with water, +Lev 8:7 He put the coat on him, making it tight with its band, and then the robe, and over it the ephod, with its band of needlework to keep it in place. +Lev 8:8 And he put the priest's bag on him, and in the bag he put the Urim and Thummim. +Lev 8:9 And on his head he put the head-dress, and in front of the head-dress the plate of gold, the holy crown, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Lev 8:10 And Moses took the holy oil and put it on the House and on all the things in it, to make them holy. +Lev 8:11 Seven times he put oil on the altar and on all its vessels, and on the washing-basin and its base, to make them holy. +Lev 8:12 And some of the oil he put on Aaron's head, to make him holy. +Lev 8:13 Then he took Aaron's sons, clothing them with the coats, and putting the bands round them, and the head-dresses on their heads, as the Lord had given him orders. +Lev 8:14 And he took the ox of the sin-offering: and Aaron and his sons put their hands on the head of the ox, +Lev 8:15 And he put it to death; and Moses took the blood and put it on the horns of the altar and round it with his finger, and made the altar clean, draining out the blood at the base of the altar; so he made it holy, taking away what was unclean. +Lev 8:16 And he took all the fat on the inside parts, and the fat on the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, to be burned on the altar; +Lev 8:17 But the ox, with its skin and its flesh and its waste, was burned with fire outside the tent-circle, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Lev 8:18 And he put the male sheep of the burned offering before the Lord, and Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head, +Lev 8:19 And he put it to death; and Moses put some of the blood on and round the altar. +Lev 8:20 And when the sheep had been cut into parts, the head and the parts and the fat were burned by Moses. +Lev 8:21 And the inside parts and the legs were washed with water and all the sheep was burned by Moses on the altar; it was a burned offering for a sweet smell: it was an offering made by fire to the Lord, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Lev 8:22 And he put the other sheep before the Lord, the sheep with which they were made priests; and Aaron and his sons put their hands on the head of the sheep, +Lev 8:23 And he put it to death; and Moses took some of the blood and put it on the point of Aaron's right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot. +Lev 8:24 Then he took Aaron's sons, and Moses put some of the blood on the point of their right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet: and Moses put the blood on and round the altar. +Lev 8:25 And he took the fat, and the fat tail, and the fat on the inside parts, and the fat on the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and the right leg; +Lev 8:26 And out of the basket of unleavened bread which was before the Lord he took one unleavened cake, and one cake of bread with oil on it, and one thin cake, and put them on the fat and on the right leg: +Lev 8:27 And he put them all on the hands of Aaron and on the hands of his sons, waving them for a wave offering before the Lord. +Lev 8:28 And Moses took them from their hands, and they were burned on the altar on the burned offering, as a priest's offering for a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord. +Lev 8:29 And Moses took the breast, waving it for a wave offering before the Lord; it was Moses' part of the sheep of the priest's offering, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Lev 8:30 And Moses took some of the holy oil and of the blood which was on the altar and put it on Aaron and on his robes, and on his sons and on his sons' robes; and made Aaron holy, and his robes and his sons and his sons' robes with him. +Lev 8:31 And Moses said to Aaron and to his sons, The flesh is to be cooked in water at the door of the Tent of meeting, and there you are to take it as food, together with the bread in the basket, as I have given orders, saying, It is the food of Aaron and his sons. +Lev 8:32 And that which is over of the flesh and of the bread is to be burned with fire. +Lev 8:33 And you are not to go out from the door of the Tent of meeting for seven days, till the days for making you priest are ended; for this will be the work of seven days. +Lev 8:34 What has been done this day, has been ordered by the Lord to take away your sin. +Lev 8:35 And you are to keep watch for the Lord at the door of the Tent of meeting day and night for seven days, so that death may not come to you: for so he has given me orders. +Lev 8:36 And Aaron and his sons did all the things about which the Lord had given orders through Moses. +Lev 9:1 And on the eighth day Moses sent for Aaron and his sons and the responsible men of Israel; +Lev 9:2 And he said to Aaron, Take a young ox for a sin-offering and a male sheep for a burned offering, without a mark, and make an offering of them before the Lord. +Lev 9:3 And say to the children of Israel: Take a he-goat for a sin-offering, and a young ox and a lamb, in their first year, without any mark on them, for a burned offering; +Lev 9:4 And an ox and a male sheep for peace-offerings, to be put to death before the Lord; and a meal offering mixed with oil: for this day you are to see the Lord. +Lev 9:5 And they took the things ordered by Moses, before the Tent of meeting, and all the people came near, waiting before the Lord. +Lev 9:6 And Moses said, This is what the Lord has said you are to do; and you will see the glory of the Lord. +Lev 9:7 And Moses said to Aaron, Come near to the altar and make your sin-offering and your burned offering to take away your sin and the sin of the people, and make the people's offering to take away their sin; as the Lord has given orders. +Lev 9:8 So Aaron came near to the altar and put to death the ox for the sin-offering for himself; +Lev 9:9 And the sons of Aaron gave him the blood and he put his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar, draining out the blood at the base of the altar; +Lev 9:10 But the fat and the kidneys and the fat on the liver of the sin-offering were burned by him on the altar as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Lev 9:11 And the flesh and the skin were burned with fire outside the tent-circle; +Lev 9:12 And he put to death the burned offering; and Aaron's sons gave him the blood and he put some of it on and round the altar; +Lev 9:13 And they gave him the parts of the burned offering, in their order, and the head, to be burned on the altar. +Lev 9:14 And the inside parts and the legs, when they had been washed with water, were burned on the burned offering on the altar. +Lev 9:15 And he made an offering for the people and took the goat of the sin-offering for the people and put it to death, offering it for sin, in the same way as the first. +Lev 9:16 And he took the burned offering, offering it in the ordered way; +Lev 9:17 And he put the meal offering before the Lord, and taking some of it in his hand he had it burned on the altar, separately from the burned offering of the morning. +Lev 9:18 And he put to death the ox and the sheep, which were the peace-offerings for the people; and Aaron's sons gave him the blood and he put some of it on and round the altar; +Lev 9:19 And as for the fat of the ox and the fat tail of the sheep and the fat covering the inside parts and the kidneys and the fat on the liver; +Lev 9:20 They put the fat on the breasts, and the fat was burned on the altar. +Lev 9:21 And Aaron took the breasts and the right leg, waving them for a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses gave orders. +Lev 9:22 And Aaron, lifting up his hands to the people, gave them a blessing; and he came down from offering the sin-offering, and the burned offering, and the peace-offerings. +Lev 9:23 And Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of meeting, and came out and gave the people a blessing, and the glory of the Lord was seen by all the people. +Lev 9:24 And fire came out from before the Lord, burning up the offering on the altar and the fat: and when all the people saw it, they gave a loud cry, falling down on their faces. +Lev 10:1 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their vessels and put fire in them and perfume, burning strange fire before the Lord, which he had not given them orders to do. +Lev 10:2 And fire came out from before the Lord, burning them up and causing their destruction before the Lord. +Lev 10:3 Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what the Lord said, I will be holy in the eyes of all those who come near to me, and I will be honoured before all the people. And Aaron said nothing. +Lev 10:4 And Moses sent for Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel, the brother of Aaron's father, and said to them, Come near and take your brothers away from before the holy place, outside the tent-circle. +Lev 10:5 So they came and took them, in their coats, outside the tent-circle, as Moses had said. +Lev 10:6 And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons, Do not let your hair be loose, and give no signs of grief; so that death may not overtake you, and his wrath come on all the people; but let there be weeping among your brothers and all the house of Israel for this burning of the Lord's fire. +Lev 10:7 And do not go out from the door of the Tent of meeting, or death will come to you; for the holy oil of the Lord is on you. And they did as Moses said. +Lev 10:8 And the Lord said to Aaron: +Lev 10:9 Take no wine, or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the Tent of meeting, that it may not be the cause of death to you; this is an order for ever through all your generations. +Lev 10:10 And make a division between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean; +Lev 10:11 Teaching the children of Israel all the laws which the Lord has given them by the hand of Moses. +Lev 10:12 And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons who were still living, Take the rest of the meal offering from the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and take it for your food, without leaven, at the side of the altar, for it is most holy. +Lev 10:13 It is to be for your food in a holy place, because it is your right and your sons' right, from the offerings of the Lord made by fire: for so am I ordered. +Lev 10:14 And the breast which is waved and the leg which is lifted up on high, you are to take as your food in a clean place; you and your sons and your daughters with you: for they are given to you as your right and your sons' right, from the peace-offerings of the children of Israel. +Lev 10:15 Let them take the breast which is waved and the leg which is lifted up on high, with the fat of the burned offering, to be waved for a wave offering before the Lord; and this will be for you and for your sons with you, for a right for ever, as the Lord has given orders. +Lev 10:16 And Moses was looking for the goat of the sin-offering, but it was burned; and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, who were still living, saying, +Lev 10:17 Why did you not make a meal of the sin-offering in the holy place? For it is most holy and he has given it to you, so that the sin of the people may be put on it, to take away their sin before the Lord. +Lev 10:18 See, its blood was not taken into the holy place: certainly it was right for you to have taken it as food in the holy place, as I gave orders. +Lev 10:19 And Aaron said to Moses, You have seen that today they have made their sin-offering and their burned offering before the Lord, and such things as these have come on me. If I had taken the sin-offering as food today, would it have been pleasing to the Lord? +Lev 10:20 And after hearing this, Moses was no longer angry. +Lev 11:1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, +Lev 11:2 Say to the children of Israel: These are the living things which you may have for food among all the beasts on the earth. +Lev 11:3 You may have as food any beast which has a division in the horn of its foot, and whose food comes back into its mouth to be crushed again. +Lev 11:4 But, at the same time, of those beasts, you may not take for food the camel, because its food comes back but the horn of its foot is not parted in two; it is unclean to you. +Lev 11:5 And the rock-badger, for the same reason, is unclean to you. +Lev 11:6 And the hare, because the horn of its foot is not parted in two, is unclean to you. +Lev 11:7 And the pig is unclean to you, because though the horn of its foot is parted, its food does not come back. +Lev 11:8 Their flesh may not be used for food, and their dead bodies may not even be touched; they are unclean to you. +Lev 11:9 These you may have for food of all things living in the water: anything living in the water, in the seas or rivers, which has special parts for swimming and skin formed of thin plates, may be used for food. +Lev 11:10 All other things living and moving in the water, in the sea or in the rivers, are a disgusting thing to you; +Lev 11:11 They may not be used for food, and their dead bodies are disgusting to you. +Lev 11:12 Anything in the water which has no special parts for swimming and no thin plates on its skin is disgusting to you. +Lev 11:13 And among birds these are to be disgusting to you, and not to be used for food: the eagle and the gier-eagle and the ospray; +Lev 11:14 And the kite and the falcon, and birds of that sort; +Lev 11:15 Every raven, and birds of that sort; +Lev 11:16 And the ostrich and the night-hawk and the sea-hawk, and birds of that sort; +Lev 11:17 And the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl; +Lev 11:18 And the water-hen and the pelican and the vulture; +Lev 11:19 The stork and the heron, and birds of that sort, and the hoopoe and the bat. +Lev 11:20 Every winged four-footed thing which goes on the earth is disgusting to you; +Lev 11:21 But of the winged four-footed things, those which have long legs for jumping on the earth you may have for food; +Lev 11:22 Such as all the different sorts of locust. +Lev 11:23 But all other winged four-footed things which go on the earth are disgusting to you. +Lev 11:24 By these you will be made unclean; anyone touching their dead bodies will be unclean till evening: +Lev 11:25 Whoever takes away the dead body of one of them is to have his clothing washed, and will be unclean till evening. +Lev 11:26 Every beast, in the horn of whose foot there is not a complete division, and whose food does not come back, is unclean to you: anyone touching one of these will be unclean. +Lev 11:27 Any four-footed beast which goes on the ball of its foot, is unclean to you: anyone touching the dead body of one of these will be unclean till evening. +Lev 11:28 Anyone who takes away the dead body of one of these is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening. +Lev 11:29 And these are unclean to you among things which go low down on the earth; the weasel and the mouse and the great lizard, and animals of that sort; +Lev 11:30 And the ferret and the land crocodile and the lizard and the sand-lizard and the chameleon. +Lev 11:31 All these are unclean to you: anyone touching them when they are dead will be unclean till evening. +Lev 11:32 The dead body of any of these, falling on anything, will make that thing unclean; if it is any vessel of wood, or clothing, or skin, or bag, whatever it is, if it is used for any purpose, it will have to be put into water, and will be unclean till evening; after that it will be clean. +Lev 11:33 And if one of them gets into any vessel of earth, whatever is in the vessel will be unclean and the vessel will have to be broken. +Lev 11:34 Any food in it, and anything on which water from it comes, will be unclean: any drink taken from such a vessel will be unclean. +Lev 11:35 Any part of the dead body of one of these, falling on anything, will make it unclean; if it is an oven or a cooking-pot it will have to be broken: they are unclean and will be unclean to you. +Lev 11:36 But at the same time a fountain or a place where water is stored for use will be clean; but anyone touching their dead bodies will be unclean. +Lev 11:37 If any part of the dead body of one of these gets on to any seed for planting, it is clean; +Lev 11:38 But if water is put on the seed, and any part of the dead body gets on to it, it will be unclean to you. +Lev 11:39 And if any beast which may be used for food comes to a natural death, anyone touching its dead body will be unclean till evening. +Lev 11:40 And he who makes use of any part of its body for food is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening; and anyone taking away its body is to have his clothing washed and be unclean till evening. +Lev 11:41 Everything which goes flat on its body on the earth is disgusting, and is not to be used for food. +Lev 11:42 Whatever goes on its stomach or on four feet or has a great number of feet, even all those going flat on the earth, may not be used for food, for they are disgusting. +Lev 11:43 You are not to make yourselves disgusting with anything which goes about flat on the earth; you may not make yourselves unclean with them, in such a way that you are not holy to me. +Lev 11:44 For I am the Lord your God: for this reason, make and keep yourselves holy, for I am holy; you are not to make yourselves unclean with any sort of thing which goes about flat on the earth. +Lev 11:45 For I am the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; so be you holy, for I am holy. +Lev 11:46 This is the law about beasts and birds and every living thing moving in the waters, and every living thing which goes flat on the earth: +Lev 11:47 Marking out the unclean from the clean, and the living thing which may be used for food from that which may not. +Lev 12:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 12:2 Say to the children of Israel, If a woman is with child and gives birth to a male child, she will be unclean for seven days, as when she is unwell. +Lev 12:3 And on the eighth day let him be given circumcision. +Lev 12:4 And she will be unclean for thirty-three days till the flow of her blood is stopped; no holy thing may be touched by her, and she may not come into the holy place, till the days for making her clean are ended. +Lev 12:5 But if she gives birth to a female child, then she will be unclean for two weeks, as when she is unwell; and she will not be completely clean for sixty-six days. +Lev 12:6 And when the days are ended for making her clean for a son or a daughter, let her take to the priest at the door of the Tent of meeting, a lamb of the first year for a burned offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin-offering: +Lev 12:7 And the priest is to make an offering of it before the Lord and take away her sin, and she will be made clean from the flow of her blood. This is the law for a woman who gives birth to a male or a female. +Lev 12:8 And if she has not money enough for a lamb, then let her take two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burned offering and the other for a sin-offering, and the priest will take away her sin and she will be clean, +Lev 13:1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, +Lev 13:2 If a man has on his skin a growth or a mark or a white place, and it becomes the disease of a leper, let him be taken to Aaron the priest, or to one of the priests, his sons; +Lev 13:3 And if, when the priest sees the mark on his skin, the hair on the place is turned white and the mark seems to go deeper than the skin, it is the mark of a leper: and the priest, after looking at him, will say that he is unclean. +Lev 13:4 But if the mark on his skin is white, and does not seem to go deeper than the skin, and the hair on it is not turned white, then the priest will keep him shut up for seven days; +Lev 13:5 And the priest is to see him on the seventh day; and if, in his opinion, the place on his skin has not become worse and is not increased in size, then the priest will keep him shut up for seven days more: +Lev 13:6 And the priest is to see him again on the seventh day; and if the mark is less bright and is not increased on his skin, then let the priest say that he is clean: it is only a skin-mark, and after his clothing has been washed he will be clean. +Lev 13:7 But if the size of the mark on his skin is increased after he has been seen by the priest, let him go to the priest again: +Lev 13:8 And if, after looking at him, he sees that the mark is increased in his skin, let the priest say that he is unclean; he is a leper. +Lev 13:9 When the disease of a leper is seen on a man, let him be taken to the priest; +Lev 13:10 And if the priest sees that there is a white growth on the skin, and the hair is turned white, and there is diseased flesh in the growth, +Lev 13:11 It is an old disease in the skin of his flesh, and the priest will say that he is unclean; he will not have to be shut up, for he is clearly unclean. +Lev 13:12 And if the disease comes out all over his skin, from his head to his feet, as far as the priest is able to see, +Lev 13:13 And if the priest sees that all his flesh is covered with the leper's disease, the priest will say that he is clean: it is all turned white, he is clean. +Lev 13:14 But whenever diseased flesh is seen on him, he will be unclean. +Lev 13:15 And when the priest sees the diseased flesh he will say that he is unclean; the diseased flesh is unclean, he is a leper. +Lev 13:16 Or if the diseased flesh is turned again and changed to white then he is to come to the priest, +Lev 13:17 And the priest will see him: and if the place is turned white, then the priest will say that he is free from the disease. +Lev 13:18 And if a bad place has come out on the skin and is well again, +Lev 13:19 And on the same place there is a white growth of a bright mark, red and white, then let the priest see it; +Lev 13:20 And after looking at it, if it seems to go deeper than the skin, and the hair on it is turned white, then the priest will say that the man is unclean: it is the leper's disease, it has come out in the bad place. +Lev 13:21 But if, after looking at it, he sees that there are no white hairs on it, and it is not deeper than the skin, and it is not very bright, then let the priest keep him shut up for seven days: +Lev 13:22 And if it is increasing on the skin, the priest will say that he is unclean: it is a disease. +Lev 13:23 But if the bright mark keeps in the same place and gets no greater, it is the mark of the old wound, and the priest will say that he is clean. +Lev 13:24 Or if there is a burn on the skin of the flesh, and if the diseased flesh in the burn becomes a bright place, red and white or white, +Lev 13:25 The priest is to see it: and if the hair on the bright place is turned white and it seems to go deeper than the skin, he is a leper: it has come out in the burn, and the priest will say that he is unclean: it is the leper's disease. +Lev 13:26 But if, after looking at it, the priest sees that there is no white hair on the bright place, and it is not deeper than the skin, and is not very bright, then let the priest keep him shut up for seven days: +Lev 13:27 And the priest is to see him again on the seventh day; if it is increased in the skin, then the priest will say that he is unclean: it is the leper's disease. +Lev 13:28 And if the bright place keeps the same size and gets no greater on the skin, but is less bright, it is the effect of the burn, and the priest will say that he is clean: it is the mark of the burn. +Lev 13:29 And when a man or a woman has a disease on the head, or in the hair of the chin, +Lev 13:30 Then the priest is to see the diseased place: and if it seems to go deeper than the skin, and if there is thin yellow hair in it, then the priest will say that he is unclean: he has the mark of the leper's disease on his head or in the hair of his chin. +Lev 13:31 And after looking at the diseased place, if it does not seem to go deeper than the skin, and there is no black hair in it, then the priest will have him shut up for seven days: +Lev 13:32 And on the seventh day the priest will see the place: and if it is not increased, and there is no yellow hair in it, and it does not seem to go deeper than the skin, +Lev 13:33 Then his hair is to be cut off, but not on the diseased place, and he is to be shut up for seven days more: +Lev 13:34 And on the seventh day the priest will see the place: and if it is not increased, and does not seem to go deeper than the skin, the priest will say that he is clean: and after his clothing has been washed he will be clean. +Lev 13:35 But if the disease in his skin becomes worse after he has been made clean, +Lev 13:36 Then the priest is to see him: and if the mark is increased, the priest, without looking for the yellow hair, will say that he is unclean. +Lev 13:37 But if, in his opinion, the growth is stopped, and black hair has come up on it, the disease has gone; he is clean and the priest will say that he is clean. +Lev 13:38 And if a man or a woman has bright marks on the skin of their flesh, that is, bright white marks, +Lev 13:39 Then the priest is to see them: and if the white marks on their skin are not very bright, it is a skin disease which has come out on the skin; he is clean. +Lev 13:40 And if a man's hair has come out and he has no hair, still he is clean. +Lev 13:41 And if the hair has gone from the front part of his head, so that he has no hair there, still he is clean. +Lev 13:42 But if, on his head or on his brow, where he has no hair, there is a red and white place, it is the disease of the leper coming out on his head or on his brow. +Lev 13:43 Then if the priest sees that the growth of the disease has become red and white on his head or on his brow where there is no hair, like the mark in the skin of a leper; +Lev 13:44 He is a leper and unclean; the priest is to say that he is most certainly unclean: the disease is in his head. +Lev 13:45 And the leper who has the disease on him is to go about with signs of grief, with his hair loose and his mouth covered, crying, Unclean, unclean. +Lev 13:46 While the disease is on him, he will be unclean. He is unclean: let him keep by himself, living outside the tent-circle. +Lev 13:47 And any clothing of wool or of linen in which is the mark of the disease; +Lev 13:48 If it is in the threads of the linen or of the wool, or in leather, or in anything made of skin; +Lev 13:49 If there are red or green marks on the clothing, or on the leather, or in the threads of the cloth, or in anything made of skin, it is the leper's disease: let the priest see it. +Lev 13:50 And after it has been seen by the priest, the thing which is so marked is to be shut up for seven days: +Lev 13:51 And he is to see the mark on the seventh day; if the mark is increased in the clothing, or in the threads of the material, or in the leather, whatever the leather is used for, it is the disease biting into it: it is unclean. +Lev 13:52 And the clothing, or the wool or linen material, or anything of leather in which is the disease, is to be burned: for the disease is biting into it; let it be burned in the fire. +Lev 13:53 And if the priest sees that the mark is not increased in the clothing or in any part of the material or in the leather, +Lev 13:54 Then the priest will give orders for the thing on which the mark is, to be washed, and to be shut up for seven days more: +Lev 13:55 And if, after the mark has been washed, the priest sees that the colour of it is not changed and it is not increased, it is to be burned in the fire: the disease is working in it, though the damage may be inside or outside. +Lev 13:56 And if the priest sees that the mark is less bright after the washing, then let him have it cut out of the clothing or the leather or from the threads of the material: +Lev 13:57 And if the mark is still seen in the clothing or in the threads of the material or in the leather, it is the disease coming out: the thing in which the disease is will have to be burned with fire. +Lev 13:58 And the material of the clothing, or anything of skin, which has been washed, if the mark has gone out of it, let it be washed a second time and it will be clean. +Lev 13:59 This is the law about the leper's disease in the thread of wool or linen material, in clothing or in anything of skin, saying how it is to be judged clean or unclean. +Lev 14:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 14:2 This is the law of the leper on the day when he is made clean: he is to be taken to the priest; +Lev 14:3 And the priest is to go outside the tent-circle; and if, after looking, the priest sees that the mark of the disease has gone from him, +Lev 14:4 Then the priest is to give orders to take, for him who is to be made clean, two living clean birds and some cedar wood and red thread and hyssop. +Lev 14:5 And the priest will give orders for one of the birds to be put to death in a vessel made of earth, over flowing water. +Lev 14:6 And he will take the living bird and the wood and the red thread and the hyssop and put them in the blood of the bird which was put to death over flowing water. +Lev 14:7 And shaking it seven times over the man who is to be made clean, he will say that he is clean and will let the living bird go free into the open country. +Lev 14:8 And he who is to be made clean will have his clothing washed and his hair cut and have a bath, and he will be clean. And after that he will come back to the tent-circle; but he is to keep outside his tent for seven days. +Lev 14:9 And on the seventh day he is to have all the hair cut off his head and his chin and over his eyes--all his hair is to be cut off--and he will have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and he will be clean. +Lev 14:10 And on the eighth day let him take two male lambs, without any marks on them, and one female lamb of the first year, without a mark, and three tenth parts of an ephah of the best meal, mixed with oil, and one log of oil. +Lev 14:11 And the priest who is making him clean will put the man who is being made clean, together with these things, before the door of the Tent of meeting. +Lev 14:12 And the priest is to take one of the male lambs and give it as an offering for wrongdoing, and the log of oil, waving them for a wave offering before the Lord; +Lev 14:13 And he is to put the male lamb to death in the place where they put to death the sin-offering and the burned offering, in the holy place; for as the sin-offering is the property of the priest, so is the offering for wrongdoing: it is most holy. +Lev 14:14 And let the priest take some of the blood of the offering for wrongdoing and put it on the point of the right ear of him who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot; +Lev 14:15 And take some of the oil and put it in the hollow of his left hand; +Lev 14:16 And let the priest put his right finger in the oil which is in his left hand, shaking it out with his finger seven times before the Lord; +Lev 14:17 And of the rest of the oil which is in his hand, the priest will put some on the point of the right ear of the man who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot, over the blood of the offering for wrongdoing; +Lev 14:18 And the rest of the oil in the priest's hand he will put on the head of him who is to be made clean; and so the priest will make him free from sin before the Lord. +Lev 14:19 And the priest will give the sin-offering, and take away the sin of him who is to be made clean from his unclean condition; and after that he will put the burned offering to death. +Lev 14:20 And the priest is to have the burned offering and the meal offering burned on the altar; and the priest will take away his sin and he will be clean. +Lev 14:21 And if he is poor and not able to get so much, then he may take one male lamb as an offering for wrongdoing, to be waved to take away his sin, and one tenth part of an ephah of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering, and a log of oil; +Lev 14:22 And two doves or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and one will be for a sin-offering and the other for a burned offering. +Lev 14:23 And on the eighth day he will take them to the priest, to the door of the Tent of meeting before the Lord, so that he may be made clean. +Lev 14:24 And the priest will take the lamb of the offering for wrongdoing and the oil, waving them for a wave offering before the Lord; +Lev 14:25 And he will put to death the lamb of the offering for wrongdoing and the priest will take some of the blood of the offering for wrongdoing and put it on the point of the right ear of him who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot; +Lev 14:26 And the priest will put out some of the oil in the hollow of his left hand, +Lev 14:27 Shaking out drops of oil with his right finger before the Lord seven times: +Lev 14:28 And the priest will put some of the oil which is in his hand on the point of the ear of the man who is to be made clean and on the thumb of his right hand and on the great toe of his right foot, on the place where the blood of the offering for wrongdoing was put; +Lev 14:29 And the rest of the oil which is in the priest's hand he will put on the head of him who is to be made clean, to take away his sin before the Lord. +Lev 14:30 And he will make an offering of one of the doves or the young pigeons, such as he is able to get; +Lev 14:31 And of these, he will give one for a sin-offering and one for a burned offering, with the meal offering; and the priest will take away the sin of him who is to be made clean before the Lord. +Lev 14:32 This is the law for the man who has the disease of the leper on him, and who is not able to get that which is necessary for making himself clean. +Lev 14:33 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, +Lev 14:34 When you have come into the land of Canaan which I will give you for your heritage, if I put the leper's disease on a house in the land of your heritage, +Lev 14:35 Then let the owner of the house come and say to the priest, It seems to me that there is a sort of leper's disease in the house. +Lev 14:36 And the priest will give orders for everything to be taken out of the house, before he goes in to see the disease, so that the things in the house may not become unclean; and then the priest is to go in to see the house; +Lev 14:37 And if he sees that the walls of the house are marked with hollows of green and red, and if it seems to go deeper than the face of the wall; +Lev 14:38 Then the priest will go out of the door of the house, and keep the house shut up for seven days: +Lev 14:39 And the priest is to come again on the seventh day and have a look and see if the marks on the walls of the house are increased in size; +Lev 14:40 Then the priest will give orders to them to take out the stones in which the disease is seen, and put them out into an unclean place outside the town: +Lev 14:41 And he will have the house rubbed all over inside, and the paste which is rubbed off will be put out into an unclean place outside the town: +Lev 14:42 And they will take other stones and put them in place of those stones, and he will take other paste and put it on the walls of the house. +Lev 14:43 And if the disease comes out again in the house after he has taken out the stones and after the walls have been rubbed and the new paste put on, +Lev 14:44 Then the priest will come and see it; and if the disease in the house is increased in size, it is the leper's disease working out in the house: it is unclean. +Lev 14:45 And the house will have to be pulled down, the stones of it and the wood and the paste; and everything is to be taken out to an unclean place outside the town. +Lev 14:46 And, in addition, anyone who goes into the house at any time, while it is shut up, will be unclean till evening. +Lev 14:47 And anyone who has been sleeping in the house will have to have his clothing washed; and anyone who takes food in that house will have to have his clothing washed. +Lev 14:48 And if the priest comes in, and sees that the disease is not increased after the new paste has been put on the house, then the priest will say that the house is clean, because the disease is gone. +Lev 14:49 And in order to make the house clean, let him take two birds and cedar-wood and red thread and hyssop; +Lev 14:50 And put one of the birds to death in a vessel of earth over flowing water; +Lev 14:51 And take the cedar-wood and the hyssop and the red thread and the living bird and put them in the blood of the dead bird and in the flowing water, shaking it over the house seven times. +Lev 14:52 And he will make the house clean with the blood of the bird and the flowing water and with the living bird and with the cedar-wood and the hyssop and the red thread. +Lev 14:53 But he will let the living bird go out of the town into the open country; so he will take away sin from the house and it will be clean. +Lev 14:54 This is the law for all signs of the leper's disease and for skin diseases; +Lev 14:55 And for signs of disease in clothing, or in a house; +Lev 14:56 And for a growth or a bad place or a bright mark on the skin; +Lev 14:57 To make clear when it is unclean and when it is clean: this is the law about the disease of the leper. +Lev 15:1 And the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron, +Lev 15:2 Say to the children of Israel: If a man has an unclean flow from his flesh, it will make him unclean. +Lev 15:3 If the flow goes on or if the part is stopped up, to keep back the flow, he is still unclean. +Lev 15:4 Every bed on which he has been resting will be unclean, and everything on which he has been seated will be unclean. +Lev 15:5 And anyone touching his bed is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:6 And he who has been seated on anything on which the unclean man has been seated is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:7 And anyone touching the flesh of the unclean man is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:8 And if liquid from the mouth of the unclean man comes on to him who is clean, then he is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:9 And any leather seat on a horse on which the unclean man has been seated will be unclean. +Lev 15:10 And anyone touching anything which was under him will be unclean till the evening; anyone taking up any of these things is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:11 And anyone on whom the unclean man puts his hands, without washing them in water, is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:12 And any vessel of earth which has been touched by the unclean man will have to be broken and any vessel of wood washed. +Lev 15:13 And when a man who has a flow from his body is made clean from it, he is to take seven days to make himself clean, washing his clothing and bathing his body in flowing water, and then he will be clean. +Lev 15:14 And on the eighth day he is to take two doves or two young pigeons and come before the Lord to the door of the Tent of meeting and give them to the priest: +Lev 15:15 And they are to be offered by the priest, one for a sin-offering and one for a burned offering, and the priest will take away his sin before the Lord on account of his flow. +Lev 15:16 And if a man's seed goes out from him, then all his body will have to be bathed in water and he will be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:17 And any clothing or skin on which the seed comes is to be washed with water and be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:18 And if a man has sex relations with a woman and his seed goes out from him, the two of them will have to be bathed in water and will be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:19 And if a woman has a flow of blood from her body, she will have to be kept separate for seven days, and anyone touching her will be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:20 And everything on which she has been resting, while she is kept separate, will be unclean, and everything on which she has been seated will be unclean. +Lev 15:21 And anyone touching her bed will have to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:22 And anyone touching anything on which she has been seated will have to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:23 Anyone touching anything on the bed or on the thing on which she has been seated, will be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:24 And if any man has sex relations with her so that her blood comes on him, he will be unclean for seven days and every bed on which he has been resting will be unclean. +Lev 15:25 And if a woman has a flow of blood for a long time, not at the time when she generally has it, or if the flow goes on longer than the normal time, she will be unclean while the flow of blood goes on, as she is at other normal times. +Lev 15:26 Every bed on which she has been resting will be unclean, as at the times when she normally has a flow of blood, and everything on which she has been seated will be unclean, in the same way. +Lev 15:27 And anyone touching these things will be unclean, and his clothing will have to be washed and his body bathed in water and he will be unclean till evening. +Lev 15:28 But when her flow of blood is stopped, after seven days she will be clean. +Lev 15:29 And on the eighth day let her get two doves or two young pigeons and take them to the priest to the door of the Tent of meeting, +Lev 15:30 To be offered by the priest, one for a sin-offering and one for a burned offering; and the priest will take away her sin before the Lord on account of her unclean condition. +Lev 15:31 In this way may the children of Israel be made free from all sorts of unclean conditions, so that death may not overtake them when they are unclean and when they make unclean my holy place which is among them. +Lev 15:32 This is the law for the man who has a flow from his body, or whose seed goes from him so that he is unclean; +Lev 15:33 And for her who has a flow of blood, and for any man or woman who has an unclean flow, and for him who has sex relations with a woman when she is unclean. +Lev 16:1 And the Lord said to Moses, after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they took in strange fire before the Lord and death overtook them; +Lev 16:2 The Lord said to Moses, Say to Aaron, your brother, that he may not come at all times into the holy place inside the veil, before the cover which is on the ark, for fear that death may overtake him; for I will be seen in the cloud on the cover of the ark. +Lev 16:3 Let Aaron come into the holy place in this way: with an ox for a sin-offering and a male sheep for a burned offering. +Lev 16:4 Let him put on the holy linen coat, and the linen trousers on his body, and the linen band round him, and the linen head-dress on his head; for this is holy clothing, and before he puts them on his body is to be washed with water. +Lev 16:5 And let him take from the children of Israel two he-goats for a sin-offering and one male sheep for a burned offering. +Lev 16:6 And Aaron is to give the ox of the sin-offering for himself, to make himself and his house free from sin. +Lev 16:7 And he is to take the two goats and put them before the Lord at the door of the Tent of meeting. +Lev 16:8 And Aaron will make selection from the two goats by the decision of the Lord, one goat for the Lord and one for Azazel. +Lev 16:9 And the goat which is marked out for the Lord, let Aaron give for a sin-offering. +Lev 16:10 But the goat for Azazel is to be placed living before the Lord, for the taking away of sin, that it may be sent away for Azazel into the waste land. +Lev 16:11 And Aaron is to give the ox of the sin-offering for himself and take away sin from himself and his house, and put to death the ox of the sin-offering which is for himself. +Lev 16:12 And he is to take a vessel full of burning coal from the altar before the Lord and in his hand some sweet perfume crushed small, and take it inside the veil; +Lev 16:13 And let him put the perfume on the fire before the Lord so that the ark may be covered with a cloud of the smoke of the perfume, in order that death may not overtake him. +Lev 16:14 And let him take some of the blood of the ox, shaking drops of it from his finger on the cover of the ark on the east side, and before it, seven times. +Lev 16:15 Then let him put to death the goat of the sin-offering for the people, and take its blood inside the veil and do with it as he did with the blood of the ox, shaking drops of it on and before the cover of the ark. +Lev 16:16 And let him make the holy place free from whatever is unclean among the children of Israel and from their wrongdoing in all their sins; and let him do the same for the Tent of meeting, which has its place among an unclean people. +Lev 16:17 And no man may be in the Tent of meeting from the time when Aaron goes in to take away sin in the holy place till he comes out, having made himself and his house and all the people of Israel free from sin. +Lev 16:18 And he is to go out to the altar which is before the Lord and make it free from sin; and he is to take some of the blood of the ox and the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar and round it; +Lev 16:19 Shaking drops of the blood from his finger on it seven times to make it holy and clean from whatever is unclean among the children of Israel. +Lev 16:20 And when he has done whatever is necessary to make the holy place and the Tent of meeting and the altar free from sin, let him put the living goat before the Lord; +Lev 16:21 And Aaron, placing his two hands on the head of the living goat, will make a public statement over him of all the evil doings of the children of Israel and all their wrongdoing, in all their sins; and he will put them on the head of the goat and send him away, in the care of a man who will be waiting there, into the waste land. +Lev 16:22 And the goat will take all their sins into a land cut off from men, and he will send the goat away into the waste land. +Lev 16:23 Then let Aaron come into the Tent of meeting and take off the linen clothing which he put on when he went into the holy place, and put them down there; +Lev 16:24 And after bathing his body in water in a holy place, he is to put on his clothing and come out and give his burned offering and the burned offering of the people, to take away his sin and the sin of the people. +Lev 16:25 And the fat of the sin-offering is to be burned by him on the altar. +Lev 16:26 And the man who takes away the goat for Azazel is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and then he may come back to the tent-circle. +Lev 16:27 And the ox of the sin-offering and the goat of the sin-offering, whose blood was taken in to make the holy place free from sin, are to be taken away outside the tent-circle and their skins and their flesh and their waste are to be burned with fire. +Lev 16:28 And the man by whom they are burned is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water, and then he may come back to the tent-circle. +Lev 16:29 And let this be an order to you for ever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day, you are to keep yourselves from pleasure and do no sort of work, those who are Israelites by birth and those from other lands who are living among you: +Lev 16:30 For on this day your sin will be taken away and you will be clean: you will be made free from all your sins before the Lord. +Lev 16:31 It is a special Sabbath for you, and you are to keep yourselves from pleasure; it is an order for ever. +Lev 16:32 And the man on whose head the holy oil has been put, and who has been marked out to be a priest in his father's place, will do what is necessary to take away sin, and will put on the linen clothing, even the holy robes: +Lev 16:33 And he will make the holy place and the Tent of meeting and the altar free from sin; he will take away sin from the priests and from all the people. +Lev 16:34 And let this be an order for ever for you, so that the sin of the children of Israel may be taken away once every year. And he did as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Lev 17:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 17:2 Say to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of Israel: This is the order which the Lord has given. +Lev 17:3 If any man of Israel puts to death an ox or a lamb or a goat, in or outside the tent-circle; +Lev 17:4 And has not taken it to the door of the Tent of meeting, to make an offering to the Lord, before the Lord's House, its blood will be on him, for he has taken life, and he will be cut off from among his people: +Lev 17:5 So that the children of Israel may take to the Lord, to the door of the Tent of meeting and to the priest, the offerings which they have put to death in the open country, and that they may make their peace-offerings to the Lord. +Lev 17:6 And the priest will put blood on the altar of the Lord at the door of the Tent of meeting, burning the fat for a sweet smell to the Lord. +Lev 17:7 And let them make no more offerings to evil spirits, after which they have gone, turning away from the Lord. Let this be a law to them for ever, through all their generations. +Lev 17:8 And say to them, If any man of Israel, or any other living among them, makes a burned offering or other offering, +Lev 17:9 And does not take it to the door of the Tent of meeting to make an offering to the Lord, that man will be cut off from among his people. +Lev 17:10 And if any man of Israel, or any other living among them, takes any sort of blood for food, my wrath will be turned against that man and he will be cut off from among his people. +Lev 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in its blood; and I have given it to you on the altar to take away your sin: for it is the blood which makes free from sin because of the life in it. +Lev 17:12 For this reason I have said to the children of Israel, No man among you, or any others living with you, may take blood as food. +Lev 17:13 And any man of Israel, or any other living among them, who gets with his bow any beast or bird used for food, is to see that its blood is covered with earth. +Lev 17:14 For the blood is the life of all flesh: and so I have said to the children of Israel, You may not take any sort of blood as food, and any man who does so will be cut of. +Lev 17:15 And anyone who takes as food anything which has come to a natural end, or anything which has been put to death by beasts, if he is one of you by birth, or of another nation, will have to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening, and then he will be clean. +Lev 17:16 But if his clothing is not washed and his body bathed, his sin will be on him. +Lev 18:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 18:2 Say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord your God. +Lev 18:3 You may not do those things which were done in the land of Egypt where you were living; and you may not do those things which are done in the land of Canaan where I am taking you, or be guided in your behaviour by their rules. +Lev 18:4 But you are to be guided by my decisions and keep my rules, and be guided by them: I am the Lord your God. +Lev 18:5 So keep my rules and my decisions, which, if a man does them, will be life to him: I am the Lord. +Lev 18:6 You may not have sex connection with anyone who is a near relation: I am the Lord. +Lev 18:7 You may not have sex relations with your father or your mother: she is your mother, you may not take her. +Lev 18:8 And you may not have sex relations with your father's wife: she is your father's. +Lev 18:9 You may not take your sister, the daughter of your father or of your mother, wherever her birth took place, among you or in another country. +Lev 18:10 You may not have sex relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter, for they are part of yourself; +Lev 18:11 Or your father's wife's daughter, the child of your father, for she is your sister. +Lev 18:12 You may not have sex connection with your father's sister, for she is your father's near relation. +Lev 18:13 You may not have sex connection with your mother's sister, for she is your mother's near relation. +Lev 18:14 You may not have sex relations with the wife of your father's brother, for she is of your family; +Lev 18:15 Or with your daughter-in-law, for she is your son's wife, and you may not take her. +Lev 18:16 You may not have sex relations with your brother's wife, for she is your brother's. +Lev 18:17 You may not take as wife a woman and her daughter, or her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter, for they are of one family: it is an act of shame. +Lev 18:18 And you may not take as wife a woman and at the same time her sister, to be in competition with her in her life-time. +Lev 18:19 And you may not go near a woman or have sex relations with her when she is unclean, at her regular time. +Lev 18:20 And you may not have sex relations with your neighbour's wife, making yourself unclean with her. +Lev 18:21 And you may not make any of your children go through the fire as an offering to Molech, and you may not put shame on the name of your God: I am the Lord. +Lev 18:22 You may not have sex relations with men, as you do with women: it is a disgusting thing. +Lev 18:23 And you may not have sex relations with a beast, making yourself unclean with it; and a woman may not give herself to a beast: it is an unnatural act. +Lev 18:24 Do not make yourself unclean in any of these ways; for so have those nations whom I am driving out from before you made themselves unclean: +Lev 18:25 And the land itself has become unclean; so that I have sent on it the reward of its wrongdoing, and the land itself puts out those who are living in it. +Lev 18:26 So then keep my rules and my decisions, and do not do any of these disgusting things, those of you who are Israelites by birth, or any others who are living with you: +Lev 18:27 (For all these disgusting things were done by the men of this country who were there before you, and the land has been made unclean by them;) +Lev 18:28 So that the land may not put you out from it, when you make it unclean, as it put out the nations which were there before you. +Lev 18:29 For all those who do any of these disgusting things will be cut off from among their people. +Lev 18:30 So then, keep my orders, so that you may not do any of these disgusting things which were done before you, or make yourselves unclean through them: I am the Lord your God. +Lev 19:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 19:2 Say to all the people of Israel, You are to be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. +Lev 19:3 Let every man give honour to his mother and to his father and keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. +Lev 19:4 Do not go after false gods, and do not make metal images of gods for yourselves: I am the Lord your God. +Lev 19:5 And when you give a peace offering to the Lord, do it in the way which is pleasing to the Lord. +Lev 19:6 Let it be used for food on the same day on which it is offered, or on the day after; and whatever is over on the third day is to be burned with fire. +Lev 19:7 If any of it is used for food on the third day, it is a disgusting thing and will not be pleasing to the Lord. +Lev 19:8 And as for anyone who takes it for food, his sin will be on him, for he has put shame on the holy thing of the Lord: he will be cut off from his people. +Lev 19:9 And when you get in the grain from your land, do not let all the grain be cut from the edges of the field, or take up what has been dropped on the earth after the getting in of the grain. +Lev 19:10 And do not take all the grapes from your vine-garden, or the fruit dropped on the earth; let the poor man, and the man from another country, have these: I am the Lord your God. +Lev 19:11 Do not take anyone's property or be false in act or word to another. +Lev 19:12 And do not take an oath in my name falsely, putting shame on the name of your God: I am the Lord. +Lev 19:13 Do not be cruel to your neighbour or take what is his; do not keep back a servant's payment from him all night till the morning. +Lev 19:14 Do not put a curse on those who have no hearing, or put a cause of falling in the way of the blind, but keep the fear of your God before you: I am the Lord. +Lev 19:15 Do no wrong in your judging: do not give thought to the position of the poor, or honour to the position of the great; but be a judge to your neighbour in righteousness. +Lev 19:16 Do not go about saying untrue things among your people, or take away the life of your neighbour by false witness: I am the Lord. +Lev 19:17 Let there be no hate in your heart for your brother; but you may make a protest to your neighbour, so that he may be stopped from doing evil. +Lev 19:18 Do not make attempts to get equal with one who has done you wrong, or keep hard feelings against the children of your people, but have love for your neighbour as for yourself: I am the Lord. +Lev 19:19 Keep my laws. Do not let your cattle have offspring by those of a different sort; do not put mixed seed into your field; do not put on a robe made of two sorts of cloth. +Lev 19:20 If any man has sex relations with a servant-woman who has given her word to be married to a man, and has not been made free for a price or in any other way, the thing will be looked into; but they will not be put to death because she was not a free woman. +Lev 19:21 Let him take his offering for wrongdoing to the Lord, to the door of the Tent of meeting; let him give a male sheep as an offering for wrongdoing. +Lev 19:22 And the priest will take away his sin before the Lord with the sheep which is offered for his wrongdoing, and he will have forgiveness for the sin which he has done. +Lev 19:23 And when you have come into the land, and have put in all sorts of fruit-trees, their fruit will be as if they had not had circumcision, and for three years their fruit may not be used for food. +Lev 19:24 And in the fourth year all the fruit will be holy as a praise-offering to the Lord. +Lev 19:25 But in the fifth year you may take the fruit and the increase of it for your food: I am the Lord your God. +Lev 19:26 Nothing may be used for food with its blood in it; you may not make use of strange arts, or go in search of signs and wonders. +Lev 19:27 The ends of the hair round your face and on your chin may not be cut off. +Lev 19:28 You may not make cuts in your flesh in respect for the dead, or have marks printed on your bodies: I am the Lord. +Lev 19:29 Do not make your daughter common by letting her become a loose woman, for fear that the land may become full of shame. +Lev 19:30 Keep my Sabbaths and have respect for my holy place: I am the Lord. +Lev 19:31 Do not go after those who make use of spirits, or wonder-workers; do not go in their ways or become unclean through them: I am the Lord your God. +Lev 19:32 Get up from your seats before the white-haired, and give honour to the old, and let the fear of your God be before you: I am the Lord. +Lev 19:33 And if a man from another country is living in your land with you, do not make life hard for him; +Lev 19:34 Let him be to you as one of your countrymen and have love for him as for yourself; for you were living in a strange land, in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. +Lev 19:35 Do not make false decisions in questions of yard-sticks and weights and measures. +Lev 19:36 Have true scales, true weights and measures for all things: I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt; +Lev 19:37 You are to keep all my rules and my decisions and do them: I am the Lord. +Lev 20:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 20:2 Again, say to the children of Israel, If any man of the children of Israel, or any other man living in Israel, gives his offspring to Molech, he is certainly to be put to death: he is to be stoned by the people of the land; +Lev 20:3 And my face will be turned against that man, and he will be cut off from his people; because he has given his offspring to Molech, making my holy place unclean, and making my holy name common. +Lev 20:4 And if the people of the land do not take note of that man when he gives his offspring to Molech, and do not put him to death, +Lev 20:5 Then my face will be turned against him and his family, and he and all those who do evil with him will be cut off from among their people. +Lev 20:6 And whoever goes after those who make use of spirits and wonder-workers, doing evil with them, against him will my face be turned, and he will be cut off from among his people. +Lev 20:7 So make and keep yourselves holy, for I am the Lord your God. +Lev 20:8 And keep my rules and do them: I am the Lord, who make you holy. +Lev 20:9 Every man cursing his father or his mother is certainly to be put to death; because of his curse on his father or his mother, his blood will be on him. +Lev 20:10 And if a man has sex relations with another man's wife, even the wife of his neighbour, he and she are certainly to be put to death. +Lev 20:11 And the man who has sex relations with his father's wife has put shame on his father: the two of them are to be put to death; their blood will be on them. +Lev 20:12 And if a man has sex relations with his son's wife, the two of them are to be put to death: it is unnatural; their blood will be on them. +Lev 20:13 And if a man has sex relations with a man, the two of them have done a disgusting thing: let them be put to death; their blood will be on them. +Lev 20:14 And if a man takes as wife a woman and her mother, it is an act of shame; let them be burned with fire, all three of them, so that there may be no shame among you. +Lev 20:15 And if a man has sex relations with a beast, let him be put to death, and let the beast be put to destruction. +Lev 20:16 And if a woman goes near a beast and has sex relations with it, you will put an end to the woman and the beast: their blood will be on them. +Lev 20:17 And if a man takes his sister, daughter of his father or his mother, and has sex relations with her and she with him, it is an act of shame: they are to be cut off before the children of their people; he has had sex relations with his sister, and his sin will be on him. +Lev 20:18 And if a man has sex relations with a woman at the time when she is unwell, he has seen her fountain and she has let the fountain of her blood be uncovered, and the two of them are to be cut off from among their people. +Lev 20:19 And you may not have sex connection with your mother's sister or your father's sister, for they are his near relations: their sin will be on them. +Lev 20:20 And if a man has sex relations with the wife of his father's brother, he has put shame on his father's brother: their sin will be on them; till the day of their death they will have no children. +Lev 20:21 And if a man takes his brother's wife, it is an unclean act; he has put shame on his brother; they will have no children. +Lev 20:22 So then, keep my rules and my decisions and do them, so that the land which I am giving you as your resting-place may not violently send you out again. +Lev 20:23 And do not keep the rules of the nations which I am driving out before you; for they did all these things, and for that reason my soul was turned against them. +Lev 20:24 But I have said to you, You will take their land and I will give it to you for your heritage, a land flowing with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God who have made you separate from all other peoples. +Lev 20:25 So then, make division between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the clean bird and the unclean: do not make yourselves disgusting by any beast or bird or anything which goes flat on the earth, which has been marked by me as unclean for you. +Lev 20:26 And you are to be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy and have made you separate from the nations, so that you may be my people. +Lev 20:27 Any man or woman who makes use of spirits, or who is a wonder-worker, is to be put to death: they are to be stoned with stones: their blood will be on them. +Lev 21:1 And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron, Let no man make himself unclean for the dead among his people; +Lev 21:2 But only for his near relations, for his mother or his father, his son or his daughter, and his brother; +Lev 21:3 And for his sister, a virgin, for she is his near relation and has had no husband, he may make himself unclean. +Lev 21:4 But let him, being a chief among his people, not make himself unclean in such a way as to put shame on himself. +Lev 21:5 They are not to have their hair cut off for the dead, or the hair on their chins cut short, or make cuts in their flesh. +Lev 21:6 Let them be holy to their God and not make the name of their God common; for the fire offerings of the Lord and the bread of their God are offered by them, and they are to be holy. +Lev 21:7 They may not take as wife a loose or common woman, or one who has been put away by her husband: for the priest is holy to his God. +Lev 21:8 And he is to be holy in your eyes, for by him the bread of your God is offered; he is to be holy in your eyes, for I the Lord, who make you holy, am holy. +Lev 21:9 And if the daughter of a priest makes herself common and by her loose behaviour puts shame on her father, let her be burned with fire. +Lev 21:10 And he who is the chief priest among his brothers, on whose head the holy oil has been put, who is marked out to put on the holy robes, may not let his hair go loose or have his clothing out of order as a sign of sorrow. +Lev 21:11 He may not go near any dead body or make himself unclean for his father or his mother; +Lev 21:12 He may not go out of the holy place or make the holy place of his God common; for the crown of the holy oil of his God is on him: I am the Lord. +Lev 21:13 And let him take as his wife one who has not had relations with a man. +Lev 21:14 A widow, or one whose husband has put her away, or a common woman of loose behaviour, may not be the wife of a priest; but let him take a virgin from among his people. +Lev 21:15 And he may not make his seed unclean among his people, for I the Lord have made him holy. +Lev 21:16 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 21:17 Say to Aaron, If a man of your family, in any generation, is damaged in body, let him not come near to make the offering of the bread of his God. +Lev 21:18 For any man whose body is damaged may not come near: one who is blind, or has not the use of his legs, or one who has a broken nose or any unnatural growth, +Lev 21:19 Or a man with broken feet or hands, +Lev 21:20 Or one whose back is bent, or one who is unnaturally small, or one who has a damaged eye, or whose skin is diseased, or whose sex parts are damaged; +Lev 21:21 No man of the offspring of Aaron whose body is damaged in any way may come near to give the fire offerings of the Lord: he is damaged, he may not come near to make the offerings. +Lev 21:22 He may take of the bread of God, the holy and the most holy; +Lev 21:23 But he may not go inside the veil or come near the altar, because he is damaged; and he may not make my holy places common; for I the Lord have made them holy. +Lev 21:24 These are the words which Moses said to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of Israel. +Lev 22:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 22:2 Give orders to Aaron and to his sons to keep themselves separate from the holy things of the children of Israel which they give to me, and not to make my holy name common: I am the Lord, +Lev 22:3 Say to them, If any man of all your seed through all your generations, being unclean, comes near the holy things which the children of Israel make holy to the Lord, he will be cut off from before me: I am the Lord. +Lev 22:4 No man of the seed of Aaron who is a leper, or who has a flow from his body, may take of the holy food till he is clean. And any man touching anything which is unclean because of the dead, or any man whose seed goes from him; +Lev 22:5 Or anyone touching any unclean thing which goes flat on the earth, or someone by whom he may be made unclean in any way whatever; +Lev 22:6 Any person touching any such unclean thing will be unclean till evening, and may not take of the holy food till his flesh has been bathed in water; +Lev 22:7 And when the sun has gone down he will be clean; and after that he may take part in the holy food, because it is his bread. +Lev 22:8 That which comes to a natural death, or is attacked by beasts, he may not take as food, for it will make him unclean: I am the Lord. +Lev 22:9 So then, let them keep what I have put into their care, for fear that sin may come on them because of it, so causing their death because they have made it common: I am the Lord, who make them holy. +Lev 22:10 No outside person may take of the holy food, or one living as a guest in the priest's house, or a servant working for payment. +Lev 22:11 But any person for whom the priest has given money, to make him his, may take of it with him; and those who come to birth in his house may take of his bread. +Lev 22:12 And if the daughter of a priest is married to an outside person she may not take of the holy things which are lifted up as offerings. +Lev 22:13 But if a priest's daughter is a widow, or parted from her husband, and has no child, and has come back to her father's house as when she was a girl, she may take of her father's bread; but no outside person may do so. +Lev 22:14 And if a man takes the holy food in error, he will have to give the holy thing back to the priest, with the addition of a fifth part. +Lev 22:15 And they may not make common the holy things which the children of Israel give to the Lord, +Lev 22:16 So causing sin to come on them when they take their holy things for food: I am the Lord who make them holy. +Lev 22:17 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 22:18 Say to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of Israel, If any man of the children of Israel, or of another nation living in Israel, makes an offering, given because of an oath or freely given to the Lord for a burned offering; +Lev 22:19 So that it may be pleasing to the Lord, let him give a male, without any mark, from among the oxen or the sheep or the goats. +Lev 22:20 But anything which has a mark you may not give; it will not make you pleasing to the Lord. +Lev 22:21 And whoever makes a peace-offering to the Lord, in payment of an oath or as a free offering, from the herd or the flock, if it is to be pleasing to the Lord, let it be free from any mark or damage. +Lev 22:22 Anything blind or broken or damaged or having any disease or any mark on it may not be offered to the Lord; you may not make an offering of it by fire on the altar to the Lord. +Lev 22:23 An ox or a lamb which has more or less than its natural parts, may be given as a free offering; but it will not be taken in payment of an oath. +Lev 22:24 An animal which has its sex parts damaged or crushed or broken or cut, may not be offered to the Lord; such a thing may not be done anywhere in your land. +Lev 22:25 And from one who is not an Israelite you may not take any of these for an offering to the Lord; for they are unclean, there is a mark on them, and the Lord will not be pleased with them. +Lev 22:26 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 22:27 When an ox or a sheep or a goat is given birth, let it be with its mother for seven days; and after the eighth day it may be taken as an offering made by fire to the Lord. +Lev 22:28 A cow or a sheep may not be put to death with its young on the same day. +Lev 22:29 And when you make an offering of praise to the Lord, make it in a way which is pleasing to him. +Lev 22:30 Let it be used for food on the same day; do not keep any part of it till the morning: I am the Lord. +Lev 22:31 So then, keep my orders and do them: I am the Lord. +Lev 22:32 And do not make my holy name common; so that it may be kept holy by the children of Israel: I am the Lord who make you holy, +Lev 22:33 Who took you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God: I am the Lord. +Lev 23:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 23:2 Say to the children of Israel, These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, which you will keep for holy meetings: these are my feasts. +Lev 23:3 On six days work may be done; but the seventh day is a special day of rest, a time for worship; you may do no sort of work: it is a Sabbath to the Lord wherever you may be living. +Lev 23:4 These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, the holy days of worship which you will keep at their regular times. +Lev 23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at nightfall, is the Lord's Passover; +Lev 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days let your food be unleavened bread. +Lev 23:7 On the first day you will have a holy meeting; you may do no sort of field-work. +Lev 23:8 And every day for seven days you will give a burned offering to the Lord; and on the seventh day there will be a holy meeting; you may do no field-work. +Lev 23:9 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 23:10 Say to the children of Israel, When you have come to the land which I will give you, and have got in the grain from its fields, take some of the first-fruits of the grain to the priest; +Lev 23:11 And let the grain be waved before the Lord, so that you may be pleasing to him; on the day after the Sabbath let it be waved by the priest. +Lev 23:12 And on the day of the waving of the grain, you are to give a male lamb of the first year, without any mark, for a burned offering to the Lord. +Lev 23:13 And let the meal offering with it be two tenth parts of an ephah of the best meal mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord for a sweet smell; and the drink offering with it is to be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. +Lev 23:14 And you may take no bread or dry grain or new grain for food till the very day on which you have given the offering for your God: this is a rule for ever through all your generations wherever you are living. +Lev 23:15 And let seven full weeks be numbered from the day after the Sabbath, the day when you give the grain for the wave offering; +Lev 23:16 Let fifty days be numbered, to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you are to give a new meal offering to the Lord. +Lev 23:17 Take from your houses two cakes of bread, made of a fifth part of an ephah of the best meal, cooked with leaven, to be waved for first-fruits to the Lord. +Lev 23:18 And with the bread, take seven lambs of the first year, without any marks, and one ox and two male sheep, to be a burned offering to the Lord, with their meal offering and their drink offerings, an offering of a sweet smell made by fire to the Lord. +Lev 23:19 And you are to give one male goat for a sin-offering and two male lambs of the first year for peace-offerings. +Lev 23:20 And these will be waved by the priest, with the bread of the first-fruits, for a wave offering to the Lord, with the two lambs: they will be holy to the Lord for the priest. +Lev 23:21 And on the same day, let it be given out that there will be a holy meeting for you: you may do no field-work on that day: it is a rule for ever through all your generations wherever you are living. +Lev 23:22 And when you get in the grain from your land, do not let all the grain at the edges of the field be cut, and do not take up the grain which has been dropped in the field; let that be for the poor, and for the man from another country: I am the Lord your God. +Lev 23:23 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 23:24 Say to the children of Israel, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, let there be a special day of rest for you, a day of memory, marked by the blowing of horns, a meeting for worship. +Lev 23:25 Do no field-work and give to the Lord an offering made by fire. +Lev 23:26 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 23:27 The tenth day of this seventh month is the day for the taking away of sin; let it be a holy day of worship; you are to keep from pleasure, and give to the Lord an offering made by fire. +Lev 23:28 And on that day you may do no sort of work, for it is a day of taking away sin, to make you clean before the Lord your God. +Lev 23:29 For any person, whoever he may be, who takes his pleasure on that day will be cut off from his people. +Lev 23:30 And if any person, whoever he may be, on that day does any sort of work, I will send destruction on him from among his people. +Lev 23:31 You may not do any sort of work: this is an order for ever through all your generations wherever you may be living. +Lev 23:32 Let this be a Sabbath of special rest to you, and keep yourselves from all pleasure; on the ninth day of the month at nightfall from evening to evening, let this Sabbath be kept. +Lev 23:33 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 23:34 Say to the children of Israel, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month let the feast of tents be kept to the Lord for seven days. +Lev 23:35 On the first day there will be a holy meeting: do no field-work. +Lev 23:36 Every day for seven days give an offering made by fire to the Lord; and on the eighth day there is to be a holy meeting, when you are to give an offering made by fire to the Lord; this is a special holy day: you may do no field-work on that day. +Lev 23:37 These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, to be kept by you as holy days of worship, for making an offering by fire to the Lord; a burned offering, a meal offering, an offering of beasts, and drink offerings; every one on its special day; +Lev 23:38 In addition to the Sabbaths of the Lord, and in addition to the things you give and the oaths you make and the free offerings to the Lord. +Lev 23:39 But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have got in all the fruits of the land, you will keep the feast of the Lord for seven days: the first day will be a Sabbath, and the eighth day the same. +Lev 23:40 On the first day, take the fruit of fair trees, branches of palm-trees, and branches of thick trees and trees from the riverside, and be glad before the Lord for seven days. +Lev 23:41 And let this feast be kept before the Lord for seven days in the year: it is a rule for ever from generation to generation; in the seventh month let it be kept. +Lev 23:42 For seven days you will be living in tents; all those who are Israelites by birth are to make tents their living-places: +Lev 23:43 So that future generations may keep in mind how I gave the children of Israel tents as their living-places when I took them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. +Lev 23:44 And Moses made clear to the children of Israel the orders about the fixed feasts of the Lord. +Lev 24:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 24:2 Give orders to the children of Israel to give you clean olive oil for the light, so that a light may be burning at all times, +Lev 24:3 Outside the veil of the ark in the Tent of meeting; let Aaron see that it is burning from evening till morning at all times before the Lord: it is a rule for ever through all your generations. +Lev 24:4 Let Aaron put the lights in order on the support before the Lord at all times. +Lev 24:5 And take the best meal and make twelve cakes of it, a fifth part of an ephah in every cake. +Lev 24:6 And put them in two lines, six in a line, on the holy table before the Lord. +Lev 24:7 And on the lines of cakes put clean sweet-smelling spices, for a sign on the bread, an offering made by fire to the Lord. +Lev 24:8 Every Sabbath day regularly, the priest is to put it in order before the Lord: it is offered for the children of Israel, an agreement made for ever. +Lev 24:9 And it will be for Aaron and his sons; they are to take it for food in a holy place: it is the most holy of all the offerings made by fire to the Lord, a rule for ever. +Lev 24:10 And a son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel and had a fight with a man of Israel by the tents; +Lev 24:11 And the son of the Israelite woman said evil against the holy Name, with curses; and they took him to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. +Lev 24:12 And they kept him shut up, till a decision might be given by the mouth of the Lord. +Lev 24:13 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 24:14 Take the curser outside the tent-circle; and let all in whose hearing the words were said put their hands on his head, and let him be stoned by all the people. +Lev 24:15 And say to the children of Israel, As for any man cursing God, his sin will be on his head. +Lev 24:16 And he who says evil against the name of the Lord will certainly be put to death; he will be stoned by all the people; the man who is not of your nation and one who is an Israelite by birth, whoever says evil against the holy Name is to be put to death. +Lev 24:17 And anyone who takes another's life is certainly to be put to death. +Lev 24:18 And anyone wounding a beast and causing its death, will have to make payment for it: a life for a life. +Lev 24:19 And if a man does damage to his neighbour, as he has done, so let it be done to him; +Lev 24:20 Wound for wound, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever damage he has done, so let it be done to him. +Lev 24:21 He who puts a beast to death will have to make payment for it; he who puts a man to death will himself be put to death. +Lev 24:22 You are to have the same law for a man of another nation living among you as for an Israelite; for I am the Lord your God. +Lev 24:23 And Moses said these words to the children of Israel, and they took the man who had been cursing outside the tent-circle and had him stoned. The children of Israel did as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Lev 25:1 And the Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai, +Lev 25:2 Say to the children of Israel, When you come into the land which I will give you, let the land keep a Sabbath to the Lord. +Lev 25:3 For six years put seed into your land, and for six years give care to your vines and get in the produce of them; +Lev 25:4 But let the seventh year be a Sabbath of rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord; do not put seed into your land or have your vines cut. +Lev 25:5 That which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes of your uncared-for vines may not be taken off; let it be a year of rest for the land. +Lev 25:6 And the Sabbath of the land will give food for you and your man-servant and your woman-servant and those working for payment, and for those of another country who are living among you; +Lev 25:7 And for your cattle and the beasts on the land; all the natural increase of the land will be for food. +Lev 25:8 And let seven Sabbaths of years be numbered to you, seven times seven years; even the days of seven Sabbaths of years, that is forty-nine years; +Lev 25:9 Then let the loud horn be sounded far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of taking away sin let the horn be sounded through all your land. +Lev 25:10 And let this fiftieth year be kept holy, and say publicly that everyone in the land is free from debt: it is the Jubilee, and every man may go back to his heritage and to his family. +Lev 25:11 Let this fiftieth year be the Jubilee: no seed may be planted, and that which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes may not be taken from the uncared-for vines. +Lev 25:12 For it is the Jubilee, and it is holy to you; your food will be the natural increase of the field. +Lev 25:13 In this year of Jubilee, let every man go back to his heritage. +Lev 25:14 And in the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another. +Lev 25:15 Let your exchange of goods with your neighbours have relation to the number of years after the year of Jubilee, and the number of times the earth has given her produce. +Lev 25:16 If the number of years is great, the price will be increased, and if the number of years is small, the price will be less, for it is the produce of a certain number of years which the man is giving you. +Lev 25:17 And do no wrong, one to another, but let the fear of your God be before you; for I am the Lord your God. +Lev 25:18 So keep my rules and my decisions and do them, and you will be safe in your land. +Lev 25:19 And the land will give her fruit, and you will have food in full measure and be safe in the land. +Lev 25:20 And if you say, Where will our food come from in the seventh year, when we may not put in seed, or get in the increase +Lev 25:21 Then I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year, and the land will give fruit enough for three years. +Lev 25:22 And in the eighth year you will put in your seed, and get your food from the old stores, till the fruit of the ninth year is ready. +Lev 25:23 No exchange of land may be for ever, for the land is mine, and you are as my guests, living with me for a time. +Lev 25:24 Wherever there is property in land, the owner is to have the right of getting it back. +Lev 25:25 If your brother becomes poor, and has to give up some of his land for money, his nearest relation may come and get back that which his brother has given up. +Lev 25:26 And if he has no one to get it back for him, and later he himself gets wealth and has enough money to get it back; +Lev 25:27 Then let him take into account the years from the time when he gave it up, and make up the loss for the rest of the years to him who took it, and so get back his property. +Lev 25:28 But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then it will be kept by him who gave a price for it, till the year of Jubilee; and in that year it will go back to its first owner and he will have his property again. +Lev 25:29 And if a man gives his house in a walled town for money, he has the right to get it back for the space of a full year after he has given it up. +Lev 25:30 And if he does not get it back by the end of the year, then the house in the town will become the property of him who gave the money for it, and of his children for ever; it will not go from him in the year of Jubilee. +Lev 25:31 But houses in small unwalled towns will be the same as property in the country; they may be got back, and they will go back to their owners in the year of Jubilee. +Lev 25:32 But the houses in the towns of the Levites may be got back by the Levites at any time. +Lev 25:33 And if a Levite does not give money to get back his property, his house in the town which was exchanged for money will come back to him in the year of Jubilee. For the houses of the towns of the Levites are their property among the children of Israel. +Lev 25:34 But the land on the outskirts of their towns may not be exchanged for money, for it is their property for ever. +Lev 25:35 And if your brother becomes poor and is not able to make a living, then you are to keep him with you, helping him as you would a man from another country who is living among you. +Lev 25:36 Take no interest from him, in money or in goods, but have the fear of your God before you, and let your brother make a living among you. +Lev 25:37 Do not take interest on the money which you let him have or on the food which you give him. +Lev 25:38 I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, that I might be your God. +Lev 25:39 And if your brother becomes poor and gives himself to you for money, do not make use of him like a servant who is your property; +Lev 25:40 But let him be with you as a servant working for payment, till the year of Jubilee; +Lev 25:41 Then he will go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his family and to the property of his fathers. +Lev 25:42 For they are my servants whom I took out from the land of Egypt; they may not become the property of another. +Lev 25:43 Do not be a hard master to him, but have the fear of God before you. +Lev 25:44 But you may get servants as property from among the nations round about; from them you may take men-servants and women-servants. +Lev 25:45 And in addition, you may get, for money, servants from among the children of other nations who are living with you, and from their families which have come to birth in your land; and these will be your property. +Lev 25:46 And they will be your children's heritage after you, to keep as their property; they will be your servants for ever; but you may not be hard masters to your countrymen, the children of Israel. +Lev 25:47 And if one from another nation living among you gets wealth, and your countryman, at his side, becomes poor and gives himself for money to the man from another nation or to one of his family; +Lev 25:48 After he has given himself he has the right to be made free, for a price, by one of his brothers, +Lev 25:49 Or his father's brother, or the son of his father's brother, or any near relation; or if he gets money, he may make himself free. +Lev 25:50 And let the years be numbered from the time when he gave himself to his owner till the year of Jubilee, and the price given for him will be in relation to the number of years, on the scale of the payment of a servant. +Lev 25:51 If there is still a long time, he will give back, on account of it, a part of the price which was given for him. +Lev 25:52 And if there is only a short time, he will take account of it with his master, and in relation to the number of years he will give back the price of making him free. +Lev 25:53 And he will be with him as a servant working for payment year by year; his master is not to be cruel to him before your eyes. +Lev 25:54 And if he is not made free in this way, he will go out in the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him. +Lev 25:55 For the children of Israel are servants to me; they are my servants whom I took out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. +Lev 26:1 Do not make images of false gods, or put up an image cut in stone or a pillar or any pictured stone in your land, to give worship to it; for I am the Lord your God. +Lev 26:2 Keep my Sabbaths and give honour to my holy place: I am the Lord. +Lev 26:3 If you are guided by my rules, and keep my laws and do them, +Lev 26:4 Then I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will give her increase and the trees of the field will give their fruit; +Lev 26:5 And the crushing of the grain will overtake the cutting of the grapes, and the cutting of the grapes will overtake the planting of the seed, and there will be bread in full measure, and you will be living in your land safely. +Lev 26:6 And I will give you peace in the land, and you will take your rest and no one will give you cause for fear; and I will put an end to all evil beasts in the land, and no sword of war will go through your land. +Lev 26:7 And you will put to flight those who are against you, and they will be put to death by your swords. +Lev 26:8 Then five of you will put to flight a hundred, and a hundred of you will put to flight ten thousand, and all who are against you will be put to death by your swords. +Lev 26:9 And I will have pleasure in you and make you fertile and greater in number; and I will keep my agreement with you. +Lev 26:10 And old stores long kept will be your food, and you will take out the old because of the new; +Lev 26:11 And I will put my holy House among you, and my soul will not be turned away from you in disgust. +Lev 26:12 And I will be present among you and will be your God and you will be my people. +Lev 26:13 I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt so that you might not be servants to them; by me the cords of your yoke were broken and I made you go upright. +Lev 26:14 But if you do not give ear to me, and do not keep all these my laws; +Lev 26:15 And if you go against my rules and if you have hate in your souls for my decisions and you do not do all my orders, but go against my agreement; +Lev 26:16 This will I do to you: I will put fear in your hearts, even wasting disease and burning pain, drying up the eyes and making the soul feeble, and you will get no profit from your seed, for your haters will take it for food. +Lev 26:17 And my face will be turned from you, and you will be broken before those who are against you, and your haters will become your rulers, and you will go in flight when no man comes after you. +Lev 26:18 And if, even after these things, you will not give ear to me, then I will send you punishment seven times more for your sins. +Lev 26:19 And the pride of your strength will be broken, and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass; +Lev 26:20 And your strength will be used up without profit; for your land will not give her increase and the trees of the field will not give their fruit. +Lev 26:21 And if you still go against me and will not give ear to me, I will put seven times more punishments on you because of your sins. +Lev 26:22 I will let loose the beasts of the field among you, and they will take away your children and send destruction on your cattle, so that your numbers will become small and your roads become waste. +Lev 26:23 And if by these things you will not be turned to me, but still go against me; +Lev 26:24 Then I will go against you, and I will give you punishment, I myself, seven times for all your sins. +Lev 26:25 And I will send a sword on you to give effect to the punishment of my agreement; and when you come together into your towns I will send disease among you and you will be given up into the hands of your haters. +Lev 26:26 When I take away your bread of life, ten women will be cooking bread in one oven, and your bread will be measured out by weight; you will have food but never enough. +Lev 26:27 And if, after all this, you do not give ear to me, but go against me still, +Lev 26:28 Then my wrath will be burning against you, and I will give you punishment, I myself, seven times for your sins. +Lev 26:29 Then you will take the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters for food; +Lev 26:30 And I will send destruction on your high places, overturning your perfume altars, and will put your dead bodies on your broken images, and my soul will be turned from you in disgust. +Lev 26:31 And I will make your towns waste and send destruction on your holy places; I will take no pleasure in the smell of your sweet perfumes; +Lev 26:32 And I will make your land a waste, a wonder to your haters living in it. +Lev 26:33 And I will send you out in all directions among the nations, and my sword will be uncovered against you, and your land will be without any living thing, and your towns will be made waste. +Lev 26:34 Then will the land take pleasure in its Sabbaths while it is waste and you are living in the land of your haters; then will the land have rest. +Lev 26:35 All the days while it is waste will the land have rest, such rest as it never had in your Sabbaths, when you were living in it. +Lev 26:36 And as for the rest of you, I will make their hearts feeble in the land of their haters, and the sound of a leaf moved by the wind will send them in flight, and they will go in flight as from the sword, falling down when no one comes after them; +Lev 26:37 Falling on one another, as before the sword, when no one comes after them; you will give way before your haters. +Lev 26:38 And death will overtake you among strange nations, and the land of your haters will be your destruction. +Lev 26:39 And those of you who are still living will be wasting away in their sins in the land of your haters; in the sins of their fathers they will be wasting away. +Lev 26:40 And they will have grief for their sins and for the sins of their fathers, when their hearts were untrue to me, and they went against me; +Lev 26:41 So that I went against them and sent them away into the land of their haters: if then the pride of their hearts is broken and they take the punishment of their sins, +Lev 26:42 Then I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will keep in mind the land. +Lev 26:43 And the land, while she is without them, will keep her Sabbaths; and they will undergo the punishment of their sins, because they were turned away from my decisions and in their souls was hate for my laws. +Lev 26:44 But for all that, when they are in the land of their haters I will not let them go, or be turned away from them, or give them up completely; my agreement with them will not be broken, for I am the Lord their God. +Lev 26:45 And because of them I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with their fathers, whom I took out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord. +Lev 26:46 These are the rules, decisions, and laws, which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses. +Lev 27:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Lev 27:2 Say to the children of Israel, If a man makes a special oath, you will give your decision as to the value of the persons for the Lord. +Lev 27:3 And you will put the value of a male from twenty years to sixty years old at fifty shekels of silver, by the scale of the holy place. +Lev 27:4 And if it is a female, the value will be thirty shekels. +Lev 27:5 And if the person is from five to twenty years old, the value will be twenty shekels for a male, and ten for a female. +Lev 27:6 And if the person is from one month to five years old, then the value for a male will be five shekels of silver, and for a female three shekels. +Lev 27:7 And for sixty years old and over, for a male the value will be fifteen shekels, and for a female, ten. +Lev 27:8 But if he is poorer than the value which you have put on him, then let him be taken to the priest, and the priest will put a value on him, such as it is possible for him to give. +Lev 27:9 And if it is a beast of which men make offerings to the Lord, whatever any man gives of such to the Lord will be holy. +Lev 27:10 It may not be changed in any way, a good given for a bad, or a bad for a good; if one beast is changed for another, the two will be holy. +Lev 27:11 And if it is any unclean beast, of which offerings are not made to the Lord, then let him take the beast before the priest; +Lev 27:12 And let the priest put a value on it, if it is good or bad; whatever value the priest puts on it, so will it be. +Lev 27:13 But if he has a desire to get it back for himself, let him give a fifth more than your value. +Lev 27:14 And if a man has given his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest will put a value on it, if it is good or bad; as the priest gives decision so will the value be fixed. +Lev 27:15 And if the owner has a desire to get back his house, let him give a fifth more than your value, and it will be his. +Lev 27:16 And if a man gives to the Lord part of the field which is his property, then let your value be in relation to the seed which is planted in it; a measure of barley grain will be valued at fifty shekels of silver. +Lev 27:17 If he gives his field from the year of Jubilee, the value will be fixed by your decision. +Lev 27:18 But if he gives his field after the year of Jubilee, the amount of the money will be worked out by the priest in relation to the number of years till the coming year of Jubilee, and the necessary amount will be taken off your value. +Lev 27:19 And if the man who has given the field has a desire to get it back, let him give a fifth more than the price at which it was valued and it will be his. +Lev 27:20 But if he has no desire to get it back, or if he has given it for a price to another man, it may not be got back again. +Lev 27:21 But the field, when it becomes free at the year of Jubilee, will be holy to the Lord, as a field given under oath: it will be the property of the priest. +Lev 27:22 And if a man gives to the Lord a field which he has got for money from another, which is not part of his heritage; +Lev 27:23 Then the value fixed by you up to the year of Jubilee will be worked out for him by the priest, and in that day he will give the amount of your value as holy to the Lord. +Lev 27:24 In the year of Jubilee the field will go back to him from whom he got it, that is, to him whose heritage it was. +Lev 27:25 And let all your values be based on the shekel of the holy place, that is, twenty gerahs to the shekel. +Lev 27:26 But a man may not give by oath to the Lord the first-fruits of cattle which are offered to the Lord: if it is an ox or a sheep it is the Lord's. +Lev 27:27 And if it is an unclean beast, then the owner of it may give money to get it back, in agreement with the value fixed by you, by giving a fifth more; or if it is not taken back, let it be given for money in agreement with your valuing. +Lev 27:28 But nothing which a man has given completely to the Lord, out of all his property, of man or beast, or of the land which is his heritage, may be given away or got back in exchange for money; anything completely given is most holy to the Lord. +Lev 27:29 Any man given completely to the Lord may not be got back: he is certainly to be put to death. +Lev 27:30 And every tenth part of the land, of the seed planted, or of the fruit of trees, is holy to the Lord. +Lev 27:31 And if a man has a desire to get back any of the tenth part which he has given, let him give a fifth more. +Lev 27:32 And a tenth part of the herd and of the flock, whatever goes under the rod of the valuer, will be holy to the Lord. +Lev 27:33 He may not make search to see if it is good or bad, or make any changes in it; and if he makes exchange of it for another, the two will be holy; he will not get them back again. +Lev 27:34 These are the orders which the Lord gave to Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai. +Num 1:1 And the Lord said to Moses in the waste land of Sinai, in the Tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt, +Num 1:2 Take the full number of the children of Israel, by their families, and by their fathers' houses, every male by name; +Num 1:3 All those of twenty years old and over, who are able to go to war in Israel, are to be numbered by you and Aaron. +Num 1:4 And to give you help, take one man from every tribe, the head of his father's house. +Num 1:5 These are the names of those who are to be your helpers: from Reuben, Elizur, the son of Shedeur; +Num 1:6 From Simeon, Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai; +Num 1:7 From Judah, Nahshon, the son of Amminadab; +Num 1:8 From Issachar, Nethanel, the son of Zuar; +Num 1:9 From Zebulun, Eliab, the son of Helon; +Num 1:10 Of the children of Joseph: from Ephraim, Elishama, the son of Ammihud; from Manasseh, Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur, +Num 1:11 From Benjamin, Abidan, the son of Gideoni; +Num 1:12 From Dan, Ahiezer, the son of Ammi-shaddai; +Num 1:13 From Asher, Pagiel, the son of Ochran; +Num 1:14 From Gad, Eliasaph, the son of Reuel; +Num 1:15 From Naphtali, Ahira, the son of Enan. +Num 1:16 These are the men named out of all the people, chiefs of their fathers' houses, heads of the tribes of Israel. +Num 1:17 And Moses and Aaron took these men, marked out by name; +Num 1:18 And they got together all the people on the first day of the second month; and everyone made clear his family and his father's house, by the number of the names, from twenty years old and over. +Num 1:19 As the Lord had given orders to Moses, so they were numbered by him in the waste place of Sinai. +Num 1:20 The generations of the sons of Reuben, the oldest son of Israel, were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over, who was able to go to war; +Num 1:21 Forty-six thousand, five hundred of the tribe of Reuben were numbered. +Num 1:22 The generations of the sons of Simeon were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over, who was able to go to war; +Num 1:23 Fifty-nine thousand, three hundred of the tribe of Simeon were numbered. +Num 1:24 The generations of the sons of Gad were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war; +Num 1:25 Forty-five thousand, six hundred and fifty of the tribe of Gad were numbered. +Num 1:26 The generations of the sons of Judah were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war; +Num 1:27 Seventy-four thousand, six hundred of the tribe of Judah were numbered. +Num 1:28 The generations of the sons of Issachar were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war; +Num 1:29 Fifty-four thousand, four hundred of the tribe of Issachar were numbered. +Num 1:30 The generations of the sons of Zebulun were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war; +Num 1:31 Fifty-seven thousand, four hundred of the tribe of Zebulun were numbered. +Num 1:32 The generations of the sons of Joseph were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war; +Num 1:33 Forty thousand, five hundred of the tribe of Ephraim were numbered. +Num 1:34 The generations of the sons of Manasseh were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war; +Num 1:35 Thirty-two thousand, two hundred of the tribe of Manasseh were numbered. +Num 1:36 The generations of the sons of Benjamin were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war; +Num 1:37 Thirty-five thousand, four hundred of the tribe of Benjamin were numbered. +Num 1:38 The generations of the sons of Dan were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years and over who was able to go to war; +Num 1:39 Sixty-two thousand, seven hundred of the tribe of Dan were numbered. +Num 1:40 The generations of the sons of Asher were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war; +Num 1:41 Forty-one thousand, five hundred of the tribe of Asher were numbered. +Num 1:42 The generations of the sons of Naphtali were numbered by their families and their fathers' houses, every male of twenty years old and over who was able to go to war; +Num 1:43 Fifty-three thousand, four hundred of the tribe of Naphtali were numbered. +Num 1:44 These are they who were numbered by Moses and Aaron and by the twelve chiefs of Israel, one from every tribe. +Num 1:45 So all those who were numbered of the children of Israel, by their families, all those of twenty years old and over who were able to go to war, +Num 1:46 Were six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty. +Num 1:47 But the Levites, of the tribe of their fathers, were not numbered among them. +Num 1:48 For the Lord said to Moses, +Num 1:49 Only the tribe of Levi is not to be numbered among the children of Israel, +Num 1:50 But to them you are to give the care of the Tent of meeting with its vessels and everything in it: they are to take up the Tent, and be responsible for everything to do with it, and put up their tents round it. +Num 1:51 And when the Tent of meeting goes forward, the Levites are to take it down; and when it is to be put up, they are to do it: any strange person who comes near it is to be put to death. +Num 1:52 The children of Israel are to put up their tents, every man in his tent-circle round his flag. +Num 1:53 But the tents of the Levites are to be round the Tent of meeting, so that wrath may not come on the children of Israel: the Tent of meeting is to be in the care of the Levites. +Num 1:54 So the children of Israel did as the Lord had given orders to Moses. +Num 2:1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, +Num 2:2 The children of Israel are to put up their tents in the order of their families, by the flags of their fathers' houses, facing the Tent of meeting on every side. +Num 2:3 Those whose tents are on the east side, looking to the dawn, will be round the flag of the children of Judah, with Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, as their chief. +Num 2:4 The number of his army was seventy-four thousand, six hundred. +Num 2:5 And nearest to him will be the tribe of Issachar, with Nethanel, the son of Zuar, as their chief. +Num 2:6 The number of his army was fifty-four thousand, four hundred. +Num 2:7 After him, the tribe of Zebulun, with Eliab, the son of Helon, as their chief. +Num 2:8 The number of his army was fifty-seven thousand, four hundred. +Num 2:9 The number of all the armies of Judah was a hundred and eighty-six thousand, four hundred. They go forward first. +Num 2:10 On the south side is the flag of the children of Reuben, in the order of their armies, with Elizur, the son of Shedeur, as their chief. +Num 2:11 The number of his army was forty-six thousand, five hundred. +Num 2:12 And nearest to him, the tribe of Simeon, with Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai, as their chief. +Num 2:13 The number of his army was fifty-nine thousand, three hundred. +Num 2:14 Then the tribe of Gad, with Eliasaph, son of Reuel, as their chief. +Num 2:15 The number of his army was forty-five thousand, six hundred and fifty. +Num 2:16 The number of all the armies of Reuben together came to a hundred and fifty-one thousand, four hundred and fifty. They go forward second. +Num 2:17 Then the Tent of meeting is to go forward, with the tents of the Levites, in the middle of the armies; in the same order as their tents are placed, they are to go forward, every man under his flag. +Num 2:18 On the west side will be the flag of the children of Ephraim, with Elishama, the son of Ammihud, as their chief. +Num 2:19 The number of his army was forty thousand, five hundred. +Num 2:20 And by him the tribe of Manasseh with Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur, as their chief. +Num 2:21 The number of his army was thirty-two thousand, two hundred. +Num 2:22 Then the tribe of Benjamin, with Abidan, the son of Gideoni, as their chief. +Num 2:23 The number of his army was thirty-five thousand, four hundred. +Num 2:24 The number of all the armies of Ephraim was a hundred and eight thousand, one hundred. They go forward third. +Num 2:25 On the north side will be the flag of the children of Dan, with Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai, as their chief. +Num 2:26 The number of his army was sixty-two thousand, seven hundred. +Num 2:27 Nearest to him will be the tribe of Asher, with Pagiel, the son of Ochran, as their chief. +Num 2:28 The number of his army was forty-one thousand, five hundred; +Num 2:29 Then the tribe of Naphtali, with Ahira, the son of Enan, as their chief. +Num 2:30 The number of his army was fifty-three thousand, four hundred. +Num 2:31 The number of all the armies in the tents of Dan was a hundred and fifty-seven thousand, six hundred. They will go forward last, by their flags. +Num 2:32 These are all who were numbered of the children of Israel, in the order of their fathers' families: all the armies in their tents together came to six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty. +Num 2:33 But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel, as the Lord said to Moses. +Num 2:34 So the children of Israel did as the Lord said to Moses, so they put up their tents by their flags, and they went forward in the same order, by their families, and by their fathers' houses. +Num 3:1 Now these are the generations of Aaron and Moses, in the day when the word of the Lord came to Moses on Mount Sinai. +Num 3:2 These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the oldest, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. +Num 3:3 These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests, on whom the holy oil was put, who were marked out as priests. +Num 3:4 And Nadab and Abihu were put to death before the Lord when they made an offering of strange fire before the Lord, in the waste land of Sinai, and they had no children: and Eleazar and Ithamar did the work of priests before Aaron their father. +Num 3:5 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 3:6 Make the tribe of Levi come near, and put them before Aaron the priest, to be his helpers, +Num 3:7 In order that they may be responsible to him and to all Israel for the care of the Tent of meeting, and to do the work of the House; +Num 3:8 And they will have the care of all the vessels of the Tent of meeting, and will do for the children of Israel all the necessary work of the House. +Num 3:9 Give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; so that they may be his without question from among the children of Israel. +Num 3:10 And give orders that Aaron and his sons are to keep their place as priests; any strange person who comes near is to be put to death. +Num 3:11 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 3:12 See, I have taken the Levites out of the children of Israel to be mine in place of the first sons of the children of Israel; +Num 3:13 For all the first sons are mine; on the day when I put to death all the first sons in the land of Egypt, I took for myself every first male birth of man and beast. They are mine; I am the Lord. +Num 3:14 And the Lord said to Moses in the waste land of Sinai, +Num 3:15 Let all the children of Levi be numbered by their families and their fathers' houses; let every male of a month old and over be numbered. +Num 3:16 So Moses did as the Lord said, numbering them as he had been ordered. +Num 3:17 These were the sons of Levi by name: Gershon and Kohath and Merari. +Num 3:18 And these are the names of the sons of Gershon, by their families: Libni and Shimei. +Num 3:19 And the sons of Kohath, by their families: Amram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel. +Num 3:20 And the sons of Merari by their families: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites in the order of their fathers' houses. +Num 3:21 From Gershon come the Libnites and the Shimeites; these are the families of the Gershonites. +Num 3:22 Those who were numbered of them, the males from one month old and over, were seven thousand, five hundred. +Num 3:23 The tents of the Gershonites are to be placed at the back of the House, to the west. +Num 3:24 The chief of the Gershonites is Eliasaph, the son of Lael. +Num 3:25 In the Tent of meeting, the Gershonites are to have the care of the House, and the Tent with its cover, and the veil for the door of the Tent of meeting, +Num 3:26 And the hangings for the open space round the House and the altar, and the curtain for its doorway, and all the cords needed for its use. +Num 3:27 From Kohath come the Amramites and the Izharites and the Hebronites and the Uzzielites; these are the families of the Kohathites. +Num 3:28 Those who were numbered of them, the males from one month old and over, were eight thousand, six hundred, who were responsible for the care of the holy place. +Num 3:29 The tents of the Kohathites are to be placed on the south side of the House. +Num 3:30 Their chief is Elizaphan, the son of Uzziel. +Num 3:31 In their care are the ark, and the table, and the lights, and the altars, and all the vessels used in the holy place, and the veil, and all they are used for. +Num 3:32 Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, will be head over all the Levites and overseer of those responsible for the care of the holy place. +Num 3:33 From Merari come the Mahlites and the Mushites; these are the families of Merari. +Num 3:34 Those who were numbered of them, the males of a month old and over, were six thousand, two hundred. +Num 3:35 The chief of the families of Merari was Zuriel, the son of Abihail: their tents are to be placed on the north side of the House. +Num 3:36 And in their care are to be all the boards of the Tent, with their rods and pillars and bases, and all the instruments, and all they are used for, +Num 3:37 And the pillars of the open space round it, with their bases and nails and cords. +Num 3:38 And those whose tents are to be placed on the east side of the House in front of the Tent of meeting, looking to the dawn, are Moses and Aaron and his sons, who will do the work of the holy place for the children of Israel; and any strange person who comes near will be put to death. +Num 3:39 All the Levites numbered by Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord, all the males of one month old and over numbered in the order of their families, were twenty-two thousand. +Num 3:40 And the Lord said to Moses, Let all the first male children be numbered, and take the number of their names. +Num 3:41 And give to me the Levites (I am the Lord) in place of the first sons of the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites in place of the first births among the cattle of the children of Israel. +Num 3:42 So Moses had all the first sons among the children of Israel numbered, as the Lord said to him. +Num 3:43 Every first son from a month old and over was numbered by name, and the number came to twenty-two thousand, two hundred and seventy-three. +Num 3:44 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 3:45 Take the Levites in place of all the first sons of the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites in place of their cattle; the Levites are to be mine; I am the Lord. +Num 3:46 And the price you have to give for the two hundred and seventy-three first sons of the children of Israel which are in addition to the number of the Levites, +Num 3:47 Will be five shekels for every one, by the scale of the holy place (the shekel is twenty gerahs); +Num 3:48 And this money, the price of those over the number of the Levites, is to be given to Aaron and his sons. +Num 3:49 So Moses took the money, the price of those whose place had not been taken by the Levites; +Num 3:50 From the first sons of Israel he took it, a thousand, three hundred and sixty-five shekels, by the scale of the holy place; +Num 3:51 And he gave the money to Aaron and his sons, as the Lord had said. +Num 4:1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, +Num 4:2 Let the sons of Kohath, from among the sons of Levi, be numbered by their families, in the order of their fathers' houses; +Num 4:3 All those from thirty to fifty years old who are able to do the work of the Tent of meeting. +Num 4:4 And this is to be the work of the sons of Kohath in connection with the most holy things. +Num 4:5 When all the people go forward, Aaron is to go in with his sons, and take down the veil of the curtain, covering the ark of witness with it; +Num 4:6 And putting over it the leather cover and over that a blue cloth; and putting its rods in place. +Num 4:7 And on the table of the holy bread they are to put a blue cloth, and on it all the vessels, the spoons and the basins and the cups; and the holy bread with them; +Num 4:8 And over them they are to put a red cloth, covering it with a leather cover, and putting its rods in their places. +Num 4:9 And they are to take a blue cloth, covering with it the light-support with its lights and its instruments and its trays and all the oil vessels which are used for it: +Num 4:10 All these they are to put in a leather cover, and put it on the frame. +Num 4:11 On the gold altar they are to put a blue cloth, covering it with a leather cover; and they are to put its rods in their places. +Num 4:12 All the vessels which are used in the holy place they are to put in a blue cloth, covering them with a leather cover, and put them on the frame. +Num 4:13 And they are to take away the burned waste from the altar, and put a purple cloth on it; +Num 4:14 Placing on the cloth all its vessels, the fire-baskets, the meat-hooks, the spades, and the basins; all the vessels of the altar; they are to put a leather cover over all these, and put its rods in their places. +Num 4:15 And after the holy place and all its vessels have been covered up by Aaron and his sons, when the tents of the people go forward, the sons of Kohath are to come and take it up; but the holy things may not be touched by them for fear of death. +Num 4:16 And Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, is to be responsible for the oil for the light, and the sweet perfumes for burning, and the regular meal offering, and the holy oil; the House and the holy place and everything in it will be in his care. +Num 4:17 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, +Num 4:18 Do not let the family of the Kohathites be cut off from among the Levites; +Num 4:19 But do this to them, so that life and not death may be theirs when they come near the most holy things; let Aaron and his sons go in and give to every one his work and that which he is to take up; +Num 4:20 But they themselves are not to go in to see the holy place, even for a minute, for fear of death. +Num 4:21 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 4:22 Let the sons of Gershon be numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses; +Num 4:23 All those from thirty to fifty years old who are able to do the work of the Tent of meeting. +Num 4:24 This is to be the work of the Gershonites, the things they are to do and take up. +Num 4:25 They are to take up the curtains of the House, and the Tent of meeting with its cover and the leather cover over it, and the hangings for the door of the Tent of meeting; +Num 4:26 And the hangings for the open space round the House and the altar, and the curtain for its doorway, with the cords and all the things used for them; whatever is necessary for these, they are to do. +Num 4:27 From the mouth of Aaron and his sons the Gershonites will have word about all the things they are to do and take up; you are to give them their orders. +Num 4:28 This is the work of the family of the Gershonites in the Tent of meeting, and they will be under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. +Num 4:29 The sons of Merari are to be numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses; +Num 4:30 Every one from thirty to fifty years old who is able to do the work of the Tent of meeting. +Num 4:31 And this is their part in the work of the Tent of meeting: the transport of the boards and the rods of the Tent, with the pillars and their bases; +Num 4:32 And the pillars of the open space outside it, with their bases and their nails and cords and all the instruments used, and everything which has to be done there; all the instruments for which they are responsible are to be numbered by name. +Num 4:33 This is the work which the sons of Merari are to do in connection with the Tent of meeting, under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. +Num 4:34 So Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of the people took in hand the numbering of the sons of the Kohathites, by families, in the order of their fathers' houses; +Num 4:35 Numbering all those from thirty to fifty years old who were able to do the work in the Tent of meeting; +Num 4:36 And the number of all these was two thousand, seven hundred and fifty. +Num 4:37 This is the number of those of the Kohathites who did the work in the Tent of meeting, as they were numbered by Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord. +Num 4:38 And those of the sons of Gershon who were numbered by families, +Num 4:39 All those from thirty to fifty years old who were able to do the work in the Tent of meeting, +Num 4:40 Who were numbered by families in the order of their fathers' houses, were two thousand, six hundred and thirty. +Num 4:41 This is the number of the sons of Gershon who did the work in the Tent of meeting, as they were numbered by Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord. +Num 4:42 And those of the sons of Merari who were numbered by families, in the order of their fathers' houses, +Num 4:43 All those from thirty to fifty years old who did the work in the Tent of meeting, +Num 4:44 Who were numbered by families, were three thousand, two hundred. +Num 4:45 This is the number of the sons of Merari, numbered by Moses and Aaron at the order of the Lord. +Num 4:46 And all the Levites who were numbered by Moses and Aaron and the chiefs of the people, by families, in the order of their fathers' houses, +Num 4:47 Those from thirty to fifty years old who were able to do the work of the Tent of meeting and of its transport, +Num 4:48 Came to eight thousand, five hundred and eighty. +Num 4:49 At the order of the Lord they were numbered by Moses, every one in relation to his work and to his part in the transport; so they were numbered by Moses at the order of the Lord. +Num 5:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 5:2 Give orders to the children of Israel to put outside the tent-circle every leper, and anyone who has any sort of flow from his body, and anyone who is unclean from the touch of the dead; +Num 5:3 Male or female they are to be put outside the tent-circle, so that they may not make unclean my resting-place among them. +Num 5:4 So the children of Israel did as the Lord had said to Moses, and put them outside the tent-circle. +Num 5:5 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 5:6 Say to the children of Israel, If a man or a woman does any of the sins of men, going against the word of the Lord, and is in the wrong; +Num 5:7 Let them say openly what they have done; and make payment for the wrong done, with the addition of a fifth part, and give it to him to whom the wrong was done. +Num 5:8 But if the man has no relation to whom the payment may be made, then the payment for sin made to the Lord will be the priest's, in addition to the sheep offered to take away his sin. +Num 5:9 And every offering lifted up of all the holy things which the children of Israel give to the priest, will be his. +Num 5:10 And every man's holy things will be his: whatever a man gives to the priest will be his. +Num 5:11 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 5:12 Say to the children of Israel, If any man's wife does wrong, sinning against him +Num 5:13 By taking as her lover another man, and keeps it secret so that her husband has no knowledge of it, and there is no witness against her, and she is not taken in the act; +Num 5:14 If the spirit of doubt comes into her husband's heart, and he has doubts of his wife, with good cause; or if he has doubts of her without cause: +Num 5:15 Then let him take her to the priest, offering for her the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal, without oil or perfume; for it is a meal offering of a bitter spirit, a meal offering keeping wrongdoing in mind. +Num 5:16 And the priest will make her come near and put her before the Lord; +Num 5:17 And the priest will take holy water in a pot and put in it dust from the floor of the House; +Num 5:18 And he will make the woman come before the Lord with her hair loose, and will put the meal offering, the offering of a bitter spirit, in her hands; and the priest will take in his hand the bitter water causing the curse; +Num 5:19 And he will make her take an oath, and say to her, If no man has been your lover and you have not been with another in place of your husband, you are free from this bitter water causing the curse; +Num 5:20 But if you have been with another in place of your husband and have made yourself unclean with a lover: +Num 5:21 Then the priest will put the oath of the curse on the woman, and say to her, May the Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people, sending on you wasting of the legs and disease of the stomach; +Num 5:22 And this water of the curse will go into your body, causing disease of your stomach and wasting of your legs: and the woman will say, So be it. +Num 5:23 And the priest will put these curses in a book, washing out the writing with the bitter water; +Num 5:24 And he will give to the woman the bitter water for drink; and the bitter water causing the curse will go into her. +Num 5:25 And the priest will take from her hand the meal offering of doubt, waving it before the Lord, and will take it to the altar; +Num 5:26 And he will take some of it in his hand, burning it on the altar as a sign, and then he will give the woman the bitter water. +Num 5:27 And it will be that if the woman has become unclean, sinning against her husband, when she has taken the bitter water it will go into her body, causing disease of the stomach and wasting of the legs, and she will be a curse among her people. +Num 5:28 But if she is clean she will be free and will have offspring. +Num 5:29 This is the law for testing a wife who goes with another in place of her husband and becomes unclean; +Num 5:30 Or for a husband who, in a bitter spirit, has doubts in his heart about his wife; let him take her to the priest, who will put in force this law. +Num 5:31 Then the man will be free from all wrong, and the woman's sin will be on her. +Num 6:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 6:2 Say to the children of Israel, If a man or a woman takes an oath to keep himself separate and give himself to the Lord; +Num 6:3 He is to keep himself from wine and strong drink, and take no mixed wine or strong drink or any drink made from grapes, or any grapes, green or dry. +Num 6:4 All the time he is separate he may take nothing made from the grape-vine, from its seeds to its skin. +Num 6:5 All the time he is under his oath let no blade come near his head; till the days while he is separate are ended he is holy and his hair may not be cut. +Num 6:6 All the time he is separate he may not come near any dead body. +Num 6:7 He may not make himself unclean for his father or his mother, his sister or his brother, if death comes to them; because he is under an oath to keep himself separate for God. +Num 6:8 All the time he is separate he is holy to the Lord. +Num 6:9 If death comes suddenly to a man at his side, so that he becomes unclean, let his hair be cut off on the day when he is made clean, on the seventh day. +Num 6:10 And on the eighth day let him take to the priest, at the door of the Tent of meeting, two doves or two young pigeons; +Num 6:11 And the priest will give one for a sin-offering and the other for a burned offering to take away the sin which came on him on account of the dead, and he will make his head holy that same day. +Num 6:12 And he will give to the Lord his days of being separate, offering a he-lamb of the first year as an offering for error: but the earlier days will be a loss, because he became unclean. +Num 6:13 And this is the law for him who is separate, when the necessary days are ended: he is to come to the door of the Tent of meeting, +Num 6:14 And make his offering to the Lord; one he-lamb of the first year, without a mark, for a burned offering, and one female lamb of the first year, without a mark, for a sin-offering, and one male sheep, without a mark, for peace-offerings, +Num 6:15 And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of the best meal mixed with oil, and thin unleavened cakes covered with oil, with their meal offering and drink offerings. +Num 6:16 And the priest will take them before the Lord, and make his sin-offering and his burned offering; +Num 6:17 Giving the sheep of the peace-offerings, with the basket of unleavened bread; and at the same time, the priest will make his meal offering and his drink offering. +Num 6:18 Then let his long hair, the sign of his oath, be cut off at the door of the Tent of meeting, and let him put it on the fire on which the peace-offerings are burning. +Num 6:19 And the priest will take the cooked leg of the sheep and one unleavened cake and one thin cake out of the basket, and put them on the hands of the separate one after his hair has been cut, +Num 6:20 Waving them for a wave offering before the Lord; this is holy for the priest, together with the waved breast and the leg which is lifted up; after that, the man may take wine. +Num 6:21 This is the law for him who takes an oath to keep himself separate, and for his offering to the Lord on that account, in addition to what he may be able to get; this is the law of his oath, which he will have to keep. +Num 6:22 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 6:23 Say to Aaron and his sons, These are the words of blessing which are to be used by you in blessing the children of Israel; say to them, +Num 6:24 May the Lord send his blessing on you and keep you: +Num 6:25 May the light of the Lord's face be shining on you in grace: +Num 6:26 May the Lord's approval be resting on you and may he give you peace. +Num 6:27 So they will put my name on the children of Israel, and I will give them my blessing. +Num 7:1 And when Moses had put up the House completely, and had put oil on it and made it holy, with all the things in it, and had made the altar and all its vessels holy with oil; +Num 7:2 Then the chiefs of Israel, the heads of their fathers' houses, made offerings; these were the chiefs of the tribes, who were over those who were numbered. +Num 7:3 And they came with their offerings before the Lord, six covered carts and twelve oxen; a cart for every two of the chiefs, and for every one an ox. +Num 7:4 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 7:5 Take the things from them, to be used for the work of the Tent of meeting; and give them to the Levites, to every man what is needed for his work. +Num 7:6 So Moses took the carts and the oxen and gave them to the Levites. +Num 7:7 Two carts and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon for their work; +Num 7:8 And four carts and eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari for their work, under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. +Num 7:9 But to the sons of Kohath he gave nothing; because they had the care of the holy place, taking it about on their backs. +Num 7:10 And the chiefs gave an offering for the altar on the day when the holy oil was put on it; they made their offering before the altar. +Num 7:11 And the Lord said to Moses, Let every chief on his day give his offering to make the altar holy. +Num 7:12 And he who made his offering on the first day was Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah: +Num 7:13 And his offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:14 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice for burning; +Num 7:15 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burned offering; +Num 7:16 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:17 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab. +Num 7:18 On the second day Nethanel, the son of Zuar, chief of Issachar, made his offering: +Num 7:19 He gave one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:20 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice; +Num 7:21 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burned offering; +Num 7:22 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:23 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Nethanel, the son of Zuar. +Num 7:24 On the third day Eliab, the son of Helon, chief of the children of Zebulun: +Num 7:25 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:26 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice; +Num 7:27 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burned offering; +Num 7:28 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:29 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Eliab, the son of Helon. +Num 7:30 On the fourth day Elizur, the son of Shedeur, chief of the children of Reuben: +Num 7:31 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:32 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice; +Num 7:33 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burned offering; +Num 7:34 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:35 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Elizur, the son of Shedeur. +Num 7:36 On the fifth day Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai, chief of the children of Simeon: +Num 7:37 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:38 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice; +Num 7:39 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burned offering; +Num 7:40 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:41 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai. +Num 7:42 On the sixth day Eliasaph, the son of Reuel, chief of the children of Gad: +Num 7:43 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:44 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice; +Num 7:45 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burned offering; +Num 7:46 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:47 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Eliasaph, the son of Reuel +Num 7:48 On the seventh day Elishama, the son of Ammihud, chief of the children of Ephraim: +Num 7:49 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:50 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice; +Num 7:51 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burned offering; +Num 7:52 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:53 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Elishama, the son of Ammihud. +Num 7:54 On the eighth day Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur, chief of the children of Manasseh: +Num 7:55 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:56 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice; +Num 7:57 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burned offering; +Num 7:58 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:59 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur. +Num 7:60 On the ninth day Abidan, the son of Gideoni, chief of the children of Benjamin: +Num 7:61 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:62 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice; +Num 7:63 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year for a burned offering; +Num 7:64 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:65 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Abidan, the son of Gideoni. +Num 7:66 On the tenth day Ahiezer; the son of Ammishaddai, chief of the children of Dan: +Num 7:67 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:68 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice; +Num 7:69 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burned offering; +Num 7:70 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:71 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai. +Num 7:72 On the eleventh day Pagiel, the son of Ochran, chief of the children of Asher: +Num 7:73 His offering was one silver plate; a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:74 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice; +Num 7:75 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burned offering; +Num 7:76 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:77 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Pagiel, the son of Ochran. +Num 7:78 On the twelfth day Ahira, the son of Enan, chief of the children of Naphtali: +Num 7:79 His offering was one silver plate, a hundred and thirty shekels in weight, one silver basin of seventy shekels, by the scale of the holy place; the two of them full of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering; +Num 7:80 One gold spoon of ten shekels, full of spice; +Num 7:81 One young ox, one male sheep, one he-lamb of the first year, for a burned offering; +Num 7:82 One male of the goats for a sin-offering; +Num 7:83 And for the peace-offerings, two oxen, five male sheep, five he-goats, five he-lambs of the first year: this was the offering of Ahira, the son of Enan. +Num 7:84 These were the offerings given for the altar by the chiefs of Israel, when the holy oil was put on it: twelve silver plates, twelve silver basins, twelve gold spoons; +Num 7:85 The weight of every silver plate was a hundred and thirty shekels, and of every basin seventy; the weight of all the silver of the vessels was two thousand and four hundred shekels, by the scale of the holy place; +Num 7:86 The weight of the twelve gold spoons of spice for burning was ten shekels for every one, by the scale of the holy place; all the gold of the spoons was a hundred and twenty shekels; +Num 7:87 All the oxen, for the burned offering were twelve, the male sheep twelve, the he-lambs of the first year twelve, with their meal offering; and the males of the goats for sin-offering twelve; +Num 7:88 And all the oxen for the peace-offerings, twenty-four oxen, the male sheep sixty, and the he-goats sixty, the he-lambs of the first year sixty. This was given for the altar after the holy oil was put on it. +Num 7:89 And when Moses went into the Tent of meeting to have talk with him, then the Voice came to his ears from over the cover which was on the ark of witness, from between the two winged ones. And he had talk with him. +Num 8:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 8:2 Say to Aaron, When you put the lights in their places, the seven lights will give light in front of the support. +Num 8:3 And Aaron did so; he put the lights in their places so that they gave light in front of the support, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Num 8:4 The support for the lights was of hammered gold work, from its base to its flowers it was of hammered work; from the design which the Lord had given to Moses, he made the support for the lights. +Num 8:5 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 8:6 Take the Levites out from among the children of Israel and make them clean. +Num 8:7 And this is how you are to make them clean: let the holy water which takes away sin be put on them, and let the hair all over their bodies be cut off with a sharp blade, and let their clothing be washed and their bodies made clean. +Num 8:8 Then let them take a young ox and its meal offering, crushed grain mixed with oil, and take another ox for a sin-offering. +Num 8:9 And make the Levites come forward in front of the Tent of meeting, and let all the children of Israel come together: +Num 8:10 And you are to take the Levites before the Lord: and the children of Israel are to put their hands on them: +Num 8:11 And Aaron is to give the Levites to the Lord as a wave offering from the children of Israel, so that they may do the Lord's work. +Num 8:12 And the Levites are to put their hands on the heads of the oxen, and one of the oxen is to be offered for a sin-offering and the other for a burned offering to the Lord to take away the sin of the Levites. +Num 8:13 Then the Levites are to be put before Aaron and his sons, to be offered as a wave offering to the Lord. +Num 8:14 So you are to make the Levites separate from the children of Israel, and the Levites will be mine. +Num 8:15 After that, the Levites will go in to do whatever has to be done in the Tent of meeting; you are to make them clean and give them as a wave offering. +Num 8:16 For they have been given to me from among the children of Israel; in place of every mother's first son, the first to come to birth in Israel, I have taken them for myself. +Num 8:17 For every mother's first son among the children of Israel is mine, the first male birth of man or beast: on the day when I sent death on all the first sons in the land of Egypt, I made them mine. +Num 8:18 And in place of the first sons among the children of Israel, I have taken the Levites. +Num 8:19 And I have given them to Aaron and to his sons, from among the children of Israel, to undertake for them all the work of the Tent of meeting, and to take away sin from the children of Israel so that no evil may come on them when they come near the holy place. +Num 8:20 All these things Moses and Aaron and the children of Israel did to the Levites; as the Lord gave orders to Moses about the Levites, so the children of Israel did. +Num 8:21 And the Levites were made clean from sin, and their clothing was washed, and Aaron gave them for a wave offering before the Lord; and Aaron took away their sin and made them clean. +Num 8:22 And then the Levites went in to do their work in the Tent of meeting before Aaron and his sons: all the orders which the Lord had given Moses about the Levites were put into effect. +Num 8:23 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 8:24 This is the rule for the Levites: those of twenty-five years old and over are to go in and do the work of the Tent of meeting; +Num 8:25 But after they are fifty years old, they are to give up their work and do no more; +Num 8:26 But be with their brothers in the Tent of meeting, taking care of it but doing no work. This is what you are to do in connection with the Levites and their work. +Num 9:1 And the Lord said to Moses, in the waste land of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, +Num 9:2 Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at its regular time. +Num 9:3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, you are to keep it at the regular time, and in the way ordered in the law. +Num 9:4 And Moses gave orders to the children of Israel to keep the Passover. +Num 9:5 So they kept the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the waste land of Sinai: as the Lord gave orders to Moses, so the children of Israel did. +Num 9:6 And there were certain men who were unclean because of a dead body, so that they were not able to keep the Passover on that day; and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day: +Num 9:7 And these men said to him, We have been made unclean by the dead body of a man; why may we not make the offering of the Lord at the regular time among the children of Israel? +Num 9:8 And Moses said to them, Do nothing till the Lord gives me directions about you. +Num 9:9 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 9:10 Say to the children of Israel, If any one of you or of your families is unclean because of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, still he is to keep the Passover to the Lord: +Num 9:11 In the second month, on the fourteenth day, in the evening, they are to keep it, taking it with unleavened bread and bitter-tasting plants; +Num 9:12 Nothing of it is to be kept till the morning, and no bone of it is to be broken: they are to keep it by the rules of the Passover. +Num 9:13 But the man who, not being unclean or on a journey, does not keep the Passover, will be cut off from his people: because he did not make the offering of the Lord at the regular time, his sin will be on him. +Num 9:14 And if a man from another country is among you and has a desire to keep the Passover to the Lord, let him do as is ordered in the law of the Passover: there is to be the same rule for the man from another nation and for him who had his birth in the land. +Num 9:15 And on the day when the House was put up, the cloud came down on it, on the Tent of witness; and in the evening there was a light like fire over the House till the morning. +Num 9:16 And so it was at all times: it was covered by the cloud, and by a light as of fire by night. +Num 9:17 And whenever the cloud was taken up from over the House, then the children of Israel went journeying on; and in the place where the cloud came to rest, there the children of Israel put up their tents. +Num 9:18 At the order of the Lord the children of Israel went forward, and at the order of the Lord they put up their tents: as long as the cloud was resting on the House, they did not go away from that place. +Num 9:19 When the cloud was resting on the House for a long time the children of Israel, waiting for the order of the Lord, did not go on. +Num 9:20 Sometimes the cloud was resting on the House for two or three days; then, by the order of the Lord, they kept their tents in that place, and when the Lord gave the order they went on. +Num 9:21 And sometimes the cloud was there only from evening to morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning they went on their journey again: or if it was resting there by day and by night, whenever the cloud was taken up they went forward. +Num 9:22 Or if the cloud came to rest on the House for two days or a month or a year without moving, the children of Israel went on waiting there and did not go on; but whenever it was taken up they went forward on their journey. +Num 9:23 At the word of the Lord they put up their tents, and at the word of the Lord they went forward on their journey: they kept the orders of the Lord as he gave them by Moses. +Num 10:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 10:2 Make two silver horns of hammered work, to be used for getting the people together and to give the sign for the moving of the tents. +Num 10:3 When they are sounded, all the people are to come together to you at the door of the Tent of meeting. +Num 10:4 If only one of them is sounded, then the chiefs, the heads of the thousands of Israel, are to come to you. +Num 10:5 When a loud note is sounded, the tents placed on the east side are to go forward. +Num 10:6 At the sound of a second loud note, the tents on the south side are to go forward: the loud note will be the sign to go forward. +Num 10:7 But when all the people are to come together, the horn is to be sounded but not loudly. +Num 10:8 The horns are to be sounded by the sons of Aaron, the priests; this is to be a law for you for ever, from generation to generation. +Num 10:9 And if you go to war in your land against any who do you wrong, then let the loud note of the horn be sounded; and the Lord your God will keep you in mind and give you salvation from those who are against you. +Num 10:10 And on days of joy and on your regular feasts and on the first day of every month, let the horns be sounded over your burned offerings and your peace-offerings; and they will put the Lord in mind of you: I am the Lord your God. +Num 10:11 Now in the second year, on the twentieth day of the second month, the cloud was taken up from over the Tent of witness. +Num 10:12 And the children of Israel went on their journey out of the waste land of Sinai; and the cloud came to rest in the waste land of Paran. +Num 10:13 They went forward for the first time on their journey as the Lord had given orders by the hand of Moses. +Num 10:14 First the flag of the children of Judah went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Nahshon, the son of Amminadab. +Num 10:15 And at the head of the army of the children of Issachar was Nethanel, the son of Zuar. +Num 10:16 And at the head of the army of the children of Zebulun was Eliab, the son of Helon. +Num 10:17 Then the House was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who were responsible for moving the House, went forward. +Num 10:18 Then the flag of the children of Reuben went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Elizur, the son of Shedeur. +Num 10:19 And at the head of the army of the children of Simeon was Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai. +Num 10:20 At the head of the army of the children of Gad was Eliasaph, the son of Reuel. +Num 10:21 Then the Kohathites went forward with the holy place; the others put up the House ready for their coming. +Num 10:22 Then the flag of the children of Ephraim went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Elishama, the son of Ammihud. +Num 10:23 At the head of the army of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur. +Num 10:24 At the head of the army of the children of Benjamin was Abidan, the son of Gideoni. +Num 10:25 And the flag of the children of Dan, whose tents were moved last of all, went forward with their armies: and at the head of his army was Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai. +Num 10:26 At the head of the army of the children of Asher was Pagiel, the son of Ochran. +Num 10:27 And at the head of the army of the children of Naphtali was Ahira, the son of Enan. +Num 10:28 This was the order in which the children of Israel were journeying by armies; so they went forward. +Num 10:29 Then Moses said to Hobab, the son of his father-in-law Reuel the Midianite, We are journeying to that place of which the Lord has said, I will give it to you: so come with us, and it will be for your profit: for the Lord has good things in store for Israel. +Num 10:30 But he said, I will not go with you, I will go back to the land of my birth and to my relations. +Num 10:31 And he said, Do not go from us; for you will be eyes for us, guiding us to the right places in the waste land to put up our tents. +Num 10:32 And if you come with us, we will give you a part in whatever good the Lord does for us. +Num 10:33 So they went forward three days' journey from the mountain of the Lord; and the ark of the Lord's agreement went three days' journey before them, looking for a resting-place for them; +Num 10:34 And by day the cloud of the Lord went over them, when they went forward from the place where they had put up their tents. +Num 10:35 And when the ark went forward Moses said, Come up, O Lord, and let the armies of those who are against you be broken, and let your haters go in flight before you. +Num 10:36 And when it came to rest, he said, Take rest, O Lord, and give a blessing to the families of Israel. +Num 11:1 Now the people were saying evil against the Lord; and the Lord, hearing it, was angry and sent fire on them, burning the outer parts of the tent-circle. +Num 11:2 And the people made an outcry to Moses, and Moses made prayer to the Lord, and the fire was stopped. +Num 11:3 So that place was named Taberah, because of the fire of the Lord which had been burning among them. +Num 11:4 And the mixed band of people who went with them were overcome by desire: and the children of Israel, weeping again, said, Who will give us flesh for our food? +Num 11:5 Sweet is the memory of the fish we had in Egypt for nothing, and the fruit and green plants of every sort, sharp and pleasing to the taste: +Num 11:6 But now our soul is wasted away; there is nothing at all: we have nothing but this manna before our eyes. +Num 11:7 Now the manna was like a seed of grain, like small clear drops. +Num 11:8 The people went about taking it up from the earth, crushing it between stones or hammering it to powder, and boiling it in pots, and they made cakes of it: its taste was like the taste of cakes cooked with oil. +Num 11:9 When the dew came down on the tents at night, the manna came down with it. +Num 11:10 And at the sound of the people weeping, every man at his tent-door, the wrath of the Lord was great, and Moses was very angry. +Num 11:11 And Moses said to the Lord, Why have you done me this evil? and why have I not grace in your eyes, that you have put on me the care of all this people? +Num 11:12 Am I the father of all this people? have I given them birth, that you say to me, Take them in your arms, like a child at the breast, to the land which you gave by an oath to their fathers? +Num 11:13 Where am I to get flesh to give to all this people? For they are weeping to me and saying, Give us flesh for our food. +Num 11:14 I am not able by myself to take the weight of all this people, for it is more than my strength. +Num 11:15 If this is to be my fate, put me to death now in answer to my prayer, if I have grace in your eyes; and let me not see my shame. +Num 11:16 And the Lord said to Moses, Send for seventy of the responsible men of Israel, who are in your opinion men of weight and authority over the people; make them come to the Tent of meeting and be there with you. +Num 11:17 And I will come down and have talk with you there: and I will take some of the spirit which is on you and put it on them, and they will take part of the weight of the people off you, so that you do not have to take it by yourself. +Num 11:18 And say to the people, Make yourselves clean before tomorrow and you will have flesh for your food: for in the ears of the Lord you have been weeping and saying, Who will give us flesh for food? for we were well off in Egypt: and so the Lord will give you flesh, and it will be your food; +Num 11:19 Not for one day only, or even for five or ten or twenty days; +Num 11:20 But every day for a month, till you are tired of it, turning from it in disgust: because you have gone against the Lord who is with you, and have been weeping before him saying, Why did we come out of Egypt? +Num 11:21 Then Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, I will give them flesh to be their food for a month. +Num 11:22 Are flocks and herds to be put to death for them? or are all the fish in the sea to be got together so that they may be full? +Num 11:23 And the Lord said to Moses, Has the Lord's hand become short? Now you will see if my word comes true for you or not. +Num 11:24 And Moses went out and gave the people the words of the Lord: and he took seventy of the responsible men of the people, placing them round the Tent. +Num 11:25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and had talk with him, and put on the seventy men some of the spirit which was on him: now when the spirit came to rest on them, they were like prophets, but only at that time. +Num 11:26 But two men were still in the tent-circle one of them named Eldad and the other Medad: and the spirit came to rest on them; they were among those who had been sent for, but they had not gone out to the Tent: and the prophet's power came on them in the tent-circle. +Num 11:27 And a young man went running to Moses and said, Eldad and Medad are acting as prophets in the tent-circle. +Num 11:28 Then Joshua, the son of Nun, who had been Moses' servant from the time when he was a child, said, My lord Moses, let them be stopped. +Num 11:29 And Moses said to him, Are you moved by envy on my account? If only all the Lord's people were prophets, and the Lord might put his spirit on them! +Num 11:30 Then Moses, with the responsible men of Israel, went back to the tent-circle. +Num 11:31 Then the Lord sent a wind, driving little birds from the sea, so that they came down on the tents, and all round the tent-circle, about a day's journey on this side and on that, in masses about two cubits high over the face of the earth. +Num 11:32 And all that day and all night and the day after, the people were taking up the birds; the smallest amount which anyone got was ten homers: and they put them out all round the tents. +Num 11:33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was tasted, the wrath of the Lord was moved against the people and he sent a great outburst of disease on them. +Num 11:34 So that place was named Kibroth-hattaavah; because there they put in the earth the bodies of the people who had given way to their desires. +Num 11:35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people went on to Hazeroth; and there they put up their tents. +Num 12:1 Now Miriam and Aaron said evil against Moses, because of the Cushite woman to whom he was married, for he had taken a Cushite woman as his wife. +Num 12:2 And they said, Have the words of the Lord been given to Moses only? have they not come to us? And the Lord took note of it. +Num 12:3 Now the man Moses was more gentle than any other man on earth. +Num 12:4 And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam, Come out, you three, to the Tent of meeting. And the three of them went out. +Num 12:5 And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, taking his place at the door of the Tent, and made Aaron and Miriam come before him. +Num 12:6 And he said, Now give ear to my words: if there is a prophet among you I will give him knowledge of myself in a vision and will let my words come to him in a dream. +Num 12:7 My servant Moses is not so; he is true to me in all my house: +Num 12:8 With him I will have talk mouth to mouth, openly and not in dark sayings; and with his eyes he will see the form of the Lord: why then had you no fear of saying evil against my servant Moses? +Num 12:9 And burning with wrath against them, the Lord went away. +Num 12:10 And the cloud was moved from over the Tent; and straight away Miriam became a leper, as white as snow: and Aaron, looking at Miriam, saw that she was a leper. +Num 12:11 Then Aaron said to Moses, O my lord, let not our sin be on our heads, for we have done foolishly and are sinners. +Num 12:12 Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half wasted when he comes out from the body of his mother. +Num 12:13 And Moses, crying to the Lord, said, Let my prayer come before you, O God, and make her well. +Num 12:14 And the Lord said to Moses, If her father had put a mark of shame on her, would she not be shamed for seven days? Let her be shut up outside the tent-circle for seven days, and after that she may come in again. +Num 12:15 So Miriam was shut up outside the tent-circle for seven days: and the people did not go forward on their journey till Miriam had come in again. +Num 12:16 After that, the people went on from Hazeroth and put up their tents in the waste land of Paran. +Num 13:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 13:2 Send men to get knowledge about the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from every tribe of their fathers you are to send a man, every one a chief among them. +Num 13:3 And Moses sent them from the waste land of Paran as the Lord gave orders, all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel. +Num 13:4 And these were their names: of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua, the son of Zaccur. +Num 13:5 Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat, the son of Hori. +Num 13:6 Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. +Num 13:7 Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal, the son of Joseph. +Num 13:8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea, the son of Nun. +Num 13:9 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti, the son of Raphu. +Num 13:10 Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel, the son of Sodi. +Num 13:11 Of the tribe of Joseph, that is of the family of Manasseh, Gaddi, the son of Susi. +Num 13:12 Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel, the son of Gemalli. +Num 13:13 Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur, the son of Michael +Num 13:14 Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi, the son of Vophsi. +Num 13:15 Of the tribe of Gad, Gevel, the son of Machi. +Num 13:16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to get knowledge about the land. And Moses gave to Hoshea, the son of Nun, the name of Joshua. +Num 13:17 So Moses sent them to have a look at the land of Canaan, and said to them, Go up into the South and into the hill-country; +Num 13:18 And see what the land is like; and if the people living in it are strong or feeble, small or great in number; +Num 13:19 And what sort of land they are living in, if it is good or bad; and what their living-places are, tent-circles or walled towns; +Num 13:20 And if the land is fertile or poor, and if there is wood in it or not. And be of good heart, and come back with some of the produce of the land. Now it was the time when the first grapes were ready. +Num 13:21 So they went up and got a view of the land, from the waste land of Zin to Rehob, on the way to Hamath. +Num 13:22 They went up into the South and came to Hebron; and Ahiman and Sheshai and Talmai, the children of Anak, were living there. (Now the building of Hebron took place seven years before that of Zoan in Egypt.) +Num 13:23 And they came to the valley of Eshcol, and cutting down a vine-branch with its grapes, two of them took it on a rod between them; and they took some pomegranates and figs. +Num 13:24 That place was named the valley of Eshcol because of the grapes which the children of Israel took from there. +Num 13:25 At the end of forty days they came back from viewing the land. +Num 13:26 And they came back to Moses and Aaron and all the children of Israel, to Kadesh in the waste land of Paran; and gave an account to them and to all the people and let them see the produce of the land. +Num 13:27 And they said, We came to the land where you sent us, and truly it is flowing with milk and honey: and here is some of the produce of it. +Num 13:28 But the people living in the land are strong, and the towns are walled and very great; further, we saw the children of Anak there. +Num 13:29 And the Amalekites are in the South; and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill-country; and the Canaanites by the sea and by the side of Jordan. +Num 13:30 Then Caleb made signs to the people to keep quiet, and said to Moses, Let us go up straight away and take this land; for we are well able to overcome it. +Num 13:31 But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. +Num 13:32 And they gave the children of Israel a bad account of the land they had been to see, saying, This land through which we went is a land causing destruction to those living in it; and all the people we saw there are men of more than common size. +Num 13:33 There we saw those great men, the sons of Anak, offspring of the Nephilim: and we seemed to ourselves no more than insects, and so we seemed to them. +Num 14:1 Then all the people gave load cries of grief, and all that night they gave themselves up to weeping. +Num 14:2 And all the children of Israel, crying out against Moses and Aaron, said, If only we had come to our death in the land of Egypt, or even in this waste land! +Num 14:3 Why is the Lord taking us into this land to come to our death by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will get into strange hands: would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? +Num 14:4 And they said to one another, Let us make a captain over us, and go back to Egypt. +Num 14:5 Then Moses and Aaron went down on their faces before the meeting of the people. +Num 14:6 And Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, two of those who had been to see the land, giving signs of grief, +Num 14:7 Said to all the children of Israel, This land which we went through to see is a very good land. +Num 14:8 And if the Lord has delight in us, he will take us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. +Num 14:9 Only, do not go against the Lord or go in fear of the people of the land, for they will be our food; their strength has been taken from them and the Lord is with us: have no fear of them. +Num 14:10 But all the people said they were to be stoned. Then the glory of the Lord was seen in the Tent of meeting, before the eyes of all the children of Israel. +Num 14:11 And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people have no respect for me? how long will they be without faith, in the face of all the signs I have done among them? +Num 14:12 I will send disease on them for their destruction, and take away their heritage, and I will make of you a nation greater and stronger than they. +Num 14:13 And Moses said to the Lord, Then it will come to the ears of the Egyptians; for by your power you took this people out from among them; +Num 14:14 And they will give the news to the people of this land: they have had word that you, Lord, are present with this people, letting yourself be seen face to face, and that your cloud is resting over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. +Num 14:15 Now if you put to death all this people as one man, then the nations who have had word of your glory will say, +Num 14:16 Because the Lord was not able to take this people into the land which he made an oath to give them, he sent destruction on them in the waste land. +Num 14:17 So now, may my prayer come before you, and let the power of the Lord be great, as you said: +Num 14:18 The Lord is slow to wrath and great in mercy, overlooking wrongdoing and evil, and will not let wrongdoers go free; sending punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation. +Num 14:19 May the sin of this people have forgiveness, in the measure of your great mercy, as you have had mercy on them from Egypt up till now. +Num 14:20 And the Lord said, I have had mercy, as you say: +Num 14:21 But truly, as I am living, and as all the earth will be full of the glory of the Lord; +Num 14:22 Because all these men, having seen my glory and the signs which I have done in Egypt and in the waste land, still have put me to the test ten times, and have not given ear to my voice; +Num 14:23 They will not see the land about which I made an oath to their fathers; not one of these by whom I have not been honoured will see it. +Num 14:24 But my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit in him, and has been true to me with all his heart, him I will take into that land into which he went, and his seed will have it for their heritage. +Num 14:25 Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites are in the valley; tomorrow, turning round, go into the waste land by the way to the Red Sea. +Num 14:26 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, +Num 14:27 How long am I to put up with this evil people and their outcries against me? The words which they say against me have come to my ears. +Num 14:28 Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, as certainly as your words have come to my ears, so certainly will I do this to you: +Num 14:29 Your dead bodies will be stretched out in this waste land; and of all your number, all those of twenty years old and over who have been crying out against me, +Num 14:30 Not one will come into the land which I gave my word you would have for your resting-place, but only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun. +Num 14:31 And your little ones, whom you said would come into strange hands, I will take in, and they will see the land which you would not have. +Num 14:32 But as for you, your dead bodies will be stretched in this waste land. +Num 14:33 And your children will be wanderers in the waste land for forty years, undergoing punishment for your false ways, till your bodies become dust in the waste land. +Num 14:34 And as you went through the land viewing it for forty days, so for forty years, a year for every day, you will undergo punishment for your wrongdoing, and you will see that I am against you. +Num 14:35 I the Lord have said it, and this I will certainly do to all this evil people who have come together against me: in this waste land destruction will come on them, and death will be their fate. +Num 14:36 And the men whom Moses sent to see the land, and who, by the bad account they gave of the land, were the cause of the outcry the people made against Moses, +Num 14:37 Those same men who said evil of the land, came to their death by disease before the Lord. +Num 14:38 But Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, of those who went to see the land, were not touched by disease. +Num 14:39 And when Moses put these words before the children of Israel, the people were full of grief. +Num 14:40 And early in the morning they got up and went to the top of the mountain, saying, We are here and we will go up to the place which the Lord said he would give us: for we have done wrong. +Num 14:41 And Moses said, Why are you now acting against the Lord's order, seeing that no good will come of it? +Num 14:42 Go not up, for the Lord is not with you, and you will be overcome by those who are fighting against you. +Num 14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you will be put to death by their swords: because you have gone back from the way of the Lord, the Lord will not be with you. +Num 14:44 But they gave no attention to his words and went to the top of the mountain, though Moses and the ark of the Lord's agreement did not go out of the tent-circle. +Num 14:45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who were living in the hill-country, and overcame them completely, driving them back as far as Hormah. +Num 15:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 15:2 Say to the children of Israel, When you have come into the land which I am giving to you for your resting-place, +Num 15:3 And are going to make an offering by fire to the Lord, a burned offering or an offering in connection with an oath, or an offering freely given, or at your regular feasts, an offering for a sweet smell to the Lord, from the herd or the flock: +Num 15:4 Then let him who is making his offering, give to the Lord a meal offering of a tenth part of a measure of the best meal mixed with a fourth part of a hin of oil: +Num 15:5 And for the drink offering, you are to give with the burned offering or other offering, the fourth part of a hin of wine for every lamb. +Num 15:6 Or for a male sheep, give as a meal offering two tenth parts of a measure of the best meal mixed with a third part of a hin of oil: +Num 15:7 And for the drink offering give a third part of a hin of wine, for a sweet smell to the Lord. +Num 15:8 And when you make ready a young ox for a burned or other offering, or for the effecting of an oath, or for peace-offerings to the Lord: +Num 15:9 Then with the ox give a meal offering of three tenth parts of a measure of the best meal mixed with half a hin of oil. +Num 15:10 And for the drink offering: give half a hin of wine, for an offering made by fire for a sweet smell to the Lord. +Num 15:11 This is to be done for every young ox and for every male sheep or he-lamb or young goat. +Num 15:12 Whatever number you make ready, so you are to do for every one. +Num 15:13 All those who are Israelites by birth are to do these things in this way, when giving an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord. +Num 15:14 And if a man from another country or any other person living among you, through all your generations, has the desire to give an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord, let him do as you do. +Num 15:15 There is to be one law for you and for the man of another country living with you, one law for ever from generation to generation; as you are, so is he to be before the Lord. +Num 15:16 The law and the rule are to be the same for you and for those from other lands living with you. +Num 15:17 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 15:18 Say to the children of Israel, When you come into the land where I am guiding you, +Num 15:19 Then, when you take for your food the produce of the land, you are to give an offering lifted up before the Lord. +Num 15:20 Of the first of your rough meal you are to give a cake for a lifted offering, lifting it up before the Lord as the offering of the grain-floor is lifted up. +Num 15:21 From generation to generation you are to give to the Lord a lifted offering from the first of your rough meal. +Num 15:22 And if in error you go against any of these laws which the Lord has given to Moses, +Num 15:23 All the laws which the Lord has given you by the hand of Moses, from the day when the Lord gave them, and ever after from generation to generation; +Num 15:24 Then, if the wrong is done in error, without the knowledge of the meeting of the people, let all the meeting give a young ox as a burned offering, a sweet smell to the Lord, with its meal offering and its drink offering, as is ordered in the law, together with a he-goat for a sin-offering. +Num 15:25 So the priest will make the people free from sin, and they will have forgiveness; for it was an error, and they have given their offering made by fire to the Lord, and their sin-offering before the Lord, on account of their error: +Num 15:26 And all the meeting of the children of Israel, as well as those from other lands living among them, will have forgiveness; for it was an error on the part of the people. +Num 15:27 And if one person does wrong, without being conscious of it, then let him give a she-goat of the first year for a sin-offering. +Num 15:28 And the priest will take away the sin of the person who has done wrong, if the wrong was done unconsciously, and he will have forgiveness. +Num 15:29 The law in connection with wrong done unconsciously is to be the same for him who is an Israelite by birth and for the man from another country who is living among them. +Num 15:30 But the person who does wrong in the pride of his heart, if he is one of you or of another nation by birth, is acting without respect for the Lord, and will be cut off from his people. +Num 15:31 Because he had no respect for the word of the Lord, and did not keep his law, that man will be cut off without mercy and his sin will be on him. +Num 15:32 Now while the children of Israel were in the waste land, they saw a man who was getting sticks on the Sabbath day. +Num 15:33 And those who saw him getting sticks took him before Moses and Aaron and all the people. +Num 15:34 And they had him shut up, because they had no directions about what was to be done with him. +Num 15:35 Then the Lord said to Moses, Certainly the man is to be put to death: let him be stoned by all the people outside the tent-circle. +Num 15:36 So all the people took him outside the tent-circle and he was stoned to death there, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Num 15:37 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 15:38 Say to the children of Israel that through all their generations they are to put on the edges of their robes an ornament of twisted threads, and in every ornament a blue cord; +Num 15:39 So that, looking on these ornaments, you may keep in mind the orders of the Lord and do them; and not be guided by the desires of your hearts and eyes, through which you have been untrue to me: +Num 15:40 And that you may keep in mind all my orders and do them and be holy to your God. +Num 15:41 I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, so that I might be your God: I am the Lord your God. +Num 16:1 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Pallu, the son of Reuben, made themselves ready, +Num 16:2 And came before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty chiefs of the people, men of good name who had a place in the meeting of the people. +Num 16:3 They came together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You take overmuch on yourselves, seeing that all the people are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; why then have you put yourselves in authority over the people of the Lord? +Num 16:4 And Moses, hearing this, went down on his face; +Num 16:5 And he said to Korah and his band, In the morning the Lord will make clear who are his, and who is holy, and who may come near him: the man of his selection will be caused to come near him. +Num 16:6 So do this: let Korah and all his band take vessels for burning perfumes; +Num 16:7 And put spices on the fire in them before the Lord tomorrow; then the man marked out by the Lord will be holy: you take overmuch on yourselves, you sons of Levi. +Num 16:8 And Moses said to Korah, Give ear now, you sons of Levi: +Num 16:9 Does it seem only a small thing to you that the God of Israel has made you separate from the rest of Israel, letting you come near himself to do the work of the House of the Lord, and to take your place before the people to do what has to be done for them; +Num 16:10 Letting you, and all your brothers the sons of Levi, come near to him? and would you now be priests? +Num 16:11 So you and all your band have come together against the Lord; and Aaron, who is he, that you are crying out against him? +Num 16:12 Then Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: and they said, We will not come up: +Num 16:13 Is it not enough that you have taken us from a land flowing with milk and honey, to put us to death in the waste land, but now you are desiring to make yourself a chief over us? +Num 16:14 And more than this, you have not taken us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us a heritage of fields and vine-gardens: will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up. +Num 16:15 Then Moses was very angry, and said to the Lord, Give no attention to their offering: not one of their asses have I taken, or done wrong to any of them. +Num 16:16 And Moses said to Korah, You and all your band are to come before the Lord tomorrow, you and they and Aaron: +Num 16:17 And let every man take a vessel for burning perfumes, and put sweet spices in them; let every man take his vessel before the Lord, two hundred and fifty vessels; you and Aaron and everyone with his vessel. +Num 16:18 So every man took his vessel and they put fire in them, with spices, and came to the door of the Tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. +Num 16:19 And Korah made all the people come together against them to the door of the Tent of meeting: and the glory of the Lord was seen by all the people. +Num 16:20 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, +Num 16:21 Come out from among this people, so that I may send sudden destruction on them. +Num 16:22 Then falling down on their faces they said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, because of one man's sin will your wrath be moved against all the people? +Num 16:23 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 16:24 Say to the people, Come away from the tent of Korah Dathan, and Abiram. +Num 16:25 So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the responsible men of Israel went with him. +Num 16:26 And he said to the people, Come away now from the tents of these evil men, without touching anything of theirs, or you may be taken in the punishment of their sins. +Num 16:27 So on every side they went away from the tent of Korah Dathan, and Abiram: and Dathan and Abiram came out to the door of their tents, with their wives and their sons and their little ones. +Num 16:28 And Moses said, Now you will see that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and I have not done them of myself. +Num 16:29 If these men have the common death of men, or if the natural fate of all men overtakes them, then the Lord has not sent me. +Num 16:30 But if the Lord does something new, opening the earth to take them in, with everything which is theirs, and they go down living into the underworld, then it will be clear to you that the Lord has not been honoured by these men. +Num 16:31 And while these words were on his lips, the earth under them was parted in two; +Num 16:32 And the earth, opening her mouth, took them in, with their families, and all the men who were joined to Korah, and their goods. +Num 16:33 So they and all theirs went down living into the underworld, and the earth was shut over them, and they were cut off from among the meeting of the people. +Num 16:34 And all Israel round about them went in flight at their cry, For fear, said they, that we go down into the heart of the earth. +Num 16:35 Then fire came out from the Lord, burning up the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the perfume. +Num 16:36 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 16:37 Say to Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, that he is to take out of the flames the vessels with the perfumes in them, turning the fire out of them, for they are holy; +Num 16:38 And let the vessels of those men, who with their lives have made payment for their sin, be hammered out into plates as a cover for the altar; for they have been offered before the Lord and are holy; so that they may be a sign to the children of Israel. +Num 16:39 So Eleazar the priest took the brass vessels which had been offered by those who were burned up, and they were hammered out to make a cover for the altar: +Num 16:40 To be a sign, kept in memory for ever by the children of Israel, that no man who is not of the seed of Aaron has the right of burning spices before the Lord, so that he may not be like Korah and his band: as the Lord said to him by the mouth of Moses. +Num 16:41 But on the day after, all the children of Israel made an outcry against Moses and against Aaron, saying, You have put to death the Lord's people. +Num 16:42 Now when the people had come together against Moses and Aaron, looking in the direction of the Tent of meeting, they saw the cloud covering it, and the glory of the Lord came before their eyes. +Num 16:43 Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the Tent of meeting. +Num 16:44 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 16:45 Come out from among this people, so that I may send sudden destruction on them. And they went down on their faces. +Num 16:46 And Moses said to Aaron, Take your vessel and put in it fire from the altar, and sweet spices, and take it quickly into the meeting of the people, and make them free from sin: for wrath has gone out from the Lord, and the disease is starting. +Num 16:47 And at the words of Moses, Aaron took his vessel, and went running among the people; and even then the disease had made a start among them; and he put spices in his vessel to take away the sin of the people. +Num 16:48 And he took his place between the dead and the living: and the disease was stopped. +Num 16:49 Now fourteen thousand, seven hundred deaths were caused by that disease, in addition to those who came to their end because of what Korah had done. +Num 16:50 Then Aaron went back to Moses to the door of the Tent of meeting: and the disease came to a stop. +Num 17:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 17:2 Say to the children of Israel that they are to give you rods, one for every family, for every chief, the head of his father's house, making twelve rods; let every man's name be placed on his rod. +Num 17:3 And let Aaron's name be placed on the rod of Levi: for there is to be one rod for the head of every family. +Num 17:4 And let them be stored up in the Tent of meeting, in front of the ark of witness where I come to you. +Num 17:5 And the rod of that man who is marked out by me for myself will have buds on it; so I will put a stop to the outcries which the children of Israel make to me against you. +Num 17:6 So Moses gave these orders to the children of Israel, and all their chiefs gave him rods, one for the head of every family, making twelve rods: and Aaron's rod was among them. +Num 17:7 And Moses put the rods before the Lord in the Tent of witness. +Num 17:8 Now on the day after, Moses went into the Tent of witness; and he saw that Aaron's rod, the rod of the house of Levi, had put out buds, and was covered with buds and flowers and fruit. +Num 17:9 Then Moses took out all the rods from before the Lord, and gave them back to the children of Israel: and they saw them, and every man took his rod. +Num 17:10 And the Lord said to Moses, Put Aaron's rod back in front of the ark of witness, to be kept for a sign against this false-hearted people, so that you may put a stop to their outcries against me, and death may not overtake them. +Num 17:11 This Moses did: as the Lord gave orders, so he did. +Num 17:12 And the children of Israel said to Moses, Truly, destruction has come on us; an evil fate has overtaken us all. +Num 17:13 Death will overtake everyone who comes near, who comes near the House of the Lord: are we all to come to destruction? +Num 18:1 And the Lord said to Aaron, You and your sons and your father's family are to be responsible for all wrongdoing in relation to the holy place: and you and your sons are to be responsible for the errors which come about in your work as priests. +Num 18:2 Let your brothers, the family of Levi, come near with you, so that they may be joined with you and be your servants: but you and your sons with you are to go in before the ark of witness. +Num 18:3 They are to do your orders and be responsible for the work of the Tent; but they may not come near the vessels of the holy place or the altar, so that death may not overtake them or you. +Num 18:4 They are to be joined with you in the care of the Tent of meeting, doing whatever is needed for the Tent: and no one of any other family may come near you. +Num 18:5 You are to be responsible for the holy place and the altar, so that wrath may never again come on the children of Israel. +Num 18:6 Now, see, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel: they are given to you and to the Lord, to do the work of the Tent of meeting. +Num 18:7 And you and your sons with you are to be responsible as priests for the altar and everything on it, and everything inside the veil; you are to do the work of priests; I have given you your position as priests; and any other man who comes near will be put to death. +Num 18:8 And the Lord said to Aaron, See, I have given into your care my lifted offerings; even all the holy things of the children of Israel I have given to you and to your sons as your right for ever, because you have been marked with the holy oil. +Num 18:9 This is to be yours of the most holy things, out of the fire offerings; every offering of theirs, every meal offering and sin-offering, and every offering which they make on account of error, is to be most holy for you and your sons. +Num 18:10 As most holy things they are to be your food: let every male have them for food; it is to be holy to you. +Num 18:11 And this is yours: the lifted offering which they give and all the wave offerings of the children of Israel I have given to you and to your sons and to your daughters as your right for ever: everyone in your house who is clean may have them for food. +Num 18:12 All the best of the oil and the wine and the grain, the first-fruits of them which they give to the Lord, to you have I given them. +Num 18:13 The earliest produce from their land which they take to the Lord is to be yours; everyone in your house who is clean may have it for his food. +Num 18:14 Everything given by oath to the Lord in Israel is to be yours. +Num 18:15 The first birth of every living thing which is offered to the Lord, of man or beast, is to be yours; but for the first sons of man payment is to be made, and for the first young of unclean beasts. +Num 18:16 Payment is to be made for these when they are a month old, at the value fixed by you, a price of five shekels by the scale of the holy place, that is, twenty gerahs to the shekel. +Num 18:17 But no such payment may be made for the first birth of an ox or a sheep or a goat; these are holy: their blood is to be dropped on the altar, and their fat burned for an offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the Lord. +Num 18:18 Their flesh is to be yours; like the breast of the wave offering and the right leg, it is to be yours. +Num 18:19 All the lifted offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel give to the Lord, I have given to you and to your sons and to your daughters as a right for ever. This is an agreement made with salt before the Lord, to you and to your seed for ever. +Num 18:20 And the Lord said to Aaron, You will have no heritage in their land, or any part among them; I am your part and your heritage among the children of Israel. +Num 18:21 And to the children of Levi I have given as their heritage all the tenths offered in Israel, as payment for the work they do, the work of the Tent of meeting. +Num 18:22 In future the children of Israel are not to come near the Tent of meeting, so that death may not come to them because of sin. +Num 18:23 But the Levites are to do the work of the Tent of meeting, and be responsible for errors in connection with it: this is a law for ever through all your generations; and among the children of Israel they will have no heritage. +Num 18:24 For the tenths which the children of Israel give as a lifted offering to the Lord I have given to the Levites as their heritage. and so I have said to them, Among the children of Israel they will have no heritage. +Num 18:25 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 18:26 Say to the Levites, When you take from the children of Israel the tenth which I have given to you from them as your heritage, a tenth part of that tenth is to be offered as an offering lifted up before the Lord. +Num 18:27 And this lifted offering is to be put to your credit as if it was grain from the grain-floor and wine from the vines. +Num 18:28 So you are to make an offering lifted up to the Lord from all the tenths which you get from the children of Israel, giving out of it the Lord's lifted offering to Aaron the priest. +Num 18:29 From everything given to you, let the best of it, the holy part of it, be offered as a lifted offering to the Lord. +Num 18:30 Say to them, then, When the best of it is lifted up on high, it is to be put to the account of the Levites as the increase of the grain-floor and of the place where the grapes are crushed. +Num 18:31 It is to be your food, for you and your families in every place: it is your reward for your work in the Tent of meeting. +Num 18:32 And no sin will be yours on account of it, when the best of it has been lifted up on high; you are not to make a wrong use of the holy things of the children of Israel, so that death may not overtake you. +Num 19:1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, +Num 19:2 This is the rule of the law which the Lord has made, saying, Give orders to the children of Israel to give you a red cow without any mark on her, and on which the yoke has never been put: +Num 19:3 Give her to Eleazar the priest and let him take her outside the tent-circle and have her put to death before him. +Num 19:4 Then let Eleazar the priest take some of her blood on his finger, shaking the blood seven times in the direction of the front of the Tent of meeting: +Num 19:5 And the cow is to be burned before him, her skin and her flesh and her blood and her waste are to be burned: +Num 19:6 Then let the priest take cedar-wood and hyssop and red thread, and put them into the fire where the cow is burning. +Num 19:7 And the priest, after washing his clothing and bathing his body in water, may come back to the tent-circle, and will be unclean till evening. +Num 19:8 And he who does the burning is to have his clothing washed and his body bathed in water and be unclean till evening. +Num 19:9 Then let a man who is clean take the dust of the burned cow and put it outside the tent-circle in a clean place, where it is to be kept for the children of Israel and used in making the water which takes away what is unclean: it is a sin-offering. +Num 19:10 And he who takes up the dust of the burned cow is to have his clothing washed with water and be unclean till evening: this is to be a law for ever, for the children of Israel as well as for the man from another country who is living among them. +Num 19:11 Anyone touching a dead body will be unclean for seven days: +Num 19:12 On the third day and on the seventh day he is to make himself clean with the water, and so he will be clean: but if he does not do this on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. +Num 19:13 Anyone touching the body of a dead man without making himself clean in this way, makes the House of the Lord unclean; and that man will be cut off from Israel: because the water was not put on him, he will be unclean; his unclean condition is unchanged. +Num 19:14 This is the law when death comes to a man in his tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, will be unclean for seven days. +Num 19:15 And every open vessel without a cover fixed on it will be unclean. +Num 19:16 And anyone touching one who has been put to death with the sword in the open country, or the body of one who has come to his end by a natural death, or a man's bone, or the resting-place of a dead body, will be unclean for seven days. +Num 19:17 And for the unclean, they are to take the dust of the burning of the sin-offering, and put flowing water on it in a vessel: +Num 19:18 And a clean person is to take hyssop and put it in the water, shaking it over the tent, and all the vessels, and the people who were there, and over him by whom the bone, or the body of one who has been put to death with the sword, or the body of one who has come to his end by a natural death, or the resting-place was touched. +Num 19:19 Let the clean person do this to the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he is to make him clean; and after washing his clothing and bathing himself in water, he will be clean in the evening. +Num 19:20 But the man who, being unclean, does not make himself clean in this way, will be cut off from the meeting of the people, because he has made the holy place of the Lord unclean: the water has not been put on him, he is unclean. +Num 19:21 This is to be a law for them for ever: he who puts the water on the unclean person is to have his clothing washed; and anyone touching the water will be unclean till evening. +Num 19:22 Anything touched by the unclean person will be unclean; and any person touching it will be unclean till evening. +Num 20:1 In the first month all the children of Israel came into the waste land of Zin, and put up their tents in Kadesh; there death came to Miriam, and they put her body to rest in the earth. +Num 20:2 And there was no water for the people: and they came together against Moses and against Aaron. +Num 20:3 And the people were angry with Moses and said, If only death had overtaken us when our brothers came to their death before the Lord! +Num 20:4 Why have you taken the Lord's people into this waste, for death to come to us and to our cattle there? +Num 20:5 Why have you made us come out of Egypt into this evil place? This is no place of seed or figs or vines or other fruits, and there is no water for drinking. +Num 20:6 Then Moses and Aaron went away from the people to the door of the Tent of meeting; and, falling on their faces there, they saw the glory of the Lord. +Num 20:7 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 20:8 Take the rod, you and Aaron, your brother, and make all the people come together, and before their eyes give orders to the rock to give out its water; and so make water come out of the rock for them, and give the people and their cattle drink. +Num 20:9 And Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he gave him orders. +Num 20:10 Then Moses and Aaron made the people come together in front of the rock, and he said to them, Give ear now, you people whose hearts are turned from the Lord; are we to get water for you out of the rock? +Num 20:11 And lifting up his hand, Moses gave the rock two blows with his rod: and water came streaming out, and the people and their cattle had drink enough. +Num 20:12 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you had not enough faith in me to keep my name holy before the children of Israel, you will not take this people into the land which I have given them. +Num 20:13 These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel went against the Lord, and they saw that he was holy among them. +Num 20:14 Then Moses sent men from Kadesh to the king of Edom to say to him, Your brother Israel says, You have knowledge of all the things we have been through; +Num 20:15 How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we were living in Egypt for a long time; and the Egyptians were cruel to us and to our fathers: +Num 20:16 And the Lord gave ear to the voice of our cry, and sent an angel and took us out of Egypt: and now we are in Kadesh, a town on the edge of your land; +Num 20:17 Let us now go through your land: we will not go into field or vine-garden, or take the water of the springs; we will go by the highway, not turning to the right or to the left, till we have gone past the limits of your land. +Num 20:18 And Edom said, You are not to go through my land, for if you do I will come out against you with the sword. +Num 20:19 And the children of Israel said to him, We will go up by the highway: and if we or our cattle take of your water, we will give you a price for it: only let us go through on our feet, nothing more. +Num 20:20 But he said, You are not to go through. And Edom came out against them in his strength, with a great army. +Num 20:21 So Edom would not let Israel go through his land; and Israel went in another direction. +Num 20:22 And they went on from Kadesh, and came, with all their people, to Mount Hor. +Num 20:23 And at Mount Hor, at the edge of the land of Edom, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, +Num 20:24 Aaron will be put to rest with his people; he will not go into the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you went against my word at the waters of Meribah. +Num 20:25 So take Aaron and Eleazar, his son, up into Mount Hor; +Num 20:26 And take Aaron's robes off him and put them on Eleazar, his son: and death will come to Aaron there, and he will be put to rest with his people. +Num 20:27 So Moses did as the Lord had said, and before the eyes of all the people they went up Mount Hor. +Num 20:28 And Moses took off Aaron's robes, and put them on Eleazar, his son; and there on the top of the mountain death came to Aaron: then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. +Num 20:29 And when the people saw that Aaron was dead, all the children of Israel gave themselves up to weeping for him for thirty days. +Num 21:1 And it came to the ears of the Canaanite, the king of Arad, living in the South, that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, and he came out against them and took some of them prisoners. +Num 21:2 Then Israel made an oath to the Lord, and said, If you will give up this people into my hands, then I will send complete destruction on all their towns. +Num 21:3 And the Lord, in answer to the voice of Israel, gave the Canaanites up to them; and they put them and their towns completely to destruction: and that place was named Hormah. +Num 21:4 Then they went on from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, going round the land of Edom: and the spirit of the people was overcome with weariness on the way. +Num 21:5 And crying out against God and against Moses, they said, Why have you taken us out of Egypt to come to our death in the waste land? For there is no bread and no water, and this poor bread is disgusting to us. +Num 21:6 Then the Lord sent poison-snakes among the people; and their bites were a cause of death to numbers of the people of Israel. +Num 21:7 Then the people came to Moses and said, We have done wrong in crying out against the Lord and against you: make prayer to the Lord to take away the snakes from us. So Moses made prayer for the people. +Num 21:8 And the Lord said to Moses, Make an image of a snake and put it on a rod, and anyone who has been wounded by the snakes, looking on it will be made well. +Num 21:9 So Moses made a snake of brass and put it on a rod; and anyone who had a snakebite, after looking on the snake of brass, was made well. +Num 21:10 Then the children of Israel went on and put up their tents in Oboth. +Num 21:11 And journeying on again from Oboth, they put up their tents in Iye-abarim, in the waste land before Moab looking east. +Num 21:12 And moving on from there, they put up their tents in the valley of Zered. +Num 21:13 From there they went on and put up their tents on the other side of the Arnon, which is on the waste land at the edge of the land of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the line of division between Moab and the Amorites: +Num 21:14 As it says in the book of the Wars of the Lord, Vaheb in Suphah, and the valley of the Amon; +Num 21:15 The slope of the valleys going down to the tents of Ar and touching the edge of Moab. +Num 21:16 From there they went on to Beer, the water-spring of which the Lord said to Moses, Make the people come together and I will give them water. +Num 21:17 Then Israel gave voice to this song: Come up, O water-spring, let us make a song to it: +Num 21:18 The fountain made by the chiefs, made deep by the great ones of the people, with the law-givers' rod, and with their sticks. Then from the waste land they went on to Mattanah: +Num 21:19 And from Mattanah to Nahaliel: and from Nahaliel to Bamoth: +Num 21:20 And from Bamoth to the valley in the open country of Moab, and to the top of Pisgah looking over Jeshimon. +Num 21:21 And Israel sent men to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying, +Num 21:22 Let me go through your land: we will not go into field or vine-garden, or take the water of the springs; we will go by the highway till we have gone past the limits of your land. +Num 21:23 And Sihon would not let Israel go through his land; but got all his people together and went out against Israel into the waste land, as far as Jahaz, to make war on Israel. +Num 21:24 But Israel overcame him, and took all his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the country of the children of Ammon, for the country of the children of Ammon was strongly armed. +Num 21:25 And Israel took all their towns, living in Heshbon and all the towns and small places of the Amorites. +Num 21:26 For Heshbon was the town of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had made war against an earlier king of Moab and taken from him all his land as far as the Arnon. +Num 21:27 So the makers of wise sayings say, Come to Heshbon, building up the town of Sihon and making it strong: +Num 21:28 For a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the town of Sihon: for the destruction of Ar in Moab, and the lords of the high places of the Arnon. +Num 21:29 Sorrow is yours, O Moab! Destruction is your fate, O people of Chemosh: his sons have gone in flight, and his daughters are prisoners, in the hands of Sihon, king of the Amorites. +Num 21:30 They are wounded with our arrows; destruction has come on Heshbon, even to Dibon; and we have made the land waste as far as Nophah, stretching out to Medeba. +Num 21:31 So Israel put up their tents in the land of the Amorites. +Num 21:32 And Moses sent men secretly to Jazer, and they took its towns, driving out the Amorites who were living there. +Num 21:33 Then turning they went up by the way of Bashan; and Og, king of Bashan, went out against them with all his people, to the fight at Edrei. +Num 21:34 And the Lord said to Moses, Have no fear of him: for I have given him up into your hands, with all his people and his land; do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, at Heshbon. +Num 21:35 So they overcame him and his sons and his people, driving them all out: and they took his land for their heritage. +Num 22:1 Then the children of Israel, journeying on, put up their tents in the lowlands of Moab, on the other side of Jordan at Jericho. +Num 22:2 Now Balak, the son of Zippor, saw what Israel had done to the Amorites. +Num 22:3 And in Moab there was great fear of the people, because their numbers were so great: and the feeling of Moab was bitter against the children of Israel. +Num 22:4 Then Moab said to the responsible men of Midian, It is clear that this great people will be the destruction of everything round us, making a meal of us as the ox does of the grass of the field. At that time Balak, the son of Zippor, was king of Moab. +Num 22:5 So he sent men to Balaam, son of Beor, at Pethor by the River in the land of the children of his people, saying to him, See, a people has come out of Egypt, covering all the face of the earth, and they have put up their tents opposite to me: +Num 22:6 Come now, in answer to my prayer, and put a curse on this people, for they are greater than I: and then I may be strong enough to overcome them and send them out of the land: for it is clear that good comes to him who has your blessing, but he on whom you put your curse is cursed. +Num 22:7 So the responsible men of Moab and Midian went away, taking in their hands rewards for the prophet; and they came to Balaam and said to him what Balak had given them orders to say. +Num 22:8 And he said to them, Take your rest here tonight, and I will give you an answer after hearing what the Lord says; so the chiefs of Moab kept there with Balaam that night. +Num 22:9 And God came to Balaam and said, Who are these men with you? +Num 22:10 And Balaam said to God, Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent them to me, saying, +Num 22:11 See, the people who have come out of Egypt are covering all the earth: now, put a curse on this people for me, so that I may be able to make war on them, driving them out of the land. +Num 22:12 And God said to Balaam, You are not to go with them, or put a curse on this people, for they have my blessing. +Num 22:13 In the morning Balaam got up and said to the chiefs of Balak, Go back to your land, for the Lord will not let me go with you. +Num 22:14 So the chiefs of Moab went back to Balak and said, Balaam will not come with us. +Num 22:15 So Balak sent more chiefs, greater in number and of higher position than the others. +Num 22:16 And they came to Balaam and said, Balak, son of Zippor, says, Let nothing keep you from coming to me: +Num 22:17 For I will give you a place of very great honour, and whatever you say to me I will do; so come, in answer to my prayer, and put a curse on this people. +Num 22:18 But Balaam, in answer; said to the servants of Balak, Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, it would not be possible for me to do anything more or less than the orders of the Lord my God. +Num 22:19 So take your rest here this night, till I have knowledge what more the Lord has to say to me. +Num 22:20 And that night God came to Balaam and said to him, If these men have come for you, go with them: but do only what I say to you. +Num 22:21 So in the morning Balaam got up and, making his ass ready, went with the chiefs of Moab. +Num 22:22 But God was moved to wrath because he went: and the angel of the Lord took up a position in the road to keep him from his purpose. Now he was seated on his ass, and his two servants were with him. +Num 22:23 And the ass saw the angel of the Lord waiting in the road with his sword in his hand; and turning from the road, the ass went into the field; and Balaam gave the ass blows, to get her back on to the road. +Num 22:24 Then the angel of the Lord took up his position in a narrow road through the vine-gardens, with a wall on this side and on that. +Num 22:25 And the ass saw the angel of the Lord, and went near the wall, crushing Balaam's foot against the wall; and he gave her more blows. +Num 22:26 Then the angel of the Lord went further, stopping in a narrow place where there was no room for turning to the right or to the left. +Num 22:27 And the ass saw the angel of the Lord and went down on the earth under Balaam; and full of wrath, Balaam gave her hard blows with his stick. +Num 22:28 Then the Lord gave the ass the power of talking, and opening her mouth she said to Balaam, What have I done to you that you have given me blows these three times? +Num 22:29 And Balaam said to the ass, You have made me seem foolish: if only I had a sword in my hand I would put you to death. +Num 22:30 And the ass said to Balaam, Am I not your ass upon which you have gone all your life till this day? and have I ever done this to you before? And he said, No. +Num 22:31 Then the Lord made Balaam's eyes open, and he saw the angel of the Lord in the way with his sword in his hand: and he went down on his face to the earth. +Num 22:32 And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why have you given your ass blows these three times? See, I have come out against you to keep you back, because your purpose is not pleasing to me. +Num 22:33 And the ass saw me, turning to one side from me three times: if she had not gone to one side, I would certainly have put you to death and kept her safe. +Num 22:34 And Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have done wrong, for I did not see that you were in the way against me: but now, if it is evil in your eyes, I will go back again. +Num 22:35 And the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, Go with the men; but say only what I give you to say. Then Balaam went on with the chiefs of Balak. +Num 22:36 Now Balak, hearing that Balaam had come, went to the chief town of Moab, on the edge of the Arnon, in the farthest part of the land, for the purpose of meeting him. +Num 22:37 And Balak said to Balaam, Did I not send to you, requesting you with all my heart to come to me? why did you not come? am I not able to give you a place of honour? +Num 22:38 Then Balaam said to Balak, Now I have come to you; but have I power to say anything? Only what God puts into my mouth may I say. +Num 22:39 And Balaam went with Balak to Kiriath-huzoth. +Num 22:40 And Balak made offerings of oxen and sheep, and sent to Balaam and the chiefs who were with him. +Num 22:41 And in the morning Balak took Balaam up to the high places of Baal, and from there he was able to see the outer limits of the people. +Num 23:1 And Balaam said to Balak, Make me here seven altars and get ready seven oxen and seven male sheep. +Num 23:2 And Balak did as Balaam had said; and Balak and Balaam made an offering on every altar of an ox and a male sheep. +Num 23:3 Then Balaam said to Balak, Take your place by your burned offering, and I will go and see if the Lord comes to me: and I will give you word of whatever he says to me. And he went to an open place on a hill. +Num 23:4 And God came to Balaam, and Balaam said to him, I have made ready seven altars, offering an ox and a male sheep on every altar. +Num 23:5 And the Lord put words in Balaam's mouth, and said, Go back to Balak, and this is what you are to say. +Num 23:6 So he went back to him where he was waiting by his burned offering with all the chiefs of Moab. +Num 23:7 And in the words which the Lord had given him he said, From Aram Balak has sent for me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East: come, put curses on Jacob for me and be angry with Israel. +Num 23:8 How may I put curses on him who is not cursed by God? how may I be angry with him with whom the Lord is not angry? +Num 23:9 From the top of the rocks I see him, looking down on him from the hills: it is a people made separate, not to be numbered among the nations. +Num 23:10 Who is able to take the measure of the dust of Jacob or the number of the thousands of Israel? May my death be the death of the upright and my last end like his! +Num 23:11 Then Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I sent for you so that my haters might be cursed, and see, you have given them a blessing. +Num 23:12 And in answer he said, Am I not ordered to say only what the Lord puts into my mouth? +Num 23:13 And Balak said to him, Come with me now into another place from which you will not be able to see them all, but only the outskirts of them; and you will send curses on them from there. +Num 23:14 So he took him into the country of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and there they made seven altars, offering an ox and a male sheep on every altar. +Num 23:15 Then he said to Balak, Take your place here by your burned offering, while I go over there to the Lord. +Num 23:16 And the Lord came to Balaam, and put words in his mouth, and said, Go back to Balak, and this is what you are to say. +Num 23:17 So he came to him where he was waiting by his burned offering with the chiefs of Moab by his side. And Balak said to him, What has the Lord said? +Num 23:18 And in the words which the Lord had given him he said, Up! Balak, and give ear; give attention to me, O son of Zippor: +Num 23:19 God is not a man, to say what is false; or the son of man, that his purpose may be changed: what he has said, will he not do? and will he not give effect to the words of his mouth? +Num 23:20 See, I have had orders to give blessing: and he has given a blessing which I have no power to take away. +Num 23:21 He has seen no evil in Jacob or wrongdoing in Israel: the Lord his God is with him, and the glad cry of a king is among them. +Num 23:22 It is God who has taken them out of Egypt; his horns are like those of the mountain ox. +Num 23:23 No evil power has effect against Jacob, no secret arts against Israel; at the right time it will be said of Jacob and of Israel, See what God has done! +Num 23:24 See, Israel comes up like a she-lion, lifting himself up like a lion: he will take no rest till he has made a meal of those he has overcome, drinking the blood of those he has put to death. +Num 23:25 Then Balak said to Balaam, If you will not put a curse on them, at all events do not give them a blessing. +Num 23:26 But Balaam in answer said to Balak, Did I not say to you, I may only do what the Lord says? +Num 23:27 Then Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I will take you to another place; it may be that God will let you put a curse on them from there. +Num 23:28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, looking down over the waste land. +Num 23:29 And Balaam said to Balak, Make me seven altars here and get seven oxen and seven male sheep ready for me. +Num 23:30 And Balak did as Balaam said, offering an ox and a male sheep on every altar. +Num 24:1 Now when Balaam saw that it was the Lord's pleasure to give his blessing to Israel, he did not, as at other times, make use of secret arts, but turning his face to the waste land, +Num 24:2 And lifting up his eyes, he saw Israel there, with their tents in the order of their tribes: and the spirit of God came on him. +Num 24:3 And moved by the spirit, he said, These are the words of Balaam, son of Beor, the words of the man whose eyes are open: +Num 24:4 He says, whose ears are open to the words of God, who has seen the vision of the Ruler of all, falling down, but having his eyes open: +Num 24:5 How fair are your tents, O Jacob, your houses, O Israel! +Num 24:6 They are stretched out like valleys, like gardens by the riverside, like flowering trees planted by the Lord, like cedar-trees by the waters. +Num 24:7 Peoples will be in fear before his strength, his arm will be on great nations: his king will be higher than Agag, and his kingdom made great in honour. +Num 24:8 It is God who has taken him out of Egypt; his horns are like those of the mountain ox; the nations warring against him will be his food, their bones will be broken, they will be wounded with his arrows. +Num 24:9 He took his sleep stretched out like a lion, and like a she-lion: by whom will his rest be broken? May a blessing be on everyone who gives you blessing, and a curse on everyone by whom you are cursed. +Num 24:10 Then Balak was full of wrath against Balaam, and angrily waving his hands he said to Balaam, I sent for you so that those who are against me might be cursed, but now, see, three times you have given them a blessing. +Num 24:11 Go back quickly to the place you came from: it was my purpose to give you a place of honour, but now the Lord has kept you back from honour. +Num 24:12 Then Balaam said to Balak, Did I not say to the men you sent to me, +Num 24:13 Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, it would not be possible for me to go outside the orders of the Lord, doing good or evil at the impulse of my mind; whatever the Lord says I will say? +Num 24:14 So now I will go back to my people: but first let me make clear to you what this people will do to your people in days to come. +Num 24:15 Then he went on with his story and said, These are the words of Balaam, the son of Beor, the words of him whose eyes are open: +Num 24:16 He says, whose ear is open to the words of God, who has knowledge of the Most High, who has seen the vision of the Ruler of all, falling down and having his eyes open: +Num 24:17 I see him, but not now: looking on him, but not near: a star will come out of Jacob, and a rod of authority out of Israel, sending destruction to the farthest limits of Moab and on the head of all the sons of Sheth. +Num 24:18 Edom will be his heritage, and he will put an end to the last of the people of Seir. +Num 24:19 And Israel will go on in strength, and Jacob will have rule over his haters. +Num 24:20 Then, turning his eyes to Amalek, he went on with his story and said, Amalek was the first of the nations, but his part will be destruction for ever. +Num 24:21 And looking on the Kenites he went on with his story and said, Strong is your living-place, and your secret place is safe in the rock. +Num 24:22 But still the Kenites will be wasted, till Asshur takes you away prisoner. +Num 24:23 Then he went on with his story and said, But who may keep his life when God does this? +Num 24:24 But ships will come from the direction of Kittim, troubling Asshur and troubling Eber, and like the others their fate will be destruction. +Num 24:25 Then Balaam got up and went back to his place: and Balak went away. +Num 25:1 Now when Israel was living in Shittim the people became false to the Lord, doing evil with the daughters of Moab: +Num 25:2 For they sent for the people to be present at the offerings made to their gods; and the people took part in their feasts and gave honour to their gods. +Num 25:3 So Israel had relations with the women of Moab in honour of the Baal of Peor: and the Lord was moved to wrath against Israel. +Num 25:4 Then the Lord said to Moses, Take all the chiefs of the people, hanging them up in the sun before the Lord, so that the wrath of the Lord may be turned from Israel. +Num 25:5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, Let everyone put to death those of his men who have had relations with the women of Moab in honour of the Baal of Peor. +Num 25:6 Then one of the children of Israel came to his brothers, taking with him a woman of Midian, before the eyes of Moses and all the meeting of the people, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of meeting. +Num 25:7 And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, seeing it, got up from among the people and took a spear in his hand, +Num 25:8 And went after the man of Israel into the tent, driving the spear through the two of them, through the man of Israel and through the stomach of the woman. So the disease was stopped among the children of Israel. +Num 25:9 But twenty-four thousand of them had come to their death by the disease. +Num 25:10 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 25:11 Through Phinehas, and because of his passion for my honour, my wrath has been turned away from the children of Israel, so that I have not sent destruction on them all in my wrath. +Num 25:12 So say to them that I will make with him an agreement of peace: +Num 25:13 And by this agreement, he and his sons after him have the right to be priests for ever; because, by his care for the honour of his God, he took away the sin of the children of Israel. +Num 25:14 Now the man of Israel who was put to death with the woman of Midian was Zimri, the son of Salu, a chief of one of the families of the Simeonites. +Num 25:15 And the woman of Midian who was put to death was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was the head of a family in Midian. +Num 25:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, +Num 25:17 Take up arms against the Midianites and overcome them; +Num 25:18 For they are a danger to you with their false ways, causing sin to come on you in the question of Peor, and because of Cozbi, their sister, the daughter of the chief of Midian, who was put to death at the time of the disease which came on you because of Peor. +Num 26:1 Now after the disease was over, the Lord said to Moses and Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, +Num 26:2 Let all the children of Israel be numbered, by the names of their fathers' families, all those of twenty years old and over who are able to go to war in Israel. +Num 26:3 So Moses and Eleazar the priest gave them the order in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho, saying, +Num 26:4 Let all the people of twenty years old and over be numbered, as the Lord has given orders to Moses and the children of Israel who have come out of Egypt. +Num 26:5 Reuben, the first son of Israel: the sons of Reuben by their families: of Hanoch, the family of the Hanochites: of Pallu, the family of the Palluites: +Num 26:6 Of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites: of Carmi, the family of the Carmites. +Num 26:7 These are the families of the Reubenites: their number was forty-three thousand, seven hundred and thirty. +Num 26:8 And the sons of Pallu, Eliab +Num 26:9 And the sons of Eliab: Nemuel and Dathan and Abiram. These are the same Dathan and Abiram who had a place in the meeting of the people, who together with Korah made an outcry against Moses and Aaron and against the Lord: +Num 26:10 And they went down into the open mouth of the earth, together with Korah, when death overtook him and all his band; at the time when two hundred and fifty men were burned in the fire, and they became a sign. +Num 26:11 But death did not overtake the sons of Korah. +Num 26:12 The sons of Simeon by their families: of Nemuel, the family of the Nemuelites: of Jamin, the family of the Jaminites: of Jachin, the family of the Jachinites: +Num 26:13 Of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites: of Shaul, the family of the Shaulites. +Num 26:14 These are the families of the Simeonites, twenty-two thousand, two hundred. +Num 26:15 The sons of Gad by their families: of Zephon, the family of the Zephonites: of Haggi, the family of the Haggites: of Shuni, the family of the Shunites: +Num 26:16 Of Ozni, the family of the Oznites: of Eri, the family of the Erites: +Num 26:17 Of Arod, the family of the Arodites: of Areli, the family of the Arelites. +Num 26:18 These are the families of the sons of Gad as they were numbered, forty thousand, five hundred. +Num 26:19 The sons of Judah, Er and Onan: and Er and Onan had come to their death in the land of Canaan. +Num 26:20 And the sons of Judah by their families were: of Shelah, the family of the Shelahites: of Perez, the family of the Perezites: of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites. +Num 26:21 And the sons of Perez were: of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites: of Hamul, the family of the Hamulites. +Num 26:22 These are the families of Judah as they were numbered, seventy-six thousand, five hundred. +Num 26:23 The sons of Issachar by their families: of Tola, the family of the Tolaites: of Puvah, the family of the Punites: +Num 26:24 Of Jashub, the family of the Jashubites: of Shimron, the family of the Shimronites. +Num 26:25 These are the families of Issachar, as they were numbered, sixty-four thousand, three hundred. +Num 26:26 The sons of Zebulun by their families: of Sered, the family of the Seredites: of Elon, the family of the Elonites: of Jahleel, the family of the Jahleelites. +Num 26:27 These are the families of the Zebulunites as they were numbered, sixty thousand, five hundred. +Num 26:28 The sons of Joseph by their families: Manasseh and Ephraim. +Num 26:29 The sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family of the Machirites: and Machir was the father of Gilead: of Gilead, the family of the Gileadites. +Num 26:30 These are the sons of Gilead: of Iezer, the family of the Iezerites: of Helek, the family of the Helekites: +Num 26:31 And of Asriel, the family of the Asrielites: and of Shechem, the family of the Shechemites: +Num 26:32 And of Shemida, the family of the Shemidaites: and of Hepher, the family of the Hepherites. +Num 26:33 And Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, had no sons, but only daughters, and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. +Num 26:34 These are the families of Manasseh; and those who were numbered of them were fifty-two thousand, seven hundred. +Num 26:35 These are the sons of Ephraim by their families: of Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthelahites: of Becher, the family of the Becherites: of Tahan, the family of the Tahanites. +Num 26:36 And these are the sons of Shuthelah: of Eran, the family of the Eranites: +Num 26:37 These are the families of Ephraim as they were numbered, thirty-two thousand, five hundred. These are the sons of Joseph by their families. +Num 26:38 The sons of Benjamin by their families: of Bela, the family of the Belaites: of Ashbel, the family of the Ashbelites: of Ahiram, the family of the Ahiramites: +Num 26:39 Of Shephupham, the family of the Shuphamites: and of Hupham, the family of the Huphamites. +Num 26:40 And the sons of Bela were Ard and Naaman: of Ard, the family of the Ardites: of Naaman, the family of the Naamites. +Num 26:41 These are the sons of Benjamin by their families: and those who were numbered of them were forty-five thousand, six hundred. +Num 26:42 These are the sons of Dan by their families: of Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites. These are the families of Dan by their families. +Num 26:43 All the families of the Shuhamites, as they were numbered, were sixty-four thousand, four hundred. +Num 26:44 The sons of Asher by their families: of Imnah, the family of the Imnites: of Ishvi, the family of the Ishvites: of Beriah, the family of the Beriites. +Num 26:45 Of the sons of Beriah: of Heber, the family of the Heberites: of Malchiel, the family of the Malchielites: +Num 26:46 And the name of the daughter of Asher was Serah. +Num 26:47 These are the families of the sons of Asher as they were numbered, fifty-three thousand, four hundred. +Num 26:48 The sons of Naphtali by their families: of Jahzeel, the family of the Jahzeelites: of Guni, the family of the Gunites: +Num 26:49 Of Jezer, the family of the Jezerites: of Shillem, the family of the Shillemites. +Num 26:50 These are the families of Naphtali by their families: and those who were numbered of them were forty-five thousand, four hundred. +Num 26:51 Those who were numbered of the children of Israel were six hundred and one thousand, seven hundred and thirty. +Num 26:52 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 26:53 Let there be a division of the land among these, for their heritage, in relation to the number of names. +Num 26:54 To those families who are more in number, give a greater heritage; to those who are less in number, a smaller part: to every one let the heritage be given in relation to the number in his family. +Num 26:55 But let the distribution of the land be made by the decision of the Lord: by the names of the tribes of their fathers let their heritage be given them. +Num 26:56 As it is ordered by the decision of the Lord, let distribution be made between those who are more in number and those who are less. +Num 26:57 These were those of the Levites who were numbered by their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites: of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites: of Merari, the family of the Merarites. +Num 26:58 These are the families of Levi: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites. And Kohath was the father of Amram. +Num 26:59 Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom he had in Egypt: by Amram she had Moses and Aaron and their sister Miriam. +Num 26:60 Aaron's sons were Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. +Num 26:61 Death overtook Nadab and Abihu when they made an offering of strange fire before the Lord. +Num 26:62 Of these, twenty-three thousand males, from one month old and over, were numbered: they were not numbered with the rest of the children of Israel, for they had no heritage among the children of Israel. +Num 26:63 All these were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest when the children of Israel were numbered in the lowlands of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. +Num 26:64 But among all these was not one of those numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when the children of Israel were numbered in the waste land of Sinai. +Num 26:65 For the Lord had said of them, Death will certainly overtake them in the waste land. And of them all, only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun, were still living. +Num 27:1 Then the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, came forward: their names are Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah. +Num 27:2 They came before Moses and Eleazar the priest and the chiefs and all the people at the door of the Tent of meeting, and said, +Num 27:3 Death overtook our father in the waste land; he was not among those who were banded together with Korah against the Lord; but death came to him in his sin; and he had no sons. +Num 27:4 Why is the name of our father to be taken away from among his family, because he had no son? Give us a heritage among our father's brothers. +Num 27:5 So Moses put their cause before the Lord. +Num 27:6 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 27:7 What the daughters of Zelophehad say is right: certainly you are to give them a heritage among their father's brothers: and let the property which would have been their father's go to them. +Num 27:8 And say to the children of Israel, If a man has no son at the time of his death, let his heritage go to his daughter. +Num 27:9 And if he has no daughter, then give his heritage to his brothers. +Num 27:10 And if he has no brothers, then give his heritage to his father's brothers. +Num 27:11 And if his father has no brothers, then give it to his nearest relation in the family, as his heritage: this is to be a decision made by law for the children of Israel, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Num 27:12 And the Lord said to Moses, Go up into this mountain of Abarim so that you may see the land which I have given to the children of Israel. +Num 27:13 And when you have seen it, you will be put to rest with your people, as your brother Aaron was: +Num 27:14 Because in the waste land of Zin, when the people were angry, you and he went against my word and did not keep my name holy before their eyes, at the waters. (These are the waters of Meribah in Kadesh in the waste land of Zin.) +Num 27:15 Then Moses said to the Lord, +Num 27:16 Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, put a man at the head of this people, +Num 27:17 To go out and come in before them and be their guide; so that the people of the Lord may not be like sheep without a keeper. +Num 27:18 And the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and put your hand on him; +Num 27:19 And take him before Eleazar the priest and all the meeting of the people, and give him his orders before their eyes. +Num 27:20 And put your honour on him, so that all the children of Israel may be under his authority. +Num 27:21 He will take his place before Eleazar the priest, so that he may get directions from the Lord for him, with the Urim: at his word they will go out, and at his word they will come in, he and all the children of Israel. +Num 27:22 So Moses did as the Lord said: he took Joshua and put him before Eleazar the priest and the meeting of the people: +Num 27:23 And he put his hands on him and gave him his orders, as the Lord had said by Moses. +Num 28:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 28:2 Give orders to the children of Israel and say to them, Let it be your care to give me my offerings at their regular times, the food of the offerings made by fire to me for a sweet smell. +Num 28:3 Say to them, This is the offering made by fire which you are to give to the Lord; he-lambs of the first year without any mark, two every day as a regular burned offering. +Num 28:4 Let one be offered in the morning, and the other at evening; +Num 28:5 And the tenth part of an ephah of the best meal for a meal offering mixed with the fourth part of a hin of clear oil. +Num 28:6 It is a regular burned offering, as it was ordered in Mount Sinai, for a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord. +Num 28:7 And for its drink offering take the fourth part of a hin for one lamb: in the holy place let the wine be drained out for a drink offering for the Lord. +Num 28:8 Let the other lamb be offered at evening; like the meal offering of the morning and its drink offering, let it be offered as an offering made by fire for a sweet smell to the Lord. +Num 28:9 And on the Sabbath day, two he-lambs of the first year, without any mark, and two tenth parts of the best meal for a meal offering mixed with oil, and its drink offering: +Num 28:10 This is the burned offering for every Sabbath day, in addition to the regular burned offering, and its drink offering. +Num 28:11 And on the first day of every month you are to give a burned offering to the Lord; two oxen, one male sheep, and seven he-lambs of the first year, without any mark; +Num 28:12 And three tenth parts of the best meal for a meal offering mixed with oil, for every ox; and two tenth parts of the best meal for a meal offering mixed with oil, for the one sheep; +Num 28:13 And a separate tenth part of the best meal mixed with oil for a meal offering for every lamb; for a burned offering of a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord. +Num 28:14 And their drink offerings are to be half a hin of wine for an ox, and the third part of a hin for a male sheep, and the fourth part of a hin for a lamb: this is the burned offering for every month through all the months of the year. +Num 28:15 And one he-goat for a sin-offering to the Lord; it is to be offered in addition to the regular burned offering and its drink offering. +Num 28:16 And in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is the Lord's Passover. +Num 28:17 On the fifteenth day of this month there is to be a feast; for seven days let your food be unleavened cakes. +Num 28:18 On the first day there is to be a holy meeting: you may do no sort of field-work: +Num 28:19 And you are to give an offering made by fire, a burned offering to the Lord; two oxen, one male sheep, and seven he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: +Num 28:20 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil: let three tenth parts of an ephah be offered for an ox and two tenth parts for a male sheep; +Num 28:21 And a separate tenth part for every one of the seven lambs; +Num 28:22 And one he-goat for a sin-offering to take away your sin. +Num 28:23 These are to be offered in addition to the morning burned offering, which is a regular burned offering at all times. +Num 28:24 In this way, every day for seven days, give the food of the offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the Lord: it is to be offered in addition to the regular burned offering, and its drink offering. +Num 28:25 Then on the seventh day there will be a holy meeting; you may do no field-work. +Num 28:26 And at the time of the first-fruits, when you give an offering of new meal to the Lord at your feast of weeks, there is to be a holy meeting: you may do no field-work: +Num 28:27 And give a burned offering for a sweet smell to the Lord; two oxen, one male sheep, and seven he-lambs of the first year; +Num 28:28 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil, three tenth parts for an ox, two tenth parts for a male sheep, +Num 28:29 And a separate tenth part for every one of the seven lambs; +Num 28:30 And one he-goat to take away your sin. +Num 28:31 These are in addition to the regular burned offering and its meal offering; take care that they are without any mark, and let them be offered with their drink offerings. +Num 29:1 In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, let there be a holy meeting; on it you may do no field-work; let the day be marked by the blowing of horns; +Num 29:2 And give to the Lord a burned offering for a sweet smell; one ox, one male sheep, seven he-lambs of the first year, without any mark on them: +Num 29:3 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil, three tenth parts for an ox, two tenth parts for a male sheep, +Num 29:4 And a separate tenth part for every one of the seven lambs; +Num 29:5 And one he-goat for a sin-offering, to take away your sin: +Num 29:6 In addition to the burned offering of the new moon, and its meal offering, and the regular burned offering and its meal offering, and their drink offerings, as they are ordered, for a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord. +Num 29:7 And on the tenth day of this seventh month there will be a holy meeting; keep yourselves from pleasure, and do no sort of work; +Num 29:8 And give to the Lord a burned offering for a sweet smell; one ox, one male sheep, seven he-lambs of the first year: only those without any mark on them may be used: +Num 29:9 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil, three tenth parts for an ox, two tenth parts for a male sheep, +Num 29:10 A separate tenth part for every one of the seven lambs; +Num 29:11 One he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the offering for taking away your sin, and the regular burned offering and its meal offering, and their drink offerings. +Num 29:12 And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month let there be a holy meeting; do no field-work, and keep a feast to the Lord for seven days; +Num 29:13 And give a burned offering, an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord, thirteen oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, all without any mark on them; +Num 29:14 And their meal offering, the best meal mixed with oil, three tenth parts for every one of the thirteen oxen, two tenth parts for every male sheep, +Num 29:15 And a separate tenth part for every one of the fourteen lambs; +Num 29:16 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering. +Num 29:17 On the second day of the feast give an offering of twelve oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark on them; +Num 29:18 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen and the sheep and the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: +Num 29:19 And one he-goat for a sin-offering in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and their drink offerings. +Num 29:20 And on the third day eleven oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark; +Num 29:21 And their meal offering and drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: +Num 29:22 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering. +Num 29:23 And on the fourth day ten oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: +Num 29:24 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered. +Num 29:25 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering. +Num 29:26 And on the fifth day nine oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: +Num 29:27 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: +Num 29:28 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering. +Num 29:29 And on the sixth day eight oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: +Num 29:30 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: +Num 29:31 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, its meal offering, and its drink offerings. +Num 29:32 And on the seventh day seven oxen, two male sheep, fourteen he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: +Num 29:33 And their meal offering and their drink offerings for the oxen, for the male sheep, and for the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: +Num 29:34 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, its meal offering, and its drink offering. +Num 29:35 On the eighth day let there be a holy meeting: you may do no field-work; +Num 29:36 And give a burned offering, an offering made by fire of a sweet smell to the Lord: one ox, one male sheep, seven he-lambs of the first year, without any mark: +Num 29:37 With the meal offering and the drink offerings for the ox, the male sheep, and the lambs, in relation to their number, as it is ordered: +Num 29:38 And one he-goat for a sin-offering; in addition to the regular burned offering, and its meal offering, and its drink offering. +Num 29:39 These are the offerings which you are to give to the Lord at your regular feasts, in addition to the offerings for an oath, and the free offerings you give, for your burned offerings and your drink offerings and your peace-offerings. +Num 29:40 So Moses gave the children of Israel all these directions as the Lord had given him orders. +Num 30:1 And Moses said to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, This is the order of the Lord. +Num 30:2 When a man takes an oath to the Lord, or gives an undertaking having the force of an oath, let him not go back from his word, but let him do whatever he has said he will do. +Num 30:3 If a woman, being young and under the authority of her father, takes an oath to the Lord or gives an undertaking; +Num 30:4 If her father, hearing of her oath or the undertaking she has given, says nothing to her, then all her oaths and every undertaking she has given will have force. +Num 30:5 But if her father, hearing of it, makes her take back her word, then the oaths or the undertakings she has given will have no force; and she will have forgiveness from the Lord, because her oath was broken by her father. +Num 30:6 And if she is married to a husband at the time when she is under an oath or an undertaking given without thought; +Num 30:7 If her husband, hearing of it, says nothing to her at the time, then the oaths she made and the undertakings she gave will have force. +Num 30:8 But if her husband, hearing of it, makes her take it back, then the oath she made and the undertaking she gave without thought will have no force or effect, and she will have the Lord's forgiveness. +Num 30:9 But an oath made by a widow or one who is no longer married to her husband, and every undertaking she has given, will have force. +Num 30:10 If she made an oath while she was under the authority of her husband, +Num 30:11 And her husband, hearing of it, said nothing to her and did not put a stop to it, then all her oaths and every undertaking she gave will have force. +Num 30:12 But if her husband, on hearing of it, made them without force or effect, then whatever she has said about her oaths or her undertaking has no force: her husband has made them without effect, and she will have the Lord's forgiveness. +Num 30:13 Every oath, and every undertaking which she gives, to keep herself from pleasure, may be supported or broken by her husband. +Num 30:14 But if the days go on, and her husband says nothing whatever to her, then he is giving the support of his authority to her oaths and undertakings, because at the time of hearing them he said nothing to her. +Num 30:15 But if at some time after hearing of them, he makes them without force, then he is responsible for her wrongdoing. +Num 30:16 These are the laws which the Lord gave Moses in relation to a man and his wife, or a father and a young daughter who is under his authority. +Num 31:1 Then the Lord said to Moses, +Num 31:2 Give the Midianites punishment for the wrong they did to the children of Israel: and after that you will go to rest with your people. +Num 31:3 So Moses said to the people, Let men from among you be armed for war to put into effect against Midian the Lord's punishment on them. +Num 31:4 From every tribe of Israel send a thousand to the war. +Num 31:5 So from the thousands of Israel a thousand were taken from every tribe, twelve thousand men armed for war. +Num 31:6 And Moses sent them out to war, a thousand from every tribe, and with them Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, taking in his hands the vessels of the holy place and the horns for sounding the note of war. +Num 31:7 And they made war on Midian, as the Lord gave orders to Moses; and they put to death every male. +Num 31:8 They put the kings of Midian to death with the rest, Evi and Reken and Zur and Hur and Reba, the five kings of Midian: and Balaam, the son of Beor, they put to death with the sword. +Num 31:9 The women of Midian with their little ones the children of Israel took prisoner; and all their cattle and flocks and all their goods they took for themselves; +Num 31:10 And after burning all their towns and all their tent-circles, +Num 31:11 They went away with the goods they had taken, man and beast. +Num 31:12 And the prisoners and the goods and everything they had taken, they took to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the people of Israel, to the tent-circle in the lowlands of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. +Num 31:13 Then Moses and Eleazar the priest and the chiefs of the people went out to them before they had come into the tent-circle. +Num 31:14 And Moses was angry with the chiefs of the army, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds who had come back from the war. +Num 31:15 And Moses said to them, Why have you kept all the women safe? +Num 31:16 It was these who, moved by Balaam, were the cause of Israel's sin against the Lord in the question of Peor, because of which disease came on the people of the Lord. +Num 31:17 So now put every male child to death, and every woman who has had sex relations with a man. +Num 31:18 But all the female children who have had no sex relations with men, you may keep for yourselves. +Num 31:19 You yourselves will have to keep outside the tent-circle for seven days, anyone of you who has put any person to death or come near a dead body; and on the third day and on the seventh day make yourselves and your prisoners clean. +Num 31:20 And every bit of clothing, and anything made of leather or goats' hair or wood, you are to make clean. +Num 31:21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had been to the fight, This is the rule of the law which the Lord has given to Moses: +Num 31:22 But gold and silver and brass and iron and tin and lead, +Num 31:23 And anything which may be heated, is to go through the fire and be made clean; but in addition it is to be put in the water of cleaning: and anything which may not go through the fire is to be put in the water. +Num 31:24 And on the seventh day, after washing your clothing, you will be clean, and then you may come into the tent-circle. +Num 31:25 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 31:26 Get an account of everything which was taken in the war, of man and of beast, you and Eleazar the priest and the heads of families of the people: +Num 31:27 And let division be made of it into two parts, one for the men of war who went out to the fight, and one for all the people: +Num 31:28 And from the men of war who went out let there be offered to the Lord one out of every five hundred, from the persons, and from the oxen and asses and sheep: +Num 31:29 Take this from their part and give it to Eleazar the priest as an offering to be lifted up to the Lord. +Num 31:30 And from the part given to the children of Israel, take one out of every fifty, from the persons, and from the oxen and asses and sheep, and give it to the Levites who have the care of the House of the Lord. +Num 31:31 So Eleazar and Moses did as the Lord had given orders to Moses. +Num 31:32 Now the beasts taken, in addition to what the fighting-men took for themselves, were six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep, +Num 31:33 And seventy-two thousand oxen, +Num 31:34 And sixty-one thousand asses; +Num 31:35 And thirty-two thousand persons, that is, women who had never had sex relations with a man. +Num 31:36 And the half given as their part to the men who went to the war, was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, five hundred sheep, +Num 31:37 Of which the Lord's part was six hundred and seventy-five. +Num 31:38 The number of oxen was thirty-six thousand, of which the Lord's part was seventy-two; +Num 31:39 The number of asses was thirty thousand, five hundred, of which the Lord's part was sixty-one. +Num 31:40 And the number of persons was sixteen thousand, of which the Lord's part was thirty-two persons. +Num 31:41 And Moses gave the Lord's part, lifted up as an offering, to Eleazar the priest, as the Lord had given orders to Moses. +Num 31:42 And from the half given to the children of Israel, which Moses had kept separate from that given to the fighting-men, +Num 31:43 (Now the people's half was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, five hundred sheep, +Num 31:44 And thirty-six thousand oxen, +Num 31:45 And thirty thousand, five hundred asses, +Num 31:46 And sixteen thousand persons;) +Num 31:47 Even from the children of Israel's half, Moses took one out of every fifty, men and beasts, and gave them to the Levites who had the care of the House of the Lord; as the Lord gave orders to Moses. +Num 31:48 Then the men in authority over the thousands of the army, the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, came to Moses, +Num 31:49 And said to him, Your servants have taken note of the number of all the fighting-men under our orders, and every one is present; +Num 31:50 And we have here an offering for the Lord from what every man took in the war, ornaments of gold, leg-chains and arm-rings, finger-rings, ear-rings, and neck-ornaments, to make our souls free from sin before the Lord. +Num 31:51 So Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, even all the worked ornaments. +Num 31:52 And the gold which the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds gave, as an offering to be lifted up before the Lord, came to sixteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty shekels. +Num 31:53 (For every man of the army had taken goods for himself in the war.) +Num 31:54 Then Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold given by the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, and took it into the Tent of meeting, to be a sign in memory of the children of Israel before the Lord. +Num 32:1 Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a great number of cattle: and when they saw that the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead was a good place for cattle; +Num 32:2 The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the chiefs of the meeting, +Num 32:3 Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon, +Num 32:4 The land which the Lord gave into the hands of the children of Israel, is a land for cattle, and your servants have cattle. +Num 32:5 And they said, With your approval, let this land be given to your servants as their heritage: do not take us over Jordan. +Num 32:6 And Moses said to the children of Gad and the children of Reuben, Are your brothers to go to the war, while you take your rest here? +Num 32:7 Why would you take from the children of Israel the desire to go over into the land which the Lord has given them? +Num 32:8 So did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. +Num 32:9 For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they took from the children of Israel the desire to go into the land which the Lord had given them. +Num 32:10 And at that time the Lord was moved to wrath, and made an oath, saying, +Num 32:11 Truly, not one of the men of twenty years old and over who came out of Egypt will see the land which I gave by oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; because they have not been true to me with all their heart; +Num 32:12 But only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua, the son of Nun: because they have been true to the Lord. +Num 32:13 Then the Lord was angry with Israel, and he made them wanderers in the waste land for forty years? till all that generation who had done evil in the eyes of the Lord was dead. +Num 32:14 And now you have come to take the place of your fathers, another generation of sinners, increasing the wrath of the Lord against Israel. +Num 32:15 For if you are turned away from him, he will send them wandering again in the waste land; and you will be the cause of the destruction of all this people. +Num 32:16 Then they came to him, and said, We will make safe places for our cattle here, and towns for our little ones; +Num 32:17 But we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel till we have taken them to their place: but our little ones will be safe in the walled towns against the people of the land. +Num 32:18 We will not come back to our houses till every one of the children of Israel has come into his heritage. +Num 32:19 For we will not have our heritage with them on the other side of Jordan and forward; because our heritage has come to us on this side of Jordan to the east. +Num 32:20 Then Moses said to them, If you will do this, arming yourselves to go before the Lord to the war, +Num 32:21 Every armed man of you going across Jordan before the Lord till he has overcome and sent in flight all who are against him, +Num 32:22 And the land is under the rule of the Lord: then after that you may come back, having done no wrong to the Lord and to Israel; and this land will be yours for your heritage before the Lord. +Num 32:23 But if you do not do this, then you are sinners against the Lord; and you may be certain that your sin will have its reward. +Num 32:24 So get to work building your towns for your little ones, and safe places for your sheep; and do as you have said. +Num 32:25 And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben said to Moses, Your servants will do as my lord says. +Num 32:26 Our little ones, our wives, and our flocks, and all our cattle, will be there in the towns of Gilead; +Num 32:27 But your servants will go over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to the fight, as my lord says. +Num 32:28 So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua, the son of Nun, and to the heads of families of the tribes of the children of Israel. +Num 32:29 And Moses said to them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben go with you over Jordan, every man armed for the fight before the Lord, and all the land is given into your hands, then let them have the land of Gilead for a heritage: +Num 32:30 But if they do not go over with you armed, they will have to take their heritage with you in the land of Canaan. +Num 32:31 Then the children of Gad and the children of Reuben said, As the Lord has said to your servants, so will we do. +Num 32:32 We will go over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and you will give us our heritage on this side of Jordan. +Num 32:33 So Moses gave to them, even to the children of Gad and the children of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites and Og, king of Bashan, all the land with its towns and the country round them. +Num 32:34 And the children of Gad were the builders of Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer; +Num 32:35 And Atroth-shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah; +Num 32:36 And Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran: walled towns and shut-in places for sheep. +Num 32:37 And the children of Reuben were the builders of Heshbon and Elealeh and Kiriathaim; +Num 32:38 And Nebo and Baal-meon, (their names being changed,) and Sibmah: and they gave other names to the towns they made. +Num 32:39 And the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, went to Gilead and took it, driving out the Amorites who were living there. +Num 32:40 And Moses gave Gilead to Machir, the son of Manasseh; and he made it his living-place. +Num 32:41 And Jair, the son of Manasseh, went and took the towns of Gilead, naming them Havvoth-Jair. +Num 32:42 And Nobah went and took Kenath and its small towns, naming it Nobah, after himself. +Num 33:1 These are the journeys of the children of Israel, when they went out of the land of Egypt in their armies, under the direction of Moses and Aaron. +Num 33:2 And the stages of their journey on their way out were put down in writing by Moses at the order of the Lord: these are the stages of their journey and the way they went. +Num 33:3 On the fifteenth day of the first month they went out from Rameses; on the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out by the power of the Lord before the eyes of all the Egyptians, +Num 33:4 While the Egyptians were placing in the earth the bodies of their sons on whom the Lord had sent destruction: and their gods had been judged by him. +Num 33:5 So the children of Israel went from Rameses and put up their tents in Succoth. +Num 33:6 And they went on from Succoth and put up their tents in Etham on the edge of the waste land. +Num 33:7 And from Etham, turning back to Pi-hahiroth which is before Baal-zephon, they put up their tents before Migdol. +Num 33:8 And journeying on from before Hahiroth, they went through the sea into the waste land: they went three days' journey through the waste land of Etham and put up their tents in Marah. +Num 33:9 And from Marah they went on to Elim: and in Elim there were twelve water-springs and seventy palm-trees; and they put up their tents there. +Num 33:10 And they went on from Elim and put up their tents by the Red Sea. +Num 33:11 Then from the Red Sea they went on and put up their tents in the waste land of Sin. +Num 33:12 And they went on from the waste land of Sin, and put up their tents in Dophkah. +Num 33:13 And they went on from Dophkah, and put up their tents in Alush. +Num 33:14 And they went on from Alush, and put up their tents in Rephidim, where there was no drinking-water for the people. +Num 33:15 And they went on from Rephidim, and put up their tents in the waste land of Sinai. +Num 33:16 And they went on from the waste land of Sinai and put up their tents in Kibroth-hattaavah. +Num 33:17 And they went on from Kibroth-hattaavah, and put up their tents in Hazeroth. +Num 33:18 And they went on from Hazeroth, and put up their tents in Rithmah. +Num 33:19 And they went on from Rithmah, and put up their tents in Rimmon-perez. +Num 33:20 And they went on from Rimmon-perez, and put up their tents in Libnah. +Num 33:21 And they went on from Libnah, and put up their tents in Rissah. +Num 33:22 And they went on from Rissah, and put up their tents in Kehelathah. +Num 33:23 And they went on from Kehelathah, and put up their tents in Mount Shepher. +Num 33:24 And they went on from Mount Shepher, and put up their tents in Haradah. +Num 33:25 And they went on from Haradah, and put up their tents in Makheloth. +Num 33:26 And they went on from Makheloth, and put up their tents in Tahath. +Num 33:27 And they went on from Tahath, and put up their tents in Terah. +Num 33:28 And they went on from Terah, and put up their tents in Mithkah. +Num 33:29 And they went on from Mithkah, and put up their tents in Hashmonah. +Num 33:30 And they went on from Hashmonah, and put up their tents in Moseroth. +Num 33:31 And they went on from Moseroth, and put up their tents in Bene-jaakan. +Num 33:32 And they went on from Bene-jaakan, and put up their tents in Hor-haggidgad. +Num 33:33 And they went on from Hor-haggidgad, and put up their tents in Jotbathah. +Num 33:34 And they went on from Jotbathah, and put up their tents in Abronah. +Num 33:35 And they went on from Abronah, and put up their tents in Ezion-geber. +Num 33:36 And they went on from Ezion-geber, and put up their tents in the waste land of Zin (which is Kadesh). +Num 33:37 And they went on from Kadesh, and put up their tents in Mount Hor, on the edge of the land of Edom. +Num 33:38 And Aaron the priest went up into the mountain at the order of the Lord, and came to his death there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first day of the month. +Num 33:39 Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old at the time of his death in Mount Hor. +Num 33:40 And news of the coming of the children of Israel came to the king of Arad, the Canaanite, who was living in the South in the land of Canaan. +Num 33:41 And from Mount Hor they went on, and put up their tents in Zalmonah. +Num 33:42 And they went on from Zalmonah, and put up their tents in Punon. +Num 33:43 And they went on from Punon, and put up their tents in Oboth. +Num 33:44 And they went on from Oboth, and put up their tents in Iye-abarim at the edge of Moab. +Num 33:45 And they went on from Iyim, and put up their tents in Dibon-gad. +Num 33:46 And from Dibon-gad they went on, and put up their tents in Almon-diblathaim. +Num 33:47 And from Almon-diblathaim they went on, and put up their tents in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. +Num 33:48 And they went on from the mountains of Abarim, and put up their tents in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho; +Num 33:49 Planting their tents by the side of Jordan from Beth-jeshimoth as far as Abel-shittim in the lowlands of Moab. +Num 33:50 And in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho, the Lord said to Moses, +Num 33:51 Say to the children of Israel, When you go over Jordan into the land of Canaan, +Num 33:52 See that all the people of the land are forced out from before you, and put to destruction all their pictured stones, and all their metal images, and all their high places: +Num 33:53 And take the land for yourselves, for your resting-place: for to you I have given the land as your heritage. +Num 33:54 And you will take up your heritage in the land by the decision of the Lord, to every family its part; the greater the family the greater its heritage, and the smaller the family the smaller will be its heritage; wherever the decision of the Lord gives to any man his part, that will be his; distribution will be made to you by your fathers' tribes. +Num 33:55 But if you are slow in driving out the people of the land, then those of them who are still there will be like pin-points in your eyes and like thorns in your sides, troubling you in the land where you are living. +Num 33:56 And it will come about that as it was my purpose to do to them, so I will do to you. +Num 34:1 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 34:2 Give orders to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land which is to be your heritage, the land of Canaan inside these limits,) +Num 34:3 Then your south quarter will be from the waste land of Zin by the side of Edom, and your limit on the south will be from the east end of the Salt Sea, +Num 34:4 And round to the south of the slope of Akrabbim, and on to Zin: and its direction will be south of Kadesh-barnea, and it will go as far as Hazar-addar and on to Azmon: +Num 34:5 And from Azmon it will go round to the stream of Egypt as far as the sea. +Num 34:6 And for your limit on the west you will have the Great Sea and its edge: this will be your limit on the west. +Num 34:7 And your limit on the north will be the line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor: +Num 34:8 And from Mount Hor the line will go in the direction of Hamath; the farthest point of it will be at Zedad: +Num 34:9 And the limit will go on to Ziphron, with its farthest point at Hazar-enan: this will be your limit on the north. +Num 34:10 And on the east, your limit will be marked out from Hazar-enan to Shepham, +Num 34:11 Going down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain, and on as far as the east side of the sea of Chinnereth: +Num 34:12 And so down to Jordan, stretching to the Salt Sea: all the land inside these limits will be yours. +Num 34:13 And Moses gave orders to the children of Israel saying, This is the land which is to be your heritage, by the decision of the Lord, which by the Lord's order is to be given to the nine tribes and the half-tribe: +Num 34:14 For the tribe of the children of Reuben, by their fathers' families, and the tribe of the children of Gad, by their fathers' families, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, have been given their heritage: +Num 34:15 The two tribes and the half-tribe have been given their heritage on the other side of Jordan at Jericho, on the east looking to the dawn. +Num 34:16 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 34:17 These are the names of the men who are to make the distribution of the land among you: Eleazar the priest and Joshua, the son of Nun. +Num 34:18 And you are to take one chief from every tribe to make the distribution of the land. +Num 34:19 And these are the names of the men: of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. +Num 34:20 And of the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel, the son of Ammihud. +Num 34:21 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad, the son of Chislon. +Num 34:22 And of the tribe of the children of Dan, a chief, Bukki, the son of Jogli. +Num 34:23 Of the children of Joseph: of the tribe of the children of Manasseh, a chief, Hanniel, the son of Ephod: +Num 34:24 And of the tribe of the children of Ephraim, a chief, Kemuel, the son of Shiphtan. +Num 34:25 And of the tribe of the children of Zebulun, a chief, Elizaphan, the son of Parnach. +Num 34:26 And of the tribe of the children of Issachar, a chief, Paltiel, the son of Azzan. +Num 34:27 And of the tribe of the children of Asher, a chief, Ahihud, the son of Shelomi. +Num 34:28 And of the tribe of the children of Naphtali, a chief, Pedahel, the son of Ammihud. +Num 34:29 These are they to whom the Lord gave orders to make the distribution of the heritage among the children of Israel in the land of Canaan. +Num 35:1 And the Lord said to Moses in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho, +Num 35:2 Give orders to the children of Israel to give to the Levites, from the heritage which is theirs, towns for themselves, with land on the outskirts of the towns. +Num 35:3 These towns are to be their living-places, with land round them for their cattle and their food and all their beasts, +Num 35:4 Stretching from the wall of the towns a distance of a thousand cubits all round. +Num 35:5 The measure of this space of land is to be two thousand cubits outside the town on the east, and two thousand cubits on the south and on the west and on the north, the town being in the middle. This space will be the outskirts of their towns. +Num 35:6 And the towns which you give the Levites are to be the six safe places to which the taker of life may go in flight; and in addition you are to give them forty-two towns. +Num 35:7 Forty-eight towns are to be given to the Levites, all with land round them. +Num 35:8 And these towns are to be given out of the heritage of the children of Israel, taking the greater number from those who have much, and a smaller number from those who have little: everyone, in the measure of his heritage, is to give of his property to the Levites. +Num 35:9 And the Lord said to Moses, +Num 35:10 Say to the children of Israel, when you have gone over Jordan into the land of Canaan; +Num 35:11 Then let certain towns be marked out as safe places to which anyone who takes the life of another in error may go in flight. +Num 35:12 In these towns you may be safe from him who has the right of punishment; so that death may not overtake the taker of life till he has been judged by the meeting of the people. +Num 35:13 Six of the towns which you give will be such safe places; +Num 35:14 Three on the other side of Jordan and three in the land of Canaan, to be safe places for flight. +Num 35:15 For the children of Israel and for the man from another country who is living among them, these six towns are to be safe places, where anyone causing the death of another through error may go in flight. +Num 35:16 But if a man gives another man a blow with an iron instrument, causing his death, he is a taker of life and is certainly to be put to death. +Num 35:17 Or if he gives him a blow with a stone in his hand, causing his death, he is a taker of life and is certainly to be put to death. +Num 35:18 Or if he gave him blows with a wood instrument in his hands, causing his death, he is a taker of life and is certainly to be put to death. +Num 35:19 He whose right it is to give punishment for blood, may himself put to death the taker of life when he comes face to face with him. +Num 35:20 If in his hate he put a sword through him, or waiting secretly for him sent a spear or stone at him, causing his death; +Num 35:21 Or in hate gave him blows with his hand, causing death; he who gave the death-blow is to be put to death; he is a taker of life: he whose right it is to give punishment for blood may put to death the taker of life when he comes face to face with him. +Num 35:22 But if a man has given a wound to another suddenly and not in hate, or without design has sent something against him, +Num 35:23 Or has given him a blow with a stone, without seeing him, so causing his death, though he had nothing against him and no desire to do him evil: +Num 35:24 Then let the meeting of the people be judge between the man responsible for the death and him who has the right of punishment for blood, acting by these rules: +Num 35:25 And let the people keep the man responsible for the death safe from the hands of him who has the right of punishment for blood, and send him back to his safe town where he had gone in flight: there let him be till the death of the high priest who was marked with the holy oil. +Num 35:26 But if ever he goes outside the walls of the safe town where he had gone in flight, +Num 35:27 And the giver of punishment, meeting him outside the walls of the town, puts him to death, he will not be responsible for his blood: +Num 35:28 Because he had been ordered to keep inside the safe town till the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the taker of life may come back to the place of his heritage. +Num 35:29 These rules are to be your guide in judging through all your generations wherever you may be living. +Num 35:30 Anyone causing the death of another is himself to be put to death on the word of witnesses: but the word of one witness is not enough. +Num 35:31 Further, no price may be given for the life of one who has taken life and whose right reward is death: he is certainly to be put to death. +Num 35:32 And no price may be offered for one who has gone in flight to a safe town, for the purpose of letting him come back to his place before the death of the high priest. +Num 35:33 So do not make the land where you are living unholy: for blood makes the land unholy: and there is no way of making the land free from the blood which has come on it, but only by the death of him who was the cause of it. +Num 35:34 Do not make unclean the land where you are living and in which is my House: for I the Lord am present among the children of Israel. +Num 36:1 Now the heads of the families of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came to Moses, the chiefs and the heads of families of the children of Israel being present, +Num 36:2 And said, The Lord gave orders to my lord to make distribution of the land as their heritage to the children of Israel: and my lord was ordered by the Lord to give the heritage of Zelophehad, our brother, to his daughters. +Num 36:3 Now if they get married to any of the sons of other tribes of the children of Israel, then their property will be taken away from the heritage of our fathers, and become part of the heritage of the tribe into which they get married: and their heritage will be taken away from the heritage of our tribe. +Num 36:4 And at the time of the Jubilee of the children of Israel, their property will be joined to the heritage of the tribe of which they are part and will be taken away from the heritage of the tribe of our fathers. +Num 36:5 So by the direction of the Lord, Moses gave orders to the children of Israel, saying, What the tribe of the sons of Joseph have said is right. +Num 36:6 This is the order of the Lord about the daughters of Zelophehad: The Lord says, Let them take as their husbands whoever is most pleasing to them, but only among the family of their father's tribe. +Num 36:7 And so no property will be handed from tribe to tribe among the children of Israel; but every one of the children of Israel will keep the heritage of his father's tribe. +Num 36:8 And every daughter owning property in any tribe of the children of Israel is to be married to one of the family of her father's tribe, so that every man of the children of Israel may keep the heritage of his fathers. +Num 36:9 And no property will be handed from one tribe to another, but every tribe of the children of Israel will keep its heritage. +Num 36:10 So the daughters of Zelophehad did as the Lord gave orders to Moses: +Num 36:11 For Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, took as their husbands the sons of their father's brothers: +Num 36:12 And were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, and their property was kept in the tribe of their father's family +Num 36:13 These are the laws and the orders which the Lord gave to the children of Israel by Moses, in the lowlands of Moab by Jordan at Jericho. +Deu 1:1 These are the words which Moses said to all Israel on the far side of Jordan, in the waste land in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran on the one side, and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab on the other. +Deu 1:2 It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. +Deu 1:3 Now in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses gave to the children of Israel all the orders which the Lord had given him for them; +Deu 1:4 After he had overcome Sihon, king of the Amorites, ruling in Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, ruling in Ashtaroth, at Edrei: +Deu 1:5 On the far side of Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses gave the people this law, saying, +Deu 1:6 The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have been long enough in this mountain: +Deu 1:7 Make a move now, and go on your way into the hill-country of the Amorites and the places near it, in the Arabah and the hill-country and in the lowlands and in the South and by the seaside, all the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. +Deu 1:8 See, all the land is before you: go in and take for yourselves the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their seed after them. +Deu 1:9 At that time I said to you, I am not able to undertake the care of you by myself; +Deu 1:10 The Lord your God has given you increase, and now you are like the stars of heaven in number. +Deu 1:11 May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times greater in number than you are, and give you his blessing as he has said! +Deu 1:12 How is it possible for me by myself to be responsible for you, and undertake the weight of all your troubles and your arguments? +Deu 1:13 Take for yourselves men who are wise, far-seeing, and respected among you, from your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. +Deu 1:14 And you made answer and said to me, It is good for us to do as you say. +Deu 1:15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men and respected, and made them rulers over you, captains of thousands and captains of hundreds and captains of fifties and captains of tens, and overseers of your tribes. +Deu 1:16 And at that time I gave orders to your judges, saying, Let all questions between your brothers come before you for hearing, and give decisions uprightly between a man and his brother or one from another nation who is with him. +Deu 1:17 In judging, do not let a man's position have any weight with you; give hearing equally to small and great; have no fear of any man, for it is God who is judge: and any cause in which you are not able to give a decision, you are to put before me and I will give it a hearing. +Deu 1:18 And at that time I gave you all the orders which you were to do. +Deu 1:19 Then we went on from Horeb, through all that great and cruel waste which you saw, on our way to the hill-country of the Amorites, as the Lord gave us orders; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. +Deu 1:20 And I said to you, You have come to the hill-country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. +Deu 1:21 See now, the Lord your God has put the land into your hands: go up and take it, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has said to you; have no fear and do not be troubled. +Deu 1:22 And you came near to me, every one of you, and said, Let us send men before us to go through the land with care and give us an account of the way we are to go and the towns to which we will come. +Deu 1:23 And what you said seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from among you, one from every tribe; +Deu 1:24 And they went up into the hill-country and came to the valley of Eshcol, and saw what was there. +Deu 1:25 And taking in their hands some of the fruit of the land, they came down again to us, and gave us their account, saying, It is a good land which the Lord our God is giving us. +Deu 1:26 But going against the order of the Lord your God, you would not go up: +Deu 1:27 And you made an angry outcry in your tents, and said, In his hate for us the Lord has taken us out of the land of Egypt, to give us up into the hands of the Amorites for our destruction. +Deu 1:28 Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts feeble with fear by saying, The people are greater and taller than we are, and the towns are great and walled up to heaven; and more than this, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there. +Deu 1:29 Then I said to you, Have no fear of them. +Deu 1:30 The Lord your God who goes before you will be fighting for you, and will do such wonders as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; +Deu 1:31 And in the waste land, where you have seen how the Lord was supporting you, as a man does his son, in all your journeying till you came to this place. +Deu 1:32 But for all this, you had no faith in the Lord your God, +Deu 1:33 Who goes before you on your way, looking for a place where you may put up your tents, in fire by night, lighting up the way you are to go, and in a cloud by day. +Deu 1:34 And the Lord, hearing your words, was angry, and said with an oath, +Deu 1:35 Truly, not one of this evil generation will see that good land which I said I would give to your fathers, +Deu 1:36 But only Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he will see it; and to him and to his children I will give the land over which his feet have gone, because he has been true to the Lord with all his heart. +Deu 1:37 And, in addition, the Lord was angry with me because of you, saying, You yourself will not go into it: +Deu 1:38 Joshua, the son of Nun, your servant, he will go into the land: say to him that he is to be strong, for he will be Israel's guide into their heritage. +Deu 1:39 And your little ones, who, you said, would come into strange hands, your children, who now have no knowledge of good or evil, they will go into that land, and to them I will give it and it will be theirs. +Deu 1:40 But as for you, go back, journeying into the waste land by the way of the Red Sea. +Deu 1:41 Then you said to me, We have done evil against the Lord, we will go up to the attack, as the Lord our God has given us orders. And arming yourselves every one, you made ready to go up without care into the hill-country. +Deu 1:42 And the Lord said to me, Say to them, Do not go up to the attack; for I am not among you, and you will be overcome by those who are against you. +Deu 1:43 This I said to you, but you gave no attention and went against the orders of the Lord, and in your pride went up into the hill-country. +Deu 1:44 And the Amorites who were in the hill-country came out against you and put you to flight, rushing after you like bees, and overcame you in Seir, driving you even as far as Hormah. +Deu 1:45 And you came back, weeping before the Lord; but the Lord gave no attention to your cries and did not give ear to you. +Deu 1:46 So you were kept waiting in Kadesh for a long time. +Deu 2:1 Then we went back, journeying into the waste land by the way to the Red Sea, as the Lord had said to me: and we were a long time going round Mount Seir. +Deu 2:2 And the Lord said to me, +Deu 2:3 You have been journeying round this mountain long enough: now go to the north; +Deu 2:4 And give the people orders, saying, You are about to go through the land of your brothers, the children of Esau, who are living in Seir; and they will have fear of you; so take care what you do: +Deu 2:5 Make no attack on them, for I will not give you any of their land, not even space enough for a man's foot: because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for his heritage. +Deu 2:6 You may get food for your needs from them for a price, and water for drinking. +Deu 2:7 For the blessing of the Lord your God has been on you in all the work of your hands: he has knowledge of your wanderings through this great waste: these forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have been short of nothing. +Deu 2:8 So we went on past our brothers, the children of Esau, living in Seir, by the road through the Arabah, from Elath and Ezion-geber. And turning, we went by the road through the waste land of Moab. +Deu 2:9 And the Lord said to me, Make no attack on Moab and do not go to war with them, for I will not give you any of his land: because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for their heritage. +Deu 2:10 (In the past the Emim were living there; a great people, equal in numbers to the Anakim and as tall; +Deu 2:11 They are numbered among the Rephaim, like the Anakim; but are named Emim by the Moabites. +Deu 2:12 And the Horites in earlier times were living in Seir, but the children of Esau took their place; they sent destruction on them and took their land for themselves, as Israel did to the land of his heritage which the Lord gave them.) +Deu 2:13 Get up now, and go over the stream Zered. So we went over the stream Zered. +Deu 2:14 Thirty-eight years had gone by from the time when we came away from Kadesh-barnea till we went over the stream Zered; by that time all the generation of the men of war among us were dead, as the Lord had said. +Deu 2:15 For the hand of the Lord was against them, working their destruction, till all were dead. +Deu 2:16 So when death had overtaken all the men of war among the people, +Deu 2:17 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Deu 2:18 You are about to go by Ar, the limit of the country of Moab; +Deu 2:19 And when you come near the land of the children of Ammon, give them no cause of trouble and do not make war on them, for I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon for your heritage: because I have given it to the children of Lot. +Deu 2:20 (That land is said to have been a land of the Rephaim, for Rephaim had been living there in earlier times, but they were named Zamzummim by the Ammonites; +Deu 2:21 They were a great people, tall as the Anakim, and equal to them in number; but the Lord sent destruction on them and the children of Ammon took their place, living in their land; +Deu 2:22 As he did for the children of Esau living in Seir, when he sent destruction on the Horites before them, and they took their land where they are living to this day: +Deu 2:23 And the Avvim, living in the small towns as far as Gaza, came to destruction by the hands of the Caphtorim who came out from Caphtor and took their land.) +Deu 2:24 Get up now, and go on your journey, crossing over the valley of the Arnon: see, I have given into your hands Sihon, the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and all his land: go forward to make it yours, and make war on him, +Deu 2:25 From now on I will put the fear of you in all peoples under heaven, who, hearing of you, will be shaking with fear and grief of heart because of you. +Deu 2:26 Then from the waste land of Kedemoth I sent representatives to Sihon, king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, +Deu 2:27 Let me go through your land: I will keep to the highway, not turning to the right or to the left; +Deu 2:28 Let me have food, at a price, for my needs, and water for drinking: only let me go through on foot; +Deu 2:29 As the children of Esau did for me in Seir and the Moabites in Ar; till I have gone over Jordan into the land which the Lord our God is giving us. +Deu 2:30 But Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let us go through; for the Lord your God made his spirit hard and his heart strong, so that he might give him up into your hands as at this day. +Deu 2:31 And the Lord said to me, See, from now on I have given Sihon and his land into your hands: go forward now to take his land and make it yours. +Deu 2:32 Then Sihon came out against us with all his people, to make an attack on us at Jahaz. +Deu 2:33 And the Lord our God gave him into our hands; and we overcame him and his sons and all his people. +Deu 2:34 At that time we took all his towns, and gave them over to complete destruction, together with men, women, and children; we had no mercy on any: +Deu 2:35 Only the cattle we took for ourselves, with the goods from the towns we had taken. +Deu 2:36 From Aroer on the edge of the valley of the Arnon and from the town in the valley as far as Gilead, no town was strong enough to keep us out; the Lord our God gave them all into our hands: +Deu 2:37 But you did not go near the land of the children of Ammon, that is, all the side of the river Jabbok or the towns of the hill-country, wherever the Lord our God had said we were not to go. +Deu 3:1 Then turning we took the road to Bashan: and Og, king of Bashan, came out against us with all his people, and made an attack on us at Edrei. +Deu 3:2 And the Lord said to me, Have no fear of him: for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hands; do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon. +Deu 3:3 So the Lord our God gave up Og, king of Bashan, and all his people into our hands; and we overcame him so completely that all his people came to their end in the fight. +Deu 3:4 At that time we took all his towns; there was not one town of the sixty towns, all the country of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan, which we did not take. +Deu 3:5 All these towns had high walls round them with doors and locks; and in addition we took a great number of unwalled towns. +Deu 3:6 And we put them to the curse, every town together with men, women, and children. +Deu 3:7 But we took for ourselves all the cattle and the stored wealth of the towns. +Deu 3:8 At that time we took their land from the two kings of the Amorites on the far side of Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon; +Deu 3:9 (By the Sidonians, Hermon is named Sirion, and by the Amorites Shenir;) +Deu 3:10 All the towns of the table-land and all Gilead and Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, towns of the kingdom of Og in Bashan. +Deu 3:11 (For Og, king of Bashan, was the last of all the Rephaim; his bed was made of iron; is it not in Rabbah, in the land of the children of Ammon? It was nine cubits long and four cubits wide, measured by the common cubit.) +Deu 3:12 And this land which we took at that time, from Aroer by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill-country of Gilead with its towns, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites. +Deu 3:13 The rest of Gilead and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, all the land of Argob, together with Bashan, I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh. (This land is named the land of the Rephaim. +Deu 3:14 Jair, the son of Manasseh, took all the land of Argob, as far as the country of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, naming it, Bashan, Havvoth-Jair after himself, as it is to this day.) +Deu 3:15 And Gilead I gave to Machir. +Deu 3:16 And the land from Gilead to the valley of the Arnon, with the middle of the valley as a limit, as far as the river Jabbok which is the limit of the country of the children of Ammon, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites; +Deu 3:17 As well as the Arabah, with the river Jordan as their limit, from Chinnereth to the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah to the east. +Deu 3:18 At that time I gave you orders, saying, The Lord has given you this land for your heritage: all the men of war are to go over armed before your brothers the children of Israel. +Deu 3:19 But your wives and your little ones and your cattle (for it is clear that you have much cattle) may go on living in the towns I have given you; +Deu 3:20 Till the Lord has given rest to your brothers as to you, and till they have taken for themselves the land which the Lord your God is giving them on the other side of Jordan: then you may go back, every man of you, to the heritage which I have given you. +Deu 3:21 And I gave orders to Joshua at that time, saying, Your eyes have seen what the Lord your God has done to these two kings: so will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you come. +Deu 3:22 Have no fear of them, for the Lord your God will be fighting for you. +Deu 3:23 And at that time I made request to the Lord, saying, +Deu 3:24 O Lord God, you have now for the first time let your servant see your great power and the strength of your hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth able to do such great works and such acts of power? +Deu 3:25 Let me go over, O Lord, and see the good land on the other side of Jordan, and that fair mountain country, even Lebanon. +Deu 3:26 But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not give ear to my prayer; and the Lord said to me, Let it be enough, say no more about this thing. +Deu 3:27 Go up to the top of Pisgah, and turning your eyes to the west and the north, to the south and the east, see the land with your eyes: for you are not to go over Jordan. +Deu 3:28 But give my orders to Joshua, comforting him and making him strong; for he is to go over Jordan at the head of this people, and he will give them this land which you will see for their heritage. +Deu 3:29 So we were waiting in the valley facing Beth-peor. +Deu 4:1 And now give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I am teaching you, and do them; so that life may be yours, and you may go in and take for yourselves the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. +Deu 4:2 Make no addition to the orders which I give you, and take nothing from them, but keep the orders of the Lord your God which I give you. +Deu 4:3 Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-peor: for destruction came from the Lord on all those among you who went after Baal-peor. +Deu 4:4 But you who kept faith with the Lord are living, every one of you, today. +Deu 4:5 I have been teaching you laws and decisions, as I was ordered to do by the Lord my God, so that you might keep them in the land to which you are going to take it for your heritage. +Deu 4:6 So keep these laws and do them; for so will your wisdom and good sense be clear in the eyes of the peoples, who hearing all these laws will say, Truly, this great nation is a wise and far-seeing people. +Deu 4:7 For what great nation has a god so near to them as the Lord our God is, whenever we are turned to him in prayer? +Deu 4:8 And what great nation has laws and decisions so right as all this law which I put before you today? +Deu 4:9 Only take care, and keep watch on your soul, for fear that the things which your eyes have seen go from your memory and from your heart all the days of your life; but let the knowledge of them be given to your children and to your children's children; +Deu 4:10 That day when you were waiting before the Lord your God in Horeb, and the Lord said to me, Make all the people come together, so that hearing my words they may go in fear of me all the days of their life on earth and give this teaching to their children. +Deu 4:11 And you came near, waiting at the foot of the mountain; and flames of fire went up from the mountain to the heart of heaven, with dark clouds, and all was black as night. +Deu 4:12 And the voice of the Lord came to you out of the fire: the sound of his words came to your ears but you saw no form; there was nothing but a voice. +Deu 4:13 And he gave you his agreement with you, the ten rules which you were to keep, which he put in writing on the two stones of the law. +Deu 4:14 And the Lord gave me orders at that time to make clear to you these laws and decisions, so that you might do them in the land to which you are going, and which is to be your heritage. +Deu 4:15 So keep watch on yourselves with care; for you saw no form of any sort on the day when the voice of the Lord came to you in Horeb out of the heart of the fire: +Deu 4:16 So that you may not be turned to evil ways and make for yourselves an image in the form of any living thing, male or female, +Deu 4:17 Or any beast of the earth, or winged bird of the air, +Deu 4:18 Or of anything which goes flat on the earth, or any fish in the water under the earth. +Deu 4:19 And when your eyes are lifted up to heaven, and you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the army of heaven, do not let yourselves be moved to give them worship, or become the servants of what the Lord has given equally to all peoples under heaven. +Deu 4:20 But the Lord has taken you out of the flaming fire, out of Egypt, to be to him the people of his heritage, as you are today. +Deu 4:21 And the Lord was angry with me because of you, and made an oath that I was not to go over Jordan into the good land which the Lord is giving you for your heritage: +Deu 4:22 But death is to come to me in this land, I may not go over Jordan: but you will go over and take that good land for your heritage. +Deu 4:23 Take care that you do not let the agreement of the Lord your God, which he has made with you, go out of your mind, or make for yourselves images of any sort, against the orders which the Lord your God has given you. +Deu 4:24 For the Lord your God is an all-burning fire, and he will not let the honour which is his be given to any other. +Deu 4:25 If, when you have had children and children's children, and have been living a long time in the land, you are turned to evil ways, and make an image of any sort, and do evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, moving him to wrath: +Deu 4:26 May heaven and earth be my witnesses against you today, that destruction will quickly overtake you, cutting you off from that land which you are going over Jordan to take; your days will not be long in that land, but you will come to a complete end. +Deu 4:27 And the Lord will send you wandering among the peoples; only a small band of you will be kept from death among the nations where the Lord will send you. +Deu 4:28 There you will be the servants of gods, made by men's hands, of wood and stone, having no power of seeing or hearing or taking food or smelling. +Deu 4:29 But if in those lands you are turned again to the Lord your God, searching for him with all your heart and soul, he will not keep himself from you. +Deu 4:30 When you are in trouble and all these things have come on you, if, in the future, you are turned again to the Lord your God, and give ear to his voice: +Deu 4:31 Because the Lord your God is a God of mercy, he will not take away his help from you or let destruction overtake you, or be false to the agreement which he made by an oath with your fathers. +Deu 4:32 Give thought now to the days which are past, before your time, from the day when God first gave life to man on the earth, and searching from one end of heaven to the other, see if such a great thing as this has ever been, or if anything like it has been talked of in story. +Deu 4:33 Has any people ever gone on living after hearing the voice of God out of the heart of the fire as you did? +Deu 4:34 Has God ever before taken a nation for himself from out of another nation, by punishments and signs and wonders, by war and by a strong hand and a stretched-out arm and great acts of wonder and fear, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes? +Deu 4:35 All this he let you see, so that you might be certain that the Lord is God and there is no other. +Deu 4:36 Out of heaven itself his voice came to you, teaching you; and on earth he let you see his great fire; and his words came to your ears out of the heart of the fire. +Deu 4:37 And because of his love for your fathers, he took their seed and made it his, and he himself, present among you, took you out of Egypt by his great power; +Deu 4:38 Driving out before you nations greater and stronger than you, to take you into their land and give it to you for your heritage, as at this day. +Deu 4:39 So today be certain, and keep the knowledge deep in your hearts, that the Lord is God, in heaven on high and here on earth; there is no other God. +Deu 4:40 Then keep his laws and his orders which I give you today, so that it may be well for you and for your children after you, and that your lives may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for ever. +Deu 4:41 Then Moses had three towns marked out on the far side of Jordan looking to the east; +Deu 4:42 To which anyone causing the death of his neighbour in error and not through hate, might go in flight; so that in one of these towns he might be kept from death: +Deu 4:43 The names of the towns were Bezer in the waste land, in the table-land, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for Manasseh. +Deu 4:44 This is the law which Moses put before the children of Israel: +Deu 4:45 These are the rules and the laws and the decisions which Moses gave to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt; +Deu 4:46 On the far side of Jordan, in the valley facing Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel overcame after they had come out of Egypt: +Deu 4:47 And they took his land for a heritage, and the land of Og, king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, whose lands were on the other side of Jordan to the east; +Deu 4:48 From Aroer on the edge of the valley of the Arnon as far as Mount Sion, which is Hermon, +Deu 4:49 And all the Arabah on the far side of Jordan to the east, as far as the sea of the Arabah under the slopes of Pisgah. +Deu 5:1 And Moses sent for all Israel, and said to them, Give ear, O Israel, to the laws and the decisions which I give you today, and give attention to them so that you may keep and do them. +Deu 5:2 The Lord our God made an agreement with us in Horeb. +Deu 5:3 The Lord did not make this agreement with our fathers but with us, who are all living and present here today. +Deu 5:4 The word of the Lord came to you face to face on the mountain, out of the heart of the fire, +Deu 5:5 (I was between the Lord and you at that time, to make clear to you the word of the Lord: because, through fear of the fire, you did not go up the mountain;) saying, +Deu 5:6 I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house. +Deu 5:7 You are to have no other gods but me. +Deu 5:8 You may not make for yourselves an image in the form of anything in heaven or on earth or in the waters under the earth: +Deu 5:9 You may not go down on your faces before them or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of my haters; +Deu 5:10 And I will have mercy through a thousand generations on those who have love for me and keep my laws. +Deu 5:11 You are not to make use of the name of the Lord your God for an evil purpose; whoever takes the Lord's name on his lips for an evil purpose will be judged as a sinner by the Lord. +Deu 5:12 Keep the Sabbath day as a holy day, as you have been ordered by the Lord your God. +Deu 5:13 On six days do all your work: +Deu 5:14 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on that day do no work, you or your son or your daughter, or your man-servant or your woman-servant, or your ox or your ass or any of your cattle, or the man from a strange country who is living among you; so that your man-servant and your woman-servant may have rest as well as you. +Deu 5:15 And keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God took you out of that land by his strong hand and his stretched-out arm: for this reason the Lord has given you orders to keep the Sabbath day. +Deu 5:16 Give honour to your father and your mother, as you have been ordered by the Lord your God; so that your life may be long and all may be well for you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. +Deu 5:17 Do not put anyone to death without cause. +Deu 5:18 Do not be false to the married relation. +Deu 5:19 Do not take the property of another. +Deu 5:20 Do not give false witness against your neighbour; +Deu 5:21 Or let your desire be turned to your neighbour's wife, or his house or his field or his man-servant or his woman-servant or his ox or his ass or anything which is your neighbour's. +Deu 5:22 These words the Lord said to all of you together on the mountain, out of the heart of the fire, out of the cloud and the dark, with a great voice: and he said no more; he put them in writing on the two stones of the law and gave them to me. +Deu 5:23 And after hearing the voice which came out of the dark while the mountain was burning with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your chiefs came to me, +Deu 5:24 And said, The Lord has let us see his glory and his power, and his voice has come to us out of the fire: today we have seen that a man may go on living even after hearing the voice of God. +Deu 5:25 Why then is death to be our fate? For if the voice of the Lord our God comes to us any more, death will overtake us, and we will be burned up in this great fire. +Deu 5:26 For what man is there in all the earth, who, hearing the voice of the living God as we have, out of the heart of the fire, has been kept from death? +Deu 5:27 Do you go near: and after hearing everything which the Lord our God has to say, give us an account of all he has said to you, and we will give ear, and do it. +Deu 5:28 Then the Lord, hearing your words to me, said to me, The words which this people have said to you have come to my ears: what they have said is well said. +Deu 5:29 If only they had such a heart in them at all times, so that they might go in fear of me and keep my orders and that it might be well for them and for their children for ever! +Deu 5:30 Now say to them, Go back to your tents. +Deu 5:31 But as for you, keep your place here by me, and I will give you all the orders and the laws and the decisions which you are to make clear to them, so that they may do them in the land which I am giving them for their heritage. +Deu 5:32 Take care, then, to do whatever the Lord your God has given you orders to do; let there be no turning away to the right hand or to the left. +Deu 5:33 Go on walking in the way ordered for you by the Lord your God, so that life may be yours and it may be well for you, and your days may be long in the land of your heritage. +Deu 6:1 Now these are the orders and the laws and the decisions which the Lord your God gave me for your teaching, so that you might do them in the land of your heritage to which you are going: +Deu 6:2 So that living in the fear of the Lord your God, you may keep all his laws and his orders, which I give you: you and your son and your son's son, all the days of your life; and so that your life may be long. +Deu 6:3 So give ear, O Israel, and take care to do this; so that it may be well for you, and you may be greatly increased, as the Lord the God of your fathers has given you his word, in a land flowing with milk and honey. +Deu 6:4 Give ear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord: +Deu 6:5 And the Lord your God is to be loved with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. +Deu 6:6 Keep these words, which I say to you this day, deep in your hearts; +Deu 6:7 Teaching them to your children with all care, talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up. +Deu 6:8 Let them be fixed as a sign on your hand, and marked on your brow; +Deu 6:9 Have them lettered on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns. +Deu 6:10 And when the Lord your God has taken you into the land which he gave his oath to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, that he would give you; with great and fair towns which were not of your building; +Deu 6:11 And houses full of good things not stored up by you, and places for storing water which you did not make, and vine-gardens and olive-trees not of your planting; and you have taken food and are full; +Deu 6:12 Then take care that you keep your hearts true to the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house. +Deu 6:13 Let the fear of the Lord your God be in your hearts, and be his servants, taking your oaths by his name. +Deu 6:14 Do not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples round about you; +Deu 6:15 For the Lord your God who is with you is a God who will not let his honour be given to another; or the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, causing your destruction from the face of the earth. +Deu 6:16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did in Massah. +Deu 6:17 Keep with care the orders of the Lord your God, and his rules and his laws which he has given you; +Deu 6:18 And do what is upright and good in the eyes of the Lord your God, so that it may be well for you and you may go in and take for your heritage that good land from which the Lord undertook by an oath to your fathers, +Deu 6:19 To send out from before you all those who are against you. +Deu 6:20 And when your son says to you in time to come, What is the reason for these rules and laws and decisions which the Lord our God has given you? +Deu 6:21 Then you will say to your son, We were servants under Pharaoh's yoke in Egypt; and the Lord took us out of Egypt with a strong hand: +Deu 6:22 And the Lord did great signs and wonders against Egypt, and against Pharaoh and all his house, before our eyes: +Deu 6:23 And he took us out from that place, guiding us here to give us this land, as he said in his oath to our fathers. +Deu 6:24 And the Lord gave us orders to keep all these laws, in the fear of the Lord our God, so that it might be well for us for ever, and that he might keep us from death, as he has done to this day. +Deu 6:25 And it will be our righteousness if we take care to keep all this order before the Lord our God as he has given it to us. +Deu 7:1 When the Lord your God takes you into the land where you are going, which is to be your heritage, and has sent out the nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you; +Deu 7:2 And when the Lord has given them up into your hands and you have overcome them, give them up to complete destruction: make no agreement with them, and have no mercy on them: +Deu 7:3 Do not take wives or husbands from among them; do not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons. +Deu 7:4 For through them your sons will be turned from me to the worship of other gods: and the Lord will be moved to wrath against you and send destruction on you quickly. +Deu 7:5 But this is what you are to do to them: their altars are to be pulled down and their pillars broken, and their holy trees cut down and their images burned with fire. +Deu 7:6 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: marked out by the Lord your God to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth. +Deu 7:7 The Lord did not give you his love or take you for himself because you were more in number than any other people; for you were the smallest of the nations: +Deu 7:8 But because of his love for you, and in order to keep his oath to your fathers, the Lord took you out with the strength of his hand, making you free from the prison-house and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. +Deu 7:9 Be certain, then, that the Lord your God is God; whose faith and mercy are unchanging, who keeps his word through a thousand generations to those who have love for him and keep his laws; +Deu 7:10 Rewarding his haters to their face with destruction; he will have no mercy on his hater, but will give him open punishment. +Deu 7:11 So keep the orders and the laws and the decisions which I give you today and do them. +Deu 7:12 And it will be, that if you give attention to these decisions and keep and do them, then the Lord will keep his agreement with you and his mercy, as he said in his oath to your fathers. +Deu 7:13 And he will give you his love, blessing you and increasing you: he will send his blessing on the offspring of your body and the fruit of your land, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock, in the land which by his oath to your fathers he undertook to give you. +Deu 7:14 You will have greater blessings than any other people: no male or female among you or among your cattle will be without offspring. +Deu 7:15 And the Lord will take away from you all disease, and will not put on you any of the evil diseases of Egypt which you have seen, but will put them on your haters. +Deu 7:16 And you are to send destruction on all the peoples which the Lord your God gives into your hands; have no pity on them, and do not give worship to their gods; for that will be a cause of sin to you. +Deu 7:17 If you say in your hearts, These nations are greater in number than we are: how are we to take their land from them? +Deu 7:18 Have no fear of them, but keep well in mind what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt; +Deu 7:19 The great punishments which your eyes saw, and the signs and the wonders and the strong hand and the stretched-out arm, by which the Lord your God took you out: so will the Lord your God do to all the peoples who are the cause of your fears. +Deu 7:20 And the Lord will send a hornet among them, till all the rest who have kept themselves safe from you in secret places have been cut off. +Deu 7:21 Have no fear of them: for the Lord your God is with you, a great God greatly to be feared. +Deu 7:22 The Lord your God will send out the nations before you little by little; they are not to be rooted out quickly, for fear that the beasts of the field may be increased overmuch against you. +Deu 7:23 But the Lord your God will give them up into your hands, overpowering them till their destruction is complete. +Deu 7:24 He will give their kings into your hands, and you will put their names out of existence under heaven; there is not one of them who will not give way before you, till their destruction is complete. +Deu 7:25 The images of their gods are to be burned with fire: have no desire for the gold and silver on them, and do not take it for yourselves, for it will be a danger to you: it is a thing disgusting to the Lord your God: +Deu 7:26 And you may not take a disgusting thing into your house, and so become cursed with its curse: but keep yourselves from it, turning from it with fear and hate, for it is a cursed thing. +Deu 8:1 Take care to keep all the orders which I give you today, so that you may have life and be increased and go in and take as a heritage the land which the Lord, by his oath to your fathers, undertook to give you. +Deu 8:2 And keep in mind the way by which the Lord your God has taken you through the waste land these forty years, so that he might make low your pride and put you to the test, to see what was in your heart and if you would keep his orders or not. +Deu 8:3 And he made low your pride and let you be without food and gave you manna for your food, a thing new to you, which your fathers never saw; so that he might make it clear to you that bread is not man's only need, but his life is in every word which comes out of the mouth of the Lord. +Deu 8:4 Through all these forty years your clothing did not get old or your feet become tired. +Deu 8:5 Keep in mind this thought, that as a son is trained by his father, so you have been trained by the Lord your God. +Deu 8:6 Then keep the orders of the Lord your God, fearing him and walking in his ways. +Deu 8:7 For the Lord your God is guiding you into a good land, a land of water-springs, of fountains, and deep streams flowing out from the valleys and the hills; +Deu 8:8 A land of grain and vines and fig-trees and fair fruits; a land of oil-giving olive-trees and honey; +Deu 8:9 Where there will be bread for you in full measure and you will be in need of nothing; a land where the very stones are iron and from whose hills you may get copper. +Deu 8:10 And you will have food enough and be full, praising the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. +Deu 8:11 Then take care that you are not turned away from the Lord your God and from keeping his orders and decisions and laws which I give you this day: +Deu 8:12 And when you have taken food and are full, and have made fair houses for yourselves and are living in them; +Deu 8:13 And when your herds and your flocks are increased, and your stores of silver and gold, and you have wealth of every sort; +Deu 8:14 Take care that your hearts are not lifted up in pride, giving no thought to the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house; +Deu 8:15 Who was your guide through that great and cruel waste, where there were poison-snakes and scorpions and a dry land without water; who made water come out of the hard rock for you; +Deu 8:16 Who gave you manna for your food in the waste land, a food which your fathers had never seen; so that your pride might be broken and your hearts tested for your good in the end; +Deu 8:17 Say not then, in your hearts, My power and the strength of my hands have got me this wealth. +Deu 8:18 But keep in mind the Lord your God: for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth, so that he may give effect to the agreement which he made by his oath with your fathers, as at this day. +Deu 8:19 And it is certain that if at any time you are turned away from the Lord your God, and go after other gods, to be their servants and to give them worship, destruction will overtake you. +Deu 8:20 Like the nations which the Lord is cutting off before you, so you will be cut off; because you would not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God. +Deu 9:1 Give ear, O Israel: today you are to go over Jordan, to take the heritage of nations greater and stronger than yourselves, and towns of great size with walls as high as heaven; +Deu 9:2 A people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, of whom you have knowledge and of whom it has been said, All are forced to give way before the sons of Anak. +Deu 9:3 Be certain then today that it is the Lord your God who goes over before you like an all-burning fire; he will send destruction on them, crushing them before you; and you will send them in flight, putting an end to them quickly, as the Lord has said. +Deu 9:4 And after the Lord has sent them in flight from before you, say not in your heart, Because of my righteousness the Lord has given me this land; when it is because of their evil-doing that the Lord is driving these nations out before you. +Deu 9:5 Not for your righteousness or because your hearts are upright are you going in to take their land; but because of the evil-doing of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and to give effect to his oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. +Deu 9:6 Be certain then that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land as a reward for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people. +Deu 9:7 Keep well in mind how you made the Lord your God angry in the waste land; from the day when you went out of Egypt till you came to this place, you have gone against the orders of the Lord. +Deu 9:8 Again in Horeb you made the Lord angry, and in his wrath he would have put an end to you. +Deu 9:9 When I had gone up into the mountain to be given the stones on which was recorded the agreement which the Lord made with you, I was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights without taking food or drinking water. +Deu 9:10 And the Lord gave me the two stones with writing on them done by the finger of God: on them were recorded all the words which the Lord said to you on the mountain out of the heart of the fire, on the day of the great meeting. +Deu 9:11 Then at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me those stones, the stones of the agreement. +Deu 9:12 And the Lord said to me, Get up now, and go down quickly from this place; for the people you have taken out of Egypt have given themselves over to evil; they have quickly been turned from the way in which I gave them orders to go; they have made themselves a metal image. +Deu 9:13 And then the Lord said to me, I have seen that this people is stiff-necked: +Deu 9:14 Let me send destruction on them till their very name is cut off; and I will make of you a nation greater and stronger than they. +Deu 9:15 So turning round I came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire; and the two stones of the agreement were in my hands. +Deu 9:16 And I saw that you had done evil against the Lord, and had made for yourselves a metal image of a young ox: you had quickly been turned from the way in which the Lord had given you orders to go. +Deu 9:17 And I let the stones go from my hands, and they were broken before your eyes. +Deu 9:18 And I went down on my face before the Lord, as at the first, for forty days and forty nights, without taking food or drinking water, because of all your sin, in doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and moving him to wrath. +Deu 9:19 For I was full of fear because of the wrath of the Lord which was burning against you, with your destruction in view. But again the Lord's ear was open to my prayer. +Deu 9:20 And the Lord, in his wrath, would have put Aaron to death: and I made prayer for Aaron at the same time. +Deu 9:21 And I took your sin, the image which you had made, and put it in the fire and had it hammered and crushed very small till it was only dust: and the dust I put in the stream flowing down from the mountain. +Deu 9:22 Again at Taberah and at Massah and at Kibroth-hattaavah you made the Lord angry. +Deu 9:23 And when the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and take the land which I have given you; you went against the orders of the Lord your God, and had no faith in him, and would not give ear to his voice. +Deu 9:24 From the day when I first had knowledge of you, you have gone against the word of the Lord. +Deu 9:25 So I went down on my face in prayer before the Lord for forty days and forty nights as I did at first; because the Lord had said that he would put an end to you. +Deu 9:26 And I made prayer to the Lord and said, O Lord God, do not send destruction on your people and your heritage, to whom, by your great power, you have given salvation, whom you have taken out of Egypt by the strength of your hand. +Deu 9:27 Keep in mind your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not looking at the hard heart of this people, or their evil-doing and their sin: +Deu 9:28 Or it may be said in the land from which you have taken them, Because the Lord was not able to take them into the land which he said he would give them, and because of his hate for them, he has taken them out to put them to death in the waste land. +Deu 9:29 But still they are your people and your heritage, whom you took out by your great power and by your stretched-out arm. +Deu 10:1 At that time the Lord said to me, Make two other stones, cut like the first two, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. +Deu 10:2 And I will put on the stones the words which were on the first stones which were broken by you, and you are to put them into the ark. +Deu 10:3 So I made an ark of hard wood, and had two stones cut like the others, and went up the mountain with the stones in my hands. +Deu 10:4 And he put on the stones, as in the first writing, the ten rules which the Lord gave you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the great meeting: and the Lord gave the stones to me. +Deu 10:5 And turning round I came down from the mountain and put the stones in the ark which I had made; and there they are as the Lord gave me orders. +Deu 10:6 (And the children of Israel went on from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah: there death came to Aaron and he was put to rest in the earth; and Eleazar, his son, took his place as priest. +Deu 10:7 From there they went on to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of streams of water. +Deu 10:8 At that time the Lord had the tribe of Levi marked out to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, to be before the Lord and to do his work and to give blessings in his name, to this day. +Deu 10:9 For this reason Levi has no part or heritage for himself among his brothers: the Lord is his heritage, as the Lord your God said to him.) +Deu 10:10 And I was in the mountain, as at the first time, for forty days and forty nights; and again the ears of the Lord were open to my prayer, and he did not send destruction on you. +Deu 10:11 Then the Lord said to me, Get up and go on your journey before the people, so that they may go in and take the land which I said in my oath to their fathers that I would give them. +Deu 10:12 And now, Israel, what would the Lord your God have you do, but to go in the fear of the Lord your God, walking in all his ways and loving him and doing his pleasure with all your heart and all your soul, +Deu 10:13 Doing the orders of the Lord and keeping his laws which I give you this day for your good? +Deu 10:14 The Lord your God is ruler of heaven, of the heaven of heavens, and of the earth with everything in it. +Deu 10:15 But the Lord had delight in your fathers and love for them, marking out for himself their seed after them, even you, from all peoples, as at this day. +Deu 10:16 Let your circumcision be of the heart, and put away your pride. +Deu 10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, strong in power and greatly to be feared, who has no respect for any man's position and takes no rewards: +Deu 10:18 Judging uprightly in the cause of the widow and of the child who has no father, and giving food and clothing in his mercy to the man from a strange country. +Deu 10:19 So be kind to the man from a strange country who is living among you, for you yourselves were living in a strange country in the land of Egypt. +Deu 10:20 Let the fear of the Lord your God be before you, give him worship and be true to him at all times, taking your oaths in his name. +Deu 10:21 He is your God, the God of your praise, your God who has done for you all these works of power which your eyes have seen. +Deu 10:22 Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now the Lord your God has made you like the stars of heaven in number. +Deu 11:1 So have love for the Lord your God, and give him worship, and keep his laws and his decisions and his orders at all times. +Deu 11:2 And be certain in your minds this day; for these words are not said to your children, who have had no experience of the training of the Lord your God, and who have not seen his great power or his strong hand and his stretched-out arm, +Deu 11:3 Or his signs and wonders which he did in Egypt, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his land; +Deu 11:4 And what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their war-carriages; how he made the waters of the Red Sea come up over them when they went after you, and how the Lord put an end to them even to this day; +Deu 11:5 And what he did for you in the waste land, till you came to this place; +Deu 11:6 And what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; when they went down into the open mouth of the earth, with their families and their tents and every living thing which was theirs, before the eyes of all Israel: +Deu 11:7 But your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord which he has done. +Deu 11:8 So keep all the orders which I give you today, so that you may be strong, and go in and take the land which is to be your heritage; +Deu 11:9 And that your days may be long in the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers and to their seed after them, a land flowing with milk and honey. +Deu 11:10 For the land where you are going is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you put in your seeds, watering them with your foot, like a planted garden: +Deu 11:11 But the land where you are going is a land of hills and valleys, drinking in the rain of heaven: +Deu 11:12 A land cared for by the Lord your God: the eyes of the Lord your God are on it at all times from one end of the year to the other. +Deu 11:13 And it will be that if you truly give ear to the orders which I put before you this day, loving the Lord your God and worshipping him with all your heart and all your soul, +Deu 11:14 Then I will send rain on your land at the right time, the early rains and the late rains, so that you may get in your grain and your wine and your oil. +Deu 11:15 And I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, so that you may have food in full measure. +Deu 11:16 But take care that your hearts are not turned to false ways so that you become servants and worshippers of other gods; +Deu 11:17 For if you do so, the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, and the heaven will be shut up so that there is no rain and the land will give no fruit; and in a very little time you will be cut off from the good land which the Lord is giving you. +Deu 11:18 So keep these words deep in your heart and in your soul, and have them fixed on your hand for a sign and marked on your brow; +Deu 11:19 Teaching them to your children, and talking of them when you are at rest in your house or walking by the way, when you go to sleep and when you get up: +Deu 11:20 Writing them on the pillars of your houses and over the doors of your towns: +Deu 11:21 So that your days, and the days of your children, may be long in the land which the Lord by his oath to your fathers said he would give them, like the days of the eternal heavens. +Deu 11:22 For if you take care to keep all the orders which I give you, and to do them; loving the Lord your God and walking in all his ways and being true to him: +Deu 11:23 Then the Lord will send these nations in flight before you, and you will take the lands of nations greater and stronger than yourselves. +Deu 11:24 Every place where you put your foot will be yours: from the waste land and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates as far as the Great Sea, will be the limits of your land. +Deu 11:25 All people will give way before you: for the Lord your God will put the fear of you on all the land through which you go, as he has said. +Deu 11:26 Today I put before you a blessing and a curse: +Deu 11:27 The blessing if you give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, which I give you this day: +Deu 11:28 And the curse if you do not give ear to the orders of the Lord your God, but let yourselves be turned from the way which I have put before you this day, and go after other gods which are not yours. +Deu 11:29 And when the Lord your God has taken you into the land of your heritage, you are to put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. +Deu 11:30 Are they not on the other side of Jordan, looking west, in the land of the Canaanites living in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, by the holy tree of Moreh? +Deu 11:31 For you are about to go over Jordan to take the heritage which the Lord your God is giving you, and it will be your resting-place. +Deu 11:32 And you are to take care to keep all the laws and the decisions which I put before you today. +Deu 12:1 These are the laws and the decisions which you are to keep with care in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to be your heritage all the days of your life on earth. +Deu 12:2 You are to give up to the curse all those places where the nations, whom you are driving out, gave worship to their gods, on the high mountains and the hills and under every green tree: +Deu 12:3 Their altars and their pillars are to be broken down, and their holy trees burned with fire, and the images of their gods cut down; you are to take away their names out of that place. +Deu 12:4 Do not so to the Lord your God. +Deu 12:5 But let your hearts be turned to the place which will be marked out by the Lord your God, among your tribes, to put his name there; +Deu 12:6 And there you are to take your burned offerings and other offerings, and the tenth part of your goods, and the offerings to be lifted up to the Lord, and the offerings of your oaths, and those which you give freely from the impulse of your hearts, and the first births among your herds and your flocks; +Deu 12:7 There you and all your families are to make a feast before the Lord your God, with joy in everything to which you put your hand, because the Lord has given you his blessing. +Deu 12:8 You are not to do things then in the way in which we now do them here, every man as it seems right to him: +Deu 12:9 For you have not come to the rest and the heritage which the Lord your God is giving you. +Deu 12:10 But when you have gone over Jordan and are living in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as your heritage, and when he has given you rest from all those on every side who are fighting against you, and you are living there safely; +Deu 12:11 Then there will be a place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place for his name, and there you will take all the things which I give you orders to take: your burned offerings and other offerings, and the tenth part of your goods, and the offerings to be lifted up, and the offerings of your oaths which you make to the Lord; +Deu 12:12 And you will be glad before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, and your men-servants and your women-servants, and the Levite who is with you in your house, because he has no part or heritage among you. +Deu 12:13 Take care that you do not make your burned offerings in any place you see: +Deu 12:14 But in the place marked out by the Lord in one of your tribes, there let your burned offerings be offered, and there do what I have given you orders to do. +Deu 12:15 Only you may put to death animals, such as the gazelle or the roe, for your food in any of your towns, at the desire of your soul, in keeping with the blessing of the Lord your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may take of it. +Deu 12:16 But you may not take the blood for food, it is to be drained out on the earth like water. +Deu 12:17 In your towns you are not to take as food the tenth part of your grain, or of your wine or your oil, or the first births of your herds or of your flocks, or anything offered under an oath, or freely offered to the Lord, or given as a lifted offering; +Deu 12:18 But they will be your food before the Lord your God in the place of his selection, where you may make a feast of them, with your son and your daughter, and your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite who is living with you: and you will have joy before the Lord your God in everything to which you put your hand. +Deu 12:19 See that you do not give up caring for the Levite as long as you are living in your land. +Deu 12:20 When the Lord your God makes wide the limit of your land, as he has said, and you say, I will take flesh for my food, because you have a desire for it; then you may take whatever flesh you have a desire for. +Deu 12:21 If the place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place for his name is far away from you, then take from your herds and from your flocks which the Lord has given you, as I have said, and have a meal of it in the towns where you may be living. +Deu 12:22 It will be your food, like the gazelle and the roe; the unclean and the clean may take of it. +Deu 12:23 But see that you do not take the blood for food; for the blood is the life; and you may not make use of the life as food with the flesh. +Deu 12:24 Do not take it for food but let it be drained out on the earth like water. +Deu 12:25 Do not take it for food; so that it may be well for you and for your children after you, while you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. +Deu 12:26 But the holy things which you have, and the offerings of your oaths, you are to take to the place which will be marked out by the Lord: +Deu 12:27 Offering the flesh and the blood of your burned offerings on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your offerings is to be drained out on the altar of the Lord your God, and the flesh will be your food. +Deu 12:28 Take note of all these orders I am giving you and give attention to them, so that it may be well for you and for your children after you for ever, while you do what is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God. +Deu 12:29 When the people of the land where you are going have been cut off before you by the Lord your God, and you have taken their land and are living in it; +Deu 12:30 After their destruction take care that you do not go in their ways, and that you do not give thought to their gods, saying, How did these nations give worship to their gods? I will do as they did. +Deu 12:31 Do not so to the Lord your God: for everything which is disgusting to the Lord and hated by him they have done in honour of their gods: even burning their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. +Deu 12:32 You are to keep with care all the words I give you, making no addition to them and taking nothing from them. +Deu 13:1 If ever you have among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he gives you a sign or a wonder, +Deu 13:2 And the sign or the wonder takes place, and he says to you, Let us go after other gods, which are strange to you, and give them worship; +Deu 13:3 Then give no attention to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God is testing you, to see if all the love of your heart and soul is given to him. +Deu 13:4 But keep on in the ways of the Lord your God, fearing him and keeping his orders and hearing his voice, worshipping him and being true to him. +Deu 13:5 And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams is to be put to death; for his words were said with the purpose of turning you away from the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt and made you free from the prison-house; and of forcing you out of the way in which the Lord your God has given you orders to go. So you are to put away the evil from among you. +Deu 13:6 If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife of your heart, or the friend who is as dear to you as your life, working on you secretly says to you, Let us go and give worship to other gods, strange to you and to your fathers; +Deu 13:7 Gods of the peoples round about you, near or far, from one end of the earth to the other; +Deu 13:8 Do not be guided by him or give attention to him; have no pity on him or mercy, and give him no cover; +Deu 13:9 But put him to death without question; let your hand be the first stretched out against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people. +Deu 13:10 Let him be stoned with stones till he is dead; because it was his purpose to make you false to the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house. +Deu 13:11 And all Israel, hearing of it, will be full of fear, and no one will again do such evil as this among you. +Deu 13:12 And if word comes to you, in one of the towns which the Lord your God is giving you for your resting-place, +Deu 13:13 That good-for-nothing persons have gone out from among you, turning the people of their town from the right way and saying, Let us go and give worship to other gods, of whom you have no knowledge; +Deu 13:14 Then let a full search be made, and let questions be put with care; and if it is true and certain that such a disgusting thing has been done among you; +Deu 13:15 Then take up arms against the people of that town and give it up to the curse, with all its cattle and everything in it. +Deu 13:16 And take all the goods into the middle of its open space, burning the town and all its property with fire as an offering to the Lord your God; it is to be a waste for ever; there is to be no more building there. +Deu 13:17 Keep not a thing of what is cursed for yourselves: so the Lord may be turned away from the heat of his wrath, and have mercy on you, and give you increase as he said in his oath to your fathers: +Deu 13:18 So long as you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep all his orders which I give you today, and do what is right in the eyes of the Lord your God. +Deu 14:1 You are the children of the Lord your God: you are not to make cuts on your bodies or take off the hair on your brows in honour of the dead; +Deu 14:2 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has taken you to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth. +Deu 14:3 No disgusting thing may be your food. +Deu 14:4 These are the beasts which you may have for food: the ox, the sheep, and the goat; +Deu 14:5 The hart, the gazelle, and the roe, the mountain goat and the pygarg and the antelope and the mountain sheep. +Deu 14:6 Any beast which has a division in the horn of its foot and whose food comes back into its mouth to be crushed again, may be used for food. +Deu 14:7 But even among these, there are some which may not be used for food: such as the camel, the hare, and the coney, which are unclean to you, because, though their food comes back, the horn of their feet is not parted in two. +Deu 14:8 And the pig is unclean to you, because though it has a division in the horn of its foot, its food does not come back; their flesh may not be used for food or their dead bodies touched by you. +Deu 14:9 And of the things living in the waters, you may take all those who have wings for swimming with and skins formed of thin plates. +Deu 14:10 But any which have no skin-plates or wings for swimming, you may not take; they are unclean for you. +Deu 14:11 All clean birds may be used for food. +Deu 14:12 But these birds you may not take: the eagle and the gier-eagle and the ospray; +Deu 14:13 The falcon and the kite, and birds of that sort; +Deu 14:14 Every raven, and all birds of that sort; +Deu 14:15 And the ostrich and the night-hawk and the sea-hawk and birds of that sort; +Deu 14:16 The little owl and the great owl and the water-hen; +Deu 14:17 And the pelican and the vulture and the cormorant; +Deu 14:18 The stork and the heron and birds of that sort, and the hoopoe and the bat. +Deu 14:19 Every winged thing which goes flat on the earth is unclean to you and may not be used as food. +Deu 14:20 But all clean birds you may take. +Deu 14:21 You may not have as food anything which has come to a natural death; the man from another country who is living with you may take it for food, or you may get a price for it from one of another nation; for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The young goat is not to be cooked in its mother's milk. +Deu 14:22 Put on one side a tenth of all the increase of your seed, produced year by year. +Deu 14:23 And make a feast before the Lord your God, in the place which is to be marked out, where his name will be for ever, of the tenth part of your grain and your wine and your oil, and the first births of your herds and your flocks; so that you may have the fear of the Lord your God in your hearts at all times. +Deu 14:24 And if the way is so long that you are not able to take these things to the place marked out by the Lord your God for his name, when he has given you his blessing, because it is far away from you; +Deu 14:25 Then let these things be exchanged for money, and, taking the money in your hand, go to the place marked out by the Lord your God for himself; +Deu 14:26 And with the money get whatever you have a desire for, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your soul's desire may be: and make a feast there before the Lord your God, and be glad, you and all your house; +Deu 14:27 And give a thought to the Levite who is living among you, for he has no part or heritage in the land. +Deu 14:28 At the end of every three years take a tenth part of all your increase for that year, and put it in store inside your walls: +Deu 14:29 And the Levite, because he has no part or heritage in the land, and the man from a strange country, and the child who has no father, and the widow, who are living among you, will come and take food and have enough; and so the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do. +Deu 15:1 At the end of every seven years there is to be a general forgiveness of debt. +Deu 15:2 This is how it is to be done: every creditor is to give up his right to whatever he has let his neighbour have; he is not to make his neighbour, his countryman, give it back; because a general forgiveness has been ordered by the Lord. +Deu 15:3 A man of another nation may be forced to make payment of his debt, but if your brother has anything of yours, let it go; +Deu 15:4 But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will certainly give you his blessing in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage; +Deu 15:5 If only you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to keep all these orders which I give you today. +Deu 15:6 For the Lord your God will give you his blessing as he has said: you will let other nations have the use of your money, but you will not make use of theirs; you will be rulers over a number of nations, but they will not be your rulers. +Deu 15:7 If in any of your towns in the land which the Lord your God is giving you, there is a poor man, one of your countrymen, do not let your heart be hard or your hand shut to him; +Deu 15:8 But let your hand be open to give him the use of whatever he is in need of. +Deu 15:9 And see that there is no evil thought in your heart, moving you to say to yourself, The seventh year, the year of forgiveness is near; and so looking coldly on your poor countryman you give him nothing; and he will make an outcry to the Lord against you, and it will be judged as sin in you. +Deu 15:10 But it is right for you to give to him, without grief of heart: for because of this, the blessing of the Lord your God will be on all your work and on everything to which you put your hand. +Deu 15:11 For there will never be a time when there are no poor in the land; and so I give orders to you, Let your hand be open to your countrymen, to those who are poor and in need in your land. +Deu 15:12 If one of your countrymen, a Hebrew man or woman, becomes your servant for a price and does work for you six years, in the seventh year let him go free. +Deu 15:13 And when you make him free, do not let him go away with nothing in his hands: +Deu 15:14 But give him freely from your flock and from your grain and your wine: in the measure of the wealth which the Lord your God has given you, you are to give to him. +Deu 15:15 And keep in mind that you yourself were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: so I give you this order today. +Deu 15:16 But if he says to you, I have no desire to go away from you; because you and your family are dear to him and he is happy with you; +Deu 15:17 Then take a sharp-pointed instrument, driving it through his ear into the door, and he will be your servant for ever. And you may do the same for your servant-girl. +Deu 15:18 Let it not seem hard to you that you have to send him away free; for he has been working for you for six years, which is twice the regular time for a servant: and the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do. +Deu 15:19 All the first males to come to birth in your herd and your flock are to be holy to the Lord your God: the first birth of your ox is not to be used for work, the wool of your first lamb is not to be cut. +Deu 15:20 But year by year you and all your house are to take a meal of it before the Lord, in the place of his selection. +Deu 15:21 But if it has any mark on it, if it is blind or has damaged legs, or if there is anything wrong with it, it may not be offered to the Lord your God. +Deu 15:22 It may be used for food in your houses: the unclean and the clean may take of it, as of the gazelle and the roe. +Deu 15:23 Only do not take its blood for food, but let it be drained out on the earth like water. +Deu 16:1 Take note of the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God: for in the month of Abib the Lord your God took you out of Egypt by night. +Deu 16:2 The Passover offering, from your flock or your herd, is to be given to the Lord your God in the place marked out by him as the resting-place of his name. +Deu 16:3 Take no leavened bread with it; for seven days let your food be unleavened bread, that is, the bread of sorrow; for you came out of the land of Egypt quickly: so the memory of that day, when you came out of the land of Egypt, will be with you all your life. +Deu 16:4 For seven days let no leaven be used through all your land; and nothing of the flesh which is put to death in the evening of the first day is to be kept through the night till morning. +Deu 16:5 The Passover offering is not to be put to death in any of the towns which the Lord your God gives you: +Deu 16:6 But in the place marked out by the Lord your God as the resting-place of his name, there you are to put the Passover to death in the evening, at sundown, at that time of the year when you came out of Egypt. +Deu 16:7 It is to be cooked and taken as food in the place marked out by the Lord: and in the morning you are to go back to your tents. +Deu 16:8 For six days let your food be unleavened bread; and on the seventh day there is to be a holy meeting to the Lord your God; no work is to be done. +Deu 16:9 Let seven weeks be numbered from the first day when the grain is cut. +Deu 16:10 Then keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God, with an offering freely given to him from the wealth he has given you: +Deu 16:11 Then you are to be glad before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite who is with you, and the man from a strange country, and the child without a father, and the widow, who are living among you, in the place marked out by the Lord your God as a resting-place for his name. +Deu 16:12 And you will keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt: and you will take care to keep all these laws. +Deu 16:13 You are to keep the feast of tents for seven days after you have got in all your grain and made your wine: +Deu 16:14 You are to keep the feast with joy, you and your son and your daughter, your man-servant and your woman-servant, and the Levite, and the man from a strange country, and the child without a father, and the widow, who are living among you. +Deu 16:15 Keep the feast to the Lord your God for seven days, in the place marked out by the Lord: because the blessing of the Lord your God will be on all the produce of your land and all the work of your hands, and you will have nothing but joy. +Deu 16:16 Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord your God in the place named by him; at the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tents: and they are not to come before the Lord with nothing in their hands; +Deu 16:17 Every man is to give as he is able, in the measure of the blessing which the Lord your God has given you. +Deu 16:18 You are to make judges and overseers in all your towns which the Lord your God gives you, for every tribe: and they are to be upright men, judging the people in righteousness. +Deu 16:19 You are not to be moved in your judging by a man's position, you are not to take rewards; for rewards make the eyes of the wise man blind, and the decisions of the upright false. +Deu 16:20 Let righteousness be your guide, so that you may have life, and take for your heritage the land which the Lord your God is giving you. +Deu 16:21 Let no holy tree of any sort be planted by the altar of the Lord your God which you will make. +Deu 16:22 You are not to put up stone pillars, for they are hated by the Lord your God. +Deu 17:1 No ox or sheep which has a mark on it or is damaged in any way may be offered to the Lord your God: for that is disgusting to the Lord your God. +Deu 17:2 If there is any man or woman among you, in any of the towns which the Lord your God gives you, who does evil in the eyes of the Lord your God, sinning against his agreement, +Deu 17:3 By becoming a servant of other gods and worshipping them or the sun or the moon or all the stars of heaven, against my orders; +Deu 17:4 If word of this comes to your ears, then let this thing be looked into with care, and if there is no doubt that it is true, and such evil has been done in Israel; +Deu 17:5 Then you are to take the man or woman who has done the evil to the public place of your town, and they are to be stoned with stones till they are dead. +Deu 17:6 On the word of two or three witnesses, a man may be given the punishment of death; but he is not to be put to death on the word of one witness. +Deu 17:7 The hands of the witnesses will be the first to put him to death, and after them the hands of all the people. So you are to put away the evil from among you. +Deu 17:8 If you are not able to give a decision as to who is responsible for a death, or who is right in a cause, or who gave the first blow in a fight, and there is a division of opinion about it in your town: then go to the place marked out by the Lord your God; +Deu 17:9 And come before the priests, the Levites, or before him who is judge at the time: and they will go into the question and give you a decision: +Deu 17:10 And you are to be guided by the decision they give in the place named by the Lord, and do whatever they say: +Deu 17:11 Acting in agreement with their teaching and the decision they give: not turning to one side or the other from the word they have given you. +Deu 17:12 And any man who, in his pride, will not give ear to the priest whose place is there before the Lord your God, or to the judge, is to be put to death: you are to put away the evil from Israel. +Deu 17:13 And all the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear and put away their pride. +Deu 17:14 When you have come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken it for a heritage and are living in it, if it is your desire to have a king over you, like the other nations round about you; +Deu 17:15 Then see that you take as your king the man named by the Lord your God: let your king be one of your countrymen, not a man of another nation who is not one of yourselves. +Deu 17:16 And he is not to get together a great army of horses for himself, or make the people go back to Egypt to get horses for him: because the Lord has said, You will never again go back that way. +Deu 17:17 And he is not to have a great number of wives, for fear that his heart may be turned away; or great wealth of silver and gold. +Deu 17:18 And when he has taken his place on the seat of his kingdom, he is to make in a book a copy of this law, from that which the priests, the Levites, have in their care: +Deu 17:19 And it is to be with him for his reading all the days of his life, so that he may be trained in the fear of the Lord his God to keep and do all the words of this teaching and these laws: +Deu 17:20 So that his heart may not be lifted up over his countrymen, and he may not be turned away from the orders, to one side or the other: but that his life and the lives of his children may be long in his kingdom in Israel. +Deu 18:1 The priests, the Levites, that is, all the tribe of Levi, will have no part or heritage with Israel: their food and their heritage will be the offerings of the Lord made by fire. +Deu 18:2 And they will have no heritage among their countrymen: the Lord is their heritage, as he has said to them. +Deu 18:3 And this is to be the priests' right: those who make an offering of a sheep or an ox are to give to the priest the top part of the leg and the two sides of the head and the stomach. +Deu 18:4 And in addition you are to give him the first of your grain and wine and oil, and the first wool cut from your sheep. +Deu 18:5 For he, and his sons after him for ever, have been marked out by the Lord your God from all your tribes, to do the work of priests in the name of the Lord. +Deu 18:6 And if a Levite, moved by a strong desire, comes from any town in all Israel where he is living to the place marked out by the Lord; +Deu 18:7 Then he will do the work of a priest in the name of the Lord his God, with all his brothers the Levites who are there before the Lord. +Deu 18:8 His food will be the same as theirs, in addition to what has come to him as the price of his property. +Deu 18:9 When you have come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, do not take as your example the disgusting ways of those nations. +Deu 18:10 Let there not be seen among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or anyone using secret arts, or a maker of strange sounds, or a reader of signs, or any wonder-worker, +Deu 18:11 Or anyone using secret force on people, or putting questions to a spirit, or having secret knowledge, or going to the dead for directions. +Deu 18:12 For all who do such things are disgusting to the Lord; and because of these disgusting things the Lord your God is driving them out before you. +Deu 18:13 You are to be upright in heart before the Lord your God. +Deu 18:14 For these nations, whose land you are taking, give attention to readers of signs and to those using secret arts: but the Lord your God will not let you do so. +Deu 18:15 The Lord your God will give you a prophet from among your people, like me; you will give ear to him; +Deu 18:16 In answer to the request you made to the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the great meeting, when you said, Let not the voice of the Lord my God come to my ears again, and let me not see this great fire any more, or death will overtake me. +Deu 18:17 Then the Lord said to me, What they have said is well said. +Deu 18:18 I will give them a prophet from among themselves, like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will say to them whatever I give him orders to say. +Deu 18:19 And whoever does not give ear to my words which he will say in my name, will be responsible to me. +Deu 18:20 But the prophet who takes it on himself to say words in my name which I have not given him orders to say, or who says anything in the name of other gods, will come to his death. +Deu 18:21 And if you say in your hearts, How are we to be certain that the word does not come from the Lord? +Deu 18:22 When a prophet makes a statement in the name of the Lord, if what he says does not take place and his words do not come true, then his word is not the word of the Lord: the words of the prophet were said in the pride of his heart, and you are to have no fear of him. +Deu 19:1 When the nations, whose land the Lord your God is giving you, have been cut off by him, and you have taken their place and are living in their towns and in their houses; +Deu 19:2 You are to have three towns marked out in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage. +Deu 19:3 You are to make ready a way, and see that the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, is marked out into three parts, to which any taker of life may go in flight. +Deu 19:4 This is to be the rule for anyone who goes in flight there, after causing the death of his neighbour in error and not through hate; +Deu 19:5 For example, if a man goes into the woods with his neighbour for the purpose of cutting down trees, and when he takes his axe to give a blow to the tree, the head of the axe comes off, and falling on to his neighbour gives him a wound causing his death; then the man may go in flight to one of these towns and be safe: +Deu 19:6 For if not, he who has the right of punishment may go running after the taker of life in the heat of his wrath, and overtake him because the way is long, and give him a death-blow; though it is not right for him to be put to death because he was not moved by hate. +Deu 19:7 And so I am ordering you to see that three towns are marked out for this purpose. +Deu 19:8 And if the Lord your God makes wide the limits of your land, as he said in his oath to your fathers, and gives you all the land which he undertook to give to your fathers; +Deu 19:9 If you keep and do all these orders which I give you today, loving the Lord your God and walking ever in his ways; then let three more towns, in addition to these three, be marked out for you: +Deu 19:10 So that in all your land, which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, no man may be wrongly put to death, for which you will be responsible. +Deu 19:11 But if any man has hate for his neighbour, and waiting for him secretly makes an attack on him and gives him a blow causing his death, and then goes in flight to one of these towns; +Deu 19:12 The responsible men of his town are to send and take him, and give him up to the one who has the right of punishment to be put to death. +Deu 19:13 Have no pity on him, so that Israel may be clear from the crime of putting a man to death without cause, and it will be well for you. +Deu 19:14 Your neighbour's landmark, which was put in its place by the men of old times, is not to be moved or taken away in the land of your heritage which the Lord your God is giving you. +Deu 19:15 One witness may not make a statement against a man in relation to any sin or wrongdoing which he has done: on the word of two or three witnesses a question is to be judged. +Deu 19:16 If a false witness makes a statement against a man, saying that he has done wrong, +Deu 19:17 Then the two men, between whom the argument has taken place, are to come before the Lord, before the priests and judges who are then in power; +Deu 19:18 And the judges will have the question looked into with care: and if the witness is seen to be false and to have made a false statement against his brother, +Deu 19:19 Then do to him what it was his purpose to do to his brother: and so put away the evil from among you. +Deu 19:20 And the rest of the people, hearing of it, will be full of fear, and never again do such evil among you. +Deu 19:21 Have no pity; let life be given for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. +Deu 20:1 When you go out to war against other nations, and come face to face with horses and war-carriages and armies greater in number than yourselves, have no fear of them: for the Lord your God is with you, who took you up out of the land of Egypt. +Deu 20:2 And when you are on the point of attacking, let the priest come forward and say to the people, +Deu 20:3 Give ear, O Israel: today you are going forward to the fight; let your heart be strong; do not let uncontrolled fear overcome you because of those who are against you; +Deu 20:4 For the Lord your God goes with you, fighting for you to give you salvation from those who are against you. +Deu 20:5 And let the overseers say to the people, If there is any man who has made for himself a new house and has not gone into it, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another may not take his house for himself. +Deu 20:6 Or if any man has made a vine-garden without taking the first-fruits of it, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another may not be the first to make use of the fruit. +Deu 20:7 Or if any man is newly married and has had no sex relations with his wife, let him go back to his house, so that in the event of his death in the fight, another man may not take her. +Deu 20:8 And let the overseers go on to say to the people, If there is any man whose heart is feeble with fear, let him go back to his house before he makes the hearts of his countrymen feeble. +Deu 20:9 Then, after saying these words to the people, let the overseers put captains over the army. +Deu 20:10 When you come to a town, before attacking it, make an offer of peace. +Deu 20:11 And if it gives you back an answer of peace, opening its doors to you, then all the people in it may be put to forced work as your servants. +Deu 20:12 If however it will not make peace with you, but war, then let it be shut in on all sides: +Deu 20:13 And when the Lord your God has given it into your hands, let every male in it be put to death without mercy. +Deu 20:14 But the women and the children and the cattle and everything in the town and all its wealth, you may take for yourselves: the wealth of your haters, which the Lord your God has given you, will be your food. +Deu 20:15 So you are to do to all the towns far away, which are not the towns of these nations. +Deu 20:16 But in the towns of these peoples whose land the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, let no living thing be kept from death: +Deu 20:17 Give them up to the curse; the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, as the Lord your God has given you orders: +Deu 20:18 So that you may not take them as your example and do all the disgusting things which they do in the worship of their gods, so sinning against the Lord your God. +Deu 20:19 If in war a town is shut in by your armies for a long time, do not let its trees be cut down and made waste; for their fruit will be your food; are the trees of the countryside men for you to take up arms against them? +Deu 20:20 Only those trees which you are certain are not used for food may be cut down and put to destruction: and you are to make walls of attack against the town till it is taken. +Deu 21:1 If, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you come across the dead body of a man in the open country, and you have no idea who has put him to death: +Deu 21:2 Then your responsible men and your judges are to come out, and give orders for the distance from the dead body to the towns round about it to be measured; +Deu 21:3 And whichever town is nearest to the body, the responsible men of that town are to take from the herd a young cow which has never been used for work or put under the yoke; +Deu 21:4 And they are to take the cow into a valley where there is flowing water, and which is not ploughed or planted, and there the neck of the cow is to be broken: +Deu 21:5 Then the priests, the sons of Levi, are to come near; for they have been marked out by the Lord your God to be his servants and to give blessings in the name of the Lord; and by their decision every argument and every blow is to be judged: +Deu 21:6 And all the responsible men of that town which is nearest to the dead man, washing their hands over the cow whose neck was broken in the valley, +Deu 21:7 Will say, This death is not the work of our hands and our eyes have not seen it. +Deu 21:8 Have mercy, O Lord, on your people Israel whom you have made free, and take away from your people the crime of a death without cause. Then they will no longer be responsible for the man's death. +Deu 21:9 So you will take away the crime of a death without cause from among you, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. +Deu 21:10 When you go out to war against other nations, and the Lord your God gives them up into your hands and you take them as prisoners; +Deu 21:11 If among the prisoners you see a beautiful woman and it is your desire to make her your wife; +Deu 21:12 Then take her back to your house; and let her hair and her nails be cut; +Deu 21:13 And let her take off the dress in which she was made prisoner and go on living in your house and weeping for her father and mother for a full month: and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she will be your wife. +Deu 21:14 But if you have no delight in her, you are to let her go wherever she will; you may not take a price for her as if she was your property, for you have made use of her for your pleasure. +Deu 21:15 If a man has two wives, one greatly loved and the other hated, and the two of them have had children by him; and if the first son is the child of the hated wife: +Deu 21:16 Then when he gives his property to his sons for their heritage, he is not to put the son of his loved one in the place of the first son, the son of the hated wife: +Deu 21:17 But he is to give his first son his birthright, and twice as great a part of his property: for he is the first-fruits of his strength and the right of the first son is his. +Deu 21:18 If a man has a son who is hard-hearted and uncontrolled, who gives no attention to the voice of his father and mother, and will not be ruled by them, though they give him punishment: +Deu 21:19 Then let his father and mother take him to the responsible men of the town, to the public place; +Deu 21:20 And say to them, This son of ours is hard-hearted and uncontrolled, he will not give attention to us; he gives himself up to pleasure and strong drink. +Deu 21:21 Then he is to be stoned to death by all the men of the town: so you are to put away the evil from among you; and all Israel, hearing of it, will be full of fear. +Deu 21:22 If a man does a crime for which the punishment is death, and he is put to death by hanging him on a tree; +Deu 21:23 Do not let his body be on the tree all night, but put it to rest in the earth the same day; for the man who undergoes hanging is cursed by God; so do not make unclean the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage. +Deu 22:1 If you see your brother's ox or his sheep wandering, do not go by without helping, but take them back to your brother. +Deu 22:2 If their owner is not near, or if you are not certain who he is, then take the beast to your house and keep it till its owner comes in search of it, and then you are to give it back to him. +Deu 22:3 Do the same with his ass or his robe or anything which has gone from your brother's keeping and which you have come across: do not keep it to yourself. +Deu 22:4 If you see your brother's ox or his ass falling down on the road, do not go by without giving him help in lifting it up again. +Deu 22:5 It is not right for a woman to be dressed in man's clothing, or for a man to put on a woman's robe: whoever does such things is disgusting to the Lord your God. +Deu 22:6 If by chance you see a place which a bird has made for itself in a tree or on the earth, with young ones or eggs, and the mother bird seated on the young ones or on the eggs, do not take the mother bird with the young: +Deu 22:7 See that you let the mother bird go, but the young ones you may take; so it will be well for you and your life will be long. +Deu 22:8 If you are building a house, make a railing for the roof, so that the blood of any man falling from it will not come on your house. +Deu 22:9 Do not have your vine-garden planted with two sorts of seed: or all of it may become a loss, the seed you have put in as well as the increase. +Deu 22:10 Do not do your ploughing with an ox and an ass yoked together. +Deu 22:11 Do not have clothing made of two sorts of thread, wool and linen together. +Deu 22:12 On the four edges of your robe, with which your body is covered, put ornaments of twisted threads. +Deu 22:13 If any man takes a wife, and having had connection with her, has no delight in her, +Deu 22:14 And says evil things about her and gives her a bad name, saying, I took this woman, and when I had connection with her it was clear to me that she was not a virgin: +Deu 22:15 Then let the girl's father and mother put before the responsible men of the town, in the public place, signs that the girl was a virgin: +Deu 22:16 And let the girl's father say to the responsible men, I gave my daughter to this man for his wife, but he has no love for her; +Deu 22:17 And now he has put shame on her, saying that she is not a virgin; but here is the sign that she is a virgin. Then they are to put her clothing before the responsible men of the town. +Deu 22:18 Then the responsible men of the town are to give the man his punishment; +Deu 22:19 They will take from him a hundred shekels of silver, which are to be given to the father of the girl, because he has given an evil name to a virgin of Israel: she will go on being his wife, he may never put her away all his life. +Deu 22:20 But if what he has said is true, and she is seen to be not a virgin, +Deu 22:21 Then they are to make the girl come to the door of her father's house and she will be stoned to death by the men of the town, because she has done evil and put shame on Israel, by acting as a loose woman in her father's house: so you are to put away evil from among you. +Deu 22:22 If a man is taken in the act of going in to a married woman, the two of them, the man as well as the woman, are to be put to death: so you are to put away the evil from Israel. +Deu 22:23 If a young virgin has given her word to be married to a man, and another man meeting her in the town, has connection with her; +Deu 22:24 Then you are to take the two of them to the doorway of the town, and have them stoned to death; the young virgin, because she gave no cry for help, though it was in the town, and the man, because he has put shame on his neighbour's wife: so you are to put away evil from among you. +Deu 22:25 But if the man, meeting such a virgin in the open country, takes her by force, then only the man is to be put to death; +Deu 22:26 Nothing is to be done to the virgin, because there is no cause of death in her: it is the same as if a man made an attack on his neighbour and put him to death: +Deu 22:27 For he came across her in the open country, and there was no one to come to the help of the virgin in answer to her cry. +Deu 22:28 If a man sees a young virgin, who has not given her word to be married to anyone, and he takes her by force and has connection with her, and discovery is made of it; +Deu 22:29 Then the man will have to give the virgin's father fifty shekels of silver and make her his wife, because he has put shame on her; he may never put her away all his life. +Deu 22:30 A man may not take his father's wife or have sex relations with a woman who is his father's. +Deu 23:1 No man whose private parts have been wounded or cut off may come into the meeting of the Lord's people. +Deu 23:2 One whose father and mother are not married may not come into the meeting of the Lord's people, or any of his family to the tenth generation. +Deu 23:3 No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their people to the tenth generation may come into the meeting of the Lord's people: +Deu 23:4 Because they gave you no bread or water on your way, when you came out of Egypt: and they got Balaam, the son of Peor, from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to put curses on you. +Deu 23:5 But the Lord your God would not give ear to Balaam, but let the curse be changed into a blessing to you, because of his love for you. +Deu 23:6 Do nothing for their peace or well-being for ever. +Deu 23:7 But have no hate for an Edomite, because he is your brother, or for an Egyptian, for you were living in his land. +Deu 23:8 Their children in the third generation may come into the meeting of the Lord's people. +Deu 23:9 When you go out to war and put your tents in position, keep from every evil thing. +Deu 23:10 If any man among you becomes unclean through anything which has taken place in the night, he is to go out from the tent-circle and keep outside it: +Deu 23:11 But when evening comes near, let him take a bath: and after sundown he may come back to the tents. +Deu 23:12 Let there be a place outside the tent-circle to which you may go; +Deu 23:13 And have among your arms a spade; and when you have been to that place, let that which comes from you be covered up with earth: +Deu 23:14 For the Lord your God is walking among your tents, to keep you safe and to give up into your hands those who are fighting against you; then let your tents be holy, so that he may see no unclean thing among you, and be turned away from you. +Deu 23:15 Do not give back to his master a servant who has gone in flight from his master and come to you: +Deu 23:16 Let him go on living among you in whatever place is most pleasing to him: do not be hard on him. +Deu 23:17 No daughter of Israel is to let herself be used as a loose woman for a strange god, and no son of Israel is to give himself to a man. +Deu 23:18 Do not take into the house of the Lord your God, as an offering for an oath, the price of a loose woman or the money given to one used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods: for these two things are disgusting to the Lord your God. +Deu 23:19 Do not take interest from an Israelite on anything, money or food or any other goods, which you let him have: +Deu 23:20 From men of other nations you may take interest, but not from an Israelite: so that the blessing of the Lord your God may be on everything to which you put your hand, in the land which you are about to take as your heritage. +Deu 23:21 When you take an oath to the Lord, do not be slow to give effect to it: for without doubt the Lord your God will make you responsible, and will put it to your account as sin. +Deu 23:22 But if you take no oath, there will be no sin. +Deu 23:23 Whatever your lips have said, see that you do it; for you gave your word freely to the Lord your God. +Deu 23:24 When you go into your neighbour's vine-garden, you may take of his grapes at your pleasure, but you may not take them away in your vessel. +Deu 23:25 When you go into your neighbour's field, you may take the heads of grain with your hand; but you may not put your blade to his grain. +Deu 24:1 If a man takes a wife, and after they are married she is unpleasing to him because of some bad quality in her, let him give her a statement in writing and send her away from his house. +Deu 24:2 And when she has gone away from him, she may become another man's wife. +Deu 24:3 And if the second husband has no love for her and, giving her a statement in writing, sends her away; or if death comes to the second husband to whom she was married; +Deu 24:4 Her first husband, who had sent her away, may not take her back after she has been wife to another; for that is disgusting to the Lord: and you are not to be a cause of sin in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage. +Deu 24:5 A newly married man will not have to go out with the army or undertake any business, but may be free for one year, living in his house for the comfort of his wife. +Deu 24:6 No one is to take, on account of a debt, the stones with which grain is crushed: for in doing so he takes a man's living. +Deu 24:7 If a man takes by force one of his countrymen, the children of Israel, using him as his property or getting a price for him, that thief is to be put to death: so you are to put away evil from among you. +Deu 24:8 In connection with the leper's disease, take care to keep and do every detail of the teaching of the priests, the Levites: as I gave them orders, so you are to do. +Deu 24:9 Keep in mind what the Lord your God did to Miriam on the way, when you came out of Egypt. +Deu 24:10 If you let your brother have the use of anything which is yours, do not go into his house and take anything of his as a sign of his debt; +Deu 24:11 But keep outside till he comes out and gives it to you. +Deu 24:12 If he is a poor man, do not keep his property all night; +Deu 24:13 But be certain to give it back to him when the sun goes down, so that he may have his clothing for sleeping in, and will give you his blessing: and this will be put to your account as righteousness before the Lord your God. +Deu 24:14 Do not be hard on a servant who is poor and in need, if he is one of your countrymen or a man from another nation living with you in your land. +Deu 24:15 Give him his payment day by day, not keeping it back over night; for he is poor and his living is dependent on it; and if his cry against you comes to the ears of the Lord, it will be judged as sin in you. +Deu 24:16 Fathers are not to be put to death for their children or children for their fathers: every man is to be put to death for the sin which he himself has done. +Deu 24:17 Be upright in judging the cause of the man from a strange country and of him who has no father; do not take a widow's clothing on account of a debt: +Deu 24:18 But keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God made you free: for this is why I give you orders to do this. +Deu 24:19 When you get in the grain from your field, if some of the grain has been dropped by chance in the field, do not go back and get it, but let it be for the man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the widow: so that the blessing of the Lord your God may be on all the work of your hands. +Deu 24:20 When you are shaking the fruit from your olive-trees, do not go over the branches a second time: let some be for the man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the widow. +Deu 24:21 When you are pulling the grapes from your vines, do not take up those which have been dropped; let them be for the man from a strange land, the child without a father, and the widow. +Deu 24:22 Keep in mind that you were a servant in the land of Egypt: for this is why I give you orders to do this. +Deu 25:1 If there is an argument between men and they go to law with one another, let the judges give their decision for the upright, and against the wrongdoer. +Deu 25:2 And if the wrongdoer is to undergo punishment by whipping, the judge will give orders for him to go down on his face and be whipped before him, the number of the blows being in relation to his crime. +Deu 25:3 He may be given forty blows, not more; for if more are given, your brother may be shamed before you. +Deu 25:4 Do not keep the ox from taking the grain when he is crushing it. +Deu 25:5 If brothers are living together and one of them, at his death, has no son, the wife of the dead man is not to be married outside the family to another man: let her husband's brother go in to her and make her his wife, doing as it is right for a brother-in-law to do. +Deu 25:6 Then the first male child she has will take the rights of the brother who is dead, so that his name may not come to an end in Israel. +Deu 25:7 But if the man says he will not take his brother's wife, then let the wife go to the responsible men of the town, and say, My husband's brother will not keep his brother's name living in Israel; he will not do what it is right for a husband's brother to do. +Deu 25:8 Then the responsible men of the town will send for the man, and have talk with him: and if he still says, I will not take her; +Deu 25:9 Then his brother's wife is to come to him, before the responsible men of the town, and take his shoe off his foot, and put shame on him, and say, So let it be done to the man who will not take care of his brother's name. +Deu 25:10 And his family will be named in Israel, The house of him whose shoe has been taken off. +Deu 25:11 If two men are fighting, and the wife of one of them, coming to the help of her husband, takes the other by the private parts; +Deu 25:12 Her hand is to be cut off; have no pity on her. +Deu 25:13 Do not have in your bag different weights, a great and a small; +Deu 25:14 Or in your house different measures, a great and a small. +Deu 25:15 But have a true weight and a true measure: so that your life may be long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. +Deu 25:16 For all who do such things, and all whose ways are not upright, are disgusting to the Lord your God. +Deu 25:17 Keep in mind what Amalek did to you on your way from Egypt; +Deu 25:18 How, meeting you on the way, he made an attack on you when you were tired and without strength, cutting off all the feeble ones at the end of your line; and the fear of God was not in him. +Deu 25:19 So when the Lord your God has given you rest from all who are against you on every side, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, see to it that the memory of Amalek is cut off from the earth; keep this in mind. +Deu 26:1 Now when you have come into the land which the Lord is giving you for your heritage, and you have made it yours and are living in it; +Deu 26:2 You are to take a part of the first-fruits of the earth, which you get from the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket, and go to the place marked out by the Lord your God, as the resting-place of his name. +Deu 26:3 And you are to come to him who is priest at that time, and say to him, I give witness today before the Lord your God, that I have come into the land which the Lord made an oath to our fathers to give us. +Deu 26:4 Then the priest will take the basket from your hand and put it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. +Deu 26:5 And these are the words which you will say before the Lord your God: My father was a wandering Aramaean, and he went down with a small number of people into Egypt; there he became a great and strong nation: +Deu 26:6 And the Egyptians were cruel to us, crushing us under a hard yoke: +Deu 26:7 And our cry went up to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord's ear was open to the voice of our cry, and his eyes took note of our grief and the crushing weight of our work: +Deu 26:8 And the Lord took us out of Egypt with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm, with works of power and signs and wonders: +Deu 26:9 And he has been our guide to this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. +Deu 26:10 So now, I have come here with the first of the fruits of the earth which you, O Lord, have given me. Then you will put it down before the Lord your God and give him worship: +Deu 26:11 And you will have joy in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and to your family; and the Levite, and the man from a strange land who is with you, will take part in your joy. +Deu 26:12 When you have taken out a tenth from the tenth of all your produce in the third year, which is the year when this has to be done, give it to the Levite, and the man from a strange land, and the child without a father, and the widow, so that they may have food in your towns and be full; +Deu 26:13 And say before the Lord your God, I have taken all the holy things out of my house and have given them to the Levite, and the man from a strange land, and him who has no father, and the widow, as you have given me orders: I have kept in mind all your orders, in nothing have I gone against them: +Deu 26:14 No part of these things has been used for food in a time of weeping, or put away when I was unclean, or given for the dead: I have given ear to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all you have given me orders to do. +Deu 26:15 So, looking down from your holy place in heaven, send your blessing on your people Israel and on the land which you have given us, as you said in your oath to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. +Deu 26:16 Today the Lord your God gives you orders to keep all these laws and decisions: so then keep and do them with all your heart and all your soul. +Deu 26:17 Today you have given witness that the Lord is your God, and that you will go in his ways and keep his laws and his orders and his decisions and give ear to his voice: +Deu 26:18 And the Lord has made it clear this day that you are a special people to him, as he gave you his word; and that you are to keep all his orders; +Deu 26:19 And that he will make you high over all the nations he has made, in praise, in name, and in honour, and that you are to be a holy people to the Lord your God as he has said. +Deu 27:1 Then Moses and the responsible men of Israel gave the people these orders: Keep all the orders which I have given you this day; +Deu 27:2 And on the day when you go over Jordan into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, put up great stones, coating them with building-paste, +Deu 27:3 And writing on them all the words of this law, after you have gone over; so that you may take the heritage which the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has said. +Deu 27:4 And when you have gone over Jordan, you are to put up these stones, as I have said to you today, in Mount Ebal, and have them coated with building-paste. +Deu 27:5 There you are to make an altar to the Lord your God, of stones on which no iron instrument has been used. +Deu 27:6 You are to make the altar of the Lord your God of uncut stones; offering on it burned offerings to the Lord your God: +Deu 27:7 And you are to make your peace-offerings, feasting there with joy before the Lord your God. +Deu 27:8 And put on the stones all the words of this law, writing them very clearly. +Deu 27:9 Then Moses and the priests, the Levites, said to all Israel, Be quiet and give ear, O Israel; today you have become the people of the Lord your God. +Deu 27:10 For this cause you are to give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and do his orders and his laws which I give you this day. +Deu 27:11 That same day Moses said to the people, +Deu 27:12 These are to take their places on Mount Gerizim for blessing the people when you have gone over Jordan: Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Joseph and Benjamin; +Deu 27:13 And these are to be on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. +Deu 27:14 Then the Levites are to say in a loud voice to all the men of Israel, +Deu 27:15 Cursed is the man who makes any image of wood or stone or metal, disgusting to the Lord, the work of man's hands, and puts it up in secret. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 27:16 Cursed is he who does not give honour to his father or mother. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 27:17 Cursed is he who takes his neighbour's landmark from its place. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 27:18 Cursed is he by whom the blind are turned out of the way. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 27:19 Cursed is he who gives a wrong decision in the cause of a man from a strange land, or of one without a father, or of a widow. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 27:20 Cursed is he who has sex relations with his father's wife, for he has put shame on his father. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 27:21 Cursed is he who has sex relations with any sort of beast. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 27:22 Cursed is he who has sex relations with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 27:23 Cursed is he who has sex relations with his mother-in-law. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 27:24 Cursed is he who takes his neighbour's life secretly. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 27:25 Cursed is he who for a reward puts to death one who has done no wrong. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 27:26 Cursed is he who does not take this law to heart to do it. And let all the people say, So be it. +Deu 28:1 Now if you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and keep with care all these orders which I have given you today, then the Lord your God will put you high over all the nations of the earth: +Deu 28:2 And all these blessings will come on you and overtake you, if your ears are open to the voice of the Lord your God. +Deu 28:3 A blessing will be on you in the town, and a blessing in the field. +Deu 28:4 A blessing will be on the fruit of your body, and on the fruit of your land, on the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herd, and the young of your flock. +Deu 28:5 A blessing will be on your basket and on your bread-basin. +Deu 28:6 A blessing will be on your coming in and on your going out. +Deu 28:7 By the power of the Lord, those who take arms against you will be overcome before you: they will come out against you one way, and will go in flight from you seven ways. +Deu 28:8 The Lord will send his blessing on your store-houses and on everything to which you put your hand: his blessing will be on you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. +Deu 28:9 The Lord will keep you as a people holy to himself, as he has said to you in his oath, if you keep the orders of the Lord your God and go on walking in his ways. +Deu 28:10 And all the peoples of the earth will see that the name of the Lord is on you, and they will go in fear of you. +Deu 28:11 And the Lord will make you fertile in every good thing, in the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your fields, in the land which the Lord, by his oath to your fathers, said he would give you. +Deu 28:12 Opening his store-house in heaven, the Lord will send rain on your land at the right time, blessing all the work of your hands: other nations will make use of your wealth, and you will have no need of theirs. +Deu 28:13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail; and you will ever have the highest place, if you give ear to the orders of the Lord your God which I give you today, to keep and to do them; +Deu 28:14 Not turning away from any of the orders which I give you today, to the right hand or to the left, or going after any other gods to give them worship. +Deu 28:15 But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to do all his orders and his laws which I give you today, then all these curses will come on you and overtake you: +Deu 28:16 You will be cursed in the town and cursed in the field. +Deu 28:17 A curse will be on your basket and on your bread-basin. +Deu 28:18 A curse will be on the fruit of your body, and on the fruit of your land, on the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock. +Deu 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. +Deu 28:20 The Lord will send on you cursing and trouble and punishment in everything to which you put your hand, till sudden destruction overtakes you; because of your evil ways in which you have been false to me. +Deu 28:21 The Lord will send disease after disease on you, till you have been cut off by death from the land to which you are going. +Deu 28:22 The Lord will send wasting disease, and burning pain, and flaming heat against you, keeping back the rain till your land is waste and dead; so will it be till your destruction is complete. +Deu 28:23 And the heaven over your heads will be brass, and the earth under you hard as iron. +Deu 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust, sending it down on you from heaven till your destruction is complete. +Deu 28:25 The Lord will let you be overcome by your haters: you will go out against them one way, and you will go in flight before them seven ways: you will be the cause of fear among all the kingdoms of the earth. +Deu 28:26 Your bodies will be meat for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth; there will be no one to send them away. +Deu 28:27 The Lord will send on you the disease of Egypt, and other sorts of skin diseases which nothing will make well. +Deu 28:28 He will make your minds diseased, and your eyes blind, and your hearts wasted with fear: +Deu 28:29 You will go feeling your way when the sun is high, like a blind man for whom all is dark, and nothing will go well for you: you will be crushed and made poor for ever, and you will have no saviour. +Deu 28:30 You will take a wife, but another man will have the use of her: the house which your hands have made will never be your resting-place: you will make a vine-garden, and never take the fruit of it. +Deu 28:31 Your ox will be put to death before your eyes, but its flesh will not be your food: your ass will be violently taken away before your face, and will not be given back to you: your sheep will be given to your haters, and there will be no saviour for you. +Deu 28:32 Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, and your eyes will be wasted away with looking and weeping for them all the day: and you will have no power to do anything. +Deu 28:33 The fruit of your land and all the work of your hands will be food for a nation which is strange to you and to your fathers; you will only be crushed down and kept under for ever: +Deu 28:34 So that the things which your eyes have to see will send you out of your minds. +Deu 28:35 The Lord will send a skin disease, attacking your knees and your legs, bursting out from your feet to the top of your head, so that nothing will make you well. +Deu 28:36 And you, and the king whom you have put over you, will the Lord take away to a nation strange to you and to your fathers; there you will be servants to other gods of wood and stone. +Deu 28:37 And you will become a wonder and a name of shame among all the nations where the Lord will take you. +Deu 28:38 You will take much seed out into the field, and get little in; for the locust will get it. +Deu 28:39 You will put in vines and take care of them, but you will get no wine or grapes from them; for they will be food for worms. +Deu 28:40 Your land will be full of olive-trees, but there will be no oil for the comfort of your body; for your olive-tree will give no fruit. +Deu 28:41 You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours; for they will go away prisoners into a strange land. +Deu 28:42 All your trees and the fruit of your land will be the locust's. +Deu 28:43 The man from a strange land who is living among you will be lifted up higher and higher over you, while you go down lower and lower. +Deu 28:44 He will let you have his wealth at interest, and will have no need of yours: he will be the head and you the tail. +Deu 28:45 And all these curses will come after you and overtake you, till your destruction is complete; because you did not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, or keep his laws and his orders which he gave you: +Deu 28:46 These things will come on you and on your seed, to be a sign and a wonder for ever; +Deu 28:47 Because you did not give honour to the Lord your God, worshipping him gladly, with joy in your hearts on account of all your wealth of good things; +Deu 28:48 For this cause you will become servants to those whom the Lord your God will send against you, without food and drink and clothing, and in need of all things: and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck till he has put an end to you. +Deu 28:49 The Lord will send a nation against you from the farthest ends of the earth, coming with the flight of an eagle; a nation whose language is strange to you; +Deu 28:50 A hard-faced nation, who will have no respect for the old or mercy for the young: +Deu 28:51 He will take the fruit of your cattle and of your land till death puts an end to you: he will let you have nothing of your grain or wine or oil or any of the increase of your cattle or the young of your flock, till he has made your destruction complete. +Deu 28:52 Your towns will be shut in by his armies, till your high walls, in which you put your faith, have come down: his armies will be round your towns, through all your land which the Lord your God has given you. +Deu 28:53 And your food will be the fruit of your body, the flesh of the sons and daughters which the Lord your God has given you; because of your bitter need and the cruel grip of your haters. +Deu 28:54 That man among you who is soft and used to comfort will be hard and cruel to his brother, and to his dear wife, and to of those his children who are still living; +Deu 28:55 And will not give to any of them the flesh of his children which will be his food because he has no other; in the cruel grip of your haters on all your towns. +Deu 28:56 The most soft and delicate of your women, who would not so much as put her foot on the earth, so delicate is she, will be hard-hearted to her husband and to her son and to her daughter; +Deu 28:57 And to her baby newly come to birth, and to the children of her body; for having no other food, she will make a meal of them secretly, because of her bitter need and the cruel grip of your haters on all your towns. +Deu 28:58 If you will not take care to do all the words of this law, recorded in this book, honouring that name of glory and of fear, THE LORD YOUR GOD; +Deu 28:59 Then the Lord your God will make your punishment, and the punishment of your seed, a thing to be wondered at; great punishments and cruel diseases stretching on through long years. +Deu 28:60 He will send on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which were a cause of fear to you, and they will take you in their grip. +Deu 28:61 And all the diseases and the pains not recorded in the book of this law will the Lord send on you till your destruction is complete. +Deu 28:62 And you will become a very small band, though your numbers were like the stars of heaven; because you did not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God. +Deu 28:63 And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and increasing you, so the Lord will take pleasure in cutting you off and causing your destruction, and you will be uprooted from the land which you are about to take as your heritage. +Deu 28:64 And the Lord will send you wandering among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other: there you will be servants to other gods, of wood and stone, gods of which you and your fathers had no knowledge. +Deu 28:65 And even among these nations there will be no peace for you, and no rest for your feet: but the Lord will give you there a shaking heart and wasting eyes and weariness of soul: +Deu 28:66 Your very life will be hanging in doubt before you, and day and night will be dark with fears, and nothing in life will be certain: +Deu 28:67 In the morning you will say, If only it was evening! And at evening you will say, If only morning would come! Because of the fear in your hearts and the things which your eyes will see. +Deu 28:68 And the Lord will take you back to Egypt again in ships, by the way of which I said to you, You will never see it again: there you will be offering yourselves as men-servants and women-servants to your haters for a price, and no man will take you. +Deu 29:1 These are the words of the agreement which Moses was ordered by the Lord to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the agreement which he made with them in Horeb. +Deu 29:2 And Moses said in the hearing of all Israel, You have seen all the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and all his land; +Deu 29:3 The great tests which your eyes saw, and the signs and wonders: +Deu 29:4 But even to this day the Lord has not given you a mind open to knowledge, or seeing eyes or hearing ears. +Deu 29:5 For forty years I have been your guide through the waste land: your clothing has not become old on your backs, or your shoes on your feet. +Deu 29:6 You have had no bread, or wine, or strong drink: so that you might see that I am the Lord your God. +Deu 29:7 When you came to this place, Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, came out to make war against us and we overcame them: +Deu 29:8 And we took their land and gave it to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, for their heritage. +Deu 29:9 So keep the words of this agreement and do them, so that it may be well for you in everything you do. +Deu 29:10 You have come here today, all of you, before the Lord your God; the heads of your tribes, the overseers, and those who are in authority over you, with all the men of Israel, +Deu 29:11 And your little ones, your wives, and the men of other lands who are with you in your tents, down to the wood-cutter and the servant who gets water for you: +Deu 29:12 With the purpose of taking part in the agreement of the Lord your God, and his oath which he makes with you today: +Deu 29:13 And so that he may make you his people today, and be your God, as he has said to you, and as he made an oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. +Deu 29:14 And not with you only do I make this agreement and this oath; +Deu 29:15 But with everyone who is here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with those who are not here: +Deu 29:16 (For you have in mind how we were living in the land of Egypt; and how we came through all the nations which were on your way; +Deu 29:17 And you have seen their disgusting doings, and the images of wood and stone and silver and gold which were among them:) +Deu 29:18 So that there may not be among you any man or woman or family or tribe whose heart is turned away from the Lord our God today, to go after other gods and give them worship; or any root among you whose fruit is poison and bitter sorrow; +Deu 29:19 If such a man, hearing the words of this oath, takes comfort in the thought that he will have peace even if he goes on in the pride of his heart, taking whatever chance may give him: +Deu 29:20 The Lord will have no mercy on him, but the wrath of the Lord will be burning against that man, and all the curses recorded in this book will be waiting for him, and the Lord will take away his name completely from the earth. +Deu 29:21 He will be marked out by the Lord, from all the tribes of Israel, for an evil fate, in keeping with all the curses of the agreement recorded in this book of the law. +Deu 29:22 And future generations, your children coming after you, and travellers from far countries, will say, when they see the punishments of that land and the diseases which the Lord has sent on it; +Deu 29:23 And that all the land is a salt and smoking waste, not planted or giving fruit or clothed with grass, but wasted like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, on which the Lord sent destruction in the heat of his wrath: +Deu 29:24 Truly all the nations will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land? what is the reason for this great and burning wrath? +Deu 29:25 Then men will say, Because they gave up the agreement of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he took them out of the land of Egypt: +Deu 29:26 And they went after other gods and gave them worship, gods who were strange to them, and whom he had not given them: +Deu 29:27 And so the wrath of the Lord was moved against this land, to send on it all the curse recorded in this book: +Deu 29:28 Rooting them out of their land, in the heat of his wrath and passion, and driving them out into another land, as at this day. +Deu 29:29 The secret things are the Lord our God's: but the things which have been made clear are ours and our children's for ever, so that we may do all the words of this law. +Deu 30:1 Now when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse which I have put before you, if the thought of them comes back to your minds, when you are living among the nations where the Lord your God has sent you, +Deu 30:2 And your hearts are turned again to the Lord your God, and you give ear to his word which I give you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul: +Deu 30:3 Then the Lord will have pity on you, changing your fate, and taking you back again from among all the nations where you have been forced to go. +Deu 30:4 Even if those who have been forced out are living in the farthest part of heaven, the Lord your God will go in search of you, and take you back; +Deu 30:5 Placing you again in the land of your fathers as your heritage; and he will do you good, increasing you till you are more in number than your fathers were. +Deu 30:6 And the Lord your God will give to you and to your seed a circumcision of the heart, so that, loving him with all your heart and all your soul, you may have life. +Deu 30:7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses on those who are against you, and on your haters who put a cruel yoke on you. +Deu 30:8 And you will again give ear to the voice of the Lord, and do all his orders which I have given you today. +Deu 30:9 And the Lord your God will make you fertile in all good things, blessing the work of your hands, and the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your land: for the Lord will have joy in you, as he had in your fathers: +Deu 30:10 If you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his orders and his laws which are recorded in this book of the law, and turning to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. +Deu 30:11 For these orders which I have given you today are not strange and secret, and are not far away. +Deu 30:12 They are not in heaven, for you to say, Who will go up to heaven for us and give us knowledge of them so that we may do them? +Deu 30:13 And they are not across the sea, for you to say, Who will go over the sea for us and give us news of them so that we may do them? +Deu 30:14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it. +Deu 30:15 See, I have put before you today, life and good, and death and evil; +Deu 30:16 In giving you orders today to have love for the Lord your God, to go in his ways and keep his laws and his orders and his decisions, so that you may have life and be increased, and that the blessing of the Lord your God may be with you in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage. +Deu 30:17 But if your heart is turned away and your ear is shut, and you go after those who would make you servants and worshippers of other gods: +Deu 30:18 I give witness against you this day that destruction will certainly be your fate, and your days will be cut short in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage on the other side of Jordan. +Deu 30:19 Let heaven and earth be my witnesses against you this day that I have put before you life and death, a blessing and a curse: so take life for yourselves and for your seed: +Deu 30:20 In loving the Lord your God, hearing his voice and being true to him: for he is your life and by him will your days be long: so that you may go on living in the land which the Lord gave by an oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. +Deu 31:1 So Moses said all these things to Israel. +Deu 31:2 Then he said to them, I am now a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to go out and come in: and the Lord has said to me, You are not to go over Jordan. +Deu 31:3 The Lord your God, he will go over before you; he will send destruction on all those nations, and you will take their land as your heritage: and Joshua will go over at your head as the Lord has said. +Deu 31:4 The Lord will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, whom he put to destruction. +Deu 31:5 The Lord will give them up into your hands, and you are to do to them as I have given you orders. +Deu 31:6 Be strong and take heart, and have no fear of them: for it is the Lord your God who is going with you; he will not take away his help from you. +Deu 31:7 Then Moses sent for Joshua, and before the eyes of all Israel said to him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go with this people into the land which the Lord, by his oath to their fathers, has given them; by your help they will take it for their heritage. +Deu 31:8 It is the Lord who goes before you; he will be with you, he will not take away his help from you or give you up: so have no fear. +Deu 31:9 Then Moses put all this law in writing, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who take up the ark of the Lord's agreement, and to all the responsible men of Israel. +Deu 31:10 And Moses said to them, At the end of every seven years, at the time fixed for the ending of debts, at the feast of tents, +Deu 31:11 When all Israel has come before the Lord your God in the place named by him, let a reading be given of this law in the hearing of all Israel. +Deu 31:12 Make all the people come together, men and women and children, and anyone from another country who is with you, so that hearing they may become wise in the fear of the Lord your God, and take care to do all the words of this law; +Deu 31:13 And so that your children, to whom it is new, may give ear and be trained in the fear of the Lord your God, while you are living in the land which you are going over Jordan to take for your heritage. +Deu 31:14 At that time the Lord said to Moses, The day of your death is near: send for Joshua, and come to the Tent of meeting so that I may give him his orders. So Moses and Joshua went to the Tent of meeting. +Deu 31:15 And the Lord was seen in the Tent in a pillar of cloud resting by the door of the Tent. +Deu 31:16 And the Lord said to Moses, Now you are going to rest with your fathers; and this people will be false to me, uniting themselves to the strange gods of the land where they are going; they will be turned away from me and will not keep the agreement I have made with them. +Deu 31:17 In that day my wrath will be moved against them, and I will be turned away from them, veiling my face from them, and destruction will overtake them, and unnumbered evils and troubles will come on them; so that in that day they will say, Have not these evils come on us because our God is not with us? +Deu 31:18 Truly, my face will be turned away from them in that day, because of all the evil they have done in going after other gods. +Deu 31:19 Make then this song for yourselves, teaching it to the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, so that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. +Deu 31:20 For when I have taken them into the land named in my oath to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they have made themselves full of food and are fat, then they will be turned to other gods and will give them worship, no longer honouring me or keeping my agreement. +Deu 31:21 Then when evils and troubles without number have overtaken them, this song will be a witness to them, for the words of it will be clear in the memories of their children: for I see the thoughts which are moving in their hearts even now, before I have taken them into the land of my oath. +Deu 31:22 So that same day Moses made this song, teaching it to the children of Israel. +Deu 31:23 Then he gave orders to Joshua, the son of Nun, saying to him, Be strong and take heart: for you are to go at the head of the children of Israel into the land which I made an oath to give them; and I will be with you. +Deu 31:24 Now after writing all the words of this law in a book till the record of them was complete, +Deu 31:25 Moses said to the Levites who were responsible for taking up the ark of the Lord's agreement, +Deu 31:26 Take this book of the law and put it by the ark of the Lord's agreement, so that it may be a witness against you. +Deu 31:27 For I have knowledge of your hard and uncontrolled hearts: even now, while I am still living, you will not be ruled by the Lord; how much less after my death? +Deu 31:28 Get together before me all those who are in authority in your tribes, and your overseers, so that I may say these things in their hearing, and make heaven and earth my witnesses against them. +Deu 31:29 For I am certain that after my death you will give yourselves up to sin, wandering from the way which I have given you; and evil will overtake you in the end, because you will do evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath by the work of your hands. +Deu 31:30 Then in the hearing of all the meeting of Israel, Moses said the words of this song, to the end. +Deu 32:1 Give ear, O heavens, to my voice; let the earth take note of the words of my mouth: +Deu 32:2 My teaching is dropping like rain, coming down like dew on the fields; like rain on the young grass and showers on the garden plants: +Deu 32:3 For I will give honour to the name of the Lord: let our God be named great. +Deu 32:4 He is the Rock, complete is his work; for all his ways are righteousness: a God without evil who keeps faith, true and upright is he. +Deu 32:5 They have become false, they are not his children, the mark of sin is on them; they are an evil and hard-hearted generation. +Deu 32:6 Is this your answer to the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is he not your father who has given you life? He has made you and given you your place. +Deu 32:7 Keep in mind the days of the past, give thought to the years of generations gone by: go to your father and he will make it clear to you, to the old men and they will give you the story. +Deu 32:8 When the Most High gave the nations their heritage, separating into groups the children of men, he had the limits of the peoples marked out, keeping in mind the number of the children of Israel. +Deu 32:9 For the Lord's wealth is his people; Jacob is the land of his heritage. +Deu 32:10 He came to him in the waste land, in the unpeopled waste of sand: putting his arms round him and caring for him, he kept him as the light of his eye. +Deu 32:11 As an eagle, teaching her young to make their flight, with her wings outstretched over them, takes them up on her strong feathers: +Deu 32:12 So the Lord only was his guide, no other god was with him. +Deu 32:13 He put him on the high places of the earth, his food was the increase of the field; honey he gave him out of the rock and oil out of the hard rock; +Deu 32:14 Butter from his cows and milk from his sheep, with fat of lambs and sheep of Bashan, and goats, and the heart of the grain; and for your drink, wine from the blood of the grape. +Deu 32:15 But Jeshurun became fat and would not be controlled: you have become fat, you are thick and full of food: then he was untrue to the God who made him, giving no honour to the Rock of his salvation. +Deu 32:16 The honour which was his they gave to strange gods; by their disgusting ways he was moved to wrath. +Deu 32:17 They made offerings to evil spirits which were not God, to gods who were strange to them, which had newly come up, not feared by your fathers. +Deu 32:18 You have no thought for the Rock, your father, you have no memory of the God who gave you birth. +Deu 32:19 And the Lord saw with disgust the evil-doing of his sons and daughters. +Deu 32:20 And he said, My face will be veiled from them, I will see what their end will be: for they are an uncontrolled generation, children in whom is no faith. +Deu 32:21 They have given my honour to that which is not God, moving me to wrath with their false worship: I will give their honour to those who are not a people, moving them to wrath by a foolish nation, +Deu 32:22 For my wrath is a flaming fire, burning to the deep parts of the underworld, burning up the earth with her increase, and firing the deep roots of the mountains. +Deu 32:23 I will send a rain of troubles on them, my arrows will be showered on them. +Deu 32:24 They will be wasted from need of food, and overcome by burning heat and bitter destruction; and the teeth of beasts I will send on them, with the poison of the worms of the dust. +Deu 32:25 Outside they will be cut off by the sword, and in the inner rooms by fear; death will take the young man and the virgin, the baby at the breast and the grey-haired man. +Deu 32:26 I said I would send them wandering far away, I would make all memory of them go from the minds of men: +Deu 32:27 But for the fear that their haters, uplifted in their pride, might say, Our hand is strong, the Lord has not done all this. +Deu 32:28 For they are a nation without wisdom; there is no sense in them. +Deu 32:29 If only they were wise, if only this was clear to them, and they would give thought to their future! +Deu 32:30 How would it be possible for one to overcome a thousand, and two to send ten thousand in flight, if their rock had not let them go, if the Lord had not given them up? +Deu 32:31 For their rock is not like our Rock, even our haters themselves being judges. +Deu 32:32 For their vine is the vine of Sodom, from the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are the grapes of evil, and the berries are bitter: +Deu 32:33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, the cruel poison of snakes. +Deu 32:34 Is not this among my secrets, kept safe in my store-house? +Deu 32:35 Punishment is mine and reward, at the time of the slipping of their feet: for the day of their downfall is near, sudden will be their fate. +Deu 32:36 For the Lord will be judge of his people, he will have pity for his servants; when he sees that their power is gone, there is no one, shut up or free. +Deu 32:37 And he will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they put their faith? +Deu 32:38 Who took the fat of their offerings, and the wine of their drink offering? Let them now come to your help, let them be your salvation. +Deu 32:39 See now, I myself am he; there is no other god but me: giver of death and life, wounding and making well: and no one has power to make you free from my hand. +Deu 32:40 For lifting up my hand to heaven I say, By my unending life, +Deu 32:41 If I make sharp my shining sword, and my hand is outstretched for judging, I will give punishment to those who are against me, and their right reward to my haters. +Deu 32:42 I will make my arrows red with blood, my sword will be feasting on flesh, with the blood of the dead and the prisoners, of the long-haired heads of my haters. +Deu 32:43 Be glad, O you his people, over the nations; for he will take payment for the blood of his servants, and will give punishment to his haters, and take away the sin of his land, for his people. +Deu 32:44 So Moses said all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Hoshea, the son of Nun. +Deu 32:45 And after saying all this to the people, +Deu 32:46 Moses said to them, Let the words which I have said to you today go deep into your hearts, and give orders to your children to do every word of this law. +Deu 32:47 And this is no small thing for you, but it is your life, and through this you may make your days long in the land which you are going over Jordan to take for your heritage. +Deu 32:48 That same day the Lord said to Moses, +Deu 32:49 Go up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo in the land of Moab opposite Jericho; there you may see the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel for their heritage: +Deu 32:50 And let death come to you on the mountain where you are going, and be put to rest with your people; as death came to Aaron, your brother, on Mount Hor, where he was put to rest with his people: +Deu 32:51 Because of your sin against me before the children of Israel at the waters of Meribath Kadesh in the waste land of Zin; because you did not keep my name holy among the children of Israel. +Deu 32:52 So you will see the land before you, but you will not go into the land which I am giving to the children of Israel. +Deu 33:1 Now this is the blessing which Moses, the man of God, gave to the children of Israel before his death. +Deu 33:2 He said, The Lord came from Sinai, dawning on them from Seir; shining out from Mount Paran, coming from Meribath Kadesh: from his right hand went flames of fire: his wrath made waste the peoples. +Deu 33:3 All his holy ones are at his hand; they go at his feet; they are lifted up on his wings. +Deu 33:4 Moses gave us a law, a heritage for the people of Jacob. +Deu 33:5 And there was a king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel came together. +Deu 33:6 Let life not death be Reuben's, let not the number of his men be small. +Deu 33:7 And this is the blessing of Judah: he said, Give ear, O Lord, to the voice of Judah and make him one with his people: let your hands take up his cause, and be his help against his attackers. +Deu 33:8 And of Levi he said, Give your Thummim to Levi and let the Urim be with your loved one, whom you put to the test at Massah, with whom you were angry at the waters of Meribah; +Deu 33:9 Who said of his father, Who is he? and of his mother, I have not seen her; he kept himself separate from his brothers and had no knowledge of his children: for they have given ear to your word and kept your agreement. +Deu 33:10 They will be the teachers of your decisions to Jacob and of your law to Israel: the burning of perfumes before you will be their right, and the ordering of burned offerings on your altar. +Deu 33:11 Let your blessing, O Lord, be on his substance, may the work of his hands be pleasing to you: may those who take up arms against him and all who have hate for him, be wounded through the heart, never to be lifted up again. +Deu 33:12 And of Benjamin he said, Benjamin is the loved one of the Lord, he will be kept safe at all times; he will be covered by the Most High, resting between his arms. +Deu 33:13 And of Joseph he said, Let the blessing of the Lord be on his land; for the good things of heaven on high, and the deep waters flowing under the earth, +Deu 33:14 And the good things of the fruits of the sun, and the good things of the growth of the moons, +Deu 33:15 And the chief things of the oldest mountains, and the good things of the eternal hills, +Deu 33:16 The good things of the earth and all its wealth, the good pleasure of him who was seen in the burning tree: may they come on the head of Joseph, on the head of him who was prince among his brothers. +Deu 33:17 He is a young ox, glory is his; his horns are the horns of the mountain ox, with which all peoples will be wounded, even to the ends of the earth: they are the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh. +Deu 33:18 And of Zebulun he said, Be glad, Zebulun, in your going out; and, Issachar, in your tents. +Deu 33:19 They will send out the word for the people to come to the mountain, taking there the offerings of righteousness: for the store of the seas will be theirs, and the secret wealth of the sand. +Deu 33:20 Of Gad he said, A blessing be on him who makes wide the limits of Gad: he takes his rest like a she-lion, taking for himself the arm and the crown of the head. +Deu 33:21 He kept for himself the first part, for his was the ruler's right: he put in force the righteousness of the Lord, and his decisions for Israel. +Deu 33:22 And of Dan he said, Dan is a young lion, springing out from Bashan. +Deu 33:23 And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, made glad with grace and full of the blessing of the Lord: the sea and its fishes will be his. +Deu 33:24 And of Asher he said, Let Asher have the blessing of children; may he be pleasing to his brothers, and let his foot be wet with oil. +Deu 33:25 Your shoes will be iron and brass; and as your days, so may your work be. +Deu 33:26 No other is like the God of Jeshurun, coming on the heavens to your help, and letting his glory be seen in the skies. +Deu 33:27 The God of your fathers is your safe resting-place, and under you are his eternal arms: driving out the forces of your haters from before you, he said, Let destruction overtake them. +Deu 33:28 And Israel is living in peace, the fountain of Jacob by himself, in a land of grain and wine, with dew dropping from the heavens. +Deu 33:29 Happy are you, O Israel: who is like you, a people whose saviour is the Lord, whose help is your cover, whose sword is your strength! All those who are against you will put themselves under your rule, and your feet will be planted on their high places. +Deu 34:1 And Moses went up from the table-lands of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah which is facing Jericho. And the Lord let him see all the land, the land of Gilead as far as Dan; +Deu 34:2 And all Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, as far as the Great Sea of the west; +Deu 34:3 And the South, and the circle of the valley of Jericho, the town of palm-trees, as far as Zoar. +Deu 34:4 And the Lord said to him, This is the land about which I made an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your seed: now I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not go in there. +Deu 34:5 So death came to Moses, the servant of the Lord, there in the land of Moab, as the Lord had said. +Deu 34:6 And the Lord put him to rest in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor: but no man has knowledge of his resting-place to this day. +Deu 34:7 And Moses at his death was a hundred and twenty years old: his eye had not become clouded, or his natural force become feeble. +Deu 34:8 For thirty days the children of Israel were weeping for Moses in the table-lands of Moab, till the days of weeping and sorrow for Moses were ended. +Deu 34:9 And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had put his hands on him: and the children of Israel gave ear to him, and did as the Lord had given orders to Moses. +Deu 34:10 There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord had knowledge of face to face; +Deu 34:11 In all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and all his land; +Deu 34:12 And in all the acts of power and fear which Moses did before the eyes of all Israel. +Jos 1:1 Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the word of the Lord came to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' helper, saying, +Jos 1:2 Moses my servant is dead; so now get up! Go over Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the children of Israel. +Jos 1:3 Every place on which you put your foot I have given to you, as I said to Moses. +Jos 1:4 From the waste land and this mountain Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, and all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea, in the west, will be your country. +Jos 1:5 While you are living, all will give way before you: as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not take away my help from you or give you up. +Jos 1:6 Take heart and be strong; for you will give to this people for their heritage the land which I gave by an oath to their fathers. +Jos 1:7 Only take heart and be very strong; take care to do all the law which Moses my servant gave you, not turning from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may do well in all your undertakings. +Jos 1:8 Let this book of the law be ever on your lips and in your thoughts day and night, so that you may keep with care everything in it; then a blessing will be on all your way, and you will do well. +Jos 1:9 Have I not given you your orders? Take heart and be strong; have no fear and do not be troubled; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go, +Jos 1:10 Then Joshua gave their orders to those who were in authority over the people, saying, +Jos 1:11 Go through the tents and give orders to the people, saying, Get ready a store of food; for in three days you are to go over this river Jordan and take for your heritage the land which the Lord your God is giving you. +Jos 1:12 And to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said, +Jos 1:13 Keep in mind what Moses, the servant of the Lord, said to you, The Lord your God is sending you rest and will give you this land. +Jos 1:14 Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle will be kept here in the land which Moses gave you on this side of Jordan; but you, the fighting-men, are to go over before your brothers, armed, to give them help; +Jos 1:15 Till the Lord has given your brothers rest, as he has given it to you, and they have taken their heritage in the land which the Lord your God is giving them: then you will go back to the land of your heritage which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you on the east side of Jordan. +Jos 1:16 Then they said to Joshua in answer, Whatever you say to us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. +Jos 1:17 As we gave attention to Moses in all things, so we will give attention to you: and may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. +Jos 1:18 Whoever goes against your orders, and does not give attention to all your words, will be put to death: only take heart and be strong. +Jos 2:1 Then Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men from Shittim secretly, with the purpose of searching out the land, and Jericho. So they went and came to the house of a loose woman of the town, named Rahab, where they took their rest for the night. +Jos 2:2 And it was said to the king of Jericho, See, some men have come here tonight from the children of Israel with the purpose of searching out the land. +Jos 2:3 Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Send out the men who have come to you and are in your house; for they have come with the purpose of searching out all the land. +Jos 2:4 And the woman took the two men and put them in a secret place; then she said, Yes, the men came to me, but I had no idea where they came from; +Jos 2:5 And when it was the time for shutting the doors at dark, they went out; I have no idea where the men went: but if you go after them quickly, you will overtake them. +Jos 2:6 But she had taken them up to the roof, covering them with the stems of flax which she had put out in order there. +Jos 2:7 So the men went after them on the road to Jordan as far as the river-crossing: and when they had gone out after them, the door into the town was shut. +Jos 2:8 And before the men went to rest, she came up to them on the roof, +Jos 2:9 And said to them, It is clear to me that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has come on us; +Jos 2:10 For we have had news of how the Lord made the Red Sea dry before you when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, on the other side of Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you gave up to the curse. +Jos 2:11 And because of this news, our hearts became like water, and there was no more spirit in any of us because of you; for the Lord your God is God in heaven on high and here on earth. +Jos 2:12 So now, will you give me your oath by the Lord, that, because I have been kind to you, you will be kind to my father's house, +Jos 2:13 And that you will keep safe my father and mother and my brothers and sisters and all they have, so that death may not come on us? +Jos 2:14 And the men said to her, Our life for yours if you keep our business secret; and when the Lord has given us the land, we will keep faith and be kind to you. +Jos 2:15 Then she let them down from the window by a cord, for the house where she was living was on the town wall. +Jos 2:16 And she said to them, Get away into the hill-country, or the men who have gone after you will overtake you; keep yourselves safe there for three days, till the searchers have come back, and then go on your way. +Jos 2:17 And the men said to her, We will only be responsible for this oath which you have made us take, +Jos 2:18 If, when we come into the land, you put this cord of bright red thread in the window from which you let us down; and get your father and mother and your brothers and all your family into the house; +Jos 2:19 Then if anyone goes out of your house into the street, his blood will be on his head, we will not be responsible; but if any damage comes to anyone in the house, his blood will be on our heads. +Jos 2:20 But if you say anything about our business here, then we will be free from the oath you have made us take. +Jos 2:21 And she said, Let it be as you say. Then she sent them away, and they went; and she put the bright red cord in the window. +Jos 2:22 And they went into the hill-country and were there three days, till the men who had gone after them had come back; and those who went after them were searching for them everywhere without coming across them. +Jos 2:23 Then the two men came down from the hill-country and went over and came back to Joshua, the son of Nun; and they gave him a complete account of what had taken place. +Jos 2:24 And they said to Joshua, Truly, the Lord has given all the land into our hands; and all the people of the land have become like water because of us. +Jos 3:1 Then Joshua got up early in the morning, and, moving on from Shittim, he and all the children of Israel came to Jordan and were there for the night before going over. +Jos 3:2 And at the end of three days, the men in authority over the people went through the tents, +Jos 3:3 Giving the people their orders, and saying, When you see the ark of the agreement of the Lord your God lifted up by the priests, the Levites, then get up from your places and go after it; +Jos 3:4 But let there be a space between you and it of about two thousand cubits: come no nearer to it, so that you may see the way you have to go, for you have not been over this way before. +Jos 3:5 And Joshua said to the people, Make yourselves holy, for tomorrow the Lord will do works of wonder among you. +Jos 3:6 Then Joshua said to the priests, Take up the ark of the agreement and go over in front of the people. So they took up the ark of the agreement and went in front of the people. +Jos 3:7 And the Lord said to Joshua, From now on I will give you glory in the eyes of all Israel, so that they may see that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. +Jos 3:8 And you are to give orders to the priests who take up the ark of the agreement, and say, When you come to the edge of the waters of Jordan, go no further. +Jos 3:9 And Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come to me here: and give ear to the words of the Lord your God. +Jos 3:10 And Joshua said, By this you will see that the living God is among you, and that he will certainly send out from before you the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Hivite and the Perizzite and the Girgashite and the Amorite and the Jebusite. +Jos 3:11 See, the ark of the agreement of the Lord of all the earth is going over before you into Jordan. +Jos 3:12 So take twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, a man from every tribe. +Jos 3:13 And when the feet of the priests who take up the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, come to rest in the waters of Jordan, the waters of Jordan will be cut off, all the waters flowing down from higher up, and will come together in a mass. +Jos 3:14 So when the people went out from their tents to go over Jordan, the priests who took up the ark of the agreement were in front of the people; +Jos 3:15 And when those who took up the ark came to Jordan, and the feet of the priests who took up the ark were touching the edge of the water (for the waters of Jordan are overflowing all through the time of the grain-cutting), +Jos 3:16 Then the waters flowing down from higher up were stopped and came together in a mass a long way back at Adam, a town near Zarethan; and the waters flowing down to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were cut off: and the people went across opposite Jericho. +Jos 3:17 And the priests who took up the ark of the agreement of the Lord kept their places, with their feet on dry land in the middle of Jordan, while all Israel went over on dry land, till all the nation had gone over Jordan. +Jos 4:1 Now when all the nation had come to the other side of Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, +Jos 4:2 Take twelve men from the people, a man for every tribe, +Jos 4:3 And say to them, Take up from the middle of Jordan, from the place where the feet of the priests were resting, twelve stones, and take them over with you and put them down in the place where you take your rest tonight. +Jos 4:4 So Joshua sent for the twelve men, whom he had ready, one man out of every tribe of the children of Israel, +Jos 4:5 And he said to them, Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of Jordan, and let every one of you take up a stone on his back, one for every tribe of the children of Israel: +Jos 4:6 So that this may be a sign among you; when your children say to you in time to come, What is the reason for these stones? +Jos 4:7 Then you will say to them, Because the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the Lord's agreement; when it went over Jordan the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones will be a sign for the children of Israel, keeping it in their memory for ever. +Jos 4:8 So the children of Israel did as Joshua gave them orders, and took twelve stones from the middle of Jordan, as the Lord had said to Joshua, one for every tribe of the children of Israel; these they took across with them to their night's resting-place and put them down there. +Jos 4:9 And Joshua put up twelve stones in the middle of Jordan, where the feet of the priests who took up the ark of the agreement had been placed: and there they are to this day. +Jos 4:10 For the priests who took up the ark kept there in the middle of Jordan till all the orders given to Joshua by Moses from the Lord had been done: then the people went over quickly. +Jos 4:11 And when all the people had come to the other side, the ark of the Lord went over, and the priests, before the eyes of the people. +Jos 4:12 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh went over armed before the children of Israel as Moses had said to them: +Jos 4:13 About forty thousand armed for war went over before the Lord to the fight, to the lowlands of Jericho. +Jos 4:14 That day the Lord made Joshua great in the eyes of all Israel; and all the days of his life they went in fear of him, as they had gone in fear of Moses. +Jos 4:15 Then the Lord said to Joshua, +Jos 4:16 Give orders to the priests who take up the ark of witness, to come up out of Jordan. +Jos 4:17 So Joshua gave orders to the priests, saying, Come up now out of Jordan. +Jos 4:18 And when the priests who took up the ark of the Lord's agreement came up out of Jordan and their feet came out on to dry land, the waters of Jordan went back to their place, overflowing its edges as before. +Jos 4:19 So on the tenth day of the first month the people came up out of Jordan, and put up their tents in Gilgal, on the east side of Jericho. +Jos 4:20 And the twelve stones which they took out of Jordan, Joshua put up in Gilgal. +Jos 4:21 And he said to the children of Israel, When your children say to their fathers in time to come, What is the reason for these stones? +Jos 4:22 Then give your children the story, and say, Israel came over this river Jordan on dry land. +Jos 4:23 For the Lord your God made the waters of Jordan dry before you till you had gone across, as he did to the Red Sea, drying it up before us till we had gone across: +Jos 4:24 So that all the peoples of the earth may see that the hand of the Lord is strong; and that they may go in fear of the Lord your God for ever. +Jos 5:1 Now when the news came to all the kings of the Amorites on the west side of Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites living by the sea, how the Lord had made the waters of Jordan dry before the children of Israel, till they had gone across, their hearts became like water, and there was no more spirit in them, because of the children of Israel. +Jos 5:2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, Make yourself stone knives and give the children of Israel circumcision a second time. +Jos 5:3 So Joshua made stone knives and gave the children of Israel circumcision at Gibeath-ha-araloth. +Jos 5:4 And this is the reason why Joshua did so: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the fighting-men, had been overtaken by death in the waste land on the way, after they came out of Egypt. +Jos 5:5 All the people who came out had undergone circumcision; but all the people whose birth had taken place in the waste land on their journey from Egypt had not. +Jos 5:6 For the children of Israel were wandering in the waste land for forty years, till all the nation, that is, all the fighting-men, who had come out of Egypt, were dead, because they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord: to whom the Lord said, with an oath, that he would not let them see the land which the Lord had given his word to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. +Jos 5:7 And their children, who came up in their place, now underwent circumcision by the hands of Joshua, not having had it before: for there had been no circumcision on the journey. +Jos 5:8 So when all the nation had undergone circumcision, they kept in their tents till they were well again. +Jos 5:9 And the Lord said to Joshua, Today the shame of Egypt has been rolled away from you. So that place was named Gilgal, to this day. +Jos 5:10 So the children of Israel put up their tents in Gilgal; and they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, in the lowlands of Jericho. +Jos 5:11 And on the day after the Passover, they had for their food the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and dry grain on the same day. +Jos 5:12 And there was no more manna from the day after they had for their food the produce of the land; the children of Israel had manna no longer, but that year the produce of the land of Canaan was their food. +Jos 5:13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, lifting up his eyes he saw a man in front of him, with his sword uncovered in his hand: and Joshua went up to him and said, Are you for us or against us? +Jos 5:14 And he said, No; but I have come as captain of the armies of the Lord. Then Joshua, falling down with his face to the earth in worship, said, What has my lord to say to his servant? +Jos 5:15 And the captain of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy. And Joshua did so. +Jos 6:1 (Now Jericho was all shut up because of the children of Israel: there was no going out or coming in.) +Jos 6:2 And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given into your hands Jericho with its king and all its men of war. +Jos 6:3 Now let all your fighting-men make a circle round the town, going all round it once. Do this for six days. +Jos 6:4 And let seven priests go before the ark with seven loud-sounding horns in their hands: on the seventh day you are to go round the town seven times, the priests blowing their horns. +Jos 6:5 And at the sound of a long note on the horns, let all the people give a loud cry; and the wall of the town will come down flat, and all the people are to go straight forward. +Jos 6:6 Then Joshua, the son of Nun, sent for the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the agreement, and let seven priests take seven horns in their hands and go before the ark of the Lord. +Jos 6:7 And he said to the people, Go forward, circling the town, and let the armed men go before the ark of the Lord. +Jos 6:8 So after Joshua had said this to the people, the seven priests with their seven horns went forward before the Lord, blowing on their horns: and the ark of the Lord's agreement went after them. +Jos 6:9 And the armed men went before the priests who were blowing the horns, and the mass of the people went after the ark, blowing their horns. +Jos 6:10 And to the people Joshua gave an order, saying, You will give no cry, and make no sound, and let no word go out of your mouth till the day when I say, Give a loud cry; then give a loud cry. +Jos 6:11 So he made the ark of the Lord go all round the town once: then they went back to the tents for the night. +Jos 6:12 And early in the morning Joshua got up, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. +Jos 6:13 And the seven priests with their seven horns went on before the ark of the Lord, blowing their horns: the armed men went before them, and the mass of the people went after the ark of the Lord, blowing their horns. +Jos 6:14 The second day they went all round the town once, and then went back to their tents: and so they did for six days. +Jos 6:15 Then on the seventh day they got up early, at the dawn of the day, and went round the town in the same way, but that day they went round it seven times. +Jos 6:16 And the seventh time, at the sound of the priests' horns, Joshua said to the people, Now give a loud cry; for the Lord has given you the town. +Jos 6:17 And the town will be put to the curse, and everything in it will be given to the Lord: only Rahab, the loose woman, and all who are in the house with her, will be kept safe, because she kept secret the men we sent. +Jos 6:18 And as for you, keep yourselves from the cursed thing, for fear that you may get a desire for it and take some of it for yourselves, and so be the cause of a curse and great trouble on the tents of Israel. +Jos 6:19 But all the silver and gold and the vessels of brass and iron are holy to the Lord: they are to come into the store-house of the Lord. +Jos 6:20 So the people gave a loud cry, and the horns were sounded; and on hearing the horns the people gave a loud cry, and the wall came down flat, so that the people went up into the town, every man going straight before him, and they took the town. +Jos 6:21 And they put everything in the town to the curse; men and women, young and old, ox and sheep and ass, they put to death without mercy. +Jos 6:22 Then Joshua said to the two men who had been sent to make a search through the land, Go into the house of the loose woman, and get her out, and all who are with her, as you gave her your oath. +Jos 6:23 So the searchers went in and got out Rahab and her father and mother and her brothers and all she had, and they got out all her family; and they took them outside the tents of Israel. +Jos 6:24 Then, after burning up the town and everything in it, they put the silver and gold and the vessels of brass and iron into the store-house of the Lord's house. +Jos 6:25 But Joshua kept Rahab, the loose woman, and her father's family and all she had, from death, and so she got a living-place among the children of Israel to this day; because she kept safe the men whom Joshua had sent to make a search through the land. +Jos 6:26 Then Joshua gave the people orders with an oath, saying, Let that man be cursed before the Lord who puts his hand to the building up of this town: with the loss of his first son will he put the first stone of it in place, and with the loss of his youngest son he will put up its doors. +Jos 6:27 So the Lord was with Joshua; and news of him went through all the land. +Jos 7:1 But the children of Israel did wrong about the cursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the family of Judah, took of the cursed thing, moving the Lord to wrath against the children of Israel. +Jos 7:2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is by the side of Beth-aven, on the east side of Beth-el, and said to them, Go up and make a search through the land. And the men went up and saw how Ai was placed. +Jos 7:3 Then they came back to Joshua and said to him, Do not send all the people up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and make an attack on Ai; there is no need for all the people to be tired with the journey there, for it is only a small town. +Jos 7:4 So about three thousand of the people went up, and were sent in flight by the men of Ai. +Jos 7:5 The men of Ai put to death about thirty-six of them, driving them from before the town as far as the stoneworks, and overcoming them on the way down: and the hearts of the people became like water. +Jos 7:6 Then Joshua, in great grief, went down on the earth before the ark of the Lord till the evening, and all the chiefs of Israel with him, and they put dust on their heads. +Jos 7:7 And Joshua said, O Lord God, why have you taken us over Jordan only to give us up into the hands of the Amorites for our destruction? If only it had been enough for us to keep on the other side of Jordan! +Jos 7:8 O Lord, what am I to say now that Israel have given way before their attackers? +Jos 7:9 For when the news comes to the Canaanites and all the people of the land, they will come up, shutting us in and cutting off our name from the earth: and what will you do for the honour of your great name? +Jos 7:10 Then the Lord said to Joshua, Get up; what are you doing with your face to the earth? +Jos 7:11 Israel has done wrong, sinning against the agreement which I made with them: they have even taken of the cursed thing; acting falsely like thieves they have put it among their goods. +Jos 7:12 For this reason the children of Israel have given way, turning their backs in flight before their attackers, because they are cursed: I will no longer be with you, if you do not put the cursed thing away from among you. +Jos 7:13 Up! make the people holy; say to them, Make yourselves holy before tomorrow, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has said, There is a cursed thing among you, O Israel, and you will give way before your attackers in the fight till the cursed thing has been taken away from among you. +Jos 7:14 So in the morning you are to come near, tribe by tribe; and the tribe marked out by the Lord is to come near, family by family; and the family marked out by the Lord is to come near, house by house; and the house marked out by the Lord is to come near, man by man. +Jos 7:15 Then the man who is taken with the cursed thing is to be burned, with everything which is his; because he has gone against the agreement of the Lord and has done an act of shame in Israel. +Jos 7:16 So Joshua got up early in the morning, and made Israel come before him by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken; +Jos 7:17 Then he made Judah come forward, and the family of the Zerahites was taken; and he made the family of the Zerahites come forward man by man; and Zabdi was taken; +Jos 7:18 Then the house of Zabdi came forward man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken. +Jos 7:19 And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory and praise to the Lord, the God of Israel; give me word now of what you have done, and keep nothing back from me. +Jos 7:20 And Achan, answering, said to Joshua, Truly I have done wrong against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I have done: +Jos 7:21 When I saw among their goods a fair robe of Babylon and two hundred shekels of silver, and a mass of gold, fifty shekels in weight, I was overcome by desire and took them; and they are put away in the earth in my tent, and the silver is under it. +Jos 7:22 So Joshua sent men quickly, and looking in his tent, they saw where the robe had been put away secretly with the silver under it. +Jos 7:23 And they took them from the tent and came back with them to Joshua and the children of Israel, and put them before the Lord. +Jos 7:24 Then Joshua and all Israel took Achan, the son of Zerah, and the silver and the robe and the mass of gold, and his sons and his daughters and his oxen and his asses and his sheep and his tent and everything he had; and they took them up into the valley of Achor. +Jos 7:25 And Joshua said, Why have you been a cause of trouble to us? Today the Lord will send trouble on you. And all Israel took part in stoning him; they had him stoned to death and then burned with fire. +Jos 7:26 And over him they put a great mass of stones, which is there to this day; then the heat of the Lord's wrath was turned away. So that place was named, The Valley of Achor, to this day. +Jos 8:1 Then the Lord said to Joshua, Have no fear and do not be troubled: take with you all the fighting-men and go up against Ai: for I have given into your hands the king of Ai and his people and his town and his land: +Jos 8:2 And you are to do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king: but their goods and their cattle you may take for yourselves: let a secret force be stationed to make a surprise attack on the town from the back. +Jos 8:3 So Joshua and the fighting-men got ready to go up against Ai; and Joshua took thirty thousand men of war, and sent them out by night. +Jos 8:4 And he gave them their orders, saying, Go and take up your position secretly at the back of the town: do not go very far away, and let all of you be ready: +Jos 8:5 And I and all the people with me will come near the town, and when they come out against us as they did before, we will go in flight from them; +Jos 8:6 And they will come out after us, till we have got them away from the town; for they will say, They have gone in flight from us as before; so we will go in flight before them; +Jos 8:7 Then you will get up from your secret position and take the town, for the Lord your God will give it up into your hands. +Jos 8:8 And when you have taken the town, put fire to it, as the Lord has said: see, I have given you your orders. +Jos 8:9 So Joshua sent them out: and they took up a secret position between Beth-el and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua kept with the people that night. +Jos 8:10 And early in the morning Joshua got up, and put the people in order, and he and the chiefs of Israel went up before the people to Ai. +Jos 8:11 And all the fighting-men who were with him went up and came near the town, and took up a position on the north side of Ai facing the town, with a valley between him and the town. +Jos 8:12 And taking about five thousand men, he put them in position for a surprise attack on the west side of Ai, between Beth-el and Ai. +Jos 8:13 So all the people were in their places, the army on the north side of the town and the secret force on the west; and that night Joshua went down into the valley. +Jos 8:14 Now when the king of Ai saw it, he got up quickly and went out to war against Israel, he and all his people, to the slope going down to the valley; but he had no idea that a secret force was waiting at the back of the town. +Jos 8:15 Then Joshua and all Israel, acting as if they were overcome before them, went in flight by way of the waste land. +Jos 8:16 And all the people in Ai came together to go after them; and they went after Joshua, moving away from the town. +Jos 8:17 There was not a man in Ai and Beth-el who did not go out after Israel; and the town was open and unwatched while they went after Israel. +Jos 8:18 And the Lord said to Joshua, Let your spear be stretched out against Ai; for I will give it into your hands. So Joshua took up his spear, stretching it out in the direction of the town. +Jos 8:19 Then the secret force came quickly from their place, and running forward when they saw his hand stretched out, went into the town and took it, and put fire to it straight away. +Jos 8:20 Then the men of Ai, looking back, saw the smoke of the town going up to heaven, and were unable to go this way or that: and the people who had gone in flight to the waste land were turned back on those who were coming after them. +Jos 8:21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the town had been taken by the surprise attack, and that the smoke of the town had gone up, turning round they overcame the men of Ai. +Jos 8:22 Then the other force came out of the town against them, so that they were being attacked on this side and on that: and Israel overcame them and let not one of them get away with his life. +Jos 8:23 But the king of Ai they made prisoner, and took him to Joshua. +Jos 8:24 Then, after the destruction of all the people of Ai in the field and in the waste land where they went after them, and when all the people had been put to death without mercy, all Israel went back to Ai, and put to death all who were in it without mercy. +Jos 8:25 On that day twelve thousand were put to death, men and women, all the people of Ai. +Jos 8:26 For Joshua did not take back his hand with the outstretched spear till the destruction of the people of Ai was complete. +Jos 8:27 But the cattle and the goods from that town, Israel took for themselves, as the Lord had given orders to Joshua. +Jos 8:28 So Joshua gave Ai to the flames, and made it a waste mass of stones for ever, as it is to this day. +Jos 8:29 And he put the king of Ai to death, hanging him on a tree till evening: and when the sun went down, Joshua gave them orders to take his body down from the tree, and put it in the public place of the town, covering it with a great mass of stones, which is there to this day. +Jos 8:30 Then Joshua put up an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal, +Jos 8:31 In the way ordered by Moses, the servant of the Lord, as it is recorded in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones, untouched by any iron instrument: and on it they made burned offerings and peace-offerings to the Lord. +Jos 8:32 And he made there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, writing it before the eyes of the children of Israel. +Jos 8:33 And all Israel, those who were Israelites by birth, as well as the men from other lands living with them, and their responsible men and their overseers and judges, took their places round the ark, in front of the priests, the Levites, whose work it was to take up the ark of the Lord's agreement; half of them were stationed in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal, in agreement with the orders for the blessing of the children of Israel which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had given. +Jos 8:34 And after, he gave them all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, as it is all recorded in the book of the law; +Jos 8:35 Reading to all the meeting of Israel, with the women and the children and the men from other lands who were living among them, every word of the orders which Moses had given. +Jos 9:1 Now on hearing the news of these things, all the kings on the west side of Jordan, in the hill-country and the lowlands and by the Great Sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, +Jos 9:2 Came together with one purpose, to make war against Joshua and Israel. +Jos 9:3 And the men of Gibeon, hearing what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, +Jos 9:4 Acting with deceit, got food together as if for a long journey; and took old food-bags for their asses, and old and cracked wine-skins kept together with cord; +Jos 9:5 And put old stitched-up shoes on their feet, and old clothing on their backs; and all the food they had with them was dry and broken up. +Jos 9:6 And they came to Joshua to the tent-circle at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, We have come from a far country: so now make an agreement with us. +Jos 9:7 And the men of Israel said to the Hivites, It may be that you are living among us; how then may we make an agreement with you? +Jos 9:8 And they said to Joshua, We are your servants. Then Joshua said to them, Who are you and where do you come from? +Jos 9:9 And they said to him, Your servants have come from a very far country, because of the name of the Lord your God: for the story of his great name, and of all he did in Egypt has come to our ears, +Jos 9:10 And what he did to the two kings of the Amorites east of Jordan, to Sihon, king of Heshbon, and to Og, king of Bashan, at Ashtaroth. +Jos 9:11 So the responsible men and all the people of our country said to us, Take food with you for the journey and go to them, and say to them, We are your servants: so now make an agreement with us. +Jos 9:12 This bread which we have with us for our food, we took warm and new from our houses when starting on our journey to you; but now see, it has become dry and broken up. +Jos 9:13 And these wine-skins were new when we put the wine in them, and now they are cracked as you see; and our clothing and our shoes have become old because of our very long journey here. +Jos 9:14 And the men took some of their food, without requesting directions from the Lord. +Jos 9:15 So Joshua made peace with them, and made an agreement with them that they were not to be put to death: and the chiefs of the people took an oath to them. +Jos 9:16 Now three days after, when they had made this agreement with them, they had word that these men were their neighbours, living near them. +Jos 9:17 And the children of Israel went forward on their journey, and on the third day came to their towns. Now their towns were Gibeon and Chephirah and Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim. +Jos 9:18 And the children of Israel did not put them to death, because the chiefs of the people had taken an oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. And all the people made an outcry against the chiefs. +Jos 9:19 But all the chiefs said to the people, We have taken an oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and so we may not put our hands on them. +Jos 9:20 This is what we will do to them: we will not put them to death, for fear that wrath may come on us because of our oath to them. +Jos 9:21 Keep them living, and let them be servants, cutting wood and getting water for all the people. And all the people did as the chiefs had said to them. +Jos 9:22 Then Joshua sent for them, and said to them, Why have you been false to us, saying, We are very far from you, when you are living among us? +Jos 9:23 Now because of this you are cursed, and you will for ever be our servants, cutting wood and getting water for the house of my God. +Jos 9:24 And, answering Joshua, they said, Because it came to the ears of your servants that the Lord your God had given orders to his servant Moses to give you all this land, and to send destruction on all the people living in it, because of you; so, fearing greatly for our lives because of you, we have done this. +Jos 9:25 And now we are in your hands: do to us whatever seems good and right to you. +Jos 9:26 So he kept them safe from the children of Israel, and did not let them be put to death. +Jos 9:27 And that day Joshua made them servants, cutting wood and getting water for the people and for the altar of the Lord, in the place marked out by him, to this day. +Jos 10:1 Now when it came to the ears of Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, that Joshua had taken Ai, and had given it up to the curse (for as he had done to Jericho and its king, so he had done to Ai and its king); and that the people of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were living among them; +Jos 10:2 He was in great fear, because Gibeon was a great town, like one of the king's towns, greater than Ai, and all the men in it were men of war. +Jos 10:3 So Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent to Hoham, king of Hebron, and to Piram, king of Jarmuth, and to Japhia, king of Lachish, and to Debir, king of Eglon, saying, +Jos 10:4 Come up to me and give me help, and let us make an attack on Gibeon: for they have made peace with Joshua and the children of Israel. +Jos 10:5 So the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, were banded together, and went up with all their armies and took up their position before Gibeon and made war against it. +Jos 10:6 And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua to the tent-circle at Gilgal, saying, Be not slow to send help to your servants; come up quickly to our support and keep us safe: for all the kings of the Amorites from the hill-country have come together against us. +Jos 10:7 So Joshua went up from Gilgal with all his army and all his men of war. +Jos 10:8 And the Lord said to Joshua, Have no fear of them, for I have given them into your hands; they will all give way before you. +Jos 10:9 So Joshua, having come up from Gilgal all night, made a sudden attack on them. +Jos 10:10 And the Lord made them full of fear before Israel, and they put great numbers of them to death at Gibeon, and went after them by the way going up to Beth-horon, driving them back to Azekah and Makkedah +Jos 10:11 And in their flight before Israel, on the way down from Beth-horon, the Lord sent down great stones from heaven on them all the way to Azekah, causing their death: those whose death was caused by the stones were more than those whom the children of Israel put to death with the sword. +Jos 10:12 It was on the day when the Lord gave up the Amorites into the hands of the children of Israel that Joshua said to the Lord, before the eyes of Israel, Sun, be at rest over Gibeon; and you, O moon, in the valley of Aijalon. +Jos 10:13 And the sun was at rest and the moon kept its place till the nation had given punishment to their attackers. (Is it not recorded in the book of Jashar?) So the sun kept its place in the middle of the heavens, and was waiting, and did not go down, for the space of a day. +Jos 10:14 And there was no day like that, before it or after it, when the Lord gave ear to the voice of a man; for the Lord was fighting for Israel. +Jos 10:15 And Joshua, with all Israel, went back to the tent-circle at Gilgal. +Jos 10:16 But these five kings went in flight secretly to a hole in the rock at Makkedah. +Jos 10:17 And word was given to Joshua that the five kings had been taken in a hole in the rock at Makkedah. +Jos 10:18 And Joshua said, Let great stones be rolled against the mouth of the hole, and let men keep watch by it: +Jos 10:19 But do you, without waiting, go after their army, attacking them from the back; do not let them get into their towns, for the Lord your God has given them into your hands. +Jos 10:20 Now when Joshua and the children of Israel had come to the end of their war of complete destruction, and had put to death all but a small band who had got safely into the walled towns, +Jos 10:21 All the people went back to Joshua to the tent-circle at Makkedah in peace: and no one said a word against the children of Israel. +Jos 10:22 Then Joshua said, Take away the stones from the mouth of the hole in the rock, and make those five kings come out to me. +Jos 10:23 And they did so, and made those five kings come out of the hole to him, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon. +Jos 10:24 And when they had made those kings come out to Joshua, Joshua sent for all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, Come near and put your feet on the necks of these kings. So they came near and put their feet on their necks. +Jos 10:25 And Joshua said to them, Have no fear and do not be troubled; be strong and take heart: for so will the Lord do to all against whom you make war. +Jos 10:26 Then Joshua had them put to death, hanging them on five trees, where they were till evening. +Jos 10:27 And when the sun went down, they were taken down from the trees, by Joshua's orders, and put into the hole where they had gone to be safe; and great stones were placed at the mouth of the hole, where they are to this day. +Jos 10:28 That day Joshua took Makkedah, and put it and its king to the sword; every soul in it he gave up to the curse without mercy: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho. +Jos 10:29 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went on from Makkedah and came to Libnah, and made an attack on it; +Jos 10:30 And again the Lord gave it and its king into the hands of Israel; and he put it and every person in it to the sword, till their destruction was complete; and he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho. +Jos 10:31 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went on from Libnah to Lachish, and took up their position against it and made an attack on it, +Jos 10:32 And the Lord gave Lachish into the hands of Israel, and on the second day he took it, putting it and every person in it to the sword without mercy, as he had done to Libnah. +Jos 10:33 Then Horam, king of Gezer, came up to the help of Lachish; and Joshua overcame him and his people, putting all of them to death. +Jos 10:34 And Joshua and all Israel with him went on from Lachish to Eglon: and they took up their position against it and made an attack on it; +Jos 10:35 And that day they took it, putting it and every person in it to the sword, as he had done to Lachish. +Jos 10:36 And Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron, and made an attack on it; +Jos 10:37 And took it, overcoming it and putting it and its king and its towns and every person in it to the sword: as he had done to Eglon, he put them all to death, and gave it up to the curse with every person in it. +Jos 10:38 And Joshua and all Israel with him went on to make an attack on Debir; +Jos 10:39 And he took it, with its king and all its towns: and he put them to the sword, giving every person in it to the curse; all were put to death: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir and its king. +Jos 10:40 So Joshua overcame all the land, the hill-country and the South and the lowland and the mountain slopes, and all their kings; all were put to death: and every living thing he gave up to the curse, as the Lord, the God of Israel, had given him orders. +Jos 10:41 Joshua overcame them from Kadesh-barnea to Gaza, and all the land of Goshen as far as Gibeon. +Jos 10:42 And all these kings and their land Joshua took at the same time, because the Lord, the God of Israel, was fighting for Israel. +Jos 10:43 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went back to their tents at Gilgal. +Jos 11:1 Now Jabin, king of Hazor, hearing of these things, sent to Jobab, king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, +Jos 11:2 And to the kings on the north in the hill-country, and in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in the highlands of Dor on the west, +Jos 11:3 And to the Canaanites on the east and on the west, and to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites in the hill-country, and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizpah. +Jos 11:4 And they went out, they and all their armies with them, a great people, in number like the sand on the seaside, with horses and war-carriages in great number. +Jos 11:5 And all these kings came together, and put their forces in position at the waters of Merom, to make war on Israel. +Jos 11:6 And the Lord said to Joshua, Have no fear of them: for tomorrow at this time I will give them all up dead before Israel; you are to have the leg-muscles of their horses cut and their war-carriages burned with fire. +Jos 11:7 So Joshua and all the men of war with him came against them suddenly at the waters of Merom, and made an attack on them. +Jos 11:8 And the Lord gave them up into the hands of Israel, and they overcame them driving them back to great Zidon and to Misrephoth-maim and into the valley of Mizpeh to the east; and they put them all to death, no man got away safely. +Jos 11:9 And Joshua did to them as the Lord had said to him; he had the leg-muscles of their horses cut and their war-carriages burned with fire. +Jos 11:10 At that time, Joshua went on to take Hazor and put its king to the sword: for in earlier times Hazor was the chief of all those kingdoms. +Jos 11:11 And they put every person in it to death without mercy, giving every living thing up to the curse, and burning Hazor. +Jos 11:12 And all the towns of these kings, and all the kings, Joshua took, and put them to the sword: he gave them up to the curse, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had said. +Jos 11:13 As for the towns made on hills of earth, not one was burned by Israel but Hazor, which was burned by Joshua. +Jos 11:14 And all the goods taken from these towns, and their cattle, the children of Israel kept for themselves; but every man they put to death without mercy, till their destruction was complete, and there was no one living. +Jos 11:15 As the Lord had given orders to Moses his servant, so Moses gave orders to Joshua, and so Joshua did; every order which the Lord had given to Moses was done. +Jos 11:16 So Joshua took all that land, the hill-country and all the South, and all the land of Goshen, and the lowland and the Arabah, the hill-country of Israel and its lowland; +Jos 11:17 From Mount Halak, which goes up to Seir, as far as Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon: and all their kings he overcame and put to death. +Jos 11:18 For a long time Joshua made war on all those kings. +Jos 11:19 Not one town made peace with the children of Israel, but only the Hivites of Gibeon: they took them all in war. +Jos 11:20 For the Lord made them strong in heart to go to war against Israel, so that he might give them up to the curse without mercy, and that destruction might come on them, as the Lord had given orders to Moses. +Jos 11:21 And Joshua came at that time and put an end to the Anakim in the hill-country, in Hebron, in Debir, in Anab, and in all the hill-country of Judah and Israel: Joshua gave them and their towns to the curse. +Jos 11:22 Not one of the Anakim was to be seen in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, some were still living. +Jos 11:23 So Joshua took all the land, as the Lord had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it to the children of Israel as their heritage, making division of it among them by their tribes. And the land had rest from war. +Jos 12:1 Now these are the kings of the land whom the children of Israel overcame, taking as their heritage their land on the east side of Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, and all the Arabah to the east: +Jos 12:2 Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was living in Heshbon, ruling from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the town in the middle of the valley, and half Gilead, as far as the river Jabbok, the limits of the children of Ammon; +Jos 12:3 And the Arabah to the sea of Chinneroth, to the east, and to the sea of the Arabah, that is the Salt Sea, to the east, the way to Beth-jeshimoth; and on the south, under the slopes of Pisgah: +Jos 12:4 And the land of Og, king of Bashan, of the rest of the Rephaim, who was living at Ashtaroth and at Edrei, +Jos 12:5 Ruling in the mountain of Hermon, and in Salecah, and in all Bashan, as far as the limits of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and half Gilead, to the land of Sihon, king of Heshbon. +Jos 12:6 Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the children of Israel overcame them; and Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave their land for a heritage to the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. +Jos 12:7 And these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the children of Israel overcame on the west side of Jordan, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, which goes up to Seir; and Joshua gave the land to the tribes of Israel for a heritage, in keeping with their divisions; +Jos 12:8 In the hill-country, and in the lowland, and in the Arabah, and on the mountain slopes, and in the waste land, and in the South; the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. +Jos 12:9 The king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is near Beth-el, one; +Jos 12:10 The king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one; +Jos 12:11 The king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one; +Jos 12:12 The king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one; +Jos 12:13 The king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one; +Jos 12:14 The king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one; +Jos 12:15 The king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one; +Jos 12:16 The king of Makkedah, one; the king of Beth-el, one; +Jos 12:17 The king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one; +Jos 12:18 The king of Aphek, one; the king of Lassharon, one; +Jos 12:19 The king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one; +Jos 12:20 The king of Shimron-meron, one; the king of Achshaph, one; +Jos 12:21 The king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one; +Jos 12:22 The king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam in Carmel, one; +Jos 12:23 The king of Dor on the hill of Dor, one; the king of Goiim in Gilgal, one; +Jos 12:24 The king of Tirzah, one; all the kings together were thirty-one. +Jos 13:1 Now Joshua was old and full of years; and the Lord said to him, You are old and full of years, and there is still very much land to be taken. +Jos 13:2 This is the land which is still to be taken: all the country of the Philistines, and all the Geshurites; +Jos 13:3 From the Shihor, which is before Egypt, to the edge of Ekron to the north, which is taken to be Canaanite property: the five chiefs of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites, as well as the Avvim; +Jos 13:4 On the south: all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah which is the property of the Zidonians, to Aphek, as far as the limit of the Amorites: +Jos 13:5 And the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, looking east, from Baal-gad under Mount Hermon as far as Hamath: +Jos 13:6 All the people of the hill-country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, all the Zidonians; them will I send out from before the children of Israel: only make division of it to Israel for a heritage, as I have given you orders to do. +Jos 13:7 So now make division of this land for a heritage to the nine tribes, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. +Jos 13:8 With him the Reubenites and the Gadites have been given their heritage, which Moses gave them, on the east side of Jordan, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave them; +Jos 13:9 From Aroer, on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the town in the middle of the valley, and all the table-land from Medeba to Dibon; +Jos 13:10 And all the towns of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon, to the limits of the children of Ammon; +Jos 13:11 And Gilead, and the land of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah; +Jos 13:12 All the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who was ruling in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (he was one of the last of the Rephaim); these did Moses overcome, driving them out of their country. +Jos 13:13 However, the people of Israel did not send out the Geshurites, or the Maacathites: but Geshur and Maacath are living among Israel to this day. +Jos 13:14 Only to the tribe of Levi he gave no heritage; the offerings of the Lord, the God of Israel, made by fire are his heritage, as he said to him. +Jos 13:15 And Moses gave their heritage to the tribe of Reuben by their families. +Jos 13:16 Their limit was from Aroer, on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the town in the middle of the valley, and all the table-land by Medeba; +Jos 13:17 Heshbon and all her towns in the table-land; Dibon, and Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon; +Jos 13:18 And Jahaz, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath; +Jos 13:19 And Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth-shahar in the mountain of the valley; +Jos 13:20 And Beth-peor, and the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth; +Jos 13:21 And all the towns of the table-land, and all the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who was ruling in Heshbon, whom Moses overcame, together with the chiefs of Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the chiefs of Sihon, who were living in the land. +Jos 13:22 And Balaam, the son of Beor, the prophet, the children of Israel put to death with the sword. +Jos 13:23 And the limit of the children of Reuben was the edge of Jordan. This was the heritage of the children of Reuben by their families, with its towns and its unwalled places. +Jos 13:24 And Moses gave their heritage to the tribe of Gad by their families. +Jos 13:25 And their limit was Jazer, and all the towns of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, to Aroer before Rabbah; +Jos 13:26 And from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim to the edge of Debir; +Jos 13:27 And in the valley, Beth-haram, and Beth-nimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon, king of Heshbon, having Jordan for its limit, to the end of the sea of Chinnereth on the east side of Jordan. +Jos 13:28 This is the heritage of the children of Gad by their families, with its towns and its unwalled places +Jos 13:29 And Moses gave their heritage to the half-tribe of Manasseh by their families. +Jos 13:30 And their limit was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, and all Havvoth-Jair, in Bashan, sixty towns; +Jos 13:31 And half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, towns of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, for half of the children of Machir by their families. +Jos 13:32 These are the heritages of which Moses made distribution in the lowlands of Moab, on the other side of Jordan in Jericho, to the east. +Jos 13:33 But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no heritage: the Lord, the God of Israel, is their heritage, as he said to them. +Jos 14:1 And these are the heritages which the children of Israel took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar, the priest, and Joshua, the son of Nun, and the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, gave out to them; +Jos 14:2 Their heritage by the Lord's decision, as he gave orders by Moses, for the nine tribes and the half-tribe. +Jos 14:3 For Moses had given their heritage to the two tribes and the half-tribe on the other side of Jordan, but to the Levites he gave no heritage among them. +Jos 14:4 Because the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim; and they gave the Levites no part in the land, only towns for their living-places, with the grass-lands for their cattle and for their property. +Jos 14:5 As the Lord had given orders to Moses, so the people of Israel did, and they made division of the land. +Jos 14:6 Then the children of Judah went to Joshua in Gilgal; and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, said to him, You have knowledge of what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, about me and about you in Kadesh-barnea. +Jos 14:7 I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to make a search through the land; and the account which I gave him was in keeping with his desire. +Jos 14:8 My brothers, however, who went up with me, made the heart of the people like water: but I was true to the Lord with all my heart. +Jos 14:9 And on that day Moses took an oath, saying, Truly the land where your feet have been placed will become a heritage for you and your children for ever, because you have been true to the Lord your God with all your heart. +Jos 14:10 And now, as you see, the Lord has kept me safe these forty-five years, from the time when the Lord said this to Moses, while Israel was wandering in the waste land: and now I am eighty-five years old. +Jos 14:11 And still, I am as strong today as I was when Moses sent me out: as my strength was then, so is it now, for war and for all the business of life. +Jos 14:12 So now, give me this hill-country named by the Lord at that time; for you had an account of it then, how the Anakim were there, and great walled towns: it may be that the Lord will be with me, and I will be able to take their land, as the Lord said. +Jos 14:13 And Joshua gave him his blessing; and he gave Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, for his heritage. +Jos 14:14 So Hebron became the heritage of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, to this day, because with all his heart he was true to the Lord, the God of Israel. +Jos 14:15 In earlier times the name of Hebron had been Kiriath-arba, named after Arba, the greatest of the Anakim. And the land had rest from war. +Jos 15:1 Now the part of the land marked out for the children of Judah by families, went up to the edge of Edom, as far as the waste land of Zin to the south, to the farthest point of it on the south. +Jos 15:2 Their south limit was from the farthest part of the Salt Sea, from the inlet looking to the south: +Jos 15:3 From there it goes south of the slope up to Akrabbim, and on to Zin, then south past Kadesh-barnea, and on by Hezron and up to Addar, turning in the direction of Karka: +Jos 15:4 Then on to Azmon, ending at the stream of Egypt: and the end of the limit is at the sea; this will be your limit on the south. +Jos 15:5 And the east limit is the Salt Sea as far as the end of Jordan. And the limit of the north part of the land is from the inlet of the sea at the end of Jordan: +Jos 15:6 Then the line goes up to Beth-hoglah, past the north of Beth-arabah, and up to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben; +Jos 15:7 Then the line goes up to Debir from the valley of Achor, and so to the north, in the direction of Gilgal, which is opposite the slope up to Adummim, on the south side of the river: and the line goes on to the waters of En-shemesh, ending at En-rogel: +Jos 15:8 Then the line goes up by the valley of the son of Hinnom to the south side of the Jebusite (which is Jerusalem): then up to the top of the mountain in front of the valley of Hinnom to the west, which is at the farthest point of the valley of Rephaim on the north: +Jos 15:9 And the limit is marked out from the top of the mountain to the fountain of the waters of Nephtoah, and out to the towns of Mount Ephron, as far as Baalah (which is Kiriath-jearim): +Jos 15:10 Then turning west, the line goes from Baalah to Mount Seir, and on to the side of Mount Jearim (which is Chesalon) on the north, then down to Beth-shemesh, and on past Timnah: +Jos 15:11 And out to the side of Ekron to the north: then it is marked out to Shikkeron and on to Mount Baalah, ending at Jabneel; the end of the line is at the sea. +Jos 15:12 And the limit on the west is the edge of the Great Sea. This is the line going round the land marked out for the children of Judah, by their families. +Jos 15:13 And to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, he gave a part among the children of Judah, as the Lord had given orders to Joshua, that is, Kiriath-arba, named after Arba, the father of Anak which is Hebron. +Jos 15:14 And the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the children of Anak, were forced out from there by Caleb. +Jos 15:15 From there he went up against the people of Debir: (now the name of Debir before that was Kiriath-sepher.) +Jos 15:16 And Caleb said, I will give Achsah, my daughter, as wife to the man who overcomes Kiriath-sepher and takes it. +Jos 15:17 And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's brother, took it: so he gave him his daughter Achsah for his wife. +Jos 15:18 Now when she came to him, he put into her mind the idea of requesting a field from her father: and she got down from her ass; and Caleb said to her, What is it? +Jos 15:19 And she said, Give me a blessing; because you have put me in dry south-land, now give me springs of water. So he gave her the higher spring and the lower spring. +Jos 15:20 This is the heritage of the tribe of Judah, by their families. +Jos 15:21 The farthest towns of the tribe of Judah in the direction of the limits of Edom to the south, were Kabzeel, and Eder, and Jagur; +Jos 15:22 And Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah; +Jos 15:23 And Kedesh, and Hazor, and Ithnan; +Jos 15:24 Ziph, and Telem, and Bealoth; +Jos 15:25 And Hazor-hadattah, and Kerioth-hezron (which is Hazor); +Jos 15:26 Amam, and Shema, and Moladah; +Jos 15:27 And Hazar-gaddah, and Heshmon, and Beth-pelet; +Jos 15:28 And Hazar-shual, and Beer-sheba, and Biziothiah; +Jos 15:29 Baalah, and Iim, and Ezem; +Jos 15:30 And Eltolad, and Chesil, and Hormah; +Jos 15:31 And Ziklag, and Madmannah, and Sansannah; +Jos 15:32 And Lebaoth, and Shilhim, and Ain, and Rimmon; all the towns are twenty-nine, with their unwalled places. +Jos 15:33 In the lowland, Eshtaol, and Zorah, and Ashnah; +Jos 15:34 And Zanoah, and En-gannim, Tappuah, and Enam; +Jos 15:35 Jarmuth, and Adullam, Socoh, and Azekah; +Jos 15:36 And Shaaraim, and Adithaim, and Gederah, and Gederothaim; fourteen towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 15:37 Zenan, and Hadashah, and Migdal-gad; +Jos 15:38 And Dilan, and Mizpeh, and Joktheel; +Jos 15:39 Lachish, and Bozkath, and Eglon; +Jos 15:40 And Cabbon, and Lahmas, and Chithlish; +Jos 15:41 And Gederoth, Beth-dagon, and Naamah, and Makkedah; sixteen towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 15:42 Libnah, and Ether, and Ashan; +Jos 15:43 And Iphtah, and Ashnah, and Nezib; +Jos 15:44 And Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 15:45 Ekron, with her daughter-towns and her unwalled places; +Jos 15:46 From Ekron to the sea, all the towns by the side of Ashdod, with their unwalled places. +Jos 15:47 Ashdod, with her daughter-towns and her unwalled places; Gaza, with her daughter-towns and her unwalled places, to the stream of Egypt, with the Great Sea as a limit. +Jos 15:48 And in the hill-country, Shamir, and Jattir, and Socoh; +Jos 15:49 And Dannah, and Kiriath-sannah (which is Debir); +Jos 15:50 And Anab, and Eshtemoh, and Anim; +Jos 15:51 And Goshen, and Holon, and Giloh; eleven towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 15:52 Arab, and Dumah, and Eshan; +Jos 15:53 And Janim, and Beth-tappuah, and Aphekah; +Jos 15:54 And Humtah, and Kiriath-arba (which is Hebron), and Zior; nine towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 15:55 Maon, Carmel, and Ziph, and Jutah; +Jos 15:56 And Jezreel, and Jokdeam, and Zanoah; +Jos 15:57 Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah; ten towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 15:58 Halhul, Beth-zur, and Gedor; +Jos 15:59 And Maarath, and Beth-anoth, and Eltekon; six towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 15:60 Kiriath-baal (which is Kiriath-jearim), and Rabbah; two towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 15:61 In the waste land, Beth-arabah, Middin, and Secacah; +Jos 15:62 And Nibshan, and the Town of Salt, and En-gedi; six towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 15:63 And as for the Jebusites living in Jerusalem, the children of Judah were unable to make them go out; but the Jebusites are living with the children of Judah at Jerusalem, to this day. +Jos 16:1 And the limit of the land marked out for the children of Joseph went out from Jordan at Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east, in the waste land, going up from Jericho through the hill-country to Beth-el; +Jos 16:2 And it goes out from Beth-el to Luz, and on as far as the limit of the Archites to Ataroth; +Jos 16:3 And it goes down to the west to the limit of the Japhletites, to the limit of Beth-horon the lower, as far as Gezer; ending at the sea. +Jos 16:4 And the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their heritage. +Jos 16:5 And the limit of the land of the children of Ephraim by their families was marked out in this way: the limit of their heritage to the east was Ataroth-addar, to Beth-horon the higher; +Jos 16:6 The line goes out to the west at Michmethath on the north; then turning to the east to Taanath-shiloh, going past it on the east of Janoah; +Jos 16:7 And from Janoah down to Ataroth, and to Naarah, and touching Jericho, it goes on to Jordan. +Jos 16:8 From Tappuah the line goes on to the west to the river of Kanah; ending at the sea. This is the heritage of the children of Ephraim by their families; +Jos 16:9 Together with the towns marked out for the children of Ephraim in the heritage of Manasseh, all the towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 16:10 And the Canaanites who were living in Gezer were not forced out; but the Canaanites have been living among Ephraim, to this day, as servants, doing forced work. +Jos 17:1 And this was the part marked out for the tribe of Manasseh, because he was the oldest son of Joseph. As for Machir, the oldest son of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war he had Gilead and Bashan. +Jos 17:2 And as for the rest of the children of Manasseh, their heritage was given to them by families; for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these were the male children of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, by their families. +Jos 17:3 But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. +Jos 17:4 And they came before Eleazar the priest, and Joshua, the son of Nun, and before the chiefs, saying, The Lord gave orders to Moses to give us a heritage among our brothers: so in agreement with the orders of the Lord he gave them a heritage among their father's brothers. +Jos 17:5 And ten parts were given to Manasseh, in addition to the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is on the other side of Jordan; +Jos 17:6 Because the daughters of Manasseh had a heritage among his sons, and the land of Gilead was the property of the other sons of Manasseh. +Jos 17:7 And the limit of Manasseh's land was from Asher to Michmethath, which is before Shechem; the line goes on to the right hand, to the people of En-tappuah. +Jos 17:8 The land of Tappuah was the property of Manasseh; but Tappuah on the edge of Manasseh was the property of the children of Ephraim. +Jos 17:9 And the limit goes down to the stream Kanah, to the south of the stream: these towns were Ephraim's among the towns of Manasseh; Manasseh's limit was on the north side of the stream, ending at the sea: +Jos 17:10 To the south it is Ephraim's, and to the north it is Manasseh's, and the sea is his limit; and they are touching Asher on the north, and Issachar on the east. +Jos 17:11 In Issachar and Asher, Manasseh had Beth-shean and its daughter-towns, and Ibleam and its daughter-towns, and the people of Dor and its daughter-towns, and the people of En-dor and its daughter-towns, and the people of Taanach and its daughter-towns, and the people of Megiddo and its daughter-towns, that is, the three hills. +Jos 17:12 But the children of Manasseh were not able to make the people of those towns go out; but the Canaanites would go on living in that land. +Jos 17:13 And when the children of Israel had become strong, they put the Canaanites to forced work, in place of driving them out. +Jos 17:14 Then the children of Joseph said to Joshua, Why have you given me only one part and one stretch of land for my heritage? For through the blessing given to me by the Lord up to now, I am a great people. +Jos 17:15 Then Joshua said to them, If you are such a great people, go up into the woodlands, clearing a place there for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, if the hill-country of Ephraim is not wide enough for you. +Jos 17:16 And the children of Joseph said, The hill-country is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites living in the valley have iron war-carriages, those in Beth-shean and its towns as well as those in the valley of Jezreel. +Jos 17:17 Then Joshua said to the children of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, You are a great people, and have great power: you are not to have one property only, +Jos 17:18 For the hill-country of Gilead will be yours ... the woodland and cut down ... its outskirts will be yours ... get the Canaanites out, for they have iron war-carriages ... strong. +Jos 18:1 And all the meeting of the children of Israel came together at Shiloh and put up the Tent of meeting there: and the land was crushed before them. +Jos 18:2 But there were still seven tribes among the children of Israel who had not taken up their heritage. +Jos 18:3 Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, Why are you so slow to go in and take up your heritage in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you? +Jos 18:4 Take from among you three men from every tribe; and I will send them to go through the land and make a record of it for distribution as their heritage; then let them come back to me. +Jos 18:5 And let them make division of it into seven parts: let Judah keep inside his limit on the south, and let the children of Joseph keep inside their limit on the north. +Jos 18:6 And you are to have the land marked out in seven parts, and come back to me with the record; and I will make the distribution for you here by the decision of the Lord our God. +Jos 18:7 For the Levites have no part among you; to be the Lord's priests is their heritage; and Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have had their heritage on the east side of Jordan, given to them by Moses, the servant of the Lord. +Jos 18:8 So the men got up and went; and Joshua gave orders to those who went, to make a record of the land, saying, Go up and down through the land, and make a record of it and come back here to me, and I will make the distribution for you here by the decision of the Lord in Shiloh. +Jos 18:9 So the men went, travelling through the land, and made a record of it by towns in seven parts in a book, and came back to Joshua to the tent-circle at Shiloh. +Jos 18:10 And Joshua made the distribution for them in Shiloh by the decision of the Lord, marking out the land for the children of Israel by their divisions. +Jos 18:11 And the first heritage came out for the tribe of Benjamin by their families: and the limit of their heritage went between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph. +Jos 18:12 And their limit on the north was from the Jordan, and the line goes up to the side of Jericho on the north and through the hill-country to the west, ending at the waste land of Beth-aven. +Jos 18:13 And from there the line goes south to Luz, to the side of Luz (which is Beth-el), then down to Ataroth-addar, by the mountain to the south of Beth-horon the lower. +Jos 18:14 And the limit is marked as coming round to the south on the west side from the mountain which is south of Beth-horon, and ending at Kiriath-baal (which is Kiriath-jearim), a town of the children of Judah: this is the west part. +Jos 18:15 And the south part is from the farthest point of Kiriath-jearim, and the line goes out to the west to the fountain of the waters of Nephtoah: +Jos 18:16 And the line goes down to the farthest part of the mountain facing the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is on the north of the valley of Rephaim: from there it goes down to the valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Jebusite on the south as far as En-rogel; +Jos 18:17 And it goes to En-shemesh and on to Geliloth, opposite the way up to Adummim, and it goes down to the stone of Bohan, the son of Reuben; +Jos 18:18 And it goes on to the side facing the Arabah to the north, and down to the Arabah; +Jos 18:19 And on to the north side of Beth-hoglah, ending at the north inlet of the Salt Sea at the south end of Jordan; this is their limit on the south. +Jos 18:20 And the limit of the east part is the Jordan. This is the heritage of the children of Benjamin, marked out for their families by these limits on all sides. +Jos 18:21 And the towns of the children of Benjamin, given to them in the order of their families, are Jericho and Beth-hoglah and Emek-kezziz +Jos 18:22 And Beth-arabah and Zemaraim and Beth-el +Jos 18:23 And Avvim and Parah and Ophrah +Jos 18:24 And Chephar-Ammoni and Ophni and Geba; twelve towns with their unwalled places; +Jos 18:25 Gibeon and Ramah and Beeroth +Jos 18:26 And Mizpeh and Chephirah and Mozah +Jos 18:27 And Rekem and Irpeel and Taralah +Jos 18:28 And Zela, Eleph and the Jebusite (which is Jerusalem), Gibeath and Kiriath; fourteen towns with their unwalled places. This is the heritage of the children of Benjamin by their families. +Jos 19:1 And the second heritage came out for the tribe of Simeon by their families; and their heritage was in the middle of the heritage of the children of Judah. +Jos 19:2 And they had for their heritage Beer-sheba and Shema and Moladah +Jos 19:3 And Hazar-shual and Balah and Ezem +Jos 19:4 And Eltolad and Bethul and Hormah +Jos 19:5 And Ziklag and Beth-marcaboth and Hazar-susah +Jos 19:6 And Beth-lebaoth and Sharuhen; thirteen towns with their unwalled places; +Jos 19:7 Ain, Rimmon, and Ether and Ashan; four towns with their unwalled places; +Jos 19:8 And all the unwalled places round about these towns as far as Baalath-beer-ramah to the south. This is the heritage of the tribe of Simeon by their families. +Jos 19:9 The heritage of Simeon was taken out of Judah's stretch of land, for Judah's part was more than they had need of, so the heritage of the children of Simeon was inside their heritage. +Jos 19:10 And the third heritage came out for Zebulun by their families; the limit of their heritage was as far as Sarid; +Jos 19:11 And their limit goes up to the west to Maralah, stretching to Dabbesheth, and to the stream in front of Jokneam; +Jos 19:12 Then turning east from Sarid to the limit of Chisloth-tabor, it goes out to Daberath, and up to Japhia; +Jos 19:13 And from there it goes on east to Gath-hepher, to Eth-kazin; ending at Rimmon which goes as far as Neah; +Jos 19:14 And the line goes round it on the north to Hannathon, ending at the valley of Iphtah-el; +Jos 19:15 And Kattath and Nahalal and Shimron and Idalah and Beth-lehem; twelve towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 19:16 This is the heritage of the children of Zebulun by their families, these towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 19:17 For Issachar the fourth heritage came out, for the children of Issachar by their families; +Jos 19:18 And their limit was to Jezreel and Chesulloth and Shunem +Jos 19:19 And Hapharaim and Shion and Anaharath +Jos 19:20 And Rabbith and Kishion and Ebez +Jos 19:21 And Remeth and En-gannim and En-haddah and Beth-pazzez; +Jos 19:22 And their limit goes as far as Tabor and Shahazimah and Beth-shemesh, ending at Jordan; sixteen towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 19:23 This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of Issachar by their families, these towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 19:24 And the fifth heritage came out for the tribe of Asher by their families. +Jos 19:25 And their limit was Helkath and Hali and Beten and Achshaph +Jos 19:26 And Alammelech and Amad and Mishal, stretching to Carmel on the west and Shihor-libnath; +Jos 19:27 Turning to the east to Beth-dagon and stretching to Zebulun and the valley of Iphtah-el as far as Beth-emek and Neiel to the north; on the left it goes as far as Cabul +Jos 19:28 And Ebron and Rehob and Hammon and Kanah, to great Zidon; +Jos 19:29 And the limit goes round to Ramah and the walled town of Tyre and Hosah, ending at the sea by Heleb and Achzib; +Jos 19:30 And Ummah and Aphek and Rehob; twenty-two towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 19:31 This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of Asher by their families, these towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 19:32 For the children of Naphtali the sixth heritage came out, for the children of Naphtali by their families; +Jos 19:33 And their limit was from Heleph, from the oak-tree in Zaanannim, and Adami-hannekeb and Jabneel, as far as Lakkum, ending at Jordan; +Jos 19:34 And turning west to Aznoth-tabor, the limit goes out from there to Hukkok, stretching to Zebulun on the south, and Asher on the west, and Judah at Jordan on the east. +Jos 19:35 And the walled towns are Ziddim, Zer, and Hammath, Rakkath, and Chinnereth +Jos 19:36 And Adamah and Ramah and Hazor +Jos 19:37 And Kedesh and Edrei and En-Hazor +Jos 19:38 And Iron and Migdal-el, Horem and Beth-anath and Beth-shemesh; nineteen towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 19:39 This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of Naphtali by their families, these towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 19:40 For the tribe of Dan by their families the seventh heritage came out; +Jos 19:41 And the limit of their heritage was Zorah and Eshtaol and Ir-shemesh +Jos 19:42 And Shaalabbin and Aijalon and Ithlah +Jos 19:43 And Elon and Timnah and Ekron +Jos 19:44 And Eltekeh and Gibbethon and Baalath +Jos 19:45 And Jehud and Bene-berak and Gath-rimmon; +Jos 19:46 And on the west was ... opposite Joppa. +Jos 19:47 (But the limit of the children of Dan was not wide enough for them; so the children of Dan went up and made war on Leshem and took it, putting it to the sword without mercy, and they took it for their heritage and made a place for themselves there, giving it the name of Leshem-dan, after the name of their father, Dan.) +Jos 19:48 This is the heritage of the tribe of the children of Dan by their families, these towns with their unwalled places. +Jos 19:49 So the distribution of the land and its limits was complete; and the children of Israel gave Joshua, the son of Nun, a heritage among them; +Jos 19:50 By the orders of the Lord they gave him the town for which he made request, Timnath-serah in the hill-country of Ephraim: there, after building the town, he made his living-place. +Jos 19:51 These are the heritages which Eleazar the priest and Joshua, the son of Nun, and the heads of families of the tribes of the children of Israel gave out at Shiloh, by the decision of the Lord, at the door of the Tent of meeting. So the distribution of the land was complete. +Jos 20:1 And the Lord said to Joshua, +Jos 20:2 Say to the children of Israel, Let certain towns be marked out as safe places, as I said to you by the mouth of Moses, +Jos 20:3 So that any man who in error and without design has taken the life of another, may go in flight to them: and they will be safe places for you from him who has the right of punishment for blood. +Jos 20:4 And if anyone goes in flight to one of those towns, and comes into the public place of the town, and puts his cause before the responsible men of the town, they will take him into the town and give him a place among them where he may be safe. +Jos 20:5 And if the one who has the right of punishment comes after him, they are not to give the taker of life up to him; because he was the cause of his neighbour's death without designing it and not in hate. +Jos 20:6 And he is to go on living in that town till he has to come before the meeting of the people to be judged; (till the death of him who is high priest at that time:) then the taker of life may come back to his town and to his house, to the town from which he had gone in flight. +Jos 20:7 So they made selection of Kedesh in Galilee in the hill-country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (which is Hebron) in the hill-country of Judah. +Jos 20:8 And on the east side of Jordan at Jericho, they made selection of Bezer in the waste land, in the table-land, out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. +Jos 20:9 These were the towns marked out for all the children of Israel and for the man from a strange country living among them, so that anyone causing the death of another in error, might go in flight there, and not be put to death by him who has the right of punishment for blood till he had come before the meeting of the people. +Jos 21:1 Then the heads of the families of the Levites came to Eleazar the priest and Joshua, the son of Nun, and to the heads of families of the tribes of the children of Israel; +Jos 21:2 And said to them in Shiloh in the land of Canaan, The Lord gave orders by Moses that we were to have towns for living in, with their grass-lands for our cattle. +Jos 21:3 And the children of Israel out of their heritage gave to the Levites these towns with their grass-lands, by the order of the Lord. +Jos 21:4 And the heritage came out for the families of the Kohathites: the children of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, were given thirteen towns from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. +Jos 21:5 The rest of the children of Kohath by their families were given ten towns from the tribes of Ephraim and Dan and the half-tribe of Manasseh. +Jos 21:6 The children of Gershon by their families were given thirteen towns from the tribes of Issachar and Asher and Naphtali and the half-tribe of Manasseh which was in Bashan. +Jos 21:7 The children of Merari by their families were given twelve towns from the tribes of Reuben and Gad and Zebulun. +Jos 21:8 All these towns with their grass-lands the children of Israel gave by the decision of the Lord to the Levites, as the Lord had given orders by Moses. +Jos 21:9 From the tribes of the children of Judah and the children of Simeon they gave these towns, listed here by name: +Jos 21:10 These were for the children of Aaron among the families of the Kohathites, of the children of Levi: for they came first in the distribution. +Jos 21:11 They gave them Kiriath-arba, the town of Arba, the father of Anak, (which is Hebron) in the hill-country of Judah, with its grass-lands. +Jos 21:12 But the open country round the town, and its unwalled places, they gave to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, as his property. +Jos 21:13 And to the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its grass-lands, the town where the taker of life might be safe, and Libnah with its grass-lands; +Jos 21:14 And Jattir with its grass-lands, and Eshtemoa with its grass-lands; +Jos 21:15 And Holon with its grass-lands, and Debir with its grass-lands; +Jos 21:16 And Ain, and Juttah, and Beth-shemesh, with their grass-lands; nine towns from those two tribes. +Jos 21:17 And from the tribe of Benjamin they gave Gibeon and Geba with their grass-lands; +Jos 21:18 Anathoth and Almon with their grass-lands, four towns. +Jos 21:19 Thirteen towns with their grass-lands were given to the children of Aaron, the priests. +Jos 21:20 The rest of the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, were given towns from the tribe of Ephraim. +Jos 21:21 And they gave them Shechem with its grass-lands in the hill-country of Ephraim, the town where the taker of life might be safe, and Gezer with its grass-lands; +Jos 21:22 And Kibzaim and Beth-horon with their grass-lands, four towns. +Jos 21:23 And from the tribe of Dan, Elteke and Gibbethon with their grass-lands; +Jos 21:24 Aijalon and Gath-rimmon with their grass-lands, four towns. +Jos 21:25 And from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Taanach and Gath-rimmon with their grass-lands, two towns. +Jos 21:26 All the towns of the rest of the families of the children of Kohath were ten with their grass-lands. +Jos 21:27 And to the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, they gave from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan with its grass-lands, the town where the taker of life might be safe, and Ashtaroth with its grass-lands, two towns. +Jos 21:28 And from the tribe of Issachar, Kishion and Daberath with their grass-lands; +Jos 21:29 Jarmuth and En-gannim with their grass-lands, four towns. +Jos 21:30 And from the tribe of Asher, Mishal and Abdon, with their grass-lands: +Jos 21:31 Helkath and Rehob with their grass-lands, four towns. +Jos 21:32 And from the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with its grass-lands, the town where the taker of life might be safe, and Hammoth-dor and Kartan with their grass-lands, three towns. +Jos 21:33 All the towns of the Gershonites with their families were thirteen with their grass-lands. +Jos 21:34 And to the rest of the Levites, that is, the families of the children of Merari, they gave from the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam and Kartah with their grass-lands; +Jos 21:35 Dimnah and Nahalal with their grass-lands, four towns. +Jos 21:36 And from the tribe of Reuben, Bezer and Jahaz with their grass-lands; +Jos 21:37 Kedemoth and Mephaath with their grass-lands, four towns. +Jos 21:38 And from the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead, the town where the taker of life might be safe, and Mahanaim with their grass-lands; +Jos 21:39 Heshbon and Jazer with their grass-lands, four towns. +Jos 21:40 All these towns were given to the children of Merari by their families, that is, the rest of the families of the Levites; and their heritage was twelve towns. +Jos 21:41 All the towns of the Levites, among the heritage of the children of Israel, were forty-eight towns with their grass-lands. +Jos 21:42 Every one of these towns had grass-lands round it. +Jos 21:43 So the Lord gave to Israel all the land which he gave by oath to their fathers; so it became their heritage and their living-place. +Jos 21:44 And the Lord gave them peace on every side, as he had said to their fathers: all those who were against them gave way before them, for the Lord gave them all up into their hands. +Jos 21:45 The Lord kept faith with the house of Israel about all the good which he said he would do for them, and all his words came true. +Jos 22:1 Then Joshua sent for the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, +Jos 22:2 And said to them, You have kept all the orders of Moses, the Lord's servant, and have done everything I gave you orders to do: +Jos 22:3 You have now been with your brothers for a long time; till this day you have been doing the orders of the Lord your God. +Jos 22:4 And now the Lord your God has given your brothers rest, as he said: so now you may go back to your tents, to the land of your heritage, which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave to you on the other side of Jordan. +Jos 22:5 Only take great care to do the orders and the law which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you; to have love for the Lord your God and to go in all his ways; and to keep his laws and to be true to him and to be his servants with all your heart and with all your soul. +Jos 22:6 Then Joshua gave them his blessing and sent them away: and they went back to their tents. +Jos 22:7 Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given a heritage in Bashan; but to the other half, Joshua gave a heritage among their brothers on the west side of Jordan. Now when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he gave them his blessing, +Jos 22:8 And said to them, Go back with much wealth to your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver and gold and brass and iron, and with a very great store of clothing; give your brothers a part of the goods taken in the war. +Jos 22:9 So Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh went back, parting from the children of Israel at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their heritage which had been given to them by the Lord's order to Moses. +Jos 22:10 Now when they came to the country by Jordan in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh put up there, by Jordan, a great altar, seen from far. +Jos 22:11 And news came to the children of Israel, See, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have put up an altar opposite the land of Canaan, in the country by Jordan on the side which is Israel's. +Jos 22:12 Then all the meeting of the children of Israel, hearing this, came together at Shiloh to go up against them to war. +Jos 22:13 And the children of Israel sent Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, to the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, +Jos 22:14 And with him they sent ten chiefs, one for every tribe of the children of Israel, every one of them the head of his house among the families of Israel. +Jos 22:15 And they came to the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, and said to them, +Jos 22:16 This is what all the meeting of the people of the Lord has said, What is this wrong which you have done against the God of Israel, turning back this day from the Lord and building an altar for yourselves, and being false to the Lord? +Jos 22:17 Was not the sin of Baal-peor great enough, from which we are not clear even to this day, though punishment came on the people of the Lord, +Jos 22:18 That now you are turned back from the Lord? and, because you are false to him today, tomorrow his wrath will be let loose on all the people of Israel. +Jos 22:19 But if the land you now have is unclean, come over into the Lord's land where his House is, and take up your heritage among us: but do not be false to the Lord and to us by building yourselves an altar in addition to the altar of the Lord our God. +Jos 22:20 Did not Achan, the son of Zerah, do wrong about the cursed thing, causing wrath to come on all the people of Israel? And not on him only came the punishment of death. +Jos 22:21 Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, +Jos 22:22 God, even God the Lord, God, even God the Lord, he sees, and Israel will see--if it is in pride or in sin against the Lord, +Jos 22:23 That we have made ourselves an altar, being false to the Lord, keep us not safe from death this day; and if for the purpose of offering burned offerings on it and meal offerings, or peace-offerings, let the Lord himself send punishment for it; +Jos 22:24 And if we have not, in fact, done this designedly and with purpose, having in our minds the fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? +Jos 22:25 For the Lord has made Jordan a line of division between us and you, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad; you have no part in the Lord: so your children will make our children give up fearing the Lord. +Jos 22:26 So we said, Let us now make an altar for ourselves, not for burned offerings or for the offerings of beasts: +Jos 22:27 But to be a witness between us and you, and between the future generations, that we have the right of worshipping the Lord with our burned offerings and our offerings of beasts and our peace-offerings; so that your children will not be able to say to our children in time to come, You have no part in the Lord. +Jos 22:28 For we said to ourselves, If they say this to us or to future generations, then we will say, See this copy of the Lord's altar which our fathers made, not for burned offerings or offerings of beasts, but for a witness between us and you. +Jos 22:29 Never let it be said that we were false to the Lord, turning back this day from him and building an altar for burned offerings and meal offerings and offerings of beasts, in addition to the altar of the Lord our God which is before his House. +Jos 22:30 Then Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the meeting and the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, hearing what the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh said, were pleased. +Jos 22:31 And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, said to the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh, Now we are certain that the Lord is among us, because you have not done this wrong against the Lord: and you have kept us from falling into the hands of the Lord. +Jos 22:32 Then Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs went back from the land of Gilead, from the children of Reuben and the children of Gad, and came to the children of Israel in Canaan and gave them the news. +Jos 22:33 And the children of Israel were pleased about this; and they gave praise to God, and had no more thought of going to war against the children of Reuben and the children of Gad for the destruction of their land. +Jos 22:34 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad gave to that altar the name of Ed. For, they said, It is a witness between us that the Lord is God. +Jos 23:1 Now after a long time, when the Lord had given Israel rest from wars on every side, and Joshua was old and full of years, +Jos 23:2 Joshua sent for all Israel, for their responsible men and their chiefs and their judges and their overseers, and said to them, I am old, and full of years: +Jos 23:3 You have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you; for it is the Lord your God who has been fighting for you. +Jos 23:4 Now I have given to you, as the heritage of your tribes, all these nations which are still in the land, together with those cut off by me, from Jordan as far as the Great Sea on the west. +Jos 23:5 The Lord your God will send them away by force, driving them out before you; and you are to take their land for your heritage, as the Lord your God said to you. +Jos 23:6 So be very strong to keep and do whatever is recorded in the book of the law of Moses, not turning away from it to the right or to the left; +Jos 23:7 Have nothing to do with these nations who still are living among you; let not their gods be named by you or used in your oaths; do not be their servants or give them worship: +Jos 23:8 But be true to the Lord your God as you have been till this day. +Jos 23:9 For the Lord has sent out from before you nations great and strong: and they have all given way before you till this day. +Jos 23:10 One man of you is able to put to flight a thousand; for it is the Lord your God who is fighting for you, as he has said to you. +Jos 23:11 So keep watch on yourselves, and see that you have love for the Lord your God. +Jos 23:12 For if you go back, joining yourselves to the rest of these nations who are still among you, getting married to them and living with them and they with you: +Jos 23:13 Then you may be certain that the Lord your God will not go on driving these nations out from before you; but they will become a danger and a cause of sin to you, a whip for your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you are cut off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. +Jos 23:14 Now I am about to go the way of all the earth: and you have seen and are certain, all of you, in your hearts and souls, that in all the good things which the Lord said about you, he has kept faith with you; everything has come true for you. +Jos 23:15 And you will see that, as all the good things which the Lord your God undertook to do for you, have come to you, so the Lord will send down on you all the evil things till he has made your destruction complete, and you are cut off from the good land which the Lord your God has given you. +Jos 23:16 If the agreement of the Lord your God, which was given to you by his orders, is broken, and you become the servants of other gods and give them worship, then the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, and you will quickly be cut off from the good land which he has given you. +Jos 24:1 Then Joshua got all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem; and he sent for the responsible men of Israel and their chiefs and their judges and their overseers; and they took their place before God. +Jos 24:2 And Joshua said to all the people, These are the words of the Lord, the God of Israel: In the past your fathers, Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, were living on the other side of the River: and they were worshipping other gods. +Jos 24:3 And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River, guiding him through all the land of Canaan; I made his offspring great in number, and gave him Isaac. +Jos 24:4 And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau: to Esau I gave Mount Seir, as his heritage; but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. +Jos 24:5 And I sent Moses and Aaron, troubling Egypt by all the signs I did among them: and after that I took you out. +Jos 24:6 I took your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the Red Sea; and the Egyptians came after your fathers to the Red Sea, with their war-carriages and their horsemen. +Jos 24:7 And at their cry, the Lord made it dark between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea go over them, covering them with its waters; your eyes have seen what I did in Egypt: then for a long time you were living in the waste land. +Jos 24:8 And I took you into the lands of the Amorites on the other side of Jordan; and they made war on you, and I gave them into your hands and you took their land; and I sent destruction on them before you. +Jos 24:9 Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, went up to war against Israel; and he sent for Balaam, the son of Beor, to put a curse on you: +Jos 24:10 But I did not give ear to Balaam; and so he went on blessing you; and I kept you safe from him. +Jos 24:11 Then you went over Jordan and came to Jericho: and the men of Jericho made war on you, the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Hivites and the Jebusites: and I gave them up into your hands. +Jos 24:12 And I sent the hornet before you, driving out the two kings of the Amorites before you, not with your sword and your bow. +Jos 24:13 And I gave you a land on which you had done no work, and towns not of your building, and you are now living in them; and your food comes from vine-gardens and olive-gardens not of your planting. +Jos 24:14 So now, go in fear of the Lord, and be his servants with true hearts: put away the gods worshipped by your fathers across the River and in Egypt, and be servants of the Lord. +Jos 24:15 And if it seems evil to you to be the servants of the Lord, make the decision this day whose servants you will be: of the gods whose servants your fathers were across the River, or of the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living: but I and my house will be the servants of the Lord. +Jos 24:16 Then the people in answer said, Never will we give up the Lord to be the servants of other gods; +Jos 24:17 For it is the Lord our God who has taken us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house, and who did all those great signs before our eyes, and kept us safe on all our journeys, and among all the peoples through whom we went: +Jos 24:18 And the Lord sent out from before us all the peoples, the Amorites living in the land: so we will be the servants of the Lord, for he is our God. +Jos 24:19 And Joshua said to the people, You are not able to be the servants of the Lord, for he is a holy God, a God who will not let his honour be given to another: he will have no mercy on your wrongdoing or your sins. +Jos 24:20 If you are turned away from the Lord and become the servants of strange gods, then turning against you he will do you evil, cutting you off, after he has done you good. +Jos 24:21 And the people said to Joshua, No! But we will be the servants of the Lord. +Jos 24:22 And Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have made the decision to be the servants of the Lord. And they said, We are witnesses. +Jos 24:23 Then, he said, put away the strange gods among you, turning your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. +Jos 24:24 And the people said to Joshua, We will be the servants of the Lord our God, and we will give ear to his voice. +Jos 24:25 So Joshua made an agreement with the people that day, and gave them a rule and a law in Shechem. +Jos 24:26 And Joshua put these words on record, writing them in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and put it up there under the oak-tree which was in the holy place of the Lord. +Jos 24:27 And Joshua said to all the people, See now, this stone is to be a witness against us; for all the words of the Lord have been said to us in its hearing: so it will be a witness against you if you are false to the Lord your God. +Jos 24:28 Then Joshua let the people go away, every man to his heritage. +Jos 24:29 Now after these things, the death of Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, took place, he being then a hundred and ten years old. +Jos 24:30 And they put his body in the earth in the land of his heritage in Timnath-serah, in the hill-country of Ephraim, to the north of Mount Gaash. +Jos 24:31 And Israel was true to the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the older men who were still living after Joshua's death, and had seen what the Lord had done for Israel. +Jos 24:32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had taken up from Egypt, they put in the earth in Shechem, in the property which Jacob had got from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred shekels: and they became the heritage of the children of Joseph. +Jos 24:33 Then the death of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, took place; and his body was put in the earth in the hill of Phinehas his son, which had been given to him in the hill-country of Ephraim. +Jug 1:1 Now after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel made request to the Lord, saying, Who is to go up first to make war for us against the Canaanites? +Jug 1:2 And the Lord said, Judah is to go up: see, I have given the land into his hands. +Jug 1:3 Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my heritage, so that we may make war against the Canaanites; and I will then go with you into your heritage. So Simeon went with him. +Jug 1:4 And Judah went up; and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands; and they overcame ten thousand of them in Bezek. +Jug 1:5 And they came across Adoni-zedek, and made war on him; and they overcame the Canaanites and the Perizzites. +Jug 1:6 But Adoni-zedek went in flight; and they went after him and overtook him, and had his thumbs and his great toes cut off. +Jug 1:7 And Adoni-zedek said, Seventy kings, whose thumbs and great toes had been cut off, got broken meat under my table: as I have done, so has God done to me in full. And they took him to Jerusalem, and he came to his end there. +Jug 1:8 Then the children of Judah made an attack on Jerusalem, and took it, burning down the town after they had put its people to the sword without mercy. +Jug 1:9 After that the children of Judah went down to make war on the Canaanites living in the hill-country and in the south and in the lowlands. +Jug 1:10 And Caleb went against the Canaanites of Hebron: (now in earlier times Hebron was named Kiriath-arba:) and he put Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai to the sword. +Jug 1:11 And from there he went up against the people of Debir. (Now the name of Debir in earlier times was Kiriath-sepher.) +Jug 1:12 And Caleb said, I will give Achsah, my daughter, as wife to the man who overcomes Kiriath-sepher and takes it. +Jug 1:13 And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for his wife. +Jug 1:14 Now when she came to him, he put into her mind the idea of requesting a field from her father: and she got down from her ass; and Caleb said to her, What is it? +Jug 1:15 And she said to him, Give me a blessing; because you have put me in a dry south-land, now give me springs of water. So Caleb gave her the higher spring and the lower spring. +Jug 1:16 Now Hobab the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, had come up out of the town of palm-trees, with the children of Judah, into the waste land of Arad; and he went and was living among the Amalekites; +Jug 1:17 And Judah went with Simeon, his brother, and overcame the Canaanites living in Zephath, and put it under the curse; and he gave the town the name of Hormah. +Jug 1:18 Then Judah took Gaza and its limit, and Ashkelon and its limit, and Ekron and its limit. +Jug 1:19 And the Lord was with Judah; and he took the hill-country for his heritage; but he was unable to make the people of the valley go out, for they had war-carriages of iron. +Jug 1:20 And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said; and he took the land of the three sons of Anak, driving them out from there. +Jug 1:21 And the children of Judah did not make the Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem go out; the Jebusites are still living with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem. +Jug 1:22 And the family of Joseph went up against Beth-el, and the Lord was with them. +Jug 1:23 So they sent men to make a search round Beth-el. (Now the name of the town in earlier times was Luz.) +Jug 1:24 And the watchers saw a man coming out of the town, and said to him, If you will make clear to us the way into the town, we will be kind to you. +Jug 1:25 So he made clear to them the way into the town, and they put it to the sword; but they let the man and all his family get away safe. +Jug 1:26 And he went into the land of the Hittites, building a town there and naming it Luz: which is its name to this day. +Jug 1:27 And Manasseh did not take away the land of the people of Beth-shean and its daughter-towns, or of Taanach and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Dor and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Ibleam and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Megiddo and its daughter-towns, driving them out; but the Canaanites would go on living in that land. +Jug 1:28 And whenever Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced work, without driving them out completely. +Jug 1:29 And Ephraim did not make the Canaanites who were living in Gezer go out; but the Canaanites went on living in Gezer among them. +Jug 1:30 Zebulun did not make the people of Kitron or the people of Nahalol go out; but the Canaanites went on living among them and were put to forced work. +Jug 1:31 And Asher did not take the land of the people of Acco, or Zidon, or Ahlab, or Achzib, or Helbah, or Aphik, or Rehob, driving them out; +Jug 1:32 But the Asherites went on living among the Canaanites, the people of the land, without driving them out. +Jug 1:33 Naphtali did not take the land of the people of Beth-shemesh or of Beth-anath, driving them out; but he was living among the Canaanites in the land; however, the people of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath were put to forced work. +Jug 1:34 And the children of Dan were forced into the hill-country by the Amorites, who would not let them come down into the valley; +Jug 1:35 For the Amorites would go on living in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; but the children of Joseph became stronger than they, and put them to forced work. +Jug 1:36 And the limit of the Edomites went from the slope of Akrabbim from Sela and up. +Jug 2:1 Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, *** I took you out of Egypt, guiding you into the land which I gave by an oath to your fathers; and I said, My agreement with you will never be broken by me: +Jug 2:2 And you are to make no agreement with the people of this land; you are to see that their altars are broken down: but you have not given ear to my voice: what have you done? +Jug 2:3 And so I have said, I will not send them out from before you; but they will be a danger to you, and their gods will be a cause of falling to you. +Jug 2:4 Now on hearing these words which the angel of the Lord said to all the children of Israel, the people gave themselves up to loud crying and weeping. +Jug 2:5 And they gave that place the name of Bochim, and made offerings there to the Lord. +Jug 2:6 And Joshua let the people go away, and the children of Israel went, every man to his heritage, to take the land for themselves. +Jug 2:7 And the people were true to the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the responsible men who were still living after the death of Joshua, and had seen all the great work of the Lord which he had done for Israel. +Jug 2:8 And death came to Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, he being a hundred and ten years old. +Jug 2:9 And they put his body in the earth in the land of his heritage in Timnath-heres, in the hill-country of Ephraim to the north of Mount Gaash. +Jug 2:10 And in time death overtook all that generation; and another generation came after them, having no knowledge of the Lord or of the things which he had done for Israel. +Jug 2:11 And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord and became servants to the Baals; +Jug 2:12 And they gave up the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had taken them out of the land of Egypt, and went after other gods, the gods of the peoples round about them, worshipping them and moving the Lord to wrath. +Jug 2:13 And they gave up the Lord, and became the servants of Baal and the Astartes. +Jug 2:14 And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of those who violently took their property, and into the hands of their haters all round them, so that they were forced to give way before them. +Jug 2:15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had taken his oath it would be; and things became very hard for them. +Jug 2:16 Then the Lord gave them judges, as their saviours from the hands of those who were cruel to them. +Jug 2:17 But still they would not give ear to their judges, but went after other gods and gave them worship; quickly turning from the way in which their fathers had gone, keeping the orders of the Lord; but they did not do so. +Jug 2:18 And whenever the Lord gave them judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and was their saviour from the hands of their haters all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved by their cries of grief because of those who were cruel to them. +Jug 2:19 But whenever the judge was dead, they went back and did more evil than their fathers, going after other gods, to be their servants and their worshippers; giving up nothing of their sins and their hard-hearted ways. +Jug 2:20 And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he said, Because this nation has not been true to my agreement which I made with their fathers, and has not given ear to my voice; +Jug 2:21 From now on I will not go on driving out from before them any of the nations which at the death of Joshua were still living in this land; +Jug 2:22 In order to put Israel to the test, and see if they will keep the way of the Lord, walking in it as their fathers did, or not. +Jug 2:23 So the Lord let those nations go on living in the land, not driving them out quickly, and did not give them up into the hands of Joshua. +Jug 3:1 Now these are the nations which the Lord kept in the land for the purpose of testing Israel by them, all those who had had no experience of all the wars of Canaan; +Jug 3:2 Only because of the generations of the children of Israel, for the purpose of teaching them war--only those who up till then had no experience of it; +Jug 3:3 The five chiefs of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites and the Zidonians and the Hivites living in Mount Lebanon, from the mountain Baal-hermon as far as Hamath: +Jug 3:4 For the purpose of testing Israel by them, to see if they would give ear to the orders of the Lord, which he had given to their fathers by the hand of Moses. +Jug 3:5 Now the children of Israel were living among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: +Jug 3:6 And they took as wives the daughters of these nations and gave their daughters to their sons, and became servants to their gods. +Jug 3:7 And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and put out of their minds the Lord their God, and became servants to the Baals and the Astartes. +Jug 3:8 So the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel were his servants for eight years. +Jug 3:9 And when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. +Jug 3:10 And the spirit of the Lord came on him and he became judge of Israel, and went out to war, and the Lord gave up Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hands and he overcame him. +Jug 3:11 Then for forty years the land had peace, till the death of Othniel, the son of Kenaz. +Jug 3:12 Then the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord made Eglon, king of Moab, strong against Israel, because they had done evil in the Lord's eyes. +Jug 3:13 And Eglon got together the people of Ammon and Amalek, and they went and overcame Israel and took the town of palm-trees. +Jug 3:14 And the children of Israel were servants to Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years. +Jug 3:15 Then when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man; and the children of Israel sent an offering by him to Eglon, king of Moab. +Jug 3:16 So Ehud made himself a two-edged sword, a cubit long, which he put on at his right side under his robe. +Jug 3:17 And he took the offering to Eglon, king of Moab, who was a very fat man. +Jug 3:18 And after giving the offering, he sent away the people who had come with the offering. +Jug 3:19 But he himself, turning back from the stone images at Gilgal, said, I have something to say to you in secret, O king. And he said, Let there be quiet. Then all those who were waiting before him went out. +Jug 3:20 Then Ehud came in to him while he was seated by himself in his summer-house. And Ehud said, I have a word from God for you. And he got up from his seat. +Jug 3:21 And Ehud put out his left hand, and took the sword from his right side, and sent it into his stomach; +Jug 3:22 And the hand-part went in after the blade, and the fat was joined up over the blade; for he did not take the sword out of his stomach. And he went out into the ... +Jug 3:23 Then Ehud went out into the covered way, shutting the doors of the summer-house on him and locking them. +Jug 3:24 Now when he had gone, the king's servants came, and saw that the doors of the summer-house were locked; and they said, It may be that he is in his summer-house for a private purpose. +Jug 3:25 And they went on waiting till they were shamed, but the doors were still shut; so they took the key, and, opening them, saw their lord stretched out dead on the floor. +Jug 3:26 But Ehud had got away while they were waiting and had gone past the stone images and got away to Seirah. +Jug 3:27 And when he came there, he had a horn sounded in the hill-country of Ephraim, and all the children of Israel went down with him from the hill-country, and he at their head. +Jug 3:28 And he said to them, Come after me; for the Lord has given the Moabites, your haters, into your hands. So they went down after him and took the crossing-places of Jordan against Moab, and let no one go across. +Jug 3:29 At that time they put about ten thousand men of Moab to the sword, every strong man and every man of war; not a man got away. +Jug 3:30 So Moab was broken that day under the hand of Israel. And for eighty years the land had peace. +Jug 3:31 And after him came Shamgar, the son of Anath, who put to death six hundred Philistines with an ox-stick; and he was another saviour of Israel. +Jug 4:1 And the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord when Ehud was dead. +Jug 4:2 And the Lord gave them up into the hands of Jabin, king of Canaan, who was ruling in Hazor; the captain of his army was Sisera, who was living in Harosheth of the Gentiles. +Jug 4:3 Then the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord; for he had nine hundred iron war-carriages, and for twenty years he was very cruel to the children of Israel. +Jug 4:4 Now Deborah, a woman prophet, the wife of Lapidoth, was judge of Israel at that time. +Jug 4:5 (And she had her seat under the palm-tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in the hill-country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel came up to her to be judged.) +Jug 4:6 And she sent for Barak, the son of Abinoam, from Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, given orders saying, Go and get your force into line in Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? +Jug 4:7 And I will make Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his war-carriages and his forces, come against you at the river Kishon, where I will give him into your hands. +Jug 4:8 And Barak said to her, If you will go with me then I will go; but if you will not go with me I will not go. +Jug 4:9 And she said, I will certainly go with you: though you will get no honour in your undertaking, for the Lord will give Sisera into the hands of a woman. So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. +Jug 4:10 Then Barak sent for Zebulun and Naphtali to come to Kedesh; and ten thousand men went up after him, and Deborah went up with him. +Jug 4:11 Now Heber the Kenite, separating himself from the rest of the Kenites, from the children of Hobab, the brother-in-law of Moses, had put up his tent as far away as the oak-tree in Zaanannim, by Kedesh. +Jug 4:12 And word was given to Sisera that Barak, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor. +Jug 4:13 So Sisera got together all his war-carriages, nine hundred war-carriages of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles as far as the river Kishon. +Jug 4:14 Then Deborah said to Barak, Up! for today the Lord has given Sisera into your hands: has not the Lord gone out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor and ten thousand men after him. +Jug 4:15 And the Lord sent fear on Sisera and all his war-carriages and all his army before Barak; and Sisera got down from his war-carriage and went in flight on foot. +Jug 4:16 But Barak went after the war-carriages and the army as far as Harosheth of the Gentiles; and all Sisera's army was put to the sword; not a man got away. +Jug 4:17 But Sisera went in flight on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin, king of Hazor, and the family of Heber the Kenite. +Jug 4:18 And Jael went out to Sisera, and said to him, Come in, my lord, come in to me without fear. So he went into her tent, and she put a cover over him. +Jug 4:19 Then he said to her, Give me now a little water, for I have need of a drink. And opening a skin of milk, she gave him drink, and put the cover over him again. +Jug 4:20 And he said to her, Take your place at the door of the tent, and if anyone comes and says to you, Is there any man here, say, No. +Jug 4:21 Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent-pin and a hammer and went up to him quietly, driving the pin into his head, and it went through his head into the earth, for he was in a deep sleep from weariness; and so he came to his end. +Jug 4:22 Then Jael went out, and meeting Barak going after Sisera, said to him, Come, and I will let you see the man you are searching for. So he came into her tent and saw, and there was Sisera stretched out dead with the tent-pin in his head. +Jug 4:23 So that day God overcame Jabin, king of Canaan, before the children of Israel. +Jug 4:24 And the power of the children of Israel went on increasing against Jabin, king of Canaan, till he was cut off. +Jug 5:1 At that time Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, made this song, saying: +Jug 5:2 Because of the flowing hair of the fighters in Israel, because the people gave themselves freely, give praise to the Lord. +Jug 5:3 Give attention, O kings; give ear, O rulers; I, even I, will make a song to the Lord; I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel. +Jug 5:4 Lord, when you went out from Seir, moving like an army from the field of Edom, the earth was shaking and the heavens were troubled, and the clouds were dropping water. +Jug 5:5 The mountains were shaking before the Lord, before the Lord, the God of Israel. +Jug 5:6 In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were not used, and travellers went by side roads. +Jug 5:7 Country towns were no more in Israel, *** were no more, till you, Deborah, came up, till you came up as a mother in Israel. +Jug 5:8 They had no one to make arms, there were no more armed men in the towns; was there a body-cover or a spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel? +Jug 5:9 Come, you rulers of Israel, you who gave yourselves freely among the people: give praise to the Lord. +Jug 5:10 Let them give thought to it, who go on white asses, and those who are walking on the road. +Jug 5:11 Give ear to the women laughing by the water-springs; there they will give again the story of the upright acts of the Lord, all the upright acts of his arm in Israel. +Jug 5:12 Awake! awake! Deborah: awake! awake! give a song: Up! Barak, and take prisoner those who took you prisoner, O son of Abinoam. +Jug 5:13 Then the chiefs went down to the doors; the Lord's people went down among the strong ones. +Jug 5:14 Out of Ephraim they came down into the valley; after you, Benjamin, among your tribesmen; from Machir came down the captains, and from Zebulun those in whose hand is the ruler's rod. +Jug 5:15 Your chiefs, Issachar, were with Deborah; and Naphtali was true to Barak; into the valley they went rushing out at his feet. In Reuben there were divisions, and great searchings of heart. +Jug 5:16 Why did you keep quiet among the sheep, hearing nothing but the watchers piping to the flocks? +Jug 5:17 Gilead was living over Jordan; and Dan was waiting in his ships; Asher kept in his place by the sea's edge, living by his inlets. +Jug 5:18 It was the people of Zebulun who put their lives in danger, even to death, with Naphtali on the high places of the field. +Jug 5:19 The kings came on to the fight, the kings of Canaan were warring; in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo: they took no profit in money. +Jug 5:20 The stars from heaven were fighting; from their highways they were fighting against Sisera. +Jug 5:21 The river Kishon took them violently away, stopping their flight, the river Kishon. Give praise, O my soul, to the strength of the Lord! +Jug 5:22 Then loudly the feet of the horses were sounding with the stamping, the stamping of their war-horses. +Jug 5:23 A curse, a curse on Meroz! said the angel of the Lord. A bitter curse on her townspeople! Because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord among the strong ones. +Jug 5:24 Blessings be on Jael, more than on all women! Blessings greater than on any in the tents! +Jug 5:25 His request was for water, she gave him milk; she put butter before him on a fair plate. +Jug 5:26 She put out her hand to the tent-pin, and her right hand to the workman's hammer; and she gave Sisera a blow, crushing his head, wounding and driving through his brow. +Jug 5:27 Bent at her feet he went down, he was stretched out; bent at her feet he went down; where he was bent down, there he went down in death. +Jug 5:28 Looking out from the window she gave a cry, the mother of Sisera was crying out through the window, Why is his carriage so long in coming? When will the noise of his wheels be sounding? +Jug 5:29 Her wise women gave answer to her, yes, she made answer again to herself, +Jug 5:30 Are they not getting, are they not parting the goods among them: a young girl or two to every man; and to Sisera robes of coloured needlework, worked in fair colours on this side and on that, for the neck of the queen? +Jug 5:31 So may destruction come on all your haters, O Lord; but let your lovers be like the sun going out in his strength. And for forty years the land had peace. +Jug 6:1 And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord gave them up into the hand of Midian for seven years. +Jug 6:2 And Midian was stronger than Israel; and because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made holes for themselves in the mountains, and hollows in the rocks, and strong places. +Jug 6:3 And whenever Israel's grain was planted, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came up against them; +Jug 6:4 And put their army in position against them; and they took all the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, till there was no food in Israel, or any sheep or oxen or asses. +Jug 6:5 For they came up regularly with their oxen and their tents; they came like the locusts in number; they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land for its destruction. +Jug 6:6 And Israel was in great need because of Midian; and the cry of the children of Israel went up to the Lord. +Jug 6:7 And when the cry of the children of Israel, because of Midian, came before the Lord, +Jug 6:8 The Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, The Lord the God of Israel, has said, I took you up from Egypt, out of the prison-house; +Jug 6:9 And I took you out of the hands of the Egyptians and out of the hands of all who were cruel to you, and I sent them out by force from before you and gave you their land; +Jug 6:10 And I said to you, I am the Lord your God; you are not to give worship to the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but you did not give ear to my voice. +Jug 6:11 Now the angel of the Lord came and took his seat under the oak-tree in Ophrah, in the field of Joash the Abiezrite; and his son Gideon was crushing grain in the place where the grapes were crushed, so that the Midianites might not see it. +Jug 6:12 And the angel of the Lord came before his eyes, and said to him, The Lord is with you, O man of war. +Jug 6:13 Then Gideon said to him, O my lord, if the Lord is with us why has all this come on us? And where are all his works of power, of which our fathers have given us word, saying, Did not the Lord take us out of Egypt? But now he has given us up, handing us over to the power of Midian. +Jug 6:14 And the Lord, turning to him, said, Go in the strength you have and be Israel's saviour from Midian: have I not sent you? +Jug 6:15 And he said to him, O Lord, how may I be the saviour of Israel? See, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. +Jug 6:16 Then the Lord said to him, Truly, I will be with you, and you will overcome the Midianites as if they were one man. +Jug 6:17 So he said to him, If now I have grace in your eyes, then give me a sign that it is you who are talking to me. +Jug 6:18 Do not go away till I come with my offering and put it before you. And he said, I will not go away before you come back. +Jug 6:19 Then Gideon went in and made ready a young goat, and with an ephah of meal he made unleavened cakes: he put the meat in a basket and the soup in which it had been cooked he put in a pot, and he took it out to him under the oak-tree and gave it to him there. +Jug 6:20 And the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them down on the rock over there, draining out the soup over them. And he did so. +Jug 6:21 Then the angel of the Lord put out the stick which was in his hand, touching the meat and the cakes with the end of it; and a flame came up out of the rock, burning up the meat and the cakes: and the angel of the Lord was seen no longer. +Jug 6:22 Then Gideon was certain that he was the angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, I am in fear, O Lord God! for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. +Jug 6:23 But the Lord said to him, Peace be with you; have no fear: you are in no danger of death. +Jug 6:24 Then Gideon made an altar there to the Lord, and gave it the name Yahweh-shalom; to this day it is in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. +Jug 6:25 The same night the Lord said to him, Take ten men of your servants and an ox seven years old, and after pulling down the altar of Baal which is your father's, and cutting down the holy tree by its side, +Jug 6:26 Make an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this rock, in the ordered way and take the ox and make a burned offering with the wood of the holy tree which has been cut down. +Jug 6:27 Then Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had said to him; but fearing to do it by day, because of his father's people and the men of the town, he did it by night. +Jug 6:28 And the men of the town got up early in the morning, and they saw the altar of Baal broken down, and the holy tree which was by it cut down, and the ox offered on the altar which had been put up there. +Jug 6:29 And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And after searching with care, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, has done this thing. +Jug 6:30 Then the men of the town said to Joash, Make your son come out to be put to death, for pulling down the altar of Baal and cutting down the holy tree which was by it. +Jug 6:31 But Joash said to all those who were attacking him, Will you take up the cause of Baal? will you be his saviour? Let anyone who will take up his cause be put to death while it is still morning: if he is a god, let him take up his cause himself because of the pulling down of his altar. +Jug 6:32 So that day he gave him the name of Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal take up his cause against him because his altar has been broken down. +Jug 6:33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east, banding themselves together, went over and put up their tents in the valley of Jezreel. +Jug 6:34 But the spirit of the Lord came on Gideon; and at the sound of his horn all Abiezer came together after him. +Jug 6:35 And he sent through all Manasseh, and they came after him; and he sent to Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali, and they came up and were joined to the others. +Jug 6:36 Then Gideon said to God, If you are going to give Israel salvation by my hand, as you have said, +Jug 6:37 See, I will put the wool of a sheep on the grain-floor; if there is dew on the wool only, while all the earth is dry, then I will be certain that it is your purpose to give Israel salvation by my hand as you have said. +Jug 6:38 And it was so: for he got up early on the morning after, and twisting the wool in his hands, he got a basin full of water from the dew on the wool. +Jug 6:39 Then Gideon said to God, Do not be moved to wrath against me if I say only this: let me make one more test with the wool; let the wool now be dry, while the earth is covered with dew. +Jug 6:40 And that night God did so; for the wool was dry, and there was dew on all the earth round it. +Jug 7:1 Then Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, and all the people with him, got up early and put up their tents by the side of the water-spring of Harod; the tents of Midian were on the north side of him, under the hill of Moreh in the valley. +Jug 7:2 And the Lord said to Gideon, So great is the number of your people, that if I give the Midianites into their hands they will be uplifted in pride over me and will say, I myself have been my saviour. +Jug 7:3 So now, let it be given out to the people that anyone who is shaking with fear is to go back from Mount Galud. So twenty-two thousand of the people went back, but there were still ten thousand. +Jug 7:4 Then the Lord said to Gideon, There are still more people than is necessary; take them down to the water so that I may put them to the test for you there; then whoever I say is to go with you will go, and whoever I say is not to go will not go. +Jug 7:5 So he took the people down to the water; and the Lord said to Gideon, Put on one side by themselves all those drinking up the water with their tongues like a dog; and in the same way, all those who go down on their knees to the water while drinking. +Jug 7:6 Now the number of those who took up the water with their tongues was three hundred; all the rest of the people went down on their knees to the water. +Jug 7:7 And the Lord said to Gideon, By those three hundred who were drinking with their tongues I will give you salvation and give the Midianites into your hands; let the rest of the people go away, every man to his place. +Jug 7:8 So they took the vessels of the people, and their horns from their hands, and he sent them away, every man to his tent, keeping only the three hundred; and the tents of Midian were lower down in the valley. +Jug 7:9 The same night the Lord said to him, Up! go down now against their army, for I have given them into your hands. +Jug 7:10 But if you have fear of going down, take your servant Purah with you and go down to the tents; +Jug 7:11 And after hearing what they are saying, you will get strength to go down against the army. So he went down with his servant Purah to the outer line of the tents of the armed men. +Jug 7:12 Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east were covering the valley like locusts; and their camels were like the sand by the seaside, without number. +Jug 7:13 When Gideon came there, a man was giving his friend an account of his dream, saying, See, I had a dream about a cake of barley bread which, falling into the tents of Midian, came on to the tent, overturning it so that it was stretched out flat on the earth. +Jug 7:14 And his friend in answer said, This is certainly the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the men of Israel: into their hands God has given up all the army of Midian. +Jug 7:15 Then Gideon, hearing the story of the dream and the sense in which they took it, gave worship; then he went back to the tents of Israel, and said, Up! for the Lord has given the army of Midian into your hands. +Jug 7:16 Then separating the three hundred men into three bands, he gave every man a horn, and a vessel in which was a flaming branch. +Jug 7:17 And he said to them, Keep your eyes on me, and do what I do; when I come to the outer line of tents, whatever I do, you are to do the same. +Jug 7:18 At the sound of my horn, and the horns of those who are with me, let your horns be sounded all round the tents, and say, For the Lord and for Gideon. +Jug 7:19 So Gideon and the three hundred men who were with him came to the outer line of tents, at the start of the middle watch, when the watchmen had only then taken their stations; and the horns were sounded and the vessels broken. +Jug 7:20 So the three bands all gave a loud note on their horns, and when the vessels had been broken, they took the flaming branches in their left hands, and the horns in their right hands ready for blowing, crying out, For the Lord and for Gideon. +Jug 7:21 Then they made a line round the tents, every man in his place; and all the army, awaking from sleep, came running out, and with loud cries went in flight. +Jug 7:22 And the three hundred gave a loud note on their horns, and every man's sword was turned by the Lord against his brother all through the army; and the army went in flight as far as Beth-shittah in the direction of Zeredah, to the edge of Abel-meholah by Tabbath. +Jug 7:23 And the men of Israel came together from Naphtali and from Asher and all Manasseh, and went after Midian. +Jug 7:24 Then Gideon sent through all the hill-country of Ephraim saying, Come down against Midian, and keep the ways across Jordan before they come. So all the men of Ephraim, massing themselves together, kept the ways across Jordan. +Jug 7:25 And they took the two chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they put Oreb to death at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they put to death at the place of the grape-crushing in Zeeb, and they went after Midian; but the heads of Oreb and Zeeb they took across Jordan to Gideon. +Jug 8:1 And the men of Ephraim came and said to him, Why did you not send for us when you went to war against Midian? And they said sharp and angry words to him. +Jug 8:2 And he said to them, What have I done in comparison with you? Is not that which Ephraim took up after the grape-cutting better than all the grapes which Abiezer got in from the grape-cutting? +Jug 8:3 God has given into your hands the chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; what have I been able to do in comparison with you? And when he said this, their feeling about him became kinder. +Jug 8:4 Then Gideon came to Jordan and went over it with his three hundred, overcome with weariness and in need of food. +Jug 8:5 And he said to the men of Succoth, Give bread cakes to my people, for they are overcome with weariness, and I am going on after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. +Jug 8:6 But the chiefs of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna even now in your hand that we are to give bread to your army? +Jug 8:7 Then Gideon said, Because of this, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I will have you stretched on a bed of thorns of the waste land and on sharp stems, and have you crushed as grain is crushed on a grain-floor. +Jug 8:8 So he went up from there to Penuel and made the same request to the men of Penuel; but they gave him the same answer as the men of Succoth had given. +Jug 8:9 So he said to the men of Penuel, When I come back in peace, I will have this tower broken down. +Jug 8:10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, those of all the army of the children of the east who were still living; for a hundred and twenty thousand of their swordsmen had been put to death. +Jug 8:11 And Gideon went up by the way used by the people living in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and made an attack on the army when they had no thought of danger. +Jug 8:12 And Zebah and Zalmunna went in flight; and he went after them, and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and put all the army to the curse. +Jug 8:13 Then Gideon, the son of Joash, went back from the fight: +Jug 8:14 And taking prisoner a young man of the people of Succoth, he got from him, in answer to his questions, a list of the chiefs of Succoth and the responsible men, seventy-seven men. +Jug 8:15 So he came to the men of Succoth and said, Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, on account of whom you made sport of me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna even now in your hand, that we are to give bread to your army who are overcome with weariness? +Jug 8:16 Then he took the responsible men of the town and had them crushed on a bed of thorns and sharp stems. +Jug 8:17 And he had the tower of Penuel broken down and the men of the town put to death. +Jug 8:18 Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, Where are the men whom you put to death at Tabor? And they gave answer, As you are, so were they; every one of them was like a king's son. +Jug 8:19 And he said, They were my brothers, my mother's sons: by the life of the Lord, if you had kept them safe, I would not put you to death. +Jug 8:20 Then he said to Jether, his oldest son, Up! Put them to death. But the boy did not take out his sword, fearing because he was still a boy. +Jug 8:21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Up! Put an end to us yourself: for you have a man's strength. Then Gideon got up and put Zebah and Zalmunna to death and took the ornaments which were on their camels' necks. +Jug 8:22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Be our ruler, you and your son and your son's son after him; for you have been our saviour from the hands of Midian. +Jug 8:23 But Gideon said to them, I will not be a ruler over you, and my son will not be a ruler over you: it is the Lord who will be ruler over you. +Jug 8:24 Then Gideon said to them, I have a request to make to you; let every man give me the ear-rings he has taken. (For they had gold ear-rings, because they were Ishmaelites.) +Jug 8:25 And they gave answer, We will gladly give them. So they put down a robe, every man dropping into it the ear-rings he had taken. +Jug 8:26 The weight of the gold ear-rings which he got from them was one thousand, seven hundred shekels of gold; in addition to the moon-ornaments and jewels and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and the chains on their camels' necks. +Jug 8:27 And Gideon made an ephod from them and put it up in his town Ophrah; and all Israel went after it there and were false to the Lord; and it became a cause of sin to Gideon and his house. +Jug 8:28 So Midian was broken before the children of Israel and the Midianites never got back their strength. And the land had peace for forty years, in the days of Gideon. +Jug 8:29 And Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went back to his house and was living there. +Jug 8:30 Gideon had seventy sons, the offspring of his body; for he had a number of wives. +Jug 8:31 And the servant-wife he had in Shechem had a son by him, to whom he gave the name Abimelech. +Jug 8:32 And Gideon, the son of Joash, came to his end when he was very old, and his body was put in the resting-place of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. +Jug 8:33 And after the death of Gideon, the children of Israel again went after the gods of Canaan and were false to the Lord, and made Baal-berith their god. +Jug 8:34 And the children of Israel did not keep in their minds the Lord their God, who had been their saviour from all their haters on every side; +Jug 8:35 And they were not kind to the house of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, in reward for all the good he had done to Israel. +Jug 9:1 Now Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, went to Shechem to his mother's family, and said to them and to all the family of his mother's father, +Jug 9:2 Say now in the ears of all the townsmen of Shechem, Is it better for you to be ruled by all the seventy sons of Jerubbaal or by one man only? And keep in mind that I am your bone and your flesh. +Jug 9:3 So his mother's family said all this about him in the ears of all the townsmen of Shechem: and their hearts were turned to Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother. +Jug 9:4 And they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the house of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech got the support of a number of uncontrolled and good-for-nothing persons. +Jug 9:5 Then he went to his father's house at Ophrah, and put his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, to death on the same stone; however, Jotham, the youngest, kept himself safe by going away to a secret place. +Jug 9:6 And all the townsmen of Shechem and all Beth-millo came together and went and made Abimelech their king, by the oak of the pillar in Shechem. +Jug 9:7 Now Jotham, on hearing of it, went to the top of Mount Gerizim, and crying out with a loud voice said to them, Give ear to me, you townsmen of Shechem, so that God may give ear to you. +Jug 9:8 One day the trees went out to make a king for themselves; and they said to the olive-tree, Be king over us. +Jug 9:9 But the olive-tree said to them, Am I to give up my wealth of oil, by which men give honour to God, and go waving over the trees? +Jug 9:10 Then the trees said to the fig-tree, You come and be king over us. +Jug 9:11 But the fig-tree said to them, Am I to give up my sweet taste and my good fruit and go waving over the trees? +Jug 9:12 Then the trees said to the vine, You come and be king over us. +Jug 9:13 But the vine said to them, Am I to give up my wine, which makes glad God and men, to go waving over the trees? +Jug 9:14 Then all the trees said to the thorn, You come and be king over us. +Jug 9:15 And the thorn said to the trees, If it is truly your desire to make me your king, then come and put your faith in my shade; and if not, may fire come out of the thorn, burning up the cedars of Lebanon. +Jug 9:16 So now, if you have done truly and uprightly in making Abimelech king, and if you have done well to Jerubbaal and his house in reward for the work of his hands; +Jug 9:17 (For my father made war for you, and put his life in danger, and made you free from the hands of Midian; +Jug 9:18 And you have gone against my father's family this day, and have put to death his sons, even seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his servant-wife, king over the townsmen of Shechem because he is your brother;) +Jug 9:19 If then you have done what is true and upright to Jerubbaal and his family this day, may you have joy in Abimelech, and may he have joy in you; +Jug 9:20 But if not, may fire come out from Abimelech, burning up the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo; and may fire come out from the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo, for the destruction of Abimelech. +Jug 9:21 Then Jotham straight away went in flight to Beer, and was living there for fear of his brother Abimelech. +Jug 9:22 So Abimelech was chief over Israel for three years. +Jug 9:23 And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the townsmen of Shechem; and the townsmen of Shechem were false to Abimelech; +Jug 9:24 So that punishment for the violent attack made on the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, and for their blood, might come on Abimelech, their brother, who put them to death, and on the townsmen of Shechem who gave him their help in putting his brothers to death. +Jug 9:25 And the townsmen of Shechem put secret watchers on the tops of the mountains, and they made attacks on all who went by on the road and took their goods; and word of this came to Abimelech. +Jug 9:26 Then Gaal, the son of Ebed, came with his brothers, and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their faith in him. +Jug 9:27 And they went out into their fields and got in the fruit of their vines, and when the grapes had been crushed, they made a holy feast and went into the house of their god, and over their food and drink they were cursing Abimelech. +Jug 9:28 And Gaal, the son of Ebed, said, Who is Abimelech and who is Shechem, that we are to be his servants? Is it not right for the son of Jerubbaal and Zebul his captain to be servants to the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem? But why are we to be his servants? +Jug 9:29 If only I had authority over this people! I would put Abimelech out of the way, and I would say to Abimelech, Make your army strong, and come out. +Jug 9:30 Now Zebul, the ruler of the town, hearing what Gaal, the son of Ebed, had said, was moved to wrath. +Jug 9:31 And he sent to Abimelech at Arumah, saying, See, Gaal, the son of Ebed, and his brothers have come to Shechem, and they are working up the town against you. +Jug 9:32 So now, get up by night, you and your people, and keep watch in the field secretly; +Jug 9:33 And in the morning, when the sun is up, get up early and make a rush on the town; and when he and his people come out against you, do to them whatever you have a chance to do. +Jug 9:34 So Abimelech and the people with him got up by night, in four bands, to make a surprise attack on Shechem. +Jug 9:35 And Gaal, the son of Ebed, went out, and took his place at the doorway into the town; then Abimelech and his people got up from the place where they had been waiting. +Jug 9:36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, See! people are coming down from the tops of the mountains. And Zebul said to him, You see the shade of the mountains like men. +Jug 9:37 And Gaal said again, See! people are coming down from the middle of the land, and one band is coming by way of the oak-tree of the Seers. +Jug 9:38 Then Zebul said to him, Now where is your loud talk when you said, Who is Abimelech that we are to be his servants? Is this not the people whom you were rating so low? Go out now, and make war on them. +Jug 9:39 So Gaal went out at the head of the townsmen of Shechem and made war on Abimelech. +Jug 9:40 And Abimelech went after him and he went in flight before him; and a great number were falling by the sword all the way up to the town. +Jug 9:41 Then Abimelech went back to Arumah; and Zebul sent Gaal and his brothers away and would not let them go on living in Shechem. +Jug 9:42 Now the day after, the people went out into the fields; and news of it came to Abimelech. +Jug 9:43 And he took his people, separating them into three bands, and was waiting secretly in the field; and when he saw the people coming out of the town, he went up and made an attack on them. +Jug 9:44 And Abimelech with his band made a rush, and took up their position at the doorway into the town; and the other two bands made a rush on all those who were in the fields, and overcame them. +Jug 9:45 And all that day Abimelech was fighting against the town; and he took it, and put to death the people who were in it, and had the town pulled down and covered with salt. +Jug 9:46 Then all the townsmen of the tower of Shechem, hearing of it, went into the inner room of the house of El-berith. +Jug 9:47 And word was given to Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were there together. +Jug 9:48 Then Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, with all his people; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and, cutting down branches of trees, took them and put them on his back. And he said to the people who were with him, Be quick and do as you have seen me do. +Jug 9:49 So all the people got branches, every man cutting down a branch, and they went with Abimelech at their head and, massing the branches against the inner room, put fire to the room over them; so all those who were in the tower of Shechem, about a thousand men and women, were burned to death with it. +Jug 9:50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and put his army in position against Thebez and took it. +Jug 9:51 But in the middle of the town there was a strong tower, to which all the men and women of the town went in flight and, shutting themselves in, went up to the roof of the tower. +Jug 9:52 And Abimelech came to the tower and made an attack on it, and got near to the door of the tower for the purpose of firing it. +Jug 9:53 But a certain woman sent a great stone, such as is used for crushing grain, on to the head of Abimelech, cracking the bone. +Jug 9:54 Then quickly crying out to his body-servant, he said to him, Take out your sword and put an end to me straight away, so that men may not say of me, His death was the work of a woman. So the young man put his sword through him, causing his death. +Jug 9:55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they went away, every man to his place. +Jug 9:56 In this way Abimelech was rewarded by God for the evil he had done to his father in putting his seventy brothers to death; +Jug 9:57 And God sent back on to the heads of the men of Shechem all the evil they had done, and the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal, came on them. +Jug 10:1 Now after Abimelech, Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, became the saviour of Israel; he was living in Shamir in the hill-country of Ephraim. +Jug 10:2 He was judge over Israel for twenty-three years; and at his death his body was put to rest in the earth in Shamir. +Jug 10:3 And after him came Jair the Gileadite, who was judge over Israel for twenty-two years. +Jug 10:4 And he had thirty sons, who went on thirty young asses; and they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which are named Havvoth-Jair to this day. +Jug 10:5 And at the death of Jair his body was put to rest in the earth in Kamon. +Jug 10:6 And again the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, worshipping the Baals and Astartes, and the gods of Aram and the gods of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines; they gave up the Lord and were servants to him no longer. +Jug 10:7 And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon. +Jug 10:8 And that year the children of Israel were crushed under their yoke; for eighteen years all the children of Israel on the other side of Jordan, in the land of the Amorites which is in Gilead, were cruelly crushed down. +Jug 10:9 And the children of Ammon went over Jordan, to make war against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was in great trouble. +Jug 10:10 Then the children of Israel, crying out to the Lord, said, Great is our sin against you, for we have given up our God and have been servants to the Baals. +Jug 10:11 And the Lord said to the children of Israel, Were not the Egyptians and the Amorites and the children of Ammon and the Philistines +Jug 10:12 And the Zidonians and Amalek and Midian crushing you down, and in answer to your cry did I not give you salvation from their hands? +Jug 10:13 But, for all this, you have given me up and have been servants to other gods: so I will be your saviour no longer. +Jug 10:14 Go, send up your cry for help to the gods of your selection; let them be your saviours in the time of your trouble. +Jug 10:15 And the children of Israel said to the Lord, We are sinners; do to us whatever seems good to you: only give us salvation this day. +Jug 10:16 So they put away the strange gods from among them, and became the Lord's servants; and his soul was angry because of the sorrows of Israel. +Jug 10:17 Then the children of Ammon came together and put their army in position in Gilead. And the children of Israel came together and put their army in position in Mizpah. +Jug 10:18 And the people of Israel said to one another, Who will be the first to make an attack on the children of Ammon? We will make him head over all Gilead. +Jug 11:1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a great man of war; he was the son of a loose woman, and Gilead was his father. +Jug 11:2 And Gilead's wife gave birth to sons, and when her sons became men, they sent Jephthah away, saying, You have no part in the heritage of our father's house, for you are the son of another woman. +Jug 11:3 So Jephthah went in flight from his brothers and was living in the land of Tob, where a number of good-for-nothing men, joining Jephthah, went out with him on his undertakings. +Jug 11:4 Now after a time the children of Ammon made war against Israel. +Jug 11:5 And when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the responsible men of Gilead went to get Jephthah back from the land of Tob; +Jug 11:6 And they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief so that we may make war against the children of Ammon. +Jug 11:7 But Jephthah said to the responsible men of Gilead, Did you not, in your hate for me, send me away from my father's house? Why do you come to me now when you are in trouble? +Jug 11:8 And the responsible men of Gilead said to Jephthah, That is the reason we have come back to you; so go with us and make war against the children of Ammon, and we will make you our head over all the people of Gilead. +Jug 11:9 Then Jephthah said to the responsible men of Gilead, If you take me back to make war against the children of Ammon, and if with the help of the Lord I overcome them, will you make me your head? +Jug 11:10 And the responsible men of Gilead said to Jephthah, May the Lord be our witness: we will certainly do as you say. +Jug 11:11 So Jephthah went with the responsible men of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them; and Jephthah said all these things before the Lord in Mizpah. +Jug 11:12 Then Jephthah sent men to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you against me that you have come to make war against my land? +Jug 11:13 And the king of the children of Ammon said to the men sent by Jephthah, Because Israel, when he came up out of Egypt, took away my land, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and as far as Jordan: so now, give me back those lands quietly. +Jug 11:14 And Jephthah sent again to the king of the children of Ammon, +Jug 11:15 And said to him, This is the word of Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the children of Ammon; +Jug 11:16 But when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the waste land to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh; +Jug 11:17 Then Israel sent men to the king of Edom saying, Let me now go through your land; but the king of Edom did not give ear to them. And in the same way he sent to the king of Moab, but he would not; so Israel went on living in Kadesh. +Jug 11:18 Then he went on through the waste land and round the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and put up their tents on the other side of the Arnon; they did not come inside the limit of Moab, for the Arnon was the limit of Moab. +Jug 11:19 And Israel sent men to Sihon, king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let me now go through your land to my place. +Jug 11:20 But Sihon would not give way and let Israel go through his land; and Sihon got together all his people, and put his army in position in Jahaz, and made war on Israel. +Jug 11:21 And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hands of Israel, and they overcame them; so all the land of the Amorites, the people of that land, became Israel's. +Jug 11:22 All the limit of the Amorites was theirs, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and from the waste land even to Jordan. +Jug 11:23 So now the Lord, the God of Israel, has taken away their land from the Amorites and given it to his people Israel; are you then to have it? +Jug 11:24 Do you not keep the lands of those whom Chemosh your god sends out from before you? So we will keep all the lands of those whom the Lord our God sends out from before us. +Jug 11:25 What! are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever take up a cause against Israel or make war against them? +Jug 11:26 While Israel was living in Heshbon and its daughter-towns and in Aroer and its daughter-towns and in all the towns which are by the side of the Arnon, for three hundred years, why did you not get them back at that time? +Jug 11:27 So I have done no wrong against you, but you are doing wrong to me in fighting against me: may the Lord, who is Judge this day, be judge between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. +Jug 11:28 The king of the children of Ammon, however, did not give ear to the words which Jephthah sent to him. +Jug 11:29 Then the spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, and he went through Gilead and Manasseh, and came to Mizpeh of Gilead; and from Mizpeh of Gilead he went over to the children of Ammon. +Jug 11:30 And Jephthah took an oath to the Lord, and said, If you will give the children of Ammon into my hands, +Jug 11:31 Then whoever comes out from the door of my house, meeting me when I come back in peace from the children of Ammon, will be the Lord's and I will give him as a burned offering. +Jug 11:32 So Jephthah went over to the children of Ammon to make war on them; and the Lord gave them into his hands. +Jug 11:33 And he made an attack on them from Aroer all the way to Minnith, overrunning twenty towns, as far as Abel-cheramim, and put great numbers to the sword. So the children of Ammon were crushed before the children of Israel. +Jug 11:34 Then Jephthah came back to his house in Mizpah, and his daughter came out, meeting him on his way with music and with dances; she was his only child; he had no other sons or daughters. +Jug 11:35 And when he saw her he was overcome with grief, and said, Ah! my daughter! I am crushed with sorrow, and it is you who are the chief cause of my trouble; for I have made an oath to the Lord and I may not take it back. +Jug 11:36 And she said to him, My father, you have made an oath to the Lord; do then to me whatever you have said; for the Lord has sent a full reward on your haters, on the children of Ammon. +Jug 11:37 Then she said to her father, Only do this for me: let me have two months to go away into the mountains with my friends, weeping for my sad fate. +Jug 11:38 And he said, Go then. So he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends to the mountains, weeping for her sad fate. +Jug 11:39 And at the end of two months she went back to her father, who did with her as he had said in his oath: and she had never been touched by a man. So it became a rule in Israel, +Jug 11:40 For the women to go year by year sorrowing for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in every year. +Jug 12:1 Now the men of Ephraim came together and took up arms and went over to Zaphon; and they said to Jephthah, Why did you go over to make war against the children of Ammon without sending for us to go with you? Now we will put your house on fire over you. +Jug 12:2 And Jephthah said to them, I and my people were in danger, and the children of Ammon were very cruel to us, and when I sent for you, you gave me no help against them. +Jug 12:3 So when I saw that there was no help to be had from you, I put my life in my hand and went over against the children of Ammon, and the Lord gave them into my hands: why then have you come up to me this day to make war on me? +Jug 12:4 Then Jephthah got together all the men of Gilead and made war on Ephraim; and the men of Gilead overcame Ephraim. +Jug 12:5 And the Gileadites took the crossing-places of Jordan against the Ephraimites; and when any of the men of Ephraim who had gone in flight said, let me go over; the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? And if he said, No; +Jug 12:6 Then they said to him, Now say Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth, and was not able to say it in the right way; then they took him and put him to death at the crossing-places of Jordan; and at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites were put to death. +Jug 12:7 Now Jephthah was judge of Israel for six years. And Jephthah the Gileadite came to his death, and his body was put to rest in his town, Mizpeh of Gilead. +Jug 12:8 And after him, Ibzan of Beth-lehem was judge of Israel. +Jug 12:9 He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters whom he sent to other places, and he got thirty wives from other places for his sons. And he was judge of Israel for seven years. +Jug 12:10 And Ibzan came to his death and his body was put to rest at Beth-lehem. +Jug 12:11 And after him, Elon the Zebulonite was judge of Israel; and he was judge of Israel for ten years. +Jug 12:12 And Elon the Zebulonite came to his death, and his body was put to rest in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. +Jug 12:13 And after him, Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite, was judge of Israel. +Jug 12:14 He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons who went on seventy young asses; and he was judge of Israel for eight years. +Jug 12:15 And Abdon, the son of Hillel, came to his death, and his body was put to rest in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill-country of the Amalekites. +Jug 13:1 And the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. +Jug 13:2 Now there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, and his name was Manoah; and his wife had never given birth to a child. +Jug 13:3 And the angel of the Lord came to the woman, and said to her, See now! though you have never given birth to children, you will be with child and give birth to a son. +Jug 13:4 Now then take care to have no wine or strong drink and to take no unclean thing for food; +Jug 13:5 For you are with child and will give birth to a son; his hair is never to be cut, for the child is to be separate to God from his birth; and he will take up the work of freeing Israel from the hands of the Philistines. +Jug 13:6 Then the woman came in, and said to her husband, A man came to me, and his form was like the form of a god, causing great fear; I put no question to him about where he came from, and he did not give me his name; +Jug 13:7 But he said to me, You are with child and will give birth to a son; and now do not take any wine or strong drink or let anything unclean be your food; for the child will be separate to God from his birth to the day of his death. +Jug 13:8 Then Manoah made prayer to the Lord, and said, O Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and make clear to us what we are to do for the child who is to come. +Jug 13:9 And God gave ear to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came to the woman again when she was seated in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. +Jug 13:10 So the woman, running quickly, gave her husband the news, saying, I have seen the man who came to me the other day. +Jug 13:11 And Manoah got up and went after his wife, and came up to the man and said to him, Are you the man who was talking to this woman? And he said, I am. +Jug 13:12 And Manoah said, Now when your words come true, what is to be the rule for the child and what will be his work? +Jug 13:13 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Let the woman take note of what I have said to her. +Jug 13:14 She is to have nothing which comes from the vine for her food, and let her take no wine or strong drink or anything which is unclean; let her take care to do all I have given her orders to do. +Jug 13:15 And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Now let us keep you while we make ready a young goat for you. +Jug 13:16 And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Though you keep me I will not take of your food; but if you will make a burned offering, let it be offered to the Lord. For it had not come into Manoah's mind that he was the angel of the Lord. +Jug 13:17 Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name, so that when your words come true we may give you honour? +Jug 13:18 But the angel of the Lord said to him, Why are you questioning me about my name, seeing that it is a wonder? +Jug 13:19 So Manoah took the young goat with its meal offering, offering it on the rock to the Lord, who did strange things. +Jug 13:20 And when the flame went up to heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar, while Manoah and his wife were looking on; and they went down on their faces to the earth. +Jug 13:21 But the angel of the Lord was seen no more by Manoah and his wife. Then it was clear to Manoah that he was the angel of the Lord. +Jug 13:22 And Manoah said to his wife, Death will certainly be our fate, for it is a god whom we have seen. +Jug 13:23 But his wife said to him, If the Lord was purposing our death, he would not have taken our burned offering and our meal offering, or have given us such orders about the child. +Jug 13:24 So the woman gave birth to a son, and gave him the name Samson; and he became a man and the blessing of the Lord was on him. +Jug 13:25 And the spirit of the Lord first came on him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. +Jug 14:1 Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines; +Jug 14:2 And when he came back he said to his father and mother, I have seen a woman in Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines: get her now for me for my wife. +Jug 14:3 Then his father and mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your relations or among all my people, that you have to go for your wife to the Philistines, who are without circumcision? But Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she is pleasing to me. +Jug 14:4 Now his father and mother had no knowledge that this was the purpose of the Lord, who had the destruction of the Philistines in mind. Now the Philistines at that time were ruling over Israel. +Jug 14:5 Then Samson went down to Timnah (and his father and his mother,) and came to the vine-gardens of Timnah; and a young lion came rushing out at him. +Jug 14:6 And the spirit of the Lord came on him with power, and, unarmed as he was, pulling the lion in two as one might do to a young goat, he put him to death; (but he said nothing to his father and mother of what he had done.) +Jug 14:7 So he went down and had talk with the woman; and she was pleasing to Samson. +Jug 14:8 Then after a time he went back to take her; and turning from the road to see the dead body of the lion, he saw a mass of bees in the body of the lion, and honey there. +Jug 14:9 And he took the honey in his hand, and went on, tasting it on the way; and when he came to his father and mother he gave some to them; but did not say that he had taken the honey from the body of the lion. +Jug 14:10 Then Samson went down to the woman, and made a feast there, as was the way among young men. +Jug 14:11 And he took thirty friends, and they were with him. +Jug 14:12 And Samson said, Now I have a hard question for you: if you are able to give me the answer before the seven days of the feast are over, I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty changes of clothing; +Jug 14:13 But if you are not able to give me the answer, then you will have to give me thirty linen robes and thirty changes of clothing. And they said to him, Put your hard question and let us see what it is. +Jug 14:14 And he said, Out of the taker of food came food, and out of the strong came the sweet. And at the end of three days they were still not able to give the answer. +Jug 14:15 So on the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, Get from your husband the answer to his question by some trick or other, or we will have you and your father's house burned with fire; did you get us here to take all we have? +Jug 14:16 Then Samson's wife, weeping over him, said, Truly you have no love for me but only hate; you have put a hard question to the children of my people and have not given me the answer. And he said to her, See, I have not given the answer even to my father or my mother; am I to give it to you? +Jug 14:17 And all the seven days of the feast she went on weeping over him; and on the seventh day he gave her the answer, because she gave him no peace; and she sent word of it to the children of her people. +Jug 14:18 Then on the seventh day, before he went into the bride's room, the men of the town said to him, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If you had not been ploughing with my cow you would not have got the answer to my question. +Jug 14:19 And the spirit of the Lord came rushing on him, and he went down to Ashkelon and, attacking thirty men there, took their clothing from them, and gave it to the men who had given the answer to his hard question. Then, full of wrath, he went back to his father's house. +Jug 14:20 But Samson's wife was given to the friend who had been his best man. +Jug 15:1 Now a short time after, at the time of the grain-cutting, Samson, taking with him a young goat, went to see his wife; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the bride's room. But her father would not let him go in. +Jug 15:2 And her father said, It seemed to me that you had only hate for her; so I gave her to your friend: but is not her younger sister fairer than she? so please take her in place of the other. +Jug 15:3 Then Samson said to them, This time I will give payment in full to the Philistines, for I am going to do them great evil. +Jug 15:4 So Samson went and got three hundred foxes and some sticks of fire-wood; and he put the foxes tail to tail with a stick between every two tails; +Jug 15:5 Then firing the sticks, he let the foxes loose among the uncut grain of the Philistines, and all the corded stems as well as the living grain and the vine-gardens and the olives went up in flames. +Jug 15:6 Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his friend. So the Philistines came up and had her and her father's house burned. +Jug 15:7 And Samson said to them, If you go on like this, truly I will take my full payment from you; and that will be the end of it. +Jug 15:8 And he made an attack on them, driving them in uncontrolled flight, and causing great destruction; then he went away to his safe place in the crack of the rock at Etam. +Jug 15:9 Then the Philistines went and put up their tents in Judah, all round Lehi. +Jug 15:10 And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? And they said, We have come up to take Samson, and to do to him as he has done to us. +Jug 15:11 Then three thousand of the men of Judah went down to the crack of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, Is it not clear to you that the Philistines are our rulers? What is this you have done to us? And he said to them, I only did to them as they did to me. +Jug 15:12 Then they said to him, We have come down to take you and give you up into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Give me your oath that you will not make an attack on me yourselves. +Jug 15:13 And they said, No; we will take you and give you up into their hands, but truly we will not put you to death. So knotting two new cords round him they took him up from the rock. +Jug 15:14 And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines came out, meeting him with loud cries; then the spirit of the Lord came rushing on him, and the cords on his arms became like grass which has been burned with fire, and the bands came falling off his hands. +Jug 15:15 And taking up the mouth-bone of an ass newly dead, which he saw by chance on the earth, he put to death a thousand men with it. +Jug 15:16 And Samson said, With a red ass's mouth-bone I have made them red with blood, with a red ass's mouth-bone I have sent destruction on a thousand men. +Jug 15:17 And having said these words, he let the mouth-bone go out of his hand; so that place was named Ramath-lehi. +Jug 15:18 After this, he was in great need of water, and crying out to the Lord, he said, You have given this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and now need of water will be my death; and I will be given into the hands of this people who are without circumcision. +Jug 15:19 Then God made a crack in the hollow rock in Lehi and water came out of it; and after drinking, his spirit came back to him and he was strong again; so that place was named En-hakkore; it is in Lehi to this day. +Jug 15:20 And he was judge of Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years. +Jug 16:1 Now Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a loose woman and went in to her. +Jug 16:2 And it was said to the Gazites, Samson is here. So they went round, watching for him all day at the doorway of the town, but at night they kept quiet, saying, When daylight comes we will put him to death. +Jug 16:3 And Samson was there till the middle of the night; then he got up, and took a grip on the doors of the town, pulling them up, together with their two supports and their locks, and put them on his back and took them up to the top of the hill in front of Hebron. +Jug 16:4 Now after this, he was in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, named Delilah. +Jug 16:5 And the chiefs of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Make use of your power over him and see what is the secret of his great strength, and how we may get the better of him, and put bands on him, so that we may make him feeble; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver. +Jug 16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, Make clear to me now what is the secret of your great strength, and how you may be put in bands and made feeble. +Jug 16:7 And Samson said to her, If seven new bow-cords which have never been made dry are knotted round me, I will become feeble and will be like any other man. +Jug 16:8 So the chiefs of the Philistines gave her seven new bow-cords which had never been made dry, and she had them tightly knotted round him. +Jug 16:9 Now she had men waiting secretly in the inner room; and she said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. And the cords were broken by him as a twist of thread is broken when touched by a flame. So the secret of his strength did not come to light. +Jug 16:10 Then Delilah said to Samson, See, you have been making sport of me with false words; now, say truly how may you be put in bands? +Jug 16:11 And he said to her, If they only put round me new thick cords which have never been used, then I will become feeble and will be like any other man. +Jug 16:12 So Delilah took new thick cords, knotting them tightly round him, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. And men were waiting secretly in the inner room. And the cords were broken off his arms like threads. +Jug 16:13 Then Delilah said to Samson, Up to now you have made sport of me with false words; now say truly, how may you be put in bands? And he said to her, If you get the seven twists of my hair worked into the cloth you are making and fixed with the pin, I will become feeble and will be like any other man. +Jug 16:14 So while he was sleeping she got the seven twists of his hair worked into her cloth and fixed with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. Then awaking from his sleep, he got up quickly, pulling up cloth and machine together. +Jug 16:15 And she said to him, Why do you say you are my lover when your heart is not mine? Three times you have made sport of me, and have not made clear to me the secret of your great strength. +Jug 16:16 So day after day she gave him no peace, for ever questioning him till his soul was troubled to death. +Jug 16:17 And opening all his heart to her, he said to her, My head has never been touched by a blade, for I have been separate to God from the day of my birth: if my hair is cut off, then my strength will go from me and I will become feeble, and will be like any other man. +Jug 16:18 And when Delilah saw that he had let her see into his heart, she sent word to the chiefs of the Philistines saying, Come up this time, for he has let out all his heart to me. Then the chiefs of the Philistines came to her, with the money in their hands. +Jug 16:19 And she made him go to sleep on her knees; and she sent for a man and had his seven twists of hair cut off; and while it was being done he became feeble and his strength went from him. +Jug 16:20 Then she said, The Philistines are on you, Samson. And awaking from his sleep, he said, I will go out as at other times, shaking myself free. But he was not conscious that the Lord had gone from him. +Jug 16:21 So the Philistines took him and put out his eyes; then they took him down to Gaza, and, chaining him with bands of brass, put him to work crushing grain in the prison-house. +Jug 16:22 But the growth of his hair was starting again after it had been cut off. +Jug 16:23 And the chiefs of the Philistines came together to make a great offering to Dagon their god, and to be glad; for they said, Our god has given into our hands Samson our hater. +Jug 16:24 And when the people saw him, they gave praise to their god; for they said, Our god has given into our hands the one who was fighting against us, who made our country waste, and who put great numbers of us to death. +Jug 16:25 Now when their hearts were full of joy, they said, Send for Samson to make sport for us. And they sent for Samson out of the prison-house, and he made sport before them; and they put him between the pillars. +Jug 16:26 And Samson said to the boy who took him by the hand, Let me put my hand on the pillars supporting the house, so that I may put my back against them. +Jug 16:27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and about three thousand men and women were on the roof, looking on while Samson made sport. +Jug 16:28 And Samson, crying out to the Lord, said, O Lord God, do have me now in mind, and do make me strong only this once, O God, so that I may take one last payment from the Philistines for my two eyes. +Jug 16:29 Then Samson put his arms round the two middle pillars supporting the house, putting his weight on them, on one with his right hand and on the other with his left. +Jug 16:30 And Samson said, Let death overtake me with the Philistines. And he put out all his strength, and the house came down on the chiefs and on all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he sent to destruction by his death were more than all those on whom he had sent destruction in his life. +Jug 16:31 Then his brothers and his father's people came down and took him up and put his body to rest in the earth between Zorah and Eshtaol in the resting-place of Manoah his father. And he had been judge of Israel for twenty years. +Jug 17:1 Now there was a man of the hill-country of Ephraim named Micah. +Jug 17:2 And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver which were taken from you, about which you took an oath and said in my hearing, I have given this silver to the Lord from my hand for myself, to make a pictured image and a metal image: see, I have the silver, for I took it: so now I will give it back to you. And his mother said, May the blessing of the Lord be on my son. +Jug 17:3 And he gave back the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, and his mother said, I have made the silver holy to the Lord from me for my son, to make a pictured image and a metal image. +Jug 17:4 So he gave the silver back to his mother. Then his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a metal-worker who made a pictured image and a metal image from them: and it was in the house of Micah. +Jug 17:5 And the man Micah had a house of gods; and he made an ephod and family gods and put one of his sons in the position of priest. +Jug 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did as seemed right to him. +Jug 17:7 Now there was a young man living in Beth-lehem-judah, of the family of Judah and a Levite, who was not a townsman of the place. +Jug 17:8 And he went away from the town of Beth-lehem-judah, looking for somewhere to make his living-place; and on his journey he came to the hill-country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah. +Jug 17:9 And Micah said to him, Where do you come from? And he said to him, I am a Levite from Beth-lehem-judah, and I am looking for a living-place. +Jug 17:10 Then Micah said to him, Make your living-place with me, and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver a year and your clothing and food. +Jug 17:11 And the Levite said he would make his living-place with the man, and he became to him as one of his sons. +Jug 17:12 And Micah gave the position to the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. +Jug 17:13 Then Micah said, Now I am certain that the Lord will do me good, seeing that the Levite has become my priest. +Jug 18:1 In those days there was no king in Israel, and in those days the Danites were looking for a heritage for themselves, to be their living-place; for up to that time no distribution of land had been made to them among the tribes of Israel. +Jug 18:2 So the children of Dan sent five men from among their number, strong men, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to take a look at the land and make a search through it; and they said to them, Go and make a search through the land; and they came to the hill-country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, where they made a stop for the night. +Jug 18:3 When they were near the house of Micah, hearing a voice which was not strange to them, that of the young Levite, they went out of their road to his place, and said to him, How did you come here? and what are you doing in this place? and why are you here? +Jug 18:4 And he said to them, This is what Micah did for me, and he gave me payment and I became his priest. +Jug 18:5 Then they said, Do get directions from God for us, to see if the journey on which we are going will have a good outcome. +Jug 18:6 And the priest said to them, Go in peace: your way is guided by the Lord. +Jug 18:7 Then the five men went on their way and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, living without thought of danger, like the Zidonians, quiet and safe; for they had everything on earth for their needs, and they were far from the Zidonians and had no business with Aram. +Jug 18:8 So they came back to their brothers in Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brothers said to them, What news have you? +Jug 18:9 And they said, Up! and let us go against Laish; for we have seen the land, and it is very good: why are you doing nothing? Do not be slow to go in and take the land for your heritage. +Jug 18:10 When you come there you will come to a people living without thought of danger; and the land is wide, and God has given it into your hands: a place where there is everything on earth for man's needs. +Jug 18:11 So six hundred men of the Danites from Zorah and Eshtaol went out armed with instruments of war. +Jug 18:12 And they went up and put up their tents in Kiriath-jearim in Judah: so that place is named Mahaneh-dan to this day. It is to the west of Kiriath-jearim. +Jug 18:13 From there they went on to the hill-country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. +Jug 18:14 Then the five men who had gone to make a search through the country of Laish, said to their brothers, Have you knowledge that in these houses there is an ephod and family gods and a pictured image and a metal image? So now you see what to do. +Jug 18:15 And turning from their road they came to the house of the young Levite, the house of Micah, and said to him, Is it well with you? +Jug 18:16 And the six hundred armed men of the Danites took their places by the doorway. +Jug 18:17 Then the five men who had gone to make a search through the land, went in and took the pictured image and the ephod and the family gods and the metal image; and the priest was by the doorway with the six hundred armed men. +Jug 18:18 And when they went into Micah's house and took out the pictured image and the ephod and the family gods and the metal image, the priest said to them, What are you doing? +Jug 18:19 And they said to him, Be quiet; say nothing, and come with us and be our father and priest; is it better for you to be priest to one man's house or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel? +Jug 18:20 Then the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod and the family gods and the pictured image and went with the people. +Jug 18:21 So they went on their way again, putting the little ones and the oxen and the goods in front of them. +Jug 18:22 When they had gone some way from the house of Micah, the men from the houses near Micah's house came together and overtook the children of Dan, +Jug 18:23 Crying out to them. And the Danites, turning round, said to Micah, What is your trouble, that you have taken up arms? +Jug 18:24 And he said, You have taken my gods which I made, and my priest, and have gone away; what is there for me now? Why then do you say to me, What is your trouble? +Jug 18:25 And the children of Dan said to him, Say no more, or men of bitter spirit may make an attack on you, causing loss of your life and the lives of your people. +Jug 18:26 Then the children of Dan went on their way; and when Micah saw that they were stronger than he, he went back to his house. +Jug 18:27 And they took that which Micah had made, and his priest, and came to Laish, to a people living quietly and without thought of danger, and they put them to the sword without mercy, burning down their town. +Jug 18:28 And they had no saviour, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with Aram; and it was in the valley which is the property of Beth-rehob. And building up the town again they took it for their living-place. +Jug 18:29 And they gave the town the name of Dan, after Dan their father, who was the son of Israel: though the town had been named Laish at first. +Jug 18:30 (And the children of Dan put up the pictured image for themselves; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of the Danites till the day when the ark was taken prisoner.) +Jug 18:31 And they put up for themselves the image which Micah had made, and it was there all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. +Jug 19:1 Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was living in the inmost parts of the hill-country of Ephraim, and he got for himself a servant-wife from Beth-lehem-judah. +Jug 19:2 And his servant-wife was angry with him, and went away from him to her father's house at Beth-lehem-judah, and was there for four months. +Jug 19:3 Then her husband got up and went after her, with the purpose of talking kindly to her, and taking her back with him; he had with him his young man and two asses: and she took him into her father's house, and her father, when he saw him, came forward to him with joy. +Jug 19:4 And his father-in-law, the girl's father, kept him there for three days; and they had food and drink and took their rest there. +Jug 19:5 Now on the fourth day they got up early in the morning and he made ready to go away; but the girl's father said to his son-in-law, Take a little food to keep up your strength, and then go on your way. +Jug 19:6 So seating themselves they had food and drink, the two of them together; and the girl's father said to the man, If it is your pleasure, take your rest here tonight, and let your heart be glad. +Jug 19:7 And the man got up to go away, but his father-in-law would not let him go, so he took his rest there again for the night. +Jug 19:8 Then early on the morning of the fifth day he got up to go away; but the girl's father said, Keep up your strength; so the two of them had a meal, and the man and his woman and his servant did not go till after the middle of the day. +Jug 19:9 And when they got up to go away, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him, Now evening is coming on, so do not go tonight; see, the day is almost gone; take your rest here and let your heart be glad, and tomorrow early, go on your way back to your house. +Jug 19:10 But the man would not be kept there that night, and he got up and went away and came opposite to Jebus (which is Jerusalem); and he had with him the two asses, ready for travelling, and his woman. +Jug 19:11 When they got near Jebus the day was far gone; and the servant said to his master, Now let us go from our road into this town of the Jebusites and take our night's rest there. +Jug 19:12 But his master said to him, We will not go out of our way into a strange town, whose people are not of the children of Israel; but we will go on to Gibeah. +Jug 19:13 And he said to his servant, Come, let us go on to one of these places, stopping for the night in Gibeah or Ramah. +Jug 19:14 So they went on their way; and the sun went down when they were near Gibeah in the land of Benjamin. +Jug 19:15 And they went off the road there with the purpose of stopping for the night in Gibeah: and he went in, seating himself in the street of the town, for no one took them into his house for the night. +Jug 19:16 Now when it was evening they saw an old man coming back from his work in the fields; he was from the hill-country of Ephraim and was living in Gibeah: but the men of the place were Benjamites. +Jug 19:17 And when he saw the traveller in the street of the town, the old man said, Where are you going? and where do you come from? +Jug 19:18 And he said to him, We are on our way from Beth-lehem-judah to the inmost parts of the hill-country of Ephraim: I came from there and went to Beth-lehem-judah: now I am on my way back to my house, but no man will take me into his house. +Jug 19:19 But we have dry grass and food for our asses, as well as bread and wine for me, and for the woman, and for the young man with us: we have no need of anything. +Jug 19:20 And the old man said, Peace be with you; let all your needs be my care; only do not take your rest in the street. +Jug 19:21 So he took them into his house and gave the asses food; and after washing their feet they took food and drink. +Jug 19:22 While they were taking their pleasure at the meal, the good-for-nothing men of the town came round the house, giving blows on the door; and they said to the old man, the master of the house, Send out that man who came to your house, so that we may take our pleasure with him. +Jug 19:23 So the man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said, No, my brothers, do not this evil thing; this man has come into my house, and you are not to do him this wrong. +Jug 19:24 See, here is my daughter, a virgin, and his servant-wife: I will send them out for you to take them and do with them whatever you will. But do no such thing of shame to this man. +Jug 19:25 But the men would not give ear to him: so the man took his woman and sent her out to them; and they took her by force, using her for their pleasure all night till the morning; and when dawn came they let her go. +Jug 19:26 Then at the dawn of day the woman came, and, falling down at the door of the man's house where her master was, was stretched there till it was light. +Jug 19:27 In the morning her master got up, and opening the door of the house went out to go on his way; and he saw his servant-wife stretched on the earth at the door of the house with her hands on the step. +Jug 19:28 And he said to her, Get up and let us be going; but there was no answer; so he took her up and put her on the ass, and went on his way and came to his house. +Jug 19:29 And when he had come to his house, he got his knife, and took the woman, cutting her up bone by bone into twelve parts, which he sent through all Israel. +Jug 19:30 And he gave orders to the men whom he sent, saying, This is what you are to say to all the men of Israel, Has ever an act like this been done from the day when the children of Israel came out of Egypt to this day? Give thought to it, turning it over in your minds, and give your opinion of it. +Jug 20:1 Then all the children of Israel took up arms, and the people came together like one man, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and the land of Gilead, before the Lord at Mizpah. +Jug 20:2 And the chiefs of the people, out of all the tribes of Israel, took their places in the meeting of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen armed with swords. +Jug 20:3 (Now the children of Benjamin had word that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the children of Israel said, Make clear how this evil thing took place. +Jug 20:4 Then the Levite, the husband of the dead woman, said in answer, I came to Gibeah in the land of Benjamin, I and my servant-wife, for the purpose of stopping there for the night. +Jug 20:5 And the townsmen of Gibeah came together against me, going round the house on all sides by night; it was their purpose to put me to death, and my servant-wife was violently used by them and is dead. +Jug 20:6 So I took her, cutting her into parts which I sent through all the country of the heritage of Israel: for they have done an act of shame in Israel. +Jug 20:7 Here you all are, you children of Israel; give now your suggestions about what is to be done. +Jug 20:8 Then all the people got up as one man and said, Not one of us will go to his tent or go back to his house: +Jug 20:9 But this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by the decision of the Lord; +Jug 20:10 And we will take ten men out of every hundred, through all the tribes of Israel, a hundred out of every thousand, a thousand out of every ten thousand, to get food for the people, so that they may give to Gibeah of Benjamin the right punishment for the act of shame they have done in Israel. +Jug 20:11 So all the men of Israel were banded together against the town, united like one man. +Jug 20:12 And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin saying, What is this evil which has been done among you? +Jug 20:13 Now give up those good-for-nothing persons in Gibeah so that we may put them to death, clearing away the evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not give ear to the voice of their brothers, the children of Israel. +Jug 20:14 And the children of Benjamin came together from all their towns to Gibeah, to go to war with the children of Israel. +Jug 20:15 And the children of Benjamin who came that day from the towns were twenty-six thousand men armed with swords, in addition to the people of Gibeah, numbering seven hundred of the best fighting-men, +Jug 20:16 Who were left-handed, able to send a stone at a hair without error. +Jug 20:17 And the men of Israel, other than Benjamin, were four hundred thousand in number, all armed with swords; they were all men of war. +Jug 20:18 And they got up and went up to Beth-el to get directions from God, and the children of Israel said, Who is to be the first to go up to the fight against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord said, Judah is to go up first. +Jug 20:19 So the children of Israel got up in the morning and put themselves in position against Gibeah. +Jug 20:20 And the men of Israel went out to war against Benjamin (and the men of Israel put their forces in fighting order against them at Gibeah). +Jug 20:21 Then the children of Benjamin came out from Gibeah, cutting down twenty-two thousand of the Israelites that day. +Jug 20:22 But the people, the men of Israel, taking heart again, put their forces in order and took up the same position as on the first day. +Jug 20:23 Now the children of Israel went up, weeping before the Lord till evening, requesting the Lord and saying, Am I to go forward again to the fight against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the Lord said, Go up against him. +Jug 20:24 So the children of Israel went forward against the children of Benjamin the second day. +Jug 20:25 And the second day Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah, cutting down eighteen thousand men of the children of Israel, all swordsmen. +Jug 20:26 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up to Beth-el, weeping and waiting there before the Lord, going without food all day till evening, and offering burned offerings and peace-offerings before the Lord. +Jug 20:27 And the children of Israel made request to the Lord, (for the ark of the agreement of the Lord was there in those days, +Jug 20:28 And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, was in his place before it,) and said, Am I still to go on with the fight against the children of Benjamin my brother, or am I to give it up? And the Lord said, Go on; for tomorrow I will give him into your hands. +Jug 20:29 So Israel put men secretly all round Gibeah to make a surprise attack on it. +Jug 20:30 And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in fighting order against Gibeah as before. +Jug 20:31 And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, moving away from the town; and as before, at their first attack, they put to death about thirty men of Israel on the highways, of which one goes up to Beth-el and the other to Gibeah, and in the open country. +Jug 20:32 And the children of Benjamin said, They are giving way before us as at first. But the children of Israel said, Let us go in flight and get them away from the town, into the highways. +Jug 20:33 So all the men of Israel got up and put themselves in fighting order at Baal-tamar: and those who had been waiting secretly to make a surprise attack came rushing out of their place on the west of Geba. +Jug 20:34 And they came in front of Gibeah, ten thousand of the best men in all Israel, and the fighting became more violent; but the children of Benjamin were not conscious that evil was coming on them. +Jug 20:35 Then the Lord sent sudden fear on Benjamin before Israel; and that day the children of Israel put to death twenty-five thousand, one hundred men of Benjamin, all of them swordsmen. +Jug 20:36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were overcome: and the men of Israel had given way before Benjamin, putting their faith in the watchers who were to make the surprise attack on Gibeah. +Jug 20:37 And the watchers, rushing on Gibeah and overrunning it, put all the town to the sword without mercy. +Jug 20:38 Now the sign fixed between the men of Israel and those making the surprise attack was that when they made a pillar of smoke go up from the town, +Jug 20:39 The men of Israel were to make a turn about in the fight. And Benjamin had overcome and put to death about thirty of the men of Israel, and were saying, Certainly they are falling back before us as in the first fight. +Jug 20:40 Then the sign went up out of the town in the pillar of smoke, and the Benjamites, turning back, saw all the town going up in smoke to heaven. +Jug 20:41 And the men of Israel had made a turn about, and the men of Benjamin were overcome with fear, for they saw that evil had overtaken them. +Jug 20:42 So turning their backs on the men of Israel, they went in the direction of the waste land; but the fight overtook them; and those who came out of the town were heading them off and putting them to the sword. +Jug 20:43 And crushing Benjamin down, they went after them, driving them from Nohah as far as the east side of Gibeah. +Jug 20:44 Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin came to their death, all strong men of war. +Jug 20:45 And turning, they went in flight to the rock of Rimmon in the waste land: and on the highways five thousand of them were cut off by the men of Israel, who, pushing on hard after them to Geba, put to death two thousand more. +Jug 20:46 So twenty-five thousand of the swordsmen of Benjamin came to their end that day, all strong men of war. +Jug 20:47 But six hundred men, turning back, went in flight to the rock of Rimmon in the waste land, and were living on the rock of Rimmon for four months. +Jug 20:48 And the men of Israel, turning again against the children of Benjamin, put to the sword without mercy all the towns and the cattle and everything there was, burning every town which came into their hands. +Jug 21:1 Now the men of Israel had taken an oath in Mizpah, saying, Not one of us will give his daughter as a wife to Benjamin. +Jug 21:2 And the people came to Beth-el, waiting there till evening before God, and gave themselves up to bitter weeping. +Jug 21:3 And they said, O Lord, the God of Israel, why has this fate come on Israel, that today one tribe has been cut off from Israel? +Jug 21:4 Then on the day after, the people got up early and made an altar there, offering burned offerings and peace-offerings. +Jug 21:5 And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel, who did not come up to the Lord at the meeting of all Israel? For they had taken a great oath that whoever did not come up to Mizpah to the Lord was to be put to death. +Jug 21:6 And the children of Israel were moved with pity for Benjamin their brother, saying, Today one tribe has been cut off from Israel. +Jug 21:7 What are we to do about wives for those who are still living? For we have taken an oath by the Lord that we will not give them our daughters for wives. +Jug 21:8 And they said, Which one of the tribes of Israel did not come up to Mizpah to the Lord? And it was seen that no one had come from Jabesh-gilead to the meeting. +Jug 21:9 For when the people were numbered, not one man of the people of Jabesh-gilead was present. +Jug 21:10 So they (the meeting) sent twelve thousand of the best fighting-men, and gave them orders, saying, Go and put the people of Jabesh-gilead to the sword without mercy, with their women and their little ones. +Jug 21:11 And this is what you are to do: every male, and every woman who has had sex relations with a man, you are to put to the curse, but you are to keep safe the virgins. And they did so. +Jug 21:12 Now there were among the people of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had never had sex relations with a man; these they took to their tents in Shiloh in the land of Canaan. +Jug 21:13 And all the meeting sent to the men of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, offering them peace. +Jug 21:14 Then Benjamin came back; and they gave them the women whom they had kept from death among the women of Jabesh-gilead: but still there were not enough for them. +Jug 21:15 And the people were moved with pity for Benjamin, because the Lord had let his wrath loose on the tribes of Israel. +Jug 21:16 Then the responsible men of the meeting said, What are we to do about wives for the rest of them, seeing that the women of Benjamin are dead? +Jug 21:17 And they said, How is the rest of Benjamin to be given offspring so that one tribe of Israel may not be put out of existence, +Jug 21:18 Seeing that we may not give them our daughters as wives? For the children of Israel had taken an oath, saying, Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin. +Jug 21:19 And they said, See, every year there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh, which is to the north of Beth-el, on the east side of the highway which goes up from Beth-el to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah. +Jug 21:20 And they said to the men of Benjamin, Go into the vine-gardens, waiting there secretly, +Jug 21:21 And watching; and if the daughters of Shiloh come out to take part in the dances, then come from the vine-gardens and take a wife for every one of you from among the daughters of Shiloh, and go back to the land of Benjamin. +Jug 21:22 And when their fathers or their brothers come and make trouble, you are to say to them, Give them to us as an act of grace; for we did not take them as wives for ourselves in war; and if you yourselves had given them to us you would have been responsible for the broken oath. +Jug 21:23 So the men of Benjamin did this, and got wives for themselves for every one of their number, taking them away by force from the dance; then they went back to their heritage, building up their towns and living in them. +Jug 21:24 Then the children of Israel went away from there, every man to his tribe and his family, every man went back to his heritage. +Jug 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did what seemed right to him. +Rut 1:1 Now there came a time, in the days of the judges, when there was no food in the land. And a certain man went from Beth-lehem-judah, he and his wife and his two sons, to make a living-place in the country of Moab. +Rut 1:2 And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Beth-lehem-judah. And they came into the country of Moab, and were there for some time. +Rut 1:3 And Elimelech, Naomi's husband, came to his end; and only her two sons were with her. +Rut 1:4 And they took two women of Moab as their wives: the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth; and they went on living there for about ten years. +Rut 1:5 And Mahlon and Chilion came to their end; and the woman was without her two sons and her husband. +Rut 1:6 So she and her daughters-in-law got ready to go back from the country of Moab, for news had come to her in the country of Moab that the Lord, in mercy for his people, had given them food. +Rut 1:7 And she went out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. +Rut 1:8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go back to your mothers' houses: may the Lord be good to you as you have been good to the dead and to me: +Rut 1:9 May the Lord give you rest in the houses of your husbands. Then she gave them a kiss; and they were weeping bitterly. +Rut 1:10 And they said to her, No, but we will go back with you to your people. +Rut 1:11 But Naomi said, Go back, my daughters; why will you come with me? Have I more sons in my body, to become your husbands? +Rut 1:12 Go back, my daughters, and go on your way; I am so old now that I may not have another husband. If I said, I have hopes, if I had a husband tonight, and might have sons, +Rut 1:13 Would you keep yourselves till they were old enough? would you keep from having husbands for them? No, my daughters; but I am very sad for you that the hand of the Lord is against me. +Rut 1:14 Then again they were weeping; and Orpah gave her mother-in-law a kiss, but Ruth would not be parted from her. +Rut 1:15 And Naomi said, See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods: go back after your sister-in-law. +Rut 1:16 But Ruth said, Give up requesting me to go away from you, or to go back without you: for where you go I will go; and where you take your rest I will take my rest; your people will be my people, and your God my God. +Rut 1:17 Wherever death comes to you, death will come to me, and there will be my last resting-place; the Lord do so to me and more if we are parted by anything but death. +Rut 1:18 And when she saw that Ruth was strong in her purpose to go with her she said no more. +Rut 1:19 So the two of them went on till they came to Beth-lehem. And when they came to Beth-lehem all the town was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi? +Rut 1:20 And she said to them, Do not let my name be Naomi, but Mara, for the Ruler of all has given me a bitter fate. +Rut 1:21 I went out full, and the Lord has sent me back again with nothing; why do you give me the name Naomi, seeing that the Lord has given witness against me, and the Ruler of all has sent sorrow on me? +Rut 1:22 So Naomi came back out of the country of Moab, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her; and they came to Beth-lehem in the first days of the grain-cutting. +Rut 2:1 And Naomi had a relation of her husband, a man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz. +Rut 2:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, Now let me go into the field and take up the heads of grain after him in whose eyes I may have grace. And she said to her, Go, my daughter. +Rut 2:3 And she went, and came and took up the heads of grain in the field after the cutters; and by chance she went into that part of the field which was the property of Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. +Rut 2:4 And Boaz came from Beth-lehem, and said to the grain-cutters, The Lord be with you. And they made answer, The Lord give you his blessing. +Rut 2:5 Then Boaz said to his servant who was in authority over the cutters, Whose girl is this? +Rut 2:6 And the servant who was in authority over the cutters said, It is a Moabite girl who came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab; +Rut 2:7 And she said to me, Let me come into the grain-field and take up the grain after the cutters. So she came, and has been here from morning till now, without resting even for a minute. +Rut 2:8 Then said Boaz to Ruth, Give ear to me, my daughter: do not go to take up the grain in another field, or go away from here, but keep here by my young women: +Rut 2:9 Keep your eyes on the field they are cutting, and go after them; have I not given orders to the young men not to put a hand on you? And when you are in need of drink go to the vessels and take of what the young men have put there. +Rut 2:10 Then she went down on her face to the earth, and said to him, Why have I grace in your eyes, that you give attention to me, seeing I am from a strange people? +Rut 2:11 And Boaz answering said to her, I have had news of everything you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband; how you went away from your father and mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people who are strange to you. +Rut 2:12 The Lord give you a reward for what you have done, and may a full reward be given to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take cover. +Rut 2:13 Then she said, May I have grace in your eyes, my lord, for you have given me comfort, and you have said kind words to your servant, though I am not like one of your servants. +Rut 2:14 And at meal-time Boaz said to her, Come here, and take some of the bread, and put your bit into the wine. And she took her seat among the grain-cutters: and he gave her dry grain, and she took it, and there was more than enough for her meal. +Rut 2:15 And when she got ready to take up the grain, Boaz gave his young men orders, saying, Let her take it even from among the cut grain, and say nothing to her. +Rut 2:16 And let some heads of grain be pulled out of what has been corded up, and dropped for her to take, and let no sharp word be said to her. +Rut 2:17 So she went on getting together the heads of grain till evening; and after crushing out the seed it came to about an ephah of grain. +Rut 2:18 And she took it up and went into the town; and she let her mother-in-law see what she had got, and after taking enough for herself she gave her the rest. +Rut 2:19 And her mother-in-law said to her, Where did you take up the grain today, and where were you working? May a blessing be on him who gave such attention to you. And she gave her mother-in-law an account of where she had been working, and said, The name of the man with whom I was working today is Boaz. +Rut 2:20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May the blessing of the Lord, who has at all times been kind to the living and to the dead, be on him. And Naomi said to her, The man is of our family, one of our near relations. +Rut 2:21 And Ruth the Moabitess said, Truly, he said to me, Keep near my young men till all my grain is cut. +Rut 2:22 And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It is better, my daughter, for you to go out with his servant-girls, so that no danger may come to you in another field. +Rut 2:23 So she kept near the servant-girls of Boaz to take up the grain till the cutting of the early grain and the cutting of the late grain were ended; and she went on living with her mother-in-law. +Rut 3:1 And Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, am I not to get you a resting-place where you may be in comfort? +Rut 3:2 And now, is there not Boaz, our relation, with whose young women you were? See, tonight he is separating the grain from the waste in his grain-floor. +Rut 3:3 So take a bath, and, after rubbing your body with sweet oil, put on your best robe, and go down to the grain-floor; but do not let him see you till he has come to the end of his meal. +Rut 3:4 But see to it, when he goes to rest, that you take note of the place where he is sleeping, and go in there, and, uncovering his feet, take your place by him; and he will say what you are to do. +Rut 3:5 And she said, I will do all you say. +Rut 3:6 So she went down to the grain-floor and did all her mother-in-law had said to her. +Rut 3:7 Now when Boaz had taken meat and drink, and his heart was glad, he went to take his rest at the end of the mass of grain; then she came softly and, uncovering his feet, went to rest. +Rut 3:8 Now in the middle of the night, the man awaking from his sleep in fear, and lifting himself up, saw a woman stretched at his feet. +Rut 3:9 And he said, Who are you? And she answering said, I am your servant Ruth: take your servant as wife, for you are a near relation. +Rut 3:10 And he said, May the Lord give you his blessing, my daughter: even better than what you did at the first is this last kind act you have done, in not going after young men, with or without wealth. +Rut 3:11 And now, my daughter, have no fear; I will do for you whatever you say: for it is clear to all my townspeople that you are a woman of virtue. +Rut 3:12 Now it is true that I am a near relation: but there is a relation nearer than I. +Rut 3:13 Take your rest here tonight; and in the morning, if he will do for you what it is right for a relation to do, very well, let him do so: but if he will not, then by the living Lord I myself will do so. +Rut 3:14 And she took her rest at his feet till the morning: and she got up before it was light enough for one to see another. And he said, Let it not come to anyone's knowledge that the woman came to the grain-floor. +Rut 3:15 And he said, Take your robe, stretching it out in your hands: and she did so, and he took six measures of grain and put them into it, and gave it her to take: and she went back to the town. +Rut 3:16 And when she came back her mother-in-law said to her, How did it go with you, my daughter? And she gave her an account of all the man had done to her. +Rut 3:17 And she said, He gave me these six measures of grain, saying, Do not go back to your mother-in-law with nothing in your hands. +Rut 3:18 Then she said, Do nothing now, my daughter, till you see what will come of this; for the man will take no rest till he has put this thing through. +Rut 4:1 And Boaz went up to the public place of the town, and took his seat there: and the near relation of whom he had been talking came by; and Boaz, crying out to him by name, said, Come and be seated here. And he came and was seated. +Rut 4:2 Then he got ten of the responsible men of the town, and said, Be seated here. And they took their seats. +Rut 4:3 Then he said to the near relation, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is offering for a price that bit of land which was our brother Elimelech's: +Rut 4:4 And it was in my mind to give you the chance of taking it, with the approval of those seated here and of the responsible men of my people. If you are ready to do what it is right for a relation to do, then do it: but if you will not do it, say so to me now; for there is no one who has the right to do it but you, and after you myself. And he said, I will do it. +Rut 4:5 Then Boaz said, On the day when you take this field, you will have to take with it Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, so that you may keep the name of the dead living in his heritage. +Rut 4:6 And the near relation said, I am not able to do the relation's part, for fear of damaging the heritage I have: you may do it in my place, for I am not able to do it myself. +Rut 4:7 Now, in earlier times this was the way in Israel when property was taken over by a near relation, or when there was a change of owner. To make the exchange certain one man took off his shoe and gave it to the other; and this was a witness in Israel. +Rut 4:8 So the near relation said to Boaz, Take it for yourself. And he took off his shoe. +Rut 4:9 Then Boaz said to the responsible men and to all the people, You are witnesses today that I have taken at a price from Naomi all the property which was Elimelech's, and everything which was Chilion's and Mahlon's. +Rut 4:10 And, further, I have taken Ruth, the Moabitess, who was the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, to keep the name of the dead man living in his heritage, so that his name may not be cut off from among his countrymen, and from the memory of his town: you are witnesses this day. +Rut 4:11 And all the people who were in the public place, and the responsible men, said, We are witnesses. May the Lord make this woman, who is about to come into your house, like Rachel and Leah, which two were the builders of the house of Israel: and may you have wealth in Ephrathah, and be great in Beth-lehem; +Rut 4:12 May your family be like the family of Perez, the son whom Tamar gave to Judah, from the offspring which the Lord may give you by this young woman. +Rut 4:13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and the Lord made her with child and she gave birth to a son. +Rut 4:14 And the women said to Naomi, A blessing on the Lord, who has not let you be this day without a near relation, and may his name be great in Israel. +Rut 4:15 He will be a giver of new life to you, and your comforter when you are old, for your daughter-in-law, who, in her love for you, is better than seven sons, has given birth to him. +Rut 4:16 And Naomi took the child and put her arms round it, and she took care of it. +Rut 4:17 And the women who were her neighbours gave it a name, saying, Naomi has a child; and they gave him the name of Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David. +Rut 4:18 Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron; +Rut 4:19 And Hezron became the father of Ram, and Ram became the father of Amminadab; +Rut 4:20 And Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon became the father of Salmon; +Rut 4:21 And Salmon became the father of Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Obed; +Rut 4:22 And Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David. +1Sa 1:1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite of the hill-country of Ephraim, named Elkanah; he was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite: +1Sa 1:2 And he had two wives, one named Hannah and the other Peninnah: and Peninnah was the mother of children, but Hannah had no children. +1Sa 1:3 Now this man went up from his town every year to give worship and to make offerings to the Lord of armies in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. +1Sa 1:4 And when the day came for Elkanah to make his offering, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and daughters, their part of the feast: +1Sa 1:5 But to Hannah he gave one part, though Hannah was very dear to him, but the Lord had not let her have children. +1Sa 1:6 And the other wife did everything possible to make her unhappy, because the Lord had not let her have children; +1Sa 1:7 And year by year, whenever she went up to the house of the Lord, she kept on attacking her, so that Hannah gave herself up to weeping and would take no food. +1Sa 1:8 Then her husband Elkanah said to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? and why are you taking no food? why is your heart troubled? am I not more to you than ten sons? +1Sa 1:9 So after they had taken food and wine in the guest room, Hannah got up. Now Eli the priest was seated by the pillars of the doorway of the Temple of the Lord. +1Sa 1:10 And with grief in her soul, weeping bitterly, she made her prayer to the Lord. +1Sa 1:11 And she made an oath, and said, O Lord of armies, if you will truly take note of the sorrow of your servant, not turning away from me but keeping me in mind, and will give me a man-child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and his hair will never be cut. +1Sa 1:12 Now while she was a long time in prayer before the Lord, Eli was watching her mouth. +1Sa 1:13 For Hannah's prayer came from her heart, and though her lips were moving she made no sound: so it seemed to Eli that she was overcome with wine. +1Sa 1:14 And Eli said to her, How long are you going to be the worse for drink? Put away the effects of your wine from you. +1Sa 1:15 And Hannah, answering him, said, No, my lord, I am a woman whose spirit is broken with sorrow: I have not taken wine or strong drink, but I have been opening my heart before the Lord. +1Sa 1:16 Do not take your servant to be a good-for-nothing woman: for my words have come from my stored-up sorrow and pain. +1Sa 1:17 Then Eli said to her, Go in peace: and may the God of Israel give you an answer to the prayer you have made to him. +1Sa 1:18 And she said, May your servant have grace in your eyes. So the woman went away, and took part in the feast, and her face was no longer sad. +1Sa 1:19 And early in the morning they got up, and after worshipping before the Lord they went back to Ramah, to their house: and Elkanah had connection with his wife; and the Lord kept her in mind. +1Sa 1:20 Now the time came when Hannah, being with child, gave birth to a son; and she gave him the name Samuel, Because, she said, I made a prayer to the Lord for him. +1Sa 1:21 And the man Elkanah with all his family went up to make the year's offering to the Lord, and to give effect to his oath. +1Sa 1:22 But Hannah did not go, for she said to her husband, I will not go till the child has been taken from the breast, and then I will take him with me and put him before the Lord, where he may be for ever. +1Sa 1:23 And her husband Elkanah said to her, Do whatever seems right to you, but not till you have taken him from the breast; only may the Lord do as he has said. So the woman, waiting there, gave her son milk till he was old enough to be taken from the breast. +1Sa 1:24 Then when she had done so, she took him with her, with a three-year old ox and an ephah of meal and a skin full of wine, and took him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh: now the child was still very young. +1Sa 1:25 And when they had made an offering of the ox, they took the child to Eli. +1Sa 1:26 And she said, O my lord, as your soul is living, my lord, I am that woman who was making a prayer to the Lord here by your side: +1Sa 1:27 My prayer was for this child; and the Lord has given him to me in answer to my request: +1Sa 1:28 So I have given him to the Lord; for all his life he is the Lord's. Then he gave the Lord worship there. +1Sa 2:1 And Hannah, in prayer before the Lord, said, My heart is glad in the Lord, my horn is lifted up in the Lord: my mouth is open wide over my haters; because my joy is in your salvation. +1Sa 2:2 No other is holy as the Lord, for there is no other God but you: there is no Rock like our God. +1Sa 2:3 Say no more words of pride; let not uncontrolled sayings come out of your mouths: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, by him acts are judged. +1Sa 2:4 The bows of the men of war are broken, and the feeble are clothed with strength. +1Sa 2:5 Those who were full are offering themselves as servants for bread; those who were in need are at rest; truly, she who had no children has become the mother of seven; and she who had a family is wasted with sorrow. +1Sa 2:6 The Lord is the giver of death and life: sending men down to the underworld and lifting them up. +1Sa 2:7 The Lord gives wealth and takes a man's goods from him: crushing men down and again lifting them up; +1Sa 2:8 Lifting the poor out of the dust, and him who is in need out of the lowest place, to give them their place among rulers, and for their heritage the seat of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and he has made them the base of the world. +1Sa 2:9 He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the evil-doers will come to their end in the dark night, for by strength no man will overcome. +1Sa 2:10 Those who make war against the Lord will be broken; against them he will send his thunder from heaven: the Lord will be judge of the ends of the earth, he will give strength to his king, lifting up the horn of him on whom the holy oil has been put. +1Sa 2:11 Then Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the child became the servant of the Lord under the direction of Eli the priest. +1Sa 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were evil and good-for-nothing men, having no knowledge of the Lord. +1Sa 2:13 And the priests' way with the people was this: when any man made an offering, the priest's servant came while the flesh was being cooked, having in his hand a meat-hook with three teeth; +1Sa 2:14 This he put into the pot, and everything which came up on the hook the priest took for himself. This they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. +1Sa 2:15 And more than this, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was making the offering, Give me some of the flesh to be cooked for the priest; he has no taste for meat cooked in water, but would have you give it uncooked. +1Sa 2:16 And if the man said to him, First let the fat be burned, then take as much as you will; then the servant would say, No, you are to give it to me now, or I will take it by force. +1Sa 2:17 And the sin of these young men was very great before the Lord; for they gave no honour to the Lord's offerings. +1Sa 2:18 But Samuel did the work of the Lord's house, while he was a child, dressed in a linen ephod. +1Sa 2:19 And his mother made him a little robe and took it to him every year when she came with her husband for the year's offering. +1Sa 2:20 And every year Eli gave Elkanah and his wife a blessing, saying, May the Lord give you offspring by this woman in exchange for the child you have given to the Lord. And they went back to their house. +1Sa 2:21 And the Lord had mercy on Hannah and she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And the young Samuel became older before the Lord. +1Sa 2:22 Now Eli was very old; and he had news from time to time of what his sons were doing to all Israel. +1Sa 2:23 And he said to them, Why are you doing such things? for from all this people I get accounts of your evil ways. +1Sa 2:24 No, my sons, the account which is given me, which the Lord's people are sending about, is not good. +1Sa 2:25 If one man does wrong to another, God will be his judge: but if a man's sin is against the Lord, who will take up his cause? But they gave no attention to the voice of their father, for it was the Lord's purpose to send destruction on them. +1Sa 2:26 And the young Samuel, becoming older, had the approval of the Lord and of men. +1Sa 2:27 And a man of God came to Eli and said to him, The Lord says, Did I let myself be seen by your father's people when they were in Egypt, servants in Pharaoh's house? +1Sa 2:28 Did I take him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest and to go up to my altar to make the smoke of the offerings go up and to take up the ephod? Did I give to your father's family all the offerings made by fire by the children of Israel? +1Sa 2:29 Why then are you looking with envy on my offerings of meat and of meal which were ordered by my word, honouring your sons before me, and making yourselves fat with all the best of the offerings of Israel, my people? +1Sa 2:30 For this reason the Lord God of Israel has said, Truly I did say that your family and your father's people would have their place before me for ever: but now the Lord says, Let it not be so; I will give honour to those by whom I am honoured, and those who have no respect for me will be of small value in my eyes. +1Sa 2:31 See, the days are coming when your arm and the arm of your father's people will be cut off; +1Sa 2:32 And never again will there be an old man in your family. +1Sa 2:33 But one man of your family will not be cut off by my hand, and his eyes will be made dark, and grief will be in his heart: and all the offspring of your family will come to their end by the sword of men. +1Sa 2:34 And this will be the sign to you, which will come on Hophni and Phinehas, your sons; death will overtake them on the same day. +1Sa 2:35 And I will make a true priest for myself, one who will do what is in my heart and in my mind: and I will make for him a family which will not come to an end; and his place will be before my holy one for ever. +1Sa 2:36 Then it will be that the rest of your family, anyone who has not been cut off, will go down on his knees to him for a bit of silver or a bit of bread, and say, Be pleased to put me into one of the priest's places so that I may have a little food. +1Sa 3:1 Now the young Samuel was the servant of the Lord before Eli. In those days the Lord kept his word secret from men; there was no open vision. +1Sa 3:2 And at that time, when Eli was resting in his place, (now his eyes were becoming clouded so that he was not able to see,) +1Sa 3:3 And the light of God was still burning, while Samuel was sleeping in the Temple of the Lord where the ark of God was, +1Sa 3:4 The voice of the Lord said Samuel's name; and he said, Here am I. +1Sa 3:5 And running to Eli he said, Here am I, for you said my name. And Eli said, I did not say your name; go to your rest again. So he went back to his bed. +1Sa 3:6 And again the Lord said, Samuel. And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, Here am I; for you certainly said my name. But he said in answer, I said nothing, my son; go to your rest again. +1Sa 3:7 Now at that time Samuel had no knowledge of the Lord, and the revelation of the word of the Lord had not come to him. +1Sa 3:8 And for the third time the Lord said Samuel's name. And he got up and went to Eli and said, Here am I; for you certainly said my name. Then it was clear to Eli that the voice which had said the child's name was the Lord's. +1Sa 3:9 So Eli said to Samuel, Go back: and if the voice comes again, let your answer be, Say on, Lord; for the ears of your servant are open. So Samuel went back to his bed. +1Sa 3:10 Then the Lord came and said as before, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel made answer, Say on, Lord; for the ears of your servant are open. +1Sa 3:11 And the Lord said to Samuel, See, I will do a thing in Israel at which the ears of everyone hearing of it will be burning. +1Sa 3:12 In that day I will do to Eli everything which I have said about his family, from first to last. +1Sa 3:13 And you are to say to him that I will send punishment on his family for ever, for the sin which he had knowledge of; because his sons have been cursing God and he had no control over them. +1Sa 3:14 So I have made an oath to the family of Eli that no offering of meat or of meal which they may make will ever take away the sin of his family. +1Sa 3:15 And Samuel kept where he was, not moving till the time came for opening the doors of the house of God in the morning. And fear kept him from giving Eli an account of his vision. +1Sa 3:16 Then Eli said, Samuel, my son. And Samuel answering said, Here am I. +1Sa 3:17 And he said, What did the Lord say to you? Do not keep it from me: may God's punishment be on you if you keep from me anything he said to you. +1Sa 3:18 Then Samuel gave him an account of everything, keeping nothing back. And he said, It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him. +1Sa 3:19 And Samuel became older, and the Lord was with him and let not one of his words be without effect. +1Sa 3:20 And it was clear to all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba that Samuel had been made a prophet of the Lord. +1Sa 3:21 And the Lord was seen again in Shiloh; for the Lord gave to Samuel in Shiloh the revelation of his word. +1Sa 4:1 Now at that time the Philistines came together to make war against Israel, and the men of Israel went out to war against the Philistines and took up their position at the side of Eben-ezer: and the Philistines put their forces in position in Aphek. +1Sa 4:2 And the Philistines put their forces in order against Israel, and the fighting was hard, and Israel was overcome by the Philistines, who put to the sword about four thousand of their army in the field. +1Sa 4:3 And when the people came back to their tents, the responsible men of Israel said, Why has the Lord let the Philistines overcome us today? Let us get the ark of the Lord's agreement here from Shiloh, so that it may be with us and give us salvation from the hands of those who are against us. +1Sa 4:4 So the people sent to Shiloh and got the ark of the agreement of the Lord of armies whose resting-place is between the winged ones; and Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were there with the ark of God's agreement. +1Sa 4:5 And when the ark of the Lord's agreement came into the tent-circle, all Israel gave a great cry, so that the earth was sounding with it. +1Sa 4:6 And the Philistines, hearing the noise of their cry, said, What is this great cry among the tents of the Hebrews? Then it became clear to them that the ark of the Lord had come to the tent-circle. +1Sa 4:7 And the Philistines, full of fear, said, God has come into their tents. And they said, Trouble is ours! for never before has such a thing been seen. +1Sa 4:8 Trouble is ours! Who will give us salvation from the hands of these great gods? These are the gods who sent all sorts of blows on the Egyptians in the waste land. +1Sa 4:9 Be strong, O Philistines, be men! Do not be servants to the Hebrews as they have been to you: go forward to the fight without fear. +1Sa 4:10 So the Philistines went to the fight, and Israel was overcome, and every man went in flight to his tent: and great was the destruction, for thirty thousand footmen of Israel were put to the sword. +1Sa 4:11 And the ark of God was taken; and Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, were put to the sword. +1Sa 4:12 And a man of Benjamin went running from the fight and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothing out of order and earth on his head. +1Sa 4:13 And when he came, Eli was seated by the wayside watching: and in his heart was fear for the ark of God. And when the man came into the town and gave the news, there was a great outcry. +1Sa 4:14 And Eli, hearing the noise and the cries, said, What is the reason of this outcry? And the man came quickly and gave the news to Eli. +1Sa 4:15 Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were fixed so that he was not able to see. +1Sa 4:16 And the man said to Eli, I have come from the army and have come in flight today from the fight. And he said, How did it go, my son? +1Sa 4:17 And the man said, Israel went in flight from the Philistines, and there has been great destruction among the people, and your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been taken. +1Sa 4:18 And at these words about the ark of God, Eli, falling back off his seat by the side of the doorway into the town, came down on the earth so that his neck was broken and death overtook him, for he was an old man and of great weight. He had been judging Israel for forty years. +1Sa 4:19 And his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was with child and near the time when she would give birth; and when she had the news that the ark of God had been taken and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, her pains came on her suddenly and she gave birth. +1Sa 4:20 And when she was very near death the women who were with her said, Have no fear, for you have given birth to a son. But she made no answer and gave no attention to it. +1Sa 4:21 And she gave the child the name of Ichabod, saying, The glory has gone from Israel: because the ark of God was taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband. +1Sa 4:22 And she said, The glory is gone from Israel, for the ark of God has been taken. +1Sa 5:1 Now the Philistines, having taken the ark of God, took it with them from Eben-ezer to Ashdod. +1Sa 5:2 They took the ark of God into the house of Dagon and put it by the side of Dagon. +1Sa 5:3 And when the people of Ashdod got up early on the morning after, they saw that Dagon had come down to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord. And they took Dagon up and put him in his place again. +1Sa 5:4 And when they got up early on the morning after, Dagon had come down to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord; and his head and his hands were broken off on the doorstep; only the base was in its place. +1Sa 5:5 So to this day no priest of Dagon, or any who come into Dagon's house, will put his foot on the doorstep of the house of Dagon in Ashdod. +1Sa 5:6 But the hand of the Lord was hard on the people of Ashdod and he sent disease on them through all the country of Ashdod. +1Sa 5:7 And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, Let not the ark of the God of Israel be with us, for his hand is hard on us and on Dagon our god. +1Sa 5:8 So they sent for all the lords of the Philistines to come together there, and said, What are we to do with the ark of the God of Israel? And their answer was, Let the ark of the God of Israel be taken away to Gath. So they took the ark of the God of Israel away. +1Sa 5:9 But after they had taken it away, the hand of the Lord was stretched out against the town for its destruction: and the signs of disease came out on all the men of the town, small and great. +1Sa 5:10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And when the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of the town made an outcry, saying, They have sent the ark of the God of Israel to us for the destruction of us and of our people. +1Sa 5:11 So they sent and got together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go back to its place, so that it may not be the cause of death to us and to our people: for there was a great fear of death through all the town; the hand of God was very hard on them there. +1Sa 5:12 And those men who were not overtaken by death were cruelly diseased: and the cry of the town went up to heaven. +1Sa 6:1 Now the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines for seven months. +1Sa 6:2 And the Philistines sent for the priests and those who were wise in secret arts, and said to them, What are we to do with the ark of the Lord? How are we to send it away to its place? +1Sa 6:3 And they said, If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it without an offering, but send him a sin-offering with it: then you will have peace again, and it will be clear to you why the weight of his hand has not been lifted from you. +1Sa 6:4 Then they said, What sin-offering are we to send to him? And they said, Five gold images of the growths caused by your disease and five gold mice, one for every lord of the Philistines: for the same disease came on you and on your lords. +1Sa 6:5 So make images of the growths caused by your disease and of the mice which are damaging your land; and give glory to the God of Israel: it may be that the weight of his hand will be lifted from you and from your gods and from your land. +1Sa 6:6 Why do you make your hearts hard, like the hearts of Pharaoh and the Egyptians? When he had made sport of them, did they not let the people go, and they went away? +1Sa 6:7 So now, take and make ready a new cart, and two cows which have never come under the yoke, and have the cows yoked to the cart, and take their young ones away from them: +1Sa 6:8 And put the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the gold images which you are sending as a sin-offering in a chest by its side; and send it away so that it may go. +1Sa 6:9 If it goes by the land of Israel to Beth-shemesh, then this great evil is his work; but if not, then we may be certain that the evil was not his doing, but was the working of chance. +1Sa 6:10 And the men did so; they took two cows, yoking them to the cart and shutting up their young ones in their living-place: +1Sa 6:11 And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart and the chest with the gold images. +1Sa 6:12 And the cows took the straight way, by the road to Beth-shemesh; they went by the highway, not turning to the right or to the left, and the sound of their voices was clear on the road; and the lords of the Philistines went after them as far as the edge of Beth-shemesh. +1Sa 6:13 And the people of Beth-shemesh were cutting their grain in the valley, and lifting up their eyes they saw the ark and were full of joy when they saw it. +1Sa 6:14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, and came to a stop there by a great stone: and cutting up the wood of the cart they made a burned offering of the cows to the Lord. +1Sa 6:15 Then the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the chest in which were the gold images, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Beth-shemesh made burned offerings and gave worship that day before the Lord. +1Sa 6:16 And the five lords of the Philistines, having seen it, went back to Ekron the same day. +1Sa 6:17 Now these are the gold images which the Philistines sent as a sin-offering to the Lord; one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron; +1Sa 6:18 And the gold mice, one for every town of the Philistines, the property of the five lords, walled towns as well as country places: and the great stone where they put the ark of the Lord is still in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite to this day. +1Sa 6:19 But the Lord sent destruction on seventy men of the people of Beth-shemesh for looking into the ark of the Lord; and great was the sorrow of the people for the destruction which the Lord had sent on them. +1Sa 6:20 And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to keep his place before the Lord, this holy God? and to whom may he go from us? +1Sa 6:21 And they sent men to the people living in Kiriath-jearim, saying, The Philistines have sent back the ark of the Lord; come and take it up to your country. +1Sa 7:1 So the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the ark of the Lord to the house of Abinadab in Gibeah, and they made his son Eleazar holy and put the ark in his care. +1Sa 7:2 And the ark was in Kiriath-jearim for a long time, as much as twenty years: and all Israel was searching after the Lord with weeping. +1Sa 7:3 Then Samuel said to all Israel, If with all your hearts you would come back to the Lord, then put away all the strange gods and the Astartes from among you, and let your hearts be turned to the Lord, and be servants to him only: and he will make you safe from the hands of the Philistines. +1Sa 7:4 So the children of Israel gave up the worship of Baal and Astarte, and became worshippers of the Lord only. +1Sa 7:5 Then Samuel said, Let all Israel come to Mizpah and I will make prayer to the Lord for you. +1Sa 7:6 So they came together to Mizpah, and got water, draining it out before the Lord, and they took no food that day, and they said, We have done evil against the Lord. And Samuel was judge of the children of Israel in Mizpah. +1Sa 7:7 Now when the Philistines had news that the children of Israel had come together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And the children of Israel, hearing of it, were full of fear. +1Sa 7:8 And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Go on crying to the Lord our God for us to make us safe from the hands of the Philistines. +1Sa 7:9 And Samuel took a young lamb, offering all of it as a burned offering to the Lord; and Samuel made prayers to the Lord for Israel and the Lord gave him an answer. +1Sa 7:10 And while Samuel was offering the burned offering, the Philistines came near for the attack on Israel; but at the thunder of the Lord's voice that day the Philistines were overcome with fear, and they gave way before Israel. +1Sa 7:11 And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and went after the Philistines, attacking them till they came under Beth-car. +1Sa 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and put it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, naming it Eben-ezer, and saying, Up to now the Lord has been our help. +1Sa 7:13 So the Philistines were overcome, and did not come into the country of Israel again: and all the days of Samuel the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. +1Sa 7:14 And the towns which the Philistines had taken were given back to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and all the country round them Israel made free from the power of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. +1Sa 7:15 And Samuel was judge of Israel all the days of his life. +1Sa 7:16 From year to year he went in turn to Beth-el and Gilgal and Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places. +1Sa 7:17 And his base was at Ramah, where his house was; there he was judge of Israel and there he made an altar to the Lord. +1Sa 8:1 Now when Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel. +1Sa 8:2 The name of his first son was Joel and the name of his second Abijah: they were judges in Beer-sheba. +1Sa 8:3 And his sons did not go in his ways, but moved by the love of money took rewards, and were not upright in judging. +1Sa 8:4 Then all the responsible men of Israel got together and went to Samuel at Ramah, +1Sa 8:5 And said to him, See now, you are old, and your sons do not go in your ways: give us a king now to be our judge, so that we may be like the other nations. +1Sa 8:6 But Samuel was not pleased when they said to him, Give us a king to be our judge. And Samuel made prayer to the Lord. +1Sa 8:7 And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to the voice of the people and what they say to you: they have not been turned away from you, but they have been turned away from me, not desiring me to be king over them. +1Sa 8:8 As they have done from the first, from the day when I took them out of Egypt till this day, turning away from me and worshipping other gods, so now they are acting in the same way to you. +1Sa 8:9 Give ear now to their voice: but make a serious protest to them, and give them a picture of the sort of king who will be their ruler. +1Sa 8:10 And Samuel said all these words of the Lord to the people who were desiring a king. +1Sa 8:11 And he said, This is the sort of king who will be your ruler: he will take your sons and make them his servants, his horsemen, and drivers of his war-carriages, and they will go running before his war-carriages; +1Sa 8:12 And he will make them captains of thousands and of fifties; some he will put to work ploughing and cutting his grain and making his instruments of war and building his war-carriages. +1Sa 8:13 Your daughters he will take to be makers of perfumes and cooks and bread-makers. +1Sa 8:14 He will take your fields and your vine-gardens and your olive-gardens, all the best of them, and give them to his servants. +1Sa 8:15 He will take a tenth of your seed and of the fruit of your vines and give it to his servants. +1Sa 8:16 He will take your men-servants and your servant-girls, and the best of your oxen and your asses and put them to his work. +1Sa 8:17 He will take a tenth of your sheep: and you will be his servants. +1Sa 8:18 Then you will be crying out because of your king whom you have taken for yourselves; but the Lord will not give you an answer in that day. +1Sa 8:19 But the people gave no attention to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No, but we will have a king over us, +1Sa 8:20 So that we may be like the other nations, and so that our king may be our judge and go out before us to war. +1Sa 8:21 Then Samuel, after hearing all the people had to say, went and gave an account of it to the Lord. +1Sa 8:22 And the Lord said to Samuel, Give ear to their voice and make a king for them. Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, Let every man go back to his town. +1Sa 9:1 Now there was a man of Benjamin named Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a man of wealth. +1Sa 9:2 He had a son named Saul, a specially good-looking young man; there was no one better-looking among the children of Israel: he was taller by a head than any other of the people. +1Sa 9:3 Now the asses of Saul's father Kish had gone wandering away. And Kish said to his son Saul, Take one of the servants with you, and get up and go in search of the asses. +1Sa 9:4 So they went through the hill-country of Ephraim and through the land of Shalishah, but they saw no sign of them: then they went through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there: and they went through the land of the Benjamites, but they did not come across them. +1Sa 9:5 And when they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, Come, let us go back, or my father may give up caring about the asses and be troubled about us. +1Sa 9:6 But the servant said to him, See now, in this town there is a man of God, who is highly honoured, and everything he says comes true: let us go there now; it may be that he will give us directions about our journey. +1Sa 9:7 Then Saul said to his servant, But if we go, what are we to take the man? all our bread is gone, and we have no offering to take to the man of God: what are we to do? +1Sa 9:8 But the servant said in answer, I have here a fourth part of a shekel of silver: I will give that to the man of God, and he will give us directions about our way. +1Sa 9:9 (In the past in Israel, when a man went to get directions from God, he said, Come let us go to the Seer, for he who now is named Prophet was in those days given the name of Seer.) +1Sa 9:10 Then Saul said to his servant, You have said well; come, let us go. So they went to the town where the man of God was. +1Sa 9:11 And when they were on the way up to the town, they saw some young girls going out to get water and said to them, Is the seer here? +1Sa 9:12 And they said, He is; in fact he is before you: go quickly now, for he has come into the town today, for the people are making an offering in the high place today: +1Sa 9:13 When you come into the town you will see him straight away, before he goes up to the high place for the feast: the people are waiting for his blessing before starting the feast, and after that the guests will take part in it. So go up now and you will see him. +1Sa 9:14 So they went up to the town, and when they came inside the town, Samuel came face to face with them on his way to the high place. +1Sa 9:15 Now the day before Saul came, the word of God had come to Samuel, saying, +1Sa 9:16 Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and on him you are to put the holy oil, making him ruler over my people Israel, and he will make my people safe from the hands of the Philistines: for I have seen the sorrow of my people, whose cry has come up to me. +1Sa 9:17 And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, This is the man of whom I gave you word! he it is who is to have authority over my people. +1Sa 9:18 Then Saul came up to Samuel in the doorway of the town and said, Give me directions, if you will be so good, to the house of the seer. +1Sa 9:19 Then Samuel said to Saul, I am the seer; go up before me to the high place and take food with me today: and in the morning I will let you go, after opening to you all the secrets of your heart. +1Sa 9:20 As for your asses which have been wandering for three days, give no thought to them, for they have come back. And for whom are all the desired things in Israel? are they not for you and your father's family? +1Sa 9:21 And Saul said, Am I not a man of Benjamin, the smallest of all the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of the families of Benjamin? why then do you say these words to me? +1Sa 9:22 Then Samuel took Saul and his servant into the guest room, and made them take the chief place among all the guests who were there, about thirty persons. +1Sa 9:23 And Samuel said to the cook, Give me that part which I gave you orders to keep by you. +1Sa 9:24 And the cook took up the leg with the fat tail on it, and put it before Saul. And Samuel said, This is the part which has been kept for you: take it as your part of the feast; because it has been kept for you till the right time came and till the guests were present. So that day Saul took food with Samuel. +1Sa 9:25 And when they had come down from the high place into the town, where a bed was made ready for Saul, he went to rest. +1Sa 9:26 And about dawn Samuel said to Saul on the roof, Get up so that I may send you away. So Saul got up, and he and Samuel went out together. +1Sa 9:27 And on their way down to the end of the town, Samuel said to Saul, Give your servant orders to go on in front of us, (so he went on,) but you keep here, so that I may give you the word of God. +1Sa 10:1 Then Samuel took the bottle of oil, and put the oil on his head and gave him a kiss and said, Is not the Lord with the holy oil making you ruler over Israel, his people? and you will have authority over the people of the Lord, and you will make them safe from the hands of their attackers round about them, and this will be the sign for you: +1Sa 10:2 When you have gone away from me today, you will see two men by the resting-place of Rachel's body, in the land of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you, The asses which you went in search of have come back, and now your father, caring no longer for the asses, is troubled about you, saying, What am I to do about my son? +1Sa 10:3 Then you are to go on from there, and when you come to the oak-tree of Tabor, you will see three men going up to God to Beth-el, one having with him three young goats and another three cakes of bread and another a skin full of wine: +1Sa 10:4 They will say, Peace be with you, and will give you two cakes of bread, which you are to take from them. +1Sa 10:5 After that you will come to Gibeah, the hill of God, where an armed force of the Philistines is stationed: and when you come to the town, you will see a band of prophets coming down from the high place with instruments of music before them; and they will be acting like prophets: +1Sa 10:6 And the spirit of the Lord will come on you with power, and you will be acting like a prophet with them, and will be changed into another man. +1Sa 10:7 And when these signs come to you, see that you take the chance which is offered you; for God is with you. +1Sa 10:8 Then you are to go down before me to Gilgal, where I will come to you, for the offering of burned offerings and peace-offerings: go on waiting there for seven days till I come to you and make clear to you what you have to do. +1Sa 10:9 And it came about, that when he went away from Samuel, God gave him a changed heart: and all those signs took place that day. +1Sa 10:10 And when they came to Gibeah, a band of prophets came face to face with him; and the spirit of God came on him with power and he took his place among them as a prophet. +1Sa 10:11 Now when Saul's old friends saw him among the band of prophets, the people said to one another, What has come to Saul, the son of Kish? Is even Saul among the prophets? +1Sa 10:12 And one of the people of that place said in answer, And who is their father? So it became a common saying, Is even Saul among the prophets? +1Sa 10:13 Then going away from the prophets, he came to the house. +1Sa 10:14 And Saul's father's brother said to him and his servant, Where have you been? And he said, Searching for the asses: and when we saw no sign of them, we came to Samuel. +1Sa 10:15 Then he said, And what did Samuel say to you? +1Sa 10:16 And Saul, answering him, said, He gave us word that the asses had come back. But he said nothing to him of Samuel's words about the kingdom. +1Sa 10:17 Then Samuel sent for the people to come together before the Lord at Mizpah; +1Sa 10:18 And he said to the children of Israel, The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, I took Israel out of Egypt, and made you free from the hands of the Egyptians and from all the kingdoms which kept you down: +1Sa 10:19 But today you are turned away from your God, who himself has been your saviour from all your troubles and sorrows; and you have said to him, Put a king over us. So now, take your places before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands. +1Sa 10:20 So Samuel made all the tribes of Israel come near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken. +1Sa 10:21 Then he made the tribe of Benjamin come near by families, and the family of the Matrites was taken: and from them, Saul, the son of Kish, was taken: but when they went in search of him he was nowhere to be seen. +1Sa 10:22 So they put another question to the Lord, Is the man present here? And the answer of the Lord was, He is keeping himself from view among the goods. +1Sa 10:23 So they went quickly and made him come out; and when he took his place among the people, he was taller by a head than any of the people. +1Sa 10:24 And Samuel said to all the people, Do you see the man of the Lord's selection, how there is no other like him among all the people? And all the people with loud cries said, Long life to the king! +1Sa 10:25 Then Samuel gave the people the laws of the kingdom, writing them in a book which he put in a safe place before the Lord. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. +1Sa 10:26 And Saul went to Gibeah, to his house; and with him went the men of war whose hearts had been touched by God. +1Sa 10:27 But certain good-for-nothing persons said, How is this man to be our saviour? And having no respect for him, they gave him no offering. +1Sa 11:1 Then about a month after this, Nahash the Ammonite came up and put his forces in position for attacking Jabesh-gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make an agreement with us and we will be your servants. +1Sa 11:2 And Nahash the Ammonite said to them, I will make an agreement with you on this condition, that all your right eyes are put out; so that I may make it a cause of shame to all Israel. +1Sa 11:3 Then the responsible men of Jabesh said to him, Give us seven days, so that we may send men to every part of Israel: and then, if no one comes to our help, we will come out to you. +1Sa 11:4 So they sent representatives to Saul's town Gibeah, and these gave the news to the people: and all the people gave themselves to weeping. +1Sa 11:5 Now Saul came from the field, driving the oxen before him; and he said, Why are the people weeping? And they gave him word of what the men of Jabesh had said. +1Sa 11:6 And at their words, the spirit of God came on Saul with power, and he became very angry. +1Sa 11:7 And he took two oxen and, cutting them up, sent them through all the land of Israel by the hand of runners, saying, If any man does not come out after Saul and Samuel, this will be done to his oxen. And the fear of the Lord came on the people and they came out like one man. +1Sa 11:8 And he had them numbered in Bezek: the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. +1Sa 11:9 Then he said to the representatives who had come, Say to the men of Jabesh-gilead, Tomorrow, by the time the sun is high, you will be made safe. And the representatives came and gave the news to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad. +1Sa 11:10 So the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you. +1Sa 11:11 Now on the day after, Saul put the people into three bands, and in the morning watch they came to the tents of the Ammonites, and they went on attacking them till the heat of the day: and those who were not put to death were put to flight in every direction, so that no two of them were together. +1Sa 11:12 And the people said to Samuel, Who was it who said, Is Saul to be our king? give the men up, so that we may put them to death. +1Sa 11:13 And Saul said, Not a man is to be put to death today: for today the Lord has made Israel safe. +1Sa 11:14 Then Samuel said to the people, Come, let us go to Gilgal and there make the kingdom strong in the hands of Saul. +1Sa 11:15 So all the people went to Gilgal; and there in Gilgal they made Saul king before the Lord; and peace-offerings were offered before the Lord; and there Saul and all the men of Israel were glad with great joy. +1Sa 12:1 And Samuel said to all Israel, You see that I have given ear to everything you said to me, and have made a king over you. +1Sa 12:2 And now, see, the king is before you: and I am old and grey-headed, and my sons are with you: I have been living before your eyes from my early days till now. +1Sa 12:3 Here I am: give witness against me before the Lord and before the man on whom he has put the holy oil: whose ox or ass have I taken? to whom have I been untrue? who has been crushed down by me? from whose hand have I taken a price for the blinding of my eyes? I will give it all back to you. +1Sa 12:4 And they said, You have never been untrue to us or cruel to us; you have taken nothing from any man. +1Sa 12:5 Then he said, The Lord is witness against you, and the man on whom he has put the holy oil is witness this day that you have seen no wrong in me. And they said, He is witness. +1Sa 12:6 And Samuel said to the people, The Lord is witness, who gave authority to Moses and Aaron, and who took your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. +1Sa 12:7 Keep your places now, while I take up the argument with you before the Lord, and give you the story of the righteousness of the Lord, which he has made clear by his acts to you and to your fathers. +1Sa 12:8 When Jacob and his sons had come into Egypt, and were crushed by the Egyptians, the prayers of your fathers came up to the Lord, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who took your fathers out of Egypt, and he put them into this place. +1Sa 12:9 But they were false to the Lord their God, and he gave them up into the hands of Sisera, captain of the army of Jabin, king of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the king of Moab, who made war against them. +1Sa 12:10 Then crying out to the Lord, they said, We have done evil, because we have been turned away from the Lord, worshipping the Baals and the Astartes: but now, make us safe from those who are against us and we will be your servants. +1Sa 12:11 So the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and took you out of the power of those who were fighting against you on every side, and made you safe. +1Sa 12:12 And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, was coming against you, you said to me, No more of this; we will have a king for our ruler: when the Lord your God was your king. +1Sa 12:13 Here, then, is the king marked out by you: the Lord has put a king over you. +1Sa 12:14 If in the fear of the Lord you are his servants, hearing his voice and not going against the orders of the Lord, but being true to the Lord your God, you and the king ruling over you, then all will be well: +1Sa 12:15 But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord, but go against his orders, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and against your king for your destruction, as it was against your fathers. +1Sa 12:16 Now keep where you are and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. +1Sa 12:17 Is it not now the time of the grain cutting? My cry will go up to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain: so that you may see and be conscious of your great sin which you have done in the eyes of the Lord in desiring a king for yourselves. +1Sa 12:18 So Samuel made prayer to the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people were in fear of the Lord and of Samuel. +1Sa 12:19 And all the people said to Samuel, Make prayer for us to the Lord your God so that death may not overtake us: for in addition to all our sins we have done this evil, in desiring a king. +1Sa 12:20 Then Samuel said to the people, Have no fear: truly you have done evil, but do not be turned away from the Lord; be his servants with all your heart; +1Sa 12:21 And do not go from the right way turning to those false gods in which there is no profit and no salvation, for they are false. +1Sa 12:22 For the Lord will not give his people up, because of the honour of his name; for it was the Lord's pleasure to make of you a people for himself. +1Sa 12:23 And as for me, never will I go against the orders of the Lord by giving up my prayers for you: but I will go on teaching you the good and right way. +1Sa 12:24 Only go in the fear of the Lord, and be his true servants with all your heart, keeping in mind what great things he has done for you. +1Sa 12:25 But if you still do evil, destruction will overtake you and your king. +1Sa 13:1 *** +1Sa 13:2 And Saul took for himself three thousand men of Israel, of whom he kept two thousand with him in Michmash and in the mountain of Beth-el, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah in the land of Benjamin: the rest of the people he sent back to their tents. +1Sa 13:3 And Jonathan made an attack on the armed force of the Philistines stationed at Gibeah; and news was given to the Philistines that the Hebrews were turned against them. And Saul had a horn sounded through all the land, +1Sa 13:4 And all Israel had the news that Saul had made an attack on the Philistines, and that Israel was bitterly hated by the Philistines. And the people came together after Saul to Gilgal. +1Sa 13:5 And the Philistines came together to make war on Israel, three thousand war-carriages and six thousand horsemen and an army of people like the sands of the sea in number: they came up and took up their position in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven. +1Sa 13:6 When the men of Israel saw the danger they were in, (for the people were troubled,) they took cover in cracks in the hillsides and in the woods and in rocks and holes and hollows. +1Sa 13:7 And a great number of the people had gone over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but Saul was still in Gilgal, and all the people went after him shaking in fear. +1Sa 13:8 And he went on waiting there for seven days, the time fixed by Samuel: but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were starting to go away from him. +1Sa 13:9 Then Saul said, Come here and give me the burned offering and the peace-offerings. And he made a burned offering to the Lord. +1Sa 13:10 And when the burned offering was ended, Samuel came; and Saul went out to see him and to give him a blessing. +1Sa 13:11 And Samuel said, What have you done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were going away from me, and you had not come at the time which had been fixed, and the Philistines had come together at Michmash; +1Sa 13:12 I said, Now the Philistines will come down on me at Gilgal, and I have made no prayer for help to the Lord: and so, forcing myself to do it, I made a burned offering. +1Sa 13:13 And Samuel said to Saul, You have done a foolish thing: you have not kept the rules which the Lord your God gave you; it was the purpose of the Lord to make your authority over Israel safe for ever. +1Sa 13:14 But now, your authority will not go on: the Lord, searching for a man who is pleasing to him in every way, has given him the place of ruler over his people, because you have not done what the Lord gave you orders to do. +1Sa 13:15 Then Samuel went up from Gilgal and the rest of the people went up after Saul against the men of war, and they came from Gilgal to Gibeah in the land of Benjamin: and Saul took the number of the people who were with him, about six hundred men. +1Sa 13:16 And Saul, with Jonathan his son and the people who were with them, was waiting in Geba in the land of Benjamin: but the tents of the Philistines were in Michmash. +1Sa 13:17 And three bands of men came out from the Philistines to make an attack; one band went by the road which goes to Ophrah, into the land of Shual: +1Sa 13:18 And another went in the direction of Beth-horon: and another went by the hill looking down on the valley of Zeboiim, in the direction of the waste land. +1Sa 13:19 Now there was no iron-worker in all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, For fear the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears: +1Sa 13:20 But all the Israelites had to go to the Philistines to get their ploughs and blades and axes and hooks made sharp; +1Sa 13:21 For they had instruments for putting an edge on their ploughs and blades and forks and axes, and for putting iron points on their ox-driving rods. +1Sa 13:22 So on the day of the fight at Michmash, not a sword or a spear was to be seen in the hands of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan: only Saul and his son Jonathan had them. +1Sa 13:23 And the armed force of the Philistines went out to the narrow way of Michmash. +1Sa 14:1 Now one day Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who was with him, looking after his arms, Come, let us go over to the Philistine force over there. But he said nothing to his father. +1Sa 14:2 And Saul was still waiting in the farthest part of Geba, under the fruit-tree in Migron: there were about six hundred men with him; +1Sa 14:3 And Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, brother of Ichabod, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh, who had the ephod. And the people had no idea that Jonathan had gone. +1Sa 14:4 Now between the narrow roads over the mountains by which Jonathan was making his way to the Philistines' forces, there was a sharp overhanging rock on one side, and a sharp rock on the other side: one was named Bozez and the other Seneh. +1Sa 14:5 The one rock went up on the north in front of Michmash and the other on the south in front of Geba. +1Sa 14:6 And Jonathan said to his young servant who had his arms, Come, let us go over to the armies of these men who have no circumcision: it may be that the Lord will give us help, for there is no limit to his power; the Lord is able to give salvation by a great army or by a small band. +1Sa 14:7 And his servant said to him, Do whatever is in your mind: see, I am with you in every impulse of your heart. +1Sa 14:8 Then Jonathan said, Now we will go over to these men and let them see us. +1Sa 14:9 If they say to us, Keep quiet where you are till we come to you; then we will keep our places and not go up to them. +1Sa 14:10 But if they say, Come up to us; then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hands: and this will be the sign to us. +1Sa 14:11 And they let the Philistine force see the two of them: and the Philistines said, Look! the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have taken cover. +1Sa 14:12 And the armed men of the force gave Jonathan and his servant their answer, saying, Come up here to us, and we will let you see something. Then Jonathan said to his servant, Come up after me: for the Lord has given them up into the hands of Israel. +1Sa 14:13 And Jonathan went up, gripping with his hands and his feet, his servant going up after him; and the Philistines gave way before Jonathan when he made an attack on them, and his servant put them to death after him. +1Sa 14:14 And at their first attack, Jonathan and his servant put to the sword about twenty men, all inside the space of half an acre of land. +1Sa 14:15 And there was great fear in the tents and in the field and among all the men of the armed force, and the attackers were shaking with fear; even the earth was moved with a great shaking and there was a fear as from God. +1Sa 14:16 And the watchmen of Saul, looking out from Geba in the land of Benjamin, saw all the army flowing away and running here and there. +1Sa 14:17 Then Saul said to the people who were with him, Let everyone be numbered and let us see who has gone from us. And when they had been numbered, it was seen that Jonathan and his servant were not there. +1Sa 14:18 And Saul said to Ahijah, Let the ephod come here. For he went before Israel with the ephod at that time. +1Sa 14:19 Now while Saul was talking to the priest, the noise in the tents of the Philistines became louder and louder; and Saul said to the priest, Take back your hand. +1Sa 14:20 And Saul and all the people with him came together and went forward to the fight: and every man's sword was turned against the man at his side, and there was a very great noise. +1Sa 14:21 Then the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines for some time, and had gone up with them to their tents, turning round were joined to those who were with Saul and Jonathan. +1Sa 14:22 And all the men of Israel who had taken cover in the hill-country of Ephraim, hearing that the Philistines had been put to flight, went after them, attacking them. +1Sa 14:23 So the Lord made Israel safe that day: and the fight went over to Beth-aven. +1Sa 14:24 And all the people were with Saul, about twenty thousand men, and the fight was general through all the hill-country of Ephraim; but Saul made a great error that day, by putting the people under an oath, saying, Let that man be cursed who takes food before evening comes and I have given punishment to those who are against me. So the people had not a taste of food. +1Sa 14:25 And there was honey on the face of the field, and all the people came to the honey, the bees having gone from it; +1Sa 14:26 But not a man put his hand to his mouth for fear of the curse. +1Sa 14:27 But Jonathan, having no knowledge of the oath his father had put on the people, stretching out the rod which was in his hand, put the end of it in the honey, and put it to his mouth; then his eyes were made bright. +1Sa 14:28 Then one of the people said to him, Your father put the people under an oath, saying, Let that man be cursed who takes any food this day. And the people were feeble, needing food. +1Sa 14:29 Then Jonathan said, My father has made trouble come on the land: now see how bright my eyes have become because I have taken a little of this honey. +1Sa 14:30 How much more if the people had freely taken their food from the goods of those who were fighting against them! would there not have been much greater destruction among the Philistines? +1Sa 14:31 That day they overcame the Philistines from Michmash to Aijalon: and the people were feeble from need of food. +1Sa 14:32 And rushing at the goods taken in the fight, the people took oxen and sheep and young oxen, and put them to death there on the earth, and had a meal, taking the flesh with the blood in it. +1Sa 14:33 Then it was said to Saul, See, the people are sinning against the Lord, taking the blood with the flesh. And he said to those who gave him the news, Now let a great stone be rolled to me here. +1Sa 14:34 And Saul said, Go about among the people and say to them, Let every man come here to me with his ox and his sheep, and put them to death here, and take his meal: do no sin against the Lord by taking the blood with the flesh. So all the people took their oxen with them that night and put them to death there. +1Sa 14:35 And Saul put up an altar to the Lord: this was the first altar which he put up to the Lord. +1Sa 14:36 And Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night, attacking them till the morning, till there is not a man of them living. And they said, Do whatever seems right to you. Then the priest said, Let us come near to God. +1Sa 14:37 And Saul, desiring directions from God, said, Am I to go down after the Philistines? will you give them up into the hands of Israel? But he gave him no answer that day. +1Sa 14:38 And Saul said, Come near, all you chiefs of the people, and let us get word from God and see in whom is this sin today. +1Sa 14:39 For, by the living Lord, the saviour of Israel, even if the sinner is Jonathan, my son, death will certainly be his fate. But not a man among all the people gave him any answer. +1Sa 14:40 Then he said to all Israel, You be on one side, and I with Jonathan my son will be on the other side. And the people said to Saul, Do whatever seems good to you. +1Sa 14:41 Then Saul said to the Lord, the God of Israel, Why have you not given me an answer today? If the sin is in me or in Jonathan my son, O Lord God of Israel, give Urim, and if it is in your people Israel, give Thummim. And by the decision of the Lord, Saul and Jonathan were marked out, and the people went free. +1Sa 14:42 And Saul said, Give your decision between my son Jonathan and me. And Jonathan was taken. +1Sa 14:43 Then Saul said to Jonathan, Give me an account of what you have done. And Jonathan gave him the story and said, Certainly I took a little honey on the end of my rod; and now death is to be my fate. +1Sa 14:44 And Saul said, May God's punishment be on me if death is not your fate, Jonathan. +1Sa 14:45 And the people said to Saul, Is death to come to Jonathan, the worker of this great salvation for Israel? Let it not be so: by the living Lord, not one hair of his head is to be touched, for he has been working with God today. So the people kept Jonathan from death. +1Sa 14:46 Then Saul, turning back, went after the Philistines no longer: and the Philistines went back to their place. +1Sa 14:47 Now when Saul had taken his place as ruler of Israel, he made war on those who were against him on every side, Moab and the Ammonites and Edom and the kings of Zobah and the Philistines: and whichever way he went, he overcame them. +1Sa 14:48 And he did great things, and overcame the Amalekites, and made Israel safe from the hands of their attackers. +1Sa 14:49 Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan and Ishvi and Malchi-shua; and these are the names of his daughters: the older was named Merab and the younger Michal; +1Sa 14:50 The name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz; the captain of his army was Abner, the son of Ner, brother of Saul's father. +1Sa 14:51 Kish, the father of Saul, and Ner, the father of Abner, were sons of Abiel. +1Sa 14:52 All through the life of Saul there was bitter war against the Philistines; and whenever Saul saw any strong man or any good fighting man, he kept him near himself. +1Sa 15:1 And Samuel said to Saul, The Lord sent me to put the holy oil on you and to make you king over his people, over Israel: so give ear now to the words of the Lord. +1Sa 15:2 The Lord of armies says, I will give punishment to Amalek for what he did to Israel, fighting against him on the way when Israel came out of Egypt. +1Sa 15:3 Go now and put Amalek to the sword, putting to the curse all they have, without mercy: put to death every man and woman, every child and baby at the breast, every ox and sheep, camel and ass. +1Sa 15:4 And Saul sent for the people and had them numbered in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah. +1Sa 15:5 And Saul came to the town of Amalek, and took up his position in the valley secretly. +1Sa 15:6 And Saul said to the Kenites, Go away, take yourselves out from among the Amalekites, or destruction will overtake you with them: for you were kind to the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. So the Kenites went away from among the Amalekites. +1Sa 15:7 And Saul made an attack on the Amalekites from Havilah on the road to Shur, which is before Egypt. +1Sa 15:8 He took Agag, king of the Amalekites, prisoner, and put all the people to the sword without mercy. +1Sa 15:9 But Saul and the people did not put Agag to death, and they kept the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fat beasts and the lambs, and whatever was good, not desiring to put them to the curse: but everything which was bad and of no use they put to the curse. +1Sa 15:10 Then the Lord said to Samuel, +1Sa 15:11 It is no longer my pleasure for Saul to be king; for he is turned back from going in my ways, and has not done my orders. And Samuel was very sad, crying to the Lord in prayer all night. +1Sa 15:12 And early in the morning he got up and went to Saul; and word was given to Samuel that Saul had come to Carmel and put up a pillar, and had gone from there down to Gilgal. +1Sa 15:13 And Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, May the blessing of the Lord be with you: I have done what was ordered by the Lord. +1Sa 15:14 And Samuel said, What then is this sound of the crying of sheep and the noise of oxen which comes to my ears? +1Sa 15:15 And Saul said, They have taken them from the Amalekites: for the people have kept the best of the sheep and of the oxen as an offering to the Lord your God; all the rest we have given up to destruction. +1Sa 15:16 Then Samuel said to Saul, Say no more! Let me give you word of what the Lord has said to me this night. And he said to him, Say on. +1Sa 15:17 And Samuel said, Though you may seem little to yourself, are you not head of the tribes of Israel? for the Lord with the holy oil made you king over Israel, +1Sa 15:18 And the Lord sent you on a journey and said, Go and put to the curse those sinners, the Amalekites, fighting against them till every one is dead. +1Sa 15:19 Why then did you not do the orders of the Lord, but by violently taking their goods did evil in the eyes of the Lord? +1Sa 15:20 And Saul said, Truly, I have done the orders of the Lord and have gone the way the Lord sent me; I have taken Agag, the king of Amalek, and have given the Amalekites up to destruction. +1Sa 15:21 But the people took some of their goods, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which were put to the curse, to make an offering of them to the Lord your God in Gilgal. +1Sa 15:22 And Samuel said, Has the Lord as much delight in offerings and burned offerings as in the doing of his orders? Truly, to do his pleasure is better than to make offerings, and to give ear to him than the fat of sheep. +1Sa 15:23 For to go against his orders is like the sin of those who make use of secret arts, and pride is like giving worship to images. Because you have put away from you the word of the Lord, he has put you from your place as king. +1Sa 15:24 And Saul said to Samuel, Great is my sin: for I have gone against the orders of the Lord and against your words: because, fearing the people, I did what they said. +1Sa 15:25 So now, let my sin have forgiveness, and go back with me to give worship to the Lord. +1Sa 15:26 And Samuel said to Saul, I will not go back with you: for you have put away from you the word of the Lord, and the Lord has put you from your place as king over Israel. +1Sa 15:27 And when Samuel was turning round to go away, Saul took the skirt of his robe in his hand, and the cloth came away. +1Sa 15:28 And Samuel said to him, The Lord has taken away the kingdom of Israel from you this day by force, and has given it to a neighbour of yours who is better than you. +1Sa 15:29 And further, the Glory of Israel will not say what is false, and his purpose may not be changed: for he is not a man, whose purpose may be changed. +1Sa 15:30 Then he said, Great is my sin: but still, give me honour now before the heads of my people and before Israel, and come back with me so that I may give worship to the Lord your God. +1Sa 15:31 So Samuel went back after Saul, and Saul gave worship to the Lord. +1Sa 15:32 Then Samuel said, Make Agag, the king of the Amalekites, come here to me. And Agag came to him shaking with fear. And Agag said, Truly the pain of death is past. +1Sa 15:33 And Samuel said, As your sword has made women without children, so now your mother will be without children among women. And Agag was cut up by Samuel, bone from bone, before the Lord in Gilgal. +1Sa 15:34 Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah, in the land of Saul. +1Sa 15:35 And Samuel never saw Saul again till the day of his death; but Samuel was sorrowing for Saul: and it was no longer the Lord's pleasure for Saul to be king over Israel. +1Sa 16:1 And the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you go on sorrowing for Saul, seeing that I have put him from his place as king over Israel? Take oil in your vessel and go; I will send you to Jesse, the Beth-lehemite: for I have got a king for myself among his sons. +1Sa 16:2 And Samuel said, How is it possible for me to go? If Saul gets news of it he will put me to death. And the Lord said, Take a young cow with you and say, I have come to make an offering to the Lord. +1Sa 16:3 And send for Jesse to be present at the offering, and I will make clear to you what you are to do: and you are to put the holy oil on him whose name I give you. +1Sa 16:4 And Samuel did as the Lord said and came to Beth-lehem. And the responsible men of the town came out to him in fear and said, Do you come in peace? +1Sa 16:5 And he said, In peace: I have come to make an offering to the Lord: make yourselves clean and come with me to make the offering. And he made Jesse and his sons clean, and sent for them to be present at the offering. +1Sa 16:6 Now when they came, looking at Eliab, he said, Clearly the man of the Lord's selection is before him. +1Sa 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not take note of his face or how tall he is, because I will not have him: for the Lord's view is not man's; man takes note of the outer form, but the Lord sees the heart. +1Sa 16:8 Then Jesse sent for Abinadab and made him come before Samuel. And he said, The Lord has not taken this one. +1Sa 16:9 Then Jesse made Shammah come before him. And he said, The Lord has not taken this one. +1Sa 16:10 And Jesse made his seven sons come before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not taken any of these. +1Sa 16:11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, Are all your children here? And he said, There is still the youngest, and he is looking after the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and make him come here: for we will not take our seats till he is here. +1Sa 16:12 So he sent and made him come in. Now he had red hair and beautiful eyes and pleasing looks. And the Lord said, Come, put the oil on him, for this is he. +1Sa 16:13 Then Samuel took the bottle of oil, and put the oil on him there among his brothers: and from that day the spirit of the Lord came on David with power. So Samuel went back to Ramah. +1Sa 16:14 Now the spirit of the Lord had gone from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord was troubling him. +1Sa 16:15 And Saul's servants said to him, See now, an evil spirit from God is troubling you. +1Sa 16:16 Now give orders to your servants who are here before you to go in search of a man who is an expert player on a corded instrument: and it will be that when the evil spirit from God is on you, he will make music for you on his instrument, and you will get well. +1Sa 16:17 And Saul said to his servants, Then get me a man who is an expert player, and make him come to me. +1Sa 16:18 Then one of the servants in answer said, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Beth-lehemite, who is expert at playing, and a strong man and a man of war; and he is wise in his words, and pleasing in looks, and the Lord is with him. +1Sa 16:19 So Saul sent his servants to Jesse and said, Send me your son David who is with the sheep. +1Sa 16:20 And Jesse took five cakes of bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them to Saul by David. +1Sa 16:21 And David came to Saul, waiting before him: and he became very dear to Saul, who made him his servant, giving him the care of his arms. +1Sa 16:22 And Saul sent to Jesse saying, Let David be with me, for he is pleasing to me. +1Sa 16:23 And whenever the evil spirit from God came on Saul, David took his instrument and made music: so new life came to Saul, and he got well, and the evil spirit went away from him. +1Sa 17:1 Now the Philistines got their armies together for war, and came together at Socoh in the land of Judah, and took up their position between Socoh and Azekah in Ephes-dammim. +1Sa 17:2 And Saul and the men of Israel came together and took up their position in the valley of Elah, and put their forces in order against the Philistines. +1Sa 17:3 The Philistines were stationed on the mountain on one side and Israel on the mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them. +1Sa 17:4 And a fighter came out from the tents of the Philistines, named Goliath of Gath; he was more than six cubits tall. +1Sa 17:5 And he had a head-dress of brass on his head, and he was dressed in a coat of metal, the weight of which was five thousand shekels of brass. +1Sa 17:6 His legs were covered with plates of brass and hanging on his back was a javelin of brass. +1Sa 17:7 The stem of his spear was as long as a cloth-worker's rod, and its head was made of six hundred shekels' weight of iron: and one went before him with his body-cover. +1Sa 17:8 He took up his position and in a loud voice said to the armies of Israel, Why have you come out to make war? Am I not a Philistine and you servants of Saul? Send out a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. +1Sa 17:9 If he is able to have a fight with me and overcome me, then we will be your servants: but if I am able to overcome him, then you will be our servants and do work for us. +1Sa 17:10 And the Philistine said, I have put to shame the armies of Israel this day; give me a man so that we may have a fight together. +1Sa 17:11 And Saul and all Israel, hearing those words of the Philistine, were troubled and full of fear. +1Sa 17:12 Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem-judah named Jesse, who had eight sons; and he was an old man in Saul's day, and far on in years. +1Sa 17:13 And the three oldest sons of Jesse had gone with Saul to the fight: the names of the three who went to the fight were Eliab, the oldest, and Abinadab the second, and Shammah the third. +1Sa 17:14 And David was the youngest: and the three oldest were with Saul's army. +1Sa 17:15 Now David went to and from Saul, looking after his father's sheep at Beth-lehem. +1Sa 17:16 And the Philistine came near every morning and evening for forty days. +1Sa 17:17 And Jesse said to his son David, Take now for your brothers an ephah of this dry grain and these ten cakes of bread, and go quickly with them to the tents to your brothers; +1Sa 17:18 And take these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers are and come back with a sign to say how they are. +1Sa 17:19 Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines. +1Sa 17:20 And David got up early in the morning, and, giving the sheep into the care of a keeper, took the things and went as Jesse had said; and he came to the lines where the carts were, when the army was going out to the fight giving their war-cry. +1Sa 17:21 And Israel and the Philistines had put their forces in position, army against army. +1Sa 17:22 And David gave his parcels into the hands of the keeper of the army stores, and went running to the army and came to his brothers to get knowledge about them. +1Sa 17:23 And while he was talking to them, the fighter, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, came out from the Philistines' lines and said the same words, in David's hearing. +1Sa 17:24 And all the men of Israel, when they saw him, went in flight, overcome with fear. +1Sa 17:25 And the men of Israel said, Have you seen this man? Clearly he has come out to put shame on Israel: and it is certain that if any man overcomes him, the king will give that man great wealth, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's family free in Israel. +1Sa 17:26 And David said to the men near him, What will be done to the man who overcomes this Philistine and takes away the shame from Israel? for who is this Philistine, a man without circumcision, that he has put shame on the armies of the living God? +1Sa 17:27 And the people gave him this answer, So it will be done to the man who overcomes him. +1Sa 17:28 And Eliab, his oldest brother, hearing what David said to the men, was moved to wrath against David, and said, Why have you come here? Into whose care have you given that little flock of sheep in the waste land? I have knowledge of your pride and the evil of your heart, you have come down to see the fight. +1Sa 17:29 And David said, What have I done now? was it not only a word? +1Sa 17:30 And turning away from him to one of the other men, he said the same words: and the people gave him the same answer. +1Sa 17:31 And, hearing what David said, they gave Saul word of it: and he sent for him. +1Sa 17:32 And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart become feeble because of him; I, your servant, will go out and have a fight with this Philistine. +1Sa 17:33 And Saul said to David, You are not able to go out against this Philistine and have a fight with him: for you are only a boy, and he has been a man of war from his earliest days. +1Sa 17:34 And David said to Saul, Your servant has been keeper of his father's sheep; and if a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, +1Sa 17:35 I went out after him, and overcame him, and took it out of his mouth: and if, turning on me, he came at me, I took him by the hair and overcame him and put him to death. +1Sa 17:36 Your servant has overcome lion and bear: and the fate of this Philistine, who is without circumcision, will be like theirs, seeing that he has put shame on the armies of the living God. +1Sa 17:37 And David said, The Lord, who kept me safe from the grip of the lion and the bear, will be my saviour from the hands of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Go! and may the Lord be with you. +1Sa 17:38 Then Saul gave David his clothing of war, and put a head-dress of brass on his head and had him clothed with a coat of metal. +1Sa 17:39 And David took Saul's sword and put the band round him over the metal coat, and was unable to go forward; for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, It is not possible for me to go out with these, for I am not used to them. So David took them off. +1Sa 17:40 Then he took his stick in his hand, and got five smooth stones from the bed of the stream and put them in a bag such as is used by sheep-keepers; and in his hand was a leather band used for sending stones: and so he went in the direction of the Philistine. +1Sa 17:41 And the Philistine came nearer to David; and the man who had his body-cover went before him. +1Sa 17:42 And when the Philistine, taking note, saw David, he had a poor opinion of him: for he was only a boy, red-haired and good-looking. +1Sa 17:43 And the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog, that you come out to me with sticks? And the Philistine put curses on David by all his gods. +1Sa 17:44 And the Philistine said to David, Come here to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. +1Sa 17:45 Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin: but I come to you in the name of the Lord of armies, the God of the armies of Israel on which you have put shame. +1Sa 17:46 This day the Lord will give you up into my hands, and I will overcome you, and take your head off you; and I will give the bodies of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth today, so that all the earth may see that Israel has a God; +1Sa 17:47 And all these people who are here today may see that the Lord does not give salvation by sword and spear: for the fight is the Lord's, and he will give you up into our hands. +1Sa 17:48 Now when the Philistine made a move and came near to David, David quickly went at a run in the direction of the army, meeting the Philistine face to face. +1Sa 17:49 And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and sent it from his leather band straight at the Philistine, and the stone went deep into his brow, and he went down to the earth, falling on his face. +1Sa 17:50 So David overcame the Philistine with his leather band and a stone, wounding the Philistine and causing his death: but David had no sword in his hand. +1Sa 17:51 So running up to the Philistine and putting his foot on him, David took his sword out of its cover, and put him to death, cutting off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their fighter was dead, they went in flight. +1Sa 17:52 And the men of Israel and of Judah got up, and gave a cry, and went after the Philistines as far as Gath and the town doors of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines were falling down by the road from Shaaraim all the way to Gath and Ekron. +1Sa 17:53 Then the children of Israel came back from going after the Philistines, and took their goods from the tents. +1Sa 17:54 And David took the head of the Philistine to Jerusalem, but the metal war-dress and the arms he put in his tent. +1Sa 17:55 And when Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain of the army, Abner, whose son is this young man? And Abner said, On your life, O king, I have no idea. +1Sa 17:56 And the king said, Make search and see whose son this young man is. +1Sa 17:57 And when David was coming back after the destruction of the Philistine, Abner took him to Saul, with the head of the Philistine in his hand. +1Sa 17:58 And Saul said to him, Young man, whose son are you? And David in answer said, I am the son of your servant Jesse of Beth-lehem. +1Sa 18:1 Now after David's talk with Saul was ended, the soul of Jonathan was joined with the soul of David, and David became as dear to him as his very life. +1Sa 18:2 And that day Saul took David and would not let him go back to his father's house. +1Sa 18:3 Then Jonathan and David made an agreement together, because of Jonathan's love for David. +1Sa 18:4 And Jonathan took off the robe he had on and gave it to David, with all his military dress, even to his sword and his bow and the band round his body. +1Sa 18:5 And David went wherever Saul sent him, and did wisely: and Saul put him at the head of his men of war, and this was pleasing to all the people as well as to Saul's servants. +1Sa 18:6 Now on their way, when David came back after the destruction of the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel, with songs and dances, meeting David with melody and joy and instruments of music. +1Sa 18:7 And the women, answering one another in their song, said, Saul has put to death his thousands and David his tens of thousands. +1Sa 18:8 And Saul was very angry and this saying was unpleasing to him; and he said, They have given David credit for tens of thousands, and to me for only thousands: what more is there for him but the kingdom? +1Sa 18:9 And from that day Saul was looking with envy on David. +1Sa 18:10 Now on the day after, an evil spirit from God came on Saul with great force and he was acting like a prophet among the men of his house, while David was making music for him, as he did day by day: and Saul had his spear in his hand. +1Sa 18:11 And Saul, balancing the spear in his hand, said, I will give David a blow, pinning him to the wall. And David got away from him twice. +1Sa 18:12 And Saul went in fear of David, because the Lord was with David and had gone away from Saul. +1Sa 18:13 So Saul sent him away, and made him a captain over a thousand; and he went about his business before the people. +1Sa 18:14 And in all his undertakings David did wisely; and the Lord was with him. +1Sa 18:15 And when Saul saw how wisely he did, he was in fear of him. +1Sa 18:16 But David was loved by all Israel and Judah, for he went out and came in before them. +1Sa 18:17 And Saul said to David, Here is my oldest daughter Merab, whom I will give you for your wife: only be strong for me, fighting in the Lord's wars. For Saul said, Let it not be through me that his fate comes to him, but through the Philistines. +1Sa 18:18 And David said to Saul, Who am I, and what is my father's family in Israel, that I am to be son-in-law to the king? +1Sa 18:19 But when the time came to give Merab, Saul's daughter, to David, she was given to Adriel of Meholath. +1Sa 18:20 And Saul's daughter Michal was in love with David: and Saul had word of it and was pleased. +1Sa 18:21 And Saul said, I will give her to him, so that she may be a cause of danger to him, and so that the hands of the Philistines may be against him. So Saul said to David, Today you are to become my son-in-law for the second time. +1Sa 18:22 And Saul gave his servants orders saying, Have talk with David secretly and say to him, See how the king has delight in you, and how you are loved by all his servants: then be the king's son-in-law. +1Sa 18:23 And Saul's servants said these things to David. And David said, Does it seem to you a small thing to be the king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, of no great name? +1Sa 18:24 And the servants of Saul gave him an account of what David had said. +1Sa 18:25 And Saul said, Then say to David, The king has no desire for any bride-price, but only for the private parts of a hundred Philistines so that the king may get the better of his haters. But it was in Saul's mind that David might come to his end by the hands of the Philistines. +1Sa 18:26 And when his servants said these words to David, he was well pleased to be the son-in-law of the king. And the days were still not past. +1Sa 18:27 So David and his men got up and went, and put to death two hundred of the Philistines; and David took their private parts and gave the full number of them to the king, so that he might be the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michal for his wife. +1Sa 18:28 And it was clear to Saul that the Lord was with David; and he was loved by all Israel. +1Sa 18:29 And Saul's fear of David became all the greater, and he went on hating him, day by day. +1Sa 18:30 Then the rulers of the Philistines went out to war: and whenever they went out, David did more wisely than all the other servants of Saul, so that his name became greatly honoured. +1Sa 19:1 And Saul gave orders to his son Jonathan and to all his servants to put David to death. But Saul's son Jonathan had great delight in David. +1Sa 19:2 And Jonathan said to David, Saul, my father, is purposing your death: so now, take care in the morning, and keep yourself safe in a secret place: +1Sa 19:3 And I will go out and take my place by my father's side in the field near where you are; and I will get into talk with my father about you, and when I see how things are, I will give you word. +1Sa 19:4 And Jonathan gave his father Saul a good account of David, and said to him, Let not the king do wrong against his servant, against David; because he has done you no wrong, and all his acts have had a good outcome for you: +1Sa 19:5 For he put his life in danger and overcame the Philistine, and the Lord gave all Israel salvation: you saw it and were glad: why then are you sinning against him who has done no wrong, desiring the death of David without cause? +1Sa 19:6 And Saul gave ear to the voice of Jonathan, and said with an oath, By the living Lord, he is not to be put to death. +1Sa 19:7 Then Jonathan sent for David and gave him word of all these things. And Jonathan took David to Saul, who kept him by his side as in the past. +1Sa 19:8 And there was war again: and David went out fighting the Philistines, causing great destruction among them; and they went in flight before him. +1Sa 19:9 And an evil spirit from the Lord came on Saul, when he was seated in his house with his spear in his hand; and David made music for him. +1Sa 19:10 And Saul would have sent his spear through him, pinning him to the wall, but he got away and the spear went into the wall: and that night David went in flight and got away. +1Sa 19:11 Then in that night Saul sent men to David's house to keep watch on him so as to put him to death in the morning: and David's wife Michal said to him, If you do not go away to a safe place tonight you will be put to death in the morning. +1Sa 19:12 So Michal let David down through the window, and he went in flight and got away. +1Sa 19:13 Then Michal took the image and put it in the bed, with a cushion of goat's hair at its head, and she put clothing over it. +1Sa 19:14 And when Saul sent men to take David, she said, He is ill. +1Sa 19:15 And Saul sent his men to see David, saying, Do not come back without him, take him in his bed, so that I may put him to death. +1Sa 19:16 And when the men came in, there was the image in the bed, with the cushion of goat's hair at its head +1Sa 19:17 And Saul said to Michal, why have you been false to me, letting my hater go and get safely away? And in answer Michal said to Saul, He said to me, Let me go, or I will put you to death. +1Sa 19:18 So David went in flight and got away and came to Ramah, to Samuel, and gave him an account of all Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and were living in Naioth. +1Sa 19:19 And word was given to Saul that David was at Naioth in Ramah. +1Sa 19:20 And Saul sent men to take David; and when they saw the band of prophets at work, with Samuel in his place at their head, the spirit of God came on Saul's men, and they became like prophets. +1Sa 19:21 And Saul, having news of this, sent other men, who in the same way became like prophets. And a third time Saul sent men, and they like the others became like prophets. +1Sa 19:22 Then he himself went to Ramah, and came to the great water-spring in Secu; and questioning the people he said, Where are Samuel and David? And one said, They are at Naioth in Ramah. +1Sa 19:23 And he went on from there to Naioth in Ramah: and the spirit of God came on him, and he went on, acting like a prophet, till he came to Naioth in Ramah. +1Sa 19:24 And he took off his clothing, acting like a prophet before Samuel, and falling down he was stretched out, without his clothing, all that day and all that night. This is the reason for the saying, Is even Saul among the prophets? +1Sa 20:1 And David went in flight from Naioth in Ramah and came to Jonathan and said, What have I done? What is my crime and my sin against your father that he is attempting to take my life? +1Sa 20:2 And he said to him, Far be the thought: you will not be put to death: see, my father does nothing, great or small, without giving me word of it: would he keep this secret from me? It is not so. +1Sa 20:3 But David took his oath again and said, Your father sees that I am dear to you; so he says to himself, Let Jonathan have no idea of this, for it will be a grief to him; but as the Lord is living, and as your soul is living, there is only a step between me and death. +1Sa 20:4 Then Jonathan said to David, Whatever your desire is, I will do it for you. +1Sa 20:5 And David said to Jonathan, Tomorrow is the new moon, and I will not be seated with the king at his table: but let me go to a safe place in the country till the evening. +1Sa 20:6 And if your father takes note of the fact that I am away, say, David made a request to me for himself that he might go to Beth-lehem, to his town: for it is the time when his family make their offering year by year. +1Sa 20:7 If he says, It is well, your servant will be at peace: but if he is angry, then it will be clear to you that he has an evil purpose in mind against me. +1Sa 20:8 So, then, be kind to your servant; for you have been united with your servant in an agreement made before the Lord: but if there is any wrongdoing in me, put me to death yourself; why take me to your father? +1Sa 20:9 And Jonathan said, Do not have such a thought: for if I saw that my father was designing evil against you, would I not give you word of it? +1Sa 20:10 Then David said to Jonathan, Who will give me word if your father gives you a rough answer? +1Sa 20:11 And Jonathan said to David, Come, let us go out into the country. And the two of them went out together into the open country. +1Sa 20:12 And Jonathan said to David, May the Lord, the God of Israel, be witness; when I have had a chance of talking to my father, about this time tomorrow, if his feelings to David are good, will I not send and give you the news? +1Sa 20:13 May the Lord's punishment be on Jonathan, if it is my father's pleasure to do you evil and I do not give you word of it and send you away so that you may go in peace: and may the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father. +1Sa 20:14 And may you, while I am still living, O may you be kind to me, as the Lord is kind, and keep me from death! +1Sa 20:15 And let not your mercy ever be cut off from my family, even when the Lord has sent destruction on all David's haters, cutting them off from the face of the earth. +1Sa 20:16 And if it comes about that the name of Jonathan is cut off from the family of David, the Lord will make David responsible. +1Sa 20:17 And Jonathan again took an oath to David, because of his love for him: for David was as dear to him as his very soul. +1Sa 20:18 Then Jonathan said to him, Tomorrow is the new moon: and it will be seen that you are not present, for there will be no one in your seat. +1Sa 20:19 And on the third day it will be specially noted, and you will go to the place where you took cover when the other business was in hand, waiting by the hill over there. +1Sa 20:20 And on the third day I will send arrows from my bow against its side as if at a mark. +1Sa 20:21 And I will send my boy to have a look for the arrow. And if I say to him, See, the arrow is on this side of you; take it up! then you may come; for there is peace for you and no evil, by the living Lord. +1Sa 20:22 But if I say to the boy, See, the arrow has gone past you: then go on your way, for the Lord has sent you away. +1Sa 20:23 As for what you and I were talking of, the Lord is between you and me for ever. +1Sa 20:24 So David went to a secret place in the country: and when the new moon came, the king took his place at the feast. +1Sa 20:25 And the king took his seat, as at other times, by the wall: and Jonathan was in front, and Abner was seated by Saul's side, but there was no one in David's seat. +1Sa 20:26 But Saul said nothing that day, for his thought was, Something has taken place making him unclean; it is clear that he is not clean. +1Sa 20:27 And on the day after the new moon, that is, the second day, there was still no one in David's seat: and Saul said to his son Jonathan, Why has the son of Jesse not come to the feast yesterday or today? +1Sa 20:28 And answering Saul, Jonathan said, He made a request to me that he might go to Beth-lehem, +1Sa 20:29 Saying, Our family is making an offering in the town, and my brothers have given me orders to be there: so now, if I have grace in your eyes, let me go away and see my brothers. This is why he has not come to the king's table. +1Sa 20:30 Then Saul was moved to wrath against Jonathan, and he said to him, You son of an evil and uncontrolled woman, have I not seen how you have given your love to the son of Jesse, to your shame and the shame of your mother? +1Sa 20:31 For while the son of Jesse is living on the earth, your position is unsafe and your kingdom is in danger. So make him come here to me, for it is certainly right for him to be put to death. +1Sa 20:32 And Jonathan, answering his father Saul, said to him, Why is he to be put to death? What has he done? +1Sa 20:33 And Saul, pointing his spear at him, made an attempt to give him a wound: from which it was clear to Jonathan that his father's purpose was to put David to death. +1Sa 20:34 So Jonathan got up from the table, burning with wrath, and took no part in the feast the second day of the month, being full of grief for David because his father had put shame on him. +1Sa 20:35 Now in the morning, Jonathan went out into the fields at the time he had said to David, and he had a little boy with him. +1Sa 20:36 And he said to the boy, Go and get the arrow I let loose from my bow. And while the boy was running, he sent an arrow past him. +1Sa 20:37 And when the boy came to the place where the arrow was, Jonathan, crying out after the boy, said, Has it not gone past you? +1Sa 20:38 And Jonathan went on crying out after the boy, Be quick, do not keep waiting about, go quickly. And Jonathan's boy got the arrow and came back to his master. +1Sa 20:39 But the boy had no idea what was going on; only Jonathan and David had knowledge of it. +1Sa 20:40 And Jonathan gave his bow and arrows to the boy, and said to him, Take these and go back to the town. +1Sa 20:41 And when the boy had gone, David came from his secret place by the hill, and falling to the earth went down on his face three times: and they gave one another a kiss, weeping together, till David's grief was the greater. +1Sa 20:42 And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, for we two have taken an oath, in the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord will be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed for ever. Then David went away, and Jonathan went into the town. +1Sa 21:1 Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was full of fear at meeting David, and said to him, Why are you by yourself, having no man with you? +1Sa 21:2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has given me orders and has said to me, Say nothing to anyone about the business on which I am sending you and the orders I have given you: and a certain place has been fixed to which the young men are to go. +1Sa 21:3 So now, if you have here five cakes of bread, give them into my hand, or whatever you have. +1Sa 21:4 And the priest, answering David, said, I have no common bread here but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women. +1Sa 21:5 And David in answer said to the priest, Certainly women have been kept from us; and as has been done before when I have gone out the arms of the young men were made holy, even though it was a common journey; how much more today will their arms be made holy. +1Sa 21:6 So the priest gave him the holy bread: there was no other, only the holy bread which had been taken from before the Lord, so that new bread might be put in its place on the day when it was taken away. +1Sa 21:7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, kept back before the Lord; his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the strongest of Saul's runners. +1Sa 21:8 And David said to Ahimelech, Have you no sword or spear with you here? for I have come without my sword and other arms, because the king's business had to be done quickly. +1Sa 21:9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you put to death in the valley of Elah, is here folded in a cloth at the back of the ephod: take that, if you will, for there is no other sword here. And David said, there is no other sword like that; give it to me. +1Sa 21:10 Then David got up and went in flight that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish, the king of Gath. +1Sa 21:11 And the servants of Achish said to him, Is not this David, the king of the land? did they not make songs about him in their dances, saying, Saul has put to death thousands, and David tens of thousands? +1Sa 21:12 And David took these words to heart, fearing Achish, the king of Gath. +1Sa 21:13 So changing his behaviour before them, he made it seem as if he was off his head, hammering on the doors of the town, and letting the water from his mouth go down his chin. +1Sa 21:14 Then Achish said to his servants, Look! the man is clearly off his head; why have you let him come before me? +1Sa 21:15 Are there not enough unbalanced men about me, that you have let this person come and do such tricks before me? is such a man to come into my house? +1Sa 22:1 So David went away from there and took cover in a strong place at Adullam; and his brothers and all his father's people, hearing of it, went down to him there. +1Sa 22:2 And everyone who was in trouble, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, came together to him, and he became captain over them: about four hundred men were joined to him. +1Sa 22:3 And from there David went to Mizpeh in the land of Moab: and he said to the king of Moab, Let my father and mother come and make their living-place with you till it is clear to me what God will do for me. +1Sa 22:4 And he took them to the king of Moab and they went on living with him while David was in his safe place. +1Sa 22:5 And the prophet Gad said to David, Do not go on living in this place but go into the land of Judah. Then David went away and came to the woodland of Hereth. +1Sa 22:6 And news was given to Saul that David had been seen, and the men who were with him: now Saul was in Gibeah, seated under the tree in the high place, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were in their places before him. +1Sa 22:7 Then Saul said to his servants who were there about him, Give ear now, you Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give to every one of you fields and vine-gardens, will he make you all captains of hundreds and captains of thousands; +1Sa 22:8 That all of you have made designs against me, and not one of you gave me word when my son made an agreement with the son of Jesse, and not one of you has pity for me or has made my eyes open to the fact that my servant has been moved by my son against me, as at this day? +1Sa 22:9 Then Doeg, the Edomite, who was by the side of the servants of Saul, in answer said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub. +1Sa 22:10 And he got directions from the Lord for him, and gave him food, and put in his hand the sword of Goliath the Philistine. +1Sa 22:11 Then the king sent for Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and for all the men of his father's family who were priests in Nob: and they all came to the king. +1Sa 22:12 And Saul said, Give ear now, O son of Ahitub. And answering he said, Here I am, my lord. +1Sa 22:13 And Saul said to him, Why have you made designs against me with the son of Jesse, giving him food and a sword and getting directions from the Lord for him, and helping him to take up arms against me, and to be on the watch to make a secret attack on me as he is doing now? +1Sa 22:14 Then Ahimelech answering said to the king, Who among all your servants is so true to you as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is a captain of your armed men, and has a place of honour in your house? +1Sa 22:15 Is this the first time I have got directions from God for him? Far be the thought! let the king make no such statement against his servant or my father's family, for your servant has no knowledge, great or small, of this thing. +1Sa 22:16 And the king said, You will certainly be put to death, Ahimelech, you and all your father's family. +1Sa 22:17 Then the king said to the runners who were waiting near him, Put the priests of the Lord to death; because they are on David's side, and having knowledge of his flight, did not give me word of it. But the king's servants would not put out their hands to make an attack on the Lord's priests. +1Sa 22:18 Then the king said to Doeg, You are to put the priests to death. And Doeg the Edomite, turning on the priests and attacking them, put to death that day eighty-five men who took up the ephod. +1Sa 22:19 And Nob, the town of the priests, he put to the sword, all the men and women, children and babies at the breast, and oxen and asses and sheep. +1Sa 22:20 And Abiathar, one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, got away and went in flight after David; +1Sa 22:21 And gave him the news of how Saul had put to death the Lord's priests. +1Sa 22:22 And David said to Abiathar, I was certain that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would take the news to Saul: I am responsible for the lives of all your father's family. +1Sa 22:23 Keep here with me and have no fear; for he who has designs on my life has designs on yours: but with me you will be safe. +1Sa 23:1 And they sent word to David, saying, The Philistines are fighting against Keilah and taking the grain from the grain-floors. +1Sa 23:2 So David, questioning the Lord, said, Am I to go and make an attack on these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, Go and make an attack on the Philistines so that Keilah may be kept from falling into their hands. +1Sa 23:3 And David's men said to him, Even here in Judah we are full of fear: how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? +1Sa 23:4 Then David put the question to the Lord again, and the Lord answering said, Up! go down to Keilah; for I will give the Philistines into your hands. +1Sa 23:5 So David and his men went to Keilah, and had a fight with the Philistines, and took away their cattle, and put them to the sword with great destruction. So David was the saviour of the people of Keilah. +1Sa 23:6 Now when Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, went in flight to David, he came down to Keilah with the ephod in his hand. +1Sa 23:7 And news was given to Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, Now God has given him into my hands; for by going into a walled town with locked doors, he has let himself be shut in. +1Sa 23:8 And Saul sent for all the people to come to the fight, and go down to Keilah to make an attack on David and his men. +1Sa 23:9 And it was clear to David that Saul had evil designs against him, and he said to Abiathar the priest, Come here with the ephod. +1Sa 23:10 Then David said, O Lord, the God of Israel, news has been given to your servant that it is Saul's purpose to come to Keilah and send destruction on the town because of me. +1Sa 23:11 And now, is it true, as they have said to me, that Saul is coming? O Lord, the God of Israel, give ear to your servant, and say if these things are so. And the Lord said, He is coming down. +1Sa 23:12 Then David said, Will the men of Keilah give me and my men up to Saul? and the Lord said, They will give you up. +1Sa 23:13 Then David and his men, about six hundred of them, went out of Keilah, and got away wherever they were able to go. And Saul, hearing that David had got away from Keilah, did not go there. +1Sa 23:14 And David kept in the waste land, in safe places, waiting in the hill-country in the waste land of Ziph. And Saul was searching for him every day, but God did not give him up into his hands. +1Sa 23:15 And David was full of fear, in the knowledge that Saul had come out to take his life; and David was in the waste land of Ziph, in Horesh. +1Sa 23:16 And Saul's son Jonathan went to David in Horesh, and made his hands strong in God; +1Sa 23:17 And said to him, Have no fear, for Saul my father will not get you into his power; and you will be king of Israel, and I will be by your side, and my father Saul is certain of this. +1Sa 23:18 And the two of them made an agreement before the Lord: and David went on living in Horesh, and Jonathan went back to his house. +1Sa 23:19 Then the Ziphites came up to Gibeah to see Saul, and said, Is not David living secretly among us in the strong places in Horesh, in the hill of Hachilah to the south of the waste land? +1Sa 23:20 So now, O king, have your soul's desire and come down, and we, for our part, will give him up into the king's hands. +1Sa 23:21 And Saul said, The Lord's blessing will be yours, for you have had pity on me. +1Sa 23:22 Go now, and take more steps, and see where he is living: for they say that he is expert in deceit. +1Sa 23:23 So take care to get knowledge of all the secret places where he is taking cover, and be certain to come back to me, and I will go with you: and without doubt, if he is anywhere in the land, I will get him, among all the families of Judah. +1Sa 23:24 And they went back and came to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the waste land of Maon, in the dry land south of the waste land. +1Sa 23:25 And Saul and his men went in search of him. And David had word of it, so he came down to the rock in the waste land of Maon. And Saul, hearing of this, went after David into the waste land of Maon. +1Sa 23:26 And Saul and his men went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men went on the other: and David's purpose was to get away as quickly as possible, for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men were making a circle round David and his men in order to take them. +1Sa 23:27 But a man came to Saul saying, Be quick and come; for the Philistines have made an attack on the land. +1Sa 23:28 So turning back from going after David, Saul went against the Philistines: so that place was named Sela-hammah-lekoth. +1Sa 23:29 And from there, David went up and took cover in the safe place of En-gedi. +1Sa 24:1 Now when Saul came back from fighting the Philistines, news was given him that David was in the waste land of En-gedi. +1Sa 24:2 Then Saul took three thousand of the best men out of all Israel, and went in search of David and his men on the rocks of the mountain goats. +1Sa 24:3 And on the way he came to a place where sheep were kept, where there was a hollow in the rock; and Saul went in for a private purpose. Now David and his men were in the deepest part of the hollow. +1Sa 24:4 And David's men said to him, Now is the time when the Lord says to you, I will give up your hater into your hands to do with him whatever seems good to you. Then David, getting up, took the skirt of Saul's robe in his hand, cutting off the end of it without his knowledge. +1Sa 24:5 And later, David was full of regret for cutting off Saul's skirt. +1Sa 24:6 And David said to his men, Before the Lord, never let it be said that my hand was lifted up against my lord, the man of the Lord's selection, for the Lord's holy oil has been put on him. +1Sa 24:7 So with these words David kept his servants back, and did not let them make an attack on Saul. And Saul got up and went on his way. +1Sa 24:8 And after that David came out of the hollow rock, and crying after Saul said, My lord the king. And when Saul gave a look back, David went down on his face and gave him honour. +1Sa 24:9 And David said to Saul, Why do you give any attention to those who say that it is my desire to do you wrong? +1Sa 24:10 Look! you have seen today how the Lord gave you up into my hands even now in the hollow of the rocks: and some would have had me put you to death, but I had pity on you: for I said, Never will my hand be lifted up against my lord, who has been marked with the holy oil. +1Sa 24:11 And see, my father, see the skirt of your robe in my hand: for the fact that I took off the skirt of your robe and did not put you to death is witness that I have no evil purpose, and I have done you no wrong, though you are waiting for my life to take it. +1Sa 24:12 May the Lord be judge between me and you, and may the Lord give me my rights against you, but my hand will never be lifted up against you. +1Sa 24:13 There is an old saying, From the evil-doer comes evil: but my hand will never be lifted up against you. +1Sa 24:14 After whom has the king of Israel come out? for whom are you searching? for a dead dog, an insect. +1Sa 24:15 So let the Lord be judge, and give a decision between me and you, and see and give support to my cause, and keep me from falling into your hands. +1Sa 24:16 Now when David had said these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, David, my son? And Saul was overcome with weeping. +1Sa 24:17 And he said to David, You are right and I am wrong: for you have given me back good, but I have given you evil. +1Sa 24:18 And you have made clear to me how good you have been to me today: because, when the Lord gave me up into your hands, you did not put me to death. +1Sa 24:19 If a man comes across his hater, will he let him get away safe? so may you be rewarded by the Lord for what you have done for me today. +1Sa 24:20 And now I am certain that you will be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be made strong under your authority. +1Sa 24:21 So give me your oath by the Lord, that you will not put an end to my seed after me or let my name be cut off from my father's family. +1Sa 24:22 And David gave Saul his oath. And Saul went back to his house; but David and his men went up to their safe place. +1Sa 25:1 And death came to Samuel; and all Israel came together, weeping for him, and put his body in its resting-place in his house at Ramah. Then David went down to the waste land of Maon. +1Sa 25:2 Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel; he was a great man and had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats: and he was cutting the wool of his sheep in Carmel. +1Sa 25:3 Now this man was named Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail: she was a woman of good sense and pleasing looks: but the man was cruel and evil in his ways; he was of the family of Caleb. +1Sa 25:4 And David had word in the waste land that Nabal was cutting the wool of his sheep. +1Sa 25:5 And David sent ten young men, and said to them, Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal, and say kind words to him in my name; +1Sa 25:6 And say this to my brother, May all be well for you: peace be to you and your house and all you have. +1Sa 25:7 I have had word that you have wool-cutters: now the keepers of your sheep have been with us, and we have done them no evil, and taken nothing of theirs while they were in Carmel. +1Sa 25:8 If your young men are questioned they will say the same thing. So now, let my young men have grace in your eyes, for we are come at a good time; please give anything you may have by you to your servants and to your son David. +1Sa 25:9 And when David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal, in David's name, and said nothing more. +1Sa 25:10 And Nabal gave them his answer and said, Who is David? who is the son of Jesse? there are a number of servants in these days running away from their masters. +1Sa 25:11 Am I to take my bread and my wine and the meat I have got ready for my wool-cutters and give it to men coming from I have no idea where? +1Sa 25:12 So David's young men, turning away, went back and gave him an account of everything he had said. +1Sa 25:13 And David said to his men, Put on your swords, every one of you. And every man put on his sword; and David did the same; and about four hundred men went up with David, and two hundred kept watch over their goods. +1Sa 25:14 But one of the young men said to Nabal's wife Abigail, David sent men from the waste land to say kind words to our master, and he gave them a rough answer. +1Sa 25:15 But these men have been very good to us; they did us no wrong and nothing of ours was touched while we were with them in the fields: +1Sa 25:16 But day and night they were like a wall round us while we were with them, looking after the sheep. +1Sa 25:17 So now, give thought to what you are going to do; for evil is in store for our master and all his house: for he is such a good-for-nothing person that it is not possible to say anything to him. +1Sa 25:18 Then Abigail quickly took two hundred cakes of bread and two skins full of wine and five sheep ready for cooking and five measures of dry grain and a hundred parcels of dry grapes and two hundred cakes of figs, and put them on asses. +1Sa 25:19 And she said to her young men, Go on in front of me and I will come after you. But she said nothing to her husband Nabal. +1Sa 25:20 Now while she was going down under cover of the mountain on her ass, David and his men came down against her, and suddenly she came face to face with them. +1Sa 25:21 Now David had said, What was the use of my taking care of this man's goods in the waste land, so that there was no loss of anything which was his? he has only given me back evil for good. +1Sa 25:22 May God's punishment be on David, if when morning comes there is so much as one male of his people still living. +1Sa 25:23 And when Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her ass, falling down on her face before him. +1Sa 25:24 And falling at his feet she said, May the wrong be on me, my lord, on me: let your servant say a word to you, and give ear to the words of your servant. +1Sa 25:25 Let my lord give no attention to Nabal, that good-for-nothing: for as his name is, so is he, a man without sense: but I, your servant, did not see the young men whom my lord sent. +1Sa 25:26 So now, my lord, by the living God and by your living soul, seeing that the Lord has kept you from the crime of blood and from taking into your hands the punishment for your wrongs, may all your haters, and those who would do evil to my lord, be like Nabal. +1Sa 25:27 And let this offering, which your servant gives to my lord, be given to the young men who are with my lord. +1Sa 25:28 And may the sin of your servant have forgiveness: for the Lord will certainly make your family strong, because my lord is fighting in the Lord's war; and no evil will be seen in you all your days. +1Sa 25:29 And though a man has taken up arms against you, putting your life in danger, still the soul of my lord will be kept safe among the band of the living with the Lord your God; and the souls of those who are against you he will send violently away from him, like stones from a bag. +1Sa 25:30 And when the Lord has done for my lord all those good things which he has said he will do for you, and has made you a ruler over Israel; +1Sa 25:31 Then you will have no cause for grief, and my lord's heart will not be troubled because you have taken life without cause and have yourself given punishment for your wrongs: and when the Lord has been good to you, then give a thought to your servant. +1Sa 25:32 And David said to Abigail, May the Lord, the God of Israel, be praised, who sent you to me today: +1Sa 25:33 A blessing on your good sense and on you, who have kept me today from the crime of blood and from taking into my hands the punishment for my wrongs. +1Sa 25:34 For truly, by the living Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept me from doing you evil, if you had not been so quick in coming to me and meeting me, by dawn there would not have been in Nabal's house so much as one male living. +1Sa 25:35 Then David took from her hands her offering: and he said to her, Go back to your house in peace; see, I have given ear to your voice, and taken your offering with respect. +1Sa 25:36 And Abigail went back to Nabal; and he was feasting in his house like a king; and Nabal's heart was full of joy, for he had taken much wine; so she said nothing to him till dawn came. +1Sa 25:37 And in the morning, when the effect of the wine was gone, Nabal's wife gave him an account of all these things, and all the heart went out of him, and he became like stone. +1Sa 25:38 And about ten days after, the Lord sent disease on Nabal and death came to him. +1Sa 25:39 And David, hearing that Nabal was dead, said, May the Lord be praised, who has taken up my cause against Nabal for the shame which he put on me, and has kept back his servant from evil, and has sent on Nabal's head the reward of his evil-doing. And David sent word to Abigail, desiring to take her as his wife. +1Sa 25:40 And when David's servants came to Carmel, to Abigail, they said to her, David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife. +1Sa 25:41 And she got up, and going down on her face to the earth, said, See, I am ready to be a servant-girl, washing the feet of the servants of my lord. +1Sa 25:42 Then Abigail got up quickly and went on her ass, with five of her young women, after the men whom David had sent; and she became David's wife. +1Sa 25:43 And David had taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, to be his wife; these two were his wives. +1Sa 25:44 Now Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish of Gallim. +1Sa 26:1 And the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, and said, Is not David waiting secretly near us in the hill of Hachilah, before the waste land? +1Sa 26:2 Then Saul went down to the waste land of Ziph, taking with him three thousand of the best men of Israel, to make search for David in the waste land of Ziph. +1Sa 26:3 And Saul put up his tents on the hill of Hachilah, which is in front of the waste land on the road. But David was in the waste land, and he saw that Saul was coming after him. +1Sa 26:4 And so David sent out watchers, and got word from them that Saul was certainly coming. +1Sa 26:5 And David got up and came to the place where Saul's tents were: and David had a view of the place where Saul was sleeping with Abner, the son of Ner, the captain of his army: and Saul was sleeping inside the ring of carts, and the tents of the people were all round him. +1Sa 26:6 Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, Who will go down with me to the tents of Saul? And Abishai said, I will go down with you. +1Sa 26:7 So David and Abishai came down to the army by night: and Saul was sleeping inside the ring of carts with his spear planted in the earth by his head: and Abner and the people were sleeping round him. +1Sa 26:8 Then Abishai said to David, God has given up your hater into your hands today; now let me give him one blow through to the earth with his spear, and there will be no need to give him a second. +1Sa 26:9 And David said to Abishai Do not put him to death; for who, without sin, may put out his hand against the man on whom the Lord has put the holy oil? +1Sa 26:10 And David said, By the living Lord, the Lord will send destruction on him; the natural day of his death will come, or he will go into the fight and come to his end. +1Sa 26:11 Never will my hand be stretched out against the man marked with the holy oil; but take the spear which is by his head and the vessel of water, and let us go. +1Sa 26:12 So David took the spear and the vessel of water from Saul's head; and they got away without any man seeing them, or being conscious of their coming, or awaking; for they were all sleeping because a deep sleep from the Lord had come on them. +1Sa 26:13 Then David went over to the other side, and took his place on the top of a mountain some distance away, with a great space between them; +1Sa 26:14 And crying out to the people and to Abner, the son of Ner, David said, Have you no answer to give, Abner? Then Abner said, Who is that crying out to the king? +1Sa 26:15 And David said to Abner, Are you not a man of war? is there any other like you in Israel? why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king? for one of the people came in to put the king your lord to death. +1Sa 26:16 What you have done is not good. By the living Lord, death is the right fate for you, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the man on whom the Lord has put the holy oil. Now see, where is the king's spear, and the vessel of water which was by his head? +1Sa 26:17 And Saul, conscious that the voice was David's, said, Is that your voice, David, my son? And David said, It is my voice, O my lord king. +1Sa 26:18 And he said, Why does my lord go armed against his servant? what have I done? or what evil is there in me? +1Sa 26:19 Let my lord the king give ear now to the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who is moving you against me, let him take an offering: but if it is the children of men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for driving me out today and keeping me from my place in the heritage of the Lord, saying, Go, be the servant of other gods. +1Sa 26:20 Then do not let my blood be drained out on the earth away from the face of the Lord: for the king of Israel has come out to take my life, like one going after birds in the mountains. +1Sa 26:21 Then Saul said, I have done wrong: come back to me, David my son: I will do you no more wrong, because my life was dear to you today truly, I have been foolish and my error is very great. +1Sa 26:22 Then David said, Here is the king's spear! let one of the young men come over and get it. +1Sa 26:23 And the Lord will give to every man the reward of his righteousness and his faith: because the Lord gave you into my hands today, and I would not put out my hand against the man who has been marked with the holy oil. +1Sa 26:24 And so, as your life was dear to me today, may my life be dear to the Lord, and may he make me free from all my troubles. +1Sa 26:25 Then Saul said to David, May a blessing be on you, David, my son; you will do great things and without doubt you will overcome. Then David went on his way, and Saul went back to his place. +1Sa 27:1 And David said to himself, Some day death will come to me by the hand of Saul: the only thing for me to do is to get away into the land of the Philistines; then Saul will give up hope of taking me in any part of the land of Israel: and so I may be able to get away from him. +1Sa 27:2 So David and the six hundred men who were with him went over to Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath. +1Sa 27:3 And David and his men were living with Achish at Gath; every man had his family with him, and David had his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, who had been the wife of Nabal. +1Sa 27:4 And Saul, hearing that David had gone to Gath, went after him no longer. +1Sa 27:5 Then David said to Achish, If now I have grace in your eyes, let me have a place in one of the smaller towns of your land, to be my living-place; for it is not right for your servant to be living with you in the king's town. +1Sa 27:6 So Achish straight away gave him Ziklag: and for that reason Ziklag has been the property of the kings of Judah to this day. +1Sa 27:7 And David was living in the land of the Philistines for the space of a year and four months. +1Sa 27:8 And David and his men went up and made attacks on the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites; for these were the people who were living in the land from Telam on the way to Shur, as far as Egypt. +1Sa 27:9 And David again and again made attacks on the land till not a man or a woman was still living; and he took away the sheep and the oxen and the asses and the camels and the clothing; and he came back to Achish. +1Sa 27:10 And every time Achish said, Where have you been fighting today? David said, Against the South of Judah and the South of the Jerahmeelites and the South of the Kenites. +1Sa 27:11 Not one living man or woman did David ever take back with him to Gath, fearing that they might give an account of what had taken place, and say, This is what David did, and so has he been doing all the time while he has been living in the land of the Philistines. +1Sa 27:12 And Achish had belief in what David said, saying, He has made himself hated by all his people Israel, and so he will be my servant for ever. +1Sa 28:1 Now in those days the Philistines got their forces together to make war on Israel. And Achish said to David, Certainly you and your men are to go out with me to the fight. +1Sa 28:2 And David said to Achish, You will see now what your servant will do. And Achish said to David, Then I will make you keeper of my head for ever. +1Sa 28:3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel, after weeping for him, had put his body in its last resting-place in Ramah, his town. And Saul had put away from the land all those who had control of spirits and who made use of secret arts. +1Sa 28:4 And the Philistines came together and put their forces in position in Shunem; and Saul got all Israel together and they took up their positions in Gilboa. +1Sa 28:5 And when Saul saw the Philistine army he was troubled, and his heart was moved with fear. +1Sa 28:6 And when Saul went for directions to the Lord, the Lord gave him no answer, by a dream or by the Urim or by the prophets. +1Sa 28:7 Then Saul said to his servants, Get me a woman who has control of a spirit so that I may go to her and get directions. And his servants said to him, There is such a woman at En-dor. +1Sa 28:8 So Saul, putting on other clothing, so that he might not be seen to be the king, took two men with him and went to the woman by night; and he said, Now, with the help of the spirit which you have, make the person whose name I will give you come up. +1Sa 28:9 And the woman said to him, But you have knowledge of what Saul has done, how he has put away out of the land those who have control of spirits and the users of secret arts: why would you, by a trick, put me in danger of death? +1Sa 28:10 And Saul made an oath to her by the Lord, saying, By the living Lord, no punishment will come to you for this. +1Sa 28:11 Then the woman said, Who am I to let you see? And he said, Make Samuel come up for me. +1Sa 28:12 And the woman saw that it was Saul, and she gave a loud cry, and said to Saul, Why have you made use of deceit? for you are Saul. +1Sa 28:13 And the king said to her, Have no fear: what do you see? And the woman said to Saul, I see a god coming up out of the earth. +1Sa 28:14 And he said to her, What is his form? And she said, It is an old man coming up covered with a robe. And Saul saw that it was Samuel, and with his face bent down to the earth he gave him honour. +1Sa 28:15 And Samuel said to Saul, Why have you made me come up, troubling my rest? And Saul in answer said, I am in great danger; for the Philistines are making war on me, and God has gone away from me and will no longer give me any answer, by the prophets or by dreams: so I have sent for you to make clear to me what I am to do. +1Sa 28:16 And Samuel said, Why do you put your questions to me, seeing that God has gone away from you and is on the side of him who is against you? +1Sa 28:17 And the Lord himself has done what I said: the Lord has taken the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbour David; +1Sa 28:18 Because you did not do what the Lord said, and did not give effect to his burning wrath against Amalek. So the Lord has done this thing to you today. +1Sa 28:19 And more than this, the Lord will give Israel up with you into the hands of the Philistines: and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me: and the Lord will give up the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines. +1Sa 28:20 Then Saul went down flat on the earth, and was full of fear because of Samuel's words: and there was no strength in him, for he had taken no food all that day or all that night. +1Sa 28:21 And the woman came to Saul and saw that he was in great trouble, and said to him, See now, your servant has given ear to your words, and I have put my life in danger by doing what you said. +1Sa 28:22 So now, give ear to the voice of your servant, and let me give you a little bread; and take some food to give you strength when you go on your way. +1Sa 28:23 But he would not, saying, I have no desire for food. But his servants, together with the woman, made him take food, and he gave way to them. So he got up from the earth, and took his seat on the bed. +1Sa 28:24 And the woman had in the house a young cow, made fat for food; and she put it to death straight away; and she took meal and got it mixed and made unleavened bread; +1Sa 28:25 And she put it before Saul and his servants, and they had a meal. Then they got up and went away the same night. +1Sa 29:1 Now the Philistines got all their army together at Aphek: and the Israelites put their forces in position by the fountain in Jezreel. +1Sa 29:2 And the lords of the Philistines went on with their hundreds and their thousands, and David and his men came after with Achish. +1Sa 29:3 Then the rulers of the Philistines said, What are these Hebrews doing here? And Achish said to the rulers of the Philistines, Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me for a year or two, and I have never seen any wrong in him from the time when he came to me till now? +1Sa 29:4 But the rulers of the Philistines were angry with him, and said to him, Make the man go back to the place you have given him; do not let him go down with us to the fight, or he may be turned against us and be false to us: for how will this man make peace with his lord? will it not be with the heads of these men? +1Sa 29:5 Is this not David, who was named in their songs, when in the dance they said to one another, Saul has put to death thousands, and David tens of thousands? +1Sa 29:6 Then Achish sent for David and said to him, By the living Lord, you are upright, and everything you have done with me in the army has been pleasing to me: I have seen no evil in you from the day when you came to me till now: but still, the lords are not pleased with you. +1Sa 29:7 So now go back, and go in peace, so that you do not make the lords of the Philistines angry. +1Sa 29:8 And David said to Achish, But what have I done? what have you seen in your servant while I have been with you till this day, that I may not go and take up arms against those who are now making war on my lord the king? +1Sa 29:9 And Achish in answer said, It is true that in my eyes you are good, like an angel of God: but still, the rulers of the Philistines have said, He is not to go up with us to the fight. +1Sa 29:10 So get up early in the morning, with the servants of your lord who are with you, and go to the place I have given you, and have no evil design in your heart, for you are good in my eyes; but when there is light enough in the morning, go away. +1Sa 29:11 So David and his men got up early in the morning to go back to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel. +1Sa 30:1 Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made an attack on the South and on Ziklag, and had overcome Ziklag and put it on fire; +1Sa 30:2 And had made the women and all who were there, small and great, prisoners: they had not put any of them to death, but had taken them all away. +1Sa 30:3 And when David and his men came to the town, they saw that it had been burned down, and their wives and their sons and daughters had been made prisoners. +1Sa 30:4 Then David and the people who were with him gave themselves up to weeping till they were able to go on weeping no longer. +1Sa 30:5 And David's two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the wife of Nabal of Carmel, had been made prisoners. +1Sa 30:6 And David was greatly troubled; for the people were talking of stoning him, because their hearts were bitter, every man sorrowing for his sons and his daughters: but David made himself strong in the Lord his God. +1Sa 30:7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, Come here to me with the ephod. And Abiathar took the ephod to David. +1Sa 30:8 Then David, questioning the Lord, said, Am I to go after this band? will I be able to overtake them? And in answer he said, Go after them, for you will certainly overtake them, and get back everything. +1Sa 30:9 So David went, and his six hundred men went with him, and they came to the stream Besor. +1Sa 30:10 And David, with four hundred men, went on: but two hundred of them were overcome with weariness, and not able to go across the stream. +1Sa 30:11 And in the fields they saw an Egyptian whom they took to David, and they gave him bread, and he had a meal, and they gave him water for drink; +1Sa 30:12 And they gave him part of a cake of figs and some dry grapes; and after the food, his spirit came back to him, for he had had no food or drink for three days and nights. +1Sa 30:13 And David said to him, Whose man are you and where do you come from? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master went on without me because three days back I became ill. +1Sa 30:14 We made an attack on the south part of the country of the Cherethites, and on the land which is Judah's, and on the south of Caleb; and we put Ziklag on fire. +1Sa 30:15 And David said to him, Will you take me down to this band? And he said, If you give me your oath that you will not put me to death or give me up to my master, I will take you to them. +1Sa 30:16 And when he had taken him down, they saw them all, seated about on all sides, feasting and drinking among all the mass of goods which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and the land of Judah. +1Sa 30:17 And David went on fighting them from evening till the evening of the day after; and not one of them got away but only four hundred young men who went in flight on camels. +1Sa 30:18 And David got back everything the Amalekites had taken; and he got back his two wives. +1Sa 30:19 There was no loss of anything, small or great, sons or daughters or goods or anything which they had taken away: David got it all back. +1Sa 30:20 And they took all the flocks and herds, and driving them in front of him, said, These are David's. +1Sa 30:21 And David came to the two hundred men, who because of weariness had not gone with him, but were waiting at the stream Besor: and they went out, meeting David and the people who were with him; and when they came near them, they said, How are you? +1Sa 30:22 Then the bad and good-for-nothing men among those who went with David said, Because they did not go with us, we will give them nothing of the goods which we have got back, but only to every man his wife and children, so that he may take them and go. +1Sa 30:23 Then David said, You are not to do this, my brothers, after what the Lord has given us, who has kept us safe and given up the band which came against us into our hands. +1Sa 30:24 Who is going to give any attention to you in this question? for an equal part will be given to him who went to the fight and to him who was waiting by the goods: they are all to have the same. +1Sa 30:25 And so he made it a rule and an order for Israel from that day till now. +1Sa 30:26 And when David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the goods to the responsible men of Judah, and to his friends, saying, Here is an offering for you from the goods of those who were fighting against the Lord; +1Sa 30:27 He sent to those who were in Beth-el, and in Ramah of the South, and in Jattir; +1Sa 30:28 And to those in Arara and Eshtemoa +1Sa 30:29 and Carmel and in the towns of the Jerahmeelites, and in the towns of the Kenites; +1Sa 30:30 And to those who were in Hormah and in Bor-ashan and in Athach; +1Sa 30:31 And in Hebron, and to all the places where David and his men had been living. +1Sa 31:1 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel: and the men of Israel went in flight before the Philistines, falling down wounded in Mount Gilboa. +1Sa 31:2 And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons; and they put to death Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. +1Sa 31:3 And the fight was going badly for Saul, and the archers came across him, and he was wounded by the archers. +1Sa 31:4 Then Saul said to the servant who had the care of his arms, Take out your sword and put it through me, before these men without circumcision come and make sport of me. But his servant, full of fear, would not do so. Then Saul took out his sword, and falling on it, put an end to himself. +1Sa 31:5 And when his servant saw that Saul was dead, he did the same, and was united with him in death. +1Sa 31:6 So death overtook Saul and his three sons and his servant on the same day. +1Sa 31:7 And when the men of Israel across the valley and on the other side of Jordan saw that the army of Israel was in flight and that Saul and his sons were dead, they came out of their towns and went in flight; and the Philistines came and took them for themselves. +1Sa 31:8 Now on the day after, when the Philistines came to take their goods from the dead, they saw Saul and his three sons dead on the earth in Mount Gilboa. +1Sa 31:9 And cutting off his head and taking away his war-dress, they sent word into the land of the Philistines round about, to take the news to their gods and to the people. +1Sa 31:10 His war-dress they put in the house of Astarte; and his body was fixed on the wall of Beth-shan. +1Sa 31:11 And when the people of Jabesh-gilead had news of what the Philistines had done to Saul, +1Sa 31:12 All the fighting men got up and, travelling all night, took Saul's body and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan; and they came to Jabesh and had them burned there. +1Sa 31:13 And their bones they put in the earth under a tree in Jabesh; and for seven days they took no food. +2Sa 1:1 Now after the death of Saul, when David, having come back from the destruction of the Amalekites, had been in Ziklag for two days; +2Sa 1:2 On the third day a man came from Saul's tents, with his clothing out of order and earth on his head: and when he came to David, he went down on the earth and gave him honour. +2Sa 1:3 And David said to him, Where have you come from? And he said, I have come in flight from the tents of Israel. +2Sa 1:4 And David said to him, How did things go? Give me the news. And in answer he said, The people have gone in flight from the fight, and a great number of them are dead; and Saul and his son Jonathan are dead. +2Sa 1:5 And David said to the young man who gave him the news, Why are you certain that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead? +2Sa 1:6 And the young man said, I came by chance to Mount Gilboa, and I saw Saul supporting himself on his spear; and the war-carriages and horsemen overtook him. +2Sa 1:7 And looking back, he saw me and gave a cry to me. And answering him I said, Here am I. +2Sa 1:8 And he said to me, Who are you? And I said, I am an Amalekite. +2Sa 1:9 Then he said to me, Come here to my side, and put me to death, for the pain of death has me in its grip but my life is still strong in me. +2Sa 1:10 So I put my foot on him and gave him his death-blow, because I was certain that he would not go on living after his fall: and I took the crown from his head and the band from his arm, and I have them here for my lord. +2Sa 1:11 Then David gave way to bitter grief, and so did all the men who were with him: +2Sa 1:12 And till evening they gave themselves to sorrow and weeping, and took no food, weeping for Saul and for Jonathan, his son, and for the people of the Lord and for the men of Israel; because they had come to their end by the sword. +2Sa 1:13 And David said to the young man who had given him the news, Where do you come from? And he said, I am the son of a man from a strange land; I am an Amalekite. +2Sa 1:14 And David said to him, Had you no fear of stretching out your hand to put to death the one marked with the holy oil? +2Sa 1:15 And David sent for one of his young men and said, Go near and put an end to him. And he put him to death. +2Sa 1:16 And David said to him, May your blood be on your head; for your mouth has given witness against you, saying, I have put to death the man marked with the holy oil. +2Sa 1:17 Then David made this song of grief for Saul and Jonathan, his son: +2Sa 1:18 (It is recorded in the book of Jashar for teaching to the sons of Judah) and he said: +2Sa 1:19 The glory, O Israel, is dead on your high places! How have the great ones been made low! +2Sa 1:20 Give no news of it in Gath, let it not be said in the streets of Ashkelon; or the daughters of the Philistines will be glad, the daughters of men without circumcision will be uplifted in joy. +2Sa 1:21 O mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain on you, you fields of death: for there the arms of the strong have been shamed, the arms of Saul, as if he had not been marked with the holy oil. +2Sa 1:22 From the blood of the dead, from the fat of the strong, the bow of Jonathan was not turned back, the sword of Saul did not come back unused. +2Sa 1:23 Saul and Jonathan were loved and pleasing; in their lives and in their death they were not parted; they went more quickly than eagles, they were stronger than lions. +2Sa 1:24 O daughters of Israel, have sorrow for Saul, by whom you were delicately clothed in robes of red, with ornaments of gold on your dresses. +2Sa 1:25 How have the great ones been made low in the fight! Jonathan is dead on your high places. +2Sa 1:26 I am full of grief for you, my brother Jonathan: very dear have you been to me: your love for me was a wonder, greater than the love of women. +2Sa 1:27 How have the great ones been made low, and the arms of war broken! +2Sa 2:1 Now after this, David, questioning the Lord, said, Am I to go up into any of the towns of Judah? And the Lord said to him, Go up. And David said, Where am I to go? And he said, To Hebron. +2Sa 2:2 So David went there, taking with him his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal of Carmel. +2Sa 2:3 And David took all his men with him, every man with his family: and they were living in the towns round Hebron. +2Sa 2:4 And the men of Judah came there, and with the holy oil made David king over the people of Judah. And word came to David that it was the men of Jabesh-gilead who put Saul's body in its last resting-place. +2Sa 2:5 And David sent to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, May the Lord give you his blessing, because you have done this kind act to Saul your lord, and have put his body to rest! +2Sa 2:6 May the Lord be good and true to you: and I myself will see that your kind act is rewarded, because you have done this thing. +2Sa 2:7 Then let your hands be strong, and have no fear: though Saul your lord is dead, the people of Judah have made me their king. +2Sa 2:8 Now Abner, the son of Ner, captain of Saul's army, had taken Saul's son Ish-bosheth over to Mahanaim, +2Sa 2:9 And made him king over Gilead and the Asherites and over Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin, that is, over all Israel. +2Sa 2:10 (Saul's son Ish-bosheth was forty years old when he became king over Israel, and he was ruler for two years.) But Judah was on the side of David. +2Sa 2:11 And the time when David was king in Hebron over the people of Judah was seven years and six months. +2Sa 2:12 And Abner, the son of Ner, with the servants of Saul's son Ish-bosheth, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. +2Sa 2:13 And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out and came face to face with them by the pool of Gibeon; and they took up their position, facing one another on opposite sides of the pool. +2Sa 2:14 And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men give a test of their strength before us. And Joab said, Let them do so. +2Sa 2:15 So they got up and went over by number: twelve for Benjamin and Ish-bosheth and twelve of the servants of David. +2Sa 2:16 And every one got the other by the head, driving his sword into the other's side, so they all went down together: and that place was named the Field of Sides, and it is in Gibeon. +2Sa 2:17 And there was hard fighting that day; and Abner and the men of Israel gave way before the servants of David. +2Sa 2:18 There were three sons of Zeruiah there, Joab and Abishai and Asahel: and Asahel was as quick-footed as a roe of the fields. +2Sa 2:19 Asahel went running after Abner, not turning to the right or to the left. +2Sa 2:20 Then Abner, looking back, said, Is it you, Asahel? And he said, It is I. +2Sa 2:21 And Abner said, Then go to the right or to the left and put your hands on one of the fighting-men and take his arms. But Asahel would not be turned away from going after Abner. +2Sa 2:22 Then again Abner said to Asahel, Go to one side, do not keep on coming after me: why will you make me put an end to you? for then I will be shamed before your brother Joab. +2Sa 2:23 But still he did not go to one side: so Abner gave him a back blow in the stomach with his spear, so that the spear came out at his back; and he went down on the earth, wounded to death: and all those who came to the place where Asahel went down dead, came to a stop. +2Sa 2:24 But Joab and Abishai went after Abner: and the sun went down when they came to the hill of Ammah, which is to the east of the road through the waste land of Geba. +2Sa 2:25 And the men of Benjamin came together after Abner in one band, and took their places on the top of a hill. +2Sa 2:26 Then crying out to Joab, Abner said, Are fighting and destruction to go on for ever? do you not see that the end will only be bitter? how long will it be before you send the people back and make them give up attacking their countrymen? +2Sa 2:27 And Joab said, By the living God, if you had not given the word, the people would have gone on attacking their countrymen till the morning. +2Sa 2:28 So Joab had a horn sounded, and all the people came to a stop, and gave up going after Israel and fighting them. +2Sa 2:29 And all that night Abner and his men went through the Arabah; they went over Jordan and through all Bithron and came to Mahanaim. +2Sa 2:30 And Joab came back from fighting Abner: and when he had got all his men together, it was seen that nineteen of David's men, in addition to Asahel, were not with them. +2Sa 2:31 But David's men had put to death three hundred and sixty of the men of Benjamin and of Abner's men +2Sa 2:32 And they took Asahel's body and put it in the last resting-place of his father in Beth-lehem. And Joab and his men, travelling all night, came to Hebron at dawn. +2Sa 3:1 Now there was a long war between Saul's people and David's people; and David became stronger and stronger, but those on Saul's side became more and more feeble. +2Sa 3:2 While David was in Hebron he became the father of sons: the oldest was Amnon, son of Ahinoam of Jezreel; +2Sa 3:3 And the second, Chileab, whose mother was Abigail, the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom, son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; +2Sa 3:4 And the fourth, Adonijah, the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah, the son of Abital; +2Sa 3:5 And the sixth, Ithream, whose mother was David's wife Eglah. These were the sons of David, whose birth took place in Hebron. +2Sa 3:6 Now while there was war between Saul's people and David's people, Abner was making himself strong among the supporters of Saul. +2Sa 3:7 Now Saul had among his wives a woman named Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah: and Ish-bosheth said to Abner, Why have you taken my father's wife? +2Sa 3:8 And Abner was very angry at the words of Ish-bosheth, and he said, Am I a dog's head of Judah? I am this day doing all in my power for the cause of your father Saul and for his brothers and his friends, and have not given you up into the hands of David, and now you say I have done wrong with a woman. +2Sa 3:9 May God's punishment be on Abner, if I do not for David as the Lord in his oath has said, +2Sa 3:10 And if I do not take away the kingdom from the family of Saul and make David ruler over Israel and Judah from Dan as far as Beer-sheba! +2Sa 3:11 And so great was Ish-bosheth's fear of Abner that he was not able to say a word in answer. +2Sa 3:12 And Abner sent men to David at Hebron, saying, Make an agreement with me, and I will give you my support in getting all Israel on your side. +2Sa 3:13 And he said, It is well; I will make an agreement with you, but on one condition, which is, that when you come before me, Saul's daughter Michal is to come with you; till she comes you will not see my face. +2Sa 3:14 And David sent men to Saul's son Ish-bosheth, saying, Give me back Michal, my wife, whom I made mine for the price of the private parts of a hundred Philistines. +2Sa 3:15 So Ish-bosheth sent and took her from her husband Paltiel, the son of Laish. +2Sa 3:16 And her husband went with her as far as Bahurim, weeping while he went. Then Abner said to him, Go back. And he went back. +2Sa 3:17 Then Abner had a talk with the chief men of Israel, saying, In the past it was your desire to make David your king: so now, do it: +2Sa 3:18 For the Lord has said of David, By the hand of my servant David I will make my people Israel safe from the Philistines, and from all who are against them. +2Sa 3:19 And Abner said the same things to Benjamin: and he went to David in Hebron to make clear to him what seemed good to Israel and to all the people of Benjamin. +2Sa 3:20 So Abner, with twenty men, came to Hebron, to David. And David made a feast for Abner and the men who were with him. +2Sa 3:21 And Abner said to David, Now I will go, and make all Israel come to my lord the king, so that they may make an agreement with you, and your kingdom may be as wide as your heart's desire. Then David sent Abner away and he went in peace. +2Sa 3:22 Now the servants of David and Joab had been out attacking a band of armed men, and they came back with a great store of goods taken in the fight: but Abner was no longer in Hebron with David, for he had sent him away and he had gone in peace. +2Sa 3:23 When Joab and his men came, news was given them that Abner, the son of Ner, had come to the king, who had let him go away again in peace. +2Sa 3:24 Then Joab came to the king, and said, What have you done? when Abner came to you why did you send him away and let him go? +2Sa 3:25 Is it not clear to you that Abner, the son of Ner, came with deceit to get knowledge of your going out and your coming in and of all you are doing? +2Sa 3:26 And when Joab had come out from David, he sent men after Abner, and they overtook him at the water-spring of Sirah, and made him come back with them: but David had no knowledge of it. +2Sa 3:27 And when Abner was back in Hebron, Joab took him on one side by the doorway of the town to have a word with him quietly, and there he gave him a wound in the stomach, causing his death in payment for the death of his brother Asahel. +2Sa 3:28 And when David had word of it he said, May I and my kingdom be clear for ever in the eyes of the Lord from the blood of Abner, the son of Ner: +2Sa 3:29 May it come on the head of Joab and all his father's family: among the men of Joab's family may there ever be some who are diseased or lepers, or who do the work of women, or are put to the sword, or are wasted from need of food! +2Sa 3:30 So Joab and Abishai his brother put Abner to death, because he had put to death their brother Asahel in the fight at Gibeon. +2Sa 3:31 And David said to Joab and all the people who were with him, Go in grief and put haircloth about you, in sorrow for Abner. And King David went after the dead body. +2Sa 3:32 And they put Abner's body to rest in Hebron; and the king and all the people were weeping loudly by the resting-place of Abner's body. +2Sa 3:33 And the king made a song of grief for Abner and said, Was the death of Abner to be like the death of a foolish man? +2Sa 3:34 Your hands were free, your feet were not chained: like the downfall of a man before evil men, so was your fall. And the weeping of the people over him went on again. +2Sa 3:35 And the people came to make David take food, while it was still day, but David with an oath said, May God's punishment be on me if I take a taste of bread or any other thing till the sun has gone down! +2Sa 3:36 And all the people took note of it and were pleased: like everything the king did, it was pleasing to the people. +2Sa 3:37 So it was clear to Israel and to all the people on that day that the king was not responsible for the death of Abner, the son of Ner. +2Sa 3:38 And the king said to his servants, Do you not see that a chief and a great man has come to his end today in Israel? +2Sa 3:39 While I, though I am crowned king, have little strength, and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are out of my control: may the Lord give to the evil-doer the reward of his evil-doing! +2Sa 4:1 And when Saul's son Ish-bosheth had news that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled. +2Sa 4:2 And Saul's son had two men, captains of bands, one named Baanah and the other Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the tribe of Benjamin; (for Beeroth was at one time taken to be part of Benjamin: +2Sa 4:3 But the people of Beeroth had gone in flight to Gittaim, where they have been living to this day.) +2Sa 4:4 Now Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son whose feet were damaged. He was five years old when news of the death of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and the woman who took care of him took him up and went in flight: and while she was getting him away as quickly as she was able, he had a fall and his feet were damaged. His name was Mephibosheth. +2Sa 4:5 And Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, went out and came to the house of Ish-bosheth in the heat of the day, when he was resting in the middle of the day. Now the woman who kept the door was cleaning grain, and sleep overcame her. +2Sa 4:6 And Rechab and his brother Baanah got in without being seen. +2Sa 4:7 And when they came into the house, Ish-bosheth was stretched on his bed in his bedroom; and they made an attack on him and put him to death, and, cutting off his head, they took it with them and went by the road through the Arabah all night. +2Sa 4:8 And they took the head of Ish-bosheth to David in Hebron, and said to the king, Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul your hater, who would have taken your life; the Lord has taken payment for the wrongs of my lord the king from Saul and his seed today. +2Sa 4:9 And David made answer to Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, By the living Lord, who has kept me safe from all my trouble, +2Sa 4:10 When one came to me with the news of Saul's death, in the belief that it would be good news, I took him and put him to death in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news: +2Sa 4:11 How much more, when evil men have put an upright person to death, in his house, sleeping on his bed, will I take payment from you for his blood, and have you cut off from the earth? +2Sa 4:12 And David gave orders to his young men and they put them to death, cutting off their hands and their feet and hanging them up by the side of the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth and put it in its last resting-place with Abner's body in Hebron. +2Sa 5:1 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and said, Truly, we are your bone and your flesh. +2Sa 5:2 In the past when Saul was king over us, it was you who went at the head of Israel when they went out or came in: and the Lord said to you, You are to be the keeper of my people Israel and their ruler. +2Sa 5:3 So all the responsible men of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made an agreement with them in Hebron before the Lord: and they put the holy oil on David and made him king over Israel. +2Sa 5:4 David was thirty years old when he became king, and he was king for forty years, +2Sa 5:5 Ruling over Judah in Hebron for seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem, over all Israel and Judah, for thirty-three years. +2Sa 5:6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the people of the land: and they said to David, You will not come in here, but the blind and the feeble-footed will keep you out; for they said, David will not be able to come in here. +2Sa 5:7 But David took the strong place of Zion, which is the town of David. +2Sa 5:8 And that day David said, Whoever makes an attack on the Jebusites, let him go up by the water-pipe, and put to death all the blind and feeble-footed who are hated by David. And this is why they say, The blind and feeble-footed may not come into the house. +2Sa 5:9 So David took the strong tower for his living-place, naming it the town of David. And David took in hand the building of the town all round, starting from the Millo. +2Sa 5:10 And David became greater and greater; for the Lord, the God of armies, was with him. +2Sa 5:11 And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent men to David, with cedar-trees and woodworkers and stoneworkers: and they made David a house. +2Sa 5:12 And David saw that the Lord had made his position safe as king over Israel, and that he had made his kingdom great because of his people Israel. +2Sa 5:13 And David took more women and wives in Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron: and he had more sons and daughters. +2Sa 5:14 These are the names of those whose birth took place in Jerusalem: Shammua and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon +2Sa 5:15 And Ibhar and Elishua and Nepheg and Japhia +2Sa 5:16 And Elishama and Eliada and Eliphelet. +2Sa 5:17 And when the Philistines had news that David had been made king over Israel, they all went up in search of David; and David, hearing of it, went down to the strong place. +2Sa 5:18 And when the Philistines came, they went in every direction in the valley of Rephaim. +2Sa 5:19 And David, desiring directions from the Lord, said, Am I to go up against the Philistines? will you give them up into my hands? And the Lord said, Go up, for I will certainly give up the Philistines into your hands. +2Sa 5:20 And David went to Baal-perazim, and overcame them there; and he said, The Lord has let the forces fighting against me be broken before me as a wall is broken by rushing waters. So that place was named Baal-perazim. +2Sa 5:21 And the Philistines, when they went in flight, did not take their images with them, and David and his men took them away. +2Sa 5:22 And the Philistines came up again, and went in every direction in the valley of Rephaim. +2Sa 5:23 And when David went for directions to the Lord, he said, You are not to go up against them in front; but make a circle round them from the back and come on them opposite the spice-trees. +2Sa 5:24 Then at the sound of footsteps in the tops of the trees, go forward quickly, for the Lord has gone out before you to overcome the army of the Philistines. +2Sa 5:25 And David did as the Lord had said; and he overcame the Philistines, attacking them from Gibeon to near Gezer. +2Sa 6:1 And David got together all the fighting-men of Israel to the number of thirty thousand; +2Sa 6:2 And David, and all the people who were with him, went to Baal of Judah to get the ark of God, over which the holy name is named, the name of the Lord of armies, whose place is between the winged ones. +2Sa 6:3 And they put the ark of God on a new cart and took it out of the house of Abinadab which was on the hill: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were the drivers of the cart. +2Sa 6:4 And Uzzah went by the side of the ark, while Ahio went before it. +2Sa 6:5 And David and all the men of Israel made melody before the Lord with all their power, with songs and with corded instruments and instruments of brass. +2Sa 6:6 And when they came to Nacon's grain-floor, Uzzah put his hand on the ark of God to keep it safe in its place, for the oxen were out of control. +2Sa 6:7 And the wrath of the Lord, burning against Uzzah, sent destruction on him because he had put his hand on the ark, and death came to him there by the ark of God. +2Sa 6:8 And David was angry because of the Lord's outburst of wrath against Uzzah: and he gave that place the name Perez-uzzah, which is its name to this day. +2Sa 6:9 And such was David's fear of the Lord that day, that he said, How may I let the ark of God come to me? +2Sa 6:10 So David did not let the ark of the Lord come back to him to the town of David: but had it turned away and put into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. +2Sa 6:11 And the ark of the Lord was in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months: and the Lord sent a blessing on Obed-edom and all his family. +2Sa 6:12 And they said to King David, The blessing of the Lord is on the family of Obed-edom and on all he has, because of the ark of God. And David went and took the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the town of David with joy. +2Sa 6:13 And when those who were lifting the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he made an offering of an ox and a fat young beast. +2Sa 6:14 And David, clothed in a linen ephod, was dancing before the Lord with all his strength. +2Sa 6:15 So David and all the men of Israel took up the ark of the Lord with cries of joy and sounding of horns. +2Sa 6:16 And when the ark of the Lord came into the town of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looking out of the window, saw King David dancing and jumping before the Lord; and to her mind he seemed foolish. +2Sa 6:17 And they took in the ark of the Lord, and put it in its place inside the tent which David had put up for it: and David made burned offerings and peace-offerings to the Lord. +2Sa 6:18 And after David had made the burned offerings and the peace-offerings, he gave the people a blessing in the name of the Lord of armies. +2Sa 6:19 And he gave to every man and woman among all the people, among all the masses of Israel, a cake of bread and a measure of wine and a cake of dry grapes. Then all the people went away, every man to his house. +2Sa 6:20 Then David came back to give a blessing to his family. And Michal, Saul's daughter, came out to him and said, How full of glory was the king of Israel today, who let himself be seen uncovered by his servant-girls like a foolish person uncovering himself without shame! +2Sa 6:21 And David said to Michal, I was dancing before the Lord, who put me over your father and all his sons, to make me a ruler over the people of the Lord, over his people Israel: and I will go on playing before the Lord; +2Sa 6:22 And I will do even worse than this, and make myself even lower in your eyes: but the servant-girls of whom you were talking will give me honour. +2Sa 6:23 And Michal, Saul's daughter, had no child till the day of her death. +2Sa 7:1 Now when the king was living in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from war on every side; +2Sa 7:2 The king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God is housed inside the curtains of a tent. +2Sa 7:3 And Nathan said to the king, Go and do whatever is in your heart; for the Lord is with you. +2Sa 7:4 Now that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, +2Sa 7:5 Go and say to my servant David, The Lord says, Are you to be the builder of a house, a living-place for me? +2Sa 7:6 For from the day when I took the children of Israel up out of Egypt till this day, I have had no house, but have gone from place to place in a tent. +2Sa 7:7 In all the places where I went with all the children of Israel, did I ever say to any of the judges of Israel, to whom I gave the care of my people Israel, Why have you not made me a house of cedar? +2Sa 7:8 Then say these words to my servant David, The Lord of armies says, I took you from the fields, from keeping the sheep, so that you might be a ruler over my people, over my people Israel: +2Sa 7:9 And I have been with you wherever you went, cutting off before you all those who were against you; and I will make your name great, like the name of the greatest ones of the earth. +2Sa 7:10 And I will make a resting-place for my people Israel, planting them there, so that they may be living in the place which is theirs, and never again be moved; and never again will they be troubled by evil men as they were at the first, +2Sa 7:11 From the time when I put judges over my people Israel; and I will give you peace from all who are against you. And the Lord says to you that he will make you the head of a line of kings. +2Sa 7:12 And when the time comes for you to go to rest with your fathers, I will put in your place your seed after you, the offspring of your body, and I will make his kingdom strong. +2Sa 7:13 He will be the builder of a house for my name, and I will make the seat of his authority certain for ever. +2Sa 7:14 I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son: if he does wrong, I will give him punishment with the rod of men and with the blows of the children of men; +2Sa 7:15 But my mercy will not be taken away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. +2Sa 7:16 And your family and your kingdom will keep their place before me for ever: the seat of your authority will never be overturned. +2Sa 7:17 So Nathan gave David an account of all these words and this vision. +2Sa 7:18 Then David the king went in and took his seat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have been my guide till now? +2Sa 7:19 And this was only a small thing to you, O Lord God; but your words have even been about the far-off future of your servant's family, O Lord God! +2Sa 7:20 What more may David say to you? for you have knowledge of your servant, O Lord God. +2Sa 7:21 Because of your word and from your heart, you have done all this great work, and let your servant see it. +2Sa 7:22 Truly you are great, O Lord God: there is no one like you and no other God but you, as is clear from everything which has come to our ears. +2Sa 7:23 And what other nation in the earth, like your people Israel, did a god go out to take for himself, to be his people, and to make a name for himself, and to do great and strange things for them, driving out a nation and its gods from before his people? +2Sa 7:24 But you took and made strong for yourself your people Israel, to be your people for ever; and you, Lord, became their God. +2Sa 7:25 And now, O Lord God, may the word which you have said about your servant and about his family, be made certain for ever, and may you do as you have said! +2Sa 7:26 And let your name be made great for ever, and let men say, The Lord of armies is God over Israel: and let the family of David your servant be made strong before you! +2Sa 7:27 For you, O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, have clearly said to your servant, I will make you the head of a family of kings: and so it has come into your servant's heart to make this prayer to you. +2Sa 7:28 And now, O Lord God, you are God and your words are true and you have said you will give your servant this good thing; +2Sa 7:29 So may it be your pleasure to give your blessing to the family of your servant, so that it may go on for ever before you: (for you, O Lord God, have said it,) and may your blessing be on your servant's family line for ever! +2Sa 8:1 And it came about after this that David made an attack on the Philistines and overcame them; and David took the authority of the mother-town from the hands of the Philistines. +2Sa 8:2 And he overcame the Moabites, and he had them measured with a line when they were stretched out on the earth; marking out two lines for death and one full line for life. So the Moabites became servants to David and gave him offerings. +2Sa 8:3 And David overcame Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when he went to make his power seen by the River. +2Sa 8:4 And David took from him one thousand, seven hundred horsemen and twenty thousand footmen: and David had the leg-muscles of the horses cut, only keeping enough of them for a hundred war-carriages. +2Sa 8:5 And when the Aramaeans of Damascus came to the help of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, David put to the sword twenty-two thousand of the Aramaeans. +2Sa 8:6 And David put armed forces in Aram of Damascus: and the Aramaeans became servants to David and gave him offerings. And the Lord made David overcome wherever he went. +2Sa 8:7 And David took their gold body-covers from the servants of Hadadezer and took them to Jerusalem. +2Sa 8:8 And from Tebah and Berothai, towns of Hadadezer, King David took a great store of brass. +2Sa 8:9 And when Tou, king of Hamath, had news that David had overcome all the army of Hadadezer, +2Sa 8:10 He sent his son Hadoram to David, with words of peace and blessing, because he had overcome Hadadezer in the fight, for Hadadezer had wars with Tou; and Hadoram took with him vessels of silver and gold and brass: +2Sa 8:11 These King David made holy to the Lord, together with the silver and gold which he had taken from the nations he had overcome-- +2Sa 8:12 The nations of Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon and the Philistines and the Amalekites and the goods he had taken from Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah. +2Sa 8:13 And David got great honour for himself, when he came back, by the destruction of Edom in the valley of Salt, to the number of eighteen thousand men. +2Sa 8:14 And he put armed forces in Edom; all through Edom he had armed forces stationed, and all the Edomites became servants to David. And the Lord made David overcome wherever he went. +2Sa 8:15 And David was king over all Israel, judging and giving right decisions for all his people. +2Sa 8:16 And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the army; and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was keeper of the records; +2Sa 8:17 And Zadok and Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, were priests; and Seraiah was the scribe; +2Sa 8:18 And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David's sons were priests. +2Sa 9:1 And David said, Is there still anyone of Saul's family living, so that I may be a friend to him, because of Jonathan? +2Sa 9:2 Now there was of Saul's people a servant named Ziba, and they sent him to David; and the king said to him, Are you Ziba? And he said, I am. +2Sa 9:3 And the king said, Is there anyone of Saul's family still living, to whom I may be a friend in God's name? And Ziba said, There is a son of Jonathan, whose feet are damaged. +2Sa 9:4 And the king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, He is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar. +2Sa 9:5 Then King David sent, and had him taken from Lo-debar, from the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel. +2Sa 9:6 And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, came to David, and falling down on his face, gave him honour. And David said, Mephibosheth. And answering he said, Your servant is here. +2Sa 9:7 And David said to him, Have no fear: for truly I will be good to you, because of your father Jonathan, and I will give back to you all the land which was Saul's; and you will have a place at my table at all times. +2Sa 9:8 And he went down on his face before the king, and said, What is your servant, for you to take note of a dead dog such as I am? +2Sa 9:9 Then the king sent for Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, All the property of Saul and of his family I have given to your master's son. +2Sa 9:10 And you and your sons and your servants are to take care of the land for him, and get in the fruit of it, so that your master's son may have food: but Mephibosheth, your master's son, will have a place at my table at all times. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. +2Sa 9:11 Then Ziba said to the king, Every order which you have given to your servant will be done. As for Mephibosheth, he had a place at David's table, like one of the king's sons. +2Sa 9:12 And Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica. And all the people living in the house of Ziba were servants to Mephibosheth. +2Sa 9:13 So Mephibosheth went on living in Jerusalem; for he took all his meals at the king's table; and he had not the use of his feet. +2Sa 10:1 Now after this, death came to the king of the children of Ammon, and Hanun, his son, became king in his place. +2Sa 10:2 And David said, I will be a friend to Hanun, the son of Nahash, as his father was a friend to me. So David sent his servants, to give him words of comfort on account of his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon. +2Sa 10:3 But the chiefs of the children of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, Does it seem to you that David is honouring your father by sending comforters to you? has he not sent his servants to go through the town and make secret observation of it, and overcome it? +2Sa 10:4 So Hanun took David's servants, and after cutting off half the hair on their chins, and cutting off the skirts of their robes up to the middle, he sent them away. +2Sa 10:5 When David had news of it, he sent men out with the purpose of meeting them on their way, for the men were greatly shamed: and the king said, Go to Jericho till your hair is long again, and then come back. +2Sa 10:6 And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves hated by David, they sent to the Aramaeans of Beth-rehob and Zobah, and got for payment twenty thousand footmen, and they got from the king of Maacah a thousand men, and from Tob twelve thousand. +2Sa 10:7 And hearing of this, David sent Joab and all the army and the best fighting-men. +2Sa 10:8 And the children of Ammon came out and put their forces in position at the way into the town: and the Aramaeans of Zobah and of Rehob, with the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field. +2Sa 10:9 Now when Joab saw that their forces were in position against him in front and at his back, he took the best of the men of Israel and put them in line against the Aramaeans; +2Sa 10:10 And the rest of the people he put in position against the children of Ammon, with Abishai, his brother, at their head. +2Sa 10:11 And he said, If the Aramaeans are stronger and get the better of me, then you are to come to my help; but if the children of Ammon get the better of you, I will come to your help. +2Sa 10:12 Take heart, and let us be strong for our people and for the towns of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him. +2Sa 10:13 Then Joab and the people with him went forward to the fight against the Aramaeans, and they went in flight before him. +2Sa 10:14 And when the children of Ammon saw the flight of the Aramaeans, they themselves went in flight from Abishai, and came into the town. So Joab went back from fighting the children of Ammon and came to Jerusalem. +2Sa 10:15 And when the Aramaeans saw that Israel had overcome them, they got themselves together. +2Sa 10:16 And Hadadezer sent for the Aramaeans who were on the other side of the River: and they came to Helam, with Shobach, the captain of Hadadezer's army, at their head. +2Sa 10:17 And word of this was given to David: and he got all Israel together and went over Jordan and came to Helam. And the Aramaeans put their forces in position against David, and made an attack on him. +2Sa 10:18 And the Aramaeans went in flight before Israel; and David put to the sword the men of seven hundred Aramaean war-carriages and forty thousand footmen, and Shobach, the captain of the army, was wounded, and came to his death there. +2Sa 10:19 And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they were overcome by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became their servants. So the Aramaeans, in fear, gave no more help to the children of Ammon. +2Sa 11:1 Now in the spring, at the time when kings go out to war, David sent Joab and his servants and all Israel with him; and they made waste the land of the children of Ammon, and took up their position before Rabbah, shutting it in. But David was still at Jerusalem. +2Sa 11:2 Now one evening, David got up from his bed, and while he was walking on the roof of the king's house, he saw from there a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. +2Sa 11:3 And David sent to get knowledge who the woman was. And one said, Is this not Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite? +2Sa 11:4 And David sent and took her; and she came to him, and he took her to his bed: (for she had been made clean;) then she went back to her house. +2Sa 11:5 And the woman became with child; and she sent word to David that she was with child. +2Sa 11:6 And David sent to Joab saying, Send Uriah the Hittite to me. And Joab sent Uriah to David. +2Sa 11:7 And when Uriah came to him, David put questions to him about how Joab and the people were, and how the war was going. +2Sa 11:8 And David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and let your feet be washed. And Uriah went away from the king's house, and an offering from the king was sent after him. +2Sa 11:9 But Uriah took his rest at the door of the king's house, with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. +2Sa 11:10 And when word was given to David that Uriah had not gone down to his house, David said to Uriah, Have you not come from a journey? why did you not go down to your house? +2Sa 11:11 And Uriah said to David, Israel and Judah with the ark are living in tents, and my lord Joab and the other servants of my lord are sleeping in the open field; and am I to go to my house and take food and drink, and go to bed with my wife? By the living Lord, and by the life of your soul, I will not do such a thing. +2Sa 11:12 And David said to Uriah, Be here today, and after that I will let you go. So Uriah was in Jerusalem that day and the day after. +2Sa 11:13 And when David sent for him, he took meat and drink with him, and David made him the worse for drink: and when evening came, he went to rest on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. +2Sa 11:14 Now in the morning, David gave Uriah a letter to take to Joab. +2Sa 11:15 And in the letter he said, Take care to put Uriah in the very front of the line, where the fighting is most violent, and go back from him, so that he may be overcome and put to death. +2Sa 11:16 So while Joab was watching the town, he put Uriah in the place where it was clear to him the best fighters were. +2Sa 11:17 And the men of the town went out and had a fight with Joab: and a number of David's men came to their death in the fight, and with them Uriah the Hittite. +2Sa 11:18 Then Joab sent David news of everything which had taken place in the war: +2Sa 11:19 And he gave orders to the man who took the news, saying, After you have given the king all the news about the war, +2Sa 11:20 If the king is angry and says, Why did you go so near the town for the fight? was it not certain that their archers would be on the wall? +2Sa 11:21 Who put Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, to death? did not a woman send a great stone down on him from the wall, putting him to death at Thebez? why did you go so near the wall? Then say to him, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is among the dead. +2Sa 11:22 So the man went, and came to David, and gave him all the news which Joab had sent him to give; then David was angry with Joab and said, Why did you go so near the town for the fight? was it not certain that their archers would be on the wall? who put Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, to death? did not a woman send a great stone down on him from the wall, putting him to death at Thebez? why did you go so near the wall? +2Sa 11:23 And the man said to David, Truly the men got the better of us, and came out against us into the open country, but we sent them back to the very doors of the town. +2Sa 11:24 And the archers sent their arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king's servants are dead, and among them is your servant Uriah the Hittite. +2Sa 11:25 Then David said to the man, Go and say to Joab, Do not let this be a grief to you; for one man may come to his death by the sword like another: put up an even stronger fight against the town, and take it: and do you put heart into him. +2Sa 11:26 And when the wife of Uriah had news that her husband was dead, she gave herself up to weeping for him. +2Sa 11:27 And when the days of weeping were past, David sent for her, and took her into his house, and she became his wife and gave him a son. But the Lord was not pleased with the thing David had done. +2Sa 12:1 And the Lord sent Nathan to David. And Nathan came to him and said, There were two men in the same town: one a man of great wealth, and the other a poor man. +2Sa 12:2 The man of wealth had great numbers of flocks and herds; +2Sa 12:3 But the poor man had only one little she-lamb, which he had got and taken care of: from its birth it had been with him like one of his children; his meat was its food, and from his cup it took its drink, resting in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. +2Sa 12:4 Now a traveller came to the house of the man of wealth, but he would not take anything from his flock or his herd to make a meal for the traveller who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and made it ready for the man who had come. +2Sa 12:5 And David was full of wrath against that man; and he said to Nathan, By the living Lord, death is the right punishment for the man who has done this: +2Sa 12:6 And he will have to give back four times the value of the lamb, because he has done this and because he had no pity. +2Sa 12:7 And Nathan said to David, You are that man. The Lord God of Israel says, I made you king over Israel, putting holy oil on you, and I kept you safe from the hands of Saul; +2Sa 12:8 I gave you your master's daughter and your master's wives for yourself, and I gave you the daughters of Israel and Judah; and if that had not been enough, I would have given you such and such things. +2Sa 12:9 Why then have you had no respect for the word of the Lord, doing what is evil in his eyes? You have put Uriah the Hittite to death with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife; you have put him to death with the sword of the children of Ammon. +2Sa 12:10 So now the sword will never be turned away from your family; because you have had no respect for me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. +2Sa 12:11 The Lord says, From those of your family I will send evil against you, and before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to your neighbour, and he will take your wives to his bed by the light of this sun. +2Sa 12:12 You did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel and in the light of the sun. +2Sa 12:13 And David said to Nathan, Great is my sin against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord has put away your sin; death will not come on you. +2Sa 12:14 But still, because you have had no respect for the Lord, death will certainly overtake the child who has newly come to birth. +2Sa 12:15 Then Nathan went back to his house. And the hand of the Lord was on David's son, the child of Uriah's wife, and it became very ill. +2Sa 12:16 So David made prayer to God for the child; and he took no food day after day, and went in and, stretching himself out on the earth, was there all night. +2Sa 12:17 And the chief men of his house got up and went to his side to make him get up from the earth, but he would not; and he would not take food with them. +2Sa 12:18 And then on the seventh day the child's death took place. And David's servants were in fear of giving him the news of the child's death: for they said, Truly, while the child was still living he gave no attention when we said anything to him: what will he do to himself if we give him word that the child is dead? +2Sa 12:19 But when David saw that his servants were talking together quietly, he was certain that the child was dead: and he said to his servants, Is the child dead? and they said, He is. +2Sa 12:20 Then David got up from the earth, and after washing and rubbing himself with oil and changing his clothing, he went into the house of the Lord and gave worship: then he went back to his house, and at his order they put food before him and he had a meal. +2Sa 12:21 Then his servants said to him, Why have you been acting in this way? you were weeping and going without food while the child was still living; but when the child was dead, you got up and had a meal. +2Sa 12:22 And he said, While the child was still living I went without food and gave myself up to weeping: for I said, Who is able to say that the Lord will not have mercy on me and give the child life? +2Sa 12:23 But now that the child is dead there is no reason for me to go without food; am I able to make him come back to life? I will go to him, but he will never come back to me. +2Sa 12:24 And David gave comfort to his wife Bath-sheba, and he went in to her and had connection with her: and she had a son to whom she gave the name Solomon. And he was dear to the Lord. +2Sa 12:25 And he sent word by Nathan the prophet, who gave him the name Jedidiah, by the word of the Lord. +2Sa 12:26 Now Joab was fighting against Rabbah, in the land of the children of Ammon, and he took the water-town. +2Sa 12:27 And Joab sent men to David, saying, I have made war against Rabbah and have taken the water-town. +2Sa 12:28 So now, get the rest of the people together, and put them in position against the town and take it, for if I take it, it will be named after my name. +2Sa 12:29 Then David got all the people together and went to Rabbah and made war on it and took it. +2Sa 12:30 And he took the crown of Milcom from his head; the weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it were stones of great price; and it was put on David's head. And he took a great store of goods from the town. +2Sa 12:31 And he took the people out of the town and put them to work with wood-cutting instruments, and iron grain-crushers, and iron axes, and at brick-making: this he did to all the towns of the children of Ammon. Then David and all the people went back to Jerusalem. +2Sa 13:1 Now after this, it came about that Absalom, David's son, had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar; and David's son Amnon was in love with her. +2Sa 13:2 And he was so deeply in love that he became ill because of his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin, and so it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her. +2Sa 13:3 But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother: and Jonadab was a very wise man. +2Sa 13:4 And he said to him, O son of the king, why are you getting thinner day by day? will you not say what your trouble is? And Amnon said to him, I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister. +2Sa 13:5 Then Jonadab said to him, Go to your bed, and let it seem that you are ill: and when your father comes to see you, say to him, Let my sister Tamar come and give me bread, and get the food ready before my eyes, so that I may see it and take it from her hand. +2Sa 13:6 So Amnon went to bed and made himself seem ill: and when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, Please let my sister Tamar come and make me one or two cakes before my eyes, so that I may take food from her hand. +2Sa 13:7 Then David sent to the house for Tamar and said, Go now to your brother Amnon's house and get a meal for him. +2Sa 13:8 So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house; and he was in bed. And she took paste and made cakes before his eyes, cooking them over the fire. +2Sa 13:9 And she took the cooking-pot, and put the cakes before him, but he would not take them. And Amnon said, Let everyone go away from me. So they all went out. +2Sa 13:10 Then Amnon said to Tamar, Take the food and come into my bedroom, so that I may take it from your hand. So Tamar took the cakes she had made and went with them into her brother Amnon's bedroom. +2Sa 13:11 And when she took them to give them to him, he put his arms round her and said, Come to bed, my sister. +2Sa 13:12 And answering him, she said, O my brother, do not put shame on me; it is not right for such a thing to be done in Israel: do not this evil thing. +2Sa 13:13 What will become of me in my shame? and as for you, you will be looked down on with disgust by all Israel. Now then, go and make your request to the king, for he will not keep me from you. +2Sa 13:14 But he would not give attention to what she said: but being stronger than she, he took her by force, and had connection with her. +2Sa 13:15 Then Amnon was full of hate for her, hating her with a hate greater than his earlier love for her. And he said to her, Get up and be gone. +2Sa 13:16 And she said to him, Not so, my brother, for this great wrong in sending me away is worse than what you did to me before. But he gave no attention to her. +2Sa 13:17 Then he gave a cry to the servant who was waiting on him and said, Put this woman out, and let the door be locked after her. +2Sa 13:18 Now she had on a long robe, such as in past times the king's virgin daughters were dressed in. Then the servant put her out, locking the door after her. +2Sa 13:19 And Tamar, in her grief, put dust on her head; and she put her hand on her head and went away crying loudly. +2Sa 13:20 And her brother Absalom said to her, Has your brother Amnon been with you? but now, let there be an end to your crying, my sister: he is your brother, do not take this thing to heart. So Tamar went on living uncomforted in her brother's house. +2Sa 13:21 But when King David had news of all these things he was very angry; but he did not make trouble for Amnon his son, for he was dear to David, being his oldest son. +2Sa 13:22 But Absalom said nothing to his brother Amnon, good or bad: for he was full of hate for him, because he had taken his sister Tamar by force. +2Sa 13:23 Now after two full years, Absalom had men cutting the wool of his sheep in Baal-hazor, which is near Ephraim: and he sent for all the king's sons to come to his feast. +2Sa 13:24 And Absalom came to the king and said, See now, your servant is cutting the wool of his sheep; will the king and his servants be pleased to come? +2Sa 13:25 And the king said to Absalom, No, my son, let us not all go, or the number will be over-great for you. And he made his request again, but he would not go, but he gave him his blessing. +2Sa 13:26 Then Absalom said, If you will not go, then let my brother Amnon go with us. And the king said to him, Is there any reason for him to go with you? +2Sa 13:27 But Absalom went on requesting him till he let Amnon and all the king's sons go with him. And Absalom made a great feast like a feast for a king. +2Sa 13:28 Now Absalom had given orders to his servants, saying, Now take note when Amnon's heart is glad with wine; and when I say to you, Make an attack on Amnon, then put him to death without fear: have I not given you orders? be strong and without fear. +2Sa 13:29 So Absalom's servants did to Amnon as Absalom had given them orders. Then all the king's sons got up, and every man got on his beast and went in flight. +2Sa 13:30 Now while they were on their way, news was given to David that Absalom had put to death all the sons of the king and that not one of them was still living. +2Sa 13:31 Then the king got up in great grief, stretching himself out on the earth: and all his servants were by his side, with their clothing parted. +2Sa 13:32 And Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother, said, Let not my lord have the idea that all the sons of the king have been put to death; for only Amnon is dead: this has been purposed by Absalom from the day when he took his sister Tamar by force. +2Sa 13:33 So now, let not my lord the king take this thing to heart, with the idea that all the king's sons are dead: for only Amnon is dead. +2Sa 13:34 But Absalom went in flight. And the young man who kept the watch, lifting up his eyes, saw that a great band of people was coming down the slope by the way of the Horons; and the watchman came and gave word to the king, saying, I saw men coming down by the way of the Horons, from the hillside. +2Sa 13:35 And Jonadab said to the king, See, the king's sons are coming; as your servant said, so it is. +2Sa 13:36 And while he was talking, the king's sons came, with weeping and loud cries: and the king and all his servants were weeping bitterly. +2Sa 13:37 So Absalom went in flight and came to Talmai, the son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur, where he was for three years. +2Sa 13:38 And the king was sorrowing for his son all the time. +2Sa 13:39 And the heart of David was wasted with desire for Absalom: for he was comforted for the death of Amnon. +2Sa 14:1 Now it was clear to Joab, the son of Zeruiah, that the king's heart was turning to Absalom. +2Sa 14:2 And Joab sent to Tekoa and got from there a wise woman, and said to her, Now make yourself seem like one given up to grief, and put on the clothing of sorrow, not using any sweet oil for your body, but looking like one who for a long time has been weeping for the dead: +2Sa 14:3 And come to the king and say these words to him. So Joab gave her words to say. +2Sa 14:4 And the woman of Tekoa came to the king, and falling on her face, gave him honour and said, Give me help, O king. +2Sa 14:5 And the king said to her, What is your trouble? And her answer was, Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead. +2Sa 14:6 And I had two sons, and the two of them had a fight in the field, and there was no one to come between them, and one with a blow put the other to death. +2Sa 14:7 And now all the family is turned against me, your servant, saying, Give up him who was the cause of his brother's death, so that we may put him to death in payment for the life of his brother, whose life he took; and we will put an end to the one who will get the heritage: so they will put out my last burning coal, and my husband will have no name or offspring on the face of the earth. +2Sa 14:8 And the king said to the woman, Go to your house and I will give orders about this. +2Sa 14:9 And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, My lord, O king, may the sin be on me and on my family, and may the king and the seat of his kingdom be clear of sin! +2Sa 14:10 And the king said, If anyone says anything to you, make him come to me, and he will do you no more damage. +2Sa 14:11 Then she said, Let the king keep in mind the Lord your God, so that he who gives punishment for blood may be kept back from further destruction and that no one may send death on my son. And he said, By the living Lord, not a hair of your son's head will come to the earth. +2Sa 14:12 Then the woman said, Will the king let his servant say one word more? And he said, Say on. +2Sa 14:13 And the woman said, Why have you had such a thought about the people of God? (for in saying these very words the king has put himself in the wrong because he has not taken back the one whom he sent far away.) +2Sa 14:14 For death comes to us all, and we are like water drained out on the earth, which it is not possible to take up again; and God will not take away the life of the man whose purpose is that he who has been sent away may not be completely cut off from him. +2Sa 14:15 And now it is my fear of the people which has made me come to say these words to my lord the king: and your servant said, I will put my cause before the king, and it may be that he will give effect to my request. +2Sa 14:16 For the king will give ear, and take his servant out of the power of the man whose purpose is the destruction of me and my son together from the heritage of God. +2Sa 14:17 Then your servant said, May the word of my lord the king give me peace! for my lord the king is as the angel of God in his hearing of good and bad: and may the Lord your God be with you! +2Sa 14:18 Then the king said to the woman, Now give me an answer to the question I am going to put to you; keep nothing back. And the woman said, Let my lord the king say on. +2Sa 14:19 And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman in answer said, By the life of your soul, my lord the king, it is not possible for anyone to go to the right hand or to the left from anything said by the king: your servant Joab gave me orders, and put all these words in my mouth: +2Sa 14:20 This he did, hoping that the face of this business might be changed: and my lord is wise, with the wisdom of the angel of God, having knowledge of everything on earth. +2Sa 14:21 And the king said to Joab, See now, I will do this thing: go then and Come back with the young man Absalom. +2Sa 14:22 Then Joab, falling down on his face on the earth, gave the king honour and blessing; and Joab said, Today it is clear to your servant that I have grace in your eyes, my lord king, because the king has given effect to the request of his servant. +2Sa 14:23 So Joab got up and went to Geshur and came back again to Jerusalem with Absalom. +2Sa 14:24 And the king said, Let him go to his house, but let him not see my face. So Absalom went back to his house and did not see the face of the king. +2Sa 14:25 Now in all Israel there was no one so greatly to be praised for his beautiful form as Absalom: from his feet to the crown of his head he was completely beautiful. +2Sa 14:26 And when he had his hair cut, (which he did at the end of every year, because of the weight of his hair;) the weight of the hair was two hundred shekels by the king's weight. +2Sa 14:27 And Absalom was the father of three sons and of one daughter named Tamar, who was very beautiful. +2Sa 14:28 For two full years Absalom was living in Jerusalem without ever seeing the face of the king. +2Sa 14:29 Then Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but he would not come to him: and he sent again a second time, but he would not come. +2Sa 14:30 So he said to his servants, See, Joab's field is near mine, and he has barley in it; go and put it on fire. And Absalom's servants put the field on fire. +2Sa 14:31 Then Joab came to Absalom in his house and said to him, Why have your servants put my field on fire? +2Sa 14:32 And Absalom's answer was, See, I sent to you saying, Come here, so that I may send you to the king to say, Why have I come back from Geshur? it would be better for me to be there still: let me now see the king's face, and if there is any sin in me, let him put me to death. +2Sa 14:33 So Joab went to the king and said these words to him: and when the king had sent for him, Absalom came, and went down on his face on the earth before the king: and the king gave him a kiss. +2Sa 15:1 Now after this, Absalom got for himself a carriage and horses, and fifty runners to go before him. +2Sa 15:2 And Absalom got up early, morning after morning, and took his place at the side of the public meeting-place: and when any man had a cause which had to come to the king to be judged, then Absalom, crying out to him, said, What is your town? and he would say, Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. +2Sa 15:3 And Absalom would say to him, See, your cause is true and right; but no man has been named by the king to give you a hearing. +2Sa 15:4 And more than this, Absalom said, If only I was made judge in the land, so that every man who has any cause or question might come to me, and I would give a right decision for him! +2Sa 15:5 And if any man came near to give him honour, he took him by the hand and gave him a kiss. +2Sa 15:6 And this Absalom did to everyone in Israel who came to the king to have his cause judged: so Absalom, like a thief, took away the hearts of the men of Israel. +2Sa 15:7 Now at the end of four years, Absalom said to the king, Let me go to Hebron and give effect to the oath which I made to the Lord: +2Sa 15:8 For while I was living in Geshur in Aram, your servant made an oath, saying, If ever the Lord lets me come back to Jerusalem, I will give him worship in Hebron. +2Sa 15:9 And the king said to him, Go in peace. So he got up and went to Hebron. +2Sa 15:10 But Absalom at the same time sent watchers through all the tribes of Israel to say, At the sound of the horn you are to say, Absalom is king in Hebron. +2Sa 15:11 And with Absalom, at his request, went two hundred men from Jerusalem, who were completely unconscious of his designs. +2Sa 15:12 And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, one of David's helpers, from Giloh his town, while he was making the offerings. And the design against David became strong, for more and more people were joined to Absalom. +2Sa 15:13 And one came to David and said, The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom. +2Sa 15:14 And David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, Come, let us go in flight, or not one of us will be safe from Absalom: let us go without loss of time, or he will overtake us quickly and send evil on us, and put the town to the sword. +2Sa 15:15 And the king's servants said to the king, See, your servants are ready to do whatever the king says is to be done. +2Sa 15:16 So the king went out, taking with him all the people of his house, but for ten of his women, who were to take care of the house. +2Sa 15:17 And the king went out, and all his servants went after him, and made a stop at the Far House. +2Sa 15:18 And all the people went on by his side; and all the Cherethites and all the Pelethites and all the men of Ittai of Gath, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, went on before the king. +2Sa 15:19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, Why are you coming with us? go back and keep with the king: for you are a man of another country, you are far from the land of your birth. +2Sa 15:20 It was only yesterday you came to us; why then am I to make you go up and down with us? for I have to go where I may; go back then, and take your countrymen with you, and may the Lord's mercy and good faith be with you. +2Sa 15:21 And Ittai the Gittite in answer said, By the living Lord, and by the life of my lord the king, in whatever place my lord the king may be, for life or death, there will your servant be. +2Sa 15:22 And David said to Ittai, Go forward, then. And Ittai the Gittite went on, with all his men and all the little ones he had with him. +2Sa 15:23 And there was great weeping in all the country when all the people went through; and the king himself was waiting in the Kidron valley and all the people went by him in the direction of the olive-tree on the edge of the waste land. +2Sa 15:24 Then Zadok came, and Abiathar, and with them the ark of God's agreement: and they put down the ark of God, till all the people from the town had gone by. +2Sa 15:25 And the king said to Zadok, Take the ark of God back into the town: if I have grace in the eyes of the Lord, he will let me come back and see it and his House again: +2Sa 15:26 But if he says, I have no delight in you: then, here I am; let him do to me what seems good to him. +2Sa 15:27 The king said further to Zadok the priest, See, you and Abiathar are to go back to the town in peace, with your two sons, Ahimaaz, your son, and Jonathan, the son of Abiathar. +2Sa 15:28 See, I will be waiting at the way across the river, in the waste land, till I get news from you. +2Sa 15:29 So Zadok and Abiathar took the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and did not go away from there. +2Sa 15:30 And David went up the slopes of the Mount of Olives weeping all the way, with his head covered and no shoes on his feet: and all the people who were with him, covering their heads, went up weeping. +2Sa 15:31 And word came to David, saying, Ahithophel is among those who are joined to Absalom. And David said, O Lord, let the wisdom of Ahithophel be made foolish. +2Sa 15:32 Now when David had come to the top of the slope, where they gave worship to God, Hushai the Archite came to him in great grief with dust on his head: +2Sa 15:33 David said to him, If you go on with me, you will be a trouble to me: +2Sa 15:34 But if you go back to the town and say to Absalom, I will be your servant, O king; as in the past I have been your father's servant, so now I will be yours: then you will be able to keep Ahithophel's designs against me from being put into effect. +2Sa 15:35 And have you not there Zadok and Abiathar the priests? so whatever comes to your ears from the king's house, give word of it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. +2Sa 15:36 See, they have with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, the son of Abiathar; by them you may send word to me of everything which comes to your ears. +2Sa 15:37 So Hushai, David's friend, went into the town, and Absalom came to Jerusalem. +2Sa 16:1 And when David had gone a little way past the top of the slope, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, came to him, with two asses on which were two hundred cakes of bread and a hundred stems of dry grapes and a hundred summer fruits and a skin of wine. +2Sa 16:2 And David said to Ziba, What is your reason for this? And Ziba said, The asses are for the use of the king's people, and the bread and the fruit are food for the young men; and the wine is for drink for those who are overcome by weariness in the waste land. +2Sa 16:3 And the king said, And where is your master's son? And Ziba said, He is still at Jerusalem: for he said, Today Israel will give back to me the kingdom of my father. +2Sa 16:4 Then the king said to Ziba, Truly everything which was Mephibosheth's is yours. And Ziba said, I give honour to my lord, may I have grace in your eyes, my lord, O king! +2Sa 16:5 And when King David came to Bahurim, a man of Saul's family named Shimei, the son of Gera, came out from there, calling curses after him. +2Sa 16:6 And he sent stones at David and at all the king's servants and at all the people and at all the men of war by his side, on the right hand and on the left. +2Sa 16:7 And Shimei said, with curses, Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, you good-for-nothing: +2Sa 16:8 The Lord has sent punishment on you for all the blood of the family of Saul, whose kingdom you have taken; and the Lord has given the kingdom to Absalom, your son: now you yourself are taken in your evil, because you are a man of blood. +2Sa 16:9 Then Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said to the king, Is this dead dog to go on cursing my lord the king? let me go over and take off his head. +2Sa 16:10 And the king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Let him go on cursing, for the Lord has said, Put a curse on David, and who then may say, Why have you done so? +2Sa 16:11 And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, You see how my son, the offspring of my body, has made designs against my life: how much more then may this Benjamite do so? Let him be, and let him go on cursing; for the Lord has given him orders. +2Sa 16:12 It may be that the Lord will take note of my wrongs, and give me back good in answer to his cursing of me today. +2Sa 16:13 So David and his men went on their way: and Shimei went by the hillside parallel with them, cursing and sending stones and dust at him. +2Sa 16:14 And the king and his people came tired to Jordan, and took their rest there. +2Sa 16:15 And Absalom and the men of Israel came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel was with him. +2Sa 16:16 Then Hushai the Archite, David's friend, came to Absalom and said, Long life to the king, long life to the king! +2Sa 16:17 And Absalom said, Is this your love for your friend? why did you not go with your friend? +2Sa 16:18 And Hushai said to Absalom, Not so; I am for that man whom the Lord and this people and all the men of Israel have taken as king, and I will take my place with him. +2Sa 16:19 And more than this! where is my place as a servant? is it not before his son? as I have been your father's servant, so will I be yours. +2Sa 16:20 Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, Give your opinion now, what are we to do? +2Sa 16:21 And Ahithophel said to Absalom, Go in to your father's women who are here looking after his house; then all Israel will have the news that you are hated by your father, and the hands of your supporters will be strong. +2Sa 16:22 So they put up the tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father's women before the eyes of all Israel. +2Sa 16:23 In those days the opinions of Ahithophel were valued as highly as if through him a man might get direction from God; so were they valued by David as much as by Absalom. +2Sa 17:1 Then Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me take out twelve thousand men and this very night I will go after David: +2Sa 17:2 And I will come up with him when he is tired and feeble, and make him full of fear: and all the people with him will go in flight; and I will make an attack on the king only: +2Sa 17:3 And I will make all the people come back to you as a bride comes back to her husband: it is the life of only one man you are going after; so all the people will be at peace. +2Sa 17:4 And the saying was pleasing to Absalom and to the responsible men of Israel. +2Sa 17:5 Then Absalom said, Now send for Hushai the Archite, and let us give ear to what he has to say. +2Sa 17:6 And when Hushai came, Absalom said to him, This is what Ahithophel has said: are we to do as he says? if not, what is your suggestion? +2Sa 17:7 And Hushai said to Absalom, Ahithophel's idea is not a good one at this time. +2Sa 17:8 Hushai said further, You have knowledge of your father and his men, that they are men of war, and that their feelings are bitter, like those of a bear in the field whose young ones have been taken from her: and your father is a man of war, and will not take his night's rest with the people; +2Sa 17:9 But he will certainly have taken cover now in some hole or secret place; and if some of our people, at the first attack, are overcome, then any hearing of it will say, There is destruction among the people who are on Absalom's side. +2Sa 17:10 Then even the strongest, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will become like water; for all Israel is conscious that your father is a man of war, and those who are with him are strong and without fear. +2Sa 17:11 But my suggestion is that all Israel, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, comes together to you, a great army like the sands of the sea in number; and that you yourself go out among them. +2Sa 17:12 Then we will come on him in some place, wherever he may be, falling on him as the dew comes on the earth: and of him and all the men who are with him not one will get away with his life. +2Sa 17:13 And if he has gone into some town, then let all Israel take strong cords to that town, and we will have it pulled into the valley, till not one small stone is to be seen there. +2Sa 17:14 Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, Hushai's suggestion is better than that of Ahithophel. For it was the purpose of the Lord to make the wise designs of Ahithophel without effect, so that the Lord might send evil on Absalom. +2Sa 17:15 Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, This is the suggestion made by Ahithophel to Absalom and the responsible men of Israel, and this is what I said to them. +2Sa 17:16 So now send the news quickly to David, and say, Do not take your night's rest by the way across the river to the waste land, but be certain to go over; or the king and all the people with him will come to destruction. +2Sa 17:17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting by En-rogel; and a servant-girl went from time to time and gave them news and they went with the news to King David, for it was not wise for them to let themselves be seen coming into the town. +2Sa 17:18 But a boy saw them, and gave word of it to Absalom: so the two of them went away quickly, and came to the house of a man in Bahurim who had a water-hole in his garden, and they went down into it. +2Sa 17:19 And a woman put a cover over the hole, and put crushed grain on top of it, and no one had any knowledge of it. +2Sa 17:20 And Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house and said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said to them, They have gone from here to the stream. And after searching for them, and seeing nothing of them, they went back to Jerusalem. +2Sa 17:21 Then after the servants had gone away, they came up out of the water-hole and went to give King David the news; and they said, Get up and go quickly over the water, for such and such are Ahithophel's designs against you. +2Sa 17:22 So David and all the people who were with him went up over Jordan: when dawn came, every one of them had gone over Jordan. +2Sa 17:23 Now when Ahithophel saw that his suggestion was not acted on, he got his ass ready, and went back to his house, to the town where he came from, and having put his house in order, he put himself to death by hanging; so he came to his end and was put in the resting-place of his father. +2Sa 17:24 And David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom, with all the men of Israel, went over Jordan. +2Sa 17:25 And Absalom put Amasa at the head of the army in place of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Ishmaelite, who had been the lover of Abigail, the daughter of Jesse, sister of Zeruiah, Joab's mother. +2Sa 17:26 And Israel and Absalom put up their tents in the land of Gilead. +2Sa 17:27 Now when David had come to Mahanaim, Shobi, the son of Nahash of Rabbah, the Ammonite, and Machir, the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim, +2Sa 17:28 Came with beds and basins and pots, and grain and meal, and all sorts of dry foods, +2Sa 17:29 And honey and butter and sheep and milk-cheeses, for David and his people: for they said, This people is in the waste land, needing food and drink and rest. +2Sa 18:1 And David had the people who were with him numbered, and he put over them captains of thousands and captains of hundreds. +2Sa 18:2 And David sent the people out, a third of them under the orders of Joab, and a third under the orders of Abishai, son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and a third under Ittai the Gittite. And the king said to the people, And I myself will certainly go out with you. +2Sa 18:3 But the people said, It is better for you not to go out: for if we are put to flight, they will not give a thought to us, and if death overtakes half of us, it will be nothing to them: but you are of more value than ten thousand of us: so it is better for you to be ready to come to our help from this town. +2Sa 18:4 And the king said to them, I will do whatever seems best to you. So the king took his place by the door of the town, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands. +2Sa 18:5 And the king gave orders to Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Because of me, be gentle to the young man Absalom. And this order about Absalom was given in the hearing of all the people. +2Sa 18:6 So the people went out into the field against Israel, and the fight took place in the woods of Ephraim. +2Sa 18:7 And the people of Israel were overcome there by the servants of David, and there was a great destruction that day, and twenty thousand men were put to the sword. +2Sa 18:8 And the fighting went on over all the face of the country: and the woods were responsible for more deaths than the sword. +2Sa 18:9 And Absalom came across some of David's men. And Absalom was seated on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great tree, and his head became fixed in the tree and he was lifted up between earth and heaven, and the beast under him went on. +2Sa 18:10 And a certain man saw it and said to Joab, I saw Absalom hanging in a tree. +2Sa 18:11 And Joab said to the man who had given him the news, If you saw this, why did you not put your sword through him, and I would have given you ten bits of silver and a band for your robe? +2Sa 18:12 And the man said to Joab, Even if you gave me a thousand bits of silver, I would not put out my hand against the king's son: for in our hearing the king gave orders to you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Take care that the young man Absalom is not touched. +2Sa 18:13 And if I had falsely put him to death (and nothing may be kept secret from the king), you would have had nothing to do with me. +2Sa 18:14 Then Joab said, I would have made it safe for you. And he took three spears in his hand, and put them through Absalom's heart, while he was still living, in the branches of the tree. +2Sa 18:15 And ten young men, servants of Joab, came round Absalom and put an end to him. +2Sa 18:16 And Joab had the horn sounded, and the people came back from going after Israel, for Joab kept them back. +2Sa 18:17 And they took Absalom's body and put it into a great hole in the wood, and put a great mass of stones over it: and every man of Israel went in flight to his tent. +2Sa 18:18 Now Absalom, before his death, had put up for himself a pillar in the king's valley, naming it after himself; for he said, I have no son to keep my name in memory: and to this day it is named Absalom's pillar. +2Sa 18:19 Then Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, said, Let me go and give the king news of how the Lord has done right in his cause against those who took up arms against him. +2Sa 18:20 And Joab said, You will take no news today; another day you may give him the news, but you will take no news today, because the king's son is dead. +2Sa 18:21 Then Joab said to the Cushite, Go and give the king word of what you have seen. And the Cushite, making a sign of respect to Joab, went off running. +2Sa 18:22 Then Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, said to Joab again, Whatever may come of it, let me go after the Cushite. And Joab said, Why have you a desire to go, my son, seeing that you will get no reward for your news? +2Sa 18:23 Whatever may come of it, he said, I will go. Then he said to him, Go. So Ahimaaz went running by the lowland road and overtook the Cushite. +2Sa 18:24 Now David was seated between the two town doors; and the watchman went up to the roof of the doorways, on the wall, and, lifting up his eyes, saw a man running by himself. +2Sa 18:25 And the watchman gave news of it to the king. And the king said, If he is coming by himself, then he has news. And the man was travelling quickly, and came near. +2Sa 18:26 Then the watchman saw another man running: and crying out in the direction of the door he said, Here is another man running by himself. And the king said, He, like the other, comes with news. +2Sa 18:27 And the watchman said, It seems to me that the running of the first is like the running of Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok. And the king said, He is a good man, and his news will be good. +2Sa 18:28 And Ahimaaz, crying out to the king, said, It is well. And falling down before the king, with his face to the earth, he said, May the Lord your God be praised, who has given up the men who took up arms against my lord the king! +2Sa 18:29 And the king said, Is it well with the young man Absalom? And Ahimaaz said in answer, When Joab sent me, your servant, I saw a great outcry going on, but I had no knowledge of what it was. +2Sa 18:30 And the king said, Get back and take your place here. So turning to one side, he took his place there. +2Sa 18:31 And then the Cushite came and said, I have news for my lord the king: today the Lord has done right in your cause against all those who took up arms against you. +2Sa 18:32 And the king said to the Cushite, Is the young man Absalom safe? And the Cushite said in answer, May all the king's haters and those who do evil against the king, be as that young man is! +2Sa 18:33 Then the king was much moved, and went up into the room over the door, weeping, and saying, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! if only my life might have been given for yours, O Absalom, my son, my son! +2Sa 19:1 And word was given to Joab that the king was weeping and sorrowing for Absalom. +2Sa 19:2 And the salvation of that day was changed to sorrow for all the people: for it was said to the people, The king is in bitter grief for his son. +2Sa 19:3 And the people made their way back to the town quietly and secretly, as those who are shamed go secretly when they go in flight from the war. +2Sa 19:4 But the king, covering his face, gave a great cry, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son! +2Sa 19:5 And Joab came into the house to the king and said, Today you have put to shame the faces of all your servants who even now have kept you and your sons and your daughters and your wives and all your women safe from death; +2Sa 19:6 For your haters, it seems, are dear to you, and your friends are hated. For you have made it clear that captains and servants are nothing to you: and now I see that if Absalom was living and we had all been dead today, it would have been right in your eyes. +2Sa 19:7 So get up now, and go out and say some kind words to your servants; for, by the Lord, I give you my oath, that if you do not go out, not one of them will keep with you tonight; and that will be worse for you than all the evil which has overtaken you from your earliest years. +2Sa 19:8 Then the king got up and took his seat near the town-door. And word was given to all the people that the king was in the public place: and all the people came before the king. Now all the men of Israel had gone back in flight to their tents. +2Sa 19:9 And through all the tribes of Israel the people were having arguments, saying, The king made us safe from the hands of those who were against us and made us free from the hands of the Philistines; and now he has gone in flight from the land, because of Absalom. +2Sa 19:10 And Absalom, whom we made a ruler over us, is dead in the fight. So now why do you say nothing about getting the king back? And word of what all Israel was saying came to the king. +2Sa 19:11 And King David sent word to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, Say to the responsible men of Judah, Why are you the last to take steps to get the king back to his house? +2Sa 19:12 You are my brothers, my bone and my flesh; why are you the last to get the king back again? +2Sa 19:13 And say to Amasa, Are you not my bone and my flesh? May God's punishment be on me, if I do not make you chief of the army before me at all times in place of Joab! +2Sa 19:14 And the hearts of the men of Judah were moved like one man; so that they sent to the king, saying, Come back, with all your servants. +2Sa 19:15 So the king came back, and came as far as Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal, meeting the king there, to take him back with them over Jordan. +2Sa 19:16 And Shimei, the son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, got up quickly and went down with the men of Judah for the purpose of meeting King David; +2Sa 19:17 And with him a thousand men of Benjamin, and Ziba, the servant of Saul, with his fifteen sons and twenty servants, came rushing to Jordan before the king, +2Sa 19:18 And kept going across the river to take the people of the king's house over, and to do whatever was desired by the king. And Shimei, the son of Gera, went down on his face in the dust before the king, when he was about to go over Jordan, +2Sa 19:19 And said to him, Let me not be judged as a sinner in your eyes, O my lord, and do not keep in mind the wrong I did on the day when my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, or take it to heart. +2Sa 19:20 For your servant is conscious of his sin: and so, as you see, I have come today, the first of all the sons of Joseph, for the purpose of meeting my lord the king. +2Sa 19:21 But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said, Is not death the right fate for Shimei, because he has been cursing the one marked by the holy oil? +2Sa 19:22 And David said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you put yourselves against me today? is it right for any man in Israel to be put to death today? for I am certain today that I am king in Israel. +2Sa 19:23 So the king said to Shimei, You will not be put to death. And the king gave him his oath. +2Sa 19:24 And Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son, came down for the purpose of meeting the king; his feet had not been cared for or his hair cut or his clothing washed from the day when the king went away till the day when he came back in peace. +2Sa 19:25 Now when he had come from Jerusalem to see the king, the king said to him, Why did you not come with me, Mephibosheth? +2Sa 19:26 And he said in answer, Because of the deceit of my servant, my lord king: for I, your servant, said to him, You are to make ready an ass and on it I will go with the king, for your servant has not the use of his feet. +2Sa 19:27 He has given you a false account of me: but my lord the king is like the angel of God: do then whatever seems good to you. +2Sa 19:28 For all my father's family were only dead men before my lord the king: and still you put your servant among those whose place is at the king's table. What right then have I to say anything more to the king? +2Sa 19:29 And the king said, Say nothing more about these things. I say, Let there be a division of the land between Ziba and you. +2Sa 19:30 And Mephibosheth said, Let him take it all, now that my lord the king has come back to his house in peace! +2Sa 19:31 And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim; and he went on as far as Jordan with the king to take him across Jordan. +2Sa 19:32 Now Barzillai was a very old man, as much as eighty years old: and he had given the king everything he had need of, while he was at Mahanaim, for he was a very great man. +2Sa 19:33 And the king said to Barzillai, Come over with me, and I will take care of you in Jerusalem. +2Sa 19:34 And Barzillai said to the king, How much of my life is still before me, for me to go up to Jerusalem with the king? +2Sa 19:35 I am now eighty years old: good and bad are the same to me; have meat and drink any taste for me now? am I able to take pleasure in the voices of men or women in song? why then am I to be a trouble to my lord the king? +2Sa 19:36 Your servant's desire was only to take the king over Jordan; why is the king to give me such a reward? +2Sa 19:37 Let your servant now go back again, so that when death comes to me, it may be in my town and by the resting-place of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham: let him go with my lord the king, and do for him what seems good to you. +2Sa 19:38 And the king said in answer, Let Chimham go over with me, and I will do for him whatever seems good to you: and whatever your desire is, I will do it for you. +2Sa 19:39 Then all the people went over Jordan, and the king went over: and the king gave Barzillai a kiss, with his blessing; and he went back to his place. +2Sa 19:40 So the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went with him: and all the people of Judah, as well as half the people of Israel, took the king on his way. +2Sa 19:41 Then the men of Israel came to the king and said, Why have our countrymen of Judah taken you away in secret and come over Jordan with the king and all his family, because all his people are David's men? +2Sa 19:42 And all the men of Judah gave this answer to the men of Israel, Because the king is our near relation: why then are you angry about this? have we taken any of the king's food, or has he given us any offering? +2Sa 19:43 And in answer to the men of Judah, the men of Israel said, We have ten parts in the king, and we are the first in order of birth: why did you make nothing of us? and were we not the first to make suggestions for getting the king back? And the words of the men of Judah were more violent than the words of the men of Israel. +2Sa 20:1 Now by chance there was present a good-for-nothing person named Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he, sounding the horn, said, We have no part in David, or any interest in the son of Jesse: let every man go to his tent, O Israel. +2Sa 20:2 So all the men of Israel, turning away from David, went after Sheba, the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah were true to their king, going with him from Jordan as far as Jerusalem. +2Sa 20:3 And David came to his house at Jerusalem: and the king took the ten women to whom he had given the care of the house, and had them shut up, and gave them the necessaries of life, but did not go near them. So they were shut up till the day of their death, living as widows. +2Sa 20:4 Then the king said to Amasa, Get all the men of Judah together, and in three days be here yourself. +2Sa 20:5 So Amasa went to get all the men of Judah together, but he took longer than the time David had given him. +2Sa 20:6 And David said to Abishai, Sheba, the son of Bichri, will do us more damage than Absalom did; so take some of your lord's servants and go after him, before he makes himself safe in the walled towns, and gets away before our eyes. +2Sa 20:7 So there went after Abishai, Joab and the Cherethites and the Pelethites and all the fighting-men; they went out of Jerusalem to overtake Sheba, the son of Bichri. +2Sa 20:8 When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came face to face with them. Now Joab had on his war-dress, and round him a band from which his sword was hanging in its cover; and while he was walking, it came out, falling to the earth. +2Sa 20:9 And Joab said to Amasa, Is it well, my brother? And with his right hand he took him by the hair of his chin to give him a kiss. +2Sa 20:10 But Amasa did not see danger from the sword which was now in Joab's left hand, and Joab put it through his stomach so that his inside came out on to the earth, and he did not give him another blow. So Joab and his brother Abishai went on after Sheba, the son of Bichri. +2Sa 20:11 And one of Joab's young men, taking his place at Amasa's side, said, Whoever is for Joab and for David, let him go after Joab! +2Sa 20:12 And Amasa was stretched out in a pool of blood in the middle of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people were stopping, he took Amasa out of the highway and put him in a field, with a cloth over him, when he saw that everyone who went by came to a stop. +2Sa 20:13 When he had been taken off the road, all the people went on after Joab in search of Sheba, the son of Bichri. +2Sa 20:14 And Sheba went through all the tribes of Israel, to Abel of Beth-maacah; and all the Bichrites came together and went in after him. +2Sa 20:15 And Joab and his men got him shut up in Abel of Beth-maacah, and put up an earthwork against the town: and all Joab's men did their best to get the wall broken down. +2Sa 20:16 Then a wise woman got up on the wall, and crying out from the town, said, Give ear, give ear; say now to Joab, Come near, so that I may have talk with you. +2Sa 20:17 And he came near, and the woman said, Are you Joab? And he said in answer, I am. Then she said, Give ear to your servant's words. And he said, I am giving ear. +2Sa 20:18 Then she said, In the old days, there was a saying, Let them put the question in Abel and in Dan, saying, Has what was ordered by men of good faith in Israel ever come to an end? +2Sa 20:19 Your purpose is the destruction of a mother-town in Israel: why would you put an end to the heritage of the Lord? +2Sa 20:20 And Joab, answering her, said, Far, far be it from me to be a cause of death or destruction; +2Sa 20:21 Not so: but a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, Sheba, son of Bichri, by name, has taken up arms against the king, against David: give up this man only, and I will go away from the town. And the woman said to Joab, His head will be dropped over the wall to you. +2Sa 20:22 Then the woman in her wisdom had talk with all the town. And they had Sheba's head cut off and sent out to Joab. And he had the horn sounded, and sent them all away from the town, every man to his tent. And Joab went back to Jerusalem to the king. +2Sa 20:23 Now Joab was over all the army; and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was at the head of the Cherethites and the Pelethites; +2Sa 20:24 And Adoram was overseer of the forced work; and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder; +2Sa 20:25 And Sheva was the scribe, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests; +2Sa 20:26 And in addition, Ira the Jairite was a priest to David. +2Sa 21:1 In the days of David they were short of food for three years, year after year; and David went before the Lord for directions. And the Lord said, On Saul and on his family there is blood, because he put the Gibeonites to death. +2Sa 21:2 Then the king sent for the Gibeonites; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but were the last of the Amorites, to whom the children of Israel had given an oath; but Saul, in his passion for the children of Israel and Judah, had made an attempt on their lives:) +2Sa 21:3 So David said to the Gibeonites, What may I do for you? how am I to make up to you for your wrongs, so that you may give a blessing to the heritage of the Lord? +2Sa 21:4 And the Gibeonites said to him, It is not a question of silver and gold between us and Saul or his family; and it is not in our power to put to death any man in Israel. And he said, Say, then, what am I to do for you? +2Sa 21:5 And they said to the king, As for the man by whom we were wasted, and who made designs against us to have us completely cut off from the land of Israel, +2Sa 21:6 Let seven men of his family be given up to us and we will put an end to them by hanging them before the Lord in Gibeon, on the hill of the Lord. And the king said, I will give them. +2Sa 21:7 But the king did not give up Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of the Lord's oath made between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul. +2Sa 21:8 But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Saul to whom Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, had given birth; and the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab, whose father was Adriel, the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: +2Sa 21:9 And he gave them up to the Gibeonites, and they put them to death, hanging them on the mountain before the Lord; all seven came to their end together in the first days of the grain-cutting, at the start of the cutting of the barley. +2Sa 21:10 And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took haircloth, placing it on the rock as a bed for herself, from the start of the grain-cutting till rain came down on them from heaven; and she did not let the birds of the air come near them by day, or the beasts of the field by night. +2Sa 21:11 And news was given to David of what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, one of Saul's wives, had done. +2Sa 21:12 And David went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had taken them away secretly from the public place of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had put them, hanging up the bodies there on the day when they put Saul to death in Gilboa: +2Sa 21:13 And he took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from that place; and they got together the bones of those who had been put to death by hanging. +2Sa 21:14 And they put them with the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the resting-place of Kish, his father, in Zela in the country of Benjamin; they did all the king had given them orders to do. And after that, God gave ear to their prayers for the land. +2Sa 21:15 And the Philistines went to war again with Israel; and David went down with his people, and while they were at Gob they had a fight with the Philistines: +2Sa 21:16 And there came against David one of the offspring of the Rephaim, whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, and having a new sword, he made an attempt to put David to death. +2Sa 21:17 But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to his help, and, turning on the Philistine, gave him his death-blow. Then David's men took an oath, and said, Never again are you to go out with us to the fight, so that you may not put out the light of Israel. +2Sa 21:18 Now after this there was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Sibbecai the Hushathite put to death Saph, one of the offspring of the Rephaim. +2Sa 21:19 And again there was war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan, the son of Jair the Beth-lehemite, put to death Goliath the Gittite, the stem of whose spear was like a cloth-worker's rod. +2Sa 21:20 And again there was war at Gath, where there was a very tall man, who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet; he was one of the offspring of the Rephaim. +2Sa 21:21 And when he was purposing to put shame on Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimei, David's brother, put him to death. +2Sa 21:22 These four were of the offspring of the Rephaim in Gath; and they came to their end by the hands of David and his servants. +2Sa 22:1 And David made a song to the Lord in these words, on the day when the Lord made him free from the hands of all his haters, and from the hand of Saul: +2Sa 22:2 And he said, The Lord is my Rock, my walled town, and my saviour, even mine; +2Sa 22:3 My God, my Rock, in him will I put my faith; my breastplate, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my safe place; my saviour, who keeps me safe from the violent man. +2Sa 22:4 I will send up my cry to the Lord, who is to be praised; so will I be made safe from those who are against me. +2Sa 22:5 For the waves of death came round me, and the seas of evil put me in fear; +2Sa 22:6 The cords of hell were round me: the nets of death came on me. +2Sa 22:7 In my trouble my voice went up to the Lord, and my cry to my God: my voice came to his hearing in his holy Temple, and my prayer came to his ears. +2Sa 22:8 Then the earth was moved with a violent shock; the bases of heaven were moved and shaking, because he was angry. +2Sa 22:9 There went up a smoke from his nose, and a fire of destruction from his mouth: coals were lighted by it. +2Sa 22:10 The heavens were bent, so that he might come down; and it was dark under his feet. +2Sa 22:11 And he went through the air, seated on a storm-cloud: going quickly on the wings of the wind. +2Sa 22:12 And he made the dark his tent round him, a mass of waters, thick clouds of the skies. +2Sa 22:13 Before his shining light his dark clouds went past, raining ice and coals of fire. +2Sa 22:14 The Lord made thunder in the heavens, and the voice of the Highest was sounding out. +2Sa 22:15 And he sent out his arrows, driving them in all directions; by his flames of fire they were troubled. +2Sa 22:16 Then the deep beds of the sea were seen, and the bases of the world were uncovered, because of the Lord's wrath, because of the breath of his mouth. +2Sa 22:17 He sent from on high, he took me, pulling me out of great waters. +2Sa 22:18 He made me free from my strong hater, from those who were against me, because they were stronger than I. +2Sa 22:19 They came on me in the day of my trouble: but the Lord was my support. +2Sa 22:20 He took me out into a wide place; he was my saviour because he had delight in me. +2Sa 22:21 The Lord gives me the reward of my righteousness, because my hands are clean before him. +2Sa 22:22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not been turned away in sin from my God. +2Sa 22:23 For all his decisions were before me, and I did not put away his laws from me. +2Sa 22:24 And I was upright before him, and I kept myself from sin. +2Sa 22:25 Because of this the Lord has given me the reward of my righteousness, because my hands are clean in his eyes. +2Sa 22:26 On him who has mercy you will have mercy; to the upright you will be upright; +2Sa 22:27 He who is holy will see that you are holy; but to the man whose way is not straight you will be a hard judge. +2Sa 22:28 For you are the saviour of those who are in trouble; but your eyes are on men of pride, to make them low. +2Sa 22:29 For you are my light, O Lord; and the Lord will make the dark bright for me. +2Sa 22:30 By your help I have made a way through the wall which was shutting me in: by the help of my God I have gone over a wall. +2Sa 22:31 As for God, his way is all good: the word of the Lord is tested; he is a safe cover for all those who put their faith in him. +2Sa 22:32 For who is God but the Lord? and who is a Rock but our God? +2Sa 22:33 God puts a strong band about me, guiding me in a straight way. +2Sa 22:34 He makes my feet like roes' feet, and puts me on high places. +2Sa 22:35 He makes my hands expert in war, so that a bow of brass is bent by my arms. +2Sa 22:36 You have given me the breastplate of your salvation, and your mercy has made me great. +2Sa 22:37 You have made my steps wide under me, so that my feet make no slip. +2Sa 22:38 I go after my haters and overtake them; not turning back till they are all overcome. +2Sa 22:39 I have sent destruction on them and given them wounds, so that they are not able to get up: they are stretched under my feet. +2Sa 22:40 For I have been armed by you with strength for the fight: you have made low under me those who came out against me. +2Sa 22:41 By you their backs are turned in flight, so that my haters are cut off. +2Sa 22:42 They were crying out, but there was no one to come to their help: even to the Lord, but he gave them no answer. +2Sa 22:43 Then they were crushed as small as the dust of the earth, stamped down under my feet like the waste of the streets. +2Sa 22:44 You have made me free from the fightings of my people; you have made me the head of the nations: a people of whom I had no knowledge will be my servants. +2Sa 22:45 Men of other countries will, with false hearts, put themselves under my authority: from the time when my name comes to their ears, they will be ruled by me. +2Sa 22:46 They will be wasted away, they will come out of their secret places shaking with fear. +2Sa 22:47 The Lord is living; praise be to my Rock, and let the God of my salvation be honoured: +2Sa 22:48 It is God who sends punishment on my haters, and puts peoples under my rule. +2Sa 22:49 He makes me free from my haters: I am lifted up over those who come up against me: you have made me free from the violent man. +2Sa 22:50 Because of this I will give you praise, O Lord, among the nations, and will make a song of praise to your name. +2Sa 22:51 Great salvation does he give to his king; he has mercy on the king of his selection, David, and on his seed for ever. +2Sa 23:1 Now these are the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, says, the man who was lifted up on high, the man on whom the God of Jacob put the holy oil, the loved one of Israel's songs, says: +2Sa 23:2 The spirit of the Lord had voice through me, his word was on my tongue. +2Sa 23:3 The God of Israel said, the word of the Rock of Israel came to me: When an upright king is ruling over men, when he is ruling in the fear of God, +2Sa 23:4 It is as the light of the morning, when the sun comes up, a morning without clouds; making young grass come to life from the earth. +2Sa 23:5 For is not my house so with God? For he has made with me an eternal agreement, ordered in all things and certain: as for all my salvation and all my desire, will he not give it increase? +2Sa 23:6 But the evil-doers, all of them, will be like thorns to be pushed away, because they may not be gripped in the hand: +2Sa 23:7 But anyone touching them has to be armed with iron and the rod of a spear; and they will be burned with fire, every one of them. +2Sa 23:8 These are the names of David's men of war: Ishbaal the Hachmonite, chief of the three; his axe was lifted up against eight hundred put to death at one time. +2Sa 23:9 After him was Eleazar, the son of Dodai the Ahohite, one of the three great fighters, who was with David in Pas-dammim when the Philistines came together there for the fight; and when the men of Israel had gone in flight, +2Sa 23:10 He was with David and went on fighting the Philistines till his hand became tired and stiff from gripping his sword: and that day the Lord gave a great salvation, and the people came back after him only to take the goods of the Philistines. +2Sa 23:11 After him was Shammah, the son of Ela the Hararite. And the Philistines came together in Lehi, where there was a bit of land full of seed; and the people went in flight from the Philistines. +2Sa 23:12 But he kept his place in the middle of the bit of land, and kept back their attack and overcame the Philistines: and the Lord gave a great salvation. +2Sa 23:13 And three of the thirty went down at the start of the grain-cutting, and they came to David at the strong place of Adullam; and the band of Philistines had taken up their position in the valley of Rephaim. +2Sa 23:14 And at that time David had taken cover in the strong place, and an armed force of the Philistines was in Beth-lehem. +2Sa 23:15 And David, moved by a strong desire, said, If only someone would give me a drink of water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem, by the doorway into the town! +2Sa 23:16 And the three men, forcing their way through the Philistine army, got water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem, by the doorway into the town, and took it back to David: but he would not take it, but, draining it out, made an offering of it to the Lord. +2Sa 23:17 And he said, Far be it from me, O Lord, to do this; how may I take as my drink the life-blood of men who have put their lives in danger? So he would not take it. These things did the three great men of war. +2Sa 23:18 And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty. He put to death three hundred with his spear, and he got for himself a name among the thirty. +2Sa 23:19 Was he not the noblest of the thirty? so he was made their captain: but he was not equal to the first three. +2Sa 23:20 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, a fighting man of Kabzeel, had done great acts; he put to death the two sons of Ariel of Moab: he went down into a hole and put a lion to death in time of snow: +2Sa 23:21 And he made an attack on an Egyptian, a tall man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a stick, and pulling the spear out of the hands of the Egyptian, put him to death with that same spear. +2Sa 23:22 These were the acts of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, who had a great name among the thirty men of war. +2Sa 23:23 He was honoured over the rest of the thirty, but he was not equal to the first three. And David put him over the fighting men who kept him safe. +2Sa 23:24 Asahel, the brother of Joab, was one of the thirty; and Elhanan, the son of Dodai, of Beth-lehem, +2Sa 23:25 Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite, +2Sa 23:26 Helez the Paltite, Ira, the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, +2Sa 23:27 Abiezer the Anathothite, Sibbecai the Hushathite, +2Sa 23:28 Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite, +2Sa 23:29 Heldai, the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai, the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin, +2Sa 23:30 Benaiah the Pirathonite, Hiddai of the valleys of Gaash, +2Sa 23:31 Abiel the Arbathite, Azmaveth of Bahurim, +2Sa 23:32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite, Jashen the Gunite, +2Sa 23:33 Jonathan, the son of Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam, the son of Sharar the Hararite, +2Sa 23:34 Eliphelet, the son of Ahasbai the Maacathite, Eliam, the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, +2Sa 23:35 Hezrai the Carmelite, Paarai the Archite, +2Sa 23:36 Igal, the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite, +2Sa 23:37 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, who had the care of the arms of Joab, son of Zeruiah, +2Sa 23:38 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, +2Sa 23:39 Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in number. +2Sa 24:1 Again the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and moving David against them, he said, Go, take the number of Israel and Judah. +2Sa 24:2 And the king said to Joab and the captains of the army, who were with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, and have all the people numbered, so that I may be certain of the number of the people. +2Sa 24:3 And Joab said to the king, Whatever the number of the people, may the Lord make it a hundred times as much, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why does my lord the king take pleasure in doing this thing? +2Sa 24:4 But the king's order was stronger than Joab and the captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army went out from the king, to take the number of the children of Israel. +2Sa 24:5 And they went over Jordan, and starting from Aroer, from the town which is in the middle of the valley, they went in the direction of the Gadites, and on to Jazer; +2Sa 24:6 Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of the Hittites under Hermon; and they came to Dan, and from Dan they came round to Zidon, +2Sa 24:7 And to the walled town of Tyre, and to all the towns of the Hivites and the Canaanites: and they went out to the South of Judah at Beer-sheba. +2Sa 24:8 So after going through all the land in every direction, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. +2Sa 24:9 And Joab gave the king the number of all the people: there were in Israel eight hundred thousand fighting men able to take up arms; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand. +2Sa 24:10 And after the people had been numbered, David's heart was troubled. And David said to the Lord, Great has been my sin in doing this; but now, O Lord, be pleased to take away the sin of your servant, for I have done very foolishly +2Sa 24:11 And David got up in the morning; now the word of the Lord had come to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, +2Sa 24:12 Go and say to David, The Lord says, Three things are offered to you: say which of them you will have, and I will do it to you. +2Sa 24:13 So Gad came to David, and gave him word of this and said to him, Are there to be three years when there is not enough food in your land? or will you go in flight from your haters for three months, while they go after you? or will you have three days of violent disease in your land? take thought and say what answer I am to give to him who sent me. +2Sa 24:14 And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to make: let us come into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men. +2Sa 24:15 So David made selection of the disease; and the time was the days of the grain-cutting, when the disease came among the people, causing the death of seventy thousand men from Dan as far as Beer-sheba. +2Sa 24:16 And when the hand of the angel was stretched out in the direction of Jerusalem, for its destruction, the Lord had regret for the evil, and said to the angel who was sending destruction on the people, It is enough; do no more. And the angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. +2Sa 24:17 And when David saw the angel who was causing the destruction of the people, he said to the Lord, Truly, the sin is mine; I have done wrong: but these are only sheep; what have they done? let your hand be against me and against my family. +2Sa 24:18 And that day Gad came to David and said to him, Go up, and put up an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. +2Sa 24:19 So David went up, as Gad had said and as the Lord had given orders. +2Sa 24:20 And Araunah, looking out, saw the king and his servants coming to him: and Araunah went out, and went down on his face to the earth before the king. +2Sa 24:21 And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To give you a price for your grain-floor, so that I may put up an altar to the Lord, and the disease may be stopped among the people. +2Sa 24:22 And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take whatever seems right to him, and make an offering of it: see, here are the oxen for the burned offering, and the grain-cleaning instruments and the ox-yokes for wood: +2Sa 24:23 All this does the servant of my lord the king give to the king. And Araunah said, May the Lord your God be pleased with your offering! +2Sa 24:24 And the king said to Araunah, No, but I will give you a price for it; I will not give to the Lord my God burned offerings for which I have given nothing. So David got the grain-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. +2Sa 24:25 And there David put up an altar to the Lord, making burned offerings and peace-offerings. So the Lord gave ear to his prayer for the land, and the disease came to an end in Israel. +1Ki 1:1 Now King David was old and far on in years; and though they put covers over him, his body was cold. +1Ki 1:2 So his servants said to him, Let search be made for a young virgin for my lord the king, to take care of him and be waiting on him; and you may take her in your arms, and so my lord the king will be warm. +1Ki 1:3 So after searching through all the land of Israel for a fair young girl, they saw Abishag the Shunammite, and took her to the king. +1Ki 1:4 Now she was very beautiful; and she took care of the king, waiting on him at all times; but the king had no connection with her. +1Ki 1:5 Then Adonijah, the son of Haggith, lifting himself up in pride, said, I will become king; and he made ready his carriages of war and his horsemen, with fifty runners to go before him. +1Ki 1:6 Now all his life his father had never gone against him or said to him, Why have you done so? and he was a very good-looking man, and younger than Absalom. +1Ki 1:7 And he had talk with Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest; and they were on his side and gave him their support. +1Ki 1:8 But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet and Shimei and Rei, and David's men of war did not take the side of Adonijah. +1Ki 1:9 Then Adonijah put to death sheep and oxen and fat beasts by the stone of Zoheleth, by En-rogel; and he sent for all his brothers, the king's sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's servants, to come to him: +1Ki 1:10 But he did not send for Nathan the prophet and Benaiah and the other men of war and Solomon his brother. +1Ki 1:11 Then Nathan said to Bath-sheba, the mother of Solomon, Has it not come to your ears that Adonijah, the son of Haggith, has made himself king without the knowledge of David our lord? +1Ki 1:12 So now, let me make a suggestion, so that you may keep your life safe and the life of your son Solomon. +1Ki 1:13 Come now, go to King David and say to him, Did you not, O my lord, take an oath to me, your servant, saying, Truly Solomon your son will be king after me, seated on the seat of my kingdom? why then is Adonijah acting as king? +1Ki 1:14 And while you are still talking there with the king, see, I will come in after you and say that your story is true. +1Ki 1:15 Then Bath-sheba went into the king's room; now the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was waiting on him. +1Ki 1:16 And Bath-sheba went down on her face on the earth before the king giving him honour. And he said, What is your desire? +1Ki 1:17 And she said to him, My lord, you took an oath by the Lord your God and gave your word to your servant, saying, Truly, Solomon your son will be king after me, seated on the seat of my kingdom. +1Ki 1:18 And now, see, Adonijah has made himself king without my lord's knowledge; +1Ki 1:19 And has put to death oxen and fat beasts and sheep in great numbers, and has sent for all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab, the captain of the army; but he has not sent for Solomon your servant. +1Ki 1:20 And now, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you, waiting for you to say who is to take the place of my lord the king after him. +1Ki 1:21 For as things are, it will come about, when my lord the king is sleeping with his fathers, that I and Solomon my son will be made outlaws. +1Ki 1:22 And while she was still talking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in. +1Ki 1:23 And they said to the king, Here is Nathan the prophet. And when he came in before the king, he went down on his face on the earth. +1Ki 1:24 And Nathan said, O my lord king, have you said, Adonijah is to be king after me, seated on the seat of my kingdom? +1Ki 1:25 Because today he has gone down and has put to death oxen and fat beasts and sheep in great numbers, and has sent for all the king's sons to come to him, with the captains of the army and Abiathar the priest; and they are feasting before him and crying, Long life to King Adonijah! +1Ki 1:26 But me, your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon, he has not sent for. +1Ki 1:27 Has this thing been done by my lord the king, without giving word to your servants who was to be placed on my lord the king's seat after him? +1Ki 1:28 Then King David in answer said, Send for Bath-sheba to come to me. And she came in and took her place before the king. +1Ki 1:29 And the king took an oath, and said, By the living Lord, who has been my saviour from all my troubles, +1Ki 1:30 As I took an oath to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, Certainly Solomon your son will become king after me, seated on my seat in my place; so will I do this day. +1Ki 1:31 Then Bath-sheba went down on her face on the earth before the king giving him honour, and said, May my lord King David go on living for ever. +1Ki 1:32 And King David said, Send for Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the king. +1Ki 1:33 And the king said to them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and put Solomon my son on my beast, yes, mine, and take him down to Gihon; +1Ki 1:34 And there let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet put the holy oil on him to make him king over Israel; and sounding the horn say, Long life to King Solomon! +1Ki 1:35 Then come up after him and he will come in and take his place on the seat of my kingdom; for he is to be king in my place, and I have given orders that he is to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. +1Ki 1:36 And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, answering the king, said, So be it: and may the Lord, the God of my lord the king, say so. +1Ki 1:37 As the Lord has been with my lord the king, even so may he be with Solomon and make the seat of his authority greater than that of my lord King David. +1Ki 1:38 So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down and put Solomon on King David's beast and took him to Gihon. +1Ki 1:39 And Zadok the priest took the vessel of oil out of the Tent, and put the holy oil on Solomon. And when the horn was sounded, all the people said, Long life to King Solomon! +1Ki 1:40 And all the people came up after him, piping with pipes, and they were glad with great joy, so that the earth was shaking with the sound. +1Ki 1:41 And it came to the ears of Adonijah and all the guests who were with him, when their meal was ended. And Joab, hearing the sound of the horn, said, What is the reason of this noise as if the town was worked up? +1Ki 1:42 And while the words were on his lips, Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, came; and Adonijah said, Come in; for you are a man of good faith and the news which you have for us will be good. +1Ki 1:43 And Jonathan, answering, said to Adonijah, Not so, but our lord King David has made Solomon king: +1Ki 1:44 And he sent with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and they put him on the king's beast: +1Ki 1:45 And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet put the holy oil on him and made him king in Gihon; and they came back from there with joy, and the town was all worked up. This is the noise which has come to your ears. +1Ki 1:46 And now Solomon is seated on the seat of the kingdom. +1Ki 1:47 And the king's servants came to our lord King David, blessing him and saying, May God make the name of Solomon better than your name, and the seat of his authority greater than your seat; and the king was bent low in worship on his bed. +1Ki 1:48 Then the king said, May the God of Israel be praised, who has given one of my seed to be king in my place this day and has let my eyes see it. +1Ki 1:49 And all the guests of Adonijah got up in fear and went away, every man to his place. +1Ki 1:50 And Adonijah himself was full of fear because of Solomon; and he got up and went to the altar, and put his hands on its horns. +1Ki 1:51 And they gave Solomon word of it, saying, See, Adonijah goes in such fear of King Solomon, that he has put his hands on the horns of the altar, saying, Let King Solomon first give me his oath that he will not put his servant to death with the sword. +1Ki 1:52 And Solomon said, If he is seen to be a man of good faith, not a hair of him will be touched; but if any wrongdoing is seen in him, he is to be put to death. +1Ki 1:53 So King Solomon sent, and they took him down from the altar. And he came and gave honour to King Solomon; and Solomon said to him, Go to your house. +1Ki 2:1 Now the time of David's death came near; and he gave orders to Solomon his son, saying, +1Ki 2:2 I am going the way of all the earth: so be strong and be a man; +1Ki 2:3 And keep the orders of the Lord your God, walking in his ways, keeping his laws and his orders and his rules and his words, as they are recorded in the law of Moses; so that you may do well in all you do and wherever you go, +1Ki 2:4 So that the Lord may give effect to what he said of me, If your children give attention to their ways, living uprightly before me with all their heart and their soul, you will never be without a man to be king in Israel. +1Ki 2:5 Now you have knowledge of what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me, and to the two captains of the army of Israel, Abner, the son of Ner, and Amasa, the son of Jether, whom he put to death, taking payment for the blood of war in time of peace, and making the band of my clothing and the shoes on my feet red with the blood of one put to death without cause. +1Ki 2:6 So be guided by your wisdom, and let not his white head go down to the underworld in peace. +1Ki 2:7 But be good to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be guests at your table; for so they came to me when I went in flight from Absalom your brother. +1Ki 2:8 Now you have with you Shimei, the son of Gera the Benjamite of Bahurim, who put a bitter curse on me on the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to see me at Jordan, and I gave him my oath by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death by the sword. +1Ki 2:9 But do not let him be free from punishment, for you are a wise man; and it will be clear to you what you have to do with him; see that his white head goes down to the underworld in blood. +1Ki 2:10 Then David went to rest with his fathers, and his body was put into the earth in the town of David. +1Ki 2:11 David was king over Israel for forty years: for seven years he was king in Hebron and for thirty-three years in Jerusalem. +1Ki 2:12 And Solomon took his place on the seat of David his father, and his kingdom was made safe and strong. +1Ki 2:13 Then Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to Bath-sheba, the mother of Solomon. And she said, Come you in peace? And he said, Yes, in peace. +1Ki 2:14 Then he said, I have something to say to you. And she said, Say on. +1Ki 2:15 And he said, You saw how the kingdom was mine, and all Israel had the idea that I would be their king; but now the kingdom is turned about, and has become my brother's, for it was given to him by the Lord. +1Ki 2:16 Now I have one request to make to you, and do not say, No, to me. And she said to him, Say on. +1Ki 2:17 Then he said, Will you go to Solomon the king (for he will not say, No, to you) and put before him my request that he will give me Abishag the Shunammite for a wife? +1Ki 2:18 And Bath-sheba said, Good! I will make your request to the king. +1Ki 2:19 So Bath-sheba went to King Solomon to have talk with him on Adonijah's account. And the king got up to come to her, and went down low to the earth before her; then he took his place on the king's seat and had a seat made ready for the king's mother and she took her place at his right hand. +1Ki 2:20 Then she said, I have one small request to make to you; do not say, No, to me. And the king said, Say on, my mother, for I will not say, No, to you. +1Ki 2:21 And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother for a wife. +1Ki 2:22 Then King Solomon made answer and said to his mother, Why are you requesting me to give Abishag the Shunammite to Adonijah? Take the kingdom for him in addition, for he is my older brother, and Abiathar the priest and Joab, the son of Zeruiah, are on his side. +1Ki 2:23 Then King Solomon took an oath by the Lord, saying, May God's punishment be on me if Adonijah does not give payment for these words with his life. +1Ki 2:24 Now by the living Lord, who has given me my place on the seat of David my father, and made me one of a line of kings, as he gave me his word, truly Adonijah will be put to death this day. +1Ki 2:25 And King Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and he made an attack on him and put him to death. +1Ki 2:26 And to Abiathar the priest the king said, Go to Anathoth, to your fields; for death would be your right reward; but I will not put you to death now, because you took up the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and you were with him in all his troubles. +1Ki 2:27 So Solomon let Abiathar be priest no longer, so that he might make the word of the Lord come true which he said about the sons of Eli in Shiloh. +1Ki 2:28 And news of this came to Joab; for Joab had been one of Adonijah's supporters, though he had not been on Absalom's side. Then Joab went in flight to the Tent of the Lord, and put his hands on the horns of the altar. +1Ki 2:29 And they said to King Solomon, Joab has gone in flight to the Tent of the Lord and is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, make an attack on him. +1Ki 2:30 And Benaiah came to the Tent of the Lord and said to him, The king says, Come out. And he said, No; but let death come to me here. And Benaiah went back to the king and gave him word of the answer which Joab had given. +1Ki 2:31 And the king said, Do as he has said and make an attack on him there, and put his body into the earth; so that you may take away from me and from my family the blood of one put to death by Joab without cause. +1Ki 2:32 And the Lord will send back his blood on his head, because of the attack he made on two men more upright and better than himself, putting them to the sword without my father's knowledge; even Abner, the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa, the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah. +1Ki 2:33 So their blood will be on the head of Joab, and on the head of his seed for ever; but for David and his seed and his family and the seat of his kingdom, there will be peace for ever from the Lord. +1Ki 2:34 So Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up, and falling on him, put him to death; and his body was put to rest in his house in the waste land. +1Ki 2:35 And the king put Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, in his place over the army; and Zadok the priest he put in the place of Abiathar. +1Ki 2:36 Then the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, Make a house for yourself in Jerusalem and keep there and go to no other place. +1Ki 2:37 For be certain that on the day when you go out and go over the stream Kidron, death will overtake you: and your blood will be on your head. +1Ki 2:38 And Shimei said to the king, Very well! as my lord the king has said, so will your servant do. And for a long time Shimei went on living in Jerusalem. +1Ki 2:39 But after three years, two of the servants of Shimei went in flight to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. And word was given to Shimei that his servants had gone to Gath. +1Ki 2:40 Then Shimei got up, and making ready his ass, he went to Gath, to Achish, in search of his servants; and he sent and got them from Gath. +1Ki 2:41 And news was given to Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had come back again. +1Ki 2:42 Then the king sent for Shimei, and said to him, Did I not make you take an oath by the Lord, protesting to you and saying, Be certain that on the day when you go out from here, wherever you go, death will overtake you? and you said to me, Very well! +1Ki 2:43 Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the order which I gave you? +1Ki 2:44 And the king said to Shimei, You have knowledge of all the evil which you did to David my father; and now the Lord has sent back your evil on yourself. +1Ki 2:45 But a blessing will be on King Solomon, and the kingdom of David will keep its place before the Lord for ever. +1Ki 2:46 So the king gave orders to Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada; and he went out and, falling on him, put him to death. And Solomon's authority over the kingdom was complete. +1Ki 3:1 Solomon became the son-in-law of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter as his wife, keeping her in the town of David, till the house he was building for himself, and the house of the Lord and the wall round Jerusalem, were complete. +1Ki 3:2 But all this time the people were making their offerings in the high places, because no house had been put up to the name of the Lord till those days. +1Ki 3:3 And Solomon, in his love for the Lord, kept the laws of David his father; but he made offerings and let them go up in smoke on the high places. +1Ki 3:4 And the king went to Gibeon to make an offering there, because that was the chief high place: it was Solomon's way to make a thousand burned offerings on that altar. +1Ki 3:5 In Gibeon, Solomon had a vision of the Lord in a dream by night; and God said to him, Say what I am to give you. +1Ki 3:6 And Solomon said, Great was your mercy to David my father, as his life before you was true and upright and his heart was true to you; and you have kept for him this greatest mercy, a son to take his place this day. +1Ki 3:7 And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in the place of David my father; and I am only a young boy, with no knowledge of how to go out or come in. +1Ki 3:8 And your servant has round him the people of your selection, a people so great that they may not be numbered, and no account of them may be given. +1Ki 3:9 Give your servant, then, a wise heart for judging your people, able to see what is good and what evil; for who is able to be the judge of this great people? +1Ki 3:10 Now these words and Solomon's request were pleasing to the Lord. +1Ki 3:11 And God said to him, Because your request is for this thing, and not for long life for yourself or for wealth or for the destruction of your haters, but for wisdom to be a judge of causes; +1Ki 3:12 I have done as you said: I have given you a wise and far-seeing heart, so that there has never been your equal in the past, and never will there be any like you in the future. +1Ki 3:13 And with this I have given you what you made no request for: wealth and honour, so that no king was ever your equal. +1Ki 3:14 And if you go on in my ways, keeping my laws and my orders as your father David did, I will give you a long life. +1Ki 3:15 And Solomon, awakening, saw that it was a dream; then he came to Jerusalem, where he went before the ark of the agreement of the Lord, offering burned offerings and peace-offerings; and he made a feast for all his servants. +1Ki 3:16 Then two loose women of the town came and took their places before the king; +1Ki 3:17 And one of them said, O my lord, I and this woman are living in the same house; and I gave birth to a child by her side in the house. +1Ki 3:18 And three days after the birth of my child, this woman had a child: we were together, no other-person was with us in the house but we two only. +1Ki 3:19 In the night, this woman, sleeping on her child, was the cause of its death. +1Ki 3:20 And she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your servant was sleeping; and she took it in her arms and put her dead child in my arms. +1Ki 3:21 And when I got up to give my child the breast, I saw that it was dead; but in the morning, looking at it with care, I saw that it was not my son. +1Ki 3:22 And the other woman said, No; but the living child is my son and the dead one yours. But the first said, No; the dead child is your son and the living one mine. So they kept on talking before the king. +1Ki 3:23 Then the king said, One says, The living child is my son, and yours is the dead: and the other says, Not so; but your son is the dead one and mine is the living. +1Ki 3:24 Then he said, Get me a sword. So they went and put a sword before the king. +1Ki 3:25 And the king said, Let the living child be cut in two and one half given to one woman and one to the other. +1Ki 3:26 Then the mother of the living child came forward, for her heart went out to her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the child; do not on any account put it to death. But the other woman said, It will not be mine or yours; let it be cut in two. +1Ki 3:27 Then the king made answer and said, Give her the child, and do not put it to death; she is the mother of it. +1Ki 3:28 And news of this decision which the king had made went through all Israel; and they had fear of the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to give decisions. +1Ki 4:1 Now Solomon was king over all Israel. +1Ki 4:2 And these were his chief men: Azariah, the son of Zadok, was the priest; +1Ki 4:3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were scribes; Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder; +1Ki 4:4 Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was head of the army; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; +1Ki 4:5 Azariah, the son of Nathan, was over those in authority in the different divisions of the country; Zabud, the son of Nathan, was priest and the king's friend; +1Ki 4:6 Ahishar was controller of the king's house; Adoniram, the son of Abda, was overseer of the forced work. +1Ki 4:7 And Solomon put twelve overseers over all Israel, to be responsible for the stores needed for the king and those of his house; every man was responsible for one month in the year. +1Ki 4:8 And these are their names: ... the son of Hur in the hill country of Ephraim; +1Ki 4:9 ... the son of Deker in Makaz and Shaalbim and Beth-shemesh and Elonbeth-hanan; +1Ki 4:10 ... the son of Hesed in Arubboth; Socoh and all the land of Hepher were under his control; +1Ki 4:11 ... the son of Abinadab in all Naphath-dor; his wife was Taphath, the daughter of Solomon. +1Ki 4:12 Baana, the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is by the side of Zarethan, under Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as the far side of Jokmeam; +1Ki 4:13 ... the son of Geber in Ramoth-gilead; he had the towns of Jair, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and the country of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great towns with walls and locks of brass. +1Ki 4:14 Ahinadab, the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim; +1Ki 4:15 Ahimaaz in Naphtali; he took Basemath, the daughter of Solomon, as his wife; +1Ki 4:16 Baana, the son of Hushai, in Asher and Aloth; +1Ki 4:17 Jehoshaphat, the son of Paruah, in Issachar; +1Ki 4:18 Shimei, the son of Ela, in Benjamin; +1Ki 4:19 Geber, the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan; and one overseer had authority over all the overseers who were in the land. +1Ki 4:20 Judah and Israel were as great in number as the sand by the seaside, and they took their food and drink with joy in their hearts. +1Ki 4:21 And Solomon was ruler over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the edge of Egypt; men gave him offerings and were his servants all the days of his life. +1Ki 4:22 And the amount of Solomon's food for one day was thirty measures of crushed grain and sixty measures of meal; +1Ki 4:23 Ten fat oxen and twenty oxen from the fields, and a hundred sheep, in addition to harts and gazelles and roes and fat fowls. +1Ki 4:24 For he had authority over all the country on this side of the River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace round him on every side. +1Ki 4:25 So Judah and Israel were living safely, every man under his vine and his fig-tree, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon. +1Ki 4:26 And Solomon had four thousand boxed-off spaces for horses for his carriages, and twelve thousand horsemen. +1Ki 4:27 And those overseers, every man in his month, saw that food was produced for Solomon and all his guests, they took care that nothing was overlooked. +1Ki 4:28 And they took grain and dry grass for the horses and the carriage-horses, to the right place, every man as he was ordered. +1Ki 4:29 And God gave Solomon a great store of wisdom and good sense, and a mind of wide range, as wide as the sand by the seaside. +1Ki 4:30 And Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. +1Ki 4:31 For he was wiser than all men, even than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman and Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and he had a great name among all the nations round about. +1Ki 4:32 He was the maker of three thousand wise sayings, and of songs to the number of a thousand and five. +1Ki 4:33 He made sayings about all plants, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop hanging on the wall; and about all beasts and birds and fishes and the small things of the earth. +1Ki 4:34 People came from every nation to give ear to the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had word of his wisdom. +1Ki 5:1 Now Hiram, king of Tyre, hearing that Solomon had been made king in place of his father, sent his servants to him; for Hiram had ever been a friend to David. +1Ki 5:2 And Solomon sent back word to Hiram, saying, +1Ki 5:3 You have knowledge that David my father was not able to make a house for the name of the Lord his God, because of the wars which were round him on every side, till the Lord put all those who were against him under his feet. +1Ki 5:4 But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side; no one is making trouble, and no evil is taking place. +1Ki 5:5 And so it is my purpose to make a house for the name of the Lord my God, as he said to David my father, Your son, whom I will make king in your place, will be the builder of a house for my name. +1Ki 5:6 So now, will you have cedar-trees from Lebanon cut down for me, and my servants will be with your servants; and I will give you payment for your servants at whatever rate you say; for it is common knowledge that we have no such wood-cutters among us as the men of Zidon. +1Ki 5:7 And these words of Solomon made Hiram glad, and he said, Now may the Lord be praised who has given to David a wise son to be king over this great people. +1Ki 5:8 Then Hiram sent to Solomon, saying; The words you sent have been given to me: I will do all your desire in the question of cedar-wood and cypress-wood. +1Ki 5:9 My men will take them down from Lebanon to the sea, where I will have them corded together to go by sea to whatever place you say, and I will have them cut up there so that you may take them away; as for payment, it will be enough if you give me food for my people. +1Ki 5:10 So Hiram gave Solomon all the cedar-wood and cypress-wood he had need of; +1Ki 5:11 And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of grain, as food for his people, and twenty measures of clear oil; this he did every year. +1Ki 5:12 Now the Lord had given Solomon wisdom, as he had said to him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and they made an agreement together. +1Ki 5:13 Then King Solomon got together men for the forced work through all Israel, thirty thousand men in number; +1Ki 5:14 And sent them to Lebanon in bands of ten thousand every month: for a month they were working in Lebanon and for two months in their country, and Adoniram was in control of them. +1Ki 5:15 Then he had seventy thousand for the work of transport, and eighty thousand stone-cutters in the mountains; +1Ki 5:16 In addition to the chiefs of the responsible men put by Solomon to oversee the work, three thousand and three hundred in authority over the workmen. +1Ki 5:17 By the king's orders great stones, stones of high price, were cut out, so that the base of the house might be made of squared stone. +1Ki 5:18 Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did the work of cutting them, and put edges on them, and got the wood and the stone ready for the building of the house. +1Ki 6:1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year that Solomon was king of Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, the building of the Lord's house was started. +1Ki 6:2 The house which Solomon made for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. +1Ki 6:3 The covered way before the Temple of the house was twenty cubits long, as wide as the house, and ten cubits wide in front of the house. +1Ki 6:4 And for the house he made windows, with network across. +1Ki 6:5 And against the walls all round, and against the walls of the Temple and of the inmost room, he put up wings, with side rooms all round: +1Ki 6:6 The lowest line of them being five cubits wide, the middle six cubits wide and the third seven cubits; for there was a space all round the outside walls of the house so that the boards supporting the rooms did not have to be fixed in the walls of the house. +1Ki 6:7 (And the stones used in the building of the house were squared at the place where they were cut out; there was no sound of hammer or axe or any iron instrument while they were building the house.) +1Ki 6:8 The door to the lowest side rooms was in the right side of the house; and they went up by twisting steps into the middle rooms, and from the middle into the third. +1Ki 6:9 So he put up the house and made it complete, roofing it with boards of cedar-wood. +1Ki 6:10 And he put up the line of side rooms against the walls of the house, fifteen cubits high, resting against the house on boards of cedar-wood. +1Ki 6:11 (And the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying, +1Ki 6:12 About this house which you are building: if you will keep my laws and give effect to my decisions and be guided by my rules, I will give effect to my word which I gave to David your father. +1Ki 6:13 And I will be ever among the children of Israel, and will not go away from my people. +1Ki 6:14 So Solomon made the building of the house complete.) +1Ki 6:15 The walls of the house were covered inside with cedar-wood boards; from the floor to the roof of the house they were covered inside with wood; and the floor was covered with boards of cypress-wood. +1Ki 6:16 And at the back of the house a further space of twenty cubits was shut in with boards of cedar-wood, for the inmost room. +1Ki 6:17 And the house, that is, the Temple, in front of the holy place was forty cubits long. +1Ki 6:18 (All the inside of the house was cedar-wood, ornamented with designs of buds and flowers; no stonework was to be seen inside.) +1Ki 6:19 And he made ready an inmost room in the middle of the house, in which to put the ark of the agreement of the Lord. +1Ki 6:20 And the inmost room was twenty cubits square and twenty cubits high, plated over with clear gold, and he made an altar of cedar-wood, plating it with gold. +1Ki 6:21 Solomon had all the inside of the house covered with gold, and he put chains of gold across in front of the inmost room, which itself was covered with gold. +1Ki 6:22 Plates of gold were put all through the house till it was covered completely (and the altar in the inmost room was all covered with gold). +1Ki 6:23 In the inmost room he made two winged beings of olive-wood, ten cubits high; +1Ki 6:24 With outstretched wings five cubits wide; the distance from the edge of one wing to the edge of the other was ten cubits. +1Ki 6:25 The two winged ones were ten cubits high, of the same size and form. +1Ki 6:26 The two of them were ten cubits high. +1Ki 6:27 These were placed inside the inner house, their outstretched wings touching the walls of the house, one touching one wall and one the other, while their other wings were touching in the middle. +1Ki 6:28 These winged ones were plated over with gold. +1Ki 6:29 And all the walls of the house inside and out were ornamented with forms of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers. +1Ki 6:30 And the floor of the house was covered with gold, inside and out. +1Ki 6:31 For the way into the inmost room he made doors of olive-wood, the arch and the door supports forming a five-sided opening. +1Ki 6:32 On the olive-wood doors were cut designs of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers, all of them, with the doors, plated with gold. +1Ki 6:33 Then he made pillars of olive-wood for the way into the Temple; the pillars were square: +1Ki 6:34 And two folding doors of cypress-wood, with two leaves. +1Ki 6:35 These were ornamented with designs of winged ones and palm-trees and open flowers, plated over with gold. +1Ki 6:36 And the inner space was walled with three lines of squared stones and a line of cedar-wood boards. +1Ki 6:37 In the fourth year the base of the house was put in its place, in the month Ziv. +1Ki 6:38 And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the building of the house was complete in every detail, as it had been designed. So he was seven years building it. +1Ki 7:1 Solomon was thirteen years building a house for himself till it was complete. +1Ki 7:2 And he made the house of the Woods of Lebanon, which was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high, resting on four lines of cedar-wood pillars with cedar-wood supports on the pillars. +1Ki 7:3 And it was covered with cedar over the forty-five supports which were on the pillars, fifteen in a line. +1Ki 7:4 There were three lines of window-frames, window facing window in every line. +1Ki 7:5 And all the doors and windows had square frames, with the windows facing one another in three lines. +1Ki 7:6 And he made a covered room of pillars, fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide, and ... with steps before it. +1Ki 7:7 Then he made a covered room for his high seat when he gave decisions; this was the covered room of judging; it was covered with cedar-wood from floor to roof. +1Ki 7:8 And the house for his living-place, the other open square in the covered room, was made in the same way. And then he made a house like it for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken as his wife. +1Ki 7:9 All these buildings were made, inside and out, from base to crowning stone, and outside to the great walled square, of highly priced stone, cut to different sizes with cutting-instruments. +1Ki 7:10 And the base was of great masses of highly priced stone, some ten cubits and some eight cubits square. +1Ki 7:11 Overhead were highly priced stones cut to measure, and cedar-wood. +1Ki 7:12 The great outer square all round was walled with three lines of squared stones and a line of cedar-wood boards, round about the open square inside the house of the Lord and the covered room of the king's house. +1Ki 7:13 Then King Solomon sent and got Hiram from Tyre. +1Ki 7:14 He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; he was full of wisdom and knowledge and an expert worker in brass. He came to King Solomon and did all his work for him. +1Ki 7:15 He it was who made the two brass pillars; the first pillar was eighteen cubits high, and a line of twelve cubits went round it; and the second was the same. +1Ki 7:16 And he made the two crowns to be put on the tops of the pillars, of brass made soft in the fire; the crowns were five cubits high. +1Ki 7:17 There were nets of open-work for the crowns on the tops of the pillars, a net of open-work for one and a net of open-work for the other. +1Ki 7:18 And he made ornaments of apples; and two lines of apples all round over the network, covering the crowns of the pillars, the two crowns in the same way. +1Ki 7:19 The crowns on the tops of the pillars were ornamented with a design of flowers, and were four cubits across. +1Ki 7:20 And there were crowns on the two pillars near the round part by the network, and there were two hundred apples in lines round every crown. +1Ki 7:21 He put up the pillars at the doorway of the Temple, naming the one on the right Jachin, and that on the left Boaz. +1Ki 7:22 The tops of the pillars had a design of flowers; and the work of making the pillars was complete. +1Ki 7:23 And he made a great metal water-vessel ten cubits across from edge to edge, five cubits high and thirty cubits round. +1Ki 7:24 And under the edge of it, circling it all round for ten cubits, were two lines of flower buds, made together with it from liquid metal. +1Ki 7:25 It was supported on twelve oxen, with their back parts turned to the middle of it, three of them facing to the north, three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east; the vessel was resting on top of them. +1Ki 7:26 It was as thick as a man's open hand, and was curved like the edge of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it would take two thousand baths. +1Ki 7:27 And he made ten wheeled bases of brass; every one four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high. +1Ki 7:28 And the bases were made in this way; their sides were square, fixed in a framework; +1Ki 7:29 And on the square sides between the frames were lions, oxen, and winged ones; and the same on the frame; and over and under the lions and the oxen and the winged ones were steps. +1Ki 7:30 Every base had four wheels of brass, turning on brass rods, and their four angles had angle-plates under them; the angle-plates under the base were of metal, and there were ornaments at the side of every one. +1Ki 7:31 The mouth of it inside the angle-plate was one cubit across; it was round like a pillar, a cubit and a half across; it had designs cut on it; the sides were square, not round. +1Ki 7:32 The four wheels were under the frames, and the rods on which the wheels were fixed were in the base; the wheels were a cubit and a half high. +1Ki 7:33 The wheels were made like carriage-wheels, the rods on which they were fixed, the parts forming their edges, their rods and the middle points of them, were all formed out of liquid metal. +1Ki 7:34 And there were four angle-plates at the four angles of every base, forming part of the structure of the base. +1Ki 7:35 And at the top of the base there was a round vessel, half a cubit high; +1Ki 7:36 In the spaces of the flat sides and on the frames of them, he made designs of winged ones, lions, and palm-trees, with ornamented edges all round. +1Ki 7:37 All the ten bases were made in this way, after the same design, of the same size and form. +1Ki 7:38 And he made ten brass washing-vessels, everyone taking forty baths, and measuring four cubits; one vessel was placed on every one of the ten bases. +1Ki 7:39 And he put the bases by the house, five on the right side and five on the left; and he put the great water-vessel on the right side of the house, to the east, facing south. +1Ki 7:40 And Hiram made the pots and spades and the basins. So Hiram came to the end of all the work he did for King Solomon in the house of the Lord: +1Ki 7:41 The two pillars and the two cups of the crowns which were on the tops of the two pillars; and the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the tops of the pillars, +1Ki 7:42 And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines of apples for every network, covering the two cups of the crowns on the pillars; +1Ki 7:43 And the ten bases, with the ten washing-vessels on them; +1Ki 7:44 And the great water-vessel, with the twelve oxen under it; +1Ki 7:45 And the pots and the spades and the basins; all the vessels which Hiram made for King Solomon, for the house of the Lord, were of polished brass. +1Ki 7:46 He made them of liquid metal in the lowland of Jordan, at the way across the river, at Adama, between Succoth and Zarethan. +1Ki 7:47 The weight of all these vessels was not measured, because there was such a number of them; it was not possible to get the weight of the brass. +1Ki 7:48 And Solomon had all the vessels made for use in the house of the Lord: the altar of gold and the gold table on which the holy bread was placed; +1Ki 7:49 And the supports for the lights, five on the right side and five on the left before the inmost room, of clear gold; and the flowers and the lights and all the instruments of gold; +1Ki 7:50 And the cups and the scissors and the basins and the spoons and the fire-trays, all of gold; and the pins on which the doors were turned, the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and the doors of the Temple, all of gold. +1Ki 7:51 So all the work King Solomon had done in the house of the Lord was complete. Then Solomon took the holy things which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house of the Lord. +1Ki 8:1 Then Solomon sent for all the responsible men of Israel, and all the chiefs of the tribes, and the heads of families of the children of Israel, to come to him in Jerusalem to take the ark of the Lord's agreement up out of the town of David, which is Zion. +1Ki 8:2 And all the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, the seventh month. +1Ki 8:3 And all the responsible men of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. +1Ki 8:4 They took up the ark of the Lord, and the Tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels which were in the Tent; all these the priests and the Levites took up. +1Ki 8:5 And King Solomon and all the men of Israel who had come together there, were with him before the ark, making offerings of sheep and oxen more than might be numbered. +1Ki 8:6 And the priests took the ark of the agreement of the Lord and put it in its place in the inner room of the house, in the most holy place, under the wings of the winged ones. +1Ki 8:7 For their wings were outstretched over the place where the ark was, covering the ark and its rods. +1Ki 8:8 The rods were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place, in front of the inmost room; but they were not seen from outside: and there they are to this day. +1Ki 8:9 There was nothing in the ark but the two flat stones which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made an agreement with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt. +1Ki 8:10 Now when the priests had come out of the holy place, the house of the Lord was full of the cloud, +1Ki 8:11 So that the priests were not able to keep their places to do their work because of the cloud, for the house of the Lord was full of the glory of the Lord. +1Ki 8:12 Then Solomon said, O Lord, to the sun you have given the heaven for a living-place, but your living-place was not seen by men; +1Ki 8:13 So I have made for you a living-place, a house in which you may be for ever present. +1Ki 8:14 Then, turning his face about, the king gave a blessing to all the men of Israel; and they were all on their feet together. +1Ki 8:15 And he said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who himself gave his word to David my father, and with his strong hand has made his word come true, saying, +1Ki 8:16 From the day when I took my people Israel out of Egypt, no town in all the tribes of Israel has been marked out by me for the building of a house for the resting-place of my name; but I made selection of David to be king over my people Israel. +1Ki 8:17 Now it was in the heart of David my father to put up a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. +1Ki 8:18 But the Lord said to David my father, You did well to have in your heart the desire to make a house for my name; +1Ki 8:19 But you yourself will not be the builder of my house; but your son, the offspring of your body, he it is who will put up a house for my name. +1Ki 8:20 And the Lord has made his word come true; for I have taken my father David's place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel, as the Lord gave his word; and I have made a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. +1Ki 8:21 In it I have made a place for the ark, in which is the agreement which the Lord made with our fathers, when he took them out of the land of Egypt. +1Ki 8:22 Then Solomon took his place before the altar of the Lord, all the men of Israel being present, and stretching out his hands to heaven, +1Ki 8:23 Said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on the earth; keeping faith and mercy unchanging for your servants, while they go in your ways with all their hearts. +1Ki 8:24 And you have kept the word which you gave to your servant David, my father; with your mouth you said it and with your hand you have made it come true this day. +1Ki 8:25 So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, let your word to your servant David, my father, come true, when you said, You will never be without a man to take his place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel before me, if only your children give attention to their ways, walking before me as you have done. +1Ki 8:26 So now, O God of Israel, it is my prayer that you will make your word come true which you said to your servant David, my father. +1Ki 8:27 But is it truly possible that God may be housed on earth? see, heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be your resting-place; how much less this house which I have made! +1Ki 8:28 Still, let your heart be turned to the prayer of your servant, O Lord God, and to his prayer for grace; give ear to the cry and the prayer which your servant sends up to you this day; +1Ki 8:29 That your eyes may be open to this house night and day, to this place of which you have said, My name will be there; hearing the prayer which your servant may make, turning to this place. +1Ki 8:30 Give ear to the prayers of your servant, and the prayers of your people Israel, when they make their prayers, turning to this place; give ear in heaven your living-place, and hearing, have mercy. +1Ki 8:31 If a man does wrong to his neighbour, and has to take an oath, and comes before your altar to take his oath in this house: +1Ki 8:32 Then let your ear be open in heaven, and be the judge of your servants, giving your decision against the wrongdoer, so that punishment for his sins may come on his head; and, by your decision, keeping from evil him who has done no wrong. +1Ki 8:33 When your people Israel are overcome in war, because of their sin against you; if they are turned to you again, honouring your name, making prayers to you and requesting your grace in this house: +1Ki 8:34 Then give ear in heaven, and let the sin of your people Israel have forgiveness, and take them back again into the land which you gave to their fathers. +1Ki 8:35 When heaven is shut up and there is no rain, because of their sin against you; if they make prayers with their faces turned to this place, honouring your name and turning away from their sin when you send trouble on them: +1Ki 8:36 Then give ear in heaven, so that the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, may have forgiveness, when you make clear to them the good way in which they are to go; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people for their heritage. +1Ki 8:37 If there is no food in the land, or if there is disease, or if the fruits of the earth are damaged through heat or water, locust or worm; if their towns are shut in by their attackers; whatever trouble, whatever disease there may be: +1Ki 8:38 Whatever prayer or request for your grace is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, whatever his trouble may be, whose hands are stretched out to this house: +1Ki 8:39 Give ear in heaven your living-place, acting in mercy; and give to every man whose secret heart is open to you, the reward of all his ways; for you, and you only, have knowledge of the hearts of all the children of men: +1Ki 8:40 So that they may give you worship all the days of their life in the land which you gave to our fathers. +1Ki 8:41 And as for the man from a strange land, who is not of your people Israel; when he comes from a far country because of the glory of your name: +1Ki 8:42 (For they will have news of your great name and your strong hand and your out-stretched arm;) when he comes to make his prayer, turning to this house: +1Ki 8:43 Give ear in heaven your living-place, and give him his desire, whatever it may be; so that all the peoples of the earth may have knowledge of your name, worshipping you as do your people Israel, and that they may see that this house which I have put up is truly named by your name. +1Ki 8:44 If your people go out to war against their attackers, by whatever way you may send them, if they make their prayer to the Lord, turning their faces to this town of yours and to this house which I have made for your name: +1Ki 8:45 Give ear in heaven to their prayer and their cry for grace, and see right done to them. +1Ki 8:46 If they do wrong against you, (for no man is without sin,) and you are angry with them and give them up into the power of those who are fighting against them, so that they take them away as prisoners into a strange land, far off or near; +1Ki 8:47 And if they take thought, in the land where they are prisoners, and are turned again to you, crying out in prayer to you in that land, and saying, We are sinners, we have done wrong, we have done evil; +1Ki 8:48 And with all their heart and soul are turned again to you, in the land of those who took them prisoners, and make their prayer to you, turning their eyes to this land which you gave to their fathers, and to the town which you took for yourself, and the house which I made for your name: +1Ki 8:49 Then give ear to their prayer and to their cry in heaven your living-place, and see right done to them; +1Ki 8:50 Answering with forgiveness the people who have done wrong against you, and overlooking the evil which they have done against you; let those who made them prisoners be moved with pity for them, and have pity on them; +1Ki 8:51 For they are your people and your heritage, which you took out of Egypt, out of the iron fireplace; +1Ki 8:52 Let your eyes be open to your servant's prayer for grace and to the prayer of your people Israel, hearing them when their cry comes to you. +1Ki 8:53 For you made them separate from all the peoples of the earth, to be your heritage, as you said by Moses your servant, when you took our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God. +1Ki 8:54 Then Solomon, after making all these prayers and requests for grace to the Lord, got up from his knees before the altar of the Lord, where his hands had been stretched out in prayer to heaven; +1Ki 8:55 And, getting on his feet, he gave a blessing to all the men of Israel, saying with a loud voice, +1Ki 8:56 Praise be to the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, as he gave them his word to do; every word of all his oath, which he gave by the hand of Moses his servant, has come true. +1Ki 8:57 Now may the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers; let him never go away from us or give us up; +1Ki 8:58 Turning our hearts to himself, guiding us to go in all his ways, to keep his orders and his laws and his decisions, which he gave to our fathers. +1Ki 8:59 And may these my words, the words of my prayer to the Lord, be before the Lord our God day and night, so that he may see right done to his servant and to his people Israel, day by day as we have need. +1Ki 8:60 So that all the peoples of the earth may see that the Lord is God, and there is no other. +1Ki 8:61 Then let your hearts be without sin before the Lord our God, walking in his laws and keeping his orders as at this day. +1Ki 8:62 Now the king, and all Israel with him, were making offerings before the Lord. +1Ki 8:63 And Solomon gave to the Lord for peace-offerings, twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel kept the feast of the opening of the Lord's house. +1Ki 8:64 The same day the king made holy the middle of the open square in front of the house of the Lord, offering there the burned offering and the meal offering and the fat of the peace-offerings; for there was not room on the brass altar of the Lord for the burned offerings and the meal offerings and the fat of the peace-offerings. +1Ki 8:65 So Solomon and all Israel with him, a very great meeting, (for the people had come together from the way into Hamath to the river of Egypt,) kept the feast at that time before the Lord our God, for two weeks, even fourteen days. +1Ki 8:66 And on the eighth day he sent the people away, and, blessing the king, they went to their tents full of joy and glad in their hearts, because of all the good which the Lord had done to David his servant and to Israel his people. +1Ki 9:1 Now when Solomon came to the end of building the house of the Lord and the king's house, and all Solomon's desires, which he had in mind were effected; +1Ki 9:2 The Lord came to him again in a vision, as he had done at Gibeon; +1Ki 9:3 And the Lord said to him, Your prayers and your requests for grace have come to my ears: I have made holy this house which you have made, and I have put my name there for ever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times. +1Ki 9:4 As for you, if you will go on your way before me, as David your father did, uprightly and with a true heart, doing what I have given you orders to do, keeping my laws and my decisions; +1Ki 9:5 Then I will make the seat of your rule over Israel certain for ever, as I gave my word to David your father, saying, You will never be without a man to be king in Israel. +1Ki 9:6 But if you are turned from my ways, you or your children, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods and give them worship: +1Ki 9:7 Then I will have Israel cut off from the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for myself, I will put away from before my eyes; and Israel will be a public example, and a word of shame among all peoples. +1Ki 9:8 And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder at it and make whistling sounds; and they will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land and to this house? +1Ki 9:9 And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord their God, who took their fathers out of the land of Egypt; they took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why the Lord has sent all this evil on them. +1Ki 9:10 Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon had put up the two houses, the house of the Lord and the king's house, +1Ki 9:11 (Hiram, king of Tyre, had given Solomon cedar-trees and cypress-trees and gold, as much as he had need of,) King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the land of Galilee. +1Ki 9:12 But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the towns which Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. +1Ki 9:13 And he said, What sort of towns are these which you have given me, my brother? So they were named the land of Cabul, to this day. +1Ki 9:14 And Hiram sent the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold. +1Ki 9:15 Now, this was the way of Solomon's system of forced work for the building of the Lord's house and of the king's house, and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Megiddo and Gezer. ... +1Ki 9:16 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, came and took Gezer, burning it down and putting to death the Canaanites living in the town, and he gave it for a bride-offering to his daughter, Solomon's wife. ... +1Ki 9:17 ... and Solomon was the builder of Gezer and Beth-horon the lower, +1Ki 9:18 And Baalath and Tamar in the waste land, in that land; +1Ki 9:19 And all the store-towns and the towns which Solomon had for his war-carriages and for his horsemen, and everything which it was his pleasure to put up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land under his rule. +1Ki 9:20 As for the rest of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not children of Israel; +1Ki 9:21 Their children who were still in the land, and whom the children of Israel had not been able to put to complete destruction, them did Solomon put to forced work, to this day. +1Ki 9:22 But Solomon did not put the children of Israel to forced work; they were the men of war, his servants, his captains, and his chiefs, captains of his war-carriages and of his horsemen. +1Ki 9:23 These were the chiefs of the overseers of Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, in authority over the people who did the work. +1Ki 9:24 At that time Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up from the town of David to the house which he had made for her: then he made the Millo. +1Ki 9:25 Three times in the year it was Solomon's way to give burned offerings and peace-offerings on the altar he had made to the Lord, causing his fire-offering to go up on the altar before the Lord. +1Ki 9:26 And King Solomon made a sea-force of ships in Ezion-geber, by Eloth, on the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. +1Ki 9:27 Hiram sent his servants, who were experienced seamen, in the sea-force with Solomon's men. +1Ki 9:28 And they came to Ophir, where they got four hundred and twenty talents of gold, and took it back to King Solomon. +1Ki 10:1 Now the queen of Sheba, hearing great things of Solomon, came to put his wisdom to the test with hard questions. +1Ki 10:2 And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels weighted down with spices, and stores of gold and jewels: and when she came to Solomon she had talk with him of everything in her mind. +1Ki 10:3 And Solomon gave her answers to all her questions; there was no secret which the king did not make clear to her. +1Ki 10:4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had made, +1Ki 10:5 And the food at his table, and all his servants seated there, and those who were waiting on him in their places, and their robes, and his wine-servants, and the burned offerings which he made in the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. +1Ki 10:6 And she said to the king, The account which was given to me in my country of your acts and your wisdom was true. +1Ki 10:7 But I had no faith in what was said about you, till I came and saw for myself; and now I see that it was not half the story; your wisdom and your wealth are much greater than they said. +1Ki 10:8 Happy are your wives, happy are these your servants whose place is ever before you, hearing your words of wisdom. +1Ki 10:9 May the Lord your God be praised, whose pleasure it was to put you on the seat of the kingdom of Israel; because the Lord's love for Israel is eternal, he has made you king, to be their judge in righteousness. +1Ki 10:10 And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a great store of spices and jewels: never again was such a wealth of spices seen as that which the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. +1Ki 10:11 And the sea-force of Hiram, in addition to gold from Ophir, came back with much sandal-wood and jewels. +1Ki 10:12 And from the sandal-wood the king made pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's house, and instruments of music for the makers of melody: never has such sandal-wood been seen to this day. +1Ki 10:13 And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she made request for, in addition to what he gave her freely from the impulse of his heart. So she went back to her country, she and her servants. +1Ki 10:14 Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents; +1Ki 10:15 In addition to what came to him from the business of the traders, and from all the kings of the Arabians, and from the rulers of the country. +1Ki 10:16 And Solomon made two hundred body-covers of hammered gold, every one having six hundred shekels of gold in it. +1Ki 10:17 And he made three hundred smaller body-covers of hammered gold, with three pounds of gold in every cover: and the king put them in the house of the Woods of Lebanon. +1Ki 10:18 Then the king made a great ivory seat, plated with the best gold. +1Ki 10:19 There were six steps going up to it, and the top of it was round at the back, there were arms on the two sides of the seat, and two lions by the side of the arms; +1Ki 10:20 And twelve lions were placed on the one side and on the other side on the six steps: there was nothing like it in any kingdom. +1Ki 10:21 And all King Solomon's drinking-vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the Woods of Lebanon were of the best gold; not one was of silver, for no one gave a thought to silver in the days of King Solomon. +1Ki 10:22 For the king had Tarshish-ships at sea with the ships of Hiram; once every three years the Tarshish-ships came with gold and silver and ivory and monkeys and peacocks. +1Ki 10:23 And King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom. +1Ki 10:24 And from all over the earth they came to see Solomon and to give ear to his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. +1Ki 10:25 And everyone took with him an offering, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes, and coats of metal, and spices, and horses, and beasts of transport, regularly year by year. +1Ki 10:26 And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen; he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king at Jerusalem. +1Ki 10:27 And the king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem and cedars like the sycamore-trees of the lowlands in number. +1Ki 10:28 And Solomon's horses came from Egypt and from Kue; the king's traders got them at a price from Kue. +1Ki 10:29 A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty; they got them at the same rate for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram. +1Ki 11:1 Now a number of strange women were loved by Solomon, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites: +1Ki 11:2 The nations of which the Lord had said to the children of Israel, You are not to take wives from them and they are not to take wives from you; or they will certainly make you go after their gods: to these Solomon was united in love. +1Ki 11:3 He had seven hundred wives, daughters of kings, and three hundred other wives; and through his wives his heart was turned away. +1Ki 11:4 For it came about that when Solomon was old, his heart was turned away to other gods by his wives; and his heart was no longer true to the Lord his God as the heart of his father David had been. +1Ki 11:5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom, the disgusting god of the Ammonites. +1Ki 11:6 And Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not walking in the Lord's ways with all his heart as David his father did. +1Ki 11:7 Then Solomon put up a high place for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, in the mountain before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the disgusting god worshipped by the children of Ammon. +1Ki 11:8 And so he did for all his strange wives, who made offerings with burning of perfumes to their gods. +1Ki 11:9 And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had twice come to him in a vision; +1Ki 11:10 And had given him orders about this very thing, that he was not to go after other gods; but he did not keep the orders of the Lord. +1Ki 11:11 So the Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done this, and have not kept my agreement and my laws, which I gave you, I will take the kingdom away from you by force and will give it to your servant. +1Ki 11:12 I will not do it in your life-time, because of your father David, but I will take it from your son. +1Ki 11:13 Still I will not take all the kingdom from him; but I will give one tribe to your son, because of my servant David, and because of Jerusalem, the town of my selection. +1Ki 11:14 So the Lord sent Hadad the Edomite to make trouble for Solomon: he was of the king's seed in Edom. +1Ki 11:15 And when David had sent destruction on Edom, and Joab, the captain of the army, had gone to put the dead into the earth, and had put to death every male in Edom; +1Ki 11:16 (For Joab and all Israel were there six months till every male in Edom had been cut off;) +1Ki 11:17 Hadad, being still a young boy, went in flight to Egypt, with certain Edomites, servants of his father; +1Ki 11:18 And they went on from Midian and came to Paran; and, taking men from Paran with them, they came to Egypt, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who gave him a house and gave orders for his food and gave him land. +1Ki 11:19 Now Hadad was very pleasing to Pharaoh, so that he gave him the sister of his wife, Tahpenes the queen, for his wife. +1Ki 11:20 And the sister of Tahpenes had a son by him, Genubath, whom Tahpenes took care of in Pharaoh's house; and Genubath was living in Pharaoh's house among Pharaoh's sons. +1Ki 11:21 Now when Hadad had news in Egypt that David had been put to rest with his fathers, and that Joab, the captain of the army, was dead, he said to Pharaoh, Send me back to my country. +1Ki 11:22 But Pharaoh said to him, What have you been short of while you have been with me, that you are desiring to go back to your country? And he said, Nothing; but even so, send me back. +1Ki 11:23 And God sent another trouble-maker, Rezon, the son of Eliada, who had gone in flight from his lord, Hadadezer, king of Zobah: +1Ki 11:24 He got some men together and made himself captain of a band of outlaws; and went to Damascus and became king there. +1Ki 11:25 He was a trouble to Israel all through the days of Solomon. And this is the damage Hadad did: he was cruel to Israel while he was ruler over Edom. +1Ki 11:26 And there was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother was Zeruah, a widow; and his hand was lifted up against the king. +1Ki 11:27 The way in which his hand came to be lifted up against the king was this: Solomon was building the Millo and making good the damaged parts of the town of his father David; +1Ki 11:28 And Jeroboam was an able and responsible man; and Solomon saw that he was a good worker and made him overseer of all the work given to the sons of Joseph. +1Ki 11:29 Now at that time, when Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite came across him on the road; now Ahijah had put on a new robe; and the two of them were by themselves in the open country. +1Ki 11:30 And Ahijah took his new robe in his hands, parting it violently into twelve. +1Ki 11:31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take ten of the parts, for this is what the Lord has said: See, I will take the kingdom away from Solomon by force, and will give ten tribes to you; +1Ki 11:32 (But one tribe will be his, because of my servant David, and because of Jerusalem, the town which, out of all the tribes of Israel, I have made mine,) +1Ki 11:33 Because they are turned away from me to the worship of Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Chemosh, the god of Moab, and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites; they have not been walking in my ways or doing what is right in my eyes or keeping my laws and my decisions as his father David did. +1Ki 11:34 But I will not take the kingdom from him; I will let him be king all the days of his life, because of David my servant, in whom I took delight because he kept my orders and my laws. +1Ki 11:35 But I will take the kingdom from his son, and give it to you. +1Ki 11:36 And one tribe I will give to his son, so that David my servant may have a light for ever burning before me in Jerusalem, the town which I have made mine to put my name there. +1Ki 11:37 And you I will take, and you will be king over Israel, ruling over whatever is the desire of your soul. +1Ki 11:38 And if you give attention to the orders I give you, walking in my ways and doing what is right in my eyes and keeping my laws and my orders as David my servant did; then I will be with you, building up for you a safe house, as I did for David, and I will give Israel to you. +1Ki 11:39 (So that I may send trouble for this on the seed of David, but not for ever.) +1Ki 11:40 And Solomon was looking for a chance to put Jeroboam to death; but he went in flight to Egypt, to Shishak, king of Egypt, and was in Egypt till the death of Solomon. +1Ki 11:41 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all he did, and his wisdom, are they not recorded in the book of the acts of Solomon? +1Ki 11:42 And the time Solomon was king in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. +1Ki 11:43 And Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the town of David his father: and Solomon went to rest with his fathers and Rehoboam his son became king in his place. +1Ki 12:1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come together to make him king, +1Ki 12:2 And, hearing of it, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who was still in Egypt, where he had gone in flight from Solomon, and was living there, came back to his town Zeredah, in the hill-country of Ephraim; +1Ki 12:3 And all the men of Israel came to Rehoboam and said, +1Ki 12:4 Your father put a hard yoke on us: if you will make the conditions under which your father kept us down less cruel, and the weight of the yoke he put on us less hard, then we will be your servants. +1Ki 12:5 And he said to them, Go away for three days and then come back to me again. So the people went away. +1Ki 12:6 Then King Rehoboam took the opinion of the old men who had been with Solomon his father when he was living, and said, In your opinion, what answer am I to give to this people? +1Ki 12:7 And they said to him, If you will be a servant to this people today, caring for them and giving them a gentle answer, then they will be your servants for ever. +1Ki 12:8 But he gave no attention to the opinion of the old men, and went to the young men of his generation who were waiting before him: +1Ki 12:9 And said to them, What is your opinion? What answer are we to give to this people who have said to me, Make less the weight of the yoke which your father put on us? +1Ki 12:10 And the young men of his generation said to him, This is the answer to give to the people who came to you saying, Your father put a hard yoke on us; will you make it less? say to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's body; +1Ki 12:11 If my father put a hard yoke on you, I will make it harder: my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give you blows with snakes. +1Ki 12:12 So all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had given orders, saying, Come back to me the third day. +1Ki 12:13 And the king gave them a rough answer, giving no attention to the suggestion of the old men; +1Ki 12:14 But giving them the answer put forward by the young men, saying, My father made your yoke hard, but I will make it harder; my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give it with snakes. +1Ki 12:15 So the king did not give ear to the people; and this came about by the purpose of the Lord, so that what he had said by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, son of Nebat, might be effected. +1Ki 12:16 And when all Israel saw that the king would give no attention to them, the people in answer said to the king, What part have we in David? what is our heritage in the son of Jesse? to your tents, O Israel; now see to your people, David. So Israel went away to their tents. +1Ki 12:17 (But Rehoboam was still king over those of the children of Israel who were living in the towns of Judah.) +1Ki 12:18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, the overseer of the forced work; and he was stoned to death by all Israel. And King Rehoboam went quickly and got into his carriage to go in flight to Jerusalem. +1Ki 12:19 So Israel was turned away from the family of David to this day. +1Ki 12:20 Now when all Israel had news that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him to come before the meeting of the people, and made him king over Israel: not one of them was joined to the family of David but only the tribe of Judah. +1Ki 12:21 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he got together all the men of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand of his best fighting-men, to make war against Israel and get the kingdom back for Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. +1Ki 12:22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, +1Ki 12:23 Say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the men of Judah and Benjamin and the rest of the people: +1Ki 12:24 The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against your brothers, the children of Israel; go back, every man to his house, because this thing is my purpose. So they gave ear to the word of the Lord, and went back, as the Lord had said. +1Ki 12:25 Then Jeroboam made the town of Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim a strong place, and was living there; and from there he went out and did the same to Penuel. +1Ki 12:26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will go back to the family of David: +1Ki 12:27 If the people go up to make offerings in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, their heart will be turned again to their lord, to Rehoboam, king of Judah; and they will put me to death and go back to Rehoboam, king of Judah. +1Ki 12:28 So after taking thought the king made two oxen of gold; and he said to the people, You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough; see! these are your gods, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt. +1Ki 12:29 And he put one in Beth-el and the other in Dan. +1Ki 12:30 And this became a sin in Israel; for the people went to give worship to the one at Beth-el, and to the other at Dan. +1Ki 12:31 And he made places for worship at the high places, and made priests, who were not Levites, from among all the people. +1Ki 12:32 And Jeroboam gave orders for a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is kept in Judah, and he went up to the altar. And in the same way, in Beth-el, he gave offerings to the oxen which he had made, placing in Beth-el the priests of the high places he had made. +1Ki 12:33 He went up to the altar he had made in Beth-el on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month fixed by him at his pleasure; and he gave orders for a feast for the people of Israel, and went up to the altar, and there he made the smoke of his offerings go up. +1Ki 13:1 Then a man of God came from Judah by the order of the Lord to Beth-el, where Jeroboam was by the altar, burning offerings. +1Ki 13:2 And by the order of the Lord he made an outcry against the altar, saying, O altar, altar, the Lord has said, From the seed of David will come a child, named Josiah, and on you he will put to death the priests of the high places, who are burning offerings on you, and men's bones will be burned on you. +1Ki 13:3 The same day he gave them a sign, saying, This is the sign which the Lord has given: See, the altar will be broken and the burned waste on it overturned. +1Ki 13:4 Then the king, hearing the man of God crying out against the altar at Beth-el, put out his hand from the altar, saying, Take him prisoner. And his hand, stretched out against him, became dead, and he had no power of pulling it back. +1Ki 13:5 And the altar was broken and the burned waste on it overturned; this was the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. +1Ki 13:6 Then the king made answer and said to the man of God, Make a prayer now for the grace of the Lord your God, and for me, that my hand may be made well. And in answer to the prayer of the man of God, the king's hand was made well again, as it was before. +1Ki 13:7 And the king said to the man of God, Come with me to my house for food and rest, and I will give you a reward. +1Ki 13:8 But the man of God said to the king, Even if you gave me half of all you have, I would not go in with you, and I would not take food or a drink of water in this place; +1Ki 13:9 For so I was ordered by the word of the Lord, who said, You are not to take food or a drink of water, and you are not to go back the way you came. +1Ki 13:10 So he went another way, and not by the way he came to Beth-el. +1Ki 13:11 Now there was an old prophet living in Beth-el; and one of his sons came and gave him word of all the man of God had done that day in Beth-el, and they gave their father an account of the words he had said to the king. +1Ki 13:12 Then their father said to them, Which way did he go? Now his sons had seen which way the man of God who came from Judah had gone. +1Ki 13:13 So the prophet said to his sons, Make ready an ass for me. So they made an ass ready, and he got on it, +1Ki 13:14 And went after the man of God, and came up with him while he was seated under an oak-tree. And he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am. +1Ki 13:15 Then he said to him, Come back to the house with me and have a meal. +1Ki 13:16 But he said, I may not go back with you or go into your house; and I will not take food or a drink of water with you in this place; +1Ki 13:17 For the Lord said to me, You are not to take food or water there, or go back again by the way you came. +1Ki 13:18 Then he said to him, I am a prophet like you; and an angel said to me by the word of the Lord, Take him back with you and give him food and water. But he said false words to him. +1Ki 13:19 So he went back with him, and had a meal in his house and a drink of water. +1Ki 13:20 But while they were seated at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had taken him back; +1Ki 13:21 And crying out to the man of God who came from Judah, he said, The Lord says, Because you have gone against the voice of the Lord, and have not done as you were ordered by the Lord, +1Ki 13:22 But have come back, and have taken food and water in this place where he said you were to take no food or water; your dead body will not be put to rest with your fathers. +1Ki 13:23 Now after the meal he made ready the ass for him, for the prophet whom he had taken back. +1Ki 13:24 And he went on his way; but on the road a lion came rushing at him and put him to death; and his dead body was stretched in the road with the ass by its side, and the lion was there by the body. +1Ki 13:25 And some men, going by, saw the body stretched out in the road with the lion by its side; and they came and gave news of it in the town where the old prophet was living. +1Ki 13:26 Then the prophet who had made him come back, hearing it, said, It is the man of God, who went against the word of the Lord; that is why the Lord has given him to the lion to be wounded to death, as the Lord said. +1Ki 13:27 And he said to his sons, Make ready the ass for me. And they did so. +1Ki 13:28 And he went and saw the dead body stretched out in the road with the ass and the lion by its side: the lion had not taken the body for its food or done any damage to the ass. +1Ki 13:29 Then the prophet took up the body of the man of God and put it on the ass and took it back; and he came to the town to put the body to rest with weeping. +1Ki 13:30 And he put the body in the resting-place made ready for himself, weeping and sorrowing over it, saying, O my brother! +1Ki 13:31 And when he had put it to rest, he said to his sons, When I am dead, then you are to put my body into the earth with the body of this man of God, and put me by his bones so that my bones may be kept safe with his bones. +1Ki 13:32 For the outcry he made by the word of the Lord against the altar in Beth-el and against all the houses of the high places in the towns of Samaria, will certainly come about. +1Ki 13:33 After this Jeroboam, not turning back from his evil ways, still made priests for his altars from among all the people; he made a priest of anyone desiring it, so that there might be priests of the high places. +1Ki 13:34 And this became a sin in the family of Jeroboam, causing it to be cut off and sent to destruction from the face of the earth. +1Ki 14:1 At that time Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, became ill. +1Ki 14:2 And Jeroboam said to his wife, Now come, put on different clothing so that you may not seem to be the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh; see, Ahijah is there, the prophet who said I would be king over this people. +1Ki 14:3 And take with you ten cakes of bread and dry cakes and a pot of honey, and go to him: he will give you word of what is to become of the child. +1Ki 14:4 So Jeroboam's wife did so, and got up and went to Shiloh and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah was unable to see, because he was very old. +1Ki 14:5 And the Lord had said to Ahijah, The wife of Jeroboam is coming to get news from you about her son, who is ill; give her such and such an answer; for she will make herself seem to be another woman. +1Ki 14:6 Then Ahijah, hearing the sound of her footsteps coming in at the door, said, Come in, O wife of Jeroboam; why do you make yourself seem like another? for I am sent to you with bitter news. +1Ki 14:7 Go, say to Jeroboam, These are the words of the Lord, the God of Israel: Though I took you from among the people, lifting you up to be a ruler over my people Israel, +1Ki 14:8 And took the kingdom away by force from the seed of David and gave it to you, you have not been like my servant David, who kept my orders, and was true to me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes. +1Ki 14:9 But you have done evil more than any before you, and have made for yourself other gods, and images of metal, moving me to wrath, and turning your back on me. +1Ki 14:10 So I will send evil on the line of Jeroboam, cutting off from his family every male child, those who are shut up and those who go free in Israel; the family of Jeroboam will be brushed away like a man brushing away waste till it is all gone. +1Ki 14:11 Those of the family of Jeroboam who come to death in the town, will become food for the dogs; and those on whom death comes in the open country, will be food for the birds of the air; for the Lord has said it. +1Ki 14:12 Up, then! go back to your house; and in the hour when your feet go into the town, the death of the child will take place. +1Ki 14:13 And all Israel will put his body to rest, weeping over him, because he only of the family of Jeroboam will be put into his resting-place in the earth; for of all the family of Jeroboam, in him only has the Lord, the God of Israel, seen some good. +1Ki 14:14 And the Lord will put up a king over Israel who will send destruction on the family of Jeroboam in that day; +1Ki 14:15 And even now the hand of the Lord has come down on Israel, shaking it like a river-grass in the water; and, uprooting Israel from this good land, which he gave to their fathers, he will send them this way and that on the other side of the River; because they have made for themselves images, moving the Lord to wrath. +1Ki 14:16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins which Jeroboam has done and made Israel do. +1Ki 14:17 Then Jeroboam's wife got up and went away and came to Tirzah; and when she came to the doorway of the house, death came to the child. +1Ki 14:18 And all Israel put his body to rest, weeping over him, as the Lord had said by his servant Ahijah the prophet. +1Ki 14:19 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he became king, are recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. +1Ki 14:20 And Jeroboam was king for twenty-two years, and was put to rest with his fathers, and Nadab his son became king in his place. +1Ki 14:21 And Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was king in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he was king for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the town which the Lord had made his out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there; his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman. +1Ki 14:22 And Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and made him more angry than their fathers had done by their sins. +1Ki 14:23 For they made high places and upright stones and wood pillars on every high hill and under every green tree; +1Ki 14:24 And more than this, there were those in the land who were used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods, doing the same disgusting crimes as the nations which the Lord had sent out before the children of Israel. +1Ki 14:25 Now in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem; +1Ki 14:26 And took away all the stored wealth from the house of the Lord, and from the king's house, and all the gold body-covers which Solomon had made. +1Ki 14:27 So in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers made of brass, and gave them into the care of the captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's house. +1Ki 14:28 And whenever the king went into the house of the Lord, the armed men went with him taking the body-covers, and then took them back to their room. +1Ki 14:29 Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +1Ki 14:30 And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. +1Ki 14:31 And Rehoboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth with his fathers in the town of David; his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman. And Abijam his son became king in his place. +1Ki 15:1 Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah. +1Ki 15:2 For three years he was king in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom. +1Ki 15:3 And he did the same sins which his father had done before him: his heart was not completely true to the Lord his God, like the heart of David his father. +1Ki 15:4 But because of David, the Lord gave him a light in Jerusalem, making his sons king after him, so that Jerusalem might be safe; +1Ki 15:5 Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and never in all his life went against his orders, but only in the question of Uriah the Hittite. +1Ki 15:6 ... +1Ki 15:7 Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. +1Ki 15:8 Then Abijam went to rest with his fathers, and they put him into the earth in the town of David: and Asa his son became king in his place. +1Ki 15:9 In the twentieth year that Jeroboam was king of Israel, Asa became king over Judah. +1Ki 15:10 And he was king for forty-one years in Jerusalem; his mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom. +1Ki 15:11 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father did. +1Ki 15:12 Those used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods he sent out of the country, and he took away all the images which his fathers had made. +1Ki 15:13 And he would not let Maacah his mother be queen, because she had made a disgusting image for Asherah; and Asa had the image cut down and burned by the stream Kidron. +1Ki 15:14 The high places, however, were not taken away: but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life. +1Ki 15:15 He took into the house of the Lord all the things which his father had made holy, and those which he himself had made holy, silver and gold and vessels. +1Ki 15:16 Now there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days. +1Ki 15:17 And Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah, building Ramah, so that no one was able to go out or in to Asa, king of Judah. +1Ki 15:18 Then Asa took all the silver and gold which was still stored in the Lord's house, and in the king's house, and sent them, in the care of his servants, to Ben-hadad, son of Tabrimmon, son of Rezon, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying, +1Ki 15:19 Let there be an agreement between me and you as there was between my father and your father: see, I have sent you an offering of silver and gold; go and put an end to your agreement with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up attacking me. +1Ki 15:20 So Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and Dan and Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth as far as all the land of Naphtali. +1Ki 15:21 And Baasha, hearing of it, put a stop to the building of Ramah, and was living in Tirzah. +1Ki 15:22 Then King Asa got all Judah together, making every man come; and they took away the stones and the wood with which Baasha was building Ramah, and King Asa made use of them for building Geba in the land of Benjamin, and Mizpah. +1Ki 15:23 Now the rest of the acts of Asa, and his power, and all he did, and the towns of which he was the builder, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? But when he was old he had a disease of the feet. +1Ki 15:24 So Asa went to rest with his fathers and was put into the earth in the town of David his father: and Jehoshaphat his son became king in his place. +1Ki 15:25 Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, became king over Israel in the second year that Asa was king of Judah; and he was king of Israel for two years. +1Ki 15:26 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the evil ways of his father, and the sin which he did and made Israel do. +1Ki 15:27 And Baasha, the son of Ahijah, of the family of Issachar, made a secret design against him, attacking him at Gibbethon, a town of the Philistines; for Nadab and the armies of Israel were making war on Gibbethon. +1Ki 15:28 In the third year of the rule of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha put him to death, and became king in his place. +1Ki 15:29 And straight away when he became king, he sent destruction on all the offspring of Jeroboam; there was not one living person of all the family of Jeroboam whom he did not put to death, so the word of the Lord, which he said by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite, came about; +1Ki 15:30 Because of the sins which Jeroboam did and made Israel do, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath. +1Ki 15:31 Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +1Ki 15:32 And there was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel, all their days. +1Ki 15:33 In the third year of the rule of Asa, king of Judah, Baasha, the son of Ahijah, became king over all Israel in Tirzah, and was king for twenty-four years. +1Ki 15:34 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the evil ways of Jeroboam and the sin which he made Israel do. +1Ki 16:1 And the word of the Lord came to Jehu, son of Hanani, protesting against Baasha and saying, +1Ki 16:2 Because I took you up out of the dust, and made you ruler over my people Israel; and you have gone in the ways of Jeroboam, and made my people Israel do evil, moving me to wrath by their sins; +1Ki 16:3 Truly, I will see that Baasha and all his family are completely brushed away; I will make your family like the family of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. +1Ki 16:4 Anyone of the family of Baasha who comes to death in the town, will become food for the dogs; and he to whom death comes in the open country, will be food for the birds of the air. +1Ki 16:5 Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his power, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +1Ki 16:6 And Baasha went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth at Tirzah; and Elah his son became king in his place. +1Ki 16:7 And the Lord sent his word against Baasha and his family by the mouth of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, because of all the evil he did in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath by the work of his hands, because he was like the family of Jeroboam, and because he put it to death. +1Ki 16:8 In the twenty-sixth year that Asa was king of Judah, Elah, the son of Baasha, became king of Israel in Tirzah, and he was king for two years. +1Ki 16:9 And his servant Zimri, captain of half his war-carriages, made secret designs against him: now he was in Tirzah, drinking hard in the house of Arza, controller of the king's house in Tirzah. +1Ki 16:10 And Zimri went in and made an attack on him and put him to death, in the twenty-seventh year that Asa was king of Judah, and made himself king in his place. +1Ki 16:11 And straight away when he became king and took his place on the seat of the kingdom, he put to death all the family of Baasha: not one male child of his relations or his friends kept his life. +1Ki 16:12 So Zimri put to death all the family of Baasha, so that the word which the Lord said against him by the mouth of Jehu the prophet came about; +1Ki 16:13 Because of all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, which they did and made Israel do, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath by their foolish acts. +1Ki 16:14 Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +1Ki 16:15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa, king of Judah, Zimri was king for seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were attacking Gibbethon in the land of the Philistines. +1Ki 16:16 And news came to the people in the tents that Zimri had made a secret design and had put the king to death: so all Israel made Omri, the captain of the army, king that day in the tents. +1Ki 16:17 Then Omri went up from Gibbethon, with all the army of Israel, and they made an attack on Tirzah, shutting in the town on every side. +1Ki 16:18 And when Zimri saw that the town was taken, he went into the inner room of the king's house, and burning the house over his head, came to his end, +1Ki 16:19 Because of his sin in doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, in going in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel do. +1Ki 16:20 Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the secret design he made, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +1Ki 16:21 Then there was a division among the people of Israel; half the people were for making Tibni, son of Ginath, king, and half were supporting Omri. +1Ki 16:22 But the supporters of Omri overcame those who were on the side of Tibni, the son of Ginath; and death came to Tibni and to his brother Joram at that time: and Omri became king in the place of Tibni. +1Ki 16:23 In the thirty-first year of Asa, king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel, and he was king for twelve years; for six years he was ruling in Tirzah. +1Ki 16:24 He got the hill Samaria from Shemer for the price of two talents of silver, and he made a town there, building it on the hill and naming it Samaria, after Shemer the owner of the hill. +1Ki 16:25 And Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord, even worse than all those before him, +1Ki 16:26 Copying all the evil ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and all the sins he did and made Israel do, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath by their foolish ways. +1Ki 16:27 Now the rest of the acts which Omri did, and his great power, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +1Ki 16:28 So Omri went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in Samaria; and Ahab his son became king in his place. +1Ki 16:29 In the thirty-eighth year that Asa was king of Judah, Ahab, the son of Omri, became king over Israel; and Ahab was king in Samaria for twenty-two years. +1Ki 16:30 And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the eyes of the Lord, even worse than all who went before him. +1Ki 16:31 And as if copying the evil ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, was a small thing for him, he took as his wife Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon, and became a servant and worshipper of Baal. +1Ki 16:32 And he put up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he had made in Samaria. +1Ki 16:33 And Ahab made an image of Asherah and did more than all the kings of Israel before him to make the Lord, the God of Israel, angry. +1Ki 16:34 In his days Hiel made Jericho; he put its base in position at the price of Abiram, his oldest son, and he put its doors in place at the price of his youngest son Segub; even as the Lord had said by Joshua, the son of Nun. +1Ki 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, By the living Lord, the God of Israel, whose servant I am, there will be no dew or rain in these years, but only at my word. +1Ki 17:2 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, +1Ki 17:3 Go from here in the direction of the east, and keep yourself in a secret place by the stream Cherith, east of Jordan. +1Ki 17:4 The water of the stream will be your drink, and by my orders the ravens will give you food there. +1Ki 17:5 So he went and did as the Lord said, living by the stream Cherith, east of Jordan. +1Ki 17:6 And the ravens took him bread in the morning and meat in the evening; and the water of the stream was his drink. +1Ki 17:7 Now after a time the stream became dry, because there was no rain in the land. +1Ki 17:8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, +1Ki 17:9 Up! go now to Zarephath, in Zidon, and make your living-place there; I have given orders to a widow woman there to see that you have food. +1Ki 17:10 So he got up and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the door of the town, he saw a widow woman getting sticks together; and crying out to her he said, Will you give me a little water in a vessel for my drink? +1Ki 17:11 And when she was going to get it, he said to her, And get me with it a small bit of bread. +1Ki 17:12 Then she said, By the life of the Lord your God, I have nothing but a little meal in my store, and a drop of oil in the bottle; and now I am getting two sticks together so that I may go in and make it ready for me and my son, so that we may have a meal before our death. +1Ki 17:13 And Elijah said to her, Have no fear; go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and come and give it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. +1Ki 17:14 For this is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: The store of meal will not come to an end, and the bottle will never be without oil, till the day when the Lord sends rain on the earth. +1Ki 17:15 So she went and did as Elijah said; and she and he and her family had food for a long time. +1Ki 17:16 The store of meal did not come to an end, and the bottle was never without oil, as the Lord had said by the mouth of Elijah. +1Ki 17:17 Now after this, the son of the woman of the house became ill, so ill that there was no breath in him. +1Ki 17:18 And she said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, O man of God? have you come to put God in mind of my sin, and to put my son to death? +1Ki 17:19 And he said to her, Give your son to me. And lifting him out of her arms, he took him up to his room and put him down on his bed. +1Ki 17:20 And crying to the Lord he said, O Lord my God, have you sent evil even on the widow whose guest I am, by causing her son's death? +1Ki 17:21 And stretching herself out on the child three times, he made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord my God, be pleased to let this child's life come back to him again. +1Ki 17:22 And the Lord gave ear to the voice of Elijah, and the child's spirit came into him again, and he came back to life. +1Ki 17:23 And Elijah took the child down from his room into the house and gave him to his mother and said to her, See, your son is living. +1Ki 17:24 Then the woman said to Elijah, Now I am certain that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true. +1Ki 18:1 Now after a long time, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, Go and let Ahab see you, so that I may send rain on the earth. +1Ki 18:2 So Elijah went to let Ahab see him. Now there was no food to be had in Samaria. +1Ki 18:3 And Ahab sent for Obadiah, the controller of the king's house. (Now Obadiah had the fear of the Lord before him greatly; +1Ki 18:4 For when Jezebel was cutting off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred of them, and kept them secretly in a hole in the rock, fifty at a time, and gave them bread and water.) +1Ki 18:5 And Ahab said to Obadiah, Come, let us go through all the country, to all the fountains of water and all the rivers, and see if there is any grass to be had for the horses and the transport beasts, so that we may be able to keep some of the beasts from destruction. +1Ki 18:6 So they went through all the country, covering it between them; Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another by himself. +1Ki 18:7 And while Obadiah was on his way, he came face to face with Elijah; and seeing who it was, he went down on his face and said, Is it you, my lord Elijah? +1Ki 18:8 And Elijah in answer said, It is I; now go and say to your lord, Elijah is here. +1Ki 18:9 And he said, What sin have I done, that you would give up your servant into the hand of Ahab, and be the cause of my death? +1Ki 18:10 By the life of the Lord your God, there is not a nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent in search of you; and when they said, He is not here; he made them take an oath that they had not seen you. +1Ki 18:11 And now you say, Go, say to your lord, Elijah is here. +1Ki 18:12 And straight away, when I have gone from you, the spirit of the Lord will take you away, I have no idea where, so that when I come and give word to Ahab, and he sees you not, he will put me to death: though I, your servant, have been a worshipper of the Lord from my earliest years. +1Ki 18:13 Has my lord not had word of what I did when Jezebel was putting the Lord's prophets to death? how I kept a hundred of them in a secret hole in the rock, fifty at a time, and gave them bread and water? +1Ki 18:14 And now you say, Go and say to your Lord, Elijah is here; and he will put me to death. +1Ki 18:15 And Elijah said, By the life of the Lord of armies, whose servant I am, I will certainly let him see me today. +1Ki 18:16 So Obadiah went to Ahab and gave him the news; and Ahab went to see Elijah. +1Ki 18:17 And when he saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, Is it you, you troubler of Israel? +1Ki 18:18 Then he said in answer, I have not been troubling Israel, but you and your family; because, turning away from the orders of the Lord, you have gone after the Baals. +1Ki 18:19 Now send, and get Israel together before me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal who get their food at Jezebel's table. +1Ki 18:20 So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and got the prophets together at Mount Carmel. +1Ki 18:21 And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you go on balancing between two opinions? if the Lord is God, then give worship to him; but if Baal, give worship to him. And the people said not a word in answer. +1Ki 18:22 Then Elijah said to the people, I, even I, am the only living prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. +1Ki 18:23 Now, let them give us two oxen; and let them take one for themselves, and have it cut up, and put it on the wood, but put no fire under it; I will get the other ox ready, and put it on the wood, and put no fire under it. +1Ki 18:24 And do you make prayers to your god, and I will make a prayer to the Lord: and it will be clear that the one who gives an answer by fire is God. And all the people in answer said, It is well said. +1Ki 18:25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Take one ox for yourselves and get it ready first, for there are more of you; and make your prayers to your god, but put no fire under. +1Ki 18:26 So they took the ox which was given them, and made it ready, crying out to Baal from morning till the middle of the day, and saying, O Baal, give ear to us. But there was no voice and no answer. And they were jumping up and down before the altar they had made. +1Ki 18:27 And in the middle of the day, Elijah made sport of them, saying, Give louder cries, for he is a god; he may be deep in thought, or he may have gone away for some purpose, or he may be on a journey, or by chance he is sleeping and has to be made awake. +1Ki 18:28 So they gave loud cries, cutting themselves with knives and swords, as was their way, till the blood came streaming out all over them. +1Ki 18:29 And from the middle of the day they went on with their prayers till the time of the offering; but there was no voice, or any answer, or any who gave attention to them. +1Ki 18:30 Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me; and all the people came near. And he put up again the altar of the Lord which had been broken down. +1Ki 18:31 And Elijah took twelve stones, the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the Lord had said, Israel will be your name: +1Ki 18:32 And with the stones he made an altar to the name of the Lord; and he made a deep drain all round the altar, great enough to take two measures of seed. +1Ki 18:33 And he put the wood in order, and, cutting up the ox, put it on the wood. Then he said, Get four vessels full of water and put it on the burned offering and on the wood. And he said, Do it a second time, and they did it a second time; +1Ki 18:34 And he said, Do it a third time, and they did it a third time. +1Ki 18:35 And the water went all round the altar, till the drain was full. +1Ki 18:36 Then at the time of the offering, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be seen this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things by your order. +1Ki 18:37 Give me an answer, O Lord, give me an answer, so that this people may see that you are God, and that you have made their hearts come back again. +1Ki 18:38 Then the fire of the Lord came down, burning up the offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and drinking up the water in the drain. +1Ki 18:39 And when the people saw it, they all went down on their faces, and said, The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God. +1Ki 18:40 And Elijah said to them, Take the prophets of Baal, let not one of them get away. So they took them, and Elijah made them go down to the stream Kishon, and put them to death there. +1Ki 18:41 Then Elijah said to Ahab, Up! take food and drink, for there is a sound of much rain. +1Ki 18:42 So Ahab went up to have food and drink, while Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he went down on the earth, putting his face between his knees. +1Ki 18:43 And he said to his servant, Go now, and take a look in the direction of the sea. And he went up, and after looking said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times; and he went seven times. +1Ki 18:44 And the seventh time he said, I see a cloud coming up out of the sea, as small as a man's hand. Then he said, Go up and say to Ahab, Get your carriage ready and go down or the rain will keep you back. +1Ki 18:45 And after a very little time, the heaven became black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab went in his carriage to Jezreel. +1Ki 18:46 And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he made himself strong, and went running before Ahab till they came to Jezreel. +1Ki 19:1 Ahab gave Jezebel news of all Elijah had done, and how he had put all the prophets to death with the sword. +1Ki 19:2 Then Jezebel sent a servant to Elijah, saying, May the gods' punishment be on me if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. +1Ki 19:3 And he got up, fearing for his life, and went in flight, and came to Beer-sheba in Judah, parting there from his servant; +1Ki 19:4 While he himself went a day's journey into the waste land, and took a seat under a broom-plant, desiring for himself only death; for he said, It is enough: now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers. +1Ki 19:5 And stretching himself on the earth, he went to sleep under the broom-plant; but an angel, touching him, said to him, Get up and have some food. +1Ki 19:6 And looking up, he saw by his head a cake cooked on the stones and a bottle of water. So he took food and drink and went to sleep again. +1Ki 19:7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time, and touching him said, Get up and have some food, or the journey will be overmuch for your strength. +1Ki 19:8 So he got up and took food and drink, and in the strength of that food he went on for forty days and nights, to Horeb, the mountain of God. +1Ki 19:9 And there he went into a hole in the rock for the night; then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, What are you doing here, Elijah? +1Ki 19:10 And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the Lord, the God of armies; for the children of Israel have not kept your agreement; they have made destruction of your altars, and have put your prophets to death with the sword: till I, even I, am the only one living; and now they are attempting to take away my life. +1Ki 19:11 Then he said, Go out and take your place on the mountain before the Lord. Then the Lord went by, and mountains were parted by the force of a great wind, and rocks were broken before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earth-shock, but the Lord was not in the earth-shock. +1Ki 19:12 And after the earth-shock a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a soft breath. +1Ki 19:13 And Elijah, hearing it, went out, covering his face with his robe, and took his place in the opening of the hole. And there a voice came to him saying, What are you doing here, Elijah? +1Ki 19:14 And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the Lord, the God of armies; for the children of Israel have not kept your agreement; they have had your altars broken down, and have put your prophets to death with the sword: till I, even I, am the only one living; and now they are attempting to take away my life. +1Ki 19:15 And the Lord said to him, Go back on your way through the waste land to Damascus; and when you come there, put the holy oil on Hazael to make him king over Aram; +1Ki 19:16 And on Jehu, son of Nimshi, making him king over Israel; and on Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, to be prophet in your place. +1Ki 19:17 And it will come about that the man who gets away safe from the sword of Hazael, Jehu will put to death; and whoever gets away safe from the sword of Jehu, Elisha will put to death. +1Ki 19:18 But I will keep safe seven thousand in Israel, all those whose knees have not been bent to Baal, and whose mouths have given him no kisses. +1Ki 19:19 So he went away from there and came across Elisha, the son of Shaphat, ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, he himself walking with the twelfth; and Elijah went up to him and put his robe on him. +1Ki 19:20 And letting the oxen be where they were, he came running after Elijah, and said, Only let me give a kiss to my father and mother, and then I will come after you. But he said to him, Go back again; for what have I done to you? +1Ki 19:21 And he went back, and took the oxen and put them to death, and cooking their flesh with the yokes of the oxen, he gave the people a feast. Then he got up and went after Elijah and became his servant. +1Ki 20:1 Now Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got all his army together, and thirty-two kings with him, and horses and carriages of war; he went up and made war on Samaria, shutting it in. +1Ki 20:2 And he sent representatives into the town to Ahab, king of Israel; +1Ki 20:3 And they said to him, Ben-hadad says, Your silver and your gold are mine; and your wives and children are mine. +1Ki 20:4 And the king of Israel sent him an answer saying, As you say, my lord king, I am yours with all I have. +1Ki 20:5 Then the representatives came back again, and said, These are the words of Ben-hadad: I sent to you saying, Give up to me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children; +1Ki 20:6 But I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, to make a search through your house and the houses of your people, and everything which is pleasing in your eyes they will take away in their hands. +1Ki 20:7 Then the king of Israel sent for all the responsible men of the land, and said, Now will you take note and see the evil purpose of this man: he sent for my wives and my children, my silver and my gold, and I did not keep them back. +1Ki 20:8 And all the responsible men and the people said to him, Do not give attention to him or do what he says. +1Ki 20:9 So he said to the representatives of Ben-hadad, Say to my lord the king, All the orders you sent the first time I will do; but this thing I may not do. And the representatives went back with this answer. +1Ki 20:10 Then Ben-hadad sent to him, saying, May the gods' punishment be on me if there is enough of the dust of Samaria for all the people at my feet to take some in their hands. +1Ki 20:11 And the king of Israel said in answer, Say to him, The time for loud talk is not when a man is putting on his arms, but when he is taking them off. +1Ki 20:12 Now when this answer was given to Ben-hadad, he was drinking with the kings in the tents, and he said to his men, Take up your positions. So they put themselves in position for attacking the town. +1Ki 20:13 Then a prophet came up to Ahab, king of Israel, and said, The Lord says, Have you seen all this great army? See, I will give it into your hands today, and you will see that I am the Lord. +1Ki 20:14 And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, The Lord says, By the servants of the chiefs who are over the divisions of the land. Then he said, By whom is the fighting to be started? And he made answer, By you. +1Ki 20:15 Then he got together the servants of all the chiefs who were over the divisions of the land, two hundred and thirty-two of them; and after them, he got together all the people, all the children of Israel, seven thousand. +1Ki 20:16 And in the middle of the day they went out. But Ben-hadad was drinking in the tents with the thirty-two kings who were helping him. +1Ki 20:17 And the servants of the chiefs who were over the divisions of the land went forward first; and when Ben-hadad sent out, they gave him the news, saying, Men have come out from Samaria. +1Ki 20:18 And he said, If they have come out for peace, take them living, and if they have come out for war, take them living. +1Ki 20:19 So the servants of the chiefs of the divisions of the land went out of the town, with the army coming after them. +1Ki 20:20 And every one of them put his man to death, and the Aramaeans went in flight with Israel after them; and Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got away safely on a horse with his horsemen. +1Ki 20:21 And the king of Israel went out and took the horses and the war-carriages, and made great destruction among the Aramaeans. +1Ki 20:22 Then the prophet came up to the king of Israel, and said to him, Now make yourself strong, and take care what you do, or a year from now the king of Aram will come up against you again. +1Ki 20:23 Then the king of Aram's servants said to him, Their god is a god of the hills; that is why they were stronger than we: but if we make an attack on them in the lowlands, we will certainly be stronger than they. +1Ki 20:24 This is what you have to do: take away the kings from their positions, and put captains in their places; +1Ki 20:25 And get together another army like the one which came to destruction, horse for horse, and carriage for carriage; and let us make war on them in the lowlands, and certainly we will be stronger than they. And he gave ear to what they said, and did so. +1Ki 20:26 So, a year later, Ben-hadad got the Aramaeans together and went up to Aphek to make war on Israel. +1Ki 20:27 And the children of Israel got themselves together, and food was made ready and they went against them; the tents of the children of Israel were like two little flocks of goats before them, but all the country was full of the Aramaeans. +1Ki 20:28 And a man of God came up and said to the king of Israel, The Lord says, Because the Aramaeans have said, The Lord is a god of the hills and not of the valleys; I will give all this great army into your hands, and you will see that I am the Lord. +1Ki 20:29 Now the two armies kept their positions facing one another for seven days. And on the seventh day the fight was started; and the children of Israel put to the sword a hundred thousand Aramaean footmen in one day. +1Ki 20:30 But the rest went in flight to Aphek, into the town, where a wall came down on the twenty-seven thousand who were still living. And Ben-hadad went in flight into the town, into an inner room. +1Ki 20:31 Then his servants said to him, It is said that the kings of Israel are full of mercy: let us then put on haircloth, and cords on our heads, and go to the king of Israel; it may be that he will give you your life. +1Ki 20:32 So they put on haircloth, and cords on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, Your servant Ben-hadad says, Let me now keep my life. And he said, Is he still living? he is my brother. +1Ki 20:33 Now the men took it as a sign, and quickly took up his words; and they said, Ben-hadad is your brother. Then he said, Go and get him. So Ben-hadad came out to him and he made him get up into his carriage. +1Ki 20:34 And Ben-hadad said to him, The towns my father took from your father I will give back; and you may make streets for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria. And as for me, at the price of this agreement you will let me go. So he made an agreement with him and let him go. +1Ki 20:35 And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbour by the word of the Lord, Give me a wound. But the man would not. +1Ki 20:36 Then he said to him, Because you have not given ear to the voice of the Lord, straight away when you have gone from me a lion will put you to death. And when he had gone, straight away a lion came rushing at him and put him to death. +1Ki 20:37 Then he came across another man, and said, Give me a wound. And the man gave him a blow wounding him. +1Ki 20:38 So the prophet went away, and pulling his head-band over his eyes to keep his face covered, took his place by the road waiting for the king. +1Ki 20:39 And when the king went by, crying out to him he said, Your servant went out into the fight; and a man came out to me with another man and said, Keep this man: if by any chance he gets away, your life will be the price of his life, or you will have to give a talent of silver in payment. +1Ki 20:40 But while your servant was turning this way and that, he was gone. Then the king of Israel said to him, You are responsible; you have given the decision against yourself. +1Ki 20:41 Then he quickly took the head-band from his eyes; and the king of Israel saw that he was one of the prophets. +1Ki 20:42 And he said to him, These are the words of the Lord: Because you have let go from your hands the man whom I had put to the curse, your life will be taken for his life, and your people for his people. +1Ki 20:43 Then the king of Israel went back to his house, bitter and angry, and came to Samaria. +1Ki 21:1 Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vine-garden in Jezreel, near the house of Ahab, king of Samaria. +1Ki 21:2 And Ahab said to Naboth, Give me your vine-garden so that I may have it for a garden of sweet plants, for it is near my house; and let me give you a better vine-garden in exchange, or, if it seems good to you, let me give you its value in money. +1Ki 21:3 But Naboth said to Ahab, By the Lord, far be it from me to give you the heritage of my fathers. +1Ki 21:4 So Ahab came into his house bitter and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, I will not give you the heritage of my fathers. And stretching himself on the bed with his face turned away, he would take no food. +1Ki 21:5 But Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said, Why is your spirit so bitter that you have no desire for food? +1Ki 21:6 And he said to her, Because I was talking to Naboth the Jezreelite, and I said to him, Let me have your vine-garden for a price, or, if it is pleasing to you, I will give you another vine-garden for it: and he said, I will not give you my vine-garden. +1Ki 21:7 Then Jezebel, his wife, said, Are you now the ruler of Israel? Get up, take food, and let your heart be glad; I will give you the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite. +1Ki 21:8 So she sent a letter in Ahab's name, stamped with his stamp, to the responsible men and the chiefs who were in authority with Naboth. +1Ki 21:9 And in the letter she said, Let a time of public sorrow be fixed, and put Naboth at the head of the people; +1Ki 21:10 And get two good-for-nothing persons to come before him and give witness that he has been cursing God and the king. Then take him out and have him stoned to death. +1Ki 21:11 So the responsible men and the chiefs who were in authority in his town, did as Jezebel had said in the letter she sent them. +1Ki 21:12 They gave orders for a day of public sorrow, and put Naboth at the head of the people. +1Ki 21:13 And the two good-for-nothing persons came in and took their seats before him and gave witness against Naboth, in front of the people, saying, Naboth has been cursing God and the king. Then they took him outside the town and had him stoned to death. +1Ki 21:14 And they sent word to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been stoned and is dead. +1Ki 21:15 Then Jezebel, hearing that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, said to Ahab, Get up and take as your heritage the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he would not give you for money, for Naboth is no longer living but is dead. +1Ki 21:16 So Ahab, hearing that Naboth was dead, went down to the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite to take it as his heritage. +1Ki 21:17 And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, +1Ki 21:18 Go down to Ahab, king of Israel, in Samaria; see, he is in the vine-garden of Naboth the Jezreelite, where he has gone to take it as his heritage. +1Ki 21:19 Say to him, The Lord says, Have you put a man to death and taken his heritage? Then say to him, The Lord says, In the place where dogs have been drinking the blood of Naboth, there will your blood become the drink of dogs. +1Ki 21:20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you come face to face with me, O my hater? And he said, I have come to you because you have given yourself up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. +1Ki 21:21 See, I will send evil on you and put an end to you completely, cutting off from Ahab every male child, him who is shut up and him who goes free in Israel; +1Ki 21:22 And I will make your family like the family of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and like the family of Baasha, the son of Ahijah, because you have made me angry, and have made Israel do evil. +1Ki 21:23 And of Jezebel the Lord said, Jezebel will become food for dogs in the heritage of Jezreel. +1Ki 21:24 Any man of the family of Ahab who comes to his death in the town will become food for the dogs; and he who comes to his death in the open country will be food for the birds of the air. +1Ki 21:25 (There was no one like Ahab, who gave himself up to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, moved to it by Jezebel his wife. +1Ki 21:26 He did a very disgusting thing in going after false gods, doing all the things the Amorites did, whom the Lord sent out before the children of Israel.) +1Ki 21:27 Hearing these words, Ahab, in great grief, put haircloth on his flesh and went without food, sleeping in haircloth, and going about quietly. +1Ki 21:28 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, +1Ki 21:29 Do you see how Ahab has made himself low before me? because he has made himself low before me, I will not send the evil in his life-time, but in his son's time I will send the evil on his family. +1Ki 22:1 Now for three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. +1Ki 22:2 And it came about in the third year, that Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, came down to the king of Israel. +1Ki 22:3 And the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you not see that Ramoth-gilead is ours? and we are doing nothing to get it back from the hands of the king of Aram. +1Ki 22:4 And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead to make war? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are: my people as your people, my horses as your horses. +1Ki 22:5 Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now get directions from the Lord. +1Ki 22:6 So the king of Israel got all the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king. +1Ki 22:7 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the Lord here from whom we may get directions? +1Ki 22:8 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, Micaiah, son of Imlah; but I have no love for him, for he is a prophet of evil to me and not of good. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. +1Ki 22:9 Then the king of Israel sent for one of his unsexed servants and said, Go quickly and come back with Micaiah, the son of Imlah. +1Ki 22:10 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, were seated on their seats of authority, dressed in their robes, by the doorway into Samaria; and all the prophets were acting as prophets before them. +1Ki 22:11 And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made himself horns of iron and said, The Lord says, Pushing back the Aramaeans with these, you will put an end to them completely. +1Ki 22:12 And all the prophets said the same thing, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and it will go well for you, for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king. +1Ki 22:13 Now the servant who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, See now, all the prophets with one voice are saying good things to the king; so let your words be like theirs and say good things. +1Ki 22:14 And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the Lord says to me I will say. +1Ki 22:15 When he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, are we to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And in answer he said, Go up, and it will go well for you; and the Lord will give it into the hands of the king. +1Ki 22:16 Then the king said to him, Have I not, again and again, put you on your oath to say nothing to me but what is true in the name of the Lord? +1Ki 22:17 Then he said, I saw all Israel wandering on the mountains like sheep without a keeper; and the Lord said, These have no master: let them go back, every man to his house in peace. +1Ki 22:18 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not say that he would not be a prophet of good but of evil? +1Ki 22:19 And he said, Give ear now to the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his seat of power, with all the army of heaven in their places round him at his right hand and at his left. +1Ki 22:20 And the Lord said, How may Ahab be tricked into going up to Ramoth-gilead to his death? And one said one thing and one another. +1Ki 22:21 Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick. +1Ki 22:22 And the Lord said, How? And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so. +1Ki 22:23 And now, see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the Lord has said evil against you. +1Ki 22:24 Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, came near and gave Micaiah a blow on the side of the face, saying, Where is the spirit of the Lord whose word is in you? +1Ki 22:25 And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe. +1Ki 22:26 And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon, the ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king's son; +1Ki 22:27 And say, It is the king's order that this man is to be put in prison and given prison food till I come again in peace. +1Ki 22:28 And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace, the Lord has not sent his word by me. +1Ki 22:29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-gilead. +1Ki 22:30 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will make a change in my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king, and will go into the fight; but do you put on your robes. So the king of Israel made a change in his dress and went into the fight. +1Ki 22:31 Now the king of Aram had given orders to the thirty-two captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel. +1Ki 22:32 So when the captains of the war-carriages saw Jehoshaphat, they said, Truly, this is the king of Israel; and turning against him, they came round him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry. +1Ki 22:33 And when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he was not the king of Israel, they went back from going after him. +1Ki 22:34 And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away out of the army, for I am badly wounded. +1Ki 22:35 But the fight became more violent while the day went on; and the king was supported in his war-carriage facing the Aramaeans, and the floor of the carriage was covered with the blood from his wound, and by evening he was dead. +1Ki 22:36 And about sundown a cry went up from all parts of the army, saying, Let every man go back to his town and his country, for the king is dead. +1Ki 22:37 And they came to Samaria, and put the king's body to rest in Samaria. +1Ki 22:38 And the war-carriage was washed by the pool of Samaria, which was the bathing-place of the loose women, and the dogs were drinking his blood there, as the Lord had said. +1Ki 22:39 Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all he did, and his ivory house, and all the towns of which he was the builder, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +1Ki 22:40 So Ahab was put to rest with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son became king in his place. +1Ki 22:41 And Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, became king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab's rule over Israel. +1Ki 22:42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he was king for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. +1Ki 22:43 He did as Asa his father had done, not turning away from it, but doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord; but the high places were not taken away: the people went on making offerings and burning them in the high places. +1Ki 22:44 And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel. +1Ki 22:45 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his great power, and how he went to war, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +1Ki 22:46 He put an end to the rest of those who were used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods, all those who were still in the land in the time of his father Asa. +1Ki 22:47 At that time there was no king in Edom; +1Ki 22:48 And the representative of King Jehoshaphat made a Tarshish-ship to go to Ophir for gold, but it did not go, because it was broken at Ezion-geber. +1Ki 22:49 Then Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, said to Jehoshaphat, Let my men go with yours in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not let them. +1Ki 22:50 Then Jehoshaphat went to rest with his fathers, and his body was put into the earth in the town of David his father; and Jehoram his son became king in his place. +1Ki 22:51 Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of the rule of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and he was king over Israel for two years. +1Ki 22:52 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, going in the ways of his father and his mother, and in the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel do evil. +1Ki 22:53 He was a servant and worshipper of Baal, moving the Lord, the God of Israel, to wrath, as his father had done. +2Ki 1:1 After the death of Ahab, Moab made itself free from the authority of Israel. +2Ki 1:2 Now Ahaziah had a fall from the window of his room in Samaria, and was ill. And he sent men, and said to them, Put a question to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, about the outcome of my disease, to see if I will get well or not. +2Ki 1:3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite, Go now, and, meeting the men sent by the king of Samaria, say to them, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you are going to get directions from Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? +2Ki 1:4 Give ear then to the words of the Lord: You will never again get down from the bed on to which you have gone up, but death will certainly come to you. Then Elijah went away. +2Ki 1:5 And the men he had sent came back to the king; and he said to them, Why have you come back? +2Ki 1:6 And they said to him, On our way we had a meeting with a man who said, Go back to the king who sent you and say to him, The Lord says, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you send to put a question to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? For this reason, you will not come down from the bed on to which you have gone up, but death will certainly come to you. +2Ki 1:7 And he said to them, What sort of a man was it who came and said these words to you? +2Ki 1:8 And they said in answer, He was a man clothed in a coat of hair, with a leather band about his body. Then he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite. +2Ki 1:9 Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty men; and he went up to him where he was seated on the top of a hill, and said to him, O man of God, the king has said, Come down. +2Ki 1:10 And Elijah in answer said to the captain of fifty, If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven on you and on your fifty men, and put an end to you. Then fire came down from heaven and put an end to him and his fifty men. +2Ki 1:11 Then the king sent another captain of fifty with his fifty men; and he said to Elijah, O man of God, the king says, Come down quickly. +2Ki 1:12 And Elijah in answer said, If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven on you and on your fifty men, and put an end to you. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and put an end to him and his fifty men. +2Ki 1:13 Then he sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men; and the third captain of fifty went up, and falling on his knees before Elijah, requesting mercy of him, said, O man of God, let my life and the life of these your fifty servants be of value to you. +2Ki 1:14 For fire came down from heaven and put an end to the first two captains of fifty and their fifties; but now let my life be of value in your eyes. +2Ki 1:15 Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, Go down with him; have no fear of him. So he got up and went down with him to the king. +2Ki 1:16 And he said to him, This is the word of the Lord: Because you sent men to put a question to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, for this reason you will never again get down from the bed on to which you have gone up, but death will certainly come to you. +2Ki 1:17 So death came to him, as the Lord had said by the mouth of Elijah. And Jehoram became king in his place in the second year of the rule of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah; because he had no son. +2Ki 1:18 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +2Ki 2:1 Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a great wind, Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. +2Ki 2:2 And Elijah said to Elisha, Come no farther for the Lord has sent me to Beth-el. But Elisha said, As the Lord is living and as your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they went down to Beth-el. +2Ki 2:3 And at Beth-el the sons of the prophets came out to Elisha and said, Has it been made clear to you that the Lord is going to take away your master from over you today? And he said, Yes, I have knowledge of it: say no more. +2Ki 2:4 Then Elijah said to him, Come no farther, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho. But he said, As the Lord is living and as your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they went on to Jericho. +2Ki 2:5 And at Jericho the sons of the prophets came up to Elisha and said to him, Has it been made clear to you that the Lord is going to take away your master from over you today? And he said in answer, Yes, I have knowledge of it: say no more. +2Ki 2:6 Then Elijah said to him, Come no farther, for the Lord has sent me to Jordan. But he said, As the Lord is living and as your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they went on together. +2Ki 2:7 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went out and took their places facing them a long way off, while the two of them were by the edge of Jordan. +2Ki 2:8 Then Elijah took off his robe, and, rolling it up, gave the water a blow with it, and the waters were parted, flowing back this way and that, so that they went over on dry land. +2Ki 2:9 And when they had come to the other side, Elijah said to Elisha, Say what you would have me do for you before I am taken from you. And Elisha said, Be pleased to let a special measure of your spirit be on me. +2Ki 2:10 And he said, You have made a hard request: still, if you see me when I am taken from you, you will get your desire; but if not, it will not be so. +2Ki 2:11 And while they went on their way, going on talking together, suddenly there were carriages and horses of fire separating them from one another and Elijah went up to heaven in a great wind. +2Ki 2:12 And when Elisha saw it he gave a cry, My father, my father, the carriages of Israel and its horsemen! And he saw him no longer; and he was full of grief. +2Ki 2:13 Then he took up Elijah's robe, which had been dropped from him, and went back till he came to the edge of Jordan. +2Ki 2:14 And he took Elijah's robe, which had been dropped from him, and giving the water a blow with it, said, Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah? and at his blow the waters were parted this way and that; and Elisha went over. +2Ki 2:15 And when the sons of the prophets who were facing him at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha. And they came out to him, and went down on the earth before him. +2Ki 2:16 And they said, Your servants have with us here fifty strong men; be pleased to let them go in search of Elijah; for it may be that the spirit of the Lord has taken him up and put him down on some mountain or in some valley. But he said, Do not send them. +2Ki 2:17 But when they kept on requesting him, he was shamed and said, Send, then. So they sent fifty men; but after searching for three days, they came back without having seen him. +2Ki 2:18 And they came back to him, while he was still at Jericho; and he said to them, Did I not say to you, Go not? +2Ki 2:19 Now the men of the town said to Elisha, You see that the position of this town is good; but the water is bad, causing the young of the cattle to come to birth dead. +2Ki 2:20 So he said, Get me a new vessel, and put salt in it; and they took it to him. +2Ki 2:21 Then he went out to the spring from which the water came, and put salt in it, and said, The Lord says, Now I have made this water sweet; no longer will it be death-giving or unfertile. +2Ki 2:22 And the water was made sweet again to this day, as Elisha said. +2Ki 2:23 Then from there he went up to Beth-el; and on his way, some little boys came out from the town and made sport of him, crying, Go up, old no-hair! go up, old no-hair! +2Ki 2:24 And turning back, he saw them, and put a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the wood and put forty-two of the children to death. +2Ki 2:25 From there he went to Mount Carmel, and came back from there to Samaria. +2Ki 3:1 And Jehoram, the son of Ahab, became king over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of the rule of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah; and he was king for twelve years. +2Ki 3:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord; but not like his father and his mother, for he put away the stone pillar of Baal which his father had made. +2Ki 3:3 But still he did the same sins which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do; he went on in them. +2Ki 3:4 Now Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheep-farmer; and he gave regularly to the king of Israel the wool from a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand sheep. +2Ki 3:5 But when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab got free from the authority of the king of Israel. +2Ki 3:6 At that time, King Jehoram went out from Samaria and got all Israel together in fighting order. +2Ki 3:7 And he sent to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab has got free from my authority: will you go with me to make war on Moab? And he said, I will go with you: I am as you are, my people as your people, and my horses as your horses. +2Ki 3:8 And he said, Which way are we to go? And he said in answer, By the waste land of Edom. +2Ki 3:9 So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom by a roundabout way for seven days: and there was no water for the army or for the beasts they had with them. +2Ki 3:10 And the king of Israel said, Here is trouble: for the Lord has got these three kings together to give them into the hands of Moab. +2Ki 3:11 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no prophet of the Lord here, through whom we may get directions from the Lord? And one of the king of Israel's men said in answer, Elisha, the son of Shaphat, is here, who was servant to Elijah. +2Ki 3:12 And Jehoshaphat said, The word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him. +2Ki 3:13 But Elisha said to the king of Israel, What have I to do with you? go to the prophets of your father and your mother. And the king of Israel said, No; for the Lord has got these three kings together to give them up into the hands of Moab. +2Ki 3:14 Then Elisha said, By the life of the Lord of armies whose servant I am, if it was not for the respect I have for Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I would not give a look at you, or see you. +2Ki 3:15 But now, get me a player of music, and it will come about that while the man is playing, the hand of the Lord will come on me and I will give you the word of the Lord: and they got a player of music, and while the man was playing, the hand of the Lord was on him. +2Ki 3:16 And he said, The Lord says, I will make this valley full of water-holes. +2Ki 3:17 For the Lord says, Though you see no wind or rain, the valley will be full of water, and you and your armies and your beasts will have drink. +2Ki 3:18 And this will be only a small thing to the Lord: in addition he will give the Moabites into your hands. +2Ki 3:19 And you are to put every walled town to destruction, cutting down every good tree, and stopping up every water-spring, and making all the good land rough with stones. +2Ki 3:20 Now in the morning, about the time when the offering was made, they saw water flowing from the direction of Edom till the country was full of water. +2Ki 3:21 Now all Moab, hearing that the kings had come to make war against them, got together all who were able to take up arms and went forward to the edge of the country. +2Ki 3:22 And early in the morning they got up, when the sun was shining on the water, and they saw the water facing them as red as blood. +2Ki 3:23 Then they said, This is blood: it is clear that destruction has come on the kings; they have been fighting one another: now come, Moab, let us take their goods. +2Ki 3:24 But when they came to the tents of Israel, the Israelites came out and made a violent attack on the Moabites, so that they went in flight before them; and they went forward still attacking them; +2Ki 3:25 Pulling down the towns, covering every good field with stones, stopping up all the water-springs, and cutting down all the good trees; they went on driving Moab before them till only in Kir-hareseth were there any Moabites; and the fighting-men went round the town raining stones on it. +2Ki 3:26 And when the king of Moab saw that the fight was going against him, he took with him seven hundred men armed with swords, with the idea of forcing a way through to the king of Aram, but they were not able to do so. +2Ki 3:27 Then he took his oldest son, who would have been king after him, offering him as a burned offering on the wall. So there was great wrath against Israel; and they went away from him, back to their country. +2Ki 4:1 Now a certain woman, the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, came crying to Elisha and said, Your servant my husband is dead; and to your knowledge he was a worshipper of the Lord; but now, the creditor has come to take my two children as servants in payment of his debt. +2Ki 4:2 Then Elisha said to her, What am I to do for you? say now, what have you in the house? And she said, Your servant has nothing in the house but a pot of oil. +2Ki 4:3 Then he said, Go out to all your neighbours and get vessels, a very great number of them. +2Ki 4:4 Then go in, and, shutting the door on yourself and your sons, put oil into all these vessels, putting on one side the full ones. +2Ki 4:5 So she went away, and when the door was shut on her and her sons, they took the vessels to her and she put oil into them. +2Ki 4:6 And when all the vessels were full, she said to her son, Get me another vessel. And he said, There are no more. And the flow of oil was stopped. +2Ki 4:7 So she came to the man of God and gave him word of what she had done. And he said, Go and get money for the oil and make payment of your debt, and let the rest be for the needs of yourself and your sons. +2Ki 4:8 Now there came a day when Elisha went to Shunem, and there was a woman of high position living there, who made him come in and have a meal with her. And after that, every time he went by, he went into her house for a meal. +2Ki 4:9 And she said to her husband, Now I see that this is a holy man of God, who comes by day after day. +2Ki 4:10 So let us make a little room on the wall; and put a bed there for him, and a table and a seat and a light; so that when he comes to us, he will be able to go in there. +2Ki 4:11 Now one day, when he had gone there, he went into the little room and took his rest there. +2Ki 4:12 And he said to Gehazi, his servant, Send for this Shunammite. So in answer to his voice she came before him. +2Ki 4:13 And he said to him, Now say to her, See, you have taken all this trouble for us; what is to be done for you? will you have any request made for you to the king or the captain of the army? But she said, I am living among my people. +2Ki 4:14 So he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi made answer, Still there is this, she has no son and her husband is old. +2Ki 4:15 Then he said, Send for her. And in answer to his voice she took her place at the door. +2Ki 4:16 And Elisha said, At this time in the coming year you will have a son in your arms. And she said, No, my lord, O man of God, do not say what is false to your servant. +2Ki 4:17 Then the woman became with child and gave birth to a son at the time named, in the year after, as Elisha had said to her. +2Ki 4:18 Now one day, when the child was older, he went out to his father to where the grain was being cut. +2Ki 4:19 And he said to his father, My head, my head! And the father said to a servant, Take him in to his mother. +2Ki 4:20 And he took him in to his mother, and she took him on her knees and kept him there till the middle of the day, when his life went from him. +2Ki 4:21 Then she went up and put him on the bed of the man of God, shutting the door on him, and went out. +2Ki 4:22 And she said to her husband, Send me one of the servants and one of the asses so that I may go quickly to the man of God and come back again. +2Ki 4:23 And he said, Why are you going to him today? it is not a new moon or a Sabbath. But she said, It is well. +2Ki 4:24 Then she made the ass ready and said to her servant, Keep driving on; do not make a stop without orders from me. +2Ki 4:25 So she went, and came to Mount Carmel, to the man of God. And when the man of God saw her coming in his direction, he said to Gehazi, his servant, See, there is the Shunammite; +2Ki 4:26 Go quickly to her, and on meeting her say to her, Are you well? and your husband and the child, are they well? And she said in answer, All is well. +2Ki 4:27 And when she came to where the man of God was on the hill, she put her hands round his feet; and Gehazi came near with the purpose of pushing her away; but the man of God said, Let her be, for her soul is bitter in her; and the Lord has kept it secret from me, and has not given me word of it. +2Ki 4:28 Then she said, Did I make a request to my lord for a son? did I not say, Do not give me false words? +2Ki 4:29 Then he said to Gehazi, Make yourself ready, and take my stick in your hand, and go: if you come across anyone on the way, give him no blessing, and if anyone gives you a blessing, give him no answer. And put my stick on the child's face. +2Ki 4:30 But the mother of the child said, As the Lord is living and as your soul is living, I will not go back without you. So he got up and went with her. +2Ki 4:31 And Gehazi went on before them and put the stick on the child's face; but there was no voice, and no one gave attention. So he went back, and meeting him gave him the news, saying, The child is not awake. +2Ki 4:32 And when Elisha came into the house he saw the child dead, stretched on his bed. +2Ki 4:33 So he went in, and shutting the door on the two of them, made prayer to the Lord. +2Ki 4:34 Then he got up on the bed, stretching himself out on the child, and put his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands; and the child's body became warm. +2Ki 4:35 Then he came back, and after walking once through the house and back, he went up, stretching himself out on the child seven times; and the child's eyes became open. +2Ki 4:36 And he gave orders to Gehazi, and said, Send for the Shunammite. And she came in answer to his voice. And he said, Take up your son. +2Ki 4:37 And she came in, and went down on her face to the earth at his feet; then she took her son in her arms and went out. +2Ki 4:38 And Elisha went back to Gilgal, now there was very little food in the land; and the sons of the prophets were seated before him. And he said to his servant, Put the great pot on the fire, and make soup for the sons of the prophets. +2Ki 4:39 And one went out into the field to get green plants and saw a vine of the field, and pulling off the fruit of it till the fold of his robe was full, he came back and put the fruit, cut up small, into the pot of soup, having no idea what it was. +2Ki 4:40 Then they gave the men soup from the pot. And while they were drinking the soup, they gave a cry, and said, O man of God, there is death in the pot; and they were not able to take any more food. +2Ki 4:41 But he said, Get some meal. And he put it into the pot, and said, Now give it to the people so that they may have food. And there was nothing bad in the pot. +2Ki 4:42 Now a man came from Baal-shalishah with an offering of first-fruits for the man of God, twenty barley cakes and garden fruit in his bag. And he said, Give these to the people for food. +2Ki 4:43 But his servant said, How am I to put this before a hundred men? But he said, Give it to the people for food; for the Lord says, There will be food for them and some over. +2Ki 4:44 So he put it before them, and they had a meal and there was more than enough, as the Lord had said. +2Ki 5:1 Now Naaman, chief of the army of the king of Aram, was a man of high position with his master, and greatly respected, because by him the Lord had given salvation to Aram; but he was a leper. +2Ki 5:2 Now the Aramaeans had gone out in bands, and taken prisoner from Israel a little girl, who became servant to Naaman's wife. +2Ki 5:3 And she said to her master's wife, If only my lord would go to the prophet in Samaria, he would make him well. +2Ki 5:4 And someone went and said to his lord, This is what the girl from the land of Israel says. +2Ki 5:5 So the king of Aram said, Go then; and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he went, taking with him ten talents of silver and six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. +2Ki 5:6 And he took the letter to the king of Israel, in which the king of Aram had said, See, I have sent my servant Naaman to you to be made well, for he is a leper. +2Ki 5:7 But the king of Israel, after reading the letter, was greatly troubled and said, Am I God, to give death and life? why does this man send a leper to me to be made well? is it not clear that he is looking for a cause of war? +2Ki 5:8 Now Elisha, the man of God, hearing that the king of Israel had done this, sent to the king, saying, Why are you troubled? send the man to me, so that he may see that there is a prophet in Israel. +2Ki 5:9 So Naaman, with all his horses and his carriages, came to the door of Elisha's house. +2Ki 5:10 And Elisha sent a servant to him, saying, Go to Jordan, and after washing seven times in its waters your flesh will be well again and you will be clean. +2Ki 5:11 But Naaman was angry and went away and said, I had the idea that he would come out to see such an important person as I am, and make prayer to the Lord his God, and with a wave of his hand over the place make the leper well. +2Ki 5:12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not be washed in them and become clean? So turning, he went away in wrath. +2Ki 5:13 Then his servants came to him and said, If the prophet had given you orders to do some great thing, would you not have done it? how much more then, when he says to you, Be washed and become clean? +2Ki 5:14 Then he went down seven times into the waters of Jordan, as the man of God had said; and his flesh became like the flesh of a little child again, and he was clean. +2Ki 5:15 Then he went back to the man of God, with all his train, and, taking his place before him, said, Now I am certain that there is no God in all the earth, but only in Israel: now then, take an offering from me. +2Ki 5:16 But he said, By the life of the Lord whose servant I am, I will take nothing from you. And he did his best to make him take it but he would not. +2Ki 5:17 Then Naaman said, If you will not, then let there be given to your servant as much earth as two beasts are able to take on their backs; because from now on, your servant will make no offering or burned offering to other gods, but only to the Lord. +2Ki 5:18 But may your servant have the Lord's forgiveness for this one thing: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon for worship there, supported on my arm, and my head is bent in the house of Rimmon; when his head is bent in the house of Rimmon, may your servant have the Lord's forgiveness for this thing. +2Ki 5:19 And he said to him, Go in peace. And he went from him some distance. +2Ki 5:20 But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said, Now my master has taken nothing from Naaman, this Aramaean, of what he would have given him: by the living Lord, I will go after him and get something from him. +2Ki 5:21 So Gehazi went after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he got down from his carriage and went back to him and said, Is all well? +2Ki 5:22 And he said, All is well: but my master has sent me, saying, Even now, two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill-country of Ephraim; will you give me a talent of silver and two changes of clothing for them? +2Ki 5:23 And Naaman said, Be good enough to take two talents. And forcing him to take them, he put two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and gave them to his two servants to take before him. +2Ki 5:24 When he came to the hill, he took them from their hands, and put them away in the house; and he sent the men away, and they went. +2Ki 5:25 Then he came in and took his place before his master. And Elisha said to him, Where have you come from, Gehazi? And he said, Your servant went nowhere. +2Ki 5:26 And he said to him, Did not my heart go with you, when the man got down from his carriage and went back to you? Is this a time for getting money, and clothing, and olive-gardens and vine-gardens, and sheep and oxen, and men-servants and women-servants? +2Ki 5:27 Because of what you have done, the disease of Naaman the leper will take you in its grip, and your seed after you, for ever. And he went out from before him a leper as white as snow. +2Ki 6:1 Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, There is not room enough for us in the place where we are living under your care; +2Ki 6:2 So let us go to Jordan, and let everyone get to work cutting boards, and we will make a living-place for ourselves there. And he said to them, Go, then. +2Ki 6:3 And one of them said, Be pleased to go with your servants. And he said, I will go. +2Ki 6:4 So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they got to work cutting down trees. +2Ki 6:5 But one of them, while cutting a board, let the head of his axe go into the water; and he gave a cry, and said, This is a bad business, my master, for it is another's. +2Ki 6:6 And the man of God said, Where did it go in? and when he saw the place where it had gone into the water, cutting a stick, he put it into the water, and the iron came up to the top of the water. +2Ki 6:7 Then he said, Take it up. So he put out his hand and took it. +2Ki 6:8 At that time the king of Aram was making war against Israel; and he had a meeting with the chiefs of his army and said, I will be waiting in secret in some named place. +2Ki 6:9 And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, Take care to keep away from that place, for the Aramaeans are waiting there in secret. +2Ki 6:10 So the king of Israel sent to the place where the man of God had said there was danger, and kept clear of it more than once. +2Ki 6:11 And at this, the mind of the king of Aram was greatly troubled, and he sent for his servants and said to them, Will you not make clear to me which of us is helping the king of Israel? +2Ki 6:12 And one of them said, Not one of us, my lord king; but Elisha, the prophet in Israel, gives the king of Israel news of the words you say even in your bedroom. +2Ki 6:13 Then he said, Go and see where he is, so that I may send and get him. And news came to him that he was in Dothan. +2Ki 6:14 So he sent there horses and carriages and a great army; and they came by night, circling the town. +2Ki 6:15 Now the servant of the man of God, having got up early and gone out, saw an army with horses and carriages of war all round the town. And the servant said to him, O my master, what are we to do? +2Ki 6:16 And he said in answer, Have no fear; those who are with us are more than those who are with them. +2Ki 6:17 Then Elisha made a prayer to the Lord, saying, Lord, let his eyes be open so that he may see. And the Lord made the young man's eyes open; and he saw that all the mountain was full of horses and carriages of fire round Elisha. +2Ki 6:18 Now when the Aramaeans came down to Elisha, he made a prayer to the Lord saying, Lord, make this people blind. And he made them blind at Elisha's request. +2Ki 6:19 And Elisha said to them, This is not the way, and this is not the town: come after me so that I may take you to the man you are searching for. And he took them to Samaria. +2Ki 6:20 And when they had come into Samaria, Elisha said, Lord, let the eyes of these men be open so that they may see. And the Lord made their eyes open, and they saw that they were in the middle of Samaria. +2Ki 6:21 And the king of Israel, when he saw them, said to Elisha, My father, am I to put them to the sword? +2Ki 6:22 But he said in answer, You are not to put them to death; have you any right to put to death those whom you have not taken prisoner with your sword and your bow? put bread and water before them, so that they may have food and drink and go to their master. +2Ki 6:23 So he made ready a great feast for them, and when they had had food and drink, he sent them away and they went back to their master. And no more bands of Aramaeans came into the land of Israel. +2Ki 6:24 Now after this, Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got together all his army and went up to make an attack on Samaria, shutting the town in on all sides with his forces. +2Ki 6:25 And they became very short of food in Samaria; for they kept it shut in till the price of an ass's head was eighty shekels of silver, and a small measure of doves' droppings was five shekels of silver. +2Ki 6:26 And when the king of Israel was going by on the wall, a woman came crying out to him, and said, Help! my lord king. +2Ki 6:27 And he said, If the Lord does not give you help, where am I to get help for you? from the grain-floor or the grape-crusher? +2Ki 6:28 And the king said to her, What is troubling you? And she said in answer, This woman said to me, Give your son to be our food today, and we will have my son tomorrow. +2Ki 6:29 So, boiling my son, we had a meal of him; and on the day after I said to her, Now give your son for our food; but she has put her son in a secret place. +2Ki 6:30 Then the king, hearing what the woman said, took his robes in his hands, violently parting them; and, while he was walking on the wall, the people, looking, saw that under his robe he had haircloth on his flesh. +2Ki 6:31 Then he said, May God's punishment come on me if Elisha, the son of Shaphat, keeps his head on his body after this day. +2Ki 6:32 But Elisha was in his house, and the responsible men were seated there with him; and before the king got there, Elisha said to those who were with him, Do you see how this cruel and violent man has sent to take away my life? +2Ki 6:33 While he was still talking to them, the king came down and said, This evil is from the Lord; why am I to go on waiting any longer for the Lord? +2Ki 7:1 Then Elisha said, Give ear to the word of the Lord: the Lord says, Tomorrow, about this time, a measure of good meal will be offered for the price of a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the market-place of Samaria. +2Ki 7:2 Then the captain whose arm was supporting the king said to the man of God, Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, would such a thing be possible? And he said, Your eyes will see it, but you will not have a taste of the food. +2Ki 7:3 Now there were four lepers seated at the doorway into the town: and they said to one another, Why are we waiting here for death? +2Ki 7:4 If we say, We will go into the town, there is no food in the town, and we will come to our end there; and if we go on waiting here, death will come to us. Come then, let us give ourselves up to the army of Aram: if they let us go on living, then life will be ours; and if they put us to death, then death will be ours. +2Ki 7:5 So in the half light they got up to go to the tents of Aram; but when they came to the outer line of tents, there was no one there. +2Ki 7:6 For the Lord had made the sound of carriages and horses, and the noise of a great army, come to the ears of the Aramaeans, so that they said to one another, Truly, the king of Israel has got the kings of the Hittites and of the Egyptians for a price to make an attack on us. +2Ki 7:7 So they got up and went in flight, in the half light, without their tents or their horses or their asses or any of their goods; they went in flight, fearing for their lives. +2Ki 7:8 And when those lepers came to the outer line of tents, they went into one tent, and had food and drink, and took from it silver and gold and clothing, which they put in a secret place; then they came back and went into another tent from which they took more goods, which they put away in a secret place. +2Ki 7:9 Then they said to one another, We are not doing right. Today is a day of good news, and we say nothing: if we go on waiting here till the morning, punishment will come to us. So let us go and give the news to those of the king's house. +2Ki 7:10 So they came in, and, crying out to the door-keepers of the town, they gave them the news, saying, We came to the tents of the Aramaeans, and there was no one there and no voice of man, only the horses and the asses in their places, and the tents as they were. +2Ki 7:11 Then the door-keepers, crying out, gave the news to those inside the king's house. +2Ki 7:12 Then the king got up in the night and said to his servants, This is my idea of what the Aramaeans have done to us. They have knowledge that we are without food; and so they have gone out of their tents, and are waiting secretly in the open country, saying, When they come out of the town, we will take them living and get into the town. +2Ki 7:13 And one of his servants said in answer, Send men and let them take five of the horses which we still have in the town; if they keep their lives they will be the same as those of Israel who are still living here; if they come to their death they will be the same as all those of Israel who have gone to destruction: let us send and see. +2Ki 7:14 So they took two horsemen; and the king sent them after the army of the Aramaeans, saying, Go and see. +2Ki 7:15 And they went after them as far as Jordan; and all the road was covered with clothing and vessels dropped by the Aramaeans in their flight. So those who were sent went back and gave the news to the king. +2Ki 7:16 Then the people went out and took the goods from the tents of the Aramaeans. So a measure of good meal was to be had for the price of a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, as the Lord had said. +2Ki 7:17 And the king gave authority to that captain, on whose arm he was supported, to have control over the doorway into the town; but he was crushed to death there under the feet of the people, as the man of God had said when the king went down to him. +2Ki 7:18 So the words of the man of God came true, which he said to the king: Two measures of barley will be offered for the price of a shekel and a measure of good meal for a shekel, tomorrow about this time in the market-place of Samaria. +2Ki 7:19 And that captain said to the man of God, Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, would such a thing be possible? And he said to him, Your eyes will see it, but you will not have a taste of the food. +2Ki 7:20 And such was his fate; for he was crushed to death under the feet of the people, in the doorway into the town. +2Ki 8:1 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had given back to life, Go now, with all the people of your house, and get a living-place for yourselves wherever you are able; for by the word of the Lord, there will be great need of food in the land; and this will go on for seven years. +2Ki 8:2 So the woman got up and did as the man of God said; and she and the people of her house were living in the land of the Philistines for seven years. +2Ki 8:3 And when the seven years were ended, the woman came back from the land of the Philistines and went to the king with a request for her house and her land. +2Ki 8:4 Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, Now, give me an account of all the great things Elisha has done. +2Ki 8:5 And while he was giving the king the story of how Elisha had given life to the dead, the woman whose son had come back to life came to the king with a request for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, My lord king, this is the woman and this is her son, whose life Elisha gave back to him. +2Ki 8:6 And in answer to the king's questions, the woman gave him all the story. So the king gave orders to one of his unsexed servants, saying, Give her back all her property, and all the produce of her fields from the day when she went away from the land up till now. +2Ki 8:7 And Elisha came to Damascus; and Ben-hadad, king of Aram, was ill; and they said to him, The man of God has come. +2Ki 8:8 Then the king said to Hazael, Take an offering with you, and go to see the man of God and get directions from the Lord by him, saying, Am I going to get better from my disease? +2Ki 8:9 So Hazael went to see him, taking with him forty camels with offerings on their backs of every sort of good thing from Damascus; and when he came before him, he said, Your son Ben-hadad, king of Aram, has sent me to you, saying, Will I get better from this disease? +2Ki 8:10 And Elisha said to him, Go, say to him, You will certainly get better; but the Lord has made it clear to me that only death is before him. +2Ki 8:11 And he kept his eyes fixed on him till he was shamed, and the man of God was overcome with weeping. +2Ki 8:12 And Hazael said, Why is my lord weeping? Then he said in answer, Because I see the evil which you will do to the children of Israel: burning down their strong towns, putting their young men to death with the sword, smashing their little ones against the stones, and cutting open the women who are with child. +2Ki 8:13 And Hazael said, How is it possible that your servant, who is only a dog, will do this great thing? And Elisha said, The Lord has made it clear to me that you will be king over Aram. +2Ki 8:14 Then he went away from Elisha and came in to his master, who said to him, What did Elisha say to you? And his answer was, He said that you would certainly get well. +2Ki 8:15 Now on the day after, Hazael took the bed-cover, and making it wet with water, put it over Ben-hadad's face, causing his death: and Hazael became king in his place. +2Ki 8:16 In the fifth year of Joram, the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, became king. +2Ki 8:17 He was thirty-two years old when he became king; and he was ruling in Jerusalem for eight years. +2Ki 8:18 He went in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the family of Ahab did: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife; and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. +2Ki 8:19 But it was not the Lord's purpose to send destruction on Judah, because of David his servant, to whom he had given his word that he would have a light for ever. +2Ki 8:20 In his time, Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah, and took a king for themselves. +2Ki 8:21 Then Joram went over to Zair, with all his war-carriages; ... made an attack by night on the Edomites, whose forces were all round him, ... the captains of the war-carriages; and the people went in flight to their tents. +2Ki 8:22 So Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah to this day. And at the same time, Libnah made itself free. +2Ki 8:23 Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +2Ki 8:24 And Joram went to rest with his fathers and was put into the earth with his fathers in the town of David: and Ahaziah his son became king in his place. +2Ki 8:25 In the twelfth year that Joram, the son of Ahab, was king of Israel, Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, became king; +2Ki 8:26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for one year. His mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri, king of Israel. +2Ki 8:27 He went in the ways of the family of Ahab, and did evil in the eyes of the Lord as the family of Ahab did, for he was a son-in-law of the family of Ahab. +2Ki 8:28 He went with Joram, the son of Ahab, to make war on Hazael, king of Aram, at Ramoth-gilead: and Joram was wounded by the Aramaeans. +2Ki 8:29 So King Joram went back to Jezreel to get well from the wounds which the bowmen had given him at Ramah, when he was fighting against Hazael, king of Aram. And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to see Joram, the son of Ahab, in Jezreel, because he was ill. +2Ki 9:1 And Elisha the prophet sent for one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, Make yourself ready for a journey, and take this bottle of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. +2Ki 9:2 And when you get there, go in search of Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi; and go in and make him get up from among his brothers, and take him to an inner room. +2Ki 9:3 Then take the bottle and put the oil on his head, and say, The Lord says, I have put the holy oil on you to make you king over Israel. Then, opening the door, go in flight, without waiting. +2Ki 9:4 So the young prophet went to Ramoth-gilead. +2Ki 9:5 And when he came, he saw the captains of the army seated together; and he said, I have something to say to you, O captain. And Jehu said, To which of us? And he said, To you, O captain. +2Ki 9:6 And he got up and went into the house; then he put the holy oil on his head and said to him, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, I have made you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel. +2Ki 9:7 You are to see that the family of Ahab your master is cut off, so that I may take from Jezebel payment for the blood of my servants the prophets, and for the blood of all the servants of the Lord. +2Ki 9:8 For the family of Ahab will come to an end; every male of Ahab's family will be cut off, he who is shut up and he who goes free in Israel. +2Ki 9:9 I will make the family of Ahab like that of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and Baasha, the son of Ahijah. +2Ki 9:10 And Jezebel will become food for the dogs in the heritage of Jezreel, and there will be no one to put her body into the earth. Then, opening the door, he went in flight. +2Ki 9:11 Then Jehu came out again to the servants of his lord, and one said to him, Is all well? why did this man, who is off his head, come to you? And he said to them, You have knowledge of the man and of his talk. +2Ki 9:12 And they said, That is not true; now give us his story. Then he said, This is what he said to me: The Lord says, I have made you king over Israel. +2Ki 9:13 Then straight away everyone took his robe and put it under him on the top of the steps, and, sounding the horn, they said, Jehu is king. +2Ki 9:14 So Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, made designs against Joram. (Now Joram and all the army of Israel were keeping watch on Ramoth-gilead because of Hazael, king of Aram: +2Ki 9:15 But King Joram had gone back to Jezreel to get well from the wounds which the Aramaeans had given him when he was fighting against Hazael, king of Aram.) And Jehu said, If this is your purpose, then let no one get away and go out of the town to give news of it in Jezreel. +2Ki 9:16 So Jehu got into his carriage and went to Jezreel, for Joram was ill in bed there; and Ahaziah, king of Judah, had come down to see Joram. +2Ki 9:17 And the watchman on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu and his band coming, and said, I see a band of people. And Joram said, Send out a horseman to them, and let him say, Is it peace? +2Ki 9:18 So a horseman went out to them and said, The king says, Is it peace? And Jehu said, What have you to do with peace? come after me. And the watchman gave them word, saying, The horseman went up to them, but has not come back. +2Ki 9:19 Then he sent out a second horseman, who came up to them and said, The king says, Is it peace? And Jehu said in answer, What have you to do with peace? come after me. +2Ki 9:20 And the watchman gave them word, saying, He went up to them and has not come back again; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu, son of Nimshi, for he is driving violently. +2Ki 9:21 Then Joram said, Make ready. So they made his carriage ready; and Joram, king of Israel, with Ahaziah, king of Judah, went out in their carriages for the purpose of meeting Jehu; and they came face to face with him at the field of Naboth the Jezreelite. +2Ki 9:22 Now when Joram saw Jehu he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he said in answer, What peace is possible while all the land is full of the disgusting sins of your mother Jezebel, and her secret arts? +2Ki 9:23 Then Joram, turning his horses in flight, said to Ahaziah, Broken faith, O Ahaziah! +2Ki 9:24 Then Jehu took his bow in his hand, and with all his strength sent an arrow, wounding Joram between the arms; and the arrow came out at his heart, and he went down on his face in his carriage. +2Ki 9:25 Then Jehu said to Bidkar, his captain, Take him up, and put him in the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for is not that day in your memory when you and I together on our horses were going after Ahab, his father, and the Lord put this fate on him, saying: +2Ki 9:26 I saw the blood of Naboth and of his sons yesterday; and I will give you full payment in this field, says the Lord? So now, take him and put him in this field, as the Lord said. +2Ki 9:27 Now when Ahaziah, king of Judah, saw this, he went in flight by the way of the garden house. And Jehu came after him and said, Put him to death in the same way; and they gave him a death-wound in his carriage, on the slope up to Gur, by Ibleam; and he went in flight to Megiddo, where death came to him. +2Ki 9:28 And his servants took him in a carriage to Jerusalem, and put him into the earth with his fathers in the town of David. +2Ki 9:29 (In the eleventh year of the rule of Joram, the son of Ahab, Ahaziah became king over Judah.) +2Ki 9:30 And when Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel had news of it; and, painting her eyes and dressing her hair with ornaments, she put her head out of the window. +2Ki 9:31 And when Jehu was coming into the town, she said, Is all well, O Zimri, taker of your master's life? +2Ki 9:32 Then, looking up to the window, he said, Who is on my side, who? and two or three unsexed servants put out their heads. +2Ki 9:33 And he said, Take her and put her out of the window. So they sent her down with force, and her blood went in a shower on the wall and on the horses; and she was crushed under their feet. +2Ki 9:34 And he came in, and took food and drink; then he said, Now see to this cursed woman, and put her body into the earth, for she is a king's daughter. +2Ki 9:35 And they went out to put her body into the earth, but nothing of her was to be seen, only the bones of her head, and her feet, and parts of her hands. +2Ki 9:36 So they came back and gave him word of it. And he said, This is what the Lord said by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the heritage of Jezreel the flesh of Jezebel will become food for dogs; +2Ki 9:37 And the dead body of Jezebel will be like waste dropped on the face of the earth in the heritage of Jezreel; so that they will not be able to say, This is Jezebel. +2Ki 10:1 Now there were in Samaria seventy of Ahab's sons. And Jehu sent letters to Samaria, to the rulers of the town, and to the responsible men, and to those who had the care of the sons of Ahab, saying, +2Ki 10:2 Straight away, when you get this letter, seeing that your master's sons are with you, and that you have carriages and horses and a walled town and arms; +2Ki 10:3 Take the best and most upright of your master's sons, and make him king in his father's place, and put up a fight for your master's family. +2Ki 10:4 But they were full of fear, and said, The two kings have gone down before him: how may we keep our place? +2Ki 10:5 So the controller of the king's house, with the ruler of the town, and the responsible men, and those who had the care of Ahab's sons, sent to Jehu, saying, We are your servants and will do all your orders; we will not make any man king; do whatever seems best to you. +2Ki 10:6 Then he sent them a second letter, saying, If you are on my side, and if you will do my orders, come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow, with the heads of your master's sons. Now the king's seventy sons were with the great men of the town, who had the care of them. +2Ki 10:7 And when the letter came to them, they took the king's sons and put them to death, all the seventy, and put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel. +2Ki 10:8 And a man came and said to him, They have come with the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Put them down in two masses at the doorway of the town till the morning. +2Ki 10:9 And in the morning he went out and, stopping, said to all the people there, You are upright men: it is true that I made designs against my master, and put him to death; but who is responsible for the death of all these? +2Ki 10:10 You may be certain that nothing which the Lord has said about the family of Ahab will be without effect; for the Lord has done what he said by his servant Elijah. +2Ki 10:11 So Jehu put to death all the rest of the seed of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his relations and his near friends and his priests, till there were no more of them. +2Ki 10:12 Then he got up and came to Samaria. And he was at the meeting-place of the keepers of sheep, by the way, +2Ki 10:13 When he came across the brothers of Ahaziah, king of Judah, and said, Who are you? And they said, We are the brothers of Ahaziah, king of Judah; we are going down to see the children of the king and of the queen. +2Ki 10:14 And he said, Take them living. So they took them living, and put them to death in the water-hole of Beth-eked; of the forty-two men he put every one to death; +2Ki 10:15 And when he had gone away from there, he came across Jehonadab, the son of Rechab: and he said good-day to him, and said to him, Is your heart true to mine, as mine is to yours? And Jehonadab in answer said, It is; and Jehu said, If it is, give me your hand. And he gave him his hand, and he made him come up into his carriage. +2Ki 10:16 And he said, Come with me and see how I am on fire for the Lord's cause. So he made him go with him in his carriage. +2Ki 10:17 And when he came to Samaria, he put to death all those of Ahab's family who were still in Samaria, till there were no more of them, as the Lord had said to Elijah. +2Ki 10:18 Then Jehu got all the people together and said to them, Ahab was Baal's servant in a small way, but Jehu will be his servant on a great scale. +2Ki 10:19 Now send for all the prophets of Baal and all his servants and all his priests, to come to me; let no one keep away: for I have a great offering to make to Baal; anyone who is not present, will be put to death. This Jehu did with deceit, his purpose being the destruction of the servants of Baal. +2Ki 10:20 And Jehu said, Let there be a special holy meeting for the worship of Baal. So a public statement was made. +2Ki 10:21 And Jehu sent out through all Israel; and all the servants of Baal came, not one kept away. And they came into the house of Baal, so that it was full from end to end. +2Ki 10:22 And Jehu said to him who kept the robes, Get out robes for all the servants of Baal. So he got out robes for them. +2Ki 10:23 And Jehu, with Jehonadab, the son of Rechab, went into the house of Baal; and he said to the servants of Baal, Make a search with care, to see that no servant of the Lord is with you, but only servants of Baal. +2Ki 10:24 Then they went in to make offerings and burned offerings. Now Jehu had put eighty men outside, and said to them, If any man whom I give into your hands gets away, the life of him who lets him go will be the price of his life. +2Ki 10:25 Then when the burned offering was ended, straight away Jehu said to the armed men and the captains, Go in and put them to death; let not one come out. So they put them to the sword; and, pulling the images to the earth, they went into the holy place of the house of Baal. +2Ki 10:26 And they took out the image of Asherah from the house of Baal, and had it burned. +2Ki 10:27 The altar of Baal was pulled down and the house of Baal was broken up and made an unclean place, as it is to this day. +2Ki 10:28 So Jehu put an end to the worship of Baal in Israel. +2Ki 10:29 But Jehu did not keep himself from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and the evil he made Israel do; the gold oxen were still in Beth-el and in Dan. +2Ki 10:30 And the Lord said to Jehu, Because you have done well in doing what is right in my eyes and effecting all my purpose for the family of Ahab, your sons will be kings of Israel to the fourth generation. +2Ki 10:31 But Jehu did not take care to keep the law of the Lord with all his heart: he did not keep himself from the sin which Jeroboam did and made Israel do. +2Ki 10:32 In those days the Lord was angry first with Israel; and Hazael made attacks on all the land of Israel, +2Ki 10:33 East of Jordan, in all the land of Gilead, the Gadites and the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer by the valley of the Arnon, all Gilead and Bashan. +2Ki 10:34 Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all he did, and his great power, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +2Ki 10:35 And Jehu went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son became king in his place. +2Ki 10:36 And the time of Jehu's rule over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years. +2Ki 11:1 Now when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she had all the rest of the seed of the kingdom put to death. +2Ki 11:2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, secretly took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, with the woman who took care of him, away from among the king's sons who were put to death, and put him in the bedroom; and they kept him safe from Athaliah, so that he was not put to death. +2Ki 11:3 And for six years she kept him safe in the house of the Lord, while Athaliah was ruling over the land. +2Ki 11:4 Then in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the captains of hundreds of the Carians, and the armed men, and taking them into the house of the Lord, made an agreement with them, and made them take an oath in the house of the Lord, and let them see the king's son. +2Ki 11:5 And he gave them orders, saying, This is what you are to do: the third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath and keep the watch of the king's house, +2Ki 11:6 ... +2Ki 11:7 And the two divisions of you, who go out on the Sabbath and keep the watch of the house of the Lord, +2Ki 11:8 Will make a circle round the king, every man being armed; and whoever comes inside your lines is to be put to death; keep with the king, when he goes out and when he comes in. +2Ki 11:9 And the captains of hundreds did as Jehoiada the priest gave them orders; every one took with him his men, those who came in and those who went out on the Sabbath, and they came in to Jehoiada the priest. +2Ki 11:10 And the priest gave to the captains of hundreds the spears and body-covers which had been King David's, and which were kept in the house of the Lord. +2Ki 11:11 Then the armed men took up their positions, every man with his instruments of war in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left, round about the altar and the house. +2Ki 11:12 Then he made the king's son come out, and put the crown on him and the arm-bands, and made him king, and put the holy oil on him; and they all, making sounds of joy with their hands, said, Long life to the king. +2Ki 11:13 Now Athaliah, hearing the noise made by the people, came to the people in the house of the Lord; +2Ki 11:14 And looking, she saw the king in his regular place by the pillar, and the captains and the horns near him; and all the people of the land giving signs of joy and sounding the horns. Then Athaliah, violently parting her robes, gave a cry, saying, Broken faith, broken faith! +2Ki 11:15 Then Jehoiada the priest gave orders to those who were placed in authority over the army, saying, Take her outside the lines, and let anyone who goes after her be put to death with the sword, for he said, Let her not be put to death in the house of the Lord. +2Ki 11:16 So they put their hands on her, and she went to the king's house by the doorway of the horses, and there she was put to death. +2Ki 11:17 And Jehoiada made an agreement between the Lord and the king and the people, that they would be the Lord's people; and in the same way between the king and the people. +2Ki 11:18 Then all the people of the land went to the house of Baal and had it pulled down: its altars and images were all broken to bits, and Mattan, the priest of Baal, they put to death before the altars. And the priest put overseers over the Lord's house. +2Ki 11:19 Then he took the captains of hundreds, and the Carians, and the armed men, and all the people of the land; and they came down with the king from the house of the Lord, through the doorway of the armed men, to the king's house. And he took his place on the seat of the kings. +2Ki 11:20 So all the people of the land were glad, and the town was quiet; and they had put Athaliah to death with the sword at the king's house. +2Ki 11:21 And Jehoash was seven years old when he became king. +2Ki 12:1 In the seventh year of Jehu's rule, Jehoash became king; and he was ruling for forty years in Jerusalem; his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. +2Ki 12:2 Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days, because he was guided by the teaching of Jehoiada the priest. +2Ki 12:3 But the high places were not taken away; the people went on making offerings and burning them in the high places. +2Ki 12:4 And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the holy things, which comes into the house of the Lord, (the amount fixed for every man's payment,) and all the money given by any man freely from the impulse of his heart, +2Ki 12:5 Let the priests take, every man from his friends and neighbours, to make good what is damaged in the house, wherever it is to be seen. +2Ki 12:6 But in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had not made good the damaged parts of the house. +2Ki 12:7 Then King Jehoash sent for Jehoiada the priest, and the other priests, and said to them, Why have you not made good what is damaged in the house? now take no more money from your neighbours, but give it for the building up of the house. +2Ki 12:8 So the priests made an agreement to take no more money from the people, and not to make good what was damaged in the house. +2Ki 12:9 But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and making a hole in the cover of it, put it by the altar, on the right side when one comes into the house of the Lord; and the priests who kept the door put in it regularly all the money which was taken into the house of the Lord. +2Ki 12:10 And when they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king's scribe and the high priest came and put it in bags, noting the amount of all the money there was in the house of the Lord. +2Ki 12:11 And the money which was measured out they gave regularly to those who were responsible for overseeing the work, and these gave it in payment to the woodworkers and the builders who were working on the house of the Lord, +2Ki 12:12 And to the wall-builders and the stone-cutters, and to get wood and cut stone for building up the broken parts of the house of the Lord, and for everything needed to put the house in good order. +2Ki 12:13 But the money was not used for making silver cups or scissors or basins or wind-instruments or any vessels of gold or silver for the house of the Lord; +2Ki 12:14 But it was all given to the workmen who were building up the house. +2Ki 12:15 And they did not get any statement of accounts from the men to whom the money was given for the workmen, for they made use of it with good faith. +2Ki 12:16 The money of the offerings for error and the sin-offerings was not taken into the house of the Lord; it was the priests'. +2Ki 12:17 Then Hazael, king of Aram, went up against Gath and took it; and his purpose was to go up to Jerusalem. +2Ki 12:18 Then Jehoash, king of Judah, took all the holy things which Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, the kings of Judah, had given to the Lord, together with the things he himself had given, and all the gold in the Temple store and in the king's house, and sent it to Hazael, king of Aram; and he went away from Jerusalem. +2Ki 12:19 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +2Ki 12:20 And his servants made a secret design and put Joash to death at the house of Millo on the way down to Silla. +2Ki 12:21 And Jozacar, the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad, the son of Shomer, his servants, came to him and put him to death; and they put him into the earth with his fathers in the town of David; and Amaziah his son became king in his place. +2Ki 13:1 In the twenty-third year of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling for seventeen years. +2Ki 13:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he did and made Israel do; he did not keep himself from them. +2Ki 13:3 So the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the power of Hazael, king of Aram, and into the power of Ben-hadad, the son of Hazael, again and again. +2Ki 13:4 Then Jehoahaz made prayer to the Lord, and the Lord gave ear to him, for he saw how cruelly Israel was crushed by the king of Aram. +2Ki 13:5 (And the Lord gave Israel a saviour, so that they became free from the hands of the Aramaeans; and the children of Israel were living in their tents as in the past. +2Ki 13:6 But still they did not give up the sin of Jeroboam, which he made Israel do, but went on with it; and there was an image of Asherah in Samaria.) +2Ki 13:7 For out of all his army, Jehoahaz had only fifty horsemen and ten carriages and ten thousand footmen; the king of Aram had given them up to destruction, crushing them like dust. +2Ki 13:8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all he did, and his great power, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +2Ki 13:9 And Jehoahaz went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in Samaria; and Joash his son became king in his place. +2Ki 13:10 In the thirty-seventh year of the rule of Joash, king of Judah, Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling for sixteen years. +2Ki 13:11 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning away from the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he did and made Israel do, but he went on with it. +2Ki 13:12 Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all he did, and the force with which he went to war against Amaziah, king of Judah, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +2Ki 13:13 And Joash went to rest with his fathers and Jeroboam took his place as king; and Joash was put into the earth in Samaria with the kings of Israel. +2Ki 13:14 Now Elisha became ill with the disease which was the cause of his death: and Joash, king of Israel, came down to him, and weeping over him said, My father, my father, the war-carriages of Israel and its horsemen! +2Ki 13:15 Then Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows: and he took bow and arrows. +2Ki 13:16 And he said to the king of Israel, Put your hand on the bow: and he put his hand on it; and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands. +2Ki 13:17 Then he said; Let the window be open to the east: and he got it open. Then Elisha said, Let the arrow go; and he let it go. And he said, The Lord's arrow of salvation, of salvation over Aram; for you will overcome the Aramaeans in Aphek and put an end to them. +2Ki 13:18 And he said, Take the arrows: and he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, Send them down into the earth; and he did so three times and no more. +2Ki 13:19 Then the man of God was angry with him and said, If you had done it five or six times, then you would have overcome Aram completely; but now you will only overcome them three times. +2Ki 13:20 And death came to Elisha and they put his body into the earth. Now in the spring of the year, armed bands of Moabites frequently came, overrunning the land. +2Ki 13:21 And while they were putting a dead man into the earth, they saw a band coming; and they put the man quickly into the place where Elisha's body was; and the dead man, on touching Elisha's bones, came to life again, and got up on his feet. +2Ki 13:22 And Israel was crushed under the power of Hazael, king of Aram, all the days of Jehoahaz. +2Ki 13:23 But the Lord was kind to them and had pity on them, caring for them, because of his agreement with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; he would not put them to destruction or send them away from before his face till now. +2Ki 13:24 Then Hazael, king of Aram, came to his end; and Ben-hadad his son became king in his place. +2Ki 13:25 And Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, took again from Ben-hadad, the son of Hazael, the towns which he had taken from Jehoahaz his father in war. Three times Jehoash overcame him and got back the towns of Israel. +2Ki 14:1 In the second year of Joash, son of Joahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah, the son of Joash, became king of Judah. +2Ki 14:2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king; and he was ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem. +2Ki 14:3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, though not like David his father; he did as Joash his father had done. +2Ki 14:4 But still the high places were not taken away; the people went on making offerings and burning them in the high places. +2Ki 14:5 Now when he became strong in the kingdom, straight away he put to death those servants who had taken the life of the king his father; +2Ki 14:6 But he did not put their children to death; for the orders of the Lord recorded in the book of the law of Moses say, The fathers are not to be put to death for the children, or the children for their fathers; but a man is to be put to death for the sin which he himself has done. +2Ki 14:7 He put to the sword twelve thousand men of Edom in the Valley of Salt, and took Sela in war, naming it Joktheel, as it is to this day. +2Ki 14:8 Then Amaziah sent representatives to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us have a meeting face to face. +2Ki 14:9 And Jehoash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, The thorn-tree in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a wife: and a beast from the woodland in Lebanon went by, crushing the thorn under his feet. +2Ki 14:10 It is true that you have overcome Edom and your heart is uplifted; let that glory be enough for you, and keep in your country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself, and Judah with you, in danger of downfall? +2Ki 14:11 But Amaziah gave no attention. So Jehoash, king of Israel, went up, and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, came face to face at Beth-shemesh, which is in Judah. +2Ki 14:12 And Judah was overcome before Israel, so that they went in flight, every man to his tent. +2Ki 14:13 And Jehoash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, prisoner at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and had the wall of Jerusalem pulled down from the doorway of Ephraim to the door in the angle, four hundred cubits. +2Ki 14:14 And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels which were in the house of the Lord and in the store-house of the king, together with those whose lives would be the price of broken faith, and went back to Samaria. +2Ki 14:15 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash, and his power, and how he went to war with Amaziah, king of Judah, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +2Ki 14:16 And Jehoash went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son became king in his place. +2Ki 14:17 Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah, went on living for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel. +2Ki 14:18 And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +2Ki 14:19 Now they made a secret design against him in Jerusalem; and he went in flight to Lachish, but they sent after him to Lachish and put him to death there. +2Ki 14:20 And they took his body on horseback and put it into the earth with his fathers in Jerusalem, the town of David. +2Ki 14:21 Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. +2Ki 14:22 He was the builder of Elath, which he got back for Judah after the death of the king. +2Ki 14:23 In the fifteenth year of the rule of Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, became king in Samaria, ruling for forty-one years. +2Ki 14:24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning away from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do. +2Ki 14:25 He got back the old limits of Israel from the way into Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, as the Lord had said by his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet of Gath-hepher. +2Ki 14:26 For the Lord saw how bitter was the trouble of Israel, and that everyone was cut off, he who was shut up and he who went free, and that Israel had no helper. +2Ki 14:27 And the Lord had not said that the name of Israel was to be taken away from the earth; but he gave them a saviour in Jeroboam, the son of Joash. +2Ki 14:28 Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all he did, and his power, and how he went to war with Damascus, causing the wrath of the Lord to be turned away from Israel, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +2Ki 14:29 And Jeroboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son became king in his place. +2Ki 15:1 In the twenty-seventh year of the rule of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Azariah, son of Amaziah, became king of Judah. +2Ki 15:2 He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for fifty-two years; his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. +2Ki 15:3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Amaziah had done. +2Ki 15:4 But he did not take away the high places, and the people still went on making offerings and burning them in the high places. +2Ki 15:5 And the Lord sent disease on the king and he became a leper, and to the day of his death he was living separately in his private house. And Jotham his son was over his house, judging the people of the land. +2Ki 15:6 Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +2Ki 15:7 And Azariah went to rest with his fathers and was put into the earth with his fathers in the town of David; and Jotham his son became king in his place. +2Ki 15:8 In the thirty-eighth year of Azaliah, king of Judah, Zechariah, son of Jeroboam, was king over Israel for six months. +2Ki 15:9 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father had done, not turning away from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do. +2Ki 15:10 And Shallum, the son of Jabesh, made a secret design against him, and, attacking him in Ibleam, put him to death and became king in his place. +2Ki 15:11 Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah are recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. +2Ki 15:12 This was what the Lord had said to Jehu, Your sons to the fourth generation will be kings of Israel. And so it came about. +2Ki 15:13 Shallum, the son of Jabesh, became king in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah, king of Judah; and he was ruling in Samaria for the space of one month. +2Ki 15:14 Then Menahem, the son of Gadi, went up from Tirzah and came to Samaria, and attacking Shallum, son of Jabesh, in Samaria, put him to death and made himself king in his place. +2Ki 15:15 Now the rest of the acts of Shallum, and the secret design which he made, are recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. +2Ki 15:16 Then Menahem sent destruction on Tappuah and all the people in it, and its limits, from Tirzah, because they would not let him come in; and he had all the women who were with child cut open. +2Ki 15:17 In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Menahem, the son of Gadi, became king over Israel, and was ruling in Samaria for ten years. +2Ki 15:18 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not keep himself from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do. +2Ki 15:19 In his day, Pul, the king of Assyria, came up against the land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that he might let him keep the kingdom. +2Ki 15:20 And Menahem got the money from Israel, from all the men of wealth, fifty silver shekels from every man, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria went back without stopping in the land. +2Ki 15:21 Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel? +2Ki 15:22 And Menahem went to rest with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son became king in his place. +2Ki 15:23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah, the son of Menahem, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling for two years. +2Ki 15:24 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do. +2Ki 15:25 And Pekah, the son of Remaliah, his captain, made a secret design against him, attacking him in the king's great house in Samaria; and with him were fifty men of Gilead; and he put him to death and became king in his place. +2Ki 15:26 Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all he did, are recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. +2Ki 15:27 In the fifty-second year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah, the son of Remaliah, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling for twenty years. +2Ki 15:28 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not turning from the sin which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did and made Israel do. +2Ki 15:29 In the days of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came and took Ijon and Abel-beth-maacah and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee and all the land of Naphtali; and he took the people away to Assyria. +2Ki 15:30 And Hoshea, the son of Elah, made a secret design against Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and, attacking him, put him to death and became king in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham, the son of Uzziah. +2Ki 15:31 Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all he did, are recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. +2Ki 15:32 In the second year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham, the son of Uzziah, became king of Judah. +2Ki 15:33 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he was ruling for sixteen years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok. +2Ki 15:34 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Uzziah had done. +2Ki 15:35 But he did not take away the high places, and the people still went on making offerings and burning them in the high places. He was the builder of the higher doorway of the house of the Lord. +2Ki 15:36 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +2Ki 15:37 In those days the Lord first sent against Judah, Rezin, the king of Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah. +2Ki 15:38 And Jotham went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the town of David his father; and Ahaz his son became king in his place. +2Ki 16:1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, Ahaz, the son of Jotham, became king of Judah. +2Ki 16:2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king; he was ruling for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as David his father did. +2Ki 16:3 But he went in the ways of the kings of Israel, and even made his son go through the fire, copying the disgusting ways of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land before the children of Israel. +2Ki 16:4 And he made offerings, burning them in the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. +2Ki 16:5 Then Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they made an attack on Ahaz, shutting him in, but were not able to overcome him. +2Ki 16:6 At that time the king of Edom got Elath back for Edom, and sent the Jews out of Elath; and the Edomites came back to Elath where they are living to this day. +2Ki 16:7 So Ahaz sent representatives to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son; come to my help against the kings of Aram and Israel who have taken up arms against me. +2Ki 16:8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold which were in the house of the Lord and in the king's store-house, and sent them as an offering to the king of Assyria. +2Ki 16:9 And the king of Assyria, in answer to his request, went up against Damascus and took it, and took its people away as prisoners to Kir, and put Rezin to death. +2Ki 16:10 Then King Ahaz went to Damascus for a meeting with Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria; and there he saw the altar which was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest a copy of the altar, giving the design of it and all the details of its structure. +2Ki 16:11 And from the copy King Ahaz sent from Damascus, Urijah made an altar and had it ready by the time King Ahaz came back from Damascus. +2Ki 16:12 And when the king came from Damascus, he saw the altar; and he went up on it and made an offering on it. +2Ki 16:13 He made his burned offering and his meal offering and his drink offering there, draining out the blood of his peace-offerings on the altar. +2Ki 16:14 And the brass altar, which was before the Lord, he took from the front of the house, from between his altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of his altar. +2Ki 16:15 And King Ahaz gave orders to Urijah the priest, saying, Make the morning burned offering and the evening meal offering and the king's burned offering and meal offering, with the burned offerings of all the people and their meal offerings and drink offerings, on the great altar, and put on it all the blood of the burned offerings and of the beasts which are offered; but the brass altar will be for my use to get directions from the Lord. +2Ki 16:16 So Urijah the priest did everything as the king said +2Ki 16:17 And King Ahaz took off the sides of the wheeled bases, and took down the great water-vessel from off the brass oxen which were under it and put it on a floor of stone. +2Ki 16:18 *** the house of the Lord, because of the king of Assyria. +2Ki 16:19 Now the rest of the things which Ahaz did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +2Ki 16:20 And Ahaz went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth with his fathers in the town of David; and Hezekiah his son became king in his place. +2Ki 17:1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Hoshea, the son of Elah, became king over Israel in Samaria, ruling for nine years. +2Ki 17:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, though not like the kings of Israel before him. +2Ki 17:3 Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Hoshea became his servant and sent him offerings. +2Ki 17:4 But Hoshea's broken faith became clear to the king of Assyria because he had sent representatives to So, king of Egypt, and did not send his offering to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: so the king of Assyria had him shut up in prison and put in chains. +2Ki 17:5 Then the king of Assyria went through all the land and came up to Samaria, shutting it in with his forces for three years. +2Ki 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and took Israel away to Assyria, placing them in Halah and in Habor on the river Gozan, and in the towns of the Medes. +2Ki 17:7 And the wrath of the Lord came on Israel because they had done evil against the Lord their God, who took them out of the land of Egypt from under the yoke of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had become worshippers of other gods, +2Ki 17:8 Living by the rules of the nations whom the Lord had sent out from before the children of Israel. +2Ki 17:9 And the children of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things which were not right, building high places for themselves in all their towns, from the tower of the watchmen to the walled town. +2Ki 17:10 They put up pillars of stone and wood on every high hill and under every green tree: +2Ki 17:11 Burning their offerings in all the high places, as those nations did whom the Lord sent away from before them; they did evil things, moving the Lord to wrath; +2Ki 17:12 And they made themselves servants of disgusting things, though the Lord had said, You are not to do this. +2Ki 17:13 And he gave witness to Israel and Judah, by every prophet and seer, saying, Come back from your evil ways, and do my orders and keep my rules, and be guided by the law which I gave to your fathers and sent to you by my servants the prophets. +2Ki 17:14 And they did not give ear, but became stiff-necked, like their fathers who had no faith in the Lord their God. +2Ki 17:15 And they went against his rules, and the agreement which he made with their fathers, and his laws which he gave them; they gave themselves up to things without sense or value, and became foolish like the nations round them, of whom the Lord had said, Do not as they do. +2Ki 17:16 And turning their backs on all the orders which the Lord had given them, they made for themselves images of metal, and the image of Asherah, worshipping all the stars of heaven and becoming servants to Baal. +2Ki 17:17 And they made their sons and their daughters go through the fire, and they made use of secret arts and unnatural powers, and gave themselves up to doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, till he was moved to wrath. +2Ki 17:18 So the Lord was very angry with Israel, and his face was turned away from them: only the tribe of Judah kept its place. +2Ki 17:19 (But even Judah did not keep the orders of the Lord their God, but were guided by the rules which Israel had made. +2Ki 17:20 So the Lord would have nothing to do with all the offspring of Israel, and sent trouble on them, and gave them up into the hands of their attackers, till he had sent them away from before his face.) +2Ki 17:21 For Israel was broken off from the family of David, and they made Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, king, who, driving them away from the laws of the Lord, made them do a great sin. +2Ki 17:22 And the children of Israel went on with all the sins which Jeroboam did; they did not keep themselves from them; +2Ki 17:23 Till the Lord put Israel away from before his face, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was taken away from their land to Assyria, to this day. +2Ki 17:24 Then the king of Assyria took men from Babylon and from Cuthah and Avva and Hamath and Sepharvaim, and put them in the towns of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; so they got Samaria for their heritage, living in its towns. +2Ki 17:25 Now when first they were living there they did not give worship to the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them, causing the death of some of them. +2Ki 17:26 So they said to the king of Assyria, The nations whom you have taken as prisoners and put in the towns of Samaria, have no knowledge of the way of the god of the land: so he has sent lions among them, causing their death, because they have no knowledge of his way. +2Ki 17:27 Then the king of Assyria gave orders, saying, Send there one of the priests whom you took away, and let him be living there and teaching the people the way of the god of the land. +2Ki 17:28 So one of the priests whom they had taken away as a prisoner from Samaria came back, and, living in Beth-el, became their teacher in the worship of the Lord. +2Ki 17:29 And every nation made gods for themselves, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the towns where they were living. +2Ki 17:30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, +2Ki 17:31 The Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites gave their children to be burned in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. +2Ki 17:32 So they went on worshipping the Lord, and made for themselves, from among all the people, priests for the high places, to make offerings for them in the houses of the high places. +2Ki 17:33 They gave worship to the Lord, but they gave honour to their gods like the nations did from whom they had been taken as prisoners. +2Ki 17:34 So to this day they go on in their old ways, not worshipping the Lord or keeping his orders or his ways or the law and the rule which the Lord gave to the children of Jacob, to whom he gave the name Israel; +2Ki 17:35 And the Lord made an agreement with them and gave them orders, saying, You are to have no other gods; you are not to give worship to them or be their servants or make them offerings: +2Ki 17:36 But the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt with his great power and his outstretched arm, he is your God, to whom you are to give worship and make offerings: +2Ki 17:37 And the rules and the orders and the law which he put in writing for you, you are to keep and do for ever; you are to have no other gods. +2Ki 17:38 And you are to keep in memory the agreement which I have made with you; and you are to have no other gods. +2Ki 17:39 And you are to give worship to the Lord your God; for it is he who will give you salvation from the hands of all who are against you. +2Ki 17:40 But they gave no attention, but went on in their old way. +2Ki 17:41 So these nations, worshipping the Lord, still were servants to the images they had made; their children and their children's children did the same; as their fathers did, so do they, to this day. +2Ki 18:1 Now in the third year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, became king of Judah. +2Ki 18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah. +2Ki 18:3 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as David his father had done. +2Ki 18:4 He had the high places taken away, and the stone pillars broken to bits, and the Asherah cut down; and the brass snake which Moses had made was crushed to powder at his order, because in those days the children of Israel had offerings burned before it, and he gave it the name Nehushtan. +2Ki 18:5 He had faith in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah who were before him. +2Ki 18:6 For his heart was fixed on the Lord, not turning from his ways, and he did his orders which the Lord gave to Moses. +2Ki 18:7 And the Lord was with him; he did well in all his undertakings: and he took up arms against the king of Assyria and was his servant no longer. +2Ki 18:8 He overcame the Philistines as far as Gaza and its limits, from the tower of the watchman to the walled town. +2Ki 18:9 Now in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against Samaria, shutting it in with his armies. +2Ki 18:10 And at the end of three years they took it; in the sixth year of Hezekiah's rule, which was the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israel, Samaria was taken. +2Ki 18:11 And the king of Assyria took Israel away as prisoners into Assyria, placing them in Halah and in Habor on the river Gozan, and in the towns of the Medes; +2Ki 18:12 Because they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord their God, but went against his agreement, even against everything ordered by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and they did not give ear to it or do it. +2Ki 18:13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the walled towns of Judah and took them. +2Ki 18:14 And Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to Lachish, to the king of Assyria, saying, I have done wrong; give up attacking me, and whatever you put on me I will undergo. And the payment he was to make was fixed by the king of Assyria at three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. +2Ki 18:15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the house of the Lord, and in the king's store-house. +2Ki 18:16 And at that time Hezekiah had the gold from the doors of the Lord's house, and from the door-pillars plated by him, cut off and gave it to the king of Assyria. +2Ki 18:17 Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan and the Rab-saris and the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah, with a strong force. And they went up and came to Jerusalem, and took up their position by the stream of the higher pool, by the highway of the washerman's field. +2Ki 18:18 And they sent for the king, and Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them. +2Ki 18:19 And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, These are the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: In what are you placing your hope? +2Ki 18:20 You say you have a design, and strength for war, but these are only words. Now to whom are you looking for support, that you have gone against my authority? +2Ki 18:21 See, now, you are basing your hope on that broken rod of Egypt, which will go through a man's hand if he makes use of it for a support; for so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who put their faith in him. +2Ki 18:22 And if you say to me, Our hope is in the Lord our God: is it not he, whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, saying to Judah and Jerusalem that worship may only be given before this altar in Jerusalem? +2Ki 18:23 And now, take a chance with my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to put horsemen on them. +2Ki 18:24 How then may you put to shame the least of my master's servants? and you have put your hope in Egypt for war-carriages and horsemen: +2Ki 18:25 And have I now come up to send destruction on this place without the Lord's authority? It was the Lord himself who said to me, Go up against this land and make it waste. +2Ki 18:26 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna and Joah said to the Rab-shakeh, Will you kindly make use of the Aramaean language in talking to your servants, for we are used to it, and do not make use of the Jews' language in the hearing of the people on the wall. +2Ki 18:27 But the Rab-shakeh said to them, Is it to your master or to you that my master has sent me to say these words? has he not sent me to the men seated on the wall? for they are the people who will be short of food with you when the town is shut in. +2Ki 18:28 Then the Rab-shakeh got up and said with a loud voice in the Jews' language, Give ear to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria; +2Ki 18:29 This is what the king says: Do not be tricked by Hezekiah, for there is no salvation for you in him. +2Ki 18:30 And do not let Hezekiah make you put your faith in the Lord, saying, The Lord will certainly keep us safe, and this town will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria. +2Ki 18:31 Do not give ear to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me; and everyone will be free to take the fruit of his vine and of his fig-tree, and the water of his spring; +2Ki 18:32 Till I come and take you away to a land like yours, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vine-gardens, a land of oil-giving olives and of honey, so that life and not death may be your fate. Give no attention to Hezekiah when he says to you, The Lord will keep us safe. +2Ki 18:33 Has any one of the gods of the nations kept his land from falling into the hands of the king of Assyria? +2Ki 18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena and Ivvah? have they kept Samaria out of my hands? +2Ki 18:35 Who among all the gods of these countries have kept their country from falling into my hands, to give cause for the thought that the Lord will keep Jerusalem from falling into my hands? +2Ki 18:36 But the people kept quiet and gave him no answer: for the king's order was, Give him no answer. +2Ki 18:37 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah, with their clothing parted as a sign of grief, and gave him an account of what the Rab-shakeh had said. +2Ki 19:1 And on hearing it, King Hezekiah took off his robe, and put on haircloth, and went into the house of the Lord. +2Ki 19:2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the chief priests, dressed in haircloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. +2Ki 19:3 And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of trouble and punishment and shame; for the children are ready to come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth to them. +2Ki 19:4 It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, sent to say evil things against the living God, and will make his words come to nothing: so then make your prayer for the rest of the people. +2Ki 19:5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. +2Ki 19:6 And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words which the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me in your hearing. +2Ki 19:7 See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will come to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I will have him put to death by the sword. +2Ki 19:8 So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the king of Assyria was making war against Libnah, for it had come to his ears that he had gone away from Lachish. +2Ki 19:9 And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had made an attack on him, he sent representatives to Hezekiah again, saying, +2Ki 19:10 This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria. +2Ki 19:11 No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them to the curse; and will you be kept safe? +2Ki 19:12 Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? +2Ki 19:13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the town of Sepharvaim, of Hena and of Ivvah? +2Ki 19:14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those who had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the Lord. +2Ki 19:15 And Hezekiah made his prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. +2Ki 19:16 Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord, and let your eyes be open, O Lord, and see; take note of all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living God. +2Ki 19:17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste the nations and their lands, +2Ki 19:18 And have given their gods to the fire; for they were no gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they have given them to destruction. +2Ki 19:19 But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hands, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that you and only you, O Lord, are God. +2Ki 19:20 Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer which you have made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my ears. +2Ki 19:21 This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you. +2Ki 19:22 Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? against whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted up? even against the Holy One of Israel. +2Ki 19:23 You have sent your servants with evil words against the Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon; its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its woods; I will come up into his highest places, into his thick woods. +2Ki 19:24 I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry. +2Ki 19:25 Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before, purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to my design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into masses of broken walls. +2Ki 19:26 This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field and the green plant, like grass on the house-tops. +2Ki 19:27 But I have knowledge of your getting up and your resting, of your going out and your coming in. +2Ki 19:28 Because your wrath against me and your words of pride have come up to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my cord in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way you came. +2Ki 19:29 And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food this year from what comes up of itself; and in the second year from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will put in your seed and get in the grain and make vine-gardens and take of their fruit. +2Ki 19:30 And those of Judah who are still living will again take root in the earth and give fruit. +2Ki 19:31 For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will go out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done. +2Ki 19:32 For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria, He will not come into this town, or send an arrow against it; he will not come before it with arms, or put up an earthwork against it; +2Ki 19:33 By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get into this town, says the Lord. +2Ki 19:34 For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour of my servant David. +2Ki 19:35 And that night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men; and when the people got up early in the morning, there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies. +2Ki 19:36 So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place at Nineveh. +2Ki 19:37 And it came about, when he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to death with the sword; and they went in flight into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon his son became king in his place. +2Ki 20:1 In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, The Lord says, Put your house in order, for your death is near. +2Ki 20:2 Then, turning his face to the wall, he made his prayer to the Lord, saying, +2Ki 20:3 O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah gave way to bitter weeping. +2Ki 20:4 Now before Isaiah had gone out of the middle of the town, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, +2Ki 20:5 Go back and say to Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, The Lord, the God of David your father, says, Your prayer has come to my ears, and I have seen your weeping; see, I will make you well: on the third day you will go up to the house of the Lord. +2Ki 20:6 I will give you fifteen more years of life; and I will keep you and this town safe from the hands of the king of Assyria; I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour of my servant David. +2Ki 20:7 Then Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. So they took it and put it on his wound, and he got better. +2Ki 20:8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What is to be the sign that the Lord will make me well, and that I will go up to the house of the Lord on the third day? +2Ki 20:9 And Isaiah said, This is the sign the Lord will give you, that he will do what he has said; will the shade go forward ten degrees or back? +2Ki 20:10 And Hezekiah said in answer, It is a simple thing for the shade to go forward; but let it go back ten degrees. +2Ki 20:11 Then Isaiah the prophet made prayer to the Lord, and he made the shade go back ten degrees from its position on the steps of Ahaz. +2Ki 20:12 At that time, Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters with an offering to Hezekiah, because he had news that Hezekiah had been ill. +2Ki 20:13 And Hezekiah was glad at their coming and let them see all his store of wealth, the silver and the gold and the spices and the oil of great price, and the house of his arms, and everything there was in his stores; there was nothing in all his house or his kingdom which Hezekiah did not let them see. +2Ki 20:14 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, What did these men say and where did they come from? And Hezekiah said, They came from a far country, even from Babylon. +2Ki 20:15 And he said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah said in answer, They saw everything in my house: there is nothing among my stores which I did not let them see. +2Ki 20:16 And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Give ear to the word of the Lord. +2Ki 20:17 Truly, days are coming when everything in your house, and whatever your fathers have put in store till this day, will be taken away to Babylon: all will be gone, says the Lord. +2Ki 20:18 And your sons, the offspring of your body, they will take away to be unsexed servants in the house of the king of Babylon. +2Ki 20:19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which you have said. Then he said, ... if in my time there is peace and righteousness? +2Ki 20:20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his power, and how he made the pool and the stream, to take water into the town, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +2Ki 20:21 And Hezekiah went to rest with his fathers; and Manasseh his son became king in his place. +2Ki 21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king; for fifty-five years he was ruling in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Hephzi-bah. +2Ki 21:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the disgusting ways of those nations whom the Lord had sent out before the children of Israel. +2Ki 21:3 He put up again the high places which had been pulled down by Hezekiah his father; he made altars for Baal, and an Asherah, as Ahab, king of Israel, had done; he was a worshipper and servant of all the stars of heaven. +2Ki 21:4 And he put up altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. +2Ki 21:5 And he put up altars for all the stars of heaven in the two outer squares of the house of the Lord. +2Ki 21:6 And he made his son go through the fire, and made use of secret arts and signs for reading the future; he gave positions to those who had control of spirits and to wonder-workers; he did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath. +2Ki 21:7 He put the image of Asherah which he had made in the house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, the town which I have made mine out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever. +2Ki 21:8 And never again will I send the feet of Israel wandering from the land which I gave to their fathers; if only they will take care to do all my orders, and keep all the law which my servant Moses gave them. +2Ki 21:9 But they did not give ear; and Manasseh made them do more evil than those nations did, whom the Lord gave up to destruction before the children of Israel. +2Ki 21:10 And the Lord said, by his servants the prophets, +2Ki 21:11 Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has done these disgusting things, doing more evil than all the Amorites before him, and making Judah do evil with his false gods, +2Ki 21:12 For this cause, says the Lord, the God of Israel, I will send such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of all to whom the news comes will be burning. +2Ki 21:13 And over Jerusalem will be stretched the line of Samaria and the weight of Ahab; Jerusalem will be washed clean as a plate is washed, and turned over on its face. +2Ki 21:14 And I will put away from me the rest of my heritage, and give them up into the hands of their haters, who will take their property and their goods for themselves; +2Ki 21:15 Because they have done evil in my eyes, moving me to wrath, from the day when their fathers came out of Egypt till this day. +2Ki 21:16 More than this, Manasseh took the lives of upright men, till Jerusalem from one end to the other was full of blood; in addition to his sin in making Judah do evil in the eyes of the Lord. +2Ki 21:17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all he did, and his sins, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +2Ki 21:18 So Manasseh went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son became king in his place. +2Ki 21:19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, ruling in Jerusalem for two years; his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. +2Ki 21:20 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done. +2Ki 21:21 He went in all the ways of his father, being a servant and worshipper of the false gods to which his father had been a servant; +2Ki 21:22 Turning away from the Lord, the God of his fathers, and not walking in his ways. +2Ki 21:23 And the servants of Amon made a secret design against him, and put the king to death in his house. +2Ki 21:24 But the people of the land put to death all those who had taken part in the design against the king, and made Josiah his son king in his place. +2Ki 21:25 Now the rest of the acts which Amon did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +2Ki 21:26 He was put in his last resting-place in the garden of Uzza, and Josiah his son became king in his place. +2Ki 22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king; and he was ruling in Jerusalem for thirty-one years; his mother's name was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. +2Ki 22:2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, walking in the ways of David his father, without turning to the right hand or to the left. +2Ki 22:3 Now in the eighteenth year after he became king, Josiah sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying to him, +2Ki 22:4 Go up to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and let him give out the money which is taken into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the door have got together from the people; +2Ki 22:5 And let it be given to the overseers of the work of the Lord's house, to give to the workmen who are making good what was damaged in the house of the Lord; +2Ki 22:6 To the woodworkers and the builders and the stone-cutters; and for getting wood and cut stones for the building up of the house. +2Ki 22:7 They did not have to give any account of the money which was handed to them, for they made use of it with good faith. +2Ki 22:8 Then Hilkiah, the chief priest, said to Shaphan the scribe, I have made discovery of the book of the law in the house of the Lord. So Hilkiah gave it to Shaphan; +2Ki 22:9 Then, after reading it, Shaphan the scribe went in to the king and gave him an account of what had been done, saying, Your servants have given out the money which was in the house, and have given it to the overseers of the work of the house of the Lord. +2Ki 22:10 Then Shaphan the scribe said to the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book; and he was reading it before the king. +2Ki 22:11 And the king, hearing the words of the book of the law, took his robe in his hands, violently parting it as a sign of his grief; +2Ki 22:12 And he gave orders to Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Achbor, the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, +2Ki 22:13 Go and get directions from the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah, about the words of this book which has come to light; for great is the wrath of the Lord which is burning against us, because our fathers have not given ear to the words of this book, to do all the things which are recorded in it. +2Ki 22:14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan and Asaiah, went to Huldah the woman prophet, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the robes, (now she was living in Jerusalem, in the second part of the town;) and they had talk with her. +2Ki 22:15 And she said to them, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, Say to the man who sent you to me, +2Ki 22:16 These are the words of the Lord: See, I will send evil on this place and on its people, even everything which the king of Judah has been reading in the book; +2Ki 22:17 Because they have given me up, burning offerings to other gods and moving me to wrath by all the work of their hands; so my wrath will be on fire against this place, and will not be put out. +2Ki 22:18 But to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions from the Lord, say, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said: As to the words which have come to your ears, +2Ki 22:19 Because your heart was soft, and you made yourself low before me, when you had word of what I said against this place and its people, that they would become a waste and a curse, and you gave signs of grief, weeping before me: truly, I have given ear to you, says the Lord. +2Ki 22:20 For this cause I will let you go to your fathers and be put in your last resting-place in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will send on this place. So they took this news back to the king. +2Ki 23:1 Then the king sent and got together all the responsible men of Judah and of Jerusalem. +2Ki 23:2 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and all the people of Jerusalem, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, small and great; and they were present at his reading of the book of the law which had come to light in the house of the Lord. +2Ki 23:3 And the king took his place by the pillar, and made an agreement before the Lord, to go in the way of the Lord, and keep his orders and his decisions and his rules with all his heart and all his soul, and to keep the words of the agreement recorded in the book; and all the people gave their word to keep the agreement. +2Ki 23:4 Then the king gave orders to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and to the priests of the second order, and to the keepers of the door, to take out of the house of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the stars of heaven; and he had them burned outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and took the dust of them to Beth-el. +2Ki 23:5 And he put an end to the false priests, who had been put in their positions by the kings of Judah to see to the burning of offerings in the high places in the towns of Judah and the outskirts of Jerusalem, and all those who made offerings to Baal and to the sun and the moon and the twelve signs and all the stars of heaven. +2Ki 23:6 And he took the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem to the stream Kidron, burning it by the stream and crushing it to dust, and he put the dust on the place where the bodies of the common people were put to rest. +2Ki 23:7 And he had the houses pulled down of those who were used for sex purposes in the house of the Lord, where women were making robes for the Asherah. +2Ki 23:8 And he made all the priests from the towns of Judah come into Jerusalem, and he made unclean the high places where the priests had been burning offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba; and he had the high places of the evil spirits pulled down which were by the doorway of Joshua, the ruler of the town, on the left side of the way into the town. +2Ki 23:9 Still the priests of the high places never came up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem; but they took their food of unleavened bread among their brothers. +2Ki 23:10 And Topheth, in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, he made unclean, so that no man might make his son or his daughter go through the fire to Molech. +2Ki 23:11 And he took away the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the way into the house of the Lord, by the room of Nathan-melech, the unsexed servant, which was in the outer part of the building, and the carriages of the sun he put on fire. +2Ki 23:12 And the altars on the roof of the high room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two outer squares of the house of the Lord, were pulled down and crushed to bits, and the dust of them was put into the stream Kidron. +2Ki 23:13 And the high places before Jerusalem, on the south side of the mountain of destruction, which Solomon, king of Israel, had made for Ashtoreth, the disgusting god of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, and for Milcom, the disgusting god of the children of Ammon, the king made unclean. +2Ki 23:14 The stone pillars were broken to bits and the wood pillars cut down, and the places where they had been were made full of the bones of the dead. +2Ki 23:15 And the altar at Beth-el, and the high place put up by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel do evil, that altar and that high place were pulled down; and the high place was burned and crushed to dust and the Asherah was burned. +2Ki 23:16 Then Josiah, turning round, saw on the mountain the places of the dead, and he sent and had the bones taken out of their places and burned on the altar, so making it unclean, as the Lord had said by the man of God when Jeroboam was in his place by the altar on that feast-day. And he, turning his eyes to the resting-place of the man of God who had given word of these things, said: +2Ki 23:17 What is that headstone I see over there? And the men of the town said to him, It is the resting-place of the man of God who came from Judah and gave word of all these things which you have done to the altar of Beth-el. +2Ki 23:18 So he said, Let him be; let not his bones be moved. So they let his bones be with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. +2Ki 23:19 Then Josiah took away all the houses of the high places in the towns of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had put up, moving the Lord to wrath, and he did with them as he had done in Beth-el. +2Ki 23:20 And all the priests of the high places there he put to death on the altars, burning the bones of the dead on them; and then he went back to Jerusalem. +2Ki 23:21 And the king gave orders to all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it says in this book of the law. +2Ki 23:22 Truly, such a Passover had not been kept in all the days of the judges of Israel or of the kings of Israel or the kings of Judah; +2Ki 23:23 In the eighteenth year of the rule of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. +2Ki 23:24 And all those who had control of spirits, and the wonder-workers, and the images, and the false gods, and all the disgusting things which were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah put away, so that he might give effect to the words of the agreement recorded in the book which Hilkiah the priest made discovery of in the house of the Lord. +2Ki 23:25 Never before had there been a king like him, turning to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his power, as the law of Moses says; and after him there was no king like him. +2Ki 23:26 But still the heat of the Lord's wrath was not turned back from Judah, because of all Manasseh had done in moving him to wrath. +2Ki 23:27 And the Lord said, I will send Judah away from before my face, as I have sent Israel; I will have nothing more to do with this town, which I had made mine, even Jerusalem, and the holy house of which I said, My name will be there. +2Ki 23:28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +2Ki 23:29 In his days, Pharaoh-necoh, king of Egypt, sent his armies against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and King Josiah went out against him; and he put him to death at Megiddo, when he had seen him. +2Ki 23:30 And his servants took his body in a carriage from Megiddo to Jerusalem, and put him into the earth there. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and put the holy oil on him and made him king in place of his father. +2Ki 23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, ruling in Jerusalem for three months; his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. +2Ki 23:32 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his fathers had done. +2Ki 23:33 And Pharaoh-necoh put him in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that he might not be king in Jerusalem; and took from the land a tax of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. +2Ki 23:34 Then Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim, the son of Josiah, king in place of Josiah his father, changing his name to Jehoiakim; but Jehoahaz he took away to Egypt, where he was till his death. +2Ki 23:35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and gold to Pharaoh, taxing the land by his orders to get the money; the people of the land had to give silver and gold, everyone as he was taxed, to make the payment to Pharaoh-necoh. +2Ki 23:36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years; his mother's name was Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. +2Ki 23:37 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord as his fathers had done. +2Ki 24:1 In his days, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up and Jehoiakim was his servant for three years; then he took up arms against him. +2Ki 24:2 And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldaeans and of the Edomites and of the Moabites and of the children of Ammon; sending them against Judah for its destruction, as he had said by his servants the prophets. +2Ki 24:3 Only by the word of the Lord did this fate come on Judah, to take them away from before his face; because of the sins of Manasseh and all the evil he did; +2Ki 24:4 And because of the death of those who had done no wrong, for he made Jerusalem full of the blood of the upright; and the Lord had no forgiveness for it. +2Ki 24:5 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all he did, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Judah? +2Ki 24:6 So Jehoiakim went to rest with his fathers; and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place. +2Ki 24:7 And the king of Egypt did not come out of his land again, for the king of Babylon had taken all his country, from the stream of Egypt to the river Euphrates. +2Ki 24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, he was ruling in Jerusalem for three months, and his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. +2Ki 24:9 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father had done. +2Ki 24:10 At that time the armies of Nebuchadnezzar came up to Jerusalem and the town was shut in on every side. +2Ki 24:11 And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came there, while his servants were shutting in the town; +2Ki 24:12 Then Jehoiachin, king of Judah, went out to the king of Babylon, with his mother and his servants and his chiefs and his unsexed servants; and in the eighth year of his rule the king of Babylon took him. +2Ki 24:13 And he took away all the stored wealth of the Lord's house, and the goods from the king's store-house, cutting up all the gold vessels which Solomon, king of Israel, had made in the house of the Lord, as the Lord had said. +2Ki 24:14 And he took away all the people of Jerusalem and all the chiefs and all the men of war, ten thousand prisoners; and all the expert workmen and the metal-workers; only the poorest sort of the people of the land were not taken away. +2Ki 24:15 He took Jehoiachin a prisoner to Babylon, with his mother and his wives and his unsexed servants and the great men of the land; he took them all as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon. +2Ki 24:16 And all the men of war, seven thousand of them, and a thousand expert workmen and metal-workers, all of them strong and able to take up arms, the king of Babylon took away as prisoners into Babylon. +2Ki 24:17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, his father's brother, king in place of Jehoiachin, changing his name to Zedekiah. +2Ki 24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for eleven years; his mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. +2Ki 24:19 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Jehoiakim had done. +2Ki 24:20 And because of the wrath of the Lord, this came about in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had sent them all away from before him: and Zedekiah took up arms against the king of Babylon. +2Ki 25:1 Now in the ninth year of his rule, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came against Jerusalem with all his army and took up his position before it, building earthworks all round the town. +2Ki 25:2 And the town was shut in by their forces till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. +2Ki 25:3 Now on the ninth day of the fourth month, the store of food in the town was almost gone, so that there was no food for the people of the land. +2Ki 25:4 So an opening was made in the wall of the town, and all the men of war went in flight by night through the doorway between the two walls which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldaeans were stationed round the town:) and the king went by the way of the Arabah. +2Ki 25:5 But the Chaldaean army went after the king, and overtook him in the lowlands of Jericho, and all his army went in flight from him in every direction. +2Ki 25:6 And they made the king a prisoner and took him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah to be judged. +2Ki 25:7 And they put the sons of Zedekiah to death before his eyes, and then they put out his eyes, and chaining him with iron bands, took him to Babylon. +2Ki 25:8 Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem; +2Ki 25:9 And he had the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned with fire; +2Ki 25:10 And the walls round Jerusalem were broken down by the Chaldaean army which was with the captain. +2Ki 25:11 And the rest of the people who were still in the town, and all those who had given themselves up to the king of Babylon, and all the rest of the workmen, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took away as prisoners; +2Ki 25:12 But he let the poorest of the land go on living there, to take care of the vines and the fields. +2Ki 25:13 And the brass pillars in the house of the Lord, and the wheeled bases, and the great brass water-vessel in the house of the Lord, were broken up by the Chaldaeans, who took the brass to Babylon. +2Ki 25:14 And the pots and the spades and the scissors for the lights and the spoons, and all the brass vessels used in the Lord's house, they took away. +2Ki 25:15 And the fire-trays and the basins; the gold of the gold vessels and the silver of the silver vessels, were all taken away by the captain of the armed men. +2Ki 25:16 The two pillars, the great water-vessel and the wheeled bases, which Solomon had made for the house of the Lord: the brass of all these vessels was without weight. +2Ki 25:17 One of the pillars was eighteen cubits high, with a crown of brass on it; the crown was three cubits high, circled with a network and apples all of brass; and the second pillar had the same. +2Ki 25:18 And the captain of the armed men took Seraiah, the chief priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three door-keepers; +2Ki 25:19 And from the town he took the unsexed servant who was over the men of war, and five of the king's near friends who were in the town, and the scribe of the captain of the army, who was responsible for getting the people of the land together in military order, and sixty men of the people of the land who were in the town. +2Ki 25:20 These Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took with him to the king of Babylon at Riblah. +2Ki 25:21 And the king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken away prisoner from his land. +2Ki 25:22 As for the people who were still living in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take away, he made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler over them. +2Ki 25:23 Now the captains of the armed forces, hearing that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah ruler, came with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah; Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah, the son of the Maacathite, came with all their men. +2Ki 25:24 Then Gedaliah gave his oath to them and their men, saying, Have no fear because of the servants of the Chaldaeans; go on living in the land under the rule of the king of Babylon, and all will be well. +2Ki 25:25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the king's seed, came with ten men and made an attack on Gedaliah, causing his death and the death of the Jews and the Chaldaeans who were with him at Mizpah. +2Ki 25:26 Then all the people, small and great, and the captains of the forces, got up and went away to Egypt, for fear of the Chaldaeans. +2Ki 25:27 And in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin, king of Judah, had been taken prisoner, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the first year of his rule, took Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison; +2Ki 25:28 And said kind words to him, and put his seat higher than the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. +2Ki 25:29 And his prison clothing was changed, and he was a guest at the king's table every day for the rest of his life. +2Ki 25:30 And for his food, the king gave him a regular amount every day for the rest of his life. +1Ch 1:1 Adam, Seth, Enosh; +1Ch 1:2 Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, +1Ch 1:3 Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; +1Ch 1:4 Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. +1Ch 1:5 The sons of Japheth: Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras. +1Ch 1:6 And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Diphath and Togarmah. +1Ch 1:7 And the sons of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and Rodanim. +1Ch 1:8 The sons of Ham: Cush and Egypt, Put and Canaan. +1Ch 1:9 And the sons of Cush: Seba and Havilah and Sabta and Raama and Sabteca. And the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. +1Ch 1:10 And Cush was the father of Nimrod: he was the first to be a great man in the earth. +1Ch 1:11 And Egypt was the father of the Ludim and the Anamim and the Lehabim and the Naphtuhim +1Ch 1:12 And the Pathrusim and the Casluhim and the Caphtorim (from whom came the Philistines). +1Ch 1:13 And Canaan was the father of Zidon, his oldest son, and Heth, +1Ch 1:14 And the Jebusite and the Amorite and the Girgashite, +1Ch 1:15 And the Hivite and the Arkite and the Sinite, +1Ch 1:16 And the Arvadite and the Zemarite and the Hamathite. +1Ch 1:17 The sons of Shem: Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram and Uz and Hul and Gether and Meshech. +1Ch 1:18 And Arpachshad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah was the father of Eber. +1Ch 1:19 And Eber had two sons: the name of the one was Peleg, because in his days a division was made of the earth; and his brother's name was Joktan. +1Ch 1:20 And Joktan was the father of Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah +1Ch 1:21 And Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah +1Ch 1:22 And Ebal and Abimael and Sheba +1Ch 1:23 And Ophir and Havilah and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. +1Ch 1:24 Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, +1Ch 1:25 Eber, Peleg, Reu, +1Ch 1:26 Serug, Nahor, Terah, +1Ch 1:27 Abram (that is Abraham). +1Ch 1:28 The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael. +1Ch 1:29 These are their generations: the oldest son of Ishmael, Nebaioth; then Kedar and Adbeel and Mibsam, +1Ch 1:30 Mishma and Dumah, Massa, Hadad and Tema, +1Ch 1:31 Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael. +1Ch 1:32 And the sons of Keturah, Abraham's servant-wife: she was the mother of Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan. +1Ch 1:33 And the sons of Midian: Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah. +1Ch 1:34 And Abraham was the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel. +1Ch 1:35 The sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel and Jeush and Jalam and Korah. +1Ch 1:36 The sons of Eliphaz: Teman and Omar, Zephi and Gatam, Kenaz and Timna and Amalek. +1Ch 1:37 The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. +1Ch 1:38 And the sons of Seir: Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and Anah and Dishon and Ezer and Dishan. +1Ch 1:39 And the sons of Lotan: Hori and Homam; and Timna was Lotan's sister. +1Ch 1:40 The sons of Shobal: Alian and Manahath and Ebal, Shephi and Onam. And the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. +1Ch 1:41 The sons of Anah: Dishon. And the sons of Dishon: Hamran and Eshban and Ithran and Cheran. +1Ch 1:42 The sons of Ezer: Bilhan and Zaavan, Jaakan. The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran. +1Ch 1:43 Now these are the kings who were ruling in the land of Edom, before there was any king over Israel: Bela, the son of Beor; his town was named Dinhabah. +1Ch 1:44 At his death, Jobab, the son of Zerah of Bozrah, became king in his place. +1Ch 1:45 At the death of Jobab, Husham, from the land of the Temanites, became king in his place. +1Ch 1:46 And at the death of Husham, Hadad, the son of Bedad, who overcame Midian in the field of Moab, became king; his town was named Avith. +1Ch 1:47 And at the death of Hadad, Samlah of Masrekah became king in his place. +1Ch 1:48 And at the death of Samlah, Shaul of Rehoboth by the river became king in his place, +1Ch 1:49 And at the death of Shaul, Baal-hanan, the son of Achbor, became king in his place. +1Ch 1:50 And at the death of Baal-hanan, Hadad became king in his place; his town was named Pai, and his wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab. +1Ch 1:51 And Hadad came to his end. Now the chiefs of Edom were: the chief of Timna, the chief of Aliah, the chief of Jetheth, +1Ch 1:52 The chief of Oholibamah, the chief of Elah, the chief of Pinon, +1Ch 1:53 The chief of Kenaz, the chief of Teman, the chief of Mibzar, +1Ch 1:54 The chief of Magdiel, the chief of Iram. These are the chiefs of Edom. +1Ch 2:1 These are the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah, Issachar and Zebulun; +1Ch 2:2 Dan, Joseph and Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad and Asher. +1Ch 2:3 The sons of Judah: Er and Onan and Shelah; these three were his sons by Bathshua, the Canaanite woman. And Er, Judah's oldest son, did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and he put him to death. +1Ch 2:4 And Tamar, his daughter-in-law, had Perez and Zerah by him. All the sons of Judah were five. +1Ch 2:5 The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul. +1Ch 2:6 And the sons of Zerah: Zimri and Ethan and Heman and Calcol and Dara; five of them. +1Ch 2:7 And the sons of Carmi: Achan, the troubler of Israel, who did wrong about the cursed thing. +1Ch 2:8 And the son of Ethan: Azariah. +1Ch 2:9 And the sons of Hezron, the offspring of his body: Jerahmeel and Ram and Chelubai. +1Ch 2:10 And Ram was the father of Amminadab; and Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, chief of the children of Judah; +1Ch 2:11 And Nahshon was the father of Salma, and Salma was the father of Boaz, +1Ch 2:12 And Boaz was the father of Obed, and Obed was the father of Jesse, +1Ch 2:13 And Jesse was the father of Eliab, his oldest son, and Abinadab, the second, and Shimea, the third, +1Ch 2:14 Nethanel, the fourth, Raddai, the fifth, +1Ch 2:15 Ozem, the sixth, David, the seventh; +1Ch 2:16 And their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. And Zeruiah had three sons: Abishai and Joab and Asahel. +1Ch 2:17 And Abigail was the mother of Amasa; and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite. +1Ch 2:18 And Caleb, the son of Hezron, had children by Azubah his wife, the daughter of Jerioth; and these were her sons: Jesher and Shobab and Ardon. +1Ch 2:19 And after the death of Azubah, Caleb took as his wife Ephrath, who was the mother of Hur. +1Ch 2:20 And Hur was the father of Uri; and Uri was the father of Bezalel. +1Ch 2:21 And after that, Hezron had connection with the daughter of Machir, the father of Gilead, whom he took as his wife when he was sixty years old; and she had Segub by him. +1Ch 2:22 And Segub was the father of Jair, who had twenty-three towns in the land of Gilead. +1Ch 2:23 And Geshur and Aram took the tent-towns of Jair from them, with Kenath and the small places round it, even sixty towns. All these were the sons of Machir, the father of Gilead. +1Ch 2:24 And after the death of Hezron, Caleb had connection with Ephrath, his father Hezron's wife, and she gave birth to his son Asshur, the father of Tekoa. +1Ch 2:25 And the sons of Jerahmeel, the oldest son of Hezron, were Ram, the oldest, and Bunah and Oren and Ozem and Ahijah. +1Ch 2:26 And Jerahmeel had another wife, whose name was Atarah: she was the mother of Onam. +1Ch 2:27 And the sons of Ram, the oldest son of Jerahmeel, were Maaz and Jamin and Eker. +1Ch 2:28 And the sons of Onam were Shammai and Jada; and the sons of Shammai: Nadab and Abishur. +1Ch 2:29 And the name of Abishur's wife was Abihail; and she had Ahban and Molid by him. +1Ch 2:30 And the sons of Nadab: Seled and Appaim; but Seled came to his end without sons. +1Ch 2:31 And the sons of Appaim: Ishi. And the sons of Ishi: Sheshan. And the sons of Sheshan: Ahlai. +1Ch 2:32 And the sons of Jada, the brother of Shammai: Jether and Jonathan; and Jether came to his end without sons. +1Ch 2:33 And the sons of Jonathan: Peleth and Zaza. These were the sons of Jerahmeel. +1Ch 2:34 Now Sheshan had no sons, but only daughters. And Sheshan had an Egyptian servant, whose name was Jarha. +1Ch 2:35 And Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha, his servant, as a wife; and she had Attai by him. +1Ch 2:36 And Attai was the father of Nathan, and Nathan was the father of Zabad, +1Ch 2:37 And Zabad was the father of Ephlal, and Ephlal was the father of Obed, +1Ch 2:38 And Obed was the father of Jehu, and Jehu was the father of Azariah, +1Ch 2:39 And Azariah was the father of Helez, and Helez was the father of Eleasah, +1Ch 2:40 And Eleasah was the father of Sismai, and Sismai was the father of Shallum, +1Ch 2:41 And Shallum was the father of Jekamiah, and Jekamiah was the father of Elishama. +1Ch 2:42 And the sons of Caleb, the brother of Jerahmeel, were Mareshah, his oldest son, who was the father of Ziph and Hebron. +1Ch 2:43 And the sons of Hebron: Korah and Tappuah and Rekem and Shema. +1Ch 2:44 And Shema was the father of Raham, the father of Jorkeam, and Rekem was the father of Shammai. +1Ch 2:45 And the son of Shammai was Maon; and Maon was the father of Beth-zur. +1Ch 2:46 And Ephah, Caleb's servant-wife, had Haran and Moza and Gazez; and Haran was the father of Gazez. +1Ch 2:47 And the sons of Jahdai: Regem and Jotham and Geshan and Pelet and Ephah and Shaaph. +1Ch 2:48 Maacah, Caleb's servant-wife, was the mother of Sheber and Tirhanah, +1Ch 2:49 And Shaaph, the father of Madmannah, Sheva, the father of Machbena and the father of Gibea; and Caleb's daughter was Achsah. These were the sons of Caleb. +1Ch 2:50 The sons of Hur, the oldest son of Ephrathah; Shobal, the father of Kiriath-jearim, +1Ch 2:51 Salma, the father of Beth-lehem, Hareph, the father of Beth-gader. +1Ch 2:52 And Shobal, the father of Kiriath-jearim, had sons: Haroeh, half of the Manahathites. +1Ch 2:53 And the families of Kiriath-jearim: the Ithrites and the Puthites and the Shumathites and the Mishraites; from them came the Zorathites and the Eshtaolites. +1Ch 2:54 The sons of Salma: Beth-lehem and the Netophathites, Atroth-beth-Joab and half of the Manahathites, the Zorites. +1Ch 2:55 And the families of scribes who were living at Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, the Sucathites. These are the Kenites, the offspring of Hammath, the father of the family of Rechab. +1Ch 3:1 Now these were David's sons, whose birth took place in Hebron: the oldest Amnon, by Ahinoam of Jezreel; the second Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite woman; +1Ch 3:2 The third Absalom, the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth Adonijah, the son of Haggith; +1Ch 3:3 The fifth Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth Ithream, by Eglah his wife. +1Ch 3:4 He had six sons in Hebron; he was ruling there for seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem for thirty-three years. +1Ch 3:5 And in Jerusalem he had four sons, Shimea and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon, by Bath-shua, the daughter of Ammiel; +1Ch 3:6 And Ibhar and Elishama and Eliphelet +1Ch 3:7 And Nogah and Nepheg and Japhia +1Ch 3:8 And Elishama and Eliada and Eliphelet, nine. +1Ch 3:9 All these were the sons of David, in addition to the sons of his servant-wives; and Tamar was their sister. +1Ch 3:10 And Solomon's son was Rehoboam, Abijah was his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, +1Ch 3:11 Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, +1Ch 3:12 Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, +1Ch 3:13 Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son, +1Ch 3:14 Amon his son, Josiah his son. +1Ch 3:15 And the sons of Josiah: the oldest Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum. +1Ch 3:16 And the sons of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son. +1Ch 3:17 And the sons of Jeconiah, who was taken prisoner: Shealtiel his son, +1Ch 3:18 And Malchiram and Pedaiah and Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah. +1Ch 3:19 And the sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei; and the sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah; and Shelomith was their sister; +1Ch 3:20 And Hashubah and Ohel and Berechiah and Hasadiah, Jushab-hesed, five. +1Ch 3:21 And the sons of Hananiah: Pelatiah and Jeshaiah; the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shecaniah. +1Ch 3:22 And the sons of Shecaniah: Shemaiah; and the sons of Shemaiah: Hattush and Igal and Bariah and Neariah and Shaphat, six. +1Ch 3:23 And the sons of Neariah: Elioenai and Hizkiah and Azrikam, three. +1Ch 3:24 And the sons of Elioenai: Hodaviah and Eliashib and Pelaiah and Akkub and Johanan and Delaiah and Anani, seven. +1Ch 4:1 The sons of Judah: Perez, Hezron and Carmi and Hur and Shobal. +1Ch 4:2 And Reaiah, the son of Shobal, was the father of Jahath; and Jahath was the father of Ahumai and Lahad. These are the families of the Zorathites. +1Ch 4:3 And these were the sons of Hur, the father of Etam: Jezreel and Ishma and Idbash, and the name of their sister was Hazzelelponi; +1Ch 4:4 And Penuel, the father of Gedor, and Ezer, the father of Hushah. These are the sons of Hur, the oldest son of Ephrathah, the father of Beth-lehem. +1Ch 4:5 And Ashhur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Helah and Naarah. +1Ch 4:6 And Naarah had Ahuzzam by him, and Hepher and Temeni and Haahashtari. These were the sons of Naarah. +1Ch 4:7 And the sons of Helah were Zereth, Izhar and Ethnan. +1Ch 4:8 And Koz was the father of Anub and Zobebah, and the families of Aharhel the son of Harum. +1Ch 4:9 And Jabez was honoured more than his brothers; but his mother had given him the name Jabez, saying, Because I gave birth to him with sorrow. +1Ch 4:10 And Jabez made a prayer to the God of Israel, saying, If only you would truly give me a blessing, and make wider the limits of my land, and let your hand be with me, and keep me from evil, so that I may not be troubled by it! And God gave him his desire. +1Ch 4:11 And Chelub, the brother of Shuhah, was the father of Mehir, who was the father of Eshton. +1Ch 4:12 And Eshton was the father of Bethrapha and Paseah and Tehinnah, the father of Ir-nahash. These are the men of Recah. +1Ch 4:13 And the sons of Kenaz: Othniel and Seraiah; and the sons of Othniel: Hathath. +1Ch 4:14 And Meonothai was the father of Ophrah; and Seraiah was the father of Joab, the father of Ge-harashim; they were expert workmen. +1Ch 4:15 And the sons of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh: Iru, Elah, and Naam; and the son of Elah: Kenaz. +1Ch 4:16 And the sons of Jehallelel: Ziph and Ziphah, Tiria and Asarel. +1Ch 4:17 And the sons of Ezrah: Jether and Mered and Epher and Jalon; and these are the sons of Bithiah, the daughter of Pharaoh, the wife of Mered. And she became the mother of Miriam and Shammai and Ishbah, the father of Eshtemoa. +1Ch 4:18 And his wife, a woman of the tribe of Judah, became the mother of Jered, the father of Gedor, and Heber, the father of Soco, and Jekuthiel, the father of Zanoah. +1Ch 4:19 And the sons of the wife of Hodiah, the sister of Naham, were the father of Keilah the Garmite, and Eshtemoa the Maacathite. +1Ch 4:20 And the sons of Shimon: Amnon and Rinnah, Ben-hanan and Tilon. And the sons of Ishi: Zoheth; and the son of Zoheth. ... +1Ch 4:21 The sons of Shelah, the son of Judah: Er, the father of Lecah, and Laadah, the father of Mareshah, and the families of those who made delicate linen, of the family of Ashbea; +1Ch 4:22 And Jokim, and the men of Cozeba, and Joash and Saraph, who were rulers in Moab, and went back to Beth-lehem. And the records are very old. +1Ch 4:23 These were the potters, and the people living among planted fields with walls round them; they were there to do the king's work. +1Ch 4:24 The sons of Simeon: Nemuel and Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, Shaul; +1Ch 4:25 Shallum his son, Mibsam his son, Mishma his son. +1Ch 4:26 And the sons of Mishma: Hammuel his son, Zaccur his son, Shimei his son. +1Ch 4:27 And Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his brothers had only a small number of children, and their family was not as fertile as the children of Judah. +1Ch 4:28 And they were living at Beer-sheba and Moladah and Hazar-shual, +1Ch 4:29 And at Bilhah, and at Ezem, and at Tolad, +1Ch 4:30 And at Bethuel, and at Hormah, and at Ziklag, +1Ch 4:31 And at Beth-marcaboth, and at Hazarsusim, and at Beth-biri, and at Shaaraim. These were their towns till David became king. +1Ch 4:32 And their small towns were Etam, Ain, Rimmon, and Tochen and Ashan, five towns; +1Ch 4:33 And all the small places round these towns, as far as Baalath-beer, the high place of the South. These were their living-places, and they have lists of their generations. +1Ch 4:34 And Meshobab and Jamlech and Joshah, the son of Amaziah, +1Ch 4:35 And Joel and Jehu, the son of Joshibiah, the son of Seraiah, the son of Asiel, +1Ch 4:36 And Elioenai and Jaakobah and Jeshohaiah and Asaiah and Adiel and Jesimiel and Benaiah, +1Ch 4:37 And Ziza, the son of Shiphi, the son of Allon, the son of Jedaiah, the son of Shimri, the son of Shemaiah; +1Ch 4:38 These, whose names are given, were chiefs in their families, and their families became very great in number. +1Ch 4:39 And they went to the opening into Gedor, as far as the east side of the valley, in search of grass-land for their flocks. +1Ch 4:40 And they came to some good fertile grass-land, in a wide quiet country of peace-loving people; for the people who were living there before were of the offspring of Ham. +1Ch 4:41 And these whose names are given came in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and made an attack on the Meunim who were living there, and put an end to them to this day, and took their place, because there was grass there for their flocks. +1Ch 4:42 And some of them, five hundred of the sons of Simeon, went to the hill-country of Seir, with Pelatiah and Neariah and Rephaiah and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi, at their head. +1Ch 4:43 And they put to death the rest of the Amalekites who had got away safely, and made it their living-place to this day. +1Ch 5:1 And the sons of Reuben, the oldest son of Israel, (for he was the oldest son, but, because he made his father's bride-bed unclean, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel; but he is not to be given the place of the oldest. +1Ch 5:2 Though Judah became stronger than his brothers, and from him came the ruler, the birthright was Joseph's:) +1Ch 5:3 The sons of Reuben, the oldest son of Israel: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. +1Ch 5:4 The sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son, +1Ch 5:5 Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son, +1Ch 5:6 Beerah his son, whom Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, took away as a prisoner: he was chief of the Reubenites. +1Ch 5:7 And his brothers by their families, when the list of their generations was made up: the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah, +1Ch 5:8 And Bela, the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel, who was living in Aroer, as far as Nebo and Baal-meon; +1Ch 5:9 And to the east his limits went as far as the starting point of the waste land, ending at the river Euphrates, because their cattle were increased in number in the land of Gilead. +1Ch 5:10 And in the days of Saul they made war on the Hagarites, and overcame them; and they put up their tents through all the land east of Gilead. +1Ch 5:11 And the sons of Gad were living opposite to them, in the land of Bashan as far as Salecah: +1Ch 5:12 Joel the chief, and Shapham the second, and Janai and Shaphat in Bashan; +1Ch 5:13 And their brothers, the men of their family: Michael and Meshullam and Sheba and Jorai and Jacan and Zia and Eber, seven of them. +1Ch 5:14 These were the sons of Abihail, the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz; +1Ch 5:15 Ahi, the son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, head of their families. +1Ch 5:16 And they were living in Gilead in Bashan, in its small towns and in all the grass-land of Sirion as far as its limits. +1Ch 5:17 All these were listed under the names of their families, in the time of Jotham, king of Judah, and in the time of Jeroboam, king of Israel. +1Ch 5:18 There were forty-four thousand, seven hundred and sixty of the sons of Reuben and of the Gadites and of the half-tribe of Manasseh, all strong men, expert in the use of the body-cover, the sword, and the bow, and in the art of war, all able to take up arms. +1Ch 5:19 And they went to war against the Hagarites, with Jetur and Naphish and Nodab. +1Ch 5:20 And they were helped against them, so that the Hagarites, and those with them, were given into their power. For they sent up prayers to God in the fight, and he gave ear to them, because they put their faith in him. +1Ch 5:21 And they took away their cattle: fifty thousand camels, two hundred and fifty thousand sheep, and two thousand asses, and a hundred thousand men. +1Ch 5:22 And a very great number went to their death, because the war was God's purpose. And they went on living in their place till they were taken away as prisoners. +1Ch 5:23 And the men of the half-tribe of Manasseh were living in the land: and their numbers were increased till all the land from Bashan to Baal-hermon and Senir and the mountain Hermon was theirs. +1Ch 5:24 And these were the heads of their families: Epher and Ishi and Eliel and Azriel and Jeremiah and Hodaviah and Jahdiel, men of war, of great name, heads of families. +1Ch 5:25 And they did evil against the God of their fathers, worshipping the gods of the people of the land, whom God had put to destruction before them. +1Ch 5:26 And the God of Israel put an impulse into the heart of Pul, king of Assyria, and of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, who took them away as prisoners, all the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to Halah and Habor and Hara and to the river of Gozan, to this day. +1Ch 6:1 The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. +1Ch 6:2 And the sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. +1Ch 6:3 And the sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses and Miriam. And the sons of Aaron: Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. +1Ch 6:4 Eleazar was the father of Phinehas; Phinehas was the father of Abishua; +1Ch 6:5 And Abishua was the father of Bukki, and Bukki was the father of Uzzi, +1Ch 6:6 And Uzzi was the father of Zerahiah, and Zerahiah was the father of Meraioth; +1Ch 6:7 Meraioth was the father of Amariah, and Amariah was the father of Ahitub, +1Ch 6:8 And Ahitub was the father of Zadok, and Zadok was the father of Ahimaaz, +1Ch 6:9 And Ahimaaz was the father of Azariah, and Azariah was the father of Johanan, +1Ch 6:10 And Johanan was the father of Azariah, (he was priest in the house which Solomon put up in Jerusalem:) +1Ch 6:11 And Azariah was the father of Amariah, and Amariah was the father of Ahitub, +1Ch 6:12 And Ahitub was the father of Zadok, and Zadok was the father of Shallum, +1Ch 6:13 And Shallum was the father of Hilkiah, and Hilkiah was the father of Azariah, +1Ch 6:14 And Azariah was the father of Seraiah, and Seraiah was the father of Jehozadak; +1Ch 6:15 And Jehozadak went as a prisoner when the Lord took away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. +1Ch 6:16 The sons of Levi; Gershom, Kohath, and Merari. +1Ch 6:17 And these are the names of the sons of Gershom: Libni and Shimei. +1Ch 6:18 And the sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. +1Ch 6:19 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. And these are the families of the Levites listed by the names of their fathers. +1Ch 6:20 Of Gershom: Libni his son, Jahath his son, Zimmah his son, +1Ch 6:21 Joah his son, Iddo his son, Zerah his son, Jeatherai his son. +1Ch 6:22 The sons of Kohath: Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son, +1Ch 6:23 Elkanah his son, and Ebiasaph his son, and Assir his son, +1Ch 6:24 Tahath his son, Uriel his son, Uzziah his son, and Shaul his son. +1Ch 6:25 And the sons of Elkanah: Amasai and Ahimoth. +1Ch 6:26 Elkanah his son: Zophai his son, and Nahath his son, +1Ch 6:27 Eliab his son, Jeroham his son, Elkanah his son, Samuel his son. +1Ch 6:28 And the sons of Samuel: the oldest Joel, and the second Abiah. +1Ch 6:29 The sons of Merari: Mahli, Libni his son, Shimei his son, Uzzah his son, +1Ch 6:30 Shimea his son, Haggiah his son, Asaiah his son. +1Ch 6:31 And these are those whom David made responsible for the music in the house of the Lord, after the ark had rest. +1Ch 6:32 They gave worship with songs before the House of the Tent of meeting, till Solomon put up the house of the Lord in Jerusalem; and they took their places for their work in their regular order. +1Ch 6:33 And these are those who did this work, and their sons. Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman, who made melody, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel, +1Ch 6:34 The son of Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Eliel, the son of Toah, +1Ch 6:35 The son of Zuph, the son of Elkanah, the son of Mahath, the son of Amasai, +1Ch 6:36 The son of Elkanah, the son of Joel, the son of Azariah, the son of Zephaniah, +1Ch 6:37 The son of Tahath, the son of Assir, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, +1Ch 6:38 The son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel. +1Ch 6:39 And his brother Asaph, whose place was at his right hand, Asaph, the son of Berechiah, the son of Shimea, +1Ch 6:40 The son of Michael, the son of Baaseiah, the son of Malchijah, +1Ch 6:41 The son of Ethni, the son of Zerah, the son of Adaiah, +1Ch 6:42 The son of Ethan, the son of Zimmah, the son of Shimei, +1Ch 6:43 The son of Jahath, the son of Gershom, the son of Levi. +1Ch 6:44 And on the left their brothers, the sons of Merari: Ethan, the son of Kishi, the son of Abdi, the son of Malluch, +1Ch 6:45 The son of Hashabiah, the son of Amaziah, the son of Hilkiah, +1Ch 6:46 The son of Amzi, the son of Bani, the son of Shemer, +1Ch 6:47 The son of Mahli, the son of Mushi, the son of Merari, the son of Levi. +1Ch 6:48 And their brothers the Levites were responsible for all the work of the Tent of the house of God. +1Ch 6:49 But Aaron and his sons made offerings on the altar of burned offering, and on the altar of perfume, for all the work of the most holy place, and to take away the sin of Israel, doing everything ordered by Moses, the servant of God. +1Ch 6:50 And these are the sons of Aaron: Eleazar his son, Phinehas his son, Abishua his son, +1Ch 6:51 Bukki his son, Uzzi his son, Zerahiah his son, +1Ch 6:52 Meraioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son, +1Ch 6:53 Zadok his son, Ahimaaz his son. +1Ch 6:54 Now these are their living-places, the limits inside which they were to put up their tents: to the sons of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites, because they had the first selection, +1Ch 6:55 To them they gave Hebron and its outskirts in the land of Judah; +1Ch 6:56 But the open country of the town, and the small places round it, they gave to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. +1Ch 6:57 And to the sons of Aaron they gave Hebron, the town to which men might go in flight and be safe, and Libnah with its outskirts, and Jattir, and Eshtemoa with its outskirts, +1Ch 6:58 And Hilen with its outskirts, Debir with its outskirts, +1Ch 6:59 And Ashan with its outskirts, and Beth-shemesh with its outskirts; +1Ch 6:60 And from the tribe of Benjamin: Geba with its outskirts, and Alemeth with its outskirts, and Anathoth with its outskirts. All their towns among their families were thirteen towns. +1Ch 6:61 And to the rest of the sons of Kohath there were given by the Lord's decision ten towns out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim and out of the tribe of Dan and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh. +1Ch 6:62 And to the sons of Gershom, by their families, out of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen towns. +1Ch 6:63 And to the sons of Merari, by their families, twelve towns were given by the Lord's decision, out of the tribe of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun. +1Ch 6:64 And the children of Israel gave to the Levites the towns with their outskirts. +1Ch 6:65 And they gave by the Lord's decision out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, and out of the tribe of the children of Benjamin, these towns whose names are given. +1Ch 6:66 And to the families of the sons of Kohath were given towns by the Lord's decision out of the tribe of Ephraim. +1Ch 6:67 And they gave them the town to which men might go in flight and be safe, Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim with its outskirts, and Gezer with its outskirts, +1Ch 6:68 And Jokmeam with its outskirts, and Beth-horon with its outskirts, +1Ch 6:69 And Aijalon with its outskirts, and Gath-rimmon with its outskirts; +1Ch 6:70 And out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Aner with its outskirts, and Bileam with its outskirts, for the rest of the family of the sons of Kohath. +1Ch 6:71 To the sons of Gershom were given, out of the family of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan with its outskirts, and Ashtaroth with its outskirts; +1Ch 6:72 And out of the tribe of Issachar, Kedesh with its outskirts, and Daberath with its outskirts, +1Ch 6:73 And Ramoth with its outskirts, and Anem with its outskirts; +1Ch 6:74 And out of the tribe of Asher, Mashal with its outskirts, and Abdon with its outskirts, +1Ch 6:75 And Hukok with its outskirts, and Rehob with its outskirts; +1Ch 6:76 And out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with its outskirts, and Hammon with its outskirts, and Kiriathaim with its outskirts. +1Ch 6:77 To the rest of the Levites, the sons of Merari, were given, out of the tribe of Zebulun, Rimmono with its outskirts, Tabor with its outskirts; +1Ch 6:78 And on the other side of Jordan, at Jericho, on the east side of Jordan, were given them, out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer in the waste land with its outskirts, and Jahzah with its outskirts, +1Ch 6:79 And Kedemoth with its outskirts, and Mephaath with its outskirts; +1Ch 6:80 And out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with its outskirts, and Mahanaim with its outskirts, +1Ch 6:81 And Heshbon with its outskirts, and Jazer with its outskirts. +1Ch 7:1 And of the sons of Issachar: Tola and Puah, Jashub and Shimron, four. +1Ch 7:2 And the sons of Tola: Uzzi and Rephaiah and Jeriel and Jahmai and Ibsam and Shemuel, heads of their families; they were men of war; in the record of their generations their number in the time of David was twenty-two thousand, six hundred. +1Ch 7:3 And the sons of Uzzi; Izrahiah; and the sons of Izrahiah: Michael and Obadiah and Joel and Isshiah, five; all of them chiefs. +1Ch 7:4 And with them, recorded in generations by their families, were bands of fighting-men, thirty-six thousand of them, for they had a great number of wives and sons. +1Ch 7:5 And there were recorded among all the families of Issachar, great men of war, eighty-seven thousand. +1Ch 7:6 The sons of Benjamin: Bela and Becher and Jediael, three. +1Ch 7:7 And the sons of Bela: Ezbon and Uzzi and Uzziel and Jerimoth and Iri, five; heads of their families, great men of war; there were twenty-two thousand and thirty-four of them recorded by their families. +1Ch 7:8 And the sons of Becher: Zemirah and Joash and Eliezer and Elioenai and Omri and Jerimoth and Abijah and Anathoth and Alemeth. All these were the sons of Becher. +1Ch 7:9 And they were recorded by their generations, heads of their families, great men of war, twenty thousand, two hundred. +1Ch 7:10 And the sons of Jediael: Bilhan; and the sons of Bilhan: Jeush and Benjamin and Ehud and Chenaanah and Zethan and Tarshish and Ahishahar. +1Ch 7:11 All these were the sons of Jediael, by the heads of their families, seventeen thousand, two hundred men of war, able to go out with the army for war. +1Ch 7:12 And Shuppim and Huppim. The sons of Dan, Hushim his son, one. +1Ch 7:13 The sons of Naphtali: Jahziel and Guni and Jezer and Shallum, the sons of Bilhah. +1Ch 7:14 The sons of Manasseh by his servant-wife, the Aramaean woman: she gave birth to Machir, the father of Gilead; +1Ch 7:15 (And Gilead took a wife, whose name was Maacah, and his sister's name was Hammoleketh;) and the name of his brother was Zelophehad, who was the father of daughters. +1Ch 7:16 And Maacah, the wife of Gilead, gave birth to a son to whom she gave the name Peresh; and his brother was named Sheresh; and his sons were Ulam and Rakem. +1Ch 7:17 And the son of Ulam: Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir the son of Manasseh. +1Ch 7:18 And his sister Hammoleketh was the mother of Ishhod and Abiezer and Mahlah. +1Ch 7:19 And the sons of Shemida were Ahian and Shechem and Likhi and Aniam. +1Ch 7:20 And the sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah and Bered his son, and Tahath his son, and Eleadah his son, and Tahath his son, +1Ch 7:21 And Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead, whom the men of Gath, who had been living in the land from their birth, put to death, because they came down to take away their cattle. +1Ch 7:22 And for a long time Ephraim their father went on weeping for them, and his brothers came to give him comfort. +1Ch 7:23 After that, he had connection with his wife, and she became with child and gave birth to a son, to whom his father gave the name of Beriah, because trouble had come on his family. +1Ch 7:24 And his daughter was Sheerah, the builder of Beth-horon the lower and the higher, and Uzzen-sheerah. +1Ch 7:25 And Rephah was his son, and Resheph; his son was Telah, and his son was Tahan; +1Ch 7:26 Ladan was his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son, +1Ch 7:27 Nun his son, Joshua his son. +1Ch 7:28 Their heritage and their living-places were Beth-el and its daughter-towns, and Naaran to the east, and Gezer to the west, with its daughter-towns, as well as Shechem and its daughter-towns as far as Azzah and its daughter-towns; +1Ch 7:29 And by the limits of the children of Manasseh, Beth-shean and its daughter-towns, Taanach, Megiddo, and Dor, with their daughter-towns. In these the children of Joseph, the son of Israel, were living. +1Ch 7:30 The sons of Asher: Imnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah and Serah, their sister. +1Ch 7:31 And the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel, who was the father of Birzaith. +1Ch 7:32 And Heber was the father of Japhlet and Shomer and Hotham and Shua, their sister. +1Ch 7:33 And the sons of Japhlet: Pasach and Bimhal and Ashvath. These are the sons of Japhlet. +1Ch 7:34 And the sons of Shomer: Ahi and Rohgah, Jehubbah and Aram. +1Ch 7:35 And the sons of Hotham, his brother: Zophah and Imna and Shelesh and Amal. +1Ch 7:36 The sons of Zophah: Suah and Harnepher and Shual and Beri and Imrah, +1Ch 7:37 Bezer and Hod and Shamma and Shilshah and Ithran and Beera. +1Ch 7:38 And the sons of Jether: Jephunneh and Pispah and Ara. +1Ch 7:39 And the sons of Ulla: Arah and Hanniel and Rizia. +1Ch 7:40 All these were the children of Asher, heads of their families, specially strong men of war, chiefs of the rulers. They were recorded in the army for war, twenty-six thousand men in number. +1Ch 8:1 And Benjamin was the father of Bela his oldest son, Ashbel the second, and Aharah the third, +1Ch 8:2 Nohah the fourth, and Rapha the fifth. +1Ch 8:3 And Bela had sons, Addar and Gera, the father of Ehud, +1Ch 8:4 And Abishua and Naaman and Ahoah +1Ch 8:5 And Gera and Shephuphan and Huram. +1Ch 8:6 And these are the sons of Ehud, heads of families of those living in Geba: Iglaam and Alemeth +1Ch 8:7 And Naaman and Ahijah and Gera; and Iglaam was the father of Uzza and Ahihud. +1Ch 8:8 And Shaharaim became the father of children in the country of the Moabites after driving out Hushim and Beerah his wives; +1Ch 8:9 And by Hodesh his wife he became the father of Jobab and Zibia and Mesha and Malcam. +1Ch 8:10 And Jeuz and Shachia and Mirmah. These were his sons, heads of families. +1Ch 8:11 And Hushim became the father of Abitub and Elpaal. +1Ch 8:12 And the sons of Elpaal: Eber and Misham and Shemed (he was the builder of Ono and Lod and their daughter-towns); +1Ch 8:13 And Beriah and Shema, who were heads of the families of those who were living in Aijalon, who put to flight the people living in Gath; +1Ch 8:14 And their brothers Shashak and Jeremoth. +1Ch 8:15 And Zebadiah and Arad and Eder +1Ch 8:16 And Michael and Ishpah and Joha, the sons of Beriah; +1Ch 8:17 And Zebadiah and Meshullam and Hizki and Heber +1Ch 8:18 And Ishmerai and Izliah and Jobab, the sons of Elpaal; +1Ch 8:19 And Jakim and Zichri and Zabdi +1Ch 8:20 And Elienai and Zillethai and Eliel +1Ch 8:21 And Adaiah and Beraiah and Shimrath, the sons of Shimei; +1Ch 8:22 And Ishpan and Eber and Eliel +1Ch 8:23 And Abdon and Zichri and Hanan +1Ch 8:24 And Hananiah and Elam and Anathothijah +1Ch 8:25 And Iphdeiah and Penuel, the sons of Shashak; +1Ch 8:26 And Shamsherai and Shehariah and Athaliah +1Ch 8:27 And Jaareshiah and Elijah and Zichri, the sons of Jeremoth. +1Ch 8:28 These were heads of families in their generations; chief men: these were living in Jerusalem. +1Ch 8:29 And in Gibeon was living the father of Gibeon, Jeiel, whose wife's name was Maacah; +1Ch 8:30 And his oldest son Abdon, and Zur and Kish and Baal and Ner and Nadab +1Ch 8:31 And Gedor and Ahio and Zechariah and Mikloth. +1Ch 8:32 And Mikloth was the father of Shimeah. And they were living with their brothers in Jerusalem opposite their brothers. +1Ch 8:33 And Ner was the father of Abner, and Kish was the father of Saul, and Saul was the father of Jonathan and Malchi-shua and Abinadab and Eshbaal. +1Ch 8:34 And the son of Jonathan was Merib-baal; and Merib-baal was the father of Micah. +1Ch 8:35 And the sons of Micah: Pithon and Melech and Tarea and Ahaz. +1Ch 8:36 And Ahaz was the father of Jehoaddah; and Jehoaddah was the father of Alemeth and Azmaveth and Zimri; and Zimri was the father of Moza; +1Ch 8:37 And Moza was the father of Binea: Raphah was his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son; +1Ch 8:38 And Azel had five sons, whose names are: Azrikam, his oldest, and Ishmael and Sheariah and Obadiah and Hanan. All these were the sons of Azel. +1Ch 8:39 And the sons of Eshek his brother: Ulam his oldest son, Jeush the second, and Eliphelet the third. +1Ch 8:40 And the sons of Ulam were men of war, bowmen, and had a great number of sons and sons' sons, a hundred and fifty. All these were the sons of Benjamin. +1Ch 9:1 So all Israel was listed by their families; and, truly, they are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel. And Judah was taken away as prisoners to Babylon because of their sin. +1Ch 9:2 Now the first to take up their heritage in their towns were: Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the Nethinim. +1Ch 9:3 And in Jerusalem there were living some of the sons of Judah, and of Benjamin, and of Ephraim and Manasseh; +1Ch 9:4 Uthai, the son of Ammihud, the son of Omri, the son of Imri, the son of Bani, of the sons of Perez, the son of Judah. +1Ch 9:5 And of the Shilonites: Asaiah the oldest, and his sons. +1Ch 9:6 And of the sons of Zerah: Jeuel, and their brothers, six hundred and ninety. +1Ch 9:7 And of the sons of Benjamin: Sallu, the son of Meshullam, Judah, the son of Hassenuah, +1Ch 9:8 And Ibneiah, the son of Jeroham, and Elah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Michri, and Meshullam, the son of Shephatiah, the son of Reuel, the son of Ibnijah; +1Ch 9:9 And their brothers, in the list of their generations, nine hundred and fifty-six. All these men were heads of families, listed by the names of their fathers. +1Ch 9:10 And of the priests: Jedaiah and Jehoiarib and Jachin +1Ch 9:11 And Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God; +1Ch 9:12 And Adaiah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah, and Maasai, the son of Adiel, the son of Jahzerah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Meshillemith, the son of Immer; +1Ch 9:13 And their brothers, heads of their families, a thousand and seven hundred and sixty: able men, doing the work of the house of God. +1Ch 9:14 And of the Levites: Shemaiah, the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, of the sons of Merari; +1Ch 9:15 And Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal, and Mattaniah, the son of Mica, the son of Zichri, the son of Asaph; +1Ch 9:16 And Obadiah, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun, and Berechiah, the son of Asa, the son of Elkanah, who were living in the small towns of the Netophathites. +1Ch 9:17 And the door-keepers: Shallum and Akkub and Talmon and Ahiman and their brothers: Shallum was the chief. +1Ch 9:18 Up till then they had been at the king's door to the east. They were door-keepers for the tents of the sons of Levi. +1Ch 9:19 And Shallum, the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brothers, of his family, the Korahites, were responsible for everything which had to be done in connection with the order of worship, keepers of the doors of the Tent; their fathers had had the care of the tents of the Lord, being keepers of the doorway. +1Ch 9:20 In the past Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, had been ruler over them; may the Lord be with him! +1Ch 9:21 Zechariah, the son of Meshelemiah, was keeper of the door of the Tent of meeting. +1Ch 9:22 There were two hundred and twelve whose business it was to keep the doorway. These were listed by families in the country places where they were living, whom David and Samuel the seer put in their responsible positions. +1Ch 9:23 So they and their sons had the care of the doors of the house of the Lord, the house of the Tent, as watchers. +1Ch 9:24 There were keepers of the doors on the four sides, to the east, west, north, and south. +1Ch 9:25 And their brothers, in the country places where they were living, were to come in every seven days to be with them from time to time. +1Ch 9:26 For the four chief door-keepers, who were Levites, had a special position, looking after the rooms and the store-houses of the house of God. +1Ch 9:27 Their sleeping-rooms were round the house of God, for they had the care of it, and were responsible for opening it morning by morning. +1Ch 9:28 Certain of them had the care of the vessels used in worship, to keep an account of them when they came in and when they were taken out again. +1Ch 9:29 And some of them were responsible for the holy things and for the vessels of the holy place, and the meal and the wine and the oil and the perfume and the spices. +1Ch 9:30 And some of the sons of the priests were responsible for crushing the spices. +1Ch 9:31 And Mattithiah, one of the Levites, the oldest son of Shallum the Korahite, was responsible for cooking the flat cakes. +1Ch 9:32 And some of their brothers, sons of the Kohathites, were responsible for the holy bread which was put in order before the Lord, to get it ready every Sabbath. +1Ch 9:33 And these were those who had the ordering of the music and songs, heads of families of the Levites, who were living in the rooms, and were free from other work, for their work went on day and night. +1Ch 9:34 These were heads of families of the Levites in their generations, chief men; they were living at Jerusalem. +1Ch 9:35 And in Gibeon was living the father of Gibeon, Jeiel, whose wife's name was Maacah; +1Ch 9:36 And Abdon his oldest son, and Zur and Kish and Baal and Ner and Nadab +1Ch 9:37 And Gedor and Ahio and Zechariah and Mikloth +1Ch 9:38 Mikloth was the father of Shimeam. They were living with their brothers in Jerusalem opposite their brothers. +1Ch 9:39 And Ner was the father of Kish; and Kish was the father of Saul; and Saul was the father of Jonathan and Malchi-shua and Abinadab and Eshbaal. +1Ch 9:40 And the son of Jonathan was Merib-baal; and Merib-baal was the father of Micah. +1Ch 9:41 And the sons of Micah: Pithon and Melech and Tahrea and Ahaz. +1Ch 9:42 And Ahaz was the father of Jarah; and Jarah was the father of Alemeth and Azmaveth and Zimri; and Zimri was the father of Moza. +1Ch 9:43 And Moza was the father of Binea; and Rephaiah was his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son. +1Ch 9:44 And Azel had five sons, whose names are: Azrikam, his oldest son, and Ishmael and Sheariah and Obadiah and Hanan: these were the sons of Azel. +1Ch 10:1 Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel; and the men of Israel went in flight before the Philistines, falling down wounded in Mount Gilboa. +1Ch 10:2 And the Philistines went hard after Saul and his sons, and put to death Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. +1Ch 10:3 And the fight was going against Saul, and the archers came across him, and he was wounded by the archers. +1Ch 10:4 Then Saul said to the servant who had the care of his arms, Take your sword and put it through me, before these men without circumcision come and make sport of me. But his servant, full of fear, would not do so. Then Saul took out his sword, falling on it himself. +1Ch 10:5 And when his servant saw that Saul was dead, he did the same, and came to his death. +1Ch 10:6 So death overtook Saul and his three sons; all his family came to an end together. +1Ch 10:7 And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that the men of Israel had gone in flight and that Saul and his sons were dead, they went in flight away from their towns; and the Philistines came and took them for themselves. +1Ch 10:8 Now the day after, when the Philistines came to take their goods from the dead, they saw Saul and his sons dead in Mount Gilboa. +1Ch 10:9 And they took everything off him, and took his head and his war-dress, and sent word into the land of the Philistines round about to give the news to their gods and to the people. +1Ch 10:10 And they put his war-dress in the house of their gods, and put up his head in the house of Dagon. +1Ch 10:11 And when the news came to Jabesh-gilead of what the Philistines had done to Saul, +1Ch 10:12 All the fighting-men came up and took away Saul's body and the bodies of his sons, and took them to Jabesh, and put their bones to rest under the oak-tree in Jabesh, and took no food for seven days. +1Ch 10:13 So death came to Saul because of the sin which he did against the Lord, that is, because of the word of the Lord which he kept not; and because he went for directions to one who had an evil spirit, +1Ch 10:14 And not to the Lord: for this reason, he put him to death and gave the kingdom to David, the son of Jesse. +1Ch 11:1 Then all Israel came together to David at Hebron, and said, Truly, we are your bone and your flesh. +1Ch 11:2 In the past, when Saul was king, it was you who went at the head of Israel when they went out or came in; and the Lord your God said to you, You are to be the keeper of my people Israel, and their ruler. +1Ch 11:3 So all the responsible men of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and David made an agreement with them in Hebron before the Lord; and they put the holy oil on David and made him king over Israel, as the Lord had said by Samuel. +1Ch 11:4 Then David and all Israel went to Jerusalem (which is Jebus); and the Jebusites, the people of the land, were there. +1Ch 11:5 And the people of Jebus said to David, You will not come in here. But still, David took the strong place of Zion, which is the town of David. +1Ch 11:6 And David said, The first to overcome the Jebusites will be chief and captain. And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, went up first, and became chief. +1Ch 11:7 And David took the strong tower for his living-place, so it was named the town of David. +1Ch 11:8 And he took in hand the building of the town all round, starting from the Millo; and Joab put the rest of the town in order. +1Ch 11:9 And David became greater and greater in power, because the Lord of armies was with him. +1Ch 11:10 Now these are the chief of David's men of war who were his strong supporters in the kingdom, and, with all Israel, made him king, as the Lord had said about Israel. +1Ch 11:11 This is the list of David's men of war: Ishbaal, the son of a Hachmonite, the chief of the three: he put to death three hundred at one time with his spear. +1Ch 11:12 And after him was Eleazar, the son of Dodo the Ahohite, who was one of the three great fighters. +1Ch 11:13 He was with David at Pas-dammim, where the Philistines had come together for the fight, near a bit of land full of barley; and the people went in flight before the Philistines. +1Ch 11:14 And he took up his position in the middle of the bit of land, and kept back their attack, and overcame the Philistines; and the Lord gave a great salvation. +1Ch 11:15 And three of the thirty went down to David, to the rock, into the strong place of Adullam; and the army of the Philistines had taken up their position in the valley of Rephaim. +1Ch 11:16 At that time David had taken cover in the strong place, and an armed force of the Philistines was in Beth-lehem. +1Ch 11:17 And David, moved by a strong desire, said, If only someone would give me a drink of the water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem by the doorway into the town! +1Ch 11:18 So the three, forcing a way through the Philistine army, got water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem, by the doorway into the town, and took it back to David; but David would not take it, but made an offering of it, draining it out to the Lord, +1Ch 11:19 Saying, By my God, far be it from me to do this! How may I take as drink the life-blood of these men who have put their lives in danger? so he did not take it. These things did the three great men of war. +1Ch 11:20 And Abishai, the brother of Joab, was chief of the thirty, for he put to death three hundred with his spear, but he had not a name among the three. +1Ch 11:21 Of the thirty, he was the noblest, and was made their captain, but he was not equal to the first three. +1Ch 11:22 Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, a fighting-man of Kabzeel, had done great acts; he put to death two young lions going into their secret place; and he went down into a hole and put a lion to death in time of snow. +1Ch 11:23 And he made an attack on an Egyptian, a very tall man about five cubits high, armed with a spear like a cloth-worker's rod; he went down to him with a stick, and pulling his spear out of the hand of the Egyptian, put him to death with that same spear. +1Ch 11:24 These were the acts of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, who had a great name among the thirty men of war. +1Ch 11:25 He was honoured over the thirty, but he was not equal to the first three: and David put him over his servants. +1Ch 11:26 And these were the great men of war: Asahel, the brother of Joab, Elhanan, the son of Dodo of Beth-lehem, +1Ch 11:27 Shammoth the Harodite, Helez the Pelonite, +1Ch 11:28 Ira, the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, Abiezer the Anathothite, +1Ch 11:29 Sibbecai the Hushathite, Ilai the Ahohite, +1Ch 11:30 Maharai the Netophathite, Heled, the son of Baanah the Netophathite, +1Ch 11:31 Ithai, the son of Ribai of Gibeah, of the children of Benjamin, Benaiah the Pirathonite, +1Ch 11:32 Hurai of Nahale-gaash, Abiel the Arbathite, +1Ch 11:33 Azmaveth of Bahurim, Eliahba the Shaalbonite, +1Ch 11:34 The sons of Hashem the Gizonite, Jonathan, the son of Shage the Hararite, +1Ch 11:35 Ahiam, the son of Sacar the Hararite, Eliphal, the son of Ur, +1Ch 11:36 Hepher the Mecherathite, Ahijah the Pelonite, +1Ch 11:37 Hezro the Carmelite, Naarai, the son of Ezbai, +1Ch 11:38 Joel, the brother of Nathan, Mibhar, the son of Hagri, +1Ch 11:39 Zelek the Ammonite, and Naharai the Berothite, the servant who had the care of the arms of Joab, the son of Zeruiah; +1Ch 11:40 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, +1Ch 11:41 Uriah the Hittite, Zabad, the son of Ahlai, +1Ch 11:42 Adina, the son of Shiza the Reubenite, a chief of the Reubenites, and thirty with him; +1Ch 11:43 Hanan, the son of Maacah, and Joshaphat the Mithnite, +1Ch 11:44 Uzzia the Ashterathite, Shama and Jeiel, the sons of Hotham the Aroerite, +1Ch 11:45 Jediael, the son of Shimri, and Joha his brother, the Tizite, +1Ch 11:46 Eliel the Mahavite, and Jeribai and Joshaviah, the sons of Elnaam, and Ithmah the Moabite, +1Ch 11:47 Eliel and Obed, and Jaasiel the Mezobaite. +1Ch 12:1 Now these are the men who came to David at Ziklag, while he was still shut up, because of Saul, the son of Kish; they were among the strong men, his helpers in war. +1Ch 12:2 They were armed with bows, and were able to send stones, and arrows from the bow, with right hand or left: they were Saul's brothers, of Benjamin. +1Ch 12:3 Ahiezer was their chief, then Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite; and Jeziel and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth; and Beracah and Jehu the Anathothite; +1Ch 12:4 And Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a great man among the thirty, and their chief; and Jeremiah and Jehaziel and Johanan and Jozabad the Gederathite; +1Ch 12:5 Eluzai and Jerimoth and Bealiah and Shemariah and Shephatiah the Haruphite; +1Ch 12:6 Elkanah and Isshiah and Azarel and Joezer and Jashobeam, the Korahites; +1Ch 12:7 And Joelah and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham of Gedor. +1Ch 12:8 And some of the Gadites, siding with David, went to his strong place in the waste land, great and strong men, trained for war, expert in the use of arms, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and they were quick-footed like roes on the mountains; +1Ch 12:9 Ezer their chief, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third, +1Ch 12:10 Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, +1Ch 12:11 Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, +1Ch 12:12 Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, +1Ch 12:13 Jeremiah the tenth, Machbannai the eleventh. +1Ch 12:14 These Gadites were captains of the army; the least of them was captain over a hundred men, and the greatest over a thousand. +1Ch 12:15 It was they who went over Jordan in the first month, when the river was overflowing, and put to flight all the people of the valleys, to the east and to the west. +1Ch 12:16 And some of the children of Benjamin and Judah came to David in his strong place. +1Ch 12:17 And David went out to them, and said to them, If you have come in peace to give me help, my heart will be united with yours; but if you have come to give me up to those who would take my life, though my hands are clean from wrongdoing, then may the God of our fathers see it and give you punishment. +1Ch 12:18 Then the spirit came on Amasai, who was chief of the captains, and he said, We are yours, David, we are on your side, O son of Jesse: may peace be with you and peace be with your helpers; for God is your helper. Then David took them into his army and made them captains of the band. +1Ch 12:19 And some of the men of Manasseh came over to David, when he went with the Philistines to the war against Saul, but he gave them no help: for the lords of the Philistines, after discussion, sent him away, saying, He will go back to his master Saul, at the price of our lives. +1Ch 12:20 Then when he went back to Ziklag, there came over to him, of the men of Manasseh, Adnah and Jozabad and Jediael and Michael and Jozabad and Elihu and Zillethai, captains of thousands from the armies of Manasseh. +1Ch 12:21 And they gave David help against the armed bands, for they were all great men of war, and captains in the army. +1Ch 12:22 And from day to day more supporters came to David, till he had a great army like the army of God. +1Ch 12:23 These are the numbers of the chiefs of the armed men, ready for war, who came to David at Hebron, to give the kingdom of Saul into his hands, as the Lord had said. +1Ch 12:24 There were six thousand, eight hundred spearmen of the children of Judah, armed for war; +1Ch 12:25 Seven thousand, one hundred of the children of Simeon, great men of war; +1Ch 12:26 Of the children of Levi, four thousand, six hundred. +1Ch 12:27 And Jehoiada, chief of the family of Aaron, and with him three thousand, seven hundred men; +1Ch 12:28 And Zadok, a young man, great and strong in war, with twenty-two captains from his father's people. +1Ch 12:29 And of the children of Benjamin, the brothers of Saul, three thousand; for up to that time the greater part of them had been true to Saul. +1Ch 12:30 And of the children of Ephraim, twenty thousand, eight hundred great men of war, men of great name in their families. +1Ch 12:31 And from the half-tribe of Manasseh, eighteen thousand, listed by name, came to make David king. +1Ch 12:32 And of the children of Issachar, there were two hundred chiefs, men who had expert knowledge of the times and what it was best for Israel to do, and all their brothers were under their orders. +1Ch 12:33 Of Zebulun, there were fifty thousand men, who went out with the army, expert in ordering the fight, to give help with all sorts of arms; true-hearted men. +1Ch 12:34 And of Naphtali, a thousand captains with thirty-seven thousand spearmen. +1Ch 12:35 And of the Danites, twenty-eight thousand, six hundred, expert in ordering the fight. +1Ch 12:36 And of Asher, forty thousand who went out with the army, expert in ordering the fight. +1Ch 12:37 From the other side of Jordan, there were a hundred and twenty thousand of the Reubenites and the Gadites and the men of the half-tribe of Manasseh, armed with every sort of instrument of war. +1Ch 12:38 All these men of war, expert in ordering the fight, came to Hebron with the full purpose of making David king over all Israel; and all the rest of Israel were united in their desire to make David king. +1Ch 12:39 For three days they were there with David, feasting at his table, for their brothers had made ready food for them. +1Ch 12:40 And those who were near, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, came with food on asses and camels and mules and oxen, with meal for food and cakes of figs and masses of grapes, and wine and oil and oxen and sheep in great numbers, for there was joy in Israel. +1Ch 13:1 Then David had discussions with the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds and with every chief. +1Ch 13:2 And David said to all the men of Israel who had come together there, If it seems good to you and if it is the purpose of the Lord our God, let us send to all the rest of our brothers, everywhere in the land of Israel, and to the priests and the Levites in their towns and the country round them, and get them to come together here to us; +1Ch 13:3 And let us get back for ourselves the ark of our God: for in the days of Saul we did not go to it for directions. +1Ch 13:4 And all the people said they would do so, for it seemed right to them. +1Ch 13:5 So David sent for all Israel to come together, from Shihor, the river of Egypt, as far as the way into Hamath, to get the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim. +1Ch 13:6 And David went up, with all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kiriath-jearim in Judah, to get up from there the ark of God, over which the holy Name is named, the name of the Lord whose place is between the winged ones. +1Ch 13:7 And they put the ark of God on a new cart, and took it out of the house of Abinadab; and Uzza and Ahio were the drivers of the cart. +1Ch 13:8 Then David and all Israel made melody before God with all their strength, with songs and corded instruments of music, and with brass instruments and horns. +1Ch 13:9 And when they came to the grain-floor of Chidon, Uzza put out his hand to keep the ark in its place, for the oxen were slipping. +1Ch 13:10 And the wrath of the Lord, burning against Uzza, sent destruction on him because he had put his hand on the ark, and death came to him there before God. +1Ch 13:11 And David was angry because of the Lord's outburst of wrath against Uzza, and he gave that place the name Perez-uzza, to this day. +1Ch 13:12 And so great was David's fear of God that day, that he said, How may I let the ark of God come to me? +1Ch 13:13 So David did not let the ark come back to him to the town of David, but had it turned away and put into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. +1Ch 13:14 And the ark of God was in the house of Obed-edom for three months; and the Lord sent a blessing on the house of Obed-edom and on all he had. +1Ch 14:1 And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent men to David with cedar-trees, and stoneworkers and woodworkers for the building of his house. +1Ch 14:2 And David saw that the Lord had made his position safe as king over Israel, lifting up his kingdom on high because of his people Israel. +1Ch 14:3 And while he was living in Jerusalem, David took more wives and became the father of more sons and daughters. +1Ch 14:4 These are the names of the children he had in Jerusalem: Shammua and Shobab, Nathan and Solomon +1Ch 14:5 And Ibhar and Elishua and Elpelet +1Ch 14:6 And Nogah and Nepheg and Japhia +1Ch 14:7 And Elishama and Beeliada and Eliphelet. +1Ch 14:8 And when the Philistines had news that David had been made king over all Israel, they went up in search of David, and David, hearing of it, went out against them. +1Ch 14:9 Now the Philistines had come, and had gone out in every direction in the valley of Rephaim. +1Ch 14:10 And David, desiring directions from God, said, Am I to go up against the Philistines? and will you give them into my hands? And the Lord said, Go up; for I will give them into your hands. +1Ch 14:11 So they went up to Baal-perazim, and David overcame them there, and David said, God has let the forces fighting against me be broken by my hand, as a wall is broken down by rushing water; so they gave that place the name of Baal-perazim. +1Ch 14:12 And the Philistines did not take their images with them in their flight; and at David's orders they were burned with fire. +1Ch 14:13 Then the Philistines again went out in every direction in the valley. +1Ch 14:14 And David went for directions to God; and God said to him, You are not to go up after them; but, turning away from them, come face to face with them opposite the spice-trees. +1Ch 14:15 And at the sound of footsteps in the tops of the trees, go out to the fight, for God has gone out before you to overcome the army of the Philistines. +1Ch 14:16 And David did as the Lord had said; and they overcame the army of the Philistines, attacking them from Gibeon as far as Gezer. +1Ch 14:17 And David's name was honoured in all lands; and the Lord put the fear of him on all nations. +1Ch 15:1 And David made houses for himself in the town of David; and he got ready a place for the ark of God, and put up a tent for it. +1Ch 15:2 Then David said, The ark of God may not be moved by any but the Levites, for they have been marked out by God to take the ark of God, and to do his work for ever. +1Ch 15:3 And David made all Israel come together at Jerusalem, to take the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had got ready for it. +1Ch 15:4 And David got together the sons of Aaron, and the Levites; +1Ch 15:5 Of the sons of Kohath: Uriel the chief, and his brothers, a hundred and twenty; +1Ch 15:6 Of the sons of Merari: Asaiah the chief, and his brothers, two hundred and twenty; +1Ch 15:7 Of the sons of Gershom: Joel the chief, and his brothers, a hundred and thirty; +1Ch 15:8 Of the sons of Elizaphan: Shemaiah the chief, and his brothers, two hundred; +1Ch 15:9 Of the sons of Hebron: Eliel the chief, and his brothers, eighty; +1Ch 15:10 Of the sons of Uzziel: Amminadab the chief, and his brothers, a hundred and twelve. +1Ch 15:11 And David sent for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, Uriel, Asaiah and Joel, Shemaiah and Eliel and Amminadab, +1Ch 15:12 And said to them, You are the heads of the families of the Levites: make yourselves holy, you and your brothers, so that you may take the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place which I have made ready for it. +1Ch 15:13 For because you did not take it at the first, the Lord our God sent punishment on us, because we did not get directions from him in the right way. +1Ch 15:14 So the priests and the Levites made themselves holy to take up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. +1Ch 15:15 And the sons of the Levites took up the ark of God, lifting it by its rods, as the Lord had said to Moses. +1Ch 15:16 And David gave orders to the chief of the Levites to put their brothers the music-makers in position, with instruments of music, corded instruments and brass, with glad voices making sounds of joy. +1Ch 15:17 So Heman, the son of Joel, and, of his brothers, Asaph, the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their brothers, Ethan, the son of Kushaiah, were put in position by the Levites; +1Ch 15:18 And with them their brothers of the second order, Zechariah, Bani and Jaaziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Unni, Eliab and Benaiah and Maaseiah and Mattithiah and Eliphelehu and Mikneiah, and Obed-edom and Jeiel, the door-keepers. +1Ch 15:19 So those who made melody, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, were put in position, with brass instruments, sounding loudly; +1Ch 15:20 And Zechariah and Aziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel, Unni and Eliab and Maaseiah and Benaiah, with corded instruments put to Alamoth. +1Ch 15:21 And Mattithiah and Eliphelehu and Mikneiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel and Azaziah, with corded instruments on the octave, to give the first note of the song. +1Ch 15:22 And Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was master of the music: he gave directions about the song, because he was expert. +1Ch 15:23 And Berechiah and Elkanah were door-keepers for the ark. +1Ch 15:24 And Shebaniah and Joshaphat and Nethanel and Amasai and Zechariah and Benaiah and Eliezer, the priests, made music on the horns before the ark of God; and Obed-edom and Jehiah were door-keepers for the ark. +1Ch 15:25 So David, and the responsible men of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went with joy to get the ark of the agreement of the Lord out of the house of Obed-edom. +1Ch 15:26 And when God gave help to the Levites who were lifting up the ark of the agreement of the Lord, they made an offering of seven oxen and seven sheep. +1Ch 15:27 And David was clothed with a robe of fair linen, as were all the Levites who took up the ark, and those who made melody, and Chenaniah the master of those who made melody; and David had on a linen ephod; +1Ch 15:28 So all Israel took up the ark of the agreement of the Lord, with loud cries and with horns and brass and corded instruments sounding loudly. +1Ch 15:29 And when the ark of the agreement of the Lord came into the town of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looking out of the window, saw King David dancing and playing; and to her mind he seemed foolish. +1Ch 16:1 Then they took in the ark of God and put it inside the tent which David had put up for it; and they made offerings, burned offerings and peace-offerings before God. +1Ch 16:2 And when David had come to an end of making the burned offerings and peace-offerings, he gave the people a blessing in the name of the Lord. +1Ch 16:3 And he gave to everyone, every man and woman of Israel, a cake of bread, some meat, and a cake of dry grapes. +1Ch 16:4 And he put some of the Levites before the ark of the Lord as servants, to keep the acts of the Lord in memory, and to give worship and praise to the Lord, the God of Israel: +1Ch 16:5 Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, Uzziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Mattithiah and Eliab and Benaiah and Obed-edom and Jeiel, with corded instruments of music; and Asaph, with brass instruments sounding loudly; +1Ch 16:6 And Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests, blowing horns all the time before the ark of the agreement of God. +1Ch 16:7 Then on that day David first made the giving of praise to the Lord the work of Asaph and his brothers. +1Ch 16:8 O give praise to the Lord; give honour to his name, talking of his doings among the peoples. +1Ch 16:9 Let your voice be sounded in songs and melody; let all your thoughts be of the wonder of his works. +1Ch 16:10 Have glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who are searching after the Lord be glad. +1Ch 16:11 Let your search be for the Lord and for his strength; let your hearts ever be turned to him. +1Ch 16:12 Keep in mind the great works which he has done; his wonders, and the decisions of his mouth; +1Ch 16:13 O you seed of Israel his servant, you children of Jacob, his loved ones. +1Ch 16:14 He is the Lord our God: he is judge of all the earth. +1Ch 16:15 He has kept his agreement in mind for ever, the word which he gave for a thousand generations; +1Ch 16:16 The agreement which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac; +1Ch 16:17 And he gave it to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an eternal agreement; +1Ch 16:18 Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, the measured line of your heritage: +1Ch 16:19 When you were still small in number, and strange in the land; +1Ch 16:20 When they went about from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another people; +1Ch 16:21 He would not let anyone do them wrong; he even kept back kings because of them, +1Ch 16:22 Saying, Put not your hand on those who have been marked with my holy oil, and do my prophets no wrong. +1Ch 16:23 Make songs to the Lord, all the earth; give the good news of his salvation day by day. +1Ch 16:24 Make clear his glory to the nations, and his wonders to all the peoples. +1Ch 16:25 For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; and he is more to be feared than all other gods. +1Ch 16:26 For all the gods of the nations are false gods; but the Lord made the heavens. +1Ch 16:27 Honour and glory are before him: strength and joy are in his holy place. +1Ch 16:28 Give to the Lord, O you families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength. +1Ch 16:29 Give to the Lord the glory of his name; take with you an offering and come before him; give worship to the Lord in holy robes. +1Ch 16:30 Be in fear before him, all the earth: the world is ordered so that it may not be moved. +1Ch 16:31 Let the heavens have joy and let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, The Lord is King. +1Ch 16:32 Let the sea be thundering with all its waters; let the field be glad, and everything which is in it; +1Ch 16:33 Then let all the trees of the wood be sounding with joy before the Lord, for he is come to be the judge of the earth. +1Ch 16:34 O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +1Ch 16:35 And say, Be our saviour, O God of our salvation, and let us come back, and give us salvation from the nations, so that we may give honour to your holy name and have glory in your praise. +1Ch 16:36 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, for ever and for ever. And all the people said, So be it; and gave praise to the Lord. +1Ch 16:37 So he made Asaph and his brothers keep their places there before the ark of the agreement of the Lord, to do whatever had to be done before the ark at all times day by day: +1Ch 16:38 And Obed-edom, the son of Jeduthun, and Hosah, with their brothers, sixty-eight of them, to be door-keepers: +1Ch 16:39 And Zadok the priest, with his brothers the priests, before the House of the Lord in the high place at Gibeon; +1Ch 16:40 To give burned offerings to the Lord on the altar of burned offerings morning and evening, every day, as it is ordered in the law of the Lord which he gave to Israel; +1Ch 16:41 And with them Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest who were marked out by name to give praise to the Lord, for his mercy is unchanging for ever; +1Ch 16:42 And Heman and Jeduthun had horns and brass instruments sounding loudly, and instruments of music for the songs of God; and the sons of Jeduthun were to be at the door. +1Ch 16:43 And all the people went away, every man to his house; and David went back to give a blessing to his family. +1Ch 17:1 Now when David was living in his house, he said to Nathan the prophet, See, I am living in a house of cedar-wood, but the ark of the Lord's agreement is under the curtains of a tent. +1Ch 17:2 And Nathan said to David, Do whatever is in your heart, for God is with you. +1Ch 17:3 But that same night, the word of God came to Nathan, saying, +1Ch 17:4 Go and say to David my servant, The Lord says, You are not to make me a house for my living-place: +1Ch 17:5 For from the day when I took Israel up, till this day, I have had no house, but have gone from tent to tent, and from living-place to living-place. +1Ch 17:6 In all the places where I have gone with all Israel, did I ever say to any of the judges of Israel, whom I made the keepers of my people, Why have you not made for me a house of cedar? +1Ch 17:7 So now, say to my servant David, The Lord of armies says, I took you from the fields, from keeping sheep, so that you might be a ruler over my people Israel; +1Ch 17:8 And I have been with you wherever you went, cutting off before you all those who were against you; and I will make your name like the name of the greatest ones of the earth. +1Ch 17:9 And I will make a resting-place for my people Israel, planting them there, so that they may be in the place which is theirs and never again be moved; and never again will they be made waste by evil men, as they were at first, +1Ch 17:10 From the time when I put judges over my people Israel; and I will overcome all those who are against you; and I will make you great and the head of a line of kings. +1Ch 17:11 And when the time comes for you to go to your fathers, I will put in your place your seed after you, one of your sons, and I will make his kingdom strong. +1Ch 17:12 He will be the builder of my house, and I will make the seat of his authority certain for ever. +1Ch 17:13 I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son; and I will not take my mercy away from him as I took it from him who was before you; +1Ch 17:14 But I will make his place in my house and in my kingdom certain for ever; and the seat of his authority will never be overturned. +1Ch 17:15 So Nathan gave David an account of all these words and this vision. +1Ch 17:16 Then David the king went in and took his seat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have been my guide till now? +1Ch 17:17 And this was only a small thing to you, O God; but your words have even been about the far-off future of your servant's family, looking on me as on one of high position, O Lord God. +1Ch 17:18 What more may David say to you? for you have knowledge of your servant. +1Ch 17:19 O Lord, because of your servant, and from your heart, you have done all these great things and let them be seen. +1Ch 17:20 O Lord, there is no one like you, and no other God but you, as is clear from everything which has come to our ears. +1Ch 17:21 And what other nation in the earth, like your people Israel, did a god go out to take for himself, to be his people, making his name great and to be feared, driving out the nations from before your people whom you made free and took out of Egypt? +1Ch 17:22 For your people Israel you made yours for ever; and you, Lord, became their God. +1Ch 17:23 And now, Lord, let your words about your servant and about his family be made certain for ever, and do as you have said. +1Ch 17:24 So let your words be made certain and your name be made great, when men say, The Lord of armies is the God of Israel; and when the family of David your servant is made strong before you. +1Ch 17:25 For you, O my God, have let your servant see that you will make him head of a line of kings; and so it has come into your servant's heart to make his prayer to you. +1Ch 17:26 And now, O Lord, you are God, and you have said you will give this good thing to your servant: +1Ch 17:27 And now you have been pleased to give your blessing to the family of your servant, so that it may go on for ever before you; you, O Lord, have given your blessing, and a blessing will be on it for ever. +1Ch 18:1 And it came about after this that David made an attack on the Philistines and overcame them, and took Gath with its daughter-towns out of the hands of the Philistines. +1Ch 18:2 And he overcame Moab, and the Moabites became his servants and gave him offerings. +1Ch 18:3 Then David overcame Hadadezer, king of Zobah, near Hamath, when he was going to make his power seen by the river Euphrates. +1Ch 18:4 And David took from him a thousand war-carriages and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand footmen: and he had the leg-muscles of all the horses cut, keeping only enough of them for a hundred war-carriages. +1Ch 18:5 And when the Aramaeans of Damascus came to the help of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, David put to the sword twenty-two thousand Aramaeans. +1Ch 18:6 Then David put armed forces in Damascus, and the Aramaeans became his servants and gave him offerings. And the Lord made David overcome wherever he went. +1Ch 18:7 And the gold body-covers of the servants of Hadadezer, David took to Jerusalem. +1Ch 18:8 And from Tibhath and from Cun, towns of Hadadezer, David took a great store of brass, of which Solomon made the great brass water-vessel and the brass pillars and vessels. +1Ch 18:9 Now when Tou, king of Hamath, had news that David had overcome all the army of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, +1Ch 18:10 He sent his son Hadoram to King David, to give him words of peace and blessing, because he had overcome Hadadezer in the fight, for Hadadezer had been at war with Tou; and he gave him all sorts of vessels of gold and silver and brass. +1Ch 18:11 These King David made holy to the Lord, together with the silver and gold he had taken from all nations; from Edom and Moab and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines and from Amalek. +1Ch 18:12 And when he came back from putting to the sword eighteen thousand of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, +1Ch 18:13 David put armed forces in all the towns of Edom; and all the Edomites became servants to David. The Lord made David overcome wherever he went. +1Ch 18:14 So David was king over all Israel, judging and giving right decisions for all his people. +1Ch 18:15 And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the army; and Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was keeper of the records. +1Ch 18:16 And Zadok, the son of Ahitub; and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, were priests; and Shavsha was the scribe; +1Ch 18:17 And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and the sons of David were chief of those whose places were at the king's side. +1Ch 19:1 Now it came about after this that death came to Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon, and his son became king in his place. +1Ch 19:2 And David said, I will be a friend to Hanun, the son of Nahash, because his father was a friend to me. So David sent men to him, to give him words of comfort on account of his father. And the servants of David came to Hanun, to the land of the children of Ammon, offering him comfort. +1Ch 19:3 But the chiefs of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Does it seem to you that David is honouring your father, by sending comforters to you? is it not clear that these men have only come to go through the land and to make secret observation of it so that they may overcome it? +1Ch 19:4 So Hanun took David's servants, and cutting off their hair and the skirts of their robes up to the middle, sent them away. +1Ch 19:5 Then certain men went and gave David word of what had been done to them. And he sent out with the purpose of meeting them; for the men were greatly shamed. And the king said, Keep where you are at Jericho till your hair is long again, and then come back. +1Ch 19:6 And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves hated by David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver as payment for war-carriages and horsemen from Mesopotamia and Aram-maacah and Zobah. +1Ch 19:7 So with this money they got thirty-two thousand war-carriages, and the help of the king of Maacah and his people, who came and took up their position in front of Medeba. And the children of Ammon came together from their towns for the fight. +1Ch 19:8 And David, hearing of it, sent Joab with all the army of fighting-men. +1Ch 19:9 So the children of Ammon came out and put their forces in position on the way into the town; and the kings who had come were stationed by themselves in the field. +1Ch 19:10 Now when Joab saw that their forces were in position against him in front and at his back, he took all the best men of Israel, and put them in line against the Aramaeans; +1Ch 19:11 And the rest of the people he put in position against the children of Ammon with Abishai, his brother, at their head. +1Ch 19:12 And he said, If the Aramaeans are stronger and get the better of me, then come to my help; and if the children of Ammon get the better of you, I will come to your help. +1Ch 19:13 Take heart, and let us be strong for our people and for the towns of our God; and may the Lord do what seems good to him. +1Ch 19:14 So Joab and the people who were with him went forward into the fight against the Aramaeans, and they went in flight before him. +1Ch 19:15 And when the children of Ammon saw the flight of the Aramaeans, they themselves went in flight from Abishai, his brother, and came into the town. Then Joab came back to Jerusalem. +1Ch 19:16 And when the Aramaeans saw that Israel had overcome them, they sent men to get the Aramaeans who were on the other side of the River, with Shophach, the captain of Hadadezer's army, at their head. +1Ch 19:17 And word of this was given to David; and he got all Israel together and went over Jordan and came to Helam and put his forces in position against them. And when David's forces were in position against the Aramaeans, the fight was started. +1Ch 19:18 And the Aramaeans went in flight before Israel; and David put to the sword the men of seven thousand Aramaean war-carriages and forty thousand footmen, and put to death Shophach, the captain of the army. +1Ch 19:19 And when the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were overcome by Israel, they made peace with David and became his servants: and the Aramaeans would give no more help to the children of Ammon. +1Ch 20:1 Now in the spring, at the time when kings go out to war, Joab went out at the head of the armed forces and made waste all the land of the Ammonites and put his men in position before Rabbah, shutting it in. But David was still at Jerusalem. And Joab took Rabbah and made it waste. +1Ch 20:2 And David took the crown of Milcom from off his head; its weight was a talent of gold and it had stones of great price in it; and it was put on David's head, and he took a great store of goods from the town. +1Ch 20:3 And he took the people out of the town and put them to work with wood-cutting instruments, and iron grain-crushers, and axes. And this he did to all the towns of the children of Ammon. Then David and all the people went back to Jerusalem. +1Ch 20:4 Now after this there was war with the Philistines at Gezer; then Sibbecai the Hushathite put to death Sippai, one of the offspring of the Rephaim; and they were overcome. +1Ch 20:5 And again there was war with the Philistines; and Elhanan, the son of Jair, put to death Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the stem of whose spear was like a cloth-worker's rod. +1Ch 20:6 And again there was war at Gath, where there was a very tall man, who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six fingers on his hands and six toes on his feet; he was one of the offspring of the Rephaim. +1Ch 20:7 And when he put shame on Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David's brother, put him to death. +1Ch 20:8 These were of the offspring of the Rephaim in Gath; they came to their death by the hands of David and his servants. +1Ch 21:1 Now Satan, designing evil against Israel, put into David's mind the impulse to take the number of Israel. +1Ch 21:2 And David said to Joab and the captains of the people, Now let all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, be numbered; and give me word so that I may be certain of their number. +1Ch 21:3 And Joab said, May the Lord make his people a hundred times more in number than they are; but, my lord king, are they not all my lord's servants? why would my lord have this done? why will he become a cause of sin to Israel? +1Ch 21:4 But the king's word was stronger than Joab's. So Joab went out and went through all Israel and came to Jerusalem. +1Ch 21:5 And Joab gave David the number of all the people; all the men of Israel, able to take up arms, were one million, one hundred thousand men; and those of Judah were four hundred and seventy thousand men, able to take up arms. +1Ch 21:6 But Levi and Benjamin were not numbered among them, for Joab was disgusted with the king's order. +1Ch 21:7 And God was not pleased with this thing; so he sent punishment on Israel. +1Ch 21:8 Then David said to God, Great has been my sin in doing this; but now, be pleased to take away the sin of your servant, for I have done very foolishly. +1Ch 21:9 Then the word of the Lord came to Gad, David's seer, saying, +1Ch 21:10 Go and say to David, The Lord says, Three things are offered to you: say which of them you will have, so that I may do it to you. +1Ch 21:11 So Gad came to David and said to him, The Lord says, Take whichever you will: +1Ch 21:12 Three years when there will not be enough food; or three months of war, when you will go in flight before your haters, being in great danger of the sword; or three days of the sword of the Lord, disease in the land, and the angel of the Lord taking destruction through all the land of Israel. Now give thought to the answer I am to take back to him who sent me. +1Ch 21:13 And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to make: let me come into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men. +1Ch 21:14 So the Lord sent disease on Israel, causing the death of seventy thousand men. +1Ch 21:15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem for its destruction: and when he was about to do so, the Lord saw, and had regret for the evil, and said to the angel of destruction, It is enough; do no more. Now the angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. +1Ch 21:16 And David, lifting up his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord there between earth and heaven, with an uncovered sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the responsible men, clothed in haircloth, went down on their faces. +1Ch 21:17 And David said to God, Was it not I who gave the order for the people to be numbered? It is I who have done the sin and the great wrong; but these are only sheep; what have they done? let your hand, O Lord God, be lifted up against me and against my family, but not against your people to send disease on them. +1Ch 21:18 Then the angel of the Lord gave orders to Gad to say to David that he was to go and put up an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. +1Ch 21:19 And David went up, as Gad had said in the name of the Lord. +1Ch 21:20 And Ornan, turning back, saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him went to a secret place. Now Ornan was crushing his grain. +1Ch 21:21 And when David came, Ornan, looking, saw him, and came out from the grain-floor and went down on his face to the earth before him. +1Ch 21:22 Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place where this grain-floor is, so that I may put up an altar here to the Lord: let me have it for its full price; so that this disease may be stopped among the people. +1Ch 21:23 And Ornan said to David, Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems right to him. See, I give you the oxen for burned offerings and the grain-cleaning instruments for fire-wood, and the grain for the meal offering; I give it all. +1Ch 21:24 And King David said to Ornan, No; I will certainly give you the full price for it, because I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or give a burned offering without payment. +1Ch 21:25 So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place. +1Ch 21:26 And David put up an altar there to the Lord, offering burned offerings and peace-offerings with prayers to the Lord; and he gave him an answer from heaven, sending fire on the altar of burned offering. +1Ch 21:27 Then the Lord gave orders to the angel, and he put back his sword into its cover. +1Ch 21:28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had given him an answer on the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he made an offering there. +1Ch 21:29 For the House of the Lord, which Moses had made in the waste land, and the altar of burned offerings, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. +1Ch 21:30 But David was not able to go before it to get directions from the Lord, so great was his fear of the sword of the angel of the Lord. +1Ch 22:1 Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar for Israel's burned offerings. +1Ch 22:2 And David gave orders to get together all the men from strange lands who were in the land of Israel; and he put stone-cutters to work, cutting stones for building the house of God. +1Ch 22:3 And he got together a great store of iron, for the nails for the doors and for the joins; and brass, more in weight than might be measured; +1Ch 22:4 And cedar-trees without number, for the Zidonians and the men of Tyre came with a great amount of cedar-trees for David. +1Ch 22:5 And David said, Solomon my son is young and untested, and the house which is to be put up for the Lord is to be very great, a thing of wonder and glory through all countries; so I will make ready what is needed for it. So David got ready a great store of material before his death. +1Ch 22:6 Then he sent for his son Solomon, and gave him orders for the building of a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. +1Ch 22:7 And David said to Solomon, My son, it was my desire to put up a house for the name of the Lord my God. +1Ch 22:8 But the word of the Lord came to me saying, You have taken lives without number and made great wars; I will not let you be the builder of a house for my name, because of the lives you have taken on the earth before my eyes. +1Ch 22:9 But you will have a son who will be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from wars on every side. His name will be Solomon, and in his time I will give Israel peace and quiet; +1Ch 22:10 He will be the builder of a house for my name; he will be to me a son, and I will be to him a father; and I will make the seat of his rule over Israel certain for ever. +1Ch 22:11 Now, my son, may the Lord be with you; and may you do well, and put up the house of the Lord your God, as he has said of you. +1Ch 22:12 Only may the Lord give you wisdom, and knowledge of his orders for Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God. +1Ch 22:13 And all will go well for you, if you take care to keep the laws and the rules which the Lord gave to Moses for Israel: be strong and take heart; have no fear and do not be troubled. +1Ch 22:14 Now see, poor though I am, I have got ready for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold and a million talents of silver; and a weight of brass and iron greater than may be measured; and wood and stone have I made ready, and you may put more to it. +1Ch 22:15 And you have a great number of workmen, cutters and workers of stone and wood, and experts in every sort of work, +1Ch 22:16 In gold and silver and brass and iron more than may be numbered. Up! then, and to work; and may the Lord be with you. +1Ch 22:17 Then David gave orders to all the chiefs of Israel to give their help to Solomon his son, saying, +1Ch 22:18 Is not the Lord your God with you? and has he not given you rest on every side? for the Lord has given the people of the land into my hands, and the land is overcome before the Lord and before his people. +1Ch 22:19 Now give your heart and soul to the worship of the Lord your God; and get to work on the building of the holy place of the Lord God, so that you may put the ark of the Lord's agreement and the holy vessels of God in the house which is to be made for the name of the Lord. +1Ch 23:1 Now David was old and full of days; and he made his son Solomon king over Israel. +1Ch 23:2 And he got together all the chiefs of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. +1Ch 23:3 And the Levites, all those of thirty years old and over, were numbered; and the number of them, by heads, man by man, was thirty-eight thousand. +1Ch 23:4 Of these, twenty-four thousand were to be overseers of the work of the house of the Lord, and six thousand were judges and men of authority; +1Ch 23:5 Four thousand were door-keepers; and four thousand gave praise to the Lord with the instruments which I made, said David, for giving praise. +1Ch 23:6 And David put them into divisions under the names of the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. +1Ch 23:7 Of the Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei. +1Ch 23:8 The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, and Zetham and Joel, three. +1Ch 23:9 The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth and Haziel and Haran, three; these were the heads of the families of Ladan. +1Ch 23:10 And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zizah and Jeush and Beriah; these four were the sons of Shimei. +1Ch 23:11 Jahath was the chief and Zizah the second; but Jeush and Beriah had only a small number of sons, so they were grouped together as one family. +1Ch 23:12 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four. +1Ch 23:13 The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was made separate and holy, he and his sons for ever, for the care of the most holy things and the burning of offerings before the Lord, to do his work and give blessings in his name for ever. +1Ch 23:14 And the sons of Moses, the man of God, were put into the list of the tribe of Levi. +1Ch 23:15 The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer. +1Ch 23:16 The sons of Gershom: Shebuel the first. +1Ch 23:17 And the sons of Eliezer: Rehabiah the first; and Eliezer had no other sons, but Rehabiah had a great number. +1Ch 23:18 The sons of Izhar: Shelomith the first. +1Ch 23:19 The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth. +1Ch 23:20 The sons of Uzziel: Micah the first, and Isshiah the second. +1Ch 23:21 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish. +1Ch 23:22 And at his death Eleazar had no sons, but only daughters, and their relations, the sons of Kish, took them as wives. +1Ch 23:23 The sons of Mushi: Mahli and Eder and Jeremoth, three. +1Ch 23:24 These were the sons of Levi, grouped by families, the heads of the families of those who were numbered by name, by heads, all those of twenty years old and over who did the work of the house of the Lord. +1Ch 23:25 For David said, The Lord, the God of Israel, has given his people rest, and he has made his resting-place in Jerusalem for ever; +1Ch 23:26 And from now, there will be no need for the House of the Lord, and the vessels used in it, to be moved about by the Levites. +1Ch 23:27 So among the last acts of David was the numbering of the sons of Levi, from twenty years old and over. +1Ch 23:28 Their place was by the side of the sons of Aaron in all the work of the house of the Lord, in the open spaces and in the rooms, in the making clean of all the holy things, in doing all the work of the house of the Lord, +1Ch 23:29 The holy bread was in their care, and the crushed grain for the meal offering, of unleavened cakes or meal cooked over the fire or in water; they had control of all sorts of weights and measures; +1Ch 23:30 They had to take their places every morning to give praise and make melody to the Lord, and in the same way at evening; +1Ch 23:31 At every offering of burned offerings to the Lord, on Sabbaths, and at the new moons, and on the regular feasts, in the number ordered by the law, at all times before the Lord; +1Ch 23:32 And they had the care of the Tent of meeting and the holy place, under the direction of the sons of Aaron their brothers, for the work of the house of the Lord. +1Ch 24:1 Now the divisions into which the sons of Aaron were grouped were these: the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. +1Ch 24:2 But Nadab and Abihu came to their end before their father, and had no children; so Eleazar and Ithamar did the work of priests. +1Ch 24:3 And David, with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, made distribution of them into their positions for their work. +1Ch 24:4 And there were more chiefs among the sons of Eleazar than among the sons of Ithamar; and this is how they were grouped: of the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen, all heads of families; and of the sons of Ithamar, heads of families, there were eight. +1Ch 24:5 So they were put into groups, by the Lord's decision, one with another; for there were rulers of the holy place and rulers of the house of God among the sons of Eleazar and the sons of Ithamar. +1Ch 24:6 And Shemaiah, the son of Nethanel the scribe, who was a Levite, put down their names in writing, the king being present with the rulers, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, and the heads of families of the priests and the Levites; one family being taken for Eleazar and then one for Ithamar, and so on. +1Ch 24:7 Now the first name to come out was that of Jehoiarib; the second Jedaiah, +1Ch 24:8 The third Harim, the fourth Seorim, +1Ch 24:9 The fifth Malchijah, the sixth Mijamin, +1Ch 24:10 The seventh Hakkoz, the eighth Abijah, +1Ch 24:11 The ninth Jeshua, the tenth Shecaniah, +1Ch 24:12 The eleventh Eliashib, the twelfth Jakim, +1Ch 24:13 The thirteenth Huppah, the fourteenth Jeshebeab, +1Ch 24:14 The fifteenth Bilgah, the sixteenth Immer, +1Ch 24:15 The seventeenth Hezir, the eighteenth Happizzez, +1Ch 24:16 The nineteenth Pethahiah, the twentieth Jehezkel, +1Ch 24:17 The twenty-first Jachin, the twenty-second Gamul, +1Ch 24:18 The twenty-third Delaiah, the twenty-fourth Maaziah. +1Ch 24:19 So they were put into their different groups, to take their places in the house of the Lord, in agreement with the rules made by Aaron their father, as the Lord, the God of Israel, had given him orders. +1Ch 24:20 And of the rest of the sons of Levi: of the sons of Amram, Shubael; of the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah. +1Ch 24:21 Of Rehabiah; of the sons of Rehabiah, Isshiah the chief. +1Ch 24:22 Of the Izharites, Shelomoth; of the sons of Shelomoth, Jahath. +1Ch 24:23 And the sons of Hebron: Jeriah the chief, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth. +1Ch 24:24 The sons of Uzziel, Micah; of the sons of Micah, Shamir. +1Ch 24:25 The brother of Micah, Isshiah; of the sons of Isshiah, Zechariah. +1Ch 24:26 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the sons of Jaaziah. +1Ch 24:27 The sons of Merari: of Jaaziah, Shoham and Zaccur and Ibri. +1Ch 24:28 Of Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons. +1Ch 24:29 Of Kish: the sons of Kish, Jerahmeel. +1Ch 24:30 And the sons of Mushi: Mahli and Eder and Jerimoth. These were the sons of the Levites by their families. +1Ch 24:31 Selection was made of these in the same way as of their brothers the sons of Aaron, David the king being present, with Zadok, and Ahimelech, and the heads of families of the priests and of the Levites; the families of the chief in the same way as those of his younger brother. +1Ch 25:1 Further, David and the chiefs of the servants of the holy place made selection of certain of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun for the work of prophets, to make melody with corded instruments and brass; and the number of the men for the work they had to do was: +1Ch 25:2 Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur and Joseph and Nethaniah and Asharelah, sons of Asaph; under the direction of Asaph, acting as a prophet under the orders of the king; +1Ch 25:3 Of Jeduthun: the six sons of Jeduthun, Gedaliah and Zeri and Jeshaiah, Hashabiah and Mattithiah; under the direction of their father Jeduthun who, acting as a prophet, with corded instruments gave praise and glory to the Lord. +1Ch 25:4 Of Heman, the sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel and Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth; +1Ch 25:5 All these were sons of Heman, the king's seer in the words of God. And to make great his power God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. +1Ch 25:6 All these, under the direction of their father, made music in the house of the Lord, with brass and corded instruments, for the worship of the house of God; Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman being under the orders of the king. +1Ch 25:7 And the number of them, with their brothers who were trained and expert in making melody to the Lord, was two hundred and eighty-eight. +1Ch 25:8 And selection was made of them for their special work, all having equal chances, small as well as great, the teacher as the learner. +1Ch 25:9 Now of the group of Asaph, the first name to come out was Joseph; the second Gedaliah; he and his brothers and sons were twelve? +1Ch 25:10 The third Zaccur, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:11 The fourth Izri, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:12 The fifth Nethaniah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:13 The sixth Bukkiah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:14 The seventh Jesharelah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:15 The eighth Jeshaiah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:16 The ninth Mattaniah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:17 The tenth Shimei, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:18 The eleventh Azarel, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:19 The twelfth Hashabiah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:20 The thirteenth Shubael, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:21 The fourteenth Mattithiah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:22 The fifteenth Jeremoth, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:23 The sixteenth Hananiah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:24 The seventeenth Joshbekashah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:25 The eighteenth Hanani, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:26 The nineteenth Mallothi, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:27 The twentieth Eliathah, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:28 The twenty-first Hothir, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:29 The twenty-second Giddalti, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:30 The twenty-third Mahazioth, with his sons and his brothers, twelve; +1Ch 25:31 The twenty-fourth Romamti-ezer, with his sons and his brothers, twelve. +1Ch 26:1 For the divisions of the door-keepers: of the Korahites, Meshelemiah, the son of Kore, of the sons of Ebiasaph. +1Ch 26:2 And Meshelemiah had sons: Zechariah the oldest, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth, +1Ch 26:3 Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Eliehoenai the seventh. +1Ch 26:4 And Obed-edom had sons: Shemaiah the oldest, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, and Sacar the fourth, and Nethanel the fifth, +1Ch 26:5 Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peullethai the eighth; for the blessing of God was on him. +1Ch 26:6 And Shemaiah his son had sons, rulers over the family of their father, for they were able men. +1Ch 26:7 The sons of Shemaiah: Othni and Rephael and Obed, Elzabad, whose brothers were great men of war, Elihu and Semachiah. +1Ch 26:8 All these were sons of Obed-edom: they and their sons and their brothers, able men and strong for the work; sixty-two sons of Obed-edom. +1Ch 26:9 Meshelemiah had sons and brothers, eighteen able men. +1Ch 26:10 And Hosah, a son of the children of Merari, had sons: Shimri the chief (for though he was not the oldest, his father made him chief); +1Ch 26:11 Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth: Hosah had thirteen sons and brothers. +1Ch 26:12 Of these were the divisions of the door-keepers, men of authority, having responsible positions like their brothers to be servants in the house of the Lord. +1Ch 26:13 And the families were taken by the decision of the Lord for every door; the small family had the same chance as the great. +1Ch 26:14 And the care of the door on the east came out for Shelemiah. Then the name of Zechariah his son, a man wise in discussion, came out, and the door on the north was given to him. +1Ch 26:15 To Obed-edom, that on the south; and to his sons, the store-house. +1Ch 26:16 To Hosah, the door on the west, by the door of Shallecheth, at the footway which goes up, watch by watch. +1Ch 26:17 On the east were six Levites a day, and on the north and the south four a day, and for the store-house two and two. +1Ch 26:18 For the pillared way, on the west, four at the footway and two at the pillared way itself. +1Ch 26:19 These were the divisions of door-keepers, of the sons of the Korahites and of the sons of Merari. +1Ch 26:20 And the Levites their brothers were responsible for the stores of the house of God and the holy things. +1Ch 26:21 The sons of Ladan: sons of the Gershonites of the family of Ladan, heads of families of Ladan the Gershonite, Jehieli. +1Ch 26:22 The sons of Jehieli: Zetham and Joel, his brother, had the care of the stores of the house of the Lord. +1Ch 26:23 Of the Amramites, of the Izharites, of the Hebronites, of the Uzzielites: +1Ch 26:24 And Shebuel, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, was controller of the stores. +1Ch 26:25 And his brothers: of Eliezer, Rehabiah his son, and Jeshaiah his son, and Joram his son, and Zichri his son, and Shelomoth his son. +1Ch 26:26 Shelomoth and his brothers were responsible for all the store of holy things which David the king and the heads of families, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and the captains of the army, had given to the Lord. +1Ch 26:27 From the goods taken in war, they gave, as a holy offering, materials for the building of the house of the Lord. +1Ch 26:28 And everything Samuel the prophet and Saul, the son of Kish, and Abner, the son of Ner, and Joab, the son of Zeruiah, had made holy; whatever anyone had given, it was under the care of Shelomoth and his brothers. +1Ch 26:29 Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons had to do all the public business of Israel, in relation to judges and men in authority. +1Ch 26:30 Of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brothers, seventeen hundred able men, were overseers of Israel on the other side of the Jordan, to the west, being responsible for all the work of the Lord's house and for the work done by the king's servants. +1Ch 26:31 Of the Hebronites, Jerijah was the chief of all the Hebronites, in their generations by families. In the fortieth year of the rule of David a search was made, and able men were seen among them at Jazer of Gilead. +1Ch 26:32 And his brothers were two thousand, seven hundred able men, heads of families, whom King David made overseers over the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in everything to do with God, and for the king's business. +1Ch 27:1 Now the number of the children of Israel, that is, the heads of families, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and the men in authority who were servants of the king in anything to do with the divisions which came in and went out month by month through all the months of the year, in every division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:2 Over the first division for the first month was Ishbaal, the son of Zabdiel; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:3 He was of the sons of Perez, and the chief of all the captains of the army for the first month. +1Ch 27:4 And over the division for the second month was Eleazar, the son of Dodai the Ahohite, the ruler; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:5 The third captain of the army for the third month was Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada the priest; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:6 This is the same Benaiah who was the great man of the thirty, chief of the thirty; and in his division was Ammizabad his son. +1Ch 27:7 The fourth captain for the fourth month was Asahel, the brother of Joab, and Zebadiah his son after him; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:8 The fifth captain for the fifth month was Shamhuth the Izrahite; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:9 The sixth captain for the sixth month was Ira, the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:10 The seventh captain for the seventh month was Helez the Pelonite, of the sons of Ephraim; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:11 The eighth captain for the eighth month was Sibbecai the Hushathite, of the Zerahites; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:12 The ninth captain for the ninth month was Abiezer the Anathothite, of the Benjamites; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:13 The tenth captain for the tenth month was Maharai the Netophathite, of the Zerahites; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:14 The eleventh captain for the eleventh month was Benaiah the Pirathonite, of the sons of Ephraim; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:15 The twelfth captain for the twelfth month was Heldai the Netophathite, of Othniel; and in his division were twenty-four thousand. +1Ch 27:16 And over the tribes of Israel: the ruler of the Reubenites was Eliezer, the son of Zichri; of the Simeonites, Shephatiah, the son of Maacah; +1Ch 27:17 Of Levi, Hashabiah, the son of Kemuel; of Aaron, Zadok; +1Ch 27:18 Of Judah, Elihu, one of the brothers of David; of Issachar, Omri, the son of Michael; +1Ch 27:19 Of Zebulun, Ishmaiah, the son of Obadiah; of Naphtali, Jerimoth, the son of Azriel; +1Ch 27:20 Of the children of Ephraim, Hoshea, the son of Azaziah; of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joel, the son of Pedaiah; +1Ch 27:21 Of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Gilead, Iddo, the son of Zechariah; of Benjamin, Jaasiel, the son of Abner; +1Ch 27:22 Of Dan, Azarel, the son of Jeroham. These were the captains of the tribes of Israel. +1Ch 27:23 But David did not take the number of those who were under twenty years old, for the Lord had said that he would make Israel like the stars of heaven in number. +1Ch 27:24 The numbering was started by Joab, the son of Zeruiah, but he did not go on to the end; and because of it, wrath came on Israel and the number was not recorded in the history of King David. +1Ch 27:25 And Azmaveth, the son of Adiel, was controller of the king's property; Jonathan, the son of Uzziah, had control of all store-houses in country places and in the towns and little towns and strong places; +1Ch 27:26 Ezri, the son of Chelub, had authority over the field-workers and farmers; +1Ch 27:27 Shimei the Ramathite was responsible for the vine-gardens; Zabdi the Shiphmite was responsible for the produce of the vine-gardens and for all the stores of wine; +1Ch 27:28 Baal-hanan the Gederite was responsible for the olive-trees and the sycamore-trees in the lowlands; and Joash for the stores of oil; +1Ch 27:29 And Shitrai the Sharonite was responsible for the herds in the grass-lands of Sharon, and Shaphat, the son of Adlai, for those in the valleys; +1Ch 27:30 Obil the Ishmaelite had control of the camels and Jehdeiah the Meronothite of the she-asses; +1Ch 27:31 The flocks were in the care of Jaziz the Hagarite. All these were the controllers of King David's property. +1Ch 27:32 Now Jonathan, David's father's brother, expert in discussion, and a man of good sense, was a scribe; and Jehiel the son of Hachmoni, had the care of the king's sons; +1Ch 27:33 And Ahithophel was the king's expert in discussion and Hushai the Archite was the king's friend. +1Ch 27:34 After Ahithophel was Jehoiada, the son of Benaiah, and Abiathar; and the captain of the king's army was Joab. +1Ch 28:1 And David got together at Jerusalem all the rulers of Israel, the chiefs of the tribes and the captains of the divisions waiting on the king in turn, and the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds and the controllers of all the goods and property of the king and his sons, with the unsexed servants and the great men of war. +1Ch 28:2 Then David the king got up and said, Give ear to me, my brothers and my people; it was my desire to put up a house, a resting-place for the ark of the Lord's agreement, and for the foot-rest of our God; and I had got material ready for the building of it. +1Ch 28:3 But God said to me, You are not to be the builder of a house for my name, because you are a man of war and have taken life; +1Ch 28:4 Though the Lord, the God of Israel, took me out of all my father's family, to be king over Israel for ever, marking out Judah to be chief, and, of the people of Judah, my father's family; and among the sons of my father he was pleased to make me king over all Israel; +1Ch 28:5 And of all my sons (for the Lord has given me a great number of sons) he has made selection of Solomon to take his place on the seat of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. +1Ch 28:6 And he said to me, Solomon your son will be the builder of my house and the open spaces round it; for I have taken him to be my son, and I will be his father. +1Ch 28:7 I will keep his kingdom in its place for ever, if he is strong at all times to do my orders and keep my rules, as at this day. +1Ch 28:8 So now, before the eyes of all Israel, the people of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God, keep and be true to the orders of the Lord your God; so that you may have this good land for yourselves and give it for a heritage to your children after you for ever. +1Ch 28:9 And you, Solomon my son, get knowledge of the God of your father, and be his servant with a true heart and with a strong desire, for the Lord is the searcher of all hearts, and has knowledge of all the designs of men's thoughts; if you make search for him, he will be near you; but if you are turned away from him, he will give you up for ever. +1Ch 28:10 Now then, take note; for the Lord has made selection of you to be the builder of a house for the holy place. Be strong and do it. +1Ch 28:11 Then David gave to his son Solomon the design of the doorway of the house of God and of its houses and its store-houses, and the higher rooms and the inner rooms and the place for the mercy-seat; +1Ch 28:12 And the design of all he had in his heart for the outer squares of the house of the Lord, and for the rooms all round it, and for the store-houses of the house of the Lord, and for the store-houses for the holy things; +1Ch 28:13 And for the divisions of the priests and Levites, and for all the work in connection with the worship of the house of the Lord, and all the vessels used in the house of the Lord; +1Ch 28:14 Of gold, by weight, for the vessels of gold, for all the vessels of different uses; and silver for all the vessels of silver by weight, for vessels of different uses; +1Ch 28:15 And gold by weight for the light-supports and the vessels for the lights, the weight of gold needed for every support and every vessel for lights; and for the silver light-supports, the weight of silver needed for every support and for the different vessels as every one was to be used; +1Ch 28:16 And gold by weight for the tables for the holy bread for every table, and silver for the silver tables; +1Ch 28:17 Clear gold for the meat-hooks and the basins and the cups; for the gold basins, gold enough by weight for every basin; and silver by weight for every silver basin; +1Ch 28:18 And the best gold for the altar of perfumes; and gold for the design of the carriage, for the winged ones whose wings were outstretched covering the ark of the Lord's agreement. +1Ch 28:19 All this, said David, the design for all these things, has been made dear to me in writing by the hand of the Lord. +1Ch 28:20 And David said to his son Solomon, Be strong and of a good heart and do your work; have no fear and do not be troubled, for the Lord God, my God, is with you; he will not give you up, and his face will not be turned away from you, till all the work necessary for the house of the Lord is complete. +1Ch 28:21 And see, there are the divisions of the priests and Levites for all the work of the house of God; and every trained and expert workman will be ready to do for you whatever is needed; and the captains and the people will be under your orders in everything. +1Ch 29:1 And David the king said to all the people, Solomon my son, the only one who has been marked out by God, is still young and untested, and the work is great, for this great house is not for man, but for the Lord God. +1Ch 29:2 Now as far as I am able, I have made ready what is needed for the house of my God; the gold for the things of gold, and the silver for the silver things, and the brass for the brass things, iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood; beryls and jewels to be framed, and stones of different colours for ornament; all sorts of stones of great price, and polished building-stone, as much as is needed and more. +1Ch 29:3 And because this house of God is dear to me, I give my private store of gold and silver to the house of my God, in addition to all I have got ready for the holy house; +1Ch 29:4 Even three thousand talents of gold of Ophir and seven thousand talents of the best silver, for plating the walls of the house: +1Ch 29:5 Gold for the gold things, and silver for the silver things, and for every sort of work to be done by the expert workmen. Who then will come forward, offering himself this day for the Lord's work? +1Ch 29:6 Then the heads of families and the chiefs of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the controllers of the king's business, freely gave themselves; +1Ch 29:7 And they gave for the use of the house of the Lord, five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, and ten thousand talents of silver, and eighteen thousand talents of brass, and a hundred thousand talents of iron. +1Ch 29:8 And those who had stones of great price gave them to the store of the house of the Lord, under the care of Jehiel the Gershonite. +1Ch 29:9 Then the people were glad because their offerings were freely given, for with a true heart they freely gave what they had to the Lord; and David the king was full of joy. +1Ch 29:10 So David gave praise to the Lord before all the people; and David said, Praise be to you, O Lord the God of Israel, our father for ever and ever. +1Ch 29:11 Yours, O Lord, is the strength and the power and the glory, and the authority and the honour: for everything in heaven and on earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are lifted up as head over all. +1Ch 29:12 Wealth and honour come from you, and you are ruler over all, and in your hand is power and strength; it is in your power to make great, and to give strength to all. +1Ch 29:13 So now, our God, we give you praise, honouring the glory of your name. +1Ch 29:14 But who am I and what is my people, that we have power to give so freely in this way? for all things come from you, and what we have given you is yours. +1Ch 29:15 For we, as all our fathers were, are like men from a strange country before you, who have got a place for a time in the land; our days on the earth are like a shade, and there is no hope of going on. +1Ch 29:16 O Lord our God, all this store, which we have made ready for the building of a house for your holy name, comes from your hand and is yours. +1Ch 29:17 And I am conscious, my God, that you are the searcher of hearts, taking pleasure in righteousness. As for me, with an upright heart I have freely given all these things; and I have seen with joy your people who are here to make their offerings freely to you. +1Ch 29:18 O Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the deepest thoughts of your people, and let their hearts be fixed and true to you; +1Ch 29:19 And give to Solomon my son a true heart, to keep your orders, your rules, and your laws, and to do all these things, and to put up this great house for which I have made ready. +1Ch 29:20 And David said to all the people, Now give praise to the Lord your God. And all the people gave praise to the Lord, the God of their fathers, with bent heads worshipping the Lord and the king. +1Ch 29:21 And they made offerings to the Lord, and gave burned offerings to the Lord, on the day after, a thousand oxen, a thousand sheep, and a thousand lambs, with their drink offerings, and a great wealth of offerings for all Israel. +1Ch 29:22 And with great joy they made a feast before the Lord that day. And they made Solomon, the son of David, king a second time, putting the holy oil on him to make him holy to the Lord as ruler, and on Zadok as priest. +1Ch 29:23 So Solomon was put on the seat of the Lord as king in place of his father David, and everything went well for him; and all Israel was under his authority. +1Ch 29:24 And all the chiefs and the men of war and all the sons of King David put themselves under the authority of Solomon the king. +1Ch 29:25 And the Lord made Solomon great in the eyes of all Israel, clothing him with glory and honour such as no other king in Israel had had before him. +1Ch 29:26 Now David, the son of Jesse, was king over all Israel. +1Ch 29:27 For forty years he was ruling as king over Israel, seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. +1Ch 29:28 And he came to his end after a long life, full of days and great wealth and honour; and Solomon his son became king in his place. +1Ch 29:29 Now all the acts of David, first and last, are recorded in the words of Samuel the seer, and the words of Nathan the prophet, and the words of Gad the seer; +1Ch 29:30 Together with all his rule and his power, and the events which took place in his time, in Israel and in all the kingdoms of other lands. +2Ch 1:1 And Solomon, the son of David, made himself strong in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and made him very great. +2Ch 1:2 And Solomon sent word to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds and to the judges and to every chief in all Israel, heads of their families. +2Ch 1:3 Then Solomon, and all the men of Israel with him, went to the high place at Gibeon, because the Tent of meeting of God, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, had made in the waste land, was there. +2Ch 1:4 But the ark of God had been moved by David from Kiriath-jearim to the place which he had made ready for it, for he had put up a tent for it at Jerusalem. +2Ch 1:5 And the altar of brass which Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the Tent of the Lord; and Solomon and all the people went to give worship there. +2Ch 1:6 And Solomon went up there to the brass altar before the Lord at the Tent of meeting, offering on it a thousand burned offerings. +2Ch 1:7 In that night God came to Solomon in a vision, and said to him, Say what I am to give you. +2Ch 1:8 And Solomon said to God, Great was your mercy to David my father, and you have made me king in his place. +2Ch 1:9 Now, O Lord God, let your word to David my father come true; for you have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in number. +2Ch 1:10 Give me now wisdom and knowledge, so that I may go out and come in before this people: for who is able to be the judge of this great people of yours? +2Ch 1:11 And God said to Solomon, Because this was in your heart, and you did not make request for money, property, or honour, or for the destruction of your haters, or for long life; but you have made request for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, so that you may be the judge of my people over whom I have made you king: +2Ch 1:12 Wisdom and knowledge are given to you; and I will give you wealth and honour, such as no king has had before you or ever will have after you. +2Ch 1:13 So Solomon went back from the high place at Gibeon, from before the Tent of meeting, to Jerusalem; and he was king over Israel. +2Ch 1:14 And Solomon got together war-carriages and horsemen; he had one thousand, four hundred carriages and twelve thousand horsemen, which he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king at Jerusalem. +2Ch 1:15 And the king made silver and gold as common as stones in Jerusalem, and cedar like the sycamore-trees of the lowland in number. +2Ch 1:16 And Solomon's horses came out of Egypt; the king's traders got them from Kue at a price. +2Ch 1:17 A war-carriage might be got from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty: they got them at the same rate for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram. +2Ch 2:1 Now it was Solomon's purpose to put up a house for the name of the Lord and a house for himself as king. +2Ch 2:2 And Solomon had seventy thousand men numbered for transport, and eighty thousand for cutting stone in the mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers. +2Ch 2:3 And Solomon sent to Huram, king of Tyre, saying, As you did for my father David, sending him cedar-trees for the building of his house, +2Ch 2:4 See! I am building a house for the name of the Lord my God, to be made holy to him, where perfumes of sweet spices will be burned before him, and the holy bread will be placed at all times, and burned offerings will be offered morning and evening, on the Sabbaths and at the new moons, and on the regular feasts of the Lord our God. This is a law for ever to Israel. +2Ch 2:5 And the house which I am building is to be great, for our God is greater than all gods. +2Ch 2:6 But who may have strength enough to make a house for him, seeing that the heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be his resting-place? who am I then to make a house for him? But I am building it only for the burning of perfume before him. +2Ch 2:7 So now send me an expert worker in gold and silver and brass and iron? in purple and red and blue, and in the cutting of all sorts of ornament, to be with the expert workmen who are here in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom my father David got together. +2Ch 2:8 And send me cedar-trees, cypress-trees and sandal-wood from Lebanon, for, to my knowledge, your servants are expert wood-cutters in Lebanon; and my servants will be with yours, +2Ch 2:9 To get trees for me in great numbers, for the house which I am building is to be great and a wonder. +2Ch 2:10 And I will give as food to your servants, the wood-cutters, twenty thousand measures of grain, and twenty thousand measures of barley and twenty thousand measures of wine and twenty thousand measures of oil. +2Ch 2:11 Then Huram, king of Tyre, sent Solomon an answer in writing, saying, Because of his love for his people the Lord has made you king over them. +2Ch 2:12 And Huram said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, maker of heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, full of wisdom and good sense, to be the builder of a house for the Lord and a house for himself as king. +2Ch 2:13 And now I am sending you a wise and expert man, Huram who is as my father, +2Ch 2:14 The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, whose father was a man of Tyre, an expert worker in gold and silver and brass and iron, in stone and wood, in purple and blue and fair linen and red, trained in the cutting of every sort of ornament and the invention of every sort of design; let him be given a place among your expert workmen and those of my lord, your father David. +2Ch 2:15 So now let my lord send to his servants the grain and the oil and the wine as my lord has said; +2Ch 2:16 And we will have wood cut from Lebanon, as much as you have need of, and will send it to you on flat boats by sea to Joppa, and from there you may take it up to Jerusalem. +2Ch 2:17 Then Solomon took the number of all the men from strange lands who were living in Israel, as his father David had done; there were a hundred and fifty-three thousand, six hundred. +2Ch 2:18 Seventy thousand he put to the work of transport, eighty thousand to cutting stone in the mountains, and three thousand, six hundred as overseers to put the people to work. +2Ch 3:1 Then Solomon made a start at building the house of the Lord on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, where the Lord had been seen by his father David, in the place which David had made ready in the grain-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. +2Ch 3:2 The building was started in the second month in the fourth year of his rule. +2Ch 3:3 And Solomon put the base of the house of God in position; by the older measure it was sixty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. +2Ch 3:4 And the covered way in front of the house was twenty cubits long, as wide as the house, and a hundred and twenty cubits high, all plated inside with the best gold. +2Ch 3:5 And the greater house was roofed with cypress-wood, plated with the best gold and ornamented with designs of palm-trees and chains. +2Ch 3:6 And the house was made beautiful with stones of great value, and the gold was gold of Parvaim. +2Ch 3:7 All the house was plated with gold, the supports, the steps, the walls and the doors; and the walls were ornamented with designs of winged ones. +2Ch 3:8 And he made the most holy place; it was twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits wide, like the greater house, and was plated all over with the best gold; six hundred talents were used for it. +2Ch 3:9 And fifty shekels weight of gold was used for the nails. He had all the higher rooms plated with gold. +2Ch 3:10 And in the most holy place he made images of two winged beings, covering them with gold. +2Ch 3:11 Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; one wing, five cubits long, touching the wall of the house, and the other, of the same size, meeting the wing of the other winged one. +2Ch 3:12 And in the same way, the wings of the other, five cubits long, were stretched out, one touching the wall and the other meeting the wing of the first winged one. +2Ch 3:13 Their outstretched wings were twenty cubits across; they were placed upright on their feet, facing the inner part of the house. +2Ch 3:14 And he made the veil of blue and purple and red, of the best linen, worked with winged ones. +2Ch 3:15 And in front of the house he made two pillars, thirty-five cubits high, with crowns on the tops of them, five cubits high. +2Ch 3:16 And he made chains, like neck ornaments, and put them on the tops of the pillars, and a hundred apples on the chains. +2Ch 3:17 He put up the pillars in front of the Temple, one on the right side and one on the left, naming the one on the right Jachin and that on the left Boaz. +2Ch 4:1 Then he made a brass altar, twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high. +2Ch 4:2 And he made the great water-vessel of metal, round in form, measuring ten cubits across from edge to edge; it was five cubits high and thirty cubits round. +2Ch 4:3 And under it was a design of flowers all round it, ten to a cubit, circling the water-vessel in two lines; they were made from liquid metal at the same time as the water-vessel. +2Ch 4:4 It was supported on twelve oxen, three facing to the north, three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east, the water-vessel resting on top of them; their back parts were all turned to the middle of it. +2Ch 4:5 It was as thick as a man's open hand, and the edge of it was curved like the edge of a cup, like a lily flower; it would take three thousand baths. +2Ch 4:6 And he made ten washing-vessels, putting five on the right side and five on the left; such things as were used in making the burned offering were washed in them; but the great water-vessel was to be used by the priests for washing themselves. +2Ch 4:7 And he made the ten gold supports for the lights, as directions had been given for them, and he put them in the Temple, five on the right side and five on the left. +2Ch 4:8 He made ten tables, and put them in the Temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made a hundred gold basins. +2Ch 4:9 Then he made the open space for the priests, and the great open space and its doors, plating the doors with brass. +2Ch 4:10 He put the great water-vessel on the right side of the house to the east, facing south. +2Ch 4:11 And Huram made all the pots and the spades and the basins. So he came to the end of all the work he did for King Solomon in the house of God: +2Ch 4:12 The two pillars, and the two crowns on the tops of the pillars, and the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the tops of the pillars; +2Ch 4:13 And the four hundred apples for the network, two lines of apples for the network covering the two cups of the crowns on the pillars. +2Ch 4:14 And he made the ten bases and the ten washing-vessels which were on the bases; +2Ch 4:15 The great water-vessel with the twelve oxen under it. +2Ch 4:16 All the pots and the spades and the meat-hooks and their vessels, which Huram, who was as his father, made for King Solomon for the house of the Lord, were of polished brass. +2Ch 4:17 The king made them of liquid metal in the lowland of Jordan, in the soft earth between Succoth and Zeredah. +2Ch 4:18 So Solomon made all these vessels, a very great store of them, and the weight of the brass used was not measured. +2Ch 4:19 And Solomon made all the vessels used in the house of God, the gold altar and the tables on which the holy bread was placed, +2Ch 4:20 And the supports for the lights with their lights, to be burning in the regular way in front of the inmost room, of the best gold; +2Ch 4:21 The flowers and the vessels for the lights and the instruments used for them, were all of gold; it was the best gold. +2Ch 4:22 The scissors and the basins and the spoons and the fire-trays, of the best gold; and the inner doors of the house, opening into the most holy place, and the doors of the Temple, were all of gold. +2Ch 5:1 So all the work which Solomon did for the house of the Lord was complete. And Solomon took the holy things which David his father had given, the silver and the gold and all the vessels, and put them in the store-houses of the house of God. +2Ch 5:2 Then Solomon sent for all the responsible men of Israel, all the chiefs of the tribes and the heads of families of the children of Israel, to come to Jerusalem and take the ark of the Lord's agreement up out of the town of David, which is Zion. +2Ch 5:3 And all the men of Israel came together to the king at the feast in the seventh month. +2Ch 5:4 All the responsible men of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. +2Ch 5:5 They took up the ark and the Tent of meeting and all the holy vessels which were in the Tent; all these the priests, the Levites, took up. +2Ch 5:6 And King Solomon and all the men of Israel who had come together there with him, were before the ark, making offerings of sheep and oxen more than might be numbered. +2Ch 5:7 And the priests took the ark of the Lord's agreement and put it in its place, in the inner room of the house, in the most holy place, under the wings of the winged ones. +2Ch 5:8 For their wings were outstretched over the place where the ark was, covering the ark and its rods. +2Ch 5:9 The rods were so long that their ends were seen from the holy place before the inmost room; but they were not seen from outside; and there they are to this day. +2Ch 5:10 Nothing was in the ark but the two flat stones which Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made an agreement with the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. +2Ch 5:11 Now when the priests had come out of the holy place, (for all the priests who were present had made themselves holy, not keeping to their divisions; +2Ch 5:12 And the Levites who made the music, all of them, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and brothers, robed in fair linen, were in their places with their brass and corded instruments at the east side of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests blowing horns;) +2Ch 5:13 And when the players on horns, and those who made melody in song, with one voice were sounding the praise and glory of the Lord; with loud voices and with wind instruments, and brass and corded instruments of music, praising the Lord and saying, He is good; his mercy is unchanging for ever: then the house was full of the cloud of the glory of the Lord, +2Ch 5:14 So that the priests were not able to keep their places to do their work because of the cloud; for the house of God was full of the glory of the Lord. +2Ch 6:1 Then Solomon said, O Lord, to the sun you have given the heaven for a living-place, but your living-place was not seen by men, +2Ch 6:2 So I have made for you a living-place, a house in which you may be for ever present. +2Ch 6:3 Then, turning his face about, the king gave a blessing to all the men of Israel; and they were all on their feet together. +2Ch 6:4 And he said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who himself gave his word to my father David, and with his strong hand has made his word come true, saying, +2Ch 6:5 From the day when I took my people out of the land of Egypt, no town in all the tribes of Israel has been marked out by me for the building of a house for the resting-place of my name; and I took no man to be a ruler over my people Israel; +2Ch 6:6 But now I have made selection of Jerusalem, that my name might be there, and of David, to be over my people Israel. +2Ch 6:7 Now it was in the heart of my father David to put up a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. +2Ch 6:8 But the Lord said to David my father, You did well to have in your heart the desire to make a house for my name: +2Ch 6:9 But you yourself will not be the builder of the house; but your son, the offspring of your body, he it is who will put up a house for my name. +2Ch 6:10 And the Lord has kept his word; for I have taken my father David's place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel, as the Lord gave his word; and I have made the house for the name of the Lord the God of Israel. +2Ch 6:11 And there I have put the ark, in which is the agreement of the Lord, which he made with the people of Israel. +2Ch 6:12 Then he took his place in front of the altar of the Lord, all the men of Israel being present, +2Ch 6:13 (For Solomon had made a brass stage, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had put it in the middle of the open space; on this he took his place and went down on his knees before all the meeting of Israel, stretching out his hands to heaven.) +2Ch 6:14 And he said, O Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth; keeping faith and mercy unchanging for your servants, while they go in your ways with all their hearts; +2Ch 6:15 For you have kept the word which you gave to your servant David, my father; with your mouth you said it and with your hand you have made it come true this day. +2Ch 6:16 So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, let your word to your servant David, my father, come true, when you said, You will never be without a man to take his place before me on the seat of the kingdom of Israel; if only your children give attention to their ways, walking in my law, as you have done before me. +2Ch 6:17 So now, O Lord, the God of Israel, make your word come true which you said to your servant David. +2Ch 6:18 But is it truly possible that God may be housed with men on earth? see, heaven and the heaven of heavens are not wide enough to be your resting-place: how much less this house which I have made: +2Ch 6:19 Still, let your heart be turned to the prayer of your servant and to his prayer for grace, O Lord my God, and give ear to the cry and the prayer which your servant makes before you; +2Ch 6:20 That your eyes may be open to this house day and night, to this place of which you have said that you would put your name there; to give ear to the prayer which your servant may make, turning to this place. +2Ch 6:21 And give ear to the prayers of your servant and of your people Israel, when they make their prayers, turning to this place; give ear from heaven your living-place; and hearing have mercy. +2Ch 6:22 If a man does wrong to his neighbour and has to take an oath, and comes before your altar to take his oath in this house: +2Ch 6:23 Then let your ear be open in heaven, and be the judge of your servants, giving punishment to the wrongdoer, so that his sin may come on his head; and, by your decision, keeping from evil him who has done no wrong. +2Ch 6:24 And if your people Israel are overcome in war, because of their sin against you; if they are turned to you again, honouring your name, making prayers and requesting your grace in this house: +2Ch 6:25 Then give ear from heaven, and let the sin of your people Israel have forgiveness, and take them back again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers. +2Ch 6:26 When heaven is shut up and there is no rain, because of their sin against you: if they make prayers with their faces turned to this place, honouring your name and turning away from their sin when you send trouble on them: +2Ch 6:27 Then give ear from heaven, so that the sin of your servants and the sin of your people Israel may have forgiveness, when you make clear to them the good way in which they are to go; and send rain on your land which you have given to your people for their heritage. +2Ch 6:28 If there is no food in the land, if there is disease, if the fruits of the earth are damaged by heat or water, locust or worm; if their towns are shut in by their attackers: whatever trouble or whatever disease there may be: +2Ch 6:29 Whatever prayer or request for your grace is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, whatever his trouble may be, whose hands are stretched out to this house: +2Ch 6:30 Then give ear from heaven your living-place, answering with forgiveness, and give to every man, whose secret heart is open to you, the reward of all his ways; (for you, and you only, have knowledge of the hearts of the children of men;) +2Ch 6:31 So that they may give you worship, walking in your ways, as long as they are living in the land which you gave to our fathers. +2Ch 6:32 And as for the man from a strange land, who is not of your people Israel but comes from a far country because of the glory of your name and your strong hand and your outstretched arm; when he comes to make his prayer, turning to this house: +2Ch 6:33 Then give ear from heaven your living-place, and give him his desire, whatever it may be; so that all the peoples of the earth may have knowledge of your name, worshipping you as do your people Israel, and may see that this house which I have made is truly named by your name. +2Ch 6:34 If your people go out to war against their attackers, by whatever way you may send them, if they make their prayers to you turning their faces to this town of yours and to this house which I have put up for your name: +2Ch 6:35 Then give ear from heaven to their prayer and their cry for grace, and see right done to them. +2Ch 6:36 If they do wrong against you, (for no man is without sin,) and you are angry with them, and give them up into the power of those who are fighting against them, so that they take them away prisoners to a land far off or near; +2Ch 6:37 And if they take thought, in the land where they are prisoners, turning again to you, crying out in prayer to you in that land, and saying, We are sinners, we have done wrong, we have done evil; +2Ch 6:38 If with all their heart and soul they are turned again to you, in the land where they are prisoners, the land where they have been taken, and make their prayers, turning their eyes to their land which you gave to their fathers, and to the town which you took for yourself, and the house which I have made for your name: +2Ch 6:39 Then give ear from heaven your living-place to their prayer and their cry, and see right done to them, answering with forgiveness your people who have done wrong against you. +2Ch 6:40 Now, O my God, may your eyes be open and your ears awake to the prayers made in this place. +2Ch 6:41 Up! now, O Lord God, come back to your resting-place, you and the ark of your strength: let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints be glad in what is good. +2Ch 6:42 O Lord God, let him whom you have taken for yourself never be given up by you: keep in mind your mercies to David your servant. +2Ch 7:1 Now when Solomon's prayers were ended, fire came down from heaven, burning up all the offerings; and the house was full of the glory of the Lord. +2Ch 7:2 And the priests were not able to go into the house of the Lord, for the Lord's house was full of the glory of the Lord. +2Ch 7:3 And all the children of Israel were looking on when the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord was on the house; and they went down on their knees, with their faces to the earth, worshipping and praising the Lord, and saying, He is good; for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +2Ch 7:4 Then the king and all the people made offerings before the Lord. +2Ch 7:5 King Solomon made an offering of twenty-two thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people kept the feast of the opening of the house of God. +2Ch 7:6 And the priests were in their places, and the Levites with their instruments of music for the Lord's song, which David the king had made for the praise of the Lord whose mercy is unchanging for ever, when David gave praise by their hand; and the priests were sounding horns before them; and all Israel were on their feet. +2Ch 7:7 Then Solomon made holy the middle of the open square in front of the house of the Lord, offering the burned offerings there, and the fat of the peace-offerings; for there was not room on the brass altar which Solomon had made for all the burned offerings and the meal offerings and the fat. +2Ch 7:8 So Solomon kept the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great meeting, for the people had come together from the way into Hamath and from as far as the river of Egypt. +2Ch 7:9 And on the eighth day they had a holy meeting; the offerings for making the altar holy went on for seven days, and the feast for seven days. +2Ch 7:10 And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents, full of joy and glad in their hearts, because of all the good which the Lord had done to David and to Solomon and to Israel his people. +2Ch 7:11 So Solomon came to the end of building the house of the Lord and the king's house; and everything which it was in his mind to make in the house of the Lord and for himself had been well done. +2Ch 7:12 Now the Lord came to Solomon in a vision by night, and said to him, I have given ear to your prayer, and have taken this place for myself as a house where offerings are to be made. +2Ch 7:13 If, at my word, heaven is shut up, so that there is no rain, or if I send locusts on the land for its destruction, or if I send disease on my people; +2Ch 7:14 If my people, on whom my name is named, make themselves low and come to me in prayer, searching for me and turning from their evil ways; then I will give ear from heaven, overlooking their sin, and will give life again to their land. +2Ch 7:15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears awake to the prayers made in this place. +2Ch 7:16 For I have taken this house for myself and made it holy, so that my name may be there for ever; and my eyes and my heart will be there at all times. +2Ch 7:17 And as for you, if you will go on your way before me as David your father did, doing whatever I have given you orders to do and keeping my laws and my decisions: +2Ch 7:18 Then I will make strong the seat of your kingdom, as I gave my word to David your father, saying, You will never be without a man to be ruler in Israel. +2Ch 7:19 But if you are turned away from me, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods, giving them worship: +2Ch 7:20 Then I will have this people uprooted out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will put away from before my eyes, and make it an example and a word of shame among all peoples. +2Ch 7:21 And this house will become a mass of broken walls, and everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder, and will say, Why has the Lord done so to this land and to this house? +2Ch 7:22 And their answer will be, Because they were turned away from the Lord, the God of their fathers, who took them out of the land of Egypt, and took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why he has sent all this evil on them. +2Ch 8:1 Now at the end of twenty years, in which time Solomon had put up the house of the Lord and a house for himself, +2Ch 8:2 He took in hand the building up of the towns which Huram had given him, causing the children of Israel to make living-places for themselves there. +2Ch 8:3 And Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and overcame it. +2Ch 8:4 And he put up the buildings of Tadmor in the waste land, and of all the store-towns in Hamath; +2Ch 8:5 And of Beth-horon the higher and the lower, walled towns with walls and doorways and locks; +2Ch 8:6 And of Baalath, and all the store-towns which Solomon had, and the towns where he kept his war-carriages and his horse men, and everything which it was his pleasure to put up in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the land under his rule. +2Ch 8:7 As for all the rest of the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel: +2Ch 8:8 Their men who were still living in the land, and whom the children of Israel had not put an end to, these Solomon put to forced work, as is done to this day; +2Ch 8:9 But Solomon did not make use of the children of Israel as servants for his work; they were men of war, his chiefs and his captains, and captains of his war-carriages and his horsemen. +2Ch 8:10 Now these were the chief men in authority whom King Solomon had: two hundred and fifty of them, in authority over the people. +2Ch 8:11 Then Solomon made Pharaoh's daughter come up from the town of David to the house which he had made for her; for he said, I will not have my wife living in the house of David, king of Israel, because those places where the ark of the Lord has come are holy. +2Ch 8:12 Then Solomon made burned offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had put up in front of the covered way, +2Ch 8:13 Offering every day what had been ordered by Moses, on the Sabbaths and at the new moon and at the regular feasts three times a year, that is at the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tents. +2Ch 8:14 And he gave the divisions of the priests their places for their work, as ordered by his father David, and to the Levites he gave their work of praise and waiting on the priests, to do what was needed day by day; and he gave the door-keepers their places in turn at every door; for so David, the man of God, had given orders. +2Ch 8:15 All the orders given by the king to the priests and Levites, in connection with any business or stores, were done with care. +2Ch 8:16 And all the work of Solomon was complete, from the day when he put the base of the Lord's house in position, till Solomon had come to the end of building the Lord's house. +2Ch 8:17 Then Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth by the sea in the land of Edom. +2Ch 8:18 And Huram sent him, by his servants, ships and experienced seamen, who went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir and came back with four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they took to King Solomon. +2Ch 9:1 Now the queen of Sheba, hearing great things of Solomon, came to Jerusalem to put his wisdom to the test with hard questions; and with her came a very great train, and camels weighted down with spices, and great stores of gold and jewels: and when she came to Solomon she had talk with him of everything in her mind. +2Ch 9:2 And Solomon gave her answers to all her questions; there was no secret which he did not make clear to her. +2Ch 9:3 And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had made, +2Ch 9:4 And the food at his table, and all his servants seated there, and those who were waiting on him in their places, and their robes, and his wine-servants and their robes, and the burned offerings which he made in the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. +2Ch 9:5 And she said to the king, The account which was given to me in my country of your acts and your wisdom was true. +2Ch 9:6 But I had no faith in what was said about you, till I came and saw for myself; and truly, word was not given me of half your great wisdom; you are much greater than they said. +2Ch 9:7 Happy are your wives and happy these your servants whose place is ever before you, hearing your words of wisdom. +2Ch 9:8 Praise be to the Lord your God whose pleasure it was to put you on the seat of his kingdom to be king for the Lord your God: because, in his love for Israel, it was the purpose of your God to make them strong for ever, he made you king over them, to be their judge in righteousness. +2Ch 9:9 And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a great store of spices and jewels: never had such spices been seen as the queen of Sheba gave to Solomon. +2Ch 9:10 And the servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon, in addition to gold from Ophir, came back with sandal-wood and jewels. +2Ch 9:11 And with the sandal-wood the king made steps for the house of the Lord and for the king's house, and instruments of music for the makers of melody; never before had such been seen in the land of Judah. +2Ch 9:12 And King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she made request for, in addition to what she had taken to the king. So she went back to her country with her servants. +2Ch 9:13 Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents; +2Ch 9:14 And in addition to what he got from traders of different sorts, all the kings of Arabia and the rulers of the country gave gold and silver to Solomon. +2Ch 9:15 And King Solomon made two hundred body-covers of hammered gold, every one having six hundred shekels of gold in it. +2Ch 9:16 And he made three hundred smaller body-covers of hammered gold, using three hundred shekels of gold for every cover, and the king put them in the house of the Woods of Lebanon. +2Ch 9:17 Then the king made a great ivory seat, plated with the best gold. +2Ch 9:18 There were six steps up to it, and a foot-rest of gold fixed to it, and arms on the two sides of the seat, with two lions at the side of the arms. +2Ch 9:19 And twelve lions were placed on one side and on the other side on the six steps: there was nothing like it in any kingdom. +2Ch 9:20 All King Solomon's drinking-vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the Woods of Lebanon were of the best gold: no one gave a thought to silver in the days of Solomon. +2Ch 9:21 For the king had Tarshish-ships sailing with the servants of Huram: once every three years the Tarshish-ships came back with gold and silver, ivory and monkeys and peacocks. +2Ch 9:22 And King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom. +2Ch 9:23 And all the kings of the earth came to see Solomon and to give ear to his wisdom, which God had put into his heart. +2Ch 9:24 And everyone took with him an offering, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes, and coats of metal, and spices, and horses and beasts for transport, regularly year by year. +2Ch 9:25 Solomon had four thousand buildings for his horses and his war-carriages, and twelve thousand horsemen whom he kept, some in the carriage-towns and some with the king in Jerusalem. +2Ch 9:26 And he was ruler over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the limit of Egypt. +2Ch 9:27 The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem and cedars like the sycamore-trees of the lowlands in number. +2Ch 9:28 They got horses for Solomon from Egypt and from every land. +2Ch 9:29 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not recorded in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the words of Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh, and in the visions of Iddo the seer about Jeroboam, the son of Nebat? +2Ch 9:30 Solomon was king over Israel in Jerusalem for forty years. +2Ch 9:31 And Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the town of David his father; and Rehoboam his son became king in his place. +2Ch 10:1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had come together to make him king. +2Ch 10:2 And when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had news of it, (for he was in Egypt where he had gone in flight from King Solomon,) he came back from Egypt. +2Ch 10:3 And they sent for him; and Jeroboam and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said, +2Ch 10:4 Your father put a hard yoke on us: if you will make the conditions under which your father kept us down less cruel, and the weight of the yoke he put on us less hard, then we will be your servants. +2Ch 10:5 And he said to them, Come to me again after three days. So the people went away. +2Ch 10:6 Then King Rehoboam took the opinion of the old men who had been with Solomon his father when he was living, and said, In your opinion, what answer am I to give to this people? +2Ch 10:7 And they said to him, If you are kind to this people, pleasing them and saying good words to them, then they will be your servants for ever. +2Ch 10:8 But he gave no attention to the opinion of the old men, but went to the young men of his generation who were waiting before him. +2Ch 10:9 And he said to them, What is your opinion? What answer are we to give to this people who have said to me, Make less the weight of the yoke which your father put on us? +2Ch 10:10 And the young men of his generation said to him, This is the answer to give to the people who came to you saying, Your father put a hard yoke on us, but will you make it less; say to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's body; +2Ch 10:11 If my father put a hard yoke on you, I will make it harder: my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give you blows with snakes. +2Ch 10:12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had given orders, saying, Come to me again on the third day. +2Ch 10:13 And the king gave them a rough answer. So King Rehoboam gave no attention to the suggestion of the old men, +2Ch 10:14 But gave them the answer put forward by the young men, saying, My father made your yoke hard, but I will make it harder; my father gave you punishment with whips, but I will give it with snakes. +2Ch 10:15 So the king did not give ear to the people; for this came about by the purpose of God, so that the Lord might give effect to his word which he had said by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. +2Ch 10:16 And when all Israel saw that the king would give no attention to them, the people in answer said to the king, What part have we in David? what is our heritage in the son of Jesse? every man to your tents, O Israel; now see to your house, David. So all Israel went to their tents. +2Ch 10:17 But Rehoboam was still king over those of the children of Israel who were living in the towns of Judah. +2Ch 10:18 Then Rehoboam sent Adoniram, the overseer of the forced work; and he was stoned to death by all Israel. And King Rehoboam went quickly and got into his carriage to go in flight to Jerusalem. +2Ch 10:19 So Israel was turned away from the family of David to this day. +2Ch 11:1 And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, and got together the men of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand of his best fighting-men, to make war against Israel and get the kingdom back for Rehoboam. +2Ch 11:2 But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, +2Ch 11:3 Say to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, +2Ch 11:4 The Lord has said, You are not to go to war against your brothers: let every man go back to his house, for this thing is my purpose. So they gave ear to the words of the Lord and were turned back from fighting against Jeroboam. +2Ch 11:5 Now Rehoboam kept in Jerusalem, building walled towns in Judah. +2Ch 11:6 He was the builder of Beth-lehem and Etam and Tekoa +2Ch 11:7 And Beth-zur and Soco and Adullam +2Ch 11:8 And Gath and Mareshah and Ziph +2Ch 11:9 And Adoraim and Lachish and Azekah +2Ch 11:10 And Zorah and Aijalon and Hebron, walled towns in Judah and Benjamin. +2Ch 11:11 And he made the walled towns strong, and he put captains in them and stores of food, oil, and wine. +2Ch 11:12 And in every town he put stores of body-covers and spears, and made them very strong. And Judah and Benjamin were his. +2Ch 11:13 And the priests and Levites who were in all Israel came together to him from every part of their country. +2Ch 11:14 For the Levites gave up their living-places and their property, and came to Judah and Jerusalem; for Jeroboam and his sons had sent them away, not letting them be priests to the Lord; +2Ch 11:15 And he himself made priests for the high places, and for the images of he-goats and oxen which he had made. +2Ch 11:16 And after them, from all the tribes of Israel, all those whose hearts were fixed and true to the Lord, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to make offerings to the Lord, the God of their fathers. +2Ch 11:17 So they went on increasing the power of the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, strong for three years; and for three years they went in the ways of David and Solomon. +2Ch 11:18 And Rehoboam took as his wife Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth, the son of David and of Abihail, the daughter of Eliab, the son of Jesse; +2Ch 11:19 And she had sons by him, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. +2Ch 11:20 And after her he took Maacah, the daughter of Absalom; and she had Abijah and Attai and Ziza and Shelomith by him. +2Ch 11:21 Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, was dearer to Rehoboam than all his wives and his servant-wives: (for he had eighteen wives and sixty servant-wives, and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.) +2Ch 11:22 Rehoboam made Abijah, the son of Maacah, chief and ruler among his brothers, for it was his purpose to make him king. +2Ch 11:23 And in his wisdom he had his sons stationed in every walled town through all the lands of Judah and Benjamin; and he gave them a great store of food, and took wives for them. +2Ch 12:1 Now when Rehoboam's position as king had been made certain, and he was strong, he gave up the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him. +2Ch 12:2 Now in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, because of their sin against the Lord, +2Ch 12:3 With twelve hundred war-carriages and sixty thousand horsemen: and the people who came with him out of Egypt were more than might be numbered: Lubim and Sukkiim and Ethiopians. +2Ch 12:4 And he took the walled towns of Judah, and came as far as Jerusalem. +2Ch 12:5 Now Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the chiefs of Judah, who had come together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, The Lord has said, Because you have given me up, I have given you up into the hands of Shishak. +2Ch 12:6 Then the chiefs of Israel and the king made themselves low and said, The Lord is upright. +2Ch 12:7 And the Lord, seeing that they had made themselves low, said to Shemaiah, They have made themselves low: I will not send destruction on them, but in a short time I will give them salvation, and will not let loose my wrath on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. +2Ch 12:8 But still they will become his servants, so that they may see how different my yoke is from the yoke of the kingdoms of the lands. +2Ch 12:9 So Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem and took away all the stored wealth of the house of the Lord and the king's house: he took everything away, and with the rest the gold body-covers which Solomon had made. +2Ch 12:10 And in their place King Rehoboam had other body-covers made of brass and gave them into the care of the captains of the armed men who were stationed at the door of the king's house. +2Ch 12:11 And whenever the king went into the house of the Lord, the armed men went with him taking the body-covers, and then took them back to their room. +2Ch 12:12 And when he made himself low, the wrath of the Lord was turned back from him, and complete destruction did not come on him, for there was still some good in Judah. +2Ch 12:13 So King Rehoboam made himself strong in Jerusalem and was ruling there. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he was ruling for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the town which the Lord had made his out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there; and his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman. +2Ch 12:14 And he did evil because his heart was not true to the Lord. +2Ch 12:15 Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not recorded in the words of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. +2Ch 12:16 And Rehoboam went to rest with his fathers, and was put into the earth in the town of David; and Abijah his son became king in his place. +2Ch 13:1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah. +2Ch 13:2 He was king in Jerusalem for three years; his mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. +2Ch 13:3 And Abijah went out to the fight with an army of men of war, four hundred thousand of his best men; and Jeroboam put his forces in line against him, eight hundred thousand of his best men of war. +2Ch 13:4 And Abijah took up his position on Mount Zemaraim, in the hill-country of Ephraim, and said, Give ear to me, O Jeroboam and all Israel: +2Ch 13:5 Is it not clear to you that the Lord, the God of Israel, gave the rule over Israel to David and to his sons for ever, by an agreement made with salt? +2Ch 13:6 But Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon, the son of David, took up arms against his lord. +2Ch 13:7 And certain foolish and good-for-nothing men were joined with him, and made themselves strong against Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, when he was young and untested and not able to keep them back. +2Ch 13:8 And now it is your purpose to put yourselves against the authority which the Lord has put into the hands of the sons of David, and you are a very great number, and you have with you the gold oxen which Jeroboam made to be your gods. +2Ch 13:9 And after driving out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, have you not made priests for yourselves as the people of other lands do? so that anyone who comes to make himself priest by offering an ox or seven sheep, may be a priest of those who are no gods. +2Ch 13:10 But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not been turned away from him; we have priests who do the work of the Lord, even the sons of Aaron and the Levites in their places; +2Ch 13:11 By whom burned offerings and perfumes are sent up in smoke before the Lord every morning and every evening; and they put out the holy bread on its table and the gold support for the lights with its lights burning every evening; for we keep the orders given to us by the Lord our God, but you have gone away from him. +2Ch 13:12 And now God is with us at our head, and his priests with their loud horns sounding against you. O children of Israel, do not make war on the Lord, the God of your fathers, for it will not go well for you. +2Ch 13:13 But Jeroboam had put some of his men to make a surprise attack on them from the back, so some were facing Judah and others were stationed secretly at their back. +2Ch 13:14 And Judah, turning their faces, saw that they were being attacked in front and at the back; and they gave a cry for help to the Lord, while the priests were sounding their horns. +2Ch 13:15 And the men of Judah gave a loud cry; and at their cry, God put fear into Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. +2Ch 13:16 And the children of Israel went in flight before Judah, and God gave them up into their hands. +2Ch 13:17 And Abijah and his people put them to death with great destruction: five hundred thousand of the best of Israel were put to the sword. +2Ch 13:18 So at that time the children of Israel were overcome, and the children of Judah got the better of them, because they put their faith in the Lord, the God of their fathers. +2Ch 13:19 And Abijah went after Jeroboam and took some of his towns, Beth-el with its small towns and Jeshanah with its small towns and Ephron with its small towns. +2Ch 13:20 And Jeroboam did not get back his power again in the life-time of Abijah; and the Lord sent death on him. +2Ch 13:21 But Abijah became great, and had fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. +2Ch 13:22 And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways and his sayings, are recorded in the account of the prophet Iddo. +2Ch 14:1 So Abijah went to rest with his fathers, and they put him into the earth in the town of David, and Asa his son became king in his place; in his time the land was quiet for ten years. +2Ch 14:2 And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God; +2Ch 14:3 For he took away the altars of strange gods and the high places, and had the upright stones broken and the wood pillars cut down; +2Ch 14:4 And he made Judah go after the Lord, the God of their fathers, and keep his laws and his orders. +2Ch 14:5 And he took away the high places and the sun-images from all the towns of Judah; and the kingdom was quiet under his rule. +2Ch 14:6 He made walled towns in Judah, for the land was quiet and there were no wars in those years, because the Lord had given him rest. +2Ch 14:7 He said to Judah, Let us make these towns, building walls round them with towers and doors and locks. The land is still ours, because we have been true to the Lord our God; we have been true to him and he has given us rest on every side. So they went on building and all went well for them. +2Ch 14:8 And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men of Judah armed with body-covers and spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand of Benjamin armed with body-covers and bows; all these were men of war. +2Ch 14:9 And Zerah the Ethiopian, with an army of a million, and three hundred war-carriages, came out against them to Mareshah. +2Ch 14:10 And Asa went out against him, and they put their forces in position in the valley north of Mareshah. +2Ch 14:11 And Asa made prayer to the Lord his God and said, Lord, you only are able to give help against the strong to him who has no strength; come to our help, O Lord our God, for our hope is in you, and in your name we have come out against this great army. O Lord, you are our God; let not man's power be greater than yours. +2Ch 14:12 So the Lord sent fear on the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah; and the Ethiopians went in flight. +2Ch 14:13 And Asa and the people who were with him went after them as far as Gerar; and so great was the destruction among the Ethiopians that they were not able to get their army together again, for they were broken before the Lord and before his army; and they took away a great amount of their goods. +2Ch 14:14 And they overcame all the towns round Gerar, because the Lord sent fear on them; and they took away their goods from the towns, for there were stores of wealth in them. +2Ch 14:15 And they made an attack on the tents of the owners of the cattle, and took away great numbers of sheep and camels and went back to Jerusalem. +2Ch 15:1 And the spirit of God came on Azariah, the son of Oded; +2Ch 15:2 And he came face to face with Asa and said to him, Give ear to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you while you are with him; if your heart's desire is for him, he will be near you, but if you give him up, he will give you up. +2Ch 15:3 Now for a long time Israel has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without the law; +2Ch 15:4 But when in their trouble they were turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, searching after him, he let their search be rewarded. +2Ch 15:5 In those times there was no peace for him who went out or for him who came in, but great trouble was on all the people of the lands. +2Ch 15:6 And they were broken by divisions, nation against nation and town against town, because God sent all sorts of trouble on them. +2Ch 15:7 But be you strong and let not your hands be feeble, for your work will be rewarded. +2Ch 15:8 And Asa, hearing these words of Azariah, the son of Oded the prophet, took heart and put away all the disgusting things out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the towns which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he made new again the altar of the Lord in front of the covered way of the Lord's house. +2Ch 15:9 And he got together all Judah and Benjamin and those of Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon who were living with them; for numbers of them came to him out of Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. +2Ch 15:10 So they came together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the rule of Asa. +2Ch 15:11 And that day they made offerings to the Lord of the things they had taken in war, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. +2Ch 15:12 And they made an agreement to be true to the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and all their soul; +2Ch 15:13 And that anyone, small or great, man or woman, who was not true to the Lord, the God of Israel, would be put to death. +2Ch 15:14 And they made an oath to the Lord, with a loud voice, sounding wind-instruments and horns. +2Ch 15:15 And all Judah was glad because of the oath, for they had taken it with all their heart, turning to the Lord with all their desire; and he was with them and gave them rest on every side. +2Ch 15:16 And Asa would not let Maacah, his mother, be queen, because she had made a disgusting image for Asherah; and Asa had her image cut down and broken up and burned by the stream Kidron. +2Ch 15:17 But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life. +2Ch 15:18 He took into the house of God all the things which his father had made holy and those which he himself had made holy, silver and gold and vessels. +2Ch 15:19 And there was no more war till the thirty-fifth year of the rule of Asa. +2Ch 16:1 In the thirty-sixth year of the rule of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah, building Ramah so that no one was able to go out or in to Asa, king of Judah. +2Ch 16:2 Then Asa took silver and gold out of the stores of the Lord's house and of the king's store-house, and sent to Ben-hadad, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying, +2Ch 16:3 Let there be an agreement between me and you as there was between my father and your father: see, I have sent you silver and gold; go and put an end to your agreement with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up attacking me. +2Ch 16:4 And Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and Dan and Abel-maim, and all the store-towns of Naphtali. +2Ch 16:5 Then Baasha, hearing of it, put a stop to the building of Ramah, and let his work come to an end. +2Ch 16:6 Then King Asa, with all Judah, took away the stones and wood with which Baasha was building Ramah, and he made use of them for building Geba and Mizpah. +2Ch 16:7 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, Because you have put your faith in the king of Aram and not in the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has got away out of your hands. +2Ch 16:8 Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a very great army, with war-carriages and horsemen more than might be numbered? but because your faith was in the Lord, he gave them up into your hands. +2Ch 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord go this way and that, through all the earth, letting it be seen that he is the strong support of those whose hearts are true to him. In this you have done foolishly, for from now you will have wars. +2Ch 16:10 Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison, burning with wrath against him because of this thing. And at the same time Asa was cruel to some of the people. +2Ch 16:11 Now the acts of Asa, first and last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. +2Ch 16:12 In the thirty-ninth year of his rule, Asa had a very bad disease of the feet; but he did not go to the Lord for help in his disease, but to medical men. +2Ch 16:13 So Asa went to rest with his fathers, and death came to him in the forty-first year of his rule. +2Ch 16:14 And they put him into the resting-place which he had made for himself in the town of David, in a bed full of sweet perfumes of all sorts of spices, made by the perfumer's art, and they made a great burning for him. +2Ch 17:1 And Jehoshaphat his son became king in his place, and made himself strong against Israel. +2Ch 17:2 He put forces in all the walled towns of Judah, and responsible chiefs in the land of Judah and in the towns of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken. +2Ch 17:3 And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he went in the early ways of his father, not turning to the Baals, +2Ch 17:4 But turning to the God of his father and keeping his laws, and not doing as Israel did. +2Ch 17:5 So the Lord made his kingdom strong; and all Judah gave offerings to Jehoshaphat, and he had great wealth and honour. +2Ch 17:6 His heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord; and he went so far as to take away the high places and the wood pillars out of Judah. +2Ch 17:7 In the third year of his rule he sent Benhail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nethanel and Micaiah, his captains, as teachers into the towns of Judah; +2Ch 17:8 And with them, Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah and Asahel and Shemiramoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tob-adonijah, the Levites; and Elishama and Jehoram the priests. +2Ch 17:9 And they gave teaching in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord with them; they went through all the towns of Judah teaching the people. +2Ch 17:10 And the fear of the Lord was on all the kingdoms of the lands round Judah, so that they made no wars against Jehoshaphat. +2Ch 17:11 And some of the Philistines took offerings to Jehoshaphat, and made him payments of silver; and the Arabians gave him flocks, seven thousand, seven hundred sheep, and seven thousand, seven hundred he-goats. +2Ch 17:12 Jehoshaphat became greater and greater, and made strong towers and store-towns in Judah. +2Ch 17:13 He had much property in the towns of Judah; he had forces of armed men, great and strong, in Jerusalem. +2Ch 17:14 This is the number of them, listed by their families, the captains of thousands of Judah: Adnah, the captain, and with him three hundred thousand men of war; +2Ch 17:15 Second to him Jehohanan, the captain, and with him two hundred and eighty thousand; +2Ch 17:16 After him Amasiah, the son of Zichri, who freely gave himself to the Lord, and with him two hundred thousand men of war; +2Ch 17:17 And the captains of Benjamin: Eliada, a great man of war, and with him two hundred thousand armed with bows and body-covers; +2Ch 17:18 And after him Jehozabad, and with him a hundred and eighty thousand trained for war. +2Ch 17:19 These were the men who were waiting on the king, in addition to those placed by the king in the walled towns through all Judah. +2Ch 18:1 Now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honour, and his son was married to Ahab's daughter. +2Ch 18:2 And after some years he went down to Samaria to see Ahab. And Ahab made a feast for him and the people who were with him, putting to death great numbers of sheep and oxen; and he got Jehoshaphat to go with him to Ramoth-gilead. +2Ch 18:3 For Ahab, king of Israel, said to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead? And he said, I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will be with you in the war. +2Ch 18:4 Then Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Let us now get directions from the Lord. +2Ch 18:5 So the king of Israel got together all the prophets, four hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for God will give it into the hands of the king. +2Ch 18:6 But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of the Lord here from whom we may get directions? +2Ch 18:7 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, but I have no love for him, because he has never been a prophet of good to me, but only of evil: he is Micaiah, the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. +2Ch 18:8 Then the king of Israel sent for one of his unsexed servants and said, Go quickly and come back with Micaiah, the son of Imla. +2Ch 18:9 Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, were seated on their seats of authority, dressed in their robes, by the doorway into Samaria; and all the prophets were acting as prophets before them. +2Ch 18:10 And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, made himself iron horns and said, The Lord says, Pushing back the Aramaeans with these, you will put an end to them completely. +2Ch 18:11 And all the prophets said the same thing, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and it will go well for you, for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king. +2Ch 18:12 Now the servant who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, See now, all the prophets with one voice are saying good things to the king; so let your words be like theirs, and say good things. +2Ch 18:13 And Micaiah said, By the living Lord, whatever the Lord says to me I will say. +2Ch 18:14 When he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, are we to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And he said, Go up, and it will go well for you; and they will be given up into your hands. +2Ch 18:15 And the king said to him, Have I not, again and again, put you on your oath to say nothing to me but what is true in the name of the Lord? +2Ch 18:16 Then he said, I saw all Israel wandering on the mountains like sheep without a keeper; and the Lord said, These have no master: let them go back, every man to his house in peace. +2Ch 18:17 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not say that he would not be a prophet of good to me, but of evil? +2Ch 18:18 Then he said, Give ear now to the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord seated on his seat of power, and all the army of heaven in their places, at his right hand and at his left. +2Ch 18:19 And the Lord said, How may Ahab, king of Israel, be tricked into going up to Ramoth-gilead to his death? And one said one thing and one another. +2Ch 18:20 Then a spirit came forward and took his place before the Lord and said, I will get him to do it by a trick. And the Lord said to him, How? +2Ch 18:21 And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so. +2Ch 18:22 And now, see, the Lord has put a spirit of deceit in the mouth of these prophets of yours; and the Lord has said evil against you. +2Ch 18:23 Then Zedekiah, the son of Chenaanah, came near and gave Micaiah a blow on the side of his face, saying, Where is the spirit of the Lord whose word is in you? +2Ch 18:24 And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe. +2Ch 18:25 And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon, the ruler of the town, and to Joash, the king's son; +2Ch 18:26 And say, By the king's order this man is to be put in prison, and given prison food till I come back in peace. +2Ch 18:27 And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace, the Lord has not sent his word by me. +2Ch 18:28 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth-gilead. +2Ch 18:29 And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will make a change in my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king, and will go into the fight; but do you put on your robes. So the king of Israel made a change in his dress, and they went to the fight. +2Ch 18:30 Now the king of Aram had given orders to the captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel. +2Ch 18:31 So when the captains of the war-carriages saw Jehoshaphat, they said, It is the king of Israel. And turning about, they came round him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry, and the Lord came to his help, and God sent them away from him. +2Ch 18:32 Now when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he was not the king of Israel, they went back from going after him. +2Ch 18:33 And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away out of the army, for I am badly wounded. +2Ch 18:34 But the fight became more violent while the day went on; and the king of Israel was supported in his war-carriage facing the Aramaeans till the evening; and by sundown he was dead. +2Ch 19:1 And Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went back to his house in Jerusalem in peace. +2Ch 19:2 And Jehu, the son of Hanani the seer, went to King Jehoshaphat and said to him, Is it right for you to go to the help of evil-doers, loving the haters of the Lord? because of this, the wrath of the Lord has come on you. +2Ch 19:3 But still there is some good in you, for you have put away the wood pillars out of the land, and have given your heart to the worship of God. +2Ch 19:4 And Jehoshaphat was living in Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people, from Beer-sheba to the hill-country of Ephraim, guiding them back to the Lord, the God of their fathers. +2Ch 19:5 And he put judges through all the land, in every walled town of Judah, +2Ch 19:6 And said to the judges, Take care what you do, for you are judging not for man but for the Lord, and he is with you in the decisions you give. +2Ch 19:7 So now let the fear of the Lord be in you; do your work with care; for in the Lord our God there is no evil, or respect for high position, or taking of payment to do wrong. +2Ch 19:8 Then in Jerusalem he gave authority to certain of the Levites and the priests and the heads of families of Israel to give decisions for the Lord, and in the causes of those living in Jerusalem. +2Ch 19:9 And he gave them their orders, saying, You are to do your work in the fear of the Lord, in good faith and with a true heart. +2Ch 19:10 And if any cause comes before you from your brothers living in their towns, where the death punishment is in question, or where there are questions of law or order, or rules or decisions, make them take care that they are not in the wrong before the Lord, so that wrath may not come on you and on your brothers; do this and you yourselves will not be in the wrong. +2Ch 19:11 And now, Amariah, the chief priest, is over you in all questions to do with the Lord; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the head of the family of Judah, in everything to do with the king's business; and the Levites will be overseers for you. Be strong to do the work; and may the Lord be with the upright. +2Ch 20:1 Now after this, the children of Moab and the children of Ammon, and with them some of the Meunim, made war against Jehoshaphat. +2Ch 20:2 And they came to Jehoshaphat with the news, saying, A great army is moving against you from Edom across the sea; and now they are in Hazazon-tamar (which is En-gedi). +2Ch 20:3 Then Jehoshaphat, in his fear, went to the Lord for directions, and gave orders all through Judah for the people to go without food. +2Ch 20:4 And Judah came together to make prayer for help from the Lord; from every town of Judah they came to give worship to the Lord. +2Ch 20:5 And Jehoshaphat took his place in the meeting of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord in front of the new open space, +2Ch 20:6 And said, O Lord, the God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? are you not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? and in your hands are power and strength so that no one is able to keep his place against you. +2Ch 20:7 Did you not, O Lord our God, after driving out the people of this land before your people Israel, give it to the seed of Abraham, your friend, for ever? +2Ch 20:8 And they made it their living-place, building there a holy house for your name, and saying, +2Ch 20:9 If evil comes on us, the sword, or punishment, or disease, or need of food, we will come to this house and to you, (for your name is in this house,) crying to you in our trouble, and you will give us salvation in answer to our cry. +2Ch 20:10 And now, see, the children of Ammon and Moab and the people of Mount Seir, whom you kept Israel from attacking when they came out of Egypt, so that turning to one side they did not send destruction on them: +2Ch 20:11 See now, how as our reward they have come to send us out of your land which you have given us as our heritage. +2Ch 20:12 O our God, will you not be their judge? for our strength is not equal to this great army which is coming against us; and we are at a loss what to do: but our eyes are on you. +2Ch 20:13 And all Judah were waiting before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. +2Ch 20:14 Then, before all the meeting, the spirit of the Lord came on Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite and one of the family of Asaph; +2Ch 20:15 And he said, Give ear, O Judah, and you people of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat: the Lord says to you, Have no fear and do not be troubled on account of this great army; for the fight is not yours but God's. +2Ch 20:16 Go down against them tomorrow: see, they are coming up by the slope of Ziz; at the end of the valley, before the waste land of Jeruel, you will come face to face with them. +2Ch 20:17 There will be no need for you to take up arms in this fight; put yourselves in position, and keep where you are, and you will see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: have no fear and do not be troubled: go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you. +2Ch 20:18 Then Jehoshaphat went down with his face to the earth, and all Judah and the people of Jerusalem gave worship to the Lord, falling down before him. +2Ch 20:19 And the Levites, the children of the Kohathites and the Korahites, got to their feet and gave praise to the Lord, the God of Israel, with a loud voice. +2Ch 20:20 And early in the morning they got up and went out to the waste land of Tekoa: and when they were going out, Jehoshaphat took his station and said to them, Give ear to me, O Judah and you people of Jerusalem: have faith in the Lord your God and you will be safe; have faith in his prophets and all will go well for you. +2Ch 20:21 And after discussion with the people, he put in their places those who were to make melody to the Lord, praising him in holy robes, while they went at the head of the army, and saying, May the Lord be praised, for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +2Ch 20:22 And at the first notes of song and praise the Lord sent a surprise attack against the children of Ammon and Moab and the people of Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were overcome. +2Ch 20:23 And the children of Ammon and Moab made an attack on the people of Mount Seir with a view to their complete destruction; and when they had put an end to the people of Seir, everyman's hand was turned against his neighbour for his destruction. +2Ch 20:24 And Judah came to the watchtower of the waste land, and looking in the direction of the army, they saw only dead bodies stretched on the earth; no living man was to be seen. +2Ch 20:25 And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their goods from them, they saw beasts in great numbers, and wealth and clothing and things of value, more than they were able to take away; all this they took for themselves, and they were three days getting it away, there was so much. +2Ch 20:26 On the fourth day they all came together in the Valley of Blessing, and there they gave blessing to the Lord; for which cause that place has been named the Valley of Blessing to this day. +2Ch 20:27 Then all the men of Judah and Jerusalem went back, with Jehoshaphat at their head, coming back to Jerusalem with joy; for the Lord had made them glad over their haters. +2Ch 20:28 So they came to Jerusalem with corded instruments and wind-instruments into the house of the Lord. +2Ch 20:29 And the fear of God came on all the kingdoms of the lands, when they had news of how the Lord made war on those who came against Israel. +2Ch 20:30 So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for the Lord gave him rest on every side. +2Ch 20:31 And Jehoshaphat was king over Judah: he was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he was ruling for twenty-five years in Jerusalem: his mother's name was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi. +2Ch 20:32 He went in the ways of his father Asa, not turning away, but doing right in the eyes of the Lord. +2Ch 20:33 The high places, however, were not taken away, and the hearts of the people were still not true to the God of their fathers. +2Ch 20:34 Now as for the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, they are recorded in the words of Jehu, the son of Hanani, which were put in the book of the kings of Israel. +2Ch 20:35 After this Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, became friends with Ahaziah, king of Israel, who did much evil: +2Ch 20:36 Together they made ships to go to Tarshish, building them in Ezion-geber. +2Ch 20:37 Then the word of Eliezer the prophet, the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah, came against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because you have let yourself be joined with Ahaziah, the Lord has sent destruction on your works. And the ships were broken and were not able to go to Tarshish. +2Ch 21:1 And Jehoshaphat went to rest with his fathers, and his body was put into the earth in the town of David. And Jehoram his son became king in his place. +2Ch 21:2 And he had brothers, sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were sons of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel. +2Ch 21:3 And their father gave them much silver and gold and things of great value, as well as walled towns in Judah; but the kingdom he gave to Jehoram, because he was the oldest. +2Ch 21:4 Now when Jehoram had taken his place over his father's kingdom, and had made his position safe, he put all his brothers to death with the sword, as well as some of the princes of Israel. +2Ch 21:5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king; and he was ruling in Jerusalem for eight years. +2Ch 21:6 He went in the ways of the kings of Israel, and did as the family of Ahab did, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife; and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. +2Ch 21:7 But it was not the Lord's purpose to send destruction on the family of David, because of the agreement he had made with David, when he said he would give to him and to his sons a light for ever. +2Ch 21:8 In his time Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah, and took a king for themselves. +2Ch 21:9 Then Jehoram went over with his captains and all his war-carriages ... made an attack by night on the Edomites, whose forces were all round him ... on the captains of the war-carriages. +2Ch 21:10 So Edom made themselves free from the rule of Judah, to this day: and at the same time Libnah made itself free from his rule; because he was turned away from the Lord, the God of his fathers. +2Ch 21:11 And more than this, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, teaching the people of Jerusalem to go after false gods, and guiding Judah away from the true way. +2Ch 21:12 And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, The Lord, the God of your father David, says, Because you have not kept to the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or the ways of Asa, king of Judah, +2Ch 21:13 But have gone in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the people of Jerusalem go after false gods, as the family of Ahab did: and because you have put to death your father's sons, your brothers, who were better than yourself: +2Ch 21:14 Now, truly, the Lord will send a great destruction on your people and your children and your wives and everything which is yours: +2Ch 21:15 And you yourself will undergo the cruel pains of a disease in your stomach, so that day by day your inside will be falling out because of the disease. +2Ch 21:16 Then the Philistines and the Arabians, who are by Ethiopia, were moved by the Lord to make war on Jehoram; +2Ch 21:17 And they came up against Judah, forcing a way into it, and took away all the goods in the king's house, as well as his sons and his wives; so that he had no son but only Jehoahaz, the youngest. +2Ch 21:18 And after all this the Lord sent on him a disease of the stomach from which it was impossible for him to be made well. +2Ch 21:19 And time went on, and after two years, his inside falling out because of the disease, he came to his death in cruel pain. And his people made no burning for him like the burning made for his fathers. +2Ch 21:20 He was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for eight years: and at his death he was not regretted; they put his body into the earth in the town of David, but not in the resting-place of the kings. +2Ch 22:1 And the people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, for the band of men who came with the Arabians to the army had put all the older sons to death. So Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, became king. +2Ch 22:2 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for one year. His mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri. +2Ch 22:3 He went in the ways of the family of Ahab, for his mother was his teacher in evil-doing. +2Ch 22:4 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as the family of Ahab did; for after the death of his father they were his guides to his destruction. +2Ch 22:5 Acting on their suggestion, he went with Jehoram, son of Ahab, king of Israel, to make war on Hazael, king of Aram, at Ramoth-gilead: and Joram was wounded by the bowmen. +2Ch 22:6 And he went back to Jezreel to get well from the wounds which they had given him at Ramah when he was fighting against Hazael, king of Aram. And Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to Jezreel to see Jehoram, the son of Ahab, because he was ill. +2Ch 22:7 Now by the purpose of God, Ahaziah's journey to see Jehoram was the cause of his downfall: for when he came there, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu, the son of Nimshi, who had been marked out by the Lord for the destruction of the family of Ahab. +2Ch 22:8 Now when Jehu was effecting the punishment of the family of Ahab, he came to the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers, the servants of Ahaziah, and put them to death. +2Ch 22:9 And he went in search of Ahaziah; and when they came where he was, (for he was in a secret place in Samaria,) they took him to Jehu and put him to death; then they put his body to rest in the earth, for they said, He is the son of Jehoshaphat, whose heart was true to the Lord. So the family of Ahaziah had no power to keep the kingdom. +2Ch 22:10 Now when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she had all the rest of the seed of the kingdom of Judah put to death. +2Ch 22:11 But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, secretly took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, away from among the king's sons who were put to death, and put him and the woman who took care of him in a bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest and sister of Ahaziah, kept him safe from Athaliah, so that she did not put him to death. +2Ch 22:12 And she kept him safe with her in the house of God for six years, while Athaliah was ruling the land. +2Ch 23:1 In the seventh year, Jehoiada made himself strong, and made an agreement with the captains of hundreds, Azariah, the son of Jeroham, Ishmael, the son of Jehohanan, Azariah, the son of Obed, Maaseiah, the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat, the son of Zichri. +2Ch 23:2 And they went through Judah, getting together the Levites and the heads of families in Israel from all the towns of Judah, and they came to Jerusalem. +2Ch 23:3 And all the people made an agreement with the king in the house of God. And he said to them, Truly, the king's son will be king, as the Lord has said about the sons of David. +2Ch 23:4 This is what you are to do: let a third of you, of the priests and Levites, who come in on the Sabbath, keep the doors; +2Ch 23:5 And a third are to be stationed at the king's house; and a third at the doorway of the horses: while all the people are waiting in the open spaces round the house of the Lord. +2Ch 23:6 But let no one come into the house of the Lord but only the priests and those of the Levites who have work to do there; they may go in for they are holy; but the rest of the people are to keep the orders of the Lord. +2Ch 23:7 And the Levites are to make a circle round the king, every man being armed; and any man who comes into the house is to be put to death; you are to keep with the king when he comes in and when he goes out. +2Ch 23:8 So the Levites and all Judah did as Jehoiada the priest had given them orders: every one took with him his men, those who were to come in and those who were to go out on the Sabbath; for Jehoiada had not sent away the divisions. +2Ch 23:9 Then Jehoiada the priest gave to the captains of hundreds the spears and body-covers which had been King David's and which were kept in the house of God. +2Ch 23:10 And he put all the people in position, every man with his instruments of war in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left, by the altar and the house and all round the king. +2Ch 23:11 Then they made the king's son come out, and they put the crown on his head and gave him the arm-bands and made him king: and Jehoiada and his sons put the holy oil on him and said, Long life to the king. +2Ch 23:12 Now Athaliah, hearing the noise of the people running and praising the king, came to the people in the house of the Lord: +2Ch 23:13 And looking, she saw the king in his place by the pillar at the doorway, and the captains and the horns by his side; and all the people of the land were giving signs of joy and sounding the horns; and the makers of melody were playing on instruments of music, taking the chief part in the song of praise. Then Athaliah, violently parting her robes, said, Broken faith, broken faith! +2Ch 23:14 Then Jehoiada the priest gave orders to the captains of hundreds who had authority over the army, saying, Take her outside the lines, and let anyone who goes after her be put to death with the sword. For the priest said, Let her not be put to death in the house of the Lord. +2Ch 23:15 So they put their hands on her, and she went to the king's house by the doorway of the king's horses; and there she was put to death. +2Ch 23:16 And Jehoiada made an agreement between the Lord and all the people and the king, that they would be the Lord's people. +2Ch 23:17 Then all the people went to the house of Baal and had it pulled down, and its altars and images broken up; and Mattan, the priest of Baal, they put to death before the altars. +2Ch 23:18 And Jehoiada put the work and the care of the house of the Lord into the hands of the priests and the Levites, who had been grouped in divisions by David to make burned offerings to the Lord, as it is recorded in the law of Moses, with joy and song as David had said. +2Ch 23:19 And he put door-keepers at the doors of the Lord's house, to see that no one who was unclean in any way might come in. +2Ch 23:20 Then he took the captains of hundreds and the chiefs and the rulers of the people and all the people of the land, and they came down with the king from the house of the Lord through the higher doorway into the king's house, and put the king on the seat of the kingdom. +2Ch 23:21 So all the people of the land were glad and the town was quiet, for they had put Athaliah to death with the sword. +2Ch 24:1 Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he was ruling for forty years in Jerusalem: his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. +2Ch 24:2 And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as long as Jehoiada the priest was living. +2Ch 24:3 And Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he became the father of sons and daughters. +2Ch 24:4 Now after this Joash had a desire to put the house of the Lord into good order again; +2Ch 24:5 And getting together the priests and Levites, he said to them, Go out into the towns of Judah year by year, and get from all Israel money to keep the house of your God in good condition; and see that this is done without loss of time. The Levites, however, were slow in doing so. +2Ch 24:6 Then the king sent for Jehoiada, the chief priest, and said to him, Why have you not given the Levites orders that the tax fixed by Moses, the servant of the Lord, and by the meeting of Israel, for the Tent of witness, is to be got in from Judah and Jerusalem and handed over? +2Ch 24:7 For the house of the Lord had been broken up by Athaliah, that evil woman, and her sons; and all its holy things they had given to the Baals. +2Ch 24:8 So at the king's order they made a chest and put it outside the doorway of the house of the Lord. +2Ch 24:9 And an order was sent out through all Judah and Jerusalem that payment was to be made to the Lord of the tax which Moses, the servant of God, had put on Israel in the waste land. +2Ch 24:10 And all the chiefs and all the people came gladly and put their money into the chest, till they had all given. +2Ch 24:11 So when the chest was taken to the king's servants by the Levites, and they saw that there was much money in it, the king's scribe and the chief priest's servant took the money out, and put the chest back in its place. They did this day by day, and got together a great amount of money. +2Ch 24:12 Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those who were responsible for getting the work done on the Lord's house, and with it they got wall-builders and woodworkers and metal-workers to put the house of the Lord in good order again. +2Ch 24:13 So the workmen did their work, making good what was damaged and building up the house of God till it was strong and beautiful again. +2Ch 24:14 And when the work was done, they took the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and it was used for making the vessels for the house of the Lord, all the vessels needed for the offerings, the spoons and the vessels of gold and silver. And as long as Jehoiada was living, the regular burned offerings were offered in the house of the Lord. +2Ch 24:15 But Jehoiada became old and full of days, and he came to his end; he was a hundred and thirty years old at the time of his death. +2Ch 24:16 And they put him into his last resting-place in the town of David, among the kings, because he had done good in Israel for God and for his house. +2Ch 24:17 Now after the death of Jehoiada, the chiefs of Judah came and went down on their faces before the king. Then the king gave ear to them. +2Ch 24:18 And they gave up the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and became worshippers of pillars of wood and of the images; and because of this sin of theirs, wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem. +2Ch 24:19 And the Lord sent them prophets to make them come back to him; and they gave witness against them, but they would not give ear. +2Ch 24:20 Then the spirit of God came on Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, and, getting up before the people, he said to them, God has said, Why do you go against the orders of the Lord, so that everything goes badly for you? because you have given up the Lord, he has given you up. +2Ch 24:21 But when they had made a secret design against him, he was stoned with stones, by the king's order, in the outer square of the Lord's house. +2Ch 24:22 So King Joash did not keep in mind how good Jehoiada his father had been to him, but put his son to death. And in the hour of his death he said, May the Lord see it and take payment! +2Ch 24:23 Now in the spring, the army of the Aramaeans came up against him; they came against Judah and Jerusalem, putting to death all the great men of the people and sending all the goods they took from them to the king of Damascus. +2Ch 24:24 For though the army of Aram was only a small one, the Lord gave a very great army into their hands, because they had given up the Lord, the God of their fathers. So they put into effect the punishment of Joash. +2Ch 24:25 And when they had gone away from him, (for he was broken with disease,) his servants made a secret design against him because of the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they put him to death on his bed; and they put his body into the earth in the town of David, but not in the resting-place of the kings. +2Ch 24:26 Those who made designs against him were Zabad, the son of Shimeath, an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad, the son of Shimrith, a Moabite woman. +2Ch 24:27 Now the story of his sons, and all the words said by the prophet against him, and the building up again of the Lord's house, are recorded in the account in the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son became king in his place. +2Ch 25:1 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. +2Ch 25:2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but his heart was not completely true to the Lord. +2Ch 25:3 Now when he became strong in the kingdom, he put to death those men who had taken the life of the king his father. +2Ch 25:4 But he did not put their children to death, for he kept the orders of the Lord recorded in the book of the law of Moses, saying, The fathers are not to be put to death for their children or the children for their fathers, but a man is to be put to death for the sin which he himself has done. +2Ch 25:5 Then Amaziah got all Judah together and put them in order by their families, even all Judah and Benjamin, under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds: and he had those of twenty years old and over numbered, and they came to three hundred thousand of the best fighting-men, trained for war and in the use of the spear and the body-cover. +2Ch 25:6 And for a hundred talents of silver, he got a hundred thousand fighting-men from Israel. +2Ch 25:7 But a man of God came to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with you; for the Lord is not with Israel, that is, the children of Ephraim. +2Ch 25:8 But go yourself, and be strong in war; God will not let you go down before those who are fighting against you; for God has power to give help or to send you down before your attackers. +2Ch 25:9 Then Amaziah said to the man of God, But what is to be done about the hundred talents which I have given for the armed band of Israel? And the man of God in answer said, God is able to give you much more than this. +2Ch 25:10 So Amaziah, separating the armed band which had come to him from Ephraim, sent them back again; which made them very angry with Judah, and they went back burning with wrath. +2Ch 25:11 Then Amaziah took heart, and went out at the head of his people and came to the Valley of Salt, where he put to death ten thousand of the children of Seir; +2Ch 25:12 And ten thousand more the children of Israel took living, and made them go up to the top of the rock, pushing them down from the top of the rock so that their bodies were broken by the fall. +2Ch 25:13 But the men of the band which Amaziah sent back and did not take with him to the fight, made attacks on the towns of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, putting to death three thousand of their people and taking away a great store of their goods. +2Ch 25:14 Now when Amaziah came back from the destruction of the Edomites, he took the gods of the children of Seir and made them his gods, worshipping them and burning offerings before them. +2Ch 25:15 And so the wrath of the Lord was moved against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, Why have you gone after the gods of the people who have not given their people salvation from your hands? +2Ch 25:16 But while he was talking to him the king said to him, Have we made you one of the king's government? say no more, or it will be the cause of your death. Then the prophet gave up protesting, and said, It is clear to me that God's purpose is your destruction, because you have done this and have not given ear to my words. +2Ch 25:17 Then Amaziah, king of Judah, acting on the suggestion of his servants, sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us have a meeting face to face. +2Ch 25:18 And Joash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, The thorn-tree in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a wife: and a beast from the woodland in Lebanon went by, crushing the thorn under his feet. +2Ch 25:19 You say, See, I have overcome Edom; and your heart is lifted up with pride: now keep in your country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself, and Judah with you, in danger of downfall? +2Ch 25:20 But Amaziah gave no attention; and this was the purpose of God, so that he might give them up into the hands of Joash, because they had gone after the gods of Edom. +2Ch 25:21 And so Joash, king of Israel, went up; and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, came face to face at Beth-shemesh in Judah. +2Ch 25:22 And Judah was overcome before Israel, and they went in flight, every man to his tent. +2Ch 25:23 And Joash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, prisoner at Beth-shemesh, and took him to Jerusalem; and he had the wall of Jerusalem pulled down from the doorway of Ephraim to the doorway in the angle, four hundred cubits. +2Ch 25:24 And he took all the gold and silver and all the vessels which were in the house of the Lord, under the care of Obed-edom, and all the wealth from the king's house, as well as those whose lives would be the price of broken faith, and went back to Samaria. +2Ch 25:25 Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, went on living for fifteen years after the death of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel. +2Ch 25:26 Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, are they not recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel? +2Ch 25:27 Now from the time when Amaziah gave up worshipping the Lord, they made secret designs against him in Jerusalem; and he went in flight to Lachish: but they sent to Lachish after him and put him to death there. +2Ch 25:28 And they took his body on horseback and put it into the earth with his fathers in the town of David. +2Ch 26:1 Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. +2Ch 26:2 He was the builder of Eloth, which he got back for Judah after the death of the king. +2Ch 26:3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for fifty-two years; his mother's name was Jechiliah of Jerusalem. +2Ch 26:4 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Amaziah had done. +2Ch 26:5 He gave himself to searching after God in the days of Zechariah, who made men wise in the fear of God; and as long as he was true to the Lord, God made things go well for him. +2Ch 26:6 He went out and made war against the Philistines, pulling down the walls of Gath and Jabneh and Ashdod, and building towns in the country round Ashdod and among the Philistines. +2Ch 26:7 And God gave him help against the Philistines, and against the Arabians living in Gur-baal, and against the Meunim. +2Ch 26:8 The Ammonites gave offerings to Uzziah: and news of him went out as far as the limit of Egypt; for he became very great in power. +2Ch 26:9 Uzziah made towers in Jerusalem, at the doorway in the angle and at the doorway in the valley and at the turn of the wall, arming them. +2Ch 26:10 And he put up towers in the waste land and made places for storing water, for he had much cattle, in the low hills and in the table land; and he had farmers and vine-keepers in the mountains and in the fertile land, for he was a lover of farming. +2Ch 26:11 In addition, Uzziah had an army of fighting-men who went out to war in bands, as they had been listed by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the ruler, under the authority of Hananiah, one of the king's captains. +2Ch 26:12 The heads of families, the strong men of war, were two thousand, six hundred. +2Ch 26:13 And under their orders was a trained army of three hundred and seven thousand, five hundred, of great strength in war, helping the king against any who came against him. +2Ch 26:14 And Uzziah had all these forces armed with body-covers and spears and head-covers and coats of metal and bows and stones for sending from leather bands. +2Ch 26:15 And in Jerusalem he made machines, the invention of expert men, to be placed on the towers and angles of the walls for sending arrows and great stones. And his name was honoured far and wide; for he was greatly helped till he was strong. +2Ch 26:16 But when he had become strong, his heart was lifted up in pride, causing his destruction; and he did evil against the Lord his God; for he went into the Temple of the Lord for the purpose of burning perfumes on the altar of perfumes. +2Ch 26:17 And Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty of the Lord's priests, who were strong men; +2Ch 26:18 And they made protests to Uzziah the king, and said to him, The burning of perfumes, Uzziah, is not your business but that of the priests, the sons of Aaron, who have been made holy for this work: go out of the holy place, for you have done wrong, and it will not be to your honour before God. +2Ch 26:19 Then Uzziah was angry; and he had in his hand a vessel for burning perfume; and while his wrath was bitter against the priests, the mark of the leper's disease came out on his brow, before the eyes of the priests in the house of the Lord by the altar of perfumes. +2Ch 26:20 And Azariah, the chief priest, and all the priests, looking at him, saw the mark of the leper on his brow, and they sent him out quickly and he himself went out straight away, for the Lord's punishment had come on him. +2Ch 26:21 So King Uzziah was a leper till the day of his death, living separately in his private house; for he was cut off from the house of God; and Jotham his son was ruling over his house, judging the people of the land. +2Ch 26:22 Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, were recorded by Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. +2Ch 26:23 So Uzziah went to rest with his fathers; and they put his body into the earth in the field used for the resting-place of the kings, for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son became king in his place. +2Ch 27:1 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king; and he was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years; and his mother's name was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok. +2Ch 27:2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Uzziah had done; but he did not go into the Temple of the Lord. And the people still went on in their evil ways. +2Ch 27:3 He put up the higher doorway of the house of the Lord, and did much building on the wall of the Ophel. +2Ch 27:4 In addition, he made towns in the hill-country of Judah, and strong buildings and towers in the woodlands. +2Ch 27:5 He went to war with the king of the children of Ammon and overcame them. That year, the children of Ammon gave him a hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of grain and ten thousand measures of barley. And the children of Ammon gave him the same amount the second year and the third. +2Ch 27:6 So Jotham became strong, because in all his ways he made the Lord his guide. +2Ch 27:7 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars and his ways, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. +2Ch 27:8 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years. +2Ch 27:9 And Jotham went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body into the earth in the town of David; and Ahaz his son became king in his place. +2Ch 28:1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he was ruling in Jerusalem for sixteen years; he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like David his father: +2Ch 28:2 But he went in the ways of the kings of Israel and made images of metal for the Baals. +2Ch 28:3 More than this, he had offerings burned in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and made his children go through fire, copying the disgusting ways of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land before the children of Israel. +2Ch 28:4 And he made offerings and had perfumes burned in the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. +2Ch 28:5 So the Lord his God gave him up into the hands of the king of Aram; and they overcame him, and took away a great number of his people as prisoners to Damascus. Then he was given into the hands of the king of Israel, who sent great destruction on him. +2Ch 28:6 For Pekah, the son of Remaliah, in one day put to death a hundred and twenty thousand men of Judah, all of them good fighting-men; because they had given up the Lord, the God of their fathers. +2Ch 28:7 And Zichri, a great fighting-man of Ephraim, put to death Maaseiah, the king's son, and Azrikam, the controller of his house, and Elkanah, who was second in authority to the king. +2Ch 28:8 And the children of Israel took away as prisoners from their brothers, two hundred thousand, women and sons and daughters, and a great store of their goods, and took them to Samaria. +2Ch 28:9 But a prophet of the Lord was there, named Oded; and he went out in front of the army which was coming into Samaria and said to them, Truly, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them up into your hands, and you have put them to death in an outburst of wrath stretching up to heaven. +2Ch 28:10 And now your purpose is to keep the children of Judah and Jerusalem as men-servants and women-servants under your yoke: but are there no sins against the Lord your God to be seen among yourselves? +2Ch 28:11 And now give ear to me, and send back the prisoners whom you have taken from your brothers: for the wrath of the Lord is burning against you. +2Ch 28:12 Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah, the son of Johanan, Berechiah, the son of Meshillemoth Jehizkiah, the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, put themselves against those who had come from the war, +2Ch 28:13 And said to them, You are not to let these prisoners come here; for what you are designing to do will be a cause of sin against the Lord to us, making even greater our sin and our wrongdoing, which now are great enough, and his wrath is burning against Israel. +2Ch 28:14 So the armed men gave up the prisoners and the goods they had taken to the heads and the meeting of the people. +2Ch 28:15 And those men who have been named went up and took the prisoners, clothing those among them who were uncovered, with things from the goods which had been taken in the war, and putting robes on them and shoes on their feet; and they gave them food and drink and oil for their bodies, and seating all the feeble among them on asses, they took them to Jericho, the town of palm-trees, to their people, and then went back to Samaria. +2Ch 28:16 At that time King Ahaz sent for help to the king of Assyria. +2Ch 28:17 For the Edomites had come again, attacking Judah and taking away prisoners. +2Ch 28:18 And the Philistines, forcing their way into the towns of the lowlands and the south of Judah, had taken Beth-shemesh and Aijalon and Gederoth and Soco, with their daughter-towns, as well as Timnah and Gimzo and their daughter-towns, and were living there. +2Ch 28:19 For the Lord made Judah low, because of Ahaz, king of Israel; for he had given up all self-control in Judah, sinning greatly against the Lord. +2Ch 28:20 Then Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came to him, but was a cause of trouble and not of strength to him. +2Ch 28:21 For Ahaz took a part of the wealth from the house of the Lord, and from the house of the king and of the great men, and gave it to the king of Assyria; but it was no help to him. +2Ch 28:22 And in the time of his trouble, this same King Ahaz did even more evil against the Lord. +2Ch 28:23 For he made offerings to the gods of Damascus, who were attacking him, and said, Because the gods of the kings of Aram are giving them help, I will make offerings to them so that they may give me help. But they were the cause of his downfall, and of that of all Israel. +2Ch 28:24 And Ahaz got together the vessels of the house of God, cutting up all the vessels of the house of God, and shutting the doors of the Lord's house; and he made altars in every part of Jerusalem. +2Ch 28:25 And in every town of Judah he made high places where perfumes were burned to other gods, awaking the wrath of the Lord, the God of his fathers. +2Ch 28:26 Now the rest of his acts and all his ways, first and last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. +2Ch 28:27 And Ahaz went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body into the earth in Jerusalem; but they did not put him in the resting-place of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son became king in his place. +2Ch 29:1 Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old; and he was king in Jerusalem for twenty-nine years; and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. +2Ch 29:2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. +2Ch 29:3 In the first year of his rule, in the first month, opening the doors of the Lord's house, he made them strong. +2Ch 29:4 And he sent for the priests and the Levites, and got them together in the wide place on the east side, +2Ch 29:5 And said to them, Give ear to me, O Levites: now make yourselves holy, and make holy the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and take away everything unclean from the holy place. +2Ch 29:6 For our fathers have done evil, sinning in the eyes of the Lord our God, and have given him up, turning away their faces from the house of the Lord, and turning their backs on him. +2Ch 29:7 The doors of his house have been shut and the lights put out; no perfumes have been burned or offerings made to the God of Israel in his holy place. +2Ch 29:8 And so the wrath of the Lord has come on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has given them up to be a cause of fear and wonder and shame, as your eyes have seen. +2Ch 29:9 For see, our fathers have been put to death with the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives have been taken away prisoners because of this. +2Ch 29:10 Now it is my purpose to make an agreement with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from us. +2Ch 29:11 My sons, take care now: for you have been marked out by the Lord to come before him and to be his servants, burning offerings to him. +2Ch 29:12 Then the Levites took their places; Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel, the son of Azariah, among the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish, the son of Abdi, and Azariah, the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah, the son of Zimmah, and Eden, the son of Joah; +2Ch 29:13 And of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; +2Ch 29:14 And of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. +2Ch 29:15 And they got their brothers together and made themselves holy, and went in, as the king had said by the word of the Lord, to make the house of the Lord clean. +2Ch 29:16 And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to make it clean, and everything unclean which was to be seen in the Temple of the Lord they took out into the outer square of the Lord's house, and the Levites got it together and took it away to the stream Kidron. +2Ch 29:17 On the first day of the first month the work of making the house holy was started, and on the eighth day they came to the covered way of the Lord; in eight days they made the Lord's house holy, and on the sixteenth day of the first month the work was done. +2Ch 29:18 Then they went in to King Hezekiah and said, We have made all the house of the Lord clean, as well as the altar of burned offerings with all its vessels, and the table for the holy bread, with all its vessels. +2Ch 29:19 And all the vessels which were turned out by King Ahaz in his sin while he was king, we have put in order and made holy, and now they are in their places before the altar of the Lord. +2Ch 29:20 Then Hezekiah the king got up early, and got together the great men of the town, and went up to the house of the Lord. +2Ch 29:21 And they took with them seven oxen and seven male sheep and seven lambs and seven he-goats as a sin-offering for the kingdom and for the holy house and for Judah. And he gave orders to the sons of Aaron, the priests, that these were to be offered on the altar of the Lord. +2Ch 29:22 So they put the oxen to death and their blood was given to the priests to be drained out against the altar; then they put the male sheep to death, draining out their blood against the altar, and they put the lambs to death, draining out their blood against the altar. +2Ch 29:23 Then they took the he-goats for the sin-offering, placing them before the king and the meeting of the people, and they put their hands on them: +2Ch 29:24 And the priests put them to death, and made a sin-offering with their blood on the altar, to take away the sin of all Israel: for the king gave orders that the burned offering and the sin-offering were for all Israel. +2Ch 29:25 Then he put the Levites in their places in the house of the Lord, with brass and corded instruments of music as ordered by David and Gad, the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for the order was the Lord's, given by his prophets. +2Ch 29:26 So the Levites took their places with David's instruments, and the priests with their horns. +2Ch 29:27 And Hezekiah gave the word for the burned offering to be offered on the altar. And when the burned offering was started, then the song of the Lord was started, with the blowing of horns and with all the instruments of David, king of Israel. +2Ch 29:28 And all the people gave worship, to the sound of songs and the blowing of horns; and this went on till the burned offering was ended. +2Ch 29:29 And at the end of the offering, the king and all who were present with him gave worship with bent heads. +2Ch 29:30 Then King Hezekiah and the captains gave orders to the Levites to give praise to God in the words of David and Asaph the seer. And they made songs of praise with joy, and with bent heads gave worship. +2Ch 29:31 Then Hezekiah made answer and said, Now that you have given yourselves to the Lord, come near and take offerings and praise-offerings into the house of the Lord. So all the people took in offerings and praise-offerings: and those whose hearts were moved, took in burned offerings. +2Ch 29:32 The number of burned offerings which the people took in was seventy oxen, a hundred male sheep, and two hundred lambs: all these were for burned offerings to the Lord. +2Ch 29:33 And the holy things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep. +2Ch 29:34 There were not enough priests for the work of cutting up all the burned offerings; so their brothers the Levites gave them help till the work was done and the priests had made themselves holy: for the Levites were more upright in heart to make themselves holy than the priests. +2Ch 29:35 And there was a great amount of burned offerings, with the fat of the peace-offerings and the drink offerings for every burned offering. So the work of the Lord's house was put in order. +2Ch 29:36 And Hezekiah and all the people were full of joy, because God had made the people ready: for the thing was done suddenly. +2Ch 30:1 Then Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah, and sent letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, requesting them to come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel. +2Ch 30:2 For the king, after discussion with his chiefs and all the body of the people in Jerusalem, had made a decision to keep the Passover in the second month. +2Ch 30:3 It was not possible to keep it at that time, because not enough priests had made themselves holy, and the people had not come together in Jerusalem. +2Ch 30:4 And the thing was right in the eyes of the king and all the people. +2Ch 30:5 So it was ordered that word was to be sent out through all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that they were to come to keep the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: because they had not kept it in great numbers in agreement with the law. +2Ch 30:6 So runners went with letters from the king and his chiefs through all Israel and Judah, by the order of the king, saying, O children of Israel, come back again to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may come again to that small band of you which has been kept safe out of the hands of the kings of Assyria. +2Ch 30:7 Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were sinners against the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that he made them a cause of fear, as you see. +2Ch 30:8 Now do not be hard-hearted, as your fathers were; but give yourselves to the Lord, and come into his holy place, which he has made his for ever, and be the servants of the Lord your God, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from you. +2Ch 30:9 For if you come back to the Lord, those who took away your brothers and your children will have pity on them, and let them come back to this land: for the Lord your God is full of grace and mercy, and his face will not be turned away from you if you come back to him. +2Ch 30:10 So the runners went from town to town through all the country of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun: but they were laughed at and made sport of. +2Ch 30:11 However, some of Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun put away their pride and came to Jerusalem. +2Ch 30:12 And in Judah the power of God gave them one heart to do the orders of the king and the captains, which were taken as the word of the Lord. +2Ch 30:13 So a very great number of people came together at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month. +2Ch 30:14 And they got to work and took away all the altars in Jerusalem, and they put all the vessels for burning perfumes into the stream Kidron. +2Ch 30:15 Then on the fourteenth day of the second month they put the Passover lambs to death: and the priests and the Levites were shamed, and made themselves holy and took burned offerings into the house of the Lord. +2Ch 30:16 And they took their places in their right order, as it was ordered in the law of Moses, the man of God: the priests draining out on the altar the blood given them by the Levites. +2Ch 30:17 For there were still a number of the people there who had not made themselves holy: so the Levites had to put Passover lambs to death for those who were not clean, to make them holy to the Lord. +2Ch 30:18 For a great number of the people from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not made themselves clean, but they took the Passover meal, though not in the right way. For Hezekiah had made prayer for them, saying, May the good Lord have mercy on everyone +2Ch 30:19 Who, with all his heart, is turned to God the Lord, the God of his fathers, even if he has not been made clean after the rules of the holy place. +2Ch 30:20 And the Lord gave ear to Hezekiah, and made the people well. +2Ch 30:21 So the children of Israel who were present in Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with great joy: and the Levites and the priests gave praise to the Lord day by day, making melody to the Lord with loud instruments. +2Ch 30:22 And Hezekiah said kind words to the Levites who were expert in the ordering of the worship of the Lord: so they kept the feast for seven days, offering peace-offerings and praising the Lord, the God of their fathers. +2Ch 30:23 And by the desire of all the people, the feast went on for another seven days, and they kept the seven days with joy. +2Ch 30:24 For Hezekiah, king of Judah, gave to the people for offerings, a thousand oxen and seven thousand sheep; and the rulers gave a thousand oxen and ten thousand sheep; and a great number of priests made themselves holy. +2Ch 30:25 And all the people of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and those who had come from Israel, and men from other lands who had come from Israel or who were living in Judah, were glad with great joy. +2Ch 30:26 So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for nothing like this had been seen in Jerusalem from the time of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. +2Ch 30:27 Then the priests and the Levites gave the people a blessing: and the voice of their prayer went up to the holy place of God in heaven. +2Ch 31:1 Now when all this was over, all the men of Israel who were present went out into the towns of Judah, causing the stone pillars to be broken up and the wood pillars to be cut down, pulling down the high places and the altars in all Judah and Benjamin, as well as in Ephraim and Manasseh, till all were gone. Then all the children of Israel went back to their towns, every man to his property. +2Ch 31:2 Then Hezekiah put in order the divisions of the priests and Levites, every man in his division, in relation to his work, for the burned offerings and peace-offerings, and for the ordering of worship and for giving praise at the doors of the Lord's house. +2Ch 31:3 And he gave the king's part of his private property for the burned offerings, that is, for the morning and evening offerings, and the offerings for the Sabbath and the new moons and the regular feasts, as it is recorded in the law of the Lord. +2Ch 31:4 In addition, he gave orders to the people of Jerusalem to give to the priests and Levites that part which was theirs by right, so that they might be strong in keeping the law of the Lord. +2Ch 31:5 And when the order was made public, straight away the children of Israel gave, in great amounts, the first-fruits of their grain and wine and oil and honey, and of the produce of their fields; and they took in a tenth part of everything, a great store. +2Ch 31:6 And the children of Israel and Judah, who were living in the towns of Judah came with the tenth part of their oxen and sheep, and a tenth of all the holy things which were to be given to the Lord their God, and put them in great masses. +2Ch 31:7 The first store of things was put down in the third month, and in the seventh month the masses were complete. +2Ch 31:8 And when Hezekiah and the rulers came and saw all the store of goods, they gave praise to the Lord and to his people Israel. +2Ch 31:9 Then Hezekiah put questions to the priests and Levites about the store of goods. +2Ch 31:10 And Azariah, the chief priest, of the family of Zadok, said in answer, From the time when the people first came with their offerings into the house of the Lord, we have had food enough, and more than enough: for the blessing of the Lord is on his people; and there is this great store which has not been used. +2Ch 31:11 Then Hezekiah said that store-rooms were to be made ready in the house of the Lord; and this was done. +2Ch 31:12 And in them they put all the offerings and the tenths and the holy things, keeping nothing back, and over them was Conaniah the Levite, with Shimei his brother second to him. +2Ch 31:13 And Jehiel and Azaziah and Nahath and Asahel and Jerimoth and Jozabad and Eliel and Ismachiah and Mahath and Benaiah were overseers, under the directions of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the order of Hezekiah the king and Azariah, the ruler of the house of God. +2Ch 31:14 And Kore, the son of Imnah the Levite, the keeper of the east door, had control of the offerings freely given to God, and the distribution of the offerings of the Lord and the most holy things. +2Ch 31:15 And under him were Eden and Miniamin and Jeshua and Shemaiah and Amariah and Shecaniah, in the towns of the priests, who were made responsible for giving it to all their brothers, by divisions, to small and great: +2Ch 31:16 As well as to all the males, of three years old and over, listed by their families, who went into the house of the Lord to do what was needed day by day, for their special work with their divisions. +2Ch 31:17 And the families of the priests were listed by their fathers' names, but the Levites, of twenty years old and over, were listed in relation to their work in their divisions; +2Ch 31:18 And in the lists were all their little ones and their wives and their sons and daughters, through all the people: they made themselves holy in the positions which they were given. +2Ch 31:19 And as for the sons of Aaron, the priests, living in the country on the outskirts of their towns, every different town there were men, marked out by name, to give their part of the goods to all the males among the priests, and to all who were listed among the Levites. +2Ch 31:20 This Hezekiah did through all Judah; he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. +2Ch 31:21 And for everything he undertook, in connection with the work of the house of God and his law and orders, he got directions from God and did it with serious purpose; and things went well for him. +2Ch 32:1 Now after these things and this true-hearted work, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came into Judah, and put his army in position before the walled towns of Judah, designing to make his way into them by force. +2Ch 32:2 And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come for the purpose of fighting against Jerusalem, +2Ch 32:3 He took up with his rulers and men of war the question of stopping up the water-springs outside the town; and they gave him their support. +2Ch 32:4 So they got together a great number of people, and had all the water-springs and the stream flowing through the land stopped up, saying, Why let the kings of Assyria come and have much water? +2Ch 32:5 Then he took heart, building up the wall where it was broken down, and making its towers higher, and building another wall outside; and he made strong the Millo in the town of David, and got together a great store of all sorts of instruments of war. +2Ch 32:6 And he put war chiefs over the people, and sent for them all to come together to him in the wide place at the doorway into the town, and to give them heart he said to them, +2Ch 32:7 Be strong and take heart; have no fear, and do not be troubled on account of the king of Assyria and all the great army with him: for there is a greater with us. +2Ch 32:8 With him is an arm of flesh; but we have the Lord our God, helping us and fighting for us. And the people put their faith in what Hezekiah, king of Judah, said. +2Ch 32:9 After this, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent his servants to Jerusalem (at that time he was stationed with all his army in front of Lachish), to say to Hezekiah and all the men of Judah in Jerusalem, +2Ch 32:10 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, says, In what are you placing your hope, waiting here in the walled town of Jerusalem? +2Ch 32:11 Is it not Hezekiah who has got you to do it, causing your death from need of food and water, by saying, The Lord our God will give us salvation out of the hands of the king of Assyria? +2Ch 32:12 Has not this same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, Give worship before one altar only, burning offerings on it? +2Ch 32:13 Have you no knowledge of what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of every land? were the gods of the nations of those lands able to keep their land from falling into my hands? +2Ch 32:14 Who was there among all the gods of those nations, which my fathers put to destruction, who was able to keep his people safe from my hands? and is it possible that your God will keep you safe from my hands? +2Ch 32:15 So do not be tricked by Hezekiah or let him get you to do this, and do not put any faith in what he says: for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to keep his people safe from my hands, or the hands of my fathers: how much less will your God keep you safe from my hands! +2Ch 32:16 And his servants said even more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. +2Ch 32:17 And he sent letters, in addition, to put shame on the Lord, the God of Israel, and to say evil against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not been able to keep their people safe from my hands, no more will the God of Hezekiah keep his people safe from my hands. +2Ch 32:18 These things they said, crying out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, with the purpose of troubling them and putting fear into them, so that they might take the town; +2Ch 32:19 Talking of the God of Jerusalem as if he was like the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men's hands. +2Ch 32:20 And Hezekiah the king, and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, made prayer because of this, crying out to heaven. +2Ch 32:21 And the Lord sent an angel who put to death all the men of war and the chiefs and the captains in the army of the king of Assyria. So he went back to his country in shame. And when he came into the house of his god, his sons, the offspring of his body, put him to death there with the sword. +2Ch 32:22 So the Lord gave Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem salvation from the power of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, and from all others, giving them rest on every side. +2Ch 32:23 And great numbers came to Jerusalem with offerings for the Lord, and things of great price for Hezekiah, king of Judah: so that he was honoured among all nations from that time. +2Ch 32:24 In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death; and he made prayer to the Lord, and the Lord in answer gave him a sign. +2Ch 32:25 But Hezekiah did not do as had been done to him; for his heart was lifted up in pride; and so wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. +2Ch 32:26 But then, Hezekiah, in sorrow for what he had done, put away his pride; and he and all Jerusalem made themselves low, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come on them in Hezekiah's life-time. +2Ch 32:27 And Hezekiah had very great wealth and honour; and he made himself store-houses for his gold and silver and jewels and spices, and for body-covers and all sorts of beautiful vessels. +2Ch 32:28 And store-houses for the produce of grain and wine and oil; and buildings for all sorts of beasts and flocks. +2Ch 32:29 And he made towns for himself, and got together much property in flocks and herds: for God had given him great wealth. +2Ch 32:30 It was Hezekiah who had the higher spring of the water of Gihon stopped, and the water taken down on the west side of the town of David. In everything he undertook, Hezekiah did well. +2Ch 32:31 However, in the business of the representatives sent by the rulers of Babylon to get news of the wonder which had taken place in the land, God gave up guiding him, testing him to see what was in his heart. +2Ch 32:32 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and the good he did, are recorded in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. +2Ch 32:33 So Hezekiah went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body into the higher part of the resting-places of the sons of David: and all Judah and the people of Jerusalem gave him honour at his death. And Manasseh his son became king in his place. +2Ch 33:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he was ruling for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. +2Ch 33:2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, copying the disgusting ways of the nations whom the Lord had sent out of the land before the children of Israel. +2Ch 33:3 For he put up again the high places which had been pulled down by his father Hezekiah; and he made altars for the Baals, and pillars of wood, and was a worshipper and servant of all the stars of heaven; +2Ch 33:4 And he made altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, In Jerusalem will my name be for ever. +2Ch 33:5 And he made altars for all the stars of heaven in the two outer squares of the house of the Lord. +2Ch 33:6 More than this, he made his children go through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he made use of secret arts, and signs for reading the future, and unnatural powers, and gave positions to those who had control of spirits and to wonder-workers: he did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath. +2Ch 33:7 And he put the image he had made in the house of God, the house of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, the town which I have made mine out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: +2Ch 33:8 And never again will I let the feet of Israel be moved out of the land which I have given to their fathers; if only they will take care to do all my orders, even all the law and the orders and the rules given to them by Moses. +2Ch 33:9 And Manasseh made Judah and the people of Jerusalem go out of the true way, so that they did more evil than those nations whom the Lord gave up to destruction before the children of Israel. +2Ch 33:10 And the word of the Lord came to Manasseh and his people, but they gave no attention. +2Ch 33:11 So the Lord sent against them the captains of the army of Assyria, who made Manasseh a prisoner and took him away in chains to Babylon. +2Ch 33:12 And crying out to the Lord his God in his trouble, he made himself low before the God of his fathers, +2Ch 33:13 And made prayer to him; and in answer to his prayer God let him come back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh was certain that the Lord was God. +2Ch 33:14 After this he made an outer wall for the town of David, on the west side of Gihon in the valley, as far as the way into the town by the fish doorway; and he put a very high wall round the Ophel; and he put captains of the army in all the walled towns of Judah. +2Ch 33:15 He took away the strange gods and the image out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars he had put up on the hill of the Lord's house and in Jerusalem, and put them out of the town. +2Ch 33:16 And he put the altar of the Lord in order, offering peace-offerings and praise-offerings on it, and said that all Judah were to be servants of the Lord, the God of Israel. +2Ch 33:17 However, the people still made offerings in the high places, but only to the Lord their God. +2Ch 33:18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words which the seers said to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are recorded among the acts of the kings of Israel. +2Ch 33:19 And the prayer which he made to God, and how God gave him an answer, and all his sin and his wrongdoing, and the places where he made high places and put up pillars of wood and images, before he put away his pride, are recorded in the history of the seers. +2Ch 33:20 So Manasseh went to rest with his fathers, and they put his body to rest in his house, and Amon his son became king in his place. +2Ch 33:21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king; and he was ruling for two years in Jerusalem. +2Ch 33:22 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done; and Amon made offerings to all the images which his father Manasseh had made, and was their servant. +2Ch 33:23 He did not make himself low before the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done, but went on sinning more and more. +2Ch 33:24 And his servants made a secret design against him, and put him to death in his house. +2Ch 33:25 But the people of the land put to death all those who had taken part in the design against King Amon, and made his son Josiah king in his place. +2Ch 34:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. +2Ch 34:2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, walking in the ways of his father David, without turning to the right hand or to the left. +2Ch 34:3 In the eighth year of his rule, while he was still young, his heart was first turned to the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he undertook the clearing away of all the high places and the pillars and the images of wood and metal from Judah and Jerusalem. +2Ch 34:4 He had the altars of the Baals broken down, while he himself was present; and the sun-images which were placed on high over them he had cut down; and the pillars of wood and the metal images he had broken up and crushed to dust, dropping the dust over the resting-places of the dead who had made offerings to them. +2Ch 34:5 And he had the bones of the priests burned on their altars, and so he made Judah and Jerusalem clean. +2Ch 34:6 And in all the towns of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon as far as Naphtali, he made waste their houses round about. +2Ch 34:7 He had the altars and the pillars of wood pulled down and the images crushed to dust, and all the sun-images cut down, through all the land of Israel, and then he went back to Jerusalem. +2Ch 34:8 Now in the eighteenth year of his rule, when the land and the house had been made clean, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah, the ruler of the town, and Joah, the son of Joahaz, the recorder, to make good what was damaged in the house of the Lord his God. +2Ch 34:9 And they came to Hilkiah, the chief priest, and gave him all the money which had been taken into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the door, had got from Manasseh and Ephraim and those of Israel who had not been taken away as prisoners, and from all Judah and Benjamin and the people of Jerusalem. +2Ch 34:10 And they gave it to the overseers of the work of the Lord's house, and the overseers gave it to the workmen working in the house, for building it up and making good what was damaged; +2Ch 34:11 Even to the woodworkers and builders to get cut stone and wood for joining the structure together and for making boards for the houses which the kings of Judah had given up to destruction. +2Ch 34:12 And the men did the work well; and those who had authority over them were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, who were to be responsible for seeing that the work was done; and others of the Levites, who were expert with instruments of music, +2Ch 34:13 Had authority over the transport workers, giving directions to all who were doing any sort of work; and among the Levites there were scribes and overseers and door-keepers. +2Ch 34:14 Now when they were taking out the money which had come into the Lord's house, Hilkiah the priest came across the book of the law of the Lord, which he had given by the mouth of Moses. +2Ch 34:15 Then Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, I have made discovery of the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. +2Ch 34:16 And Shaphan took the book to the king; and he gave him an account of what had been done, saying, Your servants are doing all they have been given to do; +2Ch 34:17 They have taken out all the money which was in the Lord's house and have given it to the overseers and to the workmen. +2Ch 34:18 Then Shaphan the scribe said to the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book; and he made a start at reading some of it to the king. +2Ch 34:19 And the king, hearing the words of the law, took his robe in his hands, violently parting it as a sign of his grief. +2Ch 34:20 And he gave orders to Hilkiah and to Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Abdon, the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe and Asaiah, the king's servant, saying, +2Ch 34:21 Go and get directions from the Lord for me and for those who are still in Israel and for Judah, about the words of this book which has come to light; for great is the wrath of the Lord which has been let loose on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord or done what is recorded in this book. +2Ch 34:22 So Hilkiah, and those whom the king sent, went to Huldah the woman prophet, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, the keeper of the robes (now she was living in Jerusalem, in the second part of the town); and they had talk with her about this thing. +2Ch 34:23 And she said to them, The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Say to the man who sent you to me, +2Ch 34:24 These are the words of the Lord: See, I will send evil on this place and on its people, even all the curses in the book which they have been reading before the king of Judah; +2Ch 34:25 Because they have given me up, burning offerings to other gods and moving me to wrath by all the works of their hands; so my wrath is let loose on this place and will not be put out. +2Ch 34:26 But to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions from the Lord, say, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said: Because you have given ear to my words, +2Ch 34:27 And your heart was soft, and you made yourself low before God, on hearing his words about this place and its people, and with weeping and signs of grief have made yourself low before me, I have given ear to you, says the Lord God. +2Ch 34:28 See, I will let you go to your fathers, and be put in your last resting-place in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will send on this place and on its people. So they took this news back to the king. +2Ch 34:29 Then the king sent and got together all the responsible men of Judah and of Jerusalem. +2Ch 34:30 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites and all the people, small and great; and they were present at his reading of the book of the law which had come to light in the house of the Lord. +2Ch 34:31 Then the king, taking his place by the pillar, made an agreement before the Lord, to go in the way of the Lord, and to keep his orders and his decisions and his rules with all his heart and with all his soul, and to keep the words of the agreement recorded in this book. +2Ch 34:32 And he made all the people in Jerusalem and Benjamin give their word to keep it. And the people of Jerusalem kept the agreement of God, the God of their fathers. +2Ch 34:33 Josiah took away all the disgusting things out of all the lands of the children of Israel, and made all who were in Israel servants of the Lord their God. And as long as he was living they were true to the Lord, the God of their fathers. +2Ch 35:1 And Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem; on the fourteenth day of the first month they put the Passover lamb to death. +2Ch 35:2 And he gave the priests their places, making them strong for the work of the house of God. +2Ch 35:3 And he said to the Levites, the teachers of all Israel, who were holy to the Lord, See, the holy ark is in the house which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, made; it will no longer have to be transported on your backs: now be the servants of the Lord your God and his people Israel, +2Ch 35:4 And make yourselves ready in your divisions, by your families, as it is ordered in the writings of David, king of Israel, and of Solomon his son; +2Ch 35:5 And take your positions in the holy place, grouped in the families of your brothers, the children of the people, and for every division let there be a part of a family of the Levites. +2Ch 35:6 And put the Passover lamb to death, and make yourselves holy, and make it ready for your brothers, so that the orders given by the Lord through Moses may be done. +2Ch 35:7 And Josiah gave lambs and goats from the flock as Passover offerings for all the people who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand oxen: these were from the king's private property. +2Ch 35:8 And his captains freely gave an offering to the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand, six hundred small cattle and three hundred oxen. +2Ch 35:9 And Conaniah and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand small cattle and five hundred oxen. +2Ch 35:10 So everything was made ready and the priests took their places with the Levites in their divisions, as the king had said. +2Ch 35:11 And they put the Passover lambs to death, the blood being drained out by the priests when it was given to them, and the Levites did the skinning. +2Ch 35:12 And they took away the burned offerings, so that they might give them to be offered to the Lord for the divisions of the families of the people, as it is recorded in the book of Moses. And they did the same with the oxen. +2Ch 35:13 And the Passover lamb was cooked over the fire, as it says in the law; and the holy offerings were cooked in pots and basins and vessels, and taken quickly to all the people. +2Ch 35:14 And after that, they made ready for themselves and for the priests; for the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burned offerings and the fat till night; so the Levites made ready what was needed for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. +2Ch 35:15 And the sons of Asaph, the makers of melody, were in their places, as ordered by David and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the king's seer; and the door-keepers were stationed at every door: there was no need for them to go away from their places, for their brothers the Levites made ready for them. +2Ch 35:16 So everything needed for the worship of the Lord was made ready that same day, for the keeping of the Passover and the offering of burned offerings on the altar of the Lord, as King Josiah had given orders. +2Ch 35:17 And all the children of Israel who were present kept the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread at that time for seven days. +2Ch 35:18 No Passover like it had been kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; and not one of the kings of Israel had ever kept a Passover like the one kept by Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all those of Judah and Israel who were present, and the people of Jerusalem. +2Ch 35:19 In the eighteenth year of the rule of Josiah this Passover was kept. +2Ch 35:20 After all this, and after Josiah had put the house in order, Neco, king of Egypt, went up to make war at Carchemish by the river Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him. +2Ch 35:21 But he sent representatives to him, saying, What have I to do with you, O king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against those with whom I am at war; and God has given me orders to go forward quickly: keep out of God's way, for he is with me, or he will send destruction on you. +2Ch 35:22 However, Josiah would not go back; but keeping to his purpose of fighting against him, and giving no attention to the words of Neco, which came from God, he went forward to the fight in the valley of Megiddo. +2Ch 35:23 And the bowmen sent their arrows at King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am badly wounded. +2Ch 35:24 So his servants took him out of the line of war-carriages, and put him in his second carriage and took him to Jerusalem, where he came to his end, and they put his body in the resting-place of his fathers. And in all Judah and Jerusalem there was great weeping for Josiah. +2Ch 35:25 And Jeremiah made a song of grief for Josiah; and to this day Josiah is named by all the makers of melody, men and women, in their songs of grief; they made it a rule in Israel; and the songs are recorded among the songs of grief. +2Ch 35:26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and the good he did, in keeping with what is recorded in the law of the Lord, +2Ch 35:27 And all his acts, first and last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. +2Ch 36:1 Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father. +2Ch 36:2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for three months. +2Ch 36:3 Then the king of Egypt took the kingdom from him in Jerusalem, and put on the land a tax of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. +2Ch 36:4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, changing his name to Jehoiakim. And Neco took his brother Jehoahaz away to Egypt. +2Ch 36:5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years, and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God. +2Ch 36:6 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against him, and took him away in chains to Babylon. +2Ch 36:7 And Nebuchadnezzar took away some of the vessels of the Lord's house, and put them in the house of his god in Babylon. +2Ch 36:8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and the disgusting things he did, and all there is to be said against him, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah; and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place. +2Ch 36:9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for three months and ten days, and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. +2Ch 36:10 In the spring of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and took him away to Babylon, with the beautiful vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah, his father's brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem. +2Ch 36:11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king; he was ruling in Jerusalem for eleven years. +2Ch 36:12 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did not make himself low before Jeremiah the prophet who gave him the word of the Lord. +2Ch 36:13 And he took up arms against King Nebuchadnezzar, though he had made him take an oath by God; but he made his neck stiff and his heart hard, turning away from the Lord, the God of Israel. +2Ch 36:14 And more than this, all the great men of Judah and the priests and the people made their sin great, turning to all the disgusting ways of the nations; and they made unclean the house of the Lord which he had made holy in Jerusalem. +2Ch 36:15 And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them by his servants, sending early and frequently, because he had pity on his people and on his living-place; +2Ch 36:16 But they put shame on the servants of God, making sport of his words and laughing at his prophets, till the wrath of God was moved against his people, till there was no help. +2Ch 36:17 So he sent against them the king of the Chaldaeans, who put their young men to death with the sword in the house of their holy place, and had no pity for any, young man or virgin, old man or white-haired: God gave them all into his hands. +2Ch 36:18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the stored wealth of the Lord's house and the wealth of the king and his chiefs, he took away to Babylon. +2Ch 36:19 And the house of God was burned and the wall of Jerusalem broken down; all its great houses were burned with fire and all its beautiful vessels given up to destruction. +2Ch 36:20 And all who had not come to death by the sword he took away prisoners to Babylon; and they became servants to him and to his sons till the kingdom of Persia came to power: +2Ch 36:21 So that the words of the Lord, which he said by the mouth of Jeremiah, might come true, till the land had had pleasure in her Sabbaths; for as long as she was waste the land kept the Sabbath, till seventy years were complete. +2Ch 36:22 Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order that the words which the Lord had said by the mouth of Jeremiah might come true, the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, was moved by the Lord, and he made a public statement and had it given out through all his kingdom and put in writing, saying, +2Ch 36:23 Cyrus, king of Persia, has said, All the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord, the God of heaven; and he has made me responsible for building a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him and let him go up. +Ezr 1:1 Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, in order that the word of the Lord given by the mouth of Jeremiah might come true, the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, was moved by the Lord, so that he made a public statement through all his kingdom, and put it in writing, saying, +Ezr 1:2 These are the words of Cyrus, king of Persia: The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he has made me responsible for building a house for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. +Ezr 1:3 Whoever there is among you of his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and take in hand the building of the house of the Lord, the God of Israel; he is the God who is in Jerusalem. +Ezr 1:4 And whoever there may be of the rest of Israel, living in any place, let the men of that place give him help with offerings of silver and gold and goods and beasts, in addition to the offering freely given for the house of God in Jerusalem. +Ezr 1:5 Then the heads of families of Judah and Benjamin, with the priests and the Levites, got ready, even all those whose spirits were moved by God to go up and take in hand the building of the Lord's house in Jerusalem. +Ezr 1:6 And all their neighbours gave them help with offerings of vessels of silver and gold and goods and beasts and things of great value, in addition to what was freely offered. +Ezr 1:7 And Cyrus the king got out the vessels of the house of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods; +Ezr 1:8 Even these Cyrus made Mithredath, the keeper of his wealth, get out, and he gave them, after numbering them, to Sheshbazzar, the ruler of Judah. +Ezr 1:9 And this is the number of them: there were thirty gold plates, a thousand silver plates, twenty-nine knives, +Ezr 1:10 Thirty gold basins, four hundred and ten silver basins, and a thousand other vessels. +Ezr 1:11 There were five thousand, four hundred gold and silver vessels. All these were taken back by Sheshbazzar, when those who had been taken prisoner went up from Babylon to Jerusalem. +Ezr 2:1 Now these are the people of the divisions of the kingdom, among those who had been made prisoners by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and taken away to Babylon, who went back to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone to his town; +Ezr 2:2 Who went with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah, The number of the men of the people of Israel: +Ezr 2:3 The children of Parosh, two thousand, one hundred and seventy-two. +Ezr 2:4 The children of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two. +Ezr 2:5 The children of Arah, seven hundred and seventy-five. +Ezr 2:6 The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand, eight hundred and twelve. +Ezr 2:7 The children of Elam, a thousand, two hundred and fifty-four. +Ezr 2:8 The children of Zattu, nine hundred and forty-five. +Ezr 2:9 The children of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty. +Ezr 2:10 The children of Bani, six hundred and forty-two. +Ezr 2:11 The children of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-three. +Ezr 2:12 The children of Azgad, a thousand, two hundred and twenty-two. +Ezr 2:13 The children of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-six. +Ezr 2:14 The children of Bigvai, two thousand and fifty-six. +Ezr 2:15 The children of Adin, four hundred and fifty-four. +Ezr 2:16 The children of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight. +Ezr 2:17 The children of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-three. +Ezr 2:18 The children of Jorah, a hundred and twelve. +Ezr 2:19 The children of Hashum, two hundred and twenty-three. +Ezr 2:20 The children of Gibbar, ninety-five. +Ezr 2:21 The children of Beth-lehem, a hundred and twenty-three. +Ezr 2:22 The men of Netophah, fifty-six. +Ezr 2:23 The men of Anathoth, a hundred and twenty-eight. +Ezr 2:24 The children of Azmaveth, forty-two. +Ezr 2:25 The children of Kiriath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three. +Ezr 2:26 The children of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one. +Ezr 2:27 The men of Michmas, a hundred and twenty-two. +Ezr 2:28 The men of Beth-el and Ai, two hundred and twenty-three. +Ezr 2:29 The children of Nebo, fifty-two. +Ezr 2:30 The children of Magbish, a hundred and fifty-six. +Ezr 2:31 The children of the other Elam, a thousand, two hundred and fifty-four. +Ezr 2:32 The children of Harim, three hundred and twenty. +Ezr 2:33 The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-five. +Ezr 2:34 The children of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five. +Ezr 2:35 The children of Senaah, three thousand, six hundred and thirty. +Ezr 2:36 The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three. +Ezr 2:37 The children of Immer, a thousand and fifty-two. +Ezr 2:38 The children of Pashhur, a thousand, two hundred and forty-seven. +Ezr 2:39 The children of Harim, a thousand and seventeen. +Ezr 2:40 The Levites: the children of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the children of Hodaviah, seventy-four. +Ezr 2:41 The music-makers: the children of Asaph, a hundred and twenty-eight +Ezr 2:42 The children of the door-keepers: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, a hundred and thirty-nine. +Ezr 2:43 The Nethinim: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth, +Ezr 2:44 The children of Keros, the children of Siaha, the children of Padon, +Ezr 2:45 The children of Lebanah, the children of Hagabah, the children of Akkub, +Ezr 2:46 The children of Hagab, the children of Shamlai, the children of Hanan, +Ezr 2:47 The children of Giddel, the children of Gahar, the children of Reaiah, +Ezr 2:48 The children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda, the children of Gazzam, +Ezr 2:49 The children of Uzza, the children of Paseah, the children of Besai, +Ezr 2:50 The children of Asnah, the children of Meunim, the children of Nephisim, +Ezr 2:51 The children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur, +Ezr 2:52 The children of Bazluth, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha, +Ezr 2:53 The children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Temah, +Ezr 2:54 The children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha. +Ezr 2:55 The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Hassophereth, the children of Peruda, +Ezr 2:56 The children of Jaalah, the children of Darkon, the children of Giddel, +Ezr 2:57 The children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the children of Ami. +Ezr 2:58 All the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants, were three hundred and ninety-two. +Ezr 2:59 And these were the people who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan, and Immer. But having no knowledge of their fathers' families or offspring, it was not certain that they were Israelites; +Ezr 2:60 The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred and fifty-two. +Ezr 2:61 And of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who was married to one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and took their name. +Ezr 2:62 They made search for their record among the lists of families, but their names were nowhere to be seen; so they were looked on as unclean and no longer priests. +Ezr 2:63 And the Tirshatha said that they were not to have the most holy things for their food, till a priest came to give decision by Urim and Thummim. +Ezr 2:64 The number of all the people together was forty-two thousand, three hundred and sixty, +Ezr 2:65 As well as their men-servants and their women-servants, of whom there were seven thousand, three hundred and thirty-seven: and they had two hundred men and women to make music. +Ezr 2:66 They had seven hundred and thirty-six horses, two hundred and forty-five transport beasts, +Ezr 2:67 Four hundred and thirty-five camels, six thousand, seven hundred and twenty asses. +Ezr 2:68 And some of the heads of families, when they came to the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem, gave freely of their wealth for the building up of the house of God in its place: +Ezr 2:69 Every one, as he was able, gave for the work sixty-one thousand darics of gold, five thousand pounds of silver and a hundred priests' robes. +Ezr 2:70 So the priests and the Levites and the people and the music-makers and the door-keepers and the Nethinim, took up their places in their towns; even all Israel in their towns. +Ezr 3:1 And when the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people came together like one man to Jerusalem. +Ezr 3:2 Then Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, with his brothers, got up and made the altar of the God of Israel for burned offerings as is recorded in the law of Moses, the man of God. +Ezr 3:3 They put the altar on its base; for fear was on them because of the people of the countries: and they made burned offerings on it to the Lord, even burned offerings morning and evening. +Ezr 3:4 And they kept the feast of tents, as it is recorded, making the regular burned offerings every day by number, as it is ordered; for every day what was needed. +Ezr 3:5 And after that, the regular burned offering and the offerings for the new moons and all the fixed feasts of the Lord which had been made holy, and the offering of everyone who freely gave his offering to the Lord. +Ezr 3:6 From the first day of the seventh month they made a start with the burned offerings, but the base of the Temple of the Lord had still not been put in its place. +Ezr 3:7 And they gave money to the stoneworkers and woodworkers; and meat and drink and oil to the people of Zidon and of Tyre, for the transport of cedar-trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, as Cyrus, king of Persia, had given them authority to do. +Ezr 3:8 Now in the second year of their coming into the house of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, the work was taken in hand by Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come from the land where they were prisoners to Jerusalem: and they made the Levites, of twenty years old and over, responsible for overseeing the work of the house of the Lord. +Ezr 3:9 Then Jeshua with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel with his sons, the sons of Hodaviah, together took up the work of overseeing the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad with their sons and their brothers, the Levites. +Ezr 3:10 And when the builders put in position the base of the Temple of the Lord, the priests, dressed in their robes, took their places with horns, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with brass instruments, to give praise to the Lord in the way ordered by David, king of Israel. +Ezr 3:11 And they gave praise to the Lord, answering one another in their songs and saying, For he is good, for his mercy to Israel is eternal. And all the people gave a great cry of joy, when they gave praise to the Lord, because the base of the Lord's house was put in place. +Ezr 3:12 But a number of the priests and Levites and the heads of families, old men who had seen the first house, when the base of this house was put down before their eyes, were overcome with weeping; and a number were crying out with joy: +Ezr 3:13 So that in the ears of the people the cry of joy was mixed with the sound of weeping; for the cries of the people were loud and came to the ears of those who were a long way off. +Ezr 4:1 Now news came to the haters of Judah and Benjamin that the people who had come back were building a Temple to the Lord, the God of Israel; +Ezr 4:2 Then they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of families, and said to them, Let us take part in the building with you; for we are servants of your God, even as you are; and we have been making offerings to him from the days of Esar-haddon, king of Assyria, who put us here. +Ezr 4:3 But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of families in Israel said to them, You have no part with us in the building of a house for our God; we ourselves will do the work together for the Lord, the God of Israel, as Cyrus, king of Persia, has given us orders. +Ezr 4:4 Then the people of the land made the hands of the people of Judah feeble, troubling them with fear in their building; +Ezr 4:5 And they gave payment to men who made designs against them and kept them from effecting their purpose, all through the time of Cyrus, king of Persia, till Darius became king. +Ezr 4:6 And in the time of Ahasuerus, when he first became king, they put on record a statement against the people of Judah and Jerusalem. +Ezr 4:7 And in the time of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his friends, sent a letter to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, writing it in the Aramaean writing and language. +Ezr 4:8 Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe, sent a letter against Jerusalem, to Artaxerxes the king; +Ezr 4:9 The letter was sent by Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe and their friends; the Dinaites and the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Shushanchites, the Dehaites, the Elamites, +Ezr 4:10 And the rest of the nations which the great and noble Osnappar took over and put in Samaria and the rest of the country over the river: +Ezr 4:11 This is a copy of the letter which they sent to Artaxerxes the king: Your servants living across the river send these words: +Ezr 4:12 We give news to the king that the Jews who came from you have come to us at Jerusalem; they are building up again that uncontrolled and evil town; the walls are complete and they are joining up the bases. +Ezr 4:13 The king may be certain that when the building of this town and its walls is complete, they will give no tax or payment in goods or forced payments, and in the end it will be a cause of loss to the kings. +Ezr 4:14 Now because we are responsible to the king, and it is not right for us to see the king's honour damaged, we have sent to give the king word of these things, +Ezr 4:15 So that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers: and you will see in the book of the records that this town has been uncontrolled, and a cause of trouble to kings and countries, and that there were outbursts against authority there in the past: for which reason the town was made waste. +Ezr 4:16 We give you word, that if the building of this town and its walls is made complete, there will be an end of your power in the country across the river. +Ezr 4:17 Then the king sent an answer to Rehum, the chief ruler, and Shimshai the scribe, and their friends living in Samaria, and to the rest of those across the river, saying, Peace to you: +Ezr 4:18 And now the sense of the letter which you sent to us has been made clear to me, +Ezr 4:19 And I gave orders for a search to be made, and it is certain that in the past this town has made trouble for kings, and that outbursts against authority have taken place there. +Ezr 4:20 Further, there have been great kings in Jerusalem, ruling over all the country across the river, to whom they gave taxes and payments in goods and forced payments. +Ezr 4:21 Give an order now, that these men are to do nothing more, and that the building of the town is to be stopped, till I give an order. +Ezr 4:22 Be certain to do this with all care: do not let trouble be increased to the king's damage. +Ezr 4:23 Then, after reading the king's letter, Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their friends went quickly to Jerusalem, to the Jews, and had them stopped by force. +Ezr 4:24 So the work of the house of God at Jerusalem came to an end; so it was stopped, till the second year of the rule of Darius, king of Persia. +Ezr 5:1 Now the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the son of Iddo, were preaching to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel. +Ezr 5:2 Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, got up and made a start at building the house of God at Jerusalem: and the prophets of God were with them, helping them. +Ezr 5:3 At the same time, Tattenai, ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai, and their men, came to them and said, Who gave you orders to go on building this house and this wall? +Ezr 5:4 Then they said these words to them: What are the names of the men who are at work on this building? +Ezr 5:5 But the eye of their God was on the chiefs of the Jews, and they did not make them give up working till the question had been put before Darius and an answer had come by letter about it. +Ezr 5:6 This is a copy of the letter which Tattenai, the ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and his friends the Apharsachites, living across the river, sent to Darius the king: +Ezr 5:7 They sent him a letter saying, To Darius the king, all peace: +Ezr 5:8 This is to give the king word that we went into the land of Judah, to the house of the great God, which is made of great stones, and has its walls supported with wood, and the work is going on with industry, and they are doing it well. +Ezr 5:9 Then we said to the men responsible, who gave you authority for the building of this house and these walls? +Ezr 5:10 And we made request for their names, so that we might send you word, and give you the names of the men at the head of them. +Ezr 5:11 And they made answer to us, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are building the house which was put up in times long past and was designed and made complete by a great king of Israel. +Ezr 5:12 But when the God of heaven was moved to wrath by our fathers, he gave them up into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Chaldaean, who sent destruction on this house and took the people away into Babylon. +Ezr 5:13 But in the first year of Cyrus, king of Babylon, Cyrus the king gave an order for the building of this house of God; +Ezr 5:14 And the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple which was in Jerusalem, and put into the house of his god in Babylon, these Cyrus the king took from the house of his god in Babylon, and gave to one named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made ruler; +Ezr 5:15 And he said to him, Go, take these vessels, and put them in the Temple in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be put up again in its place. +Ezr 5:16 Then this same Sheshbazzar came and put the house of God in Jerusalem on its bases: and from that time till now the building has been going on, but it is still not complete. +Ezr 5:17 So now, if it seems good to the king, let search be made in the king's store-house at Babylon, to see if it is true that an order was given by Cyrus the king for the building of this house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send us word of his pleasure in connection with this business. +Ezr 6:1 Then Darius the king gave an order and a search was made in the house of the records, where the things of value were stored up in Babylon. +Ezr 6:2 And at Achmetha, in the great house of the king in the land of Media, they came across a roll, in which this statement was put on record: +Ezr 6:3 In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king made an order: In connection with the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be put up, the place where they make offerings, and let the earth for the bases be put in place; let it be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide; +Ezr 6:4 With three lines of great stones and one line of new wood supports; and let the necessary money be given out of the king's store-house; +Ezr 6:5 And let the gold and silver vessels from the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple at Jerusalem to Babylon, be given back and taken again to the Temple at Jerusalem, every one in its place, and put them in the house of God. +Ezr 6:6 So now, Tattenai, ruler of the land across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and your people the Apharsachites across the river, keep far from that place: +Ezr 6:7 Let the work of this house of God go on; let the ruler of the Jews and their responsible men put up this house of God in its place. +Ezr 6:8 Further, I give orders as to what you are to do for the responsible men of the Jews in connection with the building of this house of God: that from the king's wealth, that is, from the taxes got together in the land over the river, the money needed is to be given to these men readily, so that their work may not be stopped. +Ezr 6:9 And whatever they have need of, young oxen and sheep and lambs, for burned offerings to the God of heaven, grain, salt, wine, and oil, whatever the priests in Jerusalem say is necessary, is to be given to them day by day regularly: +Ezr 6:10 So that they may make offerings of a sweet smell to the God of heaven, with prayers for the life of the king and of his sons. +Ezr 6:11 And I have given orders that if anyone makes any change in this word, one of the supports is to be pulled out of his house, and he is to be lifted up and fixed to it; and his house is to be made waste for this; +Ezr 6:12 And may the God who has made it a resting-place for his name send destruction on all kings and peoples whose hands are outstretched to make any change in this or to do damage to this house of God at Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given this order, let it be done with all care. +Ezr 6:13 Then Tattenai, the ruler across the river, and Shethar-bozenai and their people, because of the order given by King Darius, did as he had said with all care. +Ezr 6:14 And the responsible men of the Jews went on with their building, and did well, helped by the teaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, the son of Iddo. They went on building till it was complete, in keeping with the word of the God of Israel, and the orders given by Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes, king of Persia. +Ezr 6:15 And the building of this house was complete on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the rule of Darius the king. +Ezr 6:16 And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of those who had come back, kept the feast of the opening of this house of God with joy. +Ezr 6:17 And they gave as offerings at the opening of this house of God a hundred oxen, two hundred sheep, four hundred lambs; and for a sin-offering for all Israel, twelve he-goats, being the number of the tribes of Israel. +Ezr 6:18 And they put the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their order, for the worship of God at Jerusalem; as it is recorded in the book of Moses. +Ezr 6:19 And the children of Israel who had come back kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. +Ezr 6:20 For the priests and the Levites had made themselves clean together; they were all clean: and they put the Passover lamb to death for all those who had come back, and for their brothers the priests and for themselves. +Ezr 6:21 And the children of Israel, who had come back, and all those who were joined to them, after separating themselves from the evil ways of the people of the land to become the servants of the Lord, the God of Israel, took food together, +Ezr 6:22 And kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with joy: for the Lord had made them full of joy, by turning the heart of the king of Assyria to them to give them help in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel. +Ezr 7:1 Now after these things, when Artaxerxes was king of Persia, Ezra, the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, +Ezr 7:2 The son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub, +Ezr 7:3 The son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth, +Ezr 7:4 The son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki, +Ezr 7:5 The son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest: +Ezr 7:6 This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a scribe, expert in the law of Moses which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given: and the king, moved by the Lord his God, gave him whatever he made request for. +Ezr 7:7 And some of the children of Israel went up, with some of the priests and the Levites and the music-makers and the door-keepers and the Nethinim, to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. +Ezr 7:8 And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, in the seventh year of the king's rule. +Ezr 7:9 For, starting his journey from Babylon on the first day of the first month, he came to Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, by the good help of his God. +Ezr 7:10 For Ezra had given his mind to learning the law of the Lord and doing it, and to teaching his rules and decisions in Israel. +Ezr 7:11 Now this is a copy of the letter which King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra, the priest and the scribe, who put into writing the words of the orders of the Lord, and of his rules for Israel: +Ezr 7:12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of heaven, all peace; +Ezr 7:13 And now it is my order that all those of the people of Israel, and their priests and Levites in my kingdom, who are ready and have a desire to go to Jerusalem, are to go with you. +Ezr 7:14 Because you are sent by the king and his seven wise men, to get knowledge about Judah and Jerusalem, as you are ordered by the law of your God which is in your hand; +Ezr 7:15 And to take with you the silver and gold freely offered by the king and his wise men to the God of Israel, whose Temple is in Jerusalem, +Ezr 7:16 As well as all the silver and gold which you get from the land of Babylon, together with the offering of the people and of the priests, freely given for the house of their God, which is in Jerusalem: +Ezr 7:17 So with this money get with care oxen, sheep, and lambs, with their meal offerings and their drink offerings, to be offered on the altar of the house of your God, which is in Jerusalem. +Ezr 7:18 And whatever seems right to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold, that do, as may be pleasing to your God. +Ezr 7:19 And the vessels which have been given to you for the uses of the house of your God, you are to give to the God of Jerusalem. +Ezr 7:20 And whatever more is needed for the house of your God, and which you may have to give, take it from the king's store-house. +Ezr 7:21 And I, even I, Artaxerxes the king, now give orders to all keepers of the king's money across the river, that whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, may have need of from you, is to be done with all care, +Ezr 7:22 Up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred measures of grain, a hundred measures of wine, and a hundred measures of oil, and salt without measure. +Ezr 7:23 Whatever is ordered by the God of heaven, let it be done completely for the house of the God of heaven; so that there may not be wrath against the kingdom of the king and his sons. +Ezr 7:24 In addition, we make it clear to you, that it will be against the law to put any tax or payment in goods or forced payment on any of the priests or Levites, the music-makers, door-keepers, Nethinim, or any servants of this house of God. +Ezr 7:25 And you, Ezra, by the wisdom of your God which is in you, are to put rulers and judges to have authority over all the people across the river who have knowledge of the laws of your God; and you are to give teaching to him who has no knowledge of them. +Ezr 7:26 And if anyone does not keep the law of your God and the law of the king, take care that punishment is given to him, by death or by driving him from his country or by taking away his goods or by putting him in prison. +Ezr 7:27 Praise be to the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing into the heart of the king, to make fair the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem; +Ezr 7:28 And has given mercy to me before the king and his government and before all the king's great captains. And I was made strong by the hand of the Lord my God which was on me, and I got together out of Israel chief men to go up with me. +Ezr 8:1 Now these are the heads of families who were listed of those who went up with me from Babylon, when Artaxerxes was king. +Ezr 8:2 Of the sons of Phinehas, Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel; of the sons of David, Hattush; +Ezr 8:3 Of the sons of Shecaniah; of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah; and with him were listed a hundred and fifty males. +Ezr 8:4 Of the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai, the son of Zerahiah; and with him two hundred males. +Ezr 8:5 Of the sons of Shecaniah, the son of Jahaziel; and with him three hundred males. +Ezr 8:6 And of the sons of Adin, Ebed, the son of Jonathan; and with him fifty males. +Ezr 8:7 And of the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah; the son of Athaliah; and with him seventy males. +Ezr 8:8 And of the sons of Shephatiah, Zebadiah, the son of Michael; and with him eighty males. +Ezr 8:9 Of the sons of Joab, Obadiah, the son of Jehiel; and with him two hundred and eighteen males. +Ezr 8:10 And of the sons of Shelomith, the son of Josiphiah; and with him a hundred and sixty males. +Ezr 8:11 And of the sons of Bebai, Zechariah, the son of Bebai; and with him twenty-eight males. +Ezr 8:12 And of the sons of Azgad, Johanan, the son of Hakkatan; and with him a hundred and ten males. +Ezr 8:13 And of the sons of Adonikam, the last, whose names were Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah; and with them sixty males. +Ezr 8:14 And of the sons of Bigvai, Uthai and Zabbud; and with them seventy males. +Ezr 8:15 And I made them come together by the river flowing to Ahava; and we were there in tents for three days: and after viewing the people and the priests I saw that no sons of Levi were there. +Ezr 8:16 Then I sent for Eliezer and Ariel and Shemaiah and Elnathan Jarib and Elnathan and Nathan and Zechariah and Meshullam, all responsible men; and for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were wise men. +Ezr 8:17 And I sent them to Iddo the chief at the place Casiphia, and gave them orders what to say to Iddo and his brothers the Nethinim at the place Casiphia, so that they might come back to us with men to do the work of the house of our God. +Ezr 8:18 And by the help of our God they got for us Ish-sechel, one of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel; and Sherebiah with his sons and brothers, eighteen; +Ezr 8:19 And Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, his brothers and their sons, twenty; +Ezr 8:20 And of the Nethinim, to whom David and the captains had given the work of helping the Levites, two hundred and twenty Nethinim, all of them specially named. +Ezr 8:21 Then I gave orders for a time of going without food, there by the river Ahava, so that we might make ourselves low before our God in prayer, requesting from him a straight way for us and for our little ones and for all our substance. +Ezr 8:22 For I would not, for shame, make request to the king for a band of armed men and horsemen to give us help against those who might make attacks on us on the way: for we had said to the king, The hand of our God is on his servants for good, but his power and his wrath are against all those who are turned away from him. +Ezr 8:23 So we went without food, requesting our God for this: and his ear was open to our prayer. +Ezr 8:24 So I put on one side twelve of the chiefs of the priests, Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers with them, +Ezr 8:25 And gave to them by weight the silver and the gold and the vessels, all the offering for the house of our God which the king and his wise men and his captains and all Israel there present had given: +Ezr 8:26 Measuring into their hands six hundred and fifty talents of silver, and silver vessels, a hundred talents' weight, and a hundred talents of gold, +Ezr 8:27 And twenty gold basins, of a thousand darics, and two vessels of the best bright brass, equal in value to gold. +Ezr 8:28 And I said to them, You are holy to the Lord and the vessels are holy: and the silver and the gold are an offering freely given to the Lord, the God of your fathers. +Ezr 8:29 Take care of them and keep them, till you put them on the scales before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites and the chiefs of the families of Israel, in Jerusalem, in the rooms of the house of the Lord. +Ezr 8:30 So the priests and the Levites took the weight of silver and gold and the vessels, to take them to Jerusalem into the house of our God. +Ezr 8:31 Then we went away from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem; and the hand of our God was on us, and he gave us salvation from our haters and those who were waiting to make an attack on us by the way. +Ezr 8:32 And we came to Jerusalem and were there for three days. +Ezr 8:33 And on the fourth day, the silver and the gold and the vessels were measured out by weight in the house of our God into the hands of Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the priest; and with him was Eleazar, the son of Phinehas; and with them were Jozabad, the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah, the son of Binnui, the Levites; +Ezr 8:34 All was handed over by number and by weight: and the weight was put on record at that time. +Ezr 8:35 And those who had been prisoners, who had come back from a strange land, made burned offerings to the God of Israel, twelve oxen for all Israel, ninety-six male sheep, seventy-seven lambs, twelve he-goats for a sin-offering: all this was a burned offering to the Lord. +Ezr 8:36 And they gave the king's orders to the king's captains and the rulers across the river, and they gave the people and the house of God the help which was needed. +Ezr 9:1 Now after these things were done, the captains came to me and said, The people of Israel and the priests and Levites have not kept themselves separate from the people of the lands, but have taken part in the disgusting ways of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. +Ezr 9:2 For they have taken their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the peoples of the lands; and in fact the captains and rulers have been the first to do this evil. +Ezr 9:3 And hearing this, with signs of grief and pulling out the hair of my head and my chin, I took my seat on the earth deeply troubled. +Ezr 9:4 Then everyone who went in fear of the words of the God of Israel, because of the sin of those who had come back, came together to me; and I kept where I was, overcome with grief, till the evening offering. +Ezr 9:5 And at the evening offering, having made myself low before God, I got up, and with signs of grief, falling down on my knees, with my hands stretched out to the Lord my God, +Ezr 9:6 I said, O my God, shame keeps me from lifting up my face to you, my God: for our sins are increased higher than our heads and our evil-doing has come up to heaven. +Ezr 9:7 From the days of our fathers till this day we have been great sinners; and for our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been given up into the hands of the kings of the lands, to the sword and to prison and to loss of goods and to shame of face, as it is this day. +Ezr 9:8 And now for a little time grace has come to us from the Lord our God, to let a small band of us get free and to give us a nail in his holy place, so that our God may give light to our eyes and a measure of new life in our prison chains. +Ezr 9:9 For we are servants; but our God has not been turned away from us in our prison, but has had mercy on us before the eyes of the kings of Persia, to give us new strength to put up again the house of our God and to make fair its waste places, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem. +Ezr 9:10 And now, O our God, what are we to say after this? for we have not kept your laws, +Ezr 9:11 Which you gave to your servants the prophets, saying, The land into which you are going, to take it for a heritage, is an unclean land, because of the evil lives of the peoples of the land and their disgusting ways, which have made the land unclean from end to end. +Ezr 9:12 So now do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or do anything for their peace or well-being for ever; so that you may be strong, living on the good of the land, and handing it on to your children for a heritage for ever. +Ezr 9:13 And after everything which has come on us because of our evil-doing and our great sin, and seeing that the punishment which you, O God, have given us, is less than the measure of our sins, and that you have kept from death those of us who are here; +Ezr 9:14 Are we again to go against your orders, taking wives from among the people who do these disgusting things? would you not be angry with us till our destruction was complete, till there was not one who got away safe? +Ezr 9:15 O Lord God of Israel, righteousness is yours; we are only a small band which has been kept from death, as at this day: see, we are before you in our sin; for no one may keep his place before you because of this. +Ezr 10:1 Now while Ezra was making his prayer and his statement of wrongdoing, weeping and falling down before the house of God, a very great number of men and women and children out of Israel came together round him: for the people were weeping bitterly. +Ezr 10:2 And Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answering, said to Ezra, We have done evil against our God, and have taken as our wives strange women of the peoples of the land: but still there is hope for Israel in this question. +Ezr 10:3 Let us now make an agreement with our God to put away all the wives and all their children, if it seems right to my lord and to those who go in fear of the words of our God; and let it be done in keeping with the law. +Ezr 10:4 Up, now! for this is your business, and we are with you; take heart and do it. +Ezr 10:5 Then Ezra got up, and made the chiefs of the priests and the Levites and all Israel take an oath that they would do this. So they took an oath. +Ezr 10:6 Then Ezra got up from before the house of God and went into the room of Jehohanan, the son of Eliashib; but when he came there, he took no food or drink, for he was sorrowing for the sin of those who had come back. +Ezr 10:7 And they made a public statement through all Judah and Jerusalem, to all those who had come back, that they were to come together to Jerusalem; +Ezr 10:8 And that if anyone did not come before three days were past, as ordered by the rulers and the responsible men, all his goods would be put under the curse, and he himself would be cut off from the meeting of the people who had come back. +Ezr 10:9 Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin came together to Jerusalem before three days were past; it was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month; and all the people were seated in the wide square in front of the house of God, shaking with fear because of this business and because of the great rain. +Ezr 10:10 And Ezra the priest got to his feet and said to them, You have done wrong and taken strange women for your wives, so increasing the sin of Israel. +Ezr 10:11 So now, give praise to the Lord, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure; and make yourselves separate from the peoples of the land and from the strange women. +Ezr 10:12 Then all the people, answering, said with a loud voice, As you have said, so it is right for us to do. +Ezr 10:13 But the number of people is great, and it is a time of much rain; it is not possible for us to go on waiting outside, and this is not a thing which may be done in one day or even two: for our sin in this business is great. +Ezr 10:14 So now let our rulers be representatives for all the people, and let all those in our towns who are married to strange women come at fixed times, and with them the responsible men and the judges of every town, till the burning wrath of our God is turned away from us, and this has been done. +Ezr 10:15 Only Jonathan, the son of Asahel, and Jahzeiah, the son of Tikvah, were against this, Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supporting them. +Ezr 10:16 So those who had come back did so. And Ezra the priest, with certain heads of families, by their fathers' families, all of them by their names, were marked out; and on the first day of the tenth month they took their places to go into the question with care. +Ezr 10:17 And they got to the end of all the men who were married to strange women by the first day of the first month. +Ezr 10:18 And among the sons of the priests who were married to strange women were these: of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak and his brothers, Maaseiah and Eliezer and Jarib and Gedaliah. +Ezr 10:19 And they gave their word that they would put away their wives; and for their sin, they gave an offering of a male sheep of the flock. +Ezr 10:20 And of the sons of Immer, Hanani and Zebadiah. +Ezr 10:21 And of the sons of Harim, Maaseiah and Elijah and Shemaiah and Jehiel and Uzziah. +Ezr 10:22 And of the sons of Pashhur, Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah. +Ezr 10:23 And of the Levites, Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah (that is Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. +Ezr 10:24 And of the music-makers, Eliashib; and of the door-keepers, Shallum and Telem and Uri. +Ezr 10:25 And of Israel, the sons of Parosh, Ramiah and Izziah and Malchijah and Mijamin and Eleazar and Malchijah and Benaiah. +Ezr 10:26 And of the sons of Elam, Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel and Abdi and Jeremoth and Elijah. +Ezr 10:27 And of the sons of Zattu, Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth and Zabad and Aziza. +Ezr 10:28 And of the sons of Bebai, Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai. +Ezr 10:29 And of the sons of Bani, Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub and Sheal, Jeremoth. +Ezr 10:30 And of the sons of Pahath-moab, Adna and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel and Binnui and Manasseh. +Ezr 10:31 And of the sons of Harim, Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, +Ezr 10:32 Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah. +Ezr 10:33 Of the sons of Hashum, Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei. +Ezr 10:34 Of the sons of Bani, Maadai, Amram, and Uel, +Ezr 10:35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi, +Ezr 10:36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, +Ezr 10:37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu, +Ezr 10:38 And Bani and Binnui, Shimei; +Ezr 10:39 And Shelemiah and Nathan and Adaiah, +Ezr 10:40 Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, +Ezr 10:41 Azarel and Shelemiah, Shemariah, +Ezr 10:42 Shallum, Amariah, Joseph. +Ezr 10:43 Of the sons of Nebo, Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Iddo, and Joel, Benaiah. +Ezr 10:44 All these had taken strange wives; and some of them had wives by whom they had offspring. +Neh 1:1 The history of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah. Now it came about, in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, when I was in Shushan, the king's town, +Neh 1:2 That Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah; and in answer to my request for news of the Jews who had been prisoners and had got away, and of Jerusalem, +Neh 1:3 They said to me, The small band of Jews now living there in the land are in great trouble and shame: the wall of Jerusalem has been broken down, and its doorways burned with fire. +Neh 1:4 Then, after hearing these words, for some days I gave myself up to weeping and sorrow, seated on the earth; and taking no food I made prayer to the God of heaven, +Neh 1:5 And said, O Lord, the God of heaven, the great God, greatly to be feared, keeping faith and mercy with those who have love for him and are true to his laws: +Neh 1:6 Let your ear now take note and let your eyes be open, so that you may give ear to the prayer of your servant, which I make before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel, your servants, while I put before you the sins of the children of Israel, which we have done against you: truly, I and my father's people are sinners. +Neh 1:7 We have done great wrong against you, and have not kept the orders, the rules, and the decisions, which you gave to your servant Moses. +Neh 1:8 Keep in mind, O Lord, the order you gave your servant Moses, saying, If you do wrong I will send you wandering among the peoples: +Neh 1:9 But if you come back to me and keep my orders and do them, even if those of you who have been forced out are living in the farthest parts of heaven, I will get them from there, and take them back to the place marked out by me for the resting-place of my name. +Neh 1:10 Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have made yours by your great power and by your strong hand. +Neh 1:11 O Lord, let your ear take note of the prayer of your servant, and of the prayers of your servants, who take delight in worshipping your name: give help, O Lord, to your servant this day, and let him have mercy in the eyes of this man. (Now I was the king's wine-servant.) +Neh 2:1 And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, that I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never before been sad when the king was present. +Neh 2:2 And the king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing that you are not ill? this is nothing but sorrow of heart. Then I was full of fear; +Neh 2:3 And said to the king, May the king be living for ever: is it not natural for my face to be sad, when the town, the place where the bodies of my fathers are at rest, has been made waste and its doorways burned with fire? +Neh 2:4 Then the king said to me, What is your desire? So I made prayer to the God of heaven. +Neh 2:5 And I said to the king, If it is the king's pleasure, and if your servant has your approval, send me to Judah, to the town where the bodies of my fathers are at rest, so that I may take in hand the building of it. +Neh 2:6 And the king said to me (the queen being seated by his side), How long will your journey take, and when will you come back? So the king was pleased to send me, and I gave him a fixed time. +Neh 2:7 Further, I said to the king, If it is the king's pleasure, let letters be given to me for the rulers across the river, so that they may let me go through till I come to Judah; +Neh 2:8 And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's park, so that he may give me wood to make boards for the doors of the tower of the house, and for the wall of the town, and for the house which is to be mine. And the king gave me this, for the hand of my God was on me. +Neh 2:9 Then I came to the rulers of the lands across the river and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me captains of the army and horsemen. +Neh 2:10 And Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, hearing of it, were greatly troubled because a man had come to the help of the children of Israel. +Neh 2:11 So I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. +Neh 2:12 And in the night I got up, taking with me a small band of men; I said nothing to any man of what God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem: and I had no beast with me but the one on which I was seated. +Neh 2:13 And I went out by night, through the doorway of the valley, and past the dragon's water-spring as far as the place where waste material was put, viewing the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down, and the doorways which had been burned with fire. +Neh 2:14 Then I went on to the door of the fountain and to the king's pool: but there was no room for my beast to get through. +Neh 2:15 Then in the night, I went up by the stream, viewing the wall; then turning back, I went in by the door in the valley, and so came back. +Neh 2:16 And the chiefs had no knowledge of where I had been or what I was doing; and I had not then said anything to the Jews or to the priests or the great ones or the chiefs or the rest of those who were doing the work. +Neh 2:17 Then I said to them, You see what a bad condition we are in; how Jerusalem is a waste, and its doorways burned with fire: come, let us get to work, building up the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer be put to shame. +Neh 2:18 Then I gave them an account of how the hand of my God was on me, helping me; and of the king's words which he had said to me. And they said, Let us get to work on the building. So they made their hands strong for the good work. +Neh 2:19 But Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, hearing of it, made sport of us, laughing at us and saying, What are you doing? will you go against the king? +Neh 2:20 Then answering them I said, The God of heaven, he will be our help; so we his servants will go on with our building: but you have no part or right or any name in Jerusalem. +Neh 3:1 Then Eliashib, the chief priest, got up with his brothers the priests, and took in hand the building of the sheep doorway; they made it holy and put its doors in position; as far as the tower of Hammeah they made it holy, even to the tower of Hananel. +Neh 3:2 And by his side the men of Jericho were building. And after them, Zaccur, the son of Imri. +Neh 3:3 The sons of Hassenaah were the builders of the fish doorway; they put its boards in place and put up its doors, with their locks and rods. +Neh 3:4 By their side Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, was making good the walls. Then Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel; and by him, Zadok, the son of Baana. +Neh 3:5 Near them, the Tekoites were at work; but their chiefs did not put their necks to the work of their Lord. +Neh 3:6 Joiada, the son of Paseah, and Meshullam, the son of Besodeiah, made good the old doorway; they put its boards in place and put up its doors, with their locks and rods. +Neh 3:7 By their side were working Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah from the seat of the ruler across the river. +Neh 3:8 Near them was working Uzziel, the son of Harhaiah, the gold-worker. And by him was Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, building up Jerusalem as far as the wide wall. +Neh 3:9 Near them was working Rephaiah, the son of Hur, the ruler of half Jerusalem. +Neh 3:10 By his side was Jedaiah, the son of Harumaph, opposite his house. And by him was Hattush, the son of Hashabneiah. +Neh 3:11 Malchijah, the son of Harim, and Hasshub, the son of Pahath-moab, were working on another part, and the tower of the ovens. +Neh 3:12 Near them was Shallum, the son of Hallohesh, the ruler of half Jerusalem, with his daughters. +Neh 3:13 Hanun and the people of Zanoah were working on the doorway of the valley; they put it up and put up its doors, with their locks and rods, and a thousand cubits of wall as far as the doorway where the waste material was placed. +Neh 3:14 And Malchijah, the son of Rechab, the ruler of the division of Beth-haccherem, made good the doorway of the waste, building it up and putting up its doors, with their locks and rods. +Neh 3:15 And Shallun, the son of Col-hozeh, the ruler of the division of Mizpah, made good the doorway of the fountain, building it up and covering it and putting up its doors, with their locks and rods, with the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king's garden, as far as the steps which go down from the town of David. +Neh 3:16 By his side was working Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, ruler of half the division of Beth-zur, as far as the place opposite the last resting-places of David's family, and the pool which was made and the house of the men of war. +Neh 3:17 Then came the Levites, Rehum, the son of Bani. By his side was working Hashabiah, ruler of half the division of Keilah, for his division. +Neh 3:18 After him were working their brothers, Bavvai, the son of Henadad, ruler of half the division of Keilah. +Neh 3:19 And by his side was working Ezer, the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, making good another part opposite the way up to the store of arms at the turning of the wall. +Neh 3:20 After him Baruch, the son of Zabbai, was hard at work on another part, from the turning of the wall to the door of the house of Eliashib, the chief priest. +Neh 3:21 After him Meremoth, the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, was working on another part, from the door of the house of Eliashib as far as the end of his house. +Neh 3:22 After him were working the priests, the men of the lowland. +Neh 3:23 After them came Benjamin and Hasshub, opposite their house. After them Azariah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, made good the wall by the house where he himself was living. +Neh 3:24 After him Binnui, the son of Henadad, was working on another part, from the house of Azariah as far as the turning of the wall and the angle. +Neh 3:25 Palal, the son of Uzai, made good the wall opposite the angle and the tower which comes out from the higher part of the king's house, by the open space of the watch. After him was Pedaiah, the son of Parosh. +Neh 3:26 (Now the Nethinim were living in the Ophel, as far as the place facing the water doorway to the east, and the tower which comes out.) +Neh 3:27 After him the Tekoites were making good another part, opposite the great tower which comes out, and up to the wall of the Ophel. +Neh 3:28 Further on, past the horse doorway, the priests were at work, every one opposite his house. +Neh 3:29 After them Zadok, the son of Immer, was working opposite his house. And after him Shemaiah, the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the east door. +Neh 3:30 After him Hananiah, the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, were making good another part. After him Meshullam, the son of Berechiah, made good the wall opposite his room. +Neh 3:31 After him Malchijah, one of the gold-workers to the Nethinim and the traders, made good the wall opposite the doorway of Hammiphkad and as far as the way up to the angle. +Neh 3:32 And between the way up to the angle and the sheep door, the gold-workers and the traders made good the wall. +Neh 4:1 Now, Sanballat, hearing that we were building the wall, was very angry, and in his wrath made sport of the Jews. +Neh 4:2 And in the hearing of his countrymen and the army of Samaria he said, What are these feeble Jews doing? will they make themselves strong? will they make offerings? will they get the work done in a day? will they make the stones which have been burned come again out of the dust? +Neh 4:3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Such is their building that if a fox goes up it, their stone wall will be broken down. +Neh 4:4 Give ear, O our God, for we are looked down on: let their words of shame be turned back on themselves, and let them be given up to wasting in a land where they are prisoners: +Neh 4:5 Let not their wrongdoing be covered or their sin washed away from before you: for they have made you angry before the builders. +Neh 4:6 So we went on building the wall; and all the wall was joined together half-way up: for the people were working hard. +Neh 4:7 But when it came to the ears of Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites, that the building of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and the broken places were being made good, they were full of wrath; +Neh 4:8 And they made designs, all of them together, to come and make an attack on Jerusalem, causing trouble there. +Neh 4:9 But we made our prayer to God, and had men on watch against them day and night because of them. +Neh 4:10 And Judah said, The strength of the workmen is giving way, and there is much waste material; it is impossible for us to put up the wall. +Neh 4:11 And those who were against us said, Without their knowledge and without their seeing us, we will come among them and put them to death, causing the work to come to a stop. +Neh 4:12 And it came about that when the Jews who were living near them came, they said to us ten times, From all directions they are coming against us. +Neh 4:13 So in the lowest part of the space at the back of the walls, in the open places, I put the people by families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. +Neh 4:14 And after looking, I got up and said to the great ones and to the chiefs and to the rest of the people, Have no fear of them: keep in mind the Lord who is great and greatly to be feared, and take up arms for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, your wives and your houses. +Neh 4:15 And when it came to the ears of those who were against us, that we had knowledge of their designs and that God had made their purpose come to nothing, we all went back to the wall, everyone to his work +Neh 4:16 And from that time, half of my servants were doing their part of the work, and half kept the spears and body-covers and the bows and the metal war-dresses; and the chiefs were at the back of the men of Judah. +Neh 4:17 Those who were building the wall and those who were moving material did their part, everyone working with one hand, with his spear in the other; +Neh 4:18 Every builder was working with his sword at his side. And by my side was a man for sounding the horn. +Neh 4:19 And I said to the great ones and the chiefs and the rest of the people, The work is great and widely spaced and we are far away from one another on the wall: +Neh 4:20 Wherever you may be when the horn is sounded, come here to us; our God will be fighting for us. +Neh 4:21 So we went on with the work: and half of them had spears in their hands from the dawn of the morning till the stars were seen. +Neh 4:22 And at the same time I said to the people, Let everyone with his servant come inside Jerusalem for the night, so that at night they may keep watch for us, and go on working by day. +Neh 4:23 So not one of us, I or my brothers or my servants or the watchmen who were with me, took off his clothing, everyone went armed to the water. +Neh 5:1 Then there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their countrymen the Jews. +Neh 5:2 For there were some who said, We, our sons and our daughters, are a great number: let us get grain, so that we may have food for our needs. +Neh 5:3 And there were some who said, We are giving our fields and our vine-gardens and our houses for debt: let us get grain because we are in need. +Neh 5:4 And there were others who said, We have given up our fields and our vine-gardens to get money for the king's taxes. +Neh 5:5 But our flesh is the same as the flesh of our countrymen, and our children as their children: and now we are giving our sons and daughters into the hands of others, to be their servants, and some of our daughters are servants even now: and we have no power to put a stop to it; for other men have our fields and our vine-gardens. +Neh 5:6 And on hearing their outcry and what they said I was very angry. +Neh 5:7 And after turning it over in my mind, I made a protest to the chiefs and the rulers, and said to them, Every one of you is taking interest from his countryman. And I got together a great meeting of protest. +Neh 5:8 And I said to them, We have given whatever we were able to give, to make our brothers the Jews free, who were servants and prisoners of the nations: and would you now give up your brothers for a price, and are they to become our property? Then they said nothing, answering not a word. +Neh 5:9 And I said, What you are doing is not good: is it not the more necessary for you to go in the fear of our God, because of the shame which the nations may put on us? +Neh 5:10 Even I and my servants have been taking interest for the money and the grain we have let them have. So now, let us give up this thing. +Neh 5:11 Give back to them this very day their fields, their vine-gardens, their olive-gardens, and their houses, as well as a hundredth part of the money and the grain and the wine and the oil which you have taken from them. +Neh 5:12 Then they said, We will give them back, and take nothing for them; we will do as you say. Then I sent for the priests and made them take an oath that they would keep this agreement. +Neh 5:13 And shaking out the folds of my robe, I said, So may God send out from his house and his work every man who does not keep this agreement; even so let him be sent out and made as nothing. And all the meeting of the people said, So be it, and gave praise to the Lord. And the people did as they had said. +Neh 5:14 Now from the time when I was made ruler of the people in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year till the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, for twelve years, I and my servants have never taken the food which was the right of the ruler. +Neh 5:15 But earlier rulers who were before me made the people responsible for their upkeep, and took from them bread and wine at the rate of forty shekels of silver; and even their servants were lords over the people: but I did not do so, because of the fear of God. +Neh 5:16 And I kept on with the work of this wall, and we got no land for ourselves: and all my servants were helping with the work. +Neh 5:17 And more than this, a hundred and fifty of the Jews and the rulers were guests at my table, in addition to those who came to us from the nations round about us. +Neh 5:18 Now the food made ready for one day was one ox and six fat sheep, as well as fowls; and once in ten days a store of all sorts of wine: but all the same, I did not take the food to which the ruler had a right, because the people were crushed under a hard yoke. +Neh 5:19 Keep in mind, O my God, for my good, all I have done for this people. +Neh 6:1 Now when word was given to Sanballat and Tobiah and to Geshem the Arabian and to the rest of our haters, that I had done the building of the wall and that there were no more broken places in it (though even then I had not put up the doors in the doorways); +Neh 6:2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me saying, Come, let us have a meeting in one of the little towns in the lowland of Ono. But their purpose was to do me evil. +Neh 6:3 And I sent men to them saying, I am doing a great work, so that it is not possible for me to come down: is the work to be stopped while I go away from it and come down to you? +Neh 6:4 And four times they sent to me in this way, and I sent them the same answer. +Neh 6:5 Then Sanballat sent his servant to me a fifth time with an open letter in his hand; +Neh 6:6 And in it these words were recorded: It is said among the nations, and Geshem says so, that you and the Jews are hoping to make yourselves free from the king's authority; and that this is why you are building the wall: and they say that it is your purpose to be their king; +Neh 6:7 And that you have prophets preaching about you in Jerusalem, and saying, There is a king in Judah: now an account of these things will be sent to the king. So come now, and let us have a discussion. +Neh 6:8 Then I sent to him, saying, No such things as you say are being done, they are only a fiction you have made up yourself. +Neh 6:9 For they were hoping to put fear in us, saying, Their hands will become feeble and give up the work so that it may not get done. But now, O God, make my hands strong. +Neh 6:10 And I went to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us have a meeting in the house of God, inside the Temple, and let the doors be shut: for they will come to put you to death; truly, in the night they will come to put you to death. +Neh 6:11 And I said, Am I the sort of man to go in flight? what man, in my position, would go into the Temple to keep himself safe? I will not go in. +Neh 6:12 Then it became clear to me that God had not sent him: he had given this word of a prophet against me himself: and Tobiah and Sanballat had given him money to do so. +Neh 6:13 For this reason they had given him money, in order that I might be overcome by fear and do what he said and do wrong, and so they would have reason to say evil about me and put shame on me. +Neh 6:14 Keep in mind, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat and what they did, and Noadiah, the woman prophet, and the rest of the prophets whose purpose was to put fear into me. +Neh 6:15 So the wall was complete on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. +Neh 6:16 And when our haters had news of this, all the nations round about us were full of fear and were greatly shamed, for they saw that this work had been done by our God. +Neh 6:17 And further, in those days the chiefs of Judah sent a number of letters to Tobiah, and his letters came to them. +Neh 6:18 For in Judah there were a number of people who had made an agreement by oath with him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah, the son of Arah; and his son Jehohanan had taken as his wife the daughter of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah. +Neh 6:19 And they said much before me of the good he had done, and gave him accounts of my words. And Tobiah sent letters with the purpose of causing me fear. +Neh 7:1 Now when the building of the wall was complete and I had put up the doors, and the door-keepers and the music-makers and the Levites had been given their places, +Neh 7:2 I made my brother Hanani, and Hananiah, the ruler of the tower, responsible for the government of Jerusalem: for he was a man of good faith, fearing God more than most. +Neh 7:3 And I said to them, Do not let the doors of Jerusalem be open till the sun is high; and while the watchmen are in their places, let the doors be shut and locked: and let the people of Jerusalem be put on watch, every one in his watch, opposite his house. +Neh 7:4 Now the town was wide and great: but the people in it were only a small number, and the houses had not been put up. +Neh 7:5 And my God put it into my heart to get together the rulers and the chiefs and the people so that they might be listed by families. And I came across a record of the names of those who came up at the first, and in it I saw these words: +Neh 7:6 These are the people of the divisions of the kingdom, among those who had been made prisoners by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and taken away by him, who went back to Jerusalem and Judah, every one to his town; +Neh 7:7 Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel: +Neh 7:8 The children of Parosh, two thousand, one hundred and seventy-two. +Neh 7:9 The children of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two. +Neh 7:10 The children of Arah, six hundred and fifty-two. +Neh 7:11 The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand, eight hundred and eighteen. +Neh 7:12 The children of Elam, a thousand, two hundred and fifty-four. +Neh 7:13 The children of Zattu, eight hundred and forty-five. +Neh 7:14 The children of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty. +Neh 7:15 The children of Binnui, six hundred and forty-eight. +Neh 7:16 The children of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-eight. +Neh 7:17 The children of Azgad, two thousand, three hundred and twenty-two. +Neh 7:18 The children of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-seven. +Neh 7:19 The children of Bigvai, two thousand and sixty-seven. +Neh 7:20 The children of Adin, six hundred and fifty-five. +Neh 7:21 The children of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight. +Neh 7:22 The children of Hashum, three hundred and twenty-eight. +Neh 7:23 The children of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-four. +Neh 7:24 The children of Hariph, a hundred and twelve. +Neh 7:25 The children of Gibeon, ninety-five. +Neh 7:26 The men of Beth-lehem and Netophah, a hundred and eighty-eight. +Neh 7:27 The men of Anathoth, a hundred and twenty-eight. +Neh 7:28 The men of Beth-azmaveth, forty-two. +Neh 7:29 The men of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three. +Neh 7:30 The men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one. +Neh 7:31 The men of Michmas, a hundred and twenty-two. +Neh 7:32 The men of Beth-el and Ai, a hundred and twenty-three. +Neh 7:33 The men of the other Nebo, fifty-two. +Neh 7:34 The children of the other Elam, a thousand, two hundred and fifty-four. +Neh 7:35 The children of Harim, three hundred and twenty. +Neh 7:36 The children of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five. +Neh 7:37 The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-one. +Neh 7:38 The children of Senaah, three thousand, nine hundred and thirty. +Neh 7:39 The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the family of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three. +Neh 7:40 The children of Immer, a thousand and fifty-two. +Neh 7:41 The children of Pashhur, a thousand, two hundred and forty-seven. +Neh 7:42 The children of Harim, a thousand and seventeen. +Neh 7:43 The Levites: the children of Jeshua, of Kadmiel, of the children of Hodevah, seventy-four. +Neh 7:44 The music-makers: the children of Asaph, a hundred and forty-eight. +Neh 7:45 The door-keepers: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, a hundred and thirty-eight. +Neh 7:46 The Nethinim: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth, +Neh 7:47 The children of Keros, the children of Sia, the children of Padon, +Neh 7:48 The children of Lebana, the children of Hagaba, the children of Salmai, +Neh 7:49 The children of Hanan, the children of Giddel, the children of Gahar, +Neh 7:50 The children of Reaiah, the children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda, +Neh 7:51 The children of Gazzam, the children of Uzza, the children of Paseah, +Neh 7:52 The children of Besai, the children of Meunim, the children of Nephushesim, +Neh 7:53 The children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur, +Neh 7:54 The children of Bazlith, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha, +Neh 7:55 The children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Temah, +Neh 7:56 The children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha. +Neh 7:57 The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Sophereth, the children of Perida, +Neh 7:58 The children of Jaala, the children of Darkon, the children of Giddel, +Neh 7:59 The children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the children of Amon. +Neh 7:60 All the Nethinim and the children of Solomon's servants were three hundred and ninety-two. +Neh 7:61 All these were the people who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but because they had no knowledge of their fathers' families or offspring, it was not certain if they were Israelites: +Neh 7:62 The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred and forty-two. +Neh 7:63 And of the priests: the children of Hobaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who was married to one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and took their name. +Neh 7:64 They made search for their record among the lists of families, but their names were nowhere to be seen, so they were looked on as unclean and no longer priests. +Neh 7:65 And the Tirshatha said that they were not to have the most holy things for their food, till a priest came to give decision by the Urim and Thummim. +Neh 7:66 The number of all the people together was forty-two thousand, three hundred and sixty; +Neh 7:67 As well as their men-servants and their women-servants, of whom there were seven thousand, three hundred and thirty-seven; and they had two hundred and forty-five men and women to make music. +Neh 7:68 They had seven hundred and thirty-six horses, two hundred and forty-five transport beasts; +Neh 7:69 Four hundred and thirty-five camels, six thousand, seven hundred and twenty asses. +Neh 7:70 And some of the heads of families gave money for the work. The Tirshatha gave into the store a thousand darics of gold, fifty basins, five hundred and thirty priests' robes. +Neh 7:71 And some of the heads of families gave into the store for the work twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand, two hundred pounds of silver. +Neh 7:72 And that which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand pounds of silver, and sixty-seven priests' robes. +Neh 7:73 So the priests and the Levites and the door-keepers and the music-makers and some of the people and the Nethinim, and all Israel, were living in their towns. +Neh 8:1 And when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their towns. And all the people came together like one man into the wide place in front of the water-doorway; and they made a request to Ezra the scribe that he would put before them the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had given to Israel. +Neh 8:2 And Ezra the priest put the law before the meeting of the people, before the men and women and all those who were able to take it in, on the first day of the seventh month. +Neh 8:3 He was reading it in the wide place in front of the water-doorway, from early morning till the middle of the day, in the hearing of all those men and women whose minds were able to take it in; and the ears of all the people were open to the book of the law. +Neh 8:4 And Ezra the scribe took his place on a tower of wood which they had made for the purpose; and by his side were placed Mattithiah and Shema and Anaiah and Uriah and Hilkiah and Maaseiah on the right; and on the left, Pedaiah and Mishael and Malchijah and Hashum and Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam. +Neh 8:5 And Ezra took the book, opening it before the eyes of all the people (for he was higher than the people); and when it was open, all the people got to their feet: +Neh 8:6 And Ezra gave praise to the Lord, the great God. And all the people in answer said, So be it, so be it; lifting up their hands; and with bent heads they gave worship to the Lord, going down on their faces to the earth. +Neh 8:7 And Jeshua and Bani and Sherebiah and Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites made the law clear to the people: and the people kept in their places. +Neh 8:8 And they gave out the words of the book the law of God, clearly, and gave the sense of it, so that their minds were able to take it in. +Neh 8:9 And Nehemiah, who was the Tirshatha, and Ezra, the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were the teachers of the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God; let there be no sorrow or weeping; for all the people were weeping on hearing the words of the law. +Neh 8:10 Then he said to them, Go away now, and take the fat for your food and the sweet for your drink, and send some to him for whom nothing is made ready: for this day is holy to our Lord: and let there be no grief in your hearts; for the joy of the Lord is your strong place. +Neh 8:11 So the Levites made all the people quiet, saying, Be quiet, for the day is holy; and do not give way to grief. +Neh 8:12 And all the people went away to take food and drink, and to send food to others, and to be glad, because the words which were said to them had been made clear. +Neh 8:13 And on the second day the heads of families of all the people and the priests and the Levites came together to Ezra the scribe, to give attention to the words of the law. +Neh 8:14 And they saw that it was recorded in the law that the Lord had given orders by Moses, that the children of Israel were to have tents for their living-places in the feast of the seventh month: +Neh 8:15 And that they were to give out an order, and make it public in all their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, Go out to the mountain and get olive branches and branches of field olives and of myrtle, and palm branches and branches of thick trees, to make tents, as it says in the book. +Neh 8:16 And the people went out and got them and made themselves tents, every one on the roof of his house, and in the open spaces and in the open squares of the house of God, and in the wide place of the water-doorway, and the wide place of the doorway of Ephraim. +Neh 8:17 All the people who had been prisoners and had come back, made tents and were living in them: for from the time of Jeshua, the son of Nun, till that day, the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great joy. +Neh 8:18 And day by day, from the first day till the last, he was reading from the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast for seven days: and on the eighth day there was a holy meeting, as it is ordered in the law. +Neh 9:1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel came together, taking no food and putting haircloth and dust on their bodies. +Neh 9:2 And the seed of Israel made themselves separate from all the men of other nations, publicly requesting forgiveness for their sins and the wrongdoing of their fathers. +Neh 9:3 And for a fourth part of the day, upright in their places, they were reading from the book of the law of their God; and for a fourth part of the day they were requesting forgiveness and worshipping the Lord their God. +Neh 9:4 Then Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani took their places on the steps of the Levites, crying in a loud voice to the Lord their God. +Neh 9:5 Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, Get up and give praise to the Lord your God for ever and ever. Praise be to your great name which is lifted up high over all blessing and praise. +Neh 9:6 You are the Lord, even you only; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their armies, the earth and all things in it, the seas and everything in them; and you keep them from destruction: and the armies of heaven are your worshippers. +Neh 9:7 You are the Lord, the God, who took Abram and made him yours, guiding him from Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham; +Neh 9:8 You saw that his heart was true to you, and made an agreement with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Jebusite and the Girgashite, even to give it to his seed, and you have done what you said; for righteousness is yours: +Neh 9:9 And you saw the trouble of our fathers in Egypt, and their cry came to your ears by the Red Sea; +Neh 9:10 And you did signs and wonders on Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land; for you saw how cruel they were to them. So you got yourself a name as it is today. +Neh 9:11 By you the sea was parted before them, so that they went through the sea on dry land; and those who went after them went down into the deep, like a stone into great waters. +Neh 9:12 And you went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light on the way they were to go. +Neh 9:13 And you came down on Mount Sinai, and your voice came to them from heaven, giving them right decisions and true laws, good rules and orders: +Neh 9:14 And you gave them word of your holy Sabbath, and gave them orders and rules and a law, by the hand of Moses your servant: +Neh 9:15 And you gave them bread from heaven when they were in need, and made water come out of the rock for their drink, and gave them orders to go in and take for their heritage the land which your hand had been lifted up to give them. +Neh 9:16 But they and our fathers, in their pride, made their necks stiff, and gave no attention to your orders, +Neh 9:17 And would not do them, and gave no thought to the wonders you had done among them; but made their necks stiff, and turning away from you, made a captain over themselves to take them back to their prison in Egypt: but you are a God of forgiveness, full of grace and pity, slow to wrath and great in mercy, and you did not give them up. +Neh 9:18 Even when they had made for themselves an ox of metal, and said, This is your God who took you up out of Egypt, and had done so much to make you angry; +Neh 9:19 Even then, in your great mercy, you did not give them up in the waste land: the pillar of cloud still went before them by day, guiding them on their way, and the pillar of fire by night, to give them light, and make clear the way they were to go. +Neh 9:20 And you gave your good spirit to be their teacher, and did not keep back your manna from their mouths, and gave them water when they had need of it. +Neh 9:21 Truly, for forty years you were their support in the waste land, and they were in need of nothing; their clothing did not get old or their feet become tired. +Neh 9:22 And you gave them kingdoms and peoples, making distribution to them in every part of the land: so they took for their heritage the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og, king of Bashan. +Neh 9:23 And you made their children as great in number as the stars of heaven, and took them into the land, of which you had said to their fathers that they were to go in and take it for themselves. +Neh 9:24 So the children went in and took the land, and you overcame before them the people of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them up into their hands, with their kings and the people of the land, so that they might do with them whatever it was their pleasure to do. +Neh 9:25 And they took walled towns and a fat land, and became the owners of houses full of all good things, water-holes cut in the rock, vine-gardens and olive-gardens and a wealth of fruit-trees: so they had food enough and became fat, and had joy in the good you gave them. +Neh 9:26 But they were hard-hearted, and went against your authority, turning their backs on your law, and putting to death your prophets, who gave witness against them with the purpose of turning them back again to you, and they did much to make you angry. +Neh 9:27 And so you gave them up into the hands of their haters who were cruel to them: and in the time of their trouble, when they made their prayer to you, you gave ear to them from heaven; and in your great mercy gave them saviours, who made them free from the hands of their haters. +Neh 9:28 But when they had rest, they did evil again before you: so you gave them into the hands of their haters, who had rule over them: but when they came back and made their prayer to you, you gave ear to them from heaven; again and again, in your mercy, you gave them salvation; +Neh 9:29 And gave witness against them so that you might make them come back again to your law: but their hearts were lifted up, and they gave no attention to your orders and went against your decisions (which, if a man keeps them, will be life to him), and turning their backs on you, made their necks stiff and did not give ear. +Neh 9:30 Year after year you put up with them, and gave witness against them by your spirit through your prophets: still they did not give ear: and so you gave them up into the hands of the peoples of the lands. +Neh 9:31 Even then, in your great mercy, you did not put an end to them completely, or give them up; for you are a God of grace and mercy. +Neh 9:32 And now, our God, the great, the strong, the God who is to be feared, who keeps faith and mercy, let not all this trouble seem small to you, which has come on us, and on our kings and our rulers and on our priests and our prophets and our fathers and on all your people from the time of the kings of Assyria till this day. +Neh 9:33 But still, you have been in the right in everything which has come on us; you have been true to us, but we have done evil: +Neh 9:34 And our kings, our rulers, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law or given attention to your orders and your witness, with which you gave witness against them. +Neh 9:35 For they have not been your servants in their kingdom, and in all the good things you gave them, and in the great and fat land you gave them, and they have not been turned away from their evil-doing. +Neh 9:36 Now, today, we are servants, and as for the land which you gave to our fathers, so that the produce of it and the good might be theirs, see, we are servants in it: +Neh 9:37 And it gives much increase to the kings whom you have put over us because of our sins: and they have power over our bodies and over our cattle at their pleasure, and we are in great trouble. +Neh 9:38 And because of all this we are making an agreement in good faith, and putting it in writing; and our rulers, our Levites, and our priests are putting their names to it. +Neh 10:1 Now those who put down their names were Nehemiah the Tirshatha, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah, +Neh 10:2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, +Neh 10:3 Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, +Neh 10:4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, +Neh 10:5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, +Neh 10:6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, +Neh 10:7 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, +Neh 10:8 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these were the priests. +Neh 10:9 And the Levites: by name, Jeshua, the son of Azaniah, Binnui, of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel, +Neh 10:10 And their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, +Neh 10:11 Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, +Neh 10:12 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, +Neh 10:13 Hodiah, Bani, Beninu. +Neh 10:14 The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, +Neh 10:15 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, +Neh 10:16 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, +Neh 10:17 Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, +Neh 10:18 Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, +Neh 10:19 Hariph, Anathoth, Nobai, +Neh 10:20 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, +Neh 10:21 Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, +Neh 10:22 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, +Neh 10:23 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, +Neh 10:24 Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, +Neh 10:25 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, +Neh 10:26 And Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, +Neh 10:27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah. +Neh 10:28 And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the door-keepers, the music-makers, the Nethinim, and all those who had made themselves separate from the peoples of the lands, to keep the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge and wisdom; +Neh 10:29 They were united with their brothers, their rulers, and put themselves under a curse and an oath, to keep their steps in the way of God's law, which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and to keep and do all the orders of the Lord, our Lord, and his decisions and his rules; +Neh 10:30 And that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the lands, or take their daughters for our sons; +Neh 10:31 And if the peoples of the lands come to do trade in goods or food on the Sabbath day, that we would do no trade with them on the Sabbath or on a holy day: and that in the seventh year we would take no payment from any debtor. +Neh 10:32 And we made rules for ourselves, taxing ourselves a third of a shekel every year for the upkeep of the house of our God; +Neh 10:33 For the holy bread, and for the regular meal offering and the regular burned offering on the Sabbaths and at the new moon and the fixed feasts, and for the sin-offerings to take away the sin of Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. +Neh 10:34 And we, the priests and the Levites and the people, made selection, by the decision of the Lord, of those who were to take the wood offering into the house of God, by families at the regular times, year by year, to be burned on the altar of the Lord our God, as it is recorded in the law; +Neh 10:35 And to take the first-fruits of our land, and the first-fruits of every sort of tree, year by year, into the house of the Lord; +Neh 10:36 As well as the first of our sons and of our cattle, as it is recorded in the law, and the first lambs of our herds and of our flocks, which are to be taken to the house of our God, to the priests who are servants in the house of our God: +Neh 10:37 And that we would take the first of our rough meal, and our lifted offerings, and the fruit of every sort of tree, and wine and oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our God; and the tenth of the produce of our land to the Levites; for they, the Levites, take a tenth in all the towns of our ploughed land. +Neh 10:38 And the priest, the son of Aaron, is to be with the Levites, when the Levites take the tenths: and the Levites are to take a tenth of the tenths into the house of our God, to the rooms, into the store-house; +Neh 10:39 For the children of Israel and the children of Levi are to take the lifted offering of the grain and wine and oil into the rooms where the vessels of the holy place are, together with the priests and the door-keepers and the makers of music: and we will not give up caring for the house of our God. +Neh 11:1 And the rulers of the people were living in Jerusalem: the rest of the people made selection, by the decision of chance, of one out of every ten to be living in Jerusalem, the holy town; the other nine to go to the other towns. +Neh 11:2 And the people gave a blessing to all the men who were freely offering to take up their places in Jerusalem. +Neh 11:3 Now these are the chiefs of the divisions of the country who were living in Jerusalem: but in the towns of Judah everyone was living on his heritage in the towns, that is, Israel, the priests, the Levites, the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants. +Neh 11:4 And in Jerusalem there were living certain of the children of Judah and of Benjamin. Of the children of Judah: Athaiah, the son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of Shephatiah, the son of Mahalalel, of the children of Perez; +Neh 11:5 And Maaseiah, the son of Baruch, the son of Col-hozeh, the son of Hazaiah, the son of Adaiah, the son of Joiarib, the son of Zechariah, the son of the Shilonite. +Neh 11:6 All the sons of Perez living in Jerusalem were four hundred and sixty-eight men of good position. +Neh 11:7 And these are the sons of Benjamin: Sallu, the son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jeshaiah. +Neh 11:8 And after him Gabbai, Sallai, nine hundred and twenty-eight. +Neh 11:9 And Joel, the son of Zichri, was their overseer; and Judah, the son of Hassenuah, was second over the town. +Neh 11:10 Of the priests: Jedaiah, the son of Joiarib, Jachin, +Neh 11:11 Seraiah, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God, +Neh 11:12 And their brothers who did the work of the house, eight hundred and twenty-two; and Adaiah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah, +Neh 11:13 And his brothers, heads of families, two hundred and forty-two; and Amashsai, the son of Azarel, the son of Ahzai, the son of Meshillemoth, the son of Immer, +Neh 11:14 And their brothers, men of war, a hundred and twenty-eight; and their overseer was Zabdiel, the son of Haggedolim. +Neh 11:15 And of the Levites: Shemaiah, the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunni, +Neh 11:16 And Shabbethai and Jozabad, of the chiefs of the Levites, who were responsible for the outside business of the house of God; +Neh 11:17 And Mattaniah, the son of Mica, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, who had to give the first note of the song of praise in prayer, and Bakbukiah, the second among his brothers, and Abda, the son of Shammua, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun. +Neh 11:18 All the Levites in the holy town were two hundred and eighty-four. +Neh 11:19 In addition the door-keepers, Akkub, Talmon, and their brothers who kept watch at the doors, were a hundred and seventy-two. +Neh 11:20 And the rest of Israel, of the priests, the Levites, were in all the towns of Judah, every one in his heritage. +Neh 11:21 But the Nethinim were living in the Ophel; and Ziha and Gishpa were over the Nethinim. +Neh 11:22 And the overseer of the Levites at Jerusalem was Uzzi, the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Mica, of the sons of Asaph, the music-makers, who was over the business of the house of God. +Neh 11:23 For there was an order from the king about them and a regular amount for the music-makers, for their needs day by day. +Neh 11:24 And Pethahiah, the son of Meshezabel, of the sons of Zerah, the son of Judah, was the king's servant in everything to do with the people. +Neh 11:25 And for the daughter-towns with their fields, some of the men of Judah were living in Kiriath-arba and its daughter-towns, and in Dibon and its daughter-towns, and in Jekabzeel and its daughter-towns, +Neh 11:26 And in Jeshua, and in Moladah, and Beth-pelet, +Neh 11:27 And in Hazar-shual, and in Beer-sheba and its daughter-towns, +Neh 11:28 And in Ziklag, and in Meconah and its daughter-towns, +Neh 11:29 And in En-rimmon, and in Zorah, and in Jarmuth, +Neh 11:30 Zanoah, Adullam and their daughter-towns, Lachish and its fields, Azekah and its daughter-towns. So they were living from Beer-sheba to the valley of Hinnom. +Neh 11:31 And the children of Benjamin were living from Geba, at Michmash and Aija, and at Beth-el and its daughter-towns, +Neh 11:32 At Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah, +Neh 11:33 Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim, +Neh 11:34 Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat, +Neh 11:35 Lod and Ono, the valley of expert workers. +Neh 11:36 And of the Levites, certain divisions in Judah were joined to Benjamin. +Neh 12:1 Now these are the priests and the Levites who went up with Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, +Neh 12:2 Amariah, Malluch, Hattush, +Neh 12:3 Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, +Neh 12:4 Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah, +Neh 12:5 Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah, +Neh 12:6 Shemaiah, and Joiarib, Jedaiah, +Neh 12:7 Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the chiefs of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua. +Neh 12:8 And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah, who was over the music-makers, he and his brothers. +Neh 12:9 And Bakbukiah and Unno, their brothers, were opposite them in their watches. +Neh 12:10 And Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, and Joiakim was the father of Eliashib, and Eliashib was the father of Joiada, +Neh 12:11 And Joiada was the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan was the father of Jaddua. +Neh 12:12 And in the days of Joiakim there were priests, heads of families: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah; +Neh 12:13 Of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan; +Neh 12:14 Of Malluchi, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph; +Neh 12:15 Of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai; +Neh 12:16 Of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam; +Neh 12:17 Of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai; +Neh 12:18 Of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan; +Neh 12:19 And of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi; +Neh 12:20 Of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber; +Neh 12:21 Of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethanel. +Neh 12:22 The Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan, and Jaddua, were listed as heads of families; and the priests, when Darius the Persian was king. +Neh 12:23 The sons of Levi, heads of families, were recorded in the book of the histories, even till the days of Johanan, the son of Eliashib. +Neh 12:24 And the chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua, the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers opposite them, to give blessing and praise as ordered by David, the man of God, watch against watch. +Neh 12:25 Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were door-keepers keeping the watch at the store-houses of the doors. +Neh 12:26 These were in the days of Joiakim, the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the ruler and of Ezra the priest, the scribe. +Neh 12:27 And when the time came for the wall of Jerusalem to be made holy, they sent for the Levites out of all their places to come to Jerusalem, to keep the feast with joy, and with praise and melody, with brass and corded instruments of music. +Neh 12:28 And the sons of the music-makers came together from the lowland round about Jerusalem and from the daughter-towns of the Netophathites, +Neh 12:29 And from Beth-gilgal and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth: for the music-makers had made daughter-towns for themselves round about Jerusalem. +Neh 12:30 And the priests and the Levites made themselves clean; and they made the people clean, and the doorways and the wall. +Neh 12:31 Then I made the rulers of Judah come up on the wall, and I put in position two great bands of them who gave praise, walking in ordered lines; one went to the right on the wall, in the direction of the doorway where the waste was put; +Neh 12:32 And after them went Hoshaiah and half of the rulers of Judah, +Neh 12:33 And Azariah, Ezra, and Meshullam, +Neh 12:34 Judah and Benjamin and Shemaiah and Jeremiah, +Neh 12:35 And certain of the priests' sons with wind instruments; Zechariah, the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph, +Neh 12:36 And his brothers, Shemaiah, and Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel and Judah, Hanani, with the music-instruments of David, the man of God; and Ezra the scribe was at their head; +Neh 12:37 And by the doorway of the fountain and straight in front of them, they went up by the steps of the town of David, at the slope up of the wall, over the house of David, as far as the water-doorway to the east. +Neh 12:38 And the other band of those who gave praise went to the left, and I went after them with half the people, on the wall, over the tower of the ovens, as far as the wide wall; +Neh 12:39 And over the doorway of Ephraim and by the old door and the fish door and the tower of Hananel and the tower of Hammeah, as far as the sheep door: and at the doorway of the watchmen they came to a stop. +Neh 12:40 So the two bands of those who gave praise took up their positions in the house of God, and I and half of the chiefs with me: +Neh 12:41 And the priests; Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with wind instruments; +Neh 12:42 And Maaseiah and Shemaiah and Eleazar and Uzzi and Jehohanan and Malchijah and Elam and Ezer. And the makers of melody made their voices loud, with Jezrahiah their overseer. +Neh 12:43 And on that day they made great offerings and were glad; for God had made them glad with great joy; and the women and the children were glad with them: so that the joy of Jerusalem came to the ears of those who were far off. +Neh 12:44 And on that day certain men were put over the rooms where the things which had been given were stored, for the lifted offerings and the first-fruits and the tenths, and to take into them the amounts, from the fields of every town, fixed by the law for the priests and the Levites: for Judah was glad on account of the priests and the Levites who were in their places. +Neh 12:45 And they kept the watch of their God, and were responsible for making things clean, and so did the music-makers and the door-keepers, as it was ordered by David and Solomon his son. +Neh 12:46 For in the days of David and Asaph in the past, there was a master of the music, and songs of blessing and praise to God. +Neh 12:47 And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave what was needed by the music-makers and the door-keepers day by day: and they made the offerings holy for the Levites; and the Levites did the same for the sons of Aaron. +Neh 13:1 On that day there was a reading from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people; and they saw that it said in the book that no Ammonite or Moabite might ever come into the meeting of God; +Neh 13:2 Because they did not give the children of Israel bread and water when they came to them, but got Balaam to put a curse on them: though the curse was turned into a blessing by our God. +Neh 13:3 So after hearing the law, they took out of Israel all the mixed people. +Neh 13:4 Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who had been placed over the rooms of the house of our God, being a friend of Tobiah, +Neh 13:5 Had made ready for him a great room, where at one time they kept the meal offerings, the perfume, and the vessels and the tenths of the grain and wine and oil which were given by order to the Levites and the music-makers and the door-keepers, and the lifted offerings for the priests. +Neh 13:6 But all this time I was not at Jerusalem: for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, I went to the king; and after some days, I got the king to let me go, +Neh 13:7 And I came to Jerusalem; and it was clear to me what evil Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in making ready for him a room in the buildings of the house of God. +Neh 13:8 And it was evil in my eyes: so I had all Tobiah's things put out of the room. +Neh 13:9 Then I gave orders, and they made the rooms clean: and I put back in them the vessels of the house of God, with the meal offerings and the perfume. +Neh 13:10 And I saw that the Levites had not been given what was needed for their support; so that the Levites and the music-makers, who did the work, had gone away, everyone to his field. +Neh 13:11 Then I made protests to the chiefs, and said, Why has the house of God been given up? And I got them together and put them in their places. +Neh 13:12 Then all Judah came with the tenth part of the grain and wine and oil and put it into the store-houses. +Neh 13:13 And I made controllers over the store-houses, Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and with them was Hanan, the son of Zaccur the son of Mattaniah: they were taken to be true men and their business was the distribution of these things to their brothers. +Neh 13:14 Keep me in mind, O my God, in connection with this, and do not let the good which I have done for the house of my God and its worship go from your memory completely. +Neh 13:15 In those days, I saw in Judah some who were crushing grapes on the Sabbath, and getting in grain and putting it on asses; as well as wine and grapes and figs and all sorts of goods which they took into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: and I gave witness against them on the day when they were marketing food. +Neh 13:16 And there were men of Tyre there, who came with fish and all sorts of goods, trading with the children of Judah and in Jerusalem on the Sabbath. +Neh 13:17 Then I made protests to the chiefs of Judah, and said to them, What is this evil which you are doing, not keeping the Sabbath day holy? +Neh 13:18 Did not your fathers do the same, and did not our God send all this evil on us and on this town? but you are causing more wrath to come on Israel by not keeping the Sabbath holy. +Neh 13:19 And so, when the streets of Jerusalem were getting dark before the Sabbath, I gave orders for the doors to be shut and not to be open again till after the Sabbath: and I put some of my servants by the door so that nothing might be taken in on the Sabbath day. +Neh 13:20 So the traders in all sorts of goods took their night's rest outside Jerusalem once or twice. +Neh 13:21 Then I gave witness against them and said, Why are you waiting all night by the wall? if you do so again I will have you taken prisoners. From that time they did not come again on the Sabbath. +Neh 13:22 And I gave the Levites orders to make themselves clean and come and keep the doors and make the Sabbath holy. Keep this in mind to my credit, O my God, and have mercy on me, for great is your mercy. +Neh 13:23 And in those days I saw the Jews who were married to women of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab: +Neh 13:24 And their children were talking half in the language of Ashdod; they had no knowledge of the Jews' language, but made use of the language of the two peoples. +Neh 13:25 And I took up the cause against them, cursing them and giving blows to some of them and pulling out their hair; and I made them take an oath by God, saying, You are not to give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. +Neh 13:26 Was it not in these things that Solomon, king of Israel, did wrong? among a number of nations there was no king like him, and he was dear to his God, and God made him king over all Israel: but even he was made to do evil by strange women. +Neh 13:27 Are we then without protest to let you do all this great evil, sinning against our God by taking strange women for your wives? +Neh 13:28 And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib, the chief priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: so I sent him away from me. +Neh 13:29 Keep them in mind, O my God, because they have put shame on the priests' name and on the agreement of the priests and the Levites. +Neh 13:30 So I made them clean from all strange people, and had regular watches fixed for the priests and for the Levites, everyone in his work; +Neh 13:31 And for the wood offering, at fixed times, and for the first fruits. Keep me in mind, O my God, for good. +Est 1:1 Now it came about in the days of Ahasuerus, (that Ahasuerus who was ruler of a hundred and twenty-seven divisions of the kingdom, from India as far as Ethiopia:) +Est 1:2 That in those days, when King Ahasuerus was ruling in Shushan, his strong town, +Est 1:3 In the third year of his rule he gave a feast to all his captains and his servants; and the captains of the army of Persia and Media, the great men and the rulers of the divisions of his kingdom, were present before him; +Est 1:4 And for a long time, even a hundred and eighty days, he let them see all the wealth and the glory of his kingdom and the great power and honour which were his. +Est 1:5 And at the end of that time, the king gave a feast for all the people who were present in Shushan, the king's town, small as well as great, for seven days, in the outer square of the garden of the king's house. +Est 1:6 There were fair hangings of white and green and blue, fixed with cords of purple and the best linen to silver rings and pillars of polished stone: the seats were of gold and silver on a floor of red and white and yellow and black stone. +Est 1:7 And they gave them drink in gold vessels, every vessel being different, and wine of the kingdom, freely given by the king. +Est 1:8 And the drinking was in keeping with the law; no one was forced: for the king had given orders to all the chief servants of his house to do as was pleasing to every man. +Est 1:9 And Vashti the queen gave a feast for the women in the house of King Ahasuerus. +Est 1:10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was glad with wine, he gave orders to Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven unsexed servants who were waiting before Ahasuerus the king, +Est 1:11 That Vashti the queen was to come before him, crowned with her crown, and let the people and the captains see her: for she was very beautiful. +Est 1:12 But when the servants gave her the king's order, Vashti the queen said she would not come: then the king was very angry, and his heart was burning with wrath. +Est 1:13 And the king said to the wise men, who had knowledge of the times, (for this was the king's way with all who were expert in law and in the giving of decisions: +Est 1:14 And second only to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven rulers of Persia and Media, who were friends of the king, and had the first places in the kingdom:) +Est 1:15 What is to be done by law to Vashti the queen, because she has not done what King Ahasuerus, by his servants, gave her orders to do? +Est 1:16 And before the king and the captains, Memucan gave his answer: Vashti the queen has done wrong, not only to the king, but to all the captains and to all the peoples in all the divisions of the kingdom of King Ahasuerus; +Est 1:17 For news of what the queen has done will come to the ears of all women, and they will no longer give respect to their husbands when it is said to them, King Ahasuerus gave orders for Vashti the queen to come before him and she came not. +Est 1:18 And the wives of the captains of Persia and Media, hearing what the queen has done, will say the same to all the king's captains. So there will be much shame and wrath. +Est 1:19 If it is pleasing to the king, let an order go out from him, and let it be recorded among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it may never be changed, that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus; and let the king give her place to another who is better than she. +Est 1:20 And when this order, given by the king, is made public through all his kingdom (for it is great), all the wives will give honour to their husbands, great as well as small. +Est 1:21 And this suggestion seemed good to the king and the captains; and the king did as Memucan said; +Est 1:22 And sent letters to all the divisions of the kingdom, to every division in the writing commonly used there, and to every people in the language which was theirs, saying that every man was to be the ruler in his house, and that this order was to be given out in the language of his people. +Est 2:1 After these things, when the king's feelings were calmer, the thought of Vashti and what she had done and the order he had made against her, came back to his mind. +Est 2:2 Then the servants who were waiting on the king said to him, Let search be made for some fair young virgins for the king: +Est 2:3 Let the king give authority to certain men in all the divisions of his kingdom, to get together all the fair young virgins and send them to Shushan, the king's town, to the women's house, under the care of Hegai, the king's servant, the keeper of the women: and let the things needed for making them clean be given to them; +Est 2:4 And let the girl who is pleasing to the king be queen in place of Vashti. And the king was pleased with this suggestion; and he did so. +Est 2:5 Now there was a certain Jew in Shushan named Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; +Est 2:6 Who had been taken away from Jerusalem among those who had been made prisoner with Jeconiah, king of Judah, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken him away. +Est 2:7 And he had been a father to Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his father's brother: for she had no father or mother, and she was very beautiful; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his daughter. +Est 2:8 So when the order made by the king was publicly given out, and a number of girls had been placed in the care of Hegai in the king's house in Shushan, Esther was taken into the king's house and put in the care of Hegai, the keeper of the women. +Est 2:9 And he was pleased with the girl and was kind to her; and he quickly gave her what was needed for making her clean, and the things which were hers by right, and seven servant-girls who were to be hers from the king's house: and he had her and her servant-girls moved to the best place in the women's part of the house. +Est 2:10 Esther had not said what family or people she came from, for Mordecai had given her orders not to do so. +Est 2:11 And every day Mordecai took his walk before the square of the women's house, to see how Esther was and what would be done to her. +Est 2:12 Now every girl, when her turn came, had to go in to King Ahasuerus, after undergoing, for a space of twelve months, what was ordered by the law for the women (for this was the time necessary for making them clean, that is, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with sweet perfumes and such things as are needed for making women clean): +Est 2:13 And in this way the girl went in to the king; whatever she had a desire for was given to her to take with her from the women's house into the house of the king. +Est 2:14 In the evening she went, and on the day after she came back to the second house of the women, into the keeping of Shaashgaz, one of the king's unsexed servants who had the care of the king's wives: only if the king had delight in her and sent for her by name did she go in to him again. +Est 2:15 Now when the time came for Esther, the daughter of Abihail, his father's brother, whom Mordecai had taken as his daughter, to go in to the king, she made request for nothing but what Hegai, the king's servant and keeper of the women, had given her. And Esther was looked on kindly by all who saw her. +Est 2:16 So Esther was taken in to King Ahasuerus in his house in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his rule. +Est 2:17 And Esther was more pleasing to the king than all the women, and to his eyes she was fairer and more full of grace than all the other virgins: so he put his crown on her head and made her queen in place of Vashti. +Est 2:18 Then the king gave a great feast for all his captains and his servants, even Esther's feast; and he gave orders through all the divisions of his kingdom for a day of rest from work, and gave wealth from his store. +Est 2:19 And when the virgins came together in the second house of the women, Mordecai took his seat in the doorway of the king's house. +Est 2:20 Esther had still said nothing of her family or her people, as Mordecai had given her orders; for Esther did what Mordecai said, as when she was living with him. +Est 2:21 In those days, while Mordecai was seated at the king's doorway, two of the king's servants, Bigthan and Teresh, keepers of the door, being angry, were looking for a chance to make an attack on King Ahasuerus. +Est 2:22 And Mordecai, having knowledge of their purpose, sent word of it to Esther the queen; and Esther gave the news to the king in Mordecai's name. +Est 2:23 And when the thing had been looked into, it was seen to be true, and the two of them were put to death by hanging on a tree: and it was put down in the records before the king. +Est 3:1 After these things, by the order of the king, Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, was lifted up and given a position of honour and a higher place than all the other captains who were with him. +Est 3:2 And all the king's servants who were in the king's house went down to the earth before Haman and gave him honour: for so the king had given orders. But Mordecai did not go down before him or give him honour. +Est 3:3 Then the king's servants who were in the king's house said to Mordecai, Why do you go against the king's order? +Est 3:4 Now when they had said this to him day after day and he gave no attention, they let Haman have news of it, to see if Mordecai's behaviour would be overlooked: for he had said to them that he was a Jew. +Est 3:5 And when Haman saw that Mordecai did not go down before him and give him honour, Haman was full of wrath. +Est 3:6 But it was not enough for him to make an attack on Mordecai only; for they had made clear to him who Mordecai's people were; so Haman made it his purpose to put an end to all the Jews, even Mordecai's people, through all the kingdom of Ahasuerus. +Est 3:7 In the first month, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, from day to day and from month to month they went on looking for a sign given by Pur (that is chance) before Haman, till the sign came out for the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar. +Est 3:8 And Haman said to King Ahasuerus, There is a certain nation living here and there in small groups among the people in all the divisions of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of any other nation, and they do not keep the king's laws: for this reason it is not right for the king to let them be. +Est 3:9 If it is the king's pleasure, let a statement ordering their destruction be put in writing: and I will give to those responsible for the king's business, ten thousand talents of silver for the king's store-house. +Est 3:10 And the king took his ring from his hand and gave it to Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the hater of the Jews. +Est 3:11 And the king said to Haman, The money is yours, and the people, to do with them whatever seems right to you. +Est 3:12 Then on the thirteenth day of the first month, the king's scribes were sent for, and they put in writing Haman's orders to all the king's captains and the rulers of every division of his kingdom and the chiefs of every people: for every division of the kingdom in the writing commonly used there, and to every people in the language which was theirs; it was signed in the name of King Ahasuerus and stamped with the king's ring. +Est 3:13 And letters were sent by the runners into every division of the kingdom ordering the death and destruction of all Jews, young and old, little children and women, on the same day, even the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar, and the taking of all their goods by force. +Est 3:14 A copy of the writing, to be made public in every part of the kingdom, was sent out to all the peoples, so that they might be ready when that day came. +Est 3:15 The runners went out quickly by the king's order, and a public statement was made in Shushan: and the king and Haman took wine together: but the town of Shushan was troubled. +Est 4:1 Now when Mordecai saw what was done, pulling off his robe, he put on haircloth, with dust on his head, and went out into the middle of the town, crying out with a loud and bitter cry. +Est 4:2 And he came even before the king's doorway; for no one might come inside the king's door clothed in haircloth. +Est 4:3 And in every part of the kingdom, wherever the king's word and his order came, there was great sorrow among the Jews, and weeping and crying and going without food; and numbers of them were stretched on the earth covered with dust and haircloth. +Est 4:4 And Esther's women and her servants came and gave her word of it. Then great was the grief of the queen: and she sent robes for Mordecai, so that his clothing of haircloth might be taken off; but he would not have them. +Est 4:5 Then Esther sent for Hathach, one of the king's unsexed servants whom he had given her for waiting on her, and she gave him orders to go to Mordecai and see what this was and why it was. +Est 4:6 So Hathach went out and saw Mordecai in the open square of the town before the king's doorway. +Est 4:7 And Mordecai gave him an account of what had taken place, and of the amount of money which Haman had said he would put into the king's store for the destruction of the Jews. +Est 4:8 And he gave him the copy of the order which had been given out in Shushan for their destruction, ordering him to let Esther see it, and to make it clear to her; and to say to her that she was to go in to the king, requesting his mercy, and making prayer for her people. +Est 4:9 And Hathach came back and gave Esther an account of what Mordecai had said. +Est 4:10 Then Esther sent Hathach to say to Mordecai: +Est 4:11 It is common knowledge among all the king's servants and the people of every part of the kingdom, that if anyone, man or woman, comes to the king in his inner room without being sent for, there is only one law for him, that he is to be put to death; only those to whom the king's rod of gold is stretched out may keep their lives: but I have not been sent for to come before the king these thirty days. +Est 4:12 And they said these words to Mordecai. +Est 4:13 Then Mordecai sent this answer back to Esther: Do not have the idea that you in the king's house will be safe from the fate of all the Jews. +Est 4:14 If at this time you say nothing, then help and salvation will come to the Jews from some other place, but you and your father's family will come to destruction: and who is to say that you have not come to the kingdom even for such a time as this? +Est 4:15 Then Esther sent them back to Mordecai with this answer: +Est 4:16 Go, get together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and go without food for me, taking no food or drink night or day for three days: and I and my women will do the same; and so I will go in to the king, which is against the law: and if death is to be my fate, then let it come. +Est 4:17 So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had said. +Est 5:1 Now on the third day, Esther put on her queen's robes, and took her place in the inner room of the king's house, facing the king's house: and the king was seated on his high seat in the king's house, facing the doorway of the house. +Est 5:2 And when the king saw Esther the queen waiting in the inner room, looking kindly on her he put out the rod of gold in his hand to her. So Esther came near and put her fingers on the top of the rod. +Est 5:3 Then the king said, What is your desire, Queen Esther, and what is your request? I will give it to you, even to the half of my kingdom. +Est 5:4 And Esther in answer said, If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the feast which I have made ready for him. +Est 5:5 Then the king said, Let Haman come quickly, so that what Esther has said may be done. So the king and Haman came to the feast which Esther had made ready. +Est 5:6 And while they were drinking wine the king said to Esther, What is your prayer? for it will be given to you and what is your request? for it will be done, even to the half of my kingdom. +Est 5:7 Then Esther said in answer, My prayer and my request is this: +Est 5:8 If I have the king's approval, and if it is the king's pleasure to give me my prayer and do my request, let the king and Haman come to the feast which I will make ready for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said. +Est 5:9 Then on that day Haman went out full of joy and glad in heart; but when he saw Mordecai in the king's doorway, and he did not get to his feet or give any sign of fear before him, Haman was full of wrath against Mordecai. +Est 5:10 But controlling himself, he went to his house; and he sent for his friends and Zeresh, his wife. +Est 5:11 And he gave them an account of the glories of his wealth, and the number of children he had, and the ways in which he had been honoured by the king, and how he had put him over the captains and servants of the king. +Est 5:12 And Haman said further, Truly, Esther the queen let no man but myself come in to the feast which she had made ready for the king; and tomorrow again I am to be her guest with the king. +Est 5:13 But all this is nothing to me while I see Mordecai the Jew seated by the king's doorway. +Est 5:14 Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, Let a pillar, fifty cubits high, be made ready for hanging him, and in the morning get the king to give orders for the hanging of Mordecai: then you will be able to go to the feast with the king with a glad heart. And Haman was pleased with the suggestion, and he had the pillar made. +Est 6:1 That night the king was unable to get any sleep; and he sent for the books of the records; and while some one was reading them to the king, +Est 6:2 It came out that it was recorded in the book how Mordecai had given word of the designs of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's servants, keepers of the door, by whom an attack on the king had been designed. +Est 6:3 And the king said, What honour and reward have been given to Mordecai for this? Then the servants who were waiting on the king said, Nothing has been done for him. +Est 6:4 Then the king said, Who is in the outer room? Now Haman had come into the outer room to get the king's authority for the hanging of Mordecai on the pillar which he had made ready for him. +Est 6:5 And the king's servants said to him, See, Haman is waiting in the outer room. And the king said, Let him come in. +Est 6:6 So Haman came in. And the king said to him, What is to be done to the man whom the king has delight in honouring? Then the thought came into Haman's mind, Whom, more than myself, would the king have pleasure in honouring? +Est 6:7 And Haman, answering the king, said, For the man whom the king has delight in honouring, +Est 6:8 Let them take the robes which the king generally puts on, and the horse on which the king goes, and the crown which is on his head: +Est 6:9 And let the robes and the horse be given to one of the king's most noble captains, so that they may put them on the man whom the king has delight in honouring, and let him go on horseback through the streets of the town, with men crying out before him, So let it be done to the man whom the king has delight in honouring. +Est 6:10 Then the king said to Haman, Go quickly, and take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, who is seated at the king's doorway: see that you do everything as you have said. +Est 6:11 Then Haman took the robes and the horse, and dressing Mordecai in the robes, he made him go on horseback through the streets of the town, crying out before him, So let it be done to the man whom the king has delight in honouring. +Est 6:12 And Mordecai came back to the king's doorway. But Haman went quickly back to his house, sad and with his head covered. +Est 6:13 And Haman gave his wife Zeresh and all his friends an account of what had taken place. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, If Mordecai, who is starting to get the better of you, is of the seed of the Jews, you will not be able to do anything against him, but you will certainly go down before him. +Est 6:14 While they were still talking, the king's servants came to take Haman to the feast which Esther had made ready. +Est 7:1 So the king and Haman came to take wine with Esther the queen. +Est 7:2 And the king said to Esther again on the second day, while they were drinking, What is your prayer, Queen Esther? for it will be given to you; and what is your request? for it will be done, even to the half of my kingdom. +Est 7:3 Then Esther the queen, answering, said, If I have your approval, O king, and if it is the king's pleasure, let my life be given to me in answer to my prayer, and my people at my request: +Est 7:4 For we are given up, I and my people, to destruction and death and to be cut off. If we had been taken as men-servants and women-servants for a price, I would have said nothing, for our trouble is little in comparison with the king's loss. +Est 7:5 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, Who is he and where is he who has had this evil thought in his heart? +Est 7:6 And Esther said, Our hater and attacker is this evil Haman. Then Haman was full of fear before the king and the queen. +Est 7:7 And the king in his wrath got up from the feast and went into the garden: and Haman got to his feet to make a prayer for his life to Esther the queen: for he saw that the king's purpose was evil against him. +Est 7:8 Then the king came back from the garden into the room where they had been drinking; and Haman was stretched out on the seat where Esther was. Then the king said, Is he taking the queen by force before my eyes in my house? And while the words were on the king's lips, they put a cloth over Haman's face. +Est 7:9 Then Harbonah, one of the unsexed servants waiting before the king, said, See, the pillar fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who said a good word for the king, is still in its place in Haman's house. Then the king said, Put him to death by hanging him on it. +Est 7:10 So Haman was put to death by hanging him on the pillar he had made for Mordecai. Then the king's wrath became less. +Est 8:1 That day the king gave all the family of Haman, the hater of the Jews, to Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had made clear what he was to her. +Est 8:2 And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther put Mordecai over the family of Haman. +Est 8:3 Then Esther again came before the king, falling down at his feet, and made request to him with weeping, that he would put a stop to the evil purposes of Haman the Agagite and the designs which he had made against the Jews. +Est 8:4 Then the king put out the rod of gold to Esther, and she got up before the king. +Est 8:5 And she said, If it is the king's pleasure and if I have his approval and this thing seems right to the king and I am pleasing to him, then let letters be sent giving orders against those which Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, sent out for the destruction of the Jews in all divisions of the kingdom: +Est 8:6 For how is it possible for me to see the evil which is to overtake my nation? how may I see the destruction of my people? +Est 8:7 Then King Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, See now, I have given Esther the family of Haman, and he has come to his death by hanging, because he made an attack on the Jews. +Est 8:8 So now send a letter about the Jews, writing whatever seems good to you, in the king's name, and stamping it with the king's ring: for a writing signed in the king's name and stamped with the king's ring may not be changed. +Est 8:9 Then at that time, on the twenty-third day of the third month, which is the month Sivan, the king's scribes were sent for; and everything ordered by Mordecai was put in writing and sent to the Jews and the captains and the rulers and the chiefs of all the divisions of the kingdom from India to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven divisions, to every division in the writing commonly used there, and to every people in their language, and to the Jews in their writing and their language. +Est 8:10 The letters were sent in the name of King Ahasuerus and stamped with his ring, and they were taken by men on horseback, going on the quick-running horses used for the king's business, the offspring of his best horses: +Est 8:11 In these letters the king gave authority to the Jews in every town to come together and make a fight for their lives, and to send death and destruction on the power of any people in any part of the kingdom attacking them or their children or their women, and to take their goods from them by force, +Est 8:12 On one day in every division of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, that is, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month Adar. +Est 8:13 A copy of the writing, to be made public as an order in every division of the kingdom, was given out to all the peoples, so that the Jews might be ready when that day came to give punishment to their haters. +Est 8:14 So the men went out on the quick-running horses used on the king's business, wasting no time and forced on by the king's order; and the order was given out in Shushan, the king's town. +Est 8:15 And Mordecai went out from before the king, dressed in king-like robes of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold and clothing of purple and the best linen: and all the town of Shushan gave loud cries of joy. +Est 8:16 And the Jews had light and joy and honour. +Est 8:17 And in every part of the kingdom and in every town, wherever the king's letter and his order came, the Jews were glad with great joy, and had a feast and a good day. And a great number of the people of the land became Jews: for the fear of the Jews had come on them. +Est 9:1 Now on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, when the time came for the king's order to be put into effect, on the very day when the haters of the Jews had been hoping to have rule over them; though the opposite had come about, and the Jews had rule over their haters; +Est 9:2 On that day, the Jews came together in their towns through all the divisions of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, for the purpose of attacking all those who were attempting evil against them: and everyone had to give way before them, for the fear of them had come on all the peoples. +Est 9:3 And all the chiefs and the captains and the rulers and those who did the king's business gave support to the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai had come on them. +Est 9:4 For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and word of him went out through every part of the kingdom: for the man Mordecai became greater and greater. +Est 9:5 So the Jews overcame all their attackers with the sword and with death and destruction, and did to their haters whatever they had a desire to do. +Est 9:6 And in Shushan the Jews put to death five hundred men. +Est 9:7 They put to death Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, +Est 9:8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, +Est 9:9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha, +Est 9:10 The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the hater of the Jews; but they put not a hand on any of their goods. +Est 9:11 On that day the number of those who had been put to death in the town of Shushan was given to the king. +Est 9:12 And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have put five hundred men to death in Shushan, as well as the ten sons of Haman: what then have they done in the rest of the kingdom! Now what is your prayer? for it will be given to you; what other request have you? and it will be done. +Est 9:13 Then Esther said, If it is the king's pleasure, let authority be given to the Jews in Shushan to do tomorrow as has been done today, and let orders be given for the hanging of Haman's ten sons. +Est 9:14 And the king said that this was to be done, and the order was given out in Shushan, and the hanging of Haman's ten sons was effected. +Est 9:15 For the Jews who were in Shushan came together again on the fourteenth day of the month Adar and put to death three hundred men in Shushan; but they put not a hand on their goods. +Est 9:16 And the other Jews in every division of the kingdom came together, fighting for their lives, and got salvation from their haters and put seventy-five thousand of them to death; but they did not put a hand on their goods. +Est 9:17 This they did on the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same month they took their rest, and made it a day of feasting and joy. +Est 9:18 But the Jews in Shushan came together on the thirteenth and on the fourteenth day of the month; and on the fifteenth day they took their rest, and made it a day of feasting and joy. +Est 9:19 So the Jews of the country places living in unwalled towns make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of feasting and joy and a good day, a day for sending offerings one to another. +Est 9:20 And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews in every division of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, near and far, +Est 9:21 Ordering them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same month, every year, +Est 9:22 As days on which the Jews had rest from their haters, and the month which for them was turned from sorrow to joy, and from weeping to a good day: and that they were to keep them as days of feasting and joy, of sending offerings to one another and good things to the poor. +Est 9:23 And the Jews gave their word to go on as they had been doing and as Mordecai had given them orders in writing; +Est 9:24 Because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the hater of all the Jews, had made designs for their destruction, attempting to get a decision by Pur (that is, chance) with a view to putting an end to them and cutting them off; +Est 9:25 But when the business was put before the king, he gave orders by letters that the evil design which he had made against the Jews was to be turned against himself; and that he and his sons were to be put to death by hanging. +Est 9:26 So these days were named Purim, after the name of Pur. And so, because of the words of this letter, and of what they had seen in connection with this business, and what had come to them, +Est 9:27 The Jews made a rule and gave an undertaking, causing their seed and all those who were joined to them to do the same, so that it might be in force for ever, that they would keep those two days, as ordered in the letter, at the fixed time every year; +Est 9:28 And that those days were to be kept in memory through every generation and every family, in every division of the kingdom and every town, that there might never be a time when these days of Purim would not be kept among the Jews, or when the memory of them would go from the minds of their seed. +Est 9:29 Then Esther the queen, daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, sent a second letter giving the force of their authority to the order about the Purim. +Est 9:30 And he sent letters to all the Jews in the hundred and twenty-seven divisions of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with true words of peace, +Est 9:31 Giving the force of law to these days of Purim at their fixed times, as they had been ordered by Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen, and in keeping with the rules they had made for themselves and their seed, in connection with their time of going without food and their cry for help. +Est 9:32 The order given by Esther gave the force of law to the rules about the Purim; and it was recorded in the book. +Est 10:1 And King Ahasuerus put a tax on the land and on the islands of the sea. +Est 10:2 And all his acts of power and his great strength and the full story of the high place which the king gave Mordecai, are they not recorded in the book of the history of the kings of Media and Persia? +Est 10:3 For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews and respected by the body of his countrymen; working for the good of his people, and saying words of peace to all his seed. +Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. He was without sin and upright, fearing God and keeping himself far from evil. +Job 1:2 And he had seven sons and three daughters. +Job 1:3 And of cattle he had seven thousand sheep and goats, and three thousand camels, and a thousand oxen, and five hundred she-asses, and a very great number of servants. And the man was greater than any of the sons of the east. +Job 1:4 His sons regularly went to one another's houses, and every one on his day gave a feast: and at these times they sent for their three sisters to take part in their feasts with them. +Job 1:5 And at the end of their days of feasting, Job sent and made them clean, getting up early in the morning and offering burned offerings for them all. For, Job said, It may be that my sons have done wrong and said evil of God in their hearts. And Job did this whenever the feasts came round. +Job 1:6 And there was a day when the sons of the gods came together before the Lord, and the Satan came with them. +Job 1:7 And the Lord said to the Satan, Where do you come from? And the Satan said in answer, From wandering this way and that on the earth, and walking about on it. +Job 1:8 And the Lord said to the Satan, Have you taken note of my servant Job, for there is no one like him on the earth, a man without sin and upright, fearing God and keeping himself far from evil? +Job 1:9 And the Satan said in answer to the Lord, Is it for nothing that Job is a god-fearing man? +Job 1:10 Have you yourself not put a wall round him and his house and all he has on every side, blessing the work of his hands, and increasing his cattle in the land? +Job 1:11 But now, put out your hand against all he has, and he will be cursing you to your face. +Job 1:12 And the Lord said to the Satan, See, I give all he has into your hands, only do not put a finger on the man himself. And the Satan went out from before the Lord. +Job 1:13 And there was a day when his sons and daughters were feasting in the house of their oldest brother, +Job 1:14 And a man came to Job, and said, The oxen were ploughing, and the asses were taking their food by their side: +Job 1:15 And the men of Sheba came against them and took them away, putting the young men to the sword, and I was the only one who got away safe to give you the news. +Job 1:16 And this one was still talking when another came, and said, The fire of God came down from heaven, burning up the sheep and the goats and the young men completely, and I was the only one who got away safe to give you the news. +Job 1:17 And this one was still talking when another came, and said, The Chaldaeans made themselves into three bands, and came down on the camels and took them away, putting the young men to the sword, and I was the only one who got away safe to give you the news. +Job 1:18 And this one was still talking when another came, and said, Your sons and your daughters were feasting together in their oldest brother's house, +Job 1:19 When a great wind came rushing from the waste land against the four sides of the house, and it came down on the young men, and they are dead; and I was the only one who got away safe to give you the news. +Job 1:20 Then Job got up, and after parting his clothing and cutting off his hair, he went down on his face to the earth, and gave worship, and said, +Job 1:21 With nothing I came out of my mother's body, and with nothing I will go back there; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; let the Lord's name be praised. +Job 1:22 In all this Job did no sin, and did not say that God's acts were foolish. +Job 2:1 And there was a day when the sons of the gods came together before the Lord, and the Satan came with them. +Job 2:2 And the Lord said to the Satan, Where do you come from? And the Satan said in answer, From wandering this way and that on the earth, and walking about on it. +Job 2:3 And the Lord said to the Satan, Have you taken note of my servant Job, for there is no one like him on the earth, a man without sin and upright, fearing God and keeping himself far from evil? and he still keeps his righteousness, though you have been moving me to send destruction on him without cause. +Job 2:4 And the Satan said in answer to the Lord, Skin for skin, all a man has he will give for his life. +Job 2:5 But now, if you only put your hand on his bone and his flesh, he will certainly be cursing you to your face. +Job 2:6 And the Lord said to the Satan, See, he is in your hands, only do not take his life. +Job 2:7 And the Satan went out from before the Lord, and sent on Job an evil disease covering his skin from his feet to the top of his head. +Job 2:8 And he took a broken bit of a pot, and, seated in the dust, was rubbing himself with the sharp edge of it. +Job 2:9 And his wife said to him, Are you still keeping your righteousness? Say a curse against God, and put an end to yourself. +Job 2:10 And he said to her, You are talking like one of the foolish women. If we take the good God sends us, are we not to take the evil when it comes? In all this Job kept his lips from sin. +Job 2:11 And Job's three friends had word of all this evil which had come on him. And they came every one from his place, Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. So they came together to a meeting-place, in order that they might go and make clear to Job their grief for him, and give him comfort. +Job 2:12 And lifting up their eyes when they were still far off, it did not seem that the man they saw was Job because of the change in him. And they gave way to bitter weeping, with signs of grief, and put dust on their heads. +Job 2:13 And they took their seats on the earth by his side for seven days and seven nights: but no one said a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great. +Job 3:1 Then, opening his mouth, and cursing the day of his birth, +Job 3:2 Job made answer and said, +Job 3:3 Let destruction take the day of my birth, and the night on which it was said, A man child has come into the world. +Job 3:4 That day--let it be dark; let not God take note of it from on high, and let not the light be shining on it; +Job 3:5 Let the dark and the black night take it for themselves; let it be covered with a cloud; let the dark shades of day send fear on it. +Job 3:6 That night--let the thick dark take it; let it not have joy among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. +Job 3:7 As for that night, let it have no fruit; let no voice of joy be sounded in it; +Job 3:8 Let it be cursed by those who put a curse on the day; who are ready to make Leviathan awake. +Job 3:9 Let its morning stars be dark; let it be looking for light, but may it not have any; let it not see the eyes of the dawn. +Job 3:10 Because it did not keep the doors of my mother's body shut, so that trouble might be veiled from my eyes. +Job 3:11 Why did death not take me when I came out of my mother's body, why did I not, when I came out, give up my last breath? +Job 3:12 Why did the knees take me, or why the breasts that they might give me milk? +Job 3:13 For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace, +Job 3:14 With kings and the wise ones of the earth, who put up great houses for themselves; +Job 3:15 Or with rulers who had gold, and whose houses were full of silver; +Job 3:16 Or as a child dead at birth I might never have come into existence; like young children who have not seen the light. +Job 3:17 There the passions of the evil are over, and those whose strength has come to an end have rest. +Job 3:18 There the prisoners are at peace together; the voice of the overseer comes not again to their ears. +Job 3:19 The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master. +Job 3:20 Why does he give light to him who is in trouble, and life to the bitter in soul; +Job 3:21 To those whose desire is for death, but it comes not; who are searching for it more than for secret wealth; +Job 3:22 Who are glad with great joy, and full of delight when they come to their last resting-place; +Job 3:23 To a man whose way is veiled, and who is shut in by God? +Job 3:24 In place of my food I have grief, and cries of sorrow come from me like water. +Job 3:25 For I have a fear and it comes on me, and my heart is greatly troubled. +Job 3:26 I have no peace, no quiet, and no rest; nothing but pain comes on me. +Job 4:1 And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said, +Job 4:2 If one says a word, will it be a weariness to you? but who is able to keep from saying what is in his mind? +Job 4:3 Truly, you have been a helper to others, and you have made feeble hands strong; +Job 4:4 He who was near to falling has been lifted up by your words, and you have given strength to bent knees. +Job 4:5 But now it has come on you and it is a weariness to you; you are touched by it and your mind is troubled. +Job 4:6 Is not your fear of God your support, and your upright way of life your hope? +Job 4:7 Have you ever seen destruction come to an upright man? or when were the god-fearing ever cut off? +Job 4:8 What I have seen is that those by whom trouble has been ploughed, and evil planted, get the same for themselves. +Job 4:9 By the breath of God destruction takes them, and by the wind of his wrath they are cut off. +Job 4:10 Though the noise of the lion and the sounding of his voice, may be loud, the teeth of the young lions are broken. +Job 4:11 The old lion comes to his end for need of food, and the young of the she-lion go wandering in all directions. +Job 4:12 A word was given to me secretly, and the low sound of it came to my ears. +Job 4:13 In troubled thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep comes on men, +Job 4:14 Fear came on me and shaking, and my bones were full of trouble; +Job 4:15 And a breath was moving over my face; the hair of my flesh became stiff: +Job 4:16 Something was present before me, but I was not able to see it clearly; there was a form before my eyes: a quiet voice came to my ears, saying: +Job 4:17 May a man be upright before God? or a man be clean before his Maker? +Job 4:18 Truly, he puts no faith in his servants, and he sees error in his angels; +Job 4:19 How much more those living in houses of earth, whose bases are in the dust! They are crushed more quickly than an insect; +Job 4:20 Between morning and evening they are completely broken; they come to an end for ever, and no one takes note. +Job 4:21 If their tent-cord is pulled up, do they not come to an end, and without wisdom? +Job 5:1 Give now a cry for help; is there anyone who will give you an answer? and to which of the holy ones will you make your prayer? +Job 5:2 For wrath is the cause of death to the foolish, and he who has no wisdom comes to his end through passion. +Job 5:3 I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly the curse came on his house. +Job 5:4 Now his children have no safe place, and they are crushed before the judges, for no one takes up their cause. +Job 5:5 Their produce is taken by him who has no food, and their grain goes to the poor, and he who is in need of water gets it from their spring. +Job 5:6 For evil does not come out of the dust, or trouble out of the earth; +Job 5:7 But trouble is man's fate from birth, as the flames go up from the fire. +Job 5:8 But as for me, I would make my prayer to God, and I would put my cause before him: +Job 5:9 Who does great things outside our knowledge, wonders without number: +Job 5:10 Who gives rain on the earth, and sends water on the fields: +Job 5:11 Lifting up those who are low, and putting the sad in a safe place; +Job 5:12 Who makes the designs of the wise go wrong, so that they are unable to give effect to their purposes. +Job 5:13 He takes the wise in their secret designs, and the purposes of the twisted are cut off suddenly. +Job 5:14 In the daytime it becomes dark for them, and in the sunlight they go feeling about as if it was night. +Job 5:15 But he keeps safe from their sword those who have no father, and the poor from the power of the strong. +Job 5:16 So the poor man has hope, and the mouth of the evil-doer is stopped. +Job 5:17 Truly, that man is happy who has training from the hand of God: so do not let your heart be shut to the teaching of the Ruler of all. +Job 5:18 For after his punishment he gives comfort, and after wounding, his hands make you well. +Job 5:19 He will keep you safe from six troubles, and in seven no evil will come near you. +Job 5:20 When there is need of food he will keep you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. +Job 5:21 He will keep you safe from the evil tongue; and you will have no fear of wasting when it comes. +Job 5:22 You will make sport of destruction and need, and will have no fear of the beasts of the earth. +Job 5:23 For you will be in agreement with the stones of the earth, and the beasts of the field will be at peace with you. +Job 5:24 And you will be certain that your tent is at peace, and after looking over your property you will see that nothing is gone. +Job 5:25 You will be certain that your seed will be great, and your offspring like the plants of the earth. +Job 5:26 You will come to your last resting-place in full strength, as the grain is taken up to the crushing-floor in its time. +Job 5:27 See, we have made search with care, and it is so; it has come to our ears; see that you take note of it for yourself. +Job 6:1 And Job made answer and said, +Job 6:2 If only my passion might be measured, and put into the scales against my trouble! +Job 6:3 For then its weight would be more than the sand of the seas: because of this my words have been uncontrolled. +Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Ruler of all are present with me, and their poison goes deep into my spirit: his army of fears is put in order against me. +Job 6:5 Does the ass of the fields give out his voice when he has grass? or does the ox make sounds over his food? +Job 6:6 Will a man take food which has no taste without salt? or is there any taste in the soft substance of purslain? +Job 6:7 My soul has no desire for such things, they are as disease in my food. +Job 6:8 If only I might have an answer to my prayer, and God would give me my desire! +Job 6:9 If only he would be pleased to put an end to me; and would let loose his hand, so that I might be cut off! +Job 6:10 So I would still have comfort, and I would have joy in the pains of death, for I have not been false to the words of the Holy One. +Job 6:11 Have I strength to go on waiting, or have I any end to be looking forward to? +Job 6:12 Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh brass? +Job 6:13 I have no help in myself, and wisdom is completely gone from me. +Job 6:14 He whose heart is shut against his friend has given up the fear of the Ruler of all. +Job 6:15 My friends have been false like a stream, like streams in the valleys which come to an end: +Job 6:16 Which are dark because of the ice, and the snow falling into them; +Job 6:17 Under the burning sun they are cut off, and come to nothing because of the heat. +Job 6:18 The camel-trains go out of their way; they go up into the waste and come to destruction. +Job 6:19 The camel-trains of Tema were searching with care, the bands of Sheba were waiting for them: +Job 6:20 They were put to shame because of their hope; they came and their hope was gone. +Job 6:21 So have you now become to me; you see my sad condition and are in fear. +Job 6:22 Did I say, Give me something? or, Make a payment for me out of your wealth? +Job 6:23 Or, Get me out of the power of my hater? or, Give money so that I may be free from the power of the cruel ones? +Job 6:24 Give me teaching and I will be quiet; and make me see my error. +Job 6:25 How pleasing are upright words! but what force is there in your arguments? +Job 6:26 My words may seem wrong to you, but the words of him who has no hope are for the wind. +Job 6:27 Truly, you are such as would give up the child of a dead man to his creditors, and would make a profit out of your friend. +Job 6:28 Now then, let your eyes be turned to me, for truly I will not say what is false to your face. +Job 6:29 Let your minds be changed, and do not have an evil opinion of me; yes, be changed, for my righteousness is still in me. +Job 6:30 Is there evil in my tongue? is not the cause of my trouble clear to me? +Job 7:1 Has not man his ordered time of trouble on the earth? and are not his days like the days of a servant working for payment? +Job 7:2 As a servant desiring the shades of evening, and a workman looking for his payment: +Job 7:3 So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me. +Job 7:4 When I go to my bed, I say, When will it be time to get up? but the night is long, and I am turning from side to side till morning light. +Job 7:5 My flesh is covered with worms and dust; my skin gets hard and then is cracked again. +Job 7:6 My days go quicker than the cloth-worker's thread, and come to an end without hope. +Job 7:7 O, keep in mind that my life is wind: my eye will never again see good. +Job 7:8 The eye of him who sees me will see me no longer: your eyes will be looking for me, but I will be gone. +Job 7:9 A cloud comes to an end and is gone; so he who goes down into the underworld comes not up again. +Job 7:10 He will not come back to his house, and his place will have no more knowledge of him. +Job 7:11 So I will not keep my mouth shut; I will let the words come from it in the pain of my spirit, my soul will make a bitter outcry. +Job 7:12 Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me? +Job 7:13 When I say, In my bed I will have comfort, there I will get rest from my disease; +Job 7:14 Then you send dreams to me, and visions of fear; +Job 7:15 So that a hard death seems better to my soul than my pains. +Job 7:16 I have no desire for life, I would not be living for ever! Keep away from me, for my days are as a breath. +Job 7:17 What is man, that you have made him great, and that your attention is fixed on him, +Job 7:18 And that your hand is on him every morning, and that you are testing him every minute? +Job 7:19 How long will it be before your eyes are turned away from me, so that I may have a minute's breathing-space? +Job 7:20 If I have done wrong, what have I done to you, O keeper of men? why have you made me a mark for your blows, so that I am a weariness to myself? +Job 7:21 And why do you not take away my sin, and let my wrongdoing be ended? for now I go down to the dust, and you will be searching for me with care, but I will be gone. +Job 8:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said, +Job 8:2 How long will you say these things, and how long will the words of your mouth be like a strong wind? +Job 8:3 Does God give wrong decisions? or is the Ruler of all not upright in his judging? +Job 8:4 If your children have done evil against him, then their punishment is from his hand. +Job 8:5 If you will make search for God with care, and put your request before the Ruler of all; +Job 8:6 If you are clean and upright; then he will certainly be moved to take up your cause, and will make clear your righteousness by building up your house again. +Job 8:7 And though your start was small, your end will be very great. +Job 8:8 Put the question now to the past generations, and give attention to what has been searched out by their fathers: +Job 8:9 (For we are but of yesterday, and have no knowledge, because our days on earth are gone like a shade:) +Job 8:10 Will they not give you teaching, and say words of wisdom to you? +Job 8:11 Will the river-plant come up in its pride without wet earth? will the grass get tall without water? +Job 8:12 When it is still green, without being cut down, it becomes dry and dead before any other plant. +Job 8:13 So is the end of all who do not keep God in mind; and the hope of the evil-doer comes to nothing: +Job 8:14 Whose support is cut off, and whose hope is no stronger than a spider's thread. +Job 8:15 He is looking to his family for support, but it is not there; he puts his hope in it, but it comes to nothing. +Job 8:16 He is full of strength before the sun, and his branches go out over his garden. +Job 8:17 His roots are twisted round the stones, forcing their way in between them. +Job 8:18 If he is taken away from his place, then it will say, I have not seen you. +Job 8:19 Such is the joy of his way, and out of the dust another comes up to take his place. +Job 8:20 Truly, God will not give up him who is without sin, and will not take evil-doers by the hand. +Job 8:21 The time will come when your mouth will be full of laughing, and cries of joy will come from your lips. +Job 8:22 Your haters will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the sinner will not be seen again. +Job 9:1 And Job made answer and said, +Job 9:2 Truly, I see that it is so: and how is it possible for a man to get his right before God? +Job 9:3 If a man was desiring to go to law with him, he would not be able to give him an answer to one out of a thousand questions. +Job 9:4 He is wise in heart and great in strength: who ever made his face hard against him, and any good came of it? +Job 9:5 It is he who takes away the mountains without their knowledge, overturning them in his wrath: +Job 9:6 Who is moving the earth out of its place, so that its pillars are shaking: +Job 9:7 Who gives orders to the sun, and it does not give its light; and who keeps the stars from shining. +Job 9:8 By whose hand the heavens were stretched out, and who is walking on the waves of the sea: +Job 9:9 Who made the Bear and Orion, and the Pleiades, and the store-houses of the south: +Job 9:10 Who does great things not to be searched out; yes, wonders without number. +Job 9:11 See, he goes past me and I see him not: he goes on before, but I have no knowledge of him. +Job 9:12 If he puts out his hand to take, by whom may it be turned back? who may say to him, What are you doing? +Job 9:13 God's wrath may not be turned back; the helpers of Rahab were bent down under him. +Job 9:14 How much less may I give an answer to him, using the right words in argument with him? +Job 9:15 Even if my cause was good, I would not be able to give an answer; I would make request for grace from him who was against me. +Job 9:16 If I had sent for him to be present, and he had come, I would have no faith that he would give ear to my voice. +Job 9:17 For I would be crushed by his storm, my wounds would be increased without cause. +Job 9:18 He would not let me take my breath, but I would be full of bitter grief. +Job 9:19 If it is a question of strength, he says, Here I am! and if it is a question of a cause at law, he says, Who will give me a fixed day? +Job 9:20 Though I was in the right, he would say that I was in the wrong; I have done no evil; but he says that I am a sinner. +Job 9:21 I have done no wrong; I give no thought to what becomes of me; I have no desire for life. +Job 9:22 It is all the same to me; so I say, He puts an end to the sinner and to him who has done no wrong together. +Job 9:23 If death comes suddenly through disease, he makes sport of the fate of those who have done no wrong. +Job 9:24 The land is given into the power of the evil-doer; the faces of its judges are covered; if not by him, then who has done it? +Job 9:25 My days go quicker than a post-runner: they go in flight, they see no good. +Job 9:26 They go rushing on like reed-boats, like an eagle dropping suddenly on its food. +Job 9:27 If I say, I will put my grief out of mind, I will let my face be sad no longer and I will be bright; +Job 9:28 I go in fear of all my pains; I am certain that I will not be free from sin in your eyes. +Job 9:29 You will not let me be clear of sin! why then do I take trouble for nothing? +Job 9:30 If I am washed with snow water, and make my hands clean with soap; +Job 9:31 Then you will have me pushed into the dust, so that I will seem disgusting to my very clothing. +Job 9:32 For he is not a man as I am, that I might give him an answer, that we might come together before a judge. +Job 9:33 There is no one to give a decision between us, who might have control over us. +Job 9:34 Let him take away his rod from me and not send his fear on me: +Job 9:35 Then I would say what is in my mind without fear of him; for there is no cause of fear in myself. +Job 10:1 My soul is tired of life; I will let my sad thoughts go free in words; my soul will make a bitter outcry. +Job 10:2 I will say to God, Do not put me down as a sinner; make clear to me what you have against me. +Job 10:3 What profit is it to you to be cruel, to give up the work of your hands, looking kindly on the design of evil-doers? +Job 10:4 Have you eyes of flesh, or do you see as man sees? +Job 10:5 Are your days as the days of man, or your years like his, +Job 10:6 That you take note of my sin, searching after my wrongdoing, +Job 10:7 Though you see that I am not an evil-doer; and there is no one who is able to take a man out of your hands? +Job 10:8 Your hands made me, and I was formed by you, but then, changing your purpose, you gave me up to destruction. +Job 10:9 O keep in mind that you made me out of earth; and will you send me back again to dust? +Job 10:10 Was I not drained out like milk, becoming hard like cheese? +Job 10:11 By you I was clothed with skin and flesh, and joined together with bones and muscles. +Job 10:12 You have been kind to me, and your grace has been with me, and your care has kept my spirit safe. +Job 10:13 But you kept these things in the secret of your heart; I am certain this was in your thoughts: +Job 10:14 That, if I did wrong, you would take note of it, and would not make me clear from sin: +Job 10:15 That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me; and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being full of shame and overcome with trouble. +Job 10:16 And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me: +Job 10:17 That you would send new witnesses against me, increasing your wrath against me, and letting loose new armies on me. +Job 10:18 Why then did you make me come out of my mother's body? It would have been better for me to have taken my last breath, and for no eye to have seen me, +Job 10:19 And for me to have been as if I had not been; to have been taken from my mother's body straight to my last resting-place. +Job 10:20 Are not the days of my life small in number? Let your eyes be turned away from me, so that I may have a little pleasure, +Job 10:21 Before I go to the place from which I will not come back, to the land where all is dark and black, +Job 10:22 A land of thick dark, without order, where the very light is dark. +Job 11:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said, +Job 11:2 Are all these words to go unanswered? and is a man seen to be right because he is full of talk? +Job 11:3 Are your words of pride to make men keep quiet? and are you to make sport, with no one to put you to shame? +Job 11:4 You may say, My way is clean, and I am free from sin in your eyes. +Job 11:5 But if only God would take up the word, opening his lips in argument with you; +Job 11:6 And would make clear to you the secrets of wisdom, and the wonders of his purpose! +Job 11:7 Are you able to take God's measure, to make discovery of the limits of the Ruler of all? +Job 11:8 They are higher than heaven; what is there for you to do? deeper than the underworld, and outside your knowledge; +Job 11:9 Longer in measure than the earth, and wider than the sea. +Job 11:10 If he goes on his way, shutting a man up and putting him to death, who may make him go back from his purpose? +Job 11:11 For in his eyes men are as nothing; he sees evil and takes note of it. +Job 11:12 And so a hollow-minded man will get wisdom, when a young ass of the field gets teaching. +Job 11:13 But if you put your heart right, stretching out your hands to him; +Job 11:14 If you put far away the evil of your hands, and let no wrongdoing have a place in your tent; +Job 11:15 Then truly your face will be lifted up, with no mark of sin, and you will be fixed in your place without fear: +Job 11:16 For your sorrow will go from your memory, like waters flowing away: +Job 11:17 And your life will be brighter than day; though it is dark, it will become like the morning. +Job 11:18 And you will be safe because there is hope; after looking round, you will take your rest in quiet; +Job 11:19 Sleeping with no fear of danger; and men will be desiring to have grace in your eyes; +Job 11:20 But the eyes of the evil-doers will be wasting away; their way of flight is gone, and their only hope is the taking of their last breath. +Job 12:1 And Job made answer and said, +Job 12:2 No doubt you have knowledge, and wisdom will come to an end with you. +Job 12:3 But I have a mind as well as you; I am equal to you: yes, who has not knowledge of such things as these? +Job 12:4 It seems that I am to be as one who is a cause of laughing to his neighbour, one who makes his prayer to God and is answered! the upright man who has done no wrong is to be made sport of! +Job 12:5 In the thought of him who is in comfort there is no respect for one who is in trouble; such is the fate of those whose feet are slipping. +Job 12:6 There is wealth in the tents of those who make destruction, and those by whom God is moved to wrath are safe; even those whose god is their strength. +Job 12:7 But put now a question to the beasts, and get teaching from them; or to the birds of the heaven, and they will make it clear to you; +Job 12:8 Or to the things which go flat on the earth, and they will give you wisdom; and the fishes of the sea will give you news of it. +Job 12:9 Who does not see by all these that the hand of the Lord has done this? +Job 12:10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all flesh of man. +Job 12:11 Are not words tested by the ear, even as food is tasted by the mouth? +Job 12:12 Old men have wisdom, and a long life gives knowledge. +Job 12:13 With him there is wisdom and strength; power and knowledge are his. +Job 12:14 Truly, there is no building up of what is pulled down by him; when a man is shut up by him, no one may let him loose. +Job 12:15 Truly, he keeps back the waters and they are dry; he sends them out and the earth is overturned. +Job 12:16 With him are strength and wise designs; he who is guided into error, together with his guide, are in his hands; +Job 12:17 He takes away the wisdom of the wise guides, and makes judges foolish; +Job 12:18 He undoes the chains of kings, and puts his band on them; +Job 12:19 He makes priests prisoners, overturning those in safe positions; +Job 12:20 He makes the words of responsible persons without effect, and takes away the good sense of the old; +Job 12:21 He puts shame on chiefs, and takes away the power of the strong; +Job 12:22 Uncovering deep things out of the dark, and making the deep shade bright; +Job 12:23 Increasing nations, and sending destruction on them; making wide the lands of peoples, and then giving them up. +Job 12:24 He takes away the wisdom of the rulers of the earth, and sends them wandering in a waste where there is no way. +Job 12:25 They go feeling about in the dark without light, wandering without help like those overcome with wine. +Job 13:1 Truly, my eye has seen all this, word of it has come to my ear, and I have knowledge of it. +Job 13:2 The same things are in my mind as in yours; I am equal to you. +Job 13:3 But I would have talk with the Ruler of all, and my desire is to have an argument with God. +Job 13:4 But you put a false face on things; all your attempts to put things right are of no value. +Job 13:5 If only you would keep quiet, it would be a sign of wisdom! +Job 13:6 Give ear to the argument of my mouth, and take note of the words of my lips. +Job 13:7 Will you say in God's name what is not right, and put false words into his mouth? +Job 13:8 Will you have respect for God's person in this cause, and put yourselves forward as his supporters? +Job 13:9 Will it be good for you to be searched out by him, or have you the thought that he may be guided into error like a man? +Job 13:10 He will certainly put you right, if you have respect for persons in secret. +Job 13:11 Will not his glory put you in fear, so that your hearts will be overcome before him? +Job 13:12 Your wise sayings are only dust, and your strong places are only earth. +Job 13:13 Keep quiet, and let me say what is in my mind, whatever may come to me. +Job 13:14 I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand. +Job 13:15 Truly, he will put an end to me; I have no hope; but I will not give way in argument before him; +Job 13:16 And that will be my salvation, for an evil-doer would not come before him, +Job 13:17 Give ear with care to my words, and keep what I say in your minds. +Job 13:18 See now, I have put my cause in order, and I am certain that I will be seen to be right. +Job 13:19 Is any one able to take up the argument against me? If so, I would keep quiet and give up my breath. +Job 13:20 Only two things do not do to me, then I will come before your face: +Job 13:21 Take your hand far away from me; and let me not be overcome by fear of you. +Job 13:22 Then at the sound of your voice I will give answer; or let me put forward my cause for you to give me an answer. +Job 13:23 What is the number of my evil-doings and my sins? give me knowledge of them. +Job 13:24 Why is your face veiled from me, as if I was numbered among your haters? +Job 13:25 Will you be hard on a leaf in flight before the wind? will you make a dry stem go more quickly on its way? +Job 13:26 For you put bitter things on record against me, and send punishment on me for the sins of my early years; +Job 13:27 And you put chains on my feet, watching all my ways, and making a limit for my steps; +Job 13:28 Though a man comes to nothing like a bit of dead wood, or like a robe which has become food for the worm. +Job 14:1 As for man, the son of woman, his days are short and full of trouble. +Job 14:2 He comes out like a flower, and is cut down: he goes in flight like a shade, and is never seen again. +Job 14:3 Is it on such a one as this that your eyes are fixed, with the purpose of judging him? +Job 14:4 If only a clean thing might come out of an unclean! But it is not possible. +Job 14:5 If his days are ordered, and you have knowledge of the number of his months, having given him a fixed limit past which he may not go; +Job 14:6 Let your eyes be turned away from him, and take your hand from him, so that he may have pleasure at the end of his day, like a servant working for payment. +Job 14:7 For there is hope of a tree; if it is cut down, it will come to life again, and its branches will not come to an end. +Job 14:8 Though its root may be old in the earth, and its cut-off end may be dead in the dust; +Job 14:9 Still, at the smell of water, it will make buds, and put out branches like a young plant. +Job 14:10 But man comes to his death and is gone: he gives up his spirit, and where is he? +Job 14:11 The waters go from a pool, and a river becomes waste and dry; +Job 14:12 So man goes down to his last resting-place and comes not again: till the heavens come to an end, they will not be awake or come out of their sleep. +Job 14:13 If only you would keep me safe in the underworld, putting me in a secret place till your wrath is past, giving me a fixed time when I might come to your memory again! +Job 14:14 If death takes a man, will he come to life again? All the days of my trouble I would be waiting, till the time came for me to be free. +Job 14:15 At the sound of your voice I would give an answer, and you would have a desire for the work of your hands. +Job 14:16 For now my steps are numbered by you, and my sin is not overlooked. +Job 14:17 My wrongdoing is corded up in a bag, and my sin is shut up safe. +Job 14:18 But truly a mountain falling comes to dust, and a rock is moved from its place; +Job 14:19 The stones are crushed small by the force of the waters; the dust of the earth is washed away by their overflowing: and so you put an end to the hope of man. +Job 14:20 You overcome him for ever, and he is gone; his face is changed in death, and you send him away. +Job 14:21 His sons come to honour, and he has no knowledge of it; they are made low, but he is not conscious of it. +Job 14:22 Only his flesh still has pain, and his soul is sad. +Job 15:1 And Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said, +Job 15:2 Will a wise man make answer with knowledge of no value, or will he give birth to the east wind? +Job 15:3 Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit, and with sayings which have no value? +Job 15:4 Truly, you make the fear of God without effect, so that the time of quiet worship before God is made less by your outcry. +Job 15:5 For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself. +Job 15:6 It is by your mouth, even yours, that you are judged to be in the wrong, and not by me; and your lips give witness against you. +Job 15:7 Were you the first man to come into the world? or did you come into being before the hills? +Job 15:8 Were you present at the secret meeting of God? and have you taken all wisdom for yourself? +Job 15:9 What knowledge have you which we have not? is there anything in your mind which is not in ours? +Job 15:10 With us are men who are grey-haired and full of years, much older than your father. +Job 15:11 Are the comforts of God not enough for you, and the gentle word which was said to you? +Job 15:12 Why is your heart uncontrolled, and why are your eyes lifted up; +Job 15:13 So that you are turning your spirit against God, and letting such words go out of your mouth? +Job 15:14 What is man, that he may be clean? and how may the son of woman be upright? +Job 15:15 Truly, he puts no faith in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his eyes; +Job 15:16 How much less one who is disgusting and unclean, a man who takes in evil like water! +Job 15:17 Take note and give ear to my words; and I will say what I have seen: +Job 15:18 (The things which wise men have got from their fathers, and have not kept secret from us; +Job 15:19 For only to them was the land given, and no strange people were among them:) +Job 15:20 The evil man is in pain all his days, and the number of the years stored up for the cruel is small. +Job 15:21 A sound of fear is in his ears; in time of peace destruction will come on him: +Job 15:22 He has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be the sword; +Job 15:23 He is wandering about in search of bread, saying, Where is it? and he is certain that the day of trouble is ready for him: +Job 15:24 He is greatly in fear of the dark day, trouble and pain overcome him: +Job 15:25 Because his hand is stretched out against God, and his heart is lifted up against the Ruler of all, +Job 15:26 Running against him like a man of war, covered by his thick breastplate; even like a king ready for the fight, +Job 15:27 Because his face is covered with fat, and his body has become thick; +Job 15:28 And he has made his resting-place in the towns which have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls. +Job 15:29 He does not get wealth for himself, and is unable to keep what he has got; the heads of his grain are not bent down to the earth. +Job 15:30 He does not come out of the dark; his branches are burned by the flame, and the wind takes away his bud. +Job 15:31 Let him not put his hope in what is false, falling into error: for he will get deceit as his reward. +Job 15:32 His branch is cut off before its time, and his leaf is no longer green. +Job 15:33 He is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers. +Job 15:34 For the band of the evil-doers gives no fruit, and the tents of those who give wrong decisions for reward are burned with fire. +Job 15:35 Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves. +Job 16:1 And Job made answer and said, +Job 16:2 Such things have frequently come to my ears: you are comforters who only give trouble. +Job 16:3 May words which are like the wind be stopped? or what is troubling you to make answer to them? +Job 16:4 It would not be hard for me to say such things if your souls were in my soul's place; joining words together against you, and shaking my head at you: +Job 16:5 I might give you strength with my mouth, and not keep back the comfort of my lips. +Job 16:6 If I say what is in my mind, my pain becomes no less: and if I keep quiet, how much of it goes from me? +Job 16:7 But now he has overcome me with weariness and fear, and I am in the grip of all my trouble. +Job 16:8 It has come up as a witness against me, and the wasting of my flesh makes answer to my face. +Job 16:9 I am broken by his wrath, and his hate has gone after me; he has made his teeth sharp against me: my haters are looking on me with cruel eyes; +Job 16:10 Their mouths are open wide against me; the blows of his bitter words are falling on my face; all of them come together in a mass against me. +Job 16:11 God gives me over to the power of sinners, sending me violently into the hands of evil-doers. +Job 16:12 I was in comfort, but I have been broken up by his hands; he has taken me by the neck, shaking me to bits; he has put me up as a mark for his arrows. +Job 16:13 His bowmen come round about me; their arrows go through my body without mercy; my life is drained out on the earth. +Job 16:14 I am broken with wound after wound; he comes rushing on me like a man of war. +Job 16:15 I have made haircloth the clothing of my skin, and my horn is rolled in the dust. +Job 16:16 My face is red with weeping, and my eyes are becoming dark; +Job 16:17 Though my hands have done no violent acts, and my prayer is clean. +Job 16:18 O earth, let not my blood be covered, and let my cry have no resting-place! +Job 16:19 Even now my witness is in heaven, and the supporter of my cause is on high. +Job 16:20 My friends make sport of me; to God my eyes are weeping, +Job 16:21 So that he may give decision for a man in his cause with God, and between a son of man and his neighbour. +Job 16:22 For in a short time I will take the journey from which I will not come back. +Job 17:1 My spirit is broken, my days are ended, the last resting-place is ready for me. +Job 17:2 Truly, those who make sport of me are round about me, and my eyes become dark because of their bitter laughing. +Job 17:3 Be pleased, now, to be responsible for me to yourself; for there is no other who will put his hand in mine. +Job 17:4 You have kept their hearts from wisdom: for this cause you will not give them honour. +Job 17:5 As for him who is false to his friend for a reward, light will be cut off from the eyes of his children. +Job 17:6 He has made me a word of shame to the peoples; I have become a mark for their sport. +Job 17:7 My eyes have become dark because of my pain, and all my body is wasted to a shade. +Job 17:8 The upright are surprised at this, and he who has done no wrong is troubled because of the evil-doers. +Job 17:9 Still the upright keeps on his way, and he who has clean hands gets new strength. +Job 17:10 But come back, now, all of you, come; and I will not see a wise man among you. +Job 17:11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the desires of my heart. +Job 17:12 They are changing night into day; they say, The light is near the dark. +Job 17:13 If I am waiting for the underworld as my house, if I have made my bed in the dark; +Job 17:14 If I say to the earth, You are my father; and to the worm, My mother and my sister; +Job 17:15 Where then is my hope? and who will see my desire? +Job 17:16 Will they go down with me into the underworld? Will we go down together into the dust? +Job 18:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said, +Job 18:2 How long will it be before you have done talking? Get wisdom, and then we will say what is in our minds. +Job 18:3 Why do we seem as beasts in your eyes, and as completely without knowledge? +Job 18:4 But come back, now, come: you who are wounding yourself in your passion, will the earth be given up because of you, or a rock be moved out of its place? +Job 18:5 For the light of the sinner is put out, and the flame of his fire is not shining. +Job 18:6 The light is dark in his tent, and the light shining over him is put out. +Job 18:7 The steps of his strength become short, and by his design destruction overtakes him. +Job 18:8 His feet take him into the net, and he goes walking into the cords. +Job 18:9 His foot is taken in the net; he comes into its grip. +Job 18:10 The twisted cord is put secretly in the earth to take him, and the cord is placed in his way. +Job 18:11 He is overcome by fears on every side, they go after him at every step. +Job 18:12 His strength is made feeble for need of food, and destruction is waiting for his falling footstep. +Job 18:13 His skin is wasted by disease, and his body is food for the worst of diseases. +Job 18:14 He is pulled out of his tent where he was safe, and he is taken away to the king of fears. +Job 18:15 In his tent will be seen that which is not his, burning stone is dropped on his house. +Job 18:16 Under the earth his roots are dry, and over it his branch is cut off. +Job 18:17 His memory is gone from the earth, and in the open country there is no knowledge of his name. +Job 18:18 He is sent away from the light into the dark; he is forced out of the world. +Job 18:19 He has no offspring or family among his people, and in his living-place there is no one of his name. +Job 18:20 At his fate those of the west are shocked, and those of the east are overcome with fear. +Job 18:21 Truly, these are the houses of the sinner, and this is the place of him who has no knowledge of God. +Job 19:1 And Job made answer and said, +Job 19:2 How long will you make my life bitter, crushing me with words? +Job 19:3 Ten times now you have made sport of me; it gives you no sense of shame to do me wrong. +Job 19:4 And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself. +Job 19:5 If you make yourselves great against me, using my punishment as an argument against me, +Job 19:6 Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net. +Job 19:7 Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause. +Job 19:8 My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark. +Job 19:9 He has put off my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head. +Job 19:10 I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone; my hope is uprooted like a tree. +Job 19:11 His wrath is burning against me, and I am to him as one of his haters. +Job 19:12 His armies come on together, they make their road high against me, and put up their tents round mine. +Job 19:13 He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me. +Job 19:14 My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds. +Job 19:15 I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country. +Job 19:16 At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him. +Job 19:17 My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to the offspring of my mother's body. +Job 19:18 Even young children have no respect for me; when I get up their backs are turned on me. +Job 19:19 All the men of my circle keep away from me; and those dear to me are turned against me. +Job 19:20 My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth. +Job 19:21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends! for the hand of God is on me. +Job 19:22 Why are you cruel to me, like God, for ever saying evil against me? +Job 19:23 If only my words might be recorded! if they might be put in writing in a book! +Job 19:24 And with an iron pen and lead be cut into the rock for ever! +Job 19:25 But I am certain that he who will take up my cause is living, and that in time to come he will take his place on the dust; +Job 19:26 And ... without my flesh I will see God; +Job 19:27 Whom I will see on my side, and not as one strange to me. My heart is broken with desire. +Job 19:28 If you say, How cruel we will be to him! because the root of sin is clearly in him: +Job 19:29 Be in fear of the sword, for the sword is the punishment for such things, so that you may be certain that there is a judge. +Job 20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said, +Job 20:2 For this cause my thoughts are troubling me and driving me on. +Job 20:3 I have to give ear to arguments which put me to shame, and your answers to me are wind without wisdom. +Job 20:4 Have you knowledge of this from early times, when man was placed on the earth, +Job 20:5 That the pride of the sinner is short, and the joy of the evil-doer but for a minute? +Job 20:6 Though he is lifted up to the heavens, and his head goes up to the clouds; +Job 20:7 Like the waste from his body he comes to an end for ever: those who have seen him say, Where is he? +Job 20:8 He is gone like a dream, and is not seen again; he goes in flight like a vision of the night. +Job 20:9 The eye which saw him sees him no longer; and his place has no more knowledge of him. +Job 20:10 His children are hoping that the poor will be kind to them, and his hands give back his wealth. +Job 20:11 His bones are full of young strength, but it will go down with him into the dust. +Job 20:12 Though evil-doing is sweet in his mouth, and he keeps it secretly under his tongue; +Job 20:13 Though he takes care of it, and does not let it go, but keeps it still in his mouth; +Job 20:14 His food becomes bitter in his stomach; the poison of snakes is inside him. +Job 20:15 He takes down wealth as food, and sends it up again; it is forced out of his stomach by God. +Job 20:16 He takes the poison of snakes into his mouth, the tongue of the snake is the cause of his death. +Job 20:17 Let him not see the rivers of oil, the streams of honey and milk. +Job 20:18 He is forced to give back the fruit of his work, and may not take it for food; he has no joy in the profit of his trading. +Job 20:19 Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up; +Job 20:20 There is no peace for him in his wealth, and no salvation for him in those things in which he took delight. +Job 20:21 He had never enough for his desire; for this cause his well-being will quickly come to an end. +Job 20:22 Even when his wealth is great, he is full of care, for the hand of everyone who is in trouble is turned against him. +Job 20:23 God gives him his desire, and sends the heat of his wrath on him, making it come down on him like rain. +Job 20:24 He may go in flight from the iron spear, but the arrow from the bow of brass will go through him; +Job 20:25 He is pulling it out, and it comes out of his back; and its shining point comes out of his side; he is overcome by fears. +Job 20:26 All his wealth is stored up for the dark: a fire not made by man sends destruction on him, and on everything in his tent. +Job 20:27 The heavens make clear his sin, and the earth gives witness against him. +Job 20:28 The produce of his house is taken away into another country, like things given into the hands of others in the day of wrath. +Job 20:29 This is the reward of the evil man, and the heritage given to him by God. +Job 21:1 Then Job made answer and said, +Job 21:2 Give attention with care to my words; and let this be your comfort. +Job 21:3 Let me say what is in my mind, and after that, go on making sport of me. +Job 21:4 As for me, is my outcry against man? is it then to be wondered at if my spirit is troubled? +Job 21:5 Take note of me and be full of wonder, put your hand on your mouth. +Job 21:6 At the very thought of it my flesh is shaking with fear. +Job 21:7 Why is life given to the evil-doers? why do they become old and strong in power? +Job 21:8 Their children are ever with them, and their offspring before their eyes. +Job 21:9 Their houses are free from fear, and the rod of God does not come on them. +Job 21:10 Their ox is ready at all times to give seed; their cow gives birth, without dropping her young. +Job 21:11 They send out their young ones like a flock, and their children have pleasure in the dance, +Job 21:12 They make songs to the instruments of music, and are glad at the sound of the pipe. +Job 21:13 Their days come to an end without trouble, and suddenly they go down to the underworld. +Job 21:14 Though they said to God, Go away from us, for we have no desire for the knowledge of your ways. +Job 21:15 What is the Ruler of all, that we may give him worship? and what profit is it to us to make prayer to him? +Job 21:16 Truly, is not their well-being in their power? (The purpose of the evil-doers is far from me.) +Job 21:17 How frequently is the light of the evil-doers put out, or does trouble come on them? how frequently does his wrath take them with cords? +Job 21:18 How frequently are they as dry stems before the wind, or as grass taken away by the storm-wind? +Job 21:19 You say, God keeps punishment stored up for his children. Let him send it on the man himself, so that he may have the punishment of it! +Job 21:20 Let his eyes see his trouble, and let him be full of the wrath of the Ruler of all! +Job 21:21 For what interest has he in his house after him, when the number of his months is ended? +Job 21:22 Is anyone able to give teaching to God? for he is the judge of those who are on high. +Job 21:23 One comes to his end in complete well-being, full of peace and quiet: +Job 21:24 His buckets are full of milk, and there is no loss of strength in his bones. +Job 21:25 And another comes to his end with a bitter soul, without ever tasting good. +Job 21:26 Together they go down to the dust, and are covered by the worm. +Job 21:27 See, I am conscious of your thoughts, and of your violent purposes against me; +Job 21:28 For you say, Where is the house of the ruler, and where is the tent of the evil-doer? +Job 21:29 Have you not put the question to the travellers, and do you not take note of their experience? +Job 21:30 How the evil man goes free in the day of trouble, and has salvation in the day of wrath? +Job 21:31 Who will make his way clear to his face? and if he has done a thing, who gives him punishment for it? +Job 21:32 He is taken to his last resting-place, and keeps watch over it. +Job 21:33 The earth of the valley covering his bones is sweet to him, and all men come after him, as there were unnumbered before him. +Job 21:34 Why then do you give me comfort with words in which there is no profit, when you see that there is nothing in your answers but deceit? +Job 22:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said, +Job 22:2 Is it possible for a man to be of profit to God? No, for a man's wisdom is only of profit to himself. +Job 22:3 Is it of any interest to the Ruler of all that you are upright? or is it of use to him that your ways are without sin? +Job 22:4 Is it because you give him honour that he is sending punishment on you and is judging you? +Job 22:5 Is not your evil-doing great? and there is no end to your sins. +Job 22:6 For you have taken your brother's goods when he was not in your debt, and have taken away the clothing of those who have need of it. +Job 22:7 You do not give water to the tired traveller, and from him who has no food you keep back bread. +Job 22:8 For it was the man with power who had the land, and the man with an honoured name who was living in it. +Job 22:9 You have sent widows away without hearing their cause, and you have taken away the support of the child who has no father. +Job 22:10 For this cause nets are round your feet, and you are overcome with sudden fear. +Job 22:11 Your light is made dark so that you are unable to see, and you are covered by a mass of waters. +Job 22:12 Is not God as high as heaven? and see the stars, how high they are! +Job 22:13 And you say, What knowledge has God? is he able to give decisions through the deep dark? +Job 22:14 Thick clouds are covering him, so that he is unable to see; and he is walking on the arch of heaven. +Job 22:15 Will you keep the old way by which evil men went? +Job 22:16 Who were violently taken away before their time, who were overcome by the rush of waters: +Job 22:17 Who said to God, Go away from us; and, What is the Ruler of all able to do to us? +Job 22:18 Though he made their houses full of good things: but the purpose of the evil-doers is far from me! +Job 22:19 The upright saw it and were glad: and those who had done no wrong made sport of them, +Job 22:20 Saying, Truly, their substance is cut off, and their wealth is food for the fire. +Job 22:21 Put yourself now in a right relation with him and be at peace: so will you do well in your undertakings. +Job 22:22 Be pleased to take teaching from his mouth, and let his words be stored up in your heart. +Job 22:23 If you come back to the Ruler of all, making yourself low before him; if you put evil far away from your tents; +Job 22:24 And put your gold in the dust, even your gold of Ophir among the rocks of the valleys; +Job 22:25 Then the Ruler of all will be your gold, and his teaching will be your silver; +Job 22:26 For then you will have delight in the Ruler of all, and your face will be lifted up to God. +Job 22:27 You will make your prayer to him, and be answered; and you will give effect to your oaths. +Job 22:28 Your purposes will come about, and light will be shining on your ways. +Job 22:29 For God makes low those whose hearts are lifted up, but he is a saviour to the poor in spirit. +Job 22:30 He makes safe the man who is free from sin, and if your hands are clean, salvation will be yours. +Job 23:1 And Job made answer and said, +Job 23:2 Even today my outcry is bitter; his hand is hard on my sorrow. +Job 23:3 If only I had knowledge of where he might be seen, so that I might come even to his seat! +Job 23:4 I would put my cause in order before him, and my mouth would be full of arguments. +Job 23:5 I would see what his answers would be, and have knowledge of what he would say to me. +Job 23:6 Would he make use of his great power to overcome me? No, but he would give attention to me. +Job 23:7 There an upright man might put his cause before him; and I would be free for ever from my judge. +Job 23:8 See, I go forward, but he is not there; and back, but I do not see him; +Job 23:9 I am looking for him on the left hand, but there is no sign of him; and turning to the right, I am not able to see him. +Job 23:10 For he has knowledge of the way I take; after I have been tested I will come out like gold. +Job 23:11 My feet have gone in his steps; I have kept in his way, without turning to one side or to the other. +Job 23:12 I have never gone against the orders of his lips; the words of his mouth have been stored up in my heart. +Job 23:13 But his purpose is fixed and there is no changing it; and he gives effect to the desire of his soul. +Job 23:14 For what has been ordered for me by him will be gone through to the end: and his mind is full of such designs. +Job 23:15 For this cause I am in fear before him, my thoughts of him overcome me. +Job 23:16 For God has made my heart feeble, and my mind is troubled before the Ruler of all. +Job 23:17 For I am overcome by the dark, and by the black night which is covering my face. +Job 24:1 Why are times not stored up by the Ruler of all, and why do those who have knowledge of him not see his days? +Job 24:2 The landmarks are changed by evil men, they violently take away flocks, together with their keepers. +Job 24:3 They send away the ass of him who has no father, they take the widow's ox for debt. +Job 24:4 The crushed are turned out of the way; all the poor of the earth go into a secret place together. +Job 24:5 Like asses in the waste land they go out to their work, looking for food with care; from the waste land they get bread for their children. +Job 24:6 They get mixed grain from the field, and they take away the late fruit from the vines of those who have wealth. +Job 24:7 They take their rest at night without clothing, and have no cover in the cold. +Job 24:8 They are wet with the rain of the mountains, and get into the cracks of the rock for cover. +Job 24:9 The child without a father is forced from its mother's breast, and they take the young children of the poor for debt. +Job 24:10 Others go about without clothing, and though they have no food, they get in the grain from the fields. +Job 24:11 Between the lines of olive-trees they make oil; though they have no drink, they are crushing out the grapes. +Job 24:12 From the town come sounds of pain from those who are near death, and the soul of the wounded is crying out for help; but God does not take note of their prayer. +Job 24:13 Then there are those who are haters of the light, who have no knowledge of its ways, and do not go in them. +Job 24:14 He who is purposing death gets up before day, so that he may put to death the poor and those in need. +Job 24:15 And the man whose desire is for the wife of another is waiting for the evening, saying, No eye will see me; and he puts a cover on his face. And in the night the thief goes about; +Job 24:16 In the dark he makes holes in the walls of houses: in the daytime they are shutting themselves up, they have no knowledge of the light. +Job 24:17 For the middle of the night is as morning to them, they are not troubled by the fear of the dark. +Job 24:18 They go quickly on the face of the waters; their heritage is cursed in the earth; the steps of the crusher of grapes are not turned to their vine-garden. +Job 24:19 Snow waters become dry with the heat: so do sinners go down into the underworld. +Job 24:20 The public place of his town has no more knowledge of him, and his name has gone from the memory of men: he is rooted up like a dead tree. +Job 24:21 He is not kind to the widow, and he has no pity for her child. +Job 24:22 But God by his power gives long life to the strong; he gets up again, though he has no hope of life. +Job 24:23 He takes away his fear of danger and gives him support; and his eyes are on his ways. +Job 24:24 For a short time they are lifted up; then they are gone; they are made low, they are pulled off like fruit, and like the heads of grain they are cut off. +Job 24:25 And if it is not so, now, who will make it clear that my words are false, and that what I say is of no value? +Job 25:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said, +Job 25:2 Rule and power are his; he makes peace in his high places. +Job 25:3 Is it possible for his armies to be numbered? and on whom is not his light shining? +Job 25:4 How then is it possible for man to be upright before God? or how may he be clean who is a son of woman? +Job 25:5 See, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not clean in his eyes: +Job 25:6 How much less man who is an insect, and the son of man who is a worm! +Job 26:1 Then Job made answer and said, +Job 26:2 How have you given help to him who has no power! how have you been the salvation of the arm which has no strength! +Job 26:3 How have you given teaching to him who has no wisdom, and fully made clear true knowledge! +Job 26:4 To whom have your words been said? and whose spirit came out from you? +Job 26:5 The shades in the underworld are shaking; the waters and those living in them. +Job 26:6 The underworld is uncovered before him, and Destruction has no veil. +Job 26:7 By his hand the north is stretched out in space, and the earth is hanging on nothing. +Job 26:8 By him the waters are shut up in his thick clouds, and the cloud does not give way under them. +Job 26:9 By him the face of his high seat is veiled, and his cloud stretched out over it. +Job 26:10 By him a circle is marked out on the face of the waters, to the limits of the light and the dark. +Job 26:11 The pillars of heaven are shaking, and are overcome by his sharp words. +Job 26:12 By his power the sea was made quiet; and by his wisdom Rahab was wounded. +Job 26:13 By his wind the heavens become bright: by his hand the quickly moving snake was cut through. +Job 26:14 See, these are only the outskirts of his ways; and how small is that which comes to our ears about him! But the thunder of his acts of power is outside all knowledge. +Job 27:1 And Job again took up the word and said, +Job 27:2 By the life of God, who has taken away my right; and of the Ruler of all, who has made my soul bitter; +Job 27:3 (For all my breath is still in me, and the spirit of God is my life;) +Job 27:4 Truly, there is no deceit in my lips, and my tongue does not say what is false. +Job 27:5 Let it be far from me! I will certainly not say that you are right! I will come to death before I give up my righteousness. +Job 27:6 I will keep it safe, and will not let it go: my heart has nothing to say against any part of my life. +Job 27:7 Let my hater be like the evil man, and let him who comes against me be as the sinner. +Job 27:8 For what is the hope of the sinner when he is cut off, when God takes back his soul? +Job 27:9 Will his cry come to the ears of God when he is in trouble? +Job 27:10 Will he take delight in the Ruler of all, and make his prayer to God at all times? +Job 27:11 I will give you teaching about the hand of God; I will not keep secret from you what is in the mind of the Ruler of all. +Job 27:12 Truly, you have all seen it yourselves; why then have you become completely foolish? +Job 27:13 This is the punishment of the evil-doer from God, and the heritage given to the cruel by the Ruler of all. +Job 27:14 If his children are increased, it is for the sword; and his offspring have not enough bread. +Job 27:15 When those of his house who are still living come to their end by disease, they are not put into the earth, and their widows are not weeping for them. +Job 27:16 Though he may get silver together like dust, and make ready great stores of clothing; +Job 27:17 He may get them ready, but the upright will put them on, and he who is free from sin will take the silver for a heritage. +Job 27:18 His house has no more strength than a spider's thread, or a watchman's tent. +Job 27:19 He goes to rest full of wealth, but does so for the last time: on opening his eyes, he sees it there no longer. +Job 27:20 Fears overtake him like rushing waters; in the night the storm-wind takes him away. +Job 27:21 The east wind takes him up and he is gone; he is forced violently out of his place. +Job 27:22 God sends his arrows against him without mercy; he goes in flight before his hand. +Job 27:23 Men make signs of joy because of him, driving him from his place with sounds of hissing. +Job 28:1 Truly there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is washed out. +Job 28:2 Iron is taken out of the earth, and stone is changed into brass by the fire. +Job 28:3 Man puts an end to the dark, searching out to the farthest limit the stones of the deep places of the dark. +Job 28:4 He makes a deep mine far away from those living in the light of day; when they go about on the earth, they have no knowledge of those who are under them, who are hanging far from men, twisting from side to side on a cord. +Job 28:5 As for the earth, bread comes out of it; but under its face it is turned up as if by fire. +Job 28:6 Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold. +Job 28:7 No bird has knowledge of it, and the hawk's eye has never seen it. +Job 28:8 The great beasts have not gone over it, and the cruel lion has not taken that way. +Job 28:9 Man puts out his hand on the hard rock, overturning mountains by the roots. +Job 28:10 He makes deep ways, cut through the rock, and his eye sees everything of value. +Job 28:11 He keeps back the streams from flowing, and makes the secret things come out into the light. +Job 28:12 But where may wisdom be seen? and where is the resting-place of knowledge? +Job 28:13 Man has not seen the way to it, and it is not in the land of the living. +Job 28:14 The deep waters say, It is not in me: and the sea says, It is not with me. +Job 28:15 Gold may not be given for it, or a weight of silver in payment for it. +Job 28:16 It may not be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the onyx of great price, or the sapphire. +Job 28:17 Gold and glass are not equal to it in price, and it may not be exchanged for jewels of the best gold. +Job 28:18 There is no need to say anything about coral or crystal; and the value of wisdom is greater than that of pearls. +Job 28:19 The topaz of Ethiopia is not equal to it, and it may not be valued with the best gold. +Job 28:20 From where then does wisdom come, and where is the resting-place of knowledge? +Job 28:21 For it is kept secret from the eyes of all living, unseen by the birds of the air. +Job 28:22 Destruction and Death say, We have only had word of it with our ears. +Job 28:23 God has knowledge of the way to it, and of its resting-place; +Job 28:24 For his eyes go to the ends of the earth, and he sees everything under heaven. +Job 28:25 When he made a weight for the wind, measuring out the waters; +Job 28:26 When he made a law for the rain, and a way for the thunder-flames; +Job 28:27 Then he saw it, and put it on record; he gave it its fixed form, searching it out completely. +Job 28:28 And he said to man, Truly the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and to keep from evil is the way to knowledge. +Job 29:1 And Job again took up the word and said, +Job 29:2 If only I might again be as I was in the months which are past, in the days when God was watching over me! +Job 29:3 When his light was shining over my head, and when I went through the dark by his light. +Job 29:4 As I was in my flowering years, when my tent was covered by the hand of God; +Job 29:5 While the Ruler of all was still with me, and my children were round me; +Job 29:6 When my steps were washed with milk, and rivers of oil were flowing out of the rock for me. +Job 29:7 When I went out of my door to go up to the town, and took my seat in the public place, +Job 29:8 The young men saw me, and went away, and the old men got up from their seats; +Job 29:9 The rulers kept quiet, and put their hands on their mouths; +Job 29:10 The chiefs kept back their words, and their tongues were joined to the roofs of their mouths. +Job 29:11 For when it came to their ears, men said that I was truly happy; and when their eyes saw, they gave witness to me; +Job 29:12 For I was a saviour to the poor when he was crying for help, to the child with no father, and to him who had no supporter. +Job 29:13 The blessing of him who was near to destruction came on me, and I put a song of joy into the widow's heart. +Job 29:14 I put on righteousness as my clothing, and was full of it; right decisions were to me a robe and a head-dress. +Job 29:15 I was eyes to the blind, and feet to him who had no power of walking. +Job 29:16 I was a father to the poor, searching out the cause of him who was strange to me. +Job 29:17 By me the great teeth of the evil-doer were broken, and I made him give up what he had violently taken away. +Job 29:18 Then I said, I will come to my end with my children round me, my days will be as the sand in number; +Job 29:19 My root will be open to the waters, and the night mist will be on my branches, +Job 29:20 My glory will be ever new, and my bow will be readily bent in my hand. +Job 29:21 Men gave ear to me, waiting and keeping quiet for my suggestions. +Job 29:22 After I had said what was in my mind, they were quiet and let my words go deep into their hearts; +Job 29:23 They were waiting for me as for the rain, opening their mouths wide as for the spring rains. +Job 29:24 I was laughing at them when they had no hope, and the light of my face was never clouded by their fear. +Job 29:25 I took my place as a chief, guiding them on their way, and I was as a king among his army. ... +Job 30:1 But now those who are younger than I make sport of me; those whose fathers I would not have put with the dogs of my flocks. +Job 30:2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me? all force is gone from them. +Job 30:3 They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land. +Job 30:4 They are pulling off the salt leaves from the brushwood, and making a meal of roots. +Job 30:5 They are sent out from among their townsmen, men are crying after them as thieves +Job 30:6 They have to get a resting-place in the hollows of the valleys, in holes of the earth and rocks. +Job 30:7 They make noises like asses among the brushwood; they get together under the thorns. +Job 30:8 They are sons of shame, and of men without a name, who have been forced out of the land. +Job 30:9 And now I have become their song, and I am a word of shame to them. +Job 30:10 I am disgusting to them; they keep away from me, and put marks of shame on me. +Job 30:11 For he has made loose the cord of my bow, and put me to shame; he has sent down my flag to the earth before me. +Job 30:12 The lines of his men of war put themselves in order, and make high their ways of destruction against me: +Job 30:13 They have made waste my roads, with a view to my destruction; his bowmen come round about me; +Job 30:14 As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on, I am overturned by the shock of their attack. +Job 30:15 Fears have come on me; my hope is gone like the wind, and my well-being like a cloud. +Job 30:16 But now my soul is turned to water in me, days of trouble overtake me: +Job 30:17 The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no rest; there is no end to my pains. +Job 30:18 With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling me by the neck of my coat. +Job 30:19 Truly God has made me low, even to the earth, and I have become like dust. +Job 30:20 You give no answer to my cry, and take no note of my prayer. +Job 30:21 You have become cruel to me; the strength of your hand is hard on me. +Job 30:22 Lifting me up, you make me go on the wings of the wind; I am broken up by the storm. +Job 30:23 For I am certain that you will send me back to death, and to the meeting-place ordered for all living. +Job 30:24 Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble? +Job 30:25 Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not my soul sad for him who was in need? +Job 30:26 For I was looking for good, and evil came; I was waiting for light, and it became dark. +Job 30:27 My feelings are strongly moved, and give me no rest; days of trouble have overtaken me. +Job 30:28 I go about in dark clothing, uncomforted; I get up in the public place, crying out for help. +Job 30:29 I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches. +Job 30:30 My skin is black and dropping off me; and my bones are burning with the heat of my disease. +Job 30:31 And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping. +Job 31:1 I made an agreement with my eyes; how then might my eyes be looking on a virgin? +Job 31:2 For what is God's reward from on high, or the heritage given by the Ruler of all from heaven? +Job 31:3 Is it not trouble for the sinner, and destruction for the evil-doers? +Job 31:4 Does he not see my ways, and are not my steps all numbered? +Job 31:5 If I have gone in false ways, or my foot has been quick in working deceit; +Job 31:6 (Let me be measured in upright scales, and let God see my righteousness:) +Job 31:7 If my steps have been turned out of the way, or if my heart went after my eyes, or if the property of another is in my hands; +Job 31:8 Let me put seed in the earth for another to have the fruit of it, and let my produce be uprooted. +Job 31:9 If my heart went after another man's wife, or if I was waiting secretly at my neighbour's door; +Job 31:10 Then let my wife give pleasure to another man and let others make use of her body. +Job 31:11 For that would be a crime; it would be an act for which punishment would be measured out by the judges: +Job 31:12 It would be a fire burning even to destruction, and taking away all my produce. +Job 31:13 If I did wrong in the cause of my man-servant, or my woman-servant, when they went to law with me; +Job 31:14 What then will I do when God comes as my judge? and what answer may I give to his questions? +Job 31:15 Did not God make him as well as me? did he not give us life in our mothers' bodies? +Job 31:16 If I kept back the desire of the poor; if the widow's eye was looking for help to no purpose; +Job 31:17 If I kept my food for myself, and did not give some of it to the child with no father; +Job 31:18 (For I was cared for by God as by a father from my earliest days; he was my guide from the body of my mother;) +Job 31:19 If I saw one near to death for need of clothing, and that the poor had nothing covering him; +Job 31:20 If his back did not give me a blessing, and the wool of my sheep did not make him warm; +Job 31:21 If my hand had been lifted up against him who had done no wrong, when I saw that I was supported by the judges; +Job 31:22 May my arm be pulled from my body, and be broken from its base. +Job 31:23 For the fear of God kept me back, and because of his power I might not do such things. +Job 31:24 If I made gold my hope, or if I ever said to the best gold, I have put my faith in you; +Job 31:25 If I was glad because my wealth was great, and because my hand had got together a great store; +Job 31:26 If, when I saw the sun shining, and the moon moving on its bright way, +Job 31:27 A secret feeling of worship came into my heart, and my hand gave kisses from my mouth; +Job 31:28 That would have been another sin to be rewarded with punishment by the judges; for I would have been false to God on high. +Job 31:29 If I was glad at the trouble of my hater, and gave cries of joy when evil overtook him; +Job 31:30 (For I did not let my mouth give way to sin, in putting a curse on his life;) +Job 31:31 If the men of my tent did not say, Who has not had full measure of his meat? +Job 31:32 The traveller did not take his night's rest in the street, and my doors were open to anyone on a journey; +Job 31:33 If I kept my evil doings covered, and my sin in the secret of my breast, +Job 31:34 For fear of the great body of people, or for fear that families might make sport of me, so that I kept quiet, and did not go out of my door; +Job 31:35 If only God would give ear to me, and the Ruler of all would give me an answer! or if what he has against me had been put in writing! +Job 31:36 Truly I would take up the book in my hands; it would be to me as a crown; +Job 31:37 I would make clear the number of my steps, I would put it before him like a prince! The words of Job are ended. +Job 31:38 If my land has made an outcry against me, or the ploughed earth has been in sorrow; +Job 31:39 If I have taken its produce without payment, causing the death of its owners; +Job 31:40 Then in place of grain let thorns come up, and in place of barley evil-smelling plants. +Job 32:1 So these three men gave no more answers to Job, because he seemed to himself to be right. +Job 32:2 And Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was angry, burning with wrath against Job, because he seemed to himself more right than God; +Job 32:3 And he was angry with his three friends, because they had been unable to give him an answer, and had not made Job's sin clear. +Job 32:4 Now Elihu had kept quiet while Job was talking, because they were older than he; +Job 32:5 And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men, he was very angry. +Job 32:6 And Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, made answer and said, I am young, and you are very old, so I was in fear, and kept myself from putting my knowledge before you. +Job 32:7 I said to myself, It is right for the old to say what is in their minds, and for those who are far on in years to give out wisdom. +Job 32:8 But truly it is the spirit in man, even the breath of the Ruler of all, which gives them knowledge. +Job 32:9 It is not the old who are wise, and those who are full of years have not the knowledge of what is right. +Job 32:10 So I say, Give ear to me, and I will put forward my knowledge. +Job 32:11 I was waiting for your words, I was giving ear to your wise sayings; while you were searching out what to say, +Job 32:12 I was taking note; and truly not one of you was able to make clear Job's error, or to give an answer to his words. +Job 32:13 Take care that you do not say, Wisdom is here; God may overcome him, but not man. +Job 32:14 I will not put forward words like these, or make use of your sayings in answer to him. +Job 32:15 Fear has overcome them, they have no more answers to give; they have come to an end of words. +Job 32:16 And am I to go on waiting while they have nothing to say? while they keep quiet and give no more answers? +Job 32:17 I will give my answer; I will put forward my knowledge: +Job 32:18 For I am full of words, I am unable to keep in my breath any longer: +Job 32:19 My stomach is like wine which is unable to get out; like skins full of new wine, it is almost burst. +Job 32:20 Let me say what is in my mind, so that I may get comfort; let me give answer with open mouth. +Job 32:21 Let me not give respect to any man, or give names of honour to any living. +Job 32:22 For I am not able to give names of honour to any man; and if I did, my Maker would quickly take me away. +Job 33:1 And now, O Job, give ear to my words, and take note of all I say. +Job 33:2 See, now my mouth is open, my tongue gives out words. +Job 33:3 My heart is overflowing with knowledge, my lips say what is true. +Job 33:4 The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Ruler of all gives me life. +Job 33:5 If you are able, give me an answer; put your cause in order, and come forward. +Job 33:6 See, I am the same as you are in the eyes of God; I was cut off from the same bit of wet earth. +Job 33:7 Fear of me will not overcome you, and my hand will not be hard on you. +Job 33:8 But you said in my hearing, and your voice came to my ears: +Job 33:9 I am clean, without sin; I am washed, and there is no evil in me: +Job 33:10 See, he is looking for something against me; in his eyes I am as one of his haters; +Job 33:11 He puts chains on my feet; he is watching all my ways. +Job 33:12 Truly, in saying this you are wrong; for God is greater than man. +Job 33:13 Why do you put forward your cause against him, saying, He gives no answer to any of my words? +Job 33:14 For God gives his word in one way, even in two, and man is not conscious of it: +Job 33:15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep comes on men, while they take their rest on their beds; +Job 33:16 Then he makes his secrets clear to men, so that they are full of fear at what they see; +Job 33:17 In order that man may be turned from his evil works, and that pride may be taken away from him; +Job 33:18 To keep back his soul from the underworld, and his life from destruction. +Job 33:19 Pain is sent on him as a punishment, while he is on his bed; there is no end to the trouble in his bones; +Job 33:20 He has no desire for food, and his soul is turned away from delicate meat; +Job 33:21 His flesh is so wasted away, that it may not be seen, and his bones. ... +Job 33:22 And his soul comes near to the underworld, and his life to the angels of death. +Job 33:23 If now there may be an angel sent to him, one of the thousands which there are to be between him and God, and to make clear to man what is right for him; +Job 33:24 And if he has mercy on him, and says, Let him not go down to the underworld, I have given the price for his life: +Job 33:25 Then his flesh becomes young again, and he comes back to the days of his early strength; +Job 33:26 He makes his prayer to God, and he has mercy on him; he sees God's face with cries of joy; he gives news of his righteousness to men; +Job 33:27 He makes a song, saying, I did wrong, turning from the straight way, but he did not give me the reward of my sin. +Job 33:28 He kept my soul from the underworld, and my life sees the light in full measure. +Job 33:29 Truly, God does all these things to man, twice and three times, +Job 33:30 Keeping back his soul from the underworld, so that he may see the light of life. +Job 33:31 Take note O Job, give ear to me; keep quiet, while I say what is in my mind. +Job 33:32 If you have anything to say, give me an answer; for it is my desire that you may be judged free from sin. +Job 33:33 If not, give attention to me, and keep quiet, and I will give you wisdom. +Job 34:1 And Elihu made answer and said, +Job 34:2 Give ear, you wise, to my words; and you who have knowledge, give attention to me; +Job 34:3 For words are tested by the ear, as food is tasted by the mouth. +Job 34:4 Let us make the decision for ourselves as to what is right; let us have the knowledge among ourselves of what is good. +Job 34:5 For Job has said, I am upright, and it is God who has taken away my right; +Job 34:6 Though I am right, still I am in pain; my wound may not be made well, though I have done no wrong. +Job 34:7 What man is like Job, a man who freely makes sport of God, +Job 34:8 And goes in the company of evil-doers, walking in the way of sinners? +Job 34:9 For he has said, It is no profit to a man to take delight in God. +Job 34:10 Now then, you wise, take note; you men of knowledge, give ear to me. Let it be far from God to do evil, and from the Ruler of all to do wrong. +Job 34:11 For he gives to every man the reward of his work, and sees that he gets the fruit of his ways. +Job 34:12 Truly, God does not do evil, and the Ruler of all is not a false judge. +Job 34:13 Who put the earth into his care, or made him responsible for the world? +Job 34:14 If he made his spirit come back to him, taking his breath into himself again, +Job 34:15 All flesh would come to an end together, and man would go back to the dust. +Job 34:16 If you are wise, take note of this; give ear to the voice of my words. +Job 34:17 How may a hater of right be a ruler? and will you say that the upright Ruler of all is evil? +Job 34:18 He who says to a king, You are an evil-doer; and to rulers, You are sinners; +Job 34:19 Who has no respect for rulers, and who gives no more attention to those who have wealth than to the poor, for they are all the work of his hands. +Job 34:20 Suddenly they come to an end, even in the middle of the night: the blow comes on the men of wealth, and they are gone, and the strong are taken away without the hand of man. +Job 34:21 For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps. +Job 34:22 There is no dark place, and no thick cloud, in which the workers of evil may take cover. +Job 34:23 For he does not give man a fixed time to come before him to be judged. +Job 34:24 He sends the strong to destruction without searching out their cause, and puts others in their place. +Job 34:25 For he has knowledge of their works, overturning them in the night, so that they are crushed. +Job 34:26 The evil-doers are broken by his wrath, he puts his hand on them with force before the eyes of all onlookers. +Job 34:27 Because they did not go after him, and took no note of his ways, +Job 34:28 So that the cry of the poor might come up to him, and the prayer of those in need come to his ears. +Job 34:29 ... +Job 34:30 ... +Job 34:31 ... +Job 34:32 ... +Job 34:33 ... +Job 34:34 Men of knowledge, and all wise men, hearing me, will say, +Job 34:35 Job's words do not come from knowledge; they are not the fruit of wisdom. +Job 34:36 May Job be tested to the end, because his answers have been like those of evil men. +Job 34:37 For in addition to his sin, he is uncontrolled in heart; before our eyes he makes sport of God, increasing his words against him. +Job 35:1 And Elihu made answer and said, +Job 35:2 Does it seem to you to be right, and righteousness before God, to say, +Job 35:3 What profit is it to me, and how am I better off than if I had done wrong? +Job 35:4 I will make answer to you and to your friends: +Job 35:5 Let your eyes be turned to the heavens, and lifted up to see the skies; they are higher than you. +Job 35:6 If you have done wrong, is he any the worse for it? and if your sins are great in number, what is it to him? +Job 35:7 If you are upright, what do you give to him? or what does he take from your hand? +Job 35:8 Your evil-doing may have an effect on a man like yourself, or your righteousness on a son of man. +Job 35:9 Because the hand of the cruel is hard on them, men are making sounds of grief; they are crying out for help because of the arm of the strong. +Job 35:10 But no one has said, Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night; +Job 35:11 Who gives us more knowledge than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the heaven? +Job 35:12 There they are crying out because of the pride of the evil-doers, but he gives them no answer. +Job 35:13 But God will not give ear to what is false, or the Ruler of all take note of it; +Job 35:14 How much less when you say that you do not see him; that the cause is before him, and you are waiting for him. +Job 35:15 And now ... ; +Job 35:16 And Job's mouth is open wide to give out what is of no profit, increasing words without knowledge. +Job 36:1 And Elihu went on to say, +Job 36:2 Give me a little more time, and I will make it clear to you; for I have still something to say for God. +Job 36:3 I will get my knowledge from far, and I will give righteousness to my Maker. +Job 36:4 For truly my words are not false; one who has all knowledge is talking with you. +Job 36:5 Truly, God gives up the hard-hearted, and will not give life to the sinner. +Job 36:6 His eyes are ever on the upright, and he gives to the crushed their right; +Job 36:7 Lifting them up to the seat of kings, and making them safe for ever. +Job 36:8 And if they have been prisoned in chains, and taken in cords of trouble, +Job 36:9 Then he makes clear to them what they have done, even their evil works in which they have taken pride. +Job 36:10 Their ear is open to his teaching, and he gives them orders so that their hearts may be turned from evil. +Job 36:11 If they give ear to his voice, and do his word, then he gives them long life, and years full of pleasure. +Job 36:12 But if not, they come to their end, and give up their breath without knowledge. +Job 36:13 Those who have no fear of God keep wrath stored up in their hearts; they give no cry for help when they are made prisoners. +Job 36:14 They come to their end while they are still young, their life is short like that of those who are used for sex purposes in the worship of their gods. +Job 36:15 He makes the wrong done to the poor the way of their salvation, opening their ears by their trouble. +Job 36:16 ... +Job 36:17 ... +Job 36:18 ... +Job 36:19 ... +Job 36:20 ... +Job 36:21 Take care not to be turned to sin, for you have taken evil for your part in place of sorrow. +Job 36:22 Truly God is lifted up in strength; who is a ruler like him? +Job 36:23 Who ever gave orders to him, or said to him, You have done wrong? +Job 36:24 See that you give praise to his work, about which men make songs. +Job 36:25 All people are looking on it; man sees it from far. +Job 36:26 Truly, God is great, greater than all our knowledge; the number of his years may not be searched out. +Job 36:27 For he takes up the drops from the sea; he sends them through his mist as rain, +Job 36:28 Flowing down from the sky, and dropping on the peoples. +Job 36:29 And who has knowledge of how the clouds are stretched out, or of the thunders of his tent? +Job 36:30 See, he is stretching out his mist, covering the tops of the mountains with it. +Job 36:31 For by these he gives food to the peoples, and bread in full measure. +Job 36:32 He takes the light in his hands, sending it against the mark. +Job 36:33 The thunder makes clear his passion, and the storm gives news of his wrath. +Job 37:1 At this my heart is shaking; it is moved out of its place. +Job 37:2 Give ear to the rolling noise of his voice; to the hollow sound which goes out of his mouth. +Job 37:3 He sends it out through all the heaven, and his thunder-flame to the ends of the earth. +Job 37:4 After it a voice is sounding, thundering out the word of his power; he does not keep back his thunder-flames; from his mouth his voice is sounding. +Job 37:5 He does wonders, more than may be searched out; great things of which we have no knowledge; +Job 37:6 For he says to the snow, Make the earth wet; and to the rain-storm, Come down. +Job 37:7 He puts an end to the work of every man, so that all may see his work. +Job 37:8 Then the beasts go into their holes, and take their rest. +Job 37:9 Out of its place comes the storm-wind, and the cold out of its store-houses. +Job 37:10 By the breath of God ice is made, and the wide waters are shut in. +Job 37:11 The thick cloud is weighted with thunder-flame, and the cloud sends out its light; +Job 37:12 And it goes this way and that, round about, turning itself by his guiding, to do whatever he gives orders to be done, on the face of his world of men, +Job 37:13 For a rod, or for a curse, or for mercy, causing it to come on the mark. +Job 37:14 Give ear to this, O Job, and keep quiet in your place; and take note of the wonders worked by God. +Job 37:15 Have you knowledge of God's ordering of his works, how he makes the light of his cloud to be seen? +Job 37:16 Have you knowledge of the balancings of the clouds, the wonders of him who has all wisdom? +Job 37:17 You, whose clothing is warm, when the earth is quiet because of the south wind, +Job 37:18 Will you, with him, make the skies smooth, and strong as a polished looking-glass? +Job 37:19 Make clear to me what we are to say to him; we are unable to put our cause before him, because of the dark. +Job 37:20 How may he have knowledge of my desire for talk with him? or did any man ever say, May destruction come on me? +Job 37:21 And now the light is not seen, for it is dark because of the clouds; but a wind comes, clearing them away. +Job 37:22 A bright light comes out of the north; God's glory is greatly to be feared. +Job 37:23 There is no searching out of the Ruler of all: his strength and his judging are great; he is full of righteousness, doing no wrong. +Job 37:24 For this cause men go in fear of him; he has no respect for any who are wise in heart. +Job 38:1 And the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind, and said, +Job 38:2 Who is this who makes the purpose of God dark by words without knowledge? +Job 38:3 Get your strength together like a man of war; I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers. +Job 38:4 Where were you when I put the earth on its base? Say, if you have knowledge. +Job 38:5 By whom were its measures fixed? Say, if you have wisdom; or by whom was the line stretched out over it? +Job 38:6 On what were its pillars based, or who put down its angle-stone, +Job 38:7 When the morning stars made songs together, and all the sons of the gods gave cries of joy? +Job 38:8 Or where were you when the sea came to birth, pushing out from its secret place; +Job 38:9 When I made the cloud its robe, and put thick clouds as bands round it, +Job 38:10 Ordering a fixed limit for it, with locks and doors; +Job 38:11 And said, So far you may come, and no farther; and here the pride of your waves will be stopped? +Job 38:12 Have you, from your earliest days, given orders to the morning, or made the dawn conscious of its place; +Job 38:13 So that it might take a grip of the skirts of the earth, shaking all the evil-doers out of it? +Job 38:14 It is changed like wet earth under a stamp, and is coloured like a robe; +Job 38:15 And from the evil-doers their light is kept back, and the arm of pride is broken. +Job 38:16 Have you come into the springs of the sea, walking in the secret places of the deep? +Job 38:17 Have the doors of death been open to you, or have the door-keepers of the dark ever seen you? +Job 38:18 Have you taken note of the wide limits of the earth? Say, if you have knowledge of it all. +Job 38:19 Which is the way to the resting-place of the light, and where is the store-house of the dark; +Job 38:20 So that you might take it to its limit, guiding it to its house? +Job 38:21 No doubt you have knowledge of it, for then you had come to birth, and the number of your days is great. +Job 38:22 Have you come into the secret place of snow, or have you seen the store-houses of the ice-drops, +Job 38:23 Which I have kept for the time of trouble, for the day of war and fighting? +Job 38:24 Which is the way to the place where the wind is measured out, and the east wind sent out over the earth? +Job 38:25 By whom has the way been cut for the flowing of the rain, and the flaming of the thunder; +Job 38:26 Causing rain to come on a land where no man is living, on the waste land which has no people; +Job 38:27 To give water to the land where there is waste and destruction, and to make the dry land green with young grass? +Job 38:28 Has the rain a father? or who gave birth to the drops of night mist? +Job 38:29 Out of whose body came the ice? and who gave birth to the cold mist of heaven? +Job 38:30 The waters are joined together, hard as a stone, and the face of the deep is covered. +Job 38:31 Are the bands of the Pleiades fixed by you, or are the cords of Orion made loose? +Job 38:32 Do you make Mazzaroth come out in its right time, or are the Bear and its children guided by you? +Job 38:33 Have you knowledge of the laws of the heavens? did you give them rule over the earth? +Job 38:34 Is your voice sent up to the cloud, so that you may be covered by the weight of waters? +Job 38:35 Do you send out the thunder-flames, so that they may go, and say to you, Here we are? +Job 38:36 Who has put wisdom in the high clouds, or given knowledge to the lights of the north? +Job 38:37 By whose wisdom are the clouds numbered, or the water-skins of the heavens turned to the earth, +Job 38:38 When the earth becomes hard as metal, and is joined together in masses? +Job 38:39 Do you go after food for the she-lion, or get meat so that the young lions may have enough, +Job 38:40 When they are stretched out in their holes, and are waiting in the brushwood? +Job 38:41 Who gives in the evening the meat he is searching for, when his young ones are crying to God; when the young lions with loud noise go wandering after their food? +Job 39:1 Have you knowledge of the rock-goats? or do you see the roes giving birth to their young? +Job 39:2 Is the number of their months fixed by you? or is the time when they give birth ordered by you? +Job 39:3 They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body. +Job 39:4 Their young ones are strong, living in the open country; they go out and do not come back again. +Job 39:5 Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast? +Job 39:6 To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and the salt land as a living-place. +Job 39:7 He makes sport of the noise of the town; the voice of the driver does not come to his ears; +Job 39:8 He goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains, searching out every green thing. +Job 39:9 Will the ox of the mountains be your servant? or is his night's resting-place by your food-store? +Job 39:10 Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up the valleys after you? +Job 39:11 Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care? +Job 39:12 Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in your seed to the crushing-floor? +Job 39:13 Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has no feathers, +Job 39:14 That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in the dust, +Job 39:15 Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot, and broken by the beasts of the field? +Job 39:16 She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers; her work is to no purpose; she has no fear. +Job 39:17 For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge. +Job 39:18 When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport of the horse and of him who is seated on him. +Job 39:19 Do you give strength to the horse? is it by your hand that his neck is clothed with power? +Job 39:20 Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath? +Job 39:21 He is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of fear. +Job 39:22 In his strength he goes out against the arms of war, turning not away from the sword. +Job 39:23 The bow is sounding against him; he sees the shining point of spear and arrow. +Job 39:24 Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth; he is not able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn; +Job 39:25 When it comes to his ears he says, Aha! He is smelling the fight from far off, and hearing the thunder of the captains, and the war-cries. +Job 39:26 Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his flight, stretching out his wings to the south? +Job 39:27 Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes his resting-place on high? +Job 39:28 On the rock is his house, and on the mountain-top his strong place. +Job 39:29 From there he is watching for food; his eye sees it far off. +Job 39:30 His young have blood for their drink, and where the dead bodies are, there is he to be seen. +Job 40:1 ... +Job 40:2 Will he who is protesting give teaching to the Ruler of all? Let him who has arguments to put forward against God give an answer. +Job 40:3 And Job said in answer to the Lord, +Job 40:4 Truly, I am of no value; what answer may I give to you? I will put my hand on my mouth. +Job 40:5 I have said once, and even twice, what was in my mind, but I will not do so again. +Job 40:6 Then the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind, and said, +Job 40:7 Get your strength together like a man of war: I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers. +Job 40:8 Will you even make my right of no value? will you say that I am wrong in order to make clear that you are right? +Job 40:9 Have you an arm like God? have you a voice of thunder like his? +Job 40:10 Put on the ornaments of your pride; be clothed with glory and power: +Job 40:11 Let your wrath be overflowing; let your eyes see all the sons of pride, and make them low. +Job 40:12 Send destruction on all who are lifted up, pulling down the sinners from their places. +Job 40:13 Let them be covered together in the dust; let their faces be dark in the secret place of the underworld. +Job 40:14 Then I will give praise to you, saying that your right hand is able to give you salvation. +Job 40:15 See now the Great Beast, whom I made, even as I made you; he takes grass for food, like the ox. +Job 40:16 His strength is in his body, and his force in the muscles of his stomach. +Job 40:17 His tail is curving like a cedar; the muscles of his legs are joined together. +Job 40:18 His bones are pipes of brass, his legs are like rods of iron. +Job 40:19 He is the chief of the ways of God, made by him for his pleasure. +Job 40:20 He takes the produce of the mountains, where all the beasts of the field are at play. +Job 40:21 He takes his rest under the trees of the river, and in the pool, under the shade of the water-plants. +Job 40:22 He is covered by the branches of the trees; the grasses of the stream are round him. +Job 40:23 Truly, if the river is overflowing, it gives him no cause for fear; he has no sense of danger, even if Jordan is rushing against his mouth. +Job 40:24 Will anyone take him when he is on the watch, or put metal teeth through his nose? +Job 41:1 Is it possible for Leviathan to be pulled out with a fish-hook, or for a hook to be put through the bone of his mouth? +Job 41:2 Will you put a cord into his nose, or take him away with a cord round his tongue? +Job 41:3 Will he make prayers to you, or say soft words to you? +Job 41:4 Will he make an agreement with you, so that you may take him as a servant for ever? +Job 41:5 Will you make sport with him, as with a bird? or put him in chains for your young women? +Job 41:6 Will the fishermen make profit out of him? will they have him cut up for the traders? +Job 41:7 Will you put sharp-pointed irons into his skin, or fish-spears into his head? +Job 41:8 Only put your hand on him, and see what a fight you will have; you will not do it again! +Job 41:9 Truly, the hope of his attacker is false; he is overcome even on seeing him! +Job 41:10 He is so cruel that no one is ready to go against him. Who then is able to keep his place before me? +Job 41:11 Who ever went against me, and got the better of me? There is no one under heaven! +Job 41:12 I will not keep quiet about the parts of his body, or about his power, and the strength of his frame. +Job 41:13 Who has ever taken off his outer skin? who may come inside his inner coat of iron? +Job 41:14 Who has made open the doors of his face? Fear is round about his teeth. +Job 41:15 His back is made of lines of plates, joined tight together, one against the other, like a stamp. +Job 41:16 One is so near to the other that no air may come between them. +Job 41:17 They take a grip of one another; they are joined together, so that they may not be parted. +Job 41:18 His sneezings give out flames, and his eyes are like the eyes of the dawn. +Job 41:19 Out of his mouth go burning lights, and flames of fire are jumping up. +Job 41:20 Smoke comes out of his nose, like a pot boiling on the fire. +Job 41:21 His breath puts fire to coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth. +Job 41:22 Strength is in his neck, and fear goes dancing before him. +Job 41:23 The plates of his flesh are joined together, fixed, and not to be moved. +Job 41:24 His heart is as strong as a stone, hard as the lower crushing-stone. +Job 41:25 When he gets ready for the fight, the strong are overcome with fear. +Job 41:26 The sword may come near him but is not able to go through him; the spear, or the arrow, or the sharp-pointed iron. +Job 41:27 Iron is to him as dry grass, and brass as soft wood. +Job 41:28 The arrow is not able to put him to flight: stones are no more to him than dry stems. +Job 41:29 A thick stick is no better than a leaf of grass, and he makes sport of the onrush of the spear. +Job 41:30 Under him are sharp edges of broken pots: as if he was pulling a grain-crushing instrument over the wet earth. +Job 41:31 The deep is boiling like a pot of spices, and the sea like a perfume-vessel. +Job 41:32 After him his way is shining, so that the deep seems white. +Job 41:33 On earth there is not another like him, who is made without fear. +Job 41:34 Everything which is high goes in fear of him; he is king over all the sons of pride. +Job 42:1 And Job said in answer to the Lord, +Job 42:2 I see that you are able to do every thing, and to give effect to all your designs. +Job 42:3 Who is this who makes dark the purpose of God by words without knowledge? For I have been talking without knowledge about wonders not to be searched out. +Job 42:4 Give ear to me, and I will say what is in my mind; I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers. +Job 42:5 Word of you had come to my ears, but now my eye has seen you. +Job 42:6 For this cause I give witness that what I said is false, and in sorrow I take my seat in the dust. +Job 42:7 And it came about, after he had said these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I am very angry with you and your two friends, because you have not said what is right about me, as my servant Job has. +Job 42:8 And now, take seven oxen and seven sheep, and go to my servant Job, and give a burned offering for yourselves, and my servant Job will make prayer for you, that I may not send punishment on you; because you have not said what is right about me, as my servant Job has. +Job 42:9 And Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, went and did as the Lord had said. And the Lord gave ear to Job. +Job 42:10 And the Lord made up to Job for all his losses, after he had made prayer for his friends: and all Job had before was increased by the Lord twice as much. +Job 42:11 And all his brothers and sisters, and his friends of earlier days, came and took food with him in his house; and made clear their grief for him, and gave him comfort for all the evil which the Lord had sent on him; and they all gave him a bit of money and a gold ring. +Job 42:12 And the Lord's blessing was greater on the end of Job's life than on its start: and so he came to have fourteen thousand sheep and goats, and six thousand camels, and two thousand oxen, and a thousand she-asses. +Job 42:13 And he had seven sons and three daughters. +Job 42:14 And he gave the first the name of Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch; +Job 42:15 And there were no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job in all the earth: and their father gave them a heritage among their brothers. +Job 42:16 And after this Job had a hundred and forty years of life, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations. +Job 42:17 And Job came to his end, old and full of days. +Psm 1:1 Happy is the man who does not go in the company of sinners, or take his place in the way of evil-doers, or in the seat of those who do not give honour to the Lord. +Psm 1:2 But whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and whose mind is on his law day and night. +Psm 1:3 He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, which gives its fruit at the right time, whose leaves will ever be green; and he will do well in all his undertakings. +Psm 1:4 The evil-doers are not so; but are like the dust from the grain, which the wind takes away. +Psm 1:5 For this cause there will be no mercy for sinners when they are judged, and the evil-doers will have no place among the upright, +Psm 1:6 Because the Lord sees the way of the upright, but the end of the sinner is destruction. +Psm 2:1 Why are the nations so violently moved, and why are the thoughts of the people so foolish? +Psm 2:2 The kings of the earth have taken their place, and the rulers are fixed in their purpose, against the Lord, and against the king of his selection, saying, +Psm 2:3 Let their chains be broken, and their cords taken from off us. +Psm 2:4 Then he whose seat is in the heavens will be laughing: the Lord will make sport of them. +Psm 2:5 Then will his angry words come to their ears, and by his wrath they will be troubled: +Psm 2:6 But I have put my king on my holy hill of Zion. +Psm 2:7 I will make clear the Lord's decision: he has said to me, You are my son, this day have I given you being. +Psm 2:8 Make your request to me, and I will give you the nations for your heritage, and the farthest limits of the earth will be under your hand. +Psm 2:9 They will be ruled by you with a rod of iron; they will be broken like a potter's vessel. +Psm 2:10 So now be wise, you kings: take his teaching, you judges of the earth. +Psm 2:11 Give worship to the Lord with fear, kissing his feet and giving him honour, +Psm 2:12 For fear that he may be angry, causing destruction to come on you, because he is quickly moved to wrath. Happy are all those who put their faith in him. +Psm 3:1 <A Psalm. Of David. When he went in flight from Absalom his son.> Lord, how greatly are they increased who make attacks on me! in great numbers they come against me. +Psm 3:2 Unnumbered are those who say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. (Selah.) +Psm 3:3 But your strength, O Lord, is round me, you are my glory and the lifter up of my head. +Psm 3:4 I send up a cry to the Lord with my voice, and he gives me an answer from his holy hill. (Selah.) +Psm 3:5 I took my rest in sleep, and then again I was awake; for the Lord was my support. +Psm 3:6 I will have no fear, though ten thousand have come round me, putting themselves against me. +Psm 3:7 Come to me, Lord; keep me safe, O my God; for you have given all my haters blows on their face-bones; the teeth of the evil-doers have been broken by you. +Psm 3:8 Salvation comes from the Lord; your blessing is on your people. (Selah.) +Psm 4:1 <To the chief music-maker on corded instruments. A Psalm. Of David.> Give answer to my cry, O God of my righteousness; make me free from my troubles; have mercy on me, and give ear to my prayer. +Psm 4:2 O you sons of men, how long will you go on turning my glory into shame? how long will you give your love to foolish things, going after what is false? (Selah.) +Psm 4:3 See how the Lord has made great his mercy for me; the Lord will give ear to my cry. +Psm 4:4 Let there be fear in your hearts, and do no sin; have bitter feelings on your bed, but make no sound. (Selah.) +Psm 4:5 Give the offerings of righteousness, and put your faith in the Lord. +Psm 4:6 There are numbers who say, Who will do us any good? the light of his face has gone from us. +Psm 4:7 Lord, you have put joy in my heart, more than they have when their grain and their wine are increased. +Psm 4:8 I will take my rest on my bed in peace, because you only, Lord, keep me safe. +Psm 5:1 <To the chief music-maker on wind instruments. A Psalm. Of David.> Give ear to my words, O Lord; give thought to my heart-searchings. +Psm 5:2 Let the voice of my cry come to you, my King and my God; for to you will I make my prayer. +Psm 5:3 My voice will come to you in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I send my prayer to you, and keep watch. +Psm 5:4 For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wrongdoing; there is no evil with you. +Psm 5:5 The sons of pride have no place before you; you are a hater of all workers of evil. +Psm 5:6 You will send destruction on those whose words are false; the cruel man and the man of deceit are hated by the Lord. +Psm 5:7 But as for me, I will come into your house, in the full measure of your mercy; and in your fear I will give worship, turning my eyes to your holy Temple. +Psm 5:8 Be my guide, O Lord, in the ways of your righteousness, because of those who are against me; make your way straight before my face. +Psm 5:9 For no faith may be put in their words; their inner part is nothing but evil; their throat is like an open place for the dead; smooth are the words of their tongues. +Psm 5:10 Send them to destruction, O Lord; let their evil designs be the cause of their fall; let them be forced out by all their sins; because they have gone against your authority. +Psm 5:11 But let all those who put their faith in you be glad with cries of joy at all times, and let all the lovers of your name be glad in you. +Psm 5:12 For you, Lord, will send a blessing on the upright man; your grace will be round him, and you will be his strength. +Psm 6:1 <To the chief music-maker on corded instruments, on the Sheminith. A Psalm. Of David.> O Lord, do not be bitter with me in your wrath; do not send punishment on me in the heat of your passion. +Psm 6:2 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am wasted away: make me well, for even my bones are troubled. +Psm 6:3 My soul is in bitter trouble; and you, O Lord, how long? +Psm 6:4 Come back, O Lord, make my soul free; O give me salvation because of your mercy. +Psm 6:5 For in death there is no memory of you; in the underworld who will give you praise? +Psm 6:6 The voice of my sorrow is a weariness to me; all the night I make my bed wet with weeping; it is watered by the drops flowing from my eyes. +Psm 6:7 My eyes are wasting away with trouble; they are becoming old because of all those who are against me. +Psm 6:8 Go from me, all you workers of evil; for the Lord has given ear to the voice of my weeping. +Psm 6:9 The Lord has given ear to my request; the Lord has let my prayer come before him. +Psm 6:10 Let all those who are against me be shamed and deeply troubled; let them be turned back and suddenly put to shame. +Psm 7:1 <Shiggaion of David; a song which he made to the Lord, about the words of Cush the Benjamite.> O Lord my God, I put my faith in you; take me out of the hands of him who is cruel to me, and make me free; +Psm 7:2 So that he may not come rushing on my soul like a lion, wounding it, while there is no one to be my saviour. +Psm 7:3 O Lord my God, if I have done this; if my hands have done any wrong; +Psm 7:4 If I have given back evil to him who did evil to me, or have taken anything from him who was against me without cause; +Psm 7:5 Let my hater go after my soul and take it; let my life be crushed to the earth, and my honour into the dust. (Selah.) +Psm 7:6 Come up, Lord, in your wrath; be lifted up against my haters; be awake, my God, give orders for the judging. +Psm 7:7 The meeting of the nations will be round you; take your seat, then, over them, on high. +Psm 7:8 The Lord will be judge of the peoples; give a decision for me, O Lord, because of my righteousness, and let my virtue have its reward. +Psm 7:9 O let the evil of the evil-doer come to an end, but give strength to the upright: for men's minds and hearts are tested by the God of righteousness. +Psm 7:10 God, who is the saviour of the upright in heart, is my breastplate. +Psm 7:11 God is the judge of the upright, and is angry with the evil-doers every day. +Psm 7:12 If a man is not turned from his evil, he will make his sword sharp; his bow is bent and ready. +Psm 7:13 He has made ready for him the instruments of death; he makes his arrows flames of fire. +Psm 7:14 That man is a worker of evil; the seed of wrongdoing has given birth to deceit. +Psm 7:15 He has made a hole deep in the earth, and is falling into the hole which he has made +Psm 7:16 His wrongdoing will come back to him, and his violent behaviour will come down on his head. +Psm 7:17 I will give praise to the Lord for his righteousness; I will make a song to the name of the Lord Most High. +Psm 8:1 <To the chief music-maker on the Gittith. A Psalm. Of David.> O Lord, our Lord, whose glory is higher than the heavens, how noble is your name in all the earth! +Psm 8:2 You have made clear your strength even out of the mouths of babies at the breast, because of those who are against you; so that you may put to shame the cruel and violent man. +Psm 8:3 When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have put in their places; +Psm 8:4 What is man, that you keep him in mind? the son of man, that you take him into account? +Psm 8:5 For you have made him only a little lower than the gods, crowning him with glory and honour. +Psm 8:6 You have made him ruler over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet; +Psm 8:7 All sheep and oxen, and all the beasts of the field; +Psm 8:8 The birds of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatever goes through the deep waters of the seas. +Psm 8:9 O Lord, our Lord, how noble is your name in all the earth! +Psm 9:1 <To the chief music-maker on Muthlabben. A Psalm. Of David.> I will give you praise, O Lord, with all my heart; I will make clear all the wonder of your works. +Psm 9:2 I will be glad and have delight in you: I will make a song of praise to your name, O Most High. +Psm 9:3 When my haters are turned back, they will be broken and overcome before you. +Psm 9:4 For you gave approval to my right and my cause; you were seated in your high place judging in righteousness. +Psm 9:5 You have said sharp words to the nations, you have sent destruction on the sinners, you have put an end to their name for ever and ever. +Psm 9:6 You have given their towns to destruction; the memory of them has gone; they have become waste for ever. +Psm 9:7 But the Lord is King for ever: he has made ready his high seat for judging. +Psm 9:8 And he will be the judge of the world in righteousness, giving true decisions for the peoples. +Psm 9:9 The Lord will be a high tower for those who are crushed down, a high tower in times of trouble; +Psm 9:10 And those who have knowledge of your name will put their faith in you; because you, Lord, have ever given your help to those who were waiting for you. +Psm 9:11 Make songs of praise to the Lord, whose house is in Zion: make his doings clear to the people. +Psm 9:12 When he makes search for blood, he has them in his memory: he is not without thought for the cry of the poor. +Psm 9:13 Have mercy on me, O Lord, and see how I am troubled by my haters; let me be lifted up from the doors of death; +Psm 9:14 So that I may make clear all your praise in the house of the daughter of Zion: I will be glad because of your salvation. +Psm 9:15 The nations have gone down into the hole which they made: in their secret net is their foot taken. +Psm 9:16 The Lord has given knowledge of himself through his judging: the evil-doer is taken in the net which his hands had made. (Higgaion. Selah.) +Psm 9:17 The sinners and all the nations who have no memory of God will be turned into the underworld. +Psm 9:18 For the poor will not be without help; the hopes of those in need will not be crushed for ever. +Psm 9:19 Up! O Lord; let not man overcome you: let the nations be judged before you. +Psm 9:20 Put them in fear, O Lord, so that the nations may see that they are only men. (Selah.) +Psm 10:1 Why do you keep far away, O Lord? why are you not to be seen in times of trouble? +Psm 10:2 The evil-doer in his pride is cruel to the poor; let him be taken by the tricks of his invention. +Psm 10:3 For the evil-doer is lifted up because of the purpose of his heart, and he whose mind is fixed on wealth is turned away from the Lord, saying evil against him. +Psm 10:4 The evil-doer in his pride says, God will not make a search. All his thoughts are, There is no God. +Psm 10:5 His ways are ever fixed; your decisions are higher than he may see: as for his haters, they are as nothing to him. +Psm 10:6 He has said in his heart, I will not be moved: through all generations I will never be in trouble. +Psm 10:7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and false words: under his tongue are evil purposes and dark thoughts. +Psm 10:8 He is waiting in the dark places of the towns: in the secret places he puts to death those who have done no wrong: his eyes are secretly turned against the poor. +Psm 10:9 He keeps himself in a secret place like a lion in his hole, waiting to put his hands on the poor man, and pulling him into his net. +Psm 10:10 The upright are crushed and made low, and the feeble are overcome by his strong ones. +Psm 10:11 He says in his heart, God has no memory of me: his face is turned away; he will never see it. +Psm 10:12 Up! O Lord; let your hand be lifted: give thought to the poor. +Psm 10:13 Why has the evil-doer a low opinion of God, saying in his heart, You will not make search for it? +Psm 10:14 You have seen it; for your eyes are on sorrow and grief, to take it into your hand: the poor man puts his faith in you; you have been the helper of the child who has no father. +Psm 10:15 Let the arm of the sinner and the evil-doer be broken; go on searching for his sin till there is no more. +Psm 10:16 The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations are gone from his land. +Psm 10:17 Lord, you have given ear to the prayer of the poor: you will make strong their hearts, you will give them a hearing: +Psm 10:18 To give decision for the child without a father and for the broken-hearted, so that the man of the earth may no longer be feared. +Psm 11:1 <For the chief music-maker. Of David.> In the Lord put I my faith; how will you say to my soul, Go in flight like a bird to the mountain? +Psm 11:2 See, the bows of the evil-doers are bent, they make ready their arrows on the cord, so that they may send them secretly against the upright in heart. +Psm 11:3 If the bases are broken down, what is the upright man to do? +Psm 11:4 The Lord is in his holy Temple, the Lord's seat is in heaven; his eyes are watching and testing the children of men. +Psm 11:5 The Lord puts the upright and the sinner to the test, but he has hate in his soul for the lover of violent acts. +Psm 11:6 On the evil-doer he will send down fire and flames, and a burning wind; with these will their cup be full. +Psm 11:7 For the Lord is upright; he is a lover of righteousness: the upright will see his face. +Psm 12:1 <For the chief music-maker on the Sheminith. A Psalm. Of David.> Send help, Lord, for mercy has come to an end; there is no more faith among the children of men. +Psm 12:2 Everyone says false words to his neighbour: their tongues are smooth in their talk, and their hearts are full of deceit. +Psm 12:3 The smooth lips and the tongue of pride will be cut off by the Lord. +Psm 12:4 They have said, With our tongues will we overcome; our lips are ours: who is lord over us? +Psm 12:5 Because of the crushing of the poor and the weeping of those in need, now will I come to his help, says the Lord; I will give him the salvation which he is desiring. +Psm 12:6 The words of the Lord are true words: like silver tested by fire and burned clean seven times. +Psm 12:7 You will keep them, O Lord, you will keep them safe from this generation for ever. +Psm 12:8 The sinners are walking on every side, and evil is honoured among the children of men. +Psm 13:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.> Will you for ever put me out of your memory, O Lord? will your face for ever be turned away from me? +Psm 13:2 How long is my soul to be in doubt, with sorrow in my heart all the day? how long will he who is against me be given power over me? +Psm 13:3 Let my voice come before you, and give me an answer, O Lord my God; let your light be shining on me, so that the sleep of death may not overtake me; +Psm 13:4 And he who is against me may not say, I have overcome him; and those who are troubling me may not be glad when I am moved. +Psm 13:5 But I have had faith in your mercy; my heart will be glad in your salvation. +Psm 13:6 I will make a song to the Lord, because he has given me my reward. +Psm 14:1 <To the chief music-maker. Of David.> The foolish man has said in his heart, God will not do anything. They are unclean, they have done evil works; there is not one who does good. +Psm 14:2 The Lord was looking down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who had wisdom, searching after God. +Psm 14:3 They have all gone out of the way together; they are unclean, there is not one who does good, no, not one. +Psm 14:4 Have all the workers of evil no knowledge? they take my people for food as they would take bread; they make no prayer to the Lord. +Psm 14:5 Then were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the upright. +Psm 14:6 You have put to shame the thoughts of the poor, but the Lord is his support. +Psm 14:7 May the salvation of Israel come out of Zion! when the fate of his people is changed by the Lord, Jacob will have joy and Israel will be glad. +Psm 15:1 <A Psalm. Of David.> Lord, who may have a resting-place in your tent, a living-place on your holy hill? +Psm 15:2 He who goes on his way uprightly, doing righteousness, and saying what is true in his heart; +Psm 15:3 Whose tongue is not false, who does no evil to his friend, and does not take away the good name of his neighbour; +Psm 15:4 Who gives honour to those who have the fear of the Lord, turning away from him who has not the Lord's approval. He who takes an oath against himself, and makes no change. +Psm 15:5 He who does not put out his money at interest, or for payment give false decisions against men who have done no wrong. He who does these things will never be moved. +Psm 16:1 <Michtam. Of David.> Keep me safe, O God: for in you I have put my faith. +Psm 16:2 O my soul, you have said to the Lord, You are my Lord: I have no good but you. +Psm 16:3 As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the noble in whom is all my delight. +Psm 16:4 Their sorrows will be increased who go after another god: I will not take drink offerings from their hands, or take their names on my lips. +Psm 16:5 The Lord is my heritage and the wine of my cup; you are the supporter of my right. +Psm 16:6 Fair are the places marked out for me; I have a noble heritage. +Psm 16:7 I will give praise to the Lord who has been my guide; knowledge comes to me from my thoughts in the night. +Psm 16:8 I have put the Lord before me at all times; because he is at my right hand, I will not be moved. +Psm 16:9 Because of this my heart is glad, and my glory is full of joy: while my flesh takes its rest in hope. +Psm 16:10 For you will not let my soul be prisoned in the underworld; you will not let your loved one see the place of death. +Psm 16:11 You will make clear to me the way of life; where you are joy is complete; in your right hand there are pleasures for ever and ever. +Psm 17:1 <A Prayer. Of David.> Let my cause come to your ears, O Lord, give attention to my cry; give ear to my prayer which goes not out from false lips. +Psm 17:2 Be my judge; for your eyes see what is right. +Psm 17:3 You have put my heart to the test, searching me in the night; you have put me to the test and seen no evil purpose in me; I will keep my mouth from sin. +Psm 17:4 As for the works of men, by the word of your lips I have kept myself from the ways of the violent. +Psm 17:5 I have kept my feet in your ways, my steps have not been turned away. +Psm 17:6 My cry has gone up to you, for you will give me an answer, O God: let your ear be turned to me, and give attention to my words. +Psm 17:7 Make clear the wonder of your mercy, O saviour of those who put their faith in your right hand, from those who come out against them. +Psm 17:8 Keep me as the light of your eyes, covering me with the shade of your wings, +Psm 17:9 From the evil-doers who are violent to me, and from those who are round me, desiring my death. +Psm 17:10 They are shut up in their fat: with their mouths they say words of pride. +Psm 17:11 They have made a circle round our steps: their eyes are fixed on us, forcing us down to the earth; +Psm 17:12 Like a lion desiring its food, and like a young lion waiting in secret places. +Psm 17:13 Up! Lord, come out against him, make him low, with your sword be my saviour from the evil-doer. +Psm 17:14 With your hand, O Lord, from men, even men of the world, whose heritage is in this life, and whom you make full with your secret wealth: they are full of children; after their death their offspring take the rest of their goods. +Psm 17:15 As for me, I will see your face in righteousness: when I am awake it will be joy enough for me to see your form. +Psm 18:1 <To the chief music-maker. Of the servant of the Lord, of David, who said the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord made him free from the hand of all his haters, and from the hand of Saul; and he said,> I will give you my love, O Lord, my strength. +Psm 18:2 The Lord is my Rock, my walled town, and my saviour; my God, my Rock, in him will I put my faith; my breastplate, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. +Psm 18:3 I will send up my cry to the Lord, who is to be praised; so will I be made safe from those who are against me. +Psm 18:4 The cords of death were round me, and the seas of evil put me in fear. +Psm 18:5 The cords of hell were round me: the nets of death came on me. +Psm 18:6 In my trouble my voice went up to the Lord, and my cry to my God: my voice came to his hearing in his holy Temple, and my prayer came before him, even into his ears. +Psm 18:7 Then trouble and shock came on the earth; and the bases of the mountains were moved and shaking, because he was angry. +Psm 18:8 There went up a smoke from his nose, and a fire of destruction from his mouth: flames were lighted by it. +Psm 18:9 The heavens were bent, so that he might come down; and it was dark under his feet. +Psm 18:10 And he went in flight through the air, seated on a storm-cloud: going quickly on the wings of the wind. +Psm 18:11 He made the dark his secret place; his tent round him was the dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. +Psm 18:12 Before his shining light his dark clouds went past, raining ice and fire. +Psm 18:13 The Lord made thunder in the heavens, and the voice of the Highest was sounding out: a rain of ice and fire. +Psm 18:14 He sent out his arrows, driving them in all directions; by his flames of fire they were troubled. +Psm 18:15 Then the deep beds of the waters were seen, and the bases of the world were uncovered, because of your words of wrath, O Lord, because of the breath from your mouth. +Psm 18:16 He sent from on high, he took me, pulling me out of great waters. +Psm 18:17 He made me free from my strong hater, and from those who were against me, because they were stronger than I. +Psm 18:18 They came on me in the day of my trouble; but the Lord was my support. +Psm 18:19 He took me out into a wide place; he was my saviour because he had delight in me. +Psm 18:20 The Lord gives me the reward of my righteousness, because my hands are clean before him. +Psm 18:21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not been turned away in sin from my God. +Psm 18:22 For all his decisions were before me, and I did not put away his laws from me. +Psm 18:23 And I was upright before him, and I kept myself from sin. +Psm 18:24 Because of this the Lord has given me the reward of my righteousness, because my hands are clean in his eyes. +Psm 18:25 On him who has mercy you will have mercy; to the upright you will be upright; +Psm 18:26 He who is holy will see that you are holy; but to the man whose way is not straight you will be a hard judge. +Psm 18:27 For you are the saviour of those who are in trouble; but eyes full of pride will be made low. +Psm 18:28 You, O Lord, will be my light; by you, my God, the dark will be made bright for me. +Psm 18:29 By your help I have made a way through the wall which was shutting me in; by the help of my God I have gone over a wall. +Psm 18:30 As for God, his way is completely good; the word of the Lord is tested; he is a breastplate for all those who put their faith in him. +Psm 18:31 For who is God but the Lord? or who is a Rock but our God? +Psm 18:32 God puts a strong band about me, guiding me in a straight way. +Psm 18:33 He makes my feet like roes' feet, and puts me on high places. +Psm 18:34 He makes my hands expert in war, so that a bow of brass is bent by my arms. +Psm 18:35 You have given me the breastplate of your salvation: your right hand has been my support, and your mercy has made me great. +Psm 18:36 You have made my steps wide under me, so that my feet are kept from slipping. +Psm 18:37 I go after my haters and overtake them; not turning back till they are all overcome. +Psm 18:38 I will give them wounds, so that they are not able to get up: they are stretched under my feet. +Psm 18:39 For I have been armed by you with strength for the fight: you have made low under me those who come out against me. +Psm 18:40 By you their backs are turned in flight, so that my haters are cut off. +Psm 18:41 They were crying out, but there was no one to come to their help: even to the Lord, but he gave them no answer. +Psm 18:42 Then they were crushed as small as dust before the wind; they were drained out like the waste of the streets. +Psm 18:43 You have made me free from the fightings of the people; you have made me the head of the nations: a people of whom I had no knowledge will be my servants. +Psm 18:44 From the time when my name comes to their ears they will be ruled by me: men of other countries will, with false hearts, put themselves under my authority. +Psm 18:45 They will be wasting away, they will come out of their secret places shaking with fear. +Psm 18:46 The Lord is living; praise be to my Rock, and let the God of my salvation be honoured. +Psm 18:47 It is God who sends punishment on my haters, and puts peoples under my rule. +Psm 18:48 He makes me free from my haters; I am lifted up over those who come up against me: you have made me free from the violent man. +Psm 18:49 Because of this I will give you praise, O Lord, among the nations, and will make a song of praise to your name. +Psm 18:50 Great salvation does he give to his king; he has mercy on the king of his selection, David, and on his seed for ever. +Psm 19:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.> The heavens are sounding the glory of God; the arch of the sky makes clear the work of his hands. +Psm 19:2 Day after day it sends out its word, and night after night it gives knowledge. +Psm 19:3 There are no words or language; their voice makes no sound. +Psm 19:4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them has he put a tent for the sun, +Psm 19:5 Who is like a newly married man coming from his bride-tent, and is glad like a strong runner starting on his way. +Psm 19:6 His going out is from the end of the heaven, and his circle to the ends of it; there is nothing which is not open to his heat. +Psm 19:7 The law of the Lord is good, giving new life to the soul: the witness of the Lord is certain, giving wisdom to the foolish. +Psm 19:8 The orders of the Lord are right, making glad the heart: the rule of the Lord is holy, giving light to the eyes. +Psm 19:9 The fear of the Lord is clean, and has no end; the decisions of the Lord are true and full of righteousness. +Psm 19:10 More to be desired are they than gold, even than much shining gold; sweeter than the dropping honey. +Psm 19:11 By them is your servant made conscious of danger, and in keeping them there is great reward. +Psm 19:12 Who has full knowledge of his errors? make me clean from secret evil. +Psm 19:13 Keep your servant back from sins of pride; let them not have rule over me: then will I be upright and free from great sin. +Psm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing in your eyes, O Lord, my strength and my salvation. +Psm 20:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.> May the Lord give ear to you in the day of trouble; may you be placed on high by the name of the God of Jacob; +Psm 20:2 May he send you help from the holy place, and give you strength from Zion; +Psm 20:3 May he keep all your offerings in mind, and be pleased with the fat of your burned offerings; (Selah.) +Psm 20:4 May he give you your heart's desire, and put all your purposes into effect. +Psm 20:5 We will be glad in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will put up our flags: may the Lord give you all your requests. +Psm 20:6 Now am I certain that the Lord gives salvation to his king; he will give him an answer from his holy heaven with the strength of salvation in his right hand. +Psm 20:7 Some put their faith in carriages and some in horses; but we will be strong in the name of the Lord our God. +Psm 20:8 They are bent down and made low; but we have been lifted up. +Psm 20:9 Come to our help, Lord: let the king give ear to our cry. +Psm 21:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.> The king will be glad in your strength, O Lord; how great will be his delight in your salvation! +Psm 21:2 You have given him his heart's desire, and have not kept back the request of his lips. (Selah.) +Psm 21:3 For you go before him with the blessings of good things: you put a crown of fair gold on his head. +Psm 21:4 He made request to you for life, and you gave it to him, long life for ever and ever. +Psm 21:5 His glory is great in your salvation: honour and authority have you put on him. +Psm 21:6 For you have made him a blessing for ever: you have given him joy in the light of your face. +Psm 21:7 For the king has faith in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High he will not be moved. +Psm 21:8 Your hand will make a search for all your haters; your right hand will be hard on all those who are against you. +Psm 21:9 You will make them like a flaming oven before you; the Lord in his wrath will put an end to them, and they will be burned up in the fire. +Psm 21:10 Their fruit will be cut off from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. +Psm 21:11 For their thoughts were bitter against you: they had an evil design in their minds, which they were not able to put into effect. +Psm 21:12 Their backs will be turned when you make ready the cords of your bow against their faces. +Psm 21:13 Be lifted up, O Lord, in your strength; so will we make songs in praise of your power. +Psm 22:1 <To the chief music-maker on Aijeleth-hash-shahar. A Psalm. Of David.> My God, my God, why are you turned away from me? why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my crying? +Psm 22:2 O my God, I make my cry in the day, and you give no answer; and in the night, and have no rest. +Psm 22:3 But you are holy, O you who are seated among the praises of Israel. +Psm 22:4 Our fathers had faith in you: they had faith and you were their saviour. +Psm 22:5 They sent up their cry to you and were made free: they put their faith in you and were not put to shame. +Psm 22:6 But I am a worm and not a man; cursed by men, and looked down on by the people. +Psm 22:7 I am laughed at by all those who see me: pushing out their lips and shaking their heads they say, +Psm 22:8 He put his faith in the Lord; let the Lord be his saviour now: let the Lord be his saviour, because he had delight in him. +Psm 22:9 But it was you who took care of me from the day of my birth: you gave me faith even from my mother's breasts. +Psm 22:10 I was in your hands even before my birth; you are my God from the time when I was in my mother's body. +Psm 22:11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near; there is no one to give help. +Psm 22:12 A great herd of oxen is round me: I am shut in by the strong oxen of Bashan. +Psm 22:13 I saw their mouths wide open, like lions crying after food. +Psm 22:14 I am flowing away like water, and all my bones are out of place: my heart is like wax, it has become soft in my body. +Psm 22:15 My throat is dry like a broken vessel; my tongue is fixed to the roof of my mouth, and the dust of death is on my lips. +Psm 22:16 Dogs have come round me: I am shut in by the band of evil-doers; they made wounds in my hands and feet. +Psm 22:17 I am able to see all my bones; their looks are fixed on me: +Psm 22:18 They make a division of my robes among them, by the decision of chance they take my clothing. +Psm 22:19 Do not be far from me, O Lord: O my strength, come quickly to my help. +Psm 22:20 Make my soul safe from the sword, my life from the power of the dog. +Psm 22:21 Be my saviour from the lion's mouth; let me go free from the horns of the cruel oxen. +Psm 22:22 I will give the knowledge of your name to my brothers: I will give you praise among the people. +Psm 22:23 You who have fear of the Lord, give him praise; all you seed of Jacob, give him glory; go in fear of him, all you seed of Israel. +Psm 22:24 For he has not been unmoved by the pain of him who is troubled; or kept his face covered from him; but he has given an answer to his cry. +Psm 22:25 My praise will be of you in the great meeting: I will make my offerings before his worshippers. +Psm 22:26 The poor will have a feast of good things: those who make search for the Lord will give him praise: your heart will have life for ever. +Psm 22:27 All the ends of the earth will keep it in mind and be turned to the Lord: all the families of the nations will give him worship. +Psm 22:28 For the kingdom is the Lord's; he is the ruler among the nations. +Psm 22:29 All the fat ones of the earth will give him worship; all those who go down to the dust will make themselves low before him, even he who has not enough for the life of his soul. +Psm 22:30 A seed will be his servant; the doings of the Lord will be made clear to the generation which comes after. +Psm 22:31 They will come and make his righteousness clear to a people of the future because he has done this. +Psm 23:1 <A Psalm. Of David.> The Lord takes care of me as his sheep; I will not be without any good thing. +Psm 23:2 He makes a resting-place for me in the green fields: he is my guide by the quiet waters. +Psm 23:3 He gives new life to my soul: he is my guide in the ways of righteousness because of his name. +Psm 23:4 Yes, though I go through the valley of deep shade, I will have no fear of evil; for you are with me, your rod and your support are my comfort. +Psm 23:5 You make ready a table for me in front of my haters: you put oil on my head; my cup is overflowing. +Psm 23:6 Truly, blessing and mercy will be with me all the days of my life; and I will have a place in the house of the Lord all my days. +Psm 24:1 <A Psalm. Of David.> The earth is the Lord's, with all its wealth; the world and all the people living in it. +Psm 24:2 For by him it was based on the seas, and made strong on the deep rivers. +Psm 24:3 Who may go up into the hill of the Lord? and who may come into his holy place? +Psm 24:4 He who has clean hands and a true heart; whose desire has not gone out to foolish things, who has not taken a false oath. +Psm 24:5 He will have blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. +Psm 24:6 This is the generation of those whose hearts are turned to you, even to your face, O God of Jacob. (Selah.) +Psm 24:7 Let your heads be lifted up, O doors; be lifted up, O you eternal doors: that the King of glory may come in. +Psm 24:8 Who is the King of glory? The Lord of strength and power, the Lord strong in war. +Psm 24:9 Let your heads be lifted up, O doors; let them be lifted up, O you eternal doors: that the King of glory may come in. +Psm 24:10 Who is the King of glory? The Lord of armies, he is the King of glory. (Selah.) +Psm 25:1 <Of David.> To you, O Lord, my soul is lifted up. +Psm 25:2 O my God, I have put my faith in you, let me not be shamed; let not my haters be glorying over me. +Psm 25:3 Let no servant of yours be put to shame; may those be shamed who are false without cause. +Psm 25:4 Make your steps clear to me, O Lord; give me knowledge of your ways. +Psm 25:5 Be my guide and teacher in the true way; for you are the God of my salvation; I am waiting for your word all the day. +Psm 25:6 O Lord, keep in mind your pity and your mercies; for they have been from the earliest times. +Psm 25:7 Do not keep in mind my sins when I was young, or my wrongdoing: let your memory of me be full of mercy, O Lord, because of your righteousness. +Psm 25:8 Good and upright is the Lord: so he will be the teacher of sinners in the way. +Psm 25:9 He will be an upright guide to the poor in spirit: he will make his way clear to them. +Psm 25:10 All the ways of the Lord are mercy and good faith for those who keep his agreement and his witness. +Psm 25:11 Because of your name, O Lord, let me have forgiveness for my sin, which is very great. +Psm 25:12 If a man has the fear of the Lord, the Lord will be his teacher in the way of his pleasure. +Psm 25:13 His soul will be full of good things, and his seed will have the earth for its heritage. +Psm 25:14 The secret of the Lord is with those in whose hearts is the fear of him; he will make his agreement clear to them. +Psm 25:15 My eyes are turned to the Lord at all times; for he will take my feet out of the net. +Psm 25:16 Be turned to me, and have mercy on me; for I am troubled and have no helper. +Psm 25:17 The troubles of my heart are increased: O take me out of my sorrows. +Psm 25:18 Give thought to my grief and my pain; and take away all my sins. +Psm 25:19 See how those who are against me are increased, for bitter is their hate of me. +Psm 25:20 O keep my soul, and take me out of danger: let me not be shamed, for I have put my faith in you. +Psm 25:21 For my clean and upright ways keep me safe, because my hope is in you. +Psm 25:22 Give Israel salvation, O God, out of all his troubles. +Psm 26:1 <Of David.> O Lord, be my judge, for my behaviour has been upright: I have put my faith in the Lord, I am not in danger of slipping. +Psm 26:2 Put me in the scales, O Lord, so that I may be tested; let the fire make clean my thoughts and my heart. +Psm 26:3 For your mercy is before my eyes; and I have gone in the way of your good faith. +Psm 26:4 I have not taken my seat with foolish persons, and I do not go with false men. +Psm 26:5 I have been a hater of the band of wrongdoers, and I will not be seated among sinners. +Psm 26:6 I will make my hands clean from sin; so will I go round your altar, O Lord; +Psm 26:7 That I may give out the voice of praise, and make public all the wonders which you have done. +Psm 26:8 Lord, your house has been dear to me, and the resting-place of your glory. +Psm 26:9 Let not my soul be numbered among sinners, or my life among men of blood; +Psm 26:10 In whose hands are evil designs, and whose right hands take money for judging falsely. +Psm 26:11 But as for me, I will go on in my upright ways: be my saviour, and have mercy on me. +Psm 26:12 I have a safe resting-place for my feet; I will give praise to the Lord in the meetings of the people. +Psm 27:1 <Of David.> The Lord is my light and my salvation; who is then a cause of fear to me? the Lord is the strength of my life; who is a danger to me? +Psm 27:2 When evil-doers, even my haters, came on me to put an end to me, they were broken and put to shame. +Psm 27:3 Even if an army came against me with its tents, my heart would have no fear: if war was made on me, my faith would not be moved. +Psm 27:4 One prayer have I made to the Lord, and this is my heart's desire; that I may have a place in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, looking on his glory, and getting wisdom in his Temple. +Psm 27:5 For in the time of trouble he will keep me safe in his tent: in the secret place of his tent he will keep me from men's eyes; high on a rock he will put me. +Psm 27:6 And now my head will be lifted up higher than my haters who are round me: because of this I will make offerings of joy in his tent; I will make a song, truly I will make a song of praise to the Lord. +Psm 27:7 O Lord, let the voice of my cry come to your ears: have mercy on me, and give me an answer. +Psm 27:8 When you said, Make search for my face, my heart said to you, For your face will I make my search. +Psm 27:9 Let not your face be covered from me; do not put away your servant in wrath; you have been my help: do not give me up or take your support from me, O God of my salvation. +Psm 27:10 When my father and my mother are turned away from me, then the Lord will be my support. +Psm 27:11 Make your way clear to me, O Lord, guiding me by the right way, because of my haters. +Psm 27:12 Do not give me into their hands, because false witnesses have come out against me, and men breathing destruction. +Psm 27:13 I had almost given up my hope of seeing the blessing of the Lord in the land of the living. +Psm 27:14 Let your hope be in the Lord: take heart and be strong; yes, let your hope be in the Lord. +Psm 28:1 <Of David.> My cry goes up to you, O Lord, my Rock; do not keep back your answer from me, so that I may not become like those who go down into the underworld. +Psm 28:2 Give ear to the voice of my prayer, when I am crying to you, when my hands are lifted up to your holy place. +Psm 28:3 Do not take me away with the sinners and the workers of evil, who say words of peace to their neighbours, but evil is in their hearts. +Psm 28:4 Give them the right reward of their acts, and of their evil doings: give them punishment for the works of their hands, let them have their full reward. +Psm 28:5 Because they have no respect for the works of the Lord, or for the things which his hands have made, they will be broken down and not lifted up by him. +Psm 28:6 May the Lord be praised, because he has given ear to the voice of my prayer. +Psm 28:7 The Lord is my strength and my breastplate, my heart had faith in him and I am helped; for this cause my heart is full of rapture, and I will give him praise in my song. +Psm 28:8 The Lord is their strength, and a strong place of salvation for his king. +Psm 28:9 Be a saviour to your people, and send a blessing on your heritage: be their guide, and let them be lifted up for ever. +Psm 29:1 <A Psalm. Of David.> Give to the Lord, you sons of the gods, give to the Lord glory and strength. +Psm 29:2 Give to the Lord the full glory of his name; give him worship in holy robes. +Psm 29:3 The voice of the Lord is on the waters: the God of glory is thundering, the Lord is on the great waters. +Psm 29:4 The voice of the Lord is full of power; the voice of the Lord has a noble sound. +Psm 29:5 By the voice of the Lord are the cedar-trees broken, even the cedars of Lebanon are broken by the Lord. +Psm 29:6 He makes them go jumping about like a young ox; Lebanon and Sirion like a young mountain ox. +Psm 29:7 At the voice of the Lord flames of fire are seen. +Psm 29:8 At the voice of the Lord there is a shaking in the waste land, even a shaking in the waste land of Kadesh. +Psm 29:9 At the voice of the Lord the roes give birth, the leaves are taken from the trees: in his Temple everything says, Glory. +Psm 29:10 The Lord had his seat as king when the waters came on the earth; the Lord is seated as king for ever. +Psm 29:11 The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will give his people the blessing of peace. +Psm 30:1 <A Psalm. A Song at the blessing of the House. Of David.> I will give you praise and honour, O Lord, because through you I have been lifted up; you have not given my haters cause to be glad over me. +Psm 30:2 O Lord my God, I sent up my cry to you, and you have made me well. +Psm 30:3 O Lord, you have made my soul come again from the underworld: you have given me life and kept me from going down among the dead. +Psm 30:4 Make songs to the Lord, O you saints of his, and give praise to his holy name. +Psm 30:5 For his wrath is only for a minute; in his grace there is life; weeping may be for a night, but joy comes in the morning. +Psm 30:6 When things went well for me I said, I will never be moved. +Psm 30:7 Lord, by your grace you have kept my mountain strong: when your face was turned from me I was troubled. +Psm 30:8 My voice went up to you, O Lord; I made my prayer to the Lord. +Psm 30:9 What profit is there in my blood if I go down into the underworld? will the dust give you praise, or be a witness to your help? +Psm 30:10 Give ear to me, O Lord, and have mercy on me: Lord, be my helper. +Psm 30:11 By you my sorrow is turned into dancing; you have taken away my clothing of grief, and given me robes of joy; +Psm 30:12 So that my glory may make songs of praise to you and not be quiet. O Lord my God, I will give you praise for ever. +Psm 31:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.> In you, O Lord, have I put my hope; let me never be shamed; keep me safe in your righteousness. +Psm 31:2 Let your ear be turned to me; take me quickly out of danger; be my strong Rock, my place of strength where I may be safe. +Psm 31:3 For you are my Rock and my strong tower; go in front of me and be my guide, because of your name. +Psm 31:4 Take me out of the net which they have put ready for me secretly; for you are my strength. +Psm 31:5 Into your hands I give my spirit; you are my saviour, O Lord God for ever true. +Psm 31:6 I am full of hate for those who go after false gods; but my hope is in the Lord. +Psm 31:7 I will be glad and have delight in your mercy; because you have seen my trouble; you have had pity on my soul in its sorrows; +Psm 31:8 And you have not given me into the hand of my hater; you have put my feet in a wide place. +Psm 31:9 Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; my eyes are wasted with grief, I am wasted in soul and body. +Psm 31:10 My life goes on in sorrow, and my years in weeping; my strength is almost gone because of my sin, and my bones are wasted away. +Psm 31:11 Because of all those who are against me, I have become a word of shame to my neighbours; a cause of shaking the head and a fear to my friends: those who saw me in the street went in flight from me. +Psm 31:12 I have gone from men's minds and memory like a dead man; I am like a broken vessel. +Psm 31:13 False statements against me have come to my ears; fear was on every side: they were talking together against me, designing to take away my life. +Psm 31:14 But I had faith in you, O Lord; I said, You are my God. +Psm 31:15 The chances of my life are in your hand; take me out of the hands of my haters, and of those who go after me. +Psm 31:16 Let your servant see the light of your face; in your mercy be my saviour. +Psm 31:17 Let me not be shamed, O Lord, for I have made my prayer to you; let the sinners be shamed, and let their mouths be shut in the underworld. +Psm 31:18 Let the false lips be shut, which say evil against the upright, looking down on him in their pride. +Psm 31:19 O how great is your grace, which you have put in store for your worshippers, and which you have made clear to those who had faith in you, before the sons of men! +Psm 31:20 You will keep them safe in your house from the designs of man; in the secret of your tent will you keep them from angry tongues. +Psm 31:21 May the Lord be praised, because he has made clear to me the wonder of his grace in a strong town. +Psm 31:22 And as for me, I said in my fear, I am cut off from before your eyes; but you gave ear to the voice of my prayer, when my cry went up to you. +Psm 31:23 O have love for the Lord, all you his saints; for the Lord keeps safe from danger all those who are true to him, and gives the workers of pride their right reward. +Psm 31:24 Put away fear and let your heart be strong, all you whose hope is in the Lord. +Psm 32:1 <Of David. Maschil.> Happy is he who has forgiveness for his wrongdoing, and whose sin is covered. +Psm 32:2 Happy is the man in whom the Lord sees no evil, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. +Psm 32:3 When I kept my mouth shut, my bones were wasted, because of my crying all through the day. +Psm 32:4 For the weight of your hand was on me day and night; my body became dry like the earth in summer. (Selah.) +Psm 32:5 I made my wrongdoing clear to you, and did not keep back my sin. I said, I will put it all before the Lord; and you took away my wrongdoing and my sin. (Selah.) +Psm 32:6 For this cause let every saint make his prayer to you at a time when you are near: then the overflowing of the great waters will not overtake him. +Psm 32:7 You are my safe and secret place; you will keep me from trouble; you will put songs of salvation on the lips of those who are round me. (Selah.) +Psm 32:8 I will give you knowledge, teaching you the way to go; my eye will be your guide. +Psm 32:9 Do not be like the horse or the ass, without sense; ... +Psm 32:10 The sinner will be full of trouble; but mercy will be round the man who has faith in the Lord. +Psm 32:11 Be glad in the Lord with joy, you upright men; give cries of joy, all you whose hearts are true. +Psm 33:1 Be glad in the Lord, O doers of righteousness; for praise is beautiful for the upright. +Psm 33:2 Give praise to the Lord on the corded instrument; make melody to him with instruments of music. +Psm 33:3 Make a new song to him; playing expertly with a loud noise. +Psm 33:4 For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his works are certain. +Psm 33:5 His delight is in righteousness and wisdom; the earth is full of the mercy of the Lord. +Psm 33:6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the army of heaven by the breath of his mouth. +Psm 33:7 He makes the waters of the sea come together in a mass; he keeps the deep seas in store-houses. +Psm 33:8 Let the earth be full of the fear of the Lord; let all the people of the world be in holy fear of him. +Psm 33:9 For he gave the word, and it was done; by his order it was fixed for ever. +Psm 33:10 The Lord undoes the designs of the nations; he makes the thoughts of the peoples without effect. +Psm 33:11 The Lord's purpose is eternal, the designs of his heart go on through all the generations of man. +Psm 33:12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he has taken for his heritage. +Psm 33:13 The Lord is looking down from heaven; he sees all the sons of men; +Psm 33:14 From his house he keeps watch on all who are living on the earth; +Psm 33:15 He makes all their hearts; their works are clear to him. +Psm 33:16 A king's salvation is not in the power of his army; a strong man does not get free by his great strength. +Psm 33:17 A horse is a false hope; his great power will not make any man free from danger. +Psm 33:18 See, the eye of the Lord is on those in whose hearts is the fear of him, on those whose hope is in his mercy; +Psm 33:19 To keep their souls from death; and to keep them living in time of need. +Psm 33:20 Our souls are waiting for the Lord; he is our help and our salvation. +Psm 33:21 For in him our hearts have joy; in his holy name is our hope. +Psm 33:22 Let your mercy be on us, O Lord, as we are waiting for you. +Psm 34:1 <Of David. When he made a change in his behaviour before Abimelech, who sent him away, and he went.> I will be blessing the Lord at all times; his praise will be ever in my mouth. +Psm 34:2 My soul will say great things of the Lord: the poor in spirit will have knowledge of it and be glad. +Psm 34:3 O give praise to the Lord with me; let us be witnesses together of his great name. +Psm 34:4 I was searching for the Lord, and he gave ear to my voice, and made me free from all my fears. +Psm 34:5 Let your eyes be turned to him and you will have light, and your faces will not be shamed. +Psm 34:6 This poor man's cry came before the Lord, and he gave him salvation from all his troubles. +Psm 34:7 The angel of the Lord is ever watching over those who have fear of him, to keep them safe. +Psm 34:8 By experience you will see that the Lord is good; happy is the man who has faith in him. +Psm 34:9 Keep yourselves in the fear of the Lord, all you his saints; for those who do so will have no need of anything. +Psm 34:10 The young lions are in need and have no food; but those who are looking to the Lord will have every good thing. +Psm 34:11 Come, children, give attention to me; I will be your teacher in the fear of the Lord. +Psm 34:12 What man has a love of life, and a desire that his days may be increased so that he may see good? +Psm 34:13 Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from words of deceit. +Psm 34:14 Be turned from evil, and do good; make a search for peace, desiring it with all your heart. +Psm 34:15 The eyes of the Lord are on the upright, and his ears are open to their cry. +Psm 34:16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to take away the memory of them from the earth. +Psm 34:17 The cry of the upright comes before the Lord, and he takes them out of all their troubles. +Psm 34:18 The Lord is near the broken-hearted; he is the saviour of those whose spirits are crushed down. +Psm 34:19 Great are the troubles of the upright: but the Lord takes him safely out of them all. +Psm 34:20 He keeps all his bones: not one of them is broken. +Psm 34:21 Evil will put an end to the sinner, and those who are haters of righteousness will come to destruction. +Psm 34:22 The Lord will be the saviour of the souls of his servants, and no one who has faith in him will be put to shame. +Psm 35:1 <Of David.> O Lord, be on my side against those who are judging me; be at war with those who make war against me. +Psm 35:2 Be a breastplate to me, and give me your help. +Psm 35:3 Take up your spear and keep back my attackers; say to my soul, I am your salvation. +Psm 35:4 Let them be overcome and put to shame who make attempts to take my soul; let those who would do me damage be turned back and made foolish. +Psm 35:5 Let them be like dust from the grain before the wind; let the angel of the Lord send them in flight. +Psm 35:6 Let their way be dark and full of danger; let them be troubled by the angel of the Lord. +Psm 35:7 For without cause they have put a net ready for me secretly, in which to take my soul. +Psm 35:8 Let destruction come on them without their knowledge; let them be taken themselves in their secret nets, falling into the same destruction. +Psm 35:9 And my soul will have joy in the Lord; it will be glad in his salvation. +Psm 35:10 All my bones will say, Lord, who is like you? The saviour of the poor man from the hands of the strong, of him who is poor and in need from him who takes his goods. +Psm 35:11 False witnesses got up: they put questions to me about crimes of which I had no knowledge. +Psm 35:12 They gave me back evil for good, troubling my soul. +Psm 35:13 But as for me, when they were ill I put on the clothing of sorrow: I went without food and was sad, and my prayer came back again to my heart. +Psm 35:14 My behaviour was as if it had been my friend or my brother: I was bent low in grief like one whose mother is dead. +Psm 35:15 But they took pleasure in my trouble, and came together, yes, low persons came together against me without my knowledge; they never came to an end of wounding me. +Psm 35:16 Like men of deceit they put me to shame; the voice of their wrath was loud against me. +Psm 35:17 Lord, how long will you be looking on? take my soul from their destruction, my life from the lions. +Psm 35:18 I will give you praise in the great meeting; I will give you honour among a strong people. +Psm 35:19 Do not let my haters be glad over me falsely; let not those who are against me without cause make sport of me. +Psm 35:20 For they do not say words of peace; in their deceit they are designing evil things against the quiet ones in the land. +Psm 35:21 Their mouths were open wide against me, and they said, Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it. +Psm 35:22 You have seen this, O Lord; be not unmoved: O Lord, be not far from me. +Psm 35:23 Be awake, O Lord, be moved to take up my cause, my God and my Lord. +Psm 35:24 Be my judge, O Lord my God, in your righteousness; do not let them be glad over me. +Psm 35:25 Let them not say in their hearts, So we will have it: let them not say, We have put an end to him. +Psm 35:26 Let all those who take pleasure in my troubles be shamed and come to nothing: let those who are lifted up against me be covered with shame and have no honour. +Psm 35:27 Let those who are on my side give cries of joy; let them ever say, The Lord be praised, for he has pleasure in the peace of his servant. +Psm 35:28 And my tongue will be talking of your righteousness and of your praise all the day. +Psm 36:1 <To the chief music-maker. Of the servant of the Lord. Of David.> The sin of the evil-doer says in his heart, There is no fear of the Lord before his eyes. +Psm 36:2 For he takes comfort in the thought that his sin will not be uncovered and hated. +Psm 36:3 In the words of his mouth are evil and deceit; he has given up being wise and doing good. +Psm 36:4 He gives thought to evil on his bed; he takes a way which is not good; he is not a hater of evil. +Psm 36:5 Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and your strong purpose is as high as the clouds. +Psm 36:6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judging is like the great deep; O Lord, you give life to man and beast. +Psm 36:7 How good is your loving mercy, O God! the children of men take cover under the shade of your wings. +Psm 36:8 The delights of your house will be showered on them; you will give them drink from the river of your pleasures. +Psm 36:9 For with you is the fountain of life: in your light we will see light. +Psm 36:10 O let there be no end to your loving mercy to those who have knowledge of you, or of your righteousness to the upright in heart. +Psm 36:11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, or the hand of the evil-doers put me out of my place. +Psm 36:12 There the workers of evil have come down: they have been made low, and will not be lifted up. +Psm 37:1 <Of David.> Do not be angry because of the wrongdoers, or have envy of the workers of evil. +Psm 37:2 For they will quickly be cut down like grass, and become dry like the green plants. +Psm 37:3 Have faith in the Lord, and do good; be at rest in the land, and go after righteousness. +Psm 37:4 So will your delight be in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires. +Psm 37:5 Put your life in the hands of the Lord; have faith in him and he will do it. +Psm 37:6 And he will make your righteousness be seen like the light, and your cause like the shining of the sun. +Psm 37:7 Take your rest in the Lord, waiting quietly for him; do not be angry because of the man who does well in his evil ways, and gives effect to his bad designs. +Psm 37:8 Put an end to your wrath and be no longer bitter; do not give way to angry feeling which is a cause of sin. +Psm 37:9 For the evil-doers will be cut off: but those who have faith in the Lord will have the earth for their heritage. +Psm 37:10 For in a short time the evil-doer will be gone: you will go searching for his place, and it will not be there. +Psm 37:11 But the gentle will have the earth for their heritage; they will take their delight in peace without measure. +Psm 37:12 The sinner has evil designs against the upright, lifting up the voice of wrath against him. +Psm 37:13 He will be laughed at by the Lord, who sees that his day is coming. +Psm 37:14 The evil-doers have taken out their swords, their bows are bent; for crushing the poor, and to put to death those who are upright in their ways. +Psm 37:15 But their swords will be turned into their hearts, and their bows will be broken. +Psm 37:16 The little which the good man has is better than the wealth of evil-doers. +Psm 37:17 For the arms of the evil-doers will be broken: but the Lord is the support of the good. +Psm 37:18 The days of the upright are numbered by the Lord, and their heritage will be for ever. +Psm 37:19 They will not be shamed in the evil time, and in the days when all are in need of food they will have enough. +Psm 37:20 But the wrongdoers will come to destruction, and the haters of the Lord will be like the fat of lambs, they will be burned up; they will go up in smoke, and never again be seen. +Psm 37:21 The sinner takes money and does not give it back; but the upright man has mercy, and gives to others. +Psm 37:22 Those who have his blessing will have the earth for their heritage; but those who are cursed by him will be cut off. +Psm 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he takes delight in his way. +Psm 37:24 Even if he has a fall he will not be without help: for the hand of the Lord is supporting him. +Psm 37:25 I have been young, and now am old, but I have not seen the good man without help, or his children looking for bread. +Psm 37:26 All the day he is ready to have mercy and to give; his children are a blessing. +Psm 37:27 Be turned from evil, and do good; and your place will be for ever. +Psm 37:28 For the Lord is a lover of righteousness, and takes care of his saints; they will be kept safe for ever; but the seed of the evil-doers will be cut off. +Psm 37:29 The upright will have the earth for their heritage, and will go on living there for ever. +Psm 37:30 The mouth of the good man says words of wisdom; the talk of his tongue is of righteousness. +Psm 37:31 The law of his God is in his heart; he will never make a false step. +Psm 37:32 The sinners are watching the upright man, desiring to put him to death. +Psm 37:33 The Lord will not give him into their hands, or be against him when he is judged. +Psm 37:34 Be waiting for the Lord, and keep his way; and you will be lifted up, and have the land for your heritage: when the evil-doers are cut off, you will see it. +Psm 37:35 I have seen the evil-doer in great power, covering the earth like a great tree. +Psm 37:36 But he came to an end, and there was no sign of him; I made a search for him and he was not there. +Psm 37:37 Give attention to the good man, and take note of the upright; because the end of that man is peace. +Psm 37:38 But as for the sinners, they will be cut off together; the end of the wrongdoers is destruction. +Psm 37:39 But the Lord is the saviour of the upright: he is their strength in the time of trouble. +Psm 37:40 And the Lord will be their help, and keep them safe: he will take them out of the hands of the evil-doers, and be their saviour, because they had faith in him. +Psm 38:1 <A Psalm. Of David. To keep in memory.> O Lord, be not bitter with me in your wrath; let not your hand be on me in the heat of your passion. +Psm 38:2 For your arrows have gone into my flesh, and I am crushed under the weight of your hand. +Psm 38:3 My flesh is wasted because of your wrath; and there is no peace in my bones because of my sin. +Psm 38:4 For my crimes have gone over my head; they are like a great weight which is more than my strength. +Psm 38:5 My wounds are poisoned and evil-smelling, because of my foolish behaviour. +Psm 38:6 I am troubled, I am made low; I go weeping all the day. +Psm 38:7 For my body is full of burning; all my flesh is unhealthy. +Psm 38:8 I am feeble and crushed down; I gave a cry like a lion because of the grief in my heart. +Psm 38:9 Lord, all my desire is before you; my sorrow is not kept secret from you. +Psm 38:10 My heart goes out in pain, my strength is wasting away; as for the light of my eyes, it is gone from me. +Psm 38:11 My lovers and my friends keep away from my disease; my relations keep far away. +Psm 38:12 Those who have a desire to take my life put nets for me; those who are designing my destruction say evil things against me, all the day their minds are full of deceit. +Psm 38:13 But I kept my ears shut like a man without hearing; like a man without a voice, never opening his mouth. +Psm 38:14 So I was like a man whose ears are shut, and in whose mouth there are no sharp words. +Psm 38:15 In you, O Lord, is my hope: you will give me an answer, O Lord, my God. +Psm 38:16 I said, Let them not be glad over me; when my foot is moved, let them not be lifted up with pride against me. +Psm 38:17 My feet are near to falling, and my sorrow is ever before me. +Psm 38:18 I will make clear my wrongdoing, with sorrow in my heart for my sin. +Psm 38:19 But they are strong who have hate for me without cause: those who are against me falsely are increased in numbers. +Psm 38:20 They give me back evil for good; they are my haters because I go after the thing which is right. +Psm 38:21 Do not give me up, O Lord; O my God, be near to me. +Psm 38:22 Come quickly to give me help, O Lord, my salvation. +Psm 39:1 <To the chief music-maker. Of Jeduthun. A Psalm. Of David.> I said, I will give attention to my ways, so that my tongue may do no wrong; I will keep my mouth under control, while the sinner is before me. +Psm 39:2 I made no sound, I said no word, even of good; and I was moved with sorrow. +Psm 39:3 My heart was burning in my breast; while I was deep in thought the fire was lighted; then I said with my tongue, +Psm 39:4 Lord, give me knowledge of my end, and of the measure of my days, so that I may see how feeble I am. +Psm 39:5 You have made my days no longer than a hand's measure; and my years are nothing in your eyes; truly, every man is but a breath. (Selah.) +Psm 39:6 Truly, every man goes on his way like an image; he is troubled for no purpose: he makes a great store of wealth, and has no knowledge of who will get it. +Psm 39:7 And now, Lord, what am I waiting for? my hope is in you. +Psm 39:8 Make me free from all my sins; do not let me be shamed by the man of evil behaviour. +Psm 39:9 I was quiet, and kept my mouth shut; because you had done it. +Psm 39:10 No longer let your hand be hard on me; I am wasted by the blows of your hand. +Psm 39:11 By the weight of your wrath against man's sin, the glory of his form is wasted away; truly every man is but a breath. (Selah.) +Psm 39:12 Let my prayer come to your ears, O Lord, and give attention to my cry, make an answer to my weeping: for my time here is short before you, and in a little time I will be gone, like all my fathers. +Psm 39:13 Let your wrath be turned away from me, so that I may be comforted, before I go away from here, and become nothing. +Psm 40:1 <To the chief music-maker. Of David. A Psalm.> When I was waiting quietly for the Lord, his heart was turned to me, and he gave ear to my cry. +Psm 40:2 He took me up out of a deep waste place, out of the soft and sticky earth; he put my feet on a rock, and made my steps certain. +Psm 40:3 And he put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God; numbers have seen it with fear, and put their faith in the Lord. +Psm 40:4 Happy is the man who has faith in the Lord, and does not give honour to the men of pride or to those who are turned away to deceit. +Psm 40:5 O Lord my God, great are the wonders which you have done in your thought for us; it is not possible to put them out in order before you; when I would give an account of them, their number is greater than I may say. +Psm 40:6 You had no desire for offerings of beasts or fruits of the earth; ears you made for me: for burned offerings and sin offerings you made no request. +Psm 40:7 Then I said, See, I come; it is recorded of me in the roll of the book, +Psm 40:8 My delight is to do your pleasure, O my God; truly, your law is in my heart. +Psm 40:9 I have given news of righteousness in the great meeting; O Lord, you have knowledge that I have not kept back my words. +Psm 40:10 Your righteousness has not been folded away in my heart; I have made clear your true word and your salvation; I have not kept secret your mercy or your faith from the great meeting. +Psm 40:11 Take not away your gentle mercies from me, O Lord; let your mercy and your faith keep me safe for ever. +Psm 40:12 For unnumbered evils are round about me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I am bent down with their weight; they are more than the hairs of my head, my strength is gone because of them. +Psm 40:13 Be pleased, O Lord, to take me out of danger; O Lord, come quickly and give me help. +Psm 40:14 Let those who go after my soul for its destruction have shame and trouble together; let them be turned back and made foolish who take pleasure in my trouble. +Psm 40:15 Let those who say to me, Aha, aha! be surprised because of their shame. +Psm 40:16 Let all those who are looking for you be glad and have joy in you; let the lovers of your salvation ever say, May the Lord be great. +Psm 40:17 Though I am poor and in need, the Lord has me in mind; you are my help and my saviour; let there be no waiting, O my God. +Psm 41:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.> Happy is the man who gives thought to the poor; the Lord will be his saviour in the time of trouble. +Psm 41:2 The Lord will keep him safe, and give him life; the Lord will let him be a blessing on the earth, and will not give him into the hand of his haters. +Psm 41:3 The Lord will be his support on his bed of pain: by you will all his grief be turned to strength. +Psm 41:4 I said, Lord, have mercy on me; make my soul well, because my faith is in you. +Psm 41:5 My haters say evil against me, When will he be dead, and his name come to an end? +Psm 41:6 If one comes to see me, deceit is in his heart; he keeps a store of evil, which he makes public in every place. +Psm 41:7 All my haters are talking secretly together against me; they are designing my downfall. +Psm 41:8 They say, He has an evil disease, which will not let him go: and now that he is down he will not get up again. +Psm 41:9 Even my dearest friend, in whom I had faith, who took bread with me, is turned against me. +Psm 41:10 But you, O Lord, have mercy on me, lifting me up, so that I may give them their punishment. +Psm 41:11 By this I see that you have pleasure in me, because my hater does not overcome me. +Psm 41:12 And as for me, you are my support in my righteousness, giving me a place before your face for ever. +Psm 41:13 May the Lord God of Israel be praised, through eternal days and for ever. So be it. So be it. +Psm 42:1 <To the chief music-maker. Maschil. Of the sons of Korah.> Like the desire of the roe for the water-streams, so is my soul's desire for you, O God. +Psm 42:2 My soul is dry for need of God, the living God; when may I come and see the face of God? +Psm 42:3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they keep saying to me, Where is your God? +Psm 42:4 Let my soul be overflowing with grief when these things come back to my mind, how I went in company to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with the song of those who were keeping the feast. +Psm 42:5 Why are you crushed down, O my soul? and why are you troubled in me? put your hope in God; for I will again give him praise who is my help and my God. +Psm 42:6 My soul is crushed down in me, so I will keep you in mind; from the land of Jordan and of the Hermons, from the hill Mizar. +Psm 42:7 Deep is sounding to deep at the noise of your waterfalls; all your waves have gone rolling over me. +Psm 42:8 But the Lord will send his mercy in the daytime, and in the night his song will be with me, a prayer to the God of my life. +Psm 42:9 I will say to God my Rock, Why have you let me go from your memory? why do I go in sorrow because of the attacks of my haters? +Psm 42:10 The cruel words of my haters are like a crushing of my bones; when they say to me every day, Where is your God? +Psm 42:11 Why are you crushed down, O my soul? and why are you troubled in me? put your hope in God; for I will again give him praise who is my help and my God. +Psm 43:1 Be my judge, O God, supporting my cause against a nation without religion; O keep me from the false and evil man. +Psm 43:2 You are the God of my strength; why have you put me from you? why do I go in sorrow because of the attacks of my haters? +Psm 43:3 O send out your light and your true word; let them be my guide: let them take me to your holy hill, and to your tents. +Psm 43:4 Then I will go up to the altar of God, to the God of my joy; I will be glad and give praise to you on an instrument of music, O God, my God. +Psm 43:5 Why are you crushed down, O my soul? and why are you troubled in me? put your hope in God, for I will again give him praise who is my help and my God. +Psm 44:1 <To the chief music-maker. Of the sons of Korah Maschil.> It has come to our ears, O God, our fathers have given us the story, of the works which you did in their days, in the old times, +Psm 44:2 Uprooting the nations with your hand, and planting our fathers in their place; cutting down the nations, but increasing the growth of your people. +Psm 44:3 For they did not make the land theirs by their swords, and it was not their arms which kept them safe; but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your face, because you had pleasure in them. +Psm 44:4 You are my King and my God; ordering salvation for Jacob. +Psm 44:5 Through you will we overcome our haters; by your name will they be crushed under our feet who are violent against us. +Psm 44:6 I will not put faith in my bow, my sword will not be my salvation. +Psm 44:7 But it is you who have been our saviour from those who were against us, and have put to shame those who had hate for us. +Psm 44:8 Our pride is in God at all times, to his name we give praise for ever. (Selah.) +Psm 44:9 But now you have sent us away from you, and put us to shame; you do not go out with our armies. +Psm 44:10 Because of this we are turned back by the attacker: those who have hate for us take our goods for themselves. +Psm 44:11 You have made us like sheep which are taken for meat; we are put to flight among the nations. +Psm 44:12 You let your people go for nothing; your wealth is not increased by their price. +Psm 44:13 You have made us to be looked down on by our neighbours, we are laughed at and shamed by those who are round about us. +Psm 44:14 Our name is a word of shame among the nations, a sign for the shaking of heads among the peoples. +Psm 44:15 My downfall is ever before me, and I am covered with the shame of my face; +Psm 44:16 Because of the voice of him who says sharp and bitter words; because of the hater and him who is the instrument of punishment. +Psm 44:17 All this has come on us, but still we have kept you in our memory; and we have not been false to your word. +Psm 44:18 Our hearts have not gone back, and our steps have not been turned out of your way; +Psm 44:19 Though you have let us be crushed in the place of jackals, though we are covered with darkest shade. +Psm 44:20 If the name of our God has gone out of our minds, or if our hands have been stretched out to a strange god, +Psm 44:21 Will not God make search for it? for he sees the secrets of the heart. +Psm 44:22 Truly, because of you we are put to death every day; we are numbered like sheep for destruction. +Psm 44:23 Why are you sleeping, O Lord? awake! and come to our help, do not give us up for ever. +Psm 44:24 Why is your face covered, and why do you give no thought to our trouble and our cruel fate? +Psm 44:25 For our souls are crushed down to the dust: our bodies are stretched out on the earth. +Psm 44:26 Up! and come to our help, and give us salvation because of your mercy. +Psm 45:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to Shoshannim. Of the sons of Korah. Maschil. A Song of loves.> My heart is flowing over with good things; my words are of that which I have made for a king; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. +Psm 45:2 You are fairer than the children of men; grace is flowing through your lips; for this cause the blessing of God is with you for ever. +Psm 45:3 Put on your sword, make it ready at your side, O strong chief, with your glory and power. +Psm 45:4 And go nobly on in your power, because you are good and true and without pride; and your right hand will be teaching you things of fear. +Psm 45:5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's haters; because of them the peoples are falling under you. +Psm 45:6 Your seat of power, O God, is for ever and ever; the rod of your kingdom is a rod of honour. +Psm 45:7 You have been a lover of righteousness and a hater of evil: and so God, your God, has put the oil of joy on your head, lifting you high over all other kings. +Psm 45:8 Your robes are full of the smell of all sorts of perfumes and spices; music from the king's ivory houses has made you glad. +Psm 45:9 Kings' daughters are among your noble women: on your right is the queen in gold of Ophir. +Psm 45:10 O daughter, give thought and attention, and let your ear be open; no longer keep in mind your people, and your father's house; +Psm 45:11 So will the king have a great desire for you, seeing how beautiful you are; because he is your lord, give him honour. +Psm 45:12 And the daughters of Tyre will be there with an offering; those who have wealth among the people will be looking for your approval. +Psm 45:13 In the great house the king's daughter is all shining: her clothing is worked with gold. +Psm 45:14 She will come before the king in robes of needlework; the virgins in her train will come before you. +Psm 45:15 With joy and rapture will they come; they will go into the king's house. +Psm 45:16 Your children will take the place of your fathers; so that you may make them rulers over all the earth. +Psm 45:17 I will keep the memory of your name living through all generations; and because of this the people will give you praise for ever. +Psm 46:1 <To the chief music-maker. Of the sons of Korah; put to Alamoth. A Song.> God is our harbour and our strength, a very present help in trouble. +Psm 46:2 For this cause we will have no fear, even though the earth is changed, and though the mountains are moved in the heart of the sea; +Psm 46:3 Though its waters are sounding and troubled, and though the mountains are shaking with their violent motion. (Selah.) +Psm 46:4 There is a river whose streams make glad the resting-place of God, the holy place of the tents of the Most High. +Psm 46:5 God has taken his place in her; she will not be moved: he will come to her help at the dawn of morning. +Psm 46:6 The nations were angry, the kingdoms were moved; at the sound of his voice the earth became like wax. +Psm 46:7 The Lord of armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our high tower. (Selah.) +Psm 46:8 Come, see the works of the Lord, the destruction which he has made in the earth. +Psm 46:9 He puts an end to wars over all the earth; by him the bow is broken, and the spear cut in two, and the carriage burned in the fire. +Psm 46:10 Be at peace in the knowledge that I am God: I will be lifted up among the nations, I will be honoured through all the earth. +Psm 46:11 The Lord of armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our high tower. (Selah.) +Psm 47:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.> O make a glad noise with your hands, all you peoples; letting your voices go up to God with joy. +Psm 47:2 For the Lord Most High is to be feared; he is a great King over all the earth. +Psm 47:3 He will put down the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet. +Psm 47:4 He will give us our heritage, the glory of Jacob who is dear to him. (Selah.) +Psm 47:5 God has gone up with a glad cry, the Lord with the sound of the horn. +Psm 47:6 Give praises to God, make songs of praise; give praises to our King, make songs of praise. +Psm 47:7 For God is the King of all the earth; make songs of praise with knowledge. +Psm 47:8 God is the ruler over the nations; God is on the high seat of his holy rule. +Psm 47:9 The rulers of the peoples have come together, with the people of the God of Abraham; because the powers of the earth are God's: he is lifted up on high. +Psm 48:1 <A Song. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.> Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, in the town of our God, in his holy mountain. +Psm 48:2 Beautiful in its high position, the joy of all the earth, is the mountain of Zion, the mountain of God, the town of the great King. +Psm 48:3 In its buildings God is seen to be a high tower. +Psm 48:4 For see! the kings came together by agreement, they were joined together. +Psm 48:5 They saw it, and so were full of wonder; they were troubled, and went quickly away in fear. +Psm 48:6 Shaking came on them and pain, as on a woman in childbirth. +Psm 48:7 By you the ships of Tarshish are broken as by an east wind. +Psm 48:8 As it came to our ears so have we seen it, in the town of the Lord of armies, in the town of our God; God will keep it fixed for ever. (Selah.) +Psm 48:9 Our thoughts were of your mercy, O God, while we were in your Temple. +Psm 48:10 As your name is, O God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth; your right hand is full of righteousness. +Psm 48:11 Let there be joy in the mountain of Zion, and let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of your wise decisions. +Psm 48:12 Make your way about Zion, and go round it, numbering its towers. +Psm 48:13 Take note of its strong walls, looking well at its fair buildings; so that you may give word of it to the generation which comes after. +Psm 48:14 Because this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide. +Psm 49:1 <Alamoth. To the chief music-maker. Of the sons of Korah. A Psalm.> Give attention to this, all you peoples; let your ears be open, all you who are living in the world. +Psm 49:2 High and low together, the poor, and those who have wealth. +Psm 49:3 From my mouth will come words of wisdom; and in the thoughts of my heart will be knowledge. +Psm 49:4 I will put my teaching into a story; I will make my dark sayings clear with music. +Psm 49:5 What cause have I for fear in the days of evil, when the evil-doing of those who are working for my downfall is round about me? +Psm 49:6 Even of those whose faith is in their wealth, and whose hearts are lifted up because of their stores. +Psm 49:7 Truly, no man may get back his soul for a price, or give to God the payment for himself; +Psm 49:8 (Because it takes a great price to keep his soul from death, and man is not able to give it.) +Psm 49:9 So that he might have eternal life, and never see the underworld. +Psm 49:10 For he sees that wise men come to their end, and foolish persons of low behaviour come to destruction together, letting their wealth go to others. +Psm 49:11 The place of the dead is their house for ever, and their resting-place through all generations; those who come after them give their names to their lands. +Psm 49:12 But man, like the animals, does not go on for ever; he comes to an end like the beasts. +Psm 49:13 This is the way of the foolish; their silver is for those who come after them, and their children get the pleasure of their gold. (Selah.) +Psm 49:14 Death will give them their food like sheep; the underworld is their fate and they will go down into it; their flesh is food for worms; their form is wasted away; the underworld is their resting-place for ever. +Psm 49:15 But God will get back my soul; for he will take me from the power of death. (Selah.) +Psm 49:16 Have no fear when wealth comes to a man, and the glory of his house is increased; +Psm 49:17 For at his death, he will take nothing away; his glory will not go down after him. +Psm 49:18 Though he might have pride in his soul in his life-time, and men will give you praise if you do well for yourself, +Psm 49:19 He will go to the generation of his fathers; he will not see the light again. +Psm 49:20 Man, like the animals, does not go on for ever; he comes to an end like the beasts. +Psm 50:1 <A Psalm. Of Asaph.> The God of gods, even the Lord, has sent out his voice, and the earth is full of fear; from the coming up of the sun to its going down. +Psm 50:2 From Zion, most beautiful of places, God has sent out his light. +Psm 50:3 Our God will come, and will not keep quiet; with fire burning before him, and storm-winds round him. +Psm 50:4 His voice will go out to the heavens and to the earth, for the judging of his people: +Psm 50:5 Let my saints come together to me; those who have made an agreement with me by offerings. +Psm 50:6 And let the heavens make clear his righteousness; for God himself is the judge. (Selah.) +Psm 50:7 Give ear, O my people, to my words; O Israel, I will be a witness against you; I am God, even your God. +Psm 50:8 I will not take up a cause against you because of your offerings, or because of your burned offerings, which are ever before me. +Psm 50:9 I will take no ox out of your house, or he-goats from your flocks; +Psm 50:10 For every beast of the woodland is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. +Psm 50:11 I see all the birds of the mountains, and the beasts of the field are mine. +Psm 50:12 If I had need of food, I would not give you word of it; for the earth is mine and all its wealth. +Psm 50:13 Am I to take the flesh of the ox for my food, or the blood of goats for my drink? +Psm 50:14 Make an offering of praise to God; keep the agreements which you have made with the Most High; +Psm 50:15 Let your voice come up to me in the day of trouble; I will be your saviour, so that you may give glory to me. +Psm 50:16 But to the sinner, God says, What are you doing, talking of my laws, or taking the words of my agreement in your mouth? +Psm 50:17 Seeing that you have no desire for my teaching, turning your back on my words. +Psm 50:18 When you saw a thief, you were in agreement with him, and you were joined with those who took other men's wives. +Psm 50:19 You have given your mouth to evil, your tongue to words of deceit. +Psm 50:20 You say evil of your brother; you make false statements against your mother's son. +Psm 50:21 These things have you done, and I said nothing; it seemed to you that I was such a one as yourself; but I will make a protest against you, and put them in order before your eyes. +Psm 50:22 Now keep this in mind, you who have no memory of God, for fear that you may be crushed under my hand, with no one to give you help: +Psm 50:23 Whoever makes an offering of praise gives glory to me; and to him who is upright in his ways I will make clear the salvation of God. +Psm 51:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba.> Have pity on me, O God, in your mercy; out of a full heart, take away my sin. +Psm 51:2 Let all my wrongdoing be washed away, and make me clean from evil. +Psm 51:3 For I am conscious of my error; my sin is ever before me. +Psm 51:4 Against you, you only, have I done wrong, working that which is evil in your eyes; so that your words may be seen to be right, and you may be clear when you are judging. +Psm 51:5 Truly, I was formed in evil, and in sin did my mother give me birth. +Psm 51:6 Your desire is for what is true in the inner parts: in the secrets of my soul you will give me knowledge of wisdom. +Psm 51:7 Make me free from sin with hyssop: let me be washed whiter than snow. +Psm 51:8 Make me full of joy and rapture; so that the bones which have been broken may be glad. +Psm 51:9 Let your face be turned from my wrongdoing, and take away all my sins. +Psm 51:10 Make a clean heart in me, O God; give me a right spirit again. +Psm 51:11 Do not put me away from before you, or take your holy spirit from me. +Psm 51:12 Give me back the joy of your salvation; let a free spirit be my support. +Psm 51:13 Then will I make your ways clear to wrongdoers; and sinners will be turned to you. +Psm 51:14 Be my saviour from violent death, O God, the God of my salvation; and my tongue will give praise to your righteousness. +Psm 51:15 O Lord, let my lips be open, so that my mouth may make clear your praise. +Psm 51:16 You have no desire for an offering or I would give it; you have no delight in burned offerings. +Psm 51:17 The offerings of God are a broken spirit; a broken and sorrowing heart, O God, you will not put from you. +Psm 51:18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure, building up the walls of Jerusalem. +Psm 51:19 Then you will have delight in the offerings of righteousness, in burned offerings and offerings of beasts; then they will make offerings of oxen on your altar. +Psm 52:1 <To the chief music-maker. Maschil. Of David. When Doeg the Edomite came to Saul saying, David has come to the house of Ahimelech.> Why do you take pride in wrongdoing, lifting yourself up against the upright man all the day? +Psm 52:2 Purposing destruction, using deceit; your tongue is like a sharp blade. +Psm 52:3 You have more love for evil than for good, for deceit than for works of righteousness. (Selah.) +Psm 52:4 Destruction is in all your words, O false tongue. +Psm 52:5 But God will put an end to you for ever; driving you out from your tent, uprooting you from the land of the living. (Selah.) +Psm 52:6 The upright will see it with fear, and will say, laughing at you: +Psm 52:7 See, this is the man who did not make God his strength, but had faith in his goods and his property, and made himself strong in his wealth. +Psm 52:8 But I am like a branching olive-tree in the house of God; I have put my faith in his mercy for ever and ever. +Psm 52:9 I will give you praise without end for what you have done; I will give honour to your name before your saints, for it is good. +Psm 53:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to Mahalath. Maschil. Of David.> The foolish man has said in his heart, God will not do anything. They are unclean, they have done evil works; there is not one who does good. +Psm 53:2 God was looking down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who had wisdom, searching after God. +Psm 53:3 Every one of them has gone back; they are unclean: there is not one who does good, no, not one. +Psm 53:4 Have the workers of evil no knowledge? they take my people for food, as they would take bread; they make no prayer to God. +Psm 53:5 They were in great fear, where there was no cause for fear: for the bones of those who make war on you have been broken by God; you have put them to shame, because God has no desire for them. +Psm 53:6 May the salvation of Israel come out of Zion! When the fate of his people is changed by God, Jacob will have joy, and Israel will be glad. +Psm 54:1 <To the chief music-maker; on Neginoth. Maschil. Of David. When the Ziphites came and said to Saul, Is not David keeping himself secret among us?> Let your name be my salvation, O God; let my cause be judged by your strength. +Psm 54:2 Let my prayer come before you, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. +Psm 54:3 For men who are going after me have come out against me, violent men are purposing to take my soul; they have not put God before their eyes. (Selah.) +Psm 54:4 See, God is my helper: the Lord is the great supporter of my soul. +Psm 54:5 Let the evil works of my haters come back on them again; let them be cut off by your good faith. +Psm 54:6 Freely will I make my offerings to you; I will give praise to your name, O Lord, for it is good. +Psm 54:7 Because it has been my saviour from all my trouble; and my eyes have seen the punishment of my haters. +Psm 55:1 <To the chief music-maker, on Neginoth. Maschil. Of David.> Give hearing to my prayer, O God; and let not your ear be shut against my request. +Psm 55:2 Give thought to me, and let my prayer be answered: I have been made low in sorrow; +Psm 55:3 I am troubled because of the voice of the cruel ones, because of the loud cry of the evil-doers; for they put a weight of evil on me, and they are cruel in their hate for me. +Psm 55:4 My heart is deeply wounded, and the fear of death has come on me. +Psm 55:5 Fear and shaking have come over me, with deep fear I am covered. +Psm 55:6 And I said, If only I had wings like a dove! for then I would go in flight from here and be at rest. +Psm 55:7 I would go wandering far away, living in the waste land. (Selah.) +Psm 55:8 I would quickly take cover from the driving storm and from the violent wind. +Psm 55:9 Send destruction on them, O Lord, make a division of tongues among them: for I have seen fighting and violent acts in the town. +Psm 55:10 By day and night they go round the town, on the walls; trouble and sorrow are in the heart of it. +Psm 55:11 Evil is there; cruel rule and deceit are ever in the streets. +Psm 55:12 For it was not my hater who said evil of me; that would have been no grief to me; it was not one outside the number of my friends who made himself strong against me, or I would have kept myself from him in a secret place; +Psm 55:13 But it was you, my equal, my guide, my well-loved friend. +Psm 55:14 We had loving talk together, and went to the house of God in company. +Psm 55:15 Let the hand of death come on them suddenly, and let them go down living into the underworld; because evil is in their houses and in their hearts. +Psm 55:16 As for me, I will make my prayer to God, and he will be my saviour. +Psm 55:17 In the evening and in the morning and in the middle of the day I will make my prayer with sounds of grief; and my voice will come to his ears. +Psm 55:18 He has taken my soul away from the attack which was made against me, and given it peace; for great numbers were against me. +Psm 55:19 God will give thought to me; he who from early times is strong will send pain and trouble on them. (Selah.) Because they are unchanged, they have no fear of God. +Psm 55:20 He has put out his hand against those who were at peace with him; he has not kept his agreement. +Psm 55:21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, but they were sharp swords. +Psm 55:22 Put your cares on the Lord, and he will be your support; he will not let the upright man be moved. +Psm 55:23 But you, O God, will send them down into the underworld; the cruel and the false will be cut off before half their days are ended; but I will have faith in you. +Psm 56:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to Jonath elem rehokim. Of David. Michtam. When the Philistines took him in Gath.> Have mercy on me, O God, for man is attempting my destruction; every day he makes cruel attacks against me. +Psm 56:2 My haters are ever ready to put an end to me; great numbers are lifting themselves up against me. +Psm 56:3 In the time of my fear, I will have faith in you. +Psm 56:4 In God will I give praise to his word; in God have I put my hope; I will have no fear of what flesh may do to me. +Psm 56:5 Every day they make wrong use of my words; all their thoughts are against me for evil. +Psm 56:6 They come together, they are waiting in secret places, they take note of my steps, they are waiting for my soul. +Psm 56:7 By evil-doing they will not get free from punishment. In wrath, O God, let the peoples be made low. +Psm 56:8 You have seen my wanderings; put the drops from my eyes into your bottle; are they not in your record? +Psm 56:9 When I send up my cry to you, my haters will be turned back; I am certain of this, for God is with me. +Psm 56:10 In God will I give praise to his word; in the Lord will I give praise to his word. +Psm 56:11 In God have I put my hope, I will have no fear of what man may do to me. +Psm 56:12 I keep the memory of my debt to you, O God; I will give you the offerings of praise. +Psm 56:13 Because you have taken my soul from the power of death; and kept my feet from falling, so that I may be walking before God in the light of life. +Psm 57:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to Al-tashheth. Michtam. Of David. When he went in flight from Saul, in the hole of the rock.> Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me; for the hope of my soul is in you: I will keep myself safely under the shade of your wings, till these troubles are past. +Psm 57:2 I will send up my cry to the Most High God; to God who does all things for me. +Psm 57:3 He will send from heaven, and take me from the power of him whose desire is for my destruction. God will send out his mercy and his good faith. +Psm 57:4 My soul is among lions; I am stretched out among those who are on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and whose tongue is a sharp sword. +Psm 57:5 O God, be lifted up higher than the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. +Psm 57:6 They have made ready a net for my steps; my soul is bent down; they have made a great hole before me, and have gone down into it themselves. (Selah.) +Psm 57:7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will make songs, and give praise. +Psm 57:8 You are my glory; let the instruments of music be awake; I myself will be awake with the dawn. +Psm 57:9 I will give you praise, O Lord, among the peoples; I will make songs to you among the nations. +Psm 57:10 For your mercy is great, stretching up to the heavens, and your righteousness goes up to the clouds. +Psm 57:11 Be lifted up, O God, higher than the heavens, let your glory be over all the earth. +Psm 58:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to Al-tashheth. Michtam. Of David.> Is there righteousness in your mouths, O you gods? are you upright judges, O you sons of men? +Psm 58:2 The purposes of your hearts are evil; your hands are full of cruel doings on the earth. +Psm 58:3 The evil-doers are strange from the first; from the hour of their birth they go out of the true way, saying false words. +Psm 58:4 Their poison is like the poison of a snake; they are like the adder, whose ears are shut; +Psm 58:5 Who will not be moved by the voice of the wonder-worker, however great are his powers. +Psm 58:6 O God, let their teeth be broken in their mouths; let the great teeth of the young lions be pulled out, O Lord. +Psm 58:7 Let them be turned to liquid like the ever-flowing waters; let them be cut off like the grass by the way. +Psm 58:8 Let them be like an after-birth which is turned to water and comes to an end; like the fruit of a woman who gives birth before her time, let them not see the sun. +Psm 58:9 Before they are conscious of it, let them be cut down like thorns; let a strong wind take them away like waste growth. +Psm 58:10 The upright man will be glad when he sees their punishment; his feet will be washed in the blood of the evil-doer. +Psm 58:11 So that men will say, Truly there is a reward for righteousness; truly there is a God who is judge on the earth. +Psm 59:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to At-tashheth. Michtam. Of David. When Saul sent, and they were watching the house, to put him to death.> Take me out of the hands of the cruel ones, O my God; keep me safe from those who come up against me. +Psm 59:2 Take me out of the power of the workers of evil, and keep me safe from the men of blood. +Psm 59:3 For see, they are watching in secret for my soul; the strong have come together against me? but not because of my sin, or my evil-doing, O Lord. +Psm 59:4 For no sin of mine they go quickly and get themselves ready; be awake and come to my help, and see. +Psm 59:5 You, O Lord God of armies, are the God of Israel; come now and give punishment to the nations; have no mercy on any workers of deceit. (Selah.) +Psm 59:6 They come back in the evening; they make a noise like a dog, and go round the town. +Psm 59:7 See, hate is dropping from their lips; curses are on their tongues: they say, Who gives attention to it? +Psm 59:8 But you are laughing at them, O Lord; you will make sport of all the nations. +Psm 59:9 O my strength, I will put my hope in you; because God is my strong tower. +Psm 59:10 The God of my mercy will go before me: God will let me see my desire effected on my haters. +Psm 59:11 Put them not to death, for so my people will keep the memory of them: let them be sent in all directions by your power; make them low, O Lord our saviour. +Psm 59:12 Because of the sin of their mouths and the word of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride; and for their curses and their deceit, +Psm 59:13 Put an end to them in your wrath, put an end to them, so that they may not be seen again; let them see that God is ruling in Jacob and to the ends of the earth. (Selah.) +Psm 59:14 And in the evening let them come back, and make a noise like a dog, and go round the town. +Psm 59:15 Let them go wandering up and down in search of food, and be there all night if they have not enough. +Psm 59:16 But I will make songs of your power; yes, I will give cries of joy for your mercy in the morning; because you have been my strength and my high tower in the day of my trouble. +Psm 59:17 To you, O my strength, will I make my song: because God is my high tower, even the God of my mercy. +Psm 60:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to Shushan-eduth. Michtam. Of David. For teaching. When he was fighting against Aram-naharaim and Aramzobah, when Joab came back, and put twelve thousand of the Edomites to death, in the Valley of Salt.> God, you have put us away from you, you have sent us in all directions, you have been angry; O be turned to us again. +Psm 60:2 By the power of your hand the earth is shaking and broken; make it strong again, for it is moved. +Psm 60:3 You have made the people see hard times; you have given us the wine of shaking for our drink. +Psm 60:4 Give a safe place to those who have fear of you, where they may go in flight from before the bow. (Selah.) +Psm 60:5 So that your loved ones may be made safe, let your right hand be my salvation, and give me an answer. +Psm 60:6 God has said in his holy place, I will be glad: I will make a division of Shechem, and the valley of Succoth will be measured out. +Psm 60:7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; and Ephraim is the strength of my head; Judah is my law-giver; +Psm 60:8 Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I put out my shoe; over Philistia will a glad cry be sounded. +Psm 60:9 Who will take me into the strong town? who will be my guide into Edom? +Psm 60:10 Have not you put us away, O God? and you have not gone out with our armies. +Psm 60:11 Give us help in our trouble; for there is no help in man. +Psm 60:12 Through God we will do great things, for through him our haters will be crushed under our feet. +Psm 61:1 <To the chief music-maker. On a corded instrument. Of David.> Let my cry come to you, O God; let your ears be open to my prayer. +Psm 61:2 From the end of the earth will I send up my cry to you, when my heart is overcome: take me to the rock which is over-high for me. +Psm 61:3 For you have been my secret place, and my high tower from those who made war on me. +Psm 61:4 I will make your tent my resting-place for ever: I will keep myself under the cover of your wings. (Selah.) +Psm 61:5 For you, O God, have made answer to my prayers; you have given me the heritage of those who give honour to your name. +Psm 61:6 You will give the king long life; and make his years go on through the generations. +Psm 61:7 May the seat of his authority be before God for ever; may mercy and righteousness keep him safe. +Psm 61:8 So will I make songs in praise of your name for ever, giving to God that which is right day by day. +Psm 62:1 <To the chief music-maker. After Jeduthun. A Psalm. Of David.> My soul, put all your faith in God; for from him comes my salvation. +Psm 62:2 He only is my Rock and my salvation; he is my high tower; I will not be greatly moved. +Psm 62:3 How long will you go on designing evil against a man? running against him as against a broken wall, which is on the point of falling? +Psm 62:4 Their only thought is to put him down from his place of honour; their delight is in deceit: blessing is in their mouths but cursing in their hearts. (Selah.) +Psm 62:5 My soul, put all your faith in God; for from him comes my hope. +Psm 62:6 He only is my Rock and my salvation; he is my high tower; I will not be greatly moved. +Psm 62:7 In God is my salvation, and my glory; the Rock of my strength, and my safe place. +Psm 62:8 Have faith in him at all times, you people; let your hearts go flowing out before him: God is our safe place. (Selah.) +Psm 62:9 Truly men of low birth are nothing, and men of high position are not what they seem; if they are put in the scales together they are less than a breath. +Psm 62:10 Have no faith in the rewards of evil-doing, or in profits wrongly made: if your wealth is increased, do not put your hopes on it. +Psm 62:11 Once has God said, twice has it come to my ears, that power is God's: +Psm 62:12 And mercy, O Lord, is yours, for you give to every man the reward of his work. +Psm 63:1 <A Psalm. Of David. When he was in the waste land of Judah.> O God, you are my God; early will I make my search for you: my soul is dry for need of you, my flesh is wasted with desire for you, as a dry and burning land where no water is; +Psm 63:2 To see your power and your glory, as I have seen you in the holy place. +Psm 63:3 Because your mercy is better than life, my lips will give you praise. +Psm 63:4 So will I go on blessing you all my life, lifting up my hands in your name. +Psm 63:5 My soul will be comforted, as with good food; and my mouth will give you praise with songs of joy; +Psm 63:6 When the memory of you comes to me on my bed, and when I give thought to you in the night-time. +Psm 63:7 Because you have been my help, I will have joy in the shade of your wings. +Psm 63:8 My soul keeps ever near you: your right hand is my support. +Psm 63:9 But those whose desire is my soul's destruction will go down to the lower parts of the earth. +Psm 63:10 They will be cut off by the sword; they will be food for foxes. +Psm 63:11 But the king will have joy in God; everyone who takes an oath by him will have cause for pride; but the false mouth will be stopped. +Psm 64:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.> O God, let the voice of my grief come to your ear: keep my life from the fear of those who are against me. +Psm 64:2 Keep me safe from the secret purpose of wrongdoers; from the band of the workers of evil; +Psm 64:3 Who make their tongues sharp like a sword, and whose arrows are pointed, even bitter words; +Psm 64:4 So that in secret they may let loose their arrows at the upright, suddenly and unseen. +Psm 64:5 They make themselves strong in an evil purpose; they make holes for secret nets; they say, Who will see it, +Psm 64:6 Or make discovery of our secret purpose? The design is framed with care; and the inner thought of a man, and his heart, is deep. +Psm 64:7 But God sends out an arrow against them; suddenly they are wounded. +Psm 64:8 The evil of their tongues is the cause of their fall; all those who see them are shaking their heads at them. +Psm 64:9 And in fear men make public the works of God; and giving thought to his acts they get wisdom. +Psm 64:10 The upright will be glad in the Lord and have hope in him; and all the lovers of righteousness will give him glory. +Psm 65:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David. A Song.> It is right for you, O God, to have praise in Zion: to you let the offering be made. +Psm 65:2 To you, O hearer of prayer, let the words of all flesh come. +Psm 65:3 Evils have overcome us: but as for our sins, you will take them away. +Psm 65:4 Happy is the man of your selection, to whom you give a resting-place in your house; we will be full of the good things out of your holy place. +Psm 65:5 You will give us an answer in righteousness by great acts of power, O God of our salvation; you who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, and of the far-off lands of the sea; +Psm 65:6 The God by whose strength the mountains are fixed; who is robed with power: +Psm 65:7 Who makes the loud voice of the sea quiet, and puts an end to the sound of its waves. +Psm 65:8 Those in the farthest parts of the earth have fear when they see your signs: the outgoings of the morning and evening are glad because of you. +Psm 65:9 You have given your blessing to the earth, watering it and making it fertile; the river of God is full of water: and having made it ready, you give men grain. +Psm 65:10 You make the ploughed lands full of water; you make smooth the slopes: you make the earth soft with showers, sending your blessing on its growth. +Psm 65:11 The year is crowned with the good you give; life-giving rain is dropping from your footsteps, +Psm 65:12 Falling on the grass of the waste land: and the little hills are glad on every side. +Psm 65:13 The grass-land is thick with flocks; the valleys are full of grain; they give glad cries and songs of joy. +Psm 66:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Song. A Psalm.> Send up a glad cry to God, all the earth: +Psm 66:2 Make a song in honour of his name: give praise and glory to him. +Psm 66:3 Say to God, How greatly to be feared are your works! because of your great power your haters are forced to put themselves under your feet. +Psm 66:4 Let all the earth give you worship, and make songs to you; let them make songs to your name. (Selah.) +Psm 66:5 Come and see the works of God: he is to be feared in all he does to the children of men. +Psm 66:6 The sea was turned into dry land: they went through the river on foot: there did we have joy in him. +Psm 66:7 He is ruling in power for ever; his eyes are watching the nations: may his haters have no strength against him. (Selah.) +Psm 66:8 Give blessings to our God, O you peoples, let the voice of his praise be loud; +Psm 66:9 Because he gives us life, and has not let our feet be moved. +Psm 66:10 For you, O God, have put us to the test: testing us by fire like silver. +Psm 66:11 You let us be put in prison; chains were put on our legs. +Psm 66:12 You let men go driving over our heads; we went through fire and through water; but you took us out into a wide place. +Psm 66:13 I will come into your house with burned offerings, I will make payment of my debt to you, +Psm 66:14 Keeping the word which came from my lips, and which my mouth said, when I was in trouble. +Psm 66:15 I will give you burned offerings of fat beasts, and the smoke of sheep; I will make offerings of oxen and goats. (Selah.) +Psm 66:16 Come, give ear to me, all you God-fearing men, so that I may make clear to you what he has done for my soul. +Psm 66:17 My voice went up to him, and I was lifted up from the underworld. +Psm 66:18 I said in my heart, The Lord will not give ear to me: +Psm 66:19 But truly God's ear has been open; he has give attention to the voice of my prayer. +Psm 66:20 Praise be to God who has not taken away his good faith and his mercy from me. +Psm 67:1 <To the chief music-maker. With corded instruments. A Psalm. A Song.> May God give us mercy and blessing, and let the light of his face be shining on us; (Selah.) +Psm 67:2 So that men may see your way on the earth, and your salvation among all nations. +Psm 67:3 Let the peoples give you praise, O God; let all the peoples give you praise. +Psm 67:4 O let the nations be glad, and make song of joy; for you will be the judge of the peoples in righteousness, guiding the nations of the earth. (Selah.) +Psm 67:5 Let the peoples give you praise, O God; let all the peoples give you praise. +Psm 67:6 The earth has given her increase; and God, even our God, will give us his blessing. +Psm 67:7 God will give us his blessing; so let all the ends of the earth be in fear of him. +Psm 68:1 <To the chief music-maker. Of David. A Psalm. A Song.> Let God be seen, and let his haters be put to flight; let those who are against him be turned back before him. +Psm 68:2 Let them be like smoke before the driving wind; as wax turning soft before the fire, so let them come to an end before the power of God. +Psm 68:3 But let the upright be glad; let them have delight before God; let them be full of joy. +Psm 68:4 Make songs to God, make songs of praise to his name; make a way for him who comes through the waste lands; his name is Jah; be glad before him. +Psm 68:5 A father to those who have no father, a judge of the widows, is God in his holy place. +Psm 68:6 Those who are without friends, God puts in families; he makes free those who are in chains; but those who are turned away from him are given a dry land. +Psm 68:7 O God, when you went out before your people, wandering through the waste land; (Selah.) +Psm 68:8 The earth was shaking and the heavens were streaming, because God was present; even Sinai itself was moved before God, the God of Israel. +Psm 68:9 You, O God, did freely send the rain, giving strength to the weariness of your heritage. +Psm 68:10 Those whose resting-place was there, even the poor, were comforted by your good things, O God. +Psm 68:11 The Lord gives the word; great is the number of the women who make it public. +Psm 68:12 Kings of armies quickly go in flight: and the women in the houses make a division of their goods. +Psm 68:13 Will you take your rest among the flocks? like the wings of a dove covered with silver, and its feathers with yellow gold. +Psm 68:14 When the Most High put the kings to flight, it was as white as snow in Salmon. +Psm 68:15 A hill of God is the hill of Bashan; a hill with high tops is the hill of Bashan. +Psm 68:16 Why are you looking with envy, you high hills, on the hill desired by God as his resting-place? truly, God will make it his house for ever. +Psm 68:17 The war-carriage of God is among Israel's thousands; the Lord has come from Sinai to the holy place. +Psm 68:18 You have gone up on high, taking your prisoners with you; you have taken offerings from men; the Lord God has taken his place on the seat of his power. +Psm 68:19 Praise be to the Lord, who is our support day by day, even the God of our salvation. (Selah.) +Psm 68:20 Our God is for us a God of salvation; his are the ways out of death. +Psm 68:21 The heads of the haters of God will be crushed; even the head of him who still goes on in his evil ways. +Psm 68:22 The Lord said, I will make them come back from Bashan, and from the deep parts of the sea; +Psm 68:23 So that your foot may be red with blood, and the tongues of your dogs with the same. +Psm 68:24 We see your going, O God: even the going of my God, my King, into the holy place. +Psm 68:25 The makers of songs go before, the players of music come after, among the young girls playing on brass instruments. +Psm 68:26 Give praise to God in the great meeting; even the Lord, you who come from the fountain of Israel. +Psm 68:27 There is little Benjamin ruling them, the chiefs of Judah and their army, the rulers of Zebulun and the rulers of Naphtali. +Psm 68:28 O God, send out your strength; the strength, O God, with which you have done great things for us, +Psm 68:29 Out of your Temple in Jerusalem. +Psm 68:30 Say sharp words to the beast among the water-plants, the band of strong ones, with the lords of the peoples, put an end to the people whose delight is in war. +Psm 68:31 Kings will give you offerings, they will come out of Egypt; from Pathros will come offerings of silver; Ethiopia will be stretching out her hands to God. +Psm 68:32 Make songs to God, you kingdoms of the earth; O make songs of praise to the Lord; (Selah.) +Psm 68:33 To him who goes or the clouds of heaven, the heaven which was from earliest times; he sends out his voice of power. +Psm 68:34 Make clear that strength is God's: he is lifted up over Israel, and his power is in the clouds. +Psm 68:35 O God, you are to be feared in your holy place: the God of Israel gives strength and power to his people. Praise be to God. +Psm 69:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to Shoshannim. Of David.> Be my saviour, O God; because the waters have come in, even to my neck. +Psm 69:2 My feet are deep in the soft earth, where there is no support; I have come into deep waters, the waves are flowing over me. +Psm 69:3 I am tired with my crying; my throat is burning: my eyes are wasted with waiting for my God. +Psm 69:4 Those who have hate for me without cause are greater in number than the hairs of my head; those who are against me, falsely desiring my destruction, are very strong; I gave back what I had not taken away. +Psm 69:5 O God, you see how foolish I am; and my wrongdoing is clear to you. +Psm 69:6 Let not those who have hope in you be put to shame because of me, O Lord God of armies: let not those who are waiting for you be made low because of me, O God of Israel. +Psm 69:7 I have been wounded with sharp words because of you; my face has been covered with shame. +Psm 69:8 I have become strange to my brothers, and like a man from a far country to my mother's children. +Psm 69:9 I am on fire with passion for your house; and the hard things which are said about you have come on me. +Psm 69:10 My bitter weeping, and my going without food, were turned to my shame. +Psm 69:11 When I put on the clothing of grief, they said evil of me. +Psm 69:12 I am a cause of wonder to those in authority; a song to those who are given to strong drink. +Psm 69:13 But as for me, let my prayer be made to you, O Lord, at a time when you are pleased; O God, give me an answer in your great mercy, for your salvation is certain. +Psm 69:14 Take me from the grip of the sticky earth, so that I may not go down into it; let me be lifted up from the deep waters. +Psm 69:15 Let me not be covered by the flowing waters; let not the deep waters go over my head, and let me not be shut up in the underworld. +Psm 69:16 Give an answer to my words, O Lord; for your mercy is good: be turned to me, because of your great pity. +Psm 69:17 Let not your face be covered from your servant, for I am in trouble; quickly give me an answer. +Psm 69:18 Come near to my soul, for its salvation: be my saviour, because of those who are against me. +Psm 69:19 You have seen my shame, how I was laughed at and made low; my haters are all before you. +Psm 69:20 My heart is broken by bitter words, I am full of grief; I made a search for some to have pity on me, but there was no one; I had no comforter. +Psm 69:21 They gave me poison for my food; and bitter wine for my drink. +Psm 69:22 Let their table before them be for their destruction; let their feasts become a net to take them. +Psm 69:23 Let their eyes be blind so that they may not see; let their bodies for ever be shaking. +Psm 69:24 Let your curse come on them; let the heat of your wrath overtake them. +Psm 69:25 Give their houses to destruction, and let there be no one in their tents. +Psm 69:26 Because they are cruel to him against whom your hand is turned; they make bitter the grief of him who is wounded by you. +Psm 69:27 Let their punishment be increased; let them not come into your righteousness. +Psm 69:28 Let their names be taken from the book of the living, let them not be numbered with the upright. +Psm 69:29 But I am poor and full of sorrow; let me be lifted up by your salvation, O Lord. +Psm 69:30 I will give praise to the name of God with a song; I will give glory to him for what he has done. +Psm 69:31 This will be more pleasing to the Lord than an ox, or a young ox of full growth. +Psm 69:32 The poor will see it and be glad: you who are lovers of God, let your hearts have life. +Psm 69:33 For the ears of the Lord are open to the poor, and he takes thought for his prisoners. +Psm 69:34 Let the heavens and the earth give praise to him, the seas, and everything moving in them. +Psm 69:35 For God will be the saviour of Zion, and the builder of the towns of Judah; so that it may be their resting-place and heritage. +Psm 69:36 The seed of his servants will have their part in it, and there the lovers of his name will have rest. +Psm 70:1 <To the chief music-maker. Of David. To keep in memory.> Let your salvation come quickly, O God; come quickly to my help, O Lord. +Psm 70:2 Let those who go after my soul have shame and trouble; let those who have evil designs against me be turned back and made foolish. +Psm 70:3 Let those who say Aha, aha! be turned back as a reward of their shame. +Psm 70:4 Let all those who are looking for you be glad and have joy in you; let the lovers of your salvation ever say, May God be great. +Psm 70:5 But I am poor and in need; come to me quickly, O God; you are my help and my saviour; let there be no waiting, O Lord. +Psm 71:1 In you, O Lord, have I put my hope; let me never be shamed. +Psm 71:2 Keep me safe in your righteousness, and come to my help; give ear to my voice, and be my saviour. +Psm 71:3 Be my strong Rock, the strong place of my salvation; for you are my Rock, and my safe place. +Psm 71:4 O my God, take me out of the hand of the sinner, out of the hand of the evil and cruel man. +Psm 71:5 For you are my hope, O Lord God; I have had faith in you from the time when I was young. +Psm 71:6 You have been my support from the day of my birth; you took me out of my mother's body; my praise will be ever of you. +Psm 71:7 I am a wonder to all; but you are my strong tower. +Psm 71:8 My mouth will be full of your praise and glory all the day. +Psm 71:9 Do not give me up when I am old; be my help even when my strength is gone. +Psm 71:10 For my haters are waiting secretly for me; and those who are watching for my soul are banded together in their evil designs, +Psm 71:11 Saying, God has given him up; go after him and take him, for he has no helper. +Psm 71:12 O God, be not far from me; O my God, come quickly to my help. +Psm 71:13 Let those who say evil against my soul be overcome and put to shame; let my haters be made low and have no honour. +Psm 71:14 But I will go on ever hoping, and increasing in all your praise. +Psm 71:15 My mouth will make clear your righteousness and your salvation all the day; for they are more than may be measured. +Psm 71:16 I will give news of the great acts of the Lord God; my words will be of your righteousness, and of yours only. +Psm 71:17 O God, you have been my teacher from the time when I was young; and I have been talking of your works of wonder even till now. +Psm 71:18 Now when I am old and grey-headed, O God, give me not up; till I have made clear your strength to this generation, and your power to all those to come. +Psm 71:19 Your righteousness, O God, is very high; you have done great things; O God, who is like you? +Psm 71:20 You, who have sent great and bitter troubles on me, will give me life again, lifting me up from the deep waters of the underworld. +Psm 71:21 You will make me greater than before, and give me comfort on every side. +Psm 71:22 I will give praise to you with instruments of music, O my God, for you are true; I will make songs to you with music, O Holy One of Israel. +Psm 71:23 Joy will be on my lips when I make melody to you; and in my soul, to which you have given salvation. +Psm 71:24 My tongue will be talking of your righteousness all the day; for those whose purpose is to do me evil have been crushed and put to shame. +Psm 72:1 <Of Solomon.> Give the king your authority, O God, and your righteousness to the king's son. +Psm 72:2 May he be a judge of your people in righteousness, and make true decisions for the poor. +Psm 72:3 May the mountains give peace to the people, and the hills righteousness. +Psm 72:4 May he be a judge of the poor among the people, may he give salvation to the children of those who are in need; by him let the violent be crushed. +Psm 72:5 May his life go on as long as the sun and moon, through all generations. +Psm 72:6 May he come down like rain on the cut grass; like showers watering the earth. +Psm 72:7 In his days may the upright do well, living in peace as long as there is a moon in heaven. +Psm 72:8 Let his kingdom be from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth. +Psm 72:9 Let those who are against him go down before him; and let his haters be low in the dust. +Psm 72:10 Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands come back with offerings; let the kings of Sheba and Seba give of their stores. +Psm 72:11 Yes, let all kings go down before him; let all nations be his servants. +Psm 72:12 For he will be a saviour to the poor in answer to his cry; and to him who is in need, without a helper. +Psm 72:13 He will have pity on the poor, and be the saviour of those who are in need. +Psm 72:14 He will keep their souls free from evil designs and violent attacks; and their blood will be of value in his eyes. +Psm 72:15 May he have long life, and may gold from Sheba be given to him: may prayers be made for him at all times; may blessings be on him every day. +Psm 72:16 May there be wide-stretching fields of grain in the land, shaking on the top of the mountains, full of fruit like Lebanon: may its stems be unnumbered like the grass of the earth. +Psm 72:17 May his name go on for ever, as long as the sun: may men be blessing themselves by him; may all nations be blessing his name. +Psm 72:18 Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, the only doer of wonders. +Psm 72:19 Praise to the glory of his noble name for ever; let all the earth be full of his glory. So be it, So be it. +Psm 72:20 The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. <A Psalm. Of Asaph.> +Psm 73:1 Truly, God is good to Israel, even to such as are clean in heart. +Psm 73:2 But as for me, my feet had almost gone from under me; I was near to slipping; +Psm 73:3 Because of my envy of the men of pride, when I saw the well-being of the wrongdoers. +Psm 73:4 For they have no pain; their bodies are fat and strong. +Psm 73:5 They are not in trouble as others are; they have no part in the unhappy fate of men. +Psm 73:6 For this reason pride is round them like a chain; they are clothed with violent behaviour as with a robe. +Psm 73:7 Their eyes are bursting with fat; they have more than their heart's desire. +Psm 73:8 Their thoughts are deep with evil designs; their talk from their seats of power is of cruel acts. +Psm 73:9 Their mouth goes up to heaven; their tongues go walking through the earth. +Psm 73:10 For this reason they are full of bread; and water is ever flowing for them. +Psm 73:11 And they say, How will the Lord see this? is there knowledge in the Most High? +Psm 73:12 Truly, such are the sinners; they do well at all times, and their wealth is increased. +Psm 73:13 As for me, I have made my heart clean to no purpose, washing my hands in righteousness; +Psm 73:14 For I have been troubled all the day; every morning have I undergone punishment. +Psm 73:15 If I would make clear what it is like, I would say, You are false to the generation of your children. +Psm 73:16 When my thoughts were turned to see the reason of this, it was a weariness in my eyes; +Psm 73:17 Till I went into God's holy place, and saw the end of the evil-doers. +Psm 73:18 You put their feet where there was danger of slipping, so that they go down into destruction. +Psm 73:19 How suddenly are they wasted! fears are the cause of their destruction. +Psm 73:20 As a dream when one is awake, they are ended; they are like an image gone out of mind when sleep is over. +Psm 73:21 My heart was made bitter, and I was pained by the bite of grief: +Psm 73:22 As for me, I was foolish, and without knowledge; I was like a beast before you. +Psm 73:23 But still I am ever with you; you have taken me by my right hand. +Psm 73:24 Your wisdom will be my guide, and later you will put me in a place of honour. +Psm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you? and having you I have no desire for anything on earth. +Psm 73:26 My flesh and my heart are wasting away: but God is the Rock of my heart and my eternal heritage. +Psm 73:27 For those who are far away from you will come to destruction: you will put an end to all those who have not kept faith with you. +Psm 73:28 But it is good for me to come near to God: I have put my faith in the Lord God, so that I may make clear all his works. +Psm 74:1 <Maschil. Of Asaph.> Of God, why have you put us away from you for ever? why is the fire of your wrath smoking against the sheep who are your care? +Psm 74:2 Keep in mind your band of worshippers, for whom you gave payment in the days which are past, whom you took for yourself as the people of your heritage; even this mountain of Zion, which has been your resting-place. +Psm 74:3 Go up and see the unending destruction; all the evil which your haters have done in the holy place; +Psm 74:4 Sending out their voices like lions among your worshippers; they have put up their signs to be seen. +Psm 74:5 They are cutting down, like a man whose blade is lifted up against the thick trees. +Psm 74:6 Your doors are broken down with hammers and iron blades. +Psm 74:7 They have put on fire your holy place; they have made the place of your name unclean, pulling it down to the earth. +Psm 74:8 They have said in their hearts, Let us put an end to them all together; they have given over to the fire all God's places of worship in the land. +Psm 74:9 We do not see our signs: there is no longer any prophet, or anyone among us to say how long. +Psm 74:10 O God, how long will those who are against us say cruel things? will the hater go on looking down on your name for ever? +Psm 74:11 Why are you keeping back your hand, and covering your right hand in your robe? +Psm 74:12 For from the past God is my King, working salvation in the earth. +Psm 74:13 The sea was parted in two by your strength; the heads of the great sea-beasts were broken. +Psm 74:14 The heads of the great snake were crushed by you; you gave them as food to the fishes of the sea. +Psm 74:15 You made valleys for fountains and springs; you made the ever-flowing rivers dry. +Psm 74:16 The day is yours and the night is yours: you made the light and the sun. +Psm 74:17 By you all the limits of the earth were fixed; you have made summer and winter. +Psm 74:18 Keep this in mind, O Lord, that your haters have said cruel things, and that your name has been looked down on by a people of evil behaviour. +Psm 74:19 O give not the soul of your dove to the hawk; let not the life of the poor go out of your memory for ever. +Psm 74:20 Keep in mind your undertaking; for the dark places of the earth are full of pride and cruel acts. +Psm 74:21 O let not the crushed be turned back in shame; let the low man and the poor give praise to your name. +Psm 74:22 Up! O God, be the judge of your cause; keep in mind the bitter things which the man of evil behaviour says against you every day. +Psm 74:23 Keep in mind the voice of your haters; the outcry of those who come against you goes up every day. +Psm 75:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to Al-tashheth. A Psalm. Of Asaph. A Song.> To you, O God, we give praise, to you we give praise: and those who give honour to your name make clear your works of power. +Psm 75:2 When the right time has come, I will be the judge in righteousness. +Psm 75:3 When the earth and all its people become feeble, I am the support of its pillars. (Selah.) +Psm 75:4 I say to the men of pride, Let your pride be gone: and to the sinners, Let not your horn be lifted up. +Psm 75:5 Let not your horn be lifted up: let no more words of pride come from your outstretched necks. +Psm 75:6 For honour does not come from the east, or from the west, or uplifting from the south; +Psm 75:7 But God is the judge, putting down one, and lifting up another. +Psm 75:8 For in the hand of the Lord is a cup, and the wine is red; it is well mixed, overflowing from his hand: he will make all the sinners of the earth take of it, even to the last drop. +Psm 75:9 But I will ever be full of joy, making songs of praise to the God of Jacob. +Psm 75:10 By him will all the horns of the sinners be cut off; but the horns of the upright will be lifted up. +Psm 76:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to Neginoth. A Psalm. Of Asaph. A Song.> In Judah is the knowledge of God; his name is great in Israel, +Psm 76:2 In Salem is his tent, his resting-place in Zion. +Psm 76:3 There were the arrows of the bow broken, there he put an end to body-cover, sword, and fight. (Selah.) +Psm 76:4 You are shining and full of glory, more than the eternal mountains. +Psm 76:5 Gone is the wealth of the strong, their last sleep has overcome them; the men of war have become feeble. +Psm 76:6 At the voice of your wrath, O God of Jacob, deep sleep has overcome carriage and horse. +Psm 76:7 You, you are to be feared; who may keep his place before you in the time of your wrath? +Psm 76:8 From heaven you gave your decision; the earth, in its fear, gave no sound, +Psm 76:9 When God took his place as judge, for the salvation of the poor on the earth. (Selah.) +Psm 76:10 The ... will give you praise; the rest of ... +Psm 76:11 Give to the Lord your God what is his by right; let all who are round him give offerings to him who is to be feared. +Psm 76:12 He puts an end to the wrath of rulers; he is feared by the kings of the earth. +Psm 77:1 <To the chief music-maker. After Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A Psalm.> I was crying to God with my voice; even to God with my voice, and he gave ear to me. +Psm 77:2 In the day of my trouble, my heart was turned to the Lord: my hand was stretched out in the night without resting; my soul would not be comforted. +Psm 77:3 I will keep God in memory, with sounds of grief; my thoughts are troubled, and my spirit is overcome. (Selah.) +Psm 77:4 You keep my eyes from sleep; I am so troubled that no words come. +Psm 77:5 My thoughts go back to the days of the past, to the years which are gone. +Psm 77:6 The memory of my song comes back to me in the night; my thoughts are moving in my heart; my spirit is searching with care. +Psm 77:7 Will the Lord put me away for ever? will he be kind no longer? +Psm 77:8 Is his mercy quite gone for ever? has his word come to nothing? +Psm 77:9 Has God put away the memory of his pity? are his mercies shut up by his wrath? (Selah.) +Psm 77:10 And I said, It is a weight on my spirit; but I will keep in mind the years of the right hand of the Most High. +Psm 77:11 I will keep in mind the works of Jah: I will keep the memory of your wonders in the past. +Psm 77:12 I will give thought to all your work, while my mind goes over your acts of power. +Psm 77:13 Your way, O God, is holy: what god is so great as our God? +Psm 77:14 You are the God who does works of power: you have made your strength clear to the nations. +Psm 77:15 With your arm you have made your people free, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. (Selah.) +Psm 77:16 The waters saw you, O God; the waters saw you, they were in fear: even the deep was troubled. +Psm 77:17 The clouds sent out water; the skies gave out a sound; truly, your arrows went far and wide. +Psm 77:18 The voice of your thunder went rolling on; the world was flaming with the light of the storm; the earth was shaking. +Psm 77:19 Your way was in the sea, and your road in the great waters; there was no knowledge of your footsteps. +Psm 77:20 You were guiding your people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron. +Psm 78:1 <Maschil. Of Asaph.> Give ear, O my people, to my law; let your ears be bent down to the words of my mouth. +Psm 78:2 Opening my mouth I will give out a story, even the dark sayings of old times; +Psm 78:3 Which have come to our hearing and our knowledge, as they were given to us by our fathers. +Psm 78:4 We will not keep them secret from our children; we will make clear to the coming generation the praises of the Lord and his strength, and the great works of wonder which he has done. +Psm 78:5 He put up a witness in Jacob, and made a law in Israel; which he gave to our fathers so that they might give knowledge of them to their children; +Psm 78:6 So that the generation to come might have knowledge of them, even the children of the future, who would give word of them to their children; +Psm 78:7 So that they might put their hope in God, and not let God's works go out of their minds, but keep his laws; +Psm 78:8 And not be like their fathers, a stiff-necked and uncontrolled generation; a generation whose heart was hard, whose spirit was not true to God. +Psm 78:9 The children of Ephraim, armed with bows, were turned back on the day of the fight. +Psm 78:10 They were not ruled by God's word, and they would not go in the way of his law; +Psm 78:11 They let his works go out of their memory, and the wonders which he had made them see. +Psm 78:12 He did great works before the eyes of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. +Psm 78:13 The sea was cut in two so that they might go through; the waters were massed together on this side and on that. +Psm 78:14 In the daytime he was guiding them in the cloud, and all through the night with a light of fire. +Psm 78:15 The rocks of the waste land were broken by his power, and he gave them drink as out of the deep waters. +Psm 78:16 He made streams come out of the rock; and waters came flowing down like rivers. +Psm 78:17 And they went on sinning against him even more, turning away from the Most High in the waste land; +Psm 78:18 Testing God in their hearts, requesting meat for their desire. +Psm 78:19 They said bitter words against God, saying, Is God able to make ready a table in the waste land? +Psm 78:20 See, the rock was cut open by his power, so that the water came rushing out, and overflowing streams; is he able to give us bread? is he able to get meat for his people? +Psm 78:21 So these things came to the Lord's ears, and he was angry; and a fire was lighted against Jacob, and wrath came up against Israel; +Psm 78:22 Because they had no faith in God, and no hope in his salvation. +Psm 78:23 And he gave orders to the clouds on high, and the doors of heaven were open; +Psm 78:24 And he sent down manna like rain for their food, and gave them the grain of heaven. +Psm 78:25 Man took part in the food of strong ones; he sent them meat in full measure. +Psm 78:26 He sent an east wind from heaven, driving on the south wind by his power. +Psm 78:27 He sent down meat on them like dust, and feathered birds like the sand of the sea, +Psm 78:28 And he let it come down into their resting-place, round about their tents. +Psm 78:29 So they had food and were full; for he gave them their desire; +Psm 78:30 But they were not turned from their desires; and while the food was still in their mouths, +Psm 78:31 The wrath of God came on them, and put to death the fattest of them, and put an end to the young men of Israel. +Psm 78:32 For all this they went on sinning even more, and had no faith in his great wonders. +Psm 78:33 So their days were wasted like a breath, and their years in trouble. +Psm 78:34 When he sent death on them, then they made search for him; turning to him and looking for him with care; +Psm 78:35 In the memory that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their saviour. +Psm 78:36 But their lips were false to him, and their tongues were untrue to him; +Psm 78:37 And their hearts were not right with him, and they did not keep their agreement with him. +Psm 78:38 But he, being full of pity, has forgiveness for sin, and does not put an end to man: frequently turning back his wrath, and not being violently angry. +Psm 78:39 So he kept in mind that they were only flesh; a breath which is quickly gone, and will not come again. +Psm 78:40 How frequently did they go against him in the waste land, and give him cause for grief in the dry places! +Psm 78:41 Again they put God to the test, and gave pain to the Holy One of Israel. +Psm 78:42 They did not keep in mind the work of his hand, or the day when he took them from the power of their haters; +Psm 78:43 How he had done his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan; +Psm 78:44 So that their rivers were turned to blood, and they were not able to get drink from their streams. +Psm 78:45 He sent different sorts of flies among them, poisoning their flesh; and frogs for their destruction. +Psm 78:46 He gave the increase of their fields to worms, the fruits of their industry to the locusts. +Psm 78:47 He sent ice for the destruction of their vines; their trees were damaged by the bitter cold. +Psm 78:48 Ice was rained down on their cattle; thunderstorms sent destruction among the flocks. +Psm 78:49 He sent on them the heat of his wrath, his bitter disgust, letting loose evil angels among them. +Psm 78:50 He let his wrath have its way; he did not keep back their soul from death, but gave their life to disease. +Psm 78:51 He gave to destruction all the first sons of Egypt; the first-fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham; +Psm 78:52 But he took his people out like sheep, guiding them in the waste land like a flock. +Psm 78:53 He took them on safely so that they had no fear; but their haters were covered by the sea. +Psm 78:54 And he was their guide to his holy land, even to the mountain, which his right hand had made his; +Psm 78:55 Driving out nations before them, marking out the line of their heritage, and giving the people of Israel their tents for a resting-place. +Psm 78:56 But they were bitter against the Most High God, testing him, and not keeping his laws; +Psm 78:57 Their hearts were turned back and untrue like their fathers; they were turned to one side like a twisted bow. +Psm 78:58 They made him angry with their high places; moving him to wrath with their images. +Psm 78:59 When this came to God's ears he was very angry, and gave up Israel completely; +Psm 78:60 So that he went away from the holy place in Shiloh, the tent which he had put among men; +Psm 78:61 And he let his strength be taken prisoner, and gave his glory into the hands of his hater. +Psm 78:62 He gave his people up to the sword, and was angry with his heritage. +Psm 78:63 Their young men were burned in the fire; and their virgins were not praised in the bride-song. +Psm 78:64 Their priests were put to death by the sword, and their widows made no weeping for them. +Psm 78:65 Then was the Lord like one awaking from sleep, and like a strong man crying out because of wine. +Psm 78:66 His haters were turned back by his blows and shamed for ever. +Psm 78:67 And he put the tent of Joseph on one side, and took not the tribe of Ephraim; +Psm 78:68 But he took the tribe of Judah for himself, and the mountain of Zion, in which he had pleasure. +Psm 78:69 And he made his holy place like the high heaven, like the earth which is fixed by him for ever. +Psm 78:70 He took David to be his servant, taking him from the place of the flocks; +Psm 78:71 From looking after the sheep which were giving milk, he took him to give food to Jacob his people, and to Israel his heritage. +Psm 78:72 So he gave them food with an upright heart, guiding them by the wisdom of his hands. +Psm 79:1 <A Psalm. Of Asaph.> O God, the nations have come into your heritage; they have made your holy Temple unclean; they have made Jerusalem a mass of broken walls. +Psm 79:2 They have given the bodies of your servants as food to the birds of the air, and the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth. +Psm 79:3 Their blood has been flowing like water round about Jerusalem; there was no one to put them in their last resting-place. +Psm 79:4 We are looked down on by our neighbours, we are laughed at and made sport of by those who are round us. +Psm 79:5 How long, O Lord? will you be angry for ever? will your wrath go on burning like fire? +Psm 79:6 Let your wrath be on the nations who have no knowledge of you, and on the kingdoms who have not made prayer to your name. +Psm 79:7 For they have taken Jacob for their meat, and made waste his house. +Psm 79:8 Do not keep in mind against us the sins of our fathers; let your mercy come to us quickly, for we have been made very low. +Psm 79:9 Give us help, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; take us out of danger and give us forgiveness for our sins, because of your name. +Psm 79:10 Why may the nations say, Where is their God? Let payment for the blood of your servants be made openly among the nations before our eyes. +Psm 79:11 Let the cry of the prisoner come before you; with your strong arm make free the children of death; +Psm 79:12 And give punishment seven times over into the breast of our neighbours for the bitter words which they have said against you, O Lord. +Psm 79:13 So we your people, and the sheep of your flock, will give you glory for ever: we will go on praising you through all generations. +Psm 80:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to Shoshannim-eduth. Of Asaph. A Psalm.> Give ear, O Keeper of Israel, guiding Joseph like a flock; you who have your seat on the winged ones, let your glory be seen. +Psm 80:2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, let your strength be awake from sleep, and come as our salvation. +Psm 80:3 Take us back again, O God; let us see the shining of your face, and let us be safe. +Psm 80:4 O Lord God of armies, how long will your wrath be burning against the rest of your people? +Psm 80:5 You have given them the bread of weeping for food; for their drink you have given them sorrow in great measure. +Psm 80:6 You make us a cause of war among our neighbours; our haters are laughing at us among themselves. +Psm 80:7 Take us back again, O God of armies; let us see the shining of your face, and let us be safe. +Psm 80:8 You took a vine out of Egypt: driving out the nations, and planting it in their land. +Psm 80:9 You made ready a place for it, so that it might take deep root, and it sent out its branches over all the land. +Psm 80:10 The mountains were covered with its shade, and the great trees with its branches. +Psm 80:11 It sent out its arms to the Sea, and its branches to the River. +Psm 80:12 Why are its walls broken down by your hands, so that all who go by may take its fruit? +Psm 80:13 It is uprooted by the pigs from the woods, the beasts of the field get their food from it. +Psm 80:14 Come back, O God of armies: from heaven let your eyes be turned to this vine, and give your mind to it, +Psm 80:15 Even to the tree which was planted by your right hand, and to the branch which you made strong for yourself. +Psm 80:16 It is burned with fire; it is cut down: they are made waste by the wrath of your face. +Psm 80:17 Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, on the son of man whom you made strong for yourself. +Psm 80:18 So will we not be turned back from you; keep us in life, and we will give praise to your name. +Psm 80:19 Take us back, O Lord God of armies; let us see the shining of your face, and let us be safe. +Psm 81:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to the Gittith. Of Asaph.> Make a song to God our strength: make a glad cry to the God of Jacob. +Psm 81:2 Take up the melody, playing on an instrument of music, even on corded instruments. +Psm 81:3 Let the horn be sounded in the time of the new moon, at the full moon, on our holy feast-day: +Psm 81:4 For this is a rule for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. +Psm 81:5 He gave it to Joseph as a witness, when he went out over the land of Egypt; then the words of a strange tongue were sounding in my ears. +Psm 81:6 I took the weight from his back; his hands were made free from the baskets. +Psm 81:7 You gave a cry in your trouble, and I made you free; I gave you an answer in the secret place of the thunder; I put you to the test at the waters of Meribah. (Selah.) +Psm 81:8 Give ear, O my people, and I will give you my word, O Israel, if you will only do as I say! +Psm 81:9 There is to be no strange god among you; you are not to give worship to any other god. +Psm 81:10 I am the Lord your God, who took you up from the land of Egypt: let your mouth be open wide, so that I may give you food. +Psm 81:11 But my people did not give ear to my voice; Israel would have nothing to do with me. +Psm 81:12 So I gave them up to the desires of their hearts; that they might go after their evil purposes. +Psm 81:13 If only my people would give ear to me, walking in my ways! +Psm 81:14 I would quickly overcome their haters: my hand would be turned against those who make war on them. +Psm 81:15 The haters of the Lord would be broken, and their destruction would be eternal. +Psm 81:16 I would give them the best grain for food; you would be full of honey from the rock. +Psm 82:1 <A Psalm. Of Asaph.> God is in the meeting-place of God; he is judging among the gods. +Psm 82:2 How long will you go on judging falsely, having respect for the persons of evil-doers? (Selah.) +Psm 82:3 Give ear to the cause of the poor and the children without fathers; let those who are troubled and in need have their rights. +Psm 82:4 Be the saviour of the poor and those who have nothing: take them out of the hand of the evil-doers. +Psm 82:5 They have no knowledge or sense; they go about in the dark: all the bases of the earth are moved. +Psm 82:6 I said, You are gods; all of you are the sons of the Most High: +Psm 82:7 But you will come to death like men, falling like one of the rulers of the earth. +Psm 82:8 Up! O God, come as judge of the earth; for all the nations are your heritage. +Psm 83:1 <A Song. A Psalm. Of Asaph.> O God, do not keep quiet: let your lips be open and take no rest, O God. +Psm 83:2 For see! those who make war on you are out of control; your haters are lifting up their heads. +Psm 83:3 They have made wise designs against your people, talking together against those whom you keep in a secret place. +Psm 83:4 They have said, Come, let us put an end to them as a nation; so that the name of Israel may go out of man's memory. +Psm 83:5 For they have all come to an agreement; they are all joined together against you: +Psm 83:6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab and the Hagarites; +Psm 83:7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek; the Philistines and the people of Tyre; +Psm 83:8 Assur is joined with them; they have become the support of the children of Lot. (Selah.) +Psm 83:9 Do to them what you did to the Midianites; what you did to Sisera and Jabin, at the stream of Kishon: +Psm 83:10 Who came to destruction at En-dor; their bodies became dust and waste. +Psm 83:11 Make their chiefs like Oreb and Zeeb; and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna: +Psm 83:12 Who have said, Let us take for our heritage the resting-place of God. +Psm 83:13 O my God, make them like the rolling dust; like dry stems before the wind. +Psm 83:14 As fire burning a wood, and as a flame causing fire on the mountains, +Psm 83:15 So go after them with your strong wind, and let them be full of fear because of your storm. +Psm 83:16 Let their faces be full of shame; so that they may give honour to your name, O Lord. +Psm 83:17 Let them be overcome and troubled for ever; let them be put to shame and come to destruction; +Psm 83:18 So that men may see that you only, whose name is Yahweh, are Most High over all the earth. +Psm 84:1 <To the chief music-maker; put to the Gittith A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.> How dear are your tents, O Lord of armies! +Psm 84:2 The passion of my soul's desire is for the house of the Lord; my heart and my flesh are crying out for the living God. +Psm 84:3 The little birds have places for themselves, where they may put their young, even your altars, O Lord of armies, my King and my God. +Psm 84:4 Happy are they whose resting-place is in your house: they will still be praising you. (Selah.) +Psm 84:5 Happy is the man whose strength is in you; in whose heart are the highways to Zion. +Psm 84:6 Going through the valley of balsam-trees, they make it a place of springs; it is clothed with blessings by the early rain. +Psm 84:7 They go from strength to strength; every one of them comes before God in Zion. +Psm 84:8 O Lord God of armies, let my prayer come to you: give ear, O God of Jacob. (Selah.) +Psm 84:9 O God, let your eyes be on him who is our safe cover, and let your heart be turned to your king. +Psm 84:10 For a day in your house is better than a thousand. It is better to be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to be living in the tents of sin. +Psm 84:11 The Lord God is our sun and our strength: the Lord will give grace and glory: he will not keep back any good thing from those whose ways are upright. +Psm 84:12 O Lord of armies, happy is the man whose hope is in you. +Psm 85:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah.> Lord, you were good to your land: changing the fate of Jacob. +Psm 85:2 The wrongdoing of your people had forgiveness; all their sin had been covered. (Selah.) +Psm 85:3 You were no longer angry: you were turned from the heat of your wrath. +Psm 85:4 Come back to us, O God of our salvation, and be angry with us no longer. +Psm 85:5 Will you go on being angry with us for ever? will you keep your wrath against us through all the long generations? +Psm 85:6 Will you not give us life again, so that your people may be glad in you? +Psm 85:7 Let us see your mercy, O Lord, and give us your salvation. +Psm 85:8 I will give ear to the voice of the Lord; for he will say words of peace to his people and to his saints; but let them not go back to their foolish ways. +Psm 85:9 Truly, his salvation is near to his worshippers; so that glory may be in our land. +Psm 85:10 Mercy and faith have come together; righteousness and peace have given one another a kiss. +Psm 85:11 Faith comes up from the earth like a plant; righteousness is looking down from heaven. +Psm 85:12 The Lord will give what is good; and our land will give its increase. +Psm 85:13 Righteousness will go before him, making a way for his footsteps. +Psm 86:1 <A Prayer. Of David.> Let your ears be open to my voice, O Lord, and give me an answer; for I am poor and in need. +Psm 86:2 Keep my soul, for I am true to you; O my God, give salvation to your servant, whose hope is in you. +Psm 86:3 Have mercy on me, O Lord; for my cry goes up to you all the day. +Psm 86:4 Make glad the soul of your servant; for it is lifted up to you, O Lord. +Psm 86:5 You are good, O Lord, and full of forgiveness; your mercy is great to all who make their cry to you. +Psm 86:6 O Lord, give ear to my prayer; and take note of the sound of my requests. +Psm 86:7 In the day of my trouble I send up my cry to you; for you will give me an answer. +Psm 86:8 There is no god like you, O Lord; there are no works like your works. +Psm 86:9 Let all the nations whom you have made come and give worship to you, O Lord, giving glory to your name. +Psm 86:10 For you are great, and do great works of wonder; you only are God. +Psm 86:11 Make your way clear to me, O Lord; I will go on my way in your faith: let my heart be glad in the fear of your name. +Psm 86:12 I will give you praise, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will give glory to your name for ever. +Psm 86:13 For your mercy to me is great; you have taken my soul up from the deep places of the underworld. +Psm 86:14 O God, men of pride have come up against me, and the army of violent men would take my life; they have not put you before them. +Psm 86:15 But you, O Lord, are a God full of pity and forgiveness, slow to get angry, great in mercy and wisdom. +Psm 86:16 O be turned to me and have mercy on me: give your strength to your servant, and your salvation to the son of her who is your servant. +Psm 86:17 Give me a sign for good; so that my haters may see it and be shamed; because you, Lord, have been my help and comfort. +Psm 87:1 <Of the sons of Korah. A Psalm. A Song.> This house is resting on the holy mountain. +Psm 87:2 The Lord has more love for the doors of Zion than for all the tents of Jacob. +Psm 87:3 Noble things are said of you, O town of God. (Selah.) +Psm 87:4 Rahab and Babylon will be named among those who have knowledge of me; see, Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man had his birth there. +Psm 87:5 And of Zion it will be said, This or that man had his birth there; and the Most High will make her strong. +Psm 87:6 The Lord will keep in mind, when he is writing the records of the people, that this man had his birth there. (Selah.) +Psm 87:7 The players on instruments will be there, and the dancers will say, All my springs are in you. +Psm 88:1 <A Song. A Psalm. Of the sons of Korah. To the chief music-maker; put to Mahalath Leannoth. Maschil. Of Heman the Ezrahite.> O Lord, God of my salvation, I have been crying to you for help by day and by night: +Psm 88:2 Let my prayer come before you; give ear to my cry: +Psm 88:3 For my soul is full of evils, and my life has come near to the underworld. +Psm 88:4 I am numbered among those who go down into the earth; I have become like a man for whom there is no help: +Psm 88:5 My soul is among the dead, like those in the underworld, to whom you give no more thought; for they are cut off from your care. +Psm 88:6 You have put me in the lowest deep, even in dark places. +Psm 88:7 The weight of your wrath is crushing me, all your waves have overcome me. (Selah.) +Psm 88:8 You have sent my friends far away from me; you have made me a disgusting thing in their eyes: I am shut up, and not able to come out. +Psm 88:9 My eyes are wasting away because of my trouble: Lord, my cry has gone up to you every day, my hands are stretched out to you. +Psm 88:10 Will you do works of wonder for the dead? will the shades come back to give you praise? (Selah.) +Psm 88:11 Will the story of your mercy be given in the house of the dead? will news of your faith come to the place of destruction? +Psm 88:12 May there be knowledge of your wonders in the dark? or of your righteousness where memory is dead? +Psm 88:13 But to you did I send up my cry, O Lord; in the morning my prayer came before you. +Psm 88:14 Lord, why have you sent away my soul? why is your face covered from me? +Psm 88:15 I have been troubled and in fear of death from the time when I was young; your wrath is hard on me, and I have no strength. +Psm 88:16 The heat of your wrath has gone over me; I am broken by your cruel punishments. +Psm 88:17 They are round me all the day like water; they have made a circle about me. +Psm 88:18 You have sent my friends and lovers far from me; I am gone from the memory of those who are dear to me. +Psm 89:1 <Maschil. Of Ethan the Ezrahite.> My song will be of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make his faith clear to all generations. +Psm 89:2 For you have said, Mercy will be made strong for ever; my faith will be unchanging in the heavens. +Psm 89:3 I have made an agreement with the man of my selection, I have made an oath to David my servant; +Psm 89:4 I will make your seed go on for ever, your kingdom will be strong through all generations. (Selah.) +Psm 89:5 In heaven let them give praise for your wonders, O Lord; and your unchanging faith among the saints. +Psm 89:6 For who is there in the heavens in comparison with the Lord? who is like the Lord among the sons of the gods? +Psm 89:7 God is greatly to be feared among the saints, and to be honoured over all those who are about him. +Psm 89:8 O Lord God of armies, who is strong like you, O Jah? and your unchanging faith is round about you. +Psm 89:9 You have rule over the sea in storm; when its waves are troubled, you make them calm. +Psm 89:10 Rahab was crushed by you like one wounded to death; with your strong arm you put to flight all your haters. +Psm 89:11 Yours are the heavens, and the earth is yours; you have made the world, and everything which is in it. +Psm 89:12 You have made the north and the south; Tabor and Hermon are sounding with joy at your name. +Psm 89:13 Yours is an arm of power; strong is your hand and high your right hand. +Psm 89:14 The seat of your kingdom is resting on righteousness and right judging: mercy and good faith come before your face. +Psm 89:15 Happy are the people who have knowledge of the holy cry: the light of your face, O Lord, will be shining on their way. +Psm 89:16 In your name will they have joy all the day: in your righteousness will they be lifted up. +Psm 89:17 For you are the glory of their strength; in your pleasure will our horn be lifted up. +Psm 89:18 For our breastplate is the Lord; and our king is the Holy One of Israel's. +Psm 89:19 Then your voice came to your holy one in a vision, saying, I have put the crown on a strong one, lifting up one taken from among the people. +Psm 89:20 I have made discovery of David my servant; I have put my holy oil on his head. +Psm 89:21 My hand will be his support; my arm will give him strength. +Psm 89:22 The deceit of those who are against him will not overcome him; he will not be troubled by the sons of evil. +Psm 89:23 I will have those who are against him broken before his face, and his haters will be crushed under my blows. +Psm 89:24 But my faith and my mercy will be with him; and in my name will his horn be lifted up. +Psm 89:25 I will put his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. +Psm 89:26 He will say to me, You are my father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. +Psm 89:27 And I will make him the first of my sons, most high over the kings of the earth. +Psm 89:28 I will keep my mercy for him for ever; my agreement with him will not be changed. +Psm 89:29 His seed will keep their place for ever; his kingdom will be eternal, like the heavens. +Psm 89:30 If his children give up my law, and are not ruled by my decisions; +Psm 89:31 If my rules are broken, and my orders are not kept; +Psm 89:32 Then I will send punishment on them for their sin; my rod will be the reward of their evil-doing. +Psm 89:33 But I will not take away my mercy from him, and will not be false to my faith. +Psm 89:34 I will be true to my agreement; the things which have gone out of my lips will not be changed. +Psm 89:35 I have made an oath once by my holy name, that I will not be false to David. +Psm 89:36 His seed will not come to an end for ever; the seat of his kingdom will be like the sun before me. +Psm 89:37 It will be fixed for ever like the moon; and the witness in heaven is true. (Selah.) +Psm 89:38 But you have put him away in disgust; you have been angry with the king of your selection. +Psm 89:39 You have made your agreement with your servant of no effect: you have had no respect for his crown, it has come down even to the earth. +Psm 89:40 All his walls are broken down; you have given his strong towers to destruction. +Psm 89:41 All those who come by take away his goods; he is laughed at by his neighbours. +Psm 89:42 You have given power to the right hand of his haters; you have made glad all those who are against him. +Psm 89:43 His sword is turned back; you have not been his support in the fight. +Psm 89:44 You have put an end to his glory: the seat of his kingdom has been levelled to the earth. +Psm 89:45 You have made him old before his time; he is covered with shame. (Selah.) +Psm 89:46 How long, O Lord, will you Keep yourself for ever from our eyes? how long will your wrath be burning like fire? +Psm 89:47 See how short my time is; why have you made all men for no purpose? +Psm 89:48 What man now living will not see death? will he be able to keep back his soul from the underworld? (Selah.) +Psm 89:49 Lord, where are your earlier mercies? where is the oath which you made to David in unchanging faith? +Psm 89:50 Keep in mind, O Lord, the shame of your servants, and how the bitter words of all the people have come into my heart; +Psm 89:51 The bitter words of your haters, O Lord, shaming the footsteps of your king. +Psm 89:52 Let the Lord be praised for ever. So be it, So be it. +Psm 90:1 <A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.> Lord, you have been our resting-place in all generations. +Psm 90:2 Before the mountains were made, before you had given birth to the earth and the world, before time was, and for ever, you are God. +Psm 90:3 You send man back to his dust; and say, Go back, you children of men. +Psm 90:4 For to you a thousand years are no more than yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night. +Psm 90:5 ... +Psm 90:6 In the morning it is green; in the evening it is cut down, and becomes dry. +Psm 90:7 We are burned up by the heat of your passion, and troubled by your wrath. +Psm 90:8 You have put our evil doings before you, our secret sins in the light of your face. +Psm 90:9 For all our days have gone by in your wrath; our years come to an end like a breath. +Psm 90:10 The measure of our life is seventy years; and if through strength it may be eighty years, its pride is only trouble and sorrow, for it comes to an end and we are quickly gone. +Psm 90:11 Who has knowledge of the power of your wrath, or who takes note of the weight of your passion? +Psm 90:12 So give us knowledge of the number of our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. +Psm 90:13 Come back, O Lord; how long? let your purpose for your servants be changed. +Psm 90:14 In the morning give us your mercy in full measure; so that we may have joy and delight all our days. +Psm 90:15 Make us glad in reward for the days of our sorrow, and for the years in which we have seen evil. +Psm 90:16 Make your work clear to your servants, and your glory to their children. +Psm 90:17 Let the pleasure of the Lord our God be on us: O Lord, give strength to the work of our hands. +Psm 91:1 Happy is he whose resting-place is in the secret of the Lord, and under the shade of the wings of the Most High; +Psm 91:2 Who says of the Lord, He is my safe place and my tower of strength: he is my God, in whom is my hope. +Psm 91:3 He will take you out of the bird-net, and keep you safe from wasting disease. +Psm 91:4 You will be covered by his feathers; under his wings you will be safe: his good faith will be your salvation. +Psm 91:5 You will have no fear of the evil things of the night, or of the arrow in flight by day, +Psm 91:6 Or of the disease which takes men in the dark, or of the destruction which makes waste when the sun is high. +Psm 91:7 You will see a thousand falling by your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you. +Psm 91:8 Only with your eyes will you see the reward of the evil-doers. +Psm 91:9 Because you have said, I am in the hands of the Lord, the Most High is my safe resting-place; +Psm 91:10 No evil will come on you, and no disease will come near your tent. +Psm 91:11 For he will give you into the care of his angels to keep you wherever you go. +Psm 91:12 In their hands they will keep you up, so that your foot may not be crushed against a stone. +Psm 91:13 You will put your foot on the lion and the snake; the young lion and the great snake will be crushed under your feet. +Psm 91:14 Because he has given me his love, I will take him out of danger: I will put him in a place of honour, because he has kept my name in his heart. +Psm 91:15 When his cry comes up to me, I will give him an answer: I will be with him in trouble; I will make him free from danger and give him honour. +Psm 91:16 With long life will he be rewarded; and I will let him see my salvation. +Psm 92:1 <A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.> It is a good thing to give praise to the Lord, and to make melody to your name, O Most High; +Psm 92:2 To make clear your mercy in the morning, and your unchanging faith every night; +Psm 92:3 On a ten-corded instrument, and on an instrument of music with a quiet sound. +Psm 92:4 For you, O Lord, have made me glad through your work; I will have joy in the works of your hands. +Psm 92:5 O Lord, how great are your works! and your thoughts are very deep. +Psm 92:6 A man without sense has no knowledge of this; and a foolish man may not take it in. +Psm 92:7 When the sinners come up like the grass, and all the workers of evil do well for themselves, it is so that their end may be eternal destruction. +Psm 92:8 But you, O Lord, are on high for ever. +Psm 92:9 For see! your haters, O Lord, will be put to death; all the workers of evil will be put to flight; +Psm 92:10 But my horn is lifted up like the horn of the ox: the best oil is flowing on my head. +Psm 92:11 My eyes have seen trouble come on my haters; my ears have news of the fate of the evil-doers who have come up against me. +Psm 92:12 The good man will be like a tall tree in his strength; his growth will be as the wide-stretching trees of Lebanon. +Psm 92:13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord will come up tall and strong in his gardens. +Psm 92:14 They will give fruit even when they are old; they will be fertile and full of growth; +Psm 92:15 For a sign that the Lord is upright; he is my Rock, there is no deceit in him. +Psm 93:1 The Lord is King; he is clothed with glory; the Lord is clothed with strength; power is the cord of his robe; the world is fixed, so that it may not be moved. +Psm 93:2 The seat of your power has been from the past; you are eternal. +Psm 93:3 The rivers send up, O Lord, the rivers send up their voices; they send them up with a loud cry. +Psm 93:4 The Lord in heaven is stronger than the noise of great waters, yes, he is stronger than the great waves of the sea. +Psm 93:5 Your witness is most certain; it is right for your house to be holy, O Lord, for ever. +Psm 94:1 O God, in whose hands is punishment, O God of punishment, let your shining face be seen. +Psm 94:2 Be lifted up, O judge of the earth; let their reward come to the men of pride. +Psm 94:3 How long will sinners, O Lord, how long will sinners have joy over us? +Psm 94:4 Words of pride come from their lips; all the workers of evil say great things of themselves. +Psm 94:5 Your people are crushed by them, O Lord, your heritage is troubled, +Psm 94:6 They put to death the widow and the guest, they take the lives of children who have no father; +Psm 94:7 And they say, Jah will not see it, the God of Jacob will not give thought to it. +Psm 94:8 Give your mind to my words, you who are without wisdom among the people; you foolish men, when will you be wise? +Psm 94:9 Has he by whom your ears were planted no hearing? or is he blind by whom your eyes were formed? +Psm 94:10 He who is the judge of the nations, will he not give men the reward of their acts, even he who gives knowledge to man? +Psm 94:11 The Lord has knowledge of the thoughts of man, for they are only a breath. +Psm 94:12 Happy is the man who is guided by you, O Jah, and to whom you give teaching out of your law; +Psm 94:13 So that you may give him rest from the days of evil, till a hole is made ready for the destruction of the sinners. +Psm 94:14 The Lord will not give up his people, or take away his support from his heritage; +Psm 94:15 But decisions will again be made in righteousness; and they will be kept by all whose hearts are true. +Psm 94:16 Who will give me help against the sinners? and who will be my support against the workers of evil? +Psm 94:17 If the Lord had not been my helper, my soul would quickly have gone down into death. +Psm 94:18 If I say, My foot is slipping; your mercy, O Lord, is my support. +Psm 94:19 Among all my troubled thoughts, your comforts are the delight of my soul. +Psm 94:20 What part with you has the seat of sin, which makes evil into a law? +Psm 94:21 They are banded together against the soul of the upright, to give decisions against those who have done no wrong. +Psm 94:22 But the Lord is my safe resting-place; my God is the Rock where I am safe. +Psm 94:23 And he has made their evil designs come back on themselves, cutting them off in their sin; the Lord our God will put an end to them. +Psm 95:1 O come, let us make songs to the Lord; sending up glad voices to the Rock of our salvation. +Psm 95:2 Let us come before his face with praises; and make melody with holy songs. +Psm 95:3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King over all gods. +Psm 95:4 The deep places of the earth are in his hand; and the tops of the mountains are his. +Psm 95:5 The sea is his, and he made it; and the dry land was formed by his hands. +Psm 95:6 O come, let us give worship, falling down on our knees before the Lord our Maker. +Psm 95:7 For he is our God; and we are the people to whom he gives food, and the sheep of his flock. Today, if you would only give ear to his voice! +Psm 95:8 Let not your hearts be hard, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the waste land; +Psm 95:9 When your fathers put me to the test and saw my power and my work. +Psm 95:10 For forty years I was angry with this generation, and said, They are a people whose hearts are turned away from me, for they have no knowledge of my ways; +Psm 95:11 And I made an oath in my wrath, that they might not come into my place of rest. +Psm 96:1 O make a new song to the Lord; let all the earth make melody to the Lord. +Psm 96:2 Make songs to the Lord, blessing his name; give the good news of his salvation day by day. +Psm 96:3 Make clear his glory to the nations, and his wonders to all the peoples. +Psm 96:4 For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; he is more to be feared than all other gods. +Psm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are false gods; but the Lord made the heavens. +Psm 96:6 Honour and glory are before him: strong and fair is his holy place. +Psm 96:7 Give to the Lord, O you families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength. +Psm 96:8 Give to the Lord the glory of his name; take with you an offering and come into his house. +Psm 96:9 O give worship to the Lord in holy robes; be in fear before him, all the earth. +Psm 96:10 Say among the nations, The Lord is King; yes, the world is ordered so that it may not be moved; he will be an upright judge of the peoples. +Psm 96:11 Let the heavens have joy and the earth be glad; let the sea be thundering with all its waters; +Psm 96:12 Let the field be glad, and everything which is in it; yes, let all the trees of the wood be sounding with joy, +Psm 96:13 Before the Lord, for he is come; he is come to be the judge of the earth; the earth will be judged in righteousness, and the peoples with unchanging faith. +Psm 97:1 The Lord is King, let the earth have joy; let all the sea-lands be glad. +Psm 97:2 Dark clouds are round him; his kingdom is based on righteousness and right judging. +Psm 97:3 Fire goes before him, burning up all those who are against him round about. +Psm 97:4 His bright flames give light to the world; the earth saw it with fear. +Psm 97:5 The mountains became like wax at the coming of the Lord, at the coming of the Lord of all the earth. +Psm 97:6 The heavens gave out the news of his righteousness, and all the people saw his glory. +Psm 97:7 Shamed be all those who give worship to images, and take pride in false gods; give him worship, all you gods. +Psm 97:8 Zion gave ear and was glad; and the daughters of Judah were full of joy, because of your decisions, O Lord. +Psm 97:9 For you, Lord, are most high over the earth; you are lifted up over all other gods. +Psm 97:10 You who are lovers of the Lord, be haters of evil; he keeps the souls of his saints; he takes them out of the hand of sinners. +Psm 97:11 Light is shining on the lovers of righteousness, and for the upright in heart there is joy. +Psm 97:12 Be glad in the Lord, you upright men; praising the memory of his holy name. +Psm 98:1 <A Psalm.> O make a new song to the Lord, because he has done works of wonder; with his right hand, and with his holy arm, he has overcome. +Psm 98:2 The Lord has given to all the knowledge of his salvation; he has made clear his righteousness in the eyes of the nations. +Psm 98:3 He has kept in mind his mercy and his unchanging faith to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. +Psm 98:4 Let all the earth send out a glad cry to the Lord; sounding with a loud voice, and praising him with songs of joy. +Psm 98:5 Make melody to the Lord with instruments of music; with a corded instrument and the voice of song. +Psm 98:6 With wind instruments and the sound of the horn, make a glad cry before the Lord, the King. +Psm 98:7 Let the sea be thundering, with all its waters; the world, and all who are living in it; +Psm 98:8 Let the streams make sounds of joy with their hands; let the mountains be glad together, +Psm 98:9 Before the Lord, for he has come as judge of the earth; judging the world in righteousness, and giving true decisions for the peoples. +Psm 99:1 The Lord is King; let the peoples be in fear: his seat is on the winged ones; let the earth be moved. +Psm 99:2 The Lord is great in Zion; he is high over all the nations. +Psm 99:3 Let them give praise to your name, for it is great and to be feared; holy is he. +Psm 99:4 The king's power is used for righteousness; you give true decisions, judging rightly in the land of Jacob. +Psm 99:5 Give high honour to the Lord our God, worshipping at his feet; holy is he. +Psm 99:6 Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who gave honour to his name; they made prayers to the Lord, and he gave answers to them. +Psm 99:7 His voice came to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept his witness, and the law which he gave them. +Psm 99:8 You gave them an answer, O Lord our God; you took away their sin, though you gave them punishment for their wrongdoing. +Psm 99:9 Give high honour to the Lord our God, worshipping with your faces turned to his holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy. +Psm 100:1 <A Psalm of Praise.> Make a glad sound to the Lord, all the earth. +Psm 100:2 Give worship to the Lord with joy; come before him with a song. +Psm 100:3 Be certain that the Lord is God; it is he who has made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep to whom he gives food. +Psm 100:4 Come into his doors with joy, and into his house with praise; give him honour, blessing his name. +Psm 100:5 For the Lord is good, and his mercy is never-ending; his faith is unchanging through all generations. +Psm 101:1 <A Psalm. Of David.> I will make a song of mercy and righteousness; to you, O Lord, will I make melody. +Psm 101:2 I will do wisely in the way of righteousness: O when will you come to me? I will be walking in my house with a true heart. +Psm 101:3 I will not put any evil thing before my eyes; I am against all turning to one side; I will not have it near me. +Psm 101:4 The false heart I will send away from me: I will not have an evil-doer for a friend. +Psm 101:5 I will put to death anyone who says evil of his neighbour secretly; the man with a high look and a heart of pride is disgusting to me. +Psm 101:6 My eyes will be on those of good faith in the land, so that they may be living in my house; he who is walking in the right way will be my servant. +Psm 101:7 The worker of deceit will not come into my house; the false man will have no place before my eyes. +Psm 101:8 Morning by morning will I put to death all the sinners in the land, so that all evil-doers may be cut off from Jerusalem. +Psm 102:1 <A Prayer of the man who is in trouble, when he is overcome, and puts his grief before the Lord.> Give ear to my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come to you. +Psm 102:2 Let not your face be veiled from me in the day of my trouble; give ear to me, and let my cry be answered quickly. +Psm 102:3 My days are wasted like smoke, and my bones are burned up as in a fire. +Psm 102:4 My heart is broken; it has become dry and dead like grass, so that I give no thought to food. +Psm 102:5 Because of the voice of my sorrow, my flesh is wasted to the bone. +Psm 102:6 I am like a bird living by itself in the waste places; like the night-bird in a waste of sand. +Psm 102:7 I keep watch like a bird by itself on the house-top. +Psm 102:8 My haters say evil of me all day; those who are violent against me make use of my name as a curse. +Psm 102:9 I have had dust for bread and my drink has been mixed with weeping: +Psm 102:10 Because of your passion and your wrath, for I have been lifted up and then made low by you. +Psm 102:11 My days are like a shade which is stretched out; I am dry like the grass. +Psm 102:12 But you, O Lord, are eternal; and your name will never come to an end. +Psm 102:13 You will again get up and have mercy on Zion: for the time has come for her to be comforted. +Psm 102:14 For your servants take pleasure in her stones, looking with love on her dust. +Psm 102:15 So the nations will give honour to the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will be in fear of his glory: +Psm 102:16 When the Lord has put up the walls of Zion, and has been been in his glory; +Psm 102:17 When he has given ear to the prayer of the poor, and has not put his request on one side. +Psm 102:18 This will be put in writing for the coming generation, and the people of the future will give praise to the Lord. +Psm 102:19 For from his holy place the Lord has seen, looking down on the earth from heaven; +Psm 102:20 Hearing the cry of the prisoner, making free those for whom death is ordered; +Psm 102:21 So that they may give out the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; +Psm 102:22 When the peoples are come together, and the kingdoms, to give worship to the Lord. +Psm 102:23 He has taken my strength from me in the way; he has made short my days. +Psm 102:24 I will say, O my God, take me not away before my time; your years go on through all generations: +Psm 102:25 In the past you put the earth on its base, and the heavens are the work of your hands. +Psm 102:26 They will come to an end, but you will still go on; they all will become old like a coat, and like a robe they will be changed: +Psm 102:27 But you are the unchanging One, and your years will have no end. +Psm 102:28 The children of your servants will have a safe resting-place, and their seed will be ever before you. +Psm 103:1 <Of David.> Give praise to the Lord, O my soul; let everything in me give praise to his holy name. +Psm 103:2 Give praise to the Lord, O my soul; let not all his blessings go from your memory. +Psm 103:3 He has forgiveness for all your sins; he takes away all your diseases; +Psm 103:4 He keeps back your life from destruction, crowning you with mercy and grace. +Psm 103:5 He makes your mouth full of good things, so that your strength is made new again like the eagle's. +Psm 103:6 The Lord gives decisions in righteousness for all who are in trouble. +Psm 103:7 He gave knowledge of his way to Moses, and made his acts clear to the children of Israel. +Psm 103:8 The Lord is kind and full of pity, not quickly made angry, but ever ready to have mercy. +Psm 103:9 His feeling will no longer be bitter; he will not keep his wrath for ever. +Psm 103:10 He has not given us the punishment for our sins, or the reward of our wrongdoing. +Psm 103:11 For as the heaven is high over the earth, so great is his mercy to his worshippers. +Psm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our sins from us. +Psm 103:13 As a father has pity on his children, so the Lord has pity on his worshippers. +Psm 103:14 For he has knowledge of our feeble frame; he sees that we are only dust. +Psm 103:15 As for man, his days are as grass: his beautiful growth is like the flower of the field. +Psm 103:16 The wind goes over it and it is gone; and its place sees it no longer. +Psm 103:17 But the mercy of the Lord is eternal for his worshippers, and their children's children will see his righteousness; +Psm 103:18 If they keep his agreement, and have his laws in mind to do them. +Psm 103:19 The Lord has made ready his high seat in the heavens; his kingdom is ruling over all. +Psm 103:20 Give praise to the Lord, you his angels, who are great in strength, doing his orders, and waiting for his voice. +Psm 103:21 Give praise to the Lord, all you his armies; and you his servants who do his pleasure. +Psm 103:22 Give praise to the Lord, all his works, in all places under his rule: give praise to the Lord, O my soul. +Psm 104:1 Give praise to the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great; you are robed with honour and power. +Psm 104:2 You are clothed with light as with a robe; stretching out the heavens like a curtain: +Psm 104:3 The arch of your house is based on the waters; you make the clouds your carriage; you go on the wings of the wind: +Psm 104:4 He makes winds his angels, and flames of fire his servants. +Psm 104:5 He has made the earth strong on its bases, so that it may not be moved for ever and ever; +Psm 104:6 Covering it with the sea as with a robe: the waters were high over the mountains; +Psm 104:7 At the voice of your word they went in flight; at the sound of your thunder they went away in fear; +Psm 104:8 The mountains came up and the valleys went down into the place which you had made ready for them. +Psm 104:9 You made a limit over which they might not go, so that the earth would never again be covered by them. +Psm 104:10 You sent the springs into the valleys; they are flowing between the hills. +Psm 104:11 They give drink to every beast of the field; the mountain asses come to them for water. +Psm 104:12 The birds of the air have their resting-places by them, and make their song among the branches. +Psm 104:13 He sends down rain from his store-houses on the hills: the earth is full of the fruit of his works. +Psm 104:14 He makes the grass come up for the cattle, and plants for the use of man; so that bread may come out of the earth; +Psm 104:15 And wine to make glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face shining, and bread giving strength to his heart. +Psm 104:16 The trees of the Lord are full of growth, the cedars of Lebanon of his planting; +Psm 104:17 Where the birds have their resting-places; as for the stork, the tall trees are her house. +Psm 104:18 The high hills are a safe place for the mountain goats, and the rocks for the small beasts. +Psm 104:19 He made the moon for a sign of the divisions of the year; teaching the sun the time of its going down. +Psm 104:20 When you make it dark, it is night, when all the beasts of the woods come quietly out of their secret places. +Psm 104:21 The young lions go thundering after their food; searching for their meat from God. +Psm 104:22 The sun comes up, and they come together, and go back to their secret places to take their rest. +Psm 104:23 Man goes out to his work, and to his business, till the evening. +Psm 104:24 O Lord, how great is the number of your works! in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of the things you have made. +Psm 104:25 There is the great, wide sea, where there are living things, great and small, more than may be numbered. +Psm 104:26 There go the ships; there is that great beast, which you have made as a plaything. +Psm 104:27 All of them are waiting for you, to give them their food in its time. +Psm 104:28 They take what you give them; they are full of the good things which come from your open hand. +Psm 104:29 If your face is veiled, they are troubled; when you take away their breath, they come to an end, and go back to the dust. +Psm 104:30 If you send out your spirit, they are given life; you make new the face of the earth. +Psm 104:31 Let the glory of the Lord be for ever; let the Lord have joy in his works: +Psm 104:32 At whose look the earth is shaking; at whose touch the mountains send out smoke. +Psm 104:33 I will make songs to the Lord all my life; I will make melody to my God while I have my being. +Psm 104:34 Let my thoughts be sweet to him: I will be glad in the Lord. +Psm 104:35 Let sinners be cut off from the earth, and let all evil-doers come to an end. Give praise to the Lord, O my soul. Give praise to the Lord. +Psm 105:1 O give praise to the Lord; give honour to his name, talking of his doings among the peoples. +Psm 105:2 Let your voice be sounding in songs and melody; let all your thoughts be of the wonder of his works. +Psm 105:3 Have glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who are searching after the Lord be glad. +Psm 105:4 Let your search be for the Lord and for his strength; let your hearts ever be turned to him. +Psm 105:5 Keep in mind the great works which he has done; his wonders, and the decisions of his mouth; +Psm 105:6 O you seed of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his loved ones. +Psm 105:7 He is the Lord our God: he is judge of all the earth. +Psm 105:8 He has kept his agreement in mind for ever, the word which he gave for a thousand generations; +Psm 105:9 The agreement which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac; +Psm 105:10 And he gave it to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an eternal agreement; +Psm 105:11 Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, the measured line of your heritage: +Psm 105:12 When they were still small in number, and strange in the land; +Psm 105:13 When they went about from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another people. +Psm 105:14 He would not let anyone do them wrong; he even kept back kings because of them, +Psm 105:15 Saying, Put not your hand on those who have been marked with my holy oil, and do my prophets no wrong. +Psm 105:16 And he took away all food from the land, so that the people were without bread. +Psm 105:17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was given as a servant for a price: +Psm 105:18 His feet were fixed in chains; his neck was put in iron bands; +Psm 105:19 Till the time when his word came true; he was tested by the word of the Lord. +Psm 105:20 The king sent men to take off his chains; even the ruler of the people, who let him go free. +Psm 105:21 He made him lord of his house, and ruler over everything he had; +Psm 105:22 To give his chiefs teaching at his pleasure, and so that his law-givers might get wisdom from him. +Psm 105:23 Then Israel came into Egypt, and Jacob was living in the land of Ham. +Psm 105:24 And his people were greatly increased, and became stronger than those who were against them. +Psm 105:25 Their hearts were turned to hate against his people, so that they made secret designs against them. +Psm 105:26 He sent Moses, his servant, and Aaron, the man of his selection. +Psm 105:27 He let his signs be seen among the people, and his wonders in the land of Ham. +Psm 105:28 He sent black night and made it dark; and they did not go against his word. +Psm 105:29 At his word their waters were turned to blood, and he sent death on all their fish. +Psm 105:30 Their land was full of frogs, even in the rooms of the king. +Psm 105:31 He gave the word, and there came the dog-fly, and insects over all the land. +Psm 105:32 He gave them ice for rain, and flaming fire in their land. +Psm 105:33 He gave their vines and their fig-trees to destruction, and the trees of their land were broken down. +Psm 105:34 At his word the locusts came, and young locusts more than might be numbered, +Psm 105:35 And put an end to all the plants of their land, taking all the fruit of the earth for food. +Psm 105:36 He put to death the first child of every family in the land, the first-fruits of their strength. +Psm 105:37 He took his people out with silver and gold: there was not one feeble person among them. +Psm 105:38 Egypt was glad when they went; for the fear of them had come down on them. +Psm 105:39 A cloud was stretched over them for a cover; and he sent fire to give light in the night. +Psm 105:40 At the people's request he sent birds, and gave them the bread of heaven for food. +Psm 105:41 His hand made the rock open, and the waters came streaming out; they went down through the dry places like a river. +Psm 105:42 For he kept in mind his holy word, and Abraham, his servant. +Psm 105:43 And he took his people out with joy, the men of his selection with glad cries: +Psm 105:44 And gave them the lands of the nations; and they took the work of the peoples for a heritage; +Psm 105:45 So that they might keep his orders, and be true to his laws. Give praise to the Lord. +Psm 106:1 Let the Lord be praised. O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 106:2 Who is able to give an account of the great acts of the Lord, or to make clear all his praise? +Psm 106:3 Happy are they whose decisions are upright, and he who does righteousness at all times. +Psm 106:4 Keep me in mind, O Lord, when you are good to your people; O let your salvation come to me; +Psm 106:5 So that I may see the well-being of the people of your selection, and have a part in the joy of your nation, and take pride in your heritage. +Psm 106:6 We are sinners like our fathers, we have done wrong, our acts are evil. +Psm 106:7 Our fathers did not give thought to your wonders in Egypt; they did not keep in memory the great number of your mercies, but gave you cause for wrath at the sea, even at the Red Sea. +Psm 106:8 But he was their saviour because of his name, so that men might see his great power. +Psm 106:9 By his word the Red Sea was made dry: and he took them through the deep waters as through the waste land. +Psm 106:10 And he took them safely out of the hands of their haters, and kept them from the attacks of those who were against them. +Psm 106:11 And the waters went over their haters; all of them came to an end. +Psm 106:12 Then they had faith in his words; they gave him songs of praise. +Psm 106:13 But their memory of his works was short; not waiting to be guided by him, +Psm 106:14 They gave way to their evil desires in the waste land, and put God to the test in the dry places. +Psm 106:15 And he gave them their request, but sent a wasting disease into their souls. +Psm 106:16 They were full of envy against Moses among the tents, and against Aaron, the holy one of the Lord. +Psm 106:17 The earth opening put an end to Dathan, covering up Abiram and his band. +Psm 106:18 And a fire was lighted among their tents; the sinners were burned up by the flames. +Psm 106:19 They made a young ox in Horeb, and gave worship to an image of gold. +Psm 106:20 And their glory was changed into the image of an ox, whose food is grass. +Psm 106:21 They had no memory of God their saviour, who had done great things in Egypt; +Psm 106:22 Works of wonder in the land of Ham, and things of fear by the Red Sea. +Psm 106:23 And he was purposing to put an end to them if Moses, his special servant, had not gone up before him, between him and his people, turning back his wrath, to keep them from destruction. +Psm 106:24 They were disgusted with the good land; they had no belief in his word; +Psm 106:25 Talking against him secretly in their tents, they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord. +Psm 106:26 So he made an oath against them, to put an end to them in the waste land: +Psm 106:27 That their children might be mixed among the nations, and sent away into other lands. +Psm 106:28 And they were joined to Baal-peor, and took part in the offerings to the dead. +Psm 106:29 So they made him angry by their behaviour; and he sent disease on them. +Psm 106:30 Then Phinehas got up, and made prayer for them; and the disease went no farther. +Psm 106:31 And all the generations coming after him kept the memory of his righteousness for ever. +Psm 106:32 They made God angry again at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled because of them; +Psm 106:33 For they made his spirit bitter, and he said unwise things. +Psm 106:34 They did not put an end to the peoples, as the Lord had said; +Psm 106:35 But they were joined to the nations, learning their works. +Psm 106:36 And they gave worship to images; which were a danger to them: +Psm 106:37 They even made offerings of their sons and their daughters to evil spirits, +Psm 106:38 And gave the blood of their sons and their daughters who had done no wrong, offering them to the images of Canaan; and the land was made unclean with blood. +Psm 106:39 So they became unclean through their works, going after their evil desires. +Psm 106:40 Then the wrath of the Lord was burning against his people, and he was angry with his heritage. +Psm 106:41 And he gave them into the hands of the nations; and they were ruled by their haters. +Psm 106:42 By them they were crushed, and made low under their hands. +Psm 106:43 Again and again he made them free; but their hearts were turned against his purpose, and they were overcome by their sins. +Psm 106:44 But when their cry came to his ears, he had pity on their trouble: +Psm 106:45 And kept in mind his agreement with them, and in his great mercy gave them forgiveness. +Psm 106:46 He put pity into the hearts of those who made them prisoners. +Psm 106:47 Be our saviour, O Lord our God, and let us come back together from among the nations, so that we may give honour to your holy name, and have glory in your praise. +Psm 106:48 Praise be to the Lord God of Israel for ever and for ever; and let all the people say, So be it. Give praise to the Lord. +Psm 107:1 O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 107:2 Let those whose cause the Lord has taken up say so, his people whom he has taken out of the hands of their haters; +Psm 107:3 Making them come together out of all the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. +Psm 107:4 They were wandering in the waste places; they saw no way to a resting-place. +Psm 107:5 Their souls became feeble for need of food and drink. +Psm 107:6 Then they sent up their cry to the Lord in their sorrow, and he gave them salvation out of all their troubles; +Psm 107:7 Guiding them in the right way, so that they might come into the town of their resting-place. +Psm 107:8 Let men give praise to the Lord for his mercy, and for the wonders which he does for the children of men! +Psm 107:9 He gives its desire to the unresting soul, so that it is full of good things. +Psm 107:10 Those who were in the dark, in the black night, in chains of sorrow and iron; +Psm 107:11 Because they went against the words of God, and gave no thought to the laws of the Most High: +Psm 107:12 So that he made their hearts weighted down with grief; they were falling, and had no helper. +Psm 107:13 Then they sent up their cry to the Lord in their sorrow, and he gave them salvation out of all their troubles. +Psm 107:14 He took them out of the dark and the black night, and all their chains were broken. +Psm 107:15 Let men give praise to the Lord for his mercy, and for the wonders which he does for the children of men! +Psm 107:16 The doors of brass are broken by his arm, and the bands of iron are cut in two. +Psm 107:17 Foolish men, because of their sins, and because of their wrongdoing, are troubled; +Psm 107:18 They are disgusted by all food, and they come near to the doors of death. +Psm 107:19 Then they send up their cry to the Lord in their sorrow, and he gives them salvation out of all their troubles. +Psm 107:20 He sent his word and made them well, and kept them safe from the underworld. +Psm 107:21 Let men give praise to the Lord for his mercy, and for the wonders which he does for the children of men! +Psm 107:22 Let them make offerings of praise, giving news of his works with cries of joy. +Psm 107:23 Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in the great waters; +Psm 107:24 They see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. +Psm 107:25 For at his word comes up the storm-wind, lifting high the waves. +Psm 107:26 The sailors go up to heaven, and down into the deep; their souls are wasted because of their trouble. +Psm 107:27 They are turned here and there, rolling like a man who is full of wine; and all their wisdom comes to nothing. +Psm 107:28 Then they send up their cry to the Lord in their sorrow, and he gives them salvation out of all their troubles. +Psm 107:29 He makes the storm into a calm, so that the waves are at peace. +Psm 107:30 Then they are glad, because the sea is quiet, and he takes them to the harbour of their desire. +Psm 107:31 Let men give praise to the Lord for his mercy, and for the wonders which he does for the children of men! +Psm 107:32 Let them give glory to him in the meeting of the people, and praise among the chiefs. +Psm 107:33 He makes rivers into waste places, and springs of water into a dry land; +Psm 107:34 He makes a fertile country into a salt waste, because of the sins of those who are living there. +Psm 107:35 He makes a waste land into a place of water, and a dry land into water-springs. +Psm 107:36 And there he gives the poor a resting-place, so that they may make themselves a town; +Psm 107:37 And put seed in the fields and make vine-gardens, to give them fruit. +Psm 107:38 He gives them his blessing so that they are increased greatly, and their cattle do not become less. +Psm 107:39 And when they are made low, and crushed by trouble and sorrow, +Psm 107:40 He puts an end to the pride of kings, and sends them wandering in the waste lands where there is no way. +Psm 107:41 But he puts the poor man on high from his troubles, and gives him families like a flock. +Psm 107:42 The upright see it and are glad: the mouth of the sinner is stopped. +Psm 107:43 Let the wise give thought to these things, and see the mercies of the Lord. +Psm 108:1 <A Song. A Psalm. Of David.> O God, my heart is fixed; I will make songs and melody, even with my glory. +Psm 108:2 Give out your sounds, O corded instruments: the dawn will be awaking with my song. +Psm 108:3 I will give you praise, O Lord, among the peoples; I will make melody to you among the nations. +Psm 108:4 For your mercy is higher than the heavens: and your unchanging faith than the clouds. +Psm 108:5 Be lifted up, O God, higher than the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. +Psm 108:6 Let your right hand be stretched out for salvation, and give me an answer, so that your loved ones may be safe from danger. +Psm 108:7 This is the word of the holy God: I will be glad; I will make Shechem a heritage, measuring out the valley of Succoth. +Psm 108:8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is the strength of my head; Judah is my law-giver; +Psm 108:9 Moab is my washpot; on Edom is the resting-place of my shoe; over Philistia will I send out a glad cry. +Psm 108:10 Who will take me into the strong town? who will be my guide into Edom? +Psm 108:11 Have you not sent us away from you, O God? and you go not out with our armies. +Psm 108:12 Give us help in our trouble; for there is no help in man. +Psm 108:13 With God we will do great things; for by him will our haters be crushed underfoot. +Psm 109:1 <To the chief music-maker. Of David. A Psalm.> God of my praise, let my prayer be answered; +Psm 109:2 For the mouth of the sinner is open against me in deceit: his tongue has said false things against me. +Psm 109:3 Words of hate are round about me; they have made war against me without cause. +Psm 109:4 For my love they give me back hate; but I have given myself to prayer. +Psm 109:5 They have put on me evil for good; hate in exchange for my love. +Psm 109:6 Put an evil man over him; and let one be placed at his right hand to say evil of him. +Psm 109:7 When he is judged, let the decision go against him; and may his prayer become sin. +Psm 109:8 Let his life be short; let another take his position of authority. +Psm 109:9 Let his children have no father, and his wife be made a widow. +Psm 109:10 Let his children be wanderers, looking to others for their food; let them be sent away from the company of their friends. +Psm 109:11 Let his creditor take all his goods; and let others have the profit of his work. +Psm 109:12 Let no man have pity on him, or give help to his children when he is dead. +Psm 109:13 Let his seed be cut off; in the coming generation let their name go out of memory. +Psm 109:14 Let the Lord keep in mind the wrongdoing of his fathers; and may the sin of his mother have no forgiveness. +Psm 109:15 Let them be ever before the eyes of the Lord, so that the memory of them may be cut off from the earth. +Psm 109:16 Because he had no mercy, but was cruel to the low and the poor, designing the death of the broken-hearted. +Psm 109:17 As he took pleasure in cursing, so let it come on him; and as he had no delight in blessing, let it be far from him. +Psm 109:18 He put on cursing like a robe, and it has come into his body like water, and into his bones like oil. +Psm 109:19 Let it be to him as a robe which he puts on, let it be like a band which is round him at all times. +Psm 109:20 Let this be the reward given to my haters from the Lord, and to those who say evil of my soul. +Psm 109:21 But, O Lord God, give me your help, because of your name; take me out of danger, because your mercy is good. +Psm 109:22 For I am poor and in need, and my heart is wounded in me. +Psm 109:23 I am gone like the shade when it is stretched out: I am forced out of my place like a locust. +Psm 109:24 My knees are feeble for need of food; there is no fat on my bones. +Psm 109:25 As for me, they make sport of me; shaking their heads when they see me. +Psm 109:26 Give me help, O Lord my God; in your mercy be my saviour; +Psm 109:27 So that they may see that it is the work of your hand; that you, Lord, have done it. +Psm 109:28 They may give curses but you give blessing; when they come up against me, put them to shame; but let your servant be glad. +Psm 109:29 Let my haters be clothed with shame, covering themselves with shame as with a robe. +Psm 109:30 I will give the Lord great praise with my mouth; yes, I will give praise to him among all the people. +Psm 109:31 For he is ever at the right hand of the poor, to take him out of the hands of those who go after his soul. +Psm 110:1 <A Psalm. Of David.> The Lord said to my lord, Be seated at my right hand, till I put all those who are against you under your feet. +Psm 110:2 The Lord will send out the rod of your strength from Zion; be king over your haters. +Psm 110:3 Your people give themselves gladly in the day of your power; like the dew of the morning on the holy mountains is the army of your young men. +Psm 110:4 The Lord has made an oath, and will not take it back. You are a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek. +Psm 110:5 In the day of his wrath kings will be wounded by the Lord at your right hand. +Psm 110:6 He will be judge among the nations, the valleys will be full of dead bodies; the head over a great country will be wounded by him. +Psm 110:7 He will take of the stream by the way; so his head will be lifted up. +Psm 111:1 Let the Lord be praised. I will give praise to the Lord with all my heart, among the upright, and in the meeting of the people. +Psm 111:2 The works of the Lord are great, searched out by all those who have delight in them. +Psm 111:3 His work is full of honour and glory; and his righteousness is unchanging for ever. +Psm 111:4 Certain for ever is the memory of his wonders: the Lord is full of pity and mercy. +Psm 111:5 He has given food to his worshippers; he will keep his agreement in mind for ever. +Psm 111:6 He has made clear to his people the power of his works, giving them the heritage of the nations. +Psm 111:7 The works of his hands are faith and righteousness; all his laws are unchanging. +Psm 111:8 They are fixed for ever and ever, they are done in faith and righteousness. +Psm 111:9 He has sent salvation to his people; he has given his word for ever: holy is his name and greatly to be feared. +Psm 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the best part of wisdom: all those who keep his laws are wise: his praise is eternal. +Psm 112:1 Let the Lord be praised. Happy is the man who gives honour to the Lord, and has great delight in his laws. +Psm 112:2 His seed will be strong on the earth; blessings will be on the generation of the upright. +Psm 112:3 A store of wealth will be in his house, and his righteousness will be for ever. +Psm 112:4 For the upright there is a light shining in the dark; he is full of grace and pity. +Psm 112:5 All is well for the man who is kind and gives freely to others; he will make good his cause when he is judged. +Psm 112:6 He will not ever be moved; the memory of the upright will be living for ever. +Psm 112:7 He will have no fear of evil news; his heart is fixed, for his hope is in the Lord. +Psm 112:8 His heart is resting safely, he will have no fear, till he sees trouble come on his haters. +Psm 112:9 He has given with open hands to the poor; his righteousness is for ever; his horn will be lifted up with honour. +Psm 112:10 The sinner will see it with grief; he will be wasted away with envy; the desire of the evil-doers will come to nothing. +Psm 113:1 Let the Lord be praised. O you servants of the Lord, give praise to the name of the Lord. +Psm 113:2 Let blessing be on the name of the Lord, from this time and for ever. +Psm 113:3 From the coming up of the sun to its going down, the Lord's name is to be praised. +Psm 113:4 The Lord is high over all nations, and his glory is higher than the heavens. +Psm 113:5 Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, +Psm 113:6 Looking down on the heavens, and on the earth? +Psm 113:7 He takes the poor man out of the dust, lifting him up from his low position; +Psm 113:8 To give him a place among the rulers, even with the rulers of his people. +Psm 113:9 He gives the unfertile woman a family, making her a happy mother of children. Give praise to the Lord. +Psm 114:1 When Israel came out of Egypt, the children of Jacob from a people whose language was strange to them; +Psm 114:2 Judah became his holy place, and Israel his kingdom. +Psm 114:3 The sea saw it, and went in flight; Jordan was turned back. +Psm 114:4 The mountains were jumping like goats, and the little hills like lambs. +Psm 114:5 What was wrong with you, O sea, that you went in flight? O Jordan, that you were turned back? +Psm 114:6 You mountains, why were you jumping like goats, and you little hills like lambs? +Psm 114:7 Be troubled, O earth, before the Lord, before the God of Jacob; +Psm 114:8 Who made the rock into a water-spring, and the hard stone into a fountain. +Psm 115:1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name let glory be given, because of your mercy and your unchanging faith. +Psm 115:2 Why may the nations say, Where is now their God? +Psm 115:3 But our God is in heaven: he has done whatever was pleasing to him. +Psm 115:4 Their images are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. +Psm 115:5 They have mouths, but no voice; they have eyes, but they see not; +Psm 115:6 They have ears, but no hearing; they have noses, but no sense of smell; +Psm 115:7 They have hands without feeling, and feet without power of walking; and no sound comes from their throat. +Psm 115:8 Those who make them are like them; and so is everyone who puts his faith in them. +Psm 115:9 O Israel, have faith in the Lord: he is their help and their breastplate. +Psm 115:10 O house of Aaron, have faith in the Lord: he is their help and their breastplate. +Psm 115:11 You worshippers of the Lord, have faith in the Lord: he is their help and their breastplate. +Psm 115:12 The Lord has kept us in mind and will give us his blessing; he will send blessings on the house of Israel and on the house of Aaron. +Psm 115:13 He will send blessings on the worshippers of the Lord, on the small and on the great. +Psm 115:14 May the Lord give you and your children still greater increase. +Psm 115:15 May you have the blessing of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. +Psm 115:16 The heavens are the Lord's; but the earth he has given to the children of men. +Psm 115:17 The dead do not give praise to the Lord; or those who go down to the underworld. +Psm 115:18 But we will give praise to the Lord now and for ever. Praise be to the Lord. +Psm 116:1 I have given my love to the Lord, because he has given ear to the voice of my cry and my prayer. +Psm 116:2 He has let my request come before him, and I will make my prayer to him all my days. +Psm 116:3 The nets of death were round me, and the pains of the underworld had me in their grip; I was full of trouble and sorrow. +Psm 116:4 Then I made my prayer to the Lord, saying, O Lord, take my soul out of trouble. +Psm 116:5 The Lord is full of grace and righteousness; truly, he is a God of mercy. +Psm 116:6 The Lord keeps the simple; I was made low, and he was my saviour. +Psm 116:7 Come back to your rest, O my soul; for the Lord has given you your reward. +Psm 116:8 You have taken my soul from the power of death, keeping my eyes from weeping, and my feet from falling. +Psm 116:9 I will go before the Lord in the land of the living. +Psm 116:10 I still had faith, though I said, I am in great trouble; +Psm 116:11 Though I said in my fear, All men are false. +Psm 116:12 What may I give to the Lord for all the good things which he has done for me? +Psm 116:13 I will take the cup of salvation, and give praise to the name of the Lord. +Psm 116:14 I will make the offering of my oath to the Lord, even before all his people. +Psm 116:15 Dear in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints. +Psm 116:16 O Lord, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of her who is your servant; by you have my cords been broken. +Psm 116:17 I will give an offering of praise to you, and make my prayer in the name of the Lord. +Psm 116:18 I will make the offerings of my oath, even before all his people; +Psm 116:19 In the Lord's house, even in Jerusalem. Praise be to the Lord. +Psm 117:1 Let all the nations give praise to the Lord: let all the people give him praise. +Psm 117:2 For great is his mercy to us, and his faith is unchanging for ever. Praise be to the Lord. +Psm 118:1 O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 118:2 Let Israel now say, that his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 118:3 Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 118:4 Let all worshippers of the Lord now say, that his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 118:5 I made my prayer to the Lord in my trouble: and the Lord gave me an answer, and put me in a wide place. +Psm 118:6 The Lord is on my side; I will have no fear: what is man able to do to me? +Psm 118:7 The Lord is my great helper: I will see my desire against my haters. +Psm 118:8 It is better to have faith in the Lord than to put one's hope in man. +Psm 118:9 It is better to have faith in the Lord than to put one's hope in rulers. +Psm 118:10 All the nations have come round me; but in the name of the Lord I will have them cut down. +Psm 118:11 They are round me, yes, they are all about me; but in the name of the Lord I will have them cut down. +Psm 118:12 They are round me like bees; but they are put out like a fire among thorns; for in the name of the Lord I will have them cut down. +Psm 118:13 I have been hard pushed by you, so that I might have a fall: but the Lord was my helper. +Psm 118:14 The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. +Psm 118:15 The sound of joy and salvation is in the tents of the upright; the right hand of the Lord does works of power. +Psm 118:16 The right hand of the Lord is lifted up; the right hand of the Lord does works of power. +Psm 118:17 Life and not death will be my part, and I will give out the story of the works of the Lord. +Psm 118:18 The hand of Jah has been hard on me; but he has not given me up to death. +Psm 118:19 Let the doors of righteousness be open to me; I will go in and give praise to the Lord. +Psm 118:20 This is the door of the Lord's house; the workers of righteousness will go in through it. +Psm 118:21 I will give you praise, for you have given me an answer, and have become my salvation. +Psm 118:22 The stone which the builders put on one side has become the chief stone of the building. +Psm 118:23 This is the Lord's doing; it is a wonder in our eyes. +Psm 118:24 This is the day which the Lord has made; we will be full of joy and delight in it. +Psm 118:25 Send salvation now, O Lord; Lord, send us your blessing. +Psm 118:26 A blessing be on him who comes in the name of the Lord; we give you blessing from the house of the Lord. +Psm 118:27 The Lord is God, and he has given us light; let the holy dance be ordered with branches, even up to the horns of the altar. +Psm 118:28 You are my God, and I will give you praise; my God, and I will give honour to your name. +Psm 118:29 O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 119:1 <ALEPH> Happy are they who are without sin in their ways, walking in the law of the Lord. +Psm 119:2 Happy are they who keep his unchanging word, searching after him with all their heart. +Psm 119:3 They do no evil; they go in his ways. +Psm 119:4 You have put your orders into our hearts, so that we might keep them with care. +Psm 119:5 If only my ways were ordered so that I might keep your rules! +Psm 119:6 Then I would not be put to shame, as long as I have respect for all your teaching. +Psm 119:7 I will give you praise with an upright heart in learning your right decisions. +Psm 119:8 I will keep your rules: O give me not up completely. +Psm 119:9 <BETH> How may a young man make his way clean? by guiding it after your word. +Psm 119:10 I have made search for you with all my heart: O let me not go wandering far from your teaching. +Psm 119:11 I have kept your sayings secretly in my heart, so that I might do no sin against you. +Psm 119:12 Praise be to you, O Lord: give me knowledge of your rules. +Psm 119:13 With my lips have I made clear all the decisions of your mouth. +Psm 119:14 I have taken as much delight in the way of your unchanging word, as in all wealth. +Psm 119:15 I will give thought to your orders, and have respect for your ways. +Psm 119:16 I will have delight in your rules; I will not let your word go out of my mind. +Psm 119:17 <GIMEL> Give me, your servant, the reward of life, so that I may keep your word; +Psm 119:18 Let my eyes be open to see the wonders of your law. +Psm 119:19 I am living in a strange land: do not let your teachings be kept secret from me. +Psm 119:20 My soul is broken with desire for your decisions at all times. +Psm 119:21 Your hand has been against the men of pride, a curse is on those who go wandering out of your way. +Psm 119:22 Take away from me shame and bitter words; for I have kept your unchanging word in my heart. +Psm 119:23 Rulers make evil designs against me; but your servant gives thought to your rules. +Psm 119:24 Your unchanging word is my delight, and the guide of my footsteps. +Psm 119:25 <DALETH> My soul is joined to the dust: O give me life, in keeping with your word. +Psm 119:26 I put the record of my ways before you, and you gave me an answer: O give me knowledge of your rules. +Psm 119:27 Make the way of your orders clear to me; then my thoughts will be ever on your wonders. +Psm 119:28 My soul is wasted with sorrow; give me strength again in keeping with your word +Psm 119:29 Take from me every false way; and in mercy give me your law. +Psm 119:30 I have taken the way of faith: I have kept your decisions before me. +Psm 119:31 I have been true to your unchanging word; O Lord, do not put me to shame. +Psm 119:32 I will go quickly in the way of your teaching, because you have given me a free heart. +Psm 119:33 <HE> O Lord, let me see the way of your rules, and I will keep it to the end. +Psm 119:34 Give me wisdom, so that I may keep your law; going after it with all my heart. +Psm 119:35 Make me go in the way of your teachings; for they are my delight. +Psm 119:36 Let my heart be turned to your unchanging word, and not to evil desire. +Psm 119:37 Let my eyes be turned away from what is false; give me life in your ways. +Psm 119:38 Give effect to your word to your servant, in whose heart is the fear of you. +Psm 119:39 Take away the shame which is my fear; for your decisions are good. +Psm 119:40 See how great is my desire for your orders: give me life in your righteousness. +Psm 119:41 <VAU> Let your mercies come to me, O Lord, even your salvation, as you have said. +Psm 119:42 So that I may have an answer for the man who would put me to shame; for I have faith in your word. +Psm 119:43 Take not your true word quite out of my mouth; for I have put my hope in your decisions. +Psm 119:44 So that I may keep your law for ever and ever; +Psm 119:45 So that my way may be in a wide place: because my search has been for your orders. +Psm 119:46 So that I may give knowledge of your unchanging word before kings, and not be put to shame. +Psm 119:47 And so that I may take delight in your teachings, to which I have given my love. +Psm 119:48 And so that my hands may be stretched out to you; and I will give thought to your rules. +Psm 119:49 <ZAIN> Keep in mind your word to your servant, for on it has my hope been fixed. +Psm 119:50 This is my comfort in my trouble; that your sayings have given me life. +Psm 119:51 The men of pride have made great sport of me; but I have not been turned from your law. +Psm 119:52 I have kept the memory of your decisions from times past, O Lord; and they have been my comfort. +Psm 119:53 I am burning with wrath, because of the sinners who have given up your law. +Psm 119:54 Your rules have been melodies to me, while I have been living in strange lands. +Psm 119:55 I have given thought to your name in the night, O Lord, and have kept your law. +Psm 119:56 This has been true of me, that I have kept your orders in my heart. +Psm 119:57 <CHETH> The Lord is my heritage: I have said that I would be ruled by your words. +Psm 119:58 I have given my mind to do your pleasure with all my heart; have mercy on me, as you have said. +Psm 119:59 I gave thought to my steps, and my feet were turned into the way of your unchanging word. +Psm 119:60 I was quick to do your orders, and let no time be wasted. +Psm 119:61 The cords of evil-doers are round me; but I have kept in mind your law. +Psm 119:62 In the middle of the night I will get up to give you praise, because of all your right decisions. +Psm 119:63 I keep company with all your worshippers, and those who have your orders in their memory. +Psm 119:64 The earth, O Lord, is full of your mercy: give me knowledge of your rules. +Psm 119:65 <TETH> You have done good to your servant, O Lord, in keeping with your word. +Psm 119:66 Give me knowledge and good sense; for I have put my faith in your teachings. +Psm 119:67 Before I was in trouble I went out of the way; but now I keep your word. +Psm 119:68 You are good, and your works are good; give me knowledge of your rules. +Psm 119:69 The men of pride have said false things about me; but I will keep your orders in my heart. +Psm 119:70 Their hearts are shut up with fat; but my delight is in your law. +Psm 119:71 It is good for me to have been through trouble; so that I might come to the knowledge of your rules. +Psm 119:72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver. +Psm 119:73 <JOD> Your hands have made me, and given me form: give me wisdom, so that I may have knowledge of your teaching. +Psm 119:74 Your worshippers will see me and be glad; because my hope has been in your word. +Psm 119:75 I have seen, O Lord, that your decisions are right, and that in unchanging faith you have sent trouble on me. +Psm 119:76 Let your mercy now be my comfort, as you have said to your servant. +Psm 119:77 Let your gentle mercies come to me, so that I may have life; for your law is my delight. +Psm 119:78 Let the men of pride be shamed; because they have falsely given decision against me; but I will give thought to your orders. +Psm 119:79 Let your worshippers be turned to me, and those who have knowledge of your words. +Psm 119:80 Let all my heart be given to your orders, so that I may not be put to shame. +Psm 119:81 <CAPH> My soul is wasted with desire for your salvation: but I have hope in your word. +Psm 119:82 My eyes are full of weariness with searching for your word, saying, When will you give me comfort? +Psm 119:83 For I have become like a wine-skin black with smoke; but I still keep the memory of your rules. +Psm 119:84 How short is the life of your servant! when will you give your decision against those who are attacking me? +Psm 119:85 The men of pride, who are turned away from your law, have put nets for me. +Psm 119:86 All your teachings are certain; they go after me with evil design; give me your help. +Psm 119:87 They had almost put an end to me on earth; but I did not give up your orders. +Psm 119:88 Give me life in your mercy; so that I may be ruled by the unchanging word of your mouth. +Psm 119:89 <LAMED> For ever, O Lord, your word is fixed in heaven. +Psm 119:90 Your faith is unchanging from generation to generation: you have put the earth in its place, and it is not moved. +Psm 119:91 They are ruled this day by your decisions; for all things are your servants. +Psm 119:92 If your law had not been my delight, my troubles would have put an end to me. +Psm 119:93 I will ever keep your orders in mind; for in them I have life. +Psm 119:94 I am yours, O be my saviour; for my desire has been for your rules. +Psm 119:95 The sinners have been waiting for me to give me up to destruction; but I will give all my mind to your unchanging ward. +Psm 119:96 I have seen that nothing on earth is complete; but your teaching is very wide. +Psm 119:97 <MEM> O what love I have for your law! I give thought to it all the day. +Psm 119:98 Your teaching has made me wiser than my haters: for it is mine for ever. +Psm 119:99 I have more knowledge than all my teachers, because I give thought to your unchanging word. +Psm 119:100 I have more wisdom than the old, because I have kept your orders. +Psm 119:101 I have kept back my feet from all evil ways, so that I might be true to your word. +Psm 119:102 My heart has not been turned away from your decisions; for you have been my teacher. +Psm 119:103 How sweet are your sayings to my taste! truly, they are sweeter than honey in my mouth! +Psm 119:104 Through your orders I get wisdom; for this reason I am a hater of every false way. +Psm 119:105 <NUN> Your word is a light for my feet, ever shining on my way. +Psm 119:106 I have made an oath and kept it, to be guided by your upright decisions. +Psm 119:107 I am greatly troubled, O Lord, give me life in keeping with your word. +Psm 119:108 Take, O Lord, the free offerings of my mouth, and give me knowledge of your decisions. +Psm 119:109 My soul is ever in danger; but I still keep the memory of your law. +Psm 119:110 Sinners have put a net to take me; but I was true to your orders. +Psm 119:111 I have taken your unchanging word as an eternal heritage; for it is the joy of my heart. +Psm 119:112 My heart is ever ready to keep your rules, even to the end. +Psm 119:113 <SAMECH> I am a hater of men of doubting mind; but I am a lover of your law. +Psm 119:114 You are my secret place and my breastplate against danger; my hope is in your word. +Psm 119:115 Go far from me, you evil-doers; so that I may keep the teachings of my God. +Psm 119:116 Be my support as you have said, and give me life; let not my hope be turned to shame. +Psm 119:117 Let me not be moved, and I will be safe, and ever take delight in your rules. +Psm 119:118 You have overcome all those who are wandering from your rules; for all their thoughts are false. +Psm 119:119 All the sinners of the earth are like waste metal in your eyes; and for this cause I give my love to your unchanging word. +Psm 119:120 My flesh is moved for fear of you; I give honour to your decisions. +Psm 119:121 <AIN> I have done what is good and right: you will not give me into the hands of those who are working against me. +Psm 119:122 Take your servant's interests into your keeping; let me not be crushed by the men of pride. +Psm 119:123 My eyes are wasted with desire for your salvation, and for the word of your righteousness. +Psm 119:124 Be good to your servant in your mercy, and give me teaching in your rules. +Psm 119:125 I am your servant; give me wisdom, so that I may have knowledge of your unchanging word. +Psm 119:126 It is time, O Lord, for you to let your work be seen; for they have made your law without effect. +Psm 119:127 For this reason I have greater love far your teachings than for gold, even for shining gold. +Psm 119:128 Because of it I keep straight in all things by your orders; and I am a hater of every false way. +Psm 119:129 <PE> Your unchanging word is full of wonder; for this reason my soul keeps it. +Psm 119:130 The opening of your words gives light; it gives good sense to the simple. +Psm 119:131 My mouth was open wide, waiting with great desire for your teachings. +Psm 119:132 Let your eyes be turned to me, and have mercy on me, as it is right for you to do to those who are lovers of your name. +Psm 119:133 Let my steps be guided by your word; and let not sin have control over me. +Psm 119:134 Make me free from the cruel rule of man; then I will keep your orders. +Psm 119:135 Let your servant see the shining of your face; give me knowledge of your rules. +Psm 119:136 Rivers of water are flowing from my eyes, because men do not keep your law. +Psm 119:137 <TZADE> O Lord, great is your righteousness, and upright are your decisions. +Psm 119:138 You have given your unchanging word in righteousness, and it is for ever. +Psm 119:139 My passion has overcome me; because my haters are turned away from your words. +Psm 119:140 Your word is of tested value; and it is dear to your servant. +Psm 119:141 I am small and of no account; but I keep your orders in mind. +Psm 119:142 Your righteousness is an unchanging righteousness, and your law is certain. +Psm 119:143 Pain and trouble have overcome me: but your teachings are my delight. +Psm 119:144 The righteousness of your unchanging word is eternal; give me wisdom so that I may have life. +Psm 119:145 <KOPH> I have made my prayer with all my heart; give answer to me, O Lord: I will keep your rules. +Psm 119:146 My cry has gone up to you; take me out of trouble, and I will be guided by your unchanging word. +Psm 119:147 Before the sun is up, my cry for help comes to your ear; my hope is in your words. +Psm 119:148 In the night watches I am awake, so that I may give thought to your saying. +Psm 119:149 Let my voice come to you, in your mercy; O Lord, by your decisions give me life. +Psm 119:150 Those who have evil designs against me come near; they are far from your law. +Psm 119:151 You are near, O Lord; and all your teachings are true. +Psm 119:152 I have long had knowledge that your unchanging word is for ever. +Psm 119:153 <RESH> O see my trouble, and be my saviour; for I keep your law in my mind, +Psm 119:154 Undertake my cause, and come to my help, give me life, as you have said. +Psm 119:155 Salvation is far from evil-doers; for they have made no search for your rules. +Psm 119:156 Great is the number of your mercies, O Lord; give me life in keeping with your decisions. +Psm 119:157 Great is the number of those who are against me; but I have not been turned away from your unchanging word. +Psm 119:158 I saw with hate those who were untrue to you; for they did not keep your saying. +Psm 119:159 See how great is my love for your orders: give me life, O Lord, in keeping with your mercy. +Psm 119:160 Your word is true from the first; and your upright decision is unchanging for ever. +Psm 119:161 <SHIN> Rulers have been cruel to me without cause; but I have the fear of your word in my heart. +Psm 119:162 I am delighted by your saying, like a man who makes discovery of great wealth. +Psm 119:163 I am full of hate and disgust for false words; but I am a lover of your law. +Psm 119:164 Seven times a day do I give you praise, because of your upright decisions. +Psm 119:165 Great peace have lovers of your law; they have no cause for falling. +Psm 119:166 Lord, my hope has been in your salvation; and I have kept your teachings. +Psm 119:167 My soul has kept your unchanging word; great is my love for it. +Psm 119:168 I have been ruled by your orders; for all my ways are before you. +Psm 119:169 <TAU> Let my cry come before you, O Lord; give me wisdom in keeping with your word. +Psm 119:170 Let my prayer come before you; take me out of trouble, as you have said. +Psm 119:171 Let my lips be flowing with praise, because you have given me knowledge of your rules. +Psm 119:172 Let my tongue make songs in praise of your word; for all your teachings are righteousness. +Psm 119:173 Let your hand be near for my help; for I have given my heart to your orders. +Psm 119:174 All my desire has been for your salvation, O Lord; and your law is my delight. +Psm 119:175 Give life to my soul so that it may give you praise; and let your decisions be my support. +Psm 119:176 I have gone out of the way like a wandering sheep; make search for your servant; for I keep your teachings ever in mind. +Psm 120:1 <A Song of the going up.> In my trouble my cry went up to the Lord, and he gave me an answer. +Psm 120:2 O Lord, be the saviour of my soul from false lips, and from the tongue of deceit. +Psm 120:3 What punishment will he give you? what more will he do to you, you false tongue? +Psm 120:4 Sharp arrows of the strong, and burning fire. +Psm 120:5 Sorrow is mine because I am strange in Meshech, and living in the tents of Kedar. +Psm 120:6 My soul has long been living with the haters of peace. +Psm 120:7 I am for peace: but when I say so, they are for war. +Psm 121:1 <A Song of the going up.> My eyes are lifted up to the hills: O where will my help come from? +Psm 121:2 Your help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. +Psm 121:3 May he not let your foot be moved: no need of sleep has he who keeps you. +Psm 121:4 See, the eyes of Israel's keeper will not be shut in sleep. +Psm 121:5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. +Psm 121:6 You will not be touched by the sun in the day, or by the moon at night. +Psm 121:7 The Lord will keep you safe from all evil; he will take care of your soul. +Psm 121:8 The Lord will keep watch over your going out and your coming in, from this time and for ever. +Psm 122:1 <A Song of the going up. Of David.> I was glad because they said to me, We will go into the house of the Lord. +Psm 122:2 At last our feet were inside your doors, O Jerusalem. +Psm 122:3 O Jerusalem, you are like a town which is well joined together; +Psm 122:4 To which the tribes went up, even the tribes of the Lord, for a witness to Israel, to give praise to the name of the Lord. +Psm 122:5 For there seats for the judges were placed, even the rulers' seats of the line of David. +Psm 122:6 O make prayers for the peace of Jerusalem; may they whose love is given to you do well. +Psm 122:7 May peace be inside your walls, and wealth in your noble houses. +Psm 122:8 Because of my brothers and friends, I will now say, Let peace be with you. +Psm 122:9 Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will be working for your good. +Psm 123:1 <A Song of the going up.> To you my eyes are lifted up, even to you whose seat is in the heavens. +Psm 123:2 See! as the eyes of servants are turned to the hands of their masters, and the eyes of a servant-girl to her owner, so our eyes are waiting for the Lord our God, till he has mercy on us. +Psm 123:3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us: for all men are looking down on us. +Psm 123:4 For long enough have men of pride made sport of our soul. +Psm 124:1 <A Song of the going up. Of David.> If it had not been the Lord who was on our side (let Israel now say); +Psm 124:2 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men came up against us; +Psm 124:3 They would have made a meal of us while still living, in the heat of their wrath against us: +Psm 124:4 We would have been covered by the waters; the streams would have gone over our soul; +Psm 124:5 Yes, the waters of pride would have gone over our soul. +Psm 124:6 Praise be to the Lord, who has not let us be wounded by their teeth. +Psm 124:7 Our soul has gone free like a bird out of the net of those who would take her: the net is broken, and we are free. +Psm 124:8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. +Psm 125:1 <A Song of the going up.> Those whose hope is in the Lord are like the mountain of Zion, which may not be moved, but keeps its place for ever. +Psm 125:2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people, from this time and for ever. +Psm 125:3 For the rod of sinners will not be resting on the heritage of the upright; so that the upright may not put out their hands to evil. +Psm 125:4 Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in heart. +Psm 125:5 But as for such as are turned out of the straight way, the Lord will take them away with the workers of evil. Let peace be on Israel. +Psm 126:1 <A Song of the going up.> When the Lord made a change in Zion's fate, we were like men in a dream. +Psm 126:2 Then our mouths were full of laughing, and our tongues gave a glad cry; they said among the nations, The Lord has done great things for them. +Psm 126:3 The Lord has done great things for us; because of which we are glad. +Psm 126:4 Let our fate be changed, O Lord, like the streams in the South. +Psm 126:5 Those who put in seed with weeping will get in the grain with cries of joy. +Psm 126:6 Though a man may go out weeping, taking his vessel of seed with him; he will come again in joy, with the corded stems of grain in his arms. +Psm 127:1 <A Song of the going up. Of Solomon.> If the Lord is not helping the builders, then the building of a house is to no purpose: if the Lord does not keep the town, the watchman keeps his watch for nothing. +Psm 127:2 It is of no use for you to get up early, and to go late to your rest, with the bread of sorrow for your food; for the Lord gives to his loved ones in sleep. +Psm 127:3 See, sons are a heritage from the Lord; the fruit of the body is his reward. +Psm 127:4 Like arrows in the hand of a man of war, are the children of the young. +Psm 127:5 Happy is the man who has a good store of them; he will not be put to shame, but his cause will be supported by them against his haters. +Psm 128:1 <A Song of the going up.> Happy is the worshipper of the Lord, who is walking in his ways. +Psm 128:2 You will have the fruit of the work of your hands: happy will you be, and all will be well for you. +Psm 128:3 Your wife will be like a fertile vine in the inmost parts of your house: your children will be like olive plants round your table. +Psm 128:4 See! this is the blessing of the worshipper of the Lord. +Psm 128:5 May the Lord send you blessing out of Zion: may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life. +Psm 128:6 May you see your children's children. Peace be on Israel. +Psm 129:1 <A Song of the going up.> Great have been my troubles from the time when I was young (let Israel now say); +Psm 129:2 Great have been my troubles from the time when I was young, but my troubles have not overcome me. +Psm 129:3 The ploughmen were ploughing on my back; long were the wounds they made. +Psm 129:4 The Lord is true: the cords of the evil-doers are broken in two. +Psm 129:5 Let all the haters of Zion be shamed and turned back. +Psm 129:6 Let them be like the grass on the house-tops, which is dry before it comes to full growth. +Psm 129:7 He who gets in the grain has no use for it; and they do not make bands of it for the grain-stems. +Psm 129:8 And those who go by do not say, The blessing of the Lord be on you; we give you blessing in the name of the Lord. +Psm 130:1 <A Song of the going up.> Out of the deep have I sent up my cry to you, O Lord. +Psm 130:2 Lord, let my voice come before you: let your ears be awake to the voice of my prayer. +Psm 130:3 O Jah, if you took note of every sin, who would go free? +Psm 130:4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be feared. +Psm 130:5 I am waiting for the Lord, my soul is waiting for him, and my hope is in his word. +Psm 130:6 My soul is watching for the Lord more than those who are watching for the morning; yes, more than the watchers for the morning. +Psm 130:7 O Israel, have hope in the Lord; for with the Lord is mercy and full salvation. +Psm 130:8 And he will make Israel free from all his sins. +Psm 131:1 <A Song of the going up. Of David.> Lord, there is no pride in my heart and my eyes are not lifted up; and I have not taken part in great undertakings, or in things over-hard for me. +Psm 131:2 See, I have made my soul calm and quiet, like a child on its mother's breast; my soul is like a child on its mother's breast. +Psm 131:3 O Israel, have hope in the Lord, from this time and for ever. +Psm 132:1 <A Song of the going up.> Lord, give thought to David, and to all his troubles; +Psm 132:2 How he made an oath to the Lord, and gave his word to the great God of Jacob, saying, +Psm 132:3 Truly, I will not come into my house, or go to my bed, +Psm 132:4 I will not give sleep to my eyes, or rest to my eyeballs, +Psm 132:5 Till I have got a place for the Lord, a resting-place for the great God of Jacob. +Psm 132:6 We had news of it at Ephrathah: we came to it in the fields of the wood. +Psm 132:7 Let us go into his tent; let us give worship at his feet. +Psm 132:8 Come back, O Lord, to your resting-place; you and the ark of your strength. +Psm 132:9 Let your priests be clothed with righteousness; and let your saints give cries of joy. +Psm 132:10 Because of your servant David, do not give up your king. +Psm 132:11 The Lord gave a true oath to David, which he will not take back, saying, I will give your kingdom to the fruit of your body. +Psm 132:12 If your children keep my word, and the teachings which I will give them, their children will be rulers of your kingdom for ever. +Psm 132:13 For the Lord's heart is on Zion, desiring it for his resting-place. +Psm 132:14 This is my rest for ever: here will I ever be; for this is my desire. +Psm 132:15 My blessing will be on her food; and her poor will be full of bread. +Psm 132:16 Her priests will be clothed with salvation; and her saints will give cries of joy. +Psm 132:17 There I will make the horn of David fertile: I have made ready a light for my king. +Psm 132:18 His haters will be clothed with shame; but I will make his crown shining. +Psm 133:1 <A Song of the going up. Of David.> See how good and how pleasing it is for brothers to be living together in harmony! +Psm 133:2 It is like oil of great price on the head, flowing down over the face, even Aaron's face: coming down to the edge of his robe; +Psm 133:3 Like the dew of Hermon, which comes down on the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord gave orders for the blessing, even life for ever. +Psm 134:1 <A Song of the going up.> Give praise to the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who take your places in the house of the Lord by night. +Psm 134:2 Give praise to the Lord, lifting up your hands in his holy place. +Psm 134:3 May the Lord, who made heaven and earth, send you blessing out of Zion, +Psm 135:1 Let the Lord be praised. O you servants of the Lord, give praise to the name of the Lord. +Psm 135:2 You who are in the house of the Lord, and in the open spaces of the house of our God, +Psm 135:3 Give praise to Jah, for he is good: make melody to his name, for it is pleasing. +Psm 135:4 For the Lord has taken Jacob for himself, and Israel for his property. +Psm 135:5 I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is greater than all other gods. +Psm 135:6 The Lord has done whatever was pleasing to him, in heaven, and on the earth, in the seas and in all the deep waters. +Psm 135:7 He makes the mists go up from the ends of the earth; he makes thunder-flames for the rain; he sends out the winds from his store-houses. +Psm 135:8 He put to death the first-fruits of Egypt, of man and of beast. +Psm 135:9 He sent signs and wonders among you, O Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his servants. +Psm 135:10 He overcame great nations, and put strong kings to death; +Psm 135:11 Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan; +Psm 135:12 And gave their land for a heritage, even for a heritage to Israel his people. +Psm 135:13 O Lord, your name is eternal; and the memory of you will have no end. +Psm 135:14 For the Lord will be judge of his people's cause; his feelings will be changed to his servants. +Psm 135:15 The images of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. +Psm 135:16 They have mouths, but no voice, they have eyes, but they do not see; +Psm 135:17 They have ears, but no hearing; and there is no breath in their mouths. +Psm 135:18 Those who make them are like them; and so is everyone who puts his hope in them. +Psm 135:19 Give praise to the Lord, O children of Israel: give praise to the Lord, O sons of Aaron: +Psm 135:20 Give praise to the Lord, O sons of Levi: let all the worshippers of the Lord give him praise. +Psm 135:21 Praise be to the Lord out of Zion, even to the Lord whose house is in Jerusalem, Let the Lord be praised. +Psm 136:1 O give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:2 O give praise to the God of gods: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:3 O give praise to the Lord of lords: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:4 To him who only does great wonders: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:5 To him who by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:6 To him by whom the earth was stretched out over the waters: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:7 To him who made great lights: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:8 The sun to have rule by day: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:9 The moon and the stars to have rule by night: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:10 To him who put to death the first-fruits of Egypt: for his mercy is unchanging for ever: +Psm 136:11 And took out Israel from among them: for his mercy is unchanging for ever: +Psm 136:12 With a strong hand and an outstretched arm: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:13 To him who made a way through the Red Sea: for his mercy is unchanging for ever: +Psm 136:14 And let Israel go through it: for his mercy is unchanging for ever: +Psm 136:15 By him Pharaoh and his army were overturned in the Red Sea: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:16 To him who took his people through the waste land: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:17 To him who overcame great kings: for his mercy is unchanging for ever: +Psm 136:18 And put noble kings to death: for his mercy is unchanging for ever: +Psm 136:19 Sihon, king of the Amorites: for his mercy is unchanging for ever: +Psm 136:20 And Og, king of Bashan: for his mercy is unchanging for ever: +Psm 136:21 And gave their land to his people for a heritage: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:22 Even a heritage for his servant Israel: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:23 Who kept us in mind when we were in trouble: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:24 And has taken us out of the hands of our haters: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:25 Who gives food to all flesh: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 136:26 O give praise to the God of heaven: for his mercy is unchanging for ever. +Psm 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon we were seated, weeping at the memory of Zion, +Psm 137:2 Hanging our instruments of music on the trees by the waterside. +Psm 137:3 For there those who had taken us prisoners made request for a song; and those who had taken away all we had gave us orders to be glad, saying, Give us one of the songs of Zion. +Psm 137:4 How may we give the Lord's song in a strange land? +Psm 137:5 If I keep not your memory, O Jerusalem, let not my right hand keep the memory of its art. +Psm 137:6 If I let you go out of my thoughts, and if I do not put Jerusalem before my greatest joy, let my tongue be fixed to the roof of my mouth. +Psm 137:7 O Lord, keep in mind against the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem; how they said, Let it be uncovered, uncovered even to its base. +Psm 137:8 O daughter of Babylon, whose fate is destruction; happy is the man who does to you what you have done to us. +Psm 137:9 Happy is the man who takes your little ones, crushing them against the rocks. +Psm 138:1 <Of David.> I will give you praise with all my heart: I will make melody to you before the gods. +Psm 138:2 I will give worship before your holy Temple, praising your name for your mercy and for your unchanging faith: for you have made your word greater than all your name. +Psm 138:3 When my cry came to your ears you gave me an answer, and made me great with strength in my soul. +Psm 138:4 All the kings of the earth will give you praise, O Lord, when the words of your mouth come to their ears. +Psm 138:5 They will make songs about the ways of the Lord; for great is the glory of the Lord. +Psm 138:6 Though the Lord is high, he sees those who are low; and he has knowledge from far off of those who are lifted up. +Psm 138:7 Even when trouble is round me, you will give me life; your hand will be stretched out against the wrath of my haters, and your right hand will be my salvation. +Psm 138:8 The Lord will make all things complete for me: O Lord, your mercy is eternal; do not give up the works of your hands. +Psm 139:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.> O Lord, you have knowledge of me, searching out all my secrets. +Psm 139:2 You have knowledge when I am seated and when I get up, you see my thoughts from far away. +Psm 139:3 You keep watch over my steps and my sleep, and have knowledge of all my ways. +Psm 139:4 For there is not a word on my tongue which is not clear to you, O Lord. +Psm 139:5 I am shut in by you on every side, and you have put your hand on me. +Psm 139:6 Such knowledge is a wonder greater than my powers; it is so high that I may not come near it. +Psm 139:7 Where may I go from your spirit? how may I go in flight from you? +Psm 139:8 If I go up to heaven, you are there: or if I make my bed in the underworld, you are there. +Psm 139:9 If I take the wings of the morning, and go to the farthest parts of the sea; +Psm 139:10 Even there will I be guided by your hand, and your right hand will keep me. +Psm 139:11 If I say, Only let me be covered by the dark, and the light about me be night; +Psm 139:12 Even the dark is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day: for dark and light are the same to you. +Psm 139:13 My flesh was made by you, and my parts joined together in my mother's body. +Psm 139:14 I will give you praise, for I am strangely and delicately formed; your works are great wonders, and of this my soul is fully conscious. +Psm 139:15 My frame was not unseen by you when I was made secretly, and strangely formed in the lowest parts of the earth. +Psm 139:16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book all my days were recorded, even those which were purposed before they had come into being. +Psm 139:17 How dear are your thoughts to me, O God! how great is the number of them! +Psm 139:18 If I made up their number, it would be more than the grains of sand; when I am awake, I am still with you. +Psm 139:19 If only you would put the sinners to death, O God; go far from me, you men of blood. +Psm 139:20 For they go against you with evil designs, and your haters make sport of your name. +Psm 139:21 Are not your haters hated by me, O Lord? are not those who are lifted up against you a cause of grief to me? +Psm 139:22 My hate for them is complete; my thoughts of them are as if they were making war on me. +Psm 139:23 O God, let the secrets of my heart be uncovered, and let my wandering thoughts be tested: +Psm 139:24 See if there is any way of sorrow in me, and be my guide in the eternal way. +Psm 140:1 <To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.> O Lord, take me out of the power of the evil man; keep me safe from the violent man: +Psm 140:2 For their hearts are full of evil designs; and they are ever making ready causes of war. +Psm 140:3 Their tongues are sharp like the tongue of a snake; the poison of snakes is under their lips. (Selah.) +Psm 140:4 O Lord, take me out of the hands of sinners; keep me safe from the violent man: for they are designing my downfall. +Psm 140:5 The men of pride have put secret cords for my feet; stretching nets in my way, so that they may take me with their tricks. (Selah.) +Psm 140:6 I have said to the Lord, You are my God: give ear, O Lord, to the voice of my prayer. +Psm 140:7 O Lord God, the strength of my salvation, you have been a cover over my head in the day of the fight. +Psm 140:8 O Lord, give not the wrongdoer his desire; give him no help in his evil designs, or he may be uplifted in pride. (Selah.) +Psm 140:9 As for those who come round me, let their heads be covered by the evil of their lips. +Psm 140:10 Let burning flames come down on them: let them be put into the fire, and into deep waters, so that they may not get up again. +Psm 140:11 Let not a man of evil tongue be safe on earth: let destruction overtake the violent man with blow on blow. +Psm 140:12 I am certain that the Lord will take care of the cause of the poor, and of the rights of those who are troubled. +Psm 140:13 Truly, the upright will give praise to your name: the holy will have a place in your house. +Psm 141:1 <A Psalm. Of David.> Lord, I have made my cry to you; come to me quickly; give ear to my voice, when it goes up to you. +Psm 141:2 Let my prayer be ordered before you like a sweet smell; and let the lifting up of my hands be like the evening offering. +Psm 141:3 O Lord, keep a watch over my mouth; keep the door of my lips. +Psm 141:4 Keep my heart from desiring any evil thing, or from taking part in the sins of the evil-doers with men who do wrong: and let me have no part in their good things. +Psm 141:5 Let the upright give me punishment; and let the god-fearing man put me in the right way; but I will not let the oil of sinners come on my head: when they do evil I will give myself to prayer. +Psm 141:6 When destruction comes to their judges by the side of the rock, they will give ear to my words, for they are sweet. +Psm 141:7 Our bones are broken up at the mouth of the underworld, as the earth is broken by the plough. +Psm 141:8 But my eyes are turned to you, O Lord God: my hope is in you; let not my soul be given up to death. +Psm 141:9 Keep me from the net which they have put down for me, and from the designs of the workers of evil. +Psm 141:10 Let the sinners be taken in the nets which they themselves have put down, while I go free. +Psm 142:1 <Maschil. Of David. A prayer when he was in the hole of the rock.> The sound of my cry went up to the Lord; with my voice I made my prayer for grace to the Lord. +Psm 142:2 I put all my sorrows before him; and made clear to him all my trouble. +Psm 142:3 When my spirit is overcome, your eyes are on my goings; nets have been secretly placed in the way in which I go. +Psm 142:4 Looking to my right side, I saw no man who was my friend: I had no safe place; no one had any care for my soul. +Psm 142:5 I have made my cry to you, O Lord; I have said, You are my safe place, and my heritage in the land of the living. +Psm 142:6 Give ear to my cry, for I am made very low: take me out of the hands of my haters, for they are stronger than I. +Psm 142:7 Take my soul out of prison, so that I may give praise to your name: the upright will give praise because of me; for you have given me a full reward. +Psm 143:1 <A Psalm. Of David.> Let my prayer come to you, O Lord; give ear to my requests for your grace; keep faith with me, and give me an answer in your righteousness; +Psm 143:2 Let not your servant come before you to be judged; for no man living is upright in your eyes. +Psm 143:3 The evil man has gone after my soul; my life is crushed down to the earth: he has put me in the dark, like those who have long been dead. +Psm 143:4 Because of this my spirit is overcome; and my heart is full of fear. +Psm 143:5 I keep in mind the early days of the past, giving thought to all your acts, even to the work of your hands. +Psm 143:6 My hands are stretched out to you: my soul is turned to you, like a land in need of water. (Selah.) +Psm 143:7 Be quick in answering me, O Lord, for the strength of my spirit is gone: let me see your face, so that I may not be like those who go down into the underworld. +Psm 143:8 Let the story of your mercy come to me in the morning, for my hope is in you: give me knowledge of the way in which I am to go; for my soul is lifted up to you. +Psm 143:9 O Lord, take me out of the hands of my haters; my soul is waiting for you. +Psm 143:10 Give me teaching so that I may do your pleasure; for you are my God: let your good Spirit be my guide into the land of righteousness. +Psm 143:11 Give me life, O Lord, because of your name; in your righteousness take my soul out of trouble. +Psm 143:12 And in your mercy put an end to my haters, and send destruction on all those who are against my soul; for I am your servant. +Psm 144:1 <A Psalm. Of David.> Praise be to the God of my strength, teaching my hands the use of the sword, and my fingers the art of fighting: +Psm 144:2 He is my strength, and my Rock; my high tower, and my saviour; my keeper and my hope: he gives me authority over my people. +Psm 144:3 Lord, what is man, that you keep him in mind? or the son of man that you take him into account? +Psm 144:4 Man is like a breath: his life is like a shade which is quickly gone. +Psm 144:5 Come down, O Lord, from your heavens: at your touch let the mountains give out smoke. +Psm 144:6 With your storm-flames send them in flight: send out your arrows for their destruction. +Psm 144:7 Put out your hand from on high; make me free, take me safely out of the great waters, and out of the hands of strange men; +Psm 144:8 In whose mouths are false words, and whose right hand is a right hand of deceit. +Psm 144:9 I will make a new song to you, O God; I will make melody to you on an instrument of ten cords. +Psm 144:10 It is God who gives salvation to kings; and who kept his servant David from the wounding sword. +Psm 144:11 Make me free, and take me out of the hands of strange men, in whose mouths are false words, and whose right hand is a right hand of deceit. +Psm 144:12 Our sons are like tall young plants; and our daughters like the shining stones of a king's house; +Psm 144:13 Our store-houses are full of all good things; and our sheep give birth to thousands and ten thousands in our fields. +Psm 144:14 Our oxen are well weighted down; our cows give birth safely; there is no going out, and there is no cry of sorrow in our open places. +Psm 144:15 Happy is the nation whose ways are so ordered: yes, happy is the nation whose God is the Lord. +Psm 145:1 <A Song of praise. Of David.> Let me give glory to you, O God, my King; and blessing to your name for ever and ever. +Psm 145:2 Every day will I give you blessing, praising your name for ever and ever. +Psm 145:3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; his power may never be searched out. +Psm 145:4 One generation after another will give praise to your great acts, and make clear the operation of your strength. +Psm 145:5 My thoughts will be of the honour and glory of your rule, and of the wonder of your works. +Psm 145:6 Men will be talking of the power and fear of your acts; I will give word of your glory. +Psm 145:7 Their sayings will be full of the memory of all your mercy, and they will make songs of your righteousness. +Psm 145:8 The Lord is full of grace and pity; not quickly angry, but great in mercy. +Psm 145:9 The Lord is good to all men; and his mercies are over all his works. +Psm 145:10 All the works of your hands give praise to you, O Lord; and your saints give you blessing. +Psm 145:11 Their words will be of the glory of your kingdom, and their talk of your strength; +Psm 145:12 So that the sons of men may have knowledge of his acts of power, and of the great glory of his kingdom. +Psm 145:13 Your kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and your rule is through all generations. +Psm 145:14 The Lord is the support of all who are crushed, and the lifter up of all who are bent down. +Psm 145:15 The eyes of all men are waiting for you; and you give them their food in its time. +Psm 145:16 By the opening of your hand, every living thing has its desire in full measure. +Psm 145:17 The Lord is upright in all his ways, and kind in all his works. +Psm 145:18 The Lord is near all those who give honour to his name; even to all who give honour to him with true hearts. +Psm 145:19 To his worshippers, he will give their desire; their cry comes to his ears, and he gives them salvation. +Psm 145:20 The Lord will keep all his worshippers from danger; but he will send destruction on all sinners. +Psm 145:21 My mouth will give praise to the Lord; let all flesh be blessing his holy name for ever and ever. +Psm 146:1 Let the Lord be praised. Give praise to the Lord, O my soul. +Psm 146:2 While I have breath I will give praise to the Lord: I will make melody to my God while I have my being. +Psm 146:3 Put not your faith in rulers, or in the son of man, in whom there is no salvation. +Psm 146:4 Man's breath goes out, he is turned back again to dust; in that day all his purposes come to an end. +Psm 146:5 Happy is the man who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: +Psm 146:6 Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things in them; who keeps faith for ever: +Psm 146:7 Who gives their rights to those who are crushed down; and gives food to those who are in need of it: the Lord makes the prisoners free; +Psm 146:8 The Lord makes open the eyes of the blind; the Lord is the lifter up of those who are bent down; the Lord is a lover of the upright; +Psm 146:9 The Lord takes care of those who are in a strange land; he gives help to the widow and to the child who has no father; but he sends destruction on the way of sinners. +Psm 146:10 The Lord will be King for ever; your God, O Zion, will be King through all generations. Praise be to the Lord. +Psm 147:1 Give praise to the Lord; for it is good to make melody to our God; praise is pleasing and beautiful. +Psm 147:2 The Lord is building up Jerusalem; he makes all the outlaws of Israel come together. +Psm 147:3 He makes the broken-hearted well, and puts oil on their wounds. +Psm 147:4 He sees the number of the stars; he gives them all their names. +Psm 147:5 Great is our Lord, and great his power; there is no limit to his wisdom. +Psm 147:6 The Lord gives help to the poor in spirit; but he sends sinners down in shame. +Psm 147:7 Make songs of praise to the Lord; make melody to our God with instruments of music. +Psm 147:8 By his hand the heaven is covered with clouds and rain is stored up for the earth; he makes the grass tall on the mountains. +Psm 147:9 He gives food to every beast, and to the young ravens in answer to their cry. +Psm 147:10 He has no delight in the strength of a horse; he takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. +Psm 147:11 The Lord takes pleasure in his worshippers, and in those whose hope is in his mercy. +Psm 147:12 Give praise to the Lord, O Jerusalem; give praise to your God, O Zion. +Psm 147:13 He has made strong the iron bands of your doors; he has sent blessings on your children inside your walls. +Psm 147:14 He gives peace in all your land, making your stores full of fat grain. +Psm 147:15 He sends out his orders to the earth; his word goes out quickly. +Psm 147:16 He gives snow like wool; he sends out ice-drops like dust. +Psm 147:17 He sends down ice like raindrops: water is made hard by his cold. +Psm 147:18 At the outgoing of his word, the ice is turned to water; when he sends out his wind, there is a flowing of waters. +Psm 147:19 He makes his word clear to Jacob, teaching Israel his laws and his decisions. +Psm 147:20 He has not done these things for any other nation: and as for his laws, they have no knowledge of them. Let the Lord be praised. +Psm 148:1 Give praise to the Lord. Let the Lord be praised from the heavens: give him praise in the skies. +Psm 148:2 Give praise to him, all you his angels: give praise to him, all his armies. +Psm 148:3 Give praise to him, you sun and moon: give praise to him, all you stars of light. +Psm 148:4 Give praise to him, you highest heavens, and you waters which are over the heavens. +Psm 148:5 Let them give praise to the name of the Lord: for he gave the order, and they were made. +Psm 148:6 He has put them in their places for ever; he has given them their limits which may not be broken. +Psm 148:7 Give praise to the Lord from the earth, you great sea-beasts, and deep places: +Psm 148:8 Fire and rain of ice, snow and mists; storm-wind, doing his word: +Psm 148:9 Mountains and all hills; fruit-trees and all trees of the mountains: +Psm 148:10 Beasts and all cattle; insects and winged birds: +Psm 148:11 Kings of the earth, and all peoples; rulers and all judges of the earth: +Psm 148:12 Young men and virgins; old men and children: +Psm 148:13 Let them give glory to the name of the Lord: for his name only is to be praised: his kingdom is over the earth and the heaven. +Psm 148:14 He has put on high the horn of his people, for the praise of all his saints; even the children of Israel, a people which is near to him. Let the Lord be praised. +Psm 149:1 Let the Lord be praised. Make a new song to the Lord, let his praise be in the meeting of his saints. +Psm 149:2 Let Israel have joy in his maker; let the children of Zion be glad in their King. +Psm 149:3 Let them give praise to his name in the dance: let them make melody to him with instruments of brass and corded instruments of music. +Psm 149:4 For the Lord has pleasure in his people: he gives the poor in spirit a crown of salvation. +Psm 149:5 Let the saints have joy and glory: let them give cries of joy on their beds. +Psm 149:6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hands; +Psm 149:7 To give the nations the reward of their sins, and the peoples their punishment; +Psm 149:8 To put their kings in chains, and their rulers in bands of iron; +Psm 149:9 To give them the punishment which is in the holy writings: this honour is given to all his saints. Praise be to the Lord. +Psm 150:1 Let the Lord be praised. Give praise to God in his holy place: give him praise in the heaven of his power. +Psm 150:2 Give him praise for his acts of power: give him praise in the measure of his great strength. +Psm 150:3 Give him praise with the sound of the horn: give him praise with corded instruments of music. +Psm 150:4 Give him praise with instruments of brass and in the dance: give him praise with horns and corded instruments. +Psm 150:5 Give him praise with the loud brass: give him praise with the high-sounding brass. +Psm 150:6 Let everything which has breath give praise to the Lord. Let the Lord be praised. +Pro 1:1 The wise sayings of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. +Pro 1:2 To have knowledge of wise teaching; to be clear about the words of reason: +Pro 1:3 To be trained in the ways of wisdom, in righteousness and judging truly and straight behaviour: +Pro 1:4 To make the simple-minded sharp, and to give the young man knowledge, and serious purpose: +Pro 1:5 (The wise man, hearing, will get greater learning, and the acts of the man of good sense will be wisely guided:) +Pro 1:6 To get the sense of wise sayings and secrets, and of the words of the wise and their dark sayings. +Pro 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the start of knowledge: but the foolish have no use for wisdom and teaching. +Pro 1:8 My son, give ear to the training of your father, and do not give up the teaching of your mother: +Pro 1:9 For they will be a crown of grace for your head, and chain-ornaments about your neck. +Pro 1:10 My son, if sinners would take you out of the right way, do not go with them. +Pro 1:11 If they say, Come with us; let us make designs against the good, waiting secretly for the upright, without cause; +Pro 1:12 Let us overcome them living, like the underworld, and in their strength, as those who go down to death; +Pro 1:13 Goods of great price will be ours, our houses will be full of wealth; +Pro 1:14 Take your chance with us, and we will all have one money-bag: +Pro 1:15 My son, do not go with them; keep your feet from their ways: +Pro 1:16 For their feet are running after evil, and they are quick to take a man's life. +Pro 1:17 Truly, to no purpose is the net stretched out before the eyes of the bird: +Pro 1:18 And they are secretly waiting for their blood and making ready destruction for themselves. +Pro 1:19 Such is the fate of everyone who goes in search of profit; it takes away the life of its owners. +Pro 1:20 Wisdom is crying out in the street; her voice is loud in the open places; +Pro 1:21 Her words are sounding in the meeting-places, and in the doorways of the town: +Pro 1:22 How long, you simple ones, will foolish things be dear to you? and pride a delight to the haters of authority? how long will the foolish go on hating knowledge? +Pro 1:23 Be turned again by my sharp words: see, I will send the flow of my spirit on you, and make my words clear to you. +Pro 1:24 Because your ears were shut to my voice; no one gave attention to my out-stretched hand; +Pro 1:25 You were not controlled by my guiding, and would have nothing to do with my sharp words: +Pro 1:26 So in the day of your trouble I will be laughing; I will make sport of your fear; +Pro 1:27 When your fear comes on you like a storm, and your trouble like a rushing wind; when pain and sorrow come on you. +Pro 1:28 Then I will give no answer to their cries; searching for me early, they will not see me: +Pro 1:29 For they were haters of knowledge, and did not give their hearts to the fear of the Lord: +Pro 1:30 They had no desire for my teaching, and my words of protest were as nothing to them. +Pro 1:31 So the fruit of their way will be their food, and with the designs of their hearts they will be made full. +Pro 1:32 For the turning back of the simple from teaching will be the cause of their death, and the peace of the foolish will be their destruction. +Pro 1:33 But whoever gives ear to me will take his rest safely, living in peace without fear of evil. +Pro 2:1 My son, if you will take my words to your heart, storing up my laws in your mind; +Pro 2:2 So that your ear gives attention to wisdom, and your heart is turned to knowledge; +Pro 2:3 Truly, if you are crying out for good sense, and your request is for knowledge; +Pro 2:4 If you are looking for her as for silver, and searching for her as for stored-up wealth; +Pro 2:5 Then the fear of the Lord will be clear to you, and knowledge of God will be yours. +Pro 2:6 For the Lord gives wisdom; out of his mouth come knowledge and reason: +Pro 2:7 He has salvation stored up for the upright, he is a breastplate to those in whom there is no evil; +Pro 2:8 He keeps watch on the ways which are right, and takes care of those who have the fear of him. +Pro 2:9 Then you will have knowledge of righteousness and right acting, and upright behaviour, even of every good way. +Pro 2:10 For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasing to your soul; +Pro 2:11 Wise purposes will be watching over you, and knowledge will keep you; +Pro 2:12 Giving you salvation from the evil man, from those whose words are false; +Pro 2:13 Who give up the way of righteousness, to go by dark roads; +Pro 2:14 Who take pleasure in wrongdoing, and have joy in the evil designs of the sinner; +Pro 2:15 Whose ways are not straight, and whose footsteps are turned to evil: +Pro 2:16 To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue; +Pro 2:17 Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind: +Pro 2:18 For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades: +Pro 2:19 Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life: +Pro 2:20 So that you may go in the way of good men, and keep in the footsteps of the upright. +Pro 2:21 For the upright will be living in the land, and the good will have it for their heritage. +Pro 2:22 But sinners will be cut off from the land, and those whose acts are false will be uprooted. +Pro 3:1 My son, keep my teaching in your memory, and my rules in your heart: +Pro 3:2 For they will give you increase of days, years of life, and peace. +Pro 3:3 Let not mercy and good faith go from you; let them be hanging round your neck, recorded on your heart; +Pro 3:4 So you will have grace and a good name in the eyes of God and men. +Pro 3:5 Put all your hope in God, not looking to your reason for support. +Pro 3:6 In all your ways give ear to him, and he will make straight your footsteps. +Pro 3:7 Put no high value on your wisdom: let the fear of the Lord be before you, and keep yourself from evil: +Pro 3:8 This will give strength to your flesh, and new life to your bones. +Pro 3:9 Give honour to the Lord with your wealth, and with the first-fruits of all your increase: +Pro 3:10 So your store-houses will be full of grain, and your vessels overflowing with new wine. +Pro 3:11 My son, do not make your heart hard against the Lord's teaching; do not be made angry by his training: +Pro 3:12 For to those who are dear to him the Lord says sharp words, and makes the son in whom he has delight undergo pain. +Pro 3:13 Happy is the man who makes discovery of wisdom, and he who gets knowledge. +Pro 3:14 For trading in it is better than trading in silver, and its profit greater than bright gold. +Pro 3:15 She is of more value than jewels, and nothing for which you may have a desire is fair in comparison with her. +Pro 3:16 Long life is in her right hand, and in her left are wealth and honour. +Pro 3:17 Her ways are ways of delight, and all her goings are peace. +Pro 3:18 She is a tree of life to all who take her in their hands, and happy is everyone who keeps her. +Pro 3:19 The Lord by wisdom put in position the bases of the earth; by reason he put the heavens in their place. +Pro 3:20 By his knowledge the deep was parted, and dew came dropping from the skies. +Pro 3:21 My son, keep good sense, and do not let wise purpose go from your eyes. +Pro 3:22 So they will be life for your soul, and grace for your neck. +Pro 3:23 Then you will go safely on your way, and your feet will have no cause for slipping. +Pro 3:24 When you take your rest you will have no fear, and on your bed sleep will be sweet to you. +Pro 3:25 Have no fear of sudden danger, or of the storm which will come on evil-doers: +Pro 3:26 For the Lord will be your hope, and will keep your foot from being taken in the net. +Pro 3:27 Do not keep back good from those who have a right to it, when it is in the power of your hand to do it. +Pro 3:28 Say not to your neighbour, Go, and come again, and tomorrow I will give; when you have it by you at the time. +Pro 3:29 Do not make evil designs against your neighbour, when he is living with you without fear. +Pro 3:30 Do not take up a cause at law against a man for nothing, if he has done you no wrong. +Pro 3:31 Have no envy of the violent man, or take any of his ways as an example. +Pro 3:32 For the wrong-hearted man is hated by the Lord, but he is a friend to the upright. +Pro 3:33 The curse of the Lord is on the house of the evil-doer, but his blessing is on the tent of the upright. +Pro 3:34 He makes sport of the men of pride, but he gives grace to the gentle-hearted. +Pro 3:35 The wise will have glory for their heritage, but shame will be the reward of the foolish. +Pro 4:1 Give ear, my sons, to the teaching of a father; give attention so that you may have knowledge: +Pro 4:2 For I give you good teaching; do not give up the knowledge you are getting from me. +Pro 4:3 For I was a son to my father, a gentle and an only one to my mother. +Pro 4:4 And he gave me teaching, saying to me, Keep my words in your heart; keep my rules so that you may have life: +Pro 4:5 Get wisdom, get true knowledge; keep it in memory, do not be turned away from the words of my mouth. +Pro 4:6 Do not give her up, and she will keep you; give her your love, and she will make you safe. +Pro 4:7 The first sign of wisdom is to get wisdom; go, give all you have to get true knowledge. +Pro 4:8 Put her in a high place, and you will be lifted up by her; she will give you honour, when you give her your love. +Pro 4:9 She will put a crown of grace on your head, giving you a head-dress of glory. +Pro 4:10 Give ear, O my son, and let your heart be open to my sayings; and long life will be yours. +Pro 4:11 I have given you teaching in the way of wisdom, guiding your steps in the straight way. +Pro 4:12 When you go, your way will not be narrow, and in running you will not have a fall. +Pro 4:13 Take learning in your hands, do not let her go: keep her, for she is your life. +Pro 4:14 Do not go in the road of sinners, or be walking in the way of evil men. +Pro 4:15 Keep far from it, do not go near; be turned from it, and go on your way. +Pro 4:16 For they take no rest till they have done evil; their sleep is taken away if they have not been the cause of someone's fall. +Pro 4:17 The bread of evil-doing is their food, the wine of violent acts their drink. +Pro 4:18 But the way of the upright is like the light of early morning, getting brighter and brighter till the full day. +Pro 4:19 The way of sinners is dark; they see not the cause of their fall. +Pro 4:20 My son, give attention to my words; let your ear be turned to my sayings. +Pro 4:21 Let them not go from your eyes; keep them deep in your heart. +Pro 4:22 For they are life to him who gets them, and strength to all his flesh. +Pro 4:23 And keep watch over your heart with all care; so you will have life. +Pro 4:24 Put away from you an evil tongue, and let false lips be far from you. +Pro 4:25 Keep your eyes on what is in front of you, looking straight before you. +Pro 4:26 Keep a watch on your behaviour; let all your ways be rightly ordered. +Pro 4:27 Let there be no turning to the right or to the left, keep your feet from evil. +Pro 5:1 My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching: +Pro 5:2 So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge. +Pro 5:3 For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil; +Pro 5:4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword; +Pro 5:5 Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld; +Pro 5:6 She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge. +Pro 5:7 Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you. +Pro 5:8 Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house; +Pro 5:9 For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men: +Pro 5:10 And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others; +Pro 5:11 And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted; +Pro 5:12 And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training; +Pro 5:13 I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me! +Pro 5:14 I was in almost all evil in the company of the people. +Pro 5:15 Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain. +Pro 5:16 Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places. +Pro 5:17 Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you. +Pro 5:18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years. +Pro 5:19 As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love. +Pro 5:20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms? +Pro 5:21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales. +Pro 5:22 The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin. +Pro 5:23 He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way. +Pro 6:1 My son, if you have made yourself responsible for your neighbour, or given your word for another, +Pro 6:2 You are taken as in a net by the words of your mouth, the sayings of your lips have overcome you. +Pro 6:3 Do this, my son, and make yourself free, because you have come into the power of your neighbour; go without waiting, and make a strong request to your neighbour. +Pro 6:4 Give no sleep to your eyes, or rest to them; +Pro 6:5 Make yourself free, like the roe from the hand of the archer, and the bird from him who puts a net for her. +Pro 6:6 Go to the ant, you hater of work; give thought to her ways and be wise: +Pro 6:7 Having no chief, overseer, or ruler, +Pro 6:8 She gets her meat in the summer, storing up food at the time of the grain-cutting. +Pro 6:9 How long will you be sleeping, O hater of work? when will you get up from your sleep? +Pro 6:10 A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands in sleep: +Pro 6:11 Then loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your need like an armed man +Pro 6:12 A good-for-nothing man is an evil-doer; he goes on his way causing trouble with false words; +Pro 6:13 Making signs with his eyes, rubbing with his feet, and giving news with his fingers; +Pro 6:14 His mind is ever designing evil: he lets loose violent acts. +Pro 6:15 For this cause his downfall will be sudden; quickly he will be broken, and there will be no help for him. +Pro 6:16 Six things are hated by the Lord; seven things are disgusting to him: +Pro 6:17 Eyes of pride, a false tongue, hands which take life without cause; +Pro 6:18 A heart full of evil designs, feet which are quick in running after sin; +Pro 6:19 A false witness, breathing out untrue words, and one who lets loose violent acts among brothers. +Pro 6:20 My son, keep the rule of your father, and have in memory the teaching of your mother: +Pro 6:21 Keep them ever folded in your heart, and have them hanging round your neck. +Pro 6:22 In your walking, it will be your guide; when you are sleeping, it will keep watch over you; when you are awake, it will have talk with you. +Pro 6:23 For the rule is a light, and the teaching a shining light; and the guiding words of training are the way of life. +Pro 6:24 They will keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the strange woman. +Pro 6:25 Let not your heart's desire go after her fair body; let not her eyes take you prisoner. +Pro 6:26 For a loose woman is looking for a cake of bread, but another man's wife goes after one's very life. +Pro 6:27 May a man take fire to his breast without burning his clothing? +Pro 6:28 Or may one go on lighted coals, and his feet not be burned? +Pro 6:29 So it is with him who goes in to his neighbour's wife; he who has anything to do with her will not go free from punishment. +Pro 6:30 Men do not have a low opinion of a thief who takes food when he is in need of it: +Pro 6:31 But if he is taken in the act he will have to give back seven times as much, giving up all his property which is in his house. +Pro 6:32 He who takes another man's wife is without all sense: he who does it is the cause of destruction to his soul. +Pro 6:33 Wounds will be his and loss of honour, and his shame may not be washed away. +Pro 6:34 For bitter is the wrath of an angry husband; in the day of punishment he will have no mercy. +Pro 6:35 He will not take any payment; and he will not make peace with you though your money offerings are increased. +Pro 7:1 My son, keep my sayings, and let my rules be stored up with you. +Pro 7:2 Keep my rules and you will have life; let my teaching be to you as the light of your eyes; +Pro 7:3 Let them be fixed to your fingers, and recorded in your heart. +Pro 7:4 Say to wisdom, You are my sister; let knowledge be named your special friend: +Pro 7:5 So that they may keep you from the strange woman, even from her whose words are smooth. +Pro 7:6 Looking out from my house, and watching through the window, +Pro 7:7 I saw among the young men one without sense, +Pro 7:8 Walking in the street near the turn of her road, going on the way to her house, +Pro 7:9 At nightfall, in the evening of the day, in the black dark of the night. +Pro 7:10 And the woman came out to him, in the dress of a loose woman, with a designing heart; +Pro 7:11 She is full of noise and uncontrolled; her feet keep not in her house. +Pro 7:12 Now she is in the street, now in the open spaces, waiting at every turning of the road. +Pro 7:13 So she took him by his hand, kissing him, and without a sign of shame she said to him: +Pro 7:14 I have a feast of peace-offerings, for today my oaths have been effected. +Pro 7:15 So I came out in the hope of meeting you, looking for you with care, and now I have you. +Pro 7:16 My bed is covered with cushions of needlework, with coloured cloths of the cotton thread of Egypt; +Pro 7:17 I have made my bed sweet with perfumes and spices. +Pro 7:18 Come, let us take our pleasure in love till the morning, having joy in love's delights. +Pro 7:19 For the master of the house is away on a long journey: +Pro 7:20 He has taken a bag of money with him; he is coming back at the full moon. +Pro 7:21 With her fair words she overcame him, forcing him with her smooth lips. +Pro 7:22 The simple man goes after her, like an ox going to its death, like a roe pulled by a cord; +Pro 7:23 Like a bird falling into a net; with no thought that his life is in danger, till an arrow goes into his side. +Pro 7:24 So now, my sons, give ear to me; give attention to the sayings of my mouth; +Pro 7:25 Let not your heart be turned to her ways, do not go wandering in her footsteps. +Pro 7:26 For those wounded and made low by her are great in number; and all those who have come to their death through her are a great army. +Pro 7:27 Her house is the way to the underworld, going down to the rooms of death. +Pro 8:1 Is not wisdom crying out, and the voice of knowledge sounding? +Pro 8:2 At the top of the highways, at the meeting of the roads, she takes her place; +Pro 8:3 Where the roads go into the town her cry goes out, at the doorways her voice is loud: +Pro 8:4 I am crying out to you, O men; my voice comes to the sons of men. +Pro 8:5 Become expert in reason, O you simple ones; you foolish ones, take training to heart. +Pro 8:6 Give ear, for my words are true, and my lips are open to give out what is upright. +Pro 8:7 For good faith goes out of my mouth, and false lips are disgusting to me. +Pro 8:8 All the words of my mouth are righteousness; there is nothing false or twisted in them. +Pro 8:9 They are all true to him whose mind is awake, and straightforward to those who get knowledge. +Pro 8:10 Take my teaching, and not silver; get knowledge in place of the best gold. +Pro 8:11 For wisdom is better than jewels, and all things which may be desired are nothing in comparison with her. +Pro 8:12 I, wisdom, have made wise behaviour my near relation; I am seen to be the special friend of wise purposes. +Pro 8:13 The fear of the Lord is seen in hating evil: pride, a high opinion of oneself, the evil way, and the false tongue, are unpleasing to me. +Pro 8:14 Wise design and good sense are mine; reason and strength are mine. +Pro 8:15 Through me kings have their power, and rulers give right decisions. +Pro 8:16 Through me chiefs have authority, and the noble ones are judging in righteousness. +Pro 8:17 Those who have given me their love are loved by me, and those who make search for me with care will get me. +Pro 8:18 Wealth and honour are in my hands, even wealth without equal and righteousness. +Pro 8:19 My fruit is better than gold, even than the best gold; and my increase is more to be desired than silver. +Pro 8:20 I go in the road of righteousness, in the way of right judging: +Pro 8:21 So that I may give my lovers wealth for their heritage, making their store-houses full. +Pro 8:22 The Lord made me as the start of his way, the first of his works in the past. +Pro 8:23 From eternal days I was given my place, from the birth of time, before the earth was. +Pro 8:24 When there was no deep I was given birth, when there were no fountains flowing with water. +Pro 8:25 Before the mountains were put in their places, before the hills was my birth: +Pro 8:26 When he had not made the earth or the fields or the dust of the world. +Pro 8:27 When he made ready the heavens I was there: when he put an arch over the face of the deep: +Pro 8:28 When he made strong the skies overhead: when the fountains of the deep were fixed: +Pro 8:29 When he put a limit to the sea, so that the waters might not go against his word: when he put in position the bases of the earth: +Pro 8:30 Then I was by his side, as a master workman: and I was his delight from day to day, playing before him at all times; +Pro 8:31 Playing in his earth; and my delight was with the sons of men. +Pro 8:32 Give ear to me then, my sons: for happy are those who keep my ways. +Pro 8:33 Take my teaching and be wise; do not let it go. +Pro 8:34 Happy is the man who gives ear to me, watching at my doors day by day, keeping his place by the pillars of my house. +Pro 8:35 For whoever gets me gets life, and grace from the Lord will come to him. +Pro 8:36 But he who does evil to me, does wrong to his soul: all my haters are in love with death. +Pro 9:1 Wisdom has made her house, putting up her seven pillars. +Pro 9:2 She has put her fat beasts to death; her wine is mixed, her table is ready. +Pro 9:3 She has sent out her women-servants; her voice goes out to the highest places of the town, saying, +Pro 9:4 Whoever is simple, let him come in here; and to him who has no sense, she says: +Pro 9:5 Come, take of my bread, and of my wine which is mixed. +Pro 9:6 Give up the simple ones and have life, and go in the way of knowledge. +Pro 9:7 He who gives teaching to a man of pride gets shame for himself; he who says sharp words to a sinner gets a bad name. +Pro 9:8 Do not say sharp words to a man of pride, or he will have hate for you; make them clear to a wise man, and you will be dear to him. +Pro 9:9 Give teaching to a wise man, and he will become wiser; give training to an upright man, and his learning will be increased. +Pro 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the start of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One gives a wise mind +Pro 9:11 For by me your days will be increased, and the years of your life will be long. +Pro 9:12 If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if your heart is full of pride, you only will have the pain of it. +Pro 9:13 The foolish woman is full of noise; she has no sense at all. +Pro 9:14 Seated at the door of her house, in the high places of the town, +Pro 9:15 Crying out to those who go by, going straight on their way, she says: +Pro 9:16 Whoever is simple, let him come in here: and to him who is without sense, she says: +Pro 9:17 Drink taken without right is sweet, and food in secret is pleasing. +Pro 9:18 But he does not see that the dead are there, that her guests are in the deep places of the underworld. +Pro 10:1 A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. +Pro 10:2 Wealth which comes from sin is of no profit, but righteousness gives salvation from death. +Pro 10:3 The Lord will not let the upright be in need of food, but he puts far from him the desire of the evil-doers. +Pro 10:4 He who is slow in his work becomes poor, but the hand of the ready worker gets in wealth. +Pro 10:5 He who in summer gets together his store is a son who does wisely; but he who takes his rest when the grain is being cut is a son causing shame. +Pro 10:6 Blessings are on the head of the upright, but the face of sinners will be covered with sorrow. +Pro 10:7 The memory of the upright is a blessing, but the name of the evil-doer will be turned to dust. +Pro 10:8 The wise-hearted man will let himself be ruled, but the man whose talk is foolish will have a fall. +Pro 10:9 He whose ways are upright will go safely, but he whose ways are twisted will be made low. +Pro 10:10 He who makes signs with his eyes is a cause of trouble, but he who makes a man see his errors is a cause of peace. +Pro 10:11 The mouth of the upright man is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the evil-doer is a bitter cup. +Pro 10:12 Hate is a cause of violent acts, but all errors are covered up by love. +Pro 10:13 In the lips of him who has knowledge wisdom is seen; but a rod is ready for the back of him who is without sense. +Pro 10:14 Knowledge is stored up by the wise, but the mouth of the foolish man is a destruction which is near. +Pro 10:15 The property of the man of wealth is his strong town: the poor man's need is his destruction. +Pro 10:16 The work of the upright gives life: the increase of the evil-doer is a cause of sin. +Pro 10:17 He who takes note of teaching is a way of life, but he who gives up training is a cause of error. +Pro 10:18 Hate is covered up by the lips of the upright man, but he who lets out evil about another is foolish. +Pro 10:19 Where there is much talk there will be no end to sin, but he who keeps his mouth shut does wisely. +Pro 10:20 The tongue of the upright man is like tested silver: the heart of the evil-doer is of little value. +Pro 10:21 The lips of the upright man give food to men, but the foolish come to death for need of sense. +Pro 10:22 The blessing of the Lord gives wealth: hard work makes it no greater. +Pro 10:23 It is sport to the foolish man to do evil, but the man of good sense takes delight in wisdom. +Pro 10:24 The thing feared by the evil-doer will come to him, but the upright man will get his desire. +Pro 10:25 When the storm-wind is past, the sinner is seen no longer, but the upright man is safe for ever. +Pro 10:26 Like acid drink to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so is the hater of work to those who send him. +Pro 10:27 The fear of the Lord gives long life, but the years of the evil-doer will be cut short. +Pro 10:28 The hope of the upright man will give joy, but the waiting of the evil-doer will have its end in sorrow. +Pro 10:29 The way of the Lord is a strong tower for the upright man, but destruction to the workers of evil. +Pro 10:30 The upright man will never be moved, but evil-doers will not have a safe resting-place in the land. +Pro 10:31 The mouth of the upright man is budding with wisdom, but the twisted tongue will be cut off. +Pro 10:32 The lips of the upright man have knowledge of what is pleasing, but twisted are the mouths of evil-doers. +Pro 11:1 Scales of deceit are hated by the Lord, but a true weight is his delight. +Pro 11:2 When pride comes, there comes shame, but wisdom is with the quiet in spirit. +Pro 11:3 The righteousness of the upright will be their guide, but the twisted ways of the false will be their destruction. +Pro 11:4 Wealth is of no profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness keeps a man safe from death. +Pro 11:5 The righteousness of the good man will make his way straight, but the sin of the evil-doer will be the cause of his fall. +Pro 11:6 The righteousness of the upright will be their salvation, but the false will themselves be taken in their evil designs. +Pro 11:7 At the death of an upright man his hope does not come to an end, but the hope of the evil-doer comes to destruction. +Pro 11:8 The upright man is taken out of trouble, and in his place comes the sinner. +Pro 11:9 With his mouth the evil man sends destruction on his neighbour; but through knowledge the upright are taken out of trouble. +Pro 11:10 When things go well for the upright man, all the town is glad; at the death of sinners, there are cries of joy. +Pro 11:11 By the blessing of the upright man the town is made great, but it is overturned by the mouth of the evil-doer. +Pro 11:12 He who has a poor opinion of his neighbour has no sense, but a wise man keeps quiet. +Pro 11:13 He who goes about talking of others makes secrets public, but the true-hearted man keeps things covered. +Pro 11:14 When there is no helping suggestion the people will have a fall, but with a number of wise guides they will be safe. +Pro 11:15 He who makes himself responsible for a strange man will undergo much loss; but the hater of such undertakings will be safe. +Pro 11:16 A woman who is full of grace is honoured, but a woman hating righteousness is a seat of shame: those hating work will undergo loss, but the strong keep their wealth. +Pro 11:17 The man who has mercy will be rewarded, but the cruel man is the cause of trouble to himself. +Pro 11:18 The sinner gets the payment of deceit; but his reward is certain who puts in the seed of righteousness. +Pro 11:19 So righteousness gives life; but he who goes after evil gets death for himself. +Pro 11:20 The uncontrolled are hated by the Lord, but those whose ways are without error are his delight +Pro 11:21 Certainly the evil-doer will not go free from punishment, but the seed of the upright man will be safe. +Pro 11:22 Like a ring of gold in the nose of a pig, is a beautiful woman who has no sense. +Pro 11:23 The desire of the upright man is only for good, but wrath is waiting for the evil-doer. +Pro 11:24 A man may give freely, and still his wealth will be increased; and another may keep back more than is right, but only comes to be in need. +Pro 11:25 He who gives blessing will be made fat, but the curser will himself be cursed. +Pro 11:26 He who keeps back grain will be cursed by the people; but a blessing will be on the head of him who lets them have it for a price. +Pro 11:27 He who, with all his heart, goes after what is good is searching for grace; but he who is looking for trouble will get it. +Pro 11:28 He who puts his faith in wealth will come to nothing; but the upright man will be full of growth like the green leaf. +Pro 11:29 The troubler of his house will have the wind for his heritage, and the foolish will be servant to the wise-hearted. +Pro 11:30 The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life, but violent behaviour takes away souls. +Pro 11:31 If the upright man is rewarded on earth, how much more the evil-doer and the sinner! +Pro 12:1 A lover of training is a lover of knowledge; but a hater of teaching is like a beast. +Pro 12:2 A good man has grace in the eyes of the Lord; but the man of evil designs gets punishment from him. +Pro 12:3 No man will make himself safe through evil-doing; but the root of upright men will never be moved. +Pro 12:4 A woman of virtue is a crown to her husband; but she whose behaviour is a cause of shame is like a wasting disease in his bones. +Pro 12:5 The purposes of upright men are right, but the designs of evil-doers are deceit. +Pro 12:6 The words of sinners are destruction for the upright; but the mouth of upright men is their salvation. +Pro 12:7 Evil-doers are overturned and never seen again, but the house of upright men will keep its place. +Pro 12:8 A man will be praised in the measure of his wisdom, but a wrong-minded man will be looked down on. +Pro 12:9 He who is of low position and has a servant, is better than one who has a high opinion of himself and is in need of bread. +Pro 12:10 An upright man has thought for the life of his beast, but the hearts of evil-doers are cruel. +Pro 12:11 He who does work on his land will not be short of bread; but he who goes after foolish men is without sense. +Pro 12:12 The resting-place of the sinner will come to destruction, but the root of upright men is for ever. +Pro 12:13 In the sin of the lips is a net which takes the sinner, but the upright man will come out of trouble. +Pro 12:14 From the fruit of his mouth will a man have good food in full measure, and the work of a man's hands will be rewarded. +Pro 12:15 The way of the foolish man seems right to him? but the wise man gives ear to suggestions. +Pro 12:16 A foolish man lets his trouble be openly seen, but a sharp man keeps shame secret. +Pro 12:17 The breathing out of true words gives knowledge of righteousness; but a false witness gives out deceit. +Pro 12:18 There are some whose uncontrolled talk is like the wounds of a sword, but the tongue of the wise makes one well again. +Pro 12:19 True lips are certain for ever, but a false tongue is only for a minute. +Pro 12:20 Deceit is in the heart of those whose designs are evil, but for those purposing peace there is joy. +Pro 12:21 No trouble will come to upright men, but sinners will be full of evil. +Pro 12:22 False lips are hated by the Lord, but those whose acts are true are his delight. +Pro 12:23 A sharp man keeps back his knowledge; but the heart of foolish men makes clear their foolish thoughts. +Pro 12:24 The hand of the ready worker will have authority, but he who is slow in his work will be put to forced work. +Pro 12:25 Care in the heart of a man makes it weighted down, but a good word makes it glad. +Pro 12:26 The upright man is a guide to his neighbour, but the way of evil-doers is a cause of error to them. +Pro 12:27 He who is slow in his work does not go in search of food; but the ready worker gets much wealth. +Pro 12:28 In the road of righteousness is life, but the way of the evil-doer goes to death. +Pro 13:1 A wise son is a lover of teaching, but the ears of the haters of authority are shut to sharp words. +Pro 13:2 A man will get good from the fruit of his lips, but the desire of the false is for violent acts. +Pro 13:3 He who keeps a watch on his mouth keeps his life; but he whose lips are open wide will have destruction. +Pro 13:4 The hater of work does not get his desires, but the soul of the hard workers will be made fat. +Pro 13:5 The upright man is a hater of false words: the evil-doer gets a bad name and is put to shame. +Pro 13:6 Righteousness keeps safe him whose way is without error, but evil-doers are overturned by sin. +Pro 13:7 A man may be acting as if he had wealth, but have nothing; another may seem poor, but have great wealth. +Pro 13:8 A man will give his wealth in exchange for his life; but the poor will not give ear to sharp words. +Pro 13:9 There is a glad dawn for the upright man, but the light of the sinner will be put out. +Pro 13:10 The only effect of pride is fighting; but wisdom is with the quiet in spirit. +Pro 13:11 Wealth quickly got will become less; but he who gets a store by the work of his hands will have it increased. +Pro 13:12 Hope put off is a weariness to the heart; but when what is desired comes, it is a tree of life. +Pro 13:13 He who makes sport of the word will come to destruction, but the respecter of the law will be rewarded. +Pro 13:14 The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning men away from the nets of death. +Pro 13:15 Wise behaviour gets approval, but the way of the false is their destruction. +Pro 13:16 A sharp man does everything with knowledge, but a foolish man makes clear his foolish thoughts. +Pro 13:17 A man taking false news is a cause of trouble, but he who gives news rightly makes things well. +Pro 13:18 Need and shame will be the fate of him who is uncontrolled by training; but he who takes note of teaching will be honoured. +Pro 13:19 To get one's desire is sweet to the soul, but to give up evil is disgusting to the foolish. +Pro 13:20 Go with wise men and be wise: but he who keeps company with the foolish will be broken. +Pro 13:21 Evil will overtake sinners, but the upright will be rewarded with good. +Pro 13:22 The heritage of the good man is handed down to his children's children; and the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the upright man. +Pro 13:23 There is much food in the ploughed land of the poor; but it is taken away by wrongdoing. +Pro 13:24 He who keeps back his rod is unkind to his son: the loving father gives punishment with care. +Pro 13:25 The upright man has food to the full measure of his desire, but there will be no food for the stomach of evil-doers. +Pro 14:1 Wisdom is building her house, but the foolish woman is pulling it down with her hands. +Pro 14:2 He who goes on his way in righteousness has before him the fear of the Lord; but he whose ways are twisted gives him no honour. +Pro 14:3 In the mouth of the foolish man is a rod for his back, but the lips of the wise will keep them safe. +Pro 14:4 Where there are no oxen, their food-place is clean; but much increase comes through the strength of the ox. +Pro 14:5 A true witness does not say what is false, but a false witness is breathing out deceit. +Pro 14:6 The hater of authority, searching for wisdom, does not get it; but knowledge comes readily to the open-minded man. +Pro 14:7 Go away from the foolish man, for you will not see the lips of knowledge. +Pro 14:8 The wisdom of the man of good sense makes his way clear; but the unwise behaviour of the foolish is deceit. +Pro 14:9 In the tents of those hating authority there is error, but in the house of the upright man there is grace. +Pro 14:10 No one has knowledge of a man's grief but himself; and a strange person has no part in his joy. +Pro 14:11 The house of the sinner will be overturned, but the tent of the upright man will do well. +Pro 14:12 There is a way which seems straight before a man, but its end is the ways of death. +Pro 14:13 Even while laughing the heart may be sad; and after joy comes sorrow. +Pro 14:14 He whose heart is turned away will have the reward of his ways in full measure; but a good man will have the reward of his doings. +Pro 14:15 The simple man has faith in every word, but the man of good sense gives thought to his footsteps. +Pro 14:16 The wise man, fearing, keeps himself from evil; but the foolish man goes on in his pride, with no thought of danger. +Pro 14:17 He who is quickly angry will do what is foolish, but the man of good sense will have quiet. +Pro 14:18 Foolish behaviour is the heritage of the simple, but men of good sense are crowned with knowledge. +Pro 14:19 The knees of the evil are bent before the good; and sinners go down in the dust at the doors of the upright. +Pro 14:20 The poor man is hated even by his neighbour, but the man of wealth has numbers of friends. +Pro 14:21 He who has no respect for his neighbour is a sinner, but he who has pity for the poor is happy. +Pro 14:22 Will not the designers of evil come into error? But mercy and good faith are for the designers of good. +Pro 14:23 In all hard work there is profit, but talk only makes a man poor. +Pro 14:24 Their wisdom is a crown to the wise, but their foolish behaviour is round the head of the unwise. +Pro 14:25 A true witness is the saviour of lives; but he who says false things is a cause of deceit. +Pro 14:26 For him in whose heart is the fear of the Lord there is strong hope: and his children will have a safe place. +Pro 14:27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, by which one may be turned from the nets of death. +Pro 14:28 A king's glory is in the number of his people: and for need of people a ruler may come to destruction. +Pro 14:29 He who is slow to be angry has great good sense; but he whose spirit is over-quick gives support to what is foolish. +Pro 14:30 A quiet mind is the life of the body, but envy is a disease in the bones. +Pro 14:31 He who is hard on the poor puts shame on his Maker; but he who has mercy on those who are in need gives him honour. +Pro 14:32 The sinner is overturned in his evil-doing, but the upright man has hope in his righteousness. +Pro 14:33 Wisdom has her resting-place in the mind of the wise, but she is not seen among the foolish. +Pro 14:34 By righteousness a nation is lifted up, but sin is a cause of shame to the peoples. +Pro 14:35 The king has pleasure in a servant who does wisely, but his wrath is against him who is a cause of shame. +Pro 15:1 By a soft answer wrath is turned away, but a bitter word is a cause of angry feelings. +Pro 15:2 Knowledge is dropping from the tongue of the wise; but from the mouth of the foolish comes a stream of foolish words. +Pro 15:3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. +Pro 15:4 A comforting tongue is a tree of life, but a twisted tongue is a crushing of the spirit. +Pro 15:5 A foolish man puts no value on his father's training; but he who has respect for teaching has good sense. +Pro 15:6 In the house of the upright man there is a great store of wealth; but in the profits of the sinner there is trouble. +Pro 15:7 The lips of the wise keep knowledge, but the heart of the foolish man is not right. +Pro 15:8 The offering of the evil-doer is disgusting to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright man is his delight. +Pro 15:9 The way of the evil-doer is disgusting to the Lord, but he who goes after righteousness is dear to him. +Pro 15:10 There is bitter punishment for him who is turned from the way; and death will be the fate of the hater of teaching. +Pro 15:11 Before the Lord are the underworld and destruction: how much more, then, the hearts of the children of men! +Pro 15:12 The hater of authority has no love for teaching: he will not go to the wise. +Pro 15:13 A glad heart makes a shining face, but by the sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken. +Pro 15:14 The heart of the man of good sense goes in search of knowledge, but foolish things are the food of the unwise. +Pro 15:15 All the days of the troubled are evil; but he whose heart is glad has an unending feast. +Pro 15:16 Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great wealth together with trouble. +Pro 15:17 Better is a simple meal where love is, than a fat ox and hate with it. +Pro 15:18 An angry man makes men come to blows, but he who is slow to get angry puts an end to fighting. +Pro 15:19 Thorns are round the way of the hater of work; but the road of the hard worker becomes a highway. +Pro 15:20 A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man has no respect for his mother. +Pro 15:21 Foolish behaviour is joy to the unwise; but a man of good sense makes his way straight. +Pro 15:22 Where there are no wise suggestions, purposes come to nothing; but by a number of wise guides they are made certain. +Pro 15:23 A man has joy in the answer of his mouth: and a word at the right time, how good it is! +Pro 15:24 Acting wisely is the way of life, guiding a man away from the underworld. +Pro 15:25 The house of the man of pride will be uprooted by the Lord, but he will make safe the heritage of the widow. +Pro 15:26 Evil designs are disgusting to the Lord, but the words of the clean-hearted are pleasing. +Pro 15:27 He whose desires are fixed on profit is a cause of trouble to his family; but he who has no desire for offerings will have life. +Pro 15:28 The heart of the upright gives thought to his answer; but from the mouth of the evil-doer comes a stream of evil things. +Pro 15:29 The Lord is far from sinners, but his ear is open to the prayer of the upright. +Pro 15:30 The light of the eyes is a joy to the heart, and good news makes the bones fat. +Pro 15:31 The man whose ear is open to the teaching of life will have his place among the wise. +Pro 15:32 He who will not be controlled by training has no respect for his soul, but he who gives ear to teaching will get wisdom. +Pro 15:33 The fear of the Lord is the teaching of wisdom; and a low opinion of oneself goes before honour. +Pro 16:1 The designs of the heart are man's, but the answer of the tongue comes from the Lord. +Pro 16:2 All a man's ways are clean to himself; but the Lord puts men's spirits into his scales. +Pro 16:3 Put your works into the hands of the Lord, and your purposes will be made certain. +Pro 16:4 The Lord has made everything for his purpose, even the sinner for the day of evil. +Pro 16:5 Everyone who has pride in his heart is disgusting to the Lord: he will certainly not go free from punishment. +Pro 16:6 By mercy and good faith evil-doing is taken away: and by the fear of the Lord men are turned away from evil. +Pro 16:7 When a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his haters be at peace with him. +Pro 16:8 Better is a little with righteousness, than great wealth with wrongdoing. +Pro 16:9 A man may make designs for his way, but the Lord is the guide of his steps. +Pro 16:10 Decision is in the lips of the king: his mouth will not go wrong in judging. +Pro 16:11 True measures and scales are the Lord's: all the weights of the bag are his work. +Pro 16:12 Evil-doing is disgusting to kings: for the seat of the ruler is based on righteousness. +Pro 16:13 Lips of righteousness are the delight of kings; and he who says what is upright is dear to him. +Pro 16:14 The wrath of the king is like those who give news of death, but a wise man will put peace in place of it. +Pro 16:15 In the light of the king's face there is life; and his approval is like a cloud of spring rain. +Pro 16:16 How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! and to get knowledge is more to be desired than silver. +Pro 16:17 The highway of the upright is to be turned away from evil: he who takes care of his way will keep his soul. +Pro 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a stiff spirit before a fall. +Pro 16:19 Better it is to have a gentle spirit with the poor, than to take part in the rewards of war with men of pride. +Pro 16:20 He who gives attention to the law of right will get good; and whoever puts his faith in the Lord is happy. +Pro 16:21 The wise-hearted will be named men of good sense: and by pleasing words learning is increased. +Pro 16:22 Wisdom is a fountain of life to him who has it; but the punishment of the foolish is their foolish behaviour. +Pro 16:23 The heart of the wise man is the teacher of his mouth, and gives increased learning to his lips. +Pro 16:24 Pleasing words are like honey, sweet to the soul and new life to the bones. +Pro 16:25 There is a way which seems straight before a man, but its end is the ways of death. +Pro 16:26 The desire of the working man is working for him, for his need of food is driving him on. +Pro 16:27 A good-for-nothing man is a designer of evil, and in his lips there is a burning fire. +Pro 16:28 A man of twisted purposes is a cause of fighting everywhere: and he who says evil secretly makes trouble between friends. +Pro 16:29 A violent man puts desire of evil into his neighbour's mind, and makes him go in a way which is not good. +Pro 16:30 He whose eyes are shut is a man of twisted purposes, and he who keeps his lips shut tight makes evil come about. +Pro 16:31 The grey head is a crown of glory, if it is seen in the way of righteousness. +Pro 16:32 He who is slow to be angry is better than a man of war, and he who has control over his spirit than he who takes a town. +Pro 16:33 A thing may be put to the decision of chance, but it comes about through the Lord. +Pro 17:1 Better a bit of dry bread in peace, than a house full of feasting and violent behaviour. +Pro 17:2 A servant who does wisely will have rule over a son causing shame, and will have his part in the heritage among brothers. +Pro 17:3 The heating-pot is for silver and the oven-fire for gold, but the Lord is the tester of hearts. +Pro 17:4 A wrongdoer gives attention to evil lips, and a man of deceit gives ear to a damaging tongue. +Pro 17:5 Whoever makes sport of the poor puts shame on his Maker; and he who is glad because of trouble will not go free from punishment. +Pro 17:6 Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children is their fathers. +Pro 17:7 Fair words are not to be looked for from a foolish man, much less are false lips in a ruler. +Pro 17:8 An offering of money is like a stone of great price in the eyes of him who has it: wherever he goes, he does well. +Pro 17:9 He who keeps a sin covered is looking for love; but he who keeps on talking of a thing makes division between friends. +Pro 17:10 A word of protest goes deeper into one who has sense than a hundred blows into a foolish man. +Pro 17:11 An uncontrolled man is only looking for trouble, so a cruel servant will be sent against him. +Pro 17:12 It is better to come face to face with a bear whose young ones have been taken away than with a foolish man acting foolishly. +Pro 17:13 If anyone gives back evil for good, evil will never go away from his house. +Pro 17:14 The start of fighting is like the letting out of water: so give up before it comes to blows. +Pro 17:15 He who gives a decision for the evil-doer and he who gives a decision against the upright, are equally disgusting to the Lord. +Pro 17:16 How will money in the hand of the foolish get him wisdom, seeing that he has no sense? +Pro 17:17 A friend is loving at all times, and becomes a brother in times of trouble. +Pro 17:18 A man without sense gives his hand in an agreement, and makes himself responsible before his neighbour. +Pro 17:19 The lover of fighting is a lover of sin: he who makes high his doorway is looking for destruction. +Pro 17:20 Nothing good comes to him whose heart is fixed on evil purposes: and he who has an evil tongue will come to trouble. +Pro 17:21 He who has an unwise son gets sorrow for himself, and the father of a foolish son has no joy. +Pro 17:22 A glad heart makes a healthy body, but a crushed spirit makes the bones dry. +Pro 17:23 A sinner takes an offering out of his robe, to get a decision for himself in a cause. +Pro 17:24 Wisdom is before the face of him who has sense; but the eyes of the foolish are on the ends of the earth. +Pro 17:25 A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitter pain to her who gave him birth. +Pro 17:26 To give punishment to the upright is not good, or to give blows to the noble for their righteousness. +Pro 17:27 He who has knowledge says little: and he who has a calm spirit is a man of good sense. +Pro 17:28 Even the foolish man, when he keeps quiet, is taken to be wise: when his lips are shut he is credited with good sense. +Pro 18:1 He who keeps himself separate for his private purpose goes against all good sense. +Pro 18:2 A foolish man has no pleasure in good sense, but only to let what is in his heart come to light. +Pro 18:3 When the evil-doer comes, a low opinion comes with him, and with the loss of honour comes shame. +Pro 18:4 The words of a man's mouth are like deep waters: the fountain of wisdom is like a flowing stream. +Pro 18:5 To have respect for the person of the evil-doer is not good, or to give a wrong decision against the upright. +Pro 18:6 A foolish man's lips are a cause of fighting, and his mouth makes him open to blows. +Pro 18:7 The mouth of a foolish man is his destruction, and his lips are a net for his soul. +Pro 18:8 The words of one who says evil of his neighbour secretly are like sweet food, and go down into the inner parts of the stomach. +Pro 18:9 He who does not give his mind to his work is brother to him who makes destruction. +Pro 18:10 The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the upright man running into it is safe. +Pro 18:11 The property of a man of wealth is his strong town, and it is as a high wall in the thoughts of his heart. +Pro 18:12 Before destruction the heart of man is full of pride, and before honour goes a gentle spirit. +Pro 18:13 To give an answer before hearing is a foolish thing and a cause of shame. +Pro 18:14 The spirit of a man will be his support when he is ill; but how may a broken spirit be lifted up? +Pro 18:15 The heart of the man of good sense gets knowledge; the ear of the wise is searching for knowledge. +Pro 18:16 A man's offering makes room for him, letting him come before great men. +Pro 18:17 The man who first puts his cause before the judge seems to be in the right; but then his neighbour comes and puts his cause in its true light. +Pro 18:18 The decision of chance puts an end to argument, parting the strong. +Pro 18:19 A brother wounded is like a strong town, and violent acts are like a locked tower. +Pro 18:20 With the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach will be full; the produce of his lips will be his in full measure. +Pro 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and those to whom it is dear will have its fruit for their food. +Pro 18:22 Whoever gets a wife gets a good thing, and has the approval of the Lord. +Pro 18:23 The poor man makes requests for grace, but the man of wealth gives a rough answer. +Pro 18:24 There are friends who may be a man's destruction, but there is a lover who keeps nearer than a brother. +Pro 19:1 Better is the poor man whose ways are upright, than the man of wealth whose ways are twisted. +Pro 19:2 Further, without knowledge desire is not good; and he who is over-quick in acting goes out of the right way. +Pro 19:3 By his foolish behaviour a man's ways are turned upside down, and his heart is bitter against the Lord. +Pro 19:4 Wealth makes a great number of friends; but the poor man is parted from his friend. +Pro 19:5 A false witness will not go without punishment, and the breather out of deceit will not go free. +Pro 19:6 Great numbers will make attempts to get the approval of a ruler: and every man is the special friend of him who has something to give. +Pro 19:7 All the brothers of the poor man are against him: how much more do his friends go far from him! ... +Pro 19:8 He who gets wisdom has love for his soul: he who keeps good sense will get what is truly good. +Pro 19:9 A false witness will not go without punishment, and the breather out of deceit will be cut off. +Pro 19:10 Material comfort is not good for the foolish; much less for a servant to be put over rulers. +Pro 19:11 A man's good sense makes him slow to wrath, and the overlooking of wrongdoing is his glory. +Pro 19:12 The king's wrath is like the loud cry of a lion, but his approval is like dew on the grass. +Pro 19:13 A foolish son is the destruction of his father; and the bitter arguments of a wife are like drops of rain falling without end. +Pro 19:14 House and wealth are a heritage from fathers, but a wife with good sense is from the Lord. +Pro 19:15 Hate of work sends deep sleep on a man: and he who has no industry will go without food. +Pro 19:16 He who keeps the law keeps his soul; but death will be the fate of him who takes no note of the word. +Pro 19:17 He who has pity on the poor gives to the Lord, and the Lord will give him his reward. +Pro 19:18 Give your son training while there is hope; let not your heart be purposing his death. +Pro 19:19 A man of great wrath will have to take his punishment: for if you get him out of trouble you will have to do it again. +Pro 19:20 Let your ear be open to suggestion and take teaching, so that at the end you may be wise. +Pro 19:21 A man's heart may be full of designs, but the purpose of the Lord is unchanging. +Pro 19:22 The ornament of a man is his mercy, and a poor man is better than one who is false. +Pro 19:23 The fear of the Lord gives life: and he who has it will have need of nothing; no evil will come his way. +Pro 19:24 The hater of work puts his hand deep into the basin, and will not even take it to his mouth again. +Pro 19:25 When blows overtake the man of pride, the simple will get sense; say sharp words to the wise, and knowledge will be made clear to him. +Pro 19:26 He who is violent to his father, driving away his mother, is a son causing shame and a bad name. +Pro 19:27 A son who no longer gives attention to teaching is turned away from the words of knowledge. +Pro 19:28 A good-for-nothing witness makes sport of the judge's decision: and the mouth of evil-doers sends out evil like a stream. +Pro 19:29 Rods are being made ready for the man of pride, and blows for the back of the foolish. +Pro 20:1 Wine makes men foolish, and strong drink makes men come to blows; and whoever comes into error through these is not wise. +Pro 20:2 The wrath of a king is like the loud cry of a lion: he who makes him angry does wrong against himself. +Pro 20:3 It is an honour for a man to keep from fighting, but the foolish are ever at war. +Pro 20:4 The hater of work will not do his ploughing because of the winter; so at the time of grain-cutting he will be requesting food and will get nothing. +Pro 20:5 The purpose in the heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of good sense will get it out. +Pro 20:6 Most men make no secret of their kind acts: but where is a man of good faith to be seen? +Pro 20:7 An upright man goes on in his righteousness: happy are his children after him! +Pro 20:8 A king on the seat of judging puts to flight all evil with his eyes. +Pro 20:9 Who is able to say, I have made my heart clean, I am free from my sin? +Pro 20:10 Unequal weights and unequal measures, they are all disgusting to the Lord. +Pro 20:11 Even a child may be judged by his doings, if his work is free from sin and if it is right. +Pro 20:12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye are equally the Lord's work. +Pro 20:13 Do not be a lover of sleep, or you will become poor: keep your eyes open, and you will have bread enough. +Pro 20:14 A poor thing, a poor thing, says he who is giving money for goods: but when he has gone on his way, then he makes clear his pride in what he has got. +Pro 20:15 There is gold and a store of corals: but the lips of knowledge are a jewel of great price. +Pro 20:16 Take a man's clothing if he makes himself responsible for a strange man, and get an undertaking from him who gives his word for strange men. +Pro 20:17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but after, his mouth will be full of sand. +Pro 20:18 Every purpose is put into effect by wise help: and by wise guiding make war. +Pro 20:19 He who goes about talking of the business of others gives away secrets: so have nothing to do with him whose lips are open wide. +Pro 20:20 If anyone puts a curse on his father or his mother, his light will be put out in the blackest night. +Pro 20:21 A heritage may be got quickly at first, but the end of it will not be a blessing. +Pro 20:22 Do not say, I will give punishment for evil: go on waiting for the Lord, and he will be your saviour. +Pro 20:23 Unequal weights are disgusting to the Lord, and false scales are not good. +Pro 20:24 A man's steps are of the Lord; how then may a man have knowledge of his way? +Pro 20:25 It is a danger to a man to say without thought, It is holy, and, after taking his oaths, to be questioning if it is necessary to keep them. +Pro 20:26 A wise king puts evil-doers to flight, and makes their evil-doing come back on them. +Pro 20:27 The Lord keeps watch over the spirit of man, searching all the deepest parts of the body. +Pro 20:28 Mercy and good faith keep the king safe, and the seat of his power is based on upright acts. +Pro 20:29 The glory of young men is their strength, and the honour of old men is their grey hairs. +Pro 20:30 By the wounds of the rod evil is taken away, and blows make clean the deepest parts of the body. +Pro 21:1 The king's heart in the hands of the Lord is like the water streams, and by him it is turned in any direction at his pleasure. +Pro 21:2 Every way of a man seems right to himself, but the Lord is the tester of hearts. +Pro 21:3 To do what is right and true is more pleasing to the Lord than an offering. +Pro 21:4 A high look and a heart of pride, *** of the evil-doer is sin. +Pro 21:5 The purposes of the man of industry have their outcome only in wealth; but one who is over-quick in acting will only come to be in need. +Pro 21:6 He who gets stores of wealth by a false tongue, is going after what is only breath, and searching for death. +Pro 21:7 By their violent acts the evil-doers will be pulled away, because they have no desire to do what is right. +Pro 21:8 Twisted is the way of him who is full of crime; but as for him whose heart is clean, his work is upright. +Pro 21:9 It is better to be living in an angle of the house-top, than with a bitter-tongued woman in a wide house. +Pro 21:10 The desire of the evil-doer is fixed on evil: he has no kind feeling for his neighbour. +Pro 21:11 When the man of pride undergoes punishment, the simple man gets wisdom; and by watching the wise he gets knowledge. +Pro 21:12 The Upright One, looking on the house of the evil-doer, lets sinners be overturned to their destruction. +Pro 21:13 He whose ears are stopped at the cry of the poor, will himself get no answer to his cry for help. +Pro 21:14 By a secret offering wrath is turned away, and the heat of angry feelings by money in the folds of the robe. +Pro 21:15 It is a joy to the good man to do right, but it is destruction to the workers of evil. +Pro 21:16 The wanderer from the way of knowledge will have his resting-place among the shades. +Pro 21:17 The lover of pleasure will be a poor man: the lover of wine and oil will not get wealth. +Pro 21:18 The evil-doer will be given as a price for the life of the good man, and the worker of deceit in the place of the upright. +Pro 21:19 It is better to be living in a waste land, than with a bitter-tongued and angry woman. +Pro 21:20 There is a store of great value in the house of the wise, but it is wasted by the foolish man. +Pro 21:21 He who goes after righteousness and mercy will get life, righteousness, and honour. +Pro 21:22 A wise man goes up into the town of the strong ones, and overcomes its strength in which they put their faith. +Pro 21:23 He who keeps watch over his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles. +Pro 21:24 The man of pride, lifted up in soul, is named high-hearted; he is acting in an outburst of pride. +Pro 21:25 The desire of the hater of work is death to him, for his hands will do no work. +Pro 21:26 All the day the sinner goes after his desire: but the upright man gives freely, keeping nothing back. +Pro 21:27 The offering of evil-doers is disgusting: how much more when they give it with an evil purpose! +Pro 21:28 A false witness will be cut off, ... +Pro 21:29 The evil-doer makes his face hard, but as for the upright, he gives thought to his way. +Pro 21:30 Wisdom and knowledge and wise suggestions are of no use against the Lord. +Pro 21:31 The horse is made ready for the day of war, but power to overcome is from the Lord. +Pro 22:1 A good name is more to be desired than great wealth, and to be respected is better than silver and gold. +Pro 22:2 The man of wealth and the poor man come face to face: the Lord is the maker of them all. +Pro 22:3 The sharp man sees the evil and takes cover: the simple go straight on and get into trouble. +Pro 22:4 The reward of a gentle spirit and the fear of the Lord is wealth and honour and life. +Pro 22:5 Thorns and nets are in the way of the twisted: he who keeps watch over his soul will be far from them. +Pro 22:6 If a child is trained up in the right way, even when he is old he will not be turned away from it. +Pro 22:7 The man of wealth has rule over the poor, and he who gets into debt is a servant to his creditor. +Pro 22:8 By planting the seed of evil a man will get in the grain of sorrow, and the rod of his wrath will be broken. +Pro 22:9 He who is kind will have a blessing, for he gives of his bread to the poor. +Pro 22:10 Send away the man of pride, and argument will go out; truly fighting and shame will come to an end. +Pro 22:11 He whose heart is clean is dear to the Lord; for the grace of his lips the king will be his friend. +Pro 22:12 The eyes of the Lord keep knowledge, but by him the acts of the false man will be overturned. +Pro 22:13 The hater of work says, There is a lion outside: I will be put to death in the streets. +Pro 22:14 The mouth of strange women is a deep hole: he with whom the Lord is angry will go down into it. +Pro 22:15 Foolish ways are deep-seated in the heart of a child, but the rod of punishment will send them far from him. +Pro 22:16 He who is cruel to the poor for the purpose of increasing his profit, and he who gives to the man of wealth, will only come to be in need. +Pro 22:17 Let your ear be bent down for hearing my words, and let your heart give thought to knowledge. +Pro 22:18 For it is a delight to keep them in your heart, to have them ready on your lips. +Pro 22:19 So that your faith may be in the Lord, I have made them clear to you this day, even to you. +Pro 22:20 Have I not put in writing for you thirty sayings, with wise suggestions and knowledge, +Pro 22:21 To make you see how certain are true words, so that you may give a true answer to those who put questions to you? +Pro 22:22 Do not take away the property of the poor man because he is poor, or be cruel to the crushed ones when they come before the judge: +Pro 22:23 For the Lord will give support to their cause, and take the life of those who take their goods. +Pro 22:24 Do not be friends with a man who is given to wrath; do not go in the company of an angry man: +Pro 22:25 For fear of learning his ways and making a net ready for your soul. +Pro 22:26 Be not one of those who give their hands in an agreement, or of those who make themselves responsible for debts: +Pro 22:27 If you have nothing with which to make payment, he will take away your bed from under you. +Pro 22:28 Let not the old landmark be moved which your fathers have put in place. +Pro 22:29 Have you seen a man who is expert in his business? he will take his place before kings; his place will not be among low persons. +Pro 23:1 When you take your seat at the feast with a ruler, give thought with care to what is before you; +Pro 23:2 And put a knife to your throat, if you have a strong desire for food. +Pro 23:3 Have no desire for his delicate food, for it is the bread of deceit. +Pro 23:4 Take no care to get wealth; let there be an end to your desire for money. +Pro 23:5 Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven. +Pro 23:6 Do not take the food of him who has an evil eye, or have any desire for his delicate meat: +Pro 23:7 For as the thoughts of his heart are, so is he: Take food and drink, he says to you; but his heart is not with you. +Pro 23:8 The food which you have taken will come up again, and your pleasing words will be wasted. +Pro 23:9 Say nothing in the hearing of a foolish man, for he will put no value on the wisdom of your words. +Pro 23:10 Do not let the landmark of the widow be moved, and do not go into the fields of those who have no father; +Pro 23:11 For their saviour is strong, and he will take up their cause against you. +Pro 23:12 Give your heart to teaching, and your ears to the words of knowledge. +Pro 23:13 Do not keep back training from the child: for even if you give him blows with the rod, it will not be death to him. +Pro 23:14 Give him blows with the rod, and keep his soul safe from the underworld. +Pro 23:15 My son, if your heart becomes wise, I, even I, will be glad in heart; +Pro 23:16 And my thoughts in me will be full of joy when your lips say right things. +Pro 23:17 Have no envy of sinners in your heart, but keep in the fear of the Lord all through the day; +Pro 23:18 For without doubt there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. +Pro 23:19 Give ear, my son, and be wise, guiding your heart in the right way. +Pro 23:20 Do not be among those who give themselves to wine-drinking, or among those who make themselves full with meat: +Pro 23:21 For those who take delight in drink and feasting will come to be in need; and through love of sleep a man will be poorly clothed. +Pro 23:22 Give ear to your father whose child you are, and do not keep honour from your mother when she is old. +Pro 23:23 Get for yourself that which is true, and do not let it go for money; get wisdom and teaching and good sense. +Pro 23:24 The father of the upright man will be glad, and he who has a wise child will have joy because of him. +Pro 23:25 Let your father and your mother be glad, let her who gave you birth have joy. +Pro 23:26 My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes take delight in my ways. +Pro 23:27 For a loose woman is a deep hollow, and a strange woman is a narrow water-hole. +Pro 23:28 Yes, she is waiting secretly like a beast for its food, and deceit by her is increased among men. +Pro 23:29 Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark? +Pro 23:30 Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine. +Pro 23:31 Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down: +Pro 23:32 In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake. +Pro 23:33 Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things. +Pro 23:34 Yes, you will be like him who takes his rest on the sea, or on the top of a sail-support. +Pro 23:35 They have overcome me, you will say, and I have no pain; they gave me blows without my feeling them: when will I be awake from my wine? I will go after it again. +Pro 24:1 Have no envy for evil men, or any desire to be with them: +Pro 24:2 For the purposes of their hearts are destruction, and their lips are talking of trouble. +Pro 24:3 The building of a house is by wisdom, and by reason it is made strong: +Pro 24:4 And by knowledge its rooms are full of all dear and pleasing things. +Pro 24:5 A wise man is strong; and a man of knowledge makes strength greater. +Pro 24:6 For by wise guiding you will overcome in war: and in a number of wise guides there is salvation. +Pro 24:7 Wisdom is outside the power of the foolish: he keeps his mouth shut in the public place. +Pro 24:8 He whose purposes are bad will be named a man of evil designs. +Pro 24:9 The purpose of the foolish is sin: and the hater of authority is disgusting to others. +Pro 24:10 If you give way in the day of trouble, your strength is small. +Pro 24:11 Be the saviour of those who are given up to death, and do not keep back help from those who are slipping to destruction. +Pro 24:12 If you say, See, we had no knowledge of this: does not the tester of hearts give thought to it? and he who keeps your soul, has he no knowledge of it? and will he not give to every man the reward of his work? +Pro 24:13 My son, take honey, for it is good; and the flowing honey, which is sweet to your taste: +Pro 24:14 So let your desire be for wisdom: if you have it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off. +Pro 24:15 Do not keep a secret watch, O evil-doer, against the fields of the upright man, or send destruction on his resting-place: +Pro 24:16 For an upright man, after falling seven times, will get up again: but trouble is the downfall of the evil. +Pro 24:17 Do not be glad at the fall of your hater, and let not your heart have joy at his downfall: +Pro 24:18 For fear that the Lord may see it, and it may be evil in his eyes, and his wrath may be turned away from him. +Pro 24:19 Do not be troubled because of evil-doers, or have envy of sinners: +Pro 24:20 For there will be no future for the evil man; the light of sinners will be put out. +Pro 24:21 My son, go in fear of the Lord and the king: have nothing to do with those who are in high positions: +Pro 24:22 For their downfall will come suddenly; and who has knowledge of the destruction of those in high positions? +Pro 24:23 These are more sayings of the wise: To have respect for a person's position when judging is not good. +Pro 24:24 He who says to the evil-doer, You are upright, will be cursed by peoples and hated by nations. +Pro 24:25 But those who say sharp words to him will have delight, and a blessing of good will come on them. +Pro 24:26 He gives a kiss with his lips who gives a right answer. +Pro 24:27 Put your work in order outside, and make it ready in the field; and after that, see to the building of your house. +Pro 24:28 Do not be a violent witness against your neighbour, or let your lips say what is false. +Pro 24:29 Say not, I will do to him as he has done to me; I will give the man the reward of his work. +Pro 24:30 I went by the field of the hater of work, and by the vine-garden of the man without sense; +Pro 24:31 And it was all full of thorns, and covered with waste plants, and its stone wall was broken down. +Pro 24:32 Then looking at it, I gave thought: I saw, and I got teaching from it. +Pro 24:33 A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands in sleep: +Pro 24:34 So loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your need like an armed man. +Pro 25:1 These are more wise sayings of Solomon, copied out by the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah. +Pro 25:2 It is the glory of God to keep a thing secret: but the glory of kings is to have it searched out. +Pro 25:3 The heaven is high and the earth is deep, and the hearts of kings may not be searched out. +Pro 25:4 Take away the waste from silver, and a vessel will come out for the silver-worker. +Pro 25:5 Take away evil-doers from before the king, and the seat of his power will be made strong in righteousness. +Pro 25:6 Do not take glory for yourself before the king, and do not put yourself in the place of the great: +Pro 25:7 For it is better to have it said to you, Come up here; than for you to be put down in a lower place before the ruler. +Pro 25:8 Do not be quick to go to law about what you have seen, for what will you do in the end, when your neighbour has put you to shame? +Pro 25:9 Have a talk with your neighbour himself about your cause, but do not give away the secret of another: +Pro 25:10 Or your hearer may say evil of you, and your shame will not be turned away. +Pro 25:11 A word at the right time is like apples of gold in a network of silver. +Pro 25:12 Like a nose-ring of gold and an ornament of the best gold, is a wise man who says sharp words to an ear ready to give attention. +Pro 25:13 As the cold of snow in the time of grain-cutting, so is a true servant to those who send him; for he gives new life to the soul of his master. +Pro 25:14 As clouds and wind without rain, so is one who takes credit for an offering he has not given. +Pro 25:15 A judge is moved by one who for a long time undergoes wrongs without protest, and by a soft tongue even bone is broken. +Pro 25:16 If you have honey, take only as much as is enough for you; for fear that, being full of it, you may not be able to keep it down. +Pro 25:17 Let not your foot be frequently in your neighbour's house, or he may get tired of you, and his feeling be turned to hate. +Pro 25:18 One who gives false witness against his neighbour is a hammer and a sword and a sharp arrow. +Pro 25:19 Putting one's faith in a false man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a shaking foot. +Pro 25:20 Like one who takes off clothing in cold weather and like acid on a wound, is he who makes melody to a sad heart. +Pro 25:21 If your hater is in need of food, give him bread; and if he is in need of drink, give him water: +Pro 25:22 For so you will put coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will give you your reward. +Pro 25:23 As the north wind gives birth to rain, so is an angry face caused by a tongue saying evil secretly. +Pro 25:24 It is better to be living in an angle of the house-top, than with a bitter-tongued woman in a wide house. +Pro 25:25 As cold water to a tired soul, so is good news from a far country. +Pro 25:26 Like a troubled fountain and a dirty spring, is an upright man who has to give way before evil-doers. +Pro 25:27 It is not good to take much honey: so he who is not looking for honour will be honoured. +Pro 25:28 He whose spirit is uncontrolled is like an unwalled town which has been broken into. +Pro 26:1 Like snow in summer and rain when the grain is being cut, so honour is not natural for the foolish. +Pro 26:2 As the sparrow in her wandering and the swallow in her flight, so the curse does not come without a cause. +Pro 26:3 A whip for the horse, a mouth-bit for the ass, and a rod for the back of the foolish. +Pro 26:4 Do not give to the foolish man a foolish answer, or you will be like him. +Pro 26:5 Give a foolish man a foolish answer, or he will seem wise to himself. +Pro 26:6 He who sends news by the hand of a foolish man is cutting off his feet and drinking in damage. +Pro 26:7 The legs of one who has no power of walking are hanging loose; so is a wise saying in the mouth of the foolish. +Pro 26:8 Giving honour to a foolish man is like attempting to keep a stone fixed in a cord. +Pro 26:9 Like a thorn which goes up into the hand of a man overcome by drink, so is a wise saying in the mouth of a foolish man. +Pro 26:10 Like an archer wounding all who go by, is a foolish man overcome by drink. +Pro 26:11 Like a dog going back to the food which he has not been able to keep down, is the foolish man doing his foolish acts over again. +Pro 26:12 Have you seen a man who seems to himself to be wise? There is more hope for the foolish than for him. +Pro 26:13 The hater of work says, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets. +Pro 26:14 A door is turned on its pillar, and the hater of work on his bed. +Pro 26:15 The hater of work puts his hand deep into the basin: lifting it again to his mouth is a weariness to him. +Pro 26:16 The hater of work seems to himself wiser than seven men who are able to give an answer with good sense. +Pro 26:17 He who gets mixed up in a fight which is not his business, is like one who takes a dog by the ears while it is going by. +Pro 26:18 As one who is off his head sends about flaming sticks and arrows of death, +Pro 26:19 So is the man who gets the better of his neighbour by deceit, and says, Am I not doing so in sport? +Pro 26:20 Without wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no secret talk, argument is ended. +Pro 26:21 Like breath on coals and wood on fire, so a man given to argument gets a fight started. +Pro 26:22 The words of one who says evil of his neighbour secretly are like sweet food, they go down into the inner parts of the stomach. +Pro 26:23 Smooth lips and an evil heart are like a vessel of earth plated with silver waste. +Pro 26:24 With his lips the hater makes things seem what they are not, but deceit is stored up inside him; +Pro 26:25 When he says fair words, have no belief in him; for in his heart are seven evils: +Pro 26:26 Though his hate is covered with deceit, his sin will be seen openly before the meeting of the people. +Pro 26:27 He who makes a hole in the earth will himself go falling into it: and on him by whom a stone is rolled the stone will come back again. +Pro 26:28 A false tongue has hate for those who have clean hearts, and a smooth mouth is a cause of falling. +Pro 27:1 Do not make a noise about tomorrow, for you are not certain what a day's outcome may be. +Pro 27:2 Let another man give you praise, and not your mouth; one who is strange to you, and not your lips. +Pro 27:3 A stone has great weight, and sand is crushing; but the wrath of the foolish is of greater weight than these. +Pro 27:4 Wrath is cruel, and angry feeling an overflowing stream; but who does not give way before envy? +Pro 27:5 Better is open protest than love kept secret. +Pro 27:6 The wounds of a friend are given in good faith, but the kisses of a hater are false. +Pro 27:7 The full man has no use for honey, but to the man in need of food every bitter thing is sweet. +Pro 27:8 Like a bird wandering from the place of her eggs is a man wandering from his station. +Pro 27:9 Oil and perfume make glad the heart, and the wise suggestion of a friend is sweet to the soul. +Pro 27:10 Do not give up your friend and your father's friend; and do not go into your brother's house in the day of your trouble: better is a neighbour who is near than a brother far off. +Pro 27:11 My son, be wise and make my heart glad, so that I may give back an answer to him who puts me to shame. +Pro 27:12 The sharp man sees the evil and takes cover: the simple go straight on and get into trouble. +Pro 27:13 Take a man's clothing if he makes himself responsible for a strange man, and get an undertaking from him who gives his word for strange men. +Pro 27:14 He who gives a blessing to his friend with a loud voice, getting up early in the morning, will have it put to his account as a curse. +Pro 27:15 Like an unending dropping on a day of rain is a bitter-tongued woman. +Pro 27:16 He who keeps secret the secret of his friend, will get himself a name for good faith. +Pro 27:17 Iron makes iron sharp; so a man makes sharp his friend. +Pro 27:18 Whoever keeps a fig-tree will have its fruit; and the servant waiting on his master will be honoured. +Pro 27:19 Like face looking at face in water, so are the hearts of men to one another. +Pro 27:20 The underworld and Abaddon are never full, and the eyes of man have never enough. +Pro 27:21 The heating-pot is for silver and the oven-fire for gold, and a man is measured by what he is praised for. +Pro 27:22 Even if a foolish man is crushed with a hammer in a vessel among crushed grain, still his foolish ways will not go from him. +Pro 27:23 Take care to have knowledge about the condition of your flocks, looking well after your herds; +Pro 27:24 For wealth is not for ever, and money does not go on for all generations. +Pro 27:25 The grass comes up and the young grass is seen, and the mountain plants are got in. +Pro 27:26 The lambs are for your clothing, and the he-goats make the value of a field: +Pro 27:27 There will be goats' milk enough for your food, and for the support of your servant-girls. +Pro 28:1 The evil man goes running away when no man is after him, but the upright are without fear, like the lion. +Pro 28:2 Because of the sin of the land, its troubles are increased; but by a man of wisdom and knowledge they will be put out like a fire. +Pro 28:3 A man of wealth who is cruel to the poor is like a violent rain causing destruction of food. +Pro 28:4 Those who have no respect for the law give praise to the evil-doer; but such as keep the law are against him. +Pro 28:5 Evil men have no knowledge of what is right; but those who go after the Lord have knowledge of all things. +Pro 28:6 Better is the poor man whose ways are upright, than the man of wealth whose ways are not straight. +Pro 28:7 He who keeps the law is a wise son, but he who keeps company with feasters puts shame on his father. +Pro 28:8 He who makes his wealth greater by taking interest, only gets it together for him who has pity on the poor. +Pro 28:9 As for the man whose ear is turned away from hearing the law, even his prayer is disgusting. +Pro 28:10 Anyone causing the upright to go wandering in an evil way, will himself go down into the hole he has made; but the upright will have good things for their heritage. +Pro 28:11 The man of wealth seems to himself to be wise, but the poor man who has sense has a low opinion of him. +Pro 28:12 When the upright do well, there is great glory; but when evil-doers are lifted up, men do not let themselves be seen. +Pro 28:13 He who keeps his sins secret will not do well; but one who is open about them, and gives them up, will get mercy. +Pro 28:14 Happy is the man in whom is the fear of the Lord at all times; but he whose heart is hard will come into trouble. +Pro 28:15 Like a loud-voiced lion and a wandering bear, is an evil ruler over a poor people. +Pro 28:16 The prince who has no sense is a cruel ruler; but he who has no desire to get profit for himself will have long life. +Pro 28:17 One who has been the cause of a man's death will go in flight to the underworld: let no man give him help. +Pro 28:18 He whose ways are upright will be safe, but sudden will be the fall of him whose ways are twisted. +Pro 28:19 By ploughing his land a man will have bread in full measure; but he who goes after good-for-nothing persons will be poor enough. +Pro 28:20 A man of good faith will have great blessing, but one attempting to get wealth quickly will not go free from punishment. +Pro 28:21 It is not good to have respect for a man's position: for a man will do wrong for a bit of bread. +Pro 28:22 He who is ever desiring wealth goes running after money, and does not see that need will come on him. +Pro 28:23 He who says words of protest to a man will later have more approval than one who says smooth words with his tongue. +Pro 28:24 He who takes from his father or his mother what is theirs by right, and says, It is no sin; is the same as a taker of life. +Pro 28:25 He who is ever desiring profit is a cause of fighting; but he who puts his faith in the Lord will be made fat. +Pro 28:26 He whose faith is in himself is foolish; but everyone walking wisely will be kept safe. +Pro 28:27 He who gives to the poor will never be in need, but great curses will be on him who gives no attention to them. +Pro 28:28 When evil-doers are lifted up, men take cover; but when destruction overtakes them, the upright are increased. +Pro 29:1 A man hating sharp words and making his heart hard, will suddenly be broken and will not be made well again. +Pro 29:2 When the upright have power, the people are glad; when an evil man is ruler, grief comes on the people. +Pro 29:3 A man who is a lover of wisdom is a joy to his father: but he who goes in the company of loose women is a waster of wealth. +Pro 29:4 A king, by right rule, makes the land safe; but one full of desires makes it a waste. +Pro 29:5 A man who says smooth things to his neighbour is stretching out a net for his steps. +Pro 29:6 In the steps of an evil man there is a net for him, but the upright man gets away quickly and is glad. +Pro 29:7 The upright man gives attention to the cause of the poor: the evil-doer gives no thought to it. +Pro 29:8 Men of pride are the cause of violent acts in a town, but by wise men wrath is turned away. +Pro 29:9 If a wise man goes to law with a foolish man, he may be angry or laughing, but there will be no rest. +Pro 29:10 Men of blood are haters of the good man, and evil-doers go after his soul. +Pro 29:11 A foolish man lets out all his wrath, but a wise man keeps it back quietly. +Pro 29:12 If a ruler gives attention to false words, all his servants are evil-doers. +Pro 29:13 The poor man and his creditor come face to face: the Lord gives light to their eyes equally. +Pro 29:14 The king who is a true judge in the cause of the poor, will be safe for ever on the seat of his power. +Pro 29:15 The rod and sharp words give wisdom: but a child who is not guided is a cause of shame to his mother. +Pro 29:16 When evil men are in power, wrongdoing is increased; but the upright will have pleasure when they see their downfall. +Pro 29:17 Give your son training, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your soul. +Pro 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people are uncontrolled; but he who keeps the law will be happy. +Pro 29:19 A servant will not be trained by words; for though the sense of the words is clear to him, he will not give attention. +Pro 29:20 Have you seen a man who is quick with his tongue? There is more hope for a foolish man than for him. +Pro 29:21 If a servant is gently cared for from his early years, he will become a cause of sorrow in the end. +Pro 29:22 An angry man is the cause of fighting, and a man given to wrath does much wrong. +Pro 29:23 A man's pride will be the cause of his fall, but he who has a gentle spirit will get honour. +Pro 29:24 A man who takes part with a thief has hate for his soul; he is put under oath, but says nothing. +Pro 29:25 The fear of man is a cause of danger: but whoever puts his faith in the Lord will have a safe place on high. +Pro 29:26 The approval of a ruler is desired by great numbers: but the decision in a man's cause comes from the Lord. +Pro 29:27 An evil man is disgusting to the upright, and he who is upright is disgusting to evil-doers. +Pro 30:1 The words of Agur, the son of Jakeh, from Massa. The man says: I am full of weariness, O God, I am full of weariness; O God, I have come to an end: +Pro 30:2 For I am more like a beast than any man, I have no power of reasoning like a man: +Pro 30:3 I have not got wisdom by teaching, so that I might have the knowledge of the Holy One. +Pro 30:4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down? who has taken the winds in his hands, prisoning the waters in his robe? by whom have all the ends of the earth been fixed? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if you are able to say? +Pro 30:5 Every word of God is tested: he is a breastplate to those who put their faith in him. +Pro 30:6 Make no addition to his words, or he will make clear your error, and you will be seen to be false. +Pro 30:7 I have made request to you for two things; do not keep them from me before my death: +Pro 30:8 Put far from me all false and foolish things: do not give me great wealth or let me be in need, but give me only enough food: +Pro 30:9 For fear that if I am full, I may be false to you and say, Who is the Lord? or if I am poor, I may become a thief, using the name of my God wrongly. +Pro 30:10 Do not say evil of a servant to his master, or he will put a curse on you, and you will get into trouble. +Pro 30:11 There is a generation who put a curse on their father, and do not give a blessing to their mother. +Pro 30:12 There is a generation who seem to themselves to be free from sin, but are not washed from their unclean ways. +Pro 30:13 There is a generation, O how full of pride are their eyes! O how their brows are lifted up! +Pro 30:14 There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, their strong teeth like knives, for the destruction of the poor from the earth, and of those who are in need from among men. +Pro 30:15 The night-spirit has two daughters, Give, give. There are three things which are never full, even four which never say, Enough: +Pro 30:16 The underworld, and the woman without a child; the earth which never has enough water, and the fire which never says, Enough. +Pro 30:17 The eye which makes sport of a father, and sees no value in a mother when she is old will be rooted out by the ravens of the valley, and be food for the young eagles. +Pro 30:18 There are three things, the wonder of which overcomes me, even four things outside my knowledge: +Pro 30:19 The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a snake on a rock; the way of a ship in the heart of the sea; and the way of a man with a girl. +Pro 30:20 This is the way of a false wife; she takes food, and, cleaning her mouth, says, I have done no wrong. +Pro 30:21 For three things the earth is moved, and there are four which it will not put up with: +Pro 30:22 A servant when he becomes a king; a man without sense when his wealth is increased; +Pro 30:23 A hated woman when she is married; and a servant-girl who takes the place of her master's wife. +Pro 30:24 There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are very wise: +Pro 30:25 The ants are a people not strong, but they put by a store of food in the summer; +Pro 30:26 The conies are only a feeble people, but they make their houses in the rocks; +Pro 30:27 The locusts have no king, but they all go out in bands; +Pro 30:28 You may take the lizard in your hands, but it is in kings' houses. +Pro 30:29 There are three things whose steps are good to see, even four whose goings are fair: +Pro 30:30 The lion, which is strongest among beasts, not turning from his way for any; +Pro 30:31 The war-horse, and the he-goat, and the king when his army is with him. +Pro 30:32 If you have done foolishly in lifting yourself up, or if you have had evil designs, put your hand over your mouth. +Pro 30:33 The shaking of milk makes butter, and the twisting of the nose makes blood come: so the forcing of wrath is a cause of fighting. +Pro 31:1 The words of Lemuel, king of Massa: the teaching which he had from his mother. +Pro 31:2 What am I to say to you, O Lemuel, my oldest son? and what, O son of my body? and what, O son of my oaths? +Pro 31:3 Do not give your strength to women, or your ways to that which is the destruction of kings. +Pro 31:4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to take wine, or for rulers to say, Where is strong drink? +Pro 31:5 For fear that through drinking they may come to have no respect for the law, wrongly judging the cause of those who are in trouble. +Pro 31:6 Give strong drink to him who is near to destruction, and wine to him whose soul is bitter: +Pro 31:7 Let him have drink, and his need will go from his mind, and the memory of his trouble will be gone. +Pro 31:8 Let your mouth be open for those who have no voice, in the cause of those who are ready for death. +Pro 31:9 Let your mouth be open, judging rightly, and give right decisions in the cause of the poor and those in need. +Pro 31:10 Who may make discovery of a woman of virtue? For her price is much higher than jewels. +Pro 31:11 The heart of her husband has faith in her, and he will have profit in full measure. +Pro 31:12 She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. +Pro 31:13 She gets wool and linen, working at the business of her hands. +Pro 31:14 She is like the trading-ships, getting food from far away. +Pro 31:15 She gets up while it is still night, and gives meat to her family, and their food to her servant-girls. +Pro 31:16 After looking at a field with care, she gets it for a price, planting a vine-garden with the profit of her work. +Pro 31:17 She puts a band of strength round her, and makes her arms strong. +Pro 31:18 She sees that her marketing is of profit to her: her light does not go out by night. +Pro 31:19 She puts her hands to the cloth-working rod, and her fingers take the wheel. +Pro 31:20 Her hands are stretched out to the poor; yes, she is open-handed to those who are in need. +Pro 31:21 She has no fear of the snow for her family, for all those in her house are clothed in red. +Pro 31:22 She makes for herself cushions of needlework; her clothing is fair linen and purple. +Pro 31:23 Her husband is a man of note in the public place, when he takes his seat among the responsible men of the land. +Pro 31:24 She makes linen robes and gets a price for them, and traders take her cloth bands for a price. +Pro 31:25 Strength and self-respect are her clothing; she is facing the future with a smile. +Pro 31:26 Her mouth is open to give out wisdom, and the law of mercy is on her tongue. +Pro 31:27 She gives attention to the ways of her family, she does not take her food without working for it. +Pro 31:28 Her children get up and give her honour, and her husband gives her praise, saying, +Pro 31:29 Unnumbered women have done well, but you are better than all of them. +Pro 31:30 Fair looks are a deceit, and a beautiful form is of no value; but a woman who has the fear of the Lord is to be praised. +Pro 31:31 Give her credit for what her hands have made: let her be praised by her works in the public place. +Ecc 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. +Ecc 1:2 All is to no purpose, said the Preacher, all the ways of man are to no purpose. +Ecc 1:3 What is a man profited by all his work which he does under the sun? +Ecc 1:4 One generation goes and another comes; but the earth is for ever. +Ecc 1:5 The sun comes up and the sun goes down, and goes quickly back to the place where he came up. +Ecc 1:6 The wind goes to the south, turning back again to the north; circling round for ever. +Ecc 1:7 All the rivers go down to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the rivers go, there they go again. +Ecc 1:8 All things are full of weariness; man may not give their story: the eye has never enough of its seeing, or the ear of its hearing. +Ecc 1:9 That which has been, is that which is to be, and that which has been done, is that which will be done, and there is no new thing under the sun. +Ecc 1:10 Is there anything of which men say, See, this is new? It has been in the old time which was before us. +Ecc 1:11 There is no memory of those who have gone before, and of those who come after there will be no memory for those who are still to come after them. +Ecc 1:12 I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. +Ecc 1:13 And I gave my heart to searching out in wisdom all things which are done under heaven: it is a hard thing which God has put on the sons of men to do. +Ecc 1:14 I have seen all the works which are done under the sun; all is to no purpose, and desire for wind. +Ecc 1:15 That which is bent may not be made straight, and that which is not there may not be numbered. +Ecc 1:16 I said to my heart, See, I have become great and am increased in wisdom more than any who were before me in Jerusalem--yes, my heart has seen much wisdom and knowledge. +Ecc 1:17 And I gave my heart to getting knowledge of wisdom, and of the ways of the foolish. And I saw that this again was desire for wind. +Ecc 1:18 Because in much wisdom is much grief, and increase of knowledge is increase of sorrow. +Ecc 2:1 I said in my heart, I will give you joy for a test; so take your pleasure--but it was to no purpose. +Ecc 2:2 Of laughing I said, It is foolish; and of joy--What use is it? +Ecc 2:3 I made a search with my heart to give pleasure to my flesh with wine, still guiding my heart with wisdom, and to go after foolish things, so that I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under the heavens all the days of their life. +Ecc 2:4 I undertook great works, building myself houses and planting vine-gardens. +Ecc 2:5 I made myself gardens and fruit gardens, planting in them fruit-trees of all sorts. +Ecc 2:6 I made pools to give water for the woods with their young trees. +Ecc 2:7 I got men-servants and women-servants, and they gave birth to sons and daughters in my house. I had great wealth of herds and flocks, more than all who were in Jerusalem before me. +Ecc 2:8 I got together silver and gold and the wealth of kings and of countries. I got makers of song, male and female; and the delights of the sons of men--girls of all sorts to be my brides. +Ecc 2:9 And I became great; increasing more than all who had been before me in Jerusalem, and my wisdom was still with me. +Ecc 2:10 And nothing which was desired by my eyes did I keep from them; I did not keep any joy from my heart, because my heart took pleasure in all my work, and this was my reward. +Ecc 2:11 Then I saw all the works which my hands had made, and everything I had been working to do; and I saw that all was to no purpose and desire for wind, and there was no profit under the sun. +Ecc 2:12 And I went again in search of wisdom and of foolish ways. What may the man do who comes after the king? The thing which he has done before. +Ecc 2:13 Then I saw that wisdom is better than foolish ways--as the light is better than the dark. +Ecc 2:14 The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the foolish man goes walking in the dark; but still I saw that the same event comes to them all. +Ecc 2:15 Then said I in my heart: As it comes to the foolish man, so will it come to me; so why have I been wise overmuch? Then I said in my heart: This again is to no purpose. +Ecc 2:16 Of the wise man, as of the foolish man, there is no memory for ever, seeing that those who now are will have gone from memory in the days to come. See how death comes to the wise as to the foolish! +Ecc 2:17 So I was hating life, because everything under the sun was evil to me: all is to no purpose and desire for wind. +Ecc 2:18 Hate had I for all my work which I had done, because the man who comes after me will have its fruits. +Ecc 2:19 And who is to say if that man will be wise or foolish? But he will have power over all my work which I have done and in which I have been wise under the sun. This again is to no purpose. +Ecc 2:20 So my mind was turned to grief for all the trouble I had taken and all my wisdom under the sun. +Ecc 2:21 Because there is a man whose work has been done with wisdom, with knowledge, and with an expert hand; but one who has done nothing for it will have it for his heritage. This again is to no purpose and a great evil. +Ecc 2:22 What does a man get for all his work, and for the weight of care with which he has done his work under the sun? +Ecc 2:23 All his days are sorrow, and his work is full of grief. Even in the night his heart has no rest. This again is to no purpose. +Ecc 2:24 There is nothing better for a man than taking meat and drink, and having delight in his work. This again I saw was from the hand of God. +Ecc 2:25 Who may take food or have pleasure without him? +Ecc 2:26 To the man with whom he is pleased, God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of getting goods together and storing up wealth, to give to him in whom God has pleasure. This again is to no purpose and desire for wind. +Ecc 3:1 For everything there is a fixed time, and a time for every business under the sun. +Ecc 3:2 A time for birth and a time for death; a time for planting and a time for uprooting; +Ecc 3:3 A time to put to death and a time to make well; a time for pulling down and a time for building up; +Ecc 3:4 A time for weeping and a time for laughing; a time for sorrow and a time for dancing; +Ecc 3:5 A time to take stones away and a time to get stones together; a time for kissing and a time to keep from kissing; +Ecc 3:6 A time for search and a time for loss; a time to keep and a time to give away; +Ecc 3:7 A time for undoing and a time for stitching; a time for keeping quiet and a time for talk; +Ecc 3:8 A time for love and a time for hate; a time for war and a time for peace. +Ecc 3:9 What profit has the worker in the work which he does? +Ecc 3:10 I saw the work which God has put on the sons of man. +Ecc 3:11 He has made everything right in its time; but he has made their hearts without knowledge, so that man is unable to see the works of God, from the first to the last. +Ecc 3:12 I am certain that there is nothing better for a man than to be glad, and to do good while life is in him. +Ecc 3:13 And for every man to take food and drink, and have joy in all his work, is a reward from God. +Ecc 3:14 I am certain that whatever God does will be for ever. No addition may be made to it, nothing may be taken from it; and God has done it so that man may be in fear before him. +Ecc 3:15 Whatever is has been before, and what is to be is now; because God makes search for the things which are past. +Ecc 3:16 And again, I saw under the sun, in the place of the judges, that evil was there; and in the place of righteousness, that evil was there. +Ecc 3:17 I said in my heart, God will be judge of the good and of the bad; because a time for every purpose and for every work has been fixed by him. +Ecc 3:18 I said in my heart, It is because of the sons of men, so that God may put them to the test and that they may see themselves as beasts. +Ecc 3:19 Because the fate of the sons of men and the fate of the beasts is the same. As is the death of one so is the death of the other, and all have one spirit. Man is not higher than the beasts; because all is to no purpose. +Ecc 3:20 All go to one place, all are of the dust, and all will be turned to dust again. +Ecc 3:21 Who is certain that the spirit of the sons of men goes up to heaven, or that the spirit of the beasts goes down to the earth? +Ecc 3:22 So I saw that there is nothing better than for a man to have joy in his work--because that is his reward. Who will make him see what will come after him? +Ecc 4:1 And again I saw all the cruel things which are done under the sun; there was the weeping of those who have evil done to them, and they had no comforter: and from the hands of the evil-doers there went out power, but they had no comforter. +Ecc 4:2 So my praise was for the dead who have gone to their death, more than for the living who still have life. +Ecc 4:3 Yes, happier than the dead or the living seemed he who has not ever been, who has not seen the evil which is done under the sun. +Ecc 4:4 And I saw that the cause of all the work and of everything which is done well was man's envy of his neighbour. This again is to no purpose and a desire for wind. +Ecc 4:5 The foolish man, folding his hands, takes the flesh of his body for food. +Ecc 4:6 One hand full of rest is better than two hands full of trouble and desire for wind. +Ecc 4:7 Then I came back, and I saw an example of what is to no purpose under the sun. +Ecc 4:8 It is one who is by himself, without a second, and without son or brother; but there is no end to all his work, and he has never enough of wealth. For whom, then, am I working and keeping myself from pleasure? This again is to no purpose, and a bitter work. +Ecc 4:9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their work. +Ecc 4:10 And if one has a fall, the other will give him a hand; but unhappy is the man who is by himself, because he has no helper. +Ecc 4:11 So again, if two are sleeping together they are warm, but how may one be warm by himself? +Ecc 4:12 And two attacked by one would be safe, and three cords twisted together are not quickly broken. +Ecc 4:13 A young man who is poor and wise is better than a king who is old and foolish and will not be guided by the wisdom of others. +Ecc 4:14 Because out of a prison the young man comes to be king, though by birth he was only a poor man in the kingdom. +Ecc 4:15 I saw all the living under the sun round the young man who was to be ruler in place of the king. +Ecc 4:16 There was no end of all the people, of all those whose head he was, but they who come later will have no delight in him. This again is to no purpose and desire for wind. +Ecc 5:1 Put your feet down with care when you go to the house of God, for it is better to give ear than to make the burned offerings of the foolish, whose knowledge is only of doing evil. +Ecc 5:2 Be not unwise with your mouth, and let not your heart be quick to say anything before God, because God is in heaven and you are on the earth--so let not the number of your words be great. +Ecc 5:3 As a dream comes from much business, so the voice of a foolish man comes with words in great number. +Ecc 5:4 When you take an oath before God, put it quickly into effect, because he has no pleasure in the foolish; keep the oath you have taken. +Ecc 5:5 It is better not to take an oath than to take an oath and not keep it. +Ecc 5:6 Let not your mouth make your flesh do evil. And say not before the angel, It was an error. So that God may not be angry with your words and put an end to the work of your hands. +Ecc 5:7 Because much talk comes from dreams and things of no purpose. But let the fear of God be in you. +Ecc 5:8 If you see the poor under a cruel yoke, and law and right being violently overturned in a country, be not surprised, because one authority is keeping watch on another and there are higher than they. +Ecc 5:9 It is good generally for a country where the land is worked to have a king. +Ecc 5:10 He who has a love for silver never has enough silver, or he who has love for wealth, enough profit. This again is to no purpose. +Ecc 5:11 When goods are increased, the number of those who take of them is increased; and what profit has the owner but to see them? +Ecc 5:12 The sleep of a working man is sweet, if he has little food or much; but to him who is full, sleep will not come. +Ecc 5:13 There is a great evil which I have seen under the sun--wealth kept by the owner to be his downfall. +Ecc 5:14 And I saw the destruction of his wealth by an evil chance; and when he became the father of a son he had nothing in his hand. +Ecc 5:15 As he came from his mother at birth, so does he go again; he gets from his work no reward which he may take away in his hand. +Ecc 5:16 And this again is a great evil, that in all points as he came so will he go; and what profit has he in working for the wind? +Ecc 5:17 All his days are in the dark, and he has much sorrow, pain, disease, and trouble. +Ecc 5:18 This is what I have seen: it is good and fair for a man to take meat and drink and to have joy in all his work under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; that is his reward. +Ecc 5:19 Every man to whom God has given money and wealth and the power to have pleasure in it and to do his part and have joy in his work: this is given by God. +Ecc 5:20 He will not give much thought to the days of his life; because God lets him be taken up with the joy of his heart. +Ecc 6:1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is hard on men; +Ecc 6:2 A man to whom God gives money, wealth, and honour so that he has all his desires but God does not give him the power to have joy of it, and a strange man takes it. This is to no purpose and an evil disease. +Ecc 6:3 If a man has a hundred children, and his life is long so that the days of his years are great in number, but his soul takes no pleasure in good, and he is not honoured at his death; I say that a birth before its time is better than he. +Ecc 6:4 In wind it came and to the dark it will go, and with the dark will its name be covered. +Ecc 6:5 Yes, it saw not the sun, and it had no knowledge; it is better with this than with the other. +Ecc 6:6 And though he goes on living a thousand years twice over and does not see good, are not the two going to the same place? +Ecc 6:7 All the work of man is for his mouth, and still he has a desire for food. +Ecc 6:8 What have the wise more than the foolish? and what has the poor man by walking wisely before the living? +Ecc 6:9 What the eyes see is better than the wandering of desire. This is to no purpose and a desire for wind. +Ecc 6:10 That which is, has been named before, and of what man is there is knowledge. He has no power against one stronger than he. +Ecc 6:11 There are words without number for increasing what is to no purpose, but what is man profited by them? +Ecc 6:12 Who is able to say what is good for man in life all the days of his foolish life which he goes through like a shade? who will say what is to be after him under the sun? +Ecc 7:1 A good name is better than oil of great price, and the day of death than the day of birth. +Ecc 7:2 It is better to go to the house of weeping, than to go to the house of feasting; because that is the end of every man, and the living will take it to their hearts. +Ecc 7:3 Sorrow is better than joy; when the face is sad the mind gets better. +Ecc 7:4 The hearts of the wise are in the house of weeping; but the hearts of the foolish are in the house of joy. +Ecc 7:5 It is better to take note of the protest of the wise, than for a man to give ear to the song of the foolish. +Ecc 7:6 Like the cracking of thorns under a pot, so is the laugh of a foolish man; and this again is to no purpose. +Ecc 7:7 The wise are troubled by the ways of the cruel, and the giving of money is the destruction of the heart. +Ecc 7:8 The end of a thing is better than its start, and a gentle spirit is better than pride. +Ecc 7:9 Be not quick to let your spirit be angry; because wrath is in the heart of the foolish. +Ecc 7:10 Say not, Why were the days which have gone by better than these? Such a question comes not from wisdom. +Ecc 7:11 Wisdom together with a heritage is good, and a profit to those who see the sun. +Ecc 7:12 Wisdom keeps a man from danger even as money does; but the value of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to its owner. +Ecc 7:13 Give thought to the work of God. Who will make straight what he has made bent? +Ecc 7:14 In the day of wealth have joy, but in the day of evil take thought: God has put the one against the other, so that man may not be certain what will be after him. +Ecc 7:15 These two have I seen in my life which is to no purpose: a good man coming to his end in his righteousness, and an evil man whose days are long in his evil-doing. +Ecc 7:16 Be not given overmuch to righteousness and be not over-wise. Why let destruction come on you? +Ecc 7:17 Be not evil overmuch, and be not foolish. Why come to your end before your time? +Ecc 7:18 It is good to take this in your hand and not to keep your hand from that; he who has the fear of God will be free of the two. +Ecc 7:19 Wisdom makes a wise man stronger than ten rulers in a town. +Ecc 7:20 There is no man on earth of such righteousness that he does good and is free from sin all his days. +Ecc 7:21 Do not give ear to all the words which men say, for fear of hearing the curses of your servant. +Ecc 7:22 Your heart has knowledge how frequently others have been cursed by you. +Ecc 7:23 All this I have put to the test by wisdom; I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. +Ecc 7:24 Far off is true existence, and very deep; who may have knowledge of it? +Ecc 7:25 I gave my mind to knowledge and to searching for wisdom and the reason of things, and to the discovery that sin is foolish, and that to be foolish is to be without one's senses. +Ecc 7:26 And I saw a thing more bitter than death, even the woman whose heart is full of tricks and nets, and whose hands are as bands. He with whom God is pleased will get free from her, but the sinner will be taken by her. +Ecc 7:27 Look! this I have seen, said the Preacher, taking one thing after another to get the true account, +Ecc 7:28 For which my soul is still searching, but I have it not; one man among a thousand have I seen; but a woman among all these I have not seen. +Ecc 7:29 This only have I seen, that God made men upright, but they have been searching out all sorts of inventions. +Ecc 8:1 Who is like the wise man? and to whom is the sense of anything clear? A man's wisdom makes his face shining, and his hard face will be changed. +Ecc 8:2 I say to you, Keep the king's law, from respect for the oath of God. +Ecc 8:3 Be not quick to go from before him. Be not fixed in an evil design, because he does whatever is pleasing to him. +Ecc 8:4 The word of a king has authority; and who may say to him, What is this you are doing? +Ecc 8:5 Whoever keeps the law will come to no evil: and a wise man's heart has knowledge of time and of decision. +Ecc 8:6 For every purpose there is a time and a decision, because the sorrow of man is great in him. +Ecc 8:7 No one is certain what is to be, and who is able to say to him when it will be? +Ecc 8:8 No man has authority over the wind, to keep the wind; or is ruler over the day of his death. In war no man's time is free, and evil will not keep the sinner safe. +Ecc 8:9 All this have I seen, and have given my heart to all the work which is done under the sun: there is a time when man has power over man for his destruction. +Ecc 8:10 And then I saw evil men put to rest, taken even from the holy place; and they went about and were praised in the town because of what they had done. This again is to no purpose. +Ecc 8:11 Because punishment for an evil work comes not quickly, the minds of the sons of men are fully given to doing evil. +Ecc 8:12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his life is long, I am certain that it will be well for those who go in fear of God and are in fear before him. +Ecc 8:13 But it will not be well for the evil-doer; he will not make his days long like a shade, because he has no fear before God. +Ecc 8:14 There is a thing which is to no purpose done on the earth: that there are good men to whom is given the same punishment as those who are evil, and there are evil men who get the reward of the good. I say that this again is to no purpose. +Ecc 8:15 So I gave praise to joy, because there is nothing better for a man to do under the sun than to take meat and drink and be happy; for that will be with him in his work all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun. +Ecc 8:16 When I gave my mind to the knowledge of wisdom and to seeing the business which is done on the earth (and there are those whose eyes see not sleep by day or by night), +Ecc 8:17 Then I saw all the work of God, and that man may not get knowledge of the work which is done under the sun; because, if a man gives hard work to the search he will not get knowledge, and even if the wise man seems to be coming to the end of his search, still he will be without knowledge. +Ecc 9:1 All this I took to heart, and my heart saw it all: that the upright and the wise and their works are in the hand of God; and men may not be certain if it will be love or hate; all is to no purpose before them. +Ecc 9:2 Because to all there is one event, to the upright man and to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean, to him who makes an offering and to him who makes no offering; as is the good so is the sinner; he who takes an oath is as he who has fear of it. +Ecc 9:3 This is evil in all things which are done under the sun: that there is one fate for all, and the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; while they have life their hearts are foolish, and after that--to the dead. +Ecc 9:4 For him who is joined to all the living there is hope; a living dog is better than a dead lion. +Ecc 9:5 The living are conscious that death will come to them, but the dead are not conscious of anything, and they no longer have a reward, because there is no memory of them. +Ecc 9:6 Their love and their hate and their envy are now ended; and they have no longer a part for ever in anything which is done under the sun. +Ecc 9:7 Come, take your bread with joy, and your wine with a glad heart. God has taken pleasure in your works. +Ecc 9:8 Let your clothing be white at all times, and let not your head be without oil. +Ecc 9:9 Have joy with the woman of your love all the days of your foolish life which he gives you under the sun. Because that is your part in life and in your work which you do under the sun. +Ecc 9:10 Whatever comes to your hand to do with all your power, do it because there is no work, or thought, or knowledge, or wisdom in the place of the dead to which you are going. +Ecc 9:11 And again I saw under the sun that the reward goes not to him who is quick, or the fruits of war to the strong; and there is no bread for the wise, or wealth for men of learning, or respect for those who have knowledge; but time and chance come to all. +Ecc 9:12 Even man has no knowledge of his time; like fishes taken in an evil net, or like birds taken by deceit, are the sons of men taken in an evil time when it comes suddenly on them. +Ecc 9:13 This again I have seen under the sun as wisdom and it seemed great to me. +Ecc 9:14 There was a little town and the number of its men was small, and there came a great king against it and made an attack on it, building works of war round about it. +Ecc 9:15 Now there was in the town a poor, wise man, and he, by his wisdom, kept the town safe. But no one had any memory of that same poor man. +Ecc 9:16 Then I said, Wisdom is better than strength, but the poor man's wisdom is not respected, and his words are not given a hearing. +Ecc 9:17 The words of the wise which come quietly to the ear are noted more than the cry of a ruler among the foolish. +Ecc 9:18 Wisdom is better than instruments of war, but one sinner is the destruction of much good. +Ecc 10:1 Dead flies make the oil of the perfumer give out an evil smell; more valued is a little wisdom than the great glory of the foolish. +Ecc 10:2 The heart of the wise man goes in the right direction; but the heart of a foolish man in the wrong. +Ecc 10:3 And when the foolish man is walking in the way, he has no sense and lets everyone see that he is foolish. +Ecc 10:4 If the wrath of the ruler is against you, keep in your place; in him who keeps quiet even great sins may be overlooked. +Ecc 10:5 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, like an error which comes by chance from a ruler: +Ecc 10:6 The foolish are placed in high positions, but men of wealth are kept low. +Ecc 10:7 I have seen servants on horses, and rulers walking on the earth as servants. +Ecc 10:8 He who makes a hole for others will himself go into it, and for him who makes a hole through a wall the bite of a snake will be a punishment. +Ecc 10:9 He who gets out stones from the earth will be damaged by them, and in the cutting of wood there is danger. +Ecc 10:10 If the iron has no edge, and he does not make it sharp, then he has to put out more strength; but wisdom makes things go well. +Ecc 10:11 If a snake gives a bite before the word of power is said, then there is no longer any use in the word of power. +Ecc 10:12 The words of a wise man's mouth are sweet to all, but the lips of a foolish man are his destruction. +Ecc 10:13 The first words of his mouth are foolish, and the end of his talk is evil crime. +Ecc 10:14 The foolish are full of words; man has no knowledge of what will be; and who is able to say what will be after him? +Ecc 10:15 The work of the foolish will be a weariness to him, because he has no knowledge of the way to the town. +Ecc 10:16 Unhappy is the land whose king is a boy, and whose rulers are feasting in the morning. +Ecc 10:17 Happy is the land whose ruler is of noble birth, and whose chiefs take food at the right time, for strength and not for feasting. +Ecc 10:18 When no work is done the roof goes in, and when the hands do nothing water comes into the house. +Ecc 10:19 A feast is for laughing, and wine makes glad the heart; but by the one and the other money is wasted. +Ecc 10:20 Say not a curse against the king, even in your thoughts; and even secretly say not a curse against the man of wealth; because a bird of the air will take the voice, and that which has wings will give news of it. +Ecc 11:1 Put out your bread on the face of the waters; for after a long time it will come back to you again. +Ecc 11:2 Give a part to seven or even to eight, because you have no knowledge of the evil which will be on the earth. +Ecc 11:3 If the clouds are full of rain, they send it down on the earth; and if a tree comes down to the south, or the north, in whatever place it comes down, there it will be. +Ecc 11:4 He who is watching the wind will not get the seed planted, and he who is looking at the clouds will not get in the grain. +Ecc 11:5 As you have no knowledge of the way of the wind, or of the growth of the bones in the body of her who is with child, even so you have no knowledge of the works of God who has made all. +Ecc 11:6 In the morning put your seed into the earth, and till the evening let not your hand be at rest; because you are not certain which will do well, this or that--or if the two will be equally good. +Ecc 11:7 Truly the light is sweet, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun. +Ecc 11:8 But even if a man's life is long and he has joy in all his years, let him keep in mind the dark days, because they will be great in number. Whatever may come is to no purpose. +Ecc 11:9 Have joy, O young man, while you are young; and let your heart be glad in the days of your strength, and go in the ways of your heart, and in the desire of your eyes; but be certain that for all these things God will be your judge. +Ecc 11:10 So put away trouble from your heart, and sorrow from your flesh; because the early years and the best years are to no purpose. +Ecc 12:1 Let your mind be turned to your Maker in the days of your strength, while the evil days come not, and the years are far away when you will say, I have no pleasure in them; +Ecc 12:2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, are not dark, and the clouds come not back after the rain; +Ecc 12:3 In the day when the keepers of the house are shaking for fear, and the strong men are bent down, and the women who were crushing the grain are at rest because their number is small, and those looking out of the windows are unable to see; +Ecc 12:4 When the doors are shut in the street, and the sound of the crushing is low, and the voice of the bird is soft, and the daughters of music will be made low; +Ecc 12:5 And he is in fear of that which is high, and danger is in the road, and the tree is white with flower, and the least thing is a weight, and desire is at an end, because man goes to his last resting-place, and those who are sorrowing are in the streets; +Ecc 12:6 Before ever the silver cord is cut, or the vessel of gold is broken, or the pot is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the water-hole; +Ecc 12:7 And the dust goes back to the earth as it was, and the spirit goes back to God who gave it. +Ecc 12:8 All things are to no purpose, says the Preacher, all is to no purpose. +Ecc 12:9 And because the Preacher was wise he still gave the people knowledge; searching out, testing, and putting in order a great number of wise sayings. +Ecc 12:10 The Preacher made search for words which were pleasing, but his writing was in words upright and true. +Ecc 12:11 The words of the wise are pointed, and sayings grouped together are like nails fixed with a hammer; they are given by one guide. +Ecc 12:12 And further, my son, take note of this: of the making of books there is no end, and much learning is a weariness to the flesh. +Ecc 12:13 This is the last word. All has been said. Have fear of God and keep his laws; because this is right for every man. +Ecc 12:14 God will be judge of every work, with every secret thing, good or evil. +Son 1:1 The song of Songs, which is Solomon's. +Son 1:2 Let him give me the kisses of his mouth: for his love is better than wine. +Son 1:3 Sweet is the smell of your perfumes; your name is as perfume running out; so the young girls give you their love. +Son 1:4 Take me to you, and we will go after you: the king has taken me into his house. We will be glad and full of joy in you, we will give more thought to your love than to wine: rightly are they your lovers. +Son 1:5 I am dark, but fair of form, O daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. +Son 1:6 Let not your eyes be turned on me, because I am dark, because I was looked on by the sun; my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vine-gardens; but my vine-garden I have not kept. +Son 1:7 Say, O love of my soul, where you give food to your flock, and where you make them take their rest in the heat of the day; why have I to be as one wandering by the flocks of your friends? +Son 1:8 If you have not knowledge, O most beautiful among women, go on your way in the footsteps of the flock, and give your young goats food by the tents of the keepers. +Son 1:9 I have made a comparison of you, O my love, to a horse in Pharaoh's carriages. +Son 1:10 Your face is a delight with rings of hair, your neck with chains of jewels. +Son 1:11 We will make you chains of gold with ornaments of silver. +Son 1:12 While the king is seated at his table, my spices send out their perfume. +Son 1:13 As a bag of myrrh is my well-loved one to me, when he is at rest all night between my breasts. +Son 1:14 My love is to me as a branch of the cypress-tree in the vine-gardens of En-gedi. +Son 1:15 See, you are fair, my love, you are fair; you have the eyes of a dove. +Son 1:16 See, you are fair, my loved one, and a pleasure; our bed is green. +Son 1:17 Cedar-trees are the pillars of our house; and our boards are made of fir-trees. +Son 2:1 I am a rose of Sharon, a flower of the valleys. +Son 2:2 As the lily-flower among the thorns of the waste, so is my love among the daughters. +Son 2:3 As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my loved one among the sons. I took my rest under his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. +Son 2:4 He took me to the house of wine, and his flag over me was love. +Son 2:5 Make me strong with wine-cakes, let me be comforted with apples; I am overcome with love. +Son 2:6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand is round about me. +Son 2:7 I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes of the field, do not let love be moved till it is ready. +Son 2:8 The voice of my loved one! See, he comes dancing on the mountains, stepping quickly on the hills. +Son 2:9 My loved one is like a roe; see, he is on the other side of our wall, he is looking in at the windows, letting himself be seen through the spaces. +Son 2:10 My loved one said to me, Get up, my love, my fair one, and come away. +Son 2:11 For, see, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; +Son 2:12 The flowers are come on the earth; the time of cutting the vines is come, and the voice of the dove is sounding in our land; +Son 2:13 The fig-tree puts out her green fruit and the vines with their young fruit give a good smell. Get up from your bed, my beautiful one, and come away. +Son 2:14 O my dove, you are in the holes of the mountain sides, in the cracks of the high hills; let me see your face, let your voice come to my ears; for sweet is your voice, and your face is fair. +Son 2:15 Take for us the foxes, the little foxes, which do damage to the vines; our vines have young grapes. +Son 2:16 My loved one is mine, and I am his: he takes his food among the flowers. +Son 2:17 Till the evening comes, and the sky slowly becomes dark, come, my loved one, and be like a roe on the mountains of Bether. +Son 3:1 By night on my bed I was looking for him who is the love of my soul: I was looking for him, but I did not see him. +Son 3:2 I will get up now and go about the town, in the streets and in the wide ways I will go after him who is the love of my soul: I went after him, but I did not see him. +Son 3:3 The watchmen who go about the town came by me; to them I said, Have you seen him who is my heart's desire? +Son 3:4 I was but a little way from them, when I came face to face with him who is the love of my soul. I took him by the hands, and did not let him go, till I had taken him into my mother's house, and into the room of her who gave me birth. +Son 3:5 I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes of the field, let not love be moved till it is ready. +Son 3:6 Who is this coming out of the waste places like pillars of smoke, perfumed with sweet spices, with all the spices of the trader? +Son 3:7 See, it is the bed of Solomon; sixty men of war are about it, of the army of Israel, +Son 3:8 All of them armed with swords, trained in war; every man has his sword at his side, because of fear in the night. +Son 3:9 King Solomon made himself a bed of the wood of Lebanon. +Son 3:10 He made its pillars of silver, its base of gold, its seat of purple, the middle of it of ebony. +Son 3:11 Go out, O daughters of Jerusalem, and see King Solomon, with the crown which his mother put on his head on the day when he was married, and on the day of the joy of his heart. +Son 4:1 See, you are fair, my love, you are fair; you have the eyes of a dove; your hair is as a flock of goats, which take their rest on the side of Gilead. +Son 4:2 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep whose wool is newly cut, which come up from the washing; every one has two lambs, and there is not one without young. +Son 4:3 Your red lips are like a bright thread, and your mouth is fair of form; the sides of your head are like pomegranate fruit under your veil. +Son 4:4 Your neck is like the tower of David made for a store-house of arms, in which a thousand breastplates are hanging, breastplates for fighting-men. +Son 4:5 Your two breasts are like two young roes of the same birth, which take their food among the lilies. +Son 4:6 Till the evening comes, and the sky slowly becomes dark, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. +Son 4:7 You are all fair, my love; there is no mark on you. +Son 4:8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon; see from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the places of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards. +Son 4:9 You have taken away my heart, my sister, my bride; you have taken away my heart, with one look you have taken it, with one chain of your neck! +Son 4:10 How fair is your love, my sister! How much better is your love than wine, and the smell of your oils than any perfume! +Son 4:11 Your lips are dropping honey; honey and milk are under your tongue; and the smell of your clothing is like the smell of Lebanon. +Son 4:12 A garden walled-in is my sister, my bride; a garden shut up, a spring of water stopped. +Son 4:13 The produce of the garden is pomegranates; with all the best fruits, henna and spikenard, +Son 4:14 Spikenard and safron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices. +Son 4:15 You are a fountain of gardens, a spring of living waters, and flowing waters from Lebanon. +Son 4:16 Be awake, O north wind; and come, O south, blowing on my garden, so that its spices may come out. Let my loved one come into his garden, and take of his good fruits. +Son 5:1 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; to take my myrrh with my spice; my wax with my honey; my wine with my milk. Take meat, O friends; take wine, yes, be overcome with love. +Son 5:2 I am sleeping, but my heart is awake; it is the sound of my loved one at the door, saying, Be open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my very beautiful one; my head is wet with dew, and my hair with the drops of the night. +Son 5:3 I have put off my coat; how may I put it on? My feet are washed; how may I make them unclean? +Son 5:4 My loved one put his hand on the door, and my heart was moved for him. +Son 5:5 I got up to let my loved one in; and my hands were dropping with myrrh, and my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the lock of the door. +Son 5:6 I made the door open to my loved one; but my loved one had taken himself away, and was gone, my soul was feeble when his back was turned on me; I went after him, but I did not come near him; I said his name, but he gave me no answer. +Son 5:7 The keepers who go about the town overtook me; they gave me blows and wounds; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. +Son 5:8 I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you see my loved one, what will you say to him? That I am overcome with love. +Son 5:9 What is your loved one more than another, O fairest among women? What is your loved one more than another, that you say this to us? +Son 5:10 My loved one is white and red, the chief among ten thousand. +Son 5:11 His head is as the most delicate gold; his hair is thick, and black as a raven. +Son 5:12 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the water streams, washed with milk, and rightly placed. +Son 5:13 His face is as beds of spices, giving out perfumes of every sort; his lips like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh. +Son 5:14 His hands are as rings of gold ornamented with beryl-stones; his body is as a smooth plate of ivory covered with sapphires. +Son 5:15 His legs are as pillars of stone on a base of delicate gold; his looks are as Lebanon, beautiful as the cedar-tree. +Son 5:16 His mouth is most sweet; yes, he is all beautiful. This is my loved one, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. +Son 6:1 Where is your loved one gone, O most fair among women? Where is your loved one turned away, that we may go looking for him with you? +Son 6:2 My loved one is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to take food in the gardens, and to get lilies. +Son 6:3 I am for my loved one, and my loved one is for me; he takes food among the lilies. +Son 6:4 You are beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, as fair as Jerusalem; you are to be feared like an army with flags. +Son 6:5 Let your eyes be turned away from me; see, they have overcome me; your hair is as a flock of goats which take their rest on the side of Gilead. +Son 6:6 Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which come up from the washing; every one has two lambs, and there is not one without young. +Son 6:7 Like pomegranate fruit are the sides of your head under your veil. +Son 6:8 There are sixty queens, and eighty servant-wives, and young girls without number. +Son 6:9 My dove, my very beautiful one, is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the dearest one of her who gave her birth. The daughters saw her, and gave her a blessing; yes, the queens and the servant-wives, and they gave her praises. +Son 6:10 Who is she, looking down as the morning light, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, who is to be feared like an army with flags? +Son 6:11 I went down into the garden of nuts to see the green plants of the valley, and to see if the vine was in bud, and the pomegranate-trees were in flower. +Son 6:12 Before I was conscious of it, ... +Son 6:13 Come back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come back, so that our eyes may see you. What will you see in the Shulammite? A sword-dance. +Son 7:1 How beautiful are your feet in their shoes, O king's daughter! The curves of your legs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a good workman: +Son 7:2 Your stomach is a store of grain with lilies round it, and in the middle a round cup full of wine. +Son 7:3 Your two breasts are like two young roes of the same birth. +Son 7:4 Your neck is as a tower of ivory; your eyes like the waters in Heshbon, by the doorway of Bath-rabbim; your nose is as the tower on Lebanon looking over Damascus: +Son 7:5 Your head is like Carmel, and the hair of your head is like purple, in whose net the king is prisoner. +Son 7:6 How beautiful and how sweet you are, O love, for delight. +Son 7:7 You are tall like a palm-tree, and your breasts are like the fruit of the vine. +Son 7:8 I said, Let me go up the palm-tree, and let me take its branches in my hands: your breasts will be as the fruit of the vine, and the smell of your breath like apples; +Son 7:9 And the roof of your mouth like good wine flowing down smoothly for my loved one, moving gently over my lips and my teeth. +Son 7:10 I am for my loved one, and his desire is for me. +Son 7:11 Come, my loved one, let us go out into the field; let us take rest among the cypress-trees. +Son 7:12 Let us go out early to the vine-gardens; let us see if the vine is in bud, if it has put out its young fruit, and the pomegranate is in flower. There I will give you my love. +Son 7:13 The mandrakes give out a sweet smell, and at our doors are all sorts of good fruits, new and old, which I have kept for my loved one. +Son 8:1 Oh that you were my brother, who took milk from my mother's breasts! When I came to you in the street, I would give you kisses; yes, I would not be looked down on. +Son 8:2 I would take you by the hand into my mother's house, and she would be my teacher. I would give you drink of spiced wine, drink of the pomegranate. +Son 8:3 His left hand would be under my head, and his right hand about me. +Son 8:4 I say to you, O daughters of Jerusalem, do not let love be moved till it is ready. +Son 8:5 Who is this, who comes up from the waste places, resting on her loved one? It was I who made you awake under the apple-tree, where your mother gave you birth; there she was in pain at your birth. +Son 8:6 Put me as a sign on your heart, as a sign on your arm; love is strong as death, and wrath bitter as the underworld: its coals are coals of fire; violent are its flames. +Son 8:7 Much water may not put out love, or the deep waters overcome it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be judged a price not great enough. +Son 8:8 We have a young sister, and she has no breasts; what are we to do for our sister in the day when she is given to a man? +Son 8:9 If she is a wall, we will make on her a strong base of silver; and if she is a door, we will let her be shut up with cedar-wood. +Son 8:10 I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers; then was I in his eyes as one to whom good chance had come. +Son 8:11 Solomon had a vine-garden at Baal-hamon; he let out the vine-garden to keepers; every one had to give a thousand bits of silver for its fruit. +Son 8:12 My vine-garden, which is mine, is before me: you, O Solomon, will have the thousand, and those who keep the fruit of them two hundred. +Son 8:13 You who have your resting-place in the gardens, the friends give ear to your voice; make me give ear to it. +Son 8:14 Come quickly, my loved one, and be like a roe on the mountains of spice. +Isa 1:1 The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw about Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. +Isa 1:2 Give ear, O heavens, and you, O earth, to the word which the Lord has said: I have taken care of my children till they became men, but their hearts have been turned away from me. +Isa 1:3 Even the ox has knowledge of its owner, and the ass of the place where its master puts its food: but Israel has no knowledge, my people give no thought to me. +Isa 1:4 O nation full of sin, a people weighted down with crime, a generation of evil-doers, false-hearted children: they have gone away from the Lord, they have no respect for the Holy One of Israel, their hearts are turned back from him. +Isa 1:5 Why will you have more and more punishment? why keep on in your evil ways? Every head is tired and every heart is feeble. +Isa 1:6 The body, from head to foot, is all diseased; it is a mass of open wounds, marks of blows, and broken flesh: the flow of blood has not been stopped, and no oil has been put on the wounds. +Isa 1:7 Your country has become waste; your towns are burned with fire; as for your land, it is overturned before your eyes, made waste and overcome by men from strange lands. +Isa 1:8 And the daughter of Zion has become like a tent in a vine-garden, like a watchman's house in a field of fruit, like a town shut in by armies. +Isa 1:9 If the Lord of armies had not kept some at least of us safe, we would have been like Sodom, and the fate of Gomorrah would have been ours. +Isa 1:10 Give ear to the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; let your hearts be turned to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. +Isa 1:11 What use to me is the number of the offerings which you give me? says the Lord; your burned offerings of sheep, and the best parts of fat cattle, are a weariness to me; I take no pleasure in the blood of oxen, or of lambs, or of he-goats. +Isa 1:12 At whose request do you come before me, making my house unclean with your feet? +Isa 1:13 Give me no more false offerings; the smoke of burning flesh is disgusting to me, so are your new moons and Sabbaths and your holy meetings. +Isa 1:14 Your new moons and your regular feasts are a grief to my soul: they are a weight in my spirit; I am crushed under them. +Isa 1:15 And when your hands are stretched out to me, my eyes will be turned away from you: even though you go on making prayers, I will not give ear: your hands are full of blood. +Isa 1:16 Be washed, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; let there be an end of sinning; +Isa 1:17 Take pleasure in well-doing; let your ways be upright, keep down the cruel, give a right decision for the child who has no father, see to the cause of the widow. +Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us have an argument together, says the Lord: how may your sins which are red like blood be white as snow? how may their dark purple seem like wool? +Isa 1:19 If you will give ear to my word and do it, the good things of the land will be yours; +Isa 1:20 But if your hearts are turned against me, I will send destruction on you by the sword; so the Lord has said. +Isa 1:21 The upright town has become untrue; there was a time when her judges gave right decisions, when righteousness had a resting-place in her, but now she is full of those who take men's lives. +Isa 1:22 Your silver is no longer true metal, your wine is mixed with water. +Isa 1:23 Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them. +Isa 1:24 For this reason the Lord, the Lord of armies, the Strong One of Israel, has said, I will put an end to my haters, and send punishment on those who are against me; +Isa 1:25 And my hand will again be on you, washing away what is unclean as with soap, and taking away all your false metal; +Isa 1:26 And I will give you judges again as at the first, and wise guides as in the past; then you will be named, The Town of Righteousness, the true town. +Isa 1:27 Upright acts will be the price of Zion's forgiveness, and by righteousness will men be living there. +Isa 1:28 But a common destruction will overtake sinners and evil-doers together, and those who have gone away from the Lord will be cut off. +Isa 1:29 For you will be put to shame because of the trees of your desire, and because of the gardens of your pleasure. +Isa 1:30 For you will be like a tree whose leaves have become dry, and like a garden without water. +Isa 1:31 And the strong will be as food for the fire, and his work as a flame; and they will be burned together, with no one to put out the fire. +Isa 2:1 The word which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw about Judah and Jerusalem. +Isa 2:2 And it will come about in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord will be placed on the top of the mountains, and be lifted up over the hills; and all nations will come to it. +Isa 2:3 And the peoples will say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will give us knowledge of his ways, and we will be guided by his word; for out of Zion the law will go out, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. +Isa 2:4 And he will be the judge between the nations, and the peoples will be ruled by his decisions: and their swords will be turned into plough-blades, and their spears into vine-knives: no longer will the nations be turning their swords against one another, and the knowledge of war will be gone for ever. +Isa 2:5 O family of Jacob, come, and let us go in the light of the Lord. +Isa 2:6 For you, O Lord, have given up your people, the family of Jacob, because they are full of the evil ways of the east, and make use of secret arts like the Philistines, and are friends with the children of strange countries. +Isa 2:7 And their land is full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their stores; their land is full of horses, and there is no end to their carriages. +Isa 2:8 Their land is full of images; they give worship to the work of their hands, even to that which their fingers have made. +Isa 2:9 And the poor man's head is bent, and the great man goes down on his face: for this cause there will be no forgiveness for their sin. +Isa 2:10 Go into a hole in the rock, covering yourselves with dust, in fear of the Lord, before the glory of his power. +Isa 2:11 The high looks of man will be put to shame, and the pride of men will be made low, and only the Lord will be lifted up in that day. +Isa 2:12 For the day of the Lord of armies is coming on all the pride of men, and on all who are high and lifted up; +Isa 2:13 And on all the high trees of Lebanon, and on all the strong trees of Bashan; +Isa 2:14 And on all the high mountains, and on all the hills which are lifted up; +Isa 2:15 And on every high tower, and on every strong wall; +Isa 2:16 And on all the ships of Tarshish, and on all the fair boats. +Isa 2:17 And the high looks of man will be put to shame, and the pride of men will be made low: and only the Lord will be lifted up in that day. +Isa 2:18 And the images will never be seen again. +Isa 2:19 And men will go into cracks of the rocks, and into holes of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and before the glory of his power, when he comes out of his place, shaking the earth with his strength. +Isa 2:20 In that day men will put their images of silver and of gold, which they made for worship, in the keeping of the beasts of the dark places; +Isa 2:21 To take cover in the cracks of the rocks, and in the holes of the hills, for fear of the Lord, and before the glory of his power, when he comes out of his place, shaking the earth with his strength. +Isa 2:22 Have no more to do with man, whose life is only a breath, for he is of no value. +Isa 3:1 For the Lord, the Lord of armies, is about to take away from Jerusalem and from Judah all their support; their store of bread and of water; +Isa 3:2 The strong man and the man of war; the judge and the prophet; the man who has knowledge of secret arts, and the man who is wise because of his years; +Isa 3:3 The captain of fifty, and the man of high position, and the wise guide, and the wonder-worker, and he who makes use of secret powers. +Isa 3:4 And I will make children their chiefs, and foolish ones will have rule over them. +Isa 3:5 And the people will be crushed, every one by his neighbour; the young will be full of pride against the old, and those of low position will be lifted up against the noble. +Isa 3:6 When one man puts his hand on another in his father's house, and says, You have clothing, be our ruler and be responsible for us in our sad condition: +Isa 3:7 Then he will say with an oath, I will not be a helper, for in my house there is no bread or clothing: I will not let you make me a ruler of the people. +Isa 3:8 For Jerusalem has become feeble, and destruction has come on Judah, because their words and their acts are against the Lord, moving the eyes of his glory to wrath. +Isa 3:9 Their respect for a man's position is a witness against them; and their sin is open to the view of all; like that of Sodom, it is not covered. A curse on their soul! for the measure of their sin is full. +Isa 3:10 Happy is the upright man! for he will have joy of the fruit of his ways. +Isa 3:11 Unhappy is the sinner! for the reward of his evil doings will come on him. +Isa 3:12 As for my people, their ruler is acting like a child, and those who have authority over them are women. O my people, your guides are the cause of your wandering, turning your footsteps out of the right way. +Isa 3:13 The Lord is ready to take up his cause against his people, and is about to come forward as their judge. +Isa 3:14 The Lord comes to be the judge of their responsible men and of their rulers: it is you who have made waste the vine-garden, and in your houses is the property of the poor which you have taken by force. +Isa 3:15 By what right are you crushing my people, and putting a bitter yoke on the necks of the poor? This is the word of the Lord, the Lord of armies. +Isa 3:16 Again, the Lord has said, Because the daughters of Zion are full of pride, and go with outstretched necks and wandering eyes, with their foot-chains sounding when they go: +Isa 3:17 The Lord will send disease on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will let their secret parts be seen. +Isa 3:18 In that day the Lord will take away the glory of their foot-rings, and their sun-jewels, and their moon-ornaments, +Isa 3:19 The ear-rings, and the chains, and the delicate clothing, +Isa 3:20 The head-bands, and the arm-chains, and the worked bands, and the perfume-boxes, and the jewels with secret powers, +Isa 3:21 The rings, and the nose-jewels, +Isa 3:22 The feast-day dresses, and the robes, and the wide skirts, and the handbags, +Isa 3:23 The looking-glasses, and the fair linen, and the high head-dresses, and the veils. +Isa 3:24 And in the place of sweet spices will be an evil smell, and for a fair band a thick cord; for a well-dressed head there will be the cutting-off of the hair, and for a beautiful robe there will be the clothing of sorrow; the mark of the prisoner in place of the ornaments of the free. +Isa 3:25 Your men will be put to the sword, and your men of war will come to destruction in the fight. +Isa 3:26 And in the public places of her towns will be sorrow and weeping; and she will be seated on the earth, waste and uncovered. +Isa 4:1 And in that day seven women will put their hands on one man, saying, There will be no need for you to give us food or clothing, only let us go under your name, so that our shame may be taken away. +Isa 4:2 In that day will the young growth of the Lord be beautiful in glory, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride of those who are still living in Israel. +Isa 4:3 And it will come about that the rest of the living in Zion, and of those who have been kept from destruction in Jerusalem, will be named holy, even everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem: +Isa 4:4 When Zion has been washed from her sin by the Lord, and Jerusalem made clean from her blood by a judging and a burning wind. +Isa 4:5 And over every living-place on Mount Zion, all over all her meetings, the Lord will make a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for over all, the glory of the Lord will be a cover and a tent; +Isa 4:6 And a shade in the daytime from the heat, and a safe cover from storm and from rain. +Isa 5:1 Let me make a song about my loved one, a song of love for his vine-garden. My loved one had a vine-garden on a fertile hill: +Isa 5:2 And after working the earth of it with a spade, he took away its stones, and put in it a very special vine; and he put up a watchtower in the middle of it, hollowing out in the rock a place for the grape-crushing; and he was hoping that it would give the best grapes, but it gave common grapes. +Isa 5:3 And now, you people of Jerusalem and you men of Judah, be the judges between me and my vine-garden. +Isa 5:4 Is there anything which might have been done for my vine-garden which I have not done? why then, when I was hoping for the best grapes did it give me common grapes? +Isa 5:5 And now, this is what I will do to my vine-garden: I will take away the circle of thorns round it, and it will be burned up; its wall will be broken down and the beasts of the field will go through it; +Isa 5:6 And I will make it waste; its branches will not be touched with the knife, or the earth worked with the spade; but blackberries and thorns will come up in it: and I will give orders to the clouds not to send rain on it. +Isa 5:7 For the vine-garden of the Lord of armies is the people of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of his delight: and he was looking for upright judging, and there was blood; for righteousness, and there was a cry for help. +Isa 5:8 Cursed are those who are joining house to house, and putting field to field, till there is no more living-space for any but themselves in all the land! +Isa 5:9 The Lord of armies has said to me secretly, Truly, numbers of great and fair houses will be waste, with no one living in them. +Isa 5:10 For ten fields of vines will only give one measure of wine, and a great amount of seed will only give a small measure of grain. +Isa 5:11 Cursed are those who get up early in the morning to give themselves up to strong drink; who keep on drinking far into the night till they are heated with wine! +Isa 5:12 And corded instruments and wind-instruments and wine are in their feasts: but they give no thought to the work of the Lord, and they are not interested in what his hands are doing. +Isa 5:13 For this cause my people are taken away as prisoners into strange countries for need of knowledge: and their rulers are wasted for need of food, and their loud-voiced feasters are dry for need of water. +Isa 5:14 For this cause the underworld has made wide its throat, opening its mouth without limit: and her glory, and the noise of her masses, and her loud-voiced feasters, will go down into it. +Isa 5:15 And the poor man's head is bent, and the great man goes down on his face, and the eyes of pride are put to shame: +Isa 5:16 But the Lord of armies is lifted up as judge, and the Holy God is seen to be holy in righteousness. +Isa 5:17 Then the lambs will get food as in their grass-lands, and the fat cattle will be feasting in the waste places. +Isa 5:18 Cursed are those who make use of ox-cords for pulling the evil thing, and the bands of a young ox for their sin! +Isa 5:19 Who say, Let him do his work quickly, let him make it sudden, so that we may see it: let the design of the Holy One of Israel come near, so that it may be clear to us. +Isa 5:20 Cursed are those who give the name of good to evil, and of evil to what is good: who make light dark, and dark light: who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter! +Isa 5:21 Cursed are those who seem wise to themselves, and who take pride in their knowledge! +Isa 5:22 Cursed are those who are strong to take wine, and great in making mixed drinks! +Isa 5:23 Who for a reward give support to the cause of the sinner, and who take away the righteousness of the upright from him. +Isa 5:24 For this cause, as the waste of the grain is burned up by tongues of fire, and as the dry grass goes down before the flame, so their root will be like the dry stems of grain, and their flower will go up in dust: because they have gone against the law of the Lord of armies, and have given no honour to the word of the Holy One of Israel. +Isa 5:25 For this reason the wrath of the Lord has been burning against his people, and his hand has been stretched out against them in punishment, and the hills were shaking, and their dead bodies were like waste in the open places of the town. +Isa 5:26 And he will let a flag be lifted up as a sign to a far-off nation, whistling to them from the ends of the earth: and they will come quickly and suddenly. +Isa 5:27 There is no weariness among them, and no man is feeble-footed: they come without resting or sleeping, and the cord of their shoes is not broken. +Isa 5:28 Their arrows are sharp, and every bow is bent: the feet of their horses are like rock, and their wheels are like a rushing storm. +Isa 5:29 The sound of their armies will be like the voice of a lion, and their war-cry like the noise of young lions: with loud cries they will come down on their food and will take it away safely, and there will be no one to take it out of their hands. +Isa 5:30 And his voice will be loud over him in that day like the sounding of the sea: and if a man's eyes are turned to the earth, it is all dark and full of trouble; and the light is made dark by thick clouds. +Isa 6:1 In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord seated in his place, high and lifted up, and the Temple was full of the wide skirts of his robe. +Isa 6:2 Over him were the winged ones: every one had six wings; two for covering his face, two for covering his feed, and two for flight. +Isa 6:3 And one said in a loud voice to another, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of armies: all the earth is full of his glory. +Isa 6:4 And the bases of the door-pillars were shaking at the sound of his cry, and the house was full of smoke. +Isa 6:5 Then I said, The curse is on me, and my fate is destruction; for I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies. +Isa 6:6 Then a winged one came to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from off the altar with the fire-spoon. +Isa 6:7 And after touching my mouth with it, he said, See, your lips have been touched with this; and your evil is taken away, and you are made clean from sin. +Isa 6:8 And the voice of the Lord came to my ears, saying, Whom am I to send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. +Isa 6:9 And he said, Go, and say to this people, You will go on hearing, but learning nothing; you will go on seeing, but without getting wiser. +Isa 6:10 Make the hearts of this people fat, and let their ears be stopped, and their eyes shut; for fear that they may see with their eyes, and be hearing with their ears, and their heart may become wise, and they may be turned to me and made well. +Isa 6:11 Then I said, Lord, how long? And he said in answer, Till the towns are waste and unpeopled, and the houses have no men, and the land becomes completely waste, +Isa 6:12 And the Lord has taken men far away, and there are wide waste places in the land. +Isa 6:13 And even if there is still a tenth part in it, it will again be burned, like a tree of the woods whose broken end is still in the earth after the tree has been cut down (the holy seed is the broken end). +Isa 7:1 Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but were not able to overcome it. +Isa 7:2 And word came to the family of David that Aram had put up its tents in Ephraim. And the king's heart, and the hearts of his people, were moved, like the trees of the wood shaking in the wind. +Isa 7:3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out now, you and Shear-jashub, your son, and you will come across Ahaz at the end of the stream flowing from the higher pool, in the highway of the washerman's field; +Isa 7:4 And say to him, Take care and be quiet; have no fear, and do not let your heart be feeble, because of these two ends of smoking fire-wood, because of the bitter wrath of Rezin and Aram, and of the son of Remaliah. +Isa 7:5 Because Aram has made evil designs against you, saying, +Isa 7:6 Let us go up against Judah, troubling her, and forcing our way into her, and let us put up a king in her, even the son of Tabeel: +Isa 7:7 This is the word of the Lord God: This design will not come about or be effected. +Isa 7:8 For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin (and in sixty-five years from now Ephraim will be broken, and will no longer be a people): +Isa 7:9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not have faith, your kingdom will be broken. +Isa 7:10 And Isaiah said again to Ahaz, +Isa 7:11 Make a request to the Lord your God for a sign, a sign in the deep places of the underworld, or in the high heavens. +Isa 7:12 But Ahaz said, I will not put the Lord to the test by making such a request. +Isa 7:13 And he said, Give ear now, O family of David: is it not enough that you are driving men to disgust? will you do the same to my God? +Isa 7:14 For this cause the Lord himself will give you a sign; a young woman is now with child, and she will give birth to a son, and she will give him the name Immanuel. +Isa 7:15 Butter and honey will be his food, when he is old enough to make a decision between evil and good. +Isa 7:16 For before the child is old enough to make a decision between evil and good, the land whose two kings you are now fearing will have become waste. +Isa 7:17 The Lord is about to send on you, and on your people, and on your father's house, such a time of trouble as there has not been from the days of the separating of Ephraim from Judah; even the coming of the king of Assyria. +Isa 7:18 And it will be in that day that the Lord will make a piping sound for the fly which is in the end of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee which is in the land of Assyria. +Isa 7:19 And they will come, covering all the waste valleys, and the holes of the rocks, and the thorns, and all the watering-places. +Isa 7:20 In that day will the Lord take away the hair of the head and of the feet, as well as the hair of the face, with a blade got for a price from the other side of the River; even with the king of Assyria. +Isa 7:21 And it will be in that day that a man will give food to a young cow and two sheep; +Isa 7:22 And they will give so much milk that he will be able to have butter for his food: for butter and honey will be the food of all who are still living in the land. +Isa 7:23 And it will be in that day that in every place where before there were a thousand vines valued at a thousand shekels of silver, there will be nothing but blackberries and thorns. +Isa 7:24 Men will come there with bows and arrows, because all the land will be full of blackberries and thorns. +Isa 7:25 And they will send out the oxen and the sheep on all the hills which before were worked with the spade, ... fear of blackberries and thorns. +Isa 8:1 And the Lord said to me, Take a great writing-board, and on it put down in common letters, Maher-shalal-hash-baz; +Isa 8:2 And take true witnesses to the writing, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah, the son of Jeberechiah. +Isa 8:3 And I went in to my wife, and she became with child, and gave birth to a son. Then the Lord said to me, Give him the name Maher-shalal-hash-baz, +Isa 8:4 For before the child is able to say, Father, or, Mother, the wealth of Damascus and the goods of Samaria will be taken away by the king of Assyria. +Isa 8:5 And the Lord said again to me, +Isa 8:6 Because this people will have nothing to do with the softly-flowing waters of Shiloah, and have fear of Rezin and Remaliah's son; +Isa 8:7 For this cause the Lord is sending on them the waters of the River, deep and strong, even the king of Assyria and all his glory: and it will come up through all its streams, overflowing all its edges: +Isa 8:8 And it will come on into Judah; rushing on and overflowing, till the waters are up to the neck; *** and his outstretched wings will be covering the land from side to side: for God is with us. +Isa 8:9 Have knowledge, O peoples, and be in fear; give ear, all you far-off parts of the earth: +Isa 8:10 Let your designs be formed, and they will come to nothing; give your orders, and they will not be effected: for God is with us. +Isa 8:11 For the Lord, controlling me with a strong hand, gave me orders not to go in the way of this people, saying, +Isa 8:12 Do not say, It is holy, about everything of which this people says, It is holy; and do not be in fear of what they go in fear of. +Isa 8:13 But let the Lord of armies be holy to you, and go in fear of him, giving honour to him. +Isa 8:14 And he will be for a holy place: but for a stone of falling and a rock of trouble to the two houses of Israel, and to the men of Jerusalem, for a net in which they may be taken. +Isa 8:15 And numbers of them, falling on the stone, will be broken, and will be taken in the net. +Isa 8:16 Let my teaching be kept secret: and my words be given to my disciples only. +Isa 8:17 And I will be waiting for the Lord, whose face is veiled from the house of Jacob, and I will be looking for him. +Isa 8:18 See, I and the children whom the Lord has given me, are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of armies, whose resting-place is in Mount Zion. +Isa 8:19 And when they say to you, Make request for us to those who have control of spirits, and to those wise in secret arts, who make hollow bird-like sounds; is it not right for a people to make request to their gods, to make request for the living to the dead? +Isa 8:20 Then say to them, Put your faith in the teaching and the witness. ... If they do not say such things. ... For him there is no dawn. ... +Isa 8:21 And he will go through the land in bitter trouble and in need of food; and when he is unable to get food, he will become angry, cursing his king and his God, and his eyes will be turned to heaven on high; +Isa 8:22 And he will be looking down on the earth, and there will be trouble and dark clouds, black night where there is no seeing. +Isa 9:1 In earlier times he made the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali of small value, but after that he gave it glory, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the nations. +Isa 9:2 The people who went in the dark have seen a great light, and for those who were living in the land of the deepest night, the light is shining. +Isa 9:3 You have made them very glad, increasing their joy. They are glad before you as men are glad in the time of getting in the grain, or when they make division of the goods taken in war. +Isa 9:4 For by your hand the yoke on his neck and the rod on his back, even the rod of his cruel master, have been broken, as in the day of Midian. +Isa 9:5 For every boot of the man of war with his sounding step, and the clothing rolled in blood, will be for burning, food for the fire. +Isa 9:6 For to us a child has come, to us a son is given; and the government has been placed in his hands; and he has been named Wise Guide, Strong God, Father for ever, Prince of Peace. +Isa 9:7 Of the increase of his rule and of peace there will be no end, on the seat of David, and in his kingdom; to make it strong, supporting it with wise decision and righteousness, now and for ever. By the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done. +Isa 9:8 The Lord has sent a word to Jacob, and it has come on Israel; +Isa 9:9 And all the people will have experience of it, even Ephraim and the men of Samaria, who say in the pride of their uplifted hearts, +Isa 9:10 The bricks have come down, but we will put up buildings of cut stone in their place: the sycamores are cut down, but they will be changed to cedars. +Isa 9:11 For this cause the Lord has made strong the haters of Israel, driving them on to make war against him; +Isa 9:12 Aram on the east, and the Philistines on the west, who have come against Israel with open mouths. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. +Isa 9:13 But the heart of the people was not turned to him who sent punishment on them, and they made no prayer to the Lord of armies. +Isa 9:14 For this cause the Lord took away from Israel head and tail, high and low, in one day. +Isa 9:15 The man who is honoured and responsible is the head, and the prophet who gives false teaching is the tail. +Isa 9:16 For the guides of this people are the cause of their wandering from the right way, and those who are guided by them come to destruction. +Isa 9:17 For this cause the Lord will have no pleasure in their young men, and no pity on their widows and the children without fathers: for they are all haters of God and evil-doers, and foolish words come from every mouth. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. +Isa 9:18 For evil was burning like a fire; the blackberries and thorns were burned up; the thick woods took fire, rolling up in dark clouds of smoke. +Isa 9:19 The land was dark with the wrath of the Lord of armies: the people were like those who take men's flesh for food. +Isa 9:20 On the right a man was cutting off bits and was still in need; on the left a man took a meal but had not enough; no man had pity on his brother; every man was making a meal of the flesh of his neighbour. +Isa 9:21 Manasseh was making a meal of Ephraim, and Ephraim of Manasseh; and together they were attacking Judah. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. +Isa 10:1 Cursed are those who make evil decisions, and the writers who make the records of their cruel acts: +Isa 10:2 Who do wrong to the poor in their cause, and take away the right of the crushed among my people, so that they may have the property of widows, and get under their power those who have no father. +Isa 10:3 And what will you do in the day of punishment, and in the destruction which is coming from far? to whom will you go for help, and what will become of your glory? +Isa 10:4 ... For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. +Isa 10:5 Ho! Assyrian, the rod of my wrath, the instrument of my punishment! +Isa 10:6 I will send him against a nation of wrongdoers, and against the people of my wrath I will give him orders, to take their wealth in war, crushing them down like the dust in the streets. +Isa 10:7 But this is not what is in his mind, and this is not his design; but his purpose is destruction, and the cutting off of more and more nations. +Isa 10:8 For he says, Are not all my captains kings? +Isa 10:9 Will not the fate of Calno be like that of Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus? +Isa 10:10 As my hand has come on the kingdoms of the images, whose pictured images were more in number than those of Jerusalem and Samaria; +Isa 10:11 So, as I have done to Samaria and her images, I will do to Jerusalem and her images. +Isa 10:12 For this cause it will be that, when the purpose of the Lord against Mount Zion and Jerusalem is complete, I will send punishment on the pride of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of his uplifted eyes. +Isa 10:13 For he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my knowledge, for I am wise: and I have taken away the limits of the peoples' lands, and the stores of their wealth have become mine; and I have made towns low in the dust, sending destruction on those living in them; +Isa 10:14 And I have put my hands on the wealth of the peoples, as on the place where a bird has put her eggs; and as a man may take the eggs from which a bird has gone, so I have taken all the earth for myself: and not a wing was moved, and not a mouth gave out a sound. +Isa 10:15 Will the axe say high-sounding words against him who is using it, or the blade be full of pride against him who is cutting with it? As if a rod had the power of shaking him who is using it, or as if a stick might take up him who is not wood. +Isa 10:16 For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, will make his fat become wasted; and in his inner parts a fire will be lighted like a burning flame. +Isa 10:17 And the light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: wasting and burning up his thorns in one day. +Isa 10:18 And he will put an end to the glory of his woods and of his planted fields, soul and body together; and it will be as when a man is wasted by disease. +Isa 10:19 And the rest of the trees of his wood will be small in number, so that a child may put them down in writing. +Isa 10:20 And it will be in that day that the rest of Israel, and those of Jacob who have come safely through these troubles, will no longer go for help to him whose rod was on their back, but their faith will be in the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. +Isa 10:21 The rest, even the rest of Jacob, will come back to the Strong God. +Isa 10:22 For though your people, O Israel, are as the sand of the sea, only a small number will come back: for the destruction is fixed, overflowing in righteousness. +Isa 10:23 For the Lord, the Lord of armies, is about to make destruction complete in all the land. +Isa 10:24 For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, says, O my people living in Zion, have no fear of the Assyrian, even if his rod comes on your back, and his stick is lifted up as in Egypt. +Isa 10:25 For in a very short time my passion will be over, and my wrath will be turned to their destruction. +Isa 10:26 And the Lord of armies will be shaking a whip against him, as when he overcame Midian at the rock of Oreb: and his rod will be lifted up against them as it was against the Egyptians. +Isa 10:27 And in that day the weight which he put on your back will be taken away, and his yoke broken from off your neck. +Isa 10:28 He has gone up from Pene-Rimmon, he has come to Aiath; he has gone past Migron, at Michmash he puts his forces in order. +Isa 10:29 They have gone across the mountain; Geba will be our resting-place tonight, they say: Ramah is shaking with fear; Gibeah of Saul has gone in flight. +Isa 10:30 Give a loud cry, daughter of Gallim; let Laishah give ear; let Anathoth give answer to her. +Isa 10:31 Madmenah has gone; the men of Gebim are putting their goods in a safe place. +Isa 10:32 This very day he is stopping at Nob; he is shaking his hand against the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. +Isa 10:33 See, the Lord, the Lord of armies, is cutting off his branches with a great noise, and his strong ones are falling and his high ones are coming down. +Isa 10:34 And he is cutting down the thick places of the wood with an axe, and Lebanon with its tall trees is coming down. +Isa 11:1 And there will come a rod out of the broken tree of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will give fruit. +Isa 11:2 And the spirit of the Lord will be resting on him, the spirit of wisdom and good sense, the spirit of wise guiding and strength, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; +Isa 11:3 And he will not be guided in his judging by what he sees, or give decisions by the hearing of his ears: +Isa 11:4 But he will do right in the cause of the poor, and give wise decisions for those in the land who are in need; and the rod of his mouth will come down on the cruel, and with the breath of his lips he will put an end to the evil-doer. +Isa 11:5 And righteousness will be the cord of his robe, and good faith the band round his breast. +Isa 11:6 And the wolf will be living with the lamb, and the leopard will take his rest with the young goat; and the lion will take grass for food like the ox; and the young lion will go with the young ones of the herd; and a little child will be their guide. +Isa 11:7 And the cow and the bear will be friends while their young ones are sleeping together. +Isa 11:8 And the child at the breast will be playing by the hole of the snake, and the older child will put his hand on the bright eye of the poison-snake. +Isa 11:9 There will be no cause of pain or destruction in all my holy mountain: for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is covered by the waters. +Isa 11:10 And in that day, the eyes of the nations will be turned to the root of Jesse which will be lifted up as the flag of the peoples; and his resting-place will be glory. +Isa 11:11 And in that day the hand of the Lord will be stretched out the second time to get back the rest of his people, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the sea-lands. +Isa 11:12 And he will put up a flag as a sign to the nations, and he will get together those of Israel who had been sent away, and the wandering ones of Judah, from the four ends of the earth. +Isa 11:13 And the envy of Ephraim will be gone, and those who make trouble for Judah will come to an end: Ephraim will have no more envy of Judah, and there will be an end of Judah's hate for Ephraim. +Isa 11:14 And they will be united in attacking the Philistines on the west, and together they will take the goods of the children of the east: their hand will be on Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon will be under their rule. +Isa 11:15 And the Lord will make the tongue of the Egyptian sea completely dry; and with his burning wind his hand will be stretched out over the River, and it will be parted into seven streams, so that men may go over it with dry feet. +Isa 11:16 And there will be a highway for the rest of his people from Assyria; as there was for Israel in the day when he came up out of the land of Egypt. +Isa 12:1 And in that day you will say I will give praise to you, O Lord; for though you were angry with me, your wrath is turned away, and I am comforted. +Isa 12:2 See, God is my salvation; I will have faith in the Lord, without fear: for the Lord Jah is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation. +Isa 12:3 So with joy will you get water out of the springs of salvation. +Isa 12:4 And in that day you will say, Give praise to the Lord, let his name be honoured, give word of his doings among the peoples, say that his name is lifted up. +Isa 12:5 Make a song to the Lord; for he has done noble things: give news of them through all the earth. +Isa 12:6 Let your voice be sounding in a cry of joy, O daughter of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you. +Isa 13:1 The word of the Lord about Babylon which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw. +Isa 13:2 Put up a flag on a clear mountain-top, make a loud outcry to them, give directions with the hand, so that they may go into the doors of the great ones. +Isa 13:3 I have given orders to my holy ones, I have sent out my men of war, those of mine who take pride in their power, to give effect to my wrath. +Isa 13:4 The noise of great numbers in the mountains, like the noise of a strong people! The noise of the kingdoms of the nations meeting together! The Lord of armies is numbering his forces for war. +Isa 13:5 They come from a far country, from the farthest part of heaven, even the Lord and the instruments of his wrath, with destruction for all the land. +Isa 13:6 Send out a cry of grief; for the day of the Lord is near; it comes as destruction from the Most High. +Isa 13:7 For this cause all hands will be feeble, and every heart of man be turned to water; +Isa 13:8 Their hearts will be full of fear; pains and sorrows will overcome them; they will be in pain like a woman in childbirth; they will be shocked at one another; their faces will be like flames. +Isa 13:9 See, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with wrath and burning passion: to make the land a waste, driving the sinners in it to destruction. +Isa 13:10 For the stars of heaven and its bright armies will not give their light: the sun will be made dark in his journey through the heaven, and the moon will keep back her light. +Isa 13:11 And I will send punishment on the world for its evil, and on the sinners for their wrongdoing; and I will put an end to all pride, and will make low the power of the cruel. +Isa 13:12 I will make men so small in number, that a man will be harder to get than gold, even the best gold of Ophir. +Isa 13:13 For this cause the heavens will be shaking, and the earth will be moved out of its place, in the wrath of the Lord of armies, and in the day of his burning passion. +Isa 13:14 And it will be that, like a roe in flight, and like wandering sheep, they will go every man to his people and to his land. +Isa 13:15 Everyone who is overtaken will have a spear put through him, and everyone who goes in flight will be put to the sword. +Isa 13:16 Their young children will be broken up before their eyes; their goods will be taken away, and their wives made the property of others. +Isa 13:17 See, I am driving the Medes against them, who put no value on silver and have no pleasure in gold. +Isa 13:18 In their hands are bows and spears; they are cruel, violently putting the young men to death, and crushing the young women; they have no pity for children, and no mercy for the fruit of the body. +Isa 13:19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beautiful town which is the pride of the Chaldaeans, will be like God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. +Isa 13:20 People will never be living in it again, and it will have no more men from generation to generation: the Arab will not put up his tent there; and those who keep sheep will not make it a resting-place for their flocks. +Isa 13:21 But the beasts of the waste land will have their holes there; and the houses will be full of crying jackals, and ostriches will have their place there, and evil spirits will be dancing there. +Isa 13:22 And wolves will be answering one another in their towers, and jackals in their houses of pleasure: her time is near, and her days of power will quickly be ended. +Isa 14:1 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will again make Israel his special people, and will put them in their land; and the man from a strange country will take his place among them and be joined to the family of Jacob. +Isa 14:2 And the people will take them with them to their place: and the children of Israel will give them a heritage in the Lord's land as men-servants and women-servants, making them prisoners whose prisoners they were; and they will be rulers over their masters. +Isa 14:3 And it will be, in the day when the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble, and from the hard yoke which they had put on you, +Isa 14:4 That you will take up this bitter song against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the cruel overseer come to an end! He who was lifted up in pride is cut off; +Isa 14:5 The stick of the evil-doers, the rod of the rulers, is broken by the Lord; +Isa 14:6 He whose rod was on the peoples with an unending wrath, ruling the nations in passion, with an uncontrolled rule. +Isa 14:7 All the earth is at rest and is quiet: they are bursting into song. +Isa 14:8 Even the trees of the wood are glad over you, the trees of Lebanon, saying, From the time of your fall no wood-cutter has come up against us with an axe. +Isa 14:9 The underworld is moved at your coming: the shades of the dead are awake before you, even the strong ones of the earth; all the kings of the world have got up from their seats. +Isa 14:10 They all make answer and say to you, Have you become feeble like us? have you been made even as we are? +Isa 14:11 Your pride has gone down into the underworld, and the noise of your instruments of music; the worms are under you, and your body is covered with them. +Isa 14:12 How great is your fall from heaven, O shining one, son of the morning! How are you cut down to the earth, low among the dead bodies! +Isa 14:13 For you said in your heart, I will go up to heaven, I will make my seat higher than the stars of God; I will take my place on the mountain of the meeting-place of the gods, in the inmost parts of the north. +Isa 14:14 I will go higher than the clouds; I will be like the Most High. +Isa 14:15 But you will come down to the underworld, even to its inmost parts. +Isa 14:16 Those who see you will be looking on you with care, they will be in deep thought, saying, Is this the troubler of the earth, the shaker of kingdoms? +Isa 14:17 Who made the world a waste, overturning its towns; who did not let his prisoners loose from the prison-house. +Isa 14:18 All the kings of the earth are at rest in glory, every man in his house, +Isa 14:19 But you, like a birth before its time, are stretched out with no resting-place in the earth; clothed with the bodies of the dead who have been put to the sword, who go down to the lowest parts of the underworld; a dead body, crushed under foot. +Isa 14:20 As for your fathers, you will not be united with them in their resting-place, because you have been the cause of destruction to your land, and of death to your people; the seed of the evil-doer will have no place in the memory of man. +Isa 14:21 Make ready a place of death for his children, because of the evil-doing of their father; so that they may not come up and take the earth for their heritage, covering the face of the world with waste places. +Isa 14:22 For I will come up against them, says the Lord of armies, cutting off from Babylon name and offspring, son and son's son, says the Lord. +Isa 14:23 And I will make you a heritage for the hedgehog, and pools of water: and I will go through it with the brush of destruction, says the Lord of armies. +Isa 14:24 The Lord has taken an oath, saying, My design will certainly come about, and my purpose will be effected: +Isa 14:25 To let the Assyrian be broken in my land, and crushed under foot on my mountains: there will his yoke be taken away from them, and his rule over them come to an end. +Isa 14:26 This is the purpose for all the earth: and this is the hand stretched out over all nations. +Isa 14:27 For it is the purpose of the Lord of armies, and who will make it of no effect? when his hand is stretched out, by whom may it be turned back? +Isa 14:28 In the year of the death of King Ahaz this word came to the prophet: +Isa 14:29 Be not glad, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod which was on you is broken: for out of the snake's root will come a poison-snake, and its fruit will be a winged poison-snake. +Isa 14:30 And the poorest of the land will have food, and those in need will be given a safe resting-place: but your seed will come to an end for need of food, and the rest of you will be put to the sword. +Isa 14:31 Send out a cry, O door! Make sounds of sorrow, O town! All your land has come to nothing, O Philistia; for there comes a smoke out of the north, and everyone keeps his place in the line. +Isa 14:32 What answer, then, will my people give to the representatives of the nation? That the Lord is the builder of Zion, and she will be a safe place for the poor of his people. +Isa 15:1 The word about Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab has become waste, and is seen no longer; for in a night Kir of Moab has become waste, and is seen no longer. +Isa 15:2 The daughter of Dibon has gone up to the high places, weeping: Moab is sounding her cry of sorrow over Nebo, and over Medeba: everywhere the hair of the head and of the face is cut off. +Isa 15:3 In their streets they are covering themselves with haircloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their public places, there is crying and bitter weeping. +Isa 15:4 Heshbon is crying out, and Elealeh; their voice is sounding even to Jahaz: for this cause the heart of Moab is shaking; his soul is shaking with fear. +Isa 15:5 My heart is crying out for Moab; her people go in flight to Zoar, and to Eglath-shelishiyah: for they go up with weeping by the slope of Luhith; on the way to Horonaim they send up a cry of destruction. +Isa 15:6 The waters of Nimrim will become dry: for the grass is burned up, the young grass is coming to an end, every green thing is dead. +Isa 15:7 For this cause they will take away their wealth, and the stores they have got together, over the stream of the water-plants. +Isa 15:8 For the cry has gone round the limits of Moab; as far as to Eglaim and Beer-elim. +Isa 15:9 For the waters of Dimon are full of blood: and I'm sending even more on Moab, a lion on those of Moab who go in flight, and on the rest of the land. +Isa 16:1 And they will send ... to the mountain of the daughter of Zion. +Isa 16:2 For the daughters of Moab will be like wandering birds, like a place from which the young birds have gone in flight, at the ways across the Arnon. +Isa 16:3 Give wise directions, make a decision; let your shade be as night in full day: keep safe those who are in flight; do not give up the wandering ones. +Isa 16:4 Let those who have been forced out of Moab have a resting-place with you; be a cover to them from him who is making waste their land: till the cruel ones are cut off, and wasting has come to an end, and those who take pleasure in crushing the poor are gone from the land. +Isa 16:5 Then a king's seat will be based on mercy, and one will be seated on it in the tent of David for ever; judging uprightly, and quick to do righteousness. +Isa 16:6 We have had word of the pride of Moab, how great it is; how he is lifted up in pride and passion: his high words about himself are false. +Isa 16:7 For this cause everyone in Moab will give cries of grief for Moab: crushed to the earth, they will be weeping for the men of Kir-hareseth. +Isa 16:8 For the fields of Heshbon are waste, the vine of Sibmah is dead; the lords of nations were overcome by the produce of her vines; her vine-plants went as far as Jazer, and came even to the waste land; her branches were stretched out to the sea. +Isa 16:9 For this cause my sorrow for the vine of Sibmah will be like the weeping for Jazer: my eyes are dropping water on you, O Heshbon and Elealeh! For they are sounding the war-cry over your summer fruits and the getting in of your grain; +Isa 16:10 And all joy is gone; no longer are they glad for the fertile field; and in the vine-gardens there are no songs or sounds of joy: the crushing of grapes has come to an end, and its glad cry has been stopped. +Isa 16:11 For this cause the cords of my heart are sounding for Moab, and I am full of sorrow for Kir-heres. +Isa 16:12 And when Moab goes up to the high place, and makes prayer in the house of his god, it will have no effect. +Isa 16:13 This is the word which the Lord said about Moab in the past. +Isa 16:14 But now the Lord has said, In three years, the years of a servant working for payment, the glory of Moab, all that great people, will be turned to shame, and the rest of Moab will be very small and without honour. +Isa 17:1 The word about Damascus. See, they have made Damascus a town no longer; it has become a waste place. +Isa 17:2 Her towns are unpeopled for ever; there the flocks take their rest in peace, without fear. +Isa 17:3 The strong tower has gone from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus: the rest of Aram will come to destruction, and be made like the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of armies. +Isa 17:4 And it will be in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made small, and the strength of his body will become feeble. +Isa 17:5 And it will be like a man cutting the growth of his grain, pulling together the heads of the grain with his arm; even as when they get in the grain in the valley of Rephaim. +Isa 17:6 But it will be like a man shaking an olive-tree, something will still be there, two or three berries on the top of the highest branch, four or five on the outside branches of a fertile tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel. +Isa 17:7 In that day a man's heart will be turned to his Maker, and his eyes to the Holy One of Israel. +Isa 17:8 He will not be looking to the altars, the work of his hands, or to the wood pillars or to the sun-images which his fingers have made. +Isa 17:9 In that day your towns will be like the waste places of the Hivites and the Amorites which the children of Israel took for a heritage, and they will come to destruction. +Isa 17:10 For you have not given honour to the God of your salvation, and have not kept in mind the Rock of your strength; for this cause you made a garden of Adonis, and put in it the vine-cuttings of a strange god; +Isa 17:11 In the day of your planting you were watching its growth, and in the morning your seed was flowering: but its fruit is wasted away in the day of grief and bitter sorrow. +Isa 17:12 Ah! the voice of peoples, like the loud sounding of the seas, and the thundering of great nations rushing on like the bursting out of waters! +Isa 17:13 But he will put a stop to them, and make them go in flight far away, driving them like the waste of the grain on the tops of the mountains before the wind, and like the circling dust before the storm. +Isa 17:14 In the evening there is fear, and in the morning they are gone. This is the fate of those who take our goods, and the reward of those who violently take our property for themselves. +Isa 18:1 Ho! land of the sounding of wings, on the other side of the rivers of Ethiopia: +Isa 18:2 Which sends its representatives by the sea, even in ships of papyrus on the waters. Go back quickly, O representatives, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people causing fear through all their history; a strong nation, crushing down its haters, whose land is cut through by rivers. +Isa 18:3 All you peoples of the world, and you who are living on the earth, when a flag is lifted up on the mountains, give attention; and when the horn is sounded, give ear. +Isa 18:4 For this is what the Lord has said to me: I will be quiet, watching from my place; like the clear heat when the sun is shining, like a mist of dew in the heat of summer. +Isa 18:5 For before the time of getting in the grapes, after the opening of the bud, when the flower has become a grape ready for crushing, he will take away the small branches with knives, cutting down and taking away the wide-stretching branches. +Isa 18:6 They will be for the birds of the mountains, and for the beasts of the earth: the birds will come down on them in the summer, and the beasts of the earth in the winter. +Isa 18:7 In that time an offering will be made to the Lord of armies from a people tall and smooth, causing fear through all their history; a strong nation, crushing down its haters, whose land is cut through by rivers, an offering taken to the place of the name of the Lord of armies, even Mount Zion. +Isa 19:1 The word about Egypt. See, the Lord is seated on a quick-moving cloud, and is coming to Egypt: and the false gods of Egypt will be troubled at his coming, and the heart of Egypt will be turned to water. +Isa 19:2 And I will send the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they will be fighting every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; town against town, and kingdom against kingdom. +Isa 19:3 And the spirit of Egypt will be troubled in her, and I will make her decisions without effect: and they will be turning to the false gods, and to those who make hollow sounds, and to those who have control of spirits, and to those who are wise in secret arts. +Isa 19:4 And I will give the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a hard king will be their ruler, says the Lord, the Lord of armies. +Isa 19:5 And the waters of the sea will be cut off, and the river will become dry and waste: +Isa 19:6 And the rivers will have an evil smell; the stream of Egypt will become small and dry: all the water-plants will come to nothing. +Isa 19:7 The grass-lands by the Nile, and everything planted by the Nile, will become dry, or taken away by the wind, and will come to an end. +Isa 19:8 The fishermen will be sad, and all those who put fishing-lines into the Nile will be full of grief, and those whose nets are stretched out on the waters will have sorrow in their hearts. +Isa 19:9 And all the workers in linen thread, and those who make cotton cloth, will be put to shame. +Isa 19:10 And the makers of twisted thread will be crushed, and those who ... will be sad in heart. +Isa 19:11 The chiefs of Zoan are completely foolish; the wisest guides of Pharaoh have become like beasts: how do you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the offspring of early kings? +Isa 19:12 Where, then, are your wise men? let them make clear to you, let them give you knowledge of the purpose of the Lord of armies for Egypt. +Isa 19:13 The chiefs of Zoan have become foolish, the chiefs of Noph are tricked, the heads of her tribes are the cause of Egypt's wandering out of the way. +Isa 19:14 The Lord has sent among them a spirit of error: and by them Egypt is turned out of the right way in all her doings, as a man overcome by wine is uncertain in his steps. +Isa 19:15 And in Egypt there will be no work for any man, head or tail, high or low, to do. +Isa 19:16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women: and the land will be shaking with fear because of the waving of the Lord's hand stretched out over it. +Isa 19:17 And the land of Judah will become a cause of great fear to Egypt; whenever its name comes to mind, Egypt will be in fear before the Lord of armies because of his purpose against it. +Isa 19:18 In that day there will be five towns in the land of Egypt using the language of Canaan, and making oaths to the Lord of armies; and one of them will be named, The Town of the Sun. +Isa 19:19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at the edge of the land. +Isa 19:20 And it will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of armies in the land of Egypt: when they are crying out to the Lord because of their cruel masters, then he will send them a saviour and a strong one to make them free. +Isa 19:21 And the Lord will give the knowledge of himself to Egypt, and the Egyptians will give honour to the Lord in that day; they will give him worship with offerings and meal offerings, and will take an oath to the Lord and give effect to it. +Isa 19:22 And the Lord will send punishment on Egypt, and will make them well again; and when they come back to the Lord he will give ear to their prayer and take away their disease. +Isa 19:23 In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt will come into Assyria; and the Egyptians will give worship to the Lord together with the Assyrians. +Isa 19:24 In that day Israel will be the third together with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the earth: +Isa 19:25 Because of the blessing of the Lord of armies which he has given them, saying, A blessing on Egypt my people, and on Assyria the work of my hands, and on Israel my heritage. +Isa 20:1 In the year when the Tartan came to Ashdod, sent by Sargon, king of Assyria, and made war against it and took it; +Isa 20:2 At that time the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and take off your robe, and your shoes from your feet; and he did so, walking unclothed and without shoes on his feet. +Isa 20:3 And the Lord said, As my servant Isaiah has gone unclothed and without shoes for three years as a sign and a wonder to Egypt and Ethiopia, +Isa 20:4 So will the king of Assyria take away the prisoners of Egypt and those forced out of Ethiopia, young and old, unclothed and without shoes, and with backs uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. +Isa 20:5 And they will be full of fear, and will no longer have faith in Ethiopia which was their hope, or in Egypt which was their glory. +Isa 20:6 And those living by the sea will say in that day, See the fate of our hope to whom we went for help and salvation from the king of Assyria: what hope have we then of salvation? +Isa 21:1 The word about the waste land. As storm-winds in the South go rushing through, it comes from the waste land, from the land greatly to be feared. +Isa 21:2 A vision of fear comes before my eyes; the worker of deceit goes on in his false way, and the waster goes on making waste. Up! Elam; to the attack! Media; I have put an end to her sorrow. +Isa 21:3 For this cause I am full of bitter grief; pains like the pains of a woman in childbirth have come on me: I am bent down with sorrow at what comes to my ears; I am shocked by what I see. +Isa 21:4 My mind is wandering, fear has overcome me: the evening of my desire has been turned into shaking for me. +Isa 21:5 They make ready the table, they put down the covers, they take food and drink. Up! you captains; put oil on your breastplates. +Isa 21:6 For so has the Lord said to me, Go, let a watchman be placed; let him give word of what he sees: +Isa 21:7 And when he sees war-carriages, horsemen by twos, war-carriages with asses, war-carriages with camels, let him give special attention. +Isa 21:8 And the watchman gave a loud cry, O my lord, I am on the watchtower all day, and am placed in my watch every night: +Isa 21:9 See, here come war-carriages with men, horsemen by twos: and in answer he said, Babylon is made low, is made low, and all her images are broken on the earth. +Isa 21:10 O my crushed ones, the grain of my floor! I have given you the word which came to me from the Lord of armies, the God of Israel. +Isa 21:11 The word about Edom. A voice comes to me from Seir, Watchman, how far gone is the night? how far gone is the night? +Isa 21:12 The watchman says, The morning has come, but night is still to come: if you have questions to put, put them, and come back again. +Isa 21:13 The word about Arabia. In the thick woods of Arabia will be your night's resting-place, O travelling bands of Dedanites! +Isa 21:14 Give water to him who is in need of water; give bread, O men of the land of Tema, to those in flight. +Isa 21:15 For they are in flight from the sharp sword, and the bent bow, and from the trouble of war. +Isa 21:16 For so has the Lord said to me, In a year, by the years of a servant working for payment, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end: +Isa 21:17 And the rest of the bowmen, the men of war of the children of Kedar, will be small in number: for the Lord, the God of Israel, has said it. +Isa 22:1 The word about the valley of vision. Why have all your people gone up to the house-tops? +Isa 22:2 You, who are full of loud voices, a town of outcries, given up to joy; your dead men have not been put to the sword, or come to their death in war. +Isa 22:3 All your rulers ... have gone in flight; all your strong ones have gone far away. +Isa 22:4 For this cause I have said, Let your eyes be turned away from me in my bitter weeping; I will not be comforted for the wasting of the daughter of my people. +Isa 22:5 For it is a day of trouble and of crushing down and of destruction from the Lord, the Lord of armies, in the valley of vision; ... +Isa 22:6 And Elam was armed with arrows, and Aram came on horseback; and the breastplate of Kir was uncovered. +Isa 22:7 And your most fertile valleys were full of war-carriages, and the horsemen took up their positions in front of the town. +Isa 22:8 He took away the cover of Judah; and in that day you were looking with care at the store of arms in the house of the woods. +Isa 22:9 And you saw all the broken places in the wall of the town of David: and you got together the waters of the lower pool. +Isa 22:10 And you had the houses of Jerusalem numbered, pulling down the houses to make the wall stronger. +Isa 22:11 And you made a place between the two walls for storing the waters of the old pool: but you gave no thought to him who had done this, and were not looking to him by whom it had been purposed long before. +Isa 22:12 And in that day the Lord, the Lord of armies, was looking for weeping, and cries of sorrow, cutting off of the hair, and putting on the clothing of grief: +Isa 22:13 But in place of these there was joy and delight, oxen and sheep were being made ready for food, there was feasting and drinking: men said, Now is the time for food and wine, for tomorrow death comes. +Isa 22:14 And the Lord of armies said to me secretly, Truly, this sin will not be taken from you till your death, says the Lord, the Lord of armies. +Isa 22:15 The Lord, the Lord of armies, says, Go to this person in authority, this Shebna, who is over the house; who has made himself a resting-place on high, cutting out a place for himself in the rock, and say, +Isa 22:16 Who are you, and by what right have you made for yourself a resting-place here? +Isa 22:17 See, O strong man, the Lord will send you violently away, gripping you with force, +Isa 22:18 Twisting you round and round like a ball he will send you out into a wide country: there you will come to your end, and there will be the carriages of your pride, O shame of your lord's house! +Isa 22:19 And I will have you forced out of your place of authority, and pulled down from your position. +Isa 22:20 And in that day I will send for my servant, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah: +Isa 22:21 And I will put your robe on him, and put your band about him, and I will give your authority into his hand: and he will be a father to the men of Jerusalem, and to the family of Judah. +Isa 22:22 And I will give the key of the family of David into his care; and what he keeps open will be shut by no one, and what he keeps shut no one will make open. +Isa 22:23 And I will put him like a nail in a safe place; and he will be for a seat of glory to his father's family. +Isa 22:24 And all the glory of his father's family will be hanging on him, all their offspring, every small vessel, even the cups and the basins. +Isa 22:25 In that day, says the Lord of armies, will the nail fixed in a safe place give way; and it will be cut down, and in its fall the weight hanging on it will be cut off, for the Lord has said it. +Isa 23:1 The word about Tyre. Let a cry of sorrow go up, O ships of Tarshish, because your strong place is made waste; on the way back from the land of Kittim the news is given to them. +Isa 23:2 Send out a cry of grief, you men of the sea-land, traders of Zidon, who go over the sea, whose representatives are on great waters; +Isa 23:3 Who get in the seed of Shihor, whose wealth is the trade of the nations. +Isa 23:4 Be shamed, O Zidon: for the sea, the strong place of the sea has said, I have not been with child, or given birth; I have not taken care of young men, or kept watch over the growth of virgins. +Isa 23:5 When the news comes to Egypt they will be bitterly pained at the fate of Tyre. +Isa 23:6 Go over to Tarshish; give cries of sorrow, O men of the sea-land. +Isa 23:7 Is this the town which was full of joy, whose start goes back to times long past, whose wanderings took her into far-off countries? +Isa 23:8 By whom was this purposed against Tyre, the crowning town, whose traders are chiefs, whose business men are honoured in the land? +Isa 23:9 It was the purpose of the Lord of armies to put pride to shame, to make sport of the glory of those who are honoured in the earth. +Isa 23:10 Let your land be worked with the plough, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer any harbour. +Isa 23:11 His hand is stretched out over the sea, the kingdoms are shaking: the Lord has given orders about Canaan, to make waste its strong places. +Isa 23:12 And he said, There is no more joy for you, O crushed virgin daughter of Zidon: up! go over to Kittim; even there you will have no rest. +Isa 23:13 ... +Isa 23:14 Let a cry of sorrow go up, O ships of Tarshish: because your strong place is made waste. +Isa 23:15 And it will be in that day that Tyre will go out of mind for seventy years, that is, the days of one king: after the end of seventy years it will be for Tyre as in the song of the loose woman. +Isa 23:16 Take an instrument of music, go about the town, O loose woman who has gone out from the memory of man; make sweet melody with songs, so that you may come back to men's minds. +Isa 23:17 And it will be after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will have mercy on Tyre, and she will go back to her trade, acting as a loose woman with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. +Isa 23:18 And her goods and her trade will be holy to the Lord: they will not be kept back or stored up; for her produce will be for those living in the Lord's land, to give them food for their needs, and fair clothing. +Isa 24:1 See, the Lord is making the earth waste and unpeopled, he is turning it upside down, and sending the people in all directions. +Isa 24:2 And it will be the same for the people as for the priest; for the servant as for his master; and for the woman-servant as for her owner; the same for the one offering goods for a price as for him who takes them; the same for him who gives money at interest and for him who takes it; the same for him who lets others have the use of his property as for those who make use of it. +Isa 24:3 The earth will be completely waste and without men; for this is the word of the Lord. +Isa 24:4 The earth is sorrowing and wasting away, the world is full of grief and wasting away, the high ones of the earth come to nothing. +Isa 24:5 The earth has been made unclean by those living in it; because the laws have not been kept by them, the orders have been changed, and the eternal agreement has been broken. +Isa 24:6 For this cause the earth is given up to the curse, and those in it are judged as sinners: for this cause those living on the earth are burned up, and the rest are small in number. +Isa 24:7 The new wine is thin, the vine is feeble, and all the glad-hearted make sounds of grief. +Isa 24:8 The pleasing sound of all instruments of music has come to an end, and the voices of those who are glad. +Isa 24:9 There is no more drinking of wine with a song; strong drink will be bitter to those who take it. +Isa 24:10 The town is waste and broken down: every house is shut up, so that no man may come in. +Isa 24:11 There is a crying in the streets because of the wine; there is an end of all delight, the joy of the land is gone. +Isa 24:12 In the town all is waste, and in the public place is destruction. +Isa 24:13 For it will be in the heart of the earth among the peoples, like the shaking of an olive-tree, as the last of the grapes after the getting-in is done. +Isa 24:14 But those will be making sounds of joy; they will be crying loudly from the sea for the glory of the Lord. +Isa 24:15 Give praise to the Lord in the east, to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the sea-lands. +Isa 24:16 From the farthest part of the earth comes the sound of songs, glory to the upright. But I said, I am wasting away, wasting away, the curse is on me! The false ones go on in their false way, yes, they go on acting falsely. +Isa 24:17 Fear, and death, and the net, are come on you, O people of the earth. +Isa 24:18 And it will be that he who goes in flight from the sound of fear will be overtaken by death; and he who gets free from death will be taken in the net: for the windows on high are open, and the bases of the earth are shaking. +Isa 24:19 The earth is completely broken, it is parted in two, it is violently moved. +Isa 24:20 The earth will be moving uncertainly, like a man overcome by drink; it will be shaking like a tent; and the weight of its sin will be on it, crushing it down so that it will not get up again. +Isa 24:21 And in that day the Lord will send punishment on the army of the high ones on high, and on the kings of the earth on the earth. +Isa 24:22 And they will be got together, like prisoners in the prison-house; and after a long time they will have their punishment. +Isa 24:23 Then the moon will be veiled, and the sun put to shame; for the Lord of armies will be ruling in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his judges he will let his glory be seen. +Isa 25:1 O Lord, you are my God; I will give praise to you, I will give honour to your name; for you have done great acts of power; your purposes in the past have been made true and certain in effect. +Isa 25:2 For you have made a town a waste place: a strong town a mass of broken walls; the tower of the men of pride has come to an end; it will never be put up again. +Isa 25:3 For this cause will the strong people give glory to you, the town of the cruel ones will be in fear of you. +Isa 25:4 For you have been a strong place for the poor and the crushed in their trouble, a safe place from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the wrath of the cruel ones is like a winter storm. +Isa 25:5 As heat by the shade of a cloud, the noise of the men of pride has been made quiet by you; as heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the cruel ones has been stopped. +Isa 25:6 And in this mountain will the Lord of armies make for all peoples a feast of good things, a feast of wines long stored, of good things sweet to the taste, of wines long kept and tested. +Isa 25:7 And in this mountain he will put an end to the shade covering the face of all peoples, and the veil which is stretched over all nations. +Isa 25:8 He has put an end to death for ever; and the Lord God will take away all weeping; and he will put an end to the shame of his people in all the earth: for the Lord has said it. +Isa 25:9 And in that day it will be said, See, this is our God; we have been waiting for him, and he will be our saviour: this is the Lord in whom is our hope; we will be glad and have delight in his salvation. +Isa 25:10 For in this mountain will the hand of the Lord come to rest, and Moab will be crushed down in his place, even as the dry stems of the grain are crushed under foot in the waste place. +Isa 25:11 And if he puts out his hands, like a man stretching out his hands in swimming, the Lord will make low his pride, however expert his designs. +Isa 25:12 And the strong tower of your walls has been broken by him, made low, and crushed even to the dust. +Isa 26:1 In that day will this song be made in the land of Judah: We have a strong town; he will make salvation our walls and towers. +Isa 26:2 Let the doors be open, so that the upright nation which keeps faith may come in. +Isa 26:3 The man whose heart is unmoved you will keep in peace, because his hope is in you. +Isa 26:4 Let your hope be in the Lord for ever: for the Lord Jah is an unchanging Rock. +Isa 26:5 For he has made low those who are lifted up, all the people of the town of pride: he makes it low, crushing it down to the earth; he makes it low in the dust. +Isa 26:6 It will be crushed under the feet of the poor and the steps of those who are in need. +Isa 26:7 The way of the good man is straight; the road of the upright is made smooth by you. +Isa 26:8 We have been waiting for you, O Lord; the desire of our soul is for the memory of your name. +Isa 26:9 In the night the desire of my soul has been for you; early will my spirit be searching for you; for when your punishments come on the earth, the people of the world will get the knowledge of righteousness. +Isa 26:10 Even if you are kind to the evil-doer, he will not go after righteousness; even in the land of the upright he will still go on in his wrongdoing, and will not see the glory of the Lord. +Isa 26:11 Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see: let them see ... yes, your haters will be burned up in the fire. +Isa 26:12 Lord, you will give us peace: for all our works are the outcome of your purpose. +Isa 26:13 O Lord, our God, other lords than you have had rule over us; but in you only is our salvation, and no other name will we take on our lips. +Isa 26:14 The dead will not come back to life: their spirits will not come back to earth; for this cause you have sent destruction on them, so that the memory of them is dead. +Isa 26:15 You have made the nation great, O Lord, you have made it great; glory is yours: you have made wide the limits of the land. +Isa 26:16 Lord, in trouble our eyes have been turned to you, we sent up a prayer when your punishment was on us. +Isa 26:17 As a woman with child, whose time is near, is troubled, crying out in her pain; so have we been before you, O Lord. +Isa 26:18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have given birth to wind; no salvation has come to the earth through us, and no children have come into the world. +Isa 26:19 Your dead will come back; their dead bodies will come to life again. Those in the dust, awaking from their sleep, will send out a song; for your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the shades. +Isa 26:20 Come, my people, into your secret places, and let your doors be shut: keep yourself safe for a short time, till his wrath is over. +Isa 26:21 For the Lord is coming out of his place to send punishment on the people of the earth for their evil-doing: the earth will let the blood drained out on her be seen, and will keep her dead covered no longer. +Isa 27:1 In that day the Lord, with his great and strong and cruel sword, will send punishment on Leviathan, the quick-moving snake, and on Leviathan, the twisted snake; and he will put to death the dragon which is in the sea. +Isa 27:2 In that day it will be said, A vine-garden of delight, make a song about it. +Isa 27:3 I, the Lord, am watching it; I will give it water at all times: I will keep it night and day, for fear that any damage comes to it. +Isa 27:4 My passion is over: if the thorns were fighting against me, I would make an attack on them, and they would be burned up together. +Isa 27:5 Or let him put himself under my power, and make peace with me. +Isa 27:6 In days to come Jacob will take root: Israel will put out buds and flowers; and the face of the world will be full of fruit. +Isa 27:7 Is his punishment like the punishment of those who overcame him? or are his dead as great in number as those he put to the sword? +Isa 27:8 Your anger against her has been made clear by driving her away; he has taken her away with his storm-wind in the day of his east wind. +Isa 27:9 So by this will the sin of Jacob be covered, and this is all the fruit of taking away his punishment; when all the stones of the altar are crushed together, so that the wood pillars and the sun-images will not be put up again. +Isa 27:10 For the strong town is without men, an unpeopled living-place; and she has become a waste land: there the young ox will take his rest, and its branches will be food for him. +Isa 27:11 When its branches are dry they will be broken off; the women will come and put fire to them: for it is a foolish people; for this cause he who made them will have no mercy on them, and he whose work they are will not have pity on them. +Isa 27:12 And it will be in that day that the Lord will get together his grain, from the River to the stream of Egypt, and you will be got together with care, O children of Israel. +Isa 27:13 And it will be in that day that a great horn will be sounded; and those who were wandering in the land of Assyria, and those who had been sent away into the land of Egypt, will come; and they will give worship to the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem. +Isa 28:1 Ho! crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in Ephraim, and the dead flower of his glory which is on the head of those who are overcome by strong drink! +Isa 28:2 See, the Lord has a strong and cruel one; like a rain of ice, a storm of destruction, like the overflowing of a strong river, he will violently overcome them. +Isa 28:3 The crown of pride of those who are given up to wine in Ephraim will be crushed under foot; +Isa 28:4 And the dead flower of his glory, which is on the head of the fertile valley, will be like the first early fruit before the summer; which a man takes and puts in his mouth the minute he sees it. +Isa 28:5 In that day will the Lord of armies be a crown of glory, and a fair ornament, to the rest of his people; +Isa 28:6 And a spirit of wisdom to the judge, and strength to those who keep back the attackers at the door of the town. +Isa 28:7 And further, these are uncertain through wine, and have gone out of the right way through strong drink: the priest and the prophet are uncertain through strong drink, they are overcome by wine, they have gone out of the way through strong drink; their vision is false, they go wrong in their decisions. +Isa 28:8 For all the tables are covered with coughed-up food, so that there is not a clean place. +Isa 28:9 To whom will he give knowledge? and to whom will he make clear the word? Will it be to those who have newly given up milk, and who have only now been taken from the breast? +Isa 28:10 For it is one rule after another; one line after another; here a little, there a little. +Isa 28:11 No, but with broken talk, and with a strange tongue, he will give his word to this people: +Isa 28:12 To whom he said, This is the rest, give rest to him who is tired; and by this you may get new strength; but they would not give ear. +Isa 28:13 For this cause the word of the Lord will be to them rule after rule, line after line, here a little, there a little; so that they may go on their way, and falling back may be broken, and taken in the net. +Isa 28:14 Give ear then to the word of the Lord, you men of pride, the rulers of this people in Jerusalem: +Isa 28:15 Because you have said, We have made death our friend, and with the underworld we have made an agreement; when the overflowing waters come through they will not come near us; for we are looking to false words for help, taking cover in what is untrue: +Isa 28:16 For this cause says the Lord God, See, I am placing in Zion as a base, a stone, a tested stone, an angle-stone which is certain and of great value: and he who has faith will not give way. +Isa 28:17 And I will make right decision the measuring-line, and righteousness the weight: and the ice-storm will take away the safe place of false words, and the secret place will be covered by the flowing waters. +Isa 28:18 And the help you were looking for from death will come to nothing, and your agreement with the underworld will be broken; when the overflowing waters come through, then you will be overcome by them. +Isa 28:19 Whenever they come through they will overtake you; for they will come through morning after morning, by day and by night: and the news will be nothing but fear. +Isa 28:20 For the bed is not long enough for a man to be stretched out on: and the cover is not wide enough for him to be covered with. +Isa 28:21 For the Lord will come up as on Mount Perazim, he will be moved to wrath as in the valley of Gibeon; so that he may do his work--strange is his work; and give effect to his act--unnatural is his act. +Isa 28:22 And now, take care that you do not make sport of him, or your bands will be made strong; for I have had word from the Lord, the Lord of armies, of an end, of a complete end, which is to come on all the land. +Isa 28:23 Let your ears be open to my voice; give attention to what I say. +Isa 28:24 Is the ploughman for ever ploughing? does he not get the earth ready and broken up for the seed? +Isa 28:25 When the face of the earth has been levelled, does he not put in the different sorts of seed, and the grain in lines, and the barley in its place, and the spelt at the edge? +Isa 28:26 For his God is his teacher, giving him the knowledge of these things. +Isa 28:27 For the fitches are not crushed with a sharp instrument, and a cart-wheel is not rolled over the cummin; but the grain of the fitches is hammered out with a stick, and of the cummin with a rod. +Isa 28:28 Is the grain for bread crushed? He does not go on crushing it for ever, but he lets his cart-wheels and his horses go over it without crushing it. +Isa 28:29 This comes from the Lord of armies, purposing wonders, and wise in all his acts. +Isa 29:1 Ho! Ariel, Ariel, the town against which David made war; put year to year, let the feasts come round: +Isa 29:2 And I will send trouble on Ariel, and there will be weeping and cries of grief; and she will be to me as Ariel. +Isa 29:3 And I will make war on you like David, and you will be shut in by earthworks, and I will make towers round you. +Isa 29:4 And you will be made low, and your voice will come out of the earth, and your words will be low out of the dust; and your voice will come out of the earth like that of a spirit, making bird-like noises out of the dust. +Isa 29:5 And the army of your attackers will be like small dust, and all the cruel ones like dry stems gone before the wind; suddenly it will come about. +Isa 29:6 The Lord of armies will come in with thunder and earth-shaking and great noise, with rushing wind and storm, and the flame of burning fire. +Isa 29:7 And all the nations making war on Ariel, and all those who are fighting against her and shutting her in with their towers, will be like a dream, like a vision of the night. +Isa 29:8 And it will be like a man desiring food, and dreaming that he is feasting; but when he is awake there is nothing in his mouth: or like a man in need of water, dreaming that he is drinking; but when he is awake he is feeble and his soul is full of desire: so will all the nations be which make war on Mount Zion. +Isa 29:9 Be surprised and full of wonder; let your eyes be covered and be blind: be overcome, but not with wine; go with uncertain steps, but not because of strong drink. +Isa 29:10 For the Lord has sent on you a spirit of deep sleep; and by him your eyes, the prophets, are shut, and your heads, the seers, are covered. +Isa 29:11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book which is shut, which men give to one who has knowledge of writing, saying, Make clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I am not able to, for the book is shut: +Isa 29:12 And they give it to one without learning, saying, Make clear to us what is in the book: and he says, I have no knowledge of writing. +Isa 29:13 And the Lord said, because this people come near to me with their mouths, and give honour to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and their fear of me is false, a rule given them by the teaching of men; +Isa 29:14 For this cause I will again do a strange thing among this people, a thing to be wondered at: and the wisdom of their wise men will come to nothing, and the sense of their guides will no longer be seen. +Isa 29:15 Cursed are those who go deep to keep their designs secret from the Lord, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, Who sees us? and who has knowledge of our acts? +Isa 29:16 You are turning things upside down! Is the wet earth the same to you as the one who is forming it? will the thing made say of him who made it, He made me not: or the thing formed say of him who gave it form, He has no knowledge? +Isa 29:17 In a very short time Lebanon will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will seem like a wood. +Isa 29:18 And in that day those whose ears are stopped will be hearing the words of the book; and the eyes of the blind will see through the mist and the dark. +Isa 29:19 And the poor will have their joy in the Lord increased, and those in need will be glad in the Holy One of Israel. +Isa 29:20 For the cruel one has come to nothing; and those who make sport of the Lord are gone; and those who are watching to do evil are cut off: +Isa 29:21 Who give help to a man in a wrong cause, and who put a net for the feet of him who gives decisions in the public place, taking away a man's right without cause. +Isa 29:22 For this reason the Lord, the saviour of Abraham, says about the family of Jacob, Jacob will not now be put to shame, or his face be clouded with fear. +Isa 29:23 But when they, the children of Jacob, see the work of my hands among them, they will give honour to my name; yes, they will give honour to the Holy One of Jacob, and go in fear of the God of Israel. +Isa 29:24 Those whose hearts were turned away from him will get knowledge, and those who made an outcry against him will give attention to his teaching. +Isa 30:1 Ho! uncontrolled children, says the Lord, who give effect to a purpose which is not mine, and who make an agreement, but not by my spirit, increasing their sin: +Isa 30:2 Who make a move to go down into Egypt, without authority from me; who are looking to the strength of Pharaoh for help, and whose hope is in the shade of Egypt. +Isa 30:3 And the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and your hope in the shade of Egypt will come to nothing. +Isa 30:4 For his chiefs are at Zoan, and his representatives have come to Hanes. +Isa 30:5 For they have all come with offerings to a people of no use to them, in whom is no help or profit, but only shame and a bad name. +Isa 30:6 The word about the Beasts of the South. Through the land of trouble and grief, the land of the she-lion and the voice of the lion, of the snake and the burning winged snake, they take their wealth on the backs of young asses, and their stores on camels, to a people in whom is no profit. +Isa 30:7 For there is no use or purpose in the help of Egypt: so I have said about her, She is Rahab, who has come to an end. +Isa 30:8 Now go, put it in writing before them on a board, and make a record of it in a book, so that it may be for the future, a witness for all time to come. +Isa 30:9 For they are an uncontrolled people, false-hearted, who will not give ear to the teaching of the Lord: +Isa 30:10 Who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Do not give us word of what is true, but say false things to give us pleasure: +Isa 30:11 Get out of the good way, turning from the right road; do not keep the Holy One of Israel before our minds. +Isa 30:12 For this cause the Holy One of Israel says, Because you will not give ear to this word, and are looking for help in ways of deceit and evil, and are putting your hope in them: +Isa 30:13 This sin will be to you like a crack in a high wall, causing its fall suddenly and in a minute. +Isa 30:14 And he will let it be broken as a potter's vessel is broken: it will be smashed to bits without mercy; so that there will not be a bit in which one may take fire from the fireplace, or water from the spring. +Isa 30:15 For the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, said, In quiet and rest is your salvation: peace and hope are your strength: but you would not have it so. +Isa 30:16 Saying, No, for we will go in flight on horses; so you will certainly go in flight: and, We will go on the backs of quick-running beasts; so those who go after you will be quick-footed. +Isa 30:17 A thousand will go in fear before one; even before five you will go in flight: till you are like a pillar by itself on the top of a mountain, and like a flag on a hill. +Isa 30:18 For this cause the Lord will be waiting, so that he may be kind to you; and he will be lifted up, so that he may have mercy on you; for the Lord is a God of righteousness: there is a blessing on all whose hope is in him. +Isa 30:19 O people, living in Zion, at Jerusalem, your weeping will be ended; he will certainly have mercy on you at the sound of your cry; when it comes to his ear, he will give you an answer. +Isa 30:20 And though the Lord will give you the bread of trouble and the water of grief, you will no longer put your teacher on one side, but you will see your teacher: +Isa 30:21 And at your back, when you are turning to the right hand or to the left, a voice will be sounding in your ears, saying, This is the way in which you are to go. +Isa 30:22 And you will make unclean what is covering your pictured images of silver, and the plating of your images of gold: you will send them away as an unclean thing, saying, Be gone! +Isa 30:23 And he will give rain for your seed, so that you may put it in the earth; and you will have bread from the produce of the earth, good and more than enough for your needs: in that day the cattle will get their food in wide grass-lands. +Isa 30:24 And the oxen and the young asses which are used for ploughing, will have salted grain which has been made free from the waste with fork and basket. +Isa 30:25 And there will be rivers and streams of water on every tall mountain and on every high hill, in the day when great numbers are put to the sword, when the towers come down. +Isa 30:26 And the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times greater, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord puts oil on the wounds of his people, and makes them well from the blows they have undergone. +Isa 30:27 See, the name of the Lord is coming from far, burning with his wrath, with thick smoke going up: his lips are full of passion, and his tongue is like a burning fire: +Isa 30:28 And his breath is as an overflowing stream, coming up even to the neck, shaking the nations for their destruction, like the shaking of grain in a basket: and he will put a cord in the mouths of the people, turning them out of their way. +Isa 30:29 You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and you will be glad in heart, as when they go with music of the pipe to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock of Israel. +Isa 30:30 And the Lord will send out the sound of his great voice, and they will see his arm stretched out, with the heat of his wrath, and the flame of a burning fire; with a cloud-burst, and storm, and a rain of ice. +Isa 30:31 For through the voice of the Lord the Assyrian will be broken, and the Lord's rod will be lifted up against him. +Isa 30:32 And every blow of the rod of his punishment, which the Lord will send on him, will be with the sound of music: and with the waving of his sword the Lord will make war against him. +Isa 30:33 For a place of fire has long been ready; yes, it has been made ready for the king; he has made it deep and wide: it is massed with fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of fire, puts a light to it. +Isa 31:1 Cursed are those who go down to Egypt for help, and who put their faith in horses; looking to war-carriages for salvation, because of their numbers; and to horsemen, because they are very strong; but they are not looking to the Holy One of Israel, or turning their hearts to the Lord; +Isa 31:2 Though he is wise, and able to send evil, and his purpose will not be changed; but he will go against the house of the evil-doers, and against those to whom they are looking for help. +Isa 31:3 For the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit: and when the Lord's hand is stretched out, the helper and he who is helped will come down together. +Isa 31:4 For the Lord has said to me, As a lion, or a young lion, makes an angry noise over his food, and if a band of herdsmen come out against him, he will not be in fear of their voices, or give up his food for their noise: so the Lord of armies will come down to make war against Mount Zion and its hill. +Isa 31:5 Like birds with outstretched wings, so will the Lord of armies be a cover to Jerusalem; he will be a cover and salvation for it, going over it he will keep it from danger. +Isa 31:6 Come back to him who has been so deeply sinned against by the children of Israel. +Isa 31:7 For in that day they will all give up their images of silver and of gold, the sin which they made for themselves. +Isa 31:8 Then the Assyrian will come down by the sword, but not of man; the sword, not of men, will be the cause of his destruction: and he will go in flight from the sword, and his young men will be put to forced work. +Isa 31:9 And his rock will come to nothing because of fear, and his chiefs will go in flight from the flag, says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his altar in Jerusalem. +Isa 32:1 See, a king will be ruling in righteousness, and chiefs will give right decisions. +Isa 32:2 And a man will be as a safe place from the wind, and a cover from the storm; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shade of a great rock in a waste land. +Isa 32:3 And the eyes of those who see will not be shut, and those who have hearing will give ear to the word. +Isa 32:4 The man of sudden impulses will become wise in heart, and he whose tongue is slow will get the power of talking clearly. +Isa 32:5 The foolish man will no longer be named noble, and they will not say of the false man that he is a man of honour. +Isa 32:6 For the foolish man will say foolish things, having evil thoughts in his heart, working what is unclean, and talking falsely about the Lord, to keep food from him who is in need of it, and water from him whose soul is desiring it. +Isa 32:7 The designs of the false are evil, purposing the destruction of the poor man by false words, even when he is in the right. +Isa 32:8 But the noble-hearted man has noble purposes, and by these he will be guided. +Isa 32:9 Give ear to my voice, you women who are living in comfort; give attention to my words, you daughters who have no fear of danger. +Isa 32:10 In not much more than a year, you, who are not looking for evil, will be troubled: for the produce of the vine-gardens will be cut off, and there will be no getting in of the grapes. +Isa 32:11 Be shaking with fear, you women who are living in comfort; be troubled, you who have no fear of danger: take off your robes and put on clothing of grief. +Isa 32:12 Have sorrow for the fields, the pleasing fields, the fertile vine; +Isa 32:13 And for the land of my people, where thorns will come up; even for all the houses of joy in the glad town. +Isa 32:14 For the fair houses will have no man living in them; the town which was full of noise will become a waste; the hill and the watchtower will be unpeopled for ever, a joy for the asses of the woods, a place of food for the flocks; +Isa 32:15 Till the spirit comes on us from on high, and the waste land becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field is changed into a wood. +Isa 32:16 Then in the waste land there will be an upright rule, and righteousness will have its place in the fertile field. +Isa 32:17 And the work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of an upright rule will be to take away fear for ever. +Isa 32:18 And my people will be living in peace, in houses where there is no fear, and in quiet resting-places. +Isa 32:19 But the tall trees will come down with a great fall, and the town will be low in a low place. +Isa 32:20 Happy are you who are planting seed by all the waters, and sending out the ox and the ass. +Isa 33:1 Ho! you who make waste those who did not make you waste; acting falsely to those who were not false to you. When you have come to an end of wasting, you will be made waste, and after your false acts, they will do the same to you. +Isa 33:2 O Lord, have mercy on us; for we have been waiting for your help: be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of trouble. +Isa 33:3 At the loud noise the peoples have gone in flight; at your coming up the nations have gone in all directions. +Isa 33:4 And the goods taken in war will be got together like the massing of young locusts; men will be rushing on them like the rushing of locusts. +Isa 33:5 The Lord is lifted up; his place is on high: he has made Zion full of righteousness and true religion. +Isa 33:6 And she will have no more fear of change, being full of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is her wealth. +Isa 33:7 See, the men of war are sorrowing outside the town: those who came looking for peace are weeping bitterly. +Isa 33:8 The highways are waste, no man is journeying there: the agreement is broken, he has made sport of the towns, he has no thought for man. +Isa 33:9 The earth is sorrowing and wasting away; Lebanon is put to shame and has become waste; Sharon is like the Arabah; and in Bashan and Carmel the leaves are falling. +Isa 33:10 Now will I come forward, says the Lord; now will I be lifted up; now will my power be seen. +Isa 33:11 Your designs will be without profit, and their effect will be nothing: you will be burned up by the fire of my breath. +Isa 33:12 And the peoples will be like the burning of chalk: as thorns cut down, which are burned in the fire. +Isa 33:13 Give ear, you who are far off, to what I have done: see my power, you who are near. +Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are full of fear; the haters of God are shaking with wonder. Who among us may keep his place before the burning fire? who among us may see the eternal burnings? +Isa 33:15 He whose ways are true, and whose words are upright; he who gives no thought to the profits of false acts, whose hands have not taken rewards, who will have no part in putting men to death, and whose eyes are shut against evil; +Isa 33:16 He will have a place on high: he will be safely shut in by the high rocks: his bread will be given to him; his waters will be certain. +Isa 33:17 Your eyes will see the king in his glory: they will be looking on a far-stretching land. +Isa 33:18 Your heart will give thought to the cause of your fear: where is the scribe, where is he who made a record of the payments, where is he by whom the towers were numbered? +Isa 33:19 Never again will you see the cruel people, a people whose tongue has no sense for you; whose language is strange to you. +Isa 33:20 Let your eyes be resting on Zion, the town of our holy feasts: you will see Jerusalem, a quiet resting-place, a tent which will not be moved, whose tent-pins will never be pulled up, and whose cords will never be broken. +Isa 33:21 But there the Lord will be with us in his glory, ... wide rivers and streams; where no boat will go with blades, and no fair ship will be sailing. +Isa 33:22 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law-giver, the Lord is our king; he will be our saviour. +Isa 33:23 Your cords have become loose; they were not able to make strong the support of their sails, the sail was not stretched out: then the blind will take much property, the feeble-footed will make division of the goods of war. +Isa 33:24 And the men of Zion will not say, I am ill: for its people will have forgiveness for their sin. +Isa 34:1 Come near, you nations, and give ear; take note, you peoples: let the earth and everything in it give ear; the world and all those living in it. +Isa 34:2 For the Lord is angry with all the nations, and his wrath is burning against all their armies: he has put them to the curse, he has given them to destruction. +Isa 34:3 Their dead bodies will be thick on the face of the earth, and their smell will come up, and the mountains will be flowing with their blood, and all the hills will come to nothing. +Isa 34:4 And the heavens will be rolled together like the roll of a book: and all their army will be gone, like a dead leaf from the vine, or a dry fruit from the fig-tree. +Isa 34:5 For my sword in heaven is full of wrath: see, it is coming down on Edom, in punishment on the people of my curse. +Isa 34:6 The sword of the Lord is full of blood, it is fat with the best of the meat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the best parts of the sheep: for the Lord has a feast in Bozrah, and much cattle will be put to death in the land of Edom. +Isa 34:7 And the strong oxen will go down to death together with the smaller cattle. +Isa 34:8 For it is the day of the Lord's punishment, when he gives payment for the wrongs done to Zion. +Isa 34:9 And its streams will be turned into boiling oil, and its dust into burning stone, and all the land will be on fire. +Isa 34:10 It will not be put out day or night; its smoke will go up for ever: it will be waste from generation to generation; no one will go through it for ever. +Isa 34:11 But the birds of the waste land will have their place there; it will be a heritage for the bittern and the raven: and it will be measured out with line and weight as a waste land. +Isa 34:12 The jackals will be there, and her great ones will be gone; they will say, There is no longer a kingdom there, and all her chiefs will have come to an end. +Isa 34:13 And thorns will come up in her fair houses, and waste plants in her strong towers: and foxes will make their holes there, and it will be a meeting-place for ostriches. +Isa 34:14 And the beasts of the waste places will come together with the jackals, and the evil spirits will be crying to one another, even the night-spirit will come and make her resting-place there. +Isa 34:15 The arrowsnake will make her hole and put her eggs there, and get her young together under her shade: there the hawks will come together by twos. +Isa 34:16 See what is recorded in the book of the Lord: all these will be there, not one without the other: the mouth of the Lord has given the order, and his spirit has made them come together. +Isa 34:17 And he has given them their heritage, and by his hand it has been measured out to them: it will be theirs for ever, their resting-place from generation to generation. +Isa 35:1 The waste land and the dry places will be glad; the lowland will have joy and be full of flowers. +Isa 35:2 It will be flowering like the rose; it will be full of delight and songs; the glory of Lebanon will be given to it; the pride of Carmel and Sharon: they will see the glory of the Lord, the power of our God. +Isa 35:3 Make strong the feeble hands, give support to the shaking knees. +Isa 35:4 Say to those who are full of fear, Be strong and take heart: see, your God will give punishment; the reward of God will come; he himself will come to be your saviour. +Isa 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind will see, and the ears which are stopped will be open. +Isa 35:6 Then will the feeble-footed be jumping like a roe, and the voice which was stopped will be loud in song: for in the waste land streams will be bursting out, and waters in the dry places. +Isa 35:7 And the burning sand will become a pool, and the dry earth springs of waters: the fields where the sheep take their food will become wet land, and water-plants will take the place of grass. +Isa 35:8 And a highway will be there; its name will be, The Holy Way; the unclean and the sinner may not go over it, and those who go on it will not be turned out of the way by the foolish. +Isa 35:9 No lion will be there, or any cruel beast; they will not be seen there; but those for whom the Lord has given a price, +Isa 35:10 Even those whom he has made free, will come back again; they will come with songs to Zion; on their heads will be eternal joy; delight and joy will be theirs, and sorrow and sounds of grief will be gone for ever. +Isa 36:1 And it came about in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up against all the walled towns of Judah and took them. +Isa 36:2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a strong force, and he took up his position by the stream of the higher pool, by the highway of the washerman's +Isa 36:3 And there came out to him Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder. +Isa 36:4 And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, These are the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: In what are you placing your hope? +Isa 36:5 You say you have a design and strength for war, but these are only words: now to whom are you looking for support, that you have gone against my authority? +Isa 36:6 See, you are basing your hope on that broken rod of Egypt, which will go into a man's hand if he makes use of it for a support; for so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who put their faith in him. +Isa 36:7 And if you say to me, Our hope is in the Lord our God; is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, saying to Judah and Jerusalem that worship may only be given before this altar? +Isa 36:8 And now, take a chance with my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to put horsemen on them. +Isa 36:9 How then may you put to shame the least of my master's servants? and you have put your hope in Egypt for war-carriages and horsemen: +Isa 36:10 And have I now come to send destruction on this land without the Lord's authority? It was the Lord himself who said to me, Go up against this land and make it waste. +Isa 36:11 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the Rab-shakeh, Please make use of the Aramaean language in talking to your servants, for we are used to it, and do not make use of the Jews' language in the hearing of the people on the wall. +Isa 36:12 But the Rab-shakeh said, Is it to your master or to you that my master has sent me to say these words? has he not sent me to the men seated on the wall? for they are the people who will be short of food with you when the town is shut in. +Isa 36:13 Then the Rab-shakeh got up and said with a loud voice in the Jews' language, Give ear to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: +Isa 36:14 This is what the king says: Do not be tricked by Hezekiah, for there is no salvation for you in him. +Isa 36:15 And do not let Hezekiah make you put your faith in the Lord, saying, The Lord will certainly keep us safe, and this town will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria. +Isa 36:16 Do not give ear to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says, Make peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone will be free to take the fruit of his vine and of his fig-tree, and the water of his spring; +Isa 36:17 Till I come and take you away to a land like yours, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vine-gardens. +Isa 36:18 Give no attention to Hezekiah when he says to you, The Lord will keep us safe. Has any one of the gods of the nations kept his land from falling into the hands of the king of Assyria? +Isa 36:19 Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? where are the gods of Samaria? and have they kept Samaria out of my hand? +Isa 36:20 Who among all the gods of these countries have kept their country from falling into my hand, to give cause for the thought that the Lord will keep Jerusalem from falling into my hand? +Isa 36:21 But they kept quiet and gave him no answer: for the king's order was, Give him no answer. +Isa 36:22 Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothing parted as a sign of grief, and gave him an account of what the Rab-shakeh had said. +Isa 37:1 And on hearing it Hezekiah took off his robe and put on haircloth and went into the house of the Lord. +Isa 37:2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the chief priests, dressed in haircloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. +Isa 37:3 And they said to him, Hezekiah says, This day is a day of trouble and punishment and shame: for the children are ready to come to birth, but there is no strength to give birth to them. +Isa 37:4 It may be that the Lord your God will give ear to the words of the Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to say evil things against the living God, and will make his words come to nothing: so make your prayer for the rest of the people. +Isa 37:5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. +Isa 37:6 And Isaiah said to them, This is what you are to say to your master: The Lord says, Be not troubled by the words which the servants of the king of Assyria have said against me in your hearing. +Isa 37:7 See, I will put a spirit into him, and bad news will come to his ears, and he will go back to his land; and there I will have him put to death. +Isa 37:8 So the Rab-shakeh went back, and when he got there the king of Assyria was making war against Libnah: for it had come to his ears that the king of Assyria had gone away from Lachish. +Isa 37:9 And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had made an attack on him, ... And he sent representatives to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying, +Isa 37:10 This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria. +Isa 37:11 No doubt the story has come to your ears of what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, putting them to the curse: and will you be kept safe from their fate? +Isa 37:12 Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? +Isa 37:13 Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the town of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivva? +Isa 37:14 And Hezekiah took the letter from the hands of those who had come with it; and after reading it, Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, opening the letter there before the Lord, +Isa 37:15 And he made prayer to the Lord, saying, +Isa 37:16 O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, seated between the winged ones, you only are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. +Isa 37:17 Let your ear be turned to us, O Lord; let your eyes be open, O Lord, and see: take note of all the words of Sennacherib who has sent men to say evil against the living God. +Isa 37:18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have made waste all the nations and their lands, +Isa 37:19 And have given their gods to the fire: for they were no gods, but wood and stone, the work of men's hands; so they have given them to destruction. +Isa 37:20 But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hand, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that you, and you only, are the Lord. +Isa 37:21 Then Isaiah, the son of Amoz, sent to Hezekiah, saying, The Lord, the God of Israel, says, The prayer you have made to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, has come to my ears. +Isa 37:22 This is the word which the Lord has said about him: In the eyes of the virgin daughter of Zion you are shamed and laughed at; the daughter of Jerusalem has made sport of you. +Isa 37:23 Against whom have you said evil and bitter things? and against whom has your voice been loud and your eyes lifted up? even against the Holy One of Israel. +Isa 37:24 You have sent your servants with evil words against the Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon; and its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its woods: I will come up into his highest places, into his thick woods. +Isa 37:25 I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry. +Isa 37:26 Has it not come to your ears how I did it long before, purposing it in times long past? Now I have given effect to my design, so that by you strong towns might be turned into masses of broken walls. +Isa 37:27 This is why their townsmen had no power, they were broken and put to shame; they were like the grass of the field, or a green plant; like the grass on the house-tops, which a cold wind makes waste. +Isa 37:28 But I have knowledge of your getting up and your resting, of your going out and your coming in. +Isa 37:29 Because your wrath against me and your pride have come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my cord in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way you came. +Isa 37:30 And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food this year from what comes up of itself, and in the second year from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will put in your seed, and get in the grain, and make vine-gardens, and take of their fruit. +Isa 37:31 And those of Judah who are still living will again take root in the earth, and give fruit. +Isa 37:32 For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will go out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done. +Isa 37:33 For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria, He will not come into this town, or send an arrow against it; he will not come before it with arms, or put up an earthwork against it. +Isa 37:34 By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get into this town. +Isa 37:35 For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour of my servant David. +Isa 37:36 And the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men: and when the people got up early in the morning, there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies. +Isa 37:37 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place at Nineveh. +Isa 37:38 And it came about, when he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to death with the sword, and they went in flight into the land of Ararat. And Esar-haddon, his son, became king in his place. +Isa 38:1 In those days Hezekiah was ill and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, The Lord says, Put your house in order; for your death is near. +Isa 38:2 And Hezekiah, turning his face to the wall, made his prayer to the Lord, saying, +Isa 38:3 O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah gave way to bitter weeping. +Isa 38:4 Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, +Isa 38:5 Go to Hezekiah, and say, The Lord, the God of David, your father, says, Your prayer has come to my ears, and I have seen your weeping: see, I will give you fifteen more years of life. +Isa 38:6 And I will keep you and this town safe from the hands of the king of Assyria: and I will keep watch over this town. +Isa 38:7 And Isaiah said, This is the sign the Lord will give you, that he will do what he has said: +Isa 38:8 See, I will make the shade which has gone down on the steps of Ahaz with the sun, go back ten steps. So the shade went back the ten steps by which it had gone down. +Isa 38:9 The writing of Hezekiah, king of Judah, after he had been ill, and had got better from his disease. +Isa 38:10 I said, In the quiet of my days I am going down into the underworld: the rest of my years are being taken away from me. +Isa 38:11 I said, I will not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living: I will not see man again or those living in the world. +Isa 38:12 My resting-place is pulled up and taken away from me like a herdsman's tent: my life is rolled up like a linen-worker's thread; I am cut off from the cloth on the frame: from day even to night you give me up to pain. +Isa 38:13 I am crying out with pain till the morning; it is as if a lion was crushing all my bones. +Isa 38:14 I make cries like a bird; I give out sounds of grief like a dove: my eyes are looking up with desire; O Lord, I am crushed, take up my cause. +Isa 38:15 What am I to say? seeing that it is he who has done it: all my time of sleeping I am turning from side to side without rest. +Isa 38:16 O Lord, for this cause I am waiting for you, give rest to my spirit: make me well again, and let me come back to life. +Isa 38:17 See, in place of peace my soul had bitter sorrow. but you have kept back my soul from the underworld; for you have put all my sins out of your memory. +Isa 38:18 For the underworld is not able to give you praise, death gives you no honour: for those who go down into the underworld there is no hope in your mercy. +Isa 38:19 The living, the living man, he will give you praise, as I do this day: the father will give the story of your mercy to his children. +Isa 38:20 O Lord, quickly be my saviour; so we will make my songs to corded instruments all the days of our lives in the house of the Lord. +Isa 38:21 And Isaiah said, Let them take a cake of figs, and put it on the diseased place, and he will get well. +Isa 38:22 And Hezekiah said, What is the sign that I will go up to the house of the Lord? +Isa 39:1 At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters with an offering to Hezekiah, because he had news that Hezekiah had been ill, and was well again. +Isa 39:2 And Hezekiah was glad at their coming, and let them see all his store of wealth, the silver and the gold and the spices and the oil, and all the house of his arms, and everything there was in his stores: there was nothing in all his house or his kingdom which he did not let them see. +Isa 39:3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, What did these men say, and where did they come from? And Hezekiah said, They came from a far country, even from Babylon. +Isa 39:4 And he said, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah said in answer, They saw everything in my house: there is nothing among my stores which I did not let them see. +Isa 39:5 Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Give ear to the word of the Lord of armies: +Isa 39:6 Truly, the days are coming when everything in your house, and whatever your fathers have put in store till this day, will be taken away to Babylon: all will be gone. +Isa 39:7 And your sons, even your offspring, will they take away to be unsexed servants in the house of the king of Babylon. +Isa 39:8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which you have said. And he said in his heart, There will be peace and quiet in my days. +Isa 40:1 Give comfort, give comfort, to my people, says your God. +Isa 40:2 Say kind words to the heart of Jerusalem, crying out to her that her time of trouble is ended, that her punishment is complete; that she has been rewarded by the Lord's hand twice over for all her sins. +Isa 40:3 A voice of one crying, Make ready in the waste land the way of the Lord, make level in the lowland a highway for our God. +Isa 40:4 Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low, and let the rough places become level, and the hilltops become a valley, +Isa 40:5 And the glory of the Lord will be made clear, and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has said it. +Isa 40:6 A voice of one saying, Give a cry! And I said, What is my cry to be? All flesh is grass, and all its strength like the flower of the field. +Isa 40:7 The grass becomes dry, the flower is dead; because the breath of the Lord goes over it: truly the people is grass. +Isa 40:8 The grass is dry, the flower is dead; but the word of our God is eternal. +Isa 40:9 You who give good news to Zion, get up into the high mountain; you who give good news to Jerusalem, let your voice be strong; let it be sounding without fear; say to the towns of Judah, See, your God! +Isa 40:10 See, the Lord God will come as a strong one, ruling in power: see, those made free by him are with him, and those whom he has made safe go before him. +Isa 40:11 He will give food to his flock like a keeper of sheep; with his arm he will get it together, and will take up the lambs on his breast, gently guiding those which are with young. +Isa 40:12 In the hollow of whose hand have the waters been measured? and who is able to take the heavens in his stretched-out fingers? who has got together the dust of the earth in a measure? who has taken the weight of the mountains, or put the hills into the scales? +Isa 40:13 By whom has the spirit of the Lord been guided, or who has been his teacher? +Isa 40:14 Who gave him suggestions, and made clear to him the right way? who gave him knowledge, guiding him in the way of wisdom? +Isa 40:15 See, the nations are to him like a drop hanging from a bucket, and like the small dust in the scales: he takes up the islands like small dust. +Isa 40:16 And Lebanon is not enough to make a fire with, or all its cattle enough for a burned offering. +Isa 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before him; even less than nothing, a thing of no value. +Isa 40:18 Whom then is God like, in your opinion? or what will you put forward as a comparison with him? +Isa 40:19 The workman makes an image, and the gold-worker puts gold plates over it, and makes silver bands for it. +Isa 40:20 The wise workman makes selection of the mulberry-tree of the offering, a wood which will not become soft; so that the image may be fixed to it and not be moved. +Isa 40:21 Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your ears? has not news of it been given to you from the first? has it not been clear to you from the time when the earth was placed on its base? +Isa 40:22 It is he who is seated over the arch of the earth, and the people in it are as small as locusts; by him the heavens are stretched out like an arch, and made ready like a tent for a living-place. +Isa 40:23 He makes rulers come to nothing; the judges of the earth are of no value. +Isa 40:24 They have only now been planted, and their seed put into the earth, and they have only now taken root, when he sends out his breath over them and they become dry, and the storm-wind takes them away like dry grass. +Isa 40:25 Who then seems to you to be my equal? says the Holy One. +Isa 40:26 Let your eyes be lifted up on high, and see: who has made these? He who sends out their numbered army: who has knowledge of all their names: by whose great strength, because he is strong in power, all of them are in their places. +Isa 40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob, such words as these, O Israel, The Lord's eyes are not on my way, and my God gives no attention to my cause? +Isa 40:28 Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your ears? The eternal God, the Lord, the Maker of the ends of the earth, is never feeble or tired; there is no searching out of his wisdom. +Isa 40:29 He gives power to the feeble, increasing the strength of him who has no force. +Isa 40:30 Even the young men will become feeble and tired, and the best of them will come to the end of his strength; +Isa 40:31 But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. +Isa 41:1 Come quietly before me, O sea-lands, and let the peoples get together their strength: let them come near; then let them say what they have to say: let us put forward our cause against one another. +Isa 41:2 Who sent out from the east one who is right wherever he goes? he gives the nations into his hands, and makes him ruler over kings; he gives them as the dust to his sword, as dry stems before the wind to his bow. +Isa 41:3 He goes after them safely, not touching the road with his feet. +Isa 41:4 Whose purpose and work was it? His who sent out the generations from the start. I the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he. +Isa 41:5 The sea-lands saw it, and were in fear; the ends of the earth were shaking: they came near. +Isa 41:6 They gave help everyone to his neighbour; and everyone said to his brother, Take heart! +Isa 41:7 So the metal-worker put heart into the gold-worker, and he who was hammering the metal smooth said kind words to the iron-worker, saying of the plate, It is ready: and he put it together with nails, so that there might be no slipping. +Isa 41:8 But as for you, Israel, my servant, and you, Jacob, whom I have taken for myself, the seed of Abraham my friend: +Isa 41:9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and sent for from its farthest parts, saying to you, You are my servant, whom I have taken for myself, and whom I have not given up: +Isa 41:10 Have no fear, for I am with you; do not be looking about in trouble, for I am your God; I will give you strength, yes, I will be your helper; yes, my true right hand will be your support. +Isa 41:11 Truly, all those who are angry with you will be made low and put to shame: those desiring to do you wrong will come to nothing and never again be seen. +Isa 41:12 You will make search for your haters but they will not be there; those who make war against you will be as nothing and will come to destruction. +Isa 41:13 For I, the Lord your God, have taken your right hand in mine, saying to you, Have no fear; I will be your helper. +Isa 41:14 Have no fear, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; I will be your helper, says the Lord, even he who takes up your cause, the Holy One of Israel. +Isa 41:15 See, I will make you like a new grain-crushing instrument with teeth, crushing the mountains small, and making the hills like dry stems. +Isa 41:16 You will send the wind over them, and it will take them away; they will go in all directions before the storm-wind: you will have joy in the Lord, and be glad in the Holy One of Israel. +Isa 41:17 The poor and crushed are looking for water where no water is, and their tongue is dry for need of it: I the Lord will give ear to their prayer, I the God of Israel will not give them up. +Isa 41:18 I will make rivers on the dry mountain-tops, and fountains in the valleys: I will make the waste land a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. +Isa 41:19 I will put in the waste land the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive-tree; and in the lowland will be planted the fir-tree, the plane, and the cypress together: +Isa 41:20 So that they may see and be wise and give their mind to it, and that it may be clear to them all that the hand of the Lord has done this, and that the Holy One of Israel has made it. +Isa 41:21 Put forward your cause, says the Lord; let your strong argument come out, says the King of Jacob. +Isa 41:22 Let the future be made clear to us: give us news of the past things, so that we may give thought to them; or of the things to come, so that we may see if they are true. +Isa 41:23 Give us word of what will be after this, so that we may be certain that you are gods: yes, do good or do evil, so that we may all see it and be surprised. +Isa 41:24 But you are nothing, and your work is of no value: foolish is he who takes you for his gods. +Isa 41:25 I have sent for one from the north, and from the dawn he has come; in my name he will get rulers together and go against them; they will be like dust, even as the wet earth is stamped on by the feet of the potter. +Isa 41:26 Who has given knowledge of it from the first, so that we may be certain of it? and from the start, so that we may say, His word is true? There is no one who gives news, or says anything, or who gives ear to your words. +Isa 41:27 I was the first to give word of it to Zion, and I gave the good news to Jerusalem. +Isa 41:28 And I saw that there was no man, even no wise man among them, who might give an answer to my questions. +Isa 41:29 Truly they are all nothing, their works are nothing and of no value: their metal images are of no more use than wind. +Isa 42:1 See my servant, whom I am supporting, my loved one, in whom I take delight: I have put my spirit on him; he will give the knowledge of the true God to the nations. +Isa 42:2 He will make no cry, his voice will not be loud: his words will not come to men's ears in the streets. +Isa 42:3 He will not let a crushed stem be quite broken, and he will not let a feebly burning light be put out: he will go on sending out the true word to the peoples. +Isa 42:4 His light will not be put out, and he will not be crushed, till he has given the knowledge of the true God to the earth, and the sea-lands will be waiting for his teaching. +Isa 42:5 God the Lord, even he who made the heavens, measuring them out on high; stretching out the earth, and giving its produce; he who gives breath to the people on it, and life to those who go about on it, says: +Isa 42:6 I the Lord have made you the vessel of my purpose, I have taken you by the hand, and kept you safe, and I have given you to be an agreement to the people, and a light to the nations: +Isa 42:7 To give eyes to the blind, to make free the prisoners from the prison, to let out those who are shut up in the dark. +Isa 42:8 I am the Lord; that is my name: I will not give my glory to another, or my praise to pictured images. +Isa 42:9 See, the things said before have come about, and now I give word of new things: before they come I give you news of them. +Isa 42:10 Make a new song to the Lord, and let his praise be sounded from the end of the earth; you who go down to the sea, and everything in it, the sea-lands and their people. +Isa 42:11 Let the waste land and its flocks be glad, the tent-circles of Kedar; let the people of the rock give a glad cry, from the top of the mountains let them make a sound of joy. +Isa 42:12 Let them give glory to the Lord, sounding his praise in the sea-lands. +Isa 42:13 The Lord will go out as a man of war, he will be moved to wrath like a fighting-man: his voice will be strong, he will give a loud cry; he will go against his attackers like a man of war. +Isa 42:14 I have long been quiet, I have kept myself in and done nothing: now I will make sounds of pain like a woman in childbirth, breathing hard and quickly. +Isa 42:15 I will make waste mountains and hills, drying up all their plants; and I will make rivers dry, and pools dry land. +Isa 42:16 And I will take the blind by a way of which they had no knowledge, guiding them by roads strange to them: I will make the dark places light before them, and the rough places level. These things will I do and will not give them up. +Isa 42:17 They will be turned back and be greatly shamed who put their hope in pictured images, who say to metal images, You are our gods. +Isa 42:18 Give ear, you whose ears are shut; and let your eyes be open, you blind, so that you may see. +Isa 42:19 Who is blind, but my servant? who has his ears stopped, but he whom I send? who is blind as my true one, or who has his ears shut like the Lord's servant? +Isa 42:20 Seeing much, but keeping nothing in mind; his ears are open, but there is no hearing. +Isa 42:21 It was the Lord's pleasure, because of his righteousness, to make the teaching great and give it honour. +Isa 42:22 But this is a people whose property has been taken away from them by force; they are all taken in holes, and shut up in prisons: they are made prisoners, and no one makes them free; they are taken by force and no one says, Give them back. +Isa 42:23 Who is there among you who will give ear to this? who will give attention to it for the time to come? +Isa 42:24 Who gave up Jacob to those who took away his goods, and Israel to his attackers? Did not the Lord? he against whom they did wrong, and in whose ways they would not go, turning away from his teaching. +Isa 42:25 For this reason he let loose on him the heat of his wrath, and his strength was like a flame; and it put fire round about him, but he did not see it; he was burned, but did not take it to heart. +Isa 43:1 But now, says the Lord your Maker, O Jacob, and your life-giver, O Israel: have no fear, for I have taken up your cause; naming you by your name, I have made you mine. +Isa 43:2 When you go through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not go over you: when you go through the fire, you will not be burned; and the flame will have no power over you. +Isa 43:3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your saviour; I have given Egypt as a price for you, Ethiopia and Seba for you. +Isa 43:4 Because of your value in my eyes, you have been honoured, and loved by me; so I will give men for you, and peoples for your life. +Isa 43:5 Have no fear, for I am with you: I will take your seed from the east, and get you together from the west; +Isa 43:6 I will say to the north, Give them up; and to the south, Do not keep them back; send back my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth; +Isa 43:7 Every one who is named by my name, and whom I have made for my glory, who has been formed and designed by me. +Isa 43:8 Send out the blind people who have eyes, and those who have ears, but they are shut. +Isa 43:9 Let all the nations come together, and let the peoples be present: who among them is able to make this clear, and give us word of earlier things? let their witnesses come forward, so that they may be seen to be true, and that they may give ear, and say, It is true. +Isa 43:10 You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have taken for myself: so that you may see and have faith in me, and that it may be clear to you that I am he; before me there was no God formed, and there will not be after me. +Isa 43:11 I, even I, am the Lord; and there is no saviour but me. +Isa 43:12 I gave the word, and made it clear, and there was no strange god among you: for this reason you are my witnesses, says the Lord. +Isa 43:13 From time long past I am God, and from this day I am he: there is no one who is able to take you out of my hand: when I undertake a thing, by whom will my purpose be changed? +Isa 43:14 The Lord, who has taken up your cause, the Holy One of Israel, says, Because of you I have sent to Babylon, and made all their seers come south, and the Chaldaeans whose cry is in the ships. +Isa 43:15 I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Maker of Israel, your King. +Isa 43:16 This is the word of the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, and a road through the deep waters; +Isa 43:17 Who sends out the war-carriages and the horses, the army with all its force; they have come down, they will not get up again; like a feebly burning light they are put out. +Isa 43:18 Give no thought to the things which are past; let the early times go out of your minds. +Isa 43:19 See, I am doing a new thing; now it is starting; will you not take note of it? I will even make a way in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country. +Isa 43:20 The beasts of the field will give me honour, the jackals and the ostriches: because I send out waters in the waste land, and rivers in the dry country, to give drink to the people whom I have taken for myself: +Isa 43:21 Even the people whom I made to be the witnesses of my praise. +Isa 43:22 But you have made no prayer to me, O Jacob: and you have given no thought to me, O Israel. +Isa 43:23 You have not made me burned offerings of sheep, or given me honour with your offerings of beasts; I did not make you servants to give me an offering, and I did not make you tired with requests for perfumes. +Isa 43:24 You have not got me sweet-smelling plants with your money, or given me pleasure with the fat of your offerings: but you have made me a servant to your sins, and you have made me tired with your evil doings. +Isa 43:25 I, even I, am he who takes away your sins; and I will no longer keep your evil doings in mind. +Isa 43:26 Put me in mind of this; let us take up the cause between us: put forward your cause, so that you may be seen to be in the right. +Isa 43:27 Your first father was a sinner, and your guides have gone against my word. +Isa 43:28 Your chiefs have made my holy place unclean, so I have made Jacob a curse, and Israel a thing of shame. +Isa 44:1 And now, give ear, O Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have taken for myself: +Isa 44:2 The Lord who made you, forming you in your mother's body, the Lord, your helper, says, Have no fear, O Jacob my servant, and you, Jeshurun, whom I have taken for myself. +Isa 44:3 For I will send water on the land needing it, and streams on the dry earth: I will let my spirit come down on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring. +Isa 44:4 And they will come up like grass in a well-watered field, like water-plants by the streams. +Isa 44:5 One will say, I am the Lord's; and another will give himself the name, Jacob; another will put a mark on his hand, I am the Lord's, and another will take the name of Israel for himself. +Isa 44:6 The Lord, the King of Israel, even the Lord of armies who has taken up his cause, says, I am the first and the last, and there is no God but me. +Isa 44:7 If there is one like me, let him come forward and say it, let him make it clear and put it in order before me: who has made clear in the past the things to come? let him make clear the future to me. +Isa 44:8 Have no fear, be strong in heart; have I not made it clear to you in the past, and let you see it? and you are my witnesses. Is there any God but me, or a Rock of whom I have no knowledge? +Isa 44:9 Those who make a pictured image are all of them as nothing, and the things of their desire will be of no profit to them: and their servants see not, and have no knowledge; so they will be put to shame. +Isa 44:10 Whoever makes a god, makes nothing but a metal image in which there is no profit. +Isa 44:11 Truly, all those who make use of secret arts will be put to shame, and their words of power are only words of men: let them all come forward together; they will all be in fear and be put to shame. +Isa 44:12 The iron-worker is heating the metal in the fire, giving it form with his hammers, and working on it with his strong arm: then for need of food his strength gives way, and for need of water he becomes feeble. +Isa 44:13 The woodworker is measuring out the wood with his line, marking it out with his pencil: after smoothing it with his plane, and making circles on it with his instrument, he gives it the form and glory of a man, so that it may be placed in the house. +Isa 44:14 He has cedars cut down for himself, he takes an oak and lets it get strong among the trees of the wood; he has an ash-tree planted, and the rain gives it growth. +Isa 44:15 Then it will be used to make a fire, so that a man may get warm; he has the oven heated with it and makes bread: he makes a god with it, to which he gives worship: he makes a pictured image out of it, and goes down on his face before it. +Isa 44:16 With part of it he makes a fire, and on the fire he gets meat cooked and takes a full meal: he makes himself warm, and says, Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire: +Isa 44:17 And the rest of it he makes into a god, even his pictured image: he goes down on his face before it, giving worship to it, and making prayer to it, saying, Be my saviour; for you are my god. +Isa 44:18 They have no knowledge or wisdom; for he has put a veil over their eyes, so that they may not see; and on their hearts, so that they may not give attention. +Isa 44:19 And no one takes note, no one has enough knowledge or wisdom to say, I have put part of it in the fire, and made bread on it; I have had a meal of the flesh cooked with it: and am I now to make the rest of it into a false god? am I to go down on my face before a bit of wood? +Isa 44:20 As for him whose food is the dust of a dead fire, he has been turned from the way by a twisted mind, so that he is unable to keep himself safe by saying, What I have here in my hand is false. +Isa 44:21 Keep these things in mind, O Jacob; and you Israel, for you are my servant: I have made you; you are my servant; O Israel, I will not let you go out of my memory. +Isa 44:22 I have put your evil doings out of my mind like a thick cloud, and your sins like a mist: come back to me; for I have taken up your cause. +Isa 44:23 Make a song, O heavens, for the Lord has done it: give a loud cry, you deep parts of the earth: let your voices be loud in song, you mountains, and you woods with all your trees: for the Lord has taken up the cause of Jacob, and will let his glory be seen in Israel. +Isa 44:24 The Lord, who has taken up your cause, and who gave you life in your mother's body, says, I am the Lord who makes all things; stretching out the heavens by myself, and giving the earth its limits; who was with me? +Isa 44:25 Who makes the signs of those who give word of the future come to nothing, so that those who have knowledge of secret arts go off their heads; turning the wise men back, and making their knowledge foolish: +Isa 44:26 Who makes the word of his servants certain, and gives effect to the purposes of his representatives; who says of Jerusalem, Her people will come back to her; and of the towns of Judah, I will give orders for their building, and will make her waste places fertile again: +Isa 44:27 Who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will make your rivers dry: +Isa 44:28 Who says of Cyrus, He will take care of my sheep, and will do all my pleasure: who says of Jerusalem, I will give the word for your building; and of the Temple, Your bases will be put in place. +Isa 45:1 The Lord says to the man of his selection, to Cyrus, whom I have taken by the right hand, putting down nations before him, and taking away the arms of kings; making the doors open before him, so that the ways into the towns may not be shut; +Isa 45:2 I will go before you, and make the rough places level: the doors of brass will be broken, and the iron rods cut in two: +Isa 45:3 And I will give you the stores of the dark, and the wealth of secret places, so that you may be certain that I am the Lord, who gave you your name, even the God of Israel. +Isa 45:4 Because of Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have taken for myself, I have sent for you by name, giving you a name of honour, though you had no knowledge of me. +Isa 45:5 I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but me: I will make you ready for war, though you had no knowledge of me: +Isa 45:6 So that they may see from the east and from the west that there is no God but me: I am the Lord, and there is no other. +Isa 45:7 I am the giver of light and the maker of the dark; causing blessing, and sending troubles; I am the Lord, who does all these things. +Isa 45:8 Let righteousness come down, O heavens, from on high, and let the sky send it down like rain: let the earth be open to give the fruit of salvation, causing righteousness to come up with it; I the Lord have made it come about. +Isa 45:9 Cursed is he who has an argument with his Maker, the pot which has an argument with the Potter! Will the wet earth say to him who is working with it, What are you doing, that your work has nothing by which it may be gripped? +Isa 45:10 Cursed is he who says to a father, To what are you giving life? or to a woman, What are you in birth-pains with? +Isa 45:11 The Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, says, Will you put a question to me about the things which are to come, or will you give me orders about my sons, and the work of my hands? +Isa 45:12 I have made the earth, forming man on it: by my hands the heavens have been stretched out, and all the stars put in their ordered places. +Isa 45:13 I have sent him out to overcome the nations, and I will make all his ways straight: I will give him the work of building my town, and he will let my prisoners go free, without price or reward, says the Lord of armies. +Isa 45:14 The Lord says, The workmen of Egypt, and the traders of Ethiopia, and the tall Sabaeans, will come over the sea to you, and they will be yours; they will go after you; in chains they will come over: and they will go down on their faces before you, and will make prayer to you, saying, Truly, God is among you; and there is no other God. +Isa 45:15 Truly, you have a secret God, the God of Israel is a Saviour! +Isa 45:16 All those who have gone against him will be put to shame; the makers of images will be made low. +Isa 45:17 But the Lord will make Israel free with an eternal salvation: you will not be put to shame or made low for ever and ever. +Isa 45:18 For this is the word of the Lord who made the heavens; he is God; the maker and designer of the earth; who made it not to be a waste, but as a living-place for man: I am the Lord, and there is no other. +Isa 45:19 I have not given my word in secret, in a place in the underworld; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, Go into a waste land to make request of me: I the Lord say what is true, my word is righteousness. +Isa 45:20 Come together, even come near, you nations who are still living: they have no knowledge who take up their image of wood, and make prayer to a god in whom is no salvation. +Isa 45:21 Give the word, put forward your cause, let us have a discussion together: who has given news of this in the past? who made it clear in early times? did not I, the Lord? and there is no God but me; a true God and a saviour; there is no other. +Isa 45:22 Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have salvation, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other. +Isa 45:23 By myself have I taken an oath, a true word has gone from my mouth, and will not be changed, that to me every knee will be bent, and every tongue will give honour. +Isa 45:24 Only in the Lord will Jacob overcome and be strong: together all those who were angry with him will be put to shame and come to destruction. +Isa 45:25 In the Lord will all the seed of Israel get their rights, and they will give glory to him. +Isa 46:1 Bel is bent down, Nebo is falling; their images are on the beasts and on the cattle: the things which you took about have become a weight to the tired beast. +Isa 46:2 They are bent down, they are falling together: they were not able to keep their images safe, but they themselves have been taken prisoner. +Isa 46:3 Give ear to me, O family of Jacob, and all the rest of the people of Israel, who have been supported by me from their birth, and have been my care from their earliest days: +Isa 46:4 Even when you are old I will be the same, and when you are grey-haired I will take care of you: I will still be responsible for what I made; yes, I will take you and keep you safe. +Isa 46:5 Who in your eyes is my equal? or what comparison will you make with me? +Isa 46:6 As for those who take gold out of a bag, and put silver in the scales, they give payment to a gold-worker, to make it into a god; they go down on their faces and give it worship. +Isa 46:7 They put him on their backs, and take him up, and put him in his fixed place, from which he may not be moved; if a man gives a cry for help to him, he is unable to give an answer, or get him out of his trouble. +Isa 46:8 Keep this in mind and be shamed; let it come back to your memory, you sinners. +Isa 46:9 Let the things which are past come to your memory: for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me; +Isa 46:10 Making clear from the first what is to come, and from past times the things which have not so far come about; saying, My purpose is fixed, and I will do all my pleasure; +Isa 46:11 Sending for a bird of strong flight from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country; I have said it, and I will give effect to it; the thing designed by me will certainly be done. +Isa 46:12 Give ear to me, you feeble-hearted, who have no faith in my righteousness: +Isa 46:13 My righteousness is near, it is not far off; salvation will come quickly; and I will make Zion free, and give Israel my glory. +Isa 47:1 Come and take your seat in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; come down from your seat of power, and take your place on the earth, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you will never again seem soft and delicate. +Isa 47:2 Take the crushing-stones and get the meal crushed: take off your veil, put away your robe, let your legs be uncovered, go through the rivers. +Isa 47:3 The shame of your unclothed condition will be seen by all: I will give punishment without mercy, +Isa 47:4 Says the Lord who takes up our cause; the Lord of armies is his name, the Holy One of Israel. +Isa 47:5 Be seated in the dark without a word, O daughter of the Chaldaeans: for you will no longer be named, The Queen of Kingdoms. +Isa 47:6 I was angry with my people, I put shame on my heritage, and gave them into your hands: you had no mercy on them; you put a cruel yoke on those who were old; +Isa 47:7 And you said, I will be a queen for ever: you did not give attention to these things, and did not keep in mind what would come after. +Isa 47:8 So now take note of this, you who are given up to pleasure, living without fear of evil, saying in your heart, I am, and there is no one like me; I will never be a widow, or have my children taken from me. +Isa 47:9 But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day, the loss of children and of husband: in full measure they will come on you, for all your secret arts, and all your wonders. +Isa 47:10 For you had faith in your evil-doing; you said, No one sees me; by your wisdom and knowledge you have been turned out of the way: and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is no other. +Isa 47:11 Because of this evil will come on you, which may not be turned away for any price: and trouble will overtake you, from which no money will give salvation: destruction will come on you suddenly, without your knowledge. +Isa 47:12 Go on now with your secret arts, and all your wonder-working, to which you have given yourself up from your earliest days; it may be that they will be of profit to you, or by them you may put fear into your attackers. +Isa 47:13 But your mind is troubled by the number of your guides: let them now come forward for your salvation: the measurers of the heavens, the watchers of the stars, and those who are able to say from month to month what things are coming on you. +Isa 47:14 Truly, they have become like dry stems, they have been burned in the fire; they are not able to keep themselves safe from the power of the flame: it is not a coal for warming them, or a fire by which a man may be seated. +Isa 47:15 Small profit have you had from those who, from your earliest days, got great profit out of you; they have gone in flight, every one straight before him, and you have no saviour. +Isa 48:1 Give ear to this, O family of Jacob, you who are named by the name of Israel, and have come out of the body of Judah; who take oaths by the name of the Lord, and make use of the name of the God of Israel, but not truly and not in good faith. +Isa 48:2 For they say that they are of the holy town, and put their faith in the God of Israel: the Lord of armies is his name. +Isa 48:3 I gave word in the past of the things which came about; they came from my mouth, and I made them clear: suddenly I did them, and they came about. +Isa 48:4 Because I saw that your heart was hard, and that your neck was an iron cord, and your brow brass; +Isa 48:5 For this reason I made it clear to you in the past, before it came I gave you word of it: for fear that you might say, My god did these things, and my pictured and metal images made them come about. +Isa 48:6 All this has come to your ears and you have seen it; will you not give witness to it? I am now making clear new things, even secret things, of which you had no knowledge. +Isa 48:7 They have only now been effected, and not in the past: and before this day they had not come to your ears; for fear that you might say, I had knowledge of them. +Isa 48:8 Truly you had no word of them, no knowledge of them; no news of them in the past had come to your ears; because I saw how false was your behaviour, and that your heart was turned against me from your earliest days. +Isa 48:9 Because of my name I will put away my wrath, and for my praise I will keep myself from cutting you off. +Isa 48:10 See, I have been testing you for myself like silver; I have put you through the fire of trouble. +Isa 48:11 For myself, even because of my name, I will do it; for I will not let my name be shamed; and my glory I will not give to another. +Isa 48:12 Give ear to me, Jacob, and Israel, my loved one; I am he, I am the first and I am the last. +Isa 48:13 Yes, by my hand was the earth placed on its base, and by my right hand the heavens were stretched out; at my word they take up their places. +Isa 48:14 Come together, all of you, and give ear; who among you has given news of these things? the Lord's loved one will do his pleasure with Babylon, and with the seed of the Chaldaeans. +Isa 48:15 I, even I, have given the word; I have sent for him: I have made him come, and have given effect to his undertakings. +Isa 48:16 Come near to me, and give ear to this; from the start I did not keep it secret; from the time of its coming into existence I was there: and now the Lord God has sent me, and given me his spirit. +Isa 48:17 The Lord who takes up your cause, the Holy One of Israel, says, I am the Lord your God, who is teaching you for your profit, guiding you by the way in which you are to go. +Isa 48:18 If only you had given ear to my orders, then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea: +Isa 48:19 Your seed would have been like the sand, and your offspring like the dust: your name would not be cut off or come to an end before me. +Isa 48:20 Go out of Babylon, go in flight from the Chaldaeans; with the sound of song make it clear, give the news, let the word go out even to the end of the earth: say, The Lord has taken up the cause of his servant Jacob. +Isa 48:21 They had no need of water when he was guiding them through the waste lands: he made water come out of the rock for them: the rock was parted and the waters came flowing out. +Isa 48:22 There is no peace, says the Lord, for the evil-doers. +Isa 49:1 Give ear, O sea-lands, to me; and take note, you peoples from far: I have been marked out by the Lord from the first; when I was still in my mother's body, he had my name in mind: +Isa 49:2 And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shade of his hand he has kept me; and he has made me like a polished arrow, keeping me in his secret place; +Isa 49:3 And he said to me, You are my servant, Israel, in whom my glory will be seen; +Isa 49:4 And I said, I have undergone weariness for nothing, I have given my strength for no purpose or profit: but still the Lord will take up my cause, and my God will give me my reward. +Isa 49:5 And now, says the Lord, who made me his servant when I was still in my mother's body, so that I might make Jacob come back to him, and so that Israel might come together to him: and I was honoured in the eyes of the Lord, and my God became my strength. +Isa 49:6 It is not enough for one who is my servant to put the tribes of Jacob again in their place, and to get back those of Israel who have been sent away: my purpose is to give you as a light to the nations, so that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth. +Isa 49:7 The Lord who takes up Israel's cause, even his Holy One, says to him whom men make sport of, who is hated by the nations, a servant of rulers: Kings will see and get up from their places, and chiefs will give worship: because of the Lord who keeps faith; even the Holy One of Israel who has taken you for himself. +Isa 49:8 This is the word of the Lord: I have given ear to you at a good time, and I have been your helper in a day of salvation: and I will keep you safe, and will make you a glory for the people, putting the land in order, and giving them the heritages which now are waste; +Isa 49:9 Saying to those who are in chains, Go free; to those who are in the dark, Come out into the light. They will get food by the way wherever they go, and have grass-lands on all the dry mountain-tops. +Isa 49:10 They will not be in need of food or drink, or be troubled by the heat or the sun: for he who has mercy on them will be their guide, taking them by the springs of water. +Isa 49:11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways will be lifted up. +Isa 49:12 See, these are coming from far; and these from the north and the west; and these from the land of Sinim. +Isa 49:13 Let your voice be loud in song, O heavens; and be glad, O earth; make sounds of joy, O mountains, for the Lord has given comfort to his people, and will have mercy on his crushed ones. +Isa 49:14 But Zion said, The Lord has given me up, I have gone from his memory. +Isa 49:15 Will a woman give up the child at her breast, will she be without pity for the fruit of her body? yes, these may, but I will not let you go out of my memory. +Isa 49:16 See, your name is marked on my hands; your walls are ever before me. +Isa 49:17 Your builders are coming quickly; your haters and those who made you waste will go out of you. +Isa 49:18 Let your eyes be lifted up round about, and see: they are all coming together to you. By my life, says the Lord, truly you will put them all on you as an ornament, and be clothed with them like a bride. +Isa 49:19 For though the waste places of your land have been given to destruction, now you will not be wide enough for your people, and those who made you waste will be far away. +Isa 49:20 The children to whom you gave birth in other lands will say in your ears, The place is not wide enough for me: make room for me to have a resting-place. +Isa 49:21 Then you will say in your heart, Who has given me all these children? when my children had been taken from me, and I was no longer able to have others, who took care of these? when I was by myself, where then were these? +Isa 49:22 This is the word of the Lord God: See, I will make a sign with my hand to the nations, and put up my flag for the peoples; and they will take up your sons on their beasts, and your daughters on their backs. +Isa 49:23 And kings will take care of you, and queens will give you their milk: they will go down on their faces before you, kissing the dust of your feet; and you will be certain that I am the Lord, and that those who put their hope in me will not be shamed. +Isa 49:24 Will the goods of war be taken from the strong man, or the prisoners of the cruel one be let go? +Isa 49:25 But the Lord says, Even the prisoners of the strong will be taken from him, and the cruel made to let go his goods: for I will take up your cause against your haters, and I will keep your children safe. +Isa 49:26 And the flesh of your attackers will be taken by themselves for food; and they will take their blood for drink, as if it was sweet wine: and all men will see that I the Lord am your saviour, even he who takes up your cause, the Strong One of Jacob. +Isa 50:1 This is the word of the Lord: Where is the statement which I gave your mother when I put her away? or to which of my creditors have I given you for money? It was for your sins that you were given into the hands of others, and for your evil-doing was your mother put away. +Isa 50:2 Why, then, when I came, was there no man? and no one to give answer to my voice? has my hand become feeble, so that it is unable to take up your cause? or have I no power to make you free? See, at my word the sea becomes dry, I make the rivers a waste land: their fish are dead for need of water, and make an evil smell. +Isa 50:3 By me the heavens are clothed with black, and I make haircloth their robe. +Isa 50:4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are experienced, so that I may be able to give the word a special sense for the feeble: every morning my ear is open to his teaching, like those who are experienced: +Isa 50:5 And I have not put myself against him, or let my heart be turned back from him. +Isa 50:6 I was offering my back to those who gave me blows, and my face to those who were pulling out my hair: I did not keep my face covered from marks of shame. +Isa 50:7 For the Lord God is my helper; I will not be put to shame: so I have made my face like a rock, and I am certain that he will give me my right. +Isa 50:8 He who takes up my cause is near; who will go to law with me? let us come together before the judge: who is against me? let him come near to me. +Isa 50:9 See, the Lord God is my helper; who will give a decision against me? truly, all of them will become old like a robe; they will be food for the worm. +Isa 50:10 Who among you has the fear of the Lord, giving ear to the voice of his servant who has been walking in the dark and has no light? Let him put his faith in the name of the Lord, looking to his God for support. +Isa 50:11 See, all you who make a fire, arming yourselves with burning branches: go in the flame of your fire, and among the branches you have put a light to. This will you have from my hand, you will make your bed in sorrow. +Isa 51:1 Give ear to me, you who are searching for righteousness, who are looking for the Lord: see the rock from which you were cut out, and the hole out of which you were taken. +Isa 51:2 Let your thoughts be turned to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth: for when he was but one, my voice came to him, and I gave him my blessing, and made him a great people. +Isa 51:3 For the Lord has given comfort to Zion: he has made glad all her broken walls; making her waste places like Eden, and changing her dry land into the garden of the Lord; joy and delight will be there, praise and the sound of melody. +Isa 51:4 Give attention to me, O my people; and give ear to me, O my nation; for teaching will go out from me, and the knowledge of the true God will be a light to the peoples. +Isa 51:5 Suddenly will my righteousness come near, and my salvation will be shining out like the light; the sea-lands will be waiting for me, and they will put their hope in my strong arm. +Isa 51:6 Let your eyes be lifted up to the heavens, and turned to the earth which is under them: for the heavens will go in flight like smoke, and the earth will become old like a coat, and its people will come to destruction like insects: but my salvation will be for ever, and my righteousness will not come to an end. +Isa 51:7 Give ear to me, you who have knowledge of righteousness, in whose heart is my law; have no fear of the evil words of men, and give no thought to their curses. +Isa 51:8 For like a coat they will be food for the insect, the worm will make a meal of them like wool: but my righteousness will be for ever, and my salvation to all generations. +Isa 51:9 Awake! awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord, awake! as in the old days, in the generations long past. Was it not by you that Rahab was cut in two, and the dragon Wounded? +Isa 51:10 Did you not make the sea dry, the waters of the great deep? did you not make the deep waters of the sea a way for the Lord's people to go through? +Isa 51:11 Those whom the Lord has made free will come back with songs to Zion; and on their heads will be eternal joy: delight and joy will be theirs, and sorrow and sounds of grief will be gone for ever. +Isa 51:12 I, even I, am your comforter: are you so poor in heart as to be in fear of man who will come to an end, and of the son of man who will be like grass? +Isa 51:13 And you have given no thought to the Lord your Maker, by whom the heavens were stretched out, and the earth placed on its base; and you went all day in fear of the wrath of the cruel one, when he was making ready for your destruction. And where is the wrath of the cruel one? +Isa 51:14 The prisoner, bent under his chain, will quickly be made free, and will not go down into the underworld, and his bread will not come to an end. +Isa 51:15 For I am the Lord your God, who makes the sea calm when its waves are thundering: the Lord of armies is his name. +Isa 51:16 And I have put my words in your mouth, covering you with the shade of my hand, stretching out the heavens, and placing the earth on its base, and saying to Zion, You are my people. +Isa 51:17 Awake! awake! up! O Jerusalem, you who have taken from the Lord's hand the cup of his wrath; tasting in full measure the wine which overcomes. +Isa 51:18 She has no one among all her children to be her guide; not one of the sons she has taken care of takes her by the hand. +Isa 51:19 These two things have come on you; who will be weeping for you? wasting and destruction; death from need of food, and from the sword; how may you be comforted? +Isa 51:20 Your sons are overcome, like a roe in a net; they are full of the wrath of the Lord, the punishment of your God. +Isa 51:21 So now give ear to this, you who are troubled and overcome, but not with wine: +Isa 51:22 This is the word of the Lord your master, even your God who takes up the cause of his people: See, I have taken out of your hand the cup which overcomes, even the cup of my wrath; it will not again be given to you: +Isa 51:23 And I will put it into the hand of your cruel masters, and of those whose yoke has been hard on you; who have said to your soul, Down on your face! so that we may go over you: and you have given your backs like the earth, even like the street, for them to go over. +Isa 52:1 Awake! awake! put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful robes, O Jerusalem, the holy town: for from now there will never again come into you the unclean and those without circumcision. +Isa 52:2 Make yourself clean from the dust; up! and take the seat of your power, O Jerusalem: the bands of your neck are loose, O prisoned daughter of Zion. +Isa 52:3 For the Lord says, You were given for nothing, and you will be made free without price. +Isa 52:4 For the Lord God says, My people went down at first into Egypt, to get a place for themselves there: and the Assyrian put a cruel yoke on them without cause. +Isa 52:5 Now then, what have I here? says the Lord, for my people are taken away without cause; they are made waste and give cries of sorrow, says the Lord, and all the day the nations put shame on my name. +Isa 52:6 For this cause I will make my name clear to my people; in that day they will be certain that it is my word which comes to them; see, here am I. +Isa 52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who comes with good news, who gives word of peace, saying that salvation is near; who says to Zion, Your God is ruling! +Isa 52:8 The voice of your watchmen! their voices are loud in song together; for they will see him, eye to eye, when the Lord comes back to Zion. +Isa 52:9 Give sounds of joy, make melody together, waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord has given comfort to his people, he has taken up the cause of Jerusalem. +Isa 52:10 The Lord has let his holy arm be seen by the eyes of all nations; and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. +Isa 52:11 Away! away! go out from there, touching no unclean thing; go out from among her; be clean, you who take up the vessels of the Lord. +Isa 52:12 For you will not go out suddenly, and you will not go in flight: for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will come after you to keep you. +Isa 52:13 See, my servant will do well in his undertakings, he will be honoured, and lifted up, and be very high. +Isa 52:14 As peoples were surprised at him, And his face was not beautiful, so as to be desired: his face was so changed by disease as to be unlike that of a man, and his form was no longer that of the sons of men. +Isa 52:15 So will nations give him honour; kings will keep quiet because of him: for what had not been made clear to them they will see; and they will give their minds to what had not come to their ears. +Isa 53:1 Who would have had faith in the word which has come to our ears, and to whom had the arm of the Lord been unveiled? +Isa 53:2 For his growth was like that of a delicate plant before him, and like a root out of a dry place: he had no grace of form, to give us pleasure; +Isa 53:3 Men made sport of him, turning away from him; he was a man of sorrows, marked by disease; and like one from whom men's faces are turned away, he was looked down on, and we put no value on him. +Isa 53:4 But it was our pain he took, and our diseases were put on him: while to us he seemed as one diseased, on whom God's punishment had come. +Isa 53:5 But it was for our sins he was wounded, and for our evil doings he was crushed: he took the punishment by which we have peace, and by his wounds we are made well. +Isa 53:6 We all went wandering like sheep; going every one of us after his desire; and the Lord put on him the punishment of us all. +Isa 53:7 Men were cruel to him, but he was gentle and quiet; as a lamb taken to its death, and as a sheep before those who take her wool makes no sound, so he said not a word. +Isa 53:8 They took away from him help and right, and who gave a thought to his fate? for he was cut off from the land of the living: he came to his death for the sin of my people. +Isa 53:9 And they put his body into the earth with sinners, and his last resting-place was with the evil-doers, though he had done no wrong, and no deceit was in his mouth. +Isa 53:10 And the Lord was pleased ... see a seed, long life, ... will do well in his hand. ... +Isa 53:11 ... made clear his righteousness before men ... had taken their sins on himself. +Isa 53:12 For this cause he will have a heritage with the great, and he will have a part in the goods of war with the strong, because he gave up his life, and was numbered with the evil-doers; taking on himself the sins of the people, and making prayer for the wrongdoers. +Isa 54:1 Let your voice be loud in song, O woman without children; make melody and sounds of joy, you who did not give birth: for the children of her who had no husband are more than those of the married wife, says the Lord. +Isa 54:2 Make wide the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your house be stretched out without limit: make your cords long, and your tent-pins strong. +Isa 54:3 For I will make wide your limits on the right hand and on the left; and your seed will take the nations for a heritage, and make the waste towns full of people. +Isa 54:4 Have no fear; for you will not be shamed or without hope: you will not be put to shame, for the shame of your earlier days will go out of your memory, and you will no longer keep in mind the sorrows of your widowed years. +Isa 54:5 For your Maker is your husband; the Lord of armies is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is he who takes up your cause; he will be named the God of all the earth. +Isa 54:6 For the Lord has made you come back to him, like a wife who has been sent away in grief of spirit; for one may not give up the wife of one's early days. +Isa 54:7 For a short time I gave you up; but with great mercies I will take you back again. +Isa 54:8 In overflowing wrath my face was veiled from you for a minute, but I will have pity on you for ever, says the Lord who takes up your cause. +Isa 54:9 For this is like the days of Noah to me: for as I took an oath that the waters of Noah would never again go over the earth, so have I taken an oath that I will not again be angry with you, or say bitter words to you. +Isa 54:10 For the mountains may be taken away, and the hills be moved out of their places, but my love will not be taken from you, or my agreement of peace broken, says the Lord, who has had mercy on you. +Isa 54:11 O troubled one, storm-crushed, uncomforted! see, your stones will be framed in fair colours, and your bases will be sapphires. +Isa 54:12 I will make your towers of rubies, and your doors of carbuncles, and the wall round you will be of all sorts of beautiful stones. +Isa 54:13 And all your builders will be made wise by the Lord; and great will be the peace of your children. +Isa 54:14 All your rights will be made certain to you: have no fear of evil, and destruction will not come near you. +Isa 54:15 See, they may be moved to war, but not by my authority: all those who come together to make an attack on you, will be broken against you. +Isa 54:16 See, I have made the iron-worker, blowing on the burning coals, and making the instrument of war by his work; and I have made the waster for destruction. +Isa 54:17 No instrument of war which is formed against you will be of any use; and every tongue which says evil against you will be judged false. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness comes from me, says the Lord. +Isa 55:1 Ho! everyone in need, come to the waters, and he who has no strength, let him get food: come, get bread without money; wine and milk without price. +Isa 55:2 Why do you give your money for what is not bread, and the fruit of your work for what will not give you pleasure? Give ear to me, so that your food may be good, and you may have the best in full measure. +Isa 55:3 Give ear, and come to me, take note with care, so that your souls may have life: and I will make an eternal agreement with you, even the certain mercies of David. +Isa 55:4 See, I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a ruler and a guide to the nations. +Isa 55:5 See, you will send for a nation of which you had no knowledge, and those who had no knowledge of you will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, and because of the Holy One of Israel, for he has given you glory. +Isa 55:6 Make search for the Lord while he is there, make prayer to him while he is near: +Isa 55:7 Let the sinner give up his way, and the evil-doer his purpose: and let him come back to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for there is full forgiveness with him. +Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, or your ways my ways, says the Lord. +Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. +Isa 55:10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and does not go back again, but gives water to the earth, and makes it fertile, giving seed to the planter, and bread for food; +Isa 55:11 So will my word be which goes out of my mouth: it will not come back to me with nothing done, but it will give effect to my purpose, and do that for which I have sent it. +Isa 55:12 For you will go out with joy, and be guided in peace: the mountains and the hills will make melody before you, and all the trees of the fields will make sounds of joy. +Isa 55:13 In place of the thorn will come up the fir-tree, and in place of the blackberry the myrtle: and it will be to the Lord for a name, for an eternal sign which will not be cut off. +Isa 56:1 The Lord says, Let your way of life be upright, and let your behaviour be rightly ordered: for my salvation is near, and my righteousness will quickly be seen. +Isa 56:2 Happy is the man who does this, and the son of man whose behaviour is so ordered; who keeps the Sabbath holy, and his hand from doing any evil. +Isa 56:3 And let not the man from a strange country, who has been joined to the Lord, say, The Lord will certainly put a division between me and his people: and let not the unsexed man say, See, I am a dry tree. +Isa 56:4 For the Lord says, As for the unsexed who keep my Sabbaths, and give their hearts to pleasing me, and keep their agreement with me: +Isa 56:5 I will give to them in my house, and inside my walls, a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an eternal name which will not be cut off. +Isa 56:6 And as for those from a strange country, who are joined to the Lord, to give worship to him and honour to his name, to be his servants, even everyone who keeps the Sabbath holy, and keeps his agreement with me: +Isa 56:7 I will make them come to my holy mountain, and will give them joy in my house of prayer; I will take pleasure in the burned offerings which they make on my altar: for my house will be named a house of prayer for all peoples. +Isa 56:8 The Lord God, who gets together the wandering ones of Israel, says, I will get together others in addition to those of Israel who have come back. +Isa 56:9 All you beasts of the field, come together for your meat, even all you beasts of the wood. +Isa 56:10 His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all dogs without tongues, unable to make a sound; stretched out dreaming, loving sleep. +Isa 56:11 Yes, the dogs are for ever looking for food; while these, the keepers of the sheep, are without wisdom: they have all gone after their pleasure, every one looking for profit; they are all the same. +Isa 56:12 Come, they say, I will get wine, and we will take strong drink in full measure; and tomorrow will be like today, full of pleasure. +Isa 57:1 The upright man goes to his death, and no one gives a thought to it; and god-fearing men are taken away, and no one is troubled by it; for the upright man is taken away because of evil-doing, and goes into peace. +Isa 57:2 They are at rest in their last resting-places, every one going straight before him. +Isa 57:3 But come near, you sons of her who is wise in secret arts, the seed of her who is false to her husband, and of the loose woman. +Isa 57:4 Of whom do you make sport? against whom is your mouth open wide and your tongue put out? are you not uncontrolled children, a false seed, +Isa 57:5 You who are burning with evil desire among the oaks, under every green tree; putting children to death in the valleys, under the cracks of the rocks? +Isa 57:6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your heritage; they, even they, are your part: even to them have you made a drink offering and a meal offering. Is it possible for such things to be overlooked by me? +Isa 57:7 You have put your bed on a high mountain: there you went up to make your offering. +Isa 57:8 And on the back of the doors and on the pillars you have put your sign: for you have been false to me with another; you have made your bed wide, and made an agreement with them; you had a desire for their bed where you saw it +Isa 57:9 And you went to Melech with oil and much perfume, and you sent your representatives far off, and went as low as the underworld. +Isa 57:10 You were tired with your long journeys; but you did not say, There is no hope: you got new strength, and so you were not feeble. +Isa 57:11 And of whom were you in fear, so that you were false, and did not keep me in mind, or give thought to it? Have I not been quiet, keeping myself secret, and so you were not in fear of me? +Isa 57:12 I will make clear what your righteousness is like and your works; you will have no profit in them. +Isa 57:13 Your false gods will not keep you safe in answer to your cry; but the wind will take them, they will be gone like a breath: but he who puts his hope in me will take the land, and will have my holy mountain as his heritage. +Isa 57:14 And I will say, Make it high, make it high, get ready the way, take the stones out of the way of my people. +Isa 57:15 For this is the word of him who is high and lifted up, whose resting-place is eternal, whose name is Holy: my resting-place is in the high and holy place, and with him who is crushed and poor in spirit, to give life to the spirit of the poor, and to make strong the heart of the crushed. +Isa 57:16 For I will not give punishment for ever, or be angry without end: for from me breath goes out; and I it was who made the souls. +Isa 57:17 I was quickly angry with his evil ways, and sent punishment on him, veiling my face in wrath: and he went on, turning his heart from me. +Isa 57:18 I have seen his ways, and I will make him well: I will give him rest, comforting him and his people who are sad. +Isa 57:19 I will give the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is near and to him who is far off, says the Lord; and I will make him well. +Isa 57:20 But the evil-doers are like the troubled sea, for which there is no rest, and its waters send up earth and waste. +Isa 57:21 There is no peace, says my God, for the evil-doers. +Isa 58:1 Make a loud cry, do not be quiet, let your voice be sounding like a horn, and make clear to my people their evil doings, and to the family of Jacob their sins. +Isa 58:2 Though they make prayer to me every day, and take pleasure in the knowledge of my ways: like a nation which has done righteousness, and has not given up the rules of their God, they make requests to me for the right orders, it is their delight to come near to God. +Isa 58:3 They say, Why have we kept ourselves from food, and you do not see it? why have we kept ourselves from pleasure, and you take no note of it? If, in the days when you keep from food, you take the chance to do your business, and get in your debts; +Isa 58:4 If keeping from food makes you quickly angry, ready for fighting and giving blows with evil hands; your holy days are not such as to make your voice come to my ears on high. +Isa 58:5 Have I given orders for such a day as this? a day for keeping yourselves from pleasure? is it only a question of the bent head, of putting on haircloth, and being seated in the dust? is this what seems to you a holy day, well-pleasing to the Lord? +Isa 58:6 Is not this the holy day for which I have given orders: to let loose those who have wrongly been made prisoners, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the crushed go free, and every yoke be broken? +Isa 58:7 Is it not to give your bread to those in need, and to let the poor who have no resting-place come into your house? to put a robe on the unclothed one when you see him, and not to keep your eyes shut for fear of seeing his flesh? +Isa 58:8 Then will light be shining on you like the morning, and your wounds will quickly be well: and your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will come after you. +Isa 58:9 Then at the sound of your voice, the Lord will give an answer; at your cry he will say, Here am I. If you take away from among you the yoke, the putting out of the finger of shame, and the evil word; +Isa 58:10 And if you give your bread to those in need of it, so that the troubled one may have his desire; then you will have light in the dark, and your night will be as the full light of the sun: +Isa 58:11 And the Lord will be your guide at all times; in dry places he will give you water in full measure, and will make strong your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like an ever-flowing spring. +Isa 58:12 And your sons will be building again the old waste places: you will make strong the bases of old generations: and you will be named, He who puts up the broken walls, and, He who makes ready the ways for use. +Isa 58:13 If you keep the Sabbath with care, not doing your business on my holy day; and if the Sabbath seems to you a delight, and the new moon of the Lord a thing to be honoured; and if you give respect to him by not doing your business, or going after your pleasure, or saying unholy words; +Isa 58:14 Then the Lord will be your delight; and I will put you on the high places of the earth; and I will give you the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the Lord has said it. +Isa 59:1 Truly, the Lord's hand has not become short, so that he is unable to give salvation; and his ear is not shut from hearing: +Isa 59:2 But your sins have come between you and your God, and by your evil doings his face has been veiled from you, so that he will give you no answer. +Isa 59:3 For your hands are unclean with blood, and your fingers with sin; your lips have said false things, and your tongue gives out deceit. +Isa 59:4 No one puts forward an upright cause, or gives a true decision: their hope is in deceit, and their words are false; they are with child with sin, and give birth to evil. +Isa 59:5 They give birth to snake's eggs, and make spider's threads: whoever takes their eggs for food comes to his death, and the egg which is crushed becomes a poison-snake. +Isa 59:6 Their twisted threads will not make clothing, and their works will give them nothing for covering themselves: their works are works of sin, and violent acts are in their hands. +Isa 59:7 Their feet go quickly to evil, and they take delight in the death of the upright; their thoughts are thoughts of sin; wasting and destruction are in their ways. +Isa 59:8 They have no knowledge of the way of peace, and there is no sense of what is right in their behaviour: they have made for themselves ways which are not straight; whoever goes in them has no knowledge of peace. +Isa 59:9 For this cause our right is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us: we are looking for light, but there is only the dark; for the shining of the sun, but our way is in the night. +Isa 59:10 We go on our way, like blind men feeling for the wall, even like those who have no eyes: we are running against things in daylight as if it was evening; our place is in the dark like dead men. +Isa 59:11 We make noises of grief, like bears, and sad sounds like doves: we are looking for our right, but it is not there; for salvation, but it is far from us. +Isa 59:12 For our evil doings are increased before you, and our sins give witness against us: for our evil doings are with us, and we have knowledge of our sins: +Isa 59:13 We have gone against the Lord, and been false to him, turning away from our God, our words have been uncontrolled, and in our hearts are thoughts of deceit. +Isa 59:14 And the right is turned back, and righteousness is far away: for good faith is not to be seen in the public places, and upright behaviour may not come into the town. +Isa 59:15 Yes, faith is gone; and he whose heart is turned from evil comes into the power of the cruel: and the Lord saw it, and he was angry that there was no one to take up their cause. +Isa 59:16 And he saw that there was no man, and was surprised that there was no one to take up their cause: so his arm gave salvation, and he made righteousness his support. +Isa 59:17 Yes, he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and salvation as a head-dress; and he put on punishment as clothing, and wrath as a robe. +Isa 59:18 He will give them the right reward of their doings, wrath to his attackers, punishment to his haters, and even on the sea-lands he will send punishment. +Isa 59:19 So they will see the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the east: for he will come like a rushing stream, forced on by a wind of the Lord. +Isa 59:20 And as a saviour he will come to Zion, turning away sin from Jacob, says the Lord. +Isa 59:21 And as for me, this is my agreement with them, says the Lord: my spirit which is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, will not go away from your mouth, or from the mouth of your seed, or from the mouth of your seed's seed, says the Lord, from now and for ever. +Isa 60:1 Up! let your face be bright, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is shining on you. +Isa 60:2 For truly, the earth will be dark, and the peoples veiled in blackest night; but the Lord will be shining on you, and his glory will be seen among you. +Isa 60:3 And nations will come to your light, and kings to your bright dawn. +Isa 60:4 Let your eyes be lifted up, and see: they are all coming together to you: your sons will come from far, and your daughters taken with loving care. +Isa 60:5 Then you will see, and be bright with joy, and your heart will be shaking with increase of delight: for the produce of the sea will be turned to you, the wealth of the nations will come to you. +Isa 60:6 You will be full of camel-trains, even the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba will come, with gold and spices, giving word of the great acts of the Lord. +Isa 60:7 All the flocks of Kedar will come together to you, the sheep of Nebaioth will be ready for your need; they will be pleasing offerings on my altar, and my house of prayer will be beautiful. +Isa 60:8 Who are these coming like a cloud, like a flight of doves to their windows? +Isa 60:9 Vessels of the sea-lands are waiting for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, so that your sons may come from far, and their silver and gold with them, to the place of the name of the Lord your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful. +Isa 60:10 And men from strange countries will be building up your walls, and their kings will be your servants: for in my wrath I sent punishment on you, but in my grace I have had mercy on you. +Isa 60:11 Your doors will be open at all times; they will not be shut day or night; so that men may come into you with the wealth of the nations, with their kings at their head. +Isa 60:12 For the nation or kingdom which will not be your servant will come to destruction; such nations will be completely waste. +Isa 60:13 The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the sherbin-tree together, to make my holy place beautiful; and the resting-place of my feet will be full of glory. +Isa 60:14 And the sons of those who were cruel to you will come before you with bent heads; and those who made sport of you will go down on their faces at your feet; and you will be named, The Town of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. +Isa 60:15 And though you were turned away from, and hated, and had no helper, I will make you a pride for ever, a joy from generation to generation. +Isa 60:16 And you will take the milk of the nations, flowing from the breast of kings; and you will see that I, the Lord, am your saviour, and he who takes up your cause, the Strong One of Jacob. +Isa 60:17 In place of brass, I will give gold, and for iron silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: and I will make Peace your judge, and Righteousness your overseer. +Isa 60:18 Violent acts will no longer be seen in your land, wasting or destruction in your limits; but your walls will be named, Salvation, and your doors Praise. +Isa 60:19 The sun will not be your light by day, and the moon will no longer be bright for you by night: but the Lord will be to you an eternal light, and your God your glory. +Isa 60:20 Your sun will never again go down, or your moon keep back her light: for the Lord will be your eternal light, and the days of your sorrow will be ended. +Isa 60:21 Your people will all be upright, the land will be their heritage for ever; the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, to be for my glory. +Isa 60:22 The smallest of their families will become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I, the Lord, will make it come quickly in its time. +Isa 61:1 The spirit of the Lord is on me, because I am marked out by him to give good news to the poor; he has sent me to make the broken-hearted well, to say that the prisoners will be made free, and that those in chains will see the light again; +Isa 61:2 To give knowledge that the year of the Lord's good pleasure has come, and the day of punishment from our God; to give comfort to all who are sad; +Isa 61:3 To give them a fair head-dress in place of dust, the oil of joy in place of the clothing of grief, praise in place of sorrow; so that they may be named trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, and so that he may have glory. +Isa 61:4 And they will be building again the old broken walls, and will make new the old waste places, and will put up again the towns which have been waste for long generations. +Isa 61:5 And men from strange countries will be your herdsmen, and those who are not Israelites will be your ploughmen and vine-keepers. +Isa 61:6 But you will be named the priests of the Lord, the servants of our God: you will have the wealth of the nations for your food, and you will be clothed with their glory. +Isa 61:7 As they had twice as much grief, and marks of shame were their heritage, so in their land they will be rewarded twice over, and will have eternal joy. +Isa 61:8 For I, the Lord, take pleasure in upright judging; I will not put up with the violent taking away of right; and I will certainly give them their reward, and I will make an eternal agreement with them. +Isa 61:9 And their seed will be noted among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples: it will be clear to all who see them that they are the seed to which the Lord has given his blessing. +Isa 61:10 I will be full of joy in the Lord, my soul will be glad in my God; for he has put on me the clothing of salvation, covering me with the robe of righteousness, as the husband puts on a fair head-dress, and the bride makes herself beautiful with jewels. +Isa 61:11 For as the earth puts out buds, and as the garden gives growth to the seeds which are planted in it, so the Lord will make righteousness and praise to be flowering before all the nations. +Isa 62:1 Because of Zion I will not keep quiet, and because of Jerusalem I will take no rest, till her righteousness goes out like the shining of the sun, and her salvation like a burning light. +Isa 62:2 And the nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory: and you will have a new name, given by the mouth of the Lord. +Isa 62:3 And you will be a fair crown in the hand of the Lord, and a king's head-dress in the hand of your God. +Isa 62:4 You will not now be named, She who is given up; and your land will no longer be named, The waste land: but you will have the name, My pleasure is in her, and your land will be named, Married: for the Lord has pleasure in you, and your land will be married. +Isa 62:5 For as a young man takes a virgin for his wife, so will your maker be married to you: and as a husband has joy in his bride, so will the Lord your God be glad over you. +Isa 62:6 I have put watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will not keep quiet day or night: you who are the Lord's recorders, take no rest, +Isa 62:7 And give him no rest, till he puts Jerusalem in her place to be praised in the earth. +Isa 62:8 The Lord has taken an oath by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Truly, I will no longer give your grain to be food for your haters; and men of strange countries will not take the wine for which your work has been done: +Isa 62:9 But those who have got in the grain will have it for their food, and will give praise to the Lord; and those who have got in the grapes will take the wine of them in the open places of my holy house. +Isa 62:10 Go through, go through the doors; make ready the way of the people; let the highway be lifted up; let the stones be taken away; let a flag be lifted up over the peoples. +Isa 62:11 The Lord has sent out word to the end of the earth, Say to the daughter of Zion, See, your saviour comes; those whom he has made free are with him, and those to whom he has given salvation go before him. +Isa 62:12 And they will be named, The holy people, Those whose cause has been taken up by the Lord: and you will be named, Desired, A town not given up. +Isa 63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom, with blood-red robes from Bozrah? he whose clothing is fair, stepping with pride in his great strength? I whose glory is in the right, strong for salvation. +Isa 63:2 Why is your clothing red, and why are your robes like those of one who is crushing the grapes? +Isa 63:3 I have been crushing the grapes by myself, and of the peoples there was no man with me: in my wrath and in my passion, they were crushed under my feet; and my robes are marked with their life-blood, and all my clothing is red. +Isa 63:4 For the day of punishment is in my heart, and the year for the payment of the price for my people has come. +Isa 63:5 And I saw that there was no helper, and I was wondering that no one gave them support: so my arm did the work of salvation, and my wrath was my support. +Isa 63:6 And in my passion the peoples were crushed under my feet, and broken in my wrath, and I put down their strength to the earth. +Isa 63:7 I will give news of the mercies of the Lord, and his great acts, even all the things the Lord has done for us, in his great grace to the house of Israel; even all he has done for us in his unnumbered mercies. +Isa 63:8 For he said, Truly they are my people, children who will not be false: so he was their saviour out of all their trouble. +Isa 63:9 It was no sent one or angel, but he himself who was their saviour: in his love and in his pity he took up their cause, and he took them in his arms, caring for them all through the years. +Isa 63:10 But they went against him, causing grief to his holy spirit: so he was turned against them, and made war on them. +Isa 63:11 Then the early days came to their minds, the days of Moses his servant: and they said, Where is he who made the keeper of his flock come up from the sea? where is he who put his holy spirit among them, +Isa 63:12 He who made the arm of his glory go at the right hand of Moses, by whom the waters were parted before them, to make himself an eternal name; +Isa 63:13 He who made them go through the deep waters, like a horse in the waste land? +Isa 63:14 Like the cattle which go down into the valley, they went without falling, the spirit of the Lord guiding them: so you went before your people, to make yourself a great name. +Isa 63:15 Let your eyes be looking down from heaven, from your holy and beautiful house: where is your deep feeling, the working of your power? do not keep back the moving of your pity and your mercies: +Isa 63:16 For you are our father, though Abraham has no knowledge of us, and Israel gives no thought to us: you, O Lord, are our father; from the earliest days you have taken up our cause. +Isa 63:17 O Lord, why do you send us wandering from your ways, making our hearts hard, so that we have no fear of you? Come back, because of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. +Isa 63:18 Why have evil men gone over your holy place, so that it has been crushed under the feet of our haters? +Isa 63:19 We have become as those who were never ruled by you, on whom your name was not named. +Isa 64:1 O let the heavens be broken open and come down, so that the mountains may be shaking before you, +Isa 64:2 As when fire puts the brushwood in flames, or as when water is boiling from the heat of the fire: to make your name feared by your haters, so that the nations may be shaking before you; +Isa 64:3 While you do acts of power for which we are not looking, and which have not come to the ears of men in the past. +Isa 64:4 The ear has not had news of, or the eye seen, ... any God but you, working for the man who is waiting for him. +Isa 64:5 Will you not have mercy on him who takes pleasure in doing righteousness, even on those who keep in mind your ways? Truly you were angry, and we went on doing evil, and sinning against you in the past. +Isa 64:6 For we have all become like an unclean person, and all our good acts are like a dirty robe: and we have all become old like a dead leaf, and our sins, like the wind, take us away. +Isa 64:7 And there is no one who makes prayer to your name, or who is moved to keep true to you: for your face is veiled from us, and you have given us into the power of our sins. +Isa 64:8 But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the earth, and you are our maker; and we are all the work of your hand. +Isa 64:9 Be not very angry, O Lord, and do not keep our sins in mind for ever: give ear to our prayer, for we are all your people. +Isa 64:10 Your holy towns have become a waste, Zion has become a waste, Jerusalem is a mass of broken walls. +Isa 64:11 Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers gave praise to you, is burned with fire; and all the things of our desire have come to destruction. +Isa 64:12 In view of all this, will you still do nothing, O Lord? will you keep quiet, and go on increasing our punishment? +Isa 65:1 I have been ready to give an answer to those who did not make prayer to me; I have been offering myself to those who were not searching for me; I said, Here am I, here am I, to a nation which gave no respect to my name. +Isa 65:2 All day my hands have been stretched out to an uncontrolled people, who go in an evil way, after the purposes of their hearts; +Isa 65:3 A people who make me angry every day, making offerings in gardens, and burning perfumes on bricks. +Isa 65:4 Who are seated in the resting-places of the dead, and by night are in the secret places; who take pig's flesh for food, and have the liquid of disgusting things in their vessels. +Isa 65:5 Who say, Keep away, do not come near me, for fear that I make you holy: these are a smoke in my nose, a fire burning all day. +Isa 65:6 See, it is recorded before me, says the Lord: I will not keep back my hand, till I have sent punishment, +Isa 65:7 For their sins and the sins of their fathers, who were burning perfumes on the mountains, and saying evil things against me on the hills: so I will take the measure of their sins, and will send the punishment for them into their breast. +Isa 65:8 This is the word of the Lord: As the new wine is seen in the grapes, and they say, Do not send destruction on it, for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants, in order that I may not put an end to them all. +Isa 65:9 And I will take a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah one who will have my mountains for a heritage: and the people I have taken to be mine will have it for themselves, and my servants will have their resting-place there. +Isa 65:10 And Sharon will be a grass-land for the flocks, and the valley of Achor a resting-place for the herds: for my people whose hearts have been turned back to me. +Isa 65:11 But as for you who have given up the Lord, who have no care for my holy mountain, who get ready a table for Chance, and make offerings of mixed wine to Fate; +Isa 65:12 Your fate will be the sword, and you will all go down to death: because when my voice came to you, you made no answer; you did not give ear to my word; but you did what was evil in my eyes, desiring what was not pleasing to me. +Isa 65:13 For this cause says the Lord God, My servants will have food, but you will be in need of food: my servants will have drink, but you will be dry: my servants will have joy, but you will be shamed: +Isa 65:14 My servants will make songs in the joy of their hearts, but you will be crying for sorrow, and making sounds of grief from a broken spirit. +Isa 65:15 And your name will become a curse to my people, and the Lord God will put you to death, and give his servants another name: +Isa 65:16 So that he who is requesting a blessing will make use of the name of the true God, and he who takes an oath will do so by the true God; because the past troubles are gone out of mind, and because they are covered from my eyes. +Isa 65:17 For see, I am making a new heaven and a new earth: and the past things will be gone completely out of mind. +Isa 65:18 But men will be glad and have joy for ever in what I am making; for I am making Jerusalem a delight, and her people a joy. +Isa 65:19 And I will be glad over Jerusalem, and have joy in my people: and the voice of weeping will no longer be sounding in her, or the voice of grief. +Isa 65:20 No longer will there be there a child whose days are cut short, or an old man whose days have not come to their full measure: for the young man at his death will be a hundred years old, and he whose life is shorter than a hundred years will seem as one cursed. +Isa 65:21 And they will be building houses and living in them; planting vine-gardens and getting the fruit of them. +Isa 65:22 They will no longer be building for the use of others, or planting for others to have the fruit: for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my loved ones will have joy in full measure in the work of their hands. +Isa 65:23 Their work will not be for nothing, and they will not give birth to children for destruction; for they are a seed to whom the Lord has given his blessing, and their offspring will be with them. +Isa 65:24 And before they make their request I will give an answer, and while they are still making prayer to me, I will give ear. +Isa 65:25 The wolf and the lamb will take their food together, and the lion will make a meal of grass like the ox: but dust will be the snake's food. There will be no cause of pain or destruction in all my holy mountain, says the Lord. +Isa 66:1 The Lord says, Heaven is the seat of my power, and earth is the resting-place for my feet: what sort of house will you make for me, and what place will be my resting-place? +Isa 66:2 For all these things my hand has made, and they are mine, says the Lord; but to this man only will I give attention, to him who is poor and broken in spirit, fearing my word. +Isa 66:3 He who puts an ox to death puts a man to death; he who makes an offering of a lamb puts a dog to death; he who makes a meal offering makes an offering of pig's blood; he who makes an offering of perfumes for a sign gives worship to an image: as they have gone after their desires, and their soul takes pleasure in their disgusting things; +Isa 66:4 So I will go after trouble for them, and will send on them what they are fearing: because no one made answer to my voice, or gave ear to my word; but they did what was evil in my eyes, going after that in which I took no pleasure. +Isa 66:5 Give ear to the word of the Lord, you who are in fear at his word: your countrymen, hating you, and driving you out because of my name, have said, Let the Lord's glory be made clear, so that we may see your joy; but they will be put to shame. +Isa 66:6 There is a noise of war from the town, a sound from the Temple, the voice of the Lord giving punishment to his haters. +Isa 66:7 Before her pains came, she gave birth; before her pains, she gave birth to a man-child. +Isa 66:8 When has such a story come to men's ears? who has seen such things? will a land come to birth in one day? will a nation be given birth in a minute? For when Zion's pains came on her, she gave birth to her children straight away. +Isa 66:9 Will I by whom the birth was started, not make it complete? says the Lord. Will I who make children come to birth, let them be kept back? says your God. +Isa 66:10 Have joy with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you her lovers: take part in her joy, all you who are sorrowing for her: +Isa 66:11 So that you may take of the comfort flowing from her breasts, and be delighted with the full measure of her glory. +Isa 66:12 For the Lord says, See, I will make her peace like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream, and she will take her children in her arms, gently caring for them on her knees. +Isa 66:13 As to one who is comforted by his mother, so will I give you comfort: and you will be comforted in Jerusalem. +Isa 66:14 And you will see it and your heart will be glad, and your bones will get new strength, like young grass: and the hand of the Lord will be seen at work for his servants, and his wrath against his haters. +Isa 66:15 For the Lord is coming with fire, and his war-carriages will be like the storm-wind; to give punishment in the heat of his wrath, and his passion is like flames of fire. +Isa 66:16 For with fire and sword will the Lord come, judging all the earth, and his sword will be on all flesh: and great numbers will be put to death by him. +Isa 66:17 As for those who keep themselves separate, and make themselves clean in the gardens, going after one in the middle, taking pig's flesh for food, and other disgusting things, such as the mouse: their works and their thoughts will come to an end together, says the Lord. +Isa 66:18 And I am coming to get together all nations and tongues: and they will come and will see my glory. +Isa 66:19 And I will put a sign among them, and I will send those who are still living to the nations, to Tarshish, Put, and Lud, Meshech and Rosh, Tubal and Javan, to the sea-lands far away, who have not had word of me, or seen my glory; and they will give the knowledge of my glory to the nations. +Isa 66:20 And they will take your countrymen out of all the nations for an offering to the Lord, on horses, and in carriages, and in carts, and on asses, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, as the children of Israel take their offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord. +Isa 66:21 And some of them will I take for priests and Levites, says the Lord. +Isa 66:22 For as the new heaven and the new earth which I will make will be for ever before me, says the Lord, so will your seed and your name be for ever. +Isa 66:23 And it will be, that from new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh will come to give worship before me, says the Lord. +Isa 66:24 And they will go out to see the dead bodies of the men who have done evil against me: for their worm will ever be living, and their fire will never be put out, and they will be a thing of fear to all flesh. +Jer 1:1 The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: +Jer 1:2 To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his rule. +Jer 1:3 And it came again in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, up to the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah; till Jerusalem was taken away in the fifth month. +Jer 1:4 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Jer 1:5 Before you were formed in the body of your mother I had knowledge of you, and before your birth I made you holy; I have given you the work of being a prophet to the nations. +Jer 1:6 Then said I, O Lord God! see, I have no power of words, for I am a child. +Jer 1:7 But the Lord said to me, Do not say, I am a child: for wherever I send you, you are to go, and whatever I give you orders to say, you are to say. +Jer 1:8 Have no fear because of them: for I am with you, to keep you safe, says the Lord. +Jer 1:9 Then the Lord put out his hand, touching my mouth; and the Lord said to me, See, I have put my words in your mouth: +Jer 1:10 See, this day I have put you over the nations and over the kingdoms, for uprooting and smashing down, for destruction and overturning, for building up and planting. +Jer 1:11 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a branch of an almond-tree. +Jer 1:12 Then the Lord said to me, You have seen well: for I keep watch over my word to give effect to it. +Jer 1:13 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot, and its face is from the north. +Jer 1:14 Then the Lord said to me, Out of the north evil will come, bursting out on all the people of the land. +Jer 1:15 For see, I will send for all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the Lord; and they will come, everyone placing his high seat at the way into Jerusalem, and against its walls on every side, and against all the towns of Judah. +Jer 1:16 And I will give my decision against them on account of all their evil-doing; because they have given me up, burning perfumes to other gods and worshipping the works of their hands. +Jer 1:17 So make yourself ready, and go and say to them everything I give you orders to say: do not be overcome by fear of them, or I will send fear on you before them. +Jer 1:18 For see, this day have I made you a walled town, and an iron pillar, and walls of brass, against all the land, against the kings of Judah, against its captains, against its priests, and against the people of the land. +Jer 1:19 They will be fighting against you, but they will not overcome you: for I am with you, says the Lord, to give you salvation. +Jer 2:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Jer 2:2 Go and say in the ears of Jerusalem, The Lord says, I still keep the memory of your kind heart when you were young, and your love when you became my bride; how you went after me in the waste of sand, in an unplanted land. +Jer 2:3 Israel was holy to the Lord, the first-fruits of his increase: all who made attacks on him were judged as wrongdoers, evil came on them, says the Lord. +Jer 2:4 Give ear to the words of the Lord, O sons of Jacob and all the families of Israel: +Jer 2:5 These are the words of the Lord: What evil have your fathers seen in me that they have gone far from me, and, walking after what is false, have become false? +Jer 2:6 And they never said, Where is the Lord, who took us up out of the land of Egypt; who was our guide through the waste of sand, through an unplanted land full of deep holes, through a dry land of deep shade, which no one went through and where no man was living? +Jer 2:7 And I took you into a fertile land, where you were living on its fruit and its wealth; but when you came in, you made my land unclean, and made my heritage a disgusting thing. +Jer 2:8 The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? and those who were expert in the law had no knowledge of me: and the rulers did evil against me, and the prophets became prophets of the Baal, going after things without value. +Jer 2:9 For this reason, I will again put forward my cause against you, says the Lord, even against you and against your children's children. +Jer 2:10 For go over to the sea-lands of Kittim and see; send to Kedar and give deep thought to it; and see if there has ever been such a thing. +Jer 2:11 Has any nation ever made a change in their gods, though they are no gods? but my people have given up their glory in exchange for what is of no profit. +Jer 2:12 Be full of wonder, O heavens, at this; be overcome with fear, be completely waste, says the Lord. +Jer 2:13 For my people have done two evils; they have given up me, the fountain of living waters, and have made for themselves water-holes, cut out from the rock, broken water-holes, of no use for storing water. +Jer 2:14 Is Israel a servant? has he been a house-servant from birth? why has he been made waste? +Jer 2:15 The young lions have made an outcry against him with a loud voice: they have made his land waste; his towns are burned up, with no one living in them. +Jer 2:16 Even the children of Noph and Tahpanhes have put shame on you. +Jer 2:17 Has not this come on you because you have given up the Lord your God, who was your guide by the way? +Jer 2:18 And now, what have you to do on the way to Egypt, to get your drink from the waters of the Nile? or what have you to do on the way to Assyria, to get your drink from the waters of the River? +Jer 2:19 The evil you yourselves have done will be your punishment, your errors will be your judge: be certain then, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing to give up the Lord your God, and no longer to be moved by fear of me, says the Lord, the Lord of armies. +Jer 2:20 For in the past, your yoke was broken by your hands and your cords parted; and you said, I will not be your servant; for on every high hill and under every branching tree, your behaviour was like that of a loose woman +Jer 2:21 But when you were planted by me, you were a noble vine, in every way a true seed: how then have you been changed into the branching plant of a strange vine? +Jer 2:22 For even if you are washed with soda and take much soap, still your evil-doing is marked before me, says the Lord God. +Jer 2:23 How are you able to say, I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals? see your way in the valley, be clear about what you have done: you are a quick-footed camel twisting her way in and out; +Jer 2:24 An untrained ass, used to the waste land, breathing up the wind in her desire; at her time, who is able to send her away? all those who are looking for her will have no need to make themselves tired; in her month they will get her. +Jer 2:25 Do not let your foot be without shoes, or your throat dry from need of water: but you said, There is no hope: no, for I have been a lover of strange gods, and after them I will go. +Jer 2:26 As the thief is shamed when he is taken, so is Israel shamed; they, their kings and their rulers, their priests and their prophets; +Jer 2:27 Who say to a tree, You are my father; and to a stone, You have given me life: for their backs have been turned to me, not their faces: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Up! and be our saviour. +Jer 2:28 But where are the gods you have made for yourselves? let them come, if they are able to give you salvation in the time of your trouble: for the number of your gods is as the number of your towns, O Judah. +Jer 2:29 Why will you put forward your cause against me? You have all done evil against me, says the Lord. +Jer 2:30 I gave your children blows to no purpose; they got no good from training: your sword has been the destruction of your prophets, like a death-giving lion. +Jer 2:31 O generation, see the word of the Lord. Have I been a waste land to Israel? or a land of dark night? why do my people say, We have got loose, we will not come to you again? +Jer 2:32 Is it possible for a virgin to put out of her memory her ornaments, or a bride her robes? but my people have put me out of their memories for unnumbered days. +Jer 2:33 With what care are your ways ordered when you are looking for love! so ... your ways. +Jer 2:34 And in the skirts of your robe may be seen the life-blood of those who have done no wrong: ... +Jer 2:35 And still you said, I have done no wrong; truly, his wrath is turned away from me. See, I will take up the cause against you, because you say, I have done no wrong. +Jer 2:36 Why do you go about so much for the purpose of changing your way? you will be shamed on account of Egypt, as you were shamed on account of Assyria. +Jer 2:37 Truly, you will go out from him with your hands on your head: for the Lord has given up those in whom you have put your faith, and they will be of no help to you. +Jer 3:1 They say, If a man puts away his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's, will he go back to her again? will not that land have been made unclean? but though you have been acting like a loose woman with a number of lovers, will you now come back to me? says the Lord. +Jer 3:2 Let your eyes be lifted up to the open hilltops, and see; where have you not been taken by your lovers? You have been seated waiting for them by the wayside like an Arabian in the waste land; you have made the land unclean with your loose ways and your evil-doing. +Jer 3:3 So the showers have been kept back, and there has been no spring rain; still your brow is the brow of a loose woman, you will not let yourself be shamed. +Jer 3:4 Will you not, from this time, make your prayer to me, crying, My father, you are the friend of my early years? +Jer 3:5 Will he be angry for ever? will he keep his wrath to the end? These things you have said, and have done evil and have had your way. +Jer 3:6 And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what Israel, turning away from me, has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every branching tree, acting like a loose woman there. +Jer 3:7 And I said, After she has done all these things she will come back to me; but she did not. And her false sister Judah saw it. +Jer 3:8 And though she saw that, because Israel, turning away from me, had been untrue to me, I had put her away and given her a statement in writing ending the relation between us, still Judah, her false sister, had no fear, but went and did the same. +Jer 3:9 So that through all her loose behaviour the land became unclean, and she was untrue, giving herself to stones and trees. +Jer 3:10 But for all this, her false sister Judah has not come back to me with all her heart, but with deceit, says the Lord. +Jer 3:11 And the Lord said to me, Israel in her turning away is seen to be more upright than false Judah. +Jer 3:12 Go, and give out these words to the north, and say, Come back, O Israel, though you have been turned away from me, says the Lord; my face will not be against you in wrath: for I am full of mercy, says the Lord, I will not be angry for ever. +Jer 3:13 Only be conscious of your sin, the evil you have done against the Lord your God; you have gone with strange men under every branching tree, giving no attention to my voice, says the Lord. +Jer 3:14 Come back, O children who are turned away, says the Lord; for I am a husband to you, and I will take you, one from a town and two from a family, and will make you come to Zion; +Jer 3:15 And I will give you keepers, pleasing to my heart, who will give you your food with knowledge and wisdom. +Jer 3:16 And it will come about, when your numbers are increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, that they will no longer say, The ark of the agreement of the Lord: it will not come into their minds, they will not have any memory of it, or be conscious of the loss of it, and it will not be made again. +Jer 3:17 At that time Jerusalem will be named the seat of the Lord's kingdom; and all the nations will come together to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: and no longer will their steps be guided by the purposes of their evil hearts. +Jer 3:18 In those days the family of Judah will go with the family of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north into the land which I gave for a heritage to your fathers. +Jer 3:19 But I said, How am I to put you among the children, and give you a desired land, a heritage of glory among the armies of the nations? and I said, You are to say to me, My father; and not be turned away from me. +Jer 3:20 Truly, as a wife is false to her husband, so have you been false to me, O Israel, says the Lord. +Jer 3:21 A voice is sounding on the open hilltops, the weeping and the prayers of the children of Israel; because their way is twisted, they have not kept the Lord their God in mind. +Jer 3:22 Come back, you children who have been turned away, and I will take away your desire for wandering. See, we have come to you, for you are the Lord our God. +Jer 3:23 Truly, the hills, and the noise of an army on the mountains, are a false hope: truly, in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. +Jer 3:24 But the Baal has taken all the work of our fathers from our earliest days; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. +Jer 3:25 Let us be stretched on the earth in our downfall, covering ourselves with our shame: for we have been sinners against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our earliest years even till this day: and we have not given ear to the voice of the Lord our God. +Jer 4:1 If you will come back, O Israel, says the Lord, you will come back to me: and if you will put away your disgusting ways, you will not be sent away from before me. +Jer 4:2 And you will take your oath, By the living Lord, in good faith and wisdom and righteousness; and the nations will make use of you as a blessing, and in you will they take a pride. +Jer 4:3 For this is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: Get your unworked land ploughed up, do not put in your seeds among thorns. +Jer 4:4 Undergo a circumcision of the heart, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem: or my wrath may come out like fire, burning so that no one is able to put it out, because of the evil of your doings. +Jer 4:5 Say openly in Judah, give it out in Jerusalem, and say, Let the horn be sounded in the land: crying out in a loud voice, Come together, and let us go into the walled towns. +Jer 4:6 Put up a flag for a sign to Zion: go in flight so that you may be safe, waiting no longer: for I will send evil from the north, and a great destruction. +Jer 4:7 A lion has gone up from his secret place in the woods, and one who makes waste the nations is on his way; he has gone out from his place, to make your land unpeopled, so that your towns will be made waste, with no man living in them. +Jer 4:8 For this put on haircloth, with weeping and loud crying: for the burning wrath of the Lord is not turned back from us. +Jer 4:9 And it will come about in that day, says the Lord, that the heart of the king will be dead in him, and the hearts of the rulers; and the priests will be overcome with fear, and the prophets with wonder. +Jer 4:10 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! your words were not true when you said to this people and to Jerusalem, You will have peace; when the sword has come even to the soul. +Jer 4:11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A burning wind from the open hilltops in the waste land is blowing on the daughter of my people, not for separating or cleaning the grain; +Jer 4:12 A full wind will come for me: and now I will give my decision against them. +Jer 4:13 See, he will come up like the clouds, and his war-carriages like the storm-wind: his horses are quicker than eagles. Sorrow is ours, for destruction has come on us. +Jer 4:14 O Jerusalem, make your heart clean from evil, so that you may have salvation. How long are evil purposes to have a resting-place in you? +Jer 4:15 For a voice is sounding from Dan, giving out evil from the hills of Ephraim: +Jer 4:16 Make this come to the minds of the nations, make a statement openly against Jerusalem, that attackers are coming from a far country and their voices will be loud against the towns of Judah. +Jer 4:17 Like keepers of a field they are against her on every side; because she has been fighting against me, says the Lord. +Jer 4:18 Your ways and your doings have made these things come on you; this is your sin; truly it is bitter, going deep into your heart. +Jer 4:19 My soul, my soul! I am pained to my inmost heart; my heart is troubled in me; I am not able to be quiet, because the sound of the horn, the note of war, has come to my ears. +Jer 4:20 News is given of destruction on destruction; all the land is made waste: suddenly my tents, straight away my curtains, are made waste. +Jer 4:21 How long will I go on seeing the flag and hearing the sound of the war-horn? +Jer 4:22 For my people are foolish, they have no knowledge of me; they are evil-minded children, without sense, all of them: they are wise in evil-doing, but have no knowledge of doing good. +Jer 4:23 Looking at the earth, I saw that it was waste and without form; and to the heavens, that they had no light. +Jer 4:24 Looking at the mountains, I saw them shaking, and all the hills were moved about. +Jer 4:25 Looking, I saw that there was no man, and all the birds of heaven had gone in flight. +Jer 4:26 Looking, I saw that the fertile field was a waste, and all its towns were broken down before the Lord and before his burning wrath. +Jer 4:27 For this is what the Lord has said: All the land will become a waste; I will make destruction complete. +Jer 4:28 The earth will be weeping for this, and the heavens on high will be black: because I have said it, and I will not go back from it; it is my purpose, and it will not be changed. +Jer 4:29 All the land is in flight because of the noise of the horsemen and the bowmen; they have taken cover in the woodland and up on the rocks: every town has been given up, not a man is living in them. +Jer 4:30 And you, when you are made waste, what will you do? Though you are clothed in red, though you make yourself beautiful with ornaments of gold, though you make your eyes wide with paint, it is for nothing that you make yourself fair; your lovers have no more desire for you, they have designs on your life. +Jer 4:31 A voice has come to my ears like the voice of a woman in birth-pains, the pain of one giving birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, fighting for breath, stretching out her hands, saying, Now sorrow is mine! for my strength is gone from me before the takers of life. +Jer 5:1 Go quickly through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and get knowledge, and make a search in her wide places if there is a man, if there is one in her who is upright, who keeps faith; and she will have my forgiveness. +Jer 5:2 And though they say, By the living Lord; truly their oaths are false. +Jer 5:3 O Lord, do not your eyes see good faith? you have given them punishment, but they were not troubled; you have sent destruction on them, but they did not take your teaching to heart: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they would not come back. +Jer 5:4 Then I said, But these are the poor: they are foolish, for they have no knowledge of the way of the Lord or of the behaviour desired by their God. +Jer 5:5 I will go to the great men and have talk with them; for they have knowledge of the way of the Lord and of the behaviour desired by their God. But as for these, their one purpose is a broken yoke and burst bands. +Jer 5:6 And so a lion from the woods will put them to death, a wolf of the waste land will make them waste, a leopard will keep watch on their towns, and everyone who goes out from them will be food for the beasts; because of the great number of their sins and the increase of their wrongdoing. +Jer 5:7 How is it possible for you to have my forgiveness for this? your children have given me up, taking their oaths by those who are no gods: when I had given them food in full measure, they were false to their wives, taking their pleasure in the houses of loose women. +Jer 5:8 They were full of desire, like horses after a meal of grain: everyone went after his neighbour's wife. +Jer 5:9 Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this? +Jer 5:10 Go up against her vines and make waste; let the destruction be complete: take away her branches, for they are not the Lord's. +Jer 5:11 For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have been very false to me, says the Lord. +Jer 5:12 They would have nothing to do with the Lord, saying, He will do nothing, and no evil will come to us; we will not see the sword or be short of food: +Jer 5:13 And the prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them; so it will be done to them. +Jer 5:14 For this reason the Lord, the God of armies, has said: Because you have said this, I will make my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and they will be burned up by it. +Jer 5:15 See, I will send you a nation from far away, O people of Israel, says the Lord; a strong nation and an old nation, a nation whose language is strange to you, so that you may not get the sense of their words. +Jer 5:16 Their arrows give certain death, they are all men of war. +Jer 5:17 They will take all the produce of your fields, which would have been food for your sons and your daughters: they will take your flocks and your herds: they will take all your vines and your fig-trees: and with the sword they will make waste your walled towns in which you put your faith. +Jer 5:18 But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not let your destruction be complete. +Jer 5:19 And it will come about, when you say, Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us? that you will say to them, As you gave me up, making yourselves servants to strange gods in your land, so will you be servants to strange men in a land which is not yours. +Jer 5:20 Say this openly in Jacob and give it out in Judah, saying, +Jer 5:21 Give ear now to this, O foolish people without sense; who have eyes but see nothing, and ears without the power of hearing: +Jer 5:22 Have you no fear of me? says the Lord; will you not be shaking with fear before me, who have put the sand as a limit for the sea, by an eternal order, so that it may not go past it? and though it is ever in motion, it is not able to have its way; though the sound of its waves is loud, they are not able to go past it. +Jer 5:23 But the heart of this people is uncontrolled and turned away from me; they are broken loose and gone. +Jer 5:24 And they do not say in their hearts, Now let us give worship to our God, who gives the rain, the winter and the spring rain, at the right time; who keeps for us the ordered weeks of the grain-cutting. +Jer 5:25 Through your evil-doing these things have been turned away, and your sins have kept back good from you. +Jer 5:26 For there are sinners among my people: they keep watch, like men watching for birds; they put a net and take men in it. +Jer 5:27 As the fowl-house is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: for this reason they have become great and have got wealth. +Jer 5:28 They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets his rights. +Jer 5:29 Am I not to give punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this? +Jer 5:30 A thing of wonder and fear has come about in the land; +Jer 5:31 The prophets give false words and the priests give decisions by their direction; and my people are glad to have it so: and what will you do in the end? +Jer 6:1 Go in flight out of Jerusalem, so that you may be safe, you children of Benjamin, and let the horn be sounded in Tekoa, and the flag be lifted up on Beth-haccherem: for evil is looking out from the north, and a great destruction. +Jer 6:2 The fair and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will be cut off by my hand. +Jer 6:3 Keepers of sheep with their flocks will come to her; they will put up their tents round her; everyone will get food in his place. +Jer 6:4 Make war ready against her; up! let us go up when the sun is high. Sorrow is ours! for the day is turned and the shades of evening are stretched out. +Jer 6:5 Up! let us go up by night, and send destruction on her great houses. +Jer 6:6 For this is what the Lord of armies has said: Let trees be cut down and an earthwork be placed against Jerusalem: sorrow on the false town! inside her there is nothing but cruel ways. +Jer 6:7 As the spring keeps its waters cold, so she keeps her evil in her: the sound of cruel and violent behaviour is in her; before me at all times are disease and wounds. +Jer 6:8 Undergo teaching, O Jerusalem, or my soul will be turned away from you, and I will make you a waste, an unpeopled land. +Jer 6:9 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Everything will be taken from the rest of Israel as the last grapes are taken from the vine; let your hand be turned to the small branches, like one pulling off grapes. +Jer 6:10 To whom am I to give word, witnessing so that they may take note? see, their ears are stopped, and they are not able to give attention: see, the word of the Lord has been a cause of shame to them, they have no delight in it. +Jer 6:11 For this reason I am full of the wrath of the Lord, I am tired of keeping it in: may it be let loose on the children in the street, and on the band of the young men together: for even the husband with his wife will be taken, the old man with him who is full of days. +Jer 6:12 And their houses will be handed over to others, their fields and their wives together: for my hand will be stretched out against the people of the land, says the Lord. +Jer 6:13 For from the least of them even to the greatest, everyone is given up to getting money; from the prophet even to the priest, everyone is working deceit. +Jer 6:14 And they have made little of the wounds of my people, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. +Jer 6:15 Let them be put to shame because they have done disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to become red with shame: so they will come down with those who are falling: when my punishment comes on them, they will be made low, says the Lord. +Jer 6:16 This is what the Lord has said: Take your place looking out on the ways; make search for the old roads, saying, Where is the good way? and go in it that you may have rest for your souls. But they said, We will not go in it. +Jer 6:17 And I put watchmen over you, saying, Give attention to the sound of the horn; but they said, We will not give attention. +Jer 6:18 So then, give ear, you nations, and ... +Jer 6:19 Give ear, O earth: see, I will make evil come on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not given attention to my words, and they would have nothing to do with my law. +Jer 6:20 To what purpose does sweet perfume come to me from Sheba, and spices from a far country? your burned offerings give me no pleasure, your offerings of beasts are not pleasing to me. +Jer 6:21 For this reason the Lord has said, See, I will put stones in the way of this people: and the fathers and the sons together will go falling over them; the neighbour and his friend will come to destruction. +Jer 6:22 The Lord has said, See, a people is coming from the north country, a great nation will be put in motion from the inmost parts of the earth. +Jer 6:23 Bows and spears are in their hands; they are cruel and have no mercy; their voice is like the thunder of the sea, and they go on horses; everyone in his place like men going to the fight, against you, O daughter of Zion. +Jer 6:24 The news of it has come to our ears; our hands have become feeble: trouble has come on us and pain, like the pain of a woman in childbirth. +Jer 6:25 Go not out into the field or by the way; for there is the sword of the attacker, and fear on every side. +Jer 6:26 O daughter of my people, put on haircloth, rolling yourself in the dust: give yourself to sorrow, as for an only son, with most bitter cries of grief; for he who makes waste will come on us suddenly. +Jer 6:27 I have made you a tester among my people, so that you may have knowledge of their way and put it to the test. +Jer 6:28 All of them are turned away, going about with false stories; they are brass and iron: they are all workers of deceit. +Jer 6:29 The blower is blowing strongly, the lead is burned away in the fire: they go on heating the metal to no purpose, for the evil-doers are not taken away. +Jer 6:30 They will be named waste silver, because the Lord has given them up. +Jer 7:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, +Jer 7:2 Take your place in the doorway of the Lord's house, and give out this word there, and say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who come inside these doors to give worship to the Lord. +Jer 7:3 The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, says, Let your ways and your doings be changed for the better and I will let you go on living in this place. +Jer 7:4 Put no faith in false words, saying, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are these. +Jer 7:5 For if your ways and your doings are truly changed for the better; if you truly give right decisions between a man and his neighbour; +Jer 7:6 If you are not cruel to the man from a strange country, and to the child without a father, and to the widow, and do not put the upright to death in this place, or go after other gods, causing damage to yourselves: +Jer 7:7 Then I will let you go on living in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers in the past and for ever. +Jer 7:8 See, you put your faith in false words which are of no profit. +Jer 7:9 Will you take the goods of others, put men to death, and be untrue to your wives, and take false oaths, and have perfumes burned to the Baal, and go after other gods which are strange to you; +Jer 7:10 And come and take your place before me in this house, which is named by my name, and say, We have been made safe; so that you may do all these disgusting things? +Jer 7:11 Has this house, which is named by my name, become a hole of thieves to you? Truly I, even I, have seen it, says the Lord. +Jer 7:12 But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I put my name at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil-doing of my people Israel. +Jer 7:13 And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and I sent my word to you, getting up early and sending, but you did not give ear; and my voice came to you, but you gave no answer: +Jer 7:14 For this reason I will do to the house which is named by my name, and in which you have put your faith, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. +Jer 7:15 And I will send you away from before my face, as I have sent away all your brothers, even all the seed of Ephraim. +Jer 7:16 And as for you (Jeremiah), make no prayers for this people, send up no cry or prayer for them, make no request for them to me: for I will not give ear. +Jer 7:17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? +Jer 7:18 The children go for wood, the fathers get the fire burning, the women are working the paste to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and drink offerings are drained out to other gods, moving me to wrath. +Jer 7:19 Are they moving me to wrath? says the Lord; are they not moving themselves to their shame? +Jer 7:20 So this is what the Lord God has said: See, my wrath and my passion will be let loose on this place, on man and beast, and on the trees of the field, and on the produce of the earth; it will be burning and will not be put out. +Jer 7:21 These are the words of the Lord of armies, the God of Israel: Put your burned offerings with your offerings of beasts, and take flesh for your food. +Jer 7:22 For I said nothing to your fathers, and gave them no orders, on the day when I took them out of Egypt, about burned offerings or offerings of beasts: +Jer 7:23 But this was the order I gave them, saying, Give ear to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people: go in all the way ordered by me, so that all may be well for you. +Jer 7:24 But they took no note and did not give ear, but were guided by the thoughts and the pride of their evil hearts, going back and not forward. +Jer 7:25 From the day when your fathers came out of Egypt till this day, I have sent my servants the prophets to you, getting up early every day and sending them: +Jer 7:26 But still they took no note and would not give ear, but they made their necks stiff, doing worse than their fathers. +Jer 7:27 And you are to say all these words to them, but they will not give ear to you: you will send out your voice to them, but they will give no answer. +Jer 7:28 And you are to say to them, This is the nation which has not given ear to the voice of their God, or taken his teaching to heart: good faith is dead and is cut off from their mouths. +Jer 7:29 Let your hair be cut off, O Jerusalem, and let it go, and let a song of grief go up on the open hilltops; for the Lord is turned away from the generation of his wrath and has given them up. +Jer 7:30 For the children of Judah have done what is evil in my eyes, says the Lord: they have put their disgusting images in the house which is named by my name, making it unclean. +Jer 7:31 And they have put up the high place of Topheth in the valley of the son of Hinnom, burning their sons and their daughters there in the fire; a thing which was not ordered by me and never came into my mind. +Jer 7:32 For this cause, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be named Topheth, or, The valley of the son of Hinnom, but, The valley of Death: for they will put the dead into the earth in Topheth till there is no more room. +Jer 7:33 And the bodies of this people will be food for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth; and there will be no one to send them away. +Jer 7:34 And in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, I will put an end to the laughing voices, the voice of joy and the voice of the newly-married man and the voice of the bride: for the land will become a waste. +Jer 8:1 At that time, says the Lord, they will take the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his rulers, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem out of their resting-places: +Jer 8:2 And they will put them out before the sun and the moon and all the stars of heaven, whose lovers and servants they have been, after whom they have gone, to whom they have made prayers, and to whom they have given worship: they will not be put together or placed in the earth; they will be waste on the face of the earth. +Jer 8:3 And death will be desired more than life by the rest of this evil family who are still living in all the places where I have sent them away, says the Lord of armies. +Jer 8:4 Further, you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Will those who are falling not be lifted up again? will he who has gone away not come back? +Jer 8:5 Why do these people of Jerusalem go back, for ever turning away? they will not give up their deceit, they will not come back. +Jer 8:6 I took note and gave ear, but no one said what is right: no man had regret for his evil-doing, saying, What have I done? everyone goes off on his way like a horse rushing to the fight. +Jer 8:7 Truly, the stork in the heavens is conscious of her fixed times; the dove and the swallow and the crane keep to the times of their coming; but my people have no knowledge of the law of the Lord. +Jer 8:8 How is it that you say, We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us? But see, the false pen of the scribes has made it false. +Jer 8:9 The wise men are shamed, they are overcome with fear and taken: see, they have given up the word of the Lord; and what use is their wisdom to them? +Jer 8:10 So I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who will take them for themselves: for everyone, from the least to the greatest, is given up to getting money; from the priest even to the prophet, everyone is false. +Jer 8:11 And they have made little of the wounds of the daughter of Zion, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. +Jer 8:12 Let them be put to shame because they have done disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to become red with shame: so they will come down with those who are falling: in the time of their punishment they will be made low, says the Lord. +Jer 8:13 I will put an end to them completely, says the Lord: there are no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf is dry. +Jer 8:14 Why are we seated doing nothing? come together, and let us go to the walled towns, and let destruction overtake us there, for the Lord our God has sent destruction on us, and given us bitter water for our drink, because we have done evil against the Lord. +Jer 8:15 We were looking for peace, but no good came; and for a time of well-being, but there is only a great fear. +Jer 8:16 The loud breathing of the horses comes to our ears from Dan: at the sound of the outcry of his war-horses, all the land is shaking with fear; for they have come, and have made a meal of the land and everything in it; the town and the people living in it. +Jer 8:17 See, I will send snakes and poison-snakes among you, against which the wonder-worker has no power; and they will give you wounds which may not be made well, says the Lord. +Jer 8:18 Sorrow has come on me! my heart in me is feeble. +Jer 8:19 The voice of the cry of the daughter of my people comes from a far land: Is the Lord not in Zion? is not her King in her? Why have they made me angry with their images and their strange gods which are no gods? +Jer 8:20 The grain-cutting is past, the summer is ended, and no salvation has come to us. +Jer 8:21 For the destruction of the daughter of my people I am broken: I am dressed in the clothing of grief; fear has taken me in its grip. +Jer 8:22 Is there no life-giving oil in Gilead? is there no expert in medical arts? why then have my people not been made well? +Jer 9:1 If only my head was a stream of waters and my eyes fountains of weeping, so that I might go on weeping day and night for the dead of the daughter of my people! +Jer 9:2 If only I had in the waste land a night's resting-place for travellers, so that I might go away, far from my people! for they are all untrue, a band of false men. +Jer 9:3 Their tongues are bent like a bow to send out false words: they have become strong in the land, but not for good faith: they go on from evil to evil, and they have no knowledge of me, says the Lord. +Jer 9:4 Let everyone keep watch on his neighbour, and put no faith in any brother: for every brother will certainly be tricking his brother, and every neighbour will go about saying evil. +Jer 9:5 Everyone will make sport of his neighbour with deceit, not saying what is true: their tongues have been trained to say false words; they are twisted, hating to come back. +Jer 9:6 There is wrong on wrong, deceit on deceit; they have given up the knowledge of me, says the Lord. +Jer 9:7 So the Lord of armies has said, See, I will make them soft in the fire and put them to the test; this I will do because of their evil-doing. +Jer 9:8 His tongue is an arrow causing death; the words of his mouth are deceit: he says words of peace to his neighbour, but in his heart he is waiting secretly for him. +Jer 9:9 Am I not to send punishment for these things? says the Lord: will not my soul take payment from such a nation as this? +Jer 9:10 Give yourselves to weeping, crying out in sorrow for the mountains; and for the fields of the waste land send up a song of grief, because they are burned up, so that no one goes through; there is no sound of cattle; the bird of the heavens and the beast are in flight and are gone. +Jer 9:11 And I will make Jerusalem a mass of broken stones, the living-place of jackals; and I will make the towns of Judah a waste, with no man living there. +Jer 9:12 Who is the wise man able to see this? who is he to whom the word of the Lord has come, so that he may make it clear? why is the land given to destruction and burned up like a waste place, so that no one goes through? +Jer 9:13 And the Lord said, Because they have given up my law which I put before them, giving no attention to my voice and not being guided by it; +Jer 9:14 But they have been walking in the pride of their hearts, going after the Baals, as their fathers gave them teaching. +Jer 9:15 So the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, I will give them, even this people, bitter plants for food and bitter water for drink. +Jer 9:16 And I will send them wandering among the nations, among people strange to them and to their fathers: and I will send the sword after them till I have put an end to them. +Jer 9:17 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Take thought and send for the weeping women, so that they may come; and send for the wise women, so that they may come: +Jer 9:18 Let them quickly make cries of sorrow for us, so that drops may be flowing from our eyes till they are streaming with water. +Jer 9:19 For a sound of weeping goes up from Zion, a cry, How has destruction come on us? we are overcome with shame because we have gone away from our land; he has sent us out from our house. +Jer 9:20 But even now, give ear to the word of the Lord, O you women; let your ears be open to the word of his mouth, training your daughters to give cries of sorrow, everyone teaching her neighbour a song of grief. +Jer 9:21 For death has come up into our windows, forcing its way into our great houses; cutting off the children in the streets and the young men in the wide places. +Jer 9:22 The bodies of men will be falling like waste on the open fields, and like grain dropped by the grain-cutter, and no one will take them up. +Jer 9:23 This is the word of the Lord: Let not the wise man take pride in his wisdom, or the strong man in his strength, or the man of wealth in his wealth: +Jer 9:24 But if any man has pride, let it be in this, that he has the wisdom to have knowledge of me, that I am the Lord, working mercy, giving true decisions, and doing righteousness in the earth: for in these things I have delight, says the Lord. +Jer 9:25 See, the day is coming, says the Lord, when I will send punishment on all those who have circumcision in the flesh; +Jer 9:26 On Egypt and on Judah and on Edom and on the children of Ammon and on Moab and on all who have the ends of their hair cut, who are living in the waste land: for all these nations and all the people of Israel are without circumcision in their hearts. +Jer 10:1 Give ear to the word which the Lord says to you, O people of Israel: +Jer 10:2 This is what the Lord has said: Do not go in the way of the nations; have no fear of the signs of heaven, for the nations go in fear of them. +Jer 10:3 For that which is feared by the people is foolish: it is the work of the hands of the workman; for a tree is cut down by him out of the woods with his axe. +Jer 10:4 They make it beautiful with silver and gold; they make it strong with nails and hammers, so that it may not be moved. +Jer 10:5 It is like a pillar in a garden of plants, and has no voice: it has to be lifted, for it has no power of walking. Have no fear of it; for it has no power of doing evil and it is not able to do any good. +Jer 10:6 There is no one like you, O Lord; you are great and your name is great in power. +Jer 10:7 Who would not have fear of you, O King of the nations? for it is your right: for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you. +Jer 10:8 But they are together like beasts and foolish: the teaching of false gods is wood. +Jer 10:9 Silver hammered into plates is sent from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the expert workman and of the hands of the gold-worker; blue and purple is their clothing, all the work of expert men. +Jer 10:10 But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and an eternal king: when he is angry, the earth is shaking with fear, and the nations give way before his wrath. +Jer 10:11 This is what you are to say to them: The gods who have not made the heavens and the earth will be cut off from the earth and from under the heavens. +Jer 10:12 He has made the earth by his power, he has made the world strong in its place by his wisdom, and by his wise design the heavens have been stretched out. +Jer 10:13 At the sound of his voice there is a massing of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mists go up from the ends of the earth; he makes the thunder-flames for the rain, and sends out the wind from his store-houses. +Jer 10:14 Then every man becomes like a beast without knowledge; every gold-worker is put to shame by the image he has made: for his metal image is deceit, and there is no breath in them. +Jer 10:15 They are nothing, a work of error: in the time of their punishment, destruction will overtake them. +Jer 10:16 The heritage of Jacob is not like these; for the maker of all things is his heritage: the Lord of armies is his name. +Jer 10:17 Get your goods together and go out of the land, O you who are shut up in the walled town. +Jer 10:18 For the Lord has said, I will send the people in flight like a stone from the land at this time, troubling them so that they will be conscious of it. +Jer 10:19 Sorrow is mine for I am wounded! my wound may not be made well; and I said, Cruel is my disease, I may not be free from it. +Jer 10:20 My tent is pulled down and all my cords are broken: my children have gone from me, and they are not: no longer is there anyone to give help in stretching out my tent and hanging up my curtains. +Jer 10:21 For the keepers of the sheep have become like beasts, not looking to the Lord for directions: so they have not done wisely and all their flocks have been put to flight. +Jer 10:22 News is going about, see, it is coming, a great shaking is coming from the north country, so that the towns of Judah may be made waste and become the living-place of jackals. +Jer 10:23 O Lord, I am conscious that a man's way is not in himself: man has no power of guiding his steps. +Jer 10:24 O Lord, put me right, but with wise purpose; not in your wrath, or you will make me small. +Jer 10:25 Let your wrath be let loose on the nations which have no knowledge of you, and on the families who give no worship to your name: for they have made a meal of Jacob, truly they have made a meal of him and put an end to him and made his fields a waste. +Jer 11:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, +Jer 11:2 Give ear to the words of this agreement, and say to the men of Judah and to the people of Jerusalem, +Jer 11:3 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Let that man be cursed who does not give ear to the words of this agreement, +Jer 11:4 To the order which I gave your fathers on the day when I took them out of the land of Egypt, out of the oven of iron, saying, Give ear to my voice, and do all the orders I have given you: so you will be my people, and I will be your God: +Jer 11:5 So that I may give effect to the oath which I made to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey as at this day. And I said in answer, So be it, O Lord. +Jer 11:6 And the Lord said to me, Give out these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Give ear to the words of this agreement and do them. +Jer 11:7 For I gave certain witness to your fathers on the day when I took them up out of the land of Egypt, and even to this day, getting up early and witnessing and saying, Give ear to my voice. +Jer 11:8 But they gave no attention and did not give ear, but they went on, every man in the pride of his evil heart: so I sent on them all the curses in this agreement, which I gave them orders to keep, but they did not. +Jer 11:9 And the Lord said to me, There is an evil design at work among the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem. +Jer 11:10 They are turned back to the sins of their fathers, who would not give ear to my words; they have gone after other gods and become their servants: the people of Israel and the people of Judah have not kept the agreement which I made with their fathers. +Jer 11:11 So the Lord has said, I will send evil on them, which they will not be able to get away from; and they will send up a cry for help to me, but I will not give ear to them. +Jer 11:12 Then the towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go crying for help to the gods to whom they have been burning perfumes: but they will give them no salvation in the time of their trouble. +Jer 11:13 For the number of your gods is as the number of your towns, O Judah; and for every street in Jerusalem you have put up altars to the Baal for burning perfumes to the Baal. +Jer 11:14 And as for you, make no prayers for this people, send up no cry or prayer for them: for I will not give ear to their cry in the time of their trouble. +Jer 11:15 About Judah. What have you to do in my house? is it your thought that oaths and holy flesh will get you out of your trouble? will you make yourself safe in this way? +Jer 11:16 You had been named by the Lord, A branching olive-tree, fair with beautiful fruit: with the noise of a great rushing he has put it on fire and its branches are broken. +Jer 11:17 For the Lord of armies, by whom you were planted, has given his decision for evil against you, because of the evil which the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done, In moving me to wrath by offering perfumes to the Baal. +Jer 11:18 And the Lord gave me knowledge of it and I saw it: then you made clear to me their doings. +Jer 11:19 But I was like a gentle lamb taken to be put to death; I had no thought that they were designing evil against me, saying, Come and let us make trouble his food, cutting him off from the land of the living, so that there may be no more memory of his name. +Jer 11:20 But, O Lord of armies, judging in righteousness, testing the thoughts and the heart, let me see your punishment come on them: for I have put my cause before you. +Jer 11:21 So this is what the Lord of armies has said about the men of Anathoth who have made designs against your life, saying, You are not to be a prophet in the name of the Lord, or death will overtake you by our hands: +Jer 11:22 So the Lord of armies has said, See, I will send punishment on them: the young men will be put to the sword; their sons and their daughters will come to death through need of food: +Jer 11:23 Not one of them will keep his life, for I will send evil on the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment. +Jer 12:1 You are in the right, O Lord, when I put my cause before you: still let me take up with you the question of your decisions: why does the evil-doer do well? why are the workers of deceit living in comfort? +Jer 12:2 They have been planted by you, they have taken root; they go on and give fruit: you are near in their mouths but far from their thoughts. +Jer 12:3 But you, O Lord, have knowledge of me; you see me, searching and testing how my heart is with you: let them be pulled out like sheep to be put to death, make them ready for the day of death. +Jer 12:4 How long will the land have grief, and the plants of all the land be dry? because of the sins of the people living in it, destruction has overtaken the beasts and the birds; because they said, God does not see our ways. +Jer 12:5 If running with the fighting-men has made you tired, how will you be able to keep up with horses? and if in a land of peace you go in flight, what will become of you in the thick growth of Jordan? +Jer 12:6 For even your brothers, your father's family, even they have been untrue to you, crying loudly after you: have no faith in them, though they say fair words to you. +Jer 12:7 I have given up my house, I have let my heritage go; I have given the loved one of my soul into the hands of her haters. +Jer 12:8 My heritage has become like a lion in the woodland to me; her voice has been loud against me; so I have hate for her. +Jer 12:9 My heritage is like a brightly coloured bird to me; the cruel birds are attacking her on every side: go, get together all the beasts of the field, make them come for destruction. +Jer 12:10 The keepers of sheep have been the destruction of my vine-garden, crushing my heritage under their feet; they have made my fair heritage an unplanted waste; +Jer 12:11 They have made it waste; it is weeping to me, being wasted; all the land is made waste, because no man takes it to heart. +Jer 12:12 Those who make waste have come on all the open hilltops in the waste land; for the sword of the Lord sends destruction from one end of the land to the other end of the land: no flesh has peace. +Jer 12:13 Though good grain was planted, they have got in thorns: they have given themselves pain without profit: they will be shamed on account of their produce, because of the burning wrath of the Lord. +Jer 12:14 This is what the Lord has said against all my evil neighbours, who put their hands on the heritage which I gave my people Israel: See, I will have them uprooted from their land, uprooting the people of Judah from among them. +Jer 12:15 And it will come about that, after they have been uprooted, I will again have pity on them; and I will take them back, every man to his heritage and every man to his land. +Jer 12:16 And it will be that, if they give their minds to learning the ways of my people, using my name in their oaths, By the living Lord; as they have been teaching my people to take oaths by the Baal; then their place will be made certain among my people. +Jer 12:17 But if they will not give ear, then I will have that nation uprooted, and given to destruction, says the Lord. +Jer 13:1 This is what the Lord said to me: Go and get yourself a linen band and put it round you and do not put it in water. +Jer 13:2 So, as the Lord said, I got a band for a price and put it round my body. +Jer 13:3 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, +Jer 13:4 Take the band which you got for a price, which is round your body, and go to Parah and put it in a secret place there in a hole of the rock. +Jer 13:5 So I went and put it in a secret place by Parah, as the Lord had said to me. +Jer 13:6 Then after a long time, the Lord said to me, Up! go to Parah and get the band which I gave you orders to put there. +Jer 13:7 So I went to Parah and, uncovering the hole, took the band from the place where I had put it away: and the band was damaged and of no use for anything. +Jer 13:8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Jer 13:9 The Lord has said, In this way I will do damage to the pride of Judah and to the great pride of Jerusalem. +Jer 13:10 These evil people who say they will not give ear to my words, who go on in the pride of their hearts and have become servants and worshippers of other gods, will become like this band which is of no use for anything. +Jer 13:11 For as a band goes tightly round a man's body, so I made all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah tightly united to me; so that they might be a people for me and a name and a praise and a glory: but they would not give ear. +Jer 13:12 So you are to say this word to them: This is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: Every skin bottle will be full of wine; and they will say to you, Is it not quite clear to us that every skin bottle will be full of wine? +Jer 13:13 Then you are to say to them, The Lord has said, I will make all the people of this land, even the kings seated on David's seat, and the priests and the prophets and all the people of Jerusalem, overcome with strong drink. +Jer 13:14 I will have them smashed against one another, fathers and sons together, says the Lord: I will have no pity or mercy, I will have no feeling for them to keep me from giving them to destruction. +Jer 13:15 Give ear and let your ears be open; be not lifted up: for these are the words of the Lord. +Jer 13:16 Give glory to the Lord your God, before he makes it dark, and before your feet are slipping on the dark mountains, and, while you are looking for a light, he makes it into deep dark, into black night. +Jer 13:17 But if you do not give ear to it, my soul will be weeping in secret for your pride; my eye will be weeping bitterly, streaming with water, because the Lord's flock has been taken away as prisoners. +Jer 13:18 Say to the king and to the queen-mother, Make yourselves low, be seated on the earth: for the crown of your glory has come down from your heads. +Jer 13:19 The towns of the south are shut up, and there is no one to make them open: Judah is taken away as prisoners; all Judah is taken away as prisoners. +Jer 13:20 Let your eyes be lifted up (O Jerusalem), and see those who are coming from the north. Where is the flock which was given to you, your beautiful flock? +Jer 13:21 What will you say when he puts over you those whom you yourself have made your friends? will not pains take you like a woman in childbirth? +Jer 13:22 And if you say in your heart, Why have these things come on me? because of the number of your sins, your skirts have been uncovered and violent punishment overtakes you. +Jer 13:23 Is it possible for the skin of the Ethiopian to be changed, or the markings on the leopard? Then it might be possible for you to do good, who have been trained to do evil. +Jer 13:24 So I will send them in all directions, as dry grass is taken away by the wind of the waste land. +Jer 13:25 This is your fate, the part measured out to you by me, says the Lord, because you have put me out of your memory and put your faith in what is false. +Jer 13:26 So I will have your skirts uncovered before your face, in order that your shame may be seen. +Jer 13:27 I have seen your disgusting acts, even your false behaviour and your cries of desire and your loose ways on the hills in the field. Unhappy are you, O Jerusalem, you have no desire to be made clean; how long will you be in turning back to me? +Jer 14:1 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah when there was no water. +Jer 14:2 Judah is weeping and its doors are dark with sorrow, and people are seated on the earth clothed in black; and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up. +Jer 14:3 Their great men have sent their servants for water: they come to the holes and there is no water to be seen; they come back with nothing in their vessels; they are overcome with shame and fear, covering their heads. +Jer 14:4 Those who do work on the land are in fear, for there has been no rain on the land, and the farmers are shamed, covering their heads. +Jer 14:5 And the roe, giving birth in the field, lets her young one be uncared for, because there is no grass. +Jer 14:6 And the asses of the field on the open hilltops are opening their mouths wide like jackals to get air; their eyes are hollow because there is no grass. +Jer 14:7 Though our sins give witness against us, do something, O Lord, for the honour of your name: for again and again we have been turned away from you, we have done evil against you. +Jer 14:8 O you hope of Israel, its saviour in time of trouble, why are you like one who is strange in the land, and like a traveller putting up his tent for a night? +Jer 14:9 Why are you like a man surprised, like a man of war who is not able to give help? but you, O Lord, are with us, and we are named by your name; do not go away from us. +Jer 14:10 This is what the Lord has said about this people: Even so they have been glad to go from the right way; they have not kept their feet from wandering, so the Lord has no pleasure in them; now he will keep their wrongdoing in mind and send punishment for their sins. +Jer 14:11 And the Lord said to me, Make no prayer for this people for their good. +Jer 14:12 When they go without food, I will not give ear to their cry; when they give burned offerings and meal offerings, I will not take pleasure in them: but I will put an end to them by the sword and by need of food and by disease. +Jer 14:13 Then I said, Ah, Lord God! see, the prophets say to them, You will not see the sword or be short of food; but I will give you certain peace in this place. +Jer 14:14 Then the Lord said to me, The prophets say false words in my name, and I gave them no orders, and I said nothing to them: what they say to you is a false vision and wonder-working words without substance, the deceit of their hearts. +Jer 14:15 So this is what the Lord has said about the prophets who make use of my name, though I sent them not, and say, The sword and need of food will not be in this land: the sword and need of food will put an end to those prophets. +Jer 14:16 And the people to whom they are prophets will be pushed out dead into the streets of Jerusalem, because there is no food, and because of the sword; and they will have no one to put their bodies into the earth, them or their wives or their sons or their daughters: for I will let loose their evil-doing on them. +Jer 14:17 And you are to say this word to them, Let my eyes be streaming with water night and day, and let it not be stopped; for the virgin daughter of my people is wounded with a great wound, with a very bitter blow. +Jer 14:18 If I go out into the open country, there are those put to death by the sword! and if I go into the town, there are those who are diseased from need of food! for the prophet and the priest go about in the land and have no knowledge. +Jer 14:19 Have you completely given up Judah? is your soul turned in disgust from Zion? why have you given us blows from which there is no one to make us well? we were looking for peace, but no good came; and for a time of well-being, but there was only a great fear. +Jer 14:20 We are conscious, O Lord, of our sin and of the wrongdoing of our fathers: we have done evil against you. +Jer 14:21 Do not be turned from us in disgust, because of your name; do not put shame on the seat of your glory: keep us in mind, let not your agreement with us be broken. +Jer 14:22 Are any of the false gods of the nations able to make rain come? are the heavens able to give showers? are you not he, O Lord our God? so we will go on waiting for you, for you have done all these things. +Jer 15:1 Then the Lord said to me, Even if Moses and Samuel came before me, I would have no desire for this people: send them away from before me, and let them go. +Jer 15:2 And it will be, when they say to you, Where are we to go? then you are to say to them, The Lord has said, Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are to be in need of food, to need of food; and such as are to be taken away prisoners, to be taken away. +Jer 15:3 And I will put over them four divisions, says the Lord: the sword causing death, dogs pulling the dead bodies about, and the birds of heaven, and the beasts of the earth to take their bodies for food and put an end to them. +Jer 15:4 And I will make them a cause of fear to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and what he did in Jerusalem. +Jer 15:5 For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? and who will have sorrow for you? or who will go out of his way to see how you are? +Jer 15:6 You have given me up, says the Lord, you have gone back: so my hand is stretched out against you for your destruction; I am tired of changing my purpose. +Jer 15:7 And I have sent a cleaning wind on them in the public places of the land; I have taken their children from them; I have given my people to destruction; they have not been turned from their ways. +Jer 15:8 I have let their widows be increased in number more than the sand of the seas: I have sent against them, against the mother and the young men, one who makes waste in the heat of the day, causing pain and fears to come on her suddenly. +Jer 15:9 The mother of seven is without strength; her spirit is gone from her, her sun has gone down while it is still day: she has been shamed and overcome: and the rest of them I will give up to the sword before their haters, says the Lord. +Jer 15:10 Sorrow is mine, my mother, because you have given birth to me, a cause of fighting and argument in all the earth! I have not made men my creditors and I am not in debt to any, but every one of them is cursing me. +Jer 15:11 ... +Jer 15:12 Is it possible for iron to be broken; even iron from the north, and brass? +Jer 15:13 I will give your wealth and your stores to your attackers, without a price, because of all your sins, even in every part of your land. +Jer 15:14 They will go away with your haters into a land which is strange to you: for my wrath is on fire with a flame which will be burning on you. +Jer 15:15 O Lord, you have knowledge: keep me in mind and come to my help, and give their right reward to those who are attacking me; take me not away, for you are slow to be angry: see how I have undergone shame because of you from all those who make little of your word; +Jer 15:16 But to me your word is a joy, making my heart glad; for I am named by your name, O Lord God of armies. +Jer 15:17 I did not take my seat among the band of those who are glad, and I had no joy; I kept by myself because of your hand; for you have made me full of wrath. +Jer 15:18 Why is my pain unending and my wound without hope of being made well? Sorrow is mine, for you are to me as a stream offering false hope and as waters which are not certain. +Jer 15:19 For this cause the Lord has said, If you will come back, then I will again let you take your place before me; and if you give out what is of value and not that which has no value, you will be as my mouth: let them come back to you, but do not go back to them. +Jer 15:20 And I will make you a strong wall of brass to this people; they will be fighting against you, but they will not overcome you: for I am with you to keep you safe, says the Lord. +Jer 15:21 I will keep you safe from the hands of the evil-doers, and I will give you salvation from the hands of the cruel ones. +Jer 16:1 Then again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Jer 16:2 You are not to take a wife for yourself or have sons or daughters in this place. +Jer 16:3 For this is what the Lord has said about the sons and daughters who come to birth in this place, and about their mothers who have given them birth, and about their fathers who have given life to them in this land: +Jer 16:4 Death from evil diseases will overtake them; there will be no weeping for them and their bodies will not be put to rest; they will be like waste on the face of the earth: the sword and need of food will put an end to them; their dead bodies will be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth. +Jer 16:5 For this is what the Lord has said: Do not go into the house of sorrow, do not go to make weeping or songs of grief for them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, even mercy and pity. +Jer 16:6 Death will overtake great as well as small in the land: their bodies will not be put in a resting-place, and no one will be weeping for them or wounding themselves or cutting off their hair for them: +Jer 16:7 No one will make a feast for them in sorrow, to give them comfort for the dead, or put to their lips the cup of comfort on account of their father or their mother. +Jer 16:8 And you are not to go into the house of feasting, or be seated with them to take food or drink. +Jer 16:9 For the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, See, before your eyes and in your days I will put an end in this place to the laughing voices and the voice of joy; to the voice of the newly-married man and the voice of the bride. +Jer 16:10 And it will be, that when you say all these words to the people, then they will say to you, Why has the Lord done all this evil against us? what is our wrongdoing and what is our sin which we have done against the Lord our God? +Jer 16:11 Then you will say to them, Because your fathers have given me up, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and become their servants and their worshippers, and have given me up and have not kept my law; +Jer 16:12 And you have done worse evil than your fathers; for see, every one of you is guided by the pride of his evil heart, so as not to give ear to me: +Jer 16:13 For this reason I will send you away out of this land into a land which is strange to you, to you and to your fathers; there you will be the servants of other gods day and night, and you will have no mercy from me. +Jer 16:14 For this cause, see, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be said, By the living Lord, who took the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt. +Jer 16:15 But, By the living Lord, who took the children of Israel up out of the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had sent them: and I will take them back again to their land which I gave to their fathers. +Jer 16:16 See, I will send for great numbers of fishermen, says the Lord, and they will take them like fish in a net; and after that, I will send for numbers of bowmen, and they will go after them, driving them from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. +Jer 16:17 For my eyes are on all their ways: there is no cover for them from my face, and their evil-doing is not kept secret from my eyes. +Jer 16:18 And I will give them the reward of their evil-doing and their sin twice over; because they have made my land unclean, and have made my heritage full of the bodies of their unholy and disgusting things. +Jer 16:19 O Lord, my strength and my strong tower, my safe place in the day of trouble, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, and say, The heritage of our fathers is nothing but deceit, even false things in which there is no profit. +Jer 16:20 Will a man make for himself gods which are no gods? +Jer 16:21 For this reason, truly, I will make them see, this once I will give them knowledge of my hand and my power; and they will be certain that my name is the Lord. +Jer 17:1 The sin of Judah is recorded with a pen of iron, and with the sharp point of a jewel it is cut on their hearts of stone, and on the horns of their altars for a sign to them: +Jer 17:2 Their altars and their wood pillars under every branching tree, on the high hills and the mountains in the field. +Jer 17:3 I will give your wealth and all your stores to be taken away in war without a price, because of your sins in every part of your land. +Jer 17:4 And your hand will have to let go your heritage which I gave you; and I will make you a servant to your haters in a land which is strange to you: for you have put my wrath on fire with a flame which will go on burning for ever. +Jer 17:5 This is what the Lord has said: Cursed is the man who puts his faith in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart is turned away from the Lord. +Jer 17:6 For he will be like the brushwood in the upland, and will not see when good comes; but his living-place will be in the dry places in the waste land, in a salt and unpeopled land. +Jer 17:7 A blessing is on the man who puts his faith in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. +Jer 17:8 For he will be like a tree planted by the waters, pushing out its roots by the stream; he will have no fear when the heat comes, but his leaf will be green; in a dry year he will have no care, and will go on giving fruit. +Jer 17:9 The heart is a twisted thing, not to be searched out by man: who is able to have knowledge of it? +Jer 17:10 I the Lord am the searcher of the heart, the tester of the thoughts, so that I may give to every man the reward of his ways, in keeping with the fruit of his doings. +Jer 17:11 Like the partridge, getting eggs together but not producing young, is a man who gets wealth but not by right; before half his days are ended, it will go from him, and at his end he will be foolish. +Jer 17:12 A seat of glory, placed on high from the first, is our holy place. +Jer 17:13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who give you up will be put to shame; those who go away from you will be cut off from the earth, because they have given up the Lord, the fountain of living waters. +Jer 17:14 Make me well, O Lord, and I will be well; be my saviour, and I will be safe: for you are my hope. +Jer 17:15 See, they say to me, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now. +Jer 17:16 As for me, I have not said; Let the day of trouble come to them quickly; and I have not been hoping for the death-giving day; you have knowledge of what came from my lips; it was open before you. +Jer 17:17 Be not a cause of fear to me: you are my safe place in the day of evil. +Jer 17:18 Let them be put to shame who are attacking me, but let me not be shamed; let them be overcome with fear, but let me not be overcome: send on them the day of evil, and put them to destruction twice over. +Jer 17:19 This is what the Lord has said to me: Go and take your place in the doorway of Benjamin, where the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the doorways of Jerusalem; +Jer 17:20 And say to them, Give ear to the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all the people of Jerusalem who come in by these doors: +Jer 17:21 This is what the Lord has said: See to yourselves, that you take up no weight on the Sabbath day, or take it in through the doors of Jerusalem; +Jer 17:22 And take no weight out of your houses on the Sabbath day, or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I gave orders to your fathers; +Jer 17:23 But they gave no attention and would not give ear, but they made their necks stiff so that they might not give ear and might not get teaching. +Jer 17:24 And it will be, that if with all care you give ear to me, says the Lord, and take no weight through the doorways of this town on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work in it; +Jer 17:25 Then through the doors of this town there will come kings and princes, seated on the seat of David, going in carriages and on horseback, they and their princes, and the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem: and this town will keep its place for ever. +Jer 17:26 And they will come from the towns of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowlands, and from the mountains, and from the South, with burned offerings and offerings of beasts and meal offerings and perfume and offerings of praise, to the house of the Lord. +Jer 17:27 But if you do not give ear to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and to let no weight be lifted and taken through the doors of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: then I will put a fire in its doorways, burning up the great houses of Jerusalem, and it will never be put out. +Jer 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, +Jer 18:2 Up! go down to the potter's house, and there I will let my words come to your ears. +Jer 18:3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and he was doing his work on the stones. +Jer 18:4 And when the vessel, which he was forming out of earth, got damaged in the hand of the potter, he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it. +Jer 18:5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Jer 18:6 O Israel, am I not able to do with you as this potter does? says the Lord. See, like earth in the potter's hand are you in my hands, O Israel. +Jer 18:7 Whenever I say anything about uprooting a nation or a kingdom, and smashing it and sending destruction on it; +Jer 18:8 If, in that very minute, that nation of which I was talking is turned away from its evil, my purpose of doing evil to them will be changed. +Jer 18:9 And whenever I say anything about building up a nation or a kingdom, and planting it; +Jer 18:10 If, in that very minute, it does evil in my eyes, going against my orders, then my good purpose, which I said I would do for them, will be changed. +Jer 18:11 Now, then, say to the men of Judah and to the people of Jerusalem, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am forming an evil thing against you, and designing a design against you: let every man come back now from his evil way, and let your ways and your doings be changed for the better. +Jer 18:12 But they will say, There is no hope: we will go on in our designs, and every one of us will do what he is moved by the pride of his evil heart to do. +Jer 18:13 So this is what the Lord has said: Make search among the nations and see who has had word of such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very shocking thing. +Jer 18:14 Will the white snow go away from the top of Sirion? will the cold waters flowing from the mountains become dry? +Jer 18:15 For my people have put me out of their memory, burning perfumes to that which is nothing; and because of this, I will put a cause of falling in their ways, even in the old roads, and will make them go on side-roads, in a way not lifted up; +Jer 18:16 Making their land a thing of wonder, causing sounds of surprise for ever; everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder, shaking his head. +Jer 18:17 I will send them in flight, as from an east wind, before the attacker; I will let them see my back and not my face on the day of their downfall. +Jer 18:18 Then they said, Come, let us make a design against Jeremiah; for teaching will never be cut off from the priest, or wisdom from the wise, or the word from the prophet. Come, let us make use of his words for an attack on him, and let us give attention with care to what he says. +Jer 18:19 Give thought to me, O Lord, and give ear to the voice of those who put forward a cause against me. +Jer 18:20 Is evil to be the reward of good? for they have made a deep hole for my soul. Keep in mind how I took my place before you, to say a good word for them so that your wrath might be turned away from them. +Jer 18:21 For this cause, let their children be without food, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives be without children and become widows; let their men be overtaken by death, and their young men be put to the sword in the fight. +Jer 18:22 Let a cry for help go up from their houses, when you send an armed band on them suddenly: for they have made a hole in which to take me, and have put nets for my feet secretly. +Jer 18:23 But you, Lord, have knowledge of all the designs which they have made against my life; let not their evil-doing be covered or their sin be washed away from before your eyes: but let it be a cause of falling before you: so do to them in the time of your wrath. +Jer 19:1 This is what the Lord has said: Go and get for money a potter's bottle made of earth, and take with you some of the responsible men of the people and of the priests; +Jer 19:2 And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, by the way into the door of broken pots, and there say in a loud voice the words which I will give you; +Jer 19:3 Say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem; the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, See, I will send evil on this place which will be bitter to the ears of anyone hearing of it. +Jer 19:4 Because they have given me up, and made this place a strange place, burning perfumes in it to other gods, of whom they and their fathers and the kings of Judah had no knowledge; and they have made this place full of the blood of those who have done no wrong; +Jer 19:5 And they have put up the high places of the Baal, burning their sons in the fire; a thing which was not ordered by me, and it was never in my mind: +Jer 19:6 For this cause, see, a time is coming, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be named Topheth, or, The valley of the son of Hinnom, but, The valley of Death. +Jer 19:7 I will make the purpose of Judah and Jerusalem come to nothing in this place; I will have them put to the sword by their haters, and by the hands of those who have designs on their life; and their dead bodies I will give to be food for the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth. +Jer 19:8 And I will make this town a thing of wonder and a cause of surprise; everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder and make sounds of surprise, because of all its troubles. +Jer 19:9 I will make them take the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters for food, they will be making a meal of one another, because of their bitter need and the cruel grip of their haters and those who have made designs against their life. +Jer 19:10 Then let the potter's bottle be broken before the eyes of the men who have gone with you, +Jer 19:11 And say to them, This is what the Lord of armies has said: Even so will this people and this town be broken by me, as a potter's bottle is broken and may not be put together again: and the bodies of the dead will be put in the earth in Topheth, till there is no more room. +Jer 19:12 This is what I will do to this place, says the Lord, and to its people, making this town like Topheth: +Jer 19:13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which they have made unclean, will be like the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs perfumes have been burned to all the army of heaven, and drink offerings drained out to other gods. +Jer 19:14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to give the prophet's word; and he took his place in the open square of the Lord's house, and said to all the people, +Jer 19:15 The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, I will send on this town and on all her towns all the evil which I have said; because they made their necks stiff, so that they might not give ear to my words. +Jer 20:1 Now it came to the ears of Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief in authority in the house of the Lord, that Jeremiah was saying these things; +Jer 20:2 And Pashhur gave blows to Jeremiah and had his feet chained in a framework of wood in the higher doorway of Benjamin, which was in the house of the Lord. +Jer 20:3 Then on the day after, Pashhur let Jeremiah loose. Then Jeremiah said to him, The Lord has given you the name of Magor-missabib (Cause-of-fear-on-every-side), not Pashhur. +Jer 20:4 For the Lord has said, See, I will make you a cause of fear to yourself and to all your friends: they will come to their death by the sword of their haters, and your eyes will see it: and I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will take them away prisoners into Babylon and put them to the sword. +Jer 20:5 And more than this, I will give all the wealth of this town and all its profits and all its things of value, even all the stores of the kings of Judah will I give into the hands of their haters, who will put violent hands on them and take them away to Babylon. +Jer 20:6 And you, Pashhur, and all who are in your house, will go away prisoners: you will come to Babylon, and there your body will be put to rest, you and all your friends, to whom you said false words. +Jer 20:7 O Lord, you have been false to me, and I was tricked; you are stronger than I, and have overcome me: I have become a thing to be laughed at all the day, everyone makes sport of me. +Jer 20:8 For every word I say is a cry for help; I say with a loud voice, Violent behaviour and wasting: because the word of the Lord is made a shame to me and a cause of laughing all the day. +Jer 20:9 And if I say, I will not keep him in mind, I will not say another word in his name; then it is in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am tired of keeping myself in, I am not able to do it. +Jer 20:10 For numbers of them say evil secretly in my hearing (there is fear on every side): they say, Come, let us give witness against him; all my nearest friends, who are watching for my fall, say, It may be that he will be taken by deceit, and we will get the better of him and give him punishment. +Jer 20:11 But the Lord is with me as a great one, greatly to be feared: so my attackers will have a fall, and they will not overcome me: they will be greatly shamed, because they have not done wisely, even with an unending shame, kept in memory for ever. +Jer 20:12 But, O Lord of armies, testing the upright and seeing the thoughts and the heart, let me see your punishment come on them; for I have put my cause before you. +Jer 20:13 Make melody to the Lord, give praise to the Lord: for he has made the soul of the poor man free from the hands of the evil-doers. +Jer 20:14 A curse on the day of my birth: let there be no blessing on the day when my mother had me. +Jer 20:15 A curse on the man who gave the news to my father, saying, You have a male child; making him very glad. +Jer 20:16 May that man be like the towns overturned by the Lord without mercy: let a cry for help come to his ears in the morning, and the sound of war in the middle of the day; +Jer 20:17 Because he did not put me to death before my birth took place: so my mother's body would have been my last resting-place, and she would have been with child for ever. +Jer 20:18 Why did I come from my mother's body to see pain and sorrow, so that my days might be wasted with shame? +Jer 21:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying, +Jer 21:2 Will you get directions from the Lord for us; for Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, is making war against us; it may be that the Lord will do something for us like all the wonders he has done, and make him go away from us. +Jer 21:3 Then Jeremiah said to them, This is what you are to say to Zedekiah: +Jer 21:4 The Lord God of Israel has said, See, I am turning back the instruments of war in your hands, with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and the Chaldaeans, who are outside the walls and shutting you in; and I will get them together inside this town. +Jer 21:5 And I myself will be fighting against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even with angry feeling and passion and in great wrath. +Jer 21:6 And I will send a great disease on the people living in this town, on man and on beast, causing their death. +Jer 21:7 And after that, says the Lord, I will give up Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his servants and his people, even those in the town who have not come to their end from the disease and the sword and from need of food, into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of their haters, and into the hands of those desiring their death: he will put them to the sword; he will not let anyone get away, he will have no pity or mercy. +Jer 21:8 And to this people you are to say, The Lord has said, See, I put before you the way of life and the way of death. +Jer 21:9 He who keeps in this town will come to his death by the sword and through need of food and through disease; but he who goes out and gives himself up to the Chaldaeans who are shutting you in, will go on living, and will keep his life safe. +Jer 21:10 For my face is turned to this town for evil and not for good, says the Lord: it will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will have it burned with fire. +Jer 21:11 About the family of the king of Judah. Give ear to the word of the Lord; +Jer 21:12 O family of David, this is what the Lord has said: Do what is right in the morning, and make free from the hands of the cruel one him whose goods have been violently taken away, or my wrath will go out like fire, burning so that no one may put it out, because of the evil of your doings. +Jer 21:13 See, I am against you, you who are living on the rock of the valley, says the Lord; you who say, Who will come down against us? or who will get into our houses? +Jer 21:14 I will send punishment on you in keeping with the fruit of your doings, says the Lord: and I will put a fire in her woodlands, burning up everything round about her. +Jer 22:1 This is what the Lord has said: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and there give him this word, +Jer 22:2 And say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, seated on the seat of David, you and your servants and your people who come in by these doors. +Jer 22:3 This is what the Lord has said: Do what is right, judging uprightly, and make free from the hands of the cruel one him whose goods have been violently taken away: do no wrong and be not violent to the man from a strange country and the child without a father and the widow, and let not those who have done no wrong be put to death in this place. +Jer 22:4 For if you truly do this, then there will come in through the doors of this house kings seated on the seat of David, going in carriages and on horseback, he and his servants and his people +Jer 22:5 But if you do not give ear to these words, I give you my oath by myself, says the Lord, that this house will become a waste. +Jer 22:6 For this is what the Lord has said about the family of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, and the top of Lebanon: but, truly, I will make you waste, with towns unpeopled. +Jer 22:7 And I will make ready those who will send destruction on you, everyone armed for war: by them your best cedar-trees will be cut down and put in the fire. +Jer 22:8 And nations from all sides will go past this town, and every man will say to his neighbour, Why has the Lord done such things to this great town? +Jer 22:9 And they will say, Because they gave up the agreement of the Lord their God, and became worshippers and servants of other gods. +Jer 22:10 Let there be no weeping for the dead, and make no songs of grief for him: but make bitter weeping for him who has gone away, for he will never come back or see again the country of his birth. +Jer 22:11 For this is what the Lord has said about Shallum, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: He will never come back there again: +Jer 22:12 But death will come to him in the place where they have taken him away prisoner, and he will never see this land again. +Jer 22:13 A curse is on him who is building his house by wrongdoing, and his rooms by doing what is not right; who makes use of his neighbour without payment, and gives him nothing for his work; +Jer 22:14 Who says, I will make a wide house for myself, and rooms of great size, and has windows cut out, and has it roofed with cedar and painted with bright red. +Jer 22:15 Are you to be a king because you make more use of cedar than your father? did not your father take food and drink and do right, judging in righteousness, and then it was well for him? +Jer 22:16 He was judge in the cause of the poor and those in need; then it was well. Was not this to have knowledge of me? says the Lord. +Jer 22:17 But your eyes and your heart are fixed only on profit for yourself, on causing the death of him who has done no wrong, and on violent and cruel acts. +Jer 22:18 So this is what the Lord has said about Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will make no weeping for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they will make no weeping for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! +Jer 22:19 They will do to him what they do to the dead body of an ass; his body will be pulled out and placed on the earth outside the doors of Jerusalem. +Jer 22:20 Go up to Lebanon and give a cry; let your voice be loud in Bashan, crying out from Abarim; for all your lovers have come to destruction +Jer 22:21 My word came to you in the time of your well-being; but you said, I will not give ear. This has been your way from your earliest years, you did not give attention to my voice. +Jer 22:22 All the keepers of your sheep will be food for the wind, and your lovers will be taken away prisoners: truly, then you will be shamed and unhonoured because of all your evil-doing. +Jer 22:23 O you who are living in Lebanon, making your living-place in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied will you be when pains come on you, as on a woman in childbirth! +Jer 22:24 By my life, says the Lord, even if Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, was the ring on my right hand, even from there I would have you pulled off; +Jer 22:25 And I will give you into the hands of those desiring your death, and into the hands of those whom you are fearing, even into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of the Chaldaeans. +Jer 22:26 I will send you out, and your mother who gave you birth, into another country not the land of your birth; and there death will come to you. +Jer 22:27 But to the land on which their soul's desire is fixed, they will never come back. +Jer 22:28 Is this man Coniah a broken vessel of no value? is he a vessel in which there is no pleasure? why are they violently sent out, he and his seed, into a land which is strange to them? +Jer 22:29 O earth, earth, earth, give ear to the word of the Lord! +Jer 22:30 The Lord has said, Let this man be recorded as having no children, a man who will not do well in all his life: for no man of his seed will do well, seated on the seat of the kingdom of David and ruling again in Judah. +Jer 23:1 A curse is on the keepers who are causing the destruction and loss of the sheep of my field, says the Lord. +Jer 23:2 So this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said against the keepers who have the care of my people: You have let my flock be broken up, driving them away and not caring for them; see, I will send on you the punishment for the evil of your doings, says the Lord. +Jer 23:3 And I will get the rest of my flock together from all the countries where I have sent them, and will make them come back again to their resting-place; and they will have offspring and be increased. +Jer 23:4 And I will put over them keepers who will take care of them: never again will they be overcome with fear or be troubled, and there will not be the loss of one of them, says the Lord. +Jer 23:5 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will give to David a true Branch, and he will be ruling as king, acting wisely, doing what is right, and judging uprightly in the land. +Jer 23:6 In his days Judah will have salvation and Israel will be living without fear: and this is the name by which he will be named, The Lord is our righteousness. +Jer 23:7 And so, truly, the days are coming when they will say no longer, By the living Lord, who took the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt; +Jer 23:8 But, By the living Lord, who took up the seed of Israel, and made them come out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had sent them; and they will be living in the land which is theirs. +Jer 23:9 About the prophets. My heart is broken in me, all my bones are shaking; I am like a man full of strong drink, like a man overcome by wine; because of the Lord, and because of his holy words. +Jer 23:10 For the land is full of men who are untrue to their wives; because of the curse the land is full of grief; the green fields of the waste land have become dry; and they are quick to do evil, their strength is for what is not right. +Jer 23:11 For the prophet as well as the priest is unclean; even in my house I have seen their evil-doing, says the Lord. +Jer 23:12 For this cause their steps will be slipping on their way: they will be forced on into the dark and have a fall there: for I will send evil on them in the year of their punishment, says the Lord. +Jer 23:13 And I have seen ways without sense in the prophets of Samaria; they became prophets of the Baal, causing my people Israel to go wrong. +Jer 23:14 And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a shocking thing; they are untrue to their wives, walking in deceit, and they make strong the hands of evil-doers, so that a man may not be turned back from his evil-doing: they have all become like Sodom to me, and its people like Gomorrah. +Jer 23:15 So this is what the Lord of armies has said about the prophets: See, I will give them a bitter plant for their food, and bitter water for their drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem unclean behaviour has gone out into all the land. +Jer 23:16 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Do not give ear to the words which the prophets say to you: they give you teaching of no value: it is from themselves that their vision comes, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. +Jer 23:17 They keep on saying to those who have no respect for the word of the Lord, You will have peace; and to everyone who goes on his way in the pride of his heart, they say, No evil will come to you. +Jer 23:18 For which of them has knowledge of the secret of the Lord, and has seen him, and given ear to his word? which of them has taken note of his word and given attention to it? +Jer 23:19 See, the storm-wind of the Lord, even the heat of his wrath, has gone out, a rolling storm, bursting on the heads of the evil-doers. +Jer 23:20 The wrath of the Lord will not be turned back till he has done, till he has put into effect, the purposes of his heart: in days to come you will have full knowledge of this. +Jer 23:21 I did not send these prophets, but they went running: I said nothing to them, but they gave out the prophet's word. +Jer 23:22 But if they had been in my secret, then they would have made my people give ear to my words, turning them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. +Jer 23:23 Am I only a God who is near, says the Lord, and not a God at a distance? +Jer 23:24 In what secret place may a man take cover without my seeing him? says the Lord. Is there any place in heaven or earth where I am not? says the Lord. +Jer 23:25 My ears have been open to what the prophets have said, who say false words in my name, saying, I have had a dream, I have had a dream, I have had a dream, +Jer 23:26 Is (my word) in the hearts of the prophets who give out false words, even the prophets of the deceit of their hearts? +Jer 23:27 Whose purpose is to take away the memory of my name from my people by their dreams, of which every man is talking to his neighbour, as their fathers gave up the memory of my name for the Baal. +Jer 23:28 If a prophet has a dream, let him give out his dream; and he who has my word, let him give out my word in good faith. What has the dry stem to do with the grain? says the Lord. +Jer 23:29 Is not my word like fire? says the Lord; and like a hammer, smashing the rock to bits? +Jer 23:30 For this cause I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who take my words, every one from his neighbour. +Jer 23:31 See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who let their tongues say, He has said. +Jer 23:32 See, I am against the prophets of false dreams, says the Lord, who give them out and make my people go out of the way by their deceit and their uncontrolled words: but I did not send them or give them orders; and they will be of no profit to this people, says the Lord. +Jer 23:33 And if this people, or the prophet, or a priest, questioning you, says, What word of weight is there from the Lord? then you are to say to them, You are the word, for I will not be troubled with you any more, says the Lord. +Jer 23:34 And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, A word of weight from the Lord! I will send punishment on that man and on his house. +Jer 23:35 But this is what you are to say, every man to his neighbour and every man to his brother, What answer has the Lord given? and, What has the Lord said? +Jer 23:36 And you will no longer put people in mind of the word of weight of the Lord: for every man's word will be a weight on himself; for the words of the living God, of the Lord of armies, our God, have been twisted by you. +Jer 23:37 This is what you are to say to the prophet, What answer has the Lord given to you? and, What has the Lord said? +Jer 23:38 But if you say, The word of weight of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said: Because you say, The weight of the Lord, and I have sent to you, saying, You are not to say, The weight of the Lord; +Jer 23:39 For this reason, truly, I will put you completely out of my memory, and I will put you, and the town which I gave to you and to your fathers, away from before my face: +Jer 23:40 And I will give you a name without honour for ever, and unending shame which will never go from the memory of men. +Jer 24:1 The Lord gave me a vision, and I saw two baskets full of figs put in front of the Temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, had taken prisoner Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the chiefs of Judah, and the expert workmen and metal-workers from Jerusalem, and had taken them to Babylon. +Jer 24:2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs which first come to growth: and the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they were of no use for food. +Jer 24:3 Then the Lord said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs are very good, and the bad very bad, and of no use for food, they are so bad. +Jer 24:4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Jer 24:5 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said: Like these good figs, so in my eyes will be the prisoners of Judah, whom I have sent from this place into the land of the Chaldaeans for their good. +Jer 24:6 For I will keep my eyes on them for good, and I will take them back again to this land, building them up and not pulling them down, planting them and not uprooting them. +Jer 24:7 And I will give them a heart to have knowledge of me, that I am the Lord: and they will be my people, and I will be their God: for they will come back to me with all their heart. +Jer 24:8 And like the bad figs which are so bad that they are of no use for food, so I will give up Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his chiefs and the rest of Jerusalem who are still in this land, and those who are in the land of Egypt: +Jer 24:9 I will give them up to be a cause of fear and of trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth; to be a name of shame and common talk and a cutting word and a curse in all the places wherever I will send them wandering. +Jer 24:10 And I will send the sword, and need of food, and disease, among them till they are all cut off from the land which I gave to them and to their fathers. +Jer 25:1 The word which came to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah king of Judah; this was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon. +Jer 25:2 This word Jeremiah gave out to all the people of Judah and to those living in Jerusalem, saying, +Jer 25:3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, even till this day, for twenty-three years, the word of the Lord has been coming to me, and I have given it to you, getting up early and talking to you; but you have not given ear. +Jer 25:4 And the Lord has sent to you all his servants the prophets, getting up early and sending them; but you have not given attention and your ear has not been open to give hearing; +Jer 25:5 Saying, Come back now, everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your doings, and keep your place in the land which the Lord has given to you and to your fathers, from times long past even for ever: +Jer 25:6 Do not go after other gods to be their servants and to give them worship, and do not make me angry with the work of your hands, causing evil to yourselves. +Jer 25:7 But you have not given ear to me, says the Lord; so that you have made me angry with the work of your hands, causing evil to yourselves. +Jer 25:8 So this is what the Lord of armies has said: Because you have not given ear to my words, +Jer 25:9 See, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and make them come against this land, and against its people, and against all these nations on every side; and I will give them up to complete destruction, and make them a cause of fear and surprise and a waste place for ever. +Jer 25:10 And more than this, I will take from them the sound of laughing voices, the voice of joy, the voice of the newly-married man, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the stones crushing the grain, and the shining of lights. +Jer 25:11 All this land will be a waste and a cause of wonder; and these nations will be the servants of the king of Babylon for seventy years. +Jer 25:12 And it will come about, after seventy years are ended, that I will send punishment on the king of Babylon, and on that nation, says the Lord, for their evil-doing, and on the land of the Chaldaeans; and I will make it a waste for ever. +Jer 25:13 And I will make that land undergo everything I have said against it, even everything recorded in this book, which Jeremiah the prophet has said against all the nations. +Jer 25:14 For a number of nations and great kings will make servants of them, even of them: and I will give them the reward of their acts, even the reward of the work of their hands. +Jer 25:15 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said to me: Take the cup of the wine of this wrath from my hand, and make all the nations to whom I send you take of it. +Jer 25:16 And after drinking it, they will go rolling from side to side, and be off their heads, because of the sword which I will send among them. +Jer 25:17 Then I took the cup from the Lord's hand, and gave a drink from it to all the nations to whom the Lord sent me; +Jer 25:18 Jerusalem and the towns of Judah and their kings and their princes, to make them a waste place, a cause of fear and surprise and a curse, as it is this day; +Jer 25:19 Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants and his princes and all his people; +Jer 25:20 And all the mixed people and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron and the rest of Ashdod; +Jer 25:21 Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon, +Jer 25:22 And all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the lands across the sea; +Jer 25:23 Dedan and Tema and Buz, and all who have the ends of their hair cut; +Jer 25:24 And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed people living in the waste land; +Jer 25:25 And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; +Jer 25:26 And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. +Jer 25:27 And you are to say to them, This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Take of this cup and be overcome, and let it come out again from your lips, and from your fall you will never be lifted up again, because of the sword which I will send among you. +Jer 25:28 And it will be, if they will not take of the cup in your hand, then you are to say to them, This is what the Lord of armies has said: You will certainly take of it. +Jer 25:29 For see, I am starting to send evil on the town which is named by my name, and are you to be without any punishment? You will not be without punishment: for I will send a sword on all people living on the earth, says the Lord of armies. +Jer 25:30 So, as a prophet, give out these words among them, and say to them, The voice of the Lord will be sounding like a lion from on high; he will send out his voice from his holy place, like the loud voice of a lion, against his flock; he will give a cry, like those who are crushing the grapes, against all the people of the earth. +Jer 25:31 A noise will come, even to the end of the earth; for the Lord has a cause against the nations, he will give his decision against all flesh; as for the evil-doers, he will give them to the sword, says the Lord. +Jer 25:32 This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, evil is going out from nation to nation, and a great storm will come up from the inmost parts of the earth. +Jer 25:33 And at that day, the bodies of those whom the Lord has put to death will be seen from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth: there will be no weeping for them, their bodies will not be taken up or put to rest in the earth; they will be like waste on the face of the land. +Jer 25:34 Give cries of grief, you keepers of sheep; give cries for help, rolling yourselves in the dust, you chiefs of the flock: for the days of your destruction have fully come, and I will send you in all directions, and your fall will be like that of the males of the flock. +Jer 25:35 There will be no way of flight for the keepers of sheep, no road for the chiefs of the flock to get away safely. +Jer 25:36 A sound of the cry of the keepers of sheep, and the bitter crying of the chiefs of the flock! for the Lord has made waste their green fields. +Jer 25:37 And there is no sound in the fields of peace, because of the burning wrath of the Lord. +Jer 25:38 The lion has come out of his secret place, for the land has become a waste because of the cruel sword, and because of the heat of his wrath. +Jer 26:1 When Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, first became king, this word came from the Lord, saying, +Jer 26:2 This is what the Lord has said: Take your place in the open square of the Lord's house and say to all the towns of Judah, who come into the Lord's house for worship, everything I give you orders to say to them: keep back not a word; +Jer 26:3 It may be that they will give ear, and that every man will be turned from his evil way, so that my purpose of sending evil on them because of the evil of their doings may be changed. +Jer 26:4 And you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has said: If you do not give ear to me and go in the way of my law which I have put before you, +Jer 26:5 And give ear to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you, getting up early and sending them, though you gave no attention; +Jer 26:6 Then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this town a curse to all the nations of the earth. +Jer 26:7 And in the hearing of the priests and the prophets and all the people, Jeremiah said these words in the house of the Lord. +Jer 26:8 Now, when Jeremiah had come to the end of saying everything the Lord had given him orders to say to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people took him by force, saying, Death will certainly be your fate. +Jer 26:9 Why have you said in the name of the Lord, This house will be like Shiloh, and this land a waste with no one living in it? And all the people had come together to Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. +Jer 26:10 And the rulers of Judah, hearing of these things, came up from the king's house to the house of the Lord, and took their seats by the new door of the Lord's house. +Jer 26:11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the rulers and to all the people, The right fate for this man is death; for he has said words against this town in your hearing. +Jer 26:12 Then Jeremiah said to all the rulers and to all the people, The Lord has sent me as his prophet to say against this house and against this town all the words which have come to your ears. +Jer 26:13 So now, make a change for the better in your ways and your doings, and give ear to the voice of the Lord your God; then the Lord will let himself be turned from the decision he has made against you for evil. +Jer 26:14 As for me, here I am in your hands: do with me whatever seems good and right in your opinion. +Jer 26:15 Only be certain that, if you put me to death, you will make yourselves and your town and its people responsible for the blood of one who has done no wrong: for truly, the Lord has sent me to you to say all these words in your ears. +Jer 26:16 Then the rulers and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, It is not right for this man to be put to death: for he has said words to us in the name of the Lord our God. +Jer 26:17 Then some of the responsible men of the land got up and said to all the meeting of the people, +Jer 26:18 Micah the Morashtite, who was a prophet in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, said to all the people of Judah, This is what the Lord of armies has said: Zion will become like a ploughed field, and Jerusalem will become a mass of broken walls, and the mountain of the house like the high places of the woodland. +Jer 26:19 Did Hezekiah and all Judah put him to death? did he not in the fear of the Lord make prayer for the grace of the Lord, and the Lord let himself be turned from the decision he had made against them for evil? By this act we might do great evil against ourselves. +Jer 26:20 And there was another man who was a prophet of the Lord, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim; he said against this town and against this land all the words which Jeremiah had said: +Jer 26:21 And when his words came to the ears of Jehoiakim the king and all his men of war and his captains, the king would have put him to death; but Uriah, hearing of it, was full of fear and went in flight into Egypt: +Jer 26:22 And Jehoiakim the king sent Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt. +Jer 26:23 And they took Uriah out of Egypt and came back with him to Jehoiakim the king; who put him to death with the sword, and had his dead body put into the resting-place of the bodies of the common people. +Jer 26:24 But Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, gave Jeremiah his help, so that he was not given into the hands of the people to be put to death. +Jer 27:1 When Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, first became king this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, +Jer 27:2 This is what the Lord has said to me: Make for yourself bands and yokes and put them on your neck; +Jer 27:3 And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Zidon, by their servants who come to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, king of Judah; +Jer 27:4 And give them orders to say to their masters, This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Say to your masters, +Jer 27:5 I have made the earth, and man and beast on the face of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I will give it to anyone at my pleasure. +Jer 27:6 And now I have given all these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant; and I have given the beasts of the field to him for his use. +Jer 27:7 And all the nations will be servants to him and to his son and to his son's son, till the time comes for his land to be overcome: and then a number of nations and great kings will take it for their use. +Jer 27:8 And it will come about, that if any nation does not become a servant to this same Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and does not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, then I will send punishment on that nation, says the Lord, by the sword and need of food and by disease, till I have given them into his hands. +Jer 27:9 And you are not to give attention to your prophets or your readers of signs or your dreamers or those who see into the future or those who make use of secret arts, who say to you, You will not become servants of the king of Babylon: +Jer 27:10 For they say false words to you, so that you may be sent away far from your land, and so that you may be forced out by me and come to destruction. +Jer 27:11 But as for that nation which puts its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and becomes his servant, I will let that nation keep on in its land, farming it and living in it, says the Lord. +Jer 27:12 And I said all this to Zedekiah, king of Judah, saying, Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and become his servants and his people, so that you may keep your lives. +Jer 27:13 Why are you desiring death, you and your people, by the sword, and because food is gone, and by disease, as the Lord has said of the nation which does not become the servant of the king of Babylon? +Jer 27:14 And you are not to give ear to the prophets who say to you, You will not become servants of the king of Babylon: for what they say is not true. +Jer 27:15 For I have not sent them, says the Lord, but they are saying what is false in my name, so that I might send you out by force, causing destruction to come on you and on your prophets. +Jer 27:16 And I said to the priests and to all the people, This is what the Lord has said: Give no attention to the words of your prophets who say to you, See, in a very little time now the vessels of the Lord's house will come back again from Babylon: for what they say to you is false. +Jer 27:17 Give no attention to them; become servants of the king of Babylon and keep yourselves from death: why let this town become a waste? +Jer 27:18 But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with them, let them now make request to the Lord of armies that the vessels which are still in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and at Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon. +Jer 27:19 For this is what the Lord has said about the rest of the vessels which are still in this town, +Jer 27:20 Which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take away, when he took Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, a prisoner from Jerusalem to Babylon, with all the great men of Judah and Jerusalem; +Jer 27:21 For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said about the rest of the vessels in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and at Jerusalem: +Jer 27:22 They will be taken away to Babylon, and there they will be till the day when I send their punishment on them, says the Lord. Then I will take them up and put them back in their place. +Jer 28:1 And it came about in that year, when Zedekiah first became king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah, the son of Azzur the prophet, who came from Gibeon, said to Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, before the priests and all the people, +Jer 28:2 These are the words of the Lord of armies, the God of Israel: By me the yoke of the king of Babylon has been broken. +Jer 28:3 In the space of two years I will send back into this place all the vessels of the Lord's house which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away from this place to Babylon: +Jer 28:4 And I will let Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, come back to this place, with all the prisoners of Judah who went to Babylon, says the Lord: for I will have the yoke of the king of Babylon broken. +Jer 28:5 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, before the priests and all the people who had come into the house of the Lord, +Jer 28:6 The prophet Jeremiah said, So be it: may the Lord do so: may the Lord give effect to the words which you have said, and let the vessels of the Lord's house, and all the people who have been taken away, come back from Babylon to this place. +Jer 28:7 But still, give ear to this word which I am saying to you and to all the people: +Jer 28:8 The prophets, who were before me and before you, from early times gave word to a number of countries and great kingdoms about war and destruction and disease. +Jer 28:9 The prophet whose words are of peace, when his words come true, will be seen to be a prophet whom the Lord has sent. +Jer 28:10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and it was broken by his hands. +Jer 28:11 And before all the people Hananiah said, The Lord has said, Even so will I let the yoke of the king of Babylon be broken off the necks of all the nations in the space of two years. Then the prophet Jeremiah went away. +Jer 28:12 Then after the yoke had been broken off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah by Hananiah the prophet, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, +Jer 28:13 Go and say to Hananiah, This is what the Lord has said: Yokes of wood have been broken by you, but in their place I will make yokes of iron. +Jer 28:14 For the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: I have put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations, making them servants to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; and they are to be his servants: and in addition I have given him the beasts of the field. +Jer 28:15 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, Give ear, now, Hananiah; the Lord has not sent you; but you are making this people put their faith in what is false. +Jer 28:16 For this reason the Lord has said, See, I will send you away from off the face of the earth: this year death will overtake you, because you have said words against the Lord. +Jer 28:17 So death came to Hananiah the prophet the same year, in the seventh month. +Jer 29:1 Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the responsible men among those who had been taken away, and to the priests and the prophets and to all the rest of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon; +Jer 29:2 (After Jeconiah the king and the queen-mother and the unsexed servants and the rulers of Judah and Jerusalem and the expert workmen and the metal-workers had gone away from Jerusalem;) +Jer 29:3 By the hand of Elasah, the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,) saying, +Jer 29:4 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said to all those whom I have taken away prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon: +Jer 29:5 Go on building houses and living in them, and planting gardens and using the fruit of them; +Jer 29:6 Take wives and have sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may have sons and daughters; and be increased in number there and do not become less. +Jer 29:7 And be working for the peace of the land to which I have had you taken away prisoners, and make prayer to the Lord for it: for in its peace you will have peace. +Jer 29:8 For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Do not let yourselves be tricked by the prophets who are among you, and the readers of signs, and give no attention to their dreams which they may have; +Jer 29:9 For they are saying to you what is false in my name: I have not sent them, says the Lord. +Jer 29:10 For this is what the Lord has said: When seventy years are ended for Babylon, I will have pity on you and give effect to my good purpose for you, causing you to come back to this place. +Jer 29:11 For I am conscious of my thoughts about you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope at the end. +Jer 29:12 And you will go on crying to me and making prayer to me, and I will give ear to you. +Jer 29:13 And you will be searching for me and I will be there, when you have gone after me with all your heart. +Jer 29:14 I will be near you again, says the Lord, and your fate will be changed, and I will get you together from all the nations and from all the places where I had sent you away, says the Lord; and I will take you back again to the place from which I sent you away prisoners. +Jer 29:15 For you have said, The Lord has given us prophets in Babylon. +Jer 29:16 For this is what the Lord has said about the king who is seated on the seat of David's kingdom, and about all the people living in this town, your countrymen who have not gone out with you as prisoners; +Jer 29:17 This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, I will send on them the sword and need of food and disease, and will make them like bad figs, which are of no use for food, they are so bad. +Jer 29:18 I will go after them, attacking them with the sword and with need of food and with disease, and will make them a cause of fear to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a wonder and a surprise and a name of shame among all the nations where I have sent them: +Jer 29:19 Because they have not given ear to my words, says the Lord, when I sent to them my servants the prophets, getting up early and sending them; but you did not give ear, says the Lord. +Jer 29:20 And now, give ear to the word of the Lord, all you whom I have sent away prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon. +Jer 29:21 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said about Ahab, the son of Kolaiah, and about Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who are saying to you what is false in my name: See, I will give them up into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and he will put them to death before your eyes. +Jer 29:22 And their fate will be used as a curse by all the prisoners of Judah who are in Babylon, who will say, May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, who were burned in the fire by the king of Babylon; +Jer 29:23 Because they have done shame in Israel, and have taken their neighbours' wives, and in my name have said false words, which I did not give them orders to say; and I myself am the witness, says the Lord. +Jer 29:24 About Shemaiah the Nehelamite. +Jer 29:25 Shemaiah the Nehelamite sent a letter in his name to Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying, +Jer 29:26 The Lord has made you priest in place of Jehoiada the priest, to be an overseer in the house of the Lord for every man who is off his head and is acting as a prophet, to put such men in prison and in chains. +Jer 29:27 So why have you made no protest against Jeremiah of Anathoth, who is acting as a prophet to you? +Jer 29:28 For he has sent to us in Babylon saying, The time will be long: go on building houses and living in them, and planting gardens and using the fruit of them. +Jer 29:29 And Zephaniah the priest made clear to Jeremiah the prophet what was said in the letter, reading it to him. +Jer 29:30 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, +Jer 29:31 Send to all those who have been taken away, saying, This is what the Lord has said about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has been acting as a prophet to you, and I did not send him, and has made you put your faith in what is false; +Jer 29:32 For this cause the Lord has said, Truly I will send punishment on Shemaiah and on his seed; not a man of his family will have a place among this people, and he will not see the good which I am going to do to my people, says the Lord: because he has said words against the Lord. +Jer 30:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, +Jer 30:2 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Put down in a book all the words which I have said to you. +Jer 30:3 For see, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will let the fate of my people Israel and Judah be changed, says the Lord: and I will make them come back to the land which I gave to their fathers, so that they may take it for their heritage. +Jer 30:4 And these are the words which the Lord said about Israel and about Judah. +Jer 30:5 This is what the Lord has said: A voice of shaking fear has come to our ears, of fear and not of peace. +Jer 30:6 Put the question and see if it is possible for a man to have birth-pains: why do I see every man with his hands gripping his sides, as a woman does when the pains of birth are on her, and all faces are turned green? +Jer 30:7 Ha! for that day is so great that there is no day like it: it is the time of Jacob's trouble: but he will get salvation from it. +Jer 30:8 For it will come about on that day, says the Lord of armies, that his yoke will be broken off his neck, and his bands will be burst; and men of strange lands will no longer make use of him as their servant: +Jer 30:9 But they will be servants to the Lord their God and to David their king, whom I will give back to them. +Jer 30:10 So have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, says the Lord; and do not be troubled, O Israel: for see, I will make you come back from far away, and your seed from the land where they are prisoners; and Jacob will come back, and will be quiet and at peace, and no one will give him cause for fear. +Jer 30:11 For I am with you, says the Lord, to be your saviour: for I will put an end to all the nations where I have sent you wandering, but I will not put an end to you completely: though with wise purpose I will put right your errors, and will not let you go quite without punishment. +Jer 30:12 For the Lord has said, Your disease may not be made well and your wound is bitter. +Jer 30:13 There is no help for your wound, there is nothing to make you well. +Jer 30:14 Your lovers have no more thought for you, they go after you no longer; for I have given you the wound of a hater, even cruel punishment; +Jer 30:15 Why are you crying for help because of your wound? for your pain may never be taken away: because your evil-doing was so great and because your sins were increased, I have done these things to you. +Jer 30:16 For this cause, all those who take you for their food will themselves become your food; and all your attackers, every one of them, will be taken prisoners; and those who send destruction on you will come to destruction; and all those who take away your goods by force will undergo the same themselves. +Jer 30:17 For I will make you healthy again and I will make you well from your wounds, says the Lord; because they have given you the name of an outlaw, saying, It is Zion cared for by no man. +Jer 30:18 The Lord has said, See, I am changing the fate of the tents of Jacob, and I will have pity on his houses; the town will be put up on its hill, and the great houses will be living-places again. +Jer 30:19 And from them will go out praise and the sound of laughing: and I will make them great in number, and they will not become less; and I will give them glory, and they will not be small. +Jer 30:20 And their children will be as they were in the old days, and the meeting of the people will have its place before me, and I will send punishment on all who are cruel to them. +Jer 30:21 And their chief will be of their number; their ruler will come from among themselves; and I will let him be present before me, so that he may come near to me: for who may have strength of heart to come near me? says the Lord. +Jer 30:22 And you will be my people, and I will be your God. +Jer 30:23 See, the storm-wind of the Lord, even the heat of his wrath, has gone out, a rolling storm, bursting on the heads of the evil-doers. +Jer 30:24 The wrath of the Lord will not be turned back till he has done, till he has put into effect, the purposes of his heart: in days to come you will have full knowledge of this. +Jer 31:1 At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people. +Jer 31:2 The Lord has said, Grace came in the waste land to a people kept safe from the sword, even to Israel on the way to his resting-place. +Jer 31:3 From far away he saw the Lord: my love for you is an eternal love: so with mercy I have made you come with me. +Jer 31:4 I will again make new your buildings, O virgin of Israel, and you will take up your place: again you will take up your instruments of music, and go out in the dances of those who are glad. +Jer 31:5 Again will your vine-gardens be planted on the hill of Samaria: the planters will be planting and using the fruit. +Jer 31:6 For there will be a day when those who get in the grapes on the hills of Ephraim will be crying, Up! let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God. +Jer 31:7 For the Lord has said, Make a glad song for Jacob and give a cry on the top of the mountains: give the news, give praise, and say, The Lord has given salvation to his people, even to the rest of Israel. +Jer 31:8 See, I will take them from the north country, and get them from the inmost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the feeble-footed, the woman with child and her who is in birth-pains together: a very great army, they will come back here. +Jer 31:9 They will come with weeping, and going before them I will be their guide: guiding them by streams of water in a straight way where there is no falling: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is the first of my sons. +Jer 31:10 Give ear to the word of the Lord, O you nations, and give news of it in the sea-lands far away, and say, He who has sent Israel wandering will get him together and will keep him as a keeper does his flock. +Jer 31:11 For the Lord has given a price for Jacob, and made him free from the hands of him who was stronger than he. +Jer 31:12 So they will come with songs on the high places, flowing together to the good things of the Lord, to the grain and the wine and the oil, to the young ones of the flock and of the herd: their souls will be like a watered garden, and they will have no more sorrow. +Jer 31:13 Then the virgin will have joy in the dance, and the young men and the old will be glad: for I will have their weeping turned into joy, I will give them comfort and make them glad after their sorrow. +Jer 31:14 I will give the priests their desired fat things, and my people will have a full measure of my good things, says the Lord. +Jer 31:15 So has the Lord said: In Ramah there is a sound of crying, weeping and bitter sorrow; Rachel weeping for her children; she will not be comforted for their loss. +Jer 31:16 The Lord has said this: Keep your voice from sorrow and your eyes from weeping: for your work will be rewarded, says the Lord; and they will come back from the land of their hater. +Jer 31:17 And there is hope for the future, says the Lord; and your children will come back to the land which is theirs. +Jer 31:18 Certainly Ephraim's words of grief have come to my ears, You have given me training and I have undergone it like a young cow unused to the yoke: let me be turned and come back, for you are the Lord my God. +Jer 31:19 Truly, after I had been turned, I had regret for my ways; and after I had got knowledge, I made signs of sorrow: I was put to shame, truly, I was covered with shame, because I had to undergo the shame of my early years. +Jer 31:20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he the child of my delight? for whenever I say things against him, I still keep him in my memory: so my heart is troubled for him; I will certainly have mercy on him, says the Lord. +Jer 31:21 Put up guiding pillars, make road signs for yourself: give attention to the highway, even the way in which you went: be turned again, O virgin of Israel, be turned to these your towns. +Jer 31:22 How long will you go on turning this way and that, O wandering daughter? for the Lord has made a new thing on the earth, a woman changed into a man. +Jer 31:23 So the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, Again will these words be used in the land of Judah and in its towns, when I have let their fate be changed: May the blessing of the Lord be on you, O resting-place of righteousness, O holy mountain. +Jer 31:24 And Judah and all its towns will be living there together; the farmers and those who go about with flocks. +Jer 31:25 For I have given new strength to the tired soul and to every sorrowing soul in full measure. +Jer 31:26 At this, awaking from my sleep, I saw; and my sleep was sweet to me. +Jer 31:27 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will have Israel and Judah planted with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. +Jer 31:28 And it will come about that, as I have been watching over them for the purpose of uprooting and smashing down and overturning and sending destruction and causing trouble; so I will be watching over them for the purpose of building up and planting, says the Lord. +Jer 31:29 In those days they will no longer say, The fathers have been tasting bitter grapes and the children's teeth are put on edge. +Jer 31:30 But everyone will be put to death for the evil which he himself has done: whoever has taken bitter grapes will himself have his teeth put on edge. +Jer 31:31 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah: +Jer 31:32 Not like the agreement which I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to be their guide out of the land of Egypt; which agreement was broken by them, and I gave them up, says the Lord. +Jer 31:33 But this is the agreement which I will make with the people of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my law in their inner parts, writing it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be my people. +Jer 31:34 And no longer will they be teaching every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Get knowledge of the Lord: for they will all have knowledge of me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord: for they will have my forgiveness for their evil-doing, and their sin will go from my memory for ever. +Jer 31:35 These are the words of the Lord, who has given the sun for a light by day, ordering the moon and stars for a light by night, who puts the sea in motion, causing the thunder of its waves; the Lord of armies is his name. +Jer 31:36 If the order of these things before me is ever broken, says the Lord, then will the seed of Israel come to an end as a nation before me for ever. +Jer 31:37 This is what the Lord has said: If the heavens on high may be measured, and the bases of the earth searched out, then I will give up the seed of Israel, because of all they have done, says the Lord. +Jer 31:38 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, for the building of the Lord's town, from the tower of Hananel to the doorway of the angle. +Jer 31:39 And the measuring-line will go out in front of it as far as the hill Gareb, going round to Goah. +Jer 31:40 And all the valley of the dead bodies, and all the field of death as far as the stream Kidron, up to the angle of the horses' doorway to the east, will be holy to the Lord; it will not again be uprooted or overturned for ever. +Jer 32:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. +Jer 32:2 Now at that time the king of Babylon's army was round Jerusalem, shutting it in: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the place of the armed watchmen, in the house of the king of Judah. +Jer 32:3 For Zedekiah, king of Judah, had had him shut up, saying, Why have you, as a prophet, been saying, The Lord has said, See, I will give this town into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will take it; +Jer 32:4 And Zedekiah, king of Judah, will not get away from the hands of the Chaldaeans, but will certainly be given up into the hands of the king of Babylon, and will have talk with him, mouth to mouth, and see him, eye to eye. +Jer 32:5 And he will take Zedekiah away to Babylon, where he will be till I have pity on him, says the Lord: though you are fighting with the Chaldaeans, things will not go well for you? +Jer 32:6 And Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Jer 32:7 See, Hanamel, the son of Shallum, your father's brother, will come to you and say, Give the price and get for yourself my property in Anathoth: for you have the right of the nearest relation. +Jer 32:8 So Hanamel, the son of my father's brother, came to me, as the Lord had said, to the place of the armed watchmen, and said to me, Give the price and get my property which is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: for you have the nearest relation's right to the heritage; so get it for yourself. Then it was clear to me that this was the word of the Lord. +Jer 32:9 So I got for a price the property in Anathoth from Hanamel, the son of my father's brother, and gave him the money, seventeen shekels of silver; +Jer 32:10 And I put it in writing, stamping it with my stamp, and I took witnesses and put the money into the scales. +Jer 32:11 So I took the paper witnessing the business, one copy rolled up and stamped, and one copy open: +Jer 32:12 And I gave the paper to Baruch, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, before the eyes of Hanamel, the son of my father's brother, and of the witnesses who had put their names to the paper, and before all the Jews who were seated in the place of the armed watchmen. +Jer 32:13 And I gave orders to Baruch in front of them, saying, +Jer 32:14 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Take these papers, the witness of this business, the one which is rolled up and stamped, and the one which is open; and put them in a vessel of earth so that they may be kept for a long time. +Jer 32:15 For the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, There will again be trading in houses and fields and vine-gardens in this land. +Jer 32:16 Now after I had given the paper to Baruch, the son of Neriah, I made my prayer to the Lord, saying, +Jer 32:17 Ah Lord God! see, you have made the heaven and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm, and there is nothing you are not able to do: +Jer 32:18 You have mercy on thousands, and send punishment for the evil-doing of the fathers on their children after them: the great, the strong God, the Lord of armies is his name: +Jer 32:19 Great in wisdom and strong in act: whose eyes are open on all the ways of the sons of men, giving to everyone the reward of his ways and the fruit of his doings: +Jer 32:20 You have done signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day, in Israel and among other men; and have made a name for yourself as at this day; +Jer 32:21 And have taken your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders and with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, causing great fear; +Jer 32:22 And have given them this land, which you gave your word to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey; +Jer 32:23 And they came in and took it for their heritage, but they did not give ear to your voice, and were not ruled by your law; they have done nothing of all you gave them orders to do: so you have made all this evil come on them: +Jer 32:24 See, they have made earthworks against the town to take it; and the town is given into the hands of the Chaldaeans who are fighting against it, because of the sword and need of food and disease: and what you have said has taken place, and truly you see it. +Jer 32:25 And you have said to me, Give the money to get yourself a property, and have the business witnessed; though the town is given into the hands of the Chaldaeans. +Jer 32:26 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, +Jer 32:27 See, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything so hard that I am unable to do it? +Jer 32:28 So this is what the Lord has said: See, I am giving this town into the hands of the Chaldaeans and into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, and he will take it: +Jer 32:29 And the Chaldaeans, who are fighting against this town, will come and put the town on fire, burning it together with the houses, on the roofs of which perfumes have been burned to the Baal, and drink offerings have been drained out to other gods, moving me to wrath. +Jer 32:30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my eyes from their earliest years: the children of Israel have only made me angry with the work of their hands, says the Lord. +Jer 32:31 For this town has been to me a cause of wrath and of burning passion from the day of its building till this day, so that I put it away from before my face: +Jer 32:32 Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to make me angry, they and their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem. +Jer 32:33 And they have been turning their backs and not their faces to me: and though I was their teacher, getting up early and teaching them, their ears were not open to teaching. +Jer 32:34 But they put their disgusting images into the house which is named by my name, making it unclean. +Jer 32:35 And they put up the high places of the Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, making their sons and their daughters go through the fire to Molech; which I did not give them orders to do, and it never came into my mind that they would do this disgusting thing, causing Judah to be turned out of the way. +Jer 32:36 And now the Lord, the God of Israel, has said of this town, about which you say, It is given into the hands of the king of Babylon by the sword and by need of food and by disease: +Jer 32:37 See, I will get them together from all the countries where I have sent them in my wrath and in the heat of my passion and in my bitter feeling; and I will let them come back into this place where they may take their rest safely. +Jer 32:38 And they will be my people, and I will be their God: +Jer 32:39 And I will give them one heart and one way, so that they may go on in the worship of me for ever, for their good and the good of their children after them: +Jer 32:40 And I will make an eternal agreement with them, that I will never give them up, but ever do them good; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they will not go away from me. +Jer 32:41 And truly, I will take pleasure in doing them good, and all my heart and soul will be given to planting them in this land in good faith. +Jer 32:42 For the Lord has said: As I have made all this great evil come on this people, so I will send on them all the good which I said about them. +Jer 32:43 And there will be trading in fields in this land of which you say, It is a waste, without man or beast; it is given into the hands of the Chaldaeans. +Jer 32:44 Men will get fields for money, and put the business in writing, stamping the papers and having them witnessed, in the land of Benjamin and in the country round Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah and in the towns of the hill-country and in the towns of the lowland and in the towns of the South: for I will let their fate be changed, says the Lord. +Jer 33:1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still shut up in the place of the armed watchmen, saying, +Jer 33:2 These are the words of the Lord, who is doing it, the Lord who is forming it, to make it certain; the Lord is his name; +Jer 33:3 Let your cry come to me, and I will give you an answer, and let you see great things and secret things of which you had no knowledge. +Jer 33:4 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said about the houses of this town and the houses of the kings of Judah, which have been broken down to make earthworks and ...; +Jer 33:5 ... and to make them full of the dead bodies of men whom I have put to death in my wrath and in my passion, and because of whose evil-doing I have kept my face covered from this town. +Jer 33:6 See, I will make it healthy and well again, I will even make them well; I will let them see peace and good faith in full measure. +Jer 33:7 And I will let the fate of Judah and of Israel be changed, building them up as at first. +Jer 33:8 And I will make them clean from all their sin, with which they have been sinning against me; I will have forgiveness for all their sins, with which they have been sinning against me, and with which they have done evil against me. +Jer 33:9 And this town will be to me for a name of joy, for a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth, who, hearing of all the good which I am doing for them, will be shaking with fear because of all the good and the peace which I am doing for it. +Jer 33:10 This is what the Lord has said: There will again be sounding in this place, of which you say, It is a waste, without man and without beast; even in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem which are waste and unpeopled, without man and without beast, +Jer 33:11 Happy sounds, the voice of joy, the voice of the newly-married man and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who say, Give praise to the Lord of armies, for the Lord is good, for his mercy is unchanging for ever: the voices of those who go with praise into the house of the Lord. For I will let the land come back to its first condition, says the Lord. +Jer 33:12 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Again there will be in this place, which is a waste, without man and without beast, and in all its towns, a resting-place where the keepers of sheep will make their flocks take rest. +Jer 33:13 In the towns of the hill-country, in the towns of the lowland, and in the towns of the South and in the land of Benjamin and in the country round Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah, the flocks will again go under the hand of him who is numbering them, says the Lord. +Jer 33:14 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will give effect to the good word which I have said about the people of Israel and the people of Judah. +Jer 33:15 In those days and at that time, I will let a Branch of righteousness come up for David; and he will be a judge in righteousness in the land. +Jer 33:16 In those days, Judah will have salvation and Jerusalem will be safe: and this is the name which will be given to her: The Lord is our righteousness. +Jer 33:17 For the Lord has said, David will never be without a man to take his place on the seat of the kingdom of Israel; +Jer 33:18 And the priests and the Levites will never be without a man to come before me, offering burned offerings and perfumes and meal offerings and offerings of beasts at all times. +Jer 33:19 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, +Jer 33:20 The Lord has said: If it is possible for my agreement of the day and the night to be broken, so that day and night no longer come at their fixed times, +Jer 33:21 Then my agreement with my servant David may be broken, so that he no longer has a son to take his place on the seat of the kingdom; and my agreement with the Levites, the priests, my servants. +Jer 33:22 As it is not possible for the army of heaven to be numbered, or the sand of the sea measured, so will I make the seed of my servant David, and the Levites my servants. +Jer 33:23 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, +Jer 33:24 Have you taken note of what these people have said, The two families, which the Lord took for himself, he has given up? This they say, looking down on my people as being, in their eyes, no longer a nation. +Jer 33:25 The Lord has said, If I have not made day and night, and if the limits of heaven and earth have not been fixed by me, +Jer 33:26 Then I will give up caring for the seed of Jacob and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will let their fate be changed and will have mercy on them. +Jer 34:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth which were under his rule, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem and all its towns, saying, +Jer 34:2 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, Go and say to Zedekiah, king of Judah, This is what the Lord has said: See, I will give this town into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will have it burned with fire: +Jer 34:3 And you will not get away from him, but will certainly be taken and given up into his hands; and you will see the king of Babylon, eye to eye, and he will have talk with you, mouth to mouth, and you will go to Babylon. +Jer 34:4 But give ear to the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah, king of Judah; this is what the Lord has said about you: Death will not come to you by the sword: +Jer 34:5 You will come to your end in peace; and such burnings as they made for your fathers, the earlier kings before you, will be made for you; and they will be weeping for you and saying, Ah lord! for I have said the word, says the Lord. +Jer 34:6 Then Jeremiah the prophet said all these things to Zedekiah, king of Judah, in Jerusalem, +Jer 34:7 When the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the towns of Judah which had not been taken, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these were the last of the walled towns of Judah. +Jer 34:8 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made an agreement with all the people in Jerusalem, to give news in public that servants were to be made free; +Jer 34:9 That every man was to let his Hebrew man-servant and his Hebrew servant-girl go free; so that no one might make use of a Jew, his countryman, as a servant: +Jer 34:10 And this was done by all the rulers and the people who had taken part in the agreement, and every one let his man-servant and his servant-girl go free, not to be used as servants any longer; they did so, and let them go. +Jer 34:11 But later, they took back again the servants and the servant-girls whom they had let go free, and put them again under the yoke as servants and servant-girls. +Jer 34:12 For this reason the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, +Jer 34:13 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said, I made an agreement with your fathers on the day when I took them out of Egypt, out of the prison-house, saying, +Jer 34:14 At the end of seven years every man is to let go his countryman who is a Hebrew, who has become yours for a price and has been your servant for six years; you are to let him go free: but your fathers gave no attention and did not give ear. +Jer 34:15 And now, turning away from evil, you had done what is right in my eyes, giving a public undertaking for every man to make his neighbour free; and you had made an agreement before me in the house which is named by my name: +Jer 34:16 But again you have put shame on my name, and you have taken back, every one his man-servant and his servant-girl, whom you had sent away free, and you have put them under the yoke again to be your servants and servant-girls. +Jer 34:17 And so the Lord has said, You have not given ear to me and undertaken publicly, every man to let loose his countryman and his neighbour: see, I undertake to let loose against you the sword and disease and need of food; and I will send you wandering among all the kingdoms of the earth. +Jer 34:18 And I will give the men who have gone against my agreement and have not given effect to the words of the agreement which they made before me, when the ox was cut in two and they went between the parts of it, +Jer 34:19 The rulers of Judah and the rulers of Jerusalem, the unsexed servants and the priests and all the people of the land who went between the parts of the ox, +Jer 34:20 Even these I will give up into the hands of their haters and into the hands of those who have designs against their lives: and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth. +Jer 34:21 And Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his rulers I will give into the hands of their haters and into the hands of those who have designs against their lives, and into the hands of the king of Babylon's army which has gone away from you. +Jer 34:22 See, I will give orders, says the Lord, and make them come back to this town; and they will make war on it and take it and have it burned with fire: and I will make the towns of Judah waste and unpeopled. +Jer 35:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, +Jer 35:2 Go into the house of the Rechabites, and have talk with them, and take them into the house of the Lord, into one of the rooms, and give them wine. +Jer 35:3 Then I took Jaazaniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and all the Rechabites; +Jer 35:4 And I took them into the house of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the rulers' room, which was over the room of Maaseiah, the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door; +Jer 35:5 And I put before the sons of the Rechabites basins full of wine and cups, and I said to them, Take some wine. +Jer 35:6 But they said, We will take no wine: for Jonadab, the son of Rechab our father, gave us orders, saying, You are to take no wine, you or your sons, for ever: +Jer 35:7 And you are to make no houses, or put in seed, or get vine-gardens planted, or have any: but all your days you are to go on living in tents, so that you may have a long life in the land where you are living as in a strange country. +Jer 35:8 And we have kept the rules of Jonadab, the son of Rechab our father, in everything which he gave us orders to do, drinking no wine all our days, we and our wives and our sons and our daughters; +Jer 35:9 Building no houses for ourselves, having no vine-gardens or fields or seed: +Jer 35:10 But we have been living in tents, and have done everything which Jonadab our father gave us orders to do. +Jer 35:11 But when Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came up into the land, we said, Come, let us go to Jerusalem, away from the army of the Chaldaeans and from the army of the Aramaeans: and so we are living in Jerusalem. +Jer 35:12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, +Jer 35:13 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Go and say to the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, Is there no hope of teaching you to give ear to my words? says the Lord. +Jer 35:14 The orders which Jonadab, the son of Rechab, gave to his sons to take no wine, are done, and to this day they take no wine, for they do the orders of their father: but I have sent my words to you, getting up early and sending them, and you have not given ear to me. +Jer 35:15 And I have sent you all my servants the prophets, getting up early and sending them, saying, Come back, now, every man from his evil way, and do better, and go not after other gods to become their servants, and you will go on living in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but your ears have not been open, and you have not given attention to me. +Jer 35:16 Though the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have done the orders of their father which he gave them, this people has not given ear to me: +Jer 35:17 For this reason the Lord, the God of armies, the God of Israel, has said, See, I will send on Judah and on all the people of Jerusalem all the evil which I said I would do to them: because I sent my words to them, but they did not give ear; crying out to them, but they gave no answer. +Jer 35:18 But to the Rechabites Jeremiah said, This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Because you have done the orders of Jonadab your father, and have kept his rules, and done everything as he gave you orders to do it; +Jer 35:19 For this reason the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, Jonadab, the son of Rechab, will never be without a man to take his place before me. +Jer 36:1 Now it came about in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, +Jer 36:2 Take a book and put down in it all the words I have said to you against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations, from the day when my word came to you in the days of Josiah till this day. +Jer 36:3 It may be that the people of Judah, hearing of all the evil which it is my purpose to do to them, will be turned, every man from his evil ways; so that they may have my forgiveness for their evil-doing and their sin. +Jer 36:4 Then Jeremiah sent for Baruch, the son of Neriah; and Baruch took down from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which he had said to him, writing them in a book. +Jer 36:5 And Jeremiah gave orders to Baruch, saying, I am shut up, and am not able to go into the house of the Lord: +Jer 36:6 So you are to go, reading there from the book, which you have taken down from my mouth, the words of the Lord, in the hearing of the people in the Lord's house, on a day when they go without food, and in the hearing of all the men of Judah who have come out from their towns. +Jer 36:7 It may be that their prayer for grace will go up to the Lord, and that every man will be turned from his evil ways: for great is the wrath and the passion made clear by the Lord against this people. +Jer 36:8 And Baruch, the son of Neriah, did as Jeremiah the prophet gave him orders to do, reading from the book the words of the Lord in the Lord's house. +Jer 36:9 Now it came about in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that it was given out publicly that all the people in Jerusalem, and all the people who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem, were to keep from food before the Lord. +Jer 36:10 Then Baruch gave a public reading of the words of Jeremiah from the book, in the house of the Lord, in the room of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher square, as one goes in by the new doorway of the Lord's house, in the hearing of all the people. +Jer 36:11 And Micaiah, the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, after hearing all the words of the Lord from the book, +Jer 36:12 Went down to the king's house, to the scribe's room: and all the rulers were seated there, Elishama the scribe and Delaiah, the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah, the son of Hananiah, and all the rulers. +Jer 36:13 Then Micaiah gave them an account of all the words which had come to his ears when Baruch was reading the book to the people. +Jer 36:14 So all the rulers sent Jehudi, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in your hand the book from which you have been reading to the people and come. So Baruch, the son of Neriah, took the book in his hand and came down to them. +Jer 36:15 Then they said to him, Be seated now, and give us a reading from it. So Baruch did so, reading it to them. +Jer 36:16 Now it came about that, after hearing all the words, they said to one another in fear, We will certainly give the king an account of all these words. +Jer 36:17 And questioning Baruch, they said, Say now, how did you put all these words down in writing from his mouth? +Jer 36:18 Then Baruch, answering, said, He said all these things to me by word of mouth, and I put them down with ink in the book. +Jer 36:19 Then the rulers said to Baruch, Go and put yourself in a safe place, you and Jeremiah, and let no man have knowledge of where you are. +Jer 36:20 Then they went into the open square to the king; but the book they put away in the room of Elishama the scribe; and they gave the king an account of all the words. +Jer 36:21 So the king sent Jehudi to get the book, and he took it from the room of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi gave a reading of it in the hearing of the king and all the rulers who were by the king's side. +Jer 36:22 Now the king was seated in the winter house, and a fire was burning in the fireplace in front of him. +Jer 36:23 And it came about that whenever Jehudi, in his reading, had got through three or four divisions, the king, cutting them with his penknife, put them into the fire, till all the book was burned up in the fire which was burning in the fireplace. +Jer 36:24 But they had no fear and gave no signs of grief, not the king or any of his servants, after hearing all these words. +Jer 36:25 And Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made a strong request to the king not to let the book be burned, but he would not give ear to them. +Jer 36:26 And the king gave orders to Jerahmeel, the king's son, and Seraiah, the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the Lord kept them safe. +Jer 36:27 Then after the book, in which Baruch had put down the words of Jeremiah, had been burned by the king, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, +Jer 36:28 Take another book and put down in it all the words which were in the first book, which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, put into the fire. +Jer 36:29 And about Jehoiakim, king of Judah, you are to say, This is what the Lord has said: You have put this book into the fire, saying, Why have you put in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come, causing the destruction of this land and putting an end to every man and beast in it? +Jer 36:30 For this reason the Lord has said of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, He will have no son to take his place on the seat of David: his dead body will be put out to undergo the heat of the day and the cold of the night. +Jer 36:31 And I will send punishment on him and on his seed and on his servants for their evil-doing; I will send on them and on the people of Jerusalem and the men of Judah, all the evil which I said against them, but they did not give ear. +Jer 36:32 Then Jeremiah took another book, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who put down in it, from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the book which had been burned in the fire by Jehoiakim, king of Judah: and in addition a number of other words of the same sort. +Jer 37:1 And Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, became king in place of Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, made king in the land of Judah. +Jer 37:2 But he and his servants and the people of the land did not give ear to the words of the Lord which he said by Jeremiah the prophet. +Jer 37:3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal, the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Make prayer now to the Lord our God for us. +Jer 37:4 (Now Jeremiah was going about among the people, for they had not put him in prison. +Jer 37:5 And Pharaoh's army had come out from Egypt: and the Chaldaeans, who were attacking Jerusalem, hearing news of them, went away from Jerusalem.) +Jer 37:6 Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, +Jer 37:7 The Lord, the God of Israel, has said: This is what you are to say to the king of Judah who sent you to get directions from me: See, Pharaoh's army, which has come out to your help, will go back to Egypt, to their land. +Jer 37:8 And the Chaldaeans will come back again and make war against this town and they will take it and put it on fire. +Jer 37:9 The Lord has said, Have no false hopes, saying to yourselves, The Chaldaeans will go away from us: for they will not go away. +Jer 37:10 For even if you had overcome all the army of the Chaldaeans fighting against you, and there were only wounded men among them, still they would get up, every man in his tent, and put this town on fire. +Jer 37:11 And it came about that when the Chaldaean army outside Jerusalem had gone away for fear of Pharaoh's army, +Jer 37:12 Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, with the purpose of taking up his heritage there among the people. +Jer 37:13 But when he was at the Benjamin door, a captain of the watch named Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, who was stationed there, put his hand on Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You are going to give yourself up to the Chaldaeans. +Jer 37:14 Then Jeremiah said, That is not true; I am not going to the Chaldaeans. But he would not give ear to him: so Irijah made him prisoner and took him to the rulers. +Jer 37:15 And the rulers were angry with Jeremiah, and gave him blows and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison. +Jer 37:16 So Jeremiah came into the hole of the prison, under the arches, and was there for a long time. +Jer 37:17 Then King Zedekiah sent and got him out: and the king, questioning him secretly in his house, said, Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is. Then he said, You will be given up into the hands of the king of Babylon. +Jer 37:18 Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, What has been my sin against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison? +Jer 37:19 Where now are your prophets who said to you, The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land? +Jer 37:20 And now be pleased to give ear, O my lord the king; let my prayer for help come before you, and do not make me go back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, for fear that I may come to my death there. +Jer 37:21 Then by the order of Zedekiah the king, Jeremiah was put into the place of the armed watchmen, and they gave him every day a cake of bread from the street of the bread-makers, till all the bread in the town was used up. So Jeremiah was kept in the place of the armed watchmen. +Jer 38:1 Now it came to the ears of Shephatiah, the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah, the son of Pashhur, and Jucal, the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, that Jeremiah had said to all the people, +Jer 38:2 These are the words of the Lord: Whoever goes on living in this town will come to his death by the sword or through need of food or by disease: but whoever goes out to the Chaldaeans will keep his life out of the power of the attackers and be safe. +Jer 38:3 The Lord has said, This town will certainly be given into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will take it. +Jer 38:4 Then the rulers said to the king, Let this man be put to death, because he is putting fear into the hearts of the men of war who are still in the town, and into the hearts of the people, by saying such things to them: this man is not working for the well-being of the people, but for their damage. +Jer 38:5 Then Zedekiah the king said, See, he is in your hands: for the king was not able to do anything against them. +Jer 38:6 So they took Jeremiah and put him into the water-hole of Malchiah, the king's son, in the place of the armed watchmen: and they let Jeremiah down with cords. And in the hole there was no water, but wet earth: and Jeremiah went down into the wet earth. +Jer 38:7 Now it came to the ears of Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, an unsexed servant in the king's house, that they had put Jeremiah into the water-hole; the king at that time being seated in the doorway of Benjamin: +Jer 38:8 And Ebed-melech went out from the king's house and said to the king, +Jer 38:9 My lord the king, these men have done evil in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have put into the water-hole; and he will come to his death in the place where he is through need of food: for there is no more bread in the town. +Jer 38:10 Then the king gave orders to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Take with you three men from here and get Jeremiah out of the water-hole before death overtakes him. +Jer 38:11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went into the house of the king, to the place where the clothing was kept, and got from there old clothing and bits of old cloth, and let them down by cords into the water-hole where Jeremiah was. +Jer 38:12 And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, Put these bits of old cloth under your arms under the cords. And Jeremiah did so. +Jer 38:13 So pulling Jeremiah up with the cords they got him out of the water-hole: and Jeremiah was kept in the place of the armed watchmen. +Jer 38:14 Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and took him into the rulers' doorway in the house of the Lord: and the king said to Jeremiah, I have a question to put to you; keep nothing back from me. +Jer 38:15 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, If I give you the answer to your question, will you not certainly put me to death? and if I make a suggestion to you, you will not give it a hearing. +Jer 38:16 So King Zedekiah gave his oath to Jeremiah secretly, saying, By the living Lord, who gave us our life, I will not put you to death, or give you up to these men who are desiring to take your life. +Jer 38:17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, These are the words of the Lord, the God of armies, the God of Israel: If you go out to the king of Babylon's captains, then you will have life, and the town will not be burned with fire, and you and your family will be kept from death: +Jer 38:18 But if you do not go out to the king of Babylon's captains, then this town will be given into the hands of the Chaldaeans and they will put it on fire, and you will not get away from them. +Jer 38:19 And King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, I am troubled on account of the Jews who have gone over to the Chaldaeans, for fear that they may give me up to them and they will put me to shame. +Jer 38:20 But Jeremiah said, They will not give you up: be guided now by the word of the Lord as I have given it to you, and it will be well for you, and you will keep your life. +Jer 38:21 But if you do not go out, this is what the Lord has made clear to me: +Jer 38:22 See, all the rest of the women in the house of the king of Judah will be taken out to the king of Babylon's captains, and these women will say, Your nearest friends have been false to you and have got the better of you: they have made your feet go deep into the wet earth, and they are turned away back from you. +Jer 38:23 And they will take all your wives and your children out to the Chaldaeans: and you will not get away out of their hands, but will be taken by the hands of the king of Babylon: and this town will be burned with fire. +Jer 38:24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, Let no man have knowledge of these words, and you will not be put to death. +Jer 38:25 But if it comes to the ears of the rulers that I have been talking with you, and they come and say to you, Give us word now of what you have said to the king and what the king said to you, keeping nothing back and we will not put you to death; +Jer 38:26 Then you are to say to them, I made my request to the king, that he would not send me back to my death in Jonathan's house. +Jer 38:27 Then all the rulers came to Jeremiah, questioning him: and he gave them an answer in the words the king had given him orders to say. So they said nothing more to him; for the thing was not made public. +Jer 38:28 So Jeremiah was kept in the place of the armed watchmen till the day when Jerusalem was taken. +Jer 39:1 And it came about, that when Jerusalem was taken, (in the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, with all his army, came against Jerusalem, shutting it in on every side; +Jer 39:2 In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the town was broken into:) +Jer 39:3 All the captains of the king of Babylon came in and took their places in the middle doorway of the town, Nergal-shar-ezer, ruler of Sin-magir, the Rabmag, and Nebushazban, the Rab-saris, and all the captains of the king of Babylon. +Jer 39:4 And when Zedekiah, king of Judah, and all the men of war saw it, they went in flight from the town by night, by the way of the king's garden, through the doorway between the two walls: and they went out by the Arabah. +Jer 39:5 But the Chaldaean army went after them and overtook Zedekiah in the lowlands of Jericho: and they made him a prisoner and took him up to Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, to Riblah in the land of Hamath, to be judged by him. +Jer 39:6 Then the king of Babylon put the sons of Zedekiah to death before his eyes in Riblah: and the king of Babylon put to death all the great men of Judah. +Jer 39:7 And more than this, he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and had him put in chains to take him away to Babylon. +Jer 39:8 And the Chaldaeans put the king's house on fire, as well as the houses of the people, and had the walls of Jerusalem broken down. +Jer 39:9 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took away to Babylon as prisoners, all the rest of the workmen who were still in the town, as well as those who had given themselves up to him, and all the rest of the people. +Jer 39:10 But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, let the poorest of the people, who had nothing whatever, go on living in the land of Judah, and gave them vine-gardens and fields at the same time. +Jer 39:11 Now Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, gave orders about Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, saying, +Jer 39:12 Take him and keep an eye on him and see that no evil comes to him; but do with him whatever he says to you. +Jer 39:13 So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, sent Nebushazban, the Rab-saris, and Nergal-shar-ezer, the Rabmag, and all the chief captains of the king of Babylon, +Jer 39:14 And they sent and took Jeremiah out of the place of the watchmen, and gave him into the care of Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him to his house: so he was living among the people. +Jer 39:15 Now the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the place of the armed watchmen, saying, +Jer 39:16 Go and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, my words will come true for this town, for evil and not for good: they will come about before your eyes on that day. +Jer 39:17 But I will keep you safe on that day, says the Lord: you will not be given into the hands of the men you are fearing. +Jer 39:18 For I will certainly let you go free, and you will not be put to the sword, but your life will be given to you out of the hands of your attackers: because you have put your faith in me, says the Lord. +Jer 40:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him; for he had been put in chains, among all the prisoners of Jerusalem and Judah who were taken away prisoners to Babylon. +Jer 40:2 And the captain of the armed men took Jeremiah and said to him, The Lord your God gave word of the evil which was to come on this place: +Jer 40:3 *** and the Lord has made it come, and has done as he said; because of your sin against the Lord in not giving ear to his voice; and that is why this thing has come on you. +Jer 40:4 Now see, this day I am freeing you from the chains which are on your hands. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, then come, and I will keep an eye on you; but if it does not seem good to you to come with me to Babylon, then do not come: see, all the land is before you; if it seems good and right to you to go on living in the land, +Jer 40:5 Then go back to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made ruler over the towns of Judah, and make your living-place with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right to you to go. So the captain of the armed men gave him food and some money and let him go. +Jer 40:6 So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, in Mizpah, and was living with him among the people who were still in the land. +Jer 40:7 Now when it came to the ears of all the captains of the forces who were in the field, and their men, that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, ruler in the land, and had put under his care the men and women and children, all the poorest of the land, those who had not been taken away to Babylon; +Jer 40:8 Then they came to Gedaliah in Mizpah, even Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah, the son of the Maacathite, they and their men. +Jer 40:9 And Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, took an oath to them and their men, saying, Have no fear of the servants of the Chaldaeans: go on living in the land, and become the servants of the king of Babylon, and all will be well. +Jer 40:10 As for me, I will be living in Mizpah as your representative before the Chaldaeans who come to us: but you are to get in your wine and summer fruits and oil and put them in your vessels, and make living-places for yourselves in the towns which you have taken. +Jer 40:11 In the same way, when all the Jews who were in Moab and among the children of Ammon and in Edom and in all the countries, had news that the king of Babylon had let Judah keep some of its people and that he had put over them Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; +Jer 40:12 Then all the Jews came back from all the places to which they had gone in flight, and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah, to Mizpah, and got in a great store of wine and summer fruit. +Jer 40:13 Now Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces which were in the field, came to Gedaliah in Mizpah, +Jer 40:14 And said to him, Has it come to your knowledge that Baalis, the king of the children of Ammon, has sent Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, to take your life? But Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, put no faith in what they said. +Jer 40:15 Then Johanan, the son of Kareah, said to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, Let me now go and put Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, to death without anyone's knowledge: why let him take your life so that all the Jews who have come together to you may be sent in flight, and the rest of the men of Judah come to an end? +Jer 40:16 But Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, said to Johanan, the son of Kareah, You are not to do this: for what you say about Ishmael is false. +Jer 41:1 Now it came about in the seventh month that Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the king's seed, having with him ten men, came to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, in Mizpah; and they had a meal together in Mizpah. +Jer 41:2 Then Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with him, got up, and attacking Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, put to death him whom the king of Babylon had made ruler over the land. +Jer 41:3 And Ishmael put to death all the Jews who were with him, even with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldaean men of war. +Jer 41:4 Now on the second day after he had put Gedaliah to death, when no one had knowledge of it, +Jer 41:5 Some people came from Shechem, from Shiloh and Samaria, eighty men, with the hair of their faces cut off and their clothing out of order, and with cuts on their bodies, and in their hands meal offerings and perfumes which they were taking to the house of the Lord. +Jer 41:6 And Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, went out from Mizpah with the purpose of meeting them, weeping on his way: and it came about that when he was face to face with them he said, Come to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam. +Jer 41:7 And when they came inside the town, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and the men who were with him, put them to death and put their bodies into a deep hole. +Jer 41:8 But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael, Do not put us to death, for we have secret stores, in the country, of grain and oil and honey. So he did not put them to death with their countrymen. +Jer 41:9 Now the hole into which Ishmael had put the dead bodies of the men whom he had put to death, was the great hole which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha, king of Israel: and Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, made it full of the bodies of those who had been put to death. +Jer 41:10 Then Ishmael took away as prisoners all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king's daughters and all the people still in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, had put under the care of Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam: Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, took them away prisoners with the purpose of going over to the children of Ammon. +Jer 41:11 But when Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the armed forces who were with him, had news of all the evil which Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had done, +Jer 41:12 They took their men and went out to make war on Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and they came face to face with him by the great waters in Gibeon. +Jer 41:13 Now when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces with him, then they were glad. +Jer 41:14 And all the people whom Ishmael had taken away prisoners from Mizpah, turning round, came back and went to Johanan, the son of Kareah. +Jer 41:15 But Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, got away from Johanan, with eight men, and went to the children of Ammon. +Jer 41:16 Then Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, took all the rest of the people whom Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had made prisoners, after he had put to death Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the people from Mizpah, that is, the men of war and the women and the children and the unsexed servants, whom he had taken back with him from Gibeon: +Jer 41:17 And they went and were living in the resting-place of Chimham, which is near Beth-lehem on the way into Egypt, +Jer 41:18 Because of the Chaldaeans: for they were in fear of them because Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had put to death Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made ruler over the land. +Jer 42:1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah, the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near, +Jer 42:2 And said to Jeremiah the prophet, Let our request come before you, and make prayer for us to the Lord your God, even for this small band of us; for we are only a small band out of what was a great number, as your eyes may see: +Jer 42:3 That the Lord your God may make clear to us the way in which we are to go and what we are to do. +Jer 42:4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have given ear to you; see, I will make prayer to the Lord your God, as you have said; and it will be that, whatever the Lord may say in answer to you, I will give you word of it, keeping nothing back. +Jer 42:5 Then they said to Jeremiah, May the Lord be a true witness against us in good faith, if we do not do everything which the Lord your God sends you to say to us. +Jer 42:6 If it is good or if it is evil, we will be guided by the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you; so that it may be well for us when we give ear to the voice of the Lord our God. +Jer 42:7 And it came about that after ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. +Jer 42:8 And he sent for Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were still with him, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, +Jer 42:9 And said to them, These are the words of the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to put your request before him: +Jer 42:10 If you still go on living in the land, then I will go on building you up and not pulling you down, planting you and not uprooting you: for my purpose of doing evil to you has been changed. +Jer 42:11 Have no fear of the king of Babylon, of whom you are now in fear; have no fear of him, says the Lord: for I am with you to keep you safe and to give you salvation from his hands. +Jer 42:12 And I will have mercy on you, so that he may have mercy on you and let you go back to your land. +Jer 42:13 But if you say, We have no desire to go on living in this land; and do not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, +Jer 42:14 Saying, No, but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will not see war, or be hearing the sound of the horn, or be in need of food; there we will make our living-place; +Jer 42:15 Then give ear now to the word of the Lord, O you last of Judah: the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, If your minds are fixed on going into Egypt and stopping there; +Jer 42:16 Then it will come about that the sword, which is the cause of your fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and need of food, which you are fearing, will go after you there in Egypt; and there death will come to you. +Jer 42:17 Such will be the fate of all the men whose minds are fixed on going into Egypt and stopping there; they will come to their end by the sword, by being short of food, and by disease: not one of them will keep his life or get away from the evil which I will send on them. +Jer 42:18 For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: As my wrath and passion have been let loose on the people of Jerusalem, so will my passion be let loose on you when you go into Egypt: and you will become an oath and a cause of wonder and a curse and a name of shame; and you will never see this place again. +Jer 42:19 The Lord has said about you, O last of Judah, Go not into Egypt: be certain that I have given witness to you this day. +Jer 42:20 For you have been acting with deceit in your hearts; for you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, Make prayer for us to the Lord our God, and give us word of everything he may say, and we will do it. +Jer 42:21 And this day I have made it clear to you, and you have not given ear to the voice of the Lord your God in anything for which he has sent me to you. +Jer 42:22 And now be certain that you will come to your end by the sword and by being short of food and by disease, in the place to which you are pleased to go for a living-place. +Jer 43:1 And it came about that when Jeremiah had come to the end of giving all the people the words of the Lord their God, which the Lord their God had sent him to say to them, even all these words, +Jer 43:2 Then Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the men of pride, said to Jeremiah, You have said what is false: the Lord our God has not sent you to say, You are not to go into the land of Egypt and make your living-place there: +Jer 43:3 But Baruch, the son of Neriah, is moving you against us, to give us up into the hands of the Chaldaeans so that they may put us to death, and take us away prisoners into Babylon. +Jer 43:4 So Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, did not give ear to the order of the Lord that they were to go on living in the land of Judah. +Jer 43:5 But Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces took all the rest of Judah who had come back into the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been forced to go; +Jer 43:6 The men and the women and the children and the king's daughters, and every person whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, had put under the care of Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch, the son of Neriah; +Jer 43:7 And they came into the land of Egypt; for they did not give ear to the voice of the Lord: and they came to Tahpanhes. +Jer 43:8 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, +Jer 43:9 Take in your hand some great stones, and put them in a safe place in the paste in the brickwork which is at the way into Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, before the eyes of the men of Judah; +Jer 43:10 And say to them, This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and he will put the seat of his kingdom on these stones which have been put in a safe place here by you; and his tent will be stretched over them. +Jer 43:11 And he will come and overcome the land of Egypt; those who are for death will be put to death, those who are to be prisoners will be made prisoners, and those who are for the sword will be given to the sword. +Jer 43:12 And he will put a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and they will be burned by him: and he will make Egypt clean as a keeper of sheep makes clean his clothing; and he will go out from there in peace. +Jer 43:13 And the stone pillars of Beth-shemesh in the land of Egypt will be broken by him, and the houses of the gods of Egypt burned with fire. +Jer 44:1 The word which came to Jeremiah about all the Jews who were living in the land of Egypt, in Migdol and at Tahpanhes and at Noph and in the country of Pathros, saying, +Jer 44:2 The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: You have seen all the evil which I have sent on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah; and now, this day they are waste and unpeopled; +Jer 44:3 Because of the evil which they have done, moving me to wrath by burning perfumes in worship to other gods, who were not their gods or yours or the gods of their fathers. +Jer 44:4 And I sent all my servants the prophets to you, getting up early and sending them, saying, Do not do this disgusting thing which is hated by me. +Jer 44:5 But they gave no attention, and their ears were not open so that they might be turned from their evil-doing and from burning perfume to other gods. +Jer 44:6 Because of this, my passion and my wrath were let loose, burning in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are waste and unpeopled as at this day. +Jer 44:7 So now, the Lord, the God of armies, the God of Israel, has said, Why are you doing this great evil against yourselves, causing every man and woman, little child and baby at the breast among you in Judah to be cut off till not one is still living; +Jer 44:8 Moving me to wrath with the work of your hands, burning perfumes to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to make a place for yourselves, so that you may become a curse and a name of shame among all the nations of the earth? +Jer 44:9 Have you no memory of the evil-doing of your fathers, and the evil-doing of the kings of Judah, and the evil-doing of their wives, and the evil which you yourselves have done, and the evil which your wives have done, in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? +Jer 44:10 Even to this day their hearts are not broken, and they have no fear, and have not gone in the way of my law or of my rules which I gave to you and to your fathers. +Jer 44:11 So this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, my face will be turned against you for evil, for the cutting off of all Judah; +Jer 44:12 And I will take the last of Judah, whose minds are fixed on going into the land of Egypt and stopping there, and they will all come to their end, falling in the land of Egypt by the sword and by being short of food and by disease; death will overtake them, from the least to the greatest, death by the sword and by need of food: they will become an oath and a cause of wonder and a curse and a name of shame. +Jer 44:13 For I will send punishment on those who are living in the land of Egypt, as I have sent punishment on Jerusalem, by the sword and by need of food and by disease: +Jer 44:14 So that not one of the rest of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt and are living there, will get away or keep his life, to come back to the land of Judah where they are hoping to come back and be living again: for not one will come back, but only those who are able to get away. +Jer 44:15 Then all the men who had knowledge that their wives were burning perfumes to other gods, and all the women who were present, a great meeting, answering Jeremiah, said, +Jer 44:16 As for the word which you have said to us in the name of the Lord, we will not give ear to you. +Jer 44:17 But we will certainly do every word which has gone out of our mouths, burning perfumes to the queen of heaven and draining out drink offerings to her as we did, we and our fathers and our kings and our rulers, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then we had food enough and did well and saw no evil. +Jer 44:18 But from the time when we gave up burning perfumes to the queen of heaven and draining out drink offerings to her, we have been in need of all things, and have been wasted by the sword and by need of food. +Jer 44:19 And the women said, When we were burning perfumes to the queen of heaven and draining out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes in her image and give her our drink offerings without the knowledge of our husbands? +Jer 44:20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and women and all the people who had given him that answer, +Jer 44:21 The perfumes which you have been burning in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers and your kings and your rulers and the people of the land, had the Lord no memory of them, and did he not keep them in mind? +Jer 44:22 And the Lord was no longer able to put up with the evil of your doings and the disgusting things you did; and because of this your land has become a waste and a cause of wonder and a curse, with no one living in it, as at this day. +Jer 44:23 Because you have been burning perfumes, and sinning against the Lord, and have not given ear to the voice of the Lord, or gone in the way of his law or his rules or his orders; for this reason this evil has come on you, as it is today. +Jer 44:24 Further, Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, Give ear to the word of the Lord, all those of Judah who are living in Egypt: +Jer 44:25 This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: You women have said with your mouths, and with your hands you have done what you said, We will certainly give effect to the oaths we have made, to have perfumes burned to the queen of heaven and drink offerings drained out to her: then give effect to your oaths and do them. +Jer 44:26 And now give ear to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt: Truly, I have taken an oath by my great name, says the Lord, that my name is no longer to be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, By the life of the Lord God. +Jer 44:27 See, I am watching over them for evil and not for good: all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be wasted by the sword and by need of food till there is an end of them. +Jer 44:28 And those who get away safe from the sword will come back from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, a very small number; and all the rest of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt and are living there, will see whose word has effect, mine or theirs. +Jer 44:29 And this will be the sign to you, says the Lord, that I will give you punishment in this place, so that you may see that my words will certainly have effect against you for evil: +Jer 44:30 The Lord has said, See, I will give up Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hands of those who are fighting against him and desiring to take his life, as I gave Zedekiah, king of Judah, into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, his hater, who had designs against his life. +Jer 45:1 The words which Jeremiah the prophet said to Baruch, the son of Neriah, when he put these words down in a book from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah; he said, +Jer 45:2 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said of you, O Baruch: +Jer 45:3 You said, Sorrow is mine! for the Lord has given me sorrow in addition to my pain; I am tired with the sound of my sorrow, and I get no rest. +Jer 45:4 This is what you are to say to him: The Lord has said, Truly, the building which I put up will be broken down, and that which was planted by me will be uprooted, and this through all the land; +Jer 45:5 And as for you, are you looking for great things for yourself? Have no desire for them: for truly I will send evil on all flesh, says the Lord: but your life I will keep safe from attack wherever you go. +Jer 46:1 The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet about the nations. +Jer 46:2 Of Egypt: about the army of Pharaoh-neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, overcame in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. +Jer 46:3 Get out the breastplate and body-cover, and come together to the fight. +Jer 46:4 Make the horses ready, and get up, you horsemen, and take your places with your head-dresses; make the spears sharp and put on the breastplates. +Jer 46:5 What have I seen? they are overcome with fear and turned back; their men of war are broken and have gone in flight, not looking back: fear is on every side, says the Lord. +Jer 46:6 Let not the quick-footed go in flight, or the man of war get away; on the north, by the river Euphrates, they are slipping and falling. +Jer 46:7 Who is this coming up like the Nile, whose waters are lifting their heads like the rivers? +Jer 46:8 Egypt is coming up like the Nile, and his waters are lifting their heads like the rivers, and he says, I will go up, covering the earth; I will send destruction on the town and its people. +Jer 46:9 Go up, you horses; go rushing on, you carriages of war; go out, you men of war: Cush and Put, gripping the body-cover, and the Ludim, with bent bows. +Jer 46:10 But that day is the day of the Lord, the Lord of armies, a day of punishment when he will take payment from his haters: and the sword will have all its desire, drinking their blood in full measure: for there is an offering to the Lord, the Lord of armies, in the north country by the river Euphrates. +Jer 46:11 Go up to Gilead and take sweet oil, O virgin daughter of Egypt: there is no help in all your medical arts; nothing will make you well. +Jer 46:12 Your shame has come to the ears of the nations, and the earth is full of your cry: for the strong man is falling against the strong, they have come down together. +Jer 46:13 The word which the Lord said to Jeremiah the prophet, of how Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, would come and make war on the land of Egypt. +Jer 46:14 Give the news in Migdol, make it public in Noph: say, Take up your positions and make yourselves ready; for on every side of you the sword has made destruction. +Jer 46:15 Why has Apis, your strong one, gone in flight? he was not able to keep his place, because the Lord was forcing him down with strength. +Jer 46:16 ... are stopped in their going, they are falling; and they say one to another, Let us get up and go back to our people, to the land of our birth, away from the cruel sword. +Jer 46:17 Give a name to Pharaoh, king of Egypt: A noise who has let the time go by. +Jer 46:18 By my life, says the King, whose name is the Lord of armies, truly, like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, so will he come. +Jer 46:19 O daughter living in Egypt, make ready the vessels of a prisoner: for Noph will become a waste, it will be burned up and become unpeopled. +Jer 46:20 Egypt is a fair young cow; but a biting insect has come on her out of the north. +Jer 46:21 And those who were her fighters for payment are like fat oxen; for they are turned back, they have gone in flight together, they do not keep their place: for the day of their fate has come on them, the time of their punishment. +Jer 46:22 She makes a sound like the hiss of a snake when they come on with strength; they go against her with axes, like wood-cutters. +Jer 46:23 They will be cutting down her woods, for they may not be searched out; because they are like locusts, more than may be numbered. +Jer 46:24 The daughter of Egypt will be put to shame; she will be given up into the hands of the people of the north. +Jer 46:25 The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, I will send punishment on Amon of No and on Pharaoh and on those who put their faith in him; +Jer 46:26 And I will give them up into the hands of those who will take their lives, and into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of his servants: and later, it will be peopled as in the past, says the Lord. +Jer 46:27 But have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, and do not be troubled, O Israel: for see, I will make you come back from far away, and your seed from the land where they are prisoners; and Jacob will come back, and will be quiet and in peace, and no one will give him cause for fear. +Jer 46:28 Have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, says the Lord; for I am with you: for I will put an end to all the nations where I have sent you, but I will not put an end to you completely: though with wise purpose I will put right your errors, and will not let you go quite without punishment. +Jer 47:1 The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet about the Philistines, before Pharaoh's attack on Gaza. +Jer 47:2 This is what the Lord has said: See, waters are coming up out of the north, and will become an overflowing stream, overflowing the land and everything in it, the town and those who are living in it; and men will give a cry, and all the people of the land will be crying out in pain. +Jer 47:3 At the noise of the stamping of the feet of his war-horses, at the rushing of his carriages and the thunder of his wheels, fathers will give no thought to their children, because their hands are feeble; +Jer 47:4 Because of the day which is coming with destruction on all the Philistines, cutting off from Tyre and Zidon the last of their helpers: for the Lord will send destruction on the Philistines, the rest of the sea-land of Caphtor. +Jer 47:5 The hair is cut off from the head of Gaza; Ashkelon has come to nothing; the last of the Anakim are deeply wounding themselves. +Jer 47:6 O sword of the Lord, how long will you have no rest? put yourself back into your cover; be at peace, be quiet. +Jer 47:7 How is it possible for it to be quiet, seeing that the Lord has given it orders? against Ashkelon and against the sea-land he has given it directions. +Jer 48:1 Of Moab. The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Sorrow on Nebo, for it has been made waste; Kiriathaim has been put to shame and is taken: the strong place is put to shame and broken down. +Jer 48:2 The praise of Moab has come to an end; as for Heshbon, evil has been designed against her; come, let us put an end to her as a nation. But your mouth will be shut, O Madmen; the sword will go after you. +Jer 48:3 There is the sound of crying from Horonaim, wasting and great destruction; +Jer 48:4 Moab is broken; her cry has gone out to Zoar. +Jer 48:5 For by the slope of Luhith they will go up, weeping all the way; for on the way down to Horonaim the cry of destruction has come to their ears. +Jer 48:6 Go in flight, get away with your lives, and let your faces be turned to Aroer in the Arabah. +Jer 48:7 For because you have put your faith in your strong places, you, even you, will be taken: and Chemosh will go out as a prisoner, his priests and his rulers together. +Jer 48:8 And the attacker will come against every town, not one will be safe; and the valley will be made waste, and destruction will come to the lowland, as the Lord has said. +Jer 48:9 Put up a pillar for Moab, for she will come to a complete end: and her towns will become a waste, without anyone living in them. +Jer 48:10 Let him be cursed who does the Lord's work half-heartedly; let him be cursed who keeps back his sword from blood. +Jer 48:11 From his earliest days, Moab has been living in comfort; like wine long stored he has not been drained from vessel to vessel, he has never gone away as a prisoner: so his taste is still in him, his smell is unchanged. +Jer 48:12 So truly, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send to him men who will have him turned over till there is no more wine in his vessels, and his wine-skins will be completely broken. +Jer 48:13 And Moab will be shamed on account of Chemosh, as the children of Israel were shamed on account of Beth-el their hope. +Jer 48:14 How say you, We are men of war and strong fighters? +Jer 48:15 He who makes Moab waste has gone up against her; and the best of her young men have gone down to their death, says the King, whose name is the Lord of armies. +Jer 48:16 The fate of Moab is near, and trouble is coming on him very quickly. +Jer 48:17 All you who are round about him, give signs of grief for him, and all you who have knowledge of his name, say, How is the strong rod broken, even the beautiful branch! +Jer 48:18 Come down from your glory, O people of Dibon, and take your seat in the place of the waste; for the attacker of Moab has gone up against you, sending destruction on your strong places. +Jer 48:19 O daughter of Aroer, take your station by the way, on the watch: questioning him who is in flight, and her who has got away safe, say, What has been done? +Jer 48:20 Moab has been put to shame, she is broken: make loud sounds of grief, crying out for help; give the news in Arnon, that Moab has been made waste. +Jer 48:21 And punishment has come on the lowlands; on Holon and Jahzah, and on Mephaath, +Jer 48:22 And on Dibon, and on Nebo, and on Beth-diblathaim, +Jer 48:23 And on Kiriathaim, and on Beth-gamul, and on Beth-meon, +Jer 48:24 And on Kerioth, and on Bozrah, and on all the towns of the land of Moab, far and near. +Jer 48:25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the Lord. +Jer 48:26 Make him full of wine, for his heart has been lifted up against the Lord: and Moab will be rolling in the food he was not able to keep down, and everyone will be making sport of him. +Jer 48:27 For did you not make sport of Israel? was he taken among thieves? for whenever you were talking about him, you were shaking your head over him. +Jer 48:28 O people of Moab, go away from the towns and take cover in the rock; be like the dove of the Arabah, which makes her living-place in holes. +Jer 48:29 We have had word of the pride of Moab, how great it is; how he is lifted up in pride; and his great opinion of himself, and that his heart is lifted up. +Jer 48:30 I have knowledge of his wrath, says the Lord, that it is nothing; his high-sounding words have done nothing. +Jer 48:31 For this cause I will give cries of grief for Moab, crying out for Moab, even for all of it; I will be sorrowing for the men of Kir-heres. +Jer 48:32 My weeping for you, O vine of Sibmah, will be more than the weeping of Jazer: your branches have gone over the sea, stretching even to Jazer: destruction has come down on your summer fruits and your cut grapes. +Jer 48:33 All joy is gone; no longer are they glad for the fertile field and for the land of Moab; I have made the wine come to an end from the crushing vessels: no longer will the grapes be crushed with the sound of glad voices. +Jer 48:34 The cry of Heshbon comes even to Elealeh; to Jahaz their voice is sounding; from Zoar even to Horonaim and to Eglath-shelishiyah: for the waters of Nimrim will become dry. +Jer 48:35 And I will put an end in Moab, says the Lord, to him who is making offerings in the high place and burning perfumes to his gods. +Jer 48:36 So my heart is sounding for Moab like the sound of pipes, and my heart is sounding like pipes for the men of Kir-heres: for the wealth he has got for himself has come to an end. +Jer 48:37 For everywhere the hair of the head and the hair of the face is cut off: on every hand there are wounds, and haircloth on every body. +Jer 48:38 On all the house-tops of Moab and in its streets there is weeping everywhere; for Moab has been broken like a vessel in which there is no pleasure, says the Lord. +Jer 48:39 How is it broken down! how is Moab's back turned in shame! so Moab will be a cause of sport and of fear to everyone round about him. +Jer 48:40 For the Lord has said, See, he will come like an eagle in flight, stretching out his wings against Moab. +Jer 48:41 Kerioth is taken, and the strong places have been forced, and the hearts of Moab's men of war in that day will be like the heart of a woman in birth-pains. +Jer 48:42 And Moab will come to an end as a people, because he has been lifting himself up against the Lord. +Jer 48:43 Fear and death and the net have come on you, O people of Moab, says the Lord. +Jer 48:44 He who goes in flight from the fear will be overtaken by death; and he who gets free from death will be taken in the net: for I will make this come on Moab, even the year of their punishment, says the Lord. +Jer 48:45 Those who went in flight from the fear are waiting under the shade of Heshbon: for a fire has gone out from Heshbon and a flame from the house of Sihon, burning up the pride of Moab and the crown of the head of the violent ones. +Jer 48:46 Sorrow is yours, O Moab! the people of Chemosh are overcome: for your sons have been taken away as prisoners, and your daughters made servants. +Jer 48:47 But still, I will let the fate of Moab be changed in the last days, says the Lord. +Jer 49:1 About the children of Ammon. These are the words of the Lord: Has Israel no sons? has he no one to take the heritage? why then has Milcom taken Gad for himself, putting his people in its towns? +Jer 49:2 Because of this, see, the days are coming when I will have a cry of war sounded against Rabbah, the town of the children of Ammon; it will become a waste of broken walls, and her daughter-towns will be burned with fire: then Israel will take the heritage of those who took his heritage, says the Lord. +Jer 49:3 Make sounds of grief, O Heshbon, for Ai is wasted; give loud cries, O daughters of Rabbah, and put haircloth round you: give yourselves to weeping, running here and there and wounding yourselves; for Milcom will be taken prisoner together with his rulers and his priests. +Jer 49:4 Why are you lifted up in pride on account of your valleys, your flowing valley, O daughter ever turning away? who puts her faith in her wealth, saying, Who will come against me? +Jer 49:5 See, I will send fear on you, says the Lord, the Lord of armies, from those who are round you on every side; you will be forced out, every man straight before him, and there will be no one to get together the wanderers. +Jer 49:6 But after these things, I will let the fate of the children of Ammon be changed, says the Lord. +Jer 49:7 About Edom. This is what the Lord of armies has said. Is there no more wisdom in Teman? have wise suggestions come to an end among men of good sense? has their wisdom completely gone? +Jer 49:8 Go in flight, go back, take cover in deep places, you who are living in Dedan; for I will send the fate of Edom on him, even the time of his punishment. +Jer 49:9 If men came to get your grapes, would they not let some be uncut on the vines? if thieves came by night, would they not make waste till they had enough? +Jer 49:10 I have had Esau searched out, uncovering his secret places, so that he may not keep himself covered: his seed is wasted and has come to an end, and there is no help from his neighbours. +Jer 49:11 Put in my care your children who have no father, and I will keep them safe; and let your widows put their faith in me. +Jer 49:12 For the Lord has said, Those for whom the cup was not made ready will certainly be forced to take of it; and are you to go without punishment? you will not be without punishment, but will certainly be forced to take from the cup. +Jer 49:13 For I have taken an oath by myself, says the Lord, that Bozrah will become a cause of wonder, a name of shame, a waste and a curse; and all its towns will be waste places for ever. +Jer 49:14 Word has come to me from the Lord, and a representative has been sent to the nations, to say, Come together and go up against her, and take your places for the fight. +Jer 49:15 For see, I have made you small among the nations, looked down on by men. +Jer 49:16 ... the pride of your heart has been a false hope, O you who are living in the cracks of the rock, keeping your place on the top of the hill: even if you made your living-place as high as the eagle, I would make you come down, says the Lord. +Jer 49:17 And Edom will become a cause of wonder: everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder, and make sounds of fear at all her punishments. +Jer 49:18 As at the downfall of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbouring towns, says the Lord, no man will be living in it, no son of man will have a resting-place there. +Jer 49:19 See, he will come up like a lion from the thick growth of Jordan against the resting-place of Teman: but I will suddenly make him go in flight from her; and I will put over her the man of my selection: for who is like me? and who will put forward his cause against me? and what keeper of sheep will be able to keep his place before me? +Jer 49:20 For this cause give ear to the decision of the Lord which he has made against Edom, and to his purposes designed against the people of Teman: Truly, they will be pulled away by the smallest of the flock; truly, he will make waste their fields with them. +Jer 49:21 The earth is shaking with the noise of their fall; their cry is sounding in the Red Sea. +Jer 49:22 See, he will come up like an eagle in flight, stretching out his wings against Bozrah: and the hearts of Edom's men of war on that day will be like the heart of a woman in birth-pains. +Jer 49:23 About Damascus. Hamath is put to shame, and Arpad; for the word of evil has come to their ears, their heart in its fear is turned to water, it will not be quiet. +Jer 49:24 Damascus has become feeble, she is turned to flight, fear has taken her in its grip: pain and sorrows have come on her, as on a woman in birth-pains. +Jer 49:25 How has the town of praise been wasted, the place of joy! +Jer 49:26 So her young men will be falling in her streets, and all the men of war will be cut off in that day, says the Lord of armies. +Jer 49:27 And I will have a fire lighted on the wall of Damascus, burning up the great houses of Ben-hadad. +Jer 49:28 About Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, overcame. This is what the Lord has said: Up! go against Kedar, and make an attack on the children of the east. +Jer 49:29 Their tents and their flocks they will take; they will take away for themselves their curtains and all their vessels and their camels: they will give a cry to them, Fear on every side. +Jer 49:30 Go in flight, go wandering far off, take cover in deep places, O people of Hazor, says the Lord; for Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, has made a design against you, he has a purpose against you in mind. +Jer 49:31 Up! go against a nation which is living in comfort and without fear of danger, says the Lord, without doors or locks, living by themselves. +Jer 49:32 And their camels will be taken from them by force, and their great herds will come into the hands of their attackers: those who have the ends of their hair cut I will send in flight to all the winds; and I will send their fate on them from every side, says the Lord. +Jer 49:33 And Hazor will be a hole for jackals, a waste for ever: no one will be living in it, and no son of man will have a resting-place there. +Jer 49:34 The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet about Elam, when Zedekiah first became king of Judah, saying, +Jer 49:35 This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, I will have the bow of Elam, their chief strength, broken. +Jer 49:36 And I will send on Elam four winds from the four quarters of heaven, driving them out to all those winds; there will be no nation into which the wanderers from Elam do not come. +Jer 49:37 And I will let Elam be broken before their haters, and before those who are making designs against their lives: I will send evil on them, even my burning wrath, says the Lord; and I will send the sword after them till I have put an end to them: +Jer 49:38 I will put the seat of my power in Elam, and in Elam I will put an end to kings and rulers, says the Lord. +Jer 49:39 But it will come about that, in the last days, I will let the fate of Elam be changed, says the Lord. +Jer 50:1 The word which the Lord said about Babylon, about the land of the Chaldaeans, by Jeremiah the prophet. +Jer 50:2 Give it out among the nations, make it public, and let the flag be lifted up; give the word and keep nothing back; say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is broken, her images are put to shame, her gods are broken. +Jer 50:3 For out of the north a nation is coming up against her, which will make her land waste and unpeopled: they are in flight, man and beast are gone. +Jer 50:4 In those days and in that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on their way weeping and making prayer to the Lord their God. +Jer 50:5 They will be questioning about the way to Zion, with their faces turned in its direction, saying, Come, and be united to the Lord in an eternal agreement which will be kept in mind for ever. +Jer 50:6 My people have been wandering sheep: their keepers have made them go out of the right way, turning them loose on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, having no memory of their resting-place. +Jer 50:7 They have been attacked by all those who came across them: and their attackers said, We are doing no wrong, because they have done evil against the Lord in whom is righteousness, against the Lord, the hope of their fathers. +Jer 50:8 Go in flight out of Babylon, go out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and be like he-goats before the flocks. +Jer 50:9 For see, I am moving and sending up against Babylon a band of great nations from the north country: and they will put their armies in position against her; and from there she will be taken: their arrows will be like those of an expert man of war; not one will come back without getting its mark. +Jer 50:10 And the wealth of Chaldaea will come into the hands of her attackers: all those who take her wealth will have enough, says the Lord. +Jer 50:11 Because you are glad, because you are lifted up with pride, you wasters of my heritage, because you are playing like a young cow put out to grass, and you make a noise like strong horses; +Jer 50:12 Your mother will be put to shame; she who gave you birth will be looked down on: see, she will be the last of the nations, a waste place, a dry and unwatered land. +Jer 50:13 Because of the wrath of the Lord no one will be living in it, and it will be quite unpeopled: everyone who goes by Babylon will be overcome with wonder, and make sounds of fear at all her punishments. +Jer 50:14 Put your armies in position against Babylon on every side, all you bowmen; let loose your arrows at her, not keeping any back: for she has done evil against the Lord. +Jer 50:15 Give a loud cry against her on every side; she has given herself up, her supports are overturned, her walls are broken down: for it is the payment taken by the Lord; give her payment; as she has done, so do to her. +Jer 50:16 Let the planter of seed be cut off from Babylon, and everyone using the curved blade at the time of the grain-cutting: for fear of the cruel sword, everyone will be turned to his people, everyone will go in flight to his land. +Jer 50:17 Israel is a wandering sheep; the lions have been driving him away: first he was attacked by the king of Assyria, and now his bones have been broken by Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon. +Jer 50:18 So this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, I will send punishment on the king of Babylon and on his land, as I have given punishment to the king of Assyria. +Jer 50:19 And I will make Israel come back to his resting-place, and he will get his food on Carmel and Bashan, and have his desire in full measure on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead. +Jer 50:20 In those days and in that time, says the Lord, when the evil-doing of Israel is looked for, there will be nothing; and in Judah no sins will be seen: for I will have forgiveness for those whom I will keep safe. +Jer 50:21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the people of Pekod; put them to death and send destruction after them, says the Lord, and do everything I have given you orders to do. +Jer 50:22 There is a sound of war in the land and of great destruction. +Jer 50:23 How is the hammer of all the earth cut in two and broken! how has Babylon become a waste among the nations! +Jer 50:24 I have put a net for you, and you have been taken, O Babylon, without your knowledge: you have been uncovered and taken because you were fighting against the Lord. +Jer 50:25 From his store-house the Lord has taken the instruments of his wrath: for the Lord, the Lord of armies, has a work to do in the land of the Chaldaeans. +Jer 50:26 Come up against her one and all, let her store-houses be broken open: make her into a mass of stones, give her to the curse, till there is nothing of her to be seen. +Jer 50:27 Put all her oxen to the sword; let them go down to death: sorrow is theirs, for their day has come, the time of their punishment. +Jer 50:28 The voice of those who are in flight, who have got away safe from the land of Babylon, to give news in Zion of punishment from the Lord our God, even payment for his Temple. +Jer 50:29 Send for the archers to come together against Babylon, all the bowmen; put up your tents against her on every side; let no one get away: give her the reward of her work; as she has done, so do to her: for she has been uplifted in pride against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel. +Jer 50:30 For this cause her young men will be falling in her streets, and all her men of war will be cut off in that day, says the Lord. +Jer 50:31 See, I am against you, O pride, says the Lord, the Lord of armies, for your day has come, the time when I will send punishment on you. +Jer 50:32 And pride will go with uncertain steps and have a fall, and there will be no one to come to his help: and I will put a fire in his towns, burning up everything round about him. +Jer 50:33 This is what the Lord of armies has said: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are crushed down together: all those who took them prisoner keep them in a tight grip; they will not let them go. +Jer 50:34 Their saviour is strong; the Lord of armies is his name: he will certainly take up their cause, so that he may give rest to the earth and trouble to the people of Babylon. +Jer 50:35 A sword is on the Chaldaeans, says the Lord, and on the people of Babylon, and on her rulers and on her wise men. +Jer 50:36 A sword is on the men of pride, and they will become foolish: a sword is on her men of war, and they will be broken. +Jer 50:37 A sword is on all the mixed people in her, and they will become like women: a sword is on her store-houses, and they will be taken by her attackers. +Jer 50:38 A sword is on her waters, drying them up; for it is a land of images, and their minds are fixed on false gods. +Jer 50:39 For this reason the beasts of the waste land with the wolves will make their holes there and the ostriches will be living in it: never again will men be living there, it will be unpeopled from generation to generation. +Jer 50:40 As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbouring towns were overturned by God, says the Lord, so no man will be living in it, and no son of man will have a resting-place there. +Jer 50:41 See, a people is coming from the north; a great nation and a number of kings will be put in motion from the inmost parts of the earth. +Jer 50:42 Bows and spears are in their hands; they are cruel and have no mercy; their voice is like the thunder of the sea, and they go on horses; everyone in his place like men going to the fight, against you, O daughter of Babylon. +Jer 50:43 The king of Babylon has had news of them, and his hands have become feeble: trouble has come on him and pain like the pain of a woman in childbirth. +Jer 50:44 See, he will come up like a lion from the thick growth of Jordan against the resting-place of Teman: but I will suddenly make them go in flight from her; and I will put over her the man of my selection: for who is like me? and who will put forward his cause against me? and what keeper of sheep will keep his place before me? +Jer 50:45 So give ear to the decision of the Lord which he has made against Babylon, and to his purposes designed against the land of the Chaldaeans; Truly, they will be pulled away by the smallest of the flock; truly, he will make waste their fields with them. +Jer 50:46 At the cry, Babylon is taken! the earth is shaking, and the cry comes to the ears of the nations. +Jer 51:1 The Lord has said: See, I will make a wind of destruction come up against Babylon and against those who are living in Chaldaea; +Jer 51:2 And I will send men to Babylon to make her clean and get her land cleared: for in the day of trouble they will put up their tents against her on every side. +Jer 51:3 Against her the bow of the archer is bent, and he puts on his coat of metal: have no mercy on her young men, give all her army up to the curse. +Jer 51:4 And the dead will be stretched out in the land of the Chaldaeans, and the wounded in her streets. +Jer 51:5 For Israel has not been given up, or Judah, by his God, by the Lord of armies; for their land is full of sin against the Holy One of Israel. +Jer 51:6 Go in flight out of Babylon, so that every man may keep his life; do not be cut off in her evil-doing: for it is the time of the Lord's punishment; he will give her her reward. +Jer 51:7 Babylon has been a gold cup in the hand of the Lord, which has made all the earth overcome with wine: the nations have taken of her wine, and for this cause the nations have gone off their heads. +Jer 51:8 Sudden is the downfall of Babylon and her destruction: make cries of grief for her; take sweet oil for her pain, if it is possible for her to be made well. +Jer 51:9 We would have made Babylon well, but she is not made well: give her up, and let us go everyone to his country: for her punishment is stretching up to heaven, and lifted up even to the skies. +Jer 51:10 The Lord has made clear our righteousness: come, and let us give an account in Zion of the work of the Lord our God. +Jer 51:11 Make bright the arrows; take up the body-covers: the Lord has been moving the spirit of the king of the Medes; because his design against Babylon is its destruction: for it is the punishment from the Lord, the payment for his Temple. +Jer 51:12 Let the flag be lifted up against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, put the watchmen in their places, make ready a surprise attack: for it is the Lord's purpose, and he has done what he said about the people of Babylon. +Jer 51:13 O you whose living-place is by the wide waters, whose stores are great, your end is come, your evil profit is ended. +Jer 51:14 The Lord of armies has taken an oath by himself, saying, Truly, I will make you full with men as with locusts, and their voices will be loud against you. +Jer 51:15 He has made the earth by his power, he has made the world strong in its place by his wisdom, and by his wise design the heavens have been stretched out: +Jer 51:16 At the sound of his voice there is a massing of the waters in the heavens, and he makes the mists go up from the ends of the earth; he makes the thunder-flames for the rain and sends out the wind from his store-houses. +Jer 51:17 Then every man becomes like a beast without knowledge; every gold-worker is put to shame by the image he has made: for his metal image is deceit, and there is no breath in them. +Jer 51:18 They are nothing, a work of error: in the time of their punishment, destruction will overtake them. +Jer 51:19 The heritage of Jacob is not like these; for the maker of all things is his heritage: the Lord of armies is his name. +Jer 51:20 You are my fighting axe and my instrument of war: with you the nations will be broken; with you kingdoms will be broken; +Jer 51:21 With you the horse and the horseman will be broken; with you the war-carriage and he who goes in it will be broken; +Jer 51:22 With you man and woman will be broken; with you the old man and the boy will be broken; with you the young man and the virgin will be broken; +Jer 51:23 With you the keeper of sheep with his flock will be broken, and with you the farmer and his oxen will be broken, and with you captains and rulers will be broken. +Jer 51:24 And I will give to Babylon, and to all the people of Chaldaea, their reward for all the evil they have done in Zion before your eyes, says the Lord. +Jer 51:25 See, I am against you, says the Lord, O mountain of destruction, causing the destruction of all the earth: and my hand will be stretched out on you, rolling you down from the rocks, and making you a burned mountain. +Jer 51:26 And they will not take from you a stone for the angle of a wall or the base of a building; but you will be a waste place for ever, says the Lord. +Jer 51:27 Let a flag be lifted up in the land, let the horn be sounded among the nations, make the nations ready against her; get the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz together against her, make ready a scribe against her; let the horses come up against her like massed locusts. +Jer 51:28 Make the nations ready for war against her, the king of the Medes and his rulers and all his captains, and all the land under his rule. +Jer 51:29 And the land is shaking and in pain: for the purposes of the Lord are fixed, to make the land of Babylon an unpeopled waste. +Jer 51:30 Babylon's men of war have kept back from the fight, waiting in their strong places; their strength has given way, they have become like women: her houses have been put on fire, her locks are broken. +Jer 51:31 One man, running, will give word to another, and one who goes with news will be handing it on to another, to give word to the king of Babylon that his town has been taken from every quarter: +Jer 51:32 And the ways across the river have been taken, and the water-holes ... burned with fire, and the men of war are in the grip of fear. +Jer 51:33 For these are the words of the Lord of armies, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a grain-floor when it is stamped down; before long, the time of her grain-cutting will come. +Jer 51:34 Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, has made a meal of me, violently crushing me, he has made me a vessel with nothing in it, he has taken me in his mouth like a dragon, he has made his stomach full with my delicate flesh, crushing me with his teeth. +Jer 51:35 May the violent things done to me, and my downfall, come on Babylon, the daughter of Zion will say; and, May my blood be on the people of Chaldaea, Jerusalem will say. +Jer 51:36 For this reason the Lord has said: See, I will give support to your cause, and take payment for what you have undergone; I will make her sea dry, and her fountain without water. +Jer 51:37 And Babylon will become a mass of broken walls, a hole for jackals, a cause of wonder and surprise, without a living man in it. +Jer 51:38 They will be crying out together like lions, their voices will be like the voices of young lions. +Jer 51:39 When they are heated, I will make a feast for them, and overcome them with wine, so that they may become unconscious, sleeping an eternal sleep without awaking, says the Lord. +Jer 51:40 I will make them go down to death like lambs, like he-goats together. +Jer 51:41 How is Babylon taken! and the praise of all the earth surprised! how has Babylon become a cause of wonder among the nations! +Jer 51:42 The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered with the mass of its waves. +Jer 51:43 Her towns have become a waste, a dry and unwatered land, where no man has his living-place and no son of man goes by. +Jer 51:44 And I will send punishment on Bel in Babylon, and take out of his mouth what went into it; no longer will the nations be flowing together to him: truly, the wall of Babylon will come down. +Jer 51:45 My people, go out from her, and let every man get away safe from the burning wrath of the Lord. +Jer 51:46 So that your hearts may not become feeble and full of fear because of the news which will go about in the land; for a story will go about one year, and after that in another year another story, and violent acts in the land, ruler against ruler. +Jer 51:47 For this cause, truly, the days are coming when I will send punishment on the images of Babylon, and all her land will be shamed, and her dead will be falling down in her. +Jer 51:48 And the heaven and the earth and everything in them, will make a song of joy over Babylon: for those who make her waste will come from the north, says the Lord. +Jer 51:49 As Babylon had the dead of Israel put to the sword, so in Babylon the dead of all the land will be stretched out. +Jer 51:50 You who have got away safe from the sword, go, waiting for nothing; have the Lord in memory when you are far away, and keep Jerusalem in mind. +Jer 51:51 We are shamed because bitter words have come to our ears; our faces are covered with shame: for men from strange lands have come into the holy places of the Lord's house. +Jer 51:52 For this reason, see, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send punishment on her images; and through all her land the wounded will be crying out in pain. +Jer 51:53 Even if Babylon was lifted up to heaven, even if she had the high places of her strength shut in with walls, still I would send against her those who will make her waste, says the Lord. +Jer 51:54 There is the sound of a cry from Babylon, and of a great destruction from the land of the Chaldaeans: +Jer 51:55 For the Lord is making Babylon waste, and putting an end to the great voice coming out of her; and her waves are thundering like great waters, their voice is sounding loud: +Jer 51:56 For the waster has come on her, even on Babylon, and her men of war are taken, their bows are broken: for the Lord is a rewarding God, and he will certainly give payment. +Jer 51:57 And I will make her chiefs and her wise men, her rulers and her captains and her men of war, overcome with wine; their sleep will be an eternal sleep without awaking, says the King; the Lord of armies is his name. +Jer 51:58 The Lord of armies has said: The wide walls of Babylon will be completely uncovered and her high doorways will be burned with fire; so peoples keep on working for nothing, and the weariness of nations comes to an end in the smoke. +Jer 51:59 The order which Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah, the king of Judah, to Babylon in the fourth year of his rule. Now Seraiah was the chief controller of the house. +Jer 51:60 And Jeremiah put in a book all the evil which was to come on Babylon. +Jer 51:61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, see that you give them all these words; +Jer 51:62 And after reading them, say, O Lord, you have said about this place that it is to be cut off, so that no one will be living in it, not a man or a beast, but it will be unpeopled for ever. +Jer 51:63 And it will be that, when you have come to an end of reading this book, you are to have a stone fixed to it, and have it dropped into the Euphrates: +Jer 51:64 And you are to say, So Babylon will go down, never to be lifted up again, because of the evil which I will send on her: and weariness will overcome them. So far, these are the words of Jeremiah. +Jer 52:1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king; he was king for eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. +Jer 52:2 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as Jehoiakim had done. +Jer 52:3 And because of the wrath of the Lord this came about in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had sent them away from before him: and Zedekiah took up arms against the king of Babylon. +Jer 52:4 And in the ninth year of his rule, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came against Jerusalem with all his army and took up his position before it, building earthworks all round it. +Jer 52:5 So the town was shut in by their forces till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. +Jer 52:6 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the store of food in the town was almost gone, so that there was no food for the people of the land. +Jer 52:7 Then an opening was made in the wall of the town, and all the men of war went in flight out of the town by night through the doorway between the two walls which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldaeans were stationed round the town:) and they went by the way of the Arabah. +Jer 52:8 And the Chaldaean army went after King Zedekiah and overtook him on the other side of Jericho, and all his army went in flight from him in every direction. +Jer 52:9 Then they made the king a prisoner and took him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath to be judged. +Jer 52:10 And the king of Babylon put the sons of Zedekiah to death before his eyes: and he put to death all the rulers of Judah in Riblah. +Jer 52:11 And he put out Zedekiah's eyes; and the king of Babylon, chaining him in iron bands, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death. +Jer 52:12 Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, a servant of the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem. +Jer 52:13 And he had the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned with fire: +Jer 52:14 And the walls round Jerusalem were broken down by the Chaldaean army which was with the captain. +Jer 52:15 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took away as prisoners the rest of the people who were still in the town, and those who had given themselves up to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the workmen. +Jer 52:16 But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, let the poorest of the land go on living there, to take care of the vines and the fields. +Jer 52:17 And the brass pillars which were in the house of the Lord, and the wheeled bases and the great brass water-vessel in the house of the Lord, were broken up by the Chaldaeans, who took all the brass away to Babylon. +Jer 52:18 And the pots and the spades and the scissors for the lights and the spoons, and all the brass vessels used in the Lord's house, they took away. +Jer 52:19 And the cups and the fire-trays and the basins and the pots and the supports for the lights and the spoons and the wide basins; the gold of the gold vessels, and the silver of the silver vessels, the captain of the armed men took away. +Jer 52:20 The two pillars, the great water-vessel, and the twelve brass oxen which were under it, and the ten wheeled bases, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord: the brass of all these vessels was without weight. +Jer 52:21 And as for the pillars, one pillar was eighteen cubits high, and twelve cubits measured all round, and it was as thick as a man's hand: it was hollow. +Jer 52:22 And there was a crown of brass on it: the crown was five cubits high, circled with a network and apples all of brass; and the second pillar had the same. +Jer 52:23 There were ninety-six apples on the outside; the number of apples all round the network was a hundred. +Jer 52:24 And the captain of the armed men took Seraiah, the chief priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three door-keepers; +Jer 52:25 And from the town he took the unsexed servant who was over the men of war, and seven of the king's near friends who were in the town, and the scribe of the captain of the army, who was responsible for getting the people of the land together in military order, and sixty men of the people of the land who were in the town. +Jer 52:26 These Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took with him to the king of Babylon at Riblah. +Jer 52:27 And the king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken prisoner away from his land. +Jer 52:28 These are the people whom Nebuchadrezzar took away prisoner: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews: +Jer 52:29 And in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he took away as prisoners from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons: +Jer 52:30 In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the armed men, took away as prisoners seven hundred and forty-five of the Jews: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred. +Jer 52:31 And in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin, king of Judah, had been taken prisoner, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the first year after he became king, took Jehoiachin, king of Judah, out of prison. +Jer 52:32 And he said kind words to him and put his seat higher than the seats of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. +Jer 52:33 And his prison clothing was changed, and he was a guest at the king's table every day for the rest of his life. +Jer 52:34 And for his food, the king gave him a regular amount every day till the day of his death, for the rest of his life. +Lam 1:1 See her seated by herself, the town which was full of people! She who was great among the nations has become like a widow! She who was a princess among the countries has come under the yoke of forced work! +Lam 1:2 She is sorrowing bitterly in the night, and her face is wet with weeping; among all her lovers she has no comforter: all her friends have been false to her, they have become her haters. +Lam 1:3 Judah has been taken away as a prisoner because of trouble and hard work; her living-place is among the nations, there is no rest for her: all her attackers have overtaken her in a narrow place. +Lam 1:4 The ways of Zion are sad, because no one comes to the holy meeting; all her doorways are made waste, her priests are breathing out sorrow: her virgins are troubled, and it is bitter for her. +Lam 1:5 Those who are against her have become the head, everything goes well for her haters; for the Lord has sent sorrow on her because of the great number of her sins: her young children have gone away as prisoners before the attacker. +Lam 1:6 And all her glory has gone from the daughter of Zion: her rulers have become like harts with no place for food, and they have gone in flight without strength before the attacker. +Lam 1:7 Jerusalem keeps in mind, in the days of her sorrow and of her wanderings, all the desired things which were hers in days gone by; when her people came into the power of her hater and she had no helper, her attackers saw their desire effected on her and made sport of her destruction. +Lam 1:8 Great is the sin of Jerusalem; for this cause she has become an unclean thing: all those who gave her honour are looking down on her, because they have seen her shame: now truly, breathing out grief, she is turned back. +Lam 1:9 In her skirts were her unclean ways; she gave no thought to her end; and her fall has been a wonder; she has no comforter: see her sorrow, O Lord; for the attacker is lifted up. +Lam 1:10 The hand of her hater is stretched out over all her desired things; for she has seen that the nations have come into her holy place, about whom you gave orders that they were not to come into the meeting of your people. +Lam 1:11 Breathing out grief all her people are looking for bread; they have given their desired things for food to give them life: see, O Lord, and take note; for she has become a thing of shame. +Lam 1:12 Come to me, all you who go by! Keep your eyes on me, and see if there is any pain like the pain of my wound, which the Lord has sent on me in the day of his burning wrath. +Lam 1:13 From on high he has sent fire into my bones, and it has overcome them: his net is stretched out for my feet, I am turned back by him; he has made me waste and feeble all the day. +Lam 1:14 A watch is kept on my sins; they are joined together by his hand, they have come on to my neck; he has made my strength give way: the Lord has given me up into the hands of those against whom I have no power. +Lam 1:15 The Lord has made sport of all my men of war in me, he has got men together against me to send destruction on my young men: the virgin daughter of Judah has been crushed like grapes under the feet of the Lord. +Lam 1:16 For these things I am weeping; my eye is streaming with water; because the comforter who might give me new life is far from me: my children are made waste, because the hater is strong. +Lam 1:17 Zion's hands are outstretched; she has no comforter; the Lord has given orders to the attackers of Jacob round about him: Jerusalem has become like an unclean thing among them. +Lam 1:18 The Lord is upright; for I have gone against his orders: give ear, now, all you peoples, and see my pain, my virgins and my young men have gone away as prisoners. +Lam 1:19 I sent for my lovers, but they were false to me: my priests and my responsible men were breathing their last breath in the town, while they were looking for food to give them new life. +Lam 1:20 See, O Lord, for I am in trouble; the inmost parts of my body are deeply moved; my heart is turned in me; for I have been uncontrolled: outside the children are put to the sword, and in the house there is death. +Lam 1:21 Give ear to the voice of my grief; I have no comforter; all my haters have news of my troubles, they are glad because you have done it: let the day of fate come when they will be like me. +Lam 1:22 Let all their evil-doing come before you; do to them as you have done to me for all my sins: for loud is the sound of my grief, and the strength of my heart is gone. +Lam 2:1 How has the daughter of Zion been covered with a cloud by the Lord in his wrath! he has sent down from heaven to earth the glory of Israel, and has not kept in memory the resting-place of his feet in the day of his wrath. +Lam 2:2 The Lord has given up to destruction all the living-places of Jacob without pity; pulling down in his wrath the strong places of the daughter of Judah, stretching out on the earth the wounded, even her king and her rulers. +Lam 2:3 In his burning wrath every horn of Israel has been cut off; his right hand has been turned back before the attacker: he has put a fire in Jacob, causing destruction round about. +Lam 2:4 His bow has been bent for the attack, he has taken his place with his hand ready, in his hate he has put to death all who were pleasing to the eye: on the tent of the daughter of Zion he has let loose his passion like fire. +Lam 2:5 The Lord has become like one fighting against her, sending destruction on Israel; he has sent destruction on all her great houses, making waste his strong places: increasing the grief and the sorrow of the daughter of Judah. +Lam 2:6 And he has violently taken away his tent, as from a garden; he has made waste his meeting-place: the Lord has taken away the memory of feast and Sabbath in Zion, and in the passion of his wrath he is against king and priest. +Lam 2:7 The Lord has given up his altar and has been turned in hate from his holy place; he has given up into the hands of the attacker the walls of her great houses: their voices have been loud in the house of the Lord as in the day of a holy meeting. +Lam 2:8 It is the Lord's purpose to make waste the wall of the daughter of Zion; his line has been stretched out, he has not kept back his hand from destruction: he has sent sorrow on tower and wall, they have become feeble together. +Lam 2:9 Her doors have gone down into the earth; he has sent destruction on her locks: her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; even her prophets have had no vision from the Lord. +Lam 2:10 The responsible men of the daughter of Zion are seated on the earth without a word; they have put dust on their heads, they are clothed in haircloth: the heads of the virgins of Jerusalem are bent down to the earth. +Lam 2:11 My eyes are wasted with weeping, the inmost parts of my body are deeply moved, my inner parts are drained out on the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because of the young children and babies at the breast who are falling without strength in the open squares of the town. +Lam 2:12 They say to their mothers, Where is grain and wine? when they are falling like the wounded in the open squares of the town, when their life is drained out on their mother's breast. +Lam 2:13 What example am I to give you? what comparison am I to make for you, O daughter of Jerusalem? what am I to make equal to you, so that I may give you comfort, O virgin daughter of Zion? for your destruction is great like the sea: who is able to make you well? +Lam 2:14 The visions which your prophets have seen for you are false and foolish; they have not made clear to you your sin so that your fate might be changed: but they have seen for you false words, driving you away. +Lam 2:15 All who go by make a noise with their hands at you; they make hisses, shaking their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, and saying, Is this the town which was the crown of everything beautiful, the joy of all the earth? +Lam 2:16 All your haters are opening their mouths wide against you; making hisses and whistling through their teeth, they say, We have made a meal of her: certainly this is the day we have been looking for; it has come, we have seen it. +Lam 2:17 The Lord has done that which was his purpose; he has put into force the orders which he gave in the days which are past; pulling down without pity, he has made your hater glad over you, lifting up the horn of those who were against you. +Lam 2:18 Let your cry go up to the Lord: O wall of the daughter of Zion, let your weeping be flowing down like a stream day and night; give yourself no rest, let not your eyes keep back the drops of sorrow. +Lam 2:19 Up! give cries in the night, at the starting of the night-watches; let your heart be flowing out like water before the face of the Lord, lifting up your hands to him for the life of your young children who are falling down, feeble for need of food, at the top of every street. +Lam 2:20 Look! O Lord, see to whom you have done this! Are the women to take as their food the fruit of their bodies, the children who are folded in their arms? are the priest and the prophet to be put to death in the holy place of the Lord? +Lam 2:21 The young men and the old are stretched on the earth in the streets; my virgins and my young men have been put to the sword: you have sent death on them in the day of your wrath, causing death without pity. +Lam 2:22 As in the day of a holy meeting you have made fears come round me on every side, and no one got away or was kept safe in the day of the Lord's wrath: those who were folded in my arms, whom I took care of, have been sent to their destruction by my hater. +Lam 3:1 I am the man who has seen trouble by the rod of his wrath. +Lam 3:2 By him I have been made to go in the dark where there is no light. +Lam 3:3 Truly against me his hand has been turned again and again all the day. +Lam 3:4 My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my bones broken. +Lam 3:5 He has put up a wall against me, shutting me in with bitter sorrow. +Lam 3:6 He has kept me in dark places, like those who have been long dead. +Lam 3:7 He has put a wall round me, so that I am not able to go out; he has made great the weight of my chain. +Lam 3:8 Even when I send up a cry for help, he keeps my prayer shut out. +Lam 3:9 He has put up a wall of cut stones about my ways, he has made my roads twisted. +Lam 3:10 He is like a bear waiting for me, like a lion in secret places. +Lam 3:11 By him my ways have been turned on one side and I have been pulled in bits; he has made me waste. +Lam 3:12 With his bow bent, he has made me the mark for his arrows. +Lam 3:13 He has let loose his arrows into the inmost parts of my body. +Lam 3:14 I have become the sport of all the peoples; I am their song all the day. +Lam 3:15 He has made my life nothing but pain, he has given me the bitter root in full measure. +Lam 3:16 By him my teeth have been broken with crushed stones, and I am bent low in the dust. +Lam 3:17 My soul is sent far away from peace, I have no more memory of good. +Lam 3:18 And I said, My strength is cut off, and my hope from the Lord. +Lam 3:19 Keep in mind my trouble and my wandering, the bitter root and the poison. +Lam 3:20 My soul still keeps the memory of them; and is bent down in me. +Lam 3:21 This I keep in mind, and because of this I have hope. +Lam 3:22 It is through the Lord's love that we have not come to destruction, because his mercies have no limit. +Lam 3:23 They are new every morning; great is your good faith. +Lam 3:24 I said to myself, The Lord is my heritage; and because of this I will have hope in him. +Lam 3:25 The Lord is good to those who are waiting for him, to the soul which is looking for him. +Lam 3:26 It is good to go on hoping and quietly waiting for the salvation of the Lord. +Lam 3:27 It is good for a man to undergo the yoke when he is young. +Lam 3:28 Let him be seated by himself, saying nothing, because he has put it on him. +Lam 3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if by chance there may be hope. +Lam 3:30 Let his face be turned to him who gives him blows; let him be full of shame. +Lam 3:31 For the Lord does not give a man up for ever. +Lam 3:32 For though he sends grief, still he will have pity in the full measure of his love. +Lam 3:33 For he has no pleasure in troubling and causing grief to the children of men. +Lam 3:34 In a man's crushing under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, +Lam 3:35 In his turning away the right of a man before the face of the Most High. +Lam 3:36 In his doing wrong to a man in his cause, the Lord has no pleasure. +Lam 3:37 Who is able to say a thing, and give effect to it, if it has not been ordered by the Lord? +Lam 3:38 Do not evil and good come from the mouth of the Most High? +Lam 3:39 What protest may a living man make, even a man about the punishment of his sin? +Lam 3:40 Let us make search and put our ways to the test, turning again to the Lord; +Lam 3:41 Lifting up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens. +Lam 3:42 We have done wrong and gone against your law; we have not had your forgiveness. +Lam 3:43 Covering yourself with wrath you have gone after us, cutting us off without pity; +Lam 3:44 Covering yourself with a cloud, so that prayer may not get through. +Lam 3:45 You have made us like waste and that for which there is no use, among the peoples. +Lam 3:46 The mouths of all our haters are open wide against us. +Lam 3:47 Fear and deep waters have come on us, wasting and destruction. +Lam 3:48 Rivers of water are running down from my eyes, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. +Lam 3:49 My eyes are streaming without stopping, they have no rest, +Lam 3:50 Till the Lord's eye is turned on me, till he sees my trouble from heaven. +Lam 3:51 The Lord is unkind to my soul, more than all the daughters of my town. +Lam 3:52 They who are against me without cause have gone hard after me as if I was a bird; +Lam 3:53 They have put an end to my life in the prison, stoning me with stones. +Lam 3:54 Waters were flowing over my head; I said, I am cut off. +Lam 3:55 I was making prayer to your name, O Lord, out of the lowest prison. +Lam 3:56 My voice came to you; let not your ear be shut to my breathing, to my cry. +Lam 3:57 You came near in the day when I made my prayer to you: you said, Have no fear. +Lam 3:58 O Lord, you have taken up the cause of my soul, you have made my life safe. +Lam 3:59 O Lord, you have seen my wrong; be judge in my cause. +Lam 3:60 You have seen all the evil rewards they have sent on me, and all their designs against me. +Lam 3:61 Their bitter words have come to your ears, O Lord, and all their designs against me; +Lam 3:62 The lips of those who came up against me, and their thoughts against me all the day. +Lam 3:63 Take note of them when they are seated, and when they get up; I am their song. +Lam 3:64 You will give them their reward, O Lord, answering to the work of their hands. +Lam 3:65 You will let their hearts be covered over with your curse on them. +Lam 3:66 You will go after them in wrath, and put an end to them from under the heavens of the Lord. +Lam 4:1 How dark has the gold become! how changed the best gold! the stones of the holy place are dropping out at the top of every street. +Lam 4:2 The valued sons of Zion, whose price was the best gold, are looked on as vessels of earth, the work of the hands of the potter! +Lam 4:3 Even the beasts of the waste land have full breasts, they give milk to their young ones: the daughter of my people has become cruel like the ostriches in the waste land. +Lam 4:4 The tongue of the child at the breast is fixed to the roof of his mouth for need of drink: the young children are crying out for bread, and no man gives it to them. +Lam 4:5 Those who were used to feasting on delicate food are wasted in the streets: those who as children were dressed in purple are stretched out on the dust. +Lam 4:6 For the punishment of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overturned suddenly without any hand falling on her. +Lam 4:7 Her holy ones were cleaner than snow, they were whiter than milk, their bodies were redder than corals, their form was as the sapphire: +Lam 4:8 Their face is blacker than night; in the streets no one has knowledge of them: their skin is hanging on their bones, they are dry, they have become like wood. +Lam 4:9 Those who have been put to the sword are better off than those whose death is caused by need of food; for these come to death slowly, burned up like the fruit of the field. +Lam 4:10 The hands of kind-hearted women have been boiling their children; they were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people. +Lam 4:11 The Lord has given full effect to his passion, he has let loose his burning wrath; he has made a fire in Zion, causing the destruction of its bases. +Lam 4:12 To the kings of the earth and to all the people of the world it did not seem possible that the attackers and the haters would go into the doors of Jerusalem. +Lam 4:13 It is because of the sins of her prophets and the evil-doing of her priests, by whom the blood of the upright has been drained out in her. +Lam 4:14 They are wandering like blind men in the streets, they are made unclean with blood, so that their robes may not be touched by men. +Lam 4:15 Away! unclean! they were crying out to them, Away! away! let there be no touching: when they went away in flight and wandering, men said among the nations, There is no further resting-place for them. +Lam 4:16 The face of the Lord has sent them in all directions; he will no longer take care of them: they had no respect for the priests, they gave no honour to the old men. +Lam 4:17 Our eyes are still wasting away in looking for our false help: we have been watching for a nation unable to give salvation. +Lam 4:18 They go after our steps so that we may not go in our streets: our end is near, our days are numbered; for our end has come. +Lam 4:19 Those who went after us were quicker than the eagles of the heaven, driving us before them on the mountains, waiting secretly for us in the waste land. +Lam 4:20 Our breath of life, he on whom the holy oil was put, was taken in their holes; of whom we said, Under his shade we will be living among the nations. +Lam 4:21 Have joy and be glad, O daughter of Edom, living in the land of Uz: the cup will be given to you in your turn, and you will be overcome with wine and your shame will be seen. +Lam 4:22 The punishment of your evil-doing is complete, O daughter of Zion; never again will he take you away as a prisoner: he will give you the reward of your evil-doing, O daughter of Edom; he will let your sin be uncovered. +Lam 5:1 Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame. +Lam 5:2 Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen. +Lam 5:3 We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows. +Lam 5:4 We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price. +Lam 5:5 Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest. +Lam 5:6 We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread. +Lam 5:7 Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us. +Lam 5:8 Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands. +Lam 5:9 We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land. +Lam 5:10 Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food. +Lam 5:11 They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah. +Lam 5:12 Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured. +Lam 5:13 The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood. +Lam 5:14 The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end. +Lam 5:15 The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow. +Lam 5:16 The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners. +Lam 5:17 Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark; +Lam 5:18 Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it. +Lam 5:19 You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal. +Lam 5:20 Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long? +Lam 5:21 Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past. +Lam 5:22 But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us. +Eze 1:1 Now it came about in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, while I was by the river Chebar among those who had been made prisoners, that the heavens were made open and I saw visions of God. +Eze 1:2 On the fifth day of the month, in the fifth year after King Jehoiachin had been made a prisoner, +Eze 1:3 The word of the Lord came to me, Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldaeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was on me there. +Eze 1:4 And, looking, I saw a storm-wind coming out of the north, a great cloud with flames of fire coming after one another, and a bright light shining round about it and in the heart of it was something coloured like electrum. +Eze 1:5 And in the heart of it were the forms of four living beings. And this was what they were like; they had the form of a man. +Eze 1:6 And every one had four faces, and every one of them had four wings. +Eze 1:7 And their feet were straight feet; and the under sides of their feet were like the feet of oxen; and they were shining like polished brass. +Eze 1:8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings; the four of them had faces on their four sides. +Eze 1:9 They went without turning, every one went straight forward. +Eze 1:10 As for the form of their faces, they had the face of a man, and the four of them had the face of a lion on the right side, and the four of them had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four of them had the face of an eagle. +Eze 1:11 And their wings were separate at the top; two of the wings of every one were joined one to another, and two were covering their bodies. +Eze 1:12 Every one of them went straight forward; wherever the spirit was to go they went; they went on without turning. +Eze 1:13 And between the living beings it was like burning coals of fire, as if flames were going one after the other between the living beings; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went thunder-flames. +Eze 1:14 And the living beings went out and came back as quickly as a thunder-flame. +Eze 1:15 Now while I was looking at the four living beings, I saw one wheel on the earth, by the side of the living beings, for the four of them. +Eze 1:16 The form of the wheels and their work was like a beryl; the four of them had the same form and design, and they were like a wheel inside a wheel. +Eze 1:17 The four of them went straight forward without turning to one side. +Eze 1:18 And I saw that they had edges, and their edges, even of the four, were full of eyes round about. +Eze 1:19 And when the living beings went on, the wheels went by their side; and when the living beings were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. +Eze 1:20 Wherever the spirit was to go they went; and the wheels were lifted up by their side: for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. +Eze 1:21 When these went on, the others went; and when these came to rest, the others came to rest; and when these were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up by their side: for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. +Eze 1:22 And over the heads of the living beings there was the form of an arch, looking like ice, stretched out over their heads on high. +Eze 1:23 Under the arch their wings were straight, one stretched out to another: every one had two wings covering their bodies on this side and two covering their bodies on that side. +Eze 1:24 And when they went, the sound of their wings was like the sound of great waters to my ears, like the voice of the Ruler of all, a sound like the rushing of an army: when they came to rest they let down their wings. +Eze 1:25 And there was a voice from the top of the arch which was over their heads: when they came to rest they let down their wings. +Eze 1:26 And on the top of the arch which was over their heads was the form of a king's seat, like a sapphire stone; and on the form of the seat was the form of a man seated on it on high. +Eze 1:27 And I saw it coloured like electrum, with the look of fire in it and round it, going up from what seemed to be the middle of his body; and going down from what seemed to be the middle of his body I saw what was like fire, and there was a bright light shining round him. +Eze 1:28 Like the bow in the cloud on a day of rain, so was the light shining round him. And this is what the glory of the Lord was like. And when I saw it I went down on my face, and the voice of one talking came to my ears. +Eze 2:1 And he said to me, Son of man, get up on your feet, so that I may say words to you. +Eze 2:2 And at his words the spirit came into me and put me on my feet; and his voice came to my ears. +Eze 2:3 And he said to me, Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to an uncontrolled nation which has gone against me: they and their fathers have been sinners against me even to this very day. +Eze 2:4 And the children are hard and stiff-hearted; I am sending you to them: and you are to say to them, These are the words of the Lord. +Eze 2:5 And they, if they give ear to you or if they do not give ear (for they are an uncontrolled people), will see that there has been a prophet among them. +Eze 2:6 And you, son of man, have no fear of them or of their words, even if sharp thorns are round you and you are living among scorpions: have no fear of their words and do not be overcome by their looks, for they are an uncontrolled people. +Eze 2:7 And you are to give them my words, if they give ear to you or if they do not: for they are uncontrolled. +Eze 2:8 But you, son of man, give ear to what I say to you, and do not be uncontrolled like that uncontrolled people: let your mouth be open and take what I give you. +Eze 2:9 And looking, I saw a hand stretched out to me, and I saw the roll of a book in it; +Eze 2:10 And he put it open before me, and it had writing on the front and on the back; words of grief and sorrow and trouble were recorded in it. +Eze 3:1 And he said to me, Son of man, take this roll for your food, and go and say my words to the children of Israel. +Eze 3:2 And, on my opening my mouth, he made me take the roll as food. +Eze 3:3 And he said to me, Son of man, let your stomach make a meal of it and let your inside be full of this roll which I am giving you. Then I took it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth. +Eze 3:4 And he said to me, Son of man, go now to the children of Israel, and say my words to them. +Eze 3:5 For you are not sent to a people whose talk is strange and whose language is hard, but to the children of Israel; +Eze 3:6 Not to a number of peoples whose talk is strange and whose language is hard and whose words are not clear to you. Truly, if I sent you to them they would give ear to you. +Eze 3:7 But the children of Israel will not give ear to you; for they have no mind to give ear to me: for all the children of Israel have a hard brow and a stiff heart. +Eze 3:8 See, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your brow hard against their brows. +Eze 3:9 Like a diamond harder than rock I have made your brow: have no fear of them and do not be overcome by their looks, for they are an uncontrolled people. +Eze 3:10 Then he said to me, Son of man, take into your heart all my words which I am about to say to you, and let your ears be open to them. +Eze 3:11 And go now to those who have been taken away as prisoners, to the children of your people, and say to them, This is what the Lord has said; if they give ear or if they do not. +Eze 3:12 Then I was lifted up by the wind, and at my back the sound of a great rushing came to my ears when the glory of the Lord was lifted up from his place. +Eze 3:13 And there was the sound of the wings of the living beings touching one another, and the sound of the wheels at their side, the sound of a great rushing. +Eze 3:14 And the wind, lifting me up, took me away: and I went in the heat of my spirit, and the hand of the Lord was strong on me. +Eze 3:15 Then I came to those who had been taken away as prisoners, who were at Telabib by the river Chebar, and I was seated among them full of wonder for seven days. +Eze 3:16 And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 3:17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the children of Israel: so give ear to the word of my mouth, and give them word from me of their danger. +Eze 3:18 When I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly be your fate; and you give him no word of it and say nothing to make clear to the evil-doer the danger of his evil way, so that he may be safe; that same evil man will come to death in his evil-doing; but I will make you responsible for his blood. +Eze 3:19 But if you give the evil-doer word of his danger, and he is not turned from his sin or from his evil way, death will overtake him in his evil-doing; but your life will be safe. +Eze 3:20 Again, when an upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, and I put a cause of falling in his way, death will overtake him: because you have given him no word of his danger, death will overtake him in his evil-doing, and there will be no memory of the upright acts which he has done; but I will make you responsible for his blood. +Eze 3:21 But if you say to the upright man that he is not to do evil, he will certainly keep his life because he took note of your word; and your life will be safe. +Eze 3:22 And the hand of the Lord was on me there; and he said, Get up and go out into the valley and there I will have talk with you. +Eze 3:23 Then I got up and went out into the valley; and I saw the glory of the Lord resting there as I had seen it by the river Chebar; and I went down on my face. +Eze 3:24 Then the spirit came into me and put me on my feet; and he had talk with me and said to me, Go and keep yourself shut up inside your house. +Eze 3:25 But see, O son of man, I will put bands on you, prisoning you in them, and you will not go out among them: +Eze 3:26 And I will make your tongue fixed to the roof of your mouth, so that you have no voice and may not make protests to them: for they are an uncontrolled people. +Eze 3:27 But when I have talk with you I will make your mouth open, and you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Let the hearer give ear; and as for him who will not, let him keep his ears shut: for they are an uncontrolled people. +Eze 4:1 And you, son of man, take a back and put it before you and on it make a picture of a town, even Jerusalem. +Eze 4:2 And make an attack on it, shutting it in, building strong places against it, and making high an earthwork against it; and put up tents against it, placing engines all round it for smashing down its walls. +Eze 4:3 And take a flat iron plate, and put it for a wall of iron between you and the town: and let your face be turned to it, and it will be shut in and you will make an attack on it. This will be a sign to the children of Israel. +Eze 4:4 Then, stretching yourself out on your left side, take the sin of the children of Israel on yourself: for as long as you are stretched out, so long will the sin of the children of Israel be on you. +Eze 4:5 For I have had the years of their sin measured for you by a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: and you will take on yourself the sin of the children of Israel. +Eze 4:6 And when these days are ended, turning on your right side, you are to take on yourself the sin of the children of Judah: forty days, a day for a year, I have had it fixed for you. +Eze 4:7 And let your face be turned to where Jerusalem is shut in, with your arm uncovered, and be a prophet against it. +Eze 4:8 And see, I will put bands on you; and you will be stretched out without turning from one side to the other till the days of your attack are ended. +Eze 4:9 And take for yourself wheat and barley and different sorts of grain, and put them in one vessel and make bread for yourself from them; all the days when you are stretched on your side it will be your food. +Eze 4:10 And you are to take your food by weight, twenty shekels a day: you are to take it at regular times. +Eze 4:11 And you are to take water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: you are to take it at regular times. +Eze 4:12 And let your food be barley cakes, cooking it before their eyes with the waste which comes out of a man. +Eze 4:13 And the Lord said, Even so the children of Israel will have unclean bread for their food among the nations where I am driving them. +Eze 4:14 Then I said, Ah, Lord! see, my soul has never been unclean, and I have never taken as my food anything which has come to a natural death or has been broken by beasts, from the time when I was young even till now; no disgusting flesh has ever come into my mouth. +Eze 4:15 Then he said to me, See, I have given you cow's waste in place of man's waste, and you will make your bread ready on it. +Eze 4:16 And he said to me, Son of man, see, I will take away from Jerusalem her necessary bread: they will take their bread by weight and with care, measuring out their drinking-water with fear and wonder: +Eze 4:17 So that they may be in need of bread and water and be wondering at one another, wasting away in their sin. +Eze 5:1 And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, using it like a haircutter's blade, and making it go over your head and the hair of your chin: and take scales for separating the hair by weight. +Eze 5:2 You are to have a third part burned with fire inside the town, when the days of the attack are ended; and a third part you are to take and give blows with the sword round about it; and give a third part for the wind to take away, and let loose a sword after them. +Eze 5:3 And take from them a small number of hairs, folding them in your skirts. +Eze 5:4 And again take some of these and put them in the fire, burning them up in the fire; and say to all the children of Israel, +Eze 5:5 This is what the Lord has said: This is Jerusalem: I have put her among the nations, and countries are round her on every side; +Eze 5:6 And she has gone against my orders by doing evil more than the nations, and against my rules more than the countries round her: for they have given up my orders, and as for my rules, they have not gone in the way of them. +Eze 5:7 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have been more uncontrolled than the nations round about you, and have not been guided by my rules or kept my orders, but have kept the orders of the nations round about you; +Eze 5:8 For this cause the Lord has said: See, I, even I, am against you; and I will be judging among you before the eyes of the nations. +Eze 5:9 And I will do in you what I have not done and will not do again, because of all your disgusting ways. +Eze 5:10 For this cause fathers will take their sons for food among you, and sons will make a meal of their fathers; and I will be judge among you, and all the rest of you I will send away to every wind. +Eze 5:11 For this cause, by my life, says the Lord, because you have made my holy place unclean with all your hated things and all your disgusting ways, you will become disgusting to me; my eye will have no mercy and I will have no pity. +Eze 5:12 A third of you will come to death from disease, wasting away among you through need of food; a third will be put to the sword round about you; and a third I will send away to every wind, letting loose a sword after them. +Eze 5:13 So my wrath will be complete and my passion will come to rest on them; and they will be certain that I the Lord have given the word of decision, when my wrath against them is complete. +Eze 5:14 And I will make you a waste and a name of shame among the nations round about you, in the eyes of everyone who goes by. +Eze 5:15 And you will be a name of shame and a cause of bitter words, an example and a wonder to the nations round about you, when I give effect to my judging among you in wrath and in passion and in burning protests: I the Lord have said it: +Eze 5:16 When I send on you the evil arrows of disease, causing destruction, which I will send to put an end to you; and, further, I will take away your necessary food. +Eze 5:17 And I will send on you need of food and evil beasts, and they will be a cause of loss to you; and disease and violent death will go through you; and I will send the sword on you: I the Lord have said it. +Eze 6:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 6:2 Son of man, let your face be turned to the mountains of Israel, and be a prophet to them, and say, +Eze 6:3 You mountains of Israel, give ear to the words of the Lord: this is what the Lord has said to the mountains and the hills, to the waterways and the valleys: See, I, even I, am sending on you a sword for the destruction of your high places. +Eze 6:4 And your altars will be made waste, and your sun-images will be broken: and I will have your dead men placed before your images. +Eze 6:5 And I will put the dead bodies of the children of Israel in front of their images, sending your bones in all directions about your altars. +Eze 6:6 In all your living-places the towns will become broken walls, and the high places made waste; so that your altars may be broken down and made waste, and your images broken and ended, and so that your sun-images may be cut down and your works rubbed out. +Eze 6:7 And the dead will be falling down among you, and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 6:8 But still, I will keep a small band safe from the sword among the nations, when you are sent wandering among the countries. +Eze 6:9 And those of you who are kept safe will have me in mind among the nations where they have been taken away as prisoners, how I sent punishment on their hearts which were untrue to me, and on their eyes which were turned to their false gods: and they will be full of hate for themselves because of the evil things which they have done in all their disgusting ways. +Eze 6:10 And they will be certain that I am the Lord: not for nothing did I say that I would do this evil to them. +Eze 6:11 This is what the Lord has said: Give blows with your hand, stamping with your foot, and say, O sorrow! because of all the evil and disgusting ways of the children of Israel: for death will overtake them by the sword and through need of food and by disease. +Eze 6:12 He who is far away will come to his death by disease; he who is near will be put to the sword; he who is shut up will come to his death through need of food; and I will give full effect to my passion against them. +Eze 6:13 And you will be certain that I am the Lord, when their dead men are stretched among their images round about their altars on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every branching tree, and under every thick oak-tree, the places where they made sweet smells to all their images. +Eze 6:14 And my hand will be stretched out against them, making the land waste and unpeopled, from the waste land to Riblah, through all their living-places: and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 7:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 7:2 And you, son of man, say, This is what the Lord has said to the land of Israel: An end has come, the end has come on the four quarters of the land. +Eze 7:3 Now the end has come on you, and I will send my wrath on you, judging you for your ways, I will send punishment on you for all your disgusting acts. +Eze 7:4 My eye will not have mercy on you, and I will have no pity: but I will send the punishment of your ways on you, and your disgusting works will be among you: and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 7:5 This is what the Lord has said: An evil, even one evil; see, it is coming. +Eze 7:6 An end has come, the end has come; see, it is coming on you. +Eze 7:7 The crowning time has come on you, O people of the land: the time has come, the day is near; the day will not be slow in coming, it will not keep back. +Eze 7:8 Now, in a little time, I will let loose my passion on you, and give full effect to my wrath against you, judging you for your ways, and sending punishment on you for all your disgusting works. +Eze 7:9 My eye will not have mercy, and I will have no pity: I will send on you the punishment of your ways, and your disgusting works will be among you; and you will see that I am the Lord who gives punishment. +Eze 7:10 See, the day; see, it is coming: the crowning time has gone out; the twisted way is flowering, pride has put out buds. +Eze 7:11 Violent behaviour has been lifted up into a rod of evil; it will not be slow in coming, it will not keep back. +Eze 7:12 The time has come, the day is near: let not him who gives a price for goods be glad, or him who gets the price have sorrow: +Eze 7:13 For the trader will not go back to the things for which he had his price, even while he is still living: +Eze 7:14 And he who has given a price for goods will not get them, for my wrath is on all of them. +Eze 7:15 Outside is the sword, and inside disease and need of food: he who is in the open country will be put to the sword; he who is in the town will come to his end through need of food and disease. +Eze 7:16 And those of them who get away safely will go and be in the secret places like the doves of the valleys, all of them will come to death, every one in his sin. +Eze 7:17 All hands will be feeble and all knees without strength, like water. +Eze 7:18 And they will put haircloth round them, and deep fear will be covering them; and shame will be on all faces, and the hair gone from all their heads. +Eze 7:19 They will put out their silver into the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to keep them safe in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they will not get their desire or have food for their need: because it has been the cause of their falling into sin. +Eze 7:20 As for their beautiful ornament, they had put it on high, and had made the images of their disgusting and hated things in it: for this cause I have made it an unclean thing to them. +Eze 7:21 And I will give it into the hands of men from strange lands who will take it by force, and to the evil-doers of the earth to have for themselves; and they will make it unholy. +Eze 7:22 And my face will be turned away from them, and they will make my secret place unholy: violent men will go into it and make it unholy. +Eze 7:23 Make the chain: for the land is full of crimes of blood, and the town is full of violent acts. +Eze 7:24 For this reason I will send the worst of the nations and they will take their houses for themselves: I will make the pride of their strength come to an end; and their holy places will be made unclean. +Eze 7:25 Shaking fear is coming; and they will be looking for peace, and there will be no peace. +Eze 7:26 Destruction will come on destruction, and one story after another; and the vision of the prophet will be shamed, and knowledge of the law will come to an end among the priests, and wisdom among the old. +Eze 7:27 The king will give himself up to sorrow, and the ruler will be clothed with wonder, and the hands of the people of the land will be troubled: I will give them punishment for their ways, judging them as it is right for them to be judged; and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 8:1 Now in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, when I was in my house and the responsible men of Judah were seated before me, the hand of the Lord came on me there. +Eze 8:2 And looking, I saw a form like fire; from the middle of his body and down there was fire: and up from the middle of his body a sort of shining, like electrum. +Eze 8:3 And he put out the form of a hand and took me by the hair of my head; and the wind, lifting me up between the earth and the heaven, took me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the way into the inner door facing to the north; where was the seat of the image of envy. +Eze 8:4 And I saw the glory of the Lord there, as in the vision which I saw in the valley. +Eze 8:5 Then he said to me, Son of man, now let your eyes be lifted up in the direction of the north; and on looking in the direction of the north, to the north of the doorway of the altar, I saw this image of envy by the way in. +Eze 8:6 And he said to me, Son of man, do you see what they are doing? even the very disgusting things which the children of Israel are doing here, causing me to go far away from my holy place? but you will see other most disgusting things. +Eze 8:7 And he took me to the door of the open place; and looking, I saw a hole in the wall. +Eze 8:8 And he said to me, Son of man, make a hole in the wall: and after making a hole in the wall I saw a door. +Eze 8:9 And he said to me, Go in and see the evil and disgusting things which they are doing here. +Eze 8:10 So I went in and saw; and there every sort of living thing which goes flat on the earth, and unclean beasts, and all the images of the children of Israel, were pictured round about on the wall. +Eze 8:11 And before them seventy of the responsible men of the children of Israel had taken their places, every man with a vessel for burning perfumes in his hand, and in the middle of them was Jaazaniah, the son of Shaphan; and a cloud of smoke went up from the burning perfume. +Eze 8:12 And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the responsible men of the children of Israel do in the dark, every man in his room of pictured images? for they say, The Lord does not see us; the Lord has gone away from the land. +Eze 8:13 Then he said to me, You will see even more disgusting things which they do. +Eze 8:14 Then he took me to the door of the way into the Lord's house looking to the north; and there women were seated weeping for Tammuz. +Eze 8:15 Then he said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? you will see even more disgusting things than these. +Eze 8:16 And he took me into the inner square of the Lord's house, and at the door of the Temple of the Lord, between the covered way and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs turned to the Temple of the Lord and their faces turned to the east; and they were worshipping the sun, turning to the east. +Eze 8:17 Then he said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? is it a small thing to the children of Judah that they do the disgusting things which they are doing here? for they have made the land full of violent behaviour, making me angry again and again: and see, they put the branch to my nose. +Eze 8:18 For this reason I will let loose my wrath: my eye will not have mercy, and I will have no pity. +Eze 9:1 Then crying out in my hearing in a loud voice, he said, Let the overseers of the town come near, every man armed. +Eze 9:2 And six men came from the way of the higher doorway looking to the north, every man with his axe in his hand: and one man among them was clothed in linen, with a writer's inkpot at his side. And they went in and took their places by the brass altar. +Eze 9:3 And the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the winged ones on which it was resting, to the doorstep of the house. And crying out to the man clothed in linen who had the writer's inkpot at his side, +Eze 9:4 The Lord said to him, Go through the town, through the middle of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the brows of the men who are sorrowing and crying for all the disgusting things which are done in it. +Eze 9:5 And to these he said in my hearing, Go through the town after him using your axes: do not let your eyes have mercy, and have no pity: +Eze 9:6 Give up to destruction old men and young men and virgins, little children and women: but do not come near any man who has the mark on him: and make a start at my holy place. So they made a start with the old men who were before the house. +Eze 9:7 And he said to them, Make the house unclean, make the open places full of dead: go forward and send destruction on the town. +Eze 9:8 Now while they were doing so, and I was untouched, I went down on my face, and crying out, I said, Ah, Lord! will you give all the rest of Israel to destruction in letting loose your wrath on Jerusalem? +Eze 9:9 Then he said to me, The sin of the children of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is full of blood and the town full of evil ways: for they say, The Lord has gone away from the land, and the Lord does not see. +Eze 9:10 And as for me, my eye will not have mercy, and I will have no pity, but I will send the punishment of their ways on their heads. +Eze 9:11 Then the man clothed in linen, who had the inkpot at his side, came back and said, I have done what you gave me orders to do. +Eze 10:1 Then looking, I saw that on the arch which was over the head of the winged ones there was seen over them what seemed like a sapphire stone, having the form of a king's seat. +Eze 10:2 And he said to the man clothed in linen, Go in between the wheels, under the winged ones, and get your two hands full of burning coals from between the winged ones and send them in a shower over the town. And he went in before my eyes. +Eze 10:3 Now the winged ones were stationed on the right side of the house when the man went in; and the inner square was full of the cloud. +Eze 10:4 And the glory of the Lord went up from the winged ones and came to rest over the doorstep of the house; and the house was full of the cloud and the open square was full of the shining of the Lord's glory. +Eze 10:5 And the sound of the wings of the winged ones was clear even in the outer square, like the voice of the Ruler of all. +Eze 10:6 And when he gave orders to the man clothed in linen, saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the winged ones, then he went in and took his place at the side of a wheel. +Eze 10:7 And stretching out his hand to the fire which was between the winged ones, he took some of it and went out. +Eze 10:8 And I saw the form of a man's hands among the winged ones under their wings. +Eze 10:9 And looking, I saw four wheels by the side of the winged ones, one wheel by the side of a winged one and another wheel by the side of another: and the wheels were like the colour of a beryl stone to the eye. +Eze 10:10 In form the four of them were all the same, they seemed like a wheel inside a wheel. +Eze 10:11 When they were moving, they went on their four sides without turning; they went after the head in the direction in which it was looking; they went without turning. +Eze 10:12 And the edges of the four wheels were full of eyes round about. +Eze 10:13 As for the wheels, they were named in my hearing, the circling wheels. +Eze 10:14 And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a winged one, and the second was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. +Eze 10:15 And the winged ones went up on high: this is the living being which I saw by the river Chebar. +Eze 10:16 And when the winged ones went, the wheels went by their side: and when their wings were lifted to take them up from the earth, the wheels were not turned from their side. +Eze 10:17 When they were at rest in their place, these were at rest; when they were lifted up, these went up with them: for the spirit of life was in them. +Eze 10:18 Then the glory of the Lord went out from the doorstep of the house, and came to rest over the winged ones. +Eze 10:19 And the winged ones, lifting up their wings, went up from the earth before my eyes, with the wheels by their side: and they came to rest at the east doorway of the Lord's house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them on high. +Eze 10:20 This is the living being which I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and it was clear to me that they were the winged ones. +Eze 10:21 Every one had four faces and every one had four wings; and hands like a man's hands were under their wings. +Eze 10:22 As for the form of their faces, they were the faces whose form I saw by the river Chebar; when they went, every one of them went straight forward. +Eze 11:1 And the wind, lifting me up, took me to the east doorway of the Lord's house, looking to the east: and at the door I saw twenty-five men; and among them I saw Jaazaniah, the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah, rulers of the people. +Eze 11:2 Then he said to me, Son of man, these are the men who are designing evil, who are teaching evil ways in this town: +Eze 11:3 Who say, This is not the time for building houses: this town is the cooking-pot and we are the flesh. +Eze 11:4 For this cause be a prophet against them, be a prophet, O son of man. +Eze 11:5 And the spirit of the Lord came on me, and he said to me, Say, These are the words of the Lord: This is what you have said, O children of Israel; what comes into your mind is clear to me. +Eze 11:6 You have made great the number of your dead in this town, you have made its streets full of dead men. +Eze 11:7 For this reason the Lord has said: Your dead whom you have put down in its streets, they are the flesh, and this town is the cooking-pot: but I will make you come out from inside it. +Eze 11:8 You have been fearing the sword, and I will send the sword on you, says the Lord. +Eze 11:9 I will make you come out from inside the town and will give you up into the hands of men from other lands, and will be judge among you. +Eze 11:10 You will come to your death by the sword; and I will be your judge in the land of Israel; and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 11:11 This town will not be your cooking-pot, and you will not be the flesh inside it; I will be your judge at the limit of the land of Israel; +Eze 11:12 And you will be certain that I am the Lord: for you have not been guided by my rules or given effect to my orders, but you have been living by the orders of the nations round about you. +Eze 11:13 Now while I was saying these things, death came to Pelatiah, the son of Benaiah. Then falling down on my face and crying out with a loud voice, I said, Ah, Lord! will you put an end to all the rest of Israel? +Eze 11:14 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 11:15 Son of man, your countrymen, your relations, and all the children of Israel, all of them, are those to whom the people of Jerusalem have said, Go far from the Lord; this land is given to us for a heritage: +Eze 11:16 For this reason say, This is what the Lord has said: Though I have had them moved far off among the nations, and though I have sent them wandering among the countries, still I have been a safe place for them for a little time in the countries where they have come. +Eze 11:17 Then say, This is what the Lord has said: I will get you together from the peoples, and make you come out of the countries where you have been sent in flight, and I will give you the land of Israel. +Eze 11:18 And they will come there, and take away all the hated and disgusting things from it. +Eze 11:19 And I will give them a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in them; and I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh: +Eze 11:20 So that they may be guided by my rules and keep my orders and do them: and they will be to me a people, and I will be to them a God. +Eze 11:21 But as for those whose heart goes after their hated and disgusting things, I will send on their heads the punishment of their ways, says the Lord. +Eze 11:22 Then the wings of the winged ones were lifted up, and the wheels were by their side; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them on high. +Eze 11:23 And the glory of the Lord went up from inside the town, and came to rest on the mountain on the east side of the town. +Eze 11:24 And the wind, lifting me up, took me in the visions of God into Chaldaea, to those who had been taken away as prisoners. So the vision which I had seen went away from me. +Eze 11:25 Then I gave an account to those who had been taken prisoners of all the things which the Lord had made me see. +Eze 12:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 12:2 Son of man, you are living among an uncontrolled people, who have eyes to see but see not, and ears for hearing but they do not give ear; for they are an uncontrolled people. +Eze 12:3 And you, O son of man, by day, before their eyes, get ready the vessels of one who is taken away, and go away from your place to another place before their eyes: it may be that they will see, though they are an uncontrolled people. +Eze 12:4 By day, before their eyes, take out your vessels like those of one who is taken away: and go out in the evening before their eyes, like those who are taken away as prisoners. +Eze 12:5 Make a hole in the wall, before their eyes, and go out through it. +Eze 12:6 And before their eyes, take your goods on your back and go out in the dark; go with your face covered: for I have made you a sign to the children of Israel. +Eze 12:7 And I did as I was ordered: I took out my vessels by day, like those of one who is taken away, and in the evening I made a hole through the wall with a tent-pin; and in the dark I went out, taking my things on my back before their eyes. +Eze 12:8 And in the morning the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 12:9 Son of man, has not Israel, the uncontrolled people, said to you, What are you doing? +Eze 12:10 You are to say to them, This is what the Lord has said: This word has to do with the ruler in Jerusalem and all the children of Israel in it. +Eze 12:11 Say, I am your sign: as I have done, so will it be done to them: they will go away as prisoners. +Eze 12:12 And the ruler who is among them will take his goods on his back in the dark and go out: he will make a hole in the wall through which to go out: he will have his face covered so that he may not be seen. +Eze 12:13 And my net will be stretched out on him, and he will be taken in my cords: and I will take him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldaeans; but he will not see it, and there death will come to him. +Eze 12:14 And all his helpers round about him and all his armies I will send in flight to every wind; and I will let loose a sword after them. +Eze 12:15 And they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I send them in flight among the nations, driving them out through the countries. +Eze 12:16 But a small number of them I will keep from the sword, from the need of food, and from disease, so that they may make clear all their disgusting ways among the nations where they come; and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 12:17 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 12:18 Son of man, take your food with shaking fear, and your water with trouble and care; +Eze 12:19 And say to the people of the land, This is what the Lord has said about the people of Jerusalem and the land of Israel: They will take their food with care and their drink with wonder, so that all the wealth of their land may be taken from it because of the violent ways of the people living in it. +Eze 12:20 And the peopled towns will be made waste, and the land will become a wonder; and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 12:21 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 12:22 Son of man, what is this saying which you have about the land of Israel, The time is long and every vision comes to nothing? +Eze 12:23 For this cause say to them, This is what the Lord has said: I have made this saying come to an end, and it will no longer be used as a common saying in Israel; but say to them, The days are near, and the effect of every vision. +Eze 12:24 For there will be no more false visions or smooth use of secret arts in Israel. +Eze 12:25 For I am the Lord; I will say the word and what I say I will do; it will not be put off: for in your days, O uncontrolled people, I will say the word and do it, says the Lord. +Eze 12:26 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 12:27 Son of man, see, the children of Israel say, The vision which he sees is for the days which are a long way off, and his words are of times still far away. +Eze 12:28 Say to them then, This is what the Lord has said: Not one of my words will be put off any longer, but what I say I will do, says the Lord. +Eze 13:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 13:2 Son of man, be a prophet against the prophets of Israel, and say to those prophets whose words are the invention of their hearts, Give ear to the word of the Lord; +Eze 13:3 This is what the Lord has said: A curse on the foolish prophets who go after the spirit which is in them and have seen nothing! +Eze 13:4 O Israel, your prophets have been like jackals in the waste places. +Eze 13:5 You have not gone up into the broken places or made up the wall for the children of Israel to take your place in the fight in the day of the Lord. +Eze 13:6 They have seen visions without substance and made use of secret arts, who say, The Lord has said; and the Lord has not sent them: hoping that the word would have effect. +Eze 13:7 Have you not seen a vision without substance and have you not falsely made use of secret arts, when you say, The Lord has said; though I have said nothing? +Eze 13:8 So this is what the Lord has said: Because your words are without substance and your visions are false, see, I am against you, says the Lord. +Eze 13:9 And my hand will be against the prophets who see visions without substance and who make false use of secret arts: they will not be in the secret of my people, and they will not be recorded in the list of the children of Israel, and they will not come into the land of Israel; and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord. +Eze 13:10 Because, even because they have been guiding my people into error, saying, Peace; when there is no peace; and in the building of a division wall they put whitewash on it: +Eze 13:11 Say to those who put whitewash on it, There will be an overflowing shower; and you, O ice-drops, will come raining down; and it will be broken in two by the storm-wind. +Eze 13:12 And when the wall has come down, will they not say to you, Where is the whitewash which you put on it? +Eze 13:13 For this reason, the Lord has said: I will have it broken in two by a storm-wind in my passion; and there will be an overflowing shower in my wrath, and you, O ice-drops, will come raining angrily down. +Eze 13:14 So I will let the wall, which you were covering with whitewash, be broken down; I will have it levelled to the earth so that its base is uncovered: it will come down, and destruction will come on you with it; and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord. +Eze 13:15 So I will let loose my passion on the wall in full measure, and on those who put whitewash on it; and I will say to you, Where is the wall, and where are those who put whitewash on it? +Eze 13:16 Even the prophets of Israel who say words to Jerusalem, who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace, says the Lord. +Eze 13:17 And you, son of man, let your face be turned against the daughters of your people, who are acting the part of prophets at their pleasure; be a prophet against them, and say, +Eze 13:18 This is what the Lord has said: A curse is on the women who are stitching bands on all arms and putting veils on the heads of those of every size, so that they may go after souls! Will you go after the souls of my people and keep yourselves safe from death? +Eze 13:19 And you have put me to shame among my people for a little barley and some bits of bread, sending death on souls for whom there is no cause of death, and keeping those souls living who have no right to life, by the false words you say to my people who give ear to what is false. +Eze 13:20 For this cause the Lord has said: See, I am against your bands with which you go after souls, and I will violently take them off their arms; and I will let loose the souls, even the souls whom you go after freely. +Eze 13:21 And I will have your veils violently parted in two, and will make my people free from your hands, and they will no longer be in your power for you to go after them; and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 13:22 Because with your false words you have given pain to the heart of the upright man when I had not made him sad; in order to make strong the hands of the evil-doer so that he may not be turned from his evil way and get life: +Eze 13:23 For this cause you will see no more foolish visions or make false use of secret arts: and I will make my people free from your power; and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 14:1 Then certain of the responsible men of Israel came to me and took their seats before me. +Eze 14:2 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 14:3 Son of man, these men have taken their false gods into their hearts and put before their faces the sin which is the cause of their fall: am I to give ear when they come to me for directions? +Eze 14:4 For this cause say to them, These are the words of the Lord: Every man of Israel who has taken his false god into his heart, and put before his face the sin which is the cause of his fall, and comes to the prophet; I the Lord will give him an answer by myself in agreement with the number of his false gods; +Eze 14:5 So as to take the children of Israel in the thoughts of their hearts, because they have become strange to me through their false gods. +Eze 14:6 For this cause say to the children of Israel, These are the words of the Lord: Come back and give up your false gods and let your faces be turned from your disgusting things. +Eze 14:7 When any one of the men of Israel, or of those from other lands who are living in Israel, who has become strange to me, and takes his false gods into his heart, and puts before his face the sin which is the cause of his fall, comes to the prophet to get directions from me; I the Lord will give him an answer by myself: +Eze 14:8 And my face will be turned against that man, and I will make him a sign and a common saying, cutting him off from among my people; and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 14:9 And if the prophet, tricked by deceit, says anything, it is I the Lord by whom he has been tricked, and I will put out my hand against him, and he will be cut off from among my people Israel. +Eze 14:10 And the punishment of their sin will be on them: the sin of the prophet will be the same as the sin of him who goes to him for directions; +Eze 14:11 So that the children of Israel may no longer go wandering away from me, or make themselves unclean with all their wrongdoing; but they will be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord. +Eze 14:12 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 14:13 Son of man, when a land, sinning against me, does wrong, and my hand is stretched out against it, and the support of its bread is broken, and I make it short of food, cutting off man and beast from it: +Eze 14:14 Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, only themselves would they keep safe by their righteousness, says the Lord. +Eze 14:15 Or if I send evil beasts through the land causing destruction and making it waste, so that no man may go through because of the beasts: +Eze 14:16 Even if these three men were in it, by my life, says the Lord, they would not keep safe their sons or daughters, but only themselves, and the land would be made waste. +Eze 14:17 Or if I send a sword against that land, and say, Sword, go through the land, cutting off from it man and beast: +Eze 14:18 Even if these three men were in it, by my life, says the Lord, they would not keep safe their sons or daughters, but only themselves. +Eze 14:19 Or if I send disease into that land, letting loose my wrath on it in blood, cutting off from it man and beast: +Eze 14:20 Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, by my life, says the Lord, they would not keep son or daughter safe; only themselves would they keep safe through their righteousness. +Eze 14:21 For this is what the Lord has said: How much more when I send my four bitter punishments on Jerusalem, the sword and need of food and evil beasts and disease, cutting off from it man and beast? +Eze 14:22 But truly, there will still be a small band who will be safe, even sons and daughters: and they will come out to you, and you will see their ways and their doings: and you will be comforted about the evil which I have sent on Jerusalem, even about everything I have sent on it. +Eze 14:23 They will give you comfort when you see their ways and their doings: and you will be certain that not for nothing have I done all the things I have done in it, says the Lord. +Eze 15:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 15:2 Son of man, what is the vine-tree more than any branching tree which is among the trees of the woods? +Eze 15:3 Will its wood be used for any work? do men make of it a pin for hanging any vessel on? +Eze 15:4 See, it is put into the fire for burning: the fire has made a meal of its two ends and the middle part of it is burned; is it good for any work? +Eze 15:5 Truly, before it was cut down, it was not used for any purpose: how much less, when the fire has made a meal of it and it is burned, will it be made into anything? +Eze 15:6 For this cause the Lord has said: Like the vine-tree among the trees of the woods which I have given to the fire for burning, so will I give the people of Jerusalem. +Eze 15:7 And my face will be turned against them; and though they have come out of the fire they will be burned up by it; and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord when my face is turned against them. +Eze 15:8 And I will make the land a waste because they have done evil, says the Lord. +Eze 16:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 16:2 Son of man, make clear to Jerusalem her disgusting ways, +Eze 16:3 And say, This is what the Lord has said to Jerusalem: Your start and your birth was from the land of the Canaanite; an Amorite was your father and your mother was a Hittite. +Eze 16:4 As for your birth, on the day of your birth your cord was not cut and you were not washed in water to make you clean; you were not salted or folded in linen bands. +Eze 16:5 No eye had pity on you to do any of these things to you or to be kind to you; but you were put out into the open country, because your life was hated at the time of your birth. +Eze 16:6 And when I went past you and saw you stretched out in your blood, I said to you, Though you are stretched out in your blood, have life; +Eze 16:7 And be increased in number like the buds of the field; and you were increased and became great, and you came to the time of love: your breasts were formed and your hair was long; but you were uncovered and without clothing. +Eze 16:8 Now when I went past you, looking at you, I saw that your time was the time of love; and I put my skirts over you, covering your unclothed body: and I gave you my oath and made an agreement with you, says the Lord, and you became mine. +Eze 16:9 Then I had you washed with water, washing away all your blood and rubbing you with oil. +Eze 16:10 And I had you clothed with needlework, and put leather shoes on your feet, folding fair linen about you and covering you with silk. +Eze 16:11 And I made you fair with ornaments and put jewels on your hands and a chain on your neck. +Eze 16:12 And I put a ring in your nose and ear-rings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. +Eze 16:13 So you were made beautiful with gold and silver; and your clothing was of the best linen and silk and needlework; your food was the best meal and honey and oil: and you were very beautiful. +Eze 16:14 You were so beautiful that the story of you went out into all nations; you were completely beautiful because of my glory which I had put on you, says the Lord. +Eze 16:15 But you put your faith in the fact that you were beautiful, acting like a loose woman because you were widely talked of, and offering your cheap love to everyone who went by, whoever it might be. +Eze 16:16 And you took your robes and made high places for yourself ornamented with every colour, acting like a loose woman on them, without shame or fear. +Eze 16:17 And you took the fair jewels, my silver and gold which I had given to you, and made for yourself male images, acting like a loose woman with them; +Eze 16:18 And you took your robes of needlework for their clothing, and put my oil and my perfume before them. +Eze 16:19 And my bread which I gave you, the best meal and oil and honey which I gave you for your food, you put it before them for a sweet smell, says the Lord. +Eze 16:20 And you took your sons and your daughters whom I had by you, offering even these to them to be their food. Was your loose behaviour so small a thing, +Eze 16:21 That you put my children to death and gave them up to go through the fire to them? +Eze 16:22 And in all your disgusting and false behaviour you had no memory of your early days, when you were uncovered and without clothing, stretched out in your blood. +Eze 16:23 And it came about, after all your evil-doing, says the Lord, +Eze 16:24 That you made for yourself an arched room in every open place. +Eze 16:25 You put up your high places at the top of every street, and made the grace of your form a disgusting thing, opening your feet to everyone who went by, increasing your loose ways. +Eze 16:26 And you went with the Egyptians, your neighbours, great of flesh; increasing your loose ways, moving me to wrath. +Eze 16:27 Now, then, my hand is stretched out against you, cutting down your fixed amount, and I have given you up to the desire of your haters, the daughters of the Philistines who are shamed by your loose ways. +Eze 16:28 And you went with the Assyrians, because of your desire which was without measure; you were acting like a loose woman with them, and still you had not enough. +Eze 16:29 And you went on in your loose ways, even as far as the land of Chaldaea, and still you had not enough. +Eze 16:30 How feeble is your heart, says the Lord, seeing that you do all these things, the work of a loose and overruling woman; +Eze 16:31 For you have made your arched room at the top of every street, and your high place in every open place; though you were not like a loose woman in getting together your payment. +Eze 16:32 The untrue wife who takes strange lovers in place of her husband! +Eze 16:33 They give payment to all loose women: but you give rewards to your lovers, offering them payment so that they may come to you on every side for your cheap love. +Eze 16:34 And in your loose behaviour you are different from other women, for no one goes after you to make love to you: and because you give payment and no payment is given to you, in this you are different from them. +Eze 16:35 For this cause, O loose woman, give ear to the voice of the Lord: +Eze 16:36 This is what the Lord has said: Because your unclean behaviour was let loose and your body uncovered in your loose ways with your lovers and with your disgusting images, and for the blood of your children which you gave to them; +Eze 16:37 For this cause I will get together all your lovers with whom you have taken your pleasure, and all those to whom you have given your love, with all those who were hated by you; I will even make them come together against you on every side, and I will have you uncovered before them so that they may see your shame. +Eze 16:38 And you will be judged by me as women are judged who have been untrue to their husbands and have taken life; and I will let loose against you passion and bitter feeling. +Eze 16:39 I will give you into their hands, and your arched room will be overturned and your high places broken down; they will take your clothing off you and take away your fair jewels: and when they have done, you will be uncovered and shamed. +Eze 16:40 And they will get together a meeting against you, stoning you with stones and wounding you with their swords. +Eze 16:41 And they will have you burned with fire, sending punishments on you before the eyes of great numbers of women; and I will put an end to your loose ways, and you will no longer give payment. +Eze 16:42 And the heat of my wrath against you will have an end, and my bitter feeling will be turned away from you, and I will be quiet and will be angry no longer. +Eze 16:43 Because you have not kept in mind the days when you were young, but have been troubling me with all these things; for this reason I will make the punishment of your ways come on your head, says the Lord, because you have done this evil thing in addition to all your disgusting acts. +Eze 16:44 See, in every common saying about you it will be said, As the mother is, so is her daughter. +Eze 16:45 You are the daughter of your mother whose soul is turned in disgust from her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters who were turned in disgust from their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. +Eze 16:46 Your older sister is Samaria, living at your left hand, she and her daughters: and your younger sister, living at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. +Eze 16:47 Still you have not gone in their ways or done the disgusting things which they have done; but, as if that was only a little thing, you have gone deeper in evil than they in all your ways. +Eze 16:48 By my life, says the Lord, Sodom your sister never did, she or her daughters, what you and your daughters have done. +Eze 16:49 Truly, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: pride, a full measure of food, and the comforts of wealth in peace, were seen in her and her daughters, and she gave no help to the poor or to those in need. +Eze 16:50 They were full of pride and did what was disgusting to me: and so I took them away as you have seen. +Eze 16:51 And Samaria has not done half your sins; but you have made the number of your disgusting acts greater than theirs, making your sisters seem more upright than you by all the disgusting things which you have done. +Eze 16:52 And you yourself will be put to shame, in that you have given the decision for your sisters; through your sins, which are more disgusting than theirs, they are more upright than you: truly, you will be shamed and made low, for you have made your sisters seem upright. +Eze 16:53 And I will let their fate be changed, the fate of Sodom and her daughters, and the fate of Samaria and her daughters, and your fate with theirs. +Eze 16:54 So that you will be shamed and made low because of all you have done, when I have mercy on you. +Eze 16:55 And your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will go back to their first condition, and Samaria and her daughters will go back to their first condition, and you and your daughters will go back to your first condition. +Eze 16:56 Was not your sister Sodom an oath in your mouth in the day of your pride, +Eze 16:57 Before your shame was uncovered? Now you have become like her a word of shame to the daughters of Edom and all who are round about you, the daughters of the Philistines who put shame on you round about. +Eze 16:58 The reward of your evil designs and your disgusting ways has come on you, says the Lord. +Eze 16:59 For this is what the Lord has said: I will do to you as you have done, you who, putting the oath on one side, have let the agreement be broken. +Eze 16:60 But still I will keep in mind the agreement made with you in the days when you were young, and I will make with you an eternal agreement. +Eze 16:61 Then at the memory of your ways you will be overcome with shame, when I take your sisters, the older and the younger, and give them to you for daughters, but not by your agreement. +Eze 16:62 And I will make my agreement with you; and you will be certain that I am the Lord: +Eze 16:63 So that, at the memory of these things, you may be at a loss, never opening your mouth because of your shame; when you have my forgiveness for all you have done, says the Lord. +Eze 17:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 17:2 Son of man, give out a dark saying, and make a comparison for the children of Israel, +Eze 17:3 And say, This is what the Lord has said: A great eagle with great wings, full of long feathers of different colours, came to Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar: +Eze 17:4 Biting off the highest of its young branches, he took it to the land of Canaan, and put it in a town of traders. +Eze 17:5 And he took some of the seed of the land, planting it in fertile earth, placing it by great waters; he put it in like a willow-tree. +Eze 17:6 And its growth went on and it became a vine, low and widely stretching, whose branches were turned to him and its roots were under him: so it became a vine, putting out branches and young leaves. +Eze 17:7 And there was another eagle with great wings and thick feathers: and now this vine, pushing out its roots to him, sent out its branches in his direction from the bed where it was planted, so that he might give it water. +Eze 17:8 He had it planted in a good field by great waters so that it might put out branches and have fruit and be a strong vine. +Eze 17:9 Say, This is what the Lord has said: Will it do well? will he not have its roots pulled up and its branches cut off, so that all its young leaves may become dry and it may be pulled up by its roots? +Eze 17:10 And if it is planted will it do well? will it not become quite dry at the touch of the east wind, drying up in the bed where it was planted? +Eze 17:11 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 17:12 Say now to this uncontrolled people, Are these things not clear to you? Say to them, See, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took its king and its rulers away with him to Babylon; +Eze 17:13 And he took one of the sons of the king and made an agreement with him; and he put him under an oath, and took away the great men of the land: +Eze 17:14 So that the kingdom might be made low with no power of lifting itself up, but might keep his agreement to be his servants. +Eze 17:15 But he went against his authority in sending representatives to Egypt to get from them horses and a great army. Will he do well? will he be safe who does such things? if the agreement is broken will he be safe? +Eze 17:16 By my life, says the Lord, truly in the place of the king who made him king, whose oath he put on one side and let his agreement with him be broken, even in Babylon he will come to his death. +Eze 17:17 And Pharaoh with his strong army and great forces will be no help to him in the war, when they put up earthworks and make strong walls for the cutting off of lives: +Eze 17:18 For he put his oath on one side in letting the agreement be broken; and though he had given his hand to it, he did all these things; he will not get away safe. +Eze 17:19 And so the Lord has said, By my life, truly, for my oath which he put on one side, and my agreement which has been broken, I will send punishment on his head. +Eze 17:20 My net will be stretched out over him, and he will be taken in my cords, and I will send him to Babylon, and there I will be his judge for the wrong which he has done against me. +Eze 17:21 All his best fighting-men will be put to the sword, and the rest will be sent away to every wind: and you will be certain that I the Lord have said it. +Eze 17:22 This is what the Lord has said: Further, I will take the highest top of the cedar and put it in the earth; cutting off from the highest of his young branches a soft one, I will have it planted on a high and great mountain; +Eze 17:23 It will be planted on the high mountain of Israel: it will put out branches and have fruit and be a fair cedar: under it all birds of every sort will make their living-place, resting in the shade of its branches. +Eze 17:24 And it will be clear to all the trees of the field that I the Lord have made low the high tree and made high the low tree, drying up the green tree and making the dry tree full of growth; I the Lord have said it and have done it. +Eze 18:1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, +Eze 18:2 Why do you make use of this saying about the land of Israel, The fathers have been tasting bitter grapes and the children's teeth are on edge? +Eze 18:3 By my life, says the Lord, you will no longer have this saying in Israel. +Eze 18:4 See, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so the soul of the son is mine: death will be the fate of the sinner's soul. +Eze 18:5 But if a man is upright, living rightly and doing righteousness, +Eze 18:6 And has not taken flesh with the blood for food, or given worship to the images of the children of Israel; if he has not had connection with his neighbour's wife, or come near to a woman at the time when she is unclean; +Eze 18:7 And has done no wrong to any, but has given back to the debtor what is his, and has taken no one's goods by force, and has given food to him who was in need of it, and clothing to him who was without it; +Eze 18:8 And has not given his money out at interest or taken great profits, and, turning his hand from evil-doing, has kept faith between man and man, +Eze 18:9 And has been guided by my rules and has kept my laws and done them: he is upright, life will certainly be his, says the Lord. +Eze 18:10 If he has a son who is a thief, a taker of life, who does any of these things, +Eze 18:11 Who has taken flesh with the blood as food, and has had connection with his neighbour's wife, +Eze 18:12 Has done wrong to the poor and to him who is in need, and taken property by force, and has not given back to one in his debt what is his, and has given worship to images and has done disgusting things, +Eze 18:13 And has given out his money at interest and taken great profits: he will certainly not go on living: he has done all these disgusting things: death will certainly be his fate; his blood will be on him. +Eze 18:14 Now if he has a son who sees all his father's sins which he has done, and in fear does not do the same: +Eze 18:15 Who has not taken the flesh with the blood for food, or given worship to the images of the children of Israel, and has not had connection with his neighbour's wife, +Eze 18:16 Or done wrong to any, or taken anything from one in his debt, or taken goods by force, but has given food to him who was in need of it, and clothing to him who was without it; +Eze 18:17 Who has kept his hand from evil-doing and has not taken interest or great profits, who has done my orders and been guided by my rules: he will certainly not be put to death for the evil-doing of his father; life will certainly be his. +Eze 18:18 As for his father, because he was cruel, took goods by force, and did what is not good among his people, truly, death will overtake him in his evil-doing. +Eze 18:19 But you say, Why does not the son undergo punishment for the evil-doing of the father? When the son has done what is ordered and right, and has kept my rules and done them, life will certainly be his. +Eze 18:20 The soul which does sin will be put to death: the son will not be made responsible for the evil-doing of the father, or the father for the evil-doing of the son; the righteousness of the upright will be on himself, and the evil-doing of the evil-doer on himself. +Eze 18:21 But if the evil-doer, turning away from all the sins which he has done, keeps my rules and does what is ordered and right, life will certainly be his; death will not be his fate. +Eze 18:22 Not one of the sins which he has done will be kept in memory against him: in the righteousness which he has done he will have life. +Eze 18:23 Have I any pleasure in the death of the evil-doer? says the Lord: am I not pleased if he is turned from his way so that he may have life? +Eze 18:24 But when the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, like all the disgusting things which the evil man does, will he have life? Not one of his upright acts will be kept in memory: in the wrong which he has done and in his sin death will overtake him. +Eze 18:25 But you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Give ear, now, O children of Israel; is my way not equal? are not your ways unequal? +Eze 18:26 When the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, death will overtake him; in the evil which he has done death will overtake him. +Eze 18:27 Again, when the evil-doer, turning away from the evil he has done, does what is ordered and right, he will have life for his soul. +Eze 18:28 Because he had fear and was turned away from all the wrong which he had done, life will certainly be his, death will not be his fate. +Eze 18:29 But still the children of Israel say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O children of Israel, are my ways not equal? are not your ways unequal? +Eze 18:30 For this cause I will be your judge, O children of Israel, judging every man by his ways, says the Lord. Come back and be turned from all your sins; so that they may not be the cause of your falling into evil. +Eze 18:31 Put away all your evil-doing in which you have done sin; and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit: why are you desiring death, O children of Israel? +Eze 18:32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him on whom death comes, says the Lord: be turned back then, and have life. +Eze 19:1 Take up now a song of grief for the ruler of Israel, and say, +Eze 19:2 What was your mother? Like a she-lion among lions, stretched out among the young lions she gave food to her little ones. +Eze 19:3 And one of her little ones came to growth under her care, and became a young lion, learning to go after beasts for his food; and he took men for his meat. +Eze 19:4 And the nations had news of him; he was taken in the hole they had made: and, pulling him with hooks, they took him into the land of Egypt. +Eze 19:5 Now when she saw that her hope was made foolish and gone, she took another of her little ones and made him into a young lion. +Eze 19:6 And he went up and down among the lions and became a young lion, learning to go after beasts for his food; and he took men for his meat. +Eze 19:7 And he sent destruction on their widows and made waste their towns; and the land and everything in it became waste because of the loud sound of his voice. +Eze 19:8 Then the nations came against him from the kingdoms round about: their net was stretched over him and he was taken in the hole they had made. +Eze 19:9 They made him a prisoner with hooks, and took him to the king of Babylon; they put him in the strong place so that his voice might be sounding no longer on the mountains of Israel. +Eze 19:10 Your mother was in comparison like a vine, planted by the waters: she was fertile and full of branches because of the great waters. +Eze 19:11 And she had a strong rod for a rod of authority for the rulers, and it became tall among the clouds and it was seen lifted up among the number of its branches. +Eze 19:12 But she was uprooted in burning wrath, and made low on the earth; the east wind came, drying her up, and her branches were broken off; her strong rod became dry, the fire made a meal of it. +Eze 19:13 And now she is planted in the waste land, in a dry and unwatered country. +Eze 19:14 And fire has gone out from her rod, causing the destruction of her branches, so that there is no strong rod in her to be the ruler's rod of authority. This is a song of grief, and it was for a song of grief. +Eze 20:1 Now it came about in the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, that certain of the responsible men of Israel came to get directions from the Lord and were seated before me. +Eze 20:2 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 20:3 Son of man, say to the responsible men of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: Have you come to get directions from me? By my life, says the Lord, you will get no directions from me. +Eze 20:4 Will you be their judge, O son of man, will you be their judge? make clear to them the disgusting ways of their fathers, +Eze 20:5 And say to them, This is what the Lord has said: In the day when I took Israel for myself, when I made an oath to the seed of the family of Jacob, and I gave them knowledge of myself in the land of Egypt, saying to them with an oath, I am the Lord your God; +Eze 20:6 In that day I gave my oath to take them out of the land of Egypt into a land which I had been searching out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands: +Eze 20:7 And I said to them, Let every man among you put away the disgusting things to which his eyes are turned, and do not make yourselves unclean with the images of Egypt; I am the Lord your God. +Eze 20:8 But they would not be controlled by me, and did not give ear to me; they did not put away the disgusting things to which their eyes were turned, or give up the images of Egypt: then I said I would let loose my passion on them to give full effect to my wrath against them in the land of Egypt. +Eze 20:9 And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean before the eyes of the nations among whom they were, and before whose eyes I gave them knowledge of myself, by taking them out of the land of Egypt. +Eze 20:10 So I made them go out of the land of Egypt and took them into the waste land. +Eze 20:11 And I gave them my rules and made clear to them my orders, which, if a man keeps them, will be life to him. +Eze 20:12 And further, I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, so that it might be clear that I, who make them holy, am the Lord. +Eze 20:13 But the children of Israel would not be controlled by me in the waste land: they were not guided by my rules, and they were turned away from my orders, which, if a man does them, will be life to him; and they had no respect for my Sabbaths: then I said that I would let loose my passion on them in the waste land, and put an end to them. +Eze 20:14 And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean in the eyes of the nations, before whose eyes I had taken them out. +Eze 20:15 And further, I gave my oath to them in the waste land, that I would not take them into the land which I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands; +Eze 20:16 Because they were turned away from my orders, and were not guided by my rules, and had no respect for my Sabbaths: for their hearts went after their images. +Eze 20:17 But still my eye had pity on them and I kept them from destruction and did not put an end to them completely in the waste land. +Eze 20:18 And I said to their children in the waste land, Do not be guided by the rules of your fathers or keep their orders or make yourselves unclean with their images: +Eze 20:19 I am the Lord your God; be guided by my rules and keep my orders and do them: +Eze 20:20 And keep my Sabbaths holy; and they will be a sign between me and you so that it may be clear to you that I am the Lord your God. +Eze 20:21 But the children would not be controlled by me; they were not guided by my rules, and they did not keep and do my orders, which, if a man does them, will be life to him; and they had no respect for my Sabbaths: then I said I would let loose my passion on them to give full effect to my wrath against them in the waste land. +Eze 20:22 And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean in the eyes of the nations, before whose eyes I had taken them out. +Eze 20:23 Further, I gave my oath to them in the waste land that I would send them wandering among the nations, driving them out among the countries; +Eze 20:24 Because they had not done my orders, but had been turned away from my rules, and had not given respect to my Sabbaths, and their eyes were turned to the images of their fathers. +Eze 20:25 And further, I gave them rules which were not good and orders in which there was no life for them; +Eze 20:26 I made them unclean in the offerings they gave, causing them to make every first child go through the fire, so that I might put an end to them. +Eze 20:27 For this cause, son of man, say to the children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: In this your fathers have further put shame on my name by doing wrong against me. +Eze 20:28 For when I had taken them into the land which I made an oath to give to them, then they saw every high hill and every branching tree and made their offerings there, moving me to wrath by their offerings; and there the sweet smell of their offerings went up and their drink offerings were drained out. +Eze 20:29 Then I said to them, What is this high place where you go to no purpose? And it is named Bamah to this day. +Eze 20:30 For this cause say to the children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: Are you making yourselves unclean as your fathers did? are you being untrue to me by going after their disgusting works? +Eze 20:31 And when you give your offerings, causing your sons to go through the fire, you make yourselves unclean with all your images to this day; and will you come to me for directions, O children of Israel? By my life, says the Lord, you will get no direction from me. +Eze 20:32 And that which comes into your minds will never take place; when you say, We will be like the nations, like the families of the countries, servants of wood and stone; +Eze 20:33 By my life, says the Lord, truly, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with burning wrath let loose, I will be King over you: +Eze 20:34 And I will take you out from the peoples and get you together out of the countries where you are wandering, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with burning wrath let loose: +Eze 20:35 And I will take you into the waste land of the peoples, and there I will take up the cause with you face to face. +Eze 20:36 As I took up the cause with your fathers in the waste land of the land of Egypt, so will I take up the cause with you says the Lord. +Eze 20:37 And I will make you go under the rod and will make you small in number: +Eze 20:38 Clearing out from among you all those who are uncontrolled and who are sinning against me; I will take them out of the land where they are living, but they will not come into the land of Israel: and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 20:39 As for you, O children of Israel, the Lord has said: Let every man completely put away his images and give ear to me: and let my holy name no longer be shamed by your offerings and your images. +Eze 20:40 For in my holy mountain, in the high mountain of Israel, says the Lord, there all the children of Israel, all of them, will be my servants in the land; there I will take pleasure in them, and there I will be worshipped with your offerings and the first-fruits of the things you give, and with all your holy things. +Eze 20:41 I will take pleasure in you as in a sweet smell, when I take you out from the peoples and get you together from the countries where you have been sent in flight; and I will make myself holy in you before the eyes of the nations. +Eze 20:42 And you will be certain that I am the Lord, when I take you into the land of Israel, into the country which I made an oath to give to your fathers. +Eze 20:43 And there, at the memory of your ways and of all the things you did to make yourselves unclean, you will have bitter hate for yourselves because of all the evil things you have done. +Eze 20:44 And you will be certain that I am the Lord, when I take you in hand for the honour of my name, and not for your evil ways or your unclean doings, O children of Israel, says the Lord. +Eze 20:45 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 20:46 Son of man, let your face be turned to the south, let your words be dropped to the south, and be a prophet against the woodland of the South; +Eze 20:47 And say to the woodland of the South, Give ear to the words of the Lord: this is what the Lord has said: See, I will have a fire lighted in you, for the destruction of every green tree in you and every dry tree: the flaming flame will not be put out, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it. +Eze 20:48 And all flesh will see that I the Lord have had it lighted: it will not be put out. +Eze 20:49 Then I said, Ah, Lord! they say of me, Is he not a maker of stories? +Eze 21:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 21:2 Son of man, let your face be turned to Jerusalem, let your words be dropped in the direction of her holy place, and be a prophet against the land of Israel; +Eze 21:3 And say to the land of Israel, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, and I will take my sword out of its cover, cutting off from you the upright and the evil. +Eze 21:4 Because I am going to have the upright and the evil cut off from you, for this cause my sword will go out from its cover against all flesh from the south to the north: +Eze 21:5 And all flesh will see that I the Lord have taken my sword out of its cover: and it will never go back. +Eze 21:6 Make sounds of grief, son of man; with body bent and a bitter heart make sounds of grief before their eyes. +Eze 21:7 And when they say to you, Why are you making sounds of grief? then say, Because of the news, for it is coming: and every heart will become soft, and all hands will be feeble, and every spirit will be burning low, and all knees will be turned to water: see, it is coming and it will be done, says the Lord. +Eze 21:8 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 21:9 Son of man, say as a prophet, These are the words of the Lord: Say, A sword, a sword which has been made sharp and polished: +Eze 21:10 It has been made sharp to give death; it is polished so that it may be like a thunder-flame: ... +Eze 21:11 And I have given it to the polisher so that it may be taken in the hand: he has made the sword sharp, he has had it polished, to put it into the hand of him who gives death. +Eze 21:12 Give loud cries and make sounds of grief, O son of man: for it has come on my people, it has come on all the rulers of Israel: fear of the sword has come on my people: for this cause give signs of grief. +Eze 21:13 ... +Eze 21:14 So then, son of man, be a prophet, and put your hands together with a loud sound, and give two blows with the sword, and even three; it is the sword of those who are wounded, even the sword of the wounded; the great sword which goes round about them. +Eze 21:15 In order that hearts may become soft, and the number of those who are falling may be increased, I have sent death by the sword against all their doors: you are made like a flame, you are polished for death. +Eze 21:16 Be pointed to the right, to the left, wherever your edge is ordered. +Eze 21:17 And I will put my hands together with a loud sound, and I will let my wrath have rest: I the Lord have said it. +Eze 21:18 And the word of the Lord came to me again, saying, +Eze 21:19 And you, son of man, have two ways marked out, so that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; let the two of them come out of one land: and let there be a pillar at the top of the road: +Eze 21:20 Put a pillar at the top of the road for the sword to come to Rabbah in the land of the children of Ammon, and to Judah and to Jerusalem in the middle of her. +Eze 21:21 For the king of Babylon took his place at the parting of the ways, at the top of the two roads, to make use of secret arts: shaking the arrows this way and that, he put questions to the images of his gods, he took note of the inner parts of dead beasts. +Eze 21:22 At his right hand was the fate of Jerusalem, to give orders for destruction, to send up the war-cry, to put engines of war against the doors, lifting up earthworks, building walls. +Eze 21:23 And this answer given by secret arts will seem false to those who have given their oaths and have let them be broken: but he will keep the memory of evil-doing so that they may be taken. +Eze 21:24 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have made your evil-doing come to mind by the uncovering of your wrongdoing, causing your sins to be seen in all your evil-doings; because you have come to mind, you will be taken in them. +Eze 21:25 And you, O evil one, wounded to death, O ruler of Israel, whose day has come in the time of the last punishment; +Eze 21:26 This is what the Lord has said: Take away the holy head-dress, take off the crown: this will not be again: let that which is low be lifted up, and that which is high be made low. +Eze 21:27 I will let it be overturned, overturned, overturned: this will not be again till he comes whose right it is; and I will give it to him. +Eze 21:28 And you, son of man, say as a prophet, This is what the Lord has said about the children of Ammon and about their shame: Say, A sword, even a sword let loose, polished for death, to make it shining so that it may be like a flame: +Eze 21:29 Your vision is to no purpose, your use of secret arts gives a false answer, to put it on the necks of evil-doers who are wounded to death, whose day has come, in the time of the last punishment. +Eze 21:30 Go back into your cover. In the place where you were made, in the land from which you were taken, I will be your judge. +Eze 21:31 And I will let loose my burning passion on you, breathing out on you the fire of my wrath: and I will give you up into the hands of men like beasts, trained to destruction. +Eze 21:32 You will be food for the fire; your blood will be drained out in the land; there will be no more memory of you: for I the Lord have said it. +Eze 22:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 22:2 And you, son of man, will you be a judge, will you be a judge of the town of blood? then make clear to her all her disgusting ways. +Eze 22:3 And you are to say, This is what the Lord has said: A town causing blood to be drained out in her streets so that her time may come, and making images in her to make her unclean! +Eze 22:4 You are responsible for the blood drained out by you, and you are unclean through the images which you have made; and you have made your day come near, and the time of your judging has come; for this cause I have made you a name of shame to the nations and a cause of laughing to all countries. +Eze 22:5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will make sport of you; your name is unclean, you are full of sounds of fear. +Eze 22:6 See, the rulers of Israel, every one in his family, have been causing death in you. +Eze 22:7 In you they have had no respect for father and mother; in you they have been cruel to the man from a strange land; in you they have done wrong to the child without a father and to the widow. +Eze 22:8 You have made little of my holy things, and have made my Sabbaths unclean. +Eze 22:9 In you there are men who say evil of others, causing death; in you they have taken the flesh with the blood for food; in your streets they have put evil designs into effect. +Eze 22:10 In you they have let the shame of their fathers be seen; in you they have done wrong to a woman at the time when she was unclean. +Eze 22:11 And in you one man has done what was disgusting with his neighbour's wife; and another has made his daughter-in-law unclean; and another has done wrong to his sister, his father's daughter. +Eze 22:12 In you they have taken rewards as the price of blood; you have taken interest and great profits, and you have taken away your neighbours' goods by force, and have not kept me in mind, says the Lord. +Eze 22:13 See, then, I have made my hands come together in wrath against your taking of goods by force and against the blood which has been flowing in you. +Eze 22:14 Will your heart be high or your hands strong in the days when I take you in hand? I the Lord have said it and will do it. +Eze 22:15 And I will send you in flight among the nations and wandering among the countries; and I will completely take away out of you everything which is unclean. +Eze 22:16 And you will be made low before the eyes of the nations; and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord. +Eze 22:17 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 22:18 Son of man, the children of Israel have become like the poorest sort of waste metal to me: they are all silver and brass and tin and iron and lead mixed with waste. +Eze 22:19 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have all become waste metal, see, I will get you together inside Jerusalem. +Eze 22:20 As they put silver and brass and iron and lead and tin together inside the oven, heating up the fire on it to make it soft; so will I get you together in my wrath and in my passion, and, heating the fire with my breath, will make you soft. +Eze 22:21 Yes, I will take you, breathing on you the fire of my wrath, and you will become soft in it. +Eze 22:22 As silver becomes soft in the oven, so you will become soft in it; and you will be certain that I the Lord have let loose my passion on you. +Eze 22:23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 22:24 Son of man, say to her, You are a land on which no rain or thunderstorm has come in the day of wrath. +Eze 22:25 Her rulers in her are like a loud-voiced lion violently taking his food; they have made a meal of souls; they have taken wealth and valued property; they have made great the number of widows in her. +Eze 22:26 Her priests have been acting violently against my law; they have made my holy things unclean: they have made no division between what is holy and what is common, and they have not made it clear that the unclean is different from the clean, and their eyes have been shut to my Sabbaths, and I am not honoured among them. +Eze 22:27 Her rulers in her are like wolves violently taking their food; putting men to death and causing the destruction of souls, so that they may get their profit. +Eze 22:28 And her prophets have been using whitewash, seeing foolish visions and making false use of secret arts, saying, This is what the Lord has said, when the Lord has said nothing. +Eze 22:29 The people of the land have been acting cruelly, taking men's goods by force; they have been hard on the poor and those in need, and have done wrong to the man from a strange land. +Eze 22:30 And I was looking for a man among them who would make up the wall and take his station in the broken place before me for the land, so that I might not send destruction on it: but there was no one. +Eze 22:31 And I let loose my passion on them, and have put an end to them in the fire of my wrath: I have made the punishment of their ways come on their heads, says the Lord. +Eze 23:1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, +Eze 23:2 Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother: +Eze 23:3 They were acting like loose women in Egypt; when they were young their behaviour was loose: there their breasts were crushed, even the points of their young breasts were crushed. +Eze 23:4 Their names were Oholah, the older, and Oholibah, her sister: and they became mine, and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem, Oholibah. +Eze 23:5 And Oholah was untrue to me when she was mine; she was full of desire for her lovers, even for the Assyrians, her neighbours, +Eze 23:6 Who were clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them young men to be desired, horsemen seated on horses. +Eze 23:7 And she gave her unclean love to them, all of them the noblest men of Assyria: and she made herself unclean with the images of all who were desired by her. +Eze 23:8 And she has not given up her loose ways from the time when she was in Egypt; for when she was young they were her lovers, and by them her young breasts were crushed, and they let loose on her their unclean desire. +Eze 23:9 For this cause I gave her up into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians on whom her desire was fixed. +Eze 23:10 By these her shame was uncovered: they took her sons and daughters and put her to death with the sword: and she became a cause of wonder to women; for they gave her the punishment which was right. +Eze 23:11 And her sister Oholibah saw this, but her desire was even more unmeasured, and her loose behaviour was worse than that of her sister. +Eze 23:12 She was full of desire for the Assyrians, captains and rulers, her neighbours, clothed in blue, horsemen going on horses, all of them young men to be desired. +Eze 23:13 And I saw that she had become unclean; the two of them went the same way. +Eze 23:14 And her loose behaviour became worse; for she saw men pictured on a wall, pictures of the Chaldaeans painted in bright red, +Eze 23:15 With bands round their bodies and with head-dresses hanging round their heads, all of them looking like rulers, like the Babylonians, the land of whose birth is Chaldaea. +Eze 23:16 And when she saw them she was full of desire for them, and sent servants to them in Chaldaea. +Eze 23:17 And the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, and made her unclean with their loose desire, and she became unclean with them, and her soul was turned from them. +Eze 23:18 So her loose behaviour was clearly seen and her shame uncovered: then my soul was turned from her as it had been turned from her sister. +Eze 23:19 But still she went on the more with her loose behaviour, keeping in mind the early days when she had been a loose woman in the land of Egypt. +Eze 23:20 And she was full of desire for her lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of asses and whose seed is like the seed of horses. +Eze 23:21 And she made the memory of the loose ways of her early years come back to mind, when her young breasts were crushed by the Egyptians. +Eze 23:22 For this cause, O Oholibah, this is what the Lord has said: See, I will make your lovers come up against you, even those from whom your soul is turned away in disgust; and I will make them come up against you on every side; +Eze 23:23 The Babylonians and all the Chaldaeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: young men to be desired, captains and rulers all of them, and chiefs, her neighbours, all of them on horseback. +Eze 23:24 And they will come against you from the north on horseback, with war-carriages and a great band of peoples; they will put themselves in order against you with breastplate and body-cover and metal head-dress round about you: and I will make them your judges, and they will give their decision against you as seems right to them. +Eze 23:25 And my bitter feeling will be working against you, and they will take you in hand with passion; they will take away your nose and your ears, and the rest of you will be put to the sword: they will take your sons and daughters, and the rest of you will be burned up in the fire. +Eze 23:26 And they will take all your clothing off you and take away your ornaments. +Eze 23:27 So I will put an end to your evil ways and your loose behaviour which came from the land of Egypt: and your eyes will never be lifted up to them again, and you will have no more memory of Egypt. +Eze 23:28 For this is what the Lord has said: See, I will give you up into the hands of those who are hated by you, into the hands of those from whom your soul is turned away in disgust: +Eze 23:29 And they will take you in hand with hate, and take away all the fruit of your work, and let you be unveiled and without clothing: and the shame of your loose behaviour will be uncovered, your evil designs and your loose ways. +Eze 23:30 They will do these things to you because you have been untrue to me, and have gone after the nations, and have become unclean with their images. +Eze 23:31 You have gone in the way of your sister; and I will give her cup into your hand. +Eze 23:32 This is what the Lord has said: You will take a drink from your sister's cup, which is deep and wide: you will be laughed at and looked down on, more than you are able to undergo. +Eze 23:33 You will be broken and full of sorrow, with the cup of wonder and destruction, with the cup of your sister Samaria. +Eze 23:34 And after drinking it and draining it out, you will take the last drops of it to the end, pulling off your breasts: for I have said it, says the Lord. +Eze 23:35 So this is what the Lord has said: Because you have not kept me in your memory, and because your back has been turned to me, you will even undergo the punishment of your evil designs and your loose ways. +Eze 23:36 Then the Lord said to me: Son of man, will you be the judge of Oholibah? then make clear to her the disgusting things she has done. +Eze 23:37 For she has been false to me, and blood is on her hands, and with her images she has been untrue; and more than this, she made her sons, whom she had by me, go through the fire to them to be burned up. +Eze 23:38 Further, this is what she has done to me: she has made my holy place unclean and has made my Sabbaths unclean. +Eze 23:39 For when she had made an offering of her children to her images, she came into my holy place to make it unclean; see, this is what she has done inside my house. +Eze 23:40 And she even sent for men to come from far away, to whom a servant was sent, and they came: for whom she was washing her body and painting her eyes and making herself fair with ornaments. +Eze 23:41 And she took her seat on a great bed, with a table put ready before it on which she put my perfume and my oil. +Eze 23:42 ... and they put jewels on her hands and beautiful crowns on her head. +Eze 23:43 Then I said ... now she will go on with her loose ways. +Eze 23:44 And they went in to her, as men go to a loose woman: so they went in to Oholibah, the loose woman. +Eze 23:45 And upright men will be her judges, judging her as false wives and women who take lives are judged; because she has been untrue to me and blood is on her hands. +Eze 23:46 For this is what the Lord has said: I will make a great meeting of the people come together against her, and will send on her shaking fear and take everything from her. +Eze 23:47 And the meeting, after stoning her with stones, will put an end to her with their swords; they will put her sons and daughters to death and have her house burned up with fire. +Eze 23:48 And I will put an end to evil in all the land, teaching all women not to do as you have done. +Eze 23:49 And I will send on you the punishment of your evil ways, and you will be rewarded for your sins with your images: and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 24:1 And the word of the Lord came to me in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, saying, +Eze 24:2 Son of man, put down in writing this very day: The king of Babylon let loose the weight of his attack against Jerusalem on this very day. +Eze 24:3 And make a comparison for this uncontrolled people, and say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Put on the cooking-pot, put it on the fire and put water in it: +Eze 24:4 And get the bits together, the fat tail, every good part, the leg and the top part of it: make it full of the best bones. +Eze 24:5 Take the best of the flock, put much wood under it: see that its bits are boiling well; let the bones be cooked inside it. +Eze 24:6 For this is what the Lord has said: A curse is on the town of blood, the cooking-pot which is unclean inside, which has never been made clean! take out its bits; its fate is still to come on it. +Eze 24:7 For her blood is in her; she has put it on the open rock not draining it on to the earth so that it might be covered with dust; +Eze 24:8 In order that it might make wrath come up to give punishment, she has put her blood on the open rock, so that it may not be covered. +Eze 24:9 For this cause the Lord has said: A curse is on the town of blood! and I will make great the burning mass. +Eze 24:10 Put on much wood, heating up the fire, boiling the flesh well, and making the soup thick, and let the bones be burned. +Eze 24:11 And I will put her on the coals so that she may be heated and her brass burned, so that what is unclean in her may become soft and her waste be completely taken away. +Eze 24:12 I have made myself tired to no purpose: still all the waste which is in her has not come out, it has an evil smell. +Eze 24:13 As for your unclean purpose: because I have been attempting to make you clean, but you have not been made clean from it, you will not be made clean till I have let loose my passion on you in full measure. +Eze 24:14 I the Lord have said the word and I will do it; I will not go back or have mercy, and my purpose will not be changed; in the measure of your ways and of your evil doings you will be judged, says the Lord. +Eze 24:15 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 24:16 Son of man, see, I am taking away the desire of your eyes by disease: but let there be no sorrow or weeping or drops running from your eyes. +Eze 24:17 Let there be no sound of sorrow; make no weeping for your dead, put on your head-dress and your shoes on your feet, let not your lips be covered, and do not take the food of those in grief. +Eze 24:18 So in the morning I was teaching the people and in the evening death took my wife; and in the morning I did what I had been ordered to do. +Eze 24:19 And the people said to me, Will you not make clear to us the sense of these things; is it for us you do them? +Eze 24:20 Then I said to them, The word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 24:21 Say to the people of Israel, The Lord has said, See, I will make my holy place unclean, the pride of your strength, the pleasure of your eyes, and the desire of your soul; and your sons and daughters, who did not come with you here, will be put to the sword. +Eze 24:22 And you will do as I have done, not covering your lips or taking the food of those in grief. +Eze 24:23 And your head-dresses will be on your heads and your shoes on your feet: there will be no sorrow or weeping; but you will be wasting away in the punishment of your evil-doing, and you will be looking at one another in wonder. +Eze 24:24 And Ezekiel will be a sign to you; everything he has done you will do: when this takes place, you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 24:25 And as for you, son of man, your mouth will be shut in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that on which their hearts are fixed, and their sons and daughters. +Eze 24:26 In that day, one who has got away safe will come to you to give you news of it. +Eze 24:27 In that day your mouth will be open to him who has got away safe, and you will say words to him and your lips will no longer be shut: so you will be a sign to them and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 25:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 25:2 Son of man, let your face be turned to the children of Ammon, and be a prophet against them: +Eze 25:3 And say to the children of Ammon, Give ear to the word of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said: Because you said, Aha! against my holy place when it was made unclean, and against the land of Israel when it was made waste, and against the people of Judah when they were taken away as prisoners; +Eze 25:4 For this cause I will give you up to the children of the east for their heritage, and they will put their tent-circles in you and make their houses in you; they will take your fruit for their food and your milk for their drink. +Eze 25:5 And I will make Rabbah a place for housing camels, and the children of Ammon a resting-place for flocks: and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 25:6 For the Lord has said, Because you have made sounds of joy with your hands, stamping your feet, and have been glad, putting shame with all your soul on the land of Israel; +Eze 25:7 For this cause my hand has been stretched out against you, and I will give up your goods to be taken by the nations; I will have you cut off from the peoples and will put an end to you among the countries: I will give you up to destruction; and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 25:8 This is what the Lord has said: Because Moab and Seir are saying, See, the people of Judah are like all the nations; +Eze 25:9 For this cause, I will let the side of Moab be uncovered, and his towns on every side, the glory of the land, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon and as far as Kiriathaim. +Eze 25:10 To the children of the east I have given her for a heritage, as well as the children of Ammon, so that there may be no memory of her among the nations: +Eze 25:11 And I will be the judge of Moab; and they will see that I am the Lord. +Eze 25:12 This is what the Lord has said: Because Edom has taken his payment from the people of Judah, and has done great wrong in taking payment from them; +Eze 25:13 The Lord has said, My hand will be stretched out against Edom, cutting off from it man and beast: and I will make it waste, from Teman even as far as Dedan they will be put to the sword. +Eze 25:14 I will take payment from Edom because of my people Israel; and I will take Edom in hand in my wrath and in my passion: and they will have experience of my reward, says the Lord. +Eze 25:15 This is what the Lord has said: Because the Philistines have taken payment, with the purpose of causing shame and destruction with unending hate; +Eze 25:16 The Lord has said, See, my hand will be stretched out against the Philistines, cutting off the Cherethites and sending destruction on the rest of the sea-land. +Eze 25:17 And I will take great payment from them with acts of wrath; and they will be certain that I am the Lord when I send my punishment on them. +Eze 26:1 Now in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 26:2 Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she who was the doorway of the peoples is broken; she is turned over to them; she who was full is made waste; +Eze 26:3 For this cause the Lord has said, See, I am against you, O Tyre, and will send up a number of nations against you as the sea sends up its waves. +Eze 26:4 And they will give the walls of Tyre to destruction and have its towers broken: and I will take even her dust away from her, and make her an uncovered rock +Eze 26:5 She will be a place for the stretching out of nets in the middle of the sea; for I have said it, says the Lord: and her goods will be given over to the nations. +Eze 26:6 And her daughters in the open country will be put to the sword: and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 26:7 For this is what the Lord has said: See, I will send up from the north Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, king of kings, against Tyre, with horses and war-carriages and with an army and great numbers of people. +Eze 26:8 He will put to the sword your daughters in the open country: he will make strong walls against you and put up an earthwork against you, arming himself for war against you. +Eze 26:9 He will put up his engines of war against your walls, and your towers will be broken down by his axes. +Eze 26:10 Because of the number of his horses you will be covered with their dust: your walls will be shaking at the noise of the horsemen and of the wheels and of the war-carriages, when he comes through your doorways, as into a town which has been broken open. +Eze 26:11 Your streets will be stamped down by the feet of his horses: he will put your people to the sword, and will send down the pillars of your strength to the earth. +Eze 26:12 They will take by force all your wealth and go off with the goods with which you do trade: they will have your walls broken down and all the houses of your desire given up to destruction: they will put your stones and your wood and your dust deep in the water. +Eze 26:13 I will put an end to the noise of your songs, and the sound of your instruments of music will be gone for ever. +Eze 26:14 I will make you an uncovered rock: you will be a place for the stretching out of nets; there will be no building you up again: for I the Lord have said it, says the Lord. +Eze 26:15 This is what the Lord has said to Tyre: Will not the sea-lands be shaking at the sound of your fall, when the wounded give cries of pain, when men are put to the sword in you? +Eze 26:16 Then all the rulers of the sea will come down from their high seats, and put away their robes and take off their clothing of needlework: they will put on the clothing of grief, they will take their seats on the earth, shaking with fear every minute and overcome with wonder at you. +Eze 26:17 And they will send up a song of grief for you, and say to you, What destruction has come on you, how are you cut off from the sea, the noted town, which was strong in the sea, she and her people, causing the fear of them to come on all the dry land! +Eze 26:18 Now the sea-lands will be shaking in the day of your fall; and all the ships on the sea will be overcome with fear at your going. +Eze 26:19 For this is what the Lord has said: I will make you a waste town, like the towns which are unpeopled; when I make the deep come upon you, covering you with great waters. +Eze 26:20 Then I will make you go down with those who go down into the underworld, to the people of the past, causing your living-place to be in the deepest parts of the earth, in places long unpeopled, with those who go down into the deep, so that there will be no one living in you; and you will have no glory in the land of the living. +Eze 26:21 I will make you a thing of fear, and you will come to an end: even if you are looked for, you will not be seen again for ever, says the Lord. +Eze 27:1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, +Eze 27:2 And you, son of man, make a song of grief for Tyre; +Eze 27:3 And say to Tyre, O you who are seated at the doorway of the sea, trading for the peoples with the great sea-lands, these are the words of the Lord: You, O Tyre, have said, I am a ship completely beautiful. +Eze 27:4 Your builders have made your outlines in the heart of the seas, they have made you completely beautiful. +Eze 27:5 They have made all your boards of fir-trees from Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make the supports for your sails. +Eze 27:6 Of oak-trees from Bashan they have made your driving blades; they have made your floors of ivory and boxwood from the sea-lands of Kittim. +Eze 27:7 The best linen with needlework from Egypt was your sail, stretched out to be a flag for you; blue and purple from the sea-lands of Elishah gave you shade. +Eze 27:8 The people of Zidon and Arvad were your boatmen; the wise men of Zemer were in you; they were guiding your ships; +Eze 27:9 The responsible men of Gebal and its wise men were in you, making your boards watertight: all the ships of the sea with their seamen were in you trading in your goods. +Eze 27:10 Cush and Lud and Put were in your army, your men of war, hanging up their body-covers and head-dresses of war in you: they gave you your glory. +Eze 27:11 The men of Arvad in your army were on your walls, and were watchmen in your towers, hanging up their arms on your walls round about; they made you completely beautiful. +Eze 27:12 Tarshish did business with you because of the great amount of your wealth; they gave silver, iron, tin, and lead for your goods. +Eze 27:13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your traders; they gave living men and brass vessels for your goods. +Eze 27:14 The people of Togarmah gave horses and war-horses and transport beasts for your goods. +Eze 27:15 The men of Rodan were your traders: a great number of sea-lands did business with you: they gave you horns of ivory and ebony as an offering. +Eze 27:16 Edom did business with you because of the great number of things which you made; they gave emeralds, purple, and needlework, and the best linen and coral and rubies for your goods. +Eze 27:17 Judah and the land of Israel were your traders; they gave grain of Minnith and sweet cakes and honey and oil and perfume for your goods. +Eze 27:18 Damascus did business with you because of the great amount of your wealth, with wine of Helbon and white wool. +Eze 27:19 ... for your goods: they gave polished iron and spices for your goods. +Eze 27:20 Dedan did trade with you in cloths for the backs of horses. +Eze 27:21 Arabia and all the rulers of Kedar did business with you; in lambs and sheep and goats, in these they did business with you. +Eze 27:22 The traders of Sheba and Raamah did trade with you; they gave the best of all sorts of spices and all sorts of stones of great price and gold for your goods. +Eze 27:23 Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traders of Asshur and all the Medes: +Eze 27:24 These were your traders in beautiful robes, in rolls of blue and needlework, and in chests of coloured cloth, corded with cords and made of cedar-wood, in them they did trade with you. +Eze 27:25 Tarshish ships did business for you in your goods: and you were made full, and great was your glory in the heart of the seas. +Eze 27:26 Your boatmen have taken you into great waters: you have been broken by the east wind in the heart of the seas. +Eze 27:27 Your wealth and your goods, the things in which you do trade, your seamen and those guiding your ships, those who make your boards watertight, and those who do business with your goods, and all your men of war who are in you, with all who have come together in you, will go down into the heart of the seas in the day of your downfall. +Eze 27:28 At the sound of the cry of your ships' guides, the boards of the ship will be shaking. +Eze 27:29 And all the boatmen, the seamen and those who are expert at guiding a ship through the sea, will come down from their ships and take their places on the land; +Eze 27:30 And their voices will be sounding over you, and crying bitterly they will put dust on their heads, rolling themselves in the dust: +Eze 27:31 And they will have the hair of their heads cut off because of you, and will put haircloth on their bodies, weeping for you with bitter grief in their souls, even with bitter sorrow. +Eze 27:32 And in their weeping they will make a song of grief for you, sorrowing over you and saying, Who is like Tyre, who has come to an end in the deep sea? +Eze 27:33 When your goods went out over the seas, you made numbers of peoples full; the wealth of the kings of the earth was increased with your great wealth and all your goods. +Eze 27:34 Now that you are broken by the seas in the deep waters, your goods and all your people will go down with you. +Eze 27:35 All the people of the sea-lands are overcome with wonder at you, and their kings are full of fear, their faces are troubled. +Eze 27:36 Those who do business among the peoples make sounds of surprise at you; you have become a thing of fear, you have come to an end for ever. +Eze 28:1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, +Eze 28:2 Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, This is what the Lord has said: Because your heart has been lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I am seated on the seat of God in the heart of the seas; but you are man and not God, though you have made your heart as the heart of God: +Eze 28:3 See, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret which is deeper than your knowledge: +Eze 28:4 By your wisdom and deep knowledge you have got power for yourself, and put silver and gold in your store-houses: +Eze 28:5 By your great wisdom and by your trade your power is increased, and your heart is lifted up because of your power: +Eze 28:6 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have made your heart as the heart of God, +Eze 28:7 See, I am sending against you strange men, feared among the nations: they will let loose their swords against your bright wisdom, they will make your glory a common thing. +Eze 28:8 They will send you down to the underworld, and your death will be the death of those who are put to the sword in the heart of the seas. +Eze 28:9 Will you say, in the face of those who are taking your life, I am God? but you are man and not God in the hands of those who are wounding you. +Eze 28:10 Your death will be the death of those who are without circumcision, by the hands of men from strange lands: for I have said it, says the Lord. +Eze 28:11 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 28:12 Son of man, make a song of grief for the king of Tyre, and say to him, This is what the Lord has said: You are all-wise and completely beautiful; +Eze 28:13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every stone of great price was your clothing, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the emerald and the carbuncle: your store-houses were full of gold, and things of great price were in you; in the day when you were made they were got ready. +Eze 28:14 I gave you your place with the winged one; I put you on the mountain of God; you went up and down among the stones of fire. +Eze 28:15 There has been no evil in your ways from the day when you were made, till sin was seen in you. +Eze 28:16 Through all your trading you have become full of violent ways, and have done evil: so I sent you out shamed from the mountain of God; the winged one put an end to you from among the stones of fire. +Eze 28:17 Your heart was lifted up because you were beautiful, you made your wisdom evil through your sin: I have sent you down, even to the earth; I have made you low before kings, so that they may see you. +Eze 28:18 By all your sin, even by your evil trading, you have made your holy places unclean; so I will make a fire come out from you, it will make a meal of you, and I will make you as dust on the earth before the eyes of all who see you. +Eze 28:19 All who have knowledge of you among the peoples will be overcome with wonder at you: you have become a thing of fear, and you will never be seen again. +Eze 28:20 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 28:21 Son of man, let your face be turned to Zidon, and be a prophet against it, and say, +Eze 28:22 These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, O Zidon; and I will get glory for myself in you: and they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I send my punishments on her, and I will be seen to be holy in her. +Eze 28:23 And I will send on her disease and blood in her streets; and the wounded will be falling in the middle of her, and the sword will be against her on every side; and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 28:24 And there will no longer be a plant with sharp points wounding the children of Israel, or a thorn troubling them among any who are round about them, who put shame on them; and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 28:25 This is what the Lord has said: When I have got together the children of Israel from the peoples among whom they are wandering, and have been made holy among them before the eyes of the nations, then they will have rest in the land which is theirs, which I gave to my servant Jacob +Eze 28:26 And they will be safe there, building houses and planting vine-gardens and living without fear; when I have sent my punishments on all those who put shame on them round about them; and they will be certain that I am the Lord their God. +Eze 29:1 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 29:2 Son of man, let your face be turned against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and be a prophet against him and against all Egypt: +Eze 29:3 Say to them, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great river-beast stretched out among his Nile streams, who has said, The Nile is mine, and I have made it for myself. +Eze 29:4 And I will put hooks in your mouth, and the fish of your streams will be hanging from your skin; and I will make you come up out of your streams, with all the fish of your streams hanging from your skin. +Eze 29:5 And I will let you be in the waste land, you and all the fish of your streams: you will go down on the face of the land; you will not be taken up or put to rest in the earth; I have given you for food to the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven. +Eze 29:6 And it will be clear to all the people of Egypt that I am the Lord, because you have been a false support to the children of Israel. +Eze 29:7 When they took a grip of you in their hands, you were crushed so that their arms were broken: and when they put their weight on you for support, you were broken and all their muscles gave way. +Eze 29:8 For this cause the Lord has said: See, I am sending a sword on you, cutting off from you man and beast. +Eze 29:9 And the land of Egypt will be an unpeopled waste; and they will be certain that I am the Lord: because he has said, The Nile is mine, and I made it. +Eze 29:10 See, then, I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt an unpeopled waste, from Migdol to Syene, even as far as the edge of Ethiopia. +Eze 29:11 No foot of man will go through it and no foot of beast, and it will be unpeopled for forty years. +Eze 29:12 I will make the land of Egypt a waste among the countries which are made waste, and her towns will be unpeopled among the towns which have been made waste, for forty years: and I will send the Egyptians in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries. +Eze 29:13 For this is what the Lord has said: At the end of forty years I will get the Egyptians together from the peoples where they have gone in flight: +Eze 29:14 I will let the fate of Egypt be changed, and will make them come back into the land of Pathros, into the land from which they came; and there they will be an unimportant kingdom. +Eze 29:15 It will be the lowest of the kingdoms, and never again will it be lifted up over the nations: I will make them small, so that they may not have rule over the nations. +Eze 29:16 And Egypt will no longer be the hope of the children of Israel, causing sin to come to mind when their eyes are turned to them: and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 29:17 Now in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 29:18 Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, made his army do hard work against Tyre, and the hair came off every head and every arm was rubbed smooth: but he and his army got no payment out of Tyre for the hard work which he had done against it. +Eze 29:19 For this cause the Lord has said: See, I am giving the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon: he will take away her wealth, and take her goods by force and everything which is there; and this will be the payment for his army. +Eze 29:20 I have given him the land of Egypt as the reward for his hard work, because they were working for me, says the Lord. +Eze 29:21 In that day I will make a horn put out buds for the children of Israel, and I will let your words come freely among them, and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 30:1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, +Eze 30:2 Son of man, be a prophet, and say, These are the words of the Lord: Give a cry, Aha, for the day! +Eze 30:3 For the day is near, the day of the Lord is near, a day of cloud; it will be the time of the nations. +Eze 30:4 And a sword will come on Egypt, and cruel pain will be in Ethiopia, when they are falling by the sword in Egypt; and they will take away her wealth and her bases will be broken down. +Eze 30:5 Ethiopia and Put and Lud and all the mixed people and Libya and the children of the land of the Cherethites will all be put to death with them by the sword. +Eze 30:6 This is what the Lord has said: The supporters of Egypt will have a fall, and the pride of her power will come down: from Migdol to Syene they will be put to the sword in it, says the Lord. +Eze 30:7 And she will be made waste among the countries which have been made waste, and her towns will be among the towns which are unpeopled. +Eze 30:8 And they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I have put a fire in Egypt and all her helpers are broken. +Eze 30:9 In that day men will go out quickly to take the news, causing fear in untroubled Ethiopia; and bitter pain will come on them as in the day of Egypt; for see, it is coming. +Eze 30:10 This is what the Lord has said: I will put an end to great numbers of the people of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon. +Eze 30:11 He and the people with him, causing fear among the nations, will be sent for the destruction of the land; their swords will be let loose against Egypt and the land will be full of dead. +Eze 30:12 And I will make the Nile streams dry, and will give the land into the hands of evil men, causing the land and everything in it to be wasted by the hands of men from a strange country: I the Lord have said it. +Eze 30:13 This is what the Lord has said: In addition to this, I will give up the images to destruction and put an end to the false gods in Noph; never again will there be a ruler in the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. +Eze 30:14 And I will make Pathros a waste, and put a fire in Zoan, and send my punishments on No. +Eze 30:15 I will let loose my wrath on Sin, the strong place of Egypt, cutting off the mass of the people of No. +Eze 30:16 And I will put a fire in Egypt; Syene will be twisting in pain, and No will be broken into, as by the onrush of waters. +Eze 30:17 The young men of On and Pi-beseth will be put to the sword: and these towns will be taken away prisoners. +Eze 30:18 And at Tehaphnehes the day will become dark, when the yoke of Egypt is broken there, and the pride of her power comes to an end: as for her, she will be covered with a cloud, and her daughters will be taken away prisoners. +Eze 30:19 And I will send my punishments on Egypt: and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 30:20 Now in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 30:21 Son of man, the arm of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, has been broken by me, and no band has been put round it to make it well, no band has been twisted round it to make it strong for gripping the sword. +Eze 30:22 For this cause the Lord has said: See, I am against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and by me his strong arm will be broken; and I will make the sword go out of his hand. +Eze 30:23 And I will send the Egyptians in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries. +Eze 30:24 And I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, and will put my sword in his hand: but Pharaoh's arms will be broken, and he will give cries of pain before him like the cries of a man wounded to death. +Eze 30:25 And I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, and the arms of Pharaoh will be hanging down; and they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and it is stretched out against the land of Egypt. +Eze 30:26 And I will send the Egyptians in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries; and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 31:1 Now in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 31:2 Son of man, say to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to his people; Whom are you like in your great power? +Eze 31:3 See, a pine-tree with beautiful branches and thick growth, giving shade and very tall; and its top was among the clouds. +Eze 31:4 It got strength from the waters and the deep made it tall: its streams went round about its planted land and it sent out its waterways to all the trees of the field. +Eze 31:5 In this way it became taller than all the trees of the field; and its branches were increased and its arms became long because of the great waters. +Eze 31:6 In its branches all the birds of heaven came to rest, and under its arms all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and great nations were living in its shade. +Eze 31:7 So it was beautiful, being so tall and its branches so long, for its root was by great waters. +Eze 31:8 No cedars were equal to it in the garden of God; the fir-trees were not like its branches, and plane-trees were as nothing in comparison with its arms; no tree in the garden of God was so beautiful. +Eze 31:9 I made it beautiful with its mass of branches: so that all the trees in the garden of God were full of envy of it. +Eze 31:10 For this cause the Lord has said: Because he is tall, and has put his top among the clouds, and his heart is full of pride because he is so high, +Eze 31:11 I have given him up into the hands of a strong one of the nations; he will certainly give him the reward of his sin, driving him out. +Eze 31:12 And men from strange lands, who are to be feared among the nations, after cutting him off, have let him be: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches have come down; his arms are broken by all the waterways of the land; all the peoples of the earth have gone from his shade, and have let him be. +Eze 31:13 All the birds of heaven have come to rest on his broken stem where it is stretched on the earth, and all the beasts of the field will be on his branches: +Eze 31:14 In order that no trees by the waters may be lifted up in their growth, putting their tops among the clouds; and that no trees which are watered may take their place on high: for they are all given up to death, to the lowest parts of the earth among the children of men, with those who go down to the underworld. +Eze 31:15 This is what the Lord has said: The day when he goes down to the underworld, I will make the deep full of grief for him; I will keep back her streams and the great waters will be stopped: I will make Lebanon dark for him, and all the trees of the field will be feeble because of him. +Eze 31:16 I will send shaking on the nations at the sound of his fall, when I send him down to the underworld with those who go down into the deep: and on earth they will be comforting themselves, all the trees of Eden, the best of Lebanon, even all the watered ones. +Eze 31:17 And they will go down with him to the underworld, to those who have been put to the sword; even those who were his helpers, living under his shade among the nations +Eze 31:18 Whom then are you like? for you will be sent down with the trees of Eden into the lowest parts of the earth: there you will be stretched out among those without circumcision, with those who were put to the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his people, says the Lord. +Eze 32:1 And it came about in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 32:2 Son of man, make a song of grief for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him, Young lion of the nations, destruction has come on you; and you were like a sea-beast in the seas, sending out bursts of water, troubling the waters with your feet, making their streams dirty. +Eze 32:3 This is what the Lord has said: My net will be stretched out over you, and I will take you up in my fishing-net. +Eze 32:4 And I will let you be stretched on the land; I will send you out violently into the open field; I will let all the birds of heaven come to rest on you and will make the beasts of all the earth full of you. +Eze 32:5 And I will put your flesh on the mountains, and make the valleys full of your blood. +Eze 32:6 And the land will be watered with your blood, and the waterways will be full of you. +Eze 32:7 And when I put out your life, the heaven will be covered and its stars made dark; I will let the sun be covered with a cloud and the moon will not give her light. +Eze 32:8 All the bright lights of heaven I will make dark over you, and put dark night on your land, says the Lord. +Eze 32:9 And the hearts of numbers of peoples will be troubled, when I send your prisoners among the nations, into a country which is strange to you. +Eze 32:10 And I will make a number of peoples overcome with wonder at you, and their kings will be full of fear because of you, when my sword is waved before them: they will be shaking every minute, every man fearing for his life, in the day of your fall. +Eze 32:11 For this is what the Lord has said: The sword of the king of Babylon will come on you. +Eze 32:12 I will let the swords of the strong be the cause of the fall of your people; all of them men to be feared among the nations: and they will make waste the pride of Egypt, and all its people will come to destruction. +Eze 32:13 And I will put an end to all her beasts which are by the great waters, and they will never again be troubled by the foot of man or by the feet of beasts. +Eze 32:14 Then I will make their waters clear and their rivers will be flowing like oil, says the Lord. +Eze 32:15 When I make Egypt an unpeopled waste, cutting off from the land all the things in it; when I send punishment on all those living in it, then it will be clear to them that I am the Lord. +Eze 32:16 It is a song of grief, and people will give voice to it, the daughters of the nations will give voice to it, even for Egypt and all her people, says the Lord. +Eze 32:17 And in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 32:18 Son of man, let your voice be loud in sorrow for the people of Egypt and send them down, even you and the daughters of the nations; I will send them down into the lowest parts of the earth, with those who go down into the underworld. +Eze 32:19 Are you more beautiful than any? go down, and take your rest among those without circumcision, +Eze 32:20 Among those who have been put to the sword: they will give a resting-place with them to all their people. +Eze 32:21 The strong among the great ones will say to him from the underworld, Are you more beautiful than any? go down, you and your helpers, and take your rest among those without circumcision, and those who have been put to the sword. +Eze 32:22 There is Asshur and all her army, round about her last resting-place: all of them put to death by the sword: +Eze 32:23 Whose resting-places are in the inmost parts of the underworld, who were a cause of fear in the land of the living. +Eze 32:24 There is Elam and all her people, round about her last resting-place: all of them put to death by the sword, who have gone down without circumcision into the lowest parts of the earth, who were a cause of fear in the land of the living, and are put to shame with those who go down to the underworld: +Eze 32:25 They have made a bed for her among the dead, and all her people are round about her resting-place: all of them without circumcision, put to death with the sword; for they were a cause of fear in the land of the living, and are put to shame with those who go down to the underworld: they have been given a place among those who have been put to the sword. +Eze 32:26 There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her people, round about her last resting-place: all of them without circumcision, put to death by the sword; for they were a cause of fear in the land of the living. +Eze 32:27 And they have been put to rest with the fighting men who came to their end in days long past, who went down to the underworld with their instruments of war, placing their swords under their heads, and their body-covers are over their bones; for their strength was a cause of fear in the land of the living. +Eze 32:28 But you will have your bed among those without circumcision, and will be put to rest with those who have been put to death with the sword. +Eze 32:29 There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who have been given a resting-place with those who were put to the sword: they will be resting among those without circumcision, even with those who go down to the underworld. +Eze 32:30 There are the chiefs of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, who have gone down with those who have been put to the sword: they are shamed on account of all the fear caused by their strength; they are resting there without circumcision, among those who have been put to the sword, and are put to shame with those who go down to the underworld. +Eze 32:31 Pharaoh will see them and be comforted on account of all his people: even Pharaoh and all his army, put to death by the sword, says the Lord. +Eze 32:32 For he put his fear in the land of the living: and he will be put to rest among those without circumcision, with those who have been put to death with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his people, says the Lord. +Eze 33:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 33:2 Son of man, give a word to the children of your people, and say to them, When I make the sword come on a land, if the people of the land take a man from among their number and make him their watchman: +Eze 33:3 If, when he sees the sword coming on the land, by sounding the horn he gives the people news of their danger; +Eze 33:4 Then anyone who, hearing the sound of the horn, does not take note of it, will himself be responsible for his death, if the sword comes and takes him away. +Eze 33:5 On hearing the sound of the horn, he did not take note; his blood will be on him; for if he had taken note his life would have been safe. +Eze 33:6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not give a note on the horn, and the people have no word of the danger, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them; he will be taken away in his sin, but I will make the watchman responsible for his blood. +Eze 33:7 So you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the children of Israel; and you are to give ear to the word of my mouth and give them news from me of their danger. +Eze 33:8 When I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly overtake you; and you say nothing to make clear to the evil-doer the danger of his way; death will overtake that evil man in his evil-doing, but I will make you responsible for his blood. +Eze 33:9 But if you make clear to the evil-doer the danger of his way for the purpose of turning him from it, and he is not turned from his way, death will overtake him in his evil-doing, but your life will be safe. +Eze 33:10 And you, son of man, say to the children of Israel, You say, Our wrongdoing and our sins are on us and we are wasting away in them; how then may we have life? +Eze 33:11 Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the evil-doer; it is more pleasing to me if he is turned from his way and has life: be turned, be turned from your evil ways; why are you looking for death, O children of Israel? +Eze 33:12 And you, son of man, say to the children of your people, The righteousness of the upright man will not make him safe in the day when he does wrong; and the evil-doing of the evil man will not be the cause of his fall in the day when he is turned from his evil-doing; and the upright man will not have life because of his righteousness in the day when he does evil. +Eze 33:13 When I say to the upright that life will certainly be his; if he puts his faith in his righteousness and does evil, not one of his upright acts will be kept in memory; but in the evil he has done, death will overtake him. +Eze 33:14 And when I say to the evil-doer, Death will certainly be your fate; if he is turned from his sin and does what is ordered and right; +Eze 33:15 If the evil-doer lets one who is in his debt have back what is his, and gives back what he had taken by force, and is guided by the rules of life, doing no evil; life will certainly be his, death will not overtake him. +Eze 33:16 Not one of the sins which he has done will be kept in mind against him: he has done what is ordered and right, life will certainly be his. +Eze 33:17 But the children of your people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: when it is they whose way is not equal. +Eze 33:18 When the upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, death will overtake him in it. +Eze 33:19 And when the evil man, turning away from his evil-doing, does what is ordered and right, he will get life by it. +Eze 33:20 And still you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O children of Israel, I will be your judge, giving to everyone the reward of his ways. +Eze 33:21 Now in the twelfth year after we had been taken away prisoners, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, one who had got away in flight from Jerusalem came to me, saying, The town has been taken. +Eze 33:22 Now the hand of the Lord had been on me in the evening, before the man who had got away came to me; and he made my mouth open, ready for his coming to me in the morning; and my mouth was open and I was no longer without voice. +Eze 33:23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 33:24 Son of man, those who are living in these waste places in the land of Israel say, Abraham was but one, and he had land for his heritage: but we are a great number; the land is given to us for our heritage. +Eze 33:25 For this cause say to them, This is what the Lord has said: You take your meat with the blood, your eyes are lifted up to your images, and you are takers of life: are you to have the land for your heritage? +Eze 33:26 You put your faith in your swords, you do disgusting things, everyone takes his neighbour's wife: are you to have the land for your heritage? +Eze 33:27 This is what you are to say to them: The Lord has said, By my life, truly, those who are in the waste places will be put to the sword, and him who is in the open field I will give to the beasts for their food, and those who are in the strong places and in holes in the rocks will come to their death by disease. +Eze 33:28 And I will make the land a waste and a cause of wonder, and the pride of her strength will come to an end; and the mountains of Israel will be made waste so that no one will go through. +Eze 33:29 Then they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a waste and a cause of wonder, because of all the disgusting things which they have done, +Eze 33:30 And as for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking together about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, saying to one another, Come now, give ear to the word which comes from the Lord. +Eze 33:31 And they come to you as my people come, and are seated before you as my people, hearing your words but doing them not: for deceit is in their mouth and their heart goes after profit for themselves. +Eze 33:32 And truly you are to them like a love song by one who has a very pleasing voice and is an expert player on an instrument: for they give ear to your words but do them not. +Eze 33:33 And when this comes about (see, it is coming), then it will be clear to them that a prophet has been among them. +Eze 34:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 34:2 Son of man, be a prophet against the keepers of the flock of Israel, and say to them, O keepers of the sheep! this is the word of the Lord: A curse is on the keepers of the flock of Israel who take the food for themselves! is it not right for the keepers to give the food to the sheep? +Eze 34:3 You take the milk and are clothed with the wool, you put the fat beasts to death, but you give the sheep no food. +Eze 34:4 You have not made the diseased ones strong or made well that which was ill; you have not put bands on the broken or got back that which had been sent away or made search for the wandering ones; and the strong you have been ruling cruelly. +Eze 34:5 And they were wandering in every direction because there was no keeper: and they became food for all the beasts of the field. +Eze 34:6 And my sheep went out of the way, wandering through all the mountains and on every high hill: my sheep went here and there over all the face of the earth; and no one was troubled about them or went in search of them. +Eze 34:7 For this cause, O keepers of the flock, give ear to the word of the Lord: +Eze 34:8 By my life, says the Lord, truly, because my sheep have been taken away, and my sheep became food for all the beasts of the field, because there was no keeper, and my keepers did not go in search of the sheep, but the keepers took food for themselves and gave my sheep no food; +Eze 34:9 For this reason, O you keepers of the flock, give ear to the word of the Lord; +Eze 34:10 This is what the Lord has said: See I am against the keepers of the flock, and I will make search and see what they have done with my sheep, and will let them be keepers of my sheep no longer; and the keepers will no longer get food for themselves; I will take my sheep out of their mouths so that they may not be food for them. +Eze 34:11 For this is what the Lord has said: Truly, I, even I, will go searching and looking for my sheep. +Eze 34:12 As the keeper goes looking for his flock when he is among his wandering sheep, so I will go looking for my sheep, and will get them safely out of all the places where they have been sent wandering in the day of clouds and black night. +Eze 34:13 And I will take them out from among the peoples, and get them together from the countries, and will take them into their land; and I will give them food on the mountains of Israel by the water-streams and wherever men are living in the country. +Eze 34:14 I will give them good grass-land for their food, and their safe place will be the mountains of the high place of Israel: there they will take their rest in a good place, and on fat grass-land they will take their food on the mountains of Israel. +Eze 34:15 I myself will give food to my flock, and I will give them rest, says the Lord. +Eze 34:16 I will go in search of that which had gone wandering from the way, and will get back that which had been sent in flight, and will put bands on that which was broken, and give strength to that which was ill: but the fat and the strong I will give up to destruction; I will give them for their food the punishment which is theirs by right. +Eze 34:17 And as for you, O my flock, says the Lord, truly, I will be judge between sheep and sheep, the he-sheep and the he-goats. +Eze 34:18 Does it seem a small thing to you to have taken your food on good grass-land while the rest of your grass-land is stamped down under your feet? and that after drinking from clear waters you make the rest of the waters dirty with your feet? +Eze 34:19 And as for my sheep, their food is the grass which has been stamped on by your feet, and their drink the water which has been made dirty by your feet. +Eze 34:20 For this reason the Lord has said to them, Truly, I, even I, will be judge between the fat sheep and the thin sheep. +Eze 34:21 Because you have been pushing with side and leg, pushing the diseased with your horns till they were sent away in every direction; +Eze 34:22 I will make my flock safe, and they will no longer be taken away, and I will be judge between sheep and sheep. +Eze 34:23 And I will put over them one keeper, and he will give them food, even my servant David; he will give them food and be their keeper. +Eze 34:24 And I the Lord will be their God and my servant David their ruler; I the Lord have said it. +Eze 34:25 And I will make with them an agreement of peace, and will put an end to evil beasts through all the land: and they will be living safely in the waste land, sleeping in the woods. +Eze 34:26 And I will give the rain at the right time, and I will make the shower come down at the right time; there will be showers of blessing. +Eze 34:27 And the tree of the field will give its fruit and the earth will give its increase, and they will be safe in their land; and they will be certain that I am the Lord, when I have had their yoke broken and have given them salvation from the hands of those who made them servants. +Eze 34:28 And their goods will no longer be taken by the nations, and they will not again be food for the beasts of the earth; but they will be living safely and no one will be a cause of fear to them. +Eze 34:29 And I will give them planting-places of peace, and they will no longer be wasted from need of food or put to shame by the nations. +Eze 34:30 And they will be certain that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, the children of Israel, are my people, says the Lord. +Eze 34:31 And you are my sheep, the sheep of my grass-lands, and I am your God, says the Lord. +Eze 35:1 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 35:2 Son of man, let your face be turned to Mount Seir, and be a prophet against it, +Eze 35:3 And say to it, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am against you, O Mount Seir, and my hand will be stretched out against you, and I will make you a waste and a cause for wonder. +Eze 35:4 I will make your towns unpeopled and you will be a waste; and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 35:5 Because yours has been a hate without end, and you have given up the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their trouble, in the time of the punishment of the end: +Eze 35:6 For this cause, by my life, says the Lord, because you have been sinning through blood, blood will come after you. +Eze 35:7 And I will make Mount Seir a cause for wonder and a waste, cutting off from it all comings and goings. +Eze 35:8 I will make his mountains full of those who have been put to death; in your valleys and in all your water-streams men will be falling by the sword. +Eze 35:9 I will make you waste for ever, and your towns will be unpeopled: and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 35:10 Because you have said, The two nations and the two countries are to be mine, and we will take them for our heritage; though the Lord was there: +Eze 35:11 For this cause, by my life, says the Lord, I will do to you as you have done in your wrath and in your envy, which you have made clear in your hate for them; and I will make clear to you who I am when you are judged by me. +Eze 35:12 And you will see that I the Lord have had knowledge of all the bitter things which you have said against the mountains of Israel, saying, They have been made waste, they are given to us to take for our heritage. +Eze 35:13 And you have made yourselves great against me with your mouths, increasing your words against me; and it has come to my ears. +Eze 35:14 This is what the Lord has said: Because you were glad over my land when it was a waste, so will I do to you: +Eze 35:15 You will become a waste, O Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it: and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 36:1 And you, son of man, be a prophet about the mountains of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel, give ear to the word of the Lord: +Eze 36:2 This is what the Lord has said: Because your hater has said against you, Aha! and, The old waste places are our heritage, we have taken them: +Eze 36:3 For this cause be a prophet, and say, This is what the Lord has said: Because, even because they have been glad over you and put you to shame on every side, because you have become a heritage for the rest of the nations, and you are taken up on the lips of talkers and in the evil talk of the people: +Eze 36:4 For this reason, you mountains of Israel, give ear to the word of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, to the unpeopled wastes and to the towns where no one is living, from which the goods have been taken and which have been put to shame by the rest of the nations who are round about: +Eze 36:5 For this cause the Lord has said: Truly, in the heat of my bitter feeling I have said things against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who have taken my land as a heritage for themselves with the joy of all their heart, and with bitter envy of soul have made attacks on it: +Eze 36:6 For this cause be a prophet about the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, This is what the Lord has said: Truly, in my bitter feeling and in my wrath I have said these things, because you have undergone the shame of the nations: +Eze 36:7 For this cause the Lord has said, See, I have taken an oath that the nations which are round about you are themselves to undergo the shame which they have put on you. +Eze 36:8 But you, O mountains of Israel, will put out your branches and give your fruit to my people Israel; for they are ready to come. +Eze 36:9 For truly I am for you, and I will be turned to you, and you will be ploughed and planted: +Eze 36:10 And I will let your numbers be increased, all the children of Israel, even all of them: and the towns will be peopled and the waste places will have buildings; +Eze 36:11 Man and beast will be increased in you, and they will have offspring and be fertile: I will make you thickly peopled as you were before, and will do more for you than at the first: and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 36:12 Yes, I will have you walked on by the feet of men, even my people Israel; they will have you for a heritage and you will be theirs, and never again will you take their children from them. +Eze 36:13 This is what the Lord has said: Because they say to you, You, O land, are the destruction of men, causing loss of children to your nation; +Eze 36:14 For this reason you will no longer take the lives of men and will never again be the cause of loss of children to your nation, says the Lord. +Eze 36:15 And I will not let the shaming of the nations come to your ears, and no longer will you be looked down on by the peoples, says the Lord. +Eze 36:16 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 36:17 Son of man, when the children of Israel were living in their land, they made it unclean by their way and their acts: their way before me was as when a woman is unclean at the time when she is kept separate. +Eze 36:18 So I let loose my wrath on them because of those whom they had violently put to death in the land, and because they had made it unclean with their images: +Eze 36:19 And I sent them in flight among the nations and wandering through the countries: I was their judge, rewarding them for their way and their acts. +Eze 36:20 And when they came among the nations, wherever they went, they made my holy name unclean, when it was said of them, These are the people of the Lord who have gone out from his land. +Eze 36:21 But I had pity for my holy name which the children of Israel had made unclean wherever they went. +Eze 36:22 For this cause say to the children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: I am doing this, not because of you, O children of Israel, but because of my holy name, which you have made unclean among the nations wherever you went. +Eze 36:23 And I will make holy my great name which has been made unclean among the nations, which you have made unclean among them; and it will be clear to the nations that I am the Lord, says the Lord, when I make myself holy in you before their eyes. +Eze 36:24 For I will take you out from among the nations, and get you together from all the countries, and take you into your land. +Eze 36:25 And I will put clean water on you so that you may be clean: from all your unclean ways and from all your images I will make you clean. +Eze 36:26 And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. +Eze 36:27 And I will put my spirit in you, causing you to be guided by my rules, and you will keep my orders and do them. +Eze 36:28 So that you may go on living in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you will be to me a people, and I will be to you a God. +Eze 36:29 And I will make you free from all your unclean ways: and at my voice the grain will come up and be increased, and I will not let you be short of food. +Eze 36:30 And I will make the tree give more fruit and the field fuller produce, and no longer will you be shamed among the nations for need of food. +Eze 36:31 And at the memory of your evil ways and your wrongdoings, you will have bitter hate for yourselves because of your evil-doings and your disgusting ways, O children of Israel. +Eze 36:32 Not because of you am I doing it, says the Lord; let it be clear to you, and be shamed and made low because of your ways, O children of Israel. +Eze 36:33 This is what the Lord has said: In the day when I make you clean from all your evil-doings I will let the towns be peopled and there will be building on the waste places. +Eze 36:34 And the land which was waste will be farmed, in place of being a waste in the eyes of everyone who went by. +Eze 36:35 And they will say, This land which was waste has become like the garden of Eden; and the towns which were unpeopled and wasted and pulled down are walled and peopled. +Eze 36:36 Then the rest of the nations round about you will be certain that I the Lord am the builder of the places which were pulled down and the planter of that which was waste: I the Lord have said it, and I will do it. +Eze 36:37 This is what the Lord has said: The children of Israel will again make prayer to me for this, that I may do it for them; I will make them increased with men like a flock. +Eze 36:38 Like sheep for the offerings, like the sheep of Jerusalem at her fixed feasts, so the unpeopled towns will be made full of men: and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 37:1 The hand of the Lord had been on me, and he took me out in the spirit of the Lord and put me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones; +Eze 37:2 And he made me go past them round about: and I saw that there was a very great number of them on the face of the wide valley, and they were very dry. +Eze 37:3 And he said to me, Son of man, is it possible for these bones to come to life? And I made answer, and said, It is for you to say, O Lord. +Eze 37:4 And again he said to me, Be a prophet to these bones, and say to them, O you dry bones, give ear to the word of the Lord. +Eze 37:5 This is what the Lord has said to these bones: See, I will make breath come into you so that you may come to life; +Eze 37:6 And I will put muscles on you and make flesh come on you, and put skin over you, and breath into you, so that you may have life; and you will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 37:7 So I gave the word as I was ordered: and at my words there was a shaking of the earth, and the bones came together, bone to bone. +Eze 37:8 And looking I saw that there were muscles on them and flesh came up, and they were covered with skin: but there was no breath in them. +Eze 37:9 And he said to me, Be a prophet to the wind, be a prophet, son of man, and say to the wind, The Lord has said: Come from the four winds, O wind, breathing on these dead so that they may come to life. +Eze 37:10 And I gave the word at his orders, and breath came into them, and they came to life and got up on their feet, a very great army. +Eze 37:11 Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are all the children of Israel: and see, they are saying, Our bones have become dry our hope is gone, we are cut off completely. +Eze 37:12 For this cause be a prophet to them, and say, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am opening the resting-places of your dead, and I will make you come up out of your resting-places, O my people; and I will take you into the land of Israel. +Eze 37:13 And you will be certain that I am the Lord by my opening the resting-places of your dead and making you come up out of your resting-places, O my people. +Eze 37:14 And I will put my spirit in you, so that you may come to life, and I will give you a rest in your land: and you will be certain that I the Lord have said it and have done it, says the Lord. +Eze 37:15 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 37:16 And you, son of man, take one stick, writing on it, For Judah and for the children of Israel who are in his company: then take another stick, writing on it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and all the children of Israel who are in his company: +Eze 37:17 Then, joining them one to another, make them one stick, so that they may be one in your hand. +Eze 37:18 And when the children of your people say to you, Will you not make clear to us what these things have to do with us? +Eze 37:19 Then say to them, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am taking the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel who are in his company; and I will put it on the stick of Judah and make them one stick, and they will be one in my hand. +Eze 37:20 And the sticks with your writing on them will be in your hand before their eyes. +Eze 37:21 And say to them, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am taking the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and will get them together on every side, and take them into their land: +Eze 37:22 And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king over them all: and they will no longer be two nations, and will no longer be parted into two kingdoms: +Eze 37:23 And they will no longer make themselves unclean with their images or with their hated things or with any of their sins: but I will give them salvation from all their turning away in which they have done evil, and will make them clean; and they will be to me a people, and I will be to them a God. +Eze 37:24 And my servant David will be king over them; and they will all have one keeper: and they will be guided by my orders and will keep my rules and do them. +Eze 37:25 And they will be living in the land which I gave to Jacob, my servant, in which your fathers were living; and they will go on living there, they and their children and their children's children, for ever: and David, my servant, will be their ruler for ever. +Eze 37:26 And I will make an agreement of peace with them: it will be an eternal agreement with them: and I will have mercy on them and make their numbers great, and will put my holy place among them for ever. +Eze 37:27 And my House will be over them; and I will be to them a God, and they will be to me a people. +Eze 37:28 And the nations will be certain that I who make Israel holy am the Lord, when my holy place is among them for ever. +Eze 38:1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Eze 38:2 Son of man, let your face be turned against Gog, of the land of Magog, the ruler of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and be a prophet against him, +Eze 38:3 And say, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am against you, O Gog, ruler of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal: +Eze 38:4 And turning you round, I will put hooks in your mouth and make you come out with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them in full war-dress, a great force with breastplate and body-cover, all of them armed with swords: +Eze 38:5 Persia, Cush, and Put with them; all of them with body-cover and metal head-dress: +Eze 38:6 Gomer and all her forces; the people of Togarmah in the inmost parts of the north, with all his forces: a great number of peoples with you. +Eze 38:7 Be ready, make yourself ready, you and all the forces who are with you, and be ready for my orders. +Eze 38:8 After a long time you will get your orders: in the last years you will come into the land which has been given back from the sword, which has been got together out of a great number of peoples, on the mountains of Israel which have ever been a waste: but it has been taken out from the peoples and they will be living, all of them, without fear of danger. +Eze 38:9 And you will go up, you will come like a storm, you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your forces, and a great number of peoples with you. +Eze 38:10 This is what the Lord has said: In that day it will come about that things will come into your mind, and you will have thoughts of an evil design: +Eze 38:11 And you will say, I will go up to the land of small unwalled towns; I will go to those who are quiet, living, all of them, without fear of danger, without walls or locks or doors: +Eze 38:12 To take their property by force and go off with their goods; turning your hand against the waste places which now are peopled, and against the people who have been got together out of the nations, who have got cattle and goods for themselves, who are living in the middle of the earth. +Eze 38:13 Sheba, and Dedan and her traders, Tarshish with all her traders, will say to you, Have you come to take our goods? have you got your armies together to take away our property by force? to take away silver and gold, cattle and goods, to go off with great wealth? +Eze 38:14 For this cause, son of man, be a prophet and say to Gog, These are the words of the Lord: In that day, when my people Israel are living without fear of danger, will you not be moved against them? +Eze 38:15 And you will come from your place in the inmost parts of the north, you and a great number of peoples with you, all of them on horseback, a great force and a strong army: +Eze 38:16 And you will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land; and it will come about, in the last days, that I will make you come against my land, so that the nations may have knowledge of me when I make myself holy in you, O Gog, before their eyes. +Eze 38:17 This is what the Lord has said: You are he of whom I gave them word in earlier times by my servants, the prophets of Israel, who in those days went on saying, year after year, that I would make you come up against them. +Eze 38:18 And it will come about in that day, when Gog comes up against the land of Israel, says the Lord, that my wrath will come up, and my passion and my bitter feeling. +Eze 38:19 For in the fire of my wrath I have said, Truly, in that day there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel; +Eze 38:20 So that the fish of the sea and the birds of heaven and the beasts of the field and everything moving on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth, will be shaking before me, and the mountains will be overturned and the high places will come down, and every wall will come falling down to the earth. +Eze 38:21 And I will send to all my mountains for a sword against him, says the Lord: every man's sword will be against his brother. +Eze 38:22 And I will take up my cause against him with disease and with blood; and I will send down on him and on his forces and on the peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower and great ice-drops, fire, and burning. +Eze 38:23 And I will make my name great and make myself holy, and I will make myself clear to a number of nations; and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 39:1 And you, son of man, be a prophet against Gog, and say, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, O Gog, ruler of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal: +Eze 39:2 And turning you round, I will be your guide, and make you come up from the inmost parts of the north; I will make you come on to the mountains of Israel: +Eze 39:3 And with a blow I will send your bow out of your left hand and your arrows falling from your right hand. +Eze 39:4 On the mountains of Israel you will come down, you and all your forces and the peoples who are with you: I will give you to cruel birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be their food. +Eze 39:5 You will come down in the open field: for I have said it, says the Lord. +Eze 39:6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who are living in the sea-lands without fear: and they will be certain that I am the Lord. +Eze 39:7 And I will make clear my holy name among my people Israel; I will no longer let my holy name be made unclean: and the nations will be certain that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. +Eze 39:8 See, it is coming and it will be done, says the Lord; this is the day of which I have given word. +Eze 39:9 And those who are living in the towns of Israel will go out and make fires of the instruments of war, burning the body-covers and the breastplates, the bows and the arrows and the sticks and the spears, and for seven years they will make fires of them: +Eze 39:10 And they will take no wood out of the field or have any cut down in the woods; for they will make their fires of the instruments of war: and they will take by force the property of those who took their property, and go off with the goods of those who took their goods, says the Lord. +Eze 39:11 And it will come about in those days, that I will give to Gog a last resting-place there in Israel, in the valley of Abarim on the east of the sea: and those who go through will be stopped: and there Gog and all his people will be put to rest, and the place will be named, The valley of Hamon-gog. +Eze 39:12 And the children of Israel will be seven months putting them in the earth, so as to make the land clean. +Eze 39:13 And all the people of the land will put them in the earth; and it will be to their honour in the day when I let my glory be seen, says the Lord. +Eze 39:14 And they will put on one side men to do no other work but to go through the land and put in the earth the rest of those who are still on the face of the land, to make it clean: after seven months are ended they are to make a search. +Eze 39:15 And while they go through the land, if anyone sees a man's bone, he is to put up a sign by the place till those who are doing the work have put it in the earth in the valley of Hamon-gog. +Eze 39:16 And there they will put all the army of Gog in the earth. So they will make the land clean. +Eze 39:17 And you, son of man, this is what the Lord has said: Say to the birds of every sort and to all the beasts of the field, Get together and come; come together on every side to the offering which I am putting to death for you, a great offering on the mountains of Israel, so that you may have flesh for your food and blood for your drink. +Eze 39:18 The flesh of the men of war will be your food, and your drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of sheep and lambs, of he-goats, of oxen, all of them fat beasts of Bashan. +Eze 39:19 You will go on feasting on the fat till you are full, and drinking the blood till you are overcome with it, of my offering which I have put to death for you. +Eze 39:20 At my table you will have food in full measure, horses and war-carriages, great men and all the men of war, says the Lord. +Eze 39:21 And I will put my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see my punishments which I have put into effect, and my hand which I have put on them. +Eze 39:22 So the children of Israel will be certain that I am the Lord their God, from that day and for the future. +Eze 39:23 And it will be clear to the nations that the children of Israel were taken away prisoners for their evil-doing; because they did wrong against me, and my face was covered from them: so I gave them up into the hands of their attackers, and they all came to their end by the sword. +Eze 39:24 In the measure of their unclean ways and their sins, so I did to them; and I kept my face covered from them. +Eze 39:25 For this cause the Lord has said, Now I will let the fate of Jacob be changed, and I will have mercy on all the children of Israel, and will take care of the honour of my holy name. +Eze 39:26 And they will be conscious of their shame and of all the wrong which they have done against me, when they are living in their land with no sense of danger and with no one to be a cause of fear to them; +Eze 39:27 When I have taken them back from among the peoples and got them together out of the lands of their haters, and have made myself holy in them before the eyes of a great number of nations. +Eze 39:28 And they will be certain that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them away as prisoners among the nations, and have taken them together back to their land; and I have not let one of them be there any longer. +Eze 39:29 And my face will no longer be covered from them: for I have sent the out-flowing of my spirit on the children of Israel, says the Lord. +Eze 40:1 In the twenty-fifth year after we had been taken away prisoners, in the first month of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the town was taken, on the very same day, the hand of the Lord was on me, and he took me there. +Eze 40:2 In the visions of God he took me into the land of Israel, and put me down on a very high mountain, on which there was, as it seemed, a building like a town opposite me. +Eze 40:3 He took me there, and I saw a man, looking like brass, with a linen cord in his hand and a measuring rod: and he was stationed in the doorway. +Eze 40:4 And the man said to me, Son of man, see with your eyes and give hearing with your ears, and take to heart everything I am going to let you see; for in order that I might let you see them, you have come here: and give an account of all you see to the children of Israel. +Eze 40:5 And there was a wall on the outside of the house all round, and in the man's hand there was a measuring rod six cubits long by a cubit and a hand's measure: so he took the measure of the building from side to side, one rod; and from base to top, one rod. +Eze 40:6 Then he came to the doorway looking to the east, and went up by its steps; and he took the measure of the doorstep, one rod wide. +Eze 40:7 And the watchmen's rooms were one rod long and one rod wide; and the space between the rooms was five cubits; the doorstep of the doorway, by the covered way of the doorway inside, was one rod. +Eze 40:8 And he took the measure of the covered way of the doorway inside, +Eze 40:9 Eight cubits; and its uprights, two cubits; the covered way of the doorway was inside. +Eze 40:10 And the rooms of the doorway on the east were three on this side and three on that; all three were of the same size; and the uprights on this side and on that were of the same size. +Eze 40:11 And he took the measure of the opening of the doorway, ten cubits wide; and the way down the doorway was thirteen cubits; +Eze 40:12 And the space in front of the rooms, a cubit on this side and a cubit on that side; and the rooms six cubits on this side and six cubits on that. +Eze 40:13 And he took the measure of the doorway from the back of one room to the back of the other, twenty-five cubits across, from door to door. +Eze 40:14 And he took the measure of the covered way, twenty cubits; and opening from the covered way of the doorway was the open square round about. +Eze 40:15 And from before the opening of the doorway to before the inner covered way of the doorway was fifty cubits. +Eze 40:16 And the rooms and their uprights had sloping windows inside the doorway all round, and in the same way the covered way had windows all round on the inside: and on every upright there were palm-trees. +Eze 40:17 Then he took me into the outer square, and there were rooms and a stone floor made for the open square all round: there were thirty rooms on the stone floor. +Eze 40:18 And the stone floor was by the side of the doorways, and was as wide as the doorways were long, even the lower floor. +Eze 40:19 Then he took the measure of the square across, from before the lower doorway inside to before the inner doorway outside, one hundred cubits. And he took me in the direction of the north, +Eze 40:20 And there was a doorway to the outer square, looking to the north; and he took the measure of it to see how wide and how long it was. +Eze 40:21 And it had three rooms on this side of it and three on that; its uprights and its covered ways were the same size as those of the first doorway: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. +Eze 40:22 And its windows, and the windows of its covered ways, and its palm-trees, were the same as those of the doorway looking to the east; and there were seven steps up to it; and the covered way went inside. +Eze 40:23 And there was a doorway to the inner square opposite the doorway on the north, like the doorway on the east; and he took the measure from doorway to doorway, a hundred cubits. +Eze 40:24 And he took me to the south, and I saw a doorway looking to the south: and he took the measure of its rooms and its uprights and its covered ways by these measures. +Eze 40:25 And there were windows in it and in the covered way all round, like the other windows: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. +Eze 40:26 And there were seven steps up to it, and its covered way went inside: and it had palm-trees, one on this side and one on that, on its uprights. +Eze 40:27 And there was a doorway to the inner square looking to the south: he took the measure from doorway to doorway to the south, a hundred cubits. +Eze 40:28 Then he took me to the inner square by the south doorway: and he took the measure of the south doorway by these measures; +Eze 40:29 And the rooms in it and the uprights and the covered ways, by these measures: +Eze 40:30 And there were windows in it and in the covered way all round: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. +Eze 40:31 The covered way was on the side nearest the outer square; and there were palm-trees on the uprights: and there were eight steps going up to it. +Eze 40:32 And he took me into the inner square facing the east: and he took the measure of the doorway by these measures; +Eze 40:33 And of the rooms in it and its uprights and its covered ways, by these measures: and there were windows in it and in the covered way round about: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. +Eze 40:34 And the covered way was on the side nearest the outer square; there were palm-trees on the uprights, on this side and on that: and there were eight steps going up to it. +Eze 40:35 And he took me to the north doorway: and he took the measure of it by these measures; +Eze 40:36 Its rooms, its uprights, and its covered way had the same measures, and its covered way had windows all round: it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. +Eze 40:37 Its uprights were on the side nearest to the outer square; there were palm-trees on the uprights, on this side and on that: and there were eight steps going up to it. +Eze 40:38 And there was a room with a door in the covered way of the doorway, where the burned offering was washed. +Eze 40:39 And in the covered way of the doorway there were two tables on this side and two tables on that side, on which the burned offering and the sin-offering and the offering for error were put to death: +Eze 40:40 On the outer side, to the north, as one goes up to the opening of the doorway, were two tables. +Eze 40:41 There were four tables on one side and four tables on the other, by the side of the doorway; eight tables, on which they put to death the beasts for the offerings. +Eze 40:42 And there were four tables for the burned offering, made of cut stone, one and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide and a cubit high, where the instruments were placed which were used for putting to death the burned offering and the beasts for the offerings. +Eze 40:43 And they had edges all round as wide as a man's hand: and on the tables was the flesh of the offerings. +Eze 40:44 And he took me into the inner square, and there were two rooms in the inner square, one at the side of the north doorway, facing south; and one at the side of the south doorway, facing north. +Eze 40:45 And he said to me, This room, facing south, is for the priests who have the care of the house. +Eze 40:46 And the room facing north is for the priests who have the care of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok, who, from among the sons of Levi, come near to the Lord to do the work of his house. +Eze 40:47 And he took the measure of the open square, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, being square; and the altar was in front of the house. +Eze 40:48 Then he took me to the covered way before the house, and took the measure of its uprights, five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other: and the doorway was fourteen cubits wide; and the side-walls of the doorway were three cubits on one side and three cubits on the other. +Eze 40:49 The covered way was twenty cubits long and twelve cubits wide, and they went up to it by ten steps; and there were pillars by the uprights, one on one side and one on the other. +Eze 41:1 And he took me to the Temple, and took the measure of the uprights, six cubits wide on one side and six cubits wide on the other. +Eze 41:2 And the door-opening was ten cubits wide; and the side walls of the door-opening were five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other: and it was forty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. +Eze 41:3 And he went inside and took the measure of the uprights of the door-opening, two cubits: and the door-opening, six cubits; and the side-walls of the door-opening were seven cubits on one side and seven cubits on the other. +Eze 41:4 And by his measure it was twenty cubits long and twenty cubits wide in front of the Temple: and he said to me, This is the most holy place. +Eze 41:5 Then he took the measure of the wall of the house, which was six cubits; and of the side-rooms round the house, which were four cubits wide. +Eze 41:6 And the side-rooms, room over room, were three times thirty; there were inlets in the wall of the house for the side-rooms round about, for supports in the wall of the house. +Eze 41:7 The side-rooms became wider as they went higher up the house, by the amount of the space let into the wall up round about the house, because of the inlets in the house; and one went up from the lowest floor by steps to the middle, and from the middle to the upper floor. +Eze 41:8 And I saw that the house had a stone floor all round; the bases of the side-rooms were a full rod of six great cubits high. +Eze 41:9 The wall supporting the side-rooms on the outside was five cubits thick: and there was a free space of five cubits between the side-rooms of the house. +Eze 41:10 And between the rooms was a space twenty cubits wide all round the house. +Eze 41:11 And the free space had doors opening from the side-rooms, one door on the north and one door on the south: and the free space was five cubits wide all round. +Eze 41:12 And the building which was in front of the separate place at the side to the west was seventy cubits wide; the wall of the building was five cubits thick all round and ninety cubits long. +Eze 41:13 And he took the measure of the house; it was a hundred cubits long; and the separate place and the building with its walls was a hundred cubits long; +Eze 41:14 And the east front of the house and of the separate place was a hundred cubits wide. +Eze 41:15 And he took the measure of the building in front of the separate place which was at the back of it, and the pillared walks on one side and on the other side; they were a hundred cubits long; and the Temple and the inner part and its outer covered way were covered in; +Eze 41:16 And the sloping windows and the covered ways round all three of them were of shakiph-wood all round from the level of the earth up to the windows; +Eze 41:17 And there was a roof over the doorway and as far as the inner house, and to the outside and on the wall all round, inside and outside. +Eze 41:18 And it had pictured forms of winged beings and palm-trees; a palm-tree between two winged ones, and every winged one had two faces; +Eze 41:19 So that there was the face of a man turned to the palm-tree on one side, and the face of a young lion on the other side: so it was made all round the house. +Eze 41:20 From earth level up to the windows there were winged ones and palm-trees pictured on the wall. +Eze 41:21 ... +Eze 41:22 The altar was made of wood, and was three cubits high and two cubits long; it had angles, and its base and sides were of wood; and he said to me, This is the table which is before the Lord. +Eze 41:23 The Temple had two doors. +Eze 41:24 And the holy place had two doors, and the doors had two turning leaves, two for one and two for the other. +Eze 41:25 And on them were pictured winged ones and palm-trees, as on the walls; and a ... of wood was on the front of the covered way outside. +Eze 41:26 And there were sloping windows and palm-trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the covered way: and the side-rooms of the house and the ... +Eze 42:1 And he took me out into the inner square in the direction of the north: and he took me into the rooms which were opposite the separate place and opposite the building to the north. +Eze 42:2 On the north side it was a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide, +Eze 42:3 Opposite the space of twenty cubits which was part of the inner square, and opposite the stone floor of the outer square. There were covered ways facing one another on the third floor. +Eze 42:4 And in front of the rooms was a walk, ten cubits wide and a hundred cubits long; and their doors were facing north. +Eze 42:5 And the higher rooms were shorter: for the covered ways took up more space from these than from the lower and middle rooms. +Eze 42:6 For they were on three floors, and they had no pillars like the pillars of the outer square; so the highest was narrower than the lowest and middle floors from the earth level. +Eze 42:7 And the wall which went outside by the side of the rooms, in the direction of the outer square in front of the rooms, was fifty cubits long. +Eze 42:8 For the rooms in the outer square were fifty cubits long: and in front of the Temple was a space of a hundred cubits. +Eze 42:9 And under these rooms was the way in from the east side, as one goes into them from the outer square at the head of the outer wall. +Eze 42:10 (And he took me) to the south, and in front of the separate place and in front of the building there were rooms. +Eze 42:11 And there was a walk in front of them like that by the rooms on the north; they were equally long and wide; and the ways out of them were the same in design and had the same sort of doors. +Eze 42:12 And under the rooms on the south was a door at the head of the outer wall in the direction of the east as one goes in. +Eze 42:13 And he said to me, The north rooms and the south rooms in front of the separate place are the holy rooms, where the priests who come near the Lord take the most holy things for their food: there the most holy things are placed, with the meal offering and the sin-offering and the offering for error; for the place is holy. +Eze 42:14 When the priests go in, they may not go out of the holy place into the outer square, and there they are to put the robes in which they do the work of the Lord's house, for they are holy: and they have to put on other clothing before they come near that which has to do with the people. +Eze 42:15 And when he had come to the end of measuring the inner house, he took me out to the doorway looking to the east, and took its measure all round. +Eze 42:16 He went round and took the measure of it on the east side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round. +Eze 42:17 And he went round and took the measure of it on the north side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round. +Eze 42:18 And he went round and took the measure of it on the south side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round. +Eze 42:19 And he went round and took the measure of it on the west side with the measuring rod, five hundred, measured with the rod all round. +Eze 42:20 He took its measure on the four sides: and it had a wall all round, five hundred long and five hundred wide, separating what was holy from what was common. +Eze 43:1 And he took me to the doorway looking to the east: +Eze 43:2 And there was the glory of the God of Israel coming from the way of the east: and his voice was like the sound of great waters, and the earth was shining with his glory. +Eze 43:3 And the vision which I saw was like the vision I had seen when he came for the destruction of the town: and like the vision which I saw by the river Chebar; and I went down on my face. +Eze 43:4 And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the doorway looking to the east. +Eze 43:5 And the spirit, lifting me up, took me into the inner square; and I saw that the house was full of the glory of the Lord. +Eze 43:6 And the voice of one talking to me came to my ears from inside the house; and the man was by my side. +Eze 43:7 And he said to me, Son of man, this is the place where the seat of my power is and the resting-place of my feet, where I will be among the children of Israel for ever: and no longer will the people of Israel make my holy name unclean, they or their kings, by their loose ways and by the dead bodies of their kings; +Eze 43:8 By putting their doorstep by my doorstep, and the pillar of their door by the pillar of my door, with only a wall between me and them; and they have made my holy name unclean by the disgusting things which they have done: so in my wrath I sent destruction on them. +Eze 43:9 Now let them put their loose ways and the dead bodies of their kings far from me, and I will be among them for ever. +Eze 43:10 You, son of man, give the children of Israel an account of this house, so that they may be shamed because of their evil-doing: and let them see the vision of it and its image. +Eze 43:11 And they will be shamed by what they have done; so give them the knowledge of the form of the house and its structure, and the ways out of it and into it, and all its laws and its rules, writing it down for them: so that they may keep all its laws and do them. +Eze 43:12 This is the law of the house: On the top of the mountain all the space round it on every side will be most holy. See, this is the law of the house. +Eze 43:13 And these are the measures of the altar in cubits: (the cubit being a cubit and a hand's measure;) its hollow base is a cubit high and a cubit wide, and it has an overhanging edge as wide as a hand-stretch all round it: +Eze 43:14 And from the base on the earth level to the lower shelf, the altar is two cubits high and a cubit wide; and from the smaller shelf to the greater shelf it is four cubits high and a cubit wide. +Eze 43:15 And the fireplace is four cubits high: and coming up from the fireplace are the horns, a cubit high. +Eze 43:16 And the fireplace is twelve cubits long and twelve cubits wide, square on its four sides. +Eze 43:17 And the shelf is fourteen cubits long and fourteen cubits wide, on its four sides; the edge round it is half a cubit; the base of it is a cubit all round, and its steps are facing the east. +Eze 43:18 And he said to me, Son of man, the Lord God has said, These are the rules for the altar, when they make it, for the offering of burned offerings on it and the draining out of the blood. +Eze 43:19 You are to give to the priests, the Levites of the seed of Zadok, who come near to me, says the Lord God, to do my work, a young ox for a sin-offering. +Eze 43:20 You are to take some of its blood and put it on the four horns and on the four angles of the shelf and on the edge all round: and you are to make it clean and free from sin. +Eze 43:21 And you are to take the ox of the sin-offering, and have it burned in the special place ordered for it in the house, outside the holy place. +Eze 43:22 And on the second day you are to have a he-goat without any mark on it offered for a sin-offering; and they are to make the altar clean as they did with the young ox. +Eze 43:23 And after you have made it clean, let a young ox without a mark be offered, and a male sheep from the flock without a mark. +Eze 43:24 And you are to take them before the Lord, and the priests will put salt on them, offering them up for a burned offering to the Lord. +Eze 43:25 Every day for seven days you are to give a goat for a sin-offering: and let them give in addition a young ox and a male sheep from the flock without any mark on them. +Eze 43:26 For seven days they are to make offerings to take away sin from the altar and to make it clean; so they are to make it holy. +Eze 43:27 And when these days have come to an end, then on the eighth day and after, the priests will make your burned offerings on the altar and your peace-offerings; and I will take pleasure in you, says the Lord. +Eze 44:1 And he took me back to the outer doorway of the holy place, looking to the east; and it was shut. +Eze 44:2 And the Lord said to me, This doorway is to be shut, it is not to be open, and no man is to go in by it, because the Lord, the God of Israel, has gone in by it; and it is to be shut. +Eze 44:3 But the ruler will be seated there to take his food before the Lord; he will go in by the covered way to the door, and will come out by the same way. +Eze 44:4 And he took me to the north doorway in front of the house; and, looking, I saw that the house of the Lord was full of the glory of the Lord; and I went down on my face. +Eze 44:5 And the Lord said to me, Son of man, take to heart, and let your eyes see and your ears be open to everything I say to you about all the rules of the house of the Lord and all its laws; and take note of the ways into the house and all the ways out of the holy place. +Eze 44:6 And say to the uncontrolled children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: O you children of Israel, let it be enough for you, among the disgusting things which you have done, +Eze 44:7 To have let men from strange lands, without circumcision of heart or flesh, come into my holy place, making my house unclean; and to have made the offering of my food, even the fat and the blood; and in addition to all your disgusting ways, you have let my agreement be broken. +Eze 44:8 And you have not taken care of my holy things; but you have put them as keepers to take care of my work in my holy place. +Eze 44:9 For this cause the Lord has said, No man from a strange land, without circumcision of heart and flesh, of all those who are living among the children of Israel, is to come into my holy place. +Eze 44:10 But as for the Levites, who went far from me, when Israel went out of the right way, turning away from me to go after their images; their punishment will come on them. +Eze 44:11 But they may be caretakers in my holy place, and overseers at the doors of the house, doing the work of the house: they will put to death the burned offering and the beasts offered for the people, and they will take their place before them as their servants. +Eze 44:12 Because they did this work for them before their images, and became a cause of sin to the children of Israel; for this cause my hand has been lifted up against them, says the Lord, and their punishment will be on them. +Eze 44:13 And they will not come near me to do the work of priests to me, or come near any of my holy things, or the things which are most holy: but their shame will be on them, and the punishment for the disgusting things which they have done. +Eze 44:14 But I will make them responsible for the care of the house and all its work and everything which is done in it. +Eze 44:15 But as for the priests, the sons of Zadok, who took care of my holy place when the children of Israel were turned away from me, they are to come near me to do my work, they will take their places before me, offering to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord; +Eze 44:16 They are to come into my holy place and they are to come near to my table, to do my work and have the care of my house. +Eze 44:17 And when they come in by the doorways of the inner square, they are to be clothed in linen robes; there is to be no wool on them while they are doing my work in the doorway of the inner square and inside the house. +Eze 44:18 They are to have linen head-dresses on their heads and linen trousers on their legs, and they are to have nothing round them to make their skin wet with heat. +Eze 44:19 And when they go out into the outer square to the people, they are to take off the robes in which they do the work of priests, and put them away in the holy rooms, and put on other clothing, so that the people may not be made holy by their robes. +Eze 44:20 They are not to have all the hair cut off their heads, and they are not to let their hair get long, but they are to have the ends of their hair cut. +Eze 44:21 The priests are not to take wine when they go into the inner square. +Eze 44:22 And they are not to take as wives any widow or woman whose husband has put her away: but they may take virgins of the seed of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest. +Eze 44:23 And they are to make clear to my people the division between what is holy and what is common, and to give them the knowledge of what is clean and what is unclean. +Eze 44:24 In any cause, they are to be in the position of judges, judging in harmony with my decisions: they are to keep my laws and my rules in all my fixed feasts; and they are to keep my Sabbaths holy. +Eze 44:25 They are not to come near any dead person so as to become unclean: but for a father or mother or son or daughter or brother or for a sister who has no husband, they may make themselves unclean. +Eze 44:26 And after he has been made clean, seven days are to be numbered for him. +Eze 44:27 And on the day when he goes into the inner square, to do the work of the holy place, he is to make his sin-offering, says the Lord. +Eze 44:28 And they are to have no heritage; I am their heritage: you are to give them no property in Israel; I am their property. +Eze 44:29 Their food is to be the meal offering and the sin-offering and the offering for error; and everything given specially to the Lord in Israel will be theirs. +Eze 44:30 And the best of all the first-fruits of everything, and every offering which is lifted up of all your offerings, will be for the priests: and you are to give the priest the first of your bread-making, so causing a blessing to come on your house. +Eze 44:31 The priests may not take for food any bird or beast which has come to a natural death or whose death has been caused by another animal. +Eze 45:1 And when you are making a distribution of the land, by the decision of the Lord, for your heritage, you are to make an offering to the Lord of a part of the land as holy: it is to be twenty-five thousand long and twenty thousand wide: all the land inside these limits is to be holy. +Eze 45:2 Of this, a square five hundred long and five hundred wide is to be for the holy place, with a space of fifty cubits all round it. +Eze 45:3 And of this measure, let a space be measured, twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide: in it there will be the holy place, even the most holy. +Eze 45:4 This holy part of the land is to be for the priests, the servants of the holy place, who come near to the Lord to do his work; it is to be a place for their houses and for grass-land and for cattle. +Eze 45:5 A space of land twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide is to be for the Levites, the servants of the house, a property for themselves, for towns for their living-places. +Eze 45:6 And as the property for the town you are to have a part five thousand wide and twenty-five thousand long, by the side of the offering of the holy part of the land: this is to be for all the children of Israel. +Eze 45:7 And for the ruler there is to be a part on one side and on the other side of the holy offering and of the property of the town, in front of the holy offering and in front of the property of the town on the west of it and on the east: measured in the same line as one of the parts of the land, from its limit on the west to its limit on the east of the land. +Eze 45:8 And this will be his heritage in Israel: and my rulers will no longer be cruel masters to my people; but they will give the land as a heritage to the children of Israel by their tribes. +Eze 45:9 This is what the Lord has said: Let this be enough for you, O rulers of Israel: let there be an end of violent behaviour and wasting; do what is right, judging uprightly; let there be no more driving out of my people, says the Lord. +Eze 45:10 Have true scales and a true ephah and a true bath. +Eze 45:11 The ephah and the bath are to be of the same measure, so that the bath is equal to a tenth of a homer, and the ephah to a tenth of a homer: the unit of measure is to be a homer. +Eze 45:12 And the shekel is to be twenty gerahs: five shekels are five, and ten shekels are ten, and your maneh is to be fifty shekels +Eze 45:13 This is the offering you are to give: a sixth of an ephah out of a homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah out of a homer of barley; +Eze 45:14 And the fixed measure of oil is to be a tenth of a bath from the cor, for ten baths make up the cor; +Eze 45:15 And one lamb from the flock out of every two hundred, from all the families of Israel, for a meal offering and for a burned offering and for peace-offerings, to take away their sin, says the Lord. +Eze 45:16 All the people are to give this offering to the ruler. +Eze 45:17 And the ruler will be responsible for the burned offering and the meal offering and the drink offering, at the feasts and the new moons and the Sabbaths, at all the fixed feasts of the children of Israel: he will give the sin-offering and meal offering and burned offering and the peace-offerings, to take away the sin of the children of Israel. +Eze 45:18 This is what the Lord has said: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you are to take a young ox without any mark on him, and you are to make the holy place clean. +Eze 45:19 And the priest is to take some of the blood of the sin-offering and put it on the uprights at the sides of the doors of the house, and on the four angles of the shelf of the altar, and on the sides of the doorway of the inner square. +Eze 45:20 And this you are to do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who is in error and for the feeble-minded: you are to make the house free from sin. +Eze 45:21 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you are to have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread is to be your food. +Eze 45:22 And on that day the ruler is to give for himself and for all the people of the land an ox for a sin-offering. +Eze 45:23 And on the seven days of the feast he is to give a burned offering to the Lord, seven oxen and seven sheep without any mark on them, every day for seven days; and a he-goat every day for a sin-offering. +Eze 45:24 And he is to give a meal offering, an ephah for every ox and an ephah for every sheep and a hin of oil to every ephah. +Eze 45:25 In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he is to give the same for seven days; the sin-offering, the burned offering, the meal offering, and the oil as before. +Eze 46:1 This is what the Lord has said: The doorway of the inner square looking to the east is to be shut on the six working days; but on the Sabbath it is to be open, and at the time of the new moon it is to be open. +Eze 46:2 And the ruler is to go in through the covered way of the outer doorway outside, and take his place by the pillar of the doorway, and the priests will make his burned offering and his peace-offerings and he will give worship at the doorstep of the doorway; then he will go out, and the door will not be shut till the evening. +Eze 46:3 And the people of the land are to give worship at the door of that doorway before the Lord on the Sabbaths and at the new moons. +Eze 46:4 And the burned offering offered to the Lord by the ruler on the Sabbath day is to be six lambs without a mark on them and a male sheep without a mark; +Eze 46:5 And the meal offering is to be an ephah for the sheep, and for the lambs whatever he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah. +Eze 46:6 And at the time of the new moon it is to be a young ox of the herd without a mark on him, and six lambs and a male sheep, all without a mark: +Eze 46:7 And he is to give a meal offering, an ephah for the ox and an ephah for the sheep, and for the lambs whatever he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah. +Eze 46:8 And when the ruler comes in, he is to go in through the covered way of the doorway, and he is to go out by the same way. +Eze 46:9 But when the people of the land come before the Lord at the fixed feasts, he who comes in by the north doorway to give worship is to go out by the south doorway; and he who comes in by the south doorway is to go out by the north doorway: he is not to come back by the doorway through which he went in, but is to go straight before him. +Eze 46:10 And the ruler, when they come in, is to come among them, and is to go out when they go out. +Eze 46:11 At the feasts and the fixed meetings the meal offerings are to be an ephah for an ox, and an ephah for a male sheep, and for the lambs whatever he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah. +Eze 46:12 And when the ruler makes a free offering, a burned offering or a peace-offering freely given to the Lord, the doorway looking to the east is to be made open for him, and he is to make his burned offering and his peace-offerings as he does on the Sabbath day: and he will go out; and the door will be shut after he has gone out. +Eze 46:13 And you are to give a lamb a year old without any mark on it for a burned offering to the Lord every day: morning by morning you are to give it. +Eze 46:14 And you are to give, morning by morning, a meal offering with it, a sixth of an ephah and a third of a hin of oil dropped on the best meal; a meal offering offered to the Lord at all times by an eternal order. +Eze 46:15 And they are to give the lamb and the meal offering and the oil, morning by morning, for a burned offering at all times. +Eze 46:16 This is what the Lord has said: If the ruler gives a property to any of his sons, it is his heritage and will be the property of his sons; it is theirs for their heritage. +Eze 46:17 And if he gives a part of his heritage to one of his servants, it will be his till the year of making free, and then it will go back to the ruler; for it is his sons' heritage, and is to be theirs. +Eze 46:18 And the ruler is not to take the heritage of any of the people, driving them out of their property; he is to give a heritage to his sons out of the property which is his: so that my people may not be sent away from their property. +Eze 46:19 And he took me through by the way in at the side of the doorway into the holy rooms which are the priests', looking to the north: and I saw a place at the side of them to the west. +Eze 46:20 And he said to me, This is the place where the offering for error and the sin-offering are to be cooked in water by the priests, and where the meal offering is to be cooked in the oven; so that they may not be taken out into the outer square to make the people holy. +Eze 46:21 And he took me out into the outer square and made me go by the four angles of the square; and I saw that in every angle of the open square there was a space shut in. +Eze 46:22 In the four angles there were spaces walled in, forty cubits long and thirty wide; the four were of the same size. +Eze 46:23 And there was a line of wall all round inside them, round all four, and boiling-places were made under it all round about. +Eze 46:24 And he said to me, These are the boiling-rooms, where the offering of the people is cooked by the servants of the house. +Eze 47:1 And he took me back to the door of the house; and I saw that waters were flowing out from under the doorstep of the house on the east, for the house was facing east: and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south side of the altar. +Eze 47:2 And he took me out by the north doorway, and made me go round to the outside of the doorway looking to the east; and I saw waters running slowly out on the south side. +Eze 47:3 And the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, and after measuring a thousand cubits, he made me go through the waters, which came over my feet. +Eze 47:4 And again, measuring a thousand cubits, he made me go through the waters which came up to my knees. Again, measuring a thousand, he made me go through the waters up to the middle of my body. +Eze 47:5 Again, after his measuring a thousand, it became a river which it was not possible to go through: for the waters had become deep enough for swimming, a river it was not possible to go through. +Eze 47:6 And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then he took me to the river's edge. +Eze 47:7 And he took me back, and I saw at the edge of the river a very great number of trees on this side and on that. +Eze 47:8 And he said to me, These waters are flowing out to the east part of the land and down into the Arabah; and they will go to the sea, and the waters will be made sweet. +Eze 47:9 And it will come about that every living and moving thing, wherever their streams come, will have life; and there will be very much fish because these waters have come there and have been made sweet: and everything wherever the river comes will have life. +Eze 47:10 And fishermen will take up their places by it: from En-gedi as far as En-eglaim will be a place for the stretching out of nets; the fish will be of every sort, like the fish of the Great Sea, a very great number. +Eze 47:11 The wet places and the pools will not be made sweet; they will be given up to salt. +Eze 47:12 And by the edge of the river, on this side and on that, will come up every tree used for food, whose leaves will ever be green and its fruit will not come to an end: it will have new fruit every month, because its waters come out from the holy place: the fruit will be for food and the leaf will make well those who are ill. +Eze 47:13 This is what the Lord has said: These are the limits by which you will take up your heritage in the land among the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph is to have two parts. +Eze 47:14 And you are to make an equal division of it; as I gave my oath to your fathers to give it to you: for this land is to be your heritage. +Eze 47:15 And this is to be the limit of the land: on the north side, from the Great Sea, in the direction of Hethlon, as far as the way into Hamath; +Eze 47:16 To Zedad, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the limit of Damascus and the limit of Hazar-hatticon, which is on the limit of Hauran. +Eze 47:17 And this is the limit from the sea in the direction of Hazar-enon; and the limit of Damascus is to the north, and on the north is the limit of Hamath. This is the north side. +Eze 47:18 And the east side will be from Hazar-enon, which is between Hauran and Damascus; and between Gilead and the land of Israel the Jordan will be the limit, to the east sea, to Tamar. This is the east side. +Eze 47:19 And the south side to the south will be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the stream of Egypt, to the Great Sea. This is the south side, on the south. +Eze 47:20 And the west side will be the Great Sea, from the limit on the south to a point opposite the way into Hamath. This is the west side. +Eze 47:21 You will make a division of the land among you, tribe by tribe. +Eze 47:22 And you are to make a distribution of it, by the decision of the Lord, for a heritage to you and to the men from other lands who are living among you and who have children in your land: they will be the same to you as if they were Israelites by birth, they will have their heritage with you among the tribes of Israel. +Eze 47:23 In whatever tribe the man from a strange land is living, there you are to give him his heritage, says the Lord. +Eze 48:1 Now these are the names of the tribes: from the north end, from the west on the way of Hethlon to the way into Hamath, in the direction of Hazar-enon, with the limit of Damascus to the north, by Hamath; and on the limit from the east side to the west side: Dan, one part. +Eze 48:2 And on the limit of Dan, from the east side to the west side: Asher, one part. +Eze 48:3 And on the limit of Asher, from the east side to the west side: Naphtali, one part. +Eze 48:4 And on the limit of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side: Manasseh, one part. +Eze 48:5 And on the limit of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side: Ephraim, one part. +Eze 48:6 And on the limit of Ephraim, from the east side to the west side: Reuben, one part. +Eze 48:7 And on the limit of Reuben, from the east side to the west side: Judah, one part. +Eze 48:8 And on the limit of Judah, from the east side to the west side, will be the offering which you are to make, twenty-five thousand wide, and as long as one of the parts, from the east side to the west side: and the holy place will be in the middle of it. +Eze 48:9 The offering you will give to the Lord is to be twenty-five thousand long and twenty-five thousand wide. +Eze 48:10 And for these, that is the priests, the holy offering is to be twenty-five thousand long to the north, ten thousand wide to the west, ten thousand wide to the east and twenty-five thousand long to the south; and the holy place of the Lord will be in the middle of it. +Eze 48:11 For the priests who have been made holy, those of the sons of Zadok who kept the orders I gave them, who did not go out of the right way when the children of Israel went from the way, as the Levites did, +Eze 48:12 Even for them will be the offering from the offering of the land, a thing most holy, on the limit of the land given to the Levites. +Eze 48:13 And the Levites are to have a part of the land equal to the limit of the priests', twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide, all of it together to be twenty-five thousand long and twenty thousand wide. +Eze 48:14 And they are not to let any of it go for a price, or give it in exchange; and the part of the land given to the Lord is not to go into other hands: for it is holy to the Lord. +Eze 48:15 And the other five thousand, measured from side to side, in front of the twenty-five thousand, is to be for common use, for the town, for living in and for a free space: and the town will be in the middle of it. +Eze 48:16 And these will be its measures: the north side, four thousand five hundred, and the south side, four thousand five hundred, and on the east side, four thousand five hundred, and on the west side, four thousand five hundred. +Eze 48:17 And the town will have a free space on the north of two hundred and fifty, on the south of two hundred and fifty, on the east of two hundred and fifty, and on the west of two hundred and fifty. +Eze 48:18 And the rest, in measure as long as the holy offering, will be ten thousand to the east and ten thousand to the west: and its produce will be for food for the workers of the town. +Eze 48:19 It will be farmed by workers of the town from all the tribes of Israel. +Eze 48:20 The size of the offering all together is to be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand: you are to make the holy offering a square, together with the property of the town. +Eze 48:21 And the rest is to be for the prince, on this side and on that side of the holy offering and of the property of the town, in front of the twenty-five thousand to the east, as far as the east limit, and to the west, in front of the twenty-five thousand, as far as the west limit, and of the same measure as those parts; it will be the property of the prince: and the holy offering and holy place of the house will be in the middle of it. +Eze 48:22 And the property of the Levites and the property of the town will be in the middle of the prince's property; between the limit of Judah's part and the limit of Benjamin's part will be for the prince. +Eze 48:23 And as for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side: Benjamin, one part. +Eze 48:24 And on the limit of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side: Simeon, one part. +Eze 48:25 And on the limit of Simeon, from the east side to the west side: Issachar, one part. +Eze 48:26 And on the limit of Issachar, from the east side to the west side: Zebulun, one part. +Eze 48:27 And on the limit of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side: Gad one part. +Eze 48:28 And on the limit of Gad, on the south side and to the south of it, the limit will be from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the stream, to the Great Sea. +Eze 48:29 This is the land of which distribution is to be made by the decision of the Lord, among the tribes of Israel for their heritage, and these are their heritages, says the Lord. +Eze 48:30 And these are the outskirts of the town: on the north side, four thousand five hundred by measure; +Eze 48:31 And the doors of the town are to be named by the names of the tribes of Israel; three doors on the north, one for Reuben, one for Judah, one for Levi; +Eze 48:32 And at the east side, four thousand five hundred by measure, and three doors, one for Joseph, one for Benjamin, one for Dan; +Eze 48:33 And at the south side, four thousand five hundred by measure, and three doors, one for Simeon, one for Issachar, one for Zebulun; +Eze 48:34 At the west side, four thousand five hundred by measure, with their three doors, one for Gad, one for Asher, one for Naphtali. +Eze 48:35 It is to be eighteen thousand all round: and the name of the town from that day will be, The Lord is there. +Dan 1:1 In the third year of the rule of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem, shutting it in with his forces. +Dan 1:2 And the Lord gave into his hands Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he took them away into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he put the vessels into the store-house of his god. +Dan 1:3 And the king gave orders to Ashpenaz, the captain of his unsexed servants, to take in some of the children of Israel, certain of the king's family, and those of high birth; +Dan 1:4 Young men who were strong and healthy, good-looking, and trained in all wisdom, having a good education and much knowledge, and able to take positions in the king's house; and to have them trained in the writing and language of the Chaldaeans. +Dan 1:5 And a regular amount of food and wine every day from the king's table was ordered for them by the king; and they were to be cared for for three years so that at the end of that time they might take their places before the king. +Dan 1:6 And among these there were, of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. +Dan 1:7 And the captain of the unsexed servants gave them names; to Daniel he gave the name of Belteshazzar, to Hananiah the name of Shadrach, to Mishael the name of Meshach, and to Azariah the name of Abed-nego. +Dan 1:8 And Daniel had come to the decision that he would not make himself unclean with the king's food or wine; so he made a request to the captain of the unsexed servants that he might not make himself unclean. +Dan 1:9 And God put into the heart of the captain of the unsexed servants kind feelings and pity for Daniel. +Dan 1:10 And the captain of the unsexed servants said to Daniel, I am in fear of my lord the king, who has given orders about your food and your drink; what if he sees you looking less happy than the other young men of your generation? then you would have put my head in danger from the king. +Dan 1:11 Then Daniel said to the keeper in whose care the captain of the unsexed servants had put Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: +Dan 1:12 Put your servants to the test for ten days; let them give us grain for our food and water for our drink. +Dan 1:13 Then take a look at our faces and the faces of the young men who have food from the king's table; and, having seen them, do to your servants as it seems right to you. +Dan 1:14 So he gave ear to them in this thing and put them to the test for ten days. +Dan 1:15 And at the end of ten days their faces seemed fairer and they were fatter in flesh than all the young men who had their food from the king's table. +Dan 1:16 So the keeper regularly took away their meat and the wine which was to have been their drink, and gave them grain. +Dan 1:17 Now as for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and made them expert in all book-learning and wisdom: and Daniel was wise in all visions and dreams. +Dan 1:18 Now at the end of the time fixed by the king for them to go in, the captain of the unsexed servants took them in to Nebuchadnezzar. +Dan 1:19 And the king had talk with them; and among them all there was no one like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; so they were given places before the king. +Dan 1:20 And in any business needing wisdom and good sense, about which the king put questions to them, he saw that they were ten times better than all the wonder-workers and users of secret arts in all his kingdom. +Dan 1:21 And Daniel went on till the first year of King Cyrus. +Dan 2:1 In the second year of the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep went from him. +Dan 2:2 Then the king gave orders that the wonder-workers, and the users of secret arts, and those who made use of evil powers, and the Chaldaeans, were to be sent for to make clear to the king his dreams. So they came and took their places before the king. +Dan 2:3 And the king said to them, I have had a dream, and my spirit is troubled by the desire to have the dream made clear to me. +Dan 2:4 Then the Chaldaeans said to the king in the Aramaean language, O King, have life for ever: give your servants an account of your dream, and we will make clear to you the sense of it. +Dan 2:5 The king made answer and said to the Chaldaeans, This is my decision: if you do not make clear to me the dream and the sense of it, you will be cut in bits and your houses made waste. +Dan 2:6 But if you make clear the dream and the sense of it, you will have from me offerings and rewards and great honour: so make clear to me the dream and the sense of it. +Dan 2:7 A second time they said in answer, Let the king give his servants an account of his dream, and we will make clear the sense. +Dan 2:8 The king made answer and said, I am certain that you are attempting to get more time, because you see that my decision is fixed; +Dan 2:9 That if you do not make my dream clear to me there is only one fate for you: for you have made ready false and evil words to say before me till the times are changed: so give me an account of the dream, and I will be certain that you are able to make the sense of it clear. +Dan 2:10 Then the Chaldaeans said to the king in answer, There is not a man on earth able to make clear the king's business; for no king, however great his power, has ever made such a request to any wonder-worker or user of secret arts or Chaldaean. +Dan 2:11 The king's request is a very hard one, and there is no other who is able to make it clear to the king, but the gods, whose living-place is not with flesh. +Dan 2:12 Because of this the king was angry and full of wrath, and gave orders for the destruction of all the wise men of Babylon. +Dan 2:13 So the order went out that the wise men were to be put to death; and they were looking for Daniel and his friends to put them to death. +Dan 2:14 Then Daniel gave an answer with wisdom and good sense to Arioch, the captain of the king's armed men, who had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon; +Dan 2:15 He made answer and said to Arioch, O captain of the king, why is the king's order so cruel? Then Arioch gave Daniel an account of the business. +Dan 2:16 And Daniel went in and made a request to the king to give him time and he would make clear the sense of his dream to the king. +Dan 2:17 And Daniel went to his house and gave his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah the news: +Dan 2:18 So that they might make a request for the mercy of the God of heaven in the question of this secret; so that Daniel and his friends might not come to destruction with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. +Dan 2:19 Then the secret was made clear to Daniel in a vision of the night. And Daniel gave blessing to the God of heaven. +Dan 2:20 And Daniel said in answer, May the name of God be praised for ever and ever: for wisdom and strength are his: +Dan 2:21 By him times and years are changed: by him kings are taken away and kings are lifted up: he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those whose minds are awake: +Dan 2:22 He is the unveiler of deep and secret things: he has knowledge of what is in the dark, and the light has its living-place with him. +Dan 2:23 I give you praise and worship, O God of my fathers, who have given me wisdom and strength, and have now made clear to me what we were requesting from you: for you have given us knowledge of the king's business. +Dan 2:24 For this reason Daniel went to Arioch, to whom the king had given orders for the destruction of the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, Do not put to death the wise men of Babylon: take me in before the king and I will make clear to him the sense of the dream. +Dan 2:25 Then Arioch quickly took Daniel in before the king, and said to him, Here is a man from among the prisoners of Judah, who will make clear to the king the sense of the dream. +Dan 2:26 The king made answer and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Are you able to make clear to me the dream which I saw and its sense? +Dan 2:27 Then Daniel said in answer to the king, No wise men, or users of secret arts, or wonder-workers, or readers of signs, are able to make clear to the king the secret he is searching for; +Dan 2:28 But there is a God in heaven, the unveiler of secrets, and he has given to King Nebuchadnezzar knowledge of what will take place in the last days. Your dreams and the visions of your head on your bed are these: +Dan 2:29 As for you, O King, the thoughts which came to you on your bed were of what will come about after this: and the unveiler of secrets has made clear to you what is to come. +Dan 2:30 As for me, this secret is not made clear to me because of any wisdom which I have more than any living man, but in order that the sense of the dream may be made clear to the king, and that you may have knowledge of the thoughts of your heart. +Dan 2:31 You, O King, were looking, and a great image was there. This image, which was very great, and whose glory was very bright, was placed before you: its form sent fear into the heart. +Dan 2:32 As for this image, its head was made of the best gold, its breast and its arms were of silver, its middle and its sides were of brass, +Dan 2:33 Its legs of iron, its feet were in part of iron and in part of potter's earth. +Dan 2:34 While you were looking at it, a stone was cut out, but not by hands, and it gave the image a blow on its feet, which were of iron and earth, and they were broken in bits. +Dan 2:35 Then the iron and the earth, the brass and the silver and the gold, were smashed together, and became like the dust on the floors where grain is crushed in summer; and the wind took them away so that no sign of them was to be seen: and the stone which gave the image a blow became a great mountain, covering all the earth. +Dan 2:36 This is the dream; and we will make clear to the king the sense of it. +Dan 2:37 You, O King, king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory, +Dan 2:38 Wherever the children of men are living; into whose hands he has given the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven, and has made you ruler over them all, you are the head of gold. +Dan 2:39 And after you another kingdom, lower than you, will come to power; and a third kingdom, of brass, ruling over all the earth. +Dan 2:40 And the fourth kingdom will be strong as iron: because, as all things are broken and overcome by iron, so it will have the power of crushing and smashing down all the earth. +Dan 2:41 And as you saw the feet and toes, part of potter's work and part of iron, there will be a division in the kingdom; but there will be some of the strength of iron in it, because you saw the iron mixed with the potter's earth. +Dan 2:42 And as the toes of the feet were in part of iron and in part of earth, so part of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will readily be broken. +Dan 2:43 And as you saw the iron mixed with earth, they will give their daughters to one another as wives: but they will not be united one with another, even as iron is not mixed with earth. +Dan 2:44 And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will put up a kingdom which will never come to destruction, and its power will never be given into the hands of another people, and all these kingdoms will be broken and overcome by it, but it will keep its place for ever. +Dan 2:45 Because you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that by it the iron and the brass and the earth and the silver and the gold were broken to bits, a great God has given the king knowledge of what is to take place in the future: the dream is fixed, and its sense is certain. +Dan 2:46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar, falling down on his face, gave worship to Daniel, and gave orders for an offering and spices to be given to him; +Dan 2:47 And the king made answer to Daniel and said, Truly, your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings, and an unveiler of secrets, for you have been able to make this secret clear. +Dan 2:48 Then the king made Daniel great, and gave him offerings in great number, and made him ruler over all the land of Babylon, and chief over all the wise men of Babylon. +Dan 2:49 And at Daniel's request, the king gave Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego authority over the business of the land of Babylon: but Daniel was kept near the king's person. +Dan 3:1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide: he put it up in the valley of Dura, in the land of Babylon. +Dan 3:2 And Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to get together all the captains, the chiefs, the rulers, the wise men, the keepers of public money, the judges, the overseers, and all the rulers of the divisions of the country, to come to see the unveiling of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had put up. +Dan 3:3 Then the captains, the chiefs, the rulers, the wise men, the keepers of public money, the judges, the overseers, and all the rulers of the divisions of the country, came together to see the unveiling of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had put up; and they took their places before the image which Nebuchadnezzar had put up. +Dan 3:4 Then one of the king's criers said in a loud voice, To you the order is given, O peoples, nations, and languages, +Dan 3:5 That when the sound of the horn, pipe, harp, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all sorts of instruments, comes to your ears, you are to go down on your faces in worship before the image of gold which Nebuchadnezzar the king has put up: +Dan 3:6 And anyone not falling down and worshipping will that same hour be put into a burning and flaming fire. +Dan 3:7 So at that time, all the people, when the sound of the horn, pipe, harp, trigon, psaltery, and all sorts of instruments, came to their ears, went down on their faces in worship before the image of gold which Nebuchadnezzar the king had put up. +Dan 3:8 At that time certain Chaldaeans came near and made a statement against the Jews. +Dan 3:9 They made answer and said to Nebuchadnezzar the king, O King, have life for ever. +Dan 3:10 You, O King, have given an order that every man, when the sound of the horn, pipe, harp, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all sorts of instruments, comes to his ears, is to go down on his face in worship before the image of gold: +Dan 3:11 And anyone not falling down and worshipping is to be put into a burning and flaming fire. +Dan 3:12 There are certain Jews whom you have put over the business of the land of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; these men have not given attention to you, O King: they are not servants of your gods or worshippers of the gold image which you have put up. +Dan 3:13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in his wrath and passion gave orders for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego to be sent for. Then they made these men come in before the king. +Dan 3:14 Nebuchadnezzar made answer and said to them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, that you will not be servants of my god or give worship to the image of gold which I have put up? +Dan 3:15 Now if you are ready, on hearing the sound of the horn, pipe, harp, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all sorts of instruments, to go down on your faces in worship before the image which I have made, it is well: but if you will not give worship, that same hour you will be put into a burning and flaming fire; and what god is there who will be able to take you out of my hands? +Dan 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answering Nebuchadnezzar the king, said, There is no need for us to give you an answer to this question. +Dan 3:17 If our God, whose servants we are, is able to keep us safe from the burning and flaming fire, and from your hands, O King, he will keep us safe. +Dan 3:18 But if not, be certain, O King, that we will not be the servants of your gods, or give worship to the image of gold which you have put up. +Dan 3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of wrath, and the form of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego: and he gave orders that the fire was to be heated up seven times more than it was generally heated. +Dan 3:20 And he gave orders to certain strong men in his army to put cords on Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego and put them into the burning and flaming fire. +Dan 3:21 Then these men had cords put round them as they were, in their coats, their trousers, their hats, and their clothing, and were dropped into the burning and flaming fire. +Dan 3:22 And because the king's order was not to be put on one side, and the heat of the fire was so great, the men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were burned to death by the flame of the fire. +Dan 3:23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, with the cords about them, went down into the burning and flaming fire. +Dan 3:24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar, full of fear and wonder, got up quickly, and said to his wise men, Did we not put three men in cords into the fire? and they made answer and said to the king, True, O King. +Dan 3:25 He made answer and said, Look! I see four men loose, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not damaged; and the form of the fourth is like a son of the gods. +Dan 3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near the door of the burning and flaming fire: he made answer and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, you servants of the Most High God, come out and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego came out of the fire. +Dan 3:27 And the captains, the chiefs, and the rulers, and the king's wise men who had come together, saw these men, over whose bodies the fire had no power, and not a hair of their heads was burned, and their coats were not changed, and there was no smell of fire about them. +Dan 3:28 Nebuchadnezzar made answer and said, Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who has sent his angel and kept his servants safe who had faith in him, and who put the king's word on one side and gave up their bodies to the fire, so that they might not be servants or worshippers of any other god but their God. +Dan 3:29 And it is my decision that any people, nation, or language saying evil against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, will be cut to bits and their houses made waste: because there is no other god who is able to give salvation such as this. +Dan 3:30 Then the king gave Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego even greater authority in the land of Babylon. +Dan 4:1 Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all the peoples, nations, and languages living in all the earth: May your peace be increased. +Dan 4:2 It has seemed good to me to make clear the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done with me. +Dan 4:3 How great are his signs! and how full of power are his wonders! his kingdom is an eternal kingdom and his rule goes on from generation to generation. +Dan 4:4 I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my place, and all things were going well for me in my great house: +Dan 4:5 I saw a dream which was a cause of great fear to me; I was troubled by the images of my mind on my bed, and by the visions of my head. +Dan 4:6 And I gave orders for all the wise men of Babylon to come in before me so that they might make clear to me the sense of my dream. +Dan 4:7 Then the wonder-workers, the users of secret arts, the Chaldaeans, and the readers of signs came in to me: and I put the dream before them but they did not make clear the sense of it to me. +Dan 4:8 But at last Daniel came in before me, he whose name was Belteshazzar, after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and I put the dream before him, saying, +Dan 4:9 O Belteshazzar, master of the wonder-workers, because I am certain that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and you are troubled by no secret; this is the dream which I saw: make clear to me its sense. +Dan 4:10 On my bed I saw a vision: there was a tree in the middle of the earth, and it was very high. +Dan 4:11 And the tree became tall and strong, stretching up to heaven, and to be seen from the ends of the earth: +Dan 4:12 Its leaves were fair and it had much fruit, and in it was food enough for all: the beasts of the field had shade under it, and the birds of heaven were resting in its branches, and it gave food to all living things. +Dan 4:13 In the visions of my head on my bed I saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven, +Dan 4:14 Crying out with a loud voice; and this is what he said: Let the tree be cut down and its branches broken off; let its leaves be taken off and its fruit sent in every direction: let the beasts get away from under it and the birds from its branches: +Dan 4:15 But keep its broken end and its roots still in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass; let him have the young grass of the field for food, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his part be with the beasts. +Dan 4:16 Let his heart be changed from that of a man, and the heart of a beast be given to him; and let seven times go by him. +Dan 4:17 This order is fixed by the watchers, and the decision is by the word of the holy ones: so that the living may be certain that the Most High is ruler over the kingdom of men, and gives it to any man at his pleasure, lifting up over it the lowest of men. +Dan 4:18 This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw; and do you, O Belteshazzar, make clear the sense of it, for all the wise men of my kingdom are unable to make the sense of it clear to me; but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you. +Dan 4:19 Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was at a loss for a time, his thoughts troubling him. The king made answer and said, Belteshazzar, do not be troubled by the dream or by the sense of it. Belteshazzar, answering, said, My lord, may the dream be about your haters, and its sense about those who are against you. +Dan 4:20 The tree which you saw, which became tall and strong, stretching up to heaven and seen from the ends of the earth; +Dan 4:21 Which had fair leaves and much fruit, and had in it food for all; under which the beasts of the field were living, and in the branches of which the birds of heaven had their resting-places: +Dan 4:22 It is you, O King, who have become great and strong: for your power is increased and stretching up to heaven, and your rule to the end of the earth. +Dan 4:23 And as for the vision which the king saw of a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven, saying, Let the tree be cut down and given to destruction; +Dan 4:24 This is the sense of it, O King, and it is the decision of the Most High which has come on my lord the king: +Dan 4:25 That they will send you out from among men, to be with the beasts of the field; they will give you grass for your food like the oxen, and you will be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven times will go by you, till you are certain that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and gives it to any man at his pleasure. +Dan 4:26 And as they gave orders to let the broken end and the roots of the tree be, so your kingdom will be safe for you after it is clear to you that the heavens are ruling. +Dan 4:27 For this cause, O King, let my suggestion be pleasing to you, and let your sins be covered by righteousness and your evil-doing by mercy to the poor, so that the time of your well-being may be longer. +Dan 4:28 All this came to King Nebuchadnezzar. +Dan 4:29 At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of his great house in Babylon. +Dan 4:30 The king made answer and said, Is this not great Babylon, which I have made for the living-place of kings, by the strength of my power and for the glory of my honour? +Dan 4:31 While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice came down from heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is said: The kingdom has gone from you: +Dan 4:32 And they will send you out from among men, to be with the beasts of the field; they will give you grass for your food like the oxen, and seven times will go by you, till you are certain that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and gives it to any man at his pleasure. +Dan 4:33 That very hour the order about Nebuchadnezzar was put into effect: and he was sent out from among men, and had grass for his food like the oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair became long as eagles' feathers and his nails like those of birds. +Dan 4:34 And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifting up my eyes to heaven, got back my reason, and, blessing the Most High, I gave praise and honour to him who is living for ever, whose rule is an eternal rule and whose kingdom goes on from generation to generation. +Dan 4:35 And all the people of the earth are as nothing: he does his pleasure in the army of heaven and among the people of the earth: and no one is able to keep back his hand, or say to him, What are you doing? +Dan 4:36 At the same time my reason came back to me; and for the glory of my kingdom, my honour and my great name came back to me; and my wise men and my lords were turned to me again; and I was made safe in my kingdom and had more power than before. +Dan 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, give worship and praise and honour to the King of heaven; for all his works are true and his ways are right: and those who go in pride he is able to make low. +Dan 5:1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, drinking wine before the thousand. +Dan 5:2 Belshazzar, while he was overcome with wine, gave orders for them to put before him the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem; so that the king and his lords, his wives and his other women, might take their drink from them. +Dan 5:3 Then they took in the gold and silver vessels which had been in the Temple of the house of God at Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives and his other women, took wine from them. +Dan 5:4 They took their wine and gave praise to the gods of gold and silver, of brass and iron and wood and stone. +Dan 5:5 In that very hour the fingers of a man's hand were seen, writing opposite the support for the light on the white wall of the king's house, and the king saw the part of the hand which was writing. +Dan 5:6 Then the colour went from the king's face, and he was troubled by his thoughts; strength went from his body, and his knees were shaking. +Dan 5:7 The king, crying out with a loud voice, said that the users of secret arts, the Chaldaeans, and the readers of signs, were to be sent for. The king made answer and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whoever is able to make out this writing, and make clear to me the sense of it, will be clothed in purple and have a chain of gold round his neck, and will be a ruler of high authority in the kingdom. +Dan 5:8 Then all the king's wise men came in: but they were not able to make out the writing or give the sense of it to the king. +Dan 5:9 Then King Belshazzar was greatly troubled and the colour went from his face, and his lords were at a loss. +Dan 5:10 The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the house of the feast: the queen made answer and said, O King, have life for ever; do not be troubled by your thoughts or let the colour go from your face: +Dan 5:11 There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father, light and reason like the wisdom of the gods were seen in him: and King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, made him master of the wonder-workers, and the users of secret arts, and the Chaldaeans, and the readers of signs; +Dan 5:12 Because a most special spirit, and knowledge and reason and the power of reading dreams and unfolding dark sayings and answering hard questions, were seen to be in him, even in Daniel (named Belteshazzar by the king): now let Daniel be sent for, and he will make clear the sense of the writing. +Dan 5:13 Then they took Daniel in before the king; the king made answer and said to Daniel, So you are that Daniel, of the prisoners of Judah, whom my father took out of Judah. +Dan 5:14 And I have had news of you, that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and reason and special wisdom have been seen in you. +Dan 5:15 And now the wise men, the users of secret arts, have been sent in before me for the purpose of reading this writing and making clear to me the sense of it: but they are not able to make clear the sense of the thing: +Dan 5:16 And I have had news of you, that you have the power of making things clear, and of answering hard questions: now if you are able to make out the writing and give me the sense of it, you will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain round your neck and be a ruler of high authority in the kingdom. +Dan 5:17 Then Daniel made answer and said to the king, Keep your offerings for yourself, and give your rewards to another; but I, after reading the writing to the king, will give him the sense of it. +Dan 5:18 As for you, O King, the Most High God gave to Nebuchadnezzar, your father, the kingdom and great power and glory and honour: +Dan 5:19 And because of the great power he gave him, all peoples and nations and languages were shaking in fear before him: some he put to death and others he kept living, at his pleasure, lifting up some and putting others down as it pleased him. +Dan 5:20 But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became hard with pride, he was put down from his place as king, and they took his glory from him: +Dan 5:21 And he was sent out from among the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts', and he was living with the asses of the fields; he had grass for his food like the oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he was certain that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and gives power over it to anyone at his pleasure. +Dan 5:22 And you, his son, O Belshazzar, have not kept your heart free from pride, though you had knowledge of all this; +Dan 5:23 But you have been lifting yourself up against the Lord of heaven, and they have put the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your women, have taken wine in them; and you have given praise to gods of silver and gold, of brass and iron and wood and stone, who are without the power of seeing or hearing, and without knowledge: and to the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not given glory; +Dan 5:24 Then the part of the hand was sent out from before him, and this writing was recorded. +Dan 5:25 And this is the writing which was recorded, Mene, tekel, peres. +Dan 5:26 This is the sense of the words: Mene; your kingdom has been numbered by God and ended. +Dan 5:27 Tekel; you have been put in the scales and seen to be under weight. +Dan 5:28 Peres; your kingdom has been cut up and given to the Medes and Persians. +Dan 5:29 Then, by the order of Belshazzar, they put a purple robe on Daniel, and a gold chain round his neck, and a public statement was made that he was to be a ruler of high authority in the kingdom. +Dan 5:30 That very night Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldaeans, was put to death. +Dan 5:31 And Darius the Mede took the kingdom, being then about sixty-two years old. +Dan 6:1 Darius was pleased to put over the kingdom a hundred and twenty captains, who were to be all through the kingdom; +Dan 6:2 And over them were three chief rulers, of whom Daniel was one; and the captains were to be responsible to the chief rulers, so that the king might undergo no loss. +Dan 6:3 Then this Daniel did his work better than the chief rulers and the captains, because there was a special spirit in him; and it was the king's purpose to put him over all the kingdom. +Dan 6:4 Then the chief rulers and the captains were looking for some cause for putting Daniel in the wrong in connection with the kingdom, but they were unable to put forward any wrongdoing or error against him; because he was true, and no error or wrong was to be seen in him. +Dan 6:5 Then these men said, We will only get a reason for attacking Daniel in connection with the law of his God. +Dan 6:6 Then these chief rulers and the captains came to the king and said to him, O King Darius, have life for ever. +Dan 6:7 All the chief rulers of the kingdom, the chiefs and the captains, the wise men and the rulers, have made a common decision to put in force a law having the king's authority, and to give a strong order, that whoever makes any request to any god or man but you, O King, for thirty days, is to be put into the lions' hole. +Dan 6:8 Now, O King, put the order in force, signing the writing so that it may not be changed, like the law of the Medes and Persians which may not come to an end. +Dan 6:9 For this reason King Darius put his name on the writing and the order. +Dan 6:10 And Daniel, on hearing that the writing had been signed, went into his house; (now he had windows in his room on the roof opening in the direction of Jerusalem;) and three times a day he went down on his knees in prayer and praise before his God, as he had done before. +Dan 6:11 Then these men were watching and saw Daniel making prayers and requesting grace before his God. +Dan 6:12 Then they came near before the king and said, O King, have you not put your name to an order that any man who makes a request to any god or man but you, O King, for thirty days, is to be put into the lions' hole? The king made answer and said, The thing is fixed by the law of the Medes and Persians which may not come to an end. +Dan 6:13 Then they made answer and said before the king, Daniel, one of the prisoners of Judah, has no respect for you, O King, or for the order signed by you, but three times a day he makes his prayer to God. +Dan 6:14 When this thing came to the king's ears, it was very evil to him, and his heart was fixed on keeping Daniel safe, and till the going down of the sun he was doing everything in his power to get him free. +Dan 6:15 Then these men said to the king, Be certain, O King, that by the law of the Medes and Persians no order or law which the king has put into force may be changed. +Dan 6:16 Then the king gave the order, and they took Daniel and put him into the lions' hole. The king made answer and said to Daniel, Your God, whose servant you are at all times, will keep you safe. +Dan 6:17 Then they got a stone and put it over the mouth of the hole, and it was stamped with the king's stamp and with the stamp of the lords, so that the decision about Daniel might not be changed. +Dan 6:18 Then the king went to his great house, and took no food that night, and no ... were placed before him, and his sleep went from him. +Dan 6:19 Then very early in the morning the king got up and went quickly to the lions' hole. +Dan 6:20 And when he came near the hole where Daniel was, he gave a loud cry of grief; the king made answer and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God, whose servant you are at all times, able to keep you safe from the lions? +Dan 6:21 Then Daniel said to the king, O King, have life for ever. +Dan 6:22 My God has sent his angel to keep the lions' mouths shut, and they have done me no damage: because I was seen to be without sin before him; and further, before you, O King, I have done no wrong. +Dan 6:23 Then the king was very glad, and gave orders for them to take Daniel up out of the hole. So Daniel was taken up out of the hole and he was seen to be untouched, because he had faith in his God. +Dan 6:24 And at the king's order, they took those men who had said evil against Daniel, and put them in the lions' hole, with their wives and their children; and they had not got to the floor of the hole before the lions overcame them and all their bones were broken. +Dan 6:25 Then King Darius sent a letter to all the peoples, nations, and languages, living in all the earth: May your peace be increased. +Dan 6:26 It is my order that in all the kingdom of which I am ruler, men are to be shaking with fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, unchanging for ever, and his kingdom is one which will never come to destruction, his rule will go on to the end. +Dan 6:27 He gives salvation and makes men free from danger, and does signs and wonders in heaven and earth, who has kept Daniel safe from the power of the lions. +Dan 6:28 So this Daniel did well in the kingdom of Darius and in the kingdom of Cyrus the Persian. +Dan 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream, and visions came into his head on his bed: then he put the dream in writing. +Dan 7:2 I had a vision by night, and saw the four winds of heaven violently moving the great sea. +Dan 7:3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, different one from another. +Dan 7:4 The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings; while I was watching its wings were pulled off, and it was lifted up from the earth and placed on two feet like a man, and a man's heart was given to it. +Dan 7:5 And I saw another beast, like a bear, and it was lifted up on one side, and three side-bones were in its mouth, between its teeth: and they said to it, Up! take much flesh. +Dan 7:6 After this I saw another beast, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings like those of a bird; and the beast had four heads, and the power of a ruler was given to it. +Dan 7:7 After this, in my vision of the night, I saw a fourth beast, a thing causing fear and very troubling, full of power and very strong; and it had great iron teeth: it took its food, crushing some of it to bits and stamping down the rest with its feet: it was different from all the beasts before it; and it had ten horns. +Dan 7:8 I was watching the horns with care, and I saw another coming up among them, a little one, before which three of the first horns were pulled up by the roots: and there were eyes like a man's eyes in this horn, and a mouth saying great things. +Dan 7:9 I went on looking till the seats of kings were placed, and one like a very old man took his seat: his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like clean wool; his seat was flames of fire and its wheels burning fire. +Dan 7:10 A stream of fire was flowing and coming out from before him: a thousand thousands were his servants, and ten thousand times ten thousand were in their places before him: the judge was seated and the books were open. +Dan 7:11 Then I saw--because of the voice of the great words which the horn said--I saw till the beast was put to death, and its body was given to destruction, and the beast was given to the burning of fire. +Dan 7:12 As for the rest of the beasts, their authority was taken away: but they let them go on living for a measure of time. +Dan 7:13 I saw in visions of the night, and there was coming with the clouds of heaven one like a man, and he came to the one who was very old, and they took him near before him. +Dan 7:14 And to him was given authority and glory and a kingdom; and all peoples, nations, and languages were his servants: his authority is an eternal authority which will not come to an end, and his kingdom is one which will not come to destruction. +Dan 7:15 As for me, Daniel, my spirit was pained because of this, and the visions of my head were troubling me. +Dan 7:16 I came near to one of those who were waiting there, questioning him about what all this was. And he said to me that he would make clear to me the sense of these things. +Dan 7:17 These great beasts are four kings who will be cut off from the earth. +Dan 7:18 But the saints of the Most High will take the kingdom, and it will be theirs for ever, even for ever and ever. +Dan 7:19 Then it was my desire to have certain knowledge about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, a cause of great fear, whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass; who took his food, crushing some of it to bits and stamping on the rest with his feet; +Dan 7:20 And about the ten horns on his head and the other which came up, causing the fall of three; that horn which had eyes, and a mouth saying great things, which seemed to be greater than the other horns. +Dan 7:21 And I saw how that horn made war on the saints and overcame them, +Dan 7:22 Till he came, who was very old, and the decision was made and the authority was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came when the saints took the kingdom. +Dan 7:23 This is what he said: The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom which will come on earth, different from all the kingdoms, and it will overcome all the earth, crushing it down and smashing it. +Dan 7:24 And as for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will come to power; and after them another will come up: he will be different from the first ones and will put down three kings. +Dan 7:25 And he will say words against the Most High, attempting to put an end to the saints of the Most High; and he will have the idea of changing times and law; and the saints will be given into his hands for a time and times and half a time. +Dan 7:26 But the judge will be seated, and they will put an end to his authority, to overcome it and send complete destruction on it. +Dan 7:27 And the kingdom and the authority and the power of the kingdoms under all the heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High: his kingdom is an eternal kingdom, and all powers will be his servants and do his pleasure. +Dan 7:28 Here is the end of the account. As for me, Daniel, I was greatly troubled by my thoughts, and the colour went from my face: but I kept the thing in my heart. +Dan 8:1 In the third year of the rule of Belshazzar the king, a vision was seen by me, Daniel, after the one I saw at first. +Dan 8:2 And I saw in the vision; and when I saw it, I was in the strong town Shushan, which is in the country of Elam; and in the vision I was by the water-door of the Ulai. +Dan 8:3 And lifting up my eyes, I saw, there before the stream, a male sheep with two horns: and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, the higher one coming up last. +Dan 8:4 I saw the sheep pushing to the west and to the north and to the south; and no beasts were able to keep their place before him, and no one was able to get people out of his power; but he did whatever his pleasure was and made himself great. +Dan 8:5 And while I was giving thought to this, I saw a he-goat coming from the west over the face of all the earth without touching the earth: and the he-goat had a great horn between his eyes. +Dan 8:6 And he came to the two-horned sheep which I saw before the stream, rushing at him in the heat of his power. +Dan 8:7 And I saw him come right up to the sheep, and he was moved with wrath against him, attacking the sheep so that his two horns were broken; and the sheep had not strength to keep his place before him, but was pushed down on the earth and crushed under his feet: and there was no one to get the sheep out of his power. +Dan 8:8 And the he-goat became very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and in its place came up four other horns turned to the four winds of heaven. +Dan 8:9 And out of one of them came another horn, a little one, which became very great, stretching to the south and to the east and to the beautiful land. +Dan 8:10 And it became great, even as high as the army of heaven, pulling down some of the army, even of the stars, to the earth and crushing them under its feet. +Dan 8:11 It made itself great, even as great as the lord of the army; and by it the regular burned offering was taken away, and the place overturned and the holy place made waste. +Dan 8:12 ... against the regular burned offering; and ... crushed down to the earth, and it did its pleasure and things went well for it. +Dan 8:13 Then there came to my ears the voice of a holy one talking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was talking, How long will the vision be while the regular burned offering is taken away, and the unclean thing causing fear is put up, and the holy place crushed under foot? +Dan 8:14 And he said to him, For two thousand, three hundred evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be made clean. +Dan 8:15 And it came about that when I, Daniel, had seen this vision, I had a desire for the sense of it to be unfolded; and I saw one before me in the form of a man. +Dan 8:16 And the voice of a man came to my ears between the sides of the Ulai, crying out and saying, Gabriel, make the vision clear to this man. +Dan 8:17 So he came and took his place near where I was; and when he came, I was full of fear and went down on my face: but he said to me, Let it be clear to you, O son of man; for the vision has to do with the time of the end. +Dan 8:18 Now while he was talking to me, I went into a deep sleep with my face to the earth: but touching me, he put me on my feet where I had been. +Dan 8:19 And he said, See, I will make clear to you what is to come in the later time of the wrath: for it has to do with the fixed time of the end. +Dan 8:20 The sheep which you saw with two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia. +Dan 8:21 And the he-goat is the king of Greece: and the great horn between his eyes is the first king. +Dan 8:22 And as for that which was broken, in place of which four came up, four kingdoms will come up from his nation, but not with his power. +Dan 8:23 And in the later years of their kingdom, when their evil doings have become complete, there will come up a king full of pride and expert in dark sayings. +Dan 8:24 And his power will be great, and he will be purposing strange things. And all will go well for him and he will do his pleasure; and he will send destruction on the strong ones. +Dan 8:25 And his designs will be turned against the holy people, causing deceit to do well in his hand; in his heart he will make himself great, and send destruction on numbers who are living unconscious of their danger; and he will put himself up against the prince of princes; but he will be broken, though not by men's hands. +Dan 8:26 And the vision of evenings and mornings which has been talked of is true: and keep the vision secret; for it has to do with the far-off future. +Dan 8:27 And I, Daniel, was ill for some days; then I got up and did the king's business: and I was full of wonder at the vision, but no one was able to give the sense of it. +Dan 9:1 In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldaeans; +Dan 9:2 In the first year of his rule, I, Daniel, saw clearly from the books the number of years given by the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah, in which the making waste of Jerusalem was to be complete, that is, seventy years. +Dan 9:3 And turning my face to the Lord God, I gave myself up to prayer, requesting his grace, going without food, in haircloth and dust. +Dan 9:4 And I made prayer to the Lord my God, putting our sins before him, and said, O Lord, the great God, greatly to be feared. keeping your agreement and mercy with those who have love for you and do your orders; +Dan 9:5 We are sinners, acting wrongly and doing evil; we have gone against you, turning away from your orders and from your laws: +Dan 9:6 We have not given ear to your servants the prophets, who said words in your name to our kings and our rulers and our fathers and all the people of the land. +Dan 9:7 O Lord, righteousness is yours, but shame is on us, even to this day; and on the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, and on all Israel, those who are near and those who are far off, in all the countries where you have sent them because of the sin which they have done against you. +Dan 9:8 O Lord, shame is on us, on our kings and our rulers and our fathers, because of our sin against you. +Dan 9:9 With the Lord our God are mercies and forgiveness, for we have gone against him; +Dan 9:10 And have not given ear to the voice of the Lord our God to go in the way of his laws which he put before us by the mouth of his servants the prophets. +Dan 9:11 And all Israel have been sinners against your law, turning away so as not to give ear to your voice: and the curse has been let loose on us, and the oath recorded in the law of Moses, the servant of God, for we have done evil against him. +Dan 9:12 And he has given effect to his words which he said against us and against those who were our judges, by sending a great evil on us: for under all heaven there has not been done what has been done to Jerusalem. +Dan 9:13 As it was recorded in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us: but we have made no prayer for grace from the Lord our God that we might be turned from our evil doings and come to true wisdom. +Dan 9:14 So the Lord has been watching over this evil and has made it come on us: for the Lord our God is upright in all his acts which he has done, and we have not given ear to his voice. +Dan 9:15 And now, O Lord our God, who took your people out of the land of Egypt with a strong hand and made a great name for yourself even to this day; we are sinners, we have done evil. +Dan 9:16 O Lord, because of your righteousness, let your wrath and your passion be turned away from your town Jerusalem, your holy mountain: because, through our sins and the evil-doing of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a cause of shame to all who are round about us. +Dan 9:17 And now, give ear, O our God, to the prayer of your servant and to his request for grace, and let your face be shining on your holy place which is made waste, because of your servants, O Lord. +Dan 9:18 O my God, let your ear be turned and give hearing; let your eyes be open and see how we have been made waste and the town which is named by your name: for we are not offering our prayers before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercies. +Dan 9:19 O Lord, give ear; O Lord, have forgiveness; O Lord, take note and do; let there be no more waiting; for the honour of your name, O my God, because your town and your people are named by your name. +Dan 9:20 And while I was still saying these words in prayer, and putting my sins and the sins of my people Israel before the Lord, and requesting grace from the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God; +Dan 9:21 Even while I was still in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at first when my weariness was great, put his hand on me about the time of the evening offering. +Dan 9:22 And teaching me and talking to me he said, O Daniel, I have come now to give you wisdom. +Dan 9:23 At the first word of your prayer a word went out, and I have come to give you knowledge; for you are a man dearly loved: so give thought to the word and let the vision be clear to you. +Dan 9:24 Seventy weeks have been fixed for your people and your holy town, to let wrongdoing be complete and sin come to its full limit, and for the clearing away of evil-doing and the coming in of eternal righteousness: so that the vision and the word of the prophet may be stamped as true, and to put the holy oil on a most holy place. +Dan 9:25 Have then the certain knowledge that from the going out of the word for the building again of Jerusalem till the coming of a prince, on whom the holy oil has been put, will be seven weeks: in sixty-two weeks its building will be complete, with square and earthwork. +Dan 9:26 And at the end of the times, even after the sixty-two weeks, one on whom the holy oil has been put will be cut off and have no ...; and the town and the holy place will be made waste together with a prince; and the end will come with an overflowing of waters, and even to the end there will be war; the making waste which has been fixed. +Dan 9:27 And a strong order will be sent out against the great number for one week; and so for half of the week the offering and the meal offering will come to an end; and in its place will be an unclean thing causing fear; till the destruction which has been fixed is let loose on him who has made waste. +Dan 10:1 In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a secret was unfolded to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, even a hard work: and he had knowledge of it, and the vision was clear to him. +Dan 10:2 In those days I, Daniel, gave myself up to grief for three full weeks. +Dan 10:3 I had no pleasing food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, and I put no oil on my body till three full weeks were ended. +Dan 10:4 And on the twenty-fourth day of the first month I was by the side of the great river; +Dan 10:5 And lifting up my eyes I saw the form of a man clothed in a linen robe, and round him there was a band of gold, of the best gold: +Dan 10:6 And his body was like the beryl, and his face had the look of a thunder-flame, and his eyes were like burning lights, and his arms and feet like the colour of polished brass, and the sound of his voice was like the sound of an army. +Dan 10:7 And I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see it; but a great shaking came on them and they went in flight to take cover. +Dan 10:8 So I was by myself, and I saw this great vision, and all my strength went from me; and the colour went from my face. +Dan 10:9 But the sound of his words came to my ears, and on hearing his voice I went into a deep sleep with my face to the earth. +Dan 10:10 Then a hand gave me a touch, awaking me, and putting me on my knees and my hands. +Dan 10:11 And he said to me, O Daniel, you man dearly loved, take in the sense of the words I say to you and get up on to your feet: for to you I am now sent; and when he had said this to me I got on to my feet, shaking with fear. +Dan 10:12 Then he said to me, Have no fear, Daniel; for from the first day when you gave your heart to getting wisdom and making yourself poor in spirit before your God, your words have come to his ears: and I have come because of your words. +Dan 10:13 But the angel of the kingdom of Persia put himself against me for twenty-one days; but Michael, one of the chief angels, came to my help; and when I came he was still there with the angel of the kings of Persia. +Dan 10:14 Now I have come to give you knowledge of the fate of your people in the later days; for there is still a vision for the days. +Dan 10:15 And after he had said these words to me, I kept my face turned to the earth and was unable to say anything. +Dan 10:16 Then one whose form was like the sons of men put his finger on my lips; and opening my mouth, I said to him who was before me, O my lord, because of the vision my pains have come on me, and I have no more strength. +Dan 10:17 For how may this servant of my lord have talk with my lord? for, as for me, straight away my strength went from me and there was no breath in my body. +Dan 10:18 Then again one having the form of a man put his hand on me and gave me strength. +Dan 10:19 And he said to me, O man greatly loved, have no fear: peace be with you, be strong and let your heart be lifted up. And at his words I became strong, and said, Let my lord say on, for you have given me strength. +Dan 10:20 Then he said, It is clear to you why I have come to you. And now I will give you an account of what is recorded in the true writings: +Dan 10:21 But I am going back to make war with the angel of Persia, and when I am gone, the angel of Greece will come. And there is no one on my side against these, but Michael, your angel. +Dan 11:1 And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede I was on his side to make his position safe and make him strong. +Dan 11:2 And now I will make clear to you what is true. There are still three kings to come in Persia, and the fourth will have much greater wealth than all of them: and when he has become strong through his wealth, he will put his forces in motion against all the kingdoms of Greece. +Dan 11:3 And a strong king will come to power, ruling with great authority and doing whatever is his pleasure. +Dan 11:4 And when he has become strong, his kingdom will be broken and parted to the four winds of heaven; but not to his offspring, for it will be uprooted; and his kingdom will be for the others and not for these: but not with the same authority as his. +Dan 11:5 And the king of the south will be strong, but one of his captains will be stronger than he and will be ruler; and his rule will be a great rule. +Dan 11:6 And at the end of years they will be joined together; and the daughter of the king of the south will come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she will not keep the strength of her arm; and his offspring will not keep their place; but she will be uprooted, with those who were the cause of her coming, and her son, and he who took her in those times. +Dan 11:7 But out of a branch from her roots one will come up to take his place, who will come against the army, forcing his way into the strong place of the king of the north, and he will take them in hand and overcome them: +Dan 11:8 And their gods and their metal images and their fair vessels of silver and gold he will take away into the south; and for some years he will keep away from the king of the north. +Dan 11:9 And he will come into the kingdom of the king of the south, but he will go back to his land. +Dan 11:10 And his son will make war, and will get together an army of great forces, and he will make an attack on him, overflowing and going past: and he will again take the war even to his strong place. +Dan 11:11 And the king of the south will be moved with wrath, and will come out and make war on him, on this same king of the north: and he will get together a great army, but the army will be given into his hand. +Dan 11:12 And the army will be taken away, and his heart will be uplifted: he will be the cause of the downfall of tens of thousands, but he will not be strong. +Dan 11:13 And again the king of the north will get together an army greater than the first; and he will make an attack on him at the end of years, with a great army and much wealth. +Dan 11:14 In those times, a number will take up arms against the king of the south: and the children of the violent among your people will be lifting themselves up to make the vision come true; but it will be their downfall. +Dan 11:15 So the king of the north will come, and put up earthworks and take a well-armed town: and the forces of the king of the south will make an attempt to keep their position, even the best of his army, but they will not have strength to do so. +Dan 11:16 And he who comes against him will do his pleasure, and no one will be able to keep his place before him: he will take up his position in the beautiful land and in his hand there will be destruction. +Dan 11:17 And it will be his purpose to come with the strength of all his kingdom, but in place of this he will make an agreement with him; and he will give him the daughter of women to send destruction on it; but this will not take place or come about. +Dan 11:18 After this, his face will be turned to the islands, and he will take a number of them: but a chief, by his destruction, will put an end to the shame offered by him; and more than this, he will make his shame come back on him. +Dan 11:19 Then his face will be turned to the strong places of his land: but his way will be stopped, causing his downfall, and he will not be seen again. +Dan 11:20 Then his place will be taken by one who will send out a man with the glory of a king to get wealth together; but after a short time destruction will overtake him, but not in wrath or in the fight. +Dan 11:21 And his place will be taken by a low person, to whom the honour of the kingdom had not been given: but he will come in time of peace and will get the kingdom by fair words. +Dan 11:22 And his forces will be completely taken away from before him and broken; and even the ruler of the agreement will have the same fate. +Dan 11:23 And from the time when they make an agreement with him, he will be working falsely: for he will take up arms suddenly with a small force, +Dan 11:24 Against fertile places, and will make waste a part of the country; and he will do what his fathers have not done, or his fathers' fathers; he will make distribution among them of goods taken in war and by force, and of property: he will even make designs against the strong places for a time. +Dan 11:25 And he will put in motion his power and his strength against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south will go to war with a very great and strong army: but he will be forced to give way, because of their designs against him; +Dan 11:26 And his fears will overcome him and be the cause of his downfall, and his army will come to complete destruction, and a great number will be put to the sword. +Dan 11:27 And as for these two kings, their hearts will be fixed on doing evil and they will say false words at one table; but it will come to nothing: for the end will be at the time fixed. +Dan 11:28 And he will go back to his land with great wealth; and his heart will be against the holy agreement; and he will do his pleasure and go back to his land. +Dan 11:29 At the time fixed he will come back and come into the south; but in the later time it will not be as it was before. +Dan 11:30 For those who go out from the west will come against him, and he will be in fear and will go back, full of wrath against the holy agreement; and he will do his pleasure: and he will go back and be united with those who have given up the holy agreement. +Dan 11:31 And armies sent by him will take up their position and they will make unclean the holy place, even the strong place, and take away the regular burned offering and put in its place an unclean thing causing fear. +Dan 11:32 And those who do evil against the agreement will be turned to sin by his fair words: but the people who have knowledge of their God will be strong and do well. +Dan 11:33 And those who are wise among the people will be the teachers of the mass of the people: but they will come to their downfall by the sword and by the flame, being made prisoners and undergoing loss for a long time. +Dan 11:34 Now at the time of their downfall they will have a little help, but numbers will be joined to them in the town, and in their separate heritages. +Dan 11:35 And some of those who are wise will have wisdom in testing themselves and making themselves clean, till the time of the end: for it is still for the fixed time. +Dan 11:36 And the king will do his pleasure; he will put himself on high, lifting himself over every god, and saying things to be wondered at against the God of gods; and all will be well for him till the wrath is complete; for what has been purposed will be done. +Dan 11:37 He will have no respect for the gods of his fathers or for the god desired by women; he will have no respect for any god: for he will put himself on high over all. +Dan 11:38 But in place of this he will give honour to the god of armed places, and to a god of whom his fathers had no knowledge he will give honour with gold and silver and jewels and things to be desired. +Dan 11:39 And he will make use of the people of a strange god to keep his strongest places; to those whom he takes note of he will give high honour: and he will make them rulers over the mass of the people, and will make division of the land for a price. +Dan 11:40 And at the time of the end, the king of the south will make an attack on him: and the king of the north will come against him like a storm-wind, with war-carriages and horsemen and numbers of ships; and he will go through many lands like overflowing waters. +Dan 11:41 And he will come into the beautiful land, and tens of thousands will be overcome: but these will be kept from falling into his hands: Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon. +Dan 11:42 And his hand will be stretched out on the countries: and the land of the south will not be safe from him. +Dan 11:43 But he will have power over the stores of gold and silver, and over all the valued things of the south: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians will be at his steps. +Dan 11:44 But he will be troubled by news from the east and from the north; and he will go out in great wrath, to send destruction on, and put an end to, great numbers. +Dan 11:45 He will put the tents of his great house between the sea and the beautiful holy mountain: but he will come to his end with no helper. +Dan 12:1 And at that time Michael will take up his place, the great angel, who is the supporter of the children of your people: and there will be a time of trouble, such as there never was from the time there was a nation even till that same time: and at that time your people will be kept safe, everyone who is recorded in the book. +Dan 12:2 And a number of those who are sleeping in the dust of the earth will come out of their sleep, some to eternal life and some to eternal shame. +Dan 12:3 And those who are wise will be shining like the light of the outstretched sky; and those by whom numbers have been turned to righteousness will be like the stars for ever and ever. +Dan 12:4 But as for you, O Daniel, let the words be kept secret and the book rolled up and kept shut till the time of the end: numbers will be going out of the way and troubles will be increased. +Dan 12:5 Then I, Daniel, looking, saw two others, one at the edge of the river on this side and one at the edge of the river on that side. +Dan 12:6 And I said to the man clothed in linen, who was over the waters of the river, How long will it be to the end of these wonders? +Dan 12:7 Then in my hearing the man clothed in linen, who was over the river, lifting up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, took an oath by him who is living for ever that it would be a time, times, and a half; and when the power of the crusher of the holy people comes to an end, all these things will be ended. +Dan 12:8 And the words came to my ears, but the sense of them was not clear to me: then I said, O my lord, what is the sense of these things? +Dan 12:9 And he said, Go on your way, Daniel: for the words are secret and shut up till the time of the end; +Dan 12:10 Till a number are tested and make themselves clean; and the evil-doers will do evil; for not one of the evil-doers will have knowledge; but all will be made clear to those who are wise. +Dan 12:11 And from the time when the regular burned offering is taken away, and an unclean thing causing fear is put up, there will be a thousand, two hundred and ninety days. +Dan 12:12 A blessing will be on the man who goes on waiting, and comes to the thousand, three hundred and thirty-five days. +Dan 12:13 But you, go on your way and take your rest: for you will be in your place at the end of the days. +Hos 1:1 The word of the Lord which came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. +Hos 1:2 The start of the word of the Lord by Hosea: And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take for yourself a wife of loose ways, and children of the same, for the land has been untrue to the Lord. +Hos 1:3 So he took as his wife Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she gave birth to a son. +Hos 1:4 And the Lord said to him, Give him the name of Jezreel, for after a little time I will send punishment for the blood of Jezreel on the line of Jehu, and put an end to the kingdom of Israel. +Hos 1:5 And in that day I will let the bow of Israel be broken in the valley of Jezreel. +Hos 1:6 And after that she gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said, Give her the name Lo-ruhamah; for I will not again have mercy on Israel, to give them forgiveness. +Hos 1:7 But I will have mercy on Judah and will give them salvation by the Lord their God, but not by the bow or the sword or by fighting or by horses or horsemen. +Hos 1:8 Now when Lo-ruhamah had been taken from the breast, the woman gave birth to a son. +Hos 1:9 And the Lord said, Give him the name Lo-ammi; for you are not my people, and I will not be your God. +Hos 1:10 But still the number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which may not be measured or numbered; and in place of its being said to them, You are not my people, it will be said to them, You are the sons of the living God +Hos 1:11 And the children of Israel and the children of Judah will come together and take for themselves one head, and will go up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel. +Hos 2:1 Say to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. +Hos 2:2 Take up the cause against your mother, take it up, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; let her put away her loose ways from her face, and her false ways from between her breasts; +Hos 2:3 For fear that I may take away her robe from her, making her uncovered as in the day of her birth; making her like a waste place and a dry land, causing her death through need of water. +Hos 2:4 And I will have no mercy on her children, for they are the children of her loose ways. +Hos 2:5 For their mother has been untrue; she who gave them birth has done things of shame, for she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my wine. +Hos 2:6 For this cause I will put thorns in her road, building up a wall round her so that she may not go on her way. +Hos 2:7 And if she goes after her lovers she will not overtake them; if she makes search for them she will not see them; then will she say, I will go back to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now. +Hos 2:8 For she had no knowledge that it was I who gave her the grain and the wine and the oil, increasing her silver and gold which they gave to the Baal. +Hos 2:9 So I will take away again my grain in its time and my wine, and I will take away my wool and my linen with which her body might have been covered. +Hos 2:10 And now I will make her shame clear before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will take her out of my hand. +Hos 2:11 And I will put an end to all her joy, her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her regular meetings. +Hos 2:12 And I will make waste her vines and her fig-trees, of which she has said, These are the payments which my lovers have made to me; and I will make them a waste of trees, and the beasts of the field will take them for food. +Hos 2:13 And I will give her punishment for the days of the Baals, to whom she has been burning perfumes, when she made herself fair with her nose-rings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, giving no thought to me, says the Lord. +Hos 2:14 For this cause I will make her come into the waste land and will say words of comfort to her. +Hos 2:15 And I will give her vine-gardens from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will give her answer there as in the days when she was young, and as in the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt. +Hos 2:16 And in that day, says the Lord, you will say to me, Ishi; and you will never again give me the name of Baali; +Hos 2:17 For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and never again will she say their names. +Hos 2:18 And in that day I will make an agreement for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven and the things which go low on the earth; I will put an end to the bow and the sword and war in all the land, and will make them take their rest in peace. +Hos 2:19 And I will take you as my bride for ever; truly, I will take you as my bride in righteousness and in right judging, in love and in mercies. +Hos 2:20 I will take you as my bride in good faith, and you will have knowledge of the Lord. +Hos 2:21 And it will be, in that day, says the Lord, that I will give an answer to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth; +Hos 2:22 And the earth will give its answer to the grain and the wine and the oil, and they will give an answer to Jezreel; +Hos 2:23 And I will put her as seed in the earth, and I will have mercy on her to whom no mercy was given; and I will say to those who were not my people, You are my people, and they will say, My God. +Hos 3:1 And the Lord said to me, Give your love again to a woman who has a lover and is false to her husband, even as the Lord has love for the children of Israel, though they are turned to other gods and are lovers of grape-cakes. +Hos 3:2 So I got her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley; +Hos 3:3 And I said to her, You are to be mine for a long space of time; you are not to be false to me, and no other man is to have you for his wife; and so will I be to you. +Hos 3:4 For the children of Israel will for a long time be without king and without ruler, without offerings and without pillars, and without ephod or images. +Hos 3:5 And after that, the children of Israel will come back and go in search of the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come in fear to the Lord and to his mercies in the days to come. +Hos 4:1 Give ear to the word of the Lord, O children of Israel; for the Lord has a cause against the people of this land, because there is no good faith in it, and no mercy and no knowledge of God in the land. +Hos 4:2 There is cursing and broken faith, violent death and attacks on property, men are untrue in married life, houses are broken into, and there is blood touching blood. +Hos 4:3 Because of this the land will be dry, and everyone living in it will be wasted away, with the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven; even the fishes of the sea will be taken away. +Hos 4:4 Let no man go to law or make protests, for your people are like those who go to law with a priest. +Hos 4:5 You will not be able to keep on your feet by day, and by night the prophet will be falling down with you, and I will give your mother to destruction. +Hos 4:6 Destruction has overtaken my people because they have no knowledge; because you have given up knowledge, I will give you up, so that you will be no priest to me, because you have not kept in mind the law of your God, I will not keep your children in my memory. +Hos 4:7 Even while they were increasing in number they were sinning against me; I will let their glory be changed into shame. +Hos 4:8 The sin of my people is like food to them; and their desire is for their wrongdoing. +Hos 4:9 And the priest will be like the people; I will give them punishment for their evil ways, and the reward of their acts. +Hos 4:10 They will have food, but they will not be full; they will be false to me, but they will not be increased, because they no longer give thought to the Lord. +Hos 4:11 Loose ways and new wine take away wisdom. +Hos 4:12 My people get knowledge from their tree, and their rod gives them news; for a false spirit is the cause of their wandering, and they have been false to their God. +Hos 4:13 They make offerings on the tops of mountains, burning perfumes in high places, under trees of every sort, because their shade is good: and so your daughters are given up to loose ways and your brides are false to their husbands. +Hos 4:14 I will not give punishment to your daughters or your brides for their evil behaviour; for they make themselves separate with loose women, and make offerings with those who are used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods: the people who have no wisdom will be sent away. +Hos 4:15 Do not you, O Israel, come into error; do not you, O Judah, come to Gilgal, or go up to Beth-aven, or take an oath, By the living Lord. +Hos 4:16 For Israel is uncontrolled, like a cow which may not be controlled; now will the Lord give them food like a lamb in a wide place. +Hos 4:17 Ephraim is joined to false gods; let him be. +Hos 4:18 Their drink has become bitter; they are completely false; her rulers take pleasure in shame. +Hos 4:19 They are folded in the skirts of the wind; they will be shamed because of their offerings. +Hos 5:1 Give ear to this, O priests; give attention, O Israel, and you, family of the king; for you are to be judged; you have been a deceit at Mizpah and a net stretched out on Tabor. +Hos 5:2 They have gone deep in the evil ways of Shittim, but I am the judge of all. +Hos 5:3 I have knowledge of Ephraim, and Israel is not secret from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have been false to me, Israel has become unclean. +Hos 5:4 Their works will not let them come back to their God, for a false spirit is in them and they have no knowledge of the Lord. +Hos 5:5 And the pride of Israel gives an answer to his face; and Ephraim will have a fall through his sins, and the fall of Judah will be the same as theirs. +Hos 5:6 They will go, with their flocks and their herds, in search of the Lord, but they will not see him; he has taken himself out of their view. +Hos 5:7 They have been false to the Lord; they have given birth to strange children; now the new moon will make them waste with their fields. +Hos 5:8 Let the horn be sounded in Gibeah and in Ramah; give a loud cry in Beth-aven, They are after you, O Benjamin. +Hos 5:9 Ephraim will become a waste in the day of punishment; I have given knowledge among the tribes of Israel of what is certain. +Hos 5:10 The rulers of Judah are like those who take away a landmark; I will let loose my wrath on them like flowing water. +Hos 5:11 Ephraim is troubled; he is crushed by his judges, because he took pleasure in walking after deceit. +Hos 5:12 And so to Ephraim I am like a wasting insect, and a destruction to the children of Judah. +Hos 5:13 When Ephraim saw his disease and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the great king; but he is not able to make you well or give you help for your wound. +Hos 5:14 For I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the children of Judah; I, even I, will give him wounds and go away; I will take him away, and there will be no helper. +Hos 5:15 I will go back to my place till they are made waste; in their trouble they will go after me early and will make search for me. +Hos 6:1 Come, let us go back to the Lord; for he has given us wounds and he will make us well; he has given blows and he will give help. +Hos 6:2 After two days he will give us life, and on the third day he will make us get up, and we will be living before him. +Hos 6:3 And let us have knowledge, let us go after the knowledge of the Lord; his going out is certain as the dawn, his decisions go out like the light; he will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. +Hos 6:4 O Ephraim, what am I to do to you? O Judah, what am I to do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew which goes early away. +Hos 6:5 So I have had it cut in stones; I gave them teaching by the words of my mouth; +Hos 6:6 Because my desire is for mercy and not offerings; for the knowledge of God more than for burned offerings. +Hos 6:7 But like a man, they have gone against the agreement; there they were false to me. +Hos 6:8 Gilead is a town of evil-doers, marked with blood. +Hos 6:9 And like a band of thieves waiting for a man, so are the priests watching secretly the way of those going quickly to Shechem, for they are working with an evil design. +Hos 6:10 In Israel I have seen a very evil thing; there false ways are seen in Ephraim, Israel is unclean; +Hos 6:11 And Judah has put up disgusting images for himself. +Hos 7:1 When my desire was for the fate of my people to be changed and to make Israel well, then the sin of Ephraim was made clear, and the evil-doing of Samaria; for their ways are false, and the thief comes into the house, while the band of outlaws takes property by force in the streets. +Hos 7:2 And they do not say to themselves that I keep in mind all their sin; now their evil acts come round them on every side; they are before my face. +Hos 7:3 In their sin they make a king for themselves, and rulers in their deceit. +Hos 7:4 They are all untrue; they are like a burning oven; the bread-maker does not make up the fire from the time when the paste is mixed till it is leavened. +Hos 7:5 On the day of our king, the rulers made him ill with the heat of wine; his hand was stretched out with the men of pride. +Hos 7:6 For they have made their hearts ready like an oven, while they are waiting secretly; their wrath is sleeping all night; in the morning it is burning like a flaming fire. +Hos 7:7 They are all heated like an oven, and they put an end to their judges; all their kings have been made low; not one among them makes prayer to me. +Hos 7:8 Ephraim is mixed with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. +Hos 7:9 Men from other lands have made waste his strength, and he is not conscious of it; grey hairs have come on him here and there, and he has no knowledge of it. +Hos 7:10 And the pride of Israel gives an answer to his face; but for all this, they have not gone back to the Lord their God, or made search for him. +Hos 7:11 And Ephraim is like a foolish dove, without wisdom; they send out their cry to Egypt, they go to Assyria. +Hos 7:12 When they go, my net will be stretched out over them; I will take them like the birds of heaven, I will give them punishment, I will take them away in the net for their sin. +Hos 7:13 May trouble be theirs! for they have gone far away from me; and destruction, for they have been sinning against me; I was ready to be their saviour, but they said false words against me. +Hos 7:14 And they have not made prayer to me in their hearts, but they make loud cries on their beds; they are cutting themselves for food and wine, they are turned against me. +Hos 7:15 Though I have given training and strength to their arms, they have evil designs against me. +Hos 7:16 They have gone to what is of no value; they are like a false bow; their captains will come to destruction by the sword, and their ruler by my wrath; for this, the land of Egypt will make sport of them. +Hos 8:1 Put the horn to your mouth. He comes like an eagle against the house of the Lord; because they have gone against my agreement, they have not kept my law. +Hos 8:2 They will send up to me a cry for help: We, Israel, have knowledge of you, O God of Israel. +Hos 8:3 Israel has given up what is good; his haters will go after him. +Hos 8:4 They have put up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, but I had no knowledge of it; they have made images of silver and gold, so that they may be cut off. +Hos 8:5 I will have nothing to do with your young ox, O Samaria; my wrath is burning against them; how long will it be before the children of Israel make themselves clean? +Hos 8:6 The workman made it, it is no god; the ox of Samaria will be broken into bits. +Hos 8:7 For they have been planting the wind, and their fruit will be the storm; his grain has no stem, it will give no meal, and if it does, a strange nation will take it. +Hos 8:8 Israel has come to destruction; now they are among the nations like a cup in which there is no pleasure. +Hos 8:9 For they have gone up to Assyria like an ass going by himself; Ephraim has given money to get lovers. +Hos 8:10 But though they give money to the nations for help, still I will send them in all directions; and in a short time they will be without a king and rulers. +Hos 8:11 Because Ephraim has been increasing altars for sin, altars have become a cause of sin to him. +Hos 8:12 Though I put my law in writing for him in ten thousand rules, they are to him as a strange thing. +Hos 8:13 He gives the offerings of his lovers, and takes the flesh for food; but the Lord has no pleasure in them; now he will keep in mind their evil-doing and give them the punishment of their sins; they will go back to Egypt. +Hos 8:14 For Israel has no memory of his Maker, and has put up the houses of kings; and Judah has made great the number of his walled towns. But I will send a fire on his towns and put an end to his great houses. +Hos 9:1 Have no joy, O Israel, and do not be glad like the nations; for you have been untrue to your God; your desire has been for the loose woman's reward on every grain-floor. +Hos 9:2 The grain-floor and the place where the grapes are crushed will not give them food; there will be no new wine for them. +Hos 9:3 They will have no resting-place in the Lord's land, but Ephraim will go back to Egypt, and they will take unclean food in Assyria. +Hos 9:4 They will give no wine offering to the Lord, they will not make offerings ready for him; their bread will be like the bread of those in sorrow; all who take it will be unclean, because their bread will be only for their desire, it will not come into the house of the Lord. +Hos 9:5 What will you do on the day of worship, and on the day of the feast of the Lord? +Hos 9:6 For see, they are going away into Assyria; Egypt will get them together, Memphis will be their last resting-place; their fair silver vessels will be covered over with field plants, and thorns will come up in their tents. +Hos 9:7 The days of punishment, the days of reward are come; Israel will be put to shame; the prophet is foolish, the man who has the spirit is off his head, because of your great sin. +Hos 9:8 There is great hate against the watchman of Ephraim, the people of my God; as for the prophet, there is a net in all his ways, and hate in the house of his God. +Hos 9:9 They have gone deep in evil as in the days of Gibeah; he will keep in mind their wrongdoing, he will give them punishment for their sins. +Hos 9:10 I made discovery of Israel as of grapes in the waste land; I saw your fathers as the first-fruits of the fig-tree in her early fruit time; but they came to Baal-peor, and made themselves holy to the thing of shame, and became disgusting like that to which they gave their love. +Hos 9:11 As for Ephraim, their glory will go in flight like a bird: there will be no birth and no one with child and no giving of life. +Hos 9:12 Even though their children have come to growth I will take them away, so that not a man will be there; for their evil-doing will be complete and they will be put to shame because of it. +Hos 9:13 As I have seen a beast whose young have been taken from her, so Ephraim will give birth to children only for them to be put to death. +Hos 9:14 O Lord, what will you give them? Give them bodies which may not give birth and breasts without milk. +Hos 9:15 All their evil-doing is in Gilgal; there I had hate for them; because of their evil-doing I will send them out of my house; they will no longer be dear to me; all their rulers are uncontrolled. +Hos 9:16 The rod has come on Ephraim, their root is dry, let them have no fruit; even though they give birth, I will put to death the dearest fruit of their bodies. +Hos 9:17 My God will give them up because they did not give ear to him; they will be wandering among the nations. +Hos 10:1 Israel is a branching vine, full of fruit; as his fruit is increased, so the number of his altars is increased; as the land is fair, so they have made fair pillars. +Hos 10:2 Their mind is taken away; now they will be made waste: he will have their altars broken down, he will give their pillars to destruction. +Hos 10:3 Now, truly, they will say, We have no king, we have no fear of the Lord; and the king, what is he able to do for us? +Hos 10:4 Their words are foolish; they make agreements with false oaths, so punishment will come up like a poison-plant in a ploughed field. +Hos 10:5 The people of Samaria will be full of fear because of the ox of Beth-aven; its people will have sorrow for it, and its priests will give cries of grief for its glory, for the glory has gone in flight. +Hos 10:6 And they will take it to Assyria and give it to the great king; shame will come on Ephraim, and Israel will be shamed because of its image. +Hos 10:7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off, like mist on the water. +Hos 10:8 And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will come to destruction; thorns and waste plants will come up on their altars; they will say to the mountains, Be a cover over us; and to the hills, Come down on us. +Hos 10:9 O Israel, you have done evil from the days of Gibeah; there they took up their position, so that the fighting against the children of evil might not overtake them in Gibeah. +Hos 10:10 I will come and give them punishment; and the peoples will come together against them when I give them the reward of their two sins. +Hos 10:11 And Ephraim is a trained cow, taking pleasure in crushing the grain; but I have put a yoke on her fair neck; I will put a horseman on the back of Ephraim; Judah will be working the plough, Jacob will be turning up the earth. +Hos 10:12 Put in the seed of righteousness, get in your grain in mercy, let your unploughed earth be turned up: for it is time to make search for the Lord, till he comes and sends righteousness on you like rain. +Hos 10:13 You have been ploughing sin, you have got in a store of evil, the fruit of deceit has been your food: for you put faith in your way, in the number of your men of war. +Hos 10:14 So a great outcry will go up from among your people, and all your strong places will be broken, as Beth-arbel was broken by Shalman in the day of war, as the mother was broken on the rocks with her children. +Hos 10:15 So will Beth-el do to you because of your evil-doing; at dawn will the king of Israel be cut off completely. +Hos 11:1 When Israel was a child he was dear to me; and I took my son out of Egypt. +Hos 11:2 When I sent for them, then they went away from me; they made offerings to the Baals, burning perfumes to images. +Hos 11:3 But I was guiding Ephraim's footsteps; I took them up in my arms, but they were not conscious that I was ready to make them well. +Hos 11:4 I made them come after me with the cords of a man, with the bands of love; I was to them as one who took the yoke from off their mouths, putting meat before them. +Hos 11:5 He will go back to the land of Egypt and the Assyrian will be his king, because they would not come back to me. +Hos 11:6 And the sword will go through his towns, wasting his children and causing destruction because of their evil designs. +Hos 11:7 My people are given up to sinning against me; though their voice goes up on high, no one will be lifting them up. +Hos 11:8 How may I give you up, O Ephraim? how may I be your saviour, O Israel? how may I make you like Admah? how may I do to you as I did to Zeboim? My heart is turned in me, it is soft with pity. +Hos 11:9 I will not put into effect the heat of my wrath; I will not again send destruction on Ephraim; for I am God and not man, the Holy One among you; I will not put an end to you. +Hos 11:10 They will go after the Lord; his cry will be like that of a lion; his cry will be loud, and the children will come from the west, shaking with fear; +Hos 11:11 Shaking with fear like a bird, they will come out of Egypt, like a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will give them rest in their houses, says the Lord. +Hos 11:12 The deceit of Ephraim and the false words of Israel are about me on every side. ... +Hos 12:1 Ephraim's food is the wind, and he goes after the east wind: deceit and destruction are increasing day by day; they make an agreement with Assyria, and take oil into Egypt. +Hos 12:2 The Lord has a cause against Judah, and will give punishment to Jacob for his ways; he will give him the reward of his acts. +Hos 12:3 In the body of his mother he took his brother by the foot, and in his strength he was fighting with God; +Hos 12:4 He had a fight with the angel and overcame him; he made request for grace to him with weeping; he came face to face with him in Beth-el and there his words came to him; +Hos 12:5 Even the Lord, the God of armies; the Lord is his name. +Hos 12:6 So then, come back to your God; keep mercy and right, and be waiting at all times on your God. +Hos 12:7 As for Canaan, the scales of deceit are in his hands; he takes pleasure in twisted ways. +Hos 12:8 And Ephraim said, Now I have got wealth and much property; in all my works no sin may be seen in me. +Hos 12:9 But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; I will give you tents for your living-places again as in the days of the holy meeting. +Hos 12:10 My word came to the ears of the prophets and I gave them visions in great number, and by the mouths of the prophets I made use of comparisons. +Hos 12:11 In Gilead there is evil. They are quite without value; in Gilgal they make offerings of oxen; truly their altars are like masses of stones in the hollows of a ploughed field. +Hos 12:12 And Jacob went in flight into the field of Aram, and Israel became a servant for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. +Hos 12:13 And by a prophet the Lord made Israel come up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was kept safe. +Hos 12:14 I have been bitterly moved to wrath by Ephraim; so that his blood will be on him, and the Lord will make his shame come back on him. +Hos 13:1 When the words of my law came from Ephraim, he was lifted up in Israel; but when he did evil through the Baal, death overtook him. +Hos 13:2 And now their sins are increased; they have made themselves a metal image, false gods from their silver, after their designs, all of them the work of the metal-workers; they say of them, Let them give offerings, let men give kisses to the oxen. +Hos 13:3 So they will be like the morning cloud, like the dew which goes early away, like the dust of the grain which the wind is driving out of the crushing-floor, like smoke going up from the fireplace. +Hos 13:4 But I am the Lord your God, from the land of Egypt; you have knowledge of no other God and there is no saviour but me. +Hos 13:5 I had knowledge of you in the waste land where no water was. +Hos 13:6 When I gave them food they were full, and their hearts were full of pride, and they did not keep me in mind. +Hos 13:7 So I will be like a lion to them; as a cruel beast I will keep watch by the road; +Hos 13:8 I will come face to face with them like a bear whose young ones have been taken from her, and their inmost hearts will be broken; there the dogs will make a meal of them; they will be wounded by the beasts of the field. +Hos 13:9 I have sent destruction on you, O Israel; who will be your helper? +Hos 13:10 Where is your king, that he may be your saviour? and all your rulers, that they may take up your cause? of whom you said, Give me a king and rulers. +Hos 13:11 I have given you a king, because I was angry, and have taken him away in my wrath. +Hos 13:12 The wrongdoing of Ephraim is shut up; his sin is put away in secret. +Hos 13:13 The pains of a woman in childbirth will come on him: he is an unwise son, for at this time it is not right for him to keep his place when children come to birth. +Hos 13:14 I will give the price to make them free from the power of the underworld, I will be their saviour from death: O death! where are your pains? O underworld! where is your destruction? my eyes will have no pity. +Hos 13:15 Though he gives fruit among his brothers, an east wind will come, the wind of the Lord coming up from the waste land, and his spring will become dry, his fountain will be without water: it will make waste the store of all the vessels of his desire. +Hos 13:16 Samaria will be made waste, for she has gone against her God: they will be cut down by the sword, their little children will be broken on the rocks, their women who are with child will be cut open. +Hos 14:1 O Israel, come back to the Lord your God; for your evil-doing has been the cause of your fall. +Hos 14:2 Take with you words, and come back to the Lord; say to him, Let there be forgiveness for all wrongdoing, so that we may take what is good, and give in payment the fruit of our lips. +Hos 14:3 Assyria will not be our salvation; we will not go on horses; we will not again say to the work of our hands, You are our gods; for in you there is mercy for the child who has no father. +Hos 14:4 I will put right their errors; freely will my love be given to them, for my wrath is turned away from him. +Hos 14:5 I will be as the dew to Israel; he will put out flowers like a lily, and send out his roots like Lebanon. +Hos 14:6 His branches will be stretched out, he will be beautiful as the olive-tree and sweet-smelling as Lebanon. +Hos 14:7 They will come back and have rest in his shade; their life will be made new like the grain, and they will put out flowers like the vine; his name will be like the wine of Lebanon. +Hos 14:8 As for Ephraim, what has he to do with false gods any longer? I have given an answer and I will keep watch over him; I am like a branching fir-tree, from me comes your fruit. +Hos 14:9 He who is wise will see these things; he who has good sense will have knowledge of them. For the ways of the Lord are straight, and the upright will go in them, but sinners will be falling in them. +Joe 1:1 The word of the Lord which came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. +Joe 1:2 Give ear to this, you old men, and take note, you people of the land. Has this ever been in your days, or in the days of your fathers? +Joe 1:3 Give the story of it to your children, and let them give it to their children, and their children to another generation. +Joe 1:4 What the worm did not make a meal of, has been taken by the locust; and what the locust did not take, has been food for the plant-worm; and what the plant-worm did not take, has been food for the field-fly. +Joe 1:5 Come out of your sleep, you who are overcome with wine, and give yourselves to weeping; give cries of sorrow, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it has been cut off from your mouths. +Joe 1:6 For a nation has come up over my land, strong and without number; his teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the back teeth of a great lion. +Joe 1:7 By him my vine is made waste and my fig-tree broken: he has taken all its fruit and sent it down to the earth; its branches are made white. +Joe 1:8 Make sounds of grief like a virgin dressed in haircloth for the husband of her early years. +Joe 1:9 The meal offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord's servants, are sorrowing. +Joe 1:10 The fields are wasted, the land has become dry; for the grain is wasted, the new wine is kept back, the oil is poor. +Joe 1:11 The farmers are shamed, the workers in the vine-gardens give cries of grief, for the wheat and the barley; for the produce of the fields has come to destruction. +Joe 1:12 The vine has become dry and the fig-tree is feeble; the pomegranate and the palm-tree and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are dry: because joy has gone from the sons of men. +Joe 1:13 Put haircloth round you and give yourselves to sorrow, you priests; give cries of grief, you servants of the altar: come in, and, clothed in haircloth, let the night go past, you servants of my God: for the meal offering and the drink offering have been kept back from the house of your God. +Joe 1:14 Let a time be fixed for going without food, have a holy meeting, let the old men, even all the people of the land, come together to the house of the Lord your God, crying out to the Lord. +Joe 1:15 Sorrow for the day! for the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Ruler of all it will come. +Joe 1:16 Is not food cut off before our eyes? joy and delight from the house of our God? +Joe 1:17 The grains have become small and dry under the spade; the store-houses are made waste, the grain-stores are broken down; for the grain is dry and dead. +Joe 1:18 What sounds of pain come from the beasts! the herds of cattle are at a loss because there is no grass for them; even the flocks of sheep are no longer to be seen. +Joe 1:19 O Lord, my cry goes up to you: for fire has put an end to the grass-lands of the waste, and all the trees of the field are burned with its flame. +Joe 1:20 The beasts of the field are turning to you with desire: for the water-streams are dry and fire has put an end to the grass-lands of the waste. +Joe 2:1 Let the horn be sounded in Zion, and a war-cry in my holy mountain; let all the people of the land be troubled: for the day of the Lord is coming; +Joe 2:2 For a day of dark and deep shade is near, a day of cloud and black night: like a black cloud a great and strong people is covering the mountains; there has never been any like them and will not be after them again, from generation to generation. +Joe 2:3 Before them fire sends destruction, and after them flame is burning: the land is like the garden of Eden before them, and after them an unpeopled waste; truly, nothing has been kept safe from them. +Joe 2:4 Their form is like the form of horses, and they are running like war-horses. +Joe 2:5 Like the sound of war-carriages they go jumping on the tops of the mountains; like the noise of a flame of fire burning up the grain-stems, like a strong people lined up for the fight. +Joe 2:6 At their coming the people are bent with pain: all faces become red together. +Joe 2:7 They are running like strong men, they go over the wall like men of war; every man goes straight on his way, their lines are not broken. +Joe 2:8 No one is pushing against another; everyone goes straight on his way: bursting through the sword points, their order is not broken. +Joe 2:9 They make a rush on the town, running on the wall; they go up into the houses and in through the windows like a thief. +Joe 2:10 The earth is troubled before them and the heavens are shaking: the sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars keep back their shining: +Joe 2:11 And the Lord is thundering before his forces; for very great is his army; for he is strong who gives effect to his word: for the day of the Lord is great and greatly to be feared, and who has strength against it? +Joe 2:12 But even now, says the Lord, come back to me with all your heart, keeping from food, with weeping and with sorrow: +Joe 2:13 Let your hearts be broken, and not your clothing, and come back to the Lord your God: for he is full of grace and pity, slow to be angry and great in mercy, ready to be turned from his purpose of punishment. +Joe 2:14 May it not be that he will again let his purpose be changed and let a blessing come after him, even a meal offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? +Joe 2:15 Let a horn be sounded in Zion, let a time be fixed for going without food, have a holy meeting: +Joe 2:16 Get the people together, make the mass of the people holy, send for the old men, get together the children and babies at the breast: let the newly married man come out of his room and the bride from her tent. +Joe 2:17 Let the priests, the servants of the Lord, be weeping between the covered way and the altar, and let them say, Have mercy on your people, O Lord, do not give up your heritage to shame, so that the nations become their rulers: why let them say among the peoples, Where is their God? +Joe 2:18 Then the Lord had a care for the honour of his land and had pity on his people. +Joe 2:19 And the Lord made answer and said to his people, See, I will send you grain and wine and oil in full measure: and I will no longer let you be shamed among the nations: +Joe 2:20 I will send the one from the north far away from you, driving him into a dry and waste land, with his front to the sea of the east and his back to the sea of the west, and the smell of him will go up, even his evil smell will go up. +Joe 2:21 Have no fear, O land; be glad with great joy; for the Lord has done great things. +Joe 2:22 Have no fear, you beasts of the field, for the grass-lands of the waste are becoming green, for the trees are producing fruit, the fig-tree and the vine give out their strength. +Joe 2:23 Be glad, then, you children of Zion, and have joy in the Lord your God: for he gives you food in full measure, making the rain come down for you, the early and the late rain as at the first. +Joe 2:24 And the floors will be full of grain, and the crushing-places overflowing with wine and oil. +Joe 2:25 I will give back to you the years which were food for the locust, the plant-worm, the field-fly, and the worm, my great army which I sent among you. +Joe 2:26 You will have food in full measure, and give praise to the name of the Lord your God, who has done wonders for you: +Joe 2:27 And you will be certain that I am in Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other: and my people will never be shamed. +Joe 2:28 And after that, it will come about, says the Lord, that I will send my spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will be prophets, your old men will have dreams, your young men will see visions: +Joe 2:29 And on the servants and the servant-girls in those days I will send my spirit. +Joe 2:30 And I will let wonders be seen in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. +Joe 2:31 The sun will be made dark and the moon turned to blood, before the great day of the Lord comes, a day to be feared. +Joe 2:32 And it will be that whoever makes his prayer to the name of the Lord will be kept safe: for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem some will be kept safe, as the Lord has said, and will be among the small band marked out by the Lord. +Joe 3:1 For in those days and in that time, when I let the fate of Judah and Jerusalem be changed, +Joe 3:2 I will get together all the nations, and make them come down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and there I will take up with them the cause of my people and of my heritage Israel, whom they have sent wandering among the nations, and of my land which has been parted by them. +Joe 3:3 And they have put the fate of my people to the decision of chance: giving a boy for the price of a loose woman and a girl for a drink of wine. +Joe 3:4 And further, what are you to me, O Tyre and Zidon and all the circle of Philistia? will you give me back any payment? and if you do, quickly and suddenly I will send it back on your head, +Joe 3:5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, putting in the houses of your gods my beautiful and pleasing things. +Joe 3:6 And the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem you have given for a price to the sons of the Greeks, to send them far away from their land: +Joe 3:7 See, I will have them moved from the place where you have sent them, and will let what you have done come back on your head; +Joe 3:8 I will give your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah for a price, and they will give them for a price to the men of Sheba, a nation far off: for the Lord has said it. +Joe 3:9 Give this out among the nations; make ready for war: get the strong men awake; let all the men of war come near, let them come up. +Joe 3:10 Get your plough-blades hammered into swords, and your vine-knives into spears: let the feeble say, I am strong. +Joe 3:11 Come quickly, all you nations round about, and get yourselves together there: make your strong ones come down, O Lord. +Joe 3:12 Let the nations be awake, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there I will be seated as judge of all the nations round about. +Joe 3:13 Put in the blade, for the grain is ready: come, get you down, for the wine-crusher is full, the vessels are overflowing; for great is their evil-doing. +Joe 3:14 Masses on masses in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. +Joe 3:15 The sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars keep back their shining. +Joe 3:16 And the Lord will be thundering from Zion, and his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will be shaking: but the Lord will be a breastplate for his people and a strong place for the children of Israel. +Joe 3:17 And you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, living in Zion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem will be holy, and no strange person will ever again go through her. +Joe 3:18 And it will come about in that day that the mountains will be dropping sweet wine, and the hills will be flowing with milk, and all the streams of Judah will be flowing with water; and a fountain will come out from the house of the Lord, watering the valley of acacia-trees. +Joe 3:19 Egypt will be a waste and Edom a land of destruction, because of the evil done to the children of Judah, because they have let blood be drained out in their land without cause. +Joe 3:20 But Judah will be peopled for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. +Joe 3:21 And I will send punishment for their blood, for which punishment has not been sent, for the Lord is living in Zion. +Amo 1:1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa; what he saw about Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earth-shock. +Amo 1:2 And he said, The Lord will give a lion's cry from Zion, his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the fields of the keepers of sheep will become dry, and the top of Carmel will be wasted away. +Amo 1:3 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Damascus, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have been crushing Gilead with iron grain-crushing instruments. +Amo 1:4 And I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, burning up the great houses of Ben-hadad. +Amo 1:5 And I will have the locks of the door of Damascus broken, and him who is seated in power cut off from the valley of Aven, and him in whose hand is the rod from the house of Eden; and the people of Aram will go away as prisoners into Kir, says the Lord. +Amo 1:6 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Gaza, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they took all the people away prisoners, to give them up to Edom. +Amo 1:7 And I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, burning up its great houses: +Amo 1:8 Him who is seated in power I will have cut off from Ashdod, and him in whose hand is the rod from Ashkelon; and my hand will be turned against Ekron, and the rest of the Philistines will come to destruction, says the Lord God. +Amo 1:9 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Tyre, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they gave up all the people prisoners to Edom, without giving a thought to the brothers' agreement between them. +Amo 1:10 And I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, burning up its great houses. +Amo 1:11 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Edom, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because his sword was turned against his brother, without pity, and his wrath was burning at all times, and he was angry for ever. +Amo 1:12 And I will send a fire on Teman, burning up the great houses of Bozrah. +Amo 1:13 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because in Gilead they had women with child cut open, so that they might make wider the limits of their land. +Amo 1:14 And I will make a fire in the wall of Rabbah, burning up its great houses, with loud cries in the days of war, with a storm in the day of the great wind: +Amo 1:15 And their king will be made prisoner, he and his captains together, says the Lord. +Amo 2:1 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Moab, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because he had the bones of the king of Edom burned to dust. +Amo 2:2 And I will send a fire on Moab, burning up the great houses of Kerioth: and death will come on Moab with noise and outcries and the sound of the horn: +Amo 2:3 And I will have the judge cut off from among them, and all their captains I will put to death with him, says the Lord. +Amo 2:4 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Judah, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have given up the law of the Lord, and have not kept his rules; and their false ways, in which their fathers went, have made them go out of the right way. +Amo 2:5 And I will send a fire on Judah, burning up the great houses of Jerusalem. +Amo 2:6 These are the words of the Lord: For three crimes of Israel, and for four, I will not let its fate be changed; because they have given the upright man for silver, and the poor for the price of two shoes; +Amo 2:7 Crushing the head of the poor, and turning the steps of the gentle out of the way: and a man and his father go in to the same young woman, putting shame on my holy name: +Amo 2:8 By every altar they are stretched on clothing taken from those who are in their debt, drinking in the house of their god the wine of those who have made payment for wrongdoing. +Amo 2:9 Though I sent destruction on the Amorite before them, who was tall as the cedar and strong as the oak-tree, cutting off his fruit from on high and his roots from under the earth. +Amo 2:10 And I took you up out of the land of Egypt, guiding you for forty years in the waste land, so that you might take for your heritage the land of the Amorite. +Amo 2:11 And some of your sons I made prophets, and some of your young men I made separate for myself. Is it not even so, O children of Israel? says the Lord. +Amo 2:12 But to those who were separate you gave wine for drink; and to the prophets you said, Be prophets no longer. +Amo 2:13 See, I am crushing you down, as one is crushed under a cart full of grain. +Amo 2:14 And flight will be impossible for the quick-footed, and the force of the strong will become feeble, and the man of war will not get away safely: +Amo 2:15 And the bowman will not keep his place; he who is quick-footed will not get away safely: and the horseman will not keep his life. +Amo 2:16 And he who is without fear among the fighting men will go in flight without his clothing in that day, says the Lord. +Amo 3:1 Give ear to this word which the Lord has said against you, O children of Israel, against all the family which I took up out of the land of Egypt, saying, +Amo 3:2 You only of all the families of the earth have I taken care of: for this reason I will send punishment on you for all your sins. +Amo 3:3 Is it possible for two to go walking together, if not by agreement? +Amo 3:4 Will a lion give his loud cry in the woodland when no food is there? will the voice of the young lion be sounding from his hole if he has taken nothing? +Amo 3:5 Is it possible for a bird to be taken in a net on the earth where no net has been put for him? will the net come up from the earth if it has taken nothing at all? +Amo 3:6 If the horn is sounded in the town will the people not be full of fear? will evil come on a town if the Lord has not done it? +Amo 3:7 Certainly the Lord will do nothing without making clear his secret to his servants, the prophets. +Amo 3:8 The cry of the lion is sounding; who will not have fear? The Lord God has said the word; is it possible for the prophet to keep quiet? +Amo 3:9 Give out the news in the great houses of Assyria and in the land of Egypt, and say, Come together on the mountains of Samaria, and see what great outcries are there, and what cruel acts are done in it. +Amo 3:10 For they have no knowledge of how to do what is right, says the Lord, who are storing up violent acts and destruction in their great houses. +Amo 3:11 For this reason, says the Lord, an attacker will come, shutting in the land on every side; and your strength will come down and your great houses will be made waste. +Amo 3:12 These are the words of the Lord: As the keeper of sheep takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs or part of an ear; so will the children of Israel be made safe, who are resting in Samaria on seats of honour or on the silk cushions of a bed. +Amo 3:13 Give ear now, and give witness against the family of Jacob, says the Lord God, the God of armies; +Amo 3:14 For in the day when I give Israel punishment for his sins, I will send punishment on the altars of Beth-el, and the horns of the altar will be cut off and come down to the earth. +Amo 3:15 And I will send destruction on the winter house with the summer house; the ivory houses will be falling down and the great houses will come to an end, says the Lord. +Amo 4:1 Give ear to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the hill of Samaria, by whom the poor are kept down, and those in need are crushed; who say to their lords, Get out the wine and give us drink. +Amo 4:2 The Lord God has taken an oath by his holy name, that the days are coming when they will take you away with hooks, and the rest of you with fish-hooks. +Amo 4:3 And you will go out through the broken places, every one going straight before her, and you will be sent into Harmon, says the Lord. +Amo 4:4 Come to Beth-el and do evil; to Gilgal, increasing the number of your sins; come with your offerings every morning and your tenths every three days: +Amo 4:5 Let that which is leavened be burned as a praise-offering, let the news of your free offerings be given out publicly; for this is pleasing to you, O children of Israel, says the Lord. +Amo 4:6 But in all your towns I have kept food from your teeth, and in all your places there has been need of bread: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord. +Amo 4:7 And I have kept back the rain from you, when it was still three months before the grain-cutting: I sent rain on one town and kept it back from another: one part was rained on, and the part where there was no rain became a waste. +Amo 4:8 So two or three towns went wandering to one town looking for water, and did not get enough: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord. +Amo 4:9 I have sent destruction on your fields by burning and disease: the increase of your gardens and your vine-gardens, your fig-trees and your olive-trees, has been food for worms: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord. +Amo 4:10 I have sent disease among you, as it was in Egypt: I have put your young men to the sword, and have taken away your horses; I have made the evil smell from your tents come up to your noses: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord. +Amo 4:11 And I have sent destruction among you, as when God sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick pulled out of the fire: and still you have not come back to me, says the Lord. +Amo 4:12 So this is what I will do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, be ready for a meeting with your God, O Israel. +Amo 4:13 For see, he who gave form to the mountains and made the wind, giving knowledge of his purpose to man, who makes the morning dark, and is walking on the high places of the earth: the Lord, the God of armies, is his name. +Amo 5:1 Give ear to this word, my song of sorrow over you, O children of Israel. +Amo 5:2 The virgin of Israel has been made low, never again to be lifted up: she is stretched out by herself on her land; there is no one to put her on her feet again. +Amo 5:3 For these are the words of the Lord God: The town which was able to send out a thousand, will have only a hundred; and that which sent out a hundred, will have only ten, in Israel. +Amo 5:4 For these are the words of the Lord to the children of Israel: Let your hearts be turned to me, so that you may have life: +Amo 5:5 Do not be looking for help to Beth-el, and do not go to Gilgal, or make your way to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal will certainly be taken prisoner, and Beth-el will come to nothing. +Amo 5:6 Go to the Lord for help so that you may have life; for fear that he may come like fire bursting out in the family of Joseph, causing destruction, and there will be no one to put it out in Beth-el. +Amo 5:7 You who make the work of judging a bitter thing, crushing down righteousness to the earth; +Amo 5:8 Go for help to him who makes Orion and the Pleiades, by whom the deep dark is turned into morning, who makes the day black with night; whose voice goes out to the waters of the sea, sending them out over the face of the earth: the Lord is his name; +Amo 5:9 Who sends sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the walled town. +Amo 5:10 They have hate for him who makes protest against evil in the public place, and he whose words are upright is disgusting to them. +Amo 5:11 So because the poor man is crushed under your feet, and you take taxes from him of grain: you have made for yourselves houses of cut stone, but you will not take your rest in them; the fair vine-gardens planted by your hands will not give you wine. +Amo 5:12 For I have seen how your evil-doing is increased and how strong are your sins, you troublers of the upright, who take rewards and do wrong to the cause of the poor in the public place. +Amo 5:13 So the wise will say nothing in that time; for it is an evil time. +Amo 5:14 Go after good and not evil, so that life may be yours: and so the Lord, the God of armies, will be with you, as you say. +Amo 5:15 Be haters of evil and lovers of good, and let right be done in the public place: it may be that the Lord, the God of armies, will have mercy on the rest of Joseph. +Amo 5:16 So these are the words of the Lord, the God of armies, the Lord: There will be weeping in all the open spaces; and in all the streets they will say, Sorrow! sorrow! and they will get in the farmer to the weeping, and the makers of sad songs to give cries of grief. +Amo 5:17 In all the vine-gardens there will be cries of grief: for I will go through among you, says the Lord. +Amo 5:18 Sorrow to you who are looking for the day of the Lord! what is the day of the Lord to you? it is dark and not light. +Amo 5:19 As if a man, running away from a lion, came face to face with a bear; or went into the house and put his hand on the wall and got a bite from a snake. +Amo 5:20 Will not the day of the Lord be dark and not light? even very dark, with no light shining in it? +Amo 5:21 Your feasts are disgusting to me, I will have nothing to do with them; I will take no delight in your holy meetings. +Amo 5:22 Even if you give me your burned offerings and your meal offerings, I will not take pleasure in them: I will have nothing to do with the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. +Amo 5:23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; my ears are shut to the melody of your instruments. +Amo 5:24 But let the right go rolling on like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. +Amo 5:25 Did you come to me with offerings of beasts and meal offerings in the waste land for forty years, O Israel? +Amo 5:26 Truly, you will take up Saccuth your king and Kaiwan your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves. +Amo 5:27 And I will send you away as prisoners farther than Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of armies. +Amo 6:1 Sorrow to those who are resting in comfort in Zion, and to those who have no fear of danger in the mountain of Samaria, the noted men of the chief of the nations, to whom the people of Israel come! +Amo 6:2 Go on to Calneh and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines: are you better than these kingdoms? or is your land wider than theirs? +Amo 6:3 You who put far away the evil day, causing the rule of the violent to come near; +Amo 6:4 Who are resting on beds of ivory, stretched out on soft seats, feasting on lambs from the flock and young oxen from the cattle-house; +Amo 6:5 Making foolish songs to the sound of corded instruments, and designing for themselves instruments of music, like David; +Amo 6:6 Drinking wine in basins, rubbing themselves with the best oils; but they have no grief for the destruction of Joseph. +Amo 6:7 So now they will go away prisoners with the first of those who are made prisoners, and the loud cry of those who were stretched out will come to an end. +Amo 6:8 The Lord God has taken an oath by himself, says the Lord, the God of armies: the pride of Jacob is disgusting to me, and I have hate for his great houses: so I will give up the town with everything in it. +Amo 6:9 Then it will come about that if there are still ten men in a house, death will overtake them. +Amo 6:10 And when a man's relation, even the one who is responsible for burning his body, lifting him up to take his bones out of the house, says to him who is in the inmost part of the house, Is there still anyone with you? and he says, No; then he will say, Keep quiet, for the name of the Lord may not be named. +Amo 6:11 For see, at the order of the Lord the great house will be full of cracks and the little house will be broken. +Amo 6:12 Is it possible for horses to go running on the rock? may the sea be ploughed with oxen? for the right to be turned by you into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into a bitter plant? +Amo 6:13 You whose joy is in a thing of no value, who say, Have we not taken for ourselves horns by the strength which is ours? +Amo 6:14 For see, I will send against you a nation, O Israel, says the Lord, the God of armies, ruling you cruelly from the way into Hamath as far as the stream of the Arabah. +Amo 7:1 This is what the Lord God let me see: and I saw that, when the growth of the late grass was starting, he made locusts; it was the late growth after the king's cutting was done. +Amo 7:2 And it came about that after they had taken all the grass of the land, I said, O Lord God, have mercy: how will Jacob be able to keep his place? for he is small. +Amo 7:3 The Lord, changing his purpose about this, said, It will not be. +Amo 7:4 This is what the Lord let me see: and I saw that the Lord God sent for a great fire to be the instrument of his punishment; and, after burning up the great deep, it was about to put an end to the Lord's heritage. +Amo 7:5 Then said I, O Lord God, let there be an end: how will Jacob be able to keep his place? for he is small. +Amo 7:6 The Lord, changing his purpose about this, said, And this will not be. +Amo 7:7 This is what he let me see: and I saw the Lord stationed by a wall made straight by a weighted line, and he had a weighted line in his hand. +Amo 7:8 And the Lord said to me, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A weighted line. Then the Lord said, See, I will let down a weighted line among my people Israel; never again will my eyes be shut to their sin: +Amo 7:9 And the high places of Isaac will be unpeopled, and the holy places of Israel will be made waste; and I will come up against the family of Jeroboam with the sword. +Amo 7:10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Beth-el, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos has made designs against you among the people of Israel: the land is troubled by his words. +Amo 7:11 For Amos has said, Jeroboam will be put to the sword, and Israel will certainly be taken away as a prisoner out of his land. +Amo 7:12 And Amaziah said to Amos, O seer, go in flight into the land of Judah, and there get your living by working as a prophet: +Amo 7:13 But be a prophet no longer at Beth-el: for it is the holy place of the king, and the king's house. +Amo 7:14 Then Amos in answer said to Amaziah, I am no prophet, or one of the sons of the prophets; I am a herdman and one who takes care of sycamore-trees: +Amo 7:15 And the Lord took me from the flock, and the Lord said to me, Go, be a prophet to my people Israel. +Amo 7:16 Now then, give ear to the word of the Lord: You say, Be no prophet to Israel, and say not a word against the people of Isaac. +Amo 7:17 So this is what the Lord has said: Your wife will be a loose woman in the town, and your sons and your daughters will be put to the sword, and your land will be cut up into parts by a line; and you yourself will come to your end in an unclean land, and Israel will certainly be taken away a prisoner out of his land. +Amo 8:1 This is what the Lord God let me see: and I saw a basket of summer fruit. +Amo 8:2 And he said, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then the Lord said to me, The end has come to my people Israel; never again will my eyes be shut to their sin. +Amo 8:3 And the songs of the king's house will be cries of pain in that day, says the Lord God: great will be the number of the dead bodies, and everywhere they will put them out without a word. +Amo 8:4 Give ear to this, you who are crushing the poor, and whose purpose is to put an end to those who are in need in the land, +Amo 8:5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, so that we may do trade in grain? and the Sabbath, so that we may put out in the market the produce of our fields? making the measure small and the price great, and trading falsely with scales of deceit; +Amo 8:6 Getting the poor for silver, and him who is in need for the price of two shoes, and taking a price for the waste parts of the grain. +Amo 8:7 The Lord has taken an oath by the pride of Jacob, Truly I will ever keep in mind all their works. +Amo 8:8 Will not the land be shaking with fear because of this, and everyone in it have sorrow? and all of it will be overflowing like the River; and it will be troubled and go down again like the River of Egypt. +Amo 8:9 And it will come about in that day, says the Lord God, that I will make the sun go down in the middle of the day, and I will make the earth dark in daylight: +Amo 8:10 Your feasts will be turned into sorrow and all your melody into songs of grief; everyone will be clothed with haircloth, and the hair of every head will be cut; I will make the weeping like that for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. +Amo 8:11 See, the days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send times of great need on the land, not need of food or desire for water, but for hearing the words of the Lord. +Amo 8:12 And they will go wandering from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, running here and there in search of the word of the Lord, and they will not get it. +Amo 8:13 In that day the fair virgins and the young men will be feeble from need of water. +Amo 8:14 Those who make their oaths by the sin of Samaria and say, By the life of your God, O Dan; and, By the living way of Beer-sheba; even they will go down, never again to be lifted up. +Amo 9:1 I saw the Lord stationed by the side of the altar, giving blows to the tops of the pillars so that the doorsteps were shaking: and he said, I will let all of them be broken with earth-shocks; I will put the last of them to the sword: if any one of them goes in flight he will not get away, not one of them will be safe. +Amo 9:2 Even if they go deep into the underworld, my hand will take them up from there; if they go up to heaven, I will get them down: +Amo 9:3 Though they take cover on the top of Carmel, I will go in search of them and get them out; though they keep themselves from my eyes in the bed of the sea, I will give orders to the great snake there and he will give them a bite: +Amo 9:4 And though they are taken away as prisoners by their attackers, even there will I give orders to the sword to put them to death: my eyes will be fixed on them for evil and not for good. +Amo 9:5 For the Lord, the God of armies, is he at whose touch the land is turned to water, and everyone in it will be given up to sorrow; all of it will be overflowing like the River, and will go down again like the River of Egypt; +Amo 9:6 It is he who makes his rooms in the heaven, basing his arch on the earth; whose voice goes out to the waters of the sea, and sends them flowing over the face of the earth; the Lord is his name. +Amo 9:7 Are you not as the children of the Ethiopians to me, O children of Israel? says the Lord. Have I not taken Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Aramaeans from Kir? +Amo 9:8 See, the eyes of the Lord are on the evil kingdom, and I will put an end to it in all the earth; but I will not send complete destruction on Jacob, says the Lord. +Amo 9:9 For see, I will give orders, and I will have Israel moved about among all the nations, as grain is moved about by the shaking of the tray, but not the smallest seed will be dropped on the earth. +Amo 9:10 All those sinners among my people will be put to the sword who say, Evil will not overtake us or come face to face with us. +Amo 9:11 In that day I will put up the tent of David which has come down, and make good its broken places; and I will put up again his damaged walls, building it up as in the past; +Amo 9:12 So that the rest of Edom may be their heritage, and all the nations who have been named by my name, says the Lord, who is doing this. +Amo 9:13 See, the days will come, says the Lord, when the ploughman will overtake him who is cutting the grain, and the crusher of the grapes him who is planting seed; and sweet wine will be dropping from the mountains, and the hills will be turned into streams of wine. +Amo 9:14 And I will let the fate of my people Israel be changed, and they will be building up again the waste towns and living in them; they will again be planting vine-gardens and taking the wine for their drink; and they will make gardens and get the fruit of them. +Amo 9:15 And I will have them planted in their land, and never again will they be uprooted from their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God. +Oba 1:1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord has said about Edom: We have had word from the Lord, and a representative has been sent among the nations, saying, Up! and let us make war against her. +Oba 1:2 See, I have made you small among the nations: you are much looked down on. +Oba 1:3 You have been tricked by the pride of your heart, O you whose living-place is in the cracks of the rock, whose house is high up; who has said in his heart, Who will make me come down to earth? +Oba 1:4 Though you go up on high like an eagle, though your house is placed among the stars, I will make you come down from there, says the Lord. +Oba 1:5 If thieves came, attacking you by night, (how are you cut off!) would they not go on taking till they had enough? if men came cutting your grapes would they take them all? +Oba 1:6 How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his secret stores looked for! +Oba 1:7 All the men who were united with you have been false to you, driving you out to the edge of the land: the men who were at peace with you have overcome you; they have taken their heritage in your place. +Oba 1:8 Will I not, in that day, says the Lord, take away the wise men out of Edom, and wisdom out of the mountain of Esau? +Oba 1:9 And your men of war, O Teman, will be overcome with fear, so that every one of them may be cut off from the mountain of Esau. +Oba 1:10 Because you were the cause of violent death and because of your cruel behaviour to your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and will be cut off for ever. +Oba 1:11 Because you were there watching when men from other lands took away his goods, and strange men came into his doors, and put the fate of Jerusalem to the decision of chance; you were like one of them. +Oba 1:12 Do not see with pleasure your brother's evil day, the day of his fate, and do not be glad over the children of Judah on the day of their destruction, or make wide your mouth on the day of trouble. +Oba 1:13 Do not go into the doors of my people on the day of their downfall; do not be looking on their trouble with pleasure on the day of their downfall, or put your hands on their goods on the day of their downfall. +Oba 1:14 And do not take your place at the cross-roads, cutting off those of his people who get away; and do not give up to their haters those who are still there in the day of trouble. +Oba 1:15 For the day of the Lord is coming quickly on all nations: as you have done it will be done to you; the reward of your acts will come on your head. +Oba 1:16 For as you have been drinking on my holy mountain, so will all the nations go on drinking without end; they will go on drinking and the wine will go down their throats, and they will be as if they had never been. +Oba 1:17 But in Mount Zion some will be kept safe, and it will be holy; and the children of Jacob will take their heritage. +Oba 1:18 And the children of Jacob will be a fire and those of Joseph a flame, and the children of Esau dry stems of grass, burned up by them till all is gone: and there will be no people living in Esau; for the Lord has said it. +Oba 1:19 And they will take the South, and the lowland, and the country of Ephraim, and Gilead, as their heritage. +Oba 1:20 And those of the children of Israel who were the first to be taken away as prisoners, will have their heritage among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath; and those who were taken away from Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will have the towns of the South. +Oba 1:21 And those who have been kept safe will come up from Mount Zion to be judges of the mountain of Esau; and the kingdom will be the Lord's. +Jon 1:1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, +Jon 1:2 Up! go to Nineveh, that great town, and let your voice come to it; for their evil-doing has come up before me. +Jon 1:3 And Jonah got up to go in flight to Tarshish, away from the Lord; and he went down to Joppa, and saw there a ship going to Tarshish: so he gave them the price of the journey and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from the Lord. +Jon 1:4 And the Lord sent out a great wind on to the sea and there was a violent storm in the sea, so that the ship seemed in danger of being broken. +Jon 1:5 Then the sailors were full of fear, every man crying to his god; and the goods in the ship were dropped out into the sea to make the weight less. But Jonah had gone down into the inmost part of the ship where he was stretched out in a deep sleep. +Jon 1:6 And the ship's captain came to him and said to him, What are you doing sleeping? Up! say a prayer to your God, if by chance God will give a thought to us, so that we may not come to destruction. +Jon 1:7 And they said to one another, Come, let us put this to the decision of chance and see on whose account this evil has come on us. So they did so, and Jonah was seen to be the man. +Jon 1:8 Then they said to him, Now make clear to us what is your work, and where you come from? what is your country, and who are your people? +Jon 1:9 And he said to them, I am a Hebrew, a worshipper of the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. +Jon 1:10 And the men were in great fear, and they said to him, What is this you have done? For the men had knowledge of his flight from the Lord because he had not kept it from them. +Jon 1:11 And they said to him, What are we to do to you so that the sea may become calm for us? For the sea was getting rougher and rougher. +Jon 1:12 And he said to them, Take me up and put me into the sea, and the sea will become calm for you: for I am certain that because of me this great storm has come on you. +Jon 1:13 And the men were working hard to get back to the land, but they were not able to do so: for the sea got rougher and rougher against them. +Jon 1:14 So, crying to the Lord, they said, Give ear to our prayer, O Lord, give ear, and do not let destruction overtake us because of this man's life; do not put on us the sin of taking life without cause: for you, O Lord, have done what seemed good to you. +Jon 1:15 So they took Jonah up and put him into the sea: and the sea was no longer angry. +Jon 1:16 Then great was the men's fear of the Lord; and they made an offering to the Lord and took oaths to him. +Jon 1:17 And the Lord made ready a great fish to take Jonah into its mouth; and Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights. +Jon 2:1 Then Jonah made prayer to the Lord his God from the inside of the fish, and said, +Jon 2:2 In my trouble I was crying to the Lord, and he gave me an answer; out of the deepest underworld I sent up a cry, and you gave ear to my voice. +Jon 2:3 For you have put me down into the deep, into the heart of the sea; and the river was round about me; all your waves and your rolling waters went over me. +Jon 2:4 And I said, I have been sent away from before your eyes; how may I ever again see your holy Temple? +Jon 2:5 The waters were circling round me, even to the neck; the deep was about me; the sea-grass was twisted round my head. +Jon 2:6 I went down to the bases of the mountains; as for the earth, her walls were about me for ever: but you have taken up my life from the underworld, O Lord my God. +Jon 2:7 When my soul in me was overcome, I kept the memory of the Lord: and my prayer came in to you, into your holy Temple. +Jon 2:8 The worshippers of false gods have given up their only hope. +Jon 2:9 But I will make an offering to you with the voice of praise; I will give effect to my oaths. Salvation is the Lord's. +Jon 2:10 And at the Lord's order, the fish sent Jonah out of its mouth on to the dry land. +Jon 3:1 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, +Jon 3:2 Up! go to Nineveh, that great town, and give it the word which I have given you. +Jon 3:3 So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh as the Lord had said. Now Nineveh was a very great town, three days' journey from end to end. +Jon 3:4 And Jonah first of all went a day's journey into the town, and crying out said, In forty days destruction will overtake Nineveh. +Jon 3:5 And the people of Nineveh had belief in God; and a time was fixed for going without food, and they put on haircloth, from the greatest to the least. +Jon 3:6 And the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he got up from his seat of authority, and took off his robe, and covering himself with haircloth, took his seat in the dust. +Jon 3:7 And he had it given out in Nineveh, By the order of the king and his great men, no man or beast, herd or flock, is to have a taste of anything; let them have no food or water: +Jon 3:8 And let man and beast be covered with haircloth, and let them make strong prayers to God: and let everyone be turned from his evil way and the violent acts of their hands. +Jon 3:9 Who may say that God will not be turned, changing his purpose and turning away from his burning wrath, so that destruction may not overtake us? +Jon 3:10 And God saw what they did, how they were turned from their evil way; and God's purpose was changed as to the evil which he said he would do to them, and he did it not. +Jon 4:1 But this seemed very wrong to Jonah, and he was angry. +Jon 4:2 And he made prayer to the Lord and said, O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still in my country? This is why I took care to go in flight to Tarshish: for I was certain that you were a loving God, full of pity, slow to be angry and great in mercy, and ready to be turned from your purpose of evil. +Jon 4:3 So now, O Lord, give ear to my prayer and take my life from me; for death is better for me than life. +Jon 4:4 And the Lord said, Have you any right to be angry? +Jon 4:5 Then Jonah went out of the town, and took his seat on the east side of the town and made himself a roof of branches and took his seat under its shade till he saw what would become of the town. +Jon 4:6 And the Lord God made a vine come up over Jonah to give him shade over his head. And Jonah was very glad because of the vine. +Jon 4:7 But early on the morning after, God made ready a worm for the destruction of the vine, and it became dry and dead. +Jon 4:8 Then when the sun came up, God sent a burning east wind: and so great was the heat of the sun on his head that Jonah was overcome, and, requesting death for himself, said, Death is better for me than life. +Jon 4:9 And the Lord said to Jonah, Have you any right to be angry about the vine? And he said, I have a right to be truly angry. +Jon 4:10 And the Lord said, You had pity on the vine, for which you did no work and for the growth of which you were not responsible; which came up in a night and came to an end in a night; +Jon 4:11 And am I not to have mercy on Nineveh, that great town, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons without the power of judging between right and left, as well as much cattle? +Mic 1:1 The word of the Lord which came to Micah the Morashtite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah: his vision about Samaria and Jerusalem. +Mic 1:2 Give ear, you peoples, all of you; give attention, O earth and everything in it: let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy Temple. +Mic 1:3 For see, the Lord is coming out from his place, and will come down, stepping on the high places of the earth. +Mic 1:4 And the mountains will be turned to water under him, and the deep valleys will be broken open, like wax before the fire, like waters flowing down a slope. +Mic 1:5 All this is because of the wrongdoing of Jacob and the sins of the children of Israel. What is the wrongdoing of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem? +Mic 1:6 So I will make Samaria into a field and the plantings of a vine-garden: I will send its stones falling down into the valley, uncovering its bases. +Mic 1:7 And all her pictured images will be hammered into bits, and all the payments for her loose ways will be burned with fire, and all the images of her gods I will make waste: for with the price of a loose woman she got them together, and as the price of a loose woman will they be given back. +Mic 1:8 For this I will be full of sorrow and give cries of grief; I will go uncovered and unclothed: I will give cries of grief like the jackals and will be in sorrow like the ostriches. +Mic 1:9 For her wounds may not be made well: for it has come even to Judah, stretching up to the doorway of my people, even to Jerusalem. +Mic 1:10 Give no word of it in Gath, let there be no weeping at all: at Beth-le-aphrah be rolling in the dust. +Mic 1:11 Be uncovered and go away, you who are living in Shaphir: the one living in Zaanan has not come out of her town; Beth-ezel is taken away from its base, even from its resting-place. +Mic 1:12 For the one living in Maroth is waiting for good: for evil has come down from the Lord to the doorways of Jerusalem. +Mic 1:13 Let the war-carriage be yoked to the quick-running horse, you who are living in Lachish: she was the first cause of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the wrongdoings of Israel were seen in you. +Mic 1:14 For this cause give a parting offering to Moresheth-gath: the daughter of Achzib will be a deceit to the king of Israel. +Mic 1:15 Even now will the taker of your heritage come to you, you who are living in Mareshah: the glory of Israel will come to destruction for ever. +Mic 1:16 Let your head be uncovered and your hair cut off in sorrow for the children of your delight: let the hair be pulled from your head like an eagle's; for they have been taken away from you as prisoners. +Mic 2:1 A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power. +Mic 2:2 They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his family, even to a man and his heritage. +Mic 2:3 For this cause the Lord has said, See, against this family I am purposing an evil from which you will not be able to take your necks away, and you will be weighted down by it; for it is an evil time. +Mic 2:4 In that day this saying will be said about you, and this song of grief will be made: The heritage of my people is measured out, and there is no one to give it back; those who have made us prisoners have taken our fields from us, and complete destruction has come to us. +Mic 2:5 For this cause you will have no one to make the decision by the measuring line in the meeting of the Lord. +Mic 2:6 Let not words like these be dropped, they say: Shame and the curse will not come to the family of Jacob! +Mic 2:7 Is the Lord quickly made angry? are these his doings? do not his words do good to his people Israel? +Mic 2:8 As for you, you have become haters of those who were at peace with you: you take the clothing of those who go by without fear, and make them prisoners of war. +Mic 2:9 The women of my people you have been driving away from their dearly loved children; from their young ones you are taking my glory for ever. +Mic 2:10 Up! and go; for this is not your rest: because it has been made unclean, the destruction ordered will come on you. +Mic 2:11 If a man came with a false spirit of deceit, saying, I will be a prophet to you of wine and strong drink: he would be the sort of prophet for this people. +Mic 2:12 I will certainly make all of you, O Jacob, come together; I will get together the rest of Israel; I will put them together like the sheep in their circle: like a flock in their green field; they will be full of the noise of men. +Mic 2:13 The opener of the way will go up before them: forcing their way out they will go on to the doorway and out through it: their king will go on before them, and the Lord at their head. +Mic 3:1 And I said, Give ear, now, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the people of Israel: is it not for you to have knowledge of what is right? +Mic 3:2 You who are haters of good and lovers of evil, pulling off their skin from them and their flesh from their bones; +Mic 3:3 Like meat they take the flesh of my people for their food, skinning them and crushing their bones, yes, cutting them up as if for the pot, like flesh inside the cooking-pot. +Mic 3:4 Then they will be crying to the Lord for help, but he will not give them an answer: yes, he will keep his face veiled from them at that time, because their acts have been evil. +Mic 3:5 This is what the Lord has said about the prophets by whom my people have been turned from the right way; who, biting with their teeth, say, Peace; and if anyone puts nothing in their mouths they make ready for war against him. +Mic 3:6 For this cause it will be night for you, without a vision; and it will be dark for you, without knowledge of the future; the sun will go down over the prophets, and the day will be black over them. +Mic 3:7 And the seers will be shamed, and the readers of the future will be at a loss, all of them covering their lips; for there is no answer from God. +Mic 3:8 But I truly am full of the spirit of the Lord, with power of judging and with strength to make clear to Jacob his wrongdoing and to Israel his sin. +Mic 3:9 Then give ear to this, you heads of the children of Jacob, you rulers of the children of Israel, hating what is right, twisting what is straight. +Mic 3:10 They are building up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with evil-doing. +Mic 3:11 Its heads take rewards for judging, and the priests take payment for teaching, and the prophets get silver for reading the future: but still, supporting themselves on the Lord, they say, Is not the Lord among us? no evil will overtake us. +Mic 3:12 For this reason, Zion will be ploughed like a field because of you, and Jerusalem will become a mass of broken walls, and the mountain of the house like a high place in the woods. +Mic 4:1 But in the last days it will come about that the mountain of the Lord's house will be placed on the top of the mountains, and be lifted up over the hills; and peoples will be flowing to it. +Mic 4:2 And a number of nations will go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will give us knowledge of his ways and we will be guided by his word: for from Zion the law will go out, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. +Mic 4:3 And he will be judge between great peoples, and strong nations far away will be ruled by his decisions; their swords will be hammered into plough-blades and their spears into vine-knives: nations will no longer be lifting up their swords against one another, and knowledge of war will have gone for ever. +Mic 4:4 But every man will be seated under his vine and under his fig-tree, and no one will be a cause of fear to them: for the mouth of the Lord of armies has said it. +Mic 4:5 For all the peoples will be walking, every one in the name of his god, and we will be walking in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. +Mic 4:6 In that day, says the Lord, I will get together her who goes with uncertain steps, I will get together her who has been sent away, and her on whom I have sent evil; +Mic 4:7 And I will make her whose steps were uncertain a small band, and her who was feeble a strong nation: and the Lord will be their King in Mount Zion from now and for ever. +Mic 4:8 And you, O tower of the flock, Ophel of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come, even the earlier authority, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. +Mic 4:9 Now why are you crying so loudly? is there no king in you? has destruction come on your wise helper? so that pains have taken you like the pains of a woman in childbirth: +Mic 4:10 Be in pain, make sounds of grief, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth: for now you will go out of the town, living in the open country, and will come even to Babylon; there you will have salvation; there the Lord will make you free from the hands of your haters. +Mic 4:11 And now a number of nations have come together against you, and they say, Let her be made unclean and let our eyes see the fate of Zion. +Mic 4:12 But they have no knowledge of the thoughts of the Lord, their minds are not able to see his purpose: for he has got them together like stems of grain to the crushing-floor. +Mic 4:13 Up! and let the grain be crushed, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron and your feet brass, and a number of peoples will be broken by you, and you will give up their increase to the Lord and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth. +Mic 5:1 Now you will give yourselves deep wounds for grief; they will put up a wall round us: they will give the judge of Israel a blow on the face with a rod. +Mic 5:2 And you, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, the least among the families of Judah, out of you one will come to me who is to be ruler in Israel; whose going out has been purposed from time past, from the eternal days. +Mic 5:3 For this cause he will give them up till the time when she who is with child has given birth: then the rest of his brothers will come back to the children of Israel. +Mic 5:4 And he will take his place and give food to his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the glory of the name of the Lord his God; and their resting-place will be safe: for now he will be great to the ends of the earth. +Mic 5:5 And this will be our peace: when the Assyrian comes into our country and his feet are in our land, then we will put up against him seven keepers of the flocks and eight chiefs among men. +Mic 5:6 And they will make waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the edge of the sword: he will give us salvation from the Assyrian when he comes into our country, when his feet come inside the limit of our land. +Mic 5:7 And the rest of Jacob will be among the mass of peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which may not be kept back by man, or be waiting for the sons of men. +Mic 5:8 And the rest of Jacob will be among the nations, in the middle of the mass of peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the woods, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep: if he goes through, they will be crushed under foot and pulled to bits, and there will be no saviour. +Mic 5:9 Your hand is lifted up against those who are against you, and all your haters will be cut off. +Mic 5:10 And it will come about in that day, says the Lord, that I will take away your horses from you, and will give your war-carriages to destruction: +Mic 5:11 I will have the towns of your land cut off and all your strong places pulled down: +Mic 5:12 I will put an end to your use of secret arts, and you will have no more readers of signs: +Mic 5:13 And I will have your images and your pillars cut off from you; and you will no longer give worship to the work of your hands. +Mic 5:14 I will have your Asherahs pulled up from among you: and I will send destruction on your images. +Mic 5:15 And my punishment will be effected on the nations with such burning wrath as they have not had word of. +Mic 6:1 Give ear now to the words of the Lord: Up! put forward your cause before the mountains, let your voice be sounding among the hills. +Mic 6:2 Give ear, O you mountains, to the Lord's cause, and take note, you bases of the earth: for the Lord has a cause against his people, and he will take it up with Israel. +Mic 6:3 O my people, what have I done to you? how have I been a weariness to you? give answer against me. +Mic 6:4 For I took you up out of the land of Egypt and made you free from the prison-house; I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. +Mic 6:5 O my people, keep in mind now what was designed by Balak, king of Moab, and the answer which Balaam, son of Beor, gave him; the events, from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may be certain of the upright acts of the Lord. +Mic 6:6 With what am I to come before the Lord and go with bent head before the high God? am I to come before him with burned offerings, with young oxen a year old? +Mic 6:7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of sheep or with ten thousand rivers of oil? am I to give my first child for my wrongdoing, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? +Mic 6:8 He has made clear to you, O man, what is good; and what is desired from you by the Lord; only doing what is right, and loving mercy, and walking without pride before your God. +Mic 6:9 The voice of the Lord is crying out to the town: Give ear, you tribes and the meeting of the town. +Mic 6:10 Am I to let the stores of the evil-doer go out of my memory, and the short measure, which is cursed? +Mic 6:11 Is it possible for me to let wrong scales and the bag of false weights go without punishment? +Mic 6:12 For its men of wealth are cruel, and its people have said what is not true, and their tongue is false in their mouth. +Mic 6:13 So I have made a start with your punishment; I have made you waste because of your sins. +Mic 6:14 You will have food, but not enough; your shame will be ever with you: you will get your goods moved, but you will not take them away safely; and what you do take away I will give to the sword. +Mic 6:15 You will put in seed, but you will not get in the grain; you will be crushing olives, but your bodies will not be rubbed with the oil; and you will get in the grapes, but you will have no wine. +Mic 6:16 For you have kept the laws of Omri and all the works of the family of Ahab, and you have been guided by their designs: so that I might make you a cause of wonder and your people a cause of hisses; and the shame of my people will be on you. +Mic 7:1 Sorrow is mine! for I am as when they have got in the summer fruits, like the last of the grapes: there is nothing for food, not even an early fig for my desire. +Mic 7:2 The good man is gone from the earth, there is no one upright among men: they are all waiting secretly for blood, every man is going after his brother with a net. +Mic 7:3 Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is twisted. +Mic 7:4 The best of them is like a waste plant, and their upright ones are like a wall of thorns. Sorrow! the day of their fate has come; now will trouble come on them. +Mic 7:5 Put no faith in a friend, do not let your hope be placed in a relation: keep watch on the doors of your mouth against her who is resting on your breast. +Mic 7:6 For the son puts shame on his father, the daughter goes against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's haters are those of his family. +Mic 7:7 But as for me, I am looking to the Lord; I am waiting for the God of my salvation: the ears of my God will be open to me. +Mic 7:8 Do not be glad because of my sorrow, O my hater: after my fall I will be lifted up; when I am seated in the dark, the Lord will be a light to me. +Mic 7:9 I will undergo the wrath of the Lord, because of my sin against him; till he takes up my cause and does what is right for me: when he makes me come out into the light, I will see his righteousness; +Mic 7:10 And my hater will see it and be covered with shame; she who said to me, Where is the Lord your God? my eyes will see their desire effected on her, now she will be crushed under foot like the dust of the streets. +Mic 7:11 A day for building your walls! in that day will your limits be stretched far and wide. +Mic 7:12 In that day they will come to you from Assyria and the towns of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. +Mic 7:13 But the land will become a waste because of its people, as the fruit of their works. +Mic 7:14 Keep your people safe with your rod, the flock of your heritage, living by themselves in the woods in the middle of Carmel: let them get their food in Bashan and Gilead as in the past. +Mic 7:15 As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt, let us see things of wonder. +Mic 7:16 The nations will see and be shamed because of all their strength; they will put their hands on their mouths, their ears will be stopped. +Mic 7:17 They will take dust as their food like a snake, like the things which go flat on the earth; they will come shaking with fear out of their secret places: they will come with fear to the Lord our God, full of fear because of you. +Mic 7:18 Who is a God like you, offering forgiveness for evil-doing and overlooking the sins of the rest of his heritage? he does not keep his wrath for ever, because his delight is in mercy. +Mic 7:19 He will again have pity on us; he will put our sins under his feet: and you will send all our sins down into the heart of the sea. +Mic 7:20 You will make clear your good faith to Jacob and your mercy to Abraham, as you gave your oath to our fathers from times long past. +Nah 1:1 The word about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. +Nah 1:2 The Lord is a God who takes care of his honour and gives punishment for wrong; the Lord gives punishment and is angry; the Lord sends punishment on those who are against him, being angry with his haters. +Nah 1:3 The Lord is slow to get angry and great in power, and will not let the sinner go without punishment: the way of the Lord is in the wind and the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. +Nah 1:4 He says sharp words to the sea and makes it dry, drying up all the rivers: Bashan is feeble, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon is without strength. +Nah 1:5 The mountains are shaking because of him, and the hills flowing away; the earth is falling to bits before him, the world and all who are in it. +Nah 1:6 Who may keep his place before his wrath? and who may undergo the heat of his passion? his wrath is let loose like fire and the rocks are broken open by him. +Nah 1:7 The Lord is good, a strong place in the day of trouble; and he has knowledge of those who take him for their safe cover. +Nah 1:8 But like water overflowing he will take them away; he will put an end to those who come up against him, driving his haters into the dark. +Nah 1:9 What are you designing against the Lord? he will put an end to it: his haters will not come up again a second time. +Nah 1:10 For though they are like twisted thorns, and are overcome as with drink, they will come to destruction like stems of grass fully dry. +Nah 1:11 One has gone out from you who is designing evil against the Lord, whose purposes are of no value. +Nah 1:12 This is what the Lord has said: The days of my cause against you are ended; they are cut off and past. Though I have sent trouble on you, you will no longer be troubled. +Nah 1:13 And now I will let his yoke be broken off you, and your chains be parted. +Nah 1:14 The Lord has given an order about you, that no more of your name are to be planted: from the house of your gods I will have the pictured and metal images cut off; I will make your last resting-place a place of shame; for you are completely evil. +Nah 1:15 See on the mountains the feet of him who comes with good news, giving word of peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah, give effect to your oaths: for the good-for-nothing man will never again go through you; he is completely cut off. +Nah 2:1 A crusher has come up before your face: keep a good look-out, let the way be watched, make yourself strong, let your power be greatly increased. +Nah 2:2 For the Lord will make good the vine of Jacob, as well as the vine of Israel: for the wasters have made them waste and sent destruction on the branches of their vine. +Nah 2:3 The body-covers of his fighting men have been made red, the men of war are clothed in bright red: the war-carriages are like flames of fire in the day when he gets ready, the horses are shaking. +Nah 2:4 The war-carriages are rushing through the streets, pushing against one another in the wide ways, looking like burning lights, running like thunder-flames. +Nah 2:5 He takes the record of his great men: they go falling on their way; they go quickly to the wall, the cover is made ready. +Nah 2:6 The river doorways are forced open, and the king's house is flowing away. +Nah 2:7 And the queen is uncovered, she is taken away and her servant-girls are weeping like the sound of doves, hammering on their breasts. +Nah 2:8 But Nineveh is like a pool of water whose waters are flowing away; Keep your place, they say; but no one is turning back. +Nah 2:9 Take silver, take gold; for there is no end to the store; take for yourselves a weight of things to be desired. +Nah 2:10 Everything has been taken from her, all is gone, she has nothing more: the heart is turned to water, the knees are shaking, all are twisted in pain, and colour has gone from all faces. +Nah 2:11 Where is the lions' hole, the place where the young lions got their food, where the lion and the she-lion were walking with their young, without cause for fear? +Nah 2:12 Food enough for his young and for his she-lions was pulled down by the lion; his hole was full of flesh and his resting-place stored with meat. +Nah 2:13 See, I am against you, says the Lord of armies, and I will have your war-carriages burned in the smoke, and your young lions will be food for the sword: you will no longer get your food by force on the earth, and the voice of your she-lions will be stopped for ever. +Nah 3:1 A curse is on the town of blood; it is full of deceit and violent acts; and there is no end to the taking of life. +Nah 3:2 The noise of the whip, and the noise of thundering wheels; horses rushing and war-carriages jumping, +Nah 3:3 Horsemen driving forward, and the shining sword and the bright spear: and a great number of wounded, and masses of dead bodies; they are falling over the bodies of the dead: +Nah 3:4 Because of all the false ways of the loose woman, expert in attraction and wise in secret arts, who takes nations in the net of her false ways, and families through her secret arts. +Nah 3:5 See, I am against you, says the Lord of armies, and I will have your skirts pulled over your face, and let the nations see you unclothed, and the kingdoms your shame. +Nah 3:6 I will make you completely disgusting and full of shame, and will put you up to be looked at by all. +Nah 3:7 And it will come about that all who see you will go in flight from you and say, Nineveh is made waste: who will be weeping for her? where am I to get comforters for her? +Nah 3:8 Are you better than No-amon, seated on the Nile streams, with waters all round her; whose wall was the sea and her earthwork the waters? +Nah 3:9 Ethiopia was her strength and Egyptians without number; Put and Lubim were her helpers. +Nah 3:10 But even she has been taken away, she has gone away as a prisoner: even her young children are smashed to bits at the top of all the streets: the fate of her honoured men is put to the decision of chance, and all her great men are put in chains. +Nah 3:11 And you will be overcome with wine, you will become feeble; you will be looking for a safe place from those who are fighting against you. +Nah 3:12 All your walled places will be like fig-trees and your people like the first figs, falling at a shake into the mouth which is open for them. +Nah 3:13 See, the people who are in you are women; the doorways of your land are wide open to your attackers: the locks of your doors have been burned away in the fire. +Nah 3:14 Get water for the time when you are shut in, make strong your towns: go into the potter's earth, stamping it down with your feet, make strong the brickworks. +Nah 3:15 There the fire will make you waste; you will be cut off by the sword: make yourself as great in number as the worms, as great in number as the locusts. +Nah 3:16 Let your traders be increased more than the stars of heaven: +Nah 3:17 Your crowned ones are like the locusts, and your scribes like the clouds of insects which take cover in the walls on a cold day, but when the sun comes up they go in flight, and are seen no longer in their place. +Nah 3:18 Sorrow! how are the keepers of your flock sleeping, O king of Assyria! your strong men are at rest; your people are wandering on the mountains, and there is no one to get them together. +Nah 3:19 Your pain may not be made better; you are wounded to death: all those hearing the news about you will be waving their hands in joy over you: for who has not undergone the weight of your evil-doing again and again? +Hab 1:1 The word which Habakkuk the prophet saw. +Hab 1:2 How long, O Lord, will your ears be shut to my voice? I make an outcry to you about violent behaviour, but you do not send salvation. +Hab 1:3 Why do you make me see evil-doing, and why are my eyes fixed on wrong? for wasting and violent acts are before me: and there is fighting and bitter argument. +Hab 1:4 For this reason the law is feeble and decisions are not effected: for the upright man is circled round by evil-doers; because of which right is twisted. +Hab 1:5 See among the nations, and take note, and be full of wonder: for in your days I am doing a work in which you will have no belief, even if news of it is given to you. +Hab 1:6 For see, I am sending the Chaldaeans, that bitter and quick-moving nation; who go through the wide spaces of the earth to get for themselves living-places which are not theirs. +Hab 1:7 They are greatly to be feared: their right comes from themselves. +Hab 1:8 And their horses are quicker than leopards and their horsemen more cruel than evening wolves; they come from far away, like an eagle in flight rushing on its food. +Hab 1:9 They are coming all of them with force; the direction of their faces is forward, the number of their prisoners is like the sands of the sea. +Hab 1:10 He makes little of kings, rulers are a sport to him; all the strong places are to be laughed at; for he makes earthworks and takes them. +Hab 1:11 Then his purpose will be changed, over-stepping the limit; he will make his strength his god. +Hab 1:12 Are you not eternal, O Lord my God, my Holy One? for you there is no death. O Lord, he has been ordered by you for our punishment; and by you, O Rock, he has been marked out to put us right. +Hab 1:13 Before your holy eyes sin may not be seen, and you are unable to put up with wrong; why, then, are your eyes on the false? why do you say nothing when the evil-doer puts an end to one who is more upright than himself? +Hab 1:14 He has made men like the fishes of the sea, like the worms which have no ruler over them. +Hab 1:15 He takes them all up with his hook, he takes them in his net, getting them together in his fishing-net: for which cause he is glad and full of joy. +Hab 1:16 For this reason he makes an offering to his net, burning perfume to his fishing-net; because by them he gets much food and his meat is fat. +Hab 1:17 For this cause his net is ever open, and there is no end to his destruction of the nations. +Hab 2:1 I will take my position and be on watch, placing myself on my tower, looking out to see what he will say to me, and what answer he will give to my protest. +Hab 2:2 And the Lord gave me an answer, and said, Put the vision in writing and make it clear on stones, so that the reader may go quickly. +Hab 2:3 For the vision is still for the fixed time, and it is moving quickly to the end, and it will not be false: even if it is slow in coming, go on waiting for it; because it will certainly come, it will not be kept back. +Hab 2:4 As for the man of pride, my soul has no pleasure in him; but the upright man will have life through his good faith. +Hab 2:5 A curse on the cruel and false one! the man full of pride, who never has enough; who makes his desires wide as the underworld! he is like death; he is never full, but he makes all nations come to him, getting all peoples together to himself. +Hab 2:6 Will not all these take up a word of shame against him and a bitter saying against him, and say, A curse on him who goes on taking what is not his and is weighted down with the property of debtors! +Hab 2:7 Will not your creditors suddenly be moved against you, and your troublers get up from their sleep, and you will be to them like goods taken in war? +Hab 2:8 Because you have taken their goods from great nations, all the rest of the peoples will take your goods from you; because of men's blood and violent acts against the land and the town and all who are living in it. +Hab 2:9 A curse on him who gets evil profits for his family, so that he may put his resting-place on high and be safe from the hand of the wrongdoer! +Hab 2:10 You have been a cause of shame to your house by cutting off a number of peoples, and sinning against your soul. +Hab 2:11 For the stone will give a cry out of the wall, and it will be answered by the board out of the woodwork. +Hab 2:12 A curse on him who is building a place with blood, and basing a town on evil-doing! +Hab 2:13 See, is it not the pleasure of the Lord of armies that the peoples are working for the fire and using themselves up for nothing? +Hab 2:14 For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the sea is covered by the waters. +Hab 2:15 A curse on him who gives his neighbour the wine of his wrath, making him overcome with strong drink from the cup of his passion, so that you may be a witness of their shame! +Hab 2:16 You are full of shame in place of glory: take your part in the drinking, and let your shame be uncovered: the cup of the Lord's right hand will come round to you and your glory will be covered with shame. +Hab 2:17 For the violent acts against Lebanon will come on you, and the destruction of the cattle will be a cause of fear to you, because of men's blood and the violent acts against the land and the town and all who are living in it. +Hab 2:18 What profit is the pictured image to its maker? and as for the metal image, the false teacher, why does its maker put his faith in it, making false gods without a voice? +Hab 2:19 A curse on him who says to the wood, Awake! to the unbreathing stone, Up! let it be a teacher! See, it is plated with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it. +Hab 2:20 But the Lord is in his holy Temple: let all the earth be quiet before him. +Hab 3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, put to Shigionoth. +Hab 3:2 O Lord, word of you has come to my ears; I have seen your work, O Lord; when the years come near make it clear; in wrath keep mercy in mind. +Hab 3:3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. The heavens were covered with his glory, and the earth was full of his praise. +Hab 3:4 He was shining like the light; he had rays coming out from his hand: there his power was kept secret. +Hab 3:5 Before him went disease, and flames went out at his feet. +Hab 3:6 From his high place he sent shaking on the earth; he saw and nations were suddenly moved: and the eternal mountains were broken, the unchanging hills were bent down; his ways are eternal. +Hab 3:7 The curtains of Cushan were troubled, and the tents of Midian were shaking. +Hab 3:8 Was your wrath burning against the rivers? were you angry with the sea, that you went on your horses, on your war-carriages of salvation? +Hab 3:9 Your bow was quite uncovered. Selah. By you the earth was cut through with rivers. +Hab 3:10 The mountains saw you and were moved with fear; the clouds were streaming with water: the voice of the deep was sounding; the sun did not come up, and the moon kept still in her place. +Hab 3:11 At the light of your arrows they went away, at the shining of your polished spear. +Hab 3:12 You went stepping through the land in wrath, crushing the nations in your passion. +Hab 3:13 You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of the one on whom your holy oil was put; wounding the head of the family of the evil-doer, uncovering the base even to the neck. Selah. +Hab 3:14 You have put your spears through his head, his horsemen were sent in flight like dry stems; they had joy in driving away the poor, in making a meal of them secretly. +Hab 3:15 The feet of your horses were on the sea, on the mass of great waters. +Hab 3:16 Hearing it, my inner parts were moved, and my lips were shaking at the sound; my bones became feeble, and my steps were uncertain under me: I gave sounds of grief in the day of trouble, when his forces came up against the people in bands. +Hab 3:17 For though the fig-tree has no flowers, and there is no fruit on the vine, and work on the olive comes to nothing, and the fields give no food; and the flock is cut off from its resting-place, and there is no herd in the cattle-house: +Hab 3:18 Still, I will be glad in the Lord, my joy will be in the God of my salvation. +Hab 3:19 The Lord God is my strength, and he makes my feet like roes' feet, guiding me on my high places. For the chief music-maker on corded instruments. +Zep 1:1 The word of the Lord which came to Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah. +Zep 1:2 I will take away everything from the face of the earth, says the Lord. +Zep 1:3 I will take away man and beast; I will take away the birds of the heaven and the fishes of the sea; causing the downfall of the evil-doers, and cutting man off from the face of the earth, says the Lord. +Zep 1:4 And my hand will be stretched out on Judah and on all the people of Jerusalem, cutting off the name of the Baal from this place, and the name of the false priests, +Zep 1:5 And the worshippers of the army of heaven on the house-tops, and the Lord's worshippers who take oaths by Milcom, +Zep 1:6 And those who are turned back from going after the Lord, and those who have not made prayer to the Lord or got directions from him. +Zep 1:7 Let there be no sound before the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is near: for the Lord has made ready an offering, he has made his guests holy. +Zep 1:8 And it will come about in the day of the Lord's offering, that I will send punishment on the rulers and the king's sons and all who are clothed in robes from strange lands. +Zep 1:9 And in that day I will send punishment on all those who come jumping over the doorstep and make their master's house full of violent behaviour and deceit. +Zep 1:10 And in that day, says the Lord, there will be the sound of a cry from the fish doorway, and an outcry from the new town, and a great thundering from the hills, and cries of grief from the people of the Hollow; +Zep 1:11 Because of the downfall of all the people of Canaan: all those who were weighted down with silver have been cut off. +Zep 1:12 And it will come about at that time, that I will go searching through Jerusalem with lights; and I will send punishment on the men who have become like wine stored over-long, who say to themselves, The Lord will not do good and will not do evil. +Zep 1:13 And their wealth will be violently taken away, and their houses will be made waste: they will go on building houses and never living in them, and planting vine-gardens but not drinking the wine from them. +Zep 1:14 The great day of the Lord is near, it is near and coming very quickly; the bitter day of the Lord is near, coming on more quickly than a man of war. +Zep 1:15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and sorrow, a day of wasting and destruction, a day of dark night and deep shade, a day of cloud and thick dark. +Zep 1:16 A day of sounding the horn and the war-cry against the walled towns and the high towers. +Zep 1:17 And I will send trouble on men so that they will go about like the blind, because they have done evil against the Lord: and their blood will be drained out like dust, and their strength like waste. +Zep 1:18 Even their silver and their gold will not be able to keep them safe in the day of the Lord's wrath; but all the land will be burned up in the fire of his bitter wrath: for he will put an end, even suddenly, to all who are living in the land. +Zep 2:1 Come together, make everyone come together, O nation without shame; +Zep 2:2 Before the Lord sends you violently away in flight like the waste from the grain; before the burning wrath of the Lord comes on you, before the day of the Lord's wrath comes on you. +Zep 2:3 Make search for the Lord, all you quiet ones of the earth, who have done what is right in his eyes; make search for righteousness and a quiet heart: it may be that you will be safely covered in the day of the Lord's wrath. +Zep 2:4 For Gaza will be given up and Ashkelon will become waste: they will send Ashdod out in the middle of the day, and Ekron will be uprooted. +Zep 2:5 Sorrow to the people living by the sea, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines; I will send destruction on you till there is no one living in you. +Zep 2:6 And the land by the sea will be grass-land, with houses for keepers of sheep and walled places for flocks. +Zep 2:7 The land by the sea will be for the rest of the children of Judah; by the sea they will give their flocks food: in the houses of Ashkelon they will take their rest in the evening; for the Lord their God will take them in hand and their fate will be changed. +Zep 2:8 My ears have been open to the bitter words of Moab and the words of shame of the children of Ammon, which they have said against my people, lifting themselves up against the limit of their land. +Zep 2:9 For this cause, by my life, says the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, truly Moab will become like Sodom and the children of Ammon like Gomorrah, given up to waste plants and salt pools and unpeopled for ever: the rest of my people will take their property, the overflow of my nation will take their heritage. +Zep 2:10 This will be their fate because of their pride, because they have said evil, lifting themselves up against the people of the Lord of armies. +Zep 2:11 The Lord will let himself be seen by them: for he will make all the gods of the earth feeble; and men will go down before him in worship, everyone from his place, even all the sea-lands of the nations. +Zep 2:12 And you Ethiopians will be put to death by my sword. +Zep 2:13 And his hand will be stretched out against the north, for the destruction of Assyria; and he will make Nineveh unpeopled and dry like the waste land. +Zep 2:14 And herds will take their rest in the middle of her, all the beasts of the valley: the pelican and the porcupine will make their living-places on the tops of its pillars; the owl will be crying in the window; the raven will be seen on the doorstep. +Zep 2:15 This is the town which was full of joy, living without fear of danger, saying in her heart, I am, and there is no other: how has she been made waste, a place for beasts to take their rest in! everyone who goes by her will make hisses, waving his hand. +Zep 3:1 Sorrow to her who is uncontrolled and unclean, the cruel town! +Zep 3:2 She gave no attention to the voice, she had no use for teaching, she put no faith in the Lord, she did not come near to her God. +Zep 3:3 Her rulers are like loud-voiced lions in her; her judges are wolves of the evening, crushing up the bones before the morning. +Zep 3:4 Her prophets are good-for-nothing persons, full of deceit: her priests have made the holy place unclean and have gone violently against the law. +Zep 3:5 The Lord in her is upright; he will not do evil; every morning he lets his righteousness be seen, he is unchanging; but the evil-doer has no sense of shame. +Zep 3:6 I have had the nations cut off, their towers are broken down; I have made their streets a waste so that no one goes through them: destruction has overtaken their towns, so that there is no man living in them. +Zep 3:7 I said, Certainly you will go in fear of me, and come under my training, so that whatever I may send on her may not be cut off before her eyes: but they got up early and made all their works evil. +Zep 3:8 For this reason, go on waiting for me, says the Lord, till the day when I come up as a witness: for my purpose is to send for the nations and to get the kingdoms together, so that I may let loose on them my passion, even all my burning wrath: for all the earth will be burned up in the fire of my bitter passion. +Zep 3:9 For then I will give the people a clean language, so that they may all make prayer to the Lord and be his servants with one mind. +Zep 3:10 From over the rivers of Ethiopia, and from the sides of the north, they will come to me with an offering. +Zep 3:11 In that day you will have no shame on account of all the things in which you did evil against me: for then I will take away from among you those who were lifted up in pride, and you will no longer be lifted up with pride in my holy mountain. +Zep 3:12 But I will still have among you a quiet and poor people, and they will put their faith in the name of the Lord. +Zep 3:13 The rest of Israel will do no evil and say no false words; the tongue of deceit will not be seen in their mouth: for they will take their food and their rest, and no one will be a cause of fear to them. +Zep 3:14 Make melody, O daughter of Zion; give a loud cry, O Israel; be glad and let your heart be full of joy, O daughter of Jerusalem. +Zep 3:15 The Lord has taken away those who were judging you, he has sent your haters far away: the King of Israel, even the Lord, is among you: you will have no more fear of evil. +Zep 3:16 In that day it will be said to Jerusalem, Have no fear: O Zion, let not your hands be feeble. +Zep 3:17 The Lord your God is among you, as a strong saviour: he will be glad over you with joy, he will make his love new again, he will make a song of joy over you as in the time of a holy feast. +Zep 3:18 I will take away your troubles, lifting up your shame from off you. +Zep 3:19 See, at that time I will put an end to all who have been troubling you: I will give salvation to her whose steps are uncertain, and get together her who has been sent in flight; and I will make them a cause of praise and an honoured name in all the earth, when I let their fate be changed. +Zep 3:20 At that time I will make you come in, at that time I will get you together: for I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth when I let your fate be changed before your eyes, says the Lord. +Hag 1:1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, +Hag 1:2 These are the words of the Lord of armies: These people say, The time has not come for building the Lord's house. +Hag 1:3 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, +Hag 1:4 Is it a time for you to be living in roofed houses while this house is a waste? +Hag 1:5 For this cause the Lord of armies has said, Give thought to your ways. +Hag 1:6 Much has been planted, but little got in; you take food, but have not enough; you take drink, but are not full; you are clothed, but no one is warm; and he who gets payment for his work, gets it to put it into a bag full of holes. +Hag 1:7 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Give thought to your ways. +Hag 1:8 Go up to the hills and get wood and put up the house; and I will take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord. +Hag 1:9 You were looking for much, and it came to little; and when you got it into your house, I took it away with a breath. Why? says the Lord of armies. Because of my house which is a waste, while every man takes care of the house which is his. +Hag 1:10 For this cause the heaven over you is kept from giving dew, and the earth from giving her fruit. +Hag 1:11 And by my order no rain came on the land or on the mountains or the grain or the wine or the oil or the produce of the earth or on men or cattle or on any work of man's hands. +Hag 1:12 Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the rest of the people, gave ear to the voice of the Lord their God and to the words of Haggai the prophet, because the Lord their God had sent him, and the people were in fear before the Lord. +Hag 1:13 Then Haggai, whom the Lord had sent to give his words to the people, said, I am with you, says the Lord. +Hag 1:14 And the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler of Judah, was moved by the Lord, as was the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of armies, their God. +Hag 1:15 On the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. +Hag 2:1 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, +Hag 2:2 Say now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the rest of the people, +Hag 2:3 Who is there still among you who saw this house in its first glory? and how do you see it now? is it not in your eyes as nothing? +Hag 2:4 But now be strong, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and get to work: for I am with you, says the Lord of armies: +Hag 2:5 The agreement which I made with you when you came out of Egypt, and my spirit, are with you still; have no fear. +Hag 2:6 For this is what the Lord of armies has said: In a short time I will make a shaking of the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; +Hag 2:7 And I will make a shaking of all the nations, and the desired things of all nations will come: and I will make this house full of my glory, says the Lord of armies. +Hag 2:8 The silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of armies. +Hag 2:9 The second glory of this house will be greater than the first, says the Lord of armies: and in this place I will give peace, says the Lord of armies. +Hag 2:10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, +Hag 2:11 These are the words of the Lord of armies: Put now a point of law to the priests, saying, +Hag 2:12 If anyone has some holy flesh folded in the skirt of his robe, will bread or soup or wine or oil or any other food be made holy if touched by his skirt? And the priests answering said, No. +Hag 2:13 Then Haggai said, Will any of these be made unclean by the touch of one who is unclean through touching a dead body? And the priests answering said, It will be made unclean. +Hag 2:14 Then Haggai said, So is this people and so is this nation before me, says the Lord; and so is every work of their hands; and the offering they give there is unclean. +Hag 2:15 And now, give thought, looking back from this day to the time before one stone was put on another in the Temple of the Lord: +Hag 2:16 How, when anyone came to a store of twenty measures, there were only ten: when anyone went to the wine-store to get fifty vessels full, there were only twenty. +Hag 2:17 And I sent burning and wasting and a rain of ice-drops on all the works of your hands; but still you were not turned to me, says the Lord. +Hag 2:18 And now, give thought; looking on from this day, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the time when the base of the Lord's house was put in its place, give thought to it. +Hag 2:19 Is the seed still in the store-house? have the vine and the fig-tree, the pomegranate and the olive-tree, still not given their fruit? from this day I will send my blessing on you. +Hag 2:20 And the word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai, on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, +Hag 2:21 Say to Zerubbabel, ruler of Judah, I will make a shaking of the heavens and the earth, +Hag 2:22 Overturning the power of kingdoms; and I will send destruction on the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; by me war-carriages will be overturned with those who are in them; and the horses and the horsemen will come down, everyone by the sword of his brother. +Hag 2:23 In that day, says the Lord of armies, I will take you, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the Lord, and will make you as a jewelled ring: for I have taken you to be mine, says the Lord of armies. +Zec 1:1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, +Zec 1:2 The Lord has been very angry with your fathers: +Zec 1:3 And you are to say to them, These are the words of the Lord of armies: Come back to me, says the Lord of armies, and I will come back to you. +Zec 1:4 Be not like your fathers, to whom the voice of the earlier prophets came, saying, Be turned now from your evil ways and from your evil doings: but they did not give ear to me or take note, says the Lord. +Zec 1:5 Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they go on living for ever? +Zec 1:6 But my words and my orders, which I gave to my servants the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers? and turning back they said, As it was the purpose of the Lord of armies to do to us, in reward for our ways and our doings, so has he done. +Zec 1:7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, +Zec 1:8 I saw in the night a man on a red horse, between the mountains in the valley, and at his back were horses, red, black, white, and of mixed colours. +Zec 1:9 Then I said, O my lord, what are these? And the angel who was talking to me said to me, I will make clear to you what they are. +Zec 1:10 And the man who was between the mountains, answering me, said, These are those whom the Lord has sent to go up and down through the earth. +Zec 1:11 And the man who was between the mountains, answering, said to the angel of the Lord, We have gone up and down through the earth, and all the earth is quiet and at rest. +Zec 1:12 Then the angel of the Lord, answering, said, O Lord of armies, how long will it be before you have mercy on Jerusalem and on the towns of Judah against which your wrath has been burning for seventy years? +Zec 1:13 And the Lord gave an answer in good and comforting words to the angel who was talking to me. +Zec 1:14 And the angel who was talking to me said to me, Let your voice be loud and say, These are the words of the Lord of armies: I am greatly moved about the fate of Jerusalem and of Zion. +Zec 1:15 And I am very angry with the nations who are living untroubled: for when I was only a little angry, they made the evil worse. +Zec 1:16 So this is what the Lord has said: I have come back to Jerusalem with mercies; my house is to be put up in her, says the Lord of armies, and a line is to be stretched out over Jerusalem. +Zec 1:17 And again let your voice be loud and say, This is what the Lord of armies has said: My towns will again be overflowing with good things, and again the Lord will give comfort to Zion and take Jerusalem for himself. +Zec 1:18 And lifting up my eyes I saw four horns. +Zec 1:19 And I said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have sent Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem in flight. +Zec 1:20 And the Lord gave me a vision of four metal-workers. +Zec 1:21 Then I said, What have these come to do? And he said, These are the horns which sent Judah in flight, and kept him from lifting up his head: but these men have come to send fear on them and to put down the nations who are lifting up their horns against the land of Judah to send it in flight. +Zec 2:1 And lifting up my eyes, I saw a man with a measuring-line in his hand. +Zec 2:2 And I said to him, Where are you going? And he said to me, To take the measure of Jerusalem, to see how wide and how long it is. +Zec 2:3 And the angel who was talking to me went out, and another angel went out, and, meeting him, +Zec 2:4 Said to him, Go quickly and say to this young man, Jerusalem will be an unwalled town, because of the great number of men and cattle in her. +Zec 2:5 For I, says the Lord, will be a wall of fire round about her, and I will be the glory inside her. +Zec 2:6 Ho, ho! go in flight from the land of the north, says the Lord: for I have sent you far and wide to the four winds of heaven, says the Lord. +Zec 2:7 Ho! Zion, go in flight from danger, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon. +Zec 2:8 For this is what the Lord of armies has said: In the way of glory he has sent me to the nations which have taken your goods: for anyone touching you is touching what is most dear to him. +Zec 2:9 For at the shaking of my hand over them, their goods will be taken by those who were their servants: and you will see that the Lord of armies has sent me. +Zec 2:10 Give songs of joy, O daughter of Zion: for I come, and I will make my resting-place among you, says the Lord. +Zec 2:11 And a number of nations will be joined to the Lord in that day, and will become my people; and I will be living among you, and you will see that the Lord of armies has sent me to you. +Zec 2:12 And Judah will be the Lord's heritage in the holy land, and Jerusalem will again be his. +Zec 2:13 Let all flesh be quiet and make no sound before the Lord: for he is awake and has come from his holy resting-place. +Zec 3:1 And he let me see Joshua, the high priest, in his place before the angel of the Lord, and the Satan at his right hand ready to take up a cause against him. +Zec 3:2 And the Lord said to the Satan, May the Lord's word be sharp against you, O Satan, the word of the Lord who has taken Jerusalem for himself: is this not a burning branch pulled out of the fire? +Zec 3:3 Now Joshua was clothed in unclean robes, and he was in his place before the angel. +Zec 3:4 And he made answer and said to those who were there before him, Take the unclean robes off him, and let him be clothed in clean robes; +Zec 3:5 And let them put a clean head-dress on his head. So they put a clean head-dress on his head, clothing him with clean robes: and to him he said, See, I have taken your sin away from you. +Zec 3:6 And the angel of the Lord made a statement to Joshua, and said, +Zec 3:7 These are the words of the Lord of armies: If you will go in my ways and keep what I have put in your care, then you will be judge over my Temple and have the care of my house, and I will give you the right to come in among those who are there. +Zec 3:8 Give ear now, O Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who are seated before you; for these are men who are a sign: for see, I will let my servant the Branch be seen. +Zec 3:9 For see, the stone which I have put before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes: see, the design cut on it will be my work, says the Lord of armies, and I will take away the sin of that land in one day. +Zec 3:10 In that day, says the Lord of armies, you will be one another's guests under the vine and under the fig-tree. +Zec 4:1 And the angel who was talking to me came again, awaking me as a man out of his sleep. +Zec 4:2 And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see a light-support, made all of gold, with its cup on the top of it and seven lights on it; and there are seven pipes to every one of the lights which are on the top of it; +Zec 4:3 And two olive-trees by it, one on the right side of the cup and one on the left. +Zec 4:4 And I made answer and said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these, my lord? +Zec 4:5 Then the angel who was talking to me, answering me, said, Have you no knowledge of what these are? And I said, No, my lord. +Zec 4:6 This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by force or by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of armies. +Zec 4:7 Who are you, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel you will become level: and he will let all see the headstone, with cries of Grace, grace, to it. +Zec 4:8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Zec 4:9 The hands of Zerubbabel have put the base of this house in place, and his hands will make it complete; and it will be clear to you that the Lord of armies has sent me to you. +Zec 4:10 For who has had a poor opinion of the day of small things? for they will be glad when they see the weighted measuring-line in the hand of Zerubbabel. Then he said in answer to me, These seven lights are the eyes of the Lord which go quickly up and down through all the earth. +Zec 4:11 And I made answer and said to him, What are these two olive-trees on the right side of the light-support and on the left? +Zec 4:12 And answering a second time, I said to him, What are these two olive branches, through whose gold pipes the oil is drained out? +Zec 4:13 And he said in answer to me, Have you no knowledge what these are? And I said, No, my lord. +Zec 4:14 And he said, These are the two sons of oil, whose place is by the Lord of all the earth. +Zec 5:1 Then again lifting up my eyes I saw a roll in flight through the air. +Zec 5:2 And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, A roll going through the air; it is twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide. +Zec 5:3 Then he said to me, This is the curse which goes out over the face of all the land: for long enough has every thief gone without punishment, and long enough has every taker of false oaths gone without punishment. +Zec 5:4 And I will send it out, says the Lord of armies, and it will go into the house of the thief and into the house of him who takes a false oath by my name: and it will be in his house, causing its complete destruction, with its woodwork and its stones. +Zec 5:5 And the angel who was talking to me went out and said to me, Let your eyes be lifted up now, and see the ephah which is going out. +Zec 5:6 And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah which is going out. And he said further, This is their evil-doing in all the land. +Zec 5:7 And I saw a round cover of lead lifted up; and a woman was seated in the middle of the ephah. +Zec 5:8 And he said, This is Sin; and pushing her down into the ephah, he put the weight of lead on the mouth of it. +Zec 5:9 And lifting up my eyes I saw two women coming out, and the wind was in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they took the ephah, lifting it up between earth and heaven. +Zec 5:10 And I said to the angel who was talking to me, Where are they taking the ephah? +Zec 5:11 And he said to me, To make a house for her in the land of Shinar: and they will make a place ready, and put her there in the place which is hers. +Zec 6:1 And again lifting up my eyes I saw four war-carriages coming out from between the two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass. +Zec 6:2 In the first war-carriage were red horses; and in the second, black horses; +Zec 6:3 And in the third, white horses; and in the fourth, horses of mixed colour. +Zec 6:4 And I made answer and said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these, my lord? +Zec 6:5 And the angel, answering, said to me, These go out to the four winds of heaven from their place before the Lord of all the earth. +Zec 6:6 The carriage in which are the black horses goes in the direction of the north country; the white go to the west; and those of mixed colour go in the direction of the south country. +Zec 6:7 And the red ones go to the east; and they made request that they might go up and down through the earth: and he said, Go up and down through the earth. So they went up and down through the earth. +Zec 6:8 Then crying out to me, he said, See, those who are going to the north country have given rest to the spirit of the Lord in the north country. +Zec 6:9 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, +Zec 6:10 Take the offerings of those who went away as prisoners, from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, and from the family of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah, who have come from Babylon; +Zec 6:11 And take silver and gold and make a crown and put it on the head of Zerubbabel; +Zec 6:12 And say to him, These are the words of the Lord of armies: See, the man whose name is the Branch, under whom there will be fertile growth. +Zec 6:13 And he will be the builder of the Temple of the Lord; and the glory will be his, and he will take his place as ruler on the seat of power; and Joshua will be a priest at his right hand, and between them there will be a design of peace. +Zec 6:14 And the crown will be for grace to Heldai and Tobijah and Jedaiah and the son of Zephaniah, to keep their memory living in the house of the Lord. +Zec 6:15 And those who are far away will come and be builders in the Temple of the Lord, and it will be clear to you that the Lord of armies has sent me to you. +Zec 7:1 And it came about in the fourth year of King Darius, that the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month Chislev. +Zec 7:2 Now they of Beth-el had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech to make a request for grace from the Lord, +Zec 7:3 And to say to the priests of the house of the Lord of armies and to the prophets, Am I to go on weeping in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done in past years? +Zec 7:4 Then the word of the Lord of armies came to me, saying +Zec 7:5 Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, When you went without food and gave yourselves to grief in the fifth and the seventh months for these seventy years, did you ever do it because of me? +Zec 7:6 And when you are feasting and drinking, are you not doing it only for yourselves? +Zec 7:7 Are not these the words which the Lord said to you by the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem was full of people and wealth, and the towns round about her and the South and the Lowland were peopled? +Zec 7:8 And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, +Zec 7:9 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Let your judging be upright and done in good faith, let every man have mercy and pity for his brother: +Zec 7:10 Do not be hard on the widow, or the child without a father, on the man from a strange country, or on the poor; let there be no evil thought in your heart against your brother. +Zec 7:11 But they would not give attention, turning their backs and stopping their ears from hearing; +Zec 7:12 And they made their hearts like the hardest stone, so that they might not give ear to the law and the words which the Lord of armies had said by the earlier prophets: and there came great wrath from the Lord of armies. +Zec 7:13 And it came about that as they would not give ear to his voice, so I would not give ear to their voice, says the Lord of armies: +Zec 7:14 But with a storm-wind I sent them in flight among all the nations of whom they had no knowledge. So the land was waste after them, so that no man went through or came back: for they had made waste the desired land. +Zec 8:1 And the word of the Lord of armies came to me, saying, +Zec 8:2 These are the words of the Lord of armies: I am angry about the fate of Zion, I am angry about her with great wrath. +Zec 8:3 This is what the Lord has said: I have come back to Zion, and will make my living-place in Jerusalem: and Jerusalem will be named The town of good faith; and the mountain of the Lord of armies The holy mountain. +Zec 8:4 This is what the Lord of armies has said: There will again be old men and old women seated in the open spaces of Jerusalem, every man with his stick in his hand because he is so old. +Zec 8:5 And the open spaces of the town will be full of boys and girls playing in its open spaces. +Zec 8:6 This is what the Lord of armies has said: If this is a wonder to the rest of this people, is it a wonder to me? says the Lord of armies. +Zec 8:7 This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, I will be the saviour of my people from the east country, and from the west country; +Zec 8:8 And I will make them come and be living in Jerusalem and they will be to me a people and I will be to them a God, in good faith and in righteousness. +Zec 8:9 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Let your hands be strong, you who are now hearing these words from the mouths of the prophets, that is to say, in the days when the base of the house of the Lord of armies has been put in place for the building of the house, that is the Temple. +Zec 8:10 For before those days there was no payment for a man's work, or for the use of a beast, and there was no peace for him who went out or him who came in, because of the attacker: for I had every man turned against his neighbour. +Zec 8:11 But now I will not be to the rest of this people as I was in the past, says the Lord of armies. +Zec 8:12 For I will let the seed of peace be planted; the vine will give her fruit and the land will give her increase and the heavens will give their dew; and I will give to the rest of this people all these things for their heritage. +Zec 8:13 And it will come about that, as you were a curse among the nations, O children of Judah and children of Israel, so I will give you salvation and you will be a blessing: have no fear and let your hands be strong. +Zec 8:14 For this is what the Lord of armies has said: As it was my purpose to do evil to you when your fathers made me angry, says the Lord of armies, and my purpose was not changed: +Zec 8:15 So in these days it is again my purpose to do good to Jerusalem and to the children of Judah: have no fear. +Zec 8:16 These are the things which you are to do: Let every man say what is true to his neighbour; and let your judging give peace in your towns. +Zec 8:17 Let no one have any evil thought in his heart against his neighbour; and have no love for false oaths: for all these things are hated by me, says the Lord. +Zec 8:18 And the word of the Lord of armies came to me, saying, +Zec 8:19 This is what the Lord of armies has said: The times of going without food in the fourth month and in the fifth and the seventh and the tenth months, will be for the people of Judah times of joy and happy meetings; so be lovers of good faith and of peace. +Zec 8:20 This is what the Lord of armies has said: It will again come about that when peoples and those living in great towns come, +Zec 8:21 And the people of one town go to another and say, Let us certainly go with a request for grace from the Lord, and to give worship to the Lord of armies, then I will go with you. +Zec 8:22 And great peoples and strong nations will come to give worship to the Lord of armies in Jerusalem and to make requests for grace from the Lord. +Zec 8:23 This is what the Lord of armies has said: In those days, ten men from all the languages of the nations will put out their hands and take a grip of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for it has come to our ears that God is with you. +Zec 9:1 A word of the Lord: The Lord has come to the land of Hadrach, and Damascus is his resting-place: for the towns of Aram are the Lord's, +Zec 9:2 As well as Hamath, which is by its limit, and Tyre and Zidon, because they are very wise. +Zec 9:3 And Tyre made for herself a strong place, and got together silver like dust and the best gold like the earth of the streets. +Zec 9:4 See, the Lord will take away her heritage, overturning her power in the sea; and she will be burned up with fire. +Zec 9:5 Ashkelon will see it with fear, and Gaza, bent with pain; and Ekron, for her hope will be shamed: and the king will be cut off from Gaza, and Ashkelon will be unpeopled. +Zec 9:6 And a mixed people will be living in Ashdod, and I will have the pride of the Philistines cut off. +Zec 9:7 And I will take away his blood from his mouth, and his disgusting things from between his teeth; and some of his people will be kept for our God: and he will be as a family in Judah, and Ekron as one living in Jerusalem. +Zec 9:8 And I will put my forces in position round my house, so that there may be no coming and going: and no cruel master will again go through them: for now I have seen his trouble. +Zec 9:9 Be full of joy, O daughter of Zion; give a glad cry, O daughter of Jerusalem: see, your king comes to you: he is upright and has overcome; gentle and seated on an ass, on a young ass. +Zec 9:10 And he will have the war-carriage cut off from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be cut off: and he will say words of peace to the nations: and his rule will be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. +Zec 9:11 And as for you, because of the blood of your agreement, I have sent out your prisoners from the deep hole in which there is no water. +Zec 9:12 And they will come back to you, O daughter of Zion, as prisoners of hope: today I say to you that I will give you back twice as much; +Zec 9:13 For I have made Judah a bow bent for my use, I have made Ephraim the arrows of the bow; I will make your sons, O Zion, take up arms against your sons, O Greece, and will make you like the sword of a man of war. +Zec 9:14 And the Lord will be seen over them, and his arrow will go out like the thunder-flame: and the Lord God, sounding the war-horn, will go in the storm-winds of the South. +Zec 9:15 The Lord of armies will be a cover for them; and they will overcome, crushing under foot the armed men; they will take their blood for drink like wine: they will be full like the sides of the altar. +Zec 9:16 And the Lord their God will be their saviour in that day, giving them food like the flock of his people: for they will be like the jewels of a crown shining over his land. +Zec 9:17 For how good it is and how beautiful! grain will make the young men strong and new wine the virgins. +Zec 10:1 Make your request to the Lord for rain in the time of the spring rains, even to the Lord who makes the thunder-flames; and he will give them showers of rain, to every man grass in the field. +Zec 10:2 For the images have said what is not true, and the readers of signs have seen deceit; they have given accounts of false dreams, they give comfort to no purpose: so they go out of the way like sheep, they are troubled because they have no keeper. +Zec 10:3 My wrath is burning against the keepers of the flock, and I will send punishment on the he-goats: for the Lord of armies takes care of his flock, the people of Judah, and will make them like the horse of his pride in the fight. +Zec 10:4 From him will come the keystone, from him the nail, from him the bow of war, from him will come every ruler; +Zec 10:5 Together they will be like men of war, crushing down their haters into the earth of the streets in the fight; they will make war because the Lord is with them: and the horsemen will be shamed. +Zec 10:6 And I will make the children of Judah strong, and I will be the saviour of the children of Joseph, and I will make them come back again, for I have had mercy on them: they will be as if I had not given them up: for I am the Lord their God and I will give them an answer. +Zec 10:7 And Ephraim will be like a man of war, and their hearts will be glad as with wine; and their children will see it with joy; their hearts will be glad in the Lord. +Zec 10:8 With the sound of the pipe I will get them together; for I have given the price to make them free: and they will be increased as they were increased. +Zec 10:9 Though I had them planted among the peoples, they will keep me in mind in far countries: and they will take care of their children and will come back. +Zec 10:10 And I will make them come back out of the land of Egypt, and will get them together out of Assyria; and I will take them into the land of Gilead, and it will not be wide enough for them. +Zec 10:11 And they will go through the sea of Egypt, and all the deep waters of the Nile will become dry: and the pride of Assyria will be made low, and the power of Egypt will be taken away. +Zec 10:12 And their strength will be in the Lord; and their pride will be in his name, says the Lord. +Zec 11:1 Let your doors be open, O Lebanon, so that fire may be burning among your cedars. +Zec 11:2 Give a cry of grief, O fir-tree, for the fall of the cedar, because the great ones have been made low: give cries of grief, O you oaks of Bashan, for the strong trees of the wood have come down. +Zec 11:3 The sound of the crying of the keepers of the flock! for their glory is made waste: the sound of the loud crying of the young lions! for the pride of Jordan is made waste. +Zec 11:4 This is what the Lord my God has said: Take care of the flock of death; +Zec 11:5 Whose owners put them to death and have no sense of sin; and those who get a price for them say, May the Lord be praised for I have much wealth: and the keepers of the flock have no pity for them. +Zec 11:6 For I will have no more pity for the people of the land, says the Lord; but I will give up everyone into his neighbour's hand and into the hand of his king: and they will make the land waste, and I will not keep them safe from their hands. +Zec 11:7 So I took care of the flock of death, for those who made profit out of the flock; and I took for myself two rods, naming one Beautiful, and the other Bands; and I took care of the flock. +Zec 11:8 And in one month I put an end to the three keepers of the flock; for my soul was tired of them, and their souls were disgusted with me. +Zec 11:9 And I said, I will not take care of you: If death comes to any, let death be its fate; if any is cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest take one another's flesh for food. +Zec 11:10 And I took my rod Beautiful, cutting it in two, so that the Lord's agreement, which he had made with all the peoples, might be broken. +Zec 11:11 And it was broken on that day: and the sheep-traders, who were watching me, were certain that it was the word of the Lord. +Zec 11:12 And I said to them, If it seems good to you, give me my payment; and if not, do not give it. So they gave me my payment by weight, thirty shekels of silver. +Zec 11:13 And the Lord said to me, Put it into the store-house, the price at which I was valued by them. And I took the thirty shekels of silver and put them into the store-house in the house of the Lord. +Zec 11:14 Then I took my other rod, the one named Bands, cutting it in two, so that the relation of brothers between Judah and Israel might be broken. +Zec 11:15 And the Lord said to me, Take again the instruments of a foolish keeper of sheep. +Zec 11:16 For see, I will put a sheep-keeper over the land, who will have no care for that which is cut off, and will not go in search of the wanderers, or make well what is broken, and he will not give food to that which is ill, but he will take for his food the flesh of the fat, and let their feet be broken. +Zec 11:17 A curse on the foolish keeper who goes away from the flock! the sword will be on his arm and on his right eye: his arm will become quite dry and his eye will be made completely dark. +Zec 12:1 The word of the Lord about Israel. The Lord by whom the heavens are stretched out and the bases of the earth put in place, and the spirit of man formed inside him, has said: +Zec 12:2 See, I will make Jerusalem a cup of shaking fear to all the peoples round about, when Jerusalem is shut in. +Zec 12:3 And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a stone of great weight for all the peoples; all those who take it up will be badly wounded; and all the nations of the earth will come together against it. +Zec 12:4 In that day, says the Lord, I will put fear into every horse and make every horseman go off his head: and my eyes will be open on the people of Judah, and I will make every horse of the peoples blind. +Zec 12:5 And the families of Judah will say in their hearts, The people of Jerusalem have their strength in the Lord of armies, their God. +Zec 12:6 In that day I will make the families of Judah like a pot with fire in it among trees, and like a flaming stick among cut grain; they will send destruction on all the peoples round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem will be living again in the place which is hers, that is, in Jerusalem. +Zec 12:7 And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the family of David and the glory of the people of Jerusalem may not be greater than that of Judah. +Zec 12:8 In that day the Lord will be a cover over the people of Jerusalem; and he who is feeble among them in that day will be as strong as David, and the family of David will be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them. +Zec 12:9 And it will come about on that day that I will take in hand the destruction of all the nations who come against Jerusalem. +Zec 12:10 And I will send down on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayer; and their eyes will be turned to the one who was wounded by their hands: and they will be weeping for him as for an only son, and their grief for him will be bitter, like the grief of one sorrowing for his oldest son. +Zec 12:11 In that day there will be a great weeping in Jerusalem, like the weeping of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon. +Zec 12:12 And the land will give itself to weeping, every family separately; the family of David by themselves, and their wives by themselves; the family of Nathan by themselves, and their wives by themselves; +Zec 12:13 The family of Levi by themselves, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by themselves, and their wives by themselves; +Zec 12:14 And all the other families by themselves, and their wives by themselves. +Zec 13:1 In that day there will be a fountain open to the family of David and to the people of Jerusalem, for sin and for that which is unclean. +Zec 13:2 And it will come about on that day, says the Lord of armies, that I will have the names of the images cut off out of the land, and there will be no more memory of them: and I will send all the prophets and the unclean spirit away from the land. +Zec 13:3 And if anyone goes on acting as a prophet, then his father and his mother who gave him life will say to him, You may not go on living, for you are saying what is false in the name of the Lord; and his father and his mother will put a sword through him when he does so. +Zec 13:4 And it will come about in that day that the prophets will be shamed, every man on account of his vision, when he is talking as a prophet; and they will not put on a robe of hair for purposes of deceit: +Zec 13:5 But he will say, I am no prophet, but a worker on the land; for I have been an owner of land from the time when I was young. +Zec 13:6 And if anyone says to him, What are these wounds between your hands? then he will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. +Zec 13:7 Awake! O sword, against the keeper of my flock, and against him who is with me, says the Lord of armies: put to death the keeper of the sheep, and the sheep will go in flight: and my hand will be turned against the little ones. +Zec 13:8 And it will come about that in all the land, says the Lord, two parts of it will be cut off and come to an end; but the third will be still living there. +Zec 13:9 And I will make the third part go through the fire, cleaning them as silver is made clean, and testing them as gold is tested: and they will make their prayer to me and I will give them an answer: I will say, It is my people; and they will say, The Lord is my God. +Zec 14:1 See, a day of the Lord is coming when they will make division of your goods taken by force before your eyes. +Zec 14:2 For I will get all the nations together to make war against Jerusalem; and the town will be overcome, and the goods taken from the houses, and the women taken by force: and half the town will go away as prisoners, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the town. +Zec 14:3 Then the Lord will go out and make war against those nations, as he did in the day of the fight. +Zec 14:4 And in that day his feet will be on the Mount of Olives, which is opposite Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will be parted in the middle to the east and to the west, forming a very great valley; and half the mountain will be moved to the north and half of it to the south. +Zec 14:5 And the valley will be stopped ... and you will go in flight as you went in flight from the earth-shock in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah: and the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones with him. +Zec 14:6 And in that day there will be no heat or cold or ice; +Zec 14:7 And it will be unbroken day, such as the Lord has knowledge of, without change of day and night, and even at nightfall it will be light. +Zec 14:8 And on that day living waters will go out from Jerusalem; half of them flowing to the sea on the east and half to the sea on the west: in summer and in winter it will be so. +Zec 14:9 And the Lord will be King over all the earth: in that day there will be one Lord and his name one. +Zec 14:10 And all the land will become like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she will be lifted up and be living in her place; from the doorway of Benjamin to the place of the first doorway, to the doorway of the angle, and from the tower of Hananel to the king's wine-crushing places, men will be living in her. +Zec 14:11 And there will be no more curse; but Jerusalem will be living without fear of danger. +Zec 14:12 And this will be the disease which the Lord will send on all the peoples which have been warring against Jerusalem: their flesh will be wasted away while they are on their feet, their eyes will be wasted in their heads and their tongues in their mouths. +Zec 14:13 And it will be on that day that a great fear will be sent among them from the Lord; and everyone will take his neighbour's hand, and every man's hand will be lifted against his neighbour's. +Zec 14:14 And even Judah will be fighting against Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the nations round about will be massed together, a great store of gold and silver and clothing. +Zec 14:15 And the horses and the transport beasts, the camels and the asses and all the beasts in those tents will be attacked by the same disease. +Zec 14:16 And it will come about that everyone who is still living, of all those nations who came against Jerusalem, will go up from year to year to give worship to the King, the Lord of armies, and to keep the feast of tents. +Zec 14:17 And it will be that if any one of all the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to give worship to the King, the Lord of armies, on them there will be no rain. +Zec 14:18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up or come there, they will be attacked by the disease which the Lord will send on the nations: +Zec 14:19 This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to keep the feast of tents. +Zec 14:20 On that day all the bells of the horses will be holy to the Lord, and the pots in the Lord's house will be like the basins before the altar. +Zec 14:21 And every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of armies: and all those who make offerings will come and take them for boiling their offerings: in that day there will be no more traders in the house of the Lord of armies. +Mal 1:1 The word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. +Mal 1:2 You have been loved by me, says the Lord. But you say, Where was your love for us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? says the Lord: but Jacob was loved by me, +Mal 1:3 And Esau was hated, and I sent destruction on his mountains, and gave his heritage to the beasts of the waste land. +Mal 1:4 Though Edom says, We are crushed down but we will come back, building up the waste places; this is what the Lord of armies has said: They may put up buildings, but I will have them pulled down; and they will be named The land of evil-doing, and The people against whom the Lord keeps his wrath for ever. +Mal 1:5 And your eyes will see it; and you will say, The Lord is great even outside the limits of Israel. +Mal 1:6 A son gives honour to his father, and a servant has fear of his master: if then I am a father, where is my honour? and if I am a master, where is the fear of me? says the Lord of armies to you, O priests, who give no value to my name. And you say, How have we not given value to your name? +Mal 1:7 You put unclean bread on my altar. And you say, How have we made it unclean? By your saying, The table of the Lord is of no value. +Mal 1:8 And when you give what is blind for an offering, it is no evil! and when you give what is damaged and ill, it is no evil! Give it now to your ruler; will he be pleased with you, or will you have his approval? says the Lord of armies. +Mal 1:9 And now, make request for the grace of God so that he may have mercy on us: this has been your doing: will he give his approval to any of you? says the Lord of armies. +Mal 1:10 If only there was one among you who would see that the doors were shut, so that you might not put a light to the fire on my altar for nothing! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of armies, and I will not take an offering from your hands. +Mal 1:11 For, from the coming up of the sun till its going down, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place the smell of burning flesh is offered to my name, and a clean offering: for my name is great among the Gentiles, says the Lord of armies. +Mal 1:12 But you make it unholy by saying, The Lord's table has become unclean, and his food is of no value. +Mal 1:13 And you say, See, what a weariness it is! and you let out your breath at it, says the Lord of armies; and you have given what has been cut about by beasts, and what is damaged in its feet and ill; this is the offering you give: will this be pleasing to me from your hands? says the Lord. +Mal 1:14 A curse on the false man who has a male in his flock, and takes his oath, and gives to the Lord a damaged thing: for I am a great King, says the Lord of armies, and my name is to be feared among the Gentiles. +Mal 2:1 And now, O you priests, this order is for you. +Mal 2:2 If you will not give ear and take it to heart, to give glory to my name, says the Lord of armies, then I will send the curse on you and will put a curse on your blessing: truly, even now I have put a curse on it, because you do not take it to heart. +Mal 2:3 See, I will have your arm cut off, and will put waste on your faces, even the waste from your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. +Mal 2:4 And you will be certain that I have sent this order to you, so that it might be my agreement with Levi, says the Lord of armies. +Mal 2:5 My agreement with him was on my side life and peace, and I gave them to him; on his side fear, and he had fear of me and gave honour to my name. +Mal 2:6 True teaching was in his mouth, and no evil was seen on his lips: he was walking with me in peace and righteousness, turning numbers of people away from evil-doing. +Mal 2:7 For it is right for the priest's lips to keep knowledge, and for men to be waiting for the law from his mouth: for he is the servant sent from the Lord of armies. +Mal 2:8 But you are turned out of the way; you have made the law hard for numbers of people; you have made the agreement of Levi of no value, says the Lord of armies. +Mal 2:9 And so I have taken away your honour and made you low before all the people, even as you have not kept my ways, and have given no thought to me in using the law. +Mal 2:10 Have we not all one father? has not one God made us? why are we, every one of us, acting falsely to his brother, putting shame on the agreement of our fathers? +Mal 2:11 Judah has been acting falsely, and a disgusting thing has been done in Jerusalem; for Judah has made unclean the holy place of the Lord which is dear to him, and has taken as his wife the daughter of a strange god. +Mal 2:12 The Lord will have the man who does this cut off root and branch out of the tents of Jacob, and him who makes an offering to the Lord of armies. +Mal 2:13 And this again you do: covering the altar of the Lord with weeping and with grief, so that he gives no more thought to the offering, and does not take it with pleasure from your hand. +Mal 2:14 But you say, For what reason? Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your early years, to whom you have been untrue, though she is your friend and the wife to whom you have given your word. +Mal 2:15 ... So give thought to your spirit, and let no one be false to the wife of his early years. +Mal 2:16 For I am against the putting away of a wife, says the Lord, the God of Israel, and against him who is clothed with violent acts, says the Lord of armies: so give thought to your spirit and do not be false in your acts. +Mal 2:17 You have made the Lord tired with your words. And still you say, How have we made him tired? By your saying, Everyone who does evil is good in the eyes of the Lord, and he has delight in them; or, Where is God the judge? +Mal 3:1 See, I am sending my servant, and he will make ready the way before me; and the Lord, whom you are looking for, will suddenly come to his Temple; and the angel of the agreement, in whom you have delight, see, he is coming, says the Lord of armies. +Mal 3:2 But by whom may the day of his coming be faced? and who may keep his place when he is seen? for he is like the metal-tester's fire and the cleaner's soap. +Mal 3:3 He will take his seat, testing and cleaning the sons of Levi, burning away the evil from them as from gold and silver; so that they may make offerings to the Lord in righteousness. +Mal 3:4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in days gone by, and as in past years. +Mal 3:5 And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies. +Mal 3:6 For I am the Lord, I am unchanged; and so you, O sons of Jacob, have not been cut off. +Mal 3:7 From the days of your fathers you have been turned away from my rules and have not kept them. Come back to me, and I will come back to you, says the Lord of armies. But you say, How are we to come back? +Mal 3:8 Will a man keep back from God what is right? But you have kept back what is mine. But you say, What have we kept back from you? Tenths and offerings. +Mal 3:9 You are cursed with a curse; for you have kept back from me what is mine, even all this nation. +Mal 3:10 Let your tenths come into the store-house so that there may be food in my house, and put me to the test by doing so, says the Lord of armies, and see if I do not make the windows of heaven open and send down such a blessing on you that there is no room for it. +Mal 3:11 And on your account I will keep back the locusts from wasting the fruits of your land; and the fruit of your vine will not be dropped on the field before its time, says the Lord of armies +Mal 3:12 And you will be named happy by all nations: for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of armies. +Mal 3:13 Your words have been strong against me, says the Lord. And still you say, What have we said against you? +Mal 3:14 You have said, It is no use worshipping God: what profit have we had from keeping his orders, and going in clothing of sorrow before the Lord of armies? +Mal 3:15 And now to us the men of pride seem happy; yes, the evil-doers are doing well; they put God to the test and are safe. +Mal 3:16 Then those in whom was the fear of the Lord had talk together: and the Lord gave ear, and it was recorded in a book to be kept in mind before him, for those who had the fear of the Lord and gave thought to his name. +Mal 3:17 And they will be mine, says the Lord, in the day when I make them my special property; and I will have mercy on them as a man has mercy on his son who is his servant. +Mal 3:18 Then you will again see how the upright man is different from the sinner, and the servant of God from him who is not. +Mal 4:1 For see, the day is coming, it is burning like an oven; all the men of pride and all who do evil will be dry stems of grass: and in the day which is coming they will be burned up, says the Lord of armies, till they have not a root or a branch. +Mal 4:2 But to you who give worship to my name, the sun of righteousness will come up with new life in its wings; and you will go out, playing like young oxen full of food. +Mal 4:3 And the evil-doers will be crushed under you, they will be dust under your feet, in the day when I do my work, says the Lord of armies. +Mal 4:4 Keep in mind the law of Moses, my servant, which I gave him in Horeb for all Israel, even the rules and the decisions. +Mal 4:5 See, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the day of the Lord comes, that great day, greatly to be feared. +Mal 4:6 And by him the hearts of fathers will be turned to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers; for fear that I may come and put the earth under a curse. +Mat 1:1 The book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. +Mat 1:2 The son of Abraham was Isaac; and the son of Isaac was Jacob; and the sons of Jacob were Judah and his brothers; +Mat 1:3 And the sons of Judah were Perez and Zerah by Tamar; and the son of Perez was Hezron; and the son of Hezron was Ram; +Mat 1:4 And the son of Ram was Amminadab; and the son of Amminadab was Nahshon; and the son of Nahshon was Salmon; +Mat 1:5 And the son of Salmon by Rahab was Boaz; and the son of Boaz by Ruth was Obed; and the son of Obed was Jesse; +Mat 1:6 And the son of Jesse was David the king; and the son of David was Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah; +Mat 1:7 And the son of Solomon was Rehoboam; and the son of Rehoboam was Abijah; and the son of Abijah was Asa; +Mat 1:8 And the son of Asa was Jehoshaphat; and the son of Jehoshaphat was Joram; and the son of Joram was Uzziah; +Mat 1:9 And the son of Uzziah was Jotham; and the son of Jotham was Ahaz; and the son of Ahaz was Hezekiah; +Mat 1:10 And the son of Hezekiah was Manasseh; and the son of Manasseh was Amon; and the son of Amon was Josiah; +Mat 1:11 And the sons of Josiah were Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the taking away to Babylon. +Mat 1:12 And after the taking away to Babylon, Jechoniah had a son Shealtiel; and Shealtiel had Zerubbabel; +Mat 1:13 And Zerubbabel had Abiud; and Abiud had Eliakim; and Eliakim had Azor; +Mat 1:14 And Azor had Zadok; and Zadok had Achim; and Achim had Eliud; +Mat 1:15 And Eliud had Eleazar; and Eleazar had Matthan; and Matthan had Jacob; +Mat 1:16 And the son of Jacob was Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, whose name is Christ. +Mat 1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the taking away to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the taking away to Babylon to the coming of Christ, fourteen generations. +Mat 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way: when his mother Mary was going to be married to Joseph, before they came together the discovery was made that she was with child by the Holy Spirit. +Mat 1:19 And Joseph, her husband, being an upright man, and not desiring to make her a public example, had a mind to put her away privately. +Mat 1:20 But when he was giving thought to these things, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, have no fear of taking Mary as your wife; because that which is in her body is of the Holy Spirit. +Mat 1:21 And she will give birth to a son; and you will give him the name Jesus; for he will give his people salvation from their sins. +Mat 1:22 Now all this took place so that the word of the Lord by the prophet might come true, +Mat 1:23 See, the virgin will be with child, and will give birth to a son, and they will give him the name Immanuel, that is, God with us. +Mat 1:24 And Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had said to him, and took her as his wife; +Mat 1:25 And he had no connection with her till she had given birth to a son; and he gave him the name Jesus. +Mat 2:1 Now when the birth of Jesus took place in Beth-lehem of Judaea, in the days of Herod the king, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, +Mat 2:2 Saying, Where is the King of the Jews whose birth has now taken place? We have seen his star in the east and have come to give him worship. +Mat 2:3 And when it came to the ears of Herod the king, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. +Mat 2:4 And he got together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, questioning them as to where the birth-place of the Christ would be. +Mat 2:5 And they said to him, In Beth-lehem of Judaea; for so it is said in the writings of the prophet, +Mat 2:6 You Beth-lehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the chiefs of Judah: out of you will come a ruler, who will be the keeper of my people Israel. +Mat 2:7 Then Herod sent for the wise men privately, and put questions to them about what time the star had been seen. +Mat 2:8 And he sent them to Beth-lehem and said, Go and make certain where the young child is; and when you have seen him, let me have news of it, so that I may come and give him worship. +Mat 2:9 And after hearing the king, they went on their way; and the star which they saw in the east went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the young child was. +Mat 2:10 And when they saw the star they were full of joy. +Mat 2:11 And they came into the house, and saw the young child with Mary, his mother; and falling down on their faces they gave him worship; and from their store they gave him offerings of gold, perfume, and spices. +Mat 2:12 And it was made clear to them by God in a dream that they were not to go back to Herod; so they went into their country by another way. +Mat 2:13 And when they had gone, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream, saying, Get up and take the young child and his mother, and go into Egypt, and do not go from there till I give you word; for Herod will be searching for the young child to put him to death. +Mat 2:14 So he took the young child and his mother by night, and went into Egypt; +Mat 2:15 And was there till the death of Herod; so that the word of the Lord through the prophet might come true, Out of Egypt have I sent for my son. +Mat 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was very angry; and he sent out, and put to death all the male children in Beth-lehem and in all the parts round about it, from two years old and under, acting on the knowledge which he had got with care from the wise men. +Mat 2:17 Then the word of Jeremiah the prophet came true, +Mat 2:18 In Ramah there was a sound of weeping and great sorrow, Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted for their loss. +Mat 2:19 But when Herod was dead, an angel of the Lord came in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, +Mat 2:20 Saying, Get up and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: because they who were attempting to take the young child's life are dead. +Mat 2:21 And he got up, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. +Mat 2:22 But when it came to his ears that Archelaus was ruling over Judaea in the place of his father Herod, he was in fear of going there; and God having given him news of the danger in a dream, he went out of the way into the country parts of Galilee. +Mat 2:23 And he came and was living in a town named Nazareth: so that the word of the prophets might come true, He will be named a Nazarene. +Mat 3:1 And in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the waste land of Judaea, +Mat 3:2 Saying, Let your hearts be turned from sin; for the kingdom of heaven is near. +Mat 3:3 For this is he of whom Isaiah the prophet said, The voice of one crying in the waste land, Make ready the way of the Lord, make his roads straight. +Mat 3:4 Now John was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather band about him; and his food was locusts and honey. +Mat 3:5 Then Jerusalem and all Judaea went out to him, and all the people from near Jordan; +Mat 3:6 And they were given baptism by him in the river Jordan, saying openly that they had done wrong. +Mat 3:7 But when he saw a number of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, Offspring of snakes, at whose word are you going in flight from the wrath to come? +Mat 3:8 Let your change of heart be seen in your works: +Mat 3:9 And say not to yourselves, We have Abraham for our father; because I say to you that God is able from these stones to make children for Abraham. +Mat 3:10 And even now the axe is put to the root of the trees; every tree then which does not give good fruit is cut down, and put into the fire. +Mat 3:11 Truly, I give baptism with water to those of you whose hearts are changed; but he who comes after me is greater than I, whose shoes I am not good enough to take up: he will give you baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire: +Mat 3:12 In whose hand is the instrument with which he will make clean his grain; he will put the good grain in his store, but the waste will be burned up in the fire which will never be put out. +Mat 3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be given baptism by him. +Mat 3:14 But John would have kept him back, saying, It is I who have need of baptism from you, and do you come to me? +Mat 3:15 But Jesus made answer, saying to him, Let it be so now: because so it is right for us to make righteousness complete. Then he gave him baptism. +Mat 3:16 And Jesus, having been given baptism, straight away went up from the water; and, the heavens opening, he saw the Spirit of God coming down on him as a dove; +Mat 3:17 And a voice came out of heaven, saying, This is my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased. +Mat 4:1 Then Jesus was sent by the Spirit into the waste land to be tested by the Evil One. +Mat 4:2 And after going without food for forty days and forty nights, he was in need of it. +Mat 4:3 And the Evil One came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, give the word for these stones to become bread. +Mat 4:4 But he made answer and said, It is in the Writings, Bread is not man's only need, but every word which comes out of the mouth of God. +Mat 4:5 Then the Evil One took him to the holy town; and he put him on the highest point of the Temple and said to him, +Mat 4:6 If you are the Son of God, let yourself go down; for it is in the Writings, He will give his angels care over you; and, In their hands they will keep you up, so that your foot may not be crushed against a stone. +Mat 4:7 Jesus said to him, Again it is in the Writings, You may not put the Lord your God to the test. +Mat 4:8 Again, the Evil One took him up to a very high mountain, and let him see all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; +Mat 4:9 And he said to him, All these things will I give you, if you will go down on your face and give me worship. +Mat 4:10 Then said Jesus to him, Away, Satan: for it is in the Writings, Give worship to the Lord your God and be his servant only. +Mat 4:11 Then the Evil One went away from him, and angels came and took care of him. +Mat 4:12 Now when it came to his ears that John had been put in prison, he went away to Galilee; +Mat 4:13 And going away from Nazareth, he came and made his living-place in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the country of Zebulun and Naphtali: +Mat 4:14 So that the word of the prophet Isaiah might come true, +Mat 4:15 The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, +Mat 4:16 The people who were in the dark saw a great light, and to those in the land of the shade of death did the dawn come up. +Mat 4:17 From that time Jesus went about preaching and saying, Let your hearts be turned from sin, for the kingdom of heaven is near. +Mat 4:18 And when he was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, whose other name was Peter, and Andrew, his brother, who were putting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. +Mat 4:19 And he said to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. +Mat 4:20 And straight away they let go the nets and went after him. +Mat 4:21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with their father, stitching up their nets; and he said, Come. +Mat 4:22 And they went straight from the boat and their father and came after him. +Mat 4:23 And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom, and making well those who were ill with any disease among the people. +Mat 4:24 And news of him went out through all Syria; and they took to him all who were ill with different diseases and pains, those having evil spirits and those who were off their heads, and those who had no power of moving. And he made them well. +Mat 4:25 And there went after him great numbers from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judaea and from the other side of Jordan. +Mat 5:1 And seeing great masses of people he went up into the mountain; and when he was seated his disciples came to him. +Mat 5:2 And with these words he gave them teaching, saying, +Mat 5:3 Happy are the poor in spirit: for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. +Mat 5:4 Happy are those who are sad: for they will be comforted. +Mat 5:5 Happy are the gentle: for the earth will be their heritage. +Mat 5:6 Happy are those whose heart's desire is for righteousness: for they will have their desire. +Mat 5:7 Happy are those who have mercy: for they will be given mercy. +Mat 5:8 Happy are the clean in heart: for they will see God. +Mat 5:9 Happy are the peacemakers: for they will be named sons of God. +Mat 5:10 Happy are those who are attacked on account of righteousness: for the kingdom of heaven will be theirs. +Mat 5:11 Happy are you when men give you a bad name, and are cruel to you, and say all evil things against you falsely, because of me. +Mat 5:12 Be glad and full of joy; for great is your reward in heaven: for so were the prophets attacked who were before you. +Mat 5:13 You are the salt of the earth; but if its taste goes from the salt, how will you make it salt again? it is then good for nothing but to be put out and crushed under foot by men. +Mat 5:14 You are the light of the world. A town put on a hill may be seen by all. +Mat 5:15 And a burning light is not put under a vessel, but on its table; so that its rays may be shining on all who are in the house. +Mat 5:16 Even so let your light be shining before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. +Mat 5:17 Let there be no thought that I have come to put an end to the law or the prophets. I have not come for destruction, but to make complete. +Mat 5:18 Truly I say to you, Till heaven and earth come to an end, not the smallest letter or part of a letter will in any way be taken from the law, till all things are done. +Mat 5:19 Whoever then goes against the smallest of these laws, teaching men to do the same, will be named least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who keeps the laws, teaching others to keep them, will be named great in the kingdom of heaven. +Mat 5:20 For I say to you, If your righteousness is not greater than the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never go into the kingdom of heaven. +Mat 5:21 You have knowledge that it was said in old times, You may not put to death; and, Whoever puts to death will be in danger of being judged: +Mat 5:22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be in danger of being judged; and he who says to his brother, Raca, will be in danger from the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, You foolish one, will be in danger of the hell of fire. +Mat 5:23 If then you are making an offering at the altar and there it comes to your mind that your brother has something against you, +Mat 5:24 While your offering is still before the altar, first go and make peace with your brother, then come and make your offering. +Mat 5:25 Come to an agreement quickly with him who has a cause against you at law, while you are with him on the way, for fear that he may give you up to the judge and the judge may give you to the police and you may be put into prison. +Mat 5:26 Truly I say to you, You will not come out from there till you have made payment of the very last farthing. +Mat 5:27 You have knowledge that it was said, You may not have connection with another man's wife: +Mat 5:28 But I say to you that everyone whose eyes are turned on a woman with desire has had connection with her in his heart. +Mat 5:29 And if your right eye is a cause of trouble to you, take it out and put it away from you; because it is better to undergo the loss of one part, than for all your body to go into hell. +Mat 5:30 And if your right hand is a cause of trouble to you, let it be cut off and put it away from you; because it is better to undergo the loss of one part, than for all your body to go into hell. +Mat 5:31 Again, it was said, Whoever puts away his wife has to give her a statement in writing for this purpose: +Mat 5:32 But I say to you that everyone who puts away his wife for any other cause but the loss of her virtue, makes her false to her husband; and whoever takes her as his wife after she is put away, is no true husband to her. +Mat 5:33 Again, you have knowledge that it was said in old times, Do not take false oaths, but give effect to your oaths to the Lord: +Mat 5:34 But I say to you, Take no oaths at all: not by the heaven, because it is the seat of God; +Mat 5:35 Or by the earth, because it is the resting-place for his foot; or by Jerusalem, because it is the town of the great King. +Mat 5:36 You may not take an oath by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black. +Mat 5:37 But let your words be simply, Yes or No: and whatever is more than these is of the Evil One. +Mat 5:38 You have knowledge that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: +Mat 5:39 But I say to you, Do not make use of force against an evil man; but to him who gives you a blow on the right side of your face let the left be turned. +Mat 5:40 And if any man goes to law with you and takes away your coat, do not keep back your robe from him. +Mat 5:41 And whoever makes you go one mile, go with him two. +Mat 5:42 Give to him who comes with a request, and keep not your property from him who would for a time make use of it. +Mat 5:43 You have knowledge that it was said, Have love for your neighbour, and hate for him who is against you: +Mat 5:44 But I say to you, Have love for those who are against you, and make prayer for those who are cruel to you; +Mat 5:45 So that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven; for his sun gives light to the evil and to the good, and he sends rain on the upright man and on the sinner. +Mat 5:46 For if you have love for those who have love for you, what credit is it to you? do not the tax-farmers the same? +Mat 5:47 And if you say, Good day, to your brothers only, what do you do more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same? +Mat 5:48 Be then complete in righteousness, even as your Father in heaven is complete. +Mat 6:1 Take care not to do your good works before men, to be seen by them; or you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. +Mat 6:2 When then you give money to the poor, do not make a noise about it, as the false-hearted men do in the Synagogues and in the streets, so that they may have glory from men. Truly, I say to you, They have their reward. +Mat 6:3 But when you give money, let not your left hand see what your right hand does: +Mat 6:4 So that your giving may be in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will give you your reward. +Mat 6:5 And when you make your prayers, be not like the false-hearted men, who take pleasure in getting up and saying their prayers in the Synagogues and at the street turnings so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, They have their reward. +Mat 6:6 But when you make your prayer, go into your private room, and, shutting the door, say a prayer to your Father in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will give you your reward. +Mat 6:7 And in your prayer do not make use of the same words again and again, as the Gentiles do: for they have the idea that God will give attention to them because of the number of their words. +Mat 6:8 So be not like them; because your Father has knowledge of your needs even before you make your requests to him. +Mat 6:9 Let this then be your prayer: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. +Mat 6:10 Let your kingdom come. Let your pleasure be done, as in heaven, so on earth. +Mat 6:11 Give us this day bread for our needs. +Mat 6:12 And make us free of our debts, as we have made those free who are in debt to us. +Mat 6:13 And let us not be put to the test, but keep us safe from the Evil One. +Mat 6:14 For if you let men have forgiveness for their sins, you will have forgiveness from your Father in heaven. +Mat 6:15 But if you do not let men have forgiveness for their sins, you will not have forgiveness from your Father for your sins. +Mat 6:16 And when you go without food, be not sad-faced as the false-hearted are. For they go about with changed looks, so that men may see that they are going without food. Truly I say to you, They have their reward. +Mat 6:17 But when you go without food, put oil on your head and make your face clean; +Mat 6:18 So that no one may see that you are going without food, but your Father in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will give you your reward. +Mat 6:19 Make no store of wealth for yourselves on earth, where it may be turned to dust by worms and weather, and where thieves may come in by force and take it away. +Mat 6:20 But make a store for yourselves in heaven, where it will not be turned to dust and where thieves do not come in to take it away: +Mat 6:21 For where your wealth is, there will your heart be. +Mat 6:22 The light of the body is the eye; if then your eye is true, all your body will be full of light. +Mat 6:23 But if your eye is evil, all your body will be dark. If then the light which is in you is dark, how dark it will be! +Mat 6:24 No man is able to be a servant to two masters: for he will have hate for the one and love for the other, or he will keep to one and have no respect for the other. You may not be servants of God and of wealth. +Mat 6:25 So I say to you, Take no thought for your life, about food or drink, or about clothing for your body. Is not life more than food, and the body more than its clothing? +Mat 6:26 See the birds of heaven; they do not put seeds in the earth, they do not get in grain, or put it in store-houses; and your Father in heaven gives them food. Are you not of much more value than they? +Mat 6:27 And which of you by taking thought is able to make himself a cubit taller? +Mat 6:28 And why are you troubled about clothing? See the flowers of the field, how they come up; they do no work, they make no thread: +Mat 6:29 But I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. +Mat 6:30 But if God gives such clothing to the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is put into the oven, will he not much more give you clothing, O you of little faith? +Mat 6:31 Then do not be full of care, saying, What are we to have for food or drink? or, With what may we be clothed? +Mat 6:32 Because the Gentiles go in search of all these things: for your Father in heaven has knowledge that you have need of all these things: +Mat 6:33 But let your first care be for his kingdom and his righteousness; and all these other things will be given to you in addition. +Mat 6:34 Then have no care for tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Take the trouble of the day as it comes. +Mat 7:1 Be not judges of others, and you will not be judged. +Mat 7:2 For as you have been judging, so you will be judged, and with your measure will it be measured to you. +Mat 7:3 And why do you take note of the grain of dust in your brother's eye, but take no note of the bit of wood which is in your eye? +Mat 7:4 Or how will you say to your brother, Let me take out the grain of dust from your eye, when you yourself have a bit of wood in your eye? +Mat 7:5 You false one, first take out the bit of wood from your eye, then will you see clearly to take out the grain of dust from your brother's eye. +Mat 7:6 Do not give that which is holy to the dogs, or put your jewels before pigs, for fear that they will be crushed under foot by the pigs whose attack will then be made against you. +Mat 7:7 Make a request, and it will be answered; what you are searching for you will get; give the sign, and the door will be open to you: +Mat 7:8 Because to everyone who makes a request, it will be given; and he who is searching will get his desire, and to him who gives the sign, the door will be open. +Mat 7:9 Or which of you, if his son makes a request for bread, will give him a stone? +Mat 7:10 Or if he makes a request for a fish, will give him a snake? +Mat 7:11 If you, then, being evil, are able to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who make requests to him? +Mat 7:12 All those things, then, which you would have men do to you, even so do you to them: because this is the law and the prophets. +Mat 7:13 Go in by the narrow door; for wide is the door and open is the way which goes to destruction, and great numbers go in by it. +Mat 7:14 For narrow is the door and hard the road to life, and only a small number make discovery of it. +Mat 7:15 Be on the watch for false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inside they are cruel wolves. +Mat 7:16 By their fruits you will get knowledge of them. Do men get grapes from thorns or figs from thistles? +Mat 7:17 Even so, every good tree gives good fruit; but the bad tree gives evil fruit. +Mat 7:18 It is not possible for a good tree to give bad fruit, and a bad tree will not give good fruit. +Mat 7:19 Every tree which does not give good fruit is cut down and put in the fire. +Mat 7:20 So by their fruits you will get knowledge of them. +Mat 7:21 Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will go into the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the pleasure of my Father in heaven. +Mat 7:22 A great number will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, were we not prophets in your name, and did we not by your name send out evil spirits, and by your name do works of power? +Mat 7:23 And then will I say to them, I never had knowledge of you: go from me, you workers of evil. +Mat 7:24 Everyone, then, to whom my words come and who does them, will be like a wise man who made his house on a rock; +Mat 7:25 And the rain came down and there was a rush of waters and the winds were driving against that house, but it was not moved; because it was based on the rock. +Mat 7:26 And everyone to whom my words come and who does them not, will be like a foolish man who made his house on sand; +Mat 7:27 And the rain came down and there was a rush of waters and the winds were driving against that house; and it came down and great was its fall. +Mat 7:28 And it came about, when Jesus had come to the end of these words, that the people were surprised at his teaching, +Mat 7:29 for he was teaching as one having authority, and not as their scribes. +Mat 8:1 And when he had come down from the mountain, great numbers of people came after him. +Mat 8:2 And a leper came and gave him worship, saying, Lord, if it is your pleasure, you have power to make me clean. +Mat 8:3 And he put his hand on him, saying, It is my pleasure; be clean. And straight away he was made clean. +Mat 8:4 And Jesus said to him, See that you say nothing about this to anyone; but go and let the priest see you and make the offering which was ordered by Moses, for a witness to them. +Mat 8:5 And when Jesus was come into Capernaum, a certain captain came to him with a request, +Mat 8:6 Saying, Lord, my servant is ill in bed at the house, with no power in his body, and in great pain. +Mat 8:7 And he said to him, I will come and make him well. +Mat 8:8 And the captain in answer said, Lord, I am not good enough for you to come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be made well. +Mat 8:9 Because I myself am a man under authority, having under me fighting men; and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. +Mat 8:10 And when these words came to the ears of Jesus he was surprised, and said to those who came after him, Truly I say to you, I have not seen such great faith, no, not in Israel. +Mat 8:11 And I say to you that numbers will come from the east and the west, and will take their seats with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: +Mat 8:12 But the sons of the kingdom will be put out into the dark, and there will be weeping and cries of pain. +Mat 8:13 And Jesus said to the captain, Go in peace; as your faith is, so let it be done to you. And the servant was made well in that hour. +Mat 8:14 And when Jesus had come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother in bed, very ill. +Mat 8:15 And he put his hand on hers and the disease went from her, and she got up and took care of his needs. +Mat 8:16 And in the evening, they took to him a number of people who had evil spirits; and he sent the spirits out of them with a word, and made well all who were ill; +Mat 8:17 So that the word of Isaiah the prophet might come true: He himself took our pains and our diseases. +Mat 8:18 Now when Jesus saw a great mass of people about him, he gave an order to go to the other side. +Mat 8:19 And there came a scribe and said to him, Master, I will come after you wherever you go. +Mat 8:20 And Jesus said to him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven have a resting-place; but the Son of man has nowhere to put his head. +Mat 8:21 And another of the disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and give the last honours to my father. +Mat 8:22 But Jesus said to him, Come after me; and let the dead take care of their dead. +Mat 8:23 And when he had got into a boat, his disciples went after him. +Mat 8:24 And there came up a great storm in the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves: but he was sleeping. +Mat 8:25 And they came to him, and, awaking him, said, Help, Lord; destruction is near. +Mat 8:26 And he said to them, Why are you full of fear, O you of little faith? Then he got up and gave orders to the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. +Mat 8:27 And the men were full of wonder, saying, What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea do his orders? +Mat 8:28 And when he had come to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, there came out to him from the place of the dead, two who had evil spirits, so violent that no man was able to go that way. +Mat 8:29 And they gave a loud cry, saying, What have we to do with you, you Son of God? Have you come here to give us punishment before the time? +Mat 8:30 Now there was, some distance away, a great herd of pigs taking their food. +Mat 8:31 And the evil spirits made strong prayers to him, saying, If you send us out, let us go into the herd of pigs. +Mat 8:32 And he said to them, Go. And they came out, and went into the pigs; and the herd went rushing down a sharp slope into the sea and came to their end in the water. +Mat 8:33 And their keepers went in flight to the town and gave an account of everything, and of the men who had the evil spirits. +Mat 8:34 And all the town came out to Jesus; and seeing him they made request that he would go away from their part of the country. +Mat 9:1 And he got into a boat and went across and came to his town. +Mat 9:2 And they took to him a man stretched on a bed who had no power of moving; and Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the man who was ill, Son, take heart; you have forgiveness for your sins. +Mat 9:3 And some of the scribes said among themselves, This man has no respect for God. +Mat 9:4 And Jesus, having knowledge of what was in their minds, said, Why are your thoughts evil? +Mat 9:5 For which is the simpler, to say, You have forgiveness for your sins; or to say, Get up and go? +Mat 9:6 But so that you may see that on earth the Son of man has authority for the forgiveness of sins, (then said he to the man who was ill,) Get up, and take up your bed, and go to your house. +Mat 9:7 And he got up and went away to his house. +Mat 9:8 But when the people saw it they were full of fear, and gave glory to God who had given such authority to men. +Mat 9:9 And when Jesus was going from there, he saw a man whose name was Matthew, seated at the place where taxes were taken; and he said to him, Come after me. And he got up and went after him. +Mat 9:10 And it came about, when he was in the house taking food, that a number of tax-farmers and sinners came and took their places with Jesus and his disciples. +Mat 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, Why does your Master take food with tax-farmers and sinners? +Mat 9:12 But on hearing this he said, Those who are well have no need of a medical man, but those who are ill. +Mat 9:13 But go and take to heart the sense of these words, My desire is for mercy, not offerings: for I have come not to get the upright, but sinners. +Mat 9:14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees frequently go without food, but your disciples do not? +Mat 9:15 And Jesus said to them, Will the friends of the newly-married man be sad as long as he is with them? But the days will come when he will be taken away from them, and then will they go without food. +Mat 9:16 And no man puts a bit of new cloth on an old coat, for by pulling away from the old, it makes a worse hole. +Mat 9:17 And men do not put new wine into old wine-skins; or the skins will be burst and the wine will come out, and the skins are of no more use: but they put new wine into new wine-skins, and so the two will be safe. +Mat 9:18 While he was saying these things to them, there came a ruler and gave him worship, saying, My daughter is even now dead; but come and put your hand on her, and she will come back to life. +Mat 9:19 And Jesus got up and went after him, and so did his disciples. +Mat 9:20 And a woman, who for twelve years had had a flow of blood, came after him, and put her hand on the edge of his robe: +Mat 9:21 Because, she said to herself, if I may but put my hand on his robe, I will be made well. +Mat 9:22 But Jesus, turning and seeing her, said, Daughter, take heart; your faith has made you well. And the woman was made well from that hour. +Mat 9:23 And when Jesus came into the ruler's house and saw the players with their instruments and the people making a noise, +Mat 9:24 He said, Make room; for the girl is not dead, but sleeping. And they were laughing at him. +Mat 9:25 But when the people were sent out, he went in and took her by the hand; and the girl got up. +Mat 9:26 And the news of it went out into all that land. +Mat 9:27 And when Jesus went on from there, two blind men came after him, crying out, Have mercy on us, you Son of David. +Mat 9:28 And when he had come into the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, Have you faith that I am able to do this? They said to him, Yes, Lord. +Mat 9:29 Then he put his hand on their eyes, saying, As your faith is, let it be done to you. +Mat 9:30 And their eyes were made open. And Jesus said to them sharply, Let no man have knowledge of it. +Mat 9:31 But they went out and gave news of him in all that land. +Mat 9:32 And while they were going away, there came to him a man without the power of talking, and with an evil spirit. +Mat 9:33 And when the evil spirit had been sent out, the man had the power of talking: and they were all surprised, saying, Such a thing has never been seen in Israel. +Mat 9:34 But the Pharisees said, By the ruler of evil spirits, he sends evil spirits out of men. +Mat 9:35 And Jesus went about all the towns and small places, teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the good news of the kingdom and making well all sorts of disease and pain. +Mat 9:36 But when he saw all the people he was moved with pity for them, because they were troubled and wandering like sheep without a keeper. +Mat 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, There is much grain but not enough men to get it in. +Mat 9:38 Make prayer, then, to the Lord of the grain-fields, that he may send out workers to get in his grain. +Mat 10:1 And he got together his twelve disciples and gave them the power of driving out unclean spirits, and of making well all sorts of disease and pain. +Mat 10:2 Now the names of the twelve are these: The first, Simon, who is named Peter, and Andrew, his brother; James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother; +Mat 10:3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew, the tax-farmer; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; +Mat 10:4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who was false to him. +Mat 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out and gave them orders, saying, Do not go among the Gentiles, or into any town of Samaria, +Mat 10:6 But go to the wandering sheep of the house of Israel, +Mat 10:7 And, on your way, say, The kingdom of heaven is near. +Mat 10:8 Make well those who are ill, give life to the dead, make lepers clean, send evil spirits out of men; freely it has been given to you, freely give. +Mat 10:9 Take no gold or silver or copper in your pockets; +Mat 10:10 Take no bag for your journey and do not take two coats or shoes or a stick: for the workman has a right to his food. +Mat 10:11 And into whatever town or small place you go, make search there for someone who is respected, and make his house your resting-place till you go away. +Mat 10:12 And when you go in, say, May peace be on this house. +Mat 10:13 And if the house is good enough, let your peace come on it: but if not, let your peace come back to you. +Mat 10:14 And whoever will not take you in, or give ear to your words, when you go out from that house or that town, put off its dust from your feet. +Mat 10:15 Truly I say to you, It will be better for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of God's judging than for that town. +Mat 10:16 See, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Be then as wise as snakes, and as gentle as doves. +Mat 10:17 But be on the watch against men: for they will give you up to the Sanhedrins, and in their Synagogues they will give you blows; +Mat 10:18 And you will come before rulers and kings because of me, for a witness to them and to the Gentiles. +Mat 10:19 But when you are given up into their hands, do not be troubled about what to say or how to say it: for in that hour what you are to say will be given to you; +Mat 10:20 Because it is not you who say the words, but the Spirit of your Father in you. +Mat 10:21 And brother will give up brother to death, and the father his child: and children will go against their fathers and mothers, and put them to death. +Mat 10:22 And you will be hated by all men because of my name: but he who is strong to the end will have salvation. +Mat 10:23 But when they are cruel to you in one town, go in flight to another: for truly, I say to you, You will not have gone through the towns of Israel before the Son of man comes. +Mat 10:24 A disciple is not greater than his master, or a servant than his lord. +Mat 10:25 It is enough for the disciple that he may be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have given the name Beelzebub to the master of the house, how much more to those of his house! +Mat 10:26 Have, then, no fear of them: because nothing is covered which will not come to light, or secret which will not be made clear. +Mat 10:27 What I say to you in the dark, say in the light: and what comes to your ear secretly, say publicly from the house-tops. +Mat 10:28 And have no fear of those who put to death the body, but are not able to put to death the soul. But have fear of him who has power to give soul and body to destruction in hell. +Mat 10:29 Are not sparrows two a farthing? and not one of them comes to an end without your Father: +Mat 10:30 But the hairs of your head are all numbered. +Mat 10:31 Then have no fear; you are of more value than a flock of sparrows. +Mat 10:32 To everyone, then, who gives witness to me before men, I will give witness before my Father in heaven. +Mat 10:33 But if anyone says before men that he has no knowledge of me, I will say that I have no knowledge of him before my Father in heaven. +Mat 10:34 Do not have the thought that I have come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace but a sword. +Mat 10:35 For I have come to put a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: +Mat 10:36 And a man will be hated by those of his house. +Mat 10:37 He who has more love for his father or mother than for me is not good enough for me; he who has more love for son or daughter than for me is not good enough for me. +Mat 10:38 And he who does not take his cross and come after me is not good enough for me. +Mat 10:39 He who has the desire to keep his life will have it taken from him, and he who gives up his life because of me will have it given back to him. +Mat 10:40 He who gives honour to you gives honour to me; and he who gives honour to me gives honour to him who sent me. +Mat 10:41 He who gives honour to a prophet, in the name of a prophet, will be given a prophet's reward; and he who gives honour to an upright man, in the name of an upright man, will be given an upright man's reward. +Mat 10:42 And whoever gives to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will not go without his reward. +Mat 11:1 And it came about that when Jesus had come to the end of giving these orders to his twelve disciples, he went away from there, teaching and preaching in their towns. +Mat 11:2 Now when John had news in prison of the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples +Mat 11:3 To say to him, Are you he who is to come, or are we waiting for another? +Mat 11:4 And Jesus, answering, said to them, Go and give news to John of the things which you are seeing and hearing: +Mat 11:5 The blind see; those who were not able to, are walking; lepers are made clean; those who were without hearing, now have their ears open; the dead come to life again, and the poor have the good news given to them. +Mat 11:6 And a blessing will be on him who has no doubts about me. +Mat 11:7 And when they were going away, Jesus, talking of John, said to all the people, What went you out into the waste land to see? a tall stem moving in the wind? +Mat 11:8 But what went you out to see? a man delicately clothed? Those who have fair robes are in kings' houses. +Mat 11:9 But why did you go out? to see a prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. +Mat 11:10 This is he of whom it has been said, See, I send my servant before your face, who will make ready your way before you. +Mat 11:11 Truly I say to you, Among the sons of women there has not been a greater than John the Baptist: but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. +Mat 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist till now, the kingdom of heaven is forcing its way in, and men of force take it. +Mat 11:13 For all the prophets and the law were in force till John. +Mat 11:14 And if you are able to see it, this is Elijah who was to come. +Mat 11:15 He who has ears, let him give ear. +Mat 11:16 But what comparison may I make of this generation? It is like children seated in the market-places, crying out to one another, +Mat 11:17 We made music for you and you did not take part in the dance; we gave cries of sorrow and you made no signs of grief. +Mat 11:18 For John came, taking no food or drink, and they say, He has an evil spirit. +Mat 11:19 The Son of man has come feasting, and they say, See, a lover of food and wine, a friend of tax-farmers and sinners! And wisdom is judged to be right by her works. +Mat 11:20 Then he went on to say hard things to the towns where most of his works of power were done, because they had not been turned from their sins. +Mat 11:21 Unhappy are you, Chorazin! Unhappy are you, Beth-saida! For if the works of power which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have been turned from their sins in days gone by, clothing themselves in haircloth and putting dust on their heads. +Mat 11:22 But I say to you, It will be better for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judging, than for you. +Mat 11:23 And you, Capernaum, were you not to be lifted up to heaven? you will go down into hell: for if the works of power which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have been here to this day. +Mat 11:24 But I say to you that it will be better for the land of Sodom in the day of judging, than for you. +Mat 11:25 At that time Jesus made answer and said, I give praise to you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have kept these things secret from the wise and the men of learning, and have made them clear to little children. +Mat 11:26 Yes, Father, for so it was pleasing in your eyes. +Mat 11:27 All things have been given to me by my Father; and no one has knowledge of the Son, but the Father; and no one has knowledge of the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will make it clear. +Mat 11:28 Come to me, all you who are troubled and weighted down with care, and I will give you rest. +Mat 11:29 Take my yoke on you and become like me, for I am gentle and without pride, and you will have rest for your souls; +Mat 11:30 For my yoke is good, and the weight I take up is not hard. +Mat 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the fields on the Sabbath day; and his disciples, being in need of food, were taking the heads of grain. +Mat 12:2 But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, See, your disciples do that which it is not right to do on the Sabbath. +Mat 12:3 But he said to them, Have you no knowledge of what David did when he had need of food, and those who were with him? +Mat 12:4 How he went into the house of God and took for food the holy bread which it was not right for him or for those who were with him to take, but only for the priests? +Mat 12:5 Or is it not said in the law, how the Sabbath is broken by the priests in the Temple and they do no wrong? +Mat 12:6 But I say to you that a greater thing than the Temple is here. +Mat 12:7 But if these words had been in your minds, My desire is for mercy and not for offerings, you would not have been judging those who have done no wrong. +Mat 12:8 For the Son of man is lord of the Sabbath. +Mat 12:9 And he went from there into their Synagogue: +Mat 12:10 And there was a man with a dead hand. And they put a question to him, saying, Is it right to make a man well on the Sabbath day? so that they might have something against him. +Mat 12:11 And he said to them, Which of you, having a sheep, if it gets into a hole on the Sabbath day, will not put out a helping hand and get it back? +Mat 12:12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! For this reason it is right to do good on the Sabbath day. +Mat 12:13 Then said he to the man, Put out your hand. And he put it out, and it was made as well as the other. +Mat 12:14 But the Pharisees went out and made designs against him, how they might put him to death. +Mat 12:15 And Jesus, having knowledge of this, went away from there, and a great number went after him; and he made them all well, +Mat 12:16 Ordering them not to give people word of him: +Mat 12:17 So that what was said by Isaiah the prophet might come true, +Mat 12:18 See my servant, the man of my selection, my loved one in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit on him, and he will make my decision clear to the Gentiles. +Mat 12:19 His coming will not be with fighting or loud cries; and his voice will not be lifted up in the streets. +Mat 12:20 The crushed stem will not be broken by him; and the feebly burning light will he not put out, till he has made righteousness overcome all. +Mat 12:21 And in his name will the Gentiles put their hope. +Mat 12:22 Then they took to him one with an evil spirit, who was blind and had no power of talking: and he made him well so that he had the power of talking and seeing. +Mat 12:23 And all the people were surprised and said, Is not this the Son of David? +Mat 12:24 But the Pharisees, hearing of it, said, This man only sends evil spirits out of men by Beelzebub, the ruler of evil spirits. +Mat 12:25 And having knowledge of their thoughts he said to them, Every kingdom having division in itself is made waste, and every town or house having division in itself will come to destruction. +Mat 12:26 And if Satan sends out Satan, he makes war against himself; how then will he keep his kingdom? +Mat 12:27 And if I by Beelzebub send evil spirits out of men, by whom do your sons send them out? So let them be your judges. +Mat 12:28 But if I by the Spirit of God send out evil spirits, then is the kingdom of God come on you. +Mat 12:29 Or how may one go into a strong man's house and take his goods, if he does not first put cords round the strong man? and then he may take his goods. +Mat 12:30 Whoever is not with me is against me; and he who does not take part with me in getting people together, is driving them away. +Mat 12:31 So I say to you, Every sin and every evil word against God will have forgiveness; but for evil words against the Spirit there will be no forgiveness. +Mat 12:32 And whoever says a word against the Son of man, will have forgiveness; but whoever says a word against the Holy Spirit, will not have forgiveness in this life or in that which is to come. +Mat 12:33 Make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for by its fruit you will get knowledge of the tree. +Mat 12:34 You offspring of snakes, how are you, being evil, able to say good things? because out of the heart's store come the words of the mouth. +Mat 12:35 The good man out of his good store gives good things; and the evil man out of his evil store gives evil things. +Mat 12:36 And I say to you that in the day when they are judged, men will have to give an account of every foolish word they have said. +Mat 12:37 For by your words will your righteousness be seen, and by your words you will be judged. +Mat 12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees, hearing this, said to him, Master, we are looking for a sign from you. +Mat 12:39 But he, answering, said to them, An evil and false generation is looking for a sign; and no sign will be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah: +Mat 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the stomach of the great fish, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. +Mat 12:41 The men of Nineveh will come up in the day of judging and give their decision against this generation: because they were turned from their sins at the preaching of Jonah; and now a greater than Jonah is here. +Mat 12:42 The queen of the South will come up in the day of judging and give her decision against this generation: for she came from the ends of the earth to give ear to the wisdom of Solomon; and now a greater than Solomon is here. +Mat 12:43 But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of a man, goes through dry places looking for rest, and getting it not. +Mat 12:44 Then he says, I will go back into my house from which I came out; and when he comes, he sees that there is no one in it, but that it has been made fair and clean. +Mat 12:45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits worse than himself, and they go in and make it their living-place: and the last condition of that man is worse than the first. Even so will it be with this evil generation. +Mat 12:46 While he was still talking to the people, his mother and his brothers came, desiring to have talk with him. +Mat 12:47 And one said to him, See, your mother and your brothers are outside, desiring to have talk with you. +Mat 12:48 But he in answer said to him who gave the news, Who is my mother and who are my brothers? +Mat 12:49 And he put out his hand to his disciples and said, See, my mother and my brothers! +Mat 12:50 For whoever does the pleasure of my Father in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother. +Mat 13:1 On that day Jesus went out of the house and was seated by the seaside. +Mat 13:2 And great numbers of people came together to him, so that he got into a boat; and the people took up their position by the sea. +Mat 13:3 And he gave them teaching in the form of a story, saying, A man went out to put seed in the earth; +Mat 13:4 And while he did so, some seeds were dropped by the wayside, and the birds came and took them for food: +Mat 13:5 And some of the seed went among the stones, where it had not much earth, and straight away it came up because the earth was not deep: +Mat 13:6 And when the sun was high, it was burned; and because it had no root it became dry and dead. +Mat 13:7 And some seeds went among thorns, and the thorns came up and they had no room for growth: +Mat 13:8 And some, falling on good earth, gave fruit, some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times as much. +Mat 13:9 He who has ears, let him give ear. +Mat 13:10 And the disciples came and said to him, Why do you say things to them in the form of stories? +Mat 13:11 And he said to them in answer, To you is given the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. +Mat 13:12 Because whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have more; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. +Mat 13:13 For this reason I put things into the form of stories; because they see without seeing, and give ear without hearing, and the sense is not clear to them. +Mat 13:14 And for them the words of Isaiah have come true, Though you give ear, you will not get knowledge; and seeing, you will see, but the sense will not be clear to you: +Mat 13:15 For the heart of this people has become fat and their ears are slow in hearing and their eyes are shut; for fear that they might see with their eyes and give hearing with their ears and become wise in their hearts and be turned again to me, so that I might make them well. +Mat 13:16 But a blessing be on your eyes, because they see; and on your ears, because they are open. +Mat 13:17 For truly, I say to you that prophets and upright men had a desire to see the things which you see, and saw them not; and to have knowledge of the words which have come to your ears, and they had it not. +Mat 13:18 Give ear, then, to the story of the man who put the seed in the earth. +Mat 13:19 When the word of the kingdom comes to anyone, and the sense of it is not clear to him, then the Evil One comes, and quickly takes away that which was put in his heart. He is the seed dropped by the wayside. +Mat 13:20 And that which went on the stones, this is he who, hearing the word, straight away takes it with joy; +Mat 13:21 But having no root in himself, he goes on for a time; and when trouble comes or pain, because of the word, he quickly becomes full of doubts. +Mat 13:22 And that which was dropped among the thorns, this is he who has the word; and the cares of this life, and the deceits of wealth, put a stop to the growth of the word and it gives no fruit. +Mat 13:23 And the seed which was put in good earth, this is he who gives ear to the word, and gets the sense of it; who gives fruit, some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times as much. +Mat 13:24 And he gave them another story, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who put good seed in his field: +Mat 13:25 But while men were sleeping, one who had hate for him came and put evil seeds among the grain, and went away. +Mat 13:26 But when the green stem came up and gave fruit, the evil plants were seen at the same time. +Mat 13:27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, Sir, did you not put good seed in your field? how then has it evil plants? +Mat 13:28 And he said, Someone has done this in hate. And the servants say to him, Is it your pleasure that we go and take them up? +Mat 13:29 But he says, No, for fear that by chance while you take up the evil plants, you may be rooting up the grain with them. +Mat 13:30 Let them come up together till the getting in of the grain; and then I will say to the workers, Take up first the evil plants, and put them together for burning: but put the grain into my store-house. +Mat 13:31 He put another story before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his field: +Mat 13:32 Which is smaller than all seeds; but when it has come up it is greater than the plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of heaven come and make their resting-places in its branches. +Mat 13:33 Another story he gave to them: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took, and put in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened. +Mat 13:34 All these things Jesus said to the people in the form of stories; and without a story he said nothing to them: +Mat 13:35 That it might come true which was said by the prophet, Opening my mouth, I will give out stories; I will give knowledge of things kept secret from before all time. +Mat 13:36 Then he went away from the people, and went into the house; and his disciples came to him, saying, Make clear to us the story of the evil plants in the field. +Mat 13:37 And he made answer and said, He who puts the good seed in the earth is the Son of man; +Mat 13:38 And the field is the world; and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom; and the evil seeds are the sons of the Evil One; +Mat 13:39 And he who put them in the earth is Satan; and the getting in of the grain is the end of the world; and those who get it in are the angels. +Mat 13:40 As then the evil plants are got together and burned with fire, so will it be in the end of the world. +Mat 13:41 The Son of man will send out his angels, and they will take out of his kingdom everything which is a cause of error, and all those who do wrong, +Mat 13:42 And will put them into the fire; there will be weeping and cries of sorrow. +Mat 13:43 Then will the upright be shining as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him give ear. +Mat 13:44 The kingdom of heaven is like a secret store of wealth in a field, which a man came across and put back again; and in his joy he goes and gives all he has, to get that field. +Mat 13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a trader searching for beautiful jewels. +Mat 13:46 And having come across one jewel of great price, he went and gave all he had in exchange for it. +Mat 13:47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net, which was put into the sea and took in every sort of fish: +Mat 13:48 When it was full, they took it up on the sands; and seated there they put the good into vessels, but the bad they put away. +Mat 13:49 So will it be in the end of the world: the angels will come and take out the bad from the good, +Mat 13:50 And will put them into the fire: there will be weeping and cries of sorrow. +Mat 13:51 Are all these things now clear to you? They say to him, Yes. +Mat 13:52 And he said to them, For this reason every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house, who gives out from his store things new and old. +Mat 13:53 And when Jesus had come to the end of these stories he went away from there. +Mat 13:54 And coming into his country, he gave them teaching in their Synagogue, so that they were greatly surprised and said, Where did this man get this wisdom and these works of power? +Mat 13:55 Is not this the woodworker's son? is not his mother named Mary? and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? +Mat 13:56 And his sisters, are they not all with us? from where, then, has he all these things? +Mat 13:57 And they were bitter against him. But Jesus said to them, A prophet is nowhere without honour but in his country and among his family. +Mat 13:58 And the works of power which he did there were small in number because they had no faith. +Mat 14:1 At that time news of Jesus came to Herod the king; +Mat 14:2 And he said to his servants, This is John the Baptist; he has come back from the dead, and so these powers are working in him. +Mat 14:3 For Herod had taken John and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. +Mat 14:4 Because John had said to him, It is not right for you to have her. +Mat 14:5 And he would have put him to death, but for his fear of the people, because in their eyes John was a prophet. +Mat 14:6 But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias was dancing before them, and Herod was pleased with her. +Mat 14:7 So he gave her his word with an oath to let her have whatever she might make request for. +Mat 14:8 And she, at her mother's suggestion, said, Give me here on a plate the head of John the Baptist. +Mat 14:9 And the king was sad; but because of his oaths and because of his guests, he gave the order for it to be given to her; +Mat 14:10 And he sent and had John's head cut off in the prison. +Mat 14:11 And his head was put on a plate and given to the girl; and she took it to her mother. +Mat 14:12 And his disciples came, and took up his body and put it in the earth; and they went and gave Jesus news of what had taken place. +Mat 14:13 Now when it came to the ears of Jesus, he went away from there in a boat, to a waste place by himself: and the people hearing of it, went after him on foot from the towns. +Mat 14:14 And he came out and saw a great number of people and he had pity on them, and made well those of them who were ill. +Mat 14:15 And when evening had come, the disciples came to him, saying, This place is waste land, and the time is now past; send the people away so that they may go into the towns and get themselves food. +Mat 14:16 But Jesus said to them, There is no need for them to go away; give them food yourselves. +Mat 14:17 And they say to him, We have here but five cakes of bread and two fishes. +Mat 14:18 And he said, Give them to me. +Mat 14:19 And he gave orders for the people to be seated on the grass; and he took the five cakes of bread and the two fishes and, looking up to heaven, he said words of blessing, and made division of the food, and gave it to the disciples, and the disciples gave it to the people. +Mat 14:20 And they all took of the food and had enough: and they took up twelve baskets full of broken bits which were not used. +Mat 14:21 And those who had food were about five thousand men, in addition to women and children. +Mat 14:22 And straight away he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, till he had sent the people away. +Mat 14:23 And after he had sent the people away, he went up into the mountain by himself for prayer: and when evening was come, he was there by himself. +Mat 14:24 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, and was troubled by the waves: for the wind was against them. +Mat 14:25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. +Mat 14:26 And when they saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they gave cries of fear. +Mat 14:27 But straight away Jesus said to them, Take heart; it is I, have no fear. +Mat 14:28 And Peter, answering, said to him, Lord, if it is you, give me the order to come to you on the water. +Mat 14:29 And he said, Come. And Peter got out of the boat, and walking on the water, went to Jesus. +Mat 14:30 But when he saw the wind he was in fear and, starting to go down, he gave a cry, saying, Help, Lord. +Mat 14:31 And straight away Jesus put out his hand and took a grip of him, and said to him, O man of little faith, why were you in doubt? +Mat 14:32 And when they had got into the boat, the wind went down. +Mat 14:33 And those who were in the boat gave him worship, saying, Truly you are the Son of God. +Mat 14:34 And when they had gone across, they came to land at Gennesaret. +Mat 14:35 And when the men of that place had news of him, they sent into all the country round about, and took to him all who were ill, +Mat 14:36 With the request that they might only put their hands on the edge of his robe: and all those who did so were made well. +Mat 15:1 Then there came to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, saying, +Mat 15:2 Why do your disciples go against the teaching of the fathers? for they take food with unwashed hands. +Mat 15:3 And in answer he said to them, Why do you, yourselves, go against the word of God on account of the teaching which has been handed down to you? +Mat 15:4 For God said, Give honour to your father and mother: and, He who says evil of father or mother will be put to death. +Mat 15:5 But you say, If a man says to his father or his mother, That by which you might have had profit from me is given to God; +Mat 15:6 There is no need for him to give honour to his father. And you have made the word of God without effect because of your teaching. +Mat 15:7 You false ones, well did Isaiah say of you, +Mat 15:8 These people give me honour with their lips, but their heart is far from me. +Mat 15:9 But their worship is to no purpose, while they give as their teaching the rules of men. +Mat 15:10 And he got the people together and said to them, Give ear, and let my words be clear to you: +Mat 15:11 Not that which goes into the mouth makes a man unclean, but that which comes out of the mouth. +Mat 15:12 Then the disciples came and said to him, Did you see that the Pharisees were troubled when these words came to their ears? +Mat 15:13 But he said in answer, Every plant which my Father in heaven has not put in the earth, will be taken up by the roots. +Mat 15:14 Let them be: they are blind guides. And if a blind man is guiding a blind man, the two will go falling into a hole together. +Mat 15:15 Then Peter said to him, Make the story clear to us. +Mat 15:16 And he said, Are you, like them, still without wisdom? +Mat 15:17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth goes on into the stomach, and is sent out as waste? +Mat 15:18 But the things which come out of the mouth come from the heart; and they make a man unclean. +Mat 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, the taking of life, broken faith between the married, unclean desires of the flesh, taking of property, false witness, bitter words: +Mat 15:20 These are the things which make a man unclean; but to take food with unwashed hands does not make a man unclean. +Mat 15:21 And Jesus went away from there into the country of Tyre and Sidon. +Mat 15:22 And a woman of Canaan came out from those parts, crying and saying, Have pity on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is greatly troubled with an unclean spirit. +Mat 15:23 But he gave her no answer. And his disciples came and said to him, Send her away, for she is crying after us. +Mat 15:24 But he made answer and said, I was sent only to the wandering sheep of the house of Israel. +Mat 15:25 But she came and gave him worship, saying, Help, Lord. +Mat 15:26 And he made answer and said, It is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs. +Mat 15:27 But she said, Yes, Lord: but even the dogs take the bits from under their masters' table. +Mat 15:28 Then Jesus, answering, said to her, O woman, great is your faith: let your desire be done. And her daughter was made well from that hour. +Mat 15:29 And Jesus went from there and came to the sea of Galilee; and he went up into the mountain, and took his seat there. +Mat 15:30 And there came to him great numbers of people having with them those who were broken in body, or blind, or without voice, or wounded, or ill in any way, and a number of others; they put them down at his feet and he made them well: +Mat 15:31 So that the people were full of wonder when they saw that those who had no voice were talking, the feeble were made strong, those whose bodies were broken had the power of walking, and the blind were able to see: and they gave glory to the God of Israel. +Mat 15:32 And Jesus got his disciples together and said, I have pity for the people, because they have now been with me three days and have no food: and I will not send them away without food, or they will have no strength for the journey. +Mat 15:33 And the disciples say to him, How may we get enough bread in a waste place, to give food to such a number of people? +Mat 15:34 And Jesus says to them, How much bread have you? And they said, Seven cakes, and some small fishes. +Mat 15:35 Then he gave an order to the people to be seated on the earth, +Mat 15:36 And he took the seven cakes of bread and the fishes; and having given praise, he gave the broken bread to the disciples, and the disciples gave it to the people. +Mat 15:37 And they all took food, and had enough; and they took up of the broken bits, seven baskets full. +Mat 15:38 And there were four thousand men who took food, together with women and children. +Mat 15:39 And when he had sent the people away, he got into the boat, and came into the country of Magadan. +Mat 16:1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came and, testing him, made a request to him to give them a sign from heaven. +Mat 16:2 But in answer he said to them, At nightfall you say, The weather will be good, for the sky is red. +Mat 16:3 And in the morning, The weather will be bad today, for the sky is red and angry. You are able to see the face of heaven, but not the signs of the times. +Mat 16:4 An evil and false generation is searching after a sign; and no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. And he went away from them. +Mat 16:5 And when the disciples came to the other side they had not taken thought to get bread. +Mat 16:6 And Jesus said to them, Take care to have nothing to do with the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. +Mat 16:7 And they were reasoning among themselves, saying, We took no bread. +Mat 16:8 And Jesus, seeing it, said, O you of little faith, why are you reasoning among yourselves, because you have no bread? +Mat 16:9 Do you still not see, or keep in mind the five cakes of bread of the five thousand, and the number of baskets you took up? +Mat 16:10 Or the seven cakes of bread of the four thousand, and the number of baskets you took up? +Mat 16:11 How is it that you do not see that I was not talking to you about bread, but about keeping away from the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? +Mat 16:12 Then they saw that it was not the leaven of bread which he had in mind, but the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. +Mat 16:13 Now when Jesus had come into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he said, questioning his disciples, Who do men say that the Son of man is? +Mat 16:14 And they said, Some say, John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. +Mat 16:15 He says to them, But who do you say that I am? +Mat 16:16 And Simon Peter made answer and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. +Mat 16:17 And Jesus made answer and said to him, A blessing on you, Simon Bar-jonah: because this knowledge has not come to you from flesh and blood, but from my Father in heaven. +Mat 16:18 And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock will my church be based, and the doors of hell will not overcome it. +Mat 16:19 I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever is fixed by you on earth will be fixed in heaven: and whatever you make free on earth will be made free in heaven. +Mat 16:20 Then he gave orders to the disciples to give no man word that he was the Christ. +Mat 16:21 From that time Jesus went on to make clear to his disciples how he would have to go up to Jerusalem, and undergo much at the hands of those in authority and the chief priests and scribes, and be put to death, and the third day come again from the dead. +Mat 16:22 And Peter, protesting, said to him, Be it far from you, Lord; it is impossible that this will come about. +Mat 16:23 But he, turning to Peter, said, Get out of my way, Satan: you are a danger to me because your mind is not on the things of God, but on the things of men. +Mat 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him give up all, and take up his cross, and come after me. +Mat 16:25 Because whoever has a desire to keep his life safe will have it taken from him; but whoever gives up his life because of me, will have it given back to him. +Mat 16:26 For what profit has a man, if he gets all the world with the loss of his life? or what will a man give in exchange for his life? +Mat 16:27 For the Son of man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he will give to every man the reward of his works. +Mat 16:28 Truly I say to you, There are some of those here who will not have a taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. +Mat 17:1 And after six days Jesus takes with him Peter, and James, and John, his brother, and makes them go up with him into a high mountain by themselves. +Mat 17:2 And he was changed in form before them; and his face was shining like the sun, and his clothing became white as light. +Mat 17:3 And Moses and Elijah came before their eyes, talking with him. +Mat 17:4 And Peter made answer and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if you will let me, I will make here three tents, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. +Mat 17:5 While he was still talking, a bright cloud came over them: and a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased; give ear to him. +Mat 17:6 And at these words the disciples went down on their faces in great fear. +Mat 17:7 And Jesus came and put his hand on them and said, Get up and have no fear. +Mat 17:8 And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, but Jesus only. +Mat 17:9 And when they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus gave them orders, saying, Let no man have word of what you have seen, till the Son of man has come again from the dead. +Mat 17:10 And his disciples, questioning him, said, Why then do the scribes say that Elijah has to come first? +Mat 17:11 And in answer he said, Elijah truly has to come and put all things right: +Mat 17:12 But I say to you that Elijah has come, and they had no knowledge of him, but did to him whatever they were pleased to do; the same will the Son of man undergo at their hands. +Mat 17:13 Then the disciples saw that he was talking to them of John the Baptist. +Mat 17:14 And when they came to the people, a man went down on his knees to him, saying, +Mat 17:15 Lord have mercy on my son: for he is off his head, and is in great pain; and frequently he goes falling into the fire, and frequently into the water. +Mat 17:16 And I took him to your disciples, and they were not able to make him well. +Mat 17:17 And Jesus, answering, said, O false and foolish generation, how long will I be with you? how long will I put up with you? let him come here to me. +Mat 17:18 And Jesus gave orders to the unclean spirit, and it went out of him: and the boy was made well from that hour. +Mat 17:19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and said, Why were we not able to send it out? +Mat 17:20 And he says to them, Because of your little faith: for truly I say to you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Be moved from this place to that; and it will be moved; and nothing will be impossible to you. +Mat 17:21 [] +Mat 17:22 And while they were going about in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of man will be given up into the hands of men; +Mat 17:23 And they will put him to death, and the third day he will come again from the dead. And they were very sad. +Mat 17:24 And when they had come to Capernaum, those who took the Temple tax came to Peter and said, Does not your master make payment of the Temple tax? +Mat 17:25 He says, Yes. And when he came into the house, Jesus said to him, What is your opinion, Simon? from whom do the kings of the earth get payment or tax? from their sons or from other people? +Mat 17:26 And when he said, From other people, Jesus said to him, Then are the sons free. +Mat 17:27 But, so that we may not be a cause of trouble to them, go to the sea, and let down a hook, and take the first fish which comes up; and in his mouth you will see a bit of money: take that, and give it to them for me and you. +Mat 18:1 In that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? +Mat 18:2 And he took a little child, and put him in the middle of them, +Mat 18:3 And said, Truly, I say to you, If you do not have a change of heart and become like little children, you will not go into the kingdom of heaven. +Mat 18:4 Whoever, then, will make himself as low as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. +Mat 18:5 And whoever gives honour to one such little child in my name, gives honour to me: +Mat 18:6 But whoever is a cause of trouble to one of these little ones who have faith in me, it would be better for him to have a great stone fixed to his neck, and to come to his end in the deep sea. +Mat 18:7 A curse is on the earth because of trouble! for it is necessary for trouble to come; but unhappy is that man through whom the trouble comes. +Mat 18:8 And if your hand or your foot is a cause of trouble, let it be cut off and put it away from you: it is better for you to go into life with the loss of a hand or a foot than, having two hands or two feet, to go into the eternal fire. +Mat 18:9 And if your eye is a cause of trouble to you, take it out, and put it away from you: it is better for you to go into life with one eye than, having two eyes, to go into the hell of fire. +Mat 18:10 Let it not seem to you that one of these little ones is of no value; for I say to you that in heaven their angels see at all times the face of my Father in heaven. +Mat 18:11 [] +Mat 18:12 What would you say now? if a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone wandering away, will he not let the ninety-nine be, and go to the mountains in search of the wandering one? +Mat 18:13 And if he comes across it, truly I say to you, he has more joy over it than over the ninety-nine which have not gone out of the way. +Mat 18:14 Even so it is not the pleasure of your Father in heaven for one of these little ones to come to destruction. +Mat 18:15 And if your brother does wrong to you, go, make clear to him his error between you and him in private: if he gives ear to you, you have got your brother back again. +Mat 18:16 But if he will not give ear to you, take with you one or two more, that by the lips of two or three witnesses every word may be made certain. +Mat 18:17 And if he will not give ear to them, let it come to the hearing of the church: and if he will not give ear to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-farmer. +Mat 18:18 Truly I say to you, Whatever things are fixed by you on earth will be fixed in heaven: and whatever you make free on earth will be made free in heaven. +Mat 18:19 Again, I say to you, that if two of you are in agreement on earth about anything for which they will make a request, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. +Mat 18:20 For where two or three are come together in my name, there am I among them. +Mat 18:21 Then Peter came and said to him, Lord, what number of times may my brother do wrong against me, and I give him forgiveness? till seven times? +Mat 18:22 Jesus says to him, I say not to you, Till seven times; but, Till seventy times seven. +Mat 18:23 For this reason the kingdom of heaven is like a king, who went over his accounts with his servants. +Mat 18:24 And at the start, one came to him who was in his debt for ten thousand talents. +Mat 18:25 And because he was not able to make payment, his lord gave orders for him, and his wife, and his sons and daughters, and all he had, to be given for money, and payment to be made. +Mat 18:26 So the servant went down on his face and gave him worship, saying, Lord, give me time to make payment and I will give you all. +Mat 18:27 And the lord of that servant, being moved with pity, let him go, and made him free of the debt. +Mat 18:28 But that servant went out, and meeting one of the other servants, who was in debt to him for one hundred pence, he took him by the throat, saying, Make payment of your debt. +Mat 18:29 So that servant went down on his face, requesting him and saying, Give me time and I will make payment to you. +Mat 18:30 And he would not: but went and put him into prison till he had made payment of the debt. +Mat 18:31 So when the other servants saw what was done they were very sad, and came and gave word to their lord of what had been done. +Mat 18:32 Then his lord sent for him and said, You evil servant; I made you free of all that debt, because of your request to me: +Mat 18:33 Was it not right for you to have mercy on the other servant, even as I had mercy on you? +Mat 18:34 And his lord was very angry, and put him in the hands of those who would give him punishment till he made payment of all the debt. +Mat 18:35 So will my Father in heaven do to you, if you do not everyone, from your hearts, give forgiveness to his brother. +Mat 19:1 And it came about that after saying these words, Jesus went away from Galilee, and came into the parts of Judaea on the other side of Jordan. +Mat 19:2 And a great number went after him; and he made them well there. +Mat 19:3 And certain Pharisees came to him, testing him, and saying, Is it right for a man to put away his wife for every cause? +Mat 19:4 And he said in answer, Have you not seen in the Writings, that he who made them at the first made them male and female, and said, +Mat 19:5 For this cause will a man go away from his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and the two will become one flesh? +Mat 19:6 So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Then let not that which has been joined by God be parted by man. +Mat 19:7 They say to him, Why then did Moses give orders that a husband might give her a statement in writing and be free from her? +Mat 19:8 He says to them, Moses, because of your hard hearts, let you put away your wives: but it has not been so from the first. +Mat 19:9 And I say to you, Whoever puts away his wife for any other cause than the loss of her virtue, and takes another, is a false husband: and he who takes her as his wife when she is put away, is no true husband to her. +Mat 19:10 The disciples say to him, If this is the position of a man in relation to his wife, it is better not to be married. +Mat 19:11 But he said to them, Not all men are able to take in this saying, but only those to whom it is given. +Mat 19:12 For there are men who, from birth, were without sex: and there are some who were made so by men: and there are others who have made themselves so for the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to take it, let him take it. +Mat 19:13 Then some people took little children to him, so that he might put his hands on them in blessing: and the disciples said sharp words to them. +Mat 19:14 But Jesus said, Let the little ones come to me, and do not keep them away: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. +Mat 19:15 And he put his hands on them, and went away. +Mat 19:16 And one came to him and said, Master, what good thing have I to do, so that I may have eternal life? +Mat 19:17 And he said to him, Why are you questioning me about what is good? One there is who is good: but if you have a desire to go into life, keep the rules of the law. +Mat 19:18 He says to him, Which? And Jesus said, Do not put anyone to death, Do not be untrue in married life, Do not take what is not yours, Do not give false witness, +Mat 19:19 Give honour to your father and your mother: and, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. +Mat 19:20 The young man says to him, All these things have I done: what more is there? +Mat 19:21 Jesus said to him, If you have a desire to be complete, go, get money for your property, and give it to the poor, and you will have wealth in heaven: and come after me. +Mat 19:22 But hearing these words the young man went away sorrowing: for he had much property. +Mat 19:23 And Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I say to you, It is hard for a man with much money to go into the kingdom of heaven. +Mat 19:24 And again I say to you, It is simpler for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a man with much money to go into the kingdom of God. +Mat 19:25 And the disciples, hearing this, were greatly surprised, saying, Who then may have salvation? +Mat 19:26 And Jesus, looking at them, said, With men this is not possible; but with God all things are possible. +Mat 19:27 Then Peter said to him, See, we have given up everything and have come after you; what then will we have? +Mat 19:28 And Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you that in the time when all things are made new, and the Son of man is seated in his glory, you who have come after me will be seated on twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. +Mat 19:29 And everyone who has given up houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or child, or land, for my name, will be given a hundred times as much, and have eternal life. +Mat 19:30 But a great number who are first will be last, and some who are last will be first. +Mat 20:1 For the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a house, who went out early in the morning to get workers into his vine-garden. +Mat 20:2 And when he had made an agreement with the workmen for a penny a day, he sent them into his vine-garden. +Mat 20:3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others in the market-place doing nothing; +Mat 20:4 And he said to them, Go into the vine-garden with the others, and whatever is right I will give you. And they went to work. +Mat 20:5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same. +Mat 20:6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and saw others doing nothing; and he says to them, Why are you here all the day doing nothing? +Mat 20:7 They say to him, Because no man has given us work. He says to them, Go in with the rest, into the vine-garden. +Mat 20:8 And when evening came, the lord of the vine-garden said to his manager, Let the workers come, and give them their payment, from the last to the first. +Mat 20:9 And when those men came who had gone to work at the eleventh hour, they were given every man a penny. +Mat 20:10 Then those who came first had the idea that they would get more; and they, like the rest, were given a penny. +Mat 20:11 And when they got it, they made a protest against the master of the house, +Mat 20:12 Saying, These last have done only one hour's work, and you have made them equal to us, who have undergone the hard work of the day and the burning heat. +Mat 20:13 But he in answer said to one of them, Friend, I do you no wrong: did you not make an agreement with me for a penny? +Mat 20:14 Take what is yours, and go away; it is my pleasure to give to this last, even as to you. +Mat 20:15 Have I not the right to do as seems good to me in my house? or is your eye evil, because I am good? +Mat 20:16 So the last will be first, and the first last. +Mat 20:17 And when Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples on one side, and said to them, +Mat 20:18 See, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be given into the hands of the chief priests and scribes; and they will give orders for him to be put to death, +Mat 20:19 And will give him up to the Gentiles to be made sport of and to be whipped and to be put to death on the cross: and the third day he will come back again from the dead. +Mat 20:20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, giving him worship and making a request of him. +Mat 20:21 And he said to her, What is your desire? She says to him, Let my two sons be seated, the one at your right hand, and the other at your left, in your kingdom. +Mat 20:22 But Jesus made answer and said, You have no idea what you are requesting. Are you able to take of the cup which I am about to take? +Mat 20:23 They say to him, We are able. He says to them, Truly, you will take of my cup: but to be seated at my right hand and at my left is not for me to give, but it is for those for whom my Father has made it ready. +Mat 20:24 And when it came to the ears of the ten, they were angry with the two brothers. +Mat 20:25 But Jesus said to them, You see that the rulers of the Gentiles are lords over them, and their great ones have authority over them. +Mat 20:26 Let it not be so among you: but if anyone has a desire to become great among you, let him be your servant; +Mat 20:27 And whoever has a desire to be first among you, let him take the lowest place: +Mat 20:28 Even as the Son of man did not come to have servants, but to be a servant, and to give his life for the salvation of men. +Mat 20:29 And when they were going out from Jericho, a great number went after him. +Mat 20:30 And two blind men seated by the wayside, when they had the news that Jesus was going by, gave a loud cry, saying, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us. +Mat 20:31 And the people gave them orders to be quiet; but they went on crying even louder, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us. +Mat 20:32 And Jesus, stopping, sent for them, and said, What would you have me do to you? +Mat 20:33 They say to him, Lord, that our eyes may be open. +Mat 20:34 And Jesus, being moved with pity, put his fingers on their eyes: and straight away they were able to see, and went after him. +Mat 21:1 And when they were near Jerusalem, and had come to Beth-phage, to the Mountain of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, +Mat 21:2 Saying to them, Go into the little town in front of you, and straight away you will see an ass with a cord round her neck, and a young one with her; let them loose and come with them to me. +Mat 21:3 And if anyone says anything to you, you will say, The Lord has need of them; and straight away he will send them. +Mat 21:4 Now this took place so that these words of the prophet might come true, +Mat 21:5 Say to the daughter of Zion, See, your King comes to you, gentle and seated on an ass, and on a young ass. +Mat 21:6 And the disciples went and did as Jesus had given them orders, +Mat 21:7 And got the ass and the young one, and put their clothing on them, and he took his seat on it. +Mat 21:8 And all the people put their clothing down in the way; and others got branches from the trees, and put them down in the way. +Mat 21:9 And those who went before him, and those who came after, gave loud cries, saying, Glory to the Son of David: A blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord: Glory in the highest. +Mat 21:10 And when he came into Jerusalem, all the town was moved, saying, Who is this? +Mat 21:11 And the people said, This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee. +Mat 21:12 And Jesus went into the Temple and sent out all who were trading there, overturning the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those trading in doves. +Mat 21:13 And he said to them, It is in the Writings, My house is to be named a house of prayer, but you are making it a hole of thieves. +Mat 21:14 And the blind and the broken in body came to him in the Temple, and he made them well. +Mat 21:15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the works of power which he did, and the children crying out in the Temple, Glory to the son of David, they were angry and said to him, +Mat 21:16 Have you any idea what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes: have you not seen in the Writings, From the lips of children and babies at the breast you have made your praise complete? +Mat 21:17 And he went away from them, and went out of the town to Bethany, and was there for the night. +Mat 21:18 Now in the morning when he was coming back to the town, he had a desire for food. +Mat 21:19 And seeing a fig-tree by the wayside, he came to it, and saw nothing on it but leaves only; and he said to it, Let there be no fruit from you from this time forward for ever. And straight away the fig-tree became dry and dead. +Mat 21:20 And when the disciples saw it they were surprised, saying, How did the fig-tree become dry in so short a time? +Mat 21:21 And Jesus in answer said to them, Truly I say to you, If you have faith, without doubting, not only may you do what has been done to the fig-tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and put into the sea, it will be done. +Mat 21:22 And all things, whatever you make request for in prayer, having faith, you will get. +Mat 21:23 And when he had come into the Temple, the chief priests and those in authority over the people came to him while he was teaching, and said, By what authority do you do these things? and who gave you this authority? +Mat 21:24 And Jesus said to them in answer, I will put one question to you, and if you give me the answer, I will say by what authority I do these things. +Mat 21:25 The baptism of John, where did it come from? from heaven or from men? And they were reasoning among themselves, saying, If we say, From heaven; he will say to us, Why then did you not have faith in him? +Mat 21:26 But if we say, From men; we are in fear of the people, because all take John to be a prophet. +Mat 21:27 And they made answer and said, We have no idea. Then he said to them, And I will not say to you by what authority I do these things. +Mat 21:28 But how does it seem to you? A man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go and do work today in the vine-garden. +Mat 21:29 And he said in answer, I will not: but later, changing his decision, he went. +Mat 21:30 And he came to the second and said the same. And he made answer and said, I go, sir: and went not. +Mat 21:31 Which of the two did his father's pleasure? They say, The first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, that tax-farmers and loose women are going into the kingdom of God before you. +Mat 21:32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you had no faith in him, but the tax-farmers and the loose women had faith in him: and you, when you saw it, did not even have regret for your sins, so as to have faith in him. +Mat 21:33 Give ear to another story. A master of a house made a vine garden, and put a wall round it, and made a place for crushing out the wine, and made a tower, and let it out to field-workers, and went into another country. +Mat 21:34 And when the time for the fruit came near, he sent his servants to the workmen, to get the fruit. +Mat 21:35 And the workmen made an attack on his servants, giving blows to one, putting another to death, and stoning another. +Mat 21:36 Again, he sent other servants more in number than the first: and they did the same to them. +Mat 21:37 But after that he sent his son to them, saying, They will have respect for my son. +Mat 21:38 But when the workmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is he who will one day be the owner of the property; come, let us put him to death and take his heritage. +Mat 21:39 And they took him and, driving him out of the vine-garden, put him to death. +Mat 21:40 When, then, the lord of the vine-garden comes, what will he do to those workmen? +Mat 21:41 They say to him, He will put those cruel men to a cruel death, and will let out the vine-garden to other workmen, who will give him the fruit when it is ready. +Mat 21:42 Jesus says to them, Did you never see in the Writings, The stone which the builders put on one side, the same has been made the chief stone of the building: this was the Lord's doing, and it is a wonder in our eyes? +Mat 21:43 For this reason I say to you, The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation producing the fruits of it. +Mat 21:44 Any man falling on this stone will be broken, but he on whom it comes down will be crushed to dust. +Mat 21:45 And when his stories came to the ears of the chief priests and the Pharisees, they saw that he was talking of them. +Mat 21:46 And though they had a desire to take him, they were in fear of the people, because in their eyes he was a prophet. +Mat 22:1 And Jesus, talking to them again in stories, said: +Mat 22:2 The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king, who made a feast when his son was married, +Mat 22:3 And sent out his servants to get in the guests to the feast: and they would not come. +Mat 22:4 Again he sent out other servants, with orders to say to the guests, See, I have made ready my feast: my oxen and my fat beasts have been put to death, and all things are ready: come to the feast. +Mat 22:5 But they gave no attention, and went about their business, one to his farm, another to his trade: +Mat 22:6 And the rest put violent hands on his servants, and did evil to them, and put them to death. +Mat 22:7 But the king was angry; and he sent his armies, and those who had put his servants to death he gave to destruction, burning down their town with fire. +Mat 22:8 Then he said to his servants, The feast is ready but the guests were not good enough. +Mat 22:9 Go then to the cross-roads, and get all those whom you see to come to the bride-feast. +Mat 22:10 And those servants went out into the streets, and got together all those whom they came across, bad and good: and the feast was full of guests. +Mat 22:11 But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who had not on a guest's robe; +Mat 22:12 And he says to him, Friend, how came you in here not having a guest's robe? And he had nothing to say. +Mat 22:13 Then the king said to the servants, Put cords round his hands and feet and put him out into the dark; there will be weeping and cries of sorrow. +Mat 22:14 For out of all to whom the good news has come, only a small number will get salvation. +Mat 22:15 Then the Pharisees went and had a meeting to see how they might make use of his words to take him. +Mat 22:16 And they sent to him their disciples, with the Herodians, saying, Master, we see that you are true, and that you are teaching the true way of God, and have no fear of anyone, because you have no respect for a man's position. +Mat 22:17 Give us, then, your opinion of this: Is it right to give tax to Caesar, or not? +Mat 22:18 But Jesus saw their trick and said, Oh false ones, why are you attempting to put me in the wrong? +Mat 22:19 Let me see the tax money. And they gave him a penny. +Mat 22:20 And he said to them, Whose is this image and name on it? +Mat 22:21 They say to him, Caesar's. Then he said to them, Give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's. +Mat 22:22 And hearing it, they were full of wonder, and went away from him. +Mat 22:23 On the same day there came to him the Sadducees, who say that there is no coming back from the dead: and they put a question to him, saying, +Mat 22:24 Master, Moses said, If a man, at the time of his death, has no children, let his brother take his wife, and get a family for his brother; +Mat 22:25 Now there were among us seven brothers; and the first was married and at his death, having no seed, gave his wife to his brother; +Mat 22:26 In the same way the second and the third, up to the seventh. +Mat 22:27 And last of all the woman came to her end. +Mat 22:28 When they come back from the dead, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? because they all had her. +Mat 22:29 But Jesus said to them in answer, You are in error, not having knowledge of the Writings, or of the power of God. +Mat 22:30 For when they come back from the dead there are no husbands and wives, but they are as the angels in heaven. +Mat 22:31 But about the dead coming back to life, have you no knowledge of what was said to you by God in the Writings: +Mat 22:32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead but of the living. +Mat 22:33 And the people hearing it were surprised at his teaching. +Mat 22:34 But the Pharisees, hearing how the mouths of the Sadducees had been stopped, came together; +Mat 22:35 And one of them, a teacher of the law, put a question to him, testing him, and saying, +Mat 22:36 Master, which is the chief rule in the law? +Mat 22:37 And he said to him, Have love for the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. +Mat 22:38 This is the first and greatest rule. +Mat 22:39 And a second like it is this, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. +Mat 22:40 On these two rules all the law and the prophets are based. +Mat 22:41 Now while the Pharisees were together, Jesus put a question to them, saying, +Mat 22:42 What is your opinion of the Christ? whose son is he? They say to him, The Son of David. +Mat 22:43 He says to them, How then does David in the Spirit give him the name of Lord, saying, +Mat 22:44 The Lord said to my Lord, Be seated at my right hand, till I put under your feet all those who are against you? +Mat 22:45 If David then gives him the name of Lord, how is he his son? +Mat 22:46 And no one was able to give him an answer, and so great was their fear of him, that from that day no one put any more questions to him. +Mat 23:1 Then Jesus said to the people and to his disciples: +Mat 23:2 The scribes and the Pharisees have the authority of Moses; +Mat 23:3 All things, then, which they give you orders to do, these do and keep: but do not take their works as your example, for they say and do not. +Mat 23:4 They make hard laws and put great weights on men's backs; but they themselves will not put a finger to them. +Mat 23:5 But all their works they do so as to be seen by men: for they make wide their phylacteries, and the edges of their robes, +Mat 23:6 And the things desired by them are the first places at feasts, and the chief seats in the Synagogues, +Mat 23:7 And words of respect in the market-places, and to be named by men, Teacher. +Mat 23:8 But you may not be named Teacher: for one is your teacher, and you are all brothers. +Mat 23:9 And give no man the name of father on earth: because one is your Father, who is in heaven. +Mat 23:10 And you may not be named guides: because one is your Guide, even Christ. +Mat 23:11 But let the greatest among you be your servant. +Mat 23:12 And whoever makes himself high will be made low, and whoever makes himself low will be made high. +Mat 23:13 But a curse is on you, scribes and Pharisees, false ones! because you are shutting the kingdom of heaven against men: for you do not go in yourselves, and those who are going in, you keep back. +Mat 23:14 [] +Mat 23:15 A curse is on you, scribes and Pharisees, false ones! for you go about land and sea to get one disciple and, having him, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. +Mat 23:16 A curse is on you, blind guides, who say, Whoever takes an oath by the Temple, it is nothing; but whoever takes an oath by the gold of the Temple, he is responsible. +Mat 23:17 You foolish ones and blind: which is greater, the gold, or the Temple which makes the gold holy? +Mat 23:18 And, Whoever takes an oath by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever takes an oath by the offering which is on it, he is responsible. +Mat 23:19 You blind ones: which is greater, the offering, or the altar which makes the offering holy? +Mat 23:20 He, then, who takes an oath by the altar, takes it by the altar and by all things on it. +Mat 23:21 And he who takes an oath by the Temple, takes it by the Temple and by him whose house it is. +Mat 23:22 And he who takes an oath by heaven, takes it by the seat of God, and by him who is seated on it. +Mat 23:23 A curse is on you, scribes and Pharisees, false ones! for you make men give a tenth of all sorts of sweet-smelling plants, but you give no thought to the more important things of the law, righteousness, and mercy, and faith; but it is right for you to do these, and not to let the others be undone. +Mat 23:24 You blind guides, who take out a fly from your drink, but make no trouble over a camel. +Mat 23:25 A curse is on you, scribes and Pharisees, false ones! for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of violent behaviour and uncontrolled desire. +Mat 23:26 You blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the plate, so that the outside may become equally clean. +Mat 23:27 A curse is on you, scribes and Pharisees, false ones! for you are like the resting-places of the dead, which are made white, and seem beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and of all unclean things. +Mat 23:28 Even so you seem to men to be full of righteousness, but inside you are all false and full of wrongdoing. +Mat 23:29 A curse is on you, scribes and Pharisees, false ones! because you put up buildings for housing the dead bodies of the prophets, and make fair the last resting-places of good men, and say, +Mat 23:30 If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in the blood of the prophets. +Mat 23:31 So that you are witnesses against yourselves that you are the sons of those who put the prophets to death. +Mat 23:32 Make full, then, the measure of your fathers. +Mat 23:33 You snakes, offspring of snakes, how will you be kept from the punishment of hell? +Mat 23:34 For this reason, I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them you will put to death and put on the cross, and to some of them you will give blows in your Synagogues, driving them from town to town; +Mat 23:35 So that on you may come all the blood of the upright on the earth, from the blood of upright Abel to the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah, whom you put to death between the Temple and the altar. +Mat 23:36 Truly I say to you, All these things will come on this generation. +Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, putting to death the prophets, and stoning those who are sent to her! Again and again would I have taken your children to myself as a bird takes her young ones under her wings, and you would not! +Mat 23:38 See, your house is made waste. +Mat 23:39 For I say to you, You will not see me from this time till you say, A blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord. +Mat 24:1 And Jesus went out of the Temple, and on the way his disciples came to him, pointing out the buildings of the Temple. +Mat 24:2 But he, answering, said to them, See you not all these things? truly I say to you that here there will not be one stone resting on another, which will not be pulled down. +Mat 24:3 And while he was seated on the Mountain of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Make clear to us, when will these things be? and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world? +Mat 24:4 And Jesus said to them in answer, Take care that you are not tricked. +Mat 24:5 For people will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and a number will be turned from the true way through them. +Mat 24:6 And news will come to you of wars and talk of wars: do not be troubled, for these things have to be; but it is still not the end. +Mat 24:7 For nation will be moved against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and men will be without food, and the earth will be shaking in different places; +Mat 24:8 But all these things are the first of the troubles. +Mat 24:9 Then they will be cruel to you, and will put you to death: and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. +Mat 24:10 And numbers of people will be turned from the right way, and will give one another up and have hate for one another. +Mat 24:11 And a number of false prophets will come, causing error. +Mat 24:12 And because wrongdoing will be increased, the love of most people will become cold. +Mat 24:13 But he who goes through to the end will get salvation. +Mat 24:14 And this good news of the kingdom will be given through all the world for a witness to all nations; and then the end will come. +Mat 24:15 When, then, you see in the holy place the unclean thing which makes destruction, of which word was given by Daniel the prophet (let this be clear to the reader), +Mat 24:16 Then let those who are in Judaea go in flight to the mountains: +Mat 24:17 Let not him who is on the house-top go down to take anything out of his house: +Mat 24:18 And let not him who is in the field go back to get his coat. +Mat 24:19 But it will be hard for women who are with child and for those with babies at the breast in those days. +Mat 24:20 And say a prayer that your flight may not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. +Mat 24:21 Because in those days there will be great sorrow, such as there has not been from the start of the world till now, or ever will be. +Mat 24:22 And if those days had not been made short there would have been no salvation for any, but because of the saints those days will be made short. +Mat 24:23 Then if any man says to you, See, here is the Christ, or, Here; do not put faith in him; +Mat 24:24 For there will come up false Christs, and false prophets, who will do great signs and wonders; so that if possible even the saints might be tricked. +Mat 24:25 See, I have made it clear to you before it comes about. +Mat 24:26 If, then, they say to you, See, he is in the waste land; go not out: See, he is in the inner rooms; put no faith in it. +Mat 24:27 Because as in a thunderstorm the bright light coming from the east is seen even in the west; so will be the coming of the Son of man. +Mat 24:28 Wherever the dead body is, there will the eagles come together. +Mat 24:29 But straight away, after the trouble of those days, the sun will be made dark and the moon will not give her light and the stars will come down from heaven and the powers of heaven will be moved: +Mat 24:30 And then the sign of the Son of man will be seen in heaven: and then all the nations of the earth will have sorrow, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. +Mat 24:31 And he will send out his angels with a great sound of a horn, and they will get his saints together from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. +Mat 24:32 Now take an example from the fig-tree: when her branch has become soft and puts out its leaves, you are certain that the summer is near; +Mat 24:33 Even so, when you see all these things, you may be certain that he is near, even at the doors. +Mat 24:34 Truly I say to you, This generation will not come to an end till all these things are complete. +Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth will come to an end, but my words will not come to an end. +Mat 24:36 But of that day and hour no one has knowledge, not even the angels in heaven, or the Son, but the Father only. +Mat 24:37 And as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. +Mat 24:38 Because as in those days before the overflowing of the waters, they were feasting and taking wives and getting married, till the day when Noah went into the ark, +Mat 24:39 And they had no care till the waters came and took them all away; so will be the coming of the Son of man. +Mat 24:40 Then two men will be in the field; one is taken, and one let go; +Mat 24:41 Two women will be crushing grain; one is taken, and one let go. +Mat 24:42 Be watching, then! for you have no knowledge on what day your Lord will come. +Mat 24:43 But be certain of this, that if the master of the house had had knowledge of the time when the thief was coming, he would have been watching, and would not have let his house be broken into. +Mat 24:44 Be ready then; for at a time which you have no thought of the Son of man will come. +Mat 24:45 Who is the true and wise servant, whom his lord has put over those in his house, to give them their food at the right time? +Mat 24:46 A blessing on that servant, who will be doing so when his lord comes. +Mat 24:47 Truly, I say to you, he will put him over all he has. +Mat 24:48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, My lord is a long time in coming; +Mat 24:49 And is cruel to the other servants, taking his pleasure with those who are overcome with wine; +Mat 24:50 The lord of that servant will come in a day when he is not looking for him, and in an hour of which he has no knowledge, +Mat 24:51 And will have him cut in two, and will give him a part in the fate of the false ones: there will be weeping and cries of sorrow. +Mat 25:1 Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, the friends of the bride, who took their lights, and went out with the purpose of meeting the husband. +Mat 25:2 And five of them were foolish, and five were wise. +Mat 25:3 For the foolish, when they took their lights, took no oil with them. +Mat 25:4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lights. +Mat 25:5 Now the husband was a long time in coming, and they all went to sleep. +Mat 25:6 But in the middle of the night there is a cry, The husband comes! Go out to him. +Mat 25:7 Then all those virgins got up, and made ready their lights. +Mat 25:8 And the foolish said to the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lights are going out. +Mat 25:9 But the wise made answer, saying, There may not be enough for us and you; it would be better for you to go to the traders and get oil for yourselves. +Mat 25:10 And while they went to get oil, the master came; and those who were ready went in with him to the feast: and the door was shut. +Mat 25:11 After that the other virgins came, saying, Lord, Lord, let us in. +Mat 25:12 But he made answer and said, Truly I say to you, I have no knowledge of you. +Mat 25:13 Keep watch, then, because you are not certain of the day or of the hour. +Mat 25:14 For it is as when a man, about to take a journey, got his servants together, and gave them his property. +Mat 25:15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to everyone as he was able; and he went on his journey. +Mat 25:16 Straight away he who had been given the five talents went and did trade with them, and made five more. +Mat 25:17 In the same way he who had been given the two got two more. +Mat 25:18 But he who was given the one went away and put it in a hole in the earth, and kept his lord's money in a secret place. +Mat 25:19 Now after a long time the lord of those servants comes, and makes up his account with them. +Mat 25:20 And he who had the five talents came with his other five talents, saying, Lord, you gave into my care five talents: see, I have got five more. +Mat 25:21 His lord said to him, Well done, good and true servant: you have been true in a small thing, I will give you control over great things: take your part in the joy of your lord. +Mat 25:22 And he who had the two talents came and said, Lord, you gave into my care two talents: see, I have got two more. +Mat 25:23 His lord said to him, Well done, good and true servant: you have been true in a small thing, I will give you control over great things: take your part in the joy of your lord. +Mat 25:24 And he who had had the one talent came and said, Lord, I had knowledge that you are a hard man, getting in grain where you have not put seed, and making profits for which you have done no work: +Mat 25:25 And I was in fear, and went away, and put your talent in the earth: here is what is yours. +Mat 25:26 But his lord in answer said to him, You are a bad and unready servant; if you had knowledge that I get in grain where I did not put seed, and make profits for which I have done no work, +Mat 25:27 Why, then, did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I would have got back what is mine with interest? +Mat 25:28 Take away, then, his talent and give it to him who has the ten talents. +Mat 25:29 For to everyone who has will be given, and he will have more: but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. +Mat 25:30 And put out the servant who is of no profit into the outer dark: there will be weeping and cries of sorrow. +Mat 25:31 But when the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then will he be seated in his glory: +Mat 25:32 And before him all the nations will come together; and they will be parted one from another, as the sheep are parted from the goats by the keeper. +Mat 25:33 And he will put the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. +Mat 25:34 Then will the King say to those on his right, Come, you who have the blessing of my Father, into the kingdom made ready for you before the world was: +Mat 25:35 For I was in need of food, and you gave it to me: I was in need of drink, and you gave it to me: I was wandering, and you took me in; +Mat 25:36 I had no clothing, and you gave it to me: when I was ill, or in prison, you came to me. +Mat 25:37 Then will the upright make answer to him, saying, Lord, when did we see you in need of food, and give it to you? or in need of drink, and give it to you? +Mat 25:38 And when did we see you wandering, and take you in? or without clothing, and give it to you? +Mat 25:39 And when did we see you ill, or in prison, and come to you? +Mat 25:40 And the King will make answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Because you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. +Mat 25:41 Then will he say to those on the left, Go from me, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire which is ready for the Evil One and his angels: +Mat 25:42 For I was in need of food, and you gave it not to me; I was in need of drink, and you gave it not to me: +Mat 25:43 I was wandering, and you took me not in; without clothing, and you gave me no clothing; ill, and in prison, and you came not to me. +Mat 25:44 Then will they make answer, saying, Lord, when did we see you in need of food or drink, or wandering, or without clothing, or ill, or in prison, and did not take care of you? +Mat 25:45 Then will he make answer to them, saying, Truly I say to you, Because you did it not to the least of these, you did it not to me. +Mat 25:46 And these will go away into eternal punishment; but the upright into eternal life. +Mat 26:1 And when Jesus had come to the end of all these words, he said to his disciples, +Mat 26:2 After two days is the Passover, and the Son of man will be given up to the death of the cross. +Mat 26:3 Then the chief priests and the rulers of the people came together in the house of the high priest, who was named Caiaphas. +Mat 26:4 And they made designs together to take Jesus by some trick, and put him to death. +Mat 26:5 But they said, Not while the feast is going on, for fear of trouble among the people. +Mat 26:6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, +Mat 26:7 There came to him a woman having a bottle of perfume of great price, and she put the perfume on his head when he was seated at table. +Mat 26:8 But when the disciples saw it they were angry, saying, To what purpose is this waste? +Mat 26:9 For we might have got much money for this and given it to the poor. +Mat 26:10 But Jesus, seeing it, said to them, Why are you troubling the woman? she has done a kind act to me. +Mat 26:11 For the poor you have ever with you, but me you have not for ever. +Mat 26:12 For in putting this perfume on my body, she did it to make me ready for my last resting-place. +Mat 26:13 Truly I say to you, Wherever this good news goes out in all the world, what this woman has done will be talked of in memory of her. +Mat 26:14 Then one of the twelve, who was named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, +Mat 26:15 What will you give me, if I give him up to you? And the price was fixed at thirty bits of silver. +Mat 26:16 And from that time he was watching for a chance to give him into their hands. +Mat 26:17 Now on the first day of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Where are we to make ready for you to take the Passover meal? +Mat 26:18 And he said to them, Go into the town to such a man, and say to him, The Master says, My time is near: I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. +Mat 26:19 And the disciples did as Jesus had said to them; and they made ready the Passover. +Mat 26:20 Now when evening was come, he was seated at table with the twelve disciples; +Mat 26:21 And while they were taking food, he said, Truly I say to you that one of you will be false to me. +Mat 26:22 And they were very said, and said to him, one by one, Is it I, Lord? +Mat 26:23 And he made answer and said, He who puts his hand into the plate with me, the same will be false to me. +Mat 26:24 The Son of man goes, even as the Writings say of him: but a curse is on that man through whom the Son of man is given up; it would have been well for that man if he had never come into the world. +Mat 26:25 And Judas, who was false to him, made answer and said, Is it I, Master? He says to him, Yes. +Mat 26:26 And when they were taking food, Jesus took bread and, after blessing it, he gave the broken bread to the disciples and said, Take it; this is my body. +Mat 26:27 And he took a cup and, having given praise, he gave it to them, saying, +Mat 26:28 Take of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the testament, which is given for men for the forgiveness of sins. +Mat 26:29 But I say to you that from now I will not take of this fruit of the vine, till that day when I take it new with you in my Father's kingdom. +Mat 26:30 And after a song of praise to God, they went out to the Mountain of Olives. +Mat 26:31 Then said Jesus to them, All of you will be turned away from me this night: for it is said in the Writings, I will put to death the keeper of the sheep, and the sheep of the flock will be put to flight. +Mat 26:32 But after I am come back from the dead, I will go before you into Galilee. +Mat 26:33 But Peter made answer and said to him, Though all may be turned away from you, I will never be turned away. +Mat 26:34 Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you that this night, before the hour of the cock's cry, you will say three times that you have no knowledge of me. +Mat 26:35 Peter says to him, Even if I am put to death with you, I will not be false to you. So said all the disciples. +Mat 26:36 Then comes Jesus with them to a place named Gethsemane, and says to his disciples, Be seated here, while I go over there for prayer. +Mat 26:37 And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and became sad and very troubled. +Mat 26:38 Then says he to them, My soul is very sad, even to death: keep watch with me here. +Mat 26:39 And he went forward a little, and falling down on his face in prayer, he said, O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup go from me; but let not my pleasure, but yours be done. +Mat 26:40 And he comes to the disciples, and sees that they are sleeping, and says to Peter, What, were you not able to keep watch with me one hour? +Mat 26:41 Keep watch with prayer, so that you may not be put to the test: the spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is feeble. +Mat 26:42 Again, a second time he went away, and said in prayer, O my Father, if this may not go from me without my taking it, let your pleasure be done. +Mat 26:43 And he came again and saw them sleeping, for their eyes were tired. +Mat 26:44 And he went away from them again, and a third time said the same prayer. +Mat 26:45 Then he comes to the disciples; and says to them, Go on sleeping now, and take your rest: for the hour is come, and the Son of man is given into the hands of evil men. +Mat 26:46 Up, let us be going: see, he who gives me up is near. +Mat 26:47 And while he was still talking, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a band armed with swords and sticks, from the chief priests and those in authority over the people. +Mat 26:48 Now the false one had given them a sign saying, The one to whom I give a kiss, that is he: take him. +Mat 26:49 And straight away he came to Jesus and said, Master! and gave him a kiss. +Mat 26:50 And Jesus said to him, Friend, do that for which you have come. Then they came and put hands on Jesus, and took him. +Mat 26:51 And one of those who were with Jesus put out his hand, and took out his sword and gave the servant of the high priest a blow, cutting off his ear. +Mat 26:52 Then says Jesus to him, Put up your sword again into its place: for all those who take the sword will come to death by the sword. +Mat 26:53 Does it not seem possible to you that if I make request to my Father he will even now send me an army of angels? +Mat 26:54 But how then would the Writings come true, which say that so it has to be? +Mat 26:55 In that hour Jesus said to the people, Have you come out as against a thief with swords and sticks to take me? I was teaching every day in the Temple and you took me not. +Mat 26:56 But all this has taken place so that the writings of the prophets might come true. Then all his disciples went from him in flight. +Mat 26:57 And those who had made Jesus prisoner took him away to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and those in authority over the people had come together. +Mat 26:58 But Peter went after him at a distance, to the house of the high priest, and went in and took his seat with the servants, to see the end. +Mat 26:59 Now the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin were looking for false witness against Jesus, so that they might put him to death; +Mat 26:60 And they were not able to get it, though a number of false witnesses came. +Mat 26:61 But later there came two who said, This man said, I am able to give the Temple of God to destruction, and to put it up again in three days. +Mat 26:62 And the high priest got up and said to him, Have you no answer? what is it which these say against you? +Mat 26:63 But Jesus said not a word. And the high priest said to him, I put you on oath, by the living God, that you will say to us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. +Mat 26:64 Jesus says to him, You say so: but I say to you, From now you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven. +Mat 26:65 Then the high priest, violently parting his robes, said, He has said evil against God: what more need have we of witnesses? for now his words against God have come to your ears: +Mat 26:66 What is your opinion? They made answer and said, It is right for him to be put to death. +Mat 26:67 Then they put shame on him, and were cruel to him: and some gave him blows, saying, +Mat 26:68 Be a prophet, O Christ, and say who gave you a blow! +Mat 26:69 Now Peter was seated in the open square outside the house: and a servant-girl came to him, saying, You were with Jesus the Galilaean. +Mat 26:70 But he said before them all that it was false, saying, I have no knowledge of what you say. +Mat 26:71 And when he had gone out into the doorway, another saw him and says to those who were there, This man was with Jesus the Nazarene. +Mat 26:72 And again he said with an oath, I have no knowledge of the man. +Mat 26:73 And after a little time those who were near came and said to Peter, Truly you are one of them; because your talk is witness against you. +Mat 26:74 Then with curses and oaths he said, I have no knowledge of the man. And straight away there came the cry of a cock. +Mat 26:75 And the word of Jesus came back to Peter, when he said, Before the hour of the cock's cry, you will say three times that you have no knowledge of me. And he went out, weeping bitterly. +Mat 27:1 Now when it was morning, all the chief priests and those in authority took thought together with the purpose of putting Jesus to death. +Mat 27:2 And they put cords on him and took him away, and gave him up to Pilate, the ruler. +Mat 27:3 Then Judas, who was false to him, seeing that he was to be put to death, in his regret took back the thirty bits of silver to the chief priests and those in authority, +Mat 27:4 Saying, I have done wrong in giving into your hands an upright man. But they said, What is that to us? it is your business. +Mat 27:5 And he put down the silver in the Temple and went out, and put himself to death by hanging. +Mat 27:6 And the chief priests took the silver and said, It is not right to put it in the Temple store for it is the price of blood. +Mat 27:7 And they made a decision to get with the silver the potter's field, as a place for the dead of other countries. +Mat 27:8 For this cause that field was named, The field of blood, to this day. +Mat 27:9 Then came true that which was said by Jeremiah the prophet, And they took the thirty bits of silver, the price of him who was valued by the children of Israel; +Mat 27:10 And they gave them for the potter's field, as I had word from the Lord. +Mat 27:11 And Jesus was before the ruler, who put a question to him, Are you the King of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, You say so. +Mat 27:12 But when the chief priests and those in authority made statements against him, he gave no answer. +Mat 27:13 Then says Pilate to him, Do you give no attention to what their witnesses say against you? +Mat 27:14 And he gave him no answer, not even a word: so that the ruler was greatly surprised. +Mat 27:15 Now at the feast it was the way for the ruler to let free to the people one prisoner, at their selection. +Mat 27:16 And they had then an important prisoner, whose name was Barabbas. +Mat 27:17 So when they came together, Pilate said to them, Whom will you have? Barabbas, or Jesus, who is named Christ? +Mat 27:18 For he saw that for envy they had given him up. +Mat 27:19 And while he was on the judge's seat, his wife sent to him, saying, Have nothing to do with that upright man, for I have had much trouble this day in a dream because of him. +Mat 27:20 Now the chief priests and those in authority got the people to make request for Barabbas, and for Jesus to be put to death. +Mat 27:21 But the ruler made answer and said to them, Which of the two is it your pleasure that I let go free? And they said, Barabbas. +Mat 27:22 Pilate says to them, What, then, am I to do with Jesus, who is named Christ? They all say, Let him be put to death on the cross. +Mat 27:23 And he said, Why, what evil has he done? But they gave loud cries, saying, To the cross with him! +Mat 27:24 So when Pilate saw that he was able to do nothing, but that trouble was working up, he took water and, washing his hands before the people, said, The blood of this upright man is not on my hands: you are responsible. +Mat 27:25 And all the people made answer and said, Let his blood be on us, and on our children. +Mat 27:26 Then he let Barabbas go free: but after having Jesus whipped, he gave him up to be put to death on the cross. +Mat 27:27 Then the ruler's armed men took Jesus into the open square, and got all their band together. +Mat 27:28 And they took off his clothing, and put on him a red robe. +Mat 27:29 And they made a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and put a rod in his right hand, and they went down on their knees before him, and made sport of him, saying, Long life to the King of the Jews. +Mat 27:30 And they put shame on him, and gave him blows on the head with the rod. +Mat 27:31 And when they had made sport of him, they took the robe off him, and put his clothing on him, and took him away to put him on the cross. +Mat 27:32 And while they were coming out, they saw a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they made him go with them, so that he might take up his cross. +Mat 27:33 And when they came to the place named Golgotha, that is to say, Dead Man's Head, +Mat 27:34 They gave him wine mixed with bitter drink: and after tasting it, he took no more. +Mat 27:35 And when they had put him on the cross, they made division of his clothing among them by the decision of chance. +Mat 27:36 And they were seated there watching him. +Mat 27:37 And they put up over his head the statement of his crime in writing, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. +Mat 27:38 Then two thieves were put on crosses with him, one on the right and one on the left. +Mat 27:39 And those who went by said bitter words to him, shaking their heads and saying, +Mat 27:40 You who would give the Temple to destruction and put it up again in three days, get yourself free: if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. +Mat 27:41 In the same way, the chief priests, making sport of him, with the scribes and those in authority, said, +Mat 27:42 A saviour of others, he has no salvation for himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will have faith in him. +Mat 27:43 He put his faith in God; let God be his saviour now, if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. +Mat 27:44 And the thieves who were on the crosses said evil words to him. +Mat 27:45 Now from the sixth hour it was dark over all the land till the ninth hour. +Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus gave a loud cry, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, My God, my God, why are you turned away from me? +Mat 27:47 And some of those who were near by, hearing it, said, This man is crying to Elijah. +Mat 27:48 And straight away one of them went quickly, and took a sponge, and made it full of bitter wine, and put it on a rod and gave him drink. +Mat 27:49 And the rest said, Let him be; let us see if Elijah will come to his help. +Mat 27:50 And Jesus gave another loud cry, and gave up his spirit. +Mat 27:51 And the curtain of the Temple was parted in two from end to end; and there was an earth-shock; and the rocks were broken; +Mat 27:52 And the resting-places of the dead came open; and the bodies of a number of sleeping saints came to life; +Mat 27:53 And coming out of their resting-places, after he had come again from the dead, they went into the holy town and were seen by a number of people. +Mat 27:54 Now the captain and those who were with him watching Jesus, when they saw the earth-shock and the things which were done, were in great fear and said, Truly this was a son of God. +Mat 27:55 And a number of women were there, watching from a distance, who had come with Jesus from Galilee, waiting on his needs. +Mat 27:56 Among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. +Mat 27:57 And in the evening, there came a man of wealth from Arimathaea, Joseph by name, who was a disciple of Jesus: +Mat 27:58 This man went in to Pilate, and made a request for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate gave orders for it to be given to him. +Mat 27:59 And Joseph took the body, folding it in clean linen, +Mat 27:60 And put it in the resting-place which had been cut out of the rock for himself; and after rolling a great stone to the door of it he went away. +Mat 27:61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, seated by the place of the dead. +Mat 27:62 Now on the day after the getting ready of the Passover, the chief priests and Pharisees came together to Pilate, +Mat 27:63 Saying, Sir, we have in mind how that false man said, while he was still living, After three days I will come again from the dead. +Mat 27:64 Give orders, then, that the place where his body is may be made safe till the third day, for fear that his disciples come and take him away secretly and say to the people, He has come back from the dead: and the last error will be worse than the first. +Mat 27:65 Pilate said to them, You have watchmen; go and make it as safe as you are able. +Mat 27:66 So they went, and made safe the place where his body was, putting a stamp on the stone, and the watchmen were with them. +Mat 28:1 Now late on the Sabbath, when the dawn of the first day of the week was near, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the place where his body was. +Mat 28:2 And there was a great earth-shock; for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, rolling back the stone, took his seat on it. +Mat 28:3 His form was shining like the light, and his clothing was white as snow: +Mat 28:4 And for fear of him the watchmen were shaking, and became as dead men. +Mat 28:5 And the angel said to the women, Have no fear: for I see that you are searching for Jesus, who was put to death on the cross. +Mat 28:6 He is not here, for he has come to life again, even as he said. Come, see the Lord's resting-place. +Mat 28:7 And go quickly and give his disciples the news that he has come back from the dead, and is going before you into Galilee; there you will see him, as I have said to you. +Mat 28:8 And they went away quickly, with fear and great joy, to give his disciples the news. +Mat 28:9 And on the way, Jesus came to them, saying, Be glad. And they came and put their hands on his feet, and gave him worship. +Mat 28:10 Then said Jesus to them, Have no fear: go and give word to my brothers to go into Galilee, and there they will see me. +Mat 28:11 Now, while they were going, some of the watchmen came into the town and gave news to the chief priests of all the things which had taken place. +Mat 28:12 And when they had come together with those in authority, and had made their decision, they gave much money to the watchmen, saying, +Mat 28:13 Say, His disciples came by night and took him away secretly while we were sleeping. +Mat 28:14 And if this comes to the ruler's ears, we will see that he does not make you responsible. +Mat 28:15 So they took the money, and did as they had been ordered: and this account has been current among the Jews till the present time. +Mat 28:16 But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had given them orders to go. +Mat 28:17 And when they saw him they gave him worship: but some were in doubt. +Mat 28:18 And Jesus came to them and said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. +Mat 28:19 Go then, and make disciples of all the nations, giving them baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: +Mat 28:20 Teaching them to keep all the rules which I have given you: and see, I am ever with you, even to the end of the world. +Mak 1:1 The first words of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. +Mak 1:2 Even as it is said in the book of Isaiah the prophet, See, I send my servant before your face, who will make ready your way; +Mak 1:3 The voice of one crying in the waste land, Make ready the way of the Lord, make his roads straight; +Mak 1:4 John came, and gave baptism in the waste land, preaching baptism as a sign of forgiveness of sin for those whose hearts were changed. +Mak 1:5 And there went out to him all the people of Judaea, and all those of Jerusalem, and they were given baptism by him in the river Jordan, saying that they were sinners. +Mak 1:6 And John was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather band about him; and his food was locusts and honey. +Mak 1:7 And he said to them all, There is one coming after me who is greater than I, whose shoes I am not good enough to undo. +Mak 1:8 I have given you baptism with water, but he will give you baptism with the Holy Spirit. +Mak 1:9 And it came about in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was given baptism by John in the Jordan. +Mak 1:10 And straight away, coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens broken open and the Spirit coming down on him as a dove: +Mak 1:11 And a voice came out of heaven, You are my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased. +Mak 1:12 And straight away the Spirit sent him out into the waste land. +Mak 1:13 And he was in the waste land for forty days, being tested by Satan; and he was with the beasts; and the angels took care of him. +Mak 1:14 Now after John had been put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the good news of God, +Mak 1:15 And saying, The time has come, and the kingdom of God is near: let your hearts be turned from sin and have faith in the good news. +Mak 1:16 And going by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon, and Andrew, the brother of Simon, putting a net into the sea: for they were fishermen. +Mak 1:17 And Jesus said to them, Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. +Mak 1:18 And they went straight from their nets, and came after him. +Mak 1:19 And going on a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were in their boat stitching up their nets. +Mak 1:20 And he said, Come after me: and they went away from their father Zebedee, who was in the boat with the servants, and came after him. +Mak 1:21 And they came to Capernaum; and on the Sabbath he went into the Synagogue and gave teaching. +Mak 1:22 And they were full of wonder at his teaching, because he gave it as one having authority, and not like the scribes. +Mak 1:23 And there was in their Synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he gave a cry, +Mak 1:24 Saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? have you come to put an end to us? I see well who you are, the Holy One of God. +Mak 1:25 And Jesus said to him sharply, Be quiet, and come out of him. +Mak 1:26 And the unclean spirit, shaking him violently, and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. +Mak 1:27 And they were all greatly surprised, so that they put questions to one another, saying, What is this? a new teaching! with authority he gives orders even to the unclean spirits, and they do what he says. +Mak 1:28 And news of him went out quickly everywhere into all parts of Galilee round about. +Mak 1:29 And when they came out of the Synagogue, they went into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. +Mak 1:30 Now Simon's wife's mother was ill, with a burning heat; and they gave him word of her: +Mak 1:31 And he came and took her by the hand, lifting her up; and she became well, and took care of their needs. +Mak 1:32 And in the evening, at sundown, they took to him all who were diseased, and those who had evil spirits. +Mak 1:33 And all the town had come together at the door. +Mak 1:34 And a number, who were ill with different diseases, he made well, and sent out evil spirits; but he did not let the evil spirits say anything, because they had knowledge of him. +Mak 1:35 And in the morning, a long time before daylight, he got up and went out to a quiet place, and there he gave himself up to prayer. +Mak 1:36 And Simon and those who were with him came after him. +Mak 1:37 And when they came up with him, they said to him, Everyone is looking for you. +Mak 1:38 And he said to them, Let us go to other parts into the nearest towns, so that I may give teaching there, because for this purpose I came. +Mak 1:39 And he went into their Synagogues in every part of Galilee, preaching and driving out evil spirits. +Mak 1:40 And a leper came to him and, going down on his knees before him, made a request, saying, If it is your pleasure, you have the power to make me clean. +Mak 1:41 And being moved with pity, he put out his hand, and touching him said to him, It is my pleasure; be made clean. +Mak 1:42 And straight away the disease went from him, and he was made clean. +Mak 1:43 And he sent him away, saying to him very sharply, +Mak 1:44 See that you say nothing to any man: but go and let the priest see you, and make yourself clean by an offering of the things ordered by Moses, for a witness to them. +Mak 1:45 But he went out, and made it public, giving an account of it everywhere, so that Jesus was no longer able to go openly into a town, but was outside in the waste land; and they came to him from every part. +Mak 2:1 And when he came into Capernaum again after some days, the news went about that he was in the house. +Mak 2:2 And a great number had come together, so that there was no longer room for them, no, not even about the door: and he gave them teaching. +Mak 2:3 And four men came to him with one on a bed who had no power of moving. +Mak 2:4 And when they were unable to get near him because of all the people, they got the roof uncovered where he was: and when it was broken up, they let down the bed on which the man was. +Mak 2:5 And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to him, Son, you have forgiveness for your sins. +Mak 2:6 But there were certain of the scribes seated there, and reasoning in their hearts, +Mak 2:7 Why does this man say such things? he has no respect for God: from whom does forgiveness come but from God only? +Mak 2:8 And Jesus, having knowledge in his spirit of their thoughts, said to them, Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? +Mak 2:9 Which is the simpler, to say to a man who is ill, You have forgiveness for your sins, or, Get up, take up your bed, and go? +Mak 2:10 But so that you may see that the Son of man has authority for the forgiveness of sins on earth, (he said to the man,) +Mak 2:11 I say to you, Get up, take up your bed, and go to your house. +Mak 2:12 And he got up, and straight away took up the bed and went out before them all, so that they were all full of wonder, and gave glory to God, saying, We have never seen anything like this. +Mak 2:13 And he went out again by the seaside; and all the people came to him, and he gave them teaching. +Mak 2:14 And when he went by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, seated at the place where taxes were taken, and he said to him, Come with me. And he got up, and went with him. +Mak 2:15 And it came about that he was seated at meat in his house, and a number of tax-farmers and sinners were at table with Jesus and his disciples: for there were a great number of them, and they came after him. +Mak 2:16 And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was taking food with the tax-farmers and sinners, said to his disciples, Why does he take food and drink with such men? +Mak 2:17 And Jesus, hearing it, said to them, Those who are well have no need of a medical man, but those who are ill: I have come not to get the upright but sinners. +Mak 2:18 And John's disciples and the Pharisees were taking no food: and they came and said to him, Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees go without food, but your disciples do not? +Mak 2:19 And Jesus said to them, Will the friends of a newly-married man go without food while he is with them? as long as they have him with them they will not go without food. +Mak 2:20 But the days will come when the husband will be taken away from them, and then they will go without food. +Mak 2:21 No man puts a bit of new cloth on an old coat: or the new, by pulling away from the old, makes a worse hole. +Mak 2:22 And no man puts new wine into old wine-skins: or the skins will be burst by the wine, and the wine and the skins will be wasted: but new wine has to be put into new wine-skins. +Mak 2:23 And it came about that on the Sabbath day he was going through the grain-fields; and while they were walking, his disciples took the heads of grain. +Mak 2:24 And the Pharisees said to him, Why are they doing what it is not right to do on the Sabbath? +Mak 2:25 And he said to them, Have you no knowledge of what David did, when he had need and was without food, he, and those who were with him? +Mak 2:26 How he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and took for food the holy bread, which only the priests may take, and gave it to those who were with him? +Mak 2:27 And he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; +Mak 2:28 So that the Son of man is lord even of the Sabbath. +Mak 3:1 And he went again into the Synagogue; and there was a man there whose hand was dead. +Mak 3:2 And they were watching him to see if he would make him well on the Sabbath day, so that they might have something against him. +Mak 3:3 And he said to the man, Get up and come forward. +Mak 3:4 And he said to them, Is it right to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil? to give life or to put to death? But they said nothing. +Mak 3:5 And looking round on them he was angry, being sad because of their hard hearts; and he said to the man, Put out your hand. And he put it out, and his hand was made well. +Mak 3:6 And the Pharisees went out, and straight away made designs with the Herodians about how they might put him to death. +Mak 3:7 And Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea, and a great number from Galilee came after him: and from Judaea, +Mak 3:8 And from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and the other side of Jordan, and the country about Tyre and Sidon, a great number, hearing what great things he did, came to him. +Mak 3:9 And he made a request to his disciples to have a little boat ready for him, so that he might not be crushed by the people; +Mak 3:10 For he had made such a great number well that all those who were diseased were falling down before him for the purpose of touching him. +Mak 3:11 And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, went down before him, crying out, and saying, You are the Son of God. +Mak 3:12 And he gave them special orders not to say who he was. +Mak 3:13 And he went up into the mountain, and sent for those whom it was his pleasure to have with him: and they went to him. +Mak 3:14 And he took twelve to be with him, so that he might send them out as preachers, +Mak 3:15 And give them the power of driving out evil spirits: +Mak 3:16 To Simon he gave the second name of Peter; +Mak 3:17 And to James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James, he gave the second name of Boanerges, which is, Sons of thunder: +Mak 3:18 And Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot; +Mak 3:19 And Judas Iscariot, who was false to him. +Mak 3:20 And he went into a house. And the people came together again, so that they were not even able to take bread. +Mak 3:21 And when his friends had news of it, they went out to get him, saying, He is off his head. +Mak 3:22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem, said, He has Beelzebub, and, By the ruler of evil spirits he sends evil spirits out of men. +Mak 3:23 And turning to them, he said to them in the form of a story, How is it possible for Satan to put out Satan? +Mak 3:24 If there is division in a kingdom, that kingdom will come to destruction; +Mak 3:25 And if there is division in a house, that house will come to destruction; +Mak 3:26 And if Satan is at war with himself, and there is division in him, he will not keep his place but will come to an end. +Mak 3:27 But no one is able to go into the house of the strong man and take his goods, without first putting cords round the strong man, and then he will take his goods. +Mak 3:28 Truly, I say to you, The sons of men will have forgiveness for all their sins and for all the evil words they say: +Mak 3:29 But whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but the evil he has done will be with him for ever: +Mak 3:30 Because they said, He has an unclean spirit. +Mak 3:31 And his mother and brothers came and were outside, and sent for him, requesting to see him. +Mak 3:32 And a great number were seated round him; and they said to him, See, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you. +Mak 3:33 And he said in answer, Who are my mother and my brothers? +Mak 3:34 And looking round at those who were seated about him, he said, See, my mother and my brothers! +Mak 3:35 Whoever does God's pleasure, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother. +Mak 4:1 And again he was teaching by the seaside. And a very great number of people had come to him, so that he got into a boat on the sea and took his seat; and all the people were on the land by the seaside. +Mak 4:2 And he gave them teaching about a number of things in the form of stories, and said to them in his teaching, Give ear: +Mak 4:3 A man went out to put seed in the earth: +Mak 4:4 And while he was doing it, some was dropped by the wayside, and the birds came and took it for food. +Mak 4:5 And some went on the stones, where it had not much earth; and it came up straight away, because the earth was not deep: +Mak 4:6 And when the sun was high, it was burned; and because it had no root, it became dry and dead. +Mak 4:7 And some went among the thorns, and the thorns came up, and it had no room for growth and gave no fruit. +Mak 4:8 And some, falling on good earth, gave fruit, coming up and increasing, and giving thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much. +Mak 4:9 And he said to them, Whoever has ears, let him give ear. +Mak 4:10 And when he was by himself, those who were round him with the twelve put questions to him about the purpose of the stories. +Mak 4:11 And he said to them, To you is given the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things are given in the form of stories; +Mak 4:12 So that seeing they may see, and it will not be clear to them; and hearing it, they will not get the sense; for fear that they may be turned again to me and have forgiveness. +Mak 4:13 And he said to them, If you are not clear about this story, how will you be clear about the others? +Mak 4:14 The seed is the word. +Mak 4:15 And these are they by the wayside, where the word is planted; and when they have given ear, the Evil One comes straight away and takes away the word which has been planted in them. +Mak 4:16 And in the same way, these are they who are planted on the stones, who, when the word has come to their ears, straight away take it with joy; +Mak 4:17 And they have no root in themselves, but go on for a time; then, when trouble comes or pain, because of the word, they quickly become full of doubts. +Mak 4:18 And others are those planted among the thorns; these are they who have given ear to the word, +Mak 4:19 And the cares of this life, and the deceits of wealth, and the desire for other things coming in, put a stop to the growth of the word, and it gives no fruit. +Mak 4:20 And these are they who were planted on the good earth; such as give ear to the word, and take it into their hearts, and give fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundred times as much. +Mak 4:21 And he said to them, When the light comes in, do people put it under a vessel, or under the bed, and not on its table? +Mak 4:22 There is nothing covered which will not be seen openly, and nothing has been made secret which will not come to light. +Mak 4:23 If any man has ears, let him give ear. +Mak 4:24 And he said to them, Take care what you give ear to: in the same measure as you give you will get, and more will be given to you. +Mak 4:25 He who has, to him will be given: and he who has not, from him will be taken even that which he has. +Mak 4:26 And he said, Such is the kingdom of God, as if a man put seed in the earth, +Mak 4:27 And went to sleep and got up, night and day, and the seed came to growth, though he had no idea how. +Mak 4:28 The earth gives fruit by herself; first the leaf, then the head, then the full grain. +Mak 4:29 But when the grain is ready, he quickly sends men to get it cut, because the time for cutting has come. +Mak 4:30 And he said, What picture may we give of the kingdom of God, or with what story may we make it clear? +Mak 4:31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is put in the earth, is smaller than all the seeds on the earth, +Mak 4:32 But when it is planted, it comes up, and becomes taller than all the plants, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of heaven are able to take rest in its shade. +Mak 4:33 And with a number of such stories he gave them his teaching, as they were able to take it: +Mak 4:34 And without a story he said nothing to them: but privately to his disciples he made all things clear. +Mak 4:35 And on that day, when the evening had come, he said to them, Let us go over to the other side. +Mak 4:36 And going away from the people, they took him with them, as he was, in the boat. And other boats were with him. +Mak 4:37 And a great storm of wind came up, and the waves came into the boat, so that the boat was now becoming full. +Mak 4:38 And he himself was in the back of the boat, sleeping on the cushion: and they, awaking him, said, Master, is it nothing to you that we are in danger of destruction? +Mak 4:39 And he came out of his sleep, and gave strong orders to the wind, and said to the sea, Peace, be at rest. And the wind went down, and there was a great calm. +Mak 4:40 And he said to them, Why are you full of fear? have you still no faith? +Mak 4:41 And their fear was great, and they said one to another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea do his orders? +Mak 5:1 And they came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. +Mak 5:2 And when he had got out of the boat, straight away there came to him from the place of the dead a man with an unclean spirit. +Mak 5:3 He was living in the place of the dead: and no man was able to keep him down, no, not with a chain; +Mak 5:4 Because he had frequently been prisoned in chains and iron bands, and the chains had been parted and the bands broken by him: and no man was strong enough to make him quiet. +Mak 5:5 And all the time, by day and by night, in the place of the dead, and in the mountains, he was crying out and cutting himself with stones. +Mak 5:6 And when he saw Jesus from far off, he went quickly to him and gave him worship; +Mak 5:7 And crying out with a loud voice he said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God's name, do not be cruel to me. +Mak 5:8 For Jesus had said to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. +Mak 5:9 And Jesus said, What is your name? And he made answer, My name is Legion, because there are a great number of us. +Mak 5:10 And he made strong prayers to him not to send them away out of the country. +Mak 5:11 Now on the mountain side there was a great herd of pigs getting their food. +Mak 5:12 And they said to him, Send us into the pigs, so that we may go into them. +Mak 5:13 And he let them do it. And the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs; and the herd went rushing down a sharp slope into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they came to their death in the sea. +Mak 5:14 And their keepers went running and gave an account of it in the town and in the country. And people came to see what had taken place. +Mak 5:15 And they came to Jesus, and saw the man in whom had been the evil spirits seated, clothed and with full use of his senses, and they were full of fear. +Mak 5:16 And those who had seen it gave them an account of what had been done to him who had the evil spirits, and of the fate of the pigs. +Mak 5:17 And they made a request to him to go out of their country. +Mak 5:18 And when he was getting into the boat, the man in whom had been the evil spirits had a great desire to come with him. +Mak 5:19 And he would not let him, but said to him, Go to your house, to your friends, and give them news of the great things the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you. +Mak 5:20 And he went on his way, and made public in the country of Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him: and all men were full of wonder. +Mak 5:21 And when Jesus had gone over again in the boat to the other side, a great number of people came to him: and he was by the sea. +Mak 5:22 And one of the rulers of the Synagogue, Jairus by name, came, and seeing him, went down at his feet, +Mak 5:23 And made strong prayers to him, saying, My little daughter is near to death: it is my prayer that you will come and put your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and have life. +Mak 5:24 And he went with him; and a great number of people went after him, and came round him. +Mak 5:25 And a woman, who had had a flow of blood for twelve years, +Mak 5:26 And had undergone much at the hands of a number of medical men, and had given all she had, and was no better, but even worse, +Mak 5:27 When she had news of the things which Jesus did, went among the people coming after him, and put her hand on his robe. +Mak 5:28 For she said, If I may only put my hand on his robe, I will be made well. +Mak 5:29 And straight away the fountain of her blood was stopped, and she had a feeling in her body that her disease had gone and she was well. +Mak 5:30 And straight away Jesus was conscious that power had gone out of him; and, turning to the people, he said, Who was touching my robe? +Mak 5:31 And his disciples said to him, You see the people round you on every side, and you say, Who was touching me? +Mak 5:32 And on his looking round to see her who had done this thing, +Mak 5:33 The woman, shaking with fear, conscious of what had been done to her, came and, falling on her face before him, gave him a true account of everything. +Mak 5:34 And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be free from your disease. +Mak 5:35 And while he was still talking, they came from the ruler of the Synagogue's house, saying, Your daughter is dead: why are you still troubling the Master? +Mak 5:36 But Jesus, giving no attention to their words, said to the ruler of the Synagogue, Have no fear, only have faith. +Mak 5:37 And he did not let anyone come with him, but Peter and James and John, the brother of James. +Mak 5:38 And they came to the house of the ruler of the Synagogue; and he saw people running this way and that, and weeping and crying loudly. +Mak 5:39 And when he had gone in, he said to them, Why are you making such a noise and weeping? The child is not dead, but sleeping. +Mak 5:40 And they were laughing at him. But he, having sent them all out, took the father of the child and her mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. +Mak 5:41 And taking her by the hand, he said to her, Talitha cumi, which is, My child, I say to you, Get up. +Mak 5:42 And the young girl got up straight away, and was walking about; she being twelve years old. And they were overcome with wonder. +Mak 5:43 And he gave them special orders that they were not to say anything of this; and he said that some food was to be given to her. +Mak 6:1 And he went away from there, and came into his country; and his disciples went with him. +Mak 6:2 And when the Sabbath day had come, he was teaching in the Synagogue; and a number of people hearing him were surprised, saying, From where did this man get these things? and, What is the wisdom given to this man, and what are these works of power done by his hands? +Mak 6:3 Is not this the woodworker, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were bitter against him. +Mak 6:4 And Jesus said to them, A prophet is nowhere without honour, but in his country, and among his relations, and in his family. +Mak 6:5 And he was unable to do any work of power there, but only to put his hands on one or two persons who were ill, and make them well. +Mak 6:6 And he was greatly surprised because they had no faith. And he went about the country places teaching. +Mak 6:7 And he gave orders to the twelve, and sent them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits; +Mak 6:8 And he said that they were to take nothing for their journey, but a stick only; no bread, no bag, no money in their pockets; +Mak 6:9 They were to go with common shoes on their feet, and not to take two coats. +Mak 6:10 And he said to them, Wherever you go into a house, make that your resting-place till you go away. +Mak 6:11 And whatever place will not take you in and will not give ear to you, when you go away, put off the dust from your feet as a witness against them. +Mak 6:12 And they went out, preaching the need for a change of heart in men. +Mak 6:13 And they sent out a number of evil spirits, and put oil on a great number who were ill, and made them well. +Mak 6:14 And king Herod had news of him, because his name was on the lips of all; and he said, John the Baptist has come back from the dead, and for this reason these powers are working in him. +Mak 6:15 But others said, It is Elijah. And others said, It is a prophet, even like one of the prophets. +Mak 6:16 But Herod, when he had news of it, said, John, whom I put to death, has come back from the dead. +Mak 6:17 For Herod himself had sent men out to take John and put him in prison, because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, whom he had taken for himself. +Mak 6:18 For John said to Herod, It is wrong for you to have your brother's wife. +Mak 6:19 And Herodias was bitter against him, desiring to put him to death; but she was not able; +Mak 6:20 For Herod was in fear of John, being conscious that he was an upright and holy man, and kept him safe. And hearing him, he was much troubled; and he gave ear to him gladly. +Mak 6:21 And the chance came when Herod on his birthday gave a feast to his lords, and the high captains, and the chief men of Galilee; +Mak 6:22 And when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and did a dance, Herod and those who were at table with him were pleased with her; and the king said to the girl, Make a request for anything and I will give it you. +Mak 6:23 And he took an oath, saying to her, Whatever is your desire I will give it to you, even half of my kingdom. +Mak 6:24 And she went out and said to her mother, What is my request to be? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. +Mak 6:25 And she came in quickly to the king, and said, My desire is that you give me straight away on a plate the head of John the Baptist. +Mak 6:26 And the king was very sad; but because of his oaths, and those who were with him at table, he would not say 'No' to her. +Mak 6:27 And straight away the king sent out one of his armed men, and gave him an order to come back with the head: and he went and took off John's head in prison, +Mak 6:28 And came back with the head on a plate, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. +Mak 6:29 And when his disciples had news of it, they came and took up his body, and put it in its last resting-place. +Mak 6:30 And the twelve came together to Jesus; and they gave him an account of all the things they had done, and all they had been teaching. +Mak 6:31 And he said to them, Come away by yourselves to a quiet place, and take a rest for a time. Because there were a great number coming and going, and they had no time even for food. +Mak 6:32 And they went away in the boat to a waste place by themselves. +Mak 6:33 And the people saw them going, and a number of them, having knowledge who they were, went running there together on foot from all the towns, and got there before them. +Mak 6:34 And he got out, and saw a great mass of people, and he had pity on them, because they were like sheep without a keeper: and he gave them teaching about a number of things. +Mak 6:35 And at the end of the day, his disciples came to him and said, This place is waste land, and it is late: +Mak 6:36 Send them away, so that they may go into the country and small towns round about, and get some food for themselves. +Mak 6:37 But he said to them in answer, Give them food yourselves. And they said to him, Are we to go and get bread for two hundred pence, and give it to them? +Mak 6:38 And he said to them, How much bread have you? go and see. And when they had seen, they said, Five cakes of bread and two fishes. +Mak 6:39 And he made them all be seated in groups on the green grass. +Mak 6:40 And they were placed in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. +Mak 6:41 And he took the five cakes of bread and the two fishes and, looking up to heaven, he said words of blessing over them; and when the cakes were broken, he gave them to the disciples to put before the people; and he made division of the two fishes among them all. +Mak 6:42 And they all took of the food and had enough. +Mak 6:43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken bits and of the fishes. +Mak 6:44 And those who took of the bread were five thousand men. +Mak 6:45 And straight away he made his disciples get into the boat, and go before him to the other side to Beth-saida, while he himself sent the people away. +Mak 6:46 And after he had sent them away, he went up into a mountain for prayer. +Mak 6:47 And by evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he by himself on the land. +Mak 6:48 And seeing that they had trouble in getting their boat through the water, because the wind was against them, about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea; and he would have gone past them; +Mak 6:49 But they, when they saw him walking on the sea, took him for a spirit, and gave a loud cry: +Mak 6:50 For they all saw him, and were troubled. But straight away he said to them, Take heart, it is I, have no fear. +Mak 6:51 And he went to them into the boat, and the wind went down, and they were full of wonder in themselves; +Mak 6:52 For it was not clear to them about the bread; but their hearts were hard. +Mak 6:53 And when they had gone across, they came to Gennesaret, and got their boat to land. +Mak 6:54 And when they had got out of the boat, the people quickly had news of him, +Mak 6:55 And went running through all the country round about, and took on their beds those who were ill, to where it was said that he was. +Mak 6:56 And wherever he went, into small towns, or great towns, or into the country, they took those who were ill into the market-places, requesting him that they might put their hands even on the edge of his robe: and all those who did so were made well. +Mak 7:1 And there came together to him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, +Mak 7:2 And had seen that some of his disciples took their bread with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. +Mak 7:3 Now the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not take food without washing their hands with care, keeping the old rule which has been handed down to them: +Mak 7:4 And when they come from the market-place, they take no food till their hands are washed; and a number of other orders there are, which have been handed down to them to keep--washings of cups and pots and brass vessels. +Mak 7:5 And the Pharisees and the scribes put the question to him, Why do your disciples not keep the rules of the fathers, but take their bread with unwashed hands? +Mak 7:6 And he said, Well did Isaiah say of you, you false ones: These people give me honour with their lips, but their heart is far from me. +Mak 7:7 But their worship is to no purpose, while they give as their teaching the rules of men. +Mak 7:8 For, turning away from the law of God, you keep the rules of men. +Mak 7:9 And he said to them, Truly you put on one side the law of God, so that you may keep the rules which have been handed down to you. +Mak 7:10 For Moses said, Give honour to your father and mother, and, He who says evil of father or mother, let him have the punishment of death: +Mak 7:11 But you say, If a man says to his father or his mother, That by which you might have had profit from me is Corban, that is to say, Given to God, +Mak 7:12 You no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother; +Mak 7:13 Making the word of God of no effect by your rule, which you have given: and a number of other such things you do. +Mak 7:14 And turning to the people again, he said to them, Give ear to me all of you, and let my words be clear to you: +Mak 7:15 There is nothing outside the man which, going into him, is able to make him unclean: but the things which come out of the man are those which make the man unclean. +Mak 7:16 [] +Mak 7:17 And when he had gone into the house away from all the people, his disciples put questions to him about the saying. +Mak 7:18 And he said to them, Have even you so little wisdom? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside is not able to make him unclean, +Mak 7:19 Because it goes not into the heart but into the stomach, and goes out with the waste? He said this, making all food clean. +Mak 7:20 And he said, That which comes out of the man, that makes the man unclean. +Mak 7:21 Because from inside, from the heart of men, come evil thoughts and unclean pleasures, +Mak 7:22 The taking of goods and of life, broken faith between husband and wife, the desire of wealth, wrongdoing, deceit, sins of the flesh, an evil eye, angry words, pride, foolish acts: +Mak 7:23 All these evil things come from inside, and make the man unclean. +Mak 7:24 And he went away from there to the country of Tyre and Sidon. And he went into a house, desiring that no man might have knowledge of it: and he was not able to keep it secret. +Mak 7:25 But a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having had news of him, came straight away and went down at his feet. +Mak 7:26 Now the woman was a Greek, a Syro-phoenician by birth: and she made a request to him that he would send the evil spirit out of her daughter. +Mak 7:27 And he said to her, Let the children first have their food: for it is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs. +Mak 7:28 But she said to him in answer, Yes, Lord: even the dogs under the table take the bits dropped by the children. +Mak 7:29 And he said to her, For this saying go your way; the evil spirit has gone out of your daughter. +Mak 7:30 And she went away to her house, and saw the child on the bed, and the evil spirit gone out. +Mak 7:31 And again he went out from Tyre, and came through Sidon to the sea of Galilee, through the country of Decapolis. +Mak 7:32 And they came to him with one who had no power of hearing and had trouble in talking; and they made a request to him to put his hands on him. +Mak 7:33 And he took him on one side from the people privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he put water from his mouth on the man's tongue with his finger; +Mak 7:34 And looking up to heaven, he took a deep breath, and said to him, Ephphatha, that is, Be open. +Mak 7:35 And his ears became open, and the band of his tongue was made loose, and his words became clear. +Mak 7:36 And he gave them orders not to give news of it to anyone; but the more he made this request, so much the more they made it public. +Mak 7:37 And they were overcome with wonder, saying, He has done all things well: he even gives back the power of hearing and the power of talking to those who have been without them. +Mak 8:1 In those days again, when there was a great mass of people and they had no food, he made his disciples come to him and said to them, +Mak 8:2 I have pity for these people because they have been with me now three days, and have no food; +Mak 8:3 If I send them away to their houses with no food, they will be overcome by weariness on the way; and some of them have come from far. +Mak 8:4 And his disciples said in answer, How will it be possible to get enough bread for these men here in a waste place? +Mak 8:5 And he put the question, How much bread have you? And they said, Seven cakes. +Mak 8:6 And he made the people be seated on the earth: and he took the seven cakes and, having given praise, he gave the broken bread to his disciples to put before them; and they put it before the people. +Mak 8:7 And they had some small fishes; and blessing them he had them put before the people in the same way. +Mak 8:8 And they took the food, and had enough; and they took up seven baskets full of the broken bits. +Mak 8:9 And there were about four thousand people: and he sent them away. +Mak 8:10 And he got into the boat with his disciples straight away, and came into the country of Dalmanutha. +Mak 8:11 And the Pharisees came out and put questions to him, requesting from him a sign from heaven, testing him. +Mak 8:12 And he was very sad in spirit, and said, Why is this generation looking for a sign? truly, I say to you, No sign will be given to this generation. +Mak 8:13 And he went away from them, and again got into the boat and went across to the other side. +Mak 8:14 And they had taken no thought to get bread; and they had only one cake of bread with them in the boat. +Mak 8:15 And he said to them, Take care to be on the watch against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. +Mak 8:16 And they said to one another, We have no bread. +Mak 8:17 And Jesus, hearing it, said to them, Why are you reasoning among yourselves because you have no bread? do you still not see, and is it still not clear to you? are your hearts so hard? +Mak 8:18 Having eyes, do you not see? and having ears, have you no hearing? and have you no memory? +Mak 8:19 When I made a division of the five cakes of bread among the five thousand, what number of baskets full of broken bits did you take up? They said to him, Twelve. +Mak 8:20 And when the seven among the four thousand, what number of baskets full of broken bits did you take up? And they said to him, Seven. +Mak 8:21 And he said to them, Is it still not clear to you? +Mak 8:22 And they came to Beth-saida. And they took a blind man to him, requesting him to put his hands on him. +Mak 8:23 And he took the blind man by the hand, and went with him out of the town; and when he had put water from his mouth on his eyes, and put his hands on him, he said, Do you see anything? +Mak 8:24 And looking up, he said, I see men; I see them like trees, walking. +Mak 8:25 Then again he put his hands on his eyes; and looking hard, he was able to see, and saw all things clearly. +Mak 8:26 And he sent him away to his house, saying, Do not even go into the town. +Mak 8:27 And Jesus went out, with his disciples, into the little towns round Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he put a question to his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I am? +Mak 8:28 And they made answer, John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but others, One of the prophets. +Mak 8:29 And he said to them, But who do you say I am? Peter said in answer, You are the Christ. +Mak 8:30 And he put them under orders not to say this of him to anyone. +Mak 8:31 And teaching them, he said that the Son of man would have to undergo much, and be hated by those in authority, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be put to death, and after three days come back from the dead. +Mak 8:32 And he said this openly. And Peter took him, and was protesting. +Mak 8:33 But he, turning about, and seeing his disciples, said sharply to Peter, Get out of my way, Satan: for your mind is not on the things of God, but on the things of men. +Mak 8:34 And turning to the mass of people with his disciples, he said to them, If any man has the desire to come after me, let him give up all other desires, and take up his cross and come after me. +Mak 8:35 Whoever has a desire to keep his life, will have it taken from him; and whoever gives up his life because of me and the good news, will keep it. +Mak 8:36 What profit has a man if he gets all the world with the loss of his life? +Mak 8:37 And what would a man give in exchange for his life? +Mak 8:38 Whoever has a feeling of shame because of me and my words in this false and evil generation, the Son of man will have a feeling of shame because of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. +Mak 9:1 And he said to them, Truly I say to you, There are some here who will have no taste of death till they see the kingdom of God come with power. +Mak 9:2 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and made them go up with him into a high mountain by themselves: and he was changed in form before them: +Mak 9:3 And his clothing became shining, very white, as no cleaner on earth would make it. +Mak 9:4 And there came before them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. +Mak 9:5 And Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tents; one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. +Mak 9:6 Because he was not certain what to say, for they were in great fear. +Mak 9:7 And a cloud came over them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my dearly loved Son, give ear to him. +Mak 9:8 And suddenly looking round about, they saw no one any longer, but Jesus only with themselves. +Mak 9:9 And while they were coming down from the mountain, he gave them orders not to give word to any man of the things they had seen, till the Son of man had come back from the dead. +Mak 9:10 And they kept the saying, questioning among themselves what the coming back from the dead might be. +Mak 9:11 And they put a question to him, saying, Why do the scribes say that Elijah has to come first? +Mak 9:12 And he said to them, Truly, Elijah does come first, and puts all things in order; and how is it said in the Writings that the Son of man will go through much sorrow and be made as nothing? +Mak 9:13 But I say to you that Elijah has come, and they have done to him whatever they were pleased to do, even as the Writings say about him. +Mak 9:14 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great mass of people about them, and scribes questioning them. +Mak 9:15 And straight away all the people, when they saw him, were full of wonder, and running to him, gave him worship. +Mak 9:16 And he said, What are you questioning them about? +Mak 9:17 And one of the number said to him in answer, Master, I came to you with my son, who has in him a spirit which takes away his power of talking; +Mak 9:18 And wherever it takes him, it puts him down violently, streaming at the lips and twisted with pain; and his strength goes from him; and I made a request to your disciples to send it out, and they were not able. +Mak 9:19 And he said to them in answer, O generation without faith, how long will I have to be with you? how long will I put up with you? let him come to me. +Mak 9:20 And they took him to him: and when he saw him, the spirit in him straight away became violent; and he went down on the earth, rolling about and streaming at the lips. +Mak 9:21 And Jesus questioning the father said, How long has he been like this? And he said, From a child. +Mak 9:22 And frequently it has sent him into the fire and into the water, for his destruction; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us, and give us help. +Mak 9:23 And Jesus said to him, If you are able! All things are possible to him who has faith. +Mak 9:24 Straight away the father of the child gave a cry, saying, I have faith; make my feeble faith stronger. +Mak 9:25 And when Jesus saw that the people came running together, he gave orders to the unclean spirit, saying to him, You, spirit, who are the cause of his loss of voice and hearing, I say to you, come out of him, and never again go into him. +Mak 9:26 And after crying out and shaking him violently, it came out: and the child became like one dead; so that most of them said, He is dead. +Mak 9:27 But Jesus took him by the hand, lifting him up; and he got up. +Mak 9:28 And when he had gone into the house, his disciples said to him privately, Why were we unable to send it out? +Mak 9:29 And he said to them, Nothing will make this sort come out but prayer. +Mak 9:30 And they went out from there, through Galilee; and it was his desire that no man might have knowledge of it; +Mak 9:31 For he was giving his disciples teaching, and saying to them, The Son of man is given up into the hands of men, and they will put him to death; and when he is dead, after three days he will come back from the dead. +Mak 9:32 But the saying was not clear to them, and they were in fear of questioning him about it. +Mak 9:33 And they came to Capernaum: and when he was in the house, he put the question to them, What were you talking about on the way? +Mak 9:34 But they said nothing: because they had had an argument between themselves on the way, about who was the greatest. +Mak 9:35 And seating himself, he made the twelve come to him; and he said to them, If any man has the desire to be first, he will be last of all and servant of all. +Mak 9:36 And he took a little child, and put him in the middle of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them, +Mak 9:37 Whoever will give honour to one such little child in my name, gives honour to me: and whoever gives honour to me, gives honour not to me, but to him who sent me. +Mak 9:38 John said to him, Master, we saw one driving out evil spirits in your name: and we said that he might not, because he is not one of us. +Mak 9:39 But Jesus said, Say not so: for there is no man who will do a great work in my name, and be able at the same time to say evil of me. +Mak 9:40 He who is not against us is for us. +Mak 9:41 Whoever gives you a cup of water, because you are Christ's, truly I say to you, he will in no way be without his reward. +Mak 9:42 And whoever is a cause of trouble to one of these little ones who have faith in me, it would be better for him if a great stone was put round his neck and he was dropped into the sea. +Mak 9:43 And if your hand is a cause of trouble to you, let it be cut off; it is better for you to go into life with one hand than to have two hands and go into hell, into the eternal fire. +Mak 9:44 [] +Mak 9:45 And if your foot is a cause of trouble to you, let it be cut off: it is better for you to go into life with one foot than to have two feet and go into hell. +Mak 9:46 [] +Mak 9:47 And if your eye is a cause of trouble to you, take it out: it is better for you to go into the kingdom of God with one eye than, having two eyes, to go into hell, +Mak 9:48 Where their worm is ever living and the fire is not put out. +Mak 9:49 Everyone will be salted with fire. +Mak 9:50 Salt is good; but if the taste goes from it, how will you make it salt again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace one with another. +Mak 10:1 And he got up, and went into the country of Judaea on the other side of Jordan: and great numbers of people came together to him again; and, as was his way, he gave them teaching. +Mak 10:2 And Pharisees came to him, testing him with the question, Is it right for a man to put away his wife? +Mak 10:3 And he said to them in answer, What did Moses say you were to do? +Mak 10:4 And they said to him, Moses let us give her a statement in writing, and be free from her. +Mak 10:5 But Jesus said to them, Because of your hard hearts he gave you this law. +Mak 10:6 But from the first, male and female made he them. +Mak 10:7 For this cause will a man go away from his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; +Mak 10:8 And the two will become one flesh; so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. +Mak 10:9 Let not that which has been joined together by God be parted by man. +Mak 10:10 And in the house the disciples put questions to him again about this thing. +Mak 10:11 And he said to them, Whoever puts away his wife and takes another, is false to his wife; +Mak 10:12 And if she herself puts away her husband and takes another, she is false to her husband. +Mak 10:13 And they took to him little children, so that he might put his hands on them: and the disciples said sharp words to them. +Mak 10:14 And when Jesus saw it, he was angry, and said to them, Let the little children come to me, and do not keep them away; for of such is the kingdom of God. +Mak 10:15 Truly I say to you, Whoever does not put himself under the kingdom of God like a little child, will not come into it at all. +Mak 10:16 And he took them in his arms, and gave them a blessing, putting his hands on them. +Mak 10:17 And while he was going out into the way, a man came running to him, and went down on his knees, saying, Good Master, what have I to do so that I may have eternal life? +Mak 10:18 And Jesus said to him, Why do you say I am good? no one is good but one, and that is God. +Mak 10:19 You have knowledge of what is said in the law, Do not put any one to death, Do not be untrue in married life, Do not take what is not yours, Do not give false witness, Do not get money by deceit, Give honour to your father and mother. +Mak 10:20 And he said to him, Master, all these laws I have kept from the time when I was young. +Mak 10:21 And Jesus, looking on him and loving him, said, There is one thing needed: go, get money for your goods, and give it to the poor, and you will have wealth in heaven: and come with me. +Mak 10:22 But his face became sad at the saying, and he went away sorrowing: for he was one who had much property. +Mak 10:23 And Jesus, looking round about, said to his disciples, How hard it is for those who have wealth to come into the kingdom of God! +Mak 10:24 And the disciples were full of wonder at his words. But Jesus said to them again, Children, how hard it is for those who put faith in wealth to come into the kingdom of God! +Mak 10:25 It is simpler for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a man of wealth to come into the kingdom of God. +Mak 10:26 And they were greatly surprised, saying to him, Who then may have salvation? +Mak 10:27 Jesus, looking on them, said, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for all things are possible with God. +Mak 10:28 Peter said to him, See, we have given up everything, and come after you. +Mak 10:29 Jesus said, Truly I say to you, There is no man who has given up house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or land, because of me and the good news, +Mak 10:30 Who will not get a hundred times as much now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and land--though with great troubles; and, in the world to come, eternal life. +Mak 10:31 But a great number who are first will be last: and those who are last will be first. +Mak 10:32 And they were on the way, going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus was going before them: and they were full of wonder; but those who came after him were in fear. And again he took the twelve, and gave them word of the things which were to come on him, +Mak 10:33 Saying, See, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be given up to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will give an order for his death, and will give him up to the Gentiles: +Mak 10:34 And they will make sport of him, and put shame on him, and give him cruel blows, and will put him to death; and after three days he will come back from the dead. +Mak 10:35 And there came to him James and John, the sons of Zebedee, saying to him, Master, will you give us whatever may be our request? +Mak 10:36 And he said to them, What would you have me do for you? +Mak 10:37 And they said to him, Let us be seated, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory. +Mak 10:38 But Jesus said to them, You have no knowledge of what you are saying. Are you able to take of my cup? or to undergo the baptism which I am to undergo? +Mak 10:39 And they said to him, We are able. And Jesus said to them, You will take of the cup from which I take; and the baptism which I am about to undergo you will undergo: +Mak 10:40 But to be seated at my right hand or at my left is not for me to give: but it is for those for whom it has been made ready. +Mak 10:41 And hearing this, the ten became very angry with James and John. +Mak 10:42 And Jesus made them come to him, and said to them, You see that those who are made rulers over the Gentiles are lords over them, and their great ones have authority over them. +Mak 10:43 But it is not so among you: but whoever has a desire to become great among you, let him be your servant: +Mak 10:44 And whoever has a desire to be first among you, let him be servant of all. +Mak 10:45 For truly the Son of man did not come to have servants, but to be a servant, and to give his life for the salvation of men. +Mak 10:46 And they came to Jericho: and when he was going out of Jericho, with his disciples and a great number of people, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind man, was seated by the wayside, with his hand out for money. +Mak 10:47 And when it came to his ears that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he gave a cry, and said, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. +Mak 10:48 And some of them, turning in protest, gave him an order to be quiet: but he went on crying out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. +Mak 10:49 And Jesus came to a stop and said, Let him come. And crying out to the blind man, they said to him, Be comforted: come, he has sent for you. +Mak 10:50 And he, putting off his coat, got up quickly, and came to Jesus. +Mak 10:51 And Jesus said to him, What would you have me do to you? And the blind man said, Master, make me able to see. +Mak 10:52 And Jesus said to him, Go on your way; your faith has made you well. And straight away he was able to see, and went after him in the way. +Mak 11:1 And when they came near to Jerusalem, to Beth-phage and Bethany, at the Mountain of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, +Mak 11:2 And said to them, Go into the little town opposite: and when you come to it, you will see a young ass with a cord round his neck, on which no man has ever been seated; let him loose, and come back with him. +Mak 11:3 And if anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? say, The Lord has need of him and will send him back straight away. +Mak 11:4 And they went away and saw a young ass by the door outside in the open street; and they were getting him loose. +Mak 11:5 And some of those who were there said to them, What are you doing, taking the ass? +Mak 11:6 And they said to them the words which Jesus had said; and they let them go. +Mak 11:7 And they took the young ass to Jesus, and put their clothing on him, and he got on his back. +Mak 11:8 And a great number put down their clothing in the way; and others put down branches which they had taken from the fields. +Mak 11:9 And those who went in front, and those who came after, were crying, Glory: A blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord: +Mak 11:10 A blessing on the coming kingdom of our father David: Glory in the highest. +Mak 11:11 And he went into Jerusalem into the Temple; and after looking round about on all things, it being now evening, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. +Mak 11:12 And on the day after, when they had come out from Bethany, he was in need of food. +Mak 11:13 And seeing a fig-tree in the distance with leaves, he went to see if by chance it had anything on it: and when he came to it, he saw nothing but leaves, for it was not the time for the fruit. +Mak 11:14 And he said to it, Let no man take fruit from you for ever. And his disciples took note of his words. +Mak 11:15 And they came to Jerusalem; and he went into the Temple, and sent out those who were trading there, overturning the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who were offering doves for money; +Mak 11:16 And he would not let any man take a vessel through the Temple. +Mak 11:17 And he gave them teaching, and said to them, Is it not in the Writings, My house is to be named a house of prayer for all the nations? but you have made it a hole of thieves. +Mak 11:18 And it came to the ears of the chief priests and scribes, and they took thought how they might put him to death; being in fear of him, because all the people were full of wonder at his teaching. +Mak 11:19 And every evening he went out of the town. +Mak 11:20 And when they were going by in the morning, they saw the fig-tree dead from the roots. +Mak 11:21 And Peter, having a memory of it, said to him, Master, see, the tree which was cursed by you is dead. +Mak 11:22 And Jesus, answering, said to them, Have God's faith. +Mak 11:23 Truly I say to you, Whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and be put into the sea; and has no doubt in his heart, but has faith that what he says will come about, he will have his desire. +Mak 11:24 For this reason I say to you, Whatever you make a request for in prayer, have faith that it has been given to you, and you will have it. +Mak 11:25 And whenever you make a prayer, let there be forgiveness in your hearts, if you have anything against anyone; so that you may have forgiveness for your sins from your Father who is in heaven. +Mak 11:26 [] +Mak 11:27 And they came again to Jerusalem: and while he was walking in the Temple, there came to him the chief priests and the scribes and those in authority: +Mak 11:28 And they said to him, By what authority do you do these things? or who gave you authority to do these things? +Mak 11:29 And Jesus said to them, I will put to you one question; give me an answer, and I will say by what authority I do these things. +Mak 11:30 The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men? give me an answer. +Mak 11:31 And they gave thought to it among themselves, saying, If we say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did you not have faith in him? +Mak 11:32 But if we say, From men--they were in fear of the people, because all took John to be truly a prophet. +Mak 11:33 And they said in answer to Jesus, We have no idea. And Jesus said to them, And I will not say to you by what authority I do these things. +Mak 12:1 And he gave them teaching in the form of stories. A man had a vine-garden planted, and put a wall about it, and made a place for crushing out the wine, and put up a tower, and let it out to field-workers, and went into another country. +Mak 12:2 And when the time came, he sent a servant to get from the workmen some of the fruit of the garden. +Mak 12:3 And they took him, and gave him blows, and sent him away with nothing. +Mak 12:4 And again he sent to them another servant; and they gave him wounds on the head, and were very cruel to him. +Mak 12:5 And he sent another; and they put him to death: and a number of others, whipping some, and putting some to death. +Mak 12:6 He still had one, a dearly loved son: he sent him last to them, saying, They will have respect for my son. +Mak 12:7 But those workmen said among themselves, This is he who will one day be the owner of the property; come, let us put him to death, and the heritage will be ours. +Mak 12:8 And they took him and put him to death, pushing his body out of the garden. +Mak 12:9 What then will the master of the garden do? He will come and put the workmen to death, and will give the garden into the hands of others. +Mak 12:10 Have you not seen this which is in the Writings: The stone which the builders put on one side, the same was made the chief stone of the building: +Mak 12:11 This was the Lord's doing, and it is a wonder in our eyes? +Mak 12:12 And they made attempts to take him; but they were in fear of the people, because they saw that the story was against them; and they went away from him. +Mak 12:13 Then they sent to him certain of the Pharisees and the Herodians, so that they might make use of his words to take him by a trick. +Mak 12:14 And when they had come, they said to him, Master, we are certain that you are true, and have no fear of anyone: you have no respect for a man's position, but you are teaching the true way of God: Is it right to give taxes to Caesar or not? +Mak 12:15 Are we to give or not to give? But he, conscious of their false hearts, said to them, Why do you put me to the test? give me a penny, so that I may see it. +Mak 12:16 And they gave him one. And he said to them, Whose is this image and name on it? And they said to him, Caesar's. +Mak 12:17 And Jesus said to them, Give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's. And they were full of wonder at him. +Mak 12:18 And there came to him Sadducees, who say there is no coming back from the dead; and they put a question to him, saying, +Mak 12:19 Master, in the law Moses says, If a man's brother comes to his end, and has a wife still living and no child, it is right for his brother to take his wife, and get a family for his brother. +Mak 12:20 There were seven brothers: and the first took a wife, and at his death there were no offspring; +Mak 12:21 And the second took her, and at his death there were no offspring; and the third the same: +Mak 12:22 And all the seven had no seed. Last of all the woman herself came to her death. +Mak 12:23 In the future life, when they come back from the dead, whose wife will she be? for the seven had her for a wife. +Mak 12:24 Jesus said to them, Is not this the reason for your error, that you have no knowledge of the holy Writings or of the power of God? +Mak 12:25 When they come back from the dead, they do not get married, but are like the angels in heaven. +Mak 12:26 But as to the dead coming back to life; have you not seen in the book of Moses, about the burning thorn-tree, how God said to him, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? +Mak 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: you are greatly in error. +Mak 12:28 And one of the scribes came, and hearing their argument together, and seeing that he had given them a good answer, put the question to him, Which law is the first of all? +Mak 12:29 Jesus said in answer, The first is, Give ear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; +Mak 12:30 And you are to have love for the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. +Mak 12:31 The second is this, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. There is no other law greater than these. +Mak 12:32 And the scribe said to him, Truly, Master, you have well said that he is one, and there is no other but he: +Mak 12:33 And to have love for him with all the heart, and with all the mind, and with all the strength, and to have the same love for his neighbour as for himself, is much more than all forms of offerings. +Mak 12:34 And when Jesus saw that he gave a wise answer, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And every man after that was in fear of questioning him any more. +Mak 12:35 And Jesus, when he was teaching in the Temple, said, How do the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David? +Mak 12:36 David himself said in the Holy Spirit, The Lord said to my Lord, Be seated at my right hand, till I put those who are against you under your feet. +Mak 12:37 David himself gives him the name of Lord; and how then is he his son? And the common people gave ear to him gladly. +Mak 12:38 And in his teaching he said, Be on your watch against the scribes, whose pleasure it is to go about in long robes and be respected in the market-places, +Mak 12:39 And to have the chief seats in the Synagogues and the first places at feasts; +Mak 12:40 Who take away the property of widows, and before the eyes of men make long prayers; these will be judged more hardly. +Mak 12:41 And he took a seat by the place where the money was kept, and saw how the people put money into the boxes: and a number who had wealth put in much. +Mak 12:42 And there came a poor widow, and she put in two little bits of money, which make a farthing. +Mak 12:43 And he made his disciples come to him, and said to them, Truly I say to you, This poor widow has put in more than all those who are putting money into the box: +Mak 12:44 Because they all put in something out of what they had no need for; but she out of her need put in all she had, even all her living. +Mak 13:1 And when he was going out of the Temple, one of his disciples said to him, Master, see, what stones and what buildings! +Mak 13:2 And Jesus said to him, Do you see these great buildings? there is not one stone here resting on another which will not be overturned. +Mak 13:3 And while he was seated on the Mountain of Olives opposite the Temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew said to him privately, +Mak 13:4 Say when these things will be, and what will be the sign when these things are all about to be done. +Mak 13:5 And Jesus said to them, Take care that you are not tricked by anyone. +Mak 13:6 People will come in my name, saying, I am he; and a number will be turned from the true way. +Mak 13:7 And when you have news of wars and talk of wars, do not be troubled; these things have to be, but it is still not the end. +Mak 13:8 Nation will go to war with nation, and kingdom with kingdom: there will be earth-shocks in different places; there will be times when there is no food; these things are the first of the troubles. +Mak 13:9 But take care: for they will give you up to the Sanhedrins; and in Synagogues you will be whipped; and you will be taken before rulers and kings because of me, for a sign to them. +Mak 13:10 And the good news has first to be given to all the nations. +Mak 13:11 And when you are taken and given up to be judged, do not be troubled about what to say: but whatever is given to you in that hour, say: because it is not you who say it, but the Holy Spirit. +Mak 13:12 And brother will give up brother to death, and the father his child; and children will go against their fathers and mothers, and put them to death. +Mak 13:13 And you will be hated by all men, because of my name; but he who goes through to the end will have salvation. +Mak 13:14 But when you see the unclean thing which makes destruction, in the place where it has no right to be (let this be clear to the reader), then let those who are in Judaea go quickly to the mountains: +Mak 13:15 And let him who is on the house-top not go down, or go in, to take anything out of his house: +Mak 13:16 And let not him who is in the field go back to take his coat. +Mak 13:17 And it will be hard for women who are with child and for her who has a baby at the breast in those days. +Mak 13:18 And say a prayer that it may not be in the winter. +Mak 13:19 For in those days there will be sorrow, such as there has not been from the time when God made the world till now, and will not ever be again. +Mak 13:20 And if the Lord had not made the time short, no flesh would have been kept from destruction; but because of the saints he has made the time short. +Mak 13:21 And then if any man says to you, See, here is Christ; or, See, there; have no faith in it: +Mak 13:22 Because there will be false Christs and false prophets, and they will give signs and wonders in the hope of turning even the saints from the true way. +Mak 13:23 But take care; see, I have made all things clear to you before the time. +Mak 13:24 But in those days, after that time of trouble, the sun will be made dark and the moon will not give her light, +Mak 13:25 And the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers which are in the heavens will be moved. +Mak 13:26 And then they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. +Mak 13:27 And then he will send out the angels, and will get together his saints from the four winds, from the farthest part of the earth to the farthest part of heaven. +Mak 13:28 Take an example from the fig-tree: when its branches become soft and put out their leaves, you see that the summer is near; +Mak 13:29 Even so, when you see these things taking place, you may be certain that he is near, even at the doors. +Mak 13:30 Truly, I say to you, This generation will not come to an end till all these things are complete. +Mak 13:31 Heaven and earth will come to an end, but my words will not come to an end. +Mak 13:32 But of that day or that hour no one has knowledge, not even the angels in heaven, or the Son, but the Father. +Mak 13:33 Take care, keep watch with prayer: for you are not certain when the time will be. +Mak 13:34 It is as when a man who is in another country for a time, having gone away from his house, and given authority to his servants and to everyone his work, gives the porter an order to keep watch. +Mak 13:35 So you are to keep watch: because you are not certain when the master of the house is coming, in the evening, or in the middle of the night, or at the cock's cry, or in the morning; +Mak 13:36 For fear that, coming suddenly, he sees you sleeping. +Mak 13:37 And what I say to you, I say to all, Keep watch. +Mak 14:1 It was now two days before the feast of the Passover and the unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes made designs how they might take him by deceit and put him to death: +Mak 14:2 But they said, Not while the feast is going on, for fear there may be trouble among the people. +Mak 14:3 And while he was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, seated at table, there came a woman with a bottle of perfumed oil of great price; and when the bottle was broken she put the perfume on his head. +Mak 14:4 But some of them were angry among themselves, saying, For what purpose has this oil been wasted? +Mak 14:5 We might have got more than three hundred pence for it, and given the money to the poor. And they said things against her among themselves. +Mak 14:6 But Jesus said, Let her be; why are you troubling her? she has done a kind act to me. +Mak 14:7 The poor you have ever with you, and whenever you have the desire you may do them good: but me you have not for ever. +Mak 14:8 She has done what she was able: she has put oil on my body to make it ready for its last resting-place. +Mak 14:9 And truly I say to you, Wherever the good news goes out through all the earth, what this woman has done will be talked of in memory of her. +Mak 14:10 And Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went away to the chief priests, so that he might give him up to them. +Mak 14:11 And hearing what he said, they were glad, and gave him their word to make him a payment of money. And he took thought how he might best give him up to them. +Mak 14:12 And on the first day of unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb is put to death, his disciples said to him, Where are we to go and make ready for you to take the Passover meal? +Mak 14:13 And he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, Go into the town, and there will come to you a man with a vessel of water: go after him; +Mak 14:14 And wherever he goes in, say to the owner of the house, The Master says, Where is my guest-room, where I may take the Passover with my disciples? +Mak 14:15 And he will take you up himself to a great room with a table and seats: there make ready for us. +Mak 14:16 And the disciples went out and came into the town, and saw that it was as he had said: and they made ready the Passover. +Mak 14:17 And when it was evening he came with the twelve. +Mak 14:18 And while they were seated taking food, Jesus said, Truly I say to you, One of you will be false to me, one who is taking food with me. +Mak 14:19 They were sad, and said to him one by one, Is it I? +Mak 14:20 And he said to them, It is one of the twelve, one who is putting his bread with me into the same plate. +Mak 14:21 The Son of man goes, even as the Writings say of him: but cursed is that man through whom the Son of man is given up! It would have been well for that man if he had never been given birth. +Mak 14:22 And while they were taking food, he took bread, and after blessing it, he gave the broken bread to them, and said, Take it: this is my body. +Mak 14:23 And he took a cup, and when he had given praise, he gave it to them: and they all had a drink from it. +Mak 14:24 And he said to them, This is my blood of the testament, which is given for men. +Mak 14:25 Truly I say to you, I will take no more of the fruit of the vine till the day when I take it new in the kingdom of God. +Mak 14:26 And after a song of praise to God they went out to the Mountain of Olives. +Mak 14:27 And Jesus said to them, You will all be turned away from me: for it is in the Writings, I will put the keeper of the sheep to death, and the sheep will be put to flight. +Mak 14:28 But after I have come back from the dead, I will go before you into Galilee. +Mak 14:29 But Peter said to him, Though the others may be turned away from you, I will not. +Mak 14:30 And Jesus said to him, Truly, I say to you that you, today, even this night, before the cock's second cry, will say three times that you have no knowledge of me. +Mak 14:31 But he said with passion, If I have to be put to death with you, I will not be false to you. And they all said the same. +Mak 14:32 And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he said to his disciples, Be seated here while I say a prayer. +Mak 14:33 And he took with him Peter and James and John, and grief and great trouble came on him. +Mak 14:34 And he said to them, My soul is very sad, even to death: be here a little time, and keep watch. +Mak 14:35 And he went forward a little, and falling down on the earth, made request that, if possible, the hour might go from him. +Mak 14:36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible to you; take away this cup from me: but even so let not my pleasure, but yours be done. +Mak 14:37 And he came, and saw them sleeping, and said to Peter, Simon, are you sleeping? were you not able to keep watch one hour? +Mak 14:38 Keep watch with prayer, so that you may not be put to the test; the spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is feeble. +Mak 14:39 And again he went away, and said a prayer, using the same words. +Mak 14:40 And again he came and saw them sleeping, because their eyes were very tired; and they had nothing to say in answer. +Mak 14:41 And he came the third time, and said to them, Go on sleeping now and take your rest: it is enough; the hour has come; see, the Son of man is given up into the hands of evil men. +Mak 14:42 Get up, let us be going; see, he who gives me up is near. +Mak 14:43 And straight away, while he was still talking, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great band with swords and sticks, from the chief priests and the scribes and those in authority. +Mak 14:44 Now he who had been false to him had given them a sign, saying, The one to whom I give a kiss, that is he; take him, and get him away safely. +Mak 14:45 And when he had come, he went straight to him and said, Master; and gave him a kiss. +Mak 14:46 And they put their hands on him, and took him. +Mak 14:47 But a certain one of those who were near took out his sword, and gave the servant of the high priest a blow, cutting off his ear. +Mak 14:48 And Jesus said to them, Have you come out as against a thief, with swords and sticks to take me? +Mak 14:49 I was with you every day in the Temple teaching, and you did not take me; but this is done so that the Writings may come true. +Mak 14:50 And they all went away from him in fear. +Mak 14:51 And a certain young man went after him, with only a linen cloth about his body; and they put their hands on him; +Mak 14:52 But he got away unclothed, without the linen cloth. +Mak 14:53 And they took Jesus away to the high priest; and there came together with him all the chief priests and those in authority and the scribes. +Mak 14:54 And Peter had come after him at a distance, even into the house of the high priest; and he was seated with the captains, warming himself in the light of the fire. +Mak 14:55 Now the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin were looking for witness against Jesus so that they might put him to death; and they were unable to get any. +Mak 14:56 For a number gave false witness against him and their witness was not in agreement. +Mak 14:57 Then some got up and gave false witness against him, saying, +Mak 14:58 He said in our hearing, I will put an end to this Temple which is made with hands, and in three days I will make another without hands. +Mak 14:59 And even so their witness was not in agreement. +Mak 14:60 And the high priest got up in the middle of them, and said to Jesus, Do you say nothing in answer? what is it which these say against you? +Mak 14:61 But he kept quiet and said nothing. Again the high priest questioning him said, Are you the Christ, the son of the Holy One? +Mak 14:62 And Jesus said, I am: and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. +Mak 14:63 And the high priest, violently parting his robes, said, What more need have we of witnesses? +Mak 14:64 His words against God have come to your ears: what is your opinion? And they all said it was right for him to be put to death. +Mak 14:65 And some put shame on him and, covering his face, gave him blows and said to him, Now say what is to come: and the captains took him and gave him blows with their hands. +Mak 14:66 And while Peter was down in the open square of the building, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came; +Mak 14:67 And seeing Peter warming himself by the fire, she gave him a look, and said, You were with this Nazarene, even Jesus. +Mak 14:68 But he said, I have no knowledge of him, or of what you are saying: and he went out into the doorway; and there came the cry of a cock. +Mak 14:69 And the girl saw him, and said again to those who were near, This is one of them. +Mak 14:70 But again he said it was not so. And after a little time, again those who were near said to Peter, Truly you are one of them; for you are a Galilaean. +Mak 14:71 But, with curses and oaths, he said, I have no knowledge of the man about whom you are talking. +Mak 14:72 And in the same minute, the cock gave a second cry. And it came to Peter's mind how Jesus had said to him, Before the cock's second cry, you will say three times that you have no knowledge of me. And at this thought he was overcome with weeping. +Mak 15:1 And the first thing in the morning the chief priests, with those in authority and the scribes and all the Sanhedrin, had a meeting, and put cords round Jesus, and took him away, and gave him up to Pilate. +Mak 15:2 And Pilate put a question to him, Are you the King of the Jews? And he, answering, said to him, You say so. +Mak 15:3 And the chief priests said a number of things against him. +Mak 15:4 And Pilate again put a question, Do you say nothing in answer? see how much evil they say you have done. +Mak 15:5 But Jesus gave no more answers, so that Pilate was full of wonder. +Mak 15:6 Now at the feast every year he let one prisoner go free at their request. +Mak 15:7 And there was one named Barabbas, in prison with those who had gone against the government and in the fight had taken life. +Mak 15:8 And the people went up, requesting him to do as he had done for them in other years. +Mak 15:9 And Pilate said in answer to them, Is it your desire that I let the King of the Jews go free? +Mak 15:10 For he saw that the chief priests had given him up through envy. +Mak 15:11 But the people were moved by the chief priests to make him let Barabbas go free. +Mak 15:12 And Pilate again said in answer to them, What then am I to do to him to whom you give the name of the King of the Jews? +Mak 15:13 And they said again loudly, To the cross with him! +Mak 15:14 And Pilate said to them, Why, what evil has he done? But their cry was the louder, To the cross! +Mak 15:15 And Pilate, desiring to do what was pleasing to the people, let Barabbas go free, and gave up Jesus, when he had been whipped, to be put to death on the cross. +Mak 15:16 And the men of the army took him away into the square in front of the building which is the Praetorium, and they got together all the band. +Mak 15:17 And they put a purple robe on him, and twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on him; +Mak 15:18 And, as if honouring him, they said, Long life to the King of the Jews! +Mak 15:19 And they gave him blows on the head with a stick and put shame on him and, going down on their knees, gave him worship. +Mak 15:20 And when they had made sport of him, they took the purple robe off him and put his clothing on him. And they took him out to put him to death on the cross. +Mak 15:21 And they made one, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, who was going by, coming from the country, go with them, so that he might take his cross. +Mak 15:22 And they took him to the place named Golgotha, which is, Dead Man's Head. +Mak 15:23 And they gave him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. +Mak 15:24 And he was nailed to the cross; and they made a division of his clothing among them, putting to the decision of chance what everyone was to take. +Mak 15:25 And it was the third hour when they put him on the cross. +Mak 15:26 And the statement of his crime was put in writing on the cross, THE KING OF THE JEWS. +Mak 15:27 And they put two thieves on crosses with him, one on his right side, and one on his left. +Mak 15:28 [] +Mak 15:29 And those who went by made sport of him, shaking their heads, and saying, Ha! you who give the Temple to destruction, and put it up again in three days, +Mak 15:30 Keep yourself from death, and come down from the cross. +Mak 15:31 In the same way the chief priests, laughing at him among themselves with the scribes, said, A saviour of others, he has no salvation for himself. +Mak 15:32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and have belief. And those who were put on crosses with him said evil things against him. +Mak 15:33 And when the sixth hour had come, it was dark over all the land till the ninth hour. +Mak 15:34 And at the ninth hour, Jesus said in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, My God, my God, why are you turned away from me? +Mak 15:35 And some of those who were near, hearing it, said, See, he is crying to Elijah. +Mak 15:36 And one of them went quickly and, getting a sponge full of bitter wine, put it on a rod, and gave it to him for drink, saying, Let be; let us see if Elijah will come to take him down. +Mak 15:37 And Jesus gave a loud cry, and gave up his spirit. +Mak 15:38 And the curtain of the Temple was parted in two from end to end. +Mak 15:39 And when the captain, who was near, saw how he gave up his spirit, he said, Truly this man was a son of God. +Mak 15:40 And there were women watching from a distance: among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome, +Mak 15:41 Who went with him when he was in Galilee and took care of him; and a number of other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. +Mak 15:42 And when it was evening, because it was the time of getting ready, that is, the day before the Sabbath, +Mak 15:43 There came Joseph of Arimathaea, a responsible man in high honour, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God; and he went in to Pilate without fear, and made a request for the body of Jesus. +Mak 15:44 And Pilate was surprised that he was dead; and, sending for the captain, he put a question to see if he had been dead for long. +Mak 15:45 And when he had news of it from the captain, he let Joseph have the body. +Mak 15:46 And he got a linen cloth and, taking him down, put the linen cloth round him, and put him in a place for the dead which had been cut out of a rock; and a stone was rolled against the door. +Mak 15:47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, saw where he was put. +Mak 16:1 And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, got spices, so that they might come and put them on him. +Mak 16:2 And very early after dawn on the first day of the week, they came at the time of the coming up of the sun to the place where the body had been put. +Mak 16:3 And they were saying among themselves, Who will get the stone rolled away from the door for us? +Mak 16:4 And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; and it was of great size. +Mak 16:5 And when they went in, they saw a young man seated on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were full of wonder. +Mak 16:6 And he said to them, Do not be troubled: you are looking for Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been put to death on the cross; he has come back from the dead; he is not here: see, the place where they put him! +Mak 16:7 But go, say to his disciples and to Peter, He goes before you into Galilee: there you will see him, as he said to you. +Mak 16:8 And they went out quickly from the place, because fear and great wonder had come on them: and they said nothing to anyone, because they were full of fear that ... +Mak 16:9 Now when he came back from the dead early on the first day of the week, he went first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had sent out seven evil spirits. +Mak 16:10 She went and gave news of it to those who had been with him, while they were sorrowing and weeping. +Mak 16:11 And they, when it came to their ears that he was living, and had been seen by her, had no belief in it. +Mak 16:12 And after these things he was seen in another form by two of them, while they were walking on their way into the country. +Mak 16:13 And they went away and gave news of it to the rest; and they had no belief in what was said. +Mak 16:14 And later he was seen by the eleven themselves while they were taking food; and he said sharp words to them because they had no faith and their hearts were hard, and because they had no belief in those who had seen him after he had come back from the dead. +Mak 16:15 And he said to them, Go into all the world, and give the good news to everyone. +Mak 16:16 He who has faith and is given baptism will get salvation; but he who has not faith will be judged. +Mak 16:17 And these signs will be with those who have faith: in my name they will send out evil spirits; and they will make use of new languages; +Mak 16:18 They will take up snakes, and if there is poison in their drink, it will do them no evil; they will put their hands on those who are ill, and they will get well. +Mak 16:19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had said these words to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. +Mak 16:20 And they went out, preaching everywhere, the Lord working with them, and giving witness to the word by the signs which came after. So be it. +Luk 1:1 As a number of attempts have been made to put together in order an account of those events which took place among us, +Luk 1:2 As they were handed down to us by those who saw them from the first and were preachers of the word, +Luk 1:3 It seemed good to me, having made observation, with great care, of the direction of events in their order, to put the facts in writing for you, most noble Theophilus; +Luk 1:4 So that you might have certain knowledge of those things about which you were given teaching. +Luk 1:5 In the days of Herod, king of Judaea, there was a certain priest, by name Zacharias, of the order of Abijah; and he had a wife of the family of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. +Luk 1:6 They were upright in the eyes of God, keeping all the rules and orders of God, and doing no wrong. +Luk 1:7 And they were without children, because Elisabeth had never given birth, and they were at that time very old. +Luk 1:8 Now it came about that in his turn he was acting as priest before God, +Luk 1:9 And as was the way of the priests, he had to go into the Temple to see to the burning of perfumes. +Luk 1:10 And all the people were offering prayers outside, at the time of the burning of perfumes. +Luk 1:11 And he saw an angel of the Lord in his place on the right side of the altar. +Luk 1:12 And Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear came on him. +Luk 1:13 But the angel said, Have no fear, Zacharias, for your prayer has come to the ears of God, and your wife Elisabeth will have a son, and his name will be John. +Luk 1:14 And you will be glad and have great delight; and numbers of people will have joy at his birth. +Luk 1:15 For he will be great in the eyes of the Lord; he will not take wine or strong drink; and he will be full of the Spirit of God from his birth. +Luk 1:16 And through him great numbers of the children of Israel will be turned to the Lord their God. +Luk 1:17 And he will go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah, turning the hearts of fathers to their children, and wrongdoers to the way of righteousness; to make ready a people whose hearts have been turned to the Lord. +Luk 1:18 And Zacharias said to the angel, How may I be certain of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is far on in years. +Luk 1:19 And the angel, answering, said, I am Gabriel, whose place is before God; I have been sent to say these words to you and to give you this good news. +Luk 1:20 Now, see, you will be without voice or language till the day when these things come about, because you had not faith in my words, which will have effect at the right time. +Luk 1:21 And the people were waiting for Zacharias and were surprised because he was in the Temple for such a long time. +Luk 1:22 And when he came out he was not able to say anything, and they saw that he had seen a vision in the Temple; and he was making signs to them without words. +Luk 1:23 And when the days of his work in the Temple were ended, he went back to his house. +Luk 1:24 After that time, Elisabeth, being certain that she was to become a mother, kept herself from men's eyes for five months, saying, +Luk 1:25 The Lord has done this to me, for his eyes were on me, to take away my shame in the eyes of men. +Luk 1:26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee, named Nazareth, +Luk 1:27 To a virgin who was to be married to a man named Joseph, of the family of David; and the name of the virgin was Mary. +Luk 1:28 And the angel came in to her and said, Peace be with you, to whom special grace has been given; the Lord is with you. +Luk 1:29 But she was greatly troubled at his words, and said to herself, What may be the purpose of these words? +Luk 1:30 And the angel said to her, Have no fear, Mary, for you have God's approval. +Luk 1:31 And see, you will give birth to a son, and his name will be Jesus. +Luk 1:32 He will be great, and will be named the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God will give him the kingdom of David, his father: +Luk 1:33 He will have rule over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. +Luk 1:34 And Mary said to the angel, How may this be, because I have had no knowledge of a man? +Luk 1:35 And the angel in answer said to her, The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will come to rest on you, and so that which will come to birth will be named holy, Son of God. +Luk 1:36 Even now Elisabeth, who is of your family, is to be a mother, though she is old: and this is the sixth month with her who was without children. +Luk 1:37 For there is nothing which God is not able to do. +Luk 1:38 And Mary said: I am the servant of the Lord; may it be to me as you say. And the angel went away. +Luk 1:39 Then Mary got up and went quickly into the high lands, to a town of Judah; +Luk 1:40 And went into the house of Zacharias and took Elisabeth in her arms. +Luk 1:41 And when the voice of Mary came to the ears of Elisabeth, the baby made a sudden move inside her; then Elisabeth was full of the Holy Spirit, +Luk 1:42 And she said with a loud voice: May blessing be on you among women, and a blessing on the child of your body. +Luk 1:43 How is it that the mother of my Lord comes to me? +Luk 1:44 For, truly, when the sound of your voice came to my ears, the baby in my body made a sudden move for joy. +Luk 1:45 Happy will she be who had faith that the things which the Lord has said to her will be done. +Luk 1:46 And Mary said: My soul gives glory to God; +Luk 1:47 My spirit is glad in God my Saviour. +Luk 1:48 For he has had pity on his servant, though she is poor and lowly placed: and from this hour will all generations give witness to the blessing which has come to me. +Luk 1:49 For he who is strong has done great things for me; and holy is his name. +Luk 1:50 His mercy is for all generations in whom is the fear of him. +Luk 1:51 With his arm he has done acts of power; he has put to flight those who have pride in their hearts. +Luk 1:52 He has put down kings from their seats, lifting up on high the men of low degree. +Luk 1:53 Those who had no food he made full of good things; the men of wealth he sent away with nothing in their hands; +Luk 1:54 His help he has given to Israel, his servant, so that he might keep in mind his mercy to Abraham and his seed for ever, +Luk 1:55 As he gave his word to our fathers. +Luk 1:56 And Mary was with her for about three months and then went back to her house. +Luk 1:57 Now it was time for Elisabeth to give birth, and she had a son. +Luk 1:58 And it came to the ears of her neighbours and relations that the Lord had been very good to her, and they took part in her joy. +Luk 1:59 And on the eighth day they came to see to the circumcision of the child, and they would have given him the name of Zacharias, his father's name; +Luk 1:60 But his mother made answer and said, No, his name is John. +Luk 1:61 And they said, Not one of your relations has that name. +Luk 1:62 And they made signs to his father, to say what name was to be given to him. +Luk 1:63 And he sent for writing materials and put down: His name is John; and they were all surprised. +Luk 1:64 And straight away his mouth was open and his tongue was free and he gave praise to God. +Luk 1:65 And fear came on all those who were living round about them: and there was much talk about all these things in all the hill-country of Judaea. +Luk 1:66 And all who had word of them kept them in their minds and said, What will this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him. +Luk 1:67 And his father, Zacharias, was full of the Holy Spirit, and with the voice of a prophet said these words: +Luk 1:68 Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has come to his people and made them free, +Luk 1:69 Lifting up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, +Luk 1:70 (As he said, by the mouth of his holy prophets, from the earliest times,) +Luk 1:71 Salvation from those who are against us, and from the hands of those who have hate for us; +Luk 1:72 To do acts of mercy to our fathers and to keep in mind his holy word, +Luk 1:73 The oath which he made to Abraham, our father, +Luk 1:74 That we, being made free from the fear of those who are against us, might give him worship, +Luk 1:75 In righteousness and holy living before him all our days. +Luk 1:76 And you, child, will be named the prophet of the Most High: you will go before the face of the Lord, to make ready his ways; +Luk 1:77 To give knowledge of salvation to his people, through the forgiveness of sins, +Luk 1:78 Because of the loving mercies of our God, by which the dawn from heaven has come to us, +Luk 1:79 To give light to those in dark places, and in the shade of death, so that our feet may be guided into the way of peace. +Luk 1:80 And the child became tall, and strong in spirit; and he was living in the waste land till the day when he came before the eyes of Israel. +Luk 2:1 Now it came about in those days that an order went out from Caesar Augustus that there was to be a numbering of all the world. +Luk 2:2 This was the first numbering, which was made when Quirinius was ruler of Syria. +Luk 2:3 And all men went to be numbered, everyone to his town. +Luk 2:4 And Joseph went up from Galilee, out of the town of Nazareth, into Judaea, to Beth-lehem, the town of David, because he was of the house and family of David, +Luk 2:5 To be put on the list with Mary, his future wife, who was about to become a mother. +Luk 2:6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. +Luk 2:7 And she had her first son; and folding him in linen, she put him to rest in the place where the cattle had their food, because there was no room for them in the house. +Luk 2:8 And in the same country there were keepers of sheep in the fields, watching over their flock by night. +Luk 2:9 And an angel of the Lord came to them, and the glory of the Lord was shining round about them: and fear came on them. +Luk 2:10 And the angel said, Have no fear; for truly, I give you good news of great joy which will be for all the people: +Luk 2:11 For on this day, in the town of David, a Saviour has come to birth, who is Christ the Lord. +Luk 2:12 And this is the sign to you: you will see a young child folded in linen, in the place where the cattle have their food. +Luk 2:13 And suddenly there was with the angel a great band of spirits from heaven, giving praise to God, and saying, +Luk 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on the earth peace among men with whom he is well pleased. +Luk 2:15 And when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the keepers of the sheep said to one another, Let us go now to Beth-lehem, and see this thing which has come about, which the Lord has made clear to us. +Luk 2:16 And they came quickly, and saw Mary and Joseph, and the child in the place where the cattle had their food. +Luk 2:17 And when they saw it, they gave them an account of the things which had been said to them about the child. +Luk 2:18 And all those to whose ears it came were full of wonder at the things said by the keepers of the sheep. +Luk 2:19 But Mary kept all these words in her heart, and gave much thought to them. +Luk 2:20 Then the keepers of the sheep went back, giving glory and praise to God for all the things which had come to their ears and which they had seen, as it had been said to them. +Luk 2:21 And when, after eight days, the time came for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name which the angel had given to him before his birth. +Luk 2:22 And when the necessary days for making them clean by the law of Moses had come to an end, they took him to Jerusalem to give him to the Lord +Luk 2:23 (As it says in the law of the Lord, Every mother's first male child is to be holy to the Lord), +Luk 2:24 And to make an offering, as it is ordered in the law of the Lord, of two doves or other young birds. +Luk 2:25 And there was then in Jerusalem a man whose name was Simeon; and he was an upright man, fearing God and waiting for the comfort of Israel: and the Holy Spirit was on him. +Luk 2:26 And he had knowledge, through the Holy Spirit, that he would not see death till he had seen the Lord's Christ. +Luk 2:27 And full of the Spirit he came into the Temple; and when the father and mother came in with the child Jesus, to do with him what was ordered by the law, +Luk 2:28 Then he took him in his arms and gave praise to God and said, +Luk 2:29 Now you are letting your servant go in peace, O Lord, as you have said; +Luk 2:30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, +Luk 2:31 Which you have made ready before the face of all nations; +Luk 2:32 A light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. +Luk 2:33 And his father and mother were full of wonder at the things which were said about him. +Luk 2:34 And Simeon gave them his blessing and said to Mary, his mother, See, this child will be the cause of the downfall and the lifting up of great numbers of people in Israel, and he will be a sign against which hard words will be said; +Luk 2:35 (And a sword will go through your heart;) so that the secret thoughts of men may come to light. +Luk 2:36 And there was one, Anna, a woman prophet, the daughter of Phanuel, of the family of Asher (she was very old, and after seven years of married life +Luk 2:37 She had been a widow for eighty-four years); she was in the Temple at all times, worshipping with prayers and going without food, night and day. +Luk 2:38 And coming up at that time, she gave praise to God, talking of him to all those who were waiting for the freeing of Jerusalem. +Luk 2:39 And when they had done all the things which were ordered by the law of the Lord, they went back to Galilee, to Nazareth, the town where they were living. +Luk 2:40 And the child became tall and strong and full of wisdom, and the grace of God was on him. +Luk 2:41 And every year his father and mother went to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover. +Luk 2:42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up, as their way was, to the feast; +Luk 2:43 And when the days of the feast came to an end and they were going back, the boy Jesus was still in Jerusalem, but they had no knowledge of it: +Luk 2:44 And in the belief that he was with some of their number, they went a day's journey; and after looking for him among their relations and friends, +Luk 2:45 And seeing that he was not there, they went back to Jerusalem, to make search for him. +Luk 2:46 And after three days they came across him in the Temple, seated among the wise men, giving ear to their words and putting questions to them. +Luk 2:47 And all to whose ears it came were full of wonder at his knowledge and the answers which he gave. +Luk 2:48 And when they saw him they were surprised, and his mother said to him, Son, why have you done this to us? see, your father and I have been looking for you with sorrow. +Luk 2:49 And he said to them, Why were you looking for me? was it not clear to you that my right place was in my Father's house? +Luk 2:50 And his words seemed strange to them. +Luk 2:51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth; and did as he was ordered: and his mother kept all these words in her heart. +Luk 2:52 And Jesus was increasing in wisdom and in years, and in grace before God and men. +Luk 3:1 Now in the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being ruler of Judaea, and Herod being king of Galilee, his brother Philip king of the country of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias king of Abilene, +Luk 3:2 When Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the waste land. +Luk 3:3 And he came into all the country round about Jordan, preaching baptism as a sign of forgiveness of sin for those whose hearts were changed. +Luk 3:4 As it says in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, The voice of one crying in the waste land, Make ready the way of the Lord, make his roads straight. +Luk 3:5 Every valley will be lifted up, and all the mountains and hills made low, and the twisted will be made straight, and the rough ways smooth; +Luk 3:6 And all flesh will see the salvation of God. +Luk 3:7 So he said to the people who went out to him for baptism: You offspring of snakes, at whose word are you going in flight from the wrath to come? +Luk 3:8 Make clear by your acts that your hearts have been changed; and do not say to yourselves, We have Abraham for our father: for I say to you that God is able from these stones to make children of Abraham. +Luk 3:9 And even now the axe is put to the root of the trees; and every tree which does not have good fruit will be cut down and put into the fire. +Luk 3:10 And the people put questions to him, saying, What have we to do? +Luk 3:11 And he made answer and said to them, He who has two coats, let him give to him who has not even one; and he who has food, let him do the same. +Luk 3:12 Then tax-farmers came to him for baptism and said to him, Master, what have we to do? +Luk 3:13 And he said to them, Do not make an attempt to get more money than the right amount. +Luk 3:14 And men of the army put questions to him, saying, And what have we to do? And he said to them, Do no violent acts to any man, and do not take anything without right, and let your payment be enough for you. +Luk 3:15 And while the people were waiting, and all men were questioning in their hearts about John, if he was the Christ or not, +Luk 3:16 John made answer, saying to them all, Truly, I give you baptism with water, but one is coming who is greater than I, whose shoes I am not good enough to undo: he will give you baptism with the Holy Spirit, and with fire: +Luk 3:17 In whose hand is the instrument with which he will make clean his grain; he will put the good grain in his store, but the waste will be burned in the fire which will never be put out. +Luk 3:18 And so comforting them with these and other words, he gave the good news to the people; +Luk 3:19 But Herod the king, because John had made a protest on account of Herodias, his brother's wife, and other evil things which Herod had done, +Luk 3:20 Did this most evil thing of all, and had John shut up in prison. +Luk 3:21 Now it came about that when all the people had been given baptism, Jesus, having had baptism with them, was in prayer, when, the heaven being open, +Luk 3:22 The Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, and a voice came from heaven, saying, You are my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased. +Luk 3:23 And Jesus at this time was about thirty years old, being the son (as it seemed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, +Luk 3:24 The son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, +Luk 3:25 The son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, +Luk 3:26 The son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, +Luk 3:27 The son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, +Luk 3:28 The son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, +Luk 3:29 The son of Jesus, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, +Luk 3:30 The son of Symeon, the son of Judas, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, +Luk 3:31 The son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, +Luk 3:32 The son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, +Luk 3:33 The son of Amminadab, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, +Luk 3:34 The son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, +Luk 3:35 The son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, +Luk 3:36 The son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, +Luk 3:37 The son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, +Luk 3:38 The son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. +Luk 4:1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, came back from the Jordan, and was guided by the Spirit in the waste land +Luk 4:2 For forty days, being tested by the Evil One. And he had no food in those days; and when they came to an end, he was in need of food. +Luk 4:3 And the Evil One said to him, If you are the Son of God, give orders to this stone to become bread. +Luk 4:4 And Jesus made answer to him, It has been said in the Writings, Bread is not man's only need. +Luk 4:5 And he took him up and let him see all the kingdoms of the earth in a minute of time. +Luk 4:6 And the Evil One said, I will give you authority over all these, and the glory of them, for it has been given to me, and I give it to anyone at my pleasure. +Luk 4:7 If then you will give worship to me, it will all be yours. +Luk 4:8 And Jesus in answer said to him, It has been said in the Writings, Give worship to the Lord your God, and be his servant only. +Luk 4:9 And he took him to Jerusalem and put him on the highest point of the Temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, let yourself go down from here; for it is said in the Writings, +Luk 4:10 He will give his angels orders to take care of you: +Luk 4:11 And, In their hands they will keep you up, so that your foot may not be crushed against a stone. +Luk 4:12 And Jesus made answer and said to him, It is said in the Writings, You may not put the Lord your God to the test. +Luk 4:13 And when all these tests were ended the Evil One went away from him for a time. +Luk 4:14 And Jesus came back to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and the news of him went through all the country round about. +Luk 4:15 And he was teaching in their Synagogues and all men gave him praise. +Luk 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been as a child, and he went, as his way was, into the Synagogue on the Sabbath, and got up to give a reading. +Luk 4:17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was given to him and, opening the book, he came on the place where it is said, +Luk 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because I am marked out by him to give good news to the poor; he has sent me to make well those who are broken-hearted; to say that the prisoners will be let go, and the blind will see, and to make the wounded free from their chains, +Luk 4:19 To give knowledge that the year of the Lord's good pleasure is come. +Luk 4:20 And shutting the book he gave it back to the servant and took his seat: and the eyes of all in the Synagogue were fixed on him. +Luk 4:21 Then he said to them, Today this word has come true in your hearing. +Luk 4:22 And they were all giving witness, with wonder, to the words of grace which came from his mouth: and they said, Is not this the son of Joseph? +Luk 4:23 And he said to them, Without doubt you will say to me, Let the medical man make himself well: the things which to our knowledge were done at Capernaum, do them here in your country. +Luk 4:24 And he said to them, Truly I say to you, No prophet is honoured in his country. +Luk 4:25 Truly I say to you, There were a number of widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months and there was no food in the land; +Luk 4:26 But Elijah was not sent to one of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. +Luk 4:27 And there were a number of lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and not one of them was made clean, but only Naaman the Syrian. +Luk 4:28 And all who were in the Synagogue were very angry when these things were said to them. +Luk 4:29 And they got up and took him out of the town to the edge of the mountain on which their town was, so that they might send him down to his death. +Luk 4:30 But he came through them and went on his way. +Luk 4:31 And he came down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee; and he was giving them teaching on the Sabbath. +Luk 4:32 And they were surprised at his teaching, for his word was with authority. +Luk 4:33 And there was a man in the Synagogue who had an unclean spirit; and he gave a loud cry and said, +Luk 4:34 Let us be! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? have you come to put an end to us? I have knowledge who you are, the Holy One of God. +Luk 4:35 And Jesus said to him, Be quiet, and come out of him. And when the evil spirit had put him down on the earth in the middle of them, he came out of him, having done him no damage. +Luk 4:36 And wonder came on them all and they said to one another, What are these words? for with authority and power he gives orders to the evil spirits and they come out. +Luk 4:37 And there was much talk about him in all the places round about. +Luk 4:38 And he got up and went out of the Synagogue and went into the house of Simon. And Simon's wife's mother was very ill with a burning heat; and in answer to their prayers for her +Luk 4:39 He went near her, and with a sharp word he gave orders to the disease and it went away from her; and straight away she got up and took care of their needs. +Luk 4:40 And at sundown all those who had anyone ill with any sort of disease, took them to him, and he put his hands on every one of them and made them well. +Luk 4:41 And evil spirits came out of a number of them, crying out and saying, You are the Son of God. But he gave them sharp orders not to say a word, because they had knowledge that he was the Christ. +Luk 4:42 And when it was day, he came out and went to a waste place; and great numbers of people came looking for him, and they came to him and would have kept him from going away. +Luk 4:43 But he said to them, I have to give the good news of the kingdom of God in other towns, because that is why I was sent. +Luk 4:44 And he was teaching in the Synagogues of Galilee. +Luk 5:1 Now it came about that while the people came pushing to be near him, and to have knowledge of the word of God, he was by a wide stretch of water named Gennesaret; +Luk 5:2 And he saw two boats by the edge of the water, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. +Luk 5:3 And he got into one of the boats, the property of Simon, and made a request to him to go a little way out from the land. And being seated he gave the people teaching from the boat. +Luk 5:4 And when his talk was ended, he said to Simon, Go out into deep water, and let down your nets for fish. +Luk 5:5 And Simon, answering, said, Master, we were working all night and we took nothing: but at your word I will let down the nets. +Luk 5:6 And when they had done this, they got such a great number of fish that it seemed as if their nets would be broken; +Luk 5:7 And they made signs to their friends in the other boat to come to their help. And they came, and the two boats were so full that they were going down. +Luk 5:8 But Simon, when he saw it, went down at the knees of Jesus and said, Go away from me, O Lord, for I am a sinner. +Luk 5:9 For he was full of wonder and so were all those who were with him, at the number of fish which they had taken; +Luk 5:10 And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were working with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Have no fear; from this time forward you will be a fisher of men. +Luk 5:11 And when they had got their boats to the land, they gave up everything and went after him. +Luk 5:12 And it came about that while he was in one of the towns, there was a leper there: and when he saw Jesus he went down on his face in prayer to him, saying, Lord, if it is your pleasure, you have power to make me clean. +Luk 5:13 And he put out his hand to him and said, It is my pleasure; be clean. And straight away his disease went from him. +Luk 5:14 And he gave him orders: Say nothing to any man, but let the priest see you and give an offering so that you may be made clean, as the law of Moses says, and for a witness to them. +Luk 5:15 But news of him went out all the more, in every direction, and great numbers of people came together to give hearing to his words and to be made well from their diseases. +Luk 5:16 But he went away by himself to a waste place for prayer. +Luk 5:17 And it came about that on one of these days he was teaching; and some Pharisees and teachers of the law were seated there, who had come from every town of Galilee and Judaea and from Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was with him, to make those who were ill free from their diseases. +Luk 5:18 And some men had with them, on a bed, a man who was ill, without power of moving; and they made attempts to get him in and put him before Jesus. +Luk 5:19 And because of the mass of people, there was no way to get him in; so they went up on the top of the house and let him down through the roof, on his bed, into the middle in front of Jesus. +Luk 5:20 And seeing their faith he said, Man, you have forgiveness for your sins. +Luk 5:21 And the scribes and Pharisees were having an argument, saying, Who is this, who has no respect for God? who is able to give forgiveness for sins, but God only? +Luk 5:22 But Jesus, who had knowledge of their thoughts, said to them, Why are you reasoning in your hearts? +Luk 5:23 Which is the simpler: to say, You have forgiveness for your sins; or to say, Get up and go? +Luk 5:24 But so that you may see that on earth the Son of man has authority for the forgiveness of sins, (he said to the man who was ill,) I say to you, Get up, and take up your bed, and go into your house. +Luk 5:25 And straight away he got up before them, and took up his bed and went away to his house giving praise to God. +Luk 5:26 And wonder overcame them all, and they gave glory to God; and they were full of fear, saying, We have seen strange things today. +Luk 5:27 And after these things he went out, and saw Levi, a tax-farmer, seated at the place where taxes were taken, and said to him, Come after me. +Luk 5:28 And giving up his business, he got up and went after him. +Luk 5:29 And Levi made a great feast for him in his house: and a great number of tax-farmers and others were seated at table with them. +Luk 5:30 And the Pharisees and their scribes made protests against his disciples, saying, Why do you take food and drink with tax-farmers and sinners? +Luk 5:31 And Jesus, answering, said to them, Those who are well have no need of a medical man, but those who are ill. +Luk 5:32 I have come, not to get the upright, but sinners, so that they may be turned from their sins. +Luk 5:33 And they said to him, The disciples of John frequently go without food, and make prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees; but your disciples take food and drink. +Luk 5:34 And Jesus said, Are you able to make the friends of the newly-married man go without food when he is with them? +Luk 5:35 But the days will come when he will be taken away from them, and then they will go without food. +Luk 5:36 And he said to them, in a story, No man takes a bit of cloth from a new coat and puts it on to an old coat, for so the new coat would be damaged and the bit from the new would not go well with the old. +Luk 5:37 And no man puts new wine into old wine-skins, for fear that the skins will be burst by the new wine, and the wine be let out, and the skins come to destruction. +Luk 5:38 But new wine has to be put into new wine-skins. +Luk 5:39 And no man, having had old wine, has any desire for new, for he says, The old is better. +Luk 6:1 Now it came about that on the Sabbath he was going through the fields of grain, and his disciples took the heads of the grain for food, crushing them in their hands. +Luk 6:2 But some of the Pharisees said, Why do you do what it is not right to do on the Sabbath? +Luk 6:3 And Jesus said, Have you not seen in the Writings what David did when he was in need of food, he, and those who were with him; +Luk 6:4 How he went into the house of God and took for food the holy bread, which only the priests may take, and gave it to those who were with him? +Luk 6:5 And he said, The Son of man is lord even of the Sabbath. +Luk 6:6 And it came about, on another Sabbath, that he went into the Synagogue and was teaching there. And a man was there whose right hand was dead. +Luk 6:7 And the scribes and Pharisees were watching him to see if he would make him well on the Sabbath, so that they might be able to say something against him. +Luk 6:8 But he had knowledge of their thoughts; and he said to the man whose hand was dead, Get up and come into the middle. And he got up and came forward. +Luk 6:9 And Jesus said, I put the question to you, Is it right to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil? to give life or to take it away? +Luk 6:10 And looking round on all of them, he said to him, Put out your hand. And he did so: and his hand was made well. +Luk 6:11 But they were full of wrath, and were talking together about what they might do to Jesus. +Luk 6:12 And it came about in those days that he went out to the mountain for prayer; and he was all night in prayer to God. +Luk 6:13 And the day came and, turning to his disciples, he made a selection from among them of twelve, to whom he gave the name of Apostles; +Luk 6:14 Simon, to whom he gave the name of Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and James and John and Philip and Bartholomew +Luk 6:15 And Matthew and Thomas and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was named the Zealot, +Luk 6:16 And Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, he who was false to him. +Luk 6:17 And he came down with them to a level place, and a great band of his disciples, and a very great number of people from all Judaea and Jerusalem and from the parts of Tyre and Sidon by the sea, came to give hearing to him, and to be made well from their diseases; +Luk 6:18 And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were made well. +Luk 6:19 And all the people were desiring to be touched by him, for power came from him and made them all well. +Luk 6:20 And turning his eyes to his disciples he said, Happy are you who are poor: for the kingdom of God is yours. +Luk 6:21 Happy are you who are in need of food now: for you will be made full. Happy are you who are weeping now; for you will be glad. +Luk 6:22 Happy are you, when men have hate for you, and put you away from among them and say angry words to you, turning away in disgust at your name, because of the Son of man. +Luk 6:23 Be glad in that day, and be lifted up for joy, for your reward in heaven will be great: for their fathers did these same things to the prophets. +Luk 6:24 But unhappy are you who have wealth: for you have been comforted now. +Luk 6:25 Unhappy are you who are full of food now: for you will be in need. Unhappy are you who are laughing now: for you will be crying in sorrow. +Luk 6:26 Unhappy are you when all men give you their approval: for so their fathers did to the false prophets. +Luk 6:27 But I say to you who give ear to me, Have love for those who are against you, do good to those who have hate for you, +Luk 6:28 Give blessing to those who give you curses, say prayers for those who are cruel to you. +Luk 6:29 If a man gives you a blow on one side of your face, then let the other side be turned to him; from him who takes away your coat, do not keep back your robe. +Luk 6:30 Give to everyone who comes with a request, and if a man takes away your property, make no attempt to get it back again. +Luk 6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. +Luk 6:32 If you have love for those who have love for you, what credit is it to you? for even sinners have love for those who have love for them. +Luk 6:33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is it to you? for even sinners do the same. +Luk 6:34 And if you let those have the use of your money, from whom you are hoping to get it back, what credit is it to you? even sinners do so to sinners, hoping to get back as much as they gave. +Luk 6:35 But be loving to those who are against you and do them good, and give them your money, not giving up hope, and your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High: for he is kind to evil men, and to those who have hard hearts. +Luk 6:36 Be full of pity, even as your Father is full of pity. +Luk 6:37 Be not judges of others, and you will not be judged: do not give punishment to others, and you will not get punishment yourselves: make others free, and you will be made free: +Luk 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, crushed down, full and running over, they will give to you. For in the same measure as you give, it will be given to you again. +Luk 6:39 And he gave them teaching in the form of a story, saying, Is it possible for one blind man to be guide to another? will they not go falling together into a hole? +Luk 6:40 The disciple is not greater than his master, but everyone whose learning is complete will be like his master. +Luk 6:41 And why do you take note of the grain of dust in your brother's eye, but take no note of the bit of wood which is in your eye? +Luk 6:42 How will you say to your brother, Brother, let me take the grain of dust out of your eye, when you yourself do not see the bit of wood in your eye? O false one! first take the wood out of your eye and then you will see clearly to take the dust out of your brother's eye. +Luk 6:43 For no good tree gives bad fruit, and no bad tree gives good fruit. +Luk 6:44 For every tree is judged by its fruit. Men do not get figs from thorns, or grapes from blackberry plants. +Luk 6:45 The good man, out of the good store of his heart, gives good things; and the evil man, out of his evil store, gives evil: for out of the full store of the heart come the words of the mouth. +Luk 6:46 Why do you say to me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? +Luk 6:47 Everyone who comes to me and gives ear to my words and does them, I will make clear to you what he is like: +Luk 6:48 He is like a man building a house, who went deep and put the base of it on a rock; and when the water came up and the river was driving against that house, it was not moved, because the building was good. +Luk 6:49 But he who gives hearing, without doing, is like a man building a house on the earth without a base for it; and when the force of the river came against it, straight away it came down; and the destruction of that house was great. +Luk 7:1 After he had come to the end of all his words in the hearing of the people, he went into Capernaum. +Luk 7:2 And a certain captain had a servant who was very dear to him; this servant was ill and near to death. +Luk 7:3 And when news of Jesus came to his ears, he sent to him rulers of the Jews, requesting that he would come and make his servant well. +Luk 7:4 And they, when they came to Jesus, made their request warmly, saying, +Luk 7:5 It is right for you to do this for him, because he is a friend to our nation, and himself has put up a Synagogue for us. +Luk 7:6 And Jesus went with them. And when he was not far from the house, the man sent friends to him, saying, Lord, do not give yourself trouble: for I am not important enough for you to come into my house: +Luk 7:7 And I had the feeling that I was not even good enough to come to you: but say the word only, and my servant will be well. +Luk 7:8 For I, myself, am a man under authority, having men under me; and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. +Luk 7:9 And when these things were said to Jesus, he was surprised, and, turning to the mass of people coming after him, said, I have not seen such great faith, no, not in Israel. +Luk 7:10 And when those who were sent came back to the house they saw that the servant was well. +Luk 7:11 And it came about, after a little time, that he went to a town named Nain; and his disciples went with him, and a great number of people. +Luk 7:12 Now when he came near the door of the town, a dead man was being taken out, the only son of his mother, who was a widow: and a great number of people from the town were with her. +Luk 7:13 And when the Lord saw her, he had pity on her and said to her, Be not sad. +Luk 7:14 And he came near, and put his hand on the stretcher where the dead man was: and those who were moving it came to a stop. And he said, Young man, I say to you, Get up. +Luk 7:15 And the dead man got up, and words came from his lips. And he gave him to his mother. +Luk 7:16 And fear came on all, and they gave praise to God, saying, A great prophet is among us: and, God has given thought to his people. +Luk 7:17 And this story about him went through all Judaea and the places round about. +Luk 7:18 And the disciples of John gave him an account of all these things. +Luk 7:19 Then John sent two of his disciples to the Lord, saying, Are you he who is to come, or are we waiting for another? +Luk 7:20 And when the men came to him they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, Are you he who is to come, or are we waiting for another? +Luk 7:21 At that time, he made a number of people free from their diseases and their pains, and from evil spirits; and to others who were blind he gave back the use of their eyes. +Luk 7:22 And answering them he said, Go back and give news to John of what you have seen, and the things which have come to your ears; the blind now see, those who had no power in their legs are walking, lepers are made clean, those who had no hearing now have their ears open, dead men come to life again, and the poor have the good news given to them. +Luk 7:23 And a blessing will be on him who has no doubts about me. +Luk 7:24 And when the men who were sent by John had gone away, he said to the people, about John, What did you go out into the waste land to see? a tall stem moving in the wind? +Luk 7:25 But what did you go out to see? a man in soft clothing? See now, those who have beautiful clothing and delicate food are in kings' houses. +Luk 7:26 But what did you go out to see? a prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. +Luk 7:27 This is he of whom it has been said, See, I send my servant before your face, who will make ready your way before you. +Luk 7:28 I say to you, Among all the sons of women, not one is greater than John: but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. +Luk 7:29 (And all the people, and the tax-farmers, to whom John had given baptism, when they had knowledge of these things, gave glory to God. +Luk 7:30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were against the purpose of God for themselves, not having had his baptism.) +Luk 7:31 What comparison am I to make of the men of this generation? what are they like? +Luk 7:32 They are like children who are seated in the market-place, crying out to one another, and saying, We made music for you, but you did not take part in the dance; we gave cries of sorrow, but you were not sad. +Luk 7:33 For John the Baptist came, taking no food or drink, and you say, He has an evil spirit. +Luk 7:34 The Son of man came feasting, and you say, Here is a lover of food and wine, a friend of tax-farmers and sinners. +Luk 7:35 But wisdom is judged to be right by all her children. +Luk 7:36 And one of the Pharisees made a request that he would take a meal with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house and took his seat at the table. +Luk 7:37 And there was a woman in the town who was a sinner; and when she had news that he was a guest in the Pharisee's house, she took a bottle of perfume, +Luk 7:38 And went in and took her place at the back of him, near his feet, weeping, so that his feet were washed with the drops from her eyes, and with her hair she made them dry, and kissing his feet she put the perfume on them. +Luk 7:39 Now when the Pharisee in whose house he was saw it, he said to himself, This man, if he was a prophet, would be conscious what sort of woman this is who has put her hands on him, that she is a sinner. +Luk 7:40 And Jesus, answering, said, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he said, Master, say on. +Luk 7:41 And he said, Two men were in debt to a certain man of business: one had a debt of five hundred pence, and the other of fifty. +Luk 7:42 When they were unable to make payment, he made the two of them free of their debts. Which of them, now, will have the greater love for him? +Luk 7:43 Simon, in answer, said, It seems he whose debt was greater. And he said, Your decision is right. +Luk 7:44 And turning to the woman he said to Simon, You see this woman? I came into your house; you did not give me water for my feet: but she has been washing my feet with the drops from her eyes, and drying them with her hair. +Luk 7:45 You did not give me a kiss: but she, from the time when I came in, has gone on kissing my feet. +Luk 7:46 You put no oil on my head: but she has put perfume on my feet. +Luk 7:47 And so I say to you, She will have forgiveness for her sins which are great in number, because of her great love: but he who has small need of forgiveness gives little love. +Luk 7:48 And he said to her, You have forgiveness for your sins. +Luk 7:49 And those who were seated at table with him said to themselves, Who is this who even gives forgiveness of sins? +Luk 7:50 And he said to the woman, By your faith you have salvation; go in peace. +Luk 8:1 And it came about, after a short time, that he went through town and country giving the good news of the kingdom of God, and with him were the twelve, +Luk 8:2 And certain women who had been made free from evil spirits and diseases, Mary named Magdalene, from whom seven evil spirits had gone out, +Luk 8:3 And Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's chief house-servant, and Susanna and a number of others, who gave him of their wealth for his needs. +Luk 8:4 And when a great number of people came together, and men from every town went out to him, he gave them teaching in the form of a story: +Luk 8:5 A man went out to put in seed, and while he was doing it, some was dropped by the wayside and it was crushed under foot, and was taken by the birds of heaven. +Luk 8:6 And some went on the rock, and when it came up it became dry and dead because it had no water. +Luk 8:7 And some went among thorns, and the thorns came up with it and it had no room for growth. +Luk 8:8 And some falling on good earth, came up and gave fruit a hundred times as much. And with these words he said in a loud voice, He who has ears, let him give ear. +Luk 8:9 And his disciples put questions to him about the point of the story. +Luk 8:10 And he said, To you is given knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to the others, they are given in stories, so that seeing, they may not see, and though they give hearing, the sense will not be clear to them. +Luk 8:11 Now this is the point of the story: The seed is the word of God. +Luk 8:12 Those by the side of the road are those who have given hearing; then the Evil One comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not have faith and get salvation. +Luk 8:13 And those on the rock are those who with joy give hearing to the word; but having no root, they have faith for a time, and when the test comes they give up. +Luk 8:14 And those which went among thorns are those who have given hearing, and go on their way, but they are overcome by cares and wealth and the pleasures of life, and they give no fruit. +Luk 8:15 And those in the good earth are those who, having given ear to the word, keep it with a good and true heart, and in quiet strength give fruit. +Luk 8:16 No man, when the light is lighted, puts a cover over it, or puts it under a bed, but he puts it on its table, so that those who come in may see the light. +Luk 8:17 For nothing is put out of view which will not be made clear, and nothing is secret of which the knowledge will not come to light. +Luk 8:18 So take care how you give hearing, for to him who has will be given, and from him who has not will be taken even what he seems to have. +Luk 8:19 And his mother and his brothers came to him, and they were not able to get near him because of the great number of people. +Luk 8:20 And someone said to him, Your mother and your brothers are outside desiring to see you. +Luk 8:21 But he said to them in answer, My mother and my brothers are those who have knowledge of the word of God and do it. +Luk 8:22 Now it came about on one of those days that he got into a boat with his disciples; and he said to them, Let us go over to the other side of the water: and they put out the boat. +Luk 8:23 But while they were sailing he went to sleep: and a storm of wind came down on the sea, and the boat became full of water and they were in danger. +Luk 8:24 Then they came to him and, awaking him out of his sleep, said, Master, Master, destruction is near. And he, when he was awake, gave orders to the wind and the rolling waves, and the storm came to an end, and all was calm. +Luk 8:25 And he said to them, Where is your faith? And fear and wonder overcame them, and they said to one another, Who then is this, who gives orders even to the winds and the water and they do what he says? +Luk 8:26 And they came to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. +Luk 8:27 And when he had come to the land, there came to him a certain man from the town who had evil spirits; and for a long time he had had no clothing on, and was not living in a house but in the place of the dead. +Luk 8:28 And when he saw Jesus, he gave a loud cry and went down on the earth before him and in a loud voice said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Do not be cruel to me. +Luk 8:29 For he gave an order to the evil spirit to come out of the man. For frequently it would take a grip of him: and he was kept under control, and prisoned with chains; but parting the chains in two, he would be sent by the driving of the evil spirit into waste places. +Luk 8:30 And Jesus said to him, What is your name? And he said, Legion; for a number of spirits had gone into him. +Luk 8:31 And they made a request to him that he would not give them an order to go away into the deep. +Luk 8:32 Now there was a great herd of pigs in that place, getting food on the mountain: and the evil spirits made a request to him that he would let them go into the pigs, and he let them. +Luk 8:33 And the evil spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs: and the herd went rushing down a sharp slope into the water and came to destruction. +Luk 8:34 And when the men who took care of them saw what had come about, they went quickly and gave news of it in the town and the country. +Luk 8:35 And they went out to see what had taken place, and they came to Jesus and saw the man out of whom the evil spirits had gone, seated, clothed and with full use of his senses, at the feet of Jesus; and fear came on them. +Luk 8:36 And those who had seen it gave them an account of how the man who had the evil spirits was made well. +Luk 8:37 And all the people of the country of the Gerasenes made a request to him to go away from them; for they were in great fear: and he got into a boat and went back. +Luk 8:38 But the man from whom the evil spirits had gone out had a great desire to be with him, but he sent him away, saying, +Luk 8:39 Go back to your house and let them have news of all the great things which God has done for you. And he went away, giving word through all the town of the great things which Jesus had done for him. +Luk 8:40 And when Jesus went back, the people were glad to see him, for they were all waiting for him. +Luk 8:41 Then there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler in the Synagogue: and he went down at the feet of Jesus, desiring him to come to his house; +Luk 8:42 For he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was near to death. But while he was on his way, the people were pushing to be near him. +Luk 8:43 And a woman, who had had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had given all her money to medical men, and not one of them was able to make her well, +Luk 8:44 Came after him and put her hand on the edge of his robe, and straight away the flowing of her blood was stopped. +Luk 8:45 And Jesus said, Who was touching me? And when they all said, It is not I, Peter and those who were with him said, Master, the people are pushing round you on every side. +Luk 8:46 But Jesus said, Someone was touching me, for I had the feeling that power had gone out from me. +Luk 8:47 And when the woman saw that she was not able to keep it secret, she came, shaking with fear, and falling down before him she made clear before all the people the reason for her touching him, and how she was made well straight away. +Luk 8:48 And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace. +Luk 8:49 While he was still talking, someone came from the house of the ruler of the Synagogue, saying, Your daughter is dead; do not go on troubling the Master. +Luk 8:50 But Jesus at these words said to him, Have no fear, only have faith, and she will be made well. +Luk 8:51 And when he came to the house he did not let any man go in with him, but only Peter and John and James, and the father of the girl and her mother. +Luk 8:52 And all the people were weeping and crying for her; but he said, Do not be sad, for she is not dead, but sleeping. +Luk 8:53 And they were laughing at him, being certain that she was dead. +Luk 8:54 But he, taking her hand, said to her, My child, get up. +Luk 8:55 And her spirit came back to her and she got up straight away: and he gave orders that food was to be given to her. +Luk 8:56 And her father and mother were full of wonder, but he gave orders to them to say nothing about it to anyone. +Luk 9:1 And getting the twelve together, he gave them power and authority over all evil spirits and over diseases, to make them well. +Luk 9:2 And he sent them out to be preachers of the kingdom of God, and to make well those who were ill. +Luk 9:3 And he said to them, Take nothing for your journey, no stick or bag or bread or money, and do not take two coats. +Luk 9:4 And if you go into a house, let that house be your resting-place till you go away. +Luk 9:5 And if any people will not take you in, when you go away from that town, put off its dust from your feet for a witness against them. +Luk 9:6 And they went away, journeying through all the towns, preaching the good news and making people free from diseases in all places. +Luk 9:7 Now Herod the king had news of all these things: and he was in doubt, because it was said by some people that John had come back from the dead; +Luk 9:8 And by some, that Elijah had come; and by others, that one of the old prophets had come back to life. +Luk 9:9 And Herod said, I put John to death: but who is this, of whom such stories are given to me? And he had a desire to see him. +Luk 9:10 And the twelve, when they came back, gave him an account of what they had done. And he took them with him and went away from the people to a town named Beth-saida. +Luk 9:11 But the people, getting news of it, went after him: and he was pleased to see them, and gave them teaching about the kingdom of God, and made those well who were in need of it. +Luk 9:12 And the day went on; and the twelve came to him and said, Send these people away so that they may go into the towns and the country round about and get resting-places and food for themselves, for we are in a waste place. +Luk 9:13 But he said, Give them food yourselves. And they said, We have only five cakes of bread and two fishes, if we do not go and get food for all these people. +Luk 9:14 For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them be seated in groups, about fifty to a group. +Luk 9:15 And they did so, and made them all be seated. +Luk 9:16 And he took the five cakes of bread and the two fishes and, looking up to heaven, he said words of blessing over them, and when they had been broken, he gave them to the disciples to give to the people. +Luk 9:17 And they all took the food and had enough; and they took up of the broken bits which were over, twelve baskets full. +Luk 9:18 And it came about that when he was in prayer, by himself, and the disciples were with him, he put a question to them, saying, Who do the people say I am? +Luk 9:19 And they, answering, said, John the Baptist; but others say Elijah; and others, that one of the old prophets has come back. +Luk 9:20 And he said, But who do you say that I am? And Peter, answering, said, The Christ of God. +Luk 9:21 But he gave them special orders, not to say this to any man; +Luk 9:22 Saying, The Son of man will undergo much and be put on one side by the rulers and the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and be put to death, and on the third day he will come back to life. +Luk 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man has a desire to come after me, let him give up all, and take up his cross every day, and come after me. +Luk 9:24 For whoever has a desire to keep his life will have it taken from him, but whoever gives up his life because of me, will keep it. +Luk 9:25 For what profit will a man have if he gets all the world, but undergoes loss or destruction himself? +Luk 9:26 For if any man has a feeling of shame because of me or of my words, the Son of man will have shame because of him when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. +Luk 9:27 But truly I say to you, Some of those who are here now will have no taste of death till they see the kingdom of God. +Luk 9:28 And about eight days after he had said these things, he took Peter and John and James with him and went up into the mountain for prayer. +Luk 9:29 And while he was in prayer, his face was changed and his clothing became white and shining. +Luk 9:30 And two men, Moses and Elijah, were talking with him; +Luk 9:31 Who were seen in glory and were talking of his death which was about to take place in Jerusalem. +Luk 9:32 Now Peter and those who were with him were overcome with sleep: but when they were fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who were with him. +Luk 9:33 And when they were about to go away from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah: having no knowledge of what he was saying. +Luk 9:34 And while he said these things, the shade of a cloud came over them, and they were full of fear when they went into the cloud. +Luk 9:35 And there was a voice from the cloud saying, This is my Son, the man of my selection; give ear to him. +Luk 9:36 And after the voice was gone they saw that Jesus was by himself. And they kept quiet, and said nothing at that time to anyone of the things which they had seen. +Luk 9:37 And on the day after, when they came down from the mountain, a great band of people came to him. +Luk 9:38 And a man from among them, crying out, said, Master, I make a request to you, give a thought to my son, for he is my only child: +Luk 9:39 And see, a spirit takes him, and suddenly he gives a cry, twisted in pain and streaming at the lips, and when it goes away from him at last, he is marked as from blows. +Luk 9:40 And I made a request to your disciples to send it out of him, but they were not able to do it. +Luk 9:41 And Jesus said, O generation without faith and false in heart, how long will I have to be with you and put up with you? let your son come here. +Luk 9:42 And while he was coming, he was pushed violently down and twisted by the evil spirit. But Jesus gave sharp orders to the unclean spirit, and made the boy well, and gave him back to his father. +Luk 9:43 And they were full of wonder at the great power of God. But while they were all wondering at all the things which he did, he said to his disciples, +Luk 9:44 Let these words go deep into your ears, for the Son of man will be given up into the hands of men. +Luk 9:45 But this saying was not clear to them and its sense was kept secret from them so that they were not able to see it: and they had fear of questioning him about it. +Luk 9:46 Now there was a discussion among them about which of them would be the greatest. +Luk 9:47 But when Jesus saw the reasoning of their hearts, he took a small child and put him by his side, +Luk 9:48 And said to them, Whoever gives honour to this child in my name, gives honour to me: and whoever gives honour to me, gives honour to him who sent me: for whoever is least among you all, that man is great. +Luk 9:49 And John, answering, said, Master, we saw a man driving out evil spirits in your name, and we did not let him do it, because he was not one of us. +Luk 9:50 But Jesus said to him, Let him do it, for he who is not against you is for you. +Luk 9:51 And it came about that when the days were near for him to be taken up, his face was turned to go to Jerusalem, +Luk 9:52 And he sent men before: and they came to a small town of Samaria to make ready for him. +Luk 9:53 But they would not have him there, because he was clearly going to Jerusalem. +Luk 9:54 And when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, may we send fire from heaven and put an end to them? +Luk 9:55 But turning round he said sharp words to them. +Luk 9:56 And they went to another small town. +Luk 9:57 And when they were on the way, a certain man said to him, I will come after you wherever you go. +Luk 9:58 And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have resting-places, but the Son of man has nowhere to put his head. +Luk 9:59 And he said to another, Come after me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and give the last honours to my father. +Luk 9:60 But he said to him, Let the dead take care of their dead; it is for you to go and give news of the kingdom of God. +Luk 9:61 And another man said, I will come with you, Lord, but first let me say a last good-day to those who are at my house. +Luk 9:62 But Jesus said, No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is good enough for the kingdom of God. +Luk 10:1 Now after these things, the Lord made selection of seventy others and sent them before him, two together, into every town and place where he himself was about to come. +Luk 10:2 And he said to them, There is much grain ready to be cut, but not enough workers: so make prayer to the Lord of the grain-fields that he will send workers to get in the grain. +Luk 10:3 Go on your way: see, I send you out like lambs among wolves. +Luk 10:4 Take no bag for money or for food, and no shoes; say no word to any man on the way. +Luk 10:5 And whenever you go into a house, first say, Peace be to this house. +Luk 10:6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will be with him: but if not, it will come back to you again. +Luk 10:7 And keep in that same house, taking what food and drink they give you: for the worker has a right to his reward. Do not go from house to house. +Luk 10:8 And into whatever town you go, if they take you in, take whatever food is given to you: +Luk 10:9 And make well those in it who are ill and say to them, The kingdom of God is near to you. +Luk 10:10 But if you go into a town where they will not have you, go out into the streets of it and say, +Luk 10:11 Even the dust of your town, which is on our feet, we put off as a witness against you; but be certain of this, that the kingdom of God is near. +Luk 10:12 I say to you, It will be better in that day for Sodom than for that town. +Luk 10:13 A curse is on you, Chorazin! A curse is on you, Beth-saida! For if such works of power had been done in Tyre and Sidon as have been done in you, they would have been turned from their sins, in days gone by, seated in the dust. +Luk 10:14 But it will be better for Tyre and Sidon, in the day of judging, than for you. +Luk 10:15 And you, Capernaum, were you not lifted up to heaven? you will go down to hell. +Luk 10:16 Whoever gives ear to you, gives ear to me; and whoever is against you, is against me; and whoever is against me, is against him who sent me. +Luk 10:17 And the seventy came back with joy, saying, Lord, even the evil spirits are under our power in your name. +Luk 10:18 And he said, I was watching for Satan, falling from heaven like a star. +Luk 10:19 See, I have given you power to put your feet on snakes and evil beasts, and over all the strength of him who is against you: and nothing will do you damage. +Luk 10:20 Do not be glad, however, because you have power over spirits, but because your names are recorded in heaven. +Luk 10:21 In that same hour he was full of joy in the Holy Spirit and said, I give praise to you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have kept these things secret from the wise and the men of learning, and have made them clear to little children: for so, O Father, it was pleasing in your eyes. +Luk 10:22 All things have been given to me by my Father: and no one has knowledge of the Son, but only the Father: and of the Father, but only the Son, and he to whom the Son will make it clear. +Luk 10:23 And, turning to the disciples, he said privately, Happy are the eyes which see the things you see: +Luk 10:24 For I say to you that numbers of prophets and kings have had a desire to see the things which you see, and have not seen them, and to have knowledge of the things which have come to your ears, and they had it not. +Luk 10:25 And a certain teacher of the law got up and put him to the test, saying, Master, what have I to do so that I may have eternal life? +Luk 10:26 And he said to him, What does the law say, in your reading of it? +Luk 10:27 And he, answering, said, Have love for the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and for your neighbour as for yourself. +Luk 10:28 And he said, You have given the right answer: do this and you will have life. +Luk 10:29 But he, desiring to put himself in the right, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbour? +Luk 10:30 And Jesus, answering him, said, A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he got into the hands of thieves, who took his clothing and gave him cruel blows, and when they went away, he was half dead. +Luk 10:31 And by chance a certain priest was going down that way: and when he saw him, he went by on the other side. +Luk 10:32 And in the same way, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, went by on the other side. +Luk 10:33 But a certain man of Samaria, journeying that way, came where he was, and when he saw him, he was moved with pity for him, +Luk 10:34 And came to him and put clean linen round his wounds, with oil and wine; and he put him on his beast and took him to a house and took care of him. +Luk 10:35 And the day after he took two pennies and gave them to the owner of the house and said, Take care of him; and if this money is not enough, when I come again I will give you whatever more is needed. +Luk 10:36 Which of these three men, in your opinion, was neighbour to the man who came into the hands of thieves? +Luk 10:37 And he said, The one who had mercy on him. And Jesus said, Go and do the same. +Luk 10:38 Now, while they were on their way, he came to a certain town; and a woman named Martha took him into her house. +Luk 10:39 And she had a sister, by name Mary, who took her seat at the Lord's feet and gave attention to his words. +Luk 10:40 But Martha had her hands full of the work of the house, and she came to him and said, Lord, is it nothing to you that my sister has let me do all the work? Say to her that she is to give me some help. +Luk 10:41 But the Lord, answering, said to her, Martha, Martha, you are full of care and troubled about such a number of things: +Luk 10:42 Little is needed, or even one thing only: for Mary has taken that good part, which will not be taken away from her. +Luk 11:1 And it came about that he was in prayer in a certain place, and when he came to an end, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, will you give us teaching about prayer, as John did to his disciples? +Luk 11:2 And he said to them, When you say your prayers, say, Father, may your name be kept holy and your kingdom come. +Luk 11:3 Give us every day bread for our needs. +Luk 11:4 May we have forgiveness for our sins, as we make free all those who are in debt to us. And let us not be put to the test. +Luk 11:5 And he said to them, Which of you, having a friend, would go to him in the middle of the night and say to him, Friend, let me have three cakes of bread; +Luk 11:6 Because a friend of mine has come to me on a journey, and I have nothing to put before him; +Luk 11:7 And he, from inside the house, would say in answer, Do not be a trouble to me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; it is not possible for me to get up and give to you? +Luk 11:8 I say to you, Though he will not get up and give to him, because he is his friend, still, if he keeps on making his request, he will get up and give him as much as he has need of. +Luk 11:9 And I say to you, Make requests, and they will be answered; what you are searching for, you will get; when you give the sign, the door will be open to you. +Luk 11:10 For to everyone who makes a request, it will be given; and he who is searching will get his desire; and to him who gives the sign, the door will be open. +Luk 11:11 And which of you, being a father, will give a stone to his son, who makes request for bread? or for a fish, will give him a snake? +Luk 11:12 Or for an egg, will give him a scorpion? +Luk 11:13 If, then, you who are evil are able to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who make request to him? +Luk 11:14 And he was sending an evil spirit out of a man who was without the power of talking. And it came about that when the spirit had gone the man had the power of talking; and the people were full of wonder. +Luk 11:15 But some of them said, He sends out evil spirits by Beelzebul, the ruler of evil spirits. +Luk 11:16 And others, testing him, were looking for a sign from heaven from him. +Luk 11:17 But he, having knowledge of their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom in which there is division is made waste; and a house in which there is division comes to destruction. +Luk 11:18 If, then, Satan is at war with himself, how will he keep his kingdom? because you say that I send evil spirits out of men by the help of Beelzebul. +Luk 11:19 And if I, by Beelzebul, send out evil spirits, by whose help do your sons send them out? so let them be your judges. +Luk 11:20 But if I, by the finger of God, send out evil spirits, then the kingdom of God has overtaken you. +Luk 11:21 When the strong man armed keeps watch over his house, then his goods are safe: +Luk 11:22 But when one who is stronger makes an attack on him and overcomes him, he takes away his instruments of war, in which he had put his faith, and makes division of his goods. +Luk 11:23 He who is not with me is against me, and he who will not give me help in getting people together is driving them away. +Luk 11:24 The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of a man, goes through dry places, looking for rest; and when he does not get it, he says, I will go back to my house from which I came. +Luk 11:25 And when he comes, he sees that it has been made fair and clean. +Luk 11:26 Then he goes and gets seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they go in, and take their places there: and the last condition of that man is worse than the first. +Luk 11:27 And it came about that when he said these things, a certain woman among the people said in a loud voice, Happy is the body which gave you birth, and the breasts from which you took milk. +Luk 11:28 But he said, More happy are they who give hearing to the word of God and keep it. +Luk 11:29 And when a great number of people came together to him, he said, This generation is an evil generation: it is looking for a sign and no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. +Luk 11:30 For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of man be to this generation. +Luk 11:31 The queen of the South will come up on the day of judging and give her decision against the men of this generation: for she came from the ends of the earth to give ear to the wisdom of Solomon; and now something greater than Solomon is here. +Luk 11:32 The men of Nineveh will come up in the day of judging and give their decision against this generation: for they were turned away from their sins at the preaching of Jonah; but now something greater than Jonah is here. +Luk 11:33 No man, when the light has been lighted, puts it in a secret place, or under a vessel, but on its table, so that those who come in may see the light. +Luk 11:34 The light of the body is the eye: when your eye is true, all your body is full of light; but when it is evil, your body is dark. +Luk 11:35 So take care that the light which is in you is not dark. +Luk 11:36 If, then, all your body is light, with no part of it dark, it will be completely full of light, as when a flame with its bright shining gives you light. +Luk 11:37 Now, while he was talking, a Pharisee made a request that he would come to a meal with him; and he went in and took his seat at the meal. +Luk 11:38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised because he came to the meal without first washing himself. +Luk 11:39 And the Lord said to him, You Pharisees make the outside of the cup and the plate clean; but inside you are thieves and full of evil. +Luk 11:40 O you foolish ones! did not he who made the outside in the same way make the inside? +Luk 11:41 But if you give to the poor such things as you are able, then all things are clean to you. +Luk 11:42 But a curse is on you, Pharisees! for you make men give a tenth of every sort of plant, and give no thought to right and the love of God; but it is right for you to do these things, and not let the others be undone. +Luk 11:43 A curse is on you, Pharisees! for your desires are for the most important seats in the Synagogues and for words of respect said to you in the market-place. +Luk 11:44 A curse is on you! for you are like the resting-places of dead men, which are not seen, and men go walking over them without knowledge of it. +Luk 11:45 And one of the teachers of the law, answering, said to him, Master, in saying this, you give a bad name to us as to them. +Luk 11:46 And he said, A curse is on you, teachers of the law! for while other men are crushed under the weight of the rules you make for them, you yourselves do not put so much as one finger to them. +Luk 11:47 A curse is on you! for you make resting-places for the bodies of the prophets, but your fathers put them to death. +Luk 11:48 So you are witnesses and give approval to the work of your fathers; for they put them to death and you make their last resting-places. +Luk 11:49 For this reason the wisdom of God has said, I will send them prophets and teachers, and to some of them they will give death and cruel pains; +Luk 11:50 So that punishment may come on this generation for the blood of all the prophets which was given from the earliest days; +Luk 11:51 From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who was put to death between the altar and the Temple. Yes, I say to you, It will come on this generation. +Luk 11:52 A curse is on you, teachers of the law! for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you did not go in yourselves, and you got in the way of those who were going in. +Luk 11:53 And when he had come out of that place, the scribes and the Pharisees came round him angrily, questioning him about more things; +Luk 11:54 And watching him, for a chance to get something from his words which might be used against him. +Luk 12:1 At that time, when thousands of the people had come together, in such numbers that they were crushing one another, he said first to his disciples, Have nothing to do with the leaven of the Pharisees, which is deceit. +Luk 12:2 But nothing is covered up, which will not come to light, or secret, which will not be made clear. +Luk 12:3 So, whatever you have said in the dark, will come to men's hearing in the light, and what you have said secretly inside the house, will be made public from the house-tops. +Luk 12:4 And I say to you, my friends, Have no fear of those who may put the body to death, and are able to do no more than that. +Luk 12:5 But I will make clear to you of whom you are to be in fear: of him who after death has power to send you to hell; yes, truly I say, Have fear of him. +Luk 12:6 Are not five sparrows given in exchange for two farthings? and God has every one of them in mind. +Luk 12:7 But even the hairs of your head are numbered. Have no fear: you are of more value than a flock of sparrows. +Luk 12:8 And I say to you that to everyone who gives witness to me before men, the Son of man will give witness before the angels of God. +Luk 12:9 But if anyone says before men that he has no knowledge of me, I will say that I have no knowledge of him before the angels of God. +Luk 12:10 And if anyone says a word against the Son of man, he will have forgiveness: but for him who says evil words against the Holy Spirit, there will be no forgiveness. +Luk 12:11 And when they take you before the Synagogues and the authorities and the rulers, take no thought about what answers you will give, or what you will say: +Luk 12:12 For the Holy Spirit will make clear to you in that very hour what to say. +Luk 12:13 And one of the people said to him, Master, give an order to my brother to make division of the heritage with me. +Luk 12:14 But he said, Man, who made me a judge or a maker of decisions for you? +Luk 12:15 And he said to them, Take care to keep yourselves free from the desire for property; for a man's life is not made up of the number of things which he has. +Luk 12:16 And he said to them, in a story, The land of a certain man of great wealth was very fertile: +Luk 12:17 And he said to himself, What is to be done? for I have no place in which to put all my fruit. +Luk 12:18 And he said, This I will do: I will take down my store-houses and make greater ones, and there I will put all my grain and my goods. +Luk 12:19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have a great amount of goods in store, enough for a number of years; be at rest, take food and wine and be happy. +Luk 12:20 But God said to him, You foolish one, tonight I will take your soul from you, and who then will be the owner of all the things which you have got together? +Luk 12:21 So that is what comes to the man who gets wealth for himself, and has not wealth in the eyes of God. +Luk 12:22 And he said to his disciples, For this reason I say to you, Take no thought for your life, about what food you will take, or for your body, how it may be clothed. +Luk 12:23 Is not life more than food, and the body than its clothing? +Luk 12:24 Give thought to the ravens; they do not put seeds into the earth, or get together grain; they have no store-houses or buildings; and God gives them their food: of how much greater value are you than the birds! +Luk 12:25 And which of you by taking thought is able to make himself any taller? +Luk 12:26 If, then, you are not able to do even that which is least, why are you troubled about the rest? +Luk 12:27 Give thought to the flowers: they do no work, they make no thread; and still I say to you, Even Solomon, in all his glory, was not clothed like one of these. +Luk 12:28 But if God gives such clothing to the grass in the field, which today is living, and tomorrow will be burned in the oven, how much more will he give clothing to you, O men of little faith? +Luk 12:29 And do not give overmuch thought to your food and drink, and let not your mind be full of doubts. +Luk 12:30 For the nations of the world go in search of all these things: but your Father has knowledge that you have need of them. +Luk 12:31 But let your chief care be for his kingdom, and these other things will be given to you in addition. +Luk 12:32 Have no fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. +Luk 12:33 Give what property you have in exchange for money, and give the money to the poor; make for yourselves money-bags which will not get old, wealth stored up in heaven which will be yours for ever, where thieves will not come nor worms put it to destruction. +Luk 12:34 For where your wealth is, there will your heart be. +Luk 12:35 Be ready, dressed as for a journey, with your lights burning. +Luk 12:36 And be like men who are looking for their lord, when he comes back from the bride-feast; so that when he comes to the door, it will be open to him quickly. +Luk 12:37 Happy are those servants who are watching when the lord comes; truly I say to you, he will make himself their servant and, placing them at the table, he will come out and give them food. +Luk 12:38 And if he comes in the second division of the night or in the third, and they are watching for him, happy are those servants. +Luk 12:39 But be certain of this, that if the master of the house had had knowledge of the time when the thief was coming, he would have been watching, and would not have let his house be broken into. +Luk 12:40 So be ready: for the Son of man is coming at a time when you are not looking for him. +Luk 12:41 And Peter said to him, Lord, are these words said to us only, or to all men? +Luk 12:42 And the Lord said, Who then is the wise and responsible servant whom his lord will put in control of his family, to give them their food at the right time? +Luk 12:43 Happy is that servant who, when his lord comes, is doing so. +Luk 12:44 Truly I say to you, he will put him in control of all his goods. +Luk 12:45 But if that servant says to himself, My lord is a long time coming; and goes about giving blows to the men-servants and the women-servants, feasting and taking overmuch wine; +Luk 12:46 The lord of that servant will come at a time when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not ready for him, and he will have him cut in two and will give him his part in the fate of those who have no faith; +Luk 12:47 And the servant who had knowledge of his lord's desires and was not ready for him and did not do as he was ordered, will be given a great number of blows; +Luk 12:48 But he who, without knowledge, did things for which punishment is given, will get only a small number of blows. The man to whom much is given, will have to give much; if much is given into his care, of him more will be requested. +Luk 12:49 I came to send a fire on the earth, and it may even now have been lighted. +Luk 12:50 But there is a baptism which I have to undergo; and how am I kept back till it is complete! +Luk 12:51 Is it your opinion that I have come to give peace on earth? I say to you, No, but division: +Luk 12:52 For from this time, a family of five in one house will be on opposite sides, three against two and two against three. +Luk 12:53 They will be at war, the father against his son, and the son against his father; mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. +Luk 12:54 Then he said to the people, When you see a cloud coming up in the west, straight away you say, There will be rain; and so it is. +Luk 12:55 And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, There will be heat; and so it is. +Luk 12:56 O false ones! the face of the earth and the heaven is clear to you; how is it that the signs of these times are not as clear to you? +Luk 12:57 And why are you, in your hearts, unable to be judges of what is right? +Luk 12:58 For if anyone has a cause at law against you, and you are going with him before the ruler, make an attempt, on the way, to come to an agreement with him, for if you do not, he may take you before the judge and the judge will give you up to the police, and they will put you in prison. +Luk 12:59 I say to you, You will not come out of it till you have made payment to the very last farthing. +Luk 13:1 Now some people who were there at that time, gave him an account of how the blood of some Galilaeans had been mixed by Pilate with their offerings. +Luk 13:2 And he, in answer, said to them, Are you of the opinion that these Galilaeans were worse than all other Galilaeans, because these things were done to them? +Luk 13:3 I say to you, It is not so: but if your hearts are not changed, you will all come to the same end. +Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen men who were crushed by the fall of the tower of Siloam, were they worse than all the other men living in Jerusalem? +Luk 13:5 I say to you, It is not so: but if your hearts are not changed, you will all come to an end in the same way. +Luk 13:6 And he made up this story for them: A certain man had a fig-tree in his garden, and he came to get fruit from it, and there was no fruit. +Luk 13:7 And he said to the gardener, See, for three years I have been looking for fruit from this tree, and I have not had any: let it be cut down; why is it taking up space? +Luk 13:8 And he said, Lord, let it be for this year, and I will have the earth turned up round it, and put animal waste on it, to make it fertile: +Luk 13:9 And if, after that, it has fruit, it is well; if not, let it be cut down. +Luk 13:10 And he was teaching in one of the Synagogues on the Sabbath. +Luk 13:11 And there was a woman who had had a disease for eighteen years; she was bent, and was not able to make herself straight. +Luk 13:12 And when Jesus saw her, he said to her, Woman, you are made free from your disease. +Luk 13:13 And he put his hands on her, and she was made straight, and gave praise to God. +Luk 13:14 And the ruler of the Synagogue was angry because Jesus had made her well on the Sabbath, and he said to the people, There are six days in which men may do work: so come on those days to be made well, and not on the Sabbath. +Luk 13:15 But the Lord gave him an answer and said, O you false men! do you not, every one of you, on the Sabbath, let loose his ox and his ass and take it to the water? +Luk 13:16 And is it not right for this daughter of Abraham, who has been in the power of Satan for eighteen years, to be made free on the Sabbath? +Luk 13:17 And when he said these things, those who were against him were shamed, and all the people were full of joy because of the great things which were done by him. +Luk 13:18 Then he said, What is the kingdom of God like? what comparison may I make of it? +Luk 13:19 It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his garden, and it became a tree, and the birds of heaven made their resting-places in its branches. +Luk 13:20 And again he said, What is the kingdom of God like? +Luk 13:21 It is like leaven, which a woman put into three measures of meal, and it was all leavened. +Luk 13:22 And he went on his way, through towns and country places, teaching and journeying to Jerusalem. +Luk 13:23 And someone said to him, Lord, will only a small number have salvation? And he said to them, +Luk 13:24 Do your best to go in by the narrow door, for I say to you, A number will make the attempt to go in, but will not be able to do so. +Luk 13:25 When the master of the house has got up, and the door has been shut, and you, still outside, give blows on the door, saying, Lord, let us in; he will make answer and say, I have no knowledge of where you come from. +Luk 13:26 Then you will say, We have taken food and drink with you, and you were teaching in our streets. +Luk 13:27 But he will say, Truly, I have no knowledge of you or where you come from; go away from me, you workers of evil. +Luk 13:28 There will be weeping and cries of sorrow when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves are shut outside. +Luk 13:29 And they will come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and take their places in the kingdom of God. +Luk 13:30 And the last will be first, and the first will be last. +Luk 13:31 At that time, certain Pharisees came to him and said, Go away from this place, because Herod's purpose is to put you to death. +Luk 13:32 And he said, Go and say to that fox, I send out evil spirits and do works of mercy today and tomorrow, and on the third day my work will be complete. +Luk 13:33 But I have to go on my way today and tomorrow and the third day, for it is not right for a prophet to come to his death outside Jerusalem. +Luk 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, putting to death the prophets, and stoning those who were sent to her! again and again would I have taken your children to myself, as a bird takes her young ones under her wings, but you would not! +Luk 13:35 Now see, your house is waste, and I say to you, You will not see me again till you say, A blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord. +Luk 14:1 And it came about that when he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees on the Sabbath, to have a meal, they were watching him. +Luk 14:2 And a certain man was there who had a disease. +Luk 14:3 And Jesus, answering, said to the scribes and Pharisees, Is it right to make people well on the Sabbath or not? +Luk 14:4 But they said nothing. And he made him well and sent him away. +Luk 14:5 And he said to them, Which of you, whose ox or ass has got into a water-hole, will not straight away get him out on the Sabbath? +Luk 14:6 And they had no answer to that question. +Luk 14:7 And he gave teaching in the form of a story to the guests who came to the feast, when he saw how they took the best seats; saying to them, +Luk 14:8 When you get a request to come to a feast, do not take the best seat, for a more important man than you may be coming, +Luk 14:9 And then the giver of the feast will come to you and say, Give your place to this man; and you, with shame, will have to take the lowest seat. +Luk 14:10 But when you come, go and take the lowest seat, so that when the giver of the feast comes, he may say to you, Friend, come up higher; and then you will have honour in the eyes of all the others who are there. +Luk 14:11 For every man who gives himself a high place will be put down, but he who takes a low place will be lifted up. +Luk 14:12 And he said to the master of the house, When you give a feast, do not send for your friends and your brothers and your family or your neighbours who have wealth, for they may give a feast for you, and so you will get a reward. +Luk 14:13 But when you give a feast, send for the poor and the blind and those who are broken in body: +Luk 14:14 And you will have a blessing, because they will not be able to give you any payment, and you will get your reward when the upright come back from the dead. +Luk 14:15 And, hearing these words, one of those who were at table with him said to him, Happy is the man who will be a guest in the kingdom of God. +Luk 14:16 And he said to them, A certain man gave a great feast, and sent word of it to a number of people. +Luk 14:17 And when the time had come, he sent his servants to say to them, Come, for all things are now ready. +Luk 14:18 And they all gave reasons why they were not able to come. The first said to him, I have got a new field, and it is necessary for me to go and see it: I am full of regret that I am unable to come. +Luk 14:19 And another said, I have got some cattle, and I am going to make a test of them: I am full of regret that I am unable to come. +Luk 14:20 And another said, I have been married, and so I am not able to come. +Luk 14:21 And the servant came back and gave his master an account of these things. Then the master of the house was angry and said to the servant, Go out quickly into the streets of the town and get the poor, the blind, and those who are broken in body. +Luk 14:22 And the servant said, Lord, your orders have been done, and still there is room. +Luk 14:23 And the lord said to the servant, Go out into the roads and the fields, and make them come in, so that my house may be full. +Luk 14:24 For I say to you that not one of those who were requested to come will have a taste of my feast. +Luk 14:25 Now a great number of people went with him. +Luk 14:26 And turning round, he said to them, If any man comes to me, and has not hate for his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even for his life, he may not be my disciple. +Luk 14:27 Whoever does not take up his cross and come after me may not be my disciple. +Luk 14:28 For which of you, desiring to put up a tower, does not first give much thought to the price, if he will have enough to make it complete? +Luk 14:29 For fear that if he makes a start and is not able to go on with it to the end, all who see it will be laughing at him, +Luk 14:30 And saying, This man made a start at building and is not able to make it complete. +Luk 14:31 Or what king, going to war with another king, will not first take thought if he will be strong enough, with ten thousand men, to keep off him who comes against him with twenty thousand? +Luk 14:32 Or while the other is still a great distance away, he sends representatives requesting conditions of peace. +Luk 14:33 And so whoever is not ready to give up all he has may not be my disciple. +Luk 14:34 For salt is good, but if the taste goes from it, of what use is it? +Luk 14:35 It is no good for the land or for the place of waste; no one has a use for it. He who has ears, let him give ear. +Luk 15:1 Now all the tax-farmers and sinners came near to give ear to him. +Luk 15:2 And the Pharisees and scribes were angry, saying, This man gives approval to sinners, and takes food with them. +Luk 15:3 And he made a story for them, saying, +Luk 15:4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if one of them gets loose and goes away, will not let the ninety-nine be in the waste land by themselves, and go after the wandering one, till he sees where it is? +Luk 15:5 And when he has got it again, he takes it in his arms with joy. +Luk 15:6 And when he gets back to his house, he sends for his neighbours and friends, saying to them, Be glad with me, for I have got back my sheep which had gone away. +Luk 15:7 I say to you that even so there will be more joy in heaven when one sinner is turned away from his wrongdoing, than for ninety-nine good men, who have no need of a change of heart. +Luk 15:8 Or what woman, having ten bits of silver, if one bit has gone from her hands, will not get a light, and go through her house, searching with care till she sees it? +Luk 15:9 And when she has it again, she gets her friends and neighbours together, saying, Be glad with me, for I have got back the bit of silver which had gone from me. +Luk 15:10 Even so, I say to you, There is joy among the angels of God, when one sinner is turned away from his wrongdoing. +Luk 15:11 And he said, A certain man had two sons: +Luk 15:12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me that part of your property which will be mine. And he made division of his goods between them. +Luk 15:13 And not long after, the younger son got together everything which was his and took a journey into a far-away country, and there all his money went in foolish living. +Luk 15:14 And when everything was gone, there was no food to be had in that country, and he was in need. +Luk 15:15 And he went and put himself into the hands of one of the people of that country, and he sent him into his fields to give the pigs their food. +Luk 15:16 And so great was his need that he would have been glad to take the pigs' food, and no one gave him anything. +Luk 15:17 But when he came to his senses, he said, What numbers of my father's servants have bread enough, and more, while I am near to death here through need of food! +Luk 15:18 I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have done wrong, against heaven and in your eyes: +Luk 15:19 I am no longer good enough to be named your son: make me like one of your servants. +Luk 15:20 And he got up and went to his father. But while he was still far away, his father saw him and was moved with pity for him and went quickly and took him in his arms and gave him a kiss. +Luk 15:21 And his son said to him, Father, I have done wrong, against heaven and in your eyes: I am no longer good enough to be named your son. +Luk 15:22 But the father said to his servants, Get out the first robe quickly, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet: +Luk 15:23 And get the fat young ox and put it to death, and let us have a feast, and be glad. +Luk 15:24 For this, my son, who was dead, is living again; he had gone away from me, and has come back. And they were full of joy. +Luk 15:25 Now the older son was in the field: and when he came near the house, the sounds of music and dancing came to his ears. +Luk 15:26 And he sent for one of the servants, questioning him about what it might be. +Luk 15:27 And he said to him, Your brother has come; and your father has had the young ox put to death because he has come back safely. +Luk 15:28 But he was angry and would not go in; and his father came out and made a request to him to come in. +Luk 15:29 But he made answer and said to his father, See, all these years I have been your servant, doing your orders in everything: and you never gave me even a young goat so that I might have a feast with my friends: +Luk 15:30 But when this your son came, who has been wasting your property with bad women, you put to death the fat young ox for him. +Luk 15:31 And he said to him, Son, you are with me at all times, and all I have is yours. +Luk 15:32 But it was right to be glad and to have a feast; for this your brother, who was dead, is living again; he had gone away and has come back. +Luk 16:1 And another time he said to the disciples, There was a certain man of great wealth who had a servant; and it was said to him that this servant was wasting his goods. +Luk 16:2 And he sent for him and said, What is this which is said about you? give me an account of all you have done, for you will no longer be the manager of my property. +Luk 16:3 And the servant said to himself, What am I to do now that my lord takes away my position? I have not enough strength for working in the fields, and I would be shamed if I made requests for money from people in the streets. +Luk 16:4 I have come to a decision what to do, so that when I am put out of my position they will take me into their houses. +Luk 16:5 And sending for every one who was in debt to his lord he said to the first, What is the amount of your debt to my lord? +Luk 16:6 And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said, Take your account straight away and put down fifty. +Luk 16:7 Then he said to another, What is the amount of your debt? And he said, A hundred measures of grain. And he said to him, Take your account and put down eighty. +Luk 16:8 And his lord was pleased with the false servant, because he had been wise; for the sons of this world are wiser in relation to their generation than the sons of light. +Luk 16:9 And I say to you, Make friends for yourselves through the wealth of this life, so that when it comes to an end, you may be taken into the eternal resting-places. +Luk 16:10 He who is true in a little, is true in much; he who is false in small things, is false in great. +Luk 16:11 If, then, you have not been true in your use of the wealth of this life, who will give into your care the true wealth? +Luk 16:12 And if you have not been true in your care of the property of other people, who will give you that which is yours? +Luk 16:13 No man may be a servant to two masters: for he will have hate for the one and love for the other; or he will keep to the one and have no respect for the other. You may not be servants of God and of wealth. +Luk 16:14 And the Pharisees, who had a great love of money, hearing these things, were making sport of him. +Luk 16:15 And he said, You take care to seem right in the eyes of men, but God sees your hearts: and those things which are important in the opinion of men, are evil in the eyes of God. +Luk 16:16 The law and the prophets were till John: but then came the preaching of the kingdom of God, and everyone makes his way into it by force. +Luk 16:17 But heaven and earth will come to an end before the smallest letter of the law may be dropped out. +Luk 16:18 Everyone who puts away his wife and takes another, is a false husband: and he who is married to a woman whose husband has put her away, is no true husband to her. +Luk 16:19 Now there was a certain man of great wealth, who was dressed in fair clothing of purple and delicate linen, and was shining and glad every day. +Luk 16:20 And a certain poor man, named Lazarus, was stretched out at his door, full of wounds, +Luk 16:21 Desiring the broken bits of food which came from the table of the man of wealth; and even the dogs came and put their tongues on his wounds. +Luk 16:22 And in time the poor man came to his end, and angels took him to Abraham's breast. And the man of wealth came to his end, and was put in the earth. +Luk 16:23 And in hell, being in great pain, lifting up his eyes he saw Abraham, far away, and Lazarus on his breast. +Luk 16:24 And he gave a cry and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may put the end of his finger in water and put it on my tongue, for I am cruelly burning in this flame. +Luk 16:25 But Abraham said, Keep in mind, my son, that when you were living, you had your good things, while Lazarus had evil things: but now, he is comforted and you are in pain. +Luk 16:26 And in addition, there is a deep division fixed between us and you, so that those who might go from here to you are not able to do so, and no one may come from you to us. +Luk 16:27 And he said, Father, it is my request that you will send him to my father's house; +Luk 16:28 For I have five brothers; and let him give them an account of these things, so that they may not come to this place of pain. +Luk 16:29 But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets; let them give ear to what they say. +Luk 16:30 And he said, No, father Abraham, but if someone went to them from the dead, their hearts would be changed. +Luk 16:31 And he said to him, If they will not give attention to Moses and the prophets, they will not be moved even if someone comes back from the dead. +Luk 17:1 And he said to his disciples, It is necessary for causes of trouble to come about, but unhappy is he by whom they come. +Luk 17:2 It would be well for him if a great stone was put round his neck and he was dropped into the sea, before he made trouble for any of these little ones. +Luk 17:3 Give attention to yourselves: if your brother does wrong, say a sharp word to him; and if he has sorrow for his sin, let him have forgiveness. +Luk 17:4 And if he does you wrong seven times in a day, and seven times comes to you and says, I have regret for what I have done; let him have forgiveness. +Luk 17:5 And the twelve said to the Lord, Make our faith greater. +Luk 17:6 And the Lord said, If your faith was only as great as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this tree, Be rooted up and planted in the sea; and it would be done. +Luk 17:7 But which of you, having a servant who is ploughing or keeping sheep, will say to him, when he comes in from the field, Come now and be seated and have a meal, +Luk 17:8 Will he not say, Get a meal for me, and make yourself ready and see to my needs till I have had my food and drink; and after that you may have yours? +Luk 17:9 Does he give praise to the servant because he did what was ordered? +Luk 17:10 In the same way, when you have done all the things which are given you to do, say, There is no profit in us, for we have only done what we were ordered to do. +Luk 17:11 And it came about that when they were on the way to Jerusalem he went through Samaria and Galilee. +Luk 17:12 And when he went into a certain small town he came across ten men who were lepers, and they, keeping themselves at a distance, +Luk 17:13 Said, in loud voices, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. +Luk 17:14 And when he saw them he said, Go, and let the priests see you. And, while they were going, they were made clean. +Luk 17:15 And one of them, when he saw that he was clean, turning back, gave praise to God in a loud voice; +Luk 17:16 And, falling down on his face at the feet of Jesus, he gave the credit to him; and he was a man of Samaria. +Luk 17:17 And Jesus said, Were there not ten men who were made clean? where are the nine? +Luk 17:18 Have not any of them come back to give glory to God, but only this one from a strange land? +Luk 17:19 And he said to him, Get up, and go on your way; your faith has made you well. +Luk 17:20 And when the Pharisees put questions to him about when the kingdom of God would come, he gave them an answer and said, The kingdom of God will not come through observation: +Luk 17:21 And men will not say, See, it is here! or, There! for the kingdom of God is among you. +Luk 17:22 And he said to his disciples, The time will come when you will have a great desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, but you will not see it. +Luk 17:23 And if they say to you, See, it is there! or, It is here! do not go away, or go after them. +Luk 17:24 For as in a thunderstorm the bright light is seen from one end of the sky to the other, so will the Son of man be when his time comes. +Luk 17:25 But first, he will have to undergo much and be put on one side by this generation. +Luk 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the day of the Son of man. +Luk 17:27 They were feasting and taking wives and getting married, till the day of the overflowing of the waters, when Noah went into the ark, and they all came to destruction. +Luk 17:28 In the same way, in the days of Lot; they were feasting and trading, they were planting and building; +Luk 17:29 But on the day when Lot went out of Sodom, fire came down from heaven and destruction came on them all. +Luk 17:30 So will it be in the day of the revelation of the Son of man. +Luk 17:31 On that day, if anyone is on the roof of the house, and his goods are in the house, let him not go down to take them away; and let him who is in the field not go back to his house. +Luk 17:32 Keep in mind Lot's wife. +Luk 17:33 If anyone makes an attempt to keep his life, it will be taken from him, but if anyone gives up his life, he will keep it. +Luk 17:34 I say to you, In that night there will be two men sleeping in one bed, and one will be taken away and the other let go. +Luk 17:35 Two women will be crushing grain together; one will be taken away and the other let go. +Luk 17:36 [] +Luk 17:37 And they, answering him, said, Where, Lord? And he said to them, Where the body is, there will the eagles come together. +Luk 18:1 And he made a story for them, the point of which was that men were to go on making prayer and not get tired; +Luk 18:2 Saying, There was a judge in a certain town, who had no fear of God or respect for man: +Luk 18:3 And there was a widow in that town, and she kept on coming to him and saying, Give me my right against the man who has done me wrong. +Luk 18:4 And for a time he would not: but later, he said to himself, Though I have no fear of God or respect for man, +Luk 18:5 Because this widow is a trouble to me, I will give her her right; for if not, I will be completely tired out by her frequent coming. +Luk 18:6 And the Lord said, Give ear to the words of the evil judge. +Luk 18:7 And will not God do right in the cause of his saints, whose cries come day and night to his ears, though he is long in doing it? +Luk 18:8 I say to you that he will quickly do right in their cause. But when the Son of man comes, will there be any faith on earth? +Luk 18:9 And he made this story for some people who were certain that they were good, and had a low opinion of others: +Luk 18:10 Two men went up to the Temple for prayer; one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-farmer. +Luk 18:11 The Pharisee, taking up his position, said to himself these words: God, I give you praise because I am not like other men, who take more than their right, who are evil-doers, who are untrue to their wives, or even like this tax-farmer. +Luk 18:12 Twice in the week I go without food; I give a tenth of all I have. +Luk 18:13 The tax-farmer, on the other hand, keeping far away, and not lifting up even his eyes to heaven, made signs of grief and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. +Luk 18:14 I say to you, This man went back to his house with God's approval, and not the other: for everyone who makes himself high will be made low and whoever makes himself low will be made high. +Luk 18:15 And they took their children to him, so that he might put his hands on them: but when the disciples saw it, they said sharp words to them +Luk 18:16 But Jesus sent for them, saying, Let the children come to me, and do not keep them away, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. +Luk 18:17 Truly I say to you, Whoever does not put himself under the kingdom of God like a little child, will not come into it at all. +Luk 18:18 And a certain ruler put a question to him, saying, Good Master, what have I to do so that I may have eternal life? +Luk 18:19 And Jesus said to him, Why do you say that I am good? No one is good, but only God. +Luk 18:20 You have knowledge of what the law says: Do not be untrue to your wife, Do not put anyone to death, Do not take what is not yours, Do not give false witness, Give honour to your father and mother. +Luk 18:21 And he said, All these things I have done from the time when I was a boy. +Luk 18:22 And Jesus, hearing it, said to him, One thing you still have need of; get money for your goods, and give it away to the poor, and you will have wealth in heaven; and come after me. +Luk 18:23 But at these words he became very sad, for he had great wealth. +Luk 18:24 And Jesus, looking at him, said, How hard it is for those who have wealth to get into the kingdom of God! +Luk 18:25 It is simpler for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a man who has much money to come into the kingdom of God. +Luk 18:26 And those who were present said, Then who may have salvation? +Luk 18:27 But he said, Things which are not possible with man are possible with God. +Luk 18:28 And Peter said, See, we have given up what is ours to come after you. +Luk 18:29 And he said to them, Truly I say to you, There is no man who has given up house or wife or brothers or father or mother or children, because of the kingdom of God, +Luk 18:30 Who will not get much more in this time, and in the world to come, eternal life. +Luk 18:31 And he took with him the twelve and said to them, Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things which were said by the prophets will be done to the Son of man. +Luk 18:32 For he will be given up to the Gentiles, and will be made sport of and put to shame: +Luk 18:33 And he will be given cruel blows and put to death, and on the third day he will come back to life. +Luk 18:34 But they did not take in the sense of any of these words, and what he said was not clear to them, and their minds were not able to see it. +Luk 18:35 And it came about that when he got near Jericho, a certain blind man was seated by the side of the road, making requests for money from those who went by. +Luk 18:36 And hearing the sound of a great number of people going by, he said, What is this? +Luk 18:37 And they said to him, Jesus of Nazareth is going by. +Luk 18:38 And he said in a loud voice, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. +Luk 18:39 And those who were in front made protests and said to him, Be quiet: but he said all the more, O Son of David, have mercy on me. +Luk 18:40 And Jesus, stopping, gave orders that he was to come to him, and when he came near, he said to him, +Luk 18:41 What would you have me do for you? And he said, Lord, that I may be able to see again. +Luk 18:42 And Jesus said, See again: your faith has made you well. +Luk 18:43 And straight away he was able to see, and he went after him, giving glory to God; and all the people when they saw it gave praise to God. +Luk 19:1 And he went into Jericho, and when he was going through it, +Luk 19:2 A man, named Zacchaeus, who was the chief tax-farmer, and a man of wealth, +Luk 19:3 Made an attempt to get a view of Jesus, and was not able to do so, because of the people, for he was a small man. +Luk 19:4 And he went quickly in front of them and got up into a tree to see him, for he was going that way. +Luk 19:5 And when Jesus came to the place, looking up, he said to him, Zacchaeus, be quick and come down, for I am coming to your house today. +Luk 19:6 And he came down quickly, and took him into his house with joy. +Luk 19:7 And when they saw it, they were all angry, saying, He has gone into the house of a sinner. +Luk 19:8 And Zacchaeus, waiting before him, said to the Lord, See, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone wrongly, I give him back four times as much. +Luk 19:9 And Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, for even he is a son of Abraham. +Luk 19:10 For the Son of man came to make search for those who are wandering from the way, and to be their Saviour. +Luk 19:11 And while they were giving ear to these words, he made another story for them, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they were of the opinion that the kingdom of God was coming straight away. +Luk 19:12 So he said, A certain man of high birth went into a far-away country to get a kingdom for himself, and to come back. +Luk 19:13 And he sent for ten of his servants and gave them ten pounds and said to them, Do business with this till I come. +Luk 19:14 But his people had no love for him, and sent representatives after him, saying, We will not have this man for our ruler. +Luk 19:15 And when he came back again, having got his kingdom, he gave orders for those servants to whom he had given the money to come to him, so that he might have an account of what business they had done. +Luk 19:16 And the first came before him, saying, Lord, your pound has made ten pounds. +Luk 19:17 And he said to him, You have done well, O good servant: because you have done well in a small thing you will have authority over ten towns. +Luk 19:18 And another came, saying, Your pound has made five pounds. +Luk 19:19 And he said, You will be ruler over five towns. +Luk 19:20 And another came, saying, Lord, here is your pound, which I put away in a cloth; +Luk 19:21 Because I was in fear of you, for you are a hard man: you take up what you have not put down, and get in grain where you have not put seed. +Luk 19:22 He said to him, By the words of your mouth you will be judged, you bad servant. You had knowledge that I am a hard man, taking up what I have not put down and getting in grain where I have not put seed; +Luk 19:23 Why then did you not put my money in a bank, so that when I came I would get it back with interest? +Luk 19:24 And he said to the others who were near, Take the pound away from him, and give it to the man who has ten. +Luk 19:25 And they say to him, Lord, he has ten pounds. +Luk 19:26 And I say to you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. +Luk 19:27 And as for those who were against me, who would not have me for their ruler, let them come here, and be put to death before me. +Luk 19:28 And when he had said this, he went on in front of them, going up to Jerusalem. +Luk 19:29 And it came about that when he got near Beth-phage and Bethany by the mountain which is named the Mountain of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, +Luk 19:30 Saying, Go into the little town in front of you, and on going in you will see a young ass fixed with a cord, on which no man has ever been seated; let him loose and take him. +Luk 19:31 And if anyone says to you, Why are you taking him? say, The Lord has need of him. +Luk 19:32 And those whom he sent went away, and it was as he said. +Luk 19:33 And when they were getting the young ass, the owners of it said to them, Why are you taking the young ass? +Luk 19:34 And they said, The Lord has need of him. +Luk 19:35 And they took him to Jesus, and they put their clothing on the ass, and Jesus got on to him. +Luk 19:36 And while he went on his way they put their clothing down on the road in front of him. +Luk 19:37 And when he came near the foot of the Mountain of Olives, all the disciples with loud voices gave praise to God with joy, because of all the great works which they had seen; +Luk 19:38 Saying, A blessing on the King who comes in the name of the Lord; peace in heaven and glory in the highest. +Luk 19:39 And some of the Pharisees among the people said to him, Master, make your disciples be quiet. +Luk 19:40 And he said in answer, I say to you, if these men keep quiet, the very stones will be crying out. +Luk 19:41 And when he got near and saw the town, he was overcome with weeping for it, +Luk 19:42 Saying, If you, even you, had knowledge today, of the things which give peace! but you are not able to see them. +Luk 19:43 For the time will come when your attackers will put a wall round you, and come all round you and keep you in on every side, +Luk 19:44 And will make you level with the earth, and your children with you; and there will not be one stone resting on another in you, because you did not see that it was your day of mercy. +Luk 19:45 And he went into the Temple and put out those who were trading there, +Luk 19:46 Saying to them, It has been said, My house is to be a house of prayer, but you have made it a hole of thieves. +Luk 19:47 And every day he was teaching in the Temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the rulers of the people were attempting to put him to death; +Luk 19:48 But they were not able to do anything, because the people all kept near him, being greatly interested in his words. +Luk 20:1 And it came about on one of those days, when he was teaching the people in the Temple and preaching the good news, +Luk 20:2 That the chief priests and the scribes and the rulers of the people came to him and said, Make clear to us by what authority you do these things and who gave you this authority. +Luk 20:3 And in answer he said to them, I will put a question to you, and do you give me an answer: +Luk 20:4 The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? +Luk 20:5 And they said among themselves, If we say, From heaven; he will say, Why did you not have faith in him? +Luk 20:6 But if we say, Of men; we will be stoned by the people, for they are certain that John was a prophet. +Luk 20:7 And they made answer that they had no idea where it came from. +Luk 20:8 And Jesus said, And I will not make clear to you by what authority I do these things. +Luk 20:9 And he gave the people this story: A man made a vine-garden and gave the use of it to some field-workers and went into another country for a long time. +Luk 20:10 And at the right time he sent a servant to the workers to get part of the fruit from the vines; but the workmen gave him blows and sent him away with nothing. +Luk 20:11 And he sent another servant, and they gave blows to him in the same way, and put shame on him, and sent him away with nothing. +Luk 20:12 And he sent a third, and they gave him wounds and put him out. +Luk 20:13 And the lord of the garden said, What am I to do? I will send my dearly loved son; they may give respect to him. +Luk 20:14 But when the workmen saw him, they said to one another, This is he who will one day be the owner of the property: let us put him to death and the heritage will be ours. +Luk 20:15 And driving him out of the garden they put him to death. Now what will the lord do to these workmen? +Luk 20:16 He will come and put them to destruction and give the garden to others. And when he said this, they said, May it not be so. +Luk 20:17 But he, looking on them, said, Is it not in the Writings, The stone which the builders put on one side, the same has become the chief stone of the building? +Luk 20:18 Everyone falling on that stone will be broken, but the man on whom the stone comes down will be crushed to dust. +Luk 20:19 And the chief priests and the scribes made attempts to get their hands on him in that very hour; and they were in fear of the people, for they saw that he had made up this story against them. +Luk 20:20 And they kept watch on him, and sent out secret representatives, who were acting the part of good men, in order that they might get something from his words, on account of which they might give him up to the government and into the power of the ruler. +Luk 20:21 And they put a question to him, saying, Master, we are certain that your teaching and your words are right, and that you have no respect for a man's position, but you are teaching the true way of God: +Luk 20:22 Is it right for us to make payment of taxes to Caesar or not? +Luk 20:23 But he saw through their trick and said to them, +Luk 20:24 Let me see a penny. Whose image and name are on it? And they said, Caesar's. +Luk 20:25 And he said, Then give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's. +Luk 20:26 And they were not able to get anything from these words before the people: but they were full of wonder at his answer, and said nothing. +Luk 20:27 And some of the Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no coming back from the dead; and they said to him, +Luk 20:28 Master, Moses said that if a man's brother comes to his end, having a wife, but no children, his brother is to take the wife, and get a family for his brother. +Luk 20:29 Now there were seven brothers, and the first had a wife and came to his end, having no children; +Luk 20:30 And the second; +Luk 20:31 And the third took her; and in the same way, all the seven, without having any children, came to their end. +Luk 20:32 And last of all, the woman came to her end. +Luk 20:33 When they come back from the dead, whose wife will she be? for all the seven had her. +Luk 20:34 And Jesus said to them, The sons of this world are married and have wives; +Luk 20:35 But those to whom is given the reward of the world to come, and to come back from the dead, have no wives, and are not married; +Luk 20:36 And death has no more power over them, for they are equal to the angels, and are sons of God, being of those who will come back from the dead. +Luk 20:37 But even Moses made it clear that the dead come back to life, saying, in the story of the burning thorn-tree, The Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. +Luk 20:38 Now he is not the God of the dead but of the living: for all men are living to him. +Luk 20:39 And some of the scribes, in answer to this, said, Master, you have said well. +Luk 20:40 And they had fear of putting any more questions to him. +Luk 20:41 And he said to them, Why do they say that the Christ is the son of David? +Luk 20:42 For David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Take your seat at my right hand, +Luk 20:43 Till I put under your feet all those who are against you. +Luk 20:44 David then gives him the name of Lord, so how is it possible for him to be his son? +Luk 20:45 And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, +Luk 20:46 Keep away from the scribes, whose pleasure it is to go about in long robes, and to have words of respect said to them in the market-places, and to take the chief seats in the Synagogues and the first places at feasts; +Luk 20:47 Who take the property of widows and before the eyes of men make long prayers; they will get a greater punishment. +Luk 21:1 And looking up, he saw the men of wealth putting their offerings in the money-box. +Luk 21:2 And he saw a certain poor widow putting in a farthing. +Luk 21:3 And he said, Truly I say to you, This poor widow has given more than all of them: +Luk 21:4 For they gave out of their wealth, having more than enough for themselves: but she, even out of her need, has put in all her living. +Luk 21:5 And some were talking about the Temple, how it was made fair with beautiful stones and with offerings, but he said, +Luk 21:6 As for these things which you see, the days will come when not one stone will be resting on another, but all will be broken down. +Luk 21:7 And they said to him, Master, when will these things be? and what sign will there be when these events are to take place? +Luk 21:8 And he said, Take care that you are not tricked: for a number of people will come in my name, saying, I am he; and, The time is near: do not go after them. +Luk 21:9 And when news of wars and troubled times comes to your ears, have no fear; for these things have to be, but the end will not be now. +Luk 21:10 Then he said to them, Nation will be moved against nation and kingdom against kingdom: +Luk 21:11 There will be great earth-shocks and outbursts of disease in a number of places, and men will be without food; and there will be wonders and great signs from heaven. +Luk 21:12 But before all this, they will take you and be very cruel to you, giving you up to the Synagogues and to prisons, taking you before kings and rulers, because of my name. +Luk 21:13 And it will be turned to a witness for you. +Luk 21:14 So take care not to be troubled before the time comes, about what answers you will give: +Luk 21:15 For I will give you words and wisdom, so that not one of those who are against you will be able to get the better of you, or to put you in the wrong. +Luk 21:16 But you will be given up even by your fathers and mothers, your brothers and relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death. +Luk 21:17 And you will be hated by all men, because of me. +Luk 21:18 But not a hair of your head will come to destruction. +Luk 21:19 By going through all these things, you will keep your lives. +Luk 21:20 But when you see armies all round about Jerusalem, then be certain that her destruction is near. +Luk 21:21 Then let those who are in Judaea go in flight to the mountains; and those who are in the middle of the town go out; and let not those who are in the country come in. +Luk 21:22 For these are the days of punishment, in which all the things in the Writings will be put into effect. +Luk 21:23 It will be hard for women who are with child, and for her with a baby at the breast, in those days. For great trouble will come on the land, and wrath on this people. +Luk 21:24 And they will be put to death with the sword, and will be taken as prisoners into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be crushed under the feet of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles are complete. +Luk 21:25 And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; and on the earth, fear among the nations and doubt because of the loud noise of the sea and the waves; +Luk 21:26 Men's strength will go from them in fear and in waiting for the things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of the heavens will be moved. +Luk 21:27 And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory. +Luk 21:28 But when these things come about, let your heads be lifted up, because your salvation is near. +Luk 21:29 And he made a story for them: See the fig-tree, and all the trees; +Luk 21:30 When they put out their young leaves, you take note of it, and it is clear to you that summer is coming. +Luk 21:31 In the same way, when you see these things taking place you may be certain that the kingdom of God is near. +Luk 21:32 Truly I say to you, This generation will not come to an end till all things are complete. +Luk 21:33 Heaven and earth will come to an end, but my words will not come to an end. +Luk 21:34 But give attention to yourselves, for fear that your hearts become over-full of the pleasures of food and wine, and the cares of this life, and that day may come on you suddenly, and take you as in a net: +Luk 21:35 For so it will come on all those who are living on the face of all the earth. +Luk 21:36 But keep watch at all times with prayer, that you may be strong enough to come through all these things and take your place before the Son of man. +Luk 21:37 And every day he was teaching in the Temple and every night he went out to the mountain which is named the Mountain of Olives to take his rest. +Luk 21:38 And all the people came early in the morning to give ear to his words in the Temple. +Luk 22:1 Now the feast of unleavened bread was near, which is called the Passover. +Luk 22:2 And the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a chance to put him to death, but they went in fear of the people. +Luk 22:3 And Satan came into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve. +Luk 22:4 And he went away and had a discussion with the chief priests and the rulers, about how he might give him up to them. +Luk 22:5 And they were glad, and undertook to give him money. +Luk 22:6 And he made an agreement with them to give him up to them, if he got a chance, when the people were not present. +Luk 22:7 And the day of unleavened bread came, when the Passover lamb is put to death. +Luk 22:8 And Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, Go and make the Passover ready for us, so that we may take it. +Luk 22:9 And they said to him, Where are we to get it ready? +Luk 22:10 And he said to them, When you go into the town you will see a man coming to you with a vessel of water; go after him into the house into which he goes. +Luk 22:11 And say to the master of the house, The Master says, Where is the guest-room, where I may take the Passover with my disciples? +Luk 22:12 And he will take you up to a great room with a table and seats: there make ready. +Luk 22:13 And they went, and it was as he had said: and they made the Passover ready. +Luk 22:14 And when the time had come, he took his seat, and the Apostles with him. +Luk 22:15 And he said, I have had a great desire to keep this Passover with you before I come to my death; +Luk 22:16 For I say to you, I will not take it till it is made complete in the kingdom of God. +Luk 22:17 And he took a cup and, having given praise, he said, Make division of this among yourselves; +Luk 22:18 For I say to you, I will not take of the fruit of the vine till the kingdom of God has come. +Luk 22:19 And he took bread and, having given praise, he gave it to them when it had been broken, saying, This is my body, which is given for you: do this in memory of me. +Luk 22:20 And in the same way, after the meal, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new testament, made with my blood which is given for you. +Luk 22:21 But the hand of him who is false to me is with me at the table. +Luk 22:22 For it will be done to the Son of man after the purpose of God, but unhappy is that man by whom he is given up. +Luk 22:23 And they were wondering among themselves which of them it was who would do this thing. +Luk 22:24 And there was an argument among them about which of them was the greatest. +Luk 22:25 And he said, The kings of the Gentiles are lords over them, and those who have authority are given names of honour. +Luk 22:26 But let it not be so with you; but he who is greater, let him become like the younger; and he who is chief, like a servant. +Luk 22:27 For which is greater, the guest who is seated at a meal or the servant who is waiting on him? is it not the guest? but I am among you as a servant. +Luk 22:28 But you are those who have kept with me through my troubles; +Luk 22:29 And I will give you a kingdom as my Father has given one to me, +Luk 22:30 So that you may take food and drink at my table in my kingdom, and be seated like kings, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. +Luk 22:31 Simon, Simon, Satan has made a request to have you, so that he may put you to the test as grain is tested: +Luk 22:32 But I have made prayer for you, that your faith may not go from you: and when you are turned again, make your brothers strong. +Luk 22:33 And he said to him, Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death. +Luk 22:34 And he said, I say to you, Peter, before the cock's second cry today, you will say three times that you have no knowledge of me. +Luk 22:35 And he said to them, When I sent you out without money or bag or shoes, were you in need of anything? And they said, Nothing. +Luk 22:36 And he said to them, But now, he who has a money-bag, or a bag for food, let him take it: and he who has not, let him give his coat for money and get a sword. +Luk 22:37 For I say to you that these words will be put into effect in me, And he was numbered among the evil-doers: for what has been said in the Writings about me has an end. +Luk 22:38 And they said, Lord, here are two swords. And he said, It is enough. +Luk 22:39 And he came out, and went, as his way was, to the Mountain of Olives, and the disciples went with him. +Luk 22:40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, Make a prayer that you may not be put to the test. +Luk 22:41 And he went a little distance away from them and, falling on his knees in prayer, he said, +Luk 22:42 Father, if it is your pleasure, take this cup from me: but still, let your pleasure, not mine, be done. +Luk 22:43 And an angel from heaven came to him, to give him strength. +Luk 22:44 And being in great trouble of soul, the force of his prayer became stronger, and great drops, like blood, came from him, falling to the earth. +Luk 22:45 And, getting up from prayer, he came to the disciples, and saw that they were sleeping for sorrow. +Luk 22:46 And he said, Why are you sleeping? Get up, and give yourselves to prayer, so that you may not be put to the test. +Luk 22:47 And while he was saying these words, there came a band of people, and Judas, one of the twelve, was in front of them, and he came near to Jesus to give him a kiss. +Luk 22:48 But Jesus said to him, Judas, will you be false to the Son of man with a kiss? +Luk 22:49 And when those who were with him saw what was coming, they said, Lord, may we not make use of our swords? +Luk 22:50 And one of them gave a blow to the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. +Luk 22:51 But Jesus, answering, said, Put up with this, at least. And touching his ear, he made it well. +Luk 22:52 And Jesus said to the chief priests and the captains of the Temple and the rulers, who had come against him, Have you come out as against a thief, with swords and sticks? +Luk 22:53 When I was in the Temple with you every day, your hands were not stretched out against me: but this is your hour, and the authority of the dark power. +Luk 22:54 And they made him a prisoner and took him away to the house of the high priest. But Peter went after them at a distance. +Luk 22:55 And a fire was lighted in the middle of the open square, and they were seated together, and Peter was among them. +Luk 22:56 And a certain woman-servant, seeing him in the light of the fire, and looking at him with attention, said, This man was with him. +Luk 22:57 But he said, Woman, it is not true; I have no knowledge of him. +Luk 22:58 And after a little time, another saw him and said, You are one of them; and he said, Man, I am not. +Luk 22:59 And after about an hour, another man said, with decision, Certainly this man was with him, for he is a Galilaean. +Luk 22:60 And Peter said, Man, I have no knowledge of these things of which you are talking. And straight away, while he was saying these words, there came the cry of a cock. +Luk 22:61 And the Lord, turning, gave Peter a look. And the words of the Lord came to Peter's mind, how he had said, This night, before the hour of the cock's cry, you will be false to me three times. +Luk 22:62 And he went out, weeping bitterly. +Luk 22:63 And the men in whose hands Jesus was, made sport of him and gave him blows. +Luk 22:64 And, covering his eyes, they said to him, Are you prophet enough to say who gave you that blow? +Luk 22:65 And they said a number of other evil things against him. +Luk 22:66 And when it was day, the rulers of the people came together, with the chief priests and the scribes, and they took him before their Sanhedrin, saying, +Luk 22:67 If you are the Christ, say so. But he said, If I say so you will not have belief; +Luk 22:68 And if I put a question to you, you will not give an answer. +Luk 22:69 But in the future the Son of man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. +Luk 22:70 And they all said, Are you then the Son of God? and he said, You say that I am. +Luk 22:71 And they said, What more need have we of witness? we have the very words of his mouth. +Luk 23:1 And they all went and took him before Pilate. +Luk 23:2 And they made statements against him, saying, This man has to our knowledge been teaching our nation to do wrong, and not to make payment of taxes to Caesar, even saying that he himself is Christ, a king. +Luk 23:3 And Pilate said to him, Are you the King of the Jews? And he said in answer, You say so. +Luk 23:4 And Pilate said to the chief priests and the people, In my opinion this man has done no wrong. +Luk 23:5 But they became more violent than before, saying, He has made trouble among the people, teaching through all Judaea from Galilee to this place. +Luk 23:6 But at these words Pilate said, Is the man a Galilaean? +Luk 23:7 And when he saw that he was under the authority of Herod, he sent him to Herod, who was in Jerusalem himself at that time. +Luk 23:8 Now when Herod saw Jesus he was very glad, having for a long time had a desire to see him, for he had had accounts of him, and was hoping to see some wonders done by him. +Luk 23:9 And he put a great number of questions to him, but he said nothing. +Luk 23:10 And the chief priests and the scribes were there, making statements against him violently. +Luk 23:11 And Herod, with the men of his army, put shame on him and made sport of him, and dressing him in shining robes, he sent him back to Pilate. +Luk 23:12 And that day Herod and Pilate became friends with one another, for before they had been against one another. +Luk 23:13 And Pilate sent for the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, +Luk 23:14 You say that this man has been teaching the people evil things: now I, after going into the question before you, see nothing wrong in this man in connection with the things which you have said against him: +Luk 23:15 And Herod is of the same opinion, for he has sent him back to us; for, you see, he has done nothing for which I might put him to death. +Luk 23:16 And so I will give him punishment and let him go. +Luk 23:17 [] +Luk 23:18 But with loud voices they said all together, Put this man to death, and make Barabbas free. +Luk 23:19 Now this man was in prison because of an attack against the government in the town, in which there had been loss of life. +Luk 23:20 And Pilate again said to them that it was his desire to let Jesus go free. +Luk 23:21 But crying out they said, To the cross with him! +Luk 23:22 And he said to them a third time, Why, what evil has he done? I see no reason for putting him to death: I will give him punishment and let him go. +Luk 23:23 But they went on crying out loudly, Let him be put to death on the cross. And they had their way. +Luk 23:24 And Pilate gave his decision for their desire to be put into effect. +Luk 23:25 And in answer to their request, he let that man go free who had been in prison for acting against the government and causing death, and Jesus he gave up to their pleasure. +Luk 23:26 And while they were taking him away, they put their hands on Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and made him take the cross after Jesus. +Luk 23:27 And a great band of people went after him, and of women making signs of grief and weeping for him. +Luk 23:28 But Jesus, turning to them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, let not your weeping be for me, but for yourselves and for your children. +Luk 23:29 For the days are coming in which they will say, Happy are those who have had no children, whose bodies have never given birth, whose breasts have never given milk. +Luk 23:30 And they will say to the mountains, Come down on us, and to the hills, Be a cover over us. +Luk 23:31 For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will they do when it is dry? +Luk 23:32 And two others, evil-doers, were taken with him to be put to death. +Luk 23:33 And when they came to the place which is named Golgotha, they put him on the cross, and the evil-doers, one on the right side, and the other on the left. +Luk 23:34 And Jesus said, Father, let them have forgiveness, for they have no knowledge of what they are doing. And they made division of his clothing among them by the decision of chance. +Luk 23:35 And the people were looking on. And the rulers made sport of him, saying, He was a saviour of others; let him do something for himself, if he is the Christ, the man of God's selection. +Luk 23:36 And the men of the army made sport of him, coming to him and giving him bitter wine, +Luk 23:37 And saying, If you are the King of the Jews, get yourself free. +Luk 23:38 And these words were put in writing over him, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. +Luk 23:39 And one of the evil-doers on the cross, with bitter feeling, said to him, Are you not the Christ? Get yourself and us out of this. +Luk 23:40 But the other, protesting, said, Have you no fear of God? for you have a part in the same punishment, +Luk 23:41 And with reason; for we have the right reward of our acts, but this man has done nothing wrong. +Luk 23:42 And he said, Jesus, keep me in mind when you come in your kingdom. +Luk 23:43 And he said to him, Truly I say to you, Today you will be with me in Paradise. +Luk 23:44 And it was now about the sixth hour; and all the land was dark till the ninth hour; +Luk 23:45 The light of the sun went out, and the curtain in the Temple was parted in two. +Luk 23:46 And Jesus gave a loud cry and said, Father, into your hands I give my spirit: and when he had said this, he gave up his spirit. +Luk 23:47 And when the captain saw what was done, he gave praise to God, saying, Without doubt this was an upright man. +Luk 23:48 And all the people who had come together to see it, when they saw the things which were done, went back again making signs of grief. +Luk 23:49 And all his friends and the women who came with him from Galilee, were waiting at a distance, watching these things. +Luk 23:50 Now there was a man named Joseph, a man of authority and a good and upright man +Luk 23:51 (He had not given his approval to their decision or their acts), of Arimathaea, a town of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God: +Luk 23:52 This man went to Pilate and made a request for the body of Jesus. +Luk 23:53 And he took it down, and folding it in a linen cloth, he put it in a place cut in the rock for a dead body; and no one had ever been put in it. +Luk 23:54 Now it was the day of making ready and the Sabbath was coming on. +Luk 23:55 And the women who had come with him from Galilee went after him and saw the place and how his body had been put to rest; +Luk 23:56 And they went back and got ready spices and perfumes; and on the Sabbath they took their rest, in agreement with the law. +Luk 24:1 But on the first day of the week, at dawn, they came to the place where his body had been put, taking the spices which they had got ready. +Luk 24:2 And they saw that the stone had been rolled away. +Luk 24:3 And they went in, but the body of the Lord Jesus was not there. +Luk 24:4 And while they were in doubt about it, they saw two men in shining clothing by them: +Luk 24:5 And while their faces were bent down to the earth in fear, these said to them, Why are you looking for the living among the dead? +Luk 24:6 He is not here, he has come back to life: have in mind what he said to you when he was still in Galilee, saying, +Luk 24:7 The Son of man will be given up into the hands of evil-doers, and be put to death on the cross, and on the third day he will come back to life. +Luk 24:8 And his words came back into their minds, +Luk 24:9 And they went away from that place and gave an account of all these things to the eleven disciples and all the others. +Luk 24:10 Now they were Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James: and the other women with them said these things to the Apostles. +Luk 24:11 But these words seemed foolish to them, and they had no belief in them. +Luk 24:12 But Peter got up and went to the place where the body had been put, and looking in he saw nothing but the linen cloths, and he went to his house full of wonder at what had taken place. +Luk 24:13 And then, two of them, on that very day, were going to a little town named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. +Luk 24:14 And they were talking together about all those things which had taken place. +Luk 24:15 And while they were talking and questioning together, Jesus himself came near and went with them. +Luk 24:16 But their eyes were not open that they might have knowledge of him. +Luk 24:17 And he said to them, What are you talking about together while you go? +Luk 24:18 Then stopping, and looking sadly at him, one of them, named Cleopas, said to him, Are you the only man living in Jerusalem who has not had news of the things which have taken place there at this time? +Luk 24:19 And he said to them, What things? And they said, The things to do with Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, great in his acts and his words, before God and all the people: +Luk 24:20 And how the chief priests and our rulers gave him up to be put to death on the cross. +Luk 24:21 But we were hoping that he would be the Saviour of Israel. In addition to all this he has now let three days go by from the time when these things took place; +Luk 24:22 And certain women among us gave us cause for wonder, for they went early to the place where his body had been put, +Luk 24:23 And it was not there; then they came saying that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was living. +Luk 24:24 And some of those who were with us went to the place, and saw that it was as the women had said, but him they did not see. +Luk 24:25 And he said, O foolish men! how slow you are to give belief to what the prophets have said. +Luk 24:26 Was it not necessary for the Christ to go through these things, and to come into his glory? +Luk 24:27 And he made clear to them all the things in the Writings, from Moses and from all the prophets, which had to do with himself. +Luk 24:28 And they came near the town to which they were going, and he seemed as if he was going on; +Luk 24:29 But they kept him back, saying, Do not go, for evening is near, the day is almost gone. And he went in with them. +Luk 24:30 And when he was seated with them at table, he took the bread, and said words of blessing and, making division of it, he gave it to them. +Luk 24:31 And then their eyes were open, and they had knowledge of him, but he went from their view. +Luk 24:32 And they said to one another, Were not our hearts burning in us while he was talking to us on the way, making clear to us the holy Writings? +Luk 24:33 And that very hour they got up and went back to Jerusalem, where the eleven and the others had come together. +Luk 24:34 And they said to them, The Lord has truly come back to life again, and Simon has seen him. +Luk 24:35 And they gave an account of the things which had taken place on the way, and how, when he gave them bread, they had knowledge of him. +Luk 24:36 And while they were saying these things, he himself was among them, and said to them, Peace be with you! +Luk 24:37 But they were full of fear, being of the opinion that they were seeing a spirit. +Luk 24:38 And he said to them, Why are you troubled, and why are your hearts full of doubt? +Luk 24:39 See; my hands and my feet: it is I myself; put your hands on me and make certain; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have. +Luk 24:40 And when he had said this, he let them see his hands and his feet. +Luk 24:41 And because, for joy and wonder, they were still in doubt, he said to them, Have you any food here? +Luk 24:42 And they gave him a bit of cooked fish. +Luk 24:43 And before their eyes he took a meal. +Luk 24:44 And he said to them, These are the words which I said to you when I was still with you, how it was necessary for all the things which are in the writings of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms about me, to be put into effect. +Luk 24:45 Then he made the holy Writings clear to their minds. +Luk 24:46 And he said to them, So it is in the Writings that the Christ would undergo death, and come back to life again on the third day; +Luk 24:47 And that teaching about a change of heart and forgiveness of sins is to be given to Jerusalem first and to all nations in his name. +Luk 24:48 You are witnesses of these things. +Luk 24:49 And now I will send to you what my father has undertaken to give you, but do not go from the town, till the power from heaven comes to you. +Luk 24:50 And he took them out till they were near Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he gave them a blessing. +Luk 24:51 And while he was doing so, he went from them and was taken up into heaven. +Luk 24:52 And they gave him worship and went back to Jerusalem with great joy. +Luk 24:53 And they were in the Temple at all times, giving praise to God. +Jhn 1:1 From the first he was the Word, and the Word was in relation with God and was God. +Jhn 1:2 This Word was from the first in relation with God. +Jhn 1:3 All things came into existence through him, and without him nothing was. +Jhn 1:4 What came into existence in him was life, and the life was the light of men. +Jhn 1:5 And the light goes on shining in the dark; it is not overcome by the dark. +Jhn 1:6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. +Jhn 1:7 He came for witness, to give witness about the light, so that all men might have faith through him. +Jhn 1:8 He himself was not the light: he was sent to give witness about the light. +Jhn 1:9 The true light, which gives light to every man, was then coming into the world. +Jhn 1:10 He was in the world, the world which came into being through him, but the world had no knowledge of him. +Jhn 1:11 He came to the things which were his and his people did not take him to their hearts. +Jhn 1:12 To all those who did so take him, however, he gave the right of becoming children of God--that is, to those who had faith in his name: +Jhn 1:13 Whose birth was from God and not from blood, or from an impulse of the flesh and man's desire. +Jhn 1:14 And so the Word became flesh and took a place among us for a time; and we saw his glory--such glory as is given to an only son by his father--saw it to be true and full of grace. +Jhn 1:15 John gave witness about him, crying, This is he of whom I said, He who is coming after me is put over me because he was in existence before me. +Jhn 1:16 From his full measure we have all been given grace on grace. +Jhn 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and the true way of life are ours through Jesus Christ. +Jhn 1:18 No man has seen God at any time; the only Son, who is on the breast of the Father, he has made clear what God is. +Jhn 1:19 And this is the witness of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to him with the question, Who are you? +Jhn 1:20 He said quite openly and straightforwardly, I am not the Christ. +Jhn 1:21 And they said to him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And his answer was, I am not. +Jhn 1:22 So they said to him, Who are you then? We have to give some answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself? +Jhn 1:23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the waste land, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet. +Jhn 1:24 Those who had been sent came from the Pharisees. +Jhn 1:25 And they put this question to him, saying, Why then are you giving baptism if you are not the Christ, or Elijah, or the prophet? +Jhn 1:26 John's answer was: I give baptism with water; but there is one among you of whom you have no knowledge; +Jhn 1:27 It is he who is coming after me; I am not good enough to undo his shoes. +Jhn 1:28 These things took place at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was giving baptism. +Jhn 1:29 The day after, John sees Jesus coming to him and says, See, here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! +Jhn 1:30 This is he of whom I said, One is coming after me who is put over me because he was in existence before me. +Jhn 1:31 I myself had no knowledge of him, but I came giving baptism with water so that he might be seen openly by Israel. +Jhn 1:32 And John gave this witness, saying, I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove and resting on him. +Jhn 1:33 I had no knowledge who he was, but he who sent me to give baptism with water said to me, The one on whom you see the Spirit coming down and resting, it is he who gives baptism with the Holy Spirit. +Jhn 1:34 This I saw myself and my witness is that he is the Son of God. +Jhn 1:35 The day after, John was there again with two of his disciples; +Jhn 1:36 And looking at Jesus while he was walking he said, See, there is the Lamb of God! +Jhn 1:37 Hearing what he said, the two disciples went after Jesus. +Jhn 1:38 And Jesus, turning round, saw them coming after him and said to them, What are you looking for? They said to him, Rabbi (which is to say, Master), where are you living? +Jhn 1:39 He said to them, Come and see. They went with him then and saw where he was living; and they were with him all that day: it was then about the tenth hour of the day. +Jhn 1:40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two men who, hearing what John said, went after Jesus. +Jhn 1:41 Early in the morning he came across his brother and said to him, We have made discovery! It is the Messiah! (which is to say, the Christ). +Jhn 1:42 And he took him to Jesus. Looking at him fixedly Jesus said, You are Simon, the son of John; your name will be Cephas (which is to say, Peter). +Jhn 1:43 The day after this, Jesus had a desire to go into Galilee. He came across Philip and said to him, Come and be my disciple. +Jhn 1:44 Now Philip's town was Beth-saida, where Andrew and Peter came from. +Jhn 1:45 Philip came across Nathanael and said to him, We have made a discovery! It is he of whom Moses, in the law, and the prophets were writing, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. +Jhn 1:46 Nazareth! said Nathanael, Is it possible for any good to come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. +Jhn 1:47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, See, here is a true son of Israel in whom there is nothing false. +Jhn 1:48 Nathanael said to him, Where did you get knowledge of me? In answer Jesus said, Before Philip was talking with you, while you were still under the fig-tree, I saw you. +Jhn 1:49 Nathanael said to him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are King of Israel! +Jhn 1:50 In answer Jesus said to him, You have faith because I said to you, I saw you under the fig-tree. You will see greater things than these. +Jhn 1:51 And he said to him, Truly I say to you all, You will see heaven opening and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of man. +Jhn 2:1 On the third day two people were going to be married at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there: +Jhn 2:2 And Jesus with his disciples came as guests. +Jhn 2:3 When they had not enough wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. +Jhn 2:4 Jesus said to her, Woman, this is not your business; my time is still to come. +Jhn 2:5 His mother said to the servants, Whatever he says to you, do it. +Jhn 2:6 Now six pots of stone, every one taking two or three firkins of water, were placed there for the purpose of washing, as is the way of the Jews. +Jhn 2:7 Jesus said to the servants, Make the pots full of water. And they made them full to the top. +Jhn 2:8 Then he said to them, Now take some, and give it to the master of the feast. So they took it to him. +Jhn 2:9 After tasting the water which had now become wine, the master of the feast (having no idea where it came from, though it was clear to the servants who took the water out) sent for the newly-married man, +Jhn 2:10 And said to him, Every man first puts out his best wine and when all have had enough he puts out what is not so good; but you have kept the good wine till now. +Jhn 2:11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and let his glory be seen openly; and his disciples put their faith in him. +Jhn 2:12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they were there not more than two or three days. +Jhn 2:13 The time of the Passover of the Jews was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. +Jhn 2:14 And there in the Temple he saw men trading in oxen and sheep and doves, and he saw the changers of money in their seats: +Jhn 2:15 And he made a whip of small cords and put them all out of the Temple, with the sheep and the oxen, sending in all directions the small money of the changers and overturning their tables; +Jhn 2:16 And to those who were trading in doves he said, Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a market. +Jhn 2:17 And it came to the minds of the disciples that the Writings say, I am on fire with passion for your house. +Jhn 2:18 Then the Jews put this question to him: What sign of authority have you to give us, seeing that you do these things? +Jhn 2:19 And Jesus said to them, Send destruction on this Temple and I will put it up again in three days. +Jhn 2:20 The Jews said, The building of this Temple took forty-six years; and you will put it up in three days! +Jhn 2:21 But his words were about that holy building which was his body. +Jhn 2:22 So when he had come back again from the dead, the memory of these words came back to the disciples, and they had faith in the holy Writings and in the word which Jesus had said. +Jhn 2:23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover, a great number of people came to have faith in his name, after seeing the signs which he did. +Jhn 2:24 But Jesus did not have faith in them, because he had knowledge of them all. +Jhn 2:25 He had no need for any witness about man; for he himself had knowledge of what was in man. +Jhn 3:1 Now there was among the Pharisees a man named Nicodemus, who was one of the rulers of the Jews. +Jhn 3:2 He came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we are certain that you have come from God as a teacher, because no man would be able to do these signs which you do if God was not with him. +Jhn 3:3 Jesus said to him, Truly, I say to you, Without a new birth no man is able to see the kingdom of God. +Jhn 3:4 Nicodemus said to him, How is it possible for a man to be given birth when he is old? Is he able to go into his mother's body a second time and come to birth again? +Jhn 3:5 Jesus said in answer, Truly, I say to you, If a man's birth is not from water and from the Spirit, it is not possible for him to go into the kingdom of God. +Jhn 3:6 That which has birth from the flesh is flesh, and that which has birth from the Spirit is spirit. +Jhn 3:7 Do not be surprised that I say to you, It is necessary for you to have a second birth. +Jhn 3:8 The wind goes where its pleasure takes it, and the sound of it comes to your ears, but you are unable to say where it comes from and where it goes: so it is with everyone whose birth is from the Spirit. +Jhn 3:9 And Nicodemus said to him, How is it possible for these things to be? +Jhn 3:10 And Jesus, answering, said, Are you the teacher of Israel and have no knowledge of these things? +Jhn 3:11 Truly, I say to you, We say that of which we have knowledge; we give witness of what we have seen; and you do not take our witness to be true. +Jhn 3:12 If you have no belief when my words are about the things of earth, how will you have belief if my words are about the things of heaven? +Jhn 3:13 And no one has ever gone up to heaven but he who came down from heaven, the Son of man. +Jhn 3:14 As the snake was lifted up by Moses in the waste land, even so it is necessary for the Son of man to be lifted up: +Jhn 3:15 So that whoever has faith may have in him eternal life. +Jhn 3:16 For God had such love for the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever has faith in him may not come to destruction but have eternal life. +Jhn 3:17 God did not send his Son into the world to be judge of the world; he sent him so that the world might have salvation through him. +Jhn 3:18 The man who has faith in him does not come up to be judged; but he who has no faith in him has been judged even now, because he has no faith in the name of the only Son of God. +Jhn 3:19 And this is the test by which men are judged: the light has come into the world and men have more love for the dark than for the light, because their acts are evil. +Jhn 3:20 The light is hated by everyone whose acts are evil and he does not come to the light for fear that his acts will be seen. +Jhn 3:21 But he whose life is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his acts have been done by the help of God. +Jhn 3:22 After these things Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judaea, and there he was with them for some time, giving baptism. +Jhn 3:23 Now John was then giving baptism at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people came and were given baptism. +Jhn 3:24 For at this time John had not been put into prison. +Jhn 3:25 Then a question came up between John's disciples and a Jew about washing. +Jhn 3:26 And they went to John and said to him, Rabbi, the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, the man to whom you gave witness, is now giving baptism, and everyone is going to him. +Jhn 3:27 And this was John's answer: A man is unable to have anything if it is not given to him from heaven. +Jhn 3:28 You yourselves give witness that I said, I am not the Christ. What I said was, I am sent before the Christ. +Jhn 3:29 He who has the bride is the husband: but the husband's friend, whose place is by his side and whose ears are open to him, is full of joy because of the husband's voice: such is my joy, and it is complete. +Jhn 3:30 He has to become greater while I become less. +Jhn 3:31 He who comes from heaven is greater than all others: he who comes from earth is of the earth, and of the earth are his words: he who comes from heaven is over all. +Jhn 3:32 He gives witness of what he has seen and of what has come to his ears; and no man takes his witness as true. +Jhn 3:33 He who so takes his witness has made clear his faith that God is true. +Jhn 3:34 For he whom God has sent says God's words; and God does not give him the Spirit by measure. +Jhn 3:35 The Father has love for the Son and has put all things into his hands. +Jhn 3:36 He who has faith in the Son has eternal life; but he who has not faith in the Son will not see life; God's wrath is resting on him. +Jhn 4:1 Now when it was clear to the Lord that word had come to the ears of the Pharisees that Jesus was making more disciples than John and was giving them baptism +Jhn 4:2 (Though, in fact, it was his disciples who gave baptism, not Jesus himself), +Jhn 4:3 He went out of Judaea into Galilee again. +Jhn 4:4 And it was necessary for him to go through Samaria. +Jhn 4:5 So he came to a town of Samaria which was named Sychar, near to the bit of land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph: +Jhn 4:6 Now Jacob's fountain was there. Jesus, being tired after his journey, was resting by the fountain. It was about the sixth hour. +Jhn 4:7 A woman of Samaria came to get water, and Jesus said to her, Give me some water. +Jhn 4:8 For his disciples had gone to the town to get food. +Jhn 4:9 The woman of Samaria said to him, Why do you, a Jew, make a request for water to me, a woman of Samaria? She said this because Jews have nothing to do with the people of Samaria. +Jhn 4:10 In answer Jesus said, If you had knowledge of what God gives freely and who it is who says to you, Give me water, you would make your prayer to him, and he would give you living water. +Jhn 4:11 The woman said to him, Sir, you have no vessel and the fountain is deep; from where will you get the living water? +Jhn 4:12 Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the fountain and took the water of it himself, with his children and his cattle? +Jhn 4:13 Jesus said to her, Everyone who takes this water will be in need of it again: +Jhn 4:14 But whoever takes the water I give him will never be in need of drink again; for the water I give him will become in him a fountain of eternal life. +Jhn 4:15 The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be in need again of drink and will not have to come all this way for it. +Jhn 4:16 Jesus said to her, Go, get your husband and come back here with him. +Jhn 4:17 In answer, the woman said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have said rightly, I have no husband: +Jhn 4:18 You have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband: that was truly said. +Jhn 4:19 The woman said to him, Sir, I see that you are a prophet. +Jhn 4:20 Our fathers gave worship on this mountain, but you Jews say that the right place for worship is in Jerusalem. +Jhn 4:21 Jesus said to her, Woman, take my word for this; the time is coming when you will not give worship to the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. +Jhn 4:22 You give worship, but without knowledge of what you are worshipping: we give worship to what we have knowledge of: for salvation comes from the Jews. +Jhn 4:23 But the time is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will give worship to the Father in the true way of the spirit, for these are the worshippers desired by the Father. +Jhn 4:24 God is Spirit: then let his worshippers give him worship in the true way of the spirit. +Jhn 4:25 The woman said to him, I am certain that the Messiah, who is named Christ, is coming; when he comes he will make all things clear to us. +Jhn 4:26 Jesus said to her, I, who am talking to you, am he. +Jhn 4:27 At that point the disciples came back, and they were surprised to see him talking to a woman; but not one of them said to him, What is your purpose? or, Why are you talking to her? +Jhn 4:28 Then the woman put down her water-pot and went into the town, and said to the people, +Jhn 4:29 Come and see a man who has been talking to me of everything I ever did! Is it possible that this is the Christ? +Jhn 4:30 So they went out of the town and came to him. +Jhn 4:31 While this was taking place, the disciples were saying to Jesus, Master, take some food. +Jhn 4:32 But he said to them, I have food of which you have no knowledge. +Jhn 4:33 So the disciples said one to another, Did anyone give him food? +Jhn 4:34 Jesus said, My food is to do the pleasure of him who sent me and to make his work complete. +Jhn 4:35 You would say, Four months from now is the time of the grain-cutting. Take a look, I say to you, at the fields; they are even now white for cutting. +Jhn 4:36 He who does the cutting now has his reward; he is getting together fruit for eternal life, so that he who did the planting and he who gets in the grain may have joy together. +Jhn 4:37 In this the saying is a true one, One does the planting, and another gets in the grain. +Jhn 4:38 I sent you to get in grain which you had no hand in planting: other men did that work, and you take the reward. +Jhn 4:39 Now a number of the people of that town had faith in him because of the woman's witness: He has been talking to me of everything I ever did. +Jhn 4:40 So when the people came to him they made request to him to be among them for a time, and he was there two days. +Jhn 4:41 And a great number more of them came to have faith in him because of what he himself said. +Jhn 4:42 And they said to the woman, Now we have faith, but not because of your story: we ourselves have given ear to his words, and we are certain that he is truly the Saviour of the world. +Jhn 4:43 And after the two days he went on from there into Galilee. +Jhn 4:44 For Jesus himself said that a prophet has no honour in the country of his birth. +Jhn 4:45 So when he came into Galilee, the Galilaeans took him to their hearts because of the things which they had seen him do in Jerusalem at the feast--they themselves having been there at the feast. +Jhn 4:46 So he came to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And there was a certain man of high position whose son was ill at Capernaum. +Jhn 4:47 When it came to his ears that Jesus had come from Judaea into Galilee, he went to him and made a request that he would come down to his son, who was near to death, and make him well. +Jhn 4:48 Then Jesus said to him, You will not have faith if you do not see signs and wonders. +Jhn 4:49 The man said, Sir, come down before my boy is dead. +Jhn 4:50 And Jesus said, Go in peace; your son is living. The man had faith in the word which Jesus said to him and went away. +Jhn 4:51 And while he was going down, his servants came to him and said, Your boy is living. +Jhn 4:52 So he put a question to them as to the hour when he became better; and they said to him, The disease went from him yesterday at the seventh hour. +Jhn 4:53 It was clear then to the father that this was the very time at which Jesus said to him, Your son is living. And he had faith in Jesus, he and all his family. +Jhn 4:54 Now this is the second sign which Jesus did after he had come out of Judaea into Galilee. +Jhn 5:1 After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. +Jhn 5:2 Now in Jerusalem near the sheep-market there is a public bath which in Hebrew is named Beth-zatha. It has five doorways. +Jhn 5:3 In these doorways there were a great number of people with different diseases: some unable to see, some without the power of walking, some with wasted bodies. +Jhn 5:4 [] +Jhn 5:5 One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. +Jhn 5:6 When Jesus saw him there on the floor it was clear to him that he had been now a long time in that condition, and so he said to the man, Is it your desire to get well? +Jhn 5:7 The ill man said in answer, Sir, I have nobody to put me into the bath when the water is moving; and while I am on the way down some other person gets in before me. +Jhn 5:8 Jesus said to him, Get up, take your bed and go. +Jhn 5:9 And the man became well straight away, and took up his bed and went. Now that day was the Sabbath. +Jhn 5:10 So the Jews said to the man who had been made well, It is the Sabbath; and it is against the law for you to take up your bed. +Jhn 5:11 He said to them, But he who made me well, said to me, Take up your bed and go. +Jhn 5:12 Then they put to him the question: Who is the man who said to you, Take it up and go? +Jhn 5:13 Now he who had been made well had no knowledge who it was, Jesus having gone away because of the number of people who were in that place. +Jhn 5:14 After a time Jesus came across him in the Temple and said to him, See, you are well and strong; do no more sin for fear a worse thing comes to you. +Jhn 5:15 The man went away and said to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. +Jhn 5:16 And for this reason the Jews were turned against Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. +Jhn 5:17 But his answer was: My Father is still working even now, and so I am working. +Jhn 5:18 For this cause the Jews had an even greater desire to put Jesus to death, because not only did he not keep the Sabbath but he said God was his Father, so making himself equal with God. +Jhn 5:19 So Jesus made answer and said, Truly I say to you, The Son is not able to do anything himself; he is able to do only what he sees the Father doing; whatever the Father does the Son does it in the same way. +Jhn 5:20 For the Father has love for the Son and lets him see everything which he does: and he will let him see greater works than these so that you may be full of wonder. +Jhn 5:21 In the same way, as the Father gives life to the dead, even so the Son gives life to those to whom he is pleased to give it. +Jhn 5:22 The Father is not the judge of men, but he has given all decisions into the hands of the Son; +Jhn 5:23 So that all men may give honour to the Son even as they give honour to the Father. He who gives no honour to the Son gives no honour to the Father who sent him. +Jhn 5:24 Truly I say to you, The man whose ears are open to my word and who has faith in him who sent me, has eternal life; he will not be judged, but has come from death into life. +Jhn 5:25 Truly I say to you, The time is coming, it has even now come, when the voice of the Son of God will come to the ears of the dead, and those hearing it will have life. +Jhn 5:26 For even as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son to have life in himself. +Jhn 5:27 And he has given him authority to be judge because he is the Son of man. +Jhn 5:28 Do not be surprised at this: for the time is coming when his voice will come to all who are in the place of the dead, +Jhn 5:29 And they will come out; those who have done good, into the new life; and those who have done evil, to be judged. +Jhn 5:30 Of myself I am unable to do anything: as the voice comes to me so I give a decision: and my decision is right because I have no desire to do what is pleasing to myself, but only what is pleasing to him who sent me. +Jhn 5:31 If I gave witness about myself, my witness would not be true. +Jhn 5:32 There is another who gives witness about me and I am certain that the witness he gives about me is true. +Jhn 5:33 You sent to John and he gave true witness. +Jhn 5:34 But I have no need of a man's witness: I only say these things so that you may have salvation. +Jhn 5:35 He was a burning and shining light, and for a time you were ready to be happy in his light. +Jhn 5:36 But the witness which I have is greater than that of John: the work which the Father has given me to do, the very work which I am now doing, is a witness that the Father has sent me. +Jhn 5:37 And the Father himself who sent me has given witness about me. Not one of you has ever given ear to his voice; his form you have not seen. +Jhn 5:38 And you have not kept his word in your hearts, because you have not faith in him whom he has sent. +Jhn 5:39 You make search in the holy Writings, in the belief that through them you get eternal life; and it is those Writings which give witness about me. +Jhn 5:40 And still you have no desire to come to me so that you may have life. +Jhn 5:41 I do not take honour from men; +Jhn 5:42 But I have knowledge of you that you have no love for God in your hearts. +Jhn 5:43 I have come in my Father's name, and your hearts are not open to me. If another comes with no other authority but himself, you will give him your approval. +Jhn 5:44 How is it possible for you to have faith while you take honour one from another and have no desire for the honour which comes from the only God? +Jhn 5:45 Put out of your minds the thought that I will say things against you to the Father: the one who says things against you is Moses, on whom you put your hopes. +Jhn 5:46 If you had belief in Moses you would have belief in me; for his writings are about me. +Jhn 5:47 If you have no belief in his writings, how will you have belief in my words? +Jhn 6:1 After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee--that is, the sea of Tiberias. +Jhn 6:2 And a great number of people went after him because they saw the signs which he did on those who were ill. +Jhn 6:3 Then Jesus went up the mountain and was seated there with his disciples. +Jhn 6:4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. +Jhn 6:5 Lifting up his eyes, Jesus saw a great number of people coming to where he was, and he said to Philip, Where may we get bread for all these people? +Jhn 6:6 This he said, testing him: for he had no doubt what he himself would do. +Jhn 6:7 Philip made answer, Bread to the value of two hundred pence would not be enough even to give everyone a little. +Jhn 6:8 One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to Jesus, +Jhn 6:9 There is a boy here with five barley cakes and two fishes: but what is that among such a number? +Jhn 6:10 Jesus said, Let the people be seated. Now there was much grass in that place. And those seated on the grass were about five thousand. +Jhn 6:11 Then Jesus took the cakes and having given praise to God, he gave them to the people who were seated, and the fishes in the same way, as much as they had need of. +Jhn 6:12 And when they had had enough, Jesus said to his disciples, Take up the broken bits which are over, so that nothing may be wasted. +Jhn 6:13 So they took them up: twelve baskets full of broken bits of the five cakes which were over after the people had had enough. +Jhn 6:14 And when the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, Truly, this is the prophet who is to come into the world. +Jhn 6:15 Now when Jesus saw that the people were about to come and take him by force to make him a king, he went away again up the mountain by himself. +Jhn 6:16 When evening came the disciples went down to the sea; +Jhn 6:17 And they took a boat and went across the sea in the direction of Capernaum. By then it was dark and still Jesus had not come to them. +Jhn 6:18 The sea was getting rough because of a strong wind which was blowing. +Jhn 6:19 After they had gone three or four miles they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near to the boat; and they had great fear. +Jhn 6:20 But he said to them, It is I, have no fear. +Jhn 6:21 Then they readily took him into the boat: and straight away the boat was at the land to which they were going. +Jhn 6:22 The day after, the people who were on the other side of the sea saw that only one small boat had been there, that Jesus had not gone in that boat with the disciples, but that the disciples had gone away by themselves. +Jhn 6:23 Some other boats, however, came from Tiberias near to the place where they had taken the bread after the Lord had given praise. +Jhn 6:24 So when the people saw that Jesus was not there, or his disciples, they got into those boats and went over to Capernaum looking for Jesus. +Jhn 6:25 And when they came across him on the other side of the sea they said, Rabbi, when did you come here? +Jhn 6:26 Jesus, answering them, said, Truly I say to you, You come after me, not because you saw signs, but because you were given the bread and had enough. +Jhn 6:27 Let your work not be for the food which comes to an end, but for the food which goes on for eternal life, which the Son of man will give to you, for on him has God the Father put his mark. +Jhn 6:28 Then they said to him, How may we do the works of God? +Jhn 6:29 Jesus, answering, said to them, This is to do the work of God: to have faith in him whom God has sent. +Jhn 6:30 So they said, What sign do you give us, so that we may see and have faith in you? What do you do? +Jhn 6:31 Our fathers had the manna in the waste land, as the Writings say, He gave them bread from heaven. +Jhn 6:32 Jesus then said to them, Truly I say to you, What Moses gave you was not the bread from heaven; it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. +Jhn 6:33 The bread of God is the bread which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. +Jhn 6:34 Ah, Lord, they said, give us that bread for ever! +Jhn 6:35 And this was the answer of Jesus: I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be in need of food, and he who has faith in me will never be in need of drink. +Jhn 6:36 But it is as I said to you: you have seen me, and still you have no faith. +Jhn 6:37 Whatever the Father gives to me will come to me; and I will not send away anyone who comes to me. +Jhn 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my pleasure, but the pleasure of him who sent me. +Jhn 6:39 And this is the pleasure of him who sent me, that I am not to let out of my hands anything which he has given me, but I am to give it new life on the last day. +Jhn 6:40 This, I say, is my Father's pleasure, that everyone who sees the Son and has faith in him may have eternal life: and I will take him up on the last day. +Jhn 6:41 Now the Jews said bitter things about Jesus because of his words, I am the bread which came down from heaven. +Jhn 6:42 And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we have seen? How is it then that he now says, I have come down from heaven? +Jhn 6:43 Jesus made answer and said, Do not say things against me, one to another. +Jhn 6:44 No man is able to come to me if the Father who sent me does not give him the desire to come: and I will take him up from the dead on the last day. +Jhn 6:45 The writings of the prophets say, And they will all have teaching from God. Everyone whose ears have been open to the teaching of the Father comes to me. +Jhn 6:46 Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only he who is from God, he has seen the Father. +Jhn 6:47 Truly I say to you, He who has faith in me has eternal life. +Jhn 6:48 I am the bread of life. +Jhn 6:49 Your fathers took the manna in the waste land--and they are dead. +Jhn 6:50 The bread which comes from heaven is such bread that a man may take it for food and never see death. +Jhn 6:51 I am the living bread which has come from heaven: if any man takes this bread for food he will have life for ever: and more than this, the bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. +Jhn 6:52 Then the Jews had an angry discussion among themselves, saying, How is it possible for this man to give us his flesh for food? +Jhn 6:53 Then Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, If you do not take the flesh of the Son of man for food, and if you do not take his blood for drink, you have no life in you. +Jhn 6:54 He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink has eternal life: and I will take him up from the dead at the last day. +Jhn 6:55 My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. +Jhn 6:56 He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink is in me and I in him. +Jhn 6:57 As the living Father has sent me, and I have life because of the Father, even so he who takes me for his food will have life because of me. +Jhn 6:58 This is the bread which has come down from heaven. It is not like the food which your fathers had: they took of the manna, and are dead; but he who takes this bread for food will have life for ever. +Jhn 6:59 Jesus said these things in the Synagogue while he was teaching at Capernaum. +Jhn 6:60 Then, hearing this, a number of his disciples said, This is a hard saying; who is able to take in such teaching? +Jhn 6:61 When Jesus became conscious that his disciples were protesting about what he said, he said to them, Does this give you trouble? +Jhn 6:62 What then will you say if you see the Son of man going up to where he was before? +Jhn 6:63 The spirit is the life giver; the flesh is of no value: the words which I have said to you are spirit and they are life. +Jhn 6:64 But still some of you have no faith. For it was clear to Jesus from the first who they were who had no faith, and who it was who would be false to him. +Jhn 6:65 And he said, This is why I said to you, No man is able to come to me if he is not given the power to do so by the Father. +Jhn 6:66 Because of what he said, a number of the disciples went back and would no longer go with him. +Jhn 6:67 So Jesus said to the twelve, Have you a desire to go away? +Jhn 6:68 Then Simon Peter gave this answer: Lord, to whom are we to go? you have the words of eternal life; +Jhn 6:69 And we have faith and are certain that you are the Holy One of God. +Jhn 6:70 Then Jesus said, Did I not make a selection of you, the twelve, and one of you is a son of the Evil One? +Jhn 6:71 He was talking of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. It was he who was to be false to Jesus--one of the twelve. +Jhn 7:1 After this, Jesus went from place to place in Galilee. He did not go about in Judaea, because the Jews were looking for a chance to put him to death. +Jhn 7:2 But the feast of the Jews, the feast of tents, was near. +Jhn 7:3 So his brothers said to him, Go away from here into Judaea so that your disciples may see the works which you do. +Jhn 7:4 Because no man does things secretly if he has a desire that men may have knowledge of him. If you do these things, let yourself be seen by all men. +Jhn 7:5 For even his brothers had no belief in him. +Jhn 7:6 Jesus said to them, My time is still to come, but any time is good for you. +Jhn 7:7 It is not possible for you to be hated by the world; but I am hated by it, because I give witness that what it does is evil. +Jhn 7:8 Go you up to the feast: I am not going up now to the feast because my time has not fully come. +Jhn 7:9 Having said these things to them, he still kept in Galilee. +Jhn 7:10 But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he went up, not publicly, but in secret. +Jhn 7:11 At the feast the Jews were looking for him and saying, Where is he? +Jhn 7:12 And there was much discussion about him among the mass of the people. Some said, He is a good man; but others said, No, he is giving people false ideas. +Jhn 7:13 But no man said anything about him openly for fear of the Jews. +Jhn 7:14 Now in the middle of the feast Jesus went up to the Temple and was teaching. +Jhn 7:15 Then the Jews were surprised and said, How has this man got knowledge of books? He has never been to school. +Jhn 7:16 Jesus gave them this answer: It is not my teaching, but his who sent me. +Jhn 7:17 If any man is ready to do God's pleasure he will have knowledge of the teaching and of where it comes from--from God or from myself. +Jhn 7:18 The man whose words come from himself is looking for glory for himself, but he who is looking for the glory of him who sent him--that man is true and there is no evil in him. +Jhn 7:19 Did not Moses give you the law? Even so, not one of you keeps the law. Why have you a desire to put me to death? +Jhn 7:20 The people said in answer, You have an evil spirit: who has any desire to put you to death? +Jhn 7:21 This was the answer of Jesus: I have done one work and you are all surprised at it. +Jhn 7:22 Moses gave you circumcision--not that it comes from Moses, but from the fathers--and even on the Sabbath you give a child circumcision. +Jhn 7:23 If a child is given circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? +Jhn 7:24 Let not your decisions be based on what you see, but on righteousness. +Jhn 7:25 Then some of the people of Jerusalem said, Is not this the man whose death is desired? +Jhn 7:26 And here he is talking openly and they say nothing to him! Is it possible that the rulers have knowledge that this is truly the Christ? +Jhn 7:27 However, it is clear to us where this man comes from: but when the Christ comes no one will have knowledge where he comes from. +Jhn 7:28 Then, when he was teaching in the Temple, Jesus said with a loud voice, You have knowledge of me and you have knowledge of where I come from; and I have not come of myself; but there is One who has sent me; he is true, but you have no knowledge of him. +Jhn 7:29 I have knowledge of him because I came from him and he sent me. +Jhn 7:30 Then they had a desire to take him: but no man put hands on him because his hour was still to come. +Jhn 7:31 And numbers of the people had belief in him, and they said, When the Christ comes will he do more signs than this man has done? +Jhn 7:32 This discussion of the people came to the ears of the Pharisees; and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to take him. +Jhn 7:33 Then Jesus said, I will be with you a little longer and then I go to him who sent me. +Jhn 7:34 You will be looking for me, and you will not see me: and where I am you may not come. +Jhn 7:35 So the Jews said among themselves, To what place is he going where we will not see him? will he go to the Jews living among the Greeks and become the teacher of the Greeks? +Jhn 7:36 What is this saying of his, You will be looking for me and will not see me, and where I am you may not come? +Jhn 7:37 On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus got up and said in a loud voice, If any man is in need of drink let him come to me and I will give it to him. +Jhn 7:38 He who has faith in me, out of his body, as the Writings have said, will come rivers of living water. +Jhn 7:39 This he said of the Spirit which would be given to those who had faith in him: the Spirit had not been given then, because the glory of Jesus was still to come. +Jhn 7:40 When these words came to their ears, some of the people said, This is certainly the prophet. +Jhn 7:41 Others said, This is the Christ. But others said, Not so; will the Christ come from Galilee? +Jhn 7:42 Do not the Writings say that the Christ comes of the seed of David and from Beth-lehem, the little town where David was? +Jhn 7:43 So there was a division among the people because of him. +Jhn 7:44 And some of them had a desire to take him; but no man put hands on him. +Jhn 7:45 Then the servants went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, Why have you not got him with you? +Jhn 7:46 The servants made answer, No man ever said things like this man. +Jhn 7:47 Then the Pharisees said to them, Have you, like the others, been given false ideas? +Jhn 7:48 Have any of the rulers belief in him, or any one of the Pharisees? +Jhn 7:49 But these people who have no knowledge of the law are cursed. +Jhn 7:50 Nicodemus--he who had come to Jesus before, being himself one of them--said to them, +Jhn 7:51 Is a man judged by our law before it has given him a hearing and has knowledge of what he has done? +Jhn 7:52 This was their answer: And do you come from Galilee? Make search and you will see that no prophet comes out of Galilee. +Jhn 7:53 [And every man went to his house; +Jhn 8:1 But Jesus went to the Mountain of Olives. +Jhn 8:2 And early in the morning he came again into the Temple and all the people came to him and he was seated teaching them. +Jhn 8:3 Now the scribes and Pharisees came, with a woman who had been taken in the act of sinning against the married relation; +Jhn 8:4 And putting her forward, they said to him, Master, this woman has been taken in the very act of sinning against the married relation. +Jhn 8:5 Now in the law Moses gave directions that such women were to be stoned; what do you say about it? +Jhn 8:6 They said this, testing him, so that they might have something against him. But Jesus, with his head bent down, made letters on the floor with his finger. +Jhn 8:7 But when they went on with their questions, he got up and said to them, Let him among you who is without sin be the first to send a stone at her. +Jhn 8:8 And again, with bent head, he made letters on the floor. +Jhn 8:9 And when his words came to their ears, they went out one by one, starting with the oldest even to the last, because they were conscious of what was in their hearts: and Jesus was there by himself with the woman before him. +Jhn 8:10 Then Jesus got up, and seeing nobody but the woman, he said to her, Where are the men who said things against you? did no one give a decision against you? +Jhn 8:11 And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, And I do not give a decision against you: go, and never do wrong again.] +Jhn 8:12 Then again Jesus said to them, I am the light of the world; he who comes with me will not be walking in the dark but will have the light of life. +Jhn 8:13 So the Pharisees said to him, The witness you give is about yourself: your witness is not true. +Jhn 8:14 Jesus said in answer, Even if I give witness about myself, my witness is true, because I have knowledge of where I came from and where I am going; but you have no knowledge of where I come from or of where I am going. +Jhn 8:15 You are judging from what you see; I am judging no man. +Jhn 8:16 Even if I am judging, my decision is right, because I am not by myself--with me is the Father who sent me. +Jhn 8:17 Even in your law it is said that the witness of two men is true. +Jhn 8:18 I give witness about myself and the Father who sent me gives witness about me. +Jhn 8:19 Then they said to him, Where is your Father? Jesus said in answer, You have no knowledge of me or of my Father: if you had knowledge of me you would have knowledge of my Father. +Jhn 8:20 Jesus said these words in the place where the offerings were stored, while he was teaching in the Temple: but no man took him because his time was still to come. +Jhn 8:21 Then he said to them again, I am going away and you will be looking for me, but death will overtake you in your sins. It is not possible for you to come where I am going. +Jhn 8:22 So the Jews said, Will he take his life? Is that why he says, Where I go it is not possible for you to come? +Jhn 8:23 And he said to them, You are of the earth; I am from heaven: you are of this world; I am not of this world. +Jhn 8:24 For this reason I said to you that death will overtake you in your sins: for if you have not faith that I am he, death will come to you while you are in your sins. +Jhn 8:25 Then they said to him, Who are you? Jesus said, What I said to you from the first. +Jhn 8:26 I have much to say about you and against you: but he who sent me is true and what he has said to me I say to the world. +Jhn 8:27 They did not see that his words were about the Father. +Jhn 8:28 So Jesus said, When the Son of man has been lifted up by you, then it will be clear to you who I am, and that I do nothing of myself, but say as the Father gave me teaching. +Jhn 8:29 He who sent me is with me; he has not gone from me, because at all times I do the things which are pleasing to him. +Jhn 8:30 When he said this a number came to have faith in him. +Jhn 8:31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had faith in him, If you keep my word, then you are truly my disciples; +Jhn 8:32 And you will have knowledge of what is true, and that will make you free. +Jhn 8:33 They said to him in answer, We are Abraham's seed and have never been any man's servant: why do you say, You will become free? +Jhn 8:34 And this was the answer Jesus gave them: Truly I say to you, Everyone who does evil is the servant of sin. +Jhn 8:35 Now the servant does not go on living in the house for ever, but the son does. +Jhn 8:36 If then the son makes you free, you will be truly free. +Jhn 8:37 I am conscious that you are Abraham's seed; but you have a desire to put me to death because my word has no place in you. +Jhn 8:38 I say the things which I have seen in my Father's house: and you do the things which come to you from your father's house. +Jhn 8:39 In answer they said to him, Our father is Abraham. Jesus said to them, If you were Abraham's children you would do what Abraham did. +Jhn 8:40 But now you have a desire to put me to death, a man who has said to you what is true, as I had it from God: Abraham did not do that. +Jhn 8:41 You are doing the works of your father. They said to him, We are true sons of Abraham; we have one Father, who is God. +Jhn 8:42 Jesus said to them, If God was your Father you would have love for me, because it was from God I came and am here. I did not come of myself, but he sent me. +Jhn 8:43 Why are my words not clear to you? It is because your ears are shut to my teaching. +Jhn 8:44 You are the children of your father the Evil One and it is your pleasure to do his desires. From the first he was a taker of life; and he did not go in the true way because there is no true thing in him. When he says what is false, it is natural to him, for he is false and the father of what is false. +Jhn 8:45 But because I say what is true, you have no belief in me. +Jhn 8:46 Which of you is able truly to say that I am a sinner? If I say what is true, why have you no belief in me? +Jhn 8:47 He who is a child of God gives ear to the words of God: your ears are not open to them because you are not from God. +Jhn 8:48 The Jews said to him in answer, Are we not right in saying that you are of Samaria and have an evil spirit? +Jhn 8:49 And this was the answer of Jesus: I have not an evil spirit; but I give honour to my Father and you do not give honour to me. +Jhn 8:50 I, however, am not in search of glory for myself: there is One who is searching for it and he is judge. +Jhn 8:51 Truly I say to you, If a man keeps my word he will never see death. +Jhn 8:52 The Jews said to him, Now we are certain that you have an evil spirit. Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead; and you say, If a man keeps my word he will never see death. +Jhn 8:53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead: who do you say that you are? +Jhn 8:54 Jesus said in answer, If I take glory for myself, my glory is nothing: it is my Father who gives me glory, of whom you say that he is your God. +Jhn 8:55 You have no knowledge of him, but I have knowledge of him; and if I said I have no knowledge of him I would be talking falsely like you: but I have full knowledge of him, and I keep his word. +Jhn 8:56 Your father Abraham was full of joy at the hope of seeing my day: he saw it and was glad. +Jhn 8:57 Then the Jews said to him, You are not fifty years old; have you seen Abraham? +Jhn 8:58 Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I am. +Jhn 8:59 So they took up stones to send at him: but Jesus got secretly out of their way and went out of the Temple. +Jhn 9:1 And when he went on his way, he saw a man blind from birth. +Jhn 9:2 And his disciples put a question to him, saying, Master, was it because of this man's sin, or the sin of his father and mother, that he has been blind from birth? +Jhn 9:3 Jesus said in answer, It was not because of his sin, or because of his father's or mother's; it was so that the works of God might be seen openly in him. +Jhn 9:4 While it is day we have to do the works of him who sent me: the night comes when no work may be done. +Jhn 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. +Jhn 9:6 Having said these words, he put earth, mixed with water from his mouth, on the man's eyes, +Jhn 9:7 And said to him, Go and make yourself clean in the bath of Siloam (the sense of the name is, Sent). So he went away and, after washing, came back able to see. +Jhn 9:8 Then the neighbours and others who had seen him before in the street, with his hand out for money, said, Is not this the man who got money from people? +Jhn 9:9 Some said, It is he: others said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am he. +Jhn 9:10 So they said to him, How then were your eyes made open? +Jhn 9:11 His answer was: The man who is named Jesus put earth mixed with water on my eyes, and said to me, Go and make yourself clean in Siloam: so I went away and, after washing, am now able to see. +Jhn 9:12 And they said to him, Where is he? His answer was: I have no knowledge. +Jhn 9:13 They took him before the Pharisees--this man who had been blind. +Jhn 9:14 Now the day on which the earth was mixed by Jesus and the man's eyes were made open was the Sabbath. +Jhn 9:15 So the Pharisees put more questions to him about how his eyes had been made open. And he said to them, He put earth on my eyes, and I had a wash and am able to see. +Jhn 9:16 Then some of the Pharisees said, That man has not come from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. Others said, How is it possible for a sinner to do such signs? So there was a division among them. +Jhn 9:17 Again they said to the blind man, What have you to say about him for opening your eyes? And he said, He is a prophet. +Jhn 9:18 Now the Jews had no belief in the statement that he had been blind and was now able to see, till they sent for the father and mother of the man whose eyes had been made open, +Jhn 9:19 And put the question to them, saying, Is this your son, of whom you say that he was blind at birth? how is it then that he is now able to see? +Jhn 9:20 In answer his father and mother said, We are certain that this is our son and that he was blind at birth: +Jhn 9:21 But how it is he is now able to see, or who made his eyes open, we are not able to say: put the question to him; he is old enough to give an answer for himself. +Jhn 9:22 They said this because of their fear of the Jews: for the Jews had come to an agreement that if any man said that Jesus was the Christ he would be put out of the Synagogue. +Jhn 9:23 That was the reason why they said, He is old enough; put the question to him. +Jhn 9:24 So they sent a second time for the man who had been blind and they said to him, Give glory to God: it is clear to us that this man is a sinner. +Jhn 9:25 He said in answer, I have no knowledge if he is a sinner or not, but one thing I am certain about; I was blind, and now I see. +Jhn 9:26 Then they said to him, What did he do to you? how did he give you the use of your eyes? +Jhn 9:27 His answer was: I have said it before, but your ears were shut: why would you have me say it again? is it your desire to become his disciples? +Jhn 9:28 And they were angry with him and said, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. +Jhn 9:29 We are certain that God gave his word to Moses: but as for this man, we have no knowledge where he comes from. +Jhn 9:30 The man said in answer, Why, here is a strange thing! You have no knowledge where he comes from though he gave me the use of my eyes. +Jhn 9:31 We have knowledge that God does not give ear to sinners, but if any man is a worshipper of God and does his pleasure, to him God's ears are open. +Jhn 9:32 In all the years nobody has ever before seen the eyes of a man blind from birth made open. +Jhn 9:33 If this man did not come from God he would be unable to do anything. +Jhn 9:34 Their answer was: You came to birth through sin; do you make yourself our teacher? And they put him out of the Synagogue. +Jhn 9:35 It came to the ears of Jesus that they had put him out, and meeting him he said, Have you faith in the Son of man? +Jhn 9:36 He said in answer, And who is he, Lord? Say, so that I may have faith in him. +Jhn 9:37 Jesus said to him, You have seen him; it is he who is talking to you. +Jhn 9:38 And he said, Lord, I have faith. And he gave him worship. +Jhn 9:39 And Jesus said, I came into this world to be a judge, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. +Jhn 9:40 These words came to the ears of the Pharisees who were with him and they said to him, Are we, then, blind? +Jhn 9:41 Jesus said to them, If you were blind you would have no sin: but now that you say, We see; your sin is there still. +Jhn 10:1 Truly I say to you, He who does not go through the door into the place where the sheep are kept, but gets in by some other way, is a thief and an outlaw. +Jhn 10:2 He who goes in by the door is the keeper of the sheep. +Jhn 10:3 The porter lets him in; and the sheep give ear to his voice; he says over the names of the sheep, and takes them out. +Jhn 10:4 When he has got them all out, he goes before them, and the sheep go after him, for they have knowledge of his voice. +Jhn 10:5 They will not go after another who is not their keeper, but will go from him in flight, because his voice is strange to them. +Jhn 10:6 In this Jesus was teaching them in the form of a story: but what he said was not clear to them. +Jhn 10:7 So Jesus said again, Truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. +Jhn 10:8 All who came before me are thieves and outlaws: but the sheep did not give ear to them. +Jhn 10:9 I am the door: if any man goes in through me he will have salvation, and will go in and go out, and will get food. +Jhn 10:10 The thief comes only to take the sheep and to put them to death: he comes for their destruction: I have come so that they may have life and have it in greater measure. +Jhn 10:11 I am the good keeper of sheep: the good keeper gives his life for the sheep. +Jhn 10:12 He who is a servant, and not the keeper or the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and goes in flight, away from the sheep; and the wolf comes down on them and sends them in all directions: +Jhn 10:13 Because he is a servant he has no interest in the sheep. +Jhn 10:14 I am the good keeper; I have knowledge of my sheep, and they have knowledge of me, +Jhn 10:15 Even as the Father has knowledge of me and I of the Father; and I am giving my life for the sheep. +Jhn 10:16 And I have other sheep which are not of this field: I will be their guide in the same way, and they will give ear to my voice, so there will be one flock and one keeper. +Jhn 10:17 For this reason am I loved by the Father, because I give up my life so that I may take it again. +Jhn 10:18 No one takes it away from me; I give it up of myself. I have power to give it up, and I have power to take it again. These orders I have from my Father. +Jhn 10:19 There was a division again among the Jews because of these words. +Jhn 10:20 And a number of them said, He has an evil spirit and is out of his mind; why do you give ear to him? +Jhn 10:21 Others said, These are not the words of one who has an evil spirit. Is it possible for an evil spirit to make blind people see? +Jhn 10:22 Then came the feast of the opening of the Temple in Jerusalem: it was winter; +Jhn 10:23 And Jesus was walking in the Temple, in Solomon's covered way. +Jhn 10:24 Then the Jews came round him, saying, how long are you going to keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, say so clearly. +Jhn 10:25 Jesus said in answer, I have said it and you have no belief: the works which I do in my Father's name, these give witness about me. +Jhn 10:26 But you have no belief because you are not of my sheep. +Jhn 10:27 My sheep give ear to my voice, and I have knowledge of them, and they come after me: +Jhn 10:28 And I give them eternal life; they will never come to destruction, and no one will ever take them out of my hand. +Jhn 10:29 That which my Father has given to me has more value than all; and no one is able to take anything out of the Father's hand. +Jhn 10:30 I and my Father are one. +Jhn 10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to send at him. +Jhn 10:32 Jesus said to them in answer, I have let you see a number of good works from the Father; for which of those works are you stoning me? +Jhn 10:33 This was their answer: We are not stoning you for a good work but for evil words; because being a man you make yourself God. +Jhn 10:34 In answer, Jesus said, Is there not a saying in your law, I said, You are gods? +Jhn 10:35 If he said they were gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Writings may not be broken), +Jhn 10:36 Do you say of him whom the Father made holy and sent into the world, Your words are evil; because I said, I am God's Son? +Jhn 10:37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not have belief in me; +Jhn 10:38 But if I am doing them, then have belief in the works even if you have no belief in me; so that you may see clearly and be certain that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. +Jhn 10:39 Then again they made an attempt to take him; but he got away from them. +Jhn 10:40 And he went again to the other side of the Jordan, to the place where John first gave baptism; and he was there for a time. +Jhn 10:41 And a great number of people came to him, saying, John did no sign: but everything John said of this man was true. +Jhn 10:42 And a number came to have faith in him there. +Jhn 11:1 Now a certain man named Lazarus was ill; he was of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. +Jhn 11:2 (The Mary whose brother Lazarus was ill, was the Mary who put perfumed oil on the Lord and made his feet dry with her hair.) +Jhn 11:3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, Lord, your dear friend is ill. +Jhn 11:4 When this came to his ears, Jesus said, The end of this disease is not death, but the glory of God, so that the Son of God may have glory because of it. +Jhn 11:5 Now Jesus had love in his heart for Martha and her sister and Lazarus. +Jhn 11:6 So when the news came to him that Lazarus was ill, he did not go from the place where he was for two days. +Jhn 11:7 Then after that time he said to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again. +Jhn 11:8 The disciples said to him, Master, the Jews were attempting only the other day to have you stoned, and are you going back there again? +Jhn 11:9 Then Jesus said in answer, Are there not twelve hours in the day? A man may go about in the day without falling, because he sees the light of this world. +Jhn 11:10 But if a man goes about in the night, he may have a fall because the light is not in him. +Jhn 11:11 These things said he: and after that he said to them, Lazarus our friend is at rest; but I go so that I may make him come out of his sleep. +Jhn 11:12 Then his disciples said to him, Lord, if he is resting he will get well. +Jhn 11:13 Jesus, however, was talking of his death: but they had the idea that he was talking about taking rest in sleep. +Jhn 11:14 Then Jesus said to them clearly, Lazarus is dead. +Jhn 11:15 And because of you I am glad I was not there, so that you may have faith; but let us go to him. +Jhn 11:16 Then Thomas, who was named Didymus, said to the other disciples, Let us go so that we may be with him in death. +Jhn 11:17 Now when Jesus came, he made the discovery that Lazarus had been put into the earth four days before. +Jhn 11:18 Now Bethany was near to Jerusalem, about two miles away; +Jhn 11:19 And a number of Jews had come to Martha and Mary to give them comfort about their brother. +Jhn 11:20 When Martha had the news that Jesus was on the way, she went out to him, but Mary did not go from the house. +Jhn 11:21 Then Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here my brother would not be dead. +Jhn 11:22 But I am certain that, even now, whatever request you make to God, God will give it to you. +Jhn 11:23 Jesus said to her, Your brother will come to life again. +Jhn 11:24 Martha said to him, I am certain that he will come to life again when all come back from the dead at the last day. +Jhn 11:25 Jesus said to her, I am myself that day and that life; he who has faith in me will have life even if he is dead; +Jhn 11:26 And no one who is living and has faith in me will ever see death. Is this your faith? +Jhn 11:27 She said to him, Yes, Lord: my faith is that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world. +Jhn 11:28 And having said this, she went away and said secretly to her sister Mary, The Master is here and has sent for you. +Jhn 11:29 And Mary, hearing this, got up quickly and went to him. +Jhn 11:30 Now Jesus had not at this time come into the town, but was still in the place where Martha had seen him. +Jhn 11:31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, comforting her, when they saw Mary get up quickly and go out, went after her in the belief that she was going to the place of the dead and would be weeping there. +Jhn 11:32 When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she went down at his feet, saying, Lord, if you had been here my brother would not be dead. +Jhn 11:33 And when Jesus saw her weeping, and saw the Jews weeping who came with her, his spirit was moved and he was troubled, +Jhn 11:34 And said, Where have you put him? They said, Come and see, Lord. +Jhn 11:35 And Jesus himself was weeping. +Jhn 11:36 So the Jews said, See how dear he was to him! +Jhn 11:37 But some of them said, This man, who made open the eyes of the blind man, was he not able to keep his friend from death? +Jhn 11:38 So Jesus, deeply troubled in heart, came to the place of the dead. It was a hole in the rock, and a stone was over the opening. +Jhn 11:39 Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said, Lord, by this time the body will be smelling, for he has been dead four days. +Jhn 11:40 Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you that if you had faith you would see the glory of God? +Jhn 11:41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus, looking up to heaven, said, Father, I give praise to you for hearing me. +Jhn 11:42 I was certain that your ears are at all times open to me, but I said it because of these who are here, so that they may see that you sent me. +Jhn 11:43 Then he said in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out! +Jhn 11:44 And he who was dead came out, with linen bands folded tightly about his hands and feet, and a cloth about his face. Jesus said to them, Make him free and let him go. +Jhn 11:45 Then a number of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did had belief in him. +Jhn 11:46 But some of them went to the Pharisees with the news of what Jesus had done. +Jhn 11:47 Then the high priests and the Pharisees had a meeting and said, What are we doing? This man is doing a number of signs. +Jhn 11:48 If we let him go on in this way, everybody will have belief in him and the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation. +Jhn 11:49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, You have no knowledge of anything; +Jhn 11:50 You do not see that it is in your interest for one man to be put to death for the people, so that all the nation may not come to destruction. +Jhn 11:51 He did not say this of himself, but being the high priest that year he said, as a prophet, that Jesus would be put to death for the nation; +Jhn 11:52 And not for that nation only, but for the purpose of uniting in one body the children of God all over the world. +Jhn 11:53 And from that day they took thought together how to put him to death. +Jhn 11:54 So Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near to the waste land, to a town named Ephraim, where he was for some time with the disciples. +Jhn 11:55 Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and numbers of people went up from the country to Jerusalem to make themselves clean before the Passover. +Jhn 11:56 They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another while they were in the Temple, What is your opinion? Will he not come to the feast? +Jhn 11:57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone had knowledge where he was, he was to give them word, so that they might take him. +Jhn 12:1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had made to come back from the dead. +Jhn 12:2 So they made him a meal there, and he was waited on by Martha, and Lazarus was among those who were seated with him at table. +Jhn 12:3 Then Mary, taking a pound of perfumed oil of great value, put it on the feet of Jesus and made them dry with her hair: and the house became full of the smell of the perfume. +Jhn 12:4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was to give him up), said, +Jhn 12:5 Why was not this perfume traded for three hundred pence, and the money given to the poor? +Jhn 12:6 (He said this, not because he had any love for the poor; but because he was a thief, and, having the money-bag, took for himself what was put into it.) +Jhn 12:7 Then Jesus said, Let her be. Let her keep what she has for the day of my death. +Jhn 12:8 The poor you have ever with you, but me you have not for ever. +Jhn 12:9 Then a great number of the Jews had news that he was there: and they came, not only because of Jesus, but so that they might see Lazarus who had been dead and to whom he had given life. +Jhn 12:10 Now there was talk among the chief priests of putting Lazarus to death; +Jhn 12:11 For because of him a great number of the Jews went away and had belief in Jesus. +Jhn 12:12 The day after, a great number of people who were there for the feast, when they had the news that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, +Jhn 12:13 Took branches of palm-trees and went out to him, crying, A blessing on him who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel! +Jhn 12:14 And Jesus saw a young ass and took his seat on it; as the Writings say, +Jhn 12:15 Have no fear, daughter of Zion: see your King is coming, seated on a young ass. +Jhn 12:16 (These things were not clear to his disciples at first: but when Jesus had been lifted up into his glory, then it came to their minds that these things in the Writings were about him and that they had been done to him.) +Jhn 12:17 Now the people who were with him when his voice came to Lazarus in the place of the dead, and gave him life again, had been talking about it. +Jhn 12:18 And that was the reason the people went out to him, because it had come to their ears that he had done this sign. +Jhn 12:19 Then the Pharisees said one to another, You see, you are unable to do anything: the world has gone after him. +Jhn 12:20 Now there were some Greeks among the people who had come up to give worship at the feast: +Jhn 12:21 They came to Philip, who was of Beth-saida in Galilee, and made a request, saying, Sir, we have a desire to see Jesus. +Jhn 12:22 Philip went and gave word of it to Andrew; and Andrew went with Philip to Jesus. +Jhn 12:23 And Jesus said to them in answer, The hour of the glory of the Son of man has come. +Jhn 12:24 Truly I say to you, If a seed of grain does not go into the earth and come to an end, it is still a seed and no more; but through its death it gives much fruit. +Jhn 12:25 He who is in love with life will have it taken from him; and he who has no care for his life in this world will keep it for ever and ever. +Jhn 12:26 If any man is my servant, let him come after me; and where I am, there will my servant be. If any man becomes my servant, my Father will give him honour. +Jhn 12:27 Now is my soul troubled; and what am I to say? Father, keep me from this hour. No: for this purpose have I come to this hour. +Jhn 12:28 Father, give glory to your name. Then there came a voice out of heaven, saying, I have given it glory, and I will give it glory again. +Jhn 12:29 Hearing the sound, a number of people who were there said that it was thunder: others said, An angel was talking to him. +Jhn 12:30 Jesus said in answer, This voice came not for me but for you. +Jhn 12:31 Now is this world to be judged: now will the ruler of this world be sent out. +Jhn 12:32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will make all men come to me. +Jhn 12:33 (This he said, pointing to the sort of death he would have.) +Jhn 12:34 Then the people in answer said to him, The law says that the Christ will have life without end: how say you then that it is necessary for the Son of man to be lifted up? Who is this Son of man? +Jhn 12:35 Jesus said to them, For a little time longer the light will be among you; while you have the light go on walking in it, so that the dark may not overtake you: one walking in the dark has no knowledge of where he is going. +Jhn 12:36 In so far as you have the light, put your faith in the light so that you may become sons of light. With these words Jesus went away and for a time was not seen again by them. +Jhn 12:37 But though he had done such a number of signs before them, they still had no belief in him: +Jhn 12:38 So that the words of the prophet Isaiah might come true, when he said, Lord, who has any belief in our preaching? and the arm of the Lord, to whom has it been unveiled? +Jhn 12:39 For this reason they were unable to have belief, because Isaiah said again, +Jhn 12:40 He has made their eyes blind, and their hearts hard; for fear that they might see with their eyes and get knowledge with their hearts, and be changed, and I might make them well. +Jhn 12:41 (Isaiah said these words because he saw his glory. His words were about him.) +Jhn 12:42 However, a number even of the rulers had belief in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not say so openly for fear that they might be shut out from the Synagogue: +Jhn 12:43 For the praise of men was dearer to them than the approval of God. +Jhn 12:44 Then Jesus said with a loud voice, He who has faith in me, has faith not in me, but in him who sent me. +Jhn 12:45 And he who sees me, sees him who sent me. +Jhn 12:46 I have come as a light into the world, so that no one who has faith in me will go on living in the dark. +Jhn 12:47 And if any man gives ear to my words and does not keep them, I am not his judge: I did not come to be judge of the world but to give salvation to the world. +Jhn 12:48 He who puts me on one side and does not take my words to heart, is not without a judge: the word which I have said will be his judge on the last day. +Jhn 12:49 For I have not said it on my authority, but the Father who sent me gave me orders what to say and how to say it. +Jhn 12:50 And I have knowledge that his order is eternal life: so that the things which I say, I say them even as the Father says them to me. +Jhn 13:1 Now before the feast of the Passover, it was clear to Jesus that the time had come for him to go away from this world to the Father. Having once had love for those in the world who were his, his love for them went on to the end. +Jhn 13:2 So while a meal was going on, the Evil One having now put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to be false to him, +Jhn 13:3 Jesus, being conscious that the Father had put everything into his hands, and that he came from God and was going to God, +Jhn 13:4 Got up from table, put off his robe and took a cloth and put it round him. +Jhn 13:5 Then he put water into a basin and was washing the feet of the disciples and drying them with the cloth which was round him. +Jhn 13:6 So he came to Simon Peter. Peter said, Lord, are my feet to be washed by you? +Jhn 13:7 And Jesus, answering, said to him, What I do is not clear to you now, but it will be clear to you in time to come. +Jhn 13:8 Peter said, I will never let my feet be washed by you, never. Jesus said in answer, If I do not make you clean you have no part with me. +Jhn 13:9 Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and my head. +Jhn 13:10 Jesus said to him, He who is bathed has need only to have his feet washed and then he is clean all over: and you, my disciples, are clean, but not all of you. +Jhn 13:11 (He had knowledge who was false to him; that is why he said, You are not all clean.) +Jhn 13:12 Then, after washing their feet and putting on his robe again, he took his seat and said to them, Do you see what I have done to you? +Jhn 13:13 You give me the name of Master and Lord: and you are right; that is what I am. +Jhn 13:14 If then I, the Lord and the Master, have made your feet clean, it is right for you to make one another's feet clean. +Jhn 13:15 I have given you an example, so that you may do what I have done to you. +Jhn 13:16 Truly I say to you, A servant is not greater than his lord; and he who is sent is not greater than the one who sent him. +Jhn 13:17 If these things are clear to you, happy are you if you do them. +Jhn 13:18 I am not talking of you all: I have knowledge of my true disciples, but things are as they are, so that the Writings may come true, The foot of him who takes bread with me is lifted up against me. +Jhn 13:19 From this time forward, I give you knowledge of things before they come about, so that when they come about you may have belief that I am he. +Jhn 13:20 Truly I say to you, He who takes to his heart anyone whom I send, takes me to his heart; and he who so takes me, takes him who sent me. +Jhn 13:21 When Jesus had said this he was troubled in spirit, and gave witness, saying, Truly I say to you, that one of you will be false to me. +Jhn 13:22 Then the eyes of the disciples were turned on one another, in doubt as to whom he had in mind. +Jhn 13:23 There was at table one of his disciples, the one dear to Jesus, resting his head on Jesus' breast. +Jhn 13:24 Making a sign to him, Simon Peter said, Who is it he is talking about? +Jhn 13:25 He, then, resting his head on Jesus' breast, said to him, Lord, who is it? +Jhn 13:26 This was the answer Jesus gave: It is the one to whom I will give this bit of bread after I have put it in the vessel. Then he took the bit of bread, put it into the vessel, and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. +Jhn 13:27 And when Judas took the bread Satan went into him. Then Jesus said to him, Do quickly what you have to do. +Jhn 13:28 Now it was not clear to anyone at table why he said this to him. +Jhn 13:29 Some were of the opinion that because Judas kept the money-bag Jesus said to him, Get the things we have need of for the feast; or, that he was to give something to the poor. +Jhn 13:30 So Judas, having taken the bit of bread, straight away went out: and it was night. +Jhn 13:31 Then when he had gone out, Jesus said, Now is glory given to the Son of man, and God is given glory in him. +Jhn 13:32 If God is given glory in him, God will give him glory in himself, and will give him glory even now. +Jhn 13:33 My dear children, I am only to be with you a little longer. Then you will be looking for me: and as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, Where I am going you may not come. +Jhn 13:34 I give you a new law: Have love one for another; even as I have had love for you, so are you to have love one for another. +Jhn 13:35 By this it will be clear to all men that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. +Jhn 13:36 Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus said in answer, Where I am going you may not come with me now, but you will come later. +Jhn 13:37 Peter said to him, Why may I not come with you even now? I will give up my life for you. +Jhn 13:38 Jesus said in answer, Will you give up your life for me? Truly I say to you, Before the cry of the cock you will have said three times that you are not my disciple. +Jhn 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: have faith in God and have faith in me. +Jhn 14:2 In my Father's house are rooms enough; if it was not so, would I have said that I am going to make ready a place for you? +Jhn 14:3 And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come back again and will take you to be with me, so that you may be where I am. +Jhn 14:4 And you all have knowledge of where I am going, and of the way to it. +Jhn 14:5 Thomas said, Lord, we have no knowledge of where you are going; how may we have knowledge of the way? +Jhn 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the true and living way: no one comes to the Father but by me. +Jhn 14:7 If you had knowledge of me, you would have knowledge of my Father: you have knowledge of him now and have seen him. +Jhn 14:8 Philip said to him, Lord, let us see the Father, and we have need of nothing more. +Jhn 14:9 Jesus said to him, Philip, have I been with you all this time, and still you have no knowledge of me? He who has seen me has seen the Father. Why do you say, Let us see the Father? +Jhn 14:10 Have you not faith that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words which I say to you, I say not from myself: but the Father who is in me all the time does his works. +Jhn 14:11 Have faith that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me: at least, have faith in me because of what I do. +Jhn 14:12 Truly I say to you, He who puts his faith in me will do the very works which I do, and he will do greater things than these, because I am going to my Father. +Jhn 14:13 And whatever request you make in my name, that I will do, so that the Father may have glory in the Son. +Jhn 14:14 If you make any request to me in my name, I will do it. +Jhn 14:15 If you have love for me, you will keep my laws. +Jhn 14:16 And I will make prayer to the Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you for ever, +Jhn 14:17 Even the Spirit of true knowledge. That Spirit the world is not able to take to its heart because it sees him not and has no knowledge of him: but you have knowledge of him, because he is ever with you and will be in you. +Jhn 14:18 I will not let you be without a friend: I am coming to you. +Jhn 14:19 A little time longer, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me; and you will be living because I am living. +Jhn 14:20 At that time it will be clear to you that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I in you. +Jhn 14:21 He who has my laws and keeps them, he it is who has love for me: and he who has love for me will be loved by my Father, and I will have love for him and will let myself be seen clearly by him. +Jhn 14:22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, How is it that you will let yourself be seen clearly by us and not by the world? +Jhn 14:23 Jesus said to him in answer, If anyone has love for me, he will keep my words: and he will be dear to my Father; and we will come to him and make our living-place with him. +Jhn 14:24 He who has no love for me does not keep my words; and the word which you are hearing is not my word but the Father's who sent me. +Jhn 14:25 I have said all this to you while I am still with you. +Jhn 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will be your teacher in all things and will put you in mind of everything I have said to you. +Jhn 14:27 May peace be with you; my peace I give to you: I give it not as the world gives. Let not your heart be troubled; let it be without fear. +Jhn 14:28 Keep in mind how I said to you, I go away and come to you again. If you had love for me you would be glad, because I am going to the Father: for the Father is greater than I. +Jhn 14:29 And now I have given you word of it before it comes, so that, when it comes, you may have faith. +Jhn 14:30 After this I will not say much to you, because the ruler of this world comes: and he has no power over me; +Jhn 14:31 But he comes so that the world may see that I have love for the Father, and that I am doing as I am ordered by the Father. Get up, and let us go. +Jhn 15:1 I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. +Jhn 15:2 He takes away every branch in me which has no fruit, and every branch which has fruit he makes clean, so that it may have more fruit. +Jhn 15:3 You are clean, even now, through the teaching which I have given you. +Jhn 15:4 Be in me at all times as I am in you. As the branch is not able to give fruit of itself, if it is not still on the vine, so you are not able to do so if you are not in me. +Jhn 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches: he who is in me at all times as I am in him, gives much fruit, because without me you are able to do nothing. +Jhn 15:6 If a man does not keep himself in me, he becomes dead and is cut off like a dry branch; such branches are taken up and put in the fire and burned. +Jhn 15:7 If you are in me at all times, and my words are in you, then anything for which you make a request will be done for you. +Jhn 15:8 Here is my Father's glory, in that you give much fruit and so are my true disciples. +Jhn 15:9 Even as the Father has given me his love, so I have given my love to you: be ever in my love. +Jhn 15:10 If you keep my laws, you will be ever in my love, even as I have kept my Father's laws, and am ever in his love. +Jhn 15:11 I have said these things to you so that I may have joy in you and so that your joy may be complete. +Jhn 15:12 This is the law I give you: Have love one for another, even as I have love for you. +Jhn 15:13 Greater love has no man than this, that a man gives up his life for his friends. +Jhn 15:14 You are my friends, if you do what I give you orders to do. +Jhn 15:15 No longer do I give you the name of servants; because a servant is without knowledge of what his master is doing: I give you the name of friends, because I have given you knowledge of all the things which my Father has said to me. +Jhn 15:16 You did not take me for yourselves, but I took you for myself; and I gave you the work of going about and producing fruit which will be for ever; so that whatever request you make to the Father in my name he may give it to you. +Jhn 15:17 So this is my law for you: Have love one for another. +Jhn 15:18 If you are hated by the world, keep in mind that I was hated by the world before you. +Jhn 15:19 If you were of the world, you would be loved by the world: but because you are not of the world, but I have taken you out of the world, you are hated by the world. +Jhn 15:20 Keep in mind the words I said to you, A servant is not greater than his lord. If they were cruel to me, they will be cruel to you; if they kept my words, they will keep yours. +Jhn 15:21 They will do all this to you because of my name--because they have no knowledge of him who sent me. +Jhn 15:22 If I had not come and been their teacher they would have had no sin: but now they have no reason to give for their sin. +Jhn 15:23 He who has hate for me has hate for my Father. +Jhn 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which no other man ever did, they would have had no sin: but now they have seen, and they have had hate in their hearts for me and my Father. +Jhn 15:25 This comes about so that the writing in their law may be made true, Their hate for me was without cause. +Jhn 15:26 When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father even the Spirit of true knowledge who comes from the Father--he will give witness about me; +Jhn 15:27 And you, in addition, will give witness because you have been with me from the first. +Jhn 16:1 I have said these things to you so that you may not be in doubt. +Jhn 16:2 They will put you out of the Synagogues: yes, the time is coming when whoever puts you to death will have the belief that he is doing God's pleasure. +Jhn 16:3 They will do these things to you because they have not had knowledge of the Father or of me. +Jhn 16:4 I have said these things to you so that when the time comes, what I have said may come to your mind. I did not say them to you at the first, because then I was still with you. +Jhn 16:5 But now I am going to him who sent me; and not one of you says to me, Where are you going? +Jhn 16:6 But your hearts are full of sorrow because I have said these things. +Jhn 16:7 But what I am saying is true: my going is for your good: for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. +Jhn 16:8 And he, when he comes, will make the world conscious of sin, and of righteousness, and of being judged: +Jhn 16:9 Of sin, because they have not faith in me; +Jhn 16:10 Of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no more; +Jhn 16:11 Of being judged, because the ruler of this world has been judged. +Jhn 16:12 I have still much to say to you, but you are not strong enough for it now. +Jhn 16:13 However, when he, the Spirit of true knowledge, has come, he will be your guide into all true knowledge: for his words will not come from himself, but whatever has come to his hearing, that he will say: and he will make clear to you the things to come. +Jhn 16:14 He will give me glory, because he will take of what is mine, and make it clear to you. +Jhn 16:15 Everything which the Father has is mine: that is why I say, He will take of what is mine and will make it clear to you. +Jhn 16:16 After a little time you will see me no longer; and then again, after a little time, you will see me. +Jhn 16:17 So some of the disciples said one to another, What is this he is saying, After a little time, you will see me no longer; and then again, after a little time, you will see me? and, I am going to the Father? +Jhn 16:18 So they said again and again, What is this he is saying, A little time? His words are not clear to us. +Jhn 16:19 Jesus saw that they had a desire to put the question to him, so he said to them, Is this what you are questioning one with another, why I said, After a little time, you will see me no longer; and then again, after a little time, you will see me? +Jhn 16:20 Truly I say to you, You will be weeping and sorrowing, but the world will be glad: you will be sad, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. +Jhn 16:21 When a woman is about to give birth she has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she has given birth to the child, the pain is put out of her mind by the joy that a man has come into the world. +Jhn 16:22 So you have sorrow now: but I will see you again, and your hearts will be glad, and no one will take away your joy. +Jhn 16:23 And on that day you will put no questions to me. Truly I say to you, Whatever request you make to the Father, he will give it to you in my name. +Jhn 16:24 Up to now you have made no request in my name: do so, and it will be answered, so that your hearts may be full of joy. +Jhn 16:25 All this I have said to you in veiled language: but the time is coming when I will no longer say things in veiled language but will give you knowledge of the Father clearly. +Jhn 16:26 In that day you will make requests in my name: and I do not say that I will make prayer to the Father for you, +Jhn 16:27 For the Father himself gives his love to you, because you have given your love to me and have had faith that I came from God. +Jhn 16:28 I came out from the Father and have come into the world: again, I go away from the world and go to the Father. +Jhn 16:29 His disciples said, Now you are talking clearly and not in veiled language. +Jhn 16:30 Now we are certain that you have knowledge of all things and have no need for anyone to put questions to you: through this we have faith that you came from God. +Jhn 16:31 Jesus made answer, Have you faith now? +Jhn 16:32 See, a time is coming, yes, it is now here, when you will go away in all directions, every man to his house, and I will be by myself: but I am not by myself, because the Father is with me. +Jhn 16:33 I have said all these things to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble: but take heart! I have overcome the world. +Jhn 17:1 Jesus said these things; then, lifting his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the time has now come; give glory to your Son, so that the Son may give glory to you: +Jhn 17:2 Even as you gave him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all those whom you have given to him. +Jhn 17:3 And this is eternal life: to have knowledge of you, the only true God, and of him whom you have sent, even Jesus Christ. +Jhn 17:4 I have given you glory on the earth, having done all the work which you gave me to do. +Jhn 17:5 And now, Father, let me have glory with you, even that glory which I had with you before the world was. +Jhn 17:6 I have given knowledge of your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world: yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your words. +Jhn 17:7 Now it is clear to them that whatever you have given to me comes from you: +Jhn 17:8 Because I have given them the words which you gave to me; and they have taken them to heart, and have certain knowledge that I came from you, and they have faith that you sent me. +Jhn 17:9 My prayer is for them: my prayer is not for the world, but for those whom you have given to me, because they are yours +Jhn 17:10 (All mine are yours, and yours are mine) and I have glory in them. +Jhn 17:11 And now I will be no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I come to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name which you have given to me, so that they may be one even as we are one. +Jhn 17:12 While I was with them I kept them safe in your name which you have given to me: I took care of them and not one of them has come to destruction, but only the son of destruction, so that the Writings might come true. +Jhn 17:13 And now I come to you; and these things I say in the world so that they may have my joy complete in them. +Jhn 17:14 I have given your word to them; and they are hated by the world, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. +Jhn 17:15 My prayer is not that you will take them out of the world, but that you will keep them from the Evil One. +Jhn 17:16 They are not of the world any more than I am of the world. +Jhn 17:17 Make them holy by the true word: your word is the true word. +Jhn 17:18 Even as you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. +Jhn 17:19 And for them I make myself holy, so that they may be made truly holy. +Jhn 17:20 My prayer is not for them only, but for all who will have faith in me through their word; +Jhn 17:21 May they all be one! Even as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, so let them be in us, so that all men may come to have faith that you sent me. +Jhn 17:22 And the glory which you have given to me I have given to them, so that they may be one even as we are one; +Jhn 17:23 I in them, and you in me, so that they may be made completely one, and so that it may become clear to all men that you have sent me and that they are loved by you as I am loved by you. +Jhn 17:24 Father, it is my desire that these whom you have given to me may be by my side where I am, so that they may see my glory which you have given to me, because you had love for me before the world came into being. +Jhn 17:25 Father of righteousness, I have knowledge of you, though the world has not; and to these it is clear that you sent me; +Jhn 17:26 And I have given to them knowledge of your name, and will give it, so that the love which you have for me may be in them and I in them. +Jhn 18:1 When Jesus had said these words he went out with his disciples over the stream Kedron to a garden, into which he went with his disciples. +Jhn 18:2 And Judas, who was false to him, had knowledge of the place because Jesus went there frequently with his disciples. +Jhn 18:3 So Judas, getting a band of armed men and police from the chief priests and Pharisees, went there with lights and with arms. +Jhn 18:4 Then Jesus, having knowledge of everything which was coming on him, went forward and said to them, Who are you looking for? +Jhn 18:5 Their answer was, Jesus the Nazarene. Jesus said, I am he. And Judas, who was false to him, was there at their side. +Jhn 18:6 And when he said to them, I am he, they went back, falling to the earth. +Jhn 18:7 So again he put the question to them, Who are you looking for? And they said, Jesus the Nazarene. +Jhn 18:8 Jesus made answer, I have said that I am he; if you are looking for me, let these men go away. +Jhn 18:9 (He said this so that his words might come true, I have kept safe all those whom you gave to me.) +Jhn 18:10 Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, took it out and gave the high priest's servant a blow, cutting off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. +Jhn 18:11 Then Jesus said to Peter, Put back your sword: am I not to take the cup which my Father has given to me? +Jhn 18:12 Then the band and the chief captain and the police took Jesus and put cords round him. +Jhn 18:13 They took him first to Annas, because Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was the high priest that year. +Jhn 18:14 It was Caiaphas who had said to the Jews that it was in their interest for one man to be put to death for the people. +Jhn 18:15 And Simon Peter went after Jesus with another disciple. Now that disciple was a friend of the high priest and he went in with Jesus into the house of the high priest; +Jhn 18:16 But Peter was kept outside at the door. Then this other disciple, who was a friend of the high priest, came out and had a word with the girl who kept the door, and took Peter in. +Jhn 18:17 Then the girl who was the door-keeper said to Peter, Are you not one of this man's disciples? In answer he said, I am not. +Jhn 18:18 Now the servants and the police had made a fire of coals because it was cold; they were warming themselves in front of it and Peter was there with them, warming himself. +Jhn 18:19 Then the high priest put questions to Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. +Jhn 18:20 Jesus made answer, I said things openly to the world at all times; I have given my teaching in the Synagogues and in the Temple to which all the Jews come; and I have said nothing secretly. +Jhn 18:21 Why are you questioning me? put questions to my hearers about what I have said to them: they have knowledge of what I said. +Jhn 18:22 When he said this, one of the police by his side gave him a blow with his open hand, saying, Do you give such an answer to the high priest? +Jhn 18:23 Jesus said in answer, If I have said anything evil, give witness to the evil: but if I said what is true, why do you give me blows? +Jhn 18:24 Then Annas sent him chained to Caiaphas, the high priest. +Jhn 18:25 But Simon Peter was still there warming himself by the fire. They said to him, Are you not one of his disciples? He said, No, I am not. +Jhn 18:26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relation of him whose ear had been cut off by Peter, said, Did I not see you with him in the garden? +Jhn 18:27 Then again Peter said, No. And straight away a cock gave its cry. +Jhn 18:28 So they took Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the Praetorium. It was early. They themselves did not go into the Praetorium, so that they might not become unclean, but might take the Passover. +Jhn 18:29 So Pilate came out to them and put the question: What have you to say against this man? +Jhn 18:30 They said to him in answer, If the man was not a wrongdoer we would not have given him up to you. +Jhn 18:31 Then Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and let him be judged by your law. But the Jews said to him, We have no right to put any man to death. +Jhn 18:32 (That the word of Jesus might come true, pointing to the sort of death he would have.) +Jhn 18:33 Then Pilate went back into the Praetorium and sent for Jesus and said to him, Are you the King of the Jews? +Jhn 18:34 Jesus made answer, Do you say this of yourself, or did others say it about me? +Jhn 18:35 Pilate said, Am I a Jew? Your nation and the chief priests have given you into my hands: what have you done? +Jhn 18:36 Jesus said in answer, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom was of this world, my disciples would have made a good fight to keep me out of the hands of the Jews: but my kingdom is not here. +Jhn 18:37 Then Pilate said to him, Are you then a king? Jesus made answer, You say that I am a king. For this purpose was I given birth, and for this purpose I came into the world, that I might give witness to what is true. Every lover of what is true gives ear to my voice. +Jhn 18:38 Pilate said to him, True? what is true? Having said this he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I see no wrong in him. +Jhn 18:39 But every year you make a request to me to let a prisoner go free at the Passover. Is it your desire that I let the King of the Jews go free? +Jhn 18:40 Then again they gave a loud cry, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was an outlaw. +Jhn 19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped with cords. +Jhn 19:2 And the men of the army made a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. +Jhn 19:3 And they kept coming and saying, Long life to the King of the Jews! And they gave him blows with their hands. +Jhn 19:4 And Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I let him come out to you to make it clear to you that I see no wrong in him. +Jhn 19:5 Then Jesus came out with the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, Here is the man! +Jhn 19:6 So when the chief priests and the police saw him they gave a loud cry, To the cross! to the cross! Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and put him on the cross: I see no crime in him. +Jhn 19:7 And the Jews made answer, We have a law, and by that law it is right for him to be put to death because he said he was the Son of God. +Jhn 19:8 When this saying came to Pilate's ears his fear became greater; +Jhn 19:9 And he went again into the Praetorium and said to Jesus, Where do you come from? But Jesus gave him no answer. +Jhn 19:10 Then Pilate said to him, You say nothing to me? is it not clear to you that I have power to let you go free and power to put you to death on the cross? +Jhn 19:11 Jesus gave this answer: You would have no power at all over me if it was not given to you by God; so that he who gave me up to you has the greater sin. +Jhn 19:12 Hearing this, Pilate had a desire to let him go free, but the Jews said in a loud voice, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend: everyone who makes himself a king goes against Caesar. +Jhn 19:13 So when these words came to Pilate's ear, he took Jesus out, seating himself in the judge's seat in a place named in Hebrew, Gabbatha, or the Stone Floor. +Jhn 19:14 (It was the day when they made ready for the Passover; and it was about the sixth hour.) And he said to the Jews, There is your King! +Jhn 19:15 Then they gave a loud cry, Away with him! away with him! to the cross! Pilate said to them, Am I to put your King to death on the cross? The chief priests said in answer, We have no king but Caesar. +Jhn 19:16 So then he gave him up to them to be put to death on the cross. And they took Jesus away; +Jhn 19:17 And he went out with his cross on him to the place which is named Dead Man's Head (in Hebrew, Golgotha): +Jhn 19:18 Where they put him on the cross with two others, one on this side and one on that, and Jesus in the middle. +Jhn 19:19 And Pilate put on the cross a statement in writing. The writing was: JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS. +Jhn 19:20 The writing was seen by a number of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was put to death on the cross was near the town; and the writing was in Hebrew and Latin and Greek. +Jhn 19:21 Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not put, The King of the Jews, but, He said, I am the King of the Jews. +Jhn 19:22 But Pilate made answer, What I have put in writing will not be changed. +Jhn 19:23 And when Jesus was nailed to the cross, the men of the army took his clothing, and made a division of it into four parts, to every man a part, and they took his coat: now the coat was without a join, made out of one bit of cloth. +Jhn 19:24 So they said among themselves, Let this not be cut up, but let us put it to the decision of chance and see who gets it. (They did this so that the Writings might come true, which say, They made a distribution of my clothing among them, and my coat they put to the decision of chance.) This was what the men of the army did. +Jhn 19:25 Now by the side of the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. +Jhn 19:26 So when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple who was dear to him, he said to his mother, Mother, there is your son! +Jhn 19:27 Then he said to the disciple, There is your mother! And from that hour the disciple took her to his house. +Jhn 19:28 After this, being conscious that all things had now been done so that the Writings might come true, Jesus said, Give me water. +Jhn 19:29 Now there was a vessel ready, full of bitter wine, and they put a sponge full of it on a stick and put it to his mouth. +Jhn 19:30 So when Jesus had taken the wine he said, All is done. And with his head bent he gave up his spirit. +Jhn 19:31 Now it was the day of getting ready for the Passover, and so that the bodies might not be on the cross on the Sabbath (because the day of that Sabbath was a great day), the Jews made a request to Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. +Jhn 19:32 So the men of the army came, and the legs of the first were broken and then of the other who was put to death on the cross with Jesus: +Jhn 19:33 But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was dead by this time, and so his legs were not broken; +Jhn 19:34 But one of the men made a wound in his side with a spear, and straight away there came out blood and water. +Jhn 19:35 And he who saw it has given witness (and his witness is true; he is certain that what he says is true) so that you may have belief. +Jhn 19:36 These things came about so that the Writings might be true, No bone of his body will be broken. +Jhn 19:37 And again another verse says, They will see him who was wounded by their spears. +Jhn 19:38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, made a request to Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate said he might do so. So he went and took away his body. +Jhn 19:39 And Nicodemus came (he who had first come to Jesus by night) with a roll of myrrh and aloes mixed, about a hundred pounds. +Jhn 19:40 Then they took the body of Jesus, folding linen about it with the spices, as is the way of the Jews when they put the dead to rest. +Jhn 19:41 Now there was a garden near the cross, and in the garden a new place for the dead in which no man had ever been put. +Jhn 19:42 So they put Jesus there, because it was the Jews' day of getting ready for the Passover, and the place was near. +Jhn 20:1 Now on the first day of the week, very early, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the place and saw that the stone had been taken away from it. +Jhn 20:2 Then she went running to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple who was loved by Jesus, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the place of the dead and we have no knowledge where they have put him. +Jhn 20:3 So Peter and the other disciple went out to the place of the dead. +Jhn 20:4 They went running together, and the other disciple got in front of Peter and came first to the hole in the rock; +Jhn 20:5 And looking in, he saw the linen bands on the earth; but he did not go in, +Jhn 20:6 Then Simon Peter came after him and went into the hole in the rock; and he saw the linen bands on the earth, +Jhn 20:7 And the cloth, which had been round his head, not with the linen bands but rolled up in a place by itself. +Jhn 20:8 Then the other disciple who came there first went in; and he saw and belief came to him. +Jhn 20:9 For at that time they had no knowledge that the Writings said that he would have to come again from the dead. +Jhn 20:10 So then the disciples went away again to their houses. +Jhn 20:11 But Mary was still there outside the hole in the rock, weeping; and while she was weeping and looking into the hole, +Jhn 20:12 She saw two angels in white seated where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head and the other at the feet. +Jhn 20:13 They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I have no knowledge where they have put him. +Jhn 20:14 And then looking round, she saw Jesus there, but had no idea that it was Jesus. +Jhn 20:15 Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? who are you looking for? She, taking him for the gardener, said to him, Sir, if you have taken him away from here, say where you have put him and I will take him away. +Jhn 20:16 Jesus said to her, Mary! Turning, she said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni! (which is to say, Master). +Jhn 20:17 Jesus said to her, Do not put your hand on me, for I have not gone up to the Father: but go to my brothers and say to them, I go up to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. +Jhn 20:18 Mary Magdalene went with the news to the disciples, and said she had seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her. +Jhn 20:19 At evening on that day, the first day of the week, when, for fear of the Jews, the doors were shut where the disciples were, Jesus came among them and said to them, May peace be with you! +Jhn 20:20 And when he had said this, he let them see his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. +Jhn 20:21 And Jesus said to them again, May peace be with you! As the Father sent me, even so I now send you. +Jhn 20:22 And when he had said this, breathing on them, he said to them, Let the Holy Spirit come on you: +Jhn 20:23 Any to whom you give forgiveness, will be made free from their sins; and any from whom you keep back forgiveness, will still be in their sins. +Jhn 20:24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, named Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. +Jhn 20:25 So the other disciples said to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, If I do not see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails, and if I do not put my hand into his side, I will never have belief. +Jhn 20:26 And after eight days, his disciples were again in the house and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were shut, Jesus came, and taking his place in the middle of them, he said, May peace be with you! +Jhn 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, Put out your finger, and see my hands; and put your hand here into my side: and be no longer in doubt but have belief. +Jhn 20:28 And Thomas said in answer, My Lord and my God! +Jhn 20:29 Jesus said to him, Because you have seen me you have belief: a blessing will be on those who have belief though they have not seen me! +Jhn 20:30 A number of other signs Jesus did before his disciples which are not recorded in this book: +Jhn 20:31 But these are recorded, so that you may have faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so that, having this faith you may have life in his name. +Jhn 21:1 After these things Jesus let himself be seen again by the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and it came about in this way. +Jhn 21:2 Simon Peter, Thomas named Didymus, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were all together. +Jhn 21:3 Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. They said to him, And we will come with you. They went out and got into the boat; but that night they took no fish. +Jhn 21:4 Now very early in the morning Jesus was there by the edge of the sea (though the disciples were not conscious that it was Jesus). +Jhn 21:5 So Jesus said to them, Children, have you taken any fish? They made answer, No. +Jhn 21:6 And he said to them, Let down the net on the right side of the boat and you will get some. So they put it in the water and now they were not able to get it up again because of the great number of fish. +Jhn 21:7 So the disciple who was dear to Jesus said to Peter, It is the Lord! Hearing that it was the Lord, Peter put his coat round him (because he was not clothed) and went into the sea. +Jhn 21:8 And the other disciples came in the little boat (they were not far from land, only about two hundred cubits off) pulling the net full of fish. +Jhn 21:9 When they got to land, they saw a fire of coals there, with fish cooking on it, and bread. +Jhn 21:10 Jesus said to them, Get some of the fish which you have now taken. +Jhn 21:11 So Peter went to the boat and came back pulling the net to land, full of great fish, a hundred and fifty-three; and though there was such a number the net was not broken. +Jhn 21:12 Jesus said to them, Come and take some food. And all the disciples were in fear of putting the question, Who are you? being conscious that it was the Lord. +Jhn 21:13 Then Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish in the same way. +Jhn 21:14 Now this was the third time that Jesus let himself be seen by the disciples after he had come back from the dead. +Jhn 21:15 Then when they had taken food, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, is your love for me greater than the love of these others? He said to him, Yes, Lord; you are certain of my love for you. He said to him, Then give my lambs food. +Jhn 21:16 Again, a second time, he said to him, Simon, son of John, have you any love for me? Yes, Lord, he said, you are certain of my love for you. Then take care of my sheep, said Jesus. +Jhn 21:17 He said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, am I dear to you? Now Peter was troubled in his heart because he put the question a third time, Am I dear to you? And he said to him, Lord, you have knowledge of all things; you see that you are dear to me. Jesus said to him, Then give my sheep food. +Jhn 21:18 Truly I say to you, When you were young, you made yourself ready and went wherever you had a desire to go: but when you are old, you will put out your hands and another will make you ready, and you will be taken where you have no desire to go. +Jhn 21:19 Now this he said, pointing out the sort of death by which he would give God glory. And after saying this, he said to him, Come after me. +Jhn 21:20 Then Peter, turning round, saw the disciple who was dear to Jesus coming after them--the disciple who was resting on his breast at the last meal, and said, Lord, who is it who will be false to you? +Jhn 21:21 Seeing him, Peter said to Jesus, What about this man? +Jhn 21:22 Jesus said to him, If it is my desire for him to be here till I come back, what is that to you? come yourself after me. +Jhn 21:23 So this saying went about among the brothers that this disciple would not undergo death: Jesus, however, did not say that he would not undergo death, but, If it is my desire for him to be here till I come back, what is that to you? +Jhn 21:24 This is the disciple who gives witness about these things and who put them in writing: and we have knowledge that his witness is true. +Jhn 21:25 And Jesus did such a number of other things that, if every one was recorded, it is my opinion that even the world itself is not great enough for the books there would be. +Act 1:1 I have given an earlier account, O Theophilus, of all the things which Jesus did, and of his teaching from the first, +Act 1:2 Till the day when he was taken up to heaven after he had given his orders, through the Holy Spirit, to the Apostles of whom he had made selection: +Act 1:3 And to whom he gave clear and certain signs that he was living, after his death; for he was seen by them for forty days, and gave them teaching about the kingdom of God: +Act 1:4 And when they were all together, with him, he gave them orders not to go away from Jerusalem, but to keep there, waiting till the word of the Father was put into effect, of which, he said, I have given you knowledge: +Act 1:5 For the baptism of John was with water, but you will have baptism with the Holy Spirit, after a little time. +Act 1:6 So, when they were together, they said to him, Lord, will you at this time give back the kingdom to Israel? +Act 1:7 And he said to them, It is not for you to have knowledge of the time and the order of events which the Father has kept in his control. +Act 1:8 But you will have power, when the Holy Spirit has come on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. +Act 1:9 And when he had said these things, while they were looking, he was taken up, and went from their view into a cloud. +Act 1:10 And while they were looking up to heaven with great attention, two men came to them, in white clothing, +Act 1:11 And said, O men of Galilee, why are you looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come again, in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. +Act 1:12 Then they went back to Jerusalem from the mountain named Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. +Act 1:13 And when they came in, they went up into the room where they were living; Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James. +Act 1:14 And they all with one mind gave themselves up to prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. +Act 1:15 And in those days Peter got up among the brothers (there were about one hundred and twenty of them), and said, +Act 1:16 My brothers, the word of God had to be put into effect, which the Holy Spirit had said before, by the mouth of David, about Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus, +Act 1:17 For he was numbered among us, and had his part in our work. +Act 1:18 (Now this man, with the reward of his evil-doing, got for himself a field, and falling head first, came to a sudden and violent end there. +Act 1:19 And this came to the knowledge of all those who were living in Jerusalem, so that the field was named in their language, Akel-dama, or, The field of blood.) +Act 1:20 For in the book of Psalms it says, Let his house be waste, and let no man be living in it: and, Let his position be taken by another. +Act 1:21 For this reason, of the men who have been with us all the time, while the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, +Act 1:22 Starting from the baptism of John till he went up from us, one will have to be a witness with us of his coming back from death. +Act 1:23 And they made selection of two, Joseph, named Barsabbas, whose other name was Justus, and Matthias. +Act 1:24 And they made prayers and said, Lord, having knowledge of the hearts of all men, make clear which of these two has been marked out by you, +Act 1:25 To take that position as a servant and Apostle, from which Judas by his sin was shut out, so that he might go to his place. +Act 1:26 And they put it to the decision of chance, and the decision was given for Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles. +Act 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was come, they were all together in one place. +Act 2:2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like the rushing of a violent wind, and all the house where they were was full of it. +Act 2:3 And they saw tongues, like flames of fire, coming to rest on every one of them. +Act 2:4 And they were all full of the Holy Spirit, and were talking in different languages, as the Spirit gave them power. +Act 2:5 Now there were living at Jerusalem, Jews, God-fearing men, from every nation under heaven. +Act 2:6 And when this sound came to their ears, they all came together, and were greatly surprised because every man was hearing the words of the disciples in his special language. +Act 2:7 And they were full of wonder and said, Are not all these men Galilaeans? +Act 2:8 And how is it that every one of us is hearing their words in the language which was ours from our birth? +Act 2:9 Men of Parthia, Media, and Elam, and those living in Mesopotamia, in Judaea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia, +Act 2:10 In Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and those who have come from Rome, Jews by birth and others who have become Jews, +Act 2:11 Men of Crete and Arabia, to all of us they are talking in our different languages, of the great works of God. +Act 2:12 And they were all surprised and in doubt saying to one another, What is the reason of this? +Act 2:13 But others, making sport of them, said, They are full of new wine. +Act 2:14 But Peter, getting up, with the eleven, said in a loud voice, O men of Judaea, and all you who are living in Jerusalem, take note of this and give ear to my words. +Act 2:15 For these men are not overcome with wine, as it seems to you, for it is only the third hour of the day; +Act 2:16 But this is the thing which was said by the prophet Joel; +Act 2:17 And it will come about, in the last days, says God, that I will send out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will be prophets, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams: +Act 2:18 And on my men-servants and my women-servants I will send my Spirit, and they will be prophets. +Act 2:19 And wonders will be seen in heaven, and signs on the earth, blood and fire and smoke: +Act 2:20 The sun will become dark and the moon will be turned to blood, before that great day of the Lord comes in glory: +Act 2:21 And whoever makes his prayer to the Lord will have salvation. +Act 2:22 Men of Israel, give ear to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man who had the approval of God, as was made clear to you by the great works and signs and wonders which God did by him among you, as you yourselves have knowledge, +Act 2:23 Him, when he was given up, by the decision and knowledge of God, you put to death on the cross, by the hands of evil men: +Act 2:24 But God gave him back to life, having made him free from the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be overcome by it. +Act 2:25 For David said of him, I saw the Lord before my face at all times, for he is at my right hand, so that I may not be moved: +Act 2:26 And for this cause my heart was glad and my tongue full of joy, and my flesh will be resting in hope: +Act 2:27 For you will not let my soul be in hell and you will not give up your Holy One to destruction. +Act 2:28 You have made me see the ways of life; I will be full of joy when I see your face. +Act 2:29 My brothers, I may say to you openly that David came to his death, and was put in the earth, and his resting-place is with us today. +Act 2:30 But being a prophet, and having in mind the oath which God had given to him, that of the fruit of his body one would take his place as a king, +Act 2:31 He, having knowledge of the future, was talking of the coming again of Christ from the dead, that he was not kept in hell and his body did not see destruction. +Act 2:32 This Jesus God has given back to life, of which we all are witnesses. +Act 2:33 And so, being lifted up to the right hand of God, and having the Father's word that the Holy Spirit would come, he has sent this thing, which now you see and have knowledge of. +Act 2:34 For David has not gone up into heaven, but says, himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Be seated at my right hand, +Act 2:35 Till I put all those who are against you under your feet. +Act 2:36 For this reason, let all Israel be certain that this Jesus, whom you put to death on the cross, God has made Lord and Christ. +Act 2:37 Now when these words came to their ears their hearts were troubled, and they said to Peter and the other Apostles, Brothers, what are we to do? +Act 2:38 And Peter said, Let your hearts be changed, every one of you, and have baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will have the Holy Spirit given to you. +Act 2:39 For the word of God is for you and for your children and for all those who are far off, even all those who may be marked out by the Lord our God. +Act 2:40 And with more such words he gave his witness, offering them salvation and saying, Come out from this evil generation. +Act 2:41 Then those who gave hearing to his words had baptism: and about three thousand souls were joined to them that day. +Act 2:42 And they kept their attention fixed on the Apostles' teaching and were united together in the taking of broken bread and in prayer. +Act 2:43 But fear came on every soul: and all sorts of wonders and signs were done by the Apostles. +Act 2:44 And all those who were of the faith kept together, and had all things in common; +Act 2:45 And exchanging their goods and property for money, they made division of it among them all, as they had need. +Act 2:46 And day by day, going in agreement together regularly to the Temple and, taking broken bread together in their houses, they took their food with joy and with true hearts, +Act 2:47 Giving praise to God, and having the approval of all the people; and every day the number of those who had salvation was increased by the Lord. +Act 3:1 Now Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer; +Act 3:2 And a certain man who from birth had had no power in his legs, was taken there every day, and put down at the door of the Temple which is named Beautiful, requesting money from those who went into the Temple; +Act 3:3 He then, seeing Peter and John going into the Temple, made a request to them. +Act 3:4 And Peter, looking at him, with John, said, Keep your eyes on us. +Act 3:5 And he gave attention to them, hoping to get something from them. +Act 3:6 But Peter said, I have no silver or gold, but what I have, that I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up on your feet. +Act 3:7 And he took him by his right hand, lifting him up; and straight away his feet and the bones of his legs became strong, +Act 3:8 And, jumping up, he got on to his feet and went into the Temple with them, walking and jumping and giving praise to God. +Act 3:9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God: +Act 3:10 And they saw that it was the man who made requests for money at the door of the Temple, and they were full of wonder and surprise at what had taken place. +Act 3:11 And while he kept his hands on Peter and John, all the people came running together to the covered way which is named Solomon's, full of wonder. +Act 3:12 And when Peter saw it he said to the people, You men of Israel, why are you so greatly surprised at this man? or why are you looking at us as if by our power or virtue we had given him the use of his legs? +Act 3:13 The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has given glory to his servant Jesus; whom you gave up, turning your backs on him, when Pilate had made the decision to let him go free. +Act 3:14 But you would have nothing to do with the Holy and Upright One, and made request for a man of blood to be given to you, +Act 3:15 And put to death the Lord of life; whom God gave back from the dead; of which fact we are witnesses. +Act 3:16 And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and have knowledge of: yes, the faith which is through him has made him well, before you all. +Act 3:17 And now, my brothers, I am conscious that you did this, as did your rulers, without knowledge. +Act 3:18 But the things which God had made clear before, by the mouth of all the prophets, that the Christ would have to undergo, he has put into effect in this way. +Act 3:19 So then, let your hearts be changed and be turned to God, so that your sins may be completely taken away, and times of blessing may come from the Lord; +Act 3:20 And that he may send the Christ who was marked out for you from the first, even Jesus: +Act 3:21 Who is to be kept in heaven till the time when all things are put right, of which God has given word by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been from the earliest times. +Act 3:22 For Moses said, The Lord will give you a prophet from among your people, like me; you will give ear to everything which he will say to you. +Act 3:23 And every soul who does not give attention to that prophet, will be cut off from among the people. +Act 3:24 And all the prophets from Samuel and those who came after, every one of them, gave word of these days. +Act 3:25 You are the sons of the prophets, and of the agreement which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, Through your seed a blessing will come on all the families of the earth. +Act 3:26 To you, first, God sent his servant, blessing you by turning every one of you from his sins. +Act 4:1 And while they were talking to the people, the priests and the captain of the Temple and the Sadducees came up to them, +Act 4:2 Being greatly troubled because they were teaching the people and preaching Jesus as an example of the coming back from the dead. +Act 4:3 And they took them and put them in prison till the morning, for it was now evening. +Act 4:4 But a number of those who gave hearing to the word had faith; and they were now about five thousand. +Act 4:5 And on the day after, the rulers and those in authority and the scribes came together in Jerusalem; +Act 4:6 And Annas, the high priest, was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all the relations of the high priest. +Act 4:7 Then sending for Peter and John, they said, By what power and in whose name have you done this? +Act 4:8 Then Peter, being full of the Holy Spirit, said to them, O you rulers of the people and men of authority, +Act 4:9 If we are questioned today about a good work done to a man who was ill, as to how he has been made well, +Act 4:10 Take note, all of you, and all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you put to death on the cross, whom God gave back from the dead, even through him is this man now before you completely well. +Act 4:11 He is the stone which you builders had no use for, but which has been made the chief stone of the building. +Act 4:12 And in no other is there salvation: for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, through which we may have salvation. +Act 4:13 Now when they saw that Peter and John were without fear, though they were men of no education or learning, they were greatly surprised; and they took note of them that they had been with Jesus. +Act 4:14 And, seeing that the man who had been made well was there with them, they were not able to say anything against it. +Act 4:15 But when they had given them orders to go out of the Sanhedrin, they had a discussion among themselves, +Act 4:16 Saying, What are we to do with these men? for certainly it is clear to all who are living in Jerusalem that a most important sign has been done by them, and it is not possible to say that it is not so. +Act 4:17 But so that it may not go farther among the people, let us put them in fear of punishment if they say anything in future in this name. +Act 4:18 And they sent for them, and gave them orders not to make statements or give teaching in the name of Jesus. +Act 4:19 But Peter and John in answer said to them, It is for you to say if it is right in the eyes of God to give attention to you more than to God: +Act 4:20 For it is not possible for us to keep from saying what we have seen and have knowledge of. +Act 4:21 And when they had said more sharp words to them, they let them go, not seeing what punishment they might give them, because of the people; for all men were giving praise to God for what had taken place. +Act 4:22 For the man on whom this act of power was done was more than forty years old. +Act 4:23 And when they had been made free, they came back to their friends, and gave an account of all the things which the chief priests and the authorities had said to them. +Act 4:24 And hearing it, they all, with one mind, made prayer to God and said, O Lord, maker of heaven and earth and the sea and all things in them: +Act 4:25 Who has said, by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David your servant, Why are the nations so violently moved, and why are the thoughts of the people so foolish? +Act 4:26 The kings of the earth were lifted up, the rulers came together, against the Lord, and against his Christ: +Act 4:27 For, truly, in this town, against your holy servant, Jesus, who was marked out by you as Christ, Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, came together, +Act 4:28 To do that which had been fixed before by your hand and your purpose. +Act 4:29 And now, Lord, take note of their cruel words, and give your servants power to be preachers of your word without fear, +Act 4:30 While your hand is stretched out to do works of mercy; so that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus. +Act 4:31 And when their prayer was ended, the place where they were was violently moved, and they all became full of the Holy Spirit, preaching the word of God without fear. +Act 4:32 And all those who were of the faith were one in heart and soul: and not one of them said that any of the things which he had was his property only; but they had all things in common. +Act 4:33 And with great power the Apostles gave witness of the coming back of the Lord Jesus from the dead; and grace was on them all. +Act 4:34 And no one among them was in need; for everyone who had land or houses, exchanging them for money, took the price of them, +Act 4:35 And put it at the feet of the Apostles for distribution to everyone as he had need. +Act 4:36 And Joseph, who was given by the Apostles the name of Barnabas (the sense of which is, Son of comfort), a Levite and a man of Cyprus by birth, +Act 4:37 Having a field, got money for it and put the money at the feet of the Apostles. +Act 5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, got money for his property, +Act 5:2 And kept back part of the price, his wife having knowledge of it, and took the rest and put it at the feet of the Apostles. +Act 5:3 But Peter said, Ananias, why has the Evil One put it into your heart to be false to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land? +Act 5:4 While you had it, was it not your property? and after you had given it in exchange, was it not still in your power? how has this purpose come into your mind? you have been false, not to men, but to God. +Act 5:5 And at these words, Ananias went down on the earth, and his life went from him: and great fear came on all who were present. +Act 5:6 And the young men went and made ready his body, and took it out, and put it in the earth. +Act 5:7 And about three hours after, his wife, having no knowledge of what had taken place, came in. +Act 5:8 And Peter said to her, Give me an answer: was this amount of money the price of the land? And she said, Yes, it was. +Act 5:9 But Peter said to her, Why have you made an agreement together to be false to the Spirit of the Lord? See, the feet of the young men who have put the body of your husband in the earth, are at the door, and they will take you out. +Act 5:10 And straight away she went down at his feet, and her life went from her: and the young men came in and saw her dead, and they took her out and put her in the earth with her husband. +Act 5:11 Then great fear came on all the church and on all who had knowledge of these things. +Act 5:12 Now a number of signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the Apostles; and they were all together in Solomon's covered way. +Act 5:13 The others, in fear, kept back from joining them: but the people made much of them; +Act 5:14 And a great number of men and women had faith, and were joined to the Lord; +Act 5:15 And they even took into the streets people who were ill, and put them on beds, so that when Peter went by, some of them might be in his shade. +Act 5:16 And numbers of people came together from the towns round about Jerusalem, with those who were ill and those who were troubled with unclean spirits: and they were all made well. +Act 5:17 But the high priest and those who were with him (the Sadducees) were full of envy, +Act 5:18 And they took the Apostles and put them in the common prison. +Act 5:19 But in the night an angel of the Lord, opening the doors of the prison, took them out and said, +Act 5:20 Go, take your place in the Temple and give the people all the teaching about this Life. +Act 5:21 And hearing this, they went into the Temple at dawn, and were teaching. But the high priest and those who were with him got together the Sanhedrin and the representatives of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to get them. +Act 5:22 But the men who were sent saw that they were not in the prison, and came back with the news, +Act 5:23 Saying, The doors of the prison were safely shut, and the keepers were at the doors, but when they were open, there was nobody inside. +Act 5:24 Now, at these words, the captain of the Temple and the chief priests were greatly troubled about what might be the end of this business. +Act 5:25 And someone came and said to them, The men, whom you put in prison, are in the Temple teaching the people. +Act 5:26 Then the captain and some of the police went and took them, but not violently, for fear that they might be stoned by the people. +Act 5:27 And they took them into the Sanhedrin, and the high priest said to them, +Act 5:28 We gave you very clear orders not to give teaching in this name: and now Jerusalem is full of your teaching, and you are attempting to make us responsible for this man's death. +Act 5:29 But Peter and the Apostles, answering, said, We have to do the orders of God, not of man. +Act 5:30 The God of our fathers gave Jesus back to life, whom you had put to death, hanging him on a tree. +Act 5:31 Him God has put on high at his right hand, as a Ruler and a Saviour, to give to Israel a change of heart and forgiveness of sins. +Act 5:32 And we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who keep his laws. +Act 5:33 But when these words came to their ears, they were cut to the heart, and had a mind to put them to death. +Act 5:34 But one of the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a man of learning in the law, of whom all the people had a high opinion, got up and made a suggestion for the men to be put outside for a little time. +Act 5:35 And he said to them, Men of Israel, take care what you do about these men. +Act 5:36 For before this there was Theudas, who said he was someone important, to whom about four hundred men gave their support: he was put to death, and his band was broken up and came to nothing. +Act 5:37 After this man, there was Judas of Galilee, at the time of the numbering, and some of the people went after him: he was put to death, and all his supporters were put to flight. +Act 5:38 And now I say to you, Do nothing to these men, but let them be: for if this teaching or this work is of men, it will come to nothing: +Act 5:39 But if it is of God, you will not be able to overcome them, and you are in danger of fighting against God. +Act 5:40 And he seemed to them to be right: and they sent for the Apostles, and, after having them whipped and giving them orders to give no teaching in the name of Jesus, they let them go. +Act 5:41 So they went away from the Sanhedrin, happy to undergo shame for the Name. +Act 5:42 And every day, in the Temple and privately, they went on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. +Act 6:1 Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was increasing, protests were made by the Greek Jews against the Hebrews, because their widows were not taken care of in the distribution of food every day. +Act 6:2 And the Apostles sent for all the disciples and said, It is not right for us to give up preaching the word of God in order to make distribution of food. +Act 6:3 Take then from among you seven men of good name, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, to whom we may give control of this business. +Act 6:4 Then we will give all our time to prayer and the teaching of the word. +Act 6:5 And this saying was pleasing to all of them: and they made selection of Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicolas of Antioch, who had become a Jew: +Act 6:6 These they took to the Apostles, who, after prayer, put their hands on them. +Act 6:7 And the word of God was increasing in power; and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem became very great, and a great number of priests were in agreement with the faith. +Act 6:8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. +Act 6:9 But some of those who were of the Synagogue named that of the Libertines, and some of the men of Cyrene and of Alexandria and those from Cilicia and Asia, had arguments with Stephen. +Act 6:10 But they were not able to get the better of him, for his words were full of wisdom and of the Spirit. +Act 6:11 Then they got men to say, He has said evil against Moses and against God, in our hearing. +Act 6:12 And the people, with the rulers and the scribes, were moved against him, and they came and took him before the Sanhedrin, +Act 6:13 And they got false witnesses who said, This man is for ever saying things against this holy place and against the law: +Act 6:14 For he has said in our hearing that this Jesus of Nazareth will put this place to destruction and make changes in the rules which were handed down to us by Moses. +Act 6:15 And all those who were in the Sanhedrin, looking at him, saw that his face was like the face of an angel. +Act 7:1 Then the high priest said, Are these things true? +Act 7:2 And he said, My brothers and fathers, give hearing. The God of glory came to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he was living in Haran, +Act 7:3 And said to him, Go out of your land, and away from your family, and come into the land to which I will be your guide. +Act 7:4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and went into Haran; and from there, when his father was dead, he was guided by God into this land, where you are living now: +Act 7:5 And God gave him no heritage in it, not even enough to put his foot on: but he gave him an undertaking that he would give it to him and to his children after him, though he had no child at that time. +Act 7:6 And God said that his seed would be living in a strange land, and that they would make them servants, and be cruel to them for four hundred years. +Act 7:7 And I will be the judge, said God, of that nation which made them servants: and after that, they will come out and give me worship in this place. +Act 7:8 And he made with him the agreement of which circumcision was the sign. And so Abraham had a son, Isaac, and gave him circumcision on the eighth day; and Isaac had a son, Jacob, and Jacob was the father of the twelve heads of the families of Israel. +Act 7:9 And the brothers, moved with envy against Joseph, gave him to the Egyptians for money: but God was with him, +Act 7:10 And made him free from all his troubles, and gave him wisdom and the approval of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and all his house. +Act 7:11 Now there was no food to be had in all Egypt and Canaan, and there was great trouble: and our fathers were not able to get food. +Act 7:12 But Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, sent out our fathers the first time. +Act 7:13 And the second time his brothers had a meeting with Joseph, and Pharaoh had knowledge of Joseph's family. +Act 7:14 Then Joseph sent for Jacob his father and all his family, seventy-five persons. +Act 7:15 And Jacob went down to Egypt, and came to his end there, and so did our fathers; +Act 7:16 And they were taken over to Shechem, and put to rest in the place which Abraham got for a price in silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. +Act 7:17 But when the time was near for putting into effect the undertaking which God had given to Abraham, the people were increasing in Egypt, +Act 7:18 Till another king came to power, who had no knowledge of Joseph. +Act 7:19 He, having evil designs against our nation, was cruel to our fathers, and they were forced to put out their young children, so that they might not go on living. +Act 7:20 At which time Moses came to birth, and he was very beautiful; and he was kept for three months in his father's house: +Act 7:21 And when he was put out, Pharaoh's daughter took him and kept him as her son. +Act 7:22 And Moses was trained in all the wisdom of Egypt, and was great in his words and works. +Act 7:23 But when he was almost forty years old, it came into his heart to go and see his brothers, the children of Israel. +Act 7:24 And seeing one of them being attacked, he went to his help and gave the Egyptian a death-blow: +Act 7:25 And he was hoping that his brothers would see that God had sent him to be their saviour; but they did not see. +Act 7:26 And the day after, he came to them, while they were having a fight, and would have made peace between them, saying, Sirs, you are brothers; why do you do wrong to one another? +Act 7:27 But the man who was doing wrong to his neighbour, pushing him away, said, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? +Act 7:28 Will you put me to death as you did the Egyptian yesterday? +Act 7:29 And at these words, Moses went in flight to the land of Midian, and was living there for a time, and had two sons. +Act 7:30 At the end of forty years, an angel came to him in the waste land of Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn-tree. +Act 7:31 And Moses, seeing it, was full of wonder, and when he came up to have a nearer view of it, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, +Act 7:32 I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. And Moses, shaking with fear, kept his eyes from looking at it. +Act 7:33 And the Lord said, Take off the shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy. +Act 7:34 Truly, I have seen the sorrows of my people in Egypt, and their cries have come to my ears, and I have come down to make them free: and now, come, I will send you to Egypt. +Act 7:35 This Moses, whom they would not have, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? him God sent to be a ruler and a saviour, by the hand of the angel whom he saw in the thorn-tree. +Act 7:36 This man took them out, having done wonders and signs in Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the waste land, for forty years. +Act 7:37 This is the same Moses, who said to the children of Israel, God will give you a prophet from among your brothers, like me. +Act 7:38 This is the man who was in the church in the waste land with the angel who was talking to him in Sinai, and with our fathers; and to him were given the living words of God, so that he might give them to you. +Act 7:39 By whom our fathers would not be controlled; but they put him on one side, turning back in their hearts to Egypt, +Act 7:40 And saying to Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him. +Act 7:41 And they made the image of a young ox in those days, and made an offering to it, and had joy in the work of their hands. +Act 7:42 But God was turned from them and let them give worship to the stars of heaven, as it says in the book of the prophets, Did you make offerings to me of sheep and oxen for forty years in the waste land, O house of Israel? +Act 7:43 And you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, images which you made to give worship to them: and I will take you away, farther than Babylon. +Act 7:44 Our fathers had the Tent of witness in the waste land, as God gave orders to Moses to make it after the design which he had seen. +Act 7:45 Which our fathers, in their turn, took with them when, with Joshua, they came into the heritage of the nations whom God was driving out before the face of our fathers, till the time of David, +Act 7:46 Who was pleasing to God; and he had a desire to make a holy tent for the God of Jacob. +Act 7:47 But Solomon was the builder of his house. +Act 7:48 But still, the Most High has not his resting-place in houses made with hands, as the prophet says, +Act 7:49 Heaven is the seat of my power, and earth is a resting-place for my feet: what sort of house will you make for me, says the Lord, or what is my place of rest? +Act 7:50 Did not my hand make all these things? +Act 7:51 You whose hearts are hard and whose ears are shut to me; you are ever working against the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. +Act 7:52 Which of the prophets was not cruelly attacked by your fathers? and they put to death those who gave them the news of the coming of the Upright One; whom you have now given up and put to death; +Act 7:53 You, to whom the law was given as it was ordered by angels, and who have not kept it. +Act 7:54 Hearing these things, they were cut to the heart and moved with wrath against him. +Act 7:55 But he was full of the Holy Spirit, and looking up to heaven, he saw the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God. +Act 7:56 And he said, Now I see heaven open, and the Son of man at the right hand of God. +Act 7:57 But with loud cries, and stopping their ears, they made an attack on him all together, +Act 7:58 Driving him out of the town and stoning him: and the witnesses put their clothing at the feet of a young man named Saul. +Act 7:59 And Stephen, while he was being stoned, made prayer to God, saying, Lord Jesus, take my spirit. +Act 7:60 And going down on his knees, he said in a loud voice, Lord, do not make them responsible for this sin. And when he had said this, he went to his rest. +Act 8:1 And Saul gave approval to his death. Now at that time a violent attack was started against the church in Jerusalem; and all but the Apostles went away into all parts of Judaea and Samaria. +Act 8:2 And God-fearing men put Stephen's body in its last resting-place, making great weeping over him. +Act 8:3 But Saul was burning with hate against the church, going into every house and taking men and women and putting them in prison. +Act 8:4 But those who had gone in flight went everywhere preaching the word. +Act 8:5 And Philip went down to Samaria and was teaching them about Christ. +Act 8:6 And all the people gave attention to the words which Philip said, when they saw the signs which he did. +Act 8:7 For unclean spirits came out from those who had them, crying with a loud voice; and a number of those who were ill and broken in body were made well. +Act 8:8 And there was much joy in that town. +Act 8:9 But there was a certain man named Simon, who in the past had been a wonder-worker and a cause of surprise to the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was a great man: +Act 8:10 To whom they all gave attention, from the smallest to the greatest, saying, This man is that power of God which is named Great. +Act 8:11 And they gave attention to him, because for a long time his wonder-working powers had kept them under his control. +Act 8:12 But when they had faith in the good news given by Philip about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, a number of men and women had baptism. +Act 8:13 And Simon himself had faith and, having had baptism, he went with Philip and, seeing the signs and the great wonders which he did, he was full of surprise. +Act 8:14 Now when the Apostles at Jerusalem had news that the people of Samaria had taken the word of God into their hearts, they sent to them Peter and John; +Act 8:15 Who, when they came there, made prayer for them, that the Holy Spirit might be given to them: +Act 8:16 For up to that time he had not come on any of them; only baptism had been given to them in the name of the Lord Jesus. +Act 8:17 Then they put their hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came on them. +Act 8:18 Now when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the touch of the Apostles' hands, he made them an offering of money, saying, +Act 8:19 Give me this power, so that when I put my hands on anyone he may get the Holy Spirit. +Act 8:20 But Peter said, May your money come to destruction with you, because you had the idea that what is freely given by God may be got for a price. +Act 8:21 You have no part in this business, because your heart is not right before God. +Act 8:22 Let your heart be changed, and make prayer to God that you may have forgiveness for your evil thoughts. +Act 8:23 For I see that you are prisoned in bitter envy and the chains of sin. +Act 8:24 And Simon, answering, said, Make prayer for me to the Lord, so that these things which you have said may not come on me. +Act 8:25 So they, having given their witness and made clear the word of the Lord, went back to Jerusalem, giving the good news on their way in a number of the small towns of Samaria. +Act 8:26 But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Get up, and go to the south, to the road which goes from Jerusalem to Gaza, through the waste land. +Act 8:27 And he went and there was a man of Ethiopia, a servant of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, and controller of all her property, who had come up to Jerusalem for worship; +Act 8:28 He was going back, seated in his carriage, and was reading the book of the prophet Isaiah. +Act 8:29 And the Spirit said to Philip, Go near, and get on his carriage. +Act 8:30 And Philip, running up to him, saw that he was reading Isaiah the prophet, and said to him, Is the sense of what you are reading clear to you? +Act 8:31 And he said, How is that possible when I have no guide? And he made Philip get up by his side. +Act 8:32 Now the place in the book where he was reading was this: He was taken, like a sheep, to be put to death; and as a lamb is quiet when its wool is being cut, so he made no sound: +Act 8:33 Being of low degree, his cause was not given a hearing: who has knowledge of his family? for his life is cut off from the earth. +Act 8:34 And the Ethiopian said to Philip, About whom are these words said by the prophet? about himself, or some other? +Act 8:35 So Philip, starting from this writing, gave him the good news about Jesus. +Act 8:36 And while they were going on their way, they came to some water, and the Ethiopian said, See, here is water; why may I not have baptism? +Act 8:37 [] +Act 8:38 And he gave orders for the carriage to be stopped, and the two of them went down into the water, and Philip gave him baptism. +Act 8:39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away; and the Ethiopian saw him no more, for he went on his way full of joy. +Act 8:40 But Philip came to Azotus, and went through all the towns, preaching the good news, till he came to Caesarea. +Act 9:1 But Saul, still burning with desire to put to death the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, +Act 9:2 And made a request for letters from him to the Synagogues of Damascus, so that if there were any of the Way there, men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. +Act 9:3 And while he was journeying, he came near Damascus; and suddenly he saw a light from heaven shining round him; +Act 9:4 And he went down on the earth, and a voice said to him, Saul, Saul, why are you attacking me so cruelly? +Act 9:5 And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are attacking: +Act 9:6 But get up, and go into the town, and it will be made clear to you what you have to do. +Act 9:7 And the men who were with him were not able to say anything; hearing the voice, but seeing no one. +Act 9:8 And Saul got up from the earth, and when his eyes were open, he saw nothing; and he was guided by the hand into Damascus. +Act 9:9 And for three days he was not able to see, and he took no food or drink. +Act 9:10 Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias! and he said, Here I am, Lord. +Act 9:11 And the Lord said to him, Get up, and go to the street which is named Straight, and make search at the house of Judas for one named Saul of Tarsus: for he is at prayer; +Act 9:12 And he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him, so that he may be able to see. +Act 9:13 But Ananias said, Lord, I have had accounts of this man from a number of people, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem: +Act 9:14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to make prisoners all who give worship to your name. +Act 9:15 But the Lord said, Go without fear: for he is a special vessel for me, to give to the Gentiles and kings and to the children of Israel the knowledge of my name: +Act 9:16 For I will make clear to him what troubles he will have to undergo for me. +Act 9:17 And Ananias went out and came to the house, and putting his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, whom you saw when you were on your journey, has sent me, so that you may be able to see, and be full of the Holy Spirit. +Act 9:18 And straight away it seemed as if a veil was taken from his eyes, and he was able to see; and he got up, and had baptism; +Act 9:19 And when he had taken food his strength came back. And for some days he kept with the disciples who were in Damascus. +Act 9:20 And straight away, in the Synagogues, he was preaching Jesus as the Son of God. +Act 9:21 And all those hearing him were full of wonder and said, Is not this the man who in Jerusalem was attacking all the worshippers of this name? and he had come here so that he might take them as prisoners before the chief priests. +Act 9:22 But Saul went on increasing in power, and the Jews in Damascus were not able to give answers to the arguments by which he made it clear that Jesus was the Christ. +Act 9:23 Then, after some days, the Jews made an agreement together to put him to death: +Act 9:24 But Saul got knowledge of their design. And they kept watch day and night on the roads out of the town, so that they might put him to death: +Act 9:25 But his disciples took him by night and let him down from the wall in a basket. +Act 9:26 And when he came to Jerusalem, he made an attempt to be joined to the disciples, but they were all in fear of him, not taking him for a disciple. +Act 9:27 But Barnabas took him to the Apostles and gave them an account of how he had seen the Lord on the road, and had given hearing to his words, and how at Damascus he had been preaching in the name of Jesus without fear. +Act 9:28 And he was with them, going in and out at Jerusalem, +Act 9:29 Preaching in the name of the Lord without fear; and he had discussions with the Greek Jews; but they were working for his death. +Act 9:30 And when the brothers had knowledge of it, they took him to Caesarea and sent him to Tarsus. +Act 9:31 And so the church through all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was made strong; and, living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, was increased greatly. +Act 9:32 And it came about that while Peter was going through all parts of the country he came to the saints who were living at Lydda. +Act 9:33 And there was a certain man there, named Aeneas, who for eight years had been in bed, without power of moving. +Act 9:34 And Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes you well: get up and make your bed. And straight away he got up. +Act 9:35 And all those living in Lydda and Sharon saw him, and were turned to the Lord. +Act 9:36 Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, that is, Dorcas: this woman was given to good works and acts of mercy at all times. +Act 9:37 And it came about, in those days, that she got ill and came to her death: and when she had been washed, they put her in a room which was high up. +Act 9:38 And because Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, having knowledge that Peter was there, sent two men to him, requesting him to come to them straight away. +Act 9:39 And Peter went with them. And when he had come, they took him into the room: and all the widows were there, weeping and putting before him the coats and clothing which Dorcas had made while she was with them. +Act 9:40 But Peter made them all go outside, and went down on his knees in prayer; and turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, get up. And, opening her eyes, she saw Peter and got up. +Act 9:41 And he took her hand, lifting her up; and, sending for the saints and widows, he gave her to them, living. +Act 9:42 And news of it went all through Joppa, and a number of people had faith in the Lord. +Act 9:43 And he was living in Joppa for some time with Simon, a leather-worker. +Act 10:1 Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, named Cornelius, the captain of the Italian band of the army; +Act 10:2 A serious-minded man, fearing God with all his family; he gave much money to the poor, and made prayer to God at all times. +Act 10:3 He saw in a vision, clearly, at about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of the Lord coming to him and saying to him, Cornelius! +Act 10:4 And he, looking on him in fear, said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your offerings have come up to God, and he has kept them in mind. +Act 10:5 Now send men to Joppa, and get one Simon, named Peter, +Act 10:6 Who is living with Simon, a leather-worker, whose house is by the sea. +Act 10:7 And when the angel who said these words to him had gone away, he sent for two of his house-servants, and a God-fearing man of the army, one of those who were waiting on him at all times; +Act 10:8 And having given them an account of everything, he sent them to Joppa. +Act 10:9 Now the day after, when they were on their journey and were near the town, Peter went up to the top of the house for prayer, about the sixth hour: +Act 10:10 And he was in need of food: but while they were getting it ready, a deep sleep came on him; +Act 10:11 And he saw the heavens opening, and a vessel coming down, like a great cloth let down on the earth, +Act 10:12 In which were all sorts of beasts and birds. +Act 10:13 And a voice came to him, saying, Come, Peter; take them for food. +Act 10:14 But Peter said, No, Lord; for I have never taken food which is common or unclean. +Act 10:15 And the voice came to him a second time, What God has made clean, do not you make common. +Act 10:16 And this was done three times: and then the vessel was taken back into heaven. +Act 10:17 Now while Peter was in doubt as to the purpose of this vision, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made search for Simon's house, came to the door, +Act 10:18 To see if Simon, named Peter, was living there. +Act 10:19 And, while Peter was turning the vision over in his mind, the Spirit said to him, See, three men are looking for you. +Act 10:20 Go down, then, and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them. +Act 10:21 And Peter went down to the men, and said, I am the man you are looking for: why have you come? +Act 10:22 And they said, Cornelius, a captain, an upright and God-fearing man, respected by all the nation of the Jews, had word from God by an angel to send for you to his house, and to give hearing to your words. +Act 10:23 So he took them in for the night. And the day after, he went with them, taking some of the brothers from Joppa with him. +Act 10:24 And the day after that, they came to Caesarea. And Cornelius was waiting for them, having got together his relations and his near friends. +Act 10:25 And when Peter came in, Cornelius came to him and, falling down at his feet, gave him worship. +Act 10:26 But Peter, lifting him up, said, Get up, for I am a man as you are. +Act 10:27 And saying these words, he went in, and saw that a great number of people had come together; +Act 10:28 And he said to them, You yourselves have knowledge that it is against the law for a man who is a Jew to be in the company of one who is of another nation; but God has made it clear to me that no man may be named common or unclean: +Act 10:29 And so I came without question, when I was sent for. What then is your purpose in sending for me? +Act 10:30 And Cornelius said, Four days from now I was in my house in prayer at the ninth hour; and I saw before me a man in shining clothing, +Act 10:31 Who said, Cornelius, your prayer has come to the ears of God, and your offerings are kept in his memory. +Act 10:32 Send, then, to Joppa, and get Simon, named Peter, to come to you; he is living in the house of Simon, a leather-worker, by the sea. +Act 10:33 So, straight away, I sent for you; and you have done well to come. And now, we are all present before God, ready to give attention to all the things which the Lord has given you to say. +Act 10:34 Then Peter said, Truly, I see clearly that God is no respecter of persons: +Act 10:35 But in every nation, the man who has fear of him and does righteousness is pleasing to him. +Act 10:36 The word which he sent to the children of Israel, giving the good news of peace through Jesus Christ (who is Lord of all)-- +Act 10:37 That word you yourselves have knowledge of, which was made public through all Judaea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism of which John was the preacher, +Act 10:38 About Jesus of Nazareth, how God gave the Holy Spirit to him, with power: and how he went about doing good and making well all who were troubled by evil spirits, for God was with him. +Act 10:39 And we are witnesses of all the things which he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem; whom they put to death, hanging him on a tree. +Act 10:40 On the third day God gave him back to life, and let him be seen, +Act 10:41 Not by all the people, but by witnesses marked out before by God, even by us, who took food and drink with him after he came back from the dead. +Act 10:42 And he gave us orders to give news of this to the people, and to give public witness that this is he whom God has made judge of the living and the dead. +Act 10:43 To him all the prophets give witness, that through his name everyone who has faith in him will have forgiveness of sins. +Act 10:44 While Peter was saying these words, the Holy Spirit came on all those who were hearing the word. +Act 10:45 And the Jews of the faith, who had come with Peter, were full of wonder, because the Holy Spirit was given to the Gentiles, +Act 10:46 And they were talking in tongues, and giving glory to God. Then Peter said, +Act 10:47 Will any man say that these may not have baptism who have been given the Holy Spirit as we have? +Act 10:48 And he gave orders for them to have baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they kept him with them for some days. +Act 11:1 Now the Apostles and the brothers who were in Judaea had news that the word of God had been given to the Gentiles. +Act 11:2 And when Peter came to Jerusalem, those who kept the rule of circumcision had an argument with him, +Act 11:3 Saying, You went to men without circumcision, and took food with them. +Act 11:4 But Peter gave them an account of it all in order, saying to them, +Act 11:5 I was in the town of Joppa, at prayer: and falling into a deep sleep, I saw in a vision a vessel like a great cloth let down from heaven, and it came down to me: +Act 11:6 And looking on it with attention I saw in it all sorts of beasts and birds. +Act 11:7 And a voice came to my ears saying, Come, Peter; take them for food. +Act 11:8 But I said, No, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever come into my mouth. +Act 11:9 But the voice, coming a second time from heaven, said, What God has made clean, do not you make common. +Act 11:10 And this was done three times, and they were all taken up again into heaven. +Act 11:11 And at that minute, three men, sent from Caesarea, came to the house where we were. +Act 11:12 And the Spirit gave me orders to go with them, doubting nothing. And these six brothers came with me; and we went into that man's house: +Act 11:13 And he gave us an account of how he had seen the angel in his house, saying, Send to Joppa, and get Simon, named Peter, to come to you; +Act 11:14 Who will say words to you through which you and all your family may get salvation. +Act 11:15 And, while I was talking to them, the Holy Spirit came on them, as on us at first. +Act 11:16 And the words of the Lord came into my mind, how he said, The baptism of John was with water, but you will have baptism with the Holy Spirit. +Act 11:17 If then God gave them, when they had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the same as he gave to us, who was I to go against God? +Act 11:18 And hearing these things they said nothing more, but gave glory to God, saying, Then to the Gentiles as to us has God given a change of heart, so that they may have life. +Act 11:19 Then those who had gone away at the time of the trouble about Stephen, went as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus, preaching to the Jews only. +Act 11:20 But some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, when they came to Antioch, gave the good news about the Lord Jesus to the Greeks. +Act 11:21 And the power of the Lord was with them, and a great number had faith and were turned to the Lord. +Act 11:22 And news of them came to the ears of the church at Jerusalem: and they sent Barnabas as far as Antioch: +Act 11:23 Who, when he came and saw the grace of God, was glad; and he made clear to them the need of keeping near the Lord with all the strength of their hearts: +Act 11:24 For he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith: and a great number were joined to the Lord. +Act 11:25 Then he went on to Tarsus, looking for Saul; +Act 11:26 And when he had come across him, he took him to Antioch. And they were with the church there for a year, teaching the people; and the disciples were first given the name of Christians in Antioch. +Act 11:27 Now in those days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. +Act 11:28 And one of them, named Agabus, said publicly through the Spirit that there would be serious need of food all over the earth: which came about in the time of Claudius. +Act 11:29 And the disciples, everyone as he was able, made a decision to send help to the brothers living in Judaea: +Act 11:30 Which they did, sending it to the rulers of the church by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. +Act 12:1 Now, about that time, Herod the king made cruel attacks on the Christians. +Act 12:2 And he put James, the brother of John, to death with the sword. +Act 12:3 And when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he went on to take Peter in addition. This was at the time of the feast of unleavened bread. +Act 12:4 And having taken him, he put him in prison, with four bands of armed men to keep watch over him; his purpose being to take him out to the people after the Passover. +Act 12:5 So Peter was kept in prison: but the church made strong prayer to God for him. +Act 12:6 And when Herod was about to take him out, the same night Peter was sleeping in chains between two armed men, and the watchmen were keeping watch before the door of the prison. +Act 12:7 And a great light was seen shining in the room, and an angel of the Lord came to Peter and, touching him on his side so that he came out of his sleep, said, Get up quickly. And his chains came off his hands. +Act 12:8 Then the angel said, Put on your shoes and get ready to go. And he did so. And he said, Put your coat round you and come with me. +Act 12:9 And he went out after him; and he was not certain if what was done by the angel was a fact, for it seemed to him that he was seeing a vision. +Act 12:10 And when they had gone past the first and second watchmen they came to the iron door into the town, which came open by itself: and they went out and down one street; and then the angel went away. +Act 12:11 And when Peter came to his senses he said, Now, truly, I am certain that the Lord has sent his angel and taken me out of the hands of Herod, against all the hopes of the Jews. +Act 12:12 And when he became clear about this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John named Mark, where a number of them had come together for prayer. +Act 12:13 And he gave a blow on the door, and a young girl came to it, named Rhoda. +Act 12:14 And hearing the voice of Peter, in her joy she went running, without opening the door, to say that Peter was outside. +Act 12:15 And they said to her, You are off your head. But still she said, with decision, that it was so. And they said, It is his angel. +Act 12:16 But Peter went on giving blows on the door: and when it was open and they saw him, they were full of wonder. +Act 12:17 But he made a sign to them with his hand to be quiet, and gave them an account of how the Lord had taken him out of prison. And he said, Give the news to James and the brothers. And then he went away. +Act 12:18 Now when it was day, the armed men were greatly troubled about what had become of Peter. +Act 12:19 And Herod, when he sent for him, and he was not there, after questioning the watchmen, gave orders that they were to be put to death. Then he went down from Judaea to Caesarea for a time. +Act 12:20 Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon: and they came to him, all together, and having made friends with Blastus, the controller of the king's house, they made a request for peace, because their country was dependent on the king's country for its food. +Act 12:21 And on the day which had been fixed, Herod, dressed in his robes and seated in his place, made a public statement to them. +Act 12:22 And the people, with loud cries, said, It is the voice of a god, not of a man. +Act 12:23 And straight away the angel of the Lord sent a disease on him, because he did not give the glory to God: and his flesh was wasted away by worms, and so he came to his end. +Act 12:24 But the word of the Lord went on increasing. +Act 12:25 And Barnabas and Saul came back from Jerusalem, when their work was ended, taking with them John named Mark. +Act 13:1 Now there were at Antioch, in the church there, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, and Symeon who was named Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, a relation of Herod the king, and Saul. +Act 13:2 And while they were doing the Lord's work, and going without food, the Holy Spirit said, Let Barnabas and Saul be given to me for the special work for which they have been marked out by me. +Act 13:3 Then, after prayer and going without food they put their hands on them, and sent them away. +Act 13:4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they went by ship to Cyprus. +Act 13:5 And at Salamis they were preaching the word of God in the Synagogues of the Jews: and John was with them, helping them. +Act 13:6 And when they had gone through all the island to Paphos, they came across a certain wonder-worker and false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus; +Act 13:7 Who was with the ruler, Sergius Paulus, an able man. This man sent for Barnabas and Saul, desiring to have knowledge of the word of God. +Act 13:8 But Elymas, the wonder-worker (for that is the sense of his name), put himself against them, with the purpose of turning the ruler from the faith. +Act 13:9 But Saul, whose other name is Paul, being full of the Holy Spirit, looking hard at him, said, +Act 13:10 O you, who are full of false tricks and evil ways, a son of the Evil One, hating all righteousness, will you for ever be turning people from the right ways of the Lord? +Act 13:11 And now, see, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind and not able to see the sun for a time. And straight away a dark mist came down on him; and he went about looking for a guide. +Act 13:12 Then the ruler, when he saw what was done, had faith, being full of wonder at the teaching of the Lord. +Act 13:13 Then Paul and those who were with him went by ship from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia: and there John went away from them and came back to Jerusalem. +Act 13:14 But they, going through from Perga, came to Antioch in Pisidia; and they went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath and were seated. +Act 13:15 And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the Synagogue sent to them, saying, Brothers, if you have a word of comfort for the people, say on. +Act 13:16 And Paul, getting up and making a sign with his hand, said, Men of Israel, and you who have the fear of God, give ear. +Act 13:17 The God of this people Israel made selection of our fathers, lifting the people up from their low condition when they were living in the land of Egypt, and with a strong arm took them out of it. +Act 13:18 And for about forty years he put up with their ways in the waste land. +Act 13:19 And having put to destruction seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them the land for their heritage for about four hundred and fifty years. +Act 13:20 And after these things he gave them judges, till the time of Samuel the prophet. +Act 13:21 Then at their request for a king, God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the family of Benjamin, who was their king for forty years. +Act 13:22 And having put him on one side, he made David their king, to whom he gave witness, saying, I have taken David, the son of Jesse, a man dear to my heart, who will do all my pleasure. +Act 13:23 From this man's seed has God given to Israel a Saviour, even Jesus, as he gave his word; +Act 13:24 For whose coming John made ready the way by preaching to all the people of Israel the baptism which goes with a change of heart. +Act 13:25 And when John was completing his work, he said, What do I seem to you to be? I am not he; but one is coming after me, whose shoes I am not good enough to undo. +Act 13:26 My brothers, children of the family of Abraham, and those among you who have the fear of God, to us the word of this salvation is sent. +Act 13:27 For the men of Jerusalem and their rulers, having no knowledge of him, or of the sayings of the prophets which come to their ears every Sabbath day, gave effect to them by judging him. +Act 13:28 And though no cause of death was seen in him, they made a request to Pilate that he might be put to death. +Act 13:29 And when they had done all the things said in the Writings about him, they took him down from the tree, and put him in the place of the dead. +Act 13:30 But God gave him back from the dead: +Act 13:31 And for a number of days he was seen by those who came with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses before the people. +Act 13:32 And we are giving you the good news of the undertaking made to the fathers, +Act 13:33 Which God has now put into effect for our children, by sending Jesus; as it says in the second Psalm, You are my Son; this day I have given you being. +Act 13:34 And about his coming back from the dead, never again to go to destruction, he has said these words, I will give you the holy and certain mercies of David. +Act 13:35 Because he says in another Psalm, You will not let your Holy One see destruction. +Act 13:36 Now David, having done God's work for his generation, went to sleep, and was put with his fathers, and his body came to destruction: +Act 13:37 But he, who was lifted up by God, did not see destruction. +Act 13:38 And so, let it be clear to you, my brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is offered to you: +Act 13:39 And through him everyone who has faith is made free from all those things, from which the law of Moses was not able to make you free. +Act 13:40 So take care that these words of the prophets do not come true for you; +Act 13:41 See, you doubters, have wonder and come to your end; for I will do a thing in your days to which you will not give belief, even if it is made clear to you. +Act 13:42 And when they went out, they made a request that these words might be said to them again on the Sabbath after. +Act 13:43 Now when the meeting was ended, a number of the Jews and of the God-fearing Gentiles who had become Jews, went after Paul and Barnabas: who put before them how important it was to keep on in the grace of God. +Act 13:44 And on the Sabbath after, almost all the town came together to give hearing to the word of God. +Act 13:45 But when the Jews saw such a great number of people, they were full of envy and said evil words against Paul's preaching. +Act 13:46 Then Paul and Barnabas without fear said, It was necessary for the word of God to be given to you first; but because you will have nothing to do with it, and have no desire for eternal life, it will now be offered to the Gentiles. +Act 13:47 For so the Lord has given us orders, saying, I have given you for a light to the Gentiles so that you may be for salvation to the ends of the earth. +Act 13:48 And the Gentiles, hearing this, were glad and gave glory to the word of God: and those marked out by God for eternal life had faith. +Act 13:49 And the word of the Lord went through all the country. +Act 13:50 But the Jews, working up the feelings of the God-fearing women of high position and of the chief men of the town, got an attack started against Paul and Barnabas, driving them out of those parts. +Act 13:51 But they, shaking off the dust of that place from their feet, came to Iconium. +Act 13:52 And the disciples were full of joy and of the Holy Spirit. +Act 14:1 Now in Iconium they went together to the Synagogue of the Jews and gave such teaching that a great number of Jews and Greeks had faith. +Act 14:2 But those Jews who had not the faith, made the minds of the Gentiles bitter against the brothers. +Act 14:3 So they kept there for a long time, taking heart in the Lord, who gave witness to the word of his grace by causing signs and wonders to be done by their hands. +Act 14:4 But there was a division among the people of the town; some were on the side of the Jews and some on the side of the Apostles. +Act 14:5 And when a violent attempt was made by the Gentiles and the Jews, with their rulers, to make an attack on them and have them stoned, +Act 14:6 Having got news of it, they went in flight to the towns of Lycaonia, Lystra, and Derbe, and the country round about: +Act 14:7 And went on preaching the good news there. +Act 14:8 And at Lystra there was a certain man, who from birth had been without the use of his feet, never having had the power of walking. +Act 14:9 This man was giving ear to the preaching of Paul, who, looking at him, and seeing that he had faith to be made well, +Act 14:10 Said in a loud voice, Get up on your feet. And, jumping up, he went walking about. +Act 14:11 And when the people saw what Paul had done, they said in a loud voice, in the language of Lycaonia, The gods have come down to us in the form of men. +Act 14:12 And they gave the name of Jupiter to Barnabas, and to Paul that of Mercury, because he was the chief talker. +Act 14:13 And the priest of the image of Jupiter, which was before the town, took oxen and flowers to the doors of the town, and was about to make an offering with the people. +Act 14:14 But when this came to the ears of the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas, they went running out among the people, parting their clothing, and crying out, +Act 14:15 Good people, why are you doing these things? We are men with the same feelings as you, and we give you the good news so that you may be turned away from these foolish things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all things in them: +Act 14:16 Who in the past let all nations go in the ways which seemed good to them. +Act 14:17 But he was not without witness, because he did good, and gave you rain from heaven and times of fruit, making your hearts full of food and joy. +Act 14:18 And even with these words, it was hard for them to keep the people from making an offering to them. +Act 14:19 But some Jews came to that place from Antioch and Iconium, and got control over the people; and after stoning Paul, they had him pulled out of the town, taking him for dead. +Act 14:20 But when the disciples came round him, he got up and went into the town: and the day after he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. +Act 14:21 And having made a number of disciples through the preaching of the good news in that town, they went back to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, +Act 14:22 Making strong the souls of the disciples, saying to them that they were to keep the faith, and that we have to go through troubles of all sorts to come into the kingdom of God. +Act 14:23 And when they had made selection of some to be rulers in every church, and had given themselves to prayer and kept themselves from food, they put them into the care of the Lord in whom they had faith. +Act 14:24 And they went through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. +Act 14:25 And, after preaching the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia; +Act 14:26 And from there they went by ship to Antioch, where they had been handed over to the grace of God for the work which they had not done. +Act 14:27 And when they came there, and had got the church together, they gave them an account of all the things which God had done through them, and how he had made open a door of faith to the Gentiles. +Act 14:28 And they were with the disciples there for a long time. +Act 15:1 Now certain men came down from Judaea, teaching the brothers and saying that without circumcision, after the rule of Moses, there is no salvation. +Act 15:2 And after Paul and Barnabas had had no little argument and discussion with them, the brothers made a decision to send Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them to the Apostles and the rulers of the church at Jerusalem about this question. +Act 15:3 So they, being sent on their way by the church, went through Phoenicia and Samaria, giving news of the salvation of the Gentiles, to the great joy of all the brothers. +Act 15:4 And when they came to Jerusalem, they had a meeting with the church and the Apostles and the rulers, and they gave an account of all the things which God had done through them. +Act 15:5 But some of the Pharisees, who were of the faith, got up and said, It is necessary for these to have circumcision and to keep the law of Moses. +Act 15:6 And the Apostles and the rulers of the church came together and gave thought to the question. +Act 15:7 And when there had been much discussion, Peter got up and said to them, My brothers, you have knowledge that some time back it was God's pleasure that by my mouth the good news might be given to the Gentiles so that they might have faith. +Act 15:8 And God, the searcher of hearts, was a witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit even as he did to us; +Act 15:9 Making no division between them and us, but making clean their hearts by faith. +Act 15:10 Why then are you testing God, by putting on the neck of the disciples a yoke so hard that not even our fathers or we were strong enough for it? +Act 15:11 But we have faith that we will get salvation through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they. +Act 15:12 And all the people were quiet while Barnabas and Paul gave an account of the signs and wonders which God had done among the Gentiles by them. +Act 15:13 And when they had come to an end, James, answering, said, My brothers, give ear to me: +Act 15:14 Symeon has given an account of how God was first pleased to take from among the Gentiles a people for himself. +Act 15:15 And this is in agreement with the words of the prophets, as it is said, +Act 15:16 After these things I will come back, and will put up the tent of David which has been broken down, building up again its broken parts and making it complete: +Act 15:17 So that the rest of men may make search for the Lord, and all the Gentiles on whom my name is named, +Act 15:18 Says the Lord, who has made these things clear from the earliest times. +Act 15:19 For this reason my decision is, that we do not put trouble in the way of those who from among the Gentiles are turned to God; +Act 15:20 But that we give them orders to keep themselves from things offered to false gods, and from the evil desires of the body, and from the flesh of animals put to death in ways against the law, and from blood. +Act 15:21 For Moses, from times long past, has his preachers in every town, reading his law in the Synagogues every Sabbath. +Act 15:22 Then it seemed good to the Apostles and the rulers and all the church, to send men from among them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; Judas, named Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brothers: +Act 15:23 And they sent a letter by them, saying, The Apostles and the older brothers, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, may joy be with you: +Act 15:24 Because we have knowledge that some who went from us have been troubling you with their words, putting your souls in doubt; to whom we gave no such order; +Act 15:25 It seemed good to us, having come to an agreement together, to send these men to you, with our well loved Barnabas and Paul, +Act 15:26 Men who have given up their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. +Act 15:27 And so we have sent Judas and Silas, who will say the same things to you themselves, by word of mouth. +Act 15:28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to put on you nothing more than these necessary things; +Act 15:29 To keep from things offered to false gods, and from blood, and from things put to death in ways which are against the law, and from the evil desires of the body; if you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. May you be happy. +Act 15:30 So they, being sent away, came down to Antioch, and having got the people together, they gave them the letter. +Act 15:31 And after reading it, they were glad of its comfort. +Act 15:32 And Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, gave teaching to the brothers and made them strong in the faith. +Act 15:33 And when they had been there for some time, they were sent back in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. +Act 15:34 [] +Act 15:35 But Paul and Barnabas kept on in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of God, with a number of others. +Act 15:36 And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, Let us go back and see the brothers in every town where we have given the word of God, and see how they are. +Act 15:37 And Barnabas had a desire to take with them John, named Mark. +Act 15:38 But Paul was of the opinion that it was not right to take with them one who had gone away from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone on with the work. +Act 15:39 And there was a sharp argument between them, so that they were parted from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and went by ship to Cyprus; +Act 15:40 But Paul took Silas and went away with the blessing of the brothers. +Act 15:41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, making the churches stronger in the faith. +Act 16:1 And he came to Derbe and Lystra: and there was a certain disciple there named Timothy, whose mother was one of the Jews of the faith, but his father was a Greek; +Act 16:2 Of whom the brothers at Lystra and Iconium had a high opinion. +Act 16:3 Paul had a desire for him to go with him, and he gave him circumcision because of the Jews who were in those parts: for they all had knowledge that his father was a Greek. +Act 16:4 And on their way through the towns, they gave them the rules which had been made by the Apostles and the rulers of the church at Jerusalem, so that they might keep them. +Act 16:5 So the churches were made strong in the faith and were increased in number every day. +Act 16:6 And after they had gone through the land of Phrygia and Galatia, the Holy Spirit did not let them take the word into Asia; +Act 16:7 And having come to Mysia, they made an attempt to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not let them; +Act 16:8 And going past Mysia, they came down to Troas. +Act 16:9 And Paul had a vision in the night; a man of Macedonia came, requesting him, and saying, Come over into Macedonia and give us help. +Act 16:10 And when he had seen the vision, straight away we made the decision to go into Macedonia, for it seemed certain to us that God had sent us to give the good news to them. +Act 16:11 So, from Troas we went straight by ship to Samothrace and the day after to Neapolis; +Act 16:12 And from there to Philippi, which is the most important town of Macedonia and a Roman colony: and we were there for some days. +Act 16:13 And on the Sabbath we went outside the town, by the river, where we had an idea that there would be a place of prayer; and, being seated, we had talk with the women who had come together. +Act 16:14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a trader in purple cloth of the town of Thyatira, and a God-fearing woman, gave ear to us: whose heart the Lord made open to give attention to the things which Paul was saying. +Act 16:15 And when she and her family had had baptism, she made a request to us, saying, If it seems to you that I am true to the Lord, come into my house and be my guests. And she made us come. +Act 16:16 And when we were going to the place of prayer, we came across a girl with a spirit which gave knowledge of the future, whose masters made great profit from her power. +Act 16:17 She came after Paul and us, crying out and saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, who are giving you news of the way of salvation. +Act 16:18 And this she did on a number of days. But Paul was greatly troubled and, turning, said to the spirit, I give you orders in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And it came out that very hour. +Act 16:19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they took Paul and Silas, pulling them into the market-place before the rulers; +Act 16:20 And when they had taken them before the authorities, they said, These men, who are Jews, are greatly troubling our town; +Act 16:21 Teaching rules of living which it is not right for us to have or to keep, being Romans. +Act 16:22 And the people made an attack on them all together: and the authorities took their clothing off them, and gave orders for them to be whipped. +Act 16:23 And when they had given them a great number of blows, they put them in prison, giving orders to the keeper of the prison to keep them safely: +Act 16:24 And he, having such orders, put them into the inner prison with chains on their feet. +Act 16:25 But about the middle of the night, Paul and Silas were making prayers and songs to God in the hearing of the prisoners; +Act 16:26 And suddenly there was an earth-shock, so that the base of the prison was moved: and all the doors came open, and everyone's chains came off. +Act 16:27 And the keeper, coming out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, took his sword and was about to put himself to death, fearing that the prisoners had got away. +Act 16:28 But Paul said in a loud voice, Do yourself no damage, for we are all here. +Act 16:29 And he sent for lights and came rushing in and, shaking with fear, went down on his face before Paul and Silas, +Act 16:30 And took them out and said, Sirs, what have I to do to get salvation? +Act 16:31 And they said, Have faith in the Lord Jesus, and you and your family will have salvation. +Act 16:32 And they gave the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. +Act 16:33 And that same hour of the night, he took them, and when he had given attention to their wounds, he and all his family had baptism straight away. +Act 16:34 And he took them into his house and gave them food, and he was full of joy, having faith in God with all his family. +Act 16:35 But when it was day, the authorities sent the police, saying, Let these men go. +Act 16:36 And the keeper said to Paul, The authorities have given orders to let you go: come out now, and go in peace. +Act 16:37 But Paul said to them, They have given us who are Romans a public whipping without judging us, and have put us in prison. Will they now send us out secretly? no, truly, let them come themselves and take us out. +Act 16:38 And the police gave an account of these words to the authorities, and they were full of fear on hearing that they were Romans; +Act 16:39 Then they came and made prayers to them, requesting them, when they had taken them out, to go away from the town. +Act 16:40 And they came out of the prison and went to the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brothers they gave them comfort and went away. +Act 17:1 Now when they had gone through Amphipolis and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Synagogue of the Jews: +Act 17:2 And Paul, as he generally did, went in to them, and on three Sabbath days had discussions with them from the holy Writings, +Act 17:3 Saying to them clearly and openly that Christ had to be put to death and come back to life again; and that this Jesus, whom, he said, I am preaching to you, is the Christ. +Act 17:4 And some of them had faith, and were joined to Paul and Silas; and a number of the God-fearing Greeks, and some of the chief women. +Act 17:5 But the Jews, being moved with envy, took with them certain low persons from among the common people, and getting together a great number of people, made an outcry in the town, attacking the house of Jason with the purpose of taking them out to the people. +Act 17:6 And when they were not able to get them, they took Jason and some of the brothers by force before the rulers of the town, crying, These men, who have made trouble all over the world have now come here; +Act 17:7 Whom Jason has taken into his house: and they are acting against the orders of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus. +Act 17:8 And hearing these things the people and the rulers of the town were troubled. +Act 17:9 And having made Jason and the others give an undertaking to keep the peace, they let them go. +Act 17:10 And the brothers straight away sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea: and they, when they came there, went to the Synagogue of the Jews. +Act 17:11 Now these were more noble than the Jews of Thessalonica, for they gave serious attention to the word, searching in the holy Writings every day, to see if these things were so. +Act 17:12 And a number of them had faith, and no small number of the Greek women of high position and of the men. +Act 17:13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had news that Paul was preaching the word at Beroea, they came there, troubling the people and working them up. +Act 17:14 So the brothers sent Paul straight away to the sea: but Silas and Timothy kept there still. +Act 17:15 But those who went with Paul took him as far as Athens, and then went away, with orders from him to Silas and Timothy to come to him quickly. +Act 17:16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was troubled, for he saw all the town full of images of the gods. +Act 17:17 So he had discussions in the Synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, and every day in the market-place with those who were there. +Act 17:18 And some of those who were supporters of the theories of the Epicureans and the Stoics, had a meeting with him. And some said, What is this talker of foolish words saying? And others, He seems to be a preacher of strange gods: because he was preaching of Jesus and his coming back from the dead. +Act 17:19 And they took him to Mars' Hill, saying, Will you make clear to us what is this new teaching of yours? +Act 17:20 For you seem to us to say strange things, and we have a desire to get the sense of them. +Act 17:21 (Now all the Athenians and the men from other lands who come there were giving all their time to talking or hearing of anything new.) +Act 17:22 And Paul got to his feet on Mars' Hill and said, O men of Athens, I see that you are overmuch given to fear of the gods. +Act 17:23 For when I came by, I was looking at the things to which you give worship, and I saw an altar with this writing on it, TO THE GOD OF WHOM THERE IS NO KNOWLEDGE. Now, what you, without knowledge, give worship to, I make clear to you. +Act 17:24 The God who made the earth and everything in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, is not housed in buildings made with hands; +Act 17:25 And he is not dependent on the work of men's hands, as if he had need of anything, for he himself gives to all life and breath and all things; +Act 17:26 And he has made of one blood all the nations of men living on all the face of the earth, ordering their times and the limits of their lands, +Act 17:27 So that they might make search for God, in order, if possible, to get knowledge of him and make discovery of him, though he is not far from every one of us: +Act 17:28 For in him we have life and motion and existence; as certain of your verse writers have said, For we are his offspring. +Act 17:29 If then we are the offspring of God, it is not right for us to have the idea that God is like gold or silver or stone, formed by the art or design of man. +Act 17:30 Those times when men had no knowledge were overlooked by God; but now he gives orders to all men in every place to undergo a change of heart: +Act 17:31 Because a day has been fixed in which all the world will be judged in righteousness by the man who has been marked out by him for this work; of which he has given a sign to all men by giving him back from the dead. +Act 17:32 Now on hearing about the coming back from death, some of them made sport of it, but others said, Let us go more fully into this another time. +Act 17:33 And so Paul went away from among them. +Act 17:34 But some men gave him their support: among whom was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. +Act 18:1 After these things, he went away from Athens, and came to Corinth. +Act 18:2 And there he came across a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by birth, who not long before had come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had given orders that all Jews were to go away from Rome: and he came to them; +Act 18:3 And because he was of the same trade, he was living with them, and they did their work together; for by trade they were tent-makers. +Act 18:4 And every Sabbath he had discussions in the Synagogue, turning Jews and Greeks to the faith. +Act 18:5 And when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was completely given up to the word, preaching to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus. +Act 18:6 And when they put themselves against him, and said evil words, he said, shaking his clothing, Your blood be on your heads, I am clean: from now I will go to the Gentiles. +Act 18:7 And moving from there, he went into the house of a man named Titus Justus, a God-fearing man, whose house was very near the Synagogue. +Act 18:8 And Crispus, the ruler of the Synagogue, with all his family, had faith in the Lord; and a great number of the people of Corinth, hearing the word, had faith and were given baptism. +Act 18:9 And the Lord said to Paul in the night, in a vision, Have no fear and go on preaching: +Act 18:10 For I am with you, and no one will make an attack on you to do you damage: for I have a number of people in this town. +Act 18:11 And he was there for a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. +Act 18:12 But when Gallio was ruler of Achaia, all the Jews together made an attack on Paul, and took him to the judge's seat, +Act 18:13 Saying, This man is teaching the people to give worship to God in a way which is against the law. +Act 18:14 But when Paul was about to say something, Gallio said to the Jews, If this was anything to do with wrongdoing or crime, there would be a reason for me to give you a hearing: +Act 18:15 But if it is a question of words or names or of your law, see to it yourselves; I will not be a judge of such things. +Act 18:16 And he sent them away from the judge's seat. +Act 18:17 And they all made an attack on Sosthenes, the ruler of the Synagogue, and gave him blows before the judge's seat; but Gallio gave no attention to these things. +Act 18:18 And Paul, after waiting some days, went away from the brothers and went by ship to Syria, Priscilla and Aquila being with him; and he had had his hair cut off in Cenchrea, for he had taken an oath. +Act 18:19 And they came down to Ephesus and he left them there: and he himself went into the Synagogue and had a discussion with the Jews. +Act 18:20 And being requested by them to be there for a longer time, he said, No; +Act 18:21 And went from them, saying, I will come back to you if God lets me; and he took ship from Ephesus. +Act 18:22 And when he had come to land at Caesarea, he went to see the church, and then went down to Antioch. +Act 18:23 And having been there for some time, he went through the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, making the disciples strong in the faith. +Act 18:24 Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, and a man of learning, came to Ephesus; and he had great knowledge of the holy Writings. +Act 18:25 This man had been trained in the way of the Lord; and burning in spirit, he gave himself up to teaching the facts about Jesus, though he had knowledge only of John's baptism: +Act 18:26 And he was preaching in the Synagogue without fear. But Priscilla and Aquila, hearing his words, took him in, and gave him fuller teaching about the way of God. +Act 18:27 And when he had a desire to go over into Achaia, the brothers gave him help, and sent letters to the disciples requesting them to take him in among them: and when he had come, he gave much help to those who had faith through grace: +Act 18:28 For he overcame the Jews in public discussion, making clear from the holy Writings that the Christ was Jesus. +Act 19:1 And it came about that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having gone through the higher country, came to Ephesus, where there were certain disciples: +Act 19:2 And he said to them, Did you get the Holy Spirit when you had faith? And they said to him, No, we have had no knowledge of the Holy Spirit. +Act 19:3 And he said, What sort of baptism did you have? And they said, The baptism of John. +Act 19:4 And Paul said, John gave a baptism which goes with a change of heart, saying to the people that they were to have faith in him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus. +Act 19:5 And hearing this, they had baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus. +Act 19:6 And when Paul had put his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they had the power of talking in tongues, and acting like prophets. +Act 19:7 And there were about twelve of these men. +Act 19:8 And he went into the Synagogue, and for three months he was preaching there without fear, reasoning and teaching about the kingdom of God. +Act 19:9 But because some of the people were hard-hearted and would not give hearing, saying evil words about the Way before the people, he went away from them, and kept the disciples separate, reasoning every day in the school of Tyrannus. +Act 19:10 And this went on for two years, so that all those who were living in Asia had knowledge of the word of the Lord, Greeks as well as Jews. +Act 19:11 And God did special works of power by the hands of Paul: +Act 19:12 So that bits of linen and clothing from his body were taken to people who were ill, and their diseases went away from them and the evil spirits went out. +Act 19:13 But some of the Jews who went from place to place driving out evil spirits, took it on themselves to make use of the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I give you orders, by Jesus, whom Paul is preaching. +Act 19:14 And there were seven sons of a man named Sceva, a Jew and a chief priest, who did this. +Act 19:15 And the evil spirit, answering, said to them, I have knowledge of Jesus, and of Paul, but who are you? +Act 19:16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was, jumping on them, was stronger than the two of them, and overcame them, so that they went running from that house, wounded and without their clothing. +Act 19:17 And this came to the ears of all those, Jews and Greeks, who were living at Ephesus; and fear came on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was made great. +Act 19:18 And a number of those who had faith came and made a public statement of their sins and all their acts. +Act 19:19 And a great number of those who were experts in strange arts took their books and put them on the fire in front of everyone: and when the books were valued they came to fifty thousand bits of silver. +Act 19:20 So the word of the Lord was increased very greatly and was full of power. +Act 19:21 Now after these things were ended, Paul came to a decision that when he had gone through Macedonia and Achaia he would go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I have a desire to see Rome. +Act 19:22 And having sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, into Macedonia, he himself went on living in Asia for a time. +Act 19:23 And about that time a great outcry took place about the Way. +Act 19:24 For there was a certain man named Demetrius, a silver-worker, who made silver boxes for the images of Diana, and gave no small profit to the workmen; +Act 19:25 Whom he got together, with other workmen of the same trade, and said to them, Men, it is clear that from this business we get our wealth. +Act 19:26 And you see, for it has come to your ears, that not only at Ephesus, but almost all through Asia, this Paul has been teaching numbers of people and turning them away, saying that those are not gods who are made by men's hands: +Act 19:27 And there is danger, not only that our trade may be damaged in the opinion of men, but that the holy place of the great goddess Diana may be no longer honoured, and that she to whom all Asia and the world give worship, will be put down from her high position. +Act 19:28 And hearing this, they were very angry, crying out and saying, Great is Diana of Ephesus. +Act 19:29 And the town was full of noise and trouble, and they all came running into the theatre, having taken by force Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia who were journeying in company with Paul. +Act 19:30 And when Paul was about to go in to the people, the disciples did not let him. +Act 19:31 And some of the rulers of Asia, being his friends, sent to him, requesting him seriously not to put himself in danger by going into the theatre. +Act 19:32 And some said one thing, and some another: for there was no order in the meeting; and most of them had no idea why they had come together. +Act 19:33 Then they took Alexander out from among the people, the Jews putting him forward. And Alexander, making a sign with his hand, was about to make a statement to the people in answer: +Act 19:34 But when they saw that he was a Jew, all of them with one voice went on crying out for about two hours, Great is Diana of Ephesus. +Act 19:35 And when the chief secretary had got the people quiet, he said, Men of Ephesus, is any man without knowledge that the town of Ephesus is the keeper of the holy place of the great Diana, who was sent down from Jupiter? +Act 19:36 So then, because these things may not be doubted, it would be better for you to be quiet, and do nothing unwise. +Act 19:37 For you have taken these men, who are not doing damage to the holy place or talking against our goddess. +Act 19:38 If, then, Demetrius and the workmen who are with him have a protest to make against any man, the law is open to them, and there are judges; let them put up a cause at law against one another. +Act 19:39 But if any other business is in question, let it be taken up in the regular meeting. +Act 19:40 For, truly, we are in danger of being made responsible for this day's trouble, there being no cause for it: and we are not able to give any reason for this coming together. +Act 19:41 And when he had said this, he sent the meeting away. +Act 20:1 And after the noise had come to an end, Paul, having sent for the disciples and given them comfort, went away from them to Macedonia. +Act 20:2 And when he had gone through those parts and given them much teaching, he came into Greece. +Act 20:3 And when he had been there three months, because the Jews had made a secret design against him when he was about to take ship for Syria, he made a decision to go back through Macedonia. +Act 20:4 And Sopater of Beroea, the son of Pyrrhus, and Aristarchus and Secundus of Thessalonica, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia, went with him as far as Asia. +Act 20:5 But these had gone before, and were waiting for us at Troas. +Act 20:6 And we went away from Philippi by ship after the days of unleavened bread, and came to them at Troas in five days; and we were there for seven days. +Act 20:7 And on the first day of the week, when we had come together for the holy meal, Paul gave them a talk, for it was his purpose to go away on the day after; and he went on talking till after the middle of the night. +Act 20:8 And there were a number of lights in the room where we had come together. +Act 20:9 And a certain young man named Eutychus, who was seated in the window, went into a deep sleep; and while Paul went on talking, being overcome by sleep, he had a fall from the third floor, and was taken up dead. +Act 20:10 And Paul went down and, falling on him, took him in his arms and said, Do not be troubled, for his life is in him. +Act 20:11 And when he had gone up, and had taken the broken bread, he went on talking to them for a long time, even till dawn, and then he went away. +Act 20:12 And they took the boy in, living, and were greatly comforted. +Act 20:13 But we, going before him by ship, went to Assos with the purpose of taking Paul in there: for so he had given orders, because he himself was coming by land. +Act 20:14 And when he came up with us at Assos, we took him in the ship and went on to Mitylene. +Act 20:15 And going from there by sea, we came on the day after opposite Chios, and touching at Samos on the day after that, we came on the third day to Miletus. +Act 20:16 For Paul's purpose was to go past Ephesus, so that he might not be kept in Asia; for he was going quickly, in order, if possible, to be at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. +Act 20:17 And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the rulers of the church. +Act 20:18 And when they had come, he said to them, You yourselves have seen what my life has been like all the time from the day when I first came into Asia, +Act 20:19 Doing the Lord's work without pride, through all the sorrow and troubles which came on me because of the evil designs of the Jews: +Act 20:20 And how I kept back nothing which might be of profit to you, teaching you publicly and privately, +Act 20:21 Preaching to Jews and to Greeks the need for a turning of the heart to God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. +Act 20:22 And now, as you see, I am going to Jerusalem, a prisoner in spirit, having no knowledge of what will come to me there: +Act 20:23 Only that the Holy Spirit makes clear to me in every town that prison and pains are waiting for me. +Act 20:24 But I put no value on my life, if only at the end of it I may see the work complete which was given to me by the Lord Jesus, to be a witness of the good news of the grace of God. +Act 20:25 And now I am conscious that you, among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom, will not see my face again. +Act 20:26 And so I say to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all men. +Act 20:27 For I have not kept back from you anything of the purpose of God. +Act 20:28 Give attention to yourselves, and to all the flock which the Holy Spirit has given into your care, to give food to the church of God, for which he gave his blood. +Act 20:29 I am conscious that after I am gone, evil wolves will come in among you, doing damage to the flock; +Act 20:30 And from among yourselves will come men who will give wrong teaching, turning away the disciples after them. +Act 20:31 So keep watch, having in mind that for three years without resting I was teaching every one of you, day and night, with weeping. +Act 20:32 And now, I give you into the care of God and the word of his grace, which is able to make you strong and to give you your heritage among all the saints. +Act 20:33 I have had no desire for any man's silver or gold or clothing. +Act 20:34 You yourselves have seen that with these hands I got what was necessary for me and those who were with me. +Act 20:35 In all things I was an example to you of how, in your lives, you are to give help to the feeble, and keep in memory the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, There is a greater blessing in giving than in getting. +Act 20:36 And having said these words, he went down on his knees in prayer with them all. +Act 20:37 And they were all weeping, falling on Paul's neck and kissing him, +Act 20:38 Being sad most of all because he had said that they would not see his face again. And so they went with him to the ship. +Act 21:1 And after parting from them, we put out to sea and came straight to Cos, and the day after to Rhodes, and from there to Patara: +Act 21:2 And as there was a ship going to Phoenicia, we went in it. +Act 21:3 And when we had come in view of Cyprus, going past it on our left, we went on to Syria, and came to land at Tyre: for there the goods which were in the ship had to be taken out. +Act 21:4 And meeting the disciples we were there for seven days: and they gave Paul orders through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem. +Act 21:5 And when these days came to an end, we went on our journey; and they all, with their wives and children, came with us on our way till we were out of the town: and after going on our knees in prayer by the sea, +Act 21:6 We said our last words to one another, and got into the ship, and they went back to their houses. +Act 21:7 And journeying by ship from Tyre we came to Ptolemais; and there we had talk with the brothers and were with them for one day. +Act 21:8 And on the day after, we went away and came to Caesarea, where we were guests in the house of Philip, the preacher, who was one of the seven. +Act 21:9 And he had four daughters, virgins, who were prophets. +Act 21:10 And while we were waiting there for some days, a certain prophet, named Agabus, came down from Judaea. +Act 21:11 And he came to us, and took the band of Paul's clothing, and putting it round his feet and hands, said, The Holy Spirit says these words, So will the Jews do to the man who is the owner of this band, and they will give him up into the hands of the Gentiles. +Act 21:12 And hearing these things, we and those who were living in that place made request to him not to go to Jerusalem. +Act 21:13 Then Paul said, What are you doing, weeping and wounding my heart? for I am ready, not only to be a prisoner, but to be put to death at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. +Act 21:14 And as he might not be moved we did no more, saying, Let the purpose of God be done. +Act 21:15 And after these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. +Act 21:16 And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, taking a certain Mnason of Cyprus, one of the early disciples, in whose house we were to be living. +Act 21:17 And when we came to Jerusalem, the brothers were pleased to see us. +Act 21:18 And on the day after, Paul went with us to James, and all the rulers of the church were present. +Act 21:19 And when he had said how glad he was to see them, he gave them a detailed account of the things which God had done through his work among the Gentiles. +Act 21:20 And hearing it, they gave praise to God; and they said to him, You see, brother, what thousands there are among the Jews, who have the faith; and they all have a great respect for the law: +Act 21:21 And they have had news of you, how you have been teaching all the Jews among the Gentiles to give up the law of Moses, and not to give circumcision to their children, and not to keep the old rules. +Act 21:22 What then is the position? They will certainly get news that you have come. +Act 21:23 Do this, then, which we say to you: We have four men who have taken an oath; +Act 21:24 Go with these, and make yourself clean with them, and make the necessary payments for them, so that they may be free from their oath: and everyone will see that the statements made about you are not true, but that you put yourself under rule, and keep the law. +Act 21:25 But as to the Gentiles who have the faith, we sent a letter, giving our decision that they were to keep themselves from offerings made to false gods, and from blood, and from the flesh of animals put to death in ways against the law, and from the evil desires of the body. +Act 21:26 Then Paul took the men, and on the day after, making himself clean with them, he went into the Temple, giving out the statement that the days necessary for making them clean were complete, till the offering was made for every one of them. +Act 21:27 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the Temple, got the people together and put their hands on him, +Act 21:28 Crying out, Men of Israel, come to our help: this is the man who is teaching all men everywhere against the people and the law and this place: and in addition, he has taken Greeks into the Temple, and made this holy place unclean. +Act 21:29 For they had seen him before in the town with Trophimus of Ephesus, and had the idea that Paul had taken him with him into the Temple. +Act 21:30 And all the town was moved, and the people came running together and put their hands on Paul, pulling him out of the Temple: and then the doors were shut. +Act 21:31 And while they were attempting to put him to death, news came to the chief captain of the band that all Jerusalem was out of control. +Act 21:32 And straight away he took some armed men and went quickly down to them: and the Jews, seeing them, gave no more blows to Paul. +Act 21:33 Then the chief captain came near and took him, and gave orders for him to be put in chains, questioning them as to who he was and what he had done. +Act 21:34 And some said one thing and some another, among the people: and as he was not able to get a knowledge of the facts because of the noise, he gave orders for Paul to be taken into the army building. +Act 21:35 And when he came on to the steps, he was lifted up by the armed men, because of the force of the people; +Act 21:36 For a great mass of people came after them, crying out, Away with him! +Act 21:37 And when Paul was about to be taken into the building, he said to the chief captain, May I say something to you? And he said, Have you a knowledge of Greek? +Act 21:38 Are you by chance the Egyptian who, before this, got the people worked up against the government and took four thousand men of the Assassins out into the waste land? +Act 21:39 But Paul said, I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, which is not an unimportant town: I make a request to you to let me say a word to the people. +Act 21:40 And when he let him do so, Paul, from the steps, made a sign with his hand to the people, and when they were all quiet, he said to them in the Hebrew language, +Act 22:1 My brothers and fathers, give ear to the story of my life which I now put before you. +Act 22:2 And, hearing him talking in the Hebrew language, they became the more quiet, and he said, +Act 22:3 I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia by birth, but I had my education in this town at the feet of Gamaliel, being trained in the keeping of every detail of the law of our fathers; given up to the cause of God with all my heart, as you are today. +Act 22:4 And I made attacks on this Way, even to death, taking men and women and putting them in prison. +Act 22:5 Of which the high priest will be a witness, and all the rulers, from whom I had letters to the brothers; and I went into Damascus, to take those who were there as prisoners to Jerusalem for punishment. +Act 22:6 And it came about that while I was on my journey, coming near to Damascus, about the middle of the day, suddenly I saw a great light from heaven shining round me. +Act 22:7 And when I went down on the earth, a voice came to my ears saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you attacking me so cruelly? +Act 22:8 And I, answering, said, Who are you; Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are attacking. +Act 22:9 And those who were with me saw the light, but the voice of him who was talking to me came not to their ears. +Act 22:10 And I said, What have I to do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Get up, and go into Damascus; and it will be made clear to you what you have to do. +Act 22:11 And because I was unable to see because of the glory of that light, those who were with me took me by the hand, and so I came to Damascus. +Act 22:12 And one Ananias, a God-fearing man, who kept the law, and of whom all the Jews in that place had a high opinion, +Act 22:13 Came to my side and said, Brother Saul, let your eyes be open. And in that very hour I was able to see him. +Act 22:14 And he said, You have been marked out by the God of our fathers to have knowledge of his purpose, and to see the Upright One and to give ear to the words of his mouth. +Act 22:15 For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and of what has come to your ears. +Act 22:16 And now, why are you waiting? get up, and have baptism, for the washing away of your sins, giving worship to his name. +Act 22:17 And it came about that when I had come back to Jerusalem, while I was at prayer in the Temple, my senses became more than naturally clear, +Act 22:18 And I saw him saying to me, Go out of Jerusalem straight away because they will not give hearing to your witness about me. +Act 22:19 And I said, Lord, they themselves have knowledge that I went through the Synagogues putting in prison and whipping all those who had faith in you: +Act 22:20 And when Stephen your witness was put to death, I was there, giving approval, and looking after the clothing of those who put him to death. +Act 22:21 And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. +Act 22:22 And they gave him a hearing as far as this word; then with loud voices they said, Away with this man from the earth; it is not right for him to be living. +Act 22:23 And while they were crying out, and pulling off their clothing, and sending dust into the air, +Act 22:24 The chief captain gave orders for him to be taken into the army building, saying that he would put him to the test by whipping, so that he might have knowledge of the reason why they were crying out so violently against him. +Act 22:25 And when they had put leather bands round him, Paul said to the captain who was present, Is it the law for you to give blows to a man who is a Roman and has not been judged? +Act 22:26 And hearing this, the man went to the chief captain and gave him an account of it, saying, What are you about to do? for this man is a Roman. +Act 22:27 And the chief captain came to him and said, Give me an answer, are you a Roman? And he said, Yes. +Act 22:28 And the chief captain said, I got Roman rights for myself at a great price. And Paul said, But I had them by birth. +Act 22:29 Then those who were about to put him to the test went away: and the chief captain was in fear, seeing that he was a Roman, and that he had put chains on him. +Act 22:30 But on the day after, desiring to have certain knowledge of what the Jews had to say against him, he made him free, and gave orders for the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to come together, and he took Paul and put him before them. +Act 23:1 And Paul, looking fixedly at the Sanhedrin, said, My brothers, my life has been upright before God till this day. +Act 23:2 And the high priest, Ananias, gave orders to those who were near him to give him a blow on the mouth. +Act 23:3 Then Paul said to him, God will give blows to you, you whitewashed wall: are you here to be my judge by law, and by your orders am I given blows against the law? +Act 23:4 And those who were near said, Do you say such words against God's high priest? +Act 23:5 And Paul said, Brother, I had no idea that he was the high priest: for it has been said, You may not say evil about the ruler of your people. +Act 23:6 But when Paul saw that half of them were Sadducees and the rest Pharisees, he said in the Sanhedrin, Brothers, I am a Pharisee, and the son of Pharisees: I am here to be judged on the question of the hope of the coming back from the dead. +Act 23:7 And when he had said this, there was an argument between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and a division in the meeting. +Act 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is no coming back from the dead, and no angels or spirits: but the Pharisees have belief in all these. +Act 23:9 And there was a great outcry: and some of the scribes on the side of the Pharisees got up and took part in the discussion, saying, We see no evil in this man: what if he has had a revelation from an angel or a spirit? +Act 23:10 And when the argument became very violent, the chief captain, fearing that Paul would be pulled in two by them, gave orders to the armed men to take him by force from among them, and take him into the army building. +Act 23:11 And the night after, the Lord came to his side and said, Be of good heart, for as you have been witnessing for me in Jerusalem, so will you be my witness in Rome. +Act 23:12 And when it was day, the Jews came together and put themselves under an oath that they would take no food or drink till they had put Paul to death. +Act 23:13 And more than forty of them took this oath. +Act 23:14 And they came to the chief priests and the rulers and said, We have taken a great oath to take no food till we have put Paul to death +Act 23:15 So now, will you and the Sanhedrin make a request to the military authorities to have him sent down to you, as if you were desiring to go into the business in greater detail; and we, before ever he gets to you, will be waiting to put him to death. +Act 23:16 But Paul's sister's son had word of their design, and he came into the army building and gave news of it to Paul. +Act 23:17 And Paul sent for a captain and said, Take this young man to your chief, for he has news for him. +Act 23:18 So he took him to the chief captain and said, Paul, the prisoner, made a request to me to take this young man to you, for he has something to say to you. +Act 23:19 And the chief took him by the hand and, going on one side, said to him privately, What is it you have to say to me? +Act 23:20 And he said, The Jews are in agreement together to make a request to you for Paul to be taken, on the day after this, into the Sanhedrin, to be questioned in greater detail. +Act 23:21 But do not give way to them, for more than forty of them are waiting for him, having taken an oath not to take food or drink till they have put him to death: and now they are ready, waiting for your order. +Act 23:22 So the chief captain let the young man go, saying to him, Do not say to anyone that you have given me word of these things. +Act 23:23 And he sent for two captains and said, Make ready two hundred men, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen, to go to Caesarea, at the third hour of the night: +Act 23:24 And get beasts so that they may put Paul on them, and take him safely to Felix, the ruler. +Act 23:25 And he sent a letter in these words: +Act 23:26 Claudius Lysias, to the most noble ruler, Felix, peace be with you. +Act 23:27 This man was taken by the Jews, and was about to be put to death by them, when I came on them with the army and took him out of danger, having knowledge that he was a Roman. +Act 23:28 And, desiring to get at the reason for their attack on him, I took him down to their Sanhedrin: +Act 23:29 Then it became clear to me that it was a question of their law, and that nothing was said against him which might be a reason for prison or death. +Act 23:30 And when news was given to me that a secret design was being made against the man, I sent him straight away to you, giving orders to those who are against him to make their statements before you. +Act 23:31 So the armed men, as they were ordered, took Paul and came by night to Antipatris. +Act 23:32 But on the day after, they sent the horsemen on with him, and went back to their place: +Act 23:33 And they, when they came to Caesarea, gave the letter to the ruler, and took Paul before him. +Act 23:34 And after reading it, he said, What part of the country do you come from? And, hearing that he was from Cilicia, +Act 23:35 I will give hearing to your cause, he said, when those who are against you have come. And he gave orders for him to be kept in Herod's Praetorium. +Act 24:1 And after five days, the high priest, Ananias, came with certain of the rulers, and an expert talker, one Tertullus; and they made a statement to Felix against Paul. +Act 24:2 And when he had been sent for, Tertullus, starting his statement, said, Because by you we are living in peace, and through your wisdom wrongs are put right for this nation, +Act 24:3 In all things and in all places we are conscious of our great debt to you, most noble Felix. +Act 24:4 But, so that I may not make you tired, I make a request to you of your mercy, to give hearing to a short statement. +Act 24:5 For this man, in our opinion, is a cause of trouble, a maker of attacks on the government among Jews through all the empire, and a chief mover in the society of the Nazarenes: +Act 24:6 Who, in addition, was attempting to make the Temple unclean: whom we took, +Act 24:7 [] +Act 24:8 And from whom you will be able, by questioning him yourself, to get knowledge of all the things which we say against him. +Act 24:9 And the Jews were in agreement with his statement, saying that these things were so. +Act 24:10 Then when the ruler had given him a sign to make his answer, Paul said, Because I have knowledge that you have been a judge over this nation for a number of years, I am glad to make my answer: +Act 24:11 Seeing that you are able to make certain of the fact that it is not more than twelve days from the time when I came up to Jerusalem for worship; +Act 24:12 And they have not seen me in argument with any man in the Temple, or working up the feelings of the people, in the Synagogues or in the town: +Act 24:13 And they are not able to give facts in support of the things which they say against me now. +Act 24:14 But this I will say openly to you, that I do give worship to the God of our fathers after that Way, which to them is not the true religion: but I have belief in all the things which are in the law and in the books of the prophets: +Act 24:15 Hoping in God for that which they themselves are looking for, that there will be a coming back from the dead for upright men and wrongdoers. +Act 24:16 And in this, I do my best at all times to have no reason for shame before God or men. +Act 24:17 Now after a number of years I came to give help and offerings to my nation: +Act 24:18 And having been made clean, I was in the Temple, but not with a great number of people, and not with noise: but there were certain Jews from Asia, +Act 24:19 And it would have been better if they had come here to make a statement, if they have anything against me. +Act 24:20 Or let these men here present say what wrongdoing was seen in me when I was before the Sanhedrin, +Act 24:21 But only this one thing which I said among them in a loud voice, I am this day being judged on the question of the coming back from the dead. +Act 24:22 But Felix, who had a more detailed knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, When Lysias, the chief captain, comes down, I will give attention to your business. +Act 24:23 And he gave orders to the captain to keep Paul under his control, and to let him have everything he had need of; and not to keep his friends from coming to see him. +Act 24:24 But after some days, Felix came with Drusilla his wife, who was of the Jews by birth, and sent for Paul, and gave hearing to him about faith in Christ Jesus. +Act 24:25 And while he was talking about righteousness and self-control and the judging which was to come, Felix had great fear and said, Go away for the present, and when the right time comes I will send for you. +Act 24:26 For he was hoping that Paul would give him money: so he sent for him more frequently and had talk with him. +Act 24:27 But after two years Porcius Festus took the place of Felix, who, desiring to have the approval of the Jews, kept Paul in chains. +Act 25:1 So Festus, having come into that part of the country which was under his rule, after three days went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. +Act 25:2 And the chief priests and the chief men of the Jews made statements against Paul, +Act 25:3 Requesting Festus to give effect to their design against him, and send him to Jerusalem, when they would be waiting to put him to death on the way. +Act 25:4 But Festus, in answer, said that Paul was being kept in prison at Caesarea, and that in a short time he himself was going there. +Act 25:5 So, he said, let those who have authority among you go with me, and if there is any wrong in the man, let them make a statement against him. +Act 25:6 And when he had been with them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; and on the day after, he took his place on the judge's seat, and sent for Paul. +Act 25:7 And when he came, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem came round him, and made all sorts of serious statements against him, which were not supported by the facts. +Act 25:8 Then Paul, in his answer to them, said, I have done no wrong against the law of the Jews, or against the Temple, or against Caesar. +Act 25:9 But Festus, desiring to get the approval of the Jews, said to Paul, Will you go up to Jerusalem, and be judged before me there in connection with these things? +Act 25:10 And Paul said, I am before the seat of Caesar's authority where it is right for me to be judged: I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you are well able to see. +Act 25:11 If, then, I am a wrongdoer and there is a cause of death in me, I am ready for death: if it is not as they say against me, no man may give me up to them. Let my cause come before Caesar. +Act 25:12 Then Festus, having had a discussion with the Jews, made answer, You have said, Let my cause come before Caesar; to Caesar you will go. +Act 25:13 Now when some days had gone by, King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea and went to see Festus. +Act 25:14 And as they were there for some days, Festus gave them Paul's story, saying, There is a certain man here who was put in prison by Felix: +Act 25:15 Against whom the chief priests and the rulers of the Jews made a statement when I was at Jerusalem, requesting me to give a decision against him. +Act 25:16 To whom I gave answer that it is not the Roman way to give a man up, till he has been face to face with those who are attacking him, and has had a chance to give an answer to the statements made against him. +Act 25:17 So, when they had come together here, straight away, on the day after, I took my place on the judge's seat and sent for the man. +Act 25:18 But when they got up they said nothing about such crimes as I had in mind: +Act 25:19 But had certain questions against him in connection with their religion, and about one Jesus, now dead, who, Paul said, was living. +Act 25:20 And as I had not enough knowledge for the discussion of these things, I made the suggestion to him to go to Jerusalem and be judged there. +Act 25:21 But when Paul made a request that he might be judged by Caesar, I gave orders for him to be kept till I might send him to Caesar. +Act 25:22 And Agrippa said to Festus, I have a desire to give the man a hearing myself. Tomorrow, he said, you may give him a hearing. +Act 25:23 So on the day after, when Agrippa and Bernice in great glory had come into the public place of hearing, with the chief of the army and the chief men of the town, at the order of Festus, Paul was sent for. +Act 25:24 And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all those who are present here with us, you see this man, about whom all the Jews have made protests to me, at Jerusalem and in this place, saying that it is not right for him to be living any longer. +Act 25:25 But, in my opinion, there is no cause of death in him, and as he himself has made a request to be judged by Caesar, I have said that I would send him. +Act 25:26 But I have no certain account of him to send to Caesar. So I have sent for him to come before you, and specially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the business has been gone into, I may have something to put in writing. +Act 25:27 For it seems to me against reason to send a prisoner without making clear what there is against him. +Act 26:1 And Agrippa said to Paul, You may put your cause before us. Then Paul, stretching out his hand, made his answer, saying: +Act 26:2 In my opinion I am happy, King Agrippa, to be able to give my answer before you today to all these things which the Jews say against me: +Act 26:3 The more so, because you are expert in all questions to do with the Jews and their ways: so I make my request to you to give me a hearing to the end. +Act 26:4 All the Jews have knowledge of my way of life from my early years, as it was from the start among my nation, and at Jerusalem; +Act 26:5 And they are able to say, if they would give witness, that I was living as a Pharisee, in that division of our religion which is most regular in the keeping of the law. +Act 26:6 And now I am here to be judged because of the hope given by God's word to our fathers; +Act 26:7 For the effecting of which our twelve tribes have been working and waiting night and day with all their hearts. And in connection with this hope I am attacked by the Jews, O king! +Act 26:8 Why, in your opinion, is it outside belief for God to make the dead come to life again? +Act 26:9 For I, truly, was of the opinion that it was right for me to do a number of things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. +Act 26:10 And this I did in Jerusalem: and numbers of the saints I put in prison, having had authority given to me from the chief priests, and when they were put to death, I gave my decision against them. +Act 26:11 And I gave them punishment frequently, in all the Synagogues, forcing them to say things against God; and burning with passion against them, I went after them even into far-away towns. +Act 26:12 Then, when I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and orders of the chief priests, +Act 26:13 In the middle of the day, on the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining round me and those who were journeying with me. +Act 26:14 And when we had all gone down on the earth, a voice came to me, saying in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you attacking me so cruelly? It is hard for you to go against the impulse which is driving you. +Act 26:15 And I said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are attacking. +Act 26:16 But get up on your feet: for I have come to you for this purpose, to make you a servant and a witness of the things in which you have seen me, and of those in which you will see me; +Act 26:17 And I will keep you safe from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, +Act 26:18 To make their eyes open, turning them from the dark to the light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may have forgiveness of sins and a heritage among those who are made holy by faith in me. +Act 26:19 So, then, King Agrippa, I did not go against the vision from heaven; +Act 26:20 But I went about, first to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, and through all the country of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, preaching a change of heart, so that they, being turned to God, might give, in their works, the fruits of a changed heart. +Act 26:21 For this reason, the Jews took me in the Temple, and made an attempt to put me to death. +Act 26:22 And so, by God's help, I am here today, witnessing to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come about; +Act 26:23 That the Christ would go through pain, and being the first to come back from the dead, would give light to the people and to the Gentiles. +Act 26:24 And when he made his answer in these words, Festus said in a loud voice, Paul, you are off your head; your great learning has made you unbalanced. +Act 26:25 Then Paul said, I am not off my head, most noble Festus, but my words are true and wise. +Act 26:26 For the king has knowledge of these things, to whom I am talking freely; being certain that all this is common knowledge to him; for it has not been done in secret. +Act 26:27 King Agrippa, have you faith in the prophets? I am certain that you have. +Act 26:28 And Agrippa said to Paul, A little more and you will be making me a Christian. +Act 26:29 And Paul said, It is my prayer to God that, in little or great measure, not only you, but all those hearing me today might be even as I am, but for these chains. +Act 26:30 And the king and the ruler and Bernice and those who were seated with them got up; +Act 26:31 And when they had gone away they said to one another, This man has done nothing which might give cause for death or prison. +Act 26:32 And Agrippa said to Festus, This man might have been made free, if he had not put his cause before Caesar. +Act 27:1 And when the decision had been made that we were to go by sea to Italy, they gave Paul and certain other prisoners into the care of a captain named Julius, of the Augustan band. +Act 27:2 And we went to sea in a ship of Adramyttium which was sailing to the sea towns of Asia, Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us. +Act 27:3 And on the day after, we came to Sidon; and Julius was kind to Paul, and let him go to see his friends and take a rest. +Act 27:4 And sailing again from there, we went on under cover of Cyprus, because the wind was against us. +Act 27:5 And having gone across the sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia we came to Myra, in Lycia. +Act 27:6 And there the captain came across a ship of Alexandria, sailing for Italy, and put us in it. +Act 27:7 And when we had gone on slowly for a long time, and had had hard work getting across to Cnidus, for the wind was against us, we went under cover of Crete, in the direction of Salmone; +Act 27:8 And sailing down the side of it, as well as we were able, we came to a certain place named Fair Havens, near which was the town of Lasea. +Act 27:9 And as a long time had gone by, and the journey was now full of danger, because it was late in the year, Paul put the position before them, +Act 27:10 Saying, Friends, I see that this journey will be one of great damage and loss, not only to the goods and the ship, but to ourselves. +Act 27:11 But the captain gave more attention to the master and the owner of the ship than to what Paul said. +Act 27:12 And as the harbour was not a good one in which to be for the winter, the greater number of them were for going out to sea, in order, if possible, to put in for the winter at Phoenix, a harbour of Crete, looking to the north-east and south-east. +Act 27:13 And when the south wind came softly, being of the opinion that their purpose might be effected, they let the ship go and went sailing down the side of Crete, very near to the land. +Act 27:14 But after a little time, a very violent wind, named Euraquilo, came down from it with great force. +Act 27:15 And when the ship got into the grip of it, and was not able to make headway into the wind, we gave way, and went before it. +Act 27:16 And, sailing near the side of a small island named Cauda, we were able, though it was hard work, to make the ship's boat safe: +Act 27:17 And having got it up, they put cords under and round the ship; but fearing that they might be pushed on to the Syrtis, they let down the sails and so went running before the wind. +Act 27:18 And, still fighting the storm with all our strength, the day after they made a start at getting the goods out of the ship; +Act 27:19 And on the third day, they let all the sailing apparatus go over the side. +Act 27:20 And as we had not seen the sun or stars for a long time, and a great storm was on us, all hope of salvation was gone. +Act 27:21 And when they had been without food for a long time, Paul got up among them and said, Friends, it would have been better if you had given attention to me and not gone sailing out from Crete, to undergo this damage and loss. +Act 27:22 But now, I say to you, be of good heart, for there will be no loss of life, but only of the ship. +Act 27:23 For this night there came to my side an angel of the God who is my Master and whose servant I am, +Act 27:24 Saying, Have no fear, Paul, for you will come before Caesar, and God has given to you all those who are sailing with you. +Act 27:25 And so, O men, be of good heart, for I have faith in God that it will be as he said to me. +Act 27:26 But we will be sent on to a certain island. +Act 27:27 But when the fourteenth day came, while we were going here and there in the Adriatic sea, about the middle of the night the sailors had an idea that they were getting near land; +Act 27:28 And they let down the lead, and saw that the sea was a hundred and twenty feet deep; and after a little time they did it again and it was ninety feet. +Act 27:29 Then, fearing that by chance we might come on to the rocks, they let down four hooks from the back of the ship, and made prayers for the coming of day. +Act 27:30 Then the sailors made attempts secretly to get away from the ship, letting down a boat as if they were about to put down hooks from the front of the ship; +Act 27:31 But Paul said to the captain and his men, If you do not keep these men in the ship, you will not be safe. +Act 27:32 Then the armed men, cutting the cords of the boat, let her go. +Act 27:33 And when dawn was near, Paul gave them all orders to take food, saying, This is the fourteenth day you have been waiting and taking no food. +Act 27:34 So I make request to you to take food; for this is for your salvation: not a hair from the head of any of you will come to destruction. +Act 27:35 And when he had said this and had taken bread, he gave praise to God before them all, and took a meal of the broken bread. +Act 27:36 Then they all took heart and did the same. +Act 27:37 And we were, in the ship, two hundred and seventy-six persons. +Act 27:38 And when they had had enough food, they made the weight of the ship less, turning the grain out into the sea. +Act 27:39 And when it was day, they had no knowledge of the land, but they saw an inlet of the sea with a floor of sand, and they had the idea of driving the ship up on to it if possible. +Act 27:40 So cutting away the hooks, and letting them go into the sea, and freeing the cords of the guiding-blades, and lifting up the sail to the wind, they went in the direction of the inlet. +Act 27:41 And coming to a point between two seas, they got the ship to land; and the front part was fixed in the sand and not able to be moved, but the back part was broken by the force of the waves. +Act 27:42 Then the armed men were for putting the prisoners to death, so that no one would get away by swimming. +Act 27:43 But the captain, desiring to keep Paul safe, kept them from their purpose, and gave orders that those who had knowledge of swimming were to go off the ship and get first to land: +Act 27:44 And the rest, some on boards and some on things from the ship. And so it came about that they all got safe to land. +Act 28:1 And when we were safe, we made the discovery that the island was named Melita. +Act 28:2 And the simple people living there were uncommonly kind to us, for they made a fire for us, and took us in, because it was raining and cold. +Act 28:3 But when Paul had got some sticks together and put them on the fire, a snake came out, because of the heat, and gave him a bite on the hand. +Act 28:4 And when the people saw it hanging on his hand, they said to one another, Without doubt this man has put someone to death, and though he has got safely away from the sea, God will not let him go on living. +Act 28:5 But shaking off the beast into the fire, he got no damage. +Act 28:6 But they had the idea that they would see him becoming ill, or suddenly falling down dead; but after waiting a long time, and seeing that no damage came to him, changing their opinion, they said he was a god. +Act 28:7 Now near that place there was some land, the property of the chief man of the island, who was named Publius; who very kindly took us into his house as his guests for three days. +Act 28:8 And the father of Publius was ill, with a disease of the stomach; to whom Paul went, and put his hands on him, with prayer, and made him well. +Act 28:9 And when this took place, all the others in the island who had diseases came and were made well. +Act 28:10 Then they gave us great honour, and, when we went away, they put into the ship whatever things we were in need of. +Act 28:11 And after three months we went to sea in a ship of Alexandria sailing under the sign of the Dioscuri, which had been at the island for the winter. +Act 28:12 And going into the harbour at Syracuse, we were waiting there for three days. +Act 28:13 And from there, going about in a curve, we came to Rhegium: and after one day a south wind came up and on the day after we came to Puteoli: +Act 28:14 Where we came across some of the brothers, who kept us with them for seven days; and so we came to Rome. +Act 28:15 And the brothers, when they had news of us, came out from town as far as Appii Forum and the Three Taverns to have a meeting with us: and Paul, seeing them, gave praise to God and took heart. +Act 28:16 And when we came into Rome, they let Paul have a house for himself and the armed man who kept watch over him. +Act 28:17 Then after three days he sent for the chief men of the Jews: and when they had come together, he said to them, My brothers, though I had done nothing against the people or the ways of our fathers, I was given, a prisoner from Jerusalem, into the hands of the Romans. +Act 28:18 Who, when they had put questions to me, were ready to let me go free, because there was no cause of death in me. +Act 28:19 But when the Jews made protest against it, I had to put my cause into Caesar's hands; not because I have anything to say against my nation. +Act 28:20 But for this reason I sent for you, to see and have talk with you: for because of the hope of Israel I am in these chains. +Act 28:21 And they said to him, We have not had letters from Judaea about you, and no one of the brothers has come to us here to give an account or say any evil about you. +Act 28:22 But we have a desire to give hearing to your opinion: for as to this form of religion, we have knowledge that in all places it is attacked. +Act 28:23 And when a day had been fixed, they came to his house in great numbers; and he gave them teaching, giving witness to the kingdom of God, and having discussions with them about Jesus, from the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning till evening. +Act 28:24 And some were in agreement with what he said, but some had doubts. +Act 28:25 And they went away, for there was a division among them after Paul had said this one thing: Well did the Holy Spirit say by the prophet Isaiah to your fathers, +Act 28:26 Go to this people and say, Though you give ear, you will not get knowledge; and seeing, you will see, but the sense will not be clear to you: +Act 28:27 For the heart of this people has become fat and their ears are slow in hearing and their eyes are shut; for fear that they might see with their eyes and give hearing with their ears and become wise in their hearts and be turned again to me, so that I might make them well. +Act 28:28 Be certain, then, that the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and they will give hearing. +Act 28:29 [] +Act 28:30 And for the space of two years, Paul was living in the house of which he had the use, and had talk with all those who went in to see him, +Act 28:31 Preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ without fear, and no orders were given that he was not to do so. +Rom 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, an Apostle by the selection of God, given authority as a preacher of the good news, +Rom 1:2 Of which God had given word before by his prophets in the holy Writings, +Rom 1:3 About his Son who, in the flesh, came from the family of David, +Rom 1:4 But was marked out as Son of God in power by the Holy Spirit through the coming to life again of the dead; Jesus Christ our Lord, +Rom 1:5 Through whom grace has been given to us, sending us out to make disciples to the faith among all nations, for his name: +Rom 1:6 Among whom you in the same way have been marked out to be disciples of Jesus Christ: +Rom 1:7 To all those who are in Rome, loved by God, marked out as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +Rom 1:8 First of all, I give praise to my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because news of your faith has gone into all the world. +Rom 1:9 For God is my witness, whose servant I am in spirit in the good news of his Son, that you are at all times in my memory and in my prayers, +Rom 1:10 And that I am ever making prayers that God will give me a good journey to you. +Rom 1:11 For I have a strong desire to see you, and to give you some grace of the spirit, so that you may be made strong; +Rom 1:12 That is to say, that all of us may be comforted together by the faith which is in you and in me. +Rom 1:13 You may be certain, my brothers, that it has frequently been in my mind to come to you (but till now I was kept from it), so that I might have some fruit from you in the same way as I have had it from the other nations. +Rom 1:14 I have a debt to Greeks and to the nations outside; to the wise and to those who have no learning. +Rom 1:15 For which reason I have the desire, as far as I am able, to give the knowledge of the good news to you who are in Rome. +Rom 1:16 For I have no feeling of shame about the good news, because it is the power of God giving salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first, and then to the Greek. +Rom 1:17 For in it there is the revelation of the righteousness of God from faith to faith: as it is said in the holy Writings, The man who does righteousness will be living by his faith. +Rom 1:18 For there is a revelation of the wrath of God from heaven against all the wrongdoing and evil thoughts of men who keep down what is true by wrongdoing; +Rom 1:19 Because the knowledge of God may be seen in them, God having made it clear to them. +Rom 1:20 For from the first making of the world, those things of God which the eye is unable to see, that is, his eternal power and existence, are fully made clear, he having given the knowledge of them through the things which he has made, so that men have no reason for wrongdoing: +Rom 1:21 Because, having the knowledge of God, they did not give glory to God as God, and did not give praise, but their minds were full of foolish things, and their hearts, being without sense, were made dark. +Rom 1:22 Seeming to be wise, they were in fact foolish, +Rom 1:23 And by them the glory of the eternal God was changed and made into the image of man who is not eternal, and of birds and beasts and things which go on the earth. +Rom 1:24 For this reason God gave them up to the evil desires of their hearts, working shame in their bodies with one another: +Rom 1:25 Because by them the true word of God was changed into that which is false, and they gave worship and honour to the thing which is made, and not to him who made it, to whom be blessing for ever. So be it. +Rom 1:26 For this reason God gave them up to evil passions, and their women were changing the natural use into one which is unnatural: +Rom 1:27 And in the same way the men gave up the natural use of the woman and were burning in their desire for one another, men doing shame with men, and getting in their bodies the right reward of their evil-doing. +Rom 1:28 And because they had not the mind to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them up to an evil mind, to do those things which are not right; +Rom 1:29 Being full of all wrongdoing, evil, desire for the goods of others, hate, envy, putting to death, fighting, deceit, cruel ways, evil talk, and false statements about others; +Rom 1:30 Hated by God, full of pride, without respect, full of loud talk, given to evil inventions, not honouring father or mother, +Rom 1:31 Without knowledge, not true to their undertakings, unkind, having no mercy: +Rom 1:32 Who, though they have knowledge of the law of God, that the fate of those who do these things is death, not only go on doing these things themselves, but give approval to those who do them. +Rom 2:1 So you have no reason, whoever you are, for judging: for in judging another you are judging yourself, for you do the same things. +Rom 2:2 And we are conscious that God is a true judge against those who do such things. +Rom 2:3 But you who are judging another for doing what you do yourself, are you hoping that God's decision will not take effect against you? +Rom 2:4 Or is it nothing to you that God had pity on you, waiting and putting up with you for so long, not seeing that in his pity God's desire is to give you a change of heart? +Rom 2:5 But by your hard and unchanged heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of the revelation of God's judging in righteousness; +Rom 2:6 Who will give to every man his right reward: +Rom 2:7 To those who go on with good works in the hope of glory and honour and salvation from death, he will give eternal life: +Rom 2:8 But to those who, from a love of competition, are not guided by what is true, will come the heat of his wrath, +Rom 2:9 Trouble and sorrow on all whose works are evil, to the Jew first and then to the Greek; +Rom 2:10 But glory and honour and peace to all whose works are good, to the Jew first and then to the Greek: +Rom 2:11 For one man is not different from another before God. +Rom 2:12 All those who have done wrong without the law will get destruction without the law: and those who have done wrong under the law will have their punishment by the law; +Rom 2:13 For it is not the hearers of the law who will be judged as having righteousness before God, but only the doers: +Rom 2:14 For when the Gentiles without the law have a natural desire to do the things in the law, they are a law to themselves; +Rom 2:15 Because the work of the law is seen in their hearts, their sense of right and wrong giving witness to it, while their minds are at one time judging them and at another giving them approval; +Rom 2:16 In the day when God will be a judge of the secrets of men, as it says in the good news of which I am a preacher, through Jesus Christ. +Rom 2:17 But as for you who have the name of Jew, and are resting on the law, and take pride in God, +Rom 2:18 And have knowledge of his desires, and are a judge of the things which are different, having the learning of the law, +Rom 2:19 In the belief that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those in the dark, +Rom 2:20 A teacher of the foolish, having in the law the form of knowledge and of what is true; +Rom 2:21 You who give teaching to others, do you give it to yourself? you who say that a man may not take what is not his, do you take what is not yours? +Rom 2:22 You who say that a man may not be untrue to his wife, are you true to yours? you who are a hater of images, do you do wrong to the house of God? +Rom 2:23 You who take pride in the law, are you doing wrong to the honour of God by behaviour which is against the law? +Rom 2:24 For the name of God is shamed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is said in the holy Writings. +Rom 2:25 It is true that circumcision is of use if you keep the law, but if you go against the law it is as if you had it not. +Rom 2:26 If those who have not circumcision keep the rules of the law, will it not be credited to them as circumcision? +Rom 2:27 And they, by their keeping of the law without circumcision, will be judges of you, by whom the law is broken though you have the letter of the law and circumcision. +Rom 2:28 The true Jew is not one who is only so publicly, and circumcision is not that which may be seen in the flesh: +Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew who is a secret one, whose circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God. +Rom 3:1 How then is the Jew better off? or what profit is there in circumcision? +Rom 3:2 Much in every way: first of all because the words of God were given to them. +Rom 3:3 And if some have no faith, will that make the faith of God without effect? +Rom 3:4 In no way: but let God be true, though every man is seen to be untrue; as it is said in the Writings, That your words may be seen to be true, and you may be seen to be right when you are judged. +Rom 3:5 But if the righteousness of God is supported by our wrongdoing what is to be said? is it wrong for God to be angry (as men may say)? +Rom 3:6 In no way: because if it is so, how is God able to be the judge of all the world? +Rom 3:7 But if, because I am untrue, God being seen to be true gets more glory, why am I to be judged as a sinner? +Rom 3:8 Let us not do evil so that good may come (a statement which we are falsely said by some to have made), because such behaviour will have its right punishment. +Rom 3:9 What then? are we worse off than they? In no way: because we have before made it clear that Jews as well as Greeks are all under the power of sin; +Rom 3:10 As it is said in the holy Writings, There is not one who does righteousness; +Rom 3:11 Not one who has the knowledge of what is right, not one who is a searcher after God; +Rom 3:12 They have all gone out of the way, there is no profit in any of them; there is not one who does good, not so much as one: +Rom 3:13 Their throat is like an open place of death; with their tongues they have said what is not true: the poison of snakes is under their lips: +Rom 3:14 Whose mouth is full of curses and bitter words: +Rom 3:15 Their feet are quick in running after blood; +Rom 3:16 Destruction and trouble are in their ways; +Rom 3:17 And of the way of peace they have no knowledge: +Rom 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. +Rom 3:19 Now, we have knowledge that what the law says is for those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all men may be judged by God: +Rom 3:20 Because by the works of the law no man is able to have righteousness in his eyes, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. +Rom 3:21 But now without the law there is a revelation of the righteousness of God, to which witness is given by the law and the prophets; +Rom 3:22 That is, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all those who have faith; and one man is not different from another, +Rom 3:23 For all have done wrong and are far from the glory of God; +Rom 3:24 And they may have righteousness put to their credit, freely, by his grace, through the salvation which is in Christ Jesus: +Rom 3:25 Whom God has put forward as the sign of his mercy, through faith, by his blood, to make clear his righteousness when, in his pity, God let the sins of earlier times go without punishment; +Rom 3:26 And to make clear his righteousness now, so that he might himself be upright, and give righteousness to him who has faith in Jesus. +Rom 3:27 What reason, then, is there for pride? It is shut out. By what sort of law? of works? No, but by a law of faith. +Rom 3:28 For this reason, then, a man may get righteousness by faith without the works of the law. +Rom 3:29 Or is God the God of Jews only? is he not in the same way the God of Gentiles? Yes, of Gentiles: +Rom 3:30 If God is one; and he will give righteousness because of faith to those who have circumcision, and through faith to those who have not circumcision. +Rom 3:31 Do we, then, through faith make the law of no effect? in no way: but we make it clear that the law is important. +Rom 4:1 What, then, may we say that Abraham, our father after the flesh, has got? +Rom 4:2 For if Abraham got righteousness by works, he has reason for pride; but not before God. +Rom 4:3 But what does it say in the holy Writings? And Abraham had faith in God, and it was put to his account as righteousness. +Rom 4:4 Now, the reward is credited to him who does works, not as of grace but as a debt. +Rom 4:5 But to him who without working has faith in him who gives righteousness to the evil-doer, his faith is put to his account as righteousness. +Rom 4:6 As David says that there is a blessing on the man to whose account God puts righteousness without works, saying, +Rom 4:7 Happy are those who have forgiveness for their wrongdoing, and whose sins are covered. +Rom 4:8 Happy is the man against whom no sin is recorded by the Lord. +Rom 4:9 Is this blessing, then, for the circumcision only, or in the same way for those who have not circumcision? for we say that the faith of Abraham was put to his account as righteousness. +Rom 4:10 How, then, was it judged? when he had circumcision, or when he had it not? Not when he had it, but when he did not have it: +Rom 4:11 And he was given the sign of circumcision as a witness of the faith which he had before he underwent circumcision: so that he might be the father of all those who have faith, though they have not circumcision, and so that righteousness might be put to their account; +Rom 4:12 And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who keep to the way of that faith which our father Abraham had before he underwent circumcision. +Rom 4:13 For God's word, that the earth would be his heritage, was given to Abraham, not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. +Rom 4:14 For if they who are of the law are the people who get the heritage, then faith is made of no use, and the word of God has no power; +Rom 4:15 For the outcome of the law is wrath; but where there is no law it will not be broken. +Rom 4:16 For this reason it is of faith, so that it may be through grace; and so that the word of God may be certain to all the seed; not only to that which is of the law, but to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, +Rom 4:17 (As it is said in the holy Writings, I have made you a father of a number of nations) before him in whom he had faith, that is, God, who gives life to the dead, and to whom the things which are not are as if they were. +Rom 4:18 Who without reason for hope, in faith went on hoping, so that he became the father of a number of nations, as it had been said, So will your seed be. +Rom 4:19 And not being feeble in faith though his body seemed to him little better than dead (he being about a hundred years old) and Sarah was no longer able to have children: +Rom 4:20 Still, he did not give up faith in the undertaking of God, but was made strong by faith, giving glory to God, +Rom 4:21 And being certain that God was able to keep his word. +Rom 4:22 For which reason it was put to his account as righteousness. +Rom 4:23 Now, it was not because of him only that this was said, +Rom 4:24 But for us in addition, to whose account it will be put, if we have faith in him who made Jesus our Lord come back again from the dead, +Rom 4:25 Who was put to death for our evil-doing, and came to life again so that we might have righteousness. +Rom 5:1 For which reason, because we have righteousness through faith, let us be at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; +Rom 5:2 Through whom, in the same way, we have been able by faith to come to this grace in which we now are; and let us have joy in hope of the glory of God. +Rom 5:3 And not only so, but let us have joy in our troubles: in the knowledge that trouble gives us the power of waiting; +Rom 5:4 And waiting gives experience; and experience, hope: +Rom 5:5 And hope does not put to shame; because our hearts are full of the love of God through the Holy Spirit which is given to us. +Rom 5:6 For when we were still without strength, at the right time Christ gave his life for evil-doers. +Rom 5:7 Now it is hard for anyone to give his life even for an upright man, though it might be that for a good man someone would give his life. +Rom 5:8 But God has made clear his love to us, in that, when we were still sinners, Christ gave his life for us. +Rom 5:9 Much more, if we now have righteousness by his blood, will salvation from the wrath of God come to us through him. +Rom 5:10 For if, when we were haters of God, the death of his Son made us at peace with him, much more, now that we are his friends, will we have salvation through his life; +Rom 5:11 And not only so, but we have joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we are now at peace with God. +Rom 5:12 For this reason, as through one man sin came into the world, and death because of sin, and so death came to all men, because all have done evil: +Rom 5:13 Because, till the law came, sin was in existence, but sin is not put to the account of anyone when there is no law to be broken. +Rom 5:14 But still death had power from Adam till Moses, even over those who had not done wrong like Adam, who is a picture of him who was to come. +Rom 5:15 But the free giving of God is not like the wrongdoing of man. For if, by the wrongdoing of one man death came to numbers of men, much more did the grace of God, and the free giving by the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, come to men. +Rom 5:16 And the free giving has not the same effect as the sin of one: for the effect of one man's sin was punishment by the decision of God, but the free giving had power to give righteousness to wrongdoers in great number. +Rom 5:17 For, if by the wrongdoing of one, death was ruling through the one, much more will those to whom has come the wealth of grace and the giving of righteousness, be ruling in life through the one, even Jesus Christ. +Rom 5:18 So then, as the effect of one act of wrongdoing was that punishment came on all men, even so the effect of one act of righteousness was righteousness of life for all men. +Rom 5:19 Because, as numbers of men became sinners through the wrongdoing of one man, even so will great numbers get righteousness through the keeping of the word of God by one man. +Rom 5:20 And the law came in addition, to make wrongdoing worse; but where there was much sin, there was much more grace: +Rom 5:21 That, as sin had power in death, so grace might have power through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. +Rom 6:1 What may we say, then? are we to go on in sin so that there may be more grace? +Rom 6:2 In no way. How may we, who are dead to sin, be living in it any longer? +Rom 6:3 Or are you without the knowledge that all we who had baptism into Christ Jesus, had baptism into his death? +Rom 6:4 We have been placed with him among the dead through baptism into death: so that as Christ came again from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, in the same way, might be living in new life. +Rom 6:5 For, if we have been made like him in his death, we will, in the same way, be like him in his coming to life again; +Rom 6:6 Being conscious that our old man was put to death on the cross with him, so that the body of sin might be put away, and we might no longer be servants to sin. +Rom 6:7 Because he who is dead is free from sin. +Rom 6:8 But if we are dead with Christ, we have faith that we will be living with him; +Rom 6:9 Having knowledge that because Christ has come back from the dead, he will never again go down to the dead; death has no more power over him. +Rom 6:10 For his death was a death to sin, but his life now is a life which he is living to God. +Rom 6:11 Even so see yourselves as dead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus. +Rom 6:12 For this cause do not let sin be ruling in your body which is under the power of death, so that you give way to its desires; +Rom 6:13 And do not give your bodies to sin as the instruments of wrongdoing, but give yourselves to God, as those who are living from the dead, and your bodies as instruments of righteousness to God. +Rom 6:14 For sin may not have rule over you: because you are not under law, but under grace. +Rom 6:15 What then? are we to go on in sin because we are not under law but under grace? Let it not be so. +Rom 6:16 Are you not conscious that you are the servants of him to whom you give yourselves to do his desire? if to sin, the end being death, or if to do the desire of God, the end being righteousness. +Rom 6:17 But praise be to God that though you were the servants of sin, you have now given yourselves freely to that form of teaching under which you were placed; +Rom 6:18 And being made free from sin you have been made the servants of righteousness. +Rom 6:19 I am using words in the way of men, because your flesh is feeble: as you gave your bodies as servants to what is unclean, and to evil to do evil, so now give them as servants to righteousness to do what is holy. +Rom 6:20 When you were servants of sin you were free from righteousness. +Rom 6:21 What fruit had you at that time in the things which are now a shame to you? for the end of such things is death. +Rom 6:22 But now, being free from sin, and having been made servants to God, you have your fruit in that which is holy, and the end is eternal life. +Rom 6:23 For the reward of sin is death; but what God freely gives is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. +Rom 7:1 Is it not clear, my brothers (I am using an argument to those who have knowledge of the law), that the law has power over a man as long as he is living? +Rom 7:2 For the woman who has a husband is placed by the law under the power of her husband as long as he is living; but if her husband is dead, she is free from the law of the husband. +Rom 7:3 So if, while the husband is living, she is joined to another man, she will get the name of one who is untrue to her husband: but if the husband is dead, she is free from the law, so that she is not untrue, even if she takes another man. +Rom 7:4 In the same way, my brothers, you were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, even to him who came again from the dead, so that we might give fruit to God. +Rom 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the evil passions which came into being through the law were working in our bodies to give the fruit of death. +Rom 7:6 But now we are free from the law, having been made dead to that which had power over us; so that we are servants in the new way of the spirit, not in the old way of the letter. +Rom 7:7 What then is to be said? is the law sin? in no way. But I would not have had knowledge of sin but for the law: for I would not have been conscious of desire if the law had not said, You may not have a desire for what is another's. +Rom 7:8 But sin, taking its chance through that which was ordered by the law, was working in me every form of desire: because without the law sin is dead. +Rom 7:9 And there was a time when I was living without the law: but when the law gave its orders, sin came to life and put me to death; +Rom 7:10 And I made the discovery that the law whose purpose was to give life had become a cause of death: +Rom 7:11 For I was tricked and put to death by sin, which took its chance through the law. +Rom 7:12 But the law is holy, and its orders are holy, upright, and good. +Rom 7:13 Was then that which is good, death to me? In no way. But the purpose was that sin might be seen to be sin by working death to me through that which is good; so that through the orders of the law sin might seem much more evil. +Rom 7:14 For we are conscious that the law is of the spirit; but I am of the flesh, given into the power of sin. +Rom 7:15 And I have no clear knowledge of what I am doing, for that which I have a mind to do, I do not, but what I have hate for, that I do. +Rom 7:16 But, if I do that which I have no mind to do, I am in agreement with the law that the law is good. +Rom 7:17 So it is no longer I who do it, but the sin living in me. +Rom 7:18 For I am conscious that in me, that is, in my flesh, there is nothing good: I have the mind but not the power to do what is right. +Rom 7:19 For the good which I have a mind to do, I do not: but the evil which I have no mind to do, that I do. +Rom 7:20 But if I do what I have no mind to do, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin living in me. +Rom 7:21 So I see a law that, though I have a mind to do good, evil is present in me. +Rom 7:22 In my heart I take pleasure in the law of God, +Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my body, working against the law of my mind, and making me the servant of the law of sin which is in my flesh. +Rom 7:24 How unhappy am I! who will make me free from the body of this death? +Rom 7:25 I give praise to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So with my mind I am a servant to the law of God, but with my flesh to the law of sin. +Rom 8:1 For this cause those who are in Christ Jesus will not be judged as sinners. +Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. +Rom 8:3 For what the law was not able to do because it was feeble through the flesh, God, sending his Son in the image of the evil flesh, and as an offering for sin, gave his decision against sin in the flesh: +Rom 8:4 So that what was ordered by the law might be done in us, who are living, not in the way of the flesh, but in the way of the Spirit. +Rom 8:5 For those who are living in the way of the flesh give their minds to the things of the flesh, but those who go in the way of the Spirit, to the things of the Spirit. +Rom 8:6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace: +Rom 8:7 Because the mind of the flesh is opposite to God; it is not under the law of God, and is not able to be: +Rom 8:8 So that those who are in the flesh are not able to give pleasure to God. +Rom 8:9 You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God is in you. But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is not one of his. +Rom 8:10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. +Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of him who made Jesus come again from the dead is in you, he who made Christ Jesus come again from the dead will in the same way, through his Spirit which is in you, give life to your bodies which now are under the power of death. +Rom 8:12 So then, my brothers, we are in debt, not to the flesh to be living in the way of the flesh: +Rom 8:13 For if you go in the way of the flesh, death will come on you; but if by the Spirit you put to death the works of the body, you will have life. +Rom 8:14 And all those who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God. +Rom 8:15 For you did not get the spirit of servants again to put you in fear, but the spirit of sons was given to you, by which we say, Abba, Father. +Rom 8:16 The Spirit is witness with our spirit that we are children of God: +Rom 8:17 And if we are children, we have a right to a part in the heritage; a part in the things of God, together with Christ; so that if we have a part in his pain, we will in the same way have a part in his glory. +Rom 8:18 I am of the opinion that there is no comparison between the pain of this present time and the glory which we will see in the future. +Rom 8:19 For the strong desire of every living thing is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God. +Rom 8:20 For every living thing was put under the power of change, not by its desire, but by him who made it so, in hope +Rom 8:21 That all living things will be made free from the power of death and will have a part with the free children of God in glory. +Rom 8:22 For we are conscious that all living things are weeping and sorrowing in pain together till now. +Rom 8:23 And not only so, but we who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we have sorrow in our minds, waiting for the time when we will take our place as sons, that is, the salvation of our bodies. +Rom 8:24 For our salvation is by hope: but hope which is seen is not hope: for who is hoping for what he sees? +Rom 8:25 But if we have hope for that which we see not, then we will be able to go on waiting for it. +Rom 8:26 And in the same way the Spirit is a help to our feeble hearts: for we are not able to make prayer to God in the right way; but the Spirit puts our desires into words which are not in our power to say; +Rom 8:27 And he who is the searcher of hearts has knowledge of the mind of the Spirit, because he is making prayers for the saints in agreement with the mind of God. +Rom 8:28 And we are conscious that all things are working together for good to those who have love for God, and have been marked out by his purpose. +Rom 8:29 Because those of whom he had knowledge before they came into existence, were marked out by him to be made like his Son, so that he might be the first among a band of brothers: +Rom 8:30 And those who were marked out by him were named; and those who were named were given righteousness; and to those to whom he gave righteousness, in the same way he gave glory. +Rom 8:31 What may we say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? +Rom 8:32 He who did not keep back his only Son, but gave him up for us all, will he not with him freely give us all things? +Rom 8:33 Who will say anything against the saints of God? It is God who makes us clear from evil; +Rom 8:34 Who will give a decision against us? It is Christ Jesus who not only was put to death, but came again from the dead, who is now at the right hand of God, taking our part. +Rom 8:35 Who will come between us and the love of Christ? Will trouble, or pain, or cruel acts, or the need of food or of clothing, or danger, or the sword? +Rom 8:36 As it is said in the holy Writings, Because of you we are put to death every day; we are like sheep ready for destruction. +Rom 8:37 But we are able to overcome all these things and more through his love. +Rom 8:38 For I am certain that not death, or life, or angels, or rulers, or things present, or things to come, or powers, +Rom 8:39 Or things on high, or things under the earth, or anything which is made, will be able to come between us and the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. +Rom 9:1 I say what is true in Christ, and not what is false, my mind giving witness with me in the Holy Spirit, +Rom 9:2 That I am full of sorrow and pain without end. +Rom 9:3 For I have a desire to take on myself the curse for my brothers, my family in the flesh: +Rom 9:4 Who are Israelites: who have the place of sons, and the glory, and the agreements with God, and the giving of the law, and the worship, and the hope offered by God: +Rom 9:5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom came Christ in the flesh, who is over all, God, to whom be blessing for ever. So be it. +Rom 9:6 But it is not as if the word of God was without effect. For they are not all Israel, who are of Israel: +Rom 9:7 And they are not all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, In Isaac will your seed be named. +Rom 9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh, but the children of God's undertaking, who are named as the seed. +Rom 9:9 For this is the word of God's undertaking, At this time will I come, and Sarah will have a son. +Rom 9:10 And not only so, but Rebecca being about to have a child by our father Isaac-- +Rom 9:11 Before the children had come into existence, or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose and his selection might be effected, not by works, but by him whose purpose it is, +Rom 9:12 It was said to her, The older will be the servant of the younger. +Rom 9:13 Even as it is said, I had love for Jacob, but for Esau I had hate. +Rom 9:14 What may we say then? is God not upright? let it not be said. +Rom 9:15 For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and pity on whom I will have pity. +Rom 9:16 So then, it is not by the desire or by the attempt of man, but by the mercy of God. +Rom 9:17 For the holy Writings say to Pharaoh, For this same purpose did I put you on high, so that I might make my power seen in you, and that there might be knowledge of my name through all the earth. +Rom 9:18 So then, at his pleasure he has mercy on a man, and at his pleasure he makes the heart hard. +Rom 9:19 But you will say to me, Why does he still make us responsible? who is able to go against his purpose? +Rom 9:20 But, O man, who are you, to make answer against God? May the thing which is made say to him who made it, Why did you make me so? +Rom 9:21 Or has not the potter the right to make out of one part of his earth a vessel for honour, and out of another a vessel for shame? +Rom 9:22 What if God, desiring to let his wrath and his power be seen, for a long time put up with the vessels of wrath which were ready for destruction: +Rom 9:23 And to make clear the wealth of his glory to vessels of mercy, which he had before made ready for glory, +Rom 9:24 Even us, who were marked out by him, not only from the Jews, but from the Gentiles? +Rom 9:25 As he says in Hosea, They will be named my people who were not my people, and she will be loved who was not loved. +Rom 9:26 And in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be named the sons of the living God. +Rom 9:27 And Isaiah says about Israel, Even if the number of the children of Israel is as the sand of the sea, only a small part will get salvation: +Rom 9:28 For the Lord will give effect to his word on the earth, putting an end to it and cutting it short. +Rom 9:29 And, as Isaiah had said before, If the Lord of armies had not given us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. +Rom 9:30 What then may we say? That the nations who did not go after righteousness have got righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: +Rom 9:31 But Israel, going after a law of righteousness, did not get it. +Rom 9:32 Why? Because they were not searching for it by faith, but by works. They came up against the stone which was in the way; +Rom 9:33 As it is said, See, I am putting in Zion a stone causing a fall, and a rock in the way: but he who has faith in him will not be put to shame. +Rom 10:1 Brothers, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is, that they may get salvation. +Rom 10:2 For I give witness of them that they have a strong desire for God, but not with knowledge. +Rom 10:3 Because, not having knowledge of God's righteousness, and desiring to give effect to their righteousness, they have not put themselves under the righteousness of God. +Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who has faith. +Rom 10:5 For Moses says that the man who does the righteousness which is of the law will get life by it. +Rom 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith says these words, Say not in your heart, Who will go up to heaven? (that is, to make Christ come down:) +Rom 10:7 Or, Who will go down into the deep? (that is, to make Christ come again from the dead:) +Rom 10:8 But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart: that is, the word of faith of which we are the preachers: +Rom 10:9 Because, if you say with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and have faith in your heart that God has made him come back from the dead, you will have salvation: +Rom 10:10 For with the heart man has faith to get righteousness, and with the mouth he says that Jesus is Lord to get salvation. +Rom 10:11 Because it is said in the holy Writings, Whoever has faith in him will not be shamed. +Rom 10:12 And the Jew is not different from the Greek: for there is the same Lord of all, who is good to all who have hope in his name: +Rom 10:13 Because, Whoever will give worship to the name of the Lord will get salvation. +Rom 10:14 But how will they give worship to him in whom they have no faith? and how will they have faith in him of whom they have not had news? and how will they have news without a preacher? +Rom 10:15 And how will there be preachers if they are not sent? As it is said, How beautiful are the feet of those who give the glad news of good things. +Rom 10:16 But they have not all given ear to the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has had faith in our word? +Rom 10:17 So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. +Rom 10:18 But I say, Did not the word come to their ears? Yes, certainly: Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. +Rom 10:19 But I say, Had Israel no knowledge? First Moses says, You will be moved to envy by that which is not a nation, and by a foolish people I will make you angry. +Rom 10:20 And Isaiah says without fear, Those who were not searching for me made discovery of me; and I was seen by those whose hearts were turned away from me. +Rom 10:21 But about Israel he says; All the day my hands have been stretched out to a people whose hearts were turned away, and who put themselves against my word. +Rom 11:1 So I say, Has God put his people on one side? Let there be no such thought. For I am of Israel, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. +Rom 11:2 God has not put away the people of his selection. Or have you no knowledge of what is said about Elijah in the holy Writings? how he says words to God against Israel, +Rom 11:3 Lord, they have put your prophets to death, and made waste your altars, and now I am the last, and they are searching for me to take away my life. +Rom 11:4 But what answer does God make to him? I have still seven thousand men whose knees have not been bent to Baal. +Rom 11:5 In the same way, there are at this present time some who are marked out by the selection of grace. +Rom 11:6 But if it is of grace, then it is no longer of works: or grace would not be grace. +Rom 11:7 What then? That which Israel was searching for he did not get, but those of the selection got it and the rest were made hard. +Rom 11:8 As it was said in the holy Writings, God gave them a spirit of sleep, eyes which might not see, and ears which have no hearing, to this day. +Rom 11:9 And David says, Let their table be made a net for taking them, and a stone in their way, and a punishment: +Rom 11:10 Let their eyes be made dark so that they may not see, and let their back be bent down at all times. +Rom 11:11 So I say, Were their steps made hard in order that they might have a fall? In no way: but by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, so that they might be moved to envy. +Rom 11:12 Now, if their fall is the wealth of the world, and their loss the wealth of the Gentiles, how much greater will be the glory when they are made full? +Rom 11:13 But I say to you, Gentiles, in so far as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles, I make much of my position: +Rom 11:14 If in any way those who are of my flesh may be moved to envy, so that some of them may get salvation by me. +Rom 11:15 For, if by their putting away, the rest of men have been made friends with God, what will their coming back again be, but life from the dead? +Rom 11:16 And if the first-fruit is holy, so is the mass: and if the root is holy, so are the branches. +Rom 11:17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, an olive-tree of the fields, were put in among them, and were given a part with them in the root by which the olive-tree is made fertile, +Rom 11:18 Do not be uplifted in pride over the branches: because it is not you who are the support of the root, but it is by the root that you are supported. +Rom 11:19 You will say, Branches were broken off so that I might be put in. +Rom 11:20 Truly, because they had no faith they were broken off, and you have your place by reason of your faith. Do not be lifted up in pride, but have fear; +Rom 11:21 For, if God did not have mercy on the natural branches, he will not have mercy on you. +Rom 11:22 See then that God is good but his rules are fixed: to those who were put away he was hard, but to you he has been good, on the condition that you keep in his mercy; if not, you will be cut off as they were. +Rom 11:23 And they, if they do not go on without faith, will be united to the tree again, because God is able to put them in again. +Rom 11:24 For if you were cut out of a field olive-tree, and against the natural use were united to a good olive-tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be united again with the olive-tree which was theirs? +Rom 11:25 For it is my desire, brothers, that this secret may be clear to you, so that you may not have pride in your knowledge, that Israel has been made hard in part, till all the Gentiles have come in; +Rom 11:26 And so all Israel will get salvation: as it is said in the holy Writings, There will come out of Zion the One who makes free; by him wrongdoing will be taken away from Jacob: +Rom 11:27 And this is my agreement with them, when I will take away their sins. +Rom 11:28 As far as the good news is in question, they are cut off from God on account of you, but as far as the selection is in question, they are loved on account of the fathers. +Rom 11:29 Because God's selection and his mercies may not be changed. +Rom 11:30 For as you, in time past, were not under the rule of God, but now have got mercy through their turning away, +Rom 11:31 So in the same way these have gone against the orders of God, so that by the mercy given to you they may now get mercy. +Rom 11:32 For God has let them all go against his orders, so that he might have mercy on them all. +Rom 11:33 O how deep is the wealth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! no one is able to make discovery of his decisions, and his ways may not be searched out. +Rom 11:34 Who has knowledge of the mind of the Lord? or who has taken part in his purposes? +Rom 11:35 Or who has first given to him, and it will be given back to him again? +Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever. So be it. +Rom 12:1 For this reason I make request to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you will give your bodies as a living offering, holy, pleasing to God, which is the worship it is right for you to give him. +Rom 12:2 And let not your behaviour be like that of this world, but be changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete purpose of God. +Rom 12:3 But I say to every one of you, through the grace given to me, not to have an over-high opinion of himself, but to have wise thoughts, as God has given to every one a measure of faith. +Rom 12:4 For, as we have a number of parts in one body, but all the parts have not the same use, +Rom 12:5 So we, though we are a number of persons, are one body in Christ, and are dependent on one another; +Rom 12:6 And having different qualities by reason of the grace given to us, such as the quality of a prophet, let it be made use of in relation to the measure of our faith; +Rom 12:7 Or the position of a Deacon of the church, let a man give himself to it; or he who has the power of teaching, let him make use of it; +Rom 12:8 He who has the power of comforting, let him do so; he who gives, let him give freely; he who has the power of ruling, let him do it with a serious mind; he who has mercy on others, let it be with joy. +Rom 12:9 Let love be without deceit. Be haters of what is evil; keep your minds fixed on what is good. +Rom 12:10 Be kind to one another with a brother's love, putting others before yourselves in honour; +Rom 12:11 Be not slow in your work, but be quick in spirit, as the Lord's servants; +Rom 12:12 Being glad in hope, quiet in trouble, at all times given to prayer, +Rom 12:13 Giving to the needs of the saints, ready to take people into your houses. +Rom 12:14 Give blessing and not curses to those who are cruel to you. +Rom 12:15 Take part in the joy of those who are glad, and in the grief of those who are sorrowing. +Rom 12:16 Be in harmony with one another. Do not have a high opinion of yourselves, but be in agreement with common people. Do not give yourselves an air of wisdom. +Rom 12:17 Do not give evil for evil to any man. Let all your business be well ordered in the eyes of all men. +Rom 12:18 As far as it is possible for you be at peace with all men. +Rom 12:19 Do not give punishment for wrongs done to you, dear brothers, but give way to the wrath of God; for it is said in the holy Writings, Punishment is mine, I will give reward, says the Lord. +Rom 12:20 But if one who has hate for you is in need of food or of drink, give it to him, for in so doing you will put coals of fire on his head. +Rom 12:21 Do not let evil overcome you, but overcome evil by good. +Rom 13:1 Let everyone put himself under the authority of the higher powers, because there is no power which is not of God, and all powers are ordered by God. +Rom 13:2 For which reason everyone who puts himself against the authority puts himself against the order of God: and those who are against it will get punishment for themselves. +Rom 13:3 For rulers are not a cause of fear to the good work but to the evil. If you would have no fear of the authority, do good and you will have praise; +Rom 13:4 For he is the servant of God to you for good. But if you do evil, have fear; for the sword is not in his hand for nothing: he is God's servant, making God's punishment come on the evil-doer. +Rom 13:5 So put yourselves under the authority, not for fear of wrath, but because you have the knowledge of what is right. +Rom 13:6 For the same reason, make payment of taxes; because the authority is God's servant, to take care of such things at all times. +Rom 13:7 Give to all what is their right: taxes to him whose they are, payment to him whose right it is, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour is to be given. +Rom 13:8 Be in debt for nothing, but to have love for one another: for he who has love for his neighbour has kept all the law. +Rom 13:9 And this, Do not be untrue in married life, Do not put to death, Do not take what is another's, Do not have desire for what is another's, and if there is any other order, it is covered by this word, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. +Rom 13:10 Love does no wrong to his neighbour, so love makes the law complete. +Rom 13:11 See then that the time has come for you to be awake from sleep: for now is your salvation nearer than when you first had faith. +Rom 13:12 The night is far gone, and the day is near: so let us put off the works of the dark, arming ourselves with light, +Rom 13:13 With right behaviour as in the day; not in pleasure-making and drinking, not in bad company and unclean behaviour, not in fighting and envy. +Rom 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not give thought to the flesh to do its desires. +Rom 14:1 Do not put on one side him who is feeble in faith, and do not put him in doubt by your reasonings. +Rom 14:2 One man has faith to take all things as food: another who is feeble in faith takes only green food. +Rom 14:3 Let not him who takes food have a low opinion of him who does not: and let not him who does not take food be a judge of him who does; for he has God's approval. +Rom 14:4 Who are you to make yourself a judge of another man's servant? it is to his master that he is responsible for good or bad. Yes, his place will be safe, because the Lord is able to keep him from falling. +Rom 14:5 This man puts one day before another: to that man they are the same. Let every man be certain in his mind. +Rom 14:6 He who keeps the day, keeps it to the Lord; and he who takes food, takes it as to the Lord, for he gives praise to God; and he who does not take food, to the Lord he takes it not, and gives praise to God. +Rom 14:7 For every man's life and every man's death has a relation to others as well as to himself. +Rom 14:8 As long as we have life we are living to the Lord; or if we give up our life it is to the Lord; so if we are living, or if our life comes to an end, we are the Lord's. +Rom 14:9 And for this purpose Christ went into death and came back again, that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living. +Rom 14:10 But you, why do you make yourself your brother's judge? or again, why have you no respect for your brother? because we will all have to take our place before God as our judge. +Rom 14:11 For it is said in the holy Writings, By my life, says the Lord, to me every knee will be bent, and every tongue will give worship to God. +Rom 14:12 So every one of us will have to give an account of himself to God. +Rom 14:13 Then let us not be judges of one another any longer: but keep this in mind, that no man is to make it hard for his brother, or give him cause for doubting. +Rom 14:14 I am conscious of this, and am certain in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself; but for the man in whose opinion it is unclean, for him it is unclean. +Rom 14:15 And if because of food your brother is troubled, then you are no longer going on in the way of love. Do not let your food be destruction to him for whom Christ went into death. +Rom 14:16 Let it not be possible for men to say evil about your good: +Rom 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. +Rom 14:18 And he who in these things is Christ's servant, is pleasing to God and has the approval of men. +Rom 14:19 So then, let us go after the things which make peace, and the things by which we may be a help to one another. +Rom 14:20 Do not let the work of God come to nothing on account of food. All things are certainly clean; but it is evil for that man who by taking food makes it hard for another. +Rom 14:21 It is better not to take meat or wine or to do anything which might be a cause of trouble to your brother. +Rom 14:22 The faith which you have, have it to yourself before God. Happy is the man who is not judged by that to which he gives approval. +Rom 14:23 But he who is in doubt is judged if he takes food, because he does it not in faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin. +Rom 15:1 We who are strong have to be a support to the feeble, and not give pleasure to ourselves. +Rom 15:2 Let every one of us give pleasure to his neighbour for his good, to make him strong. +Rom 15:3 For Christ did not give pleasure to himself, but, as it is said, The bitter words of those who were angry with you came on me. +Rom 15:4 Now those things which were put down in writing before our time were for our learning, so that through quiet waiting and through the comfort of the holy Writings we might have hope. +Rom 15:5 Now may the God who gives comfort and strength in waiting make you of the same mind with one another in harmony with Christ Jesus: +Rom 15:6 So that with one mouth you may give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. +Rom 15:7 So then, take one another to your hearts, as Christ took us, to the glory of God. +Rom 15:8 Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision to give effect to the undertakings given by God to the fathers, +Rom 15:9 And so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for his mercy; as it is said, For this reason I will give praise to you among the Gentiles, and I will make a song to your name. +Rom 15:10 And again he says, Take part, you Gentiles, in the joy of his people. +Rom 15:11 And again, Give praise to the Lord, all you Gentiles; and let all the nations give praise to him. +Rom 15:12 And again Isaiah says, There will be the root of Jesse, and he who comes to be the ruler over the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles put their hope. +Rom 15:13 Now may the God of hope make you full of joy and peace through faith, so that all hope may be yours in the power of the Holy Spirit. +Rom 15:14 And I myself am certain of you, brothers, that you are full of what is good, complete in all knowledge, able to give direction to one another. +Rom 15:15 But I have, in some measure, less fear in writing to you to put these things before you again, because of the grace which was given to me by God, +Rom 15:16 To be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, doing the work of a priest in the good news of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles might be pleasing to God, being made holy by the Holy Spirit. +Rom 15:17 So I have pride in Christ Jesus in the things which are God's. +Rom 15:18 And I will keep myself from talking of anything but those things which Christ has done by me to put the Gentiles under his rule in word and in act, +Rom 15:19 By signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have given all the good news of Christ; +Rom 15:20 Making it my purpose not to take the good news where Christ was named, so that my work might not be resting on that of others; +Rom 15:21 But as it is said in the holy Writings, They will see, to whom the news of him had not been given, and those to whose ears it had not come will have knowledge. +Rom 15:22 For which reason I was frequently kept from coming to you: +Rom 15:23 But now, having no longer any place in these parts and having had for a number of years a great desire to come to you, +Rom 15:24 Whenever I go to Spain (for it is my hope to see you on my way, and to be sent on there by you, if first I may in some measure have been comforted by your company)-- +Rom 15:25 But now I go to Jerusalem, taking help for the saints. +Rom 15:26 For it has been the good pleasure of those of Macedonia and Achaia to send a certain amount of money for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. +Rom 15:27 Yes, it has been their good pleasure; and they are in their debt. For if the Gentiles have had a part in the things of the Spirit which were theirs, it is right for them, in the same way, to give them help in the things of the flesh. +Rom 15:28 So when I have done this, and have given them this fruit of love, I will go on by you into Spain. +Rom 15:29 And I am certain that when I come, I will be full of the blessing of Christ. +Rom 15:30 Now I make request to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that you will be working together with me in your prayers to God for me; +Rom 15:31 So that I may be kept safe from those in Judaea who have not put themselves under the rule of God, and that the help which I am taking for Jerusalem may be pleasing to the saints; +Rom 15:32 So that I may come to you in joy by the good pleasure of God, and have rest with you. +Rom 15:33 Now may the God of peace be with you all. So be it. +Rom 16:1 It is my desire to say a good word for Phoebe, who is a servant of the church in Cenchreae: +Rom 16:2 That you will take her in kindly, after the way of the saints, as one who is the Lord's, and give her help in anything in which she may have need of you: because she has been a help to a great number and to myself. +Rom 16:3 Give my love to Prisca and Aquila, workers with me in Christ Jesus, +Rom 16:4 Who for my life put their necks in danger; to whom not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are in debt: +Rom 16:5 And say a kind word to the church which is in their house. Give my love to my dear Epaenetus, who is the first fruit of Asia to Christ. +Rom 16:6 Give my love to Mary, who gave much care to you. +Rom 16:7 Give my love to Andronicus and Junia, my relations, who were in prison with me, who are noted among the Apostles, and who were in Christ before me. +Rom 16:8 Give my love to Ampliatus, who is dear to me in the Lord, +Rom 16:9 Give my love to Urbanus, a worker in Christ with us, and to my dear Stachys. +Rom 16:10 Give my love to Apelles, who has the approval of Christ. Say a kind word to those who are of the house of Aristobulus. +Rom 16:11 Give my love to Herodion, my relation. Say a kind word to those of the house of Narcissus, who are in the Lord. +Rom 16:12 Give my love to Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord. Give my love to my dear Persis, who did much work in the Lord. +Rom 16:13 Give my love to Rufus, one of the Lord's selection, and to his mother and mine. +Rom 16:14 Give my love to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. +Rom 16:15 Give my love to Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. +Rom 16:16 Give one another a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send their love to you. +Rom 16:17 Now, it is my desire, brothers, that you will take note of those who are causing division and trouble among you, quite against the teaching which was given to you: and keep away from them. +Rom 16:18 For such people are not servants of the Lord Christ, but of their stomachs; and by their smooth and well-said words the hearts of those who have no knowledge of evil are tricked. +Rom 16:19 For all have knowledge of how you do what you are ordered. For this reason I have joy in you, but it is my desire that you may be wise in what is good, and without knowledge of evil. +Rom 16:20 And the God of peace will be crushing Satan under your feet before long. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. +Rom 16:21 Timothy, who is working with me, sends his love to you, so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my relations. +Rom 16:22 I, Tertius, who have done the writing of this letter, send love in the Lord. +Rom 16:23 Gaius, with whom I am living, whose house is open to all the church, sends his love, so does Erastus, the manager of the accounts of the town, and Quartus, the brother. +Rom 16:24 [] +Rom 16:25 Now to him who is able to make you strong in agreement with the good news which I gave you and the preaching of Jesus Christ, in the light of the revelation of that secret which has been kept through times eternal, +Rom 16:26 But is now made clear; and by the writings of the prophets, by the order of the eternal God, the knowledge of it has been given to all the nations, so that they may come under the rule of the faith; +Rom 16:27 To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory for ever. So be it. +1Co 1:1 Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the purpose of God, and Sosthenes the brother, +1Co 1:2 To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been made holy in Christ Jesus, saints by the selection of God, with all those who in every place give honour to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours: +1Co 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +1Co 1:4 I give praise to my God for you at all times, because of the grace of God which has been given to you in Christ Jesus; +1Co 1:5 So that in him you have wealth in all things, in word and in knowledge of every sort; +1Co 1:6 Even as the witness of the Christ has been made certain among you: +1Co 1:7 So that having every grace you are living in the hope of the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; +1Co 1:8 Who will give you strength to the end, to be free from all sin in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. +1Co 1:9 God is true, through whom you have been given a part with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. +1Co 1:10 Now I make request to you, my brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you will all say the same thing, and that there may be no divisions among you, so that you may be in complete agreement, in the same mind and in the same opinion. +1Co 1:11 Because it has come to my knowledge, through those of the house of Chloe, that there are divisions among you, my brothers. +1Co 1:12 That is, that some of you say, I am of Paul; some say, I am of Apollos; some say, I am of Cephas; and some say, I am Christ's. +1Co 1:13 Is there a division in Christ? was Paul nailed to the cross for you? or were you given baptism in the name of Paul? +1Co 1:14 I give praise to God that not one of you had baptism from me, but Crispus and Gaius; +1Co 1:15 So that no one may be able to say that you had baptism in my name. +1Co 1:16 And I gave baptism to the house of Stephanas; but I am not certain that any others had baptism from me. +1Co 1:17 For Christ sent me, not to give baptism, but to be a preacher of the good news: not with wise words, for fear that the cross of Christ might be made of no value. +1Co 1:18 For the word of the cross seems foolish to those who are on the way to destruction; but to us who are on the way to salvation it is the power of God. +1Co 1:19 As it says in the holy Writings, I will put an end to the wisdom of the wise, and will put on one side the designs of those who have knowledge. +1Co 1:20 Where is the wise? where is he who has knowledge of the law? where is the man of this world who has a love of discussion? has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? +1Co 1:21 For because, by the purpose of God, the world, with all its wisdom, had not the knowledge of God, it was God's pleasure, by so foolish a thing as preaching, to give salvation to those who had faith in him. +1Co 1:22 Seeing that the Jews make request for signs, and the Greeks are looking for knowledge: +1Co 1:23 But we give the good news of Christ on the cross, a hard thing to the Jews, and a foolish thing to the Gentiles; +1Co 1:24 But to those of God's selection, Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. +1Co 1:25 Because what seems foolish in God is wiser than men; and what seems feeble in God is stronger than men. +1Co 1:26 For you see God's design for you, my brothers, that he has not taken a great number of the wise after the flesh, not the strong, not the noble: +1Co 1:27 But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; +1Co 1:28 And the low things of the world, and the things without honour, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: +1Co 1:29 So that no flesh might have glory before God. +1Co 1:30 But God has given you a place in Christ Jesus, through whom God has given us wisdom and righteousness and salvation, and made us holy: +1Co 1:31 So that, as it is said in the holy Writings, Whoever has a desire for glory, let his glory be in the Lord. +1Co 2:1 And when I came to you, my brothers, I did not come with wise words of knowledge, putting before you the secret of God. +1Co 2:2 For I had made the decision to have knowledge of nothing among you but only of Jesus Christ on the cross. +1Co 2:3 And I was with you without strength, in fear and in doubt. +1Co 2:4 And in my preaching there were no honeyed words of wisdom, but I was dependent on the power of the Spirit to make it clear to you: +1Co 2:5 So that your faith might be based not on man's wisdom but on the power of God. +1Co 2:6 But still we have wisdom for those who are complete in knowledge, though not the wisdom of this world, and not of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing: +1Co 2:7 But we give the news of the secret wisdom of God, which he had kept in store before the world came into existence, for our glory; +1Co 2:8 Of which not one of the rulers of this world had knowledge: for if they had, they would not have put the Lord of glory on the cross: +1Co 2:9 But as it says in the holy Writings, Things which the eye saw not, and which had not come to the ears or into the heart of man, such things as God has made ready for those who have love for him. +1Co 2:10 But God has given us the revelation of these things through his Spirit, for the Spirit makes search into all things, even the deep things of God. +1Co 2:11 For who has knowledge of the things of a man but the spirit of the man which is in him? in the same way, no one has knowledge of the things of God but the Spirit of God. +1Co 2:12 But we have not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes from God, so that we may have knowledge of the things which are freely given to us by God. +1Co 2:13 And these are the things which we say, not in the language of man's wisdom, but in words given to us by the Spirit, judging the things of the spirit by the help of the Spirit. +1Co 2:14 For the natural man is not able to take in the things of the Spirit of God: for they seem foolish to him, and he is not able to have knowledge of them, because such knowledge comes only through the Spirit. +1Co 2:15 But he who has the Spirit, though judging all things, is himself judged by no one. +1Co 2:16 For who has knowledge of the mind of the Lord, so as to be his teacher? But we have the mind of Christ. +1Co 3:1 And the teaching I gave you, my brothers, was such as I was able to give, not to those who have the Spirit, but to those who are still in the flesh, even to children in Christ. +1Co 3:2 I gave you milk and not meat, because you were, then, unable to take it, and even now you are not able; +1Co 3:3 Because you are still in the flesh: for when there is envy and division among you, are you not still walking after the way of the flesh, even as natural men? +1Co 3:4 For when one says, I am of Paul; and another says, I am of Apollos; are you not talking like natural men? +1Co 3:5 What then is Apollos? and what is Paul? They are but servants who gave you the good news as God gave it to them. +1Co 3:6 I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but God gave the increase. +1Co 3:7 So then the planter is nothing, and the waterer is nothing; but God who gives the increase. +1Co 3:8 Now the planter and the waterer are working for the same end: but they will have their separate rewards in the measure of their work. +1Co 3:9 For we are workers with God: you are God's planting, God's building. +1Co 3:10 In the measure of the grace given to me, I, as a wise master-builder, have put the base in position, and another goes on building on it. But let every man take care what he puts on it. +1Co 3:11 For there is no other base for the building but that which has been put down, which is Jesus Christ. +1Co 3:12 But on the base a man may put gold, silver, stones of great price, wood, dry grass, cut stems; +1Co 3:13 Every man's work will be made clear in that day, because it will be tested by fire; and the fire itself will make clear the quality of every man's work. +1Co 3:14 If any man's work comes through the test, he will have a reward. +1Co 3:15 If the fire puts an end to any man's work, it will be his loss: but he will get salvation himself, though as by fire. +1Co 3:16 Do you not see that you are God's holy house, and that the Spirit of God has his place in you? +1Co 3:17 If anyone makes the house of God unclean, God will put an end to him; for the house of God is holy, and you are his house. +1Co 3:18 Let no man have a false idea. If any man seems to himself to be wise among you, let him become foolish, so that he may be wise. +1Co 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolish before God. As it is said in the holy Writings, He who takes the wise in their secret designs: +1Co 3:20 And again, The Lord has knowledge of the reasonings of the wise, that they are nothing. +1Co 3:21 So let no one take pride in men. For all things are yours; +1Co 3:22 Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; +1Co 3:23 And you are Christ's; and Christ is God's. +1Co 4:1 Let us be judged as servants of Christ, and as those who are responsible for the secret things of God. +1Co 4:2 And it is right for such servants to be safe persons. +1Co 4:3 But it is a small thing to me that I am judged by you or by man's judging; I am not even a judge of myself. +1Co 4:4 For I am not conscious of any wrong in myself; but this does not make me clear, for it is the Lord who is my judge. +1Co 4:5 For this reason let there be no judging before the time, till the Lord comes, who will make clear the secret things of the dark, and the designs of the heart; and then will every man have his praise from God. +1Co 4:6 My brothers, it is because of you that I have taken Apollos and myself as examples of these things, so that in us you might see that it is not wise to go farther than what is in the holy Writings, so that no one of you may be lifted up against his brother. +1Co 4:7 For who made you better than your brother? or what have you that has not been given to you? but if it has been given to you, what cause have you for pride, as if it had not been given to you? +1Co 4:8 For even now you are full, even now you have wealth, you have been made kings without us: truly, I would be glad if you were kings, so that we might be kings with you. +1Co 4:9 For it seems to me that God has put us the Apostles last of all, as men whose fate is death: for we are put on view to the world, and to angels, and to men. +1Co 4:10 We are made to seem foolish for Christ, but you are wise in Christ; we are feeble, but you are strong; you have glory, but we have shame. +1Co 4:11 Even to this hour we are without food, drink, and clothing, we are given blows and have no certain resting-place; +1Co 4:12 And with our hands we do the hardest work: when they give us curses we give blessings, when we undergo punishment we take it quietly; +1Co 4:13 When evil things are said about us we give gentle answers: we are made as the unclean things of the world, as that for which no one has any use, even till now. +1Co 4:14 I am not saying these things to put you to shame, but so that, as my dear children, you may see what is right. +1Co 4:15 For even if you had ten thousand teachers in Christ, you have not more than one father: for in Christ Jesus I have given birth to you through the good news. +1Co 4:16 So my desire is that you take me as your example. +1Co 4:17 For this cause I have sent Timothy to you, who is my dear and true child in the Lord; he will make clear to you my ways in Christ, even as I am teaching everywhere in every church. +1Co 4:18 Now some are full of pride, as if I was not coming to you. +1Co 4:19 But I will come to you in a short time, if it is pleasing to the Lord, and I will take note, not of the word of those who are full of pride, but of the power. +1Co 4:20 For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. +1Co 4:21 What is your desire? is my coming to be with punishment, or is it to be in love and a gentle spirit? +1Co 5:1 It is said, in fact, that there is among you a sin of the flesh, such as is not seen even among the Gentiles, that one of you has his father's wife. +1Co 5:2 And in place of feeling sorrow, you are pleased with yourselves, so that he who has done this thing has not been sent away from among you. +1Co 5:3 For I myself, being present in spirit though not in body, have come to a decision about him who has done this thing; +1Co 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you have come together with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, +1Co 5:5 That this man is to be handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may have forgiveness in the day of the Lord Jesus. +1Co 5:6 This pride of yours is not good. Do you not see that a little leaven makes a change in all the mass? +1Co 5:7 Take away, then, the old leaven, so that you may be a new mass, even as you are without leaven. For Christ has been put to death as our Passover. +1Co 5:8 Let us then keep the feast, not with old leaven, and not with the leaven of evil thoughts and acts, but with the unleavened bread of true thoughts and right feelings. +1Co 5:9 In my letter I said to you that you were not to keep company with those who go after the desires of the flesh; +1Co 5:10 But I had not in mind the sinners who are outside the church, or those who have a desire for and take the property of others, or those who give worship to images; for it is not possible to keep away from such people without going out of the world completely: +1Co 5:11 But the sense of my letter was that if a brother had the name of being one who went after the desires of the flesh, or had the desire for other people's property, or was in the way of using violent language, or being the worse for drink, or took by force what was not his, you might not keep company with such a one, or take food with him. +1Co 5:12 For it is no business of mine to be judging those who are outside; but it is yours to be judging those who are among you; +1Co 5:13 As for those who are outside, God is their judge. So put away the evil man from among you. +1Co 6:1 How is it, that if any one of you has a cause at law against another, he takes it before a Gentile judge and not before the saints? +1Co 6:2 Is it not certain that the saints will be the judges of the world? if then the world will be judged by you, are you unable to give a decision about the smallest things? +1Co 6:3 Is it not certain that we are to be the judges of angels? how much more then of the things of this life? +1Co 6:4 If then there are questions to be judged in connection with the things of this life, why do you put them in the hands of those who have no position in the church? +1Co 6:5 I say this to put you to shame. Is there not among you one wise man who may be able to give a decision between his brothers? +1Co 6:6 But a brother who has a cause at law against another takes it before Gentile judges. +1Co 6:7 More than this, it is not to your credit to have causes at law with one another at all. Why not put up with wrong? why not undergo loss? +1Co 6:8 So far from doing this, you yourselves do wrong and take your brothers' property. +1Co 6:9 Have you not knowledge that evil-doers will have no part in the kingdom of God? Have no false ideas about this: no one who goes after the desires of the flesh, or gives worship to images, or is untrue when married, or is less than a man, or makes a wrong use of men, +1Co 6:10 Or is a thief, or the worse for drink, or makes use of strong language, or takes by force what is not his, will have any part in the kingdom of God. +1Co 6:11 And such were some of you; but you have been washed, you have been made holy, you have been given righteousness in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. +1Co 6:12 I am free to do all things; but not all things are wise. I am free to do all things; but I will not let myself come under the power of any. +1Co 6:13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will put an end to them together. But the body is not for the desires of the flesh, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body: +1Co 6:14 And God who made the Lord Jesus come back from the dead will do the same for us by his power. +1Co 6:15 Do you not see that your bodies are part of the body of Christ? how then may I take what is a part of the body of Christ and make it a part of the body of a loose woman? such a thing may not be. +1Co 6:16 Or do you not see that he who is joined to a loose woman is one body with her? for God has said, The two of them will become one flesh. +1Co 6:17 But he who is united to the Lord is one spirit. +1Co 6:18 Keep away from the desires of the flesh. Every sin which a man does is outside of the body; but he who goes after the desires of the flesh does evil to his body. +1Co 6:19 Or are you not conscious that your body is a house for the Holy Spirit which is in you, and which has been given to you by God? and you are not the owners of yourselves; +1Co 6:20 For a payment has been made for you: let God be honoured in your body. +1Co 7:1 Now, as to the things in your letter to me: It is good for a man to have nothing to do with a woman. +1Co 7:2 But because of the desires of the flesh, let every man have his wife, and every woman her husband. +1Co 7:3 Let the husband give to the wife what is right; and let the wife do the same to the husband. +1Co 7:4 The wife has not power over her body, but the husband; and in the same way the husband has not power over his body, but the wife. +1Co 7:5 Do not keep back from one another what is right, but only for a short time, and by agreement, so that you may give yourselves to prayer, and come together again; so that Satan may not get the better of you through your loss of self-control. +1Co 7:6 But this I say as my opinion, and not as an order of the Lord. +1Co 7:7 It is my desire that all men might be even as I am. But every man has the power of his special way of life given him by God, one in this way and one in that. +1Co 7:8 But I say to the unmarried and to the widows, It is good for them to be even as I am. +1Co 7:9 But if they have not self-control let them get married; for married life is better than the burning of desire. +1Co 7:10 But to the married I give orders, though not I but the Lord, that the wife may not go away from her husband +1Co 7:11 (Or if she goes away from him, let her keep unmarried, or be united to her husband again); and that the husband may not go away from his wife. +1Co 7:12 But to the rest I say, and not the Lord; If a brother has a wife who is not a Christian, and it is her desire to go on living with him, let him not go away from her. +1Co 7:13 And if a woman has a husband who is not a Christian, and it is his desire to go on living with her, let her not go away from her husband. +1Co 7:14 For the husband who has not faith is made holy through his Christian wife, and the wife who is not a Christian is made holy through the brother: if not, your children would be unholy, but now are they holy. +1Co 7:15 But if the one who is not a Christian has a desire to go away, let it be so: the brother or the sister in such a position is not forced to do one thing or the other: but it is God's pleasure that we may be at peace with one another. +1Co 7:16 For how may you be certain, O wife, that you will not be the cause of salvation to your husband? or you, O husband, that you may not do the same for your wife? +1Co 7:17 Only, as the Lord has given to a man, and as is the purpose of God for him, so let him go on living. And these are my orders for all the churches. +1Co 7:18 If any man who is a Christian has had circumcision, let him keep so; and if any man who is a Christian has not had circumcision, let him make no change. +1Co 7:19 Circumcision is nothing, and its opposite is nothing, but only doing the orders of God is of value. +1Co 7:20 Let every man keep the position in which he has been placed by God. +1Co 7:21 If you were a servant when you became a Christian, let it not be a grief to you; but if you have a chance to become free, make use of it. +1Co 7:22 For he who was a servant when he became a Christian is the Lord's free man; and he who was free when he became a Christian is the Lord's servant. +1Co 7:23 It is the Lord who has made payment for you: be not servants of men. +1Co 7:24 My brothers, let every man keep in that condition which is the purpose of God for him. +1Co 7:25 Now about virgins I have no orders from the Lord: but I give my opinion as one to whom the Lord has given mercy to be true to him. +1Co 7:26 In my opinion then, because of the present trouble, it is good for a man to keep as he is. +1Co 7:27 If you are married to a wife, make no attempt to get free from her: if you are free from a wife, do not take a wife. +1Co 7:28 If you get married it is not a sin; and if an unmarried woman gets married it is not a sin. But those who do so will have trouble in the flesh. But I will not be hard on you. +1Co 7:29 But I say this, my brothers, the time is short; and from now it will be wise for those who have wives to be as if they had them not; +1Co 7:30 And for those who are in sorrow, to give no signs of it; and for those who are glad, to give no signs of joy; and for those who are getting property, to be as if they had nothing; +1Co 7:31 And for those who make use of the world, not to be using it fully; for this world's way of life will quickly come to an end. +1Co 7:32 But it is my desire for you to be free from cares. The unmarried man gives his mind to the things of the Lord, how he may give pleasure to the Lord: +1Co 7:33 But the married man gives his attention to the things of this world, how he may give pleasure to his wife. +1Co 7:34 And the wife is not the same as the virgin. The virgin gives her mind to the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in body and in spirit: but the married woman takes thought for the things of the world, how she may give pleasure to her husband. +1Co 7:35 Now I say this for your profit; not to make things hard for you, but because of what is right, and so that you may be able to give all your attention to the things of the Lord. +1Co 7:36 But if, in any man's opinion, he is not doing what is right for his virgin, if she is past her best years, and there is need for it, let him do what seems right to him; it is no sin; let them be married. +1Co 7:37 But the man who is strong in mind and purpose, who is not forced but has control over his desires, does well if he comes to the decision to keep her a virgin. +1Co 7:38 So then, he who gets married to his virgin does well, and he who keeps her unmarried does better. +1Co 7:39 It is right for a wife to be with her husband as long as he is living; but when her husband is dead, she is free to be married to another; but only to a Christian. +1Co 7:40 But it will be better for her to keep as she is, in my opinion: and it seems to me that I have the Spirit of God. +1Co 8:1 Now about things offered to images: we all seem to ourselves to have knowledge. Knowledge gives pride, but love gives true strength. +1Co 8:2 If anyone seems to himself to have knowledge, so far he has not the right sort of knowledge about anything; +1Co 8:3 But if anyone has love for God, God has knowledge of him. +1Co 8:4 So, then, as to the question of taking food offered to images, we are certain that an image is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. +1Co 8:5 For though there are those who have the name of gods, in heaven or on earth, as there are a number of gods and a number of lords, +1Co 8:6 There is for us only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we are for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we have our being through him. +1Co 8:7 Still, all men have not that knowledge: but some, being used till now to the image, are conscious that they are taking food which has been offered to the image; and because they are not strong in the faith, their minds are troubled. +1Co 8:8 But God's approval of us is not based on the food we take: if we do not take it we are no worse for it; and if we take it we are no better. +1Co 8:9 But take care that this power of yours does not give cause for trouble to the feeble. +1Co 8:10 For if a man sees you, who have knowledge, taking food as a guest in the house of an image, will it not give him, if he is feeble, the idea that he may take food offered to images? +1Co 8:11 And so, through your knowledge, you are the cause of destruction to your brother, for whom Christ underwent death. +1Co 8:12 And in this way, doing evil to the brothers, and causing trouble to those whose faith is feeble, you are sinning against Christ. +1Co 8:13 For this reason, if food is a cause of trouble to my brother, I will give up taking meat for ever, so that I may not be a cause of trouble to my brother. +1Co 9:1 Am I not free? am I not an Apostle? have I not seen Jesus our Lord? are you not my work in the Lord? +1Co 9:2 If to others I am not an Apostle, at least I am one to you: for the fact that you are Christians is the sign that I am an Apostle. +1Co 9:3 My answer to those who are judging me is this. +1Co 9:4 Have we no right to take food and drink? +1Co 9:5 Have we no right to take about with us a Christian wife, like the rest of the Apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? +1Co 9:6 Or I only and Barnabas, have we no right to take a rest from work? +1Co 9:7 Who ever goes to war without looking to someone to be responsible for his payment? who puts in vines and does not take the fruit of them? or who takes care of sheep without drinking of their milk? +1Co 9:8 Am I talking as a man? does not the law say the same? +1Co 9:9 For it says in the law of Moses, It is not right to keep the ox from taking the grain when he is crushing it. Is it for the oxen that God is giving orders? +1Co 9:10 Or has he us in mind? Yes, it was said for us; because it is right for the ploughman to do his ploughing in hope, and for him who is crushing the grain to do his work hoping for a part in the fruits of it. +1Co 9:11 If we have been planting the things of the Spirit for you, does it seem a great thing for you to give us a part in your things of this world? +1Co 9:12 If others have a part in this right over you, have we not even more? But we did not make use of our right, so that we might put nothing in the way of the good news of Christ. +1Co 9:13 Do you not see that the servants of the holy things get their living from the Temple, and the servants of the altar have their part in the food which is offered on the altar? +1Co 9:14 Even so did the Lord give orders that the preachers of the good news might get their living from the good news. +1Co 9:15 But I have not made use of any of these things: and I am not writing this in the hope that it may be so for me: for it would be better for me to undergo death, than for any man to make this pride of mine of no effect. +1Co 9:16 For if I am a preacher of the good news, I have no cause for pride in this; because I am forced to do so, for a curse is on me if I do not. +1Co 9:17 But if I do it gladly, I have a reward; and if not, I am under orders to do it. +1Co 9:18 What then is my reward? This, that when I am giving the good news, I may give it without payment, not making use of my rights as a preacher of the good news. +1Co 9:19 For though I was free from all men, I made myself a servant to all, so that more might have salvation. +1Co 9:20 And to the Jews I was as a Jew, so that I might give the good news to them; to those under the law I was the same, not as being myself under the law, but so that I might give the good news to those under the law. +1Co 9:21 To those without the law I was as one without the law, not as being without law to God, but as under law to Christ, so that I might give the good news to those without the law. +1Co 9:22 To the feeble, I was as one who is feeble, so that they might have salvation: I have been all things to all men, so that some at least might have salvation. +1Co 9:23 And I do all things for the cause of the good news, so that I may have a part in it. +1Co 9:24 Do you not see that in a running competition all take part, but only one gets the reward? So let your minds be fixed on the reward. +1Co 9:25 And every man who takes part in the sports has self-control in all things. Now they do it to get a crown which is of this world, but we for an eternal crown. +1Co 9:26 So then I am running, not uncertainly; so I am fighting, not as one who gives blows in the air: +1Co 9:27 But I give blows to my body, and keep it under control, for fear that, after having given the good news to others, I myself might not have God's approval. +1Co 10:1 For it is my desire, my brothers, that you may keep in mind how all our fathers were under the cloud, and they all went through the sea; +1Co 10:2 And they all had baptism from Moses in the cloud and in the sea; +1Co 10:3 And they all took the same holy food; +1Co 10:4 And the same holy drink: for they all took of the water from the holy rock which came after them: and the rock was Christ. +1Co 10:5 But with most of them God was not pleased: for they came to their end in the waste land. +1Co 10:6 Now these things were for an example to us, so that our hearts might not go after evil things, as they did. +1Co 10:7 Then do not go after false gods, as some of them did; as it is said in the holy Writings, After resting and feasting, the people got up to take their pleasure. +1Co 10:8 Again, let us not give way to the desires of the flesh, as some of them did, of whom twenty-three thousand came to their end in one day. +1Co 10:9 And let us not put the Lord to the test, as some of them did, and came to their death by snakes. +1Co 10:10 And do not say evil things against the Lord, as some of them did, and destruction overtook them. +1Co 10:11 Now these things were done as an example; and were put down in writing for our teaching, on whom the last days have come. +1Co 10:12 So let him who seems to himself to be safe go in fear of a fall. +1Co 10:13 You have been put to no test but such as is common to man: and God is true, who will not let any test come on you which you are not able to undergo; but he will make with the test a way out of it, so that you may be able to go through it. +1Co 10:14 For this cause, my dear brothers, give no worship to false gods. +1Co 10:15 What I am saying is for wise men, do you be the judges of it. +1Co 10:16 The cup of blessing which we take, does it not give us a part in the blood of Christ? and is not the broken bread a taking part in the body of Christ? +1Co 10:17 Because we, being a number of persons, are one bread, we are one body: for we all take part in the one bread. +1Co 10:18 See Israel after the flesh: do not those who take as food the offerings of the altar take a part in the altar? +1Co 10:19 Do I say, then, that what is offered to images is anything, or that the image is anything? +1Co 10:20 What I say is that the things offered by the Gentiles are offered to evil spirits and not to God; and it is not my desire for you to have any part with evil spirits. +1Co 10:21 It is not possible for you, at the same time, to take the cup of the Lord and the cup of evil spirits; you may not take part in the table of the Lord and the table of evil spirits. +1Co 10:22 Or may we be the cause of envy to the Lord? are we stronger than he? +1Co 10:23 We are free to do all things, but there are things which it is not wise to do. We are free to do all things, but not all things are for the common good. +1Co 10:24 Let a man give attention not only to what is good for himself, but equally to his neighbour's good. +1Co 10:25 Whatever meat may be had at the public market, take as food without question of right or wrong; +1Co 10:26 For the earth is the Lord's and all things in it. +1Co 10:27 If a Gentile makes a feast for you, and you are pleased to go as a guest, take whatever is put before you, without question of right or wrong. +1Co 10:28 But if anyone says to you, This food has been used as an offering, do not take it, on account of him who said it, and on account of his sense of right and wrong: +1Co 10:29 Right and wrong, I say, not for you, but for the other man; for the fact that I am free is not dependent on another man's sense of right or wrong. +1Co 10:30 But if I give praise to God for the food which I take, let no man say evil of me for that reason. +1Co 10:31 So then, if it is a question of food or drink, or any other thing, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. +1Co 10:32 Give no cause of trouble to Jews, or to Greeks, or to the church of God. +1Co 10:33 Even as I give way to all men in all things, not looking for profit for myself, but for the good of others, that they may get salvation. +1Co 11:1 So take me for your example, even as I take Christ for mine. +1Co 11:2 Now I am pleased to see that you keep me in memory in all things, and that you give attention to the teaching which was handed down from me to you. +1Co 11:3 But it is important for you to keep this fact in mind, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. +1Co 11:4 Every man who takes part in prayer, or gives teaching as a prophet, with his head covered, puts shame on his head. +1Co 11:5 But every woman who does so with her head unveiled, puts shame on her head: for it is the same as if her hair was cut off. +1Co 11:6 For if a woman is not veiled, let her hair be cut off; but if it is a shame to a woman to have her hair cut off, let her be veiled. +1Co 11:7 For it is not right for a man to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. +1Co 11:8 For the man did not come from the woman, but the woman from the man. +1Co 11:9 And the man was not made for the woman, but the woman for the man. +1Co 11:10 For this reason it is right for the woman to have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels. +1Co 11:11 But the woman is not separate from the man, and the man is not separate from the woman in the Lord. +1Co 11:12 For as the woman is from the man, so the man is through the woman; but all things are from God. +1Co 11:13 Be judges yourselves of the question: does it seem right for a woman to take part in prayer unveiled? +1Co 11:14 Does it not seem natural to you that if a man has long hair, it is a cause of shame to him? +1Co 11:15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given to her for a covering. +1Co 11:16 But if any man will not be ruled in this question, this is not our way of doing things, and it is not done in the churches of God. +1Co 11:17 But in giving you this order, there is one thing about which I am not pleased: it is that when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. +1Co 11:18 For first of all, it has come to my ears that when you come together in the church, there are divisions among you, and I take the statement to be true in part. +1Co 11:19 For divisions are necessary among you, in order that those who have God's approval may be clearly seen among you. +1Co 11:20 But now, when you come together, it is not possible to take the holy meal of the Lord: +1Co 11:21 For when you take your food, everyone takes his meal before the other; and one has not enough food, and another is the worse for drink. +1Co 11:22 What? have you not houses to take your meals in? or have you no respect for the church of God, putting the poor to shame? What am I to say to you? am I to give you praise? certainly not. +1Co 11:23 For it was handed down to me from the Lord, as I gave it to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when Judas was false to him, took bread, +1Co 11:24 And when it had been broken with an act of praise, he said, This is my body which is for you: do this in memory of me. +1Co 11:25 In the same way, with the cup, after the meal, he said, This cup is the new testament in my blood: do this, whenever you take it, in memory of me. +1Co 11:26 For whenever you take the bread and the cup you give witness to the Lord's death till he comes. +1Co 11:27 If, then, anyone takes the bread or the cup of the Lord in the wrong spirit, he will be responsible for the body and blood of the Lord. +1Co 11:28 But let no man take of the bread and the cup without testing himself. +1Co 11:29 For a man puts himself in danger, if he takes part in the holy meal without being conscious that it is the Lord's body. +1Co 11:30 For this cause a number of you are feeble and ill, and a number are dead. +1Co 11:31 But if we were true judges of ourselves, punishment would not come on us. +1Co 11:32 But if punishment does come, it is sent by the Lord, so that we may be safe when the world is judged. +1Co 11:33 So then, my brothers, when you come together to the holy meal of the Lord, let there be waiting for one another. +1Co 11:34 If any man is in need of food, let him take his meal in his house; so that you may not come together to your damage. And the rest I will put in order when I come. +1Co 12:1 But about the things of the spirit, my brothers, it is not right for you to be without teaching. +1Co 12:2 You are conscious that when you were Gentiles, in whatever way you were guided, you went after images without voice or power. +1Co 12:3 So it is my desire for you to be clear about this; that no one is able to say by the Spirit of God that Jesus is cursed; and no one is able to say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit. +1Co 12:4 Now there are different qualities given to men, but the same Spirit. +1Co 12:5 And there are different sorts of servants, but the same Lord. +1Co 12:6 And there are different operations, but the same God, who is working all things in all. +1Co 12:7 But to every man some form of the Spirit's working is given for the common good. +1Co 12:8 For to one are given words of wisdom through the Spirit; and to another words of knowledge through the same Spirit: +1Co 12:9 To another faith in the same Spirit; and to another the power of taking away disease, by the one Spirit; +1Co 12:10 And to another the power of working wonders; and to another the prophet's word; and to another the power of testing spirits; to another different sorts of tongues; and to another the power of making clear the sense of the tongues: +1Co 12:11 But all these are the operations of the one and the same Spirit, giving to every man separately as his pleasure is. +1Co 12:12 For as the body is one, and has a number of parts, and all the parts make one body, so is Christ. +1Co 12:13 For through the baptism of the one Spirit we were all formed into one body, Jews or Greeks, servants or free men, and were all made full of the same Spirit. +1Co 12:14 For the body is not one part, but a number of parts. +1Co 12:15 If the foot says, Because I am not the hand, I am not a part of the body; it is no less a part of the body. +1Co 12:16 And if the ear says, Because I am not the eye, I am not a part of the body; it is a part of the body all the same. +1Co 12:17 If all the body was an eye, where would be the hearing? if all was hearing, where would be the smelling? +1Co 12:18 But now God has put every one of the parts in the body as it was pleasing to him. +1Co 12:19 And if they were all one part, where would the body be? +1Co 12:20 But now they are all different parts, but one body. +1Co 12:21 And the eye may not say to the hand, I have no need of you: or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. +1Co 12:22 No, those parts which seem to be feeble are the more necessary; +1Co 12:23 And to those parts of the body which seem to have less honour we give all the more honour; and to those parts of the body which are a cause of shame to us we give the greater respect; +1Co 12:24 But those parts of the body which are beautiful have no need of such care: and so the body has been joined together by God in such a way as to give more honour to those parts which had need of it; +1Co 12:25 So that there might be no division in the body; but all the parts might have the same care for one another. +1Co 12:26 And if there is pain in one part of the body, all the parts will be feeling it; or if one part is honoured, all the parts will be glad. +1Co 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and every one of you the separate parts of it. +1Co 12:28 And God has put some in the church, first, Apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers; then those with wonder-working powers, then those with the power of taking away disease, helpers, wise guides, users of strange tongues. +1Co 12:29 Are all Apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? have all the power of working wonders? +1Co 12:30 Are all able to take away disease? have all the power of tongues? are all able to give their sense? +1Co 12:31 But let your desires be turned to the more important things given by the Spirit. And now I am pointing out to you an even better way. +1Co 13:1 If I make use of the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am like sounding brass, or a loud-tongued bell. +1Co 13:2 And if I have a prophet's power, and have knowledge of all secret things; and if I have all faith, by which mountains may be moved from their place, but have not love, I am nothing. +1Co 13:3 And if I give all my goods to the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it is of no profit to me. +1Co 13:4 Love is never tired of waiting; love is kind; love has no envy; love has no high opinion of itself, love has no pride; +1Co 13:5 Love's ways are ever fair, it takes no thought for itself; it is not quickly made angry, it takes no account of evil; +1Co 13:6 It takes no pleasure in wrongdoing, but has joy in what is true; +1Co 13:7 Love has the power of undergoing all things, having faith in all things, hoping all things. +1Co 13:8 Though the prophet's word may come to an end, tongues come to nothing, and knowledge have no more value, love has no end. +1Co 13:9 For our knowledge is only in part, and the prophet's word gives only a part of what is true: +1Co 13:10 But when that which is complete is come, then that which is in part will be no longer necessary. +1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I made use of a child's language, I had a child's feelings and a child's thoughts: now that I am a man, I have put away the things of a child. +1Co 13:12 For now we see things in a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now my knowledge is in part; then it will be complete, even as God's knowledge of me. +1Co 13:13 But now we still have faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love. +1Co 14:1 Go after love; still desiring to have the things which the Spirit gives, but most of all that you may have the prophet's power. +1Co 14:2 For he who makes use of tongues is not talking to men but to God; because no one has the sense of what he is saying; but in the Spirit he is talking of secret things. +1Co 14:3 But the word of the prophet gives men knowledge and comfort and strength. +1Co 14:4 He who makes use of tongues may do good to himself; but he who gives the prophet's word does good to the church. +1Co 14:5 Now though it is my desire for you all to have the power of tongues, it would give me more pleasure to be hearing the prophet's word from you; for this is a greater thing than using tongues, if the sense is not given at the same time, for the good of the church. +1Co 14:6 But, now, my brothers, if I come to you using tongues, what profit will it be to you, if I do not give you a revelation, or knowledge, or the word of the prophet, or teaching? +1Co 14:7 Even things without life, having a voice, such as a music-pipe or other instrument, if they do not give out different sounds, who may be certain what is being played? +1Co 14:8 For if the war-horn gives out an uncertain note, who will get ready for the fight? +1Co 14:9 So if you, in using a strange tongue, say words which have no sense, how will anyone take in what you are saying? for you will be talking to the air. +1Co 14:10 There are, it may be, a number of different voices in the world, and no voice is without sense. +1Co 14:11 But if the sense of the voice is not clear to me, I am like a man from a strange country to him who is talking, and he will be the same to me. +1Co 14:12 So if you are desiring the things which the Spirit gives, let your minds be turned first to the things which are for the good of the church. +1Co 14:13 For this reason, let the man who has the power of using tongues make request that he may, at the same time, be able to give the sense. +1Co 14:14 For if I make use of tongues in my prayers, my spirit makes the prayer, but not my mind. +1Co 14:15 What then? let my prayer be from the spirit, and equally from the mind; let my song be from the spirit, and equally from mind. +1Co 14:16 For if you give a blessing with the spirit, how will the man who has no knowledge say, So be it, after your prayer, seeing that he has not taken in what you are saying? +1Co 14:17 For your giving of the blessing is certainly well done, but of no profit to the man without knowledge. +1Co 14:18 I give praise to God that I am able to make use of tongues more than you all: +1Co 14:19 But in the church it would be better for me to make use of five words of which the sense was clear, so that others might have profit, than ten thousand words in a strange tongue. +1Co 14:20 My brothers, do not be children in mind: in evil be as little children, but in mind be of full growth. +1Co 14:21 In the law it is said, By men of other tongues and by strange lips will my words come to this people; and not even so will they give ear to me, says the Lord. +1Co 14:22 For this reason tongues are for a sign, not to those who have faith, but to those who have not: but the prophet's word is for those who have faith, and not for the rest who have not. +1Co 14:23 If, then, the church has come together, and all are using tongues, and there come in men without knowledge or faith, will they not say that you are unbalanced? +1Co 14:24 But if all are teaching as prophets, and a man without faith or knowledge comes in, he is tested by all, he is judged by all; +1Co 14:25 The secrets of his heart are made clear; and he will go down on his face and give worship to God, saying that God is truly among you. +1Co 14:26 What is it then, my brothers? when you come together everyone has a holy song, or a revelation, or a tongue, or is giving the sense of it. Let everything be done for the common good. +1Co 14:27 If any man makes use of a tongue, let it not be more than two, or at the most three, and in turn; and let someone give the sense: +1Co 14:28 But if there is no one to give the sense, let him keep quiet in the church; and let his words be to himself and to God. +1Co 14:29 And let the prophets give their words, but not more than two or three, and let the others be judges of what they say. +1Co 14:30 But if a revelation is given to another who is seated near, let the first be quiet. +1Co 14:31 For you may all be prophets in turn so that all may get knowledge and comfort; +1Co 14:32 And the spirits of the prophets are controlled by the prophets; +1Co 14:33 For God is not a God whose ways are without order, but a God of peace; as in all the churches of the saints. +1Co 14:34 Let women keep quiet in the churches: for it is not right for them to be talking; but let them be under control, as it says in the law. +1Co 14:35 And if they have a desire for knowledge about anything, let them put questions to their husbands privately: for talking in the church puts shame on a woman. +1Co 14:36 What? was it from you that the word of God went out? or did it only come in to you? +1Co 14:37 If any man seems to himself to be a prophet or to have the Spirit, let him take note of the things which I am writing to you, as being the word of the Lord. +1Co 14:38 But if any man is without knowledge, let him be so. +1Co 14:39 So then, my brothers, let it be your chief desire to be prophets; but let no one be stopped from using tongues. +1Co 14:40 Let all things be done in the right and ordered way. +1Co 15:1 Now I am going to make clear to you, my brothers, what the good news was which I gave to you, and which you took, and on which your faith is based, +1Co 15:2 By which you have salvation; that is to say, the form in which it was given to you, if it is fixed in your minds, and if your faith in it is not without effect. +1Co 15:3 For I gave to you first of all what was handed down to me, how Christ underwent death for our sins, as it says in the Writings; +1Co 15:4 And he was put in the place of the dead; and on the third day he came back from the dead, as it says in the Writings; +1Co 15:5 And he was seen by Cephas; then by the twelve; +1Co 15:6 Then by more than five hundred brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, but some are sleeping; +1Co 15:7 Then he was seen by James; then by all the Apostles. +1Co 15:8 And last of all, as by one whose birth was out of the right time, he was seen by me. +1Co 15:9 For I am the least of the Apostles, having no right to be named an Apostle, because of my cruel attacks on the church of God. +1Co 15:10 But by the grace of God, I am what I am: and his grace which was given to me has not been for nothing; for I did more work than all of them; though not I, but the grace of God which was with me. +1Co 15:11 If then it is I who am the preacher, or they, this is our word, and to this you have given your faith. +1Co 15:12 Now if the good news says that Christ came back from the dead, how do some of you say that there is no coming back from the dead? +1Co 15:13 But if there is no coming back from the dead, then Christ has not come back from the dead: +1Co 15:14 And if Christ did not come again from the dead, then our good news and your faith in it are of no effect. +1Co 15:15 Yes, and we are seen to be false witnesses of God; because we gave witness of God that by his power Christ came again from the dead: which is not true if there is no coming back from the dead. +1Co 15:16 For if it is not possible for the dead to come to life again, then Christ has not come to life again: +1Co 15:17 And if that is so, your faith is of no effect; you are still in your sins. +1Co 15:18 And, in addition, the dead in Christ have gone to destruction. +1Co 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most unhappy. +1Co 15:20 But now Christ has truly come back from the dead, the first-fruits of those who are sleeping. +1Co 15:21 For as by man came death, so by man there is a coming back from the dead. +1Co 15:22 For as in Adam death comes to all, so in Christ will all come back to life. +1Co 15:23 But every man in his right order: Christ the first-fruits; then those who are Christ's at his coming. +1Co 15:24 Then comes the end, when he will give up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have put an end to all rule and to all authority and power. +1Co 15:25 For his rule will go on till he has put all those who are against him under his feet. +1Co 15:26 The last power to come to an end is death. +1Co 15:27 For, as it says, He has put all things under his feet. But when he says, All things are put under him, it is clear that it is not said about him who put all things under him. +1Co 15:28 And when all things have been put under him, then will the Son himself be under him who put all things under him, so that God may be all in all. +1Co 15:29 Again, what will they do who are given baptism for the dead? if the dead do not come back at all, why are people given baptism for them? +1Co 15:30 And why are we in danger every hour? +1Co 15:31 Yes, truly, by your pride in me, my brothers in Christ Jesus our Lord, my life is one long death. +1Co 15:32 If, after the way of men, I was fighting with beasts at Ephesus, what profit is it to me? If the dead do not come to life again, let us take our pleasure in feasting, for tomorrow we come to an end. +1Co 15:33 Do not be tricked by false words: evil company does damage to good behaviour. +1Co 15:34 Be awake to righteousness and keep yourselves from sin; for some have no knowledge of God: I say this to put you to shame. +1Co 15:35 But someone will say, How do the dead come back? and with what sort of body do they come? +1Co 15:36 Foolish man, it is necessary for the seed which you put into the earth to undergo death in order that it may come to life again: +1Co 15:37 And when you put it into the earth, you do not put in the body which it will be, but only the seed, of grain or some other sort of plant; +1Co 15:38 But God gives it a body, as it is pleasing to him, and to every seed its special body. +1Co 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one flesh of men, another of beasts, another of birds, and another of fishes. +1Co 15:40 And there are bodies of heaven and bodies of earth, but the glory of the one is different from that of the other. +1Co 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for the glory of one star is different from that of another. +1Co 15:42 So is it with the coming back from the dead. It is planted in death; it comes again in life: +1Co 15:43 It is planted in shame; it comes again in glory: feeble when it is planted, it comes again in power: +1Co 15:44 It is planted a natural body; it comes again as a body of the spirit. If there is a natural body, there is equally a body of the spirit. +1Co 15:45 And so it is said, The first man Adam was a living soul. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit. +1Co 15:46 But that which is natural comes before that which is of the spirit. +1Co 15:47 The first man is from the earth, and of the earth: the second man is from heaven. +1Co 15:48 Those who are of the earth are like the man who was from the earth: and those who are of heaven are like the one from heaven. +1Co 15:49 And in the same way as we have taken on us the image of the man from the earth, so we will take on us the image of the one from heaven. +1Co 15:50 Now I say this, my brothers, that it is not possible for flesh and blood to have a part in the kingdom of God; and death may not have a part in life. +1Co 15:51 See, I am giving you the revelation of a secret: we will not all come to the sleep of death, but we will all be changed. +1Co 15:52 In a second, in the shutting of an eye, at the sound of the last horn: for at that sound the dead will come again, free for ever from the power of death, and we will be changed. +1Co 15:53 For this body which comes to destruction will be made free from the power of death, and the man who is under the power of death will put on eternal life. +1Co 15:54 But when this has taken place, then that which was said in the Writings will come true, Death is overcome by life. +1Co 15:55 O death, where is your power? O death, where are your pains? +1Co 15:56 The pain of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law: +1Co 15:57 But praise be to God who gives us strength to overcome through our Lord Jesus Christ. +1Co 15:58 For this cause, my dear brothers, be strong in purpose and unmoved, ever giving yourselves to the work of the Lord, because you are certain that your work is not without effect in the Lord. +1Co 16:1 Now about the giving of money for the saints, as I gave orders to the churches of Galatia, so do you. +1Co 16:2 On the first day of the week, let every one of you put by him in store, in measure as he has done well in business, so that it may not be necessary to get money together when I come. +1Co 16:3 And when I come, I will send the men of your selection with letters to take the money you have got together to Jerusalem. +1Co 16:4 And if it is possible for me to go there, they will go with me. +1Co 16:5 But I will come to you after I have gone through Macedonia, for that is my purpose; +1Co 16:6 But I may be with you for a time, or even for the winter, so that you may see me on my way, wherever I go. +1Co 16:7 For it is not my desire to see you now, on my way; because it is my hope to be with you for some time, if that is the Lord's pleasure. +1Co 16:8 But I will be at Ephesus till Pentecost; +1Co 16:9 For a great and important door there is open to me, and there are a number of people against me. +1Co 16:10 Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without fear; because he is doing the Lord's work, even as I am: +1Co 16:11 See then that he has the honour which is right. But send him on his way in peace, so that he may come to me: for I am looking for him with the brothers. +1Co 16:12 But as for Apollos, the brother, I had a great desire for him to come to you with the brothers, but it was not his pleasure to come now; but he will come when he has a chance. +1Co 16:13 Be on the watch, unmoved in the faith, and be strong like men. +1Co 16:14 Let all you do be done in love. +1Co 16:15 Now I make my request to you, my brothers, for you have knowledge that the house of Stephanas is the first-fruits of Achaia, and that they have made themselves the servants of the saints, +1Co 16:16 That you put yourselves under such, and under everyone who is helping the Lord's work. +1Co 16:17 And I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for they have done what was needed to make your work complete. +1Co 16:18 For they gave comfort to my spirit and to yours: for which cause give respect to such people. +1Co 16:19 The churches of Asia send their love to you. So do Aquila and Prisca, with the church which is in their house. +1Co 16:20 All the brothers send their love to you. Give one another a holy kiss. +1Co 16:21 I, Paul, send you these words of love in my writing. +1Co 16:22 If any man has not love for the Lord, let him be cursed. Maran atha (our Lord comes). +1Co 16:23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. +1Co 16:24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. So be it. +2Co 1:1 Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the purpose of God, and Timothy the brother, to the church of God which is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia: +2Co 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +2Co 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; +2Co 1:4 Who gives us comfort in all our troubles, so that we may be able to give comfort to others who are in trouble, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. +2Co 1:5 For as we undergo more of the pain which Christ underwent, so through Christ does our comfort become greater. +2Co 1:6 But if we are troubled, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which takes effect through your quiet undergoing of the same troubles which we undergo: +2Co 1:7 And our hope for you is certain; in the knowledge that as you take part in the troubles, so you will take part in the comfort. +2Co 1:8 For it is our desire that you may not be without knowledge of our trouble which came on us in Asia, that the weight of it was very great, more than our power, so that it seemed that we had no hope even of life: +2Co 1:9 Yes, we ourselves have had the answer of death in ourselves, so that our hope might not be in ourselves, but in God who is able to give life to the dead: +2Co 1:10 Who gave us salvation from so great a death: on whom we have put our hope that he will still go on to give us salvation; +2Co 1:11 You at the same time helping together by your prayer for us; so that for what has been given to us through a number of persons, praise may go up to God for us from all of them. +2Co 1:12 For our glory is in this, in the knowledge which we have that our way of life in the world, and most of all in relation to you, has been holy and true in the eyes of God; not in the wisdom of the flesh, but in the grace of God. +2Co 1:13 For in our letters we say no other things to you, but those which you are reading, and to which you give agreement, and, it is my hope, will go on doing so to the end: +2Co 1:14 Even as you have been ready, in part, to say that we are your glory, in the same way that you are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus. +2Co 1:15 And being certain of this, it was my purpose to come to you before, so that you might have a second grace; +2Co 1:16 And by way of Corinth to go into Macedonia, and from there to come back again to you, so that you might send me on my way to Judaea. +2Co 1:17 If then I had such a purpose, did I seem to be changing suddenly? or am I guided in my purposes by the flesh, saying, Yes, today, and, No, tomorrow? +2Co 1:18 As God is true, our word to you is not Yes and No. +2Co 1:19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we were preaching among you, even I and Silvanus and Timothy, was not Yes and No, but in him is Yes. +2Co 1:20 For he is the Yes to all the undertakings of God: and by him all the words of God are made certain and put into effect, to the glory of God through us. +2Co 1:21 Now he who makes our faith strong together with you, in Christ, and has given us of his grace, is God; +2Co 1:22 And it is he who has put his stamp on us, even the Spirit, as the sign in our hearts of the coming glory. +2Co 1:23 But God is my witness that it was in pity for you that I did not come to Corinth at that time. +2Co 1:24 Not that we have authority over your faith, but we are helpers of your joy: for it is faith which is your support. +2Co 2:1 But it was my decision for myself, not to come again to you with sorrow. +2Co 2:2 For if I give you sorrow, who then will make me glad, but he who is made sad by me? +2Co 2:3 And I said this very thing in my letter, for fear that when I came I might have sorrow from those from whom it was right for me to have joy; being certain of this, that my joy is the joy of you all. +2Co 2:4 For out of much trouble and pain of heart and much weeping I sent my letter to you; not to give you sorrow, but so that you might see how great is the love which I have to you. +2Co 2:5 But if anyone has been a cause of sorrow, he has been so, not to me only, but in some measure to all of you (I say this that I may not be over-hard on you). +2Co 2:6 Let it be enough for such a man to have undergone the punishment which the church put on him; +2Co 2:7 So that now, on the other hand, it is right for him to have forgiveness and comfort from you, for fear that his sorrow may be over-great. +2Co 2:8 For which cause my desire is that you will make your love to him clear by your acts. +2Co 2:9 And for the same reason I sent you a letter so that I might be certain of your desire to do my orders in all things. +2Co 2:10 But if you give forgiveness to anyone, I do the same: for if I have given forgiveness for anything, I have done it because of you, in the person of Christ; +2Co 2:11 So that Satan may not get the better of us: for we are not without knowledge of his designs. +2Co 2:12 Now when I came to Troas for the good news of Christ, and there was an open door for me in the Lord, +2Co 2:13 I had no rest in my spirit because Titus my brother was not there: so I went away from them, and came into Macedonia. +2Co 2:14 But praise be to God who makes us strong to overcome in Christ, and makes clear through us in every place the value of the knowledge of him. +2Co 2:15 For we are a sweet perfume of Christ to God in those who are getting salvation and in those who are going to destruction; +2Co 2:16 To the one it is a perfume of death to death; to the other a perfume of life to life. And who is enough for such things? +2Co 2:17 For we are not like the great number who make use of the word of God for profit: but our words are true, as from God, being said as before God in Christ. +2Co 3:1 Do we seem to be again attempting to put ourselves in the right? or have we need, as some have, of letters of approval to you or from you? +2Co 3:2 You yourselves are our letter, whose writing is in our heart, open for every man's reading and knowledge; +2Co 3:3 For you are clearly a letter of Christ, the fruit of our work, recorded not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in stone, but in hearts of flesh. +2Co 3:4 And this is the certain faith which we have in God through Christ: +2Co 3:5 Not as if we were able by ourselves to do anything for which we might take the credit; but our power comes from God; +2Co 3:6 Who has made us able to be servants of a new agreement; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter gives death, but the Spirit gives life. +2Co 3:7 For if the operation of the law, giving death, recorded in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the eyes of the children of Israel had to be turned away from the face of Moses because of its glory, a glory which was only for a time: +2Co 3:8 Will not the operation of the Spirit have a much greater glory? +2Co 3:9 For if the operation of the law, producing punishment, had its glory, how much greater will be the operation of the Spirit causing righteousness? +2Co 3:10 For the glory of the first no longer seems to be glory, because of the greater glory of that which comes after. +2Co 3:11 For if the order which was for a time had its glory, much more will the eternal order have its glory. +2Co 3:12 Having then such a hope, we keep nothing back, +2Co 3:13 And are not like Moses, who put a veil on his face, so that the children of Israel might not see clearly to the end of the present order of things: +2Co 3:14 But their minds were made hard: for to this very day at the reading of the old agreement the same veil is still unlifted; though it is taken away in Christ. +2Co 3:15 But to this day, at the reading of the law of Moses, a veil is over their heart. +2Co 3:16 But when it is turned to the Lord, the veil will be taken away. +2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there the heart is free. +2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face giving back as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord who is the Spirit. +2Co 4:1 For this reason, because we have been made servants of this new order, through the mercy given to us, we are strong: +2Co 4:2 And we have given up the secret things of shame, not walking in false ways, and not making use of the word of God with deceit; but by the revelation of what is true, as before God, we have the approval of every man's sense of right and wrong. +2Co 4:3 But if our good news is veiled, it is veiled from those who are on the way to destruction: +2Co 4:4 Because the god of this world has made blind the minds of those who have not faith, so that the light of the good news of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not be shining on them. +2Co 4:5 For our preaching is not about ourselves, but about Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants through Jesus. +2Co 4:6 Seeing that it is God who said, Let light be shining out of the dark, who has put in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. +2Co 4:7 But we have this wealth in vessels of earth, so that it may be seen that the power comes not from us but from God; +2Co 4:8 Troubles are round us on every side, but we are not shut in; things are hard for us, but we see a way out of them; +2Co 4:9 We are cruelly attacked, but not without hope; we are made low, but we are not without help; +2Co 4:10 In our bodies there is ever the mark of the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be seen in our bodies. +2Co 4:11 For, while living, we are still being given up to death because of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be seen in our flesh, though it is under the power of death. +2Co 4:12 So then, death is working in us, but life in you. +2Co 4:13 But having the same spirit of faith, as it is said in the Writings, The words of my mouth came from the faith in my heart; in the same way, our words are the outcome of our faith; +2Co 4:14 Because we are certain that he who made the Lord Jesus come back from the dead, will do the same for us, and will give us a place in his glory with you. +2Co 4:15 For we go through all things on account of you, because the greater the number to whom the grace is given, the greater is the praise to the glory of God. +2Co 4:16 For which cause we do not give way to weariness; but though our outer man is getting feebler, our inner man is made new day by day. +2Co 4:17 For our present trouble, which is only for a short time, is working out for us a much greater weight of glory; +2Co 4:18 While our minds are not on the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are for a time; but the things which are not seen are eternal. +2Co 5:1 For we are conscious that if this our tent of flesh is taken down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in heaven. +2Co 5:2 For in this we are crying in weariness, greatly desiring to be clothed with our house from heaven: +2Co 5:3 So that our spirits may not be unclothed. +2Co 5:4 For truly, we who are in this tent do give out cries of weariness, for the weight of care which is on us; not because we are desiring to be free from the body, but so that we may have our new body, and death may be overcome by life. +2Co 5:5 Now he who has made us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a witness of what is to come. +2Co 5:6 So, then, we are ever without fear, and though conscious that while we are in the body we are away from the Lord, +2Co 5:7 (For we are walking by faith, not by seeing,) +2Co 5:8 We are without fear, desiring to be free from the body, and to be with the Lord. +2Co 5:9 For this reason we make it our purpose, in the body or away from it, to be well-pleasing to him. +2Co 5:10 For we all have to come before Christ to be judged; so that every one of us may get his reward for the things done in the body, good or bad. +2Co 5:11 Having in mind, then, the fear of the Lord, we put these things before men, but God sees our hearts; and it is my hope that we may seem right in your eyes. +2Co 5:12 We are not again requesting your approval, but we are giving you the chance of taking pride in us, so that you may be able to give an answer to those whose glory is in seeming, and not in the heart. +2Co 5:13 For if we are foolish, it is to God; or if we are serious, it is for you. +2Co 5:14 For it is the love of Christ which is moving us; because we are of the opinion that if one was put to death for all, then all have undergone death; +2Co 5:15 And that he underwent death for all, so that the living might no longer be living to themselves, but to him who underwent death for them and came back from the dead. +2Co 5:16 For this reason, from this time forward we have knowledge of no man after the flesh: even if we have had knowledge of Christ after the flesh, we have no longer any such knowledge. +2Co 5:17 So if any man is in Christ, he is in a new world: the old things have come to an end; they have truly become new. +2Co 5:18 But all things are of God, who has made us at peace with himself through Christ, and has given to us the work of making peace; +2Co 5:19 That is, that God was in Christ making peace between the world and himself, not putting their sins to their account, and having given to us the preaching of this news of peace. +2Co 5:20 So we are the representatives of Christ, as if God was making a request to you through us: we make our request to you, in the name of Christ, be at peace with God. +2Co 5:21 For him who had no knowledge of sin God made to be sin for us; so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. +2Co 6:1 We then, working together with God, make our request to you not to take the grace of God to no purpose. +2Co 6:2 (For he says, I have given ear to you at a good time, and I have been your helper in a day of salvation: see, now is the good time; now is the day of salvation): +2Co 6:3 Giving no cause for trouble in anything, so that no one may be able to say anything against our work; +2Co 6:4 But in everything making it clear that we are the servants of God, in quiet strength, in troubles, in need, in sorrow, +2Co 6:5 In blows, in prisons, in attacks, in hard work, in watchings, in going without food; +2Co 6:6 In a clean heart, in knowledge, in long waiting, in being kind, in the Holy Spirit, in true love, +2Co 6:7 In the true word, in the power of God; with the arms of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, +2Co 6:8 By glory and by shame, by an evil name and a good name; as untrue, and still true; +2Co 6:9 Unnoted, but still kept fully in mind; as near to death, but still living; as undergoing punishment, but not put to death; +2Co 6:10 As full of sorrow, but ever glad; as poor, but giving wealth to others; as having nothing, but still having all things. +2Co 6:11 Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is wide. +2Co 6:12 It is not our feelings to you which are narrow, but yours to us. +2Co 6:13 Now to give me back payment of the same sort (I am talking as to my children), let your hearts be wide open to me. +2Co 6:14 Do not keep company with those who have not faith: for what is there in common between righteousness and evil, or between light and dark? +2Co 6:15 And what agreement is there between Christ and the Evil One? or what part has one who has faith with one who has not? +2Co 6:16 And what agreement has the house of God with images? for we are a house of the living God; even as God has said, I will be living among them, and walking with them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people. +2Co 6:17 For which cause, Come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and let no unclean thing come near you; and I will take you for myself, +2Co 6:18 And will be a Father to you; and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord, the Ruler of all. +2Co 7:1 Because God, then, will give us such rewards, dear brothers, let us make ourselves clean from all evil of flesh and spirit, and become completely holy in the fear of God. +2Co 7:2 Let your hearts be open to us: we have done no man wrong, no man has been damaged by us, we have made no profit out of any man, +2Co 7:3 It is not with the purpose of judging you that I say this: for I have said before that you are in our hearts for life and death together. +2Co 7:4 My words to you are without fear, I am full of pride on account of you: I have great comfort and joy in all our troubles. +2Co 7:5 For even when we had come into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; there were fightings outside and fears inside. +2Co 7:6 But God who gives comfort to the poor in spirit gave us comfort by the coming of Titus; +2Co 7:7 And not by his coming only, but by the comfort which he had in you, while he gave us word of your desire, your sorrow, your care for me; so that I was still more glad. +2Co 7:8 For though my letter gave you pain, I have no regret for it now, though I had before; for I see that the letter gave you pain, but only for a time. +2Co 7:9 Now I am glad, not that you had sorrow, but that your sorrow was the cause of a change of heart; for yours was a holy sorrow so that you might undergo no loss by us in anything. +2Co 7:10 For the sorrow which God gives is the cause of salvation through a change of heart, in which there is no reason for grief: but the sorrow of the world is a cause of death. +2Co 7:11 For you see what care was produced in you by this very sorrow of yours before God, what clearing of yourselves, what wrath against sin, what fear, what desire, what serious purpose, what punishment. In everything you have made it clear that you are free from sin in this business. +2Co 7:12 So though I sent you a letter, it was not only because of the man who did the wrong, or because of him to whom the wrong was done, but so that your true care for us might be made clear in the eyes of God. +2Co 7:13 So we have been comforted: and we had the greater joy in our comfort because of the joy of Titus, for his spirit had been made glad by you all. +2Co 7:14 For I was not put to shame in anything in which I may have made clear to him my pride in you; but as we said nothing to you but what was true, so the good things which I said to Titus about you were seen by him to be true. +2Co 7:15 And his love to you is the more increased by his memory of you all, how you gave way to his authority, and how you took him to your hearts with fear and honour. +2Co 7:16 It gives me great joy to see you answering to my good opinion of you in every way. +2Co 8:1 And now we give you news, brothers, about the grace of God which has been given to the churches of Macedonia; +2Co 8:2 How while they were undergoing every sort of trouble, and were in the greatest need, they took all the greater joy in being able to give freely to the needs of others. +2Co 8:3 For I give them witness, that as they were able, and even more than they were able, they gave from the impulse of their hearts, +2Co 8:4 Seriously requesting us that they might have a part in this grace of being servants to the needs of the saints: +2Co 8:5 And going even farther than our hope, they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us after the purpose of God. +2Co 8:6 So that we made a request to Titus that, as he had made a start before, so he might make this grace complete in you. +2Co 8:7 And that as you are full of every good thing, of faith, of the word, of knowledge, of a ready mind, and of love to us, so you may be full of this grace in the same way. +2Co 8:8 I am not giving you an order, but using the ready mind of others as a test of the quality of your love. +2Co 8:9 For you see the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how though he had wealth, he became poor on your account, so that through his need you might have wealth. +2Co 8:10 And in this I give my opinion: for it is to your profit, who were the first to make a start a year before, not only to do this, but to make clear that your minds were more than ready to do it. +2Co 8:11 Then make the doing of it complete; so that as you had a ready mind, you may give effect to it as you are able. +2Co 8:12 For if there is a ready mind, a man will have God's approval in the measure of what he has, and not of what he has not. +2Co 8:13 And I am not saying this so that others may get off free, while the weight comes on you: +2Co 8:14 But so that things may be equal; that from those things of which you have more than enough at the present time their need may be helped, and that if you are in any need they may be a help to you in the same way, making things equal. +2Co 8:15 As it says in the Writings, He who had taken up much had nothing over and he who had little had enough. +2Co 8:16 But praise be to God, who puts the same care for you into the heart of Titus. +2Co 8:17 For while he gladly gave ear to our request, he was interested enough to go to you from the impulse of his heart. +2Co 8:18 And with him we have sent a brother whose praise in the good news has gone through all the churches; +2Co 8:19 And not only so, but he was marked out by the churches to go with us in the grace of this giving which we have undertaken to the glory of the Lord and to make clear that our mind was ready: +2Co 8:20 And so that no man might be able to say anything against us in the business of this giving which has been put into our hands: +2Co 8:21 For the business has been so ordered by us as to have the approval, not only of the Lord, but of men. +2Co 8:22 And we have sent with them our brother, whose ready spirit has been made clear to us at times and in ways without number, but it is now all the more so because of the certain faith which he has in you. +2Co 8:23 If any question comes up about Titus, he is my brother-worker, working with me for you; or about the others, they are the representatives of the churches to the glory of Christ. +2Co 8:24 Make clear then to them, as representatives of the churches, the quality of your love, and that the things which we have said about you are true. +2Co 9:1 But there is no need for me to say anything in my letter about the giving to the saints: +2Co 9:2 For I have before made clear to those of Macedonia my pride in your ready mind, saying to them that Achaia has been ready for a year back; and a great number have been moved to do the same by your example. +2Co 9:3 But I have sent the brothers, so that the good things we said about you may be seen to be true, and that, as I said, you may be ready: +2Co 9:4 For fear that, if any from Macedonia come with me, and you are not ready, we (not to say, you) might be put to shame in this thing. +2Co 9:5 So it seemed to me wise for the brothers to go before, and see that the amount which you had undertaken to give was ready, so that it might be a cause for praise, and not as if we were making profit out of you. +2Co 9:6 But in the Writings it says, He who puts in only a small number of seeds, will get in the same; and he who puts them in from a full hand, will have produce in full measure from them. +2Co 9:7 Let every man do after the purpose of his heart; not giving with grief, or by force: for God takes pleasure in a ready giver. +2Co 9:8 And God is able to give you all grace in full measure; so that ever having enough of all things, you may be full of every good work: +2Co 9:9 As it is said in the Writings, He has sent out far and wide, he has given to the poor; his righteousness is for ever. +2Co 9:10 And he who gives seed for putting into the field and bread for food, will take care of the growth of your seed, at the same time increasing the fruits of your righteousness; +2Co 9:11 Your wealth being increased in everything, with a simple mind, causing praise to God through us. +2Co 9:12 For this work of giving not only takes care of the needs of the saints, but is the cause of much praise to God; +2Co 9:13 For when, through this work of giving, they see what you are, they give glory to God for the way in which you have given yourselves to the good news of Christ, and for the wealth of your giving to them and to all; +2Co 9:14 While their hearts go out to you in love and in prayer for you, because of the great grace of God which is in you. +2Co 9:15 Praise be to God for what he has given, which words have no power to say. +2Co 10:1 Now I, Paul, myself make request to you by the quiet and gentle behaviour of Christ, I who am poor in spirit when with you, but who say what is in my mind to you without fear when I am away from you: +2Co 10:2 Yes, I make my request to you, so that when I am with you I may not have to make use of the authority which may be needed against some to whom we seem to be walking after the flesh. +2Co 10:3 For though we may be living in the flesh, we are not fighting after the way of the flesh +2Co 10:4 (For the arms with which we are fighting are not those of the flesh, but are strong before God for the destruction of high places); +2Co 10:5 Putting an end to reasonings, and every high thing which is lifted up against the knowledge of God, and causing every thought to come under the authority of Christ; +2Co 10:6 Being ready to give punishment to whatever is against his authority, after you have made it clear that you are completely under his control. +2Co 10:7 Give attention to the things which are before you. If any man seems to himself to be Christ's, let him keep in mind that we are as much Christ's as he is. +2Co 10:8 For though I might take pride in our authority (which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for your destruction), it will not be a cause of shame to me: +2Co 10:9 That I may not seem to have the desire of causing you fear by my letters. +2Co 10:10 For his letters, they say, have weight and are strong; but in body he is feeble, and his way of talking has little force. +2Co 10:11 Let those who say this keep in mind that, what we are in word by letters when we are away, so will we be in act when we are present. +2Co 10:12 For we will not make comparison of ourselves with some of those who say good things about themselves: but these, measuring themselves by themselves, and making comparison of themselves with themselves, are not wise. +2Co 10:13 We will not give glory to ourselves in over-great measure, but after the measure of the rule which God has given us, a measure which comes even to you. +2Co 10:14 For we have no need to make ourselves seem more than we are, as if our authority did not come as far as to you: for we came even as far as you with the good news of Christ: +2Co 10:15 Not taking credit to ourselves for what is not our business, that is, for the work of others; but having hope that, with the growth of your faith, we may get the credit for an increase which is the effect of our work, +2Co 10:16 So that we may be able to go on and take the good news to countries still farther away than you are, and not take credit for another man's work in making things ready to our hand. +2Co 10:17 But whoever has a desire for glory, let his glory be in the Lord. +2Co 10:18 For the Lord's approval of a man is not dependent on his opinion of himself, but on the Lord's opinion of him. +2Co 11:1 Put up with me if I am a little foolish: but, truly, you do put up with me. +2Co 11:2 For I have a very great care for you: because you have been married by me to one husband, and it is my desire to give you completely holy to Christ. +2Co 11:3 But I have a fear, that in some way, as Eve was tricked by the deceit of the snake, your minds may be turned away from their simple and holy love for Christ. +2Co 11:4 For if anyone comes preaching another Jesus from the one whose preachers we are, or if you have got a different spirit, or a different sort of good news from those which came to you, how well you put up with these things. +2Co 11:5 For in my opinion, I am in no way less than the most important of the Apostles. +2Co 11:6 But though I am rough in my way of talking, I am not so in knowledge, as we have made clear to all by our acts among you. +2Co 11:7 Or did I do wrong in making myself low so that you might be lifted up, because I gave you the good news of God without reward? +2Co 11:8 I took money from other churches as payment for my work, so that I might be your servant; +2Co 11:9 And when I was present with you, and was in need, I let no man be responsible for me; for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, gave me whatever was needed; and in everything I kept myself from being a trouble to you, and I will go on doing so. +2Co 11:10 As the true word of Christ is in me, I will let no man take from me this my cause of pride in the country of Achaia. +2Co 11:11 Why? because I have no love for you? let God be judge. +2Co 11:12 But what I do, that I will go on doing, so that I may give no chance to those who are looking for one; so that, in the cause of their pride, they may be seen to be the same as we are. +2Co 11:13 For such men are false Apostles, workers of deceit, making themselves seem like Apostles of Christ. +2Co 11:14 And it is no wonder; for even Satan himself is able to take the form of an angel of light. +2Co 11:15 So it is no great thing if his servants make themselves seem to be servants of righteousness; whose end will be the reward of their works. +2Co 11:16 I say again, Let me not seem foolish to anyone; but if I do, put up with me as such, so that I may take a little glory to myself. +2Co 11:17 What I am now saying is not by the order of the Lord, but as a foolish person, taking credit to myself, as it seems. +2Co 11:18 Seeing that there are those who take credit to themselves after the flesh, I will do the same. +2Co 11:19 For you put up with the foolish gladly, being wise yourselves. +2Co 11:20 You put up with a man if he makes servants of you, if he makes profit out of you, if he makes you prisoners, if he puts himself in a high place, if he gives you blows on the face. +2Co 11:21 I say this by way of shaming ourselves, as if we had been feeble. But if anyone puts himself forward (I am talking like a foolish person), I will do the same. +2Co 11:22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they of Israel? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. +2Co 11:23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking foolishly) I am more so; I have had more experience of hard work, of prisons, of blows more than measure, of death. +2Co 11:24 Five times the Jews gave me forty blows but one. +2Co 11:25 Three times I was whipped with rods, once I was stoned, three times the ship I was in came to destruction at sea, a night and a day I have been in the water; +2Co 11:26 In frequent travels, in dangers on rivers, in dangers from outlaws, in dangers from my countrymen, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the town, in dangers in the waste land, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers; +2Co 11:27 In hard work and weariness, in frequent watchings, going without food and drink, cold and in need of clothing. +2Co 11:28 In addition to all the other things, there is that which comes on me every day, the care of all the churches. +2Co 11:29 Who is feeble and I am not feeble? who is in danger of falling, and I am not angry? +2Co 11:30 If I have to take credit to myself, I will do so in the things in which I am feeble. +2Co 11:31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise for ever, is witness that the things which I say are true. +2Co 11:32 In Damascus, the ruler under Aretas the king kept watch over the town of the people of Damascus, in order to take me: +2Co 11:33 And being let down in a basket from the wall through a window, I got free from his hands. +2Co 12:1 As it is necessary for me to take glory to myself, though it is not a good thing, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. +2Co 12:2 I have knowledge of a man in Christ, fourteen years back (if he was in the body, or out of the body, I am not able to say, but God only), who was taken up to the third heaven. +2Co 12:3 And I have knowledge of such a man (if he was in the body, or out of the body, I am not able to say, but God only), +2Co 12:4 How he was taken up into Paradise, and words came to his ears which may not be said, and which man is not able to say. +2Co 12:5 On account of such a one I will have glory: for myself I will take no glory, but only in my feeble body. +2Co 12:6 For if I had a desire to take credit to myself, it would not be foolish, for I would be saying what is true: but I will not, for fear that I might seem to any man more than he sees me to be, or has word from me that I am. +2Co 12:7 And because the revelations were so very great, in order that I might not be overmuch lifted up, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, one sent from Satan to give me pain. +2Co 12:8 And about this thing I made request to the Lord three times that it might be taken away from me. +2Co 12:9 And he said to me, My grace is enough for you, for my power is made complete in what is feeble. Most gladly, then, will I take pride in my feeble body, so that the power of Christ may be on me. +2Co 12:10 So I take pleasure in being feeble, in unkind words, in needs, in cruel attacks, in troubles, on account of Christ: for when I am feeble, then am I strong. +2Co 12:11 I have been forced by you to become foolish, though it was right for my praise to have come from you: for in no way was I less than the chief of the Apostles, though I am nothing. +2Co 12:12 Truly the signs of an Apostle were done among you in quiet strength, with wonders and acts of power. +2Co 12:13 For what is there in which you were made less than the other churches, but in the one thing that I was not a trouble to you? Let me have forgiveness for this wrong. +2Co 12:14 This is now the third time that I am ready to come to you; and I will not be a trouble to you: my desire is for you, not for your property: for it is not the children's business to make store for their fathers, but the fathers for the children. +2Co 12:15 And I will gladly give all I have for your souls. If I have the more love for you, am I to be loved the less? +2Co 12:16 But let it be so, that I was not a trouble to you myself; but (someone may say) being false, I took you with deceit. +2Co 12:17 Did I make a profit out of you by any of those whom I sent to you? +2Co 12:18 I gave orders to Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus make any profit out of you? were we not guided by the same Spirit, in the same ways? +2Co 12:19 It may seem to you that all this time we have been attempting to put ourselves in the right; but we are saying these things before God in Christ. For all things, dear brothers, are for your profit. +2Co 12:20 For I have a fear that, when I come, you may not be answering to my desire, and that I may not be answering to yours; that there may be fighting, hate, angry feeling, divisions, evil talk about others, secrets, thoughts of pride, outbursts against authority; +2Co 12:21 And that when I come again, my God may put me to shame among you, and I may have grief for those who have done wrong before and have had no regret for their unclean ways, and for the evil desires of the flesh to which they have given way. +2Co 13:1 This is the third time that I am coming to you. From the mouth of two or three witnesses will every word be made certain. +2Co 13:2 I said before, and still say it before I come, as being present for the second time, though I am still away from you, to those who have done wrong before, and to all the others, that if I come again I will not have pity; +2Co 13:3 Seeing that you are looking for a sign of Christ giving out his word in me; who is not feeble in relation to you, but is strong in you: +2Co 13:4 For he was feeble in that he was put to death on the cross, but he is living by the power of God. And we are feeble in him, but we will be living with him through the power of God in relation to you. +2Co 13:5 Make a test of yourselves, if you are in the faith; make certain of yourselves. Or are you not conscious in yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, if you are truly Christ's? +2Co 13:6 But it is my hope that you will have no doubt that we are truly Christ's. +2Co 13:7 Now our prayer to God is that you may do no evil; not in order that it may be put to our credit, but so that you may do what is right, whatever we may seem. +2Co 13:8 Because we are able to do nothing against what is true, but only for it. +2Co 13:9 For we are glad when we are feeble and you are strong: and this is our prayer, even that you may be made complete. +2Co 13:10 For this cause I am writing these things while I am away, so that there may be need for me, when I am present, to make use of sharp measures, by the authority which the Lord has given me for building up and not for destruction. +2Co 13:11 Let this be my last word, brothers; be glad; be complete; be comforted; be of the same mind; be at peace with one another: and the God of love and peace will be with you. +2Co 13:12 Give one another a holy kiss. +2Co 13:13 All the saints send their love to you. +2Co 13:14 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the harmony of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. +Gal 1:1 Paul, an Apostle (not from men, and not through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who made him come back from the dead), +Gal 1:2 And all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: +Gal 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, +Gal 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, so that he might make us free from this present evil world, after the purpose of our God and Father: +Gal 1:5 To whom be the glory for ever and ever. So be it. +Gal 1:6 I am surprised that you are being so quickly turned away from him whose word came to you in the grace of Christ, to good news of a different sort; +Gal 1:7 Which is not another sort: only there are some who give you trouble, desiring to make changes in the good news of Christ. +Gal 1:8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, were to be a preacher to you of good news other than that which we have given you, let there be a curse on him. +Gal 1:9 As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man is a preacher to you of any good news other than that which has been given to you, let there be a curse on him. +Gal 1:10 Am I now using arguments to men, or God? or is it my desire to give men pleasure? if I was still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ. +Gal 1:11 Because I say to you, my brothers, that the good news of which I was the preacher is not man's. +Gal 1:12 For I did not get it from man, and I was not given teaching in it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ. +Gal 1:13 For news has come to you of my way of life in the past in the Jews' religion, how I was cruel without measure to the church of God, and did great damage to it: +Gal 1:14 And I went farther in the Jews' religion than a number of my generation among my countrymen, having a more burning interest in the beliefs handed down from my fathers. +Gal 1:15 But when it was the good pleasure of God, by whom I was marked out even from my mother's body, through his grace, +Gal 1:16 To give the revelation of his Son in me, so that I might give the news of him to the Gentiles; then I did not take the opinion of flesh and blood, +Gal 1:17 And I went not up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me; but I went away into Arabia, and again I came back to Damascus. +Gal 1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Cephas, and was there with him fifteen days. +Gal 1:19 But of the other Apostles I saw only James, the Lord's brother. +Gal 1:20 Now God is witness that the things which I am writing to you are true. +Gal 1:21 Then I came to the parts of Syria and Cilicia. +Gal 1:22 And the churches of Judaea which were in Christ still had no knowledge of my face or person: +Gal 1:23 Only it came to their ears that he who at one time was cruel to us is now preaching the faith which before had been attacked by him; +Gal 1:24 And they gave glory to God in me. +Gal 2:1 Then after the space of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus with me. +Gal 2:2 And I went up by revelation; and I put before them the good news which I was preaching among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were of good name, so that the work which I was or had been doing might not be without effect. +Gal 2:3 But not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was made to undergo circumcision: +Gal 2:4 And that because of the false brothers let in secretly, who came searching out our free condition which we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might make servants of us; +Gal 2:5 To whom we gave way not even for an hour; so that the true words of the good news might still be with you. +Gal 2:6 But from those who seemed to be important (whatever they were has no weight with me: God does not take man's person into account): those who seemed to be important gave nothing new to me; +Gal 2:7 But, quite the opposite, when they saw that I had been made responsible for preaching the good news to those without circumcision, even as Peter had been for those of the circumcision +Gal 2:8 (Because he who was working in Peter as the Apostle of the circumcision was working no less in me among the Gentiles); +Gal 2:9 When they saw the grace which was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who had the name of being pillars, gave to me and Barnabas their right hands as friends so that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision; +Gal 2:10 Only it was their desire that we would give thought to the poor; which very thing I had much in mind to do. +Gal 2:11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I made a protest against him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. +Gal 2:12 For before certain men came from James, he did take food with the Gentiles: but when they came, he went back and made himself separate, fearing those who were of the circumcision. +Gal 2:13 And the rest of the Jews went after him, so that even Barnabas was overcome by their false ways. +Gal 2:14 But when I saw that they were not living uprightly in agreement with the true words of the good news, I said to Cephas before them all, If you, being a Jew, are living like the Gentiles, and not like the Jews, how will you make the Gentiles do the same as the Jews? +Gal 2:15 We being Jews by birth, and not sinners of the Gentiles, +Gal 2:16 Being conscious that a man does not get righteousness by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we had faith in Christ Jesus, so that we might get righteousness by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: because by the works of the law will no flesh get righteousness. +Gal 2:17 But if, while we were desiring to get righteousness through Christ, we ourselves were seen to be sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? In no way! +Gal 2:18 For if I put up again those things which I gave to destruction, I am seen to be a wrongdoer. +Gal 2:19 For I, through the law, have become dead to the law, so that I might be living to God. +Gal 2:20 I have been put to death on the cross with Christ; still I am living; no longer I, but Christ is living in me; and that life which I now am living in the flesh I am living by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who in love for me, gave himself up for me. +Gal 2:21 I do not make the grace of God of no effect: because if righteousness is through the law, then Christ was put to death for nothing. +Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians, by what strange powers have you been tricked, to whom it was made clear that Jesus Christ was put to death on the cross? +Gal 3:2 Give me an answer to this one question, Did the Spirit come to you through the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? +Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? having made a start in the Spirit, will you now be made complete in the flesh? +Gal 3:4 Did you undergo such a number of things to no purpose? if it is in fact to no purpose. +Gal 3:5 He who gives you the Spirit, and does works of power among you, is it by the works of law, or by the hearing of faith? +Gal 3:6 Even as Abraham had faith in God, and it was put to his account as righteousness. +Gal 3:7 Be certain, then, that those who are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham. +Gal 3:8 And the holy Writings, seeing before the event that God would give the Gentiles righteousness by faith, gave the good news before to Abraham, saying, In you will all the nations have a blessing. +Gal 3:9 So then those who are of faith have a part in the blessing of Abraham who was full of faith. +Gal 3:10 For all who are of the works of the law are under a curse: because it is said in the Writings, A curse is on everyone who does not keep on doing all the things which are ordered in the book of the law. +Gal 3:11 Now that no man gets righteousness by the law in the eyes of God, is clear; because, The upright will be living by faith. +Gal 3:12 And the law is not of faith; but, He who does them will have life by them. +Gal 3:13 Christ has made us free from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us: because it is said in the Writings, A curse on everyone who is put to death by hanging on a tree: +Gal 3:14 So that on the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; in order that we through faith might have the Spirit which God had undertaken to give. +Gal 3:15 Brothers, as men would say, even a man's agreement, when it has been made certain, may not be put on one side, or have additions made to it. +Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham were the undertakings given, and to his seed. He says not, And to seeds, as of a great number; but as of one, he says, And to your seed, which is Christ. +Gal 3:17 Now this I say: The law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, does not put an end to the agreement made before by God, so as to make the undertaking without effect. +Gal 3:18 Because if the heritage is by the law, it is no longer dependent on the word of God; but God gave it to Abraham by his word. +Gal 3:19 What then is the law? It was an addition made because of sin, till the coming of the seed to whom the undertaking had been given; and it was ordered through angels by the hand of a go-between. +Gal 3:20 Now a go-between is not a go-between of one; but God is one. +Gal 3:21 Is the law then against the words of God? in no way; because if there had been a law which was able to give life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. +Gal 3:22 However, the holy Writings have put all things under sin, so that that for which God gave the undertaking, based on faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who have such faith. +Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept in prison under the law, waiting for the revelation of the faith which was to come. +Gal 3:24 So the law has been a servant to take us to Christ, so that we might have righteousness by faith. +Gal 3:25 But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a servant. +Gal 3:26 Because you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. +Gal 3:27 For all those of you who were given baptism into Christ did put on Christ. +Gal 3:28 There is no Jew or Greek, servant or free, male or female: because you are all one in Jesus Christ. +Gal 3:29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and yours is the heritage by the right of God's undertaking given to Abraham. +Gal 4:1 But I say that as long as the son is a child, he is in no way different from a servant, though he is lord of all; +Gal 4:2 But is under keepers and managers till the time fixed by the father. +Gal 4:3 So we, when we were young, were kept under the first rules of the world; +Gal 4:4 But when the time had come, God sent out his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, +Gal 4:5 That he might make them free who were under the law, and that we might be given the place of sons. +Gal 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, saying, Abba, Father. +Gal 4:7 So that you are no longer a servant, but a son; and if a son, then the heritage of God is yours. +Gal 4:8 But at that time, having no knowledge of God, you were servants to those who by right are no gods: +Gal 4:9 But now that you have come to have knowledge of God, or more truly, God has knowledge of you, how is it that you go back again to the poor and feeble first things, desiring to be servants to them again? +Gal 4:10 You keep days, and months, and fixed times, and years. +Gal 4:11 I am in fear of you, that I may have been working for you to no purpose. +Gal 4:12 My desire for you, brothers, is that you may be as I am, because I am as you are. You have done me no wrong; +Gal 4:13 But you have knowledge that with a feeble body I was preaching the good news to you the first time; +Gal 4:14 And you did not have a poor opinion of me because of the trouble in my flesh, or put shame on it; but you took me to your hearts as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. +Gal 4:15 Where then is that happy condition of yours? because I give you witness, that, if possible, you would have taken out your eyes and given them to me. +Gal 4:16 So then am I no longer your friend, because I give you true words? +Gal 4:17 Their interest in you is not good; but their desire is that you may be shut out, so that you may go after them. +Gal 4:18 But it is good to have an interest in a good cause at all times, and not only when I am present with you. +Gal 4:19 My children, of whom I am again in birth-pains till Christ is formed in you, +Gal 4:20 Truly my desire is to be present with you now, using a changed voice; for I am troubled about you. +Gal 4:21 Say, you whose desire it is to be under the law, do you not give ear to the law? +Gal 4:22 Because it is in the Writings, that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant-woman, and one by the free woman. +Gal 4:23 Now the son by the servant-woman has his birth after the flesh; but the son by the free woman has his birth through the undertaking of God. +Gal 4:24 Which things have a secret sense; because these women are the two agreements; one from the mountain of Sinai, giving birth to servants, which is Hagar. +Gal 4:25 Now this Hagar is the mountain Sinai in Arabia, and is the image of the Jerusalem which now is: which is a servant with her children. +Gal 4:26 But the Jerusalem on high is free, which is our mother. +Gal 4:27 For it is in the Writings, You who have never given birth, be glad; give cries of joy, you who have had no birth-pains; for the children of her who has been given up by her husband are more than those of the woman who has a husband. +Gal 4:28 Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are the children of the undertaking of God. +Gal 4:29 But as in those days he who had birth after the flesh was cruel to him who had birth after the Spirit, even so it is now. +Gal 4:30 What then do the Writings say? Send away the servant-woman and her son; for the son of the servant-woman will not have a part in the heritage with the son of the free woman. +Gal 4:31 So, brothers, we are not children of the servant-woman, but of the free woman. +Gal 5:1 Christ has truly made us free: then keep your free condition and let no man put a yoke on you again. +Gal 5:2 See, I Paul say to you, that if you undergo circumcision, Christ will be of no use to you. +Gal 5:3 Yes, I give witness again to every man who undergoes circumcision, that he will have to keep all the law. +Gal 5:4 You are cut off from Christ, you who would have righteousness by the law; you are turned away from grace. +Gal 5:5 For we through the Spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness. +Gal 5:6 Because in Christ Jesus, having circumcision or not having circumcision are equally of no profit; but only faith working through love. +Gal 5:7 You were going on well; who was the cause of your not giving ear to what is true? +Gal 5:8 This ready belief did not come from him who had made you his. +Gal 5:9 A little leaven makes a change in all the mass. +Gal 5:10 I am certain about you in the Lord, that you will be of no other mind; but he who is troubling you will have his punishment, whoever he is. +Gal 5:11 But I, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still attacked? then has the shame of the cross been taken away. +Gal 5:12 My desire is that they who give you trouble might even be cut off themselves. +Gal 5:13 Because you, brothers, were marked out to be free; only do not make use of your free condition to give the flesh its chance, but through love be servants one to another. +Gal 5:14 For all the law is made complete in one word, even in this, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. +Gal 5:15 But if you are given to fighting with one another, take care that you are not the cause of destruction one to another. +Gal 5:16 But I say, Go on in the Spirit, and you will not come under the rule of the evil desires of the flesh. +Gal 5:17 For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; because these are opposite the one to the other; so that you may not do the things which you have a mind to do. +Gal 5:18 But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. +Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are clear, which are these: evil desire, unclean things, wrong use of the senses, +Gal 5:20 Worship of images, use of strange powers, hates, fighting, desire for what another has, angry feelings, attempts to get the better of others, divisions, false teachings, +Gal 5:21 Envy, uncontrolled drinking and feasting, and such things: of which I give you word clearly, even as I did in the past, that they who do such things will have no part in the kingdom of God. +Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, a quiet mind, kind acts, well-doing, faith, +Gal 5:23 Gentle behaviour, control over desires: against such there is no law. +Gal 5:24 And those who are Christ's have put to death on the cross the flesh with its passions and its evil desires. +Gal 5:25 If we are living by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us be guided. +Gal 5:26 Let us not be full of self-glory, making one another angry, having envy of one another. +Gal 6:1 Brothers, if a man is taken in any wrongdoing, you who are of the Spirit will put such a one right in a spirit of love; keeping watch on yourself, for fear that you yourself may be tested. +Gal 6:2 Take on yourselves one another's troubles, and so keep the law of Christ. +Gal 6:3 For if a man has an idea that he is something when he is nothing, he is tricked by himself. +Gal 6:4 But let every man make test of his work, and then will his cause for glory be in himself only, and not in his neighbour. +Gal 6:5 Because every man is responsible for his part of the work. +Gal 6:6 But let him who gets teaching in the word give a part in all good things to his teacher. +Gal 6:7 Be not tricked; God is not made sport of: for whatever seed a man puts in, that will he get back as grain. +Gal 6:8 Because he who puts in the seed of the flesh will of the flesh get the reward of death; but he who puts in the seed of the Spirit will of the Spirit get the reward of eternal life. +Gal 6:9 And let us not get tired of well-doing; for at the right time we will get in the grain, if we do not give way to weariness. +Gal 6:10 So then, as we have the chance, let us do good to all men, and specially to those who are of the family of the faith. +Gal 6:11 See the size of the handwriting which I myself have made use of in writing to you. +Gal 6:12 Those who have the desire to seem important in the flesh, put force on you to undergo circumcision; only that they may not be attacked because of the cross of Christ. +Gal 6:13 Because even those who undergo circumcision do not themselves keep the law; but they would have you undergo circumcision, so that they may have glory in your flesh. +Gal 6:14 But far be it from me to have glory in anything, but only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which this world has come to an end on the cross for me, and I for it. +Gal 6:15 For having circumcision is nothing, and not having circumcision is nothing, but only a new order of existence. +Gal 6:16 And on all who are guided by this rule be peace and mercy, and on the Israel of God. +Gal 6:17 From this time on let no man be a trouble to me; because my body is marked with the marks of Jesus. +Gal 6:18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. So be it. +Eph 1:1 Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the purpose of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and those who have faith in Christ Jesus: +Eph 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +Eph 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us every blessing of the Spirit in the heavens in Christ: +Eph 1:4 Even as he made selection of us in him from the first, so that we might be holy and free from all evil before him in love: +Eph 1:5 As we were designed before by him for the position of sons to himself, through Jesus Christ, in the good pleasure of his purpose, +Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely gave to us in the Loved One: +Eph 1:7 In whom we have salvation through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins, through the wealth of his grace, +Eph 1:8 Which he gave us in full measure in all wisdom and care; +Eph 1:9 Having made clear to us the secret of his purpose, in agreement with the design which he had in mind, to put into his hands +Eph 1:10 The ordering of the times when they are complete, so that all things might come to a head in Christ, the things in heaven and the things on the earth; in him, I say, +Eph 1:11 In whom we have a heritage, being marked out from the first in his purpose who does all things in agreement with his designs; +Eph 1:12 So that his glory might have praise through us who first had hope in Christ: +Eph 1:13 In whom you, having been given the true word, the good news of your salvation, and through your faith in him, were given the sign of the Holy Spirit of hope, +Eph 1:14 Which is the first-fruit of our heritage, till God gets back that which is his, to the praise of his glory. +Eph 1:15 For this cause I, having had news of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and which you make clear to all the saints, +Eph 1:16 Give praise without end for you, keeping you in mind in my prayers; +Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; +Eph 1:18 And that having the eyes of your heart full of light, you may have knowledge of what is the hope of his purpose, what is the wealth of the glory of his heritage in the saints, +Eph 1:19 And how unlimited is his power to us who have faith, as is seen in the working of the strength of his power, +Eph 1:20 By which he made Christ come back from the dead, and gave him a place at his right hand in heaven, +Eph 1:21 Far over all rule and authority and power and every name which is named, not only in the present order, but in that which is to come: +Eph 1:22 And he has put all things under his feet, and has made him to be head over all things to the church, +Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the full measure of him in whom all things are made complete. +Eph 2:1 And to you did he give life, when you were dead through your wrongdoing and sins, +Eph 2:2 In which you were living in the past, after the ways of this present world, doing the pleasure of the lord of the power of the air, the spirit who is now working in those who go against the purpose of God; +Eph 2:3 Among whom we all at one time were living in the pleasures of our flesh, giving way to the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and the punishment of God was waiting for us even as for the rest. +Eph 2:4 But God, being full of mercy, through the great love which he had for us, +Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead through our sins, gave us life together with Christ (by grace you have salvation), +Eph 2:6 So that we came back from death with him, and are seated with him in the heavens, in Christ Jesus; +Eph 2:7 That in the time to come he might make clear the full wealth of his grace in his mercy to us in Christ Jesus: +Eph 2:8 Because by grace you have salvation through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is given by God: +Eph 2:9 Not by works, so that no man may take glory to himself. +Eph 2:10 For by his act we were given existence in Christ Jesus to do those good works which God before made ready for us so that we might do them. +Eph 2:11 For this reason keep it in mind that in the past you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are looked on as being outside the circumcision by those who have circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; +Eph 2:12 That you were at that time without Christ, being cut off from any part in Israel's rights as a nation, having no part in God's agreement, having no hope, and without God in the world. +Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who at one time were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. +Eph 2:14 For he is our peace, who has made the two into one, and by whom the middle wall of division has been broken down, +Eph 2:15 Having in his flesh put an end to that which made the division between us, even the law with its rules and orders, so that he might make in himself, of the two, one new man, so making peace; +Eph 2:16 And that the two might come into agreement with God in one body through the cross, so putting an end to that division. +Eph 2:17 And he came preaching peace to you who were far off, and to those who were near; +Eph 2:18 Because through him the two of us are able to come near in one Spirit to the Father. +Eph 2:19 So then you are no longer as those who have no part or place in the kingdom of God, but you are numbered among the saints, and of the family of God, +Eph 2:20 Resting on the base of the Apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief keystone, +Eph 2:21 In whom all the building, rightly joined together, comes to be a holy house of God in the Lord; +Eph 2:22 In whom you, with the rest, are united together as a living-place of God in the Spirit. +Eph 3:1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, +Eph 3:2 If that ordering of the grace of God has come to your knowledge, which was given to me for you, +Eph 3:3 How by revelation the secret was made clear to me, as I said before in a short letter, +Eph 3:4 By the reading of which you will be clear about my knowledge of the secret of Christ; +Eph 3:5 Which in other generations was not given to the sons of men, but the revelation of it has now been made to his holy Apostles and prophets in the Spirit; +Eph 3:6 Which is that the Gentiles have a part in the heritage, and in the same body, and in the same hope in Christ through the good news, +Eph 3:7 Of which I was made a preacher, through that grace of God which was given to me in the measure of the working of his power. +Eph 3:8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, was this grace given, so that I might make clear to the Gentiles the good news of the unending wealth of Christ: +Eph 3:9 And make all men see what is the ordering of the secret which from the first has been kept in God who made all things; +Eph 3:10 So that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavens might be made clear through the church the wide-shining wisdom of God, +Eph 3:11 Which is seen in his eternal purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord: +Eph 3:12 By whom we come near to God without fear through faith in him. +Eph 3:13 For this reason it is my prayer that you may not become feeble because of my troubles for you, which are your glory. +Eph 3:14 For this cause I go down on my knees before the Father, +Eph 3:15 From whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, +Eph 3:16 That in the wealth of his glory he would make you strong with power through his Spirit in your hearts; +Eph 3:17 So that Christ may have his place in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and based in love, +Eph 3:18 May have strength to see with all the saints how wide and long and high and deep it is, +Eph 3:19 And to have knowledge of the love of Christ which is outside all knowledge, so that you may be made complete as God himself is complete. +Eph 3:20 Now to him who is able to do in full measure more than all our desires or thoughts, through the power which is working in us, +Eph 3:21 To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations for ever and ever. So be it. +Eph 4:1 I then, the prisoner in the Lord, make this request from my heart, that you will see that your behaviour is a credit to the position which God's purpose has given you, +Eph 4:2 With all gentle and quiet behaviour, taking whatever comes, putting up with one another in love; +Eph 4:3 Taking care to keep the harmony of the Spirit in the yoke of peace. +Eph 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, even as you have been marked out by God in the one hope of his purpose for you; +Eph 4:5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, +Eph 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. +Eph 4:7 But to every one of us has grace been given in the measure of the giving of Christ. +Eph 4:8 For this reason he says, He went up on high, taking his prisoners with him, and gave freely to men. +Eph 4:9 (Now this, He went up, what is it but that he first went down into the lower parts of the earth? +Eph 4:10 He who went down is the same who went up far over all the heavens so that he might make all things complete.) +Eph 4:11 And he gave some as Apostles, and some, prophets; and some, preachers of the good news; and some to give care and teaching; +Eph 4:12 For the training of the saints as servants in the church, for the building up of the body of Christ: +Eph 4:13 Till we all come to the harmony of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to full growth, to the full measure of Christ: +Eph 4:14 So that we may be no longer children, sent this way and that, turned about by every wind of teaching, by the twisting and tricks of men, by the deceits of error; +Eph 4:15 But saying true words in love, may come to full growth in him, who is the head, even Christ; +Eph 4:16 Through whom all the body, being rightly formed and united together, by the full working of every part, is increased to the building up of itself in love. +Eph 4:17 This I say, then, and give witness in the Lord, that you are to go no longer in the way of the Gentiles whose minds are turned to that which has no profit, +Eph 4:18 Whose thoughts are dark, to whom the life of God is strange because they are without knowledge, and their hearts have been made hard; +Eph 4:19 Who having no more power of feeling, have given themselves up to evil passions, to do all unclean things with overmuch desire. +Eph 4:20 For this was not the teaching of Christ which was given to you; +Eph 4:21 If in fact you gave ear to him, and were given teaching in him, even as what is true is made clear in Jesus: +Eph 4:22 That you are to put away, in relation to your earlier way of life, the old man, which has become evil by love of deceit; +Eph 4:23 And be made new in the spirit of your mind, +Eph 4:24 And put on the new man, to which God has given life, in righteousness and a true and holy way of living. +Eph 4:25 And so, putting away false words, let everyone say what is true to his neighbour: for we are parts one of another. +Eph 4:26 Be angry without doing wrong; let not the sun go down on your wrath; +Eph 4:27 And do not give way to the Evil One. +Eph 4:28 Let him who was a thief be so no longer, but let him do good work with his hands, so that he may have something to give to him who is in need. +Eph 4:29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, but only what is good for giving necessary teaching, and for grace to those who give ear. +Eph 4:30 And do not give grief to the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were marked for the day of salvation. +Eph 4:31 Let all bitter, sharp and angry feeling, and noise, and evil words, be put away from you, with all unkind acts; +Eph 4:32 And be kind to one another, full of pity, having forgiveness for one another, even as God in Christ had forgiveness for you. +Eph 5:1 Let it then be your desire to be like God, as well-loved children; +Eph 5:2 And be living in love, even as Christ had love for you, and gave himself up for us, an offering to God for a perfume of a sweet smell. +Eph 5:3 But evil acts of the flesh and all unclean things, or desire for others' property, let it not even be named among you, as is right for saints; +Eph 5:4 And let there be no low behaviour, or foolish talk, or words said in sport, which are not right, but in place of them the giving of praise. +Eph 5:5 Being certain of this, that no man who gives way to the passions of the flesh, no unclean person, or one who has desire for the property of others, or who gives worship to images, has any heritage in the kingdom of Christ and God. +Eph 5:6 Do not be turned from the right way by foolish words; for because of these things the punishment of God comes on those who do not put themselves under him. +Eph 5:7 Have no part with such men; +Eph 5:8 For you at one time were dark, but now are light in the Lord: let your behaviour be that of children of light +Eph 5:9 (Because the fruit of the light is in all righteousness and in everything which is good and true), +Eph 5:10 Testing by experience what is well-pleasing to the Lord; +Eph 5:11 And have no company with the works of the dark, which give no fruit, but make their true quality clear; +Eph 5:12 For the things which are done by them in secret it is shame even to put into words. +Eph 5:13 But all things, when their true quality is seen, are made clear by the light: because everything which is made clear is light. +Eph 5:14 For this reason he says, Be awake, you who are sleeping, and come up from among the dead, and Christ will be your light. +Eph 5:15 Take care then how you are living, not as unwise, but as wise; +Eph 5:16 Making good use of the time, because the days are evil. +Eph 5:17 For this reason, then, do not be foolish, but be conscious of the Lord's pleasure. +Eph 5:18 And do not take overmuch wine by which one may be overcome, but be full of the Spirit; +Eph 5:19 Joining with one another in holy songs of praise and of the Spirit, using your voice in songs and making melody in your heart to the Lord; +Eph 5:20 Giving praise at all times for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father; +Eph 5:21 Letting yourselves be ruled by one another in the fear of Christ. +Eph 5:22 Wives, be under the authority of your husbands, as of the Lord. +Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. +Eph 5:24 And as the church is under Christ's authority, so let wives be under the rule of their husbands in all things. +Eph 5:25 Husbands, have love for your wives, even as Christ had love for the church, and gave himself for it; +Eph 5:26 So that he might make it holy, having made it clean with the washing of water by the word, +Eph 5:27 And might take it for himself, a church full of glory, not having one mark or fold or any such thing; but that it might be holy and complete. +Eph 5:28 Even so it is right for husbands to have love for their wives as for their bodies. He who has love for his wife has love for himself: +Eph 5:29 For no man ever had hate for his flesh; but he gives it food and takes care of it, even as Christ does for the church; +Eph 5:30 Because we are parts of his body. +Eph 5:31 For this cause will a man go away from his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. +Eph 5:32 This is a great secret: but my words are about Christ and the church. +Eph 5:33 But do you, everyone, have love for his wife, even as for himself; and let the wife see that she has respect for her husband. +Eph 6:1 Children, do what is ordered by your fathers and mothers in the Lord: for this is right. +Eph 6:2 Give honour to your father and mother (which is the first rule having a reward), +Eph 6:3 So that all may be well for you, and your life may be long on the earth. +Eph 6:4 And, you fathers, do not make your children angry: but give them training in the teaching and fear of the Lord. +Eph 6:5 Servants, do what is ordered by those who are your natural masters, having respect and fear for them, with all your heart, as to Christ; +Eph 6:6 Not only under your master's eye, as pleasers of men; but as servants of Christ, doing the pleasure of God from the heart; +Eph 6:7 Doing your work readily, as to the Lord, and not to men: +Eph 6:8 In the knowledge that for every good thing anyone does, he will have his reward from the Lord, If he is a servant or if he is free. +Eph 6:9 And, you masters, do the same things to them, not making use of violent words: in the knowledge that their Master and yours is in heaven, and he has no respect for a man's position. +Eph 6:10 Lastly, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his power. +Eph 6:11 Take up God's instruments of war, so that you may be able to keep your position against all the deceits of the Evil One. +Eph 6:12 For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against authorities and powers, against the world-rulers of this dark night, against the spirits of evil in the heavens. +Eph 6:13 For this reason take up all the arms of God, so that you may be able to be strong in the evil day, and, having done all, to keep your place. +Eph 6:14 Take your place, then, having your body clothed with the true word, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness; +Eph 6:15 Be ready with the good news of peace as shoes on your feet; +Eph 6:16 And most of all, using faith as a cover to keep off all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. +Eph 6:17 And take salvation for your head-dress and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: +Eph 6:18 With prayers and deep desires, making requests at all times in the Spirit, and keeping watch, with strong purpose, in prayer for all the saints, +Eph 6:19 And for me, that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make clear without fear the secret of the good news, +Eph 6:20 For which I am a representative in chains, and that I may say without fear the things which it is right for me to say. +Eph 6:21 But so that you may have knowledge of my business, and how I am, Tychicus, the well-loved brother and tested servant in the Lord, will give you news of all things: +Eph 6:22 Whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, so that you may have knowledge of our position, and that he may give comfort to your hearts. +Eph 6:23 Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +Eph 6:24 Grace be with all those who have true love for our Lord Jesus Christ. +Phl 1:1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, with the Bishops and Deacons of the church: +Phl 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +Phl 1:3 I give praise to my God at every memory of you, +Phl 1:4 And in all my prayers for you all, making my request with joy, +Phl 1:5 Because of your help in giving the good news from the first day till now; +Phl 1:6 For I am certain of this very thing, that he by whom the good work was started in you will make it complete till the day of Jesus Christ: +Phl 1:7 So it is right for me to take thought for you all in this way, because I have you in my heart; for in my chains, and in my arguments before the judges in support of the good news, making clear that it is true, you all have your part with me in grace. +Phl 1:8 For God is my witness, how my love goes out to you all in the loving mercies of Christ Jesus. +Phl 1:9 And my prayer is that you may be increased more and more in knowledge and experience; +Phl 1:10 So that you may give your approval to the best things; that you may be true and without wrongdoing till the day of Christ; +Phl 1:11 Being full of the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. +Phl 1:12 Now it is my purpose to make clear to you, brothers, that the cause of the good news has been helped by my experiences; +Phl 1:13 So that it became clear through all the Praetorium, and to all the rest, that I was a prisoner on account of Christ; +Phl 1:14 And most of the brothers in the Lord, taking heart because of my chains, are all the stronger to give the word of God without fear. +Phl 1:15 Though some are preaching Christ out of envy and competition, others do it out of a good heart: +Phl 1:16 These do it from love, conscious that I am responsible for the cause of the good news: +Phl 1:17 But those are preaching Christ in a spirit of competition, not from their hearts, but with the purpose of giving me pain in my prison. +Phl 1:18 What then? only that in every way, falsely or truly, the preaching of Christ goes on; and in this I am glad, and will be glad. +Phl 1:19 For I am conscious that this will be for my salvation, through your prayer and the giving out of the stored wealth of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, +Phl 1:20 In the measure of my strong hope and belief that in nothing will I be put to shame, but that without fear, as at all times, so now will Christ have glory in my body, by life or by death. +Phl 1:21 For to me life is Christ and death is profit. +Phl 1:22 But if I go on living in the flesh--if this is the fruit of my work--then I do not see what decision to make. +Phl 1:23 I am in a hard position between the two, having a desire to go away and be with Christ, which is very much better: +Phl 1:24 Still, to go on in the flesh is more necessary because of you. +Phl 1:25 And being certain of this, I am conscious that I will go on, yes, and go on with you all, for your growth and joy in the faith; +Phl 1:26 So that your pride in me may be increased in Christ Jesus through my being present with you again. +Phl 1:27 Only let your behaviour do credit to the good news of Christ, so that if I come and see you or if I am away from you, I may have news of you that you are strong in one spirit, working together with one soul for the faith of the good news; +Phl 1:28 Having no fear of those who are against you; which is a clear sign of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God; +Phl 1:29 Because to you it has been given in the cause of Christ not only to have faith in him, but to undergo pain on his account: +Phl 1:30 Fighting the same fight which you saw in me, and now have word of in me. +Phl 2:1 If then there is any comfort in Christ, any help given by love, any uniting of hearts in the Spirit, any loving mercies and pity, +Phl 2:2 Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in harmony and of one mind; +Phl 2:3 Doing nothing through envy or through pride, but with low thoughts of self let everyone take others to be better than himself; +Phl 2:4 Not looking everyone to his private good, but keeping in mind the things of others. +Phl 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, +Phl 2:6 To whom, though himself in the form of God, it did not seem that to take for oneself was to be like God; +Phl 2:7 But he made himself as nothing, taking the form of a servant, being made like men; +Phl 2:8 And being seen in form as a man, he took the lowest place, and let himself be put to death, even the death of the cross. +Phl 2:9 For this reason God has put him in the highest place and has given to him the name which is greater than every name; +Phl 2:10 So that at the name of Jesus every knee may be bent, of those in heaven and those on earth and those in the underworld, +Phl 2:11 And that every tongue may give witness that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. +Phl 2:12 So then, my loved ones, as you have at all times done what I say, not only when I am present, but now much more when I am not with you, give yourselves to working out your salvation with fear in your hearts; +Phl 2:13 For it is God who is the cause of your desires and of your acts, for his good pleasure. +Phl 2:14 Do all things without protests and arguments; +Phl 2:15 So that you may be holy and gentle, children of God without sin in a twisted and foolish generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world, +Phl 2:16 Offering the word of life; so that I may have glory in you in the day of Christ, because my running was not for nothing and my work was not without effect. +Phl 2:17 And even if I am offered like a drink offering, giving myself for the cause and work of your faith, I am glad and have joy with you all: +Phl 2:18 And in the same way do you be glad and have a part in my joy. +Phl 2:19 But I am hoping in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you before long, so that I may be comforted when I have news of you. +Phl 2:20 For I have no man of like mind who will truly have care for you. +Phl 2:21 For they all go after what is theirs, not after the things of Christ. +Phl 2:22 But his quality is clear to you; how, as a child is to its father, so he was a help to me in the work of the good news. +Phl 2:23 Him then I am hoping to send as quickly as possible, when I am able to see how things will go for me: +Phl 2:24 But I have faith in the Lord that I myself will come before long. +Phl 2:25 But it seemed to me necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, who has taken part with me in the work and in the fight, and your servant, sent by you for help in my need; +Phl 2:26 Because his heart was with you all, and he was greatly troubled because you had news that he was ill: +Phl 2:27 For in fact he was ill almost to death: but God had mercy on him; and not only on him but on me, so that I might not have grief on grief. +Phl 2:28 I have sent him, then, the more gladly, so that when you see him again, you may be happy and I may have the less sorrow. +Phl 2:29 So take him to your hearts in the Lord with all joy, and give honour to such as he is: +Phl 2:30 Because for the work of Christ he was near to death, putting his life in danger to make your care for me complete. +Phl 3:1 For the rest, my brothers, be glad in the Lord. Writing the same things to you is no trouble to me, and for you it is safe. +Phl 3:2 Be on the watch against dogs, against the workers of evil, against those of the circumcision: +Phl 3:3 For we are the circumcision, who give worship to God and have glory in Jesus Christ, and have no faith in the flesh: +Phl 3:4 Even though I myself might have faith in the flesh: if any other man has reason to have faith in the flesh, I have more: +Phl 3:5 Being given circumcision on the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in relation to the law, a Pharisee: +Phl 3:6 In bitter hate I was cruel to the church; I kept all the righteousness of the law to the last detail. +Phl 3:7 But those things which were profit to me, I gave up for Christ. +Phl 3:8 Yes truly, and I am ready to give up all things for the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, which is more than all: for whom I have undergone the loss of all things, and to me they are less than nothing, so that I may have Christ as my reward, +Phl 3:9 And be seen in him, not having my righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: +Phl 3:10 That I may have knowledge of him, and of the power of his coming back from the dead, and a part with him in his pains, becoming like him in his death; +Phl 3:11 If in any way I may have the reward of life from the dead. +Phl 3:12 Not as if I had even now got the reward or been made complete: but I go on in the hope that I may come to the knowledge of that for which I was made the servant of Christ Jesus. +Phl 3:13 Brothers, it is clear to me that I have not come to that knowledge; but one thing I do, letting go those things which are past, and stretching out to the things which are before, +Phl 3:14 I go forward to the mark, even the reward of the high purpose of God in Christ Jesus. +Phl 3:15 Then let us all, who have come to full growth, be of this mind: and if in anything you are of a different mind, even this will God make clear to you: +Phl 3:16 Only, as far as we have got, let us be guided by the same rule. +Phl 3:17 Brothers, take me as your example, and take note of those who are walking after the example we have given. +Phl 3:18 For there are those, of whom I have given you word before, and do so now with sorrow, who are haters of the cross of Christ; +Phl 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose god is the stomach, and whose glory is in their shame, whose minds are fixed on the things of the earth. +Phl 3:20 For our country is in heaven; from where the Saviour for whom we are waiting will come, even the Lord Jesus Christ: +Phl 3:21 By whom this poor body of ours will be changed into the image of the body of his glory, in the measure of the working by which he is able to put all things under himself. +Phl 4:1 So my brothers, well loved and very dear to me, my joy and crown, be strong in the Lord, my loved ones. +Phl 4:2 I make request to Euodias and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. +Phl 4:3 And I make request to you, true helper in my work, to see to the needs of those women who took part with me in the good news, with Clement and the rest of my brother-workers whose names are in the book of life. +Phl 4:4 Be glad in the Lord at all times: again I say, Be glad. +Phl 4:5 Let your gentle behaviour be clear to all men. The Lord is near. +Phl 4:6 Have no cares; but in everything with prayer and praise put your requests before God. +Phl 4:7 And the peace of God, which is deeper than all knowledge, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. +Phl 4:8 For the rest, my brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things have honour, whatever things are upright, whatever things are holy, whatever things are beautiful, whatever things are of value, if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, give thought to these things. +Phl 4:9 The things which came to you by my teaching and preaching, and which you saw in me, these things do, and the God of peace will be with you. +Phl 4:10 But I am very glad in the Lord that your care for me has come to life again; though you did in fact take thought for me, but you were not able to give effect to it. +Phl 4:11 But I will not say anything about my needs, for I am able, wherever I am, to be dependent on myself. +Phl 4:12 It is the same to me if I am looked down on or honoured; everywhere and in all things I have the secret of how to be full and how to go without food; how to have wealth and how to be in need. +Phl 4:13 I am able to do all things through him who gives me strength. +Phl 4:14 But you did well to have care for me in my need. +Phl 4:15 And you have knowledge, Philippians, that when the good news first came to you, when I went away from Macedonia, no church took part with me in the business of giving to the saints, but you only; +Phl 4:16 Because even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to me in my need. +Phl 4:17 Not that I am looking for an offering, but for fruit which may be put to your credit. +Phl 4:18 I have all things and more than enough: I am made full, having had from Epaphroditus the things which came from you, a perfume of a sweet smell, an offering well pleasing to God. +Phl 4:19 And my God will give you all you have need of from the wealth of his glory in Christ Jesus. +Phl 4:20 Now to God our Father be glory for ever and ever. So be it. +Phl 4:21 Give words of love to every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send you their love. +Phl 4:22 All the saints send their love to you, specially those who are of Caesar's house. +Phl 4:23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. +Col 1:1 Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the purpose of God, and Timothy our brother, +Col 1:2 To the saints and true brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. +Col 1:3 We give praise to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, making prayer for you at all times, +Col 1:4 After hearing of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have for all the saints, +Col 1:5 Through the hope which is in store for you in heaven; knowledge of which was given to you before in the true word of the good news, +Col 1:6 Which has come to you; and which in all the world is giving fruit and increase, as it has done in you from the day when it came to your ears and you had true knowledge of the grace of God; +Col 1:7 As it was given to you by Epaphras, our well-loved helper, who is a true servant of Christ for us, +Col 1:8 And who, himself, made clear to us your love in the Spirit. +Col 1:9 For this reason, we, from the day when we had word of it, keep on in prayer for you, that you may be full of the knowledge of his purpose, with all wisdom and experience of the Spirit, +Col 1:10 Living uprightly in the approval of the Lord, giving fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; +Col 1:11 Full of strength in the measure of the great power of his glory, so that you may undergo all troubles with joy; +Col 1:12 Giving praise to the Father who has given us a part in the heritage of the saints in light; +Col 1:13 Who has made us free from the power of evil and given us a place in the kingdom of the Son of his love; +Col 1:14 In whom we have our salvation, the forgiveness of sins: +Col 1:15 Who is the image of the unseen God coming into existence before all living things; +Col 1:16 For by him all things were made, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, authorities, lords, rulers, and powers; all things were made by him and for him; +Col 1:17 He is before all things, and in him all things have being. +Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: the starting point of all things, the first to come again from the dead; so that in all things he might have the chief place. +Col 1:19 For God in full measure was pleased to be in him; +Col 1:20 Through him uniting all things with himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, uniting all things which are on earth or in heaven. +Col 1:21 And you, who in the past were cut off and at war with God in your minds through evil works, he has now made one +Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, so that you might be holy and without sin and free from all evil before him: +Col 1:23 If you keep yourselves safely based in the faith, not moved from the hope of the good news which came to you, and which was given to every living being under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant. +Col 1:24 Now I have joy in my pain because of you, and in my flesh I undergo whatever is still needed to make the sorrows of Christ complete, for the salvation of his body, the church; +Col 1:25 Of which I became a servant by the purpose of God which was given to me for you, to give effect to the word of God, +Col 1:26 The secret which has been kept from all times and generations, but has now been made clear to his saints, +Col 1:27 To whom God was pleased to give knowledge of the wealth of the glory of this secret among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: +Col 1:28 Whom we are preaching; guiding and teaching every man in all wisdom, so that every man may be complete in Christ; +Col 1:29 And for this purpose I am working, using all my strength by the help of his power which is working in me strongly. +Col 2:1 For it is my desire to give you news of the great fight I am making for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen my face in the flesh; +Col 2:2 So that their hearts may be comforted, and that being joined together in love, they may come to the full wealth of the certain knowledge of the secret of God, even Christ, +Col 2:3 In whom are all the secret stores of wisdom and knowledge. +Col 2:4 I say this so that you may not be turned away by any deceit of words. +Col 2:5 For though I am not present in the flesh, still I am with you in the spirit, seeing with joy your order, and your unchanging faith in Christ. +Col 2:6 As, then, you took Christ Jesus the Lord, so go on in him, +Col 2:7 Rooted and based together in him, strong in the faith which the teaching gave you, giving praise to God at all times. +Col 2:8 Take care that no one takes you away by force, through man's wisdom and deceit, going after the beliefs of men and the theories of the world, and not after Christ: +Col 2:9 For in him all the wealth of God's being has a living form, +Col 2:10 And you are complete in him, who is the head of all rule and authority: +Col 2:11 In whom you had a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; +Col 2:12 Having been put to death with him in baptism, by which you came to life again with him, through faith in the working of God, who made him come back from the dead. +Col 2:13 And you, being dead through your sins and the evil condition of your flesh, to you, I say, he gave life together with him, and forgiveness of all our sins; +Col 2:14 Having put an end to the handwriting of the law which was against us, taking it out of the way by nailing it to his cross; +Col 2:15 Having made himself free from the rule of authorities and powers, he put them openly to shame, glorying over them in it. +Col 2:16 For this reason let no man be your judge in any question of food or drink or feast days or new moons or Sabbaths: +Col 2:17 For these are an image of the things which are to come; but the body is Christ's. +Col 2:18 Let no man take your reward from you by consciously making little of himself and giving worship to angels; having his thoughts fixed on the things which he has seen, being foolishly lifted up in his natural mind, +Col 2:19 And not joined to the Head, from whom all the body, being given strength and kept together through its joins and bands, has its growth with the increase of God. +Col 2:20 If you were made free, by your death with Christ, from the rules of the world, why do you put yourselves under the authority of orders +Col 2:21 Which say there may be no touching, tasting, or taking in your hands, +Col 2:22 (Rules which are all to come to an end with their use) after the orders and teaching of men? +Col 2:23 These things seem to have a sort of wisdom in self-ordered worship and making little of oneself, and being cruel to the body, not honouring it by giving it its natural use. +Col 3:1 If then you have a new life with Christ, give your attention to the things of heaven, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. +Col 3:2 Keep your mind on the higher things, not on the things of earth. +Col 3:3 For your life on earth is done, and you have a secret life with Christ in God. +Col 3:4 At the coming of Christ who is our life, you will be seen with him in glory. +Col 3:5 Then put to death your bodies which are of the earth; wrong use of the flesh, unclean things, passion, evil desires and envy, which is the worship of strange gods; +Col 3:6 Because of which the wrath of God comes on those who go against his orders; +Col 3:7 Among whom you were living in the past, when you did such things. +Col 3:8 But now it is right for you to put away all these things; wrath, passion, bad feeling, curses, unclean talk; +Col 3:9 Do not make false statements to one another; because you have put away the old man with all his doings, +Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which has become new in knowledge after the image of his maker; +Col 3:11 Where there is no Greek or Jew, no one with circumcision or without circumcision, no division between nations, no servant or free man: but Christ is all and in all. +Col 3:12 As saints of God, then, holy and dearly loved, let your behaviour be marked by pity and mercy, kind feeling, a low opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, and a power of undergoing all things; +Col 3:13 Being gentle to one another and having forgiveness for one another, if anyone has done wrong to his brother, even as the Lord had forgiveness for you: +Col 3:14 And more than all, have love; the only way in which you may be completely joined together. +Col 3:15 And let the peace of Christ be ruling in your hearts, as it was the purpose of God for you to be one body; and give praise to God at all times. +Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ be in you in all wealth of wisdom; teaching and helping one another with songs of praise and holy words, making melody to God with grace in your hearts. +Col 3:17 And whatever you do, in word or in act, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving praise to God the Father through him. +Col 3:18 Wives, be under the authority of your husbands, as is right in the Lord. +Col 3:19 Husbands, have love for your wives, and be not bitter against them. +Col 3:20 Children, do the orders of your fathers and mothers in all things, for this is pleasing to the Lord. +Col 3:21 Fathers, do not be hard on your children, so that their spirit may not be broken. +Col 3:22 Servants, in all things do the orders of your natural masters; not only when their eyes are on you, as pleasers of men, but with all your heart, fearing the Lord: +Col 3:23 Whatever you do, do it readily, as to the Lord and not to men; +Col 3:24 Being certain that the Lord will give you the reward of the heritage: for you are the servants of the Lord Christ. +Col 3:25 For the wrongdoer will have punishment for the wrong he has done, without respect for any man's position. +Col 4:1 Masters, give your servants what is right and equal, conscious that you have a Master in heaven. +Col 4:2 Give yourselves to prayer at all times, keeping watch with praise; +Col 4:3 And making prayer for us, that God may give us an open door for the preaching of the word, the secret of Christ, for which I am now in chains; +Col 4:4 So that I may make it clear, as it is right for me to do. +Col 4:5 Be wise in your behaviour to those who are outside, making good use of the time. +Col 4:6 Let your talk be with grace, mixed with salt, so that you may be able to give an answer to everyone. +Col 4:7 Tychicus will give you news of all my business: he is a dear brother and true servant and helper in the word; +Col 4:8 And I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may have news of how we are, and so that he may give your hearts comfort; +Col 4:9 And with him I have sent Onesimus, the true and well-loved brother, who is one of you. They will give you word of everything which is taking place here. +Col 4:10 Aristarchus, my brother-prisoner, sends his love to you, and Mark, a relation of Barnabas (about whom you have been given orders: if he comes to you, be kind to him), +Col 4:11 And Jesus, whose other name is Justus; these are of the circumcision: they are my only brother-workers for the kingdom of God, who have been a comfort to me. +Col 4:12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his love, ever taking thought for you in his prayers, that you may be complete and fully certain of all the purpose of God. +Col 4:13 For I give witness of him that he has undergone much trouble for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. +Col 4:14 Luke, our well-loved medical friend, and Demas, send you their love. +Col 4:15 Give my love to the brothers in Laodicea and to Nymphas and the church in their house. +Col 4:16 And when this letter has been made public among you, let the same be done in the church of Laodicea; and see that you have the letter from Laodicea. +Col 4:17 Say to Archippus, See that you do the work which the Lord has given you to do. +Col 4:18 I, Paul, give you this word of love in my handwriting. Keep in memory that I am a prisoner. Grace be with you. +1Ts 1:1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. +1Ts 1:2 We give praise to God at all times for you, keeping you in memory in our prayers; +1Ts 1:3 Having ever in mind your work of faith and acts of love and the strength of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father; +1Ts 1:4 Being conscious, my brothers, dear to God, that you have been marked out by God's purpose; +1Ts 1:5 Because our good news came to you, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Spirit, so that you were completely certain of it; even as you saw what our behaviour to you was like from our love to you. +1Ts 1:6 And you took us and the Lord as your example, after the word had come to you in much trouble, with joy in the Holy Spirit; +1Ts 1:7 So that you became an example to all those who have faith in Christ in Macedonia and Achaia. +1Ts 1:8 For not only was the word of the Lord sounding out from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God is made clear; so that we have no need to say anything. +1Ts 1:9 For they themselves give the news of how we came among you; and how you were turned from images to God, to the worship of a true and living God, +1Ts 1:10 Waiting for his Son from heaven, who came back from the dead, even Jesus, our Saviour from the wrath to come. +1Ts 2:1 For you yourselves, brothers, are conscious that our coming among you was not without effect: +1Ts 2:2 But after we had first undergone much pain and been cruelly attacked as you saw, at Philippi, by the help of God we gave you the good news without fear, though everything was against us. +1Ts 2:3 For our witness does not come from error or from an unclean heart or from deceit: +1Ts 2:4 But even as the good news was given to us by the approval of God, so we give it out; not as pleasing men, but God by whom our hearts are tested. +1Ts 2:5 For it is common knowledge among you that we never made use of smooth-sounding false words, and God is witness that at no time were we secretly desiring profit for ourselves, +1Ts 2:6 Or looking for glory from men, from you or from others, when we might have made ourselves a care to you as Apostles of Christ. +1Ts 2:7 But we were gentle among you, like a woman caring for her little ones: +1Ts 2:8 Even so, being full of loving desire for you, we took delight in giving you not only God's good news, but even our lives, because you were dear to us. +1Ts 2:9 For you have the memory, my brothers, of our trouble and care; how, working night and day, so that we might not be a trouble to any of you, we gave you the good news of God. +1Ts 2:10 You are witnesses, with God, how holy and upright and free from all evil was our way of life among you who have faith; +1Ts 2:11 Even as you saw how, like a father with his children, we were teaching and comforting you all, and giving witness, +1Ts 2:12 So that your lives might be pleasing to God, who has given you a part in his kingdom and his glory. +1Ts 2:13 And for this cause we still give praise to God, that, when the word came to your ears through us, you took it, not as the word of man, but, as it truly is, the word of God, which has living power in you who have faith. +1Ts 2:14 For you, my brothers, took as your examples the churches of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus; because you underwent the same things from your countrymen as they did from the Jews; +1Ts 2:15 Who put to death the Lord Jesus and the prophets, violently driving us out; who are unpleasing to God and against all men; +1Ts 2:16 Who, to make the measure of their sins complete, kept us from giving the word of salvation to the Gentiles: but the wrath of God is about to come on them in the fullest degree. +1Ts 2:17 But we, my brothers, being away from you for a short time, in body but not in heart, had all the more desire to see your face; +1Ts 2:18 For which reason we made attempts to come to you, even I, Paul, once and again; but Satan kept us from coming. +1Ts 2:19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of glory? Are not even you, before our Lord Jesus, at his coming? +1Ts 2:20 For you are our glory and our joy. +1Ts 3:1 At last our desire to have news of you was so strong that, while we ourselves were waiting at Athens, +1Ts 3:2 We sent Timothy, our brother and God's servant in the good news of Christ, to give you strength and comfort in your faith; +1Ts 3:3 So that no man might be moved by these troubles; because you see that these things are part of God's purpose for us. +1Ts 3:4 And when we were with you, we said to you that trouble was before us; and so it came about, as you see. +1Ts 3:5 For this reason, when I was no longer able to keep quiet, I sent to get news of your faith, fearing that you might be tested by the Evil One and that our work might come to nothing. +1Ts 3:6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has given us good news of your faith and love, and that you have happy memories of us, desiring greatly to see us, even as we do to see you; +1Ts 3:7 For this cause, brothers, in all our trouble and grief we were comforted about you because of your faith; +1Ts 3:8 For it is life to us if you keep your faith in the Lord unchanged. +1Ts 3:9 For how great is the praise which we give to God for you, and how great the joy with which we are glad because of you before our God; +1Ts 3:10 Night and day requesting God again and again that we may see your face and make your faith complete. +1Ts 3:11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus make a way for us to come to you; +1Ts 3:12 And the Lord give you increase of love in fullest measure to one another and to all men, even as our love to you; +1Ts 3:13 So that your hearts may be strong and free from all sin before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. +1Ts 4:1 And last of all, the prayer which we make to you from our heart and in the name of the Lord Jesus, is this: that as we made clear to you what sort of behaviour is pleasing to God, as in fact you are doing now, so you will go on in these ways, but more and more. +1Ts 4:2 Because you have in mind the orders we gave you through the Lord Jesus. +1Ts 4:3 For the purpose of God for you is this: that you may be holy, and may keep yourselves from the desires of the flesh; +1Ts 4:4 So that every one of you may keep his body holy and in honour; +1Ts 4:5 Not in the passion of evil desires, like the Gentiles, who have no knowledge of God; +1Ts 4:6 And that no man may make attempts to get the better of his brother in business: for the Lord is the judge in all these things, as we said to you before and gave witness. +1Ts 4:7 Because it is God's purpose that our way of life may be not unclean but holy. +1Ts 4:8 Whoever, then, goes against this word, goes against not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. +1Ts 4:9 But about loving the brothers, there is no need for me to say anything to you in this letter: for you have the teaching of God that love for one another is right and necessary; +1Ts 4:10 And, truly, you are lovers of all the brothers in Macedonia; but it is our desire that your love may be increased still more; +1Ts 4:11 And that you may take pride in being quiet and doing your business, working with your hands as we gave you orders; +1Ts 4:12 That you may be respected by those who are outside, and may have need of nothing. +1Ts 4:13 But it is our desire, brothers, that you may be certain about those who are sleeping; so that you may have no need for sorrow, as others have who are without hope. +1Ts 4:14 For if we have faith that Jesus underwent death and came back again, even so those who are sleeping will come again with him by God's power. +1Ts 4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are still living at the coming of the Lord, will not go before those who are sleeping. +1Ts 4:16 Because the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a word of authority, with the voice of the chief angel, with the sound of a horn: and the dead in Christ will come to life first; +1Ts 4:17 Then we who are still living will be taken up together with them into the clouds to see the Lord in the air: and so will we be for ever with the Lord. +1Ts 4:18 So then, give comfort to one another with these words. +1Ts 5:1 But about the times and their order, my brothers, there is no need for me to say anything to you. +1Ts 5:2 For you yourselves have the knowledge that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. +1Ts 5:3 When they say, There is peace and no danger, then sudden destruction will come on them, as birth-pains on a woman with child; and they will not be able to get away from it. +1Ts 5:4 But you, my brothers, are not in the dark, for that day to overtake you like a thief: +1Ts 5:5 For you are all sons of light and of the day: we are not of the night or of the dark. +1Ts 5:6 So then, let us not take our rest as the others do, but let us be self-controlled and awake. +1Ts 5:7 For those who are sleeping do so in the night; and those who are the worse for drink are so in the night; +1Ts 5:8 But let us, who are of the day, be serious, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and on our heads, the hope of salvation. +1Ts 5:9 For God's purpose for us is not wrath, but salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, +1Ts 5:10 Who was put to death for us, so that, awake or sleeping, we may have a part in his life. +1Ts 5:11 So then, go on comforting and building up one another, as you have been doing. +1Ts 5:12 But we make this request to you, my brothers: give attention to those who are working among you, who are over you in the Lord to keep order among you; +1Ts 5:13 And have a high opinion of them in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. +1Ts 5:14 And our desire is that you will keep control over those whose lives are not well ordered, giving comfort to the feeble-hearted, supporting those with little strength, and putting up with much from all. +1Ts 5:15 Let no one give evil for evil; but ever go after what is good, for one another and for all. +1Ts 5:16 Have joy at all times. +1Ts 5:17 Keep on with your prayers. +1Ts 5:18 In everything give praise: for this is the purpose of God in Christ Jesus for you. +1Ts 5:19 Do not put out the light of the Spirit; +1Ts 5:20 Do not make little of the words of the prophets; +1Ts 5:21 Let all things be tested; keep to what is good; +1Ts 5:22 Keep from every form of evil. +1Ts 5:23 And may the God of peace himself make you holy in every way; and may your spirit and soul and body be free from all sin at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. +1Ts 5:24 God, by whom you have been marked out in his purpose, is unchanging and will make it complete. +1Ts 5:25 Brothers, keep us in mind in your prayers. +1Ts 5:26 Give all the brothers a holy kiss. +1Ts 5:27 I give orders in the name of the Lord that all the brothers are to be present at the reading of this letter. +1Ts 5:28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. +2Ts 1:1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: +2Ts 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +2Ts 1:3 It is right for us to give praise to God at all times for you, brothers, because of the great increase of your faith, and the wealth of your love for one another; +2Ts 1:4 So that we ourselves take pride in you in the churches of God for your untroubled mind and your faith in all the troubles and sorrows which you are going through; +2Ts 1:5 Which is a clear sign of the decision which God in his righteousness has made; to give you a part in his kingdom, for which you have undergone this pain; +2Ts 1:6 For it is an act of righteousness on God's part to give trouble as their reward to those who are troubling you, +2Ts 1:7 And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven with the angels of his power in flames of fire, +2Ts 1:8 To give punishment to those who have no knowledge of God, and to those who do not give ear to the good news of our Lord Jesus: +2Ts 1:9 Whose reward will be eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his strength, +2Ts 1:10 At his coming, when he will have glory in his saints, and will be a cause of wonder in all those who had faith (because our witness among you had effect) in that day. +2Ts 1:11 For this reason, you are ever in our prayers, that you may seem to our God such as may have a part in his purpose and that by his power he will make all his good purpose, and the work of faith, complete; +2Ts 1:12 So that glory may be given to the name of our Lord Jesus through you, and you may have glory in him, by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. +2Ts 2:1 Now as to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our meeting with him, it is our desire, my brothers, +2Ts 2:2 That you may not be moved in mind or troubled by a spirit, or by a word, or by a letter as from us, with the suggestion that the day of the Lord is even now come; +2Ts 2:3 Give no belief to false words: because there will first be a falling away from the faith, and the revelation of the man of sin, the son of destruction, +2Ts 2:4 Who puts himself against all authority, lifting himself up over all which is named God or is given worship; so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, putting himself forward as God. +2Ts 2:5 Have you no memory of what I said when I was with you, giving you word of these things? +2Ts 2:6 And now it is clear to you what is keeping back his revelation till the time comes for him to be seen. +2Ts 2:7 For the secret of evil is even now at work: but there is one who is keeping back the evil till he is taken out of the way. +2Ts 2:8 And then will come the revelation of that evil one, whom the Lord Jesus will put to death with the breath of his mouth, and give to destruction by the revelation of his coming; +2Ts 2:9 Even the one whose coming is marked by the working of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, +2Ts 2:10 And with every deceit of wrongdoing among those whose fate is destruction; because they were quite without that love of the true faith by which they might have salvation. +2Ts 2:11 And for this cause, God will give them up to the power of deceit and they will put their faith in what is false: +2Ts 2:12 So that they all may be judged, who had no faith in what is true, but took pleasure in evil. +2Ts 2:13 But it is right for us to give praise to God at all times for you, brothers, loved by the Lord, because it was the purpose of God from the first that you might have salvation, being made holy by the Spirit and by faith in what is true: +2Ts 2:14 And in this purpose he gave you a part through the good news of which we were the preachers, even that you might have part in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. +2Ts 2:15 So then, brothers, be strong in purpose, and keep the teaching which has been given to you by word or by letter from us. +2Ts 2:16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who had love for us and has given us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, +2Ts 2:17 Give you comfort and strength in every good work and word. +2Ts 3:1 For the rest, my brothers, let there be prayer for us that the word of the Lord may go forward with increasing glory, even as it does with you; +2Ts 3:2 And that we may be made free from foolish and evil men; for not all have faith. +2Ts 3:3 But the Lord is true, who will give you strength and keep you safe from evil. +2Ts 3:4 And we have faith in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things about which we give you orders. +2Ts 3:5 And may your hearts be guided by the Lord into the love of God and quiet waiting for Christ. +2Ts 3:6 Now we give you orders, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from all those whose behaviour is not well ordered and in harmony with the teaching which they had from us. +2Ts 3:7 For you yourselves are used to taking us as your example, because our life among you was ruled by order, +2Ts 3:8 And we did not take food from any man for nothing, but were working hard night and day not to be a trouble to any of you: +2Ts 3:9 Not because we have not the right, but to make ourselves an example to you, so that you might do the same. +2Ts 3:10 For even when we were with you we gave you orders, saying, If any man does no work, let him not have food. +2Ts 3:11 For it has come to our ears that there are some among you whose behaviour is uncontrolled, who do no work at all, but are over-interested in the business of others. +2Ts 3:12 Now to such we give orders and make request in the Lord Jesus, that, working quietly, they get their living. +2Ts 3:13 And you, my brothers, do not get tired of well-doing. +2Ts 3:14 And if any man does not give attention to what we have said in this letter, take note of that man, and keep away from him, so that he may be shamed. +2Ts 3:15 Have no feeling of hate for him, but take him in hand seriously as a brother. +2Ts 3:16 Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. May the Lord be with you all. +2Ts 3:17 These words of love to you at the end are in my writing, Paul's writing, and this is the mark of every letter from me. +2Ts 3:18 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. +1Ti 1:1 Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the order of God our Saviour and Christ Jesus our hope; +1Ti 1:2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. +1Ti 1:3 It was my desire, when I went on into Macedonia, that you might make a stop at Ephesus, to give orders to certain men not to put forward a different teaching, +1Ti 1:4 Or to give attention to stories and long lists of generations, from which come questionings and doubts, in place of God's ordered way of life which is in faith; +1Ti 1:5 But the effect of the order is love coming from a clean heart, and a knowledge of what is right, and true faith: +1Ti 1:6 From which some have been turned away, giving themselves to foolish talking; +1Ti 1:7 Desiring to be teachers of the law, though they have no knowledge of what they say or of the statements which they make so certainly. +1Ti 1:8 We are conscious that the law is good, if a man makes a right use of it, +1Ti 1:9 With the knowledge that the law is made, not for the upright man, but for those who have no respect for law and order, for evil men and sinners, for the unholy and those who have no religion, for those who put their fathers or mothers to death, for takers of life, +1Ti 1:10 For those who go after loose women, for those with unnatural desires, for those who take men prisoners, who make false statements and false oaths, and those who do any other things against the right teaching, +1Ti 1:11 Which may be seen in the good news of the glory of the great God, which was given into my care. +1Ti 1:12 I give praise to him who gave me power, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he took me to be true, making me his servant, +1Ti 1:13 Though I had said violent words against God, and done cruel acts, causing great trouble: but I was given mercy, because I did it without knowledge, not having faith; +1Ti 1:14 And the grace of our Lord was very great, with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. +1Ti 1:15 It is a true saying, in which all may put their faith, that Christ Jesus came into the world to give salvation to sinners, of whom I am the chief: +1Ti 1:16 But for this reason I was given mercy, so that in me, the chief of sinners, Jesus Christ might make clear all his mercy, as an example to those who in the future would have faith in him to eternal life. +1Ti 1:17 Now to the King eternal, ever-living, unseen, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. So be it. +1Ti 1:18 This order I give to you, Timothy my son, in harmony with the words of the prophets about you, so that by them you may be strong, fighting the good fight, +1Ti 1:19 Keeping faith, and being conscious of well-doing; for some, by not doing these things, have gone wrong in relation to the faith: +1Ti 1:20 Such are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have given up to Satan, so that they may say no more evil words against God. +1Ti 2:1 My desire is, first of all, that you will make requests and prayers and give praise for all men; +1Ti 2:2 For kings and all those in authority; so that we may have a calm and quiet life in all fear of God and serious behaviour. +1Ti 2:3 This is good and pleasing in the eyes of God our Saviour; +1Ti 2:4 Whose desire is that all men may have salvation and come to the knowledge of what is true. +1Ti 2:5 For there is one God and one peacemaker between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, +1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself as an offering for all; witness of which was to be given at the right time; +1Ti 2:7 And of this I became a preacher and an Apostle (what I say is true, not false,) and a teacher of the Gentiles in the true faith. +1Ti 2:8 It is my desire, then, that in every place men may give themselves to prayer, lifting up holy hands, without wrath or argument. +1Ti 2:9 And that women may be dressed in simple clothing, with a quiet and serious air; not with twisted hair and gold or jewels or robes of great price; +1Ti 2:10 But clothed with good works, as is right for women who are living in the fear of God. +1Ti 2:11 Let a woman quietly take the place of a learner and be under authority. +1Ti 2:12 In my opinion it is right for a woman not to be a teacher, or to have rule over a man, but to be quiet. +1Ti 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve; +1Ti 2:14 And Adam was not taken by deceit, but the woman, being tricked, became a wrongdoer. +1Ti 2:15 But if they go on in faith and love and holy self-control, she will be kept safe at the time of childbirth. +1Ti 3:1 This is a true saying, A man desiring the position of a Bishop has a desire for a good work. +1Ti 3:2 The Bishop, then, is to be a man of good name, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, serious-minded, having respect for order, opening his house freely to guests, a ready teacher; +1Ti 3:3 Not quickly moved to wrath or blows, but gentle; no fighter, no lover of money; +1Ti 3:4 Ruling his house well, having his children under control with all serious behaviour; +1Ti 3:5 (For if a man has not the art of ruling his house, how will he take care of the church of God?) +1Ti 3:6 Not one newly taken into the church, for fear that, through his high opinion of himself, he may come into the same sin as the Evil One. +1Ti 3:7 And he is to have a good name among those outside the church, so that nothing may be said against him and he may not be taken by the designs of the Evil One. +1Ti 3:8 Deacons, in the same way, are to be serious in their behaviour, not false in word, not given to taking much wine or greatly desiring the wealth of this world; +1Ti 3:9 Keeping the secret of the faith in a heart free from sin. +1Ti 3:10 And let these first be put to the test; then let them become Deacons if there is nothing against them. +1Ti 3:11 Women are to be serious in behaviour, saying no evil of others, controlling themselves, true in all things. +1Ti 3:12 Let Deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their houses well. +1Ti 3:13 For those who have done good work as Deacons get for themselves a good position and become free from fear in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. +1Ti 3:14 I am writing these things to you, though I am hoping to come to you before long; +1Ti 3:15 But if I am long in coming, this will make clear to you what behaviour is right for men in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of what is true. +1Ti 3:16 And without argument, great is the secret of religion: He who was seen in the flesh, who was given God's approval in the spirit, was seen by the angels, of whom the good news was given among the nations, in whom the world had faith, who was taken up in glory. +1Ti 4:1 But the Spirit says clearly that in later times some will be turned away from the faith, giving their minds to spirits of deceit, and the teachings of evil spirits, +1Ti 4:2 Through the false ways of men whose words are untrue, whose hearts are burned as with a heated iron; +1Ti 4:3 Who keep men from being married and from taking food which God made to be taken with praise by those who have faith and true knowledge. +1Ti 4:4 Because everything which God has made is good, and nothing is evil, if it is taken with praise: +1Ti 4:5 For it is made holy by the word of God and by prayer. +1Ti 4:6 If you keep these things before the minds of the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, trained in the words of the faith and of the right teaching which has been your guide: +1Ti 4:7 But have nothing to do with unclean and foolish stories. Give yourself training in religion: +1Ti 4:8 For the training of the body is of profit for a little, but religion is of profit in every way, giving hope for the life which now is, and for that which is to come. +1Ti 4:9 This is a true saying, in which all may put their faith. +1Ti 4:10 And this is the purpose of all our work and our fighting, because our hope is in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and specially of those who have faith. +1Ti 4:11 Let these be your orders and your teaching. +1Ti 4:12 Let no one make little of you because you are young, but be an example to the church in word, in behaviour, in love, in faith, in holy living. +1Ti 4:13 Till I come, give attention to the reading of the holy Writings, to comforting the saints, and to teaching. +1Ti 4:14 Make use of that grace in you, which was given to you by the word of the prophets, when the rulers of the church put their hands on you. +1Ti 4:15 Have a care for these things; give yourself to them with all your heart, so that all may see how you go forward. +1Ti 4:16 Give attention to yourself and your teaching. Go on in these things; for in doing so you will get salvation for yourself and for those who give hearing to you. +1Ti 5:1 Do not say sharp words to one who has authority in the church, but let your talk be as to a father, and to the younger men as to brothers: +1Ti 5:2 To the older women as to mothers, to the younger as to sisters, with a clean heart. +1Ti 5:3 Give honour to widows who are truly widows. +1Ti 5:4 But if any widow has children or children's children, let these see that it is right to take care of their family and their fathers and mothers: for this is pleasing in the eyes of God. +1Ti 5:5 Now she who is truly a widow and without family puts her hope in God, giving herself to prayer day and night. +1Ti 5:6 But she who gives herself to pleasure is dead while she is living. +1Ti 5:7 Give orders to this effect, so that no evil may be said of anyone. +1Ti 5:8 If anyone has no care for his family and those in his house, he is false to the faith, and is worse than one who has no faith. +1Ti 5:9 Let no woman be numbered among the widows who is under sixty years old, and only if she has been the wife of one man, +1Ti 5:10 And if witness is given of her good works; if she has had the care of children, if she has been kind to travellers, washing the feet of the saints, helping those who are in trouble, giving herself to good works. +1Ti 5:11 But to the younger widows say No: for when their love is turned away from Christ, they have a desire to be married; +1Ti 5:12 And they are judged because they have been false to their first faith; +1Ti 5:13 And they get into the way of doing no work, going about from house to house; and not only doing no work, but talking foolishly, being over-interested in the business of others, saying things which they have no right to say. +1Ti 5:14 So it is my desire that the younger widows may be married and have children, controlling their families, and giving the Evil One no chance to say anything against them, +1Ti 5:15 For even now some are turned away to Satan. +1Ti 5:16 If any woman of the faith has relations who are widows, let her give them help, so that the care of them does not come on the church, and so it may give help to those who are truly widowed. +1Ti 5:17 Let rulers whose rule is good be honoured twice over, specially those whose work is preaching and teaching. +1Ti 5:18 For the Writings say, It is not right to keep the ox from taking the grain when he is crushing it. And, The worker has a right to his reward. +1Ti 5:19 Do not take as true any statement made against one in authority, but only if two or three give witness to it. +1Ti 5:20 Say sharp words to sinners when all are present, so that the rest may be in fear. +1Ti 5:21 I give you orders before God and Christ Jesus and the angels of God's selection, to keep these orders without giving thought to one side more than another. +1Ti 5:22 Do not put hands on any man without thought, and have no part in other men's sins: keep yourself clean. +1Ti 5:23 Do not take only water as your drink, but take a little wine for the good of your stomach, and because you are frequently ill. +1Ti 5:24 The sins of some men are clearly seen, going before them to be judged; but with others, their sins go after them. +1Ti 5:25 In the same way, there are good works which are clearly seen; and those which are not so, may not be kept secret. +1Ti 6:1 Let all who are servants under the yoke give all honour to their masters, so that no evil may be said against the name of God and his teaching. +1Ti 6:2 And let those whose masters are of the faith have respect for them because they are brothers, working for them the more readily, because those who take part in the good work are of the faith and are dear. Give orders and teaching about these things. +1Ti 6:3 If any man gives different teaching, not in agreement with the true words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the teaching which is in agreement with true religion, +1Ti 6:4 He has an over-high opinion of himself; being without knowledge, having only an unhealthy love of questionings and wars of words, from which come envy, fighting, cruel words, evil thoughts, +1Ti 6:5 Bitter talk of men who, being evil in mind and dead to what is true, take the faith to be a way of making profit. +1Ti 6:6 But true faith, with peace of mind, is of great profit: +1Ti 6:7 For we came into the world with nothing, and we are not able to take anything out; +1Ti 6:8 But if we have food and a roof over us, let that be enough. +1Ti 6:9 But those who have a desire for wealth are falling into danger, and are taken as in a net by a number of foolish and damaging desires, through which men are overtaken by death and destruction. +1Ti 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all evil: and some whose hearts were fixed on it have been turned away from the faith, and been wounded with unnumbered sorrows. +1Ti 6:11 But you, O man of God, keep yourself from these things, and go after righteousness, religion, faith, love, a quiet mind, gentle behaviour. +1Ti 6:12 Be fighting the good fight of the faith; take for yourself the life eternal, for which you were marked out, and of which you gave witness in the eyes of all. +1Ti 6:13 I give you orders before God, the giver of life, and Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate gave witness to the faith, +1Ti 6:14 To keep the word untouched by evil, clear from all shame, till the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ: +1Ti 6:15 Which at the right time he will make clear, who is the eternal and only Ruler, King of kings, and Lord of lords; +1Ti 6:16 Who only has life for ever, living in light to which no man may come near; whom no man has seen or is able to see: to whom be honour and power for ever. So be it. +1Ti 6:17 Give orders to those who have money and goods in this life, not to be lifted up in their minds, or to put their hope in the uncertain chances of wealth, but in God who gives us in full measure all things for our use; +1Ti 6:18 And to do good, having wealth in good works, being quick to give, taking part with one another; +1Ti 6:19 Making ready for themselves a safe place for the time to come, so that the true life may be theirs. +1Ti 6:20 O Timothy, take good care of that which is given to you, turning away from the wrong and foolish talk and arguments of that knowledge which is falsely so named; +1Ti 6:21 Through which some, who gave their minds to it, have been turned away from the faith. Grace be with you. +2Ti 1:1 Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the purpose of God, in the hope of the life which is in Christ Jesus, +2Ti 1:2 To Timothy, my well-loved child: Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. +2Ti 1:3 I give praise to God, whose servant I have been, with a heart free from sin, from the time of my fathers, because in my prayers at all times the thought of you is with me, night and day +2Ti 1:4 Desiring to see you, keeping in my memory your weeping, so that I may be full of joy; +2Ti 1:5 Having in mind your true faith, which first was in your mother's mother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and, I am certain, is now in you. +2Ti 1:6 For this reason I say to you, Let that grace of God which is in you, given to you by my hands, have living power. +2Ti 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control. +2Ti 1:8 Have no feeling of shame, then, for the witness of our Lord or for me, his prisoner: but undergo all things for the good news in the measure of the power of God; +2Ti 1:9 Who gave us salvation, marking us out for his purpose, not on account of our works, but in the measure of his purpose and his grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, +2Ti 1:10 But has now been made clear by the revelation of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who put an end to death and made life unending come to light through the good news, +2Ti 1:11 Of which I was made a preacher and an Apostle and a teacher; +2Ti 1:12 And for which I undergo these things: but I have no feeling of shame. For I have knowledge of him in whom I have faith, and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have given into his care till that day. +2Ti 1:13 Keep the form of those true words which you had from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. +2Ti 1:14 That good thing which was given to you keep safe, through the Holy Spirit which is in us. +2Ti 1:15 You have had news that all those in Asia went away from me; among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes: +2Ti 1:16 May the Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus because he frequently gave me help, and had no feeling of shame because I was in chains; +2Ti 1:17 But when he was in Rome, he went in search of me everywhere, and came to me +2Ti 1:18 (May he have the Lord's mercy in that day); and of all he did for me at Ephesus you have full knowledge. +2Ti 2:1 So then, my child, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus. +2Ti 2:2 And the things which I have said to you before a number of witnesses, give to those of the faith, so that they may be teachers of others. +2Ti 2:3 Be ready to do without the comforts of life, as one of the army of Christ Jesus. +2Ti 2:4 A fighting man, when he is with the army, keeps himself free from the business of this life so that he may be pleasing to him who has taken him into his army. +2Ti 2:5 And if a man takes part in a competition he does not get the crown if he has not kept the rules. +2Ti 2:6 It is right for the worker in the fields to be the first to take of the fruit. +2Ti 2:7 Give thought to what I say; for the Lord will give you wisdom in all things. +2Ti 2:8 Keep in mind Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, who came back from the dead, as my good news gives witness: +2Ti 2:9 In which I put up with the hardest conditions, even prison chains, like one who has done a crime; but the word of God is not in chains. +2Ti 2:10 But I undergo all things for the saints, so that they may have salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. +2Ti 2:11 This is a true saying: If we undergo death with him, then will we be living with him: +2Ti 2:12 If we go on to the end, then we will be ruling with him: if we say we have no knowledge of him, then he will say he has no knowledge of us: +2Ti 2:13 If we are without faith, still he keeps faith, for he will never be untrue to himself. +2Ti 2:14 Put these things before them, giving them orders in the name of the Lord to keep themselves from fighting about words, which is of no profit, only causing error in their hearers. +2Ti 2:15 Let it be your care to get the approval of God, as a workman who has no cause for shame, giving the true word in the right way. +2Ti 2:16 But take no part in wrong and foolish talk, for those who do so will go farther into evil, +2Ti 2:17 And their words will be like poisoned wounds in the flesh: such are Hymenaeus and Philetus; +2Ti 2:18 Men whose ideas are all false, who say that the coming back from the dead has even now taken place, overturning the faith of some. +2Ti 2:19 But God's strong base is unchanging, having this sign, The Lord has knowledge of those who are his: and, Let everyone by whom the name of the Lord is named be turned away from evil. +2Ti 2:20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but others of wood and earth, and some which are honoured and some without honour. +2Ti 2:21 If a man makes himself clean from these, he will be a vessel for honour, made holy, ready for the master's use, ready for every good work. +2Ti 2:22 But keep yourself from those desires of the flesh which are strong when the body is young, and go after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those whose prayers go up to the Lord from a clean heart. +2Ti 2:23 And put away foolish and uncontrolled questionings, seeing that they are a cause of trouble. +2Ti 2:24 For it is not right for the Lord's servant to make trouble, but he is to be gentle to all, ready in teaching, putting up with wrong, +2Ti 2:25 Gently guiding those who go against the teaching; if by chance God may give them a change of heart and true knowledge, +2Ti 2:26 And so they may get themselves free from the net of the Evil One, being made the prisoners of the Lord's servant, for the purpose of God. +2Ti 3:1 But be certain of this, that in the last days times of trouble will come. +2Ti 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, uplifted in pride, given to bitter words, going against the authority of their fathers, never giving praise, having no religion, +2Ti 3:3 Without natural love, bitter haters, saying evil of others, violent and uncontrolled, hating all good, +2Ti 3:4 False to their friends, acting without thought, lifted up in mind, loving pleasure more than God; +2Ti 3:5 Having a form of religion, but turning their backs on the power of it: go not with these. +2Ti 3:6 For these are they who go secretly into houses, making prisoners of foolish women, weighted down with sin, turned from the way by their evil desires, +2Ti 3:7 Ever learning, and never coming to the knowledge of what is true. +2Ti 3:8 And as James and Jambres went against Moses, so do these go against what is true: men of evil minds, who, tested by faith, are seen to be false. +2Ti 3:9 But they will go no farther: for their foolish behaviour will be clear to all men, as theirs was in the end. +2Ti 3:10 But you took as your example my teaching, behaviour, purpose, and faith; my long waiting, my love, my quiet undergoing of trouble; +2Ti 3:11 My punishments and pain; the things which came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; the cruel attacks made on me: and the Lord made me free from them all. +2Ti 3:12 Yes, and all whose purpose is to be living in the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, will be cruelly attacked. +2Ti 3:13 Evil and false men will become worse and worse, using deceit and themselves overcome by deceit. +2Ti 3:14 But see that you keep to the teaching you have been given and the things of which you are certain, conscious of who has been your teacher; +2Ti 3:15 And that from the time when you were a child, you have had knowledge of the holy Writings, which are able to make you wise to salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. +2Ti 3:16 Every holy Writing which comes from God is of profit for teaching, for training, for guiding, for education in righteousness: +2Ti 3:17 So that the man of God may be complete, trained and made ready for every good work. +2Ti 4:1 I give you orders, before God and Christ Jesus, who will be the judge of the living and the dead, and by his revelation and his kingdom; +2Ti 4:2 Be preaching the word at all times, in every place; make protests, say sharp words, give comfort, with long waiting and teaching; +2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not take the true teaching; but, moved by their desires, they will get for themselves a great number of teachers for the pleasure of hearing them; +2Ti 4:4 And shutting their ears to what is true, will be turned away to belief in foolish stories. +2Ti 4:5 But be self-controlled in all things, do without comfort, go on preaching the good news, completing the work which has been given you to do. +2Ti 4:6 For I am even now being offered, and my end is near. +2Ti 4:7 I have made a good fight, I have come to the end of my journey, I have kept the faith: +2Ti 4:8 From now on, the crown of righteousness is made ready for me, which the Lord, the upright judge, Will give to me at that day: and not only to me, but to all those who have had love for his revelation. +2Ti 4:9 Do your best to come to me before long: +2Ti 4:10 For Demas has gone away from me, for love of this present life, and has gone to Thessalonica: Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. +2Ti 4:11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and take him with you; for he is of use to me in the work. +2Ti 4:12 Tychicus I sent to Ephesus. +2Ti 4:13 The coat which I did not take from Troas and which is with Carpus, get when you come, and the books, specially the papers. +2Ti 4:14 Alexander the copper-worker did me much wrong: the Lord will give him the reward of his works: +2Ti 4:15 But be on the watch for him, for he was violent in his attacks on our teaching. +2Ti 4:16 At my first meeting with my judges, no one took my part, but all went away from me. May it not be put to their account. +2Ti 4:17 But the Lord was by my side and gave me strength; so that through me the news might be given out in full measure, and all the Gentiles might give ear: and I was taken out of the mouth of the lion. +2Ti 4:18 The Lord will keep me safe from every evil work and will give me salvation in his kingdom in heaven: to whom be glory for ever and ever. So be it. +2Ti 4:19 Give my love to Prisca and Aquila and those of the house of Onesiphorus. +2Ti 4:20 Erastus was stopping at Corinth; but Trophimus, when I last saw him was at Miletus, ill. +2Ti 4:21 Do your best to come before the winter. Eubulus sends you his love, and Pudens and Linus and Claudia, and all the brothers. +2Ti 4:22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. +Tit 1:1 Paul, a servant of God, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, in agreement with the faith of the saints of God and the full knowledge of what is true in harmony with religion, +Tit 1:2 In the hope of eternal life, which was made certain before eternal time, by the word of God who is ever true; +Tit 1:3 Who, in his time, made clear his word in the good news, of which, by the order of God our Saviour, I became a preacher; +Tit 1:4 To Titus, my true child in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour. +Tit 1:5 I did not take you with me when I went away from Crete, so that you might do what was necessary to put things in order there, placing men in authority over the churches in every town, as I said to you; +Tit 1:6 Men having a good record, husbands of one wife, whose children are of the faith, children of whom it may not be said that they are given to loose living or are uncontrolled. +Tit 1:7 For it is necessary for a Bishop to be a man of virtue, as God's servant; not pushing himself forward, not quickly moved to wrath or blows, not desiring profit for himself; +Tit 1:8 But opening his house freely to guests; a lover of what is good, serious-minded, upright, holy, self-controlled; +Tit 1:9 Keeping to the true word of the teaching, so that he may be able to give comfort by right teaching and overcome the arguments of the doubters. +Tit 1:10 For there are men who are not ruled by law; foolish talkers, false teachers, specially those of the circumcision, +Tit 1:11 By whom some families have been completely overturned; who take money for teaching things which are not right; these will have to be stopped. +Tit 1:12 One of their prophets has said, The men of Crete are ever false, evil beasts, lovers of food, hating work. +Tit 1:13 This witness is true. So say sharp words to them so that they may come to the right faith, +Tit 1:14 Giving no attention to the fictions of the Jews and the rules of men who have no true knowledge. +Tit 1:15 To the clean in heart all things are clean: but to those who are unclean and without faith nothing is clean; they become unclean in mind and in thought. +Tit 1:16 They say that they have knowledge of God, while by their acts they are turning their backs on him; they are hated by all, hard-hearted, and judged to be without value for any good work. +Tit 2:1 But let your words be in agreement with true and right teaching: +Tit 2:2 That old men are to be simple in their tastes, serious, wise, true in faith, in love, and of a quiet mind. +Tit 2:3 That old women are to be self-respecting in behaviour, not saying evil of others, not given to taking much wine, teachers of that which is good, +Tit 2:4 Training the younger women to have love for their husbands and children, +Tit 2:5 To be wise in mind, clean in heart, kind; working in their houses, living under the authority of their husbands; so that no evil may be said of the word of God. +Tit 2:6 To the young men give orders to be wise and serious-minded: +Tit 2:7 In all things see that you are an example of good works; holy in your teaching, serious in behaviour, +Tit 2:8 Saying true and right words, against which no protest may be made, so that he who is not on our side may be put to shame, unable to say any evil of us. +Tit 2:9 Servants are to be under the authority of their masters, pleasing them in all things, without argument; +Tit 2:10 Not taking what is not theirs, but giving clear signs of their good faith, in all things doing credit to the teaching of God our Saviour. +Tit 2:11 For the grace of God has come, giving salvation to all men, +Tit 2:12 Training us so that, turning away from evil and the desires of this world, we may be living wisely and uprightly in the knowledge of God in this present life; +Tit 2:13 Looking for the glad hope, the revelation of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; +Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, so that he might make us free from all wrongdoing, and make for himself a people clean in heart and on fire with good works. +Tit 2:15 On all these points give teaching and help, and make clear what is right with all authority. Let all men give you honour. +Tit 3:1 Make clear to them that they are to put themselves under rulers and authorities, to do what they are ordered, to be ready for every good work, +Tit 3:2 To say no evil of any man, not to be fighters, to give way to others, to be gentle in behaviour to all men. +Tit 3:3 For in the past we were foolish, hard in heart, turned from the true way, servants of evil desires and pleasures, living in bad feeling and envy, hated and hating one another. +Tit 3:4 But when the mercy of God our Saviour, and his love to man was seen, +Tit 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but in the measure of his mercy, he gave us salvation, through the washing of the new birth and the giving of new life in the Holy Spirit, +Tit 3:6 Which he gave us freely through Jesus Christ our Saviour; +Tit 3:7 So that, having been given righteousness through grace, we might have a part in the heritage, the hope of eternal life. +Tit 3:8 This is a true saying; and it is my desire that you may give certain witness about these things, so that those who have had faith in God may give attention to good works. These things are good and of profit to men; +Tit 3:9 But have nothing to do with foolish questionings, and lists of generations, and fights and arguments about the law; for they are of no profit and foolish. +Tit 3:10 A man whose opinions are not those of the church, after a first and second protest, is to be kept out of your society; +Tit 3:11 Clearly he is in error and a sinner, being self-judged. +Tit 3:12 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis: for it is my purpose to be there for the winter. +Tit 3:13 Send Zenas, the man of law, and Apollos on their journey with all care, so that they may be in need of nothing. +Tit 3:14 And let our people go on with good works for necessary purposes, so that they may not be without fruit. +Tit 3:15 All who are with me send you their love. Give our love to our friends in the faith. Grace be with you all. +Phm 1:1 Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our dear helper in the faith, +Phm 1:2 And to Apphia, our sister, and to Archippus, our brother in God's army, and to the church in your house: +Phm 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +Phm 1:4 I give praise to God at all times and make prayer for you, +Phm 1:5 Hearing of the love and the faith which you have to the Lord Jesus and to all the saints; +Phm 1:6 That the faith which you have in common with them may be working with power, in the knowledge of every good thing in you, for Christ. +Phm 1:7 For I had great joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been made strong again through you, brother. +Phm 1:8 And so, though I might, in the name of Christ, give you orders to do what is right, +Phm 1:9 Still, because of love, in place of an order, I make a request to you, I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner of Christ Jesus: +Phm 1:10 My request is for my child Onesimus, the child of my chains, +Phm 1:11 Who in the past was of no profit to you, but now is of profit to you and to me: +Phm 1:12 Whom I have sent back to you, him who is my very heart: +Phm 1:13 Though my desire was to keep him with me, to be my servant in the chains of the good news, in your place: +Phm 1:14 But without your approval I would do nothing; so that your good works might not be forced, but done freely from your heart. +Phm 1:15 For it is possible that for this reason he was parted from you for a time, so that you might have him for ever; +Phm 1:16 No longer as a servant, but more than a servant, a brother, very dear to me specially, but much more to you, in the flesh as well as in the Lord. +Phm 1:17 If then you take me to be your friend and brother, take him in as myself. +Phm 1:18 If he has done you any wrong or is in debt to you for anything, put it to my account. +Phm 1:19 I, Paul, writing this myself, say, I will make payment to you: and I do not say to you that you are in debt to me even for your life. +Phm 1:20 So brother, let me have joy of you in the Lord: give new life to my heart in Christ. +Phm 1:21 Being certain that you will do my desire, I am writing to you, in the knowledge that you will do even more than I say. +Phm 1:22 And make a room ready for me; for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be given to you. +Phm 1:23 Epaphras, my brother-prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you his love; +Phm 1:24 And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my brother-workers. +Phm 1:25 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. So be it. +Heb 1:1 In times past the word of God came to our fathers through the prophets, in different parts and in different ways; +Heb 1:2 But now, at the end of these days, it has come to us through his Son, to whom he has given all things for a heritage, and through whom he made the order of the generations; +Heb 1:3 Who, being the outshining of his glory, the true image of his substance, supporting all things by the word of his power, having given himself as an offering making clean from sins, took his seat at the right hand of God in heaven; +Heb 1:4 Having become by so much better than the angels, as the name which is his heritage is more noble than theirs. +Heb 1:5 To which of the angels did God say at any time, You are my Son, this day I have given you being? or, I will be his Father, and he will be my Son? +Heb 1:6 And again, when he is sending his only Son into the world, he says, Let all the angels of God give him worship. +Heb 1:7 And of the angels he says, Who makes his angels winds, and his servants flames of fire: +Heb 1:8 But of the Son he says, Your seat of power, O God, is for ever and ever; and the rod of your kingdom is a rod of righteousness. +Heb 1:9 You have been a lover of righteousness and a hater of evil; and so God, your God, has put the oil of joy on your head more than on the heads of those who are with you. +Heb 1:10 You, Lord, at the first did put the earth on its base, and the heavens are the works of your hands: +Heb 1:11 They will come to their end; but you are for ever; they will become old as a robe; +Heb 1:12 They will be rolled up like a cloth, even like a robe, and they will be changed: but you are the same and your years will have no end. +Heb 1:13 But of which of the angels has he said at any time, Take your seat at my right hand till I put all those who are against you under your feet? +Heb 1:14 Are they not all helping spirits, who are sent out as servants to those whose heritage will be salvation? +Heb 2:1 For this reason there is the more need for us to give attention to the things which have come to our ears, for fear that by chance we might be slipping away. +Heb 2:2 Because if the word which came through the angels was fixed, and in the past every evil act against God's orders was given its full punishment; +Heb 2:3 What will come on us, if we do not give our minds to such a great salvation? a salvation of which our fathers first had knowledge through the words of the Lord, and which was made certain to us by those to whom his words came; +Heb 2:4 And God was a witness with them, by signs and wonders, and by more than natural powers, and by his distribution of the Holy Spirit at his pleasure. +Heb 2:5 For he did not make the angels rulers over the world to come, of which I am writing. +Heb 2:6 But a certain writer has given his witness, saying, What is man, that you keep him in mind? what is the son of man, that you take him into account? +Heb 2:7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you gave him a crown of glory and honour, and made him ruler over all the works of your hands: +Heb 2:8 You put all things under his feet. For in making man the ruler over all things, God did not put anything outside his authority; though we do not see everything under him now. +Heb 2:9 But we see him who was made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, crowned with glory and honour, because he let himself be put to death so that by the grace of God he might undergo death for all men. +Heb 2:10 Because it was right for him, for whom and through whom all things have being, in guiding his sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation complete through pain. +Heb 2:11 For he who makes holy and those who are made holy are all of one family; and for this reason it is no shame for him to give them the name of brothers, +Heb 2:12 Saying, I will give the knowledge of your name to my brothers, I will make a song of praise to you before the church. +Heb 2:13 And again he says, I will put my faith in him. And again, See, I am here, and the children which God has given to me. +Heb 2:14 And because the children are flesh and blood, he took a body himself and became like them; so that by his death he might put an end to him who had the power of death, that is to say, the Evil One; +Heb 2:15 And let those who all their lives were in chains because of their fear of death, go free. +Heb 2:16 For, truly, he does not take on the life of angels, but that of the seed of Abraham. +Heb 2:17 Because of this it was necessary for him to be made like his brothers in every way, so that he might be a high priest full of mercy and keeping faith in everything to do with God, making offerings for the sins of the people. +Heb 2:18 For having been put to the test himself, he is able to give help to others when they are tested. +Heb 3:1 For this reason, holy brothers, marked out to have a part in heaven, give thought to Jesus the representative and high priest of our faith; +Heb 3:2 Who kept faith with God who gave him his place, even as Moses did in all his house. +Heb 3:3 And it was right for this man to have more honour than Moses, even as the builder of a house has more honour than the house. +Heb 3:4 For every house has a builder; but the builder of all things is God. +Heb 3:5 And Moses certainly kept faith as a servant, in all his house, and as a witness of those things which were to be said later; +Heb 3:6 But Christ as a son, over his house; whose house are we, if we keep our hearts fixed in the glad and certain hope till the end. +Heb 3:7 And so, as the Holy Spirit says, Today if you let his voice come to your ears, +Heb 3:8 Be not hard of heart, as when you made me angry, on the day of testing in the waste land, +Heb 3:9 When your fathers put me to the test, and saw my works for forty years. +Heb 3:10 So that I was angry with this generation, and I said, Their hearts are in error at all times, and they have no knowledge of my ways; +Heb 3:11 And being angry I made an oath, saying, They may not come into my rest. +Heb 3:12 My brothers, take care that there is not by chance in any one of you an evil heart without belief, turning away from the living God: +Heb 3:13 But give comfort to one another every day as long as it is still Today; so that no one among you may be made hard by the deceit of sin: +Heb 3:14 For if we keep the substance of the faith which we had at the start, even till the end, we have a part with Christ; +Heb 3:15 As it is said, Today if you will let his voice come to your ears, be not hard of heart, as when you made him angry. +Heb 3:16 Who made him angry when his voice came to them? was it not all those who came out of Egypt with Moses? +Heb 3:17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? was it not with those who did evil, who came to their deaths in the waste land? +Heb 3:18 And to whom did he make an oath that they might not come into his rest? was it not to those who went against his orders? +Heb 3:19 So we see that they were not able to go in because they had no belief. +Heb 4:1 Let us then, though we still have God's word that we may come into his rest, go in fear that some of you may be unable to do so. +Heb 4:2 And, truly, the good news came to us, even as it did to them; but the hearing of the word did them no good, because they were not united in faith with the true hearers. +Heb 4:3 For those of us who have belief come into his rest; even as he has said, As I said in my oath when I was angry, They may not come into my rest: though the works were done from the time of the making of the world. +Heb 4:4 For in one place he has said of the seventh day, And God had rest from all his works on the seventh day; +Heb 4:5 And in the same place he says again, They will not come into my rest. +Heb 4:6 So that as it is clear that some have to go in, and that the first hearers of the good news were not able to go in because they went against God's orders, +Heb 4:7 After a long time, again naming a certain day, he says in David, Today (as he had said before), Today if you will let his voice come to your ears, be not hard of heart, +Heb 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have said anything about another day. +Heb 4:9 So that there is still a Sabbath-keeping for the people of God. +Heb 4:10 For the man who comes into his rest has had rest from his works, as God did from his. +Heb 4:11 Because of this, let us have a strong desire to come into that rest, and let no one go after the example of those who went against God's orders. +Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and full of power, and is sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting through and making a division even of the soul and the spirit, the bones and the muscles, and quick to see the thoughts and purposes of the heart. +Heb 4:13 And there is nothing made which is not completely clear to him; there is nothing covered, but all things are open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. +Heb 4:14 Having then a great high priest, who has made his way through the heavens, even Jesus the Son of God, let us be strong in our faith. +Heb 4:15 For we have not a high priest who is not able to be touched by the feelings of our feeble flesh; but we have one who has been tested in all points as we ourselves are tested, but without sin. +Heb 4:16 Then let us come near to the seat of grace without fear, so that mercy may be given to us, and we may get grace for our help in time of need. +Heb 5:1 Every high priest who is taken from among men is given his position to take care of the interests of men in those things which have to do with God, so that he may make offerings for sins. +Heb 5:2 He is able to have feeling for those who have no knowledge and for those who are wandering from the true way, because he himself is feeble; +Heb 5:3 And being feeble, he has to make sin-offerings for himself as well as for the people. +Heb 5:4 And no man who is not given authority by God, as Aaron was, takes this honour for himself. +Heb 5:5 In the same way Christ did not take for himself the glory of being made a high priest, but was given it by him who said, You are my Son, this day I have given you being: +Heb 5:6 As he says in another place, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. +Heb 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, having sent up prayers and requests with strong crying and weeping to him who was able to give him salvation from death, had his prayer answered because of his fear of God. +Heb 5:8 And though he was a Son, through the pain which he underwent, the knowledge came to him of what it was to be under God's orders; +Heb 5:9 And when he had been made complete, he became the giver of eternal salvation to all those who are under his orders; +Heb 5:10 Being named by God a high priest of the order of Melchizedek. +Heb 5:11 Of whom we have much to say which it is hard to make clear, because you are slow of hearing. +Heb 5:12 And though by this time it would be right for you to be teachers, you still have need of someone to give you teaching about the first simple rules of God's revelation; you have become like babies who have need of milk, and not of solid food. +Heb 5:13 For everyone who takes milk is without experience of the word of righteousness: he is a child. +Heb 5:14 But solid food is for men of full growth, even for those whose senses are trained by use to see what is good and what is evil. +Heb 6:1 For this reason let us go on from the first things about Christ to full growth; not building again that on which it is based, that is, the turning of the heart from dead works, and faith in God, +Heb 6:2 The teaching of baptisms, and of the putting on of hands, and of the future life of the dead, and of the judging on the last day. +Heb 6:3 Now we will do this, if God lets us. +Heb 6:4 As for those who at one time saw the light, tasting the good things from heaven, and having their part in the Holy Spirit, +Heb 6:5 With knowledge of the good word of God, and of the powers of the coming time, +Heb 6:6 And then let themselves be turned away, it is not possible for their hearts to be made new a second time; because they themselves put the Son of God on the cross again, openly shaming him. +Heb 6:7 For a land, drinking in the frequent rain and producing good plants for those for whom it is worked, has a blessing from God: +Heb 6:8 But if it sends up thorns and evil plants, it is of no use and is ready to be cursed; its only end is to be burned. +Heb 6:9 But, my loved ones, though we say this, we are certain that you have better things in you, things which go with salvation; +Heb 6:10 For God is true, and will not put away from him the memory of your work and of your love for his name, in the help which you gave and still give to the saints. +Heb 6:11 And it is our desire that you may all keep the same high purpose in certain hope to the end: +Heb 6:12 So that you may not be slow in heart, but may take as your example those to whom God has given their heritage, because of their faith and their long waiting. +Heb 6:13 For when God made his oath to Abraham, because there was no greater oath, he made it by himself, +Heb 6:14 Saying, Be certain that I will give you my blessing, and make your numbers very great. +Heb 6:15 And so, when he had been waiting calmly for a long time, God's word to him was put into effect. +Heb 6:16 For men at all times make their oaths by what is greater; and any argument is ended by the decision of the oath. +Heb 6:17 So that when it was God's desire to make it specially clear to those who by his word were to have the heritage, that his purpose was fixed, he made it more certain with an oath; +Heb 6:18 So that we, who have gone in flight from danger to the hope which has been put before us, may have a strong comfort in two unchanging things, in which it is not possible for God to be false; +Heb 6:19 And this hope is like a strong band for our souls, fixed and certain, and going in to that which is inside the veil; +Heb 6:20 Where Jesus has gone before us, as a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. +Heb 7:1 For this Melchizedek, the king of Salem, a priest of the Most High God, who gave Abraham his blessing, meeting him when he came back after putting the kings to death, +Heb 7:2 And to whom Abraham gave a tenth part of everything which he had, being first named King of righteousness, and then in addition, King of Salem, that is to say, King of peace; +Heb 7:3 Being without father or mother, or family, having no birth or end to his life, being made like the Son of God, is a priest for ever. +Heb 7:4 Now see how great this man was, to whom our father Abraham gave a tenth part of what he had got in the fight. +Heb 7:5 And it is true that by the law, those of the sons of Levi who have the position of priests may take a tenth part of the people's goods; that is to say, they take it from their brothers though these are the sons of Abraham. +Heb 7:6 But this man, who was not of their family, took the tenth from Abraham, and gave a blessing to him to whom God had given his undertaking. +Heb 7:7 But there is no doubt that the less gets his blessing from the greater. +Heb 7:8 Now at the present time, men over whom death has power take the tenth; but then it was taken by one of whom it is witnessed that he is living. +Heb 7:9 And we may say that in Abraham, even Levi, who has a right to take the tenth part, gave it; +Heb 7:10 Because he was still in his father's body when Melchizedek came to him. +Heb 7:11 Now if it was possible for things to be made complete through the priests of the house of Levi (for the law was given to the people in connection with them), what need was there for another priest who was of the order of Melchizedek and not of the order of Aaron? +Heb 7:12 Because if the priests are changed, it is necessary to make a change in the law. +Heb 7:13 For he of whom these things are said comes of another tribe, of which no man has ever made offerings at the altar. +Heb 7:14 Because it is clear that our Lord comes out of Judah, and Moses said nothing about priests from that tribe. +Heb 7:15 And this is even more clear if a second priest has come up who is like Melchizedek, +Heb 7:16 That is to say, not made by a law based on the flesh, but by the power of a life without end: +Heb 7:17 For it has been witnessed of him, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. +Heb 7:18 So the law which went before is put on one side, because it was feeble and without profit. +Heb 7:19 (Because the law made nothing complete), and in its place there is a better hope, through which we come near to God. +Heb 7:20 And as this is not without the taking of an oath +Heb 7:21 (For those were made priests without an oath, but this one was made a priest with an oath by him who says of him, The Lord gave his oath, which he will not take back, that you are a priest for ever); +Heb 7:22 By so much is it a better agreement which we have through Jesus. +Heb 7:23 And it is true that there have been a great number of those priests, because death does not let them go on for ever; +Heb 7:24 But this priest, because his life goes on for ever, is unchanging. +Heb 7:25 So that he is fully able to be the saviour of all who come to God through him, because he is ever living to make prayer to God for them. +Heb 7:26 It was right for us to have such a high priest, one who is holy and without evil, doing no wrong, having no part with sinners, and made higher than the heavens: +Heb 7:27 Who has no need to make offerings for sins every day, like those high priests, first for himself, and then for the people; because he did this once and for ever when he made an offering of himself. +Heb 7:28 The law makes high priests of men who are feeble; but the word of the oath, which was made after the law, gives that position to a Son, in whom all good is for ever complete. +Heb 8:1 Now of the things we are saying this is the chief point: We have such a high priest, who has taken his place at the right hand of God's high seat of glory in heaven, +Heb 8:2 As a servant of the holy things and of the true Tent, which was put up by God, not by man. +Heb 8:3 Now every high priest is given authority to take to God the things which are given and to make offerings; so that it is necessary for this man, like them, to have something for an offering. +Heb 8:4 If he had been on earth he would not have been a priest at all, because there are other priests who make the offerings ordered by the law; +Heb 8:5 Being servants of that which is a copy and an image of the things in heaven, as Moses, when he was about to make the Tent, had special orders from God: for, See, he said, that you make everything like the design which you saw in the mountain. +Heb 8:6 But now his position as priest is higher. because through him God has made a better agreement with man, based on the giving of better things. +Heb 8:7 For if that first agreement had been as good as possible, there would have been no place for a second. +Heb 8:8 For, protesting against them, he says, See, the days are coming when I will make a new agreement with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; +Heb 8:9 Not like the agreement which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand, to be their guide out of the land of Egypt; for they did not keep the agreement with me, and I gave them up, says the Lord. +Heb 8:10 For this is the agreement which I will make with the people of Israel after those days: I will put my laws into their minds, writing them in their hearts: and I will be their God, and they will be my people: +Heb 8:11 And there will be no need for every man to be teaching his brother, or his neighbour, saying, This is the knowledge of the Lord: for they will all have knowledge of me, great and small. +Heb 8:12 And I will have mercy on their evil-doing, and I will not keep their sins in mind. +Heb 8:13 When he says, A new agreement, he has made the first agreement old. But anything which is getting old and past use will not be seen much longer. +Heb 9:1 Now the first agreement had its rules of worship, and a holy order. +Heb 9:2 For the first Tent was made ready, having in it the vessels for the lights and the table and the ordering of the bread; and this is named the holy place. +Heb 9:3 And inside the second veil was the place which is named the Holy of holies; +Heb 9:4 Having a vessel of gold in it for burning perfumes, and the ark of the agreement, which was covered with gold and which had in it a pot made of gold for the manna, and Aaron's rod which put out buds, and the stones with the writing of the agreement; +Heb 9:5 And over it were the winged ones of glory with their wings covering the mercy-seat; about which it is not possible now to say anything in detail. +Heb 9:6 Now while these things were in existence, the priests went into the first Tent at all times, for prayer and the making of offerings. +Heb 9:7 But only the high priest went into the second, once a year, not without making an offering of blood for himself and for the errors of the people: +Heb 9:8 The Holy Spirit witnessing by this that the way into the holy place had not at that time been made open, while the first Tent was still in being; +Heb 9:9 And this is an image of the present time; when the offerings which are given are not able to make the heart of the worshipper completely clean, +Heb 9:10 Because they are only rules of the flesh, of meats and drinks and washings, which have their place till the time comes when things will be put right. +Heb 9:11 But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things of the future, through this greater and better Tent, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this world, +Heb 9:12 And has gone once and for ever into the holy place, having got eternal salvation, not through the blood of goats and young oxen, but through his blood. +Heb 9:13 For if the blood of goats and oxen, and the dust from the burning of a young cow, being put on the unclean, make the flesh clean: +Heb 9:14 How much more will the blood of Christ, who, being without sin, made an offering of himself to God through the Holy Spirit, make your hearts clean from dead works to be servants of the living God? +Heb 9:15 And for this cause it is through him that a new agreement has come into being, so that after the errors under the first agreement had been taken away by his death, the word of God might have effect for those who were marked out for an eternal heritage. +Heb 9:16 Because where there is a testament, there has to be the death of the man who made it. +Heb 9:17 For a testament has effect after death; for what power has it while the man who made it is living? +Heb 9:18 So that even the first agreement was not made without blood. +Heb 9:19 For when Moses had given all the rules of the law to the people, he took the blood of goats and young oxen, with water and red wool and hyssop, and put it on the book itself and on all the people, +Heb 9:20 Saying, This blood is the sign of the agreement which God has made with you. +Heb 9:21 And the blood was put on the Tent and all the holy vessels in the same way. +Heb 9:22 And by the law almost all things are made clean with blood, and without blood there is no forgiveness. +Heb 9:23 For this cause it was necessary to make the copies of the things in heaven clean with these offerings; but the things themselves are made clean with better offerings than these. +Heb 9:24 For Christ did not go into a holy place which had been made by men's hands as the copy of the true one; but he went into heaven itself, and now takes his place before the face of God for us. +Heb 9:25 And he did not have to make an offering of himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the holy place every year with blood which is not his; +Heb 9:26 For then he would have undergone a number of deaths from the time of the making of the world: but now he has come to us at the end of the old order, to put away sin by the offering of himself. +Heb 9:27 And because by God's law death comes to men once, and after that they are judged; +Heb 9:28 So Christ, having at his first coming taken on himself the sins of men, will be seen a second time, without sin, by those who are waiting for him, for their salvation. +Heb 10:1 For the law, being only a poor copy of the future good things, and not the true image of those things, is never able to make the people who come to the altar every year with the same offerings completely clean. +Heb 10:2 For if this had been possible, would there not have been an end of those offerings, because the worshippers would have been made completely clean and would have been no longer conscious of sins? +Heb 10:3 But year by year there is a memory of sins in those offerings. +Heb 10:4 Because it is not possible for the blood of oxen and goats to take away sins. +Heb 10:5 So that when he comes into the world, he says, You had no desire for offerings, but you made a body ready for me; +Heb 10:6 You had no joy in burned offerings or in offerings for sin. +Heb 10:7 Then I said, See, I have come to do your pleasure, O God (as it is said of me in the roll of the book). +Heb 10:8 After saying, You had no desire for offerings, for burned offerings or offerings for sin (which are made by the law) and you had no pleasure in them, +Heb 10:9 Then he said, See, I have come to do your pleasure. He took away the old order, so that he might put the new order in its place. +Heb 10:10 By that pleasure we have been made holy, by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for ever. +Heb 10:11 And every priest takes his place at the altar day by day, doing what is necessary, and making again and again the same offerings which are never able to take away sins. +Heb 10:12 But when Jesus had made one offering for sins for ever, he took his place at the right hand of God; +Heb 10:13 And has been waiting there from that time, till all who are against him are made a foot-rest for his feet. +Heb 10:14 Because by one offering he has made complete for ever those who are made holy. +Heb 10:15 And the Holy Spirit is a witness for us: for after he had said, +Heb 10:16 This is the agreement which I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws in their hearts, writing them in their minds; he said, +Heb 10:17 And I will keep no more memory of their sins and of their evil-doings. +Heb 10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no more offering for sin. +Heb 10:19 So then, my brothers, being able to go into the holy place without fear, because of the blood of Jesus, +Heb 10:20 By the new and living way which he made open for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; +Heb 10:21 And having a great priest over the house of God, +Heb 10:22 Let us go in with true hearts, in certain faith, having our hearts made free from the sense of sin and our bodies washed with clean water: +Heb 10:23 Let us keep the witness of our hope strong and unshaking, for he is true who has given his word: +Heb 10:24 And let us be moving one another at all times to love and good works; +Heb 10:25 Not giving up our meetings, as is the way of some, but keeping one another strong in faith; and all the more because you see the day coming near. +Heb 10:26 For if we do evil on purpose after we have had the knowledge of what is true, there is no more offering for sins, +Heb 10:27 But only a great fear of being judged, and of the fire of wrath which will be the destruction of the haters of God. +Heb 10:28 A man who has gone against the law of Moses is put to death without pity on the word of two or three witnesses: +Heb 10:29 But will not the man by whom the Son of God has been crushed under foot, and the blood of the agreement with which he was washed clean has been taken as an unholy thing, and who has had no respect for the Spirit of grace, be judged bad enough for a very much worse punishment? +Heb 10:30 For we have had experience of him who says, Punishment is mine, I will give reward. And again, The Lord will be judge of his people. +Heb 10:31 We may well go in fear of falling into the hands of the living God. +Heb 10:32 But give thought to the days after you had seen the light, when you went through a great war of troubles; +Heb 10:33 In part, in being attacked by angry words and cruel acts, before the eyes of everyone, and in part, in being united with those who were attacked in this way. +Heb 10:34 For you had pity on those who were in prison, and had joy in the loss of your property, in the knowledge that you still had a better property and one which you would keep for ever. +Heb 10:35 So do not give up your hope which will be greatly rewarded. +Heb 10:36 For, having done what was right in God's eyes, you have need of waiting before his word has effect for you. +Heb 10:37 In a very little time he who is coming will come; he will not be slow. +Heb 10:38 But the upright man will be living by his faith; and if he goes back, my soul will have no pleasure in him. +Heb 10:39 But we are not of those who go back to destruction; but of those who have faith even to the salvation of the soul. +Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the sign that the things not seen are true. +Heb 11:2 For by it our fathers had God's approval. +Heb 11:3 By faith it is clear to us that the order of events was fixed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made from things which only seem to be. +Heb 11:4 By faith Abel made a better offering to God than Cain, and he had witness through it of his righteousness, God giving his approval of his offering: and his voice still comes to us through it though he is dead. +Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up to heaven so that he did not see death; he was seen no longer, for God took him away: for before he was taken, witness had been given that he was well-pleasing to God: +Heb 11:6 And without faith it is not possible to be well-pleasing to him, for it is necessary for anyone who comes to God to have the belief that God is, and that he is a rewarder of all those who make a serious search for him. +Heb 11:7 By faith Noah, being moved by the fear of God, made ready an ark for the salvation of his family, because God had given him news of things which were not seen at the time; and through it the world was judged by him, and he got for his heritage the righteousness which is by faith. +Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham did as God said when he was ordered to go out into a place which was to be given to him as a heritage, and went out without knowledge of where he was going. +Heb 11:9 By faith he was a wanderer in the land of the agreement, as in a strange land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who had a part with him in the same heritage: +Heb 11:10 For he was looking for the strong town, whose builder and maker is God. +Heb 11:11 And by faith Sarah herself had power to give birth, when she was very old, because she had faith in him who gave his word; +Heb 11:12 So that from one man, who was near to death, came children in number as the stars in heaven, or as the sand by the seaside, which may not be numbered. +Heb 11:13 All these came to their end in faith, not having had the heritage; but having seen it with delight far away, they gave witness that they were wanderers and not of the earth. +Heb 11:14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are searching for a country for themselves. +Heb 11:15 And truly if they had kept in mind the country from which they went out, they would have had chances of turning back. +Heb 11:16 But now their desire is for a better country, that is to say, for one in heaven; and so it is no shame to God to be named their God; for he has made ready a town for them. +Heb 11:17 By faith Abraham made an offering of Isaac, when he was tested: and he with whom the agreement had been made gave up as an offering the only son of his body, +Heb 11:18 Of whom it had been said, From Isaac will your seed take their name: +Heb 11:19 Judging that God was able to give life even to the dead; and because of this he did get him back as if from death. +Heb 11:20 By faith Isaac, blessing Jacob and Esau, gave news of things to come. +Heb 11:21 By faith Jacob gave a blessing to the two sons of Joseph, when he was near to death; and gave God worship, supported by his stick. +Heb 11:22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, said that the children of Israel would go out of Egypt; and gave orders about his bones. +Heb 11:23 By faith Moses was kept secretly by his father and mother for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a fair child; and they had no fear of the king's orders. +Heb 11:24 By faith Moses, when he became a man, had no desire to be named the son of Pharaoh's daughter; +Heb 11:25 Feeling that it was better to undergo pain with the people of God, than for a short time to have a taste of the pleasures of sin; +Heb 11:26 Judging a part in the shame of Christ to be better than all the wealth of Egypt; for he was looking forward to his reward. +Heb 11:27 By faith he went out of Egypt, not being turned from his purpose by fear of the wrath of the king; for he kept on his way, as seeing him who is unseen. +Heb 11:28 By faith he kept the Passover, and put the sign of the blood on the houses, so that the angel of destruction might not put their oldest sons to death. +Heb 11:29 By faith they went through the Red Sea as if it had been dry land, though the Egyptians were overcome by the water when they made an attempt to do the same. +Heb 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho came down, after they had been circled for seven days. +Heb 11:31 By faith Rahab, the loose woman, was not put to death with those who had gone against God's orders, because she had taken into her house in peace those sent to see the land. +Heb 11:32 What more am I to say? For there would not be time to give the stories of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets: +Heb 11:33 Who through faith overcame kingdoms, did righteousness, got their reward, kept the mouths of lions shut, +Heb 11:34 Put out the power of fire, got safely away from the edge of the sword, were made strong when they had been feeble, became full of power in war, and put to flight the armies of the nations. +Heb 11:35 Women had their dead given back to them living; others let themselves be cruelly attacked, having no desire to go free, so that they might have a better life to come; +Heb 11:36 And others were tested by being laughed at or by blows, and even with chains and prisons: +Heb 11:37 They were stoned, they were cut up with knives, they were tested, they were put to death with the sword, they went about in sheepskins and in goatskins; being poor and in pain and cruelly attacked, +Heb 11:38 Wandering in waste places and in mountains and in holes in the rocks; for whom the world was not good enough. +Heb 11:39 And not one of these got the good things of the agreement, though they all had a good record through faith, +Heb 11:40 Because God had kept some better thing for us, so that it was not possible for them to become complete without us. +Heb 12:1 For this reason, as we are circled by so great a cloud of witnesses, putting off every weight, and the sin into which we come so readily, let us keep on running in the way which is marked out for us, +Heb 12:2 Having our eyes fixed on Jesus, the guide and end of our faith, who went through the pains of the cross, not caring for the shame, because of the joy which was before him, and who has now taken his place at the right hand of God's seat of power. +Heb 12:3 Give thought to him who has undergone so much of the hate of sinners against himself, so that you may not be tired and feeble of purpose. +Heb 12:4 Till now you have not given your blood in your fight against sin: +Heb 12:5 And you have not kept in mind the word which says to you as to sons, My son, do not make little of the Lord's punishment, and do not give up hope when you are judged by him; +Heb 12:6 For the Lord sends punishment on his loved ones; everyone whom he takes as his son has experience of his rod. +Heb 12:7 It is for your training that you undergo these things; God is acting to you as a father does to his sons; for what son does not have punishment from his father? +Heb 12:8 But if you have not that punishment of which we all have our part, then you are not true sons, but children of shame. +Heb 12:9 And again, if the fathers of our flesh gave us punishment and had our respect, how much more will we be under the authority of the Father of spirits, and have life? +Heb 12:10 For they truly gave us punishment for a short time, as it seemed good to them; but he does it for our profit, so that we may become holy as he is. +Heb 12:11 At the time all punishment seems to be pain and not joy: but after, those who have been trained by it get from it the peace-giving fruit of righteousness. +Heb 12:12 For this cause let the hands which are hanging down be lifted up, and let the feeble knees be made strong, +Heb 12:13 And make straight roads for your feet, so that the feeble may not be turned out of the way, but may be made strong. +Heb 12:14 Let your desire be for peace with all men, and to be made holy, without which no man may see the Lord; +Heb 12:15 Looking with care to see that no man among you in his behaviour comes short of the grace of God; for fear that some bitter root may come up to be a trouble to you, and that some of you may be made unclean by it; +Heb 12:16 And that there may not be any evil liver, or any man without respect for God, like Esau, who let his birthright go for a plate of food. +Heb 12:17 For you have knowledge that even long after, when he was desiring the blessing for his heritage, he was turned away, though he made his request frequently and with weeping; because the past might not be changed. +Heb 12:18 You have not come to a mountain which may be touched, and is burning with fire, and to a black cloud, and a dark smoke, and a violent wind, +Heb 12:19 And to the sound of a horn, and the voice of words, the hearers of which made request that not a word more might be said to them: +Heb 12:20 For the order which said, If the mountain is touched even by a beast, the beast is to be stoned, seemed hard to them; +Heb 12:21 And the vision was so overpowering that even Moses said, I am shaking and full of fear. +Heb 12:22 But you have come to the mountain of Zion, to the place of the living God, to the Jerusalem which is in heaven, and to an army of angels which may not be numbered, +Heb 12:23 To the great meeting and church of the first of those who are named in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of good men made complete, +Heb 12:24 And to Jesus by whom the new agreement has been made between God and man, and to the sign of the blood which says better things than Abel's blood. +Heb 12:25 See that you give ear to his voice which comes to you. For if those whose ears were shut to the voice which came to them on earth did not go free from punishment, what chance have we of going free if we give no attention to him whose voice comes from heaven? +Heb 12:26 Whose voice was the cause of the shaking of the earth; but now he has made an oath, saying, There will be still one more shaking, not only of the earth, but of heaven. +Heb 12:27 And the words, Still one more, make it clear that there will be a taking away of those things which are shaking, as of things which are made, so that there may be only those things of which no shaking is possible. +Heb 12:28 If then, we have a kingdom which will never be moved, let us have grace, so that we may give God such worship as is pleasing to him with fear and respect: +Heb 12:29 For our God is an all-burning fire. +Heb 13:1 Go on loving your brothers in the faith. +Heb 13:2 Take care to keep open house: because in this way some have had angels as their guests, without being conscious of it. +Heb 13:3 Keep in mind those who are in chains, as if you were chained with them, and those who are in trouble, as being yourselves in the body. +Heb 13:4 Let married life be honoured among all of you and not made unclean; for men untrue in married life will be judged by God. +Heb 13:5 Be free from the love of money and pleased with the things which you have; for he himself has said, I will be with you at all times. +Heb 13:6 So that we say with a good heart, The Lord is my helper; I will have no fear: what is man able to do to me? +Heb 13:7 Keep in mind those who were over you, and who gave you the word of God; seeing the outcome of their way of life, let your faith be like theirs. +Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever. +Heb 13:9 Do not be turned away by different strange teachings, because it is good for your hearts to be made strong by grace, and not by meats, which were of no profit to those who took so much trouble over them. +Heb 13:10 We have an altar from which those priests who are servants in the Tent may not take food. +Heb 13:11 For the bodies of the beasts whose blood is taken into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the circle of the tents. +Heb 13:12 For this reason Jesus was put to death outside the walls, so that he might make the people holy by his blood. +Heb 13:13 Let us then go out to him outside the circle of the tents, taking his shame on ourselves. +Heb 13:14 For here we have no fixed resting-place, but our search is for the one which is to come. +Heb 13:15 Let us then make offerings of praise to God at all times through him, that is to say, the fruit of lips giving witness to his name. +Heb 13:16 But go on doing good and giving to others, because God is well-pleased with such offerings. +Heb 13:17 Give ear to those who are rulers over you, and do as they say: for they keep watch over your souls, ready to give an account of them; let them be able to do this with joy and not with grief, because that would be of no profit to you. +Heb 13:18 Make prayers for us, for we are certain that our hearts are free from the sense of sin, desiring the right way of life in all things. +Heb 13:19 I make this request more strongly, in the hope of coming back to you more quickly. +Heb 13:20 Now may the God of peace, who made that great keeper of his flock, even our Lord Jesus, come back from the dead through the blood of the eternal agreement, +Heb 13:21 Make you full of every good work and ready to do all his desires, working in us whatever is pleasing in his eyes through Jesus Christ; and may the glory be given to him for ever and ever. So be it. +Heb 13:22 But, brothers, take kindly the words which I have said for your profit; for I have not sent you a long letter. +Heb 13:23 Our brother Timothy has been let out of prison; and if he comes here in a short time, he and I will come to you together. +Heb 13:24 Give words of love from me to those who are rulers over you, and to all the saints. Those who are in Italy send you their love. +Heb 13:25 May grace be with you all. +Jas 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, sends words of love to the twelve tribes of the Jews living in all parts of the earth. +Jas 1:2 Let it be all joy to you, my brothers, when you undergo tests of every sort; +Jas 1:3 Because you have the knowledge that the testing of your faith gives you the power of going on in hope; +Jas 1:4 But let this power have its full effect, so that you may be made complete, needing nothing. +Jas 1:5 But if any man among you is without wisdom, let him make his request to God, who gives freely to all without an unkind word, and it will be given to him. +Jas 1:6 Let him make his request in faith, doubting nothing; for he who has doubt in his heart is like the waves of the sea, which are troubled by the driving of the wind. +Jas 1:7 Let it not seem to such a man that he will get anything from the Lord; +Jas 1:8 For there is a division in his mind, and he is uncertain in all his ways. +Jas 1:9 But let the brother of low position be glad that he is lifted up; +Jas 1:10 But the man of wealth, that he is made low; because like the flower of the grass he will come to his end. +Jas 1:11 For when the sun comes up with its burning heat, the grass gets dry and the grace of its form is gone with the falling flower; so the man of wealth comes to nothing in his ways. +Jas 1:12 There is a blessing on the man who undergoes testing; because, if he has God's approval, he will be given the crown of life, which the Lord has said he will give to those who have love for him. +Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tested, I am tested by God; for it is not possible for God to be tested by evil, and he himself puts no man to such a test: +Jas 1:14 But every man is tested when he is turned out of the right way by the attraction of his desire. +Jas 1:15 Then when its time comes, desire gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is of full growth, gives birth to death. +Jas 1:16 Do not be turned from the right way, dear brothers. +Jas 1:17 Every good and true thing is given to us from heaven, coming from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or any shade made by turning. +Jas 1:18 Of his purpose he gave us being, by his true word, so that we might be, in a sense, the first-fruits of all the things which he had made. +Jas 1:19 You have knowledge of this, dear brothers. But let every man be quick in hearing, slow in words, slow to get angry; +Jas 1:20 For the righteousness of God does not come about by the wrath of man. +Jas 1:21 For this reason, putting away all dirty behaviour and the overweight of evil, take into your souls without pride the word which, being planted there, is able to give you salvation. +Jas 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not only hearers of it, blinding yourselves with false ideas. +Jas 1:23 Because if any man is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a glass; +Jas 1:24 For after looking at himself he goes away, and in a short time he has no memory of what he was like. +Jas 1:25 But he who goes on looking into the true law which makes him free, being not a hearer without memory but a doer putting it into effect, this man will have a blessing on his acts. +Jas 1:26 If a man seems to have religion and has no control over his tongue but lets himself be tricked by what is false, this man's religion is of no value. +Jas 1:27 The religion which is holy and free from evil in the eyes of our God and Father is this: to take care of children who have no fathers and of widows who are in trouble, and to keep oneself untouched by the world. +Jas 2:1 My brothers, if you have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory, do not take a man's position into account. +Jas 2:2 For if a man comes into your Synagogue in fair clothing and with a gold ring, and a poor man comes in with dirty clothing, +Jas 2:3 And you do honour to the man in fair clothing and say, Come here and take this good place; and you say to the poor man, Take up your position there, or be seated at my feet; +Jas 2:4 Is there not a division in your minds? have you not become judges with evil thoughts? +Jas 2:5 Give ear, my dear brothers; are not those who are poor in the things of this world marked out by God to have faith as their wealth, and for their heritage the kingdom which he has said he will give to those who have love for him? +Jas 2:6 But you have put the poor man to shame. Are not the men of wealth rulers over you? do they not take you by force before their judges? +Jas 2:7 Do they not say evil of the holy name which was given to you? +Jas 2:8 But if you keep the greatest law of all, as it is given in the holy Writings, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself, you do well: +Jas 2:9 But if you take a man's position into account, you do evil, and are judged as evil-doers by the law. +Jas 2:10 For anyone who keeps all the law, but makes a slip in one point, is judged to have gone against it all. +Jas 2:11 For he who said, Do not be untrue in married life, is the same who said, Put no man to death. Now if you are not untrue in married life, but you put a man to death, the law is broken. +Jas 2:12 Let your words and your acts be those of men who are to be judged by the law which makes free. +Jas 2:13 For the man who has had no mercy will be judged without mercy, but mercy takes pride in overcoming judging. +Jas 2:14 What use is it, my brothers, for a man to say that he has faith, if he does nothing? will such a faith give him salvation? +Jas 2:15 If a brother or a sister is without clothing and in need of the day's food, +Jas 2:16 And one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warm and full of food; but you do not give them the things of which their bodies have need, what profit is there in this? +Jas 2:17 Even so faith without works is dead. +Jas 2:18 But a man may say, You have faith and I have works; let me see your faith without your works, and I will make my faith clear to you by my works. +Jas 2:19 You have the belief that God is one, and you do well: the evil spirits have the same belief, shaking with fear. +Jas 2:20 Do you not see, O foolish man, that faith without works is of no use? +Jas 2:21 Was not the righteousness of Abraham our father judged by his works, when he made an offering of Isaac his son on the altar? +Jas 2:22 You see that his faith was helping his works and was made complete by them; +Jas 2:23 And the holy Writings were put into effect which said, And Abraham had faith in God and it was put to his account as righteousness; and he was named the friend of God. +Jas 2:24 You see that a man's righteousness is judged by his works and not by his faith only. +Jas 2:25 And in the same way, was not the righteousness of Rahab, the loose woman, judged by her works, when she took into her house those who were sent and let them go out by another way? +Jas 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead even so faith without works is dead. +Jas 3:1 Do not all be teachers, my brothers, because we teachers will be judged more hardly than others. +Jas 3:2 For we all go wrong in a number of things. If a man never makes a slip in his talk, then he is a complete man and able to keep all his body in control. +Jas 3:3 Now if we put bits of iron into horses' mouths so that they may be guided by us, we have complete control of their bodies. +Jas 3:4 And again ships, though they are so great and are moved by violent winds, are turned by a very small guiding-blade, at the impulse of the man who is using it. +Jas 3:5 Even so the tongue is a small part of the body, but it takes credit for great things. How much wood may be lighted by a very little fire! +Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire; it is the power of evil placed in our bodies, making all the body unclean, putting the wheel of life on fire, and getting its fire from hell. +Jas 3:7 For every sort of beast and bird and every living thing on earth and in the sea has been controlled by man and is under his authority; +Jas 3:8 But the tongue may not be controlled by man; it is an unresting evil, it is full of the poison of death. +Jas 3:9 With it we give praise to our Lord and Father; and with it we put a curse on men who are made in God's image. +Jas 3:10 Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, it is not right for these things to be so. +Jas 3:11 Does the fountain send from the same outlet sweet and bitter water? +Jas 3:12 Is a fig-tree able to give us olives, my brothers, or do we get figs from a vine, or sweet water from the salt sea? +Jas 3:13 Who has wisdom and good sense among you? let him make his works clear by a life of gentle wisdom. +Jas 3:14 But if you have bitter envy in your heart and the desire to get the better of others, have no pride in this, talking falsely against what is true. +Jas 3:15 This wisdom is not from heaven, but is of the earth and the flesh and the Evil One. +Jas 3:16 For where envy is, and the desire to get the better of others, there is no order, but every sort of evil-doing. +Jas 3:17 But the wisdom which is from heaven is first holy, then gentle, readily giving way in argument, full of peace and mercy and good works, not doubting, not seeming other than it is. +Jas 3:18 And the fruit of righteousness is planted in peace for those who make peace. +Jas 4:1 What is the cause of wars and fighting among you? is it not in your desires which are at war in your bodies? +Jas 4:2 You are burning with desire, and have not your desire, so you put men to death; you are full of envy, and you are not able to get your desire, so you are fighting and making war; you have not your desire, because you do not make request for it. +Jas 4:3 You make your request but you do not get it, because your request has been wrongly made, desiring the thing only so that you may make use of it for your pleasure. +Jas 4:4 O you who are false to God, do you not see that the friends of this world are not God's friends? Every man desiring to be a friend of this world makes himself a hater of God. +Jas 4:5 Or does it seem to you that it is for nothing that the holy Writings say, The spirit which God put into our hearts has a strong desire for us? +Jas 4:6 But he gives more grace. So that the Writings say, God is against the men of pride, but he gives grace to those who make themselves low before him. +Jas 4:7 For this cause be ruled by God; but make war on the Evil One and he will be put to flight before you. +Jas 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Make your hands clean, you evil-doers; put away deceit from your hearts, you false in mind. +Jas 4:9 Be troubled, with sorrow and weeping; let your laughing be turned to sorrow and your joy to grief. +Jas 4:10 Make yourselves low in the eyes of the Lord and you will be lifted up by him. +Jas 4:11 Do not say evil against one another, my brothers. He who says evil against his brother or makes himself his brother's judge, says evil against the law and is judging the law: and in judging the law you become, not a doer of the law but a judge. +Jas 4:12 There is only one judge and law-giver, even he who has the power of salvation and of destruction; but who are you to be your neighbour's judge? +Jas 4:13 How foolish it is to say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this town, and be there for a year and do business there and get wealth: +Jas 4:14 When you are not certain what will take place tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist, which is seen for a little time and then is gone. +Jas 4:15 But the right thing to say would be, If it is the Lord's pleasure and if we are still living, we will do this and that. +Jas 4:16 But now you go on glorying in your pride: and all such glorying is evil. +Jas 4:17 The man who has knowledge of how to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. +Jas 5:1 Come now, you men of wealth, give yourselves to weeping and crying because of the bitter troubles which are coming to you. +Jas 5:2 Your wealth is unclean and insects have made holes in your clothing. +Jas 5:3 Your gold and your silver are wasted and their waste will be a witness against you, burning into your flesh. You have put by your store in the last days. +Jas 5:4 See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies. +Jas 5:5 You have been living delicately on earth and have taken your pleasure; you have made your hearts fat for a day of destruction. +Jas 5:6 You have given your decision against the upright man and have put him to death. He puts up no fight against you. +Jas 5:7 Go on waiting calmly, my brothers, till the coming of the Lord, like the farmer waiting for the good fruit of the earth till the early and late rains have come. +Jas 5:8 Be as calm in your waiting; let your hearts be strong: because the coming of the Lord is near. +Jas 5:9 Say no hard things against one another, brothers, so that you will not be judged; see, the judge is waiting at the doors. +Jas 5:10 Take as an example of pain nobly undergone and of strength in trouble, the prophets who gave to men the words of the Lord. +Jas 5:11 We say that those men who have gone through pain are happy: you have the story of Job and the troubles through which he went and have seen that the Lord was full of pity and mercy in the end. +Jas 5:12 But most of all, my brothers, do not take oaths, not by the heaven, or by the earth, or by any other thing: but let your Yes be Yes, and your No be No: so that you may not be judged. +Jas 5:13 Is anyone among you in trouble? let him say prayers. Is anyone glad? let him make a song of praise. +Jas 5:14 Is anyone among you ill? let him send for the rulers of the church; and let them say prayers over him, putting oil on him in the name of the Lord. +Jas 5:15 And by the prayer of faith the man who is ill will be made well, and he will be lifted up by the Lord, and for any sin which he has done he will have forgiveness. +Jas 5:16 So then, make a statement of your sins to one another, and say prayers for one another so that you may be made well. The prayer of a good man is full of power in its working. +Jas 5:17 Elijah was a man of flesh and blood as we are, and he made a strong prayer that there might be no rain; and there was no rain on the earth for three years and six months. +Jas 5:18 And he made another prayer, and the heaven sent down rain and the earth gave her fruit. +Jas 5:19 My brothers, if one of you has gone out of the way of the true faith and another has made him see his error, +Jas 5:20 Be certain that he through whom a sinner has been turned from the error of his way, keeps a soul from death and is the cause of forgiveness for sins without number. +1Pe 1:1 Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to the saints who are living in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, +1Pe 1:2 Who, through the purpose of God, have been made holy by the Spirit, disciples of Jesus, made clean by his blood: May you have grace and peace in full measure. +1Pe 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through his great mercy has given us a new birth and a living hope by the coming again of Jesus Christ from the dead, +1Pe 1:4 And a heritage fair, holy and for ever new, waiting in heaven for you, +1Pe 1:5 Who, by the power of God are kept, through faith, for that salvation, which will be seen at the last day. +1Pe 1:6 You have cause for great joy in this, though it may have been necessary for you to be troubled for a little time, being tested in all sorts of ways, +1Pe 1:7 So that the true metal of your faith, being of much greater value than gold (which, though it comes to an end, is tested by fire), may come to light in praise and glory and honour, at the revelation of Jesus Christ: +1Pe 1:8 To whom your love is given, though you have not seen him; and the faith which you have in him, though you do not see him now, gives you joy greater than words and full of glory: +1Pe 1:9 For so you have the true end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. +1Pe 1:10 For the prophets who gave the news of the grace which would come to you, made search with all care for knowledge of this salvation; +1Pe 1:11 Attempting to see what sort of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them was pointing to, when it gave witness to the pains which Christ would undergo and the glories which would come after them. +1Pe 1:12 And it was made clear to those prophets that they were God's servants not for themselves but for you, to give you word of the things which have now come to your ears from the preachers of the good news through the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; things which even angels have a desire to see. +1Pe 1:13 So make your minds ready, and keep on the watch, hoping with all your power for the grace which is to come to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; +1Pe 1:14 Like children ruled by God, do not go back to the old desires of the time when you were without knowledge: +1Pe 1:15 But be holy in every detail of your lives, as he, whose servants you are, is holy; +1Pe 1:16 Because it has been said in the Writings, You are to be holy, for I am holy. +1Pe 1:17 And if you give the name of Father to him who, judging every man by his acts, has no respect for a man's position, then go in fear while you are on this earth: +1Pe 1:18 Being conscious that you have been made free from that foolish way of life which was your heritage from your fathers, not through a payment of things like silver or gold which come to destruction, +1Pe 1:19 But through holy blood, like that of a clean and unmarked lamb, even the blood of Christ: +1Pe 1:20 Who was marked out by God before the making of the world, but was caused to be seen in these last times for you, +1Pe 1:21 Who through him have faith in God who took him up again from the dead into glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God. +1Pe 1:22 And as you have made your souls clean, being ruled by what is true, and loving one another without deceit, see that your love is warm and from the heart: +1Pe 1:23 Because you have had a new birth, not from the seed of man, but from eternal seed, through the word of a living and unchanging God. +1Pe 1:24 For it is said, All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass becomes dry and the flower dead: +1Pe 1:25 But the word of the Lord is eternal. And this is the word of the good news which was given to you. +1Pe 2:1 So putting away all wrongdoing, and all tricks and deceits and envies and evil talk, +1Pe 2:2 Be full of desire for the true milk of the word, as babies at their mothers' breasts, so that you may go on to salvation; +1Pe 2:3 If you have had a taste of the grace of the Lord: +1Pe 2:4 To whom you come, as to a living stone, not honoured by men, but of great and special value to God; +1Pe 2:5 You, as living stones, are being made into a house of the spirit, a holy order of priests, making those offerings of the spirit which are pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. +1Pe 2:6 Because it is said in the Writings, See, I am placing a keystone in Zion, of great and special value; and the man who has faith in him will not be put to shame. +1Pe 2:7 And the value is for you who have faith; but it is said for those without faith, The very stone which the builders put on one side, was made the chief stone of the building; +1Pe 2:8 And, A stone of falling, a rock of trouble; the word is the cause of their fall, because they go against it, and this was the purpose of God. +1Pe 2:9 But you are a special people, a holy nation, priests and kings, a people given up completely to God, so that you may make clear the virtues of him who took you out of the dark into the light of heaven. +1Pe 2:10 In the past you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; then there was no mercy for you, but now mercy has been given to you. +1Pe 2:11 My loved ones, I make this request with all my heart, that, as those for whom this world is a strange country, you will keep yourselves from the desires of the flesh which make war against the soul; +1Pe 2:12 Being of good behaviour among the Gentiles; so that though they say now that you are evil-doers, they may see your good works and give glory to God when he comes to be their judge. +1Pe 2:13 Keep all the laws of men because of the Lord; those of the king, who is over all, +1Pe 2:14 And those of the rulers who are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers and for the praise of those who do well. +1Pe 2:15 Because it is God's pleasure that foolish and narrow-minded men may be put to shame by your good behaviour: +1Pe 2:16 As those who are free, not using your free position as a cover for wrongdoing, but living as the servants of God; +1Pe 2:17 Have respect for all, loving the brothers, fearing God, honouring the king. +1Pe 2:18 Servants, take orders from your masters with all respect; not only if they are good and gentle, but even if they are bad-humoured. +1Pe 2:19 For it is a sign of grace if a man, desiring to do right in the eyes of God, undergoes pain as punishment for something which he has not done. +1Pe 2:20 What credit is it if, when you have done evil, you take your punishment quietly? but if you are given punishment for doing right, and take it quietly, this is pleasing to God. +1Pe 2:21 This is God's purpose for you: because Jesus himself underwent punishment for you, giving you an example, so that you might go in his footsteps: +1Pe 2:22 Who did no evil, and there was no deceit in his mouth: +1Pe 2:23 To sharp words he gave no sharp answer; when he was undergoing pain, no angry word came from his lips; but he put himself into the hands of the judge of righteousness: +1Pe 2:24 He took our sins on himself, giving his body to be nailed on the tree, so that we, being dead to sin, might have a new life in righteousness, and by his wounds we have been made well. +1Pe 2:25 Because, like sheep, you had gone out of the way; but now you have come back to him who keeps watch over your souls. +1Pe 3:1 Wives, be ruled by your husbands; so that even if some of them give no attention to the word, their hearts may be changed by the behaviour of their wives, +1Pe 3:2 When they see your holy behaviour in the fear of God. +1Pe 3:3 Do not let your ornaments be those of the body such as dressing of the hair, or putting on of jewels of gold or fair clothing; +1Pe 3:4 But let them be those of the unseen man of the heart, the ever-shining ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great price in the eyes of God. +1Pe 3:5 And these were the ornaments of the holy women of the past, whose hope was in God, being ruled by their husbands: +1Pe 3:6 As Sarah was ruled by Abraham, naming him lord; whose children you are if you do well, and are not put in fear by any danger. +1Pe 3:7 And you husbands, give thought to your way of life with your wives, giving honour to the woman who is the feebler vessel, but who has an equal part in the heritage of the grace of life; so that you may not be kept from prayer. +1Pe 3:8 Last of all, see that you are all in agreement; feeling for one another, loving one another like brothers, full of pity, without pride: +1Pe 3:9 Not giving back evil for evil, or curse for curse, but in place of cursing, blessing; because this is the purpose of God for you that you may have a heritage of blessing. +1Pe 3:10 For it is said, Let the man who has a love of life, desiring to see good days, keep his tongue from evil and his lips from words of deceit: +1Pe 3:11 And let him be turned from evil and do good; searching for peace and going after it with all his heart. +1Pe 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the upright, and his ears are open to their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. +1Pe 3:13 Who will do you any damage if you keep your minds fixed on what is good? +1Pe 3:14 But you are happy if you undergo pain because of righteousness; have no part in their fear and do not be troubled; +1Pe 3:15 But give honour to Christ in your hearts as your Lord; and be ready at any time when you are questioned about the hope which is in you, to give an answer in the fear of the Lord and without pride; +1Pe 3:16 Being conscious that you have done no wrong; so that those who say evil things about your good way of life as Christians may be put to shame. +1Pe 3:17 Because if it is God's purpose for you to undergo pain, it is better to do so for well-doing than for evil-doing. +1Pe 3:18 Because Christ once went through pain for sins, the upright one taking the place of sinners, so that through him we might come back to God; being put to death in the flesh, but given life in the Spirit; +1Pe 3:19 By whom he went to the spirits in prison, preaching to those +1Pe 3:20 Who, in the days of Noah, went against God's orders; but God in his mercy kept back the punishment, while Noah got ready the ark, in which a small number, that is to say eight persons, got salvation through water: +1Pe 3:21 And baptism, of which this is an image, now gives you salvation, not by washing clean the flesh, but by making you free from the sense of sin before God, through the coming again of Jesus Christ from the dead; +1Pe 3:22 Who has gone into heaven, and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been put under his rule. +1Pe 4:1 So that as Jesus was put to death in the flesh, do you yourselves be of the same mind; for the death of the flesh puts an end to sin; +1Pe 4:2 So that you may give the rest of your lives in the flesh, not to the desires of men, but to the purpose of God. +1Pe 4:3 Because for long enough, in times past, we have been living after the way of the Gentiles, given up to the desires of the flesh, to drinking and feasting and loose behaviour and unclean worship of images; +1Pe 4:4 And they are wondering that you no longer go with them in this violent wasting of life, and are saying evil things of you: +1Pe 4:5 But they will have to give an account of themselves to him who is ready to be the judge of the living and the dead. +1Pe 4:6 For this was the reason why the good news of Jesus was given even to the dead, so that they might be judged as men in the flesh, but might be living before God in the spirit. +1Pe 4:7 But the end of all things is near: so be serious in your behaviour and keep on the watch with prayer; +1Pe 4:8 And most of all be warm in your love for one another; because in love there is forgiveness for sins without number: +1Pe 4:9 Keep open house for all with a glad heart; +1Pe 4:10 Making distribution among one another of whatever has been given to you, like true servants of the unmeasured grace of God; +1Pe 4:11 If anyone has anything to say, let it be as the words of God; if anyone has the desire to be the servant of others, let him do it in the strength which is given by God; so that in all things God may have the glory through Jesus Christ, whose are the glory and the power for ever. +1Pe 4:12 Dear brothers, do not be surprised, as if it was something strange, if your faith is tested as by fire: +1Pe 4:13 But be glad that you are given a part in the pains of Christ; so that at the revelation of his glory you may have great joy. +1Pe 4:14 If men say evil things of you because of the name of Christ, happy are you; for the Spirit of glory and of God is resting on you. +1Pe 4:15 Let no one among you undergo punishment as a taker of life, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as one who is over-interested in other men's business; +1Pe 4:16 But if he undergoes punishment as a Christian, that is no shame to him; let him give glory to God in this name. +1Pe 4:17 For the time has come for the judging, starting with the church of God; but if it makes a start with us, what will be the end of those who are not under the rule of God? +1Pe 4:18 And if it is hard for even the good man to get salvation, what chance has the man without religion or the sinner? +1Pe 4:19 For this reason let those who by the purpose of God undergo punishment, keep on in well-doing and put their souls into the safe hands of their Maker. +1Pe 5:1 I who am myself one of the rulers of the church, and a witness of the death of Christ, having my part in the coming glory, send this serious request to the chief men among you: +1Pe 5:2 Keep watch over the flock of God which is in your care, using your authority, not as forced to do so, but gladly; and not for unclean profit but with a ready mind; +1Pe 5:3 Not as lords over God's heritage, but making yourselves examples to the flock. +1Pe 5:4 And at the coming of the chief Keeper of the sheep, you will be given the eternal crown of glory. +1Pe 5:5 And in the same way, let the younger men be ruled by the older ones. Let all of you put away pride and make yourselves ready to be servants: for God is a hater of pride, but he gives grace to those who make themselves low. +1Pe 5:6 For this cause make yourselves low under the strong hand of God, so that when the time comes you may be lifted up; +1Pe 5:7 Putting all your troubles on him, for he takes care of you. +1Pe 5:8 Be serious and keep watch; the Evil One, who is against you, goes about like a lion with open mouth in search of food; +1Pe 5:9 Do not give way to him but be strong in your faith, in the knowledge that your brothers who are in the world undergo the same troubles. +1Pe 5:10 And after you have undergone pain for a little time, the God of all grace who has given you a part in his eternal glory through Christ Jesus, will himself give you strength and support, and make you complete in every good thing; +1Pe 5:11 His is the power for ever. So be it. +1Pe 5:12 I have sent you this short letter by Silvanus, a true brother, in my opinion; comforting you and witnessing that this is the true grace of God; keep to it. +1Pe 5:13 She who is in Babylon, who has a part with you in the purpose of God, sends you her love; and so does my son Mark. +1Pe 5:14 Give one another the kiss of love. Peace be to you all in Christ. +2Pe 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and Apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who with us have a part in the same holy faith in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ: +2Pe 1:2 May grace and peace ever be increasing in you, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; +2Pe 1:3 Because by his power he has given us everything necessary for life and righteousness, through the knowledge of him who has been our guide by his glory and virtue; +2Pe 1:4 And through this he has given us the hope of great rewards highly to be valued; so that by them we might have our part in God's being, and be made free from the destruction which is in the world through the desires of the flesh. +2Pe 1:5 So, for this very cause, take every care; joining virtue to faith, and knowledge to virtue, +2Pe 1:6 And self-control to knowledge, and a quiet mind to self-control, and fear of God to a quiet mind, +2Pe 1:7 And love of the brothers to fear of God, and to love of the brothers, love itself. +2Pe 1:8 For if you have these things in good measure, they will make you fertile and full of fruit in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. +2Pe 1:9 For the man who has not these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having no memory of how he was made clean from his old sins. +2Pe 1:10 For this reason, my brothers, take all the more care to make your selection and approval certain; for if you do these things you will never have a fall: +2Pe 1:11 For so the way will be open to you into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. +2Pe 1:12 For this reason I will be ready at all times to keep your memory of these things awake, though you have the knowledge of them now and are well based in your present faith. +2Pe 1:13 And it seems right to me, as long as I am in this tent of flesh, to keep your minds awake by working on your memory; +2Pe 1:14 For I am conscious that in a short time I will have to put off this tent of flesh, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. +2Pe 1:15 And I will take every care so that you may have a clear memory of these things after my death. +2Pe 1:16 For when we gave you news of the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, our teaching was not based on stories put together by art, but we were eye-witnesses of his glory. +2Pe 1:17 For God the Father gave him honour and glory, when such a voice came to him out of the great glory, saying, This is my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well pleased. +2Pe 1:18 And this voice came from heaven even to our ears, when we were with him on the holy mountain. +2Pe 1:19 And so the words of the prophets are made more certain; and it is well for you to give attention to them as to a light shining in a dark place, till the dawn comes and the morning star is seen in your hearts; +2Pe 1:20 Being conscious in the first place that no man by himself may give a special sense to the words of the prophets. +2Pe 1:21 For these words did not ever come through the impulse of men: but the prophets had them from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit. +2Pe 2:1 But there were false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly put forward wrong teachings for your destruction, even turning away from the Lord who gave himself for them; whose destruction will come quickly, and they themselves will be the cause of it. +2Pe 2:2 And a great number will go with them in their evil ways, through whom the true way will have a bad name. +2Pe 2:3 And in their desire for profit they will come to you with words of deceit, like traders doing business in souls: whose punishment has been ready for a long time and their destruction is watching for them. +2Pe 2:4 For if God did not have pity for the angels who did evil, but sent them down into hell, to be kept in chains of eternal night till they were judged; +2Pe 2:5 And did not have mercy on the world which then was, but only kept safe Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when he let loose the waters over the world of the evil-doers; +2Pe 2:6 And sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, burning them up with fire as an example to those whose way of life might in the future be unpleasing to him; +2Pe 2:7 And kept safe Lot, the upright man, who was deeply troubled by the unclean life of the evil-doers +2Pe 2:8 (Because the soul of that upright man living among them was pained from day to day by seeing and hearing their crimes): +2Pe 2:9 The Lord is able to keep the upright safe in the time of testing, and to keep evil-doers under punishment till the day of judging; +2Pe 2:10 But specially those who go after the unclean desires of the flesh, and make sport of authority. Ready to take chances, uncontrolled, they have no fear of saying evil of those in high places: +2Pe 2:11 Though the angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not make use of violent language against them before the Lord. +2Pe 2:12 But these men, like beasts without reason, whose natural use is to be taken and put to death, crying out against things of which they have no knowledge, will undergo that same destruction which they are designing for others; +2Pe 2:13 For the evil which overtakes them is the reward of their evil-doing: such men take their pleasure in the delights of the flesh even in the daytime; they are like the marks of a disease, like poisoned wounds among you, feasting together with you in joy; +2Pe 2:14 Having eyes full of evil desire, never having enough of sin; turning feeble souls out of the true way; they are children of cursing, whose hearts are well used to bitter envy; +2Pe 2:15 Turning out of the true way, they have gone wandering in error, after the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who was pleased to take payment for wrongdoing; +2Pe 2:16 But his wrongdoing was pointed out to him: an ass, talking with a man's voice, put a stop to the error of the prophet. +2Pe 2:17 These are fountains without water, and mists before a driving storm; for whom the eternal night is kept in store. +2Pe 2:18 For with high-sounding false words, making use of the attraction of unclean desires of the flesh, they get into their power those newly made free from those who are living in error; +2Pe 2:19 Saying that they will be free, while they themselves are the servants of destruction; because whatever gets the better of a man makes a servant of him. +2Pe 2:20 For if, after they have got free from the unclean things of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again taken in the net and overcome, their last condition is worse than their first. +2Pe 2:21 For it would have been better for them to have had no knowledge of the way of righteousness, than to go back again from the holy law which was given to them, after having knowledge of it. +2Pe 2:22 They are an example of that true saying, The dog has gone back to the food it had put out, and the pig which had been washed to its rolling in the dirty earth. +2Pe 3:1 My loved ones, this is now my second letter to you, and in this as in the first, I am attempting to keep your true minds awake; +2Pe 3:2 So that you may keep in mind the words of the holy prophets in the past, and the law of the Lord and Saviour which was given to you by his Apostles. +2Pe 3:3 Having first of all the knowledge that in the last days there will be men who, ruled by their evil desires, will make sport of holy things, +2Pe 3:4 Saying, Where is the hope of his coming? From the death of the fathers till now everything has gone on as it was from the making of the world. +2Pe 3:5 But in taking this view they put out of their minds the memory that in the old days there was a heaven, and an earth lifted out of the water and circled by water, by the word of God; +2Pe 3:6 And that the world which then was came to an end through the overflowing of the waters. +2Pe 3:7 But the present heaven and the present earth have been kept for destruction by fire, which is waiting for them on the day of the judging and destruction of evil men. +2Pe 3:8 But, my loved ones, keep in mind this one thing, that with the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years are no more than one day. +2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his word, as he seems to some, but he is waiting in mercy for you, not desiring the destruction of any, but that all may be turned from their evil ways. +2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; and in that day the heavens will be rolled up with a great noise, and the substance of the earth will be changed by violent heat, and the world and everything in it will be burned up. +2Pe 3:11 Seeing then that all these things are coming to such an end, what sort of persons is it right for you to be, in all holy behaviour and righteousness, +2Pe 3:12 Looking for and truly desiring the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will come to an end through fire, and the substance of the earth will be changed by the great heat? +2Pe 3:13 But having faith in his word, we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth, which will be the resting-place of righteousness. +2Pe 3:14 For this reason, my loved ones, as you are looking for these things, take great care that when he comes you may be in peace before him, free from sin and every evil thing. +2Pe 3:15 And be certain that the long waiting of the Lord is for salvation; even as our brother Paul has said in his letters to you, from the wisdom which was given to him; +2Pe 3:16 And as he said in all his letters, which had to do with these things; in which are some hard sayings, so that, like the rest of the holy Writings, they are twisted by those who are uncertain and without knowledge, to the destruction of their souls. +2Pe 3:17 For this reason, my loved ones, having knowledge of these things before they take place, take care that you are not turned away by the error of the uncontrolled, so falling from your true faith. +2Pe 3:18 But be increased in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May he have glory now and for ever. So be it. +1Jn 1:1 That which was from the first, which has come to our ears, and which we have seen with our eyes, looking on it and touching it with our hands, about the Word of life +1Jn 1:2 (And the life was made clear to us, and we have seen it and are witnessing to it and giving you word of that eternal life which was with the Father and was seen by us); +1Jn 1:3 We give you word of all we have seen and everything which has come to our ears, so that you may be united with us; and we are united with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ: +1Jn 1:4 And we are writing these things to you so that our joy may be made complete. +1Jn 1:5 This is the word which came to us from him and which we give to you, that God is light and in him there is nothing dark. +1Jn 1:6 If we say we are joined to him, and are walking still in the dark, our words are false and our acts are untrue: +1Jn 1:7 But if we are walking in the light, as he is in the light, we are all united with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son makes us clean from all sin. +1Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are false to ourselves and there is nothing true in us. +1Jn 1:9 If we say openly that we have done wrong, he is upright and true to his word, giving us forgiveness of sins and making us clean from all evil. +1Jn 1:10 If we say that we have no sin, we make him false and his word is not in us. +1Jn 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may be without sin. And if any man is a sinner, we have a friend and helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, the upright one: +1Jn 2:2 He is the offering for our sins; and not for ours only, but for all the world. +1Jn 2:3 And by this we may be certain that we have knowledge of him, if we keep his laws. +1Jn 2:4 The man who says, I have knowledge of him, and does not keep his laws, is false, and there is nothing true in him: +1Jn 2:5 But in every man who keeps his word, the love of God is made complete. By this we may be certain that we are in him: +1Jn 2:6 He who says that he is living in him, will do as he did. +1Jn 2:7 My loved ones, I do not give you a new law, but an old law which you had from the first; this old law is the word which came to your ears. +1Jn 2:8 Again, I give you a new law, which is true in him and in you; for the night is near its end and the true light is even now shining out. +1Jn 2:9 He who says that he is in the light, and has hate in his heart for his brother, is still in the dark. +1Jn 2:10 He who has love for his brother is in the light, and there is no cause of error in him. +1Jn 2:11 But he who has hate for his brother is in the dark, walking in the dark with no knowledge of where he is going, unable to see because of the dark. +1Jn 2:12 I am writing to you, my children, because you have forgiveness of sins through his name. +1Jn 2:13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you have knowledge of him who was from the first. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the Evil One. I have sent a letter to you, children, because you have knowledge of the Father. +1Jn 2:14 I have sent a letter to you, fathers, because you have knowledge of him who was from the first. I have sent a letter to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God is in you, and because you have overcome the Evil One. +1Jn 2:15 Have no love for the world or for the things which are in the world. If any man has love for the world, the love of the Father is not in him. +1Jn 2:16 Because everything in the world, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world. +1Jn 2:17 And the world and its desires is coming to an end: but he who does God's pleasure is living for ever. +1Jn 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you were given word that the Antichrist would come, so now a number of Antichrists have come to you; and by this we are certain that it is the last hour. +1Jn 2:19 They went out from us but they were not of us; if they had been of us they would still be with us: but they went out from us so that it might be made clear that they were not of us. +1Jn 2:20 And you have the Spirit from the Holy One and you all have knowledge. +1Jn 2:21 I have not sent you this letter because you have no knowledge of what is true, but because you have knowledge, and because that which is false has nothing in common with that which is true. +1Jn 2:22 Who is false but he who says that Jesus is not the Christ? He is the Antichrist who has no belief in the Father or the Son. +1Jn 2:23 He who has no belief in the Son has not the Father: he who makes clear his belief in the Son has the Father. +1Jn 2:24 But as for you, keep in your hearts the things which were made clear to you from the first. If you keep these things in your hearts you will be kept in the Father and the Son. +1Jn 2:25 And this is the hope which he gave you, even eternal life. +1Jn 2:26 I am writing these things to you about those whose purpose is that you may be turned out of the true way. +1Jn 2:27 As for you, the Spirit which he gave you is still in you, and you have no need of any teacher; but as his Spirit gives you teaching about all things, and is true and not false, so keep your hearts in him, through the teaching which he has given you. +1Jn 2:28 And now, my children, keep your hearts in him; so that at his revelation, we may have no fear or shame before him at his coming. +1Jn 2:29 If you have knowledge that he is upright, it is clear to you that everyone who does righteousness is his offspring. +1Jn 3:1 See what great love the Father has given us in naming us the children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not see who we are, because it did not see who he was. +1Jn 3:2 My loved ones, now we are children of God, and at present it is not clear what we are to be. We are certain that at his revelation we will be like him; for we will see him as he is. +1Jn 3:3 And everyone who has this hope in him makes himself holy, even as he is holy. +1Jn 3:4 Everyone who is a sinner goes against the law, for sin is going against the law. +1Jn 3:5 And you have knowledge that he came to take away sin: and in him there is no sin. +1Jn 3:6 Anyone who is in him does no sin; anyone who is a sinner has not seen him and has no knowledge of him. +1Jn 3:7 My little children, let no man take you out of the true way: he who does righteousness is upright, even as he is upright; +1Jn 3:8 The sinner is a child of the Evil One; for the Evil One has been a sinner from the first. And the Son of God was seen on earth so that he might put an end to the works of the Evil One. +1Jn 3:9 Anyone who is a child of God does no sin, because he still has God's seed in him; he is not able to be a sinner, because God is his Father. +1Jn 3:10 In this way it is clear who are the children of God and who are the children of the Evil One; anyone who does not do righteousness or who has no love for his brother, is not a child of God. +1Jn 3:11 Because this is the word which was given to you from the first, that we are to have love for one another; +1Jn 3:12 Not being of the Evil One like Cain, who put his brother to death. And why did he put him to death? Because his works were evil and his brother's works were good. +1Jn 3:13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world has no love for you. +1Jn 3:14 We are conscious that we have come out of death into life because of our love for the brothers. He who has no love is still in death. +1Jn 3:15 Anyone who has hate for his brother is a taker of life, and you may be certain that no taker of life has eternal life in him. +1Jn 3:16 In this we see what love is, because he gave his life for us; and it is right for us to give our lives for the brothers. +1Jn 3:17 But if a man has this world's goods, and sees that his brother is in need, and keeps his heart shut against his brother, how is it possible for the love of God to be in him? +1Jn 3:18 My little children, do not let our love be in word and in tongue, but let it be in act and in good faith. +1Jn 3:19 In this way we may be certain that we are true, and may give our heart comfort before him, +1Jn 3:20 When our heart says that we have done wrong; because God is greater than our heart, and has knowledge of all things. +1Jn 3:21 My loved ones, if our heart does not say that we have done wrong, we have no fear before him; +1Jn 3:22 And he gives us all our requests, because we keep his laws and do the things which are pleasing in his eyes. +1Jn 3:23 And this is his law, that we have faith in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love for one another, even as he said to us. +1Jn 3:24 He who keeps his laws is in God and God is in him. And the Spirit which he gave us is our witness that he is in us. +1Jn 4:1 My loved ones, do not put your faith in every spirit, but put them to the test, to see if they are from God: because a great number of false prophets have gone out into the world. +1Jn 4:2 By this you may have knowledge of the Spirit of God: every spirit which says that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God: +1Jn 4:3 And every spirit which does not say this is not from God: this is the spirit of Antichrist, of which you have had word; and it is in the world even now. +1Jn 4:4 You are of God, my little children, and you have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. +1Jn 4:5 They are of the world, so their talk is the world's talk, and the world gives ear to them. +1Jn 4:6 We are of God: he who has the knowledge of God gives ear to us; he who is not of God does not give ear to us. By this we may see which is the true spirit, and which is the spirit of error. +1Jn 4:7 My loved ones, let us have love for one another: because love is of God, and everyone who has love is a child of God and has knowledge of God. +1Jn 4:8 He who has no love has no knowledge of God, because God is love. +1Jn 4:9 And the love of God was made clear to us when he sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. +1Jn 4:10 And this is love, not that we had love for God, but that he had love for us, and sent his Son to be an offering for our sins. +1Jn 4:11 My loved ones, if God had such love for us, it is right for us to have love for one another. +1Jn 4:12 No man has ever seen God: if we have love for one another, God is in us and his love is made complete in us: +1Jn 4:13 And his Spirit which he has given us is the witness that we are in him and he is in us. +1Jn 4:14 And we have seen and give witness that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. +1Jn 4:15 Everyone who says openly that Jesus is the Son of God, has God in him and is in God. +1Jn 4:16 And we have seen and had faith in the love which God has for us. God is love, and everyone who has love is in God, and God is in him. +1Jn 4:17 In this way love is made complete in us, so that we may be without fear on the day of judging, because as he is, so are we in this world. +1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love: true love has no room for fear, because where fear is, there is pain; and he who is not free from fear is not complete in love. +1Jn 4:19 We have the power of loving, because he first had love for us. +1Jn 4:20 If a man says, I have love for God, and has hate for his brother, his words are false: for how is the man who has no love for his brother whom he has seen, able to have love for God whom he has not seen? +1Jn 4:21 And this is the word which we have from him, that he who has love for God is to have the same love for his brother. +1Jn 5:1 Everyone who has faith that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God: and everyone who has love for the Father has love for his child. +1Jn 5:2 In this way, we are certain that we have love for the children of God, when we have love for God and keep his laws. +1Jn 5:3 For loving God is keeping his laws: and his laws are not hard. +1Jn 5:4 Anything which comes from God is able to overcome the world: and the power by which we have overcome the world is our faith. +1Jn 5:5 Who is able to overcome the world but the man who has faith that Jesus is the Son of God? +1Jn 5:6 This is he who came by water and by blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only but by water and by blood. +1Jn 5:7 And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is true. +1Jn 5:8 There are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood: and all three are in agreement. +1Jn 5:9 If we take the witness of men to be true, the witness of God is greater: because this is the witness which God has given about his Son. +1Jn 5:10 He who has faith in the Son of God has the witness in himself: he who has not faith in God makes him false, because he has not faith in the witness which God has given about his Son. +1Jn 5:11 And his witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. +1Jn 5:12 He who has the Son has the life; he who has not the Son of God has not the life. +1Jn 5:13 I have put these things in writing for you who have faith in the name of the Son of God, so that you may be certain that you have eternal life. +1Jn 5:14 And we are certain that if we make any request to him which is right in his eyes, he will give ear to us: +1Jn 5:15 And if we are certain that he gives ear to all our requests, we are equally certain that we will get our requests. +1Jn 5:16 If a man sees his brother doing a sin which is not bad enough for death, let him make a prayer to God, and God will give life to him whose sin was not bad enough for death. There is a sin whose punishment is death: I do not say that he may make such a request then. +1Jn 5:17 All evil-doing is sin: but death is not the punishment for every sort of sin. +1Jn 5:18 We are certain that one who is a child of God will do no sin, but the Son of God keeps him so that he is not touched by the Evil One. +1Jn 5:19 We are certain that we are of God, but all the world is in the power of the Evil One. +1Jn 5:20 And we are certain that the Son of God has come, and has given us a clear vision, so that we may see him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. +1Jn 5:21 My little children, keep yourselves from false gods. +2Jn 1:1 I, a ruler in the church, send word to the noble sister who is of God's selection, and to her children, for whom I have true love; and not only I, but all who have knowledge of what is true; +2Jn 1:2 Because of this true knowledge which is in us, and will be with us for ever: +2Jn 1:3 May grace, mercy, and peace be with us from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in all true love. +2Jn 1:4 It gave me great joy to see some of your children walking in the true way, even as we were ordered to do by the Father. +2Jn 1:5 And now, my sister, I make a request to you, not sending you a new law, but the law which we had from the first, that we have love for one another. +2Jn 1:6 And love is the keeping of his laws. This is the law which was given to you from the first, so that you might keep it. +2Jn 1:7 Because a number of false teachers have gone out into the world, who do not give witness that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Such a one is a false teacher and Antichrist. +2Jn 1:8 Keep watch over yourselves, so that you do not make our work of no effect, but may get your full reward. +2Jn 1:9 Anyone who goes on and does not keep to the teaching of Christ, has not God: he who keeps to the teaching has the Father and the Son. +2Jn 1:10 If anyone comes to you not having this teaching, do not take him into your house or give him words of love: +2Jn 1:11 For he who gives him words of love has a part in his evil works. +2Jn 1:12 Having much to say to you, it is not my purpose to put it all down with paper and ink: but I am hoping to come to you, and to have talk with you face to face, so that your joy may be full. +2Jn 1:13 The children of your noble sister, who is of God's selection, send you their love. +3Jn 1:1 I, a ruler in the church, send word to the well loved Gaius, for whom I have true love. +3Jn 1:2 My loved one, it is my prayer that you may do well in all things, and be healthy in body, even as your soul does well. +3Jn 1:3 For it gave me great joy when some of the brothers came and gave witness that you had the true faith and were walking in the true way. +3Jn 1:4 I have no greater joy than to have news that my children are walking in the true way. +3Jn 1:5 My loved one, you are doing a good work in being kind to those brothers who come from other places; +3Jn 1:6 Who have given witness to the church of your love for them: and you will do well to send them on their way well cared for, as is right for servants of God: +3Jn 1:7 For they went out for love of the Name, taking nothing from the Gentiles. +3Jn 1:8 So it is right for us to take in such men as guests, so that we may take our part in the work of the true faith. +3Jn 1:9 I sent a letter to the church, but Diotrephes, whose desire is ever to have the first place among them, will not have us there. +3Jn 1:10 So if I come, I will keep in mind the things he does, talking against us with evil words: and as if this was not enough, he does not take the brothers into his house, and those who are ready to take them in, he keeps from doing so, putting them out of the church if they do. +3Jn 1:11 My loved one, do not be copying what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God: he who does evil has not seen God. +3Jn 1:12 Demetrius has the approval of all men and of what is true: and we give the same witness, and you are certain that our witness is true. +3Jn 1:13 I had much to say to you, but it is not my purpose to put it all down with ink and pen: +3Jn 1:14 But I am hoping to see you in a short time, and to have talk with you face to face. May you have peace. Your friends here send you their love. Give my love to our friends by name. +Jud 1:1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James, to those of God's selection who have been made holy by God the Father and are kept safe for Jesus Christ: +Jud 1:2 May mercy and peace and love be increased in you. +Jud 1:3 My loved ones, while my thoughts were full of a letter which I was going to send you about our common salvation, it was necessary for me to send you one requesting you with all my heart to go on fighting strongly for the faith which has been given to the saints once and for ever. +Jud 1:4 For certain men have come among you secretly, marked out before in the holy Writings for this evil fate, men without the fear of God, turning his grace into an unclean thing, and false to our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. +Jud 1:5 Now it is my purpose to put you in mind, though you once had knowledge of all these things, of how the Lord, having taken a people safely out of Egypt, later sent destruction on those who had no faith; +Jud 1:6 And the angels who did not keep to their kingdom but went out from the place which was theirs, he has put in eternal chains and in dark night till the great day of the judging. +Jud 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the towns near them, having like these, given themselves up to unclean desires and gone after strange flesh, have been made an example, undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. +Jud 1:8 In the same way these dreamers make the flesh unclean, having no respect for authorities, and say evil of rulers. +Jud 1:9 Now when Michael, one of the chief angels, was fighting against the Evil One for the body of Moses, fearing to make use of violent words against him, he only said, May the Lord be your judge. +Jud 1:10 But these men say evil about such things as they have no knowledge of; and the things of which they have natural knowledge, like beasts without reason, are the cause of their destruction. +Jud 1:11 A curse on them! They have gone in the way of Cain, running uncontrolled into the error of Balaam for reward, and have come to destruction by saying evil against the Lord, like Korah. +Jud 1:12 These men are unseen rocks at your love-feasts, when they take part in them with you, keepers of sheep who without fear take the food of the sheep; clouds without water rushing before the wind, wasted trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots, +Jud 1:13 Violent waves of the sea, streaming with their shame, wandering stars for whom the darkest night is kept in store for ever. +Jud 1:14 The prophet Enoch, who was the seventh after Adam, said of these men, The Lord came with tens of thousands of his saints, +Jud 1:15 To be the judge of all, and to give a decision against all those whose lives are unpleasing to him, because of the evil acts which they have done, and because of all the hard things which sinners without fear of God have said against him. +Jud 1:16 These are the men who make trouble, ever desiring change, going after evil pleasures, using high-sounding words, respecting men's position in the hope of reward. +Jud 1:17 But you, my loved ones, keep in memory the words which were said before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, +Jud 1:18 How they said to you, In the last days there will be men who, guided by their evil desires, will make sport of holy things. +Jud 1:19 These are the men who make divisions, natural men, not having the Spirit. +Jud 1:20 But you, my loved ones, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, and making prayers in the Holy Spirit, +Jud 1:21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for life eternal through the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. +Jud 1:22 And have pity on those who are in doubt; +Jud 1:23 And to some give salvation, pulling them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the clothing which is made unclean by the flesh. +Jud 1:24 Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to give you a place in his glory, free from all evil, with great joy, +Jud 1:25 To the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, let us give glory and honour and authority and power, before all time and now and for ever. So be it. +Rev 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him so that his servants might have knowledge of the things which will quickly take place: and he sent and made it clear by his angel to his servant John; +Rev 1:2 Who gave witness of the word of God, and of the witness of Jesus Christ, even of all the things which he saw. +Rev 1:3 A blessing be on the reader, and on those who give ear to the prophet's words, and keep the things which he has put in the book: for the time is near. +Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from him who is and was and is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his high seat; +Rev 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, the true witness, the first to come back from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who had love for us and has made us clean from our sins by his blood; +Rev 1:6 And has made us to be a kingdom and priests to his God and Father; to him let glory and power be given for ever and ever. So be it. +Rev 1:7 See, he comes with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and those by whom he was wounded; and all the tribes of the earth will be sorrowing because of him. Yes, so be it. +Rev 1:8 I am the First and the Last, says the Lord God who is and was and is to come, the Ruler of all. +Rev 1:9 I, John, your brother, who have a part with you in the trouble and the kingdom and the quiet strength of Jesus, was in the island which is named Patmos, for the word of God and the witness of Jesus. +Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and a great voice at my back, as of a horn, came to my ears, +Rev 1:11 Saying, What you see, put in a book, and send it to the seven churches; to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamos and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. +Rev 1:12 And turning to see the voice which said these words to me, I saw seven gold vessels with lights burning in them; +Rev 1:13 And in the middle of them one like a son of man, clothed with a robe down to his feet, and with a band of gold round his breasts. +Rev 1:14 And his head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; +Rev 1:15 And his feet like polished brass, as if it had been burned in a fire; and his voice was as the sound of great waters. +Rev 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword: and his face was like the sun shining in its strength. +Rev 1:17 And when I saw him, I went down on my face at his feet as one dead. And he put his right hand on me, saying, Have no fear; I am the first and the last and the Living one; +Rev 1:18 And I was dead, and see, I am living for ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hell. +Rev 1:19 Put in writing, then, the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will be after these; +Rev 1:20 The secret of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and of the seven gold vessels with burning lights. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven lights are the seven churches. +Rev 2:1 To the angel of the church in Ephesus say: These things says he who has the seven stars in his right hand, who is walking in the middle of the seven gold lights: +Rev 2:2 I have knowledge of your doings, and of your hard work and long waiting, and that you will not put up with evil men, and have put to the test those who say they are Apostles and are not, and have seen that they are false; +Rev 2:3 And you have the power of waiting, and have undergone trouble because of my name, without weariness. +Rev 2:4 But I have this against you, that you are turned away from your first love. +Rev 2:5 So keep in mind where you were at first, and be changed in heart and do the first works; or I will come to you, and will take away your light from its place, if your hearts are not changed. +Rev 2:6 But at least you have the credit of hating the works of the Nicolaitans, as I do. +Rev 2:7 He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give of the fruit of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God. +Rev 2:8 And to the angel of the church in Smyrna say: These things says the first and the last, who was dead and is living: +Rev 2:9 I have knowledge of your troubles and how poor you are (but you have true wealth), and the evil words of those who say they are Jews, and are not, but are a Synagogue of Satan. +Rev 2:10 Have no fear of the things which you will have to undergo: see, the Evil One will send some of you into prison, so that you may be put to the test; and you will have great trouble for ten days. Be true till death, and I will give you the crown of life. +Rev 2:11 He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not come under the power of the second death. +Rev 2:12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos say: These things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword: +Rev 2:13 I have knowledge that your living-place is where Satan has his seat: and you are true to my name, and were not turned away from your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my true witness, who was put to death among you, where Satan has his place. +Rev 2:14 But I have some things against you, because you have with you those who keep the teaching of Balaam, by whose suggestion Balak made the children of Israel go out of the right way, taking food which was offered to false gods, and going after the desires of the flesh. +Rev 2:15 And you have those who keep the teaching of the Nicolaitans. +Rev 2:16 See, then, that you have a change of heart; or I will come to you quickly, and will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. +Rev 2:17 He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give of the secret manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name, of which no one has knowledge but he to whom it is given. +Rev 2:18 And to the angel of the church in Thyatira say: These things says the Son of God, whose eyes are like a flame of fire, and his feet like polished brass: +Rev 2:19 I have knowledge of your works, and your love and faith and help and strength in trouble, and that your last works are more than the first. +Rev 2:20 But I have this against you, that you let the woman Jezebel say she is a prophet and give false teaching, making my servants go after the desires of the flesh and take food offered to false gods. +Rev 2:21 And I gave her time for a change of heart, but she has no mind to give up her unclean ways. +Rev 2:22 See, I will put her into a bed, and those who make themselves unclean with her, into great trouble, if they go on with her works. +Rev 2:23 And I will put her children to death; and all the churches will see that I am he who makes search into the secret thoughts and hearts of men: and I will give to every one of you the reward of your works. +Rev 2:24 But to you I say, to the rest in Thyatira, even to those who have not this teaching, and have no knowledge of the secrets of Satan, as they say; I put on you no other weight. +Rev 2:25 But what you have, keep safe till I come. +Rev 2:26 He who overcomes, and keeps my works to the end, to him I will give rule over the nations, +Rev 2:27 And he will be ruling them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of the potter they will be broken, even as I have power from my Father: +Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star. +Rev 2:29 He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. +Rev 3:1 And to the angel of the church in Sardis say: These things says he who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I have knowledge of your works, that you seem to be living but are dead. +Rev 3:2 Be on the watch, and make strong the rest of the things which are near to death; because as judged by me your works have not come up to God's measure. +Rev 3:3 Keep in mind, then, the teaching which was given to you, and be ruled by it and have a change of heart. If then you do not keep watch, I will come like a thief, and you will have no knowledge of the hour when I will come on you. +Rev 3:4 But you have some names in Sardis who have kept clean their robes; and as a reward they will go in white with me. +Rev 3:5 He who overcomes will be dressed in white, and I will not take his name from the book of life, and I will give witness to his name before my Father, and before his angels. +Rev 3:6 He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. +Rev 3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia say: These things says he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, opening the door so that it may be shut by no one, and shutting it so that it may be open to no one. +Rev 3:8 I have knowledge of your works (see, I have put before you an open door which may be shut by no one), and that you have a little strength, and have kept my word, and have been true to my name. +Rev 3:9 See, I will make those of the Synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews, and are not, but say what is false; I will make them come and give worship before your feet, and see my love for you. +Rev 3:10 Because you have kept my word in quiet strength, I will keep you from the hour of testing which is coming on all the world, to put to the test those who are on earth. +Rev 3:11 I come quickly: keep that which you have, so that no one may take your crown. +Rev 3:12 Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the house of my God, and he will go out no more: and I will put on him the name of my God, and the name of the town of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my new name. +Rev 3:13 He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. +Rev 3:14 And to the angel of the church in Laodicea say: These things says the true and certain witness, the head of God's new order: +Rev 3:15 I have knowledge of your works, that you are not cold or warm: it would be better if you were cold or warm. +Rev 3:16 So because you are not one thing or the other, I will have no more to do with you. +Rev 3:17 For you say, I have wealth, and have got together goods and land, and have need of nothing; and you are not conscious of your sad and unhappy condition, that you are poor and blind and without clothing. +Rev 3:18 If you are wise you will get from me gold tested by fire, so that you may have true wealth; and white robes to put on, so that your shame may not be seen; and oil for your eyes, so that you may see. +Rev 3:19 To all those who are dear to me, I give sharp words and punishment: then with all your heart have sorrow for your evil ways. +Rev 3:20 See, I am waiting at the door and giving the sign; if my voice comes to any man's ears and he makes the door open, I will come in to him, and will take food with him and he with me. +Rev 3:21 To him who overcomes I will give a place with me on my high seat, even as I overcame, and am seated with my Father on his high seat. +Rev 3:22 He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. +Rev 4:1 After these things I saw a door open in heaven, and the first voice came to my ears, like the sound of a horn, saying, Come up here, and I will make clear to you the things which are to come. +Rev 4:2 Straight away I was in the Spirit: and I saw a high seat in heaven, and one was seated on it; +Rev 4:3 And to my eyes he was like a jasper and a sardius stone: and there was an arch of light round the high seat, like an emerald. +Rev 4:4 And round about the high seat were four and twenty seats: and on them I saw four and twenty rulers seated, clothed in white robes; and on their heads crowns of gold. +Rev 4:5 And out of the high seat came flames and voices and thunders. And seven lights of fire were burning before the high seat, which are the seven Spirits of God; +Rev 4:6 And before the high seat there was, as it seemed, a clear sea of glass; and in the middle of the high seat, and round about it, four beasts full of eyes round about. +Rev 4:7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second like an ox, and the third had a face like a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. +Rev 4:8 And the four beasts, having every one of them six wings, are full of eyes round about and inside: and without resting day and night, they say, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, Ruler of all, who was and is and is to come. +Rev 4:9 And when the beasts give glory and honour to him who is seated on the high seat, to him who is living for ever and ever, +Rev 4:10 The four and twenty rulers go down on their faces before him who is seated on the high seat, and give worship to him who is living for ever and ever, and take off their crowns before the high seat, saying, +Rev 4:11 It is right, our Lord and our God, for you to have glory and honour and power: because by you were all things made, and by your desire they came into being. +Rev 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the high seat, a book with writing inside it and on the back, shut with seven stamps of wax. +Rev 5:2 And I saw a strong angel saying in a loud voice, Who is able to make the book open, and to undo its stamps? +Rev 5:3 And no one in heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to get the book open, or to see what was in it. +Rev 5:4 And I was very sad, because there was no one able to get the book open or to see what was in it. +Rev 5:5 And one of the rulers said to me, Do not be sad: see, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome, and has power to undo the book and its seven stamps. +Rev 5:6 And I saw in the middle of the high seat and of the four beasts, and in the middle of the rulers, a Lamb in his place, which seemed as if it had been put to death, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. +Rev 5:7 And he came and took it out of the right hand of him who was seated on the high seat. +Rev 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twenty rulers went down on their faces before the Lamb, having every one an instrument of music, and gold vessels full of perfumes, which are the prayers of the saints. +Rev 5:9 And their voices are sounding in a new song, saying, It is right for you to take the book and to make it open: for you were put to death and have made an offering to God of your blood for men of every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, +Rev 5:10 And have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are ruling on the earth. +Rev 5:11 And I saw, and there came to my ears the sound of a great number of angels round about the high seat and the beasts and the rulers; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; +Rev 5:12 Saying with a great voice, It is right to give to the Lamb who was put to death, power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing. +Rev 5:13 And to my ears came the voice of everything in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and of all things which are in them, saying, To him who is seated on the high seat, and to the Lamb, may blessing and honour and glory and power be given for ever and ever. +Rev 5:14 And the four beasts said, So be it. And the rulers went down on their faces and gave worship. +Rev 6:1 And I saw when the Lamb undid one of the stamps, and the voice of one of the four beasts came to my ears, saying as with a voice of thunder, Come and see. +Rev 6:2 And I saw a white horse, and he who was seated on it had a bow; and there was given to him a crown: and he went out with power to overcome. +Rev 6:3 And when the second stamp was undone, the voice of the second beast came to my ears, saying, Come and see. +Rev 6:4 And another horse came out, a red horse; and it was given to him who was seated on it to take peace from the earth, so that people might put one another to death: and there was given to him a great sword. +Rev 6:5 And when the third stamp was undone, the voice of the third beast came to my ears, saying, Come and see. And I saw a black horse; and he who was seated on it had scales in his hand. +Rev 6:6 And a voice came to my ears, from the middle of the four beasts, saying, A measure of grain for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny: and see that you do no damage to the oil and the wine. +Rev 6:7 And when the fourth stamp was undone, the voice of the fourth beast came to my ears, saying, Come and see. +Rev 6:8 And I saw a grey horse, and the name of him who was seated on it was Death; and Hell came after him. And there was given to them authority over the fourth part of the earth, to put to destruction by the sword, and by taking away their food, and by death, and by the beasts of the earth. +Rev 6:9 And when the fifth stamp was undone, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been put to death for the word of God, and for the witness which they kept. +Rev 6:10 And they gave a great cry, saying, How long will it be, O Ruler, holy and true, before you take your place as judge and give punishment for our blood to those on the earth? +Rev 6:11 And there was given to every one a white robe, and they were ordered to take their rest for a little time, till the number was complete of the other servants, their brothers, who would be put to death, even as they had been. +Rev 6:12 And I saw when the sixth stamp was undone, and there was a great earth-shock; and the sun became black as haircloth, and all the moon became as blood; +Rev 6:13 And the stars of heaven were falling to the earth, like green fruit from a tree before the force of a great wind. +Rev 6:14 And the heaven was taken away like the roll of a book when it is rolled up; and all the mountains and islands were moved out of their places. +Rev 6:15 And the kings of the earth, and the rulers, and the chief captains, and the men of wealth, and the strong, and every servant and free man, took cover in the holes and the rocks of the mountains; +Rev 6:16 And they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Come down on us, covering us from the face of him who is seated on the high seat, and from the wrath of the Lamb: +Rev 6:17 For the great day of their wrath is come, and who may keep his place? +Rev 7:1 After this I saw four angels in their places at the four points of the earth, keeping back the four winds in their hands, so that there might be no moving of the wind on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. +Rev 7:2 And I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the mark of the living God: and he said with a great voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to do damage to the earth and the sea, +Rev 7:3 Do no damage to the earth, or the sea, or the trees, till we have put a mark on the servants of our God. +Rev 7:4 And there came to my ears the number of those who had the mark on their brows, a hundred and forty-four thousand, who were marked out of every tribe of the people of Israel. +Rev 7:5 Of the tribe of Judah were marked twelve thousand: of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand: of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand: +Rev 7:6 Of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand: of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand: of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand: +Rev 7:7 Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand: of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand: of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand: +Rev 7:8 Of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand: of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand: of the tribe of Benjamin were marked twelve thousand. +Rev 7:9 After these things I saw a great army of people more than might be numbered, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and languages, taking their places before the high seat and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, and with branches in their hands, +Rev 7:10 Saying with a loud voice, Salvation to our God who is seated on the high seat, and to the Lamb. +Rev 7:11 And all the angels were round about the high seat, and about the rulers and the four beasts; and they went down on their faces before the high seat, and gave worship to God, saying, +Rev 7:12 So be it. Let blessing and glory and wisdom and praise and honour and power and strength be given to our God for ever and ever. So be it. +Rev 7:13 And one of the rulers made answer, saying to me, These who have on white robes, who are they, and where did they come from? +Rev 7:14 And I said to him, My lord, you have knowledge. And he said to me, These are they who came through the great testing, and their robes have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. +Rev 7:15 This is why they are before the high seat of God; and they are his servants day and night in his house: and he who is seated on the high seat will be a tent over them. +Rev 7:16 They will never be in need of food or drink: and they will never again be troubled by the burning heat of the sun: +Rev 7:17 For the Lamb who is on the high seat will be their keeper and their guide to fountains of living water: and God will make glad their eyes for ever. +Rev 8:1 And when the seventh stamp was undone there was quiet in heaven for about half an hour. +Rev 8:2 And I saw the seven angels who had their place before God; and seven horns were given to them. +Rev 8:3 And another angel came and took his place at the altar, having a gold vessel for burning perfume; and there was given to him much perfume, so that he might put it with the prayers of all the saints on the gold altar which was before the high seat. +Rev 8:4 And the smoke of the perfume, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand. +Rev 8:5 And the angel took the vessel; and he made it full of the fire of the altar, and sent it down on the earth: and there came thunders and voices and flames and a shaking of the earth. +Rev 8:6 And the seven angels who had the seven horns made ready for sounding them. +Rev 8:7 And at the sounding of the first, a rain of ice and fire, mixed with blood, was sent on the earth: and a third part of the earth, and of the trees, and all green grass was burned up. +Rev 8:8 And at the sounding of the second angel, it was as if a great mountain burning with fire was sent into the sea: and a third part of the sea became blood, +Rev 8:9 And destruction came on a third part of the living things which were in the sea, and on a third part of the ships. +Rev 8:10 And at the sounding of the third angel, there went down from heaven a great star, burning like a flame, and it came on a third part of the rivers, and on the fountains of water. +Rev 8:11 And the name of the star is Wormwood: and a third part of the waters became bitter; and a number of men came to their end because of the waters, for they were made bitter. +Rev 8:12 And at the sounding of the fourth angel, a third part of the sun, and of the moon, and of the stars was made dark, so that there was no light for a third part of the day and of the night. +Rev 8:13 And there came to my ears the cry of an eagle in flight in the middle of heaven, saying with a great voice, Trouble, trouble, trouble, to all on the earth, because of the other voices of the horns of the three angels, whose sounding is still to come. +Rev 9:1 And at the sounding of the fifth angel I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth: and there was given to him the key of the great deep. +Rev 9:2 And he made the great deep open and a smoke went up from it, like the smoke of a great oven; and the sun and the air were made dark because of the smoke. +Rev 9:3 And from the smoke locusts came out on the earth; and power was given them, like the power of scorpions. +Rev 9:4 And they were ordered to do no damage to the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only to such men as have not the mark of God on their brows. +Rev 9:5 And orders were given them not to put them to death, but to give them great pain for five months: and their pain was as the pain from the wound of a scorpion. +Rev 9:6 And in those days men will be hoping for death, and it will not come to them; and they will have a great desire for death, and death will go in flight from them. +Rev 9:7 And the forms of the locusts were like horses made ready for war; and on their heads they had crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. +Rev 9:8 And they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. +Rev 9:9 And they had breastplates like iron, and the sound of their wings was as the sound of carriages, like an army of horses rushing to the fight. +Rev 9:10 And they have pointed tails like scorpions; and in their tails is their power to give men wounds for five months. +Rev 9:11 They have over them as king the angel of the great deep: his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek language Apollyon. +Rev 9:12 The first Trouble is past: see, there are still two Troubles to come. +Rev 9:13 And at the sounding of the sixth angel a voice came to my ears from the horns of the gold altar which is before God, +Rev 9:14 Saying to the sixth angel who had the horn, Make free the four angels who are chained at the great river Euphrates. +Rev 9:15 And the four angels were made free, who were ready for the hour and day and month and year, that they might put to death a third part of men. +Rev 9:16 And the number of the armies of the horsemen was twice ten thousand times ten thousand: the number of them came to my ears. +Rev 9:17 And so I saw the horses in the vision, and those who were seated on them, having breastplates of fire and glass and of burning stone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire and smoke and a smell of burning. +Rev 9:18 By these evils a third part of men was put to death, by the fire, and the smoke, and the burning smell which came out of their mouths. +Rev 9:19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails: because their tails are like snakes, and have heads, and with them they give wounds. +Rev 9:20 And the rest of the people, who were not put to death by these evils, were not turned from the works of their hands, but went on giving worship to evil spirits, and images of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood which have no power of seeing or hearing or walking: +Rev 9:21 And they had no regret for putting men to death, or for their use of secret arts, or for the evil desires of the flesh, or for taking the property of others. +Rev 10:1 And I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud; and an arch of coloured light was round his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire; +Rev 10:2 And he had in his hand a little open book: and he put his right foot on the sea, and his left on the earth; +Rev 10:3 And he gave a loud cry, like the angry voice of a lion: and at his cry the voices of the seven thunders were sounding. +Rev 10:4 And when the seven thunders had given out their voices, I was about to put their words down: and a voice from heaven came to my ears, saying, Keep secret the things which the seven thunders said, and do not put them in writing. +Rev 10:5 And the angel which I saw taking his position on the sea and on the earth, put up his right hand to heaven, +Rev 10:6 And took his oath by him who is living for ever and ever, who made the heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there would be no more waiting: +Rev 10:7 But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when the sound of his horn is about to come, then will the secret of God be complete, of which he gave the good news to his servants the prophets. +Rev 10:8 And the voice came to me again from heaven, saying, Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who has his place on the sea and on the earth. +Rev 10:9 And I went to the angel, and said to him, Give me the little book. And he said to me: Put it in your mouth; and it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. +Rev 10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel's hand and did as he said; and it was sweet as honey in my mouth: and when I had taken it, my stomach was made bitter. +Rev 10:11 And they said to me, You are to give word again of what is coming in the future to the peoples and nations and languages and kings. +Rev 11:1 And there was given to me a measuring rod: and one said, Go up and take the measure of the house of God, and the altar, and the worshippers in it. +Rev 11:2 But do not take the measure of the space outside the house; because it has been given to the nations: and the holy town will be under their feet for forty-two months. +Rev 11:3 And I will give orders to my two witnesses, and they will be prophets for a thousand, two hundred and sixty days, clothed with haircloth. +Rev 11:4 These are the two olive-trees and the two lights, which are before the Lord of the earth. +Rev 11:5 And if any man would do them damage, fire comes out of their mouth and puts an end to those who are working against them: and if any man has a desire to do them damage, in this way will he be put to death. +Rev 11:6 These have the power to keep the heaven shut, so that there may be no rain in the days when they are prophets: and they have power over the waters to make them into blood, and to send every sort of disease on the earth as their pleasure is. +Rev 11:7 And when they have come to the end of their witness, the beast which comes up out of the great deep will make war on them and overcome them and put them to death. +Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies will be in the open street of the great town, which in the spirit is named Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was put to death on the cross. +Rev 11:9 And the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will be looking on their dead bodies three days and a half, and will not let their dead bodies be put in the earth. +Rev 11:10 And those who are on the earth will have pleasure and delight over them; and they will send offerings one to another because these two prophets gave great trouble to all on the earth. +Rev 11:11 And after three days and a half the breath of life from God went into them, and they got up on their feet; and great fear came on those who saw them. +Rev 11:12 And a great voice from heaven came to their ears, saying to them, Come up here. And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and were seen by those desiring their death. +Rev 11:13 And in that hour there was a great earth-shock and a tenth part of the town came to destruction; and in the earth-shock seven thousand persons came to their end: and the rest were in fear, and gave glory to the God of heaven. +Rev 11:14 The second Trouble is past: see, the third Trouble comes quickly. +Rev 11:15 And at the sounding of the seventh angel there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he will have rule for ever and ever. +Rev 11:16 And the four and twenty rulers, who are seated before God on their high seats, went down on their faces and gave worship to God, saying, +Rev 11:17 We give you praise, O Lord God, Ruler of all, who is and who was; because you have taken up your great power and are ruling your kingdom. +Rev 11:18 And the nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time for the dead to be judged, and the time of reward for your servants, the prophets, and for the saints, and for those in whom is the fear of your name, small and great, and the time of destruction for those who made the earth unclean. +Rev 11:19 And the house of God which is in heaven was open; and the ark of his agreement was seen in his house, and there were flames and voices and thunders and an earth-shock and a rain of ice. +Rev 12:1 And a great sign was seen in heaven: a A woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. +Rev 12:2 And she was with child; and she gave a cry, in the pains of childbirth. +Rev 12:3 And there was seen another sign in heaven; a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns. +Rev 12:4 And his tail was pulling a third part of the stars of heaven down to the earth, and the dragon took his place before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when the birth had taken place he might put an end to her child. +Rev 12:5 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who was to have rule over all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was taken up to God and to his high seat. +Rev 12:6 And the woman went in flight to the waste land, where she has a place made ready by God, so that there they may give her food a thousand, two hundred and sixty days. +Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels going out to the fight with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels made war, +Rev 12:8 And they were overcome, and there was no more place for them in heaven. +Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was forced down, the old snake, who is named the Evil One and Satan, by whom all the earth is turned from the right way; he was forced down to the earth, and his angels were forced down with him. +Rev 12:10 And a great voice in heaven came to my ears, saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ: because he who says evil against our brothers before our God day and night is forced down. +Rev 12:11 And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb and the word of their witness; and loving not their lives they freely gave themselves up to death. +Rev 12:12 Be glad then, O heavens, and you who are in them. But there is trouble for the earth and the sea: because the Evil One has come down to you, being very angry, having the knowledge that he has but a short time. +Rev 12:13 And when the dragon saw that he was forced down to the earth, he made cruel attacks on the woman who gave birth to the male child. +Rev 12:14 And there were given to the woman two wings of a great eagle, so that she might go in flight into the waste land, to her place, where she is given food for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the snake. +Rev 12:15 And the snake sent out of his mouth after the woman a river of water, so that she might be taken away by the stream. +Rev 12:16 And the earth gave help to the woman, and with open mouth took up the river which the dragon sent out of his mouth. +Rev 12:17 And the dragon was angry with the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her seed, who keep the orders of God, and the witness of Jesus: +Rev 13:1 And he took his place on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads unholy names. +Rev 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. +Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been given a death-wound; and his death-wound was made well: and all the earth was wondering at the beast. +Rev 13:4 And they gave worship to the dragon, because he gave authority to the beast; and worshipping the beast, they said, Who is like the beast? and who is able to go to war with him? +Rev 13:5 And there was given to him a mouth to say words of pride against God; and there was given to him authority to go on for forty-two months. +Rev 13:6 And his mouth was open to say evil against God, and against his name and his Tent, even against those who are in heaven. +Rev 13:7 And it was given to him to make war on the saints and to overcome them: and there was given to him authority over every tribe and people and language and nation. +Rev 13:8 And all who are on the earth will give him worship, everyone whose name has not been from the first in the book of life of the Lamb who was put to death. +Rev 13:9 If any man has ears, let him give ear. +Rev 13:10 If any man sends others into prison, into prison he will go: if any man puts to death with the sword, with the sword will he be put to death. Here is the quiet strength and the faith of the saints. +Rev 13:11 And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and his voice was like that of a dragon. +Rev 13:12 And he makes use of all the authority of the first beast before his eyes. And he makes the earth and those who are in it give worship to the first beast, whose death-wound was made well. +Rev 13:13 And he does great signs, even making fire come down from heaven on the earth before the eyes of men. +Rev 13:14 And those who are on the earth are turned from the true way by him through the signs which he was given power to do before the beast; giving orders to those who are on the earth to make an image to the beast, who was wounded by the sword, and came to life. +Rev 13:15 And he had power to give breath to the image of the beast, so that words might come from the image of the beast, and that he might have all those who did not give worship to the image of the beast put to death. +Rev 13:16 And he gives to all, small and great, the poor and those who have wealth, the free and those who are not free, a mark on their right hand or on their brows; +Rev 13:17 So that no man might be able to do trade but he who has the mark, even the name of the beast or the number of his name. +Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. He who has knowledge let him get the number of the beast; because it is the number of a man: and his number is Six hundred and sixty-six. +Rev 14:1 And I saw the Lamb on the mountain of Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand, marked on their brows with his name and the name of his Father. +Rev 14:2 And a voice from heaven came to my ears, like the sound of great waters, and the sound of loud thunder: and the voice which came to me was like the sound of players, playing on instruments of music. +Rev 14:3 And they made as it seemed a new song before the high seat, and before the four beasts and the rulers: and no man might have knowledge of the song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, even those from the earth whom God has made his for a price. +Rev 14:4 These are they who have not made themselves unclean with women; for they are virgins. These are they who go after the Lamb wherever he goes. These were taken from among men to be the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. +Rev 14:5 And in their mouth there was no false word, for they are untouched by evil. +Rev 14:6 And I saw another angel in flight between heaven and earth, having eternal good news to give to those who are on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and language and people, +Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Have fear of God and give him glory; because the hour of his judging is come; and give worship to him who made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of water. +Rev 14:8 And a second angel came after, saying, Destruction has come to Babylon the great, which gave to all the nations the wine of the wrath of her evil ways. +Rev 14:9 And a third angel came after them, saying with a loud voice, If any man gives worship to the beast and his image, and has his mark on his brow or on his hand, +Rev 14:10 To him will be given of the wine of God's wrath which is ready unmixed in the cup of his wrath and he will have cruel pain, burning with fire before the holy angels and before the Lamb: +Rev 14:11 And the smoke of their pain goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day and night, who give worship to the beast and his image, and have on them the mark of his name. +Rev 14:12 Here is the quiet strength of the saints, who keep the orders of God, and the faith of Jesus. +Rev 14:13 And a voice from heaven came to my ears, saying, Put in writing, There is a blessing on the dead who from now on come to their end in the Lord: yes, says the Spirit, that they may have rest from their troubles; for their works go with them. +Rev 14:14 And I saw a white cloud, and on the cloud I saw one seated, like a son of man, having on his head a crown of gold, and in his hand a sharp curved blade. +Rev 14:15 And another angel came out from the house of God, crying with a loud voice to him who was seated on the cloud, Put in your blade, and let the grain be cut: because the hour for cutting it is come; for the grain of the earth is over-ready. +Rev 14:16 And he who was seated on the cloud sent in his blade on the earth; and the grain of the earth was cut. +Rev 14:17 And another angel came out from the house of God which is in heaven, having a sharp curved blade. +Rev 14:18 And another angel came out from the altar, who has power over fire; and he gave a loud cry to him who had the sharp curved blade, saying, Put in your sharp blade, and let the grapes of the vine of the earth be cut; for her grapes are fully ready. +Rev 14:19 And the angel sent his blade into the earth, and the vine of the earth was cut, and he put it into the great wine-crusher of the wrath of God. +Rev 14:20 And the grapes were crushed under foot outside the town, and blood came out from them, even to the head-bands of the horses, two hundred miles. +Rev 15:1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and strange; seven angels having the seven last punishments, for in them the wrath of God is complete. +Rev 15:2 And I saw a sea which seemed like glass mixed with fire; and those who had overcome the beast and his image and the number of his name, were in their places by the sea of glass, with God's instruments of music in their hands. +Rev 15:3 And they give the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and full of wonder are your works, O Lord God, Ruler of all; true and full of righteousness are your ways, eternal King. +Rev 15:4 What man is there who will not have fear before you, O Lord, and give glory to your name? because you only are holy; for all the nations will come and give worship before you; for your righteousness has been made clear. +Rev 15:5 And after these things I saw, and the house of the Tent of witness in heaven was open: +Rev 15:6 And the seven angels who had the seven punishments came out from the house of God, clothed with linen, clean and bright and with bands of gold about their breasts. +Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave to the seven angels seven gold vessels full of the wrath of God, who is living for ever and ever. +Rev 15:8 And the house of God was full of smoke from the glory of God, and from his power, and no one was able to go into the house of God, till the seven punishments of the seven angels were ended. +Rev 16:1 And a great voice out of the house of God came to my ears, saying to the seven angels, Go, and let that which is in the seven vessels of the wrath of God come down on the earth. +Rev 16:2 And the first went, and let what was in his vessel come down on the earth; and it became an evil poisoning wound on the men who had the mark of the beast, and who gave worship to his image. +Rev 16:3 And the second let what was in his vessel come out into the sea; and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea came to an end. +Rev 16:4 And the third let what was in his vessel come out into the rivers and the fountains of water; and they became blood. +Rev 16:5 And the voice of the angel of the waters came to my ears, saying, True and upright is your judging, O Holy One, who is and was from all time: +Rev 16:6 For they made the blood of saints and prophets come out like a stream, and blood have you given them for drink; which is their right reward. +Rev 16:7 And a voice came from the altar, saying, Even so, O Lord God, Ruler of all, true and full of righteousness is your judging. +Rev 16:8 And the fourth let what was in his vessel come out on the sun; and power was given to it that men might be burned with fire. +Rev 16:9 And men were burned with great heat: and they said evil things against the name of the God who has authority over these punishments; and they were not turned from their evil ways to give him glory. +Rev 16:10 And the fifth let what was in his vessel come out on the high seat of the beast; and his kingdom was made dark; and they were biting their tongues for pain. +Rev 16:11 And they said evil things against the God of heaven because of their pain and their wounds; and they were not turned from their evil works. +Rev 16:12 And the sixth let what was in his vessel come out on the great river Euphrates; and it became dry, so that the way might be made ready for the kings from the east. +Rev 16:13 And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, like frogs. +Rev 16:14 For they are evil spirits, working signs; who go out even to the kings of all the earth, to get them together to the war of the great day of God, the Ruler of all. +Rev 16:15 (See, I come as a thief. Happy is he who is watching and keeps his robes, so that he may not go unclothed, and his shame be seen.) +Rev 16:16 And they got them together into the place which is named in Hebrew Armageddon. +Rev 16:17 And the seventh let what was in his vessel come out on the air; and there came out a great voice from the house of God, from the high seat, saying, It is done. +Rev 16:18 And there were flames and voices and thunders; and there was a great earth-shock so that never, from the time when men were on the earth, had there been so great an earth-shock, so full of power. +Rev 16:19 And the great town was cut into three parts, and the towns of the nations came to destruction: and Babylon the great came into mind before God, to be given the cup of the wine of his wrath. +Rev 16:20 And every island went in flight, and the mountains were seen no longer. +Rev 16:21 And great drops of ice, every one about the weight of a talent, came down out of heaven on men: and men said evil things against God because of the punishment of the ice-drops; for it is very great. +Rev 17:1 And one of the seven angels who had the seven vessels came and said to me, Come here, so that you may see the judging of the evil woman who is seated on the great waters; +Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth made themselves unclean, and those who are on the earth were full of the wine of her evil desires. +Rev 17:3 And he took me away in the Spirit into a waste land: and I saw a woman seated on a bright red beast, full of evil names, having seven heads and ten horns, +Rev 17:4 And the woman was clothed in purple and bright red, with ornaments of gold and stones of great price and jewels; and in her hand was a gold cup full of evil things and her unclean desires; +Rev 17:5 And on her brow was a name, SECRET, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE EVIL WOMEN AND OF THE UNCLEAN THINGS OF THE EARTH. +Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman overcome as with the wine of the blood of the saints, and the blood of those put to death because of Jesus. And when I saw her, I was overcome with a great wonder. +Rev 17:7 And the angel said to me, Why were you surprised? I will make clear to you the secret of the woman, and of the beast on which she is seated, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. +Rev 17:8 The beast which you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the great deep, and to go into destruction. And those who are on the earth, whose names have not been put in the book of life from the first, will be full of wonder when they see the beast, that he was, and is not, and still will be. +Rev 17:9 Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman is seated: +Rev 17:10 And they are seven kings; the five have come to an end, the one is, the other has not come; and when he comes, he will have to go on for a little time. +Rev 17:11 And the beast which was, and is not, is himself the eighth, and is of the seven; and he goes into destruction. +Rev 17:12 And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which still have been given no kingdom; but they are given authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour. +Rev 17:13 These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast. +Rev 17:14 These will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because he is the Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with him are named, marked out, and true. +Rev 17:15 And he said to me, The waters which you saw, where the evil woman is seated, are peoples, and armies, and nations and languages. +Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will be turned against the evil woman, and will make her waste and uncovered, and will take her flesh for food, and will have her burned with fire. +Rev 17:17 Because God has put it in their hearts to do his purpose, and to be of one mind, giving their kingdom to the beast, till the words of God have effect and are complete. +Rev 17:18 And the woman whom you saw is the great town, which is ruling over the kings of the earth. +Rev 18:1 After these things I saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was bright with his glory. +Rev 18:2 And he gave a loud cry, saying, Babylon the great has come down from her high place, she has come to destruction and has become a place of evil spirits, and of every unclean spirit, and a hole for every unclean and hated bird. +Rev 18:3 For through the wine of the wrath of her evil desires all the nations have come to destruction; and the kings of the earth made themselves unclean with her, and the traders of the earth had their wealth increased by the power of her evil ways. +Rev 18:4 And another voice from heaven came to my ears, saying, Come out of her, my people, so that you may have no part in her sins and in her punishments. +Rev 18:5 For her sins have gone up even to heaven, and God has taken note of her evil-doing. +Rev 18:6 Give to her as she gave, even an increased reward for her works; in the cup which was mixed by her, let there be mixed as much again for herself. +Rev 18:7 As she gave glory to herself, and became more evil in her ways, in the same measure give her pain and weeping: for she says in her heart, I am seated here a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see sorrow. +Rev 18:8 For this reason in one day will her troubles come, death and sorrow and need of food; and she will be completely burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who is her judge. +Rev 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who made themselves unclean with her, and in her company gave themselves up to evil, will be weeping and crying over her, when they see the smoke of her burning, +Rev 18:10 Watching from far away, for fear of her punishment, saying, Sorrow, sorrow for Babylon, the great town, the strong town! for in one hour you have been judged. +Rev 18:11 And the traders of the earth are weeping and crying over her, because no man has any more desire for their goods, +Rev 18:12 Gold, and silver, and stones of great price, and jewels, and delicate linen, and robes of purple and silk and red; and perfumed wood, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel made of fair wood, and of brass, and iron, and stone; +Rev 18:13 And sweet-smelling plants, and perfumes, and wine, and oil, and well crushed grain, and cattle and sheep; and horses and carriages and servants; and souls of men. +Rev 18:14 And the fruit of your soul's desire has gone from you, and all things delicate and shining have come to an end and will never again be seen. +Rev 18:15 The traders in these things, by which their wealth was increased, will be watching far off for fear of her punishment, weeping and crying; +Rev 18:16 Saying, Sorrow, sorrow for the great town, she who was clothed in delicate linen, and purple, and red; with ornaments of gold and stones of great price and jewels! +Rev 18:17 For in one hour such great wealth has come to nothing. And every shipmaster, and all who are sailing on the sea, and sailors and all who get their living by the sea, were watching from far away, +Rev 18:18 And crying out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What town is like the great town? +Rev 18:19 And they put dust on their heads, and were sad, weeping and crying, and saying, Sorrow, sorrow for the great town, in which was increased the wealth of all who had their ships on the sea because of her great stores! for in one hour she is made waste. +Rev 18:20 Be glad over her, heaven, and you saints, and Apostles, and prophets; because she has been judged by God on your account. +Rev 18:21 And a strong angel took up a stone like the great stone with which grain is crushed, and sent it into the sea, saying, So, with a great fall, will Babylon, the great town, come to destruction, and will not be seen any more at all. +Rev 18:22 And the voice of players and makers of music will never again be sounding in you: and no worker, expert in art, will ever again be living in you; and there will be no sound of the crushing of grain any more at all in you; +Rev 18:23 And never again will the shining of lights be seen in you; and the voice of the newly-married man and the bride will never again be sounding in you: for your traders were the lords of the earth, and by your evil powers were all the nations turned out of the right way. +Rev 18:24 And in her was seen the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been put to death on the earth. +Rev 19:1 After these things there came to my ears a sound like the voice of a great band of people in heaven, saying, Praise to the Lord; salvation and glory and power be to our God: +Rev 19:2 For true and upright are his decisions; for by him has the evil woman been judged, who made the earth unclean with the sins of her body; and he has given her punishment for the blood of his servants. +Rev 19:3 And again they said, Praise to the Lord. And her smoke went up for ever and ever. +Rev 19:4 And the four and twenty rulers and the four beasts went down on their faces and gave worship to God who was seated on the high seat, saying, Even so, praise to the Lord. +Rev 19:5 And a voice came from the high seat, saying, Give praise to our God, all you his servants, small and great, in whom is the fear of him. +Rev 19:6 And there came to my ears the voice of a great army, like the sound of waters, and the sound of loud thunders, saying, Praise to the Lord: for the Lord our God, Ruler of all, is King. +Rev 19:7 Let us be glad with delight, and let us give glory to him: because the time is come for the Lamb to be married, and his wife has made herself ready. +Rev 19:8 And to her it was given to be clothed in delicate linen, clean and shining: for the clean linen is the righteousness of the saints. +Rev 19:9 And he said to me, Put in the book, Happy are the guests at the bride-feast of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true words of God. +Rev 19:10 And I went on my face before his feet to give him worship. And he said to me, See you do it not: I am a brother-servant with you and with your brothers who keep the witness of Jesus: give worship to God: for the witness of Jesus is the spirit of the prophet's word. +Rev 19:11 And the heaven was open; and I saw a white horse, and he who was seated on it was named Certain and True; and he is judging and making war in righteousness. +Rev 19:12 And his eyes are a flame of fire, and crowns are on his head; and he has a name in writing, of which no man has knowledge but himself. +Rev 19:13 And he is clothed in a robe washed with blood: and his name is The Word of God. +Rev 19:14 And the armies which are in heaven went after him on white horses, clothed in delicate linen, white and clean. +Rev 19:15 And out of his mouth comes a sharp sword, with which he overcomes the nations: and he has rule over them with a rod of iron: and he is crushing with his feet the grapes of the strong wrath of God the Ruler of all. +Rev 19:16 And on his robe and on his leg is a name, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. +Rev 19:17 And I saw an angel taking his place in the sun; and he was crying with a loud voice, saying to all the birds in flight in the heavens, Come together to the great feast of God; +Rev 19:18 So that you may take for your food the flesh of kings, and of captains, and of strong men, and of horses and of those who are seated on them, and the flesh of all men, free and unfree, small and great. +Rev 19:19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, come together to make war against him who was seated on the horse and against his army. +Rev 19:20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who did the signs before him, by which they were turned from the true way who had the mark of the beast, and who gave worship to his image: these two were put living into the sea of ever-burning fire. +Rev 19:21 And the rest were put to death with the sword of him who was on the horse, even the sword which came out of his mouth: and all the birds were made full with their flesh. +Rev 20:1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the great deep and a great chain in his hand. +Rev 20:2 And he took the dragon, the old snake, which is the Evil One and Satan, and put chains on him for a thousand years, +Rev 20:3 And put him into the great deep, and it was shut and locked over him, so that he might put the nations in error no longer, till the thousand years were ended: after this he will be let loose for a little time. +Rev 20:4 And I saw high seats, and they were seated on them, and the right of judging was given to them: and I saw the souls of those who were put to death for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and those who did not give worship to the beast, or to his image, and had not his mark on their brows or on their hands; and they were living and ruling with Christ a thousand years. +Rev 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life again till the thousand years were ended. This is the first coming back from the dead. +Rev 20:6 Happy and holy is he who has a part in this first coming: over these the second death has no authority, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will be ruling with him a thousand years. +Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be let loose out of his prison, +Rev 20:8 And will go out to put in error the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to get them together to the war, the number of whom is like the sands of the sea. +Rev 20:9 And they went up over the face of the earth, and made a circle about the tents of the saints, and the well loved town: and fire came down out of heaven for their destruction. +Rev 20:10 And the Evil One who put them in error was sent down into the sea of ever-burning fire, where the beast and the false prophet are, and their punishment will go on day and night for ever and ever. +Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white seat, and him who was seated on it, before whose face the earth and the heaven went in flight; and there was no place for them. +Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, taking their places before the high seat; and the books were open, and another book was open, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged by the things which were in the books, even by their works. +Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hell gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man by his works. +Rev 20:14 And death and Hell were put into the sea of fire. This is the second death, even the sea of fire. +Rev 20:15 And if anyone's name was not in the book of life, he went down into the sea of fire. +Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were gone; and there was no more sea. +Rev 21:2 And I saw the holy town, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, like a bride made beautiful for her husband. +Rev 21:3 And there came to my ears a great voice out of the high seat, saying, See, the Tent of God is with men, and he will make his living-place with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them, and be their God. +Rev 21:4 And he will put an end to all their weeping; and there will be no more death, or sorrow, or crying, or pain; for the first things have come to an end. +Rev 21:5 And he who is seated on the high seat said, See, I make all things new. And he said, Put it in the book; for these words are certain and true. +Rev 21:6 And he said to me, It is done. I am the First and the Last, the start and the end. I will freely give of the fountain of the water of life to him who is in need. +Rev 21:7 He who overcomes will have these things for his heritage; and I will be his God, and he will be my son. +Rev 21:8 But those who are full of fear and without faith, the unclean and takers of life, those who do the sins of the flesh, and those who make use of evil powers or who give worship to images, and all those who are false, will have their part in the sea of ever-burning fire which is the second death. +Rev 21:9 And one of the seven angels who had the seven vessels in which were the seven last punishments, came and said to me, Come here, and see the bride, the Lamb's wife. +Rev 21:10 And he took me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and let me see the holy town Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, +Rev 21:11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like a stone of great price, a jasper stone, clear as glass: +Rev 21:12 She had a wall great and high, with twelve doors, and at the doors twelve angels; and names on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. +Rev 21:13 And on the east were three doors; and on the north three doors; and on the south three doors; and on the west three doors. +Rev 21:14 And the wall of the town had twelve bases, and on them the twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. +Rev 21:15 And he who was talking with me had a gold measuring-rod to take the measure of the town, and of its doors, and its wall. +Rev 21:16 And the town is square, as wide as it is long; and he took the measure of the town with the rod, one thousand and five hundred miles: it is equally long and wide and high. +Rev 21:17 And he took the measure of its wall, one hundred and forty-four cubits, after the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. +Rev 21:18 And the building of its wall was of jasper, and the town was clear gold, clear as glass. +Rev 21:19 The bases of the wall of the town had ornaments of all sorts of beautiful stones. The first base was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; +Rev 21:20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. +Rev 21:21 And the twelve doors were twelve pearls; every door was made of one pearl; and the street of the town was clear gold, as clear as glass. +Rev 21:22 And I saw no Temple there; because the Lord God, the Ruler of all, and the Lamb are its Temple. +Rev 21:23 And the town has no need of the sun, or of the moon, to give it light: for the glory of God did make it light, and the light of it is the Lamb. +Rev 21:24 And the nations will go in its light: and the kings of the earth will take their glory into it. +Rev 21:25 And the doors of it will never be shut by day (for there is no night there): +Rev 21:26 And the glory and honour of the nations will come into it: +Rev 21:27 And nothing unclean may come into it, or anyone whose works are cursed or false; but only those whose names are in the Lamb's book of life. +Rev 22:1 And I saw a river of water of life, clear as glass, coming out of the high seat of God and of the Lamb, +Rev 22:2 In the middle of its street. And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, having twelve sorts of fruits, giving its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree give life to the nations. +Rev 22:3 And there will be no more curse: and the high seat of God and of the Lamb will be there; and his servants will be worshipping him; +Rev 22:4 And they will see his face; and his name will be on their brows. +Rev 22:5 And there will be no more night; and they have no need of a light or of the shining of the sun; for the Lord God will give them light: and they will be ruling for ever and ever. +Rev 22:6 And he said to me, These words are certain and true: and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to make clear to his servants the things which are now to come about. +Rev 22:7 See, I come quickly. A blessing on him who keeps the words of this book of the prophet. +Rev 22:8 And I, John, am he who saw these things and to whose ears they came. And when I had seen and given ear, I went down on my face to give worship at the feet of the angel who made these things clear to me. +Rev 22:9 And he said to me, See you do it not; I am a brother-servant with you and with your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book: give worship to God. +Rev 22:10 And he said to me, Let not the words of this prophet's book be kept secret, because the time is near. +Rev 22:11 Let the evil man go on in his evil: and let the unclean be still unclean: and let the upright go on in his righteousness: and let the holy be holy still. +Rev 22:12 See, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give to every man the outcome of his works. +Rev 22:13 I am the First and the Last, the start and the end. +Rev 22:14 A blessing on those whose robes are washed, so that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may go in by the doors into the town. +Rev 22:15 Outside are the dogs, and those who make use of evil powers, those who make themselves unclean, and the takers of life, and those who give worship to images, and everyone whose delight is in what is false. +Rev 22:16 I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give witness to you of these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. +Rev 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him who gives ear, say, Come. And let him who is in need come; and let everyone desiring it take of the water of life freely. +Rev 22:18 For I say to every man to whose ears have come the words of this prophet's book, If any man makes an addition to them, God will put on him the punishments which are in this book: +Rev 22:19 And if any man takes away from the words of this book, God will take away from him his part in the tree of life and the holy town, even the things which are in this book. +Rev 22:20 He who gives witness to these things says, Truly, I come quickly. Even so come, Lord Jesus. +Rev 22:21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with the saints. So be it. diff --git a/religious documents/belarion.txt b/religious documents/belarion.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..53f83fa --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/belarion.txt @@ -0,0 +1,211 @@ +From: i.stang@metronet.com (Rev. Ivan Stang) +Newsgroups: alt.slack +Subject: BELARION the ANTICHRIST +Date: 22 Apr 1995 00:12:43 GMT +Organization: The SubGenius Foundation, Inc. + +DEAR FRIENDS on alt.slack, + +I get some interesting email sometimes, and for weeks I've been saving it +up to dump into alt.slack. Why I didn't just dump it immediately, I can't +say. Maybe I was thinking of doing intros for these things. And maybe I +will. All I know is, I'm so tanked and tranked from codeine following my +car wreck that I'm incapable of doing anything original, so I've got +nothing better to do than sit here, zombie-like, reformatting this email +stuff and posting it to Y'ALL. FINALLY. + + +Demonic Hell-Spawned Rival Cults Dept. + +This particular one wasn't emailed... it's a leftover from an old FIST, a +piece that never got printed. + +Did it? +***** + +This rather disturbing document was sent to The SubGenius Foundation +anonymously. That is, the folks at Conspiracies Unlimited mailed us a +photocopy of a much longer pamphlet -- of which this is only a short +excerpt -- but they themselves have no idea who actually wrote it, nor +from whence it originates geographically. It does bear a striking +stylistic similarity to hate literature from The World Power Foundation, +one of the most ruthless secret societies in existence -- all the more +frightening because no one seems to be able to locate their headquarters +nor even any admitted members. + +This is not, I repeat, not written by any known associates of the +SubGenius Church. While "Belarion" (whether as a real individual, or as a +group metaphor) does obviously share many sentiments with us, I am +personally tempted to say that this "goes just a wee bit too far." For one +thing, there is no mention of "Bob" Dobbs whatsoever. That9s probably the +worst aspect. A less objectionable element is the glorification of war and +brutality over Slack. Otherwise -- aside from those two objections -- they +seem pretty cool. I mean, at least they aren9t racists or anything. They +just hate humans. Nothing wrong with that! But... "AntiChrist"? That9s +rather an ambitious claim! Technically, that makes Dobbs the AntiBelarion, +which doesn't really make sense. Dobbs never said he was one of the Jesii, +but he has repeatedly proclaimed himself the AntiAntiChrist. + +Furthermore, one gets the distinct impression that, were there ever to be +an inter-cult war between Belarionites and SubGeniuses, the Belarionites +would probably beat the living shit out of us. No doubt they (like the +Hare Krishnas) already have many caches of arms and ammo, whereas those +few of us who even own guns probably used up our last purchase of bullets +shooting at beer cans. They could easily ambush us all as we drive to gun +shops trying to restock. + + +BELARION THE ANTICHRIST + +PART ONE + + + +I AM HERE! +Hail my birth, +welcome my presence, +praise my evil power. +I AM HERE! +Join my wavelength, +spread my writing, +listen for my call. +I AM HERE! +To crush Christianity, +to eradicate human hope. +I AM HERE! +To drive out utopias, +to cancel all reform. +I AM HERE! +To bring bad news for man, +to kill the Prince of Peace, +to start the era of pure power. + + + +PART TWO + +WHO IS BELARION? + +I am the enemy of good. +I am the foe of forgiveness. +I am the Prince of Darkness. +I am the father of black oaths. + +I am god for all wolves-- +I am scourge for all shepherds. +I feed on desperation, I smile at human injury. +My venom is death, I eat bodies and souls. + +I am St. Peter for the strong. +I welcome villains beyond the grave. +I praise them for slavery and aggression, +I punish them for sentimental kindness. + +I heal nothing! I want breakdowns! +I rid the world of mediocrities. +I am too strong for atheism, +and too violent for magic. +To worship me is to worship fire. +I never forgive; I rarely forget. +My message is simple: +-- This is what I am. +-- This is what I can do to you. + +I, Belarion, am here to save the world -- +but from saviors! +I, Belarion, am here to deliver the world -- +but from deliverance! +I am proud to be wicked. +I am proud to be fierce. +I am proud to be cruel. + +I am the fire of Satan, +the majesty of Wotan, +and the ruthless ambition of Genghis Khan. + +I am the hidden god of Aleister Crowley. +"Do what you will is the whole of the law." +As it is! +I do what I will -- +others are done to. +I enjoy truth -- +others endure it. +My heaven is their hell, +my delights are their fears. +They are my meat, I am their poison. + +Is Belarion God? +No -- nor can I be. +I am only one aspect of God. +I am the eternal warring impulse in man. +I am a specialist; I want killing. +I am known for spiritual savagery. + +Is Belarion fair? +Never in a million years! +I do not debate with other religions, +it would be like a tiger debating with his prey. +Instead I wait to profit from their inevitable sacrifice. + +I despise the word of Christ. +His light is a pallid darkness, +His morality is a jail. +His virtues are spineless, +and reek of a slave-morality. +Against them I put pride, lust, greed, and revenge. + +Is this stark? It is life! +And is only horrible if you lose. + + + +PART THREE + +BELARION9S COMMANDMENTS + +Commandment Number One: + +Hunt and kill. + +The world is yours -- for plundering! +Kill the sick, bury the dead, punish your slaves. + +Always conquer -- never atone. +Break your victims, then consume them. + + +Commandment Number Two: + +Trust in your will. + +Feel no guilt for your instincts -- +only shame, for occasional mistakes. + +If you want to be great, you cannot be good. +If you need to be feared, you may not be loved. + +My law is ancient, unforgiving, +it is black, and it is mine. + + +Commandment Number Three: + +Be happy in power. + +Joy comes from killing; +despair from being killed. + +Consciousness means consciousness of power. +Peace means pleasure, and is weakened when shared. + +You are placed on a road to greatness. +Do not ask where it leads -- take it. +I will sustain you. + +-- +Copyright 1995 by Rev. Ivan Stang / 1st Orthodox Stangian +MegaFisTemple Lodge of People's Covenant Church of the +Wrath of Dobbs Yeti, Resurrected / The SubGenius Foundation,Inc. +PO Box 140306 Dallas TX 75214 / Fax 214-320-1561 / PRABOB + + diff --git a/religious documents/belief.txt b/religious documents/belief.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3030b22 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/belief.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/beliefs.txt b/religious documents/beliefs.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c887bc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/beliefs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,95 @@ +=========================================================================== + BBS: The Wizard's Clan BBS +Date: - - (09:00) Number: 28 +From: KOREN #49 @27333 Refer#: NONE + To: Recvd: YES +Subj: Beliefs & Customs of Wicc Conf: (35) UK/USA Occ +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS OF WICCA + + +Not every Wiccan will subscribe to all of these points, but +generally they are representative. + + +1. The divine Spirit is present in all creatures and things: +people, animals, plants, stones... + +2. The ultimate creative force manifests in both feminine and +masculine modes; therefore it is often symbolized as the Goddess +and The God. + +3. In some covens, both are celebrated equally. In others, The +Goddess is given precedence or even celebrated without reference +to the God. + +4. All Goddesses and Gods are aspects of The Goddess and The God. + The aspects most popular in Wicca are the Triple Goddess of the +Moon (Maiden, Mother and Crone) and the Horned God of death and +rebirth. + +5. Reincarnation and karma are valid concepts. Upon death one +goes to a state of rest and reflection, and eventually chooses +where and when s/he will be reborn. + +6. Magick is practiced for positive (helping) purposes: +spiritual development, healing, guidance, safety, etc. + +7. Rituals are generally performed outdoors when possible, at the +New and Full Moons, and at eight Sabbat festivals which mark the +progression of the seasons. + +8. Magick and celebration are performed in small groups, usually +3 to 13, called covens. These are basically autonomous -- there +is no central church authority or hierarchy. + +9. There is no holy book, or prophet, no equivalent of the Bible +or Jesus or Mohammed. Individuals have access to the divine, and +do not require an intermediary. Every initiate is regarded as a +priest/ess. + +10. The central ethic is "And ye harm none, do as ye will." +Whatever energy you send out returns threefold, so it is wise to +be kind to others. + +11. We should live in harmony with the Earth and Nature, and not +exploit them. + +12. Though Wicca is a valid spiritual path, it is not the only +one. There is no recruiting, and people should be free to choose +the path that best fits their needs. + +13. The concepts of original sin, sacrifice, redemption, +Šconfession, the divinity of Jesus, sinfulness of sex, Judgment, +Heaven and Hell, denigration of women, bodily resurrection, and +the Bible as divine revelation are not part of Wicca. Neither are +Satanism, the Black Mass, desecration of cemeteries, the sacrifice +of animals, etc. + +EARTH-RITE / Mission San Jose, CA / 415-651-9496 +Copyright (c) 1983 Amber K., Our Lady of the Woods. Used by +Permission + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/beliefs2.txt b/religious documents/beliefs2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc85536 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/beliefs2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ + +Principles of Wiccan Belief +(as adopted by the Council of American Witches, April, 1974) + +1. We practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of + life forces marked by the phases of the moon and the Seasonal Quarters + and Cross-Quarters. + +2. We recognize that our intelligence gives us a unique responsibility + towards our environment. We seek to live in harmony with nature, in + ecological balance offering fulfillment to life and consciousness + within an evolutionary concept. + +3. We acknowledge a depth of power far greater than that apparent to the + average person. Because it is far greater than ordinary it is sometimes + called "supernatural", but we see it as lying within that which is + naturally potential to all. + +4. We conceive of the Creative Power in the universe as manifesting through + polarity - as masculine and feminine - and that same Creative power + lies in all people, and functions through the interaction of masculine + and feminine. We value neither above the other, knowing each to be + supportive to the other. We value sex as pleasure, as the symbol and + embodiment of life, and as one of the sources of energies used in + magickal practice and religious worship. + +5. We recognize both outer worlds and inner, or psychological, worlds known + sometimes as the Spiritual World, the Collective Unconscious, Inner + Planes, etc. - and we see in the inter-action of these two dimensions + the basis for paranormal phenomena and magickal exercises. We neglect + neither dimension for the other, seeing both as necessary for our + fulfillment. + +6. We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honor those + who teach, respect those who share their graeter knowledge and wisdom, + and acknowledge those who have courageously give of themselves in + leadership. + +7. We see religion magick and wisdom in living as being united in the way + one views the world and live within it - a world view and philosophy + of life which we identify as 'Witchcraft - the Wiccan Way'. + +8. Calling oneself "Witch" does not make a Witch - but neither does + heredity itself, nor the collecting of titles, degrees and initiations. + A Witch seeks to control the forces within her/himself that make life + possible in order to live wisely and well without harm to others and + in harmony with Nature. + +9. We believe in the affirmation and fulfillment of life in a continuation + of evolution and development of consciousness giving meaning to the + Universe we know and our personal role within it. + +10. Our only animosity towards Christianity, or towards any other religion + or philosophy of life, is to the extent that it's institutions have + claimed to be 'the only way' and have sought to deny freedom to others + and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief. + +11. As American Witches, we are not threatened by debates on the history + of the Craft, the origins of various terms, the legitimacy of various + aspects of different traditions. We are concerned with our present and + our future. + +12. We do not accept the concept of absolute evil, nor do we worship any + entity known as "Satan" or "the Devil", as defined by the Christian + tradition. We do not seek power through the suffering of others, nor + accept that personal benefit can be derived only by denial to another. + +13. We beleive that we should seek within Nature that which is contibutory + to our health and well-being. + + + +********* +This is not in any way an all-encompassing credo applicable to all +groups who consider themselves Wiccans or Witches, but rather is the +set of principles adopted by one such group. As there are differences +between various Christian sects, so are there difference between those +of Wicca. However, while the specifics may differ, the general attitude +and reasoning behind these declarations remains relatively consistent. + + Alan Sante + +*Blessed Be* diff --git a/religious documents/believrs.txt b/religious documents/believrs.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85f459b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/believrs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,92 @@ +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Msg #: [209/226] Base: PAGAN-Spirituality +Date : 13 Oct 93 20:47:08 Stat: Sent +From : Jim Taylor +To : All +Title: Believers and Faith-Holders + +@INTL 93:9609/0 93:9004/0 +In Christianity, which is the faith I know, there are two main divisions +among those who call themselves Christians. Jesus Himself identified them +as "wheat", which is the useful grain of God; and as "tares", which is a +grain-plant which, although it exactly resembles wheat when mature, is +violently poisonous. "Tares" are false Christians, ravening wolves in +sheep's clothing, who pass themselves off as Christians (and may even +sincerely believe that they are), and yet they have nothing whatever to +do with God, except to attempt to rob Him of those who are His. + +"Tares" are not Christians, though they are found in every Christian +gathering, and God has said He will allow them to remain until the great +and terrible Day of the Lord, when they shall be separated out for the +destruction which they have freely chosen, to which they have condemned +themselves; for they were free to choose salvation but chose otherwise. + +My subject today, therefore, is not the "tares", since they are not +Christians. Rather, my subject is the two vastly different kinds of +"wheat", i.e. the genuine Christians among us. + +Genuine Christians, too, fall into two categories: the Believer and the +true Faith-Holder. + +The Believer is a true Christian. S/he has made a decision to follow +Christ, to obey Him, to believe in Him, and to live the Life in Christ. + +The true Faith-Holder is also a true Christian. Unlike the Believer, +however, the true Faith-Holder's Christianity is not a thing apart from +the Faith-Holder, but an integral part of the Faith-Holder. + +One might consider that the Kingdom of Christ has two kinds of members. +Most are civilians (Believers), whose citizenship is in Heaven. A minority +are warriors (Faith-Holders), who give up their citizenship rights in order +to be warriors. + +The major practical difference between the Believers and the Faith-Holders +is that a Believer can always leave. A Faith-Holder cannot. When you see +a person who used to be a Christian, he used to be a Believer, not a +Faith-Holder, since a Faith-Holder can lose his life, but never his faith. + +Most Faith-Holders start out as Believers. At some time in their lives, +something occurred which forced them to change, and instead of becoming +ex-Christians, they instead became Faith-Holders. + +Every Christian, at one time or another, wonders how s/he will react if +called upon to face martyrdom. The Believer will worry about this; but +the Faith-Holder will not. The Believer will worry about it, because s/he +is afraid that in that day, courage will not be sufficient, and s/he will +deny God rather than suffer pain or death. The true Faith-Holder never +worries about this, because there is no way s/he can deny God, any more +than s/he can deny her/himself. The Faith-Holder's faith is internalized, +and is part of her/his personal identity, not a separate thing which can +be either gained or lost. + +The true Faith-Holder is IN NO WAY better than the Believer, just different. +The true Faith-Holder has a much easier life than the Believer: it takes +courage to be a Believer; it takes no courage at all to be a Faith-Holder. +God honors both equally, since both are saved by God's mercy, not by any +worthwhile quality in themselves. + +Now, here's the kicker: How do you tell the Believers and the Faith-Holders +from one another, among the Christians on this echo? + +Actually, it's easy. When you run into someone who is working very +carefully to guard and protect his personal faith, that is a Believer. +When you run into someone who is doing absolutely nothing to guard and +protect his personal faith, that is a Faith-Holder, because he does not +NEED to do anything to protect his faith--it is a part of him. + +* Z +* F O S +* E + +Light & Life, +Jim + +--- DB 1.54/003113 + * Origin: Home of the PODSnet Co-Moderator, SPIRITuality Echo (93:9500/2) +SEEN-BY: 102/943 128/101 9000/2 10 9001/0 9004/0 1 9006/0 9007/0 9008/0 +SEEN-BY: 9040/0 9050/0 9060/0 9080/0 9090/0 9110/0 9300/0 9500/0 2 10 +SEEN-BY: 9550/0 9580/0 9600/0 8 9607/0 9608/0 9609/0 9610/0 9630/0 9640/0 +SEEN-BY: 9660/0 9680/0 9690/1 9800/0 9900/0 +@PATH: 9500/2 0 9600/0 9004/0 + diff --git a/religious documents/beltan.txt b/religious documents/beltan.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a1af39 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/beltan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,165 @@ + + The Beltane Conspiracy + + +We are facing, in 1988, perhaps the greatest threat to the Old +Religion and to human liberty this country has ever seen. There is +currently a coalition of forces, often referring to themselves as +"Christian Reconstructionists", with a terrifying philosophy. Anyone +who viewed the recent PBS special on Church and State knows what I am +referring to. + +At the core of their beliefs is a yearning for America to become +"God's Kingdom on Earth", a desire to which "secular humanist" ideas +like democracy are antithetical. This is not merely my paranoia, +they have stated it as such. The Kingdom is to be a "bible +believer's" theocracy, in which biblical law would function alongside +civil law. To those of you uninitiated in the terminology, "Biblical +Law" and "Islamic Law" are pretty much indistinguishable. They call +for, among other things, the execution of adulterers, homosexuals, +"incorrigable sons", and of course, us........ + +Normally, this would be just another nut group, but their influence in +current Republican politics is astonishing. At the grass roots +level, their electors may well have achieved dominance at the next +Republican nominating convention. An example: This year one +Northwest Florida precinct had 23 slots open for local participation. +There were over 200 applicants for those slots.....ALL BUT 12 OF THEM +WERE ELECTORS FOR REV. PAT ROBERTSON! + +Although it may not win, there will be strong support at the +Republican Nominating Convention for a Kemp/Robertson or +Robertson/Kemp ticket, and their influence will be felt in the +platforms of both parties. Make no mistake, This Is Real.....! + + +We have come up with, I think, a way to help combat this kind of +thinking, and, hopefully, a way to help put this country back on the +path set out by our beloved, drug-sodden, sex crazed, mystical +forebears Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, and Washinton (long may his pot +fields wave). We feel it is ideal for Pagani because it is +essentially apolitical (though if you do have a political bent, in the +names of the Goddess, get involved. One person can do so much good if +intense enough) and probably a lot of fun. + + + /\ + / \ + /<()>\ + / \ + -------- + + THE + BELTANE + CONSPIRACY! + +(....or: can a bunch of Witches, New Age types, rock musicians, +computer geeks, and 60's burnouts save American Democracy and have a +good time while doing it...) + + +The premise of this project is very simple: It is to increase the +awareness of the American Public of options....options in lifestyles, +in religious beliefs, in futures...it is also to increase the +political visiblity of Free-Thinking people to the political +electorate (as in: if they got 170,000 people out in the park last +Saturday, thats a LOT of potential votes). We want to present to +America a vision of the world in which options are only limited by the +will to carry through on them, and by a respect for our fellow humans +and for the Earth, as opposed to one in which "everything not +prohibited is compulsory and everything not compulsory is prohibited." + +The current resurgence of the 1960's, both in interest and in musical +style, as well as the ascention of those of us who grew up (or didnt) +through the 60's to positions of importance in government and +business, provides an excellent platform for a year of celebration. A +celebration of life and of freedom. The Conspiracy timetable runs like +this: + +1: OMBLEC (or Candlemas or whatever you use in your trad....early +Feb., anyway): + + Meet with your Circle, friends, or Working group to plot out the +year. We suggest using Amnesty International's technique of breaking +people up into smaller groups, each assigned to letter writing or to +securing needed public permits...whatever. It seems to work very +well. This is also a really good oppurtunity to do something +positive....just in general. After you meet, take your Circle down +someplace with a bunch of garbage bags and clean up a roadside, tidy +up a park, anything. Make somplace a little nicer to be in, and when +someone asks what you're doing, tell them... + +2: EOSTAR: + + Get your Circle together with other interested groups for planning. + This is not only a good chance for some larger scale public works, +but for some Events with a capital E. If you've access to some +musicians, or to artists, make the meetings occasion for public +showings and concerts. Do it right. Get the appropriate permits, et +al. Make a point of showing the local authorities that you're not out +to cause a scene, at least, not a bad one. + Above all, DON'T PUSH, don't SELL anything, unless you're doing a +crafts fair. The point is OPTIONS, not OUR OPTION in particular. +Make it fun for everybody. + + +3: BELTANE + + The traditional time for festival, a time for the fires and music +and maypoles and orgies and so forth, and its about time we stopped +keeping these all to ourselves. + + We should be together enough by now to do it right, to drown out +the jackboots echoing down Red Square with some sounds of joy. Public +concerts, Public Circles, maypoles, REAL maypoles like when most of us +were growing up, and this time, get up a press list and invite the +media along. + Think about a Maying with Reniassance or Medieval period dress and +instruments, or a big joint public circle in a public park (again, GET +THE PERMITS), or just a series of outdoor concerts, just for fun. +Lets DRIVE SOME OF THIS BLACKNESS OUT OF HERE. + + +4: MIDSUMMER! + + Stated Simply, we would like to see major festivals in every major +city in this country. We would like to make the fabled "Summer of +Love" look like a tepid handshake on a cold night. + + Call together the Pagans, the Hippies and NeoHippies, the Punkers +and the Eccentrics and the people who are just plain flat in love +with living for a celebration of options and ideas. I would +personally like to see 150,000 people in Griffith park at Midsummer +sunrise. + + +It Will Happen. If you or your group are interested, leave Email to +me or to Parsifal, and please talk this up. Those of you on Qlink, +Playnet, or Compuserv, there are already discussions going on, and we +hope to have a handbook of sorts ready for DLing by the end of +January. + +Lets ride this horse. + +Blessed Be + + +[Editor's note: More information should be available on the following BBS's: + Parsifal's BBS: 818-769-5864, North Hollywood, CA + PBS (Pagan Broadcasting System): 818-982-0751, North Hollywood, CA + +And, possibly, on Mysteria: 818-353-8891, Glendale, CA + (use "C D/CAGLE/12" for PCPursuit) + +(since Mysteria runs at 1200baud, then, it is available via PCPursuit. The +other 2 BBS's run at 300 baud (as of 15 Jan) and, as such, are not available +via PCPursuit (there's only one PCP modem for that area, and it runs at +1200 baud, only!) If PBBS or Parsifal's BBS ever get 1200 baud, then, they +WILL be available via PCPursuit. I don't know who's taking contributions, +try asking on Mysteria, which does run at 1200, or, call direct at 300 baud.)] + +[Editor's further note: I believe the original author of this piece goes by +the handle of "GreyMage1" on QLink. An associate of the author goes by the +handle "Parsifal1" on QLink. I have no idea of how many other networks +these two are on.] + diff --git a/religious documents/beltane.txt b/religious documents/beltane.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24118a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/beltane.txt @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +ab:beltane.txt 14jan90 + + + Beltane + + +Preparation: + Two white candles are on the altar with a wreath of spring flowers. + Quarter candles are green. + +HPS leads the coven, riding poles if possible, about the Covenstead with +a quick, trotting step, singing: + +All: "O do not tell the priests of our Art, + For they would call it sin; + But we will be in the woods all night, + A-conjuring summer in. + And we bring you good news by word of mouth, + For woman, cattle and corn, + For the sun is coming up from the south + With oak and ash and thorn." + +A ring dance follows after which the High Priestess casts the Circle. +High Priest draws down the Moon upon the High Priestess. +All are purified in sacrifice before Her. +She then purifies the High Priest at her own hands. +All partake of Cakes and Wine followed by feasting and dancing and singing +and the Great Rite, if at all possible, in token or truly. + +---------- +-Derived from Stewart Farrar's "What Witches Do", based on Alex Sanders' BOS +-Some parts expanded based on "The Grimoire of Lady Sheba" where Farrar is + unclear. (He rarely gives the actual BOS text, whereas she always does, + but from a slightly different BOS.) + diff --git a/religious documents/bennett.txt b/religious documents/bennett.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03a9091 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bennett.txt @@ -0,0 +1,577 @@ +This file was uploaded by Ben Morehead, Associate Publisher of +_Policy_Review_ magazine and authorized agent for the copyright +owner. All rights reserved. You may contact the Associate Publisher +on the following major online services: + +CompuServe ID: 71603,2037 +Internet ID and node: benjamin@access.digex.net +Prodigy ID: GJJT78A + +To order Policy Review, call 800-544-4843. + + +From the Winter 1994 issue of Policy Review magazine: + +REVOLT AGAINST GOD +America's Spiritual Despair + +WILLIAM J. BENNETT + +We gather in a spirit of celebration. But tonight I speak out of a +spirit of concern -- for this evening my task is to provide an +assessment of the social and cultural condition of modern American +society. And while many people agree that there is much to be +concerned about these days, I don't think that people fully +appreciate the depth, or even the nature, of what threatens us -- +and, therefore, we do not yet have a firm hold on what it will take +to better us. We need to have an honest conversation about these +issues. + +A few months ago I had lunch with a friend of mine, a man who has +written for a number of political journals and who now lives in +Asia. During our conversation the topic turned to America -- +specifically, America as seen through the eyes of foreigners. + +During our conversation, he told me what he had observed during his +travels: that while the world still regards the United States as +the leading economic and military power on earth, this same world +no longer beholds us with the moral respect it once did. When the +rest of the world looks at America, he said, they see no longer a +"shining city on a hill." Instead, they see a society in decline, +with exploding rates of crime and social pathologies. We all know +that foreigners often come here in fear -- and once they are here, +they travel in fear. It is our shame to realize that they have good +reason to fear; a record number of them get killed here. + +Today, many who come to America believe they are visiting a +degraded society. Yes, America still offers plenty of jobs, +enormous opportunity, and unmatched material and physical comforts. +But there is a growing sense among many foreigners that when they +come here, they are slumming. I have, like many of us, an +instinctive aversion to foreigners harshly judging my nation; yet +I must concede that much of what they think is true. + + +"You're Becoming American" + +I recently had a conversation with a D.C. cab driver who is doing +graduate work at American University. He told me that once he +receives his masters degree he is going back to Africa. His reason? +His children. He doesn't think they are safe in Washington. He told +me that he didn't want them to grow up in a country where young men +will paw his daughter and expect her to be an "easy target," and +where his son might be a different kind of target -- the target of +violence from the hands of other young males. "It is more civilized +where I come from," said this man from Africa. I urged him to move +outside of Washington; things should improve. + +But it is not only violence and urban terror that signal decay. We +see it in many forms. Newsweek columnist Joe Klein recently wrote +about Berenice Belizaire, a young Haitian girl who arrived in New +York in 1987. When she arrived in America she spoke no English and +her family lived in a cramped Brooklyn apartment. Eventually +Berenice enrolled at James Madison High School, where she excelled. +According to Judith Khan, a math teacher at James Madison, "[The +immigrants are] why I love teaching in Brooklyn. They have a drive +in them that we no longer seem to have." And far from New York +City, in the beautiful Berkshire mountains where I went to school, +Philip Kasinitz, an assistant professor of sociology at Williams +College, has observed that Americans have become the object of +ridicule among immigrant students on campus. "There's an +interesting phenomenon. When immigrant kids criticize each other +for getting lazy or loose, they say, `You're becoming American,'" +Kasinitz says. "Those who work hardest to keep American culture at +bay have the best chance of becoming American success stories." + +Last year an article was published in the Washington Post which +pointed out how students from other countries adapt to the +lifestyle of most American teens. Paulina, a Polish high school +student studying in the United States, said that when she first +came here she was amazed by the way teens spent their time. +According to Paulina: + + In Warsaw, we would talk to friends after school, go home and +eat with our parents and then do four or five hours of homework. +When I first came here, it was like going into a crazy world, but +now I am getting used to it. I'm going to Pizza Hut and watching TV +and doing less work in school. I can tell it is not a good thing to +get used to. + +Think long and hard about these words, spoken by a young Polish +girl about America: "When I first came here it was like going into +a crazy world, but now I am getting used to it." And, "I can tell +it is not a good thing to get used to." + +Something has gone wrong with us. + + +Social Regression +This is a conclusion which I come to with great reluctance. During +the late 1960s and 1970s, I was one of those who reacted strongly +to criticisms of America that swept across university campuses. I +believe that many of those criticisms -- "Amerika" as an inherently +repressive, imperialist, and racist society -- were wrong then, and +they are wrong now. But intellectual honesty demands that we accept +facts that we would sometimes like to wish away. Hard truths are +truths nonetheless. And the hard truth is that something has gone +wrong with us. + +America is not in danger of becoming a third world country; we are +too rich, too proud and too strong to allow that to happen. It is +not that we live in a society completely devoid of virtue. Many +people live well, decently, even honorably. There are families, +schools, churches and neighborhoods that work. There are places +where virtue is taught and learned. But there is a lot less of this +than there ought to be. And we know it. John Updike put it this +way: "The fact that... we still live well cannot ease the pain of +feeling that we no longer live nobly." + +Let me briefly outline some of the empirical evidence that points +to cultural decline, evidence that while we live well materially, +we don't live nobly. Earlier this year I released, through the +auspices of the Heritage Foundation, The Index of Leading Cultural +Indicators, the most comprehensive statistical portrait available +of behavioral trends over the last 30 years. Among the findings: +since 1960, the population has increased 41 percent; the Gross +Domestic Product has nearly tripled; and total social spending by +all levels of government (measured in constant 1990 dollars) has +risen from $142.7 billion to $787 billion -- more than a five-fold +increase. + +But during the same thirty-year period, there has been a 560 +percent increase in violent crime; more than a 400 percent increase +in illegitimate births; a quadrupling in divorces; a tripling of +the percentage of children living in single-parent homes; more than +a 200 percent increase in the teenage suicide rate; and a drop of +75 points in the average S.A.T. scores of high-school students. + +These are not good things to get used to. + +Today 30 percent of all births and 68 percent of black births are +illegitimate. By the end of the decade, according to the most +reliable projections, 40 percent of all American births and 80 +percent of minority births will occur out of wedlock. + +These are not good things to get used to. + +And then there are the results of an on-going teacher survey. Over +the years teachers have been asked to identify the top problems in +America's schools. In 1940 teachers identified them as talking out +of turn; chewing gum; making noise; running in the hall; cutting in +line; dress code infractions; and littering. When asked the same +question in 1990, teachers identified drug use; alcohol abuse; +pregnancy; suicide; rape; robbery; and assault. These are not good +things to get used to, either. + +Consider, too, where the United States ranks in comparison with the +rest of the industrialized world. We are at or near the top in +rates of abortions, divorces, and unwed births. We lead the +industrialized world in murder, rape and violent crime. And in +elementary and secondary education, we are at or near the bottom in +achievement scores. + +These facts alone are evidence of substantial social regression. +But there are other signs of decay, ones that do not so easily lend +themselves to quantitative analyses (some of which I have already +suggested in my opening anecdotes). What I am talking about is the +moral, spiritual and aesthetic character and habits of a society -- +what the ancient Greeks referred to as its ethos. And here, too, we +are facing serious problems. For there is a coarseness, a +callousness, a cynicism, a banality, and a vulgarity to our time. +There are just too many signs of de-civilization -- that is, +civilization gone rotten. And the worst of it has to do with our +children. Apart from the numbers and the specific facts, there is +the on-going, chronic crime against children: the crime of making +them old before their time. We live in a culture which at times +seems almost dedicated to the corruption of the young, to assuring +the loss of their innocence before their time. + +This may sound overly pessimistic or even alarmist, but I think +this is the way it is. And my worry is that people are not +unsettled enough; I don't think we are angry enough. We have become +inured to the cultural rot that is setting in. Like Paulina, we are +getting used to it, even though it is not a good thing to get used +to. People are experiencing atrocity overload, losing their +capacity for shock, disgust, and outrage. A few weeks ago eleven +people were murdered in New York City within ten hours -- and as +far as I can tell, it barely caused a stir. + +Two weeks ago a violent criminal, who mugged and almost killed a +72-year old man and was shot by a police officer while fleeing the +scene of the crime, was awarded $4.3 million. Virtual silence. + +And during last year's Los Angeles riots, Damian Williams and Henry +Watson were filmed pulling an innocent man out of a truck, crushing +his skull with a brick, and doing a victory dance over his fallen +body. Their lawyers then built a successful legal defense on the +proposition that people cannot be held accountable for getting +caught up in mob violence. ("They just got caught up in the riot," +one juror told the New York Times. "I guess maybe they were in the +wrong place at the wrong time.") When the trial was over and these +men were found not guilty on most counts, the sound you heard +throughout the land was relief. We are "defining deviancy down," in +Senator Moynihan's memorable phrase. And in the process we are +losing a once-reliable sense of civic and moral outrage. + + +Urban Surrender +Listen to this story from former New York City Police Commissioner +Raymond Kelly: + + A number of years ago there began to appear, in the windows of +automobiles parked on the streets of American cities, signs which +read: `No radio.' Rather than express outrage, or even annoyance at +the possibility of a car break-in, people tried to communicate with +the potential thief in conciliatory terms. The translation of `no +radio' is: "Please break into someone else's car, there's nothing +in mine." These `no radio' signs are flags of urban surrender. They +are hand-written capitulations. Instead of `no radio,' we need new +signs that say `no surrender.' +And what is so striking today is not simply the increased number of +violent crimes, but the nature of those crimes. It is no longer +"just" murder we see, but murders with a prologue, murders +accompanied by acts of unspeakable cruelty and inhumanity. + +From pop culture, with our own ears, we have heard the terrible +debasement of music. Music, harmony and rhythm find their way into +the soul and fasten mightily upon it, Plato's Republic teaches us. +Because music has the capacity to lift us up or to bring us down, +we need to pay more careful attention to it. It is a steep moral +slide from Bach, and even Buddy Holly, to Guns 'n Roses and 2 Live +Crew. This week an indicted murderer, Snoop Doggy Dogg, saw his rap +album, "Doggystyle," debut at number one. It may be useful for you +to read, as I have, some of his lyrics and other lyrics from heavy +metal and rap music, and then ask yourself: how much worse could it +possibly get? And then ask yourself: what will happen when young +boys who grow up on mean streets, without fathers in their lives, +are constantly exposed to music which celebrates the torture and +abuse of women? + +There is a lot of criticism directed at television these days -- +the casual cruelty, the rampant promiscuity, the mindlessness of +sit-coms and soap operas. Most of the criticisms are justified. But +this is not the worst of it. The worst of television is the +day-time television talk shows, where indecent exposure is +celebrated as a virtue. It is hard to remember now, but there was +once a time when personal failures, subliminal desires, and +perverse taste were accompanied by guilt or embarrassment, at least +by silence. + + Today these are a ticket to appear as a guest on the Sally Jessy +Raphael show, or one of the dozens or so shows like it. I asked my +staff to provide me with a list of some of the day-time talk-show +topics from only the last two weeks. They include: cross-dressing +couples; a three-way love affair; a man whose chief aim in life is +to sleep with women and fool them into thinking that he is using a +condom during sex; women who can't say no to cheating; prostitutes +who love their jobs; a former drug dealer; and an interview with a +young girl caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle. These +shows present a two-edged problem to society: the first edge is +that some people want to appear on these shows in order to expose +themselves. The second edge is that lots of people are tuning in to +watch them expose themselves. This is not a good thing to get used +to. + +Who's to blame? Here I would caution conservatives against the +tendency to blame liberals for our social disorders. Contemporary +liberalism does have a lot for which to answer; many of its +doctrines have wrought a lot of damage. Universities, +intellectuals, think tanks, and government departments have put a +lot of poison into the reservoirs of national discourse. But to +simply point the finger of blame at liberals and elites is wrong. +The hard fact of the matter is that this was not something done to +us; it is also something we have done to ourselves. Liberals may +have been peddling from an empty wagon, but we were buying. + +Much of what I have said is familiar to many of you. Why is this +happening? What is behind all this? Intelligent arguments have been +advanced as to why these things have come to pass. Thoughtful +people have pointed to materialism and consumerism; an overly +permissive society; the writings of Rousseau, Marx, Freud, +Nietzsche; the legacy of the 1960s; and so on. There is truth in +almost all of these accounts. Let me give you mine. + + +Spiritual Acedia +I submit to you that the real crisis of our time is spiritual. +Specifically, our problem is what the ancients called acedia. +Acedia is the sin of sloth. But acedia, as understood by the saints +of old, is not laziness about life's affairs (which is what we +normally think sloth to be). Acedia is something else; properly +understood, acedia is an aversion to and a negation of spiritual +things. Acedia reveals itself as an undue concern for external +affairs and worldly things. Acedia is spiritual torpor; an absence +of zeal for divine things. And it brings with it, according to the +ancients, "a sadness, a sorrow of the world." + +Acedia manifests itself in man's "joyless, ill-tempered, and +self-seeking rejection of the nobility of the children of God." The +slothful man hates the spiritual, and he wants to be free of its +demands. The old theologians taught that acedia arises from a heart +steeped in the worldly and carnal, and from a low esteem of divine +things. It eventually leads to a hatred of the good altogether. +With hatred comes more rejection, more ill-temper, more sadness, +and sorrow. + +Spiritual acedia is not a new condition, of course. It is the +seventh capital sin. But today it is in ascendance. In coming to +this conclusion, I have relied on two literary giants -- men born +on vastly different continents, the product of two completely +different worlds, and shaped by wholly different experiences -- yet +writers who possess strikingly similar views, and who have had a +profound impact on my own thinking. It was an unusual and +surprising moment to find their views coincident. + +When the late novelist Walker Percy was asked what concerned him +most about the future of America, he answered: + + Probably the fear of seeing America, with all its great +strength and beauty and freedom... gradually subside into decay +through default and be defeated, not by the Communist movement.... +but from within by weariness, boredom, cynicism, greed and in the +end helplessness before its great problems. + +And here are the words of the prophetic Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn +(echoing his 1978 Harvard commencement address in which he warned +of the West's "spiritual exhaustion"): + + In the United States the difficulties are not a Minotaur or a +dragon -- not imprisonment, hard labor, death, government +harassment and censorship -- but cupidity, boredom, sloppiness, +indifference. Not the acts of a mighty all-pervading repressive +government but the failure of a listless public to make use of the +freedom that is its birthright. + +What afflicts us, then, is a corruption of the heart, a turning +away in the soul. Our aspirations, our affections and our desires +are turned toward the wrong things. And only when we turn them +toward the right things -- toward enduring, noble, spiritual things +-- will things get better. + +Lest I leave the impression of bad news on all fronts, I do want to +be clear about the areas where I think we have made enormous gains: +material comforts, economic prosperity and the spread of democracy +around the world. The American people have achieved a standard of +living unimagined 50 years ago. We have seen extraordinary advances +in medicine, science and technology. Life expectancy has increased +more than 20 years during the last six decades. Opportunity and +equality have been extended to those who were once denied them. And +of course America prevailed in our "long, twilight struggle" +against communism. Impressive achievements, all. + +Yet even with all of this, the conventional analysis is still that +this nation's major challenges have to do with getting more of the +same: achieving greater economic growth, job creation, increased +trade, health care, or more federal programs. Some of these things +are desirable, such as greater economic growth and increased trade; +some of them are not, such as more federal programs. But to look to +any or all of them as the solution to what ails us is akin to +assigning names to images and shadows, it so widely misses the +mark. + +If we have full employment and greater economic growth -- if we +have cities of gold and alabaster -- but our children have not +learned how to walk in goodness, justice, and mercy, then the +American experiment, no matter how gilded, will have failed. + +I realize I have laid down strong charges, a tough indictment. Some +may question them. But if I am wrong, if my diagnosis is not right, +then someone must explain to me this: why do Americans feel so bad +when things are economically, militarily and materially so good? +Why amidst this prosperity and security are enormous numbers of +people -- almost 70 percent of the public -- saying that we are off +track? This paradox is described in the Scottish author John +Buchan's work. Writing a half-century ago, he described the "coming +of a too garish age, when life would be lived in the glare of neon +lamps and the spirit would have no solitude." Here is what Buchan +wrote about his nightmare world: + + In such a [nightmare] world everyone would have leisure. But +everyone would be restless, for there would be no spiritual +discipline in life....It would be a feverish, bustling world, +self-satisfied and yet malcontent, and under the mask of a riotous +life there would be death at the heart. In the perpetual hurry of +life there would be no chance of quiet for the soul.... In such a +bagman's paradise, where life would be rationalised and padded with +every material comfort, there would be little satisfaction for the +immortal part of man. + +During the last decade of the twentieth century, many have achieved +this bagman's paradise. And this is not a good thing to get used +to. + +In identifying spiritual exhaustion as the central problem, I part +company with many. There is a disturbing reluctance in our time to +talk seriously about matters spiritual and religious. Why? Perhaps +it has to do with the modern sensibility's profound discomfort with +the language and the commandments of God. Along with other bad +habits, we have gotten used to not talking about the things which +matter most -- and so, we don't. + +One will often hear that religious faith is a private matter that +does not belong in the public arena. But this analysis does not +hold -- at least on some important points. Whatever your faith -- +or even if you have none at all -- it is a fact that when millions +of people stop believing in God, or when their belief is so +attenuated as to be belief in name only, enormous public +consequences follow. And when this is accompanied by an aversion to +spiritual language by the political and intellectual class, the +public consequences are even greater. How could it be otherwise? In +modernity, nothing has been more consequential, or more public in +its consequences, than large segments of American society privately +turning away from God, or considering Him irrelevant, or declaring +Him dead. Dostoyevsky reminded us in Brothers Karamazov that "if +God does not exist, everything is permissible." We are now seeing +"everything." And much of it is not good to get used to. + + +Social Regeneration +What can be done? First, here are the short answers: do not +surrender; get mad; and get in the fight. Now, let me offer a few, +somewhat longer, prescriptions. + +1. At the risk of committing heresy before a Washington audience, +let me suggest that our first task is to recognize that, in +general, we place too much hope in politics. I am certainly not +denying the impact (for good and for ill) of public policies. I +would not have devoted the past decade of my life to public service +-- and I could not work at the Heritage Foundation -- if I believed +that the work with which I was engaged amounted to nothing more +than striving after wind and ashes. But it is foolish, and futile, +to rely primarily on politics to solve moral, cultural, and +spiritual afflictions. + +The last quarter-century has taught politicians a hard and humbling +lesson: there are intrinsic limits to what the state can do, +particularly when it comes to imparting virtue, and forming and +forging character, and providing peace to souls. Samuel Johnson +expressed this (deeply conservative and true) sentiment when he +wrote "How small, of all that human hearts endure, That part which +laws or kings can cause or cure!" + +King Lear was a great king -- sufficient to all his political +responsibilities and obligations. He did well as king, but as a +father and a man, he messed up terribly. The great king was reduced +to the mud and ignominy of the heath, cursing his daughters, his +life, his gods. Politics is a great adventure; it is greatly +important; but its proper place in our lives has been greatly +exaggerated. Politics -- especially inside the Beltway politics -- +has too often become the graven image of our time. + +2. We must have public policies that once again make the connection +between our deepest beliefs and our legislative agenda. Do we +Americans, for example, believe that man is a spiritual being with +a potential for individual nobility and moral responsibility? Or do +we believe that his ultimate fate is to be merely a soulless cog in +the machine of state? When we teach sex-education courses to +teen-agers, do we treat them as if they are young animals in heat? +Or, do we treat them as children of God? + +In terms of public policy, the failure is not so much intellectual; +it is a failure of will and courage. Right now we are playing a +rhetorical game: we say one thing and we do another. Consider the +following: + + We say that we desire from our children more civility and +responsibility, but in many of our schools we steadfastly refuse to +teach right and wrong. + + We say that we want law and order in the streets, but we +allow criminals, including violent criminals, to return to those +same streets. + + We say that we want to stop illegitimacy, but we continue +to subsidize the kind of behavior that virtually guarantees high +rates of illegitimacy. + + We say that we want to discourage teenage sexual +activity, but in classrooms all across America educators are more +eager to dispense condoms than moral guidance. + + We say that we want more families to stay together, but +we liberalize divorce laws and make divorce easier to attain. + + We say that we want to achieve a color blind society and +judge people by the content of their character, but we continue to +count by race, skin and pigment. + + We say that we want to encourage virtue and honor among +the young, but it has become a mark of sophistication to shun the +language of morality. + +3. We desperately need to recover a sense of the fundamental +purpose of education, which is to provide for the intellectual and +moral education of the young. From the ancient Greeks to the +founding fathers, moral instruction was the central task of +education. "If you ask what is the good of education," Plato said, +"the answer is easy -- that education makes good men, and that good +men act nobly." Jefferson believed that education should aim at +improving one's "morals" and "faculties." And of education, John +Locke said this: "Tis' virtue that we aim at, hard virtue, and not +the subtle arts of shifting." Until a quarter-century or so ago, +this consensus was so deep as to go virtually unchallenged. Having +departed from this time-honored belief, we are now reaping the +whirlwind. And so we talk not about education as the architecture +of souls, but about "skills facilitation" and "self-esteem" and +about being "comfortable with ourselves." + +4. As individuals and as a society, we need to return religion to +its proper place. Religion, after all, provides us with moral +bearings. And if I am right and the chief problem we face is +spiritual impoverishment, then the solution depends, finally, on +spiritual renewal. I am not speaking here about coerced spiritual +renewal -- in fact, there is no such thing -- but about renewal +freely taken. + + The enervation of strong religious beliefs -- in both our private +lives as well as our public conversations -- has de-moralized +society. We ignore religion and its lessons at our peril. But +instead of according religion its proper place, much of society +ridicules and disdains it, and mocks those who are serious about +their faith. In America today, the only respectable form of bigotry +is bigotry directed against religious people. This antipathy toward +religion cannot be explained by the well-publicized moral failures +and financial excesses of a few leaders or charlatans, or by the +censoriousness of some of their followers. No, the reason for +hatred of religion is because it forces modern man to confront +matters he would prefer to ignore. + +Every serious student of American history, familiar with the +writings of the founders, knows the civic case for religion. It +provides society with a moral anchor -- and nothing else has yet +been found to substitute for it. Religion tames our baser +appetites, passions, and impulses. And it helps us to thoughtfully +sort through the "ordo amoris," the order of the loves. + +But remember, too, that for those who believe, it is a mistake to +treat religion merely as a useful means to worldly ends. Religion +rightly demands that we take seriously not only the commandments of +the faith, but that we also take seriously the object of the faith. +Those who believe know that although we are pilgrims and sojourners +and wanderers in this earthly kingdom, ultimately we are citizens +of the City of God -- a City which man did not build and cannot +destroy, a City where there is no sadness, where the sorrows of the +world find no haven, and where there is peace the world cannot +give. + + +Pushing Back +Let me conclude. In his 1950 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, William +Faulkner declared "I decline to accept the end of man." Man will +not merely endure but prevail because, as Faulkner said, he alone +among creatures "has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and +sacrifice and endurance." + +Today we must in the same way decline to accept the end of moral +man. We must carry on the struggle, for our children. We will push +back hard against an age that is pushing hard against us. When we +do, we will emerge victorious against the trials of our time. When +we do, we will save our children from the decadence of our time. + +We have a lot of work to do. Let's get to it. + + +To reprint more than short quotations, please write or FAX Ben +Morehead, Associate Publisher, Policy Review, 214 Massachusetts +Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20002, FAX (202) 675-0291. + diff --git a/religious documents/besom.txt b/religious documents/besom.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e9129d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/besom.txt @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +ab:besom.txt 16jan90 + + + Besom Chant + + + + "Besom, besom long and lithe + Made from ash and willow withe + Tied with thongs of willow bark + In running stream at moonset dark. + With a pentagram indighted + As the ritual fire is lighted; + Sweep ye circle, deosil, + Sweep out evil, sweep out ill, + Make the round of the ground + Where we do the Lady's will. + + Besom, besom, Lady's broom + Sweep out darkness, sweep out doom + Rid ye Lady's hallowed ground + Of demons, imps and Hell's red hound; + Then set ye down on Her green earth + By running stream or Mistress' hearth, + 'Till called once more on Sabbath night + To cleans once more the dancing site." + +---------- +-I understand that this chant was written by Lady Tamara of the WCC. + (However, I have no evidence for this except hearsay, and the fact that + the WCC appears to use it, so I may be wrong.) +-I don't have a published source for it - but it's one of those things that + every Witch in town seems to have a copy of. +-There is absolutely NO reason to think of it as traditional Gardnerian or + Alexandrian. However, it's an example of the kind of thing that finds its + way into a lot of BOSs, regardless of tradition. There appears to be no + equivalent to this in the "standard" BOS, and some people feel a need for + it, so a lot of people have added this chant to their BOS. + diff --git a/religious documents/bibl02a.txt b/religious documents/bibl02a.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3d8f86 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bibl02a.txt @@ -0,0 +1,622 @@ + + COMPUTER ANALYSIS AND PROOFS THAT GOD, THE CREATOR OF ALL + THINGS, DID (IN FACT) WRITE THE 66 BOOKS OF THE HOLY BIBLE + + PREFACE + + "Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise +by the standards of this age, he should become a 'fool' so that he may +become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's +sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; +and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." +(1 Corinthians 18-20) + +. This being the fourth printing of this report, we have modified the +content by the addition of much more information that we have been +able to develop through the past few years. You will now find the +first phenomena that was discovered that "led" us to the full Bible +discovery. We have also developed phenomena that shows that God +selected the books of the Books of the Bible - not man as claimed by +many. + The original report was written solely as a "FACT SHEET" to be +given to agnostic or atheist "intellectuals" by believers in the Lord +Jesus Christ to literally show in the "scientific" methods of proof +that the arguments they wish to make with believers are not with the +believers, but are, IN FACT, with the AUTHOR of the BIBLE - GOD. It +was designed to stop "attacks" on believers who believe on faith and +do not have the "intellectual" ability to discuss matters with +intellectuals who have presuppositions that there is not (or there may +not be) a God. + We have directed copies of the report to over 500 of the best +known centers for agnostic or atheist beliefs, including universities +or centers of learning conducted by Non-Christian organizations. We +issued this challenge: "Disprove the report and its data OR produce +any other text written by men as the scribes, that will contain any of +the same phenomena!" The ONLY condition we placed is that the +phenomena MUST be from inherent factors of the language and not +"contrived" by manipulation. By using a formula, the very word +COMPUTER can be shown to have a value of 666, which is the number of +the final ANTI-CHRIST; however, such methods are DESIGNED to produce +this result and are not an "inherent" feature of the English language. + Although we have a great deal of phenomena discovered, we will +concentrate on the Number SEVEN, as this is the number attributed to +God. (Created the earth in SEVEN days, etc.) In this document, you +will read of FACTS and PROOFS of God being the AUTHOR of the BIBLE. +By using the same basic phenomena, based on the FACT that GOD IS THE +SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW, (Hebrews 13:8) you may make +comparisons of other writings alleged to be God's Scripture. + + -------------------------------------------- + + In this age, there seem to be many "intellectuals" both in the +Christian community and outside it that disclaim the inspiration of +the Bible by God. Denominations, sects and cults are coming into +being on a daily basis that attempt to dehumanize Jesus or to humanize +God, and in most cases, attempt to make the Bible into GOD. No errors +have been found by this organization, and all alleged errors have been +shown, in context, to be non-existent upon careful investigation. In +most cases, the believer has been confronted with the claim that +"there is no scientific proof" of the Bible. The definition of +"Scientific" means that the evidence can be reproduced under +laboratory conditions. You will find that all evidence presented will +qualify as "Scientific" in the sense that it can be repeated under +such conditions, and we invite such scrutiny. In addition, the +sciences of archaeology, astronomy, physics, Astro-physics or +mathematics all have produced evidence of the correctness of the Bible +- even when the Bible was contradictory to the "known" science of a +particular period of time. + We have discovered additional collaboration of our findings in the +work of one Dr. Ivan Panin, who spent his life in bible research. We +deeply admire the effort and results of Dr. Panin, and dedicate this +writing to his memory and to the Glory of our mutual Savior, Jesus +Christ. + It should be mentioned that Dr. Panin issued much the same +challenge we issued in our preface, back in 1940. No one ever took up +that challenge, and we still await the first challenge after three +years.... + It is our hope and prayer that this document will be used to make +it evident to a skeptic, whether they be "intellectual" or "agnostic" +or "atheist" or a combination, that the God known in a personal +relationship sense by those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, +is the God of Nature, God of the Universe, and by proofs evident in +this document, God of the Bible. We propose this "logic flow": + +1. If GOD inspired the scriptures, then they cannot be anything other +than TRUTH. + +2. If they are TRUTH then one of the TRUTHS is that JESUS CHRIST IS +THE ONLY WAY BY WHICH ANY HUMAN MAY COME TO GOD, and: + a. God is the same - yesterday, today, and tomorrow + b. God is the "I AM" of the Bible and did not exist in any form +other than as GOD, is the ONLY GOD in existence, and HE DOES NOT +PERMIT ANY OTHER GODS TO EXIST IN REALITY. (Mankind seems to make +gods out of anything they wish.) + +3. That ANY teachings that ADD or SUBTRACT from the 66 books of the +Bible are NOT OF GOD, THE AUTHOR of these 66 books. Jesus Christ +commanded that "Not one jot or tittle be added or removed" from the +Scriptures until His coming, again. Jesus and the angels at Pentecost +clearly made it known that Jesus would return EXACTLY as He left - +BODILY and FROM THE HEAVENS! + + SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE OF THE DIVINE INSPIRATION OF + THE BIBLE + + In discussing the matter of the evidence being presented in this +report, it is imperative that we provide an explanation of the +inherent factors of the HEBREW, ARAMAIC and GREEK languages. These +languages were unique in that they did not have a set of characters to +represent numbers such as our present 1,2,3, etc. Instead, the Hebrew +language made use of the letters of the alphabet; so that the first +letter of the alphabet stood for 1, the second for 2, the third for 3, +etc., until the 11th letter represented 20, the twelfth letter 30, +etc. through 800. (The Greek language also had this particular +feature). Thus each letter had a numeric value. In this manner, each +word can be given a value by adding the cumulative total value of each +of its letters. Additionally, each character was assigned a PLACE +value. If we were to apply the same factors to the English language +by ignoring numerical characters, we would do it like this: + + PLACE VALUES + + 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 + A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O + 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 30 40 50 60 + + NUMERIC VALUE + + The difficulty in translating the Scriptures, due in part to these +numeric methods, was also due to the fact that these languages did not +have punctuation. Sentences were run together without spacing, +commas, or any other separation. In English this would be done in +this manner: + + THISISASAMPLESENTENCEINTHEFORMFORGREEKARAMICANDHEBREW + + To break this down, we read the above sentence thus: + + THIS IS A SAMPLE SENTENCE IN THE FORM FOR GREEK, ARAMAIC AND +HEBREW. + + Using the numeric factors of the languages, we note the chart +above that the first ten letters PLACE values and NUMERIC values are +the same. At the eleventh letter the Numeric value of each letter +begins to increase by ten, until the value of 100 is reached, and then +each letter would be increased by 100. In the Greek language, there +are 22 characters. The last character would have a place value of 22, +and a numeric value of 400. To show an example of this in English, we +would proceed thus: + + THISISASAMPLESENTENCEWITHTHENUMBEROFKASHOWN + + THIS IS A SAMPLE SENTENCE WITH THE NUMBER OF KA SHOWN + + K = 11th letter with Numeric Value of 20 + A = 1st letter with Numeric Value of 1 + (or to say it where we can understand it) + + THIS IS A SAMPLE SENTENCE WITH THE NUMBER OF 21 SHOWN + + Now that we have explained the "difficulties" of these languages, +we will now proceed with the "narration" of the first lead we received +in our investigation to ascertain if there was any basis for +"scientifically" proving the Bible. + + GENESIS 1:1 COMPUTER VERIFICATION OF A MIRACLE + + The Bible begins with "IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS +AND THE EARTH". The number of words in the original Hebrew (which was +the language of the Old Testament) is SEVEN words. + These SEVEN words have 28 letters (4x7). These 28 letters are +divided like this: The first three words (containing the subject and +predicate of the sentence - "In the beginning God created" -) have 14 +letters (2x7); the last four words (containing the object of the +sentence - "the heavens and the earth" -) also have 14 letters (2x7). +The last four words are thus subdivided: The fourth and fifth words +(Containing one object - "the heavens" -) have SEVEN letters (7); the +sixth and SEVENth words (containing the second object - "and the +earth" -) also have SEVEN letters (7). In relation to the importance +of the words themselves, the 28 letters are thus divided: The three +leading words GOD the subject, heaven and earth the two objects, have +14 letters (2x7). + The numeric value of the first, middle, and last letters of this +sentence is 133 (19x7), while the numeric value of the first and last +letters of all seven words in this verse is 1393 (199x7). The first +and last letters of the first and last words have 497 (71x7); the +remaining words (between the first and last) have 896 +(2x2x2x2x2x2x2x7). We break this amount down due to the factors being +SEVEN and TWO taken as a factor SEVEN times. The three important +nouns, God, heaven, and earth, have 14 letters (2x7). The numeric +value is 777 (111x7). The one verb, created, has 203 (29x7). + In this verse of only SEVEN words there are some repetitions. The +untranslatable particle ETH occurs twice and the article THE also +occurs twice. The numeric value of these repetitions is 406 (58x7). + This whole sequence should be referenced through Hebrews 13:8 +where it says that God is the "same yesterday, today and tomorrow" and +where God Himself answers Moses and tells Moses that He is the "I AM", +meaning that he was before all things and will be forever the same. +We then conclude that: (1) If God is the same at all times and, by His +own word, does not change, then the numeric phenomena, briefly shown +above, should be a measure of whether God wrote the remainder of +Genesis, the Books of Exodus, Jonah, or any other Old Testament phrase +or book and, (2) It would also hold true for the New Testament (even +though the New Testament was written in Greek) in IDENTICAL patterns. +Finally, (3) We can also use the progressions of numerics as a test of +other texts that have been claimed to be revelations from God. If the +language of the ORIGINAL text is not Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic / +Chaldean, then sufficient kinds of numeric structures will be evident +in as much as the language will permit. We ask that you take any of +these texts and test them against these structures. If they contain +any multiples of the numerics shown here, we would like to have you +communicate with us by directing a copy of the text, source of the +text, and your name, address, and phone number. + Now, with this "key" provided us in Genesis 1:1, we will proceeded +to analyze the whole Bible. Keep in mind that there are in excess of +three million words, or twenty million characters, in the 66 books of +the Bible. Also keep in mind that the "evidence" we are about to +present would be null and void, in most cases, if EVEN ONE CHARACTER +WERE DELETED, CHANGED OR ADDED! + The results of our complete Bible investigation and analysis are +thus: + +1. The NUMBER of WORDS in the VOCABULARY will divide evenly by SEVEN. + +2. The NUMBER of WORDS that begin with a vowel will divide evenly by +SEVEN. + +3. The NUMBER of WORDS that begin with a consonant will divide evenly +by SEVEN. + +4. The NUMBER of WORDS that begin with each letter of the language's +alphabet will divide evenly by SEVEN. + +5. The NUMBER of WORDS that occur more than once will divide evenly by +SEVEN. + +6. The NUMBER of WORDS that occur only once will divide evenly by +SEVEN. + +7. The NUMBER of WORDS that occur in only one form will divide evenly +by SEVEN. + +8. The NUMBER of WORDS that occur in more than one form will divide +evenly by SEVEN. + +9. The NUMBER of WORDS that are nouns will divide evenly by SEVEN. *** + +10. The NUMBER of WORDS that are not nouns will divide evenly by +SEVEN. + +11. The NUMBER of LETTERS in the vocabulary will divide evenly by +SEVEN. + +12. The NUMBER of LETTERS that are vowels will divide evenly by SEVEN. + +13. The NUMBER of LETTERS that are consonants will divide evenly by +SEVEN. + +14. The NUMBER of PROPER NAMES will divide evenly by SEVEN. + +15. The NUMBER of MALE PROPER NAMES will divide evenly by SEVEN. + +16. The NUMBER of FEMALE PROPER NAMES will divide evenly by SEVEN. + +17. The TOTAL NUMERIC VALUE OF ALL THE WORDS will divide evenly by +SEVEN. + +18. The NUMERIC VALUE OF THE VARIOUS FORMS in which the words occur +will divide evenly by SEVEN. + +19. The NUMBER OF WORDS THAT ARE FOUND IN ONLY ONE BOOK OF THE BIBLE +will divide evenly by SEVEN. + +20. The NUMBER OF PROMISES FOUND in the BIBLE will divide evenly by +SEVEN. + +21. The NUMBER OF DISPENSATION PERIODS is SEVEN. + +22. The NUMBER OF GENERATIONS FROM ABRAHAM TO JESUS CHRIST will divide +evenly by SEVEN. + +23. The BOOK OF REVELATION outlines SEVEN JUDGMENTS that will be made +on the Earth and its Peoples. + +24. The BOOK OF REVELATION outlines SEVEN PLAGUES that will be made on +the Earth and its Peoples. + + One of the above phenomena is followed by several asterisks (*). +The notation is made because we became unable to compute the +mathematical probabilities AT THAT PHENOMENA. (Note how many came +after that!!!). We had to suspend our investigation until we could +provide some basis of relating the probabilities, with some term that +could convey the extent of the matter. Upon conferring with the math +department of Stanford University, we were advised that there is a +term called a Google (some spellings show Gugle) which is ONE BILLION +TO THE BILLIONTH POWER! The term GOOGLEPLEX, then, is a GOOGLE to the +power of GOOGLE, and this is what is reached at the occurrence we have +noted with the asterisk! A GOOGLE amount of years can be referenced +by stating that if we had a mountain the size of Mount Everest that +was solid DIAMOND, and we allowed a bird to come ONCE A YEAR and MAKE +ONE PECK against this mountain, IT WOULD TAKE A GOOGLE OF YEARS TO +ERODE THAT MOUNTAIN TO SEA LEVEL! + We wish to restress the fact that if EVEN ONE CHARACTER was +changed, ADDED, or SUBTRACTED to the 66 books, then most of the above +results would not have been produced! To state that God is far above +man in intelligence is so much an understatement that we even hesitate +to make such a mention; However, there always seems to be someone that +does not realize the extent of these proofs as shown. + Some of the proofs are truly unique; such as, the NUMBER OF MALE +PROPER NAMES could not hold true UNLESS Moses is mentioned ONLY ONE +TIME in the Book of Revelation! + The issue of BIBLE ERRANCY is put to rest by these proofs. God is +shown to have dictated EACH AND EVERY CHARACTER of the Bible, and it +is inconceivable that God can make an error. + The issue of CONSPIRACY is put to rest by showing that ONLY GOD +could have put the characters together over fifteen hundred years, +through three different languages, and through use of several men from +widely differing backgrounds. Some Epistles were written at a single +sitting, and within a matter of minutes. The number of hours it would +have taken for even the writers that lived in the same time frame to +get together and CONSPIRE to produce these harmonic features is beyond +any belief. It is to be noted that THE ONLY POSSIBLE WAY FOR THE +WRITERS TO WRITE THEIR BOOKS, AND HAVE THE PHENOMENA OF HAVING WORDS +THAT ONLY THEY USED, would have required that each and every one of +them write their book LAST! + + TRANSLATIONS + and + BIBLES OF LESS THAN OR MORE THAN 66 BOOKS + + Although the phenomena we discovered only occur in the original +(Please refer to this subject in the book EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A +VERDICT by Josh McDowell, who explains the ability to have "original" +Scriptures far better than we could), we feel it necessary to state +that Translations DO NOT CONTAIN many of the phenomena. The doctrines +of the Bible, however, do hold consistent, and should be the most +important feature of any translation. The phenomena must occur in a +natural feature of the language in which it was written, and +translations are unable to maintain such phenomena. + An impressive feature, and one that caused us great difficulty, is +that by the addition of the Apocryphal books, the phenomena that occur +in the Bible as a WHOLE is thwarted. Not one of the phenomena, +(number of Proper Names, Number of Words in Alphabet, etc.) remains +when these books are considered, AND not one of these books contains +ANY phenomena of any ascertainable sort! It is our opinion that this +clearly refutes any claim by any religion, that these books are from +God. It is our contention that the fact that these books do not +contain even ONE of the phenomena, is sufficient evidence that they +should not be considered Scripture. + As for the "revisions" made by the Mormon church or by Jehovah's +Witnesses, we can only state that these changes eliminate the +phenomena, again a basis for rejection of their claims on a "correct" +version. + As we completed these investigations, we then focused our +attention on the writings alleged to be "additional" Scriptures, such +as the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Koran, Doctrine and +Covenants of the Mormon Church, and Commandments of the Mormon church, +as well as writings from Moses David of the Children of God, Mary +Baker Eddy of Christian Science, and many, many others. + IN EACH AND EVERY CASE, THE ALLEGED "SCRIPTURES" FAILED ON EVERY +POSSIBLE PHENOMENA. We used the language that the claimed writings +were in and looked for phenomena that could be utilized by God within +those languages. For English, we felt that phenomena of Number of +letters or words in the alphabet, consonants and vowels, number of +proper names, etc. could be found if from God. Any phenomena found +was sporadic, not consistent, and therefore not of God. + For us, and those who wish to accept such, we felt that this was +sufficient proof that these religions claiming guidance from God, +were, at best, being deceived by as good a counterfeit as man or Satan +could devise. + In the claims of most non-Christian groups, one consistent +statement is that the 66 books of the Bible are either (1) not correct +or (2) not complete. We feel that the issue of correctness is totally +settled in our proofs and results. As far as the number of books +being incorrect or incomplete, we look to the following: + + COMPUTER ANALYSIS OF THE ORDER + AND + NUMBER OF BOOKS OF THE BIBLE + + The original sequence of the books of the Bible differ +somewhat from the sequence that is presently found in the English +Bible. The original text had the following order: + + 1. Genesis 23. Zephaniah 45. James + 2. Exodus 24. Haggai 46. 1 Peter + 3. Leviticus 25. Zechariah 47. 2 Peter + 4. Numbers 26. Malachi 48. 1 John + 5. Deuteronomy 27. Psalms 49. 2 John + 6. Joshua 28. Proverbs 50. 3 John + 7. Judges 29. Job 51. Jude + 8. 1 Samuel 30. Song of Songs 52. Romans + 9. 2 Samuel 31. Ruth 53. 1 Corinthians + 10. 1 Kings 32. Lamentations 54. 2 Corinthians + 11. 2 Kings 33. Ecclesiastes 55. Galatians + 12. Isaiah 34. Esther 56. Ephesians + 13. Jeremiah 35. Daniel 57. Phillipians + 14. Ezekial 36. Ezra 58. Collosians + 15. Hosea 37. Nehemiah 59. 1 Thessalonians + 16. Joel 38. 1 Chronicles 60. 2 Thessalonians + 17. Amos 39. 2 Chronicles 61. Hebrews + 18. Obadiah 40. Matthew 62. 1 Timothy + 19. Jonah 41. Mark 63. 2 Timothy + 20. Micah 42. Luke 64. Titus + 21. Naham 43. John 65. Philemon + 22. Habakuk 44. Acts 66. Revelation + + (Original means the Oldest or most original that were known to the +world, at this time.) + Some of the books assign themselves, either totally or in part to +a particular scribe's name, while others are anonymous. The books +which reveal (in part or totally) the scribe's identity are: + + Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy ascribe themselves to +Moses, and are ascribed to Moses in other books of the Bible. Isaiah, +Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 minor Prophets ascribe themselves to the +scribes whose name the book bears. Psalms is ascribed to David. +Proverbs and Song of Solomon ascribe themselves to Solomon, and +Ecclesiastes ascribes itself only to the "son of David" which most +believe to be Solomon. Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah ascribe themselves +to these respective scribes. James, 1 and 2 Peter, and Jude bear the +names of their respective scribe. The Epistles of Paul ascribe +themselves, with the exception of Hebrews, to Paul. Revelation +ascribes itself to John. + Moses has 4, Solomon 3, Peter 2, Paul 13, and the other identified +scribes have one book each. + The anonymous books, therefore, are: Genesis, Joshua, Judges, 1 +and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Job, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, 1 and 2 +Chronicles, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, 2 and 3 John, and +Hebrews. + + The number 66 is 6 -11's (Feature 1). The anonymous books are 22 +or 2-11's. The non-anonymous books are 44 or 4-11's (Feature 2). Of +these 44, 22 (or 2-11's) belong to writers of more than one book and +22 (again 2-11's) belong to writers of only one book (Feature 3). The +sum of the 66 numbers totals 2,211 or 201-11's. We can divide this +number in this manner: The 22 books of the writers of more than one +book have 946 (or 86-11's), while the other 44 have 1,265 (or 115- +11's) (Feature 4). + + Of the 66 books, 21 are Epistles. Their numbers are (James to +Philemon or 45 to 65). The sum 2,21 for the 66 books can be divided +between Epistles and Non-Epistles. The Epistles have 1,155 (or 105- +11's) and the non-epistles have 1,056 (or 96-11's) (Feature 5). + Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel and Daniel are +expressly quoted in the New Testament. The number of their respective +books are 2,3,4,5,12,13,15,16,27,35. The total sum of these books is +(Feature 6) 132 (or 12-11's). + + The Numeric Values of the Bible Writer's names are: + + Moses 345 Isaiah 401 Jeremiah 271 + Hosea 381 Joel 47 Amos 176 + Jonah 71 Micah 75 Naham 104 + Zephaniah 235 Zechariah 242 Malachi 101 + Solomon 375 Daniel 95 Ezra 278 + James 833 Haggai 21 Peter 755 + Paul 781 John 781 John 1069 + Ezekiel 156 Obadiah 91 Habbakuk 216 + David 14 Nehemiah 113 Jude 685 + + The total sum of these is 7,931 - which is 11 X 7 X 103. This +can also be expressed as 721-11's, while the sum of the factors 7, 11, +and 103 is 121 or 11-11's (Features 7 and 8). + + There may be some that may claim that this could be accidental or +by design. That the number of books in the Bible should be a multiple +of 11 could possibly be accidental. However, since only every 11th +number is a multiple of 11, then THE CHANCE OF ACCIDENT IS 1 IN 11! + + That this number can be divided between anonymous and non- +anonymous books in such a manner as to be multiples of 11 could also +be an accident. However, THE CHANCE IS 1 IN 11 TIMES 11 or ONE CHANCE +IN 121! + + That this number can be divided between the non- anonymous by 11's +among the authors of only one book and those of more than one book +could also be accidental. However, the chance for it being accident +is ONE IN 11 TIMES 11 TIMES 11 or ONE CHANCE IN 1,331. + + If we carry out the progressions through the eight occurrences +proven above, we concede that each one could be accidental. However, +the chance for them ALL being so becomes ONE CHANCE IN 11 TO THE +EIGHTH POWER or ONE IN 214,358,881! + + Using our pencil and a lot more paper, we find: + + The sum of the numeric values of the 26 authors named as Biblical +writers which was shown above as 7931 is a multiple of seven (Feature +9) as well as eleven. The sums of the numeric values of the 26 +writers (7,931) is a multiple of 11. Of this number, the 21 writers +of the Old testament (3-7's) have 3,808 or 544-7's and the new +Testament writers have (Feature 10) 4,123 or 589-7's. Of the 3,808 +belonging to the Old Testament, 2,933 or 419-7's belong to the writers +of the Law and the Prophets, from Moses to Malachi, and 1,190 or 170- +7's belong to the writers of the hagiographa, from David to Nehemiah +(Feature 11). Seven of the 21 Old Testament writers (3-7's) are +expressly named in the New Testament; These are Moses, David, Isaiah, +Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea and Joel. Their numeric value is 1,554 or +222-7's (Features 12 & 13). The numeric value of Moses, who heads the +list, and John who closes it is 345 and 1069 which equal 1414 or 202- +7's (Feature 14) + + The Bible begins with the Hebrew word "beginning" and ends with +the Greek word "saint". The Hebrew word occurs in the following +books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel, +Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Micah, Psalms, Proverbs, Job, +Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Nehemiah and 2 Chronicles. The Greek word +occurs in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, +Jude, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philemon and +Revelation. These books total 42 or 6-7's. Take the number of these +books in the order of their respective place and the sum is 1575 or +225-7's. + + The possibility of these eight features of SEVEN, and the eight +features of ELEVEN occurring together,is ONE IN 5,764,801 TIMES +214,358,881 or ONE IN ONE THOUSAND MILLION MILLIONS ! + + It would be IMPOSSIBLE, therefore to claim accident or conspiracy +in the phenomena indicated. The above clearly demonstrates the design +of: + +1. THE NUMBER AND ORDER OF BOOKS AS RECEIVED. *feature 1* + +2. THE PROPORTION BETWEEN ANONYMOUS AND NON-ANONYMOUS BOOKS *2* + +3. THE PROPORTION BETWEEN BOOKS WRITTEN BY AN AUTHOR OF A SINGLE BOOK +AND THOSE WRITTEN BY AUTHORS OF MORE THAN ONE BOOK. *3 & 4* + +4. THE PROPORTION BETWEEN EPISTLE AND NON EPISTLE BOOKS. *5* + +5. THE NUMBER OF O.T. WRITERS QUOTED IN THE N.T. *6* + + The Bible was written by some thirty different writers from many +different walks of life over a period of sixteen hundred years between +its first and last writers. If we assume that it was exclusively +written by HUMAN hands, we cannot account for the mathematic phenomena +demonstrated. If we assume that a SUPERIOR MATHEMATICAL MIND (The +Mathematical Author of Nature) has planned these phenomena, then we +are provided with an immediate and rational explanation of these +phenomena and others found in the Bible. + + THE GENEALOGY OF OUR LORD JESUS + + The genealogy of Christ as found in Matthew 1:1-17 consists of two +main divisions: Verses 1-11 cover the period from Abraham, the father +of the chosen people, to the Captivity, when the Jews ceased being an +independent people. Verses 12-17 cover the period from the Captivity +to the promised Messiah, The Christ. + + The Vocabulary has 49 words (7 x 7). Of these 49 words, 28 (4x7) +begin with a vowel; and 21 (3x7) begin with a consonant. Seven words +end with a vowel (1x7) and 42 (6x7) end with a consonant. These 49 +words consist of 266 letters (7x2x19 OR 38x7). Of these 266 letters, +140 (20x7) are vowels and 126 (18x7) are consonants. Of these 49 +words, 35 (5x7) occur more than once in this passage, while 14 (2x7) +occur only once. Seven (1x7) occur in more than one form, while 42 +(6x7) occur in only one form. 42 words (6x7) are nouns while 7 (1x7) +words are not nouns. Of these nouns, 35 (5x7) are proper names, and 7 +(1x7) are common nouns. Of the proper names, 28 (4x7) are male +ancestors, while 7 (1x7) are not. + + If we take a look at the Birth of Jesus in verses 18-25, we find +the following: + +. The Number of words is 161 (23 x 7) +. Their Numeric value is 93,394 (13,342 x 7) +. The Number of Vocabulary is 77 (11 x 7) +. The Numeric value of the Vocabulary is 51,247 (7,321 x 7) + + There are six words found nowhere else in Matthew: + +. Their numeric value is 5,005 (715 x 7) +. These six words have 56 letters (8 x 7) + +. The 161 words occur in 105 forms (15 x 7) +. The Numeric value of these forms is 65,429 (9,347 x 7) + +. In these 105 forms are 35 verbs (5 x 7) +. There are 7 proper names (1 x 7) +. The number of letters in these proper names is 42 (6 x 7) + + One word EMMANUEL is used nowhere else in the N.T. and has a +numeric value of 644 (92 x 7). (add the figures 644 together for 14) +(2 x 7) + +. The number forms exclusive to this passage by Matthew is 14 (2 x 7) +. Their numeric value is 8,715 (1,245 x 7) + + CHANCE? + + 1 in 10 to the power of 169 + or + 1 followed by 169 zeros! + + LOOK AT THE WORDS OF THE ANGEL TO JOSEPH + +. The angel uses 28 of the 77 vocabulary words (4 x 7) +. The numeric value of all the angel's words is 21,042 (3,006 x 7) +. The angel uses 35 forms (5 x 7) +. These 35 have 168 letters (24 x 7) +. The numeric value of these letters is 19,397 (2,771 x 7) +. The angel does not use 49 vocabulary words (7 x 7) +. The angel does not use 70 forms (10 x 7) + + The Chance of this being an accident or by human design is 1 in +206,000,000,000,000,000,000 (206 QUINTILLION - 21 digits) + + OUR INTENT IN THIS REPORT + + It is not the desire of this report to provide anything other +than an insight into the immeasurable intelligence that produced the +Bible. The same intelligence that produced the limitless stretches of +space, that produced the smallest one cell creature, the same one that +created it ALL, is the only source that could have produced the Bible +as it presently stands. + + We actively solicit any and all comments that may be made +concerning this document and its results. Please direct any and all +comments to: SYSOP, COMPUTERS FOR CHRIST. + +Computers for Christ - San Jose + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/bibl02b.txt b/religious documents/bibl02b.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9769771 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bibl02b.txt @@ -0,0 +1,410 @@ + +Critique of the article entitled, "Computer Analysis and Proofs That God, The +Creator of All Things, Did (in fact) Write The 66 Books of The Holy Bible." + + PREFACE + + Well, the infamous article discussed herein begins with a preface, so +heck, I figured, "Why not me, too?" + + I have been a Christian for 17 years now. I spent some of those years +majoring in Bible and Theology in college, and some more teaching Bible full- +time, as well as Christian doctrine, apologetics, ethics, church history, and +other subjects relating to Christian thought and living. I have also put +quite a bit of time into study of logic and philosophy, and some time in New +Testament Greek. + + It's been some years since I was so heavily involved in Biblical teaching +and study. My personal hobby for the past 8 years or so has been computer +programming. I started with BASIC (as so many, if not most, computer freaks +do), moved on to Z-80 machine language (not assembly language, as my computer +had no assembler at the time -- I actually entered my programs in hex code), +and from there on to 6502 assembly language. I still work with 6502 assembly, +but I am also now involved with 8088 code for IBM compatibles, and I dabble +some with C. Besides my hobby interest, I am also now involved in some +commercial programming. All of the above is to establish the fact that I know +at least a little about both the Bible and computers. + + During this past 17 years, one of the things that has continued to +fascinate me is the gullibility of some of my fellow Christians. I have seen +some believe and help to spread false rumors about various corporations +(MacDonalds and Proctor & Gamble come immediately to mind), myths about a +computer called "The Beast" that supposedly existed in the World Trade Center +in New York and which was ready to implement a 666-based number system for +every individual in the world, and various other myths that I knew, and could +for some of them prove, to be false. + + I have never thought that my gullible brethren have intended to spread or +believe falsities. Rather, that a criterion of judgement that they would +normally use in other, more "secular," contexts has been left out of their +thinking when the subject of certain spiritual claims has been close to their +heartfelt faith. It's easy to develop a defensive mentality in a world that +on the whole thinks you are wrong in your religious views. Some of us want to +vindicate our faith so much that the motivation to believe something that +purports to prove the truth of our faith can be so great that we can forget to +ask such basic questions as "How do you know that such is true?" or "What are +the sources and the evidences for these claims?" Especially when we hear +something from another Christian, it's tempting to think, "Well, surely +another Christian wouldn't lie about such a thing, after all, lying is wrong +for a Christian." It may simply be the case, though, that the other Christian +heard the story in the same way as we, and that he/she thought about it and +accepted it on the same basis. The fact that a myth makes claims that, if +true, would support our own faith or vindicate it before unbelievers can also +be a strong factor in our motivation to accept it without proper question as +to evidences, rationality, etc. + + The article herein under question is a good example of the type of thing +I am talking about. I read it briefly some months ago, shook my head and +laughed at some of its absurdities, and then threw it away as not worth closer +scrutiny. But then recently I saw a message on a Christian BBS wherein one +Christian was trying to make a point to another regarding the reliability of +the Biblical text. He referred to the article as proof in support of his +claims. In the further dialogue, no one seemed to question the veracity or +reliability of the article itself -- its "results" were simply accepted by +both parties without doubt. So, I left a message in response wherein I +expressed my basic opinion about the article in somewhat derogatory manner. I +was a bit bugged that such a grand claim as is made in the article was simply +being accepted, and that no one so far seemed to have looked at the article +with a more critical eye. Since I offered in my message to provide some +detailed reasons for my opinion if they were requested, I downloaded the +article again and scrutinized it more closely. The closer I looked it over +and checked its claims, the more appalled I grew as to how terribly BAD a +piece of scholarship and claimed research it was. I decided to write this +article instead of simply making my point in another message, as the flaws and +falsities (I don't like to say that they were lies, but some of the falsities +cannot qualify as mistakes; however, I will try and be as generous as I can in +what kind of character I attribute to the author(s)). Even this article +doesn't go into all that can be said in refutation of the article's claims, +but I believe enough is shown herein to make the point: there has been no +"scientific proof" take place. Indeed, I will go so far as to question +whether the claimed research was even done. + + Preface over, flame off, time to dig out the magnifying glass... + + I suppose that part of the reason that the article's claims have been so +easily accepted is that it seems to SOUND so scientific and rigorous in its +claimed methods. Such popular buzzwords as FACT, PROOF, EVIDENCE and +PHENOMENA are strewn throughout the text. The claim is made that all of the +evidence will qualify as "scientific," that the research can be reproduced +under laboratory conditions. Close scrutiny is invited, and the challenge to +prove the study and its results wrong is levied. I would submit that the +reason that the challenge has never been taken up is possibly that most of +those who may have seen the text file and who are qualified to critically +analyze it have reacted somewhat like I did when I first saw it -- it's so +ridiculous in its claims and logic that it's beneath serious thought. The +article is supposed to be usable as a tool to convince "intellectuals," +"agnostics," and "atheists" of the Bible's truth. PLEASE don't try to use it +as such -- it will be like trying to cut down a tree with a soup spoon, and +you will end up looking about that intelligent. + + Now on to a few of my arguments and criticisms. I will number each major +point and will illustrate where in the article we are (let's give the article +the shorter title ANALYSIS) with quotations. + + 1. In ANALYSIS' preface the claim is made of "FACTS and PROOFS of God +being the AUTHOR of the BIBLE" (their emphasis). I submit that the existence +of God himself hasn't been proven. No unassailable argument or "proof" of +God's existence has yet been developed after almost 2,000 years of attempts. +Some of the arguments have helped to establish the point that belief in God is +at least not an unreasonable or irrational faith, that it is at least a +plausible belief. But nothing yet has proven beyond all question his +existence. Even those arguments that seem to support belief in SOMETHING +beyond the natural (such as those based on the laws of thermodynamics) do NOT +prove that that something is the God revealed in the Bible. An argument that +could prove that something is there doesn't necessarily at the same time prove +what that something is like, whether it is personal and, if so, what are its +character traits and attributes, etc. It takes special revelation, as when +Christ said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father," to understand the +personality and attributes of God. Nature and reason by themselves can never +obtain such understanding. To "prove" that God wrote the Bible there has at +least to be a prior belief in God's existence, and in this case, the Judeo- +Christian God as against the god's of other religious persuasions. For those +who reject the existence of deity (agnostics, atheists, etc.) or even of the +Christian deity (Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, etc.), the MOST that ANALYSIS +could possibly accomplish if its "phenomena" and arguments are valid (which is +about to be seriously questioned) would be the claim, "Look here -- some +extremely odd and unexplained phenomena!" The scientific mind is more than +used to dealing with unexplained phenomena without the need for a "god of the +gaps." + + 2. The claim is made that "all alleged errors" in the Bible "have been +shown, in context, to be non-existent upon careful investigation." Such a +claim has so far only been accepted by conservative evangelicals or +fundamentalist Christians. The somewhat tortuous arguments used by some to +explain many of the "alleged errors" have found no acceptance among those who +do not already believe that no error COULD exist in the Bible. How many times +DID Peter deny Christ, anyway? That depends on how you try to "harmonize" the +different Gospel accounts. + + 3. After looking at a supposed numerical phenomena in Genesis 1:1, an +argument is developed: IF God is the same at all times (based on the statement +in Hebrews 13:8 that God is the "same yesterday, today and tomorrow"), THEN +"the numeric phenomena, briefly shown above, should be a measure of whether +God wrote the remainder of Genesis, the books of Exodus, Jonah, or any other +Old Testament phrase or book and, (2) It would also hold true for the New +Testament ... in IDENTICAL patterns." The proposed argument is open to +serious question. Hebrews 13:8, according to the best exegetical +understanding, is speaking fundamentally of Christ's basic nature and +character. It does not necessarily follow from continuing consistency of +character that one would write 66 different books according to one overall +mathematical pattern. Being always the same type of person doesn't mean that +one always does, or has to do, something in the same way or according to a +certain pattern. God always loves His children, but although He has +miraculously healed some who were sick, He hasn't and doesn't ALWAYS do so, in +spite of the truth of Hebrews 13:8. God doesn't change in His essential +character and attributes, but the way that He does things HAS and DOES change +at times, as when He changed the way in which He dealt with His people, from +the legal system of the Old Covenant to the system of grace in the New +Covenant. Thus, if the above argument premise (if A then B, or IF God is +always the same THEN the numeric phenomena should be a measure of whether He +wrote the Bible) is rejected on the basis of the above thoughts, even if the +phenomena exists as claimed throughout the whole Bible (which is yet to be +thrown into serious doubt), it is NOT shown logically to be a "proof" of +divine origin for the Bible. IF the phenomena exists, ALL we have is some +extremely odd and unexplained phenomena. + + 4. The statement is made that "the 'evidence' we are about to present +would be null and void, in most cases, if EVEN ONE CHARACTER WERE DELETED, +CHANGED OR ADDED!" (their emphasis). The claim is made throughout ANALYSIS +that for both the Old and the New Testaments, the research and computer +analysis is done on the "original" text, thus implying that there is one set +of manuscripts for both testaments that is understood and accepted as having +"original text" status. This is simply not the case. + + In the literal sense, there IS no "original text." The original +documents as penned by the authors themselves are not available, and all we +have are copies of copies, all done by hand by scribes. I'm more familiar +with the facts regarding the New Testament manuscript sources and criticism +than I am with the Old Testament sources, but even for the Old Testament I do +know that there are various different text copy sources for the different +books. Besides the basic Masoretic text, for example, there is for the +Penteteuch the Samaritan Penteteuch (the five books of Moses), which does +diverge from the Masoretic text at certain points. There are also the Dead +Sea Scrolls, with fragments from many of the Old Testament books, along with +the complete book of Isaiah. These scrolls are much older by hundreds of +years, and therefore closer to the "originals" in time, than anything that had +been been available prior to their discovery, including the oldest copies of +the Masoretic text. When the KJV Bible was translated, the Masoretic text was +basically it. More modern translations, as well as critical Hebrew +manuscripts, HAVE to take the Dead Sea Scrolls into account in order to +further insure reliability in the text. There supposedly has not been found +anything in the Scrolls that diverge seriously from the text as we had it up +until this century (the Jewish scribes WERE very meticulous in their copying +practices), but that is NOT to say that there are not any relatively minor +differences in the textual details. All of these manuscript sources, along +with various and sundry other manuscript fragments, constitute part of the +most basic and fundamental evidence that has to be considered in reliably +establishing just what the text of the original documents was. Even the +Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament used by the Jews in +Christ's time, and quoted from by Christ and Paul themselves, due to its age +and the corresponding fact that it was translated from quite an old Hebrew +source, can't be left out of the picture. + + In the case of the New Testament, the textual evidence is even more +dense. There are over 4,000 manuscripts and manuscript fragments from which +the text of Greek New Testaments are derived. All of the manuscript evidence +must be taken into account when compiling a reliable Greek text, and ALL of +the Greek New Testaments, from which translations are made, are the results of +extensive work in collating, comparing and analyzing the document evidence. +The overall result is a highly reliable Greek text in just about all of the +Greek New Testaments, and no fundamental Christian doctrine has ever been +under threat due to variant textual readings in manuscripts. But there's the +rub: with over 4,000 different documents and document fragments there ARE +SOME differences between them in the text. The differences are usually pretty +minor; a definite article may be included in a phrase in one document while +missing in another, for example. In some other cases, a whole verse or more +may be under question (such as in the case of the ending of Mark, or I John +5:7). + + Such a massive amount of textual evidence requires a heck of a lot of +work in order to decide upon the most likely original reading when important +manuscripts and manuscript "families" do vary in some detail. This is the +work done in the science of Textual Criticism. And although the results of +textual criticism have been to give us an even more highly reliable Greek New +Testament, there ARE times when the most that the best authorities in the +field are able to do is to make a best educated guess. Such times include +those when two manuscripts of fairly equal weight and importance (such as the +Sinaitic and the Vatican, both from the 4th century) differ in the wording of +a phrase and there is no other textual evidence to support either reading. + + Sorry if I have bored you with all of the above detail, but if you're +going to make a point in proof of a statement it behooves you to provide +evidence to back up your point. And my whole point here is that THERE ARE +DIFFERENCES in the text between even the most reliable and important Biblical +manuscripts, both Hebrew and Greek. And there IS NO original language +Testament, whether Hebrew or Greek, wherein the scholar(s) who produced it has +not had to deal with the problem of these variant readings in some way. As I +said, I know the New Testament evidence better than I do the Old. But in the +case of the New Testament alone, there are quite a few original language, or +Greek, New Testaments that have been used extensively in Bible translation. +Probably the one that has had the most influence in the Protestant world has +been the Stephan's "Textus Receptus" (Latin for Received Text). This was the +most basic Greek text source for the translators of the King James Version of +the Bible. Most of the actual work that produced this text was done by +Desiderius Erasmus, a Roman Catholic. And although Erasmus didn't have access +to as much material for his work as scholars do today, he nevertheless did +have more manuscript evidence than he could handle, and he had to deal with +the same problems of variant readings that today's scholars do. The story of +I John 5:7 is especially interesting, but I won't go into it here. + + Since Erasmus' times, as more and more manuscript evidence has become +available, there has been continued production of Greek New Testaments by +others in order to continue to enhance the reliability of the Biblical text. +Tischendorf, Westcott and Hort, Nestle-Aland, and the United Bible Society +have been just a few of those producing important Greek New Testaments. And +in every case, including that of the Textus Receptus, NO SINGLE manuscript +source was used in producing the final result. Educated guesses have had to +be made in every case regarding variant readings. Surely, not all of the +guesses in any one case have been accurate. + + All of the above has been presented in order to basically say this: +WHATEVER "original" language source the authors of ANALYSIS might have used in +their "scientific research", it cannot plausibly lay claim to absolute +accuracy in every detail regarding every character. There's just no way in +the world to prove such an outlandish proposition, given all of the evidence +of over 4,000 manuscripts and fragments for the contrary. They may believe +and claim that their "original" had this character, but believing and claiming +is not proving. And according to their own statement, if the text is off by +even ONE character, the results of their "research" are "null and void." I +anticipate the claim by them or someone defending them that even if they can't +prove the 100% accuracy of the text that they used by other means, the +existence of the such outstandingly improbable mathematical phenomena in the +text is surely a proof that they have somehow happened on the precise +"original" as breathed by God. Sorry, it doesn't work. The authors do not +even inform us as to exactly which "original" texts they used, so there is NO +WAY to reproduce their research, as they claim, under "laboratory conditions." +If they used the Textus Recceptus, for example, and I happened to choose the +UBS Greek New Testament for checking for the phenomena; or if they used the +Dead Sea Scroll version of Isaiah and I used the Masoretic version; I would +most definitely not be able to reproduce their results. That's not what I +would call a very "scientific proof." + + Let's see -- they don't tell us which Hebrew and Greek "originals" that +they used. They don't tell us how they used a computer in their "research" +(although they do mention much paper and pencil), what type of software +(computer programs), hardware, how they got all of that Greek and Hebrew text +onto computer disk for analysis, or anything else. Not very reliable +information for taking up their invitation to reproduce their "phenomena" and +results, is it? Sounds more like a great big snow job to me. The results +simply can't be thoroughly checked, and in light of the above FACTS about the +manuscript evidence for reading variances, the evidence that we DO have seems +to point to "null and void" results. It's their OWN claim that even one minor +variance in just one character brings about this voidness in the results. +Well, there are enough variances in the thousands of different manuscripts to +definitely satisfy that requirement for disproof. And until they can inform +the public as to exactly WHICH Hebrew and Greek sources they used, all of +their claims are just that -- null and void. They have "proven" exactly +nothing. + + Of course, all of the above makes the gratuitous assumption that the +authors of ANALYSIS actually did the research that they claim to have done. +Much of what I am about to point out next throws even that assumption into +serious doubt. After scrutinizing their article fairly closely, and checking +what "phenomena" I was able to devise means for checking, I am personally +convinced that most of what they claim to have done in their "research" was +never actually done. As I said, I don't like to say that they're lying, but +look at some of these things for yourself and draw your own conclusions. + + 5. In describing how the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek languages used their +respective alphabetic characters to signify numeric values, the authors state +that "In the Greek language, there are 22 characters. The last character +would have a place value of 22, and a numeric value of 400." GEEZ!!! How in +the world did they analyze and do research on original Greek text if they +don't even know the Greek alphabet?!? If you have access to ANY beginner's +Greek grammar book, lesson tutorial, etc., you can look in the first few pages +and find that the Greek alphabet consists of 24 characters, not 22. And given +the numeric scheme that they point to, the last character (omega) has a place +value of 24, and a NUMERIC value of 600. Considering that the "phenomena" +that is the supposed "proof" of their whole argument is numeric in nature, and +is BASED on the numeric values of the Biblical languages' alphabetic +characters, it would seem to me that a SERIOUS error in math has been made (if +the work could actually have been done by consistently skipping two characters +throughout the Greek text), and that such error would, again, render the +authors' WHOLE argument "null and void." Such a blatant and simple mistake +makes me wonder: is someone possibly lying here? + + 6. The authors state that "The Bible begins with the Hebrew word +'beginning' and ends with the Greek word "saint." Well, you can throw the +phenomena based on THIS paragraph out. Open your Bible to the very end of the +book of Revelation and read the last verse. I think you'll find that it says +something like, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." +Some of the Greek texts omit the word "Amen," but whether it's there or not +the result is still the same. The actual Greek text of this verse can be +transliterated thus: H CHARIS TOU KURIOU IHSOU META PANTON. AMHN. The Greek +word for "saint," AGIOS, is just not there. What's going on here? They don't +know the Greek alphabet, they don't even know the text of scripture in this +case. They develop a whole paragraph from the above sentence, and the +sentence is blatantly FALSE and easily proven so. If they are susceptible to +such simplistic and blatant errors, how can they be remotely capable of +carrying on such complex research and producing reliable results? + + 7. The authors give a list of the Bible writer's names, along with the +claimed numeric value for each name. Interesting -- John occurs twice in the +list, each time with a different value. Okay, I give up; which is the proper +value? Oh, wait a minute -- if we delete the first occurrence of John, along +with its claimed value, then totaling the names' values results in 7,931, just +as the authors claim. + + I wasn't quite satisfied, though, so I devised a quick and dirty program +in QuickBASIC to calculate the value of any Greek word. I used the numeric +pattern as reported by the authors (alpha=1, etc.), but alas I HAD to include +those two missing Greek alphabetic characters in the pattern. Since John has +an omega as part of his Greek name (IOANNHN), I'll bet that the numeric value +I get is different than that of the authors. Yup, I get 737, which doesn't +agree with either of their claimed values. How about James? They have 833, +and I get 722. Jude? They have 685, and I get 364. But wait: Jude's name in +Greek doesn't contain either of the last two Greek letters, the ones left out +by their claim that the Greek alphabet consists of 22 characters (psi and +omega). Why do our results therefore differ? Aren't we using the same +numeric formula? The names PAULUS and PETROS, Paul and Peter, also fit within +the 22-letter range, yet I get 441 for Paul, as opposed to the authors' 781, +and 405 for Peter, as opposed to 755. Either the authors haven't been honest +with us, or they have left something out of their description of how they +obtained their numeric phenomena. For me, it's their honesty that's +questionable. + + If you're interested in how I used a computer to calculate the above +values, I insert herein the QuickBASIC code that I wrote. It's at least more +than the authors of ANALYSIS have been willing to do. As I said, the code was +written in QuickBASIC (4.0), but it is easily adaptable to any form of BASIC. +One quick disclaimer: I program better than this, really. This is just +something I threw together very quickly in order to do some quick +calculations. It's a poorly written program, but it does the job. I am +really not interested in improving it, as I am not into numerology. + + DIM v%(24) + FOR i = 1 TO 9: v%(i) = i: NEXT + v%(10) = 10: v%(11) = 20: v%(12) = 30: v%(13) = 40: v%(14) = 50 + v%(15) = 60: v%(16) = 70: v%(17) = 80: v%(18) = 90: v%(19) = 100 + v%(20) = 200: v%(21) = 300: v%(22) = 400: v%(23) = 500: v%(24) = 600 + 15 a% = 0 + PRINT "To figure the value of a string, enter the number representing the" + PRINT " place value of each letter. Enter 0 when finished." + + 20 INPUT z + 30 IF z = 0 THEN GOTO 100 + a% = a% + v%(z) + GOTO 20 + 100 PRINT a%: END + + As I said above, these are just SOME of my criticisms of ANALYSIS' claims +and arguments. There is more that could be said -- other mistakes that have +been made, flaws in the arguments' logic, etc. But I think that enough has so +far been said that anyone with any rational ability can draw the conclusion +that the infallible proof claimed by the authors of ANALYSIS simply doesn't +exist. + + Well, as I wind up this article, I wonder to myself, "Why did I do this? +I've got many other, more pressing, demands on my time. Why waste my time on +such an unimportant matter as whether someone else, whom I have never met (and +I hope I never will), is either lying or seriously mistaken?" I guess it's +because this whole thing has been done in the name of Christ, whom I love +dearly and hate to see misrepresented. Christ doesn't need or desire for us +to tell lies or fabricate evidences for His truth. And given that He IS the +truth, he surely doesn't want His people to believe things that are false. +And that is exactly what the arguments and claims of the article criticized +herein are: FALSE. I love God, and I love God's people, but I HATE to see +God's people deceived by a bunch of crap wrapped up in a pretty package. + + Charles Shelton + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/bibl_err.txt b/religious documents/bibl_err.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..18ecf25 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bibl_err.txt @@ -0,0 +1,558 @@ +Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam +From: jodar@chaph.usc.edu (Nicholas Jodar) +Subject: The 'Holey' Bible.... +Originator: zeeshan@occs.cs.oberlin.edu (Zeeshan Hasan -Moderator) +Organization: Oberlin College Computer Science +Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 20:03:25 GMT +Message-ID: <1h74i7INNjg8@aludra.usc.edu> +Lines: 551 + +[Note to Moderator: This is in answer to all of these 'the Bible +has no errors and/or is free of tampering' claims.] + +Assalaamu Alaikum,.... + + +*********************************** +DISCREPANCIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT: +*********************************** + +'There are claimed contradictions that theologians have not resolved to every +atheist's satisfaction. There are textual difficulties with which scholars are +still wrestling. [After how many thousands of years?] Only a Bible illiterate +would deny these and other problems.' + + -- 'The Plain Truth,' July, 1975 + +----------------------------------- + +The Qur'an says the Bible is screwed with. Here is some of the evidence. + +The following is a list of some of the discrepancies found +within the New Testament (using the 1952 RSV, the most accurate +translation I have thus far). Many of these discrepancies +are found in more than one place, but I've only listed one. (I +don't have THAT much time to kill. :-) There's even more stuff +I could go over in the OLD Testament....) This file is still +being compiled, but I figured I could post it now (it's about +two-thirds done) in answer to the many false statements made +in recent postings. + +It is quite obvious from the following that, not only was the +Bible written by men, but that such men, unlike the Prophets (AS) +that have gone before, were not all inspired by GOD (if any were); +the writers of the various books often disagree. What is +disturbing is that so many Christians don't seem to reading their +Bible very closely. The Church isn't helping, either. They +(along with the Israeli Government) have consistently blocked +research of all ancient manuscripts uncovered. + +I hope that the following will be informative, and that others, +inshallah, will be encouraged to study the Bible with as much +dedication as I have. For the most accurate translation +available, I suggest 'Knoct's Concordance of the Greek Translation.' +Note, also, that the American Bible Society puts out a version +of the 1611 KJV which, while containing inaccuracies, has many +helps and additional information to those in pursuit of the Truth. + + +Auzu Billahi Min Ash-Shaitan Nirajeem. Bismillah... + + +-Brother Abdul Qadir + +************************************************************************* + +Christians Confess! +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Dr. W. Graham Scroggie of THE 'Moody Bible Institute' of Chicago, in his book +'Is the Bible the Word of God?' (under the heading 'It is Human, Yet Divine,' +(page 17) says: + +'Yes, the Bible is human, though some, out of a zeal which is not according to +knowledge, have denied this. Those books [making up the Bible] have passed +through the minds of men, are written in the language of men, were penned by +the hands of men, and bear in their style the characteristics of men.' + +------------- + +Kenneth Cragg, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, in his book 'The Call of the +Minaret' (page 277) says: + +'Not so the New Testament ... There is condensation and editing; there is +choice, reproduction, and witness. The Gospels have come through the mind +of the Church behind the authors. They represent experience and history.' + +------------- + +>From the Preface to the RSV, 1952 ('the product of thirty-two scholars +assisted by an advisory committee representing fifty co-operating +denominations'): + +'... Yet the King James Version has grave defects. By the middle of the +nineteenth century, the development of Biblical studies and the discovery of +many manuscripts more ancient than those upon which the King James Version was +based, made it manifest that these defects are so many and so serious as to +call for revision of the English translation.' + +------------- + +>From an article entitled 'The Truth About the Bible,' in an old back issue of +'Look' magazine: + +'...as early as 1720, an English authority estimated that there were at least +20,000 errors in the two editions of the New Testament commonly read by +Protestants and Catholics. Modern students say there are probably 50,000 +errors.' + +------------- + +>From E.G. White, a 'prophetess' of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, in her +Bible Commentary (Volume 1, page 14) says: + +'The Bible we read today is the work of many copyists who have in most +instances done their work with marvellous accuracy. But copyists have not +been infallible, and GOD most evidently has not seen fit to preserve them +altogether from error in transcribing.' + +Still later, she adds: 'I saw that GOD had especially guarded the Bible,' +[from what?] 'yet when copies of it were few, learned men had in some +instances changed the words, thinking that they were making it plain, when +in reality they were mystifying that which was plain, by causing it to lean +to their established views, which were governed by tradition.' + +She says this, and yet STILL says 'Truly, the Bible is the infallible Word +of GOD.'(!) 'Yes, it is adulterated, but pure.'(?!) 'It is human, yet +divine.' + +?!?!? + +Do words have any meaning for such people? Apparently only in a Court of +Law.... + +------------- + +On page five of the Foreword in the Jehovah's Witnesses' Bible, (now expunged!) +they say/said: + +'In copying the inspired originals by hand, the element of human frailty +entered in, and so none of the thousands [four thousand, to be exact...] +of copies extant today in the original language are perfect duplicates. The +result is that no two copies are exactly alike.' + +They conclude: 'The evidence is, therefore, that the original text of the +Christian Greek Scriptures ['New Testament'] has been tampered with, the +same as the text of the LXX ['Old Testament'] has been.' + +These supposedly rational people then state that no amount of tampering +will 'appreciably affect the authenticity of the Bible.' (?!) + +------------- + +J.B. Phillips, a prebendary of the Chichester Cathedral, of the Angelical +Church in England, refers to the 'Gospel According to St. Matthew' in his +introduction to it: + +'Early tradition ascribed this Gospel to the apostle Matthew, but scholars +nowadays almost all reject this view.' [Indeed, Modern Scholars only hazard +a guess as to the author of 'Luke,' and it wasn't Luke, either....] + +But Phillips goes on: 'The author, whom we can conveniently call Matthew, has +plain drawn on the mysterious "Q" [for German 'Quella' == 'Sources'], which +may have been a collection of oral traditions.' [This is the accepted theory +of Modern Western Scholars] 'He has used Mark's Gospel freely, though he has +rearranged the order of events and has in several instances used different +words for what is plainly the same story.' + +The authors of 'Matthew' and 'Luke,' in fact, have COPIED 85% of 'Mark,' +WORD FOR WORD. Believe it or not, the Christians call this wholesale +plagiarism 'Divine Inspiration'.... + +[The OT is even worse. (Isaiah 37 is, in fact, 2 Kings 19, both attributed +to different authors, centuries apart, and both 'inspired' by Allah....) +Attributing such nonsense to Allah (AWJ) is blasphemy, and no self- +respecting 'man of GOD' would hear of it.] + +------------- + +The same J.B. Phillips has this to say about the 'Gospel of St. Luke': + +'On his own admission Luke has carefully compared and edited existing material, +but it would seem that he had access to a good deal of additional material, +and we can reasonably guess at some of the sources from which he drew.' + +This author, previously assumed to be 'Luke,' who says 'It seemed good to me +also' to 'write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus'. +This is 'Divine Inspiration'?!? + +------------- + +Anybody who reads plain english can understand what these people are saying. +They are saying that the Bible was written by men, not Allah. Further +evidence is provided by the fact that the entire Bible is written in the +THIRD PERSON. ('And the Lord said unto Moses...,' 'And Moses said unto the +Lord...,' 'The word which Isaiah saw concerning...,' 'And Jesus said to +them...' et cetera. Nowhere in the Bible will you find the word 'Bible,' +much less 'Old' or 'New Testament.' Out of four thousand texts, not a +single one has the author's name on it. (Hence the 'According to' in the title +of each of the four gospels selected to be included in the Canon.) + +Yet they INSIST that the Bible is indeed the word of Allah (!).... Truly, +Jesus (AS) was right in saying, '...seeing, they see not; and hearing, they +hear not; neither do they understand.' [Mt 13:13] + +========================================================================= + +Genealogy of Jesus--What Was It? (PBUH) +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +The Gospel ''According to Matthew'' tells us that there were fourteen +generations between Abraham (AS) and Babylon, and fourteen between Babylon +and Jesus (AS). Despite the claim that the authors of the Gospels were +'Inspired' by Allah, only two of them bothered to record the Genealogy of +Jesus (AS). Yet of the two Genealogies given, neither matches the (much +earlier) recording in the OT. Who's lying, here? + +[Note: The sons of Noah were four: Shem, Ham, Japheth, and Japheth's +elder brother, Eber. (Genesis 10:1, 21)] + +Mt. 1:1-17 vs. Lk. 3:23-38 vs. Old Testament +---------- ----------- ------------- +- GOD (Allah) -- +1 Adam Adam 1 +2 Seth Sheth 2 +3 Enos Enosch 3 +4 Cainan Kenan 4 +5 Mahalaleel Mahalaleel 5 +6 Jared Jared 6 +7 Enoch Enoch 7 +8 Methuselah Methuselah 8 +9 Lamech Lamech 9 +10 Noah Noah 10 +11 Shem Shem (heir/Eber)11 +12 Arphaxad Arpachshad 12 +13 Cainan | 13 +14 Shelah Shelah 14 +15 Eber Eber 15 +16 Peleg Peleg 16 +17 Reu Reu 17 +18 Serug Serug 18 +19 Nahor Nahor 19 +20 Terah Terah 20 + +1 Abraham Abraham Abraham 21 +2 Isaac Isaac Isaac 22 +3 Jacob Jacob Jacob 23 +4 Judah Judah Judah 24 +5 Perez ('bastard') Perez ('bastard') | 25 +6 Hezron Hezron Hezron 26 +7 Ram Arni Ram 27 + | Admin | 28 +8 Amminadab Amminadab Amminadab 29 +9 Nahshon Nahshon Nahshon 30 +10 Salmon Sala Salma 31 +11 Boaz Boaz Boaz 32 +12 Obed Obed Obed 33 +13 Jesse Jesse Jesse 34 +14 David David David 35 +------------- -- ----- ----- +FROM ABRAHAM: 14 15 13 + +1 David David David 35 +2 Solomon Nathan Solomon 36 +3 Rehoboam Mattatha Rehoboam 37 +4 Abijah Menna Abijah 38 +5 Asa Melea Asa 39 +6 Joshaphat Eliakim Jehoshaphat 40 +7 Joram Jonam Joram 41 +8 Uzziah Joseph Ahaziah 42 + | Judah Joash 43 + | Simeon Amaziah 44 + | Levi Azariah 45 +9 Jotham Matthat Jotham 46 + | Jorim | 47 + | Eliezer | 48 +10 Ahaz Joshua Ahaz 49 +11 Hezekiah Er Hezekiah 50 +12 Manasseh Elmadam Manasseh 51 +13 Amos Cosam Amon 52 +14 Josiah Addi Josiah 53 + | Melchi Jehoiakim 54 +15 Jechoniah Neri Jeconiah 55 +----------- -- ------ --------- +TO BABYLON: 15 19 17 + +1 Shealtiel Shealtiel Pedaiah 56 +2 Zerubbabel Zerubbabel Zerubbabel 57 + Hananiah 58 + Jeshaiah 59 + Rhesa Rephaiah 60 + Arnan 61 + Obadiah 62 + Shecaniah 63 + Shemaiah 64 + Neariah 65 + Elioenai 66 + Joanan Johanan 67 + Joda | 68 + Josech ? 69 + Semein 70 + Mattathias 71 + Maath 72 + Naggai 73 + Esli 74 + Nahum 75 + Amos 76 + Mattathias 77 + Joseph 78 + Jannai 79 + Melchi 80 + Levi 81 +3 Abiud 82 +4 Eliakim 83 +5 Azor 84 +6 Zadok 85 +7 Achim 86 +8 Eliud 87 +9 Eleazar 88 +10 Matthan Matthat 89 +11 Jocob Heli 90 +12 Joseph Joseph 91 +13 Jesus Jesus 92 +-------------- -- ----- --- +TO JESUS (AS): 13 23+ 13+ + + +Some Big Booboos: + +1) Jesus (AS) cannot possibly be descended 'from David' by BOTH of + David's sons; + +2) As a supposed 'bastard,' Perez's line would have been cursed for + at least ten generations, according to the OT, but David (AS) was + made king; + +3) Joseph (RAA) could not possibly have been the son of both Jocob + and Heli; + +4) Jesus (AS) has to be connected to David (AS) through his mother + Mary (RAA), as Joseph (RAA) wasn't really his father; + +5) NEITHER of the two Genealogies are correct, based on the evidence + provided; + +6) 'Matthew' has screwed up his 'three groups of fourteen' in his + genealogy; + +7) According to 'Luke,' (who is more generous than 'Matthew') there + are still only twenty generations between Abraham and David, which + is impossible, time-wise. (14-16 generations for 8 centuries?) + +========================================================================== + +Where Are the Apostles? + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Matthew Mark Luke John Barnabas +------- ---- ---- ---- -------- +'Peter' (Simon) Peter Peter Peter Peter +Andrew Andrew Andrew Andrew Andrew +James James James James James +John John John John John +Philip Philip Philip Philip Philip +Bartholomew Bartholomew Bartholomew ------ +Thomas Thomas Thomas Thomas Thomas +Matthew Matthew Matthew ------ Matthew +James James James ------ James +Thaddeus Thaddeus ----- ------ ----- +Simon Simon Simon ------ Simon +Judas Isc. Judas Isc. Judas Isc. Judas Isc. Judas Isc. + Judas Judas + Barnabas (Joses) + +[Note: Barnabas is also found in Colosians, Galacians, and Acts.] + +================================================================================ + +Herod Dead or Not? + +Mt. 2:19 vs. Mt. 14:1 + +--------------------- + +Jesus (AS) Touched, But by Whom? + +Mt. 9:18, Mk. 5:21, Lk. 8:40 + +--------------------- + +Jesus (AS) Curses the Fig Tree +(One of his few documented mistakes, but when did it happen? And +how did it REALLY happen?) + +Mt. 21:18, Mk. 11:12 + +--------------------- + +Baptism of Jesus (AS) by John (AS) vs. John (AS)'s Messengers +(Did John (AS) Recognize Jesus (AS) or not?) + +Mt. 3:13-15 vs. Mt. 11:2-6 + +--------------------- + +Leper or Simon's Mother-in-Law Healed first? + +(See Gospels) + +--------------------- + +Palsied Man Healed in Capernaum or Nazareth? + +Mt. 9:1-2 vs. Mk. 2:1-4 + +--------------------- + +Was the Publican Named Matthew or Levi? +(This particular passage also implies that Matthew was not +the author of the Gospel attributed to him.) + +Mt. 9:9 vs. Lk. 5:27 + +--------------------- + +When Were the Twelve Really Ordained? + +(See Gospels) + +--------------------- + +When Did Jesus (AS) Really Calm the Storm? + +(See Gospels) + +--------------------- + +When Did Jesus (AS) Heal the 'Demoniacs,' and Where? +(There is no 'Gergesene,' at least not there, then....) + +(See Gospels) + +--------------------- + +When Were the Twelve Given Their Mission? + +(See Gospels) + +--------------------- + +>From Where Was the Woman of Faith? + +Mt. 15:21-22 vs. Mk. 7:24-26 + +--------------------- + +Did Jesus (AS) Heal One or Two Blind Men? + +Mt. 20:30-34 vs. Lk. 18:35-43 + +--------------------- + +When was what Last Supper? + +Jn. 13:1 vs. Lk. 7:1 + +--------------------- + +The Crowning Speech in 'John' is Missing in +the Other Three Gospels!? + +Jn. 13-17 + +--------------------- + +John 'Forgets' to Include Jesus (AS)'s +Prayer in the Garden??? + +--------------------- + +John Describes the Last Supper in +Numbing Detail, Including Details +Left Out of the Other Gospels, +But 'Forgets' to Mention the +Eucharist! + +--------------------- + +Angel Lies to the Women + +Mt. 28:7 vs. Mt. 28:9 + +--------------------- + +Paul Contradicts All of +the Sightings of the +'Risen' Jesus (AS) in +the Canonical Gospels + +1 Cor. 15:5-7 vs. Gospels + +--------------------- + +Paul Can't Get His Conversion +Story Straight.... + +Acts 9:3-7 vs. Acts 22:6-9 vs. +Acts 26:12-15 + +--------------------- + +Paul Also Can't Get His +Ordainment Story Straight.... + +Acts 9:10-15 vs. Acts 22:10-15 +vs. Acts 26:16-18 + +--------------------- + +Moses (AS), Aaron (AS), Hagar (RAA) +and the Apostles (RAA) Witnessed the +Glory of GOD, but Paul was Struck +for Three Days by Seeing Jesus (AS) + +Ex. 3:1-6, 19:19-24, Gen. 16:13 and +Gospels vs. Acts 9:8-9 + +--------------------- + +Paul Confesses the +Resurrection to be His +Own Doctrine + +2 Timothy 2:8 + +--------------------- + +Paul Initiates Doctrine +of Jesus (AS) Being +Divine + +Acts 9:20 + +--------------------- + +Paul Negates the Law + +Romans 3:28 and vs. Mt. 5:17-20 + +--------------------- + +Paul Denies His Own +Actions/Experiences + +Acts 9:28-29, 21:27-36, and 26:19-20 +vs. Galatians 1-2 + +--------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/bible.txt b/religious documents/bible.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c4a3c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bible.txt @@ -0,0 +1,136 @@ +** BIBLE.DOC ** + + One of the things which bothers me about certain +Fundamentalist Christians is their insistance on the Bible +as the ultimate authority. Yet they selectively read it to +support their beliefs and opinions against whatever minority, +group, or activitity they happen to be attacking. In their +efforts to criticise viewpoints and lifestyles different +from their own, they are fond of Biblical quotes from the +Old Testament; especially from the books of Leviticus and +Deutotomy. The Old Testament contains important ethical and +moral provisions such as the 'Ten Commandments', which have +had a strong impact upon Western culture. Yet, it should be +remembered that the Bible, especially the Old Testament is +an historical document. I suggest that much of the Old +Testament has no relavancy to modern society. And that it +is 'faulty logic' to selectively quote from it, while +ignoring the rest (most) of the material. Accordingly, I +searched through the Old Testament myself, and picked out some +of the more colorful admonisments. It was great fun. And I +hope it will help put the Old Testament into its proper +perspective... + + +ANIMAL SACRIFICE was considered an important way of atoning +for one's sins. A number of complete chapters in the Old +Testament describe the practice. Yet I know of no contemporary +Christian or Jew who practices animal sacrifice. Here are some +examples... + +1) You should make burnt offerings of cattle, sheep, doves, +and pigions. (Lev. 1.3, et al) + +2) You should sprinkle animal blood upon the altar. (Lev. 5.9, +et al) + +3) The priests and their garments should be anointed with oil +and blood. (Lev. 8.30, et al) + + +DIETARY RESTRICTIONS may have been more relavent before +refrigeration. While it is true that Orthodox Jews do follow +some of these dietary restrictions, nobody else does... + +1) Do not eat sheep fat, lest your soul be cut off from your +people. (Lev. 7.24) + +2) Eat no manner of blood, lest your soul be cut off from +your people. (Lev. 7.26, Deut. 12.23, 15.23) + +3) Do not eat camels, rabbits, or pigs. Neither should you +touch them, for they are unclean beasts. (Lev. 11.4, 11.6, +11.7, Deut. 14.7, 8, Isa. 65.4) + +4) Do not eat crab, lobsters, oysters, nor any other seafood +except for fish. (Lev. 11.10, Deut. 14.10) + +5) Of course you may eat locusts, beetles, and grasshoppers. +(Lev. 11.22) + + +OTHER RESTRICTIONS... + +1) Do not go to the temple drunk, lest you die. (Lev. 10.9) + +2) Do not shave your head or beard, for it is a defilement +to do so. (Lev. 21.4, 5) + +3) You should not wear garments of different kinds together, +such as wool with cotton. (Deut. 22.11) + +4) No tatoos. (Lev. 20.28) + +5) Any man with a pimple should be quarantined for seven days. +(Lev. 13.2-4) + +6) You should not touch dogs or cats, for they will make you +unclean. (Lev. 11.27) + +7) You should not touch the mouse, tortoise, lizard, or snail, +for they will make you unclean. (Lev. 11.29, 11.30) + + +PUNISHMENT in the Old Testament is very severe by today's +standards. In fact one might wonder how the Jewish people +survived at all... + +1) If you have a rebellious son who does not obey you, you +should take him to the elders of the city who will stone him +to death. (Deut. 21.18-21) + +2) The penalty for blasphemy is stoning to death. +(Lev. 24.10) + +3) If a man finds out that his new wife is not a virgin, he +may take her to the elders of the city who will stone her to +death. (Deut. 22.13-21) + + +FINANCIAL ISSUES in the Old Testament are completely +overlooked today... + +1) The land (Israel?) shall not be sold. This would seem to +prevent all private ownership of property. (Lev. 25.23) + +2) Creditors shall write off all debts every 7 years (unless +they are foreign debts...There goes the mortgage!). +(Deut. 15.1, 2) + + +OTHER PRACTICES which are now (largely) frowned upon... + +1) Having more than one wife. (I Sam. 30.5) + +2) Purchase of and ownership of slaves. (Deut. 15.12) + +3) If your slave wants to stay when you offer him freedom, +you should thrust an awl through his ear so that he will be +your slave forever. (Deut. 15.16, 17) + + +MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. There are many other admonisments +and rules... + +1) Do not plant a grove of trees near the temple. (The grove +of trees was associated with Ashtarte). (Deut. 16.21) + +2) He who has been castrated may not enter the temple. +(Deut. 23.1) + + +--4/18/88 +Phil Hansford +Mysteria +(818) 353-8891 (modem only) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/bible1.txt b/religious documents/bible1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb366c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bible1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,162 @@ + COMPUTER ANALYSIS OF THE ORDER + AND + NUMBER OF BOOKS OF THE BIBLE + The original sequence of the books of the Bible differ +somewhat from the sequence that is presently found in the +English Bible. The original* text had the following order: +1. Genesis 12.Isa 23.Zep 34.Esth 45.James +2. Exodus 13.Jer 24.Hag 35.Dan 46.I Peter +3. Lev 14.Ezek 25.Zech 36.Ezra 47.II Peter +4. Numbers 15.Hosea 26.Mal 37.Nehem 48.I John +5. Deut 16.Joel 27.Psa 38.I Chr 49.II John +6. Joshua 17.Amos 28.Prov 39.II Chr 50.III John +7. Judges 18.Obad 29.Job 40.Matt 51.Jude +8. I Sam 19.Jonah 30.Song 41.Mark 52.Romans +9. II Sam 20.Micah 31.Ruth 42.John 53.I Cor + 56.Eph 62.I Tim + 57.Phile 63.II Tim + 58.Col 64.Titus + 59.I Thes 65.Phil + 60.II Ths 66.Revelation + 61.Hebrews +* Original means the Oldest or most original that were +known to the world, at this time. + Some of the books assign themselves, either totally or in +part to a particular scribe's name, while others are +anonymous. The books which reveal (in part or totally) the +scribe's identity are : + Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy ascribe +themselves to Moses and are ascribed to Moses in other +books of the Bible. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 +minor Prophets ascribe themselves to the scribes whose name +the book bears. Psalms is ascribed to David. Proverbs and +Song of Solomon ascribe themselves to Solomon and +Ecclesiastes ascribes itself only to the "son of David" +which most believe to be Solomon. Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah +ascribe themselves to these respective scribes. James, 1 +and 2 Peter and Jude bear the names of their respective +scribe. The Epistles of Paul ascribe themselves, with the +exception of Hebrews, to Paul. Revelation ascribes itself +to John. + The anonymous books, therefore, are : Genesis, Joshua, +Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Job, Ruth, +Lamentations, Esther, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Matthew, Mark, +Luke, John, Acts, 2 and 3 John, and Hebrews. + Moses has 4, Solomon 3, Peter 2, Paul 13. The other +identified scribes have one book each. + The number 66 is 6 -11's (Feature 1). The anonymous +books are 22 or 2-11's. The non-anonymous books are 44 or +4-11's (Feature 2). Of these 44, 22 (or 2-11's) belong to +writers of more than one book and 22 (again 2-11's) belong +to writers of only one book (Feature 3). The sum of the 66 +numbers totals 2,211 or 201-11's. We can divide this number +in this manner: the 22 books of the writers of more than +one book have 946 (or 86-11's), while the other 44 have +1,265 (or 115-11's) (Feature 4). + Of the 66 books, 21 are Epistles. Their numbers are +(James to Philemon or 45 to 65). The sum 2,21 for the 66 +books can be divided between Epistles and Non-Epistles. The +Epistles have 1,155 (or 105-11's) and the non-epistles have +1,056 (or 96-11's) (Feature 5). + Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel and Daniel +are expressly quoted in the New Testament. The number of +their respective books are 2,3,4,5,12,13,15,16,27,35. The +total sum of these books is (Feature 6) 132 (or 12-11's). +The Numeric Values of the Bible Writer's names are: +Moses 345 Isaiah 401 Jeremiah 271 +Hosea 381 Joel 47 Amos 176 +Jonah 71 Micah 75 Nahum 104 +Zephaniah 235 Zechariah 242 Malachi 101 +Solomon 375 Daniel 95 Ezra 278 +James 833 Haggai 21 Peter 755 +Paul 781 John 781 John 1069 +Ezekiel 156 Obadiah 91 Habbakuk 216 +David 14 Nehemiah 113 Jude 685 + + The total sum of these is 7,931 - which is 11 X 7 X +103. Just to show you that can also be expressed as 721- +11's, while the sum of the factors 7, 11, 103 is 121 or 11- +11's (Features 7 and 8). + There may be some that may claim that this could be +accidental or by design. The the number of books in the +Bible should be a multiple of 11 could possibly be +accidental; However, since only every 11th number is a +multiple of 11, then THE CHANCH OF ACCIDENT IS 1 IN 11! + That this number can be divided between anonymous and +non anonymous books in such manner as to be multiples of 11 +could also be accident; However, THE CHANCH IS 1 IN 11 +TIMES 11 or ONE CHANCH IN 121! + That this number can be divided between the non +anonymous by 11's among the authors of only one book and +those of more than one book could also be accidental; +However, the chanch for it being accident is ONE IN 11 +TIMES 11 TIMES 11 or ONE CHANCH IN 1,331. + If we carry out the progressions through the eight +occurances proven above, we concede that each one could be +accidental; However, the chanch for them all being so +becomes ONE CHANCH IN 11 TO THE EIGTH POWER or ONE IN +214,358,881!!!! + Using our pencil and a lot more paper, we find: + The sum of the numeric values of the 26 authors named +as Biblical writers which was shown above as 7931 is a +multiple of seven (Feature 9) as well as eleven . The sums +of the numeric values of the 26 writers (7,931) is a +multiple of 11. Of this number the 21 writers of the Old +testament (3-7's) have 3,808 or 544-7's and the new +Testament writers have (Feature 10) 4,123 or 589-7's. of +the 3,808 belonging to the Old Testament, 2,933 or 419-7's +belong to the writers of the Law and the Prophets, from +Moses to Malachi, and 1,190 or 170-7's belong to the +writers of the hagiographa, from David to Nehemiah (Feature +11). Seven of the 21 Old Testament writers (3-7's) are +expressly named in the New Testament; These are Moses, +David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Joel. Their numeric +value is 1,554 or 222-7's (Features 12 & 13). The numeric +value of Moses who heads the list and John who closes it, +345 and 1069 equal 1414 or 202-7's (Feature 14) + The Bible begins with the Hebrew word "beginning" and +ends with the Greek word "saint". The Hebrew word occurs in +the following books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, +Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, +Amos, Micah, Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Daniel, +Nehemiah and 2 Chronicles. The Greek word occurs in +Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, +Jude, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, +Philemon and Revelation. These books total 42 or 6-7's. +take the number of these books in the order of their +respective place and the sum is 1575 or 225-7's. +The possibility of these eight features of SEVEN and the +eight features of ELEVEN occuring together is ONE IN +5,764,801 TIMES 214,358,881 or ONE IN ONE THOUSAND MILLION +MILLIONS !! +It would be IMPOSSIBLE, therefore to claim accident or +conspiracy in the phenomena indicated. The above clearly +demonstrates the design of: +1. THE NUMBER AND ORDER OF BOOKS AS RECEIVED. * feature 1* +2. THE PROPORTION BETWEEN ANONYMOUS AND NON-ANONYMOUS BOOKS + *2* +3. THE PROPORTION BETWEEN BOOKS WRITTEN BY AN AUTHOR OF A + SINGLE BOOK AND THOSE WRITTEN BY AUTHORS OF MORE THAN + ONE BOOK. *3 & 4* +4. THE PROPORTION BETWEEN EPISTLE AND NON EPISTLE BOOKS. *5* +5. THE NUMBER OF O.T. WRITERS QUOTED IN THE N.T. *6* + The Bible was written by some thirty different writers +from many different walks of life over a period of sixteen +hundred years between its first and last writers. If we +assume that it was exclusively written by HUMAN hands, we +cannot account for the mathmatic phenomena demonstrated. If +we assume that a SUPERIOR MATHMATICAL MIND (The Mathmatical +Author of Nature) has planned these phenomena, provides an +immediate and rational explanation of these phenomena and +others found in the Bible. + It is not the desire of this report to provide +anything other than an insight into the immeasurable +intelligence that produced the Bible. The same intelligence +that produced the limitless stretches of space, that +produced the smallest one cell creature, the same one that +created it ALL, is the only source that could have produced +the Bible as it presently stands. + Computers For Christ - San Jose + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/biblebel.txt b/religious documents/biblebel.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2c5e14 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/biblebel.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2270 @@ +******************** THE MIND OF THE BIBLE BELIEVER ******************** + +Stephen Doe at New Mexico State University +usenet@nmsu.edu + +Well, I've received a lot of e-mail indicating interest in this +subject, so I'll go ahead and start this weekend. Since I'm entering +the end-of-the-semester-crunch here at NMSU, don't be too upset if the +posts come at irregular intervals. Also, I'm going to do things a bit +differently than I first thought; instead of summarizing each chapter, +I'm going to summarize each of the main topics. I think that will +make things a bit more coherent. I see at least four posts coming out +of all this, in roughly this order: + +1) Historical Perspective. Dr. Cohen spends some time studying three +eras of history--first century Christianity, the Reformation and our +own recent surge of fundamentalism, which he terms a +"mini-Reformation." Since one of his main ideas is that +fundamentalist Christianity is closest to what the Bible authors had +in mind, I thought I'd start with this topic. It's really the first +link of the chain, so to speak. + +2) Some Fundamentals of Psychology. Potentially boring to some I +suspect, but crucial since the third post will deal with Dr. Cohen's +application of psychology to the experience of fundamentalist +Christianity. + +3) The Evangelical Mind-Control System. To some this label may have a +strident ring, but it is a fitting title since Dr. Cohen thinks that +biblical Christianity can have such a devastating psychological +impact. Here I will outline the seven devices used to attract and +retain members of an evangelical community. This also gives an +account for the Bible's success despite the numerous logical +contradictions and "immoral" stories that atheists have been pointing +out for a long time. + +4) Social Implications of the mini-Reformation. Here I will outline +Dr. Cohen's concerns regarding the impact the current surge of +fundamentalism is having. He worries not so much about the political +impact as the psychological harm that can be visited upon those caught +up in fundamentalist beliefs. + +Some of the responses I've gotten have been rather interesting. Some +have asked for more information on this book, such as the ISBN number +and publisher. The publisher is: + + Prometheus Books + 59 Glenn Drive + Buffalo, NY 14228-2197 + + + The Mind of The Bible-Believer + Edmund D. Cohen + ISBN 0-87975-495-8 + +The book is fairly recent (copyright 1988). I ordered it through my +local bookstore, so you should have no trouble if you do decide you'd +like to order it. + +Some have questioned the appropriateness of starting a discussion of +this nature on alt.atheism, presumably because telling atheists about +the harmful effects of biblical Christianity is like "preaching to the +choir." Many atheists I know already take the position that +Christianity can be psychologically damaging. But it's one thing to +say, "oh, it's all psychological," and quite another to have a +detailed model of the phenomenon. The a.a FAQ states that atheists +want to get to truth and so should consider all arguments with +skepticism, but also with an open mind. I see no reason why this +attitude shouldn't apply to arguments that would *strengthen* one's +position as well as to arguments against one's position. + +Others have suggested moving the discussion to alt.atheism.moderated, +to avoid the inevitably low S/N ratio of unmoderated newsgroups. It +has also been suggested that I try to post these articles on +soc.religion.christian (also a moderated group). I may follow up on +these suggestions. But I see no reason why I shouldn't post on the +unmoderated groups as well. I think anyone who wishes to respond +ought to be able to do so, even if it is only to flame me. Also, with +all due respect to mathew, who seems to be doing a fine job with +a.a.moderated, I have an intense dislike for moderated newsgroups in +general. The best thing about the net is that it has come closer to +the democratic ideal of free expression on the part of *everyone* than +any other medium I can think of. Besides, your right to express +yourself doesn't mean others must listen. Many posts in the +unmoderated groups I skip right over as soon I get a glimpse of the +content (or, more accurately, lack of). You don't need to eat the +whole egg to know if it is rotten. + +I must say that I am encouraged by the responses that I have received. +I have yet to receive a negative response (though alas, that may +change when we get to the actual substance of Dr. Cohen's ideas!) At +any rate, I am looking forward to the discussion. Expect my first +post sometime this weekend. + + + + + + ...[A] propensity to religious extremism does not require + explanation since it is entirely consistent with basic + religious tenets and authentic religious orientations. It is + religious moderation or religious liberalism, the willingness + of religious adherents to accommodate themselves to their + environment, to adapt their behaviorial and belief patterns to + prevailing cultural norms, to make peace with the world, that + requires explanation.--A professor of political studies at + Bar_Ilan University, Israel[1] + + + An Historical Perspective + + + A generation ago the proposition that conservative Christian +churches were about to enter a phase of very rapid growth would have +struck sociologists studying religion as absurd; one might as well +have expected astronomers to flock to the geocentric model in droves. +Statistics on church membership indicated a continuing decline. The +prevailing opinion was that religion served to explain the origins of +the universe, and one's relation to the universe. As the more +competent natural sciences increased man's knowledge of the universe, +conventional religion became more and more irrelevant. Unless +religion could re-invent itself--and the statistics indicated that +those churches attempting to do so, the liberal and mainline churches, +experienced decline in membership as well--religion would, in a +relatively short time, be relegated to the dustbin of history. + Yet we live now in an era in which it is the conservative +churches that show no decrease in vitality--indeed, they show a great +increase. "Contrary to the conventional wisdom of mainline church +professionals, those churches that were least "reasonable," +"tolerant," and "relevant" were (and are) the ones not declining. +Those churches that continued to emphasize the primacy of the Bible, +and to take for real the supernatural salvation plan set out in it, +continued to add to their numbers each year."[2] What is going on +here? + Most of us, I think, would prefer to believe that the +conservatives are just some fanatics that can be dismissed with a wave +of a hand, that their harsh, literalist interpretation of the Bible is +really going against the "spirit" of the Bible. We would like to +think that the kindly, mellow, non-judgmental practitioners of the +more liberal denominations are the true followers of Christ. But what +the liberal Christians fail to recognize is that they are the heirs of +a great tradition of rebellion *against* the harsher implications of +the Bible. Each successive phase of theology served to both obscure +these harsh implications, and to also find Biblical support for what +passed for the conventional wisdom of the day. To see this in action, +we must briefly trace the history of Protestant Christianity, from the +Reformation to the present. + + The Reformation + + Two men figure prominently in the break from Catholicism: +Luther and Calvin. Martin Luther had been a rather timid Catholic +monk, who experienced anguish over his salvation doubts and his +inability to make his life free enough from sin. His solution to this +was to recognize that the Bible counseled that salvation was due +solely to God's grace, and that a person's works have no effect on +upon it. This was of course in contradiction to the Catholic doctrine +that the Church had the authority to dispense forgiveness for sin, and +to sell indulgences from particular sins. The Catholic Church +accepts as authoritative many extra-biblical documents; indeed the +Pope, as Vicar of Christ, is said to be infallible when speaking ex +cathedra. If, as Luther did, one is to reject these extraneous +teachings, one is left with only one possible source of authoritative +information concerning God, Christ and salvation--the Bible. + The main goal of the Reformation then, was to fashion a +doctrine that, as rigorously as possible, followed Biblical teachings, +and *only* Biblical teachings. "The Bible, the whole Bible, and +nothing but the Bible." There was no particular interest in +harmonizing the Bible with secular learning (one has only to read +Luther's comments on Copernicus to see that). The man who provided +the most rigorous rendition of the Bible's teachings, and hence the +rendition accepted as authoritative among Protestants until the +late eighteenth century, was John Calvin. + We can set down five essential points of Calvinism, long used +to teach its fundamentals. 1) The nature of man, as a result of +Adam's fall, is totally depraved, so that nothing good can come from +him without God's gracious intervention. 2) God decided before +creating the world which people would receive salvation; that number +may be a very small portion of humanity, God's elect. 3) Christ's +sacrifice on the cross redeemed the elect only. 4) God's grace is +irresistable by the elect, so that a decision or voluntary action +by the recipient is not involved in salvation. 5) Those who are +saved cannot lose their salvation. + These five points were formulated in response to five points +of opposite meaning proposed by Jacobus Arminius, who attempted to +humanize Christianity. We can regard Calvinism, as expressed above, +as closed and authoritarian, while Arminianism can be regarded as open +and democratic. + At this point it serves our purpose to compare Calvinism and +Arminianism with Biblical teachings. Both, after all, claim to be in +accord with the Bible. With this end in mind, Dr. Cohen combed the +New Testament for verses clearly supporting only a Calvinist +interpretation, and for verses supporting only an Arminian +interpretation. The results: 133 verses clearly in favor of +Calvinism, vs only twenty-three in favor of Arminianism[3]. More +significantly, no parable or story in the NT has an ending consistent +with Arminianism. Calvinism is the clearly the more accurate rendition +of the two. (Of course, it's easier to strain 23 verses to fit +Calvinism, than it is to strain 133 to fit Arminianism!) + How does one know if one is saved? In Calvinism there is no +discernable criterion, other than that "he that shall endure unto the +end, the same shall be saved."[Matt. 24:13] One cannot know if +someone is a true saint until the full span of that person's life is +over. (I do not here mean "saint" in the Catholic sense. In the +Bible, all the saved are refered to as "saints.") Aside from that, +only ambiguous, even teasing allusions are given (2 Cor. 13:5, Heb. +4:16, Phil. 2:12, 2 Cor. 10:7). + I hope that the reader can now see how morbid fascination with +question of one's salvation status could develop. Consider a passage +from a sermon by Jonathon Edwards, the arch-proponent of Calvinsim in +America: + + The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds + a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, + and is dreadfully provoked, his wrath towards you burns like + fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his + sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes + than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have + offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did + his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you + from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed + to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night, + that you was [sic] suffered to awake again in this world, + after you closed your eyes to sleep[4]. + + Clearly not an attractive doctrine, however an accurate +rendition of the Bible it may be. To continue to attract new members, +Protestantism had to--and did--change. The next phase we can see is +the ascendance of Methodism and Baptism. + John Wesley was one of the co-founders of Methodism. This +movement began in the 1730's at Oxford, where Wesley was educated. In +particular, Wesley was strongly Arminian. Hence the emphasis was on +good works and social action. This provided the model for nineteenth +century efforts such as rescue missions, missionary organizations, the +Salvation Army, and a generally civic-minded tone. The prevailing +attitude in Methodism and Baptism was that anyone could decide to +become a Christian, and that as a result would perform such good works +as he was able. This charity, in the absence of any comparable +secular efforts, goes a long way towards explaining the vague notion +many have that the Bible is somehow connected to "doing good," despite +the Calvinist injunction that works do nothing to ensure salvation. + The key point to remember is that Wesley made individual +judgment and conscience into a counterbalance upon the literal +authority of Scripture. In fact, the authority of Scrpiture was made +*subordinate* to common sense in Methodism. All the while, Wesley +claimed to be following the Bible; as he wrote in his Journal on June +5, 1766, "My ground is the Bible. Yea, I am a Bible bigot. I follow +it in all things, both great and small." An absurd statement, in the +light of the Calvinist verses he passed over. He followed the +"spirit," as his *conscience* dictated, not the "letter." Thus this +teaching is Biblical only in a very superficial sense; for every +negative Biblical teaching, a modern idea was substituted and clothed +in Biblical language. What was achieved was *containment* of the +Bible's true teachings, rendering the Bible remote, confusing and +impenetrable. This lead to dispensationalism, the division of the +Bible into as many as seven epochs, each with different theological +rules. In such a view there is no need for unity, continuity and +consistency in the whole Bible, which is what Calvinism had done. + What does the Bible itself say about the Arminian-Wesleyan +approach? Considering that Jesus himself often spoke in parables and +allegory, it seems probable to assume that parts of it are not to be +taken *literally*. On the other hand it does see itself as +authoritative: + + All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is + profitable for doctrine, for instruction in righteousness: + That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto + all good works.[2 Tim. 3:16-17] + +Also consider that: + + . . .no prophecy of Scripture is of any private + interpretation.[2 Pet. 1:20] + +The worst punishments in Hell are reserved exclusively for those who +bring a false gospel, ie adding to or detracting from the Scriptures. +Understanding the Bible is declared to be beyond mere human reason (1 +Cor. 2:12-14, 1 Cor. 13:9-10,12). Clearly the Bible, the *whole* +Bible, is taken to be authoritative, though taken on a figurative, +allegorical level as well as a literal one. Also, since the +Scriptures clearly deprecate any non-Scriptural influences +("whatsoever is not of faith is sin" [Rom. 14:23], "But though we, or +an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which +we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." [Gal. 1:8]), we +cannot possibly be meant to leaven Scriptural teachings with lore from +any other source, not even with our common sense. + Thus we can see that by the twentieth century, Protestant +Christianity was well on its way to standing for--absolutely nothing. +When individual conscience is made the primary discriminator between +applicable and non-applicable verses, virtually any doctrine can be +justified. In fact, the Bible can be emptied of any content +whatsoever. + One can consider "modernist theology" to be a complete, 180 +degree turnabout from Calvinist doctrine. Paul Tillich provided the +main insights here. To put it very simply, the key concept here is +the *symbol*. A symbol has a few basic properties: 1) It points to +something that it cannot make totally explicit (a totally explicit +notation or character is refered to as a *sign*); 2) The symbol "opens +up levels of reality which otherwise are closed for us." 3) It +"unlocks dimensions and elements of our soul which correspond to +dimensions and elements of reality." 4) "Symbols cannot be produced +intentionally." They are spontaneous, they occur to us. 5) They +grow to meet the needs of their users, and die when the symbol has +fulfilled its use, ie has become explicit. A larger system of symbols +is called a myth; something mythic prompts a resonance in those for +whom it has meaning. A myth has psychological truth. + Tillich did little to guide Christians towards a new +idea-content which the Bible could stand for. The void was more than +filled by C. G. Jung's investigation into religious symbolism. He saw +the death-to-life transformation story in the Gospels as an image of +the individual's innate, "authentic" destiny. The demands to submit +to Biblical teaching were re-interpreted as openness to one's +unconsciousness and living out that innate destiny. The focus is +individualistic, and the idea that obligation is imposed from without +vanishes. In essence, the goal is the development of one's true Self. + (Notice that this approach completely frees one from taking +any part of the Bible as meaning what it says. A believer who takes a +Biblical verse literally is merely responding to the symbol system +differently than the believer who is further along in +self-development. The approach resembles nothing so much as the +Gnosticism of early Christianity.) + Here was the hoped-for rejuvenation of Christianity--or so +Jung thought. Instead, the period saw no birth of new symbols to help +Christians along in developing the Self. Instead, theologians +complaining about the spiritual bankruptcy of contemporary +Christianity were most vocal. The cover of the April 8, 1966 Time +magazine featured the phrase "Is God Dead?" in large red letters on a +black background. Theologians discussed topics such as the synthesis +of Christianity and Marxism and gender-neutering the Bible. + Against such a backdrop, the rise of conservative Christianity +becomes a bit more comprehensible. The conservative message is, at +least, unequivocal. "The Bible means what it says it means, and +that's that!" In times of great social upheaval, such certainty is +compelling, particularly if the liberal approach becomes more and more +uninspiring. Furthermore, the liberal gloss put on the Bible by +preceding generations has prepared people for the notion that it +contains some sublime wisdom, while leaving them unfamiliar with the +Bible's actual content. Thus for the first time since the +Reformation, we have a significant portion of the population once +again ready for the old Calvinist/Paulinist doctrine. The +alternatives have played themselves out. + + + + I hope the reader of the preceding is ready to accept, at +least in a provisional way, the notion that the Bible really does mean +what it says it means, that the Calvinist doctrine really is the +closest approximation of the Bible's message. Then we are left with a +conundrum. Liberal Protestantism grew out of a rebellion against +Calvinism's nastier implications. Yet churches built on liberal, +humanistic premises have grown progressively weaker over time, while +the conservative churches of our time (not to mention first century, +Paulinist Christianity) display a great deal of vitality. Obviously +there is something about Christianity that enables it, in its pure, +undiluted form, to spread like wildfire, while tampering with the +"recipe" spoils the effect. + But if Calvinist/Paulinist Christianity is so repulsive as to +have spawned the liberal Protestant rebellion against it, what is +there to draw people towards it? The answer is that the themes of +cleansing, rebirth, peace, prayer and so on, seen by the conservatives +as literally true, by the liberal religionists as symbolic of sublime +wisdom, and by skeptics as sheer invention, are not really any of the +above. The Bible is primarily a *psychological* document. The +relevant criterion for evaluating the contents of the Bible is not the +Bible's intellectual content, but the Bible's psychological effect. +Unravelling the Bible's true, psychological purpose will be a +fascinating undertaking. But first, the foundations for discussion +must be laid down. My next post will deal with the psychological +premises at the core of Dr. Cohen's model. + + +[1] Trans. Talcott Parsons (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, +1958), p. 182. + +[2] The Mind of the Bible Believer, Edmund Cohen, (Buffalo, NY: +Prometheus Books, 1988) p. 41. + +[3] Verses consistent only with Calvinism: Matt. 2:6; 7:16-20; +9:37-38; 10:5-6; 11:25, 27; 13:24-30; 37-43; 15:13, 24; 20:23, 28; +22:2-14; 24:22; 25:32-34; Mark 4:11-12, 15-20; Luke 1:77; 3:17; +6:43-45; 8:5-15; 10:22; 13:23-30; 14:23; 16:31; 18:7; John 1:12-13; +3:6;6:44, 65; 10:14, 16, 26; 15:16; 17:2; Acts 2:39; Rom. 8:29-30, 33; +9:15-16, 21-24; 10:20; 11:5; 2 Cor. 10:7, 18; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 1:4-5; +2:8; 2 Thess. 2:11-12; 2 Tim. 2:10, 19-20; 1 Pet. 2:8; Jude 4; Rev. +7:3-15; 13:8; and 22:11. + Verses consistent only with Arminianism: Matt. 11:28; Luke 2:10; +11:9-10; 13:34; 20:38; Acts 2:17; Rom. 10:9, 13; Gal. 5:13; Eph. 4:6; +Phil. 2:10-11; Col. 1:28; 1 Tim. 2:4, 6; 2 Tim. 2:21; Titus 2:11; 2 +Pet. 3:9; and Rev. 22:17-19, 21. + +[4] "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," preached July 8, 1741. +In Ola Elizabeth Winslow, ed., Jonathon Edwards: Basic writings (New +York: New American Library, 1966) p. 159. + + The initial word does not lie within the province of the + theologian, but of the historian and the psychologist.--Hugh + J. Schonfield, _The_Passover_Plot_ + + + I ended Part 1 by asserting that the Bible is primarily a +psychological document, and that the long and bitter debate over its +didactic content had missed the point. To continue in this review, we +must lay down the psychological premises at the core of Dr. Cohen's +work. We may sum this up as follows: Freud's stance towards +Christianity was the correct one, but his method was flawed; Jung's +stance towards Christianity was flawed, but his general psychodynamic +concepts (minus the religious theory) are useful. Dr. Cohen seeks to +unite was is useful in both approaches. + + Freud + + For the sake of brevity, I assume the reader is familiar with +the basic Freudian concepts--id, ego, superego; resistance, libido, +Oedipus complex; and the five stages of psychosexual development. The +basic idea was that from the id, two drives emerge: the erotic drive +and the self-destructive drive. The aim of the former is possession +of the parent of the opposite sex; the aim of the latter, the +reduction of all tension and a return to the inorganic state. The +attainment of either goal would have antisocial consequences, so only +displacements, substitute gratifications are possible. These reduce +tension but do not eliminate it. The ego develops through the fives +stages of psychosexual development to cope with the outside world, +where there are objects that psychic energy, libido, can be invested +in. The superego develops out of the internalization of prohibitions +laid down in childhood. The aims of the two drives are so terrible +that they cause anxiety, and hence are repressed by the superego. +This allows an individual to retain socially acceptable illusions +about himself. Repressed material can cause various neuroses; +analysis consists of bringing repressed material to consciousness, one +small dose at a time. + How did Freud view religion? Freud was a radical materialist. +Almost alone among behaviorial scientists of the time, Freud was a +destructive critic of religion. (This makes sense if we remember that +religion was almost the sole provider of charitable outreach at the +time, and that most of the destructive teachings in the Bible, which +they would have criticized, were being explained away by liberal +theologians anyway. Also, many of the behaviorial scientists had +liberal Christian affiliations themselves. They were very gentle +critics indeed, seeking mostly to encourage the positive +effects--charity--that were socially useful. One has only to read +William James' _Varieties_of_Religious_Experiences_ to see this +attitude.) Freud saw three functions of religion: 1) The +explanatory function, ie creation myths, which were losing +significance with the advance of science; 2) the wish-fulfilling +function, in which the need for a "protector," a father-figure, was +projected onto God, and (in contradiction to his notion of a +self-destructive urge) death was denied; 3) the social regulatory +function, in which religion takes over the parental role of laying +down rules against anti-social gratification. Freud saw the first two +positions as illusions, while the third function would have to find +some foundation other than religion, which was built up from false +premises. Freud once said that participating in a universal neurosis +such as religion spared one from constructing an individual neurosis. + In Dr. Cohen's view, there are some things to commend in +Frued's attitude. The first is that it helps to stand apart from the +phenomenon being studied, to refuse to apply more lenient standards to +religious truth claims. The second is that looking beneath surface +impressions is necessary; we are looking for something that +theological study serves to divert our attention from. The third is +that the religious problem ought not be severed from the other motives +and conflicts present in a person; Freud had a good point, in seeing +religion could serve as a substitute neurosis. + All the same, there are aspects of Freudianism to be avoided. +One is its rigidity. No theory other than the sexual one is +considered worthy of discussion; anyone proposing otherwise is +diagnosed as having unanalyzed resistance to it. Any critics must +have horribly intense, and repressed, sexual complexes. When Jung and +Adler, his prize disciples, broke with him over the theory, they were +accused of currying favor with outsiders. (It is interesting to note +that in some aspects--namely, the negative view of humanity, and the +demonization of outside views--Freud mimics aspects of conservative +Christianity. An ironic result, considering that Freud proclaimed +himself a proponent of the scientific method!) Misuse of history also +ought to be avoided. Freud sometimes tailored history to fit his +views. Christianity itself is an example of this. If Christianity's +purpose was social control, then it was superfluous, as many such +controls already existed in the Roman Empire. We will see later than +maintaining social order is really not what early Christianity was +concerned with. + The key point then is that while Freud's insight into religion +was good--ie, that it can act as a substitute neurosis--we will need +some more flexible tools to extend this insight. (I hope the reader +doesn't analyze this as "resistance" on our part!) Next we shall +consider the views of Jung. + + Jung + + Jung viewed the subconscious as a much livelier place than +Freud's dour trio of id, ego and superego. The fundamental concept +here is that of the complex, which is defined as a grouping of +energy-laden psychic contents which are compatible and belong +together. These act as organized centers of activity within a +personality, which the conscious is not aware of. They are distinct +from the ego-personality because they embody attitudes at odds with +the conscious attitude. + Dr. Cohen gives us an apt analogy when he compares the various +complexes to a parliament. "In a normal person, there is a majority +party (the ego-personality) and a relatively docile, loyal opposition +(the complexes). . . In a neurotic person, there is also a majority +party, but the opposition is disruptive and combative, largely because +the majority party has been too narrow and intransigent, not allowed +the minority a hearing, and made too few concessions. In the +schizophrenic, no party is able to form a government and confusion +reigns."[2] + There are several complexes for us to consider. The first is +the ego-personality. This is the person's awareness of self, +including memories and knowledge. The ego-personality grows and +becomes more differentiated as it matures. There is the persona, the +image presented to the outside world. Several unconscious complexes +that one attempts to deal with in Jungian analysis are the shadow, the +anima (in a male) or animus (in a female), and the Self. From the +conscious standpoint, the shadow embodies all that is related to bad +conscience. The anima or animus embodies qualities missing from the +conscious attitude, and in dreams is represented as a person of the +opposite sex. The Self is the "final complete quintessence towards +which the person is growing," often represented as a child or an +abstract personification. As such it has a relation to the idea of +God, and to a Jungian, the personal religious quest and actualization +of the Self (individuation) are the same. In the Jungian view, +compensation is important in relating different aspects of the psyche, +just as causality is important in the exterior world. Thus +unconscious elements embody psychological opposites to the conscious +attitude. + Other Jungian concepts include intraversion vs extraversion, +the four functions, and archetypes. Introverts feels overstimulated +by their environment; extraverts, understimulated. The popular usage +of the terms is what Jung means as well. The four functions are +diagrammed thus: + + Thinking + + Sensation + Intuition + + Feeling + +Thinking means mental activity from an objective standpoint; feeling, +subjective menatal activity. These are the raional functions, because +they involve reflection. Sensation and intuition are irrational +because they are kinds of perception. Sensation involves the explicit +data of perception, while the intuitive type deals with tacit, +subliminal data. Each individual has one of these functions most +developed; that function is the main function. The psychologically +opposite function is the inferior function--inferior in the sense of +its poor response to voluntary conscious control. Archetypes can be +thought of as universal symbols, that occur in the same way despite +differences in culture and time because the psyche has fundamentally +the same structure. This fascination with religious symbolism +dominated Jung's later career. + In Jung's view maturity is reached through the synthesis of +opposites. "A psychic state or condition at a particular time, +expressible in symbols, will finally combine with another, from the +unconscious, that is in some ways it opposite, and a higher synthesis +will emerge."[3] This is a continually ongoing process; there is +always some finer nuance of individuation to be experienced. Jung +connected this with his religious theory. + Life's true main issue is the personal religious quest. +Meaningful religious symbols are created and enable one to get in +touch with deeper levels within oneself. As I've alluded to earlier, +this resembles the Gnosticism of early Christianity, and has also been +viewed as compatible with Tillich's conception of symbols. Jung was +thus much friendlier to Christianity than Freud was--but Christianity +in the Tillichian sense. He made no concession at all to the Bible's +declarations about its meaning. + One disturbing aspect of all this is that Jung and his +disciple's seem to have been overwhelmed by the rich religious +symbolism available for study. As Dr. Cohen says, "Jungians turn out +to be escapists. . ."[4] and that they "prided themselves on putative +superior individuation, and disdained those less withdrawn than +themselves as benighted and unconscious. To me, they seemed like +refugees from reality. . ."[5] We can correct for this by severing +Jung's psychodynamic theory from his religious theory, and saying that +individuation, the reconciliation of psychic opposites, is the goal. +This is accomplished through projection, the application of the +archetypes to stimuli (which we can call the progressive flow of +libido, or psychic energy) and withdrawal of projections that don't +fit and result in the blockage of progressive flow (which we can call +regressive flow). + Having defined the mentally healthy individual as one in whom +individuation takes place, one who can successfully distinguish +fantasy from non-fantasy (we use "non-fantasy" because reality can be +a loaded term), we can speak of mechanisms that prevent individuation. +Dissociation occupies roughly the same place in Jungian thought as +repression does in Freudian. Psychic contents become dissociated +(placed within the unconscious) which are incompatible with conscious +attitudes. That which is dissociated is always a matter of bad +conscience to the person. Dissociation is the ego-defense mechanism, +in which one seeks to 1) avoid negative emotions associated with the +dissociated material, and 2) avoid incongruity or conflict in +attitudes. As we shall see later, dissociation induction, and the +management of dissociation, is one of the most important features of +the Biblical program, which Dr. Cohen refers to as "the Evangelical +Mind Cointrol System." + One can view Jung's notions about individuation as similar to +Goldstein's view of "self-actualization." This is defined as +"adequate, adaptive behavior, in accordance with the capacities and +capabilities of the organism." In both we can see one overall, +teleologically constituted drive--not for the reduction of tension, +but for the maintenance of an optimum level of tension. + The key insight of Jung's theory is that individuation takes +place through the synthesis of psychic opposites. We can take our +provisional definition of mental health to be that state in which +individuation, or self-actualization, takes place. Now we can ask +ourselves--is the Biblical system such an environment? + + The Biblical View of Human Nature + + Not to put to fine a point on things, we must say that the +Bible has the most negative possible view of human nature. If it were +even more negative, the whole system would be untenable. Some +applicable verses: + + The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as + soon as they are born, speaking lies. [Ps. 58:3] + + For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being + justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is + in Christ Jesus. . .[Rom. 3:23-24] + + . . .there is none good but one, that is God.[Mark 10:18] + + The implication is that this guilt is universal. Good works +do not cure it. Outside of the Biblical program, there is no source +of self-esteem. + One objection to this scheme is the good that the unsaved do. +The Bible's answer to this is that the unsaved have a form of the Law +written in their hearts. Presumably this is put there to prevent the +unsaved from wiping the saved off of the face of the earth. At any +rate, this conscience that the unsaved have is vastly inferior to +knowledge of the Scrpitures. Certainly conscience is never portrayed +as a source of relief from Bible prescripts that are repugnant. +Secular culture is uniformly condemned as "unprofitable." + This takes advantage the fact that most people innately feel +"wrong, inferior and unhappy." We have a distorted view of our own +moral nature. Dr. Cohen's service as a defense attorney provides an +illustration of this. Often he was called upon to defend street +criminals. These people had fairly good information as to the +punishment risk of their crimes; in general, they decided the crime +was worth it. The sole exception to the rule comes in the area of +confessions. Each criminal knows that what he says will be used +against him, so self-interest dictates one say nothing. Yet a +substantial number of convictions would have been unattainable had not +the defendents essentially convicted themselves. There is typically a +compulsion to confess, indicative of sound but guilty conscience. + This blind spot to our own moral nature may serve a purpose. +After all, it is those criminals whose self-esteem remains high are +most prone to repeating crimes. Feeling "wrong, inferior and unhappy" +serves to prevent us from doing great harm to others and ourselves. +Being deprived of these feelings would be akin to being deprived of +pain sensitivity. Mental-health officials do us no favors when they +advocate a bland, untroubled state of mind, life on an even keel. The +emphasis on self-esteem stems from a tendency to over-react, to do +whatever seems to be the opposite of the bad, old way of doing things. + The Bible exploits this tendency to its fullest, aggravating +and distorting it enormously. Often we will hear Evangelicals say +that Christ is the only thing that prevents them from being very +wicked people. Yet we never hear from people for whom the Bible has +helped to relieve an immense burden of guilt. What the Evangelicals +seek relief from is a fairly low-key, nagging sense of guilt. They +are guilt "dilletantes." + On the other hand, the Bible does offer some sound advice on +managing inner discord: + + Bear ye one another's burdens. . .[Gal 6:2] + + There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to + man: but God is faithful. . .but will with the temptation + also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.[1. + Cor. 10:13] + + In the world ye shall have tribulation. . .[John 16:33] + + These realistic pieces of advice protected the Bible authors +against losing credibility with their hearers. + The Bible author's approach then, is to start with some sound +insight--tacitly expressed perhaps, but unmistakeable--about their +people. They offer some useful practical advice about it. Then they +veer off into something contrived and artificial. We can see that the +Bible is profoundly "anti-Jungian"--the unconscious is protrayed in +profoundly negative terms. The believer is not to seek individuation, +reconciliation with psychological opposites, but instead to widen the +gap between conscious and subconscious as much as possible. The good +in man can only come from the outside. As complete an alienation from +one's own inner being as possible is advocated. From the viewpoint of +our provisional definition of mental health, such an attitude is sick. + Here we are already seeing the psychological acumen of the +Bible authors in action. They were not trying to create an +intellectually corect model; they wanted to create a human +organization that could get started without social power, prestige or +acclaim on their side. The aim was not education, but indoctrination. +In the process, they created the most successful assault on human +psychological vulnerabilities ever devised. + + + + + We have seen that, from the viewpoint that the primary drive +in humans is individuation, the Bible authors advocate a scheme +profoundly at variance with this goal. They advocate widening the gap +between conscious and subconscious as much as possible. In my next +post, I shall outline the seven devices the Bible uses to attract new +devotees, to induce dissociation in the believer, and stabilize that +state within believers. + +SD + +[1] (New York: Bernard Geis Associates, 1965), p. 51. + +[2] The Mind of the Bible Believer, p. 97. + +[3] Ibid., p. 91. + +[4] Ibid., p. 96. + +[5] Ibid., p. 96. + + + + Our method of explaining why people hold certain religious + views can easily degenerate into argumentum ad hominem if used + improperly. + The most impressive Christian apologetic argument for + believing things that cannot be verified as propositions in + other fields is that Christianity's long history of attracting + and holding the loyalty of people of good will must reflect + that its truth and beneficiality was manifest to those people, + even if it cannot be explained, or appreciated within the + narrow breadth of the individual's perspective. That + argument, and the history behind it, is the crucial datum for + which social scientists studying religion have never + accounted. Our purpose, which has never been undertaken + before, is the explanation of the psychological attraction + that has given Christianity such a tenacious hold upon people, + despite the unverifiability or wrongness of its ideas. In so + doing, we make no statement about Christians more derogatory + than that they possess normal human psychological + vulnerabilites. It is perfectly consistent with our approach + to concede that nearly all Christians are sincere and bona + fide, and that many of them are intelligent. + The key to distinguishing ad hominem from fair criticism of + psychological bias in holding any given view, is to keep track + of who should have the burden of proof. The proponent of a + position that is neither self-evident nor supported by + intelligible argument, or the one attacking a point that has + been made and supported by some proof, must draw on substance, + or else we are entitled to suppose that it is only subjective + motives and desires that account for the views expressed. If + a Christian comes at me, saying that my failure to believe as + he does indicates my lack of the Holy Spirit, or my having + received a spirit of blindness, it is up to him to prove it. + If he believes for no articulate reason, then it is fair for + me to try to explain away his belief psychologically. Behind + his biblical pseudopsychological analysis of me necessarily + lies an indirect attack on my character. If my psychological + analysis fails to make sense and fit the facts, then it is no + better. The end result hopefully will be observables brought + together and made intelligible by my analyses. The + Christian, unable to make fact and his doctrine cooperate, + will finally be heard to say that his view is right because it + follows biblical teaching, and the Bible is right because it + says it is.----Cohen, The Mind of the Bible Believer, p. 140. + + + + + We are now prepared to discuss the seven psychological devices +embodied in the Bible. These devices reinforce each other, so that +their effect when working together is much more powerful than one +would suspect. Some of the devices outlined would be too blatant to +work on their own; others are so subtle that without other devices to +reinforce them, their effects would quickly subside. The devices are +arranged from the more obvious to the more hidden, from the more +important in the experience of the newcomer to the more important in +the deeply involved and indoctrinated believer. + + + Device 1: The Benign, Attractive Persona of the Bible + + + One way of understanding the kindly, mellow, non-judgmental +and charitable liberal and mainline churches is to recognize that they +have taken the lovely surface impressions of Jesus in the Gospels and +built a whole new religion out of them alone. In essence, a few +well-chosen fragments were taken to stand for the whole. This +corresponds roughly to the "Arminian" viewpoint that we discussed in +the first post--ie, that one could choose to be saved, and that doing +good works went a long ways towards ensuring salvation. + As we shall see later though, the more deeply indoctrinated +believer must gradually be weaned away from the Arminian notions of +doing good in this world, and gradually introduced to the notion that +only preaching the salvation message is important. The newcomer is +gradually made to understand that the teachings mean something +different than what appears on the surface--and that it is oriented to +the next life, not this one. The only promise kept is that a +tranquilized state of mind will be attained, but with a net +detrimental effect on mental health. + These misleading surface impressions are crucial. Without +them, recruitment of new members would be impossible. Once in the +fold though, the old "bait-and-switch" sales pitch is what takes +place! + + + Device 2: Discrediting "The World" + + + In my first post I covered some biblical teachings that +require believers to distrust reliance on their own minds for +knowledge. Only through the biblical teachings does any knowledge +come. In essence reliance on any of the four Jungian functions is shunned. +Since this state of mind is elusive, discrediting of people other than +believers and of the environment is added. + The Bible defines three sorts of people for the believer, as +well as modes of conduct towards each. There are: 1) believers; 2) +ordinary unbelievers and 3) missionaries of "false" gospels. The +Bible doesn't prescribe depth of contact between believers and +ordinary unbelievers; unbelievers are often referred to as "crops" to +be "harvested," or "fish" to be "netted." Abundant numbers of +contacts are being mandated. When the believer is in the presence of +an unbeliever, it is to preach and "witness," not to listen. When we +look at some indirect references to unnatural self restraint and +apparent freedom from negative emotions in the face of provocation, +(Luke 6:29-31, 1 Pet. 2:23) a pattern of conduct emerges. Believers +in the presence of unbelievers are put in a frame of mind that closes +them off to anything unbelievers might have to say. The unbeliever +also sees in the believer a very odd state of euphoric calm, which the +unbeliever mis-interprets as a spriritually higher, happier state. +Actually, as we shall see in the later Devices, what actually occurs +in the believer is artificially induced inner turmoil, masked by the +dulled, divided state the believer is in. The believer develops a +knack for being aloof and oblivious to what the unbeliever has to say; +this is often mistaken for tolerance on the believer's part. + Within the churchly life, protected by outside influences, +believers can open up to each other--to a limited degree. (Col. +3:1-17, Phil 2:1-11) Complete immersion in the Bible is prescribed; +other human priorities are devalued, and any investment of psychic +energy in them is withdrawn. Intolerance for individuality is at the +core; believers see each other as organs in the "body of Christ." +While differences in gifts are praised as having their purpose, +individuality of personality is not. (1 Cor. 12:12-31, Eph. 4:1-16) + We also see that while other supernaturalistic premises are +presented as being extremely hazardous (indeed, proponents of "false" +gospels are the only ones to receive even harsher punishment in hell), +devaluation of anything that passes for learning is implied. Paul +often equates whatever is not in the Biblical program with +homosexuality (eg Rom. 1:18-27) Consider the following: + + For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not + that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver + and an anti-christ. Look to yourselves, that we lose not + those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full + reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not with the + doctrine of Christ, hath not God. . . If there come any unto + you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your + house, neither bid him God speed[ie, give him no greeting]: + For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil + deeds.[2 John 7-11] + + The implication of this teaching for our times is that +"secular humanists", educators, mental health practitioners and +liberal politicians, as well as proponents of other religious beliefs, +all fall within the definition of "false prophets," preaching false +gospels. The believer is not to heed any of them. The believer is +effectively insulated from other doctrines. + Also, looking for confirmation of biblical beliefs in the +outside world is effectively discouraged. Although the believer +constantly prays, he is not to tempt God by praying for a sign. If +the thing prayed for didn't happen, it just means God said no. When +bad things happen to good people, and good things to the wicked, it +just proves how far beyond our sin-cursed, wicked minds God's wisdom, +justice and foresight are. Thus no pattern of events fail to take on +an aura of purpose for the believer. No matter what happens, the fact +that it did, proves it is God's will. + + + Device 3: Logocide + + + In the Appendix of 1984, Orwell describes the purpose of +Newspeak, which was to provide a mode of expression for the mental +habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc (English Socialism), *and* +also to make other modes of thought impossible. This was done by +overburdening some words, and eliminating others. We can see a +similar technique in key biblical terms. Dr. Cohen coins the term +"logocide" for the technique of so overburdening words with ponderous, +contrived, dissonant meanings that they are effectively put out of +commission. Key terms (life, death, truth, wisdom, righteousness, +justice, liberty, bondage, love, hate, will, grace, witness and word) +are given this treatment in the Bible. In our discussion, biblical +distortion of these terms will be denoted by a '; that is, "life" will +refer to the usual connotations of the word, and "life'" will refer to +the biblical meaning. + Life and death are two such terms. Superficially, the Bible +promises eternal life to those who heed its message. Naturally, most +of us are interested in anything that promises to circumvent death. +Yet if we look into life and death a little more deeply, a double +layer of meaning is evident: + + Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after + me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow + me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and + whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.[Matt. + 16:24-25] + + And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the + righteous into life eternal.[Matt. 25:46] + + But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury + their dead.[Matt. 8:22] + + God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.[Matt. + 22:32] + + . . . [T]he dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and + they that hear shall live.[John 5:25] + + Clearly the Bible promises continuity of existence to all, +saved and unsaved. But instead of solving a problem, a new one is +added: now we have to worry about eternal damnation. Death' means +not the end of biological existence, but lack of salvation. Life' +means attaining salvation, not continuity of existence, which the +Bible promises to everybody. The confusion between the two serves the +Device 1 purpose of recruitment as well. Paul added a key ingredient +of confusion masquerading as profundity: + + For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of god is eternal + life through Jesus Christ. . .[Rom. 6:23] + + . . . [R]eckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but + alive unto God through Jesus Christ. . .[Rom. 6:11] + + . . .[T]o me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.[Phil. + 1:21] + + To be alive', then, is simply to be a believer. + Another important thing to recognize is that truth, wisdom, +righteousness, and justice, which we all recognize as terms ascribing +value to their referents, are completely arbitrary in the Bible. The +commandments depend on the notion that God, as Creator, has the right +to do as he will with his creations. + + . . .O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the + thing formed say to him that formed it, Why has thou made me + thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same + lump to make one vessel unto honour[ie, dignity, economic + value], and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to + shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much + longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And + that he might make known the riches of his glory on the + vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even + us, whom he hath called. . .?[Rom. 9:20-24] + + The question of God's righteousness is a thorny issue with +believers, given the record of the many acts of God that would be +wicked, had they been committed by anyone other than God. The answer +to the question "Is God unrighteous?" becomes a deep mystery for the +believer. Yet there is no mystery here, but simply a sterile +tautology. God is *defined* as righteous; whatever God does is by +definition "good", "wise," "just" and "righteous," no matter how +repugnant those actions are to man. All these words are redefined in +terms of Him. + Wisdom' and wise', righteous' and righteousness', simply +become code words for believers. Truth' refers not to the factual +content of a statement, but to its accordance with doctrine: + + Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? + He is antichrist, who denieth the Father and the Son. . .But + the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, + and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same + anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no + lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.[1 + John 2:22, 27] + + One term that in particular suffers from inflation is "grace." +Since the Reformation, this has been regarded as a Christian mystery. +But when we look at the ancient-language texts, we find grace' to be +pretty much an artifact of translation. The words translated as +"grace" could just as well be translated as "favor" or "preference." +Only the context determines when "grace" is to be inserted into the +text. If not for the inflation of grace', the relevant verses would +more clearly illustrate the arbitrariness of the bestowal of eternal +life': + + For by. . . [preference] ye are saved through faith; and that + not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest + any man should boast.[Eph. 2:8-9] + + Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, + which loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and + good hope through. . .[preference].[2 Thess. 2:16] + + Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the . . . [favoritism] + that is in Christ Jesus.[2 Tim. 2:1] + + The last term I wish to discuss is love'. Again we see +inflation of this term, when we consider some biblical definitions of +it: + + . . .[L]ove is the fulfilling of the law.[Rom. 13:10] + + And this is love, that we walk after his commandments.[2 John + 6] + + Could it be that this new kind of love, said to be so much +superior to our own inclinations, is nothing but a very strict and +obsessive type of self discipline? It seems so. We can harmonize all +the Bible has to say about love' by saying that love' is "Holy +Spirit-aided self-discipline in internalizing Christian doctrine and +performing the devotional program." Too bad for the new believer; +he's getting love' when he expected love. + There are also indications that the believer's love' for God +consists not of love, but of the outpouring of energy: + + And Jesus answered him, the first of all commandments is, + Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt + love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy + soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this + is the first commandment.[Mark 12:29-30] + + In psychodynamic terms, God is a complex, siphoning libido +from ego-personality, disrupting the balance between progressive and +regressive flow of libido. This harmonizes with the biblically +mandated alienation from the world and other people. + The last topic of discussion pertaining to Device 3 is that of +contradiction. There are some examples of factual contradictions in +the Bible, mostly in the Old Testament. Such errors can be +explained away as scribal errors or testing devices to lead the +unfaithful astray. Atheists tend to focus on these contradictions; +and so fall into the trap of considering these contradictions to be +the ones of consequence. The inconsistencies we should be concerned +with are all camouflaged. They consist not of contradictions so much +as dissonance between biblical statements. Camouflaged +inconsistencies can be best highlighted by a method Dr. Cohen calls +triadic anti-apologetics--bringing together three passages that +highlight inconsistency. Through the interaction of these statements, +inconsistencies calculated to stick in one's unconscious are impressed +upon the believer. Consider the following: + + . . .[E]very creature of god is good, and nothing to be + refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. . .[1 Tim. 4:4] + + Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; + cleave to that which is good.[Rom. 12:9] + + Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. + If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in + him.[1 John 2:15] + +Also consider how we are exhorted to obey god and secular authorities +simultaneously: + + . . .[W]e have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, + and we gave them reverence: shall we not rather be in + subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they + verily chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our + profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.[Heb. + 12:9-10] + + No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the + one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and + despise the other.[Luke 16:13] + + Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything. . .[Col. + 3:22] + + Since "the whole world lieth in wickedness," then submitting +oneself to unsaved earthly authorities makes one a partaker in that +wickedness. But that is just what is being commanded. One is +required to serve two masters, and to serve each totally and +exclusively--a logical impossibility. + Consider also an antiapologetic triad on love: + + As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye + in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my + love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide + in his love. . . This is my commandment, That ye love one + another, as I have loved you.[John 15:9-10,12] + + He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of + me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not + worthy of me.[Matt. 10:37] + + If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, + and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and + his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.[Luke 14:26] + + The ambiguity here serves a purpose; to make affections for +others equal, (so that they lose their distinctiveness) and +unimportant compared to the God-complex. Coupled with instructions +stressing obedience, discipline and prohibition of emotional +spontaneity, libido is siphoned away from people and concerns of this +world and cathected towards the God-complex. + We see here a consistent pattern of words that have +significant connotations for us being devalued, becoming code words +for an obsessive program that, if it were expressed in plain terms, +would lose all power to enthrall. This also reinforces Device 1, as +the newcomer naturally uses these terms with their ordinary +connotations. Deeply indoctrinated believers use the biblical +connotations, though they usually have trouble articulating these new +connotations. Believers and unbelievers are not just speaking about +different concepts, but in different languages. + + + + + + + + + + If we are mentally unbalanced because of spiritual + despondency--and a lot of mental imbalance comes from + this--the fear of hell and mental imbalance can be an escape + mechanism to escape the reality of having to face the judgment + throne. . . anything of this nature still leaves man a + sinner. . . --Harold Camping, 1985 + + + Devices 4-7 + + + Now I will outline Devices 4-7 and conclude this discussion of +the Evangelical Mind Control System. + + + Device 4: Assaulting Integrity + + + I know that labelling this device "Assaulting Integrity" will +strike Christians as an insult. Before I begin, let me offer this +little caveat from Dr. Cohen's book: + + There is no group around, whose people as a rule are more + sincere, well-meaning, generous, natively tolerant if no one + inveigles them into being otherwise, and free from saying one + thing while intending another than the conservative + Evangelicals. It will seem incongruous and even mean to claim + that impairment of integrity has to do with their believing as + they do. The reader versed in the mental-health professions + will note drawing a blank as to technical understanding, there + having been little written, and no consensus, on what is meant + by integrity.--Edmund Cohen, The Mind of the Bible Believer, + p. 234. + + Thus our first step is to make up for this deficiency on the +part of mental-health officials and define "integrity." + + . . . with the complex model and varieties of psychopathology + in mind, we perceive that all psychological conditions other + than integration and relative cooperation of the + ego-personality with the other complexes involve impairment of + integrity. An ego-personality with control over its own + boundaries, communicating with and continually integrating + what lies in those reaches of the psyche beyond those + boundaries, has a measure of integrity that the "psychotic" or + the "neurotic" lacks. One who can use his capabilities to + come to continually better terms with the circumstances of his + existence we would say has integrity.--Cohen, p. 234. + +The main idea is that the believer uses the knowledge process to +maintain self-deceptions rather than to make the conscious attitude as +well informed as possible. It becomes like a journalist who makes +selective use of information to make propaganda seem credible instead +of communicating information fairly. An example of this assault can +be seen in the case of the hysterically blind soldier patient that Dr. +Cohen discusses. This soldier had seen a friend die in combat, and +naturally began to wonder if he had done all he could to save his +friend. Eventually an hysterical symptom manifested +itself--blindness. In a demonstration Dr. Cohen once witnessed, such +a patient was led into a room, and in his path was a stool. The +patient was led so that he could not avoid stumbling over the stool, +if he were truly blind; yet the patient avoided the stool. On one +level, the patient knew he wasn't blind, but to maintain his illusions +he repressed that information. + Now the knowledge process keeps on trying to work properly; +assaulting integrity requires energy. The inducement to expending +this energy is avoiding the pain that goes with bad conscience, as we +can see in the example of the hysterically blind soldier. How does +the Bible induce one to expend that energy? Basically, the believer +is subtly encouraged to repress any tendency he might have to think +critically about his beliefs. + + The point of the stratagem of assaulting integrity is inducing + the believer, for the sake of obedience, to affirm teachings + that are inherently incredible, not germane to, and in discord + with, the rest of the Bible. He violates his conscience, his + common sense, his good inclination to tell the truth as it + occurs to him, to call things as he sees them.--Cohen, p. 241. + + An extreme example comes from Luke: + + And he [Jesus] spake a parable to them to this end, that men + ought always to pray, and not to faint [shirk]; Saying, There + was in a city a judge, which feared not god, neither regarded + man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto + him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not + for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I + fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth + me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary + me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And + shall God not avenge his own elect, which cry day and night + unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you he will + avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man + cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?[Luke 18:1-8] + + Here God is likened to a wicked judge, lazy and infirm, tiring +easily. The notions of God's perfection and faithfulness, and the +selflessness the believer strives for, are turned topsy-turvy in this +passage. By passively accepting passages such as this, by being +encouraged to see them as enhancing those notions of God's perfection +and faithfulness, though they seem in discord with those notions, the +believer subtly attacks his own integrity. + There is an amplification of this "vicious cycle" of +continually repressing the bad conscience caused by assaulting +integrity, by loading some biblical content with lurid, scandalous +implications. The biblical content implicates both relatively neutral +things, made taboo only by biblical doctrine, and aspects of the +personality that would be taboo in any civilized society. Thus a very +powerful dissociation is triggered. + We can see here the sadistic and masochistic activities the +believer is supposed to partcipate in. We are so hardened to these +topics that we must pause and reflect to see them clearly. How many +stop to really think about the fact that Christianity takes as its +main symbol a Roman instrument of terror? There are many aspects of +Christianity that we would deem nauseating, if it were part of a +tradition outside our culture. One example is the communion ritual, +in which believers are urged to eat Christ's flesh and drink his +blood. This goes way back to ancient beliefs in the ingestion of +totem animals or enemies. The biblical image of ". . .having their +conscience seared with a hot iron[1 Tim. 4:2]" is ironically an apt +metaphor for the state of mind a believer must be in, desensitizied to +the unappetizing notion of eating flesh and drinking blood. +Christians of course characterize this as a deep, spiritual mystery, +but this doesn't change the character of the communion ritual. + Another example is the idea of substitutionary atonement, the +remedy for the sin affliction. The premise of the idea is that man is +so wicked and depraved that there is nothing he can do to please God. +For some reason, God requires propitation for sin, which man comes +into the world totally saturated with, yet somehow becomes +supersaturated by the inevitable bad deeds. So Christ had to be +sacrificed in man's stead. The enormity of Christ's sufferings are +supposed to guilt-trip the believer into obedience. But how enormous +were those sufferings? The Father sacificed his "only begotten son," +but unlike mortal fathers he had his son back safe and sound in three +days. Christ's sufferings began with his anxiety attack in the Garden +of Gethsemane and ends with his death on the cross. (The Bible hedges +on the question of whether Jesus was even *conscious* before +resurrection.) Viewed objectively, the suffering seems about on par +with what after all must have been the fate of many a Jewish partriot +of the time; certainly one begins to question if it really equalled +all the sins of humanity! + We should also note here another method of assaulting +integrity, which is the call to evangelize others. Many of the most +intelligent men in Christianity's history spoke of how terrifying God +can be for those who know the Bible too well. Luther for example +described his state of mind before hitting on the notion of "grace": + + Is it not against all natural reason that God out of his mere + whim deserts men, hardens them, damns them, as if he delighted + in sins and in such torments of the wretched for eternity, he + who is said to be of such mercy and goodness? This appears + iniquitous, cruel, and intolerable in God, by which very + many have been offended in all ages. And who would not be? + I was myself more than once driven to the very abyss of + despair so that I wished I had never been created. Love + God? I hated him![1] + +Frequently these men had mentors who recommended that they go out and +preach as a means of getting themselves to believe. Luther's mentor, +Dr. Staupitz, arranged for Luther to preach, and to succeed to his +university chair of Bible[2]. Wesley also encountered such advice, as +his Journal entry of March 5, 1738 illustrates: + + Immediately it struck into my mind, "Leave off preaching. + How can you preach to others, who have not faith yourself?" + I asked Bohler whether he thought I should leave it off or + not. He answered, "By no means." I asked, "But what can I + preach?" He said, "Preach faith till you have it; and then, + because you have it, you will preach faith!" + +Such a self-deception would be obviously seen as illegitimate in any +other setting; yet these men freely accepted it. + The basic idea behind this device is that the Bible's +unbelievable premises, which the believer strives to believe anyway, +are always accompanied by latent taboo content. These premises remain +in the believer's blind spot, so that focussed thought about them +becomes less likely. We can close this section with a quote from Dr. +Cohen: + + When Christianity comes on with the figure of the man in + whose words the echoes of the best human achievements of + the far distant future must have resounded, being tortured, + mutilated, killed early in what should have been the prime + of his life, for its central emblem, it is telling us + plainly what it proposes to do to the corresponding tendencies + in ourselves, and we are too desensitized to turn away in + nauseated disbelief! That emblem is, itself, an "integrity + assaulting" piece of business, seen in that light.--Cohen, p. + 258. + + Now we come to the core of Dr. Cohen's work. What does it +take to make a person believe that he believes? What does it take to +turn a Luther from hating God to loving him? The answer to these +questions is covered in our discussion of Device 5. + + + Device 5: Dissociation Induction + + + This Device is the core of Dr. Cohen's work. Here we at last +get into an intensive application of depth-psychology insights to +explain the Bible's power over people. The previous devices set the +stage for the this one; the last two devices stablize its effects. + In conventional Christianity the notions of "sin" and "faith" +are essential. In Dr. Cohen's work they are also essential notions, +since dissociation lies at the root of the matter. + What is "sin?" In the Bible, we actually see two senses of +the word. In the Old Testament, the majority of mentionings of sins +refer to epsisodes of disobedience to scriptural rules. But there is +also a notion of sin portrayed in Genesis 2 and 3, and in the writings +of Paul, that have nothing to do with individual behavior--in other +words, original sin. Individual sins only add to a sinful condition +that was already total from birth. + To Christians, what was wrong with Adam and Eve's behavior was +simply disobedience. It makes no difference that they violated +neither the Ten Commandments nor the Golden Rule--the law had not been +laid down at the time. Although some might infer that sexuality is +part of God's curse, there is no indication that sex was unknown +before the Fall, or a result of the newly acquired knowledge. The +implication one gets is that the desire for knowledge, for +self-awareness, is the essence of the transgression against God. A +few more indications of this are present in the first eleven chapters +of Genesis. One example is the story of the Tower of Babel. +Apparently the advance of human science and technology, and the drive +for mankind to cooperate as a single global community, usurps God's +prerogatives. + One can interpret the first eleven chapters in terms of the +Jungian ideas of psychodynamics. First there is the division of +primordial chaos into upper and lower parts, followed by the +appearance of dry land. Then an innocent and naive male is created, +and out of him an anima figure, Eve. Next a shadow figure, Cain, +appears, cursed by God but essential as the ancestor of Enoch and +Noah. Consciousness gets restricted to Noah's ark, with the rest of +the human and animal imagoes swept into unconsciousness. After the +Flood, the unity and concentration of human energies symbolized by +Noah's descendants is fragmented into many language groups, i. e. +complexes. + What is sin then? Clearly gaining self-consciousness, +psychological integration, is the essence of sin. One is to believe +that there is nothing in the unconscious is worth redeeming, that it +is all, in Jungian terms, shadow, and that all one can do is to keep +the shadow in check. Having one's energies unified and focussed for +an individualistic goal is essentially what the Bible abhors. This is +what lies behind the idea that original sin makes one totally sinful, +that sinful acts are just the outwards signs of this inner condition. +Immorality or unethical behavior or thought is not even of the essence +of sin. + We can see further hints as to the nature of sin by examining +the proposed remedy, faith. The Bible gives the definition of faith +in the following verse: + + Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence + of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good + report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were + framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were + not made of things which do appear.[Heb. 11:1-3] + +Faith is belief in that for which there is no direct evidence, only +hearsay evidence--i. e., the Bible. The nature of faith is ultimately +subjective. References to faith as a mystery[1 Tim. 3:9] and as a +supernatural gift[1 Cor. 12:9 and Eph. 2:8] rule out the notion that +it is somehow an extension of human intuition. + In many places we find the Bible exhorting the believer to do +something, or to adopt a certain mental attitude. If faith is a gift +bestowed by God, why exhort the believer to do something? The things +the believer is exhorted to do are arranged so that the connections +between them and the subjective experiences the believer goes through +are cleverly obscured. All these exhortations basically boil down to +fostering dissociation. We can divide them into four categories: 1) +Explicit Devotional Program Instructions--concrete acts that the +believer is commanded to do. 2) Implicit Devotional Program +Instructions--exhortations to do an act not meant to be done +literally. 3) Direct Suggestions--allegory that serves to illustrate +the mental state wanted of the believer. 4) Reverse +Suggestions--some allegory, particularly those involving animals, +demons and disasters, serve to illustrate the negative psychological +effects of being a believer, subtly providing the believer with +feedback. + The most explicit instructions deal with prayer. The Bible is +very specific about the sort of prayer it requires. Prewritten or +rote prayers, and liturgy in foreign languages, are not really what +the Bible authors had in mind. Instead, intelligible content, +engaging the believer's conscious mind, is the key. (The Lord's +Prayer [Matt. 6:9-15, Luke 11:2-4] is presented as an example, not as a +rote formula.) By continually telling God what he thinks God wants to +hear, the believer internalizes biblical doctrine and forces the +conscious mind to conform to it. Prayer boils down to +self-brainwashing. As a result, the God-complex, if nourished with +enough psychic energy, causes the believer to experience the illusion +that another presence possessing personality is there. Hence the +declaration that believers experience a "personal" relationship with +God. Constant prayer is necessary to keep the God-complex energized, +hence the need for church twice on Sunday, constant prayer and +devotion, and maybe having a religious radio station playing in the +background, to keep the God-complex pumped up. + Also the various instructions to "put on" certain qualities, +and to "put off" others, constitute Explicit Devotional Program +Instructions. + Earlier we examined the biblical definition of "love," and +found it be little more than following the rules laid down in the New +Testament. If we look at statements involving faith and love, we see +further clues to the nature of faith: + + . . .[F]aith . . .worketh[energeo, has effect] by love.[Gal. + 5:6] + + . . .[Y]our work[ergon, expenditure of energy] of faith, and + labour[kopos, toil] of love, and patience of hope in our Lord + Jesus Christ, in the sight of God. . .[1 Thess. 1:3] + + . . .[W]e pray always for you, that our God would count you + worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of + his goodness, and the work[ergon] of faith with + power[dunamis]: That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be + glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our + God and the Lord Jesus Christ.[2 Thess. 1:11-12] + +While these passages do not explicitly define faith, we are notified +that it requires effort and labor, that it is difficult. The Greek +words highlighted, besides being the roots for words like energy, erg +and dynamic, hint at a notion psychic energy in accord with that we +have developed. Faith consists of a constant outpouring of energy; +obsessive conscious concentration is lauded, and mental relaxation, +shunned. Let down your guard, and that could be the moment Christ +returns "like a thief in the night," and sends you to Hell. This +tense, on-guard sense of faith is further elaborated by Paul: + + Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power + of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may + be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. . .Stand + therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and + having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet + shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, + taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to + quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet + of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word + of God. . .[Eph. 6:10-17] + +The Bible's cynicism about human nature, supposing he can rise no +higher than passive follower, is expressed here. The believer is to +be in uniform and cumbersome military attire, submerging his +individuality, restricting freedom of movement, and insulating him +from all but a few kinds of approved stimulation. The objective of +the campaign is to use "the sword of the Spirit," the word of God, to +pierce others, and to use the shield of faith to avoid being pierced +by any other insight. Faith is a barrier against unapproved psychic +content. + One Bible incident brings these themes together, which also +comes closest to defining the true nature of faith: + + And straightaway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a + ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent + the multitudes away. And. . .he went up into a mountain apart + to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. + But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with + waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of + the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea, they were + troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out in fear. + But straightaway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good + cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and + said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. + And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the + ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw + the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he + cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched + forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of + little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were + come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in + the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art + the son of God.[Matt. 14:22-33] + +This story contains the central psychological paradigm of the Bible. +In the Bible as well as in our psychology, water represents the +unconscious, a mountain or high place a particularly lucid state of +consciousness, and stormy weather to passion and emotion. In other +verses the believer learns that by faith he can make mountains go into +the sea, i. e., he can rearrange psychic contents so unbiblical +thoughts or attitudes are submerged into the unconscious. Here he +learns that by faith he can strengthen the barrier between conscious +and unconscious. But if his concentration is diverted, as Peter's was +when he failed to tune out natural stimuli (i. e., his own emotions), +then the barrier reverts to its usual permeability. Failing to be +obsessed with Jesus results in a rapid deterioration of faith, and +then one has to confront one's unconscious, mischaracterized as a +stormy sea in which to drown. But it only seems that way when one +bottles it up, forcing it to express itself too turbulently. + On another occasion Jesus and his disciples cross the sea. In +the stern, Jesus lies asleep, and an afternoon storm arises. The +disciples, becoming afraid, awaken Jesus, who orders the sea to calm +and chides them for their lack of faith. (One wonders at the +disciples apparent lack of faith, when they could see and hear Jesus, +and, being relatively provincial and uneducated, would have no trouble +believing in the supernatural premise of Jesus' ministry.) Again the +fluid boundary is smoothed over, and troublesome emotions gotten out +of the way by faith, which seems to be enhanced if Jesus is in the +forefront of attention. + There are other references to water and to boats that pertain +to fishing and the casting of nets. Jesus' disciples were "fishers of +men." Paul describes loss of faith as "shipwreck." Mark and John +also tell us what the disciples were doing in the boat before Jesus +arrived, that is, rowing against the wind in a troubled sea. Here we +see another image of the work that faith really entails. + An image of heaven, according to our analysis, might that of a +solidified membrane, so that proscribed mental contents are kept down +without constant effort. Such an image is contained in the following +passage: + + And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven + angles who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in + them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw, as it were, a + sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had come off + victorious from the beast and from his image and from the + number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding + harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses the bond- + servant of god and the song of the Lamb. . .[Rev. 15:1-3] + +The sense of a peaceful, restful state, yet one that takes constant +effort, is expressed in the mixture of solid, inert glass and gaseuos, +active fire. + The theme of personality fragmentation is also symbolized by +images of bodily fragmentation and division. Hence references to +those who eunuchs "for the kingdom of heaven's sake"[Matt. 19:12], +figures of plucking out an eye, a hand or a foot, rather than entering +hellfire whole, and division between left and right, "let not thy left +hand know what thy right hand doeth,"[Matt. 6:3. Also passages +refering to this left/right theme include Matt. 25:31-37, 40-41, 46, +Matt. 27:38, Rev. 10:1-2, Matt. 20:20-23]. + The true biblical program is one that promotes this state of +inner dividedness. Paul gives us an outstanding example in the +following passage: + + . . .[W]e know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, + sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not[i. e., don't + understand]: for what I would, I do not; but what I hate, + that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent + unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that + do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me + (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing: for to will + is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I + find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil + which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, + it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I + find then a law that, when I would do good, evil is present + with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward + man: But I see another law in my members, warring against + the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law + of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! + who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank + God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind + I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law + of sin.[Rom. 7:14-25] + +Apparently the peace that passeth understanding doesn't come until the +next life; hence Paul's explanation of the old nature remaining as an +outer shell. Alienation from the world, others outside church, and +oneself are in view here. Putting noncomplying mental content into +the unconscious does not get rid of it. We can see this in two other +biblical themes: that of evil spirits and the Trinity. + If we make the connection between complexes and spirits, then +the Bible shows if people do not integrate the unconscious to the +conscious attitude, then they are doomed to live out the implications +blindly, perhaps as weird neurotic symptoms. This is expressed in +this reverse-suggestive passage: + + When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh + through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then + he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; + and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and + garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven + other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and + dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than + the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked + generation.[Matt. 12:43-45] + + Unclean spirits represent the unconscious from the conscious +standpoint. The attribute most clearly identifying them as so is +their knowledge; they know much more about Jesus than human +onlookers[Matt. 8:28-32, Mark 1:23-28; 3:11 and Luke 4:33-35]. They +are characterized as legion[Mark 5:9, Luke 8:30] and yet speak with +one voice, exhibiting unity of mind. They do not cease to exist when +cast out, but must go somewhere else, such as swine--symbolizing a +lower, more primitive level of the psyche[Matt. 8:28-32]. Negative +images of the unconscious are once again conveyed. + The personality fragmentation expected of the believer is also +conveyed in passages about the multiple personality of God: + + And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto + thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not + what I will, but what thou wilt.[Mark 14:36] + + Jesus saith. . . I am the way, the truth and the life: no + man cometh unto the Father but by me. . . Believest thou + not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The + words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself[i. e., + on my own initiative]: but the Father that dwelleth in me, + he doeth the works.[John 14:6-7, 10] + + I and my Father are one.[John 10:30] + + But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the + angels. . . neither the Son, but the Father.[Mark 13:32] + + The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is + sent greater than he that sent him.[John 13:16] + + . . .[W]hen he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide + you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself[i. e., + on his own initiative]; but whatsoever he shall hear, that + shall he speak. . .He shall glorify me: for he shall receive + of mine, and shall shew it unto you.[John 16:13-15] + +According to Scrpiture, Jesus determined who would receive saving +knowledge of God, and the Father determined who would sit on Jesus' +left and right hand. Jesus and the Holy Spirit only serve as parrots +in declaring God's Word. Yet they *are* God's Word and were with him +from the beginning. Jesus apparently does not know the hour of his +own second coming. All three persons of the Godhead are endowed with +God's power, yet the Father is apparently more omnipotent. This +picture of God resembles nothing so much as a case of multiple +personality disorder. + Another source of dissonance concerns God's moral nature. +Although the "lovingkindness" of God is often touted, the Bible +contains many examples of God's apparent wickedness. In the book of +Job for instance, God lets Satan torture Job, a righteous man, +apparently so that he can win a bet with Satan. Job is unequivocal +about making God responsible for evil, whether he does evil actively +or by allowing evil angels to persecute his chosen. One also gets a +sense of such hand-in-glove cooperation between God, Satan and other +evil angels in other passages[2 Chron. 18:17-21, 1 Kings 22:20-23]. +God sends lying spirits to those he chooses to harden, ". . .God shall +send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie."[2 Thess. +2:11] Yet despite these many references to God's evil, despite +references to God blinding people *spiritually* as well as causing +physical suffering, believers overwhelmingly continue to perceive God +as good, loving and just. Why? Because the believer is conditioned +to project all his more positive qualities onto the God-complex. + Psychologically the images of the good cop/bad cop God, and +the trinitarian, three-faces-of-God God cancel each other out. The +pull of one image keeps the other from coming into focus, leaving one +with the task of identifying with an indescribable blob. That +God-image is the ideal stumbling block for the "related" flow of +psychic energy. Other descriptions of God can be understood as +metaphors for mental activity: + + God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship + him in spirit and in truth.[John 4:24] + + . . .God is light, and in him no darkness at all.[1 John 1:5] + + God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, + and God in him.[1 John 4:16] + + In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, + and the Word was God.[John 1:1] + + . . .[R]eceiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have + grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and + godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.[Heb. 12:28-29] + +God turns out to be nothing but a psychological complex. The goal is +to give the God-complex so much psychic energy that other complexes +are drowned out. The believer thinks he is free of them, but actually +he has covered them up with the shared psychopathology, as Freud +indicated. Thus the Christian claim to a transformed outlook is true, +in a rather ironic sense! + Dissociation Induction consists of stratagems to get a person +to inwardly divide his awareness, to project his better qualities onto +a God-complex and to occupy his mind with biblically prescribed +artificialities. There are secondary gains as a result of this +strategy, such as relief from whatever neurotic symptoms may be +present (at least, in the short run), but so much energy goes into +stifling one's authentic humanness, that it is no exagerration to say +that this is a case where the cure is worse than the disease! + + + Device 6: Bridge Burning + + + In several ways the New Testament seeks to make the gap +between believers and outsiders so wide the believers do not get out, +though outsiders should get in. Passages against family and +association with unbelievers, and passages suggesting that believers +are to be blind, deaf and dead to worldly things, all work together to +keep believers from even considering outside influences, even when +exposed to them constantly. To accomplish this, something a lot more +powerful than that which attracts a few a susceptible people to +sequestered cults is needed. The dissociated state of mind is that +powerful. + Here is a passage illustrating that gap between believers and +unbelievers: + + Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for + what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? + and what communion hath light with darkness? And what + concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that + believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple + of God with idols?. . . Wherefore come out from among them, + and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean + thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, + and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord + Almighty.[2 Cor. 6:14-18] + +Muted disgust is to be the the reaction to the world outside the +flock. Also, the life of the believer is described in terms of +hating those members of his earthly family who do not come along, of +leaving them and all one's possessions behind to be a follower. One +is to burn all bridges behind one, to make it as hard as possible to +return. Besides the flock, one is to have on other place to go. + If the believer were to notice how convenient for controlling +him it is for him to perceive outside ideas as emanating from Satan, +he would first have to give himself permission to think such a +firbidden thought. But he needs to entertain such thoughts first, +before he could give himself that permission. The well-indoctrinated +believer can't quite get himself to do either. To see his position in +perspective, he needs to clear away all the biblical irrelevancies he +is presently occupied with; but to identify the irrelevancies, he +would already have to have that perspective. This paradox produces +intellectual deadlock in the believer. The believer fixates on this +paradox, and thus adds one more irrelevancy to the many already +occupying his conscious thought. An impasse in rational thought is +created. + Thus Bridge Burning strengthens Dissociation Induction by +splitting the believer's psychological reality into the realms of +believers and unbelievers, and widening the gap so much that it remains +uncrossable. This can be done by poisoning his mind against +unbelievers, or placing logical conundrums in his path out of the +Bible's semantic labyrinth, or bluffing him with the prospect of how +harmful anything that would dispel this biblical intrusion from his psyche +would be. Bridge Burning can't create the gap, but it can keep it +open and widen it, lending stability to the mind control already in +place. + + + Device 7: Holy Terror + + + Basically, frightening people into compliance with biblical +doctrine is what it is all about. Every other issue we have examined +is transformed into something radically different from the +superficial, Device 1 form. The initial promise to transform mundane +life is modified later on by the knowledge that in this life, we will +experience persecution. Evangelicals disparage the "relativism" they +see in non-biblical beliefs; but we have seen that the notion of the +punishment fitting the crime is "spiritually naive." All that +biblical "justice" comes down to is dwelling on offenses that pertain +to keeping indoctrination in place, ratifying any existing secular +state decrees, and maybe incorporating any prohibitions against theft, +murder, etc. that all human groups invent anyway; it's only thanks to +the rhetorical style that there seems to be anything more to it. What +of the "love" a believer is to receive? We have seen that "love" +boils down to an obsessive self-discipline in accord with the +devotional program. The "hope" a believer receives is that there is +some small chance that he won't spend eternity getting worked over in +God's torture chamber. And as for the Bible being "pro-family"--the +best it does is to provide some pro-family verses to cancel out the +anti-family verses. Only the fear appeal remains the same as the +indoctrination deepens. (Of course, pastors have developed the habit +of saying that "fear" really means awe or reverence, just as "hate" +really means psychological distance. Unfortunately, there's not much +in the way of contextual, thematic or etymological justification for +such an approach. This is a variation on the theme we have developed +of selective dissociation, of isolating emotion from the idea that +elicits it.) + The Bible threatens non-elect with the worst fate +imaginable--namely, eternal punishment coupled with the catastrophe at +the end of the world, i. e. the destruction of everything the +non-elect loved in this life. The punishment is described in terms of +corporeal punishment, so that even densest of the rank and file will +get the point. Thus the references to burns inflicted eternally[Matt. +25:41, 46; Luke 3:9, 17; 16:24; John 15:6; Heb. 10:27; Jude 7; Rev. +14:10; 19:20; 20:10 and 21:8], being deprived of rest, and being +whipped [Luke 12:47-48]. Whatever happens takes place in darkness, +elicits weeping and gnashing of teeth, and will be worse than what +happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. + How does this fear appeal help foster dissociation? The Bible +authors state that though heaven and earth pass away, it is with their +earthly bodies and present psychological makeup that the unsaved are +resurrected. Not only does the punishment consist of pain being +inflicted upon one's now indestructible body, but also the denial of +all creature comfort to creatures that still desire it. The saved on +the other hand, get "incorruptible" bodies. The Bible doesn't say a +lot about the way the saved will live in the new heavens and new +earth, but apparently the "joy" of their existence will be release +from creature wants and bonds of affection that only seemed important. +The saved will be like the angels--no gender, no intimate bodily +functions, no ordinary human feelings or compassion. The image one +receives is that heaven is mainly the received ability to sit through +an eternal church service without getting bored or without getting an +aching posterior. + + And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto + crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the + throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. + And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast + like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and + the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four + beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were + full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, + Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and + is to come. . . The four and twenty elders fall down before + him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for + ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, + saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour + and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy + pleasure they are and were created.[Rev. 4:6-8, 10-11] + +(Here we can see the four beasts representing the despised +unconscious, three parts animal and one human, and fragmentation +indicated by the multiplicity of eyes, representing complexes. The +beasts both regard the throne and are superimposed on God the Father, +who occupies the throne even while the beasts are in the "midst of the +throne." Also God here is protrayed as receiving power from the +twenty-four elders worshipping him, which is consistent with the +notion of a God-complex being constantly energized by believers. Once +again, the conclusion is that God consists of pieces of oneself, +projected and energized with one's own energy.) + This contrast between saved and unsaved modes of existence in +the afterlife--which really represents the state of the psyche--is +just another way of pitting conscious against unconscious, where +unconscious is once again negatively portrayed in terms of the shadow. +Christianity comes down to a destructive, wasteful effort towards the +goal of keeping the conscious and unconscious estranged; fear of hell +is a metaphor for the fear of the consequences of letting the two +mental realms communicate. If the dissociation should weaken, the +fear of hell drives the believer to redouble his efforts, to perfect +the dissociation, perhaps by praying more, going to church to get peer +re-assurance, more Bible readings, etc. + What keeps this fear from getting out of hand? The great +genius of Christianity lies in the fact that it protects itself with +intricately contrived non-disprovability. That which could disconfirm +Christianity is is (conveniently) out of reach, beyond the grave as it +were. Thus even though, like our hysterically blind soldier, the +believer knows on some level he has no real proof for the belief, and +so must dissociate this awareness to maintain the belief, he also +knows that nobody has any direct basis for declaring the belief false. +This "double orientation" keeps the fear remote enough for it not to +get out of hand, and accounts for the mind knowing, at some level, +what to expel from conscious awareness. + Also it must be admitted here that there will be an enormous +difference in effect on "inner-directed" and "other-directed" +individuals. "Inner-directed" individuals are mainly guided by +conscience, where "other-directed" individuals take their cues from +other people. Most people are really more "other-directed" than we +would like to think. The Devices we have been describing have a much +greater impact on such "inner-directed" individuals than they do on +the rank-and-file, who just "go with the flow" in any event. The +great danger for the "other-directed" believer is to spend most of his +life working into a position where the superficialities of Device 1 +wear off and the true implications of the Bible make themselves felt. + + + + Because of the Protestant tradition of the last couple +centuries of obscuring the Bible's true import, of making the Device 1 +"sales pitch" into the whole religion, present-day Evangelicals have a +potential crop of clientele almost as unsuspecting as those of the +first century must have been. Once again, people are "open" to the +concept that a kind of weakness, i. e. inner dividedness, really +represents strength. Part of the blame lies with the failure of +secular ideologies to provide a satisfactory answer--they all made +falsifiable promises, and they were all, indeed, falsified. Add an +underlying end-of-the-world hysteria, fostered by biblical images +resembling a nuclear holocaust, and the approach of the year 2000, and +it becomes quite conceivable that a socially dangerous situation could +be brewing. Even in the best-case scenario, the new biblicism is +probably resulting in needless fear, manipulation and mental anguish +being spread all over our country. + + +[1] Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon +Press, 1978), pp. 44-45. + +[2] Ibid. + + + + + + Having experienced it before, in my Jungian phase, I call + giving up on reality and withdrawal into fantasy and fiction + by a different name: decadence. For me, Christianity is + simply a cleaner form of decadence than recreational drugs, + perverse sex, or rock and roll. Christianity has shown me + that I, too, could be decadent. But, serious person that + I am, I chose the way wherein one can be decadent--and still + not have much fun at it.--Cohen, Mind of the Bible Believer, + p. 405. + + + + We have painted a very drastic picture of the harmful +psychological effects biblical Christianity can have. By such an +analysis, one might be led to conclude that the biblical authors +cynically pushed Christianity upon an unsuspecting populace. Such a +conclusion ignores two pertinent facts: 1) We have shown, via +appropriate quotes from Luther and Wesley, that the biblicist can +essentially "brainwash" himself. It is perfectly consistent with our +view that the Bible authors "brainwashed" themselves with their own +doctrine, even as they invented it. 2) The unique historical +situation, i. e. the Roman conquest of Israel, and the influence of +Hellenistic culture, did much to create the situation in which such a +strange doctrine as Christianity could come into being. + But even though we acknowledge that present-day Evangelicals +are sincere, we must evaluate biblical Christianity upon its effects, +not upon the intentions of its practitioners. This final post in the +series examines some of the social implications of the +mini-Reformation. + + + Mental-Health Implications + + + We have seen that, as Freud led us to expect, there is a +relation between the biblical, devotional program and neuroses. The +program basically helps the individual to become more neurotic, +widening the gap between the conscious attitude and the rest of the +personality. The believers share the symptoms in this case, and +spurious intellectual interpretations of these symptoms are provided. +While the biblical program may help those with addictions, by +diverting energy to a God-complex; while Christianity may not have +that much of an effect upon those "other-directed" enough not to put +the implications of the belief together in a coherent manner; the +inescapable conclusion is that biblical Christianity is a poor +substitute for optimum psychological integration. + The main problems to be observed in conservative Christians +are those of fear and depression. Because most mental-health +professionals do not recognize what they are dealing with in +conservative Christianity, those with Christian fear are usually +misdiagnosed as phobic. But when properly questioned, the fearful +Christian can discuss what he is afraid of, unlike those who come by +irrational fears in other ways. What they are afraid of, of course, +is hell, and they weary themselves with the anticipation of it. +Fearful Christians tend to stay away from anything that remotely +threatens to send them there by accidental death, and avoid situations +requiring action, lest more demerits be entered into God's record +book. (Dr. Cohen remarks that this "reflects faulty epistemology, not +illogic.") Fearful Christians will testify that Christianity has +delivered them from even greater mental distress; they don't identify +the program as the source of the problem as well as the source of the +palliative for it. It resembles nothing so much as addictive +behavior, which may explain Christianity's success in helping some +cope with other addictions. (An example can be seen in Old Order +Amish. Though they eschew most forms of technology, they do avail +themselves fully of modern medical care: they seem even more +preoccupied than others with delaying the end as long as possible! +This may be accounted for by over-riding fear of the hereafter.) + The other main problem is depression. The Bible-believer +needs constant exhortation and encouragement from others and, with +that and self-discipline, attains a certain momentum that prevents +what would otherwise be complete inactivity. One can see this +depressed demeanor in the few conservative denominations with a long +tradition. In the new, successful conservative church, one encounters +a well-planned and well-acted show of cheerfulness, which partly +compensates for the cheerlessness implicit in the doctrine, and also +acts as more Device 1 "sales pitch." Basically, the purposeful +misrouting of mental energy is draining, so the conservative must +convince themselves that it is otherwise by "testifying" to how +empowered they feel. (Again, using Old Order Amish as a an extreme +example of a conservative sect, we can see some confirmation of our +expectations. In the general population, the major cause of admission +to mental-health facilities is schizophrenia; among Old Order Amish, +the major cause of admission is depression[1].) + How should these problems be dealt with? Unfortunately, we +cannot say that the secular mental-health professionals necessarily do +good. Every secular competitor to religion turns out to have too many +orthodox defenders of some doctrine. Such doctrines always seem to +have an overly simple but appealing concept of human nature at its +core, subtly misleading and harmful in the long run. (One thinks of +Freudianism, with its negative view of human nature, of Jungians whose +religious quest has degenerated into escapism, of Rogerians with their +"radical nonjudgmentalness," in which they basically repeat back to +the client what he has said using different words.) Both the +Christian and secular programs that promise a "better" life, life on +an even keel, ought rightly to be viewed with suspicion. +Self-reliance is the way to go. But a therapist can help, just by +using his intuition and basic human qualities; just being +reality-oriented is helpful to someone put through the wringer by +conservative churches. + + + Three Unproductive Questions + + + Journalists and liberal commentators often fail to ask +conservative Christian leaders the right questions. Instead, we often +hear questions like "Don't you see truth isn't black and white, that +there are many shades of gray?" "Do Jews who reject Jesus go to +Heaven or don't they?" "How can you say your interpretation of the +Bible is correct, when there are so many floating around?" These +questions don't give outsiders any insight into conservative +Christianity, and the conservative Christian in turn can reassure +himself that the know-it-all interviewer really has no inkling as to +what Christianity is all about. + 1) "Don't you see truth isn't black and white?" There is a +caricature of the Evangelical as one with simple, pat answers to +everything, as one who can't tolerate ambiguity. Actually, the +Evangelical is just the opposite--he tolerates too much ambiguity, +lets artificial confusion operate where there should be clarity. +The caricature of Evangelicals stems from the authoritarian +personality theory, which says that conservative political attitudes +result from personality inadequacy. The symptoms are supposed to be +defensive over-compensation against anti-social impulses, rigid, +overly conventional attitudes, and intolerance of ambiguity. This +theory came out of the McCarthy era and implies that anyone not +politically ultraliberal and not "radically non-judgmental" is +mentally ill. It's an appealing theory, but is not confirmed by the +empirical data gathered to prove it. + The skillful Evangelical apologist can make it seem as if +logic, rationality and self-discipline are exclusively Christian +virtues, which "secular humanists" are necessarily against. + 2) The second question can be described as a clumsy ploy to +get Evangelicals to say that they are anti-Semitic. Actually +Evangelical leaders deserve a lot of credit for instilling pro-Jewish +and pro-Israel attitudes in their flocks. The Evangelical can +honestly reply that unconverted Jews just don't go to Heaven, any more +than unconverted Gentiles do, and that the Evangelical is just trying +to save anyone he can. + One can sharpen this question by changing it into what Dr. +Cohen calls the "Anne Frank question." We can fairly describe Anne +Frank as a "secular humanist," and it is quite possible she remained +one right to the bitter end. The inescapable conclusion, from the +biblical viewpoint, is that after the earthly Nazi death camp, she +will be eternally remanded to God's death camp, where her torment goes +on forever. Quite a picture of God's "lovingkindness!" + 3) "How can you say your interpretattion is any better than +anyone else's?" The assumption here is that the Bible is so ambiguous +and incomprehensible, that it can be used to support any conceivable +position. We have seen that, though the Bible does make use of +ambiguity and contradiction for mind-control purposes, it *does* set +forth a specific doctrine. Only the liberal Protestant tradition of +encasing the Bible in an ever-thickening layer of obscuration gives +the impression that the Bible can be made to stand for any doctrine. + + + Religion in Politics + + + We are by now nauseatingly familiar with politicized +Evangelicals such as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. These preachers +basically got a free ride from Evangelical churches, because despite +efforts to politicize him, the Evangelical develops a fatalistic +attitude towards worldly affairs. Ceasing to become concerned with +worldly things is, after all, a prominent part of the teachings of +Jesus. Extreme concern with worldly things can be construed as +symptomatic of unbelief! The religious right are reacting to a real +failure on the part of the old-left intellectuals to make liberalism +live up to its promises; this is what gives the religious right the +opportunity to make conservative Christianity seem like an uplifting +lifestyle. + Aside from this disinclination to become involved in worldly +activities, we see two Big Lies being propagated by the Evangelicals: +that our nation has a Christian foundation, and that the Bible has +something to contribute to our democratic tradition. + The Founding Fathers were mainly Anglicans, with a minority of +Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, Roman Catholics and Jews. +Their generation wasn't noted for religious fervor. Prominent +Founding Fathers include Franklin, Jefferson and Paine, individuals +with religious views so unorthodox that I doubt they would be +tolerated in public life today. Many of the Founding Fathers were +also Freemasons, which meant they spent much of their free time +participating in a religious tradition at variance with their nominal +Protestantism or Judaism. Fervent religious groups sat out the +Revolutionary War, mostly because they were pacifists. One has only +to read documents left behind by men such as Franklin and Jefferson to +realize that these men were scarcely fervent Christians. + As we have seen, the Wesleyans learned not to look too closely +at the Bible, so that they could espouse a humane salvation plan. The +abolitionists had reason to pass over the Bible even more lightly, +given its unequivocal support of slavery. This is a part of history +that Evangelicals conveniently overlook, when they claim that our +nation has a Christian heritage. The archaic, authoritarian social +views, which the Evangelicals uncover when they strip away the layers +of tradition obscuring what the Bible really says, are ultimately +foreign to our democratic tradition. (Peter's admonition in Acts, +that "we ought to obey God, not men" applies exclusively to spreading +the Gospel. Nowhere does the New Testament instruct the believer to +oppose the State for other forms of injustice. Instead, we are +instructed to be good slaves of both God and of earthly authorities, +despite being told elsewhere that no one can serve two masters. In +any event, given the negative biblical view of man's nature, we can +hardly envision a Bible-authentic believer picturing "noble savages" +coming together and basing a decent society on a social contract, a la +Rousseau!) + + + Charity + + + We have seen that one motivation for nineteenth and early +twentieth-century mental health professionals to treat Christianity +gently was that Wesleyan-style Christianity provided much charity that +was not then being provided by the secular sector. In Evangelical +circles we don't see that much emphasis on charity, not because they +are a bunch of skinflints but because they correctly interpret the +biblical figures of providing food and clothing to the needy as +figures for spreading the Gospel. (After all, when do we see Jesus +and his disciples providing food and shelter for the unfortunate? +More often than not, they were the recipients of such charity, not its +providers.) In any event, we can expect the Evangelical to say that +bringing eternal life to unbelievers takes precedence over making +things better in this life, because the suffering in hell will be so +much more awful than anything that could occur in this earthly life. + + + Creationism + + + [Dr. Cohen has little to say on this topic, but because it +seems an important one, I have interpolated some of my own comments +here.] + Along with the surge in Evangelicalism, there has been a surge +in so-called Scientific Creationism. In the 1980's Arkansas and +Louisiana passed laws mandating equal time in schools for evolutionary +theory and Creationism. I think with Creationists we see another kind +of "double orientation" that we saw earlier in the hysterically blind +soldier patient. Not too put too fine a point on it, Creationists +regularly use tactics that most ordinary scientists wouldn't have +anything to do with--not due to superior morality, but because +engaging in such tactics undermines the scientific method itself. +Creationists routinely misrepresent evolution, and then "demolish" it +with straw-man arguments; quote prominent scientists out of context; +use old arguments against the occurence of evolution, such as the one +based on the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, that were long ago shown to be +false. They regularly distort evidence for evolution, as can be seen +in their arguments about "transitional forms." They chide scientists +for making extrapolations into the past (such as assuming that +radioactive decay rates are constant) but extrapolate wildly when it +suits their purposes. + The failure of "scientific" creationists to construct a +rigorous scientific theory of creation, and their assertion that in +any conflict between what the data seem to be telling us and what the +Bible tells us, the Bible takes precedence, ought to alert us that +something other than science is going on here. The "double +orientation" we have spoken of can help us understand why they seem +convinced by arguments that strike those who understand evolution as +so faulty. On some level they know they are falsifying science to +suit their beliefs; and since doing so is an integrity-assaulting +piece of business, they have to repress that knowledge more deeply, +and often accuse scientists of the very tactics they indulge in! In +Creationists we can see that the need to interpret Genesis literally +prevents one from attaining the insight that it is really an allegory. +And if Genesis can be interpreted as allegory, what is to prevent +other parts of the Bible--such as Jesus' watery walk that we +highlighted in Device 5--from being interpreted allegorically? The +need to interpret Genesis literally is symptomatic of the need to +suppress the conscious awareness that one is subconsciously +interpreting the whole Bible as an allegory, symbolizing the +believer's inner state. Thus we can expect Creationism to be a +continuing preoccupation of Evangelicals. + + + Scapegoating + + + Evangelicals tell us that the Bible is a great guide for +modern life, but never seem to make the conscious connection that part +of the indoctrination leads to alienation and unconcern for others +unlike themselves. While they have very commendably distanced +themselves from racism and anti-Semitism, they have filled their need +for scapegoats by adopting homophobia. The norm for conservative +Christians seems to be hatred towards homosexuals. When AIDS first +became prominent news, the immediate reaction of every conservative +Christian spokeperson seemed to amount to gloating over God's wrathful +judgment on the homosexuals. The thought that Christian spokepersons +ought to evince some compassion never seemed to occur until after the +demagogic benefit had been reaped from the "fag-bashing." (For anyone +who thinks that the Bible advocates tolerance for homosexuals, check +out Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 5:11; 6:9; 11:14; Phil. 3:2; Jude 7; Rev. +22:15 and of course, Deut. 22:5.) + Scapegoating is integral to the biblically authentic program. +Not only is one to expel negative thoughts and emotions from +consciousness, but also the sort of natural affection and empathy that +our "relatedness" psychology requires. One is to be a good Christian +soldier, like those Roman soldiers who were among the first Gentile +converts. One can see this mental approach in the present-day +Afrikaaner, working the machinery of apartheid, and who typically has +had a very severe, Scripture-saturated Christian-school upbringing. +If some Evangelicals had their way, a pogrom against homosexuals would +probably commence immediately. And to satisfy their appetite, they +would then need more outgroups to bash. . . + + + The End of the World + + + Another peculiarity of our time concerns end-time events. The +resemblance of some biblical images to a nuclear holocaust, and the +immanent approach of the year 2000, has fueled intense interest in +end-time scenaria. Here is the key New Testament passage concerning +the end of the world: + + The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men + count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not + willing that any should perish, but that all should come + to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a + thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with + a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent + heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall + be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be + dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye be in all holy + conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto + the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on + fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with + fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, + look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth + righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look + for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him + in peace, without spot, and blameless. And account that + the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our + beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given + unto him hath written unto you. . .[2 Pet. 3:9-15] + +The biblically-authentic believer is to regard the destruction of the +natural world as immanent, and thus encouraged to cultivate unconcern +for the natural world, and emotional disinvestment in it. + There are three consequences that concern us here. Obviously +the biblical images have a similarity to images of a nuclear war. +That correspondance may be the single biggest factor behind the +mini-Reformation. This situation prompts people to shift everything +important to them to another plane, away from the impending calamity. +The second consequence is a lack of interest in conservation, in +preserving natural resources for future generations at the expense of +short-range goals. James Watt, former Secretary of the Interior, is +an outstanding example of this tendency. The third consequence +concerns the Jewish people. Many of the end-time scenaria include a +gory end for contemporary Israel. Perhaps the Evangelicals will +eventually become less benign in their feelings towards Israel than at +present. + + + Conclusion + + + I have outlined a theory concerning Christianity that is at +variance with both the standard theories of religion and the standard +theology that believers occupy their conscious thoughts with. We +cannot directly observe the unconscious of the Evangelicals, but we +can look for symptoms such as fear and depression, scapegoating, the +need to twist scientific evidence to make creationism look tenable, +and lack of charitable outreach on the part of Evangelicals as +trends that tend to confirm Dr. Cohen's theory. Also his +interpretations do more to make the Bible into a united, coherent +whole than any Christian position I have encountered, liberal or +conservative. Conservative Christianity comes down to a withdrawal +into a shared fantasy, possibly as a result of the fact people are +becoming tired of rapid social and technological change, and the fact +that the end of the existence of all living via a nuclear holocaust +has been a real possibility since the 1950's, and yet a possibility +that in some ways seemed beyond our control during the Cold War. This +sense of futility, more than anything else, may be the root cause of +the mini-Reformation. As indicated in the quote at the beginning of +the article, this comes down to a form of decadence, albeit of a +cleaner variety than other activities we associate with the word. + + +SD + + +[1] Janice A. Egeland and Abram M. Hostetter, "Amish Study, I: +Affective Disorders Among the Amish, 1976-1980," American Journal of +Psychiatry, 140, no. 1 (January 1983), pp. 56-61. + diff --git a/religious documents/bibledef.txt b/religious documents/bibledef.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfefaa7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bibledef.txt @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +From "The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology" +by Robbins / Crown / 1959 + +BIBLE WITCHCRAFT. One of histories ironies is the justification +of witchcraft on biblical texts, written originally for a +religion which had no devil. Catholics and Protestants quoted +Exodus xxii. 18, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." But +the Hebrew word kaskagh (occuring twelve times in the Old +Testament with various meanings) here means, as Reginald Scot +pointed out in 1584, "poisoner," and certainly had nothing to do +with the highly sophisticated Christian conception of a witch. +Yet the domination of Holy Scriptures was such that these +mistranslations fostered the delusion. After the execution of +Goody Knapp at Fairfield (Kent) in 1653, a neighbor said "it was +long before she could believe this poor woman was a witch, or +that there were any witches, till the word of God convinced her, +which saith, Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." + Another text which changed the Hebrew meaning--"a woman with a +familiar spirit" for "pythoness"-- occurred in 1 Samuel xxvii, +the miscalled Witch of Endor. + + Writers who tried to expose the witchcraft superstition, such +as Reginald Scot or Thomas Ady, had to clear up two fallacies: +(1) The numerous Hebrew words, uniformly translated by veneficus +or maleficus or witch, covered many different practitioners of +the occult, from jugglers to astrologers. To refer to all of +these different classes by one word (witch) was inadequate and +erroneous. (2) The defination of witch based on the pact with +Satan, transvection, metamorphosis, sabbat and maleficia was +neither implied or defined anywhere in the Bible. That the Old +Testament did not deal with witchcraft is hardly surprising, for +witchcraft depended on a Christian demonology. Thus Sir Walter +Scott observed: + + It cannot be said that, in any part of that sacred volume [Old + Testament], a text occurs indicating the existance of a system + of witchcraft, under the Jewish dispensation, in any respect + similar to that against which the law-books of so many European + nations have, until very lately, denounced punishment.... In the + four Gospels, the word, under any sense, does not occur. + (Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft) + +Lea suggested the biblical denunciations against sorcery were +directed almost exclusively against divination. + In fact, therefore, while it may discuss magic and occult +customs, the Bible has nothing to do with heretical witchcraft. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/bibleerr.txt b/religious documents/bibleerr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe5970a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bibleerr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,413 @@ + COMMENTARY + +THE FLOOD (Part One of a two-part series)--A topic that has always been +of great interest to students of the Bible is the Flood, an alleged event +more cataclysmic than any other natural disaster in history. BE will not +discuss the scientific data used by proponents to support their beliefs. +Instead, two kinds of information will be used to show the Flood Theory +lacks credibility. The Commentary in next month's issue will discuss the +large number of contradictions between biblical verses with respect to +what occurred; while this month's Commentary will concentrate on the great +number of difficulties, impossibilities, and unanswered questions +accompanying the biblical account. Anyone believing in the Flood must +provide rational answers to the following questions: (a) Gen 6:16 says, "A +window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it +above...." How could so many creatures breathe with only one small +opening which was closed for at least 190 days--150 days plus an +additional 40 days (Gen. 8:3-6)? (b) Gen 6:15 says, "The length of the +ark shall be 300 cubits (450 feet--Ed.), the breadth of it 50 cubits (75 +feet--Ed.), and the height of it 30 cubits (45 feet--Ed.)." How could two +of every animal survive for approximately 10 months on a boat encompassing +1,518,750 cubic feet? The food alone would absorb tremendous space. (c) +Gen 6:17 says, "I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy +all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and +everything that is in the earth shall die." Gen 7:4 reenforces this +point, "...and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from +off the face of the earth." Yet, how would a flood destroy sea animals, +such as whales, porpoises, sea snakes, dolphins, amphibians, and all +animals living entirely under water? (d) Gen 7:8-9 says, "Of clean +beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing +that creepeth upon the earth, There went in two and two unto Noah into the +ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah." The problems +associated with this account of the creatures entering the Ark are +particularly interesting. How did animals that are restricted to certain +parts of the earth get to the Ark? Penguins, kangaroos, polar bears, +koala bears, and many others would have had to have crossed vast oceans. +How animals from other continents managed to cross the seas can only be +surmised. How did many of the animals withstand climatic changes? Many +of those from polar regions could not have withstood the heat of the +Middle East. How were animals prevented from killing their natural prey? +Slow animals from other continents--snails, sloths, turtles, and so forth- +-must have started their journey to the Ark before the earth was created. +How did only 8 people feed and water the world's greatest zoo for many +months? How was the Ark kept sanitary since there was only one window and +one door? How did the animals know where to go when the time arrived to +enter the Ark? After being released, how did they return to their +respective regions of the world? The vegetation which many animals eat +only grows in certain parts of the world. How was it brought to the Ark +for storage? Are we to believe that two of every species--two dogs, two +cats, two horses, two snakes, and so forth--entered the Ark? If so, then +are we also to believe, for example, that the tremendous variety of dogs +in the world today, from the great dane to the chihuahua, descended from +two of the species? This would mark a tremendous evolutionary change in +only a few thousand years. Yet, biblicists are the ones who denounce the +theory of evolution. And how did the animals know when to seek the Ark? +The text implies they just came voluntarily. (e) Gen 7:15 says, "And they +went in unto Noah into the Ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the +breath of life." How did water creatures such as whales, porpoises, sea +snakes, dolphins, and so forth enter the Ark? Moreover, since millions of +species of animals exist throughout the world, how could a pair have been +taken from each. There are over 500,000 separate species of insects +alone. (f) Gen. 8:4 states, "And the ark rested in the 7th month, on the +17th day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat." How could the Ark +have rested upon several mountains at once? (g) "Also he sent forth a +dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the +ground" (Gen 8:8). Why did Noah send a bird to learn what was clearly +evident? (h) Gen 8:11 says, "And the dove came in to him in the evening; +and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off." It's difficult to +believe a dove could have found an olive leaf to freshly pluck in a world +that had been submerged for nearly a year. (i) Gen 8:20 states, "And Noah +builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of +every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar." Killing +animals of which only two remain after the Flood seems absurd. (j) Gen +7:13 states, "In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and +Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons +with them, into the ark." If the human race began anew from Noah and his +sons, are we supposed to believe the wide variations among the earth's +people developed in the short period since the Flood? Are we supposed to +believe that the fair-haired Swede, the brown-skinned, dark-haired Indian, +and the black-skinned native came from the same ancestors? (k) Gen 7:4 +says, "For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth +forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made +will I destroy from off the face of the earth." But what had the beasts +and the creeping things done to excite God's anger? They had committed no +sin; they had eaten no forbidden fruit; and they had not tried to reach +the tree of life. (l) Gen 8:5 and 8:13 state the Flood covered the earth +and its mountains. If so, where did all the water go? (m) Lastly, the +questions raised by Gen 8:19 must be answered. The verse says, "Every +beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon +the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark." How were the +animals preserved after leaving the Ark? There was no grass except such +as had been submerged for a year. How were the herbivores taken care of +until the earth was again clothed with vegetation? There were no animals +to be devoured by the carnivores, except those which were on the Ark. +From whence came their food? Apologists will be asked in next month's +issue to address an equally large number of contradictions between the +verses themselves. + +THE RESURRECTION--Among those beliefs crucial to Christianity few are of +greater importance than that of the Resurrection. Paul went so far as to +allege the very foundation of Christianity rests upon its occurrence. +"And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith is +also vain" (1 Cor 15:14,17). Yet, why should the Resurrection be of such +significance. Elijah raised a child from the dead (1Kings 17:17,21-22); +Samuel said to Saul, "Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up" (1Sam +28:7,11,15); Elisha raised the dead son of a Shunamite (2Kings 4:32,34- +35); a dead man being lowered into a grave revived when he touched the +bones of Elisha (2Kings 13:21); Moses and Elijah revived at the time of +the Transfiguration (Luke 9:29-30); the saints arose at the time of Jesus' +death (Matt 27:52-53); Jairus' daughter rose from the dead (Matt 9:18,23- +25); the widow of Nain's son rose from the dead (Luke 7:11-15); and +Lazarus rose from the dead (John 11:43-44). All of these people ascended +from death and all did so before Jesus. So why attribute so much +importance to the event. By the time Christ rose from the dead this was a +rather common occurrence. Moreover, people not only rose before Jesus but +after him as well. Peter raised Tabitha and Paul raised Eutychus. While +participating in a radio call-in program several years ago, the Editor was +told by a caller that, except for Jesus, all of the above mentioned people +eventually died again. But Paul clearly asserted it's the Resurrection, +per se, that matters, not the fact that Jesus never died again. The +caller was asked to cite a passage that justified his contention. There +was no reply. A second major difficulty associated with the Resurrection +lies in the contradictory accounts in the four gospels of what occurred. +The following represent some of the major disagreements surrounding the +events connected with the Resurrection: (1) At what time in the morning +did the women visit the tomb?--At the rising of the sun (Mark 16:2)-VS- +when it was yet dark (John 20:1). (2) Who came--Mary Magdalene alone +(John 20:1)-VS-Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (Matt 28:1)-VS-Mary +Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome (Mark 16:1)-VS-Mary +Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women (Luke 24:10). +(3) Was the tomb open or closed when they arrived?--Open (luke 24:2)-VS- +closed (Matt 8:1-2). (4) Whom did they see at the tomb?--The angel (Matt +28:2)-VS-a young man (Mark 16:5)-VS-two men (Luke 24:4)-VS-two angels +(John 20:11-12). (5) Were these men or angels inside or outside the +tomb?--Outside (Matt 28:2)-VS-inside (Mark 16:5, Luke 24:3-4, John 20:11- +12). (6) Were they standing or sitting?--Standing (luke 24:4)-VS-sitting +(Matt 28:2, Mark 16:5, John 20:12). (7) Did Mary Magdalene know Jesus +when he first appeared to her?--Yes, he did (Matt 28:9)-VS-no, she did not +(John 20:14). If the stories were consistent, one could write one long +continuous narrative incorporating all four versions without fear of +divergences. Yet, this has never been done without adding, altering, or +omitting verses. Apologists often submit the witnesses-at-an-auto- +accident argument which is quite irrelevant since two diametrically +opposed and mutually exclusive versions of the same event can not be +simultaneously accurate. One or the other is false. Moreover, witnesses +at an accident, unlike gospel writers, are not claiming inerrancy. Thomas +Paine summarized the relationship between the gospels quite well. "...it +is, I believe, impossible to find in any story upon record so many and +such glaring absurdities, contradictions, and falsehoods, as are in those +books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). They are more numerous and +striking than I had any expectation of finding, when I began this +examination..." (The Age of Reason, p.167). A third major problem +connected with the Resurrection lies in the fact that even if Jesus had +risen, nobody is going to follow his example. "For the fate of the sons +of men and the fate of beasts is the same: as one dies so dies the +other...man has no advantage (pre-eminence--KJV) over the beasts...All go +to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who +knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast +goes down to the earth" (Eccle 3:19-21 RSV). Job 7:9-10, 1Tim 6:15-16, +and Isaiah 26:14 say as much. And lastly, others participated in even +more momentous events. Adam was never born to begin with (Gen 1:27); he +came into the world as a full-grown adult. Enoch (Gen 5:22-24) and Elijah +(2Kings 2:11) never died. The latter went straight to heaven, which, +incidentally, contradicts Hebrews 9:27 which says, "And it is appointed +unto men once to die..." In fact, what did Jesus ever do that had not +already been accomplished? He rose from the dead but only after others. +He performed miracles but so had others. What, then, did Jesus do that +was different, that had not already been done? Plainly stated, "what +makes him stand out from the crowd?" Hundreds have claimed to be the +Savior; so what are the acts that substantiate his credentials. +Assertions alone prove nothing. Anyone can claim to be the Messiah and +hundreds have. + + REVIEWS + + + On page 23 in Reasons Skeptics Should Consider Christianity McDowell and +Stewart provide a list of 8 commonly given reasons for believing the Bible +is inerrant. "The evidence that the very words of the Bible are God-given +may be briefly summarized as follows: (1) This is the claim of the +classical text (2Tim 3:16); (2) It is the emphatic testimony of Paul that +he spoke in Words...taught by the Spirit (1Cor 2:13); (3) It is evident +from the repeated formula, "It is written"; (4) Jesus said that which was +written in the whole Old Testament spoke of Him (Luke 24:27,44/John +5:39/Hebrews 10:7); (5) The New Testament constantly equates the Word of +God with Scripture (Matt 21:42/Rom 15:4); (6) Jesus indicated that not +even the smallest part of a Hebrew word or letter could be broken (Matt +5:18); (7) The Testament refers to the written record as the "oracles of +God" (Rom 3:2/Heb 5:12); (8) And occasionally the writers were even told +to "diminish not a word" (Jer 26:2). John even pronounced an anathema +upon all who would add to or diminish from this book." The fallacy in the +above lies in the fact that all 8 reasons are making the same point in +different words--the Bible is inspired because it says so, which, of +course, is no proof whatever. Many writings in history have claimed +divine perfection but no prudent observer would accept them on this basis +alone. McDowell and Stewart acknowledge as much on page 1 of Tough +Questions Skeptics Ask. "...the Bible claims to be a record of the words +and deeds of God, thus the Bible views itself as God's Word. The mere +fact that the Bible claims to be the Word of God does not prove that it is +such, for there are other books that make similar claims." + One of the most controversial verses in the Bible is Ex 20:13--Thou +shalt not kill. In Answers to Questions About the Bible Robert Mounce +attempted to answer the question: Does the commandment, 'You shalt not +kill' mean that Christians are not to go to war?" His response was: +"That the sixth commandment is to be understood as a prohibition against +murder and is not a blanket condemnation of the taking of life under any +circumstances is seen by the fact that God not only authorized capital +punishment (Gen 6:9)...but also sent his people into war (1Sam +15:3)...that armed resistance is a permissible ingredient in the unhappy +history of man is acknowledged by Scripture." But the verse said nothing +about murder. It said, Thou shalt not kill. Killing is a broader term +encompassing murder. The fact that the biblical God killed and ordered +killing only highlights the inconsistency of God ordering man not to do +that which he, himself, commits. The societal difficulties that have +arisen over this verse, especially during wartime, have caused proponents +such as Mounce to change the word "kill" to "murder" in many versions. +Although the KJV, the RSV, the NAB, the Jerusalem Bible, the Geneva Bible, +and the Douay Version use "kill," translators of such versions as the +NASB, the NWT, the NIV and the Masoretic text opted for the more expedient +term "murder." It would be rather difficult for military and law +enforcement agencies to function if their members really believed the KJV +maxim, Thou shalt not kill. + On page 111 in 508 Answers to Bible Questions M.R. DeHaan was asked if +faith can literally move mountains as taught in Matt 17:20 ("If ye have +faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove +hence to yonder place; and it shall remove, and nothing shall be +impossible unto you"). He responded with, "Yes, I believe with all my +heart that if we had enough faith we would be able to move literal +mountains if it was for the glory of God. Of course, we must remember +that merely moving mountains for the sake of making a demonstration is not +pleasing to the Lord, but if it is to His glory and for the help of +others, I believe it would be possible." In order to escape from the +dilemma presented, DeHaan utilized some common ploys. First, he discussed +a verse which has a qualifier--the faith must be as a grain of mustard +seed. If the wish fails apologists can always say the faith did not +measure up to the proviso. Why didn't he address Mark 9:23 ("If thou +canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth"), John 14:12 +("He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and +greater works than these shall he do"), and Matt 21:21 which have no +provisos, which say one need only have faith, period. Second, surely any +believer would have as much faith as a grain of mustard seed since the +latter is so small. So why can't all believers move mountains? Third, +where do any of these verses say it can't be done unless it is for the +glory of God? This gratuitous qualifier is unsupported by anything in the +text. Fourth, why does DeHaan assume people only want to make "a +demonstration" by moving mountains? Perhaps some believers really do want +some mountains moved. Are we to believe that it could be done by faith? +Fifth, where does the Bible say a demonstration would not be pleasing to +the Lord? Doesn't it say "Prove all things" (1Thess 5:21). And lastly, +where do any of these verses say it must be done for God's glory and to +aid others? The verses say you can move mountains if you believe. +Limitations are not even mentioned. + + DIALOGUE AND DEBATE + +Letter from MJ of Ferndale, Washington + Dennis, I wish to make a few comments on what you said about the Flood. +First you quoted Gen. 8:4 and then commented, "How could the ark have +rested upon several mountains at once?" I personally had no problem with +that verse--as many elements of our modern language use identical usage. +If you interpret many of our statements today, literally, word for word, +you would have difficulty functioning normally. As children, we would +often interpret our brothers and sisters' comments and/or commands +literally--word for word-- to render their statements useless, or create +nonsense out of commonly used phrases. Please let's leave that method to +pranksters... + +Editor's Response to MJ + Dear MJ. Gen 8:4 says "mountains," plural, not "a mountain," singular. +Translators should have left off the "s" if only one mountain was +intended. You're speaking as if the "s" didn't exist. Apologists +repeatedly say one should read the Bible as one reads a newspaper, which +is what I'm doing. I assume the Book says what it means and means what it +says. If you are going to change a plural to a singular because it sounds +absurd, are you going to deny the miracles of the Bible because they are +absurd also? The Bible says a woman turned into a pillar of salt, for +example. Is that more or less incredible than a ship landing on several +mountains at once? If you are going to rewrite an incident because it +makes no sense, then you might as well rewrite others. And, of course, if +you alter the Bible's miracles in such a manner as to make them appear +natural, then you will "gut" the Book in the process. The Resurrection +will vanish and Jesus will no longer be the god/man. In essence, if you +are going to start rewriting the text because verses don't make sense, you +face the problem of deciding where this will end and what's left when you +are through. + +Letter from MH of Dayton, Ohio + I've read your "Bible Errancy" newsletter. The Bible says in 1Cor 2:14, +"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for +they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are +spiritually discerned." You are dealing with a spiritual book when you +deal with the Bible. The Holy Spirit moved men to write the Scriptures, +and to understand the Scriptures, you too must be spiritual. + Actually, you need to be born again. Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, +said "Ye must be born again." The enclosed tract will tell you how to be +saved. Please read it. + +Editor's Response to MH + You asked me to read your small tract entitled, "In Devil's Hell." I +did and found it to be typical of the pamphlets that we often find in bus +terminals, on library tables, and on door knobs. It is permeated with the +urgent need to accept Jesus, be saved, and fear hell. Much was asserted; +nothing proved. Now I ask you to respond in kind. Read BIBLICAL ERRANCY, +but not through a filter composed of Christian fundamentals. Among other +things the January 1983 issue I sent you proved the Bible is not to be +trusted as a reliable source. Yet, your tract avoided the evidence +entirely and blindly plodded forward. Instead of proving the Bible is +true, you just assume as much. But I provided evidence to the contrary. +It says, for instance, that "all have sinned," which is completely false. +How do I know? Your Book says so. Don't you believe it? "Noah was a +just man and perfect in his generations..." (Gen 6:9); "...that man (Job-- +Ed.) was perfect and upright..." (Job 1:1,8). These men were perfect, so +obviously they could not have been sinners. How can you be a sinner and +be perfect? The Bible has hundreds of problems and if you will only bear +with me, I will prove as much in the months to come. But you must be +reasonable. I can't cover the entire Book in one issue. + +Letter from DW of South Pasadena, California + Dear Dennis....once one realizes the Bible is not the word of God, one +should go on to establish a positive philosophy of life and not worry much +about that book. That approach is obviously outside the scope of BE's +calling. I'm finding the goals of (several groups--Ed.)...of much more +interest than debating fundamentalists. But I wish you luck at freeing +more minds from the myths of Biblical inerrancy, and I'll keep reading +BE.... + +Editor's Response to DW + You have touched upon one of the most divisive issues in the freethought +movement, DW. Do we directly confront and challenge the supporters of +religion and the Bible or do we go our own way by setting a good example +and developing a positive philosophy and let them go theirs? The approach +of the freethought organizations you mentioned is contrary to that of +BE's. This Country is composed of millions of people whose support for +the Bible ranges all the way from lukewarm to fanatical. In numbers and +wealth their dominance is overwhelming and easily proven. One of their +spokesmen alone, Jimmy Swaggart, has a yearly budget far in excess of that +of all freethought groups combined. The disproportionate relationship +between the forces explains why television exudes so many people who +belong in the Middle Ages. We are told to turn off the set or change the +channel if we don't like the program, but isn't it about time they started +changing the TV, not us. Even the government buttresses them. If I was +told I would no longer be taxed or subject to audits while my neighbor +continued as before, that would be positive assistance, not just hands +off. Atheist, humanist, and other freethought publications have provided +more than enough proof to show the partition between church and state more +closely resembles a back door screen than a wall. This situation must be +altered. Establishing a positive philosophy of life is commendable, but +what follows? What do you do with it? Do you rest on your laurels and +hope religionists will follow your example? How could that happen when +they don't even know your beliefs? In effect, the status quo would remain +as before with biblicists dominating the scene. Two crucial questions +must be faced by all freethought organizations: (1) Why should +religionists, biblicists, and apologists come to the freethought movement +when they are convinced they already have the truth and (2) why should +these same groups listen to anything the freethought movement has to offer +when they have been taught from infancy that atheism, humanism, +agnosticism, etc. are works of evil? To some they are the devil +incarnate. The only way to dispel people of these illusions is to go on +the offensive, which few freethought organizations and publications are +willing to do. Some even admit their reluctance. But, the fact is that a +major reason the Bible is so all-pervasive is that millions of its +supporters have taken their case to others. Missionaries have traveled +the world and converted millions as Christian dominance in Latin America +demonstrates. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses have not become rapidly +growing sects by sitting at home praying the world will see the wisdom of +their ways and beat a path to their door. Aggressive proselytization is +their hallmark. Your tactic of "adopting a positive philosophy of life" +actually amounts to nothing more than assuming a defensive posture, i.e., +accepting conditions as they are, and is doomed from the beginning. You +don't win on the defensive. Most freethought organizations and +publications are not significantly converting people to their point-of- +view but only picking up those who have rejected religion and/or the Bible +for reasons of their own. Members of the religious/biblical community +must be reeducated from the ground up. Most have been programmed from +birth and it's up to us to deprogram. Although important, battles over +prayer in the schools, nativity scenes, "In God We Trust" on the currency, +etc. are essentially secondary. As long as people believe the Bible is +God's word, conflicts of this kind will continue unabated and remain an +understandable by-product. Once people no longer believe the Bible or +have their allegiance to it dramatically shaken, their interest in these +secondary issues will naturally fade. That's why BE teaches a kind of +Sunday-School-in-Reverse. Our program is one of going back to the basics, +starting over, and exposing all the facts that should have been heard in +Sunday School but weren't. People have a right to hear both sides. But +we can't do it alone. You mentioned "luck," but that's not what matters. +Thousands of knowledgeable people willing to put in the needed time and +effort are what count. Serious and intense effort over many years in a +protracted struggle are mandatory. Anti-religious humor, denunciations of +the religious mentality, exposures of corrupt ministers or popes, and +comparable tactics are subordinate, if not superficial, and easily +countered. + Your comment with respect to fundamentalism missed the mark, DW. BE +doesn't exist to debate fundamentalists. Millions of people in this +Country are not fundamentalists or atheists but lie somewhere on the long +spectrum in between. The common denominator is that nearly all support +the Bible to some degree. BE merely seeks to debate those most supportive +of the Book while all others observe, so views can be sharply delineated +and many be moved further from the Bible by having their faith weakened. +Converting a fundamentalist in a dialogue is of far less importance than +influencing the audience. Many people have no strong views one way or the +other and are just listening. + + + +SUBSCRIBE TO: + + BIBLICAL ERRANCY $9 For one year + 3158 SHERWOOD PARK DRIVE $5 For six months + SPRINGFIELD, OH. 45505 Back issues $1 Each + Payable to: Dennis McKinsey + (513) 323-6146 + + +  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/bibleref.txt b/religious documents/bibleref.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9f8e53 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/bibleref.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/biblio1.txt b/religious documents/biblio1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00716e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/biblio1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,335 @@ +.po4 + + This bibliography is the one that was used by Fred Yoder and +Moonbear in our class on neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in November +of '87. Many people have contributed to this bibliography but we +would especially like to thank our dear friend Mike Mahoney, the +folks from Earth-Rite and from Thelema Net. + + + + OUR TOP FIVE + + +"Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess Worshippers, and + Other Pagans in America Today" - by Margot Adler. Beacon + Press, Boston, revised ed. 1986 + + +"Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great + Goddess" - by Starhawk. San Francisco, Harper & Row 1979 + + +"Positive Magic" - by Marion Weinstein. Phoenix Publishing, + Custer Wa. revised ed. 1981 + + +"Real Magic" - P.E.I. Bonewits. Creative Arts Book Co., Berkeley, + Ca., 1979 + + +"The Complete Book of Witchcraft" - Raymond Buckland. Llewellyn + Publications, St. Paul, Mn. 1986 + + + + + GODDESS and RELIGION + +1. "When God Was a Woman" - Merlin Stone +2. "Holy Book of Women's Mysteries" (vol. 1 & 2) - Z. Budapest +3. "Mother Wit" - Diane Mariechild +4. "The Great Cosmic Mother" - Monica Sjoo & Barbara Mor +5. "Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood" (vol 1 & 2) - Merlin Stone +6. "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" - Barbara G. + Walker +7. "The Great Mother" - Erich Neumann +8. "The Book of Goddesses and Heroines" - Patricia Monaghan +9. "God Herself: The Feminine Roots of Astrology" - Geraldine + Thorsen + + + OUR BEST of THE REST + (Subject to personal whim) + +1. "Earth Power" - Scott Cunningham +2. "The Tree - The Complete Book of Saxon Witchcraft" - Raymond + Buckland +3. "Earth Magic - A Dianic Book of Shadows" - Marion Weinstein +4. "The Witches Speak" - Patricia and Arnold Crowther +5. "A Book of Pagan Rituals" - Herman Slater (ed.) +6. "Magical Herbalism" - Scott Cunningham +7. "Master Book of Herbalism" - Paul Beryl +8. "Eight Sabbats for Witches" and "Rituals" - Janet and Stewart + Farrar +9. "The Way of the Shaman: A Guide to Power and Healing" - + Michael Harner +10. "Jambalaya, The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and + Practical Rituals" - Luisah Teish +11. "The Witches' Qabala" - Ellen Cannon Reed +12. "Futhark" - Edred Thorsson +13. "Goddeses and Gods of Ancient Europe, 6500 - 3500 BC." - + Marija Gimbutos + + + MYTHOLOGY and GENERAL INTEREST + +1. "Witchcraft Today" and "The Meaning of Witchcraft"- Gerald B. + Gardner +2. "Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, and Politics" - Starhawk +3. "Magical Rites from the Crystal Well" - Ed Fitch +4. "The Witch Cult in Western Europe" and "The God of the + Witches" - Margaret Murray +5. "Witches" - Erica Jong +6. "Celtic Heritage" - Alwyn and Brinley Rees +7. "The Politics of Women's Spirituality: Essays on the Rise of + Spiritual Power Within the Feminist Movement" - (ed.) + Charlene Spretnak +8. "Prince of Annwn","Children of Llyr","Song of Rhiannon","The + Island of the Mighty" - Evangeline Walton (One of the better + retellings of the Welsh Mabinogi) +9. "The White Goddess" - Robert Graves +10. "The First Sex" - Elizabeth Gould Davis +11. "The Norse Myths" - Kevin Crossley-Holland +12. "The Way of Wyrd" - Brian Bates +13. "The Mists of Avalon" - Marion Zimmer Bradley + + ARTS and CRAFTS + + +1. "The Complete Crystal Guidebook" - Uma Silbey +2. "Fortune-Telling by Runes" - David and Julia Line +3. "I-Ching: The Book of Changes" - tran. James Legge +4. "The Crone's Book of Words" - Valerie Worth +5. "Spiritual Cleansing: A Handbook of Psychic Protection" - + Draja Mickaharic + + +.pa + CONTACTS for FURTHER INFO + When contacting these groups please include S.A.S.E. + + +1. The Aquarian Tabernacle Church + The Center for Non-traditional Religion + publishes PANEGYRIA + P.O. Box 85507 + Seattle,Washington 98145 + +2. CENTER for SHAMANIC STUDIES founded by Michael Harner + Workshops on shamanic training + P.O. Box 673, Beldon Station + Norwalk, CT 06852 + +3. CIRCLE SANCTUARY FARM + Publishes "Circle Network News" and "Circle Guide to Pagan + Resources" as well as coordinating several contact + networks for the entire Pagan community. + P.O. Box 219 + Mt. Horeb, WI 53572 + + +4. COVENANT of the GODDESS (a multitraditional federation) + Nationwide organization of covens and solitaries of + various traditons sharing in the worship of the Goddess + and the old Gods and subscribing to a common code of + ethics. + P.O. Box 1226 + Berkeley, CA. 94704 + +5. GODDESS RISING + Educating both men and women about psychic development + and feminist Witchcraft. + 2441 Cordova St. + Oakland, CA 94602 + +6. THE OAKEN DOOR + Currently involved in networking, publishing "The + Vigil" and "Moonkind". + P.O. Box 31250 + Omaha, NE 68132 + +7. PAGAN PARENTS LEAGUE + Organization of networking, information exchange and + mutual support among Pagans who have children. + c/o Belinda + P.O. Box 423-P + Bay Shore, NY 11706 + +8. RE-FORMED CONGREGATION of the GODDESS + Publishes "Of A Like Mind" newsletter and networking + forum for womyn's spirituality. + P.O. Box 6021 + Madison, WI 53716 + NEWSLETTERS AND MAGAZINES + +1. ARACHNE - pub. by Matriarchy Research and Reclaim Network, a + network of women exploring spirituality and doing research. + ARACHNE, c/o A Woman's Place, Hungerford House, Victoria + Embankment, London WC2 England. +2. THE BARD - A hereditary Welsh journal of Celtic religion. A + family based journal. Published four times a year $9/yr., + $3.50 for sample copy. Checks payable to: R.A. DeVowe + THE BARD, Annwn Temple of Gwynfyd, 5102 N. 16th Dr.,Lot #3, + Phoenix, AZ 85015. + +3. BROTHERSONG - A journal for brothers of the earth. A bi-yearly + journal, pub. by Brothrs of the Earth, an organization + open to males of all ages, cultures, and sexual orienta + tions who are interested in exploring a positive male, + earth centered, and life-affirming spirituality. + BROTHERSONG - 2 issues and six bulletins/$20/year + Brothers of the Earth,P.O. Box 13158, Minneapolis, MN + 55414 + +4. CAER RHIANNON - Networking, training, and support. One person + involved with Caer Rhiannon is author Ed Fitch. Four + issues a year. $6/year, Checks payable to Jo Ann Adams. + CAER RHIANNON, P.O. Box 5261, Riverside, California 92517 + +5. THE CAULDRON - "An independent pagan journal of the old + religion", tries to present a broad range of pagan + thought. Pub. four times a year. $6/year U.S.(bills only) + THE CAULDRON - c/o M.A. Howard, 4 Llysonnen Cottages, + Llysonen Road, Carmarthen, Dyfed, SA 33 5ED Wales, United + Kingdom + +6. CHILDREN OF THE EARTH - A newsletter by, for, and about Pagan + families. Subs. $5 for four issues. + CHILDREN of the EARTH, P.O.Box 116, Berkeley Springs,W.Va. + 25441-0116 + +7. CIRCLE NETWORK NEWS - One of the largest and best known Pagan + newspapers, emphasising Wicca, shamanism, Goddess worship, + positive magic, and related Pantheistic ways. Pub. + quarterly, $9/yr bulk mail, $13/yr first class. $3 for + sample copy. + CIRCLE NETWORK NEWS, P.O.Box 219, Mt. Horeb, WI 53572 + +8. CONVERGING PATHS - A newsletter focusing on the traditional + ways of Wicca, its roots, and current directions. Pub. + four times a year. $13/yr + CONVERGING PATHS, P.O.Box 63, Mt. Horeb, WI 53572 + +9. THE DRUIDS PROGRESS - Ed. by P.E.I. Bonewits. Journal is + opinionated, intelectual, and fascinating. $20/yr for four + issues. Checks payable to P.E.I. Bonewits. + THE DRUIDS PROGERESS, P.O. Box 9398, Berkeley, CA 94709 + +10. GANYMEDE - The newsletteer of the Tayu Center for Gay + Spirituality Pub four times a year, Free to those + requesting it. + GANYMEDE, c/o Tayu Center, P.O.Box 11554, Santa Rosa, CA + 95406 + +11. GODDESS RISING - A journal of Womyn's Spirituality. Focus on + Dianic Wicce, ritual, and healing. $5 a year for four + issues, free to womyn in jail or who cannot pay. + GODDESS RISING, 4006 First Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98105 + +12. HERESIES - A Feminist publication on art, and politics. + $15 for four issues. + HERESIES, 1306 Canal St. Station, New York, NY 10013-0867 + +13. INNER KELTIA - "The leading journal of the Keltic + renaissance" Articles, poetry, history, rituals and other + related topics. Each issue is $6 U.S. + INNER KELTIA, Kaer Eidyn, 8 Annandale St., Edinburgh, EH7 + 4AN, Alban (Scotland) + +14. KINDRED SPIRITS QUARTERLY - An optomistic journal for Pagans + and all good friends of Mother Earth. Published in + Australia. Subs are $6 a year U.S. for four issues.$2 for + sample issue. + KINDRED SPIRITS QUARTERLY, P.O.Box 101 Bega, New South + Wales, 2550, Australia + +15. THE LITTLEST UNICORN - A Pagan journal devoted to children, + their parents, and the child within each of us. Published + 8 times a year, subs. $7/yr. + THE LITTLEST UNICORN, c/o The Rowan Tree, P.O.Box 8814, + Minneapolis, Minn. 55408 + + +16. OF A LIKE MIND - A quarterly newspaper for spiritual womyn. + It has the best feminist spirituality listings found + anywhere. Subscriptions: sliding scale; $13/Nymph, + $21/Maiden, $33/Crone. Sample copy $3. + OF A LIKE MIND, P.O.Box 6021, Madison, WI 53716 + +17. PANEGYRIA - Articles, new, letters, legal reports, + contacts, reviews, and debate. $8/yr for eight issues. + Sample copy free on request + PANEGYRIA P.O.Box 85507, Seattle, WA 98145 + +18. PIPES OF P.A.N. - Published by Pagans Against Nukes. + Activist orgainization dedicated to the banishment of + nuclear technology from our Earth. A political and + spiritual synthesis. L7/yr for four issues international + money order or Sterling draft only. + PIPES OF P.A.N., "Blaenberem", Mynyddcerrig, Llanelli, + Dyfed, Cymru (Wales), SA15 5BL + + +19. THE PICTISH SHAMAN - "A periodical journal devoted to the + Druidical Shamanistic techniques of the Picts." Includes + poetry, tree lore, symbolism, Celtic meditation methods + and more. $6 an issue. + THE PICTISH SHAMAN, Kear Eidyn, 8 Annandale Street, + Edinburgh, EH7 4AN, Alban (Scotland) + +20. SHAMAN'S DRUM - "A journal of Experiential Shamanism". + Published by the Cross-Cultural Shamanism Network. + Dedicated to promoting understanding between various + healing traditions, disciplines, and people. $15/yr U.S. + SHAMAN'S DRUM, P.O.Box 2636, Berkeley, CA 94702 + +21. THUNDERBOW - A National forum for Craft-Practitioner idea- + exchange and interface between Craft and non-Craft persons + having common interest or concerns. Subscriptions $6/yr. + THUNDERBOW, Church of Seven Arrows, 4385 Hoyt Street # + 201, Wheatridge, CO 80033 + +22. THE VIGIL - published for the purpose of "preserving the + balance of nature in ourselves and our environs to + encourage and strengthen the common bond between all Earth + religions." Subscriptions $8.50/yr. + THE VIGIL, The Oaken Door, P.O.Box 31250, Omaha, NE 68132 + +23. THE WISE WOMAN - A national quarterly journal of feminist + issues, feminist spirituality, Witchcraft, and Goddess + lore. Articles, news, Pagan art and poetry, inspirational + women in the past and interviews. $6/yr $2 for sample. + THE WISE WOMAN, 2441 Cordova Street, Oakland, CA 94602 + +24. WOOD AND WATER - "A Goddess inclined Eco-Pagan magazine". + Mythology, legends, folklore, poetry, art, and news. L6/yr + airmail equivalent cash only, for four issues, sample 85p + postage. + WOOD AND WATER, 4 High Tor Close, Babbacombe Road, Bromley + BR1 3LQ, Kent, England, UK + +25. THE LANTERN'S LIGHT - a midwest journal written for and by + Pagans including news, articles, poetry and ritual. + Subscriptions $18/yr for eight issues. + THE LANTERN'S LIGHT, c/o The Magick Lantern, 1715 Westport + Road, Kansas City, MO 64111 + +26. THE FAERIES LAMP - A new publication produced jointly by + Kansas City's "Council of the Southwind" and The Magick + Lantern. Published 8 times a year. For subscription rates + and further info contact Mike Nichols, c/o The Magick + Lantern, 1715 Westport Rd., Kansas City, Mo. 64111 + +27. GREEN EGG - 4 Quarterly issues at $12. Return of the + famous and infamous Green Egg journal one of the top + newsletters in the field, highly reccomended. Checks + payable to GREEN EGG. Mail to:GREEN EGG c/o CAW, + P.O.Box 1542, Ukiah, CA 95482 +28. GROVE OF THE SILVER LIGHT - Wiccan group in the Lawrenceville + Georgia area, Lady Gillian - Priestess. Pagan classes and + herbology classes starting regularly. Solitairs welcome to + join in on Sabbats. For more info, write: + GROVE OF THE SILVER LIGHT, P.O.Box 464596, Lawrenceville,GA + 30246 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/bibltime.txt b/religious documents/bibltime.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aafea6a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bibltime.txt @@ -0,0 +1,527 @@ +Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish +From: hem@maverick.col400.att.com (Hillel E. Markowitz) +Subject: Biblical Timeline +Message-ID: <1992Nov23.191851.14941@cbfsb.cb.att.com> +Originator: news@cbnewsf.cb.att.com +Organization: AT&T Federal Systems +Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 19:18:51 GMT + +The development of the time-line written below is based on a lecture by Rav +Schwab of Kahal Adath Yeshurun (Rav Breuer's schul) given in the year 5729 +(1968/69 C.E.) according to the count we currently use from the creation of the +world. The lecture dealt with the problem of dating the destruction of the +two Temples and reconciling the dates with the Xian dating system currently in +use. + +There are three methods of dating the beginning of the Creation era counting +from the creation. They are: + +1. Year 1 begins with the actual creation of the Universe. + +2. Year "0" is the creation of the Universe, while we count year 1 from the +creation of man + +3. The dating of the years is based on the ages shown in the Torah, thus Adam's +creation began Year 0 and Year 1 began on his first birthday. This method +allows the calendar to be set up by just adding the ages we find in Bereishis. + +Rabbi Schwab stated that we use method 1 in our current calendar. + +The difference in the three dating schemes is shown in the following table. + +_______________________________________________________________ +| Summary Event | Creation Era Dating | +| Writeup | 1 2 3 | +|________________________________|_____________________________| +| | | +| 1. Earth without form and void | 1 | +|________________________________|_____________________________| +| | | +| 2. Creation of Adam | 2 1 | +|________________________________|_____________________________| +| | | +| 3. Adam one year old | 3 2 1 | +|________________________________|_____________________________| +| | | +| 4. Flood | 1658 1657 1656 | +|________________________________|_____________________________| + + + +The following tables show the dating of events from the Chumash, TaNaCh, +Talmud, and secular history through the destruction of the second Temple. + + +I. 10 generations from Adam to Noach + +Date | Event +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1 | The universe is created +________|_____________________________________________________________ +2 | Adam is created +________|_____________________________________________________________ +3 | Adam is 1 year old +________|_____________________________________________________________ +132 | Adam fathers Shes (at 130 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +237 | Shes fathers Enosh (at 105 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +327 | Enosh fathers Kainan (at 90 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +397 | Kainan fathers Mehalalel (at 70 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +462 | Mehalalel fathers Yared (at 65 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +624 | Yared fathers Chanoch (at 162 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +689 | Chanoch fathers Mesushelach (at 65 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +876 | Mesushelach fathers Lamech (at 187 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +932 | Adam dies (930 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +989 | Chanoch ends (365 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1044 | Shes dies (912 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1058 | Lamech fathers Noach (at 182 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1142 | Enosh dies (905 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1237 | Kainan dies (910 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1292 | Mehalalel dies (895 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1424 | Yared dies (962 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1560 | Noach fathers Shem (98 years before the flood) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1653 | Lamech dies (777 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1658 | Mesushelach dies (969 years old) +________|_____________________________________________________________ +________|_____________________________________________________________ + | +1658 | FLOOD +________|____________________________________________________________ +________|____________________________________________________________ + +II. 10 Generations from Noach to Avraham + +Date | Event +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1660 | Shem fathers Arpachshad (at 100 years old) + | 2 years after flood +________|____________________________________________________________ +1695 | Arpachshad fathers Shelach (at 35 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +1725 | Shelach fathers Aiver (at 30 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +1759 | Aiver fathers Peleg (at 34 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +1789 | Peleg fathers Reu (at 30 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +1821 | Reu fathers Srug (at 32 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +1851 | Srug fathers Nachor (at 30 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +1880 | Nachor fathers Terach (at 29 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +1950 | Terach fathers Avram (100 years before Yitzchak is born) +________|____________________________________________________________ +________|____________________________________________________________ + +III. The Patriarchs - Avrahom through Yaakov + +Date | Event +________|_____________________________________________________________ +1998 | Peleg dies (239 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +1999 | Nachor dies (230 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2020 | Terach leaves Ur Kasdim for Canaan. Settles in Charan + | Avram is 70 years old. Based on figure of 430 years + | mentione in Exodus. +________|____________________________________________________________ +2025 | Avram told to leave Charan (Lech Lecha) (at 75 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2028 | Reu dies (239 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2036 | Avraham fathers Yishmael (at 86 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2049 | Avraham performs Bris Milah (at 99 years old) + | Yishmael is 13 years old +________|____________________________________________________________ +2050 | Avraham fathers Yitzchak (at 100 years old) + | Yishmael is 14 years old +________|____________________________________________________________ +2051 | Srug dies (230 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2085 | Terach dies (205 years old) in Charan +________|____________________________________________________________ +2087 | Avraham performs Akeidas Yitzchak (at 137 years old) + | Yitzchak is 37 years old + | Sarah dies (127 years old) + | Yitzchak marries Rivka +________|____________________________________________________________ +2110 | Yitzchak fathers Eisav and Yaakov (at 60 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2125 | Avraham dies (175 years old) + | Yishmael & Yitzchak are reconciled + | Eisav & Yaakov are 15 + | Eisav sells birthright to Yaakov +________|____________________________________________________________ +2125 | Arpachshad dies (465 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2128 | Shelach dies (433 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2150 | Eisav marries Yehudis bas Beairi Hachiti (at 40 years old) + | Eisav also marries Basmas bas Ailon Hachiti +________|____________________________________________________________ +2160 | Shem dies (600 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2189 | Aiver dies (464 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2173 | Yitzchak gives Brocho to Yaakov (at 123 years old - Rashi) + | Yaakov leaves home (at 63 years old) + | for Yeshiva of Shem & Aiver + | Eisav marries Machalas bas Yishmael (at 63 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2173 | Yishmael dies (137 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2187 | Yaakov leaves Yeshiva for Padan Aram (at 77 years old) + | meet Rachel at the well, agress to work for 7 years +________|____________________________________________________________ +2194 | Yaakov marries Leah (at 84 years old) + | marries Rachel on promise to work 7 more years +________|____________________________________________________________ +2201 | Yaakov fathers Yosef (at 91 years old) + | makes deal with Lavan to begin earning his own flock +________|____________________________________________________________ +2207 | Yaakov completes work for himself + | begins traveling to Canaan (at 97 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2209 | Yaakov reaches Cannan, settles down (at 99 years old) + | Yosef is 8 years old +________|____________________________________________________________ +2218 | Yosef is sold and ends up in Mitzrayim (at 17 years old) + | Yaakov is 108 years old +________|____________________________________________________________ +2231 | Yosef interprets Paroah's dream (at 30 years old) + | Yaakov is 121 years old +________|____________________________________________________________ +2240 | Yaakov goes down to Mitzrayim (at 130 years old) + | after 7 years of plenty and 2 years of famine. + | Yosef is 39 years old +________|____________________________________________________________ +2257 | Yaakov dies in Mitzrayim (147 years old) + | Eisav is killed at the Mearas Hamachpeilah +________|____________________________________________________________ + +IV. From Exile to Exile - Mitzraim to Bavel + +Date | Event +________|_____________________________________________________________ +2311 | Yosef dies (110 years old) +________|____________________________________________________________ +2370 | Moshe Rabbeinu is born in Mitzraim +________|____________________________________________________________ +2450 | Exodus from Mitzrayim + | Moshe Rabbeinu is 80 years old + | Melachim I 6:1 states that this is 480 years before the + | dedication of the First Temple by Shlomo Hamelech +________|____________________________________________________________ +2490 | Moshe Rabbeinu dies (120 years old) + | Entry into Canaan +________|____________________________________________________________ +2930 | Dedication of the First Temple by Shlomo Hamelech + | Temple lasts 410 years according to the Talmud +________|____________________________________________________________ +3340 | Destruction of the First Temple + | Babylonian exile lasts 70 years +________|____________________________________________________________ +________|____________________________________________________________ + +V. The Building of the Second Temple + +Rabbi Schwab pointed out that the historical evidence dates the destruction of +the first Temple at 586 BCE and the destruction of the Second Temple at 70 CE. +This seems to cause a conflict with the Talmud which lists the Second Temple as +having lasted 420 years and the exile as 70 years. This 490 year span would put +the destruction of the First temple at 420 BCE. The dating scheme used below is +AM (Anno Mundi) for the dates from the creation as in the tables above, TCE for +the Temple Construction Era, BCE for Before the Common (or Xian) Era, and CE for +the Common (or Xian Era). + +Rabbi Schwab deals with this by postulating that the period of the building of +the Second Temple lasted 168 years and was not counted in the calendar we use +today. That is, the era he refers to as the "Temple Construction Era" was +numbered seperately and was identical with the era of "Anshei Kneses Hagdola" +(Men of the Great Assembly). One reason for this is to prevent the attempt to +calculate the exact date that the moshiach will come. An appendix giving Rabbi +Schwab's dates for the events of the end of the First Temple Era will be added +later. Rabbi Schwab dated the Destruction of the First Temple in 3340 as 590/89 +BCE. The end of the Babylonian exile in 3409 is dated 521/20 BCE with the reign +of Darius I. The era of the Anshei Knesses Hagdola is shown in the following +table. Note that this would date the creation of the world (Year 1 AM) +as 3929/28 BCE. + +Date TCE | Date BCE | Event +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +1 | 520/19 | Temple building is resumed. Hagai, Zechariah +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +5 | 516/15 | Dedication of (incomplete) Temple celebrated. + | | Rebuilding of Jerusalem wall is begun +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +6 | 515/14 | Ezra arrives. First (prophetic) period of + | | "Knesses Hagdola" begins. After death of Joshua + | | Ezra become High Priest. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +34 | 487/86 | Darius I dies. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +35 | 486/85 | Xerxes (Artachshasstra of Ezra). Messianic + | | redemption expected no later than 3450 from the + | | creation (1,000 years after the Exodus). Ezra + | | travels to Bavel to organize the Ingathering of the + | | Exiles. He appoints Yoyakim as High Priest. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +40 | 481/80 | Xerxes appoints Ezrah as Pasha of Yehuda, encourages + | | total immigration. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +41 | 480/79 | Second coming of Ezra with only 1500 immigrants. + | | Refusal of majority to leave exile causes indefinite + | | postponement of messianic redemption. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +42 | 479/78 | Mixed Marriages Dissolved. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +54 | 466/65 | Xerxes dies. Artaxerxes I (Longimanus = Artachashassta + | | of Nechemiah). Through change of government, Ezra + | | loses his political power. Deterioration sets in. + | | Ezra (= Malachi) admonishes his contemporaries. + | | Persecution under new governors. Sanballat in + | | Samaria, Tobias the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab + | | are main antagonists. Enemies burn walls of Jerusalem + | | many Jews flee country/ Poverty and corruption reign. + | | Eliashev is the High Priest. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +75 | 446/45 | Nechemiah becomes governor. Walls of Jerusalem + | | are repaired. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +76 | 445/44 | Spiritual restoration of Jewish community. + | | "Covenant of the Faith". Second period of "Knesses + | | Hagdola" (Soferim) begins. Yoyada is High Priest. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +86 | 435/34 | Nehemiah leaves for Shushan. Partial deterioration + | | sets in again. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +88 | 433/32 | Nehemiah returns. festive dedication of Jerusalem + | (ca) | wall. Ezra dies. Yochanan (= Jonathan) becomes + | | High Priest. Biblical canon closed. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +97 | 424/23 | Darius II (Nothus) +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ + | 410 | Yeb temple in Egypt destroyed. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ + | 406 | Bagoas governor of Yehuda. Delaiah, son of + | | Sanballat in Samaria. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +116 | 405/04 | Artaxerxes II (Mnemon) +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +161 | 360/59 | Artaxerxes III (Ochus) +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +168 | 353/52 | Final temple restoration completed by Shimon Hatzadik + | | (Simon "The Just"). End of the Temple Construction + | | Era. Resumption of Anno Mundi numbering. +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ +_________|__________|__________________________________________________ + +VI. The Second Temple Era + +Date AM | Date BCE | Event +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3410 | 352/51 | First year of second Temple Era +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3423 | 339/38 | Darius III (Codomanus) +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3428 | 334/33 | Alexander - Battle of Issus +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3430 | 332/31 | Alexander welcomed in Jerusalem by Shimon Hatzadik. + | | Jewish social and cultural autonomy, granted under + | | the Persian rulers, remains unimpaired for another + | | 20 years until the battle of Gaza. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3438 | 324/23 | Alexander dies. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3442 | 320/19 | Ptolemy conquers Jerusalem +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3444 | 318/17 | Greek domination of Jewish life starts in Elam + | | (Media). Spreads all over the Jewish world within + | | the next 6 years and lasts for 180 years. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3446 | 316/315 | Antifones conquers Jerusalem. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3449 | 313/312 | Ptolemy reconquers Jerusalem. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3450 | 312/11 | Battle of Gaza. Ptolemy (="King of the South") and + | | Seleucis (="King of the North") are in control of + | | most of Alexander's empire. + | | Greek Era begins. This year is identical with the + | | first year of the Seleucid Era alos called "Minyan + | | Shtaros". Since the 168 years of the Temple + | | Construction Era are numbered seperately, follows + | | the year "1000 after the Exodus" according to AM. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3624 | 133/37 | Commencement of the Chashmonaim Era (103 years) +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3727 | 35/34 | Commencement of the Herodian Era (103 years) +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3760 | 2/1 | +3761 | 1BCE/1CE | Beginning of the Common (Xian) Era dating +3762 | 1/2 CE | +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3830 | 69/70 CE | Destruction of the Second temple 420 years after + | | its completion by Shimon Hatzadik. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +________|____________________________________________________________ + +VII. The End of the First Temple Era. + +The following table goes back and gives the details of Rabbi Schwab's time-line +of the end of the First Temple with the connection to the secular dating based +on the 168 year gap in the AM dating shown above. + +Date AM | Date BCE | Event +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3304 | 626/25 | Yoval count restarted after Yirmiyahu bring back the + | | ten tribes. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3318 | 612/11 | Yoshiah killed by Pharoah Necho. Yehoachaz reigns + | | for three months +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3319 | 611/10 | First year of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. + | | Battle of Carchemish liquidates teh last remnant of + | | "Ninive" (the former Assyrian Empire). + | | Nevuchadnetzar's father dies on 8 Av and Nevuchadnetzar + | | becomes emperor on 1 Elul. The Babylonians count this + | | year as the "accesion year" ("rishonis") and the next + | | year as year 1. According to Jewish counting, the + | | year of his victory over "Ninive" is year 1 of his + | | reign. Yoyakim kills Uriah and threatens + | | Yirmiyahu's life. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3323 | 607/06 | In his second year, Nevuchadnetzar invades Yehuda. + | | Yoyakim becomes his vassal for 3 years. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3326 | 604/03 | Yoyakim rebels. First year of regained independence. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3328 | 602/01 | In Adar (3rd year of independence) Nevuchadnetzar's + | | troops capture Yoyakim and many nobles. Daniel and + | | his three friends are among the captives brought to + | | to Bavel. Yoyakim dies in his chains while being + | | dragged out of Jerusalem. No king in Yehuda for + | | about eight months. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3329 | 601/00 | Yoyachin (Yechoniah) becomes king for 3 months and + | | 10 days. Babylonian troops lay siege to Jerusalem + | | to capture him. In Adar, Nevuchadnetzar arrives, + | | Jerusalem capitulates, Yechoniah goes into exile with + | | almost all the leading and learned citizens. + | | + | | Daryavesh, son of Achashverosh, also called Subarru + | | (Gobrias) is born in Media. + | | Nevuchadnetzar appoints Tzidkiyahu king who swears + | | allegiance to him. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3332 | 598/97 | Tzidkiyahu travels to Bavel to pay homage to + | | Nevuchadnetzar and returns. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3334 | 596/95 | Tzidkiyahu conspires with Egypt against Bavel. + | | Vision of Yechezkel in the 30th year after the Yovel. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3336 | 594/93 | Pharoah Hophra (Apries) captures Gaza while returning + | | from an attempt to help Yehuda against the Babylonian + | | army on the march. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3339 | 591/90 | Siege of Yerushalayim (10 Teves). This is the 410th + | | year of the First temple Era +________|____________________________________________________________ +________|__________|__________________________________________________ + +VIII. The Galus Bavel + +The following table goes back and gives the details of Rabbi Schwab's time-line +of the Galus Bavel (Babylonian Exile) with the connection to the secular dating +based on the 168 year gap in the AM dating shown above. + +Date AM | Date BCE | Event +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3340 | 590/89 | On 9 Tamuz Yerushalayim is captured. Tzidkiyahu is + | | taken to Nevuchadnetzar in Rivlah and blinded. + | | 7th - 10th Av, Temple is destroyed. This is Year 1 + | | of the "Galus Bavel" Era. + | | Gedaliah is appointed governor. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3341 | 589/88 | Gedaliah is assassinated. Yirmiyah is taken to + | | Egypt with the refugees. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3342 | 588/87 | Daniel interprets dreams of Nevuchadnetzar. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3345 | 585/84 | Conquest ot Tyre. Many Jewish refugees taken to + | | Bavel. Astyages becomes king of Media +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3349 | 581/80 | Nevuchadnetzar conquers Egypt. + | | Yirmiyahu goes to Bavel. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3366 | 564/63 | 25 Adar, Nevuchadnetzar dies. Exiled king Yechoniah + | | released from prison. Also Tzidkiyahu, who dies on + | | regaining his freedom and is buried with royal honors +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3367 | 563/62 | Era of Evil-Merodach lasts 22 years. + | | Jews are honored and favored. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3371 | 559/58 | Nirgal Sharetzar (Neriglasser) son-in-law of + | | Nevuchadnetzar. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3375 | 555/54 | Nabunaid (also calls himself Nevuchadnetzar) adopts + | | Nevuchadnetzr's grandson Belshatzar and grants him + | | royal powers. Nabunaid kills king of Edom, captures + | | Gaza, and lives for about 7 years in seclusion + | | in Tema. + | | +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3389 | 541/40 | Reign of Belshatzar lasts about 3 years. During this + | | period Jews are humiliated by Belshatzar who is + | | acting king. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3391 | 539/38 | Belshatzar killed (Nabunaid captured). + | | Cyrus apponts Gubarru (Daryavesh the Mede) as acting + | | king of the Chaldees. He rules for less than 1 year. + | | Daniel in the lions' den. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3392 | 538/37 | Cyrus: Proclamation of Return. Sheshbatzar, + | | Zerubavel. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3393 | 537/36 | Rebuilding of the Temple is started. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3394 | 536/35 | Samaritans and other "enemies of Yehuda" conspiring. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3395 | 535/34 | Cambyses (Ahashverosh) appointed coregent by his + | | father Cyrus. He establishes his own capital in + | | Shushan. Temple building stopped. Cyrus now also + | | called Artachshashta (Emperor) revokes proclamation. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3401 | 529/28 | Cyrus dies, Cambyses becomes sole emperor. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ + | 525 | Cambyses conquers Egypt. He is ruling "Mehodu Vead + | | Kush" (from India to Ethiopia). Esther becomes queen +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3406 | 524/23 | Haman's fall +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3407 | 523/22 | Purim +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3408 | 522/21 | Cambyses dies. Persian empire revolts. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +3409 | 521/20 | Darius I. This is the last year of the + | | "Galus Bavel" Era. +________|__________|__________________________________________________ +________|__________|__________________________________________________ diff --git a/religious documents/biglie.txt b/religious documents/biglie.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..684eca1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/biglie.txt @@ -0,0 +1,105 @@ + + THE BIG LIE! + + The Bible warns that before the return of the Lord Jesus at the + consummation of this age there will be a manifestation of the powers of + darkness on earth. Satan and his demons will perform 'signs and lying + wonders' with the goal of deceiving mankind. The Bible says: "And then + shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the + spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: + Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and + signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness + in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, + that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong + delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned + who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" + (2 Thess. 2:8-12). + + There is a great deception coming into the world. All who reject + the truth of the Gospel of salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ + will believe this lie. Could UFO's and contact with alien beings be a + part of this deception? I think it is! The following are the major + beliefs or Theology of UFO'ology: + 1) God is not a personal being. God is an impersonal force + 2) The Bible is not God's only revelation to man + 3) The Lord Jesus Christ is not the only Saviour + 4) There is no eternal punishment or hell + 5) There is no resurrection from the dead + 6) Man himself can evolve from planet to planet to perfection + by reincarnation + + The nature of UFO'ology can also be seen in that the world of the + occult (psychics, mediums, etc.) has embraced UFO's and contact with + 'alien beings'. The occultists frequently speak about our 'friendly' + space brothers who wish to help mankind with their superior knowledge and + technology. + + The Bible warns: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the + latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing + spirits, and doctrines of devils" (1 Tim. 4:1). The theology of + UFO'ology is contradictory and hostile to Biblical Christianity. + + YOU MUST MAKE A CHOICE! + "...choose you this day whom ye will serve;...but as for me and my house, + we will serve the Lord" (Josh. 24:15). + + "NEITHER IS THERE SALVATION IN ANY OTHER: FOR THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME + UNDER HEAVEN GIVEN AMONG MEN, WHEREBY WE MUST BE SAVED" (Acts 4:12). + + The Bible says: + + ALL HAVE SINNED: "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of + God;" (Rom. 3:23). + + SIN HAS A PENALTY: "The soul that sinneth it shall die..." (Ezek. 18:20). + "...except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). + + THE LORD JESUS PAID THE PENALTY: "But he was wounded for our + transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of + our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isa. 53:5). + + YOU MUST RECEIVE THE LORD JESUS: "But as many as received him, to them + gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his + name" (John 1:12). + + SINNERS PRAYER + + Lord Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner. I ask you to come into my + life to forgive and save me. I now receive You as my Saviour (trusting + in You ALONE to save me) and my Lord (making You my Master and committing + my life to You). + + By A. Yusko and E. Prior + The Seed Sowers + P.O. Box 2513, Station F + Scarborough, Ont. M1W 3P2 + + The Seed Sower Friendly BBS (416) 498-5259 (24hrs) + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/bkrev1.txt b/religious documents/bkrev1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad56683 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bkrev1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ + + + Attainment through Magic + "Evoking the Higher Self" + + by: William G. Gray + + +For the Ceremonial Magician in all of us. This book can be a step-by-step +system to find the inner self. This book is also for the serious magical +student who likes a structured path of learning. This book has carefully +explained instructions and illustrations for the self-seeker. + +William G. Gray painstakingly constructed this systematic theory to help +others find a path they could follow. This is an authorative guide book +on creating a magical cosmos. + +Learn how to create a circle of living energy around you. Learn how to +find your Magical Name. Learn how to grow a metaphysical Tree of Life, +and much more. This is a advantageous book of magical learning for all. + + + ******************************************************** + + Planetary Magic + "The Heart of Western Magic" + + by: Denning & Phillips + + +"Planetary Magic" is a very educational and well written book on the +essentials of planetary magic. It gives you focal points on the Planets, +Qubalah, the Archetypes and their planetary counterparts. + +This book also gives you planetary characters such as: the origins of +the correspondences, the planetary character, and the magical character. +Also covered is stimulating the deep mind and the planetary matrix of +"the correspondences and creativity." The times of power within the +matrix and how it works is also included as well as insights on your place +of Magical workings, what Equipment to use, the color changes, which Incense, +what Power is to be raised, the Rites of Preparation needed, and contacting +the deep powers of the psyche. + +This is a well recommended teaching book for all. It reaches from the Earth +to the Spirit. + + +P.S. This book was well enjoyed by the reviewer. + + diff --git a/religious documents/blackart.txt b/religious documents/blackart.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df7caa8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/blackart.txt @@ -0,0 +1,441 @@ + +-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==- +/ "A Complete Guide to Black Magic & The Occult" \ +\ / +/ Part I "Casting Simple Spells" \ +\ / +/ By: Abdul Alhazred \ +\ / +/+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+=\ + + +I would like to start off by asking that you don't get the 'Occult' mixed up +with a 'Cult'. The Occult is the study of the unknown, while a Cult is a group +of religious radicals. + + + What is a spell? Well, a spell is any vocalized plea to produce a magickal +effect. What is Magick? I believe that A. Crowley said it best when he +said.. "Magick is that which causes thought to conform to reality at will." I +know that you are telling yourself... 'Lookie here... this guy is gonna tell +me in a file how to become perfect. To become one among the "Magnus".' Well, +I'm not. This file containing simple rituals, spells, incantations, and other +shit that may be thought as as the first step. What is here has worked for +those I know. Although, I cannot guarantee that it will work for you, be very +careful when you choose them. This what is called 'Low' magick. The higher +forms are the Enochian system, and those systems dealing with the Quaballah. +The Quaballah (Kabbalah, Kabala, Cabala, Caballah.... all spellings are +correct) or tree of life deals with the very fabric of the universe. It +contains 10 Sepherof..... but we'll get into that later. + + Now, let's get on with some spells. I trust they will not be misused. + +I. For Love +Envision a white light starting at the top of your head, and going all the way +down to your toes. This light should be thought of as all true knowledge. Of +those who have passed before you. Picture the person in your mind and say: +Oh coriander, bring (Him/Her) Mad! +Oh caraway, bring (Him/Her) wandering without success! +Oh Mastic, raise in (His/Her) heart anguish and tears! +Oh white lime, make (His/Her) heart wakeful in disquietude! +Oh cummin, bring (Him/Her) possessed! +Oh verdigris, kindle the fire of (h/h) heart! +Oh Myrrh, make (h/h) spend a frightful night! +Oh blood of the victim, lead (h/h) panting! +Og cemetary broom, bring him to my side. + +II. Against Magick & The Evil Eye +Wear around the Neck: Callen Dan Dant, + Dan Dant Callen, + Dan Callen Dant. + +III. Engrave (or write the following) on paper: + + A b r a c a l a n + A b r a c a l e + A b r a c a l + A b r a c a + A b r a c + A b r a + A b r + A b + A +This will offer great protection from disease of heart (physical & emotional). + +IV. The Lamp of Life +Take a good quantity of Venal blood lukewarm as it came out of the vein, which +being chemically prepared with spirit of wine and other ingredients, is at last +made up into a candle, which once being kindled never goes out until the death +of the party whose blood it is composed of; for when he is sick or in danger, +it burns dim and troubled, and when he is dead, it is quite extinguished. + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Simple (Low) Summonings....... + +I. Conjuration To Lucifer +Lucifer, Ouyar, Chameron, Aliseon, Mandousin, Premy, Oriet, Naydrus, Esmony, +Eparinesont, Estiot, Dumosson, Danochar, Casmiel, Hayras, Fabelleronthon, +Sodirnot, Peatham, come, Lucifer. Amen. + +II. Conjuration for Beelzebuth +Beelzebuth, Lucifer, Madilont, Solymo, Saroy, Ameclo, Segrael, Praredun, +Adricanorom, Martiro, Timo, Cameron, Phorsy, Metosite, Prumosy, Dumaso, Elivisa, +Alphross, Fubentronty, Come, Beelzebuth. Amen. + +III. Conjuration for Astaroth +Astaroth, Ador, Cameso, Valluerituf Mareso, Lodir, Cadomir, Aluiel, Calniso, +Tely, Pleorim, Viordy, Meus Calmiron, Noard, Nisa Chenibranbo Calevodium, Brazo, +Tabrasol, Come, Arastoth. Amen. + +Having repeated seven times the conjuration addressed to one of these superior +spirits, the same will forthwith manifest to perform whatever shall be desired. + +DISCHARGE (must be performed!!!!!!) +Go in peace unto your places; may peace be with you, and be ye ready to come +whenever I so shall call upon you. In the name of the Father, the Son, and +the Holy Ghost. Amen. +-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==-==- + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +"While learning what there was to learn in the Occult world, I happened upon +an extremely interesting ritual..... this was the ritual of talking with dead +or recently deceased. Of the many forms, I have found the one called 'Seance' +the most reliable as well as informative." +-Grant Fuller PhD +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +I would like to start off by asking that you don't get the 'Occult' mixed up +with a 'Cult'. The Occult is the study of the unknown, while a Cult is a group +of religious radicals. + + +While I take credit for typing in this file, I did not write it. I am copying +this word for word out of a book (very small) on the topic. I have used the +meathods described within, and I have found that they work quite well in +most instances. While some of the rules are trash, I'll let you decide which +ones are or aren't........ + +-WHAT IS A SEANCE? + + The Seance or Spirit-Circle is the assembling together of a given number +of persons for the purpose of seeking communication with the spirits who have +passed away from earth into the higher world of souls. The chief advantage of +such an assembly in the mutual imparation and reception of the combined +magnetisms of the assemblage. These in combination form a force stronger than +that of the isolate subject: first enabling spirits to commune with great +power; next, developing latent gifts of mediumship in such members of the +circle as are thus endowed; and, finally, promoting the harmonious and social +spirit of fraternal intercouse which is one of the chief aims of the spirits +mission. + +-WHO SHOULD ATTEND A SEANCE? + + The persons who compise the circle should be, as far as possible, of +opposite temperaments, as positive and negative in disposition whether male +or female; also of moral characters, pure minds, and not marked by repulsive +points of either physical or mental condition. The physical temperments should +contrast with each other; but no person suffering from a decidedly chronic +disease, (Like Sir Arthur's AIDS), or of a very weak physique should be present +at any circle unless it is formed expressly for healing purposes. The use +growing out of the association of different temperments is to form a battery on +the principles of electricity or galvanism, composed of positive and negative +elements, the sum of which should be unequal. No person of a very strongly +positive temperment or disposition should be present, as any magnetic +spheres emanating from the circle will overpower that of the spirits, who +must always be positive to the circle in order to produce phenomena. + +-HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN BE SEATED AT THE SEANCE TABLE? + + I would recommend the number of the circle never to be less than three +nor more than twelve. Also, it is not desirable to have more than two +already well-developed mediums in a circle; Mediums always absorb the +magnetism of the rest of the party; hence, when there are too many present, +the force, being divided, cannot operate successfully with any. + +-PROPER ROOM TEMPERATURE FOR A SEANCE. + +Never let the aparrtment be overheated, or even close. As an unusual ammount +of magnetism is liberated at a circle the room is always warmer than ordinary +and should be very well ventilated. + +-PROPER LIGHTING FOR A SEANCE. + +Avoid strong light, which, by producing excessive motion in the atmosphere, +disturbs the manifestations. A very subdued light is the most favorable for +any manifestations of a magnetic character especially for spiritual +magnetism. + +-POSITIONS TO BE OBSERVED (Who should sit where?). + +If the circle is one which meets periodically, and is composed of the same +persons, let them occupy the same seats (unless changed under spiritual +direction), and sit (as the most favorable position) around a table, their +hands laid upon it with palms downwards. It is believed that the wood, when +charged, becomes a conductor, without the necessity of touching or holding +hands. I should always suggest the propriety of employing a table as a +conductor, especially as all tables in household use are more or less charged +already. + +-WHICH ITEMS SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM THE SEANCE ROOM? + + If flowers & fruit are in the room, see that they are freshly gathered. +Otherwise, remove them. Also avoid sitting in a room with many minerals, +metals, or glasses. These all injuriously affect sensitives. + +-HOW TO BEGIN THE SEANCE. + + I recommend the seance to be opened either with prayer or music, vocal +or instrumental; after which, subdued quiet and harmonizing conversation is +better than silence, but let the conversation always be directed toward the +purpose of the gathering, and never sink into discussion, or rise to emphasis. +Let it be gentle, quiet, and spiritual, until phenomena begin to manifest. +Always have a slate, pen or pencil, and paper on the table so as not to be +abliged to rise and procure them. Try to avoid all entering or quitting the +room, moving about, irrelevant conversation or disturbances within or without +the circle room, after the seance has commenced. + +-THE BEST TIME TO CONDUCT A SEANCE. + + The spirits are far more punctual to seasons, faithful to promise, and +periodical in action than mortals. Endeavor, then, to fix your circle at a +convenient hour when you will be least interrupted and do not fail in your +appointments. Do not admit late comers. You should not be disturbed in any way +after the sitting commences. Nothing but necessity, indisposition, or +impressions (to be hearafter described) should warrant the least disturbance +of the sitting. + +-HOW LONG SHOULD A SEANCE LAST? + + A sitting should NEVER exceed two hours, unless an extention in time be +solicitated by the spirits. Let the seance ALWAYS extend to one hour, even if +no results are obtained. It sometimes requires all that time for spirits to +form their battery of the materials furnished. + +-WHY SOME SPIRIT CIRCLES MUST BE BROKEN UP. + + Since ALL circles are experimental, no one ahould be discouraged if +phenomena are not produces after the first few sittings. Stay with the same +circle for six sittings. If no phenomea are then produced (provided all the +conditions in the previous text are observed) you may be sure you are rightly +assimilated to each other, you do not form the requisite combonations, or +neutralize each other. In that case, break up, and let that circle or members +meet with other persons; that is, change one, two, or three persons of your +group for others, and so on until you succeed. + +-THE TEST MEDIUM. + + A well developed test-medium may sit without injury for any person, +of any description of character or temperment. + +-WHAT TYPES OF PEOPLE MUST BE BANNED? + + A circle sitting for mutual development should never admit persons +addicted to bad habits, criminals, sensualists, strongly positive persons of +any kind, whether rude, skeptical, violent tempered, or dogmatical. A humble, +candid, inquiring spirit, unprejudiced, and receptive of truth, is the only +frame of mind in which to sit for phenomena, the delicate magnetism of which is +shaped, tempered, and made or marred as much by mental as physical conditions. + +-WHEN THE 'SPIRITS'"TAKE OVER" + + When once any of the circle can communicate freely and conclusively with +the spirits, the spirits can and will take charge of and regulate the future +movements of the circle. + +-IMPRESSIONS: WHEN 'OTHER' SPIRITS TALK TO 'OUR' SPIRITS. + + Impressions are the voices of spirits speaking to our spirits, or else +the monitions of the spirit within us, and should always be respected and +followed out, unless (which is very rare) suggestive of actual wrong in act +or word. At the opening of the circle, one or more members are often +impressed to change seats with others; one or more to withdraw, or a strong +feeling of repulsion to some member of the circle, makes it painful to remain +there. Let any or all of these impressions be faithfully reguarded, and, at +commencing, pledge to each other the promise that no offence shall be taken by +following out impressions. If a strong impression to write, speak, sing, dance, +or gesticulate, possess any mind present, follow it out faithfully. It has a +meaning, if you cannot at first realize it. Never feel hurt in your own person, +or riducule in your neighbors, for any failures to express, or at first +discover the meaning of the spirit impressing you. + +-SPIRIT CONTROL + + Spirit control is often deficient, and at first almost always imperfect, +but by often yielding to it, your organism becomes more flexible, and the +spirit more experienced; and practice in control is absolutely necessary for +spirits as well as mortals. If dark and evil-disposed manifest to you, never +drive them away, but always strive to elevate them, and treat them as you would +mortals in similar circumstances. Do not always attribute falsehoods to lying +spirits or decieving mediums. Many mistakes occur in the communion of which you +cannot always be aware. + +-STRIVING FOR TRUTH + + Strive in truth, but rebuke error gently; and do not always attribute it +to design, but rather to mistake in so difficult and experimental a stage of +the communion as mortals at present enjoy with the spirits. All persons are +subject to spirit influence and spirit guidence and control, but not all can so +externalize this power as to use it consciously or be what is significantly +called a medium. And finally, let it be remembered that except in the case of +trance-speakers, no medium can ever hope successfully to exercise his/her gift +in a large or promiscuous assembly, whil trance-speakers, no less than mediums +for any other gift, can never be influenced by spirits far beyond their own +normal capacity in the matter of the intelligence rendered. The magnetism of +the spirit and the spirit-circle being but a quickening fire, which inspires, +the brain, stimulates the facilities, and, like a hot-house process on plants, +forces in abnormal prominence dormant or latent powers of the mind, but creates +nothing. Even in the case of merely automatic speakers, writers, and other +forms of test mediums, the intelligence or idea of the spirit is always +measurably shaped by the capacity idiosyncracies of the medium. All spirit +power is thus limited to expression by organism through which it works; and +spirits may control, inspire, and influence the human mind, but do not change +or re-create it. + +-SOME FINAL ADVICE. + + Unless strictly charged by spirits to do otherwise, DO NOT continue to +hold sittings with the same parties for more than a twelve month period. After +that time, if not before, fresh elements of magnetism are absolutely essential. +Some of the original circle should withdraw and others take their place. This +is a most important point, and one NOT to be forgotten! + +"And as it harms none, do what you will!" +-Wicca + + +I would like to start off by asking that you don't get the 'Occult' mixed up +with a 'Cult'. The Occult is the study of the unknown, while a Cult is a group +of religious radicals. + + + This file (Part III in my series) will be dealing with some major occult +tools. Two of which are the Ouija board (Wee-Gee Board, and the pendulum. I +have included instructions on how to make and use both of these tools, as well +as mentioned others that might be better for you. Remember that no two people +are the same, and what gives you results might not work for some people, and +vise versa. Now, on with the file. + + +-WHAT IS A OUIJA BOARD? + + A ouija board is a series of letters and numbers. The diviner [Person(s) +consulting the board] uses a pointer to ask the 'Spirit World' questions in +which they answer. I believe that this does NOT link with the spirit world, +but with your own power or subconscious. This goes hand in hand with the +belief's of witches (those people practicing witchcraft [Wicca] which is +actually pagan or druidic in nature). Never ask the boad when a certain person +will die or be injured, as it ususlly gives a recent date, and carries through. +I do not (nor do my companions/teacher) understand why this happens, it just +does sometimes. Well, here is how to make one. + +-HOW DO I MAKE ONE? + + Get 36 3x5 cards (paper strips may be substituted). On each card, place +either a letter of the alphabet, or a number (0-9). When done, you should have +the alphabet, and the numbers 0-9. Arrange these on a surface (later) in a +clockwise circle starting with 'A' and ending with '9'. Now you need a pointer. +We'll use a shot glass, although almost anything that will slide may be used. +Make sure that the surface you have chosen is one that will let your pointer +glide freely to letters. After you have used this board and feel comfortable +with it (instructions on use later), you may add two cards.... 'Yes' & 'No'. +These may be placed anywhere that feels comfortable. Now you have a ouija +board. Although you may purchase one, I find that making your own gets better +results. (Yes, I own one, and no, I don't use it.... I made one.) + +-HOW DO I USE IT? + + To use your board, spread your cards (or if you bought one, put the board +down). Place the pointer in the neutral position (in the middle of the board +or circle) and sit down. If more than one person are using the board, sit with +each person on each end. Place fingertips (very, very, lightly) gently on the +pointer. Concentrate on your question for a moment, and then ask it aloud. +Now wait. You might have to wait for a few minutes while the pointer builds +energy. The pointer will slowly begin to move, speeding up as you go along, +and spell out the correct answer. Take care in what you ask it! + + +-WHAT IS A PENDULUM? + + A Pendulum is a balanced weight on the end of a string. It is used to +answer questions and guide the user.... it tends to be VERY, VERY, accurate. +The Pendulum is derived from the diving rod. The ancient druids used one tnh +plot the location of Stonehenge. In the rest of this file, I will be going over +how to make one, use one, and look at some of the great uses that can be posed. + +-HOW DO I MAKE ONE? + + For your first one, you will need: 1.) A Long piece of fishing line. + 2.) A Sewing Needle + 3.) A Piece of cork or a spool. + +Take and thread the needle. Push the needle through the cork or spool. There +you go! You will probably want to make a better one later on. Use your +imagination, but do not make it out of a metal. Some metals tend to disrupt the +vibration and will give you incorrect answers. BTW: The Length of the line +should be the measurement from your wrist to your elbow. + +-HOW DOES IT WORK? + + The Pendulum works off of your own vibrations. The use of a Pendulum is +called 'Radiesthesia'. There are many theories to the actual operation of the +pendulum. The one I accept is that you body is like an antenna. Everything in +existance has it's own frequency (this is very true), and what we attempt to do +when using the Pendulum, is lock into that frequency. But I wouldn't worry +right now about how it works.... it's like Edison said about electricity, +"We have this wonder called electricity. It works, and it is good. I don't +really care how it works, nor should you." + +-SO HOW DO I USE IT? + + The first thing you need to do is tune yourself with your pendulum. + + ^ + | + | + | + | + <---------------------------> + | + | + | + | + v + +Hold the pendulum freely over the middle. Will (in your mind...) the pendulum +to swing un and down. Do not be surprised when it does, and don't use your +fingers to move it. Hold it be the end of the thread. Now ask the Pendulum a +question that you know the answer is yes to. As the Pendulum starts swinging +and of the ways, say out loud, "This means YES!". Now, do the same with a no +question. If the pendulum swings clockwise or counter-clockwise, just use +that instead of the other method. Generally, in the future, clockwise and +counter-clockwise will mean respectivley Harmonious, and inharmonious. Now that +you have trued your pendulum, you will never have to do it again with that +pendulum unless you loan it out. All you need to do is ask it yes/no questions. + + +-OTHER USES. + + +Healing-> You may use the pendulum to diagnose ailments, and direct your +energies toward healing that person (or ailment). + +Love-> Ask if you are compatable with a particular person. + +Crucial information-> You can ask about business deals, or find a persons age +(think of an age, and add or subtract by one until it swings to yes), find +out what your needs are..... just about anything! + + +A good book on the subject is..... Pendulum Power + By: Greg Nielson & + Joseph Polansky + A Warner Destiny Book +GOOD LUCK!! + +Blessed Be!! + +----------------+ + | Abdul Alhazred | + +----------------+ + + diff --git a/religious documents/blessbe.txt b/religious documents/blessbe.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dec8c13 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/blessbe.txt @@ -0,0 +1,175 @@ + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + B L E S S E D B E + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + Touching The Power Of Witches + + By, Andrea Behr (San Jose Mercury News Staff Writer - 11/28/87) + + + When I look back on it, I think I may have been a witch even +as a kid. + Although I recieved no religious training as a child, something +in me, some sense of connection or gratitude, demanded expression. I +tried to believe in God, as I understood him. I would stare at the sky +and try to convince myself that some real entity was staring back at me. +I'd manage it - for a second or two. + The stars were certainly real, though, and miraculous enough. I +could imagine them looking at me. + When I was only about 8 or 9, I used to go alone to secret places +in empty lots near my suburban house to commune with plants and trees. +Without knowing that anyone had ever done it before me, I celebrated the +solstices and equinoxes with rituals. I would stand on a certain boulder, +for instance, and say certain words to greet the new season. + It mattered to me when the season changed. New moods would sweep +over me; everthing smelled different; the world shifted. I had a mystical +relationship with each season. + Twenty years later, when I encountered witches and their religion, +known as Wicca, I realized that they were doing with their full adult power +what I had done instinctively as a child. + +----- +Modern witches worship the physical world - the earth, their own bodies, the +cycles of the sun and moon, life and death, light and darkness, and change, +according to Starhawk, a San Francisco witch and writer. They have no deity +but nature, though they use as a symbol and focus the earth Goddess, who was +worshiped in various forms by people in ancient times. +----- +Witches such as Starhawk believe that re-creating a modern version of the +old pre-Judeo-Christian, female-centered religion is the best way to heal +ourselves and others, find power and wholeness, and perhaps rescue the +earth from the successes of its dominant species. +Witches for centuries have suffered persecution at the hands of those who +have labeled their craft evil, heretical or satanic. I never rejected Wicca +on those grounds. But at first I was skeptical, even satirical. I'd lived +in California long enough to have had my fill of vaguely beatific people +who don't believe in using the brains they were born with. +----- + + But the witches I met seemed surprisingly solid and sensible, and +they radiated a sense of power - and a sense of humor - hat attracted me. + "Witchcraft has always been a religion of poetry, not theology," +Starhawk has written. It doesn't have a great deal to offer the intellectual. +On the other hand, you don't have to "believe in" anything other than +yourself. The rituals and practices tap into archetypes that speak to deep +psychological truths. + I liked the way Starhawk and her followers combined their political Špassions - anti-nuclear work, environmental issues, feminism - with their +religion. They seemed to be having fun, too: cutting loose, getting bigger +and deeper as people. I felt a kinship with them. + But in my life, people don't go around talking about the Goddess, +saying "Blessed Be" and singing songs to the moon, not to mention casting +spells. It was embarrassing. It was dumb. I was torn. + Finally I took a deep breath and signed up for a weeklong workshop +in "Goddess spirituality." I drove to the Quaker Center in Ben Lomand on +a warm Sunday evening in August in a cold sweat of anxiety. + I felt as if I were about to jump off a cliff. + There were about 45 of us - including several men - ranging in age +from about 20 to about 60, about equally divided between gay and heterosexual. +We came to the workshop from many directions, and not just geographically. +There were former radicals, professional witches, lesbian farm couples, a half- +Indian punk-rock enthusiast, a middle-aged West German man, a quiet woman who +lived in her mother's house in a small town in Illinois and talked to trees. +I feared that I was the most "normal" person there. + That first, utterly black new-moon night, we formed a circle in a +clearing sheltered by redwoods and performed a ritual. + We faced each of the four directions in turn and called in the +elements - air in the east, fire in the south, water in the west and earth +in the north. We "cast a circle" around us to create sacred space, imagining +a boundary of energy separating us from the rest of the world and binding us +to one another. We sang simple songs over and over to invoke the presence of +the Goddess in her triple aspects of maiden, mother and crone. Then we called +on the Horned God, her child-lover, who, in the Wiccan tradition, dies and is +reborn. + Of that first ritual, I mostly remember the strangeness and beauty, +the way I felt that half of me was outside the circle, making fun of how silly +it was, while the other half was doing it anyway, and feeling something stir +inside. + That internal war raged all week. Making magic required the most +delicate suspension of disbelief. I struggled to quiet the howls of outrage +from my rational, tough-minded side in order to reap what I wanted from the +practices I was learning. + I also sometimes felt overwhelmed. So much was being addressed to me, +so much dug into and stirred up, that I sometimes felt that I couldn't +contain it all. It was like trying to stuff a rhinoceros into my back +pocket. + Those of us in the beginning track - "Elements of Magic" - spent the +first part of the workshop learning a basic ritual in slow motion. + We did a grounding exercise, imagining roots growing from the bottoms +of our feet, down through the earth to its center, and then imagining "earth +energy" being sucked up through our roots into our bodies. + Then out teacher blessed some salt and a bowl or water, mixed the +salt into the water with her athame, or magical knife, and told us to project +into the salt water and negative emotions, stray thoughts or physical +discomforts that might distract us from the ritual. + We imagined the water being tranformed and filled with light. When +we felt ready, we each touched the water or tasted it, to take in the purified +energy. + Next it was time to become acquainted with the elements: + - Air, the element of thought, morning, spring, childhood, the sky, the +eagle, laughter, clarity and knowledge. + - Fire, the Goddess' "bright spirit," the element that corresponds to Špassion, energy, noon, summer, and the will. + - Water, the element that represents emotions, twilight, autumn, the +ocean, everything that flows and adapts, courage. + - Earth, the element of mystery and darkness, strength, midnight, +winter, the body, begetation, the power to listen and keep secrets. + I got pleasure from the poetry of the elements, and I explored their +correspondences in myself. + Once the circle was cast, we danced and sang and beat drums. Toward +the end of the ritual, we "raised a cone of energy" through our voices, making +sounds together that rose to a peak we could all feel and then fell away. + One morning, Starhawk led us in a drum trance. She tapped a drum softly +while she told us the story of our lives, puncuated by chants that we sang +over and over. + After a while, I really did fall into a kind of trance, mesmerized +by the singing, the ceasless drumming and Starhawk's hypnotic storytelling. + We started, oddly, with the death. We were asked to imagine what it +would be like to let go of life right now, leave everything unfinished, pass +it along to others. I became frightened, almost paralyzed. Some people wept. + The she described a beat, a rythym we could hear even in stillness; +next, a sense of structure coalescing in the darkness. Soon we were growing +and forming, and then being born. + We sang the song of our parents: "Welcome little one, we are so +glad to see you." Some of us now were weeping with joy. + As she talked us through our life spans, I realized that Starhawk +was describing life as it would be if everyone's human needs were honored. +What if babies were always cherished? If puberty were celebrated publicly +as the advent of a new kind of power, and young people were expected to +search out and accept their unique spiritual path, and then were welcomed +formally into the circle of their elders as equals? What if everyone had +work that helped the community, and when we were old, we were allowed to +rest and were honored for all we had learned? + As I listened, places - desires, maybe, or hopes - that in me, as +in most people, are closed tight in despair began to unfurl a little. + By the time the week concluded, I felt as high as if I had taken a +drug. The highway traffic, it occurred to me as I drove home, was a ritual. +Here we were, tooling down the road in close formation, trusting our lives +to one another's ability to do the right thing moment to moment - except +this time out magical tools were huge metal juggernauts, and the ritual +was far riskier than anything we'd tried in the woods. + When I got home, I took a walk, thinking on the way that by +participating in Wiccan rituals, I had gone out on a limb. We had pledged +ourselves to pass on the healing arts we had learned and had committed +ourselves to keeping the energy we had raied rippling out into the world. +Some of the participants had expressed what I thought were rather grandiose +ideas about healing the earth and transforming society. + I'd been defensive about that part of the work. It was true that +as a single, childless person, I often felt dissatisfied about living so +much for myself. But I could see no path, no bridge to something wider. + As I walked home, I watched admiringly as five boys whizzed past me +on skateboards. Suddenly, one boy hit an obstruction about a block ahead +of me, flew into the air and crashed onto the sidewalk. + He was pumping his legs in agony and his arm we bent at a horrible +angle. Blood was dripping slowly onto the sidewalk. His friends were +standing over him with pale faces. No one else was nearby. + I asked whether they'd called an ambulance. They nodded. Š I actually took another step, thinking, "It's taken care of," thinking +half-consciously, "This is a pre-adolescent black kid. He won't want any help +from a white woman. He'll be too proud. He'll be embarrassed. He'll be too +hostile." + I looked at him, crying on the sidewalk. and in an instant I knew +that those were crazy, alientated thoughts and that I had just spent a week +trying to fill myself with something much more useful than that. + I sat down on the sidewalk, held him and soothed him, using techniques +I'd learned from the witches, until the ambulance came. + Then I went home, lay down trembling in the back yard and thanked the +Goddess for her message. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/blood.txt b/religious documents/blood.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e395847 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/blood.txt @@ -0,0 +1,92 @@ + BLOOD SACRIFICE + by Althea Whitebirch + + We have all moved through periods of crisis in our lives; things +ranging from the sublime to the rediculous, from the death of someone +close to us to final exams. Events which are extremely stressful--which +threaten our lives, home, future or security--would seem to call for +strong measures of assistance. There have been many times that I have +felt that the course of events required swift and strong intervention of +a deity. Blood sacrifice is, to my mind, one of the more powerful magics +one could perform, and so seemed particularly suitable for this. But +it's rather ethically sticky. + + I may feel that the kind of energy contained in the outpouring of +blood would be most efficacious in a serious situation, but I'm dead-set +against the use of an unwilling victim for the purpose. So, in the past +I've spilled my own blood with an athame, at the same time offering up +prayers; it just didn't seem to work as well as I thought it would. +Perhaps, I thought, one needs lots of blood to generate any appreciable +amount of energy. + + Then a friend suggested what seemed the perfect solution--blood +donation! I'd been giving blood for several years and the thought just +never had occured to me before. So the next time I went in to donate, I +approached it as ritual sacrifice for a particular purpose, and both the +process and results seemed to be much improved. Since then I've gone to +donate blood many times, each time with a prayer for healing for the +recipient of my bood, and a request for aid from the deity that seemed +most appropriate. + + For those of you who've never donated blood before, I can provide a +few details of the process. It's not very frightening, and it can be a +very spiritually moving experience, I'll tell you! As well, remember +that you don't sell blood (at least not in Puget Sound), you donates it. +You can sell plasma--the straw-coloured fluid that makes up the bulk of +your blood--but not blood itself. + + The first time you go in you'll fill out a medical questionnaire: +the Puget Sound Blood Bank doesn't want your blood if you're ill right +then (or just getting over something), taking certain medications, ever +had hepatitis or malaria, or are in a high-risk category for contracting +AIDS (Haitian, homosexual, needle-using drug user or prostitute). If +you have any questions, they'll be happy to answer them. + + After you fill out the questionnaire, they'll take your blood +pressure and a blood sample (like sticking your finger with a pin) to +test your hemocrit (% of hemoglobin) as well as determining what type +your blood is. If your hemocrit count isn't high enough they'll send +you home. Nowadays, all blood is sent to a lab to be tested for +presence of AIDS anti-bodies as well; if you test positive they'll +notify you by mail. You'll be asked if you've eaten in the last four +hours, and if not, sent to the canteen for cookies and juice. + + Then comes the fun part--you go lie down on a table where a phlebo- +tomist (who draws the blood) asks you some questions, verifies your +name, and then sets you up to donate. They tie a rubber hose around your +arm, so the vein will stand out and be easy to find. They use cold +liquid ethyl chloride on your arm, to numb it where the needle goes in. +I won't say that it doesn't hurt when the needle is inserted--it does +but it's tolerable--when it's in place though, you'll hardly know it's +there. (You may get the idea from all this that I'm a stoic--hardly! +I'm a wimp when it comes to pain, but this I can handle.) At this time +they'll leave you there for up to five minutes while you clench and +relax your hand (to keep the blood from clotting) and the blood flows +into a little plastic bag. It's warm and red, and rather reasurring, +really. At this time you can get into some really serious prayer, or +hum a little healing chant for the person your blood's going to. (I +once was doing this and got a flash image of a little boy, a burn +victim. I always wondered who got my blood that day.) I wouldn't +recommend getting too spaced-out though; remember you've got to be able +to return to yourself when you want to, and the physical effects of +giving blood can make some people light-headed or slightly woozie. When +they ask you how you're feeling, be honest, not macho. You don't want +to embarrass yourself by fainting. + + Afterwards they'll ask you to have some juice and cookies. By all +means, do! For one thing, you've earned them; for another it's impor- +tant to replace the fluid and blood sugar you just gave up. Working +magic really takes it out of you, too (at least it does me). + + In my experience, there are several good reasons to use this parti- +cular method of blood sacrifice: a) It doesn't require the death of one +of the Gods' children. b) It is giving of yourself--for the good of +others as well as your own. c) It is safe--the Blood Bank uses sterile +instruments and never re-uses needles, so you can't catch anything. d) +You have the added benefit of being able to see the blood as it's being +given (somehow that adds to my experience), and a pint is a lot more +than I've ever been able to get with a knife! Next time you want to get +the Gods' attention, try it! + + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/bnwts_sa.txt b/religious documents/bnwts_sa.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de3f647 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bnwts_sa.txt @@ -0,0 +1,332 @@ +File: Bnwts-SA + +TEMPLE OF SET +Post Office Box 470307, San Francisco, California 94147 +Internet: 2784041@mcimail.com + +Michael A. Aquino, Ph.D. +High Priest of Set + +June 12, 1994 CE + +COMMENTS CONCERNING: +"MY SATANIC ADVENTURE: THE JUICY DETAILS" BY ISAAC BONEWITS + +In 1992, updated 1994, Isaac Bonewits published a BBS essay entitled +"My Satanic Adventure", describing and commenting upon his +experiences with Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan ca. 1968. The +1994-update of this essay appends the following paragraph: + +"I said back in 1974 that people desperate to smear me would +inevitably bring up those months with LaVey, for lack of anything +better to use, and that prophesy has come true several times. The +printing of 'The Enemies of our Enemies' in _DP_#7 and _Green Egg_, +however, really brought them out of the woodwork. Michael Aquino, +the neo-nazi head of the Temple of Set, has been especially active +in spreading carefully crafted lies (he's a career military +intelligence officer, after all) about my time with LaVey. His +professionally written disinformation is precisely targeted to make +feminists, civil libertarians and Neopagans disgusted with me, +especially if they are unfamiliar with propaganda techniques. +Various other Satanic crackpots, some of whom were denouncing me +fifteen years ago, are joining in with equally ludicrous accusations +and sophomoric insults." + +As I did not join the Church of Satan until 1969, a year after the +arrival & departure of Bonewits, I had no contact with him at that +time. Nor did his name ever came up in casual conversation at the +Central Grotto. The Church was growing and developing very swiftly +at that time, and conversation inclined towards national expansion & +organization, refinement of the theology & philosophy of Satanism, +and the ever-present task of public relations. + +I first heard of Bonewits in 1972, when he published his _Real +Magic_ book and included in it a number of slurs concerning Anton +LaVey and the early Church of Satan. In answer to my query, Anton +said that Bonewits had joined the Church in its early days and had +shortly thereafter been expelled for being boorish and obnoxious. +Neither the LaVeys nor I had any particular interest in Bonewits, so +that's where the dialogue ended. + +From 1972 to 1975 the Church of Satan paid no attention to Bonewits, +and from 1975 to 1993 the Temple of Set paid no attention to him. He +was dismissed as just one more loose cannon in the American occult +subculture. His name was not mentioned once in the newsletters of +either the Church nor the Temple in that 21-year period [and still +has not been since]. + +Bonewits came to the Temple of Set's attention in 1993, when he +wrote an article denouncing Satanism for Tim Zell's _Green Egg_ +neopagan magazine. Since this article contained a great deal of +factual misinformation, seriously defamed our religion, and omitted +any mention of Bonewits' own bias deriving from his past Satanic +involvement and disgrace, I wrote a correction to it (Glinda file: +"Bnwts-GE"). My response was heavily censored by Zell in the next +_Green Egg_, whereupon the Temple of Set simply made the complete, +uncensored text available gratis to anyone who might inquire about +Bonewits' _Green Egg_ article. + +Now in this 1994 "Satanic Adventure" paper, Bonewits accuses me of +"telling lies" and "spreading disinformation" about him. As I review +my _GE_-response, I find no comments of mine concerning him that +weren't supported by documented history, or by logical analysis of +his own statements. Accordingly, while Bonewits spends a lot of time +complaining in "SA" about how maliciously I have distorted the truth +about him, he never actually identifies even a single "lie" that I +am supposed to have told about him. In any case I am quite content +for my _GE_-response to be judged on its own merits for objectivity +and reliability. + +As noted above, Bonewits came to & went from the Church of Satan +before my time, so I cannot personally testify to whether he is or +is not telling the truth about his experiences in the Church. I will +simply say that when Anton & Diane LaVey discussed Bonewits with me +in 1972, I considered them fair and trustworthy; and today I would +place more credence in their 1972 account than in this latter-day +version offered by Bonewits himself - as in his _GE_ essay he has +amply demonstrated his own disregard for the truth. + +I will, however, comment on a few specifics: + +(1) Bonewits claims that he was appointed a "Satanic Minister". In +1969 the term "Satanic Minister" was briefly used, to describe an +official function in the Church lesser than that of the formal +Satanic Priesthood, but I have never seen any evidence that Bonewits +was appointed such a Minister - nor do I recall his claiming it in +_Real Magic_. As all such positions were formalized via a signed +certificate from Anton LaVey as High Priest, I discount Bonewits' +claim unless he produces such a certificate. [The title of "Satanic +Minister" was discontinued in 1970 to be replaced by the non- +Priesthood Regional Agent system in the Church's national +organization.] + +(2) Bonewits says that LaVey was angry with him for ad-libbing some +pseudo-Enochian during a ritual, and that this somehow proves that +Anton really didn't know anything about Enochian ceremonial magic. +Bonewits' logic here escapes me, because it would seem perfectly +reasonable to me for Anton to disapprove of Bonewits' corruption or +lampoon of a seriously-regarded ceremony. As for Anton's own +Enochian background in 1968, it came from his complete set of the +original edition of Crowley's _Equinox_, as well as Regardie's +_Golden Dawn_. This is by no means as complete and accurate an +exposure as would subsequently become possible via the major 1970s' +and 80s' publications on Dee and Enochiana, but it was substantial +for the mid-60s. Anton had the highest regard and respect for the +Enochian Keys, and his "Satanic" version of them in the _Satanic +Bible_ - which so irked traditional occultists such as Regardie - +conveyed a special power and terror of its own unapproached by the +Judaeo/Christian versions in the _Equinox_ and _Golden Dawn_ [which +would later be revealed as substantially modified from Dee's +original papers]. + +(3) Bonewits next alleges that he was asked to "play various silly +parts" in "faked-up rituals" for documentary films, such as one in +which he climbed into a coffin with a naked woman, stabbed a voodoo +doll with a knife, and asked Anton for blessings. + +-- (a) In the "Ceremony of the Stifling Air", a Masonic-theme ritual +contained in Anton's _The Satanic Rituals_, a participant in the +role of the Pope responsible for the persecution of the Knights +Templar enters a coffin with a naked woman, with whom he has sex +after being whipped on his own naked buttocks by another woman. [The +title of the ritual refers to the atmosphere of the coffin after the +lid is lowered on the two inhabitants.] While there is a "CSA" +sequence in the 1968 documentary film _Satanis: The Devil's Mass_, +the Pope is clearly not Bonewits. If Bonewits did assume the role of +the Pope in other "CSA" rituals, however, the _Satanis_ sequence at +least illustrates his sequence of actions. Bonewits does appear in +_Satanis_ - in a ritual wherein he asks Anton to increase the size +and power of his penis. [In this 1994 "Satanic Adventure" essay +Bonewits accuses Anton of not knowing how to actually do magic. I +suppose that means the spell didn't work after all. Tough luck.] + +-- (b) Attacking a voodoo doll with a knife, pins, etc. is a fairly +ordinary type of curse ritual, used at that time in the Church of +Satan as well in many other branches of occultism. The important +point here is that such rituals were taken seriously in the Church, +and no one was ever asked to perform one insincerely. Accordingly I +expect that Bonewits stabbed the doll with a knife wishing similar +harm to an actual person, and it would be instructive to know who +that person was, what if anything subsequently happened to him/her, +and what he/she did to "justify" such a knife attack by Bonewits. + +-- (c) As noted above, Bonewits did indeed ask Anton for a blessing +during a ritual sequence in _Satanis_. If he "can't remember the +dialogue" in the film, here is a transcript: + +* * * * * + +ANTON LaVEY: "And what is your desire?" + +ISAAC BONEWITS: "I desire the Prince of Darkness to bestow upon a +certain section of my anatomy a tribute that will enable it to +perform its duties better to my satisfaction and its own. I desire +the power of Satan and the searing lust of Lucifer, the erectness of +Belial, the glistening moistness of Leviathan, that these demons +should grant to me the ability to satisfy myself and as many of +those as I choose to do so." + +ANTON LaVEY: "So it has been stated, and so this virile member shall +prosper and shall ride forth as the Beast of Abominations, and shall +come forth as the Behemoth and shall enjoy itself and all the carnal +pleasures of the flesh and its minions. So you shall reap the +rewards of desire, and all your lustful thoughts will bear +fruition." + +* * * * * + +Bonewits speaks of "several documentaries", but as far as I know +there was only the one (_Satanis_). Bonewits excuses his +participation by saying that he was only 17 at the time [Anton says +he was 19]. Either age was sufficient for a young man to know how to +behave responsibly and decently - if Bonewits is now insisting that +he did not. + +In the earliest days of the Church of Satan, Anton and some of his +student witches posed for a variety of ceremonial-setting photos in +which they [but never he] were naked. No sexual activity was shown, +and it would be quite clear to anyone without a sex-obsessed mind +that the photos were merely dramatic and prankish. If Bonewits found +such filming all so frightfully "pornographic", one wonders why he +thrust himself so energetically into it, so to speak, at the time. + +Bonewits next asserts that Anton had "read only a tiny fraction of +his huge library of occult books". This is simply absurd, as anyone +who has known Anton at all personally can attest. Although not +college-degreed, he was impressively self-educated - and well- +familiar with his library - which was noteworthy for *not* being +exclusively or even predominantly "occult", but contained a wide +range of texts in such fields as sociology, philosophy, history, +entertainment, and psychology. A good sampling of the books on the +shelves of his "Purple Room" is given in the bibliography to his +_The Compleat Witch_ (later republished as _The Satanic Witch_). + +Next Bonewits asserts the misgivings he felt about the ominous +presence of neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen in the 1968 Church of +Satan. If so, they must all have departed within the next year, +because when I joined in 1969 I never saw a single jackboot or white +sheet. Yes, Satanists held some strong and radical personal opinions +on social issues - but these were from *all* points of the political +spectrum. Anton's own contempt for neo-Nazism is a matter of +historic record per his [later published] 1970s letters to me on the +subject, and he counted among his friends people of all races and +colors. As his true name (Howard Levey) indicates, of course, he +himself came from a Jewish family. + +At least by 1969 there was no "orgy room" at LaVey's California +Street home. There was a recreation room downstairs well-known as +the "Den of Iniquity", but its only furniture were consisted of a +bar, tables, and chairs. There was no bed or mattress. Adjoining it +was the "Council Chamber", a solemn black ritual chamber in which +the Council of Nine met. It indeed contained a stylized coffin +serving as a council-table, surrounded by 10 chairs (one for LaVey +as High Priest). A chair was also provided for anyone being +interviewed. As a member of the Council in 1970, I - wearing black +robes & ominous hood - participated in meetings and interviews of +prospective members. From the 4/13/70 issue of _Newsweek_ magazine: + +"San Francisco's Church of Satan has a reputation for orgy and mad +perversity in the middle-class neighborhood where it is located. It +shows interested outsiders a film called _Satanis_ which purportedly +reflects the Church's rituals - black-robed men and women conducting +a Black Mass (a mocking inversion of the Christian Mass) with a nude +woman for an altar. Members proclaim their hate and lust, and leader +Anton LaVey blesses them: 'May all your lustful thoughts reach +fruition. Hail, Satan!' A trouserless man is flagellated on a coffin +lid; then the coffin opens to reveal a nude girl, the man descends +into the coffin, and it is closed - or almost closed, for it is now +a bit crowded. + +"So things go in the film. But a few weeks ago _Newsweek_'s Nick +Kazan was screened for membership in the Church of Satan by seven +black-hooded members in a candlelit basement decorated with human +skulls. He found the whole ritual 'not only unfrightening but +comically reminiscent of fraternity initiations'. Then he attended +the mass itself. The service, he reported, 'contained very little of +the film's drama or nudity and in fact was a highly stylized, arcane +bore'. The flagellant in this mass not only wore trousers but had +placed a copy of Playboy inside them for padding.'" + +[A grumpy Anton LaVey wrote to _Newsweek_: "If one cannot see the +sardonic element implied by the placing of the _Playboy_ magazine +inside the seat of the flagellant's trousers, then I suppose the +viewer would consider just about anything an 'arcane bore' short of +a Doris Day or John Wayne movie."] + +So it would have been a delicate individual indeed to "faint" from a +Council interview, as Bonewits insists that he convincingly feigned. +As for the Nine "hauling him upstairs" to "revive", there were no +stairs. The basement was accessible from the main floor only by two +concealed trapdoors - one behind the mummy-case in the main ritual +chamber, the other in the Purple Room's fireplace. [Yes, quite a +house!] One's credibility is strained by the picture of the Council +of Nine floundering to haul a possum-playing Isaac Bonewits straight +up a narrow ladder through the overhead trapdoor. + +Well, Bonewits does conclude the account of his Satanic days, both +within and without the Church of Satan, by admitting that he was +"foolish". However this is justified by his being only 17, he +insists, and is to be equated to the similar foolishness of other +famous pagans and witches as teenagers. "For that matter, what were +LaVey, Aquino, and Thorsson doing during their teenaged years? This +could be an entertaining research project." + +O.K., Isaac, since you asked, I'll be happy to tell you what I was +doing ages 17-21: + +* Honor Graduate, Santa Barbara High School 1964. +* Gold Sealbearer/Life Membership Award, California Scholarship +Federation 1964. +* SBHS delegate, American Legion California Boys State 1964. +* Community Service Awards, Santa Barbara Lions & Exchange Clubs +1964. +* National Councillor, Eagle Scout Honor Society, Boy Scouts of +America 1964-65. +* National Commander, Eagle Scout Honor Society, BSA 1965-66. +* Distinguished Service Award, Eagle Scout Honor Society, BSA 1967. +* Vigil Honor Award, Order of the Arrow, BSA 1967. +* Lt.Colonel, National Society of Pershing Rifles (College ROTC +fraternity) 1966-68. +* Department of the Army scholarship, University of California 1966- +68. +* Lifetime Membership Award, National Society of Scabbard & Blade +(college ROTC fraternity) 1966-68. +* Chapter Charter President, Regional Conference Chairman, +Distinguished Service Key recipient, Alpha Phi Omega fraternity, +1965-68. +* National Sojourners Scholarship Award, University of California +1968. +* Distinguished Service Award, Department of California, Reserve +Officers Association of the United States 1968. +* Distinguished Military Graduate, Department of the Army, +University of California 1968. +* B.A. Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara +1968. +* Psychological Operations Extension Course, John F. Kennedy Special +Warfare Center, U.S. Army 1968. +* Additional memberships in the World Future Society, L5 Society, +Commonwealth Club of California, World Affairs Council of Northern +California, Cousteau Society, American Military Institute, American +Political Science Association, and the Smithsonian Institute. + +At age 21 I graduated from the University of California, was +simultaneously commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Regular Army, +and was assigned first to the 82nd Airborne Division and then to the +JFK Special Warfare Center for Special Forces and Psychological +Operations training before a tour in Vietnam. So much for that. + +Bonewits closes his "Satanic Adventure" paper with a passionate +proclamation that he is really/truly a serious occult scholar who +has been tragically maligned, that all Satanists are indeed Orcs, +and that any neopagan who tolerates, much less cooperates with such +heinous creatures is betraying Gondor to Mordor. Ringwraiths such as +Michael Aquino are especially to be feared and avoided. "As I have +said before, the enemies of our enemies are our enemies' enemies," +concludes Isaac thunderously - to which I can only respond, "Huh?" + +In a postscript [shortly after righteously denouncing Jimmy Swaggart +and Oral Roberts] Bonewits asks you to send him some money if you +liked his essay and want him to write more like it. Well, that's +your business - but please don't send me any money in the hopes that +I'll write more essays like this one, because I would really rather +not. I find Isaac Bonewits tiresome. diff --git a/religious documents/boatp.txt b/religious documents/boatp.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffeaadb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/boatp.txt @@ -0,0 +1,412 @@ + + What follows is an article published in the Australian 'Good +Weekend' magazine published on Sundays with the 'Sydney Morning Herald' +newspaper, August 15th 1992. + The article is titled 'The Boat People', written by Ben Hills of +the 'Herald'. + +Re-written by Scott Mackenzie, Newcastle Australia + 3:622/402@Fidonet + +" An eminent Australian geologist is spearheading a campaign to sink the +claims by amateur archaeologists that they've found Noah's ark. Ben +Hills reports. " + + ' OVER THERE, ' Ian Plimer shades his eyes against the glare +of the desert sun with one strong, brown hand and points with the other +to a cleft in the bosom of the next range of hills. 'It's about the right +size and shape ... see how the sides taper together at the bow.' + He squats and pokes amongst the shards of ferricreten shale at +his feet with a geologist's hammer. 'Here are some rivets,' he cries, +dropping some odd round bits of what look like rust into a calico sample +bag. 'That is definately petrified wood ... and look at this [ he +scoops up some pebbles]. Wouldn't you say they look like fossilised +kangaroo shit?' + He straightens up, brushing the dust from his jeans, and scans +his field-glasses over the dessicated landscape of stoney russet dunes +sparsely spiked with stunted acacias. 'The evidence is overwhelming - +we are standing amongst the ruins of Noah's ark.' + He pauses for a while, deadpan, then throws his head back and +laughs long and loud, frightening a flock of galahs into flight. + Ian Plimer has come to this desolate corner of the Outback not +to discover the ark, but to sink it; not for evidence that the Biblical +story of Noah is untrue, but for scientific proof that claims of its +discovery are foolish, or fraudulent, or both. + We are on the outskirts of a bush hamlet known to most +Australians only as a name on a weather map, a name that usually has +numbers beside it such as 45C, or the notation that it is two years +since the last decent rain. Tibooburra is not far from the notional +spot where a kangaroo could stand with one leg in Queensland, one in NSW +and it's tail in South Australia; the 'big smoke' is Broken Hill, four +axle-busting hours away, and if you're travelling here from Sydney or +Adelaide, you'd get to Hong Kong quicker. + Melbourne, Ian Plimer's home when he is not breaking boulders +out back of Burke or lectruing on international scientific symposia in +Stockholm and Vienna, is 1,200 kilometres away. He is professor of +geology at Melbourne University, and it is from there that he has +spearheaded a remarkable campaign by a group of eminent Australian +scientists to try and discredit what they see as the cult of 'Young +Earth Noah's Flood Creationism' which has been barnstorming the country. + Their immediate target is a retired teacher named Allen Roberts, +who has been lecturing audiences several hundred strong from Perth to +Sydney and Hobart about his 'discovery' of Noah's ark on a mountainside +in Turkey. To support his claims, he has been exhibiting pieces of +'petrified wood', 'rusty rivets', 'fossilised animal droppings' and +photographs of a boat-shaped structure on the mountainside which he says +is the size of the ark ... the same sort of 'evidence' that Plimer has +discovered closer to home at Tibooburra. + 'If it's not Noah's ark, what is it?' Roberts has been asking +his audiences, as he attempts to raise several thousand dollars for a +return expedition to the site. + Scoffs Professor Plimer, 'If my discovery at Tibooburra is not +the real ark, just explain how the blind marsupial mole got from Turkey +to Australia.' + Plimer and his colleagues - who hold university chairs in +biology, palaeontology and geology - say that Roberts is deluded. His +'ark' is nothing more than a common geological formation called a +syncline, a fold of the rocks in the earth's crust which have been +weathered away over the millennia. The shape on the hillside at +Tibooburra is a typical example - in fact, the hills between here and +Broken Hill are alive with them, scores if not hundreds of synclines, a +veritable armada of arks. + So the battle has been joined - and a great deal more hinges on +it rather than whether or not Allen Roberts has found Noah's ark. It is +a battle that pits science against fundamentalist Christianity in a way +not seen since the great Darwinist debates of 150 years ago. Writs have +been issued, security guards called in, death threats are flying, Satan +has been invoked ... but that's getting ahead of the story. + + The lights are snapped off, plunging the church hall into +darkness. There is whispering and scuffling of feet as the audience +cranes its neck in anticipation. Suddenly, projected on to the overhead +screen, splashes a picture of a barren beige mountainside somewhere in +Turkish Armenia, with a striking oval-shaped rock formation outlined on +it by shadow. + To the trained eye - and there is more than one skeptical +scientist who has paid his $4 and infiltrated the meeting at the South +Blackburn Baptist church this April evening - the structure is instantly +recognisable as a common geological syncline. But the congregation, 300 +or 400 strong, is mostly made up of true believers, and this is not what +they have come to hear. + The man at the dais adjusts his glasses and consults his notes. +He talks about the 'scientific measurements' that have been made at this +site, the finds of fossilised remains, the metal detector readings which +show a pattern of buried rivets. + 'We have here, it seems, fossilised under mud, a gigantic boat +which is similar in size to the Biblical Noah's ark.' He pauses for +effect. 'If it is, this will be the most significant archaeological +discovery of the millenium ... [ it will ] challenge popularly accepted +theories of evolution.' + The lights go on amid applause, and the audience takes a closer +look at the speaker. In appearance at least, 'Dr' Allen Roberts is +closer to the stereotype of the dotty don than the suave Ian Plimer. He +is a slightly stooped man in his 60th year, with metal-rimmed glasses, a +grey beard and a soft, punctilious style of speech. + In fact, although most of the audience does not know this, +Australia's most prominent 'arkeologist' is not a scientist at all - his +degrees are in teaching and history - and some sleuthing has discovered +that his doctorate is in fact a correspondance degree from a clapboard +Bible college in Florida, the self-styled Freedom University. + Taking in the hour-long lecture from a seat at the back of the +hall is Ian Plimer, who has driven out to the bellbird suburb of +Blackburn because the television program that night was 'uninspiring'. +Actually, that's not the whole story. For more than seven years Plimer +has been seeking out and confronting creationism, or anti-science as he +calls it. + Plimer is no stranger to meetings like this. His finest hour - +a stunt which earned him the first of many threats, physical as well as +legal - came in 1988 when he took on Duane Gish, head of the San Diego- +based Institute for Creation Research, star of international talk +circuits and author of 'Evolution - The fossils say no' and other +creationist gospels. + the confrontation took place at Sydney University before an +audience of about 1,000, many of them believers who were bussed in from +around NSW. + Plimer did not content himself with the scientific debunking of +creationism: he tackled Gish head-on, citing a US study which appeared +to show that school children taught creationism were more likely to +become atheists. 'Here is Satan,' Plimer cried, pointing at the +astonished Californian evangelist. 'He wants God's blessing for the +Devil's work.' The climax of the performance came when, to ridicule +the claim that evolution was 'only a theory', Plimer donned a pair of +insulated gloves, plugged a cable into a power point, and thrust the two +live wires at Gish, inviting him to test the theory of electricity. The +audience erupted and Gish returned to the United States muttering about +suing for defamation. + What was to happen in Melbourne was less dramatic, typical of +the trouble Plimer and a flying squad of like-minded academics, many of +them members of the Australian Skeptics, have been provoking at Roberts's +meetings around Australia. Plimer introduced himself at 'half-time', +handed over his busines card, and asked whether he could ask a few +questions when the meeting resumed. He and one or two other skeptics +had independantly made their way to the hall in Blackburn were told to +leave. The police were called, and amid shouts of abuse, Plimer was +forced to exit. + 'I am not out to destroy their beliefs, and I am not +anti-religious, as they would make out,' says Plimer. 'But I am out to +stop them teaching creationism as science. If you want to accept what +they say, that the earth was formed 10,000 years ago, that Noah's ark +physically existed and so on, then you have to throw not only all +geology, but all astronomy, all physics, all biology, into the garbage +can. It is anti-science, and as one of the shareholders of knowledge I +am employed by the community to rigorously attack it wherever I come +across it.' + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + + So who is his foe, Allen Roberts, this studious old man with the +grey goatee who has brought down on his head the wrath of the entire +Australian scientific community? + Unfortunately, Roberts himself declined to talk to 'Good +Weekend', citing variously the need to meet a publisher's deadline for a +book about his 'arkeological' adventures, and his humiliation at +recently having been awarded the Australian Skeptics Bent Spoon award +(for the 'most preposterous paranormal piffle' of the year), beating a +world-class field which included the Briton Colin Andrews, who lectures +on the extra-terrestrial origins of crop circles, a US Hopi indian +called Robert Morning Sky, who predicts aliens will come to earth later +this year, and an obscure Australian sect which is girding itself for +the world to end October 21 at 1 o'clock in the morning ( 2am if +daylight saving is in force ). + Until he sprang into the international headlines a year ago, +Roberts lived a life of pious obscurity with his family in a brick +veneer ranch-house in bosky Baulkham Hills, on Sydney's north-west +fringe. He was brought up in a strict Baptist family in Broken Hill and +became a primary teacher. In 1969 he moved to Sydney, where he taught +English at Westmead Teachers' College (now the University of Western +Sydney) until around 1980 when he left to found his own religious school +at Baulkham Hills, the now-defunct Australian College of Christian +Education. + Roberts has always held strong fundamentalist Christian beliefs, +and has been in close contact with creationist organisations in +Australia and overseas for a number of years. He has, in particular, +been obsessed with the idea that Noah's ark might actually exist since +the early 1960s, when he saw an aerial photograph of that ship-shaped +formation on a Turkish mountainside in Australian Pix magazine. + Neither Plimer, nor any of the other Skeptics, had heard of +Roberts until August last year when news agencies carried a story that +this 'Australian archaeologist' - along with three Americans and a +Briton - had been kidnapped by Kurdish guerillas in south-east Turkey, +whilst on their way to search for the ark. The Telegraph-Mirror, +predictably, christened him Indiana Jones and kept his story going for +three weeks until Roberts (and the others), unharmed apart from a +swollen ankle, was released and made his way hom to the Hinch show. + Roberts was by no means the first, nor the ten thousandth and +first, 'arkeologist' to make his way to the ancient biblical lands of +eastern Turkey, the mountains of Ararat near the modern border with +Armenia, where Genesis says the ark came to rest after the flood +subsided. + Just why finding the remains of the ark - and not, say, the +tower of Babel - should have become the holy grail of creationism +puzzles scientists. They wonder whether it hads something to do with +the powerful images of creatures trooping two by two on the strange +wooden vessel, etched in the subconscious from childhood Bible studies. +Whatever the reason, for 22 centuries before Allen Roberts came along, +people have been searching the snowy flanks of Ararat and discovering a +whole flotilla of arks of varying veracity. + As early as 275 BC - possibly the first ark 'sighting' - a +Babylonian historian recorded that the ark was still to be seen in the +mountains, and Kurdish souvenir-hunters 'scrape off bitumen and carry it +away and make use of it by way of alexipharmic and amulet'. Some +centuries later, in the time of St Gregory the Enlightener, a monk who +attempted to climb the mountain was given a fragment of the ark which +can be inspected today in the monastery at Echmiadzin, near the foot of +Ararat. + In 1876, an intrepid Englishman named Lord Bryce discovered a +gopherwood spar on a rocky ledge, and hacked a small piece off for a +souvenir. Twenty years later one, Archdeacon Nouri, a dignitary of the +Chaldean Church, discovered the whole thing, preserved remarkably +intact, and reported that he was 'overcome ... the sight of the ark +thusverifying the truthof the scriptures'. In 1916 a Russian pilot +spotted it from the air, and the Tsar dispatched an expedition which +located and explored it. + Each 'discovery' has its loyal adherents among the various +feuding schools of 'arkeology'. + The most recent ark-rush was inspired by another pilot, Francis +Gary Powers - the US U2 spy pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in +1960. A totally fraudulent claim was put about - unsubstantiated by any +of the archives of that period - tha Powers filmed the remains of the +ark 1,900 metres up on the flanks of a mountain near Ararat called +al-Judi, while searching for Soviet missile sites. + Since then, no fewer than 60 expeditions, most of them financed +by eccentric fundamentalists from the American Bible Belt, have headed +off into the hills of eastern Turkey, spawning half a dozen 'I +discovered the REAL ark' books, complete with photos, drawings and +diagrams ... everything bar the exclusive interview with Noah, which has +been reserved by 60 minutes anyway. + Never a nation look a gift horse in the mouth, the bemused Turks +(although prudently attributing everything to 'American Researchers') +have decided to cash in on the credulous creationists, declaring the +area a national park called Nuh'un Gemisi (Noah's Ark) complete with +roadside stalls, a viewing platform and a hotel to cater for the +pilgrims. It has become a sort of Biblical Big Banana. This, then, was +the place Allen Roberts came to make his great discovery. + To meet the man who can be said to have started Roberts off on +his crusade from Baulkham Hills to Nuh'un Gemisi, you have to travel to +Nashville, Tennessee, a state famous not only for its country music, but +(appropriately enough) for the notorious 'monkey trial' in which John +Scopes was convicted of the crime of teaching evolution in school. If +Ron Wyatt was on the jury, you would get the same verdict in 1992 as was +handed out in 1925. + Wyatt is a creationist (he says it is an 'insult to the +intelligence' to accept that man is descended from the apes) and the +most flamboyant of the American ark-trekkers. His book 'Discovered - +Noah's Ark' was published in 1989 after more than 20 years of research +during visits to the Middle East, and if you accept his account, Wyatt +(whose only professional qualification is as a nurse/anaesthetist) is +the most accomplished archaeologist who has ever lived. Indiana Jones +is a wimp by comparison. + As well as the ark - and in between being beaten, robbed, +kidnapped and shot at by terrorists - the intrepid Wyatt claims to have +discovered the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah, chariot wheels in the Red +Sea where Moses once parted the waters, the 'real' Mt Sinai, the 'real' +site of Christ's execution and burial, and (one of a number of +discoveries made while Wyatt was under the influence of divine +direction) the ark of the covenant. Wyatt, has, of course, 'scientific +proof' of all this. + It was to Wyatt's home in Tennessee that Allen Roberts made his +first pilgrimage two years ago, and it was from Wyatt's treasure-trove +of 'arkabilia' that Roberts borrowed much of the 'proof' that he has +produced at his lectures around Australia. + The piece of petrified wood (free of age rings, of course, +because seasons had not been invented before the flood), the taped +outline of the 'ship' measured by sub-surface radar, the rusty iron +'rivets,' the petrified pieces of poo (carpolites) ... these came from +the collection of remarkable Ron Wyatt, and are in fact acknowledged as +such in the fine print at the back of Roberts own booklet, 'If this is +not Noah's ark what is it? + Asked whether he believed Roberts had plagiarised his work, +Wyatt said he had no hard feelings, and in fact was planning yet another +visit to Turkey with Roberts later this year. 'Everybody I have taken +out there, archaeologists, philologists, professors of chemistry ... +after they came back they said 'they' had found the ark,' sighed Wyatt. + Although Plimer has not visited the al-Judi mountain where the +helpful Turks have constructed their ark-viewing platform, he is +familiar with the Turkey/Armenia borderlands, having mounted a number of +Geological expeditions there to search for gold. He and his colleagues +in Australia and overseas have compiled an impressive library of +documentation to show that the 'ark' and the artefacts are actually +common natural phenomena, and that the ark could not have existed. + And they have allies from an unexpected quarter - the mainstream +creation movement itself. You see, there is a second ark, which was +spotted years before the al-Judi discovery about 25 kilometres away, +buried under ice and snow, near the top of Mt Ararat itself. Accounts +of expeditions to this site, complete with fanciful drawings (and even +photographs) of the ark, festooned with icicles and teetering on the +edge of a precipice, had been convincing the credulous for many +generations before Wyatt and Roberts came along. + This second site is the favourite of the 'mother church' of +global creationism, the Institute for Creation Research in San Diego, +California, which was founded more than 20 years ago by a hydrologist +named Henry Morris. The institute has raised large amounts of money +over the years with a highly sophisticated print & video operation, and +has organised a number of expeditions to search for 'their' ark on Mt +Ararat - the idea that it is the wrong ark is anathema. + The Australian end of this 'ministry' is the Creation Science +Foundation, which operates out of Brisbane, and which claims to be the +second largest creationist organisation in the world. It's head is Carl +Wieland, a retired doctor who lives in Cairns when he is not travelling +around the country lecturing. He told 'Good Weekend' that the +foundation was shortly to publish a 'scientific paper' debunking the +Wyatt/Roberts 'discovery'. + 'It is not the ark, but it is not a syncline either,' says +Wieland. The foundation's 'geological adviser' - a man named Andrew +Snelling who is one of the rare creationists with a genuine science +degree - later described the formation as 'just a hump of basement rock +which has been forced up and affected by faulting'. As for Allen +Roberts, 'We are not saying he is a fraud. He is a very likeable guy, +but we believe he ahs been misled. We are very sorry he has put himself +on the map like that.' + This setback would however, effect the faith of creationists in +the story of Noah's ark, says Wieland. 'There is no reason why an +8,000-year-old wooden vessel would have survived - in all probability it +rotted away. But just because this is not the ark makes no difference - +if I was still an evolutionist, I would not give that up when it was +shown that the piltdown man was a fraud.' + At the end of the day, why does it matter to Plimer and his +fellow dons that some people choose to believe in the ark and in the +literal truth of the Bible? Why should it be of any more harm or greater +significance than any other late 20th-century factoid - that the Kennedy +killing was a conspiracy, Elvis Presley is still alive or small green +men from Alpha Centauri amuse themselves by making patterns in English +cornfields? + 'It matters because they want to teach creationism, not as +part of comparative religion where we would have no problems, but as +part of science,' say Ian Plimer. 'Creationists are lobbying to have +equal time in schools with evolution teaching, and we believe that is as +outrageous as giving witchdoctors equal time in medicine courses.' + Creationism is no longer a fringe cult, enjoyed in the privacy +of their own front parlours by wide-eyed Queensland Bible-bashers. Just +how pervasive the doctrine has become was illustrated a couple of months +ago, when the Australian Institute of Biology surveyed 4,255 biology +students at 17 universities around Australia and discovered that 12.6 +percent, one in eight, believed that 'God created man pretty much in his +present form at one time in the past 10,000 years.' + John Skidmore, an associate professor at the University of +Technology, Sydney, who was responsible for the survey, is at a loss to +explain the unexpectably high figure, nor can he account for the fact +his own university came out on top with 20 per cent of true believers. +'We do have more nursing students than science students in our biology +classes,' he says. How could that affect things? 'They are dumber, if +you look at their HSC scores.' + In spite of intensive lobbying by various creationist groups, +Queensland is the only state where creationism is officially permitted +to be taught in State schools as part of the science curriculum - it is +banned in Victoria, and in NSW the former Education minister Terry +Metherell let it be known that anyone caught teaching it would be +dismissed. This has done little to discourage the creationists, and in +particular, Bruce Coleman, a research officer with NSW Legislative +Council member Fred Nile, who recently organised a public meeting in +Paramatta to call for the introduction of creation 'science' teaching in +government schools, and foreshadowed that Nile's Call to Australia Party +would introduce legislation to this effect in the NSW Parliament. + So if not in the schools, where is the renewed interest in +creationism coming from? Certainly some smaller evangelical religious +groups (Carl Wieland nominates the Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists, +Salvation Army, Presbyterians and Church of Christ) teach creationism, +at least in some of their churches. Some muslims also believe in the ark +- in the Koran's version of the story, Noah had a fourth son who was +left behind to drown. But the two largest Australian Christian +churches, the Anglicans and the Roman Catholics, are strongly opposed to +it. + Father Brian Lucas, media spokesman for the Catholic archdiocese +of Sydney, says that there is no eveidence the ark ever existed - it was +' a theological story whose real purpose is to show the relationship +between God and man, in which the virtuous - Noah and his family - are +rewarded, and the wicked punished'. People who believed otherwise did +so out of 'ignorance or misunderstanding of something they learned at +Sunday school'. + As for creationism, 'It is absolutely contrary to everything the +Catholic church stands for. There is no conflict between scientific +truth and theological truth as they [ creationists ] are trying to make +out. We have no difficulty in accepting that the universe was created +in a big bang millions of years ago. We would ask, 'What made the Big +Bang?' and the answer is God'. + Probably the strongest influence in spreading the creationist +gospel is the Creation Science Foundation, based in Brisbane. in the +ten years since it was founded, it's propaganda mill has grown into a +sizeable corporation, with branches in all States, a monthly magazine +and a mailing list for books, and video cassettes in excess of 10,000. + The foundation has assets of more than $500,000 - it recently +completed, mortgage free, a two-storey headquarters building in the +suburb of Acacia Ridge, 'a throbbing, dynamic nerve centre from which +this minstry is daily touching hearts and lives'. It has a +sophisticated $40,000 computer mailing system to control the annual +turnover of more than $600,000. It operates a travelling roadshow from +a specially equipped bus which is currently touring more than fifty +towns in South Australia and Western Australia with its '11 tonnes of +gospel impact'. + Scientists such as Ian Plimer, says Carl Wieland, were 'hoping +to sink us along with the ark'. But for the time being at least, the +foundation has staved off the evil day by putting a clear distance +between itself and Allen Roberts's adventure in the mountains of Turkey. + Their mission continues, while Roberts retreats from the +limelight to lick his wounds. + The most fitting epitaph to the whole story is a quote from Mr +Ark himself, Ron Wyatt, of Nashville, Tennessee. 'The 40- to 50-year +history of the ark search has been a quagmire of misquotations, outright +lies, theft, fabrication and fraud.' + Ian Plimer and the Skeptics would second that. That syncline on +the outskirts of Tibooburra is all the proof they need. + + * * * diff --git a/religious documents/bob-1_1.txt b/religious documents/bob-1_1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..52515a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bob-1_1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,307 @@ + Plastic Model Kit of + J. R."BOB" DOBBS + 1:8 Scale + + Long, long ago, during the Years of Trouble, when all the +Northern Fathers still slept under the glaciers, there lived the being we +now know as J. R. "Bob" Dobbs. This man, Dobbs, was chosen by JHVH-1 for +the Primary Communaonications from our alien benefactors, the Xists. As +`"Bob" moved through the stars, he changed the face of them. His ten +billion Quasi-modalities now vibrate in each of us, and have transformated +him into the ETERNAL INCARNATION OF SLACK. From Dobbs came the UnReasoned +Utterances which will remain forever unerasable. His brave experimentation +with Excremeditation and Fornicationalism, using all Humankind as his test +flock, resulted in the rule of the SubGenius for the next twelve thousand +years. During his Span, disaater followed Dobbs, resulting in the outright +obliteration of his physical vessel. Only by careful, Church- supervised +studies can we now have our first look at the Dobbshell. Here is the +approved Religiofficial Bioreconstructoid, perfect in every detail: Our +Salesrnan. His skull is shaped a bit differently than is ours today. It is +somewhat flattened in the rear and bulges over the brow. His brain was +well devolved. Some theocraticians think that Dobbs did not speak at all, +or that if he did, he did not have what we would call a language. He wears +the Suit. His hands and feet are like ours. He was left-handed. The +Briefcase he holds sent the signals that launched the Rockets of +Cleansing, the blessed vehicles of our birth. He stands here in the +wreckage of Earth, his native planet. + + -Paul Mavrides + + + BEFOREWORD + + + Traditionally, there are only two reasons for any book to have an +introduction, or foreword, or preforeword or whatever the hell the editor +decides to call that thing in the front of a book. + + Reason #1: To Boost Sales + + Someone discovered long ago that an artfully dropped name can +establish instant credibility in certain situations. In the publishing in- +dustry, this translates into the practice of inviting some celebrity or +well-known expert to introduce a work. All too often, that is the sole +"kicker" which sells it. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that the +quality ofthe introduction will be commensurate with the selling power +ofthe introducer's name. + + Reason #2: Sentimental Obligations + + The editor bestows the honor of writing the introduction upon +an old buddy-some harmless but washed-up has-been to whom he owes a favor +just to give the doddering hack a break, "for old times' sake." While this +approach sometimes makes for a more enlightening and sincere introduction, +sales may suffer from the lack of status attached to the decrepit old +bum's name. + + As difficult as it may be to believe, a book's ultimate +success depends entirely upon which of these traditional paths is chosen +by the editor. Since I fit neither category ofintroducers, this book may +conceivably be one of those `"wild cards" that shatter all accepted norms +of publishing . . if not even civilization as we know it, considering the +nature of our missionl + + Some readers may also be surprised to learn that the foreword +is usually the last part of a book to be written, and that the foreword +actually contains the afterthoughts. A common afterthought is that readers +might wonder why in the world the book was ever written . . . which may be +particularly true in this case, so an especially lengthy attempt at an +explanation, or at least an excuse, is required. + + The public generally associates my name with J. ft. "Bob" Dobbs +and the Church of the SubGenius, and well it should. I have known "Bob" +since our college days, when I saved him from drowning in a mud puddle +after he had been knocked unconscious during a panty raid. (His skull was +fractured by a bra with ice frozen into its cups-a bra hurled by none +other than his wife-to-be, the attractive and gracious "Connie" Marsh. +Yes, all three ofus met simultaneously on that fateful night in 1946.) + + After several years of casual friendship and countless poker +games, my win/loss ratio with "Bob" was hopelessly lopsided and my family +fortune exhausted. I prevailed upon his boundless good nature to let me +earn back some ofmy money. Pitying me, Dobbs proffered an opportunity by +which I could both repay him my debts and recover my own losses many times +over. Promising a get-rich-quick scheme unparalleled in history, he +enlisted my aid in founding the Church of the Sub- Genius and its public +relations arm, The SubGenius Foundation, Inc. Utilizing my experience and +numerous contacts in the advertising business, I chose the then-destitute +Rev. Ivan Stang to fill the open Sacred Scribe position at Foundation +headquarters in Dallas. Ivan's task was to compile and organize the +encrypted instructions provided by Dobbs: arcane trance memos and codices +that ultimately became the early SubGenius pamphlets. "Bob" had long since +undergone his Divine Emaculation, and had consequently amassed a personal +fortune in the eleven-figure range. He then pretended to retire from +public life. (lt was even rumored in the Pentagon that he had actually +fled our solar system!) + + Nevertheless, in 1979, in caves hidden in the vastness of the +Himalayas, the Most High Tibetan Lamas surgically altered my brain under +the direct tutelage of Dobbs-performing that perilous operation, the +Opening of fhe Third Nostril. This enabled me to receive, unimpeded, +dogmatic revelations directly from interstellar Silent Radio signals. It +simultaneously prepared me for that painful somatic mutation to literal, +physical OverManhood which so drastically warped my appearance that I now +must conceal my visage from the squeamish, bigoted eyes of normal humans. +Despite arduous spiritual preparations, I underwent the very tortures of +Hell when first I channeled the brain scorching direct transmissions +required for The Booh of the SubGenius (Fireside/Simon & Schuster trade +paperback, $10.95). + + But who, some few may ask, is this man J. R. "Bob" Dobbs? As +difficult as it is for me to imagine that there are still so many mired in +ignorance, it yet remains a most challenging question to answer possibly +the most challenging of our time. After all, how does one describe the +indescribable, and define the indefinable? I shall attempt nonetheless to +paint a portrait of"Bob"-one equating not so much to a photograph, but at +best to a child's broken-crayon stick-figure scrawl. J. R. "Bob" Dobbs: on +the surface, an average, good-looking all-American "Joe," though of +debated parentage; perpetual smoker of a sacred briar Pipe filled with +mysterious and, some claim, hallucinatory admixtures; master omni-salesman +of legendary abilities (very probably the historical "Traveling Salesman" +of mythology), to whom has been widely attributed total command of the +Luck Plane by virtue of, not skill, but sheer and unadulterated intuitive +ignorance; recognized as Patron Saint of Salesmen the world over; +contacted and Emaculated in his youth by the alien space-god JHVH-1 to +receive instructions for initiating select individuals into the secrets of +Original Slack, its at- tainment, abuse and true purpose; founder of a +burgeoning cult religion with literally countless schisms and heretical +spin-offs; purportedly as- sassinated in 1984 by the renegade Church +Hierarchite D. Woodman Atwell (aka Puzzling Evidence and Ilberbrow), but +also allegedly resurrected in 198? at Dokstok, a pagan convocation of +fanatical upper-echelon Church executives; prophesied savior of the +dogma-following and dues-paying Chosen on X-Day, July 5, 1998, when his +"customers" the Xists arrive from "Planet X"; Honorary Pilot ofthe +pleasure-saucer Escape Vessels ofthe Sex Goddesses; and captain ofthe +Church softball team. + + "Bob's" teachings promote awareness of the Original Slack with +which all bipeds, MereHumans and SubGenu alike, are endowed at birth, +allowing us to exercise and financially exploit our Abnormality +Potentials. He fights to ensure that this innate Slack is not squandered +or, worse yet, stolen outright by that Conspiracy of Normals which +presently controls this planet. Only if the Universal Slack levels are +high enough, and the smoke from `"Bob's" Pipe sufficiently thick, will the +Xists materialize and save all paid-up, Yeti-descended Ordained SubGenius +Ministers -while trashing in their interplanetary "beer run" not only the +faithless human Conspiracy dupes (or `"Pinks," "Menialitites," +"Mediocretins," etc.), but their entire hellhole planet as well. These are +but a few reasons you owe it to yourself to purchase The Book ofthe +SubGenius-ifyou haven't already-and to buy additional copies with which to +save your loved ones . . . but NOT, necessarily, excuses for waiting to +purchase this third book. (High Weirdness by Mail, an expose of rival +false cults, is the second. ) + + Ordainment, membership documents and subscription to the Church +journal, The Stark Fist of Remoual, are $20 from SubGenius, Box 140306, +Dallas, Texas 75214 ($30 overseas); $1 for catalog of audio- and +videotapes, pamphlets, posters, clothing and other Churchly items. High +Weirdness by Mail, the cyclopedic directory of kookified mutation and +artistic frenzy, is, partially, our way of repaying those early +collaborators who gobbled up the bait, for it promotes hundreds of their +own secular rantzines, scientific discoveries, performance projects, UFO +con- tacts, forbidden musical recordings and shunned comic books, all +created independently of the Dobbsword-indeed, created as if in psychic +rebellion against the insidious spiritual grip within which Dobbs had, in +many cases, threatened to engulftheir minds. Dobbs was proud ofthem for +that, and rewarded them. Both High Weirdness and The Booh of the SubGenius +are $12 each postpaid from The SubGenius Foundation, Box 140306, Dallas, +Texas 75214. They may also be ordered bv better bookstores evervwhere +throueh the nublisher. Simon & Schuster. + + + The Book of the SubGenius presented the Teachings of Dobbs in +a formal, almost Biblical "textbook" style. It succeeded in luring into +the fold those brilliant collaborators who have made the Church +relentlessly grow and grow, like the Blob of pop mythology or the Sceptre +of Priapus in classical legendry-simultaneously inoculating our endeavors +against the entropic stagnation which afflicts all rival religions. The +intentions, then, of this anthology of fables, parables and dramatic +historical retellings is to help students transcend the hidebound, stodgy +formality of earlier revealed dogma, to grasp by example Dobbs' more +subtle characteristics, and simply to enjoy his true-life adventures as he +seeks to accomplish his Nameless Mission: a mission whose origin and +purpose remain a total mystery, certainly unfathomable through mere rote +memorization ofPreScripture. Indeed, it's possible that those who haven't +researched previous SubGenius litany may, ironically, glean more pure +Slack from this collection than will the "Bobbies" who've memorized Dobbs' +every recorded utterance. For they will be inculcating themselves with +Dobbs Knowledge from context-which, preliminary studies suggest, is the +most expeditious way to extract that " Grail ofthe Philosophers"! "Bob's" +is a living church, a dynamic social organism better understood through +even vicarious experience than through the simplistic doctrines and +embarrassing rituals which hobble lesser faiths. + + What exactly is a "Three-Fisted Tale of"Bob" "? Any answer lies +only in what the Tales are not. They aren'tjust gripping yarns ofaction +and suspense, nor whimsical fantasy, nor pathetic cuteness-and-light New +Age prattlings. Nor are they limited to the strictures of science fiction +or lurid murder mystery traditions. One cannot label them simply +"romance"; and it is impossible to pigeonhole any solely as spy thrillers, +humor, or sword-and-sorcery. They are, instead, a revolutionary +amalgamation of all of the above, and far more! + + Defying all basic literary genres, they lie more in the realm +of Apocrypha-dictated not by Dobbs, as was The Book of the SubGenius, but +instead by his Apostles, his Fishers of Wallets. A few Tales may even seem +heretical in content . . . but, more often, they represent in- spired +prophetic visions, biographical reenactments, and outright but no less +valid fabrications. Whether solidly researched, untarnishable histories, +or strictly metaphorical parables, they fill out the previously sketchy +picture of "Bob" Dobbs the man. + + To protect his family, Dobbs himself insists that we never +identify which are true histories and which (if any) are fables; he +trustingly leaves that determination up to you, our dearly beloved Reader. +Thus, if any given Tale seems particularly distasteful to you personally, +it is your right to rank it among the subversive lies; those that you +enjoy, on the other hand, may be taken as irrefutable and factual +chronicles worthy of being etched into the Rock of Ages. + + Being true SubGeniuses all, each author sees "Bob" differently, +depending upon his or her own ethical development. One writer may be +accurately recounting the Master's deeds, while the next is a schismatic +reprobate intent upon destruction of the Church from within. "Bob" still +insists that you be the judge. + + Our contributors hail from all walks of life: occultists, +astrologers, rich jet-setters, doctors, minimum-wage slaves, yardmen, +poverty stricken geek visionaries, upper-level corporate managers, +Berkeley egghead intelligentsia, right-wing fascists, frothing Commie +radicals, filmmakers, technical writers, Christian missionaries, +suicidal wretches both successful and failed, cartoonists, avant-garde +painters, rock musicians . . . even gorgeous, slinky housewives in sheer, +silken evening gowns. (One manages to combine all of the above callings!) +Some have had absolutely no prior professional writing experience, yet +were obviously inspired by what can only be termed " Higher Powers." Two +or three have actually built successful careers as accomplished, paid +storytellers! + + As for the editor ofthis anthology, the Rev. Ivan Stang is a +celebrated and erudite man ofdistinction known the world over-an +accomplished author, radio personality, film auteur . . . and regular +family man. Known for his ranting "Southern preacher"-style sermon +delivery, Rev. Stang has organized soul-saving Church Devivals across this +country (and several foreign nations) to great critical and even +supernatural acclaim. + + He has arranged these Tales not chronologically, but rather by +strin- gent (but seductively simple) Drummondian subliminal Silent Radio +mind-control techniques. The first few stories provide a perspective for +new readers unfamiliar with the orthodox dogma: introductory Tales, if you +will. At the same time, they serve to remind self proclaimed "Sub-Genius +experts" of those sound basic doctrines whence sprang the Church's +pythonic, back-to-the-Pamphlet, dogma-scrubbing redeformation movement. + + Once the explanatory narratives have been digested, the newly +illuminated reader may hurtle uncontrollably but safely into the more +profound, esoteric and, mayhaps, frightening tales-those designed to +disconnect established thought patterns and sabotage habitual mental +logic. Gliding effortlessly into a euphoric haze of real or imaginary +happenings, the reader will imbibe freely of the fermented fruits of those +who are not-quite-geniuses, becoming "drunk as a lord" with enlightenment. + + Finally, when the maximum limit of enlightenment absorption is +reached, the reader (if he or she can still be referred to as such) may +stealthily dare to approach the last stories-hideous necropoli of +soullessly rotting, maleficent, stench-filled pre-/post-histories wherein +mysterious apparitions gleefully carve their unspeakable names upon the +foolish mortal reader's heart and soul. Tales of this depth simply defy +all earthly description. This arrangement allows the reader to become +gradually familiar not only with the ancillary characters who populate the +later stories, but even r,vith their writing styles-for did not these +so-called "characters" u>rite half the stories?? + + This is the first One True Anthology to represent the entire +gamut of the Before-, After-, and In-Between Resurrection annals-the first +(of, hopefully, many volumes) to dare cover ALL conceptual bases, charging +cheerfully and unfalteringly into the colossal sales fray that is the +marketplace, battling head to head with any and all competitive comers, +even the shallowest of best-sellers. And it shall surely come up smiling, +delivering Dobbs' Ultimate Punch Line in its pristine virgin +state-unsullied and uninterpreted. + + By promising nothing, "Bob" both gives us the world and grants +us the final laugh . . . that laugh which will surely last all the way to +the bank, no matter how this book's sales figures may be impugned by any +pencil-necked geek of a market-myopic chain-bookstore accountant. We +sincerely hope that these Tales somehow allow the elusive awareness of +Slack to delicately insinuate itself into our readers' consciousnesses, +preferably without damaging their abilities to do their dayjobs. + + + After all, we value their money almost as highly as their souls. + It is therefore my most profound privilege to declare to you, dear + Reader: READ ON IF YOU DARE! + This is mv testament! + + -Dr. Philo Drummond + OverMan lst Degree, + First Authorized FisTem- + ple Lodge, Church of the + SubGenius / Drummondian + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/bob1.txt b/religious documents/bob1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bae0a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bob1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ + +Arise and become one with the Church of the Sub-Genius. + +" Start level three transference state, on tone." +" Bob?" +" You will become a part of this, registered in your sub-conscious mind." +" Everytime you say, hear, or think..." +" Bob?" +" That will be your KEY PHRASE. It will trigger the entire message without +your being aware of it." +" It will signal your subconscious mind. Flashing a message." +" The subconscious will absorb this message." + +SEX MONEY BOB. SEX MONEY BOB. SEX MONEY BOB. SEX MONEY BOB. SEX MONEY BOB. + + Praise Bob. The fates have brought you into possesion of a Sub-Genius +instructional video barrage tape. Prepare yourself. You are about to be remade +into a new being through forbidden knowledge previously kept secret for cent- +uries by the jealous priesthoods of many religions. CAUTION. Improper viewing +techniques may lead in some persons to dependancy, seizures, cranial fits, +pryaptic conditions, maturations, subtle glandular mutations and in some terri- +tories... legal arrest. However, if the viewer follows instructions and trusts +completely in Bob, this state can create an unsurpassible beotific experience +that can last for hours, days, weeks, possibly even for centuries. This video +tape bears a patented Dobsdrome power shell time code, which may cause some +home video decks to act unperdicably. Although only a small percentage of play- +back systems or their owners have suffered permanent damage from this signal... + + THE SUB-GENIUS FOUNDATION INCORPORATED IS NOT RESPONSIBLE + +for injuries or damages inflicted by paranormal events during tape play mode. +The tape also contains sublim-minimal-hypno-pediatrics-trans-inducement tone, +operating beyond the range of human perception. However, pets in the viewing +area may exhibit unusual behavior as well as many small children and certain +less evolved adults. If such behavior anomalies last more than two days after +viewing, consult a physician. However this brain wave enfolding signal is +generally harmless and should actually enhance your learning abilites during +the program. Special interactive-homosonic-stereo effects produced on the +altomade-cerebro-synclock-interoceter are designed to trigger stem cleavage, +or brain division between the fore brain and hind brain. Using newly discovered +break-thinking principles the viewers brain waves are locked into syncronization +with the tape's underlying suggestions by means of neuro-electric pulses. Plant +growth and gas mileage of nearby automobiles may be affected. For the unworthy +this tape may be a one way ticket down a bottomless mental pit from which there +can be no escape. In unreceptive viewers there is a danger of synaptic-backfire +in the brain pan, caused by over heating of the attetion glands. This dense +packing of brain cells without proper organic coolents, such as frop, has been +blamed for three recent cases of spontaneous human combustion. +Do not over medicate. High dosages have so sensitized the third nostral recep- +tors of some viewers that they were unable to stop seeing the tape, even after +it had been turned off. This tape is to be used only by the person to whom it +is prescribed. Do not operate a motor vehicle following viewing. Do not operate +heavy farm machinery at speeds over seventy miles an hour. The demons you may +see during the initial halucination sequence are not real. If you do not panic +this phase will end after a few minutes. +Always resurface from the hypnosis slowly. Coming out of the tape has been +likened to a total rebirth process, if managed successfully. If you have trouble +re-entering the earth plain, focus on Bob and chant his name until you remember +you are home. +Do not attempt to flip the tape when you reach the end of side one. No matter +what you are told by later instructions on the tape. There is no side two. +However if you do discover one, don't look at it. +If you follow these instructions, you will experience a profound cathartic +reaction to flow of archatypeal images and racial memories. You may find your- +self laughing and crying convulsively and even astrally projecting. +These reactions are normal, Enjoy them. + +BOB LOVES YOU. + + A + CHURCH OF THE SUB-GENIUS + TIME CONTROL + PRODUCTION + +In association with + +SHOGUN PRODUCTIONS +91/05/25 + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/bobface.txt b/religious documents/bobface.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb1e8fb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bobface.txt @@ -0,0 +1,113 @@ +THE FACE OF "BOB" fnord + + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$ + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$ $$ $ $$$$ + $$$$$$$$$$$ $$ $$$ $$ $ $ $$$$ + $$$$%$$$ $ $ $$ $$$ $ $ $$ $ $$ + $$$$%%$$$ $ $ $$ $$$ $ $$ $ $ $$$ + $$$$$%%$$$$ $ $ $ $$ $ $$$ $ $$ $$$$ + $$$$$%%%$$$$$ $$$$ $ $ $$ $ $$$$$ $$ $$$$$ + $$$$$$%%%$$$$$$$$$$$ $$ $ $$$$ $ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$%%%$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$%%%$$%%%%%%$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$%%$$%%%%%%%%%$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$ $$$$%$$$ + $$$$$$%$$%%%%%%%%%%%$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$%%$$$ + $$$$$$$$%%%%%%%%%%%%%$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$%%$$$ + $$$$$$$%%% $$$$$$$$ $$$%%$$$ + $$$$$$%%% $$$%%$$ + $$$$$$%%% $$$%%$$ + $$$$$%%%% % $$$%%$$ + $$$$$%%%% % $$%%$$ + $$$$$%%%% % $$%%$$ + $$$$$%%%% %% $$$%$$ + $$$$$%%%% %%% $$$%$$ + $$$$$%%%% %% $$$%$$ + $$$$$%%%% %% $$$%$$ + $$$$$%%%% %% $$$%$$ + $$$$%%%% $$$$ %% $$$$%$$ + $ $$$%%%% $$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$%% $$$$$$$ + $$$ $$%%% $$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$%% $$$$$$ + $$$$ %%% $$$ $$$$ $$%% $$$$$$ + $$$$$$%%% $$$$$ $$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ $%% $$$$$$ + $$$$ %%% $$$ $$$$$ $$$$$$ $$$ %%% $$$$$ + $$$$ $$$$$$$$$ $$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ % $$$$$ + $$$$ $$$ $ $$ $$$$ $$$$$$ $ $ $$ $$$$ + $$$$ $ $$$ %%%$$$ %% $$$ $$$$ + $$$$ %%%% $$ %%%%%% %%% $$$$ + $$$$ %%% %%%%% $ %%%%%%% $$$$ + $$$$ %%%%% $$ %%% $$ $ + $$ $ %% $ $ $$ + $ $$ $ $ $ + $ $$ $ %$ $$ $ + $ $ $ %%$ $$$$ + $$$ $$ $ %%% $ $ $$ + $$ $$ $ %%%% $ $$$ $$ $ + $ $$$ $$ %%%% $$$ $$$ $$$ $ + $ $$$ $$ %%%$$$ $$$$ $$$$ $$$$ $ + $$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ $ + $$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ $ + $$$$$$ %%$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + $$$ $$ %$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ $$$$ + $$ $ $$$$ $$$$$$$$ $$ $$$ + $$ $ %$$$$ $$ $$$$ + $ $ %%%%$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$ + $$ $$ %%%% $$ $$$$ + $$ $$ %%$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ $$$ + $ $ $$$$$%%%%%%%%%% $$$$ + $$ $$ $$$$$%%% $$$ + $ $ $$$$ %%%%%%%%%%%%%% $$$ + $$ $$$$ %%%%%%%%%%%%% $$$ + $$$ $ $$$$ $%%%% $$$ + $$ $$ $$$$$ $$$$ $$$ + $ $$ $$ $$$$$$ $$$ $$$ + $ $$$$ $$ $$$$$$ $$$$ $$$ +$ $$$ $$$ $$$$$$ $$$$$$$ $$$ +$ $$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$ $$$ +$ $$ $$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$ +$$$$$ $$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$ $$$$$ $$$$$$ + $$$$$ $$$$ + $$$$$$ $$$ + $$$$$ $$$ + $$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$ + + +and + + +THE FACE OF "BOB" (SMALL VERSION) 12-13-90 + +@@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^@@@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@^ ~^ @ @@ @ @ @ I ~^@@@@@@ +@@@@@ ~ ~~ ~I @@@@@ +@@@@' ' _,w@< @@@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | ]@@@ +@@@@ ~_,,_ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ +@@@@ _~ , , `@@@~ _ _`@ ]L J@@@ +@@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ +@@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ +@@@@@_|| @@@@@@P' @@P@@@@@@@@@@@[|c@@@@ +@@@@@@w| '@@P~ P]@@@-~, ~Y@@^'],@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@[ _ _J@@Tk ]]@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@,@ @@, c,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@ i @w ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@@`,P~ _ ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ +@@@@^^=^@@^ ^' ,ww,w@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ +@@@_xJ~ ~ , @@@@@@@P~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@ @, ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +The holy visage of "Bob" Dobbs is copyright 1990, and probably other +years as well - MAYBE EVEN YEARS YOU WON'T FIND IN YOUR PINK CALENDAR! +- by the Church of the SubGenius. Fnord. + +(Note that the face of J.R. ``Bob'' Dobbs is a registered trademark of +the Church of the SubGenius. Fnord.) + diff --git a/religious documents/bocpray.txt b/religious documents/bocpray.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..914a6d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bocpray.txt @@ -0,0 +1,31934 @@ + + The Book of Common Prayer: E-text Edition (American, 1979) + Version 1.0 + 13 December 1993 + + +If you are viewing this file with a word processor, we recommend you +reformat it with a non-proportional, 10 point font, such as Courier 10. +You should try to stop your program from automatically re-paragraphing +the text, since line breaks are significant. + +This file, which should be called BCP10.TXT or bcp10.txt, is in the +PUBLIC DOMAIN. You may make copies, distribute them, produce derivative +works, reformat, and make extracts from it. If you do so, please do not +distribute this header along with your altered E-text. + +In particular, if you remove this header, you may use this file in +proprietary retrieval systems or embed the text in software that you +sell. We wish to encourage the production of hypertext systems, both +public domain and proprietary, containing the text of the _Book of +Common Prayer_, and also of commentaries in electronic format. + +This version of the 1979 American version of the _Book of Common Prayer_ +was edited by John E. Goodwin (jegoodwin@delphi.com). The text was +contributed by members of the Electronic Mailing list ANGLICAN, which is +sponsored by American Methodist University, Washington, DC. (The +university has no connection with the E-text project). + +To subscribe to ANGLICAN, send the command "subscribe anglican" in the +*body* of a message to "listserv@american.edu". You may then send +messages to "anglican@american.edu". Notice that the addresses for +sign-on and posting are different. + + +The base text was largely hand-typed by + + Michael I. Bushnell, of the Church of St. John Evangelist, Boston; and + + John E. Goodwin, III, of St. Charles Episcopal Church, St. Charles, +Illinois. + +Certain parts were contributed by: + + Barbara Bachman, St. Charles Episcopal Church + + Jim Bachman, St. Charles Episcopal Church + + John Covert, Church of the Advent, Boston + +The Psalter was prepared by John E. Goodwin and Robin Cover, with the +assistance of: + + Janelle Allen + Jo Blansett + Michael Bushnell + Janet Cover + Jesse Cover + Sarah Cover + JoAnn Crupi + Mike Herschenroeder + Sherry Hines + Steve McConnel + Lark Rilling + Linda Simons + Jeanne Swanson + John Thomson + +The present text of the Psalter is generated from an SGML-tagged version +created by Robin and Michael Cover. + + +The electronic edition of the BCP was prepared because all the E-text +sources that we could find were proprietary, even though the text itself +is guaranteed to be in the Public Domain by Canon Law. We feel strongly +that the basic texts of major religions, especially our own, and +especially those used in liturgies, should be freely available in a form +that is not restricted by a requirement of registration or payment of a +fee. Any fee, no matter how nominal, restricts the distribution of the +text, prohibits its improvement by others and its inclusion in free +software systems. + + +Although this text has been checked with a spellchecker and checked for +content by eye, we are aware that errors must still exist.** We did not +think this fact merited withholding the text, especially since it is +accurate enough for devotional use, for reading to the blind, and for +use as a base text for parish bulletins and programs. Please send +notice of errors more significant than simple typographical errors to +"jegoodwin@delphi.com". + + ** In particular there are bugs in the page numbering. + +This text is supported in the sense that we are committed to correcting +errors and improving the format, e.g. to migrate to SGML. If you need a +highly accurate text for scholarly purposes, we recommend you contact us +to help in the effort of preparing one. + +A monograph for programmers on the markup scheme of the display format +used and on the electronic typesetting of liturgical texts in general is +in preparation. We are also preparing an HTML version for posting on +the World Wide Web (telnet info.cern.ch for more information about WWW). + +=John Goodwin= +St. Charles, Illinois +Winter Embertide 1993 + + + + + + + +THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER + +and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of +the Church + +Together with The Psalter or Psalms of David + +According to the use of + +The Episcopal Church + +THE SEABURY PRESS : NEW YORK + + + +[The Certificate of the original. Note that this electronic text is +NOT approved by the Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer.] + + + +I certify that this edition of The Book of Common Prayer +has been compared with a certified copy of the Standard Book, +as the Canon directs, and that it conforms thereto. + +Charles Mortimer Guilbert +=Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer= +September, 1979 + + + + + + + +The Ratification of the Book of Common Prayer 8 + +The Preface 9 + +Concerning the Service of the Church 13 + +The Calendar of the Church Year 15 + + + + +Daily Morning Prayer: Rite One 37 + +Daily Evening Prayer: Rite One 61 + +Daily Morning Prayer: Rite Two 75 + +Noonday Prayer 103 + +Order of Worship for the Evening 108 + +Daily Evening Prayer: Rite Two 115 + +Compline 127 + +Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families 137 + +Table of Suggested Canticle 144 + + + 148 + + + + +Seasons of the Year 159 + +Holy Days 185 + +Common of Saints 195 + +Various Occasions 199 + + + + + + +Seasons of the Year 211 + +Holy Days 237 + +Common of Saints 246 + +Various Occasions 251 + + + + +Ash Wednesday 264 + +Palm Sunday 270 + +Maundy Thursday 274 + +Good Friday 276 + +Holy Saturday 283 + +The Great Vigil of Easter 285 + + + + + + + +An Exhortation 316 + +A Penitential Order: Rite One 319 + +The Holy Eucharist: Rite One 323 + +A Penitential Order: Rite Two 351 + +The Holy Eucharist: Rite Two 355 + +Prayers of the People 383 + +Communion under Special Circumstances 396 + +An Order for Celebrating the Holy Eucharist 400 + + + + +Confirmation 413 + +A Form of Commitment to Christian Service 420 + +Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage 423 + +The Blessing of a Civil Marriage 433 + +An Order for Marriage 435 + +Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a Child 439 + +Reconciliation of a Penitent 447 + +Ministration to the Sick 453 + +Ministration at the Time of Death 462 + + + +Burial of the Dead: Rite One 469 + +Burial of the Dead: Rite Two 491 + +An Order for Burial 506 + + + + +Ordination of a Bishop 511 + +Ordination of a Priest 525 + +Ordination of a Deacon 537 + +Litany for Ordinations 548 + +Celebration of a New Ministry 557 + +Consecration of a Church or Chapel 567 + + + 585 + + + 810 + + + 845 + + + 864 +(including the Articles of Religion) + + + 880 + + + 888 + +Year A 889 + +Year B 900 + +Year C 911 + +Holy Days 921 + +Common of Saints 925 + +Various Occasions 927 + + + 934 + +Seasons of the Year 936 + +Holy Days 996 + +Special Occasions 1000 + + + + + + + +By the Bishops, the Clergy, and the Laity of the Protestant Episcopal +Church in the United States of America, in Convention, this Sixteenth +Day of October, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred +and Eighty-Nine. + +This Convention having, in their present session, set forth =A Book of +Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites +and Ceremonies of the Church,= do hereby establish the said Book: And +they declare it to be the Liturgy of this Church: And require that it be +received as such by all the members of the same: And this Book shall be +in use from and after the First Day of October, in the Year of Our Lord +one thousand seven hundred and ninety. + + + + + + + +It is a most invaluable part of that blessed "liberty wherewith Christ +hath made us free," that in his worship different forms and usages may +without offense be allowed, provided the substance of the Faith be kept +entire; and that, in every Church, what cannot be clearly determined to +belong to Doctrine must be referred to Discipline; and therefore, by +common consent and authority, may be altered, abridged, enlarged, +amended, or otherwise disposed of, as may seem most convenient for the +edification of the people, "according to the various exigency of times +and occasions." + +The Church of England, to which the Protestant Episcopal Church in +these States is indebted, under God, for her first foundation and a long +continuance of nursing care and protection, hath, in the Preface of her +Book of Common Prayer, laid it down as a rule, that "The particular +Forms of Divine Worship, and the Rites and Ceremonies appointed to be +used therein, being things in their own nature indifferent, and +alterable, and so acknowledged; it is but reasonable that upon weighty +and important considerations, according to the various exigency of times +and occasions, such changes and alterations should be made therein, as +to those that are in place of Authority should, from time to time, seem +either necessary or expedient." + +The same Church hath not only in her Preface, but likewise in her +Articles and Homilies, declared tho necessity and expediency of +occasional alterations and amendments in her Forms of Public Worship; +and we find accordingly, that, seeking to keep the happy mean between +too much stiffness in refusing, and too much easiness in admitting +variations in + + + +things once advisedly established, she hath, in the reign of several +Princes, since the first compiling of her Liturgy in the time of Edward +the Sixth, upon just and weighty considerations her thereunto moving, +yielded to make such alterations in some particulars, as in their +respective times were thought convenient; yet so as that the main body +and essential parts of the same (as well in the chiefest materials, as +in the frame and order thereof) have still been continued firm and +unshaken + +Her general aim in these different reviews and alterations hath been, as +she further declares in her said Preface, to do that which, according to +her best understanding, might most tend to the preservation of peace and +unity in the Church; the procuring of reverence, and the exciting of +piety and devotion in the worship of God; and, finally, the cutting off +occasion, from them that seek occasion, of cavil or quarrel against her +Liturgy. And although, according to her judgment, there be not any +thing in it contrary to the Word of God, or to sound doctrine, or which +a godly man may not with a good conscience use and submit unto, or which +is not fairly defensible, if allowed such just and favourable +construction as in common equity ought to be allowed to all human +writings; yet upon the principles already laid down, it cannot but be +supposed that further alterations would be found expedient. +Accordingly, a Commission for a review was issued in the year 1689: but +this great and good work miscarried at that time; and the Civil +Authority has not since thought proper to revive it by any new +Commission. + +But when in the course of Divine Providence, these American States +became independent with respect to civil government, their +ecclesiastical independence was necessarily included; and the different +religious denominations of Christians in these States were left at full +and equal liberty to model and organize their respective Churches, and +forms of worship, and discipline, in such manner as they might judge +most convenient for their future prosperity; consistently with the +constitution and laws of their country. + +The attention of this Church was in the first place drawn to those +alterations in the Liturgy which became necessary in the prayers for our +Civil Rulers, in consequence of the Revolution. And the principal care +herein was to make them conformable to what ought to be the proper +end of all such prayers, namely, that "Rulers may have grace, wisdom, + +and understanding to execute justice, and to maintain truth;" and that +the people "may lead quiet and peaceable lives, in all godliness and +honesty." + +But while these alterations were in review before the Convention, they +could not but, with gratitude to God, embrace the happy occasion which +was offered to them (uninfluenced and unrestrained by any worldly +authority whatsoever) to take a further review of the Public Service, +and to establish such other alterations and amendments therein as might +be deemed expedient. + +It seems unnecessary to enumerate all the different alterations and +amendments. They will appear, and it is to be hoped, the reasons of +them also, upon a comparison of this with the Book of Common Prayer of +the Church of England. In which it will also appear that this Church is +far from intending to depart from the Church of England in any essential +point of doctrine, discipline, or worship; or further than local +circumstances require. + +And now, this important work being brought to a conclusion, it is hoped +the whole will be received and examined by every true member of our +Church, and every sincere Christian, with a meek, candid, and charitable +frame of mind; without prejudice or prepossessions; seriously +considering what Christianity is, and what the truths of the Gospel are; +and earnestly beseeching Almighty God to accompany with his blessing +every endeavour for promulgating them to mankind in the clearest, +plainest, most affecting and majestic manner, for the sake of Jesus +Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour. + +=Philadelphia, October, 1789= + + + + + + + + + +The Holy Eucharist, the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord's +Day and other major Feasts, and Daily Morning and Evening Prayer, as +set forth in this Book, are the regular services appointed for public +worship in the Church. + +In addition to these services and the other rites contained in this +Book, other forms set forth by authority within this Church may be used. +Also, subject to the direction of the bishop, special devotions taken +from this Book, or from Holy Scripture, may be used when the needs of +the congregation so require. + +For special days of thanksgiving, appointed by civil or Church +authority, and for other special occasions for which no service or +prayer has been provided in this Book, the bishop may set forth such +forms as are fitting to the occasion. + +In all services, the entire Christian assembly participates in such a +way that the members of each order within the Church, lay persons, +bishops, priests, and deacons, fulfull the functions proper to their +respective orders, as set forth in the rubrical directions for each +service. + +The leader of worship in a Christian assembly is normally a bishop or +priest. Deacons by virtue of their order do not exercise a presiding +function; but, like lay persons, may officiate in the Liturgy of the +Word, whether in the form provided in the Daily Office, or (when a +bishop or priest is not present) in the form appointed at the Eucharist. +Under exceptional circumstances, when the services of a priest cannot be +obtained, the bishop may, at discretion, authorize a deacon to preside + +at other rites also, subject to the limitations described in the +directions for each service. + +In any of the Proper Liturgies for Special Days, and in other services +contained within this Book celebrated in the context of a Rite One +service, the contemporary idiom may be conformed to traditional +language. + +Hymns referred to in the rubrics of this Book are understood as those +authorized by this Church. The words of anthems are to be from +Holy Scripture, or from this Book, or from texts congruent with them. + +On occasion, and as appropriate, instrumental music may be substituted +for a hymn or anthem. + +Where rubrics indicate that a part of a service is to be "said," it must +be understood to include "or sung," and =vice versa.= + +When it is desired to use music composed for them, previously authorized +liturgical texts may be used in place of the corresponding texts in this +Book. + +Scriptural citations in this Book, except for the Psalms, follow the +numeration of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. + + + + + + + +The Church Year consists of two cycles of feasts and holy days: one is +dependent upon the movable date of the Sunday of the Resurrection or +Easter Day; the other, upon the fixed date of December 25, the Feast of +our Lord's Nativity or Christmas Day. + +Easter Day is always the first Sunday after the full moon that falls on +or after March 21. It cannot occur before March 22 or after April 25. + +The sequence of all Sundays of the Church Year depends upon the date of +Easter Day. But the Sundays of Advent are always the four Sundays +before Christmas Day, whether it occurs on a Sunday or a weekday. The +date of Easter also determines the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, +and the feast of the Ascension on a Thursday forty days after Easter +Day. + + +<1. Principal Feasts> + +The Principle Feasts observed in this Church are the following: + +Easter Day + +Ascension Day + +The Day of Pentecost + +Trinity Sunday + + +All Saint's Day : November 1 + +Christmas Day : December 25 + +The Epiphany : January 6 + +These feasts take precedence of any other day or observance. All +Saints' Day may always be observed on the Sunday following November 1, +in addition to its observance on the fixed date. + + + + +<2. Sundays> + +All Sundays of the year are feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ. In +addition to the dated days listed above, only the following feasts, +appointed on fixed days, take precedence of a Sunday: + +The Holy Name + +The Presentation + +The Transfiguration + +The feast of the Dedication of a Church, and the feast of its patron or +title, may be observed on, or be transferred to, a Sunday, except in the +seasons of Advent, Lent, and Easter. + +All other Feasts of our Lord, and all other Major Feasts appointed on +fixed days in the Calendar, when they occur on a Sunday, are normally +transferred to the first convenient open day within the week. When +desired, however, the Collect, Preface, and one or more of the Lessons +appointed for the Feast may be substituted for those of the Sunday, but +not from the Last Sunday after Pentecost through the First Sunday after +the Epiphany, or from the Last Sunday after the Epiphany through +Trinity Sunday. + +With the express permission of the bishop, and for urgent and sufficient +reason, some other special occasion may be observed on a Sunday. + + +<3. Holy Days> + +The following Holy Days are regularly observed throughout the year. +Unless otherwise ordered in the preceding rules concerning Sundays, they +have precedence over all other days of commemoration or of special +observance: + +=Other Feasts of Our Lord= + +The Holy Name + +The Presentation + +The Annunciation + +The Visitation + + +Saint John the Baptist + +The Transfiguration + +Holy Cross Day + + + + +=Other Major Feasts= + +All feasts of Apostles + +All feasts of Evangelists + +Saint Stephen + +The Holy Innocents + +Saint Joseph + +Saint Mary Magdalene + + +Saint Mary the Virgin + +Saint Michael and All Angels + +Saint James of Jerusalem + +Independence Day + +Thanksgiving Day + + +=Fasts= + +Ash Wednesday + +Good Friday + + +Feasts appointed of fixed days in the Calendar are not observed on the +days of Holy Week or of Easter Week. Major Feasts falling in these +weeks are transferred to the week following the Second Sunday of Easter, +in the order of their occurrence. + +Feasts appointed on fixed days in the Calendar do not take precedence of +Ash Wednesday. + +Feasts of our Lord and other Major Feasts appointed on fixed days, +which fall upon or are transferred to a weekday, may be observed on any +open day within the week. This provision does not apply to Christmas +Day, the Epiphany, and All Saints' Day. + + +<4. Days of Special Devotion> + +The following days are observed by special acts of discipline and +self-denial: + +Ash Wednesday and the other weekdays of Lent and of Holy Week, +except the feast of the Annunciation. + +Good Friday and all other Fridays of the year, in commemoration of the +Lord's crucifixion, except for Fridays in the Christmas and Easter +seasons, and any Feasts of our Lord which occur on a Friday. + + +<5. Days of Optional Observance> + +Subject to the rules of precedence governing Principal Feasts, Sundays, + +and Holy Days, the following may be observed with the Collects, Psalms, +and Lessons duly authorized by this Church: + +Commemorations listed in the Calendar + +Other Commemorations, using the Common of Saints + +The Ember Days, traditionally observed on the Wednesdays, Fridays, and +Saturdays after the First Sunday in Lent, the Day of Pentecost, Holy +Cross Day, and December 13. + +The Rogation Days, traditionally observed on Monday, Tuesday, and +Wednesday before Ascension Day + +Various Occasions + +Provided, that there is no celebration of the Eucharist for any such +occasion on Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy +Saturday; and provided further, that none of the Propers appointed for +Various Occasions is used as a substitute for, or as an addition to, the +Proper appointed for the Principal Feasts. + + + + +*January* + + 1 A : *The Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ* + + 2 b + + 3 c + + 4 d + + 5 e + + 6 f : *The Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ* + + 7 g + + 8 A + + 9 b + + 10 c : William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1645 + + 11 d + + 12 e + + 13 f : Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, 367 + + 14 g + + 15 A + + 16 b + + 17 c : Antony, Abbot in Egypt, 356 + + 18 d : *The Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle* + + 19 e : Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095 + + 20 f : Fabian, Bishop and Martyr of Rome, 250 + + 21 g : Agnes, Martyr at Rome, 304 + + 22 A : Vincent, Deacon of Saragossa, and Martyr, 304 + + 23 b : Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, 1893 + + 24 c + + 25 d : *The Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle* + + 26 e : Timothy and Titus, Companions of Saint Paul + + 27 f : John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, 407 + + 28 g : Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Friar, 1274 + + 29 A + + 30 b + + 31 c + + + + + +*February* + + 1 d + + 2 e : *The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple* + + 3 f : Anskar, Archbishop of Hamburg, Missionary to Denmark and +Sweden, 865 + + 4 g : Cornelius the Centurion + + 5 A : The Martyrs of Japan, 1597 + + 6 b + + 7 c + + 8 d + + 9 e + + 10 f + + 11 g + + 12 A + + 13 b : Absalom Jones, Priest, 1818 + + 14 c : Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop, Missionaries to the Slavs, +869, 885 + + 15 d : Thomas Bray, Priest and Missionary, 1730 + + 16 e + + 17 f + + 18 g + + 19 A + + 20 b + + 21 c + + 22 d + + 23 e : Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr of Smyrna, 156 + + 24 f : *Saint Matthias the Apostle* + + 25 g + + 26 A + + 27 b : George Herbert, Priest, 1633 + + 28 c + + 29 + + + + +*March* + + 1 d : David, Bishop of Menevia, Wales, c. 544 + + 2 e : Chad, Bishop of Lichfield, 672 + + 3 f : John and Charles Wesley, Priests, 1791, 1788 + + 4 g + + 5 A + + 6 b + + 7 c : Perpetua and Her Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 202 + + 8 d + + 9 e : Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, c. 394 + + 10 f + + 11 g + + 12 A : Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, 604 + + 13 b + + 14 c + + 15 d + + 16 e + + 17 f : Patrick, Bishop and Missionary of Ireland, 461 + + 18 g : Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, 386 + + 19 A : *Saint Joseph* + + 20 b : Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 687 + + 21 c : Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1711 + +14 22 d : James De Koven, Priest, 1879 + + 3 23 e : Gregory the Illuminator, Bishop and Missionary of Armenia, 332 + + 24 f + +11 25 g : *The Annunciation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Blessed +Virgin Mary* + + 26 A + +19 27 b : Charles Henry Brent, Bishop of the Philippines, and of Western +New York, 1929 + + 8 28 c + + 29 d : John Keble, Priest, 1866 + +16 30 e + + 5 31 f : John Donne, Priest, 1631 + + + + +*April* + + 1 g : Frederick Denison Maurice, Priest, 1872 + +13 2 A : James Lloyd Breck, Priest, 1876 + + 2 3 b : Richard, Bishop of Chichester, 1253 + + 4 c + +10 5 d + + 6 e + +18 7 f + + 7 8 g : William Augustus Muhlenberg, Priest, 1877 + + 9 A : William Law, Priest, 1761 + +15 10 b + + 4 11 c : George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand, and of +Lichfield, 1878 + + 12 d + +12 13 e + + 1 14 f + + 15 g + + 9 16 A + +17 17 b + + 6 18 c + + 19 d : Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Martyr, 1012 + + 20 e + + 21 f : Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1109 + + 22 g + + 23 A + + 24 b + + 25 c : *Saint Mark the Evangelist* + + 26 d + + 27 e + + 28 f + + 29 g : Catherine of Siena, 1380 + + 30 A + + + + + +*May* + + 1 b : *Saint Philip and Saint James, Apostles* + + 2 c : Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, 373 + + 3 d + + 4 e : Monnica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387 + + 5 f + + 6 g + + 7 A + + 8 b : Dame Julian of Norwich, c. 1417 + + 9 c : Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople, 389 + + 10 d + + 11 e + + 12 f + + 13 g + + 14 A + + 15 b + + 16 c + + 17 d + + 18 e + + 19 f : Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, 988 + + 20 g : Alcuin, Deacon, and Abbot of Tours, 804 + + 21 A + + 22 b + + 23 c + + 24 d : Jackson Kemper, First Missionary Bishop in the United States, +1870 + + 25 e : Bede, the Venerable, Priest, and Monk of Jarrow, 735 + + 26 f : Augustine, First Archbishop of Canterbury, 605 + + 27 g + + 28 A + + 29 b + + 30 c + + 31 d : *The Visitation of the Virgin Mary* + +*The First Book of Common Prayer, 1549, is appropriately observed on a +weekday following the Day of Pentecost.* + + + + +*June* + + 1 e : Justin, Martyr at Rome, c. 167 + + 2 f : The Martyrs of Lyons, 177 + + 3 g : The Martyrs of Uganda, 1886 + + 4 A + + 5 b : Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, Missionary to Germany, and +Martyr, 754 + + 6 c + + 7 d + + 8 e + + 9 f : Columba, Abbot of Iona, 597 + + 10 g : Ephrem of Edessa, Syria, Deacon, 373 + + 11 A : *Saint Barnabas the Apostle + + 12 b + + 13 c + + 14 d : Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea, 379 + + 15 e + + 16 f : Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham, 1752 + + 17 g + + 18 A : Bernard Mizeki, Catechist and Martyr in Rhodesia, 1896 + + 19 b + + 20 c + + 21 d + + 22 e : Alban, First Martyr of Britain, c. 304 + + 23 f + + 24 g : *The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist* + + 25 A + + 26 b + + 27 c + + 28 d : Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, c. 202 + + 29 e : *Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Apostles* + + 30 f + + + + +*July* + + 1 g + + 2 A + + 3 b + + 4 c : *Independence Day* + + 5 d + + 6 e + + 7 f + + 8 g + + 9 A + + 10 b + + 11 c : Benedict of Nursia, Abbot of Monte Casino, c. 540 + + 12 d + + 13 e + + 14 f + + 15 g + + 16 A + + 17 b : William White, Bishop of Pennsylvania, 1836 + + 18 c + + 19 d + + 20 e + + 21 f + + 22 g : *Saint Mary Magdalene* + + 23 A + + 24 b : Thomas a Kempis, Priest, 1471 + + 25 c : *Saint James the Apostle* + + 26 d : The Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary + + 27 e : William Reed Huntington, Priest, 1909 + + 28 f + + 29 g : Mary and Martha of Bethany + + 30 A : William Wilberforce, 1833 + + 31 b : Joseph of Arimathaea + + + + + +*August* + + 1 c + + 2 d + + 3 e + + 4 f + + 5 g + + 6 A : *The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ* + + 7 b : John Mason Neale, Priest, 1866 + + 8 c : Dominic, Priest and Friar, 1221 + + 9 d + + 10 e : Lawrence, Deacon, and Martyr at Rome, 258 + + 11 f : Clare, Abbess at Assisi, 1253 + + 12 g + + 13 A : Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore, 1667 + + 14 b + + 15 c : *Saint Mary the Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ* + + 16 d + + 17 e + + 18 f : William Porcher DuBose, Priest, 1918 + + 19 g + + 20 A : Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, 1153 + + 21 b + + 22 c + + 23 d + + 24 e : *Saint Bartholomew the Apostle* + + 25 f : Louis, King of France, 1270 + + 26 g + + 27 A + + 28 b : Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 430 + + 29 c + + 30 d + + 31 e : Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, 651 + + + + +*September* + + 1 f + + 2 g : The Martyrs of New Guinea, 1942 + + 3 A + + 4 b + + 5 c + + 6 d + + 7 e + + 8 f + + 9 g + + 10 A + + 11 b + + 12 c : John Henry Hobart, Bishop of New York, 1830 + + 13 d : Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr of Carthage, 258 + + 14 e : *Holy Cross Day* + + 15 f + + 16 g : Ninian, Bishop in Galloway, c. 430 + + 17 A + + 18 b : Edward Bouverie Pusey, Priest, 1882 + + 19 c : Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690 + + 20 d : John Coleridge Patteson, Bishop of Melanesia, and his +Companions, Martyrs, 1971 + + 21 e : *Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist* + + 22 f + + 23 g + + 24 A + + 25 b : Sergius, Abbot of Holy Trinity, Moscow, 1392 + + 26 c : Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, 1626 + + 27 d + + 28 e + + 29 f : *Saint Michael and All Angels* + + 30 g : Jerome, Priest, and Monk of Bethlehem, 420 + + + + + +*October* + + 1 A : Remigius, Bishop of Rheims, c. 530 + + 2 b + + 3 c + + 4 d : Francis of Assisi, Friar, 1226 + + 5 e + + 6 f : William Tyndale, Priest, 1536 + + 7 g + + 8 A + + 9 b : Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln + + 10 c + + 11 d + + 12 e + + 13 f + + 14 g + + 15 A : Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, Bishop of Shanghai, 1906 + + 16 b : Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, Bishops, 1555, and Thomas +Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1556 + + 17 c : Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, and Martyr, c. 115 + + 18 d : *Saint Luke the Evangelist* + + 19 e : Henry Martyn, Priest and Missionary to India and Persia, 1812 + + 20 f + + 21 g + + 22 A + + 23 b : *Saint James of Jerusalem, Brother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, +and Martyr, c. 62* + + 24 c + + 25 d + + 26 e : Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons, 899 + + 27 f + + 28 g : *Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles* + + 29 A : James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, and his +Companions, Martyrs, 1885 + + 30 b + + 31 c + + + + +*November* + + 1 d : *All Saints* + + 2 e : Commemoration of All Faithful Departed + + 3 f : Richard Hooker, Priest, 1600 + + 4 g + + 5 A + + 6 b + + 7 c : Willibrord, Archbishop of Utrecht, Missionary to Frisia, 739 + + 8 d + + 9 e + + 10 f : Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461 + + 11 g : Martin, Bishop of Tours, 397 + + 12 A : Charles Simeon, Priest, 1836 + + 13 b + + 14 c : Consecration of Samuel Seabury, First American Bishop, 1784 + + 15 d + + 16 e : Margaret, Queen of Scotland, 1093 + + 17 f : Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200 + + 18 g : Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680 + + 19 A : Elizabeth, Princess of Hungary, 1231 + + 20 b + + 21 c + + 22 d + + 23 e : Clement, Bishop of Rome, c. 100 + + 24 f + + 25 g + + 26 A + + 27 b + + 28 c + 29 d + + + 30 e : *Saint Andrew the Apostle* + + + + + +*December* + + 1 f : Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, 1637 + + 2 g : Channing Moore Williams, Missionary Bishop in China and Japan, +1910 + + 3 A + + 4 b : John of Damascus, Priest, c. 760 + + 5 c : Clement of Alexandria, Priest, c. 210 + + 6 d : Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c. 342 + + 7 e : Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, 397 + + 8 f + + 9 g + + 10 A + + 11 b + + 12 c + + 13 d + + 14 e + + 15 f + + 16 g + + 17 A + + 18 b + + 19 c + + 20 d + + 21 e : *Saint Thomas the Apostle* + + 22 f + + 23 g + + 24 A + + 25 b : *The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ* + + 26 c : *Saint Stephen, Deacon and Martyr* + + 27 d : *Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist* + + 28 e : *The Holy Innocents* + + 29 f + + 30 g + + 31 A + + + + + + + + +=Advent Season= + +The First Sunday of Advent + +The Second Sunday of Advent + +The Third Sunday of Advent + +The Fourth Sunday of Advent + + +=Christmas Season= + +The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ: Christmas Day, December 25 + +The First Sunday after Christmas Day + +The Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, January 1 + +The Second Sunday after Christmas Day + + +=Epiphany Season= + +The Epiphany, or the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, January 6 + +The First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord + Jesus Christ + +The Second Sunday through the Eighth Sunday after the Epiphany + +The Last Sunday after the Epiphany + + +=Lenten Season= + +The First Day of Lent, or Ash Wednesday + +The First Sunday in Lent + +The Second Sunday in Lent + +The Third Sunday in Lent + +The Fourth Sunday in Lent + +The Fifth Sunday in Lent + + +=Holy Week= + +The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday + +Monday in Holy Week + + + +Tuesday in Holy Week + +Wednesday in Holy Week + +Maundy Thursday + +Good Friday + +Holy Saturday + + +=Easter Season= + +Easter Eve + +The Sunday of the Resurrection, or Easter Day + +Monday in Easter Week + +Tuesday in Easter Week + +Wednesday in Easter Week + +Thursday in Easter Week + +Friday in Easter Week + +Saturday in Easter Week + +The Second Sunday of Easter + +The Third Sunday of Easter + +The Fourth Sunday of Easter + +The Fifth Sunday of Easter + +The Sixth Sunday of Easter + +Ascension Day + +The Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after Ascension Day + +The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday + + +=The Season After Pentecost= + +The First Sunday after Pentecost: Trinity Sunday + +The Second Sunday through the Twenty-Seventh Sunday after Pentecost + +The Last Sunday after Pentecost + + +=Holy Days= + +Saint Andrew the Apostle, November 30 + +Saint Thomas the Apostle, December 21 + +Saint Stephen, Deacon and Martyr, December 26 + +Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist, December 27 + +The Holy Innocents, December 28 + +The Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle, January 18 + + + +The Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle, January 25 + +The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple, also called + the Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin, February 2 + +Saint Matthias the Apostle, February 24 + +Saint Joseph, March 19 + +The Annunciation of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Blessed Virgin Mary, + March 25 + +Saint Mark the Evangelist, April 25 + +Saint Philip and Saint James, Apostles, May 1 + +The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, May 31 + +Saint Barnabas the Apostle, June 11 + +The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, June 24 + +Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Apostles, June 29 + +Saint Mary Magdalene, July 22 + +Saint James the Apostle, July 25 + +The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, August 6 + +Saint Mary the Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, August 15 + +Saint Bartholomew the Apostle, August 24 + +Holy Cross Day, September 14 + +Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, September 21 + +Saint Michael and All Angels, September 29 + +Saint Luke the Evangelist, October 18 + +Saint James of Jerusalem, Brother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and + Martyr, October 23 + +Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles, October 28 + +All Saints' Day, November 1 + + +=National Days= + +Independence Day, July 4 + +Thanksgiving Day + + + + + +The Daily Office + + + + + + +*In the Daily Office, the term "Officiant" is used to denote the person, +clerical or lay, who leads the Office.* + +*It is appropriate taht others persons be assigned to read the Lessons, +and to lead other parts of the service not assigned to the officiant. +The bishop, when present, apporpriately concludes the Office with a +blessing.* + +*At celebrations of the Holy Eucharist, the Order for Morning or Evening +Prayer may be used in place of all that precedes the Offertory.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 141.* + + + + + + + + +*The Officiant begins the service with one or more of these sentences of +Scripture, or with the versicle "O Lord, open thou our lips" on page +42.* + + +=Advent= + +Watch ye , for ye know not when the master of the house +cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in +the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. +=Mark 13:35, 36= + +Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a +highway for our God. =Isaiah 40:3= + +The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see +it together. =Isaiah 40:5= + + +=Christmas= + +Behold, I bring you good tidings of a great joy, which shall be +to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of +David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. =Luke 2:10, 11= + +Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell +with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself +shall be with them, and be their God. =Revelation 21:3= + + + + +=Epiphany= + +The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the bright- +ness of thy rising. =Isaiah 60:3= + +I will give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be +my salvation unto the end of the earth. =Isaiah 49:6b= + +From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the +same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in +every place incense shall be offered unto my Name, and a +pure offering: for my Name shall be great among the heathen, +saith the Lord of hosts. =Malachi 1:11= + + +=Lent= + +If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the +truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins, God is faithful +and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all +unrighteousness. =1 John 1:8, 9= + +Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the +Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to +anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of evil. +=Joel 2:13= + +I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, +"Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee; and +am no more worthy to be called thy son." =Luke 15:18, 19= + +To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, +though we have rebelled against him; neither have we obeyed +the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws which he +set before us. =Daniel 9:9, 10= + +Jesus said, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny +himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." =Mark 8:34= + + + + +=Holy Week= + +All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one +to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of +us all. =Isaiah 53:6= + +Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if +there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto +me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me. =Lamentations 1:12= + + +=Easter Season, including Ascension Day and the Day of +Pentecost= + +Alleluia! Christ is risen. +=The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!= + +This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and +be glad in it. =Psalm 118:24= + +Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our +Lord Jesus Christ. =1 Corinthians 15:57= + +If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things which are +above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. +=Colossians 3:1= + +Christ is not entered into a the holy places made with hands, +which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now +to appear in the presence of God for us. =Hebrews 9:24= + +Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come +upon you; and ye shall be witness unto me both in +Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the +uttermost part of the earth. =Acts 1:8= + + +=Trinity Sunday= + +Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and +is to come. =Revelation 4:8= + + + + +=All Saints and other Major Saints' Days= + +We give thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to +be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. +=Colossians 1:12= + +Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens +with the saints and of the household of God. =Ephesians 2:19= + +Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words into +the ends of the world. =Psalm 19:4= + + +=Occasions of Thanksgiving= + +O give thanks unto the Lord, and call upon his Name; tell the +people what things he hath done. =Psalm 105:1= + + +=At any Time= + +Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and +from the Lord Jesus Christ. =Phillipians 1:2= + +I was glad when they said unto me, "We will go into the +house of the Lord." =Psalm 122:1= + +Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, +be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and +my redeemer. =Psalm 19:14= + +O send out thy light and thy truth, that they may lead me, +and bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy dwelling. +=Psalm 43:3= + +The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence +before him. =Habakkuk 2:20= + +The hour is cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers +shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father +seeketh such to worship him. =John 4:23= + +Thus saith the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, + +whose name is Holy, "I dwell in the high and holy place, with +him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the +spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite +ones." =Isaiah 57:15= + + +*The following Confession of Sin may then be said; or the Office may +continue at once with "O Lord, open thou our lips." + + + + +*The Officiant says to the people* + +Dearly beloved, we have come together in the presence of +Almighty God our heavenly Father, to render thanks for the +great benefits that we have received at his hands, to set forth +his most worthy praise, to hear this holy Word, and to ask, for +ourselves and on behalf of others, those things that are +necessary for our life and our salvation. And so that we may +prepare ourselves in heart and mind to worship him, let us +kneel in silence, and with penitent and obedient hearts +confess our sins, that we may obtain forgiveness by his +infinite goodness and mercy. + +*or this* + +Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God. + +*Silence may be kept.* + +*Officiant and People together, all kneeling* + +Almighty and most merciful Father, +we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, +we have followed too much the devices and desires of our +/own hearts, +we have offended against thy holy laws, +we have left undone those things which we ought to +/have done, + +and we have done those things which we ought not to +/have done. +But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, +spare thou those who confess their faults, +restore thou those who are penitent, +according to thy promises declared unto mankind +in Christ Jesus our Lord; +and grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, +that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, +to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen. + + +*The Priest alone stands and says* + +The Almighty and merciful Lord grant you absolution and +remission of all your sins, true repentance, amendment of +life, and the grace and consolation of his Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + +*A deacon or lay person using the preceding form remains kneeling, and +substitutes "us" for "you" and "our" for "your." + + + + +*All stand* + +*Officiant* O Lord, open thou our lips. +*People* And our mouth shall show forth thy praise. + + +*Officiant and People* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as +it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + +*Except in Lent,* Alleluia. *may be added.* + + +*Then follows one of the Invitatory Psalms, Venite or Jubilate.* + + + +*One of the following Antiphons may be sung or said with the Invitatory +Psalm* + +*In Advent* + +Our King and Savior now draweth nigh: O come, let us adore him. + + +*On the Twelve Days of Christmas* + +Alleluia. Unto us a child is born: O come, let us adore him. +Alleluia. + + +*From the Epiphany through the Baptism of Christ, and on the Feasts of +the Transfiguration and Holy Cross* + +The Lord hath manifested forth his glory: O come, let us +adore him. + + +*In Lent* + +The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: O come, let us +adore him. + + +*From Easter Day until the Ascension* + +Alleluia. The Lord is risen indeed: O come, let us adore him. +Alleluia. + + +*From Ascension Day until the Day of Pentecost* + +Alleluia. Christ the Lord ascendedeth into heaven: O come, + let us adore him. Alleluia. + + +*On the Day of Pentecost* + +Alleluia. The Spirit of the Lord filleth the world: O come, +let us adore him. Alleluia. + + +*On Trinity Sunday* + +Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God: O come, let us +adore him. + + + +*On other Sundays and weekdays* + +The earth is the Lord's for he made it: O come, let us +adore him. + +*or this* + +Worship the Lord in the beauty of his holiness: O come, let us +adore him. + +*or this* + +The mercy of the Lord is everlasting: O come, let us adore him. + + +*The Alleluias in the following Antiphons are used only in Easter +Season.* + + +*On Feasts of the Incarnation* + +[Alleluia.] The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us: O come, let us +adore him. [Alleluia.] + +*On all Saints and other Major Saints' Days* + +[Alleluia.] The Lord is glorious in his saints: O come, let us +adore him. [Alleluia.] + + + =Psalm 95:1-7= + +O come, let us sing unto the Lord; * + let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation. + +Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving * + and show ourselves glad in him with psalms. + + +For the Lord is a great God, * + and a great King above all gods. + +In his hand are the corners of the earth, * + and the strength of the hills is his also. + +The sea is his, and he made it, * + and his hands prepared the dry land. + + + +O come, let us worship and fall down, * + and kneel before the Lord our Maker. + +For he is the Lord our God, * + and we are the people of his pasture + and the sheep of his hand. + + +O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; * + let the whole earth stand in awe of him. + +For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the world + and with righteousness to judge the world + and the peoples with his truth. + +*or Psalm 95, page 146.* + + + =Psalm 100= + +Be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands; * + serve the Lord with gladness + and come before his presence with a song. + +Be ye sure that the Lord he is God; * + it is he that hath made us and we ourselves; + we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. + +O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving +and into his courts with praise; * + be thankful unto him and speak good of his Name. + +For the Lord is gracious; +his mercy is everlasting; * + and his truth endureth from generation to generation. + +*In Easter Week, in place of an Invitatory Psalm, the following is sung +or said. It may also be used daily until the Day of Pentecost.* + + + + + =Pascha nostrum= + +=1 Corinthians 5:7-8; Romans 6:9-11; 1 Corinthians 15:20-22= + +Alleluia. +Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; * + therefore let us keep the feast, + +Not with old leaven, +neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, * + but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia. + + +Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; * + death hath no more dominion over him. + +For in that he died, he died unto sin once; * + but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. + +Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, * + but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia. + + +Christ is risen from the dead, * + and become the first fruits of them that slept. + +For since by man came death, * + by man came also the resurrection of the dead. + +For as in Adam all die, * + even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Alleluia. + + +*Then follows* + + + + +*At the end of the Psalms is sung or said* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + + + + +*One or two lessons, as appointed, are read, the Reader first saying* + +A Reading (Lesson) from &mdash.. + +*A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.* + + +*After each Lesson the Reader may say* + +The Word of the Lord. + +*Answer* Thanks be to God. + +*Or the Reader may say* Here endeth the Lesson (Reading). + +*Silence may be kept after each Reading. One of the following +Canticles, or one of those on pages 85-95 (Canticles 8-21), is sung or +said after each Reading. If three Lessons are used, the Lesson from the +Gospel is read after the second Canticle.* + + + A Song of Creation =Benedicite, omnia opera Domini= + +=Song of the Three Young Men, 35-65= + +=I Invocation= + +O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; * + praise him and magnify him for ever. + +O ye angels of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; * + praise him and magnify him for ever. + + +=II The Cosmic Order= + +O ye heavens, bless ye the Lord; * + O ye waters that be above the firmament, bless ye the Lord; + +O all ye powers of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; * + praise him and magnify him for ever. + + + +O ye sun and moon, bless ye the Lord; * + O ye stars of heaven, bless ye the Lord; + +O ye showers and dew, bless ye the Lord; * + praise him and magnify him for ever. + + +O ye winds of God, bless ye the Lord; * + O ye fire and heat, bless ye the Lord; + +O ye winter and summer, bless ye the Lord; * + praise him and magnify him for ever. + + +O ye dews and frosts, bless ye the Lord; * + O ye frost and cold, bless ye the Lord; + +O ye ice and snow, bless ye the Lord; * + praise him and magnify him for ever. + + +O ye nights and days, bless ye the Lord; * + O ye light and darkness, bless ye the Lord; + +O ye lightnings and clouds, bless ye the Lord; * + praise him and magnify him for ever. + + +=III The Earth and its Creatures= + +O let the earth bless the Lord; * + O ye mountains and hills, bless ye the Lord; + +O all ye green things upon the earth, bless ye the Lord; * + praise him and magnify him for ever. + + +O all ye fowls of the air, bless ye the Lord; * + O all ye beasts and cattle, bless ye the Lord; + +O ye children of men, bless ye the Lord; * + praise him and magnify him for ever. + + + +=IV The People of God= + +O ye people of God, bless ye the Lord; * + O ye priests of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; + +O ye servants of the Lord, bless ye the Lord; * + praise him and magnify him for ever. + + +O ye spirits and souls of the righteous, bless ye the Lord; * + O ye holy and humble men of heart, bless ye the Lord. + +Let us bless the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; * + praise him and magnify him for ever. + + + A Song of Praise =Benedictus es, Domine= + +=Song of the Three Young Men, 29-34= + +Blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers; * + praised and exalted above all for ever. + +Blessed are thou for the name of thy Majesty; * + praised and exalted above all for ever. + +Blessed are thou in the temple of thy holiness; * + praised and exalted above all for ever. + +Blessed are thou that beholdest the depths, +and dwellest between the Cherubim; * + praised and exalted above all for ever. + +Blessed art thou on the glorious throne of thy kingdom; * + praised and exalted above all for ever. + +Blessed are thou in the firmament of heaven; * + praised and exalted above all for ever. + +Blessed are thou, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; * + praised and exalted above all for ever. + + + The Song of Mary =Magnificat= + +=Luke 1:46-55= + +My soul doth magnify the Lord, * + and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. + +For he hath regarded * + the lowliness of his handmaiden. + +For behold from henceforth * + all generations shall call me blessed. + +For he that is mighty hath magnified me, * + and holy is his Name. + +And his mercy is on them that fear him * + throughout all generations. + +He hath showed strength with his arm; * + he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. + +He hath put down the mighty from their seat, * + and hath exalted the humble and meek. + +He hath filled the hungry with good things, * + and the rich he hath sent empty away. + +He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel, * + as he promised to our forefathers, + Abraham and his seed for ever. + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + The Song of Zechariah =Benedictus Dominus Deus= + +=Luke 1:68-79= + +Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, * + for he hath visited and redeemed his people; + +And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us * + in the house of his servant David, + +As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, * + which have been since the world began: + + + +That we should be saved from our enemies, * + and from the hand of all that hate us; + +To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers, * + and to remember his holy covenant; + +To perform the oath which he sware to our forefather Abraham, * + that he would give us, + +That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies * + might serve him without fear, + +In holiness and righteousness before him, * + all the days of our life. + +And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, * + for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord +/to prepare his ways; + +To give knowledge of salvation unto his people * + for the remission of their sins, + +Through the tender mercy of our God, * + whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us; + +To give light to them that sit in darkness +and in the shadow of death, * + and to guide our feet into the way of peace. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + The Song of Solomon =Nunc dimittis= + +=Luke 2:29-32= + +Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, * + according to thy word; + +For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, * + which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, + +To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, * + and to be the glory of thy people Israel. + + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + Glory be to God =Gloria in Excelsis= + +Glory be to God on high, + and on earth peace, good will towards mean. + +We praise thee, we bless thee, + we worship thee, + we glorify thee, + we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, + +O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. + + +O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; +O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, + that takest away the sins of the world, + have mercy upon us. + +Thou that takest away the sins of the world, + receive our prayer. + +Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, + have mercy upon us. + + +For thou only art holy, +thou only art the Lord, +thou only, O Christ, + with the Holy Ghost, + art most high in the glory of God the Father. Amen. + + + We Praise Thee =Te Deum laudamus= + +We praise thee, O God; we acknoledge thee to be the Lord. +All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting. +To thee all Angels cry aloud, +the Heavens and all the Powers therein. +To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry: + Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth; + Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory. + +The glorious company of the apostles praise thee. +The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee. +The noble army of martyrs praise thee. +The holy Church throughout all the world +/doth acknowledge thee, + the Father, of an infinite majesty, + thine adorable, true, and only Son, + also the Holy Ghost the Comforter. + + +Thou art the King of glory, O Christ. +Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. +When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man, +thou didst humble thyself to be born of a Virgin. +When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, +thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. +Thou sittest at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father. +We believe that thou shalt come to be our judge. + We therefore pray thee, help thy servants, + whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood. + Make them to be numbered with thy saints, + in glory everlasting. + + + + +*Officiant and People together, all standing* + +I believe in God, the Father almighty, + maker of heaven and earth; + +And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; + who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, + born of the Virgin Mary, + suffered under Pontius Pilate, + was crucified, dead, and buried. + He descended into hell. + + The third day he rose again from the dead. + He ascended into heaven, + and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty. + From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. + +I believe in the Holy Ghost, + the holy catholic Church, + the communion of saints, + the forgiveness of sins, + the resurrection of the body, + and the life everlasting. Amen. + +*The text of the Creed on page 96 may be used instead.* + + + + +*The People stand or kneel* + +*Officiant* The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Officiant* Let us pray. + +*Officiant and People* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be they Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, + on earth as it is in heaven. + +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our tresspasses, + as we forgive those + who trespass against us. + +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. + +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + + +*Then follows one of these sets of Suffrages* + + + +&V. O Lord, show thy mercy upon us; + +&R. And grant us thy salvation. + +&V. Endue thy ministers with righteousness; + +&R. And make thy chosen people joyful. + +&V. Give peace, O Lord, in all the world; + +&R. For only in thee can we live in safety. + +&V. Lord, keep this nation under thy care; + +&R. And guide us in the way of justice and truth. + +&V. Let thy way be known upon earth; + +&R. Thy saving health among all nations. + +&V. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten; + +&R. Nor the hope of the poor be taken away. + +&V. Create in us clean hearts, O God; + +&R. And sustain us with your Holy Spirit. + + + + +&V. O Lord, save thy people and bless thine heritage; + +&R. Govern them and lift them up for ever. + +&V. Day by day we magnify thee; + +&R. And we worship thy name for ever, world without end. + +&V. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin; + +&R. O Lord, have mercy upon us, hve mercy upon us. + +&V. O Lord, let thy mercy be upon us; + +&R. As our trust is in thee. + +&V. O Lord, in thee have I trusted; + +&R. Let me never be confounded. + + +*The Officiant then says one or more of the following Collects* + +*The Collect of the Day* + + + + +*A Collect for Sundays* + +O God, who makest us glad with the weekly remembrance of +the glorious resurrection of thy Son our Lord: Grant us this +day such blessing through our worship of thee, that the days +to come may be spent in thy favor; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*A Collect for Fridays* + +Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but +first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he +was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way +of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and +peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*A Collect for Saturdays* + +Almighty God, who after the creation of the world didst rest +from all thy works and sanctify a day of rest for all thy +creatures: Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties, +may be duly prepared for the service of thy sanctuary, and +that our rest here upon earth may be a preparation for the +eternal rest promised to thy people in heaven; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*A Collect for the Renewal of Life* + +O God, the King eternal, who dividest the day from the +night and turnest the shadow of death into the morning: +Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep +thy law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, +having done thy will with cheerfulness while it was day, we +may, when night cometh, rejoice to give thee thanks; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +*A Collect for Peace* + +O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, +in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service +is perfect freedom: Defend us, thy humble servants, in all +assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy +defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through +the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*A Collect for Grace* + +O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, +who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day: +Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that +this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of +danger; but that we, being ordered by thy governance, may +do always what is righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*A Collect for Guidance* + +O heavenly Father, in whom we live and move and have our +being: We humbly pray thee so to guide and govern us by thy +Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life +we may not forget thee, but may remember that we are ever +walking in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*Then, unless the Eucharist or a form of general intercession is to +follow, one of these prayers for mission is added* + +Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole +body of thy faithful people is governed and sanctified: +Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before +thee for all members of thy holy Church, that in their +vocation and ministry they may truly and godly serve thee; +through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + +*or the following* + + + +O God, who hast made of one blood all the peoples of the +earth, and didst send thy blessed Son to preach peace to those +who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people +everywhere may seek after thee and find thee; bring the +nations into thy fold; pour out thy Spirit upon all flesh; and +hasten the coming of thy kingdom; through the same thy +Son Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Lord Jesus Christ, who didst stretch out thine arms of love +on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come +within the reach of thy saving embrace: So clothe us in thy +Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring +those who do not know thee to the knowledge and love of +you; for the honor of thy Name. =Amen.= + +*Here may be sung a hymn or anthem.* + +*Authorized intercessions and thanksgivings may follow.* + + +*Before the close of the Office one or both of the following may be +used* + + +*The General Thanksgiving* + +*Officiant and People* + +Almighty God, Father of all mercies, +we thine unworthy servants +do give thee most humble and hearty thanks +for all thy goodness and loving-kindness +to us and to all men. +We bless thee for our creation, preservation, +and all the blessings of this life; +but above all for thine inestimable love +in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; +for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. + +And, we beseech thee, +give us that due sense of all thy mercies, +that our hearts may be unfaignedly thankful; +and that we show forth thy praise, +not only with our lips, but in our lives, +by giving up our selves to thy service, +and by walking before thee +in holiness and righteousness all our days; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, +to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit, +be all honor and glory, world without end. =Amen.= + + +*A Prayer of St. Chrysostom* + +Almighty God, who hast given us grace at this time with one +accord to make our common supplication unto thee; and +hast promised through thy well-beloved Son that when two +or three are gathered together in his Name thou wilt be in the +midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions +of thy servants as may be best for us; granting us in this +world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life +everlasting. =Amen.= + + +*Then may be said* + +Let us bless the Lord. +=Thanks be to God.= + +*From Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost "Alleluia, alleluia" may +be added to the preceding versicle and response.* + + +*The Officiant may then conclude with one of the following* + +The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and +the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. +=Amen.= =2 Corinthians 13:14= + + + +May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in +believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. =Amen.= +=Romans 15:13= + +Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely +more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from +generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus +for ever and ever. =Amen.= =Ephesians 3:20,21= + + + + + +*The Officiant begins the service with one or more of the following +sentences of Scripture, or of those on pages 37-40;* + +*or with the Service of Light on pages 109-112, and continuing with the +appointed Psalmody;* + +*or with the versicle "O God, make speed to save us" on page 63. + +Let my payer be set forth in thy sight as the incense, and let +the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice. +=Psalm 141:2= + +Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and +from the Lord Jesus Christ. =Philippians 1:2= + +O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole +earth stand in awe of him. =Psalm 96:9= + +Thine is the day, O God, thine also the night; thou hast +established the moon and the sun. Thou hast fixed all the +boundries of the earth; thou hast made summer and winter. +=Psalm 74:15,16= + +I will bless the Lord, who giveth me counsel; my heart +teacheth me, night after night. I have set the Lord always +before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not fall. +=Psalm 16:7,8= + + + +Seek him that made the Pleides and Orion, that turneth deep +darkness into the morning, and darkeneth the day into night; +that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out +upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his Name. =Amos 5:8= + +If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light +around me turn to night," darkness is not dark to thee, O Lord; +the night is as bright as the day; darkness and light to thee +are both alike. =Psalm 139:10,11= + +Jesus said, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me +shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." +=John 8:12= + + +*The following Confession of Sin may then be said; or the Office may +continue at once with "O God make speed to save us." + + + + +*The Officiant says to the people* + +Dear friends in Christ, here in the presence of Almighty God, +let us kneel in silence, and with penitent and obedient hearts +confess our sins, so that we may obtain forgiveness by his +infinite goodness and mercy. + +*or this* + +Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God. + +*Silence may be kept.* + +*Officiant and People together, all kneeling* + +Almighty and most merciful Father, +we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, +we have followed too much the devices and desires of our +/own hearts, +we have offended against thy holy laws, +we have left undone those things which we ought to +/have done, +and we have done those things which we ought not to +/have done. +But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, +spare thou those who confess their faults, +restore thou those who are penitent, +according to thy promises declared unto mankind +in Christ Jesus our Lord; +and grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, +that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, +to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen. + + +*The Priest alone stands and says* + +The Almighty and merciful Lord grant you absolution and +remission of all your sins, true repentance, amendment of +life, and the grace and consolation of his Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + +*A deacon or lay person using the preceding form remains kneeling, and +substitutes "us" for "you" and "our" for "your." + + + + +*All stand* + +*Officiant* O God, make speed to save us. + +*People* O Lord, make haste to help us. + + +*Officiant and People* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as +it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + +*Except in Lent,* Alleluia *may be added.* + + + +*The following, or some other suitable hymn, or an Invitatory Psalm, may +be sung or said* + + + =Phos hilaron= + +O gracious Light, +pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, +O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed! + +Now as we come to the setting of the sun, +and our eyes behold the vesper light, +we sing thy praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +Thou art worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, +O Son of God, O Giver of life, +and to be glorified though all the worlds. + +*then follows* + + + + +*At the end of the Psalms is sung or said* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + + +*One or two lessons, as appointed, are read, the Reader first saying* + +A Reading (Lesson) from &mdash.. + +*A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.* + + + +*After each Lesson the Reader may say* + +The Word of the Lord. + +*Answer* Thanks be to God. + +*Or the Reader may say* Here endeth the Lesson (Reading). + +*Silence may be kept after each Reading. One of the following +Canticles, or one of those on pages 47-52, or 85-95, is sung or said +after each Reading. If three Lessons are used, the Lesson from the +Gospel is read after the second Canticle.* + + + =Magnificat= +=Luke 1:46-55= + +My soul doth magnify the Lord, * + and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. + +For he hath regarded * + the lowliness of his handmaiden. + +For behold from henceforth * + all generations shall call me blessed. + +For he that is mighty hath magnified me, * + and holy is his Name. + +And his mercy is on them that fear him * + throughout all generations. + +He hath showed strength with his arm; * + he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. + +He hath put down the mighty from their seat, * + and hath exalted the humble and meek. + +He hath filled the hungry with good things, * + and the rich he hath sent empty away. + +He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel, * + as he promised to our forefathers, + Abraham and his seed for ever. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + + + =Nunc dimittis= +=Luke 2:29-32= + +Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, * + according to thy word; + +For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, * + which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, + +To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, * + and to be the glory of thy people Israel. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + + +*Officiant and People together, all standing* + +I believe in God, the Father almighty, + maker of heaven and earth; + +And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; + who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, + born of the Virgin Mary, + suffered under Pontius Pilate, + was crucified, dead, and buried. + He descended into hell. + The third day he rose again from the dead. + He ascended into heaven, + and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty. + From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. + +I believe in the Holy Ghost, + the holy catholic Church, + the communion of saints, + the forgiveness of sins, + the resurrection of the body, + and the life everlasting. Amen. + +*The text of the Creed on page 96 may be used instead.* + + + + + + +*The People stand or kneel* + +*Officiant* The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Officiant* Let us pray. + +*Officiant and People* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be they Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, + on earth as it is in heaven. + +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our tresspasses, + as we forgive those + who trespass against us. + +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. + +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + + +*Then follows one of these sets of Suffrages* + + + + +&V. O Lord, show thy mercy upon us; + +&R. And grant us thy salvation. + +&V. Endue thy ministers with righteousness; + +&R. And make thy chosen people joyful. + +&V. Give peace, O Lord, in all the world; + +&R. For only in thee can we live in safety. + +&V. Lord, keep this nation under thy care; + +&R. And guide us in the way of justice and truth. + + + +&V. Let thy way be known upon earth; + +&R. Thy saving health among all nations. + +&V. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten; + +&R. Nor the hope of the poor be taken away. + +&V. Create in us clean hearts, O God; + +&R. And sustain us with your Holy Spirit. + + + + +That this evening may be holy, good, and peaceful, +=We entreat thee, O Lord.= + +That thy holy angels may lead us in paths of peace and +goodwill, +=We entreat thee, O Lord.= + +That we may be pardoned and forgiven for our sins +and offenses, +=We entreat thee, O Lord.= + +That there may be peace to thy Church and to the whole +world, +=We entreat thee, O Lord.= + +That we may depart this life in thy faith and fear, and +not be condemned before the great judgment seat +of Christ, +=We entreat thee, O Lord.= + +That we may be bound together by thy Holy Spirit in +the communion of [&mdash. and] all thy saints, +entrusting one another and all our life to Christ, +=We entreat thee, O Lord.= + + +*The Officiant then says one or more of the following Collects* + +*The Collect of the Day* + + + +*A Collect for Sundays* + +Lord God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ triumphed +over the powers of death and prepared for us our place in the +new Jerusalem: Grant that we, who have this day given +thanks for his resurrection, may praise thee in that City of +which he is the light; and where he liveth and reigneth for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + + +*A Collect for Fridays* + +O Lord Jesus Christ, who by thy death didst take away the +sting of death: Grant unto us thy servants so to follow in +faith where thou hast led the way, that we may at length fall +asleep peacefully in thee, and awake up after thy likeness; for +thy tender mercies' sake. =Amen.= + + +*A Collect for Saturdays* + +O God, the source of eternal light: Shed forth thine unending +day upon us who watch for thee, that our lips may praise thee, +our lives may bless thee, and our worship on the morrow may +give thee glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*A Collect for Peace* + +O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and +all just works do proceed: Give unto thy servants that peace +which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to +obey thy commandments, and also that by thee, we, being +defended from the fear of all enemies, may pass our time in +rest and quietness; through the merits of Jesus Christ our +Savior. =Amen.= + + + + +*A Collect for Aid against Perils* + +Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy +great mercy defend us from all perils + + + + + +*Then, unless the Eucharist or a form of general intercession is to +follow, one of these prayers for mission is added* + + + +*Here may be sung a hymn or anthem.* + +*Authorized intercessions and thanksgivings may follow.* + + +*Before the close of the Office one or both of the following may be +used* + + +*The General Thanksgiving* + +*Officiant and People* + +Almighty God, Father of all mercies, +we thine unworthy servants +do give thee most humble and hearty thanks +for all thy goodness and loving-kindness +to us and to all men. +We bless thee for our creation, preservation, +and all the blessings of this life; +but above all for thine inestimable love +in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; +for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. +And, we beseech thee, +give us that due sense of all thy mercies, +that our hearts may be unfaignedly thankful; + +and that we show forth thy praise, +not only with our lips, but in our lives, +by giving up our selves to thy service, +and by walking before thee +in holiness and righteousness all our days; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, +to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit, +be all honor and glory, world without end. =Amen.= + + +*A Prayer of St. Chrysostom* + +Almighty God, who hast given us grace at this time with one +accord to make our common supplication unto thee; and +hast promised through thy well-beloved Son that when two +or three are gathered together in his Name thou wilt be in the +midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions +of thy servants as may be best for us; granting us in this +world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life +everlasting. =Amen.= + + +*Then may be said* + +Let us bless the Lord. +=Thanks be to God.= + +*From Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost "Alleluia, alleluia" may +be added to the preceding versicle and response.* + + +*The Officiant may then conclude with one of the following* + +The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and +the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. +=Amen.= =2 Corinthians 13:14= + + + +May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in +believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. =Amen.= +=Romans 15:13= + +Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely +more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from +generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus +for ever and ever. =Amen.= =Ephesians 3:20,21= + + + +*Concerning the Service* + +*In the Daily Office, the term "Officiant" is used to denote the person, +clerical or lay, who leads the Office.* + +*It is appropriate that other persons be assigned to read the Lessons, +and to lead other parts of the service not assigned to the officiant. +The bishop, when present, appropriately concludes the Office with a +blessing.* + +*At celebrations of the Holy Eucharist, the Order for Morning or Evening +Prayer may be used in place of all that precedes the Offeratory.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 141.* + + + + + + + +*The Officiant begins the service with one or more of these sentences of +Scripture, or with the versicle "Lord, open our lips" on page 80.* + + +=Advent= + +Watch, for you do not know when the master of the house +will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or +in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. +=Mark 13:35, 36= + +In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight +in the desert a highway for our God. =Isaiah 40:3= + +The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see +it together. =Isaiah 40:5= + + +=Christmas= + +Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come +to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of +David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. =Luke 2:10, 11= + +Behold, the dwelling of God is with mankind. He will dwell +with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will +be with them, and be their God. =Revelation 21:3= + + + + +=Epiphany= + +Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness +of your rising. =Isaiah 60:3= + +I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may +reach to the end of the earth. =Isaiah 49:6b= + +From the rising of the sun to its setting my Name shall be great +among the nations, and in every place incense shall be offered +to my Name, and a pure offering; for my Name shall be great +among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. =Malachi 1:11= + + +=Lent= + +If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth +is not in us, but if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful +and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all +unrighteousness. =1 John 1:8, 9= + +Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord +your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and +abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil. =Joel 2:13= + +I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, +"Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am +no longer worthy to be called your son." =Luke 15:18, 19= + +To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, because +we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice +of the Lord our God by following his laws which he set +before us. =Daniel 9:9, 10= + +Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny +himself and take up his cross and follow me." =Mark 8:34= + + +=Holy Week= + +All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one + +to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of +us all. =Isaiah 53:6= + +Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if +there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon +me, whom the Lord has afflicted. =Lamentations 1:12= + + +=Easter Season, including Ascension Day +and the Day of Pentecost= + +Alleluia! Christ is risen. +=The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!= + +On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in +it. =Psalm 118:24= + +Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord +Jesus Christ. =1 Corinthians 15:57= + +If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that +are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. +=Colossians 3:1= + +Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a +copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in +the presence of God on our behalf. =Hebrews 9:24= + +You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon +you; and you shall be my witness in Jerusalem, and in all +Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. =Acts 1:8= + + +=Trinity Sunday= + +Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, +and is to come! =Revelation 4:8= + + +=All Saints and other Major Saints' Days= + +We give thanks to the Father, who has made us worthy to +share in the inheritance of the saints in light. =Colossians 1:12= + + + +You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow +citizens with the saints and members of the household of +God. =Ephesians 2:19= + +Their sound has gone out into all lands, and their message to +the ends of the world. =Psalm 19:4= + + +=Occasions of Thanksgiving= + +Give thanks to the Lord, and call upon his Name; make +known his deeds among the peoples. =Psalm 105:1= + + +=At any Time= + +Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord +Jesus Christ. =Philippians 1:2= + +I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of +the Lord." =Psalm 122:1= + +Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart +be acceptable in you sight, O Lord, my strength and my +redeemer. =Psalm 19:14= + +Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, +and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. +=Psalm 43:3= + +The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence +before him. =Habakkuk 2:20= + +The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers +will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the +Father seeks to worship him. =John 4:23= + +Thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, +whose name is Holy, "I dwell in the high and holy place and +also with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to +revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the +contrite." =Isaiah 57:15= + + + +*The following Confession of Sin may then be said; or the Office may +continue at once with "Lord, open our lips." + + + + +*The Officiant says to the people* + +Dearly beloved, we have come together in the presence of +Almighty God our heavenly Father, to set forth his praise, to +hear his holy Word, and to ask, for ourselves and on behalf +of others, those things that are necessary for our life and our +salvation. And so that we may prepare ourselves in heart and +mind to worship him, let us kneel in silence, and with +penitent and obedient hearts confess our sins, that we may +obtain forgiveness by his infinite goodness and mercy. + +*or this* + +Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor. + +*Silence may be kept.* + +*Officiant and People together, all kneeling* + +Most merciful God, +we confess that we have sinned against you +in thought, word, and deed, +by what we have done, +and by what we have left undone. +We have not loved you with our whole heart; +we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. +We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. +For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, +have mercy on us and forgive us; +that we may delight in your will, +and walk in your ways, +to the glory of your Name. Amen. + + + +*The Priest stands and says* + +Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins +through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all +goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in +eternal life. =Amen.= + +*A deacon or lay person using the preceding form remains kneeling, and +substitutes "us" for "you" and "our" for "your." + + + + +*All stand* + +*Officiant* Lord, open our lips. +*People* And our mouth shall proclaim your praise. + +*Officiant and People* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as +it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + +*Except in Lent, add* Alleluia. + + +*Then follows one of the Invitatory Psalms, Venite or Jubilate.* + +*One of the following Antiphons may be sung or said with the Invitatory +Psalm* + + +*In Advent* + +Our King and Savior now draws near: Come let us adore him. + + +*On the Twelve Days of Christmas* + +Alleluia. To us a child is born: Come let us adore him. Alleluia. + + + +*From the Epiphany through the Baptism of Christ, and on the Feasts of +the Transfiguration and Holy Cross* + +The Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him. + + +*In Lent* + +The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us +adore him. + + +*From Easter Day until the Ascension* + +Alleluia. The Lord is risen indeed: Come let us adore him. +Alleluia. + + +*From Ascension Day until the Day of Pentecost* + +Alleluia. Christ has ascended into heaven: Come let us adore him. +Alleluia. + + +*On the Day of Pentecost* + +Alleluia. The Spirit of the Lord renews the face of the earth: +Come let us adore him. Alleluia. + + +*On Trinity Sunday* + +Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God: Come let us adore him. + + +*On other Sundays and weekdays* + +The earth is the Lord's for he made it: Come let us adore him. + +*or this* + +Worship the Lord in the beauty of his holiness: Come let us +adore him. + +*or this* + +The mercy of the Lord is everlasting: Come let us adore him. + + + +*The Alleluias in the following Antiphons are used only in Easter +Season.* + + +*On Feasts of the Incarnation* + +[Alleluia] The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us: +Come let us adore him. [Alleluia] + + +*On all Saints and other Major Saints' Days* + +[Alleluia.] The Lord is glorious in his saints: Come let us +adore him. [Alleluia.] + + + =Psalm 95:1-7= + +Come let us sing to the Lord; * + let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation. + +Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving * + and raise a loud shout to him with psalms. + + +For the Lord is a great God, * + and a great King above all gods. + +In his hand are the caverns of the earth, * + and the heights of the hills are his also. + +The sea is his, for he made it, * + and his hands have molded the dry land. + + +Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, * + and kneel before the Lord our Maker. + +For he is our God, +and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. * + Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice! + +*or Psalm 95, page 724.* + + + =Psalm 100= + +Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands; * + serve the Lord with gladness + and come before his presence with song. + + + +Know this: The Lord himself is God; * + he himself has made us, and we are his; + we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. + +Enter his gates with thanksgiving; +go into his courts with praise; * + give thanks to him and call upon his Name. + +For the Lord is good; +his mercy is everlasting; * + and his faithfulness endures from age to age. + +*In Easter Week, in place of an Invitatory Psalm, the following is sung +or said. It may also be used daily until the Day of Pentecost.* + + + =Pascha nostrum= + +=1 Corinthians 5:7-8; Romans 6:9-11; 1 Corinthians 15:20-22= + +Alleluia. +Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us; * + therfore let us keep the feast, + +Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, * + but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Alleluia. + + +Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; * + death no longer has dominion over him. + +The death that he died, he died to sin, once for all; * + but the life he lives, he lives to God. + +So also consider yourselves dead to sin, * + and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Alleluia. + + +Christ has been raised from the dead, * + the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. + +For since by a man came death, * + by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. + +For as in Adam all die, * + so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Alleluia. + + + +*Then follows* + + + +*At the end of the Psalms is sung or said* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + + +*One or two lessons, as appointed, are read, the Reader first saying + +A Reading (Lesson) from &mdash.. + +*A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.* + + +*After each Lesson the Reader may say* + +The Word of the Lord. + +*Answer* Thanks be to God. + +*Or the Reader may say* Here ends the Lesson (Reading). + + +*silence may be kept after each Reading. One of the following +Canticles, or one of those on pages 47-52 (Canticles 1-7), is sung or +said after each Reading. If three lessons are used, the Lesson from the +Gospel is read after the second Canticle.* + + + + +<8 The Song of Moses> =Cantemus Domino= + +=Exodus 15:1-6, 11-13, 17-18= + +*Especially suitable for use in Easter Season* + +I will sing to the Lord, for he is lofty and uplifted; * + the horse and its rider has he hurled into the sea. + +The Lord is my strength and my refuge; * + the Lord has become my Savior. + +This is my God and I will praise him, * + the God of my people and I will exalt him. + +The Lord is a mighty warrior; * + Yahweh is his Name. + +The chariots of Pharoah and his army has he hurled into the sea; * + the finest of those who bear armor have been +/drowned in the Red Sea. + +The fathomless deep has overwhelmed them; * + they sank into the depths like a stone. + +Your right hand, O Lord, is glorious in might; * + your right hand, O Lord, has overthrown the enemy. + +Who can be compared with you, O Lord, among the gods? * + who is like you, glorious in holiness, + awesome in renown, and worker of wonders? + +You stretched forth your right hand; * + the earth swallowed them up. + +With your constant love you led the people you redeemed; * + with your might you brought them in safety to +/your holy dwelling. + +You will bring them in and plant them * + on the mount of your possession, + +The resting-place you have made for yourself, O Lord, * + the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hand has established. + +The Lord shall reign * + for ever and for ever. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + + + The First Song of Isaiah =Ecce, Deus= + +=Isaiah 12:2-6= + +Surely, it is God who saves me; * + I will trust in him and not be afraid. + +For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense, * + and he will be my Savior. + +Therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing * + from the springs of salvation. + +And on that day you shall say, * + Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his Name; + +Make his deeds known among the peoples; * + see that they remember that his Name is exalted. + +Sing praises of the Lord, for he has done great things, * + and this is known in all the world. + +Cry aloud, inhabitants of Zion, ring out your joy, * + for the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + The Second Song of Isaiah =Quaerite Dominum= + +=Isaiah 55:6-11= + +Seek the Lord while he wills to be found; * + call upon him when he draws near. + +Let the wicked forsake their ways * + and the evil ones their thoughts; + +And let them turn to the Lord, and he will have compassion, * + and to our God, for he will richly pardon. + +For my thoughts are not your thoughts, * + nor your ways my ways, says the Lord. + +For as the heavens are higher than the earth, * + so are my ways higher than your ways, + and my thoughts than your thoughts. + + + +For as rain and snow fall from the heavens * + and return not again, but water the earth, + +Bringing forth life and giving growth, * + seed for sowing and bread for eating, + +So is my word that goes forth from my mouth; * + it will not return to me empty; + +But it will accomplish that which I have purposed, * + and prosper in that for which I sent it. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + The Third Song of Isaiah =Surge, illuminare= + +=Isaiah 60:1-3, 11a, 14c, 18-19= + +Arise, shine, for your light has come, * + and the glory of the Lord has dawned upon you. + +For behold, darkness covers the land; * + deep gloom enshrouds the peoples. + +But over you the Lord will rise, * + and his glory will appear upon you. + +Nations will stream to your light, * + and kings to the brightness of your dawning. + +Your gates will always be open; * + by day or night they will never be shut. + +They will call you, The City of the Lord, * + The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. + +Violence will no more be heard in your land, * + ruin or destruction within your borders. + +You will call your walls, Salvation, * + and all your portals, Praise. + +The sun will no more be your light by day; * + by night you will not need the brightness of the moon. + + + +The Lord will be your everlasting light, * + and your God will be your glory. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + A Song of Creation =Benedicite, omnia opera Domini= + +=Song of the Three Young Men, 35-65= + +*One or more sections of this Canticle may be used. Whatever the +selection, it begins with the Invocation and concludes with the +Doxology.* + +=Invocation= + +Glorify the Lord, all you works of the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + +In the firmament of his power, glorify the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + + +=I The Cosmic Order= + +Glorify the Lord, you angels and all powers of the Lord, * + O heavens and all waters above the heavens. + +Sun and moon and stars of the sky, glorify the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + + +Glorify the Lord, every shower of rain and fall of dew, * + all winds and fire and heat. + +Winter and Summer, glorify the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + + +Glorify the Lord, O chill and cold, * + drops of dew and flakes of snow> + +Frost and cold, ice and sleet, glorify the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + + +Glorify the Lord, O nights and days, * + O shining light and enfolding dark. + +Storm clouds and thunderbolts, glorify the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + + +=II The Earth and its Creatures= + +Let the earth glorify the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + +Glorify the Lord, O mountains and hills, +and all that grows upon the earth, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + + +Glorify the Lord, O springs of water, seas, and streams, * + O whales and all that move in the waters. + +All birds of the air, glorify the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + + +Glorify the Lord, O beasts of the wild, * + and all you flocks and herds. + +O men and women everywhere, glorify the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + + +=III The People of God= + +Let the people of God glorify the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + +Glorify the Lord, O priests and servants of the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + + +Glorify the Lord, O spirits and souls of the righteous, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + +You that are holy and humble of heart, glorify the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + + + +=Doxology= + +Let us glorify the Lord: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + +In the firmament of his power, glorify the Lord, * + praise him and highly exalt him for ever. + + + =Benedictus es, Domine= + +=Song of the Three Young Men, 29-34= + +Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers; * + you are worthy of praise; glory to you. + +Glory to you for the radiance of you holy Name; * + we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever. + + +Glory to you in the splendor of you temple; * + on the throne of your majesty, glory to you. + +Glory to you, seated between the Cherubim; * + we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever. + + +Glory to you, beholding the depths; * + in the high vault of heaven, glory to you. + +Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; * + we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever. + + + A Song of Penitence =Kyrie Pantokrator= + +=Prayer of Manasseh 1-2, 4, 6-7, 11-15= + +*Especially suitable in Lent, and on other penitential occasions* + +O Lord and Ruler of the hosts of heaven, * + God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, + and of all their righteous offspring: + +You made the heavens and the earth, * + with all their vast array. + + + +All things quake with fear at your presence; * + they tremble because of your power. + +But your merciful promise is beyond all measure; * + it surpasses all that our minds can fathom. + +O Lord, you are full of compassion, * + long-suffering, and abounding in mercy. + +You hold back your hand; * + you do not punish as we deserve. + +In your great goodness, Lord, +you have promised forgiveness to sinners, * + that they may repent of their sin and be saved. + +And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart, * + and make my appeal, sure of your gracious goodness. + +I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, * + and I know my wickedness only too well. + +Therefore I make this prayer to you: * + Forgive me, Lord, forgive me. + +Do not let me perish in my sin, * + nor condemn me to the depths of the earth. + +For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent, * + and in me you will show forth your goodness. + +Unworthy as I am, you will save me, +in accordance with your great mercy, * + and I will praise you without ceasing all the days of my life. + +For all the powers of heaven sing your praises, * + and yours is the glory to ages of ages. Amen. + + + The Song of Mary =Magnificat= + +=Luke 1:46-55= + +My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, +my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; * + for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. + + + +From this day all generations will call me blessed: * + the Almighty has done great things for me, + and holy is his Name. + +He has mercy on those who fear him * + in every generation. + +He has shown the strength of his arm, * + he has scattered the proud in their conceit. + +He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * + and has lifted up the lowly. + +He has filled the hungry with good things, * + and the rich he has sent away empty. + +He has come to the help of his servant Israel, * + for he has remembered his promise of mercy, + +The promise he made to our fathers, * + to Abraham and his children for ever. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + The Song of Zechariah =Benedictus Dominus Deus= + +=Luke 1: 68-79= + +Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; * + he has come to his people and set them free. + +He has raised up for us a mighty savior, * + born of the house of his servant David. + +Through his holy prophets he promised of old, +that he would save us from our enemies, * + from the hands of all who hate us. + +He promised to show mercy to our fathers * + and to remember his holy covenant. + +This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, * + to set us free from the hands of our enemies, + +Free to worship him without fear, * + holy and righteous in his sight + all the days of our life. + + + +You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, * + for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, + +To give his people knowledge of salvation * + by the forgiveness of their sins. + +In the tender compassion of our God * + the dawn from on high shall break upon us, + +To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, * +and to guide our feet into the way of peace. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + The Song of Simeon =Nunc Dimittis= + +=Luke 2:29-32= + +Lord, you now have set your servant free * + to go in peace as you have promised; + +For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, * + whom you have prepared for all the world to see: + +A Light to enlighten the nations, * + and the glory of your people Israel. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + A Song to the Lamb =Dignus es= + +=Revelation 4:11, 5:9-10, 13= + +Splendor and honor and kingly power * + are yours by right, O Lord our God, + +For you created everything that is, * + and by your will they were created and have their being; + + + +And yours by right, O Lamb that was slain, * + for with your blood you have redeemed for God, + +From every family, language, people, and nation, * + a kingdom of priests to serve our God. + + +And so, to him who sits upon the throne, * + and to Christ the Lamb, + +Be worship and praise, dominion and splendor, * + for ever and for evermore. + + + The Song of the Redeemed =Magna et mirabilia= + +=Revelation 15:3-4= + +O ruler of the universe, Lord God, +great deeds are they that you have done, * + surpassing human understanding. + +Your ways are ways of righteousness and truth, * + O King of all the ages. + + +Who can fail to do you homage, Lord, +and sing the praises of your Name? * + for you only are the Holy One. + +All nations will draw near and fall down before you, * + because your just and holy works have been revealed. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + Glory to God =Gloria in excelsis= + +Glory to God in the highest, + and peace to his people on earth. + +Lord God, heavenly King, +almighty God and Father, + + we worship you, we give you thanks, + we praise you for your glory. + +Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, +Lord God, Lamb of God, +you take away the sin of the world: + have mercy on us; + +you are seated at the right hand of the Father: + receive our prayer. + +For you alone are the Holy One, +you alone are the Lord, +you alone are the Most High, + Jesus Christ, + with the Holy Spirit, + in the glory of God the Father. Amen. + + + You are God =Te Deum laudamus= + +You are God: we praise you; +You are the Lord; we acclaim you; +You are the eternal Father: +All creation worships you. +To you all angels, all the powers of heaven, +Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise: + Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, + heaven and earth are full of your glory. + +The glorious company of apostles praise you. +The noble fellowship of prophets praise you. +The white-robed army of martyrs praise you. +Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you; + Father, of majesty unbounded, + your true and only Son, worthy of all worship, + and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide. + + + +You, Christ, are the king of glory, +the eternal Son of the Father. +When you became man to set us free +you did not shun the Virgin's womb. +You overcame the sting of death +and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. +You are seated at God's right hand in glory. +We believe that you will come and be our judge. + Come then, Lord, and help your people, + bought with the price of your own blood, + and bring us with your saints + to glory everlasting. + + + +*Officiant and People together, all standing* + +I believe in God, the Father almighty, + creator of heaven and earth. + +I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord. + He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit +/and born of the Virgin Mary. + He suffered under Pontius Pilate, +/was crucified, died, and was buried. + He descended to the dead. + On the third day he rose again. + He ascended into heaven, +/and is seated at the right hand of the Father. + He will come again to judge the living and the dead. + +I believe in the Holy Spirit, + the holy catholic Church, + the communion of saints, + the forgiveness of sins, + the resurrection of the body, + and the life everlasting. Amen. + + + + + +*The People stand or kneel* + +*Officiant* The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Officiant* Let us pray. + +*Officiant and People* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be they Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, +/on earth as it is in heaven. + +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those +/who trespass against us. + +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. + +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + + + +Our Father in heaven, + hallowed be you Name, + your kingdom come, + your will be done, +/on earth as in heaven. + +Give us today our daily bread. +Forgive us our sins + as we forgive those +/who sin against us. + +Save us from the time of trial, + and deliver us from evil. + +For the kingdom, the power, + and the glory are yours, + now and for ever. Amen. + +*Then follows one of these sets of Suffrages* + + + +&V. Show us your mercy, O Lord; + +&R. And grant us your salvation. + +&V. Clothe your ministers with righteousness; + +&R. Let your people sing with joy. + +&V. Give peace, O Lord, in all the world; + +&R. For only in you can we live in safety. + + + +&V. Lord, keep this nation under your care; + +&R. And guide us in the way of justice and truth. + +&V. Let your way be known upon earth; + +&R. Your saving health among all nations. + +&V. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten; + +&R. Nor the hope of the poor be taken away. + +&V. Create in us clean hearts, O God; + +&R. And sustain us by your Holy Spirit. + + + +&V. Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance; + +&R. Govern and uphold them, now and always. + +&V. Day by day we bless you; + +&R. We praise your name for ever. + +&V. Lord, keep us from all sin today; + +&R. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy. + +&V. Lord, show us your love and mercy; + +&R. For we put our trust in you. + +&V. In you, Lord, is our hope; + +&R. And we shall never hope in vain. + +*The Officiant then says one or more of the following Collects* + +*The Collect of the Day* + +*A Collect for Sundays* + +O God, you make us glad with the weekly remembrance of +the glorious resurrection of you Son our Lord: Give us this +day such blessing through our worship of you, that the week +to come may be spent in your favor; through Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + + + +*A Collect for Fridays* + +Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but +first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he +was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way +of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and +peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. =Amen.= + +*A Collect for Saturdays* + +Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested +from all you works and sanctified a day of rest for all your +creatures: Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties, +may be duly prepared for the service of your sanctuary, and +that our rest here upon earth may be a preparation for the +eternal rest promised to your people in heaven; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*A Collect for the Renewal of Life* + +O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the +night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive +far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your +law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having +done your will with cheerfulness during the day, we may, +when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*A Collect for Peace* + +O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know +you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend +us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that +we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of +any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord, +=Amen.= + + + +*A Collect for Grace* + +Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have +brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your +mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome +by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of +your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*A Collect for Guidance* + +Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our +being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by +your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our +life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are +ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + +*Then, unless the Eucharist or a form of general intercession is to +follow, one of these prayer for mission is added* + +Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole +body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: +Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before +your for all members of you holy Church, that in their +vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; +through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the +earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those +who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people +everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the +nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh, +and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*or the following* + + + +Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on +the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within +the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit +that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those +who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for +the honor of your Name. =Amen.= + +*Here may be sung a hymn or anthem.* + +*Authorized intercessions and thanksgivings may follow.* + +*Before the close of the Office one or both of the following may be +used* + +*The General Thanksgiving* + +*Officiant and People* + +Almighty God, Father of all mercies, +we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks +for all your goodness and loving-kindness +to us and to all whom you have made. +We bless you for our creation, preservation, +and all the blessings of this life; +but above all for your immeasurable love +in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; +for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. +And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, +that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, +not only with our lips, but in our lives, +by giving up our selves to your service, +and by walking before you +in holiness and righteousness all our days; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, +to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, +be honor and glory throughout all ages. =Amen.= + + + +*A Prayer of St. Chrysostom* + +Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one +accord to make our common supplication to you; and you +have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two +or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the +midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions +as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of +your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Then may be said* + +Let us bless the Lord. +=Thanks be to God.= + +*From Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost "Alleluia, alleluia" may +be added to the preceding versicle and response.* + +*The Officiant may then conclude with one of the following* + +The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and +the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. +=Amen.= =2 Corinthians 13:14= + +May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in +believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. =Amen.= +=Romans 15:13= + +Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely +more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from +generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus +for ever and ever. =Amen.= =Ephesians 3:20,21= + + + + + + + +*Officiant* O God, make speed to save us. + +*People* O Lord, make haste to help us. + +*Officiant and People* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as +it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + +*Except in Lent, add* Alleluia. + +*A suitable hymn may be sung.* + +*One or more of the following Psalms is sung or said. Other suitable +selections include Psalms 19,67, one or more sections of Psalm 119, or a +selection from Psalms 120 through 133.* + + + + +105 Your word is a lantern to my feet * + and a light upon my path. + +106 I have sworn and am determined * + to keep your righteous judgments. + + + +107 I am deeply troubled; * + preserve my life, O Lord, according to your word. + +108 Accept, O LORD, the willing tribute of my lips, * + and teach me your judgments. + +109 My life is always in my hand, * + yet I do not forget your law. + +110 The wicked have set a trap for me, * + but I have not strayed from your commandments. + +111 Your decrees are my inheritance for ever; * + truly, they are the joy of my heart. + +112 I have applied my heart to fulfill your statues * + for ever and to the end. + + + =Levavi oculos= + +1 I lift up my eyes to the hills; * + from where is my help to come? + +2 My help comes from the LORD, * + the maker of heaven and earth. + +3 He will not let your foot be moved * + and he who watches over you will not fall asleep. + +4 Behold, he who keeps watch over Israel * + shall neither slumber nor sleep; + +5 The LORD himself watches over you; * + the LORD is your shade at your right hand, + +6 So that the sun shall not strike you by day, * + nor the moon by night. + +7 The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; * + it is he who shall keep you safe. + + + +8 The LORD shall watch over your going out and your coming in, * + from this time forth for evermore. + + + =In convertendo= + +1 When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, * + then were we like those who dream. + +2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, * + and our tongue with shouts of joy. + +3 Then they said among the nations, * + "The LORD has done great things for them." + +4 The LORD has done great things for us, * + and we are glad indeed. + +5 Restore our fortunes, O LORD, * + like the watercourses of the Negev. + +6 Those who sowed with tears * + will reap with songs of joy. + +7 Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, * + will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves. + + +*At the end of the Psalms is sung or said* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + +*One of the following, or some other suitable passage of Scripture, is +read* + +The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the +Holy Spirit that has been given to us. =Romans 5:5= + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or the following* + + + +If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has passed +away, behold the new has come. All this is from God, who +through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry +of reconciliation. =2 Corinthians 5:17-18= + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or this* + +From the rising of the sun to its setting my Name shall be +great among the nations, and in every place incense shall be +offered to my Name, and a pure offering; for my Name shall be +great among the nations, says the Lord of Hosts. =Malachi 1:11= + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*A meditation, silent or spoken, may follow.* + + +*The Officiant then begins the Prayers* + +Lord, have mercy. + +=Christ, have mercy.= + +Lord, have mercy. + +*Officiant and People* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be they Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, +/on earth as it is in heaven. + +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those +/who trespass against us. + +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. + +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + + + +Our Father in heaven, + hallowed be you Name, + your kingdom come, + your will be done, +/on earth as in heaven. + +Give us today our daily bread. +Forgive us our sins + as we forgive those +/who sin against us. + +Save us from the time of trial, + and deliver us from evil. + +For the kingdom, the power, + and the glory are yours, + now and for ever. Amen. + + + + +*Officiant* Lord, hear our prayer; + +*People* And let our cry come to you. + +*Officiant* Let us pray. + +*The Officiant then says one of the following Collect. If desired, the +Collect of the Day may be used.* + +Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit into our hearts, to +direct and rule us according to your will, to comfort us in all +our afflictions, to defend us from all error, and to lead us into +all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +Blessed Savior, at this hour you hung upon the cross, +stretching out your loving arms: Grant that all the peoples of +the earth may look to you and be saved; for your tender +mercies' sake. =Amen.= + +Almighty Savior, who at noonday called your servant Saint +Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles: We pray you to illumine +the world with the radiance of your glory, that all nations +may come and worship you; for you live and reign for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles, "Peace I give to +you; my peace I leave with you:" Regard not our sins, +but the faith of your Church, and give to us the peace and +unity of that heavenly city, where with the Father and the +Holy Spirit you live and reign, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Free intercessions may be offered.* + + +*The service concludes as follows* + +*Officiant* Let us bless the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + + + + + + +*This Order provides a form of evening service or vespers for use on +suitable occasions in the late afternoon or evening. It may be used as +a complete rite in place of Evening Prayer, or as the introduction to +Evening Prayer or some other service, or as the prelude to an evening +meal or other activity. It is appropriate also for use in private +houses.* + +*Any part or parts of this service may be lead by lay persons. A priest +or deacon, when presiding, should read the Prayer for Light, and the +Blessing or Dismissal at the end. The bishop, when present, should give +the Blessing.* + +*This order is not appropriate for use on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday +in Holy Week, or on Good Friday. Easter Eve has its own form for the +Lighting of the Paschal Candle.* + +*For the Short Lesson at the beginning of the service, any one of the +following is also appropriate, especially for the seasons suggested:* + + + +Isaiah 60:19-20 (Advent) + +Luke 12:35-37 (Advent) + +John 1:1-5 (Christmas) + +Isaiah 60:1-3 (Epiphany) + +1 John 1:5-7 (Lent) + +John 12:35-36a (Lent) + + + +Revelation 21:10,22-24 (Easter) + +Psalm 36:5-9 (Ascension) + +Joel 2:28-30 (Whitsunday) + +Colossians 1:9,11-14 (Saints' Days) + +1 Peter 2:9 (Saints' Days) + +Revelation 22:1,4-5 (Saints' Days) + +*Any of the prayers in contemporary language may be adapted to +traditional language by changing the pronouns and the corresponding +verbs.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 142.* + + + + + + + +*The church is dark, or partially so, when the service is to begin.* + + +*All stand, and the Officiant greets the people with these words.* + +Light and Peace, in Jesus Christ our Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + + +*In place of the above, from Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost* + +*Officiant* Alleluia. Christ is risen. +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + + +*In Lent and on other penitential occasions* + +*Officiant* Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins; + +*People* His mercy endures for ever. + + +*One of the following, or some other Short Lesson of Scripture +appropriate to the occasion or to the season, may then be read* + +Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city built on a +hill cannot be hid. No one lights a lamp to put it under a +bucket, but on a lamp-stand where it gives light for everyone +in the house. And you, like the lamp, must shed light among +your fellow men, so that they may see the deed you do, and +give glory to your Father in heaven." =Matthew 5:14-16= + + + +It is not ourselves that we proclaim; we proclaim Christ +Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants, for Jesus' sake. +For the same God who said, "Out of darkness let light shine," +has caused his light to shine within us, to give the light of +revelation--the revelation of the glory of God in the face of +Jesus Christ. =2 Corinthians 4:5-6= + +If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light +around me turn to night," darkness is not dark to you, O +Lord; the night is as bright as the day; darkness and light to +you are both alike. =Psalm 139:10-11= + + +*The Officiant then says the Prayer for Light, using any one of the +following for some other suitable prayer, first saying* + +Let us pray. + +Almighty God, we give you thanks for surrounding us, as +daylight fades, with the brightness of the vesper light; and we +implore you of your great mercy that, as you enfold us with +the radiance of this light, so you would shine into our hearts +the brightness of your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + +Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it +may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and +that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, +where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + +O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the +evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have +made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of +our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be +the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + + + +Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord; and by thy +great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this +night; for the love of thy only Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. +=Amen.= + + +*Advent* + +*Collect for the First Sunday of Advent* + + +*Christmas, Epiphany, and other Feasts of the Incarnation* + +*Collect for the First Sunday after Christmas* + + +*Lent and other times of penitence* + +Almighty and most merciful God, kindle within us the fire of +love, that by its cleansing flame we may be purged of all our +sins and made worthy to worship you in spirit and in truth; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*Easter Season* + +Eternal God, who led your ancient people into freedom by a +pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night: Grant that +we who walk in the light of your presence may rejoice in the +liberty of the children of God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + +*Festivals of Saints* + +Lord Christ, your saints have been the lights of the world +in every generation: Grant that we who follow in their +footsteps may be made worthy to enter with them into that +heavenly country where you live and reign for ever and ever. +=Amen.= + + + + +*The candles at the Altar are now lighted, as are other candles and +lamps as may be convenient.* + +*During the candle-lighting, an appropriate anthem or psalm may be +sung, or silence kept.* + + +*The following hymn, or a metrical version of it, or some other hymn, is +then sung* + + + =Phos hilaron= + +O gracious light, +pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, +O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed! + +Now as we come to the setting of the sun, +and our eyes behold the vesper light, +we sing your praised, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, +O Son of God, O Giver of Life, +and to be glorified through all the worlds. + + +*The service may then continue in any of the following ways:* + +*With Evening Prayer, beginning with the Psalms; or with some other +Office or Devotion;* + +*With the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, beginning with the +Salutation and Collect of the Day;* + +*Or, it may be followed by a meal or other activity, in which case Phos +hilaron may be followed by the Lord's Prayer and a grace or blessing;* + +*Or, it may continue as a complete evening Office with the following +elements:* + + *Silence, or a suitable Collect, or both, +may follow the Psalmody.* + + *A sermon or homily, a passage from Christian +literature, +or a brief silence, may follow the Reading.* + + *The Magnificat or other canticle, or some other hymn of +praise.* + + *A litany, or other suitable devotions, including the Lord's +Prayer.* + + *or both. The Peace may then be exchanged. + + +*On feasts or other days of special significance, the Collect of the +Day, or one proper to the season, may precede the Blessing or Dismissal. +On other days, either of the following, or one of the Collects from +Evening Prayer or from Compline, may be so used.* + +Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, creator +of the changes of day and night, giving rest to the weary, +renewing the strength of those who are spent, bestowing +upon us occasions of song in the evening. As you have +protected us in the day that is past, so be with us in the +coming night; keep us from every sin, every evil, and every +fear; for you are our light and salvation, and the strength of +our life. To you be glory for endless ages. =Amen.= + +Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as +incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. +Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and +Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around +us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the +heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us +to eternal life and to the ages of ages. =Amen.= + + + + +*A bishop or priest may use the following or some other blessing or +grace* + +The Lord bless you and keep you. =Amen.= + +The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. +=Amen.= + +The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. =Amen.= + +*A deacon or lay person using the preceding blessing substitutes "us" +for "you."* + + +*A dismissal may be used (adding "Alleluia, alleluia" in Easter Season)* + + +*The People respond* + +Thanks be to God. + + +*In Easter Season the People respond* + +Thanks be to God. Alleluia, alleluia. + + + + + + + +*The Officiant begins the service with one or more of the following +sentences of Scripture, or of those on pages 75-78;* + +*or with the Service of Light on pages 109-112, and continuing with the +appointed Psalmody;* + +*or with the versicle "O God, make speed to save us" on page 117* + +Let my prayer be set forth in your sight as incense, the lifting +up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. =Psalm 141:2= + +Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the +Lord Jesus Christ. =Philippians 1:2= + +Worship the Lord in the beauty of his holiness; let the whole earth +tremble before him. =Psalm 96:9= + +Yours is the day, O God, yours also the night; you established +the moon and the sun. You fixed all the boundaries of the +earth; you made both summer and winter. =Psalm 74:15,16= + +I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches +me, night after night. I have set the Lord always before me; +because he is at my right hand, I shall not fall. =Psalm 16:7,8= + +Seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep +darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night; +who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon +the surface of the earth: The Lord is his name. =Amos 5:8= + + + +If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light +around me turn to night," darkness is not dark to you, O +Lord; the night is as bright as the day; darkness and light to +you are both alike. =Pslam 139:10,11= + +Jesus said, "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me +will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." +=John 8:12= + +*The following Confession of Sin may then be said; or the Office may +continue at once with "O God make speed to save us."* + + + + +*The Officiant says to the people* + +Dearly beloved, we have come together in the presence of +Almighty god our heavenly Father, to set forth his praise, to +hear his holy Word, and to ask, for ourselves and on behalf +of others, those things that are necessary for our life and our +salvation. And so that we may prepare ourselves in heart and +mind to worship him, let us kneel in silence, and with +penitent and obedient hearts confess our sins, that we may +obtain forgiveness by his infinite goodness and mercy. + +*or this* + +Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor. + +*Silence may be kept.* + +*Officiant and People together, all kneeling* + +Most merciful God, +we confess that we have sinned against you +in thought, word, and deed, +by what we have done, +and by what we have left undone. +We have not loved you with our whole heart; +we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. +We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. + +For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, +have mercy on us and forgive us; +that we may delight in your will, +and walk in your ways, +to the glory of your Name. Amen. + +*The Priest alone stands and says* + +Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins +through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all +goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in +eternal life. =Amen.= + +*A deacon or lay person using the preceding form remains kneeling, and +substitutes "us" for "you" and "our" for "your." + + + + +*All stand* + +*Officiant* O God, make speed to save us. + +*People* O Lord, make haste to help us. + +*Officiant and People* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as +it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + +*Except in Lent, add* Alleluia. + +*The following, or some other suitable hymn, or an Invitatory Psalm, may +be sung or said.* + + + =Phos hilaron= + +O gracious light, +pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, +O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed! + +Now as we come to the setting of the sun, +and our eyes behold the vesper light, +we sing your praised, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, +O Son of God, O Giver of Life, +and to be glorified through all the worlds. + +*Then follows* + + + +*At the end of the Psalms is sung or said* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + + +*One or two lessons, as appointed, are read, the Reader first saying + +A Reading (Lesson) from &mdash.. + +*A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.* + + + +*After each Lesson the Reader may say* + +The Word of the Lord. + +*Answer* Thanks be to God. + +*Or the Reader may say* Here ends the Lesson (Reading). + +*Silence may be kept after each Reading. One of the following +Canticles, or one of those on pages 47-52, or 85-95, is sung or said +after each Reading. If three lessons are used, the Lesson from the +Gospel is read after the second Canticle.* + + + =Magnificat= + +=Luke 1:46-55= + +My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, +my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; * + for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. + +From this day all generations will call me blessed: * + the Almighty has done great things for me, + and holy is his Name. + +He has mercy on those who fear him * + in every generation. + +He has shown the strength of his arm, * + he has scattered the proud in their conceit. + +He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * + and has lifted up the lowly. + +He has filled the hungry with good things, * + and the rich he has sent away empty. + +He has come to the help of his servant Israel, * + for he has remembered his promise of mercy, + +The promise he made to our fathers, * + to Abraham and his children for ever. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + + + =Nunc Dimittis= + +=Luke 2:29-32= + +Lord, you now have set your servant free * + to go in peace as you have promised; + +For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, * + whom you have prepared for all the world to see: + +A Light to enlighten the nations, * + and the glory of your people Israel. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + + +*Officiant and People together, all standing* + +I believe in God, the Father almighty, + creator of heaven and earth. + +I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord. + He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit +/and born of the Virgin Mary. + He suffered under Pontius Pilate, +/was crucified, died, and was buried. + He descended to the dead. + On the third day he rose again. + He ascended into heaven, +/and is seated at the right hand of the Father. + He will come again to judge the living and the dead. + +I believe in the Holy Spirit, + the holy catholic Church, + the communion of saints, + the forgiveness of sins, + the resurrection of the body, + and the life everlasting. Amen. + + + + + + +*The People stand or kneel* + +*Officiant* The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Officiant* Let us pray. + +*Officiant and People* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be they Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, +/on earth as it is in heaven. + +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those +/who trespass against us. + +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. + +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + + + +Our Father in heaven, + hallowed be you Name, + your kingdom come, + your will be done, +/on earth as in heaven. + +Give us today our daily bread. +Forgive us our sins + as we forgive those +/who sin against us. + +Save us from the time of trial, + and deliver us from evil. + +For the kingdom, the power, + and the glory are yours, + now and for ever. Amen. + + +*Then follows one of these sets of Suffrages* + + + +&V. Show us your mercy, O Lord; + +&R. And grant us your salvation. + +&V. Clothe your ministers with righteousness; + +&R. Let your people sing with joy. + +&V. Give peace, O Lord, in all the world; + +&R. For only in you can we live in safety. + + + +&V. Lord, keep this nation under your care; + +&R. And guide us in the way of justice and truth. + +&V. Let your way be known upon earth; + +&R. Your saving health among all nations. + +&V. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten; + +&R. Nor the hope of the poor be taken away. + +&V. Create in us clean hearts, O God; + +&R. And sustain us by your Holy Spirit. + + + + +That this evening may be holy, good, and peaceful, +=We entreat you, O Lord.= + +That your holy angels may lead us in paths of peace and +goodwill, +=We entreat you, O Lord.= + +That we may be pardoned and forgiven for our sins +and offenses, +=We entreat you, O Lord.= + +That there may be peace to your Church and to the whole +world, +=We entreat you, O Lord.= + +That we may depart this life in your faith and fear, +and not be condemned before the great judgment seat +of Christ, +=We entreat you, O Lord.= + +That we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit in +the communion of [&3m. and ] all your saints, +entrusting one another and all our life to Christ, +=We entreat you, O Lord.= + +*The Officiant then says one or more of the following Collects* + +*The Collect of the Day* + + + + +*A Collect for Sundays* + +O God, you make us glad with the weekly remembrance of +the glorious resurrection of you Son our Lord: Give us this +day such blessing through our worship of you, that the week +to come may be spent in your favor; through Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + + +*A Collect for Fridays* + +Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but +first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he +was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way +of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and +peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*A Collect for Saturdays* + +Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested +from all you works and sanctified a day of rest for all your +creatures: Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties, +may be duly prepared for the service of your sanctuary, and +that our rest here upon earth may be a preparation for the +eternal rest promised to your people in heaven; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*A Collect for Peace* + +O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know +you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend +us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that +we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of +any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord, +=Amen.= + + +*A Collect for Aid against Perils* + +Be our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy +defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love +of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + + + + +*A Collect for Projection* + +O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the +strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We +thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and +humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. +Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who +died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. +=Amen.= + + +*A Collect for the Presence of Christ* + +Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day +is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and +awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in +Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake +of your love. =Amen.= + + +*Then, unless the Eucharist or a form of general intercession is to +follow, one of these prayer for mission is added* + +O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore: +Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, +all tongues confess and bless you, and mean and women +everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or +weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who +sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless +the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the +joyous; and all for your love's sake. =Amen.= + +*or the following* + + + +O God, you manifest in your servants the signs of your +presence: Send forth upon us the spirit of love, that in +companionship with one another your abounding grace may +increase among us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*Here may be sung a hymn or anthem.* + +*Authorized intercessions and thanksgivings may follow.* + +*Before the close of the Office one or both of the following may be +used* + + +*The General Thanksgiving* + +*Officiant and People* + +Almighty God, Father of all mercies, +we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks +for all your goodness and loving-kindness +to us and to all whom you have made. +We bless you for our creation, preservation, +and all the blessings of this life; +but above all for your immeasurable love +in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; +for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. +And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, +that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, +not only with our lips, but in our lives, +by giving up our selves to your service, +and by walking before you +in holiness and righteousness all our days; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, +to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, +be honor and glory throughout all ages. =Amen.= + + + + +*A Prayer of St. Chrysostom* + +Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one +accord to make our common supplication to you; and you +have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two +or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the +midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions +as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of +your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Then may be said* + +Let us bless the Lord. +=Thanks be to God.= + +*From Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost "Alleluia, alleluia" may +be added to the preceding versicle and response.* + + +*The Officiant may then conclude with one of the following* + +The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and +the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. +=Amen.= =2 Corinthians 13:14= + +May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in +believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. =Amen.= +=Romans 15:13= + +Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely +more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from +generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus +for ever and ever. =Amen.= =Ephesians 3:20,21= + + + + + + + +*The Officiant begins* + +The Lord Almighty grant us a peaceful night and a perfect +end. =Amen.= + +*Officiant* Our help is in the Name of the Lord; + +*People* The maker of heaven and earth. + + +*The Officiant may then say* + +Let us confess our sins to God. + +*Officiant and People* + +Almighty God, our heavenly Father: +We have sinned against you, +through our own fault, +in thought, and word, and deed, +and in what we have left undone. +For the sake of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, +forgive us all our offenses; +and grant that we may serve you +in newness of life, +to the glory of your Name. Amen. + +*Officiant* + +May the Almighty God grant us forgiveness of all our sins, +and the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + + +*The Officiant then says* + +O God, make speed to save us. + +*People* O Lord, make haste to help us. + +*Officiant and People* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as +it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + +*Except in Lent, add* Alleluia. + +*One or more of the following Psalms are sung or said. Other suitable +selections may be substituted.* + + + =Cum invocarem= + +1 Answer me when I call, O God, defender of my cause; * + you set me free when I am hard-pressed; + have mercy on me and hear my prayer. + +2 "You mortals, how long will you dishonor my glory; * + how long will you worship dumb idols + and run after false gods?" + +3 Know that the LORD does wonders for the faithful; * + when I call upon the LORD, he will hear me. + +4 Tremble, then, and do not sin; * + speak to your heart in silence upon your bead. + +5 Offer the appointed sacrifices * + and put your trust in the LORD. + + + +6 Many are saying, +"Oh, that we might see better times!" * + Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O LORD. + +7 You have put gladness in my heart, * + more than when grain and wine and oil increase. + +8 I lie down in peace; at once I fall asleep; * + for only you, LORD, make me dwell in safety. + + + =In te, Domine, speravi= + +1 In you, O LORD, have I taken refuge; +let me never be put to shame: * + deliver me in your righteousness. + +2 Incline your ear to me; * + make haste to deliver me. + +3 Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe, +for you are my crag and my stronghold; * + for the sake of your Name, lead me and guide me. + +4 Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me, * + for you are my tower of strength. + +5 Into your hands I commend my spirit, * + for you have redeemed me, + O LORD, O God of truth. + + + =Qui habitat= + +1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High * + abides under the shadow of the Almighty. + +2 He shall say to the LORD, +"You are my refuge and my stronghold, * + my God in whom I put my trust." + + + +3 He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter * + and from the deadly pestilence. + +4 he shall cover you with his pinions, +and you shall find refuge under his wings; * + his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler. + +5 You shall not be afraid of any terror by night, * + nor of the arrow that flies by day; + +6 Of the plague that stalks in the darkness, * + nor of the sickness that lays waste at mid-day. + +7 A thousand shall fall at your side +and ten thousand at your right hand, * + but it shall not come near you. + +8 Your eyes only have to behold * + to see the reward of the wicked. + +9 Because you have made the LORD your refuge, * + and the Most High your habitation, + +10 There shall no evil happen to you, * + neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. + +11 For he shall give his angels charge over you, * + to keep you in all your ways. + +12 They shall bear you in their hands, * + lest you dash your foot against a stone. + +13 You shall tread upon the lion and the adder; * + you shall trample the young lion and the serpent +/under your feet. + +14 Because he is bound to me in love, +therefore will I deliver him; * + I will protect him, because he knows my Name. + + + +15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; * + I am with him in trouble; + I will rescue him and bring him to honor. + +16 With long life will I satisfy him, * + and show him my salvation. + + + =Ecce nunc= + +1 Behold now, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, * + you that stand by night in the house of the LORD. + +2 Lift up your hands in the holy place and bless the LORD; * + the LORD who made heaven and earth bless you out of Zion. + + +*At the end of the Psalms is sung or said* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + +*One of the following, or some other suitable passage of Scripture, is +read* + +Lord, you are in the midst of us, and we are called by your +Name: Do not forsake us, O Lord our God. =Jeremiah 14:9,22= + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or this* + +Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will +give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; +for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for +your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. +=Matthew 11:28-30= + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or the following* + + + +May the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our +Lord Jesus, and great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of +the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you +may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his +sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and +ever. =Hebrews 13:20-21= + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or this* + +Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls +around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. +Resist him, firm in your faith. =1 Peter 5:8-9a= + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*A hymn suitable for the evening may be sung.* + + +*Then follows* + +&V. Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit; + +&R. For you have redeemed me, O Lord, O God of truth. + +&V. Keep us, O Lord, as the apple of your eye; + +&R. Hide us under the shadow of your wings. + + +Lord, have mercy. + +=Christ, have mercy.= + +Lord, have mercy. + + +*Officiant and People* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be they Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, +/on earth as it is in heaven. + + + +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those +/who trespass against us. + +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. + +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + + + +Our Father in heaven, + hallowed be you Name, + your kingdom come, + your will be done, +/on earth as in heaven. + +Give us today our daily bread. +Forgive us our sins + as we forgive those +/who sin against us. + +Save us from the time of trial, + and deliver us from evil. + +For the kingdom, the power, + and the glory are yours, + now and for ever. Amen. + + +*Officiant* Lord, hear our prayer; + +*People* And let our cry come to you. + +*Officiant* Let us pray. + + +*The Officiant then says one of the following Collects* + +Be our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy +defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the +love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + +Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours +of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and +chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +Look down, O Lord, from your heavenly throne, and +illumine this night with your celestial brightness; that by +night as by day your people may glorify your holy Name; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +Visit this place, O Lord, and drive far from it all snare of the +enemy; let your holy angels dwell with us to preserve us in +peace; and let your blessing be upon us always; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +*A Collect for Saturdays* + +We give thanks, O God, for revealing your Son Jesus +Christ to us by the light of his resurrection: Grant that as we +sing your glory at the close of this day, our joy may abound +in the morning as we celebrate the Paschal mystery; through +Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*One of the following prayers may be added* + +Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or +weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who +sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless +the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the +joyous; and all for your love's sake. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, your unfailing providence sustains the world we live +in and the life we live: Watch over those, both night and day, +who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never +forget that our common life depends upon each other's toil; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*Silence may be kept, and free intercessions and thanksgivings may be +offered.* + + +*The service concludes with the Song of Simeon with this Antiphon, which +is sung or said by all* + +Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake +we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace. + +*In Easter Season, add* Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. + + + +Lord, you now have set your servant free * + to go in peace as you have promised; + +For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, * + whom you have prepared for all the world to see: + +A Light to enlighten the nations, * + and the glory of your people Israel. + + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + +Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake +we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace. + +*In Easter Season, add* Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. + + +*Officiant* Let us bless the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*The Officiant concludes* + +The almighty and merciful Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, +bless us and keep us. =Amen.= + + + + + + + +*These devotions follow the basic structure of the Daily Office of the +Church.* + +*When more than one person is present, the Reading and the Collect +should be read by one person, and the other parts said in unison, or in +some other convenient manner. (For suggestions about reading the +Psalms, see page 582.)* + +*For convenience, appropriate Psalms, Readings, and Collects are +provided in each service. When desired, however, the Collect of the +Day, or any of the Collects appointed in the Daily Offices, may be used +instead.* + +*The Psalms and Readings may be replaced by those appointed in* + +*a) the Lectionary for Sundays, Holy Days, the Common of Saints, and +Various Occasions, page 888.* + +*b) the Daily Office Lectionary, page 934* + +*c) some other manual of devotion which provides daily selections for +the +Church Year.* + + + + +*From Psalm 51* + +Open my lips, O Lord, * + and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. + +Create in me a clean heart, O God, * + and renew a right spirit within me. + +Cast me not away from your presence * + and take not your holy Spirit from me. + +Give me the joy of your saving help again * + and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit. + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + +*A Reading* + +Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! +By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope +through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. +=1 Peter 1:3= + +*A period of silence my follow.* + +*A hymn or canticle may be used; the Apostles' Creed may be said.* + +*Prayers may be offered for ourselves and others.* + +*The Lord's Prayer* + +*The Collect* + +Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought +us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty +power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by +adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your +purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + + + +*From Psalm 113* + +Give praise, you servants of the LORD; * + praise the Name of the LORD. + +Let the Name of the LORD be blessed, * + from this time forth for evermore. + +From the rising of the sun to its going down * + let the Name of the LORD be praised. + +The LORD is high above all nations, * + and his glory above the heavens. + +*A Reading* + +O God, you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are +fixed on you; for in returning and rest we shall be saved; in +quietness and trust shall be our strength. =Isaiah 26:3; 30:15= + +*Prayers may be offered for ourselves and others.* + +*The Lord's Prayer* + +*The Collect* + +Blessed Savior, at this hour you hung upon the cross, +stretching out your loving arms: Grant that all the peoples of +the earth may look to you and be saved; for your mercies' +sake. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles, "Peace I give to +you; my own peace I leave with you:" Regard not our sins, +but the faith of your Church, and give to us the peace and +unity of that heavenly City, where with the Father and the +Holy Spirit you live and reign, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + + + + + +*This devotion my be used before or after the evening meal.* + +*The Order of Worship for the Evening, page 109, may be used instead.* + +O gracious light, +pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, +O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed! + +Now as we come to the setting of the sun, +and our eyes behold the vesper light, +we sing your praised, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, +O Son of God, O Giver of Life, +and to be glorified through all the worlds. + +*A Reading* + +It is not ourselves that we proclaim; we proclaim Christ +Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants, for Jesus' sake. +For the same God who said, "Out of darkness let light +shine," has caused his light to shine within us, to give the +light of revelation--the revelation of the glory of God in the +face of Jesus Christ. =2 Corinthians 4:5-6= + +*Prayers may be offered for ourselves and others.* + +*The Lord's Prayer* + +*The Collect* + +Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is +past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and +awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in +Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake +of your love. =Amen.= + + + + + + + + + +Behold now, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, * + you that stand by night in the house of the LORD. + +Lift up your hands in the holy place and bless the LORD; * + the LORD who made heaven and earth bless you out of Zion. + +*A Reading* + +Lord, you are in the midst of us and we are called by your +Name: Do not forsake us, O Lord our God. =Jeremiah 14:9,22= + +*The following may be said* + +Lord, you now have set your servant free * + to go in peace as you have promised; + +For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, * + whom you have prepared for all the world to see; + +A Light to enlighten the nations, * + and the glory of your people Israel. + +*Prayers for ourselves and others may follow. It is appropriate that +prayers of thanksgiving for the blessings of the day, and penitence for +our +sins, be included.* + +*The Lord's Prayer* + +*The Collect* + +Visit this place, O Lord, and drive far from it all snares of the +enemy; let your holy angles dwell with us to preserve us in +peace; and let your blessing be upon us always; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +The almighty and merciful Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, +bless us and keep us. =Amen.= + + + + + + + +*Morning and Evening Prayer* + +*Any of the opening sentences of Scripture, including those listed for +specific seasons or days, may be used at any time according to the +discretion of the officiant.* + +*The proper antiphons on pages 43-44 and 80-82 may be used as refrains +with either of the invitatory Psalms.* + +*Antiphons drawn from the Psalms themselves, or from the opening +sentences given in the Offices, or from other passages of Scripture may +be used with the Psalms and biblical Canticles.* + +*Gloria Patri is always sung or said at the conclusion of the entire +portion of the Psalter; and may be used after the Invitatory Psalm or +the Canticle "Christ our Passover," after each Psalm, and after each +section of Psalm 119.* + +*The Gloria printed at the conclusion of certain Canticles may be +omitted when desired.* + +*The following pointing of the Gloria may be used:* + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, * + and to the Holy Spirit: + +As it was in the beginning, is now, * + and will be for ever. Amen. + +*In Rite One services of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, the +following form of the Gloria may be used:* + +Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * + and to the Holy Ghost: + +As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, * + world without end. Amen. + +*Metrical versions of the Invitatory Psalms, and of the Canticles after +the Readings, may be used.* + + + +*In special circumstances, in place of a Canticle, a hymn may be sung.* + +*The Apostles' Creed is omitted from the Office when the Eucharist with +its own Creed is to follow. It may also be omitted at one of the +Offices on weekdays.* + +*The Lord's Prayer may be omitted from the Office when the Litany or the +Eucharist is to follow immediately.* + +*In the Intercessions and Thanksgivings, opportunity may be given for +the members of the congregation to express intentions or objects of +prayer and thanksgiving, either at the bidding, or in the course of the +prayer; and opportunity may be given for silent prayer.* + +*A sermon may be preached after the Office; or, within the Office, after +the Readings or at the time of the hymn or anthem after the Collects.* + +*On occasion, at the discretion of the Minister, a reading from +non-biblical Christian literature may follow the biblical Readings.* + +*An offering may be received and presented at the Office.* + + +*When there is Communion* + +*When Morning or Evening Prayer is used as the Liturgy of the Word at +the Eucharist, the Nicene Creed may take the place of the Apostles' +Creed, and the officiant may pass at once from the salutation "The Lord +be with you," and its response, to the Collect of the Day. A Lesson +from the Gospel is always included.* + +*The Intercessions on such occasions are to conform to the directions on +page 383.* + +*The service then continues with the [Peace and] Offeratory.* + + +*Order of Worship for the Evening* + +*Before this service, there should be as little artificial light as +possible in +the church. A musical prelude or processional is not appropriate.* + +*When the ministers enter, one or two lighted candles may be carried + +before them, and used to provide light for reading the opening Short +Lesson and Prayer for Light. From Easter Day through the Day of +Pentecost, the Paschal Candle, if used, should be burning in its +customary place before the people assemble; the officiant then goes to a +place close by it to begin the service by its light.* + +*The Short Lessons may be read from any version of the Scriptures +authorized for public worship in this Church, and should be read without +announcement or conclusion. When one or more Scripture Lessons are to +be read later in the service, the Short Lesson may be omitted.* + +*For the lighting of the candles at the Altar and elsewhere, in Easter +Season the flame may be taken from the Paschal Candle. At other times, +the candle or candles carried in at the beginning of the service may be +placed on or near the Altar, and other candles may be lighted from them. +During Advent, the lighting of an Advent Wreath may take place after +the Prayer for Light. On special occasions, lighted candles may be +distributed to members of the congregation.* + +*When this service is used in private houses, candles may be lighted at +the dining table, or at some other convenient place.* + +*If incense is to be used, it is appropriate after the candles have been +lighted and while the hymn Phos hilaron is being sung.* + +*When this service continues as a complete Office, Psalms and Lessons +from the Office Lectionary or the Proper of the Day, or ones suitable to +the season or the occasion, may be used. Psalms generally appropriate +to the evening include: 8, 23, 27, 36, 84, 93, 113, 114, 117, 121, 134, +139, 141, 143. When desired, more than one Lesson may be read, with +silence or singing between them.* + +*If an additional hymn is desired, it may be sung immediately before the +Blessing or Dismissal.* + +*When a meal is to follow, a blessing over food may serve as the +conclusion of this form of service.* + + + + + + +: After the Old Testament Reading; After the New Testament Reading + +Sun. : 4. or 16. Benedictus Dominus; 7. or 21. Te Deum laudamus + Advent : 11. Surge, illuminare; 4. or 16. Benedictus Dominus + Lent : 14. Kyrie Pantokrator; 4. or 16. Benedictus Dominus + Easter : 8. Cantemus Domino + +Mon. : 9. Ecce, Deus; 19. Magna et mirabilia + +Tue. : 2. or 13. Benedictus es; 18. Dignus es + +Wed. : 11. Surge, illuminare; 4. or 16. Benedictus Dominus + Lent : 14. Kyrie Pantokrator; + +Thu. : 8. Cantemus Domino ; 6. or 20. Gloria in excelsis + Advent and Lent : ; 19. Magna et mirabilia + +Fri. : 10. =Quaerite Dominum=; 18. =Dignus es= + Lent : 14. Kyrie Pantokrator; + +Sat. : 1. or 12. Benedicite; 19. Magna et mirabilia + +*On Feasts of our Lord and other Major Feasts* : + 4. or 16 Benedictus Dominus; 7. or 21. Te Deum laudamus + + + + + + +: After the Old Testament Reading; After the New Testament Reading + +Sun. : Magnificat; Nunc Dimittis ** + +Mon. : 8. Cantemus Domino; Nunc Dimittis + Lent: 14. Kyrie Pantokrator; + +Tue. : 10. Quaerite Dominum; Magnificat + +Wed. : 1. or 12. Benedicite; Nunc Dimittis + +Thu. : 11. Surge, illuminare; Magnificat + +Fri. : 2. or 13. Benedictus es; Nunc Dimittis + +Sat. : 9. Ecce, Deus; Magnificat + +*On Feasts of our Lord and other Major Feasts* : + Magnificat; Nunc Dimittis** + +** *If only one Reading is used, the suggested Canticle is the +Magnificat.* + + + + + =Venite, exultemus= + +O come, let us sing unto the Lord; * + let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation. + +Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, * + and show ourselves glad in him with psalms. + + +For the Lord is a great God, * + and a great King above all gods. + +In his hand are all the corners of the earth, * + and the strength of the hills are his also. + +The sea is his and he made it, * + and his hands prepared the dry land. + + +O come, let us worship and fall down * + and kneel before the Lord our Maker. + +For he is the lord our God, * + and we are the people of his pasture + and the sheep of his hand. + + +Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts * + as in the provocation, + and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness; + +When your fathers tempted me, * + proved me, and saw my works. + + +Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, * + It is a people that do err in their hearts, + for they have not known my ways. + +Unto whom I sware in my wrath, * + that they should not enter into my rest. + + + +The Great Litany + + + + + + + +*To be said or sung, kneeling, standing, or in procession; before the +Eucharist or after the Collects of Morning or Evening Prayer; or +separately; especially in Lent and on Rogation days.* + +O God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth, +=Have mercy upon us.= + +O God the Son, Redeemer of the world, +=Have mercy upon us.= + +O God the Holy Spirit, Sanctifier of the faithful, +=Have mercy upon us.= + +O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, one God, +=Have mercy upon us.= + +Remember not, Lord Christ, our offenses, nor the offenses +of our forefathers; neither reward us according to our sins. +Spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast +redeemed with thy most precious blood, and by thy mercy +preserve us, for ever. +=Spare us, good Lord.= + +From all evil and wickedness; from sin; from the crafts +and assaults of the devil; and from everlasting damnation, +=Good Lord, deliver us.= + + + +From all blindness of heart; from pride, vainglory, +and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice; and from all want +of charity, +=Good Lord, deliver us.= + +From all inordinate and sinful affections; and from all the +deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, +=Good Lord, deliver us.= + +From all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness +of heart, and contempt of thy Word and commandment, +=Good Lord, deliver us.= + +From lightening and tempest; from earthquake, fire, and +flood; from plague, pestilence, and famine, +=Good Lord, deliver us.= + +From all oppression, conspiracy, and rebellion; from +violence, battle, and murder; and from dying suddenly +and unprepared, +=Good Lord, deliver us.= + +By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation; by thy holy Nativity +and submission to the Law; by thy Baptism, Fasting, and +Temptation, +=Good Lord, deliver us.= + +By thine Agony and Bloody Sweat; by thy Cross and Passion; +by thy precious Death and Burial; by thy glorious Resurrection +and Ascension; and by the Coming of thy Holy Ghost, +=Good Lord, deliver us.= + +In all time of our tribulation; in all time of our prosperity; in +the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, +=Good Lord, deliver us.= + + + +We sinners do beseech the to hear us, O Lord God; and that +it may please thee to rule and govern thy holy Church +Universal in the right way, +=We beesech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to illumine all bishops, priests, and +deacons, with true knowledge and understanding of thy +Word; and that both by their preaching and living, they may +set it forth, and show it accordingly, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to bless and keep all thy people, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to send forth laborers into thy +harvest, and to draw all mankind into thy kingdom, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to give to all people increase of grace +to hear and receive thy Word, and to bring forth the fruits of +the Spirit, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to bring into the way of truth all such +as have erred, and are deceived, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to give us a heart to love and fear +thee, and diligently to live after thy commandments, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee so to rule the hearts of thy servants, +the President of the United States (=or= of this nation), and all +others in authority, that they may do justice, and love mercy, +and walk in the ways of truth, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + + + +That it may please thee to make wars to cease in all the world; +to give to all nations unity, peace, and concord; and to +bestow freedom upon all peoples, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to show thy pity upon all prisoners +and captives, the homeless and the hungry, and all who are +desolate and oppressed, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the +bountiful fruits of the earth, so that in due time all may enjoy +them, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to inspire us, in our several callings, +to do the work which thou givest us to do with singleness of +heart as thy servants, and for the common good, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to preserve all who are in danger by +reason of their labor or their travel, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to preserve, and provide for, all +women in childbirth, young children and orphans, the +widowed, and all whose homes are broken or torn by strife, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to visit the lonely; to strengthen all +who suffer in mind, body, and spirit; and to comfort with thy +presence those who are failing and infirm, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to support, help, and comfort all who +are in danger, necessity, and tribulation, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + + + +That it may please thee to have mercy upon all mankind, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to give us true repentance; to forgive +us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances; and to endue +us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit to amend our lives +according to thy holy Word, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors, +and slanderers, and to turn their hearts, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to strengthen such as do stand; to +comfort and help the weak-hearted; to raise up those who +fall; and finally to beat down Satan under our feet, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to grant to all the faithful departed +eternal life and peace, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please thee to grant that, in the fellowship of +[&mdash. and] all the saints, we may attain to thy +heavenly kingdom, +=We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.= + +Son of God, we beseech thee to hear us. +=Son of God, we beseech thee to hear us.= + +O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, +=Have mercy upon us.= + +O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, +=Have mercy upon us.= + +O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, +=Grant us thy peace.= + + + +O Christ, hear us. +=O Christ, hear us.= + +Lord, have mercy upon us. +=Christ have mercy upon us. +Lord, have mercy upon us. + +*or* + +Kyrie Eleison. +=Christe Eleison.= +Kyrie Eleison. + +*When the Litany is sung or said immediately before the Eucharist, the +Litany concludes here, and the Eucharist begins with the Salutation and +the Collect of the Day.* + +*On all other occasions, the Officiant and People say together* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be they Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, +/on earth as it is in heaven. + +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those +/who trespass against us. + +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. + +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + +&V. O Lord, let thy mercy be showed upon us; + +&R. As we do put our trust in thee. + +*The Officiant concludes with the following or some other Collect* + +Let us pray. + +Almighty God, who hast promised to hear the petitions of +those who ask in thy Son's Name: We beseech thee mercifully +to incline thine ear to us who have now made our prayers +and supplications unto thee; and grant that those things +which we have asked faithfully according to thy will, may be +obtained effectually, to the relief of our necessity, and to the +setting forth of thy glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + +*The Officiant may add other Prayers, and end the Litany, saying* + +The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the +fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. +=Amen.= + + + + +*For use in the Litany in place of the Versicle and Collect which +follows the Lord's Prayer; or at the end or Morning or Evening Prayer; +or as a separate devotion; especially in times of war, or of national +anxiety, or of disaster.* + +O Lord, arise, help us; +=And deliver us for thy Name's sake.= + +O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have +declared unto us, the noble works that thou didst in their +days, and in the old time before them. + +=O Lord, arise, help us; +and deliver us for thy Name's sake.= + +Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy +Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, +world without end. Amen. + +=O Lord, arise, help us; +and deliver us for thy Name's sake.= + +&V. From our enemies defend us, O Christ; + +&R. Graciously behold our afflictions. + +&V. With pity behold the sorrows of our hearts; + +&R. Mercifully forgive the sins of thy people. + + + +&V. Favorably with mercy hear our prayers; + +&R. O Son of David, have mercy upon us. + +&V. Both now and ever vouchsafe to hear us, O Christ; + +&R. Graciously hear us, O Christ; graciously hear us, O Lord Christ. + +*The Officiant concludes* + +Let us pray. + +We humbly beseech thee, O Father, mercifully to look upon +our infirmities; and, for the glory of your Name, turn from us +all those evils that we most justly have deserved; and grant +that in all our troubles we may put our whole trust and +confidence in thy mercy, and evermore serve thee in holiness +and pureness of living, to thy honor and glory; through our +only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the +works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now +in the time of this mortal life in which thy Son Jesus Christ +came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when +he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the +quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through +him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Advent* + + + + +Merciful God, who sent thy messengers the prophets to +preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: +Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, +that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our +Redeemer; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy +Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Advent* + + + + + + +Stir up thy power, O Lord, and with great might come +among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, +let thy bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver +us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and +the Holy Ghost, be honor and glory, world without end. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of Advent* + +*Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are the traditional winter +Ember Days.* + + + + +We beseech thee, Almighty God, to purify our consciences by +thy daily visitation, that when thy Son Jesus Christ cometh he +may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; through the +same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Advent* + + + =December 25= + +O God, who makest us glad by the yearly remembrance of +the birth of thy only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that as we joyfully +receive him for our Redeemer, so we may with sure +confidence behold him when he shall come to be our Judge; +who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one +God, world without end. =Amen.= + +*or this* + + + + +O God, who hast caused this holy night to shine with the +illumination of the true Light: Grant us, we beseech thee, +that as we have known the mystery of that Light upon earth, +so may we also perfectly enjoy him in heaven; where with +thee and the Holy Spirit he liveth and reigneth, one God, in +glory everlasting. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Almighty God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to +take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a +pure virgin: Grant that we, being regenerate and made thy +children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy +Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit ever, one +God, world without end. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + +*The Collect immediately preceding and any of the sets of Proper Lessons +for Christmas Day serve for any weekdays between Holy Innocents' Day and +the First Sunday after Christmas Day.* + + + + +*This Sunday takes precedence over the three Holy Days which follow +Christmas Day. As necessary, the observance of one, two, or all three +of them, is postponed one day.* + +Almighty God, who hast poured upon us the new light of +thine incarnate Word: Grant that the same light, enkindled in +our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through the same +Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in +the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + + =January 1= + +Eternal Father, who didst give to thine incarnate Son the holy +name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every +heart, we beseech thee, the love of him who is the Savior of +the world, even our Lord Jesus Christ; who liveth +and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory +everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + + +O God, who didst wonderfully creat, and yet more +wonderfully restore, the dignity of human nature: Grant +that we may share the divine life of him who humbled +himself to share our humanity, thy Son Jesus Christ; who +liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + =January 6= + +O God, who by the leading of a star didst manifest thy only- +begotten Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know +thee now by faith, to thy presence, where we may behold thy +glory face to face; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, +who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + +*The preceding Collect, with the Psalm and Lessons for the Epiphany, or +those for the Second Sunday after Christmas, serves for weekdays between +the Epiphany and the following Sunday. The Preface of the Epiphany is +used.* + + + + + + +Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River +Jordan didst proclaim him thy beloved Son and anoint him +with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his +Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly +confess him as Lord and Savior; who with thee and the same +Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, in glory everlasting. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + + +Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light +of the world: Grant that thy people, illumined by thy Word +and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's +glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the +earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit +liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our +Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good +News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may +perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in +heaven and earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of thy +people, and in our time grant us thy peace; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us, +we beseech thee, the liberty of that abundant life which thou +hast manifested to us in thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who +liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +O God, the strength of all who put their trust in thee: +Mercifully accept our prayers; and because through the +weakness of our mortal nature, we can do no good thing +without thee, give us the help of thy grace, that in keeping +thy commandments we may please thee both in will and deed; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without +charity are nothing worth; Send thy Holy Ghost and pour + +into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very +bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whosoever +liveth is counted dead before thee. Grant this for thine only +Son Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +Most loving Father, who willest us to give thanks for all +things, to dread nothing but the loss of thee, and to cast all +our care on thee who carest for us: Preserve us from faithless +fears and worldly anxieties, ang grant that no clouds of this +mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is +immortal, and which thou hast manifested to us in thy Son +Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in +the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +*This Proper is always used on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday* + +O God, who before the passion of thy only-begotten Son +didst reveal his glory upon the holy mount: Grant unto us +that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may +be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his +likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ +our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + + + + +*The Proper Liturgy for this day is on page 264.* + +Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou +hast made and dost forgive the sins of all those who are +penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that +we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our +wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, +perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Lent* + +*This Collect, with the corresponding Psalm and Lessons, also serves for +the weekdays which follow, except as otherwise appointed.* + + + + +Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be +tempted by Satan; Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many +temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one +find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who +liveth and reigneth with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Lent* + +*Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are the traditional spring +Ember Days.* + + + + +O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious +to all who have gone astry from thy ways, and bring them +again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and +hold fast the unchangeable truth of thy Word, Jesus Christ + +thy Son; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and +reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves +to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and +inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all +adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil +thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Lent* + + + + +Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down +from heaven to be the true bread which giveth life to the +world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, +and we in him; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Lent* + + + + +O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and +affections of sinful men: Grant unto thy people that they may +love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that +which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and +manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there +be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Lent* + + + + + + +*The Proper Liturgy for this day is on page 270.* + +Almighty and everliving God, who, of thy tender love +towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ +to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the +cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his +great humility: Mercifully grant that we may both follow the +example of his patience, and also be make partakers of his +resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + + + +Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but +first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he +was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way +of the cross, may find it none other that the way of life and +peace; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +O God, by the passion of thy blessed Son didst make an +instrument of shameful death to be unto us the means of life: +Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly +suffer shame and loss for the sake of thy Son our Savior Jesus +Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + + + + + +O Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his back to +the smiters and hid not his face from shame: Give us grace +to take joyfully the sufferings of the present time, in full +assurance of the glory that shall be revealed; through the same +Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +*The Proper Liturgy for this day is on page 274.* + +Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, +instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we +may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who +in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + + + +*The Proper Liturgy for this day is on page 276.* + +Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy +family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be +betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer +death upon the cross; who now liveth and reigneth with thee +and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + + + +*The Proper Liturgy for this day is on page 283.* + +O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the +crucified body of thy dear Son was laid in the tomb and +rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the +coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; +who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +*The Liturgy of the Easter Vigil is on page 285.* + +O God, who for our redemption didst give thine +only-begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his +glorious resurrection hast delivered us from the power of +our enemy: Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may +evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection; through +Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth +with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, who didst make this most holy night to shine with +the glory of the Lord's resurrection: Stir up in thy Church +that Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that +we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship thee +in sincerity and truth; through the same Jesus Christ our +Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Almighty God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus +Christ overcame death and opened unto us the gate of +everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the + +day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death +of sin by thy life-giving Spirit; through the same Jesus Christ +our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same +Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we who celebrate +with reverence the Paschal feast may be found worthy to +attain to everlasting joys; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +O God, who by the glorious resurrection of thy Son Jesus +Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to +light: Grant that we, who have been raised with him, may +abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory; +through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee +and the Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +O God, whose blessed Son did manifest himself to his disciples +in the breaking of bread: Open, we pray thee, the eyes of our +faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; +through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth +and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery +hast established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant +that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's +Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their +faith; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth +and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +Almighty Father, who hast given thy only Son to die for our +sins and to rise again for our justification: Give us so to put +away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always +serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the same +Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +We thank thee, heavenly Father, for that thous hast delivered +us from the dominion of sin and death and hast brought us +into the kingdom of thy Son; and we pray that, as by his +death he hath recalled us to life, so by his love he may raise us +to joys eternal; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the +unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery +hast established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant +that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's + +Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their +faith; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth +and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +O God, whose blessed Son did manifest himself to his disciples +in the breaking of bread: Open, we pray thee, the eyes of our +faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; +through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth +and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of thy people; +Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who +calls us each by name, and follow where he doth lead; +who, with thee and the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +Almighty god, whom truly to know is everlasting life: +Grant us so perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ to be the +way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow +his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through the +same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth +with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + + + +O God, who hast prepared for those who love thee such +good things as pass man's understanding: Pour into our +hearts such love towards thee, that we, loving thee in all +things and above all things, may obtain thy promises, which +exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + +*Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week are the traditional +Rogation Days.* + + + + +Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ +ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: +Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his +promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the +end of the ages; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth +and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, in +glory everlasting. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that as we do +believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have +ascended into heaven, so we may also in heart and mind +thither ascend, and with him continually dwell; who liveth +and reigneth with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, world +without end. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Ascension* + +*Either of the preceding Collects, with the proper Psalm and Lessons for +Ascension Day, serves for the following weekdays, except as otherwise +appointed.* + + + + + + +O God, the King of glory, you have exalted thine only Son +Jesus Christ with great triumph to thy kingdom in heaven: +We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless, but send us +thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us to the same +place where our Savior Christ is gone before; who liveth +and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, +world without end. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Ascension* + + + + +*When a Vigil of Pentecost is observed, it begins with the Service of +Light, page 109 (substituting, if desired, the Gloria in Excelsis for +the Phos hilaron), and continues with the Salutation and Collect of the +Day. Three or more of the appointed Lessons are read before the Gospel, +each followed by a Psalm, Canticle, or hymn. Holy Baptism or +Confirmation (beginning with the Presentation of the Candidates), or the +Renewal of Baptismal Vows, page 292, follows the Sermon.* + +Almighty God, who on this day didst open the way of eternal +life to every race and nation by the promised gift of thy Holy +Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the +preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the +earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth +with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, who on this day didst teach the hearts of thy faithful +people by sending to them the light of thy Holy Spirit: Grant +us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and +evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of +Christ Jesus our Savior, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in +the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Pentecost* + + + +*On the weekdays which follow, the numbered Proper which corresponds +most closely to the date of Pentecost in that year is used. See page +158.* + +*Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are the traditional summer +Ember Days.* + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given unto us +thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to +acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power +of thy Divine Majesty to worship the Unity: We beseech thee +that thou wouldst keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, +and bring us at last to see thee in thy one and eternal glory, +O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit livest and +reignest, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + +*On the weekdays which follow, the numbered Proper which corresponds +most closely to the date of Trinity Sunday in that year is used.* + + + + +*Directions for the use of the Propers which follow are on page 158.* + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 11= + +Remember, O Lord, what thou hast wrought in us and not +what we deserve; and, as thou hast called us to thy service, +make us worthy of our calling; through Jesus Christ our + +Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*No Proper Preface is used.* + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 18= + +Almighty and merciful God, of thy bountiful goodness +keep us, we beseech thee, from all things that may hurt us, +that we, being ready both in body and soul, may with free +hearts accomplish those things which belong to thy purpose; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*No Proper Preface is used.* + + + =The Sunday closest to May 25= + +Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world +may be peaceably governed by thy providence; and that thy +Church may joyfully serve thee in confidence and serenity; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to June 1= + +O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things +both in heaven and earth: We humbly beseech thee to put +away from us all hurtful things, and give us those things +which are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + + + =The Sunday closest to June 8= + +O God, from whom all good doth come: Grant that by thy +inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by +thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to June 15= + +Keep, O Lord, we beseech thee, thy household the Church in +thy steadfast faith and love, that through thy grace we +may proclaim thy truth with boldness, and minister thy +justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus +Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to June 22= + +O Lord, we beseech thee, make us have a perpetual fear +and love of thy holy Name, for thou never failest to help and +govern those whom thou hast set upon the sure foundation +of thy loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to June 29= + +O Almighty God, who hast built thy Church upon the +foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself +being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together +in unity of spirit by their doctrine, that we may be made an + +holy temple acceptable unto thee; through the same Jesus +Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface to the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to July 6= + +O God, who hast taught us to keep all thy commandments +by loving thee and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of thy +Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to thee with our whole +heart, and united to one another with pure affection; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to July 13= + +O Lord, we beseech thee mercifully to receive the prayers of +thy people who call upon thee, and grant that they may both +perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also +may have grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to July 20= + +Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, who knowest our +necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have +compassion, we beseech thee, upon our infirmities, and those +things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our +blindness we cannot ask, mercifully give us for the worthiness +of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + + + =The Sunday closest to July 27= + +O God, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom +nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply +upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we +may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not +the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth +and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface to the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to August 3= + +O Lord, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and +defend thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety +without thy succor, preserve it evermore by thy help and +goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + + + =The Sunday closest to August 10= + +Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do +always such things as are right, that we, who cannot exist +without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy +will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth +with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to August 17= + +Almighty God, who hast given thy only Son to be unto us +both a sacrifice for sin and also an example of godly life: +Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive +that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavor + +ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; +through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to August 24= + +Grant, we beseech thee, merciful God, that thy Church, +being gathered together in unity by thy Holy Spirit, may +manifest thy power among all peoples, to the glory of thy +Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirt, one God, world +without end. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to August 31= + +Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of +all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name; +increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; +and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to September 7= + +Grant us, O Lord, we pray thee, to trust in you with all our +heart; for, as thou dost alway resist the proud who +confide in their own strength, so thou dost not forsake those +who make their boast of thy mercy; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + + + =The Sunday closest to September 14= + +O God, forasmuch as without you we are not able to please +thee, mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things +direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + +*The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after September 14 are the +traditional autumnal Ember Days.* + + + =The Sunday closest to September 21= + +Grant us, O Lord, not to mind earthly things, but to love +things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among +things that are passing away, to cleave to those that shall +abide; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to September 28= + +O God, who declarest thy almighty power chiefly in showing +mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of +thy grace, that we, running to obtain thy promises, may be +made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ +our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to October 5= + +Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to +hear than we to pray, and to give more than either +desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of + +thy mercy, forgiving us those things whereof our conscience +is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not +worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus +Christ thy Son our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee +and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to October 12= + +Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always precede and +follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good +works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to October 19= + +Almighty and everlasting God, who in Christ hast revealed +thy glory among the nations: Preserve the works of thy +mercy, that thy Church throughout the world may persevere +with steadfast faith in the confession of thy Name; through +the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to October 26= + +Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of +faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which +thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost +command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + + + =The Sunday closest to November 2= + +Almighty and merciful God, of whose only thy gift it cometh that +thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service: +Grant, we beseech thee, that we may run without stumbling +to obtain thy heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to November 9= + +O God, whose blessed Son was manifested that he might +destroy the works of the devil and make us children of +God and heirs of eternal life: Grant us, we beseech thee, that, +having this hope, we may purify ourselves even as he is pure; +that, when he shall appear again with power and great glory, +we may be made like unto him in his eternal and glorious +kingdom; where with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, +he liveth and reigneth ever, one God, world without end. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to November 16= + +Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be +written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise +hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, +by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace +and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which +thou hast given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + + + =The Sunday closest to November 23= + +Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all +things in thy well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of +lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided +and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together +under his most gracious rule; who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day, or of Baptism* + + + + + + =November 30= + +Almighty God, who didst give such grace to thine apostle +Andrew that he readily obeyed the call of thy Son Jesus +Christ, and brought his brother with him: Give us, who +are called by thy Word, grace to follow him withoit delay, +and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =December 21= + +Everliving God, who didst strengthen thy apostle Thomas +with firm and certain faith in thy Son's resurrection: Grant us +so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our +Lord and our God, that our faith may never be found wanting +in thy sight; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + + + =December 26= + +We give the thanks, O Lord of glory, for the example of the +first martyr Stephen, who looked up to heaven and prayed +for his persecutors to thy Son Jesus Christ, who standeth at +thy right hand; where he liveth and reigneth with thee and +the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + =December 27= + +Shed upon thy Church, we beseech thee, O Lord, the +brightness of thy light, that we, being illumined by the +teaching of thine apostle and evangelist John, may so walk +in the light of thy truth, that at length we may attain to the +fullness of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + *December 28* + +We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy +innocents of Bethlehem by the order of King Herod. Receive, +we beseech thee, into the arms of thy mercy all innocent +victims; and by thy great might frustrate the designs of evil +tyrants and establish thy rule of justice, love, and peace; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + + + =January 18= + +Almighty Father, who didst inspired Simon Peter, first among +the apostles, to confess Jesus as Messiah and Son of the living +God: Keep thy Church steadfast upon the rock of this faith, +so that in unity and peace we may proclaim the one truth and +follow the one Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =January 25= + +O God, who, by the preaching of thine apostle Paul, hast +caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: +Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his wonderful +conversion in remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness +unto thee for the same by following the holy doctrine which +he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =February 2= + +Almighty and everliving God, we humbly beseech thee that, +as thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the +temple, so we may be presented to you with pure and +clean hearts by the same Jesus Christ our Lord; who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + + + =February 24= + +O Almighty God, who in the place of Judas didst chose thy +faithful servant Matthias to of the number of the Twelve: +Grant that thy Church, being delivered from false apostles, +may always be ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =March 19= + +O God, who from the family of thy servant David didst raise +up Joseph to be the guardian of thy incarnate Son and the +spouse of his virgin mother: Give us grace to imitate his +uprightness of life and his obedience to thy commands; +through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth +and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + =March 25= + +We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts, that +we who have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ, +announced by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross +and passion be brought to the glory of his resurrection; +who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy +Spirit, one God, now and for ever =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + =April 25= + +Almighty God, who by the hand of Mark the evangelist hast +given to thy Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of + +God: We thank thee for this witness, and pray that we may +be firmly grounded in its truth; through the same Jesus Christ +our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of All Saints* + + + =May 1= + +Almighty God, who didst give to thine apostles Philip and +James grace and strength to bear witness to the truth: Grant +that we, being mindful of their victory of faith, may glorify in +life and death the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; who liveth +and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now +and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =May 31= + +Father in heaven, by whose grace the virgin mother of thy +incarnate Son was blessed in bearing him, but still more blessed +in keeping thy word: Grant us who honor the exaltation of her +lowliness to follow the example of her devotion to thy will; +through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth +with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + =June 11= + +Grant, O God, that we may follow the example of thy +faithful servant Barnabas, who, seeking not his own renown +but the well-being of thy Church, gave generously of his life +and substance for the relief of the poor and the spread of the +Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + + + =June 24= + +Almighty God, by whose providence thy servant John the +Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of +thy Son our Savior by preaching repentance: Make us so to +follow his doctrine and holy life, that we may truly repent +according to his preaching; and, after his example, constantly +speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for +the truth's sake; through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our +Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Advent* + + + =June 29= + +Almighty God, whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul +glorified you by their martyrdom: Grant that thy Church, +instructed by their teaching and example, and knit together +in unity by thy Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one +foundation, which is Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and +reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =July 4= + +Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this +country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the +torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant we beseech +thee, that we and all the people of this land may have grace +to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*The Collect "For the Nation," page 258, may be used instead.* + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + + + + =July 22= + +Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene +to health of body and mind, and called her to be a witness of +his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by thy grace we may +be healed of all our infirmities and know thee in the power of +his endless life; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and +reigneth, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of All Saints* + + + =July 25= + +O gracious God, we remember before thee this day thy +servant and apostle James, first among the Twelve to suffer +martyrdom for the Name of Jesus Christ; and we pray that +thou wilt pour out upon the leaders of thy Church that spirit +of self-denying service by which alone they may have true +authority among thy people; through the same Jesus Christ +our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy +Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Apostles* + + + =August 6= + +O God, who on the holy mount didst reveal to chosen +witnesses thy well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in +raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being +delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith +behold the King in his beauty; who with thee, O Father, and +thee, O Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, one God, world +without end. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + + + =August 15= + +O God, you have taken to thyself the blessed Virgin Mary, +mother of thy incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been +redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of thine +eternal kingdom; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our +Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + =August 24= + +Almighty and everlasting God, who gave to thine +apostle Bartholomew grace and truly to believe and preach thy +Word: Grant, we beseech thee, unto thy Church to love what +he believed and to preach what he taught; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Apostles* + + + =September 14= + +Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted +high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world unto +himself: Mercifully grant that we, who glory in the mystery +of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and +follow him; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy +Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + + =September 21= + +We thank you, heavenly Father, for the witness of thine +apostle and evangelist Matthew to the Gospel of thy Son our +Savior; and we pray that, after his example, we may with +ready wills and hearts obey the calling of our Lord to follow +him; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth +with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Apostles* + + + =September 29= + +O Everlasting God, who hast ordained and constituted the +ministries of angels and men in a wonderful order: Mercifully +grant that, as thy holy angels always serve and worship thee in +heaven, so by thy appointment they may help and defend us +on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + + =October 18= + +Almighty God, who didst inspire thy servant Luke the +physician to set forth in the Gospel the love and healing +power of thy Son: Graciously continue in thy Church the like +love and power to heal, to the praise and glory of thy Name; +through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth +and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of All Saints* + + + =October 23= + +Grant, we beseech thee, O God, that after the example of thy +servant James the Just, brother of our Lord, thy Church may +give itself continually to prayer and to the reconciliation of +all who are at variance and enmity; through the same our +Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of All Saints* + + + =October 28= + +O God, we thank you for the glorious company of the +apostles, and especially on this day for Simon and Jude; and +we pray that, as they were faithful and zealous in their +mission, so we may with ardent devotion make known the +love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Apostles* + + + =November 1= + +Almighty God, who hast knit together thine elect in one +communion and fellowship in the mystical body of thy Son +Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow thy blessed +saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to +those ineffable joys that thou hast prepared for those who +unfeignedly love thee; through the same Jesus Christ our +Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, +one God, in glory everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Preface of All Saints* + + + + +Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the +fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those +who harvest them. Make us, we beseech thee, faithful stewards +of thy great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and +the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of thy Name; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*For the Prayers of the People, the Litany of Thanksgiving on page 836 +may be used.* + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + + + +*The festival of a saint is observed in accordance with the rules of +precedence set forth in the Calendar of the Church year.* +*At the discretion of the Celebrant, and as appropriate, any of the +following Collects, with one of the corresponding sets of Psalms and +Lessons, may be used* + + a) at the commemoration of a saint listed in the Calendar for which no +Proper is provided in this Book + + b) at the patronal festival or commemoration of a saint not listed in +the Calendar. + + + + +Almighty God, who didst give thy servant &N. boldness to +confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers +of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we +may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in +us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of the same our Lord +Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O Almighty God, by whose grace and power thy holy martyr +&N. triumphed over suffering and was faithful even unto +death: Grant us, who now remember =him= with thanksgiving, +to be so faithful in our witness to thee in this world, that we +may receive with =him= the crown of life; through Jesus Christ +our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*or the following* + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, who didst enkindle the flame +of thy love in the heart of thy holy martyr &N.: Grant to us, +thy humble servants, a like faith and power of love, that we +who rejoice in =her= triumph may profit by =her= example; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of a Saint* + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for thy +servant &N., whom you called to preach the Gospel to the +people of &3em. (*or* to the &3em. people). Raise +up, we beseech thee, in this and every land evangelists and +heralds of thy kingdom, that thy Church may proclaim the +unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth +and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now +and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or the following* + +Almighty God, who willest to be glorified in thy saints, and +didst raise up thy servant &N. to be a light in the world; Shine, +we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation +may show forth thy praise, who hast called us out of darkness +into thy marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Pentecost* + + + + +Heavenly Father, Shepherd of thy people, we give thee +thanks for thy servant &N., who was faithful in the care and +nurture of thy flock; and we pray that, following his example +and the teaching of his holy life, we may by thy grace grow + +into the stature of the fullness of our Lord and Savior Jesus +Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, our heavenly Father, who didst raise up thy faithful +servant &N., to be a [bishop and] pastor in thy Church and to +feed thy flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of thy +Holy Spirit, that they may minister in thy household as true +servants of Christ and stewards of thy divine mysteries; +through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of a Saint* + + + + +O God, who by thy Holy Spirit dost give to some the word of +wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, and to others the +word of faith: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace +manifested in thy servant &N., and we pray that thy Church +may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Almighty God, who didst give to thy servant &N. special +gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth as it is in +Christ Jesus: Grant, we beseech thee, that by this teaching we +may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom +thou hast sent; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of a Saint, or of Trinity Sunday* + + + + + + +O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his +poverty might be rich: Deliver us, we pray thee from an +inordinate love of this world, that, inspired by the devotion +of thy servant &N., we may serve thee with singleness of heart, +and attain to the riches of the age to come; through the same +thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for +ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, by whose grace thy servant &N., enkindled with the +flame of thy love, became a burning and a shining light in thy +Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit +of love and discipline, and may ever walk before thee as +children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with +thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of a Saint* + + + + +O Almighty God, who hast compassed us with so great +a cloud of witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good +example of thy servant &N., may persevere in running the race +that is set before us, until at length,through thy mercy, we may +with =him= attain to thine eternal joy; through Jesus Christ, the +author and perfecter of our faith, who liveth and reigneth +with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, who hast brought us near to an innumerable +company of angels and to the spirits of just men made +perfect: Grant us during our earthly pilgrimage to abide in +their fellowship, and in our heavenly country to become + +partakers of their joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O Almighty God, who by thy Holy Spirit hast made us one +with thy saints in heaven and on earth: Grant that in our +earthly pilgrimage we may ever be supported by this +fellowship of love and prayer, and know ourselves +to be surrounded by their witness to thy power and mercy. +We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom all our +intercessions are acceptable through the Spirit, and who +liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of a Saint* + + + + +*For optional use, when desire, subject to the rules set forth in the +Calendar of the Church Year.* + + +<1. Of the Holy Trinity> + +Almighty God, who hast revealed to thy Church thine eternal +Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in +Trinity of Persons: Give us grace to continue steadfast in the +confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of the, +Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for you live and reign, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + + + +<2. Of the Holy Spirit> + +Almighty and most merciful God, grant, we beseech thee, +that by the indwelling of thy Holy Spirit we may be enlightened +and strengthened for thy service; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Pentecost* + + +<3. Of the Holy Angels> + +O Everlasting God, who hast ordained and constituted the +ministries of angels and men in a wonderful order: Mercifully +grant that, as thy holy angels always serve and worship thee in +heaven, so by thy appointment they may help and defend us +on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + +<4. Of the Incarnation> + +O God, who didst wonderfully create, and yet more +wonderfully restore, the dignity of human nature: Grant +that we may share the divine life of him who humbled +himself to share our humanity, thy Son Jesus Christ; who +liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + + +<5. Of the Holy Eucharist> + +*Especially suitable for Thursdays* + +God our Father, whose Son our Lord Jesus Christ in a +wonderful Sacrament hath left unto us a memorial of his +passion: Grant us so to venerate the sacred mysteries of his +Body and Blood, that we may ever perceive within ourselves +the fruit of his redemption; who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + +<6. Of the Holy Cross> + +*Especially suitable for Fridays* + +Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the +agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us +courage, we beseech thee, to take up our cross and follow +him; who liveth and reigneth with you and the Holy Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + +<7. For all Baptized Christians> + +*Especially suitable for Saturdays* + +Grant, O Lord God, to all who have been baptized into the +death and resurrection of thy Son Jesus Christ, that, as we +have put away the old life of sin, so we may be renewed in +the spirit of our minds, and live in righteousness and true +holiness; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth +and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Baptism* + + + + +<8. For the Departed> + +O eternal Lord God, who holdest all souls in life: Give, we +beseech thee, to thy whole Church in paradise and on earth +thy light and thy peace; and grant that we, following the +good examples of those who have served you here and are +now at rest, may at the last enter with them into thine +unending joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Almighty God, we remember this day before thee thy faithful +servant &N.; and we pray that, having opened to =him= the gates +of larger life, thou wilt receive =him= more and more into thy +joyful service, that, with all who have faithfully served thee in +the past, =he= may share in the eternal victory of Jesus Christ +our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of +the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Any of the Collects appointed for use at the Burial of the Dead may be +used instead.* + +*For the Prayers of the People, one of the forms appointed for the +Burial of the Dead may be used.* + +*Preface to the Commemoration of the Dead* + +*The postcommunion prayer on page 498 may be used.* + + +<9. Of the Reign of Christ> + +Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all +things in thy well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of + +lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided +and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together +under his most gracious rule; who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Ascension, or of Baptism* + + +<10. At Baptism> + +Almighty God, who by our baptism into the death and +resurrection of thy Son Jesus Christ dost turn us from the old +life of sin: Grant that we, being reborn to new life in him, +may live in righteousness and holiness all our days; through +the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Baptism* + + +<11. At Confirmation> + +Grant, Almighty God, that we, who have been redeemed +from the old life of sin by our baptism into the death and +resurrection of thy Son Jesus Christ, may be renewed in thy +Holy Spirit, and live in righteousness and true holiness; +through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Baptism, or of Pentecost* + + + + +<12. On the Anniversary of the Dedication of a Church> + +Almighty God, to whose glory we celebrate the dedication +of this house of prayer: We give thee thanks for the fellowship +of those who have worshiped in this place, and we pray that +all who seek thee here may find thee, and be filled with thy +joy and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*The Litany of Thanksgiving for a Church, page 578, may be used for the +Prayers of the People.* + +*Preface of the Dedication of a Church* + + +<13. For a Church Convention> + +Almighty and everlasting Father, who hast given the Holy +Spirit to abide with us for ever: Bless, we beseech thee, with +his grace and presence, the bishops and other clergy and +the laity here (*or* now, *or* soon to be) assembled in thy Name, +that thy Church, being preserved in true faith and godly +discipline, may fulfill all the mind of him who loved it and +gave himself for it, thy Son Jesus Christ our Savior; who +liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Pentecost, or of the Season* + + +<14. For the Unity of the Church> + +Almighty Father, whose blessed Son before his passion +prayed for his disciples that they might be one, even as thou +and he are one: Grant that thy Church, being bound together +in love and obedience to thee, may be united in one body by +the one Spirit, that the world may believe in him whom thou + +didst send, the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who +liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Baptism, or of Trinity Sunday* + + +<15. For the Ministry (Ember Days)> + +*For use on the traditional days or at other times* + + + + +Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts, in thy divine +providence hast appointed various orders in thy Church: +Give thy grace, we humbly beseech thee, to all who are [now] +called to any office and ministry for thy people; and so fill +them with the truth of thy doctrine and clothe them with +holiness of life, that they may faithfully serve before thee, to +the glory of thy great Name and for the benefit of thy holy +Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Apostles* + + + + +O God, who didst lead thy holy apostles to ordain ministers +in every place: Grant that thy Church, under the guidance of +the Holy Spirit, may choose suitable persons for the ministry +of Word and Sacrament, and may uphold them in their work +for the extension of thy kingdom; through him who is the +Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, Jesus Christ our Lord, +who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole +body of thy faithful people is governed and sanctified: +Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before +thee for all members of thy holy Church, that in their +vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve thee; +through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who liveth and +reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Baptism, or of the Season* + + +<16. For the Mission of the Church> + +O God, who hast made of one blood all the peoples of the +earth, and sent thy blessed Son to preach peace to those +who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people +everywhere may seek after thee and find thee, bring the +nations into thy fold, pour out thy Spirit upon all flesh, and +hasten the coming of thy kingdom; through the same thy +Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God of all the nations of the earth: Remember the +multitudes who have been created in thine image but have +not known the redeeming work of our Savior Jesus Christ; +and grant that, by the prayers and labors of thy holy Church, +they may be brought to know and worship thee as thou hast +been revealed in thy Son; who liveth and reigneth with thee +and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season, or of Pentecost* + + +<17. For the Nation> + +Lord God Almighty, who hast made all the peoples of the earth +for thy glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to +the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength +of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance +with thy gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*The Collect for Independence Day may be used instead.* + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + +<18. For Peace> + +Almighty God, kindle, we beseech thee, in every heart the +true love of peace, and guide with thy wisdom those who +take counsel for the nations of the earth, that in tranquillity +thy dominion may increase till the earth is filled with the +knowledge of thy love; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who +liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + +<19. For Rogation Days> + +*For use on the traditional days or at other times* + + + + +Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray +that thy gracious providence may give and preserve to our +use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper +all who labor to gather them, that we, who constantly receive +good things from thy hand, may always give thee thanks; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + + + + + +Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ in his earthly life +shared our toil and hallowed our labor: Be present with +thy people where they work; make those who carry on +the industries and commerce of this land responsive to thy +will; and give to us all a pride in what we do, and a just +return for our labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who +liveth and reigneth with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + + + +O merciful Creator, thy hand is open wide to satisfy the +needs of every living creature: Make us, we beseech thee, +ever thankful for thy loving providence; and grant that we, +remembering the account that we must one day give, may be +faithful stewards of thy good gifts; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + +<20. For the Sick> + +Heavenly Father, giver of life and health: Comfort and +relieve thy sick servants, and give thy power of healing to +those who minister to their needs, that those (*or* &N., *or* &NN.) +for whom our prayers are offered may be strengthened in +=their= weakness and have confidence in thy loving care; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + +*The postcommunion prayer on page 457 may be used.* + + + + +<21. For Social Justice> + +Almighty God, who hast created us in thine own image: +Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make +no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use +our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of +justice in our communities and among the nations, to the +glory of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who +liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + +<22. For Social Service> + +O Lord our heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to +be served but to serve: Bless, we beseech thee, all +who, following in his steps, give themselves to the service of +others; that with wisdom, patience, and courage, they may +minister in his name to the suffering, the friendless, and the +needy; for the love of him who laid down his life for us, the same +thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth +with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + +<23. For Education> + +Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom: Enlighten by thy +Holy Spirit those who teach and those who learn, that, +rejoicing in the knowledge of thy truth, they may worship +you and serve you from generation to generation; through +Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee +and the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + + + +<24. For Vocation in Daily Work> + +Almighty God our heavenly Father, who declarest thy glory +and showest forth thy handiwork in the heavens and in the +earth: Deliver us, we beseech thee, in our various occupations +from the service of self alone, that we may do the work +which thou givest us to do in truth and beauty and for the +common good; for the sake of him who came among us as +one that serveth, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth +and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + + +<25. For Labor Day> + +Almighty God, who hast so linked our lives one with another +that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide +us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but +for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for +our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of +other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out +of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and +reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + + + + + + + + + +Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of +darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of +this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit +us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come +again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the +dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Advent* + + + + +Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to +preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: +Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, +that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our +Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy +Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Advent* + + + + + + +Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come +among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, +let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver +us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and +the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Advent* + +*Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are the traditional winter +Ember Days.* + + + + +Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, +that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a +mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, +in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of Advent* + + + =December 25= + +O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth +of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully +receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence +behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and +reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the +brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known +the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him +perfectly in heaven; where with you and the Holy Spirit he +lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. =Amen.= + + + +*or this* + +Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to +take our nature upon him, and to be born [this day] of a pure +virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made +your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed +by your Holy Spirit; through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom +with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + +*The Collect immediately preceding and any of the sets of Proper Lessons +for Christmas Day serve for any weekdays between Holy Innocents' Day +and the First Sunday after Christmas Day.* + + + + +*This Sunday takes precedence over the three Holy Days which follow +Christmas Day. As necessary, the observance of one, two, or all three +of them, is postponed one day.* + +Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of +your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our +hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy +Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + =January 1= + +Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name +of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, +we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our +Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy +Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + + +O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully +restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may +share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share +our humanity, you Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns +with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + =January 6= + +O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son +to the Peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by +faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to +face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns +with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + +*The preceding Collect, with the Psalm and Lessons for the Epiphany, or +those for the Second Sunday after Christmas, serves for weekdays +between the Epiphany and the following Sunday. The Preface of the +Epiphany is used.* + + + + +Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River +Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him +with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his +Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly +confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy +Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + + + + +Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light +of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word +and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's +glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the +ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with +you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our +Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News +of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive +the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in +heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of +your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through +Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + + + +Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us +the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known +to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns +with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: +Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness +we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your +grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please +you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we +do is worth nothing; Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our +hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace +and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted +dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son +Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy +Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for +all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all + +our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless +fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life +may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, +and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ +our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany, or of the Lord's Day* + + + + +*This Proper is always used on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday* + +O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son +revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that +we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be +strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his +likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + + +*The Proper Liturgy for this day is on page 264.* + +Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have +made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and +make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily +lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, +may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission +and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Lent* + +*This Collect, with the corresponding Psalm and Lessons, also serves for +the weekdays which follow, except as otherwise appointed. + + + + + + +Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be +tempted by Satan; Come quickly to help us who are assaulted +by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of +each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through +Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Lent* + +*Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are the traditional spring +Ember Days.* + + + + +O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious +to all who have gone astry from your ways, and bring them +again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and +hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ +your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves +to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and +inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all +adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil +thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Lent* + + + + + + +Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down +from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: +Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in +him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Lent* + + + + +Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly +wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to +love what you command and desire what you promise; that, +among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts +may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Lent* + + + + +*The Proper Liturgy for this day is on page 270.* + +Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the +human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to +take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, +giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant +that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share +in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + + + + + +Almighty God, whose dear Son went not up to joy but +first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he +was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way +of the cross, may find it none other that the way of life and +peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an +instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: +Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly +suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior +Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + + + +Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be +whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept +joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the +glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our +Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +*The Proper Liturgy for this day is on page 274.* + +Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he +suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: +Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in +remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy +mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + + + +*The Proper Liturgy for this day is on page 276.* + +Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your +family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be +betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer +death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and +the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + + + +*The Liturgy of the Easter Vigil is on page 285.* + +O God, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten +Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious resurrection +delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant us so to die +daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of +his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, who made this most holy night to shine with the +glory of the Lord's resurrection: Stir up in your Church that +Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that we, +being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in +sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus +Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of +everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the +day of the Lord's resurrection, may be raised from the death +of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that we who celebrate with +awe the Paschal feast may be found worthy to attain to + +everlasting joys; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus +Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to +light: Grant that we, who have been raised with him, may +abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the +Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his +disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, +that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives +and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery +established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all +who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body +may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + + + +Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins +and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away +the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always +serve you in pureness of living and truth; through Jesus +Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and +the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +We thank you, heavenly Father, that you have delivered us +from the dominion of sin and death and brought us into the +kingdom of your Son; and we pray that, as by his death he +has recalled us to life, so by his love he may raise us to eternal +joys; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy +Spirit, one God, now and forever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery +established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all +who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body +may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his +disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, +that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives + +and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people; +Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who +calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with +you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +Almighty god, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant +us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, +the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his +steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ +your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity +of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + +O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good +things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such +love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above +all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we +can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns +with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Easter* + +*Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week are the traditional +Rogation Days.* + + + + + + +Almighty God, whos blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ +ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: +Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his +promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end +of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and +reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory +everlasting. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that as we believe your +only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended +into heaven, so we may also in heart and mind there ascend, +and with him continually dwell; who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Ascension* + +*Either of the preceding Collects, with the proper Psalm and Lessons for +Ascension Day, serves for the following weekdays, except as otherwise +appointed.* + + + + +O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son +Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: +Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to +strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior +Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and +the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Ascension* + + + + + + +*When a Vigil of Pentecost is observed, it begins with the Service of +Light, page 109 (substituting, if desired, the Gloria in Excelsis for +the Phos hilaron), and continues with the Salutation and Collect of the +Day. Three or more of the appointed Lessons are read before the Gospel, +each followed by a Psalm, Canticle, or hymn. Holy Baptism or +Confirmation (beginning with the Presentation of the Candidates), or the +Renewal of Baptismal Vows, page 292, follows the Sermon.* + +Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life +to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy +Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the +preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the +earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns +with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful +people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: +Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all +things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through +Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with +you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Pentecost* + +*On the weekdays which follow, the numbered Proper which corresponds +most closely to the date of Pentecost in that year is used. See page +158.* + +*Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are the traditional summer +Ember Days.* + + + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us +your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to +acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the +power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep +us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to +see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with +the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + +*On the weekdays which follow, the numbered Proper which corresponds +most closely to the date of Trinity Sunday in that year is used.* + + + + +*Directions for the use of the Propers which follow are on page 158.* + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 11= + +Remember, O Lord, what you have wrought in us and not +what we deserve; and, as you have called us to your service, +make us worthy of our calling; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*No Proper Preface is used.* + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 18= + +Almighty and merciful God, in your goodness keep us, we +pray, from all things that may hurt us, that we, being ready + +both in mind and body, may accomplish with free hearts +those things which belong to your purpose; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy +Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*No Proper Preface is used.* + + + =The Sunday closest to May 25= + +Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be +peaceably governed by your providence; and that your +Church may joyfully serve you in confidence and serenity; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to June 1= + +O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things +both in heaven and earth: Put away from us, we entreat you, +all hurtful things, and give us those things which are profitable +for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns +with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to June 8= + +O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your +inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by +your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + + + =The Sunday closest to June 15= + +Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast +faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim +your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with +compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who +lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now +and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to June 22= + +O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your +holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom +you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to June 29= + +Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the +foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself +being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together +in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a +holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface to the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to July 6= + +O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments +by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your +Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to your with our whole + +heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through +Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to July 13= + +O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who +call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand +what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and +power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ +our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to July 20= + +Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our +necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have +compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those +things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our +blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son +Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to July 27= + +O god, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom +nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon +us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so +pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface to the Lord's Day* + + + + + =The Sunday closest to August 3= + +Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your +Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without +your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + =The Sunday closest to August 10= + +Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always +those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without +you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to August 17= + +Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a +sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us +grace to receive thankfully the fruits of this redeeming work, +and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; +through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns +with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to August 24= + +Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered +together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your +power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; + +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirt, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to August 31= + +Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good +things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in +us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth +in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to September 7= + +Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as +you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, +so you never forsake those who make their boast of your +mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns +with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to September 14= + +O God, because without you we are not able to please you, +mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct +and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + +*The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after September 14 are the +traditional autumnal Ember Days.* + + + + + =The Sunday closest to September 21= + +Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to +love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among +things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall +endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns +with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + =The Sunday closest to September 28= + +O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing +mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, +running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of +your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who +lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for +ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to October 5= + +Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to +hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire +or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, +forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, +and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy +to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus +Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to October 12= + +Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and +follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; + +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to October 19= + +Almighty and everlasting God, in Christ you have revealed +your glory among the nations: Preserve the works of your +mercy, that your Church throughout the world may +persevere with steadfast faith in the confession of your +Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns +with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to October 26= + +Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of +faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you +promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to November 2= + +Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your +faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant +that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly +promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and +reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + + =The Sunday closest to November 9= + +O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might +destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God +and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may +purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again +with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his +eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to November 16= + +Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for +our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, +and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever +hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have +given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day* + + + =The Sunday closest to November 23= + +Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all +things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of +lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided +and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together +under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Lord's Day, or of Baptism* + + + + + + + =November 30= + +Almighty God, who gave such grace to your apostle Andrew +that he readily obeyed the call of your Son Jesus Christ, and +brought his brother with him: Give us, who are called by +your holy Word, grace to follow him withoit delay, and to +bring those near to us into his gracious presence; who lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =December 21= + +Everliving God, who strengthened your apostle Thomas with +firm and certain faith in your Son's resurrection: Grant us so +perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our +Lord and our God, that our faith may never be found wanting +in your sight; through him who lives and reigns with yuo and +the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =December 26= + +We give you thanks, O Lord of glory, for the example of +the first martyr Stephen, who looked up to heaven and prayed +for his persecutors to your Son Jesus Christ, who stands at +your right hand; where he lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + + + =December 27= + +Shed upon your Church, O Lord, the brightness of your light, +that we, being illumined by the teaching of your apostle and +evangelist John, may so walk in the light of your truth, that +at length we may attain to the fullness of eternal life; through +Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + *December 28* + +We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy +innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, +into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your +great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish +your rule of justice, love, and peace; through Jesus Christ +our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the +Holy Spirit,, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + =January 18= + +Almighty Father, who inspired Saint Peter, first among the +apostles, to confess Jesus as Messiah and Son of the living God: +Keep your Church steadfast upon the rock of this faith, so that +in unity and peace we may proclaim the one truth and follow +the one Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =January 25= + +O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have +caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: + +Grant, we pray, that we, having his wonderful conversion in +remembrance, may show ourselves thankful to you by following +his holy teaching; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =February 2= + +Almighty and everliving God, we humbly pray that, as your +only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple, so +we may be presented to you with pure and clean hearts by +Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + =February 24= + +Almighty God, who in the place of Judas chose your faithful +servant Matthias to be numbered among the Twelve: Grant that +your Church, being delivered from false apostles, may always +be guided and governed by faithful and true pastors; through +Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the +unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =March 19= + +O God, who from the family of your servant David raised +up Joseph to be the guardian of your incarnate Son and the +spouse of his virgin mother: Give us grace to imitate his +uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + + =March 25= + +Pour your grace into our hearts, O Lord, that we who have +known the incarnation of your Son Jesus Christ, announced +by an angel to the Virgin Mary, may by his cross and passion +be brought to the glory of his resurrection; who lives and +reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now +and for ever =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + =April 25= + +Almighty God, by the hand of Mark the evangelist you have +given to your Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of +God: We thank you for this witness, and pray that we may be +firmly grounded in its truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of All Saints* + + + =May 1= + +Almighty God, who gave to your apostles Philip and James grace +and strength to bear witness to the truth: Grant that we, being +mindful of their victory of faith, may glorify in life and death the +Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =May 31= + +Father in heaven, by your grace the virgin mother of your +incarnate Son was blessed in bearing him, but still more +blessed in keeping your word: Grant us who honor the +exaltation of her lowliness to follow the example of her +devotion to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who + +lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for +ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + =June 11= + +Grant, O God, that we may follow the example of your +faithful servant Barnabas, who, seeking not his own renown +but the well-being of your Church, gave generously of his +life and substance for the relief of the poor and the spread +of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + =June 24= + +Almighty God, by whose providence your servant John the +Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of +your Son our Savior by preaching repentance: Make us so to +follow his teaching and holy life, that we may truly repent +according to his preaching; and, following his example, +constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently +suffer for the truth's sake; through Jesus Christ your Son our +Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Advent* + + + =June 29= + +Almighty God, whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul glorified +you by their martyrdom: Grant that your Church, instructed by +their teaching and example, and knit together in unity by your +Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, which +is Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the +unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Apostles* + + + + + =July 4= + +Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this +country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the +torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and +all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our +liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*The Collect "For the Nation," page 258, may be used instead.* + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + + =July 22= + +Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene +to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness +of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we +may be healed from all our infirmities and know you in the +power of his unending life; who with you and the Holy Spirit +lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of All Saints* + + + =July 25= + +O gracious God, we remember before you today your servant +and apostle James, first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom +for the Name of Jesus Christ; and we pray that you will pour +out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying +service by which alone they may have true authority among +your people; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and +reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Apostles* + + + + + =August 6= + +O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses +your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment +white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being +delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith +behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and +you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + + =August 15= + +O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, +mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been +redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your +eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Incarnation* + + + =August 24= + +Almighty and everlasting God, who gave to your apostle +Bartholomew grace and truly to believe and to preach your +Word: Grant that your Church may love what he believed +and preach what he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Apostles* + + + + + =September 14= + +Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted +high upon the cross that he might draw the whole world to +himself: Mercifully grant that we, who glory in the mystery +of our redemption, may have grace to take up our cross and +follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy +Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + + =September 21= + +We thank you, heavenly Father, for the witness of your apostle +and evangelist Matthew to the Gospel of your Son our Savior; +and we pray that, after his example, we may with ready wills +and hearts obey the calling of our Lord to follow him; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Apostles* + + + =September 29= + +Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a +wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: +Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and +worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may +help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + + =October 18= + +Almighty God, who inspired your servant Luke the physician +to set forth in the Gospel the love and healing power of your +Son: Graciously continue in your Church this love and power + +to heal, to the praise and glory of your Name; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity +of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of All Saints* + + + =October 23= + +Grant, O God, that, following the example of your servant +James the Just, brother of our Lord, your Church may give +itself continually to prayer and to the reconciliation of all +who are at variance and enmity; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of All Saints* + + + =October 28= + +O God, we thank you for the glorious company of the apostles, +and especially on this day for Simon and Jude; and we pray +that, as they were faithful and zealous in their mission, so we +may with ardent devotion make known the love and mercy of +our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Apostles* + + + =November 1= + +Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one +communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son +Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints +in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those +ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love +you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy +Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. =Amen.= + +*Preface of All Saints* + + + + + + +Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the +fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those +who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of +your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and +the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*For the Prayers of the People, the Litany of Thanksgiving on page 836 +may be used.* + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + + + +*The festival of a saint is observed in accordance with the rules of +precedence set forth in the Calendar of the Church year.* + +*At the discretion of the Celebrant, and as appropriate, any of the +following Collects, with one of the corresponding sets of Psalms and +Lessons, may be used* + +*a) at the commemoration of a saint listed in the Calendar for which no +Proper is provided in this Book* + +*b) at the patronal festival or commemoration of a saint not listed in +the Calendar.* + + + + +Almighty God, who gave your servant &N. boldness to +confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers + +of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we +may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in +us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr +&N. triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: +Grant us, who now remember =him= in thanksgiving, to be so +faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may +receive with =him= the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Almighty and everlasting God, who kindled the flame of your +love in the heart of your holy martyr &N.: Grant to us, your +humble servants, a like faith and power of love, that we who +rejoice in =her= triumph may profit by =her= example; through +Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of a Saint* + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your +servant &N., whom you called to preach the Gospel to the +people of &3em. (*or* to the &3em. people). Raise +up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your +kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable +riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or the following* + + + +Almighty God, whose will it is to be glorified in your saints, +and who raised up your servant &N. to be a light in the world; +Shine, we pray, in our hearts, that we also in our generation +may show forth your praise, who called us out of darkness +into your marvelous light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Pentecost* + + + + +Heavenly Father, Shepherd of your people, we thank you for +your servant &N., who was faithful in the care and nurture of +your flock; and we pray that, following his example and the +teaching of his holy life, we may by your grace grow into the +stature of the fullness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, our heavenly Father, who raised up your faithful +servant &N., to be a [bishop and] pastor in your Church and to +feed your flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of +your Holy Spirit, that they may minister in your household as +true servants of Christ and stewards of your divine mysteries; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of a Saint* + + + + +O God, by your Holy Spirit you give to some the word of +wisdom, to others the world of knowledge, and to others the +word of faith: We praise your Name for the gifts of grace + +manifested in your servant &N., and we pray that your Church +may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Almighty God, you gave to your servant &N. special gifts of +grace to understand and teach the truth as it is in Christ Jesus: +Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true +God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and +reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of a Saint, or of Trinity Sunday* + + + + +O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his +poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of +this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant +&N., may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the +riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who +lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, by whose grace your servant &N., kindled with the +flame of your love, became a burning and a shining light in +your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit +of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, +in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of a Saint* + + + + + +Almighty God, you have surrounded us with a great cloud of +witnesses: Grant that we, encouraged by the good example of +your servant &N., may persevere in running the race that is set +before us, until at last we may with =him= attain to your eternal +joy; through Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our +faith, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, you have brought us near to an innumerable company +of angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect: Grant us +during our earthly pilgrimage to abide in their fellowship, and +in our heavenly country to become partakers of their joy; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit you have made us one with +your saints in heaven and on earth: Grant that in our earthly +pilgrimage we may always be supported by this fellowship of +love and prayer, and know ourselves to be surrounded by their +witness to your power and mercy. We ask this for the sake of +Jesus Christ, in whom all our intercessions are acceptable +through the Spirit, and who lives and reigns for ever and ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of a Saint* + + + + + +*For optional use, when desire, subject to the rules set forth in the +Calendar of the Church Year.* + + +<1. Of the Holy Trinity> + +Almighty God, you have revealed to your Church your eternal +Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in +Trinity of Persons: Give us grace to continue steadfast in the +confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of you, +Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for you live and reign, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + +<2. Of the Holy Spirit> + +Almighty and most merciful God, grant that by the indwelling +of your Holy Spirit we may be enlightened and strengthened +for your service; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and +reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now +and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Pentecost* + + +<3. Of the Holy Angels> + +Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a +wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: +Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and +worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may +help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + + +<4. Of the Incarnation> + +O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully +restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may +share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our +humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, +in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + +<5. Of the Holy Eucharist> + +*Especially suitable for Thursdays* + +God our Father, whose Son our Lord Jesus Christ in a +wonderful Sacrament has left us a memorial of his passion: +Grant us so to venerate the sacred mysteries of his Body and +Blood, that we may ever perceive within ourselves the fruit +of his redemption; who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Epiphany* + + +<6. Of the Holy Cross> + +*Especially suitable for Fridays* + +Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony +and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to +take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + +<7. For all Baptized Christians> + +*Especially suitable for Saturdays* + +Grant, Lord God, to all who have been baptized into the + +death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ, that, as we +have put away the old life of sin, so we may be renewed in the +spirit of our minds, and live in righteousness and true holiness; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, +in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of Baptism* + + +<8. For the Departed> + +Eternal Lord God, you hold all souls in life: Give to your +whole Church in paradise and on earth your light and your +peace; and grant that we, following the good examples of +those who have served you here and are now at rest, may at +the last enter with them into your unending joy; through +Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the +unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Almighty God, we remember before you today your faithful +servant &N.; and we pray that, having opened to =him= the gates +of larger life, you will receive =him= more and more into your +joyful service, that, with all who have faithfully served you in +the past, =he= may share in the eternal victory of Jesus Christ +our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Any of the Collects appointed for use at the Burial of the Dead may be +used instead.* + +*For the Prayers of the People, one of the forms appointed for the +Burial of the Dead may be used.* + +*Preface to the Commemoration of the Dead* + +*The postcommunion prayer on page 498 may be used.* + + + +<9. Of the Reign of Christ> + +Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all +things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord +of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, +divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together +under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Ascension, or of Baptism* + + +<10. At Baptism> + +Almighty God, by our baptism into the death and resurrection +of your Son Jesus Christ, you turn us from the old life of sin: +Grant that we, being reborn to new life in him, may live in +righteousness and holiness all our days; through Jesus Christ +our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Baptism* + + +<11. At Confirmation> + +Grant, Almighty God, that we, who have been redeemed +from the old life of sin by our baptism into the death and +resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ, may be renewed in +your Holy Spirit, and live in righteousness and true holiness; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Baptism, or of Pentecost* + + +<12. On the Anniversary of the Dedication of a Church> + +Almighty God, to whose glory we celebrate the dedication of +this house of prayer: We give you thanks for the fellowship + +of those who have worshiped in this place, and we pray that +all who seek you here may find you, and be filled with your +joy and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and +reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now +and for ever. =Amen.= + +*The Litany of Thanksgiving for a Church, page 578, may be used for the +Prayers of the People.* + +*Preface of the Dedication of a Church* + + +<13. For a Church Convention> + +Almighty and everlasting Father, you have given the Holy +Spirit to abide with us for ever: Bless, we pray, with his grace +and presence, the bishops and other clergy and the laity +here (*or* now, *or* soon to be) assembled in your Name, that +your Church, being preserved in true faith and godly +discipline, may fulfill all the mind of him who loved it and +gave himself for it, your Son Jesus Christ our Savior; who +lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one +God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Pentecost, or of the Season* + + +<14. For the Unity of the Church> + +Almighty Father, whose blessed Son before his passion prayed +for his disciples that they might be one, as you and he are one: +Grant that your Church, being bound together in love and +obedience to you, may be united in one body by the one Spirit, +that the world may believe in him whom you have sent, your +Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in +the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of Baptism, or of Trinity Sunday* + + + + +<15. For the Ministry (Ember Days)> + +*For use on the traditional days or at other times* + + + +Almighty God, the giver of all good gifts, in your divine +providence you have appointed various orders in your +Church: Give your grace, we humbly pray, to all who are +[now] called to any office and ministry for your people; and so +fill them with the truth of your doctrine and clothe them with +holiness of life, that they may faithfully serve before you, to +the glory of your great Name and for the benefit of your holy +Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns +with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Apostles* + + + +O God, you led your holy apostles to ordain ministers in every +place: Grant that your Church, under the guidance of the Holy +Spirit, may choose suitable persons for the ministry of Word +and Sacrament, and may uphold them in their work for the +extension of your kingdom; through him who is the Shepherd +and Bishop of our souls, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and +reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + + + +Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole +body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: +Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before + +you for all members of you holy Church, that in their vocation +and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through +our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with +you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of Baptism, or of the Season* + + +<16. For the Mission of the Church> + +O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the +earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those +who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people +everywhere may seek after you and find you, bring the nations +into your fold, pour out your Spirit upon all flesh, and hasten +the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, +who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God of all the nations of the earth: Remember the +multitudes who have been created in your image but have not +known the redeeming work of our Savior Jesus Christ; and +grant that, by the prayers and labors of your holy Church, +they may be brought to know and worship you as you have +been revealed in your Son; who lives and reigns with you and +the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season, or of Pentecost* + + + + +<17. For the Nation> + +Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the +earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: +Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the +strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in +accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our +Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one +God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*The Collect for Independence Day may be used instead.* + +*Preface of Trinity Sunday* + + +<18. For Peace> + +Almighty God, kindle, we pray, in every heart the true love of +peace, and guide with your wisdom those who take counsel +for the nations of the earth, that in tranquillity your dominion +may increase until the earth is filled with the knowledge of your +love; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with +you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + +<19. For Rogation Days> + +*For use on the traditional days or at other times* + + + +Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray +that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our +use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper +all who labor to gather them, that we, who are constantly +receiving good things from your hand, may always give you + +thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns +with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + + +Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ in his earthly life +shared our toil and hallowed our labor: Be present with your +people where they work; make those who carry on the industries +and commerce of this land responsive to your will; and give +to us all a pride in what we do, and a just return for our labor; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with +you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for +ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + + +O merciful Creator, your hand is open wide to satisfy the +needs of every living creature: Make us always thankful for +your loving providence; and grant that we, remembering the +account that we must one day give, may be faithful stewards +of your good gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with +you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + + + +<20. For the Sick> + +Heavenly Father, giver of life and health: Comfort and +relieve your sick servants, and give your power of healing to +those who minister to their needs, that those (*or* &N., *or* &NN.) +for whom our prayers are offered may be strengthened in +=their= weakness and have confidence in you loving care; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + +*The postcommunion prayer on page 457 may be used.* + + +<21. For Social Justice> + +Almighty God, who created us in your image: Grant us +grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace +with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, +help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our +communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy +Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with +you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + +<22. For Social Service> + +Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be served +but to serve: Bless all who, following in his steps, give +themselves to the service of others; that with wisdom, +patience, and courage, they may minister in his Name to the +suffering, the friendless, and the needy; for the love of him +who laid down his life for us, your Son our Savior Jesus +Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + + + +<23. For Education> + +Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom: Enlighten by your +Holy Spirit those who teach and those who learn, that, +rejoicing in the knowledge of your truth, they may worship +you and serve you from generation to generation; through +Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + +<24. For Vocation in Daily Work> + +Almighty God our heavenly Father, you declare your glory +and show forth your handiwork in the heavens and in the +earth: Deliver us in our various occupations from the service +of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in +truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of +him who came among us as one who serves, your Son Jesus +Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + +<25. For Labor Day> + +Almighty God, you have so linked our lives one with another +that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide +us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but +for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for +our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of +other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out +of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns +with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. +=Amen.= + +*Preface of the Season* + + + + + + + + + + + + + +*On this day, the Celebrant begins the liturgy with the Salutation and +the Collect of the Day.* + +Let us pray. + +Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have +made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and +make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily +lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wickedness, +may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission +and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Old Testament* Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, *or* Isaiah 58:1-12 + +*Psalm* 103, *or* 103:8-14 + +*Epistle* 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 + +*Gospel* Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 + + +*After the Sermon, all stand, and the Celebrant or Minister appointed +*invites the people to the observance of a holy Lent, saying* + +Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great +devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and +it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a + +season of penitence and fasting. This is season of Lent +provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy +Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of +notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful +were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to +the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation +was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set +forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all +Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith. + +I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the +observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; +by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and +meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning +of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now +kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer. + +*Silence is then kept for a time, all kneeling. + + +[[*If ashes are to be imposed, the Celebrant says the following prayer* + +Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the +earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our +mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is +only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; +through Jesus Christ our Savior. =Amen.= + +*The ashes are imposed with the following words* + +Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.]] + + +*The following Psalm is then sung or said* + + + + + =Miserere mei, Deus= + +1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your +/loving-kindness; * + in your great compassion blot out my offenses. + +2 Wash me through and through from my wickedness * + and cleanse me from my sin. + +3 For I know my transgressions, * + and my sin is ever before me. + +4 Against you only have I sinned * +and done what is evil in your sight. + +5 And so you are justified when you speak * + and upright in your judgment + +6 Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth, * + a sinner from my mother's womb. + +7 For behold, you look for truth deep within me, * + and will make me understand wisdom secretly. + +8 Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; +wash me, and I shall be clean indeed. + +9 Make me hear of joy and gladness, * + that the body you have broken may rejoice. + +10 Hide your face from my sins * + and blot out all my iniquities. + +11 Create in me a clean heart, O God, * + and renew a right spirit within me. + +12 Cast me not away from your presence * + and take not your holy Spirit from me. + +13 Give me the joy of your saving help again * + and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit. + + + +14 I shall teach your ways to the wicked, * +and sinners shall return to you. + +15 Deliver me from death, O God, * + and my tongue shall sing of your righteousness, + O God of my salvation. + +16 Open my lips, O Lord, * +and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. + +17 Had you desired it, I would have offered sacrifice; * +but you take no delight in burnt-offerings. + +18 The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; * + a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. + + + + +*The Celebrant and People together, all kneeling* + +Most holy and merciful Father: +We confess to you and to one another, +and to the whole communion of saints +in heaven and on earth, +that we have sinned by our own fault +in thought, word, and deed; +by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. + + +*The Celebrant continues* + +We have not loved you with our whole heart, and mind, and +strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We +have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven. +=Have mercy on us, Lord.= + +We have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ served us. +We have not been true to the mind of Christ. We have grieved +your Holy Spirit. +=Have mercy on us, Lord.= + + + +We confess to you, Lord, all our past unfaithfulness: the +pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives, +=We confess to you, Lord.= + +Our self-indulgent appetites and ways, and our exploitation +of other people, +=We confess to you, Lord.= + +Our anger at our own frustration, and our envy of those +more fortunate than ourselves, +=We confess to you, Lord.= + +Our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, and +our dishonesty in daily life and work, +=We confess to you, Lord.= + +Our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to +commend the faith that is in us, +=We confess to you, Lord.= + +Accept our repentance, Lord, for the wrongs we have done: +for our blindness to human need and suffering, and our +indifference to injustice and cruelty, +=Accept our repentance, Lord.= + +For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward our +neighbors, and for our prejudice and contempt toward those +who differ from us, +=Accept our repentance, Lord.= + +For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of +concern for those who come after us, +=Accept our repentance, Lord.= + +Restore us, good Lord, and let your anger depart from us; +=Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great. + +Accomplish in us the work of your salvation, +=That we may show forth your glory in the world.= + + + +By the cross and passion of your Son our Lord, +=Bring us with all your saints to the joy of his resurrection.= + + +*The Bishop, if present, or the Priest, stands and, facing the people, +says* + +Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who +desires not the death of sinners, but rather that they may turn +from their wickedness and live, has given power and +commandment to his ministers to declare and pronounce to +his people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of +their sins. He pardons and absolves all those who truly +repent, and with sincere hearts believe his holy Gospel. + +Therefore we beseech him to grant us true repentance and his +Holy Spirit, that those things may please him which we do on +this day, and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure +and holy, so that at the last we may come to his eternal joy; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*A deacon or lay reader leading the service remains kneeling and +substitutes the prayer for forgiveness appointed at Morning Prayer.* + +*The Peace is then exchanged.* + +*In the absence of a bishop or priest, all that precedes may be led by a +deacon or lay reader.* + +*The Litany of Penitence may be used at other times, and may be preceded +by an appropriate invitation and a penitential psalm.* + +*When Communion follows, the service continues with the Offertory.* + +*Preface of Lent* + + + + + + + + + + +*When circumstances permit, the congregation may gather at a place +apart from the church, so that all may go into the church in +procession.* + +*The branches of palm or of other trees or shrubs to be carried in the +procession may be distributed to the people before the service, or after +the prayer of blessing.* + + +*The following or some other suitable anthem is sung or said, the people +standing* + +Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. +=Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.= + + +*Celebrant* Let us pray. + +Assist us mercifully with your help, O Lord God of our +salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation +of those mighty acts, whereby you have given us life and +immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*Here a Deacon or other person appointed reads one of the following* + + + +Year A Matthew 21:1-11 + +Year B Mark 11:1-11a + +Year C Luke 19:29-40 + + +*The Celebrant then says the following blessing* + +*Celebrant* The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. + +*People* It is right to give him thanks and praise. + +It is right to praise you, Almighty God, for the acts of love by +which you have redeemed us through your Son Jesus Christ +our Lord. On this day he entered the holy city of Jerusalem in +triumph, and was proclaimed as King of kings by those who +spread their garments and branches of palm along his way. +Let these branches be for us signs of his victory, and grant that +we who bear them in his name may ever hail him as our King, +and follow him in the way that leads to eternal life; who lives +and reigns in glory with you and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + + +*The following or some other suitable anthem may then be sung or said* + +Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. +=Hosanna in the highest.= + + +*The Procession* + +*Deacon* Let us go forth in peace. + +*People* In the name of Christ. Amen. + +*During the procession, all hold branches in their hands, and +appropriate hymns, psalms, or anthems are sung, such as the hymn "All +glory, laid, and honor" and Psalm 118:19-29.* + +*At a suitable place, the procession may halt while the following or +some other appropriate Collect is said* + + + +Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but +first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he +was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way +of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and +peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*In the absence of a bishop or priest, the preceding service may be led +by a deacon or lay reader.* + +*At services on this day other than the principal celebration, suitable +portions of the preceding may be used.* + + + + +*When the Liturgy of the Palms immediately precedes the Eucharist, the +celebration begins with the Salutation and Collect of the Day* + +Let us pray. + +Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the +human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take +upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, +giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant +that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share +in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + +*Old Testament* Isaiah 45:21-25, *or* Isaiah 52:13--53:12 + +*Psalm* 22:1-21, *or* 22:1-11 + +*Epistle* Philippians 2:5-11 + + +*The Passion Gospel is announced in the following manner* + +The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to &mdash.. + +*The customary reponses before and after the Gospel are omitted.* + + + +*Year A* Matthew 26:36-27:54(55-66) *or* 27:1-54(55-66) + +*Year B* Mark 14:32-15:39(40-47) *or* 15:1-39(40-47) + +*Year C* Luke 22:39-23:49(50-56) *or* 23:1-49(50-56) + +*The Passion Gospel may be read or chanted by different persons. +Specific roles may be assigned to different persons, the congregation +taking the part of the crowd.* + +*The congregation may be seated for the first part of the Passion. At +the verse which mentions the arrival at Golgotha (Matthew 27:33, +Mark 15:22, Luke 23:33) all stand.* + +*When the Liturgy of the Palms has preceded, the Nicene Creed and the +Confession of Sin may be omitted at this service.* + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + + + + + + +*The Eucharist begins in the usual manner, using the following Collect, +Psalm, and Lessons* + +Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before +he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: +Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in +remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy +mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives +and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever +and ever. =Amen.= + + +*Old Testament* Exodus 12:1-14a + +*Psalm* 78:14-20, 23-25 + +*Epistle* 1 Corinthians 11:23-26(27-32) + +*Gospel* John 13:1-15, *or* Luke 22:14-30 + + +*When observed, the ceremony of the washing of feet appropriately +follows the Gospel and homily.* + +*During the ceremony, the following or other words may be +sung or said* + +The Lord Jesus, after he had supped with his disciples and +had washed their feet, said to them, "Do you know what I, +your Lord and Master, have done to you? I have given you +an example, that you should do as I have done." + + + +=Peace is my last gift to you, my own peace I now leave with +you; peace which the world cannot give, I give to you.= + +I give you a new commandment: Love one another as I have +loved you. + +=Peace is my last gift to you, my own peace I now leave with +you; peace which the world cannot give, I give to you.= + +By this shall the world know that you are my disciples: That +you have love for one another. + +*The service continues with the Prayers of the People.* + +*Where it is desired to administer Holy Communion from the reserved +Sacrament on Good Friday, the Sacrament for that purpose is +consecrated at this service.* + +*Preface of Holy Week* + + + + + + + +*On this day the ministers enter in silence.* + + +*All then kneel for silent prayer, after which the Celebrant stands and +begins the liturgy with the Collect of the Day.* + + +*Immediately before the Collect, the Celebrant may say* + +Blessed be our God. + +*People* For ever and ever. Amen. + + +Let us pray. + +Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your +family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be +betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer +death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and +the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + +*Old Testament* Isaiah 52:13--53:12, *or* Genesis 22:1-18, *or* +Wisdom 2:1, 12-24 + +*Psalm* 22:1-11(12-21), *or* 40:1-14, *or* 69:1-23 + +*Epistle* Hebrews 10:1-25 + + +*The Passion Gospel is announced in the following manner* + + + +The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John. + +*The customary responses before and after the Gospel are omitted.* + + +John 18:1--19:37 *or* 19:1-37 + + +*The Passion Gospel may be read or chanted by lay persons. Specific +roles may be assigned to different persons, the congregation taking the +part of the crowd.* + + +*The congregation may be seated for the first part of the Passion. At +the verse which mentions the arrival at Golgotha (John 19:17) all +stand.* + +*The Sermon follows.* + + +*A hymn may then be sung.* + + + + +*All standing, the Deacon, or other person appointed, says to the +people* + +Dear People of God: Our heavenly Father sent his Son into +the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world +through him might be saved; that all who believe in him +might be delivered from the power of sin and death, and +become heirs with him of everlasting life. + +We pray, therefore, for people everywhere according to their +needs. + + +*In the biddings which follow, the indented portions may be adapted by +addition or omission, as appropriate, at the discretion of the +Celebrant. The people may be directed to stand or kneel.* + +*The biddings may be read by a Deacon or other person appointed. The +Celebrant says the Collects.* + + + +Let us pray for the holy Catholic Church of Christ +throughout the world; + + For its unity in witness and service + + For all bishops and otehr ministers and the people whom they serve + + For N., our Bishop, and all the people of this diocese + + For all Christians in this community + + For those about to be baptized (particularly &mdash.) + +That God will confirm his Church in faith, increase it in love, +and preserve it in peace. + +*Silence* + +Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole +body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: +Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before +you for all member of your holy Church, that in their +vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly server you; +through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + + +Let us pray for all nations and peoples of the earth, and for +those in authority among them; + + For N., the President of the United States + + For the Congress and the Supreme Court + + For the Members and Representatives of the United Nations + + For all who serve the common good + +That by God's help they may seek justice and truth, and live +in peace and concord. + +*Silence* + +Almighty God, kindle, we pray, in every heart the true love of +peace, and guide with your wisdom those who take counsel for +the nations of the earth; that in tranquility your dominion may + +increase, until the earth is filled with the knowledge of your +love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +Let us pray for all who suffer and are afflicted in body or in mind; + + For the hungry and the homeless, the destitute and the oppressed + + For the sick, the wounded, and the crippled + + For those in loneliness, fear, and anguish + + For those who face temptation, doubt, and despair + + For the sorrowful and bereaved + + For prisoners and captives, and those in mortal danger + +That God in his mercy will comfort and relieve them, and +grant them the knowledge of his love, and stir up in us the +will and patience to minister to their needs. + +*Silence* + +Gracious God, the comfort of all who sorrow, the strength of +all who suffer: Let the cry of those in misery and need come +to you, that they may find your mercy present with them in all +their afflictions; and give us, we pray, the strength to serve +them for the sake of him who suffered for us, your Son Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +Let us pray for all who have not received the Gospel of Christ; + + For those who have never heard the word of salvation + + For those who have lost their faith + + For those hardened by sin or indifference + + For the contemptuous and the scornful + + For those who are enemies of the cross of Christ and persecutors of +his disciples + + For those who in the name of Christ have persecuted others + +That God will open their hearts to the truth, and lead them to +faith and obedience. + + + +*Silence* + +Merciful God, Creater of all the peoples of the earth and +lover of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you +as you are revealed in your Son Jesus Christ; let your Gospel +be preached with grace and power to those who have not +heard it; turn the hearts of those who resist it; and bring +home to your fold those who have gone astray; that there +may be one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + +Let us commit ourselves to God, and pray for the grace +of a holy life, that, with all who have departed this world and +have died in the peace of Christ, and those whose faith is +known to God alone, we may be accounted worthy to enter +into the fullness of the joy of our Lord, and receive the crown +of life in the day of resurrection. + +*Silence* + +O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look +favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred +mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry +out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole +world see and know that things which were cast down are being +raised up, and things which had grown old are being made +new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection +by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus +Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity +of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*The service may be concluded here with the singing of a hymn or anthem, +the Lord's Prayer, and the final prayer on page 282.* + + + +*If desired, a wooden cross may now be brought into the church +and placed in the sight of the people.* + +*Appropriate devotions may follow, which may include any or all of the +following, or other suitable anthems. If the texts are recited rather +than sung, the congregation reads the parts in italics.* + + + + +We glory in your cross, O Lord, +=and praise and glorify your holy resurrection; +for by virtue of your cross +joy has come to the whole world.= + +May God be merciful to us and bless us, +show us the light of his countenance, and come to us. + +=Let your ways be known upon earth, +your saving health among all nations.= + +Let the peoples praise you, O God; +let all the peoples praise you. + +=We glory in your cross, O Lord, +and praise and glorify your holy resurrection; +for by virtue of your cross +joy has come to the whole world.= + + + + +We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, +=because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.= + +If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; +if we endure, we shall also reign with him. + + + +=We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, +because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.= + + + + +O Savior of the world, +who by thy cross and precious blood hast redeemed us: +=Save us and help us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord.= + + +*The hymn "Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle," or some other hymn +extolling the glory of the cross, is then sung.* + + +*The service may be concluded here with the Lord's Prayer and the final +prayer below.* + +*In the absence of a bishop or priest, all that precedes may be led by a +deacon or lay reader.* + + +*In places where Holy Communion is to be administered from +the reserved Sacrament, the following order is observed* + + A Confession of Sin + + The Lord's Prayer + + The Communion + +*The service concludes with the following prayer. No blessing or +dismissal is added.* + +Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we pray you to set +your passion, cross, and death between your judgment and +our souls, now and in the hour of our death. Give mercy and +grace to the living; pardon and rest to the dead; to your holy +Church peace and concord; and to us sinners everlasting life +and glory; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live +and reign, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + + + + + + +*There is no celebration of the Eucharist on this day.* + +*When there is a Liturgy of the word, the Celebrant begins with the +Collect of the Day* + +O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the +crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and +rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the +coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of +life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + +*Old Testament* Job 14:1-14 + +*Psalm* 130, *or* 31:1-5 + +*Epistle* 1 Peter 4:1-8 + +*Gospel* Matthew 27:57-66, *or* John 19:38-42 + + +*After the Gospel (and homily), in place of the Prayers of the People, +the Anthem "In the midst of life" (page 484 or 492) is sung or said.* + +*The service then concludes with the Lord's Prayer and the Grace.* + + + + + + + + +*The Great Vigil, when observed, is the first service of Easter Day. It +is celebrated at a convenient time between sunset on Holy Saturday and +sunrise on Easter Morning.* + +*The service normally consists of four parts:* + + 1. The Service of Light. + + 2. The Service of Lessons. + + 3. Christian Initiation, or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows. + + 4. The Holy Eucharist with the administration of Easter Communion. + +*It is customary for all the ordained ministry present, together with +lay readers, singers, and other persons, to take active parts in the +service.* + +*The bishop, when present, is the chief celebrant, presides at Baptism +and administers Communion, and normally preaches the sermon.* + +*The priests who are present share among them the reading of the +Collects which follow each Lesson, and assist at Baptism and the +Eucharist. In the absence of a bishop, a priest presides at the +service.* + +*It is the prerogative of a deacon to carry the Paschal Candle to its +place, and to chant the Exsultet. Deacons likewise assist at Baptism +and the Eucharist according to their order.* + +*Lay persons should read the Lessons and the Epistle, and assist in +other ways. A lay person may be assigned to chant the Exsultet. It is +desirable that each Lesson be read by a different reader.* + +*In the absence of a bishop or priest, a deacon or lay reader may lead +the first two parts of the service, the Renewal of Baptismal Vows, and +the Ministry of the Word of the Vigil Eucharist, concluding with the +Prayers of the People, the Lord's Prayer, and the Dismissal.* + +*A deacon may also, when the services of a priest cannot be obtained, +and with the authorization of the bishop, officiate at public Baptism; +and may administer Easter Communion from the Sacrament previously +consecrated.* + +*When the Vigil is not celebrated, the Service of Light may take place +at a convenient time before the Liturgy on Easter Day.* + + + + + + + + + + +*In the darkness, fire is kindled; after which the Celebrant may address +the people in these or similar words* + +Dear friends in Christ: On this most holy night, in which our +Lord Jesus passed over from death to life, the Church invites +her members, dispersed throughout the world, to gather in +vigil and prayer. For this is the Passover of the Lord, in which, +by hearing his Word and celebrating his Sacraments, we share +in his victory over death. + + +*The Celebrant may say the following prayer* + +Let us pray. + +O God, through your Son you have bestowed upon your +people the brightness of your light: Sanctify this new fire, and +grant that in this Paschal feast we may so burn with heavenly +desires, that with pure minds we may attain to the festival of +everlasting light; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*The Paschal Candle is then lighted from the newly kindled fire, and the +Deacon (the Celebrant if there is no deacon) bearing the Candle, leads +the procession to the chancel, pausing three times and singing or +saying* + +The light of Christ. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + + + +*If candles have been distributed to members of the congregation, they +are lighted from the Paschal Candle at this time. Other candles and +lamps in the church, except for those at the Altar, may also be +lighted.* + +*The Paschal Candle placed in its stand.* + +*Then the Deacon, or other person appointed, standing near the Candle, +sings or says the Exsultet, as follows (the indicated sections may be +omitted)* + +Rejoice now, heavenly hosts and choirs of angels, + +and let your trumpets shout Salvation + +for the victory of our mighty King. + + +Rejoice and sing now, all the round earth, + +bright with a glorious splendour, + +for darkness has been vanquished by our eternal King. + + +Rejoice and be glad now, Mother Church, + +and let your holy courts, in radiant light, + +resound with the praises of your people. + + +[[All you who stand near this marvelous and holy flame, + +pray with me to God the Almighty + +for the grace to sing the worthy praise of this great light; + +through Jesus Christ our Lord, + +who lives and reigns with him, + +in the unity of the Holy Spirit, + +one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.=]] + + +The Lord be with you. + +*Answer* And also with you. + +*Deacon* Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. + +*Answer* It is right to give him thanks and praise. + +*Deacon* + +It is truly right and good, always and everywhere, with our + +whole heart and mind to praise you, the invisible, +almighty, and eternal God, and your only-begotten Son, +Jesus Christ our Lord; for he is the true Paschal Lamb, who +at the feast of the Passover paid for us the debt of Adam's sin, +and by his blood delivered your faithful people. + +This is the night, when you brought our fathers, the children +of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt, and led them through the +Red Sea on dry land. + +This is the night, when all who believe in Christ are delivered +from the gloom of sin, and are restored to grace and holiness +of life. + +This is the night, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell, and +rose victorious from the grave. + +[[How wonderful and beyond our knowing, O God, is your +mercy and loving-kindness to us, that to redeem a slave, you +gave a Son.]] + +[[How holy is this night, when wickedness is put to flight, and +sin is washed away. It restores innocence to the fallen, and joy +to those who mourn. It casts out pride and hatred, and brings +peace and concord.]] + +[[How blessed is this night, when earth and heaven are joined +and man is reconciled to God.]] + +Holy Father, accept our evening sacrifice, the offering of this +candle in your honor. May it shine continually to drive away +all darkness. May Christ, the Morning Star who knows no +setting, find it ever burning--he who gives his light to all +creation, and who lives and reigns for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*It is customary that the Paschal Candle burn at all services from +Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost.* + + + + + + +*The Celebrant may introduce the Scripture readings in these or similar +words* + +Let us hear the record of God's saving deeds in history, how +he saved his people in ages past; and let us pray that our God +will bring each of us to the fullness of redemption. + +*At least two of the following Lessons are read, of which one is always +the Lesson from Exodus. After each Lesson, the Psalm or Canticle +listed, or some other suitable psalm, canticle, or hymn may be sung. A +period of silence may be kept; and the Collect provided, or some other +suitable Collect, may be said.* + + +*The story of Creation* + +Genesis 1:1-2:2 + +Psalm 33:1-11, *or* Psalm 36:5-10 + +Let us pray. *(Silence)* + +O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully +restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may +share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our +humanity, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*The Flood* + +Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18; 8:8-18; 9:8-13 + +Psalm 46 + +Let us pray. *(Silence)* + + + +Almighty God, you have placed in the skies the sign of your +covenant with all living things: Grant that we, who are saved +through water and the Spirit, may worthily offer to you our +sacrifice of thanksgiving; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + +*Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac* + +Genesis 22:1-18 + +Psalm 33:12-22, *or* Psalm 16 + +Let us pray. *(Silence)* + +God and Father of all believers, for the glory of your Name +multiply, by the grace of the Paschal sacrament, the number +of your children; that your Church may rejoice to see fulfilled +your promise to our father Abraham; through Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea* + +Exodus 14:10-15:1 + +Canticle 8, *The Song of Moses* + +Let us pray. *(Silence)* + +O God, whose wonderful deeds of old shine forth even to +our own day, you once delivered by the power of your mighty +arm your chosen people from slavery under Pharaoh, to be a +sign for us of the salvation of all nations by the water of +Baptism: Grant that all the peoples of the earth may be +numbered among the offspring of Abraham, and rejoice in +the inheritance of Israel; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + + + +*God's Presence in a renewed Israel* + +Isaiah 4:2-6 + +Psalm 122 + +Let us pray. *(Silence)* + +O God, you led your ancient people by a pillar of cloud by day +and a pillar of fire by night: Grant that we, who serve you +now on earth, may come to the joy of that heavenly Jerusalem, +where all tears are wiped away and where your saints for ever +sing your praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*Salvation offered freely to all* + +Isaiah 55:1-11 + +Canticle 9, *The First Song of Isaiah, or* Psalm 42:1-7 + +Let us pray. *(Silence)* + +O God, you have created all things by the power of your +Word, and you renew the earth by your Spirit: Give now the +water of life to those who thirsd for you, that they may bring +forth abundant fruit in your glorious kingdom; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*A new heart and a new spirit* + +Ezekiel 36:24-28 + +Psalm 42:1-7, *or* Canticle 9, *The First Song of Isaiah* + +Let us pray. *(Silence)* + +Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery +established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all + +who are reborn into the followship of Christ's Body may show +forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through +Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*The valley of dry bones* + +Ezekiel 37:1-14 + +Psalm 30, *or* Psalm 143 + +Let us pray. *(Silence)* + +Almighty God, by the Passover of your Son you have brought +us out of sin into righteousness and out of death into life: +Grant to those who are sealed by your Holy Spirit the will +and the power to proclaim you to all the world; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*The gathering of God's people* + +Zephaniah 3:12-20 + +Psalm 98, *or* Psalm 126 + +Let us pray. *(Silence)* + +O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look +favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred +mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry +out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world +see and know that things which were cast down are being +raised up, and things which had grown old are being made +new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection +by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + +*A homily may be preached after any of the preceding Readings.* + +*Holy Baptism (beginning with the Presentation of the Candidates, +page 305, and concluding with the reception of the newly baptized) may +be administered here or after the Gospel. Confirmation may also be +administered.* + +*The Celebrant may first address the people in these or similar words, +all standing* + +Through the Paschal mystery, dear friends, we are buried +with Christ by Baptism into his death, and raised with him to +newness of life. I call upon you, therefore, now that our +Lenten observance is ended, to renew the solemn promises +and vows of Holy Baptism, by which we once renounced +Satan and all his works, and promised to serve God faithfully +in his holy Catholic Church. + + + + + +*Celebrant* Do you reaffirm your renunciation of evil and +renew your commitment to Jesus Christ? + +*People* I do. + + +*Celebrant* Do you believe in God the Father? + +*People* I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and +earth. + + + + +*Celebrant* Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God? + +*People* I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. + He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit +/and born of the Virgin Mary. + He suffered under Pontius Pilate, +/was crucified, died, and was buried. + He descended to the dead. + On the third day he rose again. + He ascended into heaven, +/and is seated at the right hand of the Father. + He will come again to judge the living and the dead. + + +*Celebrant* Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit? + +*People * I believe in the Holy Spirit, + the holy catholic Church, + the communion of saints, + the forgiveness of sins, + the resurrection of the body, + and the life everlasting. + + +*Celebrant* Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and +fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + +*Celebrant* Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you + fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + +*Celebrant* Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of + God in Christ? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + +*Celebrant* Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving + your neighbor as yourself? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + + + +*Celebrant* Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, + and respect the dignity of every human being? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + +*The Celebrant concludes the Renewal of Vows as follows* + +May Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who +has given us a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and +bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sins, keep us in eternal +life by his grace, in Christ Jesus our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +*The candles at the Altar may now be lighted from the Paschal Candle.* + +*One of the following Canticles is then sung. Immediately before the +Canticle the Celebrant may say to the people* + +Alleluia. Christ is risen. + +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + +*The Canticles* + + Gloria in excelsis + + Te Deum laudamus + + Pascha nostrum + +*The Celebrant then says* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Let us pray. + + + +*The Celebrant says one of the following Collects* + +Almighty God, who for our redemption gave your only- +begotten Son to the death of the cross, and by his glorious +resurrection delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant +us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him +in the joy of his resurrection; through Jesus Christ your Son +our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, +one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, who made this most holy night to shine with the +glory of the Lord's resurrection: Stir up in your Church that +Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that we, +being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you +in sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives +and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +*Epistle* Romans 6:3-11 + +*"Alleluia" may be sung and repeated.* + +*Psalm 114, or some other suitable psalm or a hymn may be sung.* + +*Gospel* Matthew 28:1-10 + +*If a sermon or homily was not preached earlier, it follows here.* + +*The Nicene Creed is not used at this service* + +*Holy Baptism, Confirmation, or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows may +take place here.* + +*The celebration continues with the Prayers of the People.* + +*Preface of Easter* + + + + + + + + + + + + +*Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into +Christ's Body the Church. The bond which God establishes in Baptism +is indissoluble.* + +*Holy Baptism is appropriately administered within the Eucharist as the +chief service on a Sunday or other feast.* + +*The bishop, when present, is the celebrant; and is expected to preach +the Word and preside at Baptism and the Eucharist. At Baptism, the +bishop officiates at the Presentation and Examination of Candidates; +says the Thanksgiving over the Water; [consecrates the Chrism;] reads +the prayer, "Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy +Spirit;" and officiates at what follows.* + +*In the absence of a bishop, a priest is the celebrant and presides at +the service. If a priest uses Chrism in signing the newly baptized, it +must have been previously consecrated by the bishop.* + +*Each candidate for Holy Baptism is to be sponsored by one or more +baptized persons.* + +*Sponsors of adults and older children present their candidates and +thereby signify their endorsement of the candidates and their intention +to support them by prayer and example in their Christian life. Sponsors +of infants, commonly called godparents, present their candidates, make +promises in their own names, and also take vows on behalf of their +candidates.* + +*It is fitting that parents be included among the godparents of their +own children. Parents and godparents are to be instructed in the +meaning of Baptism, in their duties to help the new Christians grow in +the knowledge and love of God, and in their responsibilities as members +of his Church.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 312.* + + + + + + +*A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung.* + + +*The people standing, the Celebrant says* + + Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +*People* And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. Amen. + + +*In place of the above, from Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost* + +*Celebrant* Alleluia. Christ is risen. + +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + + +*In Lent and on other penitential occasions* + +*Celebrant* Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins. + +*People* His mercy endures for ever. + + +*The Celebrant then continues* + + There is one Body and one Spirit; + +*People* There is one hope in God's call to us; + +*Celebrant* One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; + +*People* One God and Father of all. + +*Celebrant* The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Let us pray. + + + + + + +*People* Amen. + +*At the principal service on a Sunday or other feast, the Collect and +Lessons are properly those of the Day. On other occasions, they are +selected from "At Baptism." (See Additional Directions, page 312.)* + + + + +*The people sit. One or two Lessons, as appointed, are read, +the Reader first saying* + +A Reading (Lesson) from &3em.. + +*A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.* + +*After each Reading, the Reader may say* + + The Word of the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or the Reader may say* Here ends the Reading (Epistle). + +*Silence may follow.* + +*A Psalm, hymn, or anthem may follow each Reading.* + +*Then, all standing, the Deacon or a Priest reads the Gospel, first +saying* + +The Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ +according to &3em.. + +*People* Glory to you, Lord Christ. + +*After the Gospel, the Reader says* + + The Gospel of the Lord. + +*People* Praise to you, Lord Christ. + + + + + +*Or the Sermon may be preached after the Peace.* + + + + + +*The Celebrant says* + +The Candidate(s) for Holy Baptism will now be presented. + + + + +*The candidates who are able to answer for themselves are presented +individually by their Sponsors, as follows* + +*Sponsor* I present &N. to receive the Sacrament of Baptism. + +*The Celebrant asks each candidate when presented* + + Do you desire to be baptized? + +*Candidate* I do. + + + + +*Then the candidates who are unable to answer for themselves are +presented individually by their Parents and Godparents, as follows* + +*Parents and Godparents* + +I present &N. to receive the Sacrament of Baptism. + + + +*When all have been presented the Celebrant asks the parents and +godparents* + +Will you be responsible for seeing that the child you present +is brought up in the Christian faith and life? + +*Parents and Godparents* + +I will, with God's help. + +*Celebrant* + +Will you by your prayers and witness help this child to grow +into the full stature of Christ? + +*Parents and Godparents* + +I will, with God's help. + +*The the Celebrant asks the following questions of the candidates who +can speak for themselves, and of the parents and godparents who speak +on behalf of the infants and younger children* + +*Question* Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces +of wickedness that rebel against God? + +*Answer* I renounce them. + +*Question* Do you renounce the evil powers of this world +which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God? + +*Answer* I renounce them. + +*Question* Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you +from the love of God? + +*Answer* I renounce them. + +*Question* Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior? + +*Answer* I do. + +*Question* Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love? + +*Answer* I do. + + + +*Question* Do you promise to follow and obey him as your +Lord? + +*Answer* I do. + +[[*When there are others to be presented, the Bishop says* + +The other Candidate(s) will now be presented. + +*Presenters* I present =these persons= for Confirmation. + +*or* I present =these persons= to be received into this +Communion. + +*or* I present =these persons= who =desire= to reaffirm +=their= baptismal vows. + +*The Bishop asks the candidates* + +Do you reaffirm your renunciation of evil? + +*Candidate* I do. + +*Bishop* + +Do you renew your commitment to Jesus Christ? + +*Candidate* + +I do, and with God's grace I will follow him as my Savior +and Lord.]] + +*After all have been presented, the Celebrant addresses the +congregation, saying* + +Will you who witness these vows do all in your +power to support =these persons= in =their= life in Christ? + +*People* We will. + +*The Celebrant then says these or similar words* + +Let us join with =those= who are committing =themselves= to Christ +and renew our own baptismal covenant. + + + + + + +*Celebrant* Do you believe in God the Father? + +*People* I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and +earth. + +*Celebrant* Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God? + +*People* I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. + + He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit +/and born of the Virgin Mary. + He suffered under Pontius Pilate, +/was crucified, died, and was buried. + He descended to the dead. + On the third day he rose again. + He ascended into heaven, +/and is seated at the right hand of the Father. + He will come again to judge the living and the dead. + +*Celebrant* Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit? + +*People* I believe in the Holy Spirit, + the holy catholic Church, + the communion of saints, + the forgiveness of sins, + the resurrection of the body, + and the life everlasting. + +*Celebrant* Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and +fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + +*Celebrant* Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you +fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord. + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + + +*Celebrant* Will you proclaim by word and example the Good +News of God in Christ? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + +*Celebrant* Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving +your neighbor as yourself? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + +*Celebrant* Will you strive for justice and peace among all +people, and respect the dignity of every human +being? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + + +*The Celebrant then says to the congregation* + +Let us now pray for =these persons= who are to receive the +Sacrament of new birth [and for those (this person) who =have= renewed +=their= commitment to Christ.] + +*A Person appointed leads tho following petitions* + +*Leader* Deliver =them,= O Lord, from the way of sin and death. + +*People* Lord, hear our prayer. + +*Leader* Open =their hearts= to your grace and truth. + +*People* Lord, hear our prayer. + +*Leader* Fill =them= with your holy and life-giving Spirit. + +*People* Lord, hear our prayer. + +*Leader* Keep =them= in the faith and communion of your holy +Church. + +*People* Lord, hear our prayer. + +*Leader* Teach =them= to love others in the power of the Spirit. + +*People* Lord, hear our prayer. + + + +*Leader* Send =them= into the world in witness to your love. + +*People* Lord, hear our prayer. + +*Leader* Bring =them= to the fullness of your peace and glory. + +*People* Lord, hear our prayer. + +*The Celebrant says* + +Grant, O Lord, that all who are baptized into the death +of Jesus Christ your Son may live in the power of his +resurrection and look for him to come again in glory; who +lives and reigns now and forever. =Amen.= + + + +*The Celebrant blosses the water, first saying* + + The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. + +*People* It is right to give him thanks and praise. + +*Celebrant* + +We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water. +Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation. +Through it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage +in Egypt into the land of promise. In it your Son Jesus +received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy +Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us, throught his death +and resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life. + +We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are +buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his +resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit. +Therefore in joyful obedience to your Son, we bring into his + +fellowship those who come to him in faith, baptizing them in +the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. + +*At the following words, the Celebrant touches the water* + +Now sanctify this water, we pray you, by the power of your +Holy Spirit, that those who here are cleansed from sin and +born again may continue for ever in the risen life of Jesus +Christ our Savior. + +To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be all honor and +glory, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +[[ + +*The Bishop may then consecrate oil of Chrism, placing a hand on +the vessel of oil, and saying* + +Eternal Father, whose blessed Son was anointed by the +Holy Spirit to be the Savior and servant of all, we pray you +to consecrate this oil, that those who are sealed with it may +share in the royal priesthood of Jesus Christ; who lives and +reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +*Each candidate is presented by name to the Celebrant, or to an +assisting +priest or deacon, who then immerses, or pours water upon, the +candidate, saying* + +&N., I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, +and of the Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + + + +*When this action has been completed for all candidates, the Bishop or +Priest, at a place in full sight of the congregation, prays over them, +saying* + +Let us pray. + +Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy +Spirit you have bestowed upon =these= your servants the +forgiveness of sin, and have raised =them= to the new life of +grace. Sustain =them,= O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give =them= +an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to +persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy +and wonder in all your works. =Amen.= + +*Then the Bishop or Priest places a hand on the person's head, marking +on the forehead the sign of the cross [using Chrism if desired] and +saying to each one* + +&N., you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked +as Christ's own for ever. =Amen.= + +*Or this action may be done immediately after the administration of the +water and before the preceding prayer.* + +*When all have been baptized, the Celebrant says* + +Let us welcome the newly baptized. + +*Celebrant and People* + +We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith +of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with +us in his eternal priesthood. + +*If Confirmation, Reception, or the Reaffirmation of Baptismal Vows is +not to follow, the Peace is now exchanged* + +*Celebrant* The peace of the Lord be always with you. + +*People* And also with you. + + + + + +*The Bishop says to the congregation* + +Let us now pray for =these persons= who have renewed +=their= commitment to Christ. + +*Silence may be kept.* + +*Then the Bishop says* + +Almighty God, we thank you that by the death and +resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ you have overcome sin +and brought us to yourself, and that by the sealing of your +Holy Spirit you have bound us to your service. Renew in +=these= your =servants= the covenant you made with =them= at =their= +Baptism. Send =them= forth in the power of the Spirit to +perform the service you set before =them;= through Jesus Christ +your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + + + + +*The Bishop lays hands upon each one and says* + +Strengthen, O Lord, your servant &N. with your Holy Spirit; +empower =him= for your service; and sustain =him= all the days +of =his= life. Amen. + +*or this* + +Defend, O Lord, your servant &N. with your heavenly grace, +that =he= may continue yours for ever, and daily increase in +your Holy Spirit more and more, until =he= comes to your +everlasting kingdom. =Amen.= + + + + + +&N., we recognize you as a member of the one holy catholic +and apostolic Church, and we receive you into the fellowship +of this Communion. God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, +bless, preserve, and keep you. =Amen.= + + + + +&N., may the Holy Spirit, who has begun a good work in you, +direct and uphold you in the service of Christ and his +kingdom. =Amen.= + +*Then the Bishop says* + +Almighty and everliving God, let your fatherly hand ever +be over =these= your =servants;= let your Holy Spirit ever be with +=them;= and so lead =them= in the knowledge and obedience of +your Word, that =they= may serve you in this life, and dwell +with you in the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +Amen. + +*The Peace is then exchanged* + +*Bishop* The peace of the Lord be always with you. + +*People* And also with you. + + + +*The service then continues with the Prayers of the People or the +Offertory of the Eucharist, at which the Bishop, when present, should be +the princpal Celebrant.* + +*Except on Principal Feasts, the Proper Preface of Baptism may be used.* + + + + + +*If there is no celebration of the Eucharist, the service continues with +the Lord's Prayer* + +&LordsPrayer. + +*The Celebrant then says* + +All praise and thanks to you, most merciful Father, for +adopting us as your own children, for incorporating us into +your holy Church, and for making us worthy to share in the +inheritance of the saints in light; through Jesus Christ your +Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*Alms may be received and presented, and other prayers may be added, +concluding with this prayer* + +Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from +whom every family in heaven and earth is named, grant you +to be strengthened with might by his Holy Spirit, that, Christ +dwelling in your hearts by faith, you may be filled with all the +fullness of God. =Amen.= + + + + + +*Holy Baptism is especially appropriate at the Easter Vigil, on the +Day of Pentecost, on All Saints' Day or the Sunday after All Saints' +Day, and on the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord (the First Sunday +after the Epiphany). It is recommended that, as far as possible, +Baptisms be reserved for these occasions or when a bishop is +present.* + +*If on any one of the above-named days the ministry of a bishop or +priest cannot be obtained, the bishop may specially authorize a +deacon to preside. In that case, the deacon omits the prayer over +the candidates, page 308, and the formula and action which follow.* + +*These omitted portions of the rite may be administered on some +subsequent occasion of public baptism at which a bishop or priest +presides.* + +*If on the four days listed above there are no candidates for Baptism, +the Renewal of Baptismal vows, page 292, may take the place of the +Nicene Creed at the Eucharist.* + +*If desired, the hymn Gloria in excelsis may be sung immediately after +the opening versicles and before the salutation "The Lord be with you."* + +*When a bishop is present, or on other occasions for sufficient reason, +the Collect (page 203 or 254) and one or more of the Lessons provided +for use at Baptism (page 928) may be substituted for the Proper of the +Day.* + +*Lay persons may act as readers, and it is appropriate for sponsors to +be assigned this function. The petitions (page 303) map also be led by +one of the sponsors.* + +*The Nicene Creed is not used at this service.* + +*If the Presentation of the Candidates does not take place at the font, +then before or during the petitions (page 305), the ministers, +candidates, and sponsors go to the font for the Thanksgiving over the +Water.* + +*If the movement to the font is a formal procession, a suitable psalm, +such as Psalm 42, or a hymn or anthem, may be sung.* + + + +*Where practicable, the font is to be filled with clean water +immediately before the Thanksgiving over the Water.* + +*At the Thanksgiving over the Water, and at the administration of +Baptism, the celebrant, whenever possible, should face the people across +the font, and the sponsors should be so grouped that the people may have +a clear view of the action.* + +*After the Baptism, a candle (which may be lifted from the Paschal +Candle) may be given to each of the newly baptized or to a godparent.* + +*It may be found desirable to return to the front of the church for the +prayer, "Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy +Spirit," and the ceremonies that follow it. A suitable psalm, such as +Psalm 23, or a hymn or anthem, may be sung during the procession.* + +*The oblations of bread and wine at the baptismal Eucharist may be +presented by the newly baptized or their godparents.* + + + + +*If there is reasonable doubt that a person has been baptized with +water, "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy +Spirit" (which are the essential parts of Baptism), the person is +baptized in the usual manner, but this form of words is used* + +If you are not already baptized, &N., I baptize you in the +Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. + + + + +*In case of emergency, any baptized person may administer Baptism +according to the following form.* + +*Using the given name of the one baptized (if known), pour water on +him or her, saying* + +I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and +of the Holy Spirit. + + + +The Lord's Prayer is then said.* + +*Other prayers, such as the following, may be added + +Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy +Spirit you have bestowed on upon this your servant the +forgiveness of sin and have raised =him= to the new life of +grace. Strengthen =him,= O Lord, with your presence, enfold +=him= in the arms of your mercy, and keep =him= safe forever. + +*The person who administers emergency Baptism should inform the priest +of the appropriate parish, so that the fact can be properly recorded.* + +*If the baptized person recovers, the Baptism should be recognized +at a public celebration of the Sacrament with a bishop or priest +presiding, and the person baptized under emergency conditions, +together with the sponsors or godparents, taking part in everything +except the administration of the water.* + + + + + + + + + + + + +*This Exhortation may be used, in whole or in part, either during the +Liturgy or at other times. In the absence of a deacon or priest, this +Exhortation may be read by a lay person. The people stand or sit.* + +Beloved in the Lord: Our Savior Christ, on the night before +he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and +Blood as a sign and pledge of his love, for the continual +remembrance of the sacrifice of his death, and for a spiritual +sharing in his risen life. For in these holy Mysteries we are +made one with Christ, and Christ with us; we are made one +body in him, and members one of another. + +Having in mind, therefore, his great love for us, and in +obedience to his command, his Church renders to Almighty +God our heavenly Father never-ending thanks for the +creation of the world, for his continual providence over us, +for his love for all mankind, and for the redemption of the +world by our Savior Christ, who took upon himsely our flesh, +and humbled himself even to death on the cross, that he +might make us the children of God by the power of the Holy +Spirit, and exalt us to everlasting life. + +But if we are to share rightly in the celebration of those holy +Mysteries, and be nourished by that spritual Food, we must remember +the dignity of that holy Sacrament. I therefore call +upon you to consider how Saint Paul exhorts all persons to +prepare themselves carefully before eating of that Bread and +drinking of that Cup. + +For, as the benefit is great, if with penitent hearts and living +faith we receive the holy Sacrament, so is the danger great, if +we receive it improperly, not recognizing the Lord's Body. +Judge yourselves, therefore, lest you me judged by the Lord. + + + +Examine your lives and conduct by the rule of God's +commandments, that you may perceive wherein you have +offended in what you have done or left undone, whether in +thought, word, or deed. And acknowledge your sins before +Almighty God, with full purpose of amendment of life, being +ready to make restitution for all injuries and wrongs done by +you to others; and also being ready to forgive those who have +offended you, in order that you yourselves may be forgiven. +And then, being reconciled with one another, come to the +banquet of that most heavenly Food. + +And if, in your preparation, you need help and counsel, then +go and open your grief to a discreet and understanding priest, +and confess your sins, that you may receive the benefit of +absolution, and spiritual counsel and advice; to the removal +of scruple and doubt, the assurance of pardon, and the +strengthening of your faith. + +To Christ our Lord who loves us, and washed us in his own +blood, and made us a kingdom of priests to serve his God +and Father, to him be glory in the Church evermore. Through +him let us offer continually the sacrifice of praise, which is +our bounden duty and service, and, with faith in him, come +boldly before the throne of grace [and humbly confess our +sins to Almighty God]. + + + + +God spake these words, and said: +I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of +Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none +other gods but me. +=Lord have mercy upon us, +and incline our hearts to keep this law.= + + + +Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the +likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth +beneath, or in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow +down to them, nor worship them. +=Lord have mercy upon us, +and incline our hearts to keep this law.= + +Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain. +=Lord have mercy upon us, +and incline our hearts to keep this law.= + +Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. +=Lord have mercy upon us, +and incline our hearts to keep this law.= + +Honor thy father and thy mother. +=Lord have mercy upon us, +and incline our hearts to keep this law.= + +Thou shalt do no murder. +=Lord have mercy upon us, +and incline our hearts to keep this law.= + +Thou shalt not commit adultry. +=Lord have mercy upon us, +and incline our hearts to keep this law.= + +Thou shalt not steal. +=Lord have mercy upon us, +and incline our hearts to keep this law.= + +Thous shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. +=Lord have mercy upon us, +and incline our hearts to keep this law.= + +Thou shalt not covet. +=Lord have mercy upon us, +and incline our hearts to keep this law.= + + + + + + + +*For use at the beginning of the Liturgy, or as a separate service.* + +*A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung.* + + +*The people standing, the Celebrant says* + +Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +*People* And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. Amen. + + +*In place of the above, from Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost* + +*Celebrant* Alleluia. Christ is risen. + +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + + +*In Lent and on other penitential occasions* + +*Celebrant* Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins. + +*People* His mercy endures for ever. + + +*When used as a separate service, the Exhortation, page 316, may be +read, or a homily preached.* + +*The Decalogue, page 317, may be said, the people kneeling.* + +*The Celebrant may read one of the following sentences* + +Hear what our Lord Jesus saith: + +Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with +all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great +commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt +love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments +hang all the Law and the Prophets. =Matthew 22:37-40= + + + +If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the +truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, God is faithful +and just to forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all +unrighteousness. =1 John 1:8,9= + +Seeing that we have a great heigh priest, that is passed into the +heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us come boldly unto the +throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to +help in time of need. =Hebrews 4:14,16= + + +*The Deacon or Celebrant then says* + +Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor. + +*Silence may be kept.* + + +*Minister and People* + +Most merciful God,we confess that we have sinned against thee +in thought, word, and deed, +by what we have done, +and by what we have left undone. +We have not loved thee with our whole heart; +we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. +We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. +For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, +have mercy on us and forgive us; +that we may delight in thy will, +and walk in your ways, +to the glory of your Name. Amen. + +*or this* + +Almighty and most merciful Father, +we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, +we have followed too much the devices and desires of our +/own hearts, + +we have offended against thy holy laws, +we have left undone those things which we ought to +/have done, +and we have done those things which we ought not to +/have done. +But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, +spare thou those who confess their faults, +restore thou those who are penitent, +according to thy promises declared unto mankind +in Christ Jesus our Lord; +and grand, O most merciful Father, for his sake, +that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, +to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen. + + +*The Bishop when present, or the Priest, stands and says* + +The Almighty and merciful Lord grant you absolution and +remission of all your sins, true repentance, amendment of +life, and the grace and consolation of his Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + +*A deacon or lay person using the preceding form substitutes "us" for +"you" and "our" for "your."* + +*When this Order is used at the beginning of the Liturgy, the service +continues with the Kyrie eleison, the Trisagion, or the Gloria in +excelsis.* + +*When used separately, it concludes with suitable prayers, and the Grace +or a blessing.* + + + + + + +*It is the bishop's prerogative, when present, to be the principal +celebrant at the Lord's Table, and to preach the Gospel.* + +*At all celebrations of the Liturgy, it is fitting that the principal +celebrant, whether bishop or priest, be assisted by other priests, and +by deacons and lay persons.* + +*It is appropriate that other priests present stand with the celebrant +at the Altar, and join in the consecration of the gifts, in breaking the +Bread, and in distributing Communion.* + +*A deacon should read the Gospel and may lead the Prayers of the People. +Deacons should also serve at the Lord's Table, preparing and placing on +it the offerings of bread and wine, and assisting in the ministration of +the sacrament to the people. In the absence of a deacon, these duties +may be performed by an assisting priest.* + +*Lay persons appointed by the celebrant should normally be assigned the +reading of the Lessons which precede the Gospel, and may lead the +Prayers of the People.* + +*Morning or Evening Prayer may be used in place of all that precedes the +Peace and the Offertory, provided that a lesson from the Gospel is +always included, and that the intercessions conform to the directions +given for the Prayers of the People.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 406.* + + + + + + + + + + +*A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung.* + + +*The people standing, the Celebrant may say* + +Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +*People* And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. +=Amen.= + + +*In place of the above, from Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost* + +*Celebrant* Alleluia. Christ is risen. + +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + + +*In Lent and on other penitential occasions* + +*Celebrant* Bless the Lord who forgiveth all our sins; + +*People* His mercy endureth for ever. + + +*The Celebrant says* + +Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires +known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the +thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, +that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy +holy Name; through Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + +*Then the Ten Commandments may be said, or the following* + +Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: + +Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with +all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great +commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt +love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments +hang all the Law and the Prophets. + + +*Here is sung or said* + +Lord, have mercy upon us. +=Christ, have mercy upon us.= +Lordhave mercy upon us. + +*or* + +Kyrie eleison. +=Christe eleison.= +Kyrie eleison. + +*or this* + +Holy God, +Holy and Mighty, +Holy Immortal One, +=Have mercy upon us.= + + +*When appointed, the following hymn or some other song of praise is sung +or said, in addition to, or in place of, the preceding, all standing* + +Glory be to God on high, + and on earth peace, good will towards men. + +We praise thee, we bless the, + we worship thee, + we glorify thee, +we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, +O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. + +O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; +O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, + that takest away the sins of the world, + have mercy upon us. + +Thou that takes away the sins of the world, + receive our prayer. +Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon +us. + +For thou only art holy; +thou only art the Lord; +thou only, O Christ, + with the Holy Ghost, + art most high in the glory of God the Father. =Amen.= + + + + + +*The Celebrant says to the people* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And with thy spirit. + +*Celebrant* Let us pray. + + +*The Celebrant says the Collect.* + +*People* =Amen.= + + + + +*The people sit. One or two Lessons, as appointed, are read, the Reader +first saying* + +A Reading (Lesson) from &mdash.. + +*A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.* + + +*After each Reading, the Reader may say + +The Word of the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + + +*or the Reader may say* Here endeth the Reading (Epistle). + + +*Silence may follow* + + +*A Psalm, hymn, or anthem may follow each Reading.* + + +*Then, all standing, the Deacon or a Priest reads the Gospel, first +saying The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to &mdash.* + +*People* Glory be to thee, O Lord. + + +*After the Gospel, the Reader says* + +The Gospel of the Lord. + +*People* Praise be to thee, O Christ. + + + + +*On Sundays and other Major Feasts there follows, all standing The +Nicene Creed* + +We believe in one God, + the Father, the Almighty, + maker of heaven and earth, + of all that is, seen and unseen. + +We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, + the only Son of God, + eternally begotten of the Father, + God from God, Light from Light, + true God from true God, + begotten, not made, + of one Being with the Father. + Through him all things were made. + For us and for our salvation + he came down from heaven: + + by the power of the Holy Spirit +he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, + and was made man. +For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; + he suffered death and was buried. + On the third day he rose again + in accordance with the Scriptures; + he ascended into heavan +and is seated at the right hand of the Father. +He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, + and his kingdom will have no end. + +We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, + who proceeds from the Father and the Son. + With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. + He has spoken through the Prophets. + We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. + We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. + We look for the resurrection of the dead, + and the life of the world to come. Amen. + +*or this* + +I believe in one God, + the Father Almighty, + maker of heaven and earth, +and of all things visible and invisible; + +And in one Lord Jesus Christ, + the only-begotten Son of God, +begotten of his Father before all worlds, + God of God, Light of Light, + very God of very God, + begotten, not made, + + being of one substance with the Father; + by whom all things were made; + who for us men and for our salvation + came down from heaven, +and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, + and was made man; + and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; + he suffered and was buried; +and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, + and ascended into heaven, + and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; + and he shall come again, with glory, + to judge both the quick and the dead; + whose kingdom shall have no end. +And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and Giver of Life, who +proceedeth from the Father and the Son; + who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped + and glorified; + who spake by the Prophets. + And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church; +I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins; + and I look for the resurrection of the dead, + and the life of the world to come. =Amen.= + + + + +*Intercession is offered according to the following form, or in +accordance with the directions on page 383.* + + +*The Deacon or other person appointed says* + +Let us pray for the whole state of Christ's Church and the world. + + +*After each paragraph of this prayer, the People may make an appropriate +response, as directed.* + + + +Almighty and everliving God, who in thy holy Word hast +taught us to make prayers, and supplications, and to give +thanks for all men: Receive these our prayers which we offer +unto thy divine Magesty, beseeching thee to inspire +continually the Universal Church with the spirit of truth, +unity, and concord; and grant that all those who do confess +thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word, and +live in unity and godly love. + +Give grace, O heavenly Father, to all bishops and other +ministers [especially &mdash.], that they may, both by +their life and doctrine, set forth thy true and lively Word, +and rightly and duly administer thy holy Sacraments. + +And to all thy people give thy heavenly grace, and especially +to this congregation here present; that, with meek heart and +due reverence, they may hear and receive thy holy Word, +truly serving thee in holiness and righteousness all the days +of their life. + +We beseech thee also so to rule the hearts of those who bear +the authority of government in this and every land [especially +&mdash.], that they may be led to wise decisions and right +actions for the welfare and peace of the world. + +Open, O Lord, the eyes of all people to behold thy gracious +hand in all thy works, that, rejoicing in thy whole creation, +they may honor thee with their substance, and be faithful +stewards of thy bounty. + +And we most humbly beseech thee, of thy goodness, O Lord, +to comfort and succor [&mdash. and] all those who, in this +transitory life, are in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any +other adversity. + + + +*Additional petitions and thanksgivings may be included here.* + +And we also bless thy holy Name for all thy servants +departed this life in thy faith and fear [especially &mdash.], +beseeching thee to grant them continual growth in thy love +and service; and to grant us grace so to follow the good +examples of [&mdash. and of] all thy saints, that with +them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom. + +Grant these our prayers, O Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, +our only Mediator and Advocate. =Amen.= + + +*If there is no celebration of the Communion, or if a priest is not +available, the service is concluded as directed page 406.* + + + + +*A Confession of Sin is said here if it has not been said earlier. On +occasion, the Confession may be omitted.* + +*The Deacon or Celebrant says the following, or else the Exhortation +page 316.* + +Ye who do truly and earnestly repent you of your sins, and +are in love and charity with your neighbors, and intend to +lead a new life, following the commandments of God, and +walking from henceforth in his holy ways: Draw near with +faith, and make your humble confession to Almighty God, +devoutly kneeling. + +*or this* + +Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God. + +*Silence may be kept.* + + + +*Minister and People* + +Almighty God, +Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, +maker of all things, judge of all men: +We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins +/and wickedness, +which we from time to time most grievously have committed, +by thought, word, and deed, against thy divine Majesty, +provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. +We do earnestly repent, +and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; +the remembrance of them is grievous unto us, +the burden of them is intolerable. +Have mercy upon us, +have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; +for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, +forgive us all that is past; +and grant that we may ever hereafter +serve and please thee in newness of life, +to the honor and glory of thy Name; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Most merciful God, +we confess that we have sinned against thee +in thought, word, and deed, +by what we have done, +and by what we have left undone. +We have not loved thee with our whole heart; +we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. +We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. +For the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ, +have mercy on us and forgive us; +that we may delight in thy will, +and walk in thy ways, +to the glory of thy Name. =Amen.= + + + +*The Bishop when present, or the Priest, stands and says* + +Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy +hath promised forgiveness of sins to all those who with +hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him, have mercy +upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm +and strengthen you in all goodness, and bring you to +everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*A Minister may then say one or more of the following sentences, first +saying* + +Hear the Word of God to all who truly turn to him. + +Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will +refresh you. =Matthew 11:28= + +God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, +to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but +have everlasting life. =John 3:16= + +This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, +that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. +=I Timothy 1:15= + +If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus +Christ the righteous; and he is the perfect offering for our +sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole +world. =I John 2:1-2= + + + + +*All stand. The Celebrant says to the people* + +The peace of the Lord be always with you. + +*People* And with thy spirit. + + +*Then the Ministers and People may greet one another in the name of the +Lord.* + + + + + + +*The Celebrant may begin the Offertory with one of the sentences on +pages 343-344, or with some other sentence of Scripture.* + +*During the Offertory, a hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung.* + +*Representatives of the congregation bring the people's offerings of +bread and wine, and money or other gifts, to the deacon or celebrant. +The people stand while the offerings are presented and placed on the +Altar.* + + + + +*An alternative form will be found on page 340.* + + + + +*The people remain standing. The Celebrant, whether bishop or priest, +faces them and sings or says* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And with thy spirit. + +*Celebrant* Lift up your hearts. + +*People* We lift them up unto the Lord. + +*Celebrant* Let us give thanks unto our Lord God. + +*People* It is meet and right so to do. + + +*Then, facing the Holy Table, the Celebrant proceeds* + +It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should +at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, +holy Father, almighty, everlasting God. + + + +*Here a Proper Preface is sung or said on all Sundays, and on other +occasions as appointed.* + +Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the +company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious +Name; evermore praising thee, and saying, + +*Celebrant and People* + +Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts: +Heaven and earth are full of thy Glory. +Glory be to thee, O Lord Most High. + +*Here may be added* + +Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. +Hosanna in the highest. + + +*The people kneel or stand.* + +*Then the Celebrant continues* + +All glory be to thee, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, for +that thou, of thy tender mercy, didst give thine only Son Jesus +Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who +made there, by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, +perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for +the sins of the whole world; and did institute, and in his holy +Gospel command us to continue, a perpetual memory of that +his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again. + +*At the following words concerning the bread, the Celebrant is to hold +it, or lay a hand upon it; and at the words concerning the cup, to hold +or place a hand upon the cup and any other vessel containing wine to be +consecrated* + +For in the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread; +and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave it to his + +disciples, saying, "Take, eat, this is my Body, which is given for +you. Do this in remembrance of me." + +Likewise, after supper, he took the cup; and when he had +given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, "Drink ye all of this; +for this is my Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for +you, and for many, for the remission of sins. Do this, as oft as +ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me." + +Wherefore, O Lord and heavenly Father, according to the +institution of thy dearly beloved Son our Savior Jesus Christ, +we, thy humble servants, do celebrate and make here before +thy divine Majesty, with these thy holy gifts, which we now +offer unto thee, the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to +make; having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious +death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension; +rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable +benefits procured unto us by the same. + +And we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to +hear us; and, of thy almighty goodness, vouchsafe to bless +and sanctify, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, these thy gifts +and creatures of bread and wine; that we, receiving them +according to thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ's holy institution, +in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers +of his most blessed Body and Blood. + +And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to +accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; most +humbly beseeching thee to grant that, by the merits and +death of thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, +we, and all thy whole Church, may obtain remission of our +sins, and all other benefits of his passion. + + + +And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, +our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living +sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee that we, and all +others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may +worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son +Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, +and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and +we in him. + +And although we are unworthy, through our manifold sins, +to offer unto thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept +this our bounden duty and service, not weighing our merits, +but pardoning our offences, through Jesus Christ our Lord; + +By whom, and with whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, +all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world +without end. AMEN. + + +And now, as our Savior Christ hath taught us, we are bold +to say, + +*People and Celebrant* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be thy Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, + on earth as it is in heaven. +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those who trespass against us. +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. +For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and +ever. =Amen.= + + + + + + +*The Celebrant breaks the consecrated Bread.* + +*A period of silence is kept.* + + +*Then may be sung or said* + +[Alleluia.] Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; +Therefore let us keep the feast. [Alleluia.] + +*In Lent, Alleluia is omitted, and may be omitted at other times except +during Easter Season.* + +*The following or some other suitable anthem may be sung or said here* + +O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, +have mercy upon us. + +O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, +have mercy upon us. + +O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, +grant us thy peace. + + +*The following prayer may be said. The People may join in saying this +prayer* + +We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful +Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold +and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather +up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord +whose property is always to have mercy. Grant us therefore, +gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, +and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him, +and he in us. =Amen.= + + + +*Facing the people, the Celebrant may say the following Invitation* + +The Gifts of God for the People of God. + +*and may add* + +Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you, and +feed on him in your hearts by faith, with thanksgiving. + +*The ministers receive the Sacrament in both kinds, and then immediately +deliver it to the people* + + +*The Bread and the Cup are given to the communicants with these words* + +The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, +preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Take and eat +this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on +him in thy heart by faith, with thanksgiving. + +The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee, +preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Drink this in +remembrance that Christ's Blood was shed for thee, and be +thankful. + +*or with these words* + +The Body (Blood) of our Lord Jesus Christ keep you in +everlasting life. [=Amen.=] + +*or with these words* + +The Body of Christ, the bread of heaven. [=Amen.=] + +The Blood of Christ, the cup of salvation. [=Amen.=] + + +*During the ministration of Communion, hymns, psalms, or anthems may be +sung.* + +*When necessary, the Celebrant consecrates additional bread and wine, +using the form on page 408.* + + +*After Communion, the Celebrant says* + +Let us pray. + +*The People may join in saying this prayer* + +Almighty and everliving God, we most heartily thank thee +for that thou dost feed us, in these holy mysteries, with the +spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of thy +Son our Savior Jesus Christ; and dost assure us thereby of +thy favor and goodness towards us; and that we are very +members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the +blessed company of all faithful people; and are also heirs, +through hope, of thy everlasting kingdom. And we humbly +beseech thee, O heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy +grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do +all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the +Holy Ghost, be all honor and glory, world without end. +=Amen.= + + +*The Bishop when present, or the Priest, gives the blessing* + +The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep +your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, +and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of +God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be +amongst you, and remain with you always. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the +Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you for ever. =Amen.= + + +*The Deacon, or the Celebrant, may dismiss the people with these words* + +Let us go forth in the name of Christ. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + + +*or the following* + + + +*Deacon* Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + + +*or this* + +*Deacon* Let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the +Spirit. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + + +*or this* + +*Deacon* Let us bless the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*From the Easter Vigil through the Day of Pentecost "Alleluia, alleluia" +may be added to any of the dismissals.* + +*The People respond* Thanks be to God. Alleluia, Alleluia. + + + + + + + +*The people remain standing. The Celebrant, whether bishop or priest, +faces them and sings or says* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And with thy spirit. + +*Celebrant* Lift up your hearts. + +*People* We lift them up unto the Lord. + +*Celebrant* Let us give thanks unto our Lord God. + +*People* It is meet and right so to do. + + + +*Then, facing the Holy Table, the Celbrant proceeds* + +It is very mee, right, and our bounden duty, that we should +at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, +holy Father, almighty, everlasting God. + + +*Here a Proper Preface is sung or said on all Sundays, and on other +occasions as appointed.* + +Therefore with Angels and Archangels, and with all the +company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious +Name; evermore praising thee, and saying, + + +*Celebrant and People* + +Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts: +Heaven and earth are full of thy glory. +Glory be to thee, O Lord Most High. + +*Here may be added* + +Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. +Hosanna in the highest. + + +*The people kneel or stand.* + +*Then the Celebrant continues* + +All glory be to thee, O Lord our God, for that thou didst +create heaven and earth, and didst make us in thine own +image; and, of thy tender mercy, didst give thine only Son +Jesus Christ to take our nature upon him, and to suffer death +upon the cross for our redemption. He made there a full and +perfect sacrifice for the whole world; and did institute, and in +his holy Gospel command us to continue, a perpetual +memory of that his precious death and sacrifice, until his +coming again. + + + +*At the following words concerning the bread, the Celebrant is to hold +it, or lay a hand upon it; and at the words concerning the cup, to hold +or place a hand upon the cup and any other vessel containing wine to be +consecrated* + +For in the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread; +and when he had given thanks to thee, he broke it, and gave it +to his disciples, saying, "Take, eat, this is my Body, which is +given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." + +Likewise, after supper, he took the cup; and when he had +given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, "Drink this, all of +you; for this is my Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed +for you, and for many, for the remission of sins. Do this, as +oft as ye shall drink it, in remembrance of me." + +Wherefore, O Lord and heavenly Father, we thy people do +celebrate and make, with these thy holy gifts which we now +offer unto thee, the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to +make; having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious +death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension; and +looking for his coming again with power and great glory. + +And we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to +hear us, and, with thy Word and Holy Spirit, to bless and +sanctify these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be unto +us the Body and Blood of thy dearly-beloved Son Jesus +Christ. + +And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness to accept this +our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, whereby we offer +and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and +bodies. Grant, we beseech thee, that all who partake of this +Holy Communion may worthily receive the most precious +Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, and be filled with +thy grace and heavenly benediction; and also that we and all +thy whole Church may be made one body with him, that he + +may dwell in us, and we in him; through the same Jesus +Christ our Lord; + +By whome, and with whom, and in whom, in the unity of the +Holy Ghost all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father +Almighty, world without end. AMEN. + +And now, as our Savior Christ hath taught us, we are bold +to say, + +*Continue with the Lord's Prayer, page 336.* + + + + +*One of the following, or some other appropriate sentence of Scripture +may be used* + +Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and make good thy +vows unto the Most High. =Psalm 50:14= + +Ascribe to the Lord the honor due his Name; bring offerings +and come into his courts. =Psalm 96:8= + +Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an +offering and sacrifice to God. =Ephesians 5:2= + +I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present +yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, +which is your spiritual worship. =Romans 12:1= + +If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that +thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift +before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy +brother, and then come and offer thy gift. =Matthew 5:23,24= + + + +Through Christ let us continually offer to God the sacrifice of +praise, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his Name. +But to do good and to distribute, forget not; for with such +sacrifices God is well pleased. =Hebrews 13:15,16= + +Worthy art thou, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor +and power; for thou hast created all things, and by thy will +they were created and have their being. =Revelation 4:11= + +Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, +and the victory, and the majesty. For all that is in the heaven +and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and +thou art exalted as head above all. =1 Chronicles 29:11= + +*or this bidding* + +Let us with gladness present the offerings and oblations of +our life and labor to the Lord. + + + + + + + +*To be used on Sundays as appointed, but not on the succeeding weekdays* + +=1. Of God the Father= + +Creator of the light and source of life, who hast made us in +thine image, and called us to new life in Jesus Christ our +Lord. + +*or the following* + + + + +=2. Of God the Son= + +Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who on the first day of the +week overcame death and the grave, and by his glorious +resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life. + +*or this* + + +=3. Of God the Holy Spirit= + +Who by water and the Holy Spirit hast made us a new people +in Jesus Christ our Lord, to show forth thy glory in all the +world. + + + + +*To be used on Sundays and weekdays alike, except as otherwise +appointed for Holy Days and Various Occasions* + + +=Advent= + +Because thou didst send thy beloved Son to redeem us from +sin and death, and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; +that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to +judge the world, we man without shame or fear rejoice to +behold his appearing. + + +=Incarnation= + +Because thou didst give Jesus Christ, thine only Son, to be +born for us; who, by the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, +was made very Man of the substance of the Virgin Mary his +mother; that we might be delivered from the bondage of sin, +and receive power to become thy children. + + + + +=Epiphany= + +Because in the mystery of the Word made flesh, thou hast +caused a new light to shine in our hearts, to give the knowledge +of thy glory in the face of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. + + +=Lent= + +Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who was in every way +tempted as we are, yet did not sin; wy whose grace we are +able to triumph over every evil, and to live no longer unto +outselves, but unto him who died for us and rose again. + +*or this* + +Who dost bid thy faithful people cleanse their hearts, and +prepare with joy for the Paschal feast; that, fervent in prayer +and in works of mercy, and renewed by thy Word and +Sacraments, they may come to the fulness of grace which +thou hast prepared for those who love thee. + + +=Holy Week= + +Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who for our sins was lifted +high upon the cross, that he might draw the whole world to +himself; who by his suffering and death became the author of +eternal salvation for all who put their trust in him. + + +=Easter= + +But chiefly are we bound to praise thee for the glorious +resurrection of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord; for he is the +very Paschal Lamb, who was sacrificed for us, and hath +taken away the sin of the world; who by his death hath +destroyed death, and by his rising to life again hath won for +us everlasting life. + + + + +=Ascension= + +Through thy dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who +after his glorious resurrection manifestly appeared to his +disciples; and in their sight ascended into heaven, to prepare +a place for us; that where he is, there we might also be, and +reign with him in glory. + + +=Pentecost= + +Through Jesus Christ our Lord; according to whose true +promise the Holy Ghost came down [on this day] from +heaven, lighting upon the disciples, to teach them and to lead +them into all truth; uniting peoples of many tongues in the +confession of one faith, and giving to thy Church the power +to serve thee as a royal priesthood, and to preach the Gospel +to all nations. + + + + + +=Trinity Sunday= + +For with thy co-eternal Son and Holy Spirit, thou art one God, +one Lord, in Trinity of Persons and in Unity of Substance; +and we celebrate the one and equal glory of thee, O Father, +and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. + + +=All Saints= + +Who, in the multitude of thy saints, hast compassed us about +with so great a cloud of witnesses, that we, rejoicing in their +fellowship, may run with patience the race that is set before +us; and, together with them, may receive the crown of glory +that fadeth not away. + + + + +=A Saint= + +For the wonderful grace and virtue declared in all thy saints, +who have been chosen vessels of thy grace, and the lights +of the world in their generations. + +*or this* + +Who in the obedience of thy saints hast given us an example +of righteousness, and in their eternal joy a glorious pledge of +the hope of our calling. + +*or this* + +Because thou are greatly glorified in the assembly of thy saints. +All thy creatures praise thee, and thy faithful servants bless +thee, confessing before the rulers of this world the great Name +of thine only Son. + + +=Apostles and Ordinations= + +Through the great shepherd of thy flock, Jesus Christ our +Lord; who after his resurrection sent forth his apostles to +preach the Gospel and to teach all nations; and promised to +be with them always, even unto the end of the ages. + + +=Dedication of a Church= + +Through Jesus Christ our great High Priest; in whom we are +build up as living stones of a holy temple, that we might offer +before thee a sacrifice of praise and prayer which is holy and +pleasing in thy sight. + + +=Baptism= + +Because in Jesus Christ our Lord thou hast received us as thy +sons and daughters, made us citizens of thy kingdom, and +given us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. + + + + +=Marriage= + +Because in the love of wife and husband, thou hast given us +an image of the heavenly Jerusalem, adorned as a bride for +her bridegroom, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who loveth +her and gave himself for her, that he might make the whole +creation new. + + +=Commemoration of the Dead= + +Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who rose victorious from the +dead, and doth comfort us with the blessed hope of +everlasting life; for to thy faithful people, O Lord, life is +changed, not ended; and when our mortal body doth lie in +death, there is prepared for us a dwelling place eternal in the +heavens. + + + + + + +Hear the commandments of God to his people: + +I am the Lord your God who brought you out of bondage. +You shall have no other gods but me. +=Amen. Lord have mercy.= + +You shall not make for yourself any idol. +=Amen. Lord have mercy.= + +You shall not invoke with malice the Name of the Lord your God. +=Amen. Lord have mercy.= + +Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. +=Amen. Lord have mercy.= + +Honor your father and your mother. +=Amen. Lord have mercy.= + +You shall not commit murder. +=Amen. Lord have mercy.= + +You shall not commit adultery. +=Amen. Lord have mercy.= + +You shall not steal. +=Amen. Lord have mercy.= + +You shall not be a false witness. +=Amen. Lord have mercy.= + +You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. +=Amen. Lord have mercy.= + + + + + + +*For use at the beginning of the Liturgy, or as a separate service.* + +*A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung.* + +*The people standing, the Celebrant says* + +Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +*People* And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. Amen. + + +*In place of the above, from Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost* + +*Celebrant* Alleluia. Christ is risen. + +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + + +*In Lent and on other penitential occasions* + +*Celebrant* Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins. + +*People* His mercy endures for ever. + + +*When used as a separate service, the Exhortation, page 316, may be +read, or a homily preached.* + +*The Decalogue may be said, the people kneeling.* + +*The Celebrant may read one of the following sentences* + +Jesus said, "The first commandments is this: Hear, O Israel: +The Lord your God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your +God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your +mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: Love +your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment +greater than these." =Mark 12:29-31= + + + +If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the +truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God, who is +faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all +unrighteousness. =1 John 1:8,9= + +Since we have a great high priest who has pased through the +heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us with confidence draw +near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and +find grace to help in time of need. =Hebrews 4:14,16= + + +*The Deacon or Celebrant then says* + +Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor. + +*Silence may be kept.* + + +*Minister and People* + +Most merciful God,we confess that we have sinned against you +in thought, word, and deed, +by what we have done, +and by what we have left undone. +We have not loved you with our whole heart; +we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. +We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. +For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, +have mercy on us and forgive us; +that we may delight in your will, +and walk in your ways, +to the glory of your Name. Amen. + + + +*The Bishop when present, or the Priest, stands and says* + +Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins +through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all +goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you +in eternal life. =Amen.= + +*A deacon or lay person using the preceding form substitutes "us" for +"you" and "our" for "your."* + +*When this Order is used at the beginning of the Liturgy, the service +continues with the Gloria in excelsis, the Kyrie eleison, or the +Trisagion.* + +*When used separately, it concludes with suitable prayers, and the Grace +or a blessing.* + + + + + + +*It is the bishop's prerogative, when present, to be the principal +celebrant at the Lord's Table, and to preach the Gospel.* + +*At all celebrations of the Liturgy, it is fitting that the principal +celebrant, whether bishop or priest, be assisted by other priests, and +by deacons and lay persons.* + +*It is appropriate that other priests present stand with the celebrant +at the Altar, and join in the consecration of the gifts, in breaking the +Bread, and in distributing Communion.* + +*A deacon should read the Gospel and may lead the Prayers of the People. +Deacons should also serve at the Lord's Table, preparing and placing on +it the offerings of bread and wine, and assisting in the ministration of +the sacrament to the people. In the absence of a deacon, these duties +may be performed by an assisting priest.* + +*Lay persons appointed by the celebrant should normally be assigned the +reading of the Lessons which precede the Gospel, and may lead the +Prayers of the People.* + +*Morning or Evening Prayer may be used in place of all that precedes the +Peace and the Offertory, provided that a lesson from the Gospel is +always included, and that the intercessions conform to the directions +given for the Prayers of the People.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 406.* + + + + + +The Holy Eucharist: Rite Two> + + + + +*A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung.* + +*The people standing, the Celebrant says* + +Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +*People* And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. +Amen. + + +*In place of the above, from Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost* + +*Celebrant* Alleluia. Christ is risen. + +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + + +*In Lent and on other penitential occasions* + +*Celebrant* Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins. + +*People* His mercy endures for ever. + + +*The Celebrant may say* + +Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, +and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our +hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may +perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; +through Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + +*When appointed, the following hymn or some other song of praise is sung +or said, all standing* + +Glory to God in the highest, + and peace to his people on earth. + +Lord God, heavenly King, +almighty God and Father, + we worship you, we give you thanks, + we praise you for your glory. + +Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, +Lord God, Lamb of God, +you take away the sin of the world: + have mercy on us; +you are seated at the right hand of the Father: + receive our prayer. + +For you alone are the Holy One, +you alone are the Lord, +you alone are the Most High, + Jesus Christ, + with the Holy Spirit, + in the glory of God the Father. Amen. + + +*On other occasions the following is used* + +Lord, have mercy. +=Christ, have mercy.= +Lord, have mercy. + +*or this* + +Holy God, +Holy and Mighty, +Holy Immortal One, +=Have mercy upon us.= + + + + + + +*The Celebrant says to the people* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Let us pray. + + +*The Celebrant says the Collect.* + +*People* Amen. + + + + +*The people sit. One or two Lessons, as appointed, are read, +the Reader first saying* + +A Reading (Lesson) from &mdash.. + +*A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.* + + +*After each Reading, the Reader may say* + +The Word of the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or the Reader may say* Here ends the Reading (Epistle). + +*Silence may follow.* + + +*A Psalm, hymn, or anthem may follow each Reading.* + + +*Then, all standing, the Deacon or a Priest reads the Gospel, first +saying* + +The Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ +according to &mdash.. + +*People* Glory to you, Lord Christ. + + + +*After the Gospel, the Reader says* + +The Gospel of the Lord. +*People* Praise to you, Lord Christ. + + + + + +*On Sundays and other Major Feasts there follows, all standing* + + + + +We believe in one God, + the Father, the Almighty, + maker of heaven and earth, + of all that is, seen and unseen. + +We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, + the only Son of God, + eternally begotten of the Father, + God from God, Light from Light, + true God from true God, + begotten, not made, + of one Being with the Father. + Through him all things were made. + For us and for our salvation + he came down from heaven: + by the power of the Holy Spirit + he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, + and was made man. + For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; + he suffered death and was buried. + On the third day he rose again + in accordance with the Scriptures; + he ascended into heaven + and is seated at the right hand of the Father. + + He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, + and his kingdom will have no end. + +We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, + who proceeds from the Father and the Son. + With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. + He has spoken through the Prophets. + We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. + We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. + We look for the resurrection of the dead, + and the life of the world to come. Amen. + + + + +*Prayer is offered with intercession for + + The Universal Church, its members, and its mission + + The Nation and all in authority + + The welfare of the world + + The concerns of the local community + + Those who suffer and those in any trouble + + The departed (with commemoration of a saint when appropriate)* + +*See the forms beginning on page 383.* + +*If there is no celebration of the Communion, or if a priest is not +available, the service is concluded as directed on page 406.* + + + + +*A Confession of Sin is said here if it has not been said earlier. On +occasion, the Confession may be omitted.* + +*One of the sentences from the Penitential Order on page 351 may be +said.* + + + +*The Deacon or Celebrant says* + +Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor. + +*Silence may be kept.* + +*Minister and People* + +Most merciful God, +we confess that we have sinned against you +in thought, word, and deed, +by what we have done, +and by what we have left undone. +We have not loved you with our whole heart; +we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we +humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, +have mercy on us and forgive us; +that we may delight in your will, +and walk in your ways, +to the glory of your Name. Amen. + + +*The Bishop, when present, or the Priest, stands and says* + +Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins +through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all +goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in +eternal life. =Amen.= + + + + +*All stand. The Celebrant says to the people* + +The peace of the Lord be always with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Then the Ministers and People may greet one another in the name of the +Lord.* + + + + + + +*The Celebrant may begin the Offertory with one of the sentences on page +376, or with some other sentence of Scripture.* + +*During the Offertory, a hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung.* + +*Representatives of the congregation bring the people's offerings of +bread and wine, and money or other gifts, to the deacon or celebrant. +The people stand while the offerings are presented and placed on the +Altar.* + + + + +*Alternative forms will be found on page 367 and following.* + + + + +*The people remain standing. The Celebrant, whether bishop or priest, +faces them and sings or says* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Lift up your hearts. + +*People* We lift them to the Lord. + +*Celebrant* Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. + +*People* It is right to give him thanks and praise. + + +*Then, facing the Holy Table, the Celebrant proceeds* + +It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and every- +where to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of +heaven and earth. + +*Here a Proper Preface is sung or said on all Sundays, and on other +occasions as appointed.* + + + +Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and +Archangels and with all the company of heaven, who for ever +sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your Name: + + +*Celebrant and People* + +Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, +heaven and earth are full of your glory. + Hosanna in the highest. +Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. + Hosanna in the highest. + +*The people stand or kneel.* + + +*Then the Celebrant continues* + +Holy and gracious Father: In your infinite love you made us +for yourself, and, when we had fallen into sin and become +subject to evil and death, you, in your mercy, sent Jesus +Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share our human +nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the +God and Father of all. + +He stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself, +in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole +world. + +*At the following words concerning the bread, the Celebrant is to hold +it, or to lay a hand upon it; and at the words concerning the cup, to +hold or place a hand upon the cup and any other vessel containing wine +to be consecrated.* + +On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our +Lord Jesus Christ took bread; and when he had given thanks +to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, "Take, +eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the +remembrance of me." + + + +After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given +thanks, he gave it to them, and said, "Drink this, all of you: +This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you +and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink +it, do this for the remembrance of me." + +Therefore we proclaim the mystery of faith: + +*Celebrant and People* + +Christ has died. + +Christ is risen. + +Christ will come again. + + +*The Celebrant continues* + +We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in +this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Recalling his death, +resurrection, and ascension, we offer you these gifts. + +Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the +Body and Blood of your Son, the holy food and drink of new +and unending life in him. Sanctify us also that we may faithfully +receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, +and peace; and at the last day bring us with all your saints +into the joy of your eternal kingdom. + +All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ: By him, and +with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor +and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. =AMEN.= + +And now, as our Savior +Christ has taught us, +we are bold to day, + + + +As our Savior Christ +has taught us, +we now pray, + + + + +*People and Celebrant* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed by thy Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, + on earth as it is in heaven. +Give us this day our daily bread. +And Forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those + who trespass against us. +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + + + +Our Father in heaven, + hallowed be your Name, + your kingdom come, + your will be done, + on earth as in heaven. +Give us today our daily bread. +Forgive us our sins + as we forgive those + who sin against us. +Save us from the time of trial, + and deliver us from evil. +For the kingdom, the power, + and the glory are yours, + now and for ever. Amen. + + + + +*The Celebrant breaks the consecrated Bread.* + +*A period of silence is kept.* + +*Then may be sung or said* + +[Alleluia.] Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; +=Therefore let us keep the feast. [Alleluia.]= + +*In Lent, Alleluia is omitted, and may be omitted at other times except +during Easter Season.* + +*In place of, or in addition to, the preceding, some other suitable +anthem may be used.* + +*Facing the people, the Celebrant says the following Invitation* + +The Gifts of God for the People of God. + + + +*and may add* + + Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you, and + feed on him in your hearts by faith, + with thanksgiving. + +*The ministers receive the Sacrament in both kinds, and then immediately +deliver it to the people.* + +*The Bread and the Cup are given to the communicants with these words* + +The Body (Blood) of our Lord Jesus Christ keep you in +everlasting life. [=Amen.=] + +*or with these words* + +The Body of Christ, the bread of heaven. [=Amen.=] + +The Blood of Christ, the cup of salvation. [=Amen.=] + +*During the ministration of Communion, hymns, psalms, or anthems may be +sung.* + +*When necessary, the Celebrant consecrates additional bread and wine, +using the form on page 408.* + +*After Communion, the Celebrant says* + +Let us pray. + +*Celebrant and People* + +Eternal God, heavenly Father, +you have graciously accepted us as living members +of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, +and you have fed us with spiritual food +in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. +Send us now into the world in peace, +and grant us strength and courage +to love and serve you +with gladness and singleness of heart; +through Christ our Lord. Amen. + +*or the following* + + + +Almighty and everliving God, +we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food +of the most precious Body and Blood +of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; +and for assuring us in these holy mysteries +that we are living members of the Body of your Son, +and heirs of your eternal kingdom. +And now, Father, send us out +to do the work you have given us to do, +to love and serve you +as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord. +To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, +be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen. + +*The Bishop, when present, or the Priest, may bless the people.* + + +*The Deacon, or the Celebrant, dismisses them with these words* + +Let us go forth in the name of Christ. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or this* + +*Deacon* Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or this* + +*Deacon* Let us go forth into the world, +rejoicing in the power of the Spirit. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or this* + +*Deacon* Let us bless the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*From the Easter Vigil through the Day of Pentecost "Alleluia, alleluia" +may be added to any of the dismissals.* + +*The People respond* Thanks be to God. Alleluia, alleluia. + + + + + + + + + +*The people remain standing. The Celebrant, whether bishop or priest, +faces them and says* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Lift up your hearts. + +*People* We lift them to the Lord. + +*Celebrant* Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. + +*People* It is right to give him thanks and praise. + + +*Then, facing the Holy Table, the Celebrant proceeds* + +It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and every- +where to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of +heaven and earth. + +*Here a Proper Preface is sung or said on all Sundays, and on other +occasions as appointed.* + +Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and +Archangels and with all the company of heaven, who for ever +sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your Name: + +*Celebrant and People* + +Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, +heaven and earth are full of your glory. + Hosanna in the highest. +Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. + Hosanna in the highest. + + + +*The people stand or kneel.* + +*Then the Celebrant continues* + +We give thanks to you, O God, for the goodness and love +which you have made known to us in creation; in the calling +of Israel to be your people; in your Word spoken through the +prophets; and above all in the Word made flesh, Jesus, your +Son. For in these last days you sent him to be incarnate from +the Virgin Mary, to be the Savior and Redeemer of the world. +In him, you have delivered us from evil, and made us worthy +to stand before you. In him, you have brought us out of error +into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life. + +*At the following words concerning the bread, the Celebrant is to hold +it, or to lay a hand upon it; and at the words concerning the cup, to +hold or place a hand upon the cup and any other vessel containing wine +to be consecrated.* + +On the night before he died for us, our Lord Jesus Christ took +bread; and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, and +gave it to his disciples, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, +which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me." + +After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given +thanks, he gave it to them, and said, "Drink this, all of you: +This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you +and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink +it, do this for the remembrance of me." + +Therefore, according to his command, O Father, + +*Celebrant and People* + +We remember his death, +We proclaim his resurrection, +We await his coming in glory; + + + +*The Celebrant continues* + +And we offer our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to you, +O Lord of all; presenting to you, from your creation, this +bread and this wine. + +We pray you, gracious God, to send your Holy Spirit upon +these gifts that they may be the Sacrament of the Body of +Christ and his Blood of the new Covenant. Unite us to your +Son in his sacrifice, that we may be acceptable through him, +being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. In the fullness of time, +put all things in subjection under your Christ, and bring us to +that heavenly country where, with [&mdash. and] all your +saints, we may enter the everlasting heritage of your sons and +daughters; through Jesus Christ our Lord, the firstborn of all +creation, the head of the Church, and the author of our +salvation. + +By him, and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy +Spirit all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and +for ever. =AMEN.= + +And now, as our Savior +Christ has taught us, +we are bold to say, + + + +As our Savior Christ +has taught us, +we now pray, + +*Continue with the Lord's Prayer on page 364.* + + + + +*In this prayer, the lines in italics are spoken by the People.* + +*The Celebrant, whether bishop or priest, faces them and sings or says* + +The Lord be with you. +=And also with you.= + + + +Lift up your hearts. +=We lift them to the Lord.= + +Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. +=It is right to give him thanks and praise.= + +*Then, facing the Holy Table, the Celebrant proceeds* + +God of all power, Ruler of the Universe, you are worthy of +glory and praise. +=Glory to you for ever and ever.= + +At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of +interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, +and this fragile earth, our island home. +=By your will they were created and have their being.= + +From the primal elements you brought forth the human race, +and blessed us with memory, reason, and skill. You made us +the rulers of creation. But we turned against you, and betrayed +your trust; and we turned against one another. +=Have mercy, Lord, for we are sinners in your sight.= + +Again and again, you called us to return. Through prophets +and sages you revealed your righteous Law. And in the +fullness of time you sent you only Son, born of a woman, to +fulfill your Law, to open for is the way of freedom and peace. +=By his blood, he reconciled us. +By his wounds, we are healed.= + +And therefore we praise you, joining with the heavenly +chorus, with prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and with all +those in every generation who have looked to you in hope, to +proclaim with them your glory, in their unending hymn: + + + +*Celebrant and People* + +Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, +heaven and earth are full of your glory. + Hosanna in the highest. +Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. + Hosanna in the highest. + + +*The Celebrant continues* + +And so, Father, we who have been redeemed by him, and +made a new people by water and the Spirit, now bring before +you these gifts. Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be the +Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. + +*At the following words concerning the bread, the Celebrant is to hold +it, or lay a hand upon it, and at the words concerning the cup, to hold +or place a hand upon the cup and any other vessel containing wine to be +consecrated.* + +On the night he was betrayed he took bread, said the +blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and +said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do +this for the remembrance of me." + +After supper, he took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and +said, "Drink this, all of you: This is my Blood of the new +Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the +forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the +remembrance of me." + +Remembering now his work of redemption, and offering to you this +sacrifice of thanksgiving, +=We celebrate his death and resurrection, +as we await the day of his coming.= + + + +Lord God of our Fathers: God of Abraham, Isaac, and +Jacob; God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: Open our +eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us. Deliver +us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace +only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for +renewal. Let the grace of this Holy Communion make us one +body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the +world in his name. +=Risen Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the Bread.= + +Accept these prayers and praises, Father, through Jesus +Christ our great High Priest, to whom, with you and the +Holy Spirit, your Church gives honor, glory, and worship, +from generation to generation. =AMEN.= + +And now, as our Savior +Christ has taught us, +we are bold to say, + + + +As our Savior Christ +has taught us, +we now pray, + + +*Continue with the Lord's Prayer on page 364.* + + + + +*The People remain standing. The Celebrant, whether bishop or priest, +faces them and sings or says* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Lift up your hearts. + +*People* We lift them to the Lord. + +*Celebrant* Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. + +*People* It is right to give him thanks and praise. + + + +*Then, facing the Holy Table, the Celebrant proceeds* + +It is truly right to glorify you, Father, and to give you thanks; +for you alone are God, living and true, dwelling in light +inaccessible from before time and for ever. + +Fountain of life and source of all goodness, you made all +things and fill them with your blessing; you created them to +rejoice in the splendour of your radiance. + +Countless throngs of angels stand before you to serve you +night and day; and, beholding the glory of your presence, +they offer you unceasing praise. Joining with them, and +giving voice to every creature under heaven, we acclaim you, +and glorify your Name, as we sing (say), + + +*Celebrant and People* + +Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, +heaven and earth are full of your glory. + Hosanna in the highest. +Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. + Hosanna in the highest. + +*The people stand or kneel.* + + +*Then the Celebrant continues* + +We acclaim you, holy Lord, glorious in power. Your mighty +works reveal your wisdom and love. You formed us in your +own image, giving the whole world into our care, so that, in +obedience to you, our Creator, we might rule and serve all +your creatures. When our disobedience took us far from you, +you did not abandon us to the power of death. In your mercy +you came to our help, so that in seeking you we might find +you. Again and again you called us into covenant with you, +and through the prophets you taught us to hope for salvation. + + + +Father, you loved the world so much that in the fullness of +time you sent your only Son to be our Savior. Incarnate by +the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of +us, yet without sin. To the poor he proclaimed the good news +of salvation; to prisoners, freedom; to the sorrowful, joy. To +fulfill your purpose he gave himself up to death; and, rising +from the grave, destroyed death, and made the whole +creation new. + +And, that we might live no longer for ourselves, but for him +who died and rose for us, he sent the Holy Spirit, his own +first gift for those who believe, to complete his work in +the world, and to bring to fulfillment the sanctification of all. + +*At the following words concerning the bread, the Celebrant is to hold +it, or lay a hand upon it, and at the words concerning the cup, to hold +or place a hand upon the cup and any other vessel containing wine to be +consecrated.* + +When the hour had come for him to be glorified by you, his +heavenly Father, having loved his own who were in the +world, he loved them to the end; at supper with them he took +bread, and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, and +gave it to his disciples, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, +which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me." + +After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given +thanks, he gave it to them, and said, "Drink this, all of you: +This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you +and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink +it, do this for the remembrance of me." + +Father, we now celebrate this memorial of our redemption. +Recalling Christ's death and his descent among the dead, +proclaiming his resurrection and ascension to your right +hand, awaiting his coming in glory; and offering to you, from +the gifts you have given us, this bread and this cup, we praise +you and we bless you. + + + +*Celebrant and People* + +We praise you, we bless you, +we give thanks to you, +and we pray to you, Lord our God. + + +*The Celebrant continues* + +Lord, we pray that in your goodness and mercy your Holy +Spirit may descend upon us, and upon these gifts, sanctifying +them and showing them to be holy gifts for your holy people, +the bread of life and the cup of salvation, the Body and Blood +of your Son Jesus Christ. + +Grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one +body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in Christ, to the praise +of your Name. + +Remember, Lord, your one holy catholic and apostolic +Church, redeemed by the blood of your Christ. Reveal its +unity, guard its faith, and preserve it in peace. + +[Remember (NN. and) all who minister in your Church.] +[Remember all your people, and those who seek your truth.] +[Remember &mdash..] +[Remember all who have died in the peace of Christ, and +those whose faith is known to you alone; bring them into +the place of eternal joy and light.] + +And grant that we may find our inheritance with [the Blessed +Virgin Mary, with patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, +(with &mdash.) and] all the saints whe have found favor +with you in ages past. We praise you in union with them +and give you glory through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. + +Through Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, all honor and +glory are yours, Almighty God and Father, in the unity of the +Holy Spirit, for ever and for ever. =AMEN.= + + + +And now, as our Savior +Christ has taught us, +we are bold to say, + + + +As our Savior Christ +has taught us, +we now pray, + +*Continue with the Lord's Prayer on page 364.* + + + + +*One of the following, or some other appropriate sentence of Scripture, +may be used* + +Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and make good +your vows to the Most High. =Psalm 50:14= + +Ascribe to the Lord the honor due his Name; bring +offering and come into his courts. =Psalm 96:8= + +Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an +offering and sacrifice to God. =Ephesians 5:2= + +I appeal to you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present +yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, +which is your spiritual worship. =Romans 12:1= + +If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember +that your brother has something against you, leave your gift +there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your +brother, and then come and offer your gift. =Matthew 5:23, 24= + +Through Christ let us continually offer to God the sacrifice of +praise, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his Name. + +But do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, +for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. =Hebrews 13:14, 15= + +O Lord our God, you are worthy to receive glory and honor +and power; because you have created all things, and by your +will they were created and have their being. =Revelation 4:11= + +Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the +victor, and the majesty. For everything in heaven and on +earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom, and you are +exalted as head over all. =1 Chronicles 19:11= + +*or this bidding* + +Let us with gladness present the offerings and oblations of our life and +labor to the Lord. + + + + + + + + +*To be used on Sundays as appointed, but not on the succeeding weekdays* + +=1. Of God the Father= + +For you are the source of light and life, you made is in your image, and +called us to new life in Jesus Christ our Lord. + +*or this* + +=2. Of God the Son= + +Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who on the first day of the +week overcame death and the grave, and by his glorious +resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life. + +*or the following* + + + +=3. Of God the Holy Spirit= + +For by water and the Holy Spirit you have made us a new +people in Jesus Christ our Lord, to show forth your glory in +all the world. + + + + +*To be used on Sundays, and weekdays alike, except as otherwise +appointed for Holy Days and Various Occasions* + + + + +Because you sent your beloved Son to redeem us from sin and death, and +to make us heirs in him of everlasting life; that when he shall come +again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without +shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing. + + + + +Because you gave Jesus Christ, your only Son, to be born for us; who, by +the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, was made perfect Man of the flesh +of the Virgin Mary his mother; so that we might be delivered from the +bondage of sin, and receive power to become your children. + + + + +Because in the mystery of the Word made flesh, you have caused a new +light to shine in our hearts, to give the knowledge of your glory in the +face of your son Jesus Christ our Lord. + + + + + + +Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who was tempted in every way as we are, +yot did not sin. By his grace we are able to triumph over every evil, +and to live no longer for ourselves alone, but for him who died for us +and rose again. + +*or this* + +You bid your faithful people cleanse their hearts, and prepare with joy +for the Paschal feast; that, fervent in prayer and in works of + +mercy, and renewed by your Word and Sacraments, they may come to the +fullness of grace which you have prepared for those who love you. + + + + +Through Jesus Christ our Lord. For our sins he was lifted high upon the +cross, that he might draw the whole world to himself; and, by his +suffering and death, he became the source of eternal salvation for all +who put their trust in him. + + + + +But chiefly are we bound to praise you for the glorious resurrection of +your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; for he is the true Paschal Lamb, who was +sacrificed for us, and has taken away the sin of the world. By his death +he has destroyed death, and by his rising to life again he has won for +us everlasting life. + + + + +Through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. After his +glorious resurrection he openly appeared to his disciples, and in their +sight ascended into heaven, to prepare a place for us; that where he is, +there we might also be, and reign with him in glory. + + + + + + +Through Jesus Christ our Lord. In fulfillment of his true promise, the +Holy Spirit came down [on this day] from heaven, lighting upon the +disciples, to teach them and to lead them into all truth; uniting +peoples of many tongues in the confession of one faith, and giving to +your Church the power to serve you as a royal priesthood, and to preach +the Gospel to all nations. + + + + + + + +For with your co-eternal Son and Holy Spirit, you are one God, one Lord, +in Trinity of Persons and in Unity of Being; and we celebrate the one +and equal glory of you, O Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy +Spirit. + + + + +For in the multitudeof your saints you have surrounded us with a great +cloud of witnesses, that we might rejoice in their fellowship, and run +with endurance the race that is set before us; and, together with them, +receive the crown of glory that never fades away. + + + + +For the wonderful grace and virtue declared in all your saints, who have +been the chosen vessels of your grace, and the lights of the world in +their generations. + +*or this* + +Because in the obedience of your saints you have given us an example of +righteousness, and in their eternal joy a glorious pledge of the hope of +our calling. + + + +*or this* + +Because you are greatly glorified in the assembly of your +saints. All your creatures praise you, and your faithful +servants bless you, confessing before the rulers of this world +the great Name of your only Son. + + + + +Through the great shepherd of your flock, Jesus Christ our +Lord; who after his resurrection sent forth his apostles to +preach the Gospel and to teach all nations; and promised to +be with them always, even to the end of the ages. + + + + +Through Jesus Christ our great High Priest; in whom we are +built up as living stones of a holy temple, that we might offer +before you a sacrifice of praise and prayer which is holy and +pleasing in your sight. + + + + +Because in Jesus Christ our Lord you have received us as your +sons and daughters, made us citizens of your kingdom, and +given us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. + + + + +Because in the love of wife and husband, you have given us +an image of the heavenly Jerusalem, adorned as a bride for +her bridegroom, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who loves +her and gave himself for her, that he might make the whole +creation new. + + + + +Commemoration of the Dead + +Through Jesus Christ our Lord; who rose victorious from the +dead, and comforts us with the blessed hope of everlasting +life. For to your faithful people, O Lord, life is changed, not +ended; and when our mortal body lies in death, there is +prepared for us a dwelling place eternal in the heavens. + + + + + + + +*Prayer is offered with intercession for + + The Universal Church, its members, and its mission + + The Nation and all in authority + + The welfare of the world + + The concerns of the local community + + Those who suffer and those in any trouble + + The departed (with commemoration of a saint when appropriate)* + + +*Any of the forms which follow may be used.* + +*Adaptations or insertions suitable to the occasion may be made.* + +*Any of the forms may be conformed to the language of the Rite being +used.* + +*A bar in the margin indicates petitions which may be omitted.* + +*The Celebrant may introduce the Prayers with a sentence of invitation +related to the occasion, or the season, or the Proper of the Day.* + + +
+ +*Deacon or other leader* + +With all our heart and with all our mind, let us pray to the +Lord, saying "Lord, have mercy." + +[[For the peace from above, for the loving-kindness of God, +and for the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.=]] + +For the peace of the world, for the welfare of the Holy Church +of God, and for the unity of all peoples, let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.= + + + +For our Bishop, and for all the clergy and people, let us pray +to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.= + +For our President, for the leaders of the nations, and for all in +authority, let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.= + +For this city (town, village, &mdash.), for every city and +community, and for those who live in them, let us pray to +the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.= + +[[For seasonable weather, and for an abundance of the fruits of +the earth, let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.=]] + +For the good earth which God has given us, and for the +wisdom and will to conserve it, let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.= + +[[For those who travel on land, on water, or in the air [or +through outer space], let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.=]] + +For the aged and infirm, for the widowed and orphans, and +for the sick and the suffering, let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.= + +[[For &mdash., let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.=]] + +For the poor and the oppressed, for the unemployed and the +destitute, for prisoners and captives, and for all who +remember and care for them, let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.= + +For all who have died in the hope of the resurrection, and for +all the departed, let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.= + + + +For deliverance from all danger, violence, oppression, and +degradation, let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.= + +[[For the absolution and remission of our sins and offenses, let us +pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.=]] + +That we may end our lives in faith and hope, without +suffering and without reproach, let us pray to the Lord. +=Lord, have mercy.= + +[[Defend us, deliver us, and in thy compassion protect us, O +Lord, by thy grace. +=Lord, have mercy.=]] + +In the communion of [&mdash. and of all the] saints, let +us commend ourselves, and one another, and all our life, to +Christ our God. +=To thee, O Lord our God.= + +*Silence.* + +*The Celebrant adds a concluding Collect.* + + + + +*In the course of the silence after each bidding, the People offer their +own prayers, either silently or aloud.* + +I ask your prayers for God's people throughout the world; +for our Bishop(s) &mdash.; for this gathering; and for all +ministers and people. + +Pray for the Church. + +*Silence* + + + +I ask your prayers for peace; for goodwill among nations; +and for the well-being of all people. + +Pray for justice and peace. + +*Silence* + + +I ask your prayers for the poor, the sick, the hungry, the +oppressed, and those in prison. + +Pray for those in any need or trouble. + +*Silence* + + +I ask your prayers for all who seek God, or a deeper +knowledge of him. Pray that they may find and be found by him. + +*Silence* + + +I ask your prayers for the departed [especially &mdash.]. + +Pray for those who have died. + +*Silence* + + +[[Members of the congregation may ask the prayers or the +thanksgivings of those present + +I ask your prayers for &mdash.. + +I ask your thanksgiving for &mdash.]] + +*Silence* + + +Praise God for those in every generation in whom Christ has been honored +[especially _________ whom we remember today]. + +Pray that we may have grace to glorify Christ in our own day. + +*Silence* + + + +*The Celebrant adds a concluding Collect.* + + + + +*The Leader and People pray responsively* + +Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church; +=That we all may be one.= + +Grant that every member of the Church may truly and +humbly serve you; +=That your Name may be glorified by al people.= + +We pray for all bishops, priests, and deacons; +=That they may be faithful ministers of your Word and +Sacraments.= + +We pray for all who govern and hold authority in the nations +of the world; +=That there may be justice and peace on the earth.= + +Give us grace to do your will in all that we undertake; +=That our works may find favor in your sight.= + +Have compassion on those who suffer from any grief or trouble; +=That they may be delivered from their distress.= + +Give to the departed eternal rest. +=Let light perpetual shine upon them.= + +We praise you for your saints who have entered into joy; +=May we also come to share in your heavenly kingdom.= + +Let us pray for our own needs and those of others. + +*Silence* + + + +*The People may add their own petitions.* + +*The Celebrant adds a concluding Collect.* + + + + +*Deacon or other leader* + +Let us pray for the Church and for the world. + +Grant, Almighty God, that all who confess your Name may +be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal +your glory in the world. + +*Silence* + +Lord, in your mercy +=Hear our prayer.= + + +Guide the people of this land, and of all the nations, in the +ways of justice and peace; that we may honor one another +and serve the common good. + +*Silence* + +Lord, in your mercy +=Hear our prayer.= + + +Give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation, +that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others +and to your honor and glory. + +*Silence* + +Lord, in your mercy +=Hear our prayer.= + + +Bless all whose lives are closely linked with ours, and grant +that we may serve Christ in them, and love one another as he +loves us. + + + +*Silence* + +Lord, in your mercy +=Hear our prayer.= + + +Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or +spirit; give them courage and hope in their troubles, and +bring them the joy of your salvation. + +*Silence* + +Lord, in your mercy +=Hear our prayer.= + + +We commend to your mercy all who have died, that your will +for them may be fulfilled; and we pray that we may share +with all your saints in your eternal kingdom. + +*Silence* + +Lord, in your mercy +=Hear our prayer.= + +*The Celebrant adds a concluding Collect.* + + + + +*Deacon or other leader* + +In peace, let us pray to the Lord, saying, "Lord, have mercy" +(or "Kyrie eleison"). + +For the holy Church of God, that it may be filled with truth +and love, and be found without fault at the day of your +coming, we pray to your, O Lord. + +*Here and after every petition the People respond* + +=Kyrie eleison.= *or* =Lord, have mercy.= + + + +For &N. our Presiding Bishop, for &N. (&N.) our own Bishop(s), +for all bishops and other ministers, and for all the holy people +of God, we pray to you, O Lord. + +For all who fear God and believe in you, Lord Christ, that our +divisions may cease, and that all may be one as you and the +Father are one, we pray to you, O Lord. + +For the mission of the Church, that in faithful witness it may +preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth, we pray to you, O +Lord. + + +[[For those who do not yet believe, and for those who have lost +their faith, we that they may receive the light of the Gospel, we +pray to you, O Lord.]] + +For the peace of the world, that a spirit of respect and +forbearance may grow among nations and peoples, we pray +to you, O Lord. + +For those in positions of public trust [especially &mdash.], +that they may serve justice, and promote the dignity and +freedom of every person, we pray to you, O Lord. + +[[For all who live and work in this community [especially +&mdash.], we pray to you, O Lord.]] + +[[For a blessing upon all human labor, and for the right use +of the riches of creation, that the world may be freed from +poverty, famine, and disaster, we pray to you, O Lord.]] + +For the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer; for +refugees, prisoners, and all who are in danger; that they may +be relieved and protected, we pray to you, O Lord. + + + +For this =congregation= [for those who are present, and for +those who are absent], that we may be delivered from +hardness of heart, and show forth your glory in all that we +do, we pray to you, O Lord. + +[[For our enemies and those who wish us harm, and for all +whom we have injured or offended, we pray to you, O Lord.]] + +[[For ourselves; for the forgiveness of our sins, and for the +grace of the Holy Spirit to amend our lives, we pray to you, O +Lord.]] + +For all who have commended themselves to our prayers; for +our families, friends, and neighbors; that being freed from +anxiety, they may live in joy, peace, and health, we pray to +you, O Lord. + +[[For &mdash., we pray to you, O Lord.]] + +For all who have died in the communion of your Church, and +those whose faith is known to you alone, that, with all the +saints, they may have rest in that place where there is no pain +or grief, but life eternal, we pray to you, O Lord. + +Rejoicing in the fellowship of [the ever-blessed Virgin Mary, (=blessed +&N.=) and] all the saints, let us commend ourselves, and one another, +and all our life to Christ our God. +=To you, O Lord our God.= + +*Silence* + +*The Celebrant adds a concluding Collect, or the following Doxology* + +For yours is the majesty, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; +yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and +for ever. =Amen.= + + + + + + +*The Leader and People pray responsively* + +In peace, we pray to your, Lord God. + +*Silence* + +For all people in their daily life and work; +=For our families, friends, and neighbors, and for those who +are alone.= + +For this community, the nation, and the world; +=For all who work for justice, freedom, and peace.= + +For the just and proper use of your creation; +=For the victims of hunger, fear, injustice, and oppression.= + +For all who are in danger, sorrow, or any kind of trouble; +=For those who minister to the sick, the friendless, and the +needy.= + +For the peace and unity of the Church of God; +=For all who proclaim the Gospel, and all who seek the Truth.= + +For [&N. our Presiding Bishop, and &N. (&N.) our Bishop(s); and for] all +bishops and other ministers; +=For all who serve God in his Church.= + +For the special needs and concerns of this congregation. + +*Silence* + +*The People may add their own petitions* + +Hear us, Lord; +=For your mercy is great.= + + + +We thank you, Lord, for all the blessings of this life. + +*Silence* + +*The People may add their own thanksgivings* + +We will exalt you, O God our King; +=And praise your Name for ever and ever.= + +We pray for all who have died, that they may have a place in +your eternal kingdom. + +*Silence* + +*The People may add their own petitions* + +Lord, let your loving-kindness be upon them; +=Who put their trust in you.= + +[[We pray to you also for the forgiveness of our sins. + +*Silence may be kept.* + +*Leader and People* + +Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; +in your compassion forgive us our sins, +known and unknown, +things done and left undone; +and so uphold us by your Spirit +that we may live and serve you in newness of life, +to the honor and glory of your Name; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.]] + +*The Celebrant concludes with an absolution or a suitable Collect.* + + + + +*For the concluding Collect, the Celebrant selects + + (a) a Collect appropriate to the season or occasion being celebrated; + + (b) a Collect expressive of some special need in the life of the local +congregation; + + (c) a Collect for the mission of the Church; + + (d) a general Collect such as the following:* + + +<1> + +Lord, hear the prayers of =thy= people; and what we have +asked faithfully, grant that we may obtain effectually, to the +glory of =thy= Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +<2> + +Heavenly Father, you have promised to hear what we ask in +the Name of your Son: Accept and fulfill our petitions, we +pray, not as we ask in our ignorance, nor as we deserve in our +sinfulness, but as your know and love us in your Son Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +<3> + +Almighty and eternal God, ruler of all things in heaven and +earth: Mercifully accept the prayers of your people, and +strengthen us to do your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + +<4> + +Almighty God, to whom our needs are known before we ask: +Help us to ask only what accords with your will; and those + +good things which we dare not, or in our blindness cannot +ask, grant us for the save of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + +<5> + +O Lord our God, accept the fervent prayers of your people; in +the multitude of your mercies, look with compassion upon us +and all who turn to you for help; for you are gracious, O +lover of souls, and to you we give glory, Father, Son, and +Holy Spirit, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +<6> + +Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles, "Peace I give +to you; my own peace I leave with you:" Regard not our sins, +but the faith of your Church, and give to us the peace and +unity of that heavenly City, where with the Father and the +Holy Spirit you live and reign, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +<7> + +Hasten, O Father, the coming of =thy= kingdom; and grant that +we =thy= servants, who now live by faith, may with joy behold +=thy= Son at his coming in glorious majesty; even Jesus Christ, +our only Mediator and Advocate. =Amen.= + + +<8> + +Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit you have made us one +with your saints in heaven and on earth: Grant that in our +earthly pilgrimage we may always be supported by this +fellowship of love and prayer, and know ourselves to be +surrounded by their witness to your power and mercy. We +ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom all our +intercessions are acceptable through the Spirit, and who lives +and reigns for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + + + + +*This form is intended for use with those who for reasonable cause +cannot be present at a public celebration of the Eucharist.* + +*When persons are unable to be present for extended periods, it is +desirable that the priest arrange to celebrate the Eucharist with them +from time to time on a regular basis, using either the Proper of the Day +or one of those appointed for Various Occasions. If it is necessary to +shorten the service, the priest may begin the celebration at the +Offertory, but it is desirable that a passage from the Gospel first be +read.* + +*At other times, or when desired, such persons may be communicated from +the reserved Sacrament, using the following form.* + +*It is desirable that fellow parishoners, relatives, and friends be +present, when possible, to communicate with them.* + + +*The Celebrant, whether priest or deacon, reads a passage of Scripture +appropriate to the day or occasion, or else one of the following* + +God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that +whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. +=John 3:16= + +Jesus said, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall +not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst." +=John 6:35= + + + +Jesus said, "I am the living bread which came down from +heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and +the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my +flesh. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink +indeed. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in +me, and I in him." =John 6:51, 55-56= + +Jesus said, "Abide in me, as I in you. As the branch cannot +bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can +you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the +branches. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much +fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved +me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." =John 15:4-5a, 8-9= + +*After the Reading, the Celebrant may comment on it briefly.* + +*Suitable prayers may be offered, concluding with the following or some +other Collect* + +Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he +suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: +Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in +remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy +mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives and +reigns for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + +*A Confession of Sin may follow. The following or some other form is +used* + +Most merciful God, +we confess that we have sinned against you +in thought, word, and deed, +by what we have done, +and by what we have left undone. +We have not loved you with our whole heart; +we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. + +We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. +For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, +have mercy on us and forgive us; +that we may delight in your will, +and walk in your ways, +to the glory of your Name. Amen. + + +*The Priest alone says* + +Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins +through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all +goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in +eternal life. =Amen.= + +*A deacon using the preceding form substitutes "us" for "you" and "our" +for "your."* + + +*The Peace may then be exchanged.* + + +*The Lord's Prayer is said, the Celebrant first saying* + +Let us pray in the words our Savior Christ has taught us. + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be thy Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, +/on earth as it is in heaven. +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those +/who trespass against us. +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + + + +Our Father in heaven, + hallowed be your Name, + your kingdom come, + your will be done, +/on earth as in heaven. +Give us today our daily bread. +Forgive us our sins + as we forgive those +/who sin against us. +Save us from the time of trial, + and deliver us from evil. +For the kingdom, the power, + and the glory are yours, + how and for ever. Amen. + + + + +*The Celebrant may say the following Invitation* + +The Gifts of God for the People of God + +*and may add* Take them in remembrance that Christ died for +you, and feed on him in your hearts by faith, +with thanksgiving. + + +*The Sacrament is administered with the following or other words* + +The Body (Blood) of our Lord Jesus Christ keep you in +everlasting life. [=Amen.=] + + +*One of the usual postcommunion prayers is then said, or the following* + +Gracious Father, we give you praise and thanks for this Holy +Communion of the Body and Blood of your beloved Son +Jesus Christ, the pledge of our redemption; and we pray that +it may bring us forgiveness of our sins, strength in our +weakness, and everlasting salvation; through Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + +*The service concludes with a blessing or with a dismissal* + +Let us bless the Lord. +=Thanks be to God.= + + + + + + + + +*This rite requires careful preparation by the Priest and other +participants.* + +*It is not intended for use at the principal Sunday or weekly +celebration of the Holy Eucharist.* + + + + + + + + +*The proclamation and response may include readings, sons, talk, dance, +instrumental music, other art forms, silence. A reading from the Gospel +is always included.* + + + + + + + +*Either here or elsewhere in the service, all greet one another in the +name of the Lord.* + + + +*Some of those present prepare the table; the bread, the cup of wine, +and other offerings, are placed upon it.* + + + +*The Great Thanksgiving is said by the Priest in the name of the +gathering, using one of the eucharistic prayers provided.* + +*The people respond--Amen!* + + + + + +*In making Eucharist, the Celebrant uses one of the Eucharistic Prayers +from Rite One or Rite Two, or one of the following forms* + + + + +*Celebrant* The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Lift up your hearts. + +*People* We lift them to the Lord. + +*Celebrant* Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. + +*People* It is right to give him thanks and praise. + + +*The Celebrant gives thanks to God the Father for his work in creation +and his revelation of himself to his people;* + +*Recalls before God, when appropriate, the particular occasion being +celebrated;* + +*Incorporates or adapts the Proper Preface of the Day, if desired.* + +[[*If the Sanctus is to be included, it is introduced with these or +similar words* + +And so we join the saints and angels in proclaiming your glory, as we +sing (say), + +*Celebrant and People* + +Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, + heaven and earth are full of your glory. + Hosanna in the highest. +Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. + Hosanna in the highest. + + + +*The Celebrant now praises God for the salvation of the world through +Jesus Christ our Lord.* + +*The Prayer continues with these words* + +And so, Father, we bring you these gifts. Sanctify them by +your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood +of Jesus Christ our Lord. + +*At the following words concerning the bread, the Celebrant is to hold +it, or to lay a hand upon it; and at the words concerning the cup, to +hold or place a hand upon the cup and any other vessel containing wine +to be consecrated.* + +On the night he was betrayed he took bread, said the +blessing, and gave it to his friends, and +said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. +Do this for the remembrance of me." + +After supper, he took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and +said, "Drink this, all of you: This is my Blood of the new +Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the +forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the +remembrance of me." + +Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. By +means of this holy bread and cup, we show forth the sacrifice +of his death, and proclaims his resurrection, until he comes +again. + +Gather us by this Holy Communion into one body in your +Son Jesus Christ. Make us a living sacrifice of praise. + +By him, and with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy +Spirit all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and +for ever. AMEN. + + + + + +*Celebrant* The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love +of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be +with you all. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Lift up your hearts. + +*People* We lift them to the Lord. + +*Celebrant* Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. + +*People* It is right to give him thanks and praise. + +*The Celebrant gives thanks to God the Father for his work in creation +and his revelation of himself to his people;* + +*Recalls before God, when appropriate, the particular occasion being +celebrated;* + +*Incorporates or adapts the Proper Preface of the Day, if desired.* + +[[*If the Sanctus is to be included, it is introduced with these or +similar words* + +And so we join the saints and angels in proclaiming your glory, as we +sing (say), + +*Celebrant and People* + +Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, + heaven and earth are full of your glory. + Hosanna in the highest. + Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. + Hosanna in the highest.]] + +*The Celebrant now praises God for the salvation of the world through +Jesus Christ our Lord.* + + + +*At the following words concerning the bread, the Celebrant is to hold +it, or to lay a hand upon it; and at the words concerning the cup, to +hold or place a hand upon the cup and any other vessel containing wine +to be consecrated.* + +On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our +Lord Jesus Christ took bread; and when he had given thanks +to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, +"Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this +for the remembrance of me." + +After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given +thanks, he gave it to them, and said, "Drink this, all of you: +This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you +and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink +it, do this for the remembrance of me." + +Recalling now his suffering and death, and celebrating his +resurrection and ascension, we await his coming in glory. + +Accept, O Lord, our sacrifice of praise, this memorial of our +redemption. + +Send your Holy Spirit upon these gifts. Let them be for us +the Body and Blood of your Son. And grant that we who eat +this bread and drink this cup may be filled with your life and +goodness. + +*The Celebrant then prays that all may receive the benefits of Christ's +work, and the renewal of the Holy Spirit.* + +*The Prayer concludes with these or similar words* + +All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ. By him, and +with him, and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor +and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN. + + + + +*Additional Directions* + +*The Holy Table is spread with a clean white cloth during the +celebration.* + +*When the Great Litany is sung or said immediately before the Eucharist, +the Litany concludes with the Kyries, and the Eucharist begins with the +Salutation and the Collect of the Day. The Prayers of the People +following the Creed may be omitted.* + +*When a psalm is used, it may be concluded with Gloria Patri. In Rite +One services, the following form of the Gloria may be used:* + +Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, + and to the Holy Ghost: + +As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, + world without end. Amen. + +*The Kyrie eleison (or "Lord, have mercy") may be sung or said in +threefold, sixfold, or ninefold form. The Trisagion, "Holy God", may be +sung or said three times, or antiphonally.* + +*Gloria in excelsis, or the hymn used in place of it, is sung or said +from Christmas Day through the Feast of the Epiphany; on Sundays from +Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost, on all the days of Easter Week, +and on Ascension Day; and at other times as desired; but it is not used +on the Sundays or ordinary weekdays of Advent or Lent.* + +*It is desirable that the Lessons be read from a lectern or pulpit, and +that the Gospel be read from the same lectern, or from the pulpit, or +from the midst of the congregation. It is desirable that the Lessons +and the Gospel be read from a book or books of appropriate size and +dignity.* + +*When a portion of the congregation is composed of persons whose native +tongue is other than English, a reader appointed by the celebrant may +read the Gospel in the language of the people, either in place of, or in +addition to, the Gospel in English.* + +*If there is no Communion, all that is appointed through the Prayers of +the People may be said. (If it is desired to include a Confession of +Sin, the + +service begins with the Penitential Order.) A hymn or anthem may then +be sung, and the offerings of the people received. The service may then +conclude with the Lord's Prayer; and with either the Grace or a +blessing, or with the exchange of the Peace.* + +*In the absence of a priest, all that is described above, except for the +blessing, may be said by a deacon, or, if there is no deacon, by a lay +reader.* + +*The greeting, "The peace of the Lord be always with you," is addressed +to the entire assembly. In the exchange between individuals which may +follow, any appropriate words of greeting may be used. If preferred, +the exchange of the Peace may take place at the time of the +administration of the Sacrament (before or after the sentence of +Invitation).* + +*Necessary announcements may be made before the service, after the +Creed, before the Offertory, or at the end of the service, as +convenient.* + +*It is the function of a deacon to make ready the Table for the +celebration, preparing and placing upon it the bread and wine. It is +customary to add a little water to the wine. The deacon may be assisted +by other ministers.* + +*During the Great Thanksgiving, it is appropriate that there be only one +chalice on the Altar, and, if need be, a flagon of wine from which +additional chalices may be filled after the Breaking of the Bread.* + +*The following anthem may be used at the Breaking of the Bread:* + +Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: + have mercy on us. + +Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: + have mercy on us. + +Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: + grant us peace. + +*While the people are coming forward to receive Communion, the celebrant +receives the Sacrament in both kinds. The bishops, priests, and deacons +at the Holy Table then communicate, and after them the +people.* + +*Opportunity is always to be given to every communicant to receive the +consecrated Bread and Wine separately. But the Sacrament may be* + +received in both kinds simultaneously, in a manner approved by the +bishop.* + +*When the celebrant is assisted by a deacon or another priest, it is +customary for the celebrant to administer the consecrated Bread and the +assistant the Chalice. When several deacons or priests are present, +some may administer the Bread and others the Wine. In the absence of +sufficient deacons and priests, lay persons licensed by the bishop +according to the canon may administer the Chalice.* + +*If the consecrated Bread or Wine does not suffice for the number of +communicants, the celebrant is to return to the Holy Table, and +consecrate more of either or both, by saying* + +Hear us, O heavenly Father, and with thy (your) Word and +Holy Spirit bless and sanctify this bread (wine) that it, also, +may be the Sacrament of the precious Body (Blood) of thy +(your) Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who took bread (the cup) +and said, "This is my Body (Blood)." =Amen.= + +*or else the celebrant may consecrate more of both kinds, saying again +the words of the Eucharistic Prayer, beginning with the words which +follow the Sanctus, and ending with the Invocation (in the case of +Eucharistic Prayer C, ending with the narrative of the Institution).* + +*When the service of a priest cannot be obtained, the bishop may, at +discretion, authorize a deacon to distribute Holy Communion to the +congregation from the reserved Sacrament in the following manner: + + 1. After the Liturgy of the Word (and the receiving of the people's +offering), the deacon reverently places the consecrated Sacrament on the +Altar, during which time a communion hymn may be sung. + + 2. The Lord's Prayer is then said, the deacon first saying, "Let us +pray in the words our Savior Christ hath (has) taught us." + + 3. And then, omitting the breaking of the Bread, the deacon proceeds +with what follows in the liturgy as far as the end of the postcommunion +prayer, and then dismisses the people.* + +*If any of the consecrated Bread or Wine remain, apart from any which +may be required for the Communion of the sick, or of others who for + +weighty cause could not be present at the celebration, or for the +administration of Communion by a deacon to a congregation when no priest +is available, the celebrant or deacon, and other communicants, +reverently eat and drink it, either after the Communion of the people or +after the Dismissal.* + +*A hymn may be sung before or after the postcommunion prayer.* + + +*Disciplinary Rubrics* + +*If the priest knows that a person who is living a notoriously evil life +intends to come to Communion, the priest shall speak to that person +privately, and tell =him= that =he= may not come to the Holy Table until +=he= has given clear proof of repentance and amendment of life.* + +*The priest shall follow the same procedure with those who have done +wrong to their neighbors and are a scandal to the other members of the +congregation, not allowing such persons to receive Communion until they +have made restitution for the wrong they have done, or have at least +promised to do so.* + +*When the priest sees that there is hatred between members of the +congregation, =he= shall speak privately to them, telling them that they +may not receive Communion until they have forgiven each other. And if +the person or persons on one side truly forgive the others and desire +and promise to make up for their faults, but those on the other side +refuse to forgive, the priest shall allow those who are penitent to come +to Communion, but not those who are stubborn.* + +*In all such cases, the priest is required to notify the bishop, within +fourteen days at the most, giving the reasons for refusing Communion.* + + + + + + + + + + +*In the course of their Christian development, those baptized at an +early age are expected, when they are ready and have been duly prepared, +to make a mature public affirmation of their faith and commitment to the +responsibilities of their Baptism and to receive the laying on of hands +by the bishop.* + +*Those baptized as adults, unless baptized with laying on of hands by a +bishop, are also expected to make a public affirmation of their faith +and commitment to the responsibilities of their Baptism in the presence +of a bishop and to receive the laying on of hands.* + +*When there is no Baptism, the rites of Confirmation, Reception, and the +Reaffirmation of Baptismal Vows are administered in the following form.* + +*If desired, the hymn Gloria in excelsis may be sung immediately after +the opening versicles and before the salutation, The Lord be with you."* + +*The Nicene Creed is not used at this service.* + +*It is appropriate that the oblations of bread and wine be presented by +persons newly confirmed.* + + + + + + + +*A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung* + +*The people standing, the Bishop says* + +Blessed by God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +*People* And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. Amen. + + +*In place of the above, from Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost* + +Alleluia. Christ is risen. + +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + + +*In Lent and on other penitential occasions* + +*Bishop* Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins. + +*People* His mercy endures for ever. + + +*The Bishop then continues* + +There is one Body and one Spirit; + +*People* There is one hope in God's call to us; + +*Bishop* One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; + +*People* One God and Father of all. + +*Bishop* The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Bishop* Let us pray. + + + + + + +*People* Amen. + +*At the principal service on a Sunday or other feast, the Collect and +Lessons are properly those of the Day. At the discretion of the bishop, +however, the Collect (page 203 or 254) and one or more of the Lessions +provided "At Confirmation" (page 929) may be substituted.* + + + + +*The people sit. One or two Lessons, as appointed, are read, the Reader +first saying* + +A Reading (Lesson) from &mdash. + +*A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.* + + +*After each Reading the Reader may say* + +The Word of the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or the Reader may say* Here ends the Reading (Epistle). + +*Silence may follow.* + +*A Psalm, hymn, or anthem may follow each Reading.* + +*Then, all standing, the Deacon or a Priest reads the Gospel, first +saying* + +The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to &mdash.. + +*People* Glory to you, Lord Christ. + + + +*After the Gospel, the Reader says* + +The Gospel of the Lord. + +*People* Praise to you, Lord Christ. + + + + + + + +*The Bishop says* + +The Candidate(s) will now be presented. + +*Presenters* I present =these persons= for Confirmation. + +*or* I present =these persons= to be received into this +Communion. + +*or* I present these persons who desire to reaffirm +their baptismal vows. + + +*The Bishop asks the candidates* + +Do you reaffirm your renunciation of evil? + +*Candidate* I do. + + +*Bishop* + +Do you renew your commitment to Jesus Christ? + +*Candidate* + +I do, and with God's grace I will follow him as my Savior +and Lord. + + + +*After all have been presented, the Bishop addresses the congregation, +saying* + +Will you who witness these vows do all in your power + to support these persons in their life in Christ? + +*People* We will. + + +*The Bishop then says these or similar words* + +Let us join with =those= who =are= committing =themselves= +to Christ and renew our own baptismal covenant. + + + + +*Bishop* Do you believe in God the Father? + +*People* I believe in God, the Father almighty, +creator of heaven and earth. + + +*Bishop* Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God? + +*People* I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. + + He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit +and born of the Virgin Mary. + + He suffered under Pontius Pilate, +was crucified, died, and was buried. + + He descended to the dead. + + On the third day he rose again. + + He ascended into heaven, +and is seated at the right hand of the Father. + + He will come again to judge the living and the dead. + + +*Bishop* Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit? + +*People* I believe in the Holy Spirit, + + the holy catholic Church, + + the communion of saints, + + + + the forgiveness of sins, + + the resurrection of the body, + + and the life everlasting. + + +*Bishop* Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and +fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + +*Bishop* Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever + you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + +*Bishop* Will you proclaim by word and example the Good +News of God in Christ? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + +*Bishop* Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving +your neighbor as yourself? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + +*Bishop* Will you strive for justice and peace among all +people, and respect the dignity of every human being? + +*People* I will, with God's help. + + + + +*The Bishop then says to the congregation* + +Let us now pray for =these persons= who =have= renewed =their= +commitment to Christ. + +*The petitions on pages 305-306 may be used.* + +*A period of silence follows.* + + + +*Then the Bishop says* + +Almighty God, we thank you that by the death and +resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ you have overcome sin +and brought us to yourself, and that by the sealing +of your Holy Spirit you have bound us to your service. Renew in +=these= your =servants= the covenant you have made with =them= at +/=their= +Baptism. Send =them= forth in the power of that Spirit to +perform the service you set before =them=; through Jesus Christ +your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + + + +*The Bishop lays hands upon each one and says* + +Strengthen, O Lord, your servant &N. with your Holy Spirit; +empower =him= for your service; and sustain =him= all the days of his +life. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Defend, O Lord, your servant &N. with your heavenly grace, +that =he= may continue yours for ever, and daily increase in +your Holy Spirit more and more, until =he= comes to your everlasting +kingdom. =Amen.= + + + + +&N., we recognize you as a member of the one holy catholic +and apostolic Church, and we receive you into the fellowship +of this Communion. God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, +bless, preserve, and keep you. =Amen.= + + + + + + +&N., may the Holy Spirit, who has begun a good work in you, +direct and uphold you in the service of Christ and his +kingdom. =Amen.= + + +*The Bishop concludes with this prayer* + +Almighty and everlasting God, let your fatherly hand ever be over +=these= your =servants=; let your Holy Spirit ever be +with =them=; and so lead =them= in the knowledge and obedience of +your Word, that =they= may serve you in this life, and dwell +with you in the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + +*The Peace is then exchanged* + +*Bishop* The peace of the Lord be always with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*The service then continues with the Prayers of the People or the +Offertory of the Eucharist, at which the Bishop should be the principal +celebrant.* + +*If there is no celebration of the Eucharist, the service continues with +the Lord's Prayer and such other devotions as the Bishop may direct.* + +*The Bishop may consecrate oil of Chrism for use at Baptism, using the +prayer on page 307.* + + + + + + + +*This form may be used when a person wishes to make or renew a +commitment to the service of Christ in the world, either in general +terms, or upon undertaking some special responsibility.* + +*It is essential that the person seeking to make or renew a commitment +prepare in advance, in consultation with the celebrant, the Act of +Commitment, which may be in the form either of a statement of intention +or of a series of questions and answers, but which should include a +reaffirmation of baptismal promises.* + +*Before the Offertory of the Eucharist, the person comes forward at the +invitation of the celebrant, and, standing before the congregation, +makes the Act of Commitment.* + + +*After this, the Celebrant says these or similar words* + +May the Holy Spirit guide and strengthen you, that in this, +and in all things, you may do God's will in the service +of the kingdom of his Christ. =Amen.= + +In the name of this congregation I commend you to this +work, and pledge you our prayers, encouragement, and +support. + + + +*The Celebrant then says this or some other appropriate prayer* + +Let us pray. + +Almighty God, look with favor upon =this person= who =has= +now reaffirmed =his= commitment to follow Christ and to serve +in his name. Give =him= courage, patience, and vision; and +strengthen us all in our Christian vocation of witness to the +world, and of service to others; through Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + +*A prayer for the special work in which the person will be engaged may +be added.* + +*The service then continues with the exchange of the Peace and the +Offertory.* + + + + +*Concerning the Service* + +Christian marriage is a solemn and public covenant between a man and a +woman in the presence of God. In the Episcopal Church it is required +that one, at least, of the parties must be a baptized Christian; that +the ceremony be attested by at least two witnesses; and that the +marriage conform to the laws of the State and the canons of this +Church.* + +*A priest or a bishop normally presides at the Celebration and Blessing +of a Marriage, because such ministers alone have the function of +pronouncing the nuptial blessing, and of celebrating the Holy +Eucharist.* + +*When both a bishop and a priest are present and officiating, the bishop +should pronounce the blessing and preside at the Eucharist.* + +*A deacon, or an assisting priest, may deliver the charge, ask for the +Declaration of Consent, read the Gospel, and perform other assisting +functions at the Eucharist.* + +*Where it is permitted by civil law that deacons may perform marriages, +and no priest or bishop is available, a deacon may use the service which +follows, omitting the nuptial blessing which follows The Prayers.* + +*It is desirable that the Lessons from the Old Testament and the +Epistles be read by lay persons.* + +*In the opening exhortation (at the symbol of &N. &N.), the full names +of the persons to be married are declared. Subsequently, only their +Christian names are used.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 437.* + + + + + +*At the time appointed, the persons to be married, with their witnesses, +assemble in the church or some other appropriate place.* + +*During their entrance, a hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung, or +instrumental music may be played.* + +*Then the Celebrant, facing the people and the persons to be married, +with the woman to the right and the man to the left, addresses the +congregation and says* + +Dearly beloved: We have come together in the presence of +God to witness and bless the joining together of this man and +this woman in Holy Matrimony. The bond and covenant of +marriage was established by God in creation, and our Lord +Jesus Christ adorned this manner of life by his presence and +first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. It signifies to us +the mystery of the union between Christ and his Church, and +Holy Scripture commends it to be honored among all people. + +The union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind is +intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort +given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is +God's will, for the procreation of children and their nurture +in the knowledge and love of the Lord. Therefore marriage is +not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently, +deliberately, and in accordance with the purposes for which it +was instituted by God. + + + +Into this holy union &N. &N.. and &N. &N.. now come to be joined. If +any of you can show just cause why they may not lawfully be +married, speak now; or else for ever hold your peace. + + +*Then the Celebrant says to the persons to be married* + +I require and charge you both, here in the presence of God, +that if either of you know any reason why you may not be +united in marriage lawfully, and in accordance with God's +Word, you do now confess it. + + + + +*The Celebrant says to the woman* + +&N., will you have this man to be your husband; to live +together in the covenant of marriage? Will you love him, +comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health; +and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you +both shall live? + +*The Woman answers* + +I will. + + +*The Celebrant says to the man* + +&N., will you have this woman to be your wife; to live +together in the covenant of marriage? Will you love her, +comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health; +and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you +both shall live? + +*The Man answers* + +I will. + + + +*The Celebrant then addresses the congregation, saying* + +Will all of you witnessing these promises do all in your +power to uphold these two persons in their marriage? + +*People* We will. + + +*If there is to be a presentation or a giving in marriage, +it takes place at this time. See page 437.* + +*A hymn, psalm, or anthem may follow.* + + + + +*The Celebrant then says to the people* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +Let us pray. + +O gracious and everliving God, you have created us male and +female in your image: Look mercifully upon this man and this +woman who come to you seeking your blessing, and assist +them with your grace, that with true fidelity and steadfast love +they may honor and keep the promises and vows they make; +through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with +you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. +=Amen.= + + + +*Then one or more of the following passages from Holy Scripture is read. +If there is to be a Communion, a passage from the Gospel always +concludes the Readings.* + + Genesis 1:26-28 (Male and female he created them) + + Genesis 2:4-9, 15-24 (A man cleaves to his wife and they become one +flesh) + + Song of Solomon 2:10-13; 8:6-7 (Many waters cannot quench love) + + Tobit 8:5b-8 (_New English Bible_) (That she and I may grow old +together) + + + 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (Love is patient and kind) + + Ephesians 3:14-19 (The Father from whom ever family is named) + + Ephesians 5:1-2, 21-33 (Walk in love, as Christ loved us) + + Colossians 3:12-17 (Love which binds everything together in harmony) + + 1 John 4:7-16 (Let us love one another for love is of God) + + +*Between the Readings, a Psalm, hymn, or anthem may be sing or said. +Appropriate Psalms are 67, 127, and 128.* + +*When a passage from the Gospel is to be read, all stand, and the Deacon +or Minister appointed says* + +The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to &mdash.. + +*People* Glory to you, Lord Christ. + + Matthew 5:1-10 (The Beatitudes) + + Matthew 5:13-16 (You are the light...Let your light so shine) + + Matthew 7:21,24-29 (Like a wise man who built his house upon the rock) + + Mark 10:6-9,13-16 (They are no longer two but one) + + John 15:9-12 (Love one another as I have loved you) + + +*After the Gospel, the Reader says* + +The Gospel of the Lord. + +*People* Praise to you, Lord Christ. + +*A homily or other response to the Readings may follow.* + + + + + + +*The Man, facing the woman and taking her right hand in his, says* + +In the Name of God, I, &N., take you, &N., to be my wife, to +have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, +for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to +cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow. + +*Then they loose their hands, and the Woman, still facing the man, takes +his right hand in hers, and says* + +In the Name of God, I, &N., take you, &N., to be my husband, +to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, +for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to +cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow. + +*The loose their hands.* + + +*The Priest may ask God's blessing on a ring or rings as follows* + +Bless, O Lord, =this ring= to be =a sign= of the vows by which +this man and this woman have bound themselves to each +other; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*The giver places the ring on the ring-finger of the other's hand and +says* + +&N., I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and with all +that I am, and all that I have, I honor you, in the Name of +the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (*or* in the +Name of God). + + + +*Then the Celebrant joins the right hands of husband and wife and says* + +Now that &N. and &N. have given themselves to each other by +solemn vows, with the joining of hands and the giving and +receiving of a ring, I pronounce that they are husband +and wife, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and +of the Holy Spirit. + +Those whom God has joined together let no one put asunder. + +*People* Amen. + + + + +*All standing, the Celebrant says* + +Let us pray together in the words our Savior taught us. + +*People and Celebrant* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be thy Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, +/on earth as it is in heaven. +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those +/who trespass against us. +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + + + +Our Father in heaven, + hallowed be your Name, + your kingdom come, + your will be done, +/on earth as in heaven. +Give us today our daily bread. +Forgive us our sins + as we forgive those +/who sin against us. +Save us from the time of trial, + and deliver us from evil. +For the kingdom, the power, + and the glory are yours, + now and for ever. Amen. + +*If Communion is to follow, the Lord's Prayer may be omitted here.* + + + +*The Deacon or other person appointed reads the following prayers, to +which the People respond, saying, Amen.* + +*If there is not to be a Communion, one or more of the prayers may be +omitted.* + +Let us pray. + +Eternal God, creator and preserver of all life, author of +salvation, and giver of all grace: Look with favor upon +the world you have made, and for which your Son gave his life, +and especially upon this man and this woman whom you +make one flesh in Holy Matrimony. =Amen.= + +Give them wisdom and devotion in the ordering of their +common life, that each may be to the other a strength in need, a +counselor in perplexity, a comfort in sorrow, and a companion +in joy. =Amen.= + +Grant that their wills may be so knit together in your will, +and their spirits in your Spirit, that they may grow in love +and peace with you and one another all the days of their life. +=Amen.= + +Give them grace, when they hurt each other, to recognize and +acknowledge their fault, and to seek each other's forgiveness +and yours. =Amen.= + +Make their life together a sign of Christ's love to this sinful +and broken world, that unity may overcome estrangement, forgiveness +heal guilt, and joy conquer despair. =Amen.= + +[[Bestow on them, if it is your will, the gift and heritage of +children, and the grace to bring them up to know you, to love you, +and to serve you. =Amen.=]] + +Give them such fulfillment of their mutual affection that they +may reach out in love and concern for others. =Amen.= + + + +Grant that all married persons who have witnessed these vows +may find their lives strengthened and their loyalties +confirmed. =Amen.= + +Grant that the bonds of our common humanity, by which all +your children are united one to another, and the living to the +dead, may be so transformed by your grace, that your will may +be done on earth as it is in heaven; where, O Father, with your +Son, and the Holy Spirit, you live and reign in perfect unity, +now and for ever. =Amen.= + + + + +*The people remain standing. The husband and wife kneel, and the Priest +says one of the following prayers* + +Most gracious God, we give you thanks for your tender love +in sending Jesus Christ to come among us, to be born of a +human mother, and to make the way of the cross to be the +way of life. We thank you, also, for consecrating the union of +man and woman in his Name. By the power of your Holy +Spirit, your out the abundance of your blessing upon this +man and this woman. Defend them from every enemy. Lead +them into all peace. Let their love for each other be a seal +upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a +crown upon their foreheads. Bless them in their work and in +their companionship; in their sleeping and in their waking; in +their joys and in their sorrows; in their life and in their death. +Finally, in your mercy, bring them to that table where your +saints feast for ever in your heavenly home; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and +reigns, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + +*or this* + +O God, you have so consecrated the covenant of marriage +that in it is represented the spiritual unity between Christ +and his Church: Send therefore your blessing upon these your +servants, that they may so love, honor, and cherish each other +in faithfulness and patience, in wisdom and true godliness, +that their home may be a haven of blessing and peace; +through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +*The husband and wife still kneeling, the Priest adds this blessing* + +God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, bless, +preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully with his favor +look upon you, and fill you with all spiritual benediction and +grace; that you may faithfully live together in this life, and +in the age to come have life everlasting. =Amen.= + + + + +*The Celebrant may say to the people* + +The peace of the Lord be always with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*The newly married couple then greet each other, after which greetings +may be exchanged throughout the congregation.* + +*When Communion is not to follow, the wedding party leaves the church. A +hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung, or instrumental music may be +played.* + + + + + + +*The liturgy then continues with the Offertory, at which the newly +married couple may present the offerings of bread and wine.* + +*Preface of Marriage* + +*At the Communion, it is appropriate that the newly married couple +receive Communion first, after the ministers.* + +*In place of the usual postcommunion prayer, the following is said* + +O God, the giver of all that is true and lovely and gracious: +We give you thanks for binding us together in these holy +mysteries of the Body and Blood of your Son Jesus Christ. +Grant that by your Holy Spirit, &N. and &N., now joined in Holy +Matrimony, may become one in heart and soul, live in fidelity +and peace, and obtain those eternal joys prepared for all who +love you; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*As the wedding party leaves the church, a hymn, psalm, or anthem may be +sung, or instrumental music may be played.* + + + + + + + +*The Rite begins as prescribed for celebrations of the Holy Eucharist, +using the Collect and Lessons appointed in the Marriage service.* + +*After the Gospel (and homily), the husband and wife stand before the +Celebrant, who addresses them in these or similar words* + +&N. and &N., you have come here today to seek the blessing of +God and of his Church upon your marriage. I require, +therefore, that you promise, with the help of God, to fulfill +the obligations which Christian Marriage demands. + + +*The Celebrant then addresses the husband, saying* + +&N., you have taken &N. to be your wife. Do you promise to +love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in +health; and, forsaking all others, to be faithful to her as long +as you both shall live? + +*The Husband answers* I do. + + +*The Celebrant then addresses the wife, saying* + +&N., you have taken &N. to be your husband. Do you promise +to love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness +and in health; and, forsaking all others, to be faithful to him +as long as you both shall live? + +*The Wife answers* I do. + + + +*The Celebrant then addresses the congregation, saying* + +Will you who have witnessed these promises do all in your +power to uphold these two persons in their marriage? + +*People* We will. + +*If a ring or rings are to be blessed, the wife extends her hand (and +the husband extends his hand) toward the Priest, who says* + +Bless, O Lord, =this ring= to be =a sign= of the vows by which +this man and this woman have bound themselves to each +other; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*The Celebrant joins the right hands of the husband and wife and says +Those whom God has joined together let no one put asunder.* + +*The Congregation responds* Amen. + +*The service continues with The Prayers on page 428.* + + + + + + +*If it is desired to celebrate a marriage otherwise than as provided on +page 423 of this Book, this Order is used.* + +*Normally, the celebrant is a priest or bishop. Where permitted by +civil law, and when no priest or bishop is available, a deacon may +function as celebrant, but does not pronounce a nuptial blessing.* + +*The laws of the State and the canons of this Church having been +complied with, the man and the woman, together with their witnesses, +families, and friends assemble in the church or in some other convenient +place.* + + 1. The teaching of the Church concerning Holy Matrimony, as it is +declared in the formularies and canons of this Church, is briefly +stated. + + 2. The intention of the man and the woman to enter the state of +matrimony, and their free consent, is publicly ascertained. + + 3. One or more Readings, one of which is always from Holy Scripture, +may precede the exchange of vows. If there is to be a Communion, a +Reading from the Gospel is always included. + + 4. The vows of the man and woman are exchanged, using the following +form + + + +In the Name of God, I, &N., take you, &N., to be my +(wife) (husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, +for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in +health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. +This is my solemn vow. + +*or this* + +I, &N., take thee, &N., to my wedded (wife) (husband), to have +and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for +richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to +cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy +ordinance; and thereto I (plight) (give) thee my troth. + + 5. The Celebrant declares the union of the man and woman as husband +and wife, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy +Spirit. + + 6. Prayers are offered for the husband and wife, for their life +together, for the Christian community, and for the world. + + 7. A priest or bishop pronounces a solemn blessing upon the couple. + + 8. If there is no Communion, the service concludes with the Peace, +the husband and wife first greeting each other. The Peace may be +exchanged throughout the assembly. + + 9. If there is to be a Communion, the service continues with the +Peace and the Offertory. The Holy Eucharist may be celebrated either +according to Rite One or Rite Two in this Book, or according to the +Order in page 401. + + + + + + +*If Banns are to be published, the following form is used* + +I publish the Banns of Marriage between &N. &N.. of &mdash. and &N. &N.. +of &mdash.. If any of you know just cause why they may not be joined +together in Holy Matrimony, you are bidden to declare it. This is the +first (*or* second, *or* third) time of asking. + +*The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage may be used with any +authorized liturgy for the Holy Eucharist. This service then replaces +the Ministry of the Word, and the Eucharist begins with the Offertory.* + +*After the Declaration of Consent, if there is to be a giving in +marriage, or presentation, the Celebrant asks* + +Who gives (presents) this woman to be married to this man? + +*or the following* + +Who presents this woman and this man to be married to each other? + +*To either question, the appropriate answer is, "I do." If more than +one person responds, they do so together.* + +*For the Ministry of the Word it is fitting that the man and woman to be +married remain where they may conveniently hear the reading of +Scripture. They may approach the Altar, either for the exchange of +vows, or for the Blessing of the Marriage.* + +*It is appropriate that all remain standing until the conclusion of the +Collect. Seating may be provided for the wedding party, so that all may +be seated for the Lessons and the homily.* + +*The Apostles' Creed may be recited after the Lessons, or after the +homily, if there is one.* + +*When desired, some other suitable symbol of the vows may be used in +place of the ring.* + + + +*At the Offertory, it is desirable that the bread and wine be presented +to the ministers by the newly married persons. They may then remain +before the Lord's Table and receive Holy Communion before other members +of the congregation.* + + + + + + +*As soon as convenient after the birth of a child, or after receiving a +child by adoption, the parents, with other members of the family, should +come to the church to be welcomed by the congregation and to give thanks +to Almighty God. It is desirable that this take place at a Sunday +service. In the Eucharist it may follow the Prayers of the People +preceding the Offertory. At Morning or Evening Prayer it may take place +before the close of the Office.* + +*When desired, a briefer form of this service may be used, especially in +the hospital or at home; in which case the Celebrant may begin with the +Act of Thanksgiving, or with the prayer "O God, you have taught is." A +passage from Scripture may first be read. Either Luke 2:41-51, or Luke +18:15-17, is appropriate.* + +*During the prayers, some parents may wish to express thanks in their +own words.* + +*At the proper time, the Celebrant invites the parents and other members +of the family to present themselves before the Altar.* + + + + + + +*The Celebrant addresses the congregation in these or similar words* + +Dear Friends: The birth of a child is a joyous and solemn +occasion in the life of a family. It is also an occasion for +rejoicing in the Christian community. I bid you, therefore, +to join &N. [and &N.] in giving thanks to Almighty God our +heavenly Father, the Lord of all life, for the gift of &N. to be +their son (daughter) [and with &N. (and &N. &N..), for a new +brother (sister)]. Let us say together: + +*The service continues with the Magnificat or one of the Psalms on pages +441-443.* + + + + +*The Celebrant addresses the congregation in these or similar words* + +Dear Friends: It has pleased God our heavenly Father to +answer the earnest prayers of &N. [and &N.], member(s) of this +Christian family, for the gift of a child. I bid you join with +=them= [and with &N. (and &N. &N..), who now =has= a new brother +(sister)] in offering heartfelt thanks for the joyful and solemn +responsibility which is =theirs= by the coming of &N. to be a +member of their family. But first, our friends wish us, here +assembled, to witness the inauguration of this new +relationship. + +The Celebrant asks the parent or parents + +&N. [and &N.], do you take this child for your own? + +*Parent(s)* I do. + + + +*Then if the child is old enough to answer, the Celebrant asks* + +&N., do you take this woman as your mother? + +*Child* I do. + + +*Celebrant* Do you take this man as your father? + +*Child* I do. + + +*Then the Celebrant, holding or taking the child by the hand, gives the +child to the mother or father, saying* + +As God has made us his children by adoption and grace, may +you receive &N. as your own son (daughter). + + +*Then one or both parents say these or similar words* + +May God, the Father of all, bless our child &N., and us who +have given to him our family name, that wwe may live together +in love and affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +*The Celebrant says* + +Since it has pleased God to bestow upon &N. [and &N.] the gift +of a child, let us now give thanks to him, and say together: + + + + +My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, + +my spirit rejoices in God by Savior; + for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. + +From this day all generations will call me blessed: + the Almighty has done great things for me, + and holy is his Name. + +He has mercy on those who fear him + in every generation. + + + +He has shown the strength of his arm, + he has scattered the proud in their conceit. + +He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, + and has lifted up the lowly. + +He has filled the hungry with good things, + and the rich he has sent away empty. + +He has come to the help of his servant Israel, + for he has remembered his promise of mercy, + +The promise he made to our fathers, + to Abraham and his children for ever. + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + +*or this* + + + + +I love the LORD, because he has heard the voice of my +/supplication, * + because he has inclined his ear to me whenever I called +/upon him. + +Gracious is the LORD and righteous; * + our God is full of compassion. + +How shall I repay the LORD * + for all the good things he has done for me? + +I will lift up the cup of salvation * + and call upon the Name of the LORD. + +I will fulfill my vows to the LORD * + in the presence of all his people. + +In the courts of the LORD'S house, * + in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. + Hallelujah! + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + + + + +The LORD is my shepherd; * + I shall not be in want. + +He makes me lie down in green pastures * + and leads me beside still waters. + +He revives my soul * + and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake. + +Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, +I shall fear no evil; * + for you are with me; + your rod and your staff, they comfort me. + +You spread a table before me in the presence of those +/who trouble me; * + you have anointed my head with oil, + and my cup is running over. + +Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the +days of my life, * + and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. + +Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * + as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. + + +*The Celebrant then says this prayer* + +Let us pray. + +O God, you have taught us through your blessed Son that +whoever receives a little child in the name of Christ receives +Christ himself: We give thanks for the blessing you have +bestowed upon this family in giving them a child. Confirm +their joy by a lively sense of your presence with them, and +give them calm strength and patient wisdom as they seek to +bring this child to love all that is true and noble, just and +pure, lovable and gracious, excellent and admirable, +following the example of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. +=Amen.= + + + + + + +*The Celebrant may add one or more of the following prayers* + +=For a safe delivery= + +O gracious God, we give you humble and hearty thanks that +you have preserved through the pain and anxiety of child- +birth your servant &N., who desires now to offer you her praises +and thanksgivings. Grant, most merciful Father, that by your +help she may live faithfully according to your will in this life, +and finally partake of everlasting glory in the life to come; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=For the parents= + +Almighty God, giver of life and love, bless &N. and &N. Grant +them wisdom and devotion in the ordering of their common +life, that each may be to the other a strength in need, a +counselor in perplexity, a comfort in sorrow, and a companion +in joy. And so knit their wills together in your will and their +spirits in your Spirit, that they may live together in love and +peace all the days of their life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + +=For a child not yet baptized= + +O eternal God, you have promised to be a father to a +thousand generations of those who love and fear you: Bless +this child and preserve =his= life; receive =him= and enable =him= to +receive you, that through the Sacrament of Baptism =he= may +become the child of God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + +=For a child already baptized= + +Into your hands, O God, we place your child &N. Support =him= +in =his= successes and in =his= failures, in =his= joys and in =his= + +sorrows. As =he= grows in age, may =he= grow in grace, and in +the knowledge of his Savior Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + + +*The Celebrant may then bless the family* + +May God the Father, who by Baptism adopts us as his +children, grant you grace. =Amen.= + +May God the Son, who sanctified a home at Nazareth, fill +you with love. =Amen.= + +May God the Holy Spirit, who has made the Church one +family, keep you in peace. =Amen.= + +*The Peace may be exchanged.* + + +*The Minister of the Congregation is directed to instruct the people, +from time to time, about the duty of Christian parents to make prudent +provision for the well-being of their families, and of all persons to +make wills, while they are in health, arranging for the disposal of +their temporal goods, not neglecting, if they are able, to leave +bequests for religious and charitable uses.* + + + + + + +*The ministry of reconciliation, which has been committed by Christ to +his Church, is exercised through the care each Christian has for others, +through the common prayer of Christians assembled for public worship, +and through the priesthood of Christ and his ministers declaring +absolution.* + +*The Reconciliation of a Penitent is available for all who desire it. It +is not restricted to times of sickness. Confessions may be heard +anytime and anywhere.* + +*Two equivalent forms of service are provided here to meet the needs of +penitents. The absolution in these services may be pronounced only by a +bishop or priest. Another Christian may be asked to hear a confession, +but it must be made clear to the penitent that absolution will not be +pronounced; instead, a declaration of forgiveness is provided.* + +*When a confession is heard in a church building, the confessor may sit +inside the altar rails or in a place set aside to give greater privacy, +and the penitent kneels nearby. If preferred, the confessor and +penitent may sit face to face for a spiritual conference leading to +absolution or a declaration of forgiveness.* + +*When the penitent has confessed all serious sins troubling the +conscience and has given evidence of due contrition, the priest gives +such counsel and encouragement as are needed and pronounces the +absolution. Before giving absolution, the priest may assign to the +penitent a psalm, prayer, or hymn to be said, or something to be done, +as a sign of penitence and act of thanksgiving.* + +*The content of a confession is not normally a matter of subsequent +discussion. The secrecy of a confession is morally absolute for the +confessor, and must under no circumstances be broken.* + + + + + + + + + +*The Penitent begins* + +Bless me, for I have sinned. + + +*The Priest says* + +The Lord be in your heart and upon your lips that you may +truly and humbly confess your sins: In the Name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + + +*Penitent* + +I confess to Almighty God, to his Church, and to you, that +I have sinned by my own fault in thought, word, and deed, in +things done and left undone; especially &mdash.. For these +and all other sins which I cannot now remember, I am truly +sorry. I pray God to have mercy on me. I firmly intend +amendment of life, and I humbly beg forgiveness of God and +his Church, and ask you for counsel, direction, and absolution. + +*Here the Priest may offer counsel, direction, and comfort.* + + + +*The Priest then pronounces this absolution* + +Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has left power to his Church to +absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in him, of +his great mercy forgive you all your offenses; and by his +authority committed to me, I absolve you from all your sins: +In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy +Spirit. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered himself to be sacrificed +for us to the Father, and who conferred power on his Church +to forgive sins, absolve you through my ministry by the grace +of the Holy Spirit, and restore you in the perfect peace of +the Church. =Amen.= + + +*The Priest adds* + +The Lord has put away all your sins. + +*Penitent* Thanks be to God. + +*The Priest concludes* + +Go (or abide) in peace, and pray for me, a sinner. + + +*Declaration of Forgiveness +to be used by a Deacon or Lay Person* + +Our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered himself to be sacrificed +for us to the Father, forgives your sins by the grace of the +Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + + + + + + +*The Priest and Penitent begin as follows* + +Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness; + in your great compassion blot out my offenses. + +Wash me through and through from my wickedness, + and cleanse me from my sin. + +For I know my transgressions only too well, + and my sin is ever before me. + +Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, + have mercy upon us. + +*Penitent* Pray for me, a sinner. + +*Priest* + +May God in his love enlighten your heart, that you may +remember in truth all your sins and his unfailing mercy. +=Amen.= + +*The Priest may then say one or more of these or other appropriate +verses of Scripture, first saying* + +Hear the Word of God to all who truly turn to him. + +Come to me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I +will refresh you. =Matthew 11:28= + +God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, +to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but +have everlasting life. =John 3:16= + +This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received, +that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. +=1 Timothy 1:15= + + + +If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus +Christ the righteous; and he is the perfect offering for our +sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. +=1 John 2:1-2= + + +*The Priest then continues* + +Now, in the presence of Christ, and of me, his minister, +confess your sins with a humble and obedient heart to +Almighty God, our Creator and our Redeemer. + + +*The Penitent says* + +Holy God, heavenly Father, you formed me from the dust in +your image and likeness, and redeemed me from sin and +death by the cross of your Son Jesus Christ. Through the +water of baptism you clothed me with the shining garment of +his righteousness, and established me among your children in +your kingdom. But I have squandered the inheritance of your +saints, and have wandered far in a land that is waste. + +Especially, I confess to you and to the Church... + +*Here the Penitent confesses particular sins.* + +Therefore, O Lord, from these and all other sins I cannot +now remember, I turn to you in sorrow and repentance. +Receive me again into the arms of your mercy, and restore me +to the blessed company of your faithful people; through him +in whom you have redeemed the world, your Son our Savior +Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + + +*The Priest may then offer words of comfort and counsel.* + +*Priest* + +Will you turn again to Christ as your Lord? + +*Penitent* I will. + + + +Priest + +Do you, then, forgive those who have sinned against you? + +*Penitent* I forgive them. + +*Priest* + +May Almighty God in mercy receive your confession of +sorrow and of faith, strengthen you in all goodness, and by +the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life. =Amen.= + +*The Priest then lays a hand upon the penitent's head (or extends a hand +over the penitent), saying one of the following* + +Our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered himself to be sacrificed +for us to the Father, and who conferred power on his Church +to forgive sins, absolve you through my ministry by the grace +of the Holy Spirit, and restore you in the perfect peace of the +Church. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has left power to his Church to +absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in him, of +his great mercy forgive you all your offenses; and by his +authority committed to me, I absolve you from all your sins: +In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy +Spirit. =Amen.= + + +*The Priest concludes* + +Now there is rejoicing in heaven; for you were lost, and +are found; you were dead, and are now alive in Christ Jesus +our Lord. Go (or abide) in peace. The Lord has put away all +your sins. + +*Penitent* Thanks be to God. + + + +*Declaration of Forgiveness +to be used by a Deacon or Lay Person* + +Our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered himself to be sacrificed +for us to the Father, forgives your sins by the grace of the +Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + + + + + + + +*In case of illness, the Minister of the Congregation is to be +notified.* + +*At the ministration, one or more parts of the following service are +used, as appropriate, but when two or more are used together, they are +used in the order indicated. The Lord's Prayer is always included.* + +*Part One of this service may always be led by a deacon or lay person.* + +*When the Laying on of Hands takes place at a public celebration of the +Eucharist, it is desirable that it precede the distribution of Holy +Communion, and it is recommended that it take place immediately before +the exchange of the Peace.* + +*The Celebrant begins the service with the following or some other +greeting* + +Peace be to this house (place), and to all who dwell in it. + + + + +*One or more of the following or other passages of Scripture are read* + + +=General= + + 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (God comforts us in affliction) + + Psalm 91 (He will give his angels charge over you) + + Luke 17:11-19 (Your faith has made you well) + + + + +=Penitence= + + Hebrews 12:1-2 (Looking to Jesus, the perfecter of our faith) + + Psalm 103 (He forgives all your sins) + + Matthew 9:2-8 (Your sins are forgiven) + + +=When Anointing is to follow= + + James 5:14-16 (Is any among you sick?) + + Psalm 23 (You have anointed my head with oil) + + Mark 6:7,12-13 (They anointed with oil many that were sick) + + +=When Communion is to follow= + + 1 John 5:13-15 (That you may know that you have eternal life) + + Psalm 145:14-22 (The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord) + + John 6:47-51 (I am the bread of life) + + +*After any Reading, the Celebrant may comment on it briefly.* + +*Prayers may be offered according to the occasion.* + +*The Priest may suggest the making of a special confession, if the sick +person's conscience is troubled, and use the form for the Reconciliation +of a Penitent.* + +*Or else the following general confession may be said* + +Most merciful God, +we confess that we have sinned against you +in thought, word, and deed, +by what we have done, +and by what we have left undone. +We have not loved you with our whole heart; +we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we +humbly repent. + +For the sake of you Son Jesus Christ, +have mercy on us and forgive us; +that we may delight in your will, +and walk in your ways, +to the glory of your Name. Amen. + + +*The Priest alone says* + +Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins +through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all goodness, +and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life. +=Amen.= + +*A deacon or lay person using the preceding form substitutes "us" +for "you" and "our" for "your."* + + + + +[[*If oil for the Anointing of the Sick is to be blessed, the Priest +says* + +O Lord, holy Father, giver of health and salvation: Send your +Holy Spirit to sanctify this oil; that, as your holy apostles +anointed many that were sick and healed them, so may those +who in faith and repentance receive this holy unction be +made whole; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and +reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and +ever. =Amen.=]] + + +*The following anthem is said* + +Savior of the world, by your cross and precious blood you +have redeemed us; +=Save us and help us, we humbly beseech you, O Lord.= + + +*The Priest then lays hands upon the sick person, and says one of the +following* + + + +&N., I lay my hands upon you in the Name of the Father, and +of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, beseeching our Lord Jesus +Christ to sustain you with his presence, to drive away all +sickness of body and spirit, and to give you that victory of life +and peace which will enable you to serve him both now and +evermore. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +&N., I lay my hands upon you in the Name of our Lord and +Savior Jesus Christ, beseeching him to uphold you and fill +you with his grace, that you may know the healing power of +his love. =Amen.= + + +*If the person is to be anointed, the Priest dips a thumb in the holy +oil, and makes the sign of the cross on the sick person's forehead, +saying* + +&N., I anoint you with oil in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, +and of the Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + + +*The Priest may add* + +As you are outwardly anointed with this holy oil, so may our +heavenly Father grant you the inward anointing of the Holy +Spirit. Of his great mercy, may he forgive you your sins, +release you from suffering, and restore you to wholeness and +strength. May he deliver you from all evil, preserve you in all +goodness, and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*In cases of necessity, a deacon or lay person may perform the +anointing, using oil blessed by a bishop or priest.* + +*If Communion is not to follow, the Lord's Prayer is now said.* + + +*The Priest concludes* + +The Almighty Lord, who is a strong tower to all who put their +trust in him, to whom all things in heaven, on earth, and under + +the earth bow and obey: Be now and evermore your defense, +and make you know and feel that the only Name under +heaven given for health and salvation is the Name of our Lord +Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + + + + +*If the Eucharist is to be celebrated, the Priest begins with the [Peace +and] Offertory.* + +*If Communion is to be administered from the reserved Sacrament, the +form for Communion under Special Circumstances is used, beginning with +the [Peace and] Lord's Prayer on page 398. + +*If the sick person cannot receive either the consecrated Bread or the +Wine, it is suitable to administer the Sacrament in one kind only.* + +*One of the usual postcommunion prayers is said, or the following* + +Gracious Father, we give you praise and thanks for this Holy +Communion of the Body and Blood of your beloved Son +Jesus Christ, the pledge of our redemption; and we pray that +it may bring us forgiveness of our sins, strength in our +weakness, and everlasting salvation; through Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*The service concludes with a blessing or with a dismissal* + +Let us bless the Lord. +=Thanks be to God.= + +*If a person desires to receive the Sacrament, but, by reason of extreme +sickness or physical disability, is unable to eat and drink the Bread +and Wine, the Celebrant is to assure that person that all the benefits +of Communion are received, even though the Sacrament is not received +with the mouth.* + + + + + + +=For a Sick Person= + +O Father of mercies and God of all comfort, our only help in +time of need: We humbly beseech thee to behold, visit, and +relieve thy sick servant &N. for whom our prayers are desired. +Look upon =him= with the eyes of thy mercy; comfort =him= with +a sense of thy goodness; preserve =him= from the temptations +of the enemy; and give =him= patience under =his= affliction. In +thy good time, restore =him= to health, and enable =him= to lead +the residue of =his= life in thy fear, and to thy glory; and grant +that =he= may dwell with thee in life everlasting; through +Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=For Recovery from Sickness= + +O God, the strength of the weak and the comfort of sufferers: +Mercifully accept our prayers, and grant to your servant &N. +the help of your power, that =his= sickness may be turned into +health, and our sorrow into joy; through Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God of heavenly powers, by the might of your command +you drive away from our bodies all sickness and all infirmity: +Be present in your goodness with your servant &N., that =his= +weakness may be banished and his strength restored; and that, +his health being renewed, =he= may bless your holy Name; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=For a Sick Child= + +Heavenly Father, watch with us over your child &N., and grant +that =he= may be restored to that perfect health which it is +yours alone to give; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + +*or this* + +Lord Jesus Christ, Good Shepherd of the sheep, you gather +the lambs in your arms and carry them in your bosom: We +commend to your loving care this child &N. Relieve =his= pain, +guard =him= from all danger, restore to =him= your gifts of +gladness and strength, and raise =him= up to a life of service to +you. Hear us, we pray, for you dear Name's sake. =Amen.= + + +=Before an Operation= + +Almighty God our heavenly Father, graciously comfort your +servant &N. in =his= suffering, and bless the means made use of +for =his= cure. Fill =his= heart with confidence that, though at times +=he= may be afraid, he yet may put =his= trust in you; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Strengthen your servant &N., O God, to do what =he= has to do +and bear what =he= has to bear; that, accepting your healing +gifts through the skill of surgeons and nurses, =he= may be +restored to usefulness in your world with a thankful heart; through +Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=For Strength and Confidence= + +Heavenly Father, giver of life and health: Comfort and +relieve your sick servant &N., and give your power of healing to +those who minister to =his= needs, that =he= may be strengthened in +his weakness and have confidence in your loving care; through +Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +=For the Sanctification of Illness= + +Sanctify, O Lord, the sickness of your servant &N., that the +sense of =his= weakness may add strength to =his= faith and +seriousness to his repentance; and grant that =he= may live with +you in everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=For Health of Body and Soul= + +May God the Father bless you, God the Son heal you, God +the Holy Spirit give you strength. May God the holy and +undivided Trinity guard your body, save your soul, and bring +you safely to his heavenly country; where he lives and reigns +for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + +=For Doctors and Nurses= + +Sanctify, O Lord, those whom you have called to the study +and practice of the arts of healing, and to the prevention of +disease and pain. Strengthen them by your life-giving Spirit, +that by their ministries the health of the community may be +promoted and your creation glorified; through Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=Thanksgiving for a Beginning of Recovery= + +O Lord, your compassions never fail and your mercies are +new every morning: We give you thanks for giving our +brother (sister) &N. both relief from pain and hope of health +renewed. Continue in =him=, we pray, the good work you have +begun; that =he=, daily increasing in bodily strength, and +rejoicing in your goodness, may so order =his= life and conduct +that =he= may always think and do those things that please +you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + + + +=For Trust in God= + +O God, the source of all health: So fill my heart with faith in +your love, that with calm expectancy I may make room for +your power to possess me, and gracefully accept your +healing; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=In Pain= + +Lord Jesus Christ, by your patience in suffering you hallowed +earthly pain and gave us the example of obedience to your +Father's will: Be near me in my time of weakness and pain; +sustain me by your grace, that my strength and courage may +not fail; heal me according to your will; and help me always +to believe that what happens to me here is of little account if +you hold me in eternal life, my Lord and my God. =Amen.= + + +=For Sleep= + +O heavenly Father, you give your children sleep for the +refreshing of soul and body: Grant me this gift, I pray; keep +me in that perfect peace which you have promised to those +whose minds are fixed on you; and give me such a sense of +your presence, that in the hours of silence I may enjoy the +blessed assurance of your love; through Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + + +=In the Morning= + +This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring +forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I +am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, +help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it +patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. +Make these words more than words, and give me the Spirit +of Jesus. =Amen.= + + + + + + +*When a person is near death, the Minister of the Congregation should be +notified, in order that the ministrations of the Church may be +provided.* + + +=A Prayer for a Person near Death= + +Almighty God, look on this your servant, lying in great +weakness, and comfort him with the promise of life +everlasting, given in the resurrection of your Son Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +*When possible, it is desirable that members of the family and friends +come together to join in the Litany.* + +God the Father, +=Have mercy on your servant.= + +God the Son, +=Have mercy on your servant.= + +God the Holy Spirit, +=Have mercy on your servant.= + + + +Holy Trinity, one God, +=Have mercy on your servant.= + +From all evil, from all sin, from all tribulation, +=Good Lord, deliver him.= + +By your holy Incarnation, by your Cross and Passion, by +your precious Death and Burial, +=Good Lord, deliver him.= + +By your glorious Resurrection and Ascension, and by the +Coming of the Holy Spirit, +=Good Lord, deliver him.= + +We sinners beseech you to hear us, Lord Christ: That it may +please you to deliver the soul of your servant from the power +of evil, and from eternal death, +=We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please you mercifully to pardon all =his= sins, +=We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please you to grant =him= a place of refreshment +and everlasting blessedness, +=We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.= + +That it may please you to give =him= joy and gladness in your +kingdom, with your saints in light, +=We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.= + +Jesus, Lamb of God: +=Have mercy on *him*.= + +Jesus, bearer of our sins: +=Have mercy on *him*.= + +Jesus, redeemer of the world: +=Give *him* your peace.= + + + +Lord, have mercy. +=Christ, have mercy.= +Lord, have mercy. + +*Officiant and People* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be thy Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, +/on earth as it is in heaven. +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those +/who trespass against us. +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + + + +Our Father in heaven, + hallowed be your Name, + your kingdom come, + your will be done, +/on earth as in heaven. +Give us today our daily bread. +Forgive us our sins + as we forgive those +/who sin against us. +Save us from the time of trial, + and deliver us from evil. +For the kingdom, the power, + and the glory are yours, + now and for ever. Amen. + + +*The Officiant says this Collect* + +Let us pray. + +Deliver your servant, &N., O Sovereign Lord Christ, from all +evil, and set =him= free from every bond; that =he= may rest with +all your saints in the eternal habitations; where with the +Father and the Holy Spirit your live and reign, one God, for +ever and ever. =Amen.= + + +=A Commendation at the Time of Death= + +Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world; +In the Name of God the Father Almighty who created you; +In the Name of Jesus Christ who redeemed you; +In the Name of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you. +May your rest be this day in peace, + and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God. + + + + +=A Commendatory Prayer= + +Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your +servant &N. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of +your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your +own redeeming. Receive =him= into the arms of your mercy, +into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the +glorious company of the saints in light. =Amen.= + +May =his= soul and the souls of all the departed, through the +mercy of God, rest in peace. =Amen.= + + +=Prayers for a Vigil= + +*It is appropriate that the family and friends come together for prayers +prior to the funeral. Suitable Psalms, Lessons, and Collects (such as +those in the Burial service) may be used. The Litany at the Time of +Death may be said, or the following* + +Dear Friends: It was our Lord Jesus himself who said, +"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will +give you rest." Let us pray, then, for our brother (sister) &N., +that =he= may rest from =his= labors, and enter into the light +of God's eternal sabbath rest. + +Receive, O Lord, your servant, for =he= returns to you. +=Into your hands, O Lord, +we commend our brother (sister) &N.= + +Wash =him= in the holy font of everlasting life, and clothe +=him= in his heavenly wedding garment. +=Into your hands, O Lord, +we commend our brother (sister) &N.= + +May =he= hear your words of invitation, "Come, you blessed of +my Father." +=Into your hands, O Lord, +we commend our brother (sister) &N.= + + + +May =he= gaze upon you, Lord, face to face, and taste the +blessedness of perfect rest. +=Into your hands, O Lord, +we commend our brother (sister) &N.= + +May angels surround =him=, and saints welcome =him= in peace. +=Into your hands, O Lord, +we commend our brother (sister) &N.= + + +*The Officiant concludes* + +Almighty God, our Father in heaven, before whom live all +who die in the Lord: Receive our =brother= &N. into the courts of +your heavenly dwelling place. Let =his= heart and soul now ring +out in joy to you, O Lord, the living God, and the God of +those who live. This we ask through Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +*The following form may be used at whatever time the body is brought to +the church.* + +*The Celebrant meets the body at the door of the church and says* + +With faith in Jesus Christ, we receive the body of our brother +(sister) &N. for burial. Let us pray with confidence to God, the +Giver of life, that he will raise =him= to perfection in the +company of the saints. + +*Silence may be kept; after which the Celebrant says* + +Deliver your servant, &N., O Sovereign Lord Christ, from all +evil, and set =him= free from every bond; that =he= may rest with +all your saints in the eternal habitations; where with the +Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, for +ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + +Let us also pray for all who mourn, that they may cast their +care on God, and know the consolation of his love. + +*Silence may be kept; after which the Celebrant says* + +Almighty God, look with pity upon the sorrows of your +servants for whom we pray. Remember them, Lord, in your mercy; +nourish them with patience; comfort them with a sense of your +goodness; lift up your countenance upon them; and give them +peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*If the Burial service is not to follow immediately, the body is then +brought into the church, during which time a suitable psalm or anthem +may be sung or said. Appropriate devotions, such as those appointed for +the Vigil on page 465, may follow.* + +*When the order for the Burial of the Dead follows immediately, the +service continues on page 469 or 491.* + +*A member of the congregation bearing the lighted Paschal Candle may +lead the procession into the church.* + + + +*Concerning the Service* + +*The death of a member of the Church should be reported as soon as +possible to, and arrangements for the funeral should be made in +consultation with, the Minister of the Congregation.* + +*Baptized Christians are properly buried from the church. The service +should be held at a time when the congregation has opportunity to be +present.* + +*The coffin is to be closed before the service, and it remains closed +thereafter. It is appropriate that it be covered with a pall or other +suitable covering.* + +*If necessary, or if desired, all or part of the service of Committal +may be said in the church. If preferred, the Committal service may take +place before the service in the church. It may also be used prior to +cremation.* + +*A priest normally presides at the service. It is appropriate that the +bishop, when present, preside at the Eucharist and pronounce the +Commendation.* + +*It is desirable that the Lesson from the Old Testament, and the +Epistle, be read by lay persons.* + +*When the services of a priest cannot be obtained, a deacon or lay +reader may preside at the service.* + +*At the burial of a child, the passages from Lamentations, 1 John, and +John 6, together with Psalm 23, are recommended.* + +*It is customary that the celebrant meet the body and go before it into +the church or towards the grave.* + +*The anthems at the beginning of the service are sung or said as the +body is borne into the church, or during the entrance of the ministers, +or by the celebrant standing in the accustomed place.* + + + + + + + +*All stand while one or more of the following anthems are sung or said* + +I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; +he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; +and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. + +I know that my Redeemer liveth, +and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; +and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God; +whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, +and not as a stranger. + +For none of us liveth to himself, +and no man dieth to himself. +For if we live, we live unto the Lord. +and if we die, we die unto the Lord. +Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. + +Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; +even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors. + + +*The Celebrant says one of the following Collects, first saying* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And with thy spirit. + +*Celebrant* Let us pray. + + + +=At the Burial of an Adult= + +O God, whose mercies cannot be numbered: Accept our +prayers on behalf of thy servant &N., and grant =him= an +entrance into the land of light and joy, in the fellowship of +thy saints; through Jesus Crhist thy Son our Lord, who liveth +and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, on God, now +and for ever. =Amen.= + + +=At the Burial of a Child= + +O God, whose beloved Son did take little children into his +arms and bless them: Give us grace, we beseech thee, to +entrust this child &N. to thy never-failing care and love, and +bring us all to thy heavenly kingdom; through the same thy +Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +*The people sit* + +*One or more of the following passages from Holy Scripture is read. If +there is to be a Communion, a passage from the Gospel always +concludes the Readings.* + + + + + Isaiah 25:6-9 (He will swallow up death in victory) + + Isaiah 61:1-3 (To comfort all that mourn) + + Lamentations 3:22-26, 31-33 (The Lord is good unto them +that wait for him) + + Wisdom 3:1-5,9 (The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God) + + Job 19:21-27a (I know that my Redeemer liveth) + + +*After the Old Testament Lesson, a suitable canticle or one of the +following Psalms may be sung or said.* + + + + + =Quemadmodum= + +Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks, * + so longeth my soul after thee, O God. + +My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God; * + when shall I come to appear before the presence of God? + +My tears have been my meat day and night, * + while they daily say unto me, Where is now thy God? + +Now when I think thereupon, I pour out my heart by myself; * + for I went with the multitude, and brought them forth into +/the house of God; + +Why art thou so full of heaviness, O my soul? * + and why art thou so disquieted within me? + +O put thy trust in God; * + for I will yet thank him, which is the help of my +/countenance, and my God. + + + =Deus noster refugium= + +God is our hope and strength, * + a very present help in trouble. + +Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be moved, * + and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea; + +Though the waters thereof rage and swell, * + and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same. + +There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, * + the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most Highest. + + + +God is in the midst of her, +therefore shall she not be removed; * + God shall help her, and that right early. + +Be still then, and know that I am God; * + I will be exalted among the nations, + and I will be exalted in the earth. + +The LORD of hosts is with us; * + the God of Jacob is our refuge. + + + =Domino, refugium= + +LORD, thou hast been our refuge, * + from one generation to another. + +Before the mountains were brought forth, +or ever the earth and the world were made, * + thou art God from everlasting, and the world without end. + +Thou turnest man to destruction; * + again thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men. + +For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday +/when it is past, * + and as a watch in the night. + +As soon as thou scatterest them they are even as a sleep, * + and fade away suddenly like the grass. + +In the morning it is green, and groweth up; * + but in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered. + +For we consume away in thy displeasure, * + and are afraid at thy wrathful indignation. + +Thou hast set our misdeeds before thee, * + and our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. + + + +For when thou are angry all our days are gone; * + we bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told. + +The days of our age are threescore years and ten; +and though men be so strong that thy come to fourscore years, * + yet is their strength then but labor and sorrow, + so soon passeth it away, and we are gone. + +So teach us to number our days, * + that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. + + + =Levavi oculos= + +I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills; * + from whence cometh my help? + +My help cometh even from the LORD, * + who hath made heaven and earth. + +He will not suffer thy foot to be moved, * + and he that keepeth thee will not sleep. + +Behold, he that keepeth Israel * + shall neither slumber nor sleep. + +The LORD himself is thy keeper; * + the LORD is thy defence upon thy right hand; + +So that the sun shall not burn by day, * + neither the moon by night. + +The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil; * + yea, it is even he that shall keep thy soul. + +The LORD shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in, * + from this time forth for evermore. + + + + + =De profundis= + +Out of the deep have I called unto thee, O LORD; * + Lord, hear my voice. + +O let thine ears consider well * + the voice of my complaint. + +If thou, LORD, wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, * + O Lord, who may abide it? + +Fore there is mercy with thee, * + therefore shalt thou be feared. + +I look for the LORD; my soul doth wait for him; * + in his word is my trust. + +My soul fleeth unto the Lord before the morning watch; * + I say, before the morning watch. + +O Israel, trust in the LORD, +for with the LORD there is mercy, * + and with him is plenteous redemption. + +And he shall redeem Israel * + from all his sins. + + + =Domine, probasti= + +O LORD, thou hast searched me out, and known me. * + Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising; + thou understandest my thoughts long before. + +Thou art about my path, and about my bed, * + and art acquainted with all my ways. + +For lo, there is not a word in my tongue, * + but thou, O LORD, knowest it altogether. + + + +Thou hast beset me behind and before, * + and laid thine hand upon me. + +Such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me; * + I cannot attain unto it. + +Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit? * + or whither shall I go then from thy presence? + +If I climb up into heaven, thou art there; * + if I go down to hell, thou art there also. + +If I take the wings of the morning, * + and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea; + +Even there also shall thy hand lead me, * + and thy right hand shall hold me. + +If I say, Peradventure the darkness shall cover me, * + then shall my night be turned to day. + +Yea, the darkness is no darkness with thee, +but the night is as clear as day; * + the darkness and light to thee are both alike. + + + + + Romans 8:14-19, 34-35, 37-39 (The glory that shall be revealed) + + 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 35-38, 42-44, 53-58 (Raised in incorruption) + + 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:9 (Things which are not seen are eternal) + + 1 John 3:1-2 (We shall be like him) + + Revelation 7:9-17 (God shall wipe away all tears) + + Revelation 21:2-7 (Behold, I make all things new) + + +*After the New Testament Lesson, a suitable canticle or hymn, or one of +the following Psalms may be sung or said* + + + + + =Dominus regit me= + +The LORD is my shepherd; * + therefore can I lack nothing. + +He shall feed me in a green pasture, * + and lead me forth in the paths of righteousness for his +/Name's sake. + +Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, +I will fear no evil; * + for thou art with me; + thy rod and thy staff comfort me. + +Thou shalt prepare a table before me in the presence of them +/that trouble me; * + thou hast anointed my head with oil, + and my cup shall be full. + +Surely thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the +/days of my life; * + and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. + + + =King James Version= + +The LORD is my shepherd; * + I shall not want. + +He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; * + he leadeth me beside the still waters. + +He restoreth my soul; * + he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his +/Name's sake. + + + +Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, +I will fear no evil; * + for thou are with me; + thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. + +Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of +/mine enemies; * + thou annointest my head with oil; + my cup runneth over. + +Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days +/of my life, * + and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. + + + =Dominus illuminatio= + +The LORD is my light and my salvation; +whom then shall I fear? * + the LORD is the strength of my life; + of whom then shall I be afraid? + +One thing have I desired of the LORD, which I will require, * + even that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the +/days of my life, + to behold the fair beauty of the LORD, and to visit his temple. + +For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his tabernacle; * + yea, in the secret place of his dwelling shall he hide me, + and set me up upon a rock of stone. + +And now shall he lift up mine head * + above mine enemies round about me. + +Therefore will I offer in his dwelling an oblation with +/great gladness; * + I will sing and speak praises unto the LORD. + +Hearken unto my voice, O LORD, when I cry unto thee; * + have mercy upon me, and hear me. + + + +My heart hath talked of thee, Seek ye my face. * + Thy face, LORD, will I seek. + +O hide not thou thy face from me, * + nor cast thy servant away in displeasure. + +I should utterly have fainted, * + but that I believe verily to see the goodness of the LORD in +/the land of the living. + +O tarry thou the LORD's leisure; * + be strong, and he shall comfort thine heart; + and put thou thy trust in the LORD. + + + =Confitemini Domino= + +O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is gracious, * + and his mercy endureth for ever. + +Who can express the noble acts of the LORD, * + or show forth all his praise? + +Blessed are they that alway keep judgment, * + and do righteousness. + +Remember me, O LORD, according to the favor that thou +/bearest unto thy people; * + O visit me with thy salvation. + +That I may see the felicity of thy chosen, * + and rejoice in the gladness of thy people, + and give thanks with thine inheritance. + + + =Dilexi, quoniam= + +My delight is in the LORD, * + because he hath heard the voice of my prayer; + + + +Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, * + therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. + +The snares of death compassed me round about, * + and the pains of hell gat hold upon me. + +I found trouble and heaviness; +then called I upon the Name of the LORD; * + O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. + +Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; * + yea, our God is merciful. + +The LORD preserveth the simple; * + I was in misery, and he helped me. + +Turn again then unto thy rest, O my soul, * + for the LORD hath rewarded thee. + +And why? thou hast delivered my soul from death, * + mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. + +I will walk before the LORD * + in the land of the living. + +I will pay my vows now in the presence of all his people; * + right dear in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. + + + + +*Then, all standing, the Deacon or Minister appointed reads the Gospel, +first saying* + +The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ +according to John. + +*People* Glory be to thee, O Lord. + + + + John 5:24-27 (He that believeth hath everlasting life) + + John 6:37-40 (All that the Father giveth me shall come to me) + + John 10:11-16 (I am the good shepherd) + + John 11:21-27 (I am the resurrection and the life) + + John 14:1-6 (In my Father's house are many mansions) + + +*At the end of the Gospel, the Reader says* + +The Gospel of the Lord. + +*People* Praise be to thee, O Christ. + + +*A homily may be preached, the people being seated.* + +*The Apostle's creed may be said, all standing* + +*If there is not to be a Communion, the Lord's Prayer is said here, and +the service continues with the following prayer of intercession, or with +one or more suitable prayers (see pages 487-489).* + +*When there is a Communion, the following serves for the Prayers of the +People.* + + +*The People respond to every petition with Amen.* + +*The Deacon or other leader says* + +In peace, let us pray to the Lord. + +Almighty God, who hast knit together thine elect in one +communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son +Christ our Lord: Grant, we beseech thee, to thy whole +Church in paradise and on earth, thy light and thy peace. +=Amen.= + +Grant that all who have been baptized into Christ's death and +resurrection may die to sin and rise to newness of life, and +that through the grave and gate of death we may pass with +him to our joyful resurrection. =Amen.= + + + +Grant to us who are still in our pilgrimage, and who walk as +yet by faith, that thy Holy Spirit may lead us in holiness and +righteousness all our days. =Amen.= + +Grant to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that we may +be cleansed from all our sins, and serve thee with a quiet +mind. =Amen.= + +Grant to all who mourn a sure confidence in thy fatherly +care, that, casting all their grief on thee, they may know the +consolation of thy love. =Amen.= + +[[Give courage and faith to those who are bereaved, that they +may have strength to meet the days ahead in the comfort of a +reasonable and holy hope, in the joyful expectation of eternal +life with those they love. =Amen.=.]] + +[[Help us, we pray, in the midst of things we cannot understand, +to believe and trust in the communion of saints, the forgiveness +of sins, and the resurrection to life everlasting. =Amen.=]] + +[[Grant us grace to entrust &N. to thy never-failing love; receive +=him= into the arms of thy mercy, and remember =him= according +to the favor which thou bearest unto thy people. =Amen.=]] + +[[Grant that, increasing in knowledge and love of thee, =he= may +go from strength to strength in the life of perfect service in +thy heavenly kingdom. =Amen.=]] + +Grant us, with all who have died in the hope of the +resurrection, to have our consummation and bliss in thy +eternal and everlasting glory, and, with [blessed &N. and] +all thy saints, to receive the crown of life which thou dost +promise to all who share in the victory of thy Son Jesus +Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy +Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*When there is no Communion, the service continues with the +Commendation, or with the Commital.* + + + + + + +*The service continues with the Peace and the Offertory.* + +=Preface of the Commemoration of the Dead= + +*In place of the usual postcommunion prayer, the following is said* + +Almighty God, we thank thee that in thy great love thou hast +fed us with the spiritual food and drink of the Body and +Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, and hast given unto us a +foretaste of thy heavenly banquet. Grant that this Sacrament +may be unto us a comfort in affliction, and a pledge of our +inheritance in that kingdom where there is no death, neither +sorrow nor crying, but the fullness of joy with all thy saints; +through Jesus Christ our Savior. =Amen.= + +*If the body is not present, the service continues with the [blessing +and] dismissal.* + +*Unless the Committal follows immediately in the church, the following +Commendation is used.* + + + + +*The Celebrant and other ministers take their places at the body.* + +*This anthem, or some other suitable anthem, or a hymn, may be sung or +said* + +Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant(s) with thy saints, +=where sorrow and pain are no more, +neither sighing, but life everlasting.= + +Thou only art immortal, the creator and maker of mankind; +and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and unto earth shall +we return. For so thou didst ordain when thou createdst me, +saying, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." All + +we go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make +our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. + +=Give rest, O Christ, to thy servant(s) with thy saints, +where sorrow and pain are no more, +neither sighing, but life everlasting.= + + +*The Celebrant, facing the body, says* + +Into thy hands, O merciful Savior, we commend thy servant +&N. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech thee, a sheep of thine +own fold, a lamb of thine own flock, a sinner of thine own +redeeming. Receive =him= into the arms of thy mercy, into the +blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious +company of the saints in light. =Amen.= + + +*The Celebrant, or the Bishop if present, may then bless the people, and +a Deacon or other Minister may dismiss them, saying* + +Let us go forth in the name of Christ. +=Thanks be to God.= + + +*As the body is borne from the church, a hymn, or one or more of these +anthems may be sung or said* + +Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, +and giving life to those in the tomb. + +The Sun of Righteousness is gloriously risen, giving light to +those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. + +The Lord will guide our feet into the way of peace, having +taken away the sin of the world. + +Christ will open the kingdom of heaven to all who believe in +his Name, saying, Come, O blessed of my Father; inherit the +kingdom prepared for you. + + + +Into paradise may the angels lead thee; and at thy coming +may the martyrs receive thee, and bring thee into the holy +city Jerusalem. + +*or one of these Canticles* + + The Song of Zechariah, =Benedictus= + + The Song of Simeon, =Nunc dimittis= + + Christ our Passover, =Pascha nostrum= + + + + +*The following anthem is sung or said* + +In the midst of life we are in death; +of whom may we seek for succor, +but of thee, O Lord, +who for our sins art justly displeased? + +Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, +O holy and most merciful Savior, +deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death. + +Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts; +shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer; +but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, +O holy and merciful Savior, +thou most worthy Judge eternal. +Suffer us not, at our last hour, +through any pains of death, to fall from thee. + +*or this* + +All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; +and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. + + + +He that raised up Jesus from the dead +will also give life to our mortal bodies, +by his Spirit that dwelleth in us. + +Wherefore my heart is glad, and my spirit rejoiceth; +my flesh also shall rest in hope. + +Thou shalt show me the path of life; +in thy presence is the fullness of joy, +and at thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore. + + +*Then, while earth is cast upon the coffin, the Celebrant says these +words* + +In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life +through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to Almighty +God our =brother= &N.; and we commit =his= body to the ground;** +earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless +=him= and keep =him=, the Lord make his face to shine upon =him= +and be gracious unto =him=, the Lord lift up his countenance +upon =him= and give =him= peace. =Amen.= + + ** *Or* the deep, *or* the elements, *or* its resting place. + + +*The Celebrant says* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And with thy spirit. + +*Celebrant* Let us pray. + + +*Celebrant and People* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be thy Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, + on earth as it is in heaven. +Give us this day our daily bread. + +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those who trespass against us. +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. +For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + +*Then the Celebrant may say* + +O Almighty God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, who by a +voice from heaven didst proclaim, Blessed are the dead who +die in the Lord: Multiply, we beseech thee, to those who rest +in Jesus the manifold blessings of thy love, that the good +work which thou didst begin in them may be made perfect +unto the day of Jesus Christ. And of thy mercy, O heavenly +Father, grant that we, who now serve thee on earth, may at +last, together with them, be partakers of the inheritance of +the saints in light; for the sake of thy Son Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + + +*In place of this prayer, or in addition to it, the Celebrant may use +any of the Additional Prayers.* + + +*Then may be said* + +Rest eternal grant to =him=, O Lord: +=And let light perpetual shine upon *him*.= + +May =his= soul, and the souls of all the departed, +through the mercy of God, rest in peace. =Amen.= + + +*The Celebrant dismisses the people with these words* + +The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our +Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through + +the blood of the everlasting covenant: Make you perfect in +every good work to do his will, working in you that which is +well pleasing in his sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be +glory for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +*If the grave is in a place that has not previously been set apart for +Christian burial, the Priest may use the following prayer, either before +the service of Committal or at some other convenient time.* + +O God, whose blessed Son was laid in a sepulcher in the +garden: Bless, we pray, this grave, and grant that =he= whose +body is (is to be) buried here may dwell with Christ in +paradise, and may come to thy heavenly kingdom; through +thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +Almighty and everliving God, we yield unto thee most high +praise and hearty thanks for the wonderful grace and virtue +declared in all thy saints, who have been the choice vessels +of thy grace, and the lights of the world in their several +generations; most humbly beseeching thee to give us grace so +to follow the example of their steadfastness in thy faith, and +obedience to thy holy commandments, that at the day of the +general resurrection, we, with all those who are of the +mystical body of thy Son, may be set on his right hand, and +hear that his most joyful voice: "Come, ye blessed of my +Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the +foundation of the world." Grant this, O Father, for the sake +of the same thy Son Jesus Christ, our only Mediator and +Advocate. =Amen.= + + + +Almighty God, with whom do live the spirits of those who +depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the +faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, +are in joy and felicity: We give thee hearty thanks for the +good examples of all those thy servants, who, having finished +their course in faith, do now rest from their labors. And we +beseech thee that we, with all those who are departed in +the true faith of thy holy Name, may have our perfect +consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy +eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + +Into thy hands, O Lord, we commend thy servant &N., our +dear =brother=, as into the hands of a faithful Creator and most +merciful Savior, beseeching thee that =he= may be precious in +thy sight. Wash =him=, we pray thee, in the blood of that +immaculate Lamb that was slain to take away the sins of the +world; that, whatsoever defilements =he= may have contracted +in the midst of this earthly life being purged and done away, +=he= may be presented pure and without spot before thee; +through the merits of Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord. +=Amen.= + +Remember thy servant, O Lord, according to the favor which +thou bearest unto thy people; and grant that, increasing in +knowledge and love of thee, =he= may go from strength to +strength in the life of perfect service in thy heavenly kingdom; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +Almighty God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the +living and the dead: We give thee thanks for all thy servants +who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. +Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence; and +give us such a lively sense of thy righteous will, that the work + +which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through +Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. =Amen.= + +O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies +cannot be numbered: Make us, we beseech thee, deeply +sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of life; and let thy +Holy Spirit lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days; +that, when we shall have served thee in our generation, we +may be gathered unto our fathers, having the testimony of a +good conscience; in the communion of the Catholic Church; +in the confidence of a certain faith; in the comfort of a +reasonable, religious, and holy hope; in favor with thee our +God; and in perfect charity with the world. All which we ask +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +O God, the King of saints, we praise and magnify thy holy +Name for all thy servants who have finished their course in +thy faith and fear; for the blessed Virgin Mary; for the holy +patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs; and for all other +thy righteous servants, known to us and unknown; and we +beseech thee that, encouraged by their examples, aided by +their prayers, and strengthened by their fellowship, we also +may be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; +through the merits of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we pray thee to +set thy passion, cross, and death, between thy judgment and +our souls, now and in the hour of our death. Give mercy and +grace to the living, pardon and rest to the dead, to thy holy +Church peace and concord, and to us sinners everlasting life +and glory; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit livest and +reignest, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + +Almighty God, Father of mercies and giver of comfort: +Deal graciously, we pray thee, with all those who mourn, that +casting every care on thee, they may know the consolation of +thy love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +*Concerning the Service* + +*The death of a member of the Church should be reported as soon as +possible to, and arrangements for the funeral should be made in +consultation with, the Minister of the Congregation.* + +*Baptized Christians are properly buried from the church. The service +should be held at a time when the congregation has opportunity to be +present.* + +*The coffin is to be closed before the service, and it remains closed +thereafter. It is appropriate that it be covered with a pall or other +suitable covering.* + +*If necessary, or if desired, all or part of the service of Committal +may be said in the church. If preferred, the Committal service may take +place before the service in the church. It may also be used prior to +cremation.* + +*A priest normally presides at the service. It is appropriate that the +bishop, when present, preside at the Eucharist and pronounce the +Commendation.* + +*It is desirable that the Lesson from the Old Testament, and the +Epistle, be read by lay persons.* + +*When the services of a priest cannot be obtained, a deacon or lay +reader may preside at the service.* + +*At the burial of a child, the passages from Lamentations, 1 John, and +John 6, together with Psalm 23, are recommended.* + +*It is customary that the celebrant meet the body and go before it into +the church or towards the grave.* + +*The anthems at the beginning of the service are sung or said as the +body is borne into the church, or during the entrance of the ministers, +or by the celebrant standing in the accustomed place.* + + + + + + +*All stand while one or more of the following anthems is sung or said. A +hymn, psalm, or some other suitable anthem may be sung instead.* + +I am Resurrection and I am Life, says the Lord. +Whoever has faith in me shall have life, +even though he die. +And everyone who has life, +and has committed himself to me in faith, +shall not die for ever. + +As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives +and that at the last he will stand upon the earth. +After my awaking, he will raise me up; +and in my body I shall see God. +I myself shall see, and my eyes behold him +who is my friend and not a stranger. + +For none of us has life in himself, +and none becomes his own master when he dies. +For if we have life, we are alive in the Lord, +and if we die, we die in the Lord. +So, then, whether we live or die, +we are the Lord's possession. + + + +Happy from now on +are those who die in the Lord! +So it is, says the Spirit, +for they rest from their labors. + +*Or else this anthem* + +In the midst of life we are in death; +from whom can we seek help? +From you alone, O Lord, +who by our sins are justly angered. + +=Holy God, Holy and Mighty, +Holy and merciful Savior, +deliver us not into the bitterness of eternal death.= + +Lord, you know the secrets of our hearts; +shut not your ears to our prayers, +but spare us, O Lord. + +=Holy God, Holy and Mighty, +Holy and merciful Savior, +deliver us not into the bitterness of eternal death.= + +O worthy and eternal Judge, +do not let the pains of death +turn us away from you at our last hour. + +=Holy God, Holy and Mighty, +Holy and merciful Savior, +deliver us not into the bitterness of eternal death.= + +*When all are in place, the Celebrant may address the congregation, +acknowledging briefly the purpose of the gathering, and bidding their +prayers for the deceased and the bereaved.* + + + +*The Celebrant then says* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Let us pray. + + +*Silence may be kept; after which the Celebrant says one of the +following Collects* + + +=At the Burial of an Adult= + +O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus +Christ destroyed death, and brought life and immortality to +light: Grant that your servant &N., being raised with him, may +know the strength of his presence, and rejoice in his eternal +glory; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for +ever and ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God, whose mercies cannot be numbered: Accept our +prayers on behalf of your servant &N., and grant =him= an +entrance into the land of light and joy, in the fellowship of +your saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and +reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for +ever. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day +our brother (sister) &N. We thank you for giving =him= to us, =his= +family and friends, to know and to love as a companion on +our earthly pilgrimage. In your boundless compassion, +console us who mourn. Give us faith to see in death the gate +of eternal life, so that in quiet confidence we may continue +our course on earth, until, by your call, we are reunited with +those who have gone before; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +=At the Burial of a Child= + +O God, whose beloved Son took children into his arms and +blessed them: Give us grace to entrust &N. to your never- +failing care and love, and bring us all to your heavenly +kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and +reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for +ever. =Amen.= + + +*The Celebrant may add the following prayer* + +Most merciful God, whose wisdom is beyond our +understanding: Deal graciously with &N.&N. in =their= grief. +Surround =them= with you love, that =they= may not be +overwhelmed by their loss, but have confidence in your +goodness, and strength to meet the days to come; through +Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*The people sit.* + +*One or more of the following passages from Holy Scripture is read. If +there is to be a Communion, a passage from the Gospel always concludes +the Readings.* + + + + +*From the Old Testament* + + Isaiah 25:6-9 (He will swallow up death for ever) + + Isaiah 61:1-3 (To comfort those who mourn) + + Lamentations 3:22-26,31-33 (The Lord is good to those who wait for +him) + + Wisdom 3:1-5,9 (The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God) + + Job 19:21-27a (I know that my Redeemer lives) + +*A suitable psalm, hymn, or canticle may follow. The following Psalms +are appropriate: 42:1-7, 46, 90:1-12, 121, 130, 139:1-11.* + + + +*From the New Testament* + + Romans 8:14-19,34-35,37-39 (The glory that shall be revealed) 1 + + Corinthians 15:2-26,35-38,42-44,53-58 (The imperishable body) + + 2 Corinthians 4:16--5:9 (Things that are unseen are eternal) + + 1 John 3:1-2 (We shall be like him) + + Revelation 7:9-17 (God will wipe away every tear) + + Revelation 21:2-7 (Behold, I make all things new) + + +*A suitable psalm, hymn, or canticle may follow. The following Psalms +are appropriate: 23, 27, 106:1-5, 116.* + + +*The Gospel* + +*Then, all standing, the Deacon or Minister appointed reads the Gospel, +first saying* + +The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John. + +*People* Glory to you, Lord Christ. + + John 5:24-27 (He who believes has everlasting life) + + John 6:37-40 (All that the Father gives me will come to you) + + John 10:11-16 (I am the good shepherd) + + John 11:21-27 (I am the resurrection and the life) + + John 14:1-6 (In my Father's house are many rooms) + + +*At the end of the Gospel, the Reader says* + +The Gospel of the Lord. + +*People* Praise to you, Lord Christ. + +*Here there may be a homily by the Celebrant, or a member of the family, +or a friend.* + + + +*The Apostles' Creed may then be said, all standing. The Celebrant may +introduce the Creed with these or similar words* + +In the assurance of eternal life given at Baptism, let us +proclaim our faith and say, + + +*Celebrant and People* + +I believe in God, the Father almighty, + creator of heaven and earth. + +I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. + He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit + and born of the Virgin Mary. + He suffered under Pontius Pilate, + was crucified, died, and was buried. + He descended to the dead. + On the third day he rose again. + He ascended into heaven, + and is seated at the right hand of the Father. + He will come again to judge the living and the dead. + +I believe in the Holy Spirit, + the holy catholic Church, + the communion of saints, + the forgiveness of sins, + the resurrection of the body, + and the life everlasting. Amen. + +*If there is not to be a Communion, the Lord's Prayer is said here, and +the service continues with the Prayers of the People, or with one or +more suitable prayers (see pages 503-505).* + +*When there is a Communion, the following form of the Prayers of the +People is used, or else the form on page 465 or 480.* + + + +For our brother (sister) &N., let us pray to our Lord Jesus +Christ who said, I am Resurrection and I am Life." + +Lord, you consoled Martha and Mary in their distress; draw +near to us who mourn for &N., and dry the tears of those who +weep. +=Hear us, Lord.= + +You wept at the grave of Lazarus, your friend; comfort us in +our sorrow. +=Hear us, Lord.= + +You raised the dead to life; give to our brother (sister) eternal +life. +=Hear us, Lord.= + +You promised paradise to the thief who repented; bring our +brother (sister) to the joys of heaven. +=Hear us, Lord.= + +[[Our brother (sister) was washed in Baptism and anointed +with the Holy Spirit; give him fellowship with all your saints. +=Hear us, Lord.=]] + +[[He was nourished with your Body and Blood; grant =him= a +place at the table in your heavenly kingdom. +=Hear us, Lord.=]] + +Comfort us in our sorrows at the death of our brother +(sister); let our faith be our consolation, and eternal life our +hope. + +*Silence may be kept.* + +*The Celebrant concludes with one of the following or some other prayer* + + + +Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to you our brother (sister) +&N., who was reborn by water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism. +Grant that =his= death may recall to us your victory over death, +and be an occasion for us to renew our trust in your Father's +love. Give us, we pray, the faith to follow where you have led +the way; and where you live and reign with the Father and the Holy +Spirit, to the ages of ages. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Father of all, we pray to you for &N., and for all those whom +we love but see no longer. Grant to them eternal rest. Let +light perpetual shine upon them. May =his= soul and the souls +of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. +=Amen.= + +*When there is no Communion, the service continues with the +Commendation, or with the Committal.* + + + + +*The service continues with the Peace and the Offertory* + + +=Preface of the Commemoration of the Dead= + +*In place of the usual postcommunion prayer, the following is said* + +Almighty God, we thank you that in your great love you have +fed us with the spiritual food and drink of the Body and +Blood of your Son Jesus Christ, and have given us a foretaste +of your heavenly banquet. Grant that this Sacrament may be +to us a comfort in affliction, and a pledge of our inheritance +in that kingdom where there is no death, neither sorrow nor +crying, but the fullness of joy with all your saints; through +Jesus Christ our Savior. =Amen.= + + + +*If the body is not present, the service continues with the [blessing +and] dismissal.* + +*Unless the Committal follows immediately in the church, the following +Commendation is used.* + + + + +*The Celebrant and other ministers take their places at the body.* + +*This anthem, or some other suitable anthem, or a hymn, may be sung or +said* + +Give rest, O Christ, to your servant(s) with your saints, +=where sorrow and pain are no more, +neither sighing, but life everlasting.= + +You only are immortal, the creator and maker of mankind; +and we are mortal, formed of the earth, and to earth shall we +return. For so did you ordain when you created me, saying, +"You are dust, and to dust you shall return." All of us go down +to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, +alleluia, alleluia. + +=Give rest, O Christ, to your servant(s) with your saints, +where sorrow and pain are no more, +neither sighing, but life everlasting.= + + +*The Celebrant, facing the body, says* + +Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your +servant &N. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of +your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your +own redeeming. Receive =him= into the arms of your mercy, +into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the +glorious company of the saints in light. =Amen.= + + + +*The Celebrant, or the Bishop if present, may then bless the people, and +a Deacon or other Minister may dismiss them, saying* + +Let us go forth in the name of Christ. +=Thanks be to God.= + +*As the body is borne from the church, a hymn, or one or more of these +anthems may be sung or said.* + +Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, +and giving life to those in the tomb. + +The Sun of Righteousness is gloriously risen, giving light to +those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death. + +The Lord will guide our feet into the way of peace, having +taken away the sin of the world. + +Christ will open the kingdom of heaven to all who believe in +his Name, saying, Come, O blessed of my Father; inherit the +kingdom prepared for you. + +Into paradise may the angels lead you. At your coming may +the martyrs receive you, and bring you into the holy city +Jerusalem. + +*or one of these Canticles,* + + The Song of Zechariah, Benedictus + + The Song of Simeon, Nunc dimittis + + Christ our Passover, Pascha nostrum + + + + + + +*The following anthem or one of those on pages 491-492 is sung or said* + +Everyone the Father gives to me will come to me; +I will never turn away anyone who believes in me. + +He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead +will also give new life to our mortal bodies +through his indwelling Spirit. + +My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; +my body also shall rest in hope. + +You will show me the path of life; +in your presence there is fullness of joy, +and in your right hand are pleasures for evermore. + +*Then, while earth is cast on upon the coffin, the Celebrant says these +words* + +In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life +through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to Almighty +God our =brother= &N., and we commit =his= body to the ground;** +earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless +=him= and keep =him=, the Lord make his face to shine upon =him= +and be gracious to =him=, the Lord lift up his countenance upon +=him= and give =him= peace. =Amen.= + + ** *Or* the deep, *or* the elements, *or* its resting place. + + +*The Celebrant says* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Celebrant* Let us pray. + + + +*People and Celebrant* + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be thy Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, +/on earth as it is in heaven. +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those +/who trespass against us. +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. +For thine is the kingdom, + and the power, and the glory, + for ever and ever. Amen. + + + +Our Father in heaven, + hallowed be your Name, + your kingdom come, + your will be done, +/on earth as in heaven. +Give us today our daily bread. +Forgive us our sins + as we forgive those +/who sin against us. +Save us from the time of trial, + and deliver us from evil. +For the kingdom, the power, + and the glory are yours, + now and for ever. Amen. + + +*Then may be said* + +Rest eternal grant to him, O Lord; +=And let light perpetual shine upon him.= + +May his soul, and the souls of all the departed, +through the mercy of God, rest in peace. =Amen.= + + +*The Celebrant dismisses the people with these words* + +Alleluia. Christ is risen. + +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + +*Celebrant* Let us go forth in the name of Christ. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or with the following* + + + +The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our +Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through +the blood of the eternal covenant: Make you perfect in +every good work to do his will, working in you that which is +well-pleasing in his sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be +glory for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +*If the grave is in a place that has not previously been set apart for +Christian burial, the Priest may use the following prayer, either before +the service of Committal or at some other time.* + +O God, whose blessed Son was laid in a sepulcher in the +garden: Bless, we pray, this grave, and grant that =he= whose +body is (is to be) buried here may dwell with Christ in +paradise, and may come to your heavenly kingdom; through +your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +Almighty God, with whom still live the spirits of those who +die in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful are in +joy and felicity: We give you heartfelt thanks for the good +examples of all your servants, who, having finished their +course in faith, now find rest and refreshment. May we, with +all who have died in the true faith of your holy Name, have +perfect fulfillment and bliss in your eternal and everlasting +glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + +O God, whose days are without end, and whose mercies +cannot be numbered: Make us, we pray, deeply aware of the +shortness and uncertainty of human life; and let your Holy +Spirit lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days; that, +when we shall have served you in our generation, we may be +gathered to our ancestors, having the testimony of a good +conscience, in the communion of the Catholic Church, in the +confidence of a certain faith, in the comfort of a religious and +holy hope, in favor with you, our God, and in perfect charity +with the world. All this we ask through Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + +O God, the King of saints, we praise and glorify your holy +Name for all your servants who have finished their course in +your faith and fear: for the blessed Virgin Mary; for the holy +patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs; and for all your +other righteous servants, known to us and unknown; and we +pray that, encouraged by their examples, aided by their +prayers, and strengthened by their fellowship, we also may +be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; through +the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away thy sting of +death: Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where +you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep +peacefully in you ad wake up in your likeness; for your +tender mercies' sake. =Amen.= + +Father of all, we pray to you for those we love, but see no +longer: Grant them your peace; let light perpetual shine upon +them; and, in your loving wisdom and almighty power, work +in them the good purpose of your perfect will; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + +Merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the +Resurrection and the Life: Raise us, we humbly pray, from +the death of sin to the life of righteousness; that when we +depart this life we may rest in him, and at the resurrection +receive that blessing which your well-beloved Son shall then +pronounce: "Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the +kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world." +Grant this, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our +Mediator and Redeemer. =Amen.= + +Grant, O Lord, to all who are bereaved the spirit of faith and +courage, that they may have strength to meet the days to +come with steadfastness and patience; not sorrowing as those +without hope, but in thankful remembrance of your great +goodness, and in the joyful expectation of eternal life with +those they love. And this we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ +our Savior. =Amen.= + +Almighty God, Father of mercies and giver of comfort: Deal +graciously, we pray, with all who mourn; that, casting all +their care on you, they may know the consolation of your +love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + + + + +*When, for pastoral considerations, neither of the burial rites in this +Book is deemed appropriate, the following form is used.* + + 1. The body is received. The celebrant may meet the body and conduct +it into the church or chapel, or it may be in place before the +congregation assembles. + + 2. Anthems from Holy Scripture or psalms may be sung or said, or a +hymn may be sung. + + 3. Prayer may be offered for the bereaved. + + 4. One or more passages of Holy Scripture are read. Psalms, hymns, +or anthems may follow the readings. If there is to be a Communion, the +last Reading is from the Gospel. + + 5. A homily may follow the Readings, and the Apostles' Creed may be +recited. + + 6. Prayer, including the Lord's Prayer, is offered for the deceased, +for those who mourn, and for the Christian community, remembering the +promises of God in Christ about eternal life. + + 7. The deceased is commended to God, and the body is committed to its +resting place. The committal may take place either where the preceding +service has been held, or at the graveside. + + 8. If there is a Communion, it precedes the commendation, and begins +with the Peace and Offertory of the Eucharist. Any of the authorized +eucharistic prayers may be used. + + + + + + +*The liturgy for the dead is an Easter liturgy. It finds all meaning in +the resurrection. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we too, shall +be raised.* + +*The liturgy, therefore, is characterized by joy, in the certainty that +"neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things +present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor +anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love +of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."* + +*This joy, however, does not make human grief unchristian. The very +love we have for each other in Christ brings deep sorrow when we are +parted by death. Jesus himself wept at the grave of his friend. So, +while we rejoice that one we love has entered into the nearer presence +of our Lord, we sorrow in sympathy with those who mourn.* + + + + +Episcopal Services + + + + + +*The Holy Scriptures and ancient Christian writers make it clear that +from the apostles' time, there have been different ministries within the +Church. In particular, since the time of the New Testament, three +distinct orders of ordained ministers have been characteristic of +Christ's holy Catholic Church. First, there is the order of bishops who +carry on the apostolic work of leading, supervising, and uniting the +Church. Secondly, associated with them are the presbyters, or ordained +elders, in subsequent times generally known as priests. Together with +the bishops, they take part in the governance of the Church, in the +carrying out of its missionary and pastoral work, and in the preaching +of the Word of God and administering his holy Sacraments. Thirdly, +there are deacons who assist bishops and priests in all of this work. +It is also a special responsibility of deacons to minister in Christ's +name to the poor, the sick, the suffering, and the helpless.* + +*The persons who are chosen and recognized by the Church as being called +by God to the ordained ministry are admitted to these sacred orders by +solemn prayer and the laying on of episcopal hands. It has been, and +is, the intention and purpose of this Church to maintain and continue +these three orders; and for this purpose these services of ordination +and consecration are appointed. No persons are allowed to exercise the +offices of bishop, priest, or deacon in this Church unless they are so +ordained, or have already received such ordination with the laying on of +hands by bishops who are themselves duly qualified to confer Holy +Orders.* + +*It is also recognized and affirmed that the threefold ministry is not +the exclusive property of this portion of Christ's catholic Church, but +is a gift from God for the nurture of his people and the proclamation of +his Gospel everywhere. Accordingly, the manner of ordaining in this +Church is to be such as has been, and is, most generally recognized by +Christian people as suitable for the conferring of the sacred orders of +bishops, priest, and deacon.* + + + +*Concerning the Ordination of a Bishop* + +*In accordance with ancient custom, it is desirable, if possible, that +bishops be ordained on Sundays and other feasts of our Lord or on the +feasts of apostles or evangelists.* + +*When a bishop is to be ordained, the Presiding Bishop of this Church, +or a bishop appointed by the Presiding Bishop, presides and serves as +chief consecrator. At least two other bishops are co-consecrators. +Representatives of the presbyterate, diaconate, and laity of the diocese +for which the new bishop is to be consecrated, are assigned appropriate +duties in the service.* + +*From the beginning of the service until the Offertory, the chief +consecrator presides from a chair placed close to the people, so that +all may see and hear what is done. The other bishops, or a convenient +number of them, sit to the right and left of the chief consecrator.* + +*The bishop-elect is vested in a rochet or alb, without stole, tippet, +or other vesture distinctive of ecclesiastical or academic rank or +order.* + +*When the bishop-elect is presented, his full name (designated by the +symbol &N.&N.) is used. Thereafter, it is appropriate to refer to him +only by the Christian name by which he wishes to be known.* + +*At the Offertory, it is appropriate that the bread and wine be brought +to the Altar by the family or friends of the newly ordained.* + +*The family of the newly ordained may receive Communion before other +members of the congregation. Opportunity is always given to the people +to communicate.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 552.* + + + + + + + +*Hymns, psalms, and anthems may be sung during the entrance of the +bishops and other ministers.* + + +*The people standing, the Bishop appointed says* + +Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +*People* And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. Amen. + + +*In place of the above, from Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost* + +*Bishop* Alleluia. Christ is risen. + +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + + +*In Lent and on other penitential occasions* + +*Bishop* Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins. + +*People* His mercy endures for ever. + + +*The Bishop then says* + +Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, +and from you no secrets are hid. Cleanse the thoughts of our +hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may +perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; +through Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + + + +*The bishops and people sit. Representatives of the diocese, both +Priests and Lay Persons, standing before the Presiding Bishop, present +the bishop-elect, saying* + +&N., Bishop in the Church of God, the clergy and people +of the Diocese of &N., trusting in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, +have chosen &N.&N. to be a bishop and chief pastor. We therefore +ask you to lay your hands upon =him= and in the power of the +Holy Spirit to consecrate =him= a bishop in the one, holy, catholic, and +apostolic Church. + + +*The Presiding Bishop then directs that the testimonials of the election +be read.* + + +*When the reading of the testimonials is ended, the Presiding Bishop +requires the following promise from the Bishop-elect* + +In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy +Spirit, I, &N.&N., chosen Bishop of the Church in &N., solemnly +declare that I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and +New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all +things necessary to salvation; and I do solemnly engage to +conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the +Episcopal Church. + +*The Bishop-elect then signs the above Declaration in the sight of all +present. The witnesses add their signatures.* + +*All stand.* + +*The Presiding Bishop then says the following, or similar words, and +asks the response of the people* + + + +Brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, you have heard testimony +given that &N.&N. has been duly and lawfully elected to be a +bishop of the Church of God to serve in the Diocese of &N. +You have been assured of =his= suitability and that the Church +has approved him for this sacred responsibility. Nevertheless, +if any of you know any reason why we should not proceed, +let it now be made known. + +*If no objections are made, the Presiding Bishop continues* + +Is it your will that we ordain &N. a bishop? + + +*The People respond in these or other words* + +That is our will. + + +*Presiding Bishop* + +Will you uphold &N. as bishop? + + +*The People respond in these or other words* + +We will. + + +*The Presiding Bishop then says* + +The Scriptures tell us that our Savior Christ spent the whole +night in prayer before he chose and sent forth his twelve +apostles. Likewise, the apostles prayed before they appointed +Matthias to be one of their number. Let us, therefore, follow +their examples, and offer our prayers to Almighty God before +we ordain &N. for the work to which we trust the Holy Spirit +has called =**him=. + + + +*All kneel, and the Person appointed leads the Litany for Ordinations, +or some other approved litany. At the end of the litany, after the +Kyries, the Presiding Bishop stands and reads the Collect for the Day, +or the following Collect, or both, first saying* + +The Lord be with you + +*People* And also with you. + + +Let us pray. + +O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look +favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred +mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry +out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world +see and know that things which were being cast down are being +raised up, and things which had grown old are being made +new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection +by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus +Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity +of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +*Three Lessons are read. Lay persons read the Old Testament Lesson and +the Epistle.* + +*The Readings are ordinarily selected from the following list and may be +lengthened if desired. On a Major Feast or on a Sunday, the Presiding +Bishop may select Readings from the Proper of the Day.* + + =Old Testament= Isaiah 61:1-8, *or* Isaiah 42:1-9 + + =Psalm= 99, *or* 40:1-14, *or* 100 + + =Epistle= Hebrews 5:1-10, *or* 1 Timothy 3:1-7, *or* 2 Corinthians +3:4-9 + + + +*The Reader first says* + +A Reading (Lesson) from &mdash.. + + +*A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.* + + +*After each Reading, the Reader may say* + +The Word of the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or the Reader may say* Here ends the Reading (Epistle). + +*Silence may follow.* + + +*A Psalm, canticle, or hymn follows each Reading.* + + +*Then, all standing, a Deacon or a Priest reads the Gospel, first +saying* + +The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ +according to &mdash.. + +*People* Glory to you, Lord Christ. + + John 20:19-23, *or* John 17:1-9,18-12, *or* Luke 24:44-49a + + +*After the Gospel, the Reader says* + +The Gospel of the Lord. + +*People* Praise to you, Lord Christ. + + + + +*After the Sermon, the Congregation sings a hymn.* + + + + + + +*All now sit, except the bishop-elect, who stands facing the bishops. +The Presiding Bishop addresses the bishop-elect* + +My =brother=, the people have chosen you and have affirmed +their trust in you by acclaiming your election. A bishop in +God's holy Church is called to be one with the apostles in +proclaiming Christ's resurrection and interpreting the Gospel, +and to testify to Christ's sovereignty as Lord of lords and +King of kings. + +You are called to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the +Church; to celebrate and to provide for the administration of +the sacraments of the New Covenant; to ordain priests and +deacons and to join in ordaining bishops; and to be in all +things a faithful pastor and wholesome example for the +entire flock of Christ. + +With your fellow bishops you will share in the leadership of +the Church throughout the world. Your heritage is the faith +of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and those of +every generation who have looked to God in hope. Your joy +will be to follow him who came, not to be served, but to +serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. + +Are you persuaded that God has called you to the office of +bishop? + +*Answer* I am so persuaded. + +*The following questions are then addressed to the bishop-elect by one +or more of the other bishops* + + + +*Bishop* Will you accept this call and fulfill this trust in +obedience to Christ? + +*Answer* I will obey Christ, and will serve in his name. + + +*Bishop* Will you be faithful in prayer, and in the study of +Holy Scripture, that you may have the mind of Christ? + +*Answer* I will, for he is my help. + + +*Bishop* Will you boldly proclaim and interpret the Gospel of +Christ, enlightening the minds and stirring up the conscience of your +people? + +*Answer* I will, in the power of the Spirit. + + +*Bishop* As a chief priest and pastor, will you encourage and +support all baptized people in their gifts and +ministries, nourish them from the riches of God's +grace, pray for them without ceasing, and celebrate +with them the sacraments of our redemption? + +*Answer* I will, in the name of Christ, the Shepherd and Bishop of +our souls. + + +*Bishop* Will you guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the +Church of God? + +*Answer* I will, for the love of God. + + +*Bishop* Will you share with your fellow bishops in the +government of the whole Church; will you sustain +your fellow presbyters and take counsel with them; +will you guide and strengthen the deacons and all +others who minister in the Church? + +*Answer* I will, by the grace given me. + + +*Bishop* Will you be merciful to all, show compassion to the +poor and strangers, and defend those who have no helper? + +*Answer* I will, for the sake of Christ Jesus. + + + +*All stand. The Presiding Bishop then says* + +&N., through these promises you have committed yourself to +God, to serve his Church in the office of bishop. We therefore +call upon you, chosen to be a guardian of the Church's faith, +to lead us in confessing that faith. + +*Bishop-elect* + +We believe in one God. + + +*Then all sing or say together* + +We believe in one God, + the Father, the Almighty, + maker of heaven and earth, + of all that is, seen and unseen. + +We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, + the only Son of God, + eternally begotten of the Father, + God from God, Light from Light, + true God from true God, + begotten, not made, + of one Being with the Father. + Through him all things were made. + For us and for our salvation + he came down from heaven: + by the power of the Holy Spirit + he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, + and was made man. + For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; + he suffered death and was buried. + On the third day he rose again + in accordance with the Scriptures; + he ascended into heaven + and is seated at the right hand of the Father. + + + + He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, + and his kingdom will have no end. + +We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, + who proceeds from the Father and the Son. + With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. + He has spoken through the Prophets. + We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. + We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. + We look for the resurrection of the dead, + and the life of the world to come. Amen. + + + + +*All continue to stand, except the bishop-elect, who kneels before the +Presiding Bishop. The other bishops stand to the right and left of the +Presiding Bishop.* + +*The hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus, or the hymn, Veni Sancte Spiritus, is +sung.* + +*A period of silent prayer follows, the people still standing.* + +*The Presiding Bishop then begins this Prayer of Consecration* + +God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of mercies +and God of all comfort, dwelling on high but having regard +for the lowly, knowing all things before they come to pass: +We give you thanks that from the beginning you have +gathered and prepared a people to be heirs of the covenant of +Abraham, and have raised up prophets, kings, and priests, +never leaving your temple untended. We praise you also that +from the creation you have graciously accepted the ministry +of those whom you have chosen. + + + +*The Presiding Bishop and other Bishops now lay their hands upon the +head of the bishop-elect, and say together* + +Therefore, Father, make &N. a bishop in your Church. Pour +out upon him the power of your princely Spirit, whom you +bestowed upon your beloved Son Jesus Christ, with whom he +endowed the apostles, and by whom your Church is built up in +every place, to the glory and unceasing praise of your Name. + +*The Presiding Bishop continues* + +To you, O Father, all hearts are open; fill, we pray, the heart +of this your servant whom you have chosen to be a bishop in +your Church, with such love of you and of all the people, that +=he= may feed and tend the flock of Christ, and exercise +without reproach the high priesthood to which you have +called =him=, serving before you day and night in the ministry +of reconciliation, declaring pardon in your Name, offering the +holy gifts, and wisely overseeing the life and work of the Church. In +all things may =he= present before you the acceptable offering of a +pure, and gentle, and holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son, to whom, +with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and power and glory in the +Church, now and for ever. + +*The People in a loud voice respond* Amen. + +*The new bishop is now vested according to the order of bishops.* + +*A Bible is presented with these words* + +Receive the Holy Scriptures. Feed the flock of Christ +committed to your charge, guard and defend them in his +truth, and be a faithful steward of his holy Word and +Sacraments. + +*After this other symbols of office may be given.* + + + +*The Presiding Bishop presents to the people their new bishop.* + +*The Clergy and People offer their acclamation and applause.* + + + + +*The new Bishop then says* + +The peace of the Lord be always with you. + +*People* And also with you. + + +*The Presiding Bishop and other Bishops greet the new bishop.* + +*The People greet one another.* + +*The new Bishop also greets members of the clergy, family members, and +the congregation.* + +*The new Bishop, if the Bishop of the Diocese, may now be escorted to +the episcopal chair.* + + + + +*The liturgy continues with the Offertory.* + +*Deacons prepare the Table.* + +*Then the new Bishop goes to the Lord's Table as chief Celebrant and, +joined by other bishops and presbyters, proceeds with the celebration of +the Eucharist.* + + + + +*In place of the usual postcommunion prayer, one of the bishops leads +the people in the following* + + + +Almighty Father, we thank you for feeding us with the holy +food of the Body and Blood of your Son, and for uniting us +through him in the fellowship of your Holy Spirit. We thank +you for raising up among us faithful servants for the ministry +of your Word and Sacraments. We pray that &N. may be to us +an effective example in word and action, in love and patience, +and in holiness of life. Grant that we, with =him=, may serve +you now, and always rejoice in your glory; through Jesus +Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and +the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +*The new Bishop blesses the people, first saying* + +Our help is in the Name of the Lord; + +*People* The maker of heaven and earth. + +*New Bishop* Blessed be the Name of the Lord; + +*People* From this time forth for evermore. + +*New Bishop* The blessing, mercy, and grace of God Almighty, +the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon +you, and remain with you for ever. =Amen.= + + +*A Deacon dismisses the people* + +Let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the +power of the Spirit. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + + +*From Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost, "Alleluia, alleluia," may +be added to the dismissal and to the response.* + + + + +*Concerning the Service* + +*When a bishop is to confer Holy Orders, at least two presbyters must be +present.* + +*From the beginning of the service until the Offertory, the bishop +presides from a chair placed close to the people, and facing them, so +that all may see and hear what is done.* + +*The ordinand is to be vested in surplice or alb, without stole, tippet, +or other vesture distinctive of ecclesiastical or academic or order.* + +*When the ordinand is presented, =his= full name (designated by the +symbol &N.&N.) is used. Thereafter, it is appropriate to refer to =him= +only by the Christian name by which =he= wishes to be known.* + +*At the Offertory, it is appropriate that the bread and wine be brought +to the Altar by the family and friends of the newly ordained.* + +*At the Great Thanksgiving, the new priest and other priests stand at +the Altar with the bishop, as associates and fellow ministers of the +Sacrament, and communicate with the bishop.* + +*The family of the newly ordained may receive Communion before other +members of the congregation. Opportunity is always given to the people +to communicate.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 552.* + + + + + + + + +*A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung.* + + +*The people standing, the Bishop says* + +Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +*People* And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. Amen. + + +*In place of the above, from Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost* + +*Bishop* Alleluia. Christ is risen. + +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + + +*In Lent and on other penitential occasions* + +*Bishop* Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins. + +*People* His mercy endures for ever. + + +*Bishop* + +Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, +and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our +hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may +perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; +through Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + + + +*The bishop and people sit. A Priest and a Lay Person, and additional +presenters if desired, standing before the bishop, present the ordinand, +saying* + +&N., Bishop in the Church of God, on behalf of the clergy and +people of the Diocese of &N., we present to you &N.&N. to be +ordained a priest in Christ's holy catholic Church. + +*Bishop* + +Has =he= been selected in accordance with the canons of this +Church? And do you believe his manner of life to be suitable +to the exercise of this ministry? + + +*Presenters* + +We certify to you that =he= has satisfied the requirements of the +canons, and we believe =him= to be qualified for this order. + + +*The Bishop says to the ordinand* + +Will you be loyal to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of +Christ as this Church has received them? And will you, in +accordance with the canons of this Church, obey your bishop +and other ministers who may have authority over you and +your work? + + +*Answer* + +I am willing and ready to do so; and I solemnly declare that I +do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments +to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to +salvation; and I do solemnly engage to conform to the doctrine, +discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church. + + + +*The Ordinand then signs the above Declaration in the sight of all +present.* + +*All stand. The Bishop says to the people* + +Dear friends in Christ, you know the importance of this +ministry, and the weight of your responsibility in presenting +&N.&N. for ordination to the sacred priesthood. Therefore if +any of you know any impediment or crime because of which +we should not proceed, come forward now, and make it known. + + +*If no objection is made, the Bishop continues* + +Is it your will that &N. be ordained a priest? + + +*The People respond in these or other words* + +It is. + + +*Bishop* + +Will you uphold him in this ministry? + + +*The People respond in these or other words* + +We will. + + +*The Bishop then calls the people to prayer with these or similar words* + +In peace let us pray to the Lord. + + +*All kneel, and the Person appointed leads the Litany for Ordinations, +or some other approved litany. At the end of the litany, after the +Kyries, the Bishop stands and reads the Collect for the Day, or the +following Collect, or both, first saying* + +The Lord be with you + +*People* And also with you. + + + +Let us pray. + +O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look +favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred +mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry +out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world +see and know that things which were being cast down are being +raised up, and things which had grown old are being made +new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection +by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus +Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity +of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +*Three Lessons are read. Lay persons read the Old Testament Lesson and +the Epistle.* + +*The Readings are ordinarily selected from the following list and may be +lengthened if desired. On a Major Feast, or on a Sunday, the Bishop may +select Readings from the Proper of the Day.* + + =Old Testament= Isaiah 6:1-8, *or* Numbers 11:16-17,24-25 (omitting +the final clause) + + =Psalm= 43, *or* 132:8-19 + + =Epistle= 1 Peter 5:1-4, *or* Ephesians 4:7,11-16, *or* Philippians +4:4-9 + +*It is to be noted that where the words elder, elders, and fellow +elder, appear in translations of 1 Peter 5:1, the original Greek +terms presbyter, presbyters, and fellow presbyter, are to be +substituted.* + + +*The Reader first says* + +A Reading (Lesson) from &mdash.. + +*A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.* + + + +*After each Reading, the Reader may say* + +The Word of the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + + +*or the Reader may say* Here ends the Reading (Epistle). + +*Silence may follow.* + +*A Psalm, canticle, or hymn follows each Reading.* + +*Then, all standing, the Deacon, or if no deacon is present, a Priest +reads the Gospel, first saying* + +The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ +according to &mdash.. + +*People* Glory to you, Lord Christ. + + Matthew 9:35-38, *or* John 10:11-18, *or* John 6:35-38 + +*After the Gospel, the Reader says* + +The Gospel of the Lord. + +*People* Praise to you, Lord Christ. + + + + + +*The Congregation then says or sings the Nicene Creed* + +We believe in one God, + the Father, the Almighty, + maker of heaven and earth, + of all that is, seen and unseen. + + + +We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, + the only Son of God, + eternally begotten of the Father, + God from God, Light from Light, + true God from true God, + begotten, not made, + of one Being with the Father. + Through him all things were made. + For us and for our salvation + he came down from heaven: + by the power of the Holy Spirit + he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, + and was made man. + For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; + he suffered death and was buried. + On the third day he rose again + in accordance with the Scriptures; + he ascended into heaven + and is seated at the right hand of the Father. + He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, + and his kingdom will have no end. + +We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, + who proceeds from the Father and the Son. + With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. + He has spoken through the Prophets. + We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. + We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. + We look for the resurrection of the dead, + and the life of the world to come. Amen. + + + + + + +*All are seated except the ordinand, who stands before the Bishop.* + +*The Bishop addresses the ordinand as follows* + +My =brother=, the Church is the family of God, the body of +Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit. All baptized people +are called to make Christ known as Savior and Lord, and to +share in the renewing of his world. Now you are called to +work as pastor, priest, and teacher, together with your +bishop and fellow presbyters, and to take your share in the +councils of the Church. + +As a priest, it will be your task to proclaim by word and deed +the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to fashion your life in +accordance with its precepts. You are to love and serve the +people among whom you work, caring alike for young and +old, strong and weak, rich and poor. You are to preach, to +declare God's forgiveness to penitent sinners, to pronounce +God's blessing, to share in the administration of Holy +Baptism and in the celebration of the mysteries of Christ's +Body and Blood, and to perform the other ministrations +entrusted to you. + +In all that you do, you are to nourish Christ's people from the +riches of his grace, and strengthen them to glorify God in this +life and in the life to come. + +My =brother=, do you believe that you are truly called by God +and his Church to this priesthood? + +*Answer* I believe I am so called. + + +*Bishop* Do you now in the presence of the Church commit +yourself to this trust and responsibility? + +*Answer* I do. + + + +*Bishop* Will you respect and be guided by the pastoral +direction and leadership of your bishop? + +*Answer* I will. + + +*Bishop* Will you be diligent in the reading and study of the +Holy Scriptures, and in seeking the knowledge of +such things as may make you a stronger and more +able minister of Christ? + +*Answer* I will. + + +*Bishop* Will you endeavor so to minister the Word of God +and the sacraments of the New Covenant, that the +reconciling love of Christ may be known and +received? + +*Answer* I will. + + +*Bishop* Will you undertake to be a faithful pastor to all +whom you are called to serve, laboring together +with them and with your fellow ministers to build +up the family of God? + +*Answer* I will. + + +*Bishop* Will you do you best to pattern your life [and that + of your family, *or* household, *or* community] in +accordance with the teachings of Christ, so that you +may be a wholesome example to your people? + +*Answer* I will. + + +*Bishop* Will you persevere in prayer, both in public and in +private, asking God's grace, both for yourself and for +others, offering all your labors to God, through the +mediation of Jesus Christ, and in the sanctification +of the Holy Spirit? + +*Answer* I will. + + +*Bishop* May the Lord who has given you the will to do these +things give you the grace and power to perform them. + +*Answer* Amen. + + + + + + +*All now stand except the ordinand, who kneels facing the Bishop and the +presbyters who stand to the right and left of the Bishop.* + +*The hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus, or the hymn, Veni Sancte Spiritus, is +sung.* + +*A period of silent prayer follows, the people still standing.* + +*The Bishop then says this Prayer of Consecration* + +God and Father of all, we praise you for your infinite love in +calling us to be a holy people in the kingdom of your Son +Jesus our Lord, who is the image of your eternal and invisible +glory, the firstborn among many brethren, and the head of +the Church. We thank you that by his death he has overcome +death, and, having ascended into heaven, has poured his gifts +abundantly upon your people, making some apostles, some +prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to +equip the saints for the work of ministry and the building up +of his body. + +*Here the Bishop says hands upon the head of the ordinand, the Priests +who are present also laying on their hands. At the same time the Bishop +prays* + +Therefore, Father, through Jesus Christ your Son, give +your Holy Spirit to &N.; fill =him= with grace and power, and +make =him= a priest in your Church. + + + +*The Bishop then continues* + +May =he= exalt you, O Lord, in the midst of your people; offer +spiritual sacrifices acceptable to you; boldly proclaim the +gospel of salvation; and rightly administer the sacraments of +the New Covenant. Make =him= a faithful pastor, a patient +teacher, and a wise councilor. Grant that in all things =he= may +serve without reproach, so that your people may be +strengthened and your Name glorified in all the world. All +this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and +the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. + +*The People in a loud voice respond* Amen. + + +*The new priest is now vested according to the order of priests.* + + +*The Bishop then gives a Bible to the newly ordained, saying* + +Receive this Bible as a sign of the authority given you to +preach the Word of God and to administer his holy +Sacraments. Do not forget the trust committed to you as a +priest of the Church of God. + +*The Bishop greets the newly ordained.* + + + + +*The new Priest then says to the congregation* + +The peace of the Lord be always with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*The Presbyters present greet the newly ordained; who then greets family +members and others, as may be convenient. The Clergy and People greet +one another.* + + + + + + +*The liturgy continues with the Offertory. Deacons prepare the Table.* + +*Standing at the Lord's Table, with the Bishop and other presbyters, the +newly ordained Priest joins in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and +in the Breaking of the Bread.* + +After Communion + +*In place of the usual postcommunion prayer, the following is said* + +Almighty Father, we thank you for feeding us with the holy +food of the Body and Blood of your Son, and for uniting us +through him in the fellowship of your Holy Spirit. We thank +you for raising up among us faithful servants for the ministry +of your Word and Sacraments. We pray that &N. may be to us +an effective example in word and action, in love and patience, +and in holiness of life. Grant that we, with =him=, may serve +you now, and always rejoice in your glory; through Jesus +Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and +the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +*The Bishop then asks the new priest to bless the people.* + +*The new Priest says* + +The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, +be among you, and remain with you always. =Amen.= + +*A Deacon, or a Priest if no deacon is present, dismisses the people* + +Let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the +power of the Spirit. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + + +*From Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost, "Alleluia, alleluia," may +be added to the dismissal and to the response.* + + + + +*Concerning the Service* + +*When a bishop is to confer Holy Orders, at least two presbyters must be +present.* + +*From the beginning of the service until the Offertory, the bishop +presides from a chair placed close to the people, and facing them, so +that all may see and hear what is done.* + +*The ordinand is to be vested in surplice or alb, without stole, tippet, +or other vesture distinctive of ecclesiastical or academic or order.* + +*When the ordinand is presented, =his= full name (designated by the +symbol &N.&N.) is used. Thereafter, it is appropriate to refer to =him= +only by the Christian name by which =he= wishes to be known.* + +*At the Offertory, it is appropriate that the bread and wine be brought +to the Altar by the family and friends of the newly ordained.* + +*After receiving Holy Communion, the new deacon assists in the +distribution of the Sacrament, ministering either the Bread or the Wine, +or both.* + +*The family of the newly ordained may receive Communion before other +members of the congregation. Opportunity is always given to the people +to communicate.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 552.* + + + + + + + + +*A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung.* + + +*The people standing, the Bishop says* + +Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + +*People* And blessed be his kingdom, now and for ever. Amen. + + +*In place of the above, from Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost* + +*Bishop* Alleluia. Christ is risen. + +*People* The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. + + +*In Lent and on other penitential occasions* + +*Bishop* Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins. + +*People* His mercy endures for ever. + + +*Bishop* + +Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, +and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our +hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may +perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; +through Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + + + +*The bishop and people sit. A Priest and a Lay Person, and additional +presenters if desired, standing before the bishop, present the ordinand, +saying* + +&N., Bishop in the Church of God, on behalf of the clergy and +people of the Diocese of &N., we present to you &N.&N. to be +ordained a deacon in Christ's holy catholic Church. + + +*Bishop* + +Has he been selected in accordance with the canons of this +Church? And do you believe his manner of life to be suitable +to the exercise of this ministry? + + +*Presenters* + +We certify to you that he has satisfied the requirements of the +canons, and we believe him qualified for this order. + + +*The Bishops say to the ordinand* + +Will you be loyal to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of +Christ as this Church has received them? And will you, in +accordance with the canons of this Church, obey your bishop +and other ministers who may have authority over you and +your work? + + +*Answer* + +I am willing and ready to do so; and I solemnly declare that I +do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to +be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to +salvation; and I do solemnly engage to conform to the doctrine, +discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church. + + + +*The Ordinand then signs the above Declaration in the sight of all +present.* + +*All stand. The Bishop says to the people* + +Dear friends in Christ, you know the importance of this +ministry, and the weight of your responsibility in presenting +&N.&N. for ordination to the sacred order of deacons. Therefore +if any of you know any impediment or crime because of +which we should not proceed, come forward now, and make +it known. + +*If no objection is made, the Bishop continues* + +Is it your will that &N. be ordained a deacon? + + +*The People respond in these or other words* + +It is. + + +*Bishop* + +Will you uphold him in this ministry? + + +*The People respond in these or other words* + +We will. + + +*The Bishop then calls the people to prayer with these or similar words* + +In peace let us pray to the Lord. + +*All kneel, and the Person appointed leads the Litany for Ordinations, +or some other approved litany. At the end of the litany, after the +Kyries, the Bishop stands and reads the Collect for the Day, or the +following Collect, or both, first saying* + +The Lord be with you + +*People* And also with you. + + + +Let us pray. + +O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look +favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred +mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry +out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world +see and know that things which were being cast down are being +raised up, and things which had grown old are being made +new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection +by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus +Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity +of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + + + +*Three Lessons are read. Lay persons read the Old Testament Lesson and +the Epistle.* + +*The Readings are ordinarily selected from the following list and may be +lengthened if desired. On a Major Feast, or on a Sunday, the Bishop may +select Readings from the Proper of the Day.* + + =Old Testament= Jeremiah 1:4-9, *or* Ecclesiasticus 39:1-8 + + =Psalm= 84, *or* 119:33-40 + + =Epistle= 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, *or* 1 Timothy 3:8-13, *or* Acts 6:2-7 + + +*The Reader first says* + +A Reading (Lesson) from &mdash.. + +*A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.* + + + +*After each Reading, the Reader may say* + +The Word of the Lord. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*or the Reader may say* Here ends the Reading (Epistle). + +*Silence may follow.* + +*A Psalm, canticle, or hymn follows each Reading.* + +*Then, all standing, the Deacon, or if no deacon is present, a Priest +reads the Gospel, first saying* + +The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ +according to &mdash.. + +*People* Glory to you, Lord Christ. + + Luke 12:35-38, *or* Luke 22:24-27 + + +*After the Gospel, the Reader says* + +The Gospel of the Lord. + +*People* Praise to you, Lord Christ. + + + + + +*The Congregation then says or sings the Nicene Creed* + +We believe in one God, + the Father, the Almighty, + maker of heaven and earth, + of all that is, seen and unseen. + + + +We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, + the only Son of God, + eternally begotten of the Father, + God from God, Light from Light, + true God from true God, + begotten, not made, + of one Being with the Father. + Through him all things were made. + For us and for our salvation + he came down from heaven: + by the power of the Holy Spirit + he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, + and was made man. + For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; + he suffered death and was buried. + On the third day he rose again + in accordance with the Scriptures; + he ascended into heaven + and is seated at the right hand of the Father. + He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, + and his kingdom will have no end. + +We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, + who proceeds from the Father and the Son. + With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. + He has spoken through the Prophets. + We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. + We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. + We look for the resurrection of the dead, + and the life of the world to come. Amen. + + + + + + +*All are seated except the ordinand, who stands before the Bishop. The +Bishop addresses the ordinand as follows* + +My =brother=, every Christian is called to follow Jesus Christ, +serving God the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit. +God now calls you to a special ministry of servanthood +directly under your bishop. In the name of Jesus Christ, you +are to serve all people, particularly the poor, the weak, the +sick, and the lonely. + +As a deacon in the Church, you are to study the Holy +Scriptures, to seek nourishment from them, and to model +your life upon them. You are to make Christ and his +redemptive love known, by your word and example, to those +among whom you live, and work, and worship. You are to +interpret to the Church the needs, concerns, and hopes of the +world. You are to assist the bishop and priests in public +worship and in the ministration of God's Word and +Sacraments, and you are to carry out other duties assigned to +you from time to time. At all times, your life and teaching are +to show Christ's people that in serving the helpless they are +serving Christ himself. + +My =brother=, do you believe that you are truly called by God +and his Church to the life and work of a deacon? + +*Answer* I believe I am so called. + + +*Bishop* Do you now in the presence of the Church commit +yourself to this trust and responsibility? + +*Answer* I do. + + +*Bishop* Will you be guided by the pastoral direction and +leadership of your bishop? + +*Answer* I will. + + + +*Bishop* Will you be faithful in prayer, and in the reading +and study of the Holy Scriptures? + +*Answer* I will. + + +*Bishop* Will you look for Christ in all others, being ready to +heal and serve those in need? + +*Answer* I will. + + +*Bishop* Will you do you best to pattern your life [and that +of your family, *or* household, *or* community] in +accordance with the teachings of Christ, so that you +may be a wholesome example to all people? + +*Answer* I will. + + +*Bishop* Will you in all things seek not your glory but the +glory of the Lord Christ? + +*Answer* I will. + + +*Bishop* May the Lord by his grace uphold you in the service +he lays upon you. + +*Answer* Amen. + + + + +*All now stand except the ordinand, who kneels facing the Bishop.* + +*The hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus, or the hymn, Veni Sancte Spiritus, is +sung.* + +*A period of silent prayer follows, the people still standing.* + + + +*The Bishop then says this Prayer of Consecration* + +O God, most merciful Father, we praise you for sending your +Son Jesus Christ, who took on himself the form of a servant, +and humbled himself, becoming obedient even to death on +the cross. We praise you that you have highly exalted him, +and made him Lord of all; and that, through him, we know +that whoever would be great must be servant of all. We praise +you for the many ministries in your Church, and for calling +this your servant to the order of deacons. + + +*Here the Bishop lays hands upon the head of the ordinand, and prays* + +Therefore, Father, through Jesus Christ your Son, give your +Holy Spirit to &N.; fill him with grace and power, and make +him a deacon in your Church. + +*The Bishop continues* + +Make =him=, O Lord, modest and humble, strong and constant, +to observe the discipline of Christ. Let =his= life and teaching so +reflect your commandments, that through =him= many may +come to know you and love you. As your Son came not to be +served but to serve, may this deacon share in Christ's service, +and come to the unending glory of him who, with you and +the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. + +*The People in a loud voice respond* Amen. + + +*The new deacon is now vested according to the order of deacons.* + + +*The Bishop then gives a Bible to the newly ordained, saying* + +Receive this Bible as the sign of your authority to proclaim +God's Word and to assist in the ministration of his holy +Sacraments. + + + + + + +*The Bishop then says to the congregation* + +The peace of the Lord be always with you. + +*People* And also with you. + + +*The Bishop and the Clergy now greet the newly ordained.* + +*The new Deacon then exchanges greetings with family members and others, +as may be convenient.* + +*The Clergy and People greet one another.* + + + + +*The liturgy continues with the Offertory.* + +*The newly ordained Deacon prepares the bread, pours sufficient wine +(and a little water) into the chalice, and places the vessels on the +Lord's Table.* + +*The Bishop goes to the Table and begins the Great Thanksgiving.* + + + + +*In place of the usual postcommunion prayer, the following is said* + +Almighty Father, we thank you for feeding us with the holy +food of the Body and Blood of your Son, and for uniting us +through him in the fellowship of your Holy Spirit. We thank +you for raising up among us faithful servants for the ministry + +of your Word and Sacraments. We pray that &N. may be to us +an effective example in word and action, in love and patience, +and in holiness of life. Grant that we, with =him=, may serve +you now, and always rejoice in your glory; through Jesus +Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and +the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +*The Bishop blesses the people, after which the new Deacon dismisses +them* + +Let us go forth into the world, +rejoicing in the power of the Spirit. + +*People* Thanks be to God. + +*From Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost, "Alleluia, alleluia," may +be added to the dismissal and to the response.* + + + + + + +*For use at Ordinations as directed. On Ember Days or other occasions, +if desired, this Litany may be used for the Prayers of the People at the +Eucharist or the Daily Office, or it may be used separately.* + +God the Father, +=Have mercy on us.= + +God the Son, +=Have mercy on us.= + +God the Holy Spirit, +=Have mercy on us.= + + +We pray to you, Lord Christ. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + +For the holy Church of God, that it may be filled with truth +and love, and be found without fault at the Day of your +Coming, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + +For all members of your Church in their vocation and +ministry, that they may serve you in a true and godly life, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + +For &N., our Presiding Bishop, and for all bishops, priests, and +deacons, that they may be filled with your love, may hunger +for truth, and may thirst after righteousness, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + + + +[[For &N., chosen bishop (priest, deacon) in your Church, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + +That =he= may faithfully fulfill the duties of this ministry, build +up your Church, and glorify your Name, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + +That by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit =he= may be sustained and +encouraged to persevere to the end, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.=]] + +[[For =his= family [the members of =his= household *or* community], +that they may be adorned with all Christian virtues, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.=]] + +For all who fear God and believe in you, Lord Christ, that +our divisions may cease and that all may be one as you +and the Father are one, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + +For the mission of the Church, that in faithful witness it may +preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + +For those who do not yet believe, and for those who have lost +their faith, that they may receive the light of the Gospel, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + +For the peace of the world, that a spirit of respect and +forbearance may grow among nations and peoples, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + + + +*For those in positions of public trust [especially &mdash.], +that they may serve justice and promote the dignity and +freedom of every person, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + +[[For a blessing upon all human labor, and for the right use +of the riches of creation, that the world may be freed from +poverty, famine, and disaster, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.=]] + +For the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer; for +refugees, prisoners, and all who are in danger; that they may be +relieved and protected, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + +[[For ourselves; for the forgiveness of our sins, and for the +grace of the Holy Spirit to amend our lives, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.=]] + +For all who have died in the communion of your Church, and +those whose faith is known to you alone, that, with all the +saints, they may rest in that place where there is no pain +or grief, but life eternal, +we pray to you, O Lord. +=Lord, hear our prayer.= + +Rejoicing in the fellowship of [the ever-blessed Virgin Mary, +(=blessed= &N.) and] all the saints, let us commend ourselves, +and one another, and all our life to Christ our God. +=To you, O Lord our God.= + + + +Lord, have mercy. +=Christ, have mercy.= +Lord, have mercy. + + +*At Ordinations, the Bishop who is presiding stands and says* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Bishop* Let us pray. + +The Bishop says the appointed Collect. + + +*When this Litany is used on other occasions, the Officiant concludes +with a suitable Collect.* + + + + +*Additional Directions* + + +*At all Ordinations* + +*The celebration of the Holy Eucharist may be according to Rite One or +Rite Two. In either case, the rubrics of the service of ordination are +followed. The Summary of the Law, the Gloria in excelsis, the Prayers +of the People after the Creed, the General Confession, and the usual +postcommunion prayer are not used.* + +*At the Presentation of the Ordinand, the Declaration "I do believe the +Holy Scriptures..." is to be provided as a separate document to be +signed, as directed by Article VIII of the Constitution of this Church +and by the rubrics in each of the ordination rites. (Where there are +more ordinands than one, each is to be presented with a separate copy +for signature.)* + +*The hymn to the Holy Spirit before the Prayer of Consecration may be +sung responsively between a bishop and the congregation, or in same +other convenient manner.* + +*If vestments or other symbols of office are to be dedicated, such +blessing is to take place at some convenient time prior to the service. +The following form may be used.* + +&V. Our help is in the Name of the Lord; + +&R. The maker of heaven and earth. + +&V. The Lord be with you. + +&R. And also with you. + +Let us pray. + +Everliving God, whose power is limitless, we place before +you, with our praise and thanks, =these tokens= of your +servant's ministry and dignity. Grant that &N., who has been +called to leadership in your Church, and bears =these signs=, +may faithfully serve you and share in the fullness of your +life-giving Spirit; through the high priest and good shepherd +of us all, Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +*At the Ordination of a Bishop* + +*Following the Consecration Prayer, and while the new bishop is being +clothed with the vesture of the episcopate, instrumental music may be +played.* + +*Following the presentation of the Bible, and the formula "Receive the +Holy Scriptures..." a ring, staff, and mitre, or other suitable insignia +of office may be presented.* + +*During the Eucharistic Prayer, it is appropriate that some of the +consecrating bishops, and representative presbyters of the diocese, +stand with the new bishop at the Altar as fellow ministers of the +Sacrament.* + +*The newly ordained bishop, assisted by other ministers, distributes +Holy Communion to the people. When necessary, the administration may +take place at several conveniently separated places in the church.* + +*After the pontifical blessing and the dismissal, a hymn of praise may +be sung.* + +*The bishops who are present are not to depart without signing the +Letters of Consecration.* + + +*At the Ordination of a Priest* + +*Reasonable opportunity is to be given for the priests present to join +in the laying on of hands.* + +*The stole worn about the neck, or other insignia of the office of +priest, is placed upon the new priest after the entire Prayer of +Consecration is completed, and immediately before the Bible is +presented. Afterwards, other instruments or symbols of office may be +given.* + +*If two or more are ordained together, each is to have =his= own +presenters. The ordinands may be presented together, or in succession, +as the bishop may direct. Thereafter, references to the ordinand in the +singular are changed to the plural where necessary. The ordinands are +examined together.* + +*During the Prayer of Consecration, the bishop and priests lay their +hands upon the head of each ordinand. During the laying on of hands, +the bishop alone says over each ordinand "Father, through Jesus Christ +your + +Son, give your Holy Spirit to &N.; fill =him= with grace and power, and +make =him= a priest in your Church." When they have laid their hands +upon all the ordinands, the bishop continues "May the exalt you, O Lord, +in the midst..."* + +*A Bible is to be given to each new priest, and the words "Receive this +Bible..." are to be said to each one.* + +*All the newly ordained take part in the exchange of the Peace, and join +the bishop and other priests at the Altar for the Great Thanksgiving. +Similarly, all the new priests break the consecrated Bread and receive +Holy Communion.* + + +*At the Ordination of a Deacon* + +*The stole worn over the left shoulder, or other insignia of the office +of deacon, is placed upon the deacon after the entire Prayer of +Consecration is completed, and immediately before the Bible is given.* + +*If two or more are ordained together, each is to have =his= own +presenters. The ordinands may be presented together, or in succession, +as the bishop may direct. Thereafter, references to the ordinand in the +singular are changed to the plural where necessary.* + +*The ordinands are examined together.* + +*During the Prayer of Consecration, the bishop is to lay hands upon the +head of each ordinand, and say over each "Father, through Jesus Christ +your Son, give your Holy Spirit to &N.; fill =him= with grace and power, +and make =him= a deacon in your Church." When they have laid their +hands upon all the ordinands, the bishop continues "Make them, O Lord, +modest and humble..."* + +*A Bible is to be given to each new deacon, and the words "Receive this +Bible..." are also to be said to each one.* + +*After participating in the Peace, the deacons go to the Altar for the +Offertory. If there are many deacons, some assist in the Offertory and +others administer Holy Communion. One, appointed by the bishop, is to +say the dismissal.* + +** + +*When desired, deacons may be appointed to carry the Sacrament and +minister Holy Communion to those communicants who, because of sickness +or other grave cause, could not be present at the ordination.* + +*If the remaining Elements are not required for the Communion of the +absent, it is appropriate for the deacons to remove the vessels from the +Altar, consume the remaining Elements, and cleanse the vessels in some +convenient place.* + + + + + + + + +&N.&N., Presbyter of the Church of God, you have been called to work +together with your Bishop and fellow-Presbyters as a pastor, priest, and +teacher, and to take your share in the councils of the Church. + +Now, in accordance with the Canons, you have been selected to serve God +in &mdash. Church [of] &mdash.. + +This letter is a sign that you are fully empowered and authorized to +exercise this ministry, accepting its privileges and responsibilities as +a priest of this Diocese, in communion with your Bishop. + +Having committed yourself to this work, do not forget the trust of those +who have chosen you. Care alike for young and old, strong and weak, +rich and poor. By your words, and in your life, proclaim the Gospel. +Love and serve Christ's people. Nourish them, and strengthen them to +glorify God in this life and in the life to come. + +May the Lord, who has given you the will to do these things, give you +the grace and power to perform them. + +Given under my hand and seal, in the city of &mdash., on the &mdash. day +of &mash., 19&mdash., and in the &mdash. year of my consecration. + +(Signed) &mdash. + +Bishop of &mdash.. + + + + +*Concerning the Service* + +*This order is for use when a priest is being instituted and inducted as +the rector of a parish. It may also be used for the installation of +deans and canons of cathedrals, or the inauguration of other ministries, +diocesan or parochial, including vicars of missions and assistant +ministers. Alterations in the service are then made according to +circumstances.* + +*The chief minister is normally the bishop; but, if necessary, a deputy +may be appointed. The bishop, when present, is the chief celebrant of +the Eucharist. In the bishop's absence, a priest being inducted is the +chief celebrant.* + +*Other priests, if any, who serve in the same congregation also stand +with the chief celebrant at the Altar, and deacons assist according to +their order.* + +*Lay persons from the congregation read the Old Testament Lesson and the +Epistle, and perform other actions as indicated in the rubrics. A +deacon or priest reads the Gospel. Other clergy of the diocese +participate in this celebration as an expression of the collegiality of +the ministry in which they share.* + +*Ministers of other Churches may appropriately be invited to +participate.* + +*The new minister, if a deacon, should read the Gospel, prepare the +elements at the Offertory, assist the celebration at the Altar, and +dismiss the congregation.* + +*A lay person being instituted should read one of the Lessons and assist +where appropriate.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 564.* + + + + + + + +*A hymn, psalm, or anthem may be sung.* + + + + +*The Wardens, standing before the bishop with the new minister, say +these or similar words* + +Bishop &N., we have come together today to welcome &N.&N., +who has been chosen to serve as =Rector= of (=name of church=). +We believe that =he= is well qualified, and that =he= has been +prayerfully and lawfully selected. + +*The Bishop may read the Letter of Institution, or else may state the +purpose of the new ministry.* + + +*The Bishop then says* + +&N., do you, in the presence of this congregation, commit +yourself to this new trust and responsibility? + +*New minister* I do. + + +*The Bishop then addresses the congregation* + +Will you who witness this new beginning support and uphold +&N. in this ministry? + +*People* We will. + + + +*The Bishop, standing, says* + +Let us then offer our prayers to God for all his people, for this +congregation, and for &N. their =Rector=. + +*The Litany for Ordinations, or some other appropriate litany, is led by +a person appointed. At the end of the litany, the Bishop, standing, +says the following or some other Collect, first saying* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Bishop* Let us pray. + +Everliving God, strengthen and sustain &N., that with patience +and understanding he may love and care for your people; and +grant that together they may follow Jesus Christ, offering to +you their gifts and talents; through him who lives and reigns +with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. +=Amen.= + + + + +*The Readings are selected from the following list, or in accordance +with the directions on page 565.* + + =Old Testament= Joshua 1:7-9, *or* Numbers 11:16-17,24-25a + + =Psalm= 43, *or* 132:1-9, *or* 146, *or* 133 and 134 (especially +suitable for use in the evening) + + =Epistle= Romans 12:1-18, *or* Ephesians 4:7,11-16 + + =Gospel= John 15:9-16, *or* Luke 10:1-2, *or* John 14:11-15 + + +=The Sermon= + +*After the Sermon, and any responses to it, the congregation sings a +hymn.* + + + + + + +*Representatives of the congregation and of the clergy of the diocese +stand before the bishop with the new minister. Any of the presentations +that follow may be added to, omitted, or adapted, as appropriate to the +nature of the new ministry, and to the order of the minister. In the +absence of the bishop, the deputy substitutes the words given in +parentheses.* + + +*Representatives of the congregation present a Bible, saying* + +&N., accept this Bible, and be among us (*or* be in this place) as +one who proclaims the Word. + +*People* Amen. + + +*The Bishop presents a vessel of water, saying* + +&N., take this water, and help me (help the bishop) baptize in +obedience to our Lord. + +*People* Amen. + + +*Others present a stole or other symbol, saying* + +&N., receive this =stole=, and be among us as a pastor and priest. +*People* Amen. + + +*Others present a book of prayers or other symbol, saying* + +&N., receive this =book=, and be among us as a =man= of prayer. + +*People* Amen. + + +Others present olive oil or some other symbol, saying + +&N., use this =oil=, and be among us as a healer and reconciler. + +*People* Amen. + + + + +*If the new minister is the rector or vicar of the parish, a Warden may +now present the keys of the church, saying* + +&N., receive these keys, and let the doors of this place be open +to all people. + +*People* Amen. + + +*Representative clergy of the diocese present the Constitution and +Canons of this Church, saying* + +&N., obey these Canons, and be among us to share in the councils of this +diocese. + +*People* Amen. + + +*Other Representatives of the congregation present bread and wine, +saying* + +&N., take this bread and wine, and be among us to break the +Bread and bless the Cup. + +*People* Amen. + + +*The Bishop then says* + +&N., let all these be signs of the ministry which is mine and +yours (the Bishop's and yours) in this place. + +*People* Amen. + + +*The new Minister, if a priest, may then kneel in the midst of the +church, and may say* + +O Lord my God, I am not worthy to have you come under +my roof; yet you have called your servant to stand in your +house, and to serve at your altar. To you and to your service +I devote myself, body, soul, and spirit. Fill my memory with +the record of your mighty works; enlighten my understanding +with the light of your Holy Spirit; and may all the desires of +my heart and will center in what you would have me do. Make + +me an instrument of your salvation for the people entrusted +to my care, and grant that I may faithfully administer your +holy Sacraments, and by my life and teaching set forth your +true and living Word. Be always with me in carrying out the +duties of my ministry. In prayer, quicken my devotion; in +praises, heighten my love and gratitude; in preaching, give me +readiness of thought and expression; and grant that, by the +clearness and brightness of your holy Word, all the world may +be drawn into your blessed kingdom. All this I ask for the +sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + + +*The Bishop then presents the new minister to the congregation, saying* + +Greet your new =Rector=. + + +*When appropriate, the family of the new minister may also be presented +at this time.* + + +*The Congregation expresses its approval. Applause is appropriate. The +Bishop greets the new minister.* + + +*The new Minister then says to the people* + +The peace of the Lord be always with you. + +*People* And also with you. + + +*The new Minister then greets other members of the clergy, family +members, and the congregation. The People greet one another.* + + + + +*The service continues with the Offertory.* + +*The Bishop, or in the Bishop's absence a Priest beginning a new +ministry, standing at the Lord's Table as chief celebrant, and joined by +the other clergy, proceeds with the Great Thanksgiving of the +Eucharist.* + + + +*Except on Major Feasts, the Preface may be that for Apostles and +Ordinations.* + + + + +*At the Induction of a priest or deacon, in place of the usual +postcommunion prayer, the Bishop leads the people in the following +prayer; but if the new minister is a lay person, the usual postcommunion +prayer is used.* + +Almighty Father, we thank you for feeding us with the holy +food of the Body and Blood of your Son, and for uniting us +through him in the fellowship of your Holy Spirit. We thank +you for raising up among us faithful servants for the ministry +of your Word and Sacraments. We pray that &N. may be to us +an effective example in word and action, in love and patience, +and in holiness of life. Grant that we, with =him=, may serve +you now, and always rejoice in your glory; through Jesus +Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and +the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. + +*A newly inducted Priest may, at the bishop's request, pronounce a +blessing.* + +*A Deacon, or a Priest if no deacon is present, dismisses the assembly.* + + +=Additional Directions= + +*The Institution, the Ministry of the Word, and the Induction should +occur at the entrance of the chancel, or in some other place where the +bishop and other ministers may be clearly seen and heard by the people.* + +*The Letter of Institution is appropriate for the induction of a rector +of a parish, the dean of a cathedral, and others having similar tenure +of office. + +Its wording may be altered by the bishop when circumstances require. In +other cases, the bishop may state briefly the nature of the person's +office and the authority being conferred.* + +*The new minister is normally presented to the bishop by the wardens of +the parish, but additional, or other, persons may do this when desired.* + +*The Litany may be sung or said standing or kneeling, but the bishop +always stands for the salutation and Collect at the end of it. The +Collect of the Day, or a Collect of the season, or another prayer +suitable to the occasion, may be used instead.* + +*Before the Gospel, there may be one or two Readings from Scripture. Any +of the Readings, including the Gospel, may be selected from the Proper +of the Day, or from the passages cited in the service. Other passages +suitable to the circumstances may be substituted. Appropriate selections +may be found in the service for the Ordination of a Deacon or in the +Lectionary for Various Occasions.* + +*The sermon may be preached by the bishop, the new minister, or some +other person; or an address about the work of the congregation and of +the new minister may be made. Representatives of the congregation or of +the community, the bishop, or other persons present, may speak in +response to the address or sermon.* + +*The symbols presented should be large enough to be visible to all and +should remain in the sight of the congregation during the Induction. The +vestments and bread and wine may be used in the Eucharist which +follows.* + +*The priest's prayer on page 562 is appropriate only for rectors of +parishes, vicars of missions, hospital chaplains, and other priests +having similar canonical charge.* + +*For the Great Thanksgiving, any of the authorize eucharistic prayers +may be used.* + + + +=Concerning the Service= + +*This service provides for the dedication and consecration of a church +and its furnishings. Portions of the service may be used, or adapted +when necessary, for dedicating parts of a building, or furnishings, that +have been added, altered, or renovated. Likewise, suitable parts of +this rite may be used for dedicating a chapel or an oratory within +another building. Provisions for adapting the rite to special +circumstances are given on page 576.* + +*This service may be used to dedicate and consecrate a church at any +time after the building is ready for use as a place of worship.* + +*The service does not preclude the use of the building for educational +or social purposes, or for other suitable activities.* + +*The bishop presides. The rector or minister in charge takes part as +indicated. Neighboring ministers should be invited to participate, and +may be assigned appropriate parts in the service.* + +*It is desirable that all members of the congregation, young and old, +have some individual or collective part in the celebration, as well as +the architect, builders, musicians, artists, benefactors, and friends.* + +*For a church or chapel long in use, a special order is provided on page +577.* + +*Additional Directions are on page 575.* + + + + + + +*On the day appointed, the clergy and people gather with the bishop in a +place apart from the church or chapel.* + +*When all are ready, the Bishop says the following or similar words* + +Through the ages, Almighty God has moved his people to +build houses of prayer and praise, and to set apart places for +the ministry of his holy Word and Sacraments. With gratitude +for the building (rebuilding, *or* adornment) of (=name of +church=), we are now gathered to dedicate and consecrate +it in God's Name. + + +Let us pray. + +Almighty God, we thank you for making us in your image, to +share in the ordering of your world. Receive the work of our +hands in this place, now to be set apart for your worship, the +building up of the living, and the remembrance of the dead, +to the praise and glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + +*Necessary announcements may now be made.* + +*As the procession approaches the door of the church, singing and +instrumental music are appropriate.* + + + +*Standing at the door of the church, the Bishop says* + +Let the door(s) be opened. + + +*The door is opened. With the pastoral staff the Bishop marks the +threshold with the sign of the cross saying* + +Peace be to this house, and to all who enter here: + In the +Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. +=Amen.= + + +*As the procession moves into the church, Psalm 122 or some other +appropriate psalm is sung. Hymns and anthems may also be sung.* + + +*The congregation standing, the Bishop begins the Prayer for the +Consecration of the Church* + +Our help is in the Name of the Lord; + +*People* The maker of heaven and earth. + +*Bishop* Let us pray. + + +Everliving Father, watchful and caring, our source and our +end: All that we are and all that we have is yours. Accept us +now, as we dedicate this place to which we come to praise +your Name, to ask your forgiveness, to know your healing +power, to hear your Word, and to be nourished by the Body +and Blood of your Son. Be present always to guide and to +judge, to illuminate and to bless your people. + + +*A Warden or other representative of the congregation continues* + +Lord Jesus Christ, make this a temple of your presence and a +house of prayer. Be always near us when we seek you in this +place. Draw us to you, when we come alone and when we +come with others, to find comfort and wisdom, to be supported +and strengthened, to rejoice and give thanks. May it be here, +Lord Christ, that we are made one with you and with one + +another, so that our lives are sustained and sanctified for +your service. + + +*The Rector or Minister in charge continues* + +Holy Spirit, open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts, that we +may grow closer to you through joy and through suffering. +Be with us in the fullness of your power as new members are +added to your household, as we grow in grace through the +years, when we are joined in marriage, when we turn to you +in sickness or special need, and, at the last, when we are +committed into the Father's hands. + + +*The Bishop concludes* + +Now, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, +sanctify this place; + +*People* For everything in heaven and on earth is yours. + +*Bishop* Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; + +*People* And you are exalted as head over all. Amen. + + +*The Bishop moves to the Font, lays a hand upon it, and says* + +Father, we thank you that through the waters of Baptism we +die to sin and are made new in Christ. Grant through your Spirit +that those baptized here may enjoy the liberty and +splendor of the children of God. + +&V. There is one Lord, one Faith, or Baptism; + +&R. One God and Father of all. + +We dedicate this Font in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of +the Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + +*If there are persons to be baptized, water is now poured into the Font, +and the service continues as directed on page 575.* + + + +*If no Baptism is to take place [water may be poured into the Font, and] +the Bishop says* + +The Lord be with you. + +*People* And also with you. + +*Bishop* Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. + +*People* It is right to give him thanks and praise. + + +*Facing the Font, the Bishop says* + +We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water. Over it +the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation. Through +it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt +into the land of promise. In it your Son Jesus received the +baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the +Messiah, the Christ, to lead us, through his death and +resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life. + +We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are +buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his resurrection. +Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit. Therefore in +joyful obedience to your Son, we bring into his fellowship +those who come to him in faith, baptizing them in the Name +of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. + +Grant, by the power of your Holy Spirit, that those who here +are cleansed from sin and born again may continue for ever +in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Savior. + +To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be all honor and +glory, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +*The Bishop proceeds to the Lectern, lays a hand upon it, and says* + +Father, your eternal Word speaks to us through the words of +Holy Scripture. Here we read about your mighty acts and +purposes in history, and about those whom you chose as the + +agents of your will. Inspired by the revelation of your Son, +we seek your present purposes. Give us ears to hear and +hearts to obey. + +&V. May the words of our mouth, and the meditation of our heart, + +&R. Be acceptable to you, O Lord our God. + +We dedicate the Lectern in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and +of the Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + + +*The Bishop goes to the pulpit, lays a hand upon it, and says* + +Father, in every age you have spoken through the voices of +prophets, pastors, and teachers. Purify the lives and the lips +of those who speak here, that your word only may be +proclaimed, and your word only may be heard. + +&V. Your word is a lantern to our feet, + +&R. And a light upon our path. + +We dedicate this Pulpit in the Name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. + + + + +*Three Lessons are read. Lay persons read the Old Testament Lesson and +the Epistle. The Deacon (or a Priest) reads the Gospel. Selections are +ordinarily made from the following list; but on a Major Feast, Sunday, +or Patronal Feast, selections may be made from the Proper of the Day.* + + =Old Testament= 1 Kings 8:22-23,27b-30, *or* 2 Samuel 6:12-15,17-19 + + =Psalm= 84, *or* 48 + + =Epistle= Revelation 21:2-7, *or* 1 Corinthians 3:1-11,16-17 *or* +1 Peter 2:1-9 + + + +*When an instrument of music is to be dedicated, after the Epistle the +Bishop proceeds to an appropriate place, and says* + +Father, your people worship you with many voices and +sounds, in times of joy and sorrow. Move us to express the +wonder, the power, and the glory of your creation in the +music we make and in the songs we sing. + +&V. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet; + +&R. Praise him with strings and pipe. + +We dedicate this (=name of instrument=) in the Name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. =Amen.= + +*Instrumental music is now played, or a hymn or anthem sung.* + +*All then stand for the Gospel, which may be the following* + + Matthew 7:13-14,24-25, *or* Matthew 21:10-14 + + +=Sermon or Address= + +*Other Pastoral Offices may follow.* + +*If the Apostles' Creed has not already been said, the Nicene Creed is +now said or sung.* + +*The Deacon or a member of the congregation leads the Prayers of the +People.* + +*After a period of silence, the Bishop concludes with the following +prayers* + +Almighty God, all times are your seasons, and all occasions +invite your tender mercies: Accept our prayers and +intercessions offered in this place today and in the days to +come; through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Advocate. +=Amen.= + + + +We give you thanks, O God, for the gifts of your people, and +for the work of many hands, which have beautified this place +and furnished it for the celebration of your holy mysteries. +Accept and bless all we have done, and grant that in these +earthly things we may behold the order and beauty of things +heavenly; through Jesus christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +*The Bishop then says* + +Let us now pray for the setting apart of the Altar. + + +*The Bishop goes to the Table and, with arms extended, says* + +We praise you, Almighty and eternal God, that for us and for +our salvation, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to be born +among us, that through him we might become your sons and +daughters. +=Blessed be your Name, Lord God.= + +We praise you for his life on earth, and for his death upon the +cross, through which he offered himself as a perfect sacrifice. +=Blessed be your Name, Lord God.= + +We praise you for raising him from the dead, and for exalting +him to be our great High Priest. +=Blessed be your Name, Lord God.= + +We praise you for sending your Holy Spirit to make us holy, +and to unite us in your holy Church. +=Blessed be your Name, Lord God.= + + +*The Bishop lays a hand upon the Table, and continues* + + + +Lord God, hear us. Sanctify this Table dedicated to you. Let +it be to us a sign of the heavenly Altar where you saints and +angels praise you for ever. Accept here the continual recalling +of the sacrifice of your Son. Grant that all who eat and drink +at this holy Table may be fed and refreshed by his flesh and +blood, be forgiven for their sins, united with one another, and +strengthened for your service. +=Blessed be your Name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; now +and for endless ages. Amen.= + +*Bells may now be rung and music played. Members of the congregation +vest the Altar, place the vessels on it, and light the candles.* + + + + +*The Bishop says to the people* + +The peace of the Lord be always with you. + +*People* And also with you. + + +*Then the bishop and other clergy and the people greet one another.* + + + + +*The service continues with the Offertory.* + +*The bishop, or a priest appointed, is the chief celebrant.* + +*The Preface of the Dedication of a Church may be used.* + +*After the postcommunion prayer, the Bishop blesses the people; and a +Deacon or Priest dismisses them.* + + + + +*Additional Directions* + +*The complete form of the service for the Dedication and Consecration of +a Church is to be used at the opening of a church or chapel. This +service does not require that the premises be debt-free or owned.* + +*When the clergy and people assemble before the service, they may gather +out of doors, in the parish house, in a former or neighboring place of +worship, or in some other building. When convenient, the procession may +go around the building(s) to be dedicated and then go to the principal +door. Hymns or psalms may be used in procession. The use of portable +musical instruments is suitable. If there is an organ, it is +appropriate that it remain silent until dedicated. When the weather is +inclement, or other circumstances make it necessary, the congregation +may assemble inside the church; but the bishop, other clergy, and +attendants will enter in procession through the principal door.* + +*When a new church is being consecrated, it is desirable that sacred +vessels, ornaments, and decorations be carried into the building in the +procession. Such things as the deed for the property and the blueprint +of the building(s), the keys, and the tools used in its construction may +also be carried by appropriate persons.* + +*The cross signed on the threshold by the bishop may be marked in +lasting from (incised, painted, inlaid). In place of a pastoral staff, +the foot of a processional cross may be used for the signing.* + +*At the dedication of the font, children or other lay persons are to be +assigned the task of pouring the water. If Holy Baptism is not to be +administered, in addition to saying the prayer over the font as given, +the bishop may consecrate oil of Chrism, as in the service of Holy +Baptism, for subsequent use in this church.* + +*If Baptism is to be administered, the following order is used: The +Gospel from "At Baptism," page 928; then the service of Holy Baptism, +beginning with the Presentation of the Candidates, and concluding with +the reception of the newly baptized.* + + + +*As the furnishings in the church are dedicated, they may be decorated +by members of the congregation with flowers, candles, hangings, or other +ornaments.* + +*Selected verses of psalms and hymns, or instrumental music may be used +as the ministers move from one part of the church to another.* + +*If one reading stand is to serve as both lectern and pulpit, only one +of the prayers, and one of the versicles and responses, are used, +followed by the words of dedication.* + +*At the dedication of the lectern, the Bible is brought forward and put +into place by a donor, or a lay reader, or another suitable person.* + +*If there is an address instead of a sermon, it is suitable that a +warden or other lay person outline the plans of the congregation for +witness to the Gospel. The bishop may respond, indicating the place of +this congregation within the life of the Diocese.* + +*The sermon or address may be followed by an appropriate Pastoral +Office, such as Thanksgiving for the Birth or Adoption of a child, +Commitment to Christian Service, or Blessing of Oil for the Sick.* + +*Any of the usual forms of the Prayers of the People may be used; or +some other form may be composed for the occasion, having due regard for +the distinctive nature of the community, and with commemoration of +benefactors, donors, artists, artisans, and others.* + +*For the covering and decoration of the Altar, it is suitable that the +donors of these furnishings, or other lay persons, bring them forward +and put them in place. If incense is to be used, it is appropriate at +this time.* + +*Instead of the Proper Preface suggested, that of the season may be +used, or one appropriate to the name of the church.* + + +=For the Dedication of Churches +and Chapels in Special Cases= + +*If the place of worship is also to serve as a school or parish hall, or +for some other suitable purpose, the service may be adapted to the +circumstances.* + + + +*If the church is also to be used for regular worship by other Christian +bodies, it is appropriate that their representatives take part in the +service, and that the service be adapted.* + +*Suitable portions of this service may be used by the bishop, or by a +priest with the bishop's permission, for dedicating a private chapel or +oratory.* + + +=For the Dedication of Furnishings, +or Parts of a Church or Chapel= + +*Relevant portions of the service for the Dedication and Consecration of +a Church may be used by the bishop or a priest for blessing alterations, +additions, or new furnishings in a church or chapel. In each such case, +the appropriate prayer may be said, or adapted to the circumstances; and +prayers and Bible readings related to the particular occasion may be +selected. When possible, the areas or furnishings should be put into +use at this time.* + +*The blessing of a new font or baptistry should always be done by a +bishop, and should be followed, if possible, by the administration of +Holy Baptism.* + +*The blessing of an Altar is also reserved for a bishop, and is always +to be followed by the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.* + + +=For a Church or Chapel Long in Use= + +*When buildings have been used for public worship for an extended period +of time without having been consecrated, the following order may provide +an opportunity for the congregation to reaffirm its commitment to its +mission and ministry, and it will be particularly appropriate when a +congregation attains recognition as a parish.* + + 1. Procession + + 2. Signing of threshold + + 3. Litany of Thanksgiving for a Church, page 578 + + 4. Te Deum + + + + 5. Liturgy of the Word, with sermon or address + + 6. Renewal of Baptismal Vows + + 7. Intercessions, including commemoration of benefactors + + 8. The Peace + + 9. The Eucharist, beginning with the Offertory + + + + +Let us thank God whom we worship here in the beauty of +holiness. + +Eternal God, the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, +much less the walls of temples made with hands. Graciously +receive our thanks for this place, and accept the work of our +hands, offered to your honor and glory. + +For the Church universal, of which these visible buildings are +the symbol, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For your presence whenever two or three have gathered +together in your Name, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For this place where we may be still and know that you +are God, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For making us your children by adoption and grace, and +refreshing us day by day with the bread of life. +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For the knowledge of your will and the grace to perform it, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For the fulfilling of our desires and petitions as you see +best for us, +=We thank you, Lord.= + + + +For the pardon of our sins, which restores us to the company +of your faithful people, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For the blessing of our vows and the crowning of our years +with your goodness, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For the faith of those who have gone before us and for our +encouragement by their perseverance, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For the fellowship of [&N., our patron, and of] all your +Saints, +=We thank you, Lord.= + + +*After a brief silence, the Celebrant concludes with the following +Doxology* + +Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the +glory, the victory, and the majesty; + +*People* For everything in heaven and on earth is yours. + +*Celebrant* Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; + +*People* And you are exalted as head over all. Amen. + + +*This Litany may also be used on the anniversary of the dedication or +consecration of a church, or on other suitable occasions.* + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + =Prayers for the World= + + 1. For Joy in God's Creation + + 2. For all Sorts and Conditions of Men + + 3. For the Human Family + + 4. For Peace + + 5. For Peace among the Nations + + 6. For our Enemies + + + =Prayers for the Church= + + 7. For the Church + + 8. For the Mission of the Church + + 9. For Clergy and People + + 10. For the Diocese + + 11. For the Parish + + 12. For a Church Convention of Meeting + + 13. For the Election of a Bishop or other Minister + + 14. For the Unity of the Church + + 15. For those about to be Baptized or to renew their Baptismal +Covenant + + 16. For Monastic Orders and Vocations + + 17. For Church Musicians and Artists + +*Prayers for the Ordained Ministry are on pages 205 and 256.* + + + =Prayers for National Life= + + 18. For our Country + + 19. For the President of the United States and all in Civil +Authority + + 20. For Congress or a State Legislature + + 21. For Courts of Justice + + 22. For Sound Government + + + + 23. For Local Government + + 24. For an Election + + 25. For those in the Armed Forces of our Country + + 26. For those who Suffer for the sake of Conscience + + + =Prayers for the Social Order= + + 27. For Social Justice + + 28. In Times of Conflict + + 29. For Agriculture + + 30. For the Unemployed + + 31. For Schools and Colleges + + 32. For the Good Use of Leisure + + 33. For Cities + + 34. For Towns and Rural Areas + + 35. For the Poor and Neglected + + 36. For the Oppressed + + 37. For Prisons and Correctional Institutions + + 38. For the Right Use of God's Gifts + + 39. For those who Influence Public Opinion + +*Prayers for Industry and Labor are on pages 208, 210, +259, and 261.* + + + =Prayers for the Natural Order= + + 40. For Knowledge of God's Creation + + 41. For the Conservation of Natural Resources + + 42. For the Harvest of Lands and Waters + + 43. For Rain + + 44. For the Future of the Human Race + + + =Prayers for Family and Personal Life= + + 45. For Families + + 46. For the Care of Children + + 47. For Young Persons + + 48. For Those Who Live Alone + + 49. For the Aged + + + + 50. For a Birthday + + 51. For a Birthday + + 52. For the Absent + + 53. For Travelers + + 54. For those we Love + + 55. For a Person in Trouble or Bereavement + + 56. For the Victims of Addiction + + 57. For Guidance + + 58. For Guidance + + 59. For Quiet Confidence + + 60. For Protection + + 61. A Prayer of Self-Dedication + + 62. A Prayer attributed to St. Frances + + +*Prayers for the sick are on pages 548-461.* + +*Prayers for the dying are on pages 462-465.* + +*Prayers for the dead are on pages 202,253,487, and 503.* + + + =Other Prayers= + + 63. In the Evening + + 64. Before Worship + + 65. For the Answering of Prayer + + 66. Before Receiving Communion + + 67. After Receiving Communion + + 68. After Worship + + 69. After Sunday + + 70. Grace at Meals + +*Prayers for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and for morning and evening are +on pages 56, 69, 98, and 123.* + + + + + + =General Thanksgivings + + 1. A General Thanksgiving + + 2. A Litany of Thanksgiving + +*The General Thanksgivings is on pages 58 and 101.* + + + =Thanksgivings for the Church= + + 3. For the Mission of the Church + + 4. For the Saints and Faithful Departed + + + =Thanksgivings for National Life= + + 5. For the Nation + + 6. For Heroic Service + + + =Thanksgivings for the Social Order= + + 7. For the Diversity of Races and Cultures + + + =Thanksgivings for the Natural Order= + + 8. For the Beauty of the Earth + + 9. For the Harvest + + + =Thanksgivings for Family and Personal Life= + + 10. For the Gift of a Child + + 11. For the Restoration of Health + +*Thanksgivings for the departed are on pages 487-489 and 503-504.* + +*The term "Various Occasions" in the following pages refers to the +numbered Collects beginning on pages 199 and 251.* + + + + + + + + + + +*For use after the Collects of Morning or Evening Prayer or separately.* + +*Prayers originally composed in traditional idiom have not been +modernized; but, except in certain classical prayers which do not lend +themselves to modernization, pronouns and verbs have been put in italics +to assist in rendering them into contemporary speech.* + + + + + +=1. For Joy in God's Creation= + +O heavenly Father, =who hast= filled the world with beauty: +Open our eyes to behold =thy= gracious hand in all =thy= works; +that, rejoicing in =thy= whole creation, we may learn to serve +=thee= with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all +things were made, =thy= Son Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=2. For All Sorts and Conditions of Men= + +O God, the creator and preserver of all mankind, we humbly +beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men; that thou +wouldest be pleased to make they ways known unto them, thy + +saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for +thy holy Church universal; that it may be so guided and +governed by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call +themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and +hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in +righteousness of life. Finally, we commend to thy fatherly +goodness all those who are in any ways afflicted or distressed, +in mind, body, or estate; [especially those for whom our prayers +are desired]; that it may please thee to comfort and relieve +them according to their several necessities, giving them patience +under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their +afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ's sake. =Amen.= + + +=3. For the Human Family= + +O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us +through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole +human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which +infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; +unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and +confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in +your good time, all nations and races may serve you in +harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=4. For Peace= + +*See also Various Occasions no. 18.* + +Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn +but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the +strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that +all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of +Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and +glory, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + + +=5. For Peace Among the Nations= + +Almighty God our heavenly Father, guide the nations of the +world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among +them that peace which is the fruit of righteousness, that they +may become the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. +=Amen.= + + +=6. For our Enemies= + +O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love +our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth: +deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in +your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you, +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +=7. For the Church= + +Gracious Father, we pray for they holy Catholic Church. Fill it +with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, +purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is +amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in +want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake +of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. =Amen.= + + +=8. For the Mission of the Church= + +*See also the prayers for the Mission of the church on pages 58, 100, +and 101, and Various Occasions no. 16.* + +Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you +through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, +that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope + +of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the +Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +=9. Clergy and People= + +Almighty and everlasting God, from whom cometh every +good and perfect gift: Send down upon our bishops, and +other clergy, and upon the congregations committed to their +charge, the healthful Spirit of thy grace: and, that they may +truly please thee, pour upon them the continual dew of thy +blessing. Grant this, O Lord, for the honor of our Advocate +and Mediator, Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + + +=10. For the Diocese= + +O God, by your grace you have called us in this Diocese to a +goodly fellowship of faith. Bless our Bishops(s) &N. [and &N.], +and other clergy, and all our people. Grant that your Word +may be truly preached and truly heard, your Sacraments +faithfully administered and faithfully received. By your +Spirit, fashion our lives according to the example of your +Son, and grant that we may show the power of your love to +all among whom we live; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + +=11. For the Parish= + +Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven +and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen +the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent. +Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring +us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + +=12. For a Church Convention or Meeting= + +*See also Various Occasions no. 13.* + +Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and +understanding, be present with those who take counsel +[in &mdash.] for the renewal and mission of your Church. +Teach us in all things to seek first your honor and glory. Guide +us to perceive what is right, and grant us both the courage to +pursue it and the grace to accomplish it; through Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + +=13. For the Election of a Bishop or other Minister= + +Almighty God, giver of every good gift: Look graciously on +your Church, and so guide the minds of those who shall +choose a bishop for this Diocese (=or=, rector for this parish), +that we may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for your +people and equip us for our ministries; through Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + +=14. For the Unity of the Church= + +*See also Various Occasions no. 14, and Collect no. 6 (page 395).* + +O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, +the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the +great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away +all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us +from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body +and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, +one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all +of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth +and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and +one mouth glorify =thee=; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + + +=15. for those about to be Baptized or +to renew their Baptismal Covenant= + +O God, you prepared your disciples for the coming of the +Spirit through the teaching of your Son Jesus Christ: Make +the hearts and minds of your servants ready to receive the +blessing of the Holy Spirit, that they may be filled with the +strength of his presence; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + +*For those to be ordained, see Various Occasions no. 15.* + + +=16. For Monastic Orders and Vocations= + +O Lord Jesus Christ, you became poor for our sake, that we +might be made rich through your poverty: Guide and sanctify, +we pray, those whom you call to follow you under the vows +of poverty, chastity, and obedience, that by their prayer and +service they may enrich your Church, and by their life and +worship may glorify your Name; for you reign with the Father +and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +=17. For Church Musicians and Artists= + +O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in +heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through +art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on +earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty, +and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for +evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + + + + +=18. For our Country= + +*See also Various Occasions no. 17.* + +Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our +heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove +ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. +Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and +pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; +from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend +our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes +brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue +with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust +the authority of government, that there may be justice and +peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we +may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. +In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, +and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; +all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=19. For the President of the United States and all in Civil +Authority= + +O Lord our Governor, whose glory is in all the world: We +commend this nation to =thy= merciful care, that, being guided +by =thy= Providence, we may dwell secure in =thy= peace. Grant +to the President of the United States, the Governor of this +State (=or= Commonwealth), and to all in authority, wisdom +and strength to know and to do =thy= will. Fill them with the +love of truth and righteousness, and make them ever mindful +of their calling to serve this people in =thy= fear; through Jesus +Christ our Lord, who =liveth= and =reigneth= with =thee= and the +Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. =Amen.= + + + + +=20. For Congress or a State Legislature= + +O God, the fountain of wisdom, whose will is good and +gracious, and whose law is truth: We beseech =thee= so to guide +and bless our Senators and Representatives in Congress +assembled (=or= in the Legislature of this State, =or= Common- +wealth), that they may enact such laws as shall please =thee=, +to the glory of =thy= Name and the welfare of this people; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=21. For Courts of Justice= + +Almighty God, =who sittest= in the throne judging right: We +humbly beseech =thee= to bless the courts of justice and the +magistrates in all this land; and give =unto= them the spirit of +wisdom and understanding, that they may discern the truth, +and impartially administer the law in the fear of =thee= alone; +through him who shall come to be our Judge, =thy= Son our +Savior Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + + +=22. For Sound Government= + +*The responses in italics may be omitted.* + +O Lord our Governor, bless the leaders of our land, that we +may be a people at peace among ourselves and a blessing to +other nations of the earth. +=Lord, keep this nation under your care.= + +To the President and members of the Cabinet, to Governors +of States, Mayors of Cities, and to all in administrative +authority, grant wisdom and grace in the exercise of their +duties. +=Give grace to your servants, O Lord.= + + + +To Senators and Representatives, and those who make our +laws in States, Cities, and Towns, give courage, wisdom, and +foresight to provide for the needs of all our people, and to +fulfill our obligations in the community of nations. +=Give grace to your servants, O Lord.= + +To the Judges and officers of our Courts give understanding +and integrity, that human rights may be safeguarded and +justice served. +=Give grace to your servants, O Lord.= + +And finally, teach our people to rely on your strength and to +accept their responsibilities to their fellow citizens, that they +may elect trustworthy leaders and make wise decisions for +the well-being of our society; that we may serve you +faithfully in our generation and honor your holy Name. +=For yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as +head above all. Amen.= + + +=23. For Local Government= + +Almighty God our heavenly Father, send down upon those +who hold office in this State (Commonwealth, City, County, +Town, &mdash.) the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice; +that with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their +offices to promote the well-being of all people; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=24. For an Election= + +Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers +and privileges: Guide the people of the United States (*or* of +this community) in the election of officials and representatives; +that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of +all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your +purposes; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +=25. For those in the Armed Forces of our Country= + +Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and +keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home +and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly +grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give +them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant +them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=26. For those who suffer for the sake of Conscience= + +O God our Father, whose Son forgave his enemies while he +was suffering shame and death: Strengthen those who suffer +for the sake of conscience; when they are accused, save them +from speaking in hate; when they are rejected, save them +from bitterness; when they are imprisoned, save them from +despair; and to us your servants, give grace to respect their +witness and to discern the truth, that our society may be +cleansed and strengthened. This we ask for the sake of Jesus +Christ, our merciful and righteous Judge. =Amen.= + + + + +=27. For Social Justice= + +*See also Various Occasions no. 21.* + +Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so +move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the +people of this land], that barriers which divide us may +crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our +divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +=28. In Times of Conflict= + +O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, +in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront +one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work +together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=29. For Agriculture= + +*See also Various Occasions no. 19.* + +Almighty God, we thank you for making the earth fruitful, so +that it might produce what is needed for life: Bless those who +work in the fields; give us seasonable weather; and grant that +we may all share the fruits for the earth, rejoicing in your +goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*For prayers for Industry and Labor, see Various Occasions no. 19, +no. 24, and no. 25.* + + +=30. For the Unemployed= + +Heavenly Father, we remember before you those who suffer +want and anxiety from lack of work. Guide the people of this +land so to use our public and private wealth that all may find +suitable and fulfilling employment, and receive just payment +for their labor; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=31. For Schools and Colleges= + +O Eternal God, bless all schools, colleges, and universities +[and especially &mdash.], that they may be lively centers for +sound learning, new discovery, and the pursuit of wisdom; +and grant that those who teach and those who learn may find +you to be the source of all truth; through Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + + + +*For Education, see Various Occasions no. 23.* + + +=32. For the Good Use of Leisure= + +O God, in the course of this busy life, give us times of +refreshment and peace; and grant that we may so use our +leisure to rebuild our bodies and renew our minds, that our +spirits may be opened to the goodness of your creation; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=33. For Cities= + +Heavenly Father, in your Word you have given us a vision of +that holy City to which the nations of the world bring their +glory: Behold and visit, we pray, the cities of the earth. +Renew the ties of mutual regard which form our civic life. +Send us honest and able leaders. Enable us to eliminate +poverty, prejudice, and oppression, that peace may prevail +with righteousness, and justice with order, and that men and +women from different cultures and with differing talents may +find with one another the fulfillment of their humanity; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=34. For Towns and Rural Areas= + +Lord Christ, when you came among us, you proclaimed the +kingdom of God in villages, towns, and lonely places: Grant +that your presence and power may be known throughout this +land. Have mercy upon all of us who live and work in rural +areas [especially &mdash.]; and grant that all the people +of our nation may give thanks to you for food and drink and +all other bodily necessities of life, respect those who labor to +produce them, and honor the land and the water from which +these good things come. All this we ask in your holy Name. +=Amen.= + + + + +=35. For the Poor and the Neglected= + +Almighty and most merciful God, we remember before you +all poor and neglected persons whom it would be easy for us +to forget: the homeless and the destitute, the old and the sick, +and all who have none to care for them. Help us to heal those +who are broken in body or spirit, and to turn their sorrow +into joy. Grant this, Father, for the love of your Son, who for +our sake became poor, Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=36. For the Oppresed= + +Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this +land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as +their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to +eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those +who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law +and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of +us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through +Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=37. For Prisons and Correctional Institutions= + +Lord Jesus, for our sake you were condemned as a criminal: +Visit our jails and prisons with your pity and judgment. +Remember all prisoners, and bring the guilty to repentance +and amendment of life according to your will, and give them +hope for their future. When any are held unjustly, bring them +release; forgive us, and teach us to improve our justice. +Remember those who work in these institutions; keep them +humane and compassionate; and save them from becoming +brutal or callous. And since what we do for those in prison, +O Lord, we do for you, constrain us to improve their lot. All +this we ask for your mercy's sake. =Amen.= + + + + +=38. For the Right Use of God's Gifts= + +Almighty God, whose loving hand =hath= given us all that we +possess: Grant us grace that we may honor =thee= with our +substance, and, remembering the account which we must one +day give, may be faithful stewards of =thy= bounty, through +Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=39. For those who Influence Public Opinion= + +Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many +voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where +many listen and write what many read; that they may do their +part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and +its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*For Social Service, see Various Occasions no. 22* + + + + +=40. For Knowledge of God's Creation= + +Almighty and everlasting God, you made the universe with +all its marvelous order, its atoms, worlds, and galaxies, and +the infinite complexity of living creatures: Grant that, as we +probe the mysteries of your creation, we may come to know +you more truly, and more surely fulfill our role in your +eternal purpose; in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=41. For the Conservation of Natural Resources= + +*See also Various Occasions no. 19.* + +Almighty God, in giving us dominion over things on earth, +you made us fellow workers in your creation: Give us wisdom +and reverence so to use the resources of nature, that no one +may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet +to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through +Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + +=42. For the Harvest of Lands and Waters= + +O gracious Father, =who openest thine= hand and =fillest= all +things living with plenteousness: Bless the lands and waters, +and multiply the harvests of the world; let =thy= Spirit go +forth, that it may renew the face of the earth; show =thy= +loving-kindness, that our land may give her increase; and +save us from selfish use of what =thou givest=, that men and +women everywhere may give =thee= thanks; through Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=43. For Rain= + +O God, heavenly Father, who by =thy= Son Jesus Christ +=hast= promised to all those who seek =thy= kingdom and its +righteousness all things necessary to sustain their life: Send +us, we entreat =thee=, in this time of need, such moderate rain +and showers, that we may receive the fruits of the earth, to +our comfort and to =thy= honor; through Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + + +=44. For the Future of the Human Race= + +O God our heavenly Father, you have blessed us and given us +dominion over all the earth: Increase our reverence before +the mystery of life; and give us new insight into your purposes +for the human race, and new wisdom and determination in +making provision for its future in accordance with your will; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +=45. For Families= + +Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who settest the solitary +in families: We commend to thy continual care the homes in +which thy people dwell. Put far from them, we beseech thee, + + + +every root of bitterness, the desire of vainglory, and the pride +of life. Fill them with faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, +patience, godliness. Knit together in constant affection those +who, in holy wedlock, have been made one flesh. Turn the +hearts of the parents to the children, and the hearts of the +children to the parents; and so enkindle fervent charity among +us all, that we may evermore be kindly affectioned one +to another; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*A prayer for parents is on page 444.* + + +=46. For the Care of Children= + +Almighty God, heavenly Father, you have blessed us with the +joy and care of children: Give us calm strength and patient +wisdom as we bring them up, that we may teach them to love +whatever is just and true and good, following the example of +our Savior Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + + +=47. For Young Persons= + +God our Father, you see your children growing up in an +unsteady and confusing world: Show them that your ways +give more life than the ways of the world, and that following +you is better than chasing after selfish goals. Help them to +take failure, not as a measure of their worth, but as a chance +for a new start. Give them strength to hold their faith in you, +and to keep alive their joy in your creation; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=48. For Those Who Live Alone= + +Almighty God, whose Son had nowhere to lay his head: +Grant that those who live alone may not be lonely in their +solitude, but that, following in his steps, they may find +fulfillment in loving you and their neighbors; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +=49. For the Aged= + +Look with mercy, O God our Father, on all whose increasing +years bring them weakness, distress, or isolation. Provide for +them homes of dignity and peace; give them understanding +helpers, and the willingness to accept help; and, as their +strength diminishes, increase their faith and their assurance +of your love. This we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + + +=50. For a Birthday= + +O God, our times are in your hand: Look with favor, we +pray, on you servant &N. as =he= begins another year. Grant +that =he= may grow in wisdom and grace, and strengthen =his= +trust in your goodness all the days of =his= life; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=51. For a Birthday= + +Watch over thy child, O Lord, as =his= days increase; bless and +guide =him= wherever =he= may be. Strengthen =him= when =he= +stands; comfort =him= when discouraged or sorrowful; raise +=him= up if =he= fall; and in =his= heart may thy peace which +passeth understanding abide all the days of =his= life; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=52. For the Absent= + +O God, whose fatherly care =reacheth= to the uttermost parts +of the earth: We humbly beseech =thee= graciously to behold +and bless whom we love, now absent from us. Defend +them from all dangers of soul and body; and grant that both +they and we, drawing nearer to =thee=, may be bound together +by =thy= love in the communion of =thy= Holy Spirit, and in the +fellowship of =thy= saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord. +=Amen.= + + + +=53. For Travelers= + +O God, our heavenly Father, whose glory fills the whole +creation, and whose presence we find wherever we go: Preserve +those who travel [in particular &mdash.]; surround +them with your loving care; protect them from every danger; +and bring them in safety to their journey's end; through +Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=54. For those we Love= + +Almighty God, we entrust all who are dear to us to =thy= +never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come, +knowing that =thou art= doing for them better things than we +can desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=55. For a Person in Trouble or Bereavement= + +O merciful Father, who hast taught us in thy holy Word that +thou dost not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men: +Look with pity upon the sorrows of thy servant for whom +our prayers are offered. Remember =him=, O Lord, in mercy, +nourish =his= soul with patience, comfort =him= with a sense of +thy goodness, lift up thy countenance upon =him=, and give +=him= peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*Prayers for the sick are on pages 458-461. See also Various Occasions +no. 20* + + +=56. For the Victims of Addiction= + +O blessed Lord, you ministered to all who came to you: Look +with compassion upon all who through addiction have lost +their health and freedom. Restore to them the assurance of +your unfailing mercy; remove from them the fears that beset +them; strengthen them in the work of their recovery; and to +those who care for them, give patient understanding and +persevering love. =Amen.= + + + +=57. For Guidance= + +Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with =thy= most gracious +favor, and further us with =thy= continual help; that in all our +works begun, continued, and ended in =thee=, we may glorify +=thy= holy Name, and finally, by =thy= mercy, obtain everlasting +life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=58. For Guidance= + +O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and +light =riseth= up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all +our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what =thou +wouldest= have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save +us from all false choices, and that in =thy= light we may see +light, and in =thy= straight path may not stumble; through +Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=59. For Quiet Confidence= + +O God of peace, =who hast= taught us that in returning and +rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be +our strength: By the might of =thy= Spirit lift us, we pray =thee=, +to =thy= presence, where we may be still and know that =thou +art= God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=60. For Protection= + +Assist us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications and +prayers, and dispose the way of =thy= servants towards the +attainment of everlasting salvation; that, among all the +changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be +defended by =thy= gracious and ready help; through Jesus +Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=61. A Prayer of Self-Dedication= + +Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to =thee=, so +guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our + +wills, that we may be wholly =thine=, utterly dedicated =unto +thee=; and then use us, we pray =thee=, as =thou wilt=, and always +to =thy= glory and the welfare of =thy= people; through our Lord +and Savior Jesus Christ. =Amen.= + + +=62. A Prayer attributed to St. Francis= + +Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is +hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where +there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where +there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where +there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to +be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; +to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is +in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we +are born to eternal life. =Amen.= + + + + +*Prayers for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and for morning and +evening, are on pages 56, 69, 98, and 123.* + + +=63. In the Evening= + +O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows +lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is +hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. +Then in =thy= mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, +and peace at the last. =Amen.= + + +=64. Before Worship= + +O Almighty God, =who pourest= out on all who desire it the +spirit of grace and of supplication: Deliver us, when we draw +near to =thee=, from coldness of heart and wanderings of mind, +that with steadfast thoughts and kindled affections we may +worship =thee= in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ our +Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +=65. For the Answering of Prayer= + +Almighty God, who hast promised to hear the petitions of +those who ask in thy Son's Name: We beseech thee mercifully +to incline thine ear to us who have now made our prayers and +supplications unto thee; and grant that those things which we +have faithfully asked according to thy will, may effectually be +obtained, to the relief of our necessity, and to the setting forth +of thy glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=66. Before Receiving Communion= + +*See also the prayer of Humble Access on page 337.* + +Be present, be present, O Jesus, our great High Priest, as you +were present with your disciples, and be know to us in the +breaking of bread; who live and reign with the Father and +the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +=67. After Receiving Communion= + +O Lord Jesus Christ, who in a wonderful Sacrament hast left +unto us a memorial of thy passion: Grant us, we beseech +thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of thy Body and +Blood, that we may ever perceive within ourselves the fruit of +thy redemption; who livest and reignest with the Father and +the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. =Amen.= + + +=68. After Worship= + +Grant, we beseech =thee=, Almighty God, that the words which +we have heard this day with our outward ears, may, through +=thy= grace, be so grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they may +bring forth in us the fruit of good living, to the honor and +praise of =thy= Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + +=69. On Sunday= + +O God our King, by the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ +on the first day of the week, you conquered sin, put death to +flight, and gave us the hope of everlasting life: Redeem all +our days by this victory; forgive our sins, banish our fears, +make us bold to praise you and to do your will; and steel us +to wait for the consummation of your kingdom on the last +great Day; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=70. Grace at Meals= + +Give us grateful hearts, our Father, for all =thy= mercies, and +make us mindful of the needs of others; through Jesus Christ +our Lord. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Bless, O Lord, =thy= gifts to our use and us to =thy= service; for +Christ's sake. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +Blessed are you, O Lord God, King of the Universe, for you +give us food to sustain our lives and make our hearts glad; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*or this* + +For these and all his mercies, God's holy Name be blessed +and praised; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + + + + + + + + +=1. A General Thanksgiving= + +Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have +done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole +creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, +and for the mystery of love. + +We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for +the loving care which surrounds us on every side. + +We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best +efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy +and delight us. + +We thank you also for those disappointments and failures +that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone. + +Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the +truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast +obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, +through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life +again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom. + +Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and +make him known; and through him, at all times and in all +places, may give thanks to you in all things. =Amen.= + + +=2. A Litany of Thanksgiving= + +*For optional use on Thanksgiving Day, in place of the Prayers of the +People at the Eucharist, or at any time after the Collects at Morning or +Evening Prayer, or separately.* + + + +Let us give thanks to God our Father for all his gifts so +freely bestowed upon us. + +For the beauty and wonder of your creation, in earth and +sky and sea. +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For all that is gracious in the lives of men and women, +revealing the image of Christ, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For our daily food and drink, our homes and families, and +our friends, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For minds to think, and hearts to love, and hands to serve, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For health and strength to work, and leisure to rest and play, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For the brave and courageous, who are patient in suffering +and faithful in adversity, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +For the communion of saints, in all times and places, +=We thank you, Lord.= + +Above all, we give you thanks for the great mercies and +promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord; +=To him be praise and glory, with you, O Father, and the +Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.= + +*See also The General Thanksgiving on pages 58 and 101.* + + + + + + +=3. For the Mission of the Church= + +Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to reconcile +the world to yourself: We praise and bless you for those +whom you have sent in the power of the Spirit to preach the +Gospel to all nations. We thank you that in all parts of the +earth a community of love has been gathered together by +their prayers and labors, and that in every place your servants +call upon your Name; for the kingdom and the power and +the glory are yours for ever. =Amen.= + + +=4. For the Saints and Faithful Departed= + +*See also the prayer "O God, the King of Saints," page 489 and 504.* + +We give thanks to you, O Lord our God, for all your servants +and witnesses of time past: for Abraham, the father of believers, +and Sarah his wife; for Moses, the lawgiver, and Aaron, the +priest; for Miriam and Joshua, Deborah and Gideon, and +Samuel with Hannah his mother; for Isaiah and all the prophets; +for Mary, the mother of our Lord; for Peter and Paul and all +the apostles; for Mary and Martha, and Mary Magdalene; for +Stephen, the first martyr, and all the martyrs and saints in +every age and in every land. In your mercy, O Lord our God, +give us, as you gave to them, the hope of salvation and the +promise of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, the +first-born of many from the dead. =Amen.= + + + + +=5. For the Nation= + +Almighty God, giver of all good things: +We thank you for the natural majesty and beauty of this land. +They restore us, though we often destroy them. +=Heal us.= + + + +We thank you for the great resources of this nation. They +make us rich, though we often exploit them. +=Forgive us.= + +We thank you for the men and women who have made this +country strong. They are models for us, though we often fall +short of them. +=Inspire us.= + +We thank you for the torch of liberty which has been lit in +this land. It has drawn people from every nation, though we +have often hidden from its light. +=Enlighten us.= + +We thank you for the faith we have inherited in all its rich +variety. It sustains our life, though we have been faithless +again and again. +=Renew us.= + +Help us, O Lord, to finish the good work here begun. +Strengthen our efforts to blot out ignorance and prejudice, +and to abolish poverty and crime. And hasten the day when +all our people, with many voices in one united chorus, will +glorify your holy Name. =Amen.= + + +=6. For Heroic Service= + +O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful +hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of +decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant +that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the +benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This +we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + + +=7. For the Diversity of Races and Cultures= + +O God, who created all peoples in your image, we thank you +for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in this world. +Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and +show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until +our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all +your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + + + +=8. For the Beauty of the Earth= + +We give you thanks, most gracious God, for the beauty of +earth and sky and sea; for the richness of mountains, plains, +and rivers; for the songs of birds and the loveliness of flowers. +We praise you for these good gifts, and pray that we may +safeguard them for our posterity. Grant that we may continue +to grow in our grateful enjoyment of your abundant creation, +to the honor and glory of your Name, now and for ever. =Amen.= + + +=9. For the Harvest= + +Most gracious God, by whose knowledge the depths are +broken up and the clouds drop down the dew: We yield thee +hearty thanks and praise for the return of seed +time and harvest, +for the increase of the ground and the gathering in of its fruits, +and for all other blessings of thy merciful providence +bestowed upon this nation and people. And, we beseech thee, +give us a just sense of these great mercies, such as may appear +in our lives by a humble, holy, and obedient walking before +thee all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, +with thee and the Holy Ghost be all glory and honor, world +without end. =Amen.= + + + + + + +=10. For the Gift of a Child= + +*See also the Thanksgiving for a Child on page 439.* + +Heavenly Father, you sent; your own Son into this world. We +thank you for the life of this child, &N., entrusted to our care. +Help us to remember that we are all your children, and so to +love and nurture =him=, that =he= may attain to that full stature +intended for =him= in your eternal kingdom; for the sake of +your dear Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + + +=11. For the Restoration of Health= + +Almighty God and heavenly Father, we give =thee= humble +thanks because =thou hast= been graciously pleased to deliver +from =his= sickness =thy= servant &N., in whose behalf we bless +and praise =thy= Name. Grant, O gracious Father, that =he=, +through =thy= help, may live in this world according to =thy= will, +and also be partaker of everlasting glory in the life to come; +through Jesus Christ our Lord. =Amen.= + +*Thanksgivings for the departed are on pages 487-489 and 503-504.* + + + + + + + + + + + + + +*This catechism is primarily intended for use by parish priests, +deacons, and lay catechists, to give an outline for instruction. It is +a commentary on the creeds, but is not meant to be a complete statement +of belief and practices; rather, it is a point of departure for the +teacher, and it is cast in the traditional question and answer form for +ease of reference.* + +*The second use of this catechism is to provide a brief summary of the +Church's teaching for an inquiring stranger who picks up a Prayer Book.* + +*It may also be used to form a simple service; since the matter is +arranged under headings, it is suitable for selective use, and the +leader may introduce prayers and hymns as needed.* + + + + + + + + + + + +&Q. What are we by nature? + +&A. We are part of God's creation, made in the image of God. + + +&Q. What does it mean to be created in the image of God? + +&A. It means that we are free to make choices: to love, to create, to +reason, and to live in harmony with creation and with God. + + +&Q. Why then do we live apart from God and out of harmony with +creation? + +&A. From the beginning, human beings have misused their freedom and +made wrong choices. + + +&Q. Why do we not use our freedom as we should? + +&A. Because we rebel against God, and we put ourselves in the place of +God. + + +&Q. What help is there for us? + +&A. Our help is in God. + + +&Q. How did God first help us? + +&A. God first helped us by revealing himself and his will, through +nature and history, through many seers and saints, and especially the +prophets of Israel. + + + + + + +&Q. What do we learn about God as creator from the revelation to Israel? + +&A. We learn that there is one God, the Father Almighty, creator of +heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. + + +&Q. What does this mean? + +&A. This means that the universe is good, that it is the work of a +single loving God who creates, sustains, and directs it. + + +&Q. What does this mean about our place in the universe? + +&A. It means that the world belongs to its creator; and that we are +called to enjoy it and to care for it in accordance with God's +purposes. + + +&Q. What does this mean about human life? + +&A. It means that all people are worthy of respect and honor, because +all are created in the image of God, and all can respond to the love +of God. + + +&Q. How was this revelation handed down to us? + +&A. This revelation was handed down to us through a community created +by a covenant with God. + + + + +&Q. What is meant by a covenant with God? + +&A. A covenant is a relationship initiated by God, to which a body of +people responds in faith. + + +&Q. What is the Old Covenant? + +&A. The Old Covenant is the one given by God to the Hebrew people. + + +&Q. What did God promise them? + +&A. God promised that they would be his people to bring all the nations +of the world to him. + + +&Q. What response did God require from the chosen people? + +&A. God required the chosen people to be faithful; to love justice, to +do mercy, and to walk humbly with their God. + + +&Q. Where is this Old Covenant to be found? + +&A. The covenant with the Hebrew people is to be found in the books +which we call the Old Testament. + + +&Q. Where in the Old Testament is God's will for us shown most clearly? + +&A. God's will for us is shown most clearly in the Ten Commandments. + + + + +*See pages 317 and 350.* + +&Q. What are the Ten Commandments? + +&A. The Ten Commandments are the laws give to Moses and the people of +Israel. + + +&Q. What do we learn from these commandments? + +&A. We learn two things: our duty to God, and our duty to our +neighbors. + + +&Q. What is our duty to God? + +&A. Our duty is to believe and trust in God; + + I To love and obey God and to bring others to know him; + + II To put nothing in the place of God; + + III To show God respect in thought, word, and deed; + + IV And to set aside regular times for worship, prayer, and the study +of God's ways. + + + +&Q. What is our duty to our neighbors? + +&A. Our duty to our neighbors is to love them as ourselves, and to do +to other people as we wish them to do to us; + + V To love, honor, and help our parents and family; to honor those in +authority, and to meet their just demands; + + VI To show respect for the life God has given us; to work and pray +for peace; to bear no malice, prejudice, or hatred in our hearts; and to +be kind to all the creatures of God; + + VII To use our bodily desires as God intended; + + VIII To be honest and fair in our dealings; to seek justice, freedom, +and the necessities of life for all people; and to use our talents and +possessions as ones who must answer for them to God; + + IX To speak the truth, and not to mislead others by our silence; + + X To resist temptations to envy, greed, and jealousy; to rejoice in +other people's gifts and graces; and to do our duty for the love of God, +who has called us into fellowship with him. + + +&Q. What is the purpose of the Ten Commandments? + +&A. The Ten Commandments were given to define our relationship with God +and our neighbors. + + +&Q. Since we do not fully obey them, are they useful at all? + +&A. Since we do not filly obey them, we see more clearly our sin and +our need for redemption. + + + + + +&Q. What is sin? + +&A. Sin is the seeking of our own will instead of the will of God, thus +distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all +creation. + + + +&Q. How does sin have power over us? + +&A. Sin has power over us because we lose our liberty when our +relationship with God is distorted. + + +&Q. What is redemption? + +&A. Redemption is the act of God which sets us free from the power of +evil, sin, and death. + + +&Q. How did God prepare us for redemption? + +&A. God sent the prophets to call us back to himself, to show us our +need for redemption, and to announce the coming of the Messiah. + + +&Q. What is meant by the Messiah? + +&A. The Messiah is one sent by God to free us from the power of sin, so +that with the help of God we may live in harmony with God, within +ourselves, with our neighbors, and with all creation. + + +&Q. Who do we believe is the Messiah? + +&A. The Messiah, or Christ, is Jesus of Nazareth, the only Son of God. + + + + + +&Q. What do we mean when we say that Jesus is the only Son of God? + +&A. We mean that Jesus is the only perfect image of the Father, and +shows us the nature of God. + + +&Q. What is the nature of God revealed in Jesus? + +&A. God is love. + + +&Q. What do we mean when we say that Jesus was conceived by the power +of the Holy Spirit and became incarnate from the Virgin Mary? + +&A. We mean that by God's own act, his divine Son received our human +nature from the Virgin Mary, his mother. +&Q. Why did he take our human nature? + +&A. The divine Son became human, so that in him human beings might be +adopted as children of God, and be made heirs of God's kingdom. + + +&Q. What is the great importance of Jesus' suffering and death? + +&A. By his obedience, even to suffering and death, Jesus made the +offering which we could not make; in him we are freed from the power +of sin and reconciled to God. + + +&Q. What is the significance of Jesus' resurrection? + +&A. By his resurrection, Jesus overcame death and opened for us the way +of eternal life. + + +&Q. What do we mean when we say that he descended to the dead? + +&A. We mean that he went to the departed and offered them also the +benefits of redemption. + + +&Q. What do we mean when we say that he ascended into heaven and is +seated at the right hand of the Father? + +&A. We mean that Jesus took our human nature into heaven where he now +reigns with the Father and intercedes for us. + + +&Q. How can we share in his victory over sin, suffering, and death? + +&A. We share in his victory when we are baptized into the New Covenant +and become living members of Christ. + + + + +&Q. What is the New Covenant? + +&A. The New Covenant is the new relationship with God given by Jesus +Christ, the Messiah, to the apostles; and, through them, to all who +believe in him. + + + +&Q. What did the Messiah promise in the New Covenant? + +&A. Christ promised to bring us into the kingdom of God and give life +in all its fullness. + + +&Q. What response did Christ require? + +&A. Christ commanded us to believe in him and to keep his commandments. + + +&Q. What are the commandments taught by Christ? + +&A. Christ taught us the Summary of the Law and gave us the New +Commandment. + + +&Q. What is the Summary of the Law? + +&A. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your +soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great +commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor +as yourself. + + +&Q. What is the New Commandment? + +&A. The New Commandment is that we love one another as Christ loved us. + + +&Q. Where may we find what Christians believe about Christ? + +&A. What Christians believe about Christ is found in the Scriptures and +summed up in the creeds. + + + + +*See pages 53, 96, 326, 327, and 864 + +&Q. What are the creeds? + +&A. The creeds are statements of our basic beliefs about God. + + +&Q. How many creeds does this Church use in its worship? + +&A. This Church uses two creeds: The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene +Creed. + + + + +&Q. What is the Apostles' Creed? + +&A. The Apostles' Creed is the ancient creed of Baptism; it is used in +the Church's daily worship to recall our Baptismal Covenant. + + +&Q. What is the Nicene Creed? + +&A. The Nicene Creed is the creed of the universal Church and is used +at the Eucharist. + + +&Q. What, then, is the Athanasian Creed? + +&A. The Athanasian Creed is an ancient document proclaiming the nature +of the Incarnation and of God as Trinity. + + +&Q. What is the Trinity? + +&A. The Trinity is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + + + + +&Q. What is the Holy Spirit? + +&A. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity, God at work in +the world and in the Church even now. + + +&Q. How is the Holy Spirit revealed in the Old Covenant? + +&A. The Holy Spirit is revealed in the Old Covenant as the giver of +life, the One who spoke through the prophets. + + +&Q. How is the Holy Spirit revealed in the New Covenant? + +&A. The Holy Spirit is revealed as the Lord who leads us into all truth +and enables us to grow in the likeness of Christ. + + +&Q. How do we recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives? + +&A. We recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit when we confess Jesus +Christ as Lord and are brought into love and harmony with God, with +ourselves, with our neighbors, and with all creation. + + + +&Q. How do we recognize the truths taught by the Holy Spirit? + +&A. We recognize truths to be taught by the Holy Spirit when they are +in accord with the Scriptures. + + + + +&Q. What are the Holy Scriptures? + +&A. The Holy Scriptures, commonly called the Bible, are the books of +the Old and New Testaments; other books, called the Apocrypha, are +often included in the Bible. + + +&Q. What is the Old Testament? + +&A. The Old Testament consists of books written by the people of the +Old Covenant, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to show God at +work in nature and history. + + +&Q. What is the New Testament? + +&A. The New Testament consists of books written by the people of the +New Covenant, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to set forth +the life and teachings of Jesus and to proclaim the Good News of the +Kingdom for all people. + + +&Q. What is the Apocrypha? + +&A. The Apocrypha is a collection of additional books written by people +of the Old Covenant, and used in the Christian Church. + + +&Q. Why do we call the Holy Scriptures the Word of God? + +&A. We call them the Word of God because God inspired their human +authors and because God still speaks to us through the Bible. + + +&Q. How do we understand the meaning of the Bible? + +&A. We understand the meaning of the Bible by the help of [ Page 854> +the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church in the true interpretation of +the Scriptures. + + + + +&Q. What is the Church? + +&A. The Church is the community of the New Covenant. + + +&Q. How is the Church described in the Bible? + +&A. The Church is described as the Body of which Jesus Christ is the +Head and of which all baptized persons are members. It is called the +People of God, the New Israel, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, and +the pillar and ground of truth. + + +&Q. How is the Church described in the creeds? + +&A. The Church is described as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. + + +&Q. Why is the Church described as one? + +&A. The Church is one, because it is one Body, under one Head, our Lord +Jesus Christ. + + +&Q. Why is the Church described as holy? + +&A. The Church is holy, because the Holy Spirit dwells in it, +consecrates its members, and guides them to do God's work. + + +&Q. Why is the Church described as catholic? + +&A. The Church is catholic, because it proclaims the whole Faith to all +people, to the end of time. + + +&Q. Why is the Church described as apostolic? + +&A. The Church is apostolic, because it continues in the teaching and +fellowship of the apostles and is sent to carry out Christ's mission +to all people. + + + +&Q. What is the mission of the Church? + +&A. The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with +God and each other in Christ. + + +&Q. How does the Church pursue its mission? + +&A. The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims +the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love. + + +&Q. Through whom does the Church carry out its mission? + +&A. The church carries out its mission through the ministry of all its +members. + + + + +&Q. Who are the ministers of the Church? + +&A. The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests, and +deacons. + + +&Q. What is the ministry of the laity? + +&A. The ministry of lay persons is the represent Christ and his Church; +to bear witness to him wherever they may be; and, according to the +gifts given them, to carry on Christ's work of reconciliation in the +world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of +the Church. + + +&Q. What is the ministry of a bishop? + +&A. The minsitry of a bishop is to represent Christ and his Church, +particularly as apostle, chief priest, and pastor of a diocese; to +guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the whole Church; to +proclaim the Word of God; to act in Christ's name for the +reconciliation of the world and the building up of the Church; and to +ordain others to continue Christ's ministry. + + + +&Q. What is the ministry of a priest or presbyter? + +&A. The ministry of a priest is to represent Christ and his Church, +particularly as pastor to the people; to share with the bishop in the +overseeing of the Church; to proclaim the Gospel; to administer the +sacraments; and to bless and declare pardon in the name of God. + + +&Q. What is the ministry of a deacon? + +&A. The ministry of a deacon is to represent Christ and his Church, +particularly as a servant of those in need; and to assist bishops and +priests in the proclamation of the Gospel and the administration of +the sacraments. + + +&Q. What is the duty of all Christians? + +&A. The duty of all Christians is to follow Christ; to come together +week by week for corporate worship; and to work, pray, and give for +the spread of the kingdom of God. + + + + +&Q. What is prayer? + +&A. Prayer is responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or +without words. + + +&Q. What is Christian Prayer? + +&A. Christian prayer is response of God the Father, through Jesus +Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. + + +&Q. What prayer did Christ teach us? + +&A. Our Lord gave us the example of prayer knows as the Lord's Prayer. +*See page 364* + + +&Q. What are the principle kinds of prayer? + +&A. The principle kinds of prayer are adoration, praise, thanksgiving, +penitence, oblation, intercession, and petition. + + + + +&Q. What is adoration? + +&A. Adoration is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God, asking +nothing but to enjoy God's presence. + + +&Q. Why do we praise God? + +&A. We praise God, not to obtain anything, but because God's Being +draws praise from us. + + +&Q. For what do we offer thanksgiving? + +&A. Thanksgiving is offered to God for all the blessings of this life, +for our redemption, and for whatever draws us closer to God. + + +&Q. What is penitence? + +&A. In penitence, we confess our sins and make restitution where +possible, with the intention to amend our lives. + + +&Q. What is prayer of oblation? + +&A. Oblation is an offering of ourselves, our lives and labors, in +union with Christ, for the purposes of God. + + +&Q. What are intercession and petition? + +&A. Intercession brings before god the needs of others; in petition, we +present our own needs, that God's will may be done. + + +&Q. What is corporate worship? + +&A. In corporate worship, we unite ourselves with others to acknowledge +the holiness of God, to hear God's Word, to offer prayer, and to +celebrate the sacraments. + + + + + +&Q. What are the sacraments? + +&A. The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and +spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we +receive that grace. + + + +&Q. What is grace? + +&A. Grace is God's favor toward us, unearned and undeserved; by grace +God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and +strengthens our wills. + + +&Q. What are the two great sacraments of the Gospel? + +&A. The two great sacraments given by Christ to his Church are Holy +Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. + + + + +&Q. What is Holy Baptism? + +&A. Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as his +children and makes us members of Christ's Body, the Church, and +inheritors of the kingdom of God. + + +&Q. What is the outward and visible sign in Baptism? + +&A. The outward and visible sign in Baptism is water, in which the +person is baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of +the Holy Spirit. + + +&Q. What is the inward and spiritual grace in Baptism? + +&A. The inward and spiritual grace in Baptism is union with Christ in +his death and resurrection, birth into God's family the Church, +forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit. + + +&Q. What is required of us at Baptism? + +&A. It is required that we renounce Satan, repent of our sins, and +accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. + + +&Q. Why then are infants baptized? + +&A. Infants are baptized so that they can share citizenship in the +Covenant, membership in Christ, and redemption by God. + + +&Q. How are the promises for infants made and carried out? + +&A. Promises are made for them by their parents and sponsors, who +guarantee that the infants will be brought up within the Church, to +know Christ and be able to follow him. + + + + +&Q. What is the Holy Eucharist? + +&A. The Holy Eucharist is the sacrament commanded by Christ for the +continual remembrance of his life, death, and resurrection, until his +coming again. + + +&Q. Why is the Eucharist called a sacrifice? + +&A. Because the Eucharist, the Church's sacrifice of praise and +thanksgiving, is the way by which the sacrifice of Christ is made +present, and in which he unites us to his one offering of himself. + + +&Q. By what other names is this service known? + +&A. The Holy Eucharist is called the Lord's Supper, and Holy Communion; +it is also known as the Divine Liturgy, the Mass, and the Great +Offering. + + +&Q. What is the outward and visible sign in the Eucharist? + +&A. The outward and visible sign in the Eucharist is bread and wine, +give and received according to Christ's command. + + +&Q. What is the inward and spiritual grace given in the Eucharist? + +&A. The inward and spiritual grace in the Holy Communion is the Body +and Blood of Christ give to his people, and received by faith. + + +&Q. What are the benefits which we receive in the Lord's Supper? + +&A. The benefits we receive are the forgiveness of our sins, [ Page 860> +the strengthening of our union with Christ and one another, and the +foretaste of the heavenly banquet which is our nourishment in eternal +life. + + +&Q. What is required of us when we come to the Eucharist? + +&A. It is required that we should examine our lives, repent of our +sins, and be in love and charity with all people. + + + + +&Q. What other sacramental rites evolved in the Church under the +guidance of the Holy Spirit? + +&A. Other sacramental rites which evolved in the Church include +confirmation, ordination, holy matrimony, reconciliation of a +penitent, and unction. + + +&Q. How do they differ from the two sacraments of the Gospel? + +&A. Although they are means of grace, they are not necessary for all +persons in the same way that Baptism and the Eucharist are. + + +&Q. What is Confirmation? + +&A. Confirmation is the rite in which we express a mature commitment to +Christ, and receive strength from the Holy Spirit through prayer and +the laying on of hands by a bishop. + + +&Q. What is required of those to be confirmed? + +&A. It is required of those to be confirmed that they have been +baptized, are sufficiently instructed in the Christian Faith, are +penitent for their sins, and are ready to affirm their confession of +Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. + + +&Q. What is Ordination? + +&A. Ordination is the rite in which God gives authority and the grace +of the Holy Spirit to those being made bishops, + +priests, and deacons, through prayer and the laying on of hands by +bishops. + + +&Q. What is Holy Matrimony? + +&A. Holy Matrimony is Christian marriage, in which the woman and man +enter into a life-long union, make their vows before God and the +Church, and receive the grace and blessing of God to help them fulfill +their vows. + + +&Q. What is Reconciliation of a Penitent? + +&A. Reconciliation of a Penitent, or Penance, is the rite in which +those who repent of their sins may confess them to God in the presence +of a priest, and receive the assurance of pardon and the grace of +absolution. + + +&Q. What is Unction of the Sick? + +&A. Unction is the rite of anointing the sick with oil, or the laying +on of hands, by which God's grace is given for the healing of spirit, +mind, and body. + + +&Q. Is God's activity limited to these rites? + +&A. God does not limit himself to these rites; they are patterns of +countless ways by which God uses material things to reach out to us. + + +&Q. How are the sacraments related to our Christian hope? + +&A. Sacraments sustain our present hope and anticipate its future +fulfillment. + + + + +&Q. What is the Christian hope? + +&A. The Christian hope is to live with confidence in newness and +fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in glory, and the +completion of God's purpose for the world. + + + + +&Q. What do we mean by the coming of Christ in glory? + +&A. By the coming of Christ in glory, we mean that Christ will come, +not in weakness but in power, and will make all things new. + + +&Q. What do we mean by heaven and hell? + +&A. By heaven, we mean eternal life in our enjoyment of God; by hell, +we mean eternal death in our rejection of God. + + +&Q. Why do we pray for the dead? + +&A. We pray for them, because we still hold them in our love, and +because we trust that in God's presence those who have chosen to serve +him will grow in his love, until they see him as he is. + + +&Q. What do we mean by the last judgment? + +&A. We believe that Christ will come in glory and judge the living and +the dead. + + +&Q. What do we mean by the resurrection of the body? + +&A. We mean that God will raise us from death in the fullness of our +being, that we may live with Christ in the communion of the saints. + + +&Q. What is the communion of saints? + +&A. The communion of saints is the whole family of God, the living and +the dead, those whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in +Christ by sacrament, prayer, and praise. + + +&Q. What do we mean by everlasting life? + +&A. By everlasting life, we mean a new existence, in which we are united +with all the people of God, in the joy of fully knowing and loving God +and each other. + + +&Q. What, then, is our assurance as Christians? + +&A. Our assurance as Christians is that nothing, not even death, shall +separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. +Amen. + + + + + + + + + +=Council of Chalcedon, 451 A.D., Act V= + +Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men +to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once +complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, +consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance +(homoousios) with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same +time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all +respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father +before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and +for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer (Theotokos); one +and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two +natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without +separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the +union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and +coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or +separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten +God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest +times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the +creed of the Fathers has handed down to us. + + + + + +=commonly called= + + + +Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold +the Catholic Faith. + +Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt +he shall perish everlastingly. + +And the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and +Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the +Substance. + +For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another +of the Holy Ghost. + +But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is +all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal. + +Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. + +The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate. + +The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy +Ghost incomprehensible. + +The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal. + +And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal. + +As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but +one uncreated, and one incomprehensible. + +So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy +Ghost Almighty. + +And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty. + + + +So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. + +And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. + +So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. + +And yet not three Lords, but one Lord. + +For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge +every Person by himself to be both God and Lord, + +So are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion, to say, There be three +Gods, or three Lords. + +The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. + +The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten. + +The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor +created, nor begotten, but proceeding. + +So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one +Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. + +And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; none is greater, or +less than another; + +But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal. + +So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the +Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. + +He therefore that will be saved is must think thus of the Trinity. + + +Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also +believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. + +For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord +Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; + +God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and +Man of the substance of his Mother, born in the world; + +Perfect God and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh +subsisting. + +Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the +Father, as touching his manhood; + +Who, although he be God and Man, yet he is not two, but one Christ; + +One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking of the +Manhood into God; + +One altogether; not by confusion of Substance, but by unity of Person. + +For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one +Christ; + +Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the +third day from the dead. + +He ascended into heaven, he sitteth at the right hand of the Father, +God Almighty, from whence he will come to judge the quick and the dead. + +At whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies and shall +give account for their own works. + +And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they +that have done evil into everlasting fire. + +This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he +cannot be saved. + + + + + + + + +There was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or so sure +established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted: as, +among other things, it may plainly appear by the common prayers in the +Church, commonly called Divine Service: the first original and ground +whereof, if a man would search out by the ancient fathers, he shall +find, that the same was not ordained, but of a good purpose, and for a +great advancement of godliness: For they so ordered the matter, that all +the whole Bible (or the greatest part thereof) should be read over once +in the year, intending thereby, that the Clergy, and especially such as +were Ministers of the congregation, should (by often reading, and +meditation of God's word) be stirred up to godliness themselves, and be +more able to exhort others by wholesome doctrine, and to confute them +that were adversaries to the truth. And further, that the people (by +daily hearing of holy Scripture read in the Church) should continually +profit more and more in the knowledge of God, and be the more inflamed +with the love of his true religion. + +But these many years passed, this godly and decent order of the ancient +fathers hath been so altered, broken, and neglected, by planting in +uncertain stories, Legends, Responds, Verses, vain repetitions, +Commemorations, and Synodals, that commonly when any book of the Bible +was begun, before three or four Chapters were read out, all the rest +were unread. And in this sort the book of Isaiah was begun in Advent, +and the book of Genesis in Septuagesima; but they were only begun, and +never read through. After a like sort were other books of holy +Scripture used. And moreover, whereas St. Paul would have such language +spoken to the people in the Church, as they might understand, and have +profit by hearing the same, the Service in the Church of England (these +many years) hath been read in Latin to the people, which they understood +not; so that they have heard with their ears only; and their hearts, +spirit, and mind, have not been edified thereby. And furthermore, +notwithstanding that the ancient fathers had divided the Psalms into +seven portions, whereof every one was called a nocturn, now of late time +a few of them have been daily said (and oft repeated), and the rest +utterly omitted. Moreover, the number and hardness of the Rules called +the Pie, and the manifold changings of the service, was the cause, that +to turn the Book only, was so hard and intricate a matter, that many +times, there was more business to find out what should be read, than to +read it when it was found out. + +These inconveniences therefore considered, here is set forth such an +order, whereby the same shall be redressed. And for a readiness in this +matter, here is drawn out a Kalendar for that purpose, which is plain +and easy to be understood, wherein (so much as may be) the reading of +holy Scripture is so set forth, that all things shall be done in order, +without breaking one piece thereof from another. For this cause be cut +off Anthems, Responds, Invitatories, and such like things, as did break +the continual course of the reading of the Scripture. + +Yet because there is no remedy, but that of necessity there must be some +rules: therefore certain rules are here set forth, which, as they be few +in number; so they be plain and easy to be understood. So that here you +have an order for prayer (as touching the reading of the holy +Scripture), much agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old fathers, +and a great deal more profitable and commodious, than that which of late +was used. It is more profitable, because here are left out many things, +whereof some be untrue, some uncertain, same vain + +and superstitious: and is ordained nothing to be read, but the very pure +word of God, the holy Scriptures, or that which is evidently grounded +upon the same; and that in such a language and order as is most easy and +plain for the understanding, both of the readers and hearers. It is +also more commodious, both for the shortness thereof, and for the +plainness of the order, and for that the rules be few and easy. +Furthermore, by this order the curates shall need none other books for +their public service, but this book and the Bible: by the means whereof, +the people shall not be at so great charge for books, as in time past +they have been. + +And where heretofore, there hath been great diversity in saying and +singing in churches within this realm: some following Salisbury use, +some Hereford use, some the use of Bangor, some of York, and some of +Lincoln: now from henceforth, all the whole realm shall have but one +use. And if any would judge this way more painful, because that all +things must be read upon the book, whereas before, by reason of so often +repetition, they could say many things by heart: if those men will weigh +their labor with the profit in knowledge, which daily they shall obtain +by reading upon the book, they will not refuse the pain, in +consideration of the great profit that shall ensue thereof. + +And forasmuch as nothing else, almost, be so plainly set forth, but +doubts may arise in the use and practicing of the same: to appease all +such diversity (if any arise), and for the resolution of all doubts, +concerning the manner how to understand, do, and execute, the things +contained in this book: the parties that so doubt, or diversely take any +thing, shall always resort to the Bishop of the Diocese, who by his +discretion shall take order for the quieting and appeasing of the same; +so that the same order be not contrary to any thing contained in this +book. + +Though it be appointed in the afore written preface, that all things +shall be read and sung in the church in the English tongue, to the end +that the congregation may be thereby edified: yet it is not meant, but +when men say Matins and Evensong privately, they may say the same in any +language that they themselves do understand. Neither that any man shall +be bound to the saying of them, but such as from time to time, in +Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, parish Churches, and Chapels to the +same annexed, shall serve the congregation. + + + + +As established by the Bishops, the Clergy, and the Laity of the +Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, in +Convention, on the twelfth day of September, in the Year of our Lord, +1801. + + + + +There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, +or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker, and +Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in the unity of +this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and +eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. + + + + + + +The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of +the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the +Father, took Man's nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her +substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the +Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be +divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man; who truly +suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to +us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for +actual sins of men. + + + + +As Christ died for us, and was buried; so also it is to be believed, +that he went down into Hell. + + + + +Christ did truly rise again from death, and took again his body, with +flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of Man's +nature; wherewith he ascended into Heaven, and there sitteth, until he +return to judge all Men at the last day. + + + + +The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one +substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and +eternal God. + + + + +Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that +whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be +required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the +Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name +of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical Books of the Old +and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church. + + + + Genesis, + + Exodus, + + Leviticus, + + Numbers, + + Deuteronomy, + + Joshua, + + Judges, + + Ruth, + + The First Book of Samuel, + + The Second Book of Samuel, + + The First Book of Kings, + + The Second Book of Kings, + + The First Book of Chronicles, + + The Second Book of Chronicles, + + The First Book of Esdras, + + The Second Book of Esdras, + + The Book of Esther, + + The Book of Job, + + The Psalms, + + The Proverbs, + + Ecclesiastes or Preacher, + + Cantica, or Songs of Solomon, + + Four Prophets the greater, + + Twelve Prophets the less. + +And the other Books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read for example +of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to +establish any doctrine; such are these following: + + The Third Book of Esdras, + + The Fourth Book of Esdras, + + The Book of Tobias, + + The Book of Judith, + + The rest of the Book of Esther, + + The Book of Wisdom, + + Jesus the Son of Sirach, + + Baruch the Prophet, + + The Song of the Three Children, + + The Story of Susanna, + + Of Bel and the Dragon, + + The Prayer of Manasses, + + The First Book of Maccabees, + + The Second Book of Maccabees. + + All the Books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we +do receive, and account them Canonical. + + + + +The Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and +New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ, who is +the only Mediator between God and Man, being both God and Man. +Wherefore they are not to be heard, which feign that the old Fathers did +look only for transitory promises. Although the Law given from God by +Moses, as touching Ceremonies and Rites, do not bind Christian men, nor +the Civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any +commonwealth; yet notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free +from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral. + + + + +The Nicene Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, +ought thoroughly to be received and believed: for they may be proved by +most certain warrants of Holy Scripture. + +The original Article given Royal assent in 1571 and reaffirmed in 1662, +was entitled, "Of the Three Creeds; and began as follows, "The Three +Creeds, Nicene Creed, Athanasius's Creed, and that which is commonly +called the Apostles' Creed..." + + + + +Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians do +vainly talk;) but it is the fault and corruption of the Nature of every +man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam; whereby man +is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature +inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the +Spirit; and therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth +God's wrath and damnation. And this infection of nature doth remain, +yea in them that are regenerated; whereby the lust of the flesh, called +in Greek, *fro/nhma sarko/s*, (which some do expound the wisdom, some +sensuality, some the affection, some the desire, of the flesh), is not +subject to the Law of God. And although there is no condemnation for +them that believe and are baptized; yet the Apostle doth confess, that +concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin. + + + + +The condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn +and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to +faith, and calling upon God. Wherefore we have no power to do good +works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ +preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when +we have that good will. + + + + + + +We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord +and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or +deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only, is a most +wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely expressed +in the Homily of Justification. + + + + +Albeit that Good Works, which are the fruits of Faith, and follow after +Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of +God's judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, +and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively Faith; insomuch that +by them a lively Faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by +the fruit. + + + + +Works done before the grace of Christ, and the Inspiration of the +Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith +in Jesus Christ; neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as +the School-authors say) deserve grace of congruity: yea rather, for that +they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we +doubt not but they have the nature of sin. + + + + +Voluntary Works besides, over and above, God's Commandments, which they +call Works of Supererogation, cannot be taught without arrogancy and +impiety: for by them men do declare, that they not only render unto God +as much as they are bound to, but that they do more for his sake, than +of bounden duty is required: whereas Christ saith plainly, When ye have +done all that are commanded to you, say, We are unprofitable servants. + + + + +Christ in the truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things, +sin only except, from which he was clearly void, both in his flesh, and +in his spirit. He came to be the Lamb without spot, who, by sacrifice +of himself once made, should take away the sins of the world; and sin +(as Saint John saith) was not in him. But all we the rest, although +baptized, and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things; and if we +say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. + + + + +Not every deadly sin willingly committed after Baptism is sin against +the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is +not be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism. After we have +received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into +sin, and by the grace of God we may arise again, and amend our lives. +And therefore they are to be condemned, which say, they can no more sin +as long as they live here, or deny the place of forgiveness to such as +truly repent. + + + + + + +Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby +(before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly +decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation +those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by +Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore, +they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called +according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they +through Grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made +sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only- +begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works, and at +length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity. + +As the godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in +Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly +persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of +Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, +and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things, as well because +it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal Salvation +to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their +love towards God: So, for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit +of Christ, to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's +Predestination, is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the Devil doth +thrust them either into desperation, or into wrethchlessness of most +unclean living, no less perilous than desperation. + +Furthermore, we must receive God's promises in such wise, as they be +generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture: and, in our doings, that +Will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us +in the word of God. + + + + +They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man +shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be +diligent to frame his life according to that Law, and the light of +Nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus +Christ, whereby men must be saved. + + + + +The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which +the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered +according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity +are requisite to the same. + +As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred; so also +the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of +Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith. + + + + +The Church hath power to decree Rites or Ceremonies, and authority in +Controversies of Faith: and yet it is not lawful for the Church to +ordain anything that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it +so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another. +Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of Holy Writ, +yet, as it ought not to decree any thing against the same, so besides +the same ought not to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of +Salvation. + + + + + +[The Twenty-first of the former Articles is omitted; because it is +partly of a local and civil nature, and is provided for, as to the +remaining parts of it, in other Articles.] + +=The original 1571, 1662 text of this Article, omitted in the version of +1801, reads as follows: "General Councils may not be gathered together +without the commandment and will of Princes. And when they be gathered +together, (forasmuch as they be an assembly of men, whereof all be not +governed with the Spirit and Word of God,) they may err, and sometimes +have erred, even in things pertaining unto God. Wherefore things +ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor +authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of holy +Scripture."= + + + + +The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, Worshipping and +Adoration, as well of Images as of Relics, and also Invocation of +Saints, is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty +of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God. + + + + +It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public +preaching, or ministering the Sacraments in the Congregation, before he +be lawfully called, and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to +judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work +by men who have public authority given unto them in the Congregation, to +call and send Ministers into the Lord's vineyard. + + + + +It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of +the Primitive Church, to have public Prayer in the Church, or to +minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people. + + + + +Sacraments ordained of Christ be not only badges or tokens of Christian +men's profession, but rather they be certain sure witnesses, and +effectual signs of grace, and God's good will towards us, by the which +he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also +strengthen and confirm our Faith in him. + +There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that +is to say, Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord. + +Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to say, Confirmation, +Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction, are not to be counted +for Sacraments of the Gospel, being such as have grown partly of the +corrupt following of the Apostles, partly are states of life allowed in +the Scriptures; but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptism, +and the Lord's Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or +ceremony ordained of God. + +The Sacraments are not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be +carried about, but that we should duly use them. And in such only as +worthily receive the same, they have a wholesome effect or operation:but +they that receive them unworthily, purchase to themselves damnation, as +Saint Paul saith. + + + + + + +Although in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good, +and sometimes the evil have chief authority in the Ministration of the +Word and Sacraments, yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own +name, but in Christ's, and do minister by his commission and authority, +we may use their Ministry, both in hearing the Word of God, and in +receiving the Sacraments. Neither is the effect of Christ's ordinance +taken away by their wickedness, nor the grace of God's gifts diminished +from such as by faith, and rightly, do receive the Sacraments ministered +unto them; which be effectual, because of Christ's institution and +promise, although they be ministered by evil men. + +Nevertheless, it appertaineth to the discipline of the Church, that +inquiry be made of evil Ministers, and that they be accused by those +that have knowledge of their offences; and finally, being found guilty, +by just judgment be deposed. + + + + +Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark of difference, +whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not christened, +but it is also a sign of Regeneration or New-Birth, whereby, as by an +instrument, they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the +Church; the promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to +be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed; +Faith is confirmed, and Grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God. + +The Baptism of young Children is in any wise to be retained in the +Church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ. + + + + +The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians +ought to have among themselves one to another; but rather it is a +Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's death: insomuch that to such as +rightly, worthily, and with faith, receive the same, the Bread which we +break is a partaking of the Body of Christ; and likewise the Cup of +Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ. + +Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in +the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but is repugnant +to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, +and hath given occasion to many superstitions. + +The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after +an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the Body of +Christ is received and eaten in the Supper, is Faith. + +The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's ordinance +reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshipped. + + + + +The Wicked, and such as be void of a lively faith, although they +docarnally and visibly press with their teeth (as Saint Augustine saith) +the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ; yet in no wise are they +partakers of Christ: but rather, to their condemnation, do eat and drink +the sign or Sacrament of so great a thing. + + + + + + +The Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the Lay-people: for both the +parts of the Lord's Sacrament, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, +ought to be ministered to all Christian men alike. + + + + +The Offering of Christ once made in that perfect redemption, +propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, +both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, +but that alone. Wherefore the sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was +commonly said, that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and the +dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and +dangerous deceits. + + + + +Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, are not commanded by God's Law, either to +vow the estate of single life, or to abstain from marriage: therefore it +is lawful for them, as for all other Christian men, to marry at their +own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve better to +godliness. + + + + +That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off +from the unity of the Church, and excommunicated, ought to be taken of +the whole multitude of the faithful, as an Heathen and Publican, until +he be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the Church by a +Judge that hath the authority thereunto. + + + + +It is not necessary that the Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places +one, or utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be +changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men's +manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. Whosoever, +through his private judgment, willingly and purposely, doth openly break +the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to +the Word of God, and be ordained and approved by common authority, ought +to be rebuked openly, (that others may fear to do the like,) as he that +offendeth against the common order of the Church, and hurteth the +authority of the Magistrate, and woundeth the consciences of the weak +brethren. + +Every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, change, +and abolish, Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained only by man's +authority, so that all things be done to edifying. + + + + +The Second Book of Homilies, the several titles whereof we have joined +under this Article, doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine, and +necessary for these times, as doth the former Book of Homilies, which +were set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth; and therefore we judge +them to be read in Churches by the Ministers, diligently and distinctly, +that they may be understanded of the people. + + + + + + + 1 Of the right Use of the Church. + + 2 Against Peril of Idolatry. + + 3 Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches. + + 4 Of good Works: first of Fasting. + + 5 Against Gluttony and Drunkenness. + + 6 Against Excess of Apparel. + + 7 Of Prayer. + + 8 Of the Place and Time of Prayer. + + 9 That Common Prayers and Sacraments ought to be ministered in a +known tongue. + + 10 Of the reverend Estimation of God's Word. + + 11 Of Alms-doing. + + 12 Of the Nativity of Christ. + + 13 Of the Passion of Christ. + + 14 Of the Resurrection of Christ. + + 15 Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of +Christ. + + 16 Of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost. + + 17 For the Rogation-days + + 18 Of the State of Matrimony. + + 19 Of Repentance. + + 20 Against Idleness. + + 21 Against Rebellion. + +[This Article is received in this Church, so far as it declares the Book +of Homilies to be an explication of Christian doctrine, and instructive +in piety and morals. But all references to the constitution and laws of +England are considered as inapplicable to the circumstances of this +Church; which also suspends the order for the reading of said Homilies +in churches, until a revision of them may be conveniently made, for the +clearing of them, as well from obsolete words and phrases, as from the +local references.] + + + + +The Book of Consecration of Bishops, and Ordering of Priests and +Deacons, as set forth by the General Convention of this Church in 1792, +doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering; +neither hath it any thing that, of itself, is superstitious and ungodly. +And, therefore, whosoever are consecrated or ordered according to said +Form, we decree all such to be rightly, orderly, and lawfully +consecrated and ordered. + +=The original 1571, 1662 text of this Article reads as follows: "The +Book of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops, and Ordering of Priests +and Deacons, lately set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth, and +confirmed at the same time by authority of Parliament, doth contain all +things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering; neither hath it any +thing, that of itself is superstitious and ungodly. And therefore +whosoever are consecrated or ordered according to the Rites of that +Book, since the second year of the forenamed King Edwand unto this time, +or hereafter shall be consecrated or ordered according to the same +Rites; we decree all such to be rightly, orderly, and lawfully +consecrated and ordered."= + + + + +The Power of the Civil Magistrate extendeth to all men, as well Clergy +as Laity, in all things temporal; but hath no authority in things purely +spiritual. And we hold it to be the duty of all men who are professors +of the Gospel, to pay respectful obedience to the Civil Authority, +regularly and legitimately constituted. + +=The original 1571, 1662 text of this Article reads as follows: "The +King's Majesty hath the chief power in this Realm of England, and other +his Dominions, unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this +Realm, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil, in all causes doth +appertain, and is not, nor ought to be, subject to any foreign +Jurisdiction. Where we attribute to the King's Majesty the chief +government, by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous +folks to be offended; we give not our Princes the + +ministering either of God's Word, or of the Sacraments, the which thing +the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most +plainly testify; but that only prerogative, which we see to have been +given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself; +that is, that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to +their charge by God, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal, and +restrain with the civil sword the stubborn and evil-doers.= + +=The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England.= + +=The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian men with death, for heinous +and grievous offenses.= + +=It is lawful for Christian men, at the commandment of the Magistrate, +to wear weapons, and serve in the wars."= + + + + +The Riches and Goods of Christians are not common, as touching the +right, title, and possession of the same; as certain Anabaptists do +falsely boast. Notwithstanding, every man ought, of such things as he +possesseth, liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his +ability. + + + + +As we confess that vain and rash Swearing is forbidden Christian men by +our Lord Jesus Christ, and James his Apostle, so we judge, that +Christian Religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the +Magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so it be done +according to the Prophet's teaching in justice, judgment, and truth. + + + + + +=Adopted by the House of Bishops +Chicago, 1886= + +We, Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of +America, in Council assembled as Bishops in the Church of God, do hereby +solemnly declare to all whom it may concern, and especially to our +fellow-Christians of the different Communions in this land, who, in +their several spheres, have contended for the religion of Christ: + + 1. Our earnest desire that the Savior's prayer, "That we all may be +one," may, in its deepest and truest sense, be speedily fulfilled; + + 2. That we believe that all who have been duly baptized with water, +in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, are +members of the Holy Catholic Church. + + 3. That in all things of human ordering or human choice, relating to +modes of worship and discipline, or to traditional customs, this Church +is ready in the spirit of love and humility to forego all preferences of +her own; + + + + 4. That this Church does not seek to absorb other Communions, but +rather, co-operating with them on the basis of a common Faith and Order, +to discountenance schism, to heal the wounds of the Body of Christ, and +to promote the charity which is the chief of Christian graces and the +visibile manifestation of Christ to the world. + +But furthermore, we do hereby affirm that the Christian unity...can be +restored only by the return of all Christian communions to the +principles of unity exemplified by the undivided Catholic Church during +the first ages of its existence; which principles we believe to be the +substantial deposit of Christian Faith and Order committed by Christ and +his Apostles to the Church unto the end of the world, and therefore +incapable of compromise or surrender by those who have been ordained to +be its stewards and trustees for the common and equal benefit of all +men. + +As inherent parts of this sacred deposit, and therefore as essential to +the restoration of unity among the divided branches of Christendom, we +account the following, to wit: + +1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the revealed +Word of God. + +2. The Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of the Christian Faith. + +3. The two Sacraments,--Baptism and the Supper of the Lord,--ministered +with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution and of the elements +ordained by Him. + +4. The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its +administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of +God into the unity of His Church. + +=Furthermore,= Deeply grieved by the sad divisions which affect the +Christian Church in oun own land, we hereby declare our desire and +readiness, so soon as there shall be any authorized response to this +Declaration, to enter into brotherly conference with all or any +Christian Bodies seeking the restoration of the organic unity of the +Church, with a view to the earnest study of the conditions under which +so priceless a blessing might happily be brought to pass. + +=Note: While the above form of the Quadrilateral was adopted by the +House of Bishops, it was not enacted by the House of Deputies, but +rather incorporated in a general plan referred for study and action to a +newly created Joint Commission on Christian Reunion.= + + +=Lambeth Conferent of 1888 +Resolution 11= + +That, in the opinion of this Conference, the following Articles supply a +basis on which approach may be by God's blessing made towards Home +Reunion: + +(a) The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as "containing +all things necessary to salvation," and as being the rule and ultimate +standard of faith. + +(b) The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, +as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith. + + + +(c) The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself--Baptism and the +Supper of the Lord--ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of +Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him. + +4. The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its +administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of +God into the Unity of His Church. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Easter Day is always the Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or +after the sping equinox on March 21, a date which is fixed in accordance +with an ancient ecclesiastical computation, and which does not always +correspond to the astronomical equinox. This full moon may happen on +any date between March 21 and April 18 inclusive. If the full moon +falls on a Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday following. But Easter Day +cannot be earlier than March 22 or later than April 25. + +To find the date of Easter Day in any particular year, it is necessary +to have two points of reference--the Golden Number and the Sunday Letter +for that year. + + 1. The Golden Number indicates the date of the full moon on or after +the spring equinox of March 21, according to a nineteen-year cycle. +These Numbers are prefixed in the Calendar to the days of the month from +March 22 to April 19 inclusive. In the present Calendar they are +applicable from A.D. 1900 to A.D. 2099, after which they will change. + +2. The Sunday Letter identifies the days of the year when Sundays +occur. After every date in the Calendar a letter appears--from [A] to +[g]. Thus, if January 1 is a Sunday, the Sunday Letter for the Year is +[A], and every date in the Calendar marked by [A] is a Sunday. If +January 2 is a Sunday, then every date marked with [b] is a Sunday, and +so on through the seven letters. + +In Leap Years, however, the Sunday Letter changes on the first day of +March. In such years, when [A] is the Sunday Letter, this applies only +to Sundays in January and February, and [g] is the Sunday Letter for the +rest of the year. Or if [d] is the Sunday Letter, then [c] is the +Sunday Letter on and after March 1. + + + + +The Golden Number of any year is calculated as follows: Take the number +of the year, add 1, and then divide the sum by 19. The remainder, if +any, is the Golden Number. If nothing remains, then 19 is the Golden +Number. + + + + +The following Table provides ready reference to the Sunday Letter of any +year between A.D. 1900 and A.D. 2099. It will be found on the line of +the hundredth year above the column that contains the remaining digits +of the year. But in Leap Years the Letter above the number marked with +an asterisk is the Sunday Letter for January and February, and the +Letter over the number not so marked is the Sunday Letter for the rest +of the year. + + + +Hundred Years: + +1900: + + , , g, , f, , e, , d, , c, , b, , A + +2000: + + b, , A, , g, , f, , e, , d, , c, , b + +Years in excess of Hundreds: + +00,*,00, ,01, ,02, ,03, ,04,*,04, ,05, + + ,06, ,07, ,08,*,08, ,09, ,10, ,11, + + ,12,*,12, ,13, ,14, ,15, ,16,*,16, + + ,17, ,18, ,19, ,20,*,20, ,21, ,22, + + ,23, ,24,*,24, ,25, ,26, ,27, ,28,* + + ,28, ,29, ,30, ,31, ,32,*,32, ,33, + + ,34, ,35, ,36,*,36, ,37, ,38, ,39, + + ,40,*,40, ,41, ,42, ,43, ,44,*,44, + + ,45, ,46, ,47, ,48,*,48, ,49, ,50, + + ,51, ,52,*,52, ,53, ,54, ,55, ,56,* + + ,56, ,57, ,58, ,59, ,60,*,60, ,61, + + ,62, ,63, ,64,*,64, ,65, ,66, ,67, + + ,68,*,68, ,69, ,70, ,71, ,72,*,72, + + ,73, ,74, ,75, ,76,*,76, ,77, ,78, + + ,79, ,80,*,80, ,81, ,82, ,83, ,84,* + + ,84, ,85, ,86, ,87, ,88,*,88, ,89, + + ,90, ,91, ,92,*,92, ,93, ,94, ,95, + + ,96,*,96, ,97, ,98, ,99, , , , , + + + + +When one has both tho Golden Number and the Sunday Letter for any +particular year, then the date of Easter Day may be found in the +Calendar, pages 21 and 22, as follows: + + 1. The Golden Number prefixed to a day in the month of March or April +in the Calendar marks the date of the full moon in that year. + + 2. Easter Day will be the next date bearing the Sunday Letter of that +year. But when the Golden Number of a given year and the Sunday Letter +of that year occur on the same date, then Easter day is one week later. +(For example, if the Golden Number is 19--which appears in the Calendar +prefixed to March 27--and the Sunday Letter is [d], then Easter Day in +that year will fall on March 29. If the Golden Number is 10 and the +Sunday Letter is [A], then Easter Day will fall on April 9. But if the +Golden Number is 19 and the Sunday Letter is [b], then Easter Day will +be one week later, namely April 3.) + + + + + + +Golden Number, Year, Easter Day + + 1, 1900, , April 15 + + 2, 1901, , April 7 + + 3, 1902, , March 30 + + 4, 1903, , April 12 + + 5, 1904,*, April 3 + + 6, 1905, , April 23 + + 7, 1906, , April 15 + + 8, 1907, , March 31 + + 9, 1908,*, April 19 + +10, 1909, , April 11 + +11, 1910, , March 27 + +12, 1911, , April 16 + +13, 1912,*, April 7 + +14, 1913, , March 23 + +15, 1914, , April 12 + +16, 1915, , April 4 + +17, 1916,*, April 23 + +18, 1917, , April 8 + +19, 1918, , March 31 + + 1, 1919, , April 20 + + 2, 1920,*, April 4 + + 3, 1921, , March 27 + + 4, 1922, , April 16 + + 5, 1923, , April 1 + + 6, 1924,*, April 20 + + 7, 1925, , April 12 + + 8, 1926, , April 4 + + 9, 1927, , April 17 + +10, 1928,*, April 8 + +11, 1929, , March 31 + +12, 1930, , April 20 + +13, 1931, , April 5 + +14, 1932,*, March 27 + +15, 1933, , April 16 + +16, 1934, , April 1 + +17, 1935, , April 21 + +18, 1936,*, April 12 + +19, 1937, , March 28 + + 1, 1938, , April 17 + + 2, 1939, , April 9 + + 3, 1940,*, March 24 + + 4, 1941, , April 13 + + 5, 1942, , April 5 + + 6, 1943, , April 25 + + 7, 1944,*, April 9 + + 8, 1945, , April 1 + + 9, 1946, , April 21 + +10, 1947, , April 6 + +11, 1948,*, March 28 + +12, 1949, , April 17 + +13, 1950, , April 9 + +14, 1951, , March 25 + +15, 1952,*, April 13 + +16, 1953, , April 5 + +17, 1954, , April 18 + +18, 1955, , April 10 + +19, 1956,*, April 1 + + 1, 1957, , April 21 + + 2, 1958, , April 6 + + 3, 1959, , March 29 + + 4, 1960,*, April 17 + + 5, 1961, , April 2 + + 6, 1962, , April 22 + + 7, 1963, , April 14 + + 8, 1964,*, March 29 + + 9, 1965, , April 18 + +10, 1966, , April 10 + +11, 1967, , March 26 + +12, 1968,*, April 14 + +13, 1969, , April 6 + +14, 1970, , March 29 + +15, 1971, , April 11 + +16, 1972,*, April 2 + +17, 1973, , April 22 + +18, 1974, , April 14 + +19, 1975, , March 30 + + 1, 1976,*, April 18 + + 2, 1977, , April 10 + + 3, 1978, , March 26 + + 4, 1979, , April 15 + + 5, 1980,*, April 6 + + 6, 1981, , April 19 + + 7, 1982, , April 11 + + 8, 1983, , April 3 + + 9, 1984,*, April 22 + +10, 1985, , April 7 + +11, 1986, , March 30 + +12, 1987, , April 19 + +13, 1988,*, April 3 + +14, 1989, , March 26 + +15, 1990, , April 15 + +16, 1991, , March 31 + +17, 1992,*, April 19 + +18, 1993, , April 11 + +19, 1994, , April 3 + + 1, 1995, , April 16 + + 2, 1996,*, April 7 + + 3, 1997, , March 30 + + 4, 1998, , April 12 + + 5, 1999, , April 4 + + 6, 2000,*, April 23 + + 7, 2001, , April 15 + + 8, 2002, , March 31 + + 9, 2003, , April 20 + +10, 2004,*, April 11 + +11, 2005, , March 27 + +12, 2006, , April 16 + +13, 2007, , April 8 + +14, 2008,*, March 23 + +15, 2009, , April 12 + +16, 2010, , April 4 + +17, 2011, , April 24 + +18, 2012,*, April 8 + +19, 2013, , March 31 + + 1, 2014, , April 20 + + 2, 2015, , April 5 + + 3, 2016,*, March 27 + + 4, 2017, , April 16 + + 5, 2018, , April 1 + + 6, 2019, , April 21 + + 7, 2020,*, April 12 + + 8, 2021, , April 4 + + 9, 2022, , April 17 + +10, 2023, , April 9 + +11, 2024,*, March 31 + +12, 2025, , April 20 + +13, 2026, , April 5 + +14, 2027, , March 28 + +15, 2028,*, April 16 + +16, 2029, , April 1 + +17, 2030, , April 21 + +18, 2031, , April 13 + +19, 2032,*, March 28 + + 1, 2033, , April 17 + + 2, 2034, , April 9 + + 3, 2035, , March 25 + + 4, 2036,*, April 13 + + 5, 2037, , April 5 + + 6, 2038, , April 25 + + 7, 2039, , April 10 + + 8, 2040,*, April 1 + + 9, 2041, , April 21 + +10, 2042, , April 6 + +11, 2043, , March 29 + +12, 2044,*, April 17 + +13, 2045, , April 9 + +14, 2046, , March 25 + +15, 2047, , April 14 + +16, 2048,*, April 5 + +17, 2049, , April 18 + +18, 2050, , April 10 + +19, 2051, , April 2 + + 1, 2052,*, April 21 + + 2, 2053, , April 6 + + 3, 2054, , March 29 + + 4, 2055, , April 18 + + 5, 2056,*, April 2 + + 6, 2057, , April 22 + + 7, 2058, , April 14 + + 8, 2059, , March 30 + + 9, 2060,*, April 18 + +10, 2061, , April 10 + +11, 2062, , March 26 + +12, 2063, , April 15 + +13, 2064,*, April 6 + +14, 2065, , March 29 + +15, 2066, , April 11 + +16, 2067, , April 3 + +17, 2068,*, April 22 + +18, 2069, , April 14 + +19, 2070, , March 30 + + 1, 2071, , April 19 + + 2, 2072,*, April 10 + + 3, 2073, , March 26 + + 4, 2074, , April 15 + + 5, 2075, , April 7 + + 6, 2076,*, April 19 + + 7, 2077, , April 11 + + 8, 2078, , April 3 + + 9, 2079, , April 23 + +10, 2080,*, April 7 + +11, 2081, , March 30 + +12, 2082, , April 19 + +13, 2083, , April 4 + +14, 2084,*, March 26 + +15, 2085, , April 15 + +16, 2086, , March 31 + +17, 2087, , April 20 + +18, 2088,*, April 11 + +19, 2089, , April 3 + + + ** The years marked with an asterisk are Leap Years. + + + + + +Easter Day, Sundays after Epiphany[*], Ash Wednesday[+], Ascension Day, + Pentecost, Numbered Proper of 2 Pentecost[++], Advent Sunday + + [*] In Leap Years, the number of Sundays after Epiphany will be the +same as if Easter Day were one day later than in the above Table. + + [+] In Leap Years, the date of Ash Wednesday will be one day later in +the month of February than in the above Table. + + [++] Indicates the numbered Proper to be used on the Sunday after +Trinity Sunday. Subsequently, the Propers are used consecutively. + + +March 22: 4, Feb. 4 , April 30, May 10 , 3, November 29 + +March 23: 4, Feb. 5 , May 1 , May 11 , 3, November 30 + +March 24: 5, Feb. 6 , May 2 , May 12 , 3, December 1 + +March 25: 5, Feb. 7 , May 3 , May 13 , 3, December 2 + +March 26: 5, Feb. 8 , May 4 , May 14 , 3, December 3 + +March 27: 5, Feb. 9 , May 5 , May 15 , 4, November 27 + +March 28: 5, Feb. 10 , May 6 , May 16 , 4, November 28 + +March 29: 5, Feb. 11 , May 7 , May 17 , 4, November 29 + +March 30: 5, Feb. 12 , May 8 , May 18 , 4, November 30 + +March 31: 5, Feb. 13 , May 9 , May 19 , 4, December 1 + +April 1 : 6, Feb. 14 , May 10 , May 20 , 4, December 2 + +April 2 : 6, Feb. 15 , May 11 , May 21 , 5, December 3 + +April 3 : 6, Feb. 16 , May 12 , May 22 , 5, November 27 + +April 4 : 6, Feb. 17 , May 13 , May 23 , 5, November 28 + +April 5 : 6, Feb. 18 , May 14 , May 24 , 5, November 29 + +April 6 : 6, Feb. 19 , May 15 , May 25 , 5, November 30 + +April 7 : 6, Feb. 20 , May 16 , May 26 , 5, December 1 + +April 8 : 7, Feb. 21 , May 17 , May 27 , 5, December 2 + +April 9 : 7, Feb. 22 , May 18 , May 28 , 5, December 3 + +April 10: 7, Feb. 23 , May 19 , May 29 , 6, November 27 + +April 11: 7, Feb. 24 , May 20 , May 30 , 6, November 28 + +April 12: 7, Feb. 25 , May 21 , May 31 , 6, November 29 + +April 13: 7, Feb. 26 , May 22 , June 1 , 6, November 30 + +April 14: 7, Feb. 27 , May 23 , June 2 , 6, December 1 + +April 15: 8, Feb. 28 , May 24 , June 3 , 6, December 2 + +April 16: 8, March 1 , May 25 , June 4 , 6, December 3 + +April 17: 8, March 2 , May 26 , June 5 , 7, November 27 + +April 18: 8, March 3 , May 27 , June 6 , 7, November 28 + +April 19: 8, March 4 , May 28 , June 7 , 7, November 29 + +April 20: 8, March 5 , May 29 , June 8 , 7, November 30 + +April 21: 8, March 6 , May 30 , June 9 , 7, December 1 + +April 22: 9, March 7 , May 31 , June 10, 7, December 2 + +April 23: 9, March 8 , June 1 , June 11, 7, December 3 + +April 24: 9, March 9 , June 2 , June 12, 8, November 27 + +April 25: 9, March 10, June 3 , June 13, 8, November 28 + + + + + + + +*Concerning the Lectionary* + +*The Lectionary for Sundays is arranged in a three-year cycle, in which +Year A always begins on the First Sunday of Advent in years evenly +divisible by three. (For example, 1977 divided by 3 is 659 with no +remainder. Year A, therefore, begins on Advent Sunday of that year.)* + +*The Psalms and Lessons appointed for the Sundays and for other major +Holy Days are intended for use at all public services on such days, +except when the same congregation attends two or more services. Thus, +the same Lessons are to be read at the principal morning service, +whether the Liturgy of the Word takes the form given in the Holy +Eucharist, or that of the Daily Office.* + +*When the same congregation is present for Morning or Evening Prayer, in +addition to the Eucharist, the Lessons at the Office may be selected +from one of the other years of the three-year Sunday cycle, or from the +Lectionary for the Daily Office. The Psalms at such Offices are +normally those appointed in the Office Lectionary; but, when desired, +the Psalm cited in the selected Sunday Proper may be used instead.* + +*In this Lectionary, the selections from the Psalter are frequently +cited in a longer and shorter version, usually from the same Psalm. The +longer version is particularly appropriate for use at the Office, the +shorter version when the Psalm is sung between the Lessons at the +Eucharist. The selections may be further lengthened or shortened at +discretion.* + +*When an alternative Lesson is cited, it is sometimes identical with a +Lesson appointed for the same day in the Daily Office Lectionary.* + +*In the opening verses of Lessons, the Reader should omit initial +conjunctions which refer only to what has preceded, substitute nouns for +pronouns when the referent is not otherwise clear, or else prefix to the +Reading some such introduction as, "&N. said (to &N.)."* + +*Any Reading may be lengthened at discretion. Suggested lengthenings +are shown in parentheses.* + + + + + + + + + +First Sunday of Advent: + 122; Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 24:37-44 + +Second Sunday of Advent: + 72 *or* 72:1-8; Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12 + +Third Sunday of Advent: + 146 *or* 146:4-9; Isaiah 35:1-10; James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11 + +Fourth Sunday of Advent: + 24 *or* 24:1-7; Isaiah 7:10-17; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25 + +Christmas Day I: + 96 *or* 96:14,11-12; Isaiah 9:2-4,6-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14(15- +20) + +Christmas Day II: + 97 *or* 97:1-4,11-12; Isaiah 62:6-7,10-12; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:(1- +14)15-20 + + + +Christmas Day III: + 98 *or* 98:1-6; Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-12, John 1:1-14 + +First Sunday after Christmas: + 147 *or* 147:13-21; Isaiah 61:10--62:3; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; +John 1:1-18 + +Holy Name-=January 1= + 8; Exodus 34:1-8; Romans 1:1-7; *or* Philippians 2:9-13; Luke 2:15-21 + +Second Sunday after Christmas: + 84 *or* 84:1-8; Jeremiah 31:7-14; Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a; Matthew +2:13-15,19-23 *or* Luke 2:41-52 *or* Matthew 2:1-12 + +The Epiphany-=January 6= + 72 *or* 72:1-2,10-17; Isaiah 60:1-6,9; Ephesians3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12 + +First Sunday after Epiphany: + 89:1-29 *or* 89:20-29; Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-38; Matthew 3:13-17 + +Second Sunday after Epiphany: + 40:1-10: Isaiah 49:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-41 + +Third Sunday after Epiphany: + 139:1-17 *or* 139:1-11; Amos 3:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:10-17; Matthew + 4:12-23 + + + +Fourth Sunday after Epiphany: + 37:1-18 *or* 37:1-6; Micah 6:1-8; 1 Corinthians 1:(18-25)26-31; +Matthew 5:1-12 + +Fifth Sunday after Epiphany: + 27 *or* 27:1-7; Habakkuk 3:1-6,17-19; 1 Corinthians 2:1-11; Matthew +5:13-20 + +Sixth Sunday after Epiphany: + 119:1-16 *or* 119:9-16; Ecclesiasticus 15:11-20; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; +Matthew 5:21-24,27-30,33-37 + +Seventh Sunday after Epiphany: + 71 *or* 71:16-24; Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11,16-23; +Matthew 5:38-48 + +Eighth Sunday after Epiphany: + 62 *or* 62:6-14; Isaiah 49:8-18; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5(6-7)8-13; +Matthew 6:24-34 + +Last Sunday after Epiphany: + 99; Exodus 24:12(13-14)15-18; Philippians 3:7-14; Matthew 17:1-9 + +Ash Wednesday: + 103 *or* 103:8-14; Joel 2:1-2,12-17 *or* Isaiah 58:1-12; +2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10; Matthew 6:1-6,16-21 + +First Sunday in Lent: + 51 *or* 51:1-13; Genesis 2:4b-9,15-17,25--3:7; Romans 5:12-19(20-21); +Matthew 4:1-11 + +Second Sunday in Lent: + 33:12-22; Genesis 12:1-8; Romans 4:1-5(6-12)13-17; John 3:1-17 + + + +Third Sunday in Lent: + 95 *or* 95:6-11; Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-26(27-38)39-42 + +Fourth Sunday in Lent: + 23; 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Ephesians 5:(1-7)8-14; John 9:1-13(14-27)28-38 + +Fifth Sunday in Lent: + 130; Ezekiel 37:1-3(4-10)11-14; Romans 6:16-23; John 11:(1-17)18-44 + +Palm Sunday: + Liturgy of the Palms: 118:19-29; Matthew 21:1-11 + + Liturgy of the Word: 22:1-21 *or* 22:1-11; Isaiah 45:21-25 *or* +Isaiah 52:13--53:12; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew (26:36-75)27:1-54(55-66) + +Monday in Holy Week: + 36:5-10; Isaiah 42:1-9; Hebrews 11:39--12:3; John 12:1-11 *or* + Mark 14:3-9 + +Tuesday in Holy Week: + 71:1-12; Isaiah 49:1-6; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; John 12:37-38,42-50 +*or* Mark 11:15-19 + +Wednesday in Holy Week: + 69:7-15,22-23; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Hebrews 9:11-15,24-28; John 13:21-35 +*or* Matthew 26:1-5,14-25 + + + +Maundy Thursday: + 78:14-20,23-25; Exodus 12:1-14a; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26(27-32); +John 13:1-15 *or* Luke 22:14-30 + +Good Friday: + 22:1-21 *or* 22:1-11 *or* 40:1-14 *or* 69:1-23; Isaiah 52:13--53:12 +*or* Genesis 22:1-18 *or* Wisdom 2:1,12-24; Hebrews 10:1-25; +John (18:1-40) 19:1-37 + +Holy Saturday: + 130 *or* 31:1-5; Job 14:1-14; 1 Peter 4:1-8; Matthew 27:57-66 *or* +John 19:38-42 + +Easter Day: + The Great Vigil: *See pages 288-291.* + + Early Service: *Use one of the Old Testament Lessons from the Vigil + with* + 114; Romans 6:3-11; Matthew 28:1-10 + + Principal Service: + 118:14-29 *or* 118:14-17,22-24; Acts 10:34-43 *or* +Exodus 14:10-14,21-25; 15:20-21; Colossians 3:1-4 *or* Acts 10:34-43; +John 20:1-10(11-18) *or* Matthew 28:1-10 + + Evening Service: + 114 *or* 136 *or* 118:14-17,22-24; Acts 5:29a,30-32 *or* Daniel 12:1-3; +1 Corinthians 5:6b-8 *or* Acts 5:29a,30-32; Luke 24:13-35 + + + +Monday in Easter Week: + 16:8-11 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 2:14-22-32; Matthew 28:9-15 + +Tuesday in Easter Week: + 33:18-22 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 2:36-41; John 20:11-18 + +Wednesday in Easter Week: + 105:1-8 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 3:1-10; Luke 24:13-35 + +Thursday in Easter Week: + 8 *or* 114 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 3:11-26; Luke 24:36b-48 + +Friday in Easter Week: + 116:1-8 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 4:1-12; John 21:1-14 + +Saturday in Easter Week: + 118:14-18 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 4:13-21; Mark 16:9-15,20 + +Second Sunday in Easter: + 111 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 2:14a,22-32 *or* Genesis 8:6-16; 9:8-16; +1 Peter 1:3-9 *or* Acts 2:14a,22-32; John 20:19-31 + +Third Sunday in Easter: + 116 *or* 116:10-17; Acts 2:14a,36-47 *or* Isaiah 43:1-12; +1 Peter 1:17-23 *or* Acts 2:14a,36-47; Luke 24:13-35 + + + +Fourth Sunday of Easter: + 23; Acts 6:1-9; 7:2a,51-60 *or* Nehemiah 9:6-15; 1 Peter 2:19-25 +*or* Acts 6:1-9; 7:2a,51-60; John 10:1-10 + +Fifth Sunday of Easter: + 66:1-11 *or* 66:1-8; Acts 17:1-15 *or* Deuteronomy 6:20-25; +1 Peter 2:1-10 *or* Acts 17:1-15; John 14:1-14 + +Sixth Sunday of Easter: + 148 *or* 148:7-14; Acts 17:22-31 *or* Isaiah 41:17-20; +1 Peter 3:8-18 *or* Acts 17:22-31; John 15:1-8 + +Ascension Day: + 47 *or* 110:1-5; Acts 1:1-11 *or* Daniel 7:9-14; Ephesians 1:15-23 +*or* Acts 1:1-11; Luke 24:49-53 *or* Mark 16:9-15,19-20 + +Seventh Sunday of Easter: + 68:1-20 *or* 47; Acts 1:(1-7)8-14 *or* Ezekiel 39:21-29; +1 Peter 4:12-19 *or* Acts 1:(1-7)8-14; John 17:1-11 + + + +Day of Pentecost: + Early or Vigil Service: + 33:12-22, Canticle 2 or 13, 130, Canticle 9, 104:25-32; Genesis 11:1-9 +*or* Exodus 19:1-9,16-20a;20:18-20 *or* Ezekiel 37:1-14 *or* +Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:1-11 *or* Romans 8:14-17,22-27; John 7:37-39a + + Principal Service: + 104:25-37 *or* 104:25-32 *or* 33:12-15,18-22; +Acts 2:1-11 *or* Ezekiel 11:17-20; 1 Corinthians 12:4-13 *or* +Acts 2:1-11; John 20:19-23 *or* John 14:8-17 + +*On the weekdays which follow, the numbered Proper which corresponds +most closely to the date of Pentecost in that year is used. See page +158.* + +Trinity Sunday: + 150 *or* Canticle 2 or 13; Genesis1:1--2:3; +2 Corinthians 13:(5-10)11-14; Matthew 28:16-20 + +*On the weekdays which follow, the numbered Proper which corresponds +most closely to the date of Trinity Sunday in that year is used.* + + + + +*Directions for the use of the Propers which follow are on page 158.* + +Proper 1: =Closest to May 11= + 119:1-16 *or* 119:9-16; Ecclesiasticus 15:11-20; 1 Corinthians 3:1-9; +Matthew 5:21-24,27-30,33-37 + + + +Proper 2: =Closest to May 18= + 71 *or* 71:16-24; Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11,16-23; +Matthew 5:38-48 + +Proper 3: =Closest to May 25= + 62 *or* 62:6-14; Isaiah 49:8-18; 1 Corinthians 4:1-5(6-7)8-13; +Matthew 6:24-34 + +Proper 4: =Closest to June 1= + 31 *or* 31:1-5,19-24; Deuteronomy 11:18-21,26-28; Romans 3:21-25a,28; +Matthew 7:21-27 + +Proper 5: =Closest to June 8= + 50 *or* 50:7-15; Hosea 5:15--6:6; Romans 4:13-18; Matthew 9:9-13 + +Proper 6: =Closest to June 15= + 100; Exodus 19:2-8a; Romans 5:6-11; Matthew 9:35--10:8(9-15) + +Proper 7: =Closest to June 22= + 69:1-18 *or* 69:7-10,16-18; Jeremiah 20:7-13; Romans 5:15b-19; +Matthew 10:(16-23)24-33 + +Proper 8: =Closest to June 29= + 89:1-18 *or* 89:1-4,15-18; Isaiah 2:10-17; Romans 6:3-11; +Matthew 10:34-42 + +Proper 9: =Closest to July 6= + 145 *or* 145:8-14; Zechariah 9:9-12; Romans 7:21--8:6; Matthew 11:25-30 + +Proper 10: =Closest to July 13= + 65 *or* 65:9-14; Isaiah 55:1-5,10-13; Romans 8:9-17; +Matthew 13:1-9,18-23 + + + +Proper 11: =Closest to July 20= + 86 *or* 86:11-17; Wisdom 12:13,16-19; Romans 8:18-25; +Matthew 13:24-30,36-43 + +Proper 12: =Closest to July 27= + 119:121-136 *or* 119:129-136; 1 Kings 3:5-12; Romans 8:26-34; +Matthew 13:31-33,44-49a + +Proper 13: =Closest to August 3= + 78:1-29 *or* 78:14-20,23-25; Nehemiah 9:16-20; Romans 8:35-39; +Matthew 14:13-21 + +Proper 14: =Closest to August 10= + 29; Jonah 2:1-9; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:22-33 + +Proper 15: =Closest to August 17= + 67; Isaiah 56:1(2-5)6-7; Romans 11:13-15,29-32; Matthew 15:21-28 + +Proper 16: =Closest to August 24= + 138; Isaiah 51:1-6; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 16:13-20 + +Proper 17: =Closest to August 31= + 26 *or* 26:1-8; Jeremiah 15:15-21; Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:21-27 + +Proper 18: =Closest to September 7= + 119:33-48 *or* 119:33-40; Ezekiel 33:(1-6)7-11; Romans 12:9-21; +Matthew 18:15-20 + +Proper 19: =Closest to September 14= + 103 *or* 103:8-13; Ecclesiasticus 27:30--28:7; Romans 14:5-12; +Matthew 18:21-35 + + + +Proper 20: =Closest to September 21= + 145 *or* 145:1-8; Jonah 3:10--4:11; Philippians 1:21-27; +Matthew 20:1-16 + +Proper 21: =Closest to September 28= + 25:1-14 *or* 25:3-9; Ezekiel 18:1-4,25-32; Philippians 2:1-13; +Matthew 21:28-32 + +Proper 22: =Closest to October 5= + 80 *or* 80:7-14; Isaiah 5:1-7; Philippians 3:14-21; Matthew 21:33-43 + +Proper 23: =Closest to October 12= + 23; Isaiah 25:1-9; Philippians 4:4-13; Matthew 22:1-14 + +Proper 24: =Closest to October 19= + 96 *or* 96:1-9; Isaiah 45:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; +Matthew 22:15-22 + +Proper 25: =Closest to October 26= + 1; Exodus 22:21-27; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Matthew 22:34-46 + +Proper 26: =Closest to November 2= + 43; Micah 3:5-12; 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13,17-20; Matthew 23:1-12 + +Proper 27: =Closest to November 9= + 70; Amos 5:18-24; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13 + +Proper 28: =Closest to November 16= + 90 *or* 90:1-8,12; Zephaniah 1:7,12-18; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-10; +Matthew 25:14-15,19-29 + + + +Proper 29: =Closest to November 23= + 95:1-7; Ezekiel 34:11-17; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28; Matthew 25:31-46 + + + + + +First Sunday of Advent: + 80 *or* 80:1-7; Isaiah 64:1-9a; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; +Mark 13:(24-32)33-37 + +Second Sunday of Advent: + 85 *or* 85:7-13; Isaiah 40:1-11; 2 Peter 3:8-15a,18; Mark 1:1-8 + +Third Sunday of Advent: + 126 *or* Canticle 3 or 15; Isaiah 65:17-25; +1 Thessalonians 5:(12-15)16-28; John 1:6-8,19-28 *or* John 3:23-30 + +Fourth Sunday of Advent: + 132 *or 132:8-15; 2 Samuel 7:4,8-16; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38 + +Christmas Day I: + 96 *or* 96:1-4,11-12; Isaiah 9:2-4,6-7; Titus 2:11-14; +Luke 2:1-14(15-20) + + + +Christmas Day II: + 97 *or* 97:1-4,11-12; Isaiah 62:6-7,10-12; Titus 3:4-7; +Luke 2:(1-14)15-20 + +Christmas Day III: + 98 *or* 98:1-6; Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-12; John 1:1-14 + +First Sunday after Christmas: + 147 *or* 147:13-21; Isaiah 61:10--62:3; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; +John 1:1-18 + +Holy Name: =January 1= + 8; Exodus 34:1-8; Romans 1:1-7; Luke 2:15-21 + +Second Sunday after Christmas: + 84 *or* 84:1-8; Jeremiah 31:7-14; Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a; +Matthew 2:13-15,19-23 *or* Luke 2:41-52 *or* Matthew 2:1-12 + +The Epiphany: =January 6= + 72 *or* 72:1-2,10-17; Isaiah 60:1-6,9; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12 + +First Sunday after Epiphany: + 89:1-29 *or* 89:20-29; Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-38; Mark 1:7-11 + +Second Sunday after Epiphany: + 63:1-8; 1 Samuel 3:1-10(11-20); 1 Corinthians 6:11b-20; John 1:43-51 + +Third Sunday after Epiphany: + 130; Jeremiah 3:21--4:2; 1 Corinthians 7:17-23; Mark 1:14-20 + + + +Fourth Sunday after Epiphany: + 111; Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 8:1b-13; Mark 1:21-28 + +Fifth Sunday after Epiphany: + 142; 2 Kings 4:(8-17)18-21(22-31)32-37; 1 Corinthians 9:16-23; +Mark 1:29-39 + +Sixth Sunday after Epiphany: + 42 *or* 42:1-7; 2 Kings 5:1-15ab; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Mark 1:40-45 + +Seventh Sunday after Epiphany: + 32 *or* 32:1-8; Isaiah 43:18-25; 2 Corinthians 1:18-22; Mark 2:1-12 + +Eighth Sunday after Epiphany: + 103 *or* 103:1-6; Hosea 2:14-23; 2 Corinthians 3:(4-11)17--4:2; +Mark 2:18-22 + +Last Sunday after Epiphany: + 27 *or* 27:5-11; 1 Kings 19:9-18; 2 Peter 1:16-19(20-21); Mark 9:2-9 + +Ash Wednesday: + 103 *or* 103:8-14; Joel 2:1-2,12-17 *or* Isaiah 58:1-12; + 2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10; Matthew 6:1-6,16-21 + +First Sunday in Lent: + 25 *or* 25:3-9; Genesis 9:8-17; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-13 + +Second Sunday in Lent: + 16 *or 16:5-11; Genesis 22:1-14; Romans 8:31-39; Mark 8:31-38 + + + +Third Sunday in Lent: + 19:7-14; Exodus 20:1-17; Romans 7:13-25; John 2:13-22 + +Fourth Sunday in Lent: + 122; 2 Chronicles 36:14-23; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 6:4-15 + +Fifth Sunday in Lent: + 51 *or* 51:11-16; Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:(1-4)5-10; John 12:20-33 + +Palm Sunday: + Liturgy of the Palms: + 118:19-29; Mark 11:1-11a + + Liturgy of the Word: + 22:1-21 *or* 22:1-11; Isaiah 45:21-25 *or* +Isaiah 52:13--53:12; Philippians 2:5-11; Mark (14:32-72)15:1-39(40-47) + +Monday in Holy Week: + 36:5-10; Isaiah 42:1-9; Hebrews 11:39--12:3; John 12:1-11 *or* +Mark 14:3-9 + +Tuesday in Holy Week: + 71:1-12; Isaiah 49:1-6; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; John 12:37-38,42-50 +*or* Mark 11:15-19 + +Wednesday in Holy Week: + 69:7-15,22-23; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Hebrews 9:11-15,24-28; John 13:21-35 +*or* Matthew 26:1-5,14-25 + + + +Maundy Thursday: + 78:14-20,23-25; Exodus 12:1-14a; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26(27-32); +John 13:1-15 *or* Luke 22:14-30 + +Good Friday: + 22:1-21 *or* 22:1-11 *or* 40:1-14 *or* 69:1-23; Isaiah 52:13--53:12 *or* +Genesis 22:1-18 *or* Wisdom 2:1,12-24; Hebrews 10:1-25; +John (18:1-40)19:1-37 + +Holy Saturday: + 130 *or* 31:1-5; Job 14:1-14; 1 Peter 4:1-8; Matthew 27:57-66 *or* +John 19:38-42 + +Easter Day: + The Great Vigil: *See pages 288-291.* + + Early Service: *Use one of the Old Testament Lessons from the Vigil +with* + 114; Romans 6:3-11; Matthew 28:1-10 + + Principal Service: + 118:14-29 *or* 118:14-17,22-24; Acts 10:34-43 *or* Isaiah 25:6-9; +Colossians 3:1-4 *or* Acts 10:34-43; Mark 16:1-8 + + Evening Service: + 114 *or* 136 *or* 118:14-17,22-24; Acts 5:29a,30-32 *or* Daniel 12:1-3; +1 Corinthians 5:6b-8 *or* Acts 5:29a,30-32; Luke 24:13-35 + + + +Monday in Easter Week: + 16:8-11 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 2:14,22-32; Matthew 28:9-15 + +Tuesday in Easter Week: + 33:18-22 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 2:36-41; John 20:11-18 + +Wednesday in Easter Week: + 105:1-8 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 3:1-10; Luke 24:13-35 + +Thursday in Easter Week: + 8 *or* 114 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 3:11-26; Luke 24:36b-48 + +Friday in Easter Week: + 116:1-8 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 4:1-12; John 21:1-14 + + Saturday in Easter Week: + 118:14-18 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 4:13-21; Mark 16:9-15,20 + +Second Sunday of Easter: + 111 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 3:12a,13-15,17-26 *or* Isaiah 26:2-9,19; + 1 John 5:1-6 *or* Acts 3:12a,13-15,17-26; John 20:19-31 + +Third Sunday of Easter: + 98 *or* 98:1-5; Acts 4:5-12 *or* Micah 4:1-5; 1 John 1:1--2:2 *or* +Acts 4:5-12; Luke 24:36b-48 + +Fourth Sunday of Easter: + 23 *or* 100; Acts 4:(23-31)32-37 *or* Ezekiel 34:1-10; 1 John 3:1-8 +*or* Acts 4:(23-31)32-37; John 10:11-16 + + + +Fifth Sunday of Easter: + 66:1-11 *or* 66:1-8; Acts 8:26-40 *or* Deuteronomy 4:32-40; + 1 John 3:(14-17)18-24 *or* Acts 8:26-40; John 14:15-21 + +Sixth Sunday of Easter: + 33 *or* 33:1-8,18-22; Acts 11:19-30 *or* Isaiah 45:11-13,18-19; + 1 John 4:7-21 *or* Acts 11:19-30; John 15:9-17 + +Ascension Day: + 47 *or* 110:1-5; Acts 1:1-11 *or* Ezekiel 1:3-5a,15-22,26-28; +Ephesians 1:15-23 *or* Acts 1:1-11; Luke 24:49-53 *or* Mark 16:9-15,19-20 + +Seventh Sunday of Easter: + 68:1-20 *or* 47; Acts 1:15-26 *or* Exodus 28:1-4,9-10,29-30; +1 John 5:9-15 *or* Acts 1:15-26; John 17:11b-19 + +Day of Pentecost: + Early or Vigil Service: + 33:12-22, Canticle 2 or 13, 130, Canticle 9, 104:25-32; Genesis 11:1-9 +*or* Exodus 19:1-9,16-20a;20:18-20 *or* Ezekiel 37:1-14 *or* Joel 2:18-32; +Acts 2:1-11 *or* Romans 8:14-17,22-27; John 7:37-39a + + + + Principal Service: + 104:25-37 *or* 104:25-32 *or* 33:12-15,18-22; Acts 2:1-11 *or* +Isaiah 44:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-13 *or* Acts 2:1-11; John 20:19-23 +*or* John 14:8-17 + +*On the weekdays which follow, the numbered Proper which corresponds +most closely to the date of Pentecost in that year is used. See page +158.* + +Trinity Sunday: + 93 *or* Canticle 2 *or* 13; Exodus 3:1-6; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-16 + +*On the weekdays which follow, the numbered Proper which corresponds +most closely to the date of Trinity Sunday in that year is used.* + + + + +*Directions for the use of the Propers which follow are on page 158.* + + +Proper 1: =Closest to May 11= + 42 *or* 42:1-7; 2 Kings 5:1-15ab; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Mark 1:40-45 + +Proper 2: =Closest to May 18= + 32 *or* 32:1-8; Isaiah 43:18-25; 2 Corinthians 1:18-22; Mark 2:1-12 + +Proper 3: =Closest to May 25= + 103 *or* 103:1-6; Hosea 2:14-23; 2 Corinthians 3:(4-11)17--4:2; +Mark 2:18-22 + + + +Proper 4: =Closest to June 1= + 81 *or* 81:1-10; Deuteronomy 5:6-21; 2 Corinthians 4:5-12; Mark 2:23-28 + +Proper 5: =Closest to June 8= + 130; Genesis 3:(1-7)8-21; 2 Corinthians 4:13-18; Mark 3:20-35 + +Proper 6: =Closest to June 15= + 92 *or* 92:1-4,11-14; Ezekiel 31:1-6,10-14; 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; +Mark 4:26-34 + +Proper 7: =Closest to June 22= + 107:1-32 *or* 107:1-3,23-32; Job 38:1-11,16-18; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; +Mark 4:35-41; (5:1-20) + +Proper 8: =Closest to June 29= + 112; Deuteronomy 15:7-11; 2 Corinthians 8:1-9,13-15; Mark 5:22-24,35b-43 + +Proper 9: =Closest to July 6= + 123; Ezekiel 2:1-7; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:1-6 + +Proper 10: =Closest to July 13= + 85 *or* 85:7-13; Amos 7:7-15; Ephesians 1:1-14; Mark 6:7-13 + +Proper 11: =Closest to July 20= + 22:22-30; Isaiah 57:14b-21; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-44 + +Proper 12: =Closest to July 27= + 114; 2 Kings 2:1-15; Ephesians 4:1-7,11-16; Mark 6:45-52 + + + +Proper 13: =Closest to August 3= + 78:1-25 *or 78:14-20,23-25; Exodus 16:2-4,9-15; Ephesians 4:17-25; +John 6:24-35 + +Proper 14: =Closest to August 10= + 34 *or* 34:1-8; Deuteronomy 8:1-10; Ephesians 4:(25-29)30--5:2; + John 6:37-51 + +Proper 15: =Closest to August 17= + 147 *or* 39:9-14; Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:53-59 + +Proper 16: =Closest to August 34= + 16 *or* 34:15-22; Joshua 24:1-2a,14-25; Ephesians 5:21-33; John 6:60-69 + +Proper 17: =Closest to August 31= + 15; Deuteronomy 4:1-9; Ephesians 6:10-20; Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23 + +Proper 18: =Closest to September 7= + 146 *or* 146:4-9; Isaiah 35:4-7a; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:31-37 + +Proper 19: =Closest to September 14= + 116 *or* 116:1-8; Isaiah 50:4-9; James 2:1-5,8-10,14-18; Mark 8:27-38 +*or* Mark 9:14-29 + +Proper 20: =Closest to September 21= + 54; Wisdom 1:16--2:1(6-11)12-22; James 3:16--4:6; Mark 9:30-37 + +Proper 21: =Closest to September 28= + 19 *or* 19:7-14; Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29; James 4:7-12(13--5:6); +Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48 + + + +Proper 22: =Closest to October 5= + 8 *or* 128; Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:(1-8)9-18; Mark 10:2-9 + +Proper 23: =Closest to October 12= + 90 *or* 90:2-8,12; Amos 5:6-7,10-15; Hebrews 3:1-6; Mark 10:17-27(28-31) + +Proper 24: =Closest to October 19= + 91 *or* 91:9-16; Isaiah 53:4-12; Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:35-45 + +Proper 25: =Closest to October 26= + 13; Isaiah 59:(1-4)9-19; Hebrews 5:12--6:1,9-12; Mark 10:46-52 + +Proper 26: =Closest to November 2= + 119:1-16 *or* 119:1-8; Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Hebrews 7:23-28; Mark 12:28-34 + +Proper 27: =Closest to November 9= + 146 *or* 146:4-9; 1 Kings 17:8-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44 + +Proper 28: =Closest to November 16= + 16 *or* 16:5-11; Daniel 12:1-4a(5-13); Hebrews 10:31-39; Mark 13:14-23 + +Proper 29: =Closest to November 23= + 93; Daniel 7:9-14; Revelation 1:1-8; John 18:33-37 *or* Mark 11:1-11 + + + + + + +First Sunday of Advent: + 50 *or 50:1-6: Zechariah 14:4-9; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-31 + +Second Sunday of Advent: + 126; Baruch 5:1-9; Philippians 1:1-11; Luke 3:1-6 + +Third Sunday of Advent: + 85 *or* 85:7-13 *or* Canticle 9; Zephaniah 3:14-20; +Philippians 4:4-7(8-9); Luke 3:7-18 + +Fourth Sunday of Advent: + 80 *or* 80:1-7; Micah 5:2-4; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-49(50-56) + +Christmas Day I: + 96 *or* 96:1-4,11-12; Isaiah 9:2-3,6-7; Titus 2:11-14; +Luke 2:1-14(15-20) + +Christmas Day II: + 97 *or* 97:1-4,11-12; Isaiah 62:6-7,10-12; Titus 3:4-7; +Luke 2:(1-14)15-20 + +Christmas Day III: + 98 *or* 98:1-6; Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-12; John 1:1-14 + +First Sunday after Christmas: + 147 *or* 147:13-21; Isaiah 61:10--62:3; Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7; +John 1:1-18 + + + +Holy Name: =January 1= + 8; Exodus 34:1-8, Romans 1:1-7; Luke 2:15-21 + +Second Sunday after Christmas: + 84 *or* 84:1-8; Jeremiah 31:7-14; Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a; +Matthew 2:13-15,19-23 *or* Luke 2:41-52 *or* Matthew 2:1-12 + +The Epiphany: =January 6= + 72 *or* 72:1-2,10-17; Isaiah 60:1-6,9; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12 + +First Sunday after Epiphany: + 89:1-29 *or* 89:20-29; Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-38; Luke 3:15-16,21-22 + +Second Sunday after Epiphany: + 96 *or* 96:1-10; Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11 + +Third Sunday after Epiphany: + 113; Nehemiah 8:2-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Luke 4:14-21 + +Fourth Sunday after Epiphany: + 71:1-17 *or* 71:1-6,15-17; Jeremiah 1:4-10; 1 Corinthians 14:12b-20; +Luke 4:21-32 + +Fifth Sunday after Epiphany: + 85 *or* 85:7-13; Judges 6:11-24a; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11 + +Sixth Sunday after Epiphany: + 1; Jeremiah 17:5-10; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26 + + + +Seventh Sunday after Epiphany: + 37:1-18 *or* 37:3-10; Genesis 45:3-11,21-28; +1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50; Luke 6:27-38 + +Eighth Sunday after Epiphany: + 92 *or* 92:1-5,11-14; Jeremiah 7:1-7(8-15); 1 Corinthians 15:50-58; +Luke 6:39-49 + +Last Sunday after Epiphany: + 99; Exodus 34:29-35; 1 Corinthians 12:27--13:13; Luke 9:28-36 + +Ash Wednesday: + 103 *or* 103:8-14; Joel 2:1-2,12-17 *or* Isaiah 58:1-12; +2 Corinthians 5:20b--6:10; Matthew 6:1-6,16-21 + +First Sunday in Lent: + 91 *or* 91:9-15; Deuteronomy 26:(1-4)5-11; Romans 10:(5-8a)8b-13; +Luke 4:1-13 + +Second Sunday in Lent: + 27 *or* 27:10-18; Genesis 15:1-12,17-18; Philippians 3:17--4:1 +Luke 13:(22-30)31-35 + +Third Sunday in Lent: + 103 *or* 103:1-11; Exodus 3:1-15; 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9 + +Fourth Sunday in Lent: + 34 *or* 34:1-8; Joshua (4:19-24); 5:9-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 +Luke 15:11-32 + +Fifth Sunday in Lent: + 126; Isaiah 43:16-21; Philippians 3:8-14; Luke 20:9-19 + + + +Palm Sunday: + Liturgy of the Palms: + 118:19-29; Luke 19:29-40 + + Liturgy of the Word: + 22:1-21 *or* 22:1-11; Isaiah 45:21-25 *or* Isaiah 52:13--53:12; +Philippians 2:5-11; Luke (22:39-71) 23:1-49(50-56) + +Monday in Holy Week: + 36:5-10; Isaiah 42:1-9; Hebrews 11:39--12:3; John 12:1-11 *or* +Mark 14:3-9 + +Tuesday in Holy Week: + 71:1-12; Isaiah 49:1-6; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; John 23:37-38,42-50 *or* +Mark 11:15-19 + +Wednesday in Holy Week: + 69:7-15,22-23; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Hebrews 9:11-15,24-28; John 13:21-35 +*or* Matthew 26:1-5,14-25 + +Maundy Thursday: + 78:14-20,23-25; Exodus 12:1-14a; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26(27-32); +John 13:1-15 *or* Luke 22:14-30 + +Good Friday: + 22:1-21 *or* 22:1-11 *or* 40:1-14 *or* 69:1-23; Isaiah 52:13--53:12 +*or* Genesis 22:1-18 *or* Wisdom 2:1,12-24; Hebrews 10:1-25; +John (18:1-40) 19:1-37 + + + +Holy Saturday: + 130 *or* 31:1-5; Job 14:1-14; 1 Peter 4:1-8; Matthew 27:57-66 *or* +John 19:38-42 + +Easter Day: + The Great Vigil: *See pages 288-291* + + Early Service: *Use one of the Old Testament Lessons from the Vigil +with* + 114; Romans 6:3-11; Matthew 28:1-10 + + Principal Service: + 118:14-29 *or* 118:14-17,22-24; Acts 10:34-43 *or* Isaiah 51:9-11; +Colossians 3:1-4 *or* Acts 10:34-43; Luke 24:1-10 + + Evening Service: + 114 *or* 136 *or* 118:14-17,22-24; Acts 5:29a,30-32 *or* Daniel 12:1-3; +1 Corinthians 5:6b-8 *or* Acts 5:29a,30-32; Luke 24:13-35 + +Monday in Easter Week: + 16:8-11 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 2:14,22b-32; Matthew 28:9-15 + +Tuesday in Easter Week: + 33:18-22 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 2:36-41; John 20:11-18 + +Wednesday in Easter Week: + 105:1-8 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 3:1-10; Luke 24:13-35 + +Thursday in Easter Week: + 8 *or* 114 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 3:11-26; Luke 24:36b-48 + + + +Friday in Easter Week: + 116:1-8 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 4:1-12; John 21:1-14 + +Saturday in Easter Week: + 118:14-18 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 4:13-21; Mark 16:9-15,20 + +Second Sunday of Easter: + 111 *or* 118:19-24; Acts 5:12a,17-22,25-29 *or* Job 42:1-6; +Revelation 1:(1-8)9-19 *or* Acts 5:12a,17-22,25-29; John 20:19-31 + +Third Sunday of Easter: + 33 *or* 33:1-11; Acts 9:1-19a *or* Jeremiah 32:36-41; +Revelation 5:6-14 *or* Acts 9:1-19a; John 21:1-14 + +Fourth Sunday of Easter: + 100; Acts 13:15-16,26-33(34-39) *or* Numbers 27:12-23; +Revelation 7:9-17 *or* Acts 13:15-16,26-33(34-39); John 10:22-30 + +Fifth Sunday of Easter: + 145 *or* 145:1-9; Acts 13:44-52 *or* Leviticus 19:1-2,9-18; +Revelation 19:1,4-9 *or* Acts 13:44-52; John 13:31-35 + +Sixth Sunday of Easter: + 67; Acts 14:8-18 *or* Joel 2:21-27; Revelation 21:22--22:5 *or* +Acts 14:8-18; John 14:23-29 + + + +Ascension Day: + 47 *or* 110:1-5; Acts 1:1-11 *or* 2 Kings 2:1-15; Ephesians 1:15-23 +*or* Acts 1:1-11; Luke 24:49-53 *or* Mark 16:9-15,19-20 + +Seventh Sunday of Easter: + 68:1-20 *or* 47; Acts 16:16-34 *or* 1 Samuel 12:19-24; +Revelation 22:12-14,16-17,20 *or* Acts 16:16-34; John 17:20-26 + +Day of Pentecost: + Early or Vigil Service: + 33:12-22, Canticle 2 *or* 13; Genesis 11:1-9 +*or* Exodus 19:1-9a,16-20a; 20:18-20 *or* Ezekiel 37:1-14 *or* +Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:1-11 *or* Romans 8:14-17,22-27; John 7:37-39a + + Principal Service: + 104:24-37 *or* 104:25-32 *or* 33:12-15,18-22; Acts 2:1-11 *or* +Joel 2:28-32; 1 Corinthians 12:4-13 *or* Acts 2:1-11; John 20:19-23 +*or* John 14:8-17 + +*On the weekdays which follow, the numbered Proper which corresponds +most closely to the date of Pentecost in that year is used. See page +158.* + + + +Trinity Sunday: + 29 *or* Canticle 2 *or* 13; Isaiah 6:1-8; Revelation 4:1-11; +John 16:(5-11)12-15 + +*On the weekdays which follow, the numbered Proper which corresponds +most closely to the date of Trinity Sunday in that year is used.* + + + +*Directions for the use of the Propers which follow are on page 158.* + +Proper 1: =Closest to May 11= + 1; Jeremiah 17:5-10; 1 Corinthians 15:12-20; Luke 6:17-26 + +Proper 2: =Closest to May 18= + 37:1-18 *or* 37:3-10; Genesis 45:3-11,21-28; +1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50; Luke 6:27-38 + +Proper 3: =Closest to May 25= + 92 *or* 92:1-5,11-14; Jeremiah 7:1-7(8-15); 1 Corinthians 15:50-58; +Luke 6:39-49 + +Proper 4: =Closest to June 1= + 96 *or* 96:1-9; 1 Kings 8:22-23,27-30,41-43; Galatians 1:1-10; +Luke 7:1-10 + +Proper 5: =Closest to June 8= + 30 *or* 30:1-6,12-13; 1 Kings 17:17-24; Galatians 1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17 + +Proper 6: =Closest to June 15= + 32 *or* 32:1-8; 2 Samuel 11:26--12:10,13-15; Galatians 2:11-21; +Luke 7:36-50 + + + +Proper 7: =Closest to June 22= + 63:1-8; Zechariah 12:8-10; 13:1; Galatians 3:23-29; Luke 9:18-24 + +Proper 8: =Closest to June 29= + 16 *or* 16:5-11; 1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21; Galatians 5:1,13-25; +Luke 9:51-62 + +Proper 9: =Closest to July 6= + 66 *or* 66:1-8; Isaiah 66:10-16; Galatians 6:(1-10)14-18; +Luke 10:1-12,16-20 + +Proper 10: =Closest to July 13= + 25 *or* 25:3-9; Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37 + +Proper 11: =Closest to July 20= + 15; Genesis 18:1-10a(10b-14); Colossians 1:21-29; Luke 10:38-42 + +Proper 12: =Closest to July 27= + 138; Genesis 18:20-33; Colossians 2:6-15; Luke 11:1-13 + +Proper 13: =Closest to August 3= + 49 *or* 49:1-11; Ecclesiastes 1:12-14; 2:(1-7,11)18-23; +Colossians 3:(5-11)12-17; Luke 12:13-21 + +Proper 14: =Closest to August 10= + 33 *or* 33:12-15,18-22; Genesis 15:1-6; Hebrews 11:1-3(4-7)8-16; +Luke 12:32-40 + +Proper 15: =Closest to August 17= + 82; Jeremiah 23:23-29; Hebrews 12:1-7(8-10)11-14; Luke 12:49-56 + + + +Proper 16: =Closest to August 24= + 46; Isaiah 28:14-22; Hebrews 12:18-19,22-29; Luke 13:22-30 + +Proper 17: =Closest to August 31= + 112; Ecclesiasticus 10:(7-11)12-18; Hebrews 13:1-8; Luke 14:1,7-14 + +Proper 18: =Closest to September 7= + 1; Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Philemon 1-20; Luke 14:25-33 + +Proper 19: =Closest to September 14= + 51:1-18 *or* 51:1-11; Exodus 32:1,7-14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-10 + +Proper 20: =Closest to September 21= + 138; Amos 8:4-7(8-12); 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13 + +Proper 21: =Closest to September 28= + 146 *or* 146:4-9; Amos 6:1-7; 1 Timothy 6:11-19; Luke 16:19-31 + +Proper 22: =Closest to October 5= + 37:1-18 *or* 37:3-10; Habakkuk 1:1-6(7-11)12-13;2:1-4; +2 Timothy 1:(1-5)6-14; Luke 17:5-10 + +Proper 23: =Closest to October 12= + 113; Ruth 1:(1-7)8-19a; 2 Timothy 2:(3-7)8-15; Luke 17:11-19 + +Proper 24: =Closest to October 19= + 121; Genesis 32:3-8,22-30; 2 Timothy 3:14--4:5; Luke 18:1-8a + + + +Proper 25: =Closest to October 26= + 84 *or* 84:1-6; Jeremiah 14:(1-6)7-10,19-22; 2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18; +Luke 18:9-14 + +Proper 26: =Closest to November 2= + 32 *or* 32:1-8; Isaiah 1:10-20; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-5(6-10)11-12; +Luke 19:1-10 + +Proper 27: =Closest to November 9= + 17 *or* 17:1-8; Job 19:23-27a; 2 Thessalonians 2:13--3:5; +Luke 20:27(28-33)34-38 + +Proper 28: =Closest to November 16= + 98 *or* 98:5-10; Malachi 3:13--4:2a,5-6; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; +Luke 21:5-19 + +Proper 29: =Closest to November 23= + 46; Jeremiah 23:1-6; Colossians 1:11-20; Luke 23:35-43 *or* +Luke 19:29-38 + + + + + +St. Andrew: =November 30= + 19 *or* 19:1-6; Deuteronomy 30:11-14; Romans 10:8b-18; Matthew 4:18-22 + +St. Thomas: =December 21= + 126; Habakkuk 2:1-4; Hebrews 10:35--11:1; John 20:24-29 + + + +St. Stephen: =December 26= + 31 *or* 31:1-5; Jeremiah 26:1-9,12-15; Acts 6:8--7:2a,51c-60; +Matthew 23:34-39 + +St. John: =December 27= + 92 *or* 92:1-4,11-14; Exodus 33:18-23; 1 John 1:1-9; John 21:9b-24 + +Holy Innocents: =December 28= + 124; Jeremiah 31:15-17; Revelation 21:1-7; Matthew 2:13-18 + +Confession of St. Peter: =January 18= + 23; Acts 4:8-13; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Matthew 16:13-19 + +Conversion of St. Paul: =January 25= + 67; Acts 26:9-21; Galatians 1:11-24; Matthew 10:16-22 + +The Presentation: =February 2= + 84 *or* 84:1-6; Malachi 3:1-4; Hebrews 2:14-18; Luke 2:22-40 + +St. Matthias: =February 24= + 15; Acts 1:15-26; Philippians 3:13b-21; John 15:1,6-16 + +St. Joseph: =March 19= + 89:1-29 *or* 89:1-4,26-29; 2 Samuel 7:4,8-16; Romans 4:13-18; +Luke 2:41-52 + +The Annunciation: =March 25= + 40:1-11 *or* 40:5-10 *or* Canticle 3 *or* 15; Isaiah 7:10-14; +Hebrews 10:5-10 ; Luke 1:26-38 + + + +St. Mark: =April 25= + 2 *or* 2:7-10; Isaiah 52:7-10; Ephesians 4:7-8,11-16; Mark 1:1-15 +*or* Mark 16:15-20 + +St. Philip & St. James: =May 1= + 119:33-40; Isaiah 30:18-21; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6; John 14:6-14 + +The Visitation: =May 31= + 113 *or* Canticle 9; Zephaniah 3:14-18a; Colossians 3:12-17; +Luke 1:39-49 + +St. Barnabas: =June 11= + 112; Isaiah 42:5-12; Acts 11:19-30; 13:1-3; Matthew 10:7-16 + +Nativity of St. John the Baptist: =June 24= + 85 *or* 85:7-13; Isaiah 40:1-11; Acts 13:14b-26; Luke 1:57-80 + +St. Peter & St. Paul: =June 29= + 87; Ezekiel 34:11-16; 2 Timothy 4:1-8; John 21:15-19 + +Independence Day: =July 4= + 145 *or* 145:1-9; Deuteronomy 10:17-21; Hebrews 11:8-16; Matthew 5:43-48 + +*The Psalm and Lessons "For the Nation," page 930, may be used instead.* + +St. Mary Magdalene: =July 22= + 42:1-7; Judith 9:1,11-14; 2 Corinthians 5:14-18; John 20:11-18 + + + + + +St. James: =July 25= + 7:1-10; Jeremiah 45:1-5; Acts 11:27--12:3; Matthew 20:20-28 + +The Transfiguration: =August 6= + 99 *or* 99:5-9; Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Peter 1:13-21; Luke 9:28-36 + +St. Mary the Virgin: =August 15= + 34 *or* 34:1-9; Isaiah 61:10-11; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 1:46-55 + +St. Bartholomew: =August 24= + 91 *or* 91:1-4; Deuteronomy 18:15-18; 1 Corinthians 4:9-15; +Luke 22:24-30 + +Holy Cross Day: =September 14= + 98 *or* 98:1-4; Isaiah 45:21-25; Philippians 2:5-11 *or* +Galatians 6:14-18; John 12:31-36a + +St. Matthew: =September 21= + 119:33-40; Proverbs 3:1-6; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; Matthew 9:9-13 + +St. Michael & All Angels: =September 29= + 103 *or* 103:19-22; Genesis 28:10-17; Revelation 12:7-12; John 1:47-51 + +St. Luke: =October 18= + 147 *or* 147:1-7; Ecclesiasticus 38:1-4,6-10,12-14; 2 Timothy 4:5-13; +Luke 4:14-21 + +St. James of Jerusalem: =October 23= + 1; Acts 15:12-22a; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Matthew 13:54-58 + + + +St. Simon & St. Jude: =October 28= + 119:89-96; Deuteronomy 32:1-4; Ephesians 2:13-22; John 15:17-27 + +All Saints' Day: =November 1= + 149; Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10,13-14; Revelation 7:2-4,9-17; +Matthew 5:1-12 + *or this* + 149; Ecclesiasticus 2:(1-6)7-11; Ephesians 1:(11-14)15-23; +Luke 6:20-26(27-36) + +Thanksgiving Day: + 65 *or* 65:9-14; Deuteronomy 8:1-3,6-10(17-20); James 1:17-18,21-27; +Matthew 6:25-33 + + + + + +Of a Martyr I + 126 *or* 121; 2 Esdras 2:42-48; 1 Peter 3:14-18,22; Matthew 10:16-22 + +Of a Martyr II + 116 *or* 116:1-8; Ecclesiasticus 51:1-12; Revelation 7:13-17; +Luke 12:2-12 + +Of a Martyr III + 124 *or 31:1-5; Jeremiah 15:15-21; 1 Peter 4:12-19; Mark 8:34-38 + +Of a Missionary I + 96 *or* 96:1-7; Isaiah 52:7-10; Acts 1:1-9; Luke 10:1-9 + + + +Of a Missionary II: + 98 *or* 98:1-4; Isaiah 49:1-6; Acts 17:22-31; Matthew 28:16-20 + +Of a Pastor I: + 23: Ezekiel 34:11-16; 1 Peter 5:1-4; John 21:15-17 + +Of a Pastor II: + 84 *or* 84:7-12; Acts 20:17-35; Ephesians 3:14-21; Matthew 24:42-47 + +Of a Theologian and Teacher I: + 119:97-104; Wisdom 7:7-14; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10,13-16; John 17:18-23 + +Of a Theologian and Teacher II: + 119:89-96; Proverbs 3:1-7; 1 Corinthians 3:5-11; Matthew 13:47-52 + +Of a Monastic I: + 34 *or* 34:1-8; Song of Songs 8:6-7; Philippians 3:7-15; +Luke 12:33-37 *or* Luke 9:57-62 + +Of a Monastic II: + 133 *or* 119:161-168; Acts 2:42-47a; 2 Corinthians 6:1-10; +Matthew 6:24-33 + +Of a Saint I: + 15; Micah 6:6-8; Hebrews 12:1-2; Matthew 25:31-40 + +Of a Saint II: + 34 *or* 34:15-22; Wisdom 3:1-9; Philippians 4:4-9; Luke 6:17-23 + + + +Of a Saint III: + 1; Ecclesiasticus 2:7-11; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 25:1-13 + + + + + +l. Of the Holy Trinity: + 29; Exodus 3:11-15; Romans 11:33-36; Matthew 28:18-20 + +2. Of the Holy Spirit: + 139:1-17 *or* 139:1-9; Isaiah 61:1-3; 1 Corinthians 12:4-14; +Luke 11:9-13 + +3. Of the Holy Angels: + 148 *or* 103:19-22; Daniel 7:9-10a *or* 2 Kings 6:8-17; +Revelation 5:11-14; John 1:47-51 + +4. Of the Incarnation: + 111 *or* 132:11-19; Isaiah 11:1-10 *or* Genesis 17:1-8; +1 John 4:1-11 *or* 1 Timothy 3:14-16; Luke 1:26-33(34-38) *or* +Luke 11:27-28 + +5. Of the Holy Eucharist: + 34 *or* 116:10-17; Deuteronomy 8:2-3; Revelation 19:1-2a,4-9 *or* +1 Corinthians 10:1-4,16-17 *or* 1 Corinthians 11:23-29; John 6:47-58 + + + +6. Of the Holy Cross: + 40:1-11 *or* 40:5-11; Isaiah 52:13-15; 53:10-12; +1 Corinthians 1:18-24; John 12:23-33 + +7. For All Baptized Christians: + 16:5-11; Jeremiah 17:7-8 *or* Ezekiel 36:24-28; Romans 6:3-11; +Mark 10:35-45 + +8. For the Departed: + 116 *or* 103:13-22 *or* 130; Isaiah 25:6-9 *or* Wisdom 3:1-9; +1 Corinthians 15:50-58; John 5:24-27 *or* John 6:37-40 *or* John 11:21-27 + +*Any of the Psalms and Lessons appointed at the Burial of the Dead may +be used instead.* + +9. Of the Reign of Christ: + 93 *or* Canticle 18; Daniel 7:9-14; Colossians 1:11-20; +John 18:33-37 + +*Any of the Psalms and Lessons appointed in Proper 29 may be used +instead.* + +10. At Baptism: + 15 *or* 23 *or* 27 *or* 42:1-7 *or* 84 *or* Canticle 9; +Ezekiel 36:24-28[*]; Romans 6:3-5 *or* Romans 8:14-17 *or* +2 Corinthians 5:17-20; Mark 1:9-11 *or* Mark 10:13-16 *or* John 3:1-6 + +*[*] Any of the other Old Testament Lessons for the Easter Vigil may be +substituted.* + + + +11. At Confirmation: + 1 *or* 139:1-9; Isaiah 61:1-9 *or* Jeremiah 31:31-34 *or* +Ezekiel 37:1-10; Romans 8:18-27 *or* Romans 12:1-8 *or* Galatians 5:16-25 +*or* Ephesians 4:7,11-16; Matthew 5:1-12 *or* Matthew 16:24-27 *or* +Luke 4:16-22 *or* John 14:15-21 + +12. Anniversary of the Dedication of a Church: + 84 *or* 84:1-6; 1 Kings 8:22-30 *or* Genesis 28:10-17; +1 Peter 2:1-5,9-10; Matthew 21:12-16 + +13. For a Church Convention: + 19:7-14; Isaiah 55:1-13; 2 Corinthians 4:1-10; John 15:1-11 + +14. For the Unity of the Church: + 122; Isaiah 35:1-10; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 17:6a,15-23 + +15. For the Ministry I: + 99 *or* 27:1-9; Numbers 11:16-17,24-29; 1 Corinthians 3:5-11; +John 4:31-38 + +15. For the Ministry II: + 63:1-8; 1 Samuel 3:1-10; Ephesians 4:11-16; Matthew 9:35-38 + +15. For the Ministry III: + 15; Exodus 19:3-8; 1 Peter 4:7-11; Matthew 16:24-27 + + + +16. For the Mission of the Church I: + 96 *or* 96:1-7; Isaiah 2:2-4; Ephesians 2:13-22; Luke 10:1-9 + +16. For the Mission of the Church II: + 67; Isaiah 49:5-13; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 28:16-20 + +17. For the Nation: + 47; Isaiah 26:1-8; Romans 13:1-10; Mark 12:13-17 + +*The Psalm and any of the Lessons appointed for Independence Day may +be used instead.* + +18. For Peace: + 85:7-13; Micah 4:1-5; Ephesians 2:13-18 *or* Colossians 3:12-15; +John 16:23-33 *or* Matthew 5:43-48 + +19. For Rogation Days I: + 147 *or* 147:1-13; Deuteronomy 11:10-15 *or* Ezekiel 47:6-12 *or* +Jeremiah 14:1-9; Romans 8:18-25; Mark 4:26-32 + +19. For Rogation Days II: + 107:1-9; Ecclesiasticus 38:27-32; 1 Corinthians 3:10-14; Matthew 6:19-24 + +19. For Rogation Days III: + 104:25-37 *or* 104:1,13-15,25-32; Job 38:1-11,16-18; +1 Timothy 6:7-10,17-19; Luke 12:13-21 + + + +20. For the Sick: + 13 *or* 86:1-7; 2 Kings 20:1-5; James 5:13-16; Mark 2:1-12 + +*Any of the Psalms and Lessons appointed at the Ministration to the +Sick may be used instead.* + +21. For Social Justice: + 72 *or* 72:1-4,12-14; Isaiah 42:1-7; James 2:5-9,12-17; Matthew 10:32-42 + +22. For Social Service: + 146 *or* 22:22-27; Zechariah 8:3-12,16-17; 1 Peter 4:7-11; Mark 10:42-52 + +23. For Education: + 78:1-7; Deuteronomy 6:4-9,20-25; 2 Timothy 3:14--4:5; Matthew 11:25-30 + +24. For Vocation in Daily Work: + 8; Ecclesiastes 3:1,9-13; 1 Peter 2:11-17; Matthew 5:19-24 + +25. For Labor Day: + 107:1-9 *or* 90:1-2,16-17; Ecclesiasticus 38:27-32; +1 Corinthians 3:10-14; Matthew 5:19-24 + + + + + + + + + + + +*Concerning the Daily Office Lectionary* + +*The Daily Office Lectionary is arranged in a two-year cycle. Year One +begins on the First Sunday of Advent preceding odd-numbered years, and +Year Two begins on the First Sunday of Advent preceding even-numbered +years. (Thus, on the First Sunday of Advent, 1976, the Lectionary for +Year One is begun.)* + +*Three Readings are provided for each Sunday and weekday in each of the +two years. Two of the Readings may be used in the morning and one in +the evening; or, if the Office is read only once in the day, all three +Readings may be used. When the Office is read twice in the day, it is +suggested that the Gospel Reading be used in the evening in Year One, +and in the morning in Year Two. If two Readings are desired at both +Offices, the Old Testament Reading for the alternate year is used as the +First Reading at Evening Prayer.* + +*When more than one Reading is used at an Office, the first is always +from the Old Testament (or the Apocrypha).* + +*When a Major Feast interrupts the sequence of Readings, they may be re- +ordered by lengthening, combining, or omitting some of them, to secure +continuity or avoid repitition.* + +*Any Reading may be lengthened at discretion. Suggested lengthenings +are shown in parentheses.* + +*In this Lectionary (except in the weeks from 4 Advent to 1 Epiphany, +and Palm Sunday to 2 Easter), the Psalms are arranged in a seven-week +pattern which recurs throughout the year, except for appropriate +variations in Lent and Easter Season.* + +*In the citation of the Psalms, those for the morning are given first, +and then those for the evening. At the discretion of the officiant, +however, any of the Psalms appointed for a given day may be used in the +morning or in the evening. Likewise, Psalms appointed for any day may +be used on any other day in the same week, except on major Holy Days.* + + + +*Brackets and parentheses are used (brackets in the case of whole +Psalms, parentheses in the case of verses) to indicate Psalms and verses +of Psalms which may be omitted. In some instances, the entire portion +of the Psalter assigned to a given Office has been bracketed, and +alternative Psalmody provided. Those who desire to recite the Psalter +in its entirety should, in each instance, use the bracketed Psalms +rather than the alternatives.* + +*Antiphons drawn from the Psalms themselves, or from the opening +sentences given in the Offices, or from other passages of Scripture, may +be used with the Psalms and biblical Canticles. The antiphons may be +sung or said at the beginning and end of each Psalm or Canticle, or may +be used as refrains after each verse or group of verses.* + +*On Special Occasions, the officiant may select suitable Psalms and +Readings.* + + + + + + + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Isa. 1:1-9; 2 Pet. 3:1-10; Matt. 25:1-13 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Isa. 1:10-20; 1 Thess. 1:1-10; Luke 20:1-8 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Isa. 1:21-31; 1 Thess. 2:1-12; Luke 20:9-18 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Isa. 2:1-11; 1 Thess. 2:13-20; Luke 20:19-26 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Isa. 2:12-22; 1 Thess. 3:1-13; Luke 20:27-40 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Isa. 3:8-15; 1 Thess. 4:1-12; Luke 20:41-21:4 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Isa. 4:2-6; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Luke 21:5-19 + + + + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Isa. 5:1-7; 2 Pet. 3:11-18; Luke 7:28-35 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Isa. 5:8-12,18-23; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; Luke 21:20-28 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Isa. 5:13-17, 24-25; 1 Thess. 5:12-28; Luke 21:29-38 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Isa. 6:1-13; 2 Thess. 1:1-12; John 7:53-8:11 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Isa. 7:1-9; 2 Thess. 2:1-12; Luke 22:1-13 + +Friday: 31; 35 + Isa. 7:10-25; 2 Thess. 2:13-3:5; Luke 22:14-30 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Isa. 8:1-15; 2 Thess. 3:6-18; Luke 22:31-38 + + + + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Isa. 13:6-13; Heb. 12:18-29; John 3:22-30 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Isa. 8:16-9:1; 2 Pet. 1:1-11; Luke 22:39-53 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Isa. 9:1-7; 2 Pet. 1:12-21; Luke 22:54-69 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Isa. 9:8-17; 2 Pet. 2:1-10a; Mark 1:1-8 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 33 + Isa. 9:18-10:4; 2 Pet. 2:10b-16; Matt. 3:1-12 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + Isa. 10:5-19; 2 Pet. 2:17-22; Matt. 11:2-15 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Isa. 10:20-27; Jude 17-25; Luke 3:19 + + + + +Sunday: 24,29; 8,84 + Isa. 42:1-12; Eph. 6:10-20; John 3:16-21 + +Monday: 61,62; 112,115 + Isa. 11:1-9; Rev. 20:1-10; John 5:30-47 + +Tuesday: 66,67; 116,117 + Isa. 11:10-16; Rev. 20:11-21:8; Luke 1:5-25 + +Wednesday: 72; 111,113 + Isa. 28:9-22; Rev. 21:9-21; Luke 1:26-38 + +Thursday: 80; 146,147 + Isa. 29:13-24; Rev. 21:22-22:5; Luke 1:39-48a(48b-56) + +Friday: 93, 96; 148,150 + Isa. 33:17-22; Rev. 22:6-11,18-20; Luke 1:57-66 + +Dec. 24: 45,46; + Isa. 35:1-10; Rev. 22:12-17,21; Luke 1:67-80 + +Christmas Eve: ; 89:1-29 + Isa. 59:15b-21; Phil. 2:5-11 + + + + +Christmas Day: 2,85; 110:1-1(6-7),132 + Zech. 2:10-13; 1 John 4:7-16; John 3:31-26 + +First Sunday after Christmas: 93,96; 34 + Isa. 62:6-7,10-12; Heb 2: 10-18; Matt. 1:18-25 + +Dec. 29: 18:1-20; 18:21-50[*] + Isa. 12:1-6; Rev. 1:1-8; John 7:37-52 + + [*] If today is Saturday, use Psalms 23 and 27 at Evening Prayer + +Dec. 30: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 23,27 + Isa 25:1-9; Rev. 1:9-20; John 7:53-8:11 + +Dec. 31: 46,48; + Isa. 26:1-9; 2 Cor. 5:16-6:2; John 8:12-19 + +Eve of Holy Name: ; 90 + Isa. 65:15b-25; Rev. 21:1-6 + +Holy Name: 103; 148 + Gen. 17:1-12a,15-16; Col. 2:6-12; John 16:23b-30 + +Second Sunday after Christmas: 66,67; 145 + Ecclus. 3:3-9,14-17; 1 John 2:12-17; John 6:41-47 + +Jan. 2: 34; 33 + Gen. 12:1-7; Heb. 11:1-12; John 6:35-42,48-51 + +Jan. 3: 68; 72[*] + Gen. 28:10-22; Heb. 11:13-22; John 10:7-17 + +Jan. 4: 85,87; 89:1-29 [**] + Exod. 3:1-12; Heb. 11:23-31; John 14:6-14 + +Jan. 5: 2, 110:1-5(6-7); + Joshua 1:1-9; Heb. 11:32-12:2; John 15:1-16 + +Eve of Epiphany: ; 29,98 + Isa. 66:18-23; Rom. 15:7-13 + + [*] If today is Saturday, use Psalm 136 at Evening Prayer. + + [**] If today is Saturday, use Psalm 136 at Evening Prayer. + + + + +Epiphany: 46, 97 ; 96,100 + Isa. 52:7-10; Rev. 21:22-27; Matt. 12:14-21 + +Jan. 7 [*]: 103; 114, 115 + Isa. 52:3-6; Rev. 2:1-7; John 2:1-11 + +Jan. 8: 117, 118; 112, 113 + Isa. 59:15-21; Rev. 2:8-17; John 4:46-54 + +Jan. 9: 121, 122, 123; 131, 132 + Isa. 63:1-5; Rev. 2:18-29; John 5:1-15 + +Jan. 10: 138, 139:1-17(18-23); 147 + Isa. 65:1-9; Rev. 3:1-6; John 6:1-14 + +Jan. 11: 148, 150; 91,92 + Isa. 65:13-16; Rev. 3:7-13; John 6:15-27 + +Jan. 12: 98, 99, [100]; + Isa. 66:1-2,22-23; Rev. 3:14-22; John 9:1-12,35-38 + +Eve of 1 Epiphany: ; 104 + Isa. 61:1-9; Gal. 3:23-29, 4:4-7 + + [*] The Psalms and Readings for the dated days after the Epiphany +are used only until the following Saturday Evening. + + + + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Isa. 40:1-11; Heb. 1:1-12; John 1:1-7,19-20,29-34 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Isa. 40:12-23; Eph. 1:1-14; Mark 1:1-13 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Isa. 40:25-31; Eph. 1:15-23; Mark 1:14-28 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Isa. 41:1-16; Eph. 2:1-10; Mark 1:29-45 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Isa. 41:17-29; Eph. 2:11-22; Mark 2:1-12 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Isa. 42:(1-9)10-17; Eph. 3:1-13; Mark 2:13-22 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Isa. 43:1-13; Eph. 3:14-21; Mark 2:23-3:6 + + + + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Isa. 43:14-44:5; Heb. 6:17-7:10; John 4:27-42 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Isa. 44:6-8,21-23; Eph. 4:1-16; Mark 3:7-19a + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Isa. 44:9-20; Eph. 4:17-32; Mark 3:19b-35 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Isa. 44:24-45:7; Eph. 5:1-14; Mark 4:1-20 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Isa. 45:5-17; Eph. 5:15-33; Mark 4:21-34 + +Friday: 31; 35 + Isa. 45:18-25; Eph. 6:1-9; Mark 4:35-41 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Isa. 46:1-13; Eph. 6:10-24; Mark 5:1-20 + + + + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Isa. 47:1-15; Heb. 10:19-31; John 5:2-18 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Isa. 48:1-11; Gal. 1:1-17; Mark 5:21-43 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Isa. 48:12-21; Gal. 1:18-2:10; Mark 6:1-13 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Isa. 49:1-12; Gal. 2:11-21; Mark 6:13-29 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 118 + Isa. 49:13-23; Gal. 3:1-14; Mark 6:30-46 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + Isa. 50:1-11; Gal. 3:15-22; Mark 6:47-56 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Isa. 51:1-8; Gal. 3:23-29; Mark 7:1-23 + + + + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Isa. 51:9-16; Heb. 11:8-16; John 7:14-31 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Isa. 51:17-23; Gal. 4:1-11; Mark 7:24-37 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Isa. 52:1-12; Gal. 4:12-20; Mark 8:1-10 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Isa. 54:1-10(11-17); Gal. 4:21-31; Mark 8:11-26 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Isa. 55:1-13; Gal. 5:1-15; Mark 8:27-9:1 + +Friday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Isa. 56:1-8; Gal. 5:16-24; Mark 9:2-13 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Isa. 57:3-13; Gal. 5:25-6:10; Mark 9:14-29 + + + + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Isa. 57:14-21; Heb. 12:1-6; John 7:37-46 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + Isa. 58:1-12; Gal. 6:11-18; Mark 9:30-41 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + Isa. 59:1-15a; 2 Tim. 1:1-14; Mark 9:42-50 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + Isa. 59:15b-21; 2 Tim. 1:15-2:13; Mark 10:1-16 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 146, 147; 85, 86 + Isa. 60:1-17; 2 Tim. 2:14-26; Mark 10:17-31 + +Friday: 88; 91, 92 + Isa. 61:1-9; 2 Tim. 3:1-17; Mark 10:32-45 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + Isa. 61:10-62:5; 2 Tim. 4:1-8; Mark 10:46-52 + + + + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + Isa. 62:6-12; 1 John 2:3-11; John 8:12-19 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + Isa. 63:1-6; 1 Tim. 1:1-17; Mark 11:1-11 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + Isa. 63:7-14; 1 Tim. 1:18-2:8; Mark 11:12-26 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + Isa 63:15-64:9; 1 Tim. 3:1-16; Mark 11:27-12:12 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + Isa. 65:1-12; 1 Tim. 4:1-16; Mark 12:13-27 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + Isa. 65:17-25; 1 Tim 5:17-22(23-25); Mark 12:28-34 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + Isa. 66:1-6; 1 Tim. 6:6-21; Mark 12:35-44 + + + + +Sunday: 118; 145 + Isa. 66:7-14; 1 John 3:4-10; John 10:7-16 + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + Ruth 1:1-14; 2 Cor. 1:1-11; Matt. 5:1-12 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + Ruth 1:15-22; 2 Cor. 1:12-22; Matt. 5:13-20 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + Ruth 2:1-13; 2 Cor. 1:23-2:17; Matt. 5:21-26 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + Ruth 2:14-23; 2 Cor. 3:1-18; Matt. 5:27-37 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + Ruth 3:1-18; 2 Cor. 4:1-12; Matt. 5:38-48 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + Ruth 4:1-17; 2 Cor. 4:13-5:10; Matt. 6:1-16 + + + + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Deut. 4:1-9; 2 Tim. 4:1-8; John 12:1-8 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Deut. 4:9-14; 2 Cor. 10:1-18; Matt. 6:7-15 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Deut. 4:15-24; 2 Cor. 11:1-21a; Matt. 6:16-23 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Deut. 4:25-31; 2 Cor. 11:21b-33; Matt. 6:24-34 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Deut. 4:32-40; 2 Cor. 12:1-10; Matt. 7:1-12 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Deut. 5:1-22; 2 Cor. 12:11-21; Matt. 7:13-21 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Deut. 5:22-33; 2 Cor. 13:1-14; Matt. 7:22-29 + + + + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Deut. 6:1-9; Heb. 12:18-29; John 12:24-32 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Deut. 6:10-15; Heb 1:1-14; John 1:1-18 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Deut. 6:16-25; Heb 2:1-10; John 1:19-28 + +Ash Wednesday: 95[*] && 32,143; 102,130 + Jonah 3:1-4:11; Heb. 12:1-14; Luke 18:9-14 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Deut. 7:6-11; Titus 1:1-16; John 1:29-34 + +Friday: 95[*] && 31; 35 + Deut. 7:12-16; Titus 2:1-15; John 1:35-42 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Deut. 7:17-26; Titus 3:1-15; John 1:43-51 + + [*] For the Invitatory + + + + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Deut. 8:1-10; 1 Cor. 1:17-31; Mark 2:18-22 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Deut. 8:11-20; Heb. 2:11-18; John 2:1-12 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Deut. 9:4-12; Heb. 3:1-11; John 2:13-22 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Deut. 9:13-21; Heb. 3:12-19; John 2:23-3:15 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 19, 46 + Deut. 9:23-10:5; Heb: 4:1-10; John 3:16-21 + +Friday: 95[*] && 40,54; 51 + Deut. 10:12-22; Heb. 4:11-16; John 3:22-36 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Deut. 11:18-28; Heb. 5:1-10; John 4:1-26 + + [*] For the Invitatory + + + + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Jer. 1:1-10; 1 Cor. 3:11-23; Mark 3:31-4:9 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Jer. 1:11-19; Rom. 1:1-15; John 4:27-42 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Jer. 2:1-13; Rom. 1:16-25; John 4:43-54 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Jer. 3:6-18; Rom. 1:28-2:11; John 5:1-18 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Jer. 4:9-10,19-28; Rom. 2:12-24; John 5:19-29 + +Friday: 95[*] && 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Jer. 5:1-9; Rom. 2:25-3:18; John 5:30-47 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Jer. 5:20-31; Rom. 3:19-31; John 7:1-13 + + [*] For the Invitatory + + + + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Jer. 6:9-15; 1 Cor. 6:12-20; Mark 5:1-20 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + Jer. 7:1-15; Rom. 4:1-12; John 7:14-36 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + Jer. 7:21-34; Rom. 4:13-25; John 7:37-52 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + Jer. 8:18-9:6; Rom. 5:1-11; John 8:12-20 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 42,43; 85, 86 + Jer. 10:11-24; Rom. 5:12-21; John 8:21-32 + +Friday: 95[*] && 88; 91, 92 + Jer. 11:1-8,14-20; Rom. 6:1-11; John 8:33-47 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + Jer. 13:1-11; Rom. 6:12-23; John 8:47-59 + + [*] For the Invitatory + + + + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + Jer. 14:1-9,17-22; Gal. 4:21-5:1; Mark 8:11-21 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + Jer. 16:10-21; Rom. 7:1-12; John 6:1-15 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + Jer. 17:19-27; Rom. 7:13-25; John 6:16-27 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + Jer. 18:1-11; Rom. 8:1-11; John 6:27-40 + +Thursday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Jer. 22:13-23; Rom. 8:12-27; John 6:41-51 + +Friday: 95[*] && 102; 107:1-32 + Jer. 23:1-8; Rom. 8:28-39; John 6:52-59 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + Jer. 23:9-15; Rom. 9:1-18; John 6:60-71 + + [*] For the Inventory + + + + +Sunday: 118; 145 + Jer. 23:16-32; 1 Cor. 9:19-27; Mark 8:31-9:1 + +Monday: 31; 35 + Jer. 24:1-10; Rom. 9:19-23; John 9:1-17 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + Jer. 25:8-17; Rom. 10:1-13; John 9:18-41 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + Jer. 25:30-38; Rom. 10:14-21; John 10:1-18 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 140, 142 + Jer. 26:1-16; Rom. 11:1-12; John 10:19-42 + +Friday: 95[*] && 22; 141, 143:1-11(12) + Jer. 29:1,4-13; Rom. 11:13-24; John 11:1-27 *or* 12:1-10 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 42, 43 + Jer. 31:27-34; Rom. 11:25-36; John 11:28-44 *or* 12:37-50 + + [*] For the Invitatory + + + + +Palm Sunday: 24, 29; 103 + Zech. 9:9-12[**] *or* Zech. 12:9-11,13:1,7-9[***]; 1 Tim. 6:12-16[**]; +Matt. 21:12-17[***] + +Monday: 51:1-18(19-20); 69:1-23 + Jer. 12:1-16; Phil. 3:1-14; John 12:9-19 + +Tuesday: 6, 12; 94 + Jer. 15:10-21; Phil. 3:15-21; John 12:20-26 + +Wednesday: 55; 74 + Jer. 17:5-10, 14-17; Phil. 4:1-13; John 12:27-26 + +Maundy Thursday: 102; 142, 143 + Jer. 20:7-11; 1 Cor. 10:14-17, 11:27-32; John 17:1-11(12-26) + +Good Friday: 95[*] && 22; 40:1-14(15-19),54 + Wisdom 1:16-2:1,12-22 *or* Gen. 22:1-14; 1 Peter 1:10-20; John 13:36- +38[**] *or* John 19:38-42[***] + +Holy Saturday: 95[**] && 88; 27 + Job 19:21-27a; Heb. 4:1-16[**]; Rom. 8:1-11[***] + + [*] For the Invitatory + + [**] Intended for use in the morning + + [***] Intended for use in the evening + + + + +Easter Day: 148, 149, 150; 113, 114, *or* 118 + Exod. 12:1-14[**] *or* Isa. 51:9-11[***]; ; John 1:1-18[**] *or* Luke +24:13-35[***], *or* John 20:19-23[***] + +Monday: 93, 98; 66 + Jonah 2:1-9; Acts 2:14,22-32[*]; John 14:1-14 + +Tuesday: 103; 111, 114 + Isa. 30:18-21; Acts 2:26-41(42-47)[*]; John 14:15-31 + +Wednesday: 97, 99; 115 + Micah 7:7-15; Acts 3:1-10[*]; John 15:1-11 + +Thursday: 146, 147; 148, 149 + Ezek. 37:1-14; Acts 3:11-26[*]; John 15:12-27 + +Friday: 136; 118 + Dan. 12:1-4,13; Acts 4:1-12[*]; John 16:1-15 + +Saturday: 145; 104 + Isa. 25:1-9; Acts 4:13-21(22-31)[*]; John 16:16-33 + + [*] Duplicates the First Lesson at the Eucharist. Readings from Year +Two may be substituted. + + [**] Intended for use in the morning + + [***] Intended for use in the evening + + + + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Isa. 43:8-13; 1 Pet. 2:2-10; John 14:1-7 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Dan. 1:1-21; 1 John 1:1-10; John 17:1-11 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Dan. 2:1-16; 1 John 2:1-11; John 17:12-19 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Dan. 2:17-30; 1 John 2:12-17; John 17:20-26 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Dan. 2:31-49; 1 John 2:18-29; Luke 3:1-14 + +Friday: 16, 17; 134, 135 + Dan 3:1-18; 1 John 3:1-10; Luke 3:15-22 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Dan. 3:19-30; 1 John 3:11-18; Luke 4:1-13 + + + + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Dan. 4:1-18; 1 Pet. 4:7-11; John 21:15-25 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Dan.4:19-27; 1 John 3:19-4:6; Luke 4:14-30 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Dan. 4:28-37; 1 John 4:7-21; Luke 4:31-37 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Dan. 5:1-12; 1 John 5:1-12; Luke 4:38-44 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Dan. 5:13-30; 1 John 5:13-20(21); Luke 5:1-11 + +Friday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + Dan. 6:1-15; 2 John 1-13; Luke 5:12-26 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Dan. 6:16-28; 3 John 1-15; Luke 5:27-39 + + + + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Wisdom 1:1-15; 1 Pet. 5:1-11; Matt. 7:15-29 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Wisdom 1:16-2:11,21-24; Col. 1:1-14; Luke 6:1-11 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Wisdom 3:1-9; Col 1:15-23; Luke 6:12-26 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Wisdom 4:16-5:8; Col. 1:24-2:7; Luke 6:27-38 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 114, 115 + Wisdom 5:9-23; Col. 2:8-23; Luke 6:39-49 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + Wisdom 6:12-23; Col 3:1-11; Luke 7:1-17 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Wisdom 7:1-14; Col. 3:12-17; Luke 7:18-28(29-30)31-35 + + + + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Wisdom 7:22-8:1; 2 Thess. 2:13-17; Matt. 7:7-14 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Wisdom 9:1,7-18; Col. (3:18-4:1)2-18; Luke 7:36-50 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Wisdom 10:1-4(5-12)13-21; Rom. 12:1-21; Luke 8:1-15 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Wisdom 13:1-9; Rom 13:1-14; Luke 8:16-25 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Wisdom 14:27-15:3; Rom. 14:1-12; Luke 8:26-39 + +Friday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + Wisdom 16:15-17:1; Rom. 14:13-23; Luke 8:40-56 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Wisdom 19:1-8,18-22; Rom. 15:1-13; Luke 9:1-17 + + + + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Ecclus. 43:1-12,27-32; 1 Tim. 3:14-4:5; Matt. 13:24-34a + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + Deut. 8:1-10; James 1:1-15; Luke 9:18-27 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + Deut. 8:11-20; James 1:16-27; Luke 11:1-13 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; + Baruch 3:24-37; James 5:13-18; Luke 12:22-31 + +Eve of Ascension: ; 68:1-20 + 2 Kings 2:1-15; Rev. 5:1-14 + +Ascension Day: 8, 47; 24, 96 + Ezek. 1:1-14,24-28b; Heb. 2:5-18; Matt. 28:16-20 + +Friday: 85, 86; 91, 92 + Ezek. 1:28-3:3; Heb. 4:14-5:6; Luke 9:28-36 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + Ezek. 3:4-17; Heb. 5:7-14; Luke 9:37-50 + + + + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + Ezek. 3:16-27; Eph. 2:1-10; Matt. 10:24-33,40-42 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + Ezek. 4:1-17; Heb. 6:1-12; Luke 9:51-62 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + Ezek. 7:10-15,23b-27; Heb. 6:13-20; Luke 10:1-17 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + Ezek. 11:14-25; Heb. 7:1-17; Luke 10:17-24 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + Ezek. 18:1-4,19-32; Heb. 7:18-28; Luke 10:25-37 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + Ezek. 34:17-31; Heb. 8:1-13; Luke 10:38-42 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); + Ezek. 43:1-12; Heb. 9:1-14; Luke 11:14-23 + +Eve of Pentecost: ; 33 + Exod. 19:3-8a,16-20; 1 Pet. 2:4-10 + +The Day of Pentecost: 118; 145 + Isa. 11:1-9; 1 Cor. 2:1-13; John 14:21-29 + +*On the weekdays which follow, the Readings are taken from +the numbered Proper (one through six) which corresponds +most closely to the date of Pentecost.* + +Eve of Trinity Sunday: ; 104 + Ecclus. 42:15-25; Eph. 3:14-21 + +Trinity Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Ecclus. 43:1-12(27-33); Eph. 4:1-16; John 1:1-18 + +*On the weekdays which follow, the Readings are taken from +the numbered Proper (two through seven) which corresponds +most closely to the date of Trinity Sunday.* + + + + +*Directions for the use of the Propers are on page 158.* + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 11= + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + Isa. 63:7-14; 2 Tim. 1:1-14; Luke 11:24-36 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + Isa. 63:15-64:9; 2 Tim. 1:15-2:13; Luke 11:37-52 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + Isa. 65:1-12; 2 Tim. 2:14-26; Luke 11:53-12:12 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + Isa. 65:17-25; 2 Tim. 3:1-17; Luke 12:13-31 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + Isa. 66:1-6; 2 Tim. 4:1-8; Luke 12:32-48 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + Isa. 66:7-14; 2 Tim. 4:9-22; Luke 12:49-59 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 11= + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Ruth 1:1-18; 1 Tim. 1:1-17; Luke 13:1-9 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Ruth 1:19-2:13; 1 Tim. 1:18-2:8; Luke 13:10-17 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Ruth 2:14-23; 1 Tim. 3:1-16; Luke 13:18-30 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Ruth 3:1-18; 1 Tim. 4:1-16; Luke 13:31-35 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Ruth 4:1-17; 1 Tim. 5:17-22(23-25); Luke 14:1-11 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Deut. 1:1-8; 1 Tim. 6:6-21; Luke 14:12-24 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 25= + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Deut. 4:1-9; Rev. 7:1-4,9-17; Matt. 12:33-45 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Deut. 4:9-14; 2 Cor. 1:1-11; Luke 14:25-35 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Deut. 4:15-24; 2 Cor. 1:12-22; Luke 15:1-10 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Deut. 4:25-31; 2 Cor. 1:23-2:17; Luke 15:1-2,11-32 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Deut. 4:32-40; 2 Cor. 3:1-18; Luke 16:1-9 + +Friday: 31; 35 + Deut. 5:1-22; 2 Cor. 4:1-12; Luke 16:10-17(18) + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Deut. 5:22-33; 2 Cor. 4:13-5:10; Luke 16:19-31 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 11= + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Deut. 11:1-12; Rev. 10:1-11; Matt. 13:44-58 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Deut. 11:13-19; 2 Cor 5:11-6:2; Luke 17:1-10 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Deut. 12:1-12; 2 Cor. 6:3-13(14-7:1); Luke 17:11-19 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Deut. 13:1-11; 2 Cor. 7:2-16; Luke 17:20-37 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 8, 84 + Deut. 16:18-20, 17:14-20; 2 Cor. 8:1-16; Luke 18:1-8 + +Friday: 40, 54; 51 + Deut. 26:1-11; 2 Cor. 8:16-24; Luke 18:9-14 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Deut. 29:2-15; 2 Cor. 9:1-15; Luke 18:15-30 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to June 8= + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Deut. 29:16-29; Rev. 12:1-12; Matt. 15:29-39 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Deut. 30:1-10; 2 Cor. 10:1-18; Luke 18:31-43 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Deut. 30:11-20; 2 Cor. 11:1-21a; Luke 19:1-10 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Deut. 31:30-32:14; 2 Cor. 11:21b-33; Luke 19:11-27 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Ecclus. 44:19-45:5; 2 Cor. 12:1-10; Luke 19:28-40 + +Friday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Ecclus. 45:6-16; 2 Cor. 12:11-21; Luke 19:41-48 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Ecclus. 46:1-10; 2 Cor. 13:1-14; Luke 20:1-8 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to June 15= + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Ecclus. 46:11-20; Rev. 15:1-8; Matt. 18:1-14 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + 1 Samuel 1:1-20; Acts 1:1-14; Luke 20:9-19 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + 1 Samuel 1:21-2:11; Acts 1:15-26; Luke 20:19-26 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + 1 Samuel 2:12-26; Acts 2:1-21; Luke 20:27-40 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 34; 85, 86 + 1 Samuel 2:27-36; Acts 2:22-36; Luke 20:41-21:4 + +Friday: 88; 91, 92 + 1 Samuel 3:1-21; Acts 2:37-47; Luke 21:5-19 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + 1 Samuel 4:1b-11; Acts 4:32-5:11; Luke 21:20-28 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to June 22= + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + 1 Samuel 4:12-22; James 1:1-18; Matt. 19:23-30 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + 1 Samuel 5:1-12; Acts 5:12-26; Luke 21:29-36 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + 1 Samuel 6:1-16; Acts 5:27-42; Luke 21:37-22:13 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + 1 Samuel 7:2-17; Acts 6:1-15; Luke 22:14-23 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + 1 Samuel 8:1-22; Acts 6:15-7:16; Luke 22:24-30 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + 1 Samuel 9:1-14; Acts 7:17-29; Luke 22:31-38 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + 1 Samuel 9:15-10:1; Acts 7:30-43; Luke 22:39-51 + + + =Week of Sunday closest to June 29 + +Sunday: 118; 145 + 1 Samuel 10:1-16; Rom. 4:13-25; Matt. 21:23-32 + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + 1 Samuel 10:17-27; Acts 7:44-8:1a; Luke 22:52-62 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + 1 Samuel 11:1-15; Acts 8:1-13; Luke 22:63-71 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + 1 Samuel 12:1-6,16-25; Acts 8:14-25; Luke 23:1-12 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + 1 Samuel 13:5-18; Acts 8:26-40; Luke 23:13-25 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + 1 Samuel 13:19-14:15; Acts 9:1-9; Luke 23:26-31 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + 1 Samuel 14:16-30; Acts 9:10-19a; Luke 23:32-43 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to July 6= + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + 1 Samuel 14:36-45; Rom. 5:1-11; Matt. 22:1-14 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + 1 Samuel 15:1-3,7-23; Acts 9:19b-31; Luke 23:44-56a + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + 1 Samuel 15:24-35; Acts 9:32-43; Luke 23:56b-24:11 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + 1 Samuel 16:1-13; Acts 10:1-16; Luke 24:12-35 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + 1 Samuel 16:14-17:11; Acts 10:17-33; Luke 24:36-53 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + 1 Samuel 17:17-30; Acts 10:34-48; Mark 1:1-13 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + 1 Samuel 17:31-49; Acts 11:1-18; Mark 1:14-28 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to July 13= + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + 1 Samuel 17:50-18:4; Rom. 10:4-17; Matt. 23:29-39 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + 1 Samuel 18:5-16,27b-30; Acts 11:19-30; Mark 1:29-45 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + 1 Samuel 19:1-18; Acts 12:1-17; Mark 2:1-12 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + 1 Samuel 20:1-23; Acts 12:18-25; Mark 2:13-22 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + 1 Samuel 20:24-42; Acts 13:1-12; Mark 2:23-3:6 + +Friday: 31; 35 + 1 Samuel 21:1-15; Acts 13:13-25; Mark 3:7-19a + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + 1 Samuel 22:1-23; Acts 23:26-43; Mark 3:19b-35 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to July 20= + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + 1 Samuel 23:7-18; Rom. 11:33-12:2; Matt. 25:14-30 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + 1 Samuel 24:1-22; Acts 13:44-52; Mark 4:1-20 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + 1 Samuel 25:1-22; Acts 14:1-18; Mark 4:21-34 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + 1 Samuel 25:23-44; Acts 14:19-28; Mark 4:35-41 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 66, 67 + 1 Samuel 28:3-20; Acts 15:1-11; Mark 5:1-20 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + 1 Samuel 31:1-13; Acts 15:12-21; Mark 5:21-43 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + 2 Samuel 1:1-16; Acts 15:22-35; Mark 6:1-13 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to July 27= + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + 2 Samuel 1:17-27; Rom. 12:9-21; Matt. 25:31-46 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + 2 Samuel 2:1-11; Acts 15:36-16:5; Mark 6:14-29 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + 2 Samuel 3:6-21; Acts 16:6-15; Mark 6:30-46 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + 2 Samuel 3:22-39; Acts 16:16-24; Mark 6:47-56 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + 2 Samuel 4:1-12; Acts 16:25-40; Mark 7:1-23 + +Friday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + 2 Samuel 5:1-12; Acts 17:1-15; Mark 7:24-37 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + 2 Samuel 5:22-6:11; Acts 17:16-34; Mark 8:1-10 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to August 3= + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + 2 Samuel 6:12-23; Rom. 4:7-12; John 1:43-51 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + 2 Samuel 7:1-17; Acts 18:1-11; Mark 8:11-21 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + 2 Samuel 7:18-29; Acts 18:12-28; Mark 8:22-33 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + 2 Samuel 9:1-13; Acts 19:1-10; Mark 8:34-9:1 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 145; 85, 86 + 2 Samuel 11:1-27; Acts 19:11-20; Mark 9:2-13 + +Friday: 88; 91, 92 + 2 Samuel 12:1-14; Acts 19:21-41; Mark 9:14-29 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + 2 Samuel 12:15-31; Acts 20:1-16; Mark 9:30-41 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to August 10= + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + 2 Samuel 13:1-22; Rom. 15:1-13; John 3:22-36 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + 2 Samuel 13:23-39; Acts 20:17-38; Mark 9:42-50 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + 2 Samuel 14:1-20; Acts 21:1-14; Mark 10:1-16 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + 2 Samuel 14:21-33; Acts 21:15-26; Mark 10:17-31 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + 2 Samuel 15:1-18; Acts 21:27-36; Mark 10:32-45 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + 2 Samuel 15:19-37; Acts 21:37-22:16; Mark 10:46-52 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + 2 Samuel 16:1-23; Acts 22:17-29; Mark 11:1-11 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to August 17= + +Sunday: 118; 145 + 2 Samuel 17:1-23; Gal. 3:6-14; John 5:30-47 + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + 2 Samuel 17:24-18:8; Acts 22:30-23:11; Mark 11:12-26 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + 2 Samuel 18:9-18; Acts 23:12-24; Mark 11:27-12:12 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + 2 Samuel 18:19-23; Acts 23:23-35; Mark 12:13-27 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + 2 Samuel 19:1-23; Acts 24:1-23; Mark 12:28-34 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + 2 Samuel 19:24-43; Acts 24:24-25:12; Mark 12:35-44 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + 2 Samuel 23:1-17,13-17; Acts 25:13-27; Mark 13:1-13 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to August 24= + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + 2 Samuel 24:1-2,10-25; Gal. 3:23-4:7; John 8:12-20 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + 1 Kings 1:5-31; Acts 26:1-23; Mark 13:14-27 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + 1 Kings 1:38-2:4; Acts 26:24-27:8; Mark 13:28-37 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + 1 Kings 3:1-15; Acts 27:9-26; Mark 14:1-11 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + 1 Kings 3:16-28; Acts 27:27-44; Mark 14:12-26 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + 1 Kings 5:1-6:1,7; Acts 28:1-16; Mark 14:27-42 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + 1 Kings 7:51-8:21; Acts 28:17-31; Mark 14:43-52 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to August 31= + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + 1 Kings 8:22-30(31-40); 1 Tim. 4:7b-16; John 8:47-59 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + 2 Chron. 6:32-7:7; James 2:1-13; Mark 14:53-65 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + 1 Kings 8:65-9:9; James 2:14-26; Mark 14:66-72 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + 1 Kings 9:24-10:13; James 3:1-12; Mark 15:1-11 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + 1 Kings 11:1-13; James 3:13-4:12; Mark 15:12-21 + +Friday: 31; 35 + 1 Kings 11:26-43; James 4:13-5:6; Mark 15:22-32 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + 1 Kings 12:1-20; James 5:7-12,19-20; Mark 15:33-39 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to September 7= + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11), 98; 103 + 1 Kings 12:21-33; Acts 4:18-31; John 10:31-42 + +Monday: 41, 52; 44 + 1 Kings 13:1-10; Phil. 1:1-11; Mark 15:40-47 + +Tuesday: 45; 47, 48 + 1 Kings 16:23-34; Phil. 1:12-30; Mark 16:1-8(9-20) + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + 1 Kings 17:1-24; Phil. 2:1-11; Matt. 2:1-12 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 93, 96 + 1 Kings 18:1-19; Phil. 2:12-30; Matt. 2:13-23 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + 1 Kings 18:20-40; Phil. 3:1-16; Matt. 3:1-12 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + 1 Kings 18:41-19:8; Phil. 3:17-4:7; Matt. 3:13-17 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to September 14= + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + 1 Kings 19:8-21; Acts 5:34-42; John 11:45-47 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + 1 Kings 21:1-16; 1 Cor. 1:1-19; Matt. 4:1-11 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + 1 Kings 21:17-29; 1 Cor. 1:20-31; Matt. 4:12-17 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + 1 Kings 22:1-28; 1 Cor. 2:1-13; Matt. 4:18-25 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + 1 Kings 22:29-45; 1 Cor. 2:14-3:15; Matt. 5:1-10 + +Friday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + 2 Kings 1:2-17; 1 Cor. 3:16-23; Matt. 5:11-16 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + 2 Kings 2:1-18; 1 Cor. 4:1-7; Matt. 5:17-20 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to September 21= + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + 2 Kings 4:8-37; Acts 9:10-31; Luke 3:7-18 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + 2 Kings 5:1-19; 1 Cor. 4:8-21; Matt. 5:21-26 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + 2 Kings 5:19-27; 1 Cor. 5:1-8; Matt. 5:27-37 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + 2 Kings 6:1-23; 1 Cor. 5:9-6:8; Matt. 5:38-48 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 146, 147; 85, 86 + 2 Kings 9:1-16; 1 Cor. 6:12-20; Matt. 6:1-6,16-18 + +Friday: 88; 91, 92 + 2 Kings 9:17-37; 1 Cor. 7:1-9; Matt. 6:7-15 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + 2 Kings 11:1-20a; 1 Cor. 7:10-24; Matt. 6:19-24 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to September 28= + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + 2 Kings 17:1-18; Acts 9:36-43; Luke 5:1-11 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + 2 Kings 17:24-41; 1 Cor. 7:25-31; Matt. 6:25-34 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + 2 Chron. 29:1-3,30:1(2-9)10-27; 1 Cor. 7:32-40; Matt. 7:1-12 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + 2 Kings 18:9-25; 1 Cor. 8:1-13; Matt. 7:13-21 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + 2 Kings 18:28-37; 1 Cor. 9:1-15; Matt. 7:22-29 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + 2 Kings 19:1-20; 1 Cor. 9:16-27; Matt. 8:1-17 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + 2 Kings 19:21-36; 1 Cor. 10:1-13; Matt:8:18-27 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to October 5= + +Sunday: 118; 145 + 2 Kings 20:1-21; Acts 12:1-17; Luke 7:11-17 + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + 2 Kings 21:1-18; 1 Cor. 10:14-11:1; Matt. 8:28-34 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + 2 Kings 22:1-13; 1 Cor. 11:2,17-22; Matt. 9:1-8 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + 2 Kings 22:14-23:3; 1 Cor. 11:23-34; Matt. 9:9-17 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + 2 Kings 23:4-25; 1 Cor. 12:1-11; Matt. 9:18-26 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + 2 Kings 23:36-24:17; 1 Cor. 12:12-26; Matt. 9:27-34 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + Jer. 35:1-19; 1 Cor. 12:27-13:3; Matt. 9:35-10:4 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to October 12= + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Jer. 36:1-10; Acts 14:8-18; Luke 7:36-50 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Jer. 36:11-26; 1 Cor. 13:(1-3)4-13; Matt. 10:5-15 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Jer. 36:27-37:2; 1 Cor. 14:1-12; Matt. 10:16-23 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Jer. 37:3-21; 1 Cor. 14:13-25; Matt. 10:24-33 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Jer. 38:1-13; 1 Cor. 14:26-33a,37-40; Matt. 10:34-42 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Jer. 38:14-28; 1 Cor. 15:1-11; Matt. 11:1-6 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + 2 Kings 25:8-12,22-26; 1 Cor. 15:12-29; Matt. 11:7-15 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to October 19= + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Jer. 29:1,4-14; Acts 16:6-15; Luke 10:1-12,17-20 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Jer. 44:1-14; 1 Cor. 15:30-41; Matt. 11:16-24 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Lam. 1:1-5(6-9)10-12; 1 Cor. 15:41-50; Matt. 11:25-30 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Lam. 2:8-15; 1 Cor. 15:51-58; Matt. 12:1-14 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Ezra 1:1-11; 1 Cor. 16:1-9; Matt. 12:15-21 + +Friday: 31; 35 + Ezra 3:1-13; 1 Cor 16:10-24; Matt. 12:22-32 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Ezra 4:7,11-24; Philemon 1-25; Matt. 12:33-42 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to October 26= + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Haggai 1:1-2:9; Acts 18:24-19:7; Luke 10:25-37 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Zech. 1:7-17; Rev. 1:4-20; Matt. 12:43-50 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Ezra 5:1-17; Rev. 4:1-11; Matt. 13:1-9 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Ezra 6:1-22; Rev. 5:1-10; Matt. 13:10-17 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 33 + Neh. 1-1:11; Rev. 5:11-6:11; Matt. 13:18-23 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + Neh. 2:1-20; Rev. 6:12-7:4; Matt. 13:24-30 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Neh. 4:1-23; Rev. 7:(4-8)9-17; Matt. 13:31-35 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to November 2= + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Neh. 5:1-19; Acts 20:7-12; Luke 12:22-31 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Neh. 6:1-19; Rev. 10:1-11; Matt. 13:36-43 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Neh. 12:27-31a,42b-47; Rev. 11:1-19; Matt. 13:44-52 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Neh. 13:4-22; Rev. 12:1-12; Matt. 13:53-58 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Ezra 7:(1-10)11-26; Rev. 14:1-13; Matt. 14:1-12 + +Friday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Ezra 7:27-28, 8:21-36; Rev. 15:1-8; Matt. 14:13-21 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Ezra 9:1-15; Rev. 17:1-14; Matt. 14:22-36 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to November 9= + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Ezra 10:1-17; Acts 24:10-21; Luke 14:12-24 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + Neh. 9:1-15(16-25); Rev. 18:1-8; Matt. 15:1-20 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + Neh. 9:26-38; Rev. 18:9-20; Matt. 15:21-28 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + Neh. 7:73b-8:3,5-18; Rev. 18:21-24; Matt. 15:29-39 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 23,27; 85, 86 + 1 Macc. 1:1-28; Rev. 19:1-10; Matt. 16:1-12 + +Friday: 88; 91, 92 + 1 Macc. 1:41-63; Rev. 19:11-16; Matt. 16:13-20 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + 1 Macc. 2:1-28; Rev. 20:1-6; Mark 16:21-28 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to November 16= + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + 1 Macc. 2:29-43,49-50; Acts 28:14b-23; Luke 16:1-13 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + 1 Macc. 3:1-24; Rev. 20:7-15; Matt. 17:1-13 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + 1 Macc. 3:25-41; Rev. 21:1-8; Matt. 17:14-21 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + 1 Macc. 3:42-60; Rev. 21:9-21; Matt. 17:22-27 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + 1 Macc. 4:1-25; Rev. 21:22-22:5; Matt. 18:1-9 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + 1 Macc. 4:36-59; Rev. 22:6-13; Matt. 18:10-20 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + Isa. 65:17-25; Rev. 22:14-21; Matt. 18:21-35 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to November 23= + +Sunday: 118; 145 + Isa. 19:19-25; Rom. 15:5-13; Luke 19:11-27 + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + Joel 3:1-2,9-17; 1 Pet. 1:1-12; Matt. 19:1-12 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + Nahum 1:1-13; 1 Pet. 1:13-25; Matt. 19:13-22 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + Obadiah 15-21; 1 Pet. 2:1-10; Matt. 19:23-30 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + Zeph. 3:1-13; 1 Pet. 2:11-25; Matt. 20:1-16 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + Isa. 24:14-23; 1 Pet. 3:13-4:6; Matt. 20:17-28 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + Micah 7:11-20; 1 Pet. 4:7-19; Matt. 20:29-34 + + + + + + + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Amos 1:1-5,13-2:8; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; Luke 21:5-19 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Amos 2:6-16; 2 Pet. 1:1-11; Matt. 21:1-11 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Amos 3:1-11; 2 Pet. 1:12-21; Matt. 21:12-22 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Amos 3:12-4:5; 2 Pet. 3:1-10; Matt. 21:23-32 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Amos 4:6-13; 2 Pet. 3:11-18; Matt. 21:33-46 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Amos 5:1-17; Jude 1-16; Matt. 22:1-14 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Amos 5:18-27; Jude 17-25; Matt. 22:15-22 + + + + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Amos 6:1-14; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; Luke 1:57-68 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Amos 7:1-9; Rev. 1:1-8; Matt. 22:23-33 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Amos 7:10-17, 24-25; Rev. 1:9-16; Matt. 22:34-46 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Amos 8:1-14; Rev. 1:17-2:7; Matt. 23:1-12 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Amos 9:1-10; Rev. 2:8-17; Matt. 23:13-26 + +Friday: 31; 35 + Haggai 1:1-15; Rev. 2:18-29; Matt. 23:27-39 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Haggai 2:1-19; Rev. 3:1-6; Matt. 24:1-14 + + + + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Amos 9:11-15; 2 Thess. 2:1-3,13-17; John 5:30-47 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Zech. 1:7-17; Rev. 3:7-13; Matt. 24:15-31 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Zech. 2:1-13; Rev. 3:14-22; Matt. 24:32-44 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Zech. 3:1-10; Rev. 4:1-8; Matt. 24:45-51 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 33 + Zech. 4:1-14; Rev. 4:9-5:5; Matt. 25:1-13 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + Zech. 7:8-8:8; Rev. 5:6-14; Matt. 25:14-30 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Zech. 8:9-17; Rev. 6:1-17; Matt. 25:31-46 + + + + +Sunday: 24,29; 8,84 + Gen 3:18-15; Rev. 12:1-10; John 3:16-21 + +Monday: 61,62; 112,115 + Zeph. 3:14-20; Titus 1:1-16; Luke 1:1-25 + +Tuesday: 66,67; 116,117 + 1 Samuel 2:1b-10; Titus 2:1-10; Luke 1:26-38 + +Wednesday: 72; 111,113 + 2 Samuel 7:1-17; Titus 2:11-3:8a; Luke 1:39-48a(48b-56) + +Thursday: 80; 146,147 + 2 Samuel 7:18-29; Gal. 3:1-14; Luke 1:57-66 + +Friday: 93, 96; 148,150 + Baruch 4:21-29; Gal. 3:15-22; Luke 1:67-80 *or* Matt. 1:1-17 + +Dec. 24: 45,46; + Baruch 4:36-5:9; Gal. 3:23-4:7; Matt. 1:18-25 + +Christmas Eve: ; 89:1-29 + Isa. 59:15b-21; Phil. 2:5-11 + + + + +Christmas Day: 2,85; 110:1-1(6-7),132 + Micah 4:1-5,5:2-4; 1 John 4:7-16; John 3:31-26 + +First Sunday after Christmas: 93,96; 34 + 1 Samuel 1:1-2,7b-28; Heb 2: 10-18; Matt. 1:18-25 + +Dec. 29: 18:1-20; 18:21-50[*] + 2 Samuel 23:13-17b; Rev. 1:1-8; John 7:37-52 + + [*] If today is Saturday, use Psalms 23 and 27 at Evening Prayer + +Dec. 30: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 23,27 + 1 Kings 17:17-24; Rev. 1:9-20; John 7:53-8:11 + +Dec. 31: 46,48; + 1 Kings 3:5-14; 2 Cor. 5:16-6:2; John 8:12-19 + +Eve of Holy Name: ; 90 + Isa. 65:15b-25; Rev. 21:1-6 + +Holy Name: 103; 148 + Isa. 62:1-5,10-12; Col. 2:6-12; John 16:23b-30 + + +Second Sunday after Christmas: 66,67; 145 + Wisdom 7:3-14; Col. 3:12-17; John 6:41-47 + +Jan. 2: 34; 33 + 1 Kings 19:1-8; Eph. 4:1-16; John 6:1-14 + +Jan. 3: 68; 72[**] + 1 Kings 19:9-18; Eph. 4:17-32; John 6:15-27 + + [**] If today is Saturday, use Psalm 136 at Evening Prayer. + +Jan. 4: 85,87; 89:1-29 [**] + Joshua 3:14-4:7; Eph. 5:1-20; John 9:1-12,35-38 + + [**] If today is Saturday, use Psalm 136 at Evening Prayer. + +Jan. 5: 2, 110:1-5(6-7); + Jonah 2:2-9; Eph. 6:10-20; John 11:17-27,38-44 + +Eve of Epiphany: ; 29,98 + Isa. 66: 18-23; Rom. 15:7-13 + + + + +Epiphany: 46, 97 ; 96,100 + Isa. 49:1-7; Rev. 21:22-27; Matt. 12:14-21 + +Jan. 7 [*]: 103; 114, 115 + Deut. 8:1-3; Col. 1:1-14; John 6:30-33,48-51 + +Jan. 8: 117, 118; 112, 113 + Exod. 17:1-7; Col. 1:15-23; John 7:37-52 + +Jan. 9: 121, 122, 123; 131, 132 + Isa. 45:14-19; Col. 1:24-2:7; John 8:12-19 + +Jan. 10: 138, 139:1-17(18-23); 147 + Jer. 23:1-8; Col. 2:8-23; John 10:7-17 + +Jan. 11: 148, 150; 91,92 + Isa. 55:3-9; Col 3:1-17; John 14:6-14 + +Jan. 12: 98, 99, [100]; + Gen. 49:1-2,8-12; Col 3:18-4:6; John 15:1-16 + +Eve of 1 Epiphany: ; 104 + Isa. 61:1-9; Gal. 3:23-29, 4:4-7 + + [*] The Psalms and Readings for the dated days after Epiphany +are used only until the following Saturday Evening + + + + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Gen. 1:1-2:3; Eph. 1:3-14; John 1:29-34 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Gen. 2:4-9(10-15)16-25; Heb. 1:1-14; John 1:1-18 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Gen. 3:1-24; Heb. 2:1-10; John 1:19-28 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Gen. 4:1-16; Heb. 2:11-18; John 1:(29-34)35-42 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Gen. 4:17-26; Heb. 3:1-11; John 1:43-51 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Gen. 6:1-8; Heb. 3:12-19; John 2:1-12 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Gen. 6:9-22; Heb. 4:1-13; John 2:13-22 + + + + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Gen. 7:1-10,17-23; Eph. 4:1-16; Mark 3:7-19 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Gen. 8:6-22; Heb. 4:14-5:6; John 2:23-3:15 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Gen. 9:1-17; Heb. 5:7-14; John 3:16-21 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Gen. 9:18-29; Heb. 6:1-12; John 3:22-36 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Gen. 11:1-9; Heb. 6:13-20; John 4:1-15 + +Friday: 31; 35 + Gen. 11:27-12:8; Heb. 7:1-17; John 4:16-26 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Gen. 12:9-13:1; Heb. 7:18-28; John 4:27-42 + + + + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Gen. 13:2-18; Gal. 2:1-10; Mark 7:31-37 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Gen. 14:(1-7)8-24; Heb. 8:1-13; John 4:43-54 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Gen. 15:1-11,17-21; Heb. 9:1-14; John 5:1-18 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Gen. 16:1-14; Heb. 9:15-28; John 5:19-29 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 118 + Gen. 16:15-17:14; Heb. 10:1-10; John 5:30-47 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + Gen. 17:15-27; Heb. 10:11-25; John 6:1-15 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Gen. 18:1-16; Heb. 10:26-39; John 6:16-27 + + + + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Gen. 18:16-33; Gal. 5:13-25; Mark 8:22-30 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Gen. 19:1-17(18-23)24-29; Heb. 11:1-12; John 6:27-40 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Gen. 21:1-21; Heb. 11:13-22; John 6:41-51 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Gen. 22:1-18; Heb. 11:23-31; John 6:52-59 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Gen. 23:1-20; Heb. 11:32-12:2; John 6:60-71 + +Friday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Gen. 24:1-27; Heb. 12:3-11; John 7:1-13 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Gen. 24:28-38,49-51; Heb. 12:12-29; John 7:14-36 + + + + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Gen. 24:50-67; 2 Tim. 2:14-21; Mark 10:13-22 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + Gen. 25:19-34; Heb. 13:1-16; John 7:37-52 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + Gen. 26:1-6,12-33; Heb. 13:17-25; John 7:53-8:11 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + Gen. 27:1-29; Rom. 12:1-8; John 8:12-20 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 146, 147; 85, 86 + Gen. 27:30-45; Rom. 12:9-21; John 8:21-32 + +Friday: 88; 91, 92 + Gen. 27:46-28:4,10-22; Rom. 13:1-14; John 8:33-47 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + Gen. 29:1-20; Rom. 14:1-23; John 8:47-59 + + + + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + Gen. 29:20-35; 1 Tim. 3:14-4:10; Mark 10:23-31 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + Gen. 30:1-24; 1 John 1:1-10; John 9:1-17 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + Gen. 31:1-24; 1 John 2:1-11; John 9:18-41 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + Gen. 31:25-50; 1 John 2:12-17; John 10:1-18 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + Gen. 32:3-21; 1 John 2:18-29; John 10:19-30 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + 32:22-33:17; 1 John 3:1-10; John 10:31-42 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + Gen. 35:1-20; 1 John 3:11-18; John 11:1-16 + + + + +Sunday: 118; 145 + Prov. 1:20-33; 2 Cor. 5:11-21 Mark 10:35-45 + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + Prov. 3:11-20; 1 John 3:18-4:6; John 11:17-29 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + Rov. 4:1-27; 1 Joh 4:7-21; John 11:30-44 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + Prov. 6:1-19; 1 Joh 5:1-12; John 11:45-54 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + Prov. 7:1-27; 1 John 5:13-21; John 11:55-12:8 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + Prov. 8:1-21; Philemon 1-25; John 12:9-19 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + Prov. 8:22-36; 2 Tim. 1:1-14; John 12:20-26 + + + + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Prov. 9:1-12; 2 Cor. 9.6b-15; Mark 10:46-52 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Prov. 10:1-12; 2 Tim. 1:15-2:13; John 12:27-36a + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Prov. 15:16-33; 2 Tim. 2:14-26; John 12:36b-50 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Prov. 17:1-20; 2 Tim. 3:1-17; John 13:1-20 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Prov. 21:30-22:6; 2 Tim. 4:1-8; John 13:21-30 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Prov. 23:19-21,29-24:2; 2 TIm. 4:9-22; John 13:31-38 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Prov. 25:15-28; Phil. 1:1-11; John 18:1-14 + + + + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Ecclus. 48:1-11; 2 Cor. 3:7-18; Luke 9:18-27 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Prov. 27:1-6,10-12; Phil. 2:1-13; John 18:15-18,25-27 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Prov. 30:1-4,24-33; Phil. 3:1-11; John 18:28-38 + +Ash Wednesday: 95[*] && 32,143; 102,130 + Amos 5:6-15; Heb. 12:1-14; Luke 18:9-14 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Hab. 3:1-10(11-15)16-18; Phil. 3:12-21; John 17:1-8 + +Friday: 95[*] && 31; 35 + Ezek. 18:1-4,25-32; Phil. 4:1-9; John 17:9-19 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Exek. 39:21-29; Phil. 4:10-20; John 17:20-26 + + [*] For the Invitatory + + + + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Dan 9:3-10; Heb. 2:10-18; John 12:44-50 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Gen. 37:1-11; 1 Cor. 1:1-19; Mark 1:1-13 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Gen. 37:12-24; 1 Cor. 1:20-31; Mark 1:14-28 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Gen. 37:25-36; 1 Cor. 2:1-13; Mark 1:29-45 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 19, 46 + Gen. 39:1-23; 1 Cor. 2:14-3:15; Mark 2:1-12 + +Friday: 95[*] && 40,54; 51 + Gen. 40:1-23; 1 Cor. 3:16-23; Mark 2:13-22 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Gen. 41:1-13; 1 Cor. 4:1-7; Mark 2:23-3:6 + + [*] For the Invitatory + + + + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Gen. 41:14-45; Rom. 6:3-14; John 5:19-24 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Gen. 41:46-57; 1 Cor. 4:8-20(21); Mark 3:7-19a + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Gen. 42:1-17; 1 Cor. 5:1-8; Mark 3:19b-35 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Gen. 42:18-28; 1 Cor. 5:9-6:8; Mark 4:1-20 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Gen. 42:29-38; 1 Cor. 6:12-30; Mark 4:21-34 + +Friday: 95[*] && 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Gen. 43:1-15; 1 Cor. 7:1-9; Mark 4:35-41 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Gen. 43:16-34; 1 Cor. 7:10-24; Mark 5:1-20 + + [*] For the Invitatory + + + + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Gen. 44:1-17; Rom. 8:1-10; John 5:25-29 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + Gen. 44:18-34; 1 Cor. 7:25-31; Mark 5:21-43 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + Gen. 45:1-15; 1 Cor. 7:32-40; Mark 6:1-13 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + Gen. 45:16-28; 1 Cor. 8:1-13; Mark 6:13-29 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 42,43; 85, 86 + Gen. 46:1-7,28-34; 1 Cor. 9:1-15; Mark 6:30-46 + +Friday: 95[*] && 88; 91, 92 + Gen. 47:1-26; 1 Cor. 9:16-27; Mark 6:47-56 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + Gen. 47:27-48:7; 1 Cor. 10:1-13; Mark 7:1-23 + + + + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + Gen. 48:8-22; Rom. 8:11-25; John 6:27-40 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + Gen. 49:1-28; 1 Cor. 10:14-11:1; Mark 7:24-37 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + Gen. 49:29-50:14; 1 Cor. 11:17-34; Mark 8:1-10 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + Gen. 50:15-26; 1 Cor. 12:1-11; Mark 8:11-26 + +Thursday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Exod. 1:6-22; 1 Cor. 12:12-26; Mark 8:27-9:1 + +Friday: 95[*] && 102; 107:1-32 + Exod. 2:1-22; 1 Cor. 12:27-13:3; Mark 9:2-13 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + Exod. 2:23-3:15; 1 Cor. 13:1-13; Mark 9:14-29 + + [*] For the Inventory + + + + +Sunday: 118; 145 + Exod. 3:16-4:12; Rom. 12:1-21; John 8:46-59 + +Monday: 31; 35 + Exod. 4:10-20(21-26)27-31; 1 Cor. 14:1-19; Mark 9:30-41 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + Exod. 5:1-6:1; 1 Cor. 14:20-33a,39-40; Mark 9:42-50 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + Exod. 7:8-24; 2 Cor. 2:14-3:6; Mark 10:1-16 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 140, 142 + Exod. 7:25-8:19; 2 Cor. 3:7-18; Mark 10:17-31 + +Friday: 95[*] && 22; 141, 143:1-11(12) + Exod. 9:13-35; 2 Cor. 4:1-12; Mark 10:32-45 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 42, 43 + Exod. 10:21-11:8; 2 Cor. 4:13-18; Mark 10:46-52 + + + + +Palm Sunday: 24, 29; 103 + Zech. 9:9-12[**] *or* Zech. 12:9-11,13:1,7-9[***]; 1 Tim. 6:12-16[**]; +Luke 19:41-48[***] + +Monday: 51:1-18(19-20); 69:1-23 + Lam. 1:1-2,6-12; 2 Cor. 1:1-7; Mark 11:12-25 + +Tuesday: 6, 12; 94 + Lam. 1:17-22; 2 Cor. 1:8-22; Mark 11:27-33 + +Wednesday: 55; 74 + Lam. 2:1-9, 14-17; 2 Cor. 1:23-2:11; Mark 12:1-11 + +Maundy Thursday: 102; 142, 143 + Lam. 2:10-18; 1 Cor. 10:14-17, 11:27-32; Mark 14:12-25 + +Good Friday: 95[*] && 22; 40:1-14(15-19),54 + Lam. 3:1-9,19-33; 1 Peter 1:10-20; John 13:36-38[**] *or* John 19:38- +42[***] + +Holy Saturday: 95[*] && 88; 27 + Lam. 3:37-58; Heb. 4:1-16[**]; Rom. 8:1-11[***] + + [*] For the Invitatory + + [**] Intended for use in the morning + + [***] Intended for use in the evening + + + + +Easter Day: 148, 149, 150; 113, 114, *or* 118 + Exod. 12:1-14[**] *or* Isa. 51:9-11[***]; ; John 1:1-18[**] *or* Luke +24:13-35[***], *or* John 20:19-23[***] + +Monday: 93, 98; 66 + Exod. 12:14-27; 1 Cor. 15:1-11; Mark 16:1-8 + +Tuesday: 103; 111, 114 + Exod. 12:28-39; 1 Cor. 15:12-28; Mark 16:9-20 + +Wednesday: 97, 99; 115 + Exod. 12:40-51; 1 Cor. 15:(29)30-41; Matt. 28:1-16 + +Thursday: 146, 147; 148, 149 + Exod. 13:3-10; 1 Cor. 15:41-50; Martt. 28:16-20 + +Friday: 136; 118 + Exod. 13:1-2,11-16; 1 Cor. 15:51-58; Luke 24:1-12 + +Saturday: 145; 104 + Exod. 13:17-14:4; 2 Cor. 4:16-5:10; Mark 12:18-27 + + + + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Exod. 14:5-22; 1 Joh 1:1-7; John 14:1-7 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Exod. 14:21-31; 1 Pet. 1:1-12; John 14:(1-7)8-17 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Exod. 15:1-21; 1 Pet. 1:13-25; John 14:18-31 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Exod. 15:22-16:10; 1 Pet. 2:1-10; John 15:1-11 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Exod. 16:10-22; 1 Pet. 2:11-25; John 15:12-27 + +Friday: 16, 17; 134, 135 + Exod. 16:23-36; 1 Pet. 3:13-4:6; John 16:1-15 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Exod. 17:1-16; 1 Pet. 4:7-19; John 16:16-33 + + + + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Exod. 18:1-12; 1 John 2:7-17; Mark 16:9-20 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Exod. 18:13-27; 1 Pet. 5:1-14; Matt. (1:1-17),3:1-6 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Exod. 19:1-16; Col. 1:1-14; Matt. 3:7-12 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Exod. 19:16-25; Col. 1:15-23; Matt. 3:13-17 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Exod. 20:1-21; Col. 1:24-2:7; Matt. 4:1-11 + +Friday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + Exod. 24:1-18; Col 2:8-23; Matt. 4:12-17 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Exod. 25:1-22; Col. 3:1-17; Matt. 4:18-25 + + + + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Exod. 28:1-4,30-38; 1 John 2:18-29; Mark 6:30-44 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Exod. 32:1-20; Col 3:18-4:6(7-18); Matt. 5:1-10 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Exod. 32:21-34; 1 Thess. 1:1-10; Matt. 5:11-16 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Exod. 33:1-23; 1 Thess. 2:1-12; Matt. 5:17-20 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 114, 115 + Exod. 34:1-17; 1 Thess. 2:13-20; Matt. 5:21-26 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + Exod. 34:18-35; 1 Thess. 3:1-13; Matt. 5:27-37 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Exod. 40:18-38; 1 Thess. 4:1-12; Matt. 5:38-48 + + + + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Lev. 8:1-13,30-36; Heb. 12:1-14; Luke 4:16-30 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Lev. 16:1-19; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Matt. 6:1-6,16-18 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Lev. 16:20-34; 1 Thess. 5:1-11; Matt. 6:7-15 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Lev. 19:1-18; 1 Thess. 5:12-28; Matt. 6:19-24 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Lev. 19:26-37; 2 Thess. 1:1-12; Matt. 6:25-34 + +Friday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + Lev. 23:1-22; 2 Thess. 2:1-17; Matt. 7:1-12 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Lev. 23:23-44; 2 Thess. 3:1-18; Matt. 7:13-21 + + + + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Lev. 25:1-17; James 1:2-8,16-18; Luke 12:13-21 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + Lev. 25:35-55; Col. 1:9-14; Matt. 13:1-16 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + Lev. 26:1-20; 1 Tim. 2:1-6; Matt. 13:18-23 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; + Lev. 26:27-42; Eph. 1:1-10; Matt. 22:41-46 + +Eve of Ascension: ; 68:1-20 + 2 Kings 2:1-15; Rev. 5:1-14 + +Ascension Day: 8, 47; 24, 96 + Dan. 7:9-14; Heb. 2:5-18; Matt. 28:16-20 + +Friday: 85, 86; 91, 92 + 1 Sam. 2:1-10; Eph. 2:1-10; Matt. 7:22-27 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + Num. 11:16-17,24-29; Eph. 2:11-22; Matt. 7:28-8:4 + + + + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + Exod. 3:1-12; Heb. 12:18-29; Matt. Luke 10:17-24 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + Joshua 1:1-9; Eph. 3:1-13; Matt. 8:5-17 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + 1 Sam. 16:1-13a; Eph. 3:14-21; Matt. 8:18-27 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + Isa. 4:2-6; Eph. 4:1-16; Matt. 8:28-34 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + Zech. 4:1-14; Eph.4:17-32; Matt. 9:1-8 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + Jer. 31:27-34; Eph. 5:1-20; Matt. 9:9-17 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); + Ezek. 36:22-27; Eph. 6:10-24; Matt. 9:18-26 + +Eve of Pentecost: ; 33 + Exod. 19:3-8a,16-20; 1 Pet. 2:4-10 + +The Day of Pentecost: 118; 145 + Deut. 16:9-12; Acts 4:18-21,23-33; John 4:19-26 + +*On the weekdays which follow, the Readings are taken from +the numbered Proper (one through six) which corresponds +most closely to the date of Pentecost.* + +Eve of Trinity Sunday: ; 104 + Ecclus. 42:15-25; Eph. 3:14-21 + +Trinity Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Job 38:1-11,42:1-5; Rev. 19:4-16; John 1:29-34 + +*On the weekdays which follow, the Readings are taken from +the numbered Proper (two through seven) which corresponds +most closely to the date of Trinity Sunday.* + + + + +*Directions for the use of the Propers are on page 158.* + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 11= + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + Ezek. 33:1-11; 1 John 1:1-10; Matt. 9:27-34 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + Ezek. 33:21-33; 1 John 2:1-11; Matt. 9:35-10:4 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + Ezek. 34:1-16; 1 John 2:12-17; Matt. 10:5-15 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + Ezek. 37:21b-28; 1 John 2:18-29; Matt. 10:16-23 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + Ezek. 39:21-29; 1 John 3:1-10; Matt. 10:24-33 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + Ezek. 47:1-12; 1 John 3:11-18; Matt. 10:34-42 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 11= + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Prov. 3:11-20; 1 John 3:18-4:6; Matt. 11:1-6 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Prov. 4:1-27; 1 John 4:7-21; Matt. 11:7-15 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Prov. 6:1-19; 1 John 5:1-12; Matt. 11:16-24 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Prov. 7:1-27; 1 John 5:13-21; Matt. 11:25-30 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Prov. 8:1-21; 2 John 1-13; Matt. 12:1-14 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Prov. 8:22-36; 3 John 1-15; Matt. 12:15-21 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 25= + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Prov. 9:1-12; Acts 8:14-25; Luke 10:25-28,38-42 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Prov. 10:1-12; 1 Tim. 1:1-17; Matt. 12:22-32 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Prov. 15:16-33; 1 Tim. 1:18-2:8; Matt. 12:33-42 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Prov. 17:1-20; 1 Tim. 3:1-16; Matt. 12:43-50 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Prov. 21:30-22:6; 1 Tim. 4:1-16; Matt. 13:24-30 + +Friday: 31; 35 + Prov. 23:19-21,29-24:2; 1 Tim. 5:17-22(23-25); Matt. 13:31-35 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Prov. 25:15-28; 1 Tim. 6:6-21; Matt. 13:36-43 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to May 11= + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Eccles. 1:1-11; Acts 8:26-40; Luke 11:1-13 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Eccles. 2:1-15; Gal. 1:1-17; Matt. 13:44-52 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Ecles. 2:16-26; Gal. 1:18-2:10; Matt. 13:53-58 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Eccles. 3:1-15; Gal. 2:11-21; Matt. 14:1-12 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 8, 84 + Eccles. 3:16-4:3; Gal. 3:1-14; Mat. 14:13-21 + +Friday: 40, 54; 51 + Eccles. 5:1-7; Gal. 3:15-22; Matt. 14:22-36 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Eccles. 5:8-20; Gal. 3:23-4:11; Matt. 15:1-20 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to June 8= + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Eccles. 6:1-12; Acts 10:9-23; Luke 12:32-40 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Eccles. 7:1-14; Gal. 4:12-20; Matt. 15:21-28 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Eccles. 8:14-9:10; Gal. 4:21-31; Matt. 15:29-39 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Eccles. 9:11-18; Gal. 5:1-15; Matt. 16:1-12 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Eccles. 11:1-8; Gal. 5:16-24; Matt. 16:13-20 + +Friday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Eccles. 11:9-12:14; Gal. 5:25-6:10; Matt. 16:21-28 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Num. 3:1-13; Gal. 6:11-18; Matt. 17:1-13 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to June 15= + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Num. 6:22-27; Acts 13:1-12; Luke 12:41-48 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + Num. 9:15-23,10:29-36; Rom. 1:1-15; Matt. 17:14-21 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + Num. 11:1-23; Rom. 1:16-25; Matt. 17:22-27 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + Num. 11:24-33(34-35); Rom. 1:28-2:11; Matt. 18:1-9 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 34; 85, 86 + Num. 12:1-16; Rom. 2:12-24; Matt. 18:10-20 + +Friday: 88; 91, 92 + Num. 13:1-3,21-30; Rom. 2:25-3:8; Matt. 18:21-35 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + Num. 13:31-14:25; Rom. 3:9-20; Matt. 19:1-12 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to June 22= + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + Num. 14:26-45; Acts 15:1-12; Luke 12:49-56 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + Num. 16:1-19; Rom. 3:21-31; Matt. 19:13-22 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + Num. 16:20-35; Rom. 4:1-12; Matt. 19:23-30 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + Num. 16:36-50; Rom. 4:13-25; Matt. 20:1-16 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + Num. 17:1-11; Rom. 5:1-11; Matt. 20:17-28 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + Num. 20:1-13; Rom. 5:12-21; Matt. 20:29-34 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + Num. 20:14-29; Rom. 6:1-11; Matt. 21:1-11 + + + =Week of Sunday closest to June 29 + +Sunday: 118; 145 + Num. 21:4-9,21-35; Acts 17:(12-21)22-34; Luke 13:10-17 + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + Num. 22:1-21; Rom. 6:12-23; Matt. 21:12-22 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + Num. 22:21-38; Rom. 7:1-12; Matt. 21:23-32 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + Num. 22:41-23:12; Rom. 7:13-25; Matt. 21:33-46 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + Num. 23:11-26; Rom. 8:1-11; Matt. 22:1-14 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + Num. 24:1-13; Rom. 8:12-17; Matt. 22:15-22 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + Num. 24:12-25; Rom. 8:18-25; Matt. 22:23-40 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to July 6= + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Num. 27:12-23; Acts 19:11-20; Mark 1:14-20 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Num. 32:1-6,16-27; Rom. 8:26-30; Matt. 23:1-12 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Num. 35:1-3,9-15,30-34; Rom. 8:31-39; Matt. 23:13-26 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Deut. 1:1-18; Rom. 9:1-18; Matt. 23:27-39 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Deut. 3:18-28; Rom. 9:19-33; Matt. 24:1-14 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Deut. 31:7-13,24-32:4; Rom 10:1-13; Matt. 24:15-31 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Deut. 34:1-12; Rom. 10:14-21; Matt. 24:32-51 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to July 13= + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Joshua 1:1-18; Acts 21:3-15; Mark 1:21-27 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Joshua 2:1-14; Rom. 11:1-12 Matt. 25:1-13 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Joshua 2:15-24; Rom. 11:13-24; Matt. 25:14-30 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Joshua 3:1-13; Rom. 11:25-36; Matt. 25:31-46 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Joshua 3:14-4:7; Rom. 12:1-8; Matt. 26:1-16 + +Friday: 31; 35 + Joshua 4:19-5:1,10-15; Rom. 12:9-21; Matt. 26:17-25 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Joshua 6:1-14; Rom. 13:1-7; Matt. 26:26-35 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to July 20= + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Joshua 6:15-27; Acts 22:30-23:11; Mark 2:1-12 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Joshua 7:1-13; Rom. 13:8-14; Matt. 26:36-46 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Joshua 8:1-22; Rom. 14:1-12; Matt. 26:47-56 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Joshua 8:30-35; Rom. 14:13-23; Matt. 26:57-68 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 66, 67 + Joshua 9:3-21; Rom. 15:1-13; Matt. 26:69-75 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + Joshua 9:22-10:15; Rom. 15:14-24; Matt. 27:1-10 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Joshua 23:1-16; Rom. 15:25-33; Matt. 27:11-23 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to July 27= + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Joshua 24:1-15; Acts 28:23-31; Mark 2:23-28 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Joshua 24:16-33; Rom. 16:1-16; Matt. 27:24-31 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Judges 2:1-5,11-23; Rom. 16:17-27; Matt. 27:32-44 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Judges 3:12-30; Acts 1:1-14; Matt. 27:45-54 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Judges 4:4-23; Acts 1:15-26; Matt. 27:55-66 + +Friday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Judges 5:1-18; Acts 2:1-21; Matt. 28:1-10 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Judges 5:19-31; Acts 2:22-36; Matt. 28:11-20 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to August 3= + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Judges 6:1-24; 2 Cor. 9:6-15; Mark 3:20-30 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + Judges 6:25-40; Acts 2:37-47; John 1:1-18 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + Judges 7:1-18; Acts 3:1-11; John 1:19-28 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + Judges 7:19-8:12; Acts 3:12-26; John 1:29-42 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 145; 85, 86 + Judges 8:22-35; Acts 4:1-12; John 1:43-51 + +Friday: 88; 91, 92 + Judges 9:1-16,19-21; Acts 4:13-31; John 2:2-12 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + Judges 9:22-25,50-57; Acts 4:32-5:11; John 2:13-25 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to August 10= + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + Judges 11:1-11,29-40; 2 Cor. 11:21b-31; Mark 4:35-41 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + Judges 12:1-7; Acts 5:12-26; John 3:1-21 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + Judges 13:1-15; Acts 5:27-42; John 3:22-36 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + Judges 13:15-24; Acts 6:1-15; John 4:1-26 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + Judges 14:1-19; Acts 6:15-7:16; John 4:27-42 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + Judges 14:20-15:20; Acts 7:17-29; John 4:43-54 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + Judges 16:1-14; Acts 7:30-43; John 5:1-18 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to August 17= + +Sunday: 118; 145 + Judges 16:15-31; 2 Cor. 13:1-11; Mark 5:25-34 + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + Judges 17:1-13; Acts 7:44-8:1a; John 5:19-29 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + Judges 18:1-15; Acts 8:1-13; John 5:30-47 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + Judges 18:16-31; Acts 8:14-25; John 6:1-15 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + Job 1:1-22; Acts 8:26-40; John 6:16-27 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + Job 2:1-13; Acts 9:1-9; John 6:27-40 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + Job 3:1-26; Acts 9:10-19a; JOhn 6:41-51 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to August 24= + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Job 4:1-6,12-21; Rev. 4:1-11; Mark 6:1-6a + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Job 4:1,5:1-11,17-21,26-27; Acts 9:19b-31; John 6:52-59 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Job 6:1-4,8-15,21; Acts 9:32-43; John 6:60-71 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Job 6:1,7:1-21; Acts 10:1-16; John 7:1-13 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Job 6:1,7:1-21; Acts 10:17-33; John 7:14-36 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Job 9:1-15,32-35; Acts 10:34-48; John 7:37-52 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Job 9:1,10:1-9,16-22; Acts 11:1-18; John 8:12-20 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to August 31= + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Job 11:1-9,13-20; Rev. 5:1-14; Matt. 5:1-12 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Job 12:1-6,13-25; Acts 11:19-30; John 8:21-32 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Job 12:1,13:3-17,21-27; Acts 12:1-17; John 8:33-47 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Job 12:1,14:1-22; Acts 12:18-25; John 8:47-59 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Job 16:16-22,17:1,13-16; Acts 13:1-12; John 9:1-17 + +Friday: 31; 35 + Job 19:1-7,14-27; Acts 13:13-25; John 9:18-41 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Job 22:1-4,21-23:7; Acts 13:26-43; John 10:1-18 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to September 7= + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11), 98; 103 + Job 25:1-6,27:1-6; Rev. 14:1-7,13; Matt. 5:13-20 + +Monday: 41, 52; 44 + Job 32:1-10,19-33:1,19-28; Acts 13:44-52; John 10:19-30 + +Tuesday: 45; 47, 48 + Job 29:1-20; Acts 14:1-18; John 10:31-42 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Job 29:1,30:1-2,16-31; Acts 14:19-28; John 11:1-16 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 93, 96 + Job 29:1,31:1-23; Acts 15:1-11; John 11:17-29 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + Job 29:1,31:24-40; Acts 15:12-21; John 11:30-44 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Job 38:1-17; Acts 15:22-35; John 11:45-54 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to September 14= + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Job 38:1,18-41; Rev. 18:1-8; Matt. 5:21-26 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Job 40:1-24; Acts 15:36-16:5; John 11:55-12:8 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Job 40:1,41:1-11; Acts 16:6-15; John 12:9-19 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Job 42:1-17; Acts 16:16-24; John 12:20-26 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Job 28:1-28; Acts 16:25-40; John 12:27-36a + +Friday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Esther 1:1-4,10-19[*]; Acts 17:1-15; John 12:36b-43 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Esther 2:5-8,15-23[*]; Acts 17:16-34; John 12:44-50 + + [*] In place of Esther may be read Judith: F 4:1-15, Sa 5:1-21 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to September 21= + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Esther 3:1-4:3[*]; James 1:19-27; Matt. 6:1-6,16-18 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + Esther 4:4-17[*]; Acts 18:1-11; Luke (1:1-4),3:1-14 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + Esther 5:1-14[*]; Acts 18:12-28; Luke 3:15-22 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + Esther 6:1-14[*]; Acts 19:1-10; Luke 4:1-13 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 146, 147; 85, 86 + Esther 7:1-10[*]; Acts 19:11-20; Luke 4:14-30 + +Friday: 88; 91, 92 + Esther 8:1-8,15-17[*]; Acts 19:21-41; Luke 4:31-37 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + Hosea 1:1-2:1; Acts 20:1-16; Luke 4:38-44 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to September 28= + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + Hosea 2:2-14; James 3:1-13; Matt. 13:44-52 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + Hosea 2:14-23; Acts 20:17-38; Luke 5:1-11 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + Hosea 4:1-10; Acts 21:1-14; Luke 5:12-26 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + Hosea 4:11-19; Acts 21:15-26; Luke 5:27-39 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + Hosea 5:8-6:6; Acts 21:27-36; Luke 6:1-11 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + Hosea 10:1-15; Acts 21:37-22:16; Luke 6:12-26 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + Hosea 11:1-9; Acts 22:17-29; Luke 6:27-38 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to October 5= + +Sunday: 118; 145 + Hosea 13:4-14; 1 Cor. 2:6-16; Matt. 14:1-12 + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + Hosea 14:1-9; Acts 22:30-23:11; Luke 6:39-49 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + Micah 1:1-9; Acts 23:12-24; Luke 7:1-17 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + Micah 2:1-13; Acts 23:23-35; Luke 7:18-35 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + Micah 3:1-8; Acts 24:1-23; Luke 7:36-50 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + Micah 3:9-4:5; Acts 24:24-25:12; Luke 8:1-15 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + Micah 5:1-4,10-15; Acts 25:13-27; Luke 8:16-25 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to October 12= + +Sunday: 146, 147; 111, 112, 113 + Micah 6:1-8; 1 Cor. 4:9-16; Matt. 15:21-28 + +Monday: 1, 2, 3; 4, 7 + Micah 7:1-7; Acts 26:1-23; Luke 8:26-39 + +Tuesday: 5, 6; 10, 11 + Jonah 1:1-17a; Acts 26:24-27:8; Luke 8:40-56 + +Wednesday: 119:1-24; 12, 13, 14 + Jonah 1:17-2:10; Acts 27:9-26; Luke 9:1-17 + +Thursday: 18:1-20; 18:21-50 + Jonah 3:1-4:11; Acts 27:27-44; Luke 9:18-27 + +Friday: 16, 17; 22 + Ecclus. 1:1-10,18-27; Acts 28:1-16; Luke 9:28-36 + +Saturday: 20, 21:1-7(8-14); 110:1-5(6-7), 116, 117 + Ecclus. 3:17-31; Acts 28:17-31; Luke 9:37-50 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to October 19= + +Sunday: 148, 149, 150; 114, 115 + Ecclus. 4:1-10; 1 Cor. 10:1-13; Matt. 16:13-20 + +Monday: 25; 9, 15 + Ecclus. 4:20-5:7; Rev. 7:1-8; Luke 9:51-62 + +Tuesday: 26, 28; 36, 39 + Ecclus. 6:5-17; Rev. 7:9-17; Luke 10:1-16 + +Wednesday: 38; 119:25-48 + Ecclus. 7:4-14; Rev. 8:1-13; Luke 10:17-24 + +Thursday: 37:1-18; 37:19-42 + Ecclus. 10:1-18; Rev. 9:1-12; Luke 10:25-37 + +Friday: 31; 35 + Ecclus. 11:2-20; Rev. 9:13-21; Luke 10:38-42 + +Saturday: 30, 32; 42, 43 + Ecclus. 15:9-20; Rev. 10:1-11; Luke 11:1-13 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to October 26= + +Sunday: 63:1-8(9-11),98; 103 + Ecclus. 18:19-33; 1 Cor. 10:15-24; Matt. 18:15-20 + +Monday: 41,52; 44 + Ecclus. 19:4-17; Rev. 11:1-14; Luke 11:14-26 + +Tuesday: 45; 47,48 + Ecclus. 24:1-12; Rev. 11:14-19; Luke 11:27-36 + +Wednesday: 119:49-72; 49,[53] + Ecclus. 28:14-26; Rev. 12:1-6; Luke 11:37-52 + +Thursday: 50; [59,60] *or* 33 + Ecclus. 31:12-18,25-32:2; Rev. 12:7-17; Luke 11:53-12:12 + +Friday: 40,54; 51 + Ecclus. 34:1-8,18-22; Rev. 13:1-10; Luke 12:13-31 + +Saturday: 55; 138,139:1-17(18-23) + Ecclus. 35:1-17; Rev. 13:11-18; Luke 12:32-48 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to November 2= + +Sunday: 24, 29; 8, 84 + Ecclus. 36:1-17; 1 Cor. 12:27-13:13; Matt. 18:21-35 + +Monday: 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65 + Ecclus. 38:24-34; Rev. 14:1-13; Luke 12:49-59 + +Tuesday: 61, 62; 68:1-20(21-23)24-36 + Ecclus. 43:1-22; Rev. 14:14-15:8; Luke 13:1-9 + +Wednesday: 72; 119:73-96 + Ecclus. 43:23-33; Rev. 16:1-11; Luke 13:10-17 + +Thursday: [70], 71; 74 + Ecclus. 44:1-15; Rev. 16:12-21; Luke 14:18-30 + +Friday: 69:1-23(24-30)31-38; 73 + Ecclus. 50:1,11-24; Rev. 17:1-18; Luke 13:31-35 + +Saturday: 75, 76; 23, 27 + Ecclus. 51:1-12; Rev. 18:1-14; Luke 14:1-11 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to November 9= + +Sunday: 93, 96; 34 + Ecclus. 51:13-22; 1 Cor. 14:1-12; Matt. 20:1-16 + +Monday: 80; 77, [79] + Joel 1:1-13; Rev. 18:15-24; Luke 14:12-24 + +Tuesday: 78:1-39; 78:40-72 + Joel 1:15-2:2(3-11); Rev. 19:1-10; Luke 14:25-35 + +Wednesday: 119:97-120; 81, 82 + Joel 2:12-19; Rev. 19:11-21; Luke 15:1-10 + +Thursday: [83] *or* 23,27; 85, 86 + Joel 2:21-27; James 1:1-15; Luke 15:1-2,11-32 + +Friday: 88; 91, 92 + Joel 2:28-3:8; James 1:16-27; Luke 16:1-9 + +Saturday: 87, 90; 136 + Joel 3:9-17; James 2:1-13; Luke 16:10-17(18) + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to November 16= + +Sunday: 66, 67; 19, 46 + Hab. 1:1-4(5-11)12-2:1; Phil. 3:13-4:1; Matt. 23:13-24 + +Monday: 89:1-18; 89:19-52 + Hab. 2:1-4,9-20; James 2:14-26; Luke 16:19-31 + +Tuesday: 97, 99, [100]; 94, [95] + Hab. 3:1-10(11-15)16-18; James 3:1-12; Luke 17:1-10 + +Wednesday: 101, 109:1-4(5-19)20-30; 119:121-144 + Mal. 1:1,6-14; James 3:13-4:12; Luke 17:11-19 + +Thursday: 105:1-22; 105:23-45 + Mal. 2:1-16; James 4:13-5:6; Luke 17:20-37 + +Friday: 102; 107:1-32 + Mal. 3:1-12; James 5:7-12; Luke 18:1-8 + +Saturday: 107:33-43, 108:1-6(7-13); 33 + Mal. 3:13-4:6; James 5:13-20; Luke 18:9-14 + + + =Week of the Sunday closest to November 23= + +Sunday: 118; 145 + Zech. 9:9-16; 1 Pet. 3:13-22; Matt. 21:1-13 + +Monday: 106:1-18; 106:19-48 + Zech. 10:1-12; Gal. 6:1-10; Luke 18:15-30 + +Tuesday: [120], 121, 122, 123; 124, 125, 126, [127] + Zech. 11:4-17; 1 Cor. 3:10-23; Luke 18:31-43 + +Wednesday: 119:145-176; 128, 129, 130 + Zech. 12:1-10; Eph. 1:3-14; Luke 19:1-10 + +Thursday: 131, 132, [133]; 134, 135 + Zech. 13:1-9; Eph. 1:15-23; Luke 19:11-27 + +Friday: 140, 142; 141, 143:1-11(12) + Zech. 14:1-11; Rom. 15:7-13; Luke 19:28-40 + +Saturday: 137:1-6(7-9), 144; 104 + Zech. 14:12-21; Phil. 2:1-11; Luke 19:41-48 + + + + + + + + +St. Andrew; November 30: + 34; Isaiah 49:1-6; 1 Corinthians 4:1-16 + 96,100; Isaiah 55:1-5; John 1:35-42 + +St. Thomas; December 21: + 23,121; Job 42:1-6; 1 Peter 1:3-9 + 27; Isaiah 43: 8-13; John 14:1-7 + +St. Stephen; December 26: + 28,30; 2 Chronicles 24:17-22; Acts 6:1-7 + 118; Wisdom 4:7-15; Acts 7:59-8:8 + +St. John; December 27: + 97,98; Proverbs 8:22-30; John 13:20-35 + 145; Isaiah 44:1-8; 1 John 5:1-12 + +Holy Innocents; December 28: + 2,26; Isaiah 49:13-23; Matthew 18:1-14 + 19,126; Isaiah 54:1-13; Mark 10:13-16 + +Confession of St. Peter; January 18: + 66,67; Ezekiel 3:4-11; Acts 10:34-44 + 118; Ezekiel 34:11-16; John 21:15-22 + +Conversion of St. Paul; January 25: + 19; Isaiah 45:18-25; Philippians 3:4b-11 + 119:89-112; Ecclesiasticus 39:1-10; Acts 9:1-22 + +Eve of the Presentation: + ; ; + 113,122; 1 Samuel 1:20-28a; Romans 8:14-21 + +The Presentation; February 2: + 42, 43; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; John 8:31-36 + 48,87; Haggai 2:1-9; 1 John 3:1-8 + +St. Matthias; February 24: + 80; 1 Samuel 16:1-13; 1 John 2:18-25 + 33; 1 Samuel 12:1-5; Acts 20:17-35 + +St. Joseph; March 19: + 132; Isaiah 63:7-16; Matthew 1:18-25 + 34; 2 Chronicles 6:12-17; Ephesians 3:14-21 + +Eve of the Annunciation + ;; + 8, 138; Genesis 3:1-15; Romans 5:12-21 or Galatians 4:1-7 + +The Annunciation; March 25: + 85, 87; Isaiah 52:7-12; Hebrews 2:5-10 + 110:1-5(6-7),132; Wisdom 9:1-12; John 1:9-14 + +St. Mark; April 25: + 145; Ecclesiasticus 2:1-11; Acts 12:25-13:3 + 67, 96; Isaiah 62:6-12; 2 Timothy 4:1-11 + +SS. Philip & James; May 1: + 119:137-160; Job 23:1-12; John 1:43-51 + 139; Proverbs 4:7-18; John 12:20-26 + +Eve of the Visitation: + ;; + 132; Isaiah 11:1-10; Hebrews 2:11-18 + +The Visitation; May 31: + 72; 1 Samuel 1:1-20; Hebrews 3:1-6 + 146,147; Zechariah 2:10-13; John 3:25-30 + +St. Barnabas; June 11: + 15,67; Ecclesiasticus 31:3-11; Acts 4:32-37 + 19, 146; Job 29:1-16; Acts 9:26-31 + +Eve of St. John the Baptist: + ;; + 103; Ecclesiasticus 48:1-11; Luke 1:5-23 + +Nativity of St. John the Baptist; June 24: + 82, 98; Malachi 3:1-5; John 3:22-30 + 80; Malachi 4:1-6; Matthew 11:2-19 + +SS. Peter & Paul; June 29: + 66; Ezekiel 2:1-7; Acts 11:1-18 + 97, 138; Isaiah 49:1-6; Galatians 2:1-9 + +Independence Day; July 4: + 33; Ecclesiasticus 10:1-8,12-18; James 5:7-10 + 107:1-32; Micah 4:1-5; Revelation 21:1-7 + +St. Mary Magdalene; July 22: + 116; Zephaniah 3:14-20; Mark 15:14-20 + 30, 149; Exodus 15:19-21; 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 + +St. James; July 25: + 34; Jeremiah 16:14-21; Mark 1:14-20 + 33; Jeremiah 26:1-15; Matthew 10:16-32 + +Eve of the Tranfiguration: + ;; + 84; 1 Kings 19:1-12; 2 Corinthians 3:1-9,18 + +The Transfiguration; August 6; + 2,24; Exodus 24:12-18; 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 + 72; Daniel 7:9-10,13-14; John 12:27-36a + +St. Mary the Virgin; August 15: + 113, 115; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; John 2:1-12 + 45, *or* 138, 149; Jeremiah 31:1-14 *or* Zechariah 2:10-13; John +19:23-27 *or* Acts 1:6-14 + +St. Bartholomew; August 24: + 86; Genesis 28:10-17; John 1:43-51 + 15, 67; Isaiah 66:1-2,18-23; 1 Peter 5:1-11 + +Eve of Holy Cross: + ;; + 46, 87; 1 Kings 8:22-30; Ephesians 2:11-22 + +Holy Cross Day; September 14: + 66; Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:11-17 + 118; Genesis 3:1-15; 1 Peter 3:17-22 + +St. Matthew; September 21: + 119:41-64; Isaiah 8:11-20; Romans 10:1-15 + 19, 112; Job 28:12-28; Matthew 13:44-52 + +St. Michael & All Angels; September 29: + 8, 148; Job 38:1-7; Hebrews 1:1-14 + 34, 150, *or* 104; Daniel 12:1-3 *or* 2 Kings 6:8-17; Mark 13:21-27 +*or* Revelation 5:1-14 + +St. Luke; October 18: + 103; Ezekiel 47:1-12; Luke 1:1-4 + 67, 96; Isaiah 52:7-10; Acts 1:1-8 + +St. James of Jerusalem; October 23: + 119:145-168; Jeremiah 11:18-23; Matthew 10:16-22 + 122,125; Isaiah 65:17-25; Hebrews 12:12-24 + +SS. Simon & Jude; October 28: + 66; Isaiah 28:9-16; Ephesians 4:1-16 + 116,117; Isaiah 4:2-6; John 14:15-31 + +Eve of All Saints: + ;; + 34; Wisdom 3:1-9; Revelation 19:1,4-10 + +All Saints' Day; November 1: + 111,112; 2 Esdras 2:42-47; Hebrews 11:32-12:2 + 148,150; Wisdom 5:1-5,14-16; Revelation 21:1-4,22--22:5 + +Thanksgiving Day: + 147; Deuteronomy 26:1-11; John 6:26-35 + 145; Joel 2:21-27; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 + + + + +Eve of the Dedication: + ;; + 48,122; Haggai 2:1-9; 1 Corinthians 3:9-17 + +Anniversary of the Dedication of a Church: + 132; 1 Kings 8:1-13; John 10:22-30 + 29, 46; 1 Kings 8:54-62; Hebrews 10:19-25 + +Eve of the Patronal Feast: + ;; + 27, *or* 116,117; Isaiah 49:1-13 *or* Ecclesiasticus 51:6b-12; +Ephesians 4:1-13 *or* Revelation 7:9-17 *or* Luke 10:38-42 + +The Patronal Feast: + 92,93, *or* 148, 149; Isaiah 52:7-10 *or* Job 5:8-21; Acts 4:5-13 *or* +Luke 12:1-12 + 96,97 *or* 111,112; Jeremiah 31:10-14 *or* Ecclesiasticus 2:7-18; +Romans 12:1-21 *or* Luke 21:10-19 + +Eves of Apostles and Evangelists: + ;; + 48, 122, *or* 84, 150; Isaiah 43:10-15[*] *or* Isaiah 52:7-10[**]; +Revelation 21:1-4,9-14 *or* Matthew 9:35-10:4 + + [*] Except on the Eve of St. Thomas + [**] Except on the Eves of St. Mark and St. Luke + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/bom-arc.txt b/religious documents/bom-arc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb6b5db --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bom-arc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,219 @@ +The following is the text of a series of messages by Ted Lapoint, sysop +of Kingdom Come! BBS concerning archaeology and the Book of Mormon: +======================================================================= + + +Biblical archaeology is a major field of inquiry that has filled museums +with artifacts had has filled libraries with books on cities, temples, +fortresses, coins, inscriptions, and so on, that have been dug from +mounds and ruins in Israel as well as in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iran +(Persia), Iraq (Babylon), and other lands mentioned in the Bible. +Archaeologists have often used the Bible as a guide to what to look for +and where, and the objects and writings uncovered have confirmed the +Bible as factual, proving that the people and places spoken of in the +Bible actually existed. + +Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian records unearthed by archaeologists may +portray their own pharaohs and kings as superior to the kings of Judah +and Israel, but they thus verify the existence of those Jewish and +gentile leaders named in the Bible. They may commemorate Egyptian and +Babylonian victories over ancient Israel, while they ignore their own +defeats, but they thus confirm that the battles really took place as +recorded in the Bible. Can the same be said for the Book of Mormon? + Have archaeologists digging in North, South and Central America +used the BOM as a guide, as they have used the Bible in the Near and +Middle East? Has the BOM guided them in locating and uncovering ruins +of cities, temples, and fortifications mentioned in that book the way +the Bible has? Have coins and inscriptions been unearthed in the +Americas bearing the names of nations and ruler spoken of in the BOM as +excavations in Bible lands have uncovered references to Old Testament +kings, New Testament Caesars, and even Pontius Pilate? And have any +writings been found in the Americas referring to the BOM's alleged +appearances of Christ in this hemisphere, comparable to the nearly +contemporary Roman and Jewish Talmud accounts, which refer to Jesus as a +criminal and an impostor but at least acknowledge that he did walk the +earth in the first century A.D. Judea? What archaeological evidence is +there for the BOM? + While apologists for the Mormon Church have written on the +subject, and organizations have been formed by the LDS members - with +the purpose of producing support for the BOM- with the result that +Mormons are able to trot out alleged "proof" of its authenticity - there +is an obvious difference between such chauvinistic efforts and the +legitimate work of professional archaeologists. Thus, if the LDS Church +members choose to ignore the findings of the anthropology and +archaeology departments of schools across the country in favor of +conclusions reached at Brigham Young University, this should not be +surprising. But anyone who approaches the subject with both eyes open +quickly notices that Mormons keep citing Mormon sources for their +support, because support is lacking from academically recognized +non-Mormon experts in the field. + Undoubtedly, one of the most comprehensive sources for +historical and archaeological information on the Americas is the +Smithsonian Institution to inquire concerning the authenticity of the +historical events portrayed in the Book of Mormon. + In a letter to the Smithsonian - dated January 1, 1990, the +following letter was sent: + +Dear Sir or Madam: + + I have been reading the Book of Mormon, a scripture of "The +Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" (the Mormons). I have +questions concerning the authenticity of the historical events that it +portrays. They are: + + 1) Is the Book of Mormon used to find archaeological sites in + the New World? + + 2) Is there archaeological evidence that prior to the European + influence, the North, Central and South American Indians did: + + a. use iron and or steel? + + b. use vehicle with wheels like full size wagons, + carts, chariots or similar? + + c. use or have access to asses, goats, horses, sheep, + elephants, cattle, oxen, cows? + + d. use of have access to domesticated plants like + wheat, barley, oats, millet, and rice? + + e. use silk and or linen? + + 3) Did some or all of the original ancestors of the American + Indians come from Israel or some Semetic family? + + 4) Have any New world archaeological sites ever been connected + to a Book of Mormon event or location? If so, please name them. + + Thank you for your response to the above and any related +information you may wish to send. I have enclosed a check for $2.00 to +cover postage, handling, etc. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + +Now, I would like to list all of the areas in the BOM that instigated +the above questions: + +Iron (2 Nephi 5:15;20:34; Jarom 1:8; Mosiah 11:8; Ether 10:23) +Steel (1 Nephi 4:9; 16:18; 2 Nephi 5:15; Ether 7:9) +Vehicles with wheels (Alma 18:9-10, 12; 3 Nephi 3:22; 21:14) +Asses (1 Nephi 18:25; Mosiah 5:14; 12:5; Ether 9:19) +Goats (1 Nephi 18:25; Alma 14:29; Ether 9:18) +Horses (1 Nephi 18:25; 2 Nephi 12:7; Enos 1:21; Alma 18:9-12; 3 Nephi + 3:22l 21:14; 1:21; 3 Nephi 3:22; 6:1; Ether 9:19) +Sheep (Ether 9:18) +Elephants (Ether 9:19) +Cattle (Enos 1:21; 3 Nephi 3:22; 6:1; Ether 9:18) +Oxen (1 Nephi 18:25; Ether 9:18) +Cows (1 Nephi 18:25; Ether 9:18) +Wheat (Mosiah 9:9) +Grain (Helaman 11:17) +Silk (1 Nephi 13:7; Alma 1:29; Ether 9:17) +Linen (1 Nephi 13:7-8; Mosiah 10:5; Alma 1:29; 4:6; Ether 10:24) + +And this, was their response: + + Your recent inquiry concerning the Smithsonian Institution's +alleged use of the Book of Mormon as a scientific guide has been +received in the Smithsonian's department of Anthropology. + The Book of Mormon is a religious document and not a scientific +guide. The Smithsonian Institution has never used it in archaeological +research and any information that you have received to the contrary is +incorrect. Accurate information about the Smithsonian's position is +contained in the enclosed "Statement Regarding the Book of Mormon," +which was prepared to respond to the numerous inquiries that the +Smithsonian receives on this topic. + Because the Smithsonian regards the unauthorized use of its name +to disseminate inaccurate information as unlawful, we would appreciate +your assistance in providing us with the names of any individuals who +are misusing the Smithsonian's name. Please address any correspondence +to: + Public Information Center + Department of Anthropology + Natural Museum of Natural History + Smithsonian Institution + Washington, DC 20560 + +PREPARED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY - SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION + +The "Statement Regarding the Book of Mormon" is as follows: + +1. The Smithsonian Institution has never used the Book of Mormon in any +was as a scientific guide. Smithsonian archaeologists see no direct +connection between the archaeology of the New World and the subject +matter of the book. + +2. The physical type of the American Indian is basically Mongoloid, +being most closely related to that of the peoples of eastern, central, +and northeastern Asia. Archaeological evidence indicates that the +ancestors of the present Indians came into the New World - probably over +a land bridge known to have existed in the Bering Strait during the last +Ice Age - in a continuing series of small migrations beginning from +about 25,000 to 30,000 years ago. + +3. Present evidence that the first people to reach this continent from +the East were the Norsemen who briefly visited the northeastern part of +North America around A.D. 1000 and then settled in Greenland. There is +nothing to show that they reached Mexico or Central America. + +4. One of the main lines of evidence supporting the scientific finding +that contacts with Old World civilizations, if indeed they occurred at +all, were of very little significance for the development of American +Indian civilizations, is the fact that none of the principal Old World +domesticated food plants or animals (except the dog) occurred in the New +World in pre-Columbian times. American Indians had no wheat, barley, +oats, millet, rice, cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, donkeys, camels +before 1492. (Camels and horses were in the Americas, along with bison, +mammoth and mastodon, but all of these animals became extinct around +10,000 B.C. at the time when the early big-game hunters spread across +the Americas.) + +5. Iron, steel, glass, and sild were not used in the New World before +1492 (except for occasional use of unsmelted meteoric iron). Native +copper was worked in various locations in pre-Columbian times, but true +metallurgy was limited to southern Mexico and the Andean region, where +its occurrence in late prehistoric times involved gold, silver, copper, +and their alloys, but not iron.* + +6. There is a possibility that the spread of cultural traits across the +Pacific to Mesoamerica and the northwestern coast of South america began +several hundred years before the Christian era. However, any such +inter-hemisphere contacts appear to have been the results of accidental +voyages origination in eastern and southern Asia. It is by no means +certain that even such contacts occurred; certainly there were no +contacts with the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, or other people of Western +Asian and the Near East. + +7. No reputable Egyptologist or other specialist on Old World +archaeology, and no expert on New World prehistory, has discovered of +confirmed any relationship between archaeological remains in Mexico and +archaeological remains in Egypt. + +8. Reports of findings of ancient Egyptian, Hebrew, and other Old World +writings in the New WOrld in pre-Columbian contexts have frequently +appeared in newspapers, magazines, and sensational books. None of these +claims has stood up to examination by reputable scholars. No +inscriptions using Old World forms of writing have been shown to have +occurred in any part of the Americas before 1492 except for a few Norse +stones which have been found in Greenland. + + +* Authors note: Iron proceeds steel. +********************************************************************** + +So, while archaeologists working in the Near East and the Middle East +have found an abundance of artifacts confirming the history found in the +Bible, what archaeologists have found in the Americas fails to support +the Book of Mormon and, in fact, contradicts it. + +Both Mormon founder Joseph Smith Jr., and LDS Church President (late?) +Ezra Taft Benson have called the Book of Mormon "the keystone of our +religion." (The ENSIGN - January 1992, pp-2-5) The archaeological +evidence against the Book of Mormon,then, serves as evidence also +against the entire Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/bonevsfo.txt b/religious documents/bonevsfo.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b41c1d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bonevsfo.txt @@ -0,0 +1,392 @@ + An Open Letter to Selena Fox + by Isaac Bonewits + +Dear Selena: +... +A few months ago I received a mailing from Circle in which you +asked for (a) money to finish paying off the mortgage for the land +Circle has been buying for many years, (b) suggestions for +fundraising methods, and (c) "ideas and suggestions" as to how +Circle should grow. + +I also read the mailings put out earlier this year by the +"revolutionary" members of Circle, including the transcript of the +meeting between them, yourself, and your lawyer. Confused, +puzzled, and pained, I talked to you and to your supporters and +opponents, including former workers at your headquarters. The more +I learned, the more disturbed I became. + +Apparently, you are an intensely private person and have always +resented people looking at what you consider your personal +business. Yet my concern for Circle is not gossip, nor is it (as +you put it to me) "sticking my nose where it doesn't belong." +Circle is large, international, and has served a unique networking +function in our community. If you don't know by now that what +happens to you matters to us all, and that you have become a +"public figure" in our community, then you've seriously +underestimated your own importance. + +For many, many Neopagans, Circle was a doorway to the Goddess +and to Her people. Our community would be considerably smaller, if +it hadn't been for the work that Circle did for so many years. +That you have been one of the most widely respected, loved, and +trusted leaders in the Neopagan communi- ty, makes this letter +especially painful to write. + +Circle was one of the first groups to buy land for Neopagan use. +For years I championed your cause, both because I felt that land +purchases were an inevitable evolutionary step for our community +and because of the undeni- ably good work you had done as a +networking organization. I recommended you to correspondents who +wanted contacts and pointed you out as an example of a Neopagan +group that had obtained real estate without getting corrupted. + +I no longer feel that I can support you or Circle, or advise +others to do so. The change in my attitude has come about slowly, +over a period of several years, with the recent events +crystallizing my perceptions. Things add up... + +After years of correctly telling folks at gatherings not to take +photo- graphs of people without their permission, especially +during rituals, you still run around during ceremonies (ignoring +the spiritual energies being raised and focussed), or even at +skyclad bonfire dances, snapping pictures for your slide +collection and Circle Network News. Some of those slides have been +shown to strangers all around the country, other photos were +published in C.N.N. and even in non-Pagan publications -- at least +some without the consent of the people depicted. This is only one +example of an apparently pervasive attitude you seem to have that +the rules you impose on others simply don't apply to yourself. + +Other examples: After refusing to pay the expenses of other +Neopagan teachers to attend and speak at Circle's well-financed +events, you always demand red-carpet treatment for yourself and +your husband to attend and present workshops at events held by +others. Despite being constantly recommended by other Neopagan +individuals and organizations, you seldom recommend any teacher or +group other than yourself and Circle. After building the "Church +of Circle Wicca" as one of the most famous Wiccan churches in the +world, you unilaterally decided this year to drop "the W word" -- +a position I tend to support for the community at large, but one +which seems to leave your thousands of Wiccan members without a +voice. You then attempted to declare a copyright on the +wide-spread concept of Nature mysticism. + +Circle has a reputation as an all-inclusive Neopagan networking +organi- zation, yet former Circle workers agree that, for at least +five years, you discouraged them from giving networking contacts +to inquirers, instead having them sell the Circle Guide to Pagan +Groups and ads in C.N.N. Apparently this was originally because +doing referrals took too much time out of the limited number of +volunteer-hours you had available, yet you never announced to the +community that you had stopped providing local Neopagan contacts, +or what you had decided was a higher priority. Worse, after a loud +argument with one of Circle's critics, you censored his +organization's listings out of the 1990 Guide. Even if this was +done with his consent (as one witness claims), it was grossly +inappropriate for a reference work that many people believe to be +a complete listing of Neopagan resources. + +You bought Circle Sanctuary with donations sent by thousands of +Neopagans, originally claiming that it would be open and available +for general use by the community, and then fenced it about with so +many restrictions that it has become essentially your private +property. A half-dozen ex-workers at Circle agreed that it was +nearly impossible for ordinary Neopagans to visit "their" +sanctuary for religious purposes without providing money and/or +free labor to you at the same time. Amazingly enough, one couple +on the west coast claims that after donating over $5,000 to Circle +they were refused permission to visit the land because they had a +small child with them! + +Circle's by-laws have never been published, so no one knows for +sure who is or isn't a "member" of Circle for voting purposes, nor +how your board of directors gets elected. You told me that there +have been and are other members of your board of directors +(besides yourself, your husband Dennis and your lawyer), but +declined to give me the current names. Your opponents tell me that +this "secret board of directors" is a story you've told for years, +but I was able to verify the names of two people who have been +directors in the past. Apparently your policy is simply to have +the board consist of you, your spouse (first Jim and now Dennis) +and one other person -- a handy way to make sure that you retain +majority control. + +There are also legitimate questions about the enormous sums of +money that have flowed through your hands over the years. I have +been informed, by extremely reliable sources, that you have used +one of Circle's checking accounts as a personal one, that normal +financial books don't exist and never have, that Dennis' education +has been paid for in large part out of Circle's general funds, and +that he forbid workers at your headquarters to open the mail +because they had been asking questions about incoming bank +statements. Further, Dennis has been quoted mentioning a secret +fund that would provide for your personal survival, should Circle +ever fold. + +When I brought some of these allegations up to you in our +conversation, you denied a few of them directly and evaded +responding to others. As an investigative journalist and a +concerned member of the Neopagan community, I have no way of +knowing how many of these very serious accusations against you may +be true -- but without published financial reports, neither does +anybody else! Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been donated +to Circle over the years, yet no one seems to know where it has +all gone, and you're not saying. You told me that neither federal +nor Wisconsin law requires you to file or publish financial +reports. Yet hadn't it ever occurred to you that sooner or later +the people who had been giving you all that money would want to +know what you had done with it -- and that they would have a moral +right to know? + +When the broken-hearted people who thought they were members of +Circle tried to confront you over these issues of power and +accountability, your response was to bring in a lawyer who reacted +to all criticism and ques- tioning with threatened lawsuits. At +that meeting you danced around the issues that people brought up, +never giving a straight answer to any ques- tion. Instead you +focused on your anger towards those who had used Circle's mailing +list to share their fears and concerns. Your comments on all of +this in Circle Network News omitted most of the serious criticism +that had been laid against you and Circle, and implied that +nothing negative was happening. Your phone conversation with me +consisted of a few direct denials, dozens of evasions, efforts to +pump me for my sources, and re- peated threats of unspecified +legal and other troubles for me and my organization (Ar nDraiocht +Fein: A Druid Fellowship, Inc. -- "ADF") if I persisted in my +plans to publish the results of my investigation. + +This behavior is not what we expect from a world-famous Neopagan +organi- zation run by someone many consider to be a Neopagan +saint. What has gone wrong? I am inevitably reminded of the +scandals surrounding the P.T.L. organization and the fact that no +Christian leader was willing to criticize the Bakkers until after +the media exposed them. The scandal almost de- stroyed the entire +field of televangelism. That might seem good to Neo- pagans, but +now the shoes are on our feet. + +Now it's one of our leaders who seems to be behaving in an +unethical and irresponsible manner. What should we do, Selena? +Should we all be silent and pretend that nothing is wrong, while +we hope for your problems to go away by themselves? Should we wait +until Circle blows up in our faces, strengthening the biases of +those who are opposed to the very idea of large public Neopagan +churches? Should we wait until you are investigated by hostile +outside forces, making it infinitely harder for other Neopagans to +get fair treatment -- and no doubt leading to yet another +fund-raising campaign to protect you from "anti-Pagan +persecution"? Most importantly, would such inaction on our part +benefit the community or the Earth? + +I'm not saying that ADF and I are perfect in regard to all these +issues. ADF's finances were confused for several years, first +because I was paying out of my own pocket for most of our expenses +(and seldom kept receipts), and later because our bookkeeper was +an inexperienced volunteer (now we have a professional accountant +on the Board). We have not always delivered on time the products +or publications that we promised our members. But, by the Gods, +when we have made mistakes, we have admitted it. We publish our +by-laws so that all our members know the rules to our game, we +print financial statements to let our members know how their money +is spent, and we make available the minutes from our Board +meetings so everyone will know how and why decisions are made. +When our members have offered legitimate complaints about how we +have handled things, we have listened carefully and then tried to +respond appropriately. + +I will admit to some envy of you and Circle. When I think of all +the good that might have been accomplished by ADF (or by any of a +dozen other public Neopagan churches) if we had had one-half of +your income, I get both sad and angry. I've spent my entire adult +life, as have other Neopagan leaders, living far below the +economic level that my skills could earn me, surviving on an +income less than that of most members of the Neopagan community -- +just so I could devote myself to the work I believe the Gods want +me to do. It infuriates me to see enough money flowing into Circle +to staff three Neopagan churches with full-time clergy, vanishing +into fairyland without a trace. Of course it's obvious, to +everyone who knows you, that you and Dennis are not living +luxuriously. This makes the vanishing money all the more +puzzling. + +I realize that you are not going to appreciate my criticism and +that I am now on your enemies list for the rest of my life. It +doesn't matter. I would be betraying both the Earth Mother and my +own principles if I didn't speak out before matters get even +worse. + +You have publicly asked for suggestions as to how Circle should +grow. You've said that you want to put the past behind you and +concentrate, as always, on "positive energies." OK, here are some +positive steps you and Circle could take: + +Start by admitting, in your own publications, so that all your +followers will hear you, that Circle has made some serious +mistakes and that you are a fallible human being. + +Adopt and publish a set of by-laws that lets people know who the +members of Circle are, and what voting rights, if any, they may +have. + +Put several more people on your Board of Directors and publish +their names, and let us all know how and why they got there. They +don't all have to be in your local area -- telephone conference +calls work just fine for Board meetings. + +If you haven't already done so, open a separate personal +checking account for yourself and your husband. Have someone other +than you or Dennis write the checks for Circle. If you've both +taken vows of poverty to the church, and are therefore entitled to +be supported by it, say so. Hire a full-time bookkeeper (you can +afford the wages), and publish quarterly financial reports. Hire a +C.P.A. to run an inventory on all Circle's property and publish +the results. Publish the details on all the land payments you have +made and how much is still owed. + +Design, publish and implement a training system for your clergy +so that someone other than you and Dennis can be leaders someday. +Make sure that you both genuinely qualify under the training +system standards yourselves. + +If you're going to continue to present Circle as a networking +organization, put all your names and addresses into a database, +add confidentiality safe- guards as requested, update the list +frequently, and share this data with those who write in and +request it. Otherwise you should announce to the community that +you aren't doing referrals anymore, and why. + +Publish a detailed explanation of your policies for controlling +access to the Circle Sanctuary so that people who have donated +money will know under what circumstances they may use the land +they have paid for. + +Except for the last point, these are all things that we in ADF +have done or are now trying to do. Many other Neopagan groups have +done some of them. They are normal for most mainstream churches, +large and small. Your local Unitarian Universalist congregation +can probably give you advice on the details. Or you could ask the +folks at any of a dozen other large Neopagan groups, most of whom +have been doing these sorts of things for years. + +When I talked to you on the phone, you said that you were +planning on publishing by-laws and financial reports, and making +other major changes, before the end of the year. You said that +turning 40 (as I did last year) and other brushes with mortality +had turned your thoughts towards setting up Circle to run without +you. Yet I find it hard to believe that you will take the +necessary steps without the glare of a community spotlight being +focussed on you -- hence this open letter. If you can prove me +wrong and make all the organizational changes that are necessary +to turn Circle into something we can all be proud of again, I will +be delighted. + +Perhaps more important than these organizational steps, you +might consider taking a sabbatical for a year or two, and turning +Circle over to someone you still trust. You need to get back in +touch with your roots, with the ideals that brought you to +Neopaganism in the first place. + +But don't expect people in the Neopagan community to continue +sending you hundreds of thousands of dollars until you have proven +beyond a reasonable doubt that Circle is open, honest, democratic, +and financially responsible. + +May the Gods bless, heal, and inspire you. + + --Isaac + +A PS to my fellow Neopagans: + +I'm sure that the preceding opinions have shocked and offended +many of you, especially those of you who love Selena. It is only +after much meditation and pain that I have decided to publish this +letter as widely as possible in the Neopagan community. We need to +discuss the issues in depth, both to help heal Circle and to +prevent such trouble from happening again to other groups. Perhaps +we need to develop a detailed code of ethics for running the +increasing number of public Neopagan churches. Perhaps we need a +fair and practical listing of what sort of behavior we expect from +our leaders -- as part of a "Neopagan Common Law." + +I hope that you will meditate upon the issues and discuss them +with your friends. Ask the leaders of any large Neopagan group you +may belong to whether they have taken steps similar to those I +have suggested to Selena. Then write to the publication in which +you read this. Send a copy of your thoughts to Selena at Circle, +P.O. Box 219, Mt. Horeb, WI 53572. Send another copy to me at P.O. +Box 9420, Newark, DE 19714, marked "Circle Controversy." The +editor of The Druids' Progress has agreed to publish a fair +representation of the responses in the next issue of D.P., along +with any reply that Selena may care to make. + +Please don't respond to this open letter by criticizing me or +ADF. As I have admitted many times in the past, I have feet of +clay going up to my waist, have a gigantic ego, and have made many +mistakes in running ADF and other Neopagan organizations over the +years. My virtues or vices are not relevant to the situation at +Circle, nor is my rudeness in pointing matters out in public that +many would prefer to keep private. + +Circle's current problems represent an inevitable growth stage, +not just for itself and Selena, but for the community as a whole. +As our population soars, we are faced with important questions +about power, accountability, and ethics. Whether or not Selena is +willing to honestly and openly address the issues, it's about time +that the rest of us started thrashing them out. Perhaps after +discussing this with your friends, you may want to make some +changes in your own groups. Indeed, the situation at Circle has +already sparked some major policy revisions and new by-laws for +ADF and other Neopagan churches as well. I'm definately not +saying that Neopagans should stop giving money to our growing +number of public Neopagan churches. After all, large scale acti- +vities do require large scale resources. What I am suggesting is +that we boycott groups who ask for large donations (or small ones +constantly), until we see their by-laws, financial reports, and +minutes of their board meetings. This is the simple sort of common +sense that any consumer advocate would advise. If we're going to +give financial, emotional, political, or magical support to a +group, let's make sure that it's being run in a publically +accessible, honest, and responsible manner. Otherwise, we're no +wiser than the folks who kept the Bakkers in business for so +long. + +Let's all pay careful attention to Selena's response to this +open letter. Will she send out a mass mailing telling her +followers that everything is fine and to "think positive"? Will +she try to sue me for daring to voice concerns held by many? Will +she publish negative gossip about me (there's plenty available) in +an attempt to discredit my criticism and avoid answering my +questions? Will she simply ignore this letter, knowing that the +vast majority of her support comes from new members of the +community who will not have read it? Or will she deal forthrightly +with the issues involved and open Circle up to democratic +participation by its members? Only time will tell. + +On a personal note, I'd like to ask the members of the Neopagan +community to stop expecting our leaders, national or local, to be +infallible, impec- cable, infinitely strong, Neopagan saints. +Almost all of us come from dysfunctional families, are survivors +of various forms of abuse, and/or have had problems with +addiction, obsession, or eating disorders. We are all subject to +depression and professional burnout. This is the same profile +shared by clergy in other religions and people in other helping +professions. As leaders, we need your love, your understanding, +and your support (financial, emotional, and spiritual). We also +need your compas- sionate and thoughtful criticism to warn us when +we start to go off the deep end. Hubris, the overwhelming pride +that offends the Gods, can be caused by uncritical followers as +easily as by our own egos, with disas- trous results for our whole +community. + +As Selena has shown us. +******************************************************************* +This open letter and PS are (c) 1990 by Isaac Bonewits, and were +first published in The Druids' Progress #7 (Fall '90). The +opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not +necessarily represent those of ADF, Inc., nor of any other +organization. Permission to reprint is hereby granted to all +Neopagan media, including electronic BBS's, if no editing is done +and this notice is included. + +--- + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/book.txt b/religious documents/book.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c0b8cb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3892 @@ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Conversations with a Satanist + + + + Tommy Savage + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + © 1993 Tommy Savage + + + + + + + + CONTENTS + + +Preface 3 + +1. What is Satanism? 5 + +2. America - Christian Country 13 + +3. Common misconceptions and outright lies 21 + +4. Who gets the credit, God or man? 33 + +5. Biblical Scripture 41 + +6. What is evil? 57 + +7. Masturbation and the fear of sex 66 + +8. What about love? 81 + +9. Christian [In]tolerance & a lesson in semantics 87 + +10. Am I a Satanist? 101 + +11. Why become a Satanist? 112 + +12. Some theories on Satan 120 + +13. On the lighter side 128 + +14. Satanic organizations 132 + +15. Selected readings 135 + + + PREFACE + + This book contains actual conversations conducted on a computer +bulletin board service. The names of the individuals involved have been +changed, not in order to protect them, but to insure that I won't have to ask +their permission or pay them . + + Satan has been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in the world +for the last 2,000 years. He is the scapegoat for all the world's problems. +For every thought that goes against the principles and tenets set forth by +mainstream Judeo-Christian society, for every action commited by man that +he can not, or will not accept responsibility for, Satan has been held +accountable. There was a time [not too long ago in fact] when those who +suffered from mental illness were said to be possessed by the Devil. + 'The Devil made me do it' is a common defense [or lack of one] for +criminals and other undesirables who are unable [or unwilling] to take +responsibility for their own actions. He has been used to scare people into +following an outdated and outmoded religion. Without the threat of being +eternally damned to the unspeakable tortures and agonies in the fiery pit of +Hell, Christianity would not have been as successful as it is, and the Church +would have been out of business a long time ago. So how does the Church +treat the person responsible for it's continued success? Very shabbily +indeed! + Satanists are the last real minority. It is acceptable [although illegal +and unconstitutional] to discriminate against Satanists. Whether it is on +the television talk and news shows, Christian [and secular] radio shows, or +in print, Satanists can be harassed and condemned with impunity. No other +group or religion has to suffer such indignation. + On the following pages, intermingled with my personal views, are some +of the conversations I have had with Christians over the modem lines on a +public access bulletin board. I have left them complete and unedited [except +for the many misspellings]. I was surprised [although with all things +considered, perhaps I shouldn't have been] to learn that in these supposedly +enlightened times, a lot of people still believe everything they see on shows +like 'Geraldo' or read in the trashier, headline hungry newspapers. +Ignorance creates fear, fear becomes hate, and hate leads to the kinds of +atrocities that Christians have been committing for centuries. More people +have been killed in the name of the Christian God than for any other reason, +and yet poor old Satan has to take the rap for all the so-called evils of the +world. + In these conversations I have tried to dispel some of the myths and +misconceptions surrounding Satanism. The book also shows how Satanism +can be and is incorporated into everyday life. While all Satanists will find +something of value within these pages, it is mainstream Christian society +that will benefit the most from it. + The views and ideas I have expressed in this book [while influenced by +the works of Dr. LaVey and others] are solely my own and are not meant to +represent any established Satanic organization. + + +Oxnard, Ca., February 28, XXVIII A.S. + + + + + 1. + +What is Satanism? + + + What is Satanism? For many people the word 'Satanism' immediately +conjurs up images of black robed figures, animal and human sacrifices, +black masses, blood rituals, and a score of other atrocities so horrible, that +the mind wobbles. These tales are avidly revealed to us by headline hungry +newspapers and ratings conscious TV shows. The sources for these stories +are most often indignant members of the Christian church or sobbing +neurotics who, under the advice of their therapist, have come forward to +recount their ghastly experiences at the hands of a brutal Satanic cult as +part of their 'healing process' and in the hopes that others may gain +strength from their courage. Their altruistic gestures are, of course, +supplemented by a large check for their appearance. The picture they paint +is a grim one, but not necessarily a realistic one. + + This is not Satanism as it is practiced today. While I am not naive +enough to think that some of these so-called 'Satanic ritual abuses' have +never happened, most of the horror stories are pure fantasy propagated by +the Christian church in order to instill fear into the populace. The Church +knows that in order to keep it's flock, and gain new sheep to the herd that it +must promote itself as the last bastion of hope in a world ruled by the evil +Satan and his bloodthirsty hordes. + + There is also a growing trend among some psychotherapists who, in +seeking fame via talk shows and/or a book deal, actually have placed ideas +of Satanic ritual abuse into their patient's minds. These people have no +recollection of any kind of 'Satanic' abuse until after they are introduced +to it by their therapists. The use of leading questions and suggestion, while +the patient is under hypnosis, can actually implant false memories of +'Satanic' rituals, child sacrifices, molestations, and blood drinking into the +less than healthy mind of their patients. The only people who appear to +believe this nonsense are several major police departments who have +actually started 'Satanic task forces' to investigate what they claim to be +a growing phenomena of Satanic crime. + + They claim that there is a world-wide Satanic cult terrorizing our +country. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent in the investigation of +this cult. They cite cases of animal mutilations, Satanic grafitti, and of +course the testimony of the 'survivors' as proof that this cult exists. The +fact that no hard evidence [such as the bones of the victims, bloody knifes, +soiled robes, ect...] has ever been produced or any culprits indicted has not +stopped special agents assigned to these Satanic task forces from traveling +around the country and speaking at churches, PTA meetings and anywhere +else they can about the dangers involved with Satanism. They give a list of +'warning signs' that show involvement in Satanic activities. + + These 'signs' include listening to heavy metal music, wearing black +clothing, outbreaks of violent behavior, depression, nightmares or insomnia, +withdrawal from family and friends, and the list goes on. Parents are told to +watch for these signs and to take the appropriate actions [i.e. Report them +to the police and seek immediate psychiatric and religious counseling] if +they suspect their child might be involved with Satanism or the occult. + + There are some confused and twisted people who commit the horrendous +acts made famous on TV talk shows and in the National Enquirer. But these +sick individuals are not Satanists, they are nothing more than Christian +'Devil' worshipers and nuts who have bought into the Church's propaganda +and need to justify their vile deeds by putting the blame on someone else, +namely Satan. A Satanist loves his life and freedom and would not +jeopardize them by breaking the law. Satanists do not need to prey upon +unwilling and innocent victims, there are plenty of willing participants to +be found for any type of activity you wish to engage in. A true Satanist +[despite all the malicious slander] would never harm an animal or a child. +Instead, a Satanist holds them in the highest regard because they act +naturally and true to themselves. They are not motivated by self-sacrificing +ideologies. They have not yet been corrupted and blinded by the outdated +moral code and backward ethics that will someday be thrust upon them by +the masses of Christian sheep that inhabit our planet. + + Satanists do not worship the Christian 'Satan'. He is merely a myth +created by the writers of the Bible to add some drama and conflict to their +tale. Most of the Satanists that I know do not even believe in a God, and none +of them believe in the red underwear wearing, pitchfork carrying, horny +headed fallen angel cast into the fiery pit for all eternity. If a view of 'God' +is needed, most think of it as a balancing force in nature that is unknowing +and uncaring of the trials and tribulations of man. + + 'If you don't believe in Satan, then why do you call yourselves +Satanists?' Good question, here's the answer. [actually, here's a whole +bunch of answers.] Take your pick. + + Number 1. The Hebrew word 'Satan' literally translates to 'adversary, +opposite' and we are the enemies of the anti-human philosophies and herd +mentality of the Judeo-Christian religion. All abstinence = spirituality +religions thrive on the lack of 'self' in it's congregation. By removing the +egos of their followers, religious leaders are able to keep it's flock under +control and their hands buried deeply in their pockets. + + Number 2. By using the name Satan, [even though it carries negative +connotations to the majority of society] we can shake up the status quo and +sufficiently shock people enough so that just maybe, we might get their +attention long enough for them to hear what we have to say. Our society has +become increasingly apathetic, and sometimes a slap in the face is the only +way to get someone's attention. + + Number 3. Christians blame everything they don't like on Satan. If +someone goes against the established Christian order, he is said to be under +the influence of Satan. There are only two kinds of people to the religious +fundamentalist; Christians and Satanists. Why not take the name they have +already given us and use it to our advantage? + + + Number 4. Satan has been depicted in hundreds of stories, by hundreds of +authors, in hundreds of ways. There are however, some common traits that +are attributed to the Prince of Darkness in all of these stories [including the +Bible]. Some of the most common are intelligence, cleverness, pride, a sense +of humor, nobility, arrogance, cunning and most of all, a deep sense of +self-worth. Is this the kind of person that we should despise? On the +contrary, these characteristics are to be admired, especially when compared +to the jealous, vindictive and cruel nature of God as presented in the Old +Testament. Of the two, I would much rather be associated with Satan. + + Number 5. It is useful in weeding out the weaker and therefore +undesirable element from our midst. A lot of people use the name of Satan +because it makes them feel special, or gives them a false sense of power. +They think that if they align themselve with us that our strength will be +transfered to them. Teenagers and those who are just plain antisocial, use +the name as a means to thumb their noses at authority. The greedy have used +it because they think they can make a buck off of it. What these types people +fail to realize is that by using the name Satanist, they open themselves up +to persecution, hatred, and the most vicious kind of slander. Only a truly +strong and self-confident person could take an obvious stigma like the title +of Satanist and make it work for them. In short, only a true Satanist can use +the name and get away with it. + + 'Death is the great abstinence'-Anton Szandor LaVey. Satanism is a +celebration of life and personal success instead of the Christian philosophy +of 'Thou shall not' and self debasement in order to gain glory once you are +dead. Satanist strive for success and happiness in all aspects of their lives. +They boldly walk through life with their heads held high, smashing the +sacred cows of man and religion and exposing their fallacies for all to see. + + Satanism is much more than just an an anti-Christian philosophy. It also +provides a healthy dose of ritual and dogma. Growing up as we have in a +dominant Christian society, ritual has become an ingrained part of our +society. Many people desire a little organized ceremony in their lives, and +Satanism can provide that. Most Christian ceremonies [such as Christmas] +are actually parodies of earlier pagan ceremonies. Any first year Biblical +scholar can attest to the fact that Jesus wasn't born in the winter, but his +birth is celebrated on December 25th for a very simple reason. When the +conquering Christians gained power, they found that is was easier to keep +their new [physically forced] converts happy and under control if, instead of +totally eradicating their old religion, they just changed it around a little +bit. December 25th is suspiciously close to the Winter Solstice, a pagan +holiday. + + The individual human will is the cornerstone of Satanic philosophy. The +ability to reason and make individual choices is a primary attribute of +Satanists. For far too long religion has been used as an excuse to justify a +persons thoughts and actions. Saying 'I believe this because I'm a +Christian' or 'I act this way because I'm a Christian' are nothing more than +convenient escape routes from reason. Using religion [or anything else for +that matter] as a scapegoat to justify your actions is not the way of the +Satanist. As Satanists, we must constantly ask ourselves 'Why do I believe +this?' If you can come up with no better answer than 'Because I am a +Satanist' you should rethink your stance on the given issue, and perhaps +reevaluate your assertion that you are a Satanist. + + Like any other serious organization, Satanism also contains within +itself a set of goals. Stratification is one of the major goals of Satanism. +Simply put, stratification means that individuals end up on the level of +achievement and success that they have earned and deserve through their +hard work and personal abilities. Men are not born equal! This myth must be +put to rest once and for all. The Church has strived to homogenize our +society. When all men are made to be equal, then control of them becomes a +simple matter. A Satanist realizes that men are NOT equal. Some are born +with more raw talent or intelligence than others. The cultivation and +application of these abilities will determine the level of achievement you +obtain as compared to others. This is not to say that you should compare +yourself to others by their standards! You alone can decide how you are +fulfilling the goals you have set for yourself, and they must be by your +standards. Judging yourself by the ethics and morals set by others is for the +milling hordes that infest our planet, and not for the Satanist. + + Another goal of Satanism is the strict taxation of churches. For far too +long these establishments have been given a free ride in our society. They +are nothing more than a cleverly concealed business. They advertise, sell +goods, and make a profit. Why should they be exempt from paying their +rightful share to the country that allows their foolishness to flourish? If +churches were taxed, the National Debt would be wiped out in no time flat. + + There are many reasons why a person chooses to live a Satanic lifestyle, +foremost among them being happiness. If you are happy with your chosen +path in life, and are living by your own rules and not blindly following the +outmoded moral concepts of others, if you are achieving success at the +goals you have set for yourself, then you are living a lifestyle that can +certainly be considered Satanic. Some people come to Satanism because they +are fed up with the hypocrisy that is inherent in the Christian religion. They +can no longer pretend to follow a belief system that for them, has ceased to +have any real meaning. Satanism offers them something no other organized +religion can, freedom. There are no moral or ethical restrictions in Satanism +besides "Harm none that don't deserve harm." There are no guilt trips +imposed and no absolutions offered. No quarter asked, none given. A Satanist +must take responsibility for his/her actions. + + Satanists by nature are solitary creatures and most choose to exclude +themselves from as much contact as possible with the teeming multitudes +that swarm this planet. They are a drain on our vitality. Ideally, contact +with these individuals should be limited to circumstances of the Satanists +choosing. Instead, a Satanists prefers to surround himself with things that +are aesthetically pleasing. Literature, art, music, these are the companions +of a Satanist. + + The two major factions of modern Satanism are the Church of Satan and +the Temple of Set, but there are hundreds of smaller organizations +throughout the world. The Church of Satan was founded by Anton Szandor +LaVey on April 30, 1966 and the Temple of Set was started in 1975 by +Michael Aquino, a former High Priest in the Church of Satan. The Church of +Satan and it's founder are solely responsible for bringing Satanism out of +the shadows and into the public eye. Many books and articles have been +written about the Church of Satan and Dr. LaVey and they can be found at any +of the better bookstores and libraries. Not much public information is +available about the Temple of Set. They choose to hide themselves behind a +shroud of secrecy. At the end of this book are some names and addresses of +various Satanic organizations. + + 2. + + America - Christian Country? + + Many people are under the false impression that our government was +founded on the principles of Christianity. This is simply not the case. The +brave men who banded together to throw off the English yoke of oppression +were not an overtly Christian bunch [and some of them, most notably Thomas +Jefferson, despised Christianity]. In fact most of them weren't Christians at +all but were Freemasons. The separation of Church and State was one of the +major issues adopted by our freedom loving ancestors. They did not want the +same oppression and persecution to corrupt their new nation that had +corrupted and shamed the puritans. It seems to be the popular belief that the +pilgrims left England and came to this country to escape religious +persecution. It makes for a nice story, but how accurate is it? It is well +known [among those who can read and look beyond the somewhat biased +fables that are taught in school] that our puritan ancestors engaged in +religious fanatacism and persecution that rivaled that of the spanish +inquisition. The Salem witch trials is just one of the many examples of +their rabid [and often times violent] devotion to their God. Luckily for us, +their reign of terror didn't last and it was a more enlightened, more +intelligent people that founded our great nation. Take for example, our +pledge of allegiance. The line "One nation under God" was not added to the +pledge until 1954 [during the hey-day of McCarthyism. Just one of the low +points our nation has had to endure thanks to the political power of +religious fanatics]. + + Everyone of us were taught in school the story of the Boston tea party. A +small band of Bostonian's dressed up like Indians and dumped tea into the +harbor in a protest over the tax on tea. They dressed up like Indians to fool +the ship's owner as to the real identity of the group. Why anyone would think +Indians would be upset about a tea tax is not known. What is known is that +the people involved frequented a tavern called the "Green dragon", a hotbed +of political dissent. They gathered in the Green Dragon prior to their +rendezvous at the docks. This tavern was also a well known haunt of +Freemasons. It is a reasonable assumption that some, if not the majority, of +the participants were indeed Masons. + + While this is not the popular belief held by the Christian majority or +presented in the textbooks, supporting evidence is easy to locate. The first +U.S. Freemasonic lodge was established in Philadelphia, later to be used +[temporarily] as the first U.S. Capitol. Among it's members was Ben Franklin +[who was also at one time a member of Sir Francis Dashwood's infamous +Hellfire Club]. Members of the Masonic lodge in Boston included John Hancock +and Paul Revere. George Washington became a Mason in 1752. With the start +of the American Revolution the American lodges broke away from their +English counterparts. Of the first 20 presidents, 13 of them were Masons. + + Thomas Jefferson so hated Christianity that he took a pair of scissors +and a pen to his copy of the bible, crossing off or cutting out offending +passages and tearing out whole pages. When the British burned down the +Library of Congress in 1814, Jefferson sold them 6,000 of his books which +became the foundation of the library. Many of these books were on subjects +outside the Judeo-Christian religion, and today would be on the Christian +fundamentalists list of books to be banned. + + The Masonic influence [while extending to all parts of our early history] +is most evidenced on our currency. Look at the one dollar bill. On the back +side is the Great seal of the United States. The seal was adopted shortly +after the nation was founded, and thus reflects the beliefs of the men who +chose it. The seal is two sided and both sides appear on the back of the +dollar. + + The front side of the Great seal shows a truncated pyramid with "1776" +in Roman numerals etched at it's base. All of the inscriptions on the seal are +in Latin. The words printed above the pyramid, Annuit Ceptis, mean "He has +smiled upon our endeavors." This is commonly misunderstood to be the +Christian God. The word for "God" in Latin is Dues. It stands to reason that +if the designers of the seal had meant "God", they would would have said it. +The"He" doing the smiling is certain to be the all seeing eye [a Masonic +symbol] which peers through a [Pythagorean] triangle. The triangle is the +symbol of science, not spirituality. On the scroll underneath the pyramid is +the inscription Novos Ordo Seculorum which translates to "New order of the +ages", and order of science and Knowledge as opposed to Christian +superstition and fear. + + The back side of the Great seal shows an eagle clutching a group of +arrows in it's right claw, and an olive branch in it's left. There are 13 +leaves and 13 olives on the branch and 13 arrows. Above the eagle is a +necromantic star formed by 13 five-pointed stars. The number 13 has long +had a sinister reputation. It is the traditional number of people in a witches +coven, and even today, many hotels don't have a 13th floor. The inscription E +Pluribus Unum [which coincidentally contains 13 letters] means "From +many, one" - one purpose, one will, which fits in nicely with magical theory. +This was the original motto of the United states until it was replaced by "In +God we trust" [which didn't start to show up on our money until 1864 and +was formally adopted by congress in 1956]. This preoccupation with the +magical number 13 is curious, although it could also represent the 13 +original colonies. Perhaps the symbols chosen were selected for just this +type of ambiguity of meaning. A lot of careful thought went into the design +of the Great seal and numerology certainly played an important part. + + One thing is certain, the symbolism used on the seal is definitely not +Christian. If Christians had designed the Great Seal I'm sure it would have +been adorned with crosses, fish and pictures of the virgin Mary and Jesus. + + Another example of Masonic influence in the early years of the United +States is evidenced in the capitol city designed by the founding fathers. The +site selected for the new capitol was a largely undeveloped piece of land +lying on the border of the states Maryland and Virginia. It was originally +divided into two counties, Washington and Alexandria. In the southernmost +section of the designated area was a small town called Alexandria. It is at +least a curious coincidence that the premier city of Hellenic knowledge +would have a namesake in the new capitol. + + A 100 square mile perfect square was laid out. The four corners of the +square face north, south, east and west. Each side of the square has sides +that are 50 miles long each. The site chosen for the construction of the +government buildings is in the northern section of the square. This seems to +echo the occult idea that "North is the position of power." The capitol faces +west. The White House is the northern most building of importance as would +befit it's status as the seat of power. There was not even a plan for a church +in the original draft of the city plan. These are clearly not the designs and +ideas of Christians. + + The Masonic influence and power in our country began to wane in the +1800's and an increasingly predominate Christian leadership started to take +over. The country's been going downhill ever since. + +Here is what some of our founding fathers had to say about Christianity. + +"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the +Christian religion." + +"The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity." + +"This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in +it." + + - John Adams (1735-1826) + 2nd president of the U.S. + +"The age of ignorance commenced with the Christian system." + + - Thomas Paine (1737-1809) + Satanic patriot + +"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one, +he must more approve the homage of reason than that of blind fear." + +"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature." + +"The Christian God is cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust." + +"Religions are all alike-founded on fables and mythologies." + + - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) + +"What has been the fruits of Christianity?...superstition, bigotry and +persecution." + + - James Madison + 4th president of the U.S. + +"I do not believe in the immortality of the soul." + +"I doubt the divinity of Jesus although I agree with his moral teachings." + + - Benjamin Franklin + +Here's what some of our world's great thinkers had to say about +Christianity and religion. + +"I do not believe in a God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil." + + - Albert Einstein + +"Satan is not the enemy of man. But he who made gods of our race, knowing +good and evil." + + - Aleister Crowley + +"I was brought up in the other service: But I knew from the first that the +Devil was my natural master and captain and friend. I saw that he was in the +right, and that the world cringed to his conqueror only through fear. I prayed +secretly to him; and he comforted me, and saved me from having my spirit +broken in this house of children's tears. I promised him my soul, and swore +an oath that I would stand up for him in this world and stand by him in the +next. That promise and that oath made a man of me. From that day, this +house is his home; and no child shall cry in it; this hearth is his altar; and no +soul shall ever cower over it in the dark evenings and be afraid." + + - George Bernard Shaw + +"The only good is knowledge, the only evil is ignorance." + + - Diogenes Laertius + +"Active evil is better than passive good." + + - William Blake + +"Of all the religions, Christianity should be, of course, the most tolerant, +but till now the Christians have been the most ignorant of all men." + + - Voltaire + +"Satan is the first free-thinker and savior of the world. He frees Adam and +impresses the seal of humanity and liberty on his forehead, by making him +disobedient." + + - Mikail Bakunin + +"A certain sense of cruelty towards oneself and others is Christian; hatred +of those who think differently; the will to persecute. Mortal hostility +against the masters of the earth, against the 'noble', that is also Christian; +hatred of mind, of pride, courage, freedom, libertinage of mind, is Christian; +hatred of the senses, of joy in general, is Christian..." + + - Friedrich Nietzsche + +"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet." + + - Napoleon + +"No god ever gave any man anything, nor ever answered any prayer at +anytime, nor ever will." + + - Madalyn Murray O'Hair + +"All religions die of one disease, that of being found out." + + - John Morely + + + 3. + + Common misconceptions and outright lies + + The mystery and secrecy that surrounds Satanism is should not be +totally unexpected. As Satanists, we are not afforded the avenues to tell our +side of the story. There's plenty of room in the tabloids and on tv for the +horror stories, but no one wants to hear about the rational, mentally stable, +law abiding Satanist. People prefer their villains to be, well, to be +villainous. They won't believe that their next door neighbor, the guy who +cuts his grass, goes to his son's little league game and is nice to his dog, is +a Satanist. They can't believe that their doctor, dentist, mailman or grocer +could be a Satanist. Satanists are evil, psychotic, blood thirsty ghouls who +prowl the night in search of victims to offer in bloody sacrifice to their +lord and master. Everyone knows that you have to shed some blood to +appease Satan, right? Wrong! Since we do not believe in the Christians myth +of Satan, why would we try to appease him? What purpose would it serve to +kill someone in the name of a fictitious character? How did these horrible +and totally false rumors start, and why [in these supposedly enlightened +times] are they still believed? Who stands to profit from such propaganda? +Why the Christian church of course! + + God is big business. More money has been generated by the various +branches of organized religion that through any other endeavor in history. +The Vatican is one of the wealthiest organizations in the world. Religious +leaders worldwide live in comfort and luxury that can only be maintained +through a large and constant cash flow. I remember watching the PTL club +one day several years ago and seeing Tammy Faye Baker [who was wearing +so much jewelry and make-up that I figured she must have stock in Revlon +and Ginsler Lee] talking about her child's birthday and how she took him +shopping for presents in the Limo earlier that day. It struck me as funny [and +terribly hypocritical] that this so-called servant of God was in fact +profiting big time from the spreading of false hope and downright lies. How +is this possible? Are people actually stupid enough to fall for this sham? It +seems as though they are. + + From it's conception, organized religion has been a money maker. It +brings in billions of dollars a year in contributions and sales of religious +paraphernalia. The early Church leaders who compiled the Bible knew this, +and like all good businessmen, knew that they had to make certain +provisions for it's continued success. Now God was a good concept, take all +the gods of the past and present, roll them all into one big ball, promote it +heavily, [violently is necessary] and watch the money roll in. There was only +one small problem. When your advertising an all-powerful, all-benevolent, +all-loving [although ruthlessly stern] deity, certain questions were bound to +arise such as "If God id so good, and loves us all, why did my baby have to +die?" or "Why does God let pain, despair, hatred,violence, death, crime, +corruption, ect.. flourish and infect his followers?" So on and so forth. They +needed to a scapegoat to put the blame on in order to keep God's good name +untarnished and the money flowing. Enter Satan. + + The idea was simple, take all the bad things found in human society, all +of the problems and "negative" aspects of humanity and assign them to +another deity, [although one who isn't as powerful as God] and then let it be +known that the Church is the only organization capable of saving you from +the clutches of this evil being. [Providing you follow the rules and leave a +generous donation.] The Church then mounted a ruthless P.R. campaign +against Satan that continues to this day. The horror stories told by +Christians about Satan and Satanists have become ingrained into the +collective consciousness of the population much like those U.F.O. abduction +stories and near death, light at the end of the tunnel stories we hear so +much today. If someone is told something often enough, [especially by +someone they think they can trust] they invariably start to believe it. + + No matter how many times you try to tell a Christian the truth about +Satanism, they won't [or can't] believe you. As terrifying as the false +images of sacrifices and other bloodthirsty acts of Satanists are to them, +the truth would be much more terrifying. If they knew that our real purpose +was to break the stranglehold that Christianity has on our world and expose +them to the harsh realities of life with total responsibility, they wouldn't +know how to act. As long as we remain cartoon characters capable of being +vanquished by a prayer to God, we will be able to accomplish our goals that +much easier. + + In this first set of conversations I deal directly with some of the most +common and blatant lies that are associated with Satanism. + +12/06 7:00 AM + + OK everyone, it's time to put an end to the myths and falsehoods that +surround Satanism. I will attempt to answer any questions you may have. +I've seen you all talking and asking questions about this subject, so here's +your chance to get the facts. Speak now or forever hold your peace. Tommy + +12/06 8:45 AM + + I can't believe that there is a real Satanist on these boards. I have a +question for you if you don't mind. I love animals, and I can't see why anyone +would want to hurt them. Why do you guys do those horrible things to +animals? It makes me cry to think that someone would hurt an animal. Beth + +12/06 4:12 PM + + Where did you hear that Satanists harm animals? Was it on a TV talk +show? Or perhaps you saw a movie that portrayed Satanists in such a light? +Did a Christian tell you this? Did you read it in some magazine? When +considering a statement like that, you have to take into consideration it's +source. What do the perpetrators of such a rumor have to gain from it's +belief. Shows like "Geraldo" or newspapers like the "National Enquirer" +make money buy people either watching their shows, or buying their papers. +They know how to create a "juicy" story and are not above twisting [or even +changing] the facts in order to give their tales a more controversial or +appealing aspect. Let's face it, more people will watch a show that features +appalling acts of deprivation and horror than will watch a show about people +who simply have a differing [although blasphemous] viewpoint. What the +Christian church has to gain from the spreading of such rumors is easy +enough to figure out, they get to stay in business. + + Now, to answer your question. Satanists do not, I repeat, DO NOT +sacrifice animals or babies. That's just plain stupid. We hold animals and +children in the highest regard. To us they are to be revered as the highest +embodiment of life. They do not deny themselves the desires and feelings +that come naturally to them. They have not yet been taught to +unquestionably hate what is different, and they have a natural curiosity for +the unknown. They are not hampered by the false guilt that plagues most of +the adults today. They are the ideal examples of man's carnal nature and are +sacred to a Satanist. Tommy + +12/07 9:30 AM + + Tommy, I see what your saying. I always try to keep an open mind and +not believe everything I hear, but I have heard these stories for so long, that +I figured they had to be true. I'm glad to hear that this isn't true. I guess I +should be more skeptical about things. Thank you for answering me. Beth + +12/07 9:00 PM + + I have a question. How do you explain the evidence found about Satanic +sacrifices? I have seen reports and news programs that show butchered +animal remains found with the blood drained out of them and Satanic +messages like "666" and "Satan rules" written on the walls of abandoned +buildings where these remains have been found. These things are real. If +Satanists aren't doing it, who is? Tim + +12/08 7:07 AM + + I have seen similar programs that sought to expose these so-called +"Satanic ritual sacrifices." These so-called Satanic cattle mutilations have +been proven to be nothing more than the work of predators. They feed on the +soft, fleshy parts of the animals. They can do quite a complete job in a +relatively short period of time. When the carcasses are found there are +never any tracks leading to, or from the beast, nor are there any in the near +vicinity. Autopsies have shown that these animals died of natural causes. As +far as the Satanic grafitti goes, it is done by teenagers who are rebelling +against authority and society. What higher authority is their in our society +that God? These kids are dabblers in subjects they consider to be "evil", and +are referred to as Devil worshipers. "Devil worshipers" are not Satanists. +While to the general public they appear to be the same, they are as different +as night and day. Satanists do not worship, or even believe in the Judeo- +Christian concept of Satan. The "fallen angel" portrayed as the evil, +deceitful, destroyer of man is nothing more than a myth propagated by the +Christian church in order to keep it's followers in line and it's coffers filled +with their money. Tommy + +12/09 12:30 PM + + I have read your answers to the questions about sacrifices and while I +see your point and will concede the fact that what you term as "Satanists" +are not responsible for a lot of the things they are accused of, I know it is +the truth that you use nude females as altars for your rituals and I have +heard that children are also used. Do you feel that children should be +exposed to this, and are they used for any sexual purposes during your +ceremonies? I am a Christian and cannot imagine subjecting any child to +these things. Andrew + +12/09 2:18 PM + + Women are frequently used as altars during rituals, but these are adult +women who do this if their own free will. Not only does it go against the +tenets of Satanism to harm a child, it is also illegal, and a Satanist does not +take unwarranted chances where his freedom is concerned. A Satanist would +never subject a child, or an unwilling adult to something that would be +harmful. While the children of Satanists are raised under the tenets of the +parents religion, [as it is in every household throughout the world] they do +not participate in any of the sex rituals. Tommy + +12/09 4:65 PM + + I am a Catholic and I worship the Lord God and am not fooled by the lies +of Satan, or by his child molesting servants. I have the power of Jesus on my +side and can defeat you! You are fighting a losing battle but it is not too late +to surrender yourself to God. He will forgive you. Sam + +12/09 7:09 PM + + Where are the facts to substantiate your claim that Satanists are child +molesters? On the other hand, cases of child molestation committed by +Catholic priests are well documented. In the last decade, the Roman Catholic +church has had to pay more than 400 million dollars in restitution from civil +suits filed by the victims of priest/child molestation. More than 400 priests +have been convicted of this crime in the last 10 years and it is believed that +as many as 6,000 cases have gone either unreported, or covered up by the +Church. How does the Church deal with these errant priests once they are +discovered? Most of the time they undergo a brief psychiatric counseling +session and are then assigned to a different parish in another community +where they continue their perversions with a new batch of children. One +victim support group reported that in just the last year and 1/2, they have +been contacted by 1,300 people who claim to be victims of this crime. Quite +a staggering figure isn't it? + +How many Satanists can you name that have been convicted of this [or any +other] crime? Tommy + +12/09 9:48 PM + + I'm a good Catholic and I take offense to you casting aspersions on these +men of God. Those priests are confused and misguided. They are bedeviled by +Satan. They need our love and support. I feel sorry for them and I pray every +night for God to save them, and you too. Satan is the real problem, he has +entered the souls of the priests and has corrupted them, just as he wants to +corrupt you. Don't fall prey to Satan. Only God can save your soul from an +eternity of torment. Jennifer + +12/10 9:32 AM + + By blaming Satan for the actions of these men, you take the +responsibility away from those who are truly responsible for their actions, +the priests themselves. These perverts are not under the influence of a +non-existant being, they are sick and twisted people who use their position +of authority to take advantage of innocent children who are not wise to +their perverted ways. By ignoring the real causes for this kind of behavior, +it will never stop, you only pave the way for these horrendous acts to +continue. These "holy" and "righteous" men do not deserve pity, they +deserve a slow, painful death. Tommy + +12/10 12:02 PM + + What about drinking blood? Steve + + +12/10 12:41 PM + + What about it? Tommy + +12/10 1:15 PM + + Do you do it? Steve + +12/10 4:32 PM + + No! Tommy + +12/10 5:00 PM + + OK. Steve + +01/05 2:46 PM + + How do you sell your soul to the devil? What powers does Satan give you +in exchange for your soul? Does Satan actually appear when you summon +him? What does he look like? I know this is a lot of questions to ask, but I +am very interested. I'll understand if you don't want to reply. Sue + +01/05 5:12 PM + + The first thing you have to do when you sell your soul to the Devil is to +have the proper magical tools. These items are crucial, without them the +spell will not work. You need 13 black candles, one white candle made from +the fat of an unbaptized baby [very hard to obtain], a dagger [or sword], a +silver chalice, a gong, and an animal [preferably a dog or a cat] to be +sacrificed so that you may use it's blood. + + The first thing you have to do is to cover the walls with the proper +magical symbols, painted in the blood of the animal you have brought with +you. [It is necessary to kill the animal in the room in which you plan to do +the summoning so that it's life force is still present] Then you draw a +pentagram [upside down five pointed star] on the floor [in blood], and +position a candle at each point of the star, with the white candle in the +center, do not light these candles yet. The remaining candles are then placed +in various places around the room and are lit immediately. With this done, +you are ready to begin the actual summoning. You light the candles that you +have placed around the pentagram in a counter clockwise direction, saving +the white one for last. Then you bang the gong three times, this purifies the +area, and clears it of any unwanted resonances. You then kneel down in front +of the pentagram and start reciting the invocation. [I will not print the +words here, I fear it would cause terrible repercussions] At the proper +moment [the stroke of midnight], you take the dagger, cut your finger, and +let the blood drip into the flame of the white candle. If you have done +everything correctly, and your desire is strong enough, Satan will come. He +appears in a very shadowy form, and it is hard to make out any details about +his appearance. When he speaks, it is not an audible voice, but rather a voice +that speaks from inside your head. If Satan accepts you [not everyone is +automatically chosen], then he will grant you success and power on earth. +You will be able to call on him, and he will answer you. You do not have to +sign your name in blood like it shows in the movies, your words and desires +are all that Satan needs. Satan gives us a life that God and his feeble angels +never could. All manners of earthly pleasures are ours to enjoy, and when we +die, we gladly join our master in Hell. Tommy + +P.S. If you believe any of this, I have some beach front property in Arizona +I'd like to sell you! + +02/07 12:22 PM + + I think a lot of the problem with the recent surge in Satanic activity +throughout the country stems from the fact that the music listened to by +teenagers today is full of Satanic overtones. These kids are being exposed to +subjects that they are not able to fully comprehend. Their minds are very +impressionable and easily swayed to things that are anti-authoritative. The +music presents Satan in a glorified and appealing light and doesn't address +the ramifications that are inherent from this kind of subject matter. + +Teenage suicides are at an all time high, and I believe that a lot of it relates +directly to the music. It seems like every other day you read about some +lawsuit that is being pressed against a heavy metal band who's music has +pushed some poor kid over the edge. It's a disgrace. Something has to be +done about it before all of our children are gone. Gerry + +02/07 3:11 PM + + While it is true that there have been a rash of lawsuits against heavy +metal musicians recently, [most notably Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest] not +one case has resulted in a guilty verdict against the artist. Parents of +children who have committed suicide are trying to use music as a scapegoat +for their child's problems instead of placing blame [or responsibility] where +it truly belongs-on themselves or the child itself. Remember the song +Gloomy Monday? It was found on the turntables of many suicide victims and +was even banned from the radio for a period of time due to the effects it +supposedly had on people. Blaming a song, book, movie or anything else for +the problems of a child or family is part of the reason these problems end up +as tragically as they do. If parents looked to the real source of the problems +instead of using a handy scapegoat, a lot more young people would be alive +today. + + Using the Devil as subject matter for music [as well as books and +movies] has been popular for centuries. Irving Berlin, who wrote the +"wholesome" and "good Christian" songs White Christmas and God Bless +America, also wrote songs about Satan. [Stay down here where you belong, +At the Devil's Ball, Pack up Your Sins and go to the Devil] Other popular +songs from the 20's through the 50's that feature Satan as subject matter +include: He's a Devil in His Own Home Town, Satan Takes a Holiday, Old Devil +Moon, Satanic Blues, Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, That Old Black Magic, Devil +May Care, and many, many others. Satan is also a favorite character in +classical music and opera. + + If you want to blame heavy metal music or rock songs that mention +Satan for the problems of our youth, then you have to also place blame on +the music of our forefathers, however, this type of self-deceit and +scapegoating will only result with these problems continuing to flourish. +Instead, we must address the real causes. Apathy, lack of parental guidance, +legislated morality, the homogenizing of society, imposed guilt and +ignorance are the real culprits, not music. Tommy + + 4. + Who gets the credit, God or man? + + The following conversation I had with "John", was representative of +the type of questions and answers I would receive from Christians who let +their religion run their entire life. These types cannot make a move without +consulting God or the Bible first. John feels that the only way to give his +life purpose and meaning is to devote it to his God. He is currently paying me +to post any biblical scripture I choose on one of the bulletin boards and to +comment on it. He feels that if I am exposed to the word of his God, that I +will succumb to it's irresistible force. He is, of course, wrong. I have +included some of these scriptures in the next chapter. + + In his statements, John argues that since the Christian Bible was +written under the divine authority of God, and the Satanic Bible was written +by a mere mortal [Anton Szandor LaVey], the Satanic Bible cannot be trusted +since man is imperfect and capable of making mistakes. There is two crucial +flaws in his logic though, his God does not exist and it was man who wrote +his Bible. + + John, like most Christians, is unable to accept his own feelings or +desires and cannot recognize his self-worth. Christians have been +programmed since birth to believe that man is incapable of achieving any +kind of success without the divine blessing of God. They see themselves, not +as superior beings capable of creating anything of value, but as mere +creations themselves, who's only purpose on Earth is to please their creator. +They cannot accept their ego, so the externalize it, give it power, and call it +"God" In worshiping this God, Christians are by proxy, worshiping the +creator of God; Man. It is easier to accept failure, or disaster, if one thinks +that there is a reason for it. Man cannot find a suitable reason for the many of +problems he sees around him. He cannot accept the fact that he is +responsible, so he assigns responsibility to a "higher power". "God works in +mysterious ways" and "It is God's will" have become catch-phrases of the +Christian. He uses them to rationalize events that he feels are unjust or +senseless, or more frequently he places the blame on satan and his hordes. + + Satanists realize that it is the natural action and reaction of the +universe that causes things to happen. He knows he is responsible for his +own actions, and for the consequences of those actions. A Satanist accepts +the burden of responsibility, and with it, accepts the fact that it is he, not +God, who is in control. + + If a man is willing to accept responsibility for his failures, why should +he then give credit for his successes to an outside party? Why not thank the +party truly responsible and solely in control of his life; Himself. + +01/08 7:25 AM + + Does the practice of satanism allow for us all the pleasures that one +would desire? If the answer is yes, does it the imply a philosophy as "Do +what you want and don't worry about it?" In Christ-John + + +01/08 4:04 PM + + "Satan represents all the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, +mental, or emotional gratification." This is the 8th Satanic statement as +written in the Satanic Bible. There are no forbidden fruits for the Satanist. +we are free to indulge in all types of earthly pleasures as long as they harm +no one who is undeserving or unwanting of harm. Denying yourself the +pleasures found in life because you are afraid that it might anger your God, +and in order to gain a reward from him after you are dead is a ridiculously +self-defeating concept. Abstaining from the things that give you pleasure +can only lessen the value and quality of your life. We are on this planet for +only a relatively short period of time, what we do with this time is up to +each individual. A Satanist does not waste it. Tommy + +01/09 7:37 AM + + What do you mean when you say "those that are not deserving of harm?" +Who deserves harm in your opinion? How can you judge the actions of +another? Only God can judge man since He is our creator. John + +01/09 1:37 PM + + If someone goes out of their way to harm me, or any of my loved ones, +they deserve to be, and will be, harmed by me in return. Satanists do not +turn the other cheek. While Christians rely on their God to take care of +things for them, a Satanist [realizing that the only way anything will ever +get done is to do it himself] takes matters into his own hands and makes +sure the job gets done in a timely fashion and to his satisfaction. Praying to +God for help will only result in sore knees and a cramped neck. "Two eyes, +an arm, a lung, several inches of spinal column, both kneecaps, and the +whole left side of the brain for an eye" is my motto. Tommy + +01/09 6:40 PM + + Scenario: Someone close to a Satanist almost gets in a car crash, she +goes to the hospital and she gives birth to her baby who is fine. Later, her +husband lands a new job to provide for the family. Then the person who was +supposed to sue them did not. Since you do not believe in God, who do +Satanists thank for these things? John + +01/09 9:55 PM + + A Satanist would thank only those who are truly responsible for these +occurrences. He would be glad that these events turned out the way they did, +but he knows that it was no influence by an outside agency [God] which +caused them to do so. + + We avoid accidents by proper handling and maintenance of a car and by +paying attention to the road, weather conditions, and other drivers. Women +give birth to healthy babies by taking proper care of themselves during +pregnancy. [I'm sure you know "how" babies are made.] A person gets a new +job by actively seeking out that job, finding a vacant position, and by being +qualified for that job. A person may change his mind about a lawsuit after +consulting with an attorney and finding out his case has no merit, or perhaps +he just didn't want to go through the expense and hassle of a lengthy trial. +We are in control our lives, not a non-existant deity. Tommy + +01/10 9:00 AM + + Did a man write the satanic bible? If so, when was it written? Do +satanists owe allegiance to Satan? Do they work for him? John + +01/10 12:30 PM + + The Satanic Bible was published in December of 1969. It was written by +Anton Szandor LaVey. The Church of Satan was Founded by LaVey on April 30, +1966. Satanists do not believe in the Christian interpretation of Satan. +Satan is a myth propagated and kept alive by the Christian Church. A +Satanist does not pledge his allegiance to a myth. We use our abilities to +improve the quality of our lives and to bring the rewards from our efforts to +ourselves and our loved ones. We do it solely for ourselves, not for Satan's, +God's, our neighbor's, or anyone else's benefit. Tommy + +01/10 1:43 PM + + Do you think the satanic bible was inspired? What was lavey before he +became a satanist? How does a satanist feel in himself if he shows his +wrath? Is his wrath one of physical punishment or is he cursed or +something? What does love mean to you? John + + 01/10 3:18 PM + + So many questions. My, but you are an inquisitive guy. I notice that you +do not capitalize the name Satan or LaVey. Is this some form of protest? +Are you trying to make some sort of a statement, or are you just being rude? +If you are truly interested in Dr. LaVey's past, read the book "The secret life +of a Satanist" by Blanche Barton. I however, think that you are asking about +LaVey's past in order to try and discredit him and his ideas, a tactic used +for centuries by those opposed to new ideas and views which contradict +their own. The Satanic Bible [as well as the Christian bible {and in fact, all +gods and beliefs of a spiritual nature} was inspired, not by a non-existant +deity, but by man's carnal mind. + + Love to a Satanist means pretty much the same as it does to anyone +else, caring. compassion, respect, passion. The difference being that a +Satanist is more selective as to whom he bestows his love upon. He does not +waste his love on people who neither deserve or appreciate it. Since a +Satanist also knows how to hate, he is able to understand the true meaning +of love. + + If a Satanists vents his wrath, it is because he has been harmed or +wronged in some way. He feels justified in his actions, and is not +remorseful. His anger can manifest itself in many ways; Physically, +verbally, or in the form of a "curse". Anger is an emotion felt by all men, +whether they choose to admit it or not. If you keep your emotions bottled up +inside you, it can do serious harm to you and those around you when you +finally blow up. Tommy + +01/11 7:36 AM + + So, lavey started a church FIRST in 1966, THEN came the satanic bible. +So the church was created from a man's mind who we don't even know we +can trust. In your opinion, don't you think that the satanic bible should be +the authority of the church? Is it possible that lavey, who is a man had no +divine authority whatsoever? Just curious. + John + +01/11 11:56 Am + + Why do you think that a book should have authority over a person? Is the +printed word to be your master? While the Satanic Bible contains the +information that forms the basis of my religion, it is in no way, shape, or +form the last, or only word. + + The Satanic bible existed in the form of essay's before the inception of +the Church and was formally published after the Church's formation . It +forms the basic foundation of modern Satanism. + + Of course Dr. Lavey had no divine authority. There is no higher authority +than one's self. As for the question of whether Dr. LaVey is someone who can +be trusted, it does not matter. If an idea has validity, it doesn't matter +where it came from, what matters is that the idea is a sound one and can +actually be put into successful use. Tommy + +01/11 6:28 PM + + Why can't there be divine authority? John + +01/11 8:07 PM + + It's not that there can't be a divine authority, but that there isn't one, +and shouldn't be one. You should need no other authority than yourself to +justify your thought and actions. Living in a fantasy world where everything +is good, God is in his Heaven, Satan is in Hell, and Bob's your uncle is a nice +afternoon diversion, but will do little to help you get ahead in life. If you +rely on others [God] to provide for you, you will find your life comes up +lacking. I do not need authority from a higher power in order to make +decisions about my life. I can think for myself, do things for myself, and +take responsibility for my actions. Tommy + +01/12 9:33 AM + + You say God does not exist. Does satan exist? John + +01/12 1:09 PM + + No, Satan was invented by the Christian Church in order to keep it's fol- +lowers in line and it's coffers filled. If it wasn't for the threat of Satan and +Hell; would you be a Christian? Tommy + + * John never answered that question. Perhaps I made him question his +beliefs enough to where he felt he couldn't answer truthfully and still +uphold his earlier statements, perhaps not. I may never know. * + + + 5. + + Biblical Scripture + + Here are some of the scriptures John paid me to post. [As of this +writing, John has reneged on his agreement. Our deal was to last for 3 +months. John only paid me for the first month. I, on the other hand, kept my +part of the bargain. What does this say about the honesty and integrity of +Christians? Well, you can't judge a whole group by the acts of one of it's +members, but it sure doesn't make them look any better in my eyes.] At first +I posted a lot of verses from the Old Testament, God's laws and what not, +but I was repeatedly informed that the laws of the Old Testament have now +been replaced by those of the New Testament and no longer applies to the +modern Christian. If this is the case, why hasn't the Old Testament been +removed from the bible? + + Christians base their whole belief system on what is written in the +Bible. They think, act, feel, and live according to the words set down in this +one book. They do not question the philosophies of the Bible, it's the word of +God, and God's word can't be questioned. [Remember what happened to Satan +when he questioned God.] No amount of logic or reason will sway their faith. +When confronted with a contradiction, or piece of false logic in the Bible, +Christians just smile and say "We are only human, we can't understand the +ways of God." They give up their ambitions, their true feelings, their +individuality, and their innermost desires for the spiritual pipe-dreams +offered in their most holy of books. Why do Christians believe? Is life so +terrifying to them that they will blindly cling to anything that will offer +them a glimmer of hope and peace? + + The contradictions that concern the ways of God ought to be enough to +make most sensible people question the veracity of the book. The Bible +portrays God in an way that is hardly consistent. Here are some examples of +these contradictions: + +GOD IS SATISFIED WITH HIS WORKS + + Genesis 1:31; And God saw that everything He had made was excellent. + +GOD IS DISSATISFIED WITH HIS WORKS + + Genesis 6:6; Then it was grief to the Lord ever having made man on the +earth; He felt grieved at heart. + +GOD DWELLS IN LIGHT + + 1 Timothy 6:16; who alone possesses immortality, dwelling in +unapproachable light, whom no human being has ever seen or is able to see.... + +GOD DWELLS IN DARKNESS + + Psalms 97:2; Clouds and darkness surround him....... + +GOD IS ALL POWERFUL + + Jeremiah 32:27; Observe I am the lord, the God of all flesh. Is there any- +thing too difficult for me? + +GOD IS NOT ALL POWERFUL + + Judges 1:19; The lord was with Judah; so he took possession of the hill +country, but he was unable to expel the inhabitants of the valley because +they had iron chariots. + +GOD IS PEACEFUL + + 1 Corinthians 14:33; for He is not the God of disorder, but of peace... + +GOD IS WARLIKE + + Psalms 144:1; Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who teaches my hands to +wage war, and my fingers to do battle. + +GOD IS KIND, MERCIFUL, AND GOOD + + Psalms 25:8; Good and upright is the Lord... + + 1 Chronicles 16:34; For his mercy endureth forever... + +GOD IS CRUEL, UNMERCIFUL, DESTRUCTIVE AND FEROCIOUS + + Jeremiah 13:14; And I will dash them one against each other, the fathers +and the sons, says the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion, that +I should not destroy them. + + Joshua 10:11; As they fled from Israel down the slope of Beth-horan to + +Azekah, the Lord cast large stones upon them from the sky, and they died. +More died from the hailstones than the Israelites killed with the sword. + +GOD CANNOT LIE + + Hebrews 6:18; So that by two unalterable things in which it is +impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge in Him may have strong +encouragement to seize the hope that is placed before us. + +GOD LIES AND DECEIVES + + 2 Thessalonians 2:11; And for this reason God visits them with an +delusion that operates on them to believe the falsehood. + + Ezekiel 14:9; If that prophet is deceived to speak a message, it is I, The +Lord who has deceived that prophet... + + And if that wasn't enough these verses concerning the ways and actions +and laws of God should be enough to make any rational Christian [an obvious +oxymoron] who can read sincerely question his beliefs. + +WORKING ON THE SABBATH PUNISHABLE BY DEATH + + Exodus 31:14; You therefore must keep the sabbath, as it stands for your +holiness. Those who profane it shall surely be executed; whoever works on +it, that person shall be eliminated from among his people. + +BEING HOMOSEXUAL PUNISHABLE BY DEATH + + Leviticus 20:13; When a man lies with a male as with a woman, both +have committed something perverse; they will certainly be put to death; +their bloodguilt rests upon them. + +BEING A FORTUNE-TELLER PUNISHABLE BY DEATH + + Leviticus 20:27; A man or woman who is a medium or fortune-teller +shall certainly be put to death; they shall stone them; their bloodguilt rests +upon them. + +BEING DISRESPECTFUL TO YOUR PARENTS PUNISHABLE BY DEATH + + Exodus 21:17; Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death. + +OWNING OF SLAVES CONDONED BY GOD + + Leviticus 25:44-45; Your slaves, male and female, whom you shall own, +shall be from the nations around you; of them you shall buy male and female +slaves. You may also buy from among the children of the strangers who live +among you and from their relatives in your environs, who were born in your +country; those you may own. + +BEATING OF SLAVES CONDONED BY GOD + + Exodus 21:20; When a man beats his male or female slave with a club, so +that the slave dies then and there, the victim shall be avenged; but if he +survives a day or two then he must not be avenged, because he is his +property. + +NEWLYWED WOMEN WHO AREN'T VIRGINS MAY BE PUT TO DEATH + + Dueteronomy 22:13-21; .......but if his charges are found to be correct and +no evidence of chastity is found in the girl, then they shall bring her out to +the door of her father's house, and the men of the city shall stone her to +death.... + +WORSHIPING ANYTHING OTHER THAN GOD PUNISHABLE BY DEATH + + Deuteronomy 13:1-18; Entire chapter + +Well, God always did claim to be a jealous god, he just doesn't always admit +to the cruel and vicious part of his personality. + + I couldn't possibly write down all the inaccuracies, contradictions, and +just plain absurdities found in the bible. It would take too long. Instead I +have chosen some of my favorites. I have included the responses I received +to some of the verses, others I have just included to serve as comic relief. + +01/11 3:29 PM + +Verse for today; Revelation 22:18 + + "I warn anyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if +anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are described in +this book." + + This verse means that if you try to change the word of God, either by +adding your own meanings, or by changing the literal meanings set forth in +the book, then you shall be punished. Hell, the early church fathers [when +compiling the Bible] edited, changed, deleted and rewrote much of the +original text. Many verses are purposely cryptic and open to numerous +interpretations. Christians have always interpreted the meanings of the +scriptures to suit their own needs and viewpoints. I have seen this happen +time and time again right here on this board. I sure would hate to be living +next door to you guys when God gets around to dealing with you. Tommy + +01/12 10:57 AM + + You better sit down. I agree, yes agree with most of your explanation of +the verse, although "literal meanings" is a pretty far stretch. Much of the +bible, Jesus's stories and especially Revelations, is full of analogies and +simile. This is purposeful, however, so that different cultures, societies, +and people in general are able to "read into" and understand it in their own +way. The Bible is a living thing, somehow being absorbed into the cultures of +a thousand different places in a thousand different times. This has been +done since it's creation, yet the word has never changed. Can you explain +this? Phil +P.S. Your slipping, tommy. You neglected to put "your" in front of "God" like +you normally do. Could it be that you subconsciously believe? + +01/12 3:00 PM + + My omission of the word "your" was not some kind of a Freudian slip. I +sometimes leave it out on purpose. I like to keep you on your toes. Besides, +you know I don't believe in God and am only arguing in the hypothetical sense +anyway. + + In answer to your question, I believe the "Word" has been changed, +through numerous translations and censoring [sometimes whole chapters] by +the early church fathers, I'm sure it hardly resembles the original +manuscript. Change one word, and whole chapters and verses can take on a +new meaning. The deliberately cryptical nature of the bible only makes it +more unbelievable and untrustworthy. It can be interpreted in a thousand +different ways and have a thousand different meanings attached to it. This +is one of the reasons for it's longevity, it's hard to pin down on specifics, so +it can keep the "experts" and laymen alike, guessing for years to come. The +fact that is has survived as long as it has really proves nothing about the +truthfulness or accuracy of the book. Many of the more popular myths have +survived the ravages of time. The tale of Santa Claus has been around for +almost as long, and you don't still believe in Santa, do you? Tommy + +01/13 6:56 + + Nuts, and I thought I was keeping you on YOUR toes. This is truly grand! I +wish I had joined this board sooner. I can't wait to see what you come up +with next. Phil + +01/12 6:19 PM + + Wow, Tommy, that pretty much takes care of almost all organized +Christian Churches, including the Catholic Church, which is the master at +interpreting the "Word" to fit it's needs. I'm glad someone like you is around +to liven up these boards and make us question our own beliefs. Karen + + +01/12 7:22 PM + + Yeah, pretty good huh? Tommy + +01/12 12:15 PM + + Tom, I like this verse a lot. When God uses the word "book" in that verse +he is referring to the whole bible. To "add" prophecy means that some +denomination has the Bible as it's authority + a vision or a tongue or +messages from God in an audible voice. The person now has a w i d e r +authority. He has the Bible + he believes in that message or vision. To take +"away" can point to a denomination who only holds the Old Testament as it's +authority. John + +01/12 5:21 PM + + Hey Tommy, good try! I am not even going to try and argue with you on +this one. Fact, you are right. I know this may sound strange coming from +someone who loves Jesus like I do, but the fact of the matter is, I don't have +to interpret Revelation or any part of the Bible for it to have meaning. Just +reading it is enough. The part about Satan being thrown into a lake of fire, +no interpretation needed there, or the part about Christ ruling forever, I +don't need to defend that either. Does a lion need to be defended? No, neither +does the Word of God. Dan + +01/12 6:00 PM + + If the lion was as sick and dying as your religion is, it would need plenty +of defending. Blind faith is just a shortcut to reason. Not questioning, or +seeking the truth behind the words is unthinkable. If you are just reading the +Bible and not attaching any kind of meaning to it, other than the literal +meaning of the words, then my question to you is: Are you living your life +exactly as the Bible tells you too? Tommy + +01/12 7:41 PM + + It is virtually impossible for a person to live their life EXACTLY as the +Bible says to. It is enough that we love God and that we try to live as God +wants us too. We are after all, only human, and humans are imperfect. All +men sin and fall short of the glory of God, but that's OK, we are granted +forgiveness by his infinite mercy. Dan + +01/12 8:03 PM + + What's the point then? If you can't or aren't going to live your life +according to the laws set forth in the Bible, then why have it? By saying you +are only human and are imperfect you are merely opening up an escape route +for yourself and trying to justify your shortcomings. I've read the Bible, and +if you were as committed to your God as you claim to be, if you truly +believed, if the words of the Bible were truth and God was a reality, you +COULD live your life according to the laws of God. The fact that you [or +anyone else] can't, should make you question the veracity and necessity of +your beliefs. Christianity is unnatural, it goes against instincts and desires +that are inherent in humans. Spirituality cannot override man's carnal +nature. Tommy + +01/15 10:58 AM + +Tommy's verse of the day; Job 1:21 + + Saying "Naked I came forth from my mothers womb, and naked I shall +return; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of +the lord." + + This verse means everything that you own has been given to you by God, +therefore, he has the right to take it away. + + Now, I know that the bible claims it was Satan who actually did the +physical damage to Job's family and servants, but God let him do it. God in +his infinite jealousy and pride, set Job up big time, and for no other reason +than God wanted to show off for Satan a little. If I remember the story +correctly, God gave Job a bunch of nifty prizes at the end of the story, but +this is in no way proper recompense for having one's children murdered. +What kind of a crummy God is going to take part in having something like +this happen to one of his followers, especially one as faithful as Job, who +had always shown him reverence and never failed to debase himself properly +before his loving lord? You Christians are always so fond of stating that God +knows everything that has happened or is going to happen, past, present and +future. If this is true, what did god stand to gain by fucking over Job? He +KNEW ahead of time that Job would not turn against him. Was God trying to +prove something to Satan? If God is all powerful, why would he need to +prove anything to anybody? How is it that Satan [who is supposedly inferior +to God] was able to goad God into treating one of his true believers so +poorly? If God truly cared about you, he wouldn't treat you like that just to +prove a point to someone he supposedly created and has complete control +over. Tommy + +01/15 8:16 PM + + I would just like to say that you [and all your sparring partners] have +made this posting station so interesting! I have really enjoyed reading them. +You all seem to be highly intelligent and well-versed in your areas of +interest. + + What is controversial about today's daily scripture? I think were all in +sync about the birthday suit issue! + + Tommy. I just have to say-I'm with the others that say that they don't +believe for a minute that you are a Satanist. At one time or another have you +or have you not considered yourself a born-again Christian? I think you're a +thinker, who dislikes organized religion, and it drives you nuts that people +fol- low blindly, but your a Christian, none-the-less. + + Or maybe it's just that you're so darned charming? Anyway, please keep +writing and we'll keep reading. Mary-Alice + +01/15 9:35 Pm + + I promise you, as long as people let ignorance and fear cloud their +thinking, I will continue to write. As long as self-righteous individuals try +to limit my freedoms, I will continue to write. Also, I resent being called a +Christian. Tommy + +01/18 8:06 AM + +Tommy's verse of the day; Proverbs 23:4 + + "Do not toil to get wealth; surrender that personal ambition." + + This verse simply means that you are not to strive to better yourself. +That you should remain poor and dependent on God and the Church. The people +who wrote the Bible weren't the most knowledgeable people to ever walk +the earth, but they knew that it is much easier to control a poor and hungry +person than a person who's life is giving him riches and pleasure without +the help of God. + + Why doesn't God want you to succeed in life? Without hard work and +effort, a person will go nowhere except down. Will God provide for you? I +don't think so. The next time your rent is due, tell the landlord that God is +going to pay it. The next time your children are hungry, tell them to get +some food from God, maybe he'll send Jesus down to earth to perform his +famous one fish/loaf of bread, feed the multitudes trick. Of course if you do +this, you will be homeless and hungry. YOU have to provide for yourself! +Alas, God has forbidden you to strive for success. It is not up to you to +question God's words, only to obey them. + + I'll tell you what, I'm in a rather generous mood today, so I'm going to +help you out, and try to make you look worthy in the eyes of your Lord. I am +going to see to it that you do not prosper beyond the limits set by the +Almighty. So, SEND ME ALL YOUR MONEY! Any money you have left over after +you pay your bills is mine. It is God's will that I receive your cash! Don't +upset God, he can get pretty nasty, so you'd better send your money today! +Don't hesitate, God is watching! Tommy + +01/18 12:20 + + Tommy, your a riot! Chuckling at your last post. Please keep writing, we +need more people like you around here. Matt + +01/18 5:08 PM + + Tommy, quit it...Why do you continually twist God's word? God said that +he wishes above all things that you are to prosper...How could you post that +horrible and wicked note? I won't stop praying for you!! I will not, I wish +you'd quit it. I don't hate you, I love you, I care for you, I want for you to +have the same love I do, FIND JESUS, my brother you desperately need him; +loose that sarcasm. Please! Please! Please! Shawn + +01/18 6:29 PM + + If you are not supposed to strive for success, how does your God propose +you achieve it? Is God going to come to earth and give you a 51% share in a +major corporation? Are riches going to fall from the sky? Will a house +suddenly appear for you out of nowhere? Is Jesus going to come to earth and +feed your entire family from one bologna sandwich and a can of coke? Face +the truth, this is not going to happen. If you spend your life waiting for God +to provide for you, that's exactly what will happen, you will spend your life +waiting. How long are you willing to wait? Tommy + +P.S. Can I get some fries with those prayers. + +01/19 7:44 AM + + Tommy, What he means, is not to toil, overwork for great wealth, +because what good is all that extra wealth going to be, if we wasted our +entire lives to work towards it, and all the while lost our own souls? Where +would we be then? Kevin + +01/19 2:10 PM + + What good is extra wealth? Don't you want to provide for your family? +Don't you want your loved ones to be able to lead a comfortable lifestyle +after you are gone?The word "strive" means "to try very hard", it doesn't +mean "surrender your entire life to the task." You shouldn't try to change +the meanings of words like that. God don't like it. Refer to my post on the +11th to find out what your punishment will be for the sin you have just +committed. Anyone who is against wealth is obviously poor. Tommy + +Here are some more of my favorite verses: + +John 8:59 "They picked up stones to hurl at Him: But Jesus concealed +Himself and passed out of the temple." + + This verse relates a tale about a day in the life of Jesus. It seems as +though Jesus was hanging around the temple and telling anyone who would +listen his "I'm the son of God" stories. The priests at the temple took +offense to his obviously blasphemous remarks, and proceeded to deal with +the young scalawag in orderly fashion by stoning him to death. Now, instead +of proving his claims of divinity by performing a miracle or something, +Jesus decided to use a little common sense and chose to hike up his skirt +and hightail it out of there. It is said that you could hear his screams for +blocks around while Jesus set a new record for the 1/4 mile. + +Deuteronomy 27:21 "'Cursed be he who lies with any kind of animal!' And the +people shall say, 'Amen!'" + + This verse states that having sex with pets and barnyard animals is a +no-no. [although man is considered an animal too, but I won't go into that] +This one really ought to disturb some of those good 'ol boys who live in the +deep south. + + Why did God feel the necessity to tell his "sheep" this. I know that God's +earliest followers weren't the brightest folks to ever walk the earth, but +couldn't they figure this one out on their own? Common sense should tell +you that going to bed with animals is wrong, especially with the one's that +can talk, like parrots. Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be if you +were having an affair with your pet bird and he told on you? Let's say you +have a friend over your to house. You get up and leave the room to get a glass +of water, and the bird starts squawking "Help! Help! He fucks me when your +not here." "Hey man, how did you teach your parrot to say that?" "He didn't +teach me, He's really fucking me! Call 911! Call 911!" Boy, would your face +be red. + +Deuteronomy 23:1 "No one who's testicles have been crushed or severed +shall enter the Lord's congregation." + + It would seem that you've got to have a strong and active member to +hang out with the Lord. The Lord don't want no limp dicks in church. How can +you fuck over your congregation if you can't get it up? Not to mention all +those lovely young altar boys. + +Exodus 22:18 "Allow no sorceress to live." + + All you witches better watch out! The Lord wants you dead. Remember +the witch hunts? It's verses like this one that give the mentally unstable +the go ahead to commit unspeakable acts against the innocent. + +Proverbs 29:23 "A man's pride will bring him low, but the lowly in spirit +obtains honour." + + It's verses like this one that makes Christianity so popular with the +masses. By bestowing honour on those who have done nothing to deserve it, +and at the same time, reducing the worth of those who are truly deserving, +the common man is able to feel that he is important. It is this false sense of +importance and "holier than thou" mentality that Christians cling to and use +to justify their worthless lives. + +Genesis 38:8-10 "Judah then told Onan, 'Go to your brother's widow; fulfill +to her the duty of a brother in law and raise a family for your brother.' But, +knowing the offspring would not be his, Onan, whenever he went in to his +brother's widow, spilled his sperm upon the ground, to prevent his brother's +wife from having children. His behavior was wicked in the sight of the Lord, +so he ended his life." + Killed for spilling his seed on the ground, eh? I wonder if that covers +masturbation? If it does, we're all dead! + +Deuteronomy 14:8-9 "The hog is unclean because it divides the hoof but +does not chew the cud; of their flesh you must not eat nor may you touch +their carcass. Of the creatures that live in the water, those that have fins +and scales you may eat, but whatever does not have fins and scales is +unclean to you, you shall not eat of it." + What? No ham, bacon, shrimp, lobster or crab? And just when that new +Surf & Turf restaurant opened up down the street. It looks like the Lord +doesn't like football either. No more tossing of the old pigskin. I wonder how +many of you I will see in Hell just because you had a BLT? + +2 Kings 2:23-24 "When he left there for Bethel, and was on his way, some +youths came out of the city and poked fun at him, saying 'go up, baldy; go up, +baldy!' As he turned around and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the +Lord. Then two female bears came out of the forest and tore up 42 of the +boys." + + Sheesh! You would think that an all-powerful, all-knowing deity +wouldn't be so sensitive about male pattern baldness. Not only is God the +president of the Hair Club for deities, he's also a client. + +Matthew 5:5 "Blessed be the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." + + The only thing the meek will inherit is a footprint on their backsides. + + + 6. + + What is evil? + + No single character [real or imagined] throughout history has been +condemned and persecuted with as much vigor and sheer determination as +the Dark Lord. Satan has been forced to shoulder the blame for every bad +thing that has happened to mankind since he was invented [for just this +purpose]. He is the world's scapegoat. What crimes did Satan commit that +could possibly cause Christians to hate and persecute him so? Why is the +name "Satan" synonymous with evil? + + According to Christian mythology, Satan was at one time the number one + angel, God's right hand man. He had a free run of Heaven [as long as he O.K.'d +his requests with God first], he got to hang out with the Heavenly Host all +day long, work on his tan, play some golf, catch up on a little light reading, +but he wasn't happy. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? If Heaven is such a +wonderful place [as Christians would have you believe it is], how could +anyone be unhappy there? Well it's obvious that Satan wasn't happy. He got +tired of blindly following God's orders. He wasn't content to sit idly by and +watch someone else make the rules for him. He had his own ideas, and didn't +need someone else to do his thinking for him. He wanted to have a go at this +"creating" and "ruling" stuff. So Satan gathered together some of the other +free spirited angels [who, to God's dismay, were also unhappy with the way +things were run in Heaven] , and he organized a little revolt. I picture it as +being a little like the Vietnam war protests of the 60's. The rebellious +angels, led by Satan, marched around Heaven with signs, shouted catchy +slogans, and mainly disturbed the peace and thumbed their noses at the +"Establishment." Now God, being a jealous god, and having an ego the size of +the universe, coupled with what is obviously a lack of self- esteem [seems +like a contradiction, but that's God for you], didn't take kindly to Satan's +plans and banished him and his cronies from Heaven. + + So what? This is what Satan wanted, a place he could call his own. But +now God had competition. He didn't like that either. He had to do something, +and do it fast. He spoke to his agents on earth and said "Dis guy Satan is +musclin' in on my territory, I want youse guys should take care of him." +Now, Satan wasn't as easy a target as they had originally thought. It seems +as though God's goon squad wasn't able to "Rub dis joker out" as God had +given them orders too. Not being able to physically remove the problem, a +new plan was needed. After studying the demographics and consulting a +marketing expert they started a vicious smear campaign against Satan that +continues to this day. They figured that if they couldn't remove the thorn +from their sides, they could slander their opponent's good name and make it +politically incorrect to be associated with Satan. [This practice is still used +by politicians today.] + + So, what actually were Satan's crimes? He thought for himself. He +preferred to accomplish things on his own, without the help of his "father". +He was clever, ambitious, proud, he was noble, and he had a sense of humor. +For these things, and these things alone he was damned. + + A person who possesses these characteristics in today's society is +called an achiever, a doer, and he is admired and respected by his peers. He +is a leader of men, a thinker, a creator, and he is definitely not a Christian. +Christianity has forbidden these qualities in it's followers. They don't want +another Satan on their hands. This raises a very important question. Is +thinking and acting for yourself now to be considered evil? + + The dictionary defines the word "evil" as "anything that is morally bad +or wrong." By who's moral standards are we to judge what is evil? God's? I +think not. I personally wouldn't want to live my life under the guidance of +someone as jealous, petty, and vindictive as that, or anyone else for that + +matter. Who is qualified to judge what is good or bad, right or wrong, for +another individual? Many people [politicians, special interest groups, +fanatics] feel That they are qualified. They try to legislate morality, a +concept that can not, and has not worked. Man will always find ways to +satisfy his desires, whether they are legal or not. By making our natural +desires [and ways to express those desires] illegal, you only promote crime. + + The concepts of good and evil are subjective. A person must decide for +himself what is good or bad for his own circumstances. If you judge your +actions by the standards set by others, then you are not, and never will be a +Satanist. + + This next set of conversations deal with the topic of evil: + +01/16 9:51 AM + + Tommy, how can anyone worship Satan? I can't understand why anyone +would want to be involved with evil. Don't fall for Satan's tricks, he is a +liar and he wants to make you suffer the same fate he has. Surrender to God +before it's too late. Mike + +01/16 1:34 PM + + As I have continuously said, Satanists do not worship Satan! "Satanism +demands study, not worship"-Anton LaVey. I bend my knees and grovel +before no one. + + What do you consider to be evil? Is thinking for yourself "evil"? Is +providing for yourself, and not relying on a god to provide for you "evil"? Is +being happy "evil"? Good and evil are subjective, by whose definition of evil +should I go by? Yours? God's? No, I have my own definition of evil. For me, +evil is stupidity, dependence, blindness, self-deceit. As for Suffering the +same fate as Satan, I could think of worse things. Tommy + +01/17 7:51 AM + + That's where you have been misled. Good and evil are not subjective, +they are much like the "given" in a geometry theorem. That which causes +harm to anyone or anything is evil. Period. Mike + +01/17 3:22 PM + + I have to disagree. If a man rapes or kills [or harms in any way] someone +close to me, that person deserves harm in return. Plain and simple. It is not +"evil" to harm the rapist, the molester of children, or the murderer. It is +justice. If a person goes out of their way to do me wrong, or harm me in any +way, not only will I return harm to them, I will return it to them repeatedly +about the head and neck. Does this make me evil? If in your eyes it does, so +be it. I will wear the mantle of evil proudly. It basically boils down to this; +Good is what you like, evil is what you don't like. There are many things +considered evil by Christians, that I do not find evil in the least. Sex +[premarital or otherwise], certain types of music, prostitution, strippers, +free thought and the list goes on and on. Tommy + +01/18 7:58 AM + + I never really thought of it like that. I suppose that, in that sense you +are right, Very well put. Howard + +01/19 4:32 PM + + Satan is evil. God is good. You are being fooled by Satan, he is the +deceiver and capable of great evil. God is the way, it is impossible for Him +to do evil, the Bible says so. Come to God before it's too late. I do not want +to see you fall prey to evil, it will ruin your life. Susan + +01/19 7:54 PM + + Define evil. Tommy + +01/19 9:42 PM + + Evil is doing bad things to people or causing bad things to happen to +them. Killing is evil. Lying is evil. Deceiving people is evil. This is what +Satan does, he wants to hurt you. God is the opposite, he would never hurt +anyone. Susan + +01/20 8:12 AM + + God would never hurt anyone? Where did you get that from. Tommy + + +01/20 7:22 PM + + From the Bible. It says that God loves us and would never hurt us. Susan + + + +01/20 8:56 PM + + OK then, let's take a quick look at God in the Bible shall we? I'm sure +you will find it enlightening. + + I'm sure you are familiar with the story of Jericho where God had Joshua +kill every man, woman, child and animal in the town. That's right, they even +killed all the animals. [Joshua 6:21] When the slaughter was done they took +the towns treasures and deposited it in "the treasury of the house of the +Lord." [Joshua 6:24] So, your merciful and loving God orders the entire town +killed and their gold and silver stolen. Murder and robbery. You don't consider +that evil? It doesn't stop at Jericho though. He does the same thing at Ai +[Joshua 8:2], at Makkedah [Joshua 10:28], at Libnah [Joshua 10:29-30], at +Lachish [Joshua 10:31-32], at Eglon [Joshua 10:34-35], at Hebron [Joshua +10:36-37], at Debir [Joshua 10:38-39], and the surrounding countryside +[Joshua 10:40], from Kadeshbarnea unto Gaza, and all the land of Goshen and +Gibeon [Joshua 10:41], at Hazor [Joshua 11:11], all the cities of the king of +Hazor, Madon, Shimron, and Achsaph [Joshua 11:12-14], and the cities of the +Anakims [Joshua 11:21]. Quite a little campaign of destruction wouldn't you +say? General God had whole villages wiped out and gave orders to his army +to commit atrocities rivaling, and more often surpassing those of Adolf +Hitler, Idi Amin, and other insane dictators. Instead of being worshiped, God +should be tried for war crimes. + + It's not only in war where God shows his evil nature and penchant for +killing. He sets up the death penalty for such "crimes" as adultery [Leviticus +20:10], homosexuality [Leviticus 20:13], picking up sticks on the sabbath +[Exodus 31:14], being disrespectful to your parents [Exodus 21:15,17], being +a witch [Exodus 22:18], not fathering children with your dead brother's wife +[Genesis 38:7-10], calling a guy 'baldy' [2 Kings 2:23-24]. It's not only +disregard for the laws of the Bible that will get you in dutch with God, he +also takes a dim view of any kind of free thought or action. Remember what +he did to Satan? All Satan did was disagree with God and the poor guy's been +persecuted ever since. Not only will he judge from a distance, but +sometimes he gets directly involved. God hardened Pharaoh's heart [Exodus +10:27] to keep him from letting the Hebrews go, then he killed every +first-born Egyptian child [Exodus 12:29]. He sent a flood to wipe out every +creature on earth. Many innocent children and animals drowned in that one. +He has sent plagues against defenseless animals [Exodus 9:3]. He happily +wiped out men, women, children, animals and plants [Exodus 9:25] in a +vicious hailstorm that even "broke down every tree", and then sent locusts +[Exodus 10:12] to finish off any plants left by the hail" He also abetted the +Israelites in stealing gold and silver from the Egyptians [Exodus 11:2-3]. He +has made deformed and handicapped children on purpose, and then bragged +about it [Exodus 4:11]. God also condones slavery and the beating of those +slaves [Exodus 21:20-21]. He would visit the iniquities of the father upon +the innocent children to the third and fourth generations [Exodus 20:5], and +there's many other horrible deeds committed by your loving and caring God +that due too space requirements I have neglected to mention, but I think you +can understand the gist of my argument without them. + + So you see, by your own definition, "evil is doing bad things to people or +causing bad things to happen to them", God is most certainly evil. Tommy + +02/11 8:45 AM + + I have a lot of questions. I hope you don't mind but I am really curious. +Why are Satanists obsessed with dark, gloomy, and evil things? Why do you +all wear only black? I've heard Heavy Metal and it's lyrics are totally about +evil things and the dark side of life. Do you like vampires and +werewolves and other creatures of the night? Is being a Satanist a way of +getting closer to the darkside? Tina + +02/11 12:05 PM + + What a person wears, listens to, reads, or finds aesthetically pleasing is +a matter of personal taste. Satanists are not obsessed with "dark, gloomy +things." Satanist are not obsessive about anything, except perhaps for +personal freedom. Satanists also do not wear only black [although I must +admit, most of my wardrobe does tend to consist of colors of a darker hue] +and listen to "Heavy Metal." I do like heavy metal, but I also love the blues +and of course, the true music of Satanists, classical. [Mozart being my +favorite] I personally do like to read about vampires, werewolves, ghosts, +goblins and all the creatures of the night. This is a personal like [I've loved +vampire stories since I was a child], and has nothing to do with my religion. +Satanism is about reality, and it doesn't concern itself with myths of any +kind, [except as a form of entertainment] and a Satanist never confuses +myth with reality. Tommy + + 7. + + Masturbation and the fear of sex + + + One of the fallacies concerning Satanists is that we do not know what +the Christian religion is about. On the contrary, most Satanists are well +versed on the tenets of Christianity. This is one of the main reasons we are +Satanists. We have seen first hand the hypocrisy inherent in the Christian +religion. As with all abstinence = spirituality religions, Christians have +honed guilt into a razor sharp weapon. They wield it against each other in an +attempt to cut down the natural desires of their fellow man. + + "What are the 7 deadly sins of Christianity? Gluttony, avarice, sloth, +lust... They are urges every man feels at least once a day. How could you set +yourself up as the most powerful institution on earth? You first find out +what every man feels at least once a day, establish that as a sin, and set +yourself up as the only institution capable of pardoning that sin."-Anton +LaVey + + The Christian and Catholic churches seek to control the sex drives of +their respective herds. Christians and Catholics [or any God worshiping +religion for that matter] are not allowed to engage in premarital sex, and +Catholics are not allowed to use birth control [this is to insure a constant +influx of new Catholics]. This is the ultimate in control, it is however, +something that cannot be realistically accomplished. Man's carnal nature +can, and does override the massive amount of guilt that is heaped upon the +sheep. Have you ever wondered why so many Christian ministers and +Catholic priests have been arrested for crimes of a sexual nature? The +answer is simple; repression. If you repress a natural urge long enough, it +will build up to a point where it is too powerful to control. + + Christians always seem to have a hard time with sex [no pun intended], +and especially with the ancient taboo of masturbation. The propaganda +surrounding this most natural of acts is mind-boggling. We have all heard +the old wives tales concerning the punishments you can expect to receive +for doing this "filthy, disgusting act." I have heard everything from "You'll +grow hair on the palms of your hands" and "You'll go blind" to "God will +banish you to Hell if you spill your seed on the ground." + + The reasons for the Church not wanting you to masturbate are simple. If +you can find pleasure inside yourself [and outside of God], God will become +obsolete. The only pleasure in life you should have as a Christian is the +pleasure God grants you with his love and presence. As we have established +before, God is a very Jealous god. He wants to be the only thing in life that +can provide you with happiness. If you suddenly realize that you are able to +achieve happiness and pleasure without his divine interference, you might +discover that you can do other things for yourself as well. If this happens, +you might also come to realize that it is the power within yourself, and your +own decisions and actions that cause your life to take the shape you wish, +and that you no longer need God to provide for you. You have learned that you +CAN accomplish things on your own. You are on your way to becoming +self-sufficient, and God is out of business. + + In this next set of conversations "Stephen", asks for opinions about +masturbation. There were a lot of responses to Stephen's question. 99.9% of +them told him it was wrong. Their responses ranged from "It's a sin to lust +in your heart, and that's what you do when you fantasize while you +masturbate" to "Remember what happened to Onan." A few people even said +that Satan was the originator of masturbation, and if you did it you are +going straight to Hell. I left those out as they were completely ridiculous +and chose to use the replies of "Robert" since his responses were the most +prolific and they echoed the sentiments of the other replies. + +01/10 8:39 PM + + Hi everyone, I have a question about masturbation. What do any of you +Christians think of it and is there anything that shows God is against it in +the Bible? What do non-Christians think about it too. Thanks and please +could I have some intellectual answers besides "it's disgusting and it's +wrong!"? Thanks again. Stephen + +01/11 1:42 PM + + There is nothing wrong with masturbating. Don't let these people force a +guilt trip on you. You shouldn't be ashamed of anything that comes naturally +to you and brings you pleasure. Tommy + + 01/12 9:57 AM + + God does offer counsel relating to this matter. The apostle Paul wrote of +having self-control over one's own sexual desires at 1 Corinthians 7:37. +Jesus said [Matt. 5:28] "but I tell you anyone who looks at a woman +lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Jesus also +said at Matt. 15:19 "for out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, +adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." Paul again +wrote [1 Cor. 6:18] saying "Flee sexual immorality, all other sins a man +commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own +body." Sexual temptation is everywhere in our day. Paul telling us to "flee" +is good advice, though hard to do. + + I find it easier to avoid these temptations if I avoid movies, music, +anything that would stir sexual desires. Christian sisters could make this +easier for us brothers, and the other way around, by heeding biblical counsel +to dress modestly. We should help each other to remain pure in our hearts. +Keeping in mind 1 Cor. 10:13 is also helpful. It says "No temptation has +seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not +let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he +will also provide a way out so you can stand up under it." Hope this helps +you and others who have a problem in this area. +Robert + +01/13 7:32 AM + + Are you saying that you don't listen to music or go to the movies? That's +a bit extreme don't you think? Tommy + +01/14 8:49 AM + + Hi Tommy. In response to your question "Are you saying that you don't +listen to music or go to the movies?" I fight hard daily to be serious about +Matt. 22:37 in ALL aspects of my life. When I first became a follower of +Jesus I didn't really seek out bible counsel, let alone apply it to my life. I +nearly fell away because I had no root, [See Matt. 13:5-6] I relied on my own +understanding which is another way of doing whatever I wanted. [See Prov. +14:12] Over the years I have come to appreciate all the loving advice God has +for His people within His word, His love letters to us. So regarding movies & +music I let Phillippians 4:8 be my guide. "Finally brothers, whatever is true, +whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, +whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praise worthy--think +about such things." I listen to Christian music only. [See Psalms 150:1-6] +Most music on the radio where i live promotes sin. When I do rent movies it +is from my Christian book store, not from the world. All day long I walk +among the hurting and the lost. I see the walking wounded every day who +have gone the ways of the world and are reaping the bitter consequences. It +breaks my heart & the heart of Jesus. [See Gal. 6:7] Why would I seek out +worldly entertainment? I should be disgusted by it. [See Romans 12:2, +2 Corinthians 6:14-15, 10:5] Paul wrote"Be very careful, then, how you +live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, +because the day's are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what +the Lord's will is." [Eph. 5:15-17] It is all a question of priorities. Sad to +say, but today, many people in the Church are like those of the Laodecian +church Jesus rebuked at Rev. 3:15-16. They are lukewarm, at a time when +our hearts should be on FIRE for our savior, we are apathetic, becoming a +friend of the world in what we do and say. Many of my Christian friends +spent more time being passified by the t.v. than drawing closer to the Lord. +They know the t.v. guide cover to cover but are ill equipped to share the +REAL, TRUE & PURE gospel to a sad and dying world. We are responsible to +this generation of soul's. But the world looks at us and sees a mirror +reflection of themselves. How truly sad. Tommy, don't look to other +Christians to set the standards in your life. Look prayerfully to HIS LIVING +WORD. You may have written me off as a radical a while ago. I hope this is +not so. We live in a time of spiritual warfare!! Satan's new tool is +compromise and it is far too effective. Tommy, PLEASE let me know what +you think of what I have shared. I am truly concerned! If you disagree, please +tell me. Show me with scripture so we know it is of God. I love you. Rob + +01/14 12:10 PM + + Robert, What can I say, you have totally gone off the deep end. What do +you do all day, hide in the house from the big, bad, wicked world? The world +is full of beauty and pleasure. You should embrace it instead of locking +yourself away. + + The Bible was written a long time ago by people with limited [as +opposed to today] intelligence and technology. It contains many outdated and +backward ideals and moral codes. The rules and regulations of our distant +ancestors no longer apply to us. Society and it's attitudes have changed +greatly over the past 2,000 years, and I believe for the most part it has +changed for the better. I Will agree that there is a lot of trouble in the +world today, but waiting for some non-existant deity to fix things is a +waste of time. If your God wanted things to be better he would do something +about it. Since he hasn't lifted a finger to help, WE must help OURSELVES. +It's the only way things will ever change. Tommy + +01/15 9:51 AM + + Tommy, I made the improper assumption that you were a Christian. +Based on what you said regarding the Bible that could not be the case. +Tommy, we live in a world that has, as a whole, rejected Bible counsel and +taken up a "If it feels good, do i" lifestyle that you seem to be in favor of. +But man's way does not seem to be working too well. If people practiced +God's Biblical advice there would be no venereal disease, AIDS, abortion, +alcoholism, starvation, immorality, crime, suicide, you name it. Of course +Jesus never said that the whole world would accept Him or His ways. But I +know for myself, and others who really strive to accept Bible counsel to our +lives that it is a way of life that works like no other. If the Bible is all +wrong, and merely inspired by men, I will die a happy man having served my +neighbor. But if the Bible is right, I will inherit eternal life. What of you and +your beliefs? What if you are wrong and the Bible is right? I live to share +this truth with people like you. There is no more serious choice one can +make in their life, to be real with Jesus. Robert + +01/14 2:33 PM + + It is an impractical and impossible wish to hope that all men are going +to follow your beliefs. You cannot change the carnal nature of man. You have +to accept the facts and learn to deal with them. If the world was, as you +described you want it to be, it would be a most sterile and boring place. +Whatever restrictions you try to force upon humanity, man's carnal nature +will out. There has always been crime, starvation, suicide and all the other +things you mentioned and there probably always will be. These things were +around during the time of Jesus [and before], and during the time of the +Church's stranglehold on society, so blaming them now on a lack of +adherence to Bible counsel is an opinion without merit. The Christian & +Catholic Churches have committed many horrendous acts against humanity +[Inquisitions, witch hunts, crusades, ect...] and they profess a deep and +spiritual relationship with God. Your fanatical reverence to God with his +inhuman and unnatural laws is not the answer to our problems. I feel it is +one of the causes. You can't change human nature. Tommy + +01/23 2:21 PM + + I've seen a lot of conversations on the board here regarding sex. The one +thing most of you fail to realize is that sex outside of marriage is wrong. It +goes against God. Lust is a tool of the Devil. If you surrender to your desires +then you will be playing the Devil's game. he wants to lead you away from +God. The next time you feel lustful urges, stop and ask God to help you. It is +through His divine influence that you will be saved. Bill + +01/23 5:10 PM + + Were you a virgin when you got married? Tommy + +01/23 9:45 PM + + I'll be honest with you. No, I was not. I am only a man and I am not +perfect. I feel a deep sense of shame for this but also a great joy because I +know God has forgiven me. I have made mistakes in the past, and sometimes +I still make mistakes, but I know that God with His infinite mercy will +forgive me. + + Our young people are in dire straights. Every time you turn on the tv you +see sex, sex, and more sex. It's everywhere you look. It's destroying the +moral fiber of our youth. In school they have sex classes and they even pass +out condoms to the students. I can't believe it. Condoms in school! It's +immoral and wrong. Our government should do something about it. Every time +I think about it I want to cry. Bill + +01/24 8:13 AM + + You fucking hypocrite! You make me sick. You are telling people that sex +is wrong, and trying to make them stop doing the same thing you did, and +that's have sex before marriage. You can't have the government legislate +morality. Just because you have a hang up about sex, doesn't give you the +right to tell someone else not to do it. Why do the actions of another bother +you so? I for one, applaud the teaching of safe sex in our schools and the +handing out of condoms to students. Teenage pregnancy and sexually +transmitted diseases are at an all time high. you can't stop people from +having sex. It's a natural urge in all of us. [remember, you did it too] No +amount of spiritual hypocrisy can change that. If we educate our young +people about the dangers of unprotected sex, it will help. Telling them not to +do it will only make them want to do it even more. Tommy + +02/03 8:53 AM + + The problem with sexual promiscuity stems from the fact that there is +no more prayer in school. They've got to bring prayer back in schools, or at +least the choice for it. They've got to do the flag salute too. Our educational +system is rotten to the core now because of the chaotic messes like sex +advocation and stuff. Tuan + +02/02 10:11 AM + + "Sex advocation and stuff?" What do you mean by that? As for prayer in +schools, it they took the time to let every person of every different faith +pray, there would be no time left for learning. or do you feel all people +should be forced to pray to your God? Tommy + +02/02 3:15 PM + + Sex advocation is like distributing condoms in schools. That's +symbolism over substance because it only advocates that kids are going to +do it anyway. There is only one true God, the creator. If everybody followed +Him, there would be no problems. Tuan + +02/02 4:04 PM + + Don't confuse education with advocation. The fact is that teens are +going to have sex whether we want them to or not. It is our duty to educate +them on the risks involved [pregnancy, disease] and to teach them to be +responsible. [ie.. use of a condom] That is the reality of the situation. Your +fascist plan of complete control in the name of your God, quite frankly, +disgusts me. Tommy + +02/02 5:22 PM + + Reality is, that the educational system is corrupt. You said the kids are +going to do 'it' anyway. See what I mean? You EXPECT them to do it, +therefore, you WANT them to do it. We have to PREVENT them by teaching +them the basic values that were taught in the 40's and 50's. Tuan + +02/02 7:01 PM + + Expecting something to happen, and wanting something to happen, are +two different things. Get real. What do you have against sex anyway? Sex is +great! I hate to burst your bubble, but there was sex back in the 40's and +50's too. Tommy + +02/02 9:15 PM + + Well, yes, sex CAN be great, but you see the fault of the school system +is the fact that they wish to advocate such a thing so early in kid's life- +times. The results are hazardous...abortion, pregnancy, choices, ect. + + Back in the 40's and 50's, even though there were no epidemic diseases +like AIDS, kids still did not mess around. They were more responsible for +their own lives and did not depend on government intervention with any +'protection.' The same with guns. In places where the citizens own guns, the +lesser the crime. Tuan + + +02/02 9:47 PM + + You're still confusing education with advocation. Get a dictionary and +look up the words, will ya? Are you actually naive enough to think that kids +weren't having sex in the 40's or 50's? Ask someone who was a teen during +that generation, they'll tell you that there was plenty of sex going on. The +only difference was, if a young girl got pregnant back then, instead of going +on Oprah and telling her story to millions of tv zombies, they quietly +shipped her off to her maiden aunt's house. Tommy + +P.S. Under your list of hazardous results, you listed "choices." I guess under +supreme rule by Herr God, having a choice would be hazardous. [to God at any +rate] + +02/03 8:10 AM + + If kids in the 40's and 50's messed around a lot, how come the +population back then was less? Tuan + +02/03 1:42 PM + + Gee, you got me there. Sheesh! Is that the best you can do? "How come +the population back then was less?" Geez, that is so stupid that it doesn't +deserve an answer. + + Ok, you seem to think you have all the answers. What would you do about +teenage promiscuity? Tommy + +02/03 3:30 PM + + I have a solution. Put those who are already 'doing it' in detention +everyday after school. That way they might learn something. Tuan + +02/03 4:11 PM + + Are you serious? That's your solution? How do you know which kids are +already doing it? What if they drop out of school? Tommy + +02/03 4:55 PM + + Yes, I am serious. Instead of giving out condoms, schools should give out +discipline. If we take away their free time, they won't have time to have +sex. + + POLL: Teens Have More Sex Than Ever + + Teenagers are having sex more than ever, many of them unprotected, +despite the risks of AIDS and pregnancy. A Time magazine/CNN poll says. + Fifty-five percent of 16- and 17- year-olds surveyed said thay have had +sexual intercourse, but only sixty-one percent said they used birth control +every time. + + The poll of 500 teenagers appears in Time's latest issue, on newstands +Monday. A copy of the survey was released in advance. + + Nineteen percent of 13- to 15- year-olds said they have had sex. +Twenty-three percent of all teenagers said they have had sex with 2-3 +people, while fifteen percent said they have had intercourse with five or +more partners. + + Parental warning seems to have little effect. + + Of those polled, seventy-one percent had been told by their parents to +wait until they were older before having sex, and more than half had been +cautioned not to have sex until they were married. + + About 6 out of 10 said they had used some form of birth control every +time; twenty-six percent said they used birth control sometimes, and +thirteen percent said they have never used it. + + The teens were almost evenly split between those who said it is fine for +children aged 16 and under to have sex and those who said they should be 18 +or older, + + When asked what motivated them to have sex, seventy-six percent of the +girls and eighty percent of the boys said they "were curious and wanted to +experiment." + + Fifty-eight percent of both girls and boys "wanted to be more popular or +impress their friends." Fifty percent of the girls and sixty-three percent of +the boys had sex "because they were in love", while thirty-five percent of +the girls and sixty-five percent of the boys cited peer pressure as their +reason. I think this survey says it all. Our country is morally and +spiritually bankrupt. Tuan + +02/03 6:34 PM + + I told you you can't stop them, but if we educate them and make birth +control available to them, they just might act responsibly. Tommy + +02/03 7:12 PM + + Birth control is already available. If kids want to take that risk, let +them, but don't give them condoms for free. Make them earn them. Tuan + +02/03 7:45 PM + + And how would a person go about "earning" a condom? Tommy + +02/03 8:23 PM + + By merit. By getting a job, instead of being promiscuous. Tuan + +02/03 9:31 PM + + You are totally ridiculous! Tommy + +02/04 9:15 AM + + Here's something you'll probably approve of too. + +INSTRUCTIONS FOR ORDERING YOUR OWN PERSONALIZED GAY CHECKS: + +1. Enclose a voided check and deposit slip from your existing check supply. + +2. Indicate any printing changes and starting check number on the form +below. + +3. Enclose another check made payable to "In the Pink' for $19.95 per order. + +4. Mail to In the Pink, P.O. Box 5794, dept. 2667, Bethesda, Maryland 20814 + +5. if you have any questions at all about your order, call mike at (202)n +547-2342 any time. 200 checks per box. Confidentiality of all bank +information is guaranteed. Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. Maryland +residents add $1.00 per order state sales tax. For security, orders will only +be mailed to the address printed on the checks. CALL US AT (202) 547-2342 +WITH ANY QUESTION.....A REPLY TODAY IS A MOVEMENT TOMORROW! + +Ahem...this speaks for itself. Tuan + +02/04 3:21 PM + + What's wrong with homosexuals having checking accounts? Tommy + +02/04 5:11 PM + + I'll bet you want one of those gay checks. Tuan + +02/04 9:33 PM + + Ooh, clever comeback. Your ignorance and intolerance is a credit to +Christianity. God must be proud of you. Tommy + +02/06 1:12 PM + + HIV is easier to get than you think. AIDS is God's way of punishing +fornication. Trista + +02/06 5:15 PM + + That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read, but let's look +beyond that, shall we? Let's assume that your statement is true, God did +create HIV to punish fornication. Now, I know [and you do to] that there are +many children who are infected with AIDS. They did not contract the disease +through fornication, many of them got it from blood transfusions [and the +rest got it from their mothers]. How can God justify this? God, being the +all-knowing god that he is, HE KNEW, BEFORE he created HIV, that innocent +children would get it. Did this knowledge deter him? NO! Did knowing that +innocent children would suffer a slow and painful death cause him to find +another way to deal with fornicators? NO! If God is truly all-powerful, he +could have introduced a disease that ONLY KILLED FORNICATORS, right? But +he didn't. Instead he chose to let innocent people suffer. Real nice guy. Makes +Hitler look like a boy scout. Tommy + + 8. + + What about love? + + To the average Christian, Satanism is synonymous with hate, and +therefore, it is assumed that a Satanist cannot and does not love anyone or +anything but himself. This assumption, like most made about Satanists, is +totally wrong! Being human, a Satanist has the same feelings and emotions +that all people do. He is, however, more selective as to the recipients of his +feelings. + + "Love thy neighbor as you would yourself" the Bible tells all Christians. +What if your neighbor is a child molester, a junkie, a sneak thief or a +murderer? Am I supposed to love this despicable creature? Am I supposed to +look beyond his personality and try to see the soul underneath the sick +exterior? Am I supposed to forgive him? Am I supposed to turn a blind eye +to his repulsive behavior and befriend him? Am I supposed to invite the +pervert over for dinner? If you're a Christian you are. + + No matter how hard you try, you can't love everyone, it's impossible, and +why would you want to anyway? By giving your love indiscriminately to +everyone you meet, you lessen it's worth. It becomes watered down and +meaningless. A Satanist prefers to give his love sparingly and +wholeheartedly to those that deserve it. Love given to someone who won't +appreciate it is wasted. + + What about hate? If you love everyone who is left for you to hate? If you +try to repress your hatred, it will eventually build up to the boiling point +and explode, causing great harm, usually to the ones you profess to love the +most. A Satanists vents his anger and hatred on his enemies, thereby freeing +himself from the emotional and physical damage that can be caused by +keeping your emotions penned up inside you. If I had a dollar for every time +I saw a story on the news, or read in the paper about some guy who went +nuts and took an assault rifle and opened fire on innocent people, I would be +a fabulously rich man. Friend and neighbors always describe the perp as +being a quite guy, who never got mad, never showed his anger. No one can +believe that he was capable of this kind of behavior, he was such a nice guy. +Everyone gets angry. That's a fact! Everyone at one time or another has +hated. It's only natural. What's unnatural is trying to keep these feelings +locked up inside of you by denying that they exist. This type of behavior will +only lead to emotional distress, a reduction in the quality of life and the +view of your neighbor with cross-hairs on his face. + + I came across a conversation between "Deborah" and "Adam" on one of +the religion subjects on the bulletin board. Adam is also a Satanist, and +since he had left the conversation and Deborah was still looking for +answers, I obliged her. + +01/12 5:06 PM + + I know Adams been busy posting in his "other" territory, and much too +busy to answer some interesting questions via E-mail. I may have hit a +sensitive area. I was merely trying to learn more about this young man. I do +not know enough about his "religion" to argue, nor do I have a thorough +knowledge of the Bible to extend. + + From what I have read on the Satanism subjects on the 'other' topic, +they do not worship Satan but they unfortunately seem to enjoy songs with +'dark' lyrics and movies with violence, ect... I would like to know if they can +show love and compassion to others, and contribute to the world in a way +that is kind and helpful. I may not agree with the way other religions..... +Buddists, Muslim, Mormons, ect, ect, do business, but I feel that if they are +not doing evil in God's eyes, then I leave them alone. My quest is against +EVIL...are Satanists evil? I don't hear them speak of pleasant things...I think +that most of them are young, bratty kids. Where does love fit in? Is there +anyone out there who is a Satanist that can answer this for me? Deborah + +01/12 7:32 PM + + Since Adam isn't here, and you asked, let me fill you in on Satanic love. +The difference between Christian love and Satanic love is that Christians +say they love everyone, and Satanists only love those who earn and deserve +their love.It is ridiculous and a virtual impossibility to think you can love +everybody. If anything is given too freely it loses it's true meaning, and +diminishes in worth, therefore a Satanist's love is felt stronger and means +more than the watered down love of a Christian. + + Are Satanists evil? Evil is subjective. Most Christians feel that +anything that is not theirs is evil. Tommy + +01/12 8:31 PM + + Thank for answering Tommy...I understand from Adam that you are an old +person as I. As I wrote to Adam, I, personally, do not claim to love +everyone, as in, the WHOLE WIDE WORLD, but I have the capacity to if I met +any one individual, even a Satanist!!!! Ya know? Could a Satanist love a +Christian? This is fun isn't it? Or is FUN prohibited? Deborah + +01/12 9:48 PM + + A Satanist can love anyone he/she chooses to, even a Christian. My mom +is a Christian [although she's not a nut about it] and I love her very much. I +do not love her because some old mythology book told me too, I love her for +all the things she has done for me and all the love she has given me. I can +also hate, an emotion that is forbidden to Christians. Would you love the +person who raped and murdered your children if you met him? Tommy + +01/13 9:44 AM + + Why do you think Christians are forbidden to hate? I mean, we are, after +all, only human...it is by the grace of God that we are able to love, even +though our human minds may feel hate or contempt for someone. The Holy +Spirit takes over...in my case anyway. Why do you think the Bible is +mythology? What about the evidence that backs up things stated in the O.T. +that has clearly been found in the Dead Sea Scrolls? Your views seem to +differ greatly from Adam, your partner in crime. I am pleased to learn +you LOVE!!!! Deborah + +01/13 4:42 PM + + As a history book, the Bible is probably somewhat accurate, it is not, +however, the word of some non-existant deity that created the heavens and +the earth. It contains far to many inaccuracies and contradictions for it to +actually be from an all-knowing deity. The Bible is merely a Farmer's +Almanac for the people of that time. It is now outdated. + + If you believe that the Bible IS the word of God, then you as a Christian +are bound by your religion to follow the laws set forth in it by God. One of +his laws is to "love thy neighbor." If you are forced to love everyone +indiscriminately like that, then it stands to reason that you lose your +natural power of selection, and if you must love everyone, then it only +stands to reason that there is no one left to hate. Tommy + +01/14 11:42 AM + + Hi Tommy! I'm sorry you can't seem to understand, but nothing is +forbidden to Christians. Through God's glory we are able to do or feel +anything. We are simply commanded to love and do everything in our power +to love. It isn't that hate is forbidden, such as the forbidden fruit, it is just +that a heart that is actively seeking God and living by the Holy Spirit cannot +hate. Chris + +01/14 3:28 PM + + "Nothing is forbidden to Christians", "We are commanded to love". These +two statements seem to contradict each other. There are a myriad of things +that are forbidden to Christians. Ever read the Bible? What about the 10 +commandments? They implicitly forbid certain actions. Tommy + +01/14 6:53 PM + + Jesus died for our sins. All our sins are forgiven now and forever. A +Christian can do anything he wants and God will forgive him. Chris + +01/15 7:32 AM + + Are you saying that just because Jesus was nailed to a stick, that you +can now sin with impunity, knowing all the while that you are sinning? Isn't +that being totally deceitful and hypocritical to your religion and to the god +that you profess to love and worship? Isn't knowingly committing a sin +without a care an abomination in the sight of your Lord? Tommy + +01/15 3:56 PM + + Yes. That's the beauty of Christianity. We are forgiven. Chris + +01/15 5:10 PM + + Nice little loophole you got there. How did God in his infinite wisdom +let that slip by him?It still seems to me that God will take a dim view of +you trying to get over on him like that. Lucky for you he doesn't exist, +because from what I've read about your God, he would deal with you most +severely for the sins you are committing. Tommy + + * Chris seems to be under the impression that since Jesus died, he is now +absolved of all wrong. Knowingly committing a sin under the belief that all +will be forgiven is a prime example of the hypocrisy that is inherent in the +Christian religion. + + Christians profess love for everyone, but they don't practice what they +preach. I've never met a person [Christian or not] who actually feels love for +every single person on earth. A Satanist is honest about his actions and +feelings, Christians hide theirs behind a pile of rhetoric and doubletalk. * + + 9. + + Christian [in]tolerance & + + a lesson in semantics + + For all their talk about love and tolerance, Christians can be some of the +rudest and most vicious people on earth. If your views don't match theirs, +watch out! It is a common occurrence on the BB's to have the Satanic topics +bombarded daily by so-called loving Christians who seem to have nothing +better to do than insult people and generally make a nuisance of themselves. +Their posts range from very aggressive proselytizing to name calling. What +they hope to accomplish by their insane ramblings is beyond me. Do they +think that they can badger a person into following their beliefs? + + Throughout history, the Christian and Catholic churches have been +respon- sible for some of the most violent and cruel acts against humanity +ever com- mitted. The crusades, the inquisitions, the witch hunts, were all +perpetrated by these so-called loving children of God. It seems as though +their first reaction to things that are different, is to attack. They fear what +they do not know and would rather destroy it than learn about it. + + The first conversation is a prime example of this. "phil" starts out by +attacking me, and Satanists in general because we have views that differ +from his. He knows absolutely nothing about Satanism, but he condemns us +never the less. Instead of a rational debate on the subject, he quickly turns +his position into an argument over semantics. In the end, he admits his +ignorance on the subject and leaves to do some research on the subject. Who +knows? maybe he'll be back. + +01/15 8:41 AM + + Hey Tommy, I've been reading you stuff here and on the Satan boards and +frankly, I'm bored with your pathetic superficial statements and shallow +arguments. Obviously you know more about typing than religion, history or +life in general. I would venture to say that you enjoy agitating people more +that anything and your manipulation of "John" is pretty sickening. Religious +or not, using people is not the way to go in life, as you will find out. I can't +believe that even a Satanist would do such a thing. + + As for John, I would say to him: Tommy doesn't believe half the stuff he +writes. He's just trying to get a rise out of you. He's playing on your feelings +and apparently getting paid for it. I think I can follow your reasoning, and +getting him to read the Bible may work, but it is a long shot. But I do +applaud your venturing out onto the Satan board and making noise there. It is +interesting to know that in 2 or 3 years most of them won't even remember +what they thought at this time. Most of them can't agree on what they +believe and some of their statements are most amusing. Phil + +01/15 2:15 PM + + It seems as though my notes have upset you. Such anger. Are you angry +with me Phil? I bet you'd like to take a swing at me, wouldn't you? Tommy + +01/15 3:12 PM + + I expected more from you. Such childish remarks from one who fancies +himself knowledgeable. I certainly meant no feelings of violence to flow +through the modem lines. Perhaps the big words confused you. And although +your messages are far from intellectually stimulating, they do have some +entertainment value. How about some real substance to your messages. +Whether or not I wish to pound your head in is a moot point. [that means it +doesn't matter] On the other hand, according to your religion, if one was +deserving of such treatment, I would be well within my rights to do so. Am I +correct, or is the mindset different? With "self" being most important to +you, does it piss you off when someone shafts you or do you simply accept it +as the life you choose to lead? [i.e they shafted you only because their +"self" is most important to them, so you understand] Also, isn't it difficult +to live life with the take, take, take attitude? These are not rhetorical +questions, so some serious thought process on your part would be +appreciated, if you can muster it. I'm waiting anxiously for your reply. Phil + +01/15 7:47 PM + + So, you consider my remarks childish, while I assume you consider your +personal attacks on me to be the height of maturity. Do you consider +opposing views to be sufficient provocation to respond physically" I +personally don't, as they provide no real harm to me. Do I get "pissed off" if +someone "shafts" me? Hell yes! Do I retaliate? Hell yes! Satanists live by +the law "Lex Talonis", the law of the jungle and by our version of the golden +rule" Do unto others as they do unto you." It is the balance of nature that the +strong prey upon the weak. Your assertion that I live my life by a "take, +take, take" philosophy IS partially true. I do TAKE what I want from life +instead of abasing myself and asking some non-existant deity to provide it +for me. + + I am, however, just as capable of giving to those that I feel need and +deserve it. I can tell by your notes to me that you have not been following +my posts for very long. I have been posting here for some time now, and in +the beginning I did post what you would consider to be "real" intellectual +arguments and questions. Unfortunately, the replies I received were +nonsense. Instead of logical answers to my questions, I would get replies +like "God doesn't mean for us to understand his workings" or "If you haven't +accepted Christ, then God has not given you the wisdom to understand these +things" or, in the case of the Old Testament, "Jesus changed the laws so +those no longer apply to us anymore" or they would just quote to me another +cryptic scripture which really had no bearing on the original question. Since +it seemed as though I wasn't about to get any kind of real answer from +them, and since my agreement with John is still in effect, I decided to have +some fun and post some scriptures and responses that would either make me +laugh, offend someone and shock them into a response, or basically upset +someone enough to where they would forget their Christian rules of love and +tolerance and respond in much the same way you have. Sometimes you have +to force people to break through their shells of blind faith and ignorance in +order to get them to listen. Tommy + +01/16 7:47 AM + + I've been goading you the same way you have been goading other people, +so don't take the victims stance. Assuming that we are both adults, I would +think that we can both take a little personal flack from each other. I am +glad, however, that you could step away from the rhetoric and reply in +detail. + + As far as opposing views being responded to physically, certainly not. +Differing viewpoints are everyone's right and the exchange of such views +are the only way to enlighten the masses. But words are a powerful weapon +[as you well know]. Calling someone by a racial slur can result in a violent +attack. If someone said to me"I'm going to kill you", I of course would +defend myself. But, to answer your question, I would not strike you over a +battle of words. + + Question: Regarding Satanism, if the individual is the most important, +how do Satanists band together for common goals? Certainly there would be +leaders, but wouldn't the followers desire the power of the leaders and in +their quest for that power, defeat the whole purpose? + + Question: Do you spend your life waiting for the advantage, using it, +taking what you desire and then splitting? If so, do you consider yourself a +normal member of society? And, if the above does equate to you, wouldn't +society in turn tear itself apart? or is it the opposite, that as long a society +is not like you, you can prey [your word] upon the unsuspecting? + + Finally, I'm sure it is easier to follow a religion based in ones own head, +with rules [for lack of a better word] and objectives created by oneself +using the vague guidelines written down to be the opposite of the existing +structure of ideas. [Hardly a difficult thing to do.] "Thou shalt not commit +adultery" is fairly straightforward, whereas, "do unto others as they do +unto you", is both reactionary and perception based, not to mention +unoriginal. I would say that Satanists are looking for acceptance and +credibility through the use of the word "religion", doing whatever they wish +but still needing a justification in otherworldly form. Phil + + P.S. Why not just call yourselves Anarchists? + +01/16 4:48 PM + + Satanists, on the whole, are solitary creatures. We do not need to be +part of a group to feel "accepted". We can, however, band together to +achieve a goal that is beneficial to us. We do not begrudge a person their +success or power. We know that we can achieve the same status through our +own devices. Satanists rise in status according to their abilities. Our +"leaders" are in that position because of their abilities, and trying to usurp +their leadership would not only be counterproductive to the task at hand, but +couldn't realistically be achieved by a lesser individual. + + Next question. I do not spend my life lying in wait for an opportunity to +present itself to me so that I might take advantage of it. I also do not drop +to my knees and beg some unseen, or unheard from [at least in the last 2,000 +years or so] God to provide things for me.I know that to get ahead in life, I +must make my own opportunities. I do not actively seek out those who are +weaker than me so that I might prey upon them, but if an opportunity +presents itself, I will use it to my advantage. + + Lastly, of course it is easier to follow a path that you have chosen for +yourself. Blindly following the tenets of a religion that is in essence; anti- +human, is unnatural and extremely difficult. Which is why few people can do +it properly. Let me assure you, Satanism is more than a philosophy, it Is a +religion as it uses both ceremony and dogma. [Both of which satisfy a +healthy desire in many of us for organized ritual.] Why don't we call +ourselves anarchists? Because were not. Tommy + +01/17 10:20 AM + + The existence of ritual and/or dogma does not immediately equate with +religion. To do something religiously does not make it a religion. I have read +the Satanists talking about x-tians [Christians] fearing what they don't +understand. This can be said of most humans, so why put it in a specific +contex" It's a non-statement. But if this is your feeling, let me offer the +following argument: To disregard a book written/compiled in the late +sixties [probably in an LSD induced fantasy], is this fear? And being wary of +people who have flatly stated that they would take advantage of anyone they +choose, is this paranoia" Or is the former intelligence and the latter +wisdom? + + Now, to Satanism. It seems that someone has convinced you that one +need not worship Satan to be a Satanist. Satanism by definition is the +worship of Satan. This is fact and not disputable. You may align yourself +with Luciferians, but unless you worship Satan, you are not a Satanist. I +have not read any of LaVey's writings, but unless his are the teachings of +Satan [man made or through the Beast himself], then it stands to reason that +he is nothing but an opportunist and you, my friend, are shackled by his +confidence game. If not, and he does promote the worship of Satan, but you +choose to accept only bits and pieces of his doctrine as it suits you, then +you are neither true to your religion, nor a Satanist. A true Satanist would +laugh you out of his house the way you talk. Have you ever been to a Black +Mass? Have you ever been involved with bloodletting? Both are necessary +for the appeasement of the Lord of Satanism, Lucifer. But since we have +deduced that you are not a true Satanist, I am sure you have not. + + If I believe in bigamy, face Mecca when I pray and celebrate Hanukkah, I + am neither Mormon, Muslim, nor Jewish. I am potpourri. I may have +ceremony and dogma, but the religion escapes me. Religion, any religion, +takes discipline, study and acceptance of the doctrines of said religion. If +LaVey or Crowley have made this unnecessary, then they have done so simply +to garner more people to themselves and, as you have put it before, "fill +their coffers". If I had to be one or the other, I would rather be a follower of +God, than a servant of man. + + On a lighter note, I appreciate your correspondence with me. Most people +find it difficult to express themselves on such personal issues. Phil + +01/17 4:32 PM + + First off, the Satanic Bible was not written under the influence of drugs. +Drugs exert control over the user and Satanist shun such control. Why is it +when you disagree with an idea, you find it necessary to degrade the person +who's idea it was? For a loving, caring and forgiving Christian, you sure are +prone to attack. + + Next, the suffix "ism" does not denote worship, it means "conduct, or +theory of". The Hebrew word "Satan" translates to "enemy, or adversary", +therefore, the word "Satanism" means "conduct of an adversary", not the +worship of the Christian boogyman. Since we have established that Satanism +is not the worship of the Christian "Devil", and since you are obviously +ignorant of the tenets of Satanism, your view that I am not a Satanist, is +without merit. + + "A Black Mass is not the magical ceremony practiced by Satanists. A +Satanist would employ the use of a Black Mass as a form of psychodrama. A +Black Mass is essentially a parody on the religious service of the Roman +Catholic Church, and since the services of all established religions +[including Christianity] are actually parodies of old pagan rituals, the Black +Mass is nothing more than redundancy." - Anton LaVey. + + You still view things from the narrow confines of Christianity. Since +Satanism does not fit your views as to what a religion is, you discount it +outright. You seem particularly fond of arguing semantics, so here ya go. The +word "religion" is defined as "A specific system of belief or worship, ect. +built around a God, a code of ethics, a philosophy of life, ect." So you see, +Satanism definitely qualifies as a religion. Tommy + +01/18 10:59 AM + + Thin man, very thin. What fantasy are you living? Look in any +encyclopedia or dictionary under "Satanism" ant it says "the worship of +Satan" and a Satanist as "one who worships Satan". Why go back to the +ancient Hebrew or Greek for the translation of a fairly modern word? For a +lark I [jumped] encyclopedia and typed "Satanism", and guess what it said? +Well, it wasn't Tommy's version of the word. I hold a bit more stock in +Webster and Britannica's definition than yours. But you are correct in my +ignorance, and to rectify that I shall do some research. I don't want a library +worth of reading, but if you could mention 3 or 4 books that you think could +clue me in I would appreciate it. [preferably in paperback, I don't want to +spend too much money] Phil + +01/18 7:08 PM + + Actually I got the definition of the word "Satan" and the suffix "ism" +from Webster's dictionary. But since you are determined not to accept any +other definition that the one you like, let's for the sake of argument, use +your definition. + + Satan has been written about by many different authors and in many +different guises, but there are a few qualities he possesses that seem to be +universal. They include intelligence, pride, nobility, creativity, humor. Satan +was a rebel, he didn't blindly follow the rules set forth, he questioned those +rules. He wanted more than what God was willing to offer him. He is a man +of action, as well as a thinker. He is the eternal prankster, willing to laugh +at himself as well as others. His only crime was that he defied God and +stood up for himself. Doesn't sound so bad to me. So if you must insist that +a Satanist has to worship Satan. Then this is the Satan I choose. I'm sure +that now you will say I have to worship your idea of Satan , right? + +Here is a list of books you can read on the subject of Satanism: +THE SATANIC BIBLE by Anton Lavey +THE CHURCH OF SATAN by Blanche Barton +SATAN WANTS YOU by Arthur Lyons +IN PURSUIT OF SATAN by Robert Hicks Tommy + +* Phil wasn't the only one to try to use the meanings of words to discredit +my beliefs. This next little tete-a-tete with Mark is another prime example +of how, when a person can't argue against the validity of my philosophies, +they try to catch me off guard with semantics. * + +03/ 02 11:58 AM + + I have known many Satanists in my life and I did not know they were +such until they approached me. They believe in Satan very much and +worshiped him and practiced contacting spirit guides and levitation. Why do +some Satanists believe in Satan, and others say he is not real? I can +understand having different views on how to worship him, but why don't all +people who call themselves Satanists believe in him? + + There are many different Christian religions, and there are different +views on how to worship God, not to say that any of them are all wrong or +all right, but at least they all believe in the One and only true God. +El-Shaddai-God Most High. + + Those who do not believe in Satan, but believe in the meaning that +describes him in the Bible to "Shock people" and to get the attention of +people to explain your viewpoint. Why would anyone want to be known as +Belial, which is Hebrew for Satan, who is the personification of wickedness +and lawlessness. Another name for Satan is Beelzebub, the Greek form of the +Hebrew name Baal-Zebub, which means Lord of the flies. Satan is also +Hebrew for accuser. Devil, which is a form of Satan is Diablos in Greek, +meaning accuser. So to sum up, the Greek and Hebrew meanings for Satan is +lawlessness, wickedness and Lord of flies. + + So to apply this against the Christian meaning would be to say that +Satanists are pro-death, anti-good, anti-love, and anti-peace, because being +Christian is to be anti-death, pro-good, pro-love and pro-peace. Mark + +03/02 1:09 PM + + People who believe in, and worship the Christian concept of Satan are +Christians. Even though they choose to worship Satan, they still believe in +the concepts of Christianity. Even if they call themselves "Satanists", they +are still follow the rules [even though they might try to break them] of the +Judeo-Christian religion, and are bound by them. Modern Satanists do not +have even an ounce of belief in your outdated set of moral guidelines and +spiritual pipe-dreams. The difference is simple: If you believe in the +Christian concept of Satan as the fallen angel, destroyer of man, and ruler +of Hell, then you are a Christian. If you Choose to worship this version if +Satan, then you are a rebellious Christian. Case closed! + + Now, your assertion that Satanists are anti-good, anti-love, anti-peace +and pro-death is pretty shaky and I'm about to knock it down. First, we call +ourselves "Satanists", not "Belialists", or "Beelzebubists", so trying to +saddle us with your interpretations of those words is, well, let's just say, +it's a nice try, but it won't work, YOU cannot label ME. I call myself what I +feel suits me best, and I can attach any meaning I want to, to it. But beyond +that, let's look at your statements from another angle, shall we? I put it to +you that it is Christians who are pro-death, as it is they who feel that they +will receive their rewards after death. More people have been killed in the +name of "God" than for any other reason. Satanists are really the ones who +are pro-life because we know that their is no eternal reward and that our +life here on earth is all we have, so we make the most of it. Now, as to the +anti-good part, good and evil are subjective. I don't know where in Hell you +came up with the anti-love part. Satanists feel very strong love. It is true +that Satanists only love those people who deserve our love, and we don't +profess to love every single degenerate on the face of the planet like +Christians claim too. This does not make us incapable of, or against love. +Our love is a purer, stronger love because it is not watered down and +distributed indiscriminately. Anti-peace? If you call the present status of +our planet peaceful, then yes, we are very anti-peace. Tommy + +03/03 10:35 AM + + Boy, these X-tians just don't get it, do they? I can't understand why they +insist on coming to the boards that are clearly marked "Satanic" and try to +cause trouble. Is this how they get their kicks? Sean + +03/03 2:45 PM + + From my observances, I would say that there are 4 types of Christians +who come to the Satanic boards. They are: + +1. The "morally superior" Christian. They come to the board to get a +glimpse [from a safe distance, of course] of the horrors of Satanism. They +come expecting to hear stories of rape, molestation, human and animal +sacrifices, and all the other terrors they have come to believe as being the +truth. They love to be outraged. When they find out the truth, and their need +for a good shock goes unfulfilled and they lose the chance to feel righteous, +they go away and seek out "evil" in other places. + +2. The proselytizing Christian. They feel that it is his/her duty to convert +the entire world to their beliefs. These types can [and historically have +been] very dangerous. Remember the Crusades? The Inquisitions? They seek +to elevate their own ego by "saving" another from what they consider to be +certain doom. What a feather in their cap it would be if the could convert +even a single Satanist. + +3. The manic depressive/brain damaged Christian. These people have no +self-esteem what-so-ever. They feel cheated by the worthlessness of their +lives and by the obvious absence of the blessings of God. They want to bring +others down to their level. They attack those whose lives are successful. +Like types 1 and 2, the only way that they can raise their own +self-importance is by lowering the status of another. They cannot achieve +any kind of self-worth and stature by their own abilities and +accomplishments. The only way that they can elevate themselves is to bring +others down. + +4. The unsatisfied Christian. They seek out other religions because theirs +is not fulfilling. They have lost their faith. They view the world around them +and cannot justify a belief in God anymore. They claim to just be curious, +that they only wish to know more about other's beliefs, but they are really +searching for something that works. Christianity, with all it's myths. half +truths, and spiritual pipe-dreams is found to be lacking. The hypocrisy +inherent in that religion leaves a bad taste in their mouths, so they seek to +learn the truth from those who are free from doubt and are not plagued by +guilt. + + I'm sure there are those out there who will disagree with what I have +stated. The cannot face the truth about themselves. They are blind. Tommy + + 10. + + Am I a Satanist? + + Not every one I talked to was so narrow minded and blinded by the +propaganda spread by the Christian Church. Some people want to learn more +about Satanism because the are unhappy with the tenets of the +Judeo-Christian religion and they seek a path that is a celebration of life, +and of man. + + The Christian Church has had a stranglehold on society for far too long. +They have incorporated their philosophies into every aspect of our lives +including our laws. On the currency used in our country are the words "In +God we trust." Trust God? The same God that attacked Satan just because he +had a differing view? The same God that would kill you for a minor +infraction of one of his "laws"? The same God that hasn't been heard from +in a couple thousand of years? I wouldn't trust God as far as I can throw +him. Christian leaders have used fear, coercion, false promises and spiritual +pipe-dreams as their tools to keep the masses under their thumb. But their +rule is coming to an end. + + The Churches control has declined rapidly in just the last 100 years. No +longer are they the ruling majority. A new generation has risen and thrown +off the yokes of blindness and ignorance. No longer do they bow down before +the idols and Gods of their ancestors. They hold their heads high and +proclaim "I am my own God, I am in control" and woe to those who try to +stand in the way. + + The Christian Church is not dead yet though, but it is severely wounded, +and like all wounded animals, can still be dangerous. + +01/07 9:41 AM + + Forgive my ignorance on this subject, if any wording seems offensive it +is purely from my own uncertainty of the subject at hand. Questions: +1. Of the various branches of Satanism, are there any that follow along the +lines of Crowley, or has LaVey been the greater influence of practice? +2. Years of programming by Xtian society has set a veil of confusion around +other religions. Who do you pay homage to? Is it the old pre-christian gods +in their original roles of the hunter, the light bringer ect.... +3. Satan, to my knowledge, first came on the scene under that name in the +bible. If you are not Christian, why diversify yourselves from the pagan +community by using a Christian name? +4. Should I go to the library and save you the trouble? Dave + +01/07 4:11 PM + + Most Satanist regard LaVey as the father of modern Satanism, his +philosophies form the basic foundation of our religion. There are still some +who follow Crowley, but I personally find him boring and longwinded. He has +a tendency to ramble on a bit. I think he was more interested in his +reputation and it's shock value [and buggering anyone he could get his hands +on] than he was in affecting any kind of real change. + + Satanists do not worship a higher power, we feel that there is no higher +power than ourselves, therefore we regard ourselves as Gods. After all, man +created God in his own image, not the other way around as most Christian +scholars would have you believe right before they put their hands in your +pockets. + + People always ask "Why do you call yourselves Satanists if you don't +believe in Satan? Why don't you use another name?" There are many reasons +why. Our tenets are most contradictory to Christian beliefs, so why not take +the name of their greatest adversary? I hope this has answered some of the +questions you have. If you have any more, feel free to ask. Tommy + +01/08 7:43 AM + + You seem to reflect my own views, both on uncle Al and the origins of +the gods. The statement that we are gods does reflect Crowley's "Every man +is a star" concept. Some things hold water no matter which way you turn +them. + + What are the goals of Satanism? To amass personal power, or to come to +a better understanding of self and world? Do you believe in helping others +that merit being helped, i.e. help themselves as best they can? Or do you not +intervene where you are not asked to help? + + I'm not of the bent knee school either, but I do feel that a higher force +moves within those that desire it's presence. Is the absence of this belief +inherent to all Satanism, or there others that feel otherwise? Dave + +01/08 9:00 PM + + I would have to say that most Satanists do not believe in a "higher +power" that moves within us. Many believe in a force of nature that can or +does cause things to happen, but they believe that this force is unknowing +and/or uncaring of our existence. + + Satanists are free to give their help to anyone they want, although they +are rather selective as to who they bestow their help to. One of the biggest +myths concerning Satanists is that we are uncaring and incapable of +showing love or kindness. This is far from being the truth. All humans are +capable of these emotions, a Satanist is just more discriminatory as to the +recipients of these emotions. We do not waste love on ingrates. + + The goal of a Satanist is to LIVE! Power, money, fame, sex, these are not +forbidden fruits to the Satanist. We take what we want out of life without +all the guilt that the abstinence based religions place on their followers. We +are truly free. Tommy + +01/08 9:44 AM + + Well stated. The impersonal force you speak of fits my view of "God", +after all, how could origin of all be biased towards one +or the other? + + I have found that in order for me to be at my best, I must incorporate +both forces and attain a balance. The extreme of either end leads to +destruction of the spirit. The Yin/Yang symbol tells me that my idea is not +actually mine. Does this seem to fit the ideology of Satanism? Dave + +01/09 7:44 AM + + Personally, I feel there is no distinction between good and evil. What +might be considered evil to you, might be perfectly acceptable behavior to +me. It is up to every individual to judge for his or her own self. I also feel +that pushing the limits of either end of the spectrum is the only way to +affect change. Tommy + +01/09 4:45 PM + + I see your point. Satanism seems to fit right in with my own +philosophies. I guess I am a Satanist and don't even know it. Thank you for +taking the time to answer all my questions. I appreciate it. I am going to do +more research into Satanism. I hope we get the chance to talk again later. I +enjoy talking to someone who can speak in plain truths and not ramble on +about mythical nonsense and tell me I'll be punished if I don't follow their +way. Once again, thanks! Dave + +02/21 8:12 AM + + I am very attracted by what I've come to understand about Satanism. I +don't feel the need to join any Satanic organizations though. I prefer to +practice Satanism on my own. Can I still be considered a Satanist? Or do you +have to be part of a group to use the title? Jill + +02/21 12:11 PM + + You don't need to join any organization to be a Satanist. We are, as a +whole, solitary creatures anyway. If you are a Satanist and you know it, +claim the title! Tommy + + +02/19 12:50 PM + + Being raised a Roman catholic and being quite disgusted with the tactics +of that religion, I began researching many different forms of religion trying +to find one that emphasized the importance of self-determination and +responsibility for one's own actions. + + I was most impressed by the writings of the Dalai Llama. my cursory +readings of Wicca impressed me somewhat. + + Given my R.C. upbringing, I never even considered Satanism because of +the hellish image it conveys. I also have found that books on the subject, at +least in this area, are hard to find. + + Tell me, are the bloody rituals that are etched in my mind REALLY a part +of Satanism? Or was that all misconceptions? My understanding is that God +and satan are equal but opposite beings. Is that just hype presented to +invoke fear? I'm not being facetious. I am really curious. + + You see, through all the research that I have conducted, I have come to a +conclusion. It really doesn't matter what you believe in or what you do. It's +all a matter of heart. If your heart is good, you shouldn't really be worried +about what brand you place on yourself. By "good hear" I mean going through +life with an attitude of being respectful to all beings. [even those you don't +like or agree with] Doing your best with what is available to you, taking +care of yourself and those that depend on you without wrongfully taking +from others. + + I believe that, if you live your life with a "good hear", two things will +invariably result. + +1] You will feel good about yourself, and naturally, enjoy your life +understanding that you have done your best and have caused no unprovoked +harm to others. + +2] If there is a God or like being, how could he object to what you have done? + + I DO believe that we are more than an advanced brain stem. Reptiles have +brain stems and they certainly have no morals, just survival instincts. Even +the higher mammals have no morals as such. Yes, many of them take care of +their offspring, but that is propagation of species. Some even "take care of" +their elderly or infirmed. But, if you look, all they really do is allow them to +hang with the pack and eat whatever may be left over from their kills. When +they become too weak to stay with the pack, they are left to die or be killed. +Humans on the other hand, feel something deep within when confronted with +evil or wrong or hate. Some reject these feelings but that is a conscience +effort. There MUST be something else to humans. Ken + +02/19 3:03 PM + + If your searching for a religion where responsibility and the individual +human will are part of the main philosophy, welcome to Satanism! It is the +only religion that stresses both of these things. All religions that have a +"God" figure use said figure as a way to take responsibility away from +themselves. Their tenets are based on appeasing their god, and on gaining +it's love and acceptance. Satanists scorn such attitudes. We bow before no +man or god. + + Concerning the truth behind the rumors that we sacrifice animals and +children. There is none. [truth that is] It is merely Christian propaganda. +These types of lies are their only defense against us. We raise questions +that they don't want asked and that they don't have answers to. They can't +fight us with reason, so the attack us with slander. + + Your "good hear" theory, while being a nice thought, won't work for a +number of reasons. Adopting a respectful attitude towards those that hate +you, oppose you, prey upon you, limit you, ect... will only accomplish your +downfall. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" doesn't work + +if the person you're in contact with means you harm. We Satanists have +adopted an improved version of that Golden Rule; "Do unto others as they +have done to you." The Golden Rule is fine in regards to strangers, but once +their motives are discovered, and if they mean you harm, treating them +kindly or turning the other cheek is out of the question. + + Humans do have a certain conscience that animals don't possess. The +ability to reason, to think along logical lines is all part of our superior +intellectual development. There has also been the artificial and unnatural +development of man's so-called "spiritual" side as well. The two different +sides are inconsolable. This unnatural spiritual side is always in conflict +with man's natural carnal instincts. This has lead man to become more cruel +and vicious than any animal. Tommy + +02/20 5:13 PM + + I agree with a lot of what you say. Religion has been the cause of more +death and destruction in the history of man than any other thing. It also has +more suffering than anything else. + + However, I simply cannot believe that the source of our feeling of right +and wrong or morality is simply a natural extension of mortal incarnation. + + I think religion has been used simply as a control device. Thousands of +years ago, when the majority of humans were enslaved by a mere minority, +someone got the idea that if they believed that all the suffering were +required by some god, they would accept their fate more readily and be +easier to control. Things just kind of mushroomed from there. + + Anyway, as I said before, I am a seeker. I can't stand organized religion, +but I feel that man must be a spiritual being. It's the only way to explain our +ability to have morals and sense the difference between right and wrong. +how can a carnal man tell the difference? Ken + +02/20 10:33 PM + + Right and wrong, good and evil are subjective. Each person makes an +individual choice as to how they perceive these things. If we were all just +spiritual beings created by the same god and all equal, we would all have the +same feelings about things. This isn't the case though. + + Christians have a favorite saying "all men sin and fall short of the glory +of God." If we were the spiritual beings that they claim we are, why would +we still sin if we had "found" God? Would not fulfilling our spiritual +destiny and uniting ourselves with the creator be enough to stop us from +committing sin? If we are spiritual beings, why is our carnal nature able to override our +spirituality? The only answer can be that the spiritual does not exist. If it +did, we would be able to exorcise, or at least control our carnality. Tommy + +02/21 9:11 AM + + No offense intended, but from all I've read it seems to me that Satanism +is basically the same as atheism. The driving point being that there is +nothing except this mortal life that we lead and that it really doesn't +matter what we do because there is nothing else. If that is the case, then +Satanism should not be considered a religion. It should be grouped into +Atheism. It also seems that any individual can make up any parameters he +chooses and call it Satanism. If that is the case, and again no personal +offense is intended, it seems to me that Satanists are simply egotists that +reject the notion that everything that came before them and anything that +comes after them are of no concern. Ken + +02/21 11:45 AM + + Atheism is the lack of a belief in God and that's it. Satanism goes far, +far beyond that. Many Satanists do believe in a controlling force in nature, +an unknown power, if you will. This is their concept of "God" and not the +Jehovah of the Bible. The parameters of Satanism are very broad. We are +free to live and act as we see fit. There are certain boundaries however. + + Satanists ARE egotists. We don't care what happened before us or what's +going to happen after us, unless it could concern us directly. I don't need +history to justify my life. I don't need the future to justify my present +actions either. Tommy + +02/21 3:34 PM + + I see what you are saying. While I do have many thoughts and ideas that +seem to fit in with the philosophies of Satanism, I don't think it's right for +me. There's too many unwanted and negative connotations involved with the +name. I appreciate your honesty and openness with me. I will continue my +search. Ken + +02/21 7:15 PM + + Good luck! Tommy + + + 11. + + Why become a Satanist? + + Why become a Satanist? Since you don't believe in Satan, why not be an +Atheist? Or better yet, why call yourself anything at all? Why use a name +that will cause you problems? What attracted you to Satanism? There are as +many reasons for becoming a Satanist as there are Satanists. I became a +Satanist because I was fed up with the lies, guilt, and hypocrisy that are +inherent in the Christian religion. + + When I was a teenager, my friends and I would spend hours discussing +God. "Do you believe in God?" We would ask each other, and the answer was +always, "Yes." I had my doubts as to the existence of God, but the fear of +rejection from my friends, forced me to answer in the affirmative. What +made no sense to me was, that while my friends were professing their +belief in God and Jesus as the savior of man, they were drinking, smoking +pot, and making out with their girlfriends. If they really believed, why +would they knowingly and go against the word of God. We all knew the things +we did were in direct conflict with the religious principles we professed to +follow, but we didn't care. God was great as someone to pray to in times of +trouble, [Oh God, if you keep my parents from grounding me for the"" on my +test paper, I'll never sin again] but as a guiding force in our lives, he wasn't +wanted or needed, and we never kept the promises we made to him. + + One day, after a night of particularly rowdy debauch [in which certain +hallucinagenics were used], one of the guys in our group informed us that he +had talked to God the night before and was turning his life over to him. We +laughed and made jokes about him not being able to handle his drugs. He told +us he was serious, and that he had to give away all of his stuff "'cause +material possessions are against the will of God." We obliged him by +ransacking his room and making off with all of his things. + + We didn't see him as much after that, he said we tempted him too much +[and I must confess his new found spirituality made us uncomfortable]. When +he did come around he spouted scripture at us non stop, [in between drinks +anyway] and told us all the wonders of God and his love. I would watch him +recite passages from the bible with a beer in his hand, [although it is true +his consumption had been cut back by quite a bit, he still drank on occasion] +and think to myself "What a load of shit!" It seemed as though, while he +could talk the talk, he couldn't walk the walk. His blatant hypocrisy made +me question the principles of Christianity even more. It seemed as though +every Christian I knew, said they worshiped God, but none of them were true +to their confessed religion. Why? If a person truly believed, and if God was a +reality, committing a sin would be unthinkable. Why can't man NOT sin? + + It was about this time when I came across "The Satanic Bible" by Anton +LaVey in a local bookstore. I had heard of this book before, but I never had +any reason for checking it out. I bought it under the notion that it would +really make my friend go crazy, and I could get a good laugh out of it. As I +read it that night [preparing for the confrontation with my friend the next +day] I noticed similarities between my experiences with Christians and Dr. +LaVey's. Here was someone else who had noticed the hypocrisy and +self-deceit displayed by these people. I read and reread every page. Here was +a philosophy that was honest, straightforward, and reflected my personal +views on life. And this philosophy was called Satanism. + + I [like everyone else] had heard the horror stories surrounding Satanism. +As I did more research into the subject, I found these stories to be +completely false, and on the most part, started by Christians in order to +slander those that chose a different path than their sterile and pathetically +ineffectual one. Satanism wasn't a religion of molesters and murderers, it +was a religion founded on the basic, natural characteristics of man, and by +the tenet; "Only the strong will survive." No more of this "the meek shall +inherit the earth" crap, the only thing the meek ever inherited was a +footprint on their backside. + + That was 16 years ago, and thus began my life as a Satanist. I had many +debates with my friend over the next few years, [and all my other friends +once they heard I was getting involved with Satanism] but it didn't matter +to me if I was accepted by them anymore. I was becoming my own man, and I +no longer needed to be part of a group in order to feel whole. + + Not everyone who calls themself a Satanist or joins a Satanic +organization does so because they have finally found a religion and +philosophy that suits their outlook on life. Some are looking for something +else, namely a sense of importance and power. They see Satanism, not as a +natural extension of their own being, but as a way to give worth to a life +that has so far has been worthless. They are the meek, the insipid, the +painfully shy, the niblicks of the world who feel that life has left them +behind and crave the power to change their situations. They do not possess +the strength to change things themselves, so they look to others to do it for +them. They join various Satanic organizations and rapidly try to elevate +their status within the group. By doing so, they feel that their life on the +outside is elevated as well. They attach themselves to certain organizations +or certain members in that group and, like the parasites they are, feed off of +the strength of the group. Many Satanic organizations, by their very nature, +actually seem to encourage such behavior and invariably fail for just this +reason. Satanism is not the place for lonely hearts. Satanic organizations +are not a social clubs, and when used as such are doomed to extinction. + + Satanism cannot make you great, it can only open the door to the +possibility of utilizing the greatness already within you that all other +religions try to supress. Satanism cannot give you any power or abilities +that you do not already possess. + + In these next set of conversations, a Christian gives HIS views as to +why people become Satanists. Since he is not a Satanist, and he seems to +have had contact with the cult variety or teenage devil worshiper only, his +views are inaccurate, and since he is a Christian, biased. + +01/10 7:33 AM + + Why would a person join a Satanic Church? I'm serious, looking for an +answer. Why? Joseph + +01/10 3:15 PM + + While there are as many reasons for becoming a Satanist as there are +Satanists, there are a few reasons that seem to be universal. These include +the want of independance, free will and thought, and the desire to live a +happy, successful life unhampered by the guilt and self-deceit that plagues +Christianity. Tommy + +01/10 4:26 PM + + In all seriousness, the reasons for a person becoming involved with +Satanism are as numerous as for a person becoming involved with anything +at all. However, there are a few common entrances into Satanic groups. One +of the most common is a result of involvement of family members. Be it a +parent, uncle, cousin, or other, there is an impact when someone of your own +family approaches you that demands you listen. Regardless of who it is +making the initial approach, two things are highly influential. First, +everybody is looking for something to believe in. This drives many to +something which offers a difference to life. Second, if someone you trust +approaches you with a new way to approach your days, you will listen. If +they are offering you something that satisfies a need in you, they have an +almost undefeatable opportunity for success. Perhaps you are lonely, they +offer membership and acceptance. If you feel weak, they will introduce you +to powers unimaginable. Satanism often deals with the supernatural, and +this is very inviting in a world which seems out of control due to the +influence of Satan in the first place. + + In some purely emotional ways, Satanism offers what seems to be the +answer to many needs. However, over a period of years [sometimes decades], +the problems significantly outweigh the benefits. The only alleviation from +the pain for many individuals involved in such is to acquire"new blood." +Therefore, many of these groups are much more successful than "mainline +churches." + + Your original question demands that I return to the basics. Some of the +Satanic groups will have other means of introducing someone into their +midst. This can occur from your entering an establishment out of curiosity +and they have the chance to expose you to "new and different ways." Yes, +some of it can enter in ways that seem almost expected, but most likely in +what seems harmless up front. There is no specific key other than the +individual who has become "evangelistic." They are out to "conver" at some +level. + + Another possibility is to be introduced through reading materials. Most +public libraries carry books on the occult, witchcraft, magic, astrology, new +age materials. Now, none of these in and of themselves may be bad. However, +the intent of the author may be. If you are searching for a guaranteed key to +avoid, contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing. In the final +analysis, it is up to you to determine the purpose of anything new with +which you must deal. This has caused some well meaning folks to become +paranoid hunters who are searching under every rock they think they see. + + Where do you find help? There is a team which has been put together to +examine the various sources of Satanism. The phone # is 1-800-594-8032. +Ask for Wendell or Tillman Amstutz [son and father team]. + + If you desire more specific information or reasons for my disposition, +contact me directly through the e-mail system for the sake of privacy. David + +01/10 5:21 PM + + I'm going to disagree with you on several points. Satanists are solitary +creatures and do not need to belong to a group to feel complete. It's funny, +but your descriptions seem to fit Christianity more so than Satanism. +People are coerced into following Christianity [or at least giving lip service +to that fact] by the influence asserted by family, friends, and society at +large. + + I saw on the news a little while ago, a story about 2 young boys who +wanted to be Boy Scouts. The only problem was, they didn't believe in God. +Their parents [who do believe in God and were good Christians] did not +influence the boys on their decision, they made the decision on their own. +The boys refused to say the word "God" in their oath, and this is where the +trouble arose. They were kicked out of the Scouts, and were harassed by the +Christian parents of the other scouts, in a way that made me sick. These +adults, [for no other reason than the 2 boys didn't believe as the do] were +called names, were spit at, and had objects thrown at them. This is the kind +of behavior that can be displayed by Christians. When have you ever heard a +story about Satanists acting in the same fashion? + + Satanists do not actively recruit "members." We don't go door to door +like Christians and other weirdos do. Christians have turned proselytizing +into an art form. They need new converts in order to keep the money rolling +in. Satanists are an elite group, at the top of the evolutionary scale. We do +not want to devalue ourselves by allowing those who are not worthy into out +midsts. If a person is a Satanist they will know it and THEY will seek US +out, and take their rightful place among us. Tommy + +01/11 7:45 AM + + Interesting, I have had contact with at least three individuals who have +claimed to be such who would disagree with your views. Perhaps, you "have +a bone to pick" or possibly you do not know your "own kind" all that well. As +for "Christians", I rather doubt you have much knowledge on that subject at +all. Maybe you need to work on it a little bit more before you reply. David + +01/11 4:19 PM + + You sure are defensive. I must've hit the nail right on the head for you to +react in such a way. + + I'm am sure that any "Satanists" that you've had contact with were +either of the cult variety [devil worshipers] who are naught more that +confused Christians, or are merely delusioned victims of child abuse, whose +therapists have planted the seed of "Satanic behavior" into their minds. I +saw a very interesting show the other day which concerned therapists and +alleged victims of Satanic ritual abuse. It seems as though these people +have no recollection of any type of Satanic activity until it is brought out of +them by hypnosis. It also goes on to show how, under hypnosis, the idea of +ritual abuse is planted into the receptive mind of the patient by these so +called "experts" who are trying to achieve credibility [and money]. + + As for my knowledge of Christianity, while I admit I am no expert on the +subject, my knowledge is quite extensive. I dare say I know more about +Christianity than most Christians do. Tommy + + 12. + + Some theories on Satan + + It seems like everyone has a different theory, or concept of Satan. While +some view him as the horned Crown Prince of Hell, who, with pitchfork in +hand and an evil glint in his eye, rules the underworld and seeks to destroy +man and gain conquest of the earth. Others picture him as a misguided angel +who, due to his strong sense of pride and his own weakness, stumbled, and +was banished from Heaven and now spends his days in eternal sorrow for the +wrongs he has committed. Still others view him as an evil force, waiting to +tempt man with pleasures and powers beyond comprehension in order to turn +him away from God. Some even incorporate all these aspects into one, or +have come up with a completely different concept of Satan which fits into +their personal viewpoints. + + Throughout this book you have read my views on Satan, now, for your +reading pleasure, here are some other views. + +02/08 7:45 AM + + Submitted for your consideration: A missive in the transmissive +aspect of Satan. + + Have you ever noticed how emotion can be conveyed one to another? Old +wisdom holds that love begets love. Have you ever driven in traffic and +found yourself hurrying when you weren't in a hurry? Or angering in +response to anger? + + There is a phenomenon known as sympathetic vibration. Radio, +television, the glass breaking when she hits the high note, all are examples +of resonance doing work. The vibration, started at one place, effects change +at another place or places. + + I submit that there is a spiritual, as well as an emotional and physical +aspect to this phenomenon. Consider the nature and character of Satan: +Pride; envy; anger; self deception; selfishness; impatience; gall; guilt; +hatred; spite; gloom and doom... It isn't hard to imagine how it would be to +be stubbornly unwilling to repent, having known the boundless love of the +Eternal. + + Many of the worst aspects of Satan are commonly called human nature. I +believe it is because we resonate in spirit to that which is in the spiritual +realm, and discrimination is a learned response and an act of will. That's +how we're like a radio. We're like a record player in that our perception is +as the needle, and the cosmos is like the platter. Habits are grooves more +worn with each pass, and we really can't hope to see what it's all about +until we rise above it. + + I could go on and on, and may very well do so with only the slightest +encouragement, but that's about all for now. + + Consider babies perceptions. We're going to serve someone. John Paul 0 + +02/09 8:34 AM + + I'm going to take exception to some of your statements, as they are not +based in reality. Love does not begat love. Next time some junkie gang +member has a gun to your head and demands your money, tell him "No, I +won't give you my money, but I will give you my love." You'll have plenty of +time to reconsider your statement from your hospital room. + + Secondly, self-deception and guilt are qualities displayed by those of +the Christian persuasion, and not Satan. Pride, anger, envy, and even hatred +are natural feelings that all people have everyday. + + Emotions can and do give off bio-electric energy [you can call it +vibrations or resonance, if you like] but it does not extend into the spiritual +realm. For it to do that, a person would have to possess what Christians call +a "soul." There is no evidence to suggest that there is such a thing. so +therefore, your theory is meaningless. Tommy + +02/10 8:26 AM + + The truth is, you don't have to take exception to anything, and you may +take exception to anything you want. Such is the nature of free will. + + The same is true for resonance. We are not puppets, and you may choose +to dance, though one may slip the strings at anytime of their choosing. As +your scenario so aptly shows, denial of reality does not release on from the +truth. John Paul 0 + +02/10 1:32 PM + + Is that the best you can do? Tommy + +02/11 8:03 AM + + The impression I got from you original response was that you had not +given the matter any serious though, but were merely reacting to +preconceived notions along well worn lines of thought. My knowledge of +these things is based on inquiry, experience, and experimentation. I know +these things are true. + + One of the primary aspects of Satan that I neglected to mention is fear. +That fear is also picked up by human kind and considered to be a natural +human tendency. [It is true that perfect love casts out all fear, but it isn't +for me to prove that to you.] Fear in humans works as a catalyst to +capacitate the other negative qualities that are known as human nature. If +these negative attributes were actually a natural part of humanity, they +would be a permanent part of every individual. They are spiritual +detriments, and emotions are the means by which they are expressed. + + Soul is a word that would take a note of it's own to go into. The Hebrew +word translated "soul" in canonized scriptures refers to a breathing being, +and can refer to any animal. [The single exception is in Job 30:15 where it +comes from a word that means one's reputation.] + + I am being called away, for now. I look forward to continuing a +conversation with you, providing we can keep it at least somewhat civil, and +senseful. John Paul 0 + +02/11 1:53 PM + + I do not consider fear a natural human tendency, it is a learned response. +I have oft times seen a child pick up a spider and examine it with a natural +curiosity, until some adult tells the child not to touch it because it might +bite, is icky, or mainly because of a fear of spiders that has been taught to +that person. Fear is not a primary attribute of Satan. Fear is a tool used by +Christians in order to control. Fear does not override what you call the +"negative qualities" of man. These parts of human nature are inherent to +all men. The Church teaches man to fear Satan, but this fear does not stop +him from feeling natural desires, or from acting on the desires, it merely +causes him to attend Church, beg for forgiveness, make a donation to cover +the cost of his sin, and then go out and do it all over again. Tommy + +02/12 9:33 PM + + I said fear is considered to be a natural human response, not that it is +one. I have seen babies born though, and it was quite evident that they were +fear filled. + + It is true that some who call themselves Christians use fear as a means +to control themselves and/or others. True Christians fear nothing, and don't +seek to control others. Fear overcomes everything it inhabits, given the +right circumstances. + + I don't believe humankind has negative qualities inherent. I don't think +that which manifests itself in humans as "bad" is of Satan. Satan is kind of +like a spiritual transmitter. When you consider Satan's circumstances it is +obvious why Satan is fear filled, ashamed, very sad and angry ect. + + God's Church knows Satan is not to be feared. Some of what call +themselves churches fear Satan. Given the right circumstances, fear +empowers Satan. + + Satan has no power on earth save what is granted by God or humans. +Satan is not, nor has ever been, a physical being. Satan's influence is limited +to the spiritual, and only humans can translate that into emotional or +physical. John Paul 0 + +02/13 8:13 AM + + Let me see if I got this straight. You are saying that Satan has no real +power over us, but that his "vibes" [for lack of a better word] can and do +resonate across the spiritual plane and can be picked up by humans, +affecting us, and then we in turn bring these transmissions into the physical +realm as emotions. Have I got it? + + If this is your theory it hinges on one crucial point; Satan [in whatever +form you wish to place him] being a reality. Satan is merely a creation of +the Christian church. He is used as a scapegoat for all the world's troubles +by people unable to accept responsibility for their own actions. Tommy + +02/13 1:22 PM + + I am saying Satan's influence is limited to the spiritual. In the story of +the Garden of Eden, communion with the Eternal was the natural state of +creation. It was not God who hid, and not God who covered up when speaking. + + The spiritual realm is the Kingdom of God. We have only to open up our +hearts for them to be filled, but most choose darkness because of feelings +of inadequacy. This act of "hiding in the garden" or "covering one's +nakedness" in prayer is counterproductive, but many know no other way. + + It is in Satan's interest to be considered a superstition. Satan hides in +the shadows because when the light of God exposes what Satan is, it also +binds by negating deception. + + It is true that some use Satan as a scapegoat, but they are also deceived. +Any physical manifestation that is "bad" is a result of cause and effect. +Satan cannot manifest in the physical plane. If you consider a counterfeit to +be the genuine article, it's your choice and your loss. John Paul 0 + + + * As you can see, Jack is starting to babble and contradict himself. +Originally he states that We can "pick up" resonances sent out by Satan +through the spiritual realm, and that these resonances can influence or +manifest themselves as emotions or characteristics displayed by man. +Later, he states that these manifestations are a result of "cause and +effect", and that Satan really has no power except, perhaps, in the spiritual +realm, which we do not inhabit. He also states that the spiritual realm is +God's kingdom and that Satan has no power there either. If this is the case, +then it stands to reason that Satan is either non-existant, or totally +powerless. So what's all the fuss about? + + He had a good thing going with his statement that, when a person +displays strong emotions, it can and does effect those around us. Instead of +expounding on this, he chose to negate his theory by turning it into another +false exposition of God's power over Satan. Pity. * + +02/20 8:51 AM + + I think that Satan is not so much an actual entity, but rather he dwells +inside our bodies as a part of us. He is the little voice inside your head that +tells you to do bad things. Whenever you feel like doing something that is +wrong, Satan urges you to do it and God urges you not to do it. Julie + +02/20 11:23 AM + + It is your own mind that causes you to think certain thoughts, and your +own will which causes you to act [or not to act] on them. By trying to give +the responsibility for these thoughts to someone else, you are simply trying +to remove the blame from yourself and set up a convenient scapegoat to take +the fall for you. Tommy + +03/12 8:23 AM + + Satan is the deceiver. He is weak. He has already lost the battle. I cannot +figure out why someone would want to follow a loser. The Bible clearly +states that God will win the fight. I think you people are sick! You ought to +have your heads examined. You are going to burn in Hell with your defeated +master. God is the only way. What kind of power do you think Satan will give +you? I can't believe that someone would actually call themselves a Satanist. +Don't you know that your soul is damned? Don't you know that Satan is +deceiving you? Satan is a loser and since you follow him,that makes you a +loser too. Satan cannot harm me. I am protected. If I ever saw a Satanist on +the street I would call upon the power of the Holy Spirit to slay them on the +spot, and it would happen. I am a warrior for Christ. You will be defeated and +Satan's head will adorn my lance. Brenda + +03/12 11:45 AM + + You seem a little tense. Perhaps you should switch to decaffeinated. If +what you say is true, then why are you so worried about it? Tommy + + 13. + + On the lighter side + + +Here are some of my favorite religious jokes: + + One day Jesus and Moses were sitting in a boat on a lake up in heaven, +fishing. They were throwing down some brews and reminiscing about "the +good 'ol days." "Remember when we were on earth?" Asked Moses. "Sure do" +answered Jesus "we were really something back then." "We sure were" +replied Moses thoughtfully "I wonder if we still got the old Magic?" "I don't +know" said Jesus "why don't you give it a try?" "I'll do that!" And so saying, +Moses stood up in the boat, and raising his arms in the air, commanded the +waters to part. The sky grew dark, lightning flashed across the sky, and the +waters did indeed part. With a satisfied smile, Moses lowered his arms and +the water returned to normal. "Not bad eh?" Asked Moses. "pretty good, +pretty good" replied Jesus "but watch this!" And so saying Jesus stood up +and stepped out of the boat onto the water. He promptly sank. Moses fished +the half drowned Jesus back into the boat. "I don't know what went wrong" +Sputtered the soaking wet Jesus "it worked the last time I tried it. "Yeah" +Said Moses "but last time you didn't have those holes in your feet." + + God was sitting around Heaven one day planning his vacation. His social +director, St. Peter was helping him decide on a suitable location. "What +about Pluto?" Asked Peter. "No" said God "last time I was there I froze my +ass off." What about mercury?" "Too hot" responded God. "Well what about +earth? You haven't been there in a while." "No Way!" replied God "That +planet is full of nothing but gossips. I was there a couple thousand of years +ago and I accidentally knocked up some Jewish chick and they're STILL +talking about it!" + + Peter, one of the twelve disciples was sitting at the bottom of the hill +the day they nailed Jesus to a stick, having a light snack, when he heard +Jesus call out his name. "Peter...Peter...come to me..." Peter, upon hearing his +name called replied "I'm coming lord!" and he started running up the hill. He +only got about 1/3 of the way up before the Roman guards kicked him back +down the hill. "peter...Peter...come to me..." "I'm coming lord!" yelled Peter +and he raced back up the hill. He got about 1/2 way up this time before the +guards kicked him back down the hill. "peter...Peter...Come to me..." "I'm +coming lord" and summoning all his remaining strength, Peter raced back up +the hill finally fighting his way to the top and to the cross of his savior. +"I'm here lord!, I'm here!" "Peter?" "Yes lord, it's me" "Peter?" "Yes lord, +it's me" Jesus looked down at Peter, smiled warmly and said "Hey Peter, I +can see your house from up here!" + + Jesus was visiting earth and needed a place to stay. He walked into a +Holiday Inn and up to the front desk. "Can I help you?" Asked the clerk. "Yes" +said Jesus as he handed the clerk 3 nails "can you put me up for the night?" + + A young priest had just received his first assignment, he was to report +to the mother superior at the local mission in a small town just south of the +border. He got off the plane, and since it was only a short distance from the +airport he decided to walk. He was strolling through the town, when a +woman in a skimpy dress called out from her position on the street corner +"Hey father, want a blow job, only $5.00." Now the priest, being very young +and fresh out of priest school, was a bit naive to the ways of the world and +had no knowledge of such things, in short, he had no idea what a blow job +was. He just smiled at her and replied "No thank you, my child" and +continued on his way. The same thing happened to him on the next corner, +and the next. When he finally reached the mission, he reported to the mother +superior. "Welcome father" she said "I hope you enjoy your stay here, and if +you have any questions please ask." "well mother" said the priest "I do have +one question, what's a blow job?" The mother superior stood up and walked +over to the priest, and as she kneeled down in front of him said "$5.00, just +like in town." + +What's the difference between Jesus and an oil painting? + It only takes one nail to hang a painting. + + One Sunday, a Methodist minister is driving home from church and he gets +into an accident. He runs over to the other car and frantically asks the +driver is he is alright. "Yes" responds the man "I'm fine, just a little shook +up." "Just a second" says the minister "I'll be right back." The minister +goes to his car and gets a bottle of wine that was left over from communion +that morning. He brings the bottle over to the driver of the other car and +offers him some saying "Here, drink some of this. It will calm you down." +The man takes a healthy swig, and it does settle his nerves a bit. He holds +the bottle out to the minister and says "Here father, won't you have some +too?" "No" replies the minister "I'm going to wait until the Highway Patrol +gets here." + +What's white, black, and red and can't go through a revolving door? + +A nun with a spear through her head. + +How can you tell when a born-again Christian's baptism is over? + +The bubbles stop rising to the surface. + + 14. + + Satanic organizations + + + + + +Here is a list of some of the Satanic organizations that are +currently in operation. + +The Church of Satan +P.O. Box 210082 +San Francisco, CA 94121 + +The Temple of Set +P.O. Box 470307 +San Francisco, CA 94147 + +Ordo Templi Satanas +P.O. Box 1093 +Atwater, CA 95301 + +Paul Douglas Valentine's Worldwide Church of Satanic Liberation +1044-B Chapel st. Suite 325 +New Haven, CT 06510 + +Temple of Elite +P.O. Box 1528 +San Rafael, Ca 94915 + +Temple of the Left Hand Path +W. 507 Indiana +Spokane, WA 99205 + +Knights of Satan + +Fiddler's Green Postal Outlet +P.O. Box 81137 +Ancaster, Ontario +Canada L9G 4X1 + +Temple of the Vampire +P.O. Box 3582 +Lacey, WA 98503 + +C.O.W.A.N. +P.O. Box 15 +Altadena, CA 91003 + +The Abraxas Foundation +P.O. Box 300081 +Denver, CO 80203 + +Ordo Templi Baphe-Metis +P.O. Box 1219 +Corpus Christi, TX 78403-1219 + +Embassy of S.A.T.A.N. +P.O. Box 666 +Whitehall, PN 18052 + +Brimstone Ministries +P.O. Box 660 +Marston Mills, MA 02648 + + + 15. + + Selected readings + +Here is a list of books pertaining to Satanism: + +The Satanic Bible-by Anton Szandor LaVey +Avon Books 1969 + +The Satanic Rituals-by Anton Szandor LaVey +Avon Books 1972 + +The Satanic Witch [Formerly the Compleat Witch]-by Anton Szandor LaVey +Feral House 1989 + +The Devil's Notebook-by Anton Szandor LaVey +Feral House 1992 + +The Church of Satan-by Blanche Barton +Hell's Kitchen Productions 1990 + +Anton LaVey: The Secret Life of a Satanist-by Blanche Barton +Feral House 1990 + +The Black Flame-Satanic newsletter of the Church of Satan +Hell's Kitchen productions +P.O. Box 499 +Radio City Station, New York, NY. 10101-0499 + +Iniquity-Satanic newsletter +Midnite Flite Productions +501 Maison Drive +Box 44 +Myrtle Beach, SC. 29572 + +Satan wants you-By Arthur Lyons +Mysterious Press 1988 + +The Second Coming: Satanism in America-by Arthur Lyons +Dodd, Mead 1970 + +Satanism in America-by Shawn Carlson & Gerald Larue +Gaia Press + +In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult-by Robert Hicks diff --git a/religious documents/book01.txt b/religious documents/book01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f831dd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ + + The Eris Entropius + ______________________ + Book Two + The EntroHocusPocus + + Doctrine of The Holy Chapter of Froot Loops, and Useful Text file. + + + THE WANDERINGS OR FALSIFICATIONS + OF THE ONE THOUGHT OF + + His AssHoliness S'Wingitus Dickitomus + (John Kanash) + + + + Wherein Is Explained + Absolutely Everything Worth Knowing + About Absolutely Anything + and then Some, but not as much + as before....Wich was more. + except for when more was + explained, but less was known, + but not as much when more was + beleived to be known, because + that was false. + + + in case you are wondering, is a benevelont dictatorship, an +echological experiment, an exercise in guerrilla ontology known as + + + *** FROOT LOOPS **** + + This Text File describes a Wayward sect of The Discordian Soceity. +The Froot Loops Cult as it is come to be called by some, is not as +religously devout as others of its kind, and Prefers to work in Mundane +guises. Essentially We are to Fido What Erisians are to Christianity. + We have developed our Entire Culture around the Tellecomunications medium +of our Faith. We speak of BBS's as one might of their Temples. We speak +of Echos as one might of their Streets or Plazas or Stables. WE speak of +Cheese doodles and Chilled Toilet Seats as if it were Cheese doodles and +Chilled Toilet Seats so as you can see, we are "tetched by the fever". + + ________ Introduction _____________ + + Much as Inspired by the Devout faith of Erisians,and the Principia +Discordia, This book destined to be a (Literatus Immortalus) as great +as perhaps something written by wise old guys, who are long since dead. + Perhaps even greater than the Principia Discordia, or the Farmers Almanac. + One thing that Distresses me, is that the author of the PD, + was so Vague about who created, as if anyone cared that an alien Inteligence +of Some magnitude had created this text file, in order to subvert human Kind +into its servitude...I mean this is immaterial.This is the Second book, +if you do not have the Lost first book,then you will suffer until you +do.IF you do not have the books written after these, then either we have +not written them yet, or they do not yet exist, in this reality/form. + + + Entropian Motto: I did not do it, nobody saw me, you cannot prove + anything, especially that. + + __________________________________________________________ + + to appreciate the full flavour; others again are + subtly ironical or cynical. At first sight the book is a + jumble of nonsense intended to insult the reader. It + requires infinite study, sympathy, intuition and + initiation. Given these I do not hesitate to claim that + in none other of my writings have I given so pro- + found and comprehensive an exposition of my + philosophy on every plane...." + ---Alleister Crowley + Book Of Lies + + + + + Letters, WE get lots and lots of letters, + -Dave Lettermans Mailbag theme + circa 1993 + + diff --git a/religious documents/book02.txt b/religious documents/book02.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df1a838 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book02.txt @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part two of 15 +---------------------------------- + + Thats absolutely right, you do not need the First Book to learn about Eris, +or even the Froot Loops Cult,but it sure does help, ofcourse you do not need +Air to live, well ok, you do, but it you can go without it for a little +while, And thats exactly what your life could be like, if you are the next +contenstant, in the Super Showcase for megaenlightment and superspirituality +on the popular interplanal game Show: "The Price is Flaxxe".... + +(not to be confused with the Archwizardress Sandra Price).... + ==================================== + + + There is a body that enfolds the Whole of the world; imagine it in the +form of a circle, for this is the form of the whole.....Imagine now that +under the circle of this body are the 36 decans, midway between the total +circle and the circle of the Zodiac, transported along it with planets... +the changing of kings, the rising up of cities, famine, plague, the tides +of the sea, earthquakes: none of these takes place without the influence +of the Decans. + --Corpus Hermeticus, + excerptum VI + + -------------------------------------- +From: Spom +To: Spam +Subject: ANYONE WHO IS NOT A WOMBAT SYSTEMS ANALYST, LOOK THE OTHER WAY! +Note: +1) Twelve Underwoobs referenced this system not two hours ago, leaving +trails of Liederhosen from here to St. Pauls, Minneapolis, and Fresno. +2) Twlve burrito-brained beasts from the beyond recently sabotaged the +system's capacity for nonviolence, leaving only traces of jello and mud. +3) There is a small fracture in cluster seven, section twelve, of WOMBAT +main core, resulting in freak bursts of pink laser light which reveal our +structures to receptive humans. See to its repair. +4) Bonk. +5) There have been no fewer than wombat underwoobic microprosopi on the +loose for no more than delta plus q.y hours. Return them at once. +6) There is no 6. + -WSA Gecko #4658 + + ----------------------------- + + The Treasure of Spirituality and all its trappings, is not in the deceiving +of the masses and the convincing them of the falseitys of mythology are +fact. The value is in the beleiving in something, The communion, the bonding +that commen-tie, even if other groups, are opposed to the trappings of +your faith. + The real goal, should be to unite all the faiths, but as the nature of +humans, and goddesses is to disagree, that is all but impossible. So what +is the value of immersing oneself in a religion,especially this one? + As Humans crave Food for nourishment, and natural Crave the company of +others for Mating purpouses, it is our beleif that they crave spirituality, +not neccisarily in the form of mytic babble, but perhaps in Science, in +empirical logic. All but the most ignorant of us, want to feel a purpouse +in life, and Spirituality can give a person that fuffillment. + The best part about our faith, is that we have cool partys, and some of +the niftiest mythology. Also Hooters, thats something, that is very holy, +to us....And Hot Dogs...not many faiths, have hot dogs, as part of its +mythology/spiritual trappings, and that might be what puts us above other +faiths. + ---The Reverand Step-Polyfather + Swinging Dick + --Sermon on Mt.Baldie, + given while entirely intoxicated. + + **************** + note: While we do not advocate intoxication, we do not, not + advocate it, if you know what we don't mean. + ******************************************** + diff --git a/religious documents/book03.txt b/religious documents/book03.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4447814 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book03.txt @@ -0,0 +1,103 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Three of 15 +---------------------------------- + + The Age of Antonines....The World was full of marvelous correspondences, +subtle resemblances; the only way to penetrate them--and to be penetrated +by them---was through dreams, oracles, magic, wich allow us to act on +nature and her forces, moving like with like. + Knowledge is elusive and volatile; it escapes measurement. + ------------------------------------------- + +From: Flog Sonata +To: St.Half-Mad + A Treatise on The UNTHWAKABLES. + +The secret inner core of the MOOist church. They live in shadows, and never +brush their teeth... They are (dramatic music) The Unthwakables. + +Lurking in darkness, the unthwakables perform strange and mysterious rites +for their ring leader, one St.Half Mad. + +Armed only with wet sponges, the unthwakables are calm, cool, and completely +psychotic. + +They feed off your lack of fear. + +They wear funny hats. + +They know when you are sleeping, and they'll guess when you're awake about +50% of the time. + +They are, the unthwakables! + +They carve soap into funny animal shapes. + +They haunt you like the plague. + +They feed your pets rare and disaterous herbs that cause your pets excretions +to be bright beige. + +They are, the unthwakables. + + + +------------------------------------------------------- + Knowledge is wasted on the Youth, for in there minds, they have it + all, yet the old will not beleive them. + ------------------------------------ + Answers to the Quiz in Book one 1: + -------------------------------- + 1. Two Avocadoes would remain. + 2. Family Fued. + 3. 72 + 4. There is no answer + 5."Crotch-full a lovin" + + + + + -------------------------------------------------- + The Tale of Saint Cyprian + --------------------------- + + Saint Cyprian of Antioch, led a wondorous life. He was such a cool +Saint, that he is surely to be adopted and cherished by Erisians, Magic +spells of Love, and to cause your enemys Death, are attributed to this +Funkadellic Saint of the Silver Age. + His parents wanted him to know about the Earth, Land, Sea and Air,so they +sent him to the most distant realms, that he might acquire all mysteries, +including the generation and corruption of herbs, and the virtues of +plants and animals. The secrets not of Natural History, but Occult Science, +those buried in the depths of distant and archaic traditions. At Delphi, +Cyprian Dedicated himself to follow Appollo ("Follow Appollo" was the +catchy Motto of the faith, devised by High Preist Smokus Doobus of Cyprus). +and there he dedicated himself also to the draumaturgy of the Serpent, +but it was widely beleived, that he did not inhale, or enjoy it. + He Studied the "Mysteries of Mithra" (a Slogan devised by the High Preistess +Cuntialipptys, after hearing of the snazzy "Follow Appollo" Motto), on +Mount Olmpus he was guided by fifteen hierophants, but they did not have +a catch-phrase that struck him as very cool, so he left and went to Argos. + In Argos, he attended the Rites to summon the Prince of this World, in +order to master his intrigues. Then in Delios was initiated into the +Mysterys of Hera "Hera comes to save the Day" (was a very silly motto, but +acceptable enough). + In Phrygia he learned heptascopic Fortunetelling, and eventually there was +nothing left of land, sea, and air that he did not know, no ghost, no +object, no artifice of any kind, not even the art of altering writing +through the use of Sorcery. In the Underground Temples of Memphis (egypt +or Tennessee, not sure) he had learned how demons communicate with earthly +things and places, what they loathe and love, how they dwell in darkness +and how they mount resistance in certain domains, how they put secret +backward messages in Perry Como Recordings, how they are able to possess +souls and bodies, the feats of higher knowledge they can preform, of +memory, terror, and illusion, and the art of causing turmoil in the earth, +influencing underground currents. + But alas, he was converted to Eris, but something of his knowledge, is +kept here, in the mouths and minds of the Idolaters of Froot Loops. We +have yet to unlock the secrets, but of this, that which is known, is that +Crisco will be used, and plenty of it. + + +* note: Butter flavored Crisco, has been ruled out, as blaspheme. + diff --git a/religious documents/book04.txt b/religious documents/book04.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..554697a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book04.txt @@ -0,0 +1,107 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part four of 15 +---------------------------------- + +Attributed To Crysarides of Eris: + + Ah, but you certainly got a pro for your cons. Perhaps we should + consider having her prose at Cannes, in a filmicallity style? + + &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& + + "Hooters, we want Hooters" + Attributed to Homer Simpson or Al Bundy, + scholars of the 20th century + + ------------------------------------------------------ + + Message from Archdruid Dick: + + Do you beleive all the people who dance tonight will know the meaning + of the chants they utter? fortunately they do not, and each unknown name + will be a kind of breathing excercise, a mystical vocalization. + + + \\\\\\\\\\///////////// + + + yogsogoth is your friend, + + without an "r"................. + + ///////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ + +It has returned. Those dissatisfied with the vagaries of conventional +networks -- the politics, gateways to and from the nether regions, and +sheer choice of numbers -- are instigated into becoming one with what +has been described in contemporary fiction as The Mind; The Force; +That Vision Thing; and much much more! Froot Loopian Philosophy is upon +ye bretheren.......Embrace it like you might embrace an ugly, smelly +person while intoxicated at a party or nightclub, under the illusion, that +this is the most beautiful person you have ever wanted to have meaningless +sex with... + +=============== + AS a represenetive of Ugly Smelly people, + I resemble the above remark...I should be + offended, but speaking for ugly,smelly people + everywhere, I condone having meaningless sex with us. + + ---Saint Fergusin, + + ------------------------- + + Noses of God (Summary of AC's polytheism) + + Here are the results of the Crowley's Favorite God Poll. + The numbers represent the number of books, essays, letters, rituals, etc. +that deal with the God in Question, rather than an absolute number of +mentions. Offhand, I would say that Egyptian was his favorite flavour, and +Horus his favorite God, though Ra and Mercury would appear to Place and Show. +I threw a couple of Norse Pantheon types in so as to make the Luciferians feel +better. Also, strictly speaking, I suppose that Set is part of the Egyptian +Pantheon too, but the number of works dealing with him would not significantly +affect the Egyptian Factor anyway. + + Odin 3 + +Freya 0 + ------------------------------- + 3 + + Satan 17 + +Shaitan 2 + +Set 18 + +Lucifer 4 + -------------------------------- + 41 + + Saturn or Chronos 24 + +Mars or Ares 38 + +Venus or Aphrodite 14 + +Jupiter or Zeus 31 + +Mercury or Hermes 52 + -------------------------------- + 169 + + Osiris 47 + +Horus 59 + +Ra, etc. 53 + +Isis 38 + +Thoth or Tahuti 29 + +Heru etc. 16 + -------------------------------- + 252 + + Caveats: I do not represent this to be an exhaustive search. Exhausting, +yes, but Crowley's writings fill many shelves and filing cabinets, and the +time involved (not to mention some travel) would be prohibitive to getting a +complete answer inside of a year. This sampling is only from material that has +been recorded electomagnetically. Luckily, most publishers of current editions +have done their typesetting on computers, and so we have the majority of +Crowley's books now in print in the index. It also means that his early +poetry, now almost completely out of print and/or demand, is not represented +as well as might be hoped. + + Tony Inter Alia + + diff --git a/religious documents/book05.txt b/religious documents/book05.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..223d709 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book05.txt @@ -0,0 +1,119 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part five of 15 +---------------------------------- + The Book of Explanations: + + + Early Explanations of the Froot Loops Faith: + Ancient Scriptures written By Ancient Hittite + S'wingitus D'ickitius the Younger, + Translated from the Cuniform + +This is the froot loops, It is place where naked women,who are all +Quite good looking and single, Converse about how they would +like to meet a Computer geek, or complete stranger over the bbs. +You are fotunate to even be in this Extremely Useful Echo area. +Well it is actually not a place where Naked Women, Converse about +how they would like to meet a Computer Geek, or complete stranger +over the bbs. I chose the namefroot loops, because I figured it +would make most people curious. +I am not in the habit of explaining anything I do on BBS's, +because Fear and Ignorance, are my two favorite tools. +Since I am no longer a sysop, but a moderator I figure, +I might want to explain a little here in the beginning. +Think of this as an Ancient Roman Forum, where Ideas +and Thoughts are presented and debated by anyone who feels +like participating, and those that participate feel +a sense of joy and Community involvement. +No, Come to think of it, thats not at all +what this net is about, Let me try again. + Think of this Echo, as a Bunch of frightened monkeys, +hiding in an open field under a single tree,in the cold rain. +With The Larger Monkeys, Taking their place high in +the tree, only to be struck by lightning. The Smaller, +weaker monkeys are easy prey for the Roaming Jackals. +When the rain ends, nothing but dead, smoking Monkey +flesh remains....No thats not at all what this echo is about, +Forget all that too. + Ok, Picture the above two Examples, Mixed together into one + concept. Throw in a Moderator...Now do not think of + me as the typical moderator. Over time, you +will get to Know me, I am Called "Swinging Dick" by my friends, +but you may call me "John Kanash", I have been known to answer +to "ALL" from time to time. +Thats not important right now. I am open to alot of ideas, +I will gladly converse with just about anyone, +regarding almost any subject, however since this is my net, from +time to time I will declare a topic or present some information. + All I need you, as a user to do, is to Read it all very carefully, +comment on it, and Apply negative advertising about this +echo everywhere you go. What I mean is, +insist that people not Read this echo, +Tell the sysops to stop carrying it in the name +of decency, Warn people not to get embroiled in the discussions +in this echo. This will result in alot of people doing +just the oppisite of What you tell them. +I am not sure, but I call this Phenomenon +"Swinging Dicks First Law of Cheese" +There is no reason for that, I just thought I would share it with you. + Remember when negative advertising the Echo, + to inadvertently, but blatantly tell people how to get to the Echo. + The name of this Echo, is Currently froot loops as you probably know. +This is subject to change, periodically, so do not get too attached +to the name. I am a big fan of mediocrity, and the chinsey, +and gaudy aspects of life, and hopefully +this echo will reflect that. I Also tend to refer +to an "Echo" as a "NET", however the "NET" represents a +group of Echo's, You will have to learn to live with it. + I will be posting The Rules of this Echo, The sysops carrying the +echo, have the responsibility to scan for "OFFICIAL RULES". +They must the Correlate them, Zip them, Convert them to Gifs, +then into .PCX files, IF time permits, they should +read them aloud in sound files. They should make them available +for Download, Users should then Download them, and Print them +onto Parchment colored Paper,or If they do not have parchment, +should atleast use a nice border to surround the +text, Then Place them into a black, plastic 3-ring binder. +Do not use one or two ring binders, as there is a greater chance +the paper can be torn out, and you might lose one +of the valued rules. These rules are to be guarded dearly, +and coveted like religious Artifacts. Failure to follow even +One of them will result in Extreme pain, Monstorous +amounts of Bullshit, Monogamy, And eventual death threats. +This is not limited to the "rule breaker" or offender. +I may punish someone who is completely innocent, as a warning to the +offender. I ofcourse, am not limited to following the rules, as +I will be to busy making up new ones, and conducting indepth +investigations and Trial revue boards. Pressing "N" or ">enter<" or +any number, or any key on your keyboard +means that you accept this as gospel, and that you are +more than willing to suffer the consequences, and possibly have +a good time on thefroot loops. + Thanks very little, + Swinging Dick! + +BTW---Please ignore the above text, do not read it, or believe it. + + --------------------- + +Explanation #2: + There is no explantion. + +Explanation #3: + fnord. + +Explanation #4 + it is 5 tonnes of flaxxe + + ------------------------------------------ + + --I did not know I was looking in the womens showers, honest... + ----Early confused pre-teen Erisian + book of explanation + part five, of 15 + book two principia Entropius. + ------------------------------ + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/book06.txt b/religious documents/book06.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d97d89 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book06.txt @@ -0,0 +1,109 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part six of 15 +---------------------------------- + + Griffian Beleif system: + + One Doctrine of Froot Loopism is based on portions of the Andy Griffith +show. Only the Black and White episodes are signfigant, because the colors +of black, white and grey are symbolic of lifes internal morality/struggle. +Each episode has specific moral values, that can be studied, and used to +inspire. It is our hope, that it is used, to indoctrinate future genetically +bred clone-warriors, into Cold-ruthless religous zealot killers who will +serve to protect our empire, or to merely give old ladys comfort at night, +with a growing understanding of basic human morality and charity. + One might think, that St. Andy would be the most revered, this is not the +case. St. Floyd the Barber, is the most honored of all the Griffinian +demi-gods. For it is he, who was most sedate, and on the best medication +of all of them, surpassing even the wisdom of St. Otis the Drunk. St Floyd +with his drawn out words, and hidden meanings, revealed the cold ruthless +killer inside, and it is theorized that St.Floyd was one of the first +transylvanians, sent here to infiltrate earth. This is ofcourse utter +Bullcrap. You can read more about the exacting Dogmas and wisdom of the +Griffinian Beleif, in the lost manuscripts of "The Books of Mayberry". + + Griffinian Demi-Gods + _________________ + +St. Floyd--god of better living through medication, +St. Otis the Drunk-god of bondage and alcohol induced hallucinations. +St. Goober--God of Guns and Cars, and sorry Cary Grant impersanations. +St. Barney--god of Internal Security and Street Crossing. +St. Aunt Bea--Goddess of Homemaking and worrying +St. Gomer--God of Marines and the Wisdom of Tao. +St. Andy--God of Matlockians +St. Opie--God of the unfaithful +St. Raif--God of Inbreeding and Unlawful production of Hallucinogens. +St. Ernest T.God of The "Vern Faith" + +*note St. Barney, is not to be confused with the Evil and cretinous +Barney the lovable dinosaur, Grimaces evil brother. + + + Excerpts from the Book of Mayberry: + +2:9 Book of Otis: And Otis did ride his Sacred Cow down the streets of +Mayberry, claiming for all that it was the greatest horse money could buy. + + --Interpretation: The classic "Emperors Clothes" parable. + +3:1 Book of Otis: I will have a snort, andy. stuttered Saint Otis... + + --Interpretation: could be meant in many different ways, the meanings + differ wildly amongst sects of the Griffinian sub-faith. + +2:7 Book of Floyd: Hey andy, I think you need a haircut, yeah, a haircut, +oooo, hows opie doing? ooooo I got to tell you, opie came in here, with +some freinds of his, and broke my barber pole, ooo that wasn't very nice, +andy...ooooo, what are we going to do? + + --Interpretation: some have indicated, this is the fall from grace + for opie, and one reason his allowance is so low. It is widely + beleived by griffinians, that Those who are unfaithful of the + griffinian faith (but not those, who were never given an + indoctrination into the faith), When they die, will live as + children in mayberry, and wonder why there allowance is a third + of what other boys and girls get, these people are under the + guidance of The Fallen Saint Opie, Keeper of the Sacred Candle, + and have a secret club, wich meets in barns. + +1:1 Book of feif: nip it in the bud! + + ---Interpretation-classically beleived to mean to stop blashpemy + before it started, and followers of St. Barney are very paranoid + as a result. Others, especially of the Hashish faith, revere + this in the growing of Hemp. + +It is beleived that Those not indoctrinated into the faith of Griffinians, +Must spend eternal life in Mt. Pilot, taking jobs in local restaraunts and +shops, and serving those who live in Mayberry, eternal resting place of +placidity, for the faithful. Those who reject the faith, after being +indoctrinated, are sent away to the big city, wich is filled with peril +and must play with Jimmy Fleet and his band with a big beat as punishment. + +----------------------------------------------------------- + +The Matlockians are a hybrid faith, who revere St. Andy as the patron +Of their Faith, and these people generally revere the old eccentric members +of their faith, as very wise and keen. It is a custom of their faith, to +tell a story for an entire hour, and then deliver the plot/moral as +something completely unrelated/unexpected. This is called the Holy +suspense, but thought of as quite boring by those not of the faith, +because every story, seems almost identical. + +----------------------********------------------------------ + +It is beleived the Vern Faith, borrowed heavily from Saint Ernest T. +While the Verns, are Monotheistic, recognizing a slightly different +Ernest, and none of the other griffinian Saints; They are quite stupid +and gullible. They preface all prayers with the phrase "Hey Vern" +and instead of "Amen" say "Know whut Amean"... There religous Documents +are few, having mostly illiterate followers, they were forced to place +their holy relics on VHS available in Blockbuster Temples everywhere. + + +------------------------------------------------------------- + +(Honk if you Fnord) + +---------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/book07.txt b/religious documents/book07.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..841c493 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book07.txt @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part seven of 15 +---------------------------------- + + The analogy of opposites is the relation of light to shadow, peak to +abyss, fullness to void. Allegory, mother of all dogmas, is the replacement +of the seal by the Hallmark, or reality by shadow; it is the falsehood of +truth, and the truth of falsehood. + + ---Eliphas Levi, + --Dogme de la haute magie, + page 22 + + + ------------------------------------------ + + +From: Altar Ego +To: Flog Sonata +Subject: Cheap laughs cost your soul plenty. + + The more rules, the less room in which to move. Humours rules are +invisible, so that true jokes (or accidental ones) can walk right through the +barriers. Bad Humour creates its own blockages, just like a poor diet. + PRUNING SHEARS - THE SHORTCUT TO INTESTINAL BLISS! + - kISS tHE cOLON, + Atlantis Eon +P.S.- Have you ever gotten too close to a dead Horse, flog? I don't know if +anyone's made such oblique implications to you before... + A L L H A I L F L O G S I N A T R A ! + + + * * * * * + Thall Shalt Hail False Prophets Before me.... + it makes them think, we beleive them.... + ---The Goddess Eris + + * * * * * + + ALL HAIL FROOT LOOPS!!!!!! + + + The Amparo Argument: The particular Emprical Event does not matter, if + its an "ideal principle": That wich cannot be verified under ideal + conditions, and ideal meaning: never. But its still true. + + ------------------------------------- + * * * * * + Thou Shalt Hail Things that could be true, + or could be false, + it will confuse others... + -----The Goddess Eris + + * * * * * + + + A parable: + The Pedantic Ethnologist. + ############################# + + The Ethnologist spent many years studying cannibalism. He challenges + the smugness of the whites by assuring everybody that actually human + flesh is delicous. Then one doubter decides to see for himself and + performs the experiment--on him. As the Ethnologist is devoured piece + by piece, he hopes, for he will never know who was right, that atleast + he is delicous, wich will justify the ritual and his death. + + + diff --git a/religious documents/book08.txt b/religious documents/book08.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6dbc618 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book08.txt @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Eight of 15 +---------------------------------- + + Better Real than a dream, Atleast if something is Real, then + you are not to blame. + ---------Erisian Proverb. + + +-------------------------------------- + Lean to the Right + Rush Rules + Does anyone + talk to Rush on Compuserve? + + +I talk to Rush spiritually and mentally. I talk to rush, through the TV +screen. I talk to Rush,when I am in a car, I do not go far, just to get +a jar. + I talk to Rush, and I talk to Van Halen...I talk to The animals... +I do not wear a green Hat.... + +---Excerpt from the Unpublished Dr. Suess Classic, + The return of the Naked Godivas, for sega genisis. + + + ((((((((AVAILABLE IN MORONOSOUND))))))))) + WHERE AVAILABLE + + + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Abulafrians: + Use Cypher code: Right. + + gmptf@ + +__________________________________________________ + --Vulcan Humorism-- + +Acolyte to Thom Gnos: + "Hey someone told me my days were numbered!" + +Thom Gnos: + "Sure enough, on your Calender, each day has a numerical value" + +------------------------------------------------- + + The Picatrix + The unholy Milanese Magazine of Occult + Swimsuit edition now available + ----Cover goes to Isis, Egyptian Goddess + +-----------------<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>------------- + +Those of you, who revere other faiths, who might be examineing this +document, (especially Jewish or Christians) might be calling it +blashpemy. Remember the words of Job: + + Will you speak unjustly on Gods Behalf? + Will you speak deceitfully for him? + What will happen we he examines you? + Will you fool him, as one fools men? + --Job 13:7-9. + + Essentially here The freinds have cautioned Job "your saying Terrible + things about god, and hes going to be very angry at you." + Job replys "IF god is a god worth worshipping, I have to beleive + that he respects my honesty more than your flattery. I may be + theologically wrong in what I say about your god, but I am saying + what I think and feel to be true, not what I think god wants to + hear, and I have to beleive that God respects that." + + So just bear that in Mind When Viewing other Peoples viewpoints + about Gods or Goddess. + + diff --git a/religious documents/book09.txt b/religious documents/book09.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40883a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book09.txt @@ -0,0 +1,98 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Nine of 15 +---------------------------------- + + + + Froot Loopian/Dead Head Game: + Zoo, zortch, etc. + +These are the play terms in a word and eye contact game called"Zoom!", which +is one of many games gathered by the folks at the New Gamers Foundation and +published in their books. +Basically, you get five or more people in a circle(the more the merrier) and +instruct them that there are five basic plays to this game... +"Zoom" is the basic move, and moves the "zoom" from person to nexzt +person...to move a zoom, look at the person next to you(head movement is +absolutely necesary) and say to him"Zoom"...he/she is now the possessor of the +"Zoom", and may turn head to the person next to them and say "zoom", or they +can do the second move, which is the "Zortch". When you "zortch" a "zoom", +it's basically like blocking a shot in basketball. It stops the "Zoom" and +sends it back to the original sender. In this case, the "zortcher" must +continue to look at the original "zoomer" and does not turn the head. +Now comes the complicated part..."mafigliano's" and a term which I assume +"boing" means, the "ignorential lenki"...these are zooms and zortches with +head fakes thrown in...for a "mafigliano", you are sending the zoom to the +next player, but continue to look at the player who sent the zoom to you...for +the "ignorential lenki", you zortch the player who sent you the zoom, but you +do so while turning your head to the next player, as if to continue the zoom. +Things get going pretty good, once everybody gets the hang of it...but what +happens when someone is stuck(the folks on either side of him keep zortching +his zooms?)? Our fifth move, the desperation move, comes in...if you're +stuck, look at anyone in the circle and say "Hogwash" and that sends the zoom +to them. +Remember the basic tenets of new games-Have Fun, Play Hard, and Nobody Gets +Hurt. + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + + Simply because they change and hide their names, do not give their + right age, and by their own admission go about without allowing themselves + to be recognized, there is no logic that can deny that they neccesarily + must exist. + + -----Heinrich Neuhaus + Confesio Fraternis Roseae Crucis ad eruditos Europae + Page 5 + ------------------- + + Ponder the Mystery: + + + Games without Frontiers, War without Fears... + -------------------------------------------------- + + + The I am Rubber you Are Glue Buddhist\Eris Doctrine: + ___________________________________________________ + Excerpted from The Sutra of Fourty-Two Sections: + + And the blessed One Observed the Ways of Soceity and noticed how much + misery came from malignity and foolish offences done only to gratify + vanity and self-seeking pride. + And the Buddha Said: If a man foolishly does me Wrong, I will return +Him the protection of my ungrudging Love; the More evil comes from him, +the more good shall go from me; the fragrance of goodness always comes to +me.and the Harmful Air of Evil, goes to Him.* + A Foolish Man, Learning that the Buddha observed the principle o great +love which commends the return of good for evil, came and abused him. +The Buddha was silent pitying his folly. + When the man had finished his abuse, the Buddha asked him, saying "son, +if a man declined to accept a present made to him, to whom would the present +belong?" And he Answered: "In that case it would belong to the man that had +offered it." + "My son," said the Buddha, "Thou hast railed me, but I decline to accept +thy abuse, and request thee to keep it thyself. Will it not be a source of +misery to thee? AS the echo belongs to the sounds, and the Shadow to the +substance, so misery will over-take the evil doer without fail." + The abuser made no reply, and Buddha Continued. + "A wicked Man who reproaches a virtous one is like one who looks up and +spits at heaven; the spittle soils not the heaven, but comes back and +defiles his own person." + "The Slanderer is like one who flings dust at another when the wind is +contrar; the Dust does but to return on him who threw it. The virtuous +man cannot be hur and the misery that the other would inflict comes back +on himself." + + "Besides that, if you really piss me off, I will do some of that Kung-fu + shit on you, and make you wish You had tried this shit with Jesus or + something." + + ========================================================= + + + +*-see Curse of Fergusins Evil Air. + + + diff --git a/religious documents/book10.txt b/religious documents/book10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a23a156 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Ten of 15 +---------------------------------- + + Pinball An Eris/Loopian Game + ============================= + + You don't play pinball with your hands, you play it with your groin too. +The Pinball problem is not to stop the ball before its swallowed by the +mouth at the bottom, or to kick it back to mid-feild like a half-back.The +Problem is to make it stay up, where the lighted targets are more numerous +and have it bounce from one to another, wandering, confused,delirious, but +still a free agent. And you acheive this, not by jolting the ball, but by +transmitting vibrations to the case, the frame, but gently so the machine +won't catch on and say Tilt. You can only do it with the groin, or with +the play of the hips that makes the groin not so much bump, as slither, +keeping you on the side of an orgasm. And if the hips move according to +nature, its the buttocks that supply the forward thrust, but gracefully, +so that when the thrust reaches the pelvic area, it is softened, as in +homeopathy,where the more you shake a solution and the more the drug +dissolves in the water added gradually, until the drug has almost entirely +disappeared, the more medically effective and potent it is. Thus from the +groin and infinitesmal pulse is transmitted to the case, and the machine +obeys, the ball moves against nature, against inertia, against gravity, +against the laws of dynamics, and against the cleverness of its creator, +who wanted it disobediant. The ball is intoxicated with vis movendi, +remaining in play for memorable and immemorial lengths of time. nothing +between the Jeans and the Subliminated fury must interpose the connection, +besides skin, nerves, padded bone....Infact the best player, would be a +women, with a subliminated erotic fury, a sly frigidity, a disinterested +adaptablity to the partners response, a taste for arousing desire without +suffering the excess of ones own: The Amazon must drive the pinball crazy +and savor the thought that she will then abandon it. That is why this +is obviously a game devised by the Goddess. + + + * * * * * + + + "Excuse me while I go spank my monkey" + + --Saint Butthead. + +* * * * * + Mooist Communiquado Intercepto + ------------------------------ +From: Flog Sonata +To: Partyman +Subject: Bishop of Pain. + +Sadly, I am not in pain now that I have been made a bishop. How sad for all +of us. Halfy was expecting me to writhe as if I had maggots in my gut, and +yet I feel a ZENish inner tranquility. + + +Everybody in de house say "OM!" + +"OM!" + +Putcha hands togethuh for Master Bish-UP, Flog-guh, SO-NOT-ah! + +If'n the gods be so funky, +Like my l'il pink monkey, +Den der ain't no reason-nuh, +For huntin' season-nuh. + + + +What? Oh, sorry. I've been experimenting with chanelling. That was my +spirit guide who seems to be named Flog-guh SO-NOT-ah. He's a medieval +rapper. He sometimes possesses me and makes me rap. Quite embarassing. + + + + OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO + + diff --git a/religious documents/book11.txt b/religious documents/book11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f25e23 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,90 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Eleven of 15 +---------------------------------- + + + Channelling By Deacon Noz + _________________________ + + There I was: seventy-two straight hours of transcendental meditation +and I'd passed the Twilight Zone, gone beyond the lunatic fringe, +seen Elvis (he's on the Slim Fast plan and looking pretty good), +and reached Nirvana. God was there. +Well, he looked like god. No one else could dress that badly +and get away with it. Okay, there's Madonna; point taken. +But this guy--he was archaic.Had on this sort of toga thing +that was twelve different shades of white. He was old too, +in his billions maybe. Much too old to be going to a toga party, +so you have to figure he meant to dress that way. + Didn't matter. I hadn't come all this way for fashion lessons. I wanted +the meaning of life. Who better to ask? + He was asleep. I tried shaking him awake. You know, a gentle tap on the +shoulder and a, "Hey your Holyness, time to wake up". Creep didn't budge, so +I kicked him--hey, I was in a hurry, alright? + "Uh, what?" he said. "Mikey, is that you? Just a a few more hours, + okay? Then I promise to do something about that AIDS business." + "No, it's me. Noz. Remember?" + Blood-shot eyes squinted at me. He sat up. "Noz? What's a Noz?" + "Me. I'm a Noz. Nice to meet you." I stuck out my hand. + "No. This can't be happening. It's a dream, right? + Something Luke cooked up to spoil my nap?" + "Wrong-o." + "Thought we'd gotten rid of you." + "Why would you do that?" + "Uh? Oh, no reason. Forget it. So, what do you want?" + "The meaning of Life." + "Sure, no problem." He stared at me some more. + "Well, what is it?" + "Can't tell you." + "What?!" + "Against the rules." + "That's great! Came all the way out here for nothing." + God got this sort of gleam in his eye. "I can tell you this," he +whispered. "Television. The signals from television mess up your mind. + That's why the world's screwed-up. Everyone's watching TV. Stop watching +for awhile, you'll see." + "That makes sense." + He nodded, "Sure it does, sure. Now get out of here." + God waved his hand and I was back in my room. But now I had it, not the +meaning of life, no, but a secrete. + That day I began the quest--to not watch TV and see how the world looked. + + + ******************************************* + + + Yet one Caution let me give by the way to my present or future reader, +Who is actually melancholy--that he read not the symptomes or prognosticks +of the following tract, lest, by applying that wich he reads to himself, +aggravating, appropriating things generally spoken, to his own person +(as melancholy men for the most part do), he trouble or hurt himself, +and get in conclusion, more harm than good. I advise them therefore +warily to peruse that tract. + + ------Robert Burton + --The Anatomy of Melancholy + Circa 1621 A.D. + + + + + + +******Brother Mog beat me with a Prognostick. + + + Words of Wisdom: + +The Erisians Give Great advice, and discuss at length many things. +It is advisable, and perfectly acceptable to say something, and then +if later it seems you want to say something different, to do so. As long +as you do so, in a Vague St. Sherman kind of way, with a Question or +Completely unrelated comment, that is very short. + If anyone wants to come back, and clarify what you mean, take the" Erisian +Dodge" and say "What you understood, was what you wanted to understand." +This can be very profound, and indicates, that your words, are indeed so +well chosen, that they illicit whatever thoughts of wisdom, a person wants +to find in them, and it does not answer their question, but is as obscure +and vague as the St. Shermanesque response. + +------------------------------------------------ diff --git a/religious documents/book12.txt b/religious documents/book12.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..960651c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book12.txt @@ -0,0 +1,91 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Twelve of 15 +---------------------------------- + + + + Whoever Reflects on Four things, it were better he had never been born: +That which is above, That which is below, That which is before, and that +which is after. + + ----Talmud, Hagigah 2.1 + + +The Following Titles may be Granted by the Poly-step Father, for Any +thing at all, and especially monetary tithes, and sexual favors, he may +also take them away at any time. They confer no special bonuses, except +for those that enjoy watching Highlander, the movies or Series: + + *High Grades of the Ancient and Scottish Rite* + ______________________________________________ + + + Prince of Babylon + Knight of the Black Cross + Knight of Death + Sublime Master of the Luminous Ring + Priest of the Sun + Toad of the Wet sprocket + Grand Architect + Knight of the Black and White Eagle + Holy Royal Arch-deacon + Knight of the Pheonix, + Knight of Iris + Priest of Eleusis + Knight of the Golden Fleece + Master of the Bong + Cheech of the Marin + Knight of the Imperial Order + Plebian of the Fergusonians Au Wondorous + Grand Dragon of the Ikari Warriors + Great Rhubarb + Criscoan of the Monsosyllabic + + ___________________________________ + LIFE is anything that dies, when you stomp on it. + ------------------------------------ + +From: Altar Ego +To: Flog Sonata +Subject: Shaggin' like a horse? + + Flog, only you would want to make innuendo about sex with a horse. Oh, +no, you were just doing the pathetic sing-song of Python. Oh, well, that's +worse than having sex with a horse...believe me, I know. + Oh, Painkiller? If you read this, I will say one more thing to you. +If you are full of your own beliefs, you will not have room for any others, +let alone those you presume could be superior to your own. + PhAEdrus. + + + >>>>>>>>>>>>>Brother Ramen has the Heebie Jeebies<<<<<<<<< + Get them while they are fresh! + + + Wonder O Wonder, Why we Fear 13? 13 is a bad number, It is Evil, it is + to be Avoided if at all possible, so Take great care, in seeking any + Book of Principia Entropius part 13, infact the validity of this Evil + Work, should be questioned, as with any peice of this work, but more + so, because the evil Jabberwock might be out to get us right now, + and they are all plotting against us. + + ---Bishop Barnabus Jonus + Griffinian Preist of the Feifians + Diatribe and Sermon on Friday the 13th + given while bathed in uncooked Hotdogs + + + There is nothing wrong with taking someone elses ideas, and passing them +on to someone else, because really, its not theres in the first place, if +you can conceive of something, its safe to say, someone else has already +thought of something like it, and so nothing is really original. Also, +its okay to present someone elses ideas, even if they are false, because +to someone else, they might be true. + + ----Check your pineal gland, before engaging in this activity.... + + + BOOK OF FLASH + Revelation One: +: IT IS PINEAL GLAND, not Penial Gland....Big Difference... + diff --git a/religious documents/book14.txt b/religious documents/book14.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d8169e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book14.txt @@ -0,0 +1,78 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Fourteen of 15 +---------------------------------- + + Everything You know is Wrong + ---St. Burlap + + + ------------------------------------------- + + "Stink, Stunk...Stank" + -----Dr.Suess + --Excerpted from the grinch Stole Christmas + + ================= +There is no danger in interpreting the Symbols of a Religious System and +calling them metaphors instead of facts. What that does is to turn them +into messages for your own personal inward expereince and life. The system +suddenly becomes a personal expereince. + ----Joseph Campbell + + + =========================== + + The Tale of St. Bill of Byhalia + _______________________________ + + Unto the Lands did Bill the Prophet of Byhalia preach, and unto the masses +did he claim, that it was a universal ideology that "I don' beleive its +against the law to sell furnitcha to cheap!" and he would smile his toothless +grin, and maintains his flat affect. + And Unto the masses did he sell Furniture, and proselytyze many, as he +did so, he claimed to be from the little church with a big heart,and he +would say "I don' beleive its against the law to sleep with your daughtah!" +and then he would roll around on the ground, smacking his buttocks, as +he screamed, "I do not know, I do not know" in the manner of Hung Mung. + Then later he speant his life, lonely and bitter, as an act in a freak +show, he worked next to the man with two butts, a descendent of Mr. Momomoto +and that man, eventually took his life,and ate him. + +There is much to be learned from this parable, you can learn more some times +from what is not written,than from what is.This comes from the Jewish +"Kabballah" meaning "from mouth to Ear", or the Dickish Word "Crappallah" +Wich means, "From Foot to Ass". + + -------------------------------- +Meta-Agnosticism Without Tears + +Dear Fellow Committee Member, + +You write inquiring as to the relative merits of Meta-Agnosticism over, +say, Anarcha-Eristianism, and, in the same line of your otherwise rather +vacuous missive, ask to quickly sum the points of the practical +application of my Clique's Official Party Line as you (the phrase +"rather snidely" springs to mind) put it. In twenty-five million words +or less you further specify! Very well. + +1. Understand that everything you know is uncertain, including +uncertainty. + +2. Identify the elements of your conscious and unconscious self and +develop these elements of these faculties. These being: first your +knowledge of your self and the world around you, second your +feelings/intuitions, third your will -- the Life Force that enables you +to live and grow, fourth your daring -- the moment by moment course of +action you choose. Never falter from directing your development for +balance first, power second. + +3. Step by step, get into the habit of developing and balancing these +faculties every day. After 10-20 years relentless practice, it will get +to be a habit all the time. + +4. You'll know what to do then. + + -- A.P.B. + + + ----------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/book15.txt b/religious documents/book15.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29f5913 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book15.txt @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Fifteen of 15 +---------------------------------- + + "I do not have Faith, I have Expereince." + + ---------------------------------------------------------- + + "Break, break, break + At the foot of thy stones, O Sea! + And I would that I could utter + The thoughts that arise in me!" + + ---Tennyson + +ììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììì + + Nomic is a game where the basis of the game (and + the rules of the game) is to change the rules and + collect points. + + The initial rules set makes it so each turn you + get 1-6 points, regardless of events. But that is + usually the first thing to be changed. + Nomic is a sacred game of MOO... It first got published in +Scientific American (which we secretly own and control, being of the +progressive and scientifically minded type) in 1982... Basically you +begin with a bureaucratic set of rules which allow you to proceed by +altering and adding rules each turn. It therefore mutates into whatever +seems appropriate. + You can check out a copy of the rules in the Book of MOO unless +it's been eaten by Woob the Magnificent, or in Douglas Hofstadter's book +"Metamagical Themas"... Nomic is a substitute for Mao when nobody can +figure out how to play THAT. + + +* note: When the Author of this portion of the book said "We" he did not +mean, "You". +ììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììììì + + D'annunzian Motto: + I have what I have given. + + ------------------------------ + + "If I had a rocket Launcher, Some Sunnanbitch, would Die." + + ---Bruce Cockburn Hippie Phuck, + + ------------------------------------------ + + It was widely beleived that Hari! Om, was translated as "let us meditate +profoundly and in peace", but through careful examination of never before +seen Upanishads, it was discovered that it meant "hey, pull my finger.." + + + + + + + When Writing a Book, I have to give you some guidelines, The first one +is to Read other books, and take the ideas from them, and change them +a bit, and claim they are your own. That is actually not good advice, +but it is still a guideline. + Okay, Also a snappy name, something that grabs the reader, right by the +throat, like "De Amy Fisher Ala Potty Chunks and Buttafuckios Chrystal +Dream Analysys new Age Bullcrapioso", You can see how the Italianizeing +the name, lends a certain credibility to it. + Then What you write, must be splendid, it must be genuine, it must be +a thing of beauty, constantly changing and in flux, (especially if +it were to be an Discordian Book). + Then you must understand the concept of the MAGDEBURG HEMISPHERES. Two +Hemispheres, which when put together and the air is pumped out, create +a pnuematic vaccuum inside. Teams of Draft Horses are hitched to them, +and they pull in oppissitte directions. The Horses cannot seperate the +Information---This is Scientific Information, but its special, picturesque. + You must single it out, DRAMATIZE.... + + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ diff --git a/religious documents/book16.txt b/religious documents/book16.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43fa1f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book16.txt @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part sixteen of 15 +---------------------------------- + + MattFolian Deduction + (not to be confused with Mattlockian Reasoning) + ________________________ + + + All Courses of Action, will eventually lead, to life in a van, down +by the river. You will not enjoy it as much, when you live, down in +a van, by the river. You will have many trials and tribulations on +your journey through life, and all though, some would say, that the +essence of life, is the journey, not the destination...That Destination +is a Van, down by the River. + +Examples of the Reverand Matt Foleys Principles, +(These were taken down, at the last Froot Loops Secret Sex Party and +Motivational Seminar, where we had hired the Good reverand to speak) + +----"-you wanna smoke a Doobie? You like smoking the Doobie? +You will have plenty of time, for Doobie Rolling, when you are LIVING +IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!!!!." + +---"A Family? Why should old Matt, get to have a family? Oh, I tried it +once, but let me tell you something, buster....You'll end up living in +a VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!!!!" + +----Then the good Reverand Picked up brother Thyme, and began to fling +him around the room, screaming something about how he was not in Waynes +World Three, and that Dana Carvey was over-rated. We had to Tranquilize +him, but you can see how this is distinctly Froot Loopian reasoning. + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Mathematics and Abulafia + + Some argue that the meaning of life is 42, and the Question 23, +but I find that the concept of 36 gives me great Comfort metaphysically +and spiritually, so in that sense, I think it is better, even if it +is wrong. This argument works for Christians, as well. + + +------------------------------------------------------------- + LIBER VEDA + vel + HELIOS + + SUB-Prayer-Abomination- Imbibation Ritual + + 0. These are the adorations to be performed by aspirants to the Dos +Equis + 1. Let him greet the Sun at dawn, facing East, giving the sign of his + grade. And let him say in a loud voice: + Hail unto Thee who art Eris in Thy rising, even unto Thee who art Cabbage +in Thy Slaw, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the + Uprising of the Fleshy Sundial. + Murphy standeth in His splendour at the prow, and My dicketh abideth + at my hand. + Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Eris! + -----------------AMOS + And Pass the Magic Butter Beans! + + (say this before Drinking a Shot) + then, give another person a high five, and grin like + a ninny.) + ---------------------------- + + +The Following Titles may be Granted by the Poly-step Father, for Any +thing at all, and especially monetary tithes, and sexual favors, he may +also take them away at any time. They confer no special bonuses, except +for those that live in Byhalia,for the Rite of Wallowing in Ignorance and +their own filth.: + + *High Grades of the Ancient and Primitive Memphis-Misraim Rite* + ______________________________________________ + + Doctor of the Planispheres + Hermetic Philosopher + Grand Elect of the Eons + Minstrel (Vaskin Kissoyan only) + Knight Prince of the Rose of Heredom + Grand Master of the Temple of Wisdom + Knight Noachite + Grand Master of the Temple of Pringles + Wise Siviast + Knight Supreme Commander of the Stars + Sublime Sage of the Zodiac + Shepard King of the Hutz + Blashphemer of Toiletry + Interpreter of the Hieroglyphs + Sage of the Pyramids + Sublime Titan of the Caucasus + Orphic Doctor + Orifice Handler + Sublime Skald + Prince Brahmin + Gaurdian of the Three Fires + + ---------------------------- + diff --git a/religious documents/book17.txt b/religious documents/book17.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b66b625 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book17.txt @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part seventeen of 15 +---------------------------------- + + Swinging Dicks Trip to DisneyWorld + a Parable/Account of Religous Journeys + _________________________ + + + Using the Froot Loops Donations I receive, and the money I collect +standing on the side of the road, with my "Will moderate Stupid Echo +for Food". I decided to Visit Disneyworld in Orlando Florida, for your +benifit. I figured I would tell you if this area should be visited as +a vacation spot. Especially since there is alot of violence against +Tourist down in sunny Florida. I risked my life to bring you this +reveiw, so you better enjoy it. + Okay, First I got there on Thursday night, and I checked into my +room at a Howard Johnson. You know, I can't understand what they mean +by HOJO, There was no whores there named Jo- I looked for her. Anyway, +I was real excited and I wanted to get over to Disneyland right away. +I took a shower, put away all my stuff, got dressed and got ready to +get on down there. I also wanted to see Epcot center and all the fabulous +multicultural pavillions they are supposed to have. + On The way Out of the Hotel, I passed by someones room, who's television +was on real loud. The Jazzy theme music to "Newhart" was playing. Not +Newhart the next generation, but the Old series. So I went back to my room +to see if it was on my television. Sure enough, Nick at night was having +a Newhart Marathon. I love that show. I mean Howard is so stupid, +especially that time he tried to put tile down in his kitchen, and he could +not get them to stick to the floor, until Suzzane Pleshette Pulled the +Paper off the bottom, and said it seemed sticky to her. Howard realized he +hadn't even thought of taking off the paper on the bottom. Gee he is +stupid.I think he should have got a spin-off called "Howard" instead of +going on to be in "I dream of Jeanie". + So the next day, I planned on heading down to Disneyworld, and riding +Space Mountain and visiting Those Animatronic puppets. So once I got +dressed and ready to go, I started to lead the Howard Johnson's, however +once I got in the Elevator I saw one of those Security Camera's. + So I started making funny faces and singing Showtunes into the camera. +My favorite song was "Love...Exciting and New, come aboard,We've been +expecting you...Set your sights for adventure, your mind on a new romance." +You know, the theme from the Love boat. Anyway, I figure there's probably +a security gaurd who has to sit there and watch you in the Camera, and that +probably Irritates him, alot. + So after a few hours of that, I was pretty Hungry, so I went down to + Mcdonalds and got some Hamburgers. I was looking forward to getting on +the Monorail that takes you into DisneyWorld. However, I noticed Mcdonalds +had its Own Playground. It wasn't very big, but I couldn't resist going +out there and playing for awhile. + There was this Slide, and although it was only about 6 feet long, it was +like 9 foot long, and you could do some really wild things, rolling down +into a big pool of Plastic Balls. I tried climbing up it with my socks +on, I couldn't get up to the top. I really couldn't it was amazing. + Then, I sat on the Head of this big Mayor Mccheese, and wobbled around + for a couple of hours. While I was on it, I imagined that I was Mayor +Mc cheese, and I decided that I would sentence Hamburgler to death. +Imagine Hamburgler stealing Hamburgers from all of us who live in Ronald +Mcdonald land. The People who elected Me, Mayor Mccheese Trusted that +I would bring Hamburgler to Justice and Protect them. Then I started +to wonder How I would catch Hamburgler, he always gets away! Then I +started to think, If I were Mayor Mcheese I would be made from chopped +meat,and have a sesame seed bun for a head. That sort of freaked me out. +So as I left I contributed the rest of my Trip money to Ronald Mcdonald +House, I wonder how big of a damn house that stupid Clown needs? + anyway, without any money they wouldn't let me in Disneyworld, so I +had to go away. I stole some Flyers that were in a rack however, so I got +something out of the deal. One was about Disneyworld, the other Two +were for Weekee Wachee underwater Gardens and the Everglades Alligator Zoo, +They have over 11,000 snakes there. Wow! + + + + --------------------------------------------------- + + + + The Principia is the wonder book of the ages. Within its pages is found a +message for every seeking soul, regardless of where he may be on the path of +spiritual attainment. There is hope, counsel and inspiration for the narrowest +and most conservative of minds; while at the same time there are glorious +words of light for the liberal and questing intellect. There is comfort and +instruction for the simplest, and exalted cosmic doctrine for the highest +Initiate this earth planet is able to produce. + + It is an error to say that the Principia is nothing more than an +antiquated book belonging to a time two thousand years in the past. +The Principia is a mystery book, a wisdom book of tremendous power, +a continuous running cipher created by great Initiates and their helpers +through millenia of effort. It belongs equally to the Past, the Present, +and to the Future. + + So carefully have its secrets been inscribed in the Principia text, coil +within coil, that the more spiritual man becomes the profounder are the +meanings which this book reveals to him. + + As it is written in the Zohar, "Woe to the man who sees in the Thorah (the +Law) only simple recitals and ordinary words!...Each word of the Thorah +contains an elevated meaning and a sublime mystery...The simple take notice +of the garments and recitals of the Thorah alone...The more instructed +do not pay attention to the vestment, but to the body which it envelopes." + + + Some Crazy People argue, the above could be applied to the bible, + but anything could be applied here, if you wanted to make it fit. + + ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| + + + "Cowards Die many Times before their Deaths" + ---Shakespeare, Julius Ceaser, II,2 + + "You want frys with that?" + ---The Unknown 5th Messiah of Eris, + spake while seeking the meaning of Grease. + + + ))))))Ancient Greeks, did not have Crisco, They had Greece.((((( + + + Meanderings of Dick + ___________________ + + Your a Coward When you feel your a Coward. The Masked avenger... + As Clark Kent I take care of mis-understood Young geniuses, + as Superman, I punish justly misunderstood old geniuses. + I collaborate In the Exploitation of those who, lacking my + courage, have been able to confine themselves to the role of + spectator. + it is possible to spend a life punishing people who will never + know they have been punished. + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/book18.txt b/religious documents/book18.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1077575 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book18.txt @@ -0,0 +1,123 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Eighteen of 15 +---------------------------------- + * * * * * + + ---I hate anyone who tries to see me as an illusion of Passion + ---The Goddess + + * * * * * + +Holy Temple of Mass $ $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ $ --"Bob" + + Book of BOB-O-BOB + __________________ + + + The Subgenius thing is cool, but not as cool as Froot Loops or Eris, +so spaketh the Riteous S'Wingitus D'ickitus, and he called upon Neferotitty +to show them unto him, and she did spake verily "NO you Farkin Moron, now +leave me alone, or I will cast forth a plaugue Upon thee" And it was that +she Took her shoe from her foot, and THWACKED S'Wingitus D'ickitus Thusly +and fortunately It was but a sandal, however, it was bought in the land of +Fayva, a Hittitte Province, wich produced poisonous Sandals. + For it was in these Days, that no mediciner could be afforded, and the +Pharissees Clint'us non inhalus, a Roman Satrap--had prophecied the coming +of a time, in which there would be free Leeching for everyone, and Mac +Donalds would give him plenty of golden frys. All thought he was Cookoo, +and this prophecy would not save S'Wingitus D'Ickitus. + He called upon the Goddess Eris, but she did not answer, her Machine Picked +up.( In those Ancient Days it was much easier to get in touch with Gods, +but Goddesses were still pretty hard to catch in.) S'Wingitus the mighty +profit ended his Incantion before the beep, and it was then, that the +Goddess got pissed (for she was just screening her calls, in case appollo +was calling about his new Slogan). + She Sent down a very annoying Toucan, with an English Accent to pester +and annoy S'wingitus, and his descendents for Eons to come. She also +decreed that An Immortal Wagon Salesman named "Danic Walteruss" would +forever bug the living daylights out of S'wingitus. Some Beleive, that it +was that "time" of the Millenia for The Goddess, she neither confers nor +condescends to that. + Eventually S'wingitus came to a naturally occuring fountain of Mountain +Dew in the Plains of Kroger, and it was there that Weazel, the Subgenius +Sorcerer came down from the Mountaintop with the Scripturezines of Bob +Dobbs. + S'wingitus remarked that with his 1 baud modem (they did not have fast +modems) and the fact, that these are written on Clay tablets, they will +take forever to download, but Weazel crammed them down his throat. + S'wingitus Ate of Black-eyed Peas until he got them, and then read a few +of them, before deleting them. They seemed Oh-so-cool, but he could not +find the true discordian doctrine contained within, and decided to +urinate in a shoe, box it up, and send it to the Holy Temple of Mass. + He was never answered, but He bade all his followers do the same, and +he gets great pleasure in imagining that dude, opening up a box, containing +a shoe, with urine in it, and no explanation. + This is why, the Subgenius faith is claimed as a misguided half-brother +in-law to Froot Loops, and while we mention it at all. Probably. + + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Translated from the Sanskrit, with Philosophical Additions, + by John Kanash, nunzio to the Profit. + + ------------------------------------------ + +Subject: Eris + +Life is like a cannoli, + + Crispy pastry shell and creamy cheez filling. + +Um, well, I guess life's not a bit like a canolli. I have to go back and +debug the CompuYogi 3.2. + +Anaximander + + \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ + + + * * * * * + + ---I do not hate anyone, besides people who suck. + + -----The Goddess. + + + * * * * * + +In the Doobbalah, all manifestations are said to have their origin in the +AINT SOPH AUR and the successive emanations of the Goddess reveal aspects +of her divine nature. The system is almost monotheistic in essence, but +allows for the Observation of other Gods or Energys and the tenfold structure +of the sephiroth upon the tree of life. The emanations as they proceed down +from the Godess to the manifested world, are: KETHER ( The Crown); +CHOKMAH (Wisdom); BINAH ( Understanding); CHESED (Mercy); GEBURAH (Power); +TIPHARETH (Beauty & Harmony); NETZACH (Victory); HOD (Splendor); +YESOD (Foundation); MALKUTH (The Kingdom) + +Occultists in the HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN APPLE use the Kallistic Tree +of Life as a matrix or Grid for comparing the Archetypal images of different +mythologies that could be adapted to Ceremonial Magic. For example, the +merciful father (Chesed) has parallels in other pantheons, namely ODIN ( +Scandinavia); ZEUS (Greece); JUPITER ( Rome); and RA (Egypt). Elivs (america) +This system of comparison became known as MYTHOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES. +It has become common in the occult tradition to link the ten sephiroth of +the Tree of Life with the 22 cards of the MAJOR ARCANA of the TAROT. + ----------------------------- + + Portion of the Lost Scrolls of Anixamander + ________________________________________ + + Entitled: lunch meat in my shorts +I have much in the way of Snappy quotes here is a sample +The difference between monotheism and polytheism is like looking at a fence + Monotheism Polytheism + I I I I I + I =I====I====I====I= + I I I I I + I =I====I====I====I= + I I I I I + "Fent" "Fents" + Same thing, Different perspective. diff --git a/religious documents/book19.txt b/religious documents/book19.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..615def2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book19.txt @@ -0,0 +1,153 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Nineteen of 15 +---------------------------------- + +QUIZ TIME: To See what we have learned So far: + + MOO: the unofficial quiz + The premise here is simple. Everyone in this modern day, age,and +temporal span, kneads to no if you're MOO material. What other question could +occupy the minds of such research SubGeniuses as Albert Einstein, J. Robert +Oppenheimer, and John von Neumann for THOUSANDS OF MILENNIA of sideways time +to produce a survey like this one? Literally nothing! + Hence my own literary skills entering the scene, on a dark and stormy +night when this was concocted. Fill this survey out, and add up your score. +This should tell you your MOO-rating. If it doesn't, don't worry. +Da Questions: +1) In your own words, explain the principle of the Church of MOO. + a) True + b) False + c) Nun of the Above + d) Squid + +2) WOMBAT is: + a) An alien hypercomputer + b) A C.I.A. plot to overturn the government + c) A MOOist mind-game + d) An australian marsupial of moderate size and spicy flavour + +4) Question 3 was: + a) Written in invisible ink + b) Swallowed by a spacetime wormhole and sucked backwards through time to +the time of Atlantis, whereupon it was launched into the depths of space with +the departing continent, and finally recycled as the Colonel's secret blend of +eleven herbs and spices,lightly dusted on dead flesh + c) Forgotten + d) What question 3? + +5) Eris is: + a) The female form of "heir". + b) The Greek Goddess of discord, confusion, and hot dogs + c) Your friend + d) A giant squid named Barney + e) Terribly important, but reasonably forgetful + +6) wHAT'S WITH tHIS pREoCCuPAtIOn WItH SqUId? + a) 0.00 - 4.99 + q) 5.00 - 9.76 + z) 15.2 - X.XX + O) Bork + +7) "BoB" is: + a) The saviour of the world + b) A vicious alien being destined to rule humanity by pain + c) A rather nice young nickel collection from Flin Flon + d) "BoB" spelled backwards + +8) The 5ulcan Things From Pods are best described by: + a) "Sinister, evil, surreptitious mind diseases" + b) "The only hope of human contact with the True Alien Mind" + c) "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" + d) Using the vocal apparatus + +9) Louis Armstrong has: + a) Nothing to do with MOOism + b) A small MOOish subcult in Louisville, Kentucky + q) MinBLATTTership in the Universal Life Church + z) arms. + +10) Bagels: + Q) Are edible + %) Are alien invaders with nuclear capability + O) Are Lucifer's servants on Pluto + )) Are the reincarnated form of dead MOOist saints + +12) Bork? + a) First there is a WOMBAT + b) Then there is no WOMBAT + c) Then there is + d) Nun of the above + e) All of the above +------------------------------------------------------------------- +Answers: +1)T 2)T 3)F 4)Y 5)N 6)Q 7)R 8)& 9)$$ 10)O 11)F 12)T + Score one point for each incorrect answer. For each correct answer, +multiply the correct answer by your running score, and take the square root. +Subtract this from your running shoe, multiply again by your IQ, divide by +your weight in Forbes Units, and add 6. Otherwise, subtract 3. Add up your +score, and compare with the rating scale below. +-20 to -10: You're definitely MOO material. You haven't bothered + to follow goofy MOOish dogma, catma, or anything else. You + sure do think for yourself, and that could cause trouble. +-9 to -1: You're definitely MOO material. You've got the right + balance of "right" and "wrong" in your soul to mesh perfectly + with the true Tao of Idiocy which is the Church of MOO. +0 to sQuId: You're definitely MOO material. Your calcluating + skills are clearly influenced by the Great WOMBAT, and that + means your brain is ALREADY OURS! + + + PLEASE REMITT ANSWERS TO: + + Canada, + C/O Crazy People + Somewhere Cold, Quebec, Canada + + Do not expect a reply. + + ---------------------------------------------------------------- + + When it is recalled that Daath is situated at the Point of Where the +abyss bisects the Middle Pillar and that up the Middle Pillar Lies +the path of the Arrow, the Way by which consciousness goes when the +psychic arises on the planes, and that here also is Kundalini, we see that +in Daath is the secret of both generation and regeneration, the key to +the manifestation of all things through the differentiation into pairs +of Opposites and their union in a Third. + ----Dion Fortune, + The Mystacal Qabalah + 1957 A.D + +(note Qabalah, sort of means, from an "Oral Tradition", not to be +confused with the Traditions of Oral Roberts, or other Mystic Cosmologys) + + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + How would Donald Duck say "Fnord"? + +-------------------------------------------------------------- + Illumanation of True Erisian Theological Debates + Excerpted from the Grand Consortium Pinacle of + Discord Convention of Kallisti and Rum. +From: Grinning Coyote +To: Anaximander + Subject: Gothic Discordianisticians (or sumfing) + + > Yes and I think it's about time someone else noticed, I think the + > original discordian rock song was "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. Is + +Nope...try March Of The Black Queen...it was what Bohemian Rhapsody was +fashioned after...and also by Freddie Mercury...on Queen II, Side Black. In +fact, Queen II was truly a Discordian album...it had two sides, Black and +White... + +Of course, Matching Tie & Hankerchief was more Discordian...it had THREE +sides, side 2A, 2B and 2C...by Monte Python... + + + +++++++++++ + + + diff --git a/religious documents/book20.txt b/religious documents/book20.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..abb6b67 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book20.txt @@ -0,0 +1,253 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Nineteen of 15 +---------------------------------- + + + + +An Interlude. [Footnote: This chapter was dictated in answer to a casual +remark by Soror Virakam. Fra. P. said jokingly that everything contained +the Truth, if you knew how to find it; and, being challenged, proceeded to +make good. It is here inserted, not for any value that it may have, but to +test the reader. If it is thought to be a joke, the reader is one useless +kind of fool; if it is thought that Fra. P. believes that the makers of the +rimes had any occult intention, he is another useless kind of fool. Soror +Virakam chose the rimes at hazard.] + + Every nursery rime contains profound magical secrets which are open +to every one who has made a study of the correspondences of the Holy +Qabalah. To puzzle out an imaginary meaning for this "nonsense" sets one +thinking of the Mysteries; one enters into deep contemplation of holy +things and God Himself leads the soul to a real illumination. Hence also +the necessity of Incarnation; the soul must descend into all falsity in +order to attain All-Truth. + For instance: + + Old Mother Hubbard + Went to her cupboard + To get her poor dog a bone; + When she got there, + The cupboard was bare, + And so the poor dog had none. + + Who is this ancient and venerable mother of whom it is spoken? +Verily she is no other than Binah, as is evident in the use of the holy +letter H with which her name begins. + Nor is she the sterile Mother Ama -- but the fertile Aima; for +within he she bears Vau, the son, for the second letter of her name, and R, +the penultimate, is the Sun, Tiphareth, the Son. + The other three letters of her name, B, A, and D, are the three +paths which join the supernals. + To what cupboard did she go? Even to the most secret caverns of the +Universe. And who is this dog? Is it not the name of God spelt +Qabalistically backwards? And what is this bone? The bone is the Wand, the +holy Lingam! + The complete interpretation of the rune is now open. This rime is +the legend of the murder of Osiris by Typhon. + The limbs of Osiris were scattered in the Nile. + Isis sought them in every corner of the Universe, and she found all +except his sacred lingam, which was not found until quite recently (vide +Fuller, "The Star in the West"). + Let us take another example from this rich storehouse of magick +lore. + Little Bo Peep + She lost her sheep + And couldn't tell where to find them. + Leave them alone! + And they'll come home, + Dragging their tails behind them. + + "Bo" is the root meaning Light, form which spring forth such words +as Bo-Tree, Bodhisattva, and Buddha. + And "Peep" is Apep, the serpent Apophis. THis poem therefore +contains the same symbol as that in the Egyptian and Hebrew Bibles. + The snake is the serpent of Initiation, as the Lamb is the Saviour. + This ancient one, the Wisdom of Eternity, sits in its old anguish +awaiting the Redeemer. And this holy verse triumphantly assures us that +there is no need for anxiety. The Saviours will come after the other, at +their own good pleasure, and as they may be needed, and drag their tails, +that is to say those who follow out their holy commandment, to the ultimate +goal. + + Again we read: + Little Miss Muffet + Sat on a tuffet, + Eating of curds and whey, + Up came a big spider, + And sat down beside her, + And frightened Miss Muffett away. + + Little Miss Muffett unquestionably represents Malkah, for she is +unmarried. She is seated upon a "tuffet"; _id est_, she is the unregenerate +soul upon Tophet, the pit of hell. And she eats curds and whey, that is, +not the pure milk of the mother, but milk which has undergone +decomposition. + But who is this spider? Verily herein is a venerable arcanum +connoted! Like all insects, the spider represents a demon. But why a +spider? Who is this spider "who taketh hold with her hands, and is in the +Kings Palaces"? The name of this spider is Death. It is the fear of death +which first makes the soul aware of its forlorn condition. + It would be interesting if tradition had preserved for us Miss +Muffett's subsequent adventures. + But we must proceed to consider the interpretation of the +following rime: + + Little Jack Horner + Sat in a corner, + Eating a Christmas pie. + He stuck in his thumb, + And pulled out a plum, + And said, "What a good boy am I!" + + In the interpretation of this remarkable poem there is a +difference between two great schools of Adepts. + One holds that Jack is merely a corruption of John, Ion, he who goes +-- Hermes, the Messenger. The other prefers to take Jack simply and +reverently as Iacchus, the spiritual form of Bacchus. But it does not +matter very much whether we insist upon the swiftness or the rapture of the +Holy Spirit of God; and that it is he of whom it is spoken here is evident, +for the name Horner could be applied by none other than even the most +casual reader of the Holy Gospel and the works of Congreve. And the context +makes this even clearer, for he sits in a corner, that is the place of +Christ, the Corner Stone, eating, that is, enjoying, that which the birth +of Christ assures to us. He is the Comforter who replaces the absent +Saviour. If there was still any doubt of His identity it would be cleared +up by the fact that it is the thumb, which is attributed to the element of +Spirit, and not one of the four fingers of the four lesser elements, which +he sticks into the pie of the new dispensation. He plucks forth one who is +ripe, no doubt to send him forth as a teacher into the world, and rejoices +that he is so well carrying out the will of his Father. + Let us pass from this most blessed subject to yet another. + + Tom, Tom, the piper's son, + Stole a pig and away he run. + The pig was eat, + And Tom was beat, + And Tom went roaring down the street. + + This is one of the more exoteric of these rimes. In fact, it is no +much better than a sun-myth. Tom is Toum, the God of the Sunset (called the +Son of Apollo, the Piper, the maker of music.) The only difficulty in the +poem concerns the pig; for anyone who has watched an angry sunset in the +Tropics upon the sea, will recognize how incomparable a description of that +sunset is given in that wonderful last line. Some have thought that the pig +refers to the evening sacrifice, others that she is Hathor, the Lady of the +West, in her more sensual spect. + But it is probable that this poem is only the first stanza of an +epic. It has all the characteristic marks. Someone said of the Iliad that +it did not finish, but merely stopped. This is the same. We may be sure +that there is more of this poem. It tells us too much and too little. How +came this tragedy of the eating of a merely stolen pig? Unveil this mystery +of who "eat" it! + It must be abandoned, then, as at least partially insoluble. Let us +consider this poem: + + Hickory, dickory, dock! + The mouse ran up the clock; + The clock struck one, + And the mouse ran down, + Hickory, dickory, dock! + + Here we are on higher ground at once. The clock symbolizes the +spinal column, or if you prefer it, Time, chosen as one of the conditions +of normal consciousness. The mouse is the Ego; "Mus", a mouse, being only +"Sum", "I am", spelt Qabalistically backwards. + This Ego or Prana or Kundalini force being driven up the spine, the +clock strikes one, that is, the duality of consciousness is abolished. And +the force again subsides to its original level. + "Hickory, dickory, dock!" is perhaps the mantra which was used by +the adept who constructed this rime, thereby hoping to fix it in the minds +of men; so that they might attain to Samadhi by the same method. Others +attribute to it a more profound significance -- which is impossible to go +into at this moment, for we must turn to: -- + + Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall; + Humpty Dumpty got a great fall; + All the king's horses + And all the king's men + Couldn't set up Humpty Dumpty again. + + This is so simple as hardly to require explanation. Humpty Dumpty is +of course the Egg of Spirit, and the wall is the Abyss -- his "fall" is +therefore the descent of spirit into matter; and it is only too painfully +familiar to us that all the king's horses and all his men cannot restore us +to the height. + Only the King Himself can do that! + But one can hardly comment upon a theme which has been so fruitfully +treated by Ludovicus Carolus, that most holy illuminated man of God. His +masterly treatment of the identity of the three reciprocating paths of +Daleth, Teth, and Pe, is one of the most wonderful passages in the Holy +Qabalah. His resolution of what we take to be the bond of slavery into very +love, the embroidered neckband of honour bestowed upon us by the King +himself, is one of the most sublime passages in this class of literature. + + Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, + Had a wife and couldn't keep her. + He put her in a peanut shell; + Then he kept her very well. + + This early authentic text of the Hinayana School of Buddhism is much +esteemed even to-day by the more cultured and devoted followers of that +school. + The pumpkin is of course the symbol of resurrection, as is familiar +to all students of the story of Jonah and the gourd. + Peter is therefore the Arahat, who has put an end to his series of +resurrections. That he is called Peter is a reference to the symbolizing of +Arahats as stones in the great wall of the guardians of mankind. His wife +is of course (by the usual symbolism) his body, which he could not keep +until he put her in a peanut shell, the yellow robe of a Bhikku. + Buddha says that if any man became an Arahat he must either take the +vows of a Bhikku that very day, or die, and it is this saying of Buddha's +that the unknown poet wished to commemorate. + + Taffy was a Welshman + Taffy was a thief; + Taffy came to my house + And stole a leg of beef. + I went to Taffy's house; + Taffy was in bed. + I took a carving knife + And cut off Taffy's head. + + Taffy is merely short for Taphtatharath, the Spirit of Mercury and +the God of Welshmen or Theives. "My house" is of course equivalent to "my +magick circle." Note that Beth, the letter of Mercury and "The Magus", +means "a house." + The beef is the symbol of the Bull, Apis the Redeemer. This is +therefore that which is written, "Oh my God, disguise thy glory! Come as a +thief, and let us steal away the sacraments!" + In the following verse we find that Taffy is "in bed", owind to the +operation of the sacrament. THe great task of the Alchemist has been +accomplished; the mercury is fixed. + One can then take the Holy Dagger, and separate the Caput Mortuum +from the Elixer. Some Alchemists believe that the beef represents that +dense physical substance which is imbibed by Mercury for his fixation; but +here as always we should prefer the more spiritual interpretation. + + Bye, Baby Bunting! + Daddy's gone a-hunting. + He's gone to get a rabbit-skin + To wrap my Baby Bunting in. + + This is mystical charge to the new-born soul to keep still, to +remain steadfast in meditation; for, in _Bye_, Beth is the letter of +thought, Yod that of the Hermit. It tells the soul that he Father of All +will clothe him about with His own majestical silence. For is not the +rabbit he "who lay low and said nuffin'"? + + Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man! + Bake me a cake as fast as you can! + Pat it and prick it and mark it with P! + Bake it in the oven for baby and me! + + This rime is usually accompanied (even today in the nursery) with a +ceremonial clapping of hands -- the symbol of Samadhi. Compare what is said +on this subject in our famous "Advent" passage in Thessalonians. + The cake is of course the bread of the sacrament, and it would ill +become Frater P. to comment upon the third line -- though it may be +remarked that even among the Catholics the wafer has always been marked with +a phallus or a cross. + +[From BOOK 19, by Fra. Perdurabo and Sor. Virakam (Aleister Crowley and Mary +d'Estes Sturges)] + diff --git a/religious documents/book21.txt b/religious documents/book21.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5977031 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book21.txt @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Twenty-one of 15 +---------------------------------- + + + Few People noticed, but one of the Most Obvious Illuminati Presidents + Placed into power was Gerald Fnord. Thats Mind Control for you. + + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + + Who knows the Story of Prometheus bringing fire to mankind and consequently +destroying mankind? The Fire Theft is a universal mythic theme, a trickster +animal, but the Hittites had Beaveus, who would teach little children, to +burn down their homes, when their parents left them unattended. + + + + ---Terry Rakoltus + Ancient Witch of the Cult of Greyface + and all-around Spoil sport. + + 00000000000000000000 + + + + + MOOIST CULT DOGMA, CATMA and MOUSEMA + ----------------------------------- + By the Esteemed Theologian Floyd Z Gecko + + + Who're you callin' a cult? Don't you recognize a bacon-and-tomato +mashed-waffle-salad-sandwich when you see one? Our rules are of the type +which is transitory yet permanent. By the Eternal Doctrine of the +Perpetual Reversability, we can retroactively institute a rule which has +been in effect as long as need be. EVEN SINCE BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF +TIME ITSELF! + + Now that's a cult. + + Besides, we have lots of rules. There's the Ten Commandments, +the Other Ten Commandments, the Ten Commandments We Forgot The Second +Time, the Twelve Commandments, the Fourteen (16) Commandments, the +One Commandment, the REAL One Commandment, and the Ten Commandments That +Someone Should Have Written Down When I Was Giving Dictation But Somehow +Managed To Lose In The Shuffle Somewhere On The Plane Trip To Buffalo. + + Now that's what I call rules. + + \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////////////// + + + + Phylisophia Moysaica + ----------------------- + + Unguentum Armarium, Weapon Salve---A salve that can heal wounds, +by being smeared on the weapon that dealt the blow. Here is the Recipe +for making it: + + Two MacDonalds Medium Sized frys + 1 large Coffee + 1 Apple Pie + 1 thing of fried Bugs assorted + a breaded mouse + 1 thing of fried worms, seasoned to look like curly fries. + + Serve to a man named Anderson, + collect his droppings after two days. + Throw them into a fast moving ceiling fan. + Put them into the training bra of a virgin, + Wear it under your clothes for 50 years. + during that time, stare into the sun, everyday without blinking. + Listen to pat boone, 24 hours a day. + + After 50 years take it out, and hand it to the Purple Dinosaur to your + left, he will no what to do with it. + + ___________________________________ + + Consider the Magic of the Magnet. + Action at a distance. + The magic of Radio and Electricity, + by the same standard...... + Amazing, literally. + + ----------------------------- + + diff --git a/religious documents/book22.txt b/religious documents/book22.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8756213 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book22.txt @@ -0,0 +1,139 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Twenty-two of 15 +---------------------------------- + + "But you must know that we are all in agreement, whatever we say." + ---Turba Philosophorum + + + The Fellowship of Froot loops: + + If you know that YOU are in, in with the in crowd, the inner circle, +then you are actually fooling yourself, there is no in crowd or clique. +We accept almost everyone,except maybe a few people, but mainly those +that suck are not allowed to play reindeer games. + Everyone else, is pretty much in the fellowship, and that fellowship +involves sticking together, unless you know the other person is wrong, +but even then, you should just pretend like you agree, giving people +who are just tuning in, the illusion, that we infact have a unified idea +of what it is we are about. + Under no conditions should you reveal our sacred Passwords, unless we +are talking like 50 bucks or something. + +Secret Cryptic Froot Loops Password: + + "Aiieeee the Squid is no longer under Mind Control" + + Countersign + + "The sky is falling, quickly do the Hurney Gurney Dance" + + +--------------------------------------------- +Those that read that, owe me 50 bucks! + (in American currency, Postage Stamps, or + severed body parts). +-------------------------------------------- + + {Kappa-Epsilon-Phi-Alpha-Eta Beta} + + THE CRY OF THE HAWK + + Hoor hath a secret fourfold name: it is Do What + Thou Wilt.(3) + Four Words: Naught-One-Many-All. + Thou-Child! + Thy Name is holy. + Thy Kingdom is come. + Thy Will is done. + Here is the Bread. + Here is the Blood. + Bring us through Temptation! + Deliver us from Good and Evil! + That Mine as Thine be the Crown of the Kingdom, + even now. + ABRAHADABRA. + These ten words are four, the Name of the One. + + + ----Alleister Crowley + Chapter Two, book of Lies. + + ---------------------------------------- + + THE BOOK OF SHAG + + Heed my words, oh miniscule and pulchritudinous ones. Hear and heed, you + who do not fellatiate, and you who know not the meaning of the great and + high remex. The end is near. You must heed and follow the things I will + speak unto you, the words of the great gods, the god of the windowshade, + the god of the distributor cap, the god of the blue bikini underwear and + most importantly the god of the dead japanese beetle somewhere on the + campus of rutgers university. By heeding these words, you will improve + the gas mileage of your car, enter into a new age of harmony, peace, + happiness, and belgian waffles. Bring things home each day and not pay + for them until next september, and make sure that your life is sanctioned + and guarded by the great race of aliens which will land any day now in + Starkville Mississippi and revolutionise the way you wash dishes. Be sure + to not be left out when all human males become obsolete as females flock + to the alien males and their new, improved, user-friendly genitalia mark + five systems! You must make your genitalia blue, anointing it with + indigo. Anoint also your ears, your nose, the back of your neck, and the + fourth toe of each foot, the most holy of all toes. + + I speak to you of the coming of the greater race. You shall know them by + their stature, by their countenance, by their language, unlike any that + man has ever heard, and by their sexual prowess. Behold, they shall land + in a small town, Starkille, and shall walk the earth among the children, + and you shall not know them. Many will say in those days, "The gods are + walking the earth, the gods are walking the earth," but they shall be + scoffed upon and spit upon and fucked hard by prostitutes in cheap motels + then bankrupted by the media. But you will pay them no attention and + merely stop sending your donations. But then, the greater race will + reveal themselves in all their glory for all mankind to see. The truth + will be known, and the truth will be that mankind has not paid their lease + and is being evicted, a new race takes over the planet, please move the + furniture out and clean the carpeting before you leave. Behold a wonder: + your children and their children shall mate, producing a better race yet, + but you, the unbelievers, shall be sentenced to 40 time units of wandering + in the outer dust clouds of the andromeda sector aboard a tiny spaceship + called the minnow. + + So, lo, woe, yo, repent while you still are young on an archaelogic scale. + The world must be saved by the horrors that are low-density disks, AM + radio, and non-FOX television. You must learn to live without processed + spinach products, to wean your children on their father's milk,. and to + accept that power strips and LSD are things of the past. Synthesise your + offspring carefully so that when the time of the great choosing comes, + your sons and daughters may be chosen by the greater race to participate + in furthering their race, in the strange ritual of the cosmic fuck, the + antithesis of the hells of knowledge, riches, and power, the fulfillment + of the postmodern dream of red lights, t-squares, and paint blotches. + Prepare yourselves for the day of the final inkblot judgement, wherein all + shall be tested for blot and blood type. In that day, some will say, + "verily, it is an aston-martin, in O positive." To those, the coming one + will say, "farewell, you were never a phlebotomist, just a prick, depart + from here into an eternity of dimness and cheap paperback novels and + genuine IBM computers." But in that fateful day, some will say, "truly, + it is two schnauzers chasing a naked woman, in AB negative." To those, + the coming one will say, "come, join me at the cosmic sock hop, you are + one of my own, you will live an eternity of free drinks and beautiful + tragically hip waifs." + + For I have been spoken these things by the angels of light, hermetic + seals, and the small purple man painted on my wall, who read them from the + great platinum plates upon which they were inscribed from the supernatural + force of the great god of the cunny, who swallows all things for the + better of his followers. I have seen the light, I have been enlightened, + I speak the truth to you, heed it and save your lives and those of your + fellow neighbour's wife and your neighbour's ass, or do not hear my words, + and turn a deaf ear to them, and forever suffer in this meaningless + existance. The gods have spoken, I have written, and the pen, having + writ, runs out of ink, on this, the next to the last of the last days... + + + -The Book of Shag- + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + diff --git a/religious documents/book23.txt b/religious documents/book23.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..338ba25 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book23.txt @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Twenty-three of 15 +---------------------------------- + + ISIS UNVEILED! + ______________ + + + How many of you know Isis was a superhero from Old-Time Television in + the days before the Apocolypse? My Children, there was a time, when + Pyramids and Statues dotted the Deserts, and deserts were not just + the giant sandboxes of great sphinxes sphincters, no they were lush + Idyllic Paradises. They held great treasures and great joy, in their + lush lands, and they worshipped Isis. + Then Hermes showed up, with the Golden Branch, as a gift for Isis, + but Isis Did not want it, saying that it stunk, and had golden Sap + all over it, and platinum and jewel Encrusted filthy bugs all over it. + Hermes was sad, and so Went to The Goddess of Byblos Asarte, and she + checked the Stars and the moons for advice, but being the Heavenly + Virgin,had no idea, how Hermes could win the favors of the Goddess + Isis. + Hermes decided to seek out another Goddess for advice, but while racing + through Lybya to Greece, he came upon Adonis who was sunbathing in his + little speedo Jockstrap figleaf thing, and Hermes could not resist + snapping it. Adonis was so upset by this, that he did not return until + he was known as "Bon Jovi", and by that time, he sucked. + Hermes approached Athene, at the Parthenon, but it stunk of sulphur. + he held his nose, and as he went into her temple, his Golden branch + began to wilt, and he was driven away. His branch did not recover, + and so he could hardly give it to Isis. + Since he was not far from Rome, he Decided to call upon Demeter, who + told him that Women should lay with Women, but not for the edification + of men, in giant tubs of Mud. For the romans had just invented Mud + Wrestling, and Demeter the "lesbian Goddess" was so mad, that she + erupted a volcano and destroyed the Town of Pompey. Hermes decided +that this was not the best Goddess to ask, and noticed his Branch was +sagging after watching the fine young mortals who had been frolicing in +mud, be roasted alive. + Vesta was nearby, but another Virgin Goddess? No, he decided humans had +too many such Goddesses. This is when he saw Aphrodites Samantha Fox like +Hooters, and buttocks glistening in the Waters of Cyprus. + His Tree shot back to life, and straightened out, he offered it to + Aphrodite, but she said it had too many knots and bumps on it, and that +he would have to rap it in a Giant Sheep Skin. + This is How golden Fleece was first used. + + Later on, Isis Turned Hermes into a Roach, and gave him to Eris. + + Or so the Mythology Goes. I am not sure, because half way into the +great Oracles tale, I flipped it, and started watching Beverlys Hillbillys. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +From: Oberon +To: CyberPuck +Subject: Middsummers Nights Scream + + The Ode to Blah + ________________ + It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here + And I'm almost obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here + And I never knew the moon could be so big + And I never knew the moon could be so blue + And I'm grateful that you threw away my old shoes + And brought me here instead dressed in red + And I'm wondering who could be writing this song + I don't care if the sun don't shine + And I don't care if nothing is mine + And I don't care if I'm nervous with oyu + I'll do my loving in the Winter + And the sea isn't green + And I love the queen + And what exactly is a dream? + And what exactly is a joke? + + + |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| + + + + + Also in the etheric realm are found the initiatory Temples which, in +ancient times, also existed in physical form. As humanity lost the inner light +they were removed from our plane of manifestation and continued to exist +solely at the etheric level. Hence they have become today generally the +subject of legend and poetry. Now, however, the time is approaching for their +re-externalization. In the meantime, to the illumined disciple the etheric +Temples are accessible, and appear as substantial in their realm as physical +structures are on this plane. + + --- "The Bible: Wonder Book of the Ages" + ------ Corinne Heline + Pg 70 + diff --git a/religious documents/book24.txt b/religious documents/book24.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf62af5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book24.txt @@ -0,0 +1,210 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Twenty-Four of 15 +---------------------------------- + + People who meet on the Street...secretly dedicate themselves to + operations in Black Magic, they bind or seek to bind themselves to + the spirits of Darkness, to satisfy their ambitions, their hates, + their loves, to do--In a word--Evil. + ---J.K Huysmans, + Preface to J.Bois, + Le Satanisme et la magie, + Pg 8 + + ----------------------------------- + + + "Well I am Eeeeevilll...dontcha messa round with me...." + + ---Elvis Presley + a Messiah of Froot Loops. + + ------------------------- + + The Following is a Partial Catalogue of + Illumanati Controlled/Froot Loop Related + Organizations + _____________________________ + + Hermetic Order of Kallisti + Church of Eris + Cult of Moo (canadians) + Memphis Volunteer Fire Department and Pagan Soceity + Absolutionists (who beleive in metamorphisis) + The Aetherius Soceity of California (Telepathic relation to mars) + The Astara of Lausanne (oath of absolute secrecy) + Knights of Columbus + Masonic Orders all around the World + Graceland (preslians) + Atalanteans of Great Britain (search for lost happiness) + The Grind (people who watch chicks in bikinis dance) + Builders of the Adytum (californians, alchemy, cabala, astrology) + Beavis and Buttheaditarians + The Beatles (not Yoko) + Cercle E.B. of perpignan (dedicated to Hator, goddess of love and + mountain of the dead). + Church of the Subgenius (something to do with receiving slack) + Church of the Mutant Star Goat + First Unified Church of Reverand Moon + Disneyland (not World, but Eurodisney as well) + Cercle Eliphas Levi of Maule (not sure what it is) + Knights of the Templar alliance of Toulouse + Tiny Tims Cult Following (if any man could be called pure evil) + Druidic College of Gaul + Hermetic Order of the golden Dawn + Jesuits + The Allman Brothers (monks who use alot of almonds) + The K.L.F + Couvent Spiritualiste de Jericho + Santeria (Rastefarians) + The Cosmic Church of the Truth (florida based) + Traditionalist Seminary of Econe' (swiss) + The mormons (not sure if they still exist) + The Students of Alleister Crowley + Ordo Templi Orientis, The conventicle (A.C followers) + The Church of Mithra + The Church of Fnord (in L.A) + United Luciferan Church of France + The Apostolic Rosicrucian Church (esotric Christians based in Brussels) + Children of Darkness and Green Order + Escuela Hermetista Occidental of Montevideo + Unified CircleKitarians and Bigulpites + The national Institute of Cabala (manhatten based) + The Central Ohio Temple of Hermetic Science + Mutual of Oklahoma + Tetra-Gnosis (chicago) + Ancient Brethren of the Rosie-Cross of Saint Cyr-sur-mer + Johannite fraternity for the Templar Ressurection + International Fraternity of Isis + Ancient Bavarian Illuminati (san fransisco??) + The Sanctuary of Gnosis + IHOPS everywhere + The Grail Foundation of America + Sociedade do Graal do brasil + Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor + Lectorium Rosicrucianum + The Grail Movement (strasbourg) + Order of Anubis + Dan Quayle Museum Alumni (indiana) + Temple of the Black Pentacle + Sanibel naturist Soceity + Odinist Fellowship (florida based) + Temple of the Dog (Seatle based, wear flannel) + Order of the Garter (english, consider selves nobility) + Order of the Vril (neonazi masons) + Militia Templi (montpellier) + The Black Panthers + Soverign Order of the Solar Temple + Rosy Cross (harlem) + Wicca (Luceferine association of Celtic Obedience, invoke the 72 geni of + cabala) + The Sca + The Fbi + The Cia + The AAA (autoclub) + The AA (al-anon) + + + + ------------ + we are all owned by the Conspiracy, part of it. + ---------------------- +An Indoctrination To Froot Loops Quiz +Whereby the Computer or Highest Ranking "member" asks the neophyte +the following Questions, to which he replys truths, falsehoods, and +Misconceptions. Afterwards they all must do the hulu-dance, and it +is generally the consensus the neophyte buy the beer. + +What Is Your Real Name? +>: +What is your Holy Name? +>: +What is the Name of your Religous Icon? +>: +What is the Name of Your Second Grade Teacher? +>: +What is the name of Tom Anderson? +>: +What's Your Favourite Meatball Flavour? +>: +And your Spaghetti-Tossing Record? +>: +How Much Phlegm can you generate in a .023 Second Interval, if you +have 200 Intervals multiplied by the Second Ratio of the Hieroglyph? +>: +What is your sex? +>: +What is your Hat Size? +>: +What was the diameter of the last apple you ate? +>: +What is your age (cubic squid)? +>: +What is your Height (fluid oz)? +>: +How many different Lifetimes have you expereinced? +>: +If so Which One? +>: +What do you mean "Which One? that question makes no sense."? +>: +Art thou a Cabbage? +>: +Explain: +>: +How many eyes have you got? +>: +Art thou a human, or some sick and wierd hellish nightmare from Mars? +>: +Explain: +>: +What was the date of your last shower? (yy/mm/dd) +>: +Explain: +>: +Why Did they take Laverne and Shirley off the air? +>: +Explain: +>: +Do you believe King Kong died for your sins? [y/n] +Why: +>: + +What would you rather do? + 1) Eat Slugs + 2) Live In A Wormhole + 3) Eat Your Toenails + 4) Masturbate + 5) Play Hide And Go Seek + 6) Run Into Walls With Forks In Your Eyes + 7) Read Moronic Text files dumped into some stupid echo + 8) Get eaten alive by Parasties the size of small Rodents + 9) do the Hula Dance with a man named "Roxy" + +If you were a Counter-Top, what would you rather be cleaned with? + A) Soft-scrub bleach + B) a harsh detergent + C) Dried Pizza Crust + D) Smegma + E) Sulfuric Acid + F) Rusted Fergason + G) Theme from Loveboat + H) Dog hairs, matted and clumped together + I) "Dookie" + J) Lime flavored Sherbert + +Did your mother have children who lived? + A) no + B) nea verily + C) Saint fergusin + D) Uh-uh! + E) I am not sure + F) I do not not know + G) Yes, she didn't + H) That is a negative + I) I am unaware of the fact + J) I plead ignorance, due to not knowing + K) nay, unto thee... + L) thats a big 10-4, not. + M) I Did not know that (said like johnny carson) + diff --git a/religious documents/book25.txt b/religious documents/book25.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c0c97c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/book25.txt @@ -0,0 +1,118 @@ +Principia Entropius Book Two >>The Principia EntroHocusPocus +Part Twenty-Five of 15 +---------------------------------- + + The Liber Legis + Two + "Two legis to quit" + + every number is infinite, and therefore there is no real difference. + + --------------------------------- + + + Alleister Crowley was visited by a higher Intelligence Aiwaz, who in + 1904 dictated the Liber Al vel legis, however I was visited by TWO + such intelligences: Hoor-Paar-Kraat and Ra-Hoor-Khuit, mystical twins. + Either that, or I had drank too much tequila. Anyway, they told me + this: + Invoke the Forces of the Tablet of Union by means of supreme + Ritual of Pentagram, with the active and Passive Spirit, with Eheieh + and Agla. Return to the Altar, and recite the following Enochian + Spirit Invocation: Ol Sonuf Vaorsag Rinki Dinki Doc, Goho Iad balt, + Rickery Dickery Doc,Lonsh Calz Effeem Beefeem Stuhp ya mamma, Vonpho + Sobra Z-ol Ror I ta Nazps Lozenge, od Graa Ta Malprg...Ds Hol-q + Qaa Bar-B Qaa Notha Zimz, Xima, Od Commah Ta Nopblah Zien... + + + My Mystical source is more authentic than Crowleys, you see---I do not + know how Crowly could have activated the Rituals of the Beast, without + bearing in mind the liturgy of the Sword. Only by unleashing the Sword + can the nature of Mahapralaya be understood. The Third Eye of Kundalini. + in Arithomology: All based on the number of the beast, he failed to + consider 93, 118, 444, 868 and 1001 + + + ________The above is Not meant for the untrained eye, use your + pineal gland, to discover the not so obvious anti-meaning.----- + + + + + HEY! IS THAT A LAMBCHOP ON YOUR SHOULDER, OR ARE YOU JUST + + A *FOLLOWER OF SATAN*????? + +From: Floyd Z gecko +To: John Kanash + JK> Let me know what you guys think of my first "book" + + + + PINK AS A NUCLEAR SUNSET! + NO BULLDADA, NO SLACK! + I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW LITTLE NOVELTY OR SYNTHESIS, THOUGHT OR + TRUE CREATIVE POWERS OF "BOB" WENT INTO THAT LITTLE BOOK! + + (In this respect, it is much like popular culture. + You could sell that for heaps of cash, and gain back + the slack you lack. More power to ya, I say.) + + PINK AS A FLAMINGO! (Flamingo!) + PINK AS A BABY'S BUTT! + THE LACK OF SLACK BLASTED ME THROUGH THE ROOF OF A TACO BELL! + AND THERE AIN'T NO TACO-BELL IN OTTAWA! + MAY NHGH AND HIS YACATISMA DEVOUR YOU WHOLE! + MAY THE TRUE W.O.M.B.A.T. SMITE YOUR MIND FROM THE DEPTHS OF + ITS HADEAN PIT, THE TRUE ABYSS, WYOMING! + WHY, THAT'S NOT FOAM RUBBER! IT'S THICK PINK PAINT! + SO THICK, THE SLACK WITHIN WAS DROWNED IN PAINT! + IT WAS SO PINK, I THOUGHT IT WAS A PINK CHAIR! + ERIS SMILED ON YOU, BECAUSE YOUR MIND IS A SHAMBLES! + "BOB" SMILED ON YOU BECAUSE *HE JUST CAN'T STOP*! + THE GRATE MOO SMILED ON YOU BECAUSE SHE SMILES AT EVERYTHING! + THAT BOOK WAS AS BULLDADALESS AS WOOD! + + That being said, I must reiterate that, stupid as it was, you could + probably sell it to the American public for a whole passel o' money. + This being mainly because the American public are morons. + + I mean, you know how dumb the average guy is? By definition, half of + 'em are even dumber that dat. + + That's what it takes to make money off that book. + + ============================================================ + There has to be some Conspiracy Involving Yan, of Cooking with Yan, + I mean, just consider the Relevance of Bok Choy, and the fact, that + he always looked Stoned. + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + + + Methodology + %%%%%%%%%%%%%% + + +Subject: AIEE! AIEE! THE SQUID IS NO LONGER UNDER MIND CONTROL! + + >> would the phrase "I Stick to my beliefs" be written as: + >> "B LATTTick to my beliefs"???? +SNEBBIT! + As pursuant to Docrtinal Reversal in the Aeon of the GNU MOO, the +potatoma of the BLATTs has been recanted. In fact, it's been canted so far +back, so many times, that I dare say it's undergone a complete revolution, +much like our "Church", destroyed itself utterly, and ended up looking exactly +as it once did, only in disguise. + That is to say, it's had plastic surgery, and now has a completely +different identity, and has subsequently made a lifelike mask of what it once +looked like, created fake ID, and is passing itself off as itself. + Thus, we don't dare ask questions like that, or the squid might +regain consciousne... + I daren't speak it. Just saying it may lend power to Chthulhu. +SNEBBIT! + -------------------------------------------- + + + + The Remainder of Book Two of the Principia Entropius, cannot be found +in this dimension. Seek the Lost Scrolls, or Book Three. diff --git a/religious documents/bookburn.txt b/religious documents/bookburn.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ccfa31 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/bookburn.txt @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +From: The Bard +To: All Msg #18, 30/10/90 11:16cst +Subject: News article + + + CHURCH PLANS BURNING OF 'SATANIST' BOOKS + (Phoenix Gazette Sat. Oct 27, 1990) + +DAYTON, Ohio -- A church plans to burn books by Muslims and Jehovah's +Witnesses along with pornography and "satanic paraphenalia" today in what +the church's pastor hopes will become an annual event. + +"Our purpose is to rid our city -- and throughout the years we'll +continue to rid our city -- of more satanic paraphenalia, and then we +believe the Holy Spirit will have a greater freedom to flow," the Rev. +Donovan Larkins, founder of the non-denominational Victory Bible Church said +Thursday. + +The church distributed fliers in several neighborhoods this week inviting +people to bring in books by Muslims and Jehovah's Witnesses, books on New +Age religions, witchcraft, yoga, transcendental meditation and Christian +Science, horoscopes, playing cards, and +"secular albums, tapes and bumper stickers." + + - end - + +--- + * Origin: (Opus +1:114/29) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/booklist.txt b/religious documents/booklist.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca38692 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/booklist.txt @@ -0,0 +1,816 @@ + +CRAFT READING LIST UPDATED 18 JAN 1993 + +*** Marks especially good books. Read these FIRST!! All are +available through interlibrary loan. Generally anything by +Farrar, Valiente, Starhawk, Buckland, or Gardner is excellent. +Beware of the paperback books put out in the late 60's-early +70's. While there is some useful information in some of them such +as excellent tables of correspondence, most of them are full of +garbage, misinformation, garbled bits of ceremonial magick, +folklore, and wishful thinking. Many of them have some very +negative things. Watch out for Paul Huson. some of his stuff is +excellent, some is not. Keep in mind, this is simply a listing of +the books that we have found useful, or that friends have +suggested were useful to them. Question everything. + +A.E.(GEORGE RUSSELL); "The Candle of Vision", Quest Books, +Theosophical Pub. 1975 + +ADLER, MARGOT; "Drawing Down The Moon", Beacon Press 1987 + +ALFORD, VIOLET; "The Hobbyhorse & Other Animal Masks", Merlin +Press 1978 + +ALLEN, JUDY & GRIFFITHS, JEANIE; "The Book of the Dragon", +Chartwell Books 1979 + +AMERICAN CONFERENCE FOR IRISH STUDIES; "Guide to Irish Studies in +the U.S.A." 1987 + +ANDERSON, WILLIAM; "The Green Man", Harper Collins 1990 + +ANDREWS, LYNN V.; "Medicine Woman", Harper & Row 1981 + +ANGUS, S.; "The Mystery Religions", Dover 1975 + +ANWYL, EDWARD; "Celtic Religion in Pre-christian Times", +Archibald Constable & Co. 1906 *** + +ARTOS, ALLEN; "Arthur, The King of Light", Lorien House 1986 + +ASHE, GEOFFREY; "The Ancient Wisdom", London 1977 + +ASHE, GEOFFREY; "Mythology of the British Isles", Metheun 1990 + +AUEL, JEAN; Children of the Earth (series) + +BAER, RANDALL & VICKI; "Windows of Light", + +BAIN, GEORGE; "Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction", Dover +Pub. 1973 + +BARBER, CHRIS; "Mysterious Wales", Paladin Press 1983 + +BAUDINO, GAEL; "Gossamer Axe" + +BAUDINO, GAEL; "Strands of Starlight" + +BERGER, PAMELA, "The Goddess Obscured", Beacon Press, 1985 *** + +BIFFLE, CHRISTOPHER; "The Castle of the Pearl", Harper & Row 1990 + +BLACKSUN, "The Elements of Beginning Ritual Construction", Circle +Publications 1983 + +BLAMIRES, STEVE, "The Irish Celtic Magical Tradition", +Aquarian/Thorsons, 1991 + +BOASE, WENDY; "Folklore of Hampshire & the Isle of Wight", +Rowman & Littlefield 1976 + +BOND, FREDERICK BLIGH; "The Gate of Remembrance", Thorsen Pub. +Ltd. 1978 + +BONEWITZ, R.A.; "Cosmic Crystals" + +BONWICK, JAMES; "Irish Druids and Old Irish Religion", Arno Press +1976 + +BOOSE, CLAIRE, ed; "Scandinavian Folk & Faery Tales", Gramercy, +1984 + +BORD, JANET & COLIN; "Earth Rites", Grenada 1983 *** + +BORD, JANET & COLIN; "Mysterious Britain", Grenada 1974 *** + +BORD, JANET & COLIN; "Sacred Waters", Paladin Books 1986 *** + +BORD, JANET & COLIN; "The Secret Country", Grenada 1978 *** + +BRADLEY, MARION ZIMMER; "Mists of Avalon" + +BRADLEY, MARION ZIMMER; (the Darkover series) + +BRANDON, JIM; "The Rebirth of Pan", Firebird Press 1983 + +BREFFNY, BRIAN DE, ed.; "Ireland, A Cultural Encyclopedia", +Thames & Hudson 1983 + +BREFFNY, BRIAN DE; " The Irish World", Thames & Hudson 1986 + +BRIGGS, KATHERINE; "Abbey Lubbers, Banshees, & Boggarts", +Pantheon 1979 + +BRIGGS, KATHERINE; "Nine Lives; Cats in Folklore", Routledge & +Kegan Paul 1980 + +BROWN, PETER, ed. & selected by; "Book of Kells", Alfred A. Knopf +1980 + +BUCKLAND, RAYMOND; "The Complete Book of Witchcraft", Llewellyn +1986 + +BUCKLAND, RAYMOND, "Practical Candleburning Rituals", Llewellyn +1981 + +BUCKLAND, RAYMOND; "Practical Color Magic", Llewellyn Books, 1985 + +BUDGE, WALLIS; "Egyptian Magic", Dover 1971 + +BULLFINCH, THOMAS; "Mythology", Dell Pub. 1959 + +BURL, AUBREY, "The Stone Circles of the British Isles", Yale +Univ. Press, 1976 + +CALDECOTT, MOYRA; "Guardians of the Tall Stones", Celestial Arts +1986 + +CAMPANELLI, PAULINE, "Wheel of the Year", Llewellyn Pub. 1989 + +CAMPBELL, J.F. & GEORGE HENDERSON; "The Celtic Dragon Myth", +Newcastle Pub. 1981 + +CAMPBELL, JOSEPH; "The Power of Myth", Doubleday 1988 *** (and +any others by this author are very good) *** + +CAMPBELL, JOSEPH; "The Way of the Animal Powers", Harper & Row, +1988 *** + +CARMICHAEL, ALEXANDER; "Carmina Gadelica", Lindisfarne 1992 + +CARMICHAEL, ALEXANDER; "Celtic Invocations", Vineyard 1972 + +CASTLEDEN, RODNEY; "The Wilmington Giant", Turnstone 1983 + +CHADWICK, NORA; "The Celts", Pelician 1970 + +CHANT, JOY; "The High Kings", Bantam 1983 + +CHMELOVA, ELENA; "Celtic Tales", Exeter Books 1982 + +CLARE, T.; "Archeological Sites of Devon & Cornwall", Moorland +Pub. 1982 + +CLARKE, LY-WARREN; " The Way of the Goddess", Prism-Unity +1987***** + +CLARKE, LY-WARREN AND KATHRYN MATTHEWS; "The Way of Merlin" +Prism-Unity, 1990. ***** + +COGHLAN, RONAN; "Dictionary of Irish Myth and Legend", Donard +Press 1979 + +COHANE, JOHN PHILLIP; "The Key", Crown Pub. 1969 + +COLES, BRYONY & JOHN; "The People of the Wetlands", Thames & +Hudson, 1989 + +COLLUM, PADRAIG; "The King of Ireland's Son", McMillian & sons +1933 + +COLLUM, PADRAIG; "Treasury of Irish Folklore", Crown Pub. 1967 + +COLLUM, PADRAIG; "Treasury of Irish Folklore", rev. ed. Killenny +Press 1967 + +CONWAY, D.J.; "Celtic Magic", Llewellyn Pub. 1990 + +COOKE, GRACE & IVAN; "The Light in Britain", White Eagle Pub. +Trust 1983 + +COSMAN, MADELEINE, PELNER; "Medieval Holidays and Festivals", +Charles Scribner & Sons 1981 + +COWAN, TOM; "Fire In The Head", Harper, 1993. + +CROSSLEY-HOLLAND, ed.; "Folk Tales of the British Isles", +Pantheon, 1985. + +CROSSLEY-HOLLAND, KEVIN, ed.; "Mabon of the Mabinogion", Thorsen +Pub. 1984 + +CROWLEY, VIVIANNE; "Wicca, the Old Religion in the New Age," +Aquarian, 1989 + +CUNLIFFE, BARRY; "The Celtic World", McGraw Hill MCMLXXIX + +CUNNINGHAM, SCOTT; "Earth Power", Llewellyn Publications, 1984 + +CUNNINGHAM, SCOTT; The Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs + +CUNNINGHAM, SCOTT; "Magical Herbalism, The Secret Craft of the +Wise", Llewellyn Pub. 1983 + +CUNNINGHAM, SCOTT; "Magical Household", Llewellyn Pub. 1987 + +CUNNINGHAM, SCOTT; "Magic of Incense, Oils & Brews", Llewellyn +Pub. 1987 + +CUNNINGHAM, SCOTT; "Wicca; A Guide for the Solitary +Practitioner", +Llewellyn Pub. 1988 + +CURTAIN, JEREMIAH; "Myths and Folk Tales of Ireland", Dover Books +1975 + +DAMES, MICHAEL; "The Avebury Cycle", Thames & Hudson 1977 + +DAMES, MICHAEL; "Mythic Ireland", Thames & Hudson, 1992 + +DANAHER, KEVIN; "The Year in Ireland", (Leinster Leader, Ltd. +1972) +Mercier Press 1972 *** + +DANIEL, GLYN & PAUL BAHN; "Ancient Places - The Prehistoric & +Celtic Sites of Britain", Constable 1987 + +DARVILL, TIMOTHY; "Prehistoric Britain", Yale University Press, +1987 + +DAVIDSON, H.R. ELLIS, "Myths & Symbols in Pagan Europe", Syracuse +University Press,1988 + +DAVIDSON, THOMAS; "Rowan Tree and Red Thread", Edinburgh 1949 + +DAVIES, EDWARD; "The Mythology & Rites of the British Druids", +J. Booth 1809 + +DAVIES, TREVOR; "Four Centuries of Witch Beliefs", + +DELANEY, FRANK; "The Celts", Little Brown & Co. 1986 + +DELANEY, FRANK; "Celtic Tales", + +DILLON, MYLES; "Early Irish Literature", University of Chicago +Press 1948 + +DINNENN, REV. PATRICK S.; "Irish- English Dictionary", Irish +Textes Society 1927 + +DOANE, DORIS & KING KEYES; "How to Read Tarot Card", Barnes & +Noble 1968 + +DON, FRANK; "Colour Your World", Destiny Books 1983 + +DOREY, JACQUES; "Three & The Moon - Legendary Stories of Old +Brittany, Normandy, & Provence", Jr. Literary Guild, 1929. + +DUGGAN, COLM; "Treasures of Irish Folklore", Mercantile Marketing +Consultants, Ltd. 1983 + +DURDIN-ROBERTSON, LAWRENCE, "The Year of the Goddess", Aquarian +Press 1990 + +DYER, JAMES; "The Penguin Guide To Prehistoric England & Wales", +Penguin Books + +EDDINGS, DAVID; (Belgariad series and Mallorean series) + +EISLER, RIANE; "The Chalice and the Blade", Harper & Row 1988 + +ELLIS, PETER BERRESFORD; "The Celtic Empire", Carolina Academic +Press, 1990. + +EVANS-WENTZ, W. Y.; "The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries", +University Books 1966 *** + +FANTHORPE, PATRICIA & LIONEL; "The Holy Grail Revealed", +Newcastle 1942 + +FARRAR, JANET & STEWART, "Eight Sabbats for Witches", Robert +Hale, London, 1981 *** + +FARRAR, JANET & STEWART; "What Witches Do", Coward, McCann, & +Georghegan, Inc., N.Y. 1971 *** + +FARRAR, JANET & STEWART; "The Witches God", Phoenix Publishing, +1989 + +FARRAR, JANET & STEWART; "The Witches' Goddess", Robert Hale, +London, 1987 + +FARRAR, JANET & STEWART; "The Witches Way", Robert Hale, London, +1984 *** + +FELL, BARRY; "America, B.C.", Wallaby Books 1976 + +FERM, VERGILIUS; "Ancient Religions", Philosohpical Library 1950 + +FERNIE, WILLIAM T.; "The Occult and Curative Powers of Precious +Stones", Rudolph Steiner Pub. 1973 + +FIDLER, J. HAVELOCK; "Earth Energy; A Dowser's Investigation of +Ley Lines", Aquarian Press 1988 + +FITCH, ED; "Magical Rites From the Crystal Well", Llewellyn +Publications, 1984 *** + +FITZPATRICK, JIM; "The Book of Conquests", E.P. Dutton 1978 + +FITZPATRICK, JIM; "The Silver Arm", Paper Tiger Press 1981 + +FLOWER, ROBIN; "The Irish Tradition", Clarendon Press 1947/1978 + +FORDE, JOHNSTON J.; "Prehistoric Britian & Ireland", W.W. Norton +& Co. 1976 + +FORTUNE, DION; "Psychic Self Defense", Samuel Wiser, Inc. 1976 + +FRAZIER, SIR JAMES GORDON; "The Golden Bough", (The Macmillan +Company, 1951) Avenel 1981 + +FRENCH, J.M.F.; "Prehistoric Faith and Worship", London 1912 + +FROUD, BRIAN & ALAN LEE; "Faeries", Harry M. Abrams 1978 + +GALADRIEL, LADY; "The Laws of the Wicca", Pamphlet + +GANTZ, JEFFERY; "Early Irish Myths & Sagas", Penguin 1982 + +GARDNER, GERALD; "High Magic's Aid" (fiction) Samuel Wiser, Inc. +N.Y., 1975 + +GARDNER, GERALD, B.; "The Meaning of Witchcraft", Magickal +Childe, 1982 + +GARDNER, GERALD; "Witchcraft Today", Magickal Childe, 1982 + +GAWR, RUDDLUM; "The Quest", Copple House Books, 1979 + +GERALD OF WALES; "The History & Topography of Ireland", Penguin +1982 + +GIMBUTAS, MARIJA; "The Goddesses * Gods of Old Europe", +University of California Press 1982 + +GLASSIE, HENRY; "Irish Folk History", University of Pennsylvania +Press 1982 + +GLASSIE, HENRY; "Irish Folk Tales", Pantheon, 1985 + +GLASS-KOENTOP, PATTALEE, "Year of Moons, Season of Trees", +Llewellyn Pub. 1991 + +GODWIN, JOSCELYN; "The Mystery Religions in the Ancient World", +Harper & Row, 1981 + +GOOCH, STAN; "Guardians of the Ancient Wisdom", Wildwood House, +1979 + +GORDON, LESLEY; "Mystery & Magic of Trees & Flowers", Webb & +Bower 1985 + +GRAMMARY, ANNE; "The Witches Workbook", Pocket Books, 1973 (be +careful of this one. Some pretty terrible stuff!!!) + +GRAVES, ROBERT; "The White Goddess", Noonday Press 1988 + +GRAVES, TOM; "Needles of Stone Revisited", Gothic Image 1978 + +GREEN, MARIAN; "Gentle Arts of Aquarian Magick", Aquarian Press +1987 + +GREEN, MARIAN; "Magick For the Aquarian Age", The Aquarian Press, +1983 + +GREEN, MIRANDA; "Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend", Thames & +Hudson, 1992 + +GREGORY, LADY; "Gods & Fighting Men of the Celts", John Murray +1913 *** + +GREGORY, LADY AUGUSTA; "Visions and Beliefs in the West of +Ireland", Colin Smythe 1920/1979 + +GREY, EDEN; "The Tarot Revealed", Signet 1960 + +GUARD, DAVID, "Dierdre: A Celtic Legend", Celestial Arts 1977 + +GUILEY, ROSEMARY; Encyclopedia of Witches & Witchcraft, Facts on +File New York, Oxford 1989 + +HAARD, RICHARD & KAREN; "Poisonous & Hallucinogenic Mushrooms", +Cloudburst Press 1975 + +HADSTOCK, ROBERT; Lavondyss, Avon Books, New York 1988 + +HAMBLEY, BARABARA; (Time of the Dark Series and others) + +HARRISON, MICHAEL; "The Roots of Witchcraft", Citadel Press, 1972 +*** + +HATAHWAY, NANCY; "The Unicorn", Viking Press 1980 + +HAWKINS, GERALD; "Stonehenge Decoded", Doubleday 1965 + +HERM, GERHARD; "The Celts", St. Martin's Press 1975 + +HIGGINS, GODFREY; "Celtic Druids", Philosohpical Research Society +1977 + +HIGHFIELD, A.C.; "The Symbolic Weapons of Ritual Magic", + +HITCHING, FRANCIS; "Earth Magic", William Morrow & Co. 1977 + +HITCHING, FRANCIS; "The Mysterious World", Holt, Reinhart & +Wilson 1978 + +HOGARTH, PETER AND VAL CLERY; "Dragons", Pequin 1979 + +HOGG, BENJAMIN; "The Tao of Pooh", Penguin Books 1983 + +HOLE, CHRISTINA; " Witchcraft in England", Rowman and +Littlefield, 1977 + +HOLZER, HANS; "The New Pagans", Doubleday & Co. N.Y. 1972 + +HOPE, MURRY; "Practical Celtic Magic", Aquarian Press 1987 + +HOWEY, M. OLDFIELD; "The Cat & Magic, Mythology & Religion", +Crescent Books 1989 + +HUGHES, PENNTHORNE; "Witchcraft", Penguin Books, 1952 + +HUSON, PAUL; "Mastering Witchcraft", G.P. Putnam's Sons, N.Y. +1970 (Another one to be careful of. Take with a LARGE grain of +salt!!!) + +HUTTON, RONALD; "The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British +Isles", Blackwell, 1991 + +IRISH TEXTES SOCIETY; "Adventures of Suibhne Geilt", ed. & trans. +J.G. O'Keefe 1913 + +IRISH TEXTES SOCIETY; "Duanaine Finn", Vol VII, part 1, ed. & +trans. Eoin MacNeil + +IRISH TEXTES SOCIETY; Keating, "History of Ireland, Vol 1-4, +1902/1987 + +IRISH TEXTES SOCIETY; "Labor Gabala Erenn", parts 1-4, Trans. +R.A.S. MacAlister 1941 + +IRISH TEXTES SOCIETY; "Poems of Egan O'Rahilly", Rev. P.S. +Dinnenn & T.O. Donough 1966 + +IRISH TEXTES SOCIETY; "Poems on the Marcher Lords", ed. Anne +O'Sullivan & Padrain O'Riain 1987 + +JACKSON, KENNETH HURLSTONE; "A Celtic Miscellany", Penguin 1980 + +JACKSON, KENNETH HURLESTONE; "The Oldest Irish Tradition; A +Window on the Iron Age", Cambridge 1964 + +JACOBS, JOSEPH; "Celtic Fairy Tales", Dover 1963 + +JONES, GWYN & THOMAS; "The Mabinogion", Dragon's Dream 1982 + +JOYCE, P.W.; "Social History of Ancient Ireland", Vol 1 & 2 +Benjamin Blum Pub. 1968 + +KERR, MILDRED L., HARNES, ELIZABETH & ROSS, FRANCES; "Giants & +Fairies", Charles E. Merrill Co. 1946 + +KINSELLA, THOMAS; "The Tain", Oxford Univ. Press 1969 + +KNEIGHTLY, THOMAS; "The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves, +and Other Little People", Avenel Press 1978 + +KNIGHT, GARETH; "The Secret Tradition in Arthurian Legend", +Aquarian Press 1983 + +KRUTA, VENCESLAS & VERNER FORMAN; "The Celts of the West", Orbis +1985 + +LACKEY, MERCEDES; (Last Herald Mage series and others) + +LADURIE, EMMANUEL LE ROY; "Jasmin's Witch", George Braziller, +1987 + +LEAMY, EDMUND; "Golden Spears", Desmond Fitzgerald 1911 + +LEEK, SYBIL; "The Complete Art of Witchcraft", Signet, 1971 *** + +LEHMANN, RUTH P.M.; "Early Irish Verse", University of Texas +Press 1982 + +LELAND, CHARLES; "Aradia, the Gospel of the Witches", C.W. +Daniels, London, 1974 + +LETHBRIDGE, T.C.; "Witches", The Citadel Press 1972 + +LOGAN, PATRICK; "The Holy Wells of Ireland", Colin Smythe, Ltd. +1980 + +LOGAN, PATRICK; "Irish Country Cures", Appletree Press, 1981 + +LOGAN, PATRICK; "The Old Gods", Appletree Press 1981 + +LONSDALE, STEVEN; "Animals & the Origin of the Dance", Thames & +Hudson 1982 + +LUCY, SEAN; "Love Poems of the Irish", Mercier Press 1977 + +MACALISTER, R.A.S.; "Tara; A Pagan Sanctuary of Ancient Ireland", +Charles Scribner & Sons 1931 + +MACCANA, PROINSIAS; "Celtic Mythology", Hamlyn Pub. 1970 + +MAC CROSSAN, TADHG; "The Sacred Cauldron", Llewellyn, 1991 + +MACCULLOCH, JOHN ARNOTT; "The Mythology of all Races in Thirteen +volumes; Celtic, Volume III.", Cooper Square Pub. 1967 + +MACCULLOCH, JOHN ARNOTT; "Religion of the Ancient Celts", +Folcroft Library, 1977 rep. + +MACKENZIE, DONALD A.; German Myths & Legends (previously titled +"Teutonic Myth and Legend"), Avenel Books, New York 1985 + +MACLENNAN, MALCOLM; "A Pronouncing & Emtylogical Dictionary of +the Gaelic Language", (Scots Gaelic) Aberdeen Univ. Press 1979 + +MACMANUS, SEUMAS; "The Story of the Irish Race", Devin-Adair Co. +1981 + +MACNEILL, MAIRE; "The Festival of Lughnasa", Oxford, 1962 + +MARIECHILD, DIANE; "Motherwit", The Crossing Press, 1972 + +MARKALE, JEAN; "Women of the Celts", Inner Traditions +International Ltd. 1986 + +MARRIS, RUTH; "The Singing Swans & Other Irish Stories", Fontana +Lions 1978 + +MARSH, HENRY; "Dark Age Britain", Dorset Press 1970 + +MARTELLO, LEO; "Witchcraft: The Old Religion", Citadel Press 1975 + +MATTHEWS, CAITLIN; "The Elements of The Celtic Tradition", +Element Books 1989 + +MATTHEWS, CAITLIN; "The Elements of The Goddess", Element Books +1989 + +MATTHEWS, JOHN, comp; "A Celtic Reader", Aquarian/Thorsons, 1991 + +MATTHEWS, JOHN; "Song of Taliesin", Aquarius, 1991 + +MATTHEWS, JOHN; "Taliesin", Aquarius, 1990 + +McNAIR, JAMES K.; "The World of Herbs & Spices", Ortho Books 1978 + +McNEIL, F. MARIAN; "The Silver Bough, Vol 1.: Scottish Folklore & +Beliefs", Cannon Gate Classic 1956/1989 + +MITCHELL, JOHN; "The Earth Spirit: It's Ways, Shrines, & +Mysteries", +Avon 1975 + +MITCHELL, JOHN; "Natural Likeness", Dutton Paperback 1979 + +MITCHELL, JOHN; "The New View Over Atlantis", Harper & Row 1983 +*** + +MONAGHAN, PATRICIA; "The Book of Goddesses & Heroines", +Llewellyn, 1990 + +MOONEY, JAMES; "Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the +Cherokees", Charles & Randy Elder/ Cherokee Heritage Books 1982 + +MURRAY, MARGARET A.; "The Divine King In England", Faber & Faber +Ltd. MCMLIV + +MURRAY, MARGARET A.; "The God of the Witches", Oxford University +Press, N.Y. 1931 + +MURRAY, MARGARET A.; "The Witch Cult in Western Europe", Oxford +University Press, London 1921 + +NEUMANN, ERICH; "The Great Mother", Princeton University Press +1955 + +NICHOLS, ROSS; "The Book of Druidry", Aquarian, 1991 + +NORTON-TAYLOR, DUNCAN; "The Celts", TIME LIFE BOOKS 1974 + +O'BRIEN, CHRISTIAN; "The Megalithic Odyssey", Turnstone 1983 + +O'CONNELL, MARGARET; "The Magic Cauldron, Witchcraft For Good and +Evil", S.G. Phillips, 1975 + +O'CONNOR, FRANK; "Short History of Irish Literature", Capricorn +Books 1967 + +O'CONNOR, NORREYS; "Battles & Enchantments", Books for Libraries +Press 1922/1970 + +O'DRISCOLL, ROBERT; "The Celtic Consciousness", George Braziller +1982 + +O'KELLY, CLAIRE; "Concise Guide To Newgrange, 1976 + +O'SULLIVAN, DONALD; "Carolan: The Life & Times & Music of an +Irish Harper", Vol 1 & 2, Celtic Music 1983 + +OLSON, CARL; "The Book of the Goddess, Past & Present", +Crossroads Pub. 1983 + +PAULSEN, KATHRYN; "Magick and Witchcraft", Pentacle Press 1970 +(yet another one to be VERY careful with. Good tables of +correspondence, and that's about ALL) + +PENNAR, MEIRION, trans.: "The Black Book of Carmarthen", Pennar, +1989 + +PEPPER & WILCOX; "A Guide to Magical & Mystical Sites - Europe & +the British Isles", Harper Colophon Books 1977 + +PEPPER, ELIZABETH, & JOHN WILCOX; "Witches All", 1977 + +PETERSON, SERENITY; "Crystal Visioning, A Crystal Workbook", +Inner Dimensional Pub. 1984 + +PORTEUS, ALEXANDER; "Forest Folklore, Mythology & Romance", + +POWELL, T.G.E.; "The Celts", Thames & Hudson 1980 + +QUILLER, PETER & COURTNEY DAVIS; "Merlin, The Immortal", Spirit +of Celtia 1984 + +REED, ELLEN CANNON; "The Witches Qabala", Llewellyn Publications, +1985 + +REES, ALWYN & BRINLEY; "Celtic Heritage", Oxford 1971 *** + +RHYS, JOHN; "Celtic Folklore, Welsh & Manx, Vol.I" + +RICHARDSON, ALAN; "Earth God Rising", Llewellyn, 1990 + +RICHARDSON, ALAN; "Gate of Moon", Aquarian Press 1984 + +ROBERTS, NANCY; "Illustrated Guide to Ghosts & Mysterious +Occurrences in the Old North State", McNally & Lofton 1959 + +ROBERTS, NANCY & BRUCE; "This Haunted Land", McNally & Lofton +1970 + +ROLLESTON, T.W.; "Myths & Legends - Celtic", Avenel Press 1985 + +ROSE, JEANNE; "Herbs & Things", Grossett & Dunlop 1972 + +ROSS, ANNE, & DON ROBBINS; "The Life & Death of A Druid Prince", +Summit 1989 + +ROSS, ANNE; "Pagan Celtic Britian", Rudledge & Kegen Paul 1967 +*** + +ROWAN, JOHN; "The Horned God", Rudledge & Kegen Paul 1987 + +RUSPOLI, MARIO; "The Cave of Lascaux - The Final Photographs", +Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1986 + +RUSSELL, JEFFREY B.; "A History of Witchcraft, Sorcerers, +Heretics, and Pagans", Thames & Hudson, 1980 *** + +RUTHERFORD, WARD; "Celtic Lore", Aquarian/Thorsons 1993 + +RUTHERFORD, WARD; "Celtic Mythology", Aquarian Press 1987 + +RUTHERFORD, WARD; "The Druids, Magicians of the West", Aquarian +Press 1978 *** + +RYALL, RHIANNON; "West Country Wicca", Phoenix Pub. 1989 + +SANDERS, ALEX; "The Alex Sanders Lectures", Magickal Childe, 1984 + +SCHNITZER, RITA; "The Secrets of Herbs", Orbis Pub. 1984 + +SEYMOUR, ST. JOHN; "Irish Witchcraft and Demonology", 1913 + +SHARKEY, JOHN; "Celtic Mysteries", Thames & Hudson 1975/1987 + +SHEBA, LADY; "The Witches Workbook, the Mystic Grimoire of Lady +Sheba", Zebro Books 1975 + +SJOESTEDT, MARIE-LOUISE; "Gods & Heroes of the Celts", Methven & +Co. Ltd. 1949 *** + +SLATER, HERMAN; "A Book of Pagan Rituals", ed. Samuel Wiser Inc. +1978 *** + +SMITH, LESLEY M.; "The Dark Age: The Making of Britian", Schocker +Books 1984 + +SMITH, MICHAEL G.; "Crystal Power", Llewellyn Pub. 1985 + +SPENCE, LEWIS; "British Fairy Origins", Aquarian Press 1946 + +SPENCE, LEWIS; "Encyclopedia of Occultism", Citadel Press +1920/1960 + +SPENCE, LEWIS; "The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain", Anchor Press + +SPENCE, LEWIS; "The Minor Traditions of British Mythology", Rider +& Co. 1948 + +SQUIRE, CHARLES; "Celtic Myth & Legend, Poetry & Romance", +Newcastle 1975 *** + +ST. CLARE, DAVID; "Drum & Candle", Doubleday 1971 + +STARHAWK; "Dreaming the Dark", Beacon Press, Boston, 1982 + +STARHAWK; "The Spiral Dance", Harper & Row Publishers N.Y. 1979 +*** + +STEIN, DIANE; "Casting The Circle: A Woman's Book of Ritual" + +STEIN, DIANE; "The Women's Spirituality Book" + +STEWART, R.J.; "Book of Merlin", Blandford Press 1988 + +STEWART, R. J.; "Celtic Gods Celtic Goddesses", Blandford, 1990 + +STEWART, R. J.; "Earth Light", Element, 1992 + +STEWART, R. J.; "The Merlin Tarot", The Aquarian Press + +STEWART, R.J., ed.; "Merlin & Woman", Blandford Press 1988 + +STEWART, R.J.; "Mystic Life of Merlin", Arcana Press 1986 + +STEWARTM R.J.; "Robert Kirk - Walker Between Worlds", Element, +1990 + +STEWART, R.J.; "The Underworld Tradition", Aquarian Press 1985 + +SUTHERLAND, ELISABETH; "Ravens & Black Rain", Corgi Books 1985 +*** + +THORNDIKE, JOSEPH J. Jr. ed.; "Discovery of Lost Worlds", +American +Heritage Pub. 1979 + +THURNEYSON; "Old Irish Reader", Dublin Institute for Advanced +Studies 1968 + +TIME LIFE BOOKS; Enchanted World Series, 21 vols. + +TINDALL, GILLIAN; "A Handbook of Witches", Castle Books 1965 + +TOULSON, SHIRLEY; "The Winter Solstice", Jill Norman & Hobhouse +1981 + +VALIENTE, DOREEN; "Witchcraft For Tomorrow", Phoenix Publishing +Co. 1978 *** + +WALKER, BARBARA G.; "The Crone; Woman of Age, Wisdom & Power", +Harper +& Row 1988 + +WATKINS, ALFRED; "The Ley Hunter's Manual", Turnstone 1983 + +WEIGALL, ARTHUR; "The Paganism in Our Christianity", Gordon Press +1974 + +WEINSTEIN, MARION; "Positive Magic, Occult Self-Help", Phoenix +Publishing, 1980 *** + +WHITE, CAROLYN; "A History of Irish Fairies", Mercier Press 1976 +*** + +WHITLOCK, RALPH; "In Search of Lost Gods", Phaidon Press 1979 + +WILDE, LADY; "Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, & Superstitions of +Ireland With Sketches of the Irish Past" Chatto & Windus 1925 + +WILLIAMS, GWYNN A.; "Madoc, The Legend of the Welsh Discovery of +America", Oxford Univ. Press 1987 + +WILLIAMSON, JOHN; "The Oak King, the Holly King & the Unicorn", +Harper & Row 1974 + +WILSON, COLIN; "The Occult", Vintage Books 1973 + +WOOD, MICHAEL; "In Search of The Trojan War", Facts on File Pub. +1985 + +WOOD-MARTIN, W. G.; "Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland, Vols +1 & 2", Kennicat Pub. 1902/1970 *** + +YEATS, W.B.; "Fairy & Folktales of Ireland", Pan Books 1882 & +1882/ 1973 + +YEATS, W.B. & LADY GREGORY; "Irish Myth, Legend, & Folklore", +Avenel Press 1986 + +YOUNG, ELLA; "The Wondersmith and His Son", David McKay Co. 1927 + +ZIMMER, DAVID; "Crystal Power", Good Vibes 1983 + + +Rowan Moonstone. + diff --git a/religious documents/books.txt b/religious documents/books.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..144f0e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/books.txt @@ -0,0 +1,211 @@ +This article is excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal. +Each issue of the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal is published by +High Plains Arts and Sciences; P.O. Box 620604, Littleton Co., +80123, a Colorado Non-Profit Corporation, under a Public Domain +Copyright, which entitles any person or group of persons to +reproduce, in any form whatsoever, any material contained therein +without restriction, so long as articles are not condensed or +abbreviated in any fashion, and credit is given the original +author.! + + ANGEL TECH +A Modern Shaman's Guide to Reality Selection; by Antero Alli; +published by Vigilantero Press, P.O. Box 7513, Boulder Co. 80306 +$17 Retail Reviewed by Deborah Proko, 880 Moorhead Cr. #2L +Boulder, CO 80303 + + Getting lost in the Metaphysics Section of my favorite book +store used to be sheer brain pleasure.. an unparalleled delight. +This was before the New Age infiltration of selfimprovement +books which have, over the past few years, flooded the bookshelfs +and shoved out the more obscure, classic gems of psychic +technology. No longer can you find the crystal clear paradigms +of Higher Learning without bumping into more new age cosmic +drivel. Ironically, due to the skyrocketing popularity of +Metaphysics in general a pervasive dilution of genuine spiritual +information has passed for the real thing. Perhaps it's a sign +of the times, who knows? I don't know and quite frankly, I don't +want to know. Metaphysics for the Millions just isn't my cup of +tea. + + Bobbing amidst the muddy river of occult literature is ANGEL +TECH: A Modern Shaman's Guide to Reality Selection by Antero Alli +(a Boulder resident, COLORADO) with a Preface by Robert Anton +Wilson of COSMIC TRIGGER fame. Reality Selection, hmmm... that +caught my eye. Not exactly a selfhelp book or a metaphysical +treatise, ANGEL TECH is (in its own words), "a survival manual +for fallen angels who are through with their frozen responses to +the nightmares around us." Several sentences later, it instructs +us to: "fly higher, plant both feet firmly in the ground... +ground." The title is somewhat deceptive, also, because ANGEL +TECH isn't about angels per se; at least not the kind painted by +artists and described in the bible. To once again quote the +text, "An angel is a being of Light. Tech comes from techne, +meaning art or skill. ANGEL TECH is the Art of Being Light... We +are in essence, beings of light." + + Alli has taken it upon himself to redefine common termi +nology as well as make up words of his own to describe his +psychic journey. This journey traverses through the Law of +Octaves and Overtones translated into sight evolving functions +of One Intelligence. It's destination is the awesome task of +Intelligence Increase. The format of the law of eights is as old +as the Sufi Mystery Schools and vigorous enough to attract +Gurdjieff himself to wrestle with. More recently, the rascal +guru Timothy Leary picked it up and wrote his opus, EXO +PSYCHOLOGY (also out of print), one of the source books for ANGEL +TECH. What sets ANGEL TECH apart from other interpretations of +this eightfold system is its comedic brilliance and some +hysterically wicked illustrations. Also conspicuously absent is +the kind of dogma that almost always accompanies subject matter +like this. (The author constantly reminds us that the book is a +map and not the territory itself, and that we, the readers, must +make our own maps as fast as we absorb information in order to +minimize psychic constipation.) + + This book is not for everybody. Consider the section +entitled KARMA MECHANICS which is "a course of study best suited +for selfrealizing robots." Who's going to admit to their robot +hood? Gurdjieff and his kind certainly did but not without a lot +of work. Further into this section is another called MECHANICAL +PROBLEMS which, with painstaking detail, explores the symptoms, +causes and necessary adjustments for "robots run amok"... in +laymen's terms, the process of fixing broken people. Despite the +rather dense reading in this section, Alli did manage to pull me +through with his humor, which at times, is ruthless. For the +uninitiated neophyte, Fred Mertz (remember, from the I love Lucy +show?) has resurrected to the spiritual status of Bodhisattva +for the purpose of transmitting his compassion through the +"neuroelectronic medium of television in the reruns..." If Fred +Mertz is a New Age Avatar, then I'm the pope. And in some +parallel universe, I probably am. + + ANGEL TECH is not breeze reading. Its 380 pages outline a +comprehensive approach to reprogramming your mind. The only +other author I know who has presented such a lucid vision of this +worthy task is Dr. John Lilly ( SIMULATIONS OF GOD, CENTER OF THE +CYCLONE, etc.). One more thing surprisingly gone from ANGEL +TECH are the prodrug endorsements proliferating in books by +predecessors like Leary, Wilson and Lilly. Alli's formula for +Brain Change comes direct from the human biocomputer itself. +Techniques for flexing psychic muscles abound in ANGEL TECH. +Research topics include RAPTURE, CHARISMA, RITUAL, DESIGNING A +TAROT, ALCHEMY, SYNCHRONICITY, ASTROLOGY, DREAMING RITUALS AND +FACTOR X... if only they'd have taught us this stuff when we went +to school. And throughout it all, an underlining current called +"grounding" connects what is psychic to the earth. That alone, +in my opinion, is worth the price of admission. + + Sometimes, this book rides the edge between redundancy and +instructive repetition with the hopes of driving its point home. +This point seems to be selfresponsibility and the need to define +oneself or be defined by others. Alli takes for granted that +readers already understand that they create their own reality, +so there's not much schooling on this (read the SETH books). It +is, perhaps, for this reason that the audience for ANGEL TECH +will remain limited to those currently designing their own +program. In this way, ANGEL TECH is even elitist. It refuses +to try and reach everybody. However, the people it will touch +will be richer for it due to Alli's lack of compromise. It's not +an entirely inaccessible book yet it's based on a rather radical +assumption. It fails to recognize the split between Lower and +Higher Selves that most metaphysical books all but deify. My +guess is that Alli is something of an anarchist who found his way +into the system. His passion for annihilating hierarchy for the +purpose of demystifying communications is hard to ignore. + + What I found to be the most compelling part of ANGEL TECH +was that the section called CHAPEL PERILOUS, which could've been +expanded on and rewritten as another book altogether. For those +acquainted with Robert Anton Wilson's COSMIC TRIGGER, the mention +of Chapel Perilous should ring hell's bells. According to Alli, +the Chapel is a "place where souls go after being catapulted out +of their bodies, groping aimlessly for their other half... while +their bodies remain alive, on automatic, walking the planet" +(paraphrased). This section of the book explores the process of +"Initiation as creative response to the shock of the unknown." +It is presented dramatically as Eight Sermons told to a +congregation of lost souls by a priest that is vaguely +reminiscent of the Sermons of the Dead in the back of Carl Jung's +book, MEMORIES, DREAMS and REFLECTIONS. Sermon titles include: +Fatal Romantics, Suicide and Free Will, Heaven and Hell, The +Crucifixion... among others. Chapel Perilous is not a pretty +place to be and Alli looks through its stained glass, darkly. + + ANGEL TECH is book one of a trilogy called the FIELD +OPERATORS REFERENCE MANUAL. The other two books, ALL RITES +REVERSED and THE AKASHIC RECORD PLAYER are forthcoming. Until +then, I recommend this irreverent, mindblowing journey of a +book, ANGEL TECH, and look forward to more from Alli. + + + +HERCULANEUM, Italy's Buried Treasure (updated revised edition) +Joseph Jay Deiss; Harper & Row, hard, $22.95 reviewed by +Katherine M. Gray + + Recently I was able to join the History Book Club with the +added plus of purchasing several really beautiful books on +archaeology and history at very reduced prices, among them Deiss' +Herculaneum. It quickly became one of my favorites. + + The book is a sharply focused telescopic view back to the +everyday lives of the inhabitants of the ancient Roman city, +Herculaneum, which was destroyed at the same time as Pompeii in +the latter part of August A.D. 79. It begins, after one forward +and two prefaces, with a wonderfully concise chronology of the +period of Herculaneum. + + Well illustrated, this volume is unabashed in its honest +portrayal of the ancient Romans, treating their humanity with +humor as if the author were fond of them. That is not to say +that he in any way has glorified their behavior. The book is +filled with not only scientific observations on the wealth and +economic practices of the inhabitants of Herculaneum but also +with the graffiti and lusty frescoes that decorated the walls of +the town. + + "Portumnus loves Amphianda + Januarius loves Veneria + We pray Venus + That you should hold us in mind + This only we ask you." + + Interestingly enough, Deiss tells the reader, what was to be +con sidered as pornographic by the religious cultures which +followed the Rome of Herculaneum, was considered quite natural by +most Romans. + +"Their point of view was one of easy going naturalism. The erect +phallus was a potent charm, and it appeared and reappeared +everywhere: on shop signs, on equipment, on jewelry, in +paintings, and on statues. ...At the doors of shops and private +houses, the handle of the bell pull was frequently a phallus." + + Even the god Priapus, whom Deiss considers fortunate for +having been condemned to perpetual erection was depicted on the +wall of a snack bar on one of the main streets. It seems that +even the Gods were not above being used for advertising. Deiss +tells the reader in well crafted prose of the discovery of +Herculaneum, the continued research on the city, and also of the +preservation of artifacts and skeletons found at the site. +Apparently physical remains at that time which had not been +destroyed have been hard to come by. Urns with cremated remains +were relatively easy to acquire, but buried remains were +nonexistent, so when the first ancient Roman skeletons were +unearthed, there was a great deal of excitement. + + The average height of the men was approx. 5 feet 7 inches, +while the women measured up at about 5 feet 1 inch. They had +excellent teeth and their nutrition was relatively good. a +fascinating find. + + For those of you who enjoy armchair or active archaeology, +Herculaneum is a book which will keep your interest from start +to finish. Since it is not written in technical terms, but more +as entertaining documentation, anyone with an interest in people +of different times and cul tures will find their guided tour +through the pages of Herculaneum well worth their time. I highly +recommend it. + ______KMG +.......from R.M.P.J. 8/86 diff --git a/religious documents/brag.txt b/religious documents/brag.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d582e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/brag.txt @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ + SHUT UP OR STAND UP! + + ("The Brag of the SubGenius") + +--- a fragment. Transcribed from a cassette tape recording made at a seance +in 1973. + + "I PICK THE GOD DAMN terror of the fucking gods out of my *nose*! Pardon my +language. But YEEEEEHAW, let the sons of God and man bear witness! Even in +the belly of the Thunderbird I've been casting out the False Prohets; I'm +busting a gut and blowing my O-ring, and ripe to throw a *loaf*! For I speak +*only* the fucking *Truth*, and never in my days have I spoken other than! For +my every utterance is a lie, including this very one you hear! I say, +`Fuck'em if they can't take a joke!' By God, `Anything for a laugh', I say. I +am the last remaining Homo Correctus, I am the god damn Man of the Future! +I'll drive a mile so as not to walk a foot; I am a human being of the *first* +god damn water! Yes, I'm the javalina humping junkie that jumped the Men from +Mars! I drank the *Devil* under seven tables, I am too *intense* to die, I'm +insured for acts o' God *and* Satan! I was shanghaied by bodiless fiends and +alien jews from a corporate galaxy, and got away with their hubcaps! I +*cannot* be tracked on radar! I wear nothing uniform, I wear *no* god damn +uniform! Yes baby, I'm 23 feet tall and have 13 rows o' teats; I was suckled +by a triceratops, I gave the Anti-Virgin a high-protien tonsil wash! I'm a +bacteriological weapon, I *armed* and *loaded*! I'm a fission reactor, I fart +plutonium, power plants are fueled by the sweat from my brow; when they plug +*me* in, the lights go out in Hong Kong! I weigh 666 pounds in zero gravity, +*come and get me*! I've sired retarded space bastards across the Cosmos, I +cook and *eat* my dead; YAH-HOOOO, I'm the Unshaven Thorn Tree of the Atlantis +Zoo! I pay no taxes! The Devil's hands are my *ideal* playground! I hold the +Seven-Bladed Windbreaker; the wheels that turn are behind me; I think +*backwards*! I do it for *fun*! My imagination is a *fucking* cancer and I'll +pork it before it porks me! The say a godzillion is the highest number there +is. Well by God! I count to a godzillion and *one*! Yes, I'm the purple flower +of Hell County, give me wide berth; when I drop my drawers, Mother Nature +swoons! I use a python for a prophylactic; I'm *thicker, harder* and *meaner* +than the Alaskan Pipeline, and carry more spew! I'll freeze *your* seed before +it hits the bathroom tile! YEE! YEEE! I kidnapped the future and ransomed it +for the past, I made *Time* wait up for me to bleed my lizard! My infernal +breath wilts the Tree of Life, I left my *spoor* on the Rock of Ages, *who'll +tear flesh with me, who'll spill their juice? Who'll gouge with me, whose +candle will I fart out? Whoop! I'm ready!* So step aside, all you butt-lipped, +neurotic, insecure bespectacled slabs o' wimp meat! I'm a Crime Fighting +Master Criminal, I am Not Insane! I'm a screamer and a laugher, I make a +*spectacle* of myself, I am a *sight*! My physical type *cannot* be classified +by science, my `familiar' is a pterodactyl, I feed it dipshits! I communicate +without *wires* or *strings*! I am a Thuggee, I am feared in the Tongs, I have +the Evil Eye, I carry the Mojo Bag; I swam the *Bermuda Triangle* and didn't +get wet! I circumcize dinosaurs with my teeth and make 'em leave a tip; I +change tires with my *tongue* and my *tool*! Every night I hock up a lunger +and extinguish the *Sun*! I'm the bigfooted devil of Level 14, who'll try to +blow me down? I've packed the brownies of the gods, I leak the Plague from my +nether parts, opiates are the *mass* of my religion, *I take drugs*! Yes, I'm +a rip-snorter, I cram coca leaves right into my arm-veins before they're +picked off the *tree*! *Space* monsters cringe at my tread! I wipe the +*Pyramides* off my shoes before I enter *my* house. I'm *fuel-injected*, I'll +live forever and remember it afterwords! I'm *immune*! I'm *radioactive*! Come +*on* and give me cancer, I'll spit up the tumor and butter my *bread* with the +juice! *I'm supernatural*, I bend *crowbars* with my meat ax and a thought! My +droppings bore through the earth and erupt *volcanoes* in *China*! Yes, I can +drink more wine and stay soberer than all the heathen *Hindoos* in Asia! YEEE +HAW! *Gut Blowout*! I am a *Moray Eel*, I am a *Komodo Dragon*, I am the +*Killer Whale bereft of its pup*! I have a triple backbone, I was sired by the +Wolf Man, give me *all* your Slack! I told *Jesus* I wouldn't go to church and +He *shook my hand*! I have my *own* personal saviors, I change 'em every hour, +I don't give a fuck if there's life after death, I want to know if there's +even any fucking *Slack* after death! I am a god damn *visionary*, I see the +future and the past in comic books and wine bottles; I eat *black holes* for +breakfast! I bend my genes and whittle my DNA with the sheer force of my +mighty *will*! I steer my *own* god damn evolution! I ran 'em out of Heaven +and sold it to Hell for a *profit*! I'm enlightened, I achieved `Nirvana' and +took it *home* with me. *Yip, yip, YEEEEEEE!* I'm so ugly the Speed of Light +can't slow me down and Gravity won't tug at my cuffs! When the Rapture comes, +I'll make 'em wait! They'll *never* clean *my* cage! Now give me some more +of..." + + (Tape runs out.) diff --git a/religious documents/breakpnt.txt b/religious documents/breakpnt.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1eadf34 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/breakpnt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +Wednesday, February 2, 1994 + +BREAKPOINT with Chuck Colson + +Steve Buckley is one dangerous guy. The 6 foot 2 inch, 240 pound +Buckley used to work on the psychiatric ward at a medical center in +Oregon. I say used to because Buckley was recently disciplined and +transferred to another floor so that he would no longer be a threat to +mentally ill patients. + +What did Steve Buckley do that alarmed his superiors enough that they +yanked him off the psychiatric ward? Did he abuse patients? Was he +incompetent? No. Worse than that, Steve Buckley is a conservative +Christian. + +One night at the Roseburg Veteran's Administration Medical Center, a +patient asked Buckley to sing Amazing Grace with his guitar, and he +actually did it. Even worse, when patients asked Buckley how he dealt +with depression and fear he would tell them the truth. He said he prays +and reads his Bible. + +For this monstrous offense Buckley was hauled before the medical +center's ethics board, and informed that his activities constituted "a +danger to the atmosphere of the unit." A disciplinary letter was placed +in his permanent file, and he was transferred to the geriatric ward +where is expertise inpsychiatric nursing is going to waste. + +When Buckley asked his superiors what they expected him to do when +patients asked direct questions about his faith, he was told to deflect +the question and answer evasively. It's not as though Buckley was +forcing his religion down his patient's throat along with psychotropic +medication. Buckley told BreakPoint that he never brought up his +beliefs unless a patient asked him a direct question. "The other staff +people talked to patients about their divorces, or even about the last +man they slept with," Buckley said, "but I can't talk about God, not +even to answer a question." + +Ironically, the patients themselves never complained about Buckley. In +fact, they told the hospital's patient advocate they want him back. So +whose rights does the hospital think it's protecting. In the process of +protecting the patients' theoretical rights, the staff is trampling all +over Buckley's real constitutional rights. + +In a similar case, Roman vs Appleby, the court ruled that a public +school guidance counselor has a First Amendment right to discuss +religion with a student so long as the student initiated the topic and +was not compelled to accept the counselor's views. So the legal facts +here are absolutely clear and in Buckley's favor. + +The dirty little secret is that the hospital is not really all that +concerned about the patients' religious rights. The staff is perfectly +happy to impose religion as long as it's not Christianity. Buckley says +he and other technicians were required to lead patients in +transcendental meditation-style relaxation sessions as part of their +therapy. This, despite the fact that a federal court has ruled TM to be +a religion, and banned it from public schools. And may I remind you, +this is all taking place in a veteran's hospital paid for by our tax +funds. + +We often hear it said that America has become a secular culture, but the +truth is that religion is perfectly welcome. It is Christianity that is +treated as the enemy. + +* + +Copyright (c) 1994 Prison Fellowship diff --git a/religious documents/burntime.txt b/religious documents/burntime.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0e1e8d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/burntime.txt @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ +Date: Thu 07 Jan 88 15:43:34 +From: L.a. Hussey (on 161/93) +To: All +Subj: Song + +Lately I've been seeing an outrageous escalation of figures from the +burning times, now we're up to 9.5 million! And there seems to be some +sort of perverse "we're more persecuted than the Jews" mentality behind it. +Completely ignoring the fact that the burning times killed some large +number of people over 4 centuries, where the Nazi Holocaust killed its +millions in a matter of 5 YEARS. Also, I've been pissed off lately by +Charlie Murphey's "Burning Times" song, which has propagated the 9 million +figure and has in it lines like "The Earth is a Witch/ and the Men still +burn Her". So, in the good old-fashioned tradition of lectures set to +music, I offer the following verses. I need to see how many people they +offend before I sing them at Esotericon. + +BURNING TIMES + +The songs are sung to rouse our anger +Of martyred witches gone to the fire +But what is served by righteous singing +When all we do is stew in our ire? + Nine million dead in four hundred years + More in that time simply died of disease. + Why do we dwell on long-passed dead + When we are alive in times like these? + +cho1: Rise up, Witches, throw off your masks + And cease crying guilt for ancient crimes; + Earth and all her children need us, + For all face now the Burning Times. + +In the face of that hostile power, +How did the old knowledge stay alive? +How do we have a Craft to practise? +Our ancestors knew how to fight and survive! + How do we honour our blessed dead? + Slavery threatens all but the few! + We must teach their cunning ways; + Everyone needs the skills they knew. + +cho: Rise up, Witches, gather your strength, + And let your power spread and climb; + Earth and all her children need us, + For all face now the Burning Times. + +I'll not cast off science's works +Witches all forces to Will can bend. +I'll not accuse, for war and waste, +Some patriarchy of faceless Men. + Men do not cast the only votes; + Women alone do not demonstrate. + Rather than shut out half the race, + Who, if not we, will change that state? + +(cho) + +I will not blame a Father's Church -- +Blame and guilt are Their tools, not mine. +And even in the shuls and churches +Allies there will I seek and find! + I will not answer hate with fear; + Nor with a smug, cheek-turning love; + I will not answer hate with rage; + By strength alone will I not be moved! + +(cho) + +I will not hide in my sacred grove -- +The factories and cities yet ring me about. +I will not climb my ivory tower -- +The real world exists though I shut it out. + I will not work for Church nor State + Who serve themselves while they serve us lies. + Nor only for my Witchen kin + But for the family of all alive! + +(cho) + +So if rebellion means to fight +A State lost sight of why it was built, +If heresy's to reject a Church +That rules with force or fear or guilt, + Then let us all be rebels proud, + And shameless heretics by creed! + A tyrant's hand subjects the Earth + More heretic rebels are what She needs! + +(cho) + + copyright 1988, Leigh Ann Hussey + + diff --git a/religious documents/byflame.txt b/religious documents/byflame.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6bfded --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/byflame.txt @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +ab:byflame.txt 16jan90 + + + Invocation to the Horned God + + + "By the flame that burneth bright, + O Horned One ! + We call thy name into the night, + O Ancient One ! + Thee we invoke by the Moon-led sea, + By the standing stone and the twisted tree. + Thee we invoke, where gather Thine own. + By the nameless shore, forgotten and lone. + Come where the round of the dance is trod, + Horn and Hoof of the Goat Foot God ! + By moonlit meadow, on dusky hill, + Where the haunted wood is hushed and still, + Come to the charm of the chanted prayer, + As the Moon bewitches the midnight air. + Evoke thy powers that potent bide + In shining stream and the secret tide, + In fiery flame by starlight pale, + In shadowy host that rides the gale. + And by the ferndrakes, faerie haunted, + Of forests wild and woods enchanted. + Come, O Come ! + To the heartbeat's drum ! + Come to us who gather below, + When the broad white Moon is climbing slow. + Through the stars to the heavens' height, + We hear thy hoofs on the wind of night ! + As black tree branches shake and sigh, + By joy and terror we know thee nigh. + We speak the spell thy power unlocks, + At Solstice Sabbath and Equinox !" + +---------- +-Published sources include: + -Doreen Valiente "Witchcraft For Tomorrow". Her version continues + beyond the part given here. I believe she says that she wrote + everything in this book, but I'm not sure. + -"Grimoire of Lady Sheba" (This is her version.) + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/c01_tho.txt b/religious documents/c01_tho.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..650d841 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/c01_tho.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1029 @@ +Thout 1 (First day of the New year) +September 11 + +Theme of the day: A new year, a new beginning + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: +2 Corinthians 5:11 - 6:13 +"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed + away; behold, all things are become new." + +Catholic Epistle: +1 John 2:7- 17 +"Again, a new commandement I write unto you, but an old commandement which thing is + true in him and in you, because the darkness is passed and the true light now shineth" + +Praxis: +Acts 17:16-34 +"And the times of this ignorance God uinked at;but commandeth all men everywhere + to repent." + +Synaxarion: ++ The feast day of El-Nayrouz, the beginning of the coptic year. ++ St. Bartholomew one of the twelve apostols. ++ St. Miliyos, the third pope of Alexandria, 98 A.D. + +Psalm: +Psalm 65:11 +"Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness; and Thy paths drop fatness" + +Gospel: +Luke 4:14-30 +"To preach the aceptable year of the Lord" +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + +Thout 2, +September 12, + +Verse of the Day: "Behold, I send my messenger before thy face" (Mark1:2) + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Hebrew 11:32-12:2 +"Of whom the world was not worthy: they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in + dens and caves of the earth." + +Catholic Epistle: James 5:9:20 +"Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall + save a sould from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins" + +Praxis: Acts 12:1-12 +"And, behold, the andel of the Lord came upon him and a light shined in the prison: +and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up saying, rise up quickly." + +Synexarion: ++ Repose of St. John the Baptist on the hands of Herode the King of the Jew. ++ Repose of St. Dassiah the soldier, tortured and martyred on the hands of Arianos + the ruler of Ansena. + +Psalm: 92:12-13 +"The righteous shall flourish like the Palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in + Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the + courts of our God" +Alleluia. + +Gospel: Mark 6:14-29 +"For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed + him, he did many things, and heard him gladly." +______________________________________________________________________________ + +Thout 3, +September 13, + +______________________________________________________________________________ + +Thout 4, +September 14 + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant + +Verse of the Day: "Woe to you, ... For you pay tithe of mint and anise + and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters + of the law: justice and mercy and faith." + (Matthew 23:23) + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Hebrews 11:17-27 +"esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in + Egypt; for he looked to the reward." + +Catholic Epistle: II Peter 1:19-2:8 +"and (God) did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight + people, a preacher of rightousness." + +Praxis: Acts 15:21-29 +"men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." + +Synexarion: ++ Repose of the great prophet Joshua the son of Nun. ++ Repose of Saint Macarius, 69th Patriarch of Alexandria. He was a meek + and merciful ascetic, who was chosen to the papal office by his people + against his will. + +Psalm: 98:6,7 +"Moses and Aaron among His priests and Samuel among them that call His + Name. They called upon the Lord and He hearkened unto them; in a pillar + of cloud He spoke unto them." +Alleluja! + +Gospel: Matthew 23:13-36 +"Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of + them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourage in + your synagogues and persecute from city to city." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 5, +September 15, + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant + +Verse of the Day: "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ + will give you light." (Ephesians 5:14) + +Pauline Epistle: Ephesians 5:8-21 +"Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." + +Catholic Epistle: 1 Peter 3:5-14 +"But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed." + +Praxis: Acts 21:5-14 +". . . and we knelt down on the shore and prayed." + +Synexarion: ++ Martyr St. Sophia. She was a Christian woman in the days of Adrian. She + was tried before Claudius, the governor, who beat her and burnt her joints. + Yet, during her persecution, she did not cease to utter the Name of Christ. + The King finally sliced her tongue and beheaded her. + +Psalm: 44:14,15 +"The virgins that follow after her shall be brought unto the King; those + near her shall be brought unto Thee. They shall be brought into the temple of + the King." +Alleluja! + +Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13 +"And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready + went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 6 +September 16 + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant +Fasting: Abstinence + +Verse of the Day: ". . .choosing rather to suffer affliction with the + people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of + sin. . ." (Hebrews 11:25) + +Pauline Epistle: Hebrews 11:17-27 +"By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he + endured as seeing Him who is invisible." + +Catholic Epistle: 2 Peter 1:19-2:8 +". . .knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private + interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men + of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." + +Praxis: Acts 15:21-29 +"For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in + every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath." + +Synexarion: ++ Isaiah the prophet. He prophesied the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus + Christ and the salvation of the world through His sacrifice on the Holy + Cross. They slew him when he reproached Manasseh for idol worship. ++ Martyr St. Basilissa under Diocletian + +Psalm: 98:6,7 +"Moses and Aaron among His priests and Samuel among them that call upon + His name. They called upon the Lord and He hearkened unto them; in a + pillar of cloud He spoke unto them." +Alleluja! + +Gospel: Matthew 23:13-36 +"Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of + them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your + synagogues and persecute from city to city. . ." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 7, +September 17 + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant + +Verse of the Day: "We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we + are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not + forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. . ." + (2 Corinthians 4:8,9) + +Pauline Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:5-5:11 +"We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and + to be present with the Lord." + +Catholic Epistle: 1 Peter 2:18-3:7 +"But when you do good and suffer for it, if you take it patiently, this is + commendable before God." + +Praxis: Acts 20:17-38 +"But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, + so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from + the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." + +Synexarion: ++ St. Dioscorus, 25th Patriarch of Alexandria. ++ Martyrs Sts. Agathon, Peter, John, Amun Amuna and their mother, Rebecca ++ Martyr St. Severianus, Bishop of Gabala. + +Psalm: 106:32,41,42 +"Let them exalt Him in the congregations of the people and praise Him in + the seat of the elders. The upright shall see and rejoice." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: John 10:1-16 +"But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the + doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep + by name and leads them out." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 8, +September 18, + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant + +Verse of the Day: ". . .for prophecy never came by the will of man, but + holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy + Spirit." (2 Peter 1:21) + +Pauline Epistle: Hebrews 11:17-27 +". . .esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures + in Egypt; for he looked to the reward." + +Catholic Epistle: 2 Peter 1:19-2:8 +"We also have the prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to heed + as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning + star rises in your hearts;" + +Praxis: Acts 15:21-29 +"it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men + to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives + for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." + +Synexarion: ++ Martyr St. Zachariah, the priest. He was the son of Barachias, father of + St. John the Baptist. ++ Moses, the prophet, who divided the Red Sea by his rod. ++ Martyr St. Diomede. + +Psalm: 98:6,7 +"Moses and Aaron among His priests and Samuel among them that call upon + His Name. They called upon the Lord and He hearkened unto them; in a + pillar of cloud He spoke unto them." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Matthew 23:13-36 +"Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of + them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your + synagogues and persecute from city to city. . ." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 9 +September 19 + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant + +Verse of the Day: "Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and + lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be + sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy." + (John 16:20) + +Pauline Epistle: Hebrews 7:18-8:13 +"Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a + High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in + the heavens. . ." + +Catholic Epistle: 3 John 1:1-15 +"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." + +Praxis: Acts 15:36-16:5 +"Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have + preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing." + +Synexarion: ++ Martyr St. Pisora, the bishop. He desired to offer himself up for + martyrdom and was joined by three other bishops: Pisikhos, Fanalikhos and + Theodore. They all made their profession of faith together, endured many + tortures, and were finally beheaded. + +Psalm: 98:6,7 +"Moses and Aaron among His priests and Samuel among them that call upon + His Name. They called upon the Lord and He hearkened unto them; in a + pillar of cloud He spoke unto them." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: John 16:20-33 +"In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have + overcome the world." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Thout 10 +September 20 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Thout 11 +September 21 + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant + +Verse of the Day: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny + himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." + (Matthew 16:24) From the Vespers' Gospel. + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Romans 8:18-30 +"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy + to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." + +Catholic Epistle: I Peter 3:8-15 +"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give + a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, + with meeknes and fear." + +Praxis: Acts 19:23-41 +"And about that time there arose a great commotion about the Way." + +Synexarion: ++ Martyrdom of Saint Basilides. He was one of the leading ministers of + Emperor Numerian, who died in the war. A tyrant soldier by the name of + Agrippita, who was originally a shepherd, married one of the Emperor's + daughters who changed his name to Diocletian. St. Basilides was then + tortured by Diocletian. + +Psalm: 67:35,3 +"Wondrous is God in His saints; the God of Israel, He will give power and + strength unto His people; and let the righteous be glad; let them + rejoice in the presence of God; let them delight in gladness." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Luke 12:4-12 +"Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man + also will confess before the angels of God." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Thout 12, +September 22, + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant + +Verse of the Day: "...Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" + (Matthew 16:31) From the Liturgy's Gospel. + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Romans 4:13-5:5 +"Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord + Jesus Christ." + +Catholic Epistle: I Peter 1:3-12 +"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his + abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of + Jesus Christ from the dead." + +Praxis: Acts 11:15-24 +"And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed and turned + unto the Lord." + +Synexarion: ++ Meeting of the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus. ++ Commemoration of the Archangel St. Michael. ++ Transformation of the relics of Sts. Eklimos and his associates the martyrs. + +Psalm: 19:4,132:9,10 +"Their voice is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of + the world. Let thy priests be clothed in righteousness and let thy saints shout + for joy for thy servant David's sake." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Matthew 16:13-19 +"...You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Thout 13, +September 23, + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant + +Verse of the Day: "...I am the door..." + (John 10:9) From the Liturgy's Gospel. + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: II Timothy 3:10-4:22 +"But watch in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, make + full proof of your ministry." + +Catholic Epistle: I Peter 5:1-14 +"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you + in due time." + +Praxis: Acts 20:17-38 +"But none of these things move me, neither do I count my life dear to myself so + that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received + from the Lord Jesus to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God." + +Synexarion: ++ Repose of St. Mettheos, II the 90th Patriarch of Alexandria. ++ Sign performed by St. Basil of Caesarea. + +Psalm: 73:23,24,28 +"Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and + afterward receive me to glory. I have put my trust in the Lord God." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: John 10:1-16 +"I am the door: if any man enters through me, he shall be saved and shall go in + and out and find pasture." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 14, +September 24, + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant + +Verse of the Day: "Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and does + them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on + a rock." + (Matthew 7:24) From the Vespers' Gospel. + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: I Corinthians 3:1-8 +"...and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor." + +Catholic Epistle: II Peter 1:1-11 +"...brethren, keep diligence to make your call and election sure..." + +Praxis: Acts 15:13-29 +"...I will build again the tabernacle of David,..., that the residue of men + might seek after the Lord..." + +Synexarion: ++ Repose of St. Aghatho the Stylite. After diligently serving the Lord as a + presbyter he yearned to a closer walk with the Master. The Lord answered his + request and eased his way to the wilderness. He lived as hermit for 50 years + in a small cell built atop a narrow tower. He grew in many virtues till he + left for his heavenly abode. + +Psalm: 60:1-3 +"Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. Lead me to the rock that is higher + than I. Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Luke 14:25-35 +"For who of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first, and count + the cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it?" + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 15, +September 25, + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant + +Verse of the Day: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord + delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones: not one + of them is broken.: + (Psalm 33:19,20) From the Matins' Psalm. + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: II Corinthians 11:16-12:12 +"But he that glories, let him glory in the Lord." + +Catholic Epistle: I Peter 1:25-2:10 +"...that you should show forth the praises of him, who has called you out of + darkness into his marvelous light:" + +Praxis: Acts 6:1-7:2 +"And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the + people." + +Synexarion: ++ Transportation of the relics of St. Stephen the Archdeacon. + +Psalm: 20:3,5 +"For thou reached him with the blessings of goodness: thou set a crown of pure + gold on his head. His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty has + thou laid upon him." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Luke 10:1-20 +"Go your ways: behold I send you forth as lambs among wolves:" +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 16, +September 26, + +Season : Nairooz (Martyr's New Year) +Tune : Jubilant + +Verse of the Day: "Even thine alters, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God. + Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still + praising thee." + (Psalm 83:3) From the Vespers' Psalm. + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Hebrews 9:1-10 +"But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without + blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of people." + +Catholic Epistle: I Peter 2:1-10 +"You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house,..." + +Praxis: Acts 9:31-43 +"Then the churches had rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and + were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the + Holy Spirit, were multiplied." + +Synexarion: ++ Consecration of the sanctuaries of Resurrection in 326 A.D. by Queen Helen, + following the discovery of the Cross. The sanctuaries included the basilicas + of resurrection, Golgotha, Bethlehem, the cave, the upper room and Gathsemane. + ++ Transportation of the relics of St. John Chrisostome to Constantinople. + +Psalm: 64:1,2 +"Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be + performed in Jerusalem. O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh + come." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Matthew 16:13-19 +"...and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not + prevail against it." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Thout 17, +September 27, +Exaltation of the Holy Cross + +Season : Commemoration of the Cross +Tune : Hosannish + +Theme of the Day: The Power of the Cross. +Verse of the Day: "but we preach Christ crucified, ... to those who are + called, ... Christ the power of God and the wisdom + of God." + (I Corinthians 1:23,24) + +VESPERS: +________ + +Psalm: 4:6,8 +"The light of Thy countenance, O Lord, hath been signed upon us; Thou + hast given gladness to my heart. For Thou, O Lord, alone hast made me + to dwell in hope." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: John 8:28-42 +"When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He." + +MATINS: +_______ + +Psalm: 59:4,5 +"Thou hast given a sign unto them that fear Thee, that they may flee + from before the face of the bow; that Thy beloved ones may be + delivered. Save Thou with Thy right hand and hearken unto me." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: John 12:26-36 +"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to + Myself." + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: I Corinthians 1:17-31 +"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, + but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." + +Catholic Epistle: I Peter 2:11-25 +"who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, + having died to sins, might live for righteousness." + +Praxis: Acts 10:34-43 +"... whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the + third day." + +Synexarion: ++ The Feast of the Consecration of the Church of the Holy Cross. On this + holy day, Saint Helen, mother of Emperor Constantine, dug out the Holy + Cross of our Savior from underneath a pile of trash. She built a + church which was consecrated on this day. ++ Repose of Saint Theognosta who was abducted by the messengers of the + king of India. She made the sign of the cross on the king's son who + was ill; and he was cured. Thus, the king and all the city believed. + +Psalm: 64:1,2 +"To Thee is due praise, O God, in Sion; and unto Thee shall a vow be + rendered in Jerusalem. Hearken unto my prayer, for unto Thee shall all + flesh come." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: John 10:22-38 +"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give + them eternal life, and they shall never perish." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Thout 18, +September 28, +Second day of the Feast of the Cross + +Season : Commemoration of the Cross +Tune : Hosannish + +Verse of the Day: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, + even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that + whoever believes in Him should not perish but have + eternal life." + (John 3:14,15) From the Matins' Gospel. + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Galatians 6:11-18 +"But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord + Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the + world." + +Catholic Epistle: I Peter 1:3-12 +"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according + to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through + the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." + +Praxis: Acts 4:8-18 +"by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God + raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole." + +Synexarion: ++ The second day in the feast of the Consecration of the Holy Cross + Church. ++ Martyrdom of Saint Prophorius. ++ Commemoration of Saint Stephen, the priest, and Saint Niketa, the + martyr. + +Psalm: 144:1,2 +"I will exalt Thee, O my God, my King, and I will bless Thy Name + forever; yea, forever and ever. Everyday will I bless Thee and I will + praise Thy Name forever and ever." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: John 6:35-46 +"This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me + I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 19, +September 29, + +Season : Commemoration of the Cross +Tune : Hosannish + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Colossians 2:16-19 +"And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power." + +Catholic Epistle: I John 5:13-21 +"We know that whsoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of +God keepth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not". + +Praxis: Acts 3:12-21 +"And killed the Prince of life whom God hath raised from the dead; where of we +are witnesses" + +Synexarion: ++ Martyrdom of St Gregorios the Armenian Patriarch who spent 15 years in a small + well. + + +Psalm: 61:2-4 +"From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed: lead +me to the roch that is lighter than I. For Thou hast been shelter for me, and a strong +tower from tje enemy. I will abidein thy tabernacle fir eve, I will trust in the +covert of fly wings, Selah. +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Luke 14:25-35 +"Salt is good; but of the salm have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 20, +September 30, + +Season : Annual +Tune : Watos + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Aphasis 5: +"For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth". + +Catholic Epistle: I Peter 3: +"Finally be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of amother, love +as bretheren, be pitiful, be courteous". + +Praxis: Acts 21:5:14 +"Then Paul answered what mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? For +I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jereusalem for the +name of the Lord Jesus" + +Synexarion: ++ Martyrdom of St Melatiny the Virgin. ++ Martyrdom of St Taobesty. ++ Repose of Pope Athanasious the 2nd the 27th Pope of Alexandria. + +Psalm: 61:2-4 +"She shall be brought unto the King in naument of needle work: the virgins +he comapnions that follow her shall be brought unto Thee with gladness and +rejoice shall they be brought: they shall enter into the King's place" +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Luke 14:25-35 +"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour where the +son of man cometh". +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 21, +October 1, + +Theme of the day: "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness" Phil 1:11 +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Philippians 1:1-11 +"Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus +Christ, unot the glory and praise of God" + +Catholic Epistle: I John 2:7-11 +"He that sath he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in +darkness until now." + +Praxis: Acts 19:11-17 +"And God wrought special miracles by the hand of Paul." + +Synexarion: ++ The comemoration of the Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord. ++ The Martyrdom of St. Kebrainos and St. Yostena. Kebrianos was a +magician that wanted a young man to marry St. Yostena. The devils +appeared in her shape. The mention of her name turned them into dust. +He became a monk and then a bishop. The were martyred on the hands of +Dakios the king. + + +Psalm: 16:10,11 +"For whom will not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt them suffer +thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: +in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are +pleasures for evermore". +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Mark 3:28:35 +"For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother and my +sister and mother." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Thout 22, +October 2, + +Theme of the day: "Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ?" Rom +8:35 + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Romans 8:18-30 +"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy +to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" + +Catholic Epistle: I Peter 3:8-15 +"But and if ye suffer for rightousness' sake, happy aare ye and be not +afraid of their terror, neither be troubled." + +Praxis: Acts 19:23-41 +"And when they heard these sayings they were full of wrath, and cried +out saying, great is Diana of Ephesians" + +Synexarion: ++ The Martyrdom of St.Koptalas (the son of the Persian King Safour) +and his sister Oxsowa and Tatas his friend. ++ The Martyrdom of St. Kolyos the Akfahasy, the writer of the martyr's +history. + +Psalm: 68:35,3 +"O God, Thou art terrible out of Thy holy places: the God of Israel is +He that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed be God. But +le the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea let them +exceedingly rejoice." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Luke 12:4-12 +"But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: fear him which after he +hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea I say unto you fear +him." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 23, +October 3, + +Theme of the day: "Being filled with the fruits of righteousness" Phil 1:11 +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Philippians 1:1-11 +"Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus +Christ, unot the glory and praise of God" + +Catholic Epistle: I John 2:7-11 +"He that sath he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in +darkness until now." + +Praxis: Acts 19:11-17 +"And God wrought special miracles by the hand of Paul." + +Synexarion: + + + +Psalm: 16:10,11 +"For whom will not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt them suffer +thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: +in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are +pleasures for evermore". +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Mark 3:28:35 +"For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother and my +sister and mother." + + +Note: Readings are the same as Thout 21st. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Thout 24, +October 4, + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 25, +October 5, + +Season : Annual +Tune : Adam + +Verse of the Day: "He allowed no man to wrong them and He reproved kings + for their sake." + (Psalm 104:14) From the Vespers' Psalm. + +LITURGY: +________ + +Pauline Epistle: Hebrews 11:17-27 +"... esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures + in Egypt; for he looked to the reward." + +Catholic Epistle: II Peter 1:19-2:8 +"... knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private + interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men + of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." + +Praxis: Acts 15:21-29 +"... men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus + Christ." + +Synexarion: ++ Repose of Jonah, the prophet. + +Psalm: 98:6,7 +"Moses and Aaron among His priests and Samuel among them that call His + Name. They called upon the Lord and He hearkened unto them; in a pillar + of cloud He spoke unto them." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Matthew 23:13-36 +"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the + tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous ..." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Thout 26, +October 6, + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Thout 27, +October 7, + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Thout 28, +October 8, + +Season : Annual + +Verse of the day: "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake." + (Luke 21:17) + +Pauline Epistle: Romans 8:14-27 +"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." + +Catholic Epistle: 1 Peter 2:11-17 +"...having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak + against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they + observe, glorify God in the day of visitation." + +Praxis: Acts 19:11-20 +"Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul..." + +Synexarion: ++ Martyrs Sts. Apater and Eraee, children of Basildes, minister of Antioch. + An angel appeared to + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Thout 29, +October 9, + +Season : Festal +Abstinence + +Verse of the day: "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in + the Lord." + (Ephesians 5:8) + +Pauline Epistle: Ephesians 5:8-21 +"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather + expose them." + +Catholic Epistle: 1 Peter 3:5-14 +"...not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary + blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a + blessing." + +Praxis: Acts 21:5-14 +"...and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, + and stayed with him. Now this man had four virgin daughters who + prophesied." + +Synexarion: ++ Commemoration of the Annunciation, Nativity, and Resurrection ++ Martyrs St. Repsima and her virgin companions. + St. Repsima fled with her community to Armenia from the face of + Diocletian who desired her as his bride. In Armenia, Tridates, the + governor, fell in love with her and tried to violate her. Repsima repulsed + his advances. She was slain with her companions. + +Psalm: 44:14,15 +"The virgins that follow her shall be brought unto the King, those near + her shall be brought unto Thee. They shall be brought into the temple of + the King." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13 +"Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took + their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom." +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Thout 30, +October 10, + +Season : Annual + +Verse of the day: "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus + will suffer persecution." + (2 Timothy 3:12) + +Pauline Epistle: 2 Timothy 3:10-4:22 +"And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His + heavenly kingdom." + +Catholic Epistle: 1 Peter 5:1-14 +"But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by + Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, + strengthen, and settle you." + +Praxis: Acts 20:17:38 +"...serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which + happened to me by the plotting of the Jews..." + +Synexarion: ++ Miracle performed by God for St. Athanasius the Great, Patriarch of + Alexandria. + King Constantinus ordered St. Athanasius to be abandoned on a ship in + the sea without food or drink, thinking he might die either of starvation + or drowning; but with Divine Providence, the ship sailed and landed safely + on the coast of Alexandria. + +Psalm: 72:23,24,28 +"Thou hast held me by my right hand and by Thy counsel Thou hast guided + me; and with glory hast Thou taken me to Thyself. But it is good to + cleave unto God; that I may declare all Thy praises in the gates of + the daughter of Sion." +Alleluia! + +Gospel: John 10:1-16 +"I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own." + diff --git a/religious documents/c_exp.txt b/religious documents/c_exp.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9a93b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/c_exp.txt @@ -0,0 +1,137 @@ + CHRISTIANITY + EXPOSED + + ORDER OF THE + LEFT-HAND PATH + + "In Christianity the instincts of the subjugated and the oppressed +come into the foreground: it is the lowest classes which seek their +salvation in it. Here the casuistic business of sin, self-criticism, +conscience-inquisition is practised as a specific against boredom; here an +emotional attitude towards a power called 'God' is kept constantly alive +(through prayer); here the highest things are considered unachievable, +gifts, 'grace'. Here also public openness is also lacking; the +hole-and-corner, the dark chamber is Christianity. Here the body is +despised, hygiene repudiated as sensuality; the Church even resists +cleanliness (the first measure taken by the Christians after the expulsion +of the Moors was the closure of the public baths of which Cordova alone +possessed 270). A certain sense of cruelty towards oneself and others is +Christian; hatred of those who think differently; the will to persecute. +Mortal hostility against the masters of the earth, against the 'noble', +that is also Christian. Hatred of mind, of pride, courage, freedom, +libertinage of mind, is Christian; hatred of the sense, of the joy of the +senses, of joy in general is Christian..." - Friedrich Nietzsche. + + * * * + + JEHOVAH: THE TYRANT-GOD + + The Judaeo-Christians' own Bible shows Jehovah, their god, to be a +psychotic megalomaniac. + One of Jehovah's first actions towards mankind was to attempt to +deny his new creation wisdom, lest his position as slavemaster be +threatened. (Gen. 2:16-17, 3:1-7). + Jehovah is a god whose bloodlust against humanity can't be +satisfied until the Apocalypse described by John in The Revelation destroys +most of mankind and leaves Jehovah and Jesus enthroned as world tyrants +above remnant. + From his rejection of the fruit offering of Cain in favour of the +blood sacrifice of Abel (Gen. 4:3-5) until the final Apocalypse, when +blood will flow from 'the winepress of the wrath of God' (Rev. 14:19-20) +the hands of Jehovah are dripping with blood. + + * * * + + OLD TESTAMENT PATRIARCHS & PROPHETS + + The Old Testament makes it clear that the patriarchs and prophets +chosen by Jehovah to be revered by mankind as 'holy' are nothing but the +lowest scum. + +ABRAHAM pimps his wife off as a whore onto Pharaoh and King Abimelech, by +claiming she is his sister; a trick with Jehovah acting as a criminal +accomplice, which gains him much loot. (Gen. 12, 20). + +LOT, Abraham's nephew, offers his two daughters to a mob when they threaten +to homosexually rape two angels. (Gen. 19:8). + +DAVID commits adultery with Bathsheba then arranges for her husband to be +killed in battle. (Sam. II-11). + +ELISHA, successor to Elijah as Jehovah's great prophet. Whilst travelling +to Bethel he is teased by a large group of little children about his +baldness. The prophet curses them in the name of Jehovah, and two +she-bears come out of the woods and tear 42 of them. (II Kings 2:23-24). + + * * * + + JESUS + + Jesus merciful and loving is the image portrayed of him by the +Christian churches. The New Testament, however, shows him to be just as +psychotic and megalomaniacal as his alleged father Jehovah. This is not +surprising since, (according to Matt. 1:1) he comes from the tainted +lineage of Abraham, David and other criminals. + While he demands of his followers that they remain totally +submissive in relation to their own enemies (Sermon on the Mount, Matt. +5-7) Jesus commands that those who do not submit to his reign be brought +before him and slain. (Luke 19:27). + Jesus declares that all those who refuse to accept his divinity +shall be damned. (Mark 16:16). What this damnation shall be is made +clear: 'everlasting fire.' (Matt. 25:41). + Jesus' megalomania gets out of hand when he describes the day when +he will "come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he +sit upon the throne of his glory." (Matt. 25:31). + + * * * + + THE FINAL HOLY BLOOD-ORGY + + It is appropriate that the Judaeo-Christian Bible should end with +an orgy of bloodlust against Jehovah's long-suffering human creation. + In The Revelation we read of the torment of fire and brimstone upon +most of mankind, in the presence of a sadistic Jesus and his angels. (Rev. +14:10-11). + Jesus will then reign over the earth for 1000 years, after which he +finds it inexplicably necessary to again slaughter much of humanity by a +colossal war. (Rev. 20:6). He and Jehovah will then sit up thrones, +attended by servants, within a city built of precious stones: an Oriental +despot's fantasy! (Rev. 21-22). + + * * * + + THE LEGACY + + Wherever Judaeo-Christianity has exerted influence it has ravaged +mankind morally, intellectually and physically. + Christianity has sought to impose limitations upon the mind. +Ignorance is elevated to a holy state. Paul declares: "For wisdom of this +world is foolishness to God." (I Cor. 3:19). + This is the mentality which gave history the Dark Ages, the +Inquisition, book-burning, a legacy of dark ignorance which continues to +have its impact today. + It is the same mentality which even now motivates 'concerned +Christian parents' to burn books containing material far less 'immoral' +than the chronicle of rape, murder and pillage contained in their own +Bible. + It is Christianity which has soured relations between the sexes +with its commandments for the subjugation of women. "Wives must submit +yourselves to your husbands"; "But I shall suffer not a woman to teach, not +to usurp authority over man", writes the neurotic Paul. How different this +is to the attitude of pre-Christian Europe, which regarded women as +prophetesses. + The Judaeo-Christian dogma has been nothing but a curse upon +mankind. Now, as we strive to free ourselves from this plague, may it be +humanity's turn to curse the tyrant-god, the demented Nazarene, and their +whole noxious creed. + + * * * + +For a complete refutation of the Judaeo-Christian creed, read: +ANTI-CHRIST: THE BIBLE RECONSIDERED +Over 80 references cited, written by an ex-Christian priest. +NZ$5.00 (US$3.00) +Cheques & Money Orders payable to +"Realist Publications". +Write: Order of the Left-Hand Path +Box 38-262 Petone, New Zealand. diff --git a/religious documents/caiaphas.txt b/religious documents/caiaphas.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8536fc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/caiaphas.txt @@ -0,0 +1,150 @@ + PEOPLE OF THE BIBLE + + + + CAIAPHAS + + + + +MAT 26:2 Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son +of man is betrayed to be crucified. + +MAT 26:3 Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the +elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, who was called +Caiaphas, + +MAT 26:57 And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the +high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. + +MAT 26:63 But Jesus held his peace, And the high priest answered and said unto +him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the +Christ, the Son of God. + +MAT 26:64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, +Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and +coming in the clouds of heaven. + +MAT 26:65 Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken +blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his +blasphemy. + +LUK 3:2 Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto +John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. + +JOH 11:49 And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same +year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, + +JOH 11:50 Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for +the people, and that the whole nation perish not. + +JOH 11:51 And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he +prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; + +JOH 18:13 And led him away to Annas first; for he was father in law to +Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. + +JOH 18:14 Now Caiaphas was he, which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was +expedient that one man should die for the people. + +JOH 18:24 Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest. + +JOH 18:28 Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it +was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should +be defiled; but that they might eat the passover. + +ACT 4:1 And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the +temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, + +ACT 4:2 Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus +the resurrection from the dead. + +ACT 4:3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: +for it was now eventide. + +ACT 4:4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of +the men was about five thousand. + +ACT 4:5 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and +scribes, + +ACT 4:6 And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and +as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at +Jerusalem. + +ACT 4:7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or +by what name, have ye done this? + +ACT 4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of +the people, and elders of Israel, + +ACT 4:9 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, +by what means he is made whole; + +ACT 4:10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the +name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the +dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. + +ACT 4:11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is +become the head of the corner. + +ACT 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name +under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. + +ACT 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that +they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of +them, that they had been with Jesus. + +ACT 4:14 And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could +say nothing against it. + +ACT 4:15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they +conferred among themselves, + +ACT 4:16 Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable +miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; +and we cannot deny it. + +ACT 4:17 But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly +threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. + +ACT 4:18 And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach +in the name of Jesus. + +ACT 4:19 But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in +the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. + +ACT 4:20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. + +ACT 4:21 So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding +nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified +God for that which was done. + +ACT 4:22 For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing +was shewed. + + + + + ============================== + + + THE + + LECTRONIC IBRARY ECHANGE + + + P.O. BOX 19454 + + DENVER, COLORADO 80219 + + + BBS: 303-935-6323 + + FIDONET: 1:104/810.0 + + THENETWORK: 8:7703/11.0 + + + End Of File + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cain.txt b/religious documents/cain.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..27fb6be --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cain.txt @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@ + PEOPLE OF THE BIBLE + + + + CAIN + + + + +GEN 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, +I have gotten a man from the LORD. + +GEN 4:3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit +of the ground an offering unto the LORD. + +GEN 4:4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat +thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: + +GEN 4:5 But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very +wroth, and his countenance fell. + +GEN 4:6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy +countenance fallen? + +GEN 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not +well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt +rule over him. + +GEN 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they +were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. + +GEN 4:9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I +know not: Am I my brother's keeper? + +GEN 4:10 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood +crieth unto me from the ground. + +GEN 4:11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to +receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; + +GEN 4:12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee +her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. + +GEN 4:13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. + + +GEN 4:14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; +and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in +the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay +me. + +GEN 4:15 And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, +vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, +lest any finding him should kill him. + +GEN 4:16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land +of Nod, on the east of Eden. + +GEN 4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he +builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, +Enoch. + +GEN 4:18 And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael +begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. + +HEB 11:4 By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, +by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: +and by it he being dead yet speaketh. + +1JO 3:12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And +wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's +righteous. + +JUD 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily +after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. + + + + + ============================== + + + THE + + LECTRONIC IBRARY ECHANGE + + + P.O. BOX 19454 + + DENVER, COLORADO 80219 + + + BBS: 303-935-6323 + + FIDONET: 1:104/810.0 + + THENETWORK: 8:7703/11.0 + + + End Of File + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cakes.txt b/religious documents/cakes.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..05216f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cakes.txt @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +ab:cakes.txt 16jan90 + + + Cake Blessing + + +Follows: Wine Blessing + +To consecrate cakes, HPS picks up athame again as HP kneels before her, +holding up the dish of cakes. HPS draws invoking pentagram of earth over +the cakes saying: + +HPS: "O Queen, most secret, bless this food unto our bodies; + bestowing health, wealth, strength, joy and peace, + and that fulfillment of love which is perfect happiness." + +All sit as the cakes are passed around as was the wine. + +HP refills cup and offers it to HPS, inviting her to join them. +When done relaxing and chatting, close the Circle. + +---------- +-Many published sources. These include: + Janet and Stewart Farrar "Eight Sabbats For Witches" + "Grimoire of Lady Sheba" + diff --git a/religious documents/calend.txt b/religious documents/calend.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df507f1 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/calend.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/calendar.txt b/religious documents/calendar.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..35814e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/calendar.txt @@ -0,0 +1,188 @@ + + CALENDAR OF EVENTS 1/1/'89 + + This Calendar is available by subscription ($4.00/yr) from: + Larry Cornett 9527 Blake Lane, Apt. 102, Fairfax, VA 22031 + Publication exchanges include the right to reprint the Calendar. + +******************************************************************************** +Date Event and +Cost Location Description Contact +******************************************************************************** + + Concert&workshop Kenny, Tzipora & Lance Phone +1/4 -Norfolk, VA @ Ramblin' Conrads (804) 461-3655 +1/6 -N.Hollywood, FL Concert & workshop (305) 987-3960 +1/13-14 -Sarasota, FL Concert (813) 351-6178 +1/19 -Black Mtn., NC @ McDibbs +1/20-22 -Atlanta, GA Concert (404)325-5160 +1/26 -Ft Smith, Ark. @ Old Town Grain and Feed +1/28 -Columbia, MO Concert (314) 875-1787 +2/1 -Lawrence, KS @ The Crossing +2/2 -Tulsa, OK @ Indian Territory Coffee Co. +2/4-5 -Houston, TX Concert... (713) 666-1449 +2/9 -Santa Fe, NM @ Nighthawk + +Jan-Feb Georgia, Florida Andy Hewitt, Steve Kelly XAT Medicine Society + Lodging, You arrange the of XAT share medicine 1404 Gale Lane + Donations location/time ways, Earth healing, Nashville, TN 37212 + spirit journeys, etc. (615) 298-9932 + +1/6-8 Hearthfire Healing, stories, songs, EarthSpirit Community + $80 includes Near Boston, MA visions, family & warmth P.O. Box 365 + food/shelter Limited to 100 people Medford, MA 02155 + +1/13-15 Esotericon M.Z. Bradley, Selena Fox Esotericon + $30 ($35 Holiday Inn Katherine Kurtz, Jane P.O. Box 22775 + after 12/28) Jetport Sibley, Alexi Kondatiev Newark, NJ 07101 + + room Elizabeth, NJ Leigh Ann Hussey, etc. + +1/21-22 Shamanic Journey Dana Robinson teaches (301) 565-8260 + Beltsville, MD core shamanism-healing + power, Harner technique + +2/3-5 Medicine Wheel Ceremonies, workshops, Jude + Gathering Native Earth Religions,etc.3070 Kalihi St. + Hawaii (808) 842-3744 Honolulu, HI 96819 + +2/9-11 Oracles of Weekend of divination, N.W. Year Wheel Prod. + Midwinter introspection, and P.O. Box 2010 + Northwest U.S. initiation Seattle, WA 98111 + +2/11-12 Heart to Heart Workshops,music,psychics Network of Light +$28 ($15 Fair merchants, food etc. @GSA 4617 Hunt Ave., +per day) Washington, DC Auditorium-Constitution Chevy Chase, MD 20815 + Ave. between 12th & 14th (301) 986-1223 + +2/24-26 Spring Intensive Learn meditation, mind- Sunray Meditation Soc +3/3-5 Peacekeeper fullness, transformation P.O. Box 308 + Mission Gathering Bristol, VT 05443 + Vermont area (803) 453-4610 + +3/3-5 Winterstar Robert A. Wilson, Isaac A.C.E. + East Ohio Bonewitz, Ian Corrigan, 1643 Lee Rd. #9 + etc., workshops, rituals, Cleveland Hts. OH + music, etc. (216)932-5421 44118-1710 + +3/10-12 Goddess Festival Rituals, dance, music, Goddess Festival + New York City drama, comedy, talks N.Y. Open Center + workshops, film, etc. 83 Spring St. + New York, NY 10012 + +3/17-19 American Indian Members of Elder's Circle Mtn.Camp & Conf. + $128 Perspectives of American Indian Council Center + (including Highlands, NC speak on environmental 841 Highway 106 + meals,etc.) social & political issues Highlands, NC 28741 + +3/19 Gaia Reborn Lisa Thiel, Charlie Murphy Gaia + San Francisco, CA Riane Eisler lead ritual (415) 548-4172 + & music for Earth healing + +4/14-16 Sharing Spirit Hand's on Weekend of Conferences SS/SS + $120 ($135 Sharing Skills Women's spirituality with c/o RCG + after 3/15) Central Wisconsin Reformed Congregation of P.O.B. 6021 + the Goddess Madison, WI 53716 + +4/28-30 Bale Fire Spring White Water Valley Grove Jade Tree + $35,children Rites, East- organizing this festival, Box 1728 + under 12 free Central Indiana with rites, drumming, etc. Richmond, IN 47374 + +5/19-21 Rebirthing Woman A process of empowerment Cindy Parker + Newark, OH in a retreat with work 2137 Newark-Granville + shops, natural living,etc. Rd., + (614) 587-3361 Newark, OH 43055 + +5/23-29 Rites of Spring Rituals, workshops, music EarthSpirit Community + Tentative Western Mass visions, sweatlodges, P.O. Box 365 + Berkshire Mtns. swimming, cabins for 450 Medford, MA 02155 + people, meals available + +5/27-29 Women-Earth- Gathering on Women's Sevenoaks Pathwork + Spirit Spirituality Cntr., Rt. 1, Box 86 + Madison, VA (703) 948-6544 Madison, VA 22727 + +6/9-11 Medicine Wheel Ceremonies, workshops, Lou DeSabala + Gathering Native Earth Religions,etc.P.O. Box 5719 + Boston, MA area (301) 270-6909 Takoma Park, MD 20912 + +6/12-18 Pagan Spirit Rituals, workshops,music, Circle + Gathering Pagan Spirit Alliance Mtg. P.O. Box 219 + Wisconsin camping, etc.(608)924-2216 Mt. Horeb, WI 53572 + +6/15-18 Gathering of The Workshops, rituals, music, Free Spirit Alliance + $40 thru 3/18 Tribes: A leadership training, etc. P.O. Box 5358 + $50 till 6/1 New Beginning Theme: New beginnings Laurel, MD 20707 + $55 $ door Maryland ($25/day, children $30) + +6/16-18 Medicine Wheel Ceremonies, workshops, Lou DeSabala + Gathering Native Earth Religions,etc.P.O. Box 5719 + Toronto, Ontario (301) 270-6909 Takoma Park, MD 20912 + Canada + +7/1-7 National Rainbow Camping, music, sweat + Gathering lodges, meditation, + Nevada + +7/8-9 Shamanic Journey Michael Harner teaches Sevenoaks Pathwork + Power & Healing core shamanic techniques Cntr., Rt. 1, Box 86 + Madison, VA (703) 948-6544 Madison, VA 22727 + +7/19-23 Starwood Rituals, workshops, music ACE + (Tentative) East Ohio celebration, drumming, 1643 Lee Rd. #9 + fireworks, etc. Cleveland Hts. OH + (216) 932-5421 44118-1710 + +7/28-30 Ecumenicon Magickal mystical Charlie Butler + $30 til 4/15 College Pk, MD convention, with rituals 404 E. Melborne Ave. + $35 til 7/1 workshops, music, etc. Silver Spring, MD + $40 @ door (301) 345-6700 20901 + +9/22-24 Medicine Wheel Ceremonies, workshops, Lou DeSabala + Gathering Native Earth Religions,etc.P.O. Box 5719 + New York State (301) 270-6909 Takoma Park, MD 20912 + +October Partnership Riane Eisler, etc. at Center for + Celebration international festival: Partnership Studies + Crete music, art and dance P.O. Box 51936 + celebrating partnership Pacific Grove, CA + with Mother Earth, etc. 93950 + +10/20-22 Medicine Wheel Ceremonies, workshops, Singing Pipe Woman + Gathering Native Earth Religions,etc.P.O. Box 238 + SanDiego, CA area (509) 233-2061 Springdale, WA 99173 + +Fridays near Bardic Circle Poems, songs, stories, Puf & Nema + New Moon Columbus, OH pot luck (614) 267-9673 + +Ongoing at Sabbat Rituals Celebrate the wheel EarthSpirit Community + Sabbats Boston MA area of the year P.O.B. 365 + Medford, MA 02155 + +Ongoing at New Moons & Meetings and New Moons Judy Haskell + New Moons meetings (713) 271-1154 5920 Bissonnet, #113 + Houston, TX area Houston, TX 77081 + +Ongoing at Sabbats & New Rituals, etc. Coven of the Sacred + Sabbats and Moons Stone + New Moons Chicago area (312) 525-9194 + +Ongoing at Sabbats & New Rituals, etc. Aquarius Spiritus + Sabbats and Moons Templum + New Moons Bristol, Indiana (219) 848-7539 + +Third Sat&Sun Natural Living Health food pot lucks, Ron & Barbara Edwards + Each Month Celebration guided meditations,new age 220 Sharon Dr. + Free Spring Hill, FL networking, (813) 856-3046 Spring Hill, FL 33526 + +Ongoing Tantra Yoga Tantra, healing, chanting Richie Suraei + weekends Newburgh,NY area sexuality, massage, dance Tantra Society + Yoga, postures, rituals 67 Maple St. + camping, music, etc. Newburgh, NY 12550 + + + TO OBTAIN FURTHER DETAILS, SEND A SASE TO THE CONTACTS LISTED + +This calendar is now available and uploaded frequently on CompuServe's New Age +Religion Library. Downloading and uploading into local BBS systems is encouraged.evenoaks Pathwork + Spirit Spirituality Cntr., Rt. 1, Box 86 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/calls.txt b/religious documents/calls.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fee8e6c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/calls.txt @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +ab:calls.txt 16jan90 + + + + Of Calls + + + Of old there were many chants and songs used, especially in the dances. + Many of these have been forgotten by us here; but we know they used + cries of IAU, HAU, which seems much like the cry of the ancients: EVO + or EAVOE. Much dependeth upon the pronunciation if this be so. In my + youth when I heard the cry IAU it seemed to me to be AEIOU, or rather + HAAEE IOOUU or AA EE IOOOOUU. This may be but the way to prolong it to + make it fit for a call; but it suggests that these may be the initials + of an invocation, as AGLA used to be. And of sooth the whole Hebrew + Alphabet is said to be such and for this reason is recited as a most + powerful charm. At least this is certain, these cries during the dances + do have a powerful effect, as I myself have seen. + + Other calls are: IEHOUA and EHEIE. Also HO HO HO ISE ISE ISE. + + IEO VEO VEO VEO VEOV OROV OV OVOVO may be a spell, but it is more + likely to be a call. 'Tis like the EVOE EVOE of the Greeks and the + "Heave Ho !" of sailors. "Emen hetan" and "Ab hur, ab hus" seem calls; + as "Horse and hattock, horse and go ! Horse and pellatis, ho, ho, ho !" + + "Thout, tout a tout tout, throughout and about" and "Rentum tormentum" + are probably mispronounced attempts at a forgotten formula, though they + may have been invented by some unfortunate being tortured, to evade + telling the real formula. +---------- + -Published in Janet & Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way", from GBG's + Text B/C BOS. + diff --git a/religious documents/candlema.txt b/religious documents/candlema.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65c3465 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/candlema.txt @@ -0,0 +1,139 @@ + + C A N D L E M A S: The Light Returns + ===================================== + by Mike Nichols + + + It seems quite impossible that the holiday of Candlemas should be +considered the beginning of Spring. Here in the Heartland, February 2nd +may see a blanket of snow mantling the Mother. Or, if the snows have +gone, you may be sure the days are filled with drizzle, slush, and +steel-grey skies -- the dreariest weather of the year. In short, the +perfect time for a Pagan Festival of Lights. And as for Spring, +although this may seem a tenuous beginning, all the little buds, flowers +and leaves will have arrived on schedule before Spring runs its course +to Beltane. + + 'Candlemas' is the Christianized name for the holiday, of course. +The older Pagan names were Imbolc and Oimelc. 'Imbolc' means, +litterally, 'in the belly' (of the Mother). For in the womb of Mother +Earth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by a keener vision, +there are stirrings. The seed that was planted in her womb at the +solstice is quickening and the new year grows. 'Oimelc' means 'milk of +ewes', for it is also lambing season. + + The holiday is also called 'Brigit's Day', in honor of the great +Irish Goddess Brigit. At her shrine, the ancient Irish capitol of +Kildare, a group of 19 priestesses (no men allowed) kept a perpetual +flame burning in her honor. She was considered a goddess of fire, +patroness of smithcraft, poetry and healing (especially the healing +touch of midwifery). This tripartite symbolism was occasionally +expressed by saying that Brigit had two sisters, also named Brigit. +(Incidentally, another form of the name Brigit is Bride, and it is thus +She bestows her special patronage on any woman about to be married or +handfasted, the woman being called 'bride' in her honor.) + + The Roman Catholic Church could not very easily call the Great +Goddess of Ireland a demon, so they canonized her instead. Henceforth, +she would be 'Saint' Brigit, patron SAINT of smithcraft, poetry, and +healing. They 'explained' this by telling the Irish peasants that +Brigit was 'really' an early Christian missionary sent to the Emerald +Isle, and that the miracles she performed there 'misled' the common +people into believing that she was a goddess. For some reason, the +Irish swallowed this. (There is no limit to what the Irish imagination +can convince itself of. For example, they also came to believe that +Brigit was the 'foster-mother' of Jesus, giving no thought to the +implausibility of Jesus having spent his boyhood in Ireland!) + + Brigit's holiday was chiefly marked by the kindling of sacred fires, +since she symbolized the fire of birth and healing, the fire of the +forge, and the fire of poetic inspiration. Bonfires were lighted on the +beacon tors, and chandlers celebrated their special holiday. The Roman +Church was quick to confiscate this symbolism as well, using 'Candlemas' +as the day to bless all the church candles that would be used for the +coming liturgical year. (Catholics will be reminded that the follwing +day, St. Blaise's Day, is remembered for using the newly-blessed candles +to bless the throats of parishoners, keeping them from colds, flu, sore +throats, etc.) + + The Catholic Church, never one to refrain from piling holiday upon +holiday, also called it the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed +Virgin Mary. (It is surprising how many of the old Pagan holidays were +converted to Maryan Feasts.) The symbol of the Purification may seem a +little obscure to modern readers, but it has to do with the old custom +of 'churching women'. It was believed that women were impure for six +weeks after giving birth. And since Mary gave birth at the winter +solstice, she wouldn't be purified until February 2nd. In Pagan +symbolism, this might be re-translated as when the Great Mother once +again becomes the Young Maiden Goddess. + + Today, this holiday is chiefly connected to weather lore. Even our +American folk-calendar keeps the tradition of 'Groundhog's Day', a day +to predict the coming weather, telling us that if the Groundhog sees his +shadow, there will be 'six more weeks' of bad weather (i.e., until the +next old holiday, Lady Day). This custom is ancient. An old British +rhyme tells us that 'If Candlemas Day be bright and clear, there'll be +two winters in the year.' Actually, all of the cross-quarter days can +be used as 'inverse' weather predictors, whereas the quarter-days are +used as 'direct' weather predictors. + + Like the other High Holidays or Great Sabbats of the Witches' year, +Candlemas is sometimes celebrated on it's alternate date, astrologically +determined by the sun's reaching 15-degrees Aquarius, or Candlemas Old +Style (in 1988, February 3rd, at 9:03 am CST). Another holiday that +gets mixed up in this is Valentine's Day. Ozark folklorist Vance +Randolf makes this quite clear by noting that the old-timers used to +celebrate Groundhog's Day on February 14th. This same displacement is +evident in Eastern Orthodox Christianity as well. + + Their habit of celebrating the birth of Jesus on January 6th, with a +similar post-dated shift in the six-week period that follows it, puts +the Feast of the Purification of Mary on February 14th. It is amazing +to think that the same confusion and lateral displacement of one of the +old folk holidays can be seen from the Russian steppes to the Ozark +hills, but such seems to be the case! + + Incidentally, there is speculation among linguistic scholars that +the vary name of 'Valentine' has Pagan origins. It seems that it was +customary for French peasants of the Middle Ages to pronounce a 'g' as a +'v'. Consequently, the original term may have been the French +'galantine', which yields the English word 'gallant'. The word +originally refers to a dashing young man known for his 'affaires +d'amour', a true galaunt. The usual associations of V(G)alantine's Day +make much more sense in this light than their vague connection to a +legendary 'St. Valentine' can produce. Indeed, the Church has always +found it rather difficult to explain this nebulous saint's connection to +the secular pleasures of flirtation and courtly love. + + For modern Witches, Candlemas O.S. may then be seen as the Pagan +version of Valentine's Day, with a de-emphasis of 'hearts and flowers' +and an appropriate re-emphasis of Pagan carnal frivolity. This also re- +aligns the holiday with the ancient Roman Lupercalia, a fertility +festival held at this time, in which the priests of Pan ran through the +streets of Rome whacking young women with goatskin thongs to make them +fertile. The women seemed to enjoy the attention and often stripped in +order to afford better targets. + + One of the nicest folk-customs still practiced in many countries, +and especially by Witches in the British Isles and parts of the U.S., is +to place a lighted candle in each and every window of the house, +beginning at sundown on Candlemas Eve (February 1st), allowing them to +continue burning until sunrise. Make sure that such candles are well +seated against tipping and guarded from nearby curtains, etc. What a +cheery sight it is on this cold, bleak and dreary night to see house +after house with candle-lit windows! And, of course, if you are your +Coven's chandler, or if you just happen to like making candles, +Candlemas Day is THE day for doing it. Some Covens hold candle-making +parties and try to make and bless all the candles they'll be using for +the whole year on this day. + + Other customs of the holiday include weaving 'Brigit's crosses' from +straw or wheat to hang around the house for protection, performing rites +of spiritual cleansing and purification, making 'Brigit's beds' to +ensure fertility of mind and spirit (and body, if desired), and making +Crowns of Light (i.e. of candles) for the High Priestess to wear for the +Candlemas Circle, similar to those worn on St. Lucy's Day in +Scandinavian countries. All in all, this Pagan Festival of Lights, +sacred to the young Maiden Goddess, is one of the most beautiful and +poetic of the year. + diff --git a/religious documents/candlems.txt b/religious documents/candlems.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0510e30 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/candlems.txt @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +ab:candlems.txt 14jan90 + + + Candlemas + --------- + + The HPS, carrying the Wand, leads the coveners with a dance step to + the chosen site. + The Volta Dance follows: in other words, lively dancing in couples. + HPS casts the Circle in the usual way. + HP then enters the Circle, with a Sword in his right hand + and a Wand in his left. He lays these on the altar. + HP now salutes the HPS with the Fivefold Kiss. + She says 'Blessed be' and gives him the Fivefold Kiss in return. + + HP assumes the god position before the altar as the HPS invokes: + + HPS: "Dread Lord of Death and Resurrection, + Of Life, and the Giver of Life; + Lord within ourselves, whose name is Mystery of Mysteries; + Encourage our hearts, + Let the Light crystallize itself in our blood, + Fulfilling us of resurrection; + For there is no part of us that is not of the Gods. + Descend, we pray thee, upon thy servant and priest." + + Any initiations to be done are done at this point. + + The ceremony of Cakes and Wine follows. + + The Great Rite is done if at all possible. + + Feasting, dancing and games follow the closing of the ritual. + + ---------- + + -From Stewart Farrar "What Witches Do"; he derived it from + Alex Sanders' BOS. + diff --git a/religious documents/candles1.txt b/religious documents/candles1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb00eb8 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/candles1.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/candlmas.txt b/religious documents/candlmas.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aff4052 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/candlmas.txt @@ -0,0 +1,126 @@ +C A N D L E M A S -by Gwydion Cinhil Kirontin + + + It seems quite impossible that the holiday of Candlemas +should be considered the beginning of Spring. Here in the +heartland, February 2nd may see a blanket of snow mantling the +Mother. Or, if the snows have gone, you may be sure the days are +filled with drizzle, slush, and steel-grey skies -- the dreariest +weather of the year. In short, the perfect time for a Pagan +Festival of Lights. And as for Spring, although this may seem a +tenuous beginning, all the little buds, flowers and leaves will +have arrived on schedule before Spring runs its course to Beltane. + + "Candlemas" is the Christianized name for the holiday, of +course. The older Pagan names were Imbolc and Oimelc. "Imbolc" +means, litterally, "in the belly" (of the Mother). For in the +womb of Mother Earth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by +a keener vision, there are stirrings. The seed that was planted +in her womb at the solstice is quickening and the new year grows. + "Oimelc" means "milk of ewes", for it is also lambing season. + + The holiday is also called "Brigit's Day", in honor of the +great Irish Goddess Brigit. At her shrine, the ancient Irish +capital of Kildare, a group of 19 priestesses (no men allowed) +kept a perpetual flame burning in her honor. She was considered +a goddess of fire, patroness of smithcraft, poetry and healing +(especially the healing touch of midwifery). This tripartite +symbolism was occasionally expressed by saying that Brigit had +two sisters, also named Brigit. (Incidentally, another form of +the name Brigit is Bride, and it is thus She bestows her special +patronage on any woman about to be married or handfasted, the +woman being called "bride" in her honor.) + + The Roman Catholic Church could not very easily call the +Great Goddess of Ireland a demon, so they canonized her instead. +Henceforth, she would be "Saint" Brigit, patron saint of +smithcraft, poetry, and healing. They "explained" this by +telling the Irish peasants that Brigit was "really" an early +Christian missionary sent to the Emerald Isle, and that the +miracles she performed there "misled" the common people into +believing that she was a goddess. For some reason, the Irish +swallowed this. (There is no limit to what the Irish imagination +can convince itself of. For example, they also came to believe +that Brigit was the "foster-mother" of Jesus, giving no thought +to the implausibility of Jesus having spent his boyhood in Ireland!) + + Brigit's holiday was chiefly marked by the kindling of sacred +fires, since she symbolized the fire of birth and healing, the +fire of the forge, and the fire of poetic inspiration. Bonfires +were lighted on the beacon tors, and chandlers celebrated their +special holiday. The Roman Church was quick to confiscate this +symbolism as well, using "Candlemas" as the day to bless all the +church candles that would be used for the coming liturgical year. +(Catholics will be reminded that the following day, St. Blaise's +Day, is remembered for using the newly-blessed candles to bless +the throats of parishoners, keeping them from colds, flu, sore +throats, etc.) + + The Catholic Church, never one to refrain from piling holiday +upon holiday, also called it the Feast of the Purification of the +Blessed Virgin Mary. (It is surprising how many of the old Pagan +holidays were converted to Maryan Feasts.) The symbol of the +Purification may seem a little obscure to modern readers, but it +has to do with the old custom of "churching women". It was +believed that women were impure for six weeks after giving birth. +And since Mary gave birth at the winter solstice, she wouldn't be +purified until February 2nd. In Pagan symbolism, this might be +re-translated as when the Great Mother once again becomes the +Young Maiden Goddess. + + Today, this holiday is chiefly connected to weather lore. +Even our American folk-calendar keeps the tradition of +"Groundhog's Day", a day to predict the coming weather, telling +us that if the Groundhog sees his shadow, there will be "six more +weeks" of bad weather (i.e., until the next old holiday, Lady +Day). This custom is ancient. An old British rhyme tells us +that "If Candlemas Day be bright and clear, there'll be two +winters in the year." Actually, all of the cross-quarter days +can be used as "inverse" weather predictors, whereas the quarter- +days are used as "direct" weather predictors. + + Like the other High Holidays or Great Sabbats of the Witches' +year, Candlemas is sometimes celebrated on it's alternate date, +astrologically determined by the sun's reaching 15-degrees +Aquarius, or Candlemas Old Style (this year, February 6th). +Another holiday that gets mixed up in this is Valentine's Day. +Ozark folklorist Vance Randolf makes this quite clear by noting +that the old-timers used to celebrate Groundhog's Day on February +14th. Once again, this shows the resultant confusion of calendar +changes and "lost days" that have accumulated down the centuries. +For modern Witches, Candlemas O.S. may be seen as the Pagan +version of Valentine's Day, with a de-emphasis of "hearts and +flowers" and an appropriate re-emphasis of Pagan carnal +frivolity. This also re-aligns the holiday with the ancient +Roman Lupercalia, a fertility festival held at this time, in +which the priests of Pan ran through the streets of Rome whacking +young women with goatskin thongs to make them fertile. The women +seemed to enjoy the attention and often stripped in order to +afford better targets. + + One of the nicest folk-customs still practiced in many +countries, and especially by Witches in the British Isles and +parts of the U.S., is to place a lighted candle in each and every +window of the house, beginning at sundown on Candlemas Eve +(February 1), allowing them to continue burning until sunrise. +Make sure that such candles are well seated against tipping and +gaurded from nearby curtains, etc. What a cheery sight it is on +this cold, bleak and dreary night to see house after house with +candle-lit windows! And, of course, if you are your Coven's +chandler, or if you just happen to like making candles, Candlemas +Day is the day for doing it. Some Covens hold candle-making +parties and try to make and bless all the candles they'll be +using for the whole year on this day. + + Other customs of the holiday include weaving "Brigit's +crosses" from straw or wheat to hang around the house for +protection, performing rites of spiritual cleansing and +purification, making "Brigit's beds" to ensure fertility of mind +and spirit (and body, if desired), and making Crowns of Light +(i.e. of candles) for the High Priestess to wear for the +Candlemas Circle, similar to those worn on St. Lucy's Day in +Scandinavian countries. All and all, this is certainly one of the +prettiest holidays celebrated in the Pagan seasonal calendar. + + + diff --git a/religious documents/carismat.txt b/religious documents/carismat.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6843298 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/carismat.txt @@ -0,0 +1,448 @@ + + + CHARISMATIC/PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT + WITHIN THE BODY OF CHRIST + + In today's body of believers there is phenomena occurring that +is causing a great deal of concern. The phenomena is that of the +Charismatic or Pentecostal movement. The terms come from, in the +case of Charismatic, the Greek term CHARISMA which means "gift", or +from the actions that took place on the day of Pentecost. In +specific, the matter of speaking in tongues. The polarization of +acceptance or rejection of the issue has caused many churches to +split, and at the same time caused many churches to become alive +and literally "on fire" for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. + + First of all, it is important that we acknowledge that this +report will not resolve the issue to the body of Christ. This +teaching is prayerfully dedicated to the hope that we will provide +insights into what the Bible has to say about the matter, and to +"prod" each person to "study to make thyself approved." In short, +to have each of you seek your answer from God's Word and not from +any human of this age. + + Certain precepts are necessary in discussing the matter of +speaking in tongues. These are: + +(1) We must take the words of Jude 3 as THE premise for our +investigation into this matter, and I quote: "Beloved, when I gave +all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was +needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that you should +earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the +saints." + + It is important to look at the Greek (which, alone, is the +inspired version) word THE preceding the word FAITH. The term +points to the ONE and ONLY faith. It is clear that Jude is saying +that there IS NO OTHER FAITH. Other references (Galations 1:23 and +1 Timothy 4:1) also reflect this SINGULAR and EXCLUSIVE faith. Now +the really important term to look at is ONCE FOR ALL. The Greek +term (HAPAX) is a term that means "done for all time with lasting +results; never in need of repetition." The term DELIVERED, in +Greek, is what the Greeks call an aorist passive participle, +indicating a singular act completed in the past with no continuing +element - FINAL and COMPLETE action. Jude is telling us that +NOTHING needs to be added to THE FAITH that was delivered ONCE for +ALL of the Body of Christ. + +(2) The basis for any investigation MUST be to compare what we +know against the Bible. The cults have always based their activity +on the basis of "additional" or "New revelation" from God and, in +many cases, additional scripture. The Bible, through Jude is +telling us that ANY claims of "NEW" or "ADDITIONAL" revelation are +to be rejected as false. Christ's own words are to look at those +who claim to be sheep, yet are "ravenous wolves." John tells us +they are the antichrist and the spirit of antichrist. We must +accept the Bible as God's Word and accept His Word as final +authority, regardless of what we desire to believe to the contrary. +Our "feelings" MUST be measured according to the spiritual +yardstick of SCRIPTURE and SOLA SCRIPTURA (Scripture only). + +(3) The test of anything calling itself Christian is not its +significance or its success or its power, although these make it +more important to test them. The test is truth. + +(4) We are not going to deal with the issue of what a believer +does in private in his/her communication with God. The only issue +that the Bible deals with in this area is the PUBLIC observation of +this Gift of God. + + HISTORY OF THE MODERN MOVEMENT + + Let me give you a scenario for a service on a certain Sunday: +You sit with a congregation of intense worshipers. The zealous +singing is punctuated by cries of praise and fervent prayers. +Suddenly the person next to you stands up and begins to speak in +rapid syllables that seem completely foreign to any language you +have ever heard. The cryptic message is echoed by many other +members of the congregation, but in a quiet whispered manner. Then +another person stands and gives a message or "prophesy" in a first +person manner as though God Himself is speaking. He says something +like "Thus sayeth the Lord. If you, my people, will confess your +sins, and seek my path, and call on my name, you will be blessed +beyond measure." + + Then one by one, various members of the congregation are +standing and giving similar messages or speaking in the rapid +syllables as before, while others begin to sing praises to the +Lord. + + Does this sound familiar to you? Have you attended a similar +meeting? The above is a narrative on a meeting that was conducted +by a man named Montanus for his followers in the SECOND century +A.D. Montanus taught that EACH and EVERY believer was a means for +special revelation. To "prove" this power, they exercised dramatic +gifts of the Spirit including "prophesy" and "tongues," which +Montanus claimed were prophetic signs of the times. He even taught +that the New Jerusalem would descend and rest on his village in +Asia Minor DURING HIS LIFETIME! It was the claim of the Montanists +that their age was the "Age of the Spirit" and that in this "new +age" the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouths of the members of +Montanus' group, each of which were prophets or prophetesses. + + Montanus intimidated Christians in his claims that the church +was comprised of only two groups: (1) "Spiritual Christians" and +(2) "Carnal Christians." Needless to say the "spiritual" +classification applied ONLY to those who followed Montanus. He +claimed that the "carnal" ones were those who had only their "dead +letter" of the Scriptures. + + On many issues the Montanists were orthodox in doctrine; +However, they were such a divisive force that the Council of +Constantinople branded Montanus and his followers as heretic. + + Larry Christenson, a major leader of the Charismatic movement, +in his book ASPECTS OF PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC ORIGINS and in the +chapter PENTACOSTALISM'S FORGOTTEN FORERUNNER even claims the +Montanist movement as part of the Charismatic tradition! + + The "new age" for today began in 1900 on New Year's Eve at 7 +P.M. when a young Bible student by the name of Agnes N. Ozman asked +Charles Parham to lay hands on her as shown in scripture and pray +over her. When he had done so, Miss Ozman began to speak in rapid +syllables which neither of them could understand. This story is a +key historical moment in the pentecostal movement, and the +charismatics refer to it as a key to their movement. The above +statement that "neither could understand" is in the book THEY SPEAK +WITH OTHER TONGUES by John Sherrill. It is important, and I will +show why, later in this report. + + To summarize, the manifestation of speaking in tongues is +traceable throughout the old testament and the new, with special +emphasis on the BOOK OF ACTS and the matter of the preaching of the +Apostles in tongues. Before looking into that, we should do a +little more Greek grammar. + + The Greeks used two words for tongues. "GLOSSA" primarily +means human language when used in Scripture. The Septuagint uses +the term 30 times to specifically refer to human language. +"DIALEKTOS" is the other term used from which we receive our word +dialects. The meaning is clear in both words, understandable +speaking. + + Now let us turn to Acts 2 and read the chapter. In verse 4 we +are told that those chosen by God to speak for him "were filled +with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, and the +Spirit was giving them utterance." NOTE the statement, "other +tongues." The term is not UNKNOWN tongues - it is OTHER tongues. + + Then the question is, why would God want them to speak in a +tongue not their own? Look at the next two verses: + + "Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men, from +every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the +multitude came together, and were bewildered, because they were +each one hearing them speak in his own language." + + Many people were in Jerusalem from all over the Roman empire. +They spoke many languages. God wanted THEM to hear HIS message. +Reading on : + + "And they were amazed and marveled, saying, 'Why, are not all +these who are speaking Galileans?' "And how is it that we each +hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and +Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and +Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the +districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews +and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs - We hear them in our own tongues +speaking of the mighty deeds of God." (verses 7 through 11). + + Four points should be made about these verses: + + (1) They each heard them in their own language. (verse 6) + (2) They each hear in their own language. (verse 8) + (3) They heard them in their own tongue. + (4) Spoke the mighty deeds of God + + Due primarily to the fact that the Scripture was incomplete, +God needed to utilize a supernatural basis for getting the message +of Jesus out to the world. God chose 15 languages to bestow his +initial message upon mankind. This is confirmed in the recognition +of the gathering that the words spoke of the "great deeds of God." +A result of this outpouring of the Holy Spirit was the unification +and encouragement of the body. + + The next verses used by the Charismatics are found in I +Corinthians 12 to 14. It is interesting to note that very little +is even mentioned in the Bible on the matter of tongues until we +get to Corinthians and then it is because the Corinthians are +abusing the gift! Corinth was known for its do-your-own-thing +philosophy and carnality. The church at Corinth was no exception, +and the problem became so grave that they asked for Paul to step in +and give apostolic resolution as acknowledged in I Corinthians +12:1. Paul then lists the gifts of the Holy Spirit and (as always +found in the Bible) lists the gift of tongues LAST (it is sometimes +found next to last). + + Throughout the remainder of 12 and 13, Paul enforces the major +thrust of LOVE and its importance above all other outward acts of +the believers. In chapter 14, Paul gets down to the specifics of +tongues within the local body of believers. He actually sets up +the principles for the use of this gift. In verse 26 Paul begins +to lay out the principles: + + VERSE 26 .. EDIFICATION + + "What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each +one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, +has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification." + Before the Bible was completed, God needed to use His gifted +messengers to carry His message to the people. The people had to +wait for this message to be carried by these messengers. Some of +the messengers were "prophets" in that they spoke the message of +God without verbal error, while some spoke in a tongue while +another spoke the interpretation to further increase the +edification of the body. The very word edification means to remove +confusion! + + Paul states that some had a psalm, another a truth to be +taught, another a revelation from God. This is all at a time when +there was not a completed Scripture. However; ALL THINGS were to +be for the edification of ALL the believers. + + VERSES 27 and 28 .. PROCEDURE + + "If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at most +three, and each in turn, and let one interpret; But if there is no +interpreter, let him keep silent in the church; and let him speak +to himself and to God." + + Paul is explicit. Paul leaves no room for misunderstanding. +Paul lays it out the way it HAS TO BE to BE OF GOD. There are to +be no more than two persons who speak in tongues - not two at a +time. Paul does allow an exception that there could be ONE +additional person that could speak in a tongue, but the context +would indicate that this would be rare. Then Paul specifies ORDER. +The two (or three) cannot speak all at once. They are to take +turns. First one then another and, sometimes, a third. Paul tells +us in verse 40 that ALL things are to be done properly and in an +orderly fashion. + + INTERPRETATION + + Verse 27 says "... and let ONE interpret.." Verse 28 +continues, in context, "But if there is no interpreter, let him +keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to +God." + + Paul, again, makes it perfectly clear. ONE INDIVIDUAL is to +do the interpreting. The Greek text makes that very clear. It is +the word for one single individual from several. Paul states that +ONE person with the ability to interpret would interpret for the +two or three speakers who spoke in a tongue. The two or three +different speakers but the ONE interpreter! Paul is giving Godly +restraint to the exercise of these gifts. A clearly defined plan +for the building up of each member of the congregation. + + VERSE 33 .. NO CONFUSION + + "For God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the +churches of the saints." + It goes without saying that where you find confusion and +disharmony you do not find God. Look around you. God, in +Scripture tells us in Romans that we KNOW that God exists from the +creation of the world and all that it contains. Is there any +confusion in God's creation? God spins universes through space in +such precision that we mortals set our quartz watches BY THE +MOVEMENT OF THE PLANETS! Scripture tells us that God is not a god +of confusion - this leaves only the "god of this age" who could +author confusion. + + VERSE 36 .. DIGNITY + + "Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has +it come to you only?" + + Look at the words. Do you see what Paul was saying? We, +today, would probably say something like, "Do you think that you +have a corner on truth, or that God himself started from your +midst?" It would seem that the Corinthians actually thought or +behaved as though the whole message of Christ began with them! It +would also seem that the Corinthians were acting as though ONLY +they had the truth. Let's look at the rebuke Paul administered in +verses 37 and 38: + + "If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him +recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's +commandment. But if he does not recognize this, he is not +recognized." + + Paul is literally saying that what he has said, and is saying, +are of God, and if they don't agree, then their opinion is not to +be considered! A strong rebuke; but now look further: + + "Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do +not forbid to speak in tongues. But let all things be done +properly and in an orderly manner." + + The gift of tongues was vital for God to get his word out to +the world in as short a time as possible, but it was to be held in +check through the function of the Creator of the universe and his +way of doing everything in order. All things of the Body of Jesus +Christ are to be meaningful, sensible, proper (I do not use the +term stuffy) and orderly. What God does literally "drips" of +dignity. + + We need now to look at one other major facet of the +Charismatic movement, and this is their claim that they experience +a "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" unique from any other baptism (and +claimed by many to be the ONLY confirmation that they are saved) +and unique in that it is confirmed through the speaking in tongues +and that all believers "to be spiritual" must seek this gift and +confirmation. Believers and preachers who do not seek or find as +noted are accused of failing to preach the "FULL GOSPEL." + + Writer Robert Dalton states the matter for the Charismatics +rather well when he writes: "This experience is not for a select +few, but for all who desire it and are willing to pay the price." + + At the very same time Ralph M. Riggs writes: "Seekers ... +after the Baptism in the Spirit should always remember that this +experience is also called 'The Gift of the Holy Ghost.' Gifts are +not earned or won by choice or merit. Gifts cannot be forced from +the giver ... The Holy Spirit is a gracious ... God-sent Gift, and +we receive Him by faith and by faith alone." + + Let's look at what God tells us in His Word and not look +further at the writing of man. In I Corinthians 12:13 Paul +explained what being "of the body of Christ" means: + + "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether +Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to +drink of one Spirit." + + The word "by" in the verse can be translated "at", "by", +"with" and some do give the meaning as "in." However; the context +of Greek words such as "EN" as used here, is dependent on the case +ending of the words that follow the preposition. To be accurate +and in context with the Greek, we should say "by" or "with." Under +no construct of the Greek could the word be used as "in" and the +use of such is not found in the Bible. The term "Baptism of the +Holy Spirit" is NEVER found in the greek or any of its accepted +translations. Not one reference exists where the Holy Spirit did +any baptizing! + + Matthew 3:11 finds John the Baptist telling the Sadducees and +the Pharisees about the "one who would baptize you in the Holy +Spirit and fire .. and will gather his wheat into the barn, but +will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." John is telling +about the fire of judgment that will be wrought by Jesus Christ - +not the Holy Spirit. Charismatics wish to imply that the Holy +Spirit would come to baptize with fire such as was done on +pentecost; However, this is not the case as John was telling us +that there will be two kinds of people in the world - those who are +baptized with the Holy Spirit and those who will not and will be +cast into the fires of Hell. (John 5:22 Mark 1:7-8, Luke 3:16) + + Peter in Acts 2:33 states: "Therefore having been exalted to +the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the +promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both +see and hear." + + Again, Christ is the Baptizer - not the Holy Spirit - but with +the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit NOWHERE in SCRIPTURE does any +baptizing. + The claims of the Charismatics and the Pentecostals as to the +fact that they were baptized by Christ when they accepted him is +seldom disputed. What they do say is that at a later date, "The +Holy Spirit baptized them" and this is not possible as shown by +God's own words. Christ is always THE baptizing person of the +Trinity. + + Paul's whole emphasis of I Corinthians 12:12 and 13 is that +ALL CHRISTIANS ARE BAPTIZED WITH ONE SPIRIT INTO ONE BODY. WE ARE +ALL ONE BODY, POSSESSING ONE LIFE SOURCE, INDWELT WITH ONE CHRIST. +There is no "limbo" declared in scripture where one comes to the +saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and then is yet unsaved until the +experience of a "second" baptism. How can one be a Christian and +yet not part of the Body of Christ? + + Larry Christenson states: "Beyond conversion, beyond assurance +of salvation, beyond having the Holy Spirit, there is a baptism +with the Holy Spirit. It might not make sense to our human +understanding any more than it made sense for Jesus to be Baptized +by John." + + I have never had a problem in understanding why Jesus was +baptized by John. Jesus' entire life was one of obedience to the +Father, and the Father clearly wants each of us to be baptized, and +Jesus led the example. + + Baptism as shown in the 13th verse of I Corinthians 12 is the +greek term "BAPTIZO" meaning spiritual immersion. Baptism is a +spiritual reality that brings the believer into a vital union with +Christ. To be baptized by the Holy Spirit means that CHRIST places +us, by means of the Spirit, into the unity of His body and gives us +a common life principle that connects us with everyone else who +believes in Christ. Baptism with the Spirit makes ALL believers +ONE. + + It is imperative that each of us look in the Scriptures to +find the answers to the claims of the Charismatics and +Pentecostals. In the vast majority of cases, you will find that +the "movement" or congregation fails to adhere to the principles +set forth by Paul. Dissension, confusion, superiority and other +man-made features are usually the rule. Extra-biblical revelation +is not of God. + + Several "brothers" of my own are charismatic and are very +godly men of high standards and dignity of the Spirit. I am +convinced that God's gifts are still manifest in each of the +categories mentioned in the Bible and that each believer is given +a gift or gifts upon his baptism into His body. It may take time +for each of us to realize what those gifts are, but I am certain +that we each do have them. The gift of tongues, in too many times +in my own life, has been demonstrated to be valid and uplifting in +accordance with what Scripture says. I have noted the speaking of +tongues with an interpreter telling me what was said. I have heard +revelations from God come from these gifted men, but in each case +they were for exhortation or the consolation or uplifting of +someone else in the gathering. I have also been subjected to +"prophesies" that were claimed to be from God and were never +fulfilled. This is not of God. When my spirit becomes troubled, +I immediately look to see if Satan is trying to keep me from +something. If it checks out that Satan is not involved, then I look +to God for guidance as to what I am troubled about. + + I have seen preachers throw their Bibles on the floor, and +dance and shout rapid syllables at the audience, without anyone +knowing what he said or was doing. The amount of confusion proved +to me that God was not in it. + + We have many texts that have shown that experience is not a +valid basis for testing anything dealing with God. God's word is +our only basis for testing anything. + + Keep the command found in I Peter 3:15: "ALWAYS be ready to +give an answer to EVERYONE asking you, a reason for the hope that +lies within you." + + Peter is making an assumption here that is very important. He +is assuming that you are living a life that will make people want +to know why you are different! He is commanding each of us to +present to ANYONE (and everyone) that asks, whether they be +intellectual, atheist, agnostic, Doctor, Lawyer, Child or communist +- EVERYONE - a presentation of the REASONS or FACTS concerning the +Gospel of Jesus Christ and WHY you believe in it! + +Computers for Christ - San Jose \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/catechsm.txt b/religious documents/catechsm.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5b7ece --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/catechsm.txt @@ -0,0 +1,292 @@ + + + HISTORY & CATECHISM + of the + MOORISH ORTHODOX CHURCH + OF AMERICA + + virtual edition + + + + * * * + + + Transcribed from the CRESCENT MOON PRESS + 1986 Edition and updated by the editors + 1992. no copyright + (all material may be freely reproduced) + + + + Imprimatur & Nihil Obstat + + USTAD SELIM + (Enforcer of the Law + & + Bishop-Exilarch of Persia) + & + ARIF HUSSEIN AL-CAMAYSAR + (Imam of Manhattan) + + + + * * * + + + + A morning breeze + trails musk behind it + perfumes + from the street + where my love is + + Yes, and the world wastes + while you sleep + The caravan is leaving + The sweet smell is dying + Get up! + + Jalaloddin Rumi + + + + + + +Moorish Orthodoxy is not a new religion. Historically it began with +the message of the American prophet Noble Drew Ali, born Timothy Drew +in North Carolina in 1886, raised by Cherokee Indians and adopted into +that tribe. At sixteen Drew began his wanderings as a circus magician, +which took him to Egypt where he received self knowledge and direction +from a priest, the last of a cult of High Magic practiced for centuries +in the pyramid of Cheops. This magus recognized the young American as +a reincarnation of a former leader of the cult, and saw him for the +prophet he was. + +From him Drew Ali learned the messages of The Circle Seven Koran, as +well as much higher truths; he returned to America where he was told +in a dream to found a new religion "for the uplifting of fallen +mankind." He began the first mosque, or temple, in Newark --- but +because he and his followers refused to fight in World War I he was +forced to move to Chicago, where his movement, the Moorish Science +Temple, began to grow. + +The Moorish Science Temple attracted mostly Black Americans. Noble +Drew however was no racist, though he held certain racial theories. +Blacks, he said, are Moabites or Moors, and under this identity he +taught pride to a race of oppressed sufferers. Moors are an "Asiatic +Race" --but so are many others. For example, Noble Drew identified +Celts as an Asiatic Race; later, when Whites of various sorts became +interested in Moorish Science, he identified all such as "Persians", a +sort of spiritual rather than factual identity. For Moorish Americans +Morocco is a "promised land"; this shows the influence of Garveyite +"Return" teachings, and provides an interesting link between Moorish +Science and Rastafarianism. Moorish Orthodoxy (despite its name) gives +all these teachings an esoteric significance. For us, "The Asiatic +Nation of North America" includes all who embrace some form of the +Oriental Wisdom, whatever their other affiliations, and "Morocco" +signifies their goal, "illuminated" consciousness. + +In Chicago Noble Drew issued many Moorish Passports, and it is said +that some new converts, in the zeal of their newfound nationality, +began to grow less and less subservient in their dealings with the +oppressor empire ("Pharoah" or "Babylon"). This culminated in a full +scale attack on the Science Temple in which (despite the secret escape +route, an essential feature of all Moorish Science Temples) many of +the faithful were martyred, including the Enforcer of the Law, a man +whom Noble Drew had recognized as a reincarnation of Jesus. + +Shortly thereafter (in 1929) Noble Drew prophesied the hour of his +death. He was "taken for questioning" by the Chicago Police and +brutally beaten, and died soon after his release. + +After this, the Moorish Science Temple began to split into sects or +factions, one headed by Noble Drew's chauffeur, another by Elijah +Muhammed, who his his Moorish Science origins and taught a +pseudo-science of race hatred disguised as the "Nation of Islam". +Until Elijah's death, many Moors expected him to recant. + +In the 1950's in the Baltimore/DC area, some white poets and jazz +musicians came into contact with the Science Temple and acquired +passports. They formed another offshoot of Moorish Science, the +Moorish Orthodox Church of America. At that early stage, the M.O.C. +was seen as partly Moorish and partly Eastern Orthodox, and there +existed certain ties with "Errant Bishops" of the Old Catholic Church, +Syrian Orthodoxy, etc. Some of these founding fathers drifted +eventually into Sunni Islam, others remained faithful to the M.O.C. +and friendly to the Science Temple. + +In the early 1960's on Manhattan's Upper West Side, one of the +youngest of these, Walid al-Taha (Warren Tartaglia), jazz saxophonist +and author of -The Hundred Seeds of Beirut-, initiated some friends +into the Church shortly before his tragic death (in his early 20's). +A new Temple was established in a basement on 103rd street off +Broadway, along with a head shop "The Crypt", and a Moorish Science +Reading Room. The Church maintained a M.O.C. Motorcycle Club at +various neighborhood garages, and a campsite of 123 acres was acquired +in northern New York. Close ties were formed with the Ananda Ashram in +upstate NY. Members in Baltimore renewed ties with elders and +missionaries of the Moorish Science Temple, including the Moorish +Governor of Maryland, who ran a junk shop that smelled of rose attar +and woodstove smoke, and talked like a Persian poet from Alabama -- +an echo, no doubt, of Noble Drew's own perfect Moorish Voice. Ties +were formed with the M.S.T. in Brooklyn, which provided copies of The +Circle Seven Koran, Catechisms, etc. + +When the Ananda Ashram moved into Milbrook NY with Timothy Leary's +League for Spiritual Discovery commune, the M.O.C. also established a +presence there. The M.O.C. is proud of its heritage in the Psychedelic +Churches Movement of the 60's, when we shared many adventures in +Milbrook till the Empire banished its Celtic guru into exile and +prison. We still have a temple in Duchess County, where the church is +legally incorporated. + +At that time the Church more or less abandoned all "Orthodoxy" (though +not the name) and found its true spirit in Sufism. +What interested us most was Sufism of various unorthodox varieties, +including Ismailism (the teachings of the Assassins). But many other +strains were woven into the M.O.C. in the 60's, including Advaita +Vedanta, Tantra, Neo-American-style psychedelic mysticism, Native +American Symbolism, and insurrectionist activism. + +The 70's and early 80's in retrospect seem a rather dim period in +Church history. Members scattered around the world and interest waned. +The "New Age" bogged down in various Greed Therapies, guru-scams and +bland-outs. For a while only small groups in Manhattan and Dutchess +Co. kept a shadowy existence and continuity. Recently however the time +has become ripe for a Revival. New religions are appearing: Native +American rites, Neo-paganism, Anarcho-taoism, the followers of Eris +and others with whom we feel a natural affinity. We have launched a +new edition of our newspaper, The Moorish Science Monitor (quiescent +since 1967!) and many new conversions have resulted. The sudden +upsurge of interest necessitated this revised edition of the M.O.C. +pamphlet, out of print since the late 60's. + + * * * * * + +What is Moorish Orthodoxy? What is its "Catechism"? Many people have +converted to Moorish Orthodoxy simply on hearing its name or seeing +the photograph of Noble Drew Ali (frontispiece of the Circle Seven +Koran) -- later, however, they may wish to learn something of Moorish +doctrine. + +In effect, there is none. Moorish Orthodoxy is like a mirror in which +each seeker beholds a beloved form, each one different. We have no +required ritual and no source of authority other than those the +individual imagination provides. We do however perhaps share a certain +"taste" or spiritual aesthetic. + +Moorish Orthodoxy was founded originally to explore the esoteric +dimensions of Noble Drew's teachings, discovered in such passages from +the Circle Seven Koran as these: + + "Now cease to seek for heaven in the sky; + Just open up the windows of your hearts and, + like a flood of light, a heaven will come + and bring a boundless joy." + + "By the sweet breath of Allah all life is + bound to one; so if you touch a fiber of + a living thing you send a thrill from + center to the outer bounds of life." + + "You are, each one, a priest, Just for + yourself." + + "Allah and man are one." + + "When man has conquered every foe upon the + plane of soul and the seed will have full + opened out, will have unfolded in the + Holy Breath. The garb of the soul will then + have served its purpose well, and man will + need it never more...and man will then at- + tain unto a blessedness of perfectness + and at one with Allah." + + "I (Jesus) brought immortality to light + and painted on the walls of time a rain- + bow for the sons of men; and what I did + all men shall do." + +The antinomian and egalitarian aspects of lines like these have +reinforced our position, in relation to all organized religion, of +heresy; in relation to all liberatory teachings and beautiful +imaginings we take up a posture of "rootless cosmopolitanism" that +seeks out universal spirit hidden anywhere, revealed in all cultures, +always occult and dissident, an "Invisible College" embracing East and +West but rejecting all official stultifying Consensus Reality. A Moor +might belong to any religion or none, "free either to take up a form +or not take up a form... not bound to any. Forms are for use, not to +make captives" (Hazrat Inayat Khan). + +The idea of an American heretical Islam is one such form. We +appreciate the aesthetic of Moorish Science, of Noble Drew's unique +and prophetic mixture of Afro-American, Native American, Magical, +Oriental and Moorish symbolism and imagery. We admire his courage, his +martyrdom, his revolutionary stance against "Pharoah", his +Americanizing of the prophetic spirit (he always wore a Cherokee +feather in his fez). We reflect this aesthetic in our lives and +creative work. But we are not bound by it. Like certain esoteric +Javanese sects we reject the figure of the Master (guru or murshed) in +favor of the teacher. Anyone can be a teacher in relation to someone; +everyone has something to teach, something to learn. + +To symbolize this attitude, all Moors are encouraged to create new +names and titles for themselves. The Moorish Hierarchy is self +appointed; anyone is free to print Passports, although the old +Manhattan Lodge possesses certain seals and procedures which converts +may appreciate. Popular titles include: Moorish Governor, +Metropolitan, Deacon, Vicar, Exilarch, Imam, Castellan, Papessa, +Contessa, Marshall or just plain Reverend. Moorish Science Temple +adherents often add "Bey" or "El" to their names, others favor other +traditions, and some use their own names. All Moors are entitled to +titles, however, since all Moors have "authority". + +The Moorish Orthodox Catechism, then, consists of no rules or dogmas, +but only of adherance to the "Five Pillars" of Moorish Science as +listed by Noble Drew: + + LOVE + TRUTH + PEACE + FREEDOM + JUSTICE + +to which we add a sixth, "Beauty". + + + + + This bud opens into the red rose, + the nightingale is drunk for joy--- + Hail, seekers! Lovers of wine; + wine for a thirsty world + like a slug under + the rock of repentance... + a rock smashed by a mere goblet--- + and that is the announcement, the Miracle + + Wine for the king! Wine for the slave! + this banquet was set for everyone, + drunk or sober, and when + the Feast is over and night grows up, + and the inside door of the Tavern springs + open + Low and High together will bow down + under the Arch of the World + to meet what...outside? + + Hafez Shirazi + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/cathinfo.txt b/religious documents/cathinfo.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b64b1ac --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cathinfo.txt @@ -0,0 +1,900 @@ +The following materials are copyrighted by Christian Equippers +International (916-542-1509). We are availing the booklet here with its +author's permission. You may read and download them for your own personal +use only. You should get CEI's permission if you are going to reproduce +it for other use. CEI and Family Radio have no business relation. +Availing the information herein does not necessarily mean that Family Radio +Forum endorses CEI or materials put out by them. We are availing them +just for your personal consideration. -Richard Yim: Sysop of Family Radio. + + TABLE OF CONTENTS +0> Introduction +1> A Conciliatory Comment +2> The Root Problem +3> The Bible and Roman Catholicism +4> A Religious System of Biblical Distortions +5> The Gradual Development of Roman Catholic Errors +6> Roman Catholicism and Tradition +7> The Virgin Mary +8> The Papacy +9> Papal Infallibility +10> Papal Decrees +11> Mortal and Venial Sins +12> Confession +13> Penance +14> Purgatory +15> Indulgences +16> The Assurance of Salvation +17> Peter +18> The Priesthood +19> Mass +20> Ritualism +21> Conclusion + + + INTRODUCTION + +There are hundreds of millions of Roman Catholics world-wide, yet many are +largely unaware of the dramatic differences between the official teachings, +practices, and positions of the Catholic Church, and the clear teaching of +the Holy Bible. There are multitudes of dedicated Catholics who are +spiritually uninformed concerning these differences because of a lack of +sound biblical instruction and exposure. + +Though many Roman Catholics give unquestioned support to their church and +strongly reject any possibility that their church may be in conflict with +their own Catholic Bible, there are sincere Catholics who see glaring +inconsistencies and contradictions between the official teachings of the +Roman Catholic Church and the fundamental truths contained in the sacred +Scriptures. + +This booklet offers Roman Catholics, who are seeking after truth, a clear- +cut comparison between the major teachings of the Catholic Church and the +Word of God. The Word of God is the supreme authority from which all Roman +Catholics must derive their beliefs and practices. All Scripture +references cited in this booklet are taken only from official Catholic +translations of the Bible. + + + A CONCILIATORY COMMENT + +While this booklet scripturally challenges many of the teachings within +Roman Catholicism, it is not an attack upon the competence, sincerity, +intelligence, integrity, or religious dedication of individual Catholics. +This booklet doesn't deny the reality that many Catholics possess strong +convictions and are deeply devoted to their religious beliefs. Neither do +we deny the fact that some Catholics have had a genuine, born-again +experience in Christ. + +However, this booklet does challenge many of the positions and practices +of the Catholic Church by using a point-by-point comparison of its major +teachings and the obvious truths of the Word of God. This booklet asks +Roman Catholics to carefully examine the Scriptures with an intellectually +honest and open attitude (Acts 17:11), and to judge for themselves what the +Bible actually says apart from official church censorship, restrictions, +warnings, indoctrination, and qualifications. We believe the clear truths +of the Catholic Bible will speak for themselves. + + + THE ROOT PROBLEM + +The fundamental problem confronting the average Roman Catholic is the +fact that they are almost completely unaware of what the Catholic Bible +really teaches. Many sincere Catholics, including laymen and parish +priests alike, have never had sufficient cause to question the teachings +of their church because they have never been adequately instructed in the +Scriptural truths which challenge the principle doctrines of Catholicism. + +The tragic reality is that the overwhelming majority of Catholics have +either never personally studied the Bible, or have only done so under the +strict supervision and scrutiny of their church. Many have not been +exposed to the clear, simple truths of the Bible because they have been +repeatedly warned to rely on the official interpretations, opinions, and +traditions of the church. + +Even though Catholic versions of the Bible (Jerusalem Bible, New American, +and Challoner-Rheims Version of the Latin Vulgate) encourage Bible reading +and study (Deut. 6:7-9; Ps. 119:9-11; Acts 17:11), the tragic historical +fact is that Catholicism, with very few exceptions, has repeatedly +discouraged Bible reading and study, and even banned or restricted its use, +distribution, and possession. + + + THE BIBLE AND ROMAN CATHOLICISM + +The Roman Catholic Church has traditionally suppressed, opposed, and +forbidden the open use of the Bible. It was first officially forbidden to +the people and placed on the index of Forbidden Books List by the Council +of Valencia in 1229 A.D. The Council of Trent (1545-63 A.D.) also +prohibited its use and pronounced a curse upon anyone who would dare +oppose this decree. Many popes have issued decrees forbidding Bible +reading in the common language of the people, condemning Bible societies +and banning its possession and translation under penalty of mortal sin and +death. The Roman Catholic Church has openly burned Bibles and those who +translated it or promoted its study, reading, and use (John Hus, 1415 A.D.; +William Tyndale, 1536 A.D.) + +Though external pressures have caused Rome to relax its restrictions and +opposition against Bible reading in America, the Bible is still widely +withheld and its distribution and free use discouraged in many countries +which are heavily influenced by Roman Catholicism. + + + A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF BIBLICAL DISTORTIONS + +Roman Catholicism is a system which is comprised of a mixture of truth and +error. On the surface, it appears to many to be a brand of Christianity +because it staunchly claims to embrace and defend the essential doctrines +of the Christian faith. However, a closer examination proves that it is a +system which actually nullifies and distorts Scriptural truth by adding +erroneous, man-made teachings which openly contradict the Catholic and +non-Catholic Bibles. + +For example, the Roman Catholic Church claims the inspiration of the +Scriptures, but dilutes the Word of God by exalting the authority of its +own traditions, councils, and decrees above the Bible. Catholicism teaches +the deity of Christ, but places Mary and priests as mediators between God +and believers so that free access to Jesus is only possible through them. +It teaches the forgiveness of sin, but only through confession to a priest +and the absolution given by him. Catholicism teaches salvation, but +substitutes a system of grace plus works in which human works are more +important. It teaches that Christ established the Church, but exalts a man +(the pope) as its head and invests absolute, infallible authority in him +and his official decrees. These are just a few of the distortions we will +further examine in this booklet. + + + THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF + ROMAN CATHOLIC ERRORS + +Before we compare the fundamental teachings of Roman Catholicism with the +Catholic Bible, it should be pointed out that the distinctive features of +Catholicism originated several hundred years after the early church. +Though the Catholic Church argues that its roots can be traced to Christ, +the historical facts do not substantiate this claim. Roman Catholic dogma +has gradually evolved over the centuries. However, none of its major +traditions and doctrines were taught, defended, practiced, or embraced by +the apostolic church. The following list will indicate the approximate +date when the various doctrines, rituals, decrees, and beliefs were +instituted: + +1. Prayers for the dead. (A.D. 300) +2. Making the sign of the cross. (300) +3. Wax candles. (320) +4. Veneration of angels and dead saints, and use of images. (375) +5. The beginning of mass as a daily celebration. (394) +6. The worship and exaltation of Mary and use of term "Mother of God"(431) +7. Priests begin to dress differently from laity. (500) +8. Extreme unction. (526) +9. The doctrine of purgatory, instituted by Gregory I. (593) +10. The Latin Language used in worship and prayer Gregory I. (600) +11. Prayers directed to Mary, dead saints and angels. (600) +12. Title of "Pope" or "universal bishop" first given to Boniface III.(607) +13. Kissing the pope's foot, began with Pope Constantine. (709) +14. Temporal power of the popes, conferred by Pepin, King of France. (750) +15. Worship of the cross, image, and relics authorized in (786). +16. Holy water, mixed with a pinch of salt and blessed by a priest. (850) +17. Worship of St. Joseph. (890) +18. College of Cardinals established. (927) +19. Canonization of dead saints, first by Pope John XV. (995) +20. Fastings on Fridays and during Lent. (998) +21. The mass developed as a sacrifice and attendance made mandatory. (11th + Century) +22. Celibacy of the priesthood, decreed by Pope Gregory VII. (1079) +23. The rosary, used in prayer. (1090) +24. The Inquisition, instituted by the Council of Verona. (1184) +25. Sale of Indulgences. (1190) +26. Transubstantiation, proclaimed by Pope Innocent III. (1215) +27. Auricular (private) confession of sins to a priest, instituted by Pope + Innocent III in Lateran Council. (1215) +28. Adoration of wafer (Host), decreed by Pope Honorius III. (1220) +29. Bible forbidden to laymen and placed on Index of Forbidden Books by + Council of Valencia. (1229) +30. The Scapular, invented by Simon Stock, an English monk. (1251) +31. Cup forbidden to the people at communion by Council of Constance. + (1414) +32. Purgatory proclaimed as a dogma by Council of Florence. (1439) +33. The doctrine of seven sacraments affirmed. (1439) +34. The Ave Maria (Hail Mary) invented and completed 50 years later. (1508) +35. Jesuit order founded by Loyola. (1534) +36. Tradition declared to be of equal authority with the Bible by Council + of Trent. (1545) +37. The Apocryphal books added to the Bible by the Council of Trent. (1546) +38. Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, proclaimed by Pope Pius IX. + (1854) +39. Syllabus of Errors, proclaimed by Pope Pius IX and ratified by the + Vatican Council; condemned freedom of religion, conscience, speech, press, + and scientific discoveries which are disapproved by the Roman Church; + reasserted the Pope's temporal authority over all civil rulers. (1864) +40. Infallibility of the pope in matters of faith and morals proclaimed by + the Vatican Council. (1870) +41. Public schools condemned by Pope Pius XI. (1930) +42. Assumption of the Virgin Mary (bodily ascension into heaven shortly + after her death), proclaimed by Pope XII. (1950) +43. Mary proclaimed mother of the Church by Pope Paul VI. (1965) + +Many other scriptural abuses and irregularities could be added to this +list: Monks, nuns, monasteries, convents, forty days of Lent, holy week, +Palm Sunday, Ash Wednesday, All Saints Day, Candlemas Day, fish day, meat +days, incense, holy oil, holy palms, St. Christopher medals, charms, +relics, novenas, and many more. This revealing list represents an overview +of the many human inventions which have corrupted, distorted, and perverted +the official positions presented as truth by the Roman Catholic Church. + +ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES WE WILL COMPARE THE MORE PROMINENT POSITIONS OF +ROMAN CATHOLICISM WITH THE FUNDAMENTAL TEACHINGS OF THE SCRIPTURES USING +ONLY ROMAN CATHOLIC TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE INCLUDING THE CHALLONER- +RHEIMS VERSION (C.R.V.) OR THE JERUSALEM BIBLE VERSION (J.B.V.). The New +American Bible (N.A.B.) can also be used to substantiate these comparisons. + + + ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND TRADITION + +The church of Rome claims that the Bible is the inspired Word of God but, +in reality, they supplant and undermine its absolute authority by exalting +church traditions, councils, and decrees above the Scriptures. In fact, +the Council of Trent (1546 A.D.) declared that church tradition was of +equal authority with the Word of God. + +Roman Catholicism places tradition on an equal and often higher level than +the Bible. Roman Catholic traditions, commandments, papal decrees, and +councils have repeatedly usurped and contradicted the clear teachings of +Scripture. The fact is that many of the positions and dogmas of Roman +Catholicism rest upon the foundation of human innovations, traditions, and +teachings rather than the Bible. For this reason, Catholicism strongly +defends its traditions and rigidly regulates any interpretations of the +Bible which conflict with its positions. Rome has even added a section of +uninspired books to the Bible called the Apocrypha because they provide the +only semblance of support for a limited number of their teachings, beliefs, +and practices. These books are not found in the Hebrew Old Testament, and +were never referred to as Scripture by Christ or His disciples, and were +not even sanctioned by the Catholic Church until the Council of Trent in +1546 A.D. + +However, Jesus rebuked the usurping and undermining of Scriptures through +man-made tradition when He said "The worship they offer me is worthless, +the doctrines they teach are only human regulations. You put aside the +commandment of God to cling to HUMAN TRADITIONS. . .In this way you make +God's word null and void for the sake of your TRADITION which you have +handed down." (MK 7:7, 8, 13, J.B.V.). + +Such prominent Roman Catholic doctrines and practices as the mass, +purgatory, the priesthood, Transubstantiation, prayers for the dead, +indulgences, penance, the worship of Mary, the use of images in worship, +holy water, rosary beads, the celibacy of priests and nuns, the papacy, and +many others are based totally upon tradition and are without the slightest +shred of Scriptural support to substantiate them. In fact, the Bible gives +strong witness against many of these teachings and practices. + + + THE VIRGIN MARY + +In spite of the great emphasis upon Mary in Roman Catholicism, the Bible +says very little about her. In fact, she is never even mentioned by Peter, +Paul, James, or John. Furthermore, none of the New Testament epistles +refer to her either. This is significant in light of the elaborate system +of Mariology created by Rome with its Mary works, veneration, and +devotions. What is even more surprising is the fact that some of the most +significant teachings concerning Mary are of fairly recent origin (i.e., +the Immaculate Conception, [1854], and the Assumption of Mary, [1950]). + +Though the Bible honors Mary as the mother of Jesus and calls her +"blessed. . .among women" (not above women, Lk 1:28), it does not teach us +to deify her, worship her, or pray to her. The Scriptures recognize Mary +as a woman of humility, obedience, and virtue, but reject Rome's adoration +of her on the grounds that it is idolatrous worship condemned by the Word +of God. + +On the following pages we will examine some of the more prominent Roman +Catholic teachings concerning Mary in light of the Bible. The information +footnoted was written by an individual canonized as a saint, and his book +was officially endorsed by the church of Rome. + +1. Rome claims that Mary acts as a mediator between sinners and God, and +teaches that sinners receive pardon through Mary(1). This is refuted by +the Scriptures. "For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator +between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5, J.B.V.). +Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come to the +Father except through me" (Jn 14:6, J.B.V.). + +2. "The Holy Church commands a worship peculiar to Mary"(2), but the Bible +rejects this demand on the ground that it is idolatry. The worship of Mary +in the form of prayers (Hail Marys), songs to her, and kneeling before her +statues is blatant idolatry specifically forbidden by Christ: "You must +worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone" (Matt. 4:10, J.B.V.). + +3. Catholicism teaches that Christ is a stern, wrathful judge who cannot +be approached by sinners. It teaches that Mary, on the other hand, is a +tender understanding, merciful intercessor who is more sympathetic and +compassionate than Christ and will plead our cause to her Son with the +forceful persuasion of a loving mother. But the Bible rejects Rome's +claim that Mary is an intercessor or advocate who intercedes to God on our +behalf in order to obtain grace for the sinner(3). The Bible declares +that Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God where "He stands and pleads +for us" (Rom. 8:34, J.B.V.),--not Mary and that He is "living forever to +intercede for all who come to God through Him" (Heb. 7:25, J.B.V.; see also +Heb. 9:24). + +4. The Bible rejects Rome's claim that "Mary is the Peacemaker between +sinners and God"(4). The Bible states, "But now in Christ Jesus, you that +used to be so far apart from us have been brought very close, by the blood +of Christ. . .For he is the peace between us. . .Through him, both of us have +in the one Spirit our way to come to the Father" (Eph. 2:13, 14, 18, +J.B.V.). Christ is our peacemaker, not Mary, priests, popes, dead saints, +or even the Church. + +5. The Bible rejects Catholic claims that Mary is ". . .the gate of heaven +because no one can enter that blessed kingdom without passing through +Her"(5), that "the Way of Salvation is open to none other than through +Mary, and that our salvation is in the hands of Mary."(6) "Neither is +there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven +given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12, C.R.V.). "Jesus said: +I am the Way. . .No one can come to the Father except through me" (Jn 14:6, +J.B.V.). + +6. The Bible gives absolutely no support to the many exalted titles which +the Roman Catholic Church has bestowed upon Mary such as, "Queen of the +Angels, Prophets, Patriarchs, Apostles, Confessors, Virgins, and All +Saints"(7), "The Door of Paradise," "The Gate of Heaven," "Our Life," +"Mother of Grace," "Morningstar," "Refuge of Sinners," and "Mother of +Mercy". These titles represent Rome's attempts to elevate Mary to a +glorified position which is not taught in the Scriptures. + +7. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception which teaches that Mary was +born without sin is contrary to the Scriptures which stress that "everyone +has sinned" (Rom. 5:12, 13 J.V.B.), and "there is no man who does not sin" +(1 Kg. 8:46, J.B.V.; see also Ps. 53:3, 1 Jn. 1:8, 10). Even Mary +acknowledged that she was a sinner in need of a Savior: "My soul proclaims +the greatness of the Lord and my spirit exults in GOD MY SAVIOR" (Lk. 1:46, +47, J.B.V.). + +8. The Roman Catholic doctrine of the Assumption of Mary which teaches +that Mary's body was raised from the dead and taken to heaven as "Queen of +Heaven" is a teaching which can't find the slightest support in the Bible +and was not made an official doctrine in the Catholic Church until 1950. + +9. Roman Catholicism's emphasis on Mary's perpetual virginity is clearly +refuted in the Bible which plainly states that Jesus had brothers and +sisters (Matt. 13:54-56; Mk. 6:3; Jn. 7:5, 6). Though Rome claims that +these verses refer to Christ's cousins, the original Greek wording clearly +refers to brothers and not cousins. After the virgin birth of Christ, Mary +and Joseph lived a normal husband and wife relationship, bearing other +children. + +1 Bishop Alphonse de Liguori, The Glories of Mary, pp. 82, 83. +2 Ibid., pg. 130. +3 Bishop Alphonse de Liguori, The Glories of Mary, pg. 80; see also pp. + 254, 257. +4 Ibid., pg. 197. +5 Bishop Alphonse de Liguori, The Glories of Mary, pg. 160. +6 Ibid., pg. 169. +7 St. Joseph's Daily Missal, pg. 1305. + + + THE PAPACY + +The word "pope" comes from the Latin word "papa" meaning father. Most +scholars agree that the first real pope was Gregory I (590- 604 A.D.). The +pope claims to be the mediator between God and men with the power over +souls in purgatory. However, the Bible contradicts this claim by stating +that "For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God +and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus" (I Tim 2:5 J.B.V.). The papacy +attempts to usurp the power and authority belonging solely to Christ by +claiming the pope as the head of the church, but the Bible declares that +Jesus is the head of the Church (Col. 1:18), and that "He has put all +things under his feet, and made him, as the ruler of everything, the head +of the Church; which is his body" (Eph. 1:22, 23, J.B.V.; see also Col. 2:9, +10). + +The pope also claims the titles of "His Holiness" or "The Holy Father" in +direct violation of Christ's warnings to His followers: "You must call no +one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in +heaven" (Matt. 23:9, 10, J.B.V.). + + + PAPAL INFALLIBILITY + +The doctrine of papal infallibility was ratified in 1870 when the Vatican +Council decreed that papal judgments involving faith and morals were +infallible when spoken "ex-cathedra," meaning in his official capacity as +head of the church while sitting in the chair of St. Peter. However, the +concept of the papacy and papal infallibility can find no justification in +the Scriptures. + +Most Catholics are unaware of the scandalous history of the Roman papacy. +The historical record of papal corruption causes extreme embarrassment to +the church in its attempts to defend papal infallibility and its moral +authority. For this reason, the church hierarchy endeavors to deny, +suppress, and cover-up the historical facts concerning its many doctrinal +and moral abuses. What makes the idea of papal infallibility and purity +so absurd is its notorious record of papal corruption, contradictions, +inconsistencies, and reversals during its history. Though most popes were +men of integrity and high moral character, many were wicked and corrupt. +What is more, these facts can be easily substantiated by secular, +Protestant, and even Catholic sources!(1) + +As shocking and unbelievable as it may seem, many popes were guilty of +committing nearly every crime in the catalog of sin (2) including rape, +adultery, fornication, incest, murder, assassinations, robbery, conspiracy, +bribery, fraud, perjury, and the purchase of the papacy with money (3). +The corruption and gross immorality of twenty-nine popes was so flagrant +that Rome has listed them as "anti-popes" in order to minimize the +scandalous testimony of the papacy and erase this notorious blot from their +history. + +Furthermore, some popes have contradicted each other (Sixtus V recommended +Bible reading, while Pope Pius VII condemned it); some popes condemned +scientific truth (Paul V and Urban VIII tortured and imprisoned Galileo +for teaching that the earth revolves around the sun); many have promoted +and defended doctrinal heresies in direct conflict with the clear teachings +of Scripture; and some have endorsed massacres, atrocities, torture, +imprisonment, and inquisitions against Rome's opponents resulting in the +deaths of millions!(4) + + +1 Ludwig Pastor, History of the Popes (a Roman Catholic historian). +2 H.H. Halley, Halley's Bible Handbook, pp. 767-793. +3 Glen D. Kittler, The Papal Princes (a Roman Catholic author), 358 + pages. +4 John Foxe, Foxes Book of Martyrs. + + + PAPAL DECREES + +The following selected examples are only a few of the many abuses +demonstrated through papal decrees: + +Innocent III (1198-1216 A.D.) claimed the right to dispose of kings, +ordered the extermination of heretics, instituted the Inquisition, ordered +the massacre of Albigenses, condemned the Magna Charta, and forbade Bible +reading in the common language; Innocent IV (1241-54 A.D.) sanctioned +torture of suspected heretics to extract confessions; Nicolas V (1447-55 +A.D.) authorized war on African peoples and their enslavement; Sixtus IV +(1471-84 A.D.) sanctioned the Spanish Inquisition; Leo X (1513-21 A.D.) +declared the burning of heretics a divine appointment; Clement XI (1700-21 +A.D.) issued a papal bull (pronouncement) against Bible reading; condemned +all religious freedom, tolerance, Bible societies, and Bible translations; +Pius IX (1846-78 A.D.) decreed papal infallibility, condemned separation +of church and state, denounced Liberty of Conscience, Liberty of Worship, +freedom of speech, freedom of press, decreed the Immaculate Conception and +deity of Mary, condemned Bible societies, and proclaimed the right to +suppress heresy by force; Leo XIII (1878-1903 A.D.) pronounced Protestants +"enemies of the Christian name". + + + MORTAL AND VENIAL SINS + +Roman Catholicism divides sins into two categories: 1.) Mortal sins which +are defined as serious offenses against God that can damn a soul to +eternal punishment, and 2.) Venial sins which are lesser infractions +against God and man. Both can subject a soul to an indefinite stay in the +purifying fires of a place referred to as "purgatory". There is no uniform +agreement among priests concerning which sins are venial or mortal. Mortal +sins could include not attending mass, breaking Ten Commandments, sexual +offenses, reading a Protestant Bible, or going to a Protestant church. +Venial sins could be anything a priest decides. Only a priest can forgive +mortal sins, but both mortal and venial sins must be paid for by temporal +penance and inevitable punishment in purgatory. + +However, the Bible makes no distinction between mortal and venial sins. +Though some sins are worse than others, all unrepented, unforgiven sins +will keep a soul out of heaven. It simply teaches that "the wage paid by +sin is death" (Rom. 6:23, J.B.V.), and that "The man who has sinned, he. . . +shall die" (Eze. 18:4, J.B.V.). + + + CONFESSION + +The Baltimore Catechism defines confession as "the telling of our sins to +an authorized priest for the purpose of obtaining forgiveness." +Catholicism stresses that priests have the power and authority to forgive +sins without even asking God!(1) Forgiveness involves the assigning of +penance, punishments in the form of good works, a certain number of +prayers, fastings, or abstinence from certain pleasures as a token of +repentance. Priests can forgive the guilt of mortal sins, but cannot remit +the penalty which must be paid through the performance of good works which +he chooses to prescribe. Under penalty of committing a mortal sin, every +Roman Catholic is required to go to confession at least once a year. +However, the Bible gives no support for private (auricular) confession to a +priest for receiving the forgiveness of sins. Furthermore, this practice +didn't originate until the 5th century and wasn't officially made +compulsory until the Fourth Laterin Council in 1215 A.D. Even the Catholic +Bible challenges the concept of Catholic confession on the grounds that no +mortal man possesses the power to forgive or absolve sins, and clearly +reveals that God alone can forgive sins; "WHO CAN FORGIVE SINS BUT ONLY +GOD?" (Mk. 2:7, C.R.V.). No priest has the authority to forgive sins but +"the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Matt. 9:6, +J.B.V.). + +By establishing a priest as the official forgiver of sins, the Catholic +Church usurps Christ's exclusive position and authority to act as the +mediator between God and man: "For there is only one God, and there is +only one mediator between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus" (I +Tim 2:5, J.B.V.; see also Heb. 8:6; 9:15). The Bible further declares +that, "if any one should sin, we have our advocate with the Father, Jesus +Christ, who is just" (I Jn. 2:1 J.B.V.). + +The Scriptures also teach that each individual Christian has the privilege +of going directly to God for forgiveness: "but if we acknowledge our sins, +then God. . .will forgive our sins and purify us from everything that is +wrong" (I Jn., 1:9, J.B.V.). Even Peter confirmed that men receive the +remission of sins directly from Christ not through priests: "all who +believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name" (Acts +10:43, J.B.V.;see also Acts 13:38, 39). + +1 Instructions for Non-Catholics, pg. 93. + + + + PENANCE + +The sacrament of penance involves the performance of good works which the +priest assigns after confession. According to Catholic teaching, God does +not cancel out all the punishment due the sinner when he is forgiven, and +thus requires works of penance to help relieve the penalty. Those sins +which cannot be fully paid by simple penance (such as "The Act of +Contrition," the recital of a given number of "Hail Marys," "Our +Fathers," or stations of the cross) must eventually be paid for by +suffering in purgatory until the debt is cleared. + +However, the Scriptures say nothing about penance. God does not demand +outward penance but inward repentance, and a turning from sinful practices: +"Let the wicked man abandon his way. . .Let him turn back to Yahweh who will +take pity on him, to our God who is rich in forgiving" (Isa. 55:7, J.B.V; +see also Prov. 28:13) The Bible clearly teaches that our sins are +completely cleansed and forgiven through Christ when we repent directly to +Him; "but if we acknowledge our sins, then God. . .will forgive our sins +and purify us from everything that is wrong" (I Jn. 1:9 J.B.V.). God +bases complete, unconditional forgiveness and cleansing upon sincere +repentance and a forsaking of sin. + +The main error in penance is the false assumption that Christ's sacrifice +was insufficient to totally atone for sin and must be supplemented by +human works. The Roman Catholic teaching that "penance is necessary for +salvation"(1) and "whosoever shall affirm that men are justified solely by +the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. . .let him be accursed"(2) is +a blatant perversion of the biblical teaching of justification by faith +apart from works. + +The fundamental error of Catholicism is its unscriptural emphasis upon a +complicated system of salvation by good works and human effort. Though +good works are a natural outgrowth of genuine faith and salvation, they can +never save us--they are the result, not the cause of salvation. No man can +earn salvation by meritorious works. Only through the justifying grace of +God through faith are we saved: "For by grace you have been saved through +faith; and that not from yourselves, for it is the gift of God: not as the +outcome of works, lest anyone may boast" (Eph 2:8, 9, C.R.V.). Catholicism +contradicts the truth that "Man is not justified by the works of the Law, +but by the faith of Jesus Christ. . .because by the works of the Law no man +will be justified" (Gal. 2:16, C.R.V.; see also Rom. 1:17; 3:21, 22, 28; +5:1; 10:3; 11:6; Gal 2:21; Titus 3:5). + +1 The Catholic Almanac, pp. 269, 559. +2 The Council of Trent. + + + PURGATORY + +Rome teaches that when Catholics die in an unperfected state, they must +enter an intermediate realm of punishment called "purgatory" before being +released to heaven. Those who have accumulated sins which have not been +sufficiently atoned for through penance must endure the sufferings of +purgatory until the soul is refined and God's justice has been satisfied. +The torments of this halfway hell can vary in intensity, severity, and +duration depending upon the guilt, impurity, lack of proper penance, or +sorrow of the sufferer. + +Catholics are kept in fear all their lives by the prospects of going to +this imaginary place. But Rome teaches that the period of suffering in +purgatory can be shortened by gifts of money, prayers by the priests, and +masses. Catholicism also stresses that friends and relatives can help +lessen the time that loved ones remain in purgatory and even relieve their +suffering by financing masses on their behalf. Rome collects millions of +dollars each year from grieving individuals who willingly pay to alleviate +the agonies of those in purgatory. + +However, this frightening doctrine cannot find a single verse in the entire +Bible to support it. Rome has had to rely on ingenious twistings of the +Scriptures to defend this terrifying teaching, along with an isolated +passage from the apocryphal book of II Maccabees (12:39-45). + +The concept of purgatorial sufferings after death challenges the very work +of Christ on our behalf. The Bible declares that "Christ himself. . .had +died once for sins" (I Pet. 3:18, J.B.V.). There is no more need for +further sufferings in purgatory. To demand further suffering and sacrifice +is to deny that Christ's sacrifice was sufficient the first time! Jesus +said that "he who hears my word. . .has life everlasting and does not come to +judgment, but has passed from death to life" (Jn. 5:24, C.R.V.). The Bible +also teaches that "if we acknowledge our sins, then God. . .will forgive our +sins and purify us from everything that is wrong" (1Jn. 1:9, J.B.V.); that +God remembers our sins no more (Heb. 10:17); that to die is gain, not +torment (Phil. 1:21, 22); that to be away from the body is to be at home +with the Lord (II Cor. 5:8, 9); and that those who die in Christ are +blessed and receive rest from their labors and not excruciating pain (Rev. +14:13). + + + INDULGENCES + +An indulgence is "the remission or limited release from the temporal +punishments one must suffer in this life or in purgatory for the sins a +person has committed." Indulgences can even be granted to souls already in +purgatory to shorten their stay. Both penance and indulgences originated +during the Middle Ages and have been commonly associated with fraud and +corruption. At times, Rome has openly sold indulgences to raise revenues. +Money raised from the selling of indulgences by emissaries appointed by +Pope Leo X (1513-21 A.D.) helped finance the construction of St. Peter's +Basilica. It was the public selling of them by Friar Tetzel who claimed +that "a soul is released from purgatory and carried to heaven as soon as +the money tinkles in the box" That outraged Martin Luther and helped +launch the Protestant Reformation (1517 A.D.). + +The whole system of indulgences violates Scriptural truth and cannot be +supported by the Bible. Its practice amounts to placing a price tag on +salvation and perverting the message of salvation by grace. + + + + THE ASSURANCE OF SALVATION + +The consequence of the doctrines of penance, indulgences, and purgatory +is that Roman Catholics can never have assurance or a genuine sense of +spiritual security concerning their salvation. All that a dying Catholic +can be sure of after death is that he will suffer an indefinite period of +excruciating punishment in the flames of purgatory. In fact, the Council +of Trent even pronounced a curse upon any who presumed to say that he had +assurance of salvation, or that the whole punishment for sin is forgiven +along with that sin. + +However, the Bible says that "the blood of Jesus. . .purifies us from all +sin" (I Jn. 1:7, J.B.V.). It also assures us of our salvation and eternal +life. "This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life and this life +is in his Son" (I Jn. 5:11, J.B.V.; see also 5:13). Jesus also guaranteed +us that "he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has life +everlasting, and does not come to judgment, but has passed from death to +life" (Jn. 5:24, C.R.V.), and "He who believes in the Son has everlasting +life; he who is believing towards the Son shall not see life, but the +wrath of God rests upon him" (Jn. 3:36, C.R.V.). + + + PETER + +Roman Catholicism endeavors to defend the papacy by claiming that Peter was +the first pope and was personally appointed by Christ. They base this +claim upon their interpretation of Matthew 16:13-19 in which Jesus responds +to Peter's confession that He is the Christ by declaring that upon this +rock He will build His Church and will give the keys of the kingdom to +Peter to bind and loose upon the earth. The papacy claims that Peter is +the rock, and the keys represent the pope's absolute authority and +infallibility over the Church. However, Jesus was not saying He would +build His church upon Peter, but upon the simple foundational confession +of faith which Peter made that Jesus is the Christ. The church is not +built upon Peter, but Christ--Christ is the rock, not Peter (I Cor. 3:11, +12; Eph. 2:20, 21). + +The "keys" symbolize the authority to open the way of salvation through the +preaching of the gospel to all those who are bound in darkness and sin. +Peter was first entrusted with the keys because he was the first to give +this confession of faith in Jesus and was instrumental in initially opening +the door of salvation to the Jews at Pentecost (Acts 2), as well as the +Gentiles at Cornelius' house (Acts 10). + +However, all true disciples possess the keys when proclaiming the way of +salvation to unbelievers and offering them spiritual liberty through Christ +(Matt. 18:18). + +Furthermore, the Scriptures disprove Catholic claims concerning Peter. +Neither the Bible nor Peter ever claim to be a pope, head over the church, +or in a superior position over the other apostles. He simply referred to +himself as an elder among many (I Pet. 5:1). Peter challenged the +dictatorial nature of the papacy by warning ministers not to lord over the +flock. (I Pet. 5:3). Peter refused to receive homage from men (Acts +10:25-27). Peter proved he wasn't infallible when Jesus sharply rebuked +him for challenging the need of the crucifixion (Matt. 16:23), and Paul +scolded him for his vacillation, inconsistency, and spiritual hypocrisy +(Gal. 2:11-14). Peter was married (Matt 87:14; Lk. 4:38; I Cor. 9:5). +When Paul wrote the epistle to the Romans, he greeted many believers but +never mentioned Peter (Rom.16); and what is more, apart from Catholic +tradition, there is no biblical, historical, or credible archaeological +evidence that Peter ever went to Rome or presided as its supreme bishop. + + + THE PRIESTHOOD + +Roman Catholicism has established a priesthood which serves as mediator +between God and man to offer blood sacrifices for an individual's sins in +the form of the mass. The function and structure of the Catholic +priesthood, which includes a sacrificial system (mass), is of Jewish origin +and was abolished through Christ. Christians no longer require human +priests to serve as mediators by offering sacrifices for them or forgiving +and remitting their sins through confession. + +The Bible gives no support to Rome's attempt to place the priest between +the confessor of sins and the forgiveness of sins, or to exalt the +priesthood as mediator between the sinner and God. The Bible declares that +"For there is only one God, and. . .one mediator between God and +mankind. . .Christ Jesus" (I Tim 2:5, J.B.V.), regardless of the religious +title, no man has the power to forgive sins (Mk.2:7). Furthermore, every +believer has free, unrestricted access to God's grace through prayer (Rom. +5:2; Heb. 4:16). There is no need to repeat Christ's sacrifice for sins +because it has been accomplished once and for all (Heb.9:26; 10:10-14). +Any attempts to do so is an abomination before God. + +Though the New Testament lists various kinds of ministries and offices +within the church (Eph. 4:11, 12; I Cor. 12:28, 29; I Tim 3), it never +mentions the Roman Catholic concept of a priesthood. According to Peter, +the Christian priesthood is a universal priesthood consisting of all true +believers and is not the exclusive privilege of a select few: "so that you +too, THE HOLY PRIESTHOOD that offers the spiritual sacrifices. . .you are a +chosen race, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, a consecrated nation, a people set apart" +(I Peter 2:5, 9, J.B.V.; see also Rev. 1:5, 6). + +The Catholic concept of the priesthood is unscriptural and didn't even +originate until the 3rd century. Furthermore, there is no reference to +such titles as archbishop, cardinal, or pope, and the requirement of the +celibacy of the priesthood is an idea condemned by the Apostle Paul (I Tim. +4:1-3). In fact, when Paul listed the qualifications for bishops (elders), +he stated that they must "not have been married more than once" (I Tim. +3:2, J.B.V.; see also Titus 1:6). + + + MASS + +The biblical teachings concerning communion are radically opposed to the +official Roman Catholic position regarding the mass.(1) While Protestants +view communion as a source of spiritual blessing and a symbolic sacrament +commemorating Christ's sacrifice on our behalf, Catholics claim that it is +the same sacrifice as Christ's death on the cross, and view it as a re- +enactment of Christ's crucifixion on Calvary in an unbloody manner.(2) +Mass is a ritual officiated by a priest it which Christ's body is +recrucified and resacrificed for the atonement of an individual's sins. +Catholicism further teaches that the physical presence of Christ is in the +sacrifice, and that the wine and wafer ("host") are miraculously changed +into the actual blood and body of Jesus Christ (the doctrine of +Transubstantiation). + +The Catholic concept of the mass was unheard of in the early church and was +not invented until 831 A.D. by a Benedictine monk named Radbertus. It did +not become an official doctrine until the Fourth Laterin Council in 1215 +A.D. The doctrine of Transubstantiation wasn't proclaimed until 1215 A.D. +by Pope Innocent the III, and did not become an official creed until 1564 +A.D. + +The elaborate ritualism associated with the mass is unscriptural in that it +stresses that Christ's sacrifice for sins was insufficient the first time. +The Bible repeatedly stresses the finality and completeness of Christ's +sacrifice and challenges any need for it to be repeated, reoffered, +renewed, or perpetuated through mass: "And every priest indeed stands daily +ministering and often offering the same sacrifice which can never take away +sins. But Jesus, having offered ONE SACRIFICE for sins, has taken his seat +forever at the right hand of God. . .For by ONE OFFERING he has perfected +forever those who are sanctified. . .Now where there is a forgiveness of +these, there is no longer offering for sin" (Heb. 10:11, 12, 14, 18, +C.R.V.; see also 7:27; 9:12, 22-28). + +Even Jesus challenged the need for repeating His sacrifice for sins when +He declared: "It is finished" (Jn. 19:30, C.R.V.); and Peter confirmed +that "Christ himself. . .died ONCE for sins, died for the guilty, to lead +us to God" (I Pet. 3:18, J.B.V.). + +1 II Vatican Council documents on the mass. +2 John A. O'Brian, The Faith of Millions, pg. 382 + (Roman Catholic). + + + + RITUALISM + +1. Roman Catholic Ritualism can find no basis of support in the Bible. The +gorgeous vestments, colorful processions, exotic pageantry, mystifying +symbolism, stately music, dim cathedral lighting, flickering candles, +tinkling bells, and sweet-smelling incense is contrary to the character, +conduct, and spirit of Christianity. The dazzling theatrical display of +pomp and pageantry, the splendor of priests arrayed in costly jewels and +apparel, and the elaborate spectacle of ceremonies and liturgies associated +with Roman Catholicism is hardly in keeping with the purity and simplicity +demonstrated by Christ, the apostles, and the early church. Even Peter +warned against the wearing of gold, jewelry, or the putting on of rich +robes (I Pet. 3:3, 4). The external ritualism of Roman Catholicism is a +superficial, religious display designed to impress the natural senses, but +lacks the transforming power of the gospel and the Spirit of Christ to +change the heart or save a soul from hell. + +2. Images, Statues, Shrines, and Pictures -- The Roman Catholic Church +officially sanctioned the worship of images and pictures in 787 A.D. at +the Council of Nicaea. However, the veneration of images, statues, +pictures, and shrines of Christ, Mary, dead saints, and angels is nothing +more than blatant idolatry strictly forbidden by the Bible: "Thou shalt +not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of ANYTHING that is +in heaven above, or in the earth beneath. . .Thou shalt not adore them, nor +serve them" (Ex. 20:4,5, C.R.V.; see also Lev. 26:1). In fact, the Bible +pronounces a curse upon all those who do! (Deut. 27:15). + +3. The Use of Relics -- The widespread use of relics consisting of a piece +of bone, a fragment of a saint's body, or some article which a deceased +saint touched during his life for the purpose of adoration, worship, or +the impartation of blessings and miracles is simply fetishism and rank +superstition borrowed from pagan practices. It has no support in the +Scriptures. The attributing of supernatural power to such relics is +simply another form of idolatry condemned by the Word of God. + +4. The Use of the Rosary -- The rosary is a device consisting of a chain +of beads used in the ritualistic counting of repetitious prayers such as +Hail Marys and The Lord's Prayer. It was first introduced by a monk named +Peter the Hermit (1090 A.D.), but was not officially sanctioned until the +16th century. The repetitious recital of prayers is a heathen practice +specifically condemned by Christ: "In your prayers do not babble as the +pagans do, for they think that by using many words they will make +themselves heard. Do not be like them" (Matt. 6:7,8, J.B.V.; see also +N.A.B.). + +5. The Wearing of the Scapular -- The Scapular is a piece of brown cloth +with the picture of the Virgin Mary which is worn over the shoulders next +to the skin for the purpose of protecting the wearer from evil and danger. +It was introduced by Simon Stock, an English monk, in 1287 A.D. This, like +the wearing of St. Christopher medals, is nothing but superstition and +fetishism which is practiced by pagan religions and primitive tribes in +heathen countries, and condemned as idolatry by the Bible. + +6. The Use of Incense, Candles, and Holy Water in Roman Catholic worship +can find no grounds of support in the Bible. Christians are called to +worship the Father in Spirit and truth. This is what the Father is seeking +for among believers (Jn. 4:23). Our worship is not to be adulterated with +the trappings of pagan idolatry and empty ritualism. The use of none of +these elements can be found in the New Testament or the practice of the +early church. + +7. Prayers, Masses, and Other Rituals for the Dead -- A common practice +among Roman Catholics are prayers for the dead in order to improve their +condition in purgatory and eternal destiny. However, these practices are +in conflict with the Bible which teaches that the status of the dead, +whether they be righteous or wicked, is fixed and irrevocable. The only +opportunity men have for determining their eternal destiny is in this +present life. All of our ritualism on their behalf after death avails +nothing and cannot alter their condition, for "men only die once, and +after that comes judgment" (Heb. 9:27, J.B.V.). + + + + CONCLUSION + +We have carefully compared the major teachings of Roman Catholicism with +the Bible and have shown it is a religious system composed of many manmade +practices and teachings which often contradict the clear truths contained +in the Word of God. The Scriptural facts should offer a sobering challenge +to all Roman Catholics who love God and earnestly desire to follow the +truth. + +Though this booklet has not attempted to question the religious sincerity, +devotion, and dedication of Catholics nor deny that some have had a +genuine, "born-again" experience in Christ, it does endeavor to inform +Catholics of the Scriptural errors of Roman Catholicism and challenge them +accordingly. + +We must each recognize that it is difficult to serve God acceptably and be +approved by Christ if we willfully continue to condone teachings or +participate in practices which violate the Holy Scriptures. Jesus revealed +that the true test of commitment and love for God is obedience and loyalty +to the truth: "If you love me you will keep my commandments" (Jn. 14:15, +J.B.V.; see also I Jn. 2:3, 4; II Jn. 9). An important fruit of salvation +is obedience to those truths which have been revealed to us in the Bible. + +A persistent unwillingness to respond to Scriptural truth is usually an +indication that an individual has not fully surrendered his life to +Christ's Lordship. Furthermore, the Scriptures clearly caution us that +"Everyone who knows what is the right thing to do and doesn't do it commits +a sin" (James 4:17, J.B.V.). + +The inevitable challenge confronting Catholics is whether they are +willing to risk salvation and eternal life by continuing to rely upon a +religious system which openly contradicts the Bible. Will you take the +steps to embrace God's Word without reservation and follow Christ in +absolute obedience? This is a courageous decision which each Roman +Catholic must personally settle in his or her own heart. It is a crucial +choice which confronts all conscientious Catholics who sincerely desire to +embrace the truth and trust solely in Jesus Christ for their salvation. +For a more comprehensive treatment of this important subject, we recommend +reading Roman Catholicism, by Lorraine Boettner, and Foxes Book of Martyrs, +by John Foxe. For a brief overview of the main points covered in +this booklet, please reread the boldly printed words on each page. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/catholic.txt b/religious documents/catholic.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5cf9a15 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/catholic.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1535 @@ +====[ The Christian BBS - Vic., B.C., (604)-478-2789, 8,N,1 - 24 Hrs. ]==== + + CATHOLIC CHRONICLE I + + THE HOLY EUCHARIST + + Eating the Flesh of Deity + ------------------------- + + Edited and compiled by Keith Green + + Last Days Ministries, Box 40, Lindale, TX 75771-0040 + + One might wonder why, in a scriptural look at the doctrines of the +Catholic Church, I would choose this subject - The Roman Interpretation of +the Lord's Supper (more commonly known as "Communion") for the first of the +"Catholic Chronicles." Most Protestants (1) would expect me to deal with +what they might consider the more obvious departures from biblical +foundation - such as the worship of and prayers to the Virgin Mary, the +infallibility of the pope, purgatory and prayers for the dead, or the +history of the torture and burning of accused "heretics" and such like +that. + But for this first article I believe that we should get right to the +root, before we begin exploring the branches of Roman doctrine and +practice. And any Catholic who has even a small knowledge of his church +knows that the central focus of each gathering (known as the "Mass") is the +Holy Eucharist. + The word "Eucharist" is a Greek word that means "thanksgiving." In the +gospel accounts of the Last Supper, Jesus is described as "giving thanks" +before breaking the bread (Luke 22:19), and so this word became a proper +name for the Lord's Supper in the early Catholic Church. Today, it is more +commonly associated with the elements in communion, especially the host or +"wafer," although the ceremony itself is still called "The Holy Eucharist." + Now, you might be wondering why I'm taking so much time and effort to +explain something as harmless as the ceremony known around the world as +communion. If you've probably taken part in a communion service. So why +make all this fuss about bread and wine? Why? Because that's where the +similarity between evangelical communion services and the Roman Catholic +Mass ends - at the bread and the wine! + + Transubstantiation + ------------------ + + That 18-letter word above is a complete theological statement . . . and +the name of a doctrine, out of which springs the most astounding set of +beliefs and practices that has ever been taught in the name of religion. +Very, very few people know what the Catholic Church actually believes and +teaches concerning this subject, and I am convinced that even fewer +Catholics realize themselves what they are taking part in. From earliest +childhood, "This is the body of Christ" is all they've ever heard when the +priest gingerly placed the wafer on their tongue. And as they grew up, it +was such a natural and normal part of religious life, that their minds +never even questioned the fact that Jesus Christ, Himself, was actually in +their mouth! + It might be hard for you to believe, but that's exactly, literally, +what "transubstantiation" means. The Roman Catholic Church teaches their +flocks that the bread and the wine used in the Mass actually, physically, +turn into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ after the priest blesses them +during the liturgy (ceremony. Although this in itself might shock you, it +is really only the beginning. For the implications and practical +conclusions of this doctrine are absolutely mind-boggling. + + Exclusive Authority + ------------------- + + For example, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that since their priests +are the only ones who have the authority from God (2) to pronounce the +blessing which changes the elements of communion into the actual body and +blood of Jesus, that they are the only church where Jesus "physically +resides" even now! Let me quote a letter written to one of the girls in +our ministry from a devoted Catholic: + + "To explain the Catholic Church would take volumes, but basically the + Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ when He was here on earth. + It is the ONLY church founded by Jesus. The greatest asset of our church + is that we have Jesus present in the Holy Eucharist - He is really here, + body, soul and divinity. He is God and in His omnipotence can do + anything He wishes, and He decided to remain with us until the end of the + world in the form of the host in Holy Communion." + + If you think this is just the isolated opinion of someone on the fringe +of the church, or that the Catholic Church as a whole does not really +believe or teach this, I beg you to read on. For not only is this the +official teaching of Rome, but according to irreversible church decree +(called dogma), anyone who does not hold to this belief, in the most +explicit detail, is accursed and damned forever! + + The Council of Trent + -------------------- + + When Europe was electrified by the eloquent preaching of the sixteenth +century reformation, the Roman Catholic hierarchy gathered together her +theologians who worked for three decades on the preparation of a statement +of faith concerning transubstantiation. This document remains, to this +day, the standard of Catholic doctrine. + As the Second Vatican Council commenced in 1963, Pope John XXIII +declared, "I do accept entirely all that has been decided and declared at +the Council of Trent." What did the Council of Trent decide and declare? +Some of the first sections are as follows: + + CANON I + ------- + "If anyone shall deny that the body and blood, together with the soul +and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore entire Christ, are +truly, really, and substantially contained in the sacrament of the most +Holy Eucharist; and shall say that He is only in it as a sign, or in a +figure - let him be accursed!" + + CANON II + -------- + "If anyone shall say that the substance of the bread and wine remains +in the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist, together with the body and +blood of our Lord Jesus Christ - let him be accursed!" + + CANON VI + -------- + "If anyone shall say that Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is not +to be adored in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, even with the open +worship of Latria, and therefore not to be venerated with any peculiar +festal celebrity, not to be solemnly carried about in processions according +to the praiseworthy and universal rites and customs of the Holy Church, and +that He is not to be publicly set before the people to be adored, and that +His adorers are idolators, - let him be accursed!" + + The Worship Of The Host + ----------------------- + + "Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image (4)... + Thou shall not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them" + - The 2nd commandment (Ex.20:4-5) + + "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and + truth." + - John 4:23 + + In Canon VI, a rite of worship called "Latria" was spoken of. This is +not just an "ancient custom," it is thoroughly practiced today in many +Masses. After the bread has been supposedly "changed" into the Christ by +the priest, it is placed in a holder called a monstrance. And before this +monstrance the Catholic must bow and worship (this act is called +genuflecting) the little wafer as God! Sometimes they have processions +where they solemnly march, as the congregation bows and offers praise and +worship - to this piece of bread! + The Roman teaching that Jesus Christ is physically present in each +morsel of bread creates many other doctrinal and practical problems. For +instance, when the service is over, what happens to all those leftover +wafers that have been "changed into Christ?" Do they change back into +bread again when the priest goes home? I'm afraid not. For according to +Canon IV of the Council of Trent, they stay flesh! And don't think that +400 year-old decree is just some dusty old manuscript in a museum case +somewhere - it still is completely adhered to and passionately practiced. +As an example, here is a passage from an official Catholic home instruction +book, copyrighted 1978: + "Jesus Christ does not cease to exist under the appearances of bread +and wine after the Mass is over. Furthermore, some hosts are usually kept +in all Catholic churches. In these hosts, Jesus is physically and truly +present, as long as the appearances of bread remain. Catholics therefore +have the praiseworthy practice of `making visits' to our Lord present in +their churches to offer Him their thanks, their adoration, to ask for help +and forgiveness: in a word, to make Him the center around which they live +their daily lives." That is an incredible interpretation of how to make +Jesus the center of your daily life! + + When Did This Teaching Begin? + ----------------------------- + + The teaching of transubstantiation does not date back to the Last +Supper as most Catholics suppose. It was a controversial topic for many +centuries before officially becoming an article of faith (which means that +it is essential to salvation according to Rome). The idea of a physical +presence was vaguely held by some, such as Ambrose, but it was not until +831 A.D. that Paschasius Radbertus, a Benedictine Monk, published a +treatise openly advocating the doctrine. Even then, for almost another +four centuries, theological was was waged over this teaching by bishops and +people alike, until at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 A.D., it was +officially defined and canonized as a dogma (a teaching or doctrine that can +never be reversed or repealed. It is equal in authority to the Bible.) by +Pope Innocent III. + Church historians tell us that when this doctrine first began to be +taught, the priests took great care that no crumb should fall - lest the +body of Jesus be hurt, or even eaten by a mouse or a dog! There were quite +serious discussions as to what should be done if a person were to vomit +after receiving the sacrament. At the Council of Constance, it was argued +that if a communicant spilled some of the blood on his beard, both beard +and the man should be destroyed by burning! + + How Rome Views the Bible + ------------------------ + + Before we proceed to look at what the Bible has to say on this subject, +it is important to understand the official Catholic view of the Scriptures. +According to unquestionable decree, they hold that "Church tradition has +equal authority with the Bible." This is not just a theological view, but +it was made an article of faith by the same Council of Trent in 1546! And +again, this view is completely held by the Church today: + "The teachings of the Church will always be in keeping with the +teachings of the Scripture...and it is through the teaching of the Church +that we understand more fully truths of sacred Scripture. To the Catholic +Church belongs the final word in the understanding and meaning of the Holy +Spirit in the words of the Bible." + And explaining the premise used in interpreting the Bible: +"...usually, the meaning of the Scriptures is sought out by those who are +specially trained for this purpose. And in their conclusions, they know +that no explanation of the Scriptures which contradicts the truths +constantly taught by the infallible Church can be true." (10) + Anyone can see how such a mode of interpretation can be dangerously +used to manipulate Scripture to mean absolutely anything at all! Who has +not observed this of the various cults? The Moonies, Mormons, and +Jehovah's Witnesses all back up their false teachings with "new +revelations" and "inspired interpretations" of the Scriptures - each +claiming that the Holy Spirit revealed these new truths to their founders. +One opens themselves to all kinds of deception when they judge the Bible by +what their church or pastor teaches, instead of judging what their church +or pastor teaches by the Bible! + + Catholic Proof-Texts Explained + ------------------------------ + + With this in mind, we will briefly discuss the two main passages of +Scripture that the Roman Church uses while trying to show that Jesus +Himself taught transubstantiation. + + John 6:54-55: "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal +life; and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, +and My blood is true drink." + + Catholics are taught here, that Jesus is explaining how He is literally +offering them His flesh and blood, so that they may have eternal life by +physically eating Him. With just a little study of the whole passage +(verses 27-71), it is clear that Jesus was not talking about physical, but +spiritual food and drink. + Food is eaten to satisfy hunger. And in verse 35 Jesus says, "He who +cometh to Me shall never hunger." Now, Jesus is not promising eternal +relief from physical hunger pains. He is, of course, speaking of the +spiritual hunger in man for righteousness and salvation, And He promises +to those who will "come to Him" that He will satisfy their hunger for these +things forever - therefore, to come to Him is to "eat"! (See also Matt. +5:6, 11:28; Jn. 4:31-34.) + We drink also to satisfy thirst, and again in verse 35 Jesus tells us, +"He that believeth on Me shall never thirst." Therefore, to believe on Him +is to "drink"! (See also John 4:13-14.) No one can say that Jesus was +here establishing the eating and drinking of His literal flesh and blood to +give eternal life, for in verse 63 He says, "It is the Spirit who gives +life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are +spirit, and they are life." Thus Jesus makes clear what we should be +eating and drinking to have eternal life! Matt. 26:26 and 28: "This is My +body...this is My blood." (See also Matt. 4:4.) + Catholics base their whole religious system on their interpretation of +these tow verses. They adamantly teach that right here, Jesus is +pronouncing the first priestly blessing that mysteriously changes the bread +and wine into His body and blood. The absolute folly of such a conclusion +is proved by this one observation: He was literally still there before, +during, and after they had partaken of the bread and the cup! He was not +changed into some liquid and bread - His flesh was still on His bones, and +His blood still in His veins. He had not vanished away to reappear in the +form of a piece of bread or a cup of wine! + Let's look closer at His words. No one can deny that here we have +figurative language. Jesus did not say TOUTO GIGNETAI ("this has become" +or "is turned into"), but TOUTO ESTI ("this is," i.e., "signifies," +"represents" or "stands for"). (11) It is obvious that Jesus' meaning was +not literal but symbolic! And He wasn't the first in the Bible to claim +figuratively that a glass of liquid was really "blood." + One time, David's friends heard him express a strong desire for water +from the well of Bethlehem. In spite of extreme danger, these men broke +through the enemy lines of the Philistines and brought the water to him. +When David found out that these men had risked their lives in this way, he +refused to drink the water, exclaiming, "Is not this the blood of the men +who went in jeopardy of their lives?" (2 Sam. 23:17) + Throughout the gospels we find similar metaphorical language: Jesus +referring to Himself as "the Door," "the Vine," "the Light," "the Root," +"the Rock," "the Bright and Morning Star," as well as "the Bread." The +passage is written with such common language that it is plain to any +observant reader that the Lord's Supper was intended primarily as a +memorial and in no sense a literal sacrifice. "Do this in remembrance of +Me." (Luke 22:19) + + True Pagan Origins + ------------------ + + Where did this teaching and practice really come from? Like many of +the beliefs and rites of Romanism, transubstantiation was first practiced +by pagan religions. The noted historian Durant said that belief in +transubstantiation as practiced by the priests of the Roman Catholic system +is "one of the oldest ceremonies of primitive religion." (12) The +syncretism and mysticism of the Middle East were great factors in +influencing the West, particularly Italy. (13) In Egypt, priests would +consecrate mest cakes which were supposed to become the flesh of Osiris. +(14) The idea of transubstantiation was also characteristic of the +religion of Mithra whose sacraments of cakes and haoma drink closely +parallel Catholic Eucharist rites. (15) + The idea of eating the flesh of deity was most popular among the people +of Mexico and Central America long before they ever heard of Christ; and +when Spanish missionaries first landed in those countries, "their surprise +was heightened, when they witnessed a religious rite which reminded them of +communion...an image made of flour...and after consecration by priests, was +distributed among the people who ate it...declaring it was the flesh of +deity..." (16) + + So Why Do They Teach It? + ------------------------ + + Before concluding our first chronicle, the question needs to be asked, +"Why does the Roman Catholic Church need to have such a doctrine - why do +they think that Jesus wants them to Physically eat Him?" That is what +truly puzzled me as I read astounded through the catechism and doctrinal +instruction books. But the answer to that question is a sad one. As I +said before, the implications and practical conclusions of the teaching of +transubstantiation are substantially worse than the doctrine itself - and +like a great web spun by an industrious spider, Rome's teachings spiral out +from this central hub like the spokes of a wheel. + In Catholic Chronicle II we will look intently at the next direct +result of transubstantiation in official Catholic systematic theology: "The +Sacrifice of the Mass." +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + 1 - Today, Protestants are considered to be members of any church or + church-group outside the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. + 2 - Passed down through "Apostolic Succession" from Peter the apostle-the + supposed "first pope." + 3 - The "wafer." + 4 - NASV reads, "You shall not make for yourself an idol." + 5 - This act is called "genuflecting." + 6 - "The Spirit of Jesus" Catholic Home Study Instruction Course. + Book #3, p.92. + 7 - A "Dogma" is a teaching or doctrine that can never be reversed or + repealed. It is equal in authority to the Bible. + 8 - The Other Side of Rome, p.21. + 9 - By the end of the eleventh century, lest someone should spill God's + blood, some in the church began to hold back the cup from the people, + and finally in 1415, the Council of Constance officially denied the + cup to laymen. Although today, by decree of the Vatican, churches may + now offer the cup optionally to communicants. +10 - "The Spirit of Jesus," pp.94-95. +11 - If I held up a picture of my son and said, "This is my son," I am + certainly not saying that the actual picture is literally my son. +12 - The Story of Civilization, p.741. +13 - Roman Society From Nero to Marcus Aurelius, by Dill. +14 - An ancient Egyptian god of the lower world and judge of the dead - + Encyclopedia of Religions, Vol.2, p.76. +15 - Ibid. +16 - Prescott's Mexico, Vol. 3. + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +====[ The Christian BBS - Vic., B.C., (604)-478-2789, 8,N,1 - 24 Hrs. ]==== + + CATHOLIC CHRONICLE II + + THE SACRIFICE of the MASS + + - Jesus Dies Again - + ---------------- + + Edited and compiled by Keith Green + + Last Days Ministries, Box 40, Lindale, TX 75771-0040 + + In Chronicle I, we thoroughly examined the doctrine of +transubstantiation - its history, practice, and real meaning. But we have +waited for this second article to answer the question: WHY? Why must there +be present in the Mass the literal body and blood of Jesus? What purpose +does it serve? + The answer is found in the startling words: "The sacrifice of the Mass +is the same sacrifice of the cross, for there is the same priest, the same +victim, and the same offering." (1) + And in the words of Pope Pius IV.... + "I profess likewise that in the Mass there is offered to God a true, +proper, and propitiatory (2) sacrifice for the living and the dead." (From +the fifth article of the creed of Pope Pius IV.) + That is the incredible truth! The Roman Catholic Church believes and +teaches that in every Mass, in every church, throughout the world +(estimated at up to 200,000 Masses a day) that Jesus Christ is being +offered up again, physically, as a sacrifice for sin (benefiting not only +those alive, but the dead (3) as well!) Every Roman Mass is a re-creation +of Jesus' death for the sins of the world. NOT A SYMBOLIC RE-CREATION! +But a literal, actual offering of the flesh and blood of the Lord to make +daily atonement for all the sins that have been daily committed since Jesus +was crucified almost 2,000 years ago. (4) + That's why the elements (5) must become physically Jesus' body and +blood, so that they can be once again offered for sin: + "The Holy Eucharist is the perpetual continuation of this act of +sacrifice and surrender of our Lord. When the Lord's Supper is celebrated, +Christ again presents Himself in His act of total surrender to the Father +in death." (6) + "He offers Himself continually to the Father, in the same eternal act +of offering that began on the cross and will NEVER CEASE." (7) + "The Mass is identical to Calvary - it is a sacrifice for sin - it must +be perpetuated to take away sin." (8) + The catechism of the Council of Trent required all pastors to explain +that not only did the elements of the Mass contain flesh, bones and nerves +as a part of Christ, "But also a WHOLE CHRIST." (9) Thus it is referred to +as "the sacrifice of the Mass" and as "a RENEWAL of the sacrifice of the +cross." (10) + + The Council Of Trent On "The Sacrifice Of The Mass" + -------------------------------------------------- + + As we shared in chronicle I, the Council of Trent was called to clarify +and standardize Catholic doctrine in response to the challenges of the +Reformation. The canons on this subject (passed in Session XXII. Cap II.) +are as follows: + 1. "If anyone shall say, that in the Mass there is not offered to God a +true and proper sacrifice, or that what is offered is nothing else than +Christ given to be eaten, let him be anathema." (11) + 2. "If anyone shall say that in these words, `This do in remembrance of +Me,' Christ did not make the apostles priests, or did not ordain that they +themselves and other priests should offer His body and blood, let him be +anathema." + 3. "If anyone shall say that the sacrifice of the Mass is only of +praise and thanksgiving, or a bare commemoration of the sacrifice performed +on the cross, but not propitiatory; or that it is of benefit only to the +person who takes it, and ought not to be offered for the living and the +dead fro sins, punishments, satisfactions, and other necessities, let him be +accursed." + 4. "If anyone shall say that a blasphemy is ascribed to the most holy +sacrifice of Christ performed on the cross by the sacrifice of the Mass - +let him be accursed." + + But Is This The Belief Of Rome Today? + ------------------------------------- + + If any be in doubt as to the modern Roman position, we shall quote the +recent (1963-1965) Second Vatican Council: + "At the Last Supper...our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice +of His body and blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of +the cross..." p. 154, THE DOCUMENTS OF VATICAN II, Walter M. Abbott, S.J. + The catechism books teach that the reason the Mass is the same +sacrifice as that of Calvary is because the victim in each case was Jesus +Christ. (12) In fact, they refer to the bread of the Eucharist as the +"host," which is the Latin word HOSTIA which literally means "VICTIM." (13) + + But Why "The Sacrifice" Of The Mass? + ------------------------------------ + + We will now quote the church's own contemporary literature to fully +answer this question (taken from the book, THIS IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, +published by the Catholic Information Service, Knights of Columbus, +Imprimatur: (14) Most Reverend John F. Whealon, Archbishop of Hartford: + "Sacrifice is the very essence of religion. And it is only through +sacrifice that union with the Creator can be perfectly acquired. It was +through sacrifice that Christ Himself was able to achieve this for man. IT +IS ONLY THROUGH THE PERPETUATION OF THAT SACRIFICE THAT THIS UNION MAY BE +MAINTAINED. + "What makes the Mass the most exalted of all sacrifices is the nature +of the victim, Christ Himself. For the Mass is the continuation of +Christ's sacrifice which He offered through His life and Christ was not +only the priest of this sacrifice (of the Cross), He was also the victim, +the very object itself of this sacrifice. + The Mass is thus the same as the sacrifice of the cross. No matter how +many times it is offered, nor in how many places at one time, it is the +same sacrifice of Christ. Christ is forever offering Himself in the Mass." +(15) + + But Jesus Said "It Is Finished!" + -------------------------------- + + Every true believer loves the sound of these words: "It is finished!" +(John 19:30). For it is the wonderful exclamation that the Lord's +suffering was finally over - He had fulfilled His mission! Jesus had lived +a Life of Sorrow, bearing the burden of a world gone mad. He had been +rejected by everyone, even His closest friends. He had lived a perfect +life before men and God, and His reward on earth was to be laughed at, spat +upon, beaten beyond recognition, and finally nailed to a cross. But He had +submitted willingly, because it was the will of His Father to offer Him as +the satisfaction of the penalty for all the sin in the world - past, present +and future! + But here, in the words of a Roman Catholic priest, is the "true +meaning" of the words "it is finished!" "These words do not declare that +His sacrifice was finished, but that He had finished His former, normal, +earthly life and was now fixed in the state of a victim...He then began His +everlasting career as the perpetual sacrifice of the new law." (16) Hence, +according to Rome, Jesus must be forever dying for sin, "perpetually." + Have you ever wondered why in every Catholic Church they still have +Jesus up on the cross? Every crucifix with Jesus portrayed as nailed to +it, tells the whole Catholic story - Jesus is still dying for the sins of +the world! But that's a lie! We need only look to the Scriptures to see +the truth. + + Back To The Book + ---------------- + + The epistle to the Hebrews speaks of the "once for all" sacrifice of +Christ on the cross, not a daily sacrifice on altars. The Bible repeatedly +affirms in the clearest and most positive terms that Christ's sacrifice on +Calvary was complete in that one offering. And that it was never to be +repeated is set forth explicitly in Hebrews, chapters 7, 9 and 10: + "Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, +first for his own sins, and then for the people's: For this He did once, +when He offered up Himself" (7:27). "...by His own blood He entered in +once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" +(9:12). "Nor yet that He should offer Himself often..but now once in the +end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of +Himself..so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them +that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto +salvation" (9:25-28). "...we are sanctified through the offering of the +body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily +ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never +take away sins; but this man, after He had offered one sacrifice for the +sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God...for by one offering He +hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (10:10-14). + Notice that throughout these verses occurs the statement "once for all" +which shows how perfect, complete and final Jesus' sacrifice was! His work +on the cross constituted one historic event which need never be repeated +and which in fact cannot be repeated. As Paul say, "Christ, being raised +from the dead dieth no more" (Romans 6:9). Any pretense of a continuous +offering for sin is worse than vain, it is blasphemy and true fulfillment +of the Scripture, "Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, +and put Him to an open shame." (Heb. 6:6). + + Jesus - The Only Priest + ----------------------- + + Jesus not only became the perfect sacrifice for sin, but after being +accepted by God as having totally fulfilled the requirements of the old +covenant, He became "the mediator of a better covenant" (Heb.8:6). That +means that Jesus is the high priest of every true believer! "There is one +mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ" (ITim.2:5). + The Bible teaches that the priesthood of Jesus Christ is unique: "Thou +art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (17) "...because He +abides forever (He) holds His priesthood permanently" (which means that it +cannot be transferred to another!) (Heb.7:17,24). + But Roman Catholicism teaches that the apostles were ordained by Jesus +Himself (at the Last Supper) to perpetuate the coming sacrifice He would +make on the cross. And that this ordination has been handed down through +the centuries to the current generation of priests. Therefore, Rome +teaches that her priests actually operate and discharge the priesthood of +Jesus Christ, and that they are called "other Christs" (alter Christus). +(18) + This explains the great adulation and honor heaped upon the Roman +priest. The French Catholic Saint J.M.B. Vianney said that "Where there is +no priest there is no sacrifice, and where there is no sacrifice there is +no religion...without the priest the death and passion of our Lord would be +of no avail to us... see the power of the priest! By one word from his +lips, he changes a piece of bread into a God! A greater feat than the +creation of a world." He also said, "If I were to meet a priest and an +angel, I would salute the priest before saluting the angel. The angel is +a friend of God, but the priest holds the place of God...nest to God +Himself, the priest is everything!" What humiliation for Jesus Christ, the +One who has been given a name "above all other names!" + + But Isn't Rome Changing? + ------------------------ + + Today, many are expressing hope that Rome is turning toward scriptural +Christianity. They point to the many reforms of Vatican II (19) and also +to the ever-widening charismatic renewal. True, these things appear to be +a positive sign of change, and many are thrilled by them, but most fail to +realize that these changes are only superficial. For Rome could never +reject the sacrifice of the Mass - just streamline it enough to keep the +truth of its meaning hidden. Pope John XXIII made it clear that His Church +is bound "to all the teachings of the Church in its entirety and +preciseness, as it still shines forth in the act of the Council of Trent +and First Vatican Council..." (20) + It is clear that the whole of Roman teaching and belief is founded on +this premise of the continual sacrifice of Christ for sin: + "It should be easy to see why the Mass holds such an important place in +the Church's life. The Mass is the very essence of the Church. Within it +the Church's life, and the Church's very existence is centered. If there +were no Mass, there could be no Catholic Church. The Mass is our act of +worship, an act which we know to be really worthy of God, because it is the +sacrifice of God's own Son. + "What the sacrifices of the old law were unable to accomplish - the +Mass performs: Perfect atonement is made for sin. + "The souls of men yet unborn, together with those now living and those +who have come into existence since Christ's sacrifice, all have need of the +salvation which Christ has won for us. It is through the Mass as well as +through the other sacraments that the effects of Christ's salvation are +applied to the souls of men." (21) + It is made thoroughly clear that Rome will forever put its faith in the +Mass for the eternal forgiveness of sins. To remove this belief from her +system of theology, would be like knocking our the pillars of a great +edifice - the whole building would come tumbling down! + + Paul's Extreme Warning + ---------------------- + + As I sat stunned, reading all the "Let them be accursed" threats of the +Council of Trent, I could not help but think how their curses would only +fall back on their own heads - for the words of our brother Paul call out +across the centuries: + "But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a +gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be +accursed!" (Gal. 1:8). + Not only does Paul warn that an authentic angel from heaven should not +be heeded while preaching "different doctrine," but he gives the ultimate +warning -"...even though we!" Paul strictly warned the Galatians, not even +to listen to him - the chief apostle and master of true doctrine - if he +should reverse himself on any of the fundamental teachings of the gospel. +How much more then, should we reject the appalling traditions and practices +of a system that is not only unbiblical, but is actually steeped in +mysticism, bordering dangerously on the occult! + + Conclusion + ---------- + The Definition Of A "Cult" + -------------------------- + + Now I am sure, many of you who have been reading this, might have been +wondering if (and when) I would use this word. Today, the word "cult" is +thrown around without much thought. People seem much too eager to use it +to describe any individual or group that doesn't exactly agree with them. +And I do not, and will not use the word lightly. But as far as I can see +from the Bible, a person is only in danger of being grouped with "false +brethren" by tampering with three very basic issues of biblical truth. (22) + 1) Who Jesus is - Son of God, God the Son, Creator of the universe. + 2) What He came to do - to die once for all, for the sins of mankind, +then raise from the dead as the eternal high priest of all true believers. + 3) How a person directly benefits from Christ's death for sin - he is +accounted as righteous through a total faith and rest in the finished work +of Christ, and becomes the possessor of God's free gift - eternal life +(salvation. + The Roman Catholic Church has been considered a true Christian faith, +mainly because it is generally known that their theology is quite orthodox +on point #1. But as we have pointed out in these two chronicles, they are +perilously shaky on the atonement - Christ's substitutionary death for +sinners - #2. But if there is any doubt left at all, as to whether or not +the Roman Church is authentically and biblically Christian, there is a +complete and thorough study of the Roman view on how one obtains salvation +in our third installment of The Catholic Chronicles - "Salvation According +To Rome." +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + 1] The Roman Catholic Sacrifice of the Mass, by Bartholomew F. Brewer, + Ph.D. + 2] Propitiatory - conciliatory, to soothe the anger of, to win or regain + the goodwill of, to appease, placate or make friendly, to reconcile - + Webster's New World Dictionary and Harper's Bible Dictionary. + 3] "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" + (Heb.9:27). + 4] The Catholic Home Instruction Book #3, p.90. + 5] The bread and the wine. + 6] the Spirit of Jesus pp.89-90, Imprimatur: John Joseph Cardinal + Carberry, Archbishop of St.Louis. + 7] Sons of God in Christ Book 4, p.117. + 8] For Them Also, pp.289-299. + 9] Encyclopedia of Religions, Vol.2, p.77. +10] "A Catholic Word List" p.45. +11] Anathema - The strongest denunciaiton of a person that can be made in + the ancient Greek (the original language of the New Testament). Literal + meaning: "devoted to death." A thing or person accursed or damned - + Webster's New World Dictionary and Harper's Bible Dictionary. +12] "The New Baltimore Catechism" #3, Question 931. +13] Webster's New World Dictionary. +14] Imprimatur - Sanction or approval. Specifically, permission to print + or publish a book or article containing nothing contrary to the + teachings of the Roman Catholic Church - Webster's New World + Dictionary. +15] pp.20-24 +16] The Sacrifice of Christ by Fr.Richard W.Grace. +17] Psalm 110:4 and Hebrews 7:17. +18] In Latin. +19] i.e., Such as Masses performed in the common language rather than + exclusively in Latin, the relaxation of taboos such as eating meat on + Friday, etc. +20] The Documents of Vatican II, Abbot,S.J. +21] This Is The Catholic Church pp.24-25. +22] These are greatly condensed for this example. + + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +====[ The Christian BBS - Vic., B.C., (604)-478-2789, 8,N,1 - 24 Hrs. ]==== + + CATHOLIC CHRONICLE III + + Salvation According to Rome + --------------------------- + + Edited and compiled by Keith Green + + Last Days Ministries, Box 40, Lindale, TX 75771-0040 + + "...the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord!" + - Rom. 6:23 + + How blessed it is to know Jesus! His love, His mercy, His +righteousness, His forgiveness! He has promised to "cast all our sins into +the depths of the sea" (Mic. 7:19) and to separate us from our sins "as far +as the east is from the west!" (Ps. 103:12). + This is the good news! (That's the literal meaning of the word +"gospel" - good news!) That is what the true church of our God has the +privilege of proclaiming..."liberty to the captives!!" (Lk. 4:18). + The reason I begin this article on the Roman Catholic view of salvation +with such rejoicing in my Saviour, is because I have just finished reading +a mountain of official (Roman) church literature on the subject, and I can +honestly say, I have never had such joy in my heart of hearts about the +finished work of Christ. As I scoured each page and read of penance, +confession, venial and mortal sins, indulgences, purgatory, etc., I then +had the infinite pleasure of searching the Scriptures to see what they had +to say on these fundamental Catholic doctrines. + Oh what relief my soul found in the Scriptures! What holy joy! What +clarity of light I saw, as the simple brilliance of God's mercy shown into +my mind. If there is anything more beautiful than God's love and patience +with man, it has never been revealed to mortals! + All this to say that I am bogged down with the information I have +accumulated, and I will probably have to cover it all in this, Chronicle +III, briefly touching on each subject, while always coming back to the main +question: "According to Rome, how can a man or woman be saved from the +consequences of his sinful nature and actions, and how can they gain +assurance that they are in a right standing before God?" + If the future permits, I will come back in another installment and +cover some of these subjects (particularly, purgatory and indulgences) in +far greater depth and detail. It is our desire to see people find the true +salvation that Jesus dies for - therefore, we must deal with that great +(and most important) subject wholly, before taking the time to supply other +necessary (and most revealing) subject matter. + + The Catholic Teaching on Sin + ---------------------------- + + Before we can understand what Catholics are taught about salvation, we +must first see what they are taught they need to be saved from. In Matt. +1, the angel of the Lord speaks to Joseph in a dream about his bethrothed, +Mary, saying "she will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for +it is He who will save His people from their sins" (vs. 21). + Today, many evangelicals toss around the term "saved" without much +thought. "When did you get saved?" someone might ask. It's almost like a +title, or a badge that a person wears to prove that he's become part of the +club - the "saved" club. Others are under the impression that when a +person talks of being "saved", they are talking about being saved from many +different things - sickness, death, the devil, hell, etc. But when the +angel of the Lord used that precious word to prophesy that Jesus would +fulfill all the predictions of the prophets, he made very clear what Jesus +was coming to save His people from...their sins! + In official Roman Catholic theology, this too is the main thing that +people are taught they need to be saved from - their sins. But the only +thing that Catholic and evangelical teachings have in common on the +subject of sin...is the spelling! For when a Catholic talks about his +"sins", you must find out first if he is talking about "mortal" sins, or +"venial" sins. And then you must ask him "how do you get rid of them?" +The answer given will likely confound a non-Catholic. For words like +"faith", "repentance", even "Jesus" will usually be missing in the answer. +Instead, a whole new list of other words will have to be learned, defined, +and understood before the evangelical can fully grasp how a Catholic is +taught his sins (and the penalty due them) can be canceled out. + + Mortal and Venial Sins + ---------------------- + + The first of these unfamiliar words are the names of the two groups +Rome has separated all sins into. Now if you're a Catholic, you might be +wondering why I'm making such a big deal - for the dividing of sins into +two distinct categories (each with their own set of consequences and +remedies) has been part of Catholic doctrine for a long, long time. + According to Rome's definition, mortal sin is described as "any great +offense against the law of God" and is so named because "it is deadly, +killing the soul and subjecting it to eternal punishment." Venial (1) +sins, on the other hand, are "small and pardonable offenses against God, +and our neighbor." Unlike mortal sins, benial sins are not thought to damn +a soul to hell, but with the committing of each venial sin, a person +increase his need for a longer stay in the purifying fires of a place +called "purgatory." (Look that word up in your Bible dictionary - you'll +find it right next to "venial"!) + Now, there is no agreement among the priests as to which sins are mortal +and which are venial, but they all proceed on the assumption that such a +distinction does exist. The method of classification is purely arbitrary. +What is venial according to one may be mortal according to another. + According to Rome, the pope is infallible in matters of faith and +doctrine. (2) He should then be able to settle this important matter by +accurately cataloging those sins which are mortal as distinguished from +those which are venial. However, there are some definites in the "mortal" +category: blatantly breaking one of the ten commandments, practically all +sexual offenses (whether in word, thought or deed) and a long list of +transgressions which have changed throughout the centuries. + For instance, until Vatican II (3) it was a mortal sin to attend a +Protestant church, to own or read a Protestant Bible, or to eat meat on +Friday! Oh, and it's still a mortal sin to "miss Mass on Sunday morning +(4) without a good excuse" (which means that considerably more than half +of the claimed Roman Catholic membership throughout the world is constantly +in mortal sin!) Venial sins include things like thinking bad thoughts, +having wrong motives, losing your temper, etc. - things that do not +necessarily "lead into actual sin" but still, nevertheless, are sins that +need to be eradicated in some way. + + What Does the Bible Say? + ------------------------ + + The Bible makes no distinction between mortal and venial sins. There is +in fact, no such thing as a venial sin. ALL SIN IS MORTAL! It is true +that some sin are worse than others, but it is also true that all sins if +not forgiven bring death to the soul. The Bible simply says: "The wages +of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). And Ezekial says: "The soul that sinneth, +it shall die" (18:4). + James says that "whosoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one +point, he has become guilty of all" (2:10). He meant, not that the person +who commits one sin is guilty of all other kinds of sin, but that even one +sin unatoned for, shuts a person completely out of heaven and subjects him +to punishment, just as surely as one misstep by the mountain climber +plunges him to destruction in the canyon below. + In the light of these biblical statements, the distinction between +mortal and venial sins is shown to be completely absurd. In fact, the very +act of classifying sins into "greater and lesser" is immoral in itself. We +know how quick human nature is to grasp at any excuse for sin. Rome seems +to be saying "these sins are really bad! But those? Well...you can get +away with a few of them and not really suffer too much." Speaking of +"getting away" with something, let's get right down to how Rome teaches you +can "get rid of" your sins. + + Confession + ---------- + + The Catholic system starts to get real complicated when we begin to +look at the ways one can erase both their mortal and venial sins. "Two +kinds of punishment are due to mortal sin: eternal (in hell forever), and +temporal (in purgatory). Eternal punishment is canceled by either baptism +(5) or confession to a priest." (6) + The Baltimore Catechism defines confession as follows: "Confession is +the telling of our sins to an authorized priest for the purpose of +attaining forgiveness." The important words here are "authorized priest." +And to be genuine, a confession must be heard, judged, and followed by +obedience to the authorized priest as he assigns a penance, such as good +works, prayers, fastings, abstinence form certain pleasures, et. A penance +may be defined as "a punishment undergone in token of repentance for sin, +as assigned by the priest" - usually a very light penalty. + The New York Catechism says, "I must tell my sins to the priest so that +he will give me absolution. (7) A person who knowingly keeps back a mortal +sin in confession commits a dreadful sacrilege, and he must repeat his +confession." + + The Priest's Role + ----------------- + + Canon law 888 says: "The priest has to remember that in hearing +confession he is a judge." And the book, Instructions for Non-Catholics (8) +says: "A priest does not have to ask God to forgive your sins. The priest +himself has the power to do so in Christ's name. Your sins are forgiven by +the priest the same as if you knelt before Jesus Christ and told them to +Christ Himself." (9) + "The priest forgives the guilt of mortal sins which save the penitent +form going to hell, but he cannot remit the penalty due for those sins, +and so the penitent must atone for them by performance of good works which +he prescribes. The penitent may be, and usually is, interrogated by the +priest so that he or she may make a full and proper confession. Stress is +placed on the fact that any sin not confessed is not forgiven, any mortal +sin not confessed in detail is not forgiven, and that the omission of even +one sin (mortal) may invalidate the whole confession. Every loyal Roman +Catholic is required under pain of mortal sin to go to confession at least +once a year. (10) But even after a penitent has received pardon, a large, +but unknown amount of punishment remains to be suffered in purgatory." (11, +12) + Technically, venial sins need not be confessed since they are +comparatively light and can be canceled by good works, prayers, extreme +unction. (13) etc., but the terms are quite elastic and permit considerable +leeway on the part of the priest. It is generally advised that it is safer +to confess supposed venial sins also since the priest alone is able to +judge accurately which are mortal and which are mortal and which are +venial. The Baltimore Catechism says: "When we have committed no mortal +sins since our last confession, we should confess our venial sins or some +sin told in a previous confession for which we are again sorry, in order +that the priest may give us absolution. (14) What chance has a poor sinner +against such a system as that? + As an example, a minister friend of mine who was brought up in the +Catholic Church, tells the story of how his older brother went to +confession every single week and confessed the same sin to the same priest +and was given the same penance in order to receive absolution. This went +on week after week, year after year. One day, while on a trip from home, +he decided that he would not break his pattern of going to weekly +confession, so he went to another Catholic Church in the city he was +visiting. He went into the confession box and confessed the same sin to a +different priest. He began with "forgive me Father for I have sinned," and +then began confessing the sin once again, but this time he was shocked when +the priest said: "But my son, that's not a sin!" My friend's brother got +up, and hurried out the door, and from that day on he has never stepped +foot in any church again. + + Historical Development + ---------------------- + + We search in vain in the Bible for any word supporting the doctrine of +"auricular confession." (15) It is equally impossible to find any +authorization or general practice of it during the first 1000 years of the +Christian era. Not a word is found in the writings of the early church +fathers about confessing sins to a priest or to anyone except God alone. +Auricular confession is not mentioned once in the writings of Augustine, +Origen, Nestorius, Tertullian, Jerome, Chrysostem, or Athanasius - all of +these and many others apparently lived and died without ever thinking of +going to confession. No one other than God was thought to be worthy to +hear confessions or to grant forgiveness. + Confession was first introduced into the church on a voluntary basis in +the fifth century by the authority of Leo the Great. But it was not until +the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 under Pope Innocent III that private +auricular confession was make compulsory and all Roman Catholic people were +required to confess and to seek absolution from a priest at least once a +year. If they did not obey this command, they were pronounced guilty of +mortal sin and damned for eternity to hell. (16) + + Can A Priest Forgive Sins + _________________________ + + The Scriptures teach that "only God can forgive sins" (Mark 2:7). "The +Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Matt. 9:6). Dr. +Zachello tells of his experience as a priest in the confessional before +leaving the Roman Church, in these words: "Where my doubts were really +troubling me was inside the confessional box. People coming to me, +kneeling down in front of me, confessing their sins to me. And I, with the +sign of the cross, was promising that I had the power to forgive their +sins. I, a sinner, a man, was taking God's place. It was God's laws they +were breaking, not mine. To God, therefore, they must make confession; and +to God alone they must pray for forgiveness." (17) + In fact, the only word in the Bible about confessing sins to anyone +other than God, is found in James: "Confess your sins to one another, and +pray for one another, so that you may be healed" (5:16). It is obvious +that the Lord meant what He says in Revelation, chapter 1, that "He has +made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father" (vs. 6), and Peter +calls the church "a chosen race, a royal priesthood" (I Pet. 2:9). Believe +it or not, the only mention of New Testament believers being priests is +used in a context where all true believers are included, not just a select +few. That is why James could say that we should confess our sins "to one +another". + Catholics love to quote the verse in John 20:23 to prove that priests +do have the power to "forgive and retain" sins. "If you forgive the sins +of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, +they have been retained." The powers of forgiving and retaining sins, were +given to the apostles as proclaimers of the Word of God, not as priests. +As we have just pointed out, there are no christian "priests" in New +Testament teaching and doctrine. Pastors, yes. Deacons, yes. Apostles, +prophets, teachers, evangelists, yes. Priests, no! + Jesus was telling His followers that by preaching the gospel, they were +being given the power to declare that a person's sins were forgiven them by +God! And if an individual, or group did not receive them and the +forgiveness they offered in the name of Jesus, than they were instructed to +"shake the dust off their feet" as a protest against them, and warn them +that it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of +judgment than for them (Matt. 10:14-15). In other words, if a person +rejected the apostles' preaching of the gospel, they had the right to tell +that person that his sins were not forgiven, because they had rejected +God's only provision for atonement of sins. "The one who listens to you +listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me" (Luke 10:16). This +power to forgive and retain sins, contrary to Rome's teaching, belongs to +everyone who preaches the true gospel of salvation. + + Penance + ------- + + In the Roman system, penance is one of the seven sacraments. (18) The +Baltimore Catechism defines penance as "the sacrament by which sins +committed after baptism are forgiven through the absolution of the priest." +(19) Another catechism published in New York says, "the priest gives +penance to help me to make up for the temporal punishment does not always +make full satisfaction for my sins. I should therefore do other acts of +penance...and try to gain indulgences." (20) And in Instructions for Non- +Catholics, we read: "After confession some temporal punishment due to sin +generally remains. You should therefore perform other acts of penance also +so that you may make up for these punishments, and avoid a long stay in +purgatory." (21) + + Penance as a System of Works + ---------------------------- + + Here indeed is salvation by works. For penance, as the catechism says, +involves confession on one's sins to a priest and the doing of good works +as the only way by which sins committed after baptism can be forgiven. The +Church of Rome thus demands acts of penance before She grants forgiveness, +inferring that the sacrifice of Christ was not sufficient to atone fully +for sin and that it must be supplemented to some extent by these good +works. + But what God demands is not acts of penance but repentance, which means +turning from sin. + "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; +and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; for He +will abundantly pardon" (Isa. 55:7). + The easy way in which the Church of Rome deals with sin is seen in this +doctrine of penance. The penitent receives pardon on comparatively easy +terms. He is assigned some task to perform, usually not too hard, +sometimes merely the recital of a given number of "Hail Mary's." the +result is that he has no qualms about resuming his evil course. It shocked +Martin Luther when he read the Greek New Testament edited by Erasmus, that +Jesus did not say "do penance" as had been translated by the Roman Church, +but "repent." + + Penance versus Repentance + ------------------------- + + Penance is a wholly different thing from gospel repentance. Penance is +an outward act. Repentance is of the heart. Penance is imposed by a Roman +priest. Repentance is the work of the Holy Spirit. What God desires in +the sinner is not a punishment of oneself for sins, but a change of heart, a +real forsaking of sin, shown by a new life of obedience to God's commands. + In short, penance is a counterfeit repentance. It is the work of man +on his body; true repentance is the work of God in the soul. The Divine +Word commands, "Rend your heart and not your garments" (Joel 2:13). +Penance is "rending the garments" - an outward form without inward reality. + While Romanism does teach that Christ died for our sins, it also +teaches that His sacrifice alone was not sufficient, and that our +sufferings must be added to make it effective. In accordance with this, +many have tried to earn salvation by fastings, rituals, flagellations and +good works of various kinds. But those who attempt such a course always +find that it is impossible to do enough to earn salvation. + Dr. C.D. Cole says, "Romanism is a complicated system of salvation by +works. It offers salvation on the installment plan, then sees to it that +the poor sinner is always behind in his payments, so that when he dies +there is a large unpaid balance, and he must continue payments by +sufferings in purgatory, or until the debt is paid by the prayers, alms, +and sufferings of his living relatives and friends. The whole system and +plan calls for merit and money from the cradle to the grave and even +beyond. Surely the wisdom that drew such a plan of salvation is not from +above." (22) + + The Biblical Teaching on Good Works + ----------------------------------- + + Good works, of course, are pleasing to God and they have an important +and necessary place in the life of the Christian. they naturally follow if +one has true faith, and they are performed out of love and gratitude to God +for the great salvation that He has bestowed. Good works, in other words, +are not the cause and basis of salvation, but rather the fruits and proof +of salvation - "Not by works done in righteousness which we did ourselves, +but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration +and the renewing the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). The born-again Christian +produces good works as naturally as the grapevine produces grapes. They +are a part of his very nature. He performs them not to get saved, but +because he is saved. + + Salvation by Grace + ------------------ + + Grace, just because it is grace, is not given on the basis of +proceeding merits. By no stretch of the imagination can a man's good works +in this life be considered a just equivalent for the blessings of eternal +life. But all men because of pride, naturally feel that they should earn +their salvation, and a system which makes some provision in that regard +readily appeals to them. But Paul lays the axe to such reasoning then he +says: "If a law had been given which was able to impart life, then +righteousness would indeed have been based on law" (Gal. 3:21). Time and +again the Scriptures repeat that salvation is of grace, as if anticipating +the difficulty that men would have in accepting the fact that they would +not be able to earn it. + The Council of Trent, in its opposition to the reformer's doctrine of +justification by faith, and in defense of its doctrine of penance, +declared: "Whosoever shall affirm that men are justified solely by the +imputation of the righteousness of Christ...let him be accursed". (23) +And the Catholic Almanac says, "Penance is necessary for salvation...and +was instituted by Christ for the forgiveness of sins". (24) + The modern church teachings completely concur: "Many things are +necessary for salvation. All these things work together - faith, baptism, +the Eucharist, the doing of good works, and others as well. Redemption is +one thing, salvation is quite another. There is nothing lacking on Christ's +part; there is much to be done on ours." (25) Also, in a booklet +published in 1967, under the sub-heading, "We Must Atone Too", it says that +"even though the satisfaction of Christ was complete and universal, +nevertheless all adult Christians are obliged to imitate their suffering +Master and make personal satisfaction for their sins by good works. (26) +But the apostle Paul in his masterpiece on justification by faith says, +"Having now been justified by His blood we shall be saved from the wrath of +God through Him" (27) (Rom.5:9). + "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him as +righteousness. Now to the one who works, the reward is not reckoned as +grace, but as debt. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him +who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness" (Rom. +4:3-5). + What a significant coincidence it is that this doctrine of +justification by faith is given such prominence in the epistle to the +Romans, since Rome later became the seat of the papacy! It seems to be +written there as if intended as a strong and permanent protest against the +errors of the Roman Church. + + Assurance of Salvation + ---------------------- + + The first consequence of the doctrine of penance (as well as the +doctrines of purgatory and indulgences) is that the Roman Catholic, though +baptized and confirmed, can never have that assurance of his salvation and +that sense of spiritually security which is such a blessing to the true +Christian. In proportion as he is spiritually sensitive, the person who +holds to a works religion knows that he has not suffered as much as his +sins deserve, and that he can never do as much as he should in order to be +worthy of salvation. + A dying Roman Catholic, after he has done all that he can do and after +the last rites have been given to him, is told that he still must go to +purgatory. There he will suffer unknown torture, with no assurance as to +how long it will continue, but with the assurance that if his relatives +pray for his soul, and pay with sufficient generosity to have candles lit +and have special Masses said for him, that his sufferings will be shortened +somewhat. + Oh what a contrast with all of that, is the death of the true believer +who has the assurance that he goes straight to heaven into the immediate +presence of Christ! (Phil. 1:23). What a marvelous blessing is the true +faith of the Christian, both in life and especially at the time of death! + The Council of Trent even pronounced a curse upon anyone who presumed +to say that he had assurance of salvation, or the the whole punishment for +sin is forgiven along with that sin. (28) Such assurance is pronounced a +delusion and a result of sinful pride. Tome keeps her subjects in constant +fear and insecurity. Even at death, after extreme unction has been +administered and after thousands of rosary prayers have been said "for the +repose of the soul", the priest still cannot give assurance of salvation. +The person is never "good enough" but must serve in purgatory prison to be +purified of venial sins before he can be admitted to the celestial city. +No one can be truly happy or truly at peace. And particularly in spiritual +matters, a state of doubt and uncertainty continues for one's whole life, +and right into the grave. + But God wants us to be saved, and according to the Bible the Holy +Spirit can give us the assurance that we have salvation when we have a +true, intimate relationship with the Son of God (I John 5:9-12). But in +Romanism, one must work hard for it and must pay dearly for it, and after +he has done all the the priest has prescribed, he still cannot know whether +he has it or not. And through it all, there stands the anathema of the +Council of Trent against all who affirm the certainty of their salvation. +Hence, there cannot truly be found anywhere a Roman Catholic, consistent to +what his church teaches, who enjoys the true assurance of eternal life. + + Conclusion + ---------- + + It is obvious by even this brief glimpse into the doctrines of mortal +and venial sins, confession, penance, and purgatory, the the Roman Catholic +Church has constructed one of the most unbiblical doctrinal systems that +has ever been considered "Christian". The fear, anguish, and religious +bondage that such a system of "reward and punishment" creates, has +tormented millions of lives for centuries, and continues to prey on those +who are ignorant of the biblical way of salvation. + To merely call such a system "a cult", would be to throw it into the +vast category of religions and quasi-religions that are currently making +the rounds of our college campuses and city streets, snatching up many-an- +unsuspecting youth. No, the Roman Church is not a cult. It's an empire! +With its own ruler, its own laws, and its own subjects! The empire has no +borders it encompasses the globe with its eye on every person who does not +vow allegiance. It calls the members of other faiths "separated brethren" +(29) and has as its goal the eventual bringing together of everyone under +its flag. + I know that many will not be convinced or moved by this article (or any +of the others) to make such a conclusion. They are impressed by what +they've heard about recent stirrings among the Catholics in the +"Charismatic renewal". Many evangelicals (especially charismatics) have +been thrilled by the reports of Catholics speaking in tongues, dancing in +the Spirit, having nights of joy and praise, even attending "charismatic +Masses". + Mouths that used to speak out boldly against the Church of Rome have +been quieted by the times. It no longer is in vogue to speak of the pope +as "the anti-christ" (30) or the Catholic Church as the "whore of +Babylon". Now Protestants unwittingly believe that "our differences are +not so great". Ah, that is just what She wants us to think! + I've never completely understood why God led me to write these +articles. But it becomes more clear with each day of study, and each page +of research. Never has something so black and wicked, gotten away with +appearing so holy and mysteriously beautiful...for so long! +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + 1] Venial - easily excused or forgiven; pardonable - American Heritage + Dictionary. + 2] A subject which we hope to cover in a future chronicle. + 3] A church council that met between 1963-1965. + 4] "Sunday obligation" can also be fulfilled by attending a Saturday + evening Mass. + 5] Which is only allowed once in a person's life - and if a person were to + die immediately after baptism, Rome says he will go "straight to + heaven." Otherwise, the only other conditions by which a Catholic may + be assured he will go directly to heaven immediately upon death, is to + die a "saint" ( a completely perfect and sanctified person), or to die a + martyr's death. All others must do some time in purgatory. + 6] Baptism is also the only case where all sin is washed away, and both the + eternal and temporal punishments due to sin are canceled. + 7] Absolution - release from punishment; acquittal; remission of sins + declared officially by a priest - Webster's Dictionary. + 8] Primarily for use by those who are joining the Roman Catholic Church. + 9] Instructions for Non-Catholics, p.93. +10] Although monthly confession is said to be more satisfactory. +11] Roman Catholicism, pps. 197-199 (from here on referred to as "R.C."). +12] The doctrine of purgatory rests on the assumption that while God + forgives sin, His justice nevertheless demands that the sinner must + suffer the full punishment due to him for his sin before he will be + allowed to enter heaven. +13] One of the seven sacraments also known as "anointing of the sick" or + "the last rites," and administered when a person is near death. +14] The Baltimore Catechism, p. 329. +15] The official title for confession to an authorized priest in a + confession box. It is called "auricular" because it is spoken + secretly, into the ear of the priests. +16] "R.C." p. 199. +17] "R.C." p. 203. +18] The seven sacraments are: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, + Penance, Holy Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction. +19] The Baltimore Catechism, p. 300. +20] Indulgences are remissions of so many days or months or years of + punishment in purgatory - a subject which we will cover in depth in a + future chronicle. +21] Instructions for Non-Catholics, p. 95. +22] "R.C." pps. 257-258. +23] Council of Trent, section 6. +24] The Catholic Almanac, pps. 269, 559. +25] "The Apostles Creed" published by the Knights of Columbus, pps. 18-19. +26] "You Shall Rise Again" published by the Knights of Columbus, p. 3. +27] See also: Eph. 2:8-10, Rom. 1:17, 3:21, 22, 28, 5:1, 18-19, 11:6, John + 3:36, Gal. 2:21, 3:11. +28] "R.C." p. 267. +29] The term used by Vatican II to describe the members of Eastern + Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant churches. +30] Although the following people unhesitatingly did: Martin Luther, John + Bunyan, John Huss, John Wycliffe, John Calvin, William Tyndale, John + Knox, Thomas Becon, John Wesley, Samuel Cooper, John Cotton, and + Jonathan Edwards. + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +====[ The Christian BBS - Vic., B.C., (604)-478-2789, 8,N,1 - 24 Hrs. ]==== + + CATHOLIC CHRONICLE IV + + What Did Vatican II Really Change? + ---------------------------------- + + Edited and compiled by Keith Green + + Last Days Ministries, Box 40, Lindale, TX 75771-0040 + + + The Roman Catholic Church is very proud of two distinct things: 1) that +it has never changed, and 2) that it has changed very much! I realize that +number 2 seems to contradict number 1, but anyone who has studied church +history even briefly, will be able to grasp what I'm trying to say. + First, Rome is very emphatic about making clear these unalterable +facts: + A. That she is the original and only church founded by Jesus Christ +upon the earth. + B. That her head, the pope, has the authority handed down from the +"first pope," Simon Peter, through "apostolic succession," (1) to sit in +the place of Jesus as the undisputed leader of all true Christians on +earth. + C. That her traditions and interpretations of scripture are the only +basis for forming the rules and guidelines that Christians everywhere +should live by. + D. And that her dogmas and doctrines, although they can be clarified, +enlarged, or re-stated for the sake of changing times, can never, ever be +abolished, contradicted, or altered. They are quite literally, "Canon +Law." + On the other hand, modern Roman Catholics are immensely pleased with +the reforms and evolution they have seen in their Church, especially since +the cataclysmic "Second Vatican Council" (more commonly know as "Vatican +II"). They point to how much has been done to open the way for "all +Christians everywhere to finally come together!" This, of course, does +seem very exciting, especially since Rome has been largely on the defensive +since the Reformation. Starting with the Council of Trent in 1546, there +has been one papal decree after another, which has completely make it +impossible (even forbidden) for Catholics to have any "fellowship" with +Protestants. + Ah, but "time heals all wounds" they say, and like everything else, the +giant chasm between Protestant and catholic now seems with the passing of +centuries, to appear like just a "little misunderstanding." And Vatican +II, which included such sweeping reforms as allowing Mass to be said in the +common local language, and no longer forbidding Catholics to read a +Protestant Bible, or attend a Protestant church service, seemed to make the +differences between Rome and the rest of the fragmented Christian world +look very petty. + As you probably might guess, I do not believe this to be the case. In +fact, in my research and studies I have only found the opposite to be true, +Yes indeed, the Catholic Church is changing! It has probably never changed +so much in all its history as during the past generation, but it has not +changed one, single, solitary doctrine! Each and every point of dogma that +has alarmed evangelical theologians for the past 400 years remains the +same, exactly as written, and in full force! + But because of all the changed garments, all the reformed liturgies and +ceremonies, and the resulting freedom of worship, Catholics everywhere (as +well as many Protestants) have mistakenly believed that something +substantial has really changed! But this is not a surprise, it has +happened before many times in history. When you change the key, the +instruments, or the rhythm of a song, almost everyone will believe you +have a new song. Only those who listen carefully to the lyrics, or who +know their music well, will realize that yes, the style is different, but +the song is the same! + The whole thing seems so sad to me, when I realize how very few there +are among Catholics (and Protestants) who really know what Roman +Catholicism teaches. It is truly shocking! And what's even more alarming, +is the potential for the devil to pull the wool over people's eyes because +of their ignorance. + I have received many letters from Catholics in response to the first +three Chronicles, which have basically said this: "The Catholic Church has +really changed! why not use the current beliefs and teachings that are a +result of Vatican II?" Believe me, in each of my articles, I was doing +just that! I would be a fool to be refuting doctrines and teaching that +are no longer being used. But because Catholic worship is based so much on +ritual, ceremony, and symbolic outward forms, the average Catholic believes +with all his heart that when he sees these surface things altered, that his +church has really changed! You have only to look at the documents of +Vatican II to see that this is not the case. + + The Need for Vatican II + ----------------------- + + In the early 1960's, the Vatican knew that there was a need to give the +Church a face-lift. Many of its policies seemed out of place, and most of +its forms of worship were stiff and outdated. There was a feeling among +the bishops that the Church needed to evolve with the times, and there was +also a growing to re-unite with Rome, that she was going to have to give +herself a more pleasant and appealing appearance. There was also criticism +from her own ranks that her doctrines needed to be clarified and "re- +stated" in a more simple and less dogmatic tone than previous councils had +done. + Thus the Second Vatican Council was called by Pope John XXIII in 1962, +and continued under Pope Paul VI until 1965 when it issued "The Documents +of Vatican II," each on different aspects of church teaching and doctrine. +The spirit and attitude of these documents were remarkably different from +any the Roman Church had ever produced. They were full of scriptural +references, and did not include any blatant "curses" on those who did not +agree (as previous councils had done). They were revolutionary in freeing +individual parish priests to conduct Masses in the way they best could +reach the local culture and community. This, as well as changes in church +administration and religious freedom were the main results of the Council. + In the following years, there were other changes that proceeded out of +Rome as a result of the new attitudes which were born from Vatican II. +These included the removal of the strict requirement to refrain from eating +meat on Fridays (and also the command to fast during Lent). Although these +practices were still encouraged, they were now optional instead of +mandatory. The whole Church seemed to be loosening up. And ecumenical +leaders the world over were beginning to see the light at the end of the +church-unity tunnel. + But in the midst of all this, a few ardent Christians still stubbornly +pointed out that although the procedure and the language of the Mass might +have changed, the meaning of it still remained very much the same. And +though the outward forms and words used by Rome had been altered much, the +things she taught and believed had only been confirmed and repeated in the +soft and soothing tone of the Vatican II documents. + + The Charismatic Movement + ------------------------ + + And then came the "charismatic renewal" seemingly out of nowhere! With +the Pope's blessing, Catholics were taking part in charismatic Masses, +speaking in tongues, prophesying, singing and shouting side by side with +Evangelical Protestants! Everyone was so excited - they thought, "Now +we've got the devil licked!" Why, doctrine wasn't important anymore, that +was for seminary students and old, stuffy theologians! but as the +excitement started to quiet down a little, the Protestants noticed that a +few of their Catholic brothers and sisters were still praying to Mary, and +were even offering prayers for their dead relatives in the prayer meetings. + It soon became apparent that unity was not going to be as easy as it +had seemed at first. Protestants began to make inquiries, and they started +bothering their Catholic friends too much with questions like, "Do you +think the Pope is saved?" As you can see, the whole future of the +ecumenical movement hinges on this all-important question: "Can a Roman +Catholic be considered a genuine believer (according to the Bible), and +still believe the things the Roman Church teaches?" + + The Things That Vatican II Did Not Change + ----------------------------------------- + + To help answer that question, we have prepared a list of teachings and +practices (see next page) that have been adopted and perpetuated by the +Roman Catholic Church over the last 1600 years. It is important to note +that not one of these were altered at all by the Second Vatican Council. + + A Scholar Looks at Vatican II + ----------------------------- + + Dr. Loraine Boettner, noted Evangelical authority on Roman Catholic +doctrine, takes an in-depth look at the documents of Vatican II in the +preface to the fifth edition of his book Roman Catholicism. Dr. Boettner +writes: + "The Second Vatican Council, which closed late in 1965, made changes in +the liturgy, administrative practices, and in the matter of religious +freedom. It repeated the claim that the Roman Catholic Church is the only +true church, although it did recognize that other churches contain some +elements of truth. + "But Pope John XXIII, who called the first session, and Pope Paul VI, +who presided over the later sessions (as well as several prominent cardinal +and theologians), took care to emphasize that no changes would be made in +the doctrinal structure of the Church. However, Pope Paul did promulgate +[declare] one new doctrine, which asserts that `Mary is the Mother of the +Church.' The primary purpose of the Council was to update the liturgy and +administrative practices and so to make the Church more efficient and more +acceptable to the 20th century world. + "The introduction of the `New Mass,' for instance, brought about a +change in language - Latin is no longer required, except in the prayer of +consecration. But as Protestants, it is not important to us whether the +Mass is said in Latin or English or Swahili - it is not the language of the +Mass that we object to, it is its content and meaning. (See Chronicle II, +`The Sacrifice of the Mass'). + "On previous occasions, Rome has changed her tactics when old methods +became ineffective, but she has never changed her nature. In any religious +organization, doctrine is the most basic and important part of its +structure, since what people believe determines what they do. An official +document, `The Constitution on the Church' prepared by the Council and +approved by the Pope, reaffirms basic Catholic doctrine precisely as it +stood before the Council met. + The doctrine of papal infallibility is restated. We are told that when +`by a definitive act he proclaims a doctrine of faith and morals...his +definitions, of themselves, and not by the consent of the Church, are +justly called, irreformable (Article 25). The pope has lost none of his +powers. He remains the absolute ruler in the Roman Church. But if papal +decrees past and present are `irreformable, `what hope is there for real +reform in the Church of Rome? + + Although many of these beliefs were practiced earlier than the dates +given, they did not become binding on all Catholics until they were +officially adopted by church councils and proclaimed by the Pope as dogmas +of faith. All dates are approximate. + + 1. Presbyter (or elders) were first called priests by Lucian...2nd + century. + 2. Prayers for the dead...A.D. 300. + 3. The VENERATION (2) of angels and dead saints and the use of + images...375. + 4. The Mass as a daily celebration was adopted...394. + 5. The beginning of the exaltation of Mary, and the first use of the + term "Mother of God" by the Council of Ephesus...431. + 6. Priests began to dress different from the laity and to wear special + clothes...500. + 7. Extreme Unction (3) ...526. + 8. The doctrine of purgatory was first established by Gregory the + Great...593. + 9. Prayers began to be offered to Mary, dead saints, and angels...600. + 10. The first man was proclaimed "Pope" (Boniface III)...610. + 11. Veneration of the cross, images, and relics authorized...788. + 12. Holy water, mixed with a pinch of salt and blessed by a priest was + authorized in...850. + 13. Veneration of Saint Joseph...890. + 14. College of cardinals begun...927. + 15. Canonization of dead saints, first by Pope John XV...995. + 16. The Mass developed gradually as a sacrifice, attendance was made + obligatory in...11th century. + 17. The celibacy of the priesthood was decreed by Pope Hildebrand, + Boniface VII...1079. + 18. The rosary, or prayer beads copied from Hindus and Mohammadans) was + introduced by Peter the Hermit...1090. + 19. The Inquisition (5) of "Heretics" was instituted by the Council of + Verona...1184, and was legalized and promoted by the Fourth Lateran + Council in 1215. + 20. The sale of Indulgences...1190. + 21. The seven sacraments defined by Peter Lombard...12th century. + 22. The dogma of transubstantiation was decreed by Pope Innocent III + ...1215. + 23. Confession of sins to the priest at least once a year was instituted + by Pope Innocent III in the Lateran Council...1215. + 24. The adoration of the wafer (host) decreed by Pope Honorius III + ...1220. + 25. The The scapular (6) invented by Simon Stock of England...1251. + 26. The doctrine of purgatory proclaimed a dogma by the Council of + Florence...1439. + 27. Tradition is declared of equal authority with the Bible by the + Council Trent...1546. + 28. The Apocryphal Books were added to the Bible by the Council of + Trent...1545. + 29. The Immaculate Conception (7) of Mary was proclaimed by Pope Pius IX + in 1854. + 30. Pope Pius IX condemns all scientific discoveries not approved by + by the Roman Church...1864. + 31. Infallibility of the pope in matters of faith and morals proclaimed + by the First Vatican Council...1870. + 32. Pius XI condemned the public schools...1930. + 33. Pius XI reaffirmed the doctrine that Mary is "The Mother of God" + ...1931. + 34. The dogma of the Assumption (8) of the Virgin Mary was proclaimed by + Pope Pius XII...1950. + 35. Mary proclaimed the Mother of the Church by Pope Paul VI...1965. + + "The document on the Church repeats in substance the teaching of the +Council of Trent that `priests and bishops are the representatives of God +on earth...justly, therefore, they are called not only angels, but gods, +holding as they do the place of authority of God on earth.' (Catechism of +Trent). + "In fact, no more sweeping claims were made by the Council of Trent +(1545-1563), nor by the First Vatican Council (1870), than are made in +these documents from Vatican II. Despite all the claims to the contrary, +the Council has firmly maintained the doctrine of the primacy of Peter (4) +and of papal succession. In his book, Ecclesiam Suam, Pope Paul expressed +his distress because of what some of the `separated brethren' (9) say about +the pope as the stumbling block in the way of church unity. He said, `Do +not some of them say that if it were not for the primacy of the pope, the +reunion of the separated churches with Catholic Church would be easy? We +beg the separated brethren to consider the inconsistency of this position, +not only in that, without the pope, the Catholic Church would no longer be +Catholic, but also because without the supreme decisive pastoral office of +Peter, the unity of the Church of Christ would utterly collapse.' + "We must say that at this point we agree with the Pope, at least to +this extent, that if the Roman Catholic Church were reformed according to +scripture, it would have to be abandoned. But the gross errors concerning +salvation still remain. Moreover, the Council did nothing toward removing +the more than 100 anathemas or curses pronounced by the Council of Trent on +the Protestant churches and beliefs. If there is to be any true unity, +surely this would seem the logical place to start." + + Conclusion + ---------- + + We could not find a more fitting conclusion than Dr. Boettner's: + "The `Constitution on the Church' makes it abundantly clear that Rome +has no intention of revising any of her basic doctrine, but only of +updating her methods and techniques for more efficient administration and +to present a more attractive appearance. This is designed to make it +easier for the Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant churches to +return to her fold. There is no indication that she has any intentions of +entering into genuine give-and-take church unity negotiations. Her purpose +is not union, but ABSORPTION. Church union with Rome is strictly a one-way +street. The age-old danger that Protestantism has faced from the Roman +Church has not diminished; in fact, it may well have increased. For +through this less-offensive posture and this superficial ecumenicism, Rome +is much better situated to carry out her program of eliminating opposition +and moving into a position of world dominance. AN INFALLIBLE CHURCH SIMPLY +CANNOT REPENT." +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + 1) The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Jesus Christ ordained the 12 + apostles to the priesthood at the Last Supper, and to their successors, + the Roman priesthood, Jesus promised and guaranteed His continual + presence in their teaching and governing until the end of time. + 2) Veneration - profound respect or reverence; worship - American Heritage + Dictionary, Webster's Dictionary. + 3) Extreme Unction, or "Anointing of the Sick" - one of the seven + sacraments, in which a priest anoints and prays for one in danger of + death. + 4) The doctrine that Christ has given Peter the key role of lawful + authority...that Peter would be His chief ambassador, His authentic + vicar (pope), and this power continues to be extended to Peter's + successors through the ages - the popes. + 5) Inquisition - the act of inquiring into a matter; an investigation - + American Heritage Dictionary. Lucius III decreed that bishops should + take action against heretics. A characteristic of this decree was that + a suspect, once convicted of being a heretic, was to be handed over to + the secular arm for punishment. Before the Inquisition ran its course, + historians estimate that 5 to 15 million people lost their lives + through torture and and execution (From: A History of Christianity in + the World by Clyde L. Manschreck). + 6) Piece of brown cloth with a picture of the Virgin, supposed to contain + supernatural power to protect from all dangers, to those who wear it on + naked skin. + 7) This doctrine maintains that the Virgin Mary was in the first instance + of her conception, preserved from all stain of original sin. + 8) The Catholic dogma that Mary ascended bodily into heaven without dying. + 9) The term used by Vatican II to describe the members of other non- + Catholic Christian faiths. + + + To be continued............................. + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + diff --git a/religious documents/cawr_1.txt b/religious documents/cawr_1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d00a395 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cawr_1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,616 @@ + +To: alt.pagan,alt.religion.all-worlds +From: tyagI@houseofkaos.Abyss.coM (tyagi mordred nagasiva) +Subject: Views on Satanism: Neopagan (LONG Review of CAW doc) +Summary: This is one of a series of docs examining the Neopagan perspective + on Satanism. This particular review is of a publication by the + Church of All Worlds. +Keywords: Satanism, Neopaganism, criticism, review +Date: Kali Yuga 49940211 (slight revision 49940927) + + +*** 1 of 5 *** + +Do what thou wilt. + +What follows is a critical review of a document I found in a database +supported by people involved with the Church of All Worlds (CAW). + +It is somewhat representative of the common Neopagan attitude toward +Satanists and Satanism. This will be a multiple-part series which +also examines the meaning of 'Satan' and 'Satanism' to Christians of +various types and to those who apply the term to themselves (or until +recently did so). + +tyagi nagasiva +tyagi@houseofKaos.Abyss.com + +The Order of K@s Under Satan (TOKUS) +___________________________________________________________________ + +Section 1.1 : Neopagans => Church of All Worlds + +From: + +|_Witchcraft, Satanism and Occult Crime: Who's Who and What's What_ +| A Manual of Reference Materials for the Professional Investigator. +| (Fourth Edition - October 1991) +| +|Edited by Otter G'Zell, Church of All Worlds + +Article: + +|Neo-Pagan Witchcraft vs. Satanism: Confusions and Distinctions +|by Otter and Morning Glory Zell + +Otter Zell is one of the founders of CAW, a US-recognized Neopagan religion. +Apparently this recognition has also been extended by the government of +Australia. + +Given this, I think it is a good article to begin the analysis. + + +|It seems to be necessary to preface every discussion of Witchcraft with +|an explanation that, no, Neo-Pagan Witches aren't Satanists. + +As usual, the Zells here participate in the discernment of 'Satanist' +from 'Neo-Pagan'. They seem to think that they understand the entirety +of what is a 'Satanist', as well as what is included in the classification +of 'Neo-pagan'. As you will see here, I don't think that the case they +make within this document (or any I've yet seen put out by a Neopagan) +is convincing in this regard, nor does it really make any sense except to +avoid the wrath of a largely ignorant, Christian social enviroment. + + +|The Christian anti-God, Satan, has no place in Pagan pantheons, either +|mythologically or theologically. + +This is a fundamental claim made by countless Neopagans. To support it, +they will have to rely on centuries-old data (quite possibly erroneous) +and very strict definitions which at times defy logical analysis. + + +|Plainly and simply, Satanism is the +|dark side of Christianity, and Satan is nothing other than the +|collective Id of Christendom. + +This is an ambiguous claim, though we can well imagine what is meant +here by 'Satanism'. Like so many Neopagans, the Zells participate in +the conception (certainly faulty in many cases) that Satanism involves +the Black Mass and Christian inversion generally, rather than overt +Neopagan antagonism to a culture which has a largely Christian face. + + +|Even today, Witchcraft is frequently misrepresented by being confused +|with Satanism. + +Note the use of the terms here. The term 'witch' is a rather old one, +often used in Europe to mean 'heretic', specifically during the times of +the Inquisition. Neither did it specifically refer to Neopaganism (as +the Zells don't want to admit), nor has it lost this generic meaning in +the mind of a largely Christian, Euro-American public. + + +|Often the word Witchcraft is used to represent two +|wholly opposite phenomena: + +This distinction is critical and the Zells do not allow it for Satanism. +As the fulcrum of the Zell's assertion, it topples their thesis like +a gust of wind does a house of cards. One may say virtually the same +thing about 'Satanism' as they say here about 'Witchcraft', although +by distinguishing 'their tradition' from anti-social behaviors (planting +them firmly elsewhere), they do a disservice to people that might become +their most strenuous and powerful support. + + +|the survival of ancient Paganism in one +|instance, and the inversion of Christianity in another. + +I think it an academic assumption that no such 'survival' has taken place. +The occlusion and decimation of the European root-religions are all +but over now. More intelligent Neopagans rely more on the claim that +what they do is a 'resurgence' or (idealistically) a 'replication'. + +It is quite difficult to know precisely what an 'inversion of +Christianity' truly is. No support has ever been offered in widely- +publicized Neopagan documents for the claim that it would look like +what is today called 'Satanism' by those who practice it. This is +quite similar to the counter-claims posited by 'Wiccans' when their +religion is compared with 'heresy' or 'evil'. + + +|Let us make it +|clear: a Satanist is a renegade Christian, who, in his rebellion against +|the authority of the church, worships Satan rather than Christ. + +Here the Zells do a disservice to themselves, defining for Satanists +the content of their paths. They seem to be willing to accept +the popular Christian definition of 'Satanist' while attempting to +deny the popular Christian definition of 'Witch' or 'Pagan'. It is +my opinion that they cannot reasonably have it both ways. Either +they must simply define what 'Neo-pagan' means and perhaps distinguish +themselves from the false characterizations which are levelled upon +them by ignorant Christians, or come to know what the term 'Satanism' +means to those who use the term to describe their own practices/ideas +and then support or oppose them based on this new understanding. + + +|Such +|people are at times called witches and warlocks in popular books and +|movies but they have little to do with Pagan Witches. + +This is unfortunately true. It is my impression that the popular books +and movies point rather directly to the power of what today's Neopagans +would call 'the Crone', and separating themselves from this energy (to +become what some in the Neopagan community now call 'white-light bambi +Wiccans') is probably the greatest sacrifice they have made regarding +their personal and social empowerment. + + +|Satanists, for +|one thing, accept the Christian duality between good and evil; Pagans do +|not. Satanists may choose to worship evil rather than good: but they +|have utterly bought the Christian world view".1 + +Not only are these definitions limited and ambiguous, they are, in some +circumstances, entirely false. There are many Neopagans who have retained +the immature morality-system which they have been raised with. There are +countless people who call themselves Satanists who reject the entire idea +of morality as we know it. + + +|[Description of the meaning of 'Pagan' and 'Neo-Paganism' omitted.] +| +|[Most of the description of the meaning of 'Neo-Pagan Witchcraft' omitted.] +| +|Goddess in the form of the Horned God, who is seen as Lord of Animals as +|well as seasonal ruler of the Underworld. + +This is an interesting characterization. Seldom have I heard the claim that +Pan (Cernunnos, etc.) was the 'seasonal ruler of the Underworld'. I must +have missed some aspect of European mythos. + + +|The most familiar version of +|the Horned God is the Greek Pan, goat-horned and goat-hooved, playing +|His panpipes, guzzling wine from His freely-flowing wineskin, and +|seducing nymphs in the woods. He is regarded as lusty and jovial, +|epitomizing masculine attributes of ideal father, brother or lover. + +Note the society-serving and benign portrayal of Pan here. We are +never told what it is about Pan which inspires 'panic', for example, +nor are we told how Pan has ever been associated with the Underworld +(which, to my knowledge, he has not). + + +|As the Goddess of Witchcraft is closely identified with the Moon, so the +|God is identified with the Sun. In this way He may be seen +|mythologically as the lover both of the Moon and of the Earth. Another +|of His many epithets is "Lord of Light". + +Note the very easy jump to the Solar-Phallic 'Beast' which has been +so well-portrayed by Hermetics such as Crowley. The connection between +Sun, Horns, Goat and Lightbringer would seem an obvious reflection of +Mystery traditions. If these were not 'pagan', then I'm not sure +what they were. + + +|Every light casts its shadows, and the Lord of Shadows is the other face +|of the Lord of Light. Lord of the Underworld is the title of the God in +|Winter when He goes underground with the animals to hibernate. Some +|traditions had Him alternate with His brother as husband to the eternal +|Goddess. Others, as in the Greek Hades, had a year-round God of the +|Underworld. + +Again the benign forms of deity. For the Zells, the God of the Underworld +is not responsible for the 'evils' of mankind, even though they might not +wish to call them this. This only leaves the Goddess, yet She is often +only described in benign terms also. So very often Neopagans miss out on +the wrathful and dangerous aspects of their gods, and these often turn out +to be the most transformative. + + +|The Devil +| +|It is essential to clarify the historic relationship of Pan and the +|Devil, as Christianity has tended to confuse the two, giving rise to the +|accusation that Pagans are Devil-worshipers because some Pagan gods have +|horns. + +Note the use of the term 'Christianity' here. Not only is it ambiguous +(since it is a social tradition and cannot 'confuse' anything), but it +is rather specious, since to the fearful Christian NATURE is evil, +especially that nature which is beyond control. In this the Neopagans +ought to IDENTIFY WITH SATAN AS THE RULER OF NATURE, but they miss this +opportunity. + + +|Once and for all, the Christian Devil is not the God of the +|Witches! The genesis of the Devil comes from a merging of two concepts: +|Satan and Lucifer. + +There is a case to be made in the field of mythology that the origination +of deities lies in a direct response to temporal and cultural change. +Kwan Yin was once the male Avalokitesvara, for example. There is no reason +to presume that just because Satan is a composite of Pan, Lucifer and +the Hebraic 'Shaitan' we ought consider him more 'Christian' than pagan +deities. + +It is certainly true that what Neopagans describe as their God/Lord is +not what Christians take to be 'the Devil'. In fact, a comparison of +these two indicates that they are rather opposite deities, perhaps +even two halves of a male god for a culture which is itself divided +as to the role of masculinity (destructive/creative) within it. + + +|The original meaning of the word satan is +|"adversary", and his inclusion in the Bible represents an attempt by +|later apologists of the Old Testament to justify the more negative +|actions of a benevolent God (such as the persecution of Job) by +|attributing the actual dirty work to a testing spirit; the original +|"devil's advocate". This entity was not considered evil until after the +|Persian conquest introduced the Hebrews to the Zoroastrian dualism of +|Ahura-Mazda (the good God) vs. Ahriman (the evil God). + +Here we have the most pertinent and concise information regarding Satan +and his origins. It is very important that the Zells make note of the +fact that Shaitan was not considered evil by those who originally came +to know him. In fact, it calls into question whether they themselves +have separated from this moral characterization of 'evil' and 'good'. + + +The important questions to ask are these: + +When is a god part of a religious tradition? +When is a god part of the Neopagan religious tradition? +When is a god part of the Christian religious tradition? +Is there any overlap between these in the case of Satan? +And, more importantly for the politics of the matter: +What would it gain the Neopagan community to accept Satanists + (and Jehovah-worshippers?) as part of their tradition? + + +|This later +|manifested in Christianity as Manichean dualism. The Manichean equation +|was brutally simple: God=Good; Devil=Evil. + +Manichaeism was heretical to Christianity as it included Gnosticism, +at least to the Roman Catholic Church. That the Zells don't even spell it +correctly might indicate a weakness in their scholarship, though I am not +myself versed well-enough, historically, to know the facts of the matter. + +Is a heresy recognized by the Christian orthodoxy part of that tradition? +If so, is Neopaganism Christian by virtue of being heretical? +If not, is Satanism a part of something OTHER than Christianity? +What distinguishes Satanism, precisely, from Neopaganism? + +It would seem that the answer to the last depends upon what one means +by the term 'Satanism'. The Zells here argue a dead horse. We can of +course be sure that anyone that takes the Christian tradition and turns it +upon its head is simply reactionary and therefore an offshoot of that +which it inverts. + +Yet what if Satanism is more than what the Zells have accepted? +They might well be hurting those who practice what the Zells do +not understand as 'Satanism' through their withdrawal of Neopagan +support. + + +|But it was not until the +|year 447 CE that the Council of Toledo declared the legal existence of +|the Devil as an actual entity, though he was still not thought of as +|necessarily manifesting in human form. The Lucifer story is a +|mish-mashed retelling of the Canaanite myth about the overthrow of Baal +|by Mot and the usurpation of Baal's throne by Athar, the god of the +|morning star. The original Hebrew name for Lucifer was helel ben shahar +|meaning "son of the day star" (the planet Venus). The name Lucifer +|("light bearer"), a Romano-Etruscan title of the Sun God, was +|erroneously used when the Bible was first translated into Latin.2 + +Again, very important information. Were these not pagan gods? Does the +manner of a god's creation (through promotion or condemnation) make any +difference when we begin to consider the possibility that 'Satan' is a +'pagan' or 'Neopagan' deity? + + +|Various shadow gods or divine adversaries contributed to the creation of +|the Devil, including the Canaanite Moloch or Mot, the Egyptian Set or +|Suteck and the Roman Saturn. Judeo-Christian theologians placed all +|Pagan gods and goddesses in an adversary position to Yahweh, the god of +|Israel, who, as a monotheistic deity, cannot share a pantheon. This is +|a profound cultural difference from Pagan pantheons and polytheistic +|peoples who co-existed together, whether or not in harmony. + +Would this not suggest that the god, Satan, then, is the ultimate +adversary to Christianity? Did the Christians not only coalesce what +they saw into a stew of heretical deification, but also give form and +name to that which opposes the most repressive and NONPAGAN elements +of Christianity? Is Satan a Neopagan HERO-GOD? + + +|Also since +|unbridled sexuality, especially for females, was defined by +|Judeo-Christianity as evil, Pagan gods and goddesses who were especially +|sexual or sensual garnered the new sect's particular hatred. + +Satan is supposed by many who worship him to be the essential god of +the flesh, of nature, and of resistance to oppressive authority. What +difference is there between this and Neopagan values? I suggest that +the difference lies in what KINDS of activities are also associated +with Satan, namely the wrathful. + + +|Pan (who +|instills panic) and Dionysus were neither evil nor adversary deities, +|but because of their riotous celebrations the Devil acquired Pan's horns +|and hooves and Dionysus' ambiguously mad and bibulous nature. + +Note that the Zells here continue to participate in the usage of the +term 'evil' by denying that Pan qualifies. Try as they might, Neopagans +still have not escaped the dualistic moralism of their parents. + + +|This +|final equation of the Pagan Horned God with Satan was not established, +|however, until the year 1486, when the Dominicans Kramer and Sprenger +|published the Malleus Malificarum, or "Hammer of the Witches", wherein +|they gave the first physical description of the Devil as he is commonly +|depicted today, declaring that this was the god worshiped by those they +|wanted to call "witches", thereby justifying the centuries of terrible +|persecution inflicted upon those who clung faithfully to their worship +|of the elder gods. + +The wording here is quite telling, I think. Christians not only WANTED +to call the heretics 'witches', they DID call them this. This was where +the term 'witch' was popularized. Here the Zells make a firm linking +between 'witches' and 'the Devil' in history. I remember no document +in which the heretics of the Inquisition were called 'satanists', but it +has been some time since reviewing historical materials. Perhaps someone +can fill in here where I err. + +Surely what the Zells mean by 'witch' and the Inquisition meant while +using that term somewhat different, yet it remains to be seen that the +Inquisition of the Church and its great, horrible efforts, did not in effect +CREATE the deity which some call 'Satan' and thereby begin a Neopagan sect +(perhaps the oldest of those extant) around a deity composed of the +wrathful and sensuous elements of the European, repressed culture. + +That the Zells present the fusion of Pan and Satan here with the usage +of the term 'witch' only muddies the issue, especially if it can be shown +(as some claim) that the term 'witch' was largely a Christian invention +also, perhaps, like the various escapades of supposed 'pagans' during +these times, comparable to the Christian fabrication of 'the Devil'. + +Where, after all, did the line between 'pagan' and 'Christian' truly +lie, given the amount of time which had elapsed? If the Christian +religion could infringe upon the pagan population and require that they +overlay Christian holy days which conformed with ancient pagan festivals +in order to co-opt them, why could it not work the other way around: +all the great pagan gods coalescing within 'Christianity' in order to +pose a lasting NEOPAGAN threat to the oppressive invading regime? + + +|[Lots of questionable history of 'Witches' omitted.] + +It does not speak well for the Zells that they use Margaret Murray as +one of their sources for this essay. + + +|...Christianity did not +|become the world's dominant religion by peaceful conversion, but by the +|sword and stake. As the legions of Caesar had forged the Roman Empire +|over the dead bodies of countless tribal peoples of Europe, so did its +|heir, the Holy Roman Empire, continue the tradition. Declaring them +|"heresies", agents of the Holy Inquisition hunted out and ruthlessly +|exterminated every religion, sect or tradition that would not convert to +|"The One True Right And Only Way". + +Of this it sadly seems there is no question, though the numbers are still +debated among scholars. What did these people call themselves? Surely +they didn't call themselves 'pagans' or 'witches' or 'Satanists'. My +guess is that they called themselves 'Christians', especially after many +years of rule by the Church. + + +|Witches, however, lived outside of +|any organized religious structure and were largely ignored until the +|13th century, when the Church had finally gained enough power to deal +|with grass-roots Paganism. + +They were, if such people actually did exist, which is debatable, +certainly not called 'witches'. This is a broad brush that the Zells are +using here, and they might be hard-pressed to substantiate all of the +details. + + +|"In the 13th century the Church opened its long-drawn-out conflict with +|Paganism in Europe by declaring "Witchcraft' to be a "sect' and +|heretical. It was not til the 14th century that the two religions came +|to grips. . . In 1324 the bishop of Ossory tried Dame Alice Kyteler in +|his ecclesiastical court for the crime of worshiping a deity other than +|the Christian God. . . +| +|[Lots of history of the conquests of the Christian Church omitted.] + +Note the presumption here that there were 'two religions'. I'm not aware +that at that time (13th century) there was much left of the indigenous +religious traditions. I'd guess that this is another weakness in their +theory. Only of slight importance, however. + + +|It should also be pointed out that the court recorders at the Witch +|trials were specifically instructed that, whatever gods or goddesses the +|accused actually claimed to worship, what went into the record was +|"Satan" or "The Devil". + +This says little more. My recall is that there were, largely, few 'trials' +at all, and that these 'court reporters' were simply clerks who were +to detail the confessions extracted under torture. It does seem true that +the group-categorization of all pagan gods as 'Satan' or 'the Devil' +was applied to the confessions, yet this is directly in line with what +was said previously about the theologians' merging of the pagan gods. + +Just as when modern Science sees 'psychic' phenomena it describes them +in physicalist terms, so the Inquisition recorded what they thought to +be a fair accounting. This is not a justification for the slaughter, +simply an acknowledgement that their actions where in their twisted +way, coherent. + + +|And what wonder if some of those who had come +|to believe the Biblical history taught them by the missionaries, monks +|and priests of the conquering faith, concluded that the story must have +|gotten it wrong somehow? That if there had indeed been a rebellion in +|heaven, it was clearly evident that the winner had not been the God of +|love and peace, as his propagandists claimed, but rather a God of +|cruelty and evil; of war and violence, wrath and jealousy. (This had, +|in fact, been an old Gnostic tradition.) + +Indeed, and it gives further support to the notion that Satan was taken +by the oppressed masses as a HERO-god with whom to grapple with their +oppressors. Does the fabrication of the CONCEPT of Satan by the Christian +clergy give them a sort of 'copyright' on the RELIGION of Satanism? + + +|The clear implication was that +|the defeated Lucifer must have been the good guy, and surely many must +|have swarmed to his allegiance in this belief. + +Again, this merely SUPPORTS the notion that Satanism (in any form) is a +Neopagan reaction, perhaps a very healthy one. It is quite possible that +many 'pagan' gods were created and supported through reactionary measures. +Does this make Satan somehow an exception? + + +|While true adherents of +|the Old Religions certainly knew better, and continued their faith +|entirely distinct from Christianity, there were surely, then as now, +|many ignorant people who were simply too unsophisticated or too +|illiterate to question the Christian paradigm once it became +|established. + +This is simplistic and not well-based. First off, the idea that there +existed at this time 'adherents of the Old Religions' is questionable. +Second, it is not likely that there was a very clear line between what +was at that time 'Christian' and 'nonChristian'. Most peasants and +rural folk were ignorant, illiterate, and did not know the first thing +about historical religious evolution through the many centuries prior +to the Inquisition. It may well be a mistake to suppose that such +lines of demarcation between 'Christianity' and 'paganism' existed. +I have yet to see historical evidence that they did. + + +|And thus did Satanism as a belief and a practice come into +|being, spawned by the Church, and forever to be locked together with it +|in a fatal embrace of mutual antagonism. + +The same could be said about 'witchcraft', yet for some reason the Zells +have a desire to save out 'witches' from the reactionary mold. For +example, compare modern Gardnerian tradition with Christian Hermeticism. + +From all I've seen, Gardner more or less lifted Hermetic teachings and +attempted (likely in a rather reactionary way) to promote a tradition +that purported to carry on what had been persecuted centuries previous +and outlawed mere years previous to his publication. + +JUST LIKE ANTON LAVEY, Gardner attempted to take advantage of the loosening +grip of Christian oppression and profit from using language which tapped +into ancient revulsion to that oppression. This is not to say that he +did not, simultaneously, create a valuable and important tradition. The +point is that the name which he used was identified within the popular +religious culture as that which represented heresy. Only gradually have +the various 'nature-worshipping-witches' begun to turn the spotlight of +'heresy' from the emergent 'witchcraft' and let LaVey and, until +recently, Aquino, take the heat from a society which still finds great +value in that wrathful deity. + +Does this make Gardner a 'Satanist'? Does it, by virtue of the language, +make LaVey a 'Satanist'? It all seems to depend on what one means by the +term 'Satanist', and this is the subject of this series, to elucidate +what various groups MEAN by the term. + +It is by now evident that what the Zells mean by Satanism is rather in +line with Christian notions, yet they have not told us what Satanists +do, only that 'Satan' is a Christian fabrication. Perhaps they limit +'Satanism' to those rebellious youths who listen to Heavy Metal music +and desicrate graveyards in consternation at their authoritarian parents. +Perhaps they are convinced of 'Satanic Ritual Abuse' which is so widely +publicized by popular Christian and psychotherapeutic media. We cannot +be sure. + + +[More interesting 'history' omitted.] + +Cavendish, while of repute within the occult world, may not be the best +historian. + + +|Diana, not Satan, is still the real head of the Witches".5 + +Throughout this essay is the presumption that 'Witches' existed in +Europe at the time of the Inquisition and that this tradition has, +stemming from the ancient and great pre-Christian peoples, somehow +managed to survive to the present day. + +To my knowledge, most historians (even those within the Neopagan +academia) think otherwise, and I'd love to see references who were +not biased in favor of this thesis used to support the differences +between 'Satanists' and 'Neo-Pagans'. + +It is obvious that the Zells have little or no background in the +study of Satanism. They cite no authorities (Lyons would have been +nice) and simply seem keen to put as much distance between what they +perceive to be a 'Christian fabrication' and their own tradition +as they are able. + +I'd imagine that this resembles the various efforts of the Unitarians +prior to their acceptance of Neopagans within their tradition, or the +various incoming Eastern faiths in their encounter with Christianity. +"No, we are not Witches." we can hear them saying. "We understand that +Witches are evil and malevolent. They are not part of our tradition." + +Continually I see this phenomenon between religious groups - the +orthodoxy putting pressure on the new to divide so as to be more easily +conquered. In this case it is quite possible that by not coming to +understand and accept 'Satanists' within their fold, Neopagans are +slitting their own throats. + +Let us hope not. + + +|Notes and References: +|1.Jong, Erica, Witches (New American Library, New York,1981) p. 52 +|2.Zell, Morning Glory, "The Lord of Light", Green Egg, Vol. XXI, No. 82; +|Aug. 1, 1988 (POB 1542, Ukiah, CA 95482) p. 12 +|3.Murray, Margaret, The God of the Witches (Oxford Univ. Press, NY, +|1931) pp. 21-22 +|4.Cavendish, Richard, "Satanism", Encyclopedia of Man, Myth and Magic, +|Vol. 18 (Marshall Cavendish, NY, 1970) p. 2479 +|5.Leland, Charles Godfrey, Legends of Florence, (David Nutt, London, +|1896) +|6.Guiley, Rosemary, Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft (Facts on +|File, NY, 1989) + +Hardly an extensive reference list. As I think I've made clear, while +the supposition that this is a scholarly paper is in evident question, +the motivation and method seems rather transparent. + +================================================================= + +This review was originally transmitted to alt.satanism, +alt.religion.all-worlds, alt.pagan, talk.religion.misc, and sent email +to Green Egg. :> + +I intend no hard feelings on any count, even while my criticism may be +rather terse. I intend to hit fairly and hard the expressions of all +who say something about Satanism, from Neopagans to Christians to the +those who use the term 'Satanist' to describe themselves, and do not +assume that I have the last word on the matter. + +As usual, I encourage response to and debate with my review. + +(C) 1994 +tyagi nagasiva +tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com +TOKUS +EOL diff --git a/religious documents/cawr_2.txt b/religious documents/cawr_2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..febea4f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cawr_2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ +To: alt.pagan,alt.religion.all-worlds +From: tyagi mordred nagasiva +Subject: Re: Views on Satanism: Neopagan (LONG Review of CAW doc) +Summary: This is one of a series of docs examining the Neopagan perspective + on Satanism. This particular review is of a publication by the + Church of All Worlds. +Keywords: Satanism, Neopaganism, criticism, review +Date: Kali Yuga 49940211 (slight revision 49940927) + +*** 2 of 5 *** + +Do what thou wilt. + +What follows is a critical review of a document I found in a publication +distributed by the Church of All Worlds (CAW). It is somewhat +representative of the common Neopagan attitude toward Satanists and Satanism. +This will be a multiple-part series which also examines the meaning of +'Satan' and 'Satanism' to Christians of various types and to those who +apply the term to themselves (or until recently did so). + +tyagi nagasiva +tyagi@houseofKaos.Abyss.com + +The Order of K@s Under Satan (TOKUS) +___________________________________________________________________ + +Section 1.2 : Neopagans => Church of All Worlds + + +From: + +|_Witchcraft, Satanism and Occult Crime: Who's Who and What's What_ +| A Manual of Reference Materials for the Professional Investigator. +| (Fourth Edition - October 1991) +| +|Edited by Otter G'Zell, Church of All Worlds + + +Article: + +|Introduction + +[Much omitted throughout.] + +Again we have the CAW folks telling us, with many of their friends, what +Satanism is and isn't, this time with a bit more clarity. + + +|[From the Editor (Otter Zell):] +|... +|In the 1980's, Satanic themes became a significant aspect of the music +|of adolescent rebellion, popularly referred to as "Heavy Metal." +|During this same period, a new form of sadistic and violent crime +|has emerged, involving Satanic elements such as inverted pentagrams +|and crosses carved on the raped and mutilated bodies of victims. + +It seems that Otter is content to ascribe a very dogmatic and limited +view regarding what constitutes an 'upright pentagram', and then +associates its 'inversion' with Satanism. As we shall see, he portrays +'Satanic symbols' as 'the antithesis of Witchcraft', which is interesting, +given that I know of some witches who use the point-down pentagram in +their work, and even this document he edits points out this fact. + +I'm not sure that any of his last sentence is true. It may all be a +Christian media-hype. The 'cattle mutilations' are now, I think, +fairly well-known farces, and I'm not sure any other slew of 'bodies' +has turned up. Corrections welcome. + + +|The June 1989 issue of *Life* magazine featured a seven-page color +|photo essay on Satan: "Primordial and familiar, fantastic and credible, +|most ancient and foul seducer - his presence is once again among us, +|the stuff of grisly headlines." + +It is fairly obvious that, here and below, Otter accepts a Christian +portrayal of Satan, completely. This does appear to be the popular +understanding among Neopagans. + + +|Satanism exists as a perversion or inversion of Christianity, and hence +|Satanists invert the sacred symbols of the religion they oppose, such as +|the cross and the Lord's Prayer, which they recite backwards. As Witches +|are the healers and blessers of the new Paganism, their symbols, too, +|are inverted by Satanists. + +Here Otter makes it obvious that he is only talking about a very limited +and puerile style of Satanism. It appears that he hasn't done his +homework. Note too the very transparent way in which he is aligning the +'healing Witches' with Christians against this boogyman. + + +|The basic symbol of Witchcraft is the +|pentagram, or five-pointed star, such as seen on the American flag or +|the top of a Christmas tree. It stands on two points, with one point +|up, and symbolizes the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, plus +|spirit. Satanists also use a pentagram, but they invert it, pointing +|downward so it forms the head of a goat, the animal reviled in +|Biblical tradition as the antithesis of the "Lamb of God." + +|... + +|Otter G'Zell, Editor + +Note the reference to nationalism and Christianity here. An obvious +ploy to convince Christians. This document is *directed toward +Christians* and contains little information about organized Satanism. +The motive is becoming clear: keep the fundamentalist (f-)Christians +at bay. + +Note the reference to 'spirit' and the dogmatism of symbol. Not only +is this a simplistic analysis, it is dangerous in that it appears to be +representing an 'authority'. Not all Neopagans accept the notion of +'spirit', though it has been drilled into all our heads by Christians +for a long long time. + +Again, Satanists do the 'bad thing' with the 'symbol of good'. This +document is attempting to speak to the lowest intelligence, perhaps +the grade-school, and again implies the target audience: f-Christians. + +================================================================= + +This review was originally transmitted to alt.satanism, +alt.religion.all-worlds, alt.pagan, talk.religion.misc, and sent email +to Green Egg. :> + +I intend no hard feelings on any count, even while my criticism may be +rather terse. I intend to hit fairly and hard the expressions of all +who say something about Satanism, from Neopagans to Christians to the +those who use the term 'Satanist' to describe themselves, and do not +assume that I have the last word on the matter. + +As usual, I encourage response to and debate with my review. + +(C) 1994 +tyagi nagasiva +tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com +TOKUS +EOF diff --git a/religious documents/cawr_3.txt b/religious documents/cawr_3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7baaa4a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cawr_3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,458 @@ +To: alt.pagan,alt.religion.all-worlds +From: tyagi mordred nagasiva +Subject: Re: Views on Satanism: Neopagan (LONG Review of CAW doc) +Summary: This is one of a series of docs examining the Neopagan perspective + on Satanism. This particular review is of a publication by the + Church of All Worlds. +Keywords: Satanism, Neopaganism, criticism, review +Date: Kali Yuga 49940211 (slight revision 49940927) + +*** 3 of 5 *** + +Do what thou wilt. + +What follows is a critical review of a document I found in a publication +distributed by the Church of All Worlds (CAW). It is somewhat +representative of the common Neopagan attitude toward Satanists and Satanism. +This will be a multiple-part series which also examines the meaning of +'Satan' and 'Satanism' to Christians of various types and to those who +apply the term to themselves (or until recently did so). + +tyagi nagasiva +tyagi@houseofKaos.Abyss.com + +The Order of K@s Under Satan (TOKUS) +___________________________________________________________________ + +Section 1.3 : Neopagans => Church of All Worlds + + +From: + +|_Witchcraft, Satanism and Occult Crime: Who's Who and What's What_ +| A Manual of Reference Materials for the Professional Investigator. +| (Fourth Edition - October 1991) +| +|Edited by Otter G'Zell, Church of All Worlds + + +Article: + +|'A Brief History of Satanism' +|by Don Hudson Frew +| +|[much omitted] +|... +| +|History of Devil Worship +| +|...what we now understand as Satanism came into being and developed +|during [the Middle Ages], and reached its first real flowering during +|the final years of the Renaissance and beginning of the Enlightenment. + +This is very interesting, for it seems to legitimize Satanism as a rather +contiuous phenomenon, something which at the very least had a start- +point. As with much of Frew's latter comments, this straight out +distinguishes between Satanism and 'ritual violation'. + + +|The archetypal image of Satanism, the Black Mass, first appeared in +|France in the 17th Century, during the reign of Louis XIV. It was a +|bored and jaded aristocracy, looking for new thrills and caught up +|in court intrigue, that first thought of combining a blasphemous +|inverted Christian Mass with a secret ring of poisoners to do away +|with rivals at court [known as the 'Chambre Ardente Affair']. + +Here Satanism is equated with typical anti-Christian origins. +There is some debate as to whether or not Satanism began earlier than +this, perhaps known by other names. + + +|It is in the Chambre Ardente Affair that we see for the first time the +|familiar combination of: defrocked priests, inverted crosses, poison, +|sacrificed children, desecrated sacraments, communion chalices of +|urine and excrement, naked women as altars, and the sexual abuse of +|young girls. + +It is interesting to consider the possibility that this sort of practice +was less about opposing Christianity than about counteracting taboo +and social conditioning. Given this, what is here being called 'Satanism' +might indeed be a form of 'tantra'. + + +|From this time on, Satanism would include the parody of +|Christianity with which it has been so identified, and so become the +|illicit thrill of anyone with negative feelings toward the church. + +I wonder how supported the claim is that all Satanists opposed 'the' +Church. Perhaps the priests were defrocked because they had found a +new *form* of Christianity which assisted their practice. In this way +I wonder whether Satanism isn't an *advance* on Christianity as +practiced in the 17th Century, in that those who took it up were quite +thoroughly indoctrinated to the Christian faith and sought to reach +an equilibrium by engaging taboo activities. + + +|During the Enlightenment, groups of young noblemen could often be +|found dabbling in "Satanism" as members of clubs such as "The Blasters" +|and "The Sons of Midnight," confining themselves mostly to riding around +|at night and scaring the citizenry, and to throwing wild, orgiastic +|parties. + +It is interesting how similar this sounds to modernday American youth and +their counter-cultural habits. Could it be that Satanism arises out of +the mindset popularly called 'adolescent'? + + +|Aleister Crowley +|... +|Aleister Crowley was not a Satanist, which is not to say that some of his +|magical writings haven't been used by Satanists, among others. + +This is quite a strong comment. Crowley seems to have identified his Holy +Guardian Angel, Aiwass/Aiwaz, with Satan or Set in some ways, and many of +his editors and/or biographers seem thoroughly convinced of his Satanic +leanings. I wonder whether Frew was not here attempting to make good with +the more conservative Thelemites and Crowleyphiles. + + +|Anton LaVey +| +|Satanism did, indeed, "enter its modern era in this country just about 25 +|years ago under the theatrical guidance of Anton LaVey..." But it is +|important to understand that the Satanism of Anton LaVey bears little +|resemblance to anything discussed above, and that the world "theatrical" +|well chosen. + +There are certainly some elements which have been kept intact. My +understanding (and I'm still seeking confirmation on this) is that LaVey +and the Church of Satan have, at times, enacted 'Black Masses' which used +nude women as altars and could be said to 'desicrate the liturgy of the +Christian Church'. This might prove transformational for some of those +who have been raised within strict Catholic backgrounds. + + +|LaVey, a former lion tamer, circus and revival show organist, and police +|photographer, among many other things, founded the Church of Satan, the +|largest Satanic organization in the world, on the eve of May 1st, 1966. + +There are all sorts of rumors about the occupations which LaVey has +held prior to his settling into the Church. Some claim that one or more +of the above are false stories. I hope so. The more legends and trivial +deception about the man, the better. + + +|Having long been disillusioned with conventional religion, LaVey had +|studied the occult in both the famous books of magic (including Crowley's) +|and the carny side-show. He had developed a philosophy of "man as just +|another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk +|on all fours..." And he saw that, like an animal, man has engaged in the +|same life or death struggle; the survival of the fittest. + +I doubt he developed it. Even his 'Nine Satanic Statements' are supposed +to have been derived from popular political writings (Rand). More likely +he merely adopted this philosophy of life as his own and began to call it +Satanism. + + +|What was "good" +|was to indulge the animal nature of man and to be one of the fittest; +|a kind of Nietzchean hedonism, if you will, with a bit of P.T. Barnum thrown +|in for fun. With his background in the carny and his readings in psychology, +|LaVey realized that a little psychodrama can go a long way towards making +|a person feel good about himself. + +The last is an interesting point, and may indicate the connection between +what is called 'stage magic' and 'occult magick'. + + +|LaVey's philosophy and its racy trappings appealed to both the rich and +|successful, who found a justification for the steps they had taken in order +|to succeed, and the poor and powerless, who wanted to identify with such +|a group and thereby acquire the same aura of power. + +I suggest that it also attracted (and may still attract) those who are +interested in exploring the nature of taboo and attempting to break their +cultural conditioning. It may also have attracted those who wished to +indulge themselves to enlightenment (often rejected by the puritanical +and ascetic as an 'impossible' or 'ridiculous' task). + + +|LaVey's main +|philosophical treatise, _The Satanic Bible_, was written as a polemic +|for adults similarly disillusioned with the mainstream and was not +|intended for teenagers, much less to be taken "literally" by them. + +This sounds like some sort of protection clause, especially when Frew +begins to talk about the 'self-styled Satanists' that are not part of +some sort of serious organization. Note how the activities and thoughts +of individuals are downplayed as inferior to those of organizations +(especially below). + + +|(In fact, LaVey has recently expressed great regret for how young people +|are misrepresenting his book, and is taking steps to clarify his message.) + +I wonder what, exactly, he thinks that they are misunderstanding. + + +|Michael Aquino was a good friend of LaVey, and a respected member of +|the Church of Satan until he and LaVey split over theological differences. + +My understanding is that this is false, that it was a concern about LaVey +wishing to begin charging for various Church activities. At least these are +the assertions of Michael Aquino, who is much more publically vocal about +the split-up. I don't remember the LaVey story on this bit of history. + + +|Aquino left the church and founded the Temple of Set, the second largest +|Satanic organization in the world, in 1975. The Temple is much more +|focused on a disciplined approach to magic as a means for succeeding in +|life, but otherwise bears a great resemblance to the Church of Satan. + +Some organized Satanists might disagree with this, but I have little or +no information about the Church of Satan, so I can't be sure. + + +|*It is important to understand four things about both of these groups:* +| +|1) While both groups have adopted the image of Satan as rebel-against- +|authority, neither group practices the inverted, anti-Christianity +|associated with the Black Mass. In fact, the Church of Satan dogmatically +|*dis*believes in the existence of the Devil. + +I can't find a more potent point of contention between the Aquino and LaVey +clans, an issue which, to me, more firmly supports LaVey as a trickster and +therefore as more unique in his approach. In claiming to disbelieve in the +existence of that which one worships, what could be more twisted, more +representative of that Being who is associated with deception? + + +|2) A large percentage of the membership of both groups is mail-order +|members, about whom the group's administration knows little and over +|whom they have little control (e.g. a teenager who scrawls Satanic +|graffiti and claims to be a member of the Church of Satan is acting +|without the group's knowledge or sanction). + +I'll bet this is true for many groups, and yet it is interesting how +membership in a 'Satanic' organization is given so heavy focus as +instigator of rebellion, rather than a symptom of said quality. + + +|3) Both groups routinely expel persons if they are found to be breaking +|the law, e.g., using drugs. + +I wonder how true this is. Most of the more liberal occult and religious +groups only care about the usage of psychoactives when their members +are actually convicted of said activity. Prior to that they tend to +consider it the member's private business unless it impacts the org. + + +|4) Although these are the two largest Satanic groups in the country, +|the *total number of Satanists in America* has been estimated by +|reliable scholars to be *less than 10,000*. + +I wonder what constitutes a 'reliable scholar'. It would have been +nice if Frew were to use *notes* to his cited bibliography. Then many +more of his 'facts' could have been checked. + + +|Both groups, and the other smaller ones like them, are commonly called +|"religious Satanists." + +This designation is a compliment, it seems, to the organized Satanists, +in that they are classed alongside Neopagans and Jews and Christians. +Note, however that it is only the groups which are legitimized by Frew's +classification. + + +|The kind of twisted, criminal practitioners that +|Geraldo, Donahue, and others tend to focus on are known as "self-styled +|Satanists." It is this latter category of individuals who, getting their +|"occult knowledge" from pop occult books, Creature Feature movies and +|(most significantly) Christian anti-Satanism and anti-occult books, +|live up to the stereotype image of the devil-worshipper. + +I find this very interesting. The argument against it is one which I think +I've heard Michael Aquino give. Why aren't criminals who use the symbols, +trappings and mythos of Christianity called 'self-styled Christians'? +I.e. why are they included with 'Satanism' at all except as a result of bias +that runs very deep in a traditionally Christian culture? + +I do find it wonderful that Frew associates the ideas of those who use +'Satanic' symbols and concepts with Christian anti-Satanist and anti- +occult propaganda. It points out some of the problem which is being +created by the political (and enterprising) campaign. + + +|These individuals +|are not motivated to commit crimes by Satanism; they are disturbed +|persons inclined toward criminal behavior who find a justification for +|their actions devil-worship. + +Here perhaps Frew justifies his usage of the 'self-styled' adjective. +Those people aren't *really* Satanists, they just *pretend* (i.e. they +just fake it in order to justify their amoral misdeeds). I think that +while there is some substance to this, it is more likely that the +motives of the people (often teens) are much more complex. + + +|Witchcraft +| +|...Satanists often invert and parody the religions of others. A Christian +|Priest sometimes wears a black robe, as does a Witch, and so the Satanist +|does too. A Christian wears a cross, a Witch a pentacle, and a Satanist... +|an inverted cross and an inverted pentacle. + +This is of course an overbroad generalization. Perhaps some Satanists +do this, but I'm not sure that the Church or Temple followers do, nor +that all solitaries engage this kind of reactionary attitude. It seems +to me that this is simplistic overstatement. + + +|Current Status +| +|The current presentation of Satanism in the popular media is inaccurate +|and misleading. + +I think that, aside from a large portion of Frew's article, the majority +of this document, which purports to be a *REFERENCE MANUAL* on Satanism, +in many ways equates it with ritual abuse, child abduction and molestation, +and, in general, violence. + +As such, _Witchcraft, Satanism and Occult Crime: Who's Who and What's What_ +is an unfortunate EXAMPLE of this 'popular media'. Why this is the case may +be cleared up when I begin to quote correspondence that I had with Otter +directly as a result of beginning this critical review series. + + +| It fosters an image of a single nation-wide cult or network +|(as Ted Gunderson has put it), existing unchanged since the Middle Ages, +|and consciously and deliberately plotting on the lives and minds of our +|children. This is hysteria-mongering at its worst. The facts do not +|support the theory. + +This is what I have discovered also. + + +|All that can be said with certainty is that... +| +|1) There is something in our society that is inclining our children towards +|violent and anti-social behavior. + +It is unfortunate but understandable that Frew would leave the 'something' +ambiguous here. He does go on to suggest that the cause may be found in the +homes of the people involved, but never begins to examine what that might +be. Also, this statement seems to support the assertion that some sort +of *unusual* inflammation of anti-social or counter-cultural feeling +is emerging from 'our society's' teens. I'm not sure this is the case. + + +|2) Parents and other caretakers are ignoring the obvious warning signs +|of the problem until it erupts into violence. + +This presumes that there is a problem (yet to be shown), that it has +'obvious warning signs' (undescribed), and that parents et al are aware +of them and intentionally ignoring them. I'd like to hear some debate +on these presumptions. + + +|3) Once an individual has "snapped" and committed a crime, parents and +|others are much more willing to look for the cause and affix blame on an +|evil enemy on the edge of society than they are to look inside the home. + +As other K@s Haus denizens have suggested, Frew is content to put the +blame on the *home* in regards influence toward criminality, rather than +on *social institutions* like School, Government, and Church. + + +|Related to this, it's a lot easier to accept that your child was molested +|by a Satanic cult than to think that it might have been Uncle Frank. + +This perpetuates the (possible) myth that children rebel as a result of +being violated. While this may be quite true, I would suggest that +restrictive parenting and an oppressive society might contribute more +toward rebellious attitudes and criminal activity than any more specific +and unusual violation. + +What passes for 'parenting' these days is quite violating to the child. +>From being confined to a desk and forced to listen to droning adults for +six hours a day, to not being respected enough to have the right to +determine whether one shall engage in physical intimacy, imbibe psychoactive +substances, or watch 'graphic' art, children are treated like owned +animals without sufficent common sense or sense of self to make important +decisions about their life experiences. + +It is perhaps no wonder that they become frustrated and strike out at the +society which they may well view is violating or enslaving them. + + +|Satanism and devil-worshipping are real and they are present around the +|country, but they make up such a small part of the problem of violence by +|and against children that we shouldn't let it distract us from looking +|where the problem is much more likely to be caused... in the home. + +Never does Frew address what 'devil-worshipping' is or what may be +problematic about its engagement. His link here regarding child violence +seems to support the assumption that 'Satanism' in *some* form, may indeed +involve this kind of criminal activity. + +Again, that he redirects the attention toward the *home* rather than to +society at large says more about his audience and what he is trying to +accomplish (dissuading fundamentalist Christians from bashing supposed +'criminal Satanists'). + + +|Biblography +| +|... +|Satanism +| +|_The Magicians: A Study of the Use of Power in a Black Magic Group_ +| by Gini Graham Scott, Irvington Publ., New York 1983. + +Interesting that Frew mentions 'Black Magic' only once in his article +and this with respect to 'Middle Age Satanists'. Along with so many +other key terms, he *never* defines it. + + +|_Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World_, by Jeffrey Burton +| Russell, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY 1986. +|_Satan Wants You: The Cult of Devil Worship in America_, by Arthur +| Lyons, Mysterious Press, New York 1988. +|_The Satanic Bible_, by Anton Szandor LaVey, Avon Books, New York, +| 1972. +|_The Satanic Rituals_, by Anton Szandor LaVey, Avon Books, New York, +| 1972. +|_Satanism_, by Ted Schwartz and Duane Empey, Zondervan Books, Grand +| Rapids, MI 1988 (Note: Recommended solely for material on LaVey +| and Aquino. +|_Satanism in America: An Interim Report_ by Shawn Carlson & Gerald +| Larue, issued by the Committee for Scientific Examination of Religion, +| Berkeley, CA 1988. + +I'm impressed at Frew's willingness to look beyond conservative +Christians to discover his information. I wonder why it is that Otter +G'Zell doesn't take the same approach and research the tomes which +Frew references here, adjusting his focus away from such a strong +support of Satanism = Ritual Abuse. + +================================================================= + +This review was originally transmitted to alt.satanism, +alt.religion.all-worlds, alt.pagan, talk.religion.misc, and sent email +to Green Egg. :> I + +I intend no hard feelings on any count, even while my criticism may be +rather terse. I intend to hit fairly and hard the expressions of all +who say something about Satanism, from Neopagans to Christians to the +those who use the term 'Satanist' to describe themselves, and do not +assume that I have the last word on the matter. + +As usual, I encourage response to and debate with my review. + +(C) 1994 +tyagi nagasiva +tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com +TOKUS +EOF diff --git a/religious documents/cawr_4.txt b/religious documents/cawr_4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe31a29 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cawr_4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,474 @@ +To: alt.pagan,alt.religion.all-worlds +From: tyagi mordred nagasiva +Subject: Re: Views on Satanism: Neopagan (LONG Review of CAW doc) +Summary: This is one of a series of docs examining the Neopagan perspective + on Satanism. This particular review is of a publication by the + Church of All Worlds. +Keywords: Satanism, Neopaganism, criticism, review +Date: Kali Yuga 49940927 + +*** 4 of 5 *** + +Do what thou wilt. + +What follows is a critical review of a document I found in a publication +distributed by the Church of All Worlds (CAW). It is somewhat +representative of the common Neopagan attitude toward Satanists and Satanism. +This will be a multiple-part series which also examines the meaning of +'Satan' and 'Satanism' to Christians of various types and to those who +apply the term to themselves (or until recently did so). + +tyagi nagasiva +tyagi@houseofKaos.Abyss.com + +The Order of K@s Under Satan (TOKUS) +___________________________________________________________________ + +Section 1.4 : Neopagans => Church of All Worlds + + +From: + +|_Witchcraft, Satanism and Occult Crime: Who's Who and What's What_ +| A Manual of Reference Materials for the Professional Investigator. +| (Fourth Edition - October 1991) +| +|Edited by Otter G'Zell, Church of All Worlds + + +Article: + +|'Defining Occult Crime: the Perpetrators and Their Actions' +|Abstracted from _Occult Crime, a Law Enforcement Primer_ +|Published by the State of California Office of Criminal Justice Planning +|1130 K St., suite 300, Sacramento, CA 95814 - (916) 324-9100 + +Note: no author cited. No date of copyright. If any Satanists have +complaints about its contents there is a public address and ph. # for you. + + +|... +|Ritualistic Abuse -- Beginning in 1980 with the publication of _Michelle +|Remembers_ by Dr. Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith, a new type of +|occult crime was postulated: ritualistic abuse. In the book, Michelle +|and her psychiatrist recount how in the course of her continued +|therapeutic sessions as an adult, she recalled involvement in a Satanic +|cult in Vancouver, BC when she was five years old. Her account tells how +|her mother was forced to surrender her for sexual Satanic rituals. Soon +|thereafter, similar stories began to appear, linking for the first time +|accounts of specifically Satanic involvement to ongoing physical, sexual, +|emotional and spiritual child abuse. The result was the emergence of a +|particularly heinous type of crime which became known as *ritualistic +|abuse*. The alleged perpetrators of such abuse are most often the Cult +|Satanists. + +This is very peculiarly worded. Let me quote Arthur Lyons for some +additional material on Michelle Smith: + +"It seems that, while undergoing intense psychotherapy with Dr. Pazder +for an assortment of emotional disorders, Smith began to recall repressed +childhood memories, which Pazder concluded were the source of her problems. +What she revealed to him was that, as a five-year-old in Vancouver, she +had been offered up by her mother to a Satanic cult and forced to +participate in unspeakable rites. + +"During a three-month ceremony called the Feast of the Beast, she had +been forced to recite childish rhymes while closed in a coffin within +a grave and been put naken in a cage, the floor of which was alive +with slithering snakes. She had seen robed men and women tear apart +kittens with their teeth. She had been sexually assaulted by both male +and female initiates, including the cult's leader, Malachi, and most +loathsome of all, she had seen babies ritualistically slaughtered and +eaten. + +"In the end, however, through prayer, all the cult's efforts to convert +her were thwarted. + +"As Smith's mother was long dead, it proved impossible to verify her +story. Despite problems with the horror-filled narrative -- namely, +why the group would allow her to live to tell the tale -- and despite +the fact that such nightmares as Michelle's are not uncommon in +emotionally disturbed cases, Pazder said he believed Michelle's story +to be literally true and helped her to spill out her fantasy in book +form." + +_Satan Wants You_, by Arthur Lyons, pp. 140-1. +______________________________________________ + +I'll be getting more into the ritual abuse network theories of the +fundamentalist Christians in later segments of this series. What is +important to note here is that the State of California indicates that +such 'Satanic ritualistic abuse' takes place (and most other law-enforcement +articles I've read beyond this appear to contradict this so I wonder +how old it is and whether it is still considered valid). Not only this, +but it refers to 'the Cult Satanists' without defining this in any part +of the text that is included in the CAW 'manual'. + +I think it is interesting that the article states that 'a new type of +occult crime is postulated'. It does not go on to make the claim that +such crimes have definitely been proven to exist. In fact, the latter +part of this section seems to indicate that there is no resolution on +the matter even in the criminal justice community (which may have been +true at the time this was written but I think it is likely that such +resolution is quickly being reached -- contrary to the claims of the +'Survivors' -- especially where associated with 'Satanism' as compared +to any other religion.) + + +|In the broadest sense, *ritualistic abuse of children, adolescents and +|adults involves repeated physical, sexual, psychological and/or spiritual +|abuse which utilizes rituals*. +| +|Currently, there is probably no more divisive issue within the criminal +|justice community that [sic] that of ritualistic abuse. While no one +|disputes the existence or increase of ritualistic abuse, few agree about +|several other aspects: the extent of ritualistic crimes committed by +|Cult Satanists; the motivations of perpetrators; and the veracity of the +|victims who claim to have survived ritualistic abuse at the hands of +|Cult Satanists. + +It is this information which ought to give Otter and the rest of the +Church of All Worlds pause when publishing the statements they do +concerning that with which Satanism is popularly linked. More and +more the justice community appears to be exonerating Satanists - a +repeat of the fight which the Neopagans have had to and still endure. + + +--------------- + +|'Principles of Wiccan Belief' +|As Adopted by the Council of American Witches at its +|Spring 1974 Witchmeet, April 11-14, Minneapolis, Minnesota + +|... + +|12. We do not accept the concept of "absolute evil," nor do we worship +|any entity known as "Satan" or "the Devil" as defined by Christian +|Tradition. We do not seek power through the suffering of others, nor +|do we accept the concept that personal benefits can only be derived +|by denial to another. + +This is obviously directed to address the claims made by fundamentalist +Christians in an attempt to squelch the religious freedoms of Wiccans +and/or Witches. + +------------------ + +|'Witchcraft, Paganism and the Occult: A Basic Glossary of Common Terms +|and Symbols', by Otter and Morning Glory Zell, Editors, GREEN EGG Magazine +| +|[much omitted] + +Here we get into the meat of the CAW bias. + + +|Athame - A consecrated ceremonial knife used by Witches and magicians; +|usually black-hilted. In Witchcraft the athame is *almost* never used +|for drawing blood. Satanists profane it by using it for blood sacrifices. + +Note how the Zells use terminology even to slander religious traditions +with which they should be *aligned*. African and Indian traditions still +perform animal sacrifices and this is no 'profaning' unless one is biased +against such religious practices (such as is the JCI complex). It is +unfortunate that the Church does not appear to acknowledge this kinship +with indigenous (pagan?) tradition. + + +|Baphomet - Goat-headed god of carnal lust and materiality; said to have +|been worshipped by the Knights Templars. Depicted in the Tarot as "The +|Devil" trump. Popular deity for modern Satanists and some Witches. + +I find this to be very interesting. This comment leaves open to question +whether or not such organizations as the OTO (whose reigning Caliph is +*identified* by the name/title 'Baphomet') are 'Satanic', since they are +certainly not 'Witches'. + +As I understand it Eliphas Levi (Alphonse Louis Constant) was instrumental +in promoting the current caricature of Baphomet. Since he was a member of +the Christian establishment (a former deacon) perhaps there is more weight +given to the theory that Satanism (and occultism generally) is an *advance*, +or at least a tangental strike on Christianity. + +Given that Levi is a major force within the Hermetic tradition and that +this same tradition inspired much of what is considered Neopaganism +(notably the more structured forms of Wicca), the association of Baphomet +with Satanism *and* Witchcraft undermines much of the Zell's claims +regarding their difference. + + +|Black Mass - The ritual most commonly associated with Satanism, wherein +|the Roman Catholic Mass is reversed and profaned. A nude woman forms +|the altar; blood is drunk instead of wine; flesh is eaten instead of bread; +|and the Lord's Prayer is recited backwards. + +Typical Christian rhetoric, perhaps even folkloric. I've still yet to +determine if the Church of Satan ever attempted or attempts to utilize +this tantric rite. I gather that more are beginning to see it this way, +and this, combined with infanticide and cannibalism, is legendary, even +while most Satanists separate themselves from it rather flagrantly. + + +|Church of Satan - Founded in San Francisco in 1966 by Anton LaVey, who +|taught that Satan is a symbol of the material world and the carnal nature +|of man, embodying "the life, joy, pleasure, and particularly intimate and +|important to man." Their scripture is LaVey's _Satanic Bible_. Legally +|incorporated in California, the church split into several factions in 1975. + +Of course the various factions might not see it this way. :> They might, +as with most other religious sects, merely indicate that the split was a +narrowing, a focus upon their particular, pure strand. + + +|Cross, Inverted - Generic symbol of Satanism. Represents the rejection of +|all that Christianity stands for. + +Another typical ascription. I've often marvelled how the Sword in the +Stone looks remarkably like a Cross upon a Mount. 'Inverted', the sword +becomes useful once more. I'm consistently disappointed in the fundamen- +talist approach that the CAW takes to its symbolism (what with 'aright' +and 'inverted' orientations). Combined with its 'good/evil' rhetoric I +wonder how they can claim to honestly fit within the more relativistic +domain of the Neopagan community. In that they are a 'church', perhaps +this is not their goal. + + +|Demons - Spirits evoked from the human id. + +Here's some promise, however. In beginning an orientation with modern +psychology, the Zells begin to *say* something with their biased terms. + + +|Devil - From the Sanscrit *devi*, 'little god' (or from the Greek Diabolos). +|In Christianity, an evil spirit (also known as demon, from Greek *daemon*, +|meaning 'spirit'. +| The Devil - Christian personification of evil; chief of the demons. + +I'm still confused about the root 'devi' and whether this applies. I've +more often heard the connection to 'diabolos'. Perhaps these are different +branches off the same etymogical trunk. + +It is important to note that all of these terms ('devil', 'demon', 'satan') +were derived from *other*, nonChristian cultures. It appears that either +the Zells would like to retain the Manichean moralism so as to prop up their +ecological concerns or they have failed to understand the damage which it +may do to others when they don't co-opt the language to an amoralistic usage. + + +|Evil - Negativity out of balance. The single minded obsession to generate +|destruction, pain and cruelty, often for the purpose of gaining power over +|others. Anti-life; anti-evolution; anti-consciousness. + +I note here that there is no entry for 'Good'. Presumably this is to be +another moralistic sledge-hammer. + + +|Grotto - A Satanic congregation. + +I gather this is directly from the Church of Satan. It is weird how at +times the Zells utilize the terminology and theoretics of organized +Satanism and at others disregard it completely. Perhaps there is an +historical relation to 'grottos' which I'm missing. + + +|Heavy Metal - The adrenalin/testosterone frenzied music of adolescent +|rebellion featuring a glorification of sex, drugs and violence with a strong +|flavor of black leather/studs, sado-masochism and nihilism. Though +|Heavy Metal music has been cited in teen-age Satanic practices including +|human sacrifice, much is harmless and it is important to distinguish between +|the different bands. Some, like Metallica, Judas Priest, White Snake and +|Motley Crue currently feature lyrics of rape and rampage. Other more +|moderate bands like Dio, Kiss and Ozzy Osborne feature quasi-occult themes +|strong on raw power and ceremonial magic. Bands like Van Halen and Def +|Leppard have safely mellowed. + +Note that the Zells appear to reference 'human sacrifice' with respect +to 'teen-age Satanic practices' yet do not give references for their +'citation'. Presumably we can derive these from the balance of the 'manual'. + +The Zells are apparently unfamiliar with the earliest manifestations +of the intersection of 'Satanism' and 'Heavy Metal'. Bands like Black +Sabbath (who launched Ozzy Osborne *and* later featured Rainbow's Ronnie +James Dio) and Led Zeppelin (who featured occult themes though less +overt darkness) were the forefront of 'Satanic Heavy Metal', and others, +such as Grand Funk Railroad, Blue Cheer and Deep Purple, gave the movement +its start otherwise. + +Despite the implications that there may be 'harmless' and 'harmful' +music, the Zells are just adding their voices to the stupidity of +fundamentalist Christians who want to squelch the rebellion of largely +adolescent males seeking release from the oppression of parents and +society. + +Nowhere is it mentioned the various new forms of music into which the +Sabbath strand has flowed, sometimes called 'Death Metal' or 'Death +Rock', often typified by attention to black clothing, vampirism and +anti-consciousness (what the Zells might call 'evil'). + + +|Incubus - Demon in male form that seduces women in their sleep, causing +|erotic dreams. + +This, with 'Succubus', is a likely leftover from nonChristian folklore. + + +|Kali - Hindu Goddess of Time, Destruction, Death and Rebirth. The Great +|Initiator, Portal Between Worlds. + +Note the focus here on *destruction*, rather than Creation. For many +Westerners Kali is a very frightening find. That the Zells do Her well +in this context says something for their attitude toward wrathful deities +in SOME (i.e. Eastern, nonChristian) contexts. Aum krim namah Kaliya. + + +|Left-Hand Path - Occultists who spend their time being destructive, +|manipulative and 'evil.' (PEIB) [Bonewits] +| Right-Hand Path - Occultists who spend their time being +|constructive, manipulative and 'good.' (PEIB) Both are patriarchal +|terms that have grown out of medieval ceremonial magick and Qabalism. + +More weapons with which to bludgeon the victims of religious oppression. +I had thought that the terms derived from the Hindu tantric rites wherein +the position of adepts has symbolic importance. + + +|Lilith - Ancient Sumerian Owl Goddess. In Hebrew mythology, She was +|Adam's first wife. Divorced for insubordination, She became the mother +|of demons. + +I gather that there are many different versions of this tale, including +that Lilith took leave of Adam herself, refusing to submit to him. + + +|Magick -... +| Black Magick - Used for blighting and binding. +|Popularly, magick done for 'evil' purposes. + +This appears to be more liberal on the part of the Zells, in that the +term 'black' isn't associated *merely* with 'evil'. + + +|Pan - Pre-Christian Greek God of Wild Nature. Lusty and bawdy, Pan is a +|favorite God among many Witches and Neo-Pagans. Goat-horned and goat- +|hoofed, the image of Pan was appropriated to form the physical basis for +|the depiction of the Christian Devil. + +Here they don't associate him with the Underworld. Again the benign +aspect, lacking connection to 'panic' or some darker, wrathful Pan. +That the favorite mammal of sacrifice is the goat cannot be dismissed +easily when considering this god. + + +|Pentagram, Inverted - Within a circle, a primary symbol of Satanism. +|Represents goat's head, with horns, ears, beard. As the inverted +|cross represents the antithesis of Christianity, the inverted +|pentagram in a circle represents the antithesis of all that Witchcraft +|stands for. (Note: some traditional Witches also use the inverted +|pentagram *with or without a circle* to indicate the Horned God, as Pan.) + +Note the ambiguity here, demonstrating the obvious overlaps between the +symbolism of the groups. This common usage is not explained here or +anywhere else in this publication. Compare the 'Horned God' hand-gesture +and the 'Satanic Salute'. :::snicker::: + + +|Process Church of the Final Judgement - Founded by Robert deGrimstone +|in 1968, and incorporating material from the Church of Satan, Scientology, +|and the O.T.O. The Process was composed of four separate henotheistic +|cults, devoted respectively to Christ, Jehovah, Lucifer and Satan, which +|they believe to embrace the total of divinity. Their goal was to bring +|about the Omega Point, staming the emergent collective consciousness +|with their imprint. In the early '70s, the Process put out a series of very +|slick, expensive publications, and had uniformed recruiters in every +|airport. Then, around 1975, they apparently disappeared, and are believed +|to have gone underground. + +This is fascinating to me. I know almost nothing about the Process. Is +it strange that Church of Satan, Temple of Set and Process Church are the +only organizations to make it into this publication? Perhaps these were +the most obvious/publicized. + + +|Ritual Abuse - Abuse that involves a series of repeated physical, emotional +|and/or sexual assualts [sic] combined with the systematic use of symbols, +|ceremonies or machinations. (CSER) + +A very important definition. It not only separates it from Satanism per se, +but it severs the connection between ritual abuse and religion of any sort. + + +|Satan - Hebrew for "adversary." During the Middle Ages a full Satanic +|theology was developed, in which Satan as the Devil became the God of +|evil and ruler of the Christian underworld, Hell. The collective +|Christian Id; the Antithesis of Yahveh. + +Here we come back to the Christian Psychology Model that the Church of +All Worlds is keen to promote (and valiantly so!). *Was* a 'full theology' +really developed? Or was it a composite of jumbled concepts which have +been gathered together by fundamentalists in their paranoia? + + +|Satanism - An anti-religion developed in reaction to and as an opposition +|to Christianity. It is the mirror image, the dark side, of Christianity, and +|shares the same history, mythology, and world-view as Christianity. +|Satanists regard Satan as equal in power to the Judeo-Christian God Jahveh, +|and base much of their mythology on Milton's _Paradise Lost_, wherein Satan +|was the loser in a civil war fought in heaven before Creation. Satanists +|believe that Jahveh was not necessarily the more noble of the antagonists; +|merely the winner, and, disaffected from Christianity, they choose to side +|with its opponent, reversing all Christian rites and symbols, especially +|those of Catholocism. Distinctions should be made between religious +|Satanists, Satanic cults, and self-styled Satanists. + +Here the CAW appears to veer starkly away from even its own document, in +that it explains away Satanism as an 'anti-religion' (what could this be?). +The Church (and likely many Neopagans) wishes to flash Satanism (and the +charge which is consistently levelled against it) back upon the Christians +themselves. This is the only motivation I can yet discover within their +'information manual'. It is a counter-propaganda tool with which slights +Satanists in many ways while offering protection to Neopagans. + + +|Set - Egyptian adversary God, murderer of Osiris and userper of his throne. +|Set was defeated and castrated by Osiris' son, Horus, who lost an eye in the +|battle. Some Satanists equate Set with Satan. + +Knowing that some Satanists equate Set with Satan, that Set preceded Satan, +historically, and that even Shaitan preceded the Christian manifestation of +this cosmologic Being, how can the Zells go on proclaiming that their +understanding (Yahweh-Id) is the 'correct' version? + + +|Succubus - Demon in female form that seduces men in their sleep, causing +|wet dreams. + +|Temple of Set - Founded in 1983 by Michael Aquino as a splinter group from +|the Church of Satan. Aquino, a high-ranking officer in the US Army, is +|aligned with Neo-Nazi movements and believes he is the Anti-Christ. +|Originally based at the Army Presidio in San Francisco, Aquino was +|transferred to St. Louis in 1988. + +Note the focus here on the 'Neo-Nazi' associations with Aquino. This was +at one time popular, yet will the Zells also mention the occult history +of the Nazis and attempt to connect the Asatru and various other sects with +these same scapegoats? I doubt it. The vitriol between Aquino and Otter +Zell is a story of bitter tactlessness and miscommunication. + +================================================================= + +This review was originally transmitted to alt.satanism, +alt.religion.all-worlds, alt.pagan, talk.religion.misc, and sent email +to Green Egg. :> + +I intend no hard feelings on any count, even while my criticism may be +rather terse. I intend to hit fairly and hard the expressions of all +who say something about Satanism, from Neopagans to Christians to the +those who use the term 'Satanist' to describe themselves, and do not +assume that I have the last word on the matter. + +As usual, I encourage response to and debate with my review. + +(C) 1994 +tyagi nagasiva +tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com +TOKUS +EOF diff --git a/religious documents/cawr_5.txt b/religious documents/cawr_5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b829ba --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cawr_5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,507 @@ +To: alt.pagan,alt.religion.all-worlds +From: tyagi mordred nagasiva +Subject: Re: Views on Satanism: Neopagan (LONG Review of CAW doc) +Summary: This is one of a series of docs examining the Neopagan perspective + on Satanism. This particular review is of a publication by the + Church of All Worlds. +Keywords: Satanism, Neopaganism, criticism, review +Date: Kali Yuga 49940927 + +*** 5 of 5 *** + +Do what thou wilt. + +What follows is a critical review of a document I found in a publication +distributed by the Church of All Worlds (CAW). It is somewhat +representative of the common Neopagan attitude toward Satanists and Satanism. +This will be a multiple-part series which also examines the meaning of +'Satan' and 'Satanism' to Christians of various types and to those who +apply the term to themselves (or until recently did so). + +tyagi nagasiva +tyagi@houseofKaos.Abyss.com + +The Order of K@s Under Satan (TOKUS) +___________________________________________________________________ + +Section 1.5 : Neopagans => Church of All Worlds + + +From: + +|_Witchcraft, Satanism and Occult Crime: Who's Who and What's What_ +| A Manual of Reference Materials for the Professional Investigator. +| (Fourth Edition - October 1991) +| +|Edited by Otter G'Zell, Church of All Worlds + + +Article: + +|'The Earth Religion Anti-Abuse Resolution' +|[much omitted] + +|Two disturbing trends that have been growing in the United States - +|1) that there has been a rise in violent criminal activity with Satanic +|ritualistic overtones.....This final version now continues to be reprinted +|and circulated to help clarify the fact that Witches and Pagans are not +|Satanists and do not engage in abusive or criminal activities.... + +|We neither acknowledge nor worship the Christian devil, "Satan," who +|is not in our Pagan pantheons.... + +The Neopagans run from the label 'Satanist'. + +---------------- + +|[Letter] +|Central Office +|Multiple Personality Dignity +|Loved Ones of Multiples (LOOM) +|... +|It has come to my attention that some fundamentalists and therapists are +|exploiting Multiple Personality Disorder (M.P.D.) for unethical purposes. +|Such exploitation includes: +|* labeling almost every anxiety as M.P.D. +|* labeling almost every abuse as "Satanic abuse" + +Here we have one of the first lukewarm refutations of the 'Satanic abuse' +scare. This from an official in the psychological community. Why haven't +these items (combined with Frew's article) carried through toward eliminating +the more ridiculous 'Survivor' literature? + + +|* instructing law enforcement officers to label almost every unusual crime +| "Satanic crime" +|* confusing all minority religions (especially Wicca) with Satanism +|* declaring that M.P.D. is proof of a worldwide Satanic conspiracy (sometimes +| fundamentalists declare that there is a worldwide conspiracy of +| Jews, Catholics or others who have religious beliefs different +| from the fundamentalists) + +Finally someone also notices the frequent 'conspiracy' mindset. The +fundamentalist Christian gives away their ignorance through grouping +the Catholics, Jews and Satanists together and the fundamentalist +Neopagan gives away theirs by grouping Satanists, ritual abusers and +anti-Christians. + + +|... +|* having therapy conferences only about abusers who are Satanists and +| ignoring the vast majority of North American abusers who are +| Christians +|... +|The people who _accept_ this propaganda might react in ways that may harm +|survivors. These reactions include: +|* less belief of the majority of survivors whose abusers were not Satanists +|... +|_Even_ people who _reject_ this propaganda might react in ways that may +|harm survivors. These reactions include: +|* less belief of the minority of survivors whose abusers actually were +| Satanists +|... +|As MPDignity/LOOM participants, personal recovery and recovery of others +|are helped when we: +|* respect the self-descriptions of survivors whose abusers actually +| were Satanists +|* respect the self-descriptions of survivors whose abusers were not +| Satanists +|... +|Dr. Cindee Grace, founder + +All in all a fairly balanced overview, though even Dr. Grace appears to +maintain that there *are* 'Satanic ritual abuse victims', perhaps with +the caveat that there are 'Christian ritual abuse victims' and 'Neopagan +ritual abuse victims', though she doesn't really emphasize this point +very carefully. + +----------------- + +|[Letter] +|Sandi Daly Gallant + +Who? No references! Why should we listen to this person? + + +|... +|Position on Ritualistic Crimes +|... +|As a clearer understanding of the differences between Paganism, Witchcraft +|and Satanism came forth, however, not only were the differences in ritual +|practice observed, but the symbolism attached to the various beliefs were +|more clearly defined. Over the past several years, when conducting training +|sessions, I have gone to great efforts to describe the differences so that +|similar mistakes will not be made. At the same time, I have come to look at +|this field as an area of study that needs to be approached from a case-by-case +|basis, as individuals who incorporate various belief systems into criminal +|activity tend, very often, to combine aspects of various faiths, misinterpret +|symbolism, create their own symbolism, and pervert the religions to fit their +|needs. + +Note the focus in the paragraph above on *belief*. I've come to associate +this with the JCI (Judeo-Christian-Islamic) complex rather directly, since +many Neopagans (aside from those who've sullied the resurgent movement) also +find a need to escape doctrine and dogma. + +It is important that, here and below, this author places the focus on the +criminal activities of ECLECTIC individuals, who are already liable to endure +scrutiny and bigotry from the groups among which they walk. She does them +a disservice as she implicates them as 'Satanic' and 'criminal' here. + + +|Neo-Pagans, in the traditional sense, worship nature. Their symbolism +|represents man in harmony with nature. Satanism, in the traditional sense, +|is a worship of ones-self, and the Prince of Darkness, in various forms. + +A wonderful distinction which may indeed describe the entire difference +between the Neopagan and Satanic mind. Neopagans worship nature, Satanists +worship themselves. Why cannot oneself be identified with 'nature'? Is +the Neopagan necessarily exempt from narcissistic focus? American culture +doesn't seem to reflect this claim. Or is it that the puritanical 'self is +not in nature' paradigm flowing over into the Neopagan mindset? + + +|Much of its symbolism is created to cause distress and a gap between man +|and nature, with man being the ruling force. + +This is a fascinating claim. I wonder how accurate it is, however. Is +the intent a separation of nature and man or a resoluton through conflict +(or through placing the existing conflict in the *foreground*)? + + +|Although there are certainly +|exceptions to every rule, traditionalists will not usually cross the line +|and mix these belief systems together. Dabblers, on the other hand, +|constantly blend the faiths. The majority of criminal acts of a ritual +|nature appear, at this time, to be conducted by dabblers or adolescents +|who don't understand the basic differences in the belief systems or the +|symbols, and only use them to further their own desires or needs. + +Here again we are told that the criminals blend, existing between the +orthodoxies, within the 'evil heterodox zone'. My impression is that it +isn't so much a true blend of traditions to which she is pointing but to +a shallow grasping at alternatives to the oppressive establishment within +which these delinquents find themselves. + + +|To my +|knowledge, no evidence currently exits establishing that organized +|Pagan or Satanic _groups_ have been involved in criminal activity. This +|is not to say that certain _individuals_ associated with such groups have +|not committed crimes. Certainly, within my own Christian faith, there have + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +|been many _individuals_ who have perversely interpreted their belief in +|God and used it to justify criminal behavior; however, no theory of criminal +|conspiracy in this area has been proven. +|... + +Unfortunately self-explanatory. + + +|Sandi Daly Gallant [signed] + +WHO?? + +--------------- + +|[Letter] +|School of Religion +|University of Southern California [USC] +|.... + +Now we're getting closer to some substance (aren't we?). + + +|STATEMENT ON SATANISM AND NEO-PAGANISM +| +|I am Director of the School of Religion of the University of Southern +|California, Professor of the History of Religion, and author (now co-author) +|with Harry Partin) of _Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America_, a +|now-updated textbook in this area for more than fifteen years. In these +|capacities I have had numerous occasions to investigate both Satanism +|and the Neo-Pagan movement, including modern Wicca or Witchcraft. + +Yes, but what *did* his investigations include? What 'Satanism' did +Robert S. Ellwood look at? Does anyone recognize the name? Has anyone +read his book? References? + + +|I can assure all concerned that they are quite different, and that +|Neo-Paganism is entirely benign in concept and generally in practice. + +This is an echo of what the Zells hope to portray. To a certain +extent I can't help but feel that they sell out their religion by +so doing, in that it takes the bite out of any ecological challenge +which they may support against the State, and any self-respecting +'nature-worshipper' would not wish to cut off this 'nonbenign' avenue. + + +|To be sure, all +|religions, like any human activity, will sometimes attract sociopathic +|persons and occasionally they will even find their way into positions of +|leadership. But this is far more likely to happen in Satanism than Paganism +|because that path, with its overtones of rebellion against God and all that +|most people find decent and good, will draw those who share that rage. It +|also makes a strong appeal to ego and the lust for power on all levels, +|offering power in exchange for submission and sometimes the committing +|of unspeakable acts. Even though some Satanic groups are not criminal, +|they still quite openly center their practice on ego-enhancement, +|interpreted as gaining power and gratification. + +Here Ellwood makes a *very* important point, one which could have been made +previously if any had taken the time to analyze the characteristics of +Neopaganism and Satanism in their particulars. It does indeed seem that +if either are to be associated with rebellion and criminality, Satanism, by +virtue of its focus upon adolescence, anarchy and lust, would be more prone +to attract the sociopaths of a community. But is this really true? OR is +it more likely that the 'humble' extremes of a Jones or Koresh would be more +likely to result in travesty? + + +|... +|Any refusal to distinguish between Satanists and Neo-Pagans is irresponsible +|and essentially dishonest thinking based on prejudice against certain types +|of religious activity rather than sincere investigation and commitment to +|truth. It could give rise to the horrors of the witch-hunts of old once again. +|It must be shunned -- like the devil. +| +|Respectfully, +|[signed] +|Robert S. Ellwood + +Here, sadly, are words of ignorance uttered by an academe. Even if there is +an absolute difference between Satanists and Neopagans, hasn't he learned +the lesson taught by the Devil, that the energy shunned rebounds in ferocity? + +----------------------- + +|[Letter] +|Joan Christianson +|SURVIVOR +|... +|STATEMENT ON PAGANS, SATANISTS, AND RITUAL ABUSE +| +|My name is Joan Christianson, and I am a Ritual Abuse Survivor. I was raised +|in a family that for generations had been practicing Satanism... the worship +|of Satan. I was raised in a family where abuse was the norm: physical abuse, +|emotional abuse and psychological abuse. +| +|[Much therapy-abuse Survivor rant omitted.] +| +|Sincerely, +|[signed] +|Joan Christianson + +This is an unfortunate case. I am not convinced that her words speak +of Satanism in any manner. She certainly does not care to elaborate +upon why she calls it 'Satanism'. + +------------------ + +|[Letter] +|RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT RESOURCES CENTER +|... Hal Mansfield, Director +| +|SPECIAL REPORT ON WICCA (WITCHCRAFT) AND PAGANISM +|... +|The few links [to cult-related crime] are in the adolescent "Do-it-yourself" +|covens in which kids beg, borrow and steal from all sorts of belief systems, +|books, movies, etc. For more information on this, we would refer you to our +|discussion paper: "Pseudo-Satanism in School Systems Today." The other +|area is involving an individual's own pathological behavior. Almost all +|these persons call themselves Satanists. Satanism, whether it's a made-up +|system by individuals, an organized group, or a destructive cult, is not +|Wicca or Paganism! There is little similarity between them. +|... +|A Service of United Campus Ministry at Colorado State University + +Here we continue to see eclecticism equated with malignance. Is it so soon +that we shall turn away the 'solitary witches' whose practices shall lean +heavily upon 'all sorts of belief systems', flowing like water through the +world and possessing the compassion of the tree, the grief of the stream, +the anger of the volcano? + +---------------- + +|[Letter] +|THE INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF AMERICAN RELIGION +|... +|Dr. J. Gordon Melton, Director +| +|STATEMENT ON NEO-PAGANISM AND CONTEMPORARY SATANISM +| +|... +|Faced with a lack of evidence, in all too many cases, fingers have been +|pointed to the relatively visible Neo-Pagan Wicca community as the +|source of Satanic activity from the child abuse to the sacrifice of babies. +|These accusations have, to say the least been a matter of pain and +|confusion among Pagans and Wiccans who do not even acknowledge the +|existence of Satan, the Christian anti-deity. + +An interesting commentary and support for the Zell assertion: 'anti-deity'. + + +|While mistaking the peaceful, nature-loving and life-affirming Pagan +|community as Satanists may be understandable and forgiven when made +|by someone fresh to the issues, it is inexcusable when made by seasoned +|professionals, be they journalists, police offices, church leaders, or +|psychologists. It quickly becomes purely and simply a vicious example +|of religious bigotry, not to mention an invasion of individuals' civil +|liberties. +| +|Whatever the truth or fantasy behind the current claims of Satanic +|activity, I call upon all who would venture into that area of concern +|to refrain from turning it into an excuse for attacking innocent +|people wh have found their religious home in the Neo-Pagan vision of +|Nature and the worship of the Earth Mother. +| +|[signed] +|J. Gordon Melton... +| +|THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN RELIGIONS + +When it comes closer to the authorities in the Ivory Towers of law and +religion, so the teeth are taken out of the 'claims of Satanic activity'. +It is perhaps strange that the 'Encyclopedia of American Religions' +would associate 'attacking innocent people' with any particular religious +sect. Is Satanism simply the brutish and repressed shadow of the dominant +religion in Western culture? Surely many Satanists (some quite eloquent) +would not agree. To whom shall we listen? + +------------------- + +|Resources and References -- +| +|... +|Recommended Reading: +| +|The following books and papers are recommended for further study and research: +| +|_Contemporary Satanism_ +|Carlson, Shawn and Larue, Gerald, "Satanism in America;" The Committee for +| Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER), Univ. of Cal, Los Angeles, +| Oct. 31, 1988. + +Interesting publication date. :> + + +|Clifton, Chas S., "The Three Faces of Satan: A Close Look at the Satanism +| Scare;" 'Gnosis', No. 12, Summer 1989. (Available from Box 14217 +| San Francisco, CA 94114. $4.00) +|Melton, J. Gordon, "The Evidence of Satan in Contemporary America: A Survey;" +| A paper presented at the meeting of the Pacific Division of the +| American Philosophical Ass'n, Los Angeles, Mar. 27, 1986. (From +| ISAR, POB 90709, Santa Barbara, CA 93190) + +These appear to be some very valuable resources, though as I have not yet +perused them I cannot be sure of their quality. + + +|... +|Satanic Organizations (US only) +|Church of Satan, Box 666, Whitehall, PA 18052; Box 210082, San Francisco, +| CA, 94121. +|Temple of Set, Box 4507, St. Louis, MO 63108; Box 470307, San Francisco, +| CA 94147. + +With these we are familiar, though their PA and MO addresses are not +broadly advertized that I've seen. + + +|Temple on Dieties [sic], Box 4546, Miami, FL 33014. + +What?? + + +|Ravenschool, Box 321, Meredosia, IL 62665. + +I've not heard of this either. + + +|'The Black Flame', Box 499, Radio City Station, New York, NY 10101 +| (4 issues for $12) + +This I've heard of previously, and it does appear to be Satanist in scope. + +-------------------------- + +|A Few Magickal [sic] and Occult Signs and Symbols +|[much, including the symbols themselves, omitted.] +| +|[cross with cross-bar below mid-point of vertical] +|Inverted Cross - Generic symbol of Satanism. Represents the antithesis +|of all that Christianity stands for. + +What *does* Christianity stand for, precisely, and what would a tradition +look like which represented its antithesis? + + +|[right hand, thumb under bent ring and middle fingers] +|Horned God - Represents the Horned God of Witchcraft; Pan or Cernunnos +|(Hunting sign) +| +|[left hand, thumb bent over bent ring and middle fingers] +|Satanic Salute - May represent the Devil. Pointed at someone, it is +|used to convey a curse or to ward off harm. + +Notice the significance of the right and left hand-associations. +Again the 'Satanic' element is *either* 'positive' or 'negative' in +scope. Just like the 'inverted pentagram'. + + +|[point-down pentagram with goat-head inset] +|Baphomet - Goat's head inside an inverted pentagram, combining two +|basic Satanic symbols. (Also used by some Witches to represent the +|Horned God.) +| +|[circle with point-down pentagram] +|Inverted Pentagram - Within a circle, a primary symbol of Satanism, +|representing the antithesis of all that Witchcraft stands for. +|(Some traditional Witches may also use the inverted pentagram to +|indicate the Horned God.) + +How shall we determine when they are Witches and when they are Satanists +if they use the same symbols at certain times? Why do Witches sometimes +use a symbol which is 'the antithesis of all that Witchcraft stands for'? +I suspect a shallow mind. + + +|[double horizontal bars atop a leminiscate] +|Church of Satan - Symbol displayed in _The Satanic Bible_ above +|"The 9 Satanic Statements." + +Yes, but where did it come from prior to _The Satanic Bible_? +Certainly it is phallic, and perhaps kundalinisque. + + +Summary: + +All told, I found quite a jumble of different perspectives on Satanism +within this document, the larger number of them critical of Satan as +Christian and Satanism as dedicated to violence. I was consistently +left with the feeling that this was as much propaganda as Christian +fundamentalists were dealing out; that this was a shield, a redirection, +set to cast the rabid dogma upon the heels of the new Satanic organiza- +tions and individuals who appear to have the strength to outlive their +baying chase, yet I suspect that they will not soon forget the dastardly +deed dealt them. + +================================================================= + +This review was originally transmitted to alt.satanism, +alt.religion.all-worlds, alt.pagan, talk.religion.misc, and sent email +to Green Egg. :> + +I intend no hard feelings on any count, even while my criticism may be +rather terse. I intend to hit fairly and hard the expressions of all +who say something about Satanism, from Neopagans to Christians to the +those who use the term 'Satanist' to describe themselves, and do not +assume that I have the last word on the matter. + +As usual, I encourage response to and debate with my review. + +(C) 1994 +tyagi nagasiva +tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com +TOKUS +EOF diff --git a/religious documents/cbs.txt b/religious documents/cbs.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d03b08c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cbs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1022 @@ +Nachricht #6758 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:24 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +=> 6760 +[Part 1 of 19] + + A FREETHINKER LOOKS AT THE PAGAN RELIGIOUS + SYSTEM KNOWN AS CHRISTIANITY + by Ammond Shadowcraft + +The focus of this article addresses the various pagan and mythical +elements which formulate the Christian Religious System. Actually +this topic could be pointed at all Western, hero-based belief +systems since they share many similar features. + + Foreword + +Note: What follows is a compilation of pieces of text from the +following books. These sections of text will help us get the big +picture of how the Christian Belief System (sometimes herein +referred to as the CBS) arose. + +THE STORY OF CHRISTIAN ORIGINS, Dr. Martin Larson, +THE MASKS OF GOD series, Joseph Campbell, +PAGAN CHRISTS, J.M. Robertson, and +THE WHITE GODDESS, Robert Graves. + +Generally, most humans suffer from some form of culture trance or +blindness. This article is an effort to penetrate that culture +trance and look beyond into the very foundations of the prevailing +organized religious focus of this nation. + +-------------------------------------------------------------- + + Myths And Their Importance + +Myths have a secure place in our hearts, and like any other belief +system or bits thereof, they inspire or cause us to think and act +in different ways (and sometimes against our better judgment). +Myths gives us a different view of ourselves, our planet and +environment. And myths give us hope of life in life and life after +death. + + * * * * * + + "The comparative study of the mythologies of the world + compels us to view the cultural history of mankind as a unit; + for we find that such themes as the firetheft, deluge, land + of the dead, virgin birth, and resurrected hero have a + worldwide distribution appearing everywhere in new + combinations while remaining, like the elements of the + kaleidoscope, only a few and always the same. Furthermore, + whereas in tales told for entertainment such mythical themes + are taken lightly--in a spirit, obviously of play, they appear + also in religious contexts, where they are accepted not only + as factually true but even as revelations of the verities to + which the whole culture is a living witness and from which it + derives both its spiritual authority and its temporal power. + No human society has yet been found in which such mythological + motifs have not been rehearsed in liturgies; interpreted by + seers, poets, theologians, or philosophers; presented in art; + magnified in song; and ecstatically experienced in life + empowering visions. Indeed, the chronicle of our species, from + its earliest page, has been not simply an account of the + progress of man the tool maker, but--more tragically--a + history of the pouring of blazing visions into the minds of +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6759 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:25 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Christs x of 19 + +[Part 2 of 19] + + the seers and the effort of the earthly communities to + incarnate unearthly covenants. Every people has received its + own seal and sign of supernatural designation, communicated + to its heros and daily proved in the lives and experience of + its folk. And though many who bow with closed eyes in the + sanctuaries of their own tradition rationally scrutinize and + disqualify the sacraments of others, AN HONEST COMPARISON + IMMEDIATELY REVEALS THAT ALL HAVE BEEN BUILT FROM ONE FUND OF + MYTHOLOGICAL MOTIFS--VARIOUSLY SELECTED, ORGANIZED, + INTERPRETED AND RITUALIZED, ACCORDING TO THE LOCAL NEED, BUT + REVERED BY EVERY PEOPLE ON THE EARTH. + "A fascinating psychological, as well as historical, + problem is thus presented. Man, apparently, cannot maintain + himself in the universe without belief in some arrangement of + the general inheritance of myth. In fact, the fullness of his + life would even seem to stand in direct ratio to the depth and + range NOT of his rational thought but to his LOCAL MYTHOLOGY. + Whence the force of these unsubstantial themes, by which they + are empowered to galvanize populations, creating of them + civilizations, each with a beauty and self compelling destiny + of its own? And why should it be that when ever men have + looked for something solid on which to found their lives, they + have CHOSEN not the FACTS in which the world abounds, but the + MYTHS of immemorial imagination--preferring even to make life + a hell for themselves and their neighbors, in the name of some + violent god, to ACCEPTING GRACEFULLY the bounty the world + affords?" PRIMITIVE MYTHOLOGY: The Masks of God by Joseph + Campbell, pages 3 & 4. 1959 Emphasis mine. + + * * * * * + + "It is unfortunate that, despite the strong mythical + element in Christianity, 'mythical' has come to mean + 'fanciful, absurd, unhistorical'; for fancy played a + negligible part in the development of the Greek, Latin and + Palestinian myths, or of the Celtic myths until the Norman- + French 'troveres' worked them into irresponsible romances of + chivalry. They are all grave records of ancient religious + customs and events, and reliable enough as history once the + language is understood and allowance has been made for errors + in transcription, misunderstanding of obsolete ritual, and + deliberate changes introduced for moral and political + reasons." + + "Perhaps the greatest difficulty in solving complex + mythological problems is that: + + Conquering Gods their titles take + from the foes they captive make, + + and to know the name of a deity at any given place or period, + is far less important to know than the NATURE OF THE +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6760 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:26 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +6758 <==> 6761 +[Part 3 of 19] + + SACRIFICES THAT HE OR SHE WAS THEN OFFERED." Taken from Robert + Graves THE WHITE GODDESS, page 14. + + * * * * * + +The myth, according to the formula of Joseph Campbell, may be +compared to a collective dream, and, reciprocally a dream may be +analogous of an individual myth. A myth expresses the time-bound +elements proper to a culture and an epoch in the same way that a +dream comprises the elements relative to a particular dreamer. But +both dreams and myths express, above all, experiences which may be +universal and may have many forms. It is not necessary, for +example, to be a neopagan to understand the erotic nature of +Aphrodite or the humor of Hermes. And it is possible to communicate +with the fears and wishes of other people without having the same +dreams as they do. Just as there is more than one possible +interpretation of a dream, so there are many equally valuable +interpretations of the same myth. An appropriate or useful +interpretation generally produces a liberating and deepening +affect, while the inappropriate or useless one usually produces +confusion. + +There are also some dreams, and some myths, whose function is to +reveal to us the absence or need of values personified by an +archetype which has been neglected. The discovery of such a myth +may present itself as extremely significant in aiding the +recognition, for example, that "I am not the heroic type" or that +"I am not the musical type" of individual. Here is not the +simplistic typology, but the felt presence of a power that is +significant. + +Myths are complex. They don't lend themselves to dogmatic +teachings. The adventures of the mythic persons, Gods and +Goddesses, are movements of consciousness; they illustrate our +inter and intra-personal conflicts, our interdependence, and our +participation in the sacred. One must follow these movements in +the same way one listens to music, or dances, or meditates. +Harmony, not doctrine, finally results, and this harmony resembles, +I think, that which we all look for under the topic of "human +ecology" (the care and feeding of the human race). + +Through this it can be said that myths are the deep murmuring of +human consciousness coming to know itself better. Over the ages +this ability has been gathering itself together, examining its +environment, and devising newer and better ways to know itself. + + The Pagan Aspects Of The Christian Religious System + +The Pagan-Christian Religious System is naturally a large and +responsive myth. It acts in the hearts and minds of all those who +are entranced with it. Its images, punishments and rewards +literally consume the landscape of the believer's mind. Yet I find +that, in many cases, the believer and unbeliever alike fail to +understand the myth they are entangled in. Sometimes the individual +can forget that the myth exists and revel in the knowledge and +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6761 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:27 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +6760 <==> 6762 +[Part 4 of 19] + +energy that the myth brings to them. + +"Know thyself" the ancient philosopher states. Knowing who we are +and what we can undertake for ourselves is of paramount importance +when viewing the pagan Christian myth. Yet the only way to have +confidence we have completed the assigned task is to disassociate +from the myth and look at it from the outside. + +There are two natures to the word "myth." One is the made up story +that peacefully puts children to sleep somewhere about the middle +of the myth. The other nature is that of the archetypal reality, +symbolizing many of the actual situations of our lives. It was +possible in ancient times to modify, accommodate, and interpret the +myths according to the political and religious movements of the +collective unconscious. + +I am hoping that we can examine the mythical aspects or elements +of the C.B.S. Maybe we can escape the dogma and view the icons and +events which provide a larger and better perspective of the pagan +Christian Religious System, its pagan roots and what it means to +twentieth-century mankind. + +Once we understand the myth (through rational consideration) and +understand where the myth is capable of taking us as humans, we +then have the unrestrained choice of whether to let the myth take +us there or not. Let's then examine the Christian myth to see where +it's taking Christians. + + The Original Pagan Savior-God + +The first savior-god that I could find is Osiris who is native to +Egypt. Egyptian culture antedates all other Eurasian cultures +except the Sumerian; but just how old it is, no one really knows. +We know that the great pyramids were built during the fourth +dynasty about 2700 BC; and that the Nilotic civilization was +already very old at that time. The first dynasty dates back to at +least 3000 and there was a predynastic culture stretching back to +perhaps 8000 BC. + +The Egyptians invented the afterlife replete with rewards and +punishments. This was because the Egyptians had a strong sense of +life after death. In fact they could not envision anything less +than a continuation of life as they knew it. Of course the expected +rewards were dependent upon ethical and sacramental considerations +in the individual's life. These concepts were invented in Egypt +many centuries before they appeared anywhere else. Thus the +preparation for eternity became a large industry consuming a major +portion of all Egyptian human energy. + +Tem or Ra preceded Osiris and it was Tem who laid the egg in the +chaotic waters from which he himself was reborn and evolved. It +appears that the ancient Egyptians knew life evolved from the sea. +Tem, Shu and Tefnut were worshiped by the dark-skinned aborigines +some six or seven thousand years ago. Sometime around 3000 BC Egypt +was invaded by the light-skinned Aryan-Sumerians who stormed out +of Mesopotamia, conquered the natives and grafted their gods over +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6762 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:28 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +6761 <==> 6763 +[Part 6 of 19] + +the blessed. A terrific battle ensued between Set and Horus, who +subdued his evil uncle and bound him with chains, himself (Horus) +sustaining a brushed heel and finally crushing the Serpent's head. +(See Genesis 3:15). Horus ruled Egypt happily for the remainder of +his life. After a trial before the gods in Khenti-Amenti, +annihilation by fire was inflicted upon Set, the Diabolical +Adversary. + +The similarities between Osiris/Horus and Christ are among other +things: + + o Divine birth + + o Being both divine and human at the same time. + + o An untimely death and a wondrous resurrection. + + o Osiris avenges his death through the destruction of the + adversary by his son Horus. + + o Osiris becomes the judge of the afterlife and permits or + denies entrance into the Elysian fields. The Elysian + fields were the proverbial lands of milk and honey and + symbolize rest from work. + + o The Osirian and Christian worshipers both partake in the + symbolic eating of the flesh of both deities and the + drinking of the deities blood as a sacramental + prerequisite to entrance into heaven. + + o Osiris (Horus) and Christ were both great god-man + entities. Human yet divine, capable of taking on all + our sorrow. Both taught justice and practiced mercy. Both + died, were buried and then rose from the grave. Both gave + to all members who would follow them the gift of eating + their flesh and drinking their blood so that this + sacrament might then transfigure them into the expected + celestial gods. Both went before the followers to provide + a place of abode for their followers in Elysium or + heaven. Both were merciful judges before whom all men + and women would have to appear before entrance into + heaven. + +I strongly suspect that the common denominator here is that Greek +and Egyptian Mystery Cultists who lived in and around Israel had +a profound affect upon the creators of the Christian myth. + +My opinion is that earlier the Hebrews (while in captivity and the +later the semi-independent Jews) were heavily influenced by the +Osirian and Aton mythology of the Egyptians, their neighbors. And +while the Hebrews were in captivity in Babylon they picked up much +of the common mythical possessions of the area and time. + +After reviewing this material I have come to the conclusion that +the story of the resurrection of Christ is close to the myth of +Horus/Osiris. In fact the story of Jehovah, Holy Spirit, Mary, +Jesus and Satan so closely parallels the myth of Aton, Amon-Re, +Isis, Osiris/Horus and Set that I consider the myths concerning +Jesus a later borrowing and retelling of older pagan myths. +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6763 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:29 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +6762 <==> 6764 +[Part 8 of 19] + +brain matter, might reasonably be proposed as the earliest +religious rite of the human species. He writes that this ritual was +practiced possibly as far back at 400,000 B.C. The first hard +evidence, though appears around 200,000 to 75,000 B.C. + +Although crude, savage and grotesque, this rite was the core of the +concept of the Eucharist. The conviction that it was possible for +humanity to achieve immortality by eating the body or drinking the +blood of a god, or of an immortal God-man who died so that mortal +men might have abundant and everlasting life, became a dominating +obsession in the ancient world. + +The cult of Osiris forbade the older cannibalism, but didn't +proscribe the dismemberment and eating of enemies; and it certainly +practiced the bloody sacrifice of captives and the sacramental +rending and eating of the sacred bovine, which symbolized Osiris. + +The moral elevation of the Osirian cult lay in its identification +of bread with the body, and barley ale with the blood of their god. +The partaker of this Eucharist could achieve the mystical +transformation and become an Osiris by living on wheat and barley +bread during his lifetime, by drinking and eating the sacred ale +and cakes during the annual mysteries, and by enjoying the same +fare in heaven. By this simple metaphysical transposition the +bloody sacrament became symbolic but didn't lose any of its effect. +For Osiris was, to his believers, literally and with complete +reality, the divine seed which came down from heaven and was reborn +from the earth that men might live happier lives; and all who eat +of the bread (flesh) and drank of the ale (blood) might live +forever. Whoever drank of the blood and ate of the flesh of Osiris +had eternal life. Whoever drank of the blood and ate of the flesh +dwelt in Osiris, and Osiris dwelt in him. + +This was the divine mystery which was given to the world by Egypt +and which spread through the Mediterranean area in various cults. +This concept originated only once but proliferated in all +directions and became a dynamic force in every mystery-cult. + +After taking communion for so many years, I now understand what is +going on. + + * * * * * + + 'And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, + and brake it , and gave it to his disciples, and said "Take, + eat, this is my body." And He took the cup, and gave thanks, + and gave it to them saying, "Drink ye all of it; for this is + my body of the New Testament which is shed for many for the + remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink + henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I + drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom"'. MATT. 26:26-28 + 'I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. The cup of the + blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6764 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:30 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +6763 <==> 6765 +[Part 10 of 19] + + mystery cults; and, second, that without this preparation it + could have never made any important headway. We note that + great as was the debt of the Gospel Jesus to Buddhist and + Essene ethics and to Zoroastrain metaphysics and eschatology, + neither Persia nor India had ever known a soter and therefore + to this day Christianity is able to win very few converts in + these lands. The same held true for the Jews, the Arabians, + the Iranians, the Japanese, the Chinese, and such primitive + people as the American Indians. Among the peoples who had + risen above barbarism, only those who had already accepted + Osiris, Dionysus, Attis, Adonis or Mithra, could accept Jesus + as their savior-god. + 3. Source of Christian Appeal. Christianity was successful + because of its similarity to other religions which had already + permeated the Greco-Roman world. Its advantage was twofold: + first, it was the creation of a people, the Jews, more + dedicated to religion than any other; and second, it possessed + an historical founder to whom was attributed almost every + quality and achievement with which the mystery-cults had + endowed their own originators. + 4. Why Pagans Accepted Christianity. The gods of the pagan + cults were shadowy figures, which their followers exchanged + for a savior so real and so human that they could almost grasp + His hand, or at least a hand which had lain in His. + Christianity recruited its converts from the ranks of the + mysteries by giving a new name to the doctrines and rituals + which had been practiced since before the dawn of history. And + this is the reason why Justin Martyr could say that 'the Jews, + in truth, who had the prophecies and always looked for the + coming of Christ, not only did not recognize Him, but... even + mistreated Him. But the Gentiles, who had never heard of + Christ until His apostles went from Jerusalem and preached + about Him and gave them the prophecies, were filled with joy + and faith, and turned away from their idols, and dedicated + themselves to the Unbegotten God through Christ.' + This writer, however, was not quite so naive as the words + would indicate, for many passages in his works betray his + acute awareness of the fact that, although the Greeks had + never heard of Jesus, they were certainly familiar with older, + similar soters." STORY OF CHRISTIAN ORIGINS, pgs 295-296. + + * * * * * + +We know the pagan Christian Fathers knew this fact intimately. +Their weak and unconvincing excuse was that the "Devil having known +the prophecies imitated them before the time of Christ in effort +to confuse humanity." + +But there is a more rational explanation. At about 100 CE there +was an erudite and observant traveler named Pausanias. His travels +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6765 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:31 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +6764 <==> 6766 +[Part 11 of 19] + +recorded that by 100 C.E. every province, city, and village he +visited in the Roman Empire "teemed" with the temples, altars and +shrines of Dionysus, Demeter, Persephone, Cybele, Adonis (who was +Tammuz in the O.T.), Diana, Isis, Serapis, Hecate, Mithras, and +others of similar nature. These religious archetypes patterned the +Gentile mind not only for the coming pagan Christian religion(s), +but also for one another as adherents visited other temples and +conversed with the visiting clergies and laities. The various +themes all swirled together to provide a fertile base to work from. + +But how did the pagan Christian cult(s) overcome the previously +established cults of the Cretan-Olympian pantheons? It's simple. +There were many times more poor and ignorant than there were rich +and educated. While the rich enjoyed their lives away from the +masses, the mystery-cults were silently wringing from them the red +carpets they trod. And when the pagan Christian cult(s) took power +from the Cretan-Olympian cults it was only because of the story +(testimony) that some apostle had actually touched the hand of +Jesus. The pagan Christian cult(s) were more immediate than their +competition. Of course the poor and uneducated would believe the +stories of the evangelists. Neither those ancient nor the early +evangelists knew much of how the mind/body complex works. Thus +fundamentalism--the mistaking of an inner subjective reality for +an external objective reality--had become a rampant social +condition. + + Sacrificing the God/man + +The two main features of the CBS are the Eucharist and Sacrifice +of a God man. These two features were well known and well loved by +pagan mystery cultists centuries before the pagan Christian Cults +integrated them into the Gospels. + +The Eucharist, as mentioned before, goes way back into prehistory +and is based upon the ritual consumption of the God/man. Osiris, +Dionysus, Attis and many others were ritually consumed. The +practice dates to a time when a human sacrifice was identified with +the God (perhaps a Vegetative or Animal God symbolized in human +form) and was sacrificed and eaten. Over the ages the earliest +human sacrifices were found detestable. Animals were then +substituted and sacrificed as the ritual identifier of the God +which was then followed by grain offerings, breads shaped into the +form of the God, sometimes in the shapes of natural items (sun, +moon, etc.). + +The mythos of the Jewish Christ integrated this practice into its +mysteries. There is strong reason for this. For some 200-plus years +before the time recorded for Jesus, the Greeks and their mystery +cults invaded and changed Israel for all time. A war was instituted +to diminish or wipe out the Hellenizing influence. Part of the +Hellenizing influence was an effort to update or change the Jewish +religion. After the Maccabees War the Hellenizing cultists were +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6766 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:32 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +6765 <==> 6767 +[part 13 of 19] + +into the Gospel myth. The God/man Jesus is both the King of the +Jews and the son of God, the King of Israel. + +As stated before the sacrifice of the king or king's son was found +injurious to the state. Before animal and grain sacrifices became +acceptable, criminals and prisoners of war were substituted. Yet +the criminal had to be identified with the king. This was done by +putting royal robes on the sacrifice and parading the sacrifice +around, calling it the king. + + * * * * * + + "The number three was of mystic significance in many parts of + the East. The Dravidians of India sacrificed three victims to + the Sun-god. In western as in eastern Asia, the number three + would have its votaries in respect of trinitarian concepts as + well as the primary notions of 'the heavens, the earth, and + the underworld.' Traditionally, the Syrian rite called for a + royal victim. The substitution of a criminal for the king or + kings son was repugnant, however, to the higher doctrine that + the victim be unblemished. To solve this problem one of the + malefactors was distinguished from the other criminals by a + ritual of mock-crowning and robing in the spirit of + 'sympathetic magic'. By parading him as king, and calling the + others what indeed they were, it was possible to attain the + semblance of a truly august sacrifice." PAGAN CHRISTS, by J.M. + Robertson page 45 + + * * * * * + +There is virtually nothing in this mythos that did not originate +in other surrounding pagan cultures. + + * * * * * + + "We can only conclude that the death ritual of the Christian + creed was framed in a pagan environment and embodies some of + the most widespread ideas of pagan religion. The two aspects + in which the historic Christ is typically presented to his + worshipers, those of his infancy and death, are typically + Pagan." PAGAN CHRISTS by J.M Roberts, page 52. + + * * * * * + +What about the man Jesus then? Was he divine? Did he exist? Was he +the pagan Savior? + +Most, if not all, of the Christian Religious System is pagan in +origin. Perhaps the only item not borrowed from pagan sources was +the Messiah concept. That, of course, was taken from the Jewish +hysteria of the time. In the siege of Jerusalem in 72 C.E. there +were some 18 Messiahs inside Jerusalem alone. Neither the God/man +Jesus nor the self-proclaimed militant messiahs saved Jerusalem. +Such was the measure of hysterical superstition upon the nation of +Israel. + + * * * * * + + "There is not a conception associated with Christ that is + not common to some or all of the Savior cults of antiquity. + The title Savior was given in Judaism to Yahweh; among the +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6767 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:33 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +6766 <==> 6768 +[Part 14 of 19] + + Greeks to Zeus, Heilos, Artemis, Dionysus, Hercales, the + Dioscurui, Ceybele and Aesculapius. It is the essential + conception of Osiris. So, too, Osiris taketh away sin, is the + judge of the dead and of the last judgment. Dionysus, the Lord + of the Underworld and primarily a god of feasting ('the Son + of Man commeth eating and drinking'), comes to be conceived + as the Soul of the World and the inspirer of chastity and self + purification. [J. M. Robertson may be referring to Attis + here.] From the Mysteries of Dionysus and Isis comes the + proclamation of the easy 'yoke'. Christ not only works the + Dionysiac miracle, but calls himself the 'true vine.'" + "Like Christ, and like Adonis and Attis, Osiris and + Dionysus also suffer and die and rise again. To become one + with them is the mystical passion of their worshippers. They + are all alike in that their mysteries give immortality. From + Mithraism Christ takes the symbolic keys of heaven and hell + and assumes the function of the virgin-born Saoshyant, the + destroyer of the Evil One. Like Mithra, Merodach, and the + Egyptian Khousu, he is the Mediator; like Khousu, Horus and + Merodach, he is one of a trinity, like Horus he is grouped + with a Divine Mother; like Khousu he is joined to the Logos; + and like Merodach he is associated with the Holy Spirit, one + of whose symbols is fire." + "In fundamentals, therefore, Christism is but paganism + reshaped. It is only the economic and doctrinal evolution of + the system--the first determined by Jewish practice and Roman + environment, the second by Greek thought--that constitutes new + phenomena in religious history." PAGAN CHRISTS by J.M. + Robertson pages 52,53 + + * * * * * + +No religion develops in a vacuum. All religions are influenced not +only by it's predecessors but by the contemporaries of the time +also. Such is the nature of Christism yesterday and today. + +Now about Jesus the man, did he exist? There is some justifiable +doubt. All the teaching of Jesus can be attributed to other sources +and grafted over the Gospel myth. Nothing he said was substantially +different in any way from previous sayings. It is possible that +Jesus was not a man but a contrived myth. + + * * * * * + + "The Christian myth grew by absorbing details from pagan + cults. The birth story is similar to many nativity myths in + the pagan world. The Christ had to have a Virgin for a mother. + Like the image of the child-god in the cult of Dionysus, he + was pictured in swaddling clothes in a basket manger. He was + born in a stable like Horus--the stable temple of the Virgin + Goddess, Isis, Queen of Heaven. Again , like Dionysus, he + turned water into wine, like Aesculapius, he raised men from +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6768 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:33 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan christs x of 19 +6767 <==> 6769 +[Part 15 of 19] + + the dead and gave sight to the blind; and like Attis and + Adonis, he is mourned and rejoiced over by women. His + resurrection took place, like that of Mithra, from a rock + tomb." PAGAN CHRISTS, by J.M. Robertson + + * * * * * + +The man Jesus possibly did not exist. There are however, sources +that speak of others seeing him. These were secondhand sources. No +direct observations were made. At one time or another we have all +had a vision of Deity in our minds. Such is the sight of Jesus, a +mental image. + +What of the Gospels then? They are passion plays designed to be +read or acted out in front of an audience. Passion plays were a +common feature of pagan religion. Looking at the Gospels themselves +one finds a choppily written scene-by-scene display of the life of +the God/man. Only the important aspects of his life are described. +The minor events and influences of the life of Jesus are not +recorded, which leaves one to think that the Gospels were indeed +written as plays. + + * * * * * + + "When we turn from the reputed teaching of Jesus to the + story of his career, the presumption that it has a factual + basis is so slender as to be negligible. The Church found it + so difficult to settle the date of its alleged founder's birth + that the Christian era was made to begin some years before the + year which chronologists latter inferred on the strength of + other documents. The nativity was placed at the winter + solstice, thus coinciding with the birthday of the Sun-god. + And the date for the crucifixion was made to vary from year + to year to conform to the astronomical principle which fixed + the Jewish Passover. [The Passover is moon-based, an already + familiar pagan method of cyclic, monthly dating.] In between + the birth and death of Jesus, there is an almost total absence + of information except about the brief period of his ministry. + Of his life between the ages of twelve and thirty we know + nothing. There are not even any myths. It is impossible to + establish with any accuracy the duration of the ministry from + the Gospels. According to the tradition it lasted one year, + which suggests that it was either based on the formula 'the + acceptable year of the Lord', or on the myth of the Sun-god." + PAGAN CHRISTS by J.M. Robertson, page 68 + + * * * * * + + The Quest for the Historical Jesus + + * * * * * + + "...It is only in comparatively modern times that the + possibility was considered that Jesus does not belong to + history at all. Those who come across this idea for the first + time are naturally startled by it. In fact the suspicion that + Jesus might be as mythical as other ancient saviors as Osiris, +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6769 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:34 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +6768 <==> 6770 +[Part 16 of 19] + + Mithra and Krishna arose as a result of a serious effort to + discover his real voice and actions. the most scrupulous of + analysis of the texts failed to reveal a convincing picture + of an authentic person." PAGAN CHRISTS, page 63 + * * * * * + +Well such is what J.M. Robertson claims. + + * * * * * + + "Modern biblical critics freely admit that some of the + Gospel narrative must be fiction. We know now that much of it + was composed well after the events it purports to describe. + Comparative religion has drawn attention to close pagan + parallels--to the essential features of the story--the virgin + birth, the sacrificial death and resurrection. The same is + true of the rites of baptism and sacramental communion. Many + critics still feel, however, that these are accretions which, + together with the miracles, can be safely shed without injury + to a nucleus of historical fact. They argue that pagan Gods + may have some of the attributes of Jesus, and although they + may have been regarded as law givers and teachers, they did + not leave behind a coherent and profound teaching. Apollo, + Osiris and the rest seem, therefore, to be obviously mythical, + whereas Buddha and Jesus are not. The teachings of each of the + latter, it is felt, bear the unmistakable stamp of a single, + unique mind. Such a doctrine could not have formed itself + spontaneously." PAGAN CHRISTS, page 64. + + * * * * * + +Robertson contends that the rite of baptism superseded the rite of +circumcision. This makes sense to me. It is much less painful and +physically safer to undergo ritual initiation through +baptism by water than by ritual circumcision. The gentile +Christists would contend for this; and, as the Jewish Christists +died baptism did replace circumcision as a physical sign of new +spiritual being. + + * * * * * + + "We shall consider the case of Buddha later. First let us + look at the main objections to this view that the existence + of a body of teaching is overwhelming evidence of the + existence of an historical teacher. The earliest Christian + documents are ascribed to Paul. These epistles were written + long before the canonical gospels were put together and + accepted by the Church. The older portions, however, tell us + nothing about the life of Jesus. The silence of Paul is + remarkable if indeed he was familiar with the Jesuine + biography. Secondly, the unity of teaching, which it is said, + would show it to have been the work of one mind is + conspicuously absent. So far from displaying coherence, the + ethical precepts are frequently obscure and contradictory. So + far from being original, many +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6770 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:35 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +6769 <==> 6771 +[Part 17 of 19] + + of the sayings are merely quotations from Hebrew literature, + and some have pagan parallels. As for the Sermon on the Mount, + it is no more than a patchwork of utterances found in the Old + Testament." PAGAN CHRISTS pg. 64 + + * * * * * + +It seems the earliest of the gospel forms was lost with Matthew and +Mark being dependent upon these lost forms. This scans nicely. The +earliest forms were probably the purest of the Jewish-Messianic +story of a political Messiah. As time went by more of the pagan +gentile influence was felt as needed. Various features of the +virgin birth of the God/man, the nativity scenes, the Last Supper, +the betrayal, the crucifixion and mysterious resurrection were +incorporated into the present gospels to appeal to pagan cultist. + +Some scholars indicate that Revelations was next in line. This +scans nicely as it presents a supposedly Jewish-Christian +eschatology. When one looks at the symbolism one can see the +Mazedian influence in Revelations. Revelations seems to present a +first or second step in the evolution of the Sacrifice and +Resurrection of the God man. Perhaps a middle step is more +appropriate. A middle step between Jewish Messiah cults and Gentile +Saviour cults. + +It would be monumental to eliminate all supposedly contradictory +and questionable passages from the Gospels. Fortunately that work +has already been done--with some surprising, for me at least, +outcomes. Here's one.. + + * * * * * + + "For over a hundred years German scholars have been + struggling to solve this problem, and their efforts have been + unavailing. In order to establish some solid textual + foundation for the historicity of Jesus, they have piled + hypothesis upon hypothesis with ever new refinements. The + retreat from this hopeless task was finally sounded by the + eminent German critic, O. Schmiedel. After an exhaustive + search, he was satisfied that he had discovered some texts + which passes the most severe tests and were entirely credible. + But in the whole of the gospels all he could salvage were NINE + such texts. Let us enumerate this forlorn handful of unwounded + survivors. + 1) Mark XXX.17 [really mark 10.17] f.f. "Why callest me + thou good?" etc. 2) Matt XII.31 f.f. "Blasphemy against the + Son of Man pardonable" 3) Mark III.21 "He is beside himself" + 4) Mark XII.32 "Of that hour and day knoweth no man" 5) Mark + XV.34, Matt "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" etc. + 6) Mark VIII.12 "No sign shall be given this generation." 7) + Mark VI.5 "He was able to do no mighty work there." 8) Mark + VIII.14-21 Rebuke to disciples concerning bread and leaven.." + 9) Matt XI.5, Luke VII.22 Passage to be taken in the sense of + spiritual healing, since it ends with mention of preaching- +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #6771 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 28.Dec 91 16:36 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs x of 19 +6770 <= +[Part 18 of 19] + + -not a miracle at all." PAGAN CHRISTS pgs 64,65. + + * * * * * + +What was the basis for selecting these texts? Basically O. +Schmiedel felt that where Jesus speaks simply as a man, making no +pretense to divinity, or to miraculous powers, and where he is +presented as failing to impress his relatives and neighbors with +any sense of his superiority--there the record is entirely +credible. Because of the content I'll have to quote J.M. Robertson +on this... + + * * * * * + + "According to Schmiedel, these passages represent "the + foundation pillars for a truly scientific life of Jesus... + They prove not only that in the person of Jesus we have to do + with a completely human being, and that the divine is sought + in him only in the form in which it is capable of being found + in a man; THEY ALSO PROVE THAT HE REALLY DID EXIST, and that + the Gospels contain at least SOME ABSOLUTELY TRUSTWORTHY FACTS + concerning him. + "This will shock the believer without satisfying the + scientific naturalist. I submit that the proposition I have + italicized is absolutely untenable. On this point may be + staked the whole dispute about the actuality of the gospel + Jesus. It simply does not follow that because a statement is + credible it is therefore trustworthy or proved. If it were so, + half the characters in fiction could be "proved" to be real + people. Perfectly credible statements are made about them." + PAGAN CHRISTS, pgs 64-65. + + * * * * * + +And I would add that perfectly credible statements are made BY +fictional characters also. It is credible to pronounce that Joe +Catholic said a hundred Hail Marys this morning. Such is a credible +statement concerning Catholics. But is it trustworthy? + +Such thinking requires a leap. The leap involves a thought process +that says what is possible must indeed be true. T.X. Huxley makes +this same mistake. Huxley says that Saul's visit with the Witch of +Endor is entirely probable, so there is no reason not to believe +it. It is probable that I, as a child, fell into a dark hole for +3 days and nights. History is full of discredited "probabilities". + + Afterward + +It's highly probable that Jesus the man lived. However, I think his +life was much different from what most would like to think. It's +apparent that the state of paganism during the time of Jesus was +one composed of vibrant mystery religions. In fact the Roman state +Gods were being forced into decline via the onslaught of the +mystery religions. This provided the mythic soup base for the myth +of the God/man Jesus to simmer in. + +I think it highly likely that Jesus was a Essene mystic, perhaps +renounced by them because of his love for alcohol, who was +--- + * Origin: (93:9510/0) + + +Nachricht #7194 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 12.Jan 92 19:28 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs, 9 of 19 + +[Part 9 of 19] + + of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion + of the body of Christ?' 1ST CORTH. 10:15-16 + + * * * * * + +While some neopagans think that the pagan Christian religion +appropriated The (pagan) Sacrificial God/Man it seems more +appropriate to say that the pagan Christian religion is pagan and +therefore has (mythic) features native to the surrounding pagan +traditions. + +How did the rest of the pagan Christian mythos arise? Where did it +come from? + +In 175 BCE Antiochus Epiphanes, the eighth Selucid king, came to +the throne. In 167 BCE he sacked Jerusalem, looted and desecrated +the Temple. Then and there he instituted a Dionysiac-Eleusinain +sacrifice in the Temple and systematically depopulated the city of +all Jews who rejected Hellenic culture. This in turn caused the +Maccabean Wars, (when the foreigners were thrown out the Jews +fought each other in a vicious internecine war). In 103-76 BCE the +struggle between the Sadducees and Pharisees was so bitter that +Alexander (notice the Hellenic name?) Janneaus (named after Janus, +the two-faced god) ordered 800 Pharisees to be hung on crosses in +the midst of the city. But before he killed them, he cut the +throats of the wives and children of these 800 before their eyes. + +Under this changing and violent history the Hellenic and Egyptian +cultists were driven underground. Because these cultists couldn't +get educated in such a harsh social situation, they became as the +common people and were swept up in the Messianic hysteria of the +time under Pompey and Herod the Great. + + * * * * * + + "Cultic Preparation for Christianity" a sub-chapter in THE + STORY OF CHRISTIAN ORIGINS by Dr. Martin Larson. + + A. Elements in Christianity + + 1. Four Primary Components. As we have noted, the Gospel + Jesus consists of four basic components: soterology, which + came from the mystery-cults; ethics, which came primarily from + India; eschatology, largely derived from Persia; and the + supernatural Messianic concept, which was an Essene adaptation + of a Zoroastrian doctrine. The history of Christianity over + 18 centuries has proved conclusively that its devotees can + take or leave the last three of these; some have embraced, + others have rejected, one of more of them. But the one central + hope which remains constant, the essential element which gives + vitality to the religion of Jesus Christ, is the faith in Him + as the SOTER, that is, the god-man who sacrificed Himself for + us, whose eucharist makes us divine, and who confers upon us + resurrection and blessed immortality. + 2. Soterology of Paramount Importance. We regard these two + conclusions as inescapable: first, that the ancient world had + been thoroughly prepared for Christianity by the god-man + +--- QuickBBS 2.75 Ovr + * Origin: CRYSTAL CAVE DAS MAGICKAL TREFFPUNKT 719-391-1092 (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #7195 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 12.Jan 92 19:29 +Von : Ammond Shadowcraft +An : All +Betreff: Pagan Christs 19 of 19 + +[Part 19 of 19] + +manipulated by the Zealots into causing something near to a +revolution. Some of the Zealots following a plan of their own, +whipped up even more discontent until at a late date they fed him +into the Roman political machine for public martyrdom. There he +died, a failed Messiah who followed other failed Messiahs and who +would be followed by still more. + +But the boiling Messianic fervor did not abate with the death of +Jesus. The Zealots knew the hysteria would continue and realizing +their opportunity propagandized the populace with alleged eye +witness accounts of Jesus, the risen Messiah. While this didn't +achieve the revolution they desired, the Zealot's actions provided +the mystery cultist with the disinformation they needed to start +a new cult. Over time the Jewish Messianic Christians died and were +replaced by Hellenized Christians who knew and loved the myths of +the Dying and Resurrecting Gods. The final product would then +become one of their making. + +It appears that the Gospels are something akin to passion plays. +These plays became the basis of the mythic truth our pagan +forbears have transmitted to us through the Church's processes of +canonization of Scripture. + +Thus the man Jesus died, but the pagan legacy given him and which +his name bears remains with us till this day. + +Copyright Ammond Shadowcraft, Dec 1991 + +--- QuickBBS 2.75 Ovr + * Origin: CRYSTAL CAVE DAS MAGICKAL TREFFPUNKT 719-391-1092 (93:9510/0) diff --git a/religious documents/cc.txt b/religious documents/cc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b954ec3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1273 @@ + + + Condensed Chaos + + + + by Phil Hine + + + + Dedication: This book is dedicated to the Hydra's Teeth, wherever they may + fall, whatever may spring up. + + With thanks to: Charlie Brewster, Dave Lee, Hannibal The + Cannibal, Ian Read, Kelly Standish, MC Medusa, Prince Prance, + and Frater Remarkable. + + "Dance and be Damned" + _Eris,_the_Stupid_Book_ + + + Introduction + + What is Magick? Several definitions float into my mind, but none of +them do it full justice. The world is magical; we might get a sense of this +after climbing a mountain and looking down upon the landscape below, or in +the quiet satisfaction at the end of one of 'those days' when everything has +gone right for us. Magick is a doorway through which we step into mystery, +wildness and immanence. + We live in a world subject to extensive and seemingly, all-embracing +systems of social & personal control that continually feed us the lie that we +are each alone, helpless, and powerless to effect change. Magick is about +change. Changing your circumstances so that you strive to live according to +a developing sense of personal responsibility; that you can effect change +around you if you choose; that we are not helpless cogs in some clockwork +universe. All acts of personal/collective liberation are magical acts. +Magick leads us into exhilaration and ecstasy; into insight and +understanding; into changing ourselves and the world in which we participate. +Through magick we may come to explore the possibilities of freedom. + Surely this is simple enough? But no, magick has become obfuscated under +a weight of words, a welter of technical terms which exclude the uninitiated +and serve those who are eager for a 'scientific' jargon with which to +legitimise their enterprise into something self-important and pompous. +Abstract spiritual spaces have been created in the midst of which tower the +Babel-like lego constructions of 'inner planes', spiritual hierarchies and +'occult truths' which forget that the world around us is magical. The +mysterious has been misplaced. We search through dead languages and tombs +for 'secret knowledge', ignoring the mystery of life that is all around us. +So for the moment, forget what you've read about spiritual enlightenment, +becoming a 9th level Magus and impressing your friends with high-falutin' +gobbledygook. Magick is surprisingly simple. What can it offer? + + 1. A means to disentangle yourself from the attitudes and restrictions + you were brought up with and which define the limits of what you may + become. + + 2. Ways to examine your life to look for, understand and modify + behaviors, emotional and thought patterns which hinder learning and + growth. + + 3. Increase of confidence and personal charisma. + + 4. A widening of your perception of just what is possible, once you set + heart and mind on it. + + 5. To develop personal abilities, skills and perceptions - the more we + see the world, the more we appreciate that it is alive. + + 6. To have fun. Magick should be enjoyed. + + 7. To bring about change - in accordance with will. + + Magick can do all this, and more. It is an approach to .ife which +begins at the most basic premises - what do I need to survive? - how do I +want to live? - who do I want to be? - and then gives a set of conceptual +weapons and techniques for achieving those aims. Chaos Magic is one of the +many ways of 'doing magick', and this booklet is a concise introduction to +the Chaos approach. + + + What is Chaos Magick? + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + + What is Chaos Magick? Good question. Since it burst upon the magical +scene in the late '70's it has generated a great deal of debate about what it +is, what it isn't and who's doing it 'right' - such circular arguments being +beloved of occultists, it seems. At this point, it would be tempting to +launch into a lengthy discussion of the history of magic leading up to Chaos +Magick, but instead I'll confine it to a sweeping generalisation and say that +before Chaos came kicking and screaming onto the scene, the dominant approach +to 'doing magic' (and still is, to a great extent) was the 'Systems' +approach. + So what is a magical system? Magical systems combine practical +exercises for bringing about change with beliefs, attitudes, a conceptual +model of the universe (if not several), a moral ethic, and a few other things +besides. Examples of systems are Cabbala, the different Wiccan 'traditions', +The Golden Dawn system of magic with all its grades, costumes, mottos etc, +and the increasing number of westernised 'shamanic' paths that are +proliferating nowadays. As far as most magical systems go, before you can +start to wave your wand around or bounce up and down on your head 'til you +reach enlightenment, you have to spend a good deal of time reading up on the +beliefs associated with the system, learning its "do's and don'ts", +committing to memory lists of symbols and correspondences, how to talk to +your fellow magi, and in some extreme cases, how to dress, walk, and chew +gum at the same time. How does this come about? Well magic, like some of +the great religious message is essentially simple, but is prey to the process +whereby simple ideas become extremely complicated beliefs which can lead you +further and further away from doing any magic at all. Weave back through +time to 'somewhere in the palaeolithic era' to find a tribal shaman sitting +on a rock gaping at the visions revealed by a soggy piece of toadstool. +Fast-forwards a few millennia and you'll find a 'Magical System' that +comprises of several hundred-thousand words, obscure diagrams and appendices +which will probably state at some point, that drugs are a no-no. + The birth of Chaos Magick came about in the late 70's, at about the time +that punk rock was spitting out at the music industry and Chaos Science was +beginning to be taken seriously by mathematicians, economists, and +physicists. The two 'names' most associated with the birth of Chaos Magick +are Pete Carroll and Ray Sherwin, though there were others lurking in the +background, such as the Stoke Newington Sorcerers (SNS) who later became +entwined with the first stirrings of the Punk movement. + Some of Pete Carroll's early writings on Chaos was published in "The New +Equinox", published by Ray Sherwin, in which the first adverts proclaiming +the advent of the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT) magical order appeared. +Interestingly enough, there is no mention of the term 'Chaos' in the earliest +versions of IOT material. + Ray Sherwin's Morton Press then issued Pete Carroll's "Liber Null", and +Sherwin's own "The Book of Results", which expounded the very practical +method of 'Sigilization' as developed by Austin Osman Spare, which has become +one of the core techniques associated with Chaos Magick. + The early growth of Chaos Magick was characterised by a loose network of +informal groups who came together to experiment with the possibilities of the +new current. With the demise of "The New Equinox", the 'chaos kids' reported +their results and heresies in the pages of Chris Bray's new magazine, "The +Lamp of Thoth". That early Chaos books were joined by two tapes "The Chaos +Concept" which discussed the basics of Chaos Magick, and 'The Chaochamber', a +science-fiction pathworking which combined elements of Star Trek, Michael +Moorcock, and H.G. Wells. Chris Bray's "Sorcerer's Apprentice" Press then +re-released, "Liber Null", "The Book of Results", as well as two new books, +Pete Carroll's "Psychonaut", and Ray Sherwin's "The Theatre of Magic". +These, together with articles from the growing Chaos corpus in the LOT, drew +more people in to experimenting with the new approach. Thanks to the efforts +of Frater U:. D:., the Chaos approach was also receiving attention in +continental Europe. + The basic message of Chaos Magick is that, what is fundamental to magic +is the actual doing of it - that like sex, no amount of theorising and +intellectualisation can substitute for the actual experience. Pete Carroll's +"Liber Null", therefore, presented the very bones of the magical techniques +which can be employed to bring about change in one's circumstances. "Liber +Null" concentrated on techniques, saying that the actual methods of magic are +basically shared by the different systems, despite the differing symbols, +beliefs and dogmas. What symbol systems you wish to employ is a matter of +choice, and that the webs of belief which surround them are means to an end, +rather than ends in themselves (more of which later). + An important influence on the development of Chaos Magick was the +writing of Robert Anton Wilson & co, particularly the Discordian Society who +revered Eris, the Greek goddess of Chaos. The Discordians pointed out the +humour, clowning about and general light-heartedness was conspicuously absent +from magic, which had a general tendency to become very 'serious and +self-important'. There was (and to a certain extent remains) a tendency for +occultists to think of themselves as an initiated 'elite' as opposed to the +rest of humanity. + Unlike the variety of magickal systems which are all based in some +mythical or historically-derived past (such as Atlantis, Lemuria, Albion, +etc), Chaos Magick borrowed freely from Science Fiction, Quantum Physics, and +anything else its practitioners chose to. Rather than trying to recover and +maintain a tradition that links back to the past (and former glories), Chaos +Magick is an approach that enables the individual to use anything that s/he +thinks is suitable as a temporary belief or symbol system. What matters is +the results you get, not the 'authenticity' of the system used. So Chaos +Magick then, is not a system - it utilizes systems and encourages adherents +to devise their own, giving magic a truly Postmodernist flavour. + Needless to say, Chaos Magick began to acquire a 'sinister' reputation. +This was due to three factors; firstly that its "pick'n'mix/D.I.Y" approach +to magic was frowned upon by the 'traditionalist' schools, secondly that many +people associated chaos with 'anarchy' and other negative associations, and +thirdly that some Chaos Magick publications were hyped as being 'blasphemous, +sinister, and dangerous' in a way that they were not, which proved all the +same to be an attractive glamour for those who required such a boost to the +ego. + The mid-Eighties gave rise to a 'second wave' of the Chaos Current. 1985 +saw the publication of "The Cardinal Rites of Chaos", by the pseudonymous +'Paula Pagani', which outlined a series of seasonal rituals as performed by +the Yorkshire-based 'Circle of Chaos'. Alas, by this time, the early +co-operation between exponent of Chaos had given rise to legal wrangles, +literary sideswipes, and even magical battles. For some at least, Chaos +Magick = loadsa money while others discovered that they had a 'position' to +hold onto as defenders of the title of spokesperson for a movement. True to +its nature, Chaos splintered and began to re-evolve in different ways. Three +different magazines emerged to continue the Chaos debate - "Chaos +International", "Nox", and Joel Birroco's "Chaos". + "Chaos International" was formed on the basis of networking, +specifically the idea that the editorship would change hands with each issue. +A good idea in principle, it gave rise to practical problems such as address +changes, obtaining back copies, and meant that each issue had to be virtually +self-supporting. "Chaos International" survived five different editorial +changes, after which it passed into the hands of Ian Read, who has had the +job of producing it ever since. "Chaos International" has now matured into +one of the best all-round magazines of innovative magical idea. + "Nox" magazine emerged out of the wilds of South Yorkshire to serve up a +mixed brew of Chaos Magick, Left-Hand path material and Thelemic +experimentation, which matured into one of the best magazines publishing +experimental magic from a wide variety of sources. Since its inception, it +has grown from being an A5 'fanzine' to paperback book status. + Joel Birroco's "Chaos" introduced a Situationist perspective into the +Chaos debate, predicted the glamour for Chaos-isms as experimentation turned +inevitably into fashion accessory, and then proceeded to identify various +magical 'leaders' and tear them apart with the eagerness of a whole pack of +Greek cynics. + The debate over the progression of the Chaos Current raged throughout +these 'zines and the aforementioned "Lamp of Thoth". Arguments begun in one +'zine spilled over into another and sides were drawn up as some voices allied +with others, though allying with Biroco's iconoclastic stance on Chaos turned +out to be a tactical error, as he invariably massaged the egos of his +'allies' only to drag them down at a later date. + In '86 the Sorcerers Apprentice Press released Julian Wilde's "Grimoire +of Chaos Magic", the first book on Chaos Magick outside the Sherwin/Carroll +circles. Despite heavy criticism from other Chaos factions, Mr. Wilde never +came forth to explain his ideas, nor has much been heard from him since. +This Grimoire departed radically from the other approaches to Chaos, +particularly with his assertion that Chaos Magick was in itself, a 'system'. +The Grimoire was followed by a tape "The Chaosphere", and later, another book +"The Apogeton", by Alawn Tickhill which was marketed as a 'Chaos Manual' +although the book itself made little reference to Chaos Magick. None of +these releases were received very favorably by the Chaos factions and this +'third wave' of Chaos development further rang to the sound of voices raised +in acrimony, slanging matches in print, and behind-the-scenes bickering. + By late '87 one of the weirder Chaos groups, the Lincoln Order of +Neuromancers (L.O.O.N.) had announced the 'death' of Chaos Magick, asserting +in their freely-circulated 'chainbook' "Apikorsus", that: + "Chaos Magick is already dead, and the only debate is between the +vultures over who gets the biggest bones." + This assertion was also made by Stephen Sennitt, the editor of "Nox" +magazine. In retrospect, it seems less that Chaos Magick 'died', and more +that the furious debate which blew up around it for many years had become +boring - it had hit the point where constructive criticism had degenerated +into a mere slanging match. Perhaps some Chaos Magicians shook themselves +and wondered, after all, what all the fuss had been about. by this time, +Pete Carroll had begun to reformat the IOT into 'The Pact', setting up +temples in the UK, USA, and Europe. The IOT is seen as the Order for +'serious' Chaos Magicians in the same way that the OTO exists for 'serious' +Thelemites. At the time of writing, the IOT Pact has temples active in the +UK, Europe, Australia and America and, despite the apparent hierarchical +structure outlined in Pete Carroll's latest book "Liber Kaos/The +Psychonomicon", there appears to be much scope for new growths and +experimentation within its loose structure. + Having reviewed the development of Chaos Magick, we can now turn to +looking at its principles in greater depth. + + + Principles of Chaos Magick + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + Whilst magical systems usually base themselves around a model or map of +the spiritual/physical universe, such as the Tree of Live (which can +sometimes be described as a cosmic filofax), Chaos Magick is based on a very +few 'Core Principles' which generally underlie its approach to magick (they +are not universal axioms however, so feel free to swap 'em around). + + 1. The avoidance of Dogmatism. Chaos Magicians strive to avoid falling +into dogmatism (unless expressing dogmatism is part of a temporary belief +system they have entered). Discordians use 'Catmas' such as "Us Discordians +must stick apart!". Thus Chaos Magicians feel entitled to change their +minds, contradict themselves and come up with arguments that are +alternatively plausible and implausible. It has been pointed out that we +invest a lot of time and energy in being right. What's wrong with being +wrong occasionally? + + 2. Personal Experience is paramount. In other words, don't take my word +that such-and-such is the case, check it out for yourself. MAgick has +suffered extensively from 'armchair theorists' who have perpetuated myths and +out-of-date information purely due to laziness of one kind or another. +Sometimes it's interesting to ask awkward questions just to see what the +self-appointed experts come out with. Some will emit a stream of verbal +diarrhoca rather than admit to not knowing the answer, whereas a true adept +will probably say "I haven't a fucking clue". Quite early on, Chaos +Magicians come to the startling discovery that once you strip away the layers +of dogma, personal beliefs, attitudes and anecdotes around any particular +technique of practical magic, it can be quite simple described. + + 3. Technical Excellence. One of the early misconceptions about Chaos +Magick was that it gave practitioners carte blanche to do whatever they +liked, and so become sloppy (or worse, soggy) in their attitudes to +self-assessment , analysis, etc. Not so. The Chaos approach has always +advocated rigorous self-assessment and analysis, emphasised practice at what +techniques you're experimenting with until you get the results that you +desire. Learning to 'do' magick requires that you develop a set of skills +and abilities and if you're going to get involved in all this weird stuff, +why not do it to the best of your ability? + + 4. Deconditioning. The Chaos paradigm proposes that one of the primary +tasks of the aspiring magician is to throughly deconditions himself from the +mesh of beliefs, attitudes, and fictions about self, society and the world. +Our ego is a fiction of stable self-hood which maintains itself by +perpetuating the distinctions of 'what I am/what I am not, what I like/what I +don't like/', beliefs about ones politics, religion, gender preference, +degree of free will, race, subculture etc all help maintain a stable sense of +self, whilst the little ways in which we pull against this very stability +allows us to feel as though we are unique individuals. Using deconditioning +exercises, we can start to widen the cracks in our consensual reality which +hopefully, enables us to become less attached to our beliefs and +ego-fictions, and thus able to discard or modify them when appropriate. + + 5. Diverse approaches. As mentioned earlier, 'traditional' approaches +to magick involve choosing one particular system and sticking to it. The +Chaos perspective, if nothing else, encourages an eclectic approach to +development, and Chaos Magicians are free to choose from any available +magical system, themes from literature, television, religions, cults, +parapsychology, etc. This approach means that if you approach two Chaos +magicians and ask 'em what they're doing at any one moment, you're rarely +likely to find much of a consensus of approach. This makes Chaos difficult +to pin down as one thing or another, which again tends to worry those who +need approaches to magick to be neatly labelled and clear. + + 6. Gnosis. One of the keys to magical ability is the ability to enter +Altered States of Consciousness at will. We tend to draw a distinct line +between 'ordinary consciousness' and 'altered states', where in fact we move +between different states of consciousness - such as daydreams, 'autopilot' +(where we carry out actions without cognition) and varying degrees of +attention, all the time. However, as far as magick is concerned, the willed +entry into intense altered states can be divided into two poles of +'Psysiological Gnosis' - Inhibitory states, and Excitatory states. The +former includes physically 'passive' techniques such as meditation, yoga, +scrying, contemplation and sensory deprivation while the latter includes +chanting, drumming, dance, emotional and sexual arousal. + + + Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combination + + As I said earlier, one of the characteristics of the Chaos Magick +approach is the diversity of systems of magick that practitioners can choose +to hop between, rather than just sticking to one particular one. There are, +naturally, many different approaches to using systems within the Chaos +corpus, and I'll examine some of them here: + +D.I.Y. + In other words, create your own system, like Austin Osman Spare did. +Creating your own, operationally valid magical systems is good practice, and +whether or not you can get someone else to work that system is up to you +entirely. On the other hand, new systems of magick are occasionally +commercially valid. One book on a system = some good ideas, then of course +you write a sequel developing the original stuff, and then you might as well +go for the accompanying tarot deck, videos, cassettes, lego expansion kits, +etc. Coming up with your own, (mostly) original stuff is better (at least +from the Chaos viewpoint) than doing other people's rituals and continually +following other people's ideas. Doing something innovative (especially if +you don't know anyone else who's tried it) is very good for building your +confidence. I remember, years ago, doing a ritual and thinking "Hey, I drew +all the pentagrams wrongly for that one, and like, nothing noticed" - at +least nothing nasty appeared out of the woodwork ( - yet!) + +Metasystems + There is a great tendency nowadays for people to try and create +metasystems - that is, systems into which can be slotted anything and +everything, and will explain, given time, everything worth explaining. So we +see attempts to meld runes with tarot, put virtually anything on to the Tree +of Life, and much theorizing/waffle (delete as appropriate). There's nothing +wrong with this - again, its often a useful exercize. It can also be fun, +especially if you come up with a plausible explanation for something which is +based on 'made-up' or dodgy 'facts', and loads of people go "Hey wow, that's +really amazing" (a few years ago an occult author released a version of +Lovecraft's "Necronomicon" that sounded good, but which in fact was spurious. +So he got loads of letters form people who had done the rituals and wanted to +chat about the results). This is also important when looking at 'Belief' as +a magical tool, and I'll get on to that later. + Personally, I like to use lots of different systems, and use them as +seems appropriate. I tend to flip between D.I.Y., Cabbala, Tantra, Chthulhu +Mythos, Shamanism, and anything else that I feel to be appropriate at any +particular time. It is worth going into a system in some depth, so that you +become more or less competent (and confident) with it, but magicians tend to +find that once you've become competent in one system, then it's easier to get +to grips with another one. If you're fairly experience with Enochian for +example, then you shouldn't have too much difficulty with Runes. + +Chaos Science + Some Chaos Magicians tend to use a lot of scientific analogies/metaphors +in their work. This is okay - after all science sells washing powders and +cars - if something can be shown to have a 'scientific' basis, then a lot +more people will go for it, especially computer buffs, physics students, etc. +It all helps with creating the 'belief buffer'. It needn't actually be +'hard' science, psuedo-science works just as well, as the number of 'New Age' +books asserting that crystals store energy 'just like a computer chip does' +shows. I'm not trying to be picky (okay, just a bit), and equally, since its +the belief factor which is the important thing, then you could use +astrology, alchemy, Theosophy or whatever else strikes your fancy, so long as +you (or someone else) find it coherent & useful. Just because you're being +'scientific' doesn't mean that you have to be serious at the same time. + +Chaos Silliness + It was the Discordians that pointed out that amidst the long list of +dualisms that occultists were fond of using, the opposites of +humour/seriousness had been left aside. Humour is important to magick. As +Janet Cliff once said, we're too important to take ourselves seriously. Some +members of the IOT Pact use Laughter as a form of banishing, and of course, +there is nothing like laughter to deflate the pompous, self-important occult +windbags that one runs into from time to time. IMPORTANT: rituals can be +silly and no less effective than ones when you keep a straight face. Magick +is fun - otherwise, why do it? + +Magical Models + The way that magick is generally conceptualised changes as general +paradigm shifts in thinking occur. Until fairly recently (in a broad +historical sense), practitioners of magick subscribed to the 'Spirit' Model +of Magick, which basically states that the Otherworlds are real, and +inhabited by various pantheon of discrete entities - elementals, demons, +angels, goddesses, gods, etc. The task of the magician or shaman is to +develop (or inherit) a route map of the Otherworld - to know the short-cuts, +and make a few friends (or contact relatives) over there. Having done this, +they have to interact with these spirits in a given way, to get them to +execute your will. So clergymen pray, shamans stuff sacred mushrooms into +their orifices in order to meet their ancestors, whilst demonologists +threaten entities into submissions by thundering out bits of the Old +Testament. + By the Eighteenth Century, and the rise of Science, the idea of 'Animal +Magnitism' arose in the West, being the first manifestation of the 'Energy' +Model of Magick. This model places emphasis on the presence of 'subtle +energies' which can be manipulated via a number of techniques. Along came +Bulwer Lytton and his idea of 'Vril' energy, Elphas Levi and the Astral +Light, Mediums & ectoplasm, Westernised 'popular' accounts of Prana, Chakras, +and Kundalini, and eventually, Wilhelm Reich's Orgone energy. + The next development came with the popularisation of Psychology, mainly +due to the Psychoanalytic fads of Freud, Jung & co. During this phase, the +Otherworlds became the Innerworlds, demons were rehoused into the +Unconscious Mind, and the Hidden Masters revealed as manifestations of the +'Higher Self'. For some later exponents of this model, Tarot cards were +switched form being a magical-divinatory system to being 'tools' for personal +transformation, just as the gods/goddesses came to be seen as not 'real' +entities, but psychological symbols of archetypes. + The current up-and-coming paradigm is the 'Cybernetic' model, as we +swing into being an information-based culture. This model says that the +Universe, despite appearances, is stochastic in nature. Magick is a set of +techniques for rousing a neurological storm in the brain which brings about +microscopic fluctuations in the Universe, which lead eventually to +macroscopic changes - in accordance with the magician's intent. See Chaos +Science, the Butterfly Effect, and all that. Another manifestation of the +Cybernetic Model dovetails back into the spirit model, and in "Chaos +Servitors: A User Guide", you will find a reasonably coherent arguement to +support the idea that localized information fields can, over time, become +self-organizing to the extent that we experience them as autonomous entities +- spirits. + Each particular model has its own attractive glamour, with exponents or +opponents on either side. Many occult textbooks contain elements of the +Spirit, Energy, and Psychological models quite happily. It is also worth +noting that should you ever find yourself in the position of having to +'explain' all this weird stuff to a non-aficionado of skeptic, then the +Psychological model is probably your best bet. These days, people who +ascribe to the Spirit model, if they are not of a Pagan or Occult persuasion +themselves, tend to think that they have an exclusive copyright over the use +of Spirits! If the person is a computer buff of Fractal phreak, then by all +means go for the 'cyberpunk' paradigm. Scientists only tend to accept +something if a scientific 'rationale' can be wheeled up to slot it into. A +good example is Acupuncture, which up until recently was explained using the +Energy Model, and pooh-poohed by the scientific establishment until someone +came up with Endorphin stimulation. Now most hospital physiotherapy +departments have a set of needles. + Whilst some magicians tend to stick to one favourite model, it is useful +to shift between them as the situation befits, as some models have stronger +'explaining' power for accounting for some aspects of magick than others. +The Spirit model, being by far the oldest, can account for just about any +aspect of magick. The Psychological model, whilst being useful for looking +at magical as a process for personal development, has difficult y with +aspects such as tribal shamans cursing Westerners who (a) don't believe in +magick (b) didn't see the shaman squinting at them yet (c) still break out in +hives or boils anyway. If you narrow yourself down to only using one +magickal model, then sooner or later the Universe will present you with +something that won't fit your parameters. When you are spending more time +defending your models, rather than modifying them, then you know it's time +for another spot of deconditioning...report to Room 101. + + + All Hail Discordia! + + The Discordian Society is, in its own words "...a tribe of philosophers, +magicians, scientists, artists, clowns, and similar maniacs who are intrigued +with ERIS GODDESS OF CONFUSION and with Her doings." The existence of the +Discordian Society was first popularised in Robert Anton Wilson & Robert +Shea's blockbusting "Illuminatus!" trilogy, and also in Malaclypse The +Younger's book "Principia Discordia" which sets out the basic principles of +the Discordian Religion - a religion based around the Greek Goddess, Eris. + Traditionally, Eris was a daughter of Nox (night) and the wife of +Chronus. She begat a whole bunch of Gods - Sorrow, Forgetfulness, Hunger, +Disease, Combat, Murder, Lies - nice kids! The ancient Greeks attributed any +kind of upset of discord to her. With the fall of the ancient empires, Eris +disappeared, though it is suspected that she had a hand in 'manifesting' the +first bureaucracies, triplicate forms, and insurance companies. She didn't +put in a personal appearance again on spaceship Gaia again until the late +'50's, when she appeared to two young Californians, who later became known as +Omar Ravenhurst and Malaclypse the Younger. Eris appointed them the "Keepers +of the Sacred Chao" and gave them the message to: "Tell constricted mankind +that there are no rules, unless they choose to invent rules." After which +Omar and Mal appointed each other High Priest of his own madness, and +declared themselves each to be a Society of Discordia, whatever that may be. + Greater Poop: Is Eris true? + Malaclypse: Everything is true. + GP: Even false things? + Mal: Even false things are true. + GP: How can that be? + Mal: I don't know man, I didn't do it. + + Eris has since climbed her way from historical footnote to mythic +mega-star, and the Discordian Movement, if such a thing can be said to exist, +is growing on both sides of the Atlantic, helped by the Discordian tactic of +declaring that everyone is a genuine Pope. More people are getting into the +idea of a religion based on the celebration of confusion and madness. + The central Greek myth that Eris figures prominently in is the +ever-continuing soap opera of 'Mount Olympus - Home of the Gods'; the episode +which inadvertently brought about the Trojan War. It seems that Zeus was +throwing a party and did not want to invite Eris because of her reputation as +a trouble-maker. Infuriated by the snub, Eris fashioned a golden apple +inscribed with the word Kallisti, ("to the prettiest one") and tossed it into +the hall where all the guests were. Three of the invited Goddesses, Athena, +Hera, and Aphrodite, each claimed the apple for themselves and started +fighting and throwing food around. To settle the dispute, Zeus ordered all +three to submit to the judgement of a mortal over just who was 'the prettiest +one', and said mortal was Paris, son of the King of Troy. Zeus sent all +three to Paris, via Hermes, but each Goddess tried to outwit the others by +sneaking out early and offering a bribe to Paris. Athena offered Paris +victory in battle, Hera, great wealth, while Aphrodite 'merely loosened the +clasps by which her tunic was fastened and unknotted her girdle', also +offering Paris the most beautiful of mortal women. So, Aphrodite got the +apple, and Paris got off with Helen, who unfortunately happened to be married +to Menelaus, King of Sparta. Thanks to the meddling of Athena and Hera, the +Trojan war followed and the rest, as they say, is history. + Nowadays, in our more chaos-positive age, Eris has mellowed somewhat, +and modern Discordians associate her with all intrusions of 'weirdness' in +their lives, from synchronous to mischievous occurrences, creative flashes of +inspiration, and wild parties. She does get a little bitchy at times, but +who doesn't? + + + Discordian Opening Ritual + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +by Prince Prance + +1. Clap x 5 +2. The Erisian Cross: + "Light in my Head + Fire in my genitals + Strength at my Right side + Laughter at my Left side + Love in my Heart." +3. Trace Spiral Pentragrams at the 4 quarters & zenith +4. Face East: + "Blessed Apostle Hung Mung, great Sage of Cathay, Balance the Hodge and + Podge and grant us equilibrium." +5. Face South: + "Blessed Apostle Van Van Mojo, Doctor of Hoodoo and Vexes, Give us the + Voodoo Power and confuse our enemies." +6. Face West: + "Blessed Apostle Sri Syadasti, patron of psychedelia, Teach us the + relative truth and blow our minds." +7. Face North: + "Blessed Apostle Zarathud, hard-nosed hermit, Grant us the Erisian doubt, + and the constancy of Chaos." +8. Look up (or down); + "Blessed Apostle Malaclypse, Elder Saint of Discordia, Grant us + illumination and protect us from stupidity." +9. Look all over the place: + "Great Goddess Discordia, Holy Mother Eris, Joy of the Universe, Laughter + of Space, Grant us Life, Light, Love and Liberty and make the bloody + magick work!" +10. "Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!" + +Notes: + For more on Spiral Pentragrams, see the next section. + + 1. Hung Mung is the Discordian link to the Chinese Mysteries and it is + none other than he who devised the Sacred Chao. He is patron of the + Season of Chaos + 2. Dr. Van Van Mojo is a fellow of the Intergalactic Haitian Guerillas + for World Peace and is Patron of the Season of Discord. + 3. Sri Syadasti is the Apostle of Psychedelia and the Patron of the + Season of Confusion. + 4. Zarathud, a Hermit of Medieval Europe, has been dubbed "Offender of + the Faith." He is Patron of the season of Bureaucracy. + 5. Malaclypse the Elder is alleged to have been an ancient wiseman who + carried a sign bearing the legend "DUMB" through the alleys of Rome, + Baghdad, Mecca, Jerusalem, and some other places. He is Patron of the + season of Aftermath. + + + The Spiral Pentragram + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + The traditional Pentragram is a very solid, geometrical figure - I find +its association with banishing to be very appropriate. "So what," I thought +one day "would happen if I started using a five-pointed star made up of +curves?" You can see the result of a few minutes with a compass (it took +ages on the computer!) below. [typists note: I couldn't do it in ASCII, so +live with it] Unlike the traditional pentragram, which has a pentagon shape +in its centre, this one repeats the petal formation. So when I draw it (and +they're a bugger to draw in the air at first), I visualise the outer petals +spinning clockwise and the inner petals spinning anti-clockwise (no +particular reason why), and the whole figure becoming a 3-D tunnel, twisting +into infinite space. Pretty, eh? The first time we tried them out was, +appropriately enough, in a ritual invocation of Eris, and they seemed to work +very well. They don't keep things out, they tend to draw energies in. You +can also use them in astral projection (or in Chaospeak, 'Virtual Magick') to +gate through, and I've had them turning up spontaneously in dreams as astral +doorways. To seal them, I reverse the spinning of the petals, and have them +become 'flat' again, sometimes doing a normal pentagram over them just for +good measure. They seem to work well when sued in a free-form style of +working, but not when used with 'trad' systems, such as the Lesser Key of +Solomon (the entities in there are strictly conservative in how they like +being evoked, I find.) If you try out the Spiral Pentragrams, by the way, +I'd love some feedback/correspondence on the subject. + With all magical techniques & rituals, it is important to distinguish +between Process and Content. One of the first messages of the Chaos Current +is what whilst Content is to some extent arbitrary, the underlying process +upon which rituals are based is the important bit. The Discordian Opening +Ritual for example, is a variant upon the theme of Centring (or Banishing) +Rituals, wherein the aim is to place yourself at the 'centre' of your +psychocosm, the axis mundi or null-point form from which all acts of magic +proceed. Centring rituals also act to warm you up for the main event, as it +were, the entry into a space where, for the moment, Nothing is True and +Everything is Permitted. Following the main object of a working, performing +the Centring Rite again prepares you for moving back to the sphere of common +Consensus Reality. Rites such as the standard Banishing Ritual of the +Pentragram, or the IOT's Gnostic Banishing combine gesture, speech, breathing +and visualisation with different content, but following the same process - +identification of the 4 cardinal directions plus the fifth point which +represents union with spirit, Chaos, or Kia. Such ritual acts produce +changes in the 'atmosphere' of the area they are worked in and with practice, +these feelings automatically come on-line whenever the rite is used, so that +the shift between everyday reality and its concerns (who's doing the +washing-up after the ritual, etc) and Magical Reality (the purpose of the +ritual for example) is clearly perceived. + + + Sigil Magick + ~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + Sigilization is one of the simplest and most effective forms of results +magick used by contemporary magicians. One you have grasped the basic +principles of sigilization and experimented with some of the most popular +methods of casting sigils, you can go on the experimenting with forms of +sigil magick which are unique to you. + The core Sigilization process can be divided into six stages, which I +will explain using the acronym S.P.L.I.F.F. + +S - Specify Intent +P - Pathways available? +L - Link intent to symbolic carrier +I - Intense Gnosis/Indifferent Vacuity +F - Fire +F - Forget + +1. Specify Intent + + The first stage of the process is that you should get your magical +intent clear - as precise as possible without, at the same time, being too +overcomplicated. Vague intentions usually give rise to vague results, and +the clearer the initial statement of intent is, the more likely you are to +get accordant results. An acquaintance of mine once did a sigil to manifest +a lover, and gave very precise details on how this paragon should look, what +kind of car he should drive, etc. Needless to say, her 'desire' manifested +exactly as she had specified, and she discovered too late that she had +forgotten to specify 'intelligence' in her sigil, and was lumbered with a +bore! + +2. Pathways Available + + Generally, sigils are excellent for bringing about precise, short-term +results, which makes them excellent for works of Results Magick - healing, +habit manipulation, inspiration, dream-control, and the like. It is +generally considered useful if you 'open' a path for the intent to manifest +along. There is a standard magical example about working for 'money' that +goes along the lines of: Frater Bater does a spell for money and waits for +the multiverse to provide him with the readies. In the following months he +gains financially after the sudden deaths of relatives, receiving industrial +compensation after falling into a combine harvester, and so on. Had he made +sure that there was a possible pathway or route for the result to come in on, +like writing a book (ha! ha!), writing off for a new job, or entering a +lottery, he might have had a better time of it. This is the way magick often +works, and shows that the multiverse, if nothing else, has a slappy sense of +humour. + +3. Link Intent + + Once you have decided upon your intent, it can then be turned into a +symbolic analogue or code - a signal on which you can focus varying degrees +of attention on, without recalling your initial desire. The most common +approaches to this are: + (a) Monogram - write out your intent, knock out all repeating letters, +and from the rest, design a glyph. + (b) Mantra - write out intent, scramble into meaningless phrase or word, +which can then be chanted + In addition to the above, you can also use other media such as smell, +taste, colours, body language, and hand gestures. + +4. Intense Gnosis/Indifferent Vacuity + + Sigils can be projected into the multiverse via an act of Gnosis - +usually, but not necessarily, within some kind of ritual/magical context. +Popular routes to Gnosis include: spinning, chanting, dancing, +visualization, sensory overload or sensory deprivation, and sexual arousal. +The other 'altered state' is that of Indifferent Vacuity - a sort of a +'not-particularly-bothered' state. An example of sigilization by this route +is to doodle sigils whilst listening to a talk which is boring, but you have +to take notes on. + +5. Fire + + This is simple the projection of the sigil into the void of multiverse +at the 'peak' of Gnosis/Vacuity. Examples of this include orgasm, reaching +the point of blackout from hyperventilation or being asked a question about +the boring talk that you were supposed to have been listening to. + +6. Forget + + Once your sigil has been fired, you're supposed to forget the original +intent and let the Butterfly Effect or whatever take its course. forgetting +what you just did can often be the hardest part of the process. It's not so +bad if the intent is something you don't really care about (hence beginning +with sigils for things you aren't really too fussed about is a good way to +being experiments), but is more difficult if its something you really want to +happen. As long as you don't dwell on the thoughts when they pop up, it +shouldn't matter too much. Time for another analogy. + The ever-changing tangle of desires, wishes, fears, fantasies etc +jostling around in our minds can be likened to a garden, albeit a somewhat +unruly and overgrown one; flowers, weeds, creepers and the occasional buried +gardening rake. Going through the sigilization process can be likened to +becoming suddenly enthusiastic about tidying the garden up. You isolate ont +plant (i.e., your intent), separate it from the others, feed it, water it and +prune it 'til it stands out from the rest and is clearly visible on the +landscape, and then suddenly get bored with the whole job and go indoors to +watch television. The trick is, next time you look at the 'garden', not to +notice the plant you so recently lavished attention on. + If the intent gets tangled up with all the other stuff in your head, you +tend to start projecting various fantasy outcomes - what you'll do with the +money when it comes, how will it be with the boy/girl/anteater of your +dreams, etc and the desire will get run into all the others, thus decreasing +the probability of it manifesting in the way you want it to. + A useful attitude to have when casting sigils is that once you've posted +one off to the multiverse (which, like Santa, always gets the message), then +you're sure that it's going to work so that you don't need to expend any more +effort on that particular one. Such confidence tends to arise out of having +had some success with sigils previously. The result often comes about when +the intent has become latent - that is to say, you've completely forgotten +about it, and given up on it coming about. The experience is similar in +trying to hitch a lift on a deserted road in the dead of night. You've been +there for hours, it's pouring down with rain and you 'know' with an air of +dread certainty that no one's going to stop for you now, but you stick your +thumb out anyway. What the hell, eh? Five minutes later, you get a lift +from the boy/girl/anteater of two sigils back, driving a Porsche and asking +you how *far* you want to go. Maddening isn't it? But sigilization often +seems to work like that. + + + + The Criminologist + - - - + - - - + - - - + - - - + Magenta -------------------------- Riff-Raff + - - - - - + - - - - - + - - The Time Warp - - + - - - - - + - - - - - + Eddie ---------------------------- Dr. Scott + - - - - - + - - - - - + - Rocky - + - / - \ - + - / - \ - + Frank /--------------------------\ Columbia + \ - / + \ - / + \ Janet / + \ - / + \ - / + \ - / + \ - / + \ - / + \ - / + Brad + + Belief - A Key to Magick + + One aspect of Chaos Magick that seems to upset some people is the Chaos +Magician's (or Chaoist, if you like) occasional fondness for working with +non-historical sources, such as invoking H.P. Lovecraft's Chthulhu Mythos +beings, mapping the Rocky Horror Show onto the Tree of Life, slamming through +the astral void in an X-Wing fighter, and 'channeling' communications from +gods that didn't exist five minutes ago. + So you might see why using this sort of thing as a basis for serious +magical work raises one or two eyebrows in some quarters. Isn't after all, +the Lovecraft stuff fiction? What about linking in with 'inner planes +contacts', 'traditions', etc - surely you don't do magick with something that +doesn't bear any relation to history or mythology? + In the past, such criticisms have been raised over the subject of +magicians working with 'fictitional' entities. In this section, I hope to +argue the case against these objections. The first point to make is that +magick requires a belief system within which to work. The belief system is +the symbolic & linguistic construct through which the magician learns to +interpret her experiences and can range from anything between good old +traditional Cabbala to all this New Age +"I-heart-it-off-Red-Indian-Shaman-honest" stuff that seems to popular +nowadays. It doesn't matter which belief system you use, so long as it turns +you on. Read that again, it's important. Eventually most magicians seem to +develop their own magical systems which work fine for them but are a bit +mind-boggling for others to use, with Austin Osman Spare's Alphabet of Desire +being a good example. + A key to magical success is veracity of belief. If you want to try +something out, and can come up with a plausible explanation as to how/why it +should work, then it most likely will. Psuedoscience or Cabbalistic gibber +(or both) - it matters not so long as the rationale you devise buffers the +strength of your belief in the idea working. I find that this happens a lot +when I try and push the limits of how I try to do some magical action that I +haven't tried before. ONce I come up with a plausible explanation of how it +could work in theory, then of course, I am much more confident about doing, +and can often transmit this confidence to others. If I am 110% certain that +this rituals going to 'bloody well work' then its all the more likely that it +will. + You can experiment with this using the technique of belief-shifting +(Robert Anton Wilson calls it Metaprogramming), a good example being the +chakras. The popular view of chakras is that we have seven. Okay, so +meditate on your chakras, hammer the symbolism into your head and hey presto! +you'll start having 7-Chakra experiences. Now switch to using the +5-Sephiroth of the Middle Pillar (Cabbala) as the psychic centres in your +body, and sure enough, you'll get accordant results. Get the idea? + Any belief system can be used as a basis for magick, so long as you can +invest belief in it. Looking back at my earlier magical experiments, I guess +that what used to be important for me was the strong belief that the system I +was using was ancient, based on traditional formulae, etc. A belief system +can be seen as a matrix of information into which we can pour emotional +energy - we do as much, when we become so engrossed in watching a play, film, +or TV programme that for a moment, it becomes real for us, and invokes +appropriate emotions. Much of what we see served up on the silver screen is +powerful mythic image & situations, repackaged for modern tastes, which is a +cue to start going on about 'Star Trek'. + More people are familiar with the universe of Star Trek than any of the +mystery religions. It's a fairly safe bet that more people are going to know +who Mr. Spock is, than who know who Lugh is. The Star Trek universe has a +high fantasy content, and seemingly new points of contact with our 'everyday' +worlds of experience. Yet Star Trek is a modern, mythic reflection of our +psychology. The characters embody specific qualities - Spock is logical, +Sulu is often portrayed as a martial figure, Scotty is a 'master builder', +and Kirk is an arbitrator, forever seeking resolution of conflict through +peaceful means. As we "get into" the Star Trek universe, we find greater +depth and subtlety. We find that the universe has its own rules which the +characters are subject to, and is internally consistent. Each episode, we +may find that we are being given insights into the Personal world of a key +character. Like our everyday worlds, the universe of Star Trek has a +boundary beyond which is the unknown - the future, unexplored space, the +consequences of our actions - whatever wild cards that we may be dealt. So +we watch TV, and enter, as an observer, the unfolding of a Mythic event. We +can increase this sense of participation through a role-playing game, where +group belief allows us to generate, for a few hours at least, the semblance +of the Star Trek universe, in the comfort of your sitting room. It's +relatively easy to generate the Star Trek world, due to the plethora of +books, comics, videos and role-playing supplements which are available to +support that universe. + The final proof of all that being that one of my colleagues had to sit a +computer exam, and was wracking his brains trying to thin of an appropriate +god-form to invoke upon himself to concentrate his mind on programming. +Mercury? Hermes? And then he hit on it - the most powerful mythic figure +that he knew could deal with computers was Mr. Spock! So he proceeded to +invoke Mr. Spock by learning all he could about Spock and going round saying +"I never will understand humans" until he was thoroughly Spockified. And he +got an 'A', so there! + And so, back to the Chthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft himself was of the +opinion that fear, particularly fear of the unknown, was the strongest +emotion attached to the Great Old Ones. The reason why I like to work with +that Mythos occasionally is that the Great Old Ones are 'outside' most human +mythologies, reflecting the shadows of the Giants in Norse Myths, the +pre-Olympian Titans in Greek Myths, and other groups of universe-builders who +are through to be too chaotic for the polite company of the gods of the +ordered universe. For me too, the nature of the Great Old Ones as shadowy +beings who can only be partially glimpsed is attractive - they can't be +assimilated and bound into any orthodox systems of magick and I get much fun +from working out suitable approaches for working with them. The Great Old +Ones have a very 'primal' nature, which for me provides the emotional buffer +for magical exploration. Having said all that, and no doubt left you +thinking "uurgh, weird person, he likes messing round with tentacled +slimies", I might also mention that I've had some interesting results from +working with a Mythos system based on (blush) C.S. Lewis's "Narnia" books. + The interesting thing about metaprogramming is that you can adopt a +belief for a relatively short time, and then drop it again. When practising +ritual magick its generally a good idea, whatever you think about gods being +archetypes or reflections of bits of yourself or whatever, to behave as if +they were real. So in a Chthulhu Mythos ritual, nothing will help build the +necessary tension than the adopted belief that if you get it wrong Chthulhu +will slime you! Of course, outside the ritual you don't have to believe in +Chthulhu and that even now a slimy paw appears at my window...no! No! +...ahem, sorry about that. Related to this approach is the idea that +'Suspension of Disbelief' can also be useful. To do this, take a book which +expounds an idea that you find totally crap (every magician has their +favourite 'crap' author) and try to see the writers message without your +inner voice hurling abuse at the page. One of the most difficult +'suspensions' for fledgling magicians is overcoming the nagging doubt that +"all this stuff doesn't work". Despite hours of talk and reading vast tomes +by Crowley and his cohorts, that nagging disbelief can still be heard, and +can only be really dispelled by experience - one act that shows you that +MAGICK WORKS is worth a thousand arguments. + So my conclusion is that intensity of belief is the key which allows +magical systems to work, whether they be related to historical traditions +(which are, let's face it, very often rewritten anyway), esoteric traditions +(which have evolved down the centuries as well) or based on fiction or TV. +It's your ability to be emotively moved or used them as vehicles for the +expression of your will that counts. If it works for you - do it. + + + Basic Exercises + + (These exercises have been compiled from a variety of sources and +possibly have little inherent value of themselves, though they could be fun +and may have far reaching consequences. One acquaintance of mine began his +foray into Chaos Magick by taking on the belief-system of being a Born-Again +Christian. He's still a Born-Again Christian, but seems to be happier.) + +1. When obtaining any magical result (including 'failure') always think of + several explanations for it. these explanations should contain at least + one of each of the following types: + i. An explanation based on the parameters of the magical system that you + have been employing. + ii. Strict materialism + iii. Something exceptionally silly. + +2. When you have been experimenting with belief-shifting for a while, try + contemplating two which appear to be mutually exclusive such as + Christianity and Tantra, Islam and Radical Feminism, New Age Celtic + Revivals and Marxism. + +3. Meditations in Menzies. Read specialist magazines that you have no + interest in, especially those written by enthusiastic amateurs. Also read + publications with opposing views in quick succession, such as "Playboy" + and "Spare Rib", or Andrea Dworkin and the Marquis de Sade. + +4. Do not put live toads in your mouth. + +5. Everyone else in the world is a Buddha except you! And they are all + waiting for you to get your act together, so get out of bed and get going! + (Buddhahood is especially manifest in all the people you carefully avoid + on the street). + +6. Try being consistently wrong - make wild statements and then, + when someone pokes a hold in your argument, admit your mistake, profusely, + if necessary. You can be wrong about the time, the day of the week, any + expressed political statement, etc. + +7. Gods & Gurus. + Possession by an entity (God, spirit, drug etc) allows you to do things + that you would not ordinarily feel able to do. So, to some extent, does + the confidence of having a Guru. Such figures provide the confidence that + you can walk a tightrope without falling off, play in the deep end of the + swimming pool without drowning, or run about wearing orange robes and + banging a tambourine in a busy shopping centre. Sanity is 'out there' + rather than in your head. Most people tend to say they are mad 'compared + to the rest of them' (likewise, most people will affirm that they are + stupid. Few will admit to being crap at sex though - why?). Chaos Magick + allows you to send your mad thoughts out for a night occasionally . + Contrary to what comes over in books, magick is a street-level activity + (gutter-level, even). Look at the zigzag path of the trickster as + expressed by Crowley, Cagliostro, Simon Magus, and the rest. Learn to + juggle, mime, pull rabbits out of hats. Pass the top hat and get a laugh + or two. In space, no one can hear you giggle, but chaos is nothing less + than Laughing Matter. If you want to see true magick in action, watch a + Marx Brothers movie. Harpo could blow up a glove and milk it. How the + hell could he do that? + +8. Chaotic Attractors. Occasionally you will be sure to run into someone who + seems to attract chaos wherever they go. Obviously they have some strange + and mighty power, but are often unaware, or merely embarrassed by the + frequency of weirdness that always abounds in their vicinity. Stuff them + carefully (if from a safe distance), and you might learn a thing or two. + +9. Deconditioning. As I pointed out earlier, it is relatively easy to shift + between magical beliefs and produce concordant results. This is not to + say, however, that all belief-shifting is so simple. Some levels of our + attitude/belief structure are remarkably resilient to conscious change. + Indeed, some structures are able to 'resist' change by remaining elusive + and 'invisible' to conscious awareness, and must be dragged, kicking, into + the painful light of self-revelation. + If I may use the analogy of beliefs as buildings (the city of Selves), + around the walls of which howls the wind of Kia, then the continual + process of Deconditioning may be likened to chipping away at the towers, + with the occasional 'nuke' provided by recourse to a powerful form of + gnosis such as sexual ecstacy, pain overload, or Albert Hoffman's elixir. + Deconditioning is a continual overload - even as you discard one set of + limitations (in Tantra, this is known as Klesha-smashing), you may find + that you acquire new ones, usually unconsciously. Often, + belief-structures are 'nested' within each other, and may have their roots + in a powerful formative experience. Timothy Leary calls this process + 'Imprint Susceptibility', where the imprint forms a baseline response to + experience, and establishes the parameters within which any subsequent + learning takes place. Leary's 8-Circuit model of Metaprogramming can be + employed as an aid to deconditioning. Be mindful that the Deconditioning + Process is not merely an intellectual experience. It is relatively easy + to 'intellectually accept' some experience or belief which you have + previously rejected or dismissed. It takes more resilience to take action + from your new position, and risk the emotional upheaval that may result + afterwards. + For example, a young male magician of my acquaintance examined his own + beliefs about his sexuality, and decided he would focus upon his own + distaste/fear of homoeroticism. He found that he could accept + 'intellectually' his repressed attractions to other males, and thus + thought himself liberated. He then went on to have several homosexual + encounters which he said, did not give him any physical pleasure, but + merely fed his 'belief' that he had sexually liberated himself. + Deconditioning is rarely simple. Often people who have had an experience + of 'illumination' report that all their old repressive structures have + dropped away. Tear down a building in the city of identities and it grows + back, sometimes with a different shape. One of the effects of intense + Gnosis is the shattering of layers of belief structure, but it is + generally found that unless follow-up work is done, the sense of shattered + belief-structures is transitory. + You should also consider the effects this process is likely to have on + others - see Luke Rhinechart's "The Dice Man" for an amusing and + instructive tale of one man's approach to deconditioning. The Ego, a + self-regulatory structure which maintains the fiction of being a unique + self, doesn't like the process of becoming more adaptive to experience. + One of the more subtle 'defences' that it throws up is the sneaking + suspicion (which can quickly become an obsession) is that you are 'better' + than everyone else. In some circles, this is known as 'Magus-itis', and + it is not unknown for those afflicted to declare themselves to be Maguses, + Witch Queens, avatars of Goddesses, or Spiritual Masters. If you catch + yourself referring to everyone else as 'the herd', or 'human cattle', + etc., then its time to take another look at where you're going. Myself, I + prefer the benefits of empathy and the ability to get on with other people + than the limitations of being a reclusive would-be Raskalnikov dreaming of + the serving slaves. + While we might echo the words of Hassan I Sabbah that "Nothing is True, + Everything is Permitted", acting totally from this premise is likely to + bring you into conflict with those individuals and authorities who have + pretty fixed views on what isn't permitted. Thus, despite the glamour, + Chaos Magicians are rarely completely immoral. One of the basic axioms of + magical philosophy is that morality grows from within, once you have begun + to know the difference between what you have learned to believe, and what + you will to believe. + Some excellent pointers towards the process of Deconditioning can be + found in: "Liber Null" by Pete Carroll, "Magick" by Aleister Crowley, and + "Tantra Magick", the collected grade papers of the east-west Tantrik + order, AMOOKOS. + +10. Keeping a Diary. Despite the glamour of Chaos Magic as being + spontaneous, do-what-you-like, smash-the-sephiroth and loose your demons + "git 'ard" magic, it's generally considered that keeping a diary of + experiences & magical experiments is essential. A magical record + charters your progress, failures, experiments, and insights. If after a + brain-crunching ritual, you have a flash of illumination, and don't write + it down, chances are you'll forget it, and that particular pearl of + wisdom will be lost forever. Moreover, it's a good discipline to get + into, and I often find that, when writing up a summary of a working. I + often recall things that haven't previous occurred to me. It's also one + of the few times when you don't have to censor your thoughts, though + names may have to be changed to protect the privacy of other + participants. + + + Conclusions + ~~~~~~~~~~~ + + This booklet has been an attempt to put over some of the basics of Chaos +Magick. Bear in mind when reading that you're getting my ideas on the +subject - strained through my experiences and the zigzag trail I've blazed +through the weird world of magick. There are no 'definitive' books on the +Chaos approach. No time-laden glamour of 'tradition' into which the +fledgling magician may step with safety, and absolve himself of +responsibility for being creative and innovative. The demand of Chaos Magick +is that you weave your own development, rather than following someone else's +- and how you weave that path is left up to you. + Where is Chaos Magick going? There is no discernable, distinct path +that is going 'somewhere' - no bliss of illumination or stated goal tied in. +The end-point, if indeed there is such, is for you to decide that discover. +Critics of Chaos (both outside and within the corpus) have highlighted a +tendency towards 'playing with magick' - trying out different systems with +the same blitheness that we might try different flavours of ice cream. Some +practitioners try out different rituals and techniques without any deeper +understanding of how these experiences fit together. Because there is no +laid-down 'path', one might then think that there is no path, but again, this +is for each of us to decide. Chaos Magick reflects much of modern western +culture, with its emphasis on a multiplicity of ever-changing styles, of +diffuse fragments blending in with each other, with no 'thread' to bind them +together. + But it is down to each of us to find our individual sense of +connectivness. To throw up a semblance of order from what Austin Osman Spare +called, 'the chaos of the normal'. The term 'Gnosis' also means, 'knowledge +of the heart' - that which can only come from personal insight and +experience, and very often, is difficult to communicate to another, other +than in an oblique form. Chaos Magic is merely an all-embracing approach to +Gnosis, which encourages each individual to become responsible for their own +development - what you do, and how you interpret it in the light of your own +experience. + I'm occasionally asked 'what do you have to do' to become a Chaos +Magician. There isn't an answer to this. You could, for example, practise +Cabbala (and exclusively Cabbala) for ten years, and consider yourself a +Chaos Magician - if you wanted to. Above all, don't confuse opinion with +dogma, or glamour for commitment - but that's only my own opinion anyway! + + + Appendix + + The following essay is appended as a source if interest and imagination +for readers who are interested in reading more about someone else's approach +to Chaos Magick and most definately not to pad out an otherwise slim volume. + + Fracture Lines + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + "If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does +nought." Liber AL, II, 30. + + I lay possessed by a demon. Obsession. Twisted by talons; self-love & +hatred knotting my guts. Howling frustration into the night, the broken +dream heaped around my bed. + Later. + A shaft of light burns through the brooding darkness; my cloak of night, +my self-sewn shroud. Knowledge. Insight. Wild laughter. A strange way +into gnosis. a self-wounding, stretching back into my personal time. I +crawl into my centre, my circle, and with my pen etch a triangle. And force +the monster into it, and unloosen the skeins of form; moments of weakness, +wanting and waiting, desire ignited by imagination. Manufacturing my own +junk, my own addiction. + If this is wading through "qlipothic muck" then so be it. But out of +this muck I wove a conversation, a story with no chance of a happy ending. A +story which clouded my will, which blurred my eye. I made this monster; a +golem born of my own longings & shortcomings, and now I will take it apart, +piece by piece, draining the puss from knotted passions. We are but knots in +a cord. Untie them and we slip easily across the aeons into megulous dreams. + +Emotional Engineering + We are bound by our own past, bound to repeat patterns; programs written +long ago. Flowcharted in an infant's crabbed hand; meshed like kitten-pulled +wool; a language of critical moments in our personal histories. Years later, +a gap opens in the world, and creatures of free will and freedom that we +think we are, our sudden vulnerability surprises us. Caught off guard we +pause, and in that silence, ancient-innocent fingers deep within us pluck at +strings, so that we jerk awkwardly in the grip of self-spawned monsters of +the mind - obsessions. + +Defence Mechanisms + The more value that we place on upholding a particular emotional +pattern, the more likely it is that all ambiguous signals will be percieved +as supporting it. Evidence which counters it will most likely be over looked +or rationalised into a more malleable form. Conflict arises when dissonance +occurs between desires and existing mental constructs (have you ever feared +the strength of your own desires?). To cope with such conflicts, a variety +of Defence Mechanisms can be adopted: + + Agression + A typical response to frustrated desire and loss of control; loss + of devouring dreams. We can direct it at the source of our frustration, + or direct it onto others. + + Apathy + Loss of control - loss of face and self-worth. The machine stops. + + Regression + Adult, who me? A return to a child-like mien. Cry hard enough and + someone will come and comfort us. Perhaps we have learnt that through + tears, we can control others. + + Sublimation + In other words, putting a brave face on it. Re-directing the + energy into a more acceptable form. But demons are cunning. Kick them + down the front stairs and they will come sneaking round the back, + waiting with spider calm until you leave the door of your mind ajar. + + Intellectualization + Displacing feelings with words. A quick lie for the aesthetic + becomes a fast buck for the lay analyst. + Such strategies are normal; that is until they become obsessive: a + locked-up loop automatic as breathing. Out of control. + +Fantasy + Fantasy is the corner stone of obsession, where imagination is +trussed up like a battery-farmed chicken; catharsis eventually becomes +catastrophic. Walter Mitty lives in all of us, in varyingly-sized +corners. We use "starter" fantasies to weave meaning into a new +situation, "maintainer" fantasies to prop up a boring task, and +"stopper" fantasies to persuade ourselves that it's better not to... + A fantasy has tremendous power, and in a period of high anxiety we +can imagine a thousand outcomes, good and bad (but mostly good) of what +the dreaded/hoped for moment will bring us. the fantasy exists in a +continual tension between the desire to fufill it, and the desire to +maintain it - to keep from losing it. Of course, any move to real-ise +it threatens its existence. A closed loop is the result, shored up by +our favourite defence mechanisms, whipped on by fear of failure and lust of +result. The obsession clouds all reason, impairs the ability to act, makes +anything secondary to it seem unimportant. It's a double-bind tug o'war. +The desire to maintain the fantasy may be stronger than the desire to make it +real. + In classical occult terms I am describing a thought-form, a monster bred +from the darker recesses of mind, fed by psychic energy, clothed in +imagination and nurtured by unbilical cords which twist through years of +growth. We all have our personal Tunnels of Set; set in our ways through +habit and patterns piling on top of each other. The thought-form rides us +like a monkey; it's tail wrapped firmly about the spine of a self lost to us +years ago; an earlier version threshing blindly in a moment of fear, pain, or +desire. + Thus we are formed; and in a moment of loss we feel the monster's hot +breath against our backs, it's claws digging into muscle and flesh. We dance +to the pull of strings that were wove years ago, and in a lightning flash of +insight, or better yet, the gentle admonitions of a friend, we may see the +lie; the programme. It is first necessary to see that there is a programme. +To say perhaps, this creature is mine, but not wholly me. What follows then +is that the prey becomes the hunter, pulling apart the obsession, naming its +parts, searching it for fragments of understanding in its entrails. +Shrinking it, devouring it, peeling the layers of onion-skin. + This is in itself a magick as powerful as any sorcery. Unbinding the +knots that we have tied and tangled; sorting out the threads of experience +and colour-coding the chains of chance. It may leave us freer, more able to +act effectively and less likely to repeat old mistakes. The thing has a +Chinese puzzle-like nature. We can perceive only the present, and it +requires intense sifting through memory to see the scaffolding beneath. + The grip of obsession upon us has three components: + + Cognitive - our thoughts & feelings in relation to the situation. + These must be ruthlessly analysed and cut down by vipasana, + banishing, or some similar strategy. + + Physiological - anxiety responses of heart rate, muscle tone, and + blood pressure. The body must be stilled by relaxation and + pranayama. + + Behavioural - what we must do (or most often, don't do). Often our + obsessive behaviour is entirely inappropriate and potentially + damaging to others. Usually it does take other people to point + this out. Analytic techniques such as I Ching or Tarot may + prove useful here. + + The wrath of the monster left me gasping and breathless, feeling trapped +All paths littered with broken glass. Desperation drove me to a friend. +There is magick enough in reaching out to ask another for help. An I Ching +reading suggested action and non-action, negating the momentary trap of +self-doubt. Pranayama banished the physical tension (well, most of it). the +monster shrank and skittered on spindly legs through years of frozen +memories, dissolving finally into a heap of mirrored shards. + Clues; I'm still fitting them together, but the pictures they hint at +aren't frightening any more. + + + Further Reading + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + "Thundersqueak" Angerford & Lea + "Magick, The Book of Lies" Aliester Crowley + "Liber Null/Psychonaut" + "Liber Kaos/The Psychonomicon" Pete Carroll + "The Book of Results" Ray Sherwin + "Cosmic Trigger" Robert Anton Wilson + "Illuminatus!" R.A. Wilson & R. Shea + "Principia Discordia" Malaclypse the Younger + "The Book of Pleasure" Austin Osman Spare + "The Hunting of the Snark" Lewis Carroll + "Liber Cyber" Charlie Brewster + "Metamagical Themas" D.R. Hofstadter + "Tantra Magick" Mandrake Press + "IMPRO" Keith Johnstone + "Practical Sigil Magic, Secrets of the German Sex Magicians" + Frater U.`. D.`. + "Chaos Servitors: A User Guide" Phil Hine + "The Spirit of Shamanism" Roger Walsh + "Escape Attempts" Stan Cohen & Laurie Taylor + "Chaos" James Gleick + "SSOTBME" Ramsey Dukes + "Azoetia" Andrew D. Chumbley + "Stealing The Fire From Heaven" Stephen Mace + + Periodicals + + "Anubis" Postfach 45, A-1203, Wien, Austria + "Chaos International" BM Sorcery, London WC1N 3XX + "Kallisti" P.O.Box 57, Norwich NR2 2RX + "Nuit-Isis" P.O.Box 250, Oxford OX1 1AP + "Occulture" TOPY Station 23, P.O.Box 687, Sheffield, S19 5UX + "Pagan News" P.O.Box 196, London WC1A 2DY + "Talking Stick" Suite B, 2 Tunstall Road, London SW9 8DA + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ccabuse.txt b/religious documents/ccabuse.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ceee7c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ccabuse.txt @@ -0,0 +1,120 @@ + CHRISTIAN CHILD ABUSE + --------------------- + + "Paedophilia is the most serious problem we in the Church have had + to face for centuries." Rev. Thomas Doyle 1987. + + Christianity encourages perversions such as child molestation because it +represses normal physical drives as 'sins'. + + "It is good for a man not to touch a woman", states Paul (I Cor. 7:1) + + Jesus is even worse: "But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a +woman lustfully has committed adultery with her already in his heart." +(Matt. 5:28) + + It's no wonder that such repressive commandments which christians must +obey lest they burn in hell, result in various psychological abnormalities, +such as preference for little boys. + + The following are some examples of christian child abuse, extracted +from the book Christian Child Abuse: The Reality. + + (1) 1979, Newfoundland, Canada. Fr. Kelly convicted of 10 sexual +offences against 5 boys aged 13 to 17. After receiving a suspended +sentence, Kelly appointed vice-chancellor of Temporal Affairs for Toronto +Archdiocese. + + (2) 1984, Louisiana USA. Fr. Gauthe sentenced to 20 yrs. for +molestation of more than 100 boys, 1971-83, aged 7 to 9. His paedophilia +had been known since first yr. as priest, yet his superiors transferred +him whenever scandal threatened to become public. + + (3) 1986, Washington. Fr. Fontenot convicted of raping boy. He had +shared 4 boys with Gauthe in mid-1970's. + + (4) 1988, Newfoundland's best-known priest, Fr. Hickey, convicted of +32 sex crimes involving boys. Local vicar general had known about Hickey +since 1975, but had done nothing. + + (5) 1988, Newfoundland. Fr. Corrigan jailed for 7 offences against +boys aged 10 to 13. + + (6) 1988, Lancashire, England. Congregational Church Minister Garvock +convicted of raping 4 yr. old girl. + + (7) 1988, Winchester, England. 2 Anglican vicars, a choirmaster, a +solicitor, and an already convicted molester jailed on 21 charges of +sexually abusing boys at church outings, YMCA and churchyard. + + (8) 1989, Newfoundland. Fr. Bennet pleads guilty to 36 charges of +paedophilia. His Archbishop had known about him since 1979. + + (9) 1990, Taupo, New Zealand. Fr. Brown jailed for indecent assault +on 2 altar boys, 1980 to 1986. The Hamilton Diocese Archbishop states that +Brown could be assigned other duties when released, and describes him as "a +very compassionate man". + + (10) 1990, Minneapolis USA. Rev. Adamson admits paedophilia since +1961, in a lawsuit brought by a young man who had been abused by the priest +1979-87. Adamson was joined in the abuse in 1984 by a nun. The +Archdiocese had known of Adamson's paedophilia. + + (11) 1990, Solihull, England. Pentecostal Minister D. Stenhouse jailed +on 5 charges of indecent assault on boys aged 12 to 15. + + (12) 1991, Newfoundland. 9 Christian Brothers charged with sexual and +physical abuse of boys in their care at Mt. Cashel orphanage. + + (13) 1991, Minneapolis USA. Rev Thurner admits sexual abuse of a boy. +The Archdiocese had known of his paedophilia since 1982. + + (14) 1991, Ontario, Canada. Rev. Pappi convicted of 2 charges of +'sexual interference' of two 13 year old boys. + + (15) 1991, England. Baptist Minister Ashby Breneman jailed for +molesting 6 boys at his Christian Youth camp. + + (16) 1991, Arlington USA. Fr. Chleboski charged with 6 counts of +molesting a 13 yr. old boy, student of Our Lady of Victory School. + + (17) 1991, Hamilton, New Zealand. Lay Minister Whalley jailed for +indecent assault on a 10 yr. old boy. Had 5 previous convictions. His +Church had sought to keep him out of court. + + (18) 1988-1991, New Orleans USA. Fr. Cinel is discovered to posses +huge collection of child pornography, including 160 hrs. of homemade +videotapes depicting himself - and his dog - in homosexual acts with boys. +After a public outcry, the Catholic DA reluctantly charges Cinel with 60 +separate counts of possessing child porn, in 1991. + + (19) 1991. Civil suit brought against Ferrario, Bishop of Honolulu for +sexual abuse, 1972-1982, by David Figueroa, who states he had been abused +by priests since 1964, when he was 5. + + * * * + + "Because of the position of trust and authority a priest holds in a +child's life, when sexual abuse takes place the greatest damage done to the +child is the betrayal of trust. The damage is much more severe than sexual +abuse by a stranger or baby-sitter." + + Dr Mulry Tetlow, clinical psychiatrist & ex-Jesuit priest + + EXPOSE THIS OUTRAGE + + + SUPPORT THE + + INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST + + CHRISTIAN CHILD ABUSE + +Read: Child Abuse - The Reality. Fully documented, illustrated, book. $10.00 + + Stickers "Stop Christian Child Abuse.: Illustrated. $5/50. + + Leaflets. Distribute this leaflet. $5.00/100 + + PLEASE MAKE CHEQUES PAYABLE TO 'REALIST PUBLICATIONS' + P.O. BOX 38 262 PETONE WELLINGTON NEW ZEALAND diff --git a/religious documents/cd-bba.txt b/religious documents/cd-bba.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db97d54 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cd-bba.txt @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ + BEING BORN AGAIN + + Delivers you to a safer place in the Universe. + + by Clayton Davis + + You are a spirit. You have a soul. And you live in a body. + Your body produces feelings of pleasure, hunger, pain, and trembling. + Your soul is your mind, intellect and emotions. Your mind produces + reason, judgement, logic. + Your spirit is the real you. It produces conscience. And that will +guide your mind. Your spirit lives forever, someplace,with its chosen god. +It very likely may not be with God, the creator of the heavens and the earth. +It might be with Satan,unless the right choice has to be made by each +individual's mind. + Adam's spirit, body, and soul were perfect when first +created. Then his mind chose to disobey. His body would have lived forever, +because it was a glorified body in the same manner as Jesus' body is +glorified. + The original version of your spirit is contaminated by Adam's first +mistake, because we are his descendants. All +messages from it to your mind are Satan's, and thereby selfish. + Being born again means each individual has made the choice +with the mind to obey God. In that instant the spirit becomes a new thing. +Then it has the same qualities as Adam's had at the moment he was created. + Here is what is meant by the words "born again". Your spirit was +instantaneously recreated. God set up the plan that way. But hold on, right +after you are born again, you will notice your body and mind have the same old +appetites and +thoughts. That's because your body had previously been occupied by a spirit +flawed with Adam's original mistake. For that reason your body was well along +the way to self-destruction by the time your spirit got recreated, or reborn. + After being born again, your mind is still full of habit patterns that it +learned while your spirit had Adam's mistake in it. As time passes, after you +are born again, your conscience begins to retrain your mind to think God's +thoughts. + Each living person gets the opportunity to retake the quiz that Adam and +Eve both flunked. No one else can do it for the individual. It must be done +in the mind of each person. +Listening to fine sermons, joining and attending church, +participating in all the rituals, those will not recreate your spirit. + Having your neighbors, friends and family pray for your soul after your +spirit has departed this earth's body, that is similar to reciting poetry over +a computer after the switch has been turned off. + Gone, it is all gone. The spirit went to be with its chosen +leader, where it will stay for all eternity. + Singing sweet songs as the body is returned to ashes and dust, that is a +grave-side ceremony having no more effect than patting your cold computer atop +its screen after you turned the switch off. + + * * * diff --git a/religious documents/chanayo.txt b/religious documents/chanayo.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e03112e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/chanayo.txt @@ -0,0 +1,251 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU + +The document's ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the +coombspapers top level INDEX file. + +Date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 +=============================================================================== +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his kind +permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, ie. paper +copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, +Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK. Tel (0222) 228858 email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be sent +to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded on in +person by myself - B.F. + +.............................Beginning of file................................. + + +INTRODUCTION + +Because the rules of chado are binding upon both host and guests, these notes +have been prepared so that you are aware of the code of conduct which is +traditionally employed. They are provided in the hope that they will enable +you to enjoy the evening to the full, and will be repeated by the host at the +appropriate time.....so there is no need to worry, provided a visitor acts in +the spirit of harmony and mutual respect, he or she is considered to be an +honoured guest. + +ENTERING + +Before knocking at the door, please note whether water has been sprinkled, or +a container of water placed at the porch. If it has not, please wait. If it +has, please knock, and you will be greeted. Ideally, you should come at 7.30 +p.m., fifteen minutes before the ceremony begins. Please remove your shoes and +leave them in the hall. Anything else not required during the ceremony (hats, +coats etc) should be left in the room at the end of the corridor. This room +also serves as a smoking room during the intermission. + +When asked to enter the 'Dojo', which serves as the tea room on this occasion, +please bow (standing bow) towards the tokonoma (the alcove containing +ornaments). You will see 'safu' placed around the room, and on each of these +will be an envelope in which the utensils brought by you in 'zenrei' and +required for the ceremony, have been placed. Your name will have been written +on the envelope. Please bow to the safu, remove the envelope, and holding it, +sit down, kneeling with your legs on either side of the safu. If you do not +require a safu, pick it up and place it in front of you (it will then be +removed). Place the envelope on the floor to your left. Please remain silent. + +BOWING WHEN SEATED + +Once you are seated all bows are performed from that position. When approached, +spoken to or given food or drink by a principal guest or the host, or when +addressing one of these, you should bow 'shinrai' (the hands as in 'zarai', but +the back and head bowed slightly less), and when addressing or responding to +another guest the 'sorai' bow should be used (fingertips only touch the floor, +and the back and head are bowed fractionally). + +THE USE OF UTENSILS + +The items brought for the ceremony are used as follows: +One cotton cloth is used to wipe a bowl, or the edge of a bowl, when you have +used it. +The silk cloth is used to pat around your mouth between drinks or courses. +The second cotton cloth (or paper napkin) is used as a pad to support the bowl +which you are using, and as insulation. +The short skewer is used for picking up dry and moist sweetmeats. +The longer skewer is used for picking up small savouries. + +THE KAISEKI MEAL + +Because of the varied tastes of the guests, and so as not to cause offence to +anyone, the Kaiseki meal prepared for this occassion has been varied slightly +from the traditional fare. Please allow the principal guest(s) who have served +you to start before you each time. + +We begin with a bowl of hot water to drink in order to clear the palate. When +you have finished, please wipe the bowl and place it to your right side, then +pat your mouth dry. + +When all the guests have finished, you are at liberty to chat. The conversation +during the ceremony is usually about the meal, the occassion, the utensils, or +the decorations. Questions on these matters are welcomed by the host, but +'gossip' should be avoided since it is considered an insult to the occassion. + +The meal proper begins with a bowl of miso soup with 'ocean and mountain' +garnish. (You drink direct from the bowl, first turning it twice in a clockwise +direction, ninety degrees each time). This soup, and its garnish, are entirely +vegan. You will also receive a puffed rice cake to eat with the soup. You +should hold it on the flat of your hand, holding the open napkin underneath with +the other hand to catch any pieces which might escape. The topping is all +edible, and is again a vegan form of ocean and mountain food, designed to +complement the soup garnish. + +When putting the soup bowl down in order to eat the rice cake, the bowl should +be placed on the floor to your right. When you have finished, as a signal, +please place the bowl on the floor in front of you. When everyone has finished, +it will be collected. + +You are next presented with specially prepared vol au vont cases containing +seafood. For those guests who do not eat shellfish, rice crackers with soya +spread will be presented. It is for these savories that the longer skewers are +used. When you have finished, place the longer skewer in front of you. + +When everyone has finshed their savouries, the long skewers and platters etc +will be removed, after which silence should be observed whilst the kettle is +put on for tea. Warm saki is then poured by the host for each guest (water +will be poured for those guests who do not drink alcohol), using the small +bowls originally used for the hot water. When everybody has been served, on a +signal from the host, everybody lifts their bowl and after turning it a half +circle in two quarter turns (clockwise), drinks inunison, taking only one small +sip, then placing the bowl on the floor to the left. Small sweetmeats are also +offered at this time, one being a red bean jelly cube, and the other a marzipan +ball with glace cherry topping, on a green marzipan base. It is traditional to +take only one of the cubes, but two of the glace cherry topped sweets may be +taken, each being skewered with the shorter skewer and placed on the napkin. + +When the principal guest(s) have resumed eating and drinking, speaking may +begin again; the sweetmeets are eaten, and the sake drunk. When you have +finished the sake, the rim of the cup should be wiped before it is put down in +front of you. + +INTERMISSION + +A short intermission follows (fifteen minutes). During this period, those who +wish to smoke should withdraw to the outer room. Traditionally, this time is +used to view and comment on the decorations in the room, contents of the +tokonoma, screens, utensils, artifacts, etc. A gong or bell is struck when it +is time to continue with the taking of tea. Guests having a gift to present, +either to 'show a true face', or to mark the occassion, should bring them into +the dojo at this stage of the proceedings and place them behind the safu before +sitting, since this is the beginning of the final and most important stage of +the ceremony. + +TAKING TEA + +Thick (strong) tea is taken without general conversation, although polite +comments or pleasantaries are often exchanged quietly between guests and the +host, or between the principal guest(s) and others. + +When all the guests have taken their places, the host begins to prepare the +'thick' tea. Using the ladle, he pours a little hot water into the ceremonial +bowl, pours it out, and wipes the bowl with a special cloth. This is known as +'purifying the bowl'. + +He then scoops some powdered tea into the bowl, arranging it into a small mound +in the centre. This is repeated as many times as is required, according to the +number of guests present. Hot water is then ladled onto the tea, which is then +kneaded into a paste with the whisk. More water is then added until the bowl +contains the right amount of liquid. + +The utensils are then wiped, and the bowl is slid along the floor to the +principal guest, who (after bowing) picks it up, bows with it in his hands (a +clean cloth/pad must be used), and makes an apology to the other guests (for +taking tea before them). He (or she) then turns the bowl as previously, and +sips from it. The edge of the bowl is then wiped, turned, and passed to the +next guest, who turns it, sips the tea, wipes it and passes it on, until all +the guests have drunk from it. + +Traditionally, each guest takes three and a half sips of thick tea, but there +are usually only three guests at a tea ceremony, and a maximum of five. Since +we are honoured by having so many guests this evening, and wish to use our most +special ceremonial bowl, you are asked to take only one sip before passing the +bowl to the next guest. + +The last guest to drink returns the bowl to the host, bowing when doing so. +Conversation may then resume. + +Dry sweets are offered next, and up to three of these may be taken, being +placed on the silk napkin to the left, to await the serving of thin (weak) tea. +These sweets are vegetarian, but not vegan. + +The small tea bowls will have been removed and washed by this time, and will be +in the possession of the host. It is traditional for one small bowl to be used, +this being filled, the tea drunk by the first guest, and the bowl cleaned and +refilled for the next guest...etc. However, this would be impracticable with +so many guests as are present on this occassion. For this reason, a bowl of +thin tea will be prepared for each guest in his or her own bowl. + +When your bowl is slid to you, you should pick it up in the right hand and +place the left hand (with pad) underneath it. When the principal guest(s) +begin, the tea should be drunk, and the dry sweets eaten. When you have +finished, please put away the small bowl. This marks the completion of tea +drinking. + +PRESENTING GIFTS + +If the host has a gift to present to a guest, it is presented now. Similarly, +if any gifts are to be exchanged or presented by guests, this is the part of +the ceremony when it should occur. If he has a gift to present, the host bows +towards the guest for whom it is intended, who should then rise and approach +the host, sitting again in the kneeling posture. The gift is then presented. + +When the host has presented his gift(s), guests should present theirs to each +other if this is their intention, but it is the presenter who rises and goes +to the potential recipient, taking the gift with him or her. If a gift is to +be made to the host, it is left until the guests have exchanged gifts between +them, if this is their intention, since the receipt of gifts by the host marks +the end of the ceremony. + +CHADO + +The 'Way of Tea' is intended to be a microcosm of life. For this reason it is +the function of the host to attempt to symbolise a particular aspect of life +through the food and drink provided in the ceremony. On this occasion the +intention has been to provide each of the five tastes, namely, bitter, sweet, +sour, spicy, and salty. + +The 'Chado' ceremony which you have graciously consented to attend this evening +is performed in the manner known as 'Wabi Cha', which means 'tea of simple +taste', and is conducted according to the principles of Ch'an Tao Chia. The +type of Chado ceromony to which it conforms is known as 'Kaiseki', or 'warm +stone'. This type of ceremony is named after the practice of early Taoists and +Zenji, who, frequently being hungry on retiring for the night, would take with +them to bed, a warm stone wrapped in cloth, which was used in much the same way +as a hot water bottle, to relieve the pangs of hunger. The meal provided in +this evening's ceremony is intended to fulfil this function of relieving the +feeling of hunger. + +The philosophy of chado is to engender mutual respect, harmony and tranquility. +It is hoped that this evening's ceremony will go some way towards furthering +that philosophy. + +THE OCCASION + +This evening's ceremony takes place on the fifty-second birthday of Shih-tien +Roshi, who is your host, and has been arranged in order to celebrate the +official opening of The Centre for the Study and Practice of Ch'an Tao Chia, +otherwise known as 'Shih- Tien Gakkai' (The 'Stony Ground' School). It is +therefore intended to be a happy as well as a formal occasion. + +Traditionally, the thick tea used in the tea ceremony provides the bitter taste +referred to earlier, but in order to give consideration to the Western palate, +and because it is hoped that you will remember this evening as a happy rather +than a bitter occasion, one of the principal guests went to considerable trouble +to obtain a Japanese mountain tea which does not have such a bitter 'after- +taste' as exists with some teas used in Chado. The thin tea is also a mountain +tea, but comes from mainland China. By incorporating both Chinese and Japanese +tea in this ceremony, it is intended to have symbolized the fact that Ch'an Tao +Chia owes a debt to the masters from both of these nations. The music played +during the intermission was specially recorded by another principal guest, and +many of the artifacts and utensils used were provided by past and present +students. Our thanks are conveyed to all these good people, as they are to you +for honouring us by your attendance at this gathering. + +................................End of file.................................... + + diff --git a/religious documents/charge.txt b/religious documents/charge.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c644e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/charge.txt @@ -0,0 +1,98 @@ + + The Charge of the Goddess + + + Whenever ye have need of any thing, once in the month, and + better it be when the moon is full, then shall ye assemble in + some secret place and adore the spirit of She, who is Queen of + all witches. There shall ye assemble, ye who are fain to learn + all sorcery, yet have not won its deepest secrets; to these will + She teach things that are yet unknown. And ye shall be free from + slavery; and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked + in your rites; and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and + love, all in Her praise. For Hers is the ecstasy of the spirit, + and Hers also is joy on earth; for Her law is love unto all + beings. Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it; let + naught stop you or turn you aside. For Hers is the secret door + which opens upon the land of youth and Hers is the cup of wine of + life, and the cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of + immortality. She is the gracious goddess, who gives the gift of + joy unto the heart of man. Upon earth, She gave the knowledge of + the spirit eternal; and beyond death, She gives peace and + freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor does + She demand sacrifice, for behold, She is the mother of all + living, and Her love is poured out upon the earth. + + She who is the beauty of the green earth, and the white moon + among the stars, and the mystery of the waters, and the desire of + the heart of man, calls unto thy soul. Arise, and come unto Her. + For She is the soul of nature, who gives life to the universe. + from Her all things proceed, and unto Her all things must return; + and before Her face, beloved of gods and men, let thine innermost + divine self be enfolded in the rapture of the infinite. Let Her + worship be within the heart that rejoiceth; for behold, all acts + of love and pleasure are Her rituals. And therefore let there be + beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, + mirth and reverence within you. And thou who thinkest to seek + Her, know thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not unless + thou knowest the mystery; that if that which thou seekest thou + findest not within thee, then thou wilt never find it without + thee. For behold, She has been with thee from the beginning; and + She is that which is attained at the end of desire. + + + + The Charge of the God + + Listen to the words of the Horned God, the Guardian of all + things wild and free, and Keeper of the Gates of Death, + whose Call all must answer: + + I am the fire within your heart... + The yearning of your Soul. + I am the Hunter of Knowledge + and the Seeker of the Holy Quest + I - who stand in the darkness of light + am He whom you have called Death. + I - the Consort and Mate of Her we adore, + call forth to thee. + Heed my call beloved ones, + come unto me and learn the secrets of death and peace. + I am the corn at harvest + and the fruit on the trees. + I am He who leads you home. + Scourge and Flame, + Blade and Blood - + these are mine and gifts to thee. + + Call unto me in the forest wild + and on hilltop bare + and seek me in the Darkness Bright. + I - who have been called; + Pan, + Herne, + Osiris , + and Hades, + speak to thee in thy search. + Come dance and sing; + come live and smile, + for behold: + this is my worship. + You are my children and I am thy Father. + On swift night wings + it is I who lay you at the Mother's feet + to be reborn and to return again. + Thou who thinks to seek me, + know that I am the untamed wind, + the fury of storm and passion in your Soul. + Seek me with pride and humility, + but seek me best with love and strength. + For this is my path, + and I love not the weak and fearful. + Hear my call on long Winter nights + and we shall stand together guarding Her Earth + as She sleeps. + +Darwydd MacTara. + + diff --git a/religious documents/charge1.txt b/religious documents/charge1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..21952e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/charge1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ +ab:charge1.txt 16jan90 + + + The Charge (prose version) + +HP stands to HPS's left; both face Coven. + +HP: "Listen to the words of the Great Mother; she who of old was also + called among men Artemis, Astarte, Athene, Dione, Melusine, + Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Cybele, Arianrhod, Isis, Dana, Bride and by + many other names. At her altars the youth of Lacedaemon in Sparta + made due sacrifice." + +HPS: "Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month, and better it + be when the moon is full, then shall ye assemble in some secret + place and adore the spirit of me, who am Queen of all the + witcheries. There shall ye assemble, ye who are fain to learn all + sorcery, yet have not won its deepest secrets; to these will I + teach things that are yet unknown. And ye shall be free from + slavery; and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked in + your rites; and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and love, + all in my praise. For mine is the ecstasy of the spirit, and mine + also is joy on earth; for my law is love unto all beings. Keep pure + your highest ideal; strive ever towards it; let naught stop you or + turn you aside. + For mine is the secret door which opens upon the Land of Youth, and + mine is the cup of the wine of life, and the Cauldron of Cerridwen, + which is the Holy Grail of immortality. I am the Gracious Goddess, + who gives the gift of joy unto the heart of man. Upon earth, I give + the knowledge of the spirit eternal; and beyond death, I give peace + and freedom and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor do I + demand aught in sacrifice; for behold, I am the Mother of all + living, and my love is poured out upon the earth." + +HP: "Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess; she in the dust of whose feet + are the hosts of heaven, and whose body encircles the Universe." + +HPS: "I who am the beauty of the green earth, and the white Moon among + the stars, and the mystery of the waters, and the desire of the + heart of man, call unto thy soul. Arise, and come unto me. + For I am the soul of nature, who gives life to the universe. + From me all things proceed, and unto me all things must return; and + before my face, beloved of Gods and of men, let thine innermost + divine self be enfolded in the rapture of the infinite. + Let my worship be within the heart that rejoiceth; for behold, + all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. And therefore + let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, + honour and humility, mirth and reverence within you. + And thou who thinkest to seek for me, know thy seeking and yearning + shall avail thee not unless thou knowest the mystery; + that if that which thou seekest thee findest not within thee, + thou wilt never find it without thee. For behold, I have been + with thee from the beginning; and I am that which is attained + at the end of desire." +---------- +-Lots of published sources + eg. Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way" + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/charge2.txt b/religious documents/charge2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a6c53d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/charge2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +ab:charge2.txt 16jan90 + + + The Charge + (Verse Version) + + +HPS: "All ye assembled in my sight, + Bow before my spirit bright. + Aphrodite, Arionrhod, + Lover of the Horned God, + Mighty Queen of Witchery and night. + Morgan, Etoine, Nisene, + Diana, Bridgid, Melusine, + Am I named of old by men. + Artemis and Cerridwen, + Hell's dark mistress, Heaven's Queen. + Ye who would ask of me a rune, + Or who would ask of me a boon, + Meet me in some secret glade, + Dance my round in greenwood shade, + By the light of the full moon. + In a place wild and lone, + Dance about mine altar stone; + Work my holy mystery. + Ye who are feign to sorcery, + I bring ye secrets yet unknown. + No more shall ye know slavery, + Who give true worship unto me. + Ye who tread my round on Sabbat night, + Come ye all naked to the rite, + In token that ye be really free. + I teach ye the mystery of rebirth, + Work ye my mysteries in mirth. + Heart joined to heart and lip to lip, + Five are the points of fellowship, + That bring ye ecstasy on earth, + For I am the circle of rebirth. + I ask no sacrifice, but do bow, + No other Law but love I know, + By naught but love may I be known. + All things living are mine own, + From me they come, to me they go." +---------- +-Lots of published sources + eg. "Grimoire of Lady Sheba" +-Originally written by Doreen Valiente for GBG. That version was somewhat + different from the one given here. See Dorren Valiente's "The Rebirth of + Witchcraft" diff --git a/religious documents/charis04.txt b/religious documents/charis04.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a24622 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/charis04.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/charis06.txt b/religious documents/charis06.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f47959 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/charis06.txt @@ -0,0 +1,742 @@ + +The following message was delivered at Grace Community Church in Panorama +City, California, By John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, +GC 90-57, titled "Charismatic Chaos" Part 6. A copy of the tape can be +obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. + +I have made every effort to ensure that an accurate transcription of the +original tape was made. Please note that at times sentence structure may +appear to vary from accepted English conventions. This is due primarily to +the techniques involved in preaching and the obvious choices I had to make in +placing the correct punctuation in the article. + +It is my intent and prayer that the Holy Spirit will use this transcription +of the sermon, "Charismatic Chaos" Part 6, to strengthen and encourage the +true Church of Jesus Christ. + + + + Charismatic Chaos - Part 6 + + "The Third Wave" + by + John MacArthur + + + +It is a somewhat difficult task that falls to me this evening, to discuss +with you, in the series on "Charismatic Chaos," some of the matters with +regard to a movement known as the "The Third Wave." I cannot, by any means, +consider all of the issues, nor can I speak of all those who represent that +movement. But I do want to give you some perspective so that you can be +alert and aware in regard to what is happening. + +Of all of the elements of the Charismatic movement, that are contemporary to +us today, this one is getting the most press. Of all the questions that are +asked to me by people who write and call with regard to issues facing us in +the Charismatic movement, this is the most commonly discussed one. The main +figure in what is known as the "Third Wave" is a man by the name of John +Wimber who is pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Anaheim. He is +the major figure in this movement that has come to be known as the "Third +Wave of the Holy Spirit." It is sometimes called the "Signs and Wonders" +movement. And this latest Charismatic tide seems to have swept across the +globe in the last decade. It is literally everywhere in the English speaking +parts of the world. + +The term the "Third Wave" was coined by C. Peter Wagner who is a Missions +professor at Fuller Seminary and the author of several books on church +growth. He is really the leading proponent of the Third Wave philosophy and +methodology. According to Wagner, he said, "The First Wave was the +Pentecostal Movement, the Second Wave was the Charismatic Movement, and now +the Third Wave is joining them." And by that he means an inundating wave of +the power of the Holy Spirit manifesting itself in visible ways. And while +acknowledging the Third Wave's spiritual ancestry, that is, that it is the +third of those three, Wagner nonetheless rejects the label "Charismatic and +Pentecostal." In fact, most of the people in the Third Wave don't want to be +identified in that way. Wagner says, + + The Third Wave is a new moving of the Holy Spirit among + evangelicals who for one reason or another have chosen not to + identify with either the Pentecostals or the Charismatics. Its + roots go back a little further but I see it as mainly a movement + beginning in the 1980's and gathering momentum through the + closing years of the 20th century. I see the Third Wave as + distinct from, but at the same time, very similar to the first + and second waves. They have to be similar because it is the + same Spirit of God who is doing the work. The major variation + comes in the understanding of the meaning of "Baptism in the + Holy Spirit" and the role of tongues in authenticating this. I + myself, for example, would rather not have people call me a + Charismatic, I do not consider myself a Charismatic, I am simply + an Evangelical Congregationalist who is open to the Holy Spirit + working through me and my church in any way He chooses. + +He refuses the label "Charismatic," not primarily because of any doctrinal +distinction, but primarily because of the stigma attached to the name. It's +important for me to mention that to you because if you talk to someone in the +Third Wave they might endeavor to distance themselves from classic +Pentecostalism or more contemporary Charismaticism, but the fact is that they +are basically the Third Wave by their own admission of the very same kind of +theology. It is accurate then to see the Third Wave as part of the whole +Charismatic movement as we know it. While it is true that many who identify +with the Third Wave will avoid using the term "Charismatic" and they'll even +avoid using Charismatic jargon when writing or speaking about Spirit Baptism +or other issues. Basically, the theology is the same. The terminology may +change; the theology is for all intents and purposes identical. Most Third +Wave teaching and preaching that I have listened to, that I have read, echoes +standard Charismatic theology, and therefore in evaluating the Third Wave, we +would assume that it is safe to say that the other issues that we have been +discussing, that we find unbiblical in the Charismatic movement, are +generally true of this movement as well, although there may be some +individuals in the movement who would vary from that. + +So at its very core it is an element of the Charismatic movement. At its +core is an obsession with sensational experiences, a preoccupation with the +"Charismata" that is, tongues, healings, prophecies, words of knowledge, +visions, and ecstatic experiences, and that is, of course, where we find the +indisputable link between the Third Wave and the Charismatic and Pentecostal +movements. In all three movements there is a major absorption with these +supernatural, sensational kind of power encounters or power displays as they +like to call them. They de-emphasize what you and I would know as the +traditional means of spiritual growth: prayer, Bible study, the teaching of +the Word, and the fellowship of other believers. They don't intend to do +that and they wouldn't do that in statement or even in print. But because of +the very surpassing emphasis on the sensational experiences, those matters +tend to get pushed significantly, if not all together, into the background. +Pentecostals, Charismatics, and Third Wavers, all will affirm that any +Christian who is not experiencing some supernatural events, some supernatural +giftedness, some kinds of healings, some kinds of prophecies, words of +knowledge, or manifestations of the Spirit of God, in visible tangible ways, +is really stuck at a low level of spiritual progress; is denying the full +power of God and denying himself the blessing of God. + +Now, while those in the Third Wave would like to distance themselves from the +first and second wave, because of its excesses. The truth of the matter is, +the third wave has not managed to avoid any of the excesses that are +characteristic of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. In fact, there +are some in the Charismatic movement who want to distance themselves from the +Third Wavers because they feel that they go to excesses that even those +Charismatics wouldn't go to. + +A visit, for example, to the Vineyard, would reveal to you all the commotion +of many people speaking in tongues at the same time. It would reveal to you +intense kind of emotional experiences going on where people were falling on +the floor and laying in prone positions for as long as an hour, some people +with their limbs extended. It would reveal to you people giving multiple +prophecies, some of them rather bizarre, and some of them with poor grammar, +and yet claiming they come from the Lord. There would be likely an +experience in which they would clear the floor of chairs and they would be +dancing around in a completely liberated fashion in any form that they would +choose to do that, with people again perhaps falling over, climbing on +chairs, dancing on the top of chairs, and doing all the things that once were +associated with what we used to call, "Holy Rollers." In fact, Chuck Smith, +pastor of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, told one researcher, "John Wimber has +absorbed every abhorrent teaching developed by the Pentecostals into his +teaching." + +Now, all I want you to understand is that the Third Wave people very often +want to see themselves as mainline evangelical. They want to distance +themselves from the Pentecostal, Charismatic excesses, and yet it seems to be +true that the excesses that occurred in both the Pentecostal and Charismatic +movements are very characteristic of the Third Wave as well. What makes them +a bit different is that they can line up some teachers and leaders that +appear to have more academic credentials than has been true in the +Charismatic and Pentecostal movement. That may mean, that in the future, +there will be some correctives that will come to some of those excesses, +which as of yet has not taken place. But despite all of their claims to the +contrary, Third Wave apologists have had astonishing success in selling their +movement as a non-Charismatic phenomena. Unsuspecting churches, and I think +unsuspecting denominations have opened their doors and their pulpits to Third +Wave teachers, I think because of their academic credentials and because they +claim not to be in the line of the Charismatics, but in fact, they are. + +If you look very closely at the Third Wave you will see in it the very same +kind of things you see typically in the Charismatic movement. And so I want +to do a little bit closer inspection, and as I said we can't by any means +exhaust this in the next half hour or so as we examine it, but I will try to +put you in touch with some of the issues that need to be addressed in a much +more comprehensive way than I'll be able to do tonight. But I hope that I +can give you enough information to set you in the right direction. + +I want to just consider maybe four of the promises that the Third Wave makes +that need to be inspected rather carefully. The first promise they make is +that they are experiencing supernatural Signs and Wonders, and that these +Signs and Wonders come at a rather proliferated rate. That is to say they +are not abnormal, they are not uncommon, they are not few and far between, +but rather they are normal, common, and very often come in a flurry. They +believe that fantastic Signs and Wonders demonstrate the genuineness of their +movement. The fact is that we cannot turn our back on it because +supernatural things are happening all the time. Miraculous phenomena is at +the very heart of the Third Wave credo and experience. + +Third Wave people are persuaded they are having miracles, they are having +visions, they are speaking in tongues, giving prophecies, predicting the +future, reading peoples minds (that is, they can stand up in a meeting and +tell you your home address, your mother's maiden name, your father's mother's +maiden name), and all of those kinds of things that we have always associated +with people like the "Amazing Crescan" (sp.) who purvey a certain kind of +magic, a certain kind of con art or whatever you want to call it. But they +are into these very same kind of things. In fact, it was interesting to me +that one of their leaders said that the key to his really "buying into" and +believing this whole thing was when one of their prophets stood up and told +him, and told the whole audience, his mother's maiden name and the true first +name of his father who was only known by a nickname. + +And so they believe that these kind of things are happening, that there are +healings; that there are resurrections from the dead, and they frankly view +Christianity without those things as impotent and adulterated by the western +materialistic mindset. And [they believe that] unless we can escape the +western materialistic mindset and catapult ourselves into the Third World +paradigm, and begin to think in terms of mystical phenomena, we are going to +be locked into a very shallow kind of Christianity. Signs and Wonders also +would be the key, they believe, to Third Wave evangelism. Third Wavers say +that unbelievers must experience the miraculous in order to be brought to +full faith. Merely preaching the gospel message, they believe, will never +reach the world for Christ. + +One of their leaders has said, "That we cannot evangelize the world with the +simple gospel, apart from Signs and Wonders." This, in spite of the fact, +that Paul, in Romans 1, says that the simple gospel is the power of God unto +salvation to everyone who believes. But merely preaching the gospel, they +believe, isn't going to do it, it'll never reach the world for Christ. Most +people will not believe without seeing miracles, they say, and those who do +will be inadequately converted, and therefore stunted in their spiritual +growth. John Wimber, himself, cites Elijah's confrontation with the prophets +of Baal on Mount Carmel, as a classic example of power encounter, where the +power of God vanquishes the power of evil. + +Similar Signs and Wonders, say third wave gurus are the chief means we will +be using to spread the gospel. And so what they are doing is traveling all +over the world endeavoring to teach the Church how to do Signs and Wonders. +And you will hear them openly confess, even the leaders at the highest level +and those that are kind of developing into their next generation of leaders, +that they are learning how to do miracles. They are learning how to heal the +sick, raise the dead, read minds, tell people their address and phone +numbers, and their names of their parents. They are learning to do that, +they are learning to call out healings, they are learning to read behind +somebody's face and see the sin that is in them. They are learning to do +that, because that is very essential if they are going to convince the world +that the message is from God. + +Modern miracles workers have yet to call down fire from heaven as did Elijah, +but they may be working on that as well. Third Wave officials tell of some +fantastic Signs and Wonders, Wimber, for example, reported an incident where +a woman's toe, which had been cut off, supposedly grew back. He described +another woman in Australia whose cleft palate closed up miraculously three +days after God him a "word of knowledge" that she would be healed. Wagner +recounted a report from an Argentine faith healer, who's in the movement, by +the name of Carlos Anacondia (sp.), who said, two particular manifestations +of the Holy Spirit seem to impress unbelievers more than anything else in his +crusades, "falling in the power of the Spirit" and "filling teeth." On a +fairly regular basis, decayed teeth are filled and new teeth grow where there +were none before. Interestingly enough, according to Anacondia, most +unbeliever's teeth are filled and very few believers get their teeth filled. +Now, I don't why he said that, or even why that's supposedly true, but I have +another question, "Why does God fill teeth instead of just giving them new +teeth as long as He is going to do it?" + +But, nonetheless, whether you are talking about Wagner or Wimber, they are +convinced that these miracles are happening. They are at least trying to +convince us they are happening. Both of them are convinced, for example, at +least from what they say, that many dead people are being raised from the +dead. Many of them, not just some, not just a few, but many. And it is +really difficult to resist the conclusion that these are either utter +fabrications, that have just grown with the telling, or that these people are +so caught in the wish that these things come to pass, that they have +convinced themselves that in fact they do. In the two cases that I mentioned +to you from John Wimber, he maintains that medical doctors witnessed the +events, yet he offers no documentation. + +And you have to ask the question somewhere along the line, "Why don't they +publish proof that these events really took place?" It would seem to me that +if people are being raised from the dead, at a fairly regular clip through +the year, some of these people could show up somewhere and there could be +some evidence. Particularly if they had been in the grave for several days +like Lazarus, because somebody would have been there to see them put in the +ground. And we wonder why they don't publish the proof of these things, +phenomena such as digit and limb replacement, the healing of birth defects, +supernatural dentistry, and raising the dead. It seems to me that it would +be rather easy to document. It would certainly help bring about the kind of +world wide response the Third Wave people say they are hoping to have. + +To borrow from one of them, you can only imagine if they could take four +quadriplegics and instantly heal them of their quadriplegia. Four who were +well known by many and been known for years to be in that condition, and they +could step out of the wheel chair and be absolutely 100% whole. It wouldn't +seem too difficult a thing to present the evidence for that. And it would +seem to me to be quite a powerful statement. + +But a pattern has begun to emerge from the Third Wave literature, and that is +this, the truly spectacular miracles always seem to involve nameless people. +Real people's miracles tend to be mundane and hard to prove: cures involving +back pain, inner healings, migraine relief, emotional deliverance, ringing in +the ears, maybe some internal problem that is stated but not verified. The +only time you get a detailed, step-by-step, carefully laid out description of +a healing situation is an occasion when the healing doesn't happen. You hear +rather oblique references to the healing that did happen, and rather detailed +descriptions of the ones that don't. + +A prime example is Wagner's account of his friend Tom Brewster, a paraplegic, +who believed in healing. Brewster was so hopeful that God would heal him +that he even distributed a "Declaration of Expectation" to his friends--an +expression of his faith that he would one day walk. That faith never +wavered, Wagner says, though it had been almost thirty years since a diving +accident left him confined to a wheel chair. But the miracle never came. +Brewster died after unsuccessful bladder surgery. It's difficult to read +that account without noting how markedly it contrasts with the many supposed +miracles that these Third Wave people account. The most dramatic miracles +come with only sketchy details and are almost nearly always anonymous. +Rarely do they ever involve people who are known personally to those who +report the miracles. You understand that? They are not first hand. And +whenever you hear the story told about the first hand it seems to have a sad +ending. + +Perhaps the most significant man in the life of John Wimber was a British +Anglican who died of cancer, much to the great dismay and concern and sorrow +of John. A group of five medical doctors, Christians, attended a recent +conference the Third Wave had. These men were hoping to establish the truth +of the claims that miraculous healings were taking place. One of them, +Doctor Philip Seldon (sp.) reported, + + The fact that John Wimber knew we were present and observing may + have served to tone down the claims which we understand were + made at previous conferences. Mr. Wimber, himself, referred to + bad backs and indicated that people could expect pain relief but + no change which could be documented by a doctor. He admitted + that he had never seen a degenerated vertebrae restored to + normal shape. And as I suspected, most of the conditions which + were prayed over were in the psychosomatic, trivial, or + medically difficult to document categories. Problems with left + great toe, nervous disorder, breathing problems, barrenness, + unequal leg lengths, bad backs and neck. + +The doctor concluded, "At this stage we are unaware of any organic healings +which could be proven." + +Now, what explanation is given for people who are not healed, because we know +that many people must go there who have real problems. Right? I mean, if +you hear that miracles are being done and you are looking for that to happen +in your life--you are going to go. And people do not get healed--obviously. +The reasons given are: some people don't have faith in God for healing; +another reason, personal unconfessed sin creates a barrier to God's healing +power; another one they say is persistent and widespread disunity, sin, and +unbelief in bodies of believers and families, inhibits healings in individual +members of the body. + +In other words, they will say, one, "You don't have enough faith to be +healed. Your lack of faith is hindering God." Or they will say, "You have +unconfessed sin in your life and you put a barrier between you and God." Or +they will say, "You are going to a church that doesn't believe in healings so +you are not going to get healed as long as you are in that environment." Or +they will say, "Because of incomplete or incorrect diagnosis of what is +causing your problem, you do not know how to pray correctly, and if you don't +know what your problem is you can't pray correctly to get it fixed, it won't +get fixed, or it might not." "And some people," they say further, don't get +healed because they assume that God always heals instantly, and when they +don't get instantly healed they stop praying, so they don't get healed. + +Oddly enough, John Wimber, himself, said, "I never blame the sick person for +lack of faith if healing doesn't come." That's a contradictory statement. +And eventually he is still trying to piece together the theology of this. He +struggles, because he said also, "I have a continually expanding group of +disgruntled people who have come for healing and don't get it." + +Now, the reality is, with the Third Wave, with all of its emphasis on signs +and wonders, it has produced nothing really verifiable that qualifies in the +New Testament sense as an authentic sign or wonder, at least nothing that +they have made available. Jesus' miracles must, after all, be the standard +by which we make an evaluation. Right? No one before Jesus or since has +performed as many signs and wonders as He did during His earthly ministry. +His miracles were strikingly different from those produced by the modern +signs and wonders movement. None involved psychosomatic infirmities, all +were visible and verifiable, they were, in short, true signs and wonders. + +We learned some other things about the miracles from our Lord's ministry, +chiefly that miracles do not necessarily produce faith in an unbelieving +heart. Let me say that again, they do not necessarily produce faith in an +unbelieving heart. I don't want to say that there aren't times when God can +use or has used the miraculous to produce or to assist in producing faith. +Faith is a gift from God but it is possible that a miracle has been a +component in God bringing about that faith. But that is not necessarily what +happens, and that certainly cannot be guaranteed to happen. In fact, in the +Gospel of John, Jesus did many signs and many wonders. In fact, He +proliferated that entire nation of Palestine with signs and wonders. And the +people were able to see them and even to participate in them, such as in the +feeding of the Great Multitude. + +The net effect of all of that tremendous, tremendous, miracle working +enterprise could be summed up in the words of John 12:37, "But though He had +performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him." +There is no guarantee that because there are miracles there will be saving +faith. It is true that as I said, God may use miracles to bring about faith. +In Acts 9, you might want to look at it for a moment; in Acts, chapter 9, in +verse 32, "Peter was traveling through all those parts," writes Luke. "He +came down to the saints who lived at Lydda. And there he found a certain man +named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years, for he was paralyzed. And +peter said to him, 'Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; arise, and make your +bed.' And immediately he arose. And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw +him, and they turned to the Lord." + +If you were to read into the next section, in Joppa, there was a woman there +named Tabitha (or Dorcas). She died and Peter was used to bring her back to +life. And in verse 42 it says, "And it became known all over Joppa, and many +believed in the Lord." We don't want to say categorically, that there would +never be a time when God wouldn't cause some miraculous act to be a component +in the producing of faith. But that seems to be the minority effect. The +majority seem not to have such a response. In spite of all of Jesus' +miracles, raising the dead, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, +having authority over demons, the people rejected Him, the people crucified +Him, and at the time of His death there were only about 120 followers +gathered in the Upper Room, and that after several years of miraculous acts. + +The gospels contain numerous examples of people who witnessed Jesus' signs, +who witnessed His wonders, and yet remained in utter unbelief. He rebuked +the cities where He performed most of His miracles: He rebuked Korazim, +Bethsedia, He rebuked Capernaum, because they didn't repent, and because they +had seen so many miracles. And He even says that they were even worse off +than Sodom and Gomorrah, because Sodom and Gomorrah, as bad as it was, would +have repented if it had seen as much as they had seen. John 2:23 tells us +that, "Many believed in His name, because they saw the signs," yet that kind +of belief was not a saving belief. Jesus didn't consider them true +believers, according to verse 24. + +In John, chapter 6, verse 2, the record says that, "A great multitude was +following Him, because they were seeing the signs which He was performing on +those who were sick." And yet, in verse 66, when He began to teach them, and +He began to speak about the spiritual issues that confronted them, it says, +many of the same crowd "withdrew, and were not walking with Him any more." +So there are times when, whatever kind of believing they did, was not +believing unto salvation. In John, chapter 11, Jesus raised Lazarus from the +dead, a monumental miracle. Absolutely monumental! Even His enemies +couldn't deny it, according to John 11:47. But far from believing in Jesus, +that simply accelerated their desire to plot His death. + +Things really weren't much different than that in the Book of Acts, in the +early Church. In Acts 3, Peter and John healed a man who had been lame from +birth and again the Jewish religious leaders didn't deny the miracle had +occurred, according to Acts 4:16. They couldn't deny it, but their response +was far from saving faith. They ordered the Apostles to stop speaking in the +name of Jesus. Go back into the Old Testament and you can examine the record +of Old Testament signs and wonders, they didn't produce saving faith either. +Pharaoh's heart was hardened despite the powerful signs and wonders God did +through Moses. The entire generation of Israelites who witnessed those same +miracles, died in unbelief in the wilderness. It didn't seem to lead them to +any great spiritual level of devotion. + +Despite all the miracles performed during the time of Elijah and Elisha, and +those times when God acted miraculously at other seasons, both Israel and +Judah failed to repent and were ultimately carried away into captivity. In +fact, the very account that John Wimber cites as Biblical justification for +power encounters, Elijah's confrontation with the prophets of Baal, is an +example. The revival produced out of that amazing act by which God sent fire +from heaven and burned up stones and water, the amazing, amazing miracle +produced a very short lived response, and within a few days Elijah was hiding +for fear of his life, and Baal worship continued until God finally judged +Israel. + +Now, that is not to say that signs and wonders were not important when God +used them. It is not to say that they never were used by God to be a part of +the production of faith. But that was not the normal result. They often +attracted people's attention so the gospel message could be [preached], and +people hearing that message were saved. But, miracles and signs and wonders, +in themselves, do not produce saving faith. And so when they say they +promise "signs and wonders" it's questionable whether the "signs and wonders" +are really legitimate, and it's questionable whether the "signs and wonders" +are necessary for producing saving faith, since that is not their purpose in +the Scripture generally. + +Secondly, they make the promise of "Powerful Evangelism," "Power Evangelism." +What they are really doing (and this follows the first point) is being +powerful in terms of turning people to God. My conviction on this, however, +is that what they say is "Powerful Evangelism" lacks, very often, the very +necessary element of evangelism which is a clear proclamation of gospel +truth. The saving message gets badly corrupted and sometimes even omitted. +Third Wave books and Third Wave testimonies are filled with anecdotes about +people who supposedly became Christians on the basis of some miracle they +saw; some supernatural wonder they saw, with little or no mention of the +gospel having been proclaimed to them. + +In fact, in the book, Power Evangelism, which was John Wimber's main book and +sort of set this thing in motion (it's the main textbook on evangelism), +there is no reference in that whole book to the cross of Christ or the +doctrine of the atonement. I understand, now, that some are endeavoring to +instruct him in that matter so that he can understand that, and that there is +a revision of that book coming out which will delineate a clear doctrine of +the atonement and the true gospel. But, up until now it hasn't seemed to be +necessary for the expansion and explosion of the movement. Soteriology, or +the doctrine of salvation, an accurate gospel message, can hardly be +considered as a major thrust of this movement. In all the fuss about the +signs and wonders, the content of the gospel seems to have been given second +place. + +One report goes like this, + + A serious consideration by observers in one of the seminars, was + that there was no gospel in the so-called evangelistic meeting. + The cross of Jesus was not central, the atonement was not + explained, and mankind's need and the provision of redemption + not even cursorily treated. Believing himself to be following + the example of Jesus and the Apostles, John Wimber called out + for those who needed to be healed: bad backs, short legs, neck + pain, and a whole host of diseases. People were asked to stand + and team members dispatched to pray for them while on the stage + John demanded that the Spirit come, and after a few minutes of + silence several screams were heard and people sobbing. A little + later it was declared that people had been healed and God had + given a token as a sign to those who did not believe. In short, + they were asked to base their decision on what they had seen, or + rather the interpretation of what they had seen, and the + sacrifice for sin through Christ didn't even get a mention. I + left wondering what faith people would have been converted to + that night? It didn't seem to resemble New Testament + Christianity. + +Now, I realize that this may be but the observation of one individual, but it +seems as though in reading the material, this is a somewhat common thread. +Peter Wagner says that he marvels that Argentine evangelist, Omar Cabrerra +(sp.) has people saved and healed before he starts preaching. It's a +question to me, how can you get saved before you hear the message? But [it +is] not a question that seems to bother some of them. Most of the Third +Wavers believe that miracles are more effective than the gospel message +preached, that preaching is limited, and I shared some of that with you a +few weeks ago. That somehow preaching is a very poor way to get people to +come to Christ, the least of all ways desirable. Wagner further writes, + + Christianity began with 120 in the Upper Room, within three + centuries it had become the predominant religion of the Roman + Empire. What brought this about? The answer is deceptively + simple, while Christianity was being presented to unbelievers in + both Word and deed, it was the deed that far exceeded the Word + in evangelistic effectiveness. + +That's a remarkable statement: "That the deed is more powerful than the +Word," seems to me to "fly in the face" of Hebrews 4, which says that, "The +Word is sharper than any two-edged sword, and is able to pierce to depths +that nothing else can pierce." The Anglican, Michael Harper says, "Miracles +help people believe." The question is, "Believe what?" Is the gospel being +clearly, carefully delineated? In fact, it has been said that those of us +who don't do signs and wonders, and perform miracles, are doing what they +call "Programmatic Evangelism," instead of "Power Evangelism." It is +insipid, it is powerless, vapid, kind of evangelism. What is needed is +"Power Evangelism," supernatural encounters. Those are the things that bring +people to Christ. + +Two fallacies, at least, lurk in that kind of thinking; both render it +utterly ineffective in winning people to genuine faith in Christ. When +modern miracles become the basis for an evangelistic invitation, the real +message of the gospel somehow becomes incidental. And you would have to be +in a meeting where you would see the "swept away attitude" of people who are +so deeply lost in an emotional experience, and this may not always be the +case, but often the case, that a clear message might not come through. There +is often a mystical, ethereal Jesus who replaces the historical, Biblical +one. And the focus of faith becomes faith in the miraculous, rather than +faith in the Savior Himself. Those who put their trust in modern miracles +are not saved by that faith no matter how earnestly they may believe they +are. You are only saved by putting your faith in Jesus Christ. + +Secondly, Power Evangelism seems to me to be an unbiblical concept. "Faith +comes from hearing," doesn't it? "And hearing the Word of Christ." It is +the gospel, not signs and wonders, that is the power of God unto salvation. +And do you not remember what Luke 16:31 says, "If they do not listen to Moses +and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded though someone rises . . ." +what? "From the dead." Despite the many signs and wonders that Jesus +performed, Jesus didn't practice that kind of Power Evangelism. In fact, He +repeatedly rebuked those who demanded signs, (Matthew 12, 16; Mark 8; Luke +11, 23; John 4). He rebuked the "signs seekers." + +The emphasis of Jesus' ministry was not miracles but preaching. He often +preached without doing signs, without doing wonders. And then in Mark 1:29- +34, we read that Jesus did many miraculous healings in Galilee. Verse 37, +tells us that Peter and the others found Him the next morning and excitedly +said, "Everybody is looking for you. They want to see more of this. They +want to see more signs and more wonders." And Jesus said this, (Mark 1:38) +"Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, in order that I may preach +there also; for that is what I came out for." He came to preach, therein +lies the power. Preaching the Word was more important than the Signs and +Wonders, and I believe the Third Wave is advocating a different approach and +is out of balance with the Bible in that regard. + +Well, there is more to say. Just briefly, let me share two thoughts with +you. They also promise a Biblical orientation, but I am very much afraid of +the fact, and by their own admission, that they have many errors in their +theology. And as I spoke to several of them this week, I asked the question, +"If God is giving Signs and Wonders, is it to authenticate His message?" +Which the answer has to be yes. "Then would you explain to me why the people +who claim to be doing the Signs and Wonders are the ones who have an errant +theology? Why would God be authenticating error?" It would seem to me that +if God was going to give somebody the ability to do Signs and Wonders, thus +to draw people to His message, He would give such a gift and ability to one +who was most capable of articulating accurately the proper message. And by +their own admission they realize that there are many theological +inaccuracies, Biblical inaccuracies, in the movement, and that poses the +unanswerable query as to, "Why in the world would God want to be using +miracles to authenticate those who, as of yet, don't even have their theology +straighten out?" John Wimber would be the first to admit that they are still +accumulating a theology. He made the statement that, "We are drawing +together our experiences so that we can frame up a theology." And it seems +odd to think that God would be vindicating such and authenticating such. + +Furthermore, they are committed to the fact that the Bible is not enough, +that there must be further communication from God. One of their leaders says +that, + + To believe that the Scripture is the end of God's revelation is + a demonic doctrine. In order to fulfill God's highest purpose + for our lives, we must be able to hear His voice both in the + written word and the word freshly spoken from heaven. Satan + understands the strategic importance of Christians hearing God's + Word, so he has launched various attacks against us in this + area. Ultimately, this doctrine, that is, believing that the + Scripture is the end of revelation, is demonic, even though + Christian theologians have been used to perfect it. So + Christian theologians who have perfected the idea that the + Scripture is the end of God's revelation, have perfected a + demonic doctrine, because God is still speaking. + +And there is a great thirst for new revelation, that I believe imposes upon +the movement a low view of Scripture's sufficiency. + +Well, let me just give you a final note. There is much more to say about +that, you can read it in my book [Charismatic Chaos] when it gets here in a +few months. There is just one other thing to note, and so much more that I +would like to say. They claim also an evangelical heritage, they claim also +an evangelical heritage. If you listen to them, you would believe that they +are in the mainstream of evangelicalism, that they are committed to a +traditional, Biblical theology. And yet that is not true. Statements of +faith and creeds are just not a part of that movement. John Wimber's +Vineyard is typical, I am quoting from one writer, + + Another disturbing aspect of the Vineyard's ministry is their + lack of any written statement of faith. Because Vineyard + members come from a variety of denominational backgrounds, the + leadership has avoided setting strong doctrinal standards. This + de-emphasis of doctrine is also consistent with the leadership, + whose backgrounds, theologically include association with the + Quakers, who typically stress the inner experience of God and + mimimize the need for doctrinal expressions of one's + understanding of God. + +That's from the Christian Research Institute. There is no way that they can +connect up with historic, traditional, evangelical, orthodox theology, +because they don't codify doctrine. They don't develop creeds and +theological statements, so how do they know where they stand? And yet in +spite of that, they want to position their movement in the mainstream of +historic evangelicism. They want to emphasize conservative, even +fundamentlist roots, but that does not bear out under examination. The +movement is broadly ecumenical and cencredic. There is an evangelical veneer +but the wide embracing of all kinds of experiences. Now, it is possible that +this could change. There maybe some winds of change, there may be some +doctrinal direction and structure coming, but at the present time this is +true. To reinforce that, may I say, Wimber is as comfortable with Roman +Catholic dogma as he is with evangelicism. He himself defends the Catholic +claims of healings through relics. He advocates a reunification of +Protestants and Catholics. A former associate said, + + During a Vineyard Pastors Conference, he went so far as to + apologize to the Catholic Church on behalf of all Protestants. + In his seminar on Church Planting, he said, the Pope, who by the + way is very responsive to the Charismatic movement and is + himself a "Born Again" evangelical, is preaching the gospel as + clear as anyone in the world today. + +You can see that there is some confusion. In their book on Power Evangelism, +he gives a catalog of individuals and movements. When he wants to seek to +establish Signs and Wonders, he reaches back and He identifies himself with a +whole list of people, Helleron (sp.), a fourth century hermit, Augustine, +Pope Gregory the Great, Francis of Assisi, the Waldenses who opposed the Pope +and were persecuted by the Dominicans, Vincent Ferrera (sp.) who was himself +was a Dominican, Martin Luther, Ignatius of Loyola, John Wesley, and the +Jansenists, a Catholic sect. It's a hodgpoge of all kinds of things. In a +booklet published by the Vineyard, he adds the Shakers. They were a cult +that demanded celibacy and thus went out of existence for obvious reasons. +He puts himself in line with Edward Irving, a discredited leader of the +Irvingnite sect in 19th century England. He also identifies himself with the +supposed healings and miracles worked by an apprition of the Virgin Mary at +Lourdes. So you can see that the heritage is not at all evangelical, but +quite confused. Even Wagner wants to link himself with contempory, positive, +possibility thinking as well as with the Fourth Demensional thinking of +Korean Pastor Paul Yongee Chow (sp.). It's a hodgpog of many, many things. + +All of this to say we need to be alert. We need to be aware. We need to +test all these things by the Word of God. My only hope and prayer for these +people is that someone may come to them, someone who can lead them to a +proper understanding of the truth, pulling them away from this tremendous +preoccupation and domination that comes to them from experiences. +Experiences can be so deadly because they cannot always be certain that they +come from God. + +Well, much more to be said. I guess what I can say in conclusion is, "Don't +be swept away by the Third Wave." And remember this, the only true test of +whether a person or a movement is from God is not Signs and Wonders. A true +test is, teaching in conformity to this Book. And the highest expression of +God's power in the world today is not some spectacular, unusual Sign or +Wonder. The highest expression of God's power in the world today is the +transformation of a soul from darkness to light, from death to life. And +equally wonderus is the tranquil godliness of a Spirit controlled believer. + +Let me just say this in closing, I don't believe for one moment that we have +ministered here at Grace Church for 22 years without the Holy Spirit. And I +don't believe for one moment that we have never known the Power of God. I +shared with these gentlemen, with whom I spoke on Friday, that we see the +power of God, again and again. We saw it tonight, didn't we, when we heard +the testimonies, week in and week out. I see it in the trasformatioon of +your life. I see it in the transformations of your marriage. For the last +several weeks I have been praying for a marriage in our church. It was +coming apart at the seams, really sad, grieving. And I saw, apart from +anything that I did, apart from any intervention by me--God put that marriage +together in a glorious way. We've seen that again and again. I talked to a +mother and a father who had prayed for a wayward son and God brought that son +back to the point where that son embraced Christ and embraced his family in +Christ. + +I don't for one moment search because I have never known the power of God in +this ministry, and I just affirm that, not for my own sake, not to bring +credit to me, but that no one would discredit what Christ has done here and +what His spirit has accomplished. Nothing that happens in the supernatural +dimension happens because of me or you, that's out of our league. But I will +not yield to any who would assume that what we have experienced here is a +cheap version of the real power. Many of you have come to faith in Christ +here. Many of you have grown in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and +been used of God in many ways in spiritual service, the benefits of your own +spiritual growth and maturity, because of the ministries here. Many have +gone out of this place and conducted powerful ministries all over the world, +and they go on even today. And I guess, all of that to say, to be real +honest with you, I am not looking for anything, because I have already in my +life lived through Ephesians 3:20, and I've seen God do, "exceedingly, +abundantly, above all I could ask or think." And to be honest with you, my +faith is strong enough to accept that this is the evidence of the power of +God and I don't have to have more proof. Some people say they have the faith +for all of that, but I think they have doubt looking for proof--very often. +And I want to affirm tonight my gratitude to God and to the Holy Spirit, and +to the Lord Jesus Christ for what They have accomplished in this place, and +what They have accomplished through the teaching of the Word and the faithful +ministry that God has given to this church, here and around the world. And I +want to give God all the glory for all of it, and I want to acknowledge along +with you that He has done it, and we have never ministered for a moment +feeling that He wasn't here in the fullness of His power accomplishing His +work for His own glory. And He has done it in an orderly way without chaos +and without confusion, and we praise Him for that. + +Father, thank you for our time tonight to consider these things. Help us +Lord to be able to evaluate everything by the Word. We know that in this +movement there are some who, of course, are our brothers and sisters, who +love the Lord Jesus Christ, and we would pray for them, that your Spirit +might lead them to bring Biblical direction where they are able to this +movement. To confront its errors and excesses. We pray Lord too that no one +would be led astray and led away from the simplicity that is in Christ and +into chaos and confusion of emotional experience, and find it to be a +substitute for true regeneration. Father, we pray too that you would allow +us with grace and love to speak to folks who perhaps are in these kinds of +groups and to bring them the help that your Word and your Spirit would want +them to have. In Jesus' Name. Amen. + +Transcribed by Tony Capoccia of + +BIBLE BULLETIN BOARD MODEM (318)-949-1456 +BOX 130 300/1200/2400/9600/19200/38400 DS HST +SHREVEPORT, LA 71110 + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/charis09.txt b/religious documents/charis09.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3cd398a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/charis09.txt @@ -0,0 +1,914 @@ +The following message was delivered at Grace Community Church in Panorama +City, California, By John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, +GC 90-60, titled "Charismatic Chaos" Part 9. A copy of the tape can be +obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. + +I have made every effort to ensure that an accurate transcription of the +original tape was made. Please note that at times sentence structure may +appear to vary from accepted English conventions. This is due primarily to +the techniques involved in preaching and the obvious choices I had to make in +placing the correct punctuation in the article. + +It is my intent and prayer that the Holy Spirit will use this transcription +of the sermon, "Charismatic Chaos" Part 9, to strengthen and encourage the +true Church of Jesus Christ. + + + + Charismatic Chaos - Part 9 + + "Does God Still Heal?" + by + John MacArthur + + +Well, as you know, we are involved in a study of the Charismatic movement, +the contemporary movement, and tonight we come to a section entitled, "Does +God Still Heal?" Now, in the messages that I have been giving we have +intersected with the thoughts about healing, and we have said some things +about that in some of our prior studies and we are not going to repeat those +things. But there is much more that needs to be said tonight as we evaluate +a movement that advocates healing. In fact, if there is anything that would +be typically Charismatic or typically characteristic of the modern +Pentecostal movement, Third Wave movement, or Charismatic movement, it would +be a major emphasis on healing, and we need to understand that. + +Let me begin with some illustrations that set the scene for us. A familiar +name to anybody who studies the Charismatic movement and delves into the +issues of healing is the name of a man, Hobart Freeman, a very interesting +man, at one time a professor of Old Testament at Grace Theological Seminary, +from which our own Dick Mayhue graduated. And when he was a professor there +in Old Testament, he was considered to be the finest communicator, the finest +teacher there. In fact, Hobart Freeman wrote a very significant book +entitled, "An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets" which, in 1969, was +published and printed by the Moody Bible Institute. So he was considered by +everybody to be a mainline evangelical professor, one who not only understood +but could adroitly teach the truth of Scripture. + +Somewhere along the line he changed. Hobart Freeman believed that God had +healed him from Polio. Nonetheless, one of Freeman's legs was so much +shorter than the other that he had to wear corrective shoes and walked with +great difficulty. Freeman became a pastor. He began his ministry as a +Baptist and after he had written and taught for some years, in the mid 60's +he became very fascinated with "faith healing," and it moved him into the +Charismatic movement, and then it moved him further and further towards the +fringes of that movement. He started his own church in Claypool, Indiana; it +was known as Faith Assembly and it grew to more than 2,000 members. Meetings +were held in a building which he called the "Glory Barn" and Church services +were closed to non-members. + +So it was kind of a secretive and cultic association. Freeman and the Faith +Assembly congregation utterly disdained all medical treatment. He believed +that modern medicine was an extension of ancient witchcraft and black magic. +To submit to a doctor's remedies, Freeman believed, was to expose oneself to +demonic influence. Expectant mothers in Freeman's congregation were told +that they must give birth at home with the help only of a church sponsored +midwife rather than go to a hospital delivery room or to be treated by a +doctor. By the way, obedience to that teaching, cost a number of mothers and +infants their lives. In fact, over the years, at least 90 church members +died as a result of ailments that would have been easily treatable. No one +really knows what the actual death toll would be if nationwide figures could +be compiled on all the other people who followed Hobart Freeman's teaching. + +After a 15 year old girl whose parents belong to Faith Assembly, died of a +medically treatable malady, the parents were convicted of negligent homicide +and sentenced to ten years in prison. Freeman himself was charged with +aiding and inducing reckless homicide in the case. Shortly afterward, on +December 8, 1984, Freeman himself died, interestingly enough of pneumonia and +heart failure complicated by a severely ulcerated leg. + +Hobart Freeman's theology did not allow him to acknowledge that Polio had +left one of his legs disfigured and lame. Quote, he said, "I have my +healing." And that is all he would say when anyone pointed out the rather +conspicuous inconsistency between his physical disabilities and his theology. +Ultimately, his refusal to acknowledge his infirmities cost him his life. He +had dutifully, according to his own theology, refused all medical treatment +for the maladies that were killing him, and medical science could easily have +prolonged his life, but in the end he was a victim of his own teaching. + +Now, Hobart Freeman is a very familiar name to those involved in Faith +Healing, but he is not the only one. There is another one who succumbed to +ailments and that is a man by the name of William Brannom (sp.), and if you +study anything about the healing movement you are going to come across the +name of William Brannom (sp.). He would be the father of the post World War +II healing revival. He was a man reputed to have been instrumental in some +of the most spectacular healings that the Pentecostals have ever seen. He +died, however, in 1965 at age 56, after suffering for six days from injuries +received in an automobile accident. His theology was unbiblical and +heretical, and of course when applied to himself his theology of healing had +no effect whatsoever, though his followers right to the end, were confident +God was going to raise him up. And even after he died they believed that God +would raise him from the dead. + +As a boy, I was brought to become aware of another Faith Healer who became +very, very famous, a man by the name of A. A. Allen. And A. A. Allen, about +whom I read and whom I followed with curiosity, was a famed "Tent +Evangelist." He took his healing meeting from place to place in a tent. +Interestingly enough, A. A. Allen claimed thousands upon thousands of +healings, and himself died of sclerosis of the liver in 1967, having secretly +been involved with alcohol for many years while supposedly being able to heal +everybody else. + +Perhaps a more familiar name in the healing movement would be the name of one +who is elevated almost to the status of the Roman Catholic elevation of Mary, +and that's a woman by the name of Kathryn Kuhlman. Kathryn Kuhlman died of +heart failure in 1976, curiously enough. She had battled heart disease for +nearly twenty years, and that statement is made by Jamie Buckingham who would +have been one of her disciples. + +Another one that comes to mind, Ruth Carter Stapleton, was the Faith Healing +sister of former United States President Jimmie Carter. [She] refused +medical treatment for cancer because of her belief in faith healing. She +died of the disease in 1983. And even John Wimber, who would be probably the +most prominent modern contemporary Third Wave healer, struggles with chronic +angina and heart problems. He begins his book on Power Healing with a +personal note. This is what it says; quoting John Wimber, he says, + + I had what doctors later suspected were a series of coronary + attacks. When we returned home a series of medical tests + confirmed my worst fears, I had a damaged heart, possibly + seriously damaged. Tests indicated that my heart was not + functioning properly, a condition complicated and possibly + caused by high blood pressure. These problems combined with my + being overweight and overworked meant that I could die at any + time. + +Wimber writes that he sought God and he says that God told him that in the +same way Abraham waited for his child, I was to wait for my healing. In the +meantime, he says, "He told me to follow my doctor's orders." Wimber writes, +"I wish I could write that at this time I am completely healed, that I no +longer have physical problems, but if I did it would not be true." Now, it +seems obvious, at least a curiosity to all of us, that so many leading +advocates of faith healing are sick! + +Annette Capps (sp.), the daughter of Faith Healer Charles Capps (sp.), and +herself a Faith Healer, raised that question in her book; her book is +entitled "Reverse the Curse in Your Body and Emotions." This is what she +writes, + + People have stumbled over the fact that the so-called "Healing + Minister" later became ill or died. They say, "I don't + understand this. If the Power of God came into operation and + all those people were healed, why did the evangelist get sick? + Why did he or she die?" The reason is because healings that + take place in meetings like that are a special manifestation of + the Holy Spirit. This is different from using your own faith. + The evangelist who is being used by God in the gifts of + healings, is still required to use his own faith in the Word of + God to receive divine health and divine healing for his own + body. Why? Because the gifts of healings are not manifested + for the individual who is ministering, they are for the benefit + of the people. + +Now that double-talk basically means that somebody could have faith for +somebody else's healing but not enough faith for their own healing. And so, +sometimes without faith for their own healing they die, while they have +enough faith for other people's healings who live. She goes on to say, + + Over the years I have seen various manifestations of the gifts + of healing in my own ministry, but I have always had to use my + own faith in God's word for my healing. There have been times + that I have been attacked with illness in my body but as I + ministered many were healed even though I did not feel well. I + had to receive my healing through faith and acting on God's + word. + +Thus, she astonishingly concludes that if a Faith Healer gets sick, it is +because his or her personal faith is somehow deficient when applied to his or +herself. Now, to take that a step further, you must understand that these +people go so far as to say, "That even Jesus Himself sometimes did not have +the faith required for people to be healed." + +Perspectives on Faith Healing often seem as varied as the number of Faith +Healers around. Some say that God wants to heal all sickness, others come +close to conceding that God's purposes may sometimes be fulfilled in our +illness and infirmity. Some equate sickness with sin; others stop short of +that, but still find it hard to explain why spiritually strong people get +sick. Some people just "flat out" blame the devil, and they think if they +can tie the devil up in a knot and send him off to Tibet or something [then] +everybody will get well. + +Some claim to have the "Gifts of Healing;" others say they have no unusual +healing ability, they simply are used of God to show people the way of faith. +A lot of people used to say they had the "Gift of Healing" but the chicanery +they were using has for so many years been exposed that nobody today can get +away with that stuff anymore. So now they just claim they don't have the +"Gift of Healing," they just sort of pray and have faith and God does what He +wants. Some will say they heal with a physical touch; some will say you heal +through anointing with oil; others say they can speak forth a healing, that +they can speak it into existence; some people say they can only pray for a +healing, and so forth and so on. And there are healers who just keep +changing from one approach to another as the chicanery and the charlatanism +of the healing movement becomes exposed and they have to change their +methodology. + +Always a Faith Healer, the well known Oral Roberts used to claim that he +could heal. He claimed great powers of healing; he no longer claims that. +Oral Roberts claimed God had called him, in fact, to build a massive +hospital. And He said this massive hospital would blend conventional +medicine with Faith Healing. If you visit the city of Tulsa, as I did this +summer, you are absolutely astonished at this facility. It is mind boggling +to see a sixty story building rising out of a weed patch outside Tulsa, +Oklahoma, and next to it a thirty story building rising as well, now +completely vacant and most of it unfinished on the inside. In the face of +huge financial losses apparently God changed His mind and declared that the +whole thing should be closed down. It is a monument to the unfulfilled +promises of Faith Healing. Nonetheless, in spite of these bizarre claims +that never come to pass, Faith Healing and the Charismatic movement keep +growing. + +Charles Fox Pharham (sp.) who is the father of the contemporary Pentecostal +movement, came to the conviction originally (this is way back at the turn of +the century when the Charismatic movement was then known as Pentecostalism +and just starting) he claimed that God desired all believers to have complete +healing and he developed that into an entire Pentecostal system, and then it +began to flow through the leaders. Amy Simple McPherson (who founded the +Foursquare Church), Angelus Temple (sp.), E. W. Kenyon, William Brannom +(sp.), Kathryn Kuhlman, Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagan, Kenneth Copeland, +Fredrick Price, Jerry Seville (sp.), Charles Capps (sp.), Norval Hayes, +Robert Tilton, Benny Hinn, Larry Lee, and on and on it goes. They have all +headlined their public meetings with healing. + +There are even Catholic Charismatics such as Father John Bertilucci (sp.), +and Francis McNutt (sp.) who have followed suit seeing that the Charismatic +healing emphasis is a natural extension of Roman Catholic tradition. And +then in the last phase of this so called "The Third Wave" in which we talked +about leaders like John Wimber and others, Paul Cane (sp.) and the Kansas +City Prophets, et al., have made healing a central element in their +repertoire. The claims and methods of these Faith Healers range frankly from +the eccentric to the grotesque. A few years ago I received--I receive +everything in the mail; if they don't send it to me, somebody who wants me to +see it does. And I have received bottles of healing oil and healing water and +all kinds of things--but I received a miracle prayer cloth, and in it the +message said, and I am quoting, + + Take this special miracle prayer cloth and put it under your + pillow and sleep on it tonight. Or you may want to place it on + your body or on a loved one. Use it as a release point wherever + you hurt. First thing in the morning send it back to me in the + "green" envelope. Do not keep this prayer cloth, return it to + me. I will take it, pray over it all night. Miracle power will + flow like a river. God has something better for you, a special + miracle to meet your needs. + +Now, these are the kinds of things that go on all the time. And of course in +the "green" envelope you not only send the cloth but you send some "green" +money as well. Green being a good reminder of what color they would like to +see. Interestingly enough, the sender of the prayer cloth feels he has +biblical support for doing this. While Paul was in Ephesus, you remember God +performed extraordinary miracles through him, and according to Acts 19, it +says, "Handkerchiefs or aprons were carried from his body to the sick and the +diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them." And as we have +been seeing in the series, however, Paul and the other apostles had been +given unique power, and we talked about Apostolic Power as unique power; +certainly nothing in the New Testament suggests that anybody could send out +handkerchiefs and they are going to produce miracles. + +Kenneth Hagan (sp.) tells of one Faith Healer he heard of who used a method +that I have never personally witnessed. Kenneth Hagen (sp.) writes, + + He'd always spit on them, every single one of them. He'd spit + in his hand and rub it on them. That's the way he ministered. + If there was something wrong with your head, he'd spit in his + hand and rub it on your forehead. If you had stomach trouble, + he'd spit in his hand and rub it on your clothes and on your + stomach. If you had something wrong with your knee, he'd spit + in his hand and rub it on your knee. And all the people would + get healed. + +Other gimmicks, not quite that uncouth, but every bit as outlandish, also can +be visualized everyday as you watch your television set. Some ask for "Seed +Faith" money. Oral Roberts often says that if you donate money to him, that +is in effect a down payment on your own personal healing. Robert Tilton +regularly devises simple ploys; [he] pledges special healings and financial +miracles to people who send him money; the larger the gift, the better the +miracle. "It's in direct proportion to how much money you send," he says. +Pat Robertson will peer into the camera and as if he can see into people's +living rooms describe people who are being healed that very moment. Benny +Hinn recently healed fellow Faith Healer and Talk Show Host Paul Crouch +(sp.). He healed him on the live broadcast of the Trinity Network. After +Hinn had released his anointing to a roomful of people, Crouch step forward +to testify that he had been miraculously cured of a persistent ringing in the +ears he had been suffering from for years. And on and on it goes, this list +of fantastic claims, incredible stories of healings grow at a frantic pace, +but real evidence of genuine miracles is conspicuously absent. + +And everywhere you go people are asking questions about this. From all sides +comes confusion, questions, contradictions. Now as we study the Scripture, +we find there are three categories of spiritual gifts, if we want to call +them that. First would be the category we could say are gifted men like +apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teaching pastors. These are the men +themselves given as gifts from Christ to the Church. And then we could say +there are the permanent edifying gifts and the temporary sign gifts (the +other two categories). Permanent edifying gifts would be gifts related to +knowledge, and wisdom, and preaching, and teaching, and exhortation, and +faith, and discernment, and showing mercy, and giving, and administration, +and helps, and those things that have an ongoing ministry in the Church. + +And then there are those temporary sign gifts, in other words, divine +enablements given by the Holy Spirit for a temporary period of time as a sign +for a very special purpose. These are listed for us in Scripture; they are +miracles, healings, tongues (or languages), and the interpretation or +translation of those languages. + +Now, we have noted in our study that such sign gifts had a unique purpose: +very simple--they were to identify the authentic spokesman for God. First of +all, Jesus did miracles. Jesus cast out demons. He did miracles that fall +into three categories: Miracles of Physical Healing; Miracles of Demonic +Deliverance; and Miracles of Natural Phenomena, like walking on water, or +stilling the sea, feeding the people by multiplying bread and fish. And +those miracles were to demonstrate to people that Jesus was not a mere man, +but that He was the Messiah of God. It should be very clear to everyone who +saw Him that this was not a man, because no man could do what He did. + +And so Christ had unique capability to do supernatural things in order to +draw attention to the fact that He was unique. In fact, you need to remember +that up until the time of Jesus Christ, there was nobody who could just go +around healing people. There were some healings in the Old Testament, and +there were some miracles of nature, and there were some powerful exhibitions +of God's supernatural work: in creation, and the flood, and many other +supernatural powerful things; but as far as a miracle, which is a subcategory +of the supernatural. . .sometimes people say, "Well, you people always say +there are only three eras of miracles," (and that would be: the Time of +Moses; and then Elijah and Elisha; and then Christ and the Apostles, and +those are the only three periods of miracles). And then they will say, +"Well, that's not true, because creation was miracle, and the flood was a +miracle," and they will go right on through, "Jacob wrestled with an angel +and that was a miracle, and God was always doing supernatural things." But +they fail to make the clear distinction that "miracle" is a technical term: +it is a subcategory for the supernatural. + +God is always acting in a supernatural way, even today. Every time someone +is saved that is a supernatural work. But "miracle" is a technical term to +describe an act of God which He does through a human agency, and they are +very rare. And even when you go back into the Old Testament and you find +miracles where God acts through a human instrumentation to authenticate his +messenger and the message, they are rare and nothing like the healing +ministry of Jesus. No one ever just roamed everywhere, healing everybody. + +So what you have in the case of Jesus [is something] you have never seen +before. Nothing like this has ever happened before in the history of the +world. And so this is a very unique thing. And to assume that it never +happened before (to know that by Old Testament revelation) and it happened at +the time of Christ, uniquely, and then it faded out in the end of the New +Testament era, and now for some strange reason it has all come back at the +same level as once it did and we are supposed to have this massive kind of +healing going on as it did in the day of Christ, is to demonstrate an +imbalanced and an unsound perspective of the purpose of the miracle ministry +of Jesus. It was to authenticate His Messiahship, and it is therefore +irreproducible and unrepeatable. + +And so Jesus did unique things which were unique to His own ministry. Now, +it is true that Jesus passed on to the Apostles power in two of the three +categories. Remember now, He healed diseases, He had power over demons, and +He did miracles of nature (natural phenomenon). The first two he gave the +Apostles. They never did any miracles of nature. But "Peter," you say, +"Walked on water!" Yes, but that was a miracle Christ was performing and +that occurred only in His presence. They never did anything like "Feed the +5,000" or "Walk on water" after that, or "Still a storm" or anything like +that. The only two things they were given power to do were "cast out demons +and heal the sick (including raising the dead)." + +But in their case, again, these were to point to them as the messengers of +God. There was no printed New Testament and it was very essential that among +all of the people who were saying that they spoke for God somebody be able to +tell who was real, and you could tell because they had power over demons and +power over disease. And so they were given that ability to do those things. +And the Apostles could do them, and those closely associated with the +Apostles could do them. + +Go back into Matthew 10:1, "Having summoned His twelve disciples, He gave +them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out," (and that by the way +is the Gift of Miracles: miracle is "dunamis (Greek)" power, power over the +forces of demons) "and He gave them the power to heal every kind of disease +and every kind of sickness." And that was granted to the Twelve. Later on +you find out that that group was expanded and it included the Seventy. +Remember when He sent the Seventy, two-by-two and gave them the same power? +So it was a very small group. "These were the signs," says Paul, of a true +Apostle. "Signs and wonders and miracles," 2 Corinthians 12:12. They were +limited in scope--only casting out demons and healing diseases, and they were +limited in terms of who received them--only the Apostles and the Seventy +commissioned directly by Jesus, those who worked alongside the Apostles. It +never went beyond that. + +It never became common for anybody and everybody in the Church to do this. +There is no indication that the evangelists, that the prophets (with a few +exceptions: Barnabas, Philip, Stephen, and those very early men), never an +indication that teaching pastors could do this, and certainly no indication +that members of the Church, the Body of Christ, could do this. These were +unique apostolic gifts. When you study the epistles of Paul--and Paul is +very clear about the fact that if you have problems with Satan and demons you +don't find somebody who can chase them away: you put on your armor. Right? +"We have spiritual weapons to battle against those forces," he said. + +Now if false teachers want credibility it is very obvious that they can sure +draw a crowd and gain creditability if they can heal. And so that is always +a kind of ploy that is used by false teachers--it has been so in history, +whether you are talking about tribal witch doctors in Shamanism, in Animism, +and in Paganism, or whether you are talking about Occultic kinds of healings, +or New Age kind of mind healings, or whether you are talking about the +charlatans and the frauds who parade themselves even as Christian healers. +It is a great way to draw a crowd. Why? Because the number one human +anxiety is illness and death. + +Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden disease has been a terrible +reality, and for millennia the search for cures to alleviate illness and +suffering has consumed mankind. And I will tell you that if I could choose +one gift, if God would give me one gift that I don't have and I could ask Him +for it and get it, I would ask Him for the gift of healing. I mean, if it +was available to me. Can you imagine what you could accomplish with it? +There are many occasions when I have wished that I could heal. I have stood +in a room in a hospital watching a precious child die of Leukemia while the +parents wept. I prayed with a dear friend as inoperable cancer ate at his +insides. I have stood by helplessly as a young person fought for life in an +intensive care unit, the result of a motorcycle or an automobile accident. I +have seen teenagers crushed through those kinds of things. I have watched +their parents in agony. + +I have seen people in the hospital on the edge of death with a gunshot wound. +I have watched people lie comatose while machines try to keep their vital +signs alive, at least on a screen, if not in reality. I watched a close +friend weaken and die after an unsuccessful heart transplant. I have seen +friends in terrible pain from surgery. I know people who are permanently +disabled with sickness and injury. I see babies born with heart breaking +deformities. I have helped people learn to cope with amputations and other +tragic losses. I have been there when a mother was holding to her arms, in +the bedroom, a dead baby who had died of "crib death." + +If I could wish for anything, I could certainly wish that I could do +that--heal all those people. Think how thrilling it would be. Think how +rewarding it would be to have that gift. Think of what it would be like to +go into a hospital among the sick and the dying, walk up and down the hall +and touch people and heal them like Jesus did. Wouldn't it be wonderful to +go into the Cancer Ward and the Heart Disease Ward and the Aids Ward, and all +the other places and just heal everybody. And somewhere along the line you +want to ask these Charismatic healers why they don't assemble all of +themselves and go down to that place and let's see if they have the power to +heal! Opportunities to heal the sick are unlimited. And if, as Charismatics +claim, such miracles are "Signs and Wonders," (listen carefully, they say +this) if they are "Signs and Wonders" designed to convince unbelievers that +the gospel is true, then wouldn't that be the way to really convince them? + +But strangely, the healers rarely, if ever, come out of their tents, rarely +ever come out of their buildings, rarely ever come out of their television +studios. I have never seen them in a hospital. I have never seen them +walking down a ward with a camera following them. They always seem to +exercise their gift in an environment in which they totally control, staged +their way, run according to their schedule. Why don't we see them moving +out? + +Paul Kane (sp.) with whom I met recently, personally, who is sort of the main +prophet in this new movement, has prophetically seen this, and I quote one +writing about him, + + Kane describes his vision of an army of children that will + parade down the streets healing whole hospital wards. He + foresees news broadcasts where the "Anchors" report no bad news + because everyone is in sports arenas hearing the gospel. Over a + billion will be saved, the dead will be raised, limbs will be + restored, those with handicaps will jump from their wheelchairs + and crutches will be cast aside, and those in the stadiums will + go for days without food or water and never notice. + +Now I don't know what kind of a world that is or how they are going to make +it happen but I think it is time to start if they have that ability. Is this +happening? No, because those who claim to have the gift of healing and the +power of healing, and claim to be able to tap into that power really don't +have it. The gift of healing was a temporary sign gift for the +authenticating of those who wrote the Scripture and those who preached the +message in that first century. And once the Scripture was completed and that +authenticity was established, the gift of healing ceased. It is not anything +new to claim it. The original claimants were the Roman Catholics. + +If you read some of Roman Catholic history you will be amazed probably. They +boasted of healing people with the bones of John the Baptist, healing people +with the bones of Peter, healing people with pieces of the cross (and +somebody said, "There are enough pieces of the cross around to build a two- +story building!"). They have said that they, "Have healed people with the +vials of Mary's breast milk." There is a place that you know about in France +called Lourdes, a Catholic shrine that has supposedly been the sight of +countless miraculous healings. I have been to the largest Catholic cathedral +in the Western Hemisphere in Montreal, San Joseph, where people climb 450 +stairs on their knees and they go in and they kiss a little box that has the +heart of a little friar in it, and all along the walls and everywhere are +crutches, all over the place. Supposedly countless tens of thousands have +been healed there. And now in Metajorie (sp.) in Yugoslavia (you have been +reading about it) more than 50,000,000 people have gone in less than a +decade. Why? They are in search of a miracle from the virgin Mary who +appeared in 1981 to six little children. If you read carefully about that it +is bizarre. + +It is very much like the occultic kind of healings you hear about in pagan +parts of the world. You have the oriental psychic healers who say they can +do bloodless surgery. They way their hands over afflicted organs and say +incantations and claim people are cured. Witch Doctors, Shamans, claim to +raise the dead. Occultist use Black Magic and Lying Wonders to do their +thing. Mary Baker Eddy, [who] you remember founded Christian Science, +claimed to have healed people through telepathy. And she had buried with her +in her casket a telephone because she was going to come to life and call +somebody and tell them to come and get her. You see Satan has always +captivated people's hearts through the promise of healing. Even today the +people who promised that "Health, Wealth, Prosperity Gospel" are hooking +people on this tremendous human desire for physical healing and the fear of +disease and death. + +This goes on and on and on. One pastor on a popular Charismatic television +show explained that his gift of healing works this way, quote, + + In the morning services the Lord tells me what healings are + available. The Lord will say, "I have got three cancers + available, I have got one bad back, I have got two headache + healings." I announce that to the congregation and tell them + that anyone who comes at night, with faith, can claim those that + are available for that evening. + +Now if you take a closer look at these healings you will find some very +interesting things. The only documented cases that you can find, the only +actually documented cases you can find, are cases of people who didn't get +healed. The cases of supposed people who do get healed, you can't find any +documentation. One of the most telling studies of this was done by a medical +doctor by the name of William Nolan who decided that he would look into the +healing ministry of really the prototype of all of it, Kathryn Kuhlman (sp.) +when she was still going strong before her death. And he wrote a book after +studying her, called "Healing, a doctor in search of a miracle." And he went +beyond Kathryn Kuhlman, but the major section of interest to me was the +section on Kathryn Kuhlman. And he made the point in his book that Miss +Kuhlman did not understand psychogenic disease. She did not understand, that +is, disease related to the mind. In simple terms a functional disease might +be a sore arm. An organic disease would be a withered arm or no arm at all. + +Now Katherine would heal a sore arm but not give somebody one who didn't have +one. A psychogenic disease would be thinking your arm was sore and Kathryn +could make you think that your arm wasn't sore. Nolan wrote, + + Search the literature as I have and you will find no documented + cures, by healers, of gall stones, heart disease, cancer, or any + other serious organic disease. Certainly you will find patients + temporarily relieved of their upset stomach, their chest pain, + their breathing problems. You will find healers and believers + who will interpret this interruption of symptoms as evidence + that the disease is cured. But when you track the patient down + and find out what happened later you will always find the cure + to have been purely symptomatic and transient. The underlying + disease remains. + +I remember one of A. A. Allen's cures; a man threw away his crutches and a +horrible result came from it, and he was sued by a family for the severe +injury that occurred to that man, when under the emotion of the moment, he +was sort of able to prop himself momentarily and brought great harm to +himself. When faith healers try to treat serious organic diseases they are +very often responsible for very serious anguish and unhappiness, and +sometimes even life threatening things. Dr. Nolan had Miss Kuhlman herself +send him a list of the cancer victims she had seen cured, and this is what +the doctor discovered, + + I wrote to all the cancer victims on her list and the only one + who offered cooperation was a man who claimed that he had been + cured of cancer by Miss Kuhlman. He sent me a complete report + of his case. He had prostatitis cancer which is frequently + responsive to hormone therapy, if it spreads it is also highly + responsive to radiation therapy. This man had had that and he + had also had extensive treatment with surgery, radiation, and + hormones. He had also dealt with Kathryn Kuhlman. He chose to + attribute his cure or remission, as the case may be, to Miss + Kuhlman. But anyone who read his report, layman or doctor, + would see immediately that it is impossible to tell which kind + of treatment had actually done most to prolong his life. If + Miss Kuhlman had to rely on this case to prove the Holy Spirit + cured cancer through her, she would be in very desperate + straits. + +Dr. Nolan did further work on 82 cases of Kathryn Kuhlman's healings using +names that she herself supplied. His conclusion at the end of the entire +investigation was that not one of the so called healings was legitimate--not +one! + +More recently, a very interesting man by the name of James Randy--Have you +heard that? He's called the "Amazing Randy" (he gave himself that name). He +is a professional magician. As a professional magician he has written a book +in which he examines the claims of "faith healers." Why? Because he knows +all the gimmicks. He is the man who exposed television evangelist Peter +Poppoff's (sp.) fakery in 1986, on the "Tonight Show." You remember that +Peter Poppoff (sp.) was one of the healers that claimed to get "words of +knowledge." He would stand there and he would say, "Jesus is telling me this +about you." And the truth was he had a little earphone and his wife was +giving him all this information because everybody who came to the meeting had +to fill out a card. And I don't know if you know about how that works but +healers throughout the years have always had the "preservice" meeting, when +everybody who wants to be cured and get in the "healing line" fills out a +very full card. And there is a very simple way, by staggering the cards, +that the guy can be holding up a card to his head and telling you all you +need to know about yourself, to convince you that this man speaks for God. +In the case of Peter Poppoff (sp.) he was repeating information his wife was +putting in his ear, from the "crib sheets" assembled in the "pre-meeting." + +Now the "Amazing Randy" is really not so amazing, he's just a magician. But +he is openly antagonistic to Christianity. His antagonism is fed, I think, +continually by what he finds out. But, nevertheless, he seems to have done +his investigation thoroughly. He asks scores of "faith healers" to supply +him with direct, examinable evidence of true healings. Quote, he said, + + I have been willing to accept just one case of a miracle cure, + so that I might say in this book that at least on one occasion a + miracle occurred. But not one "faith healer" anywhere has given + him a single case of medically confirmed healing that couldn't + be explained as natural convalescence, psychosomatic improvement + or outright fakery. + +What is Randy's conclusion? I quote, + + Reduced to its basics, "faith healing" today (as it always has + been) is simply magic! Though the preachers vehemently deny any + connection with the practice, their activities meet all the + requirements for the definition; all of the elements are present + and the intent is identical. + +Well, I don't want to just be ungracious, that's not my intention; but it is +very important that you know the truth and that you be warned. And if the +Apostle John would even speak the name of Diotrephes just because he loved to +have the preeminence in the Church, and that posed a threat, then how +important it is for us to identify these people who pose an even more severe +threat, as they say they represent the very voice of God and can prove it by +the fact they can do miracles. + +I had a meeting with a man who is a very bright, a very intelligent, a very +academically trained, a very intellectual man who understands the Bible, and +he said to me, + + The reason that I am in this movement is because one of these + prophets stood up in a meeting and looked at me and told me the + name of my mother--my mother's maiden name! And not only that + he was able to tell me my father's real name, and my father goes + by a nickname and I knew that he could only know that by direct + revelation. + +Now, how utterly gullible can a man be? If I could find a full-fledged, +bonifide theologian, first-ranked, teaching in one of the most respected +seminaries in the world, and if I could convince him of my being a prophet of +God by just finding out the name of his mother and his father's real name, +that wouldn't be too tough if that's all it took, especially if I had been +plying that kind of trade for years. It's amazing how gullible people are. +We hear about these healings, but there is never any evidence. Not one of +today's self-styled healers has produced irrefutable proof of the miracles +they claimed to have wrought. Many of them are transparently fraudulent, and +the healings in many cases aren't healings at all. Many things can occur by +the power of suggestion, like people falling over backwards and so forth. +But that can do the opposite of healing you as we noted a few weeks ago when +we reminded you that one lady fell over in a Benny Hinn meeting and killed +the lady she fell on. And now he is being sued. + +Now we all know that desperation accompanies disease. Sickness drives +people to do frantic, extreme things they normally wouldn't do. People who +are clear-minded and balanced become irrational. Remember, Satan knows this. +That's why he said in Job 2:4, "Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has will +he give for his life." The most desperate, heart-breaking cases involve +people who are incurably organically ill. Others aren't really sick at all. +You know, if I may be very personal, one of the real joys of our church is +the dear precious people that come here every Sunday in wheelchairs. I can't +tell you how many of those people have told me that people have said to them, +"If you had enough faith, or if you went to another church, other than Grace +Church, you could get out of that wheelchair." + +Somebody asked me recently if we get a lot of people here coming out of +healing churches? I say, "Yes, we get the people who go and don't get +healed--no question about it." What a tragic thing; multitudes go away +shattered, disconsolate, feeling they have either failed God or God has +failed them. Now, let me say this, people are going to say, "Well, are you +saying God doesn't heal?" No, I'm not saying that, if God wants to heal, He +can heal. That's completely, obviously within His power, and if it is in his +purpose [then] He can heal. He may heal as a result of prayer. He may heal +through simple processes, through medical assistance, or he may heal in a way +that we can't explain medically. God may speedup the recovery mechanism and +restore a person to health in a way that medicine can't even explain. +Sometimes He may overrule a medical prognosis and allow someone to recover +from a normally debilitating disease. Healings like that may come, He may do +them; He may do them in response to prayer, He may do them just because He +wants to do them. But the gift of healing, and the ability to heal, and +special anointings for healing, and healings that can be claimed and +therefore realized, and all the typical "faith healing" technique billed on +the idea that God wants everybody well all the time, has no Biblical sanction +whatsoever in the Post-Apostolic era. + +Now, backing off a minute, if we just said, "Let's look at Jesus, and if +anybody is healing today, and if Jesus' healings are the pattern, and if the +apostles is the pattern, how did they heal?" And I will simply remind you of +it. We will make a comparison and see if today it works like that. + +1. Jesus healed with a word or a touch. + + That's all it took. He touched, He spoke, they were healed. + +2. Jesus healed instantaneously. + + Never in all His healings does the Bible say He healed somebody and they + started getting better. No, there was never a process, because if there + was a process the point wasn't made. Right? Because if there was a + process then it could be explained in another way. It was instantaneous. + "The Centurion's servant was healed" (I love it), Matthew 8:13, "that + very hour." The woman with the bleeding problem--it went away + immediately. Jesus healed ten lepers instantaneously. The crippled man + at the Pool of Bethesda, immediately became well. + +3. Jesus healed totally. + + When someone was healed they were totally and completely healed--the only + kind of healing Jesus ever did. He didn't partially heal. He healed + totally. + +4. He healed anybody. + + You didn't have to have a long line of people filling out cards. And He + certainly didn't have a whole group of people who came into the meeting + in wheelchairs and left in wheelchairs (if they had wheelchairs, or + crutches, or whatever). Luke 4:40 says, "While the Sun was setting, all + who had any sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying + His hands on everyone of them, He was healing them." It's an incredible + thing. He healed everybody. He healed everybody instantaneously. He + healed everybody totally and He healed everybody with a word. There + wasn't some falderal there was just a word! + +5. He healed organic disease. + + He didn't just go around Palestine healing lower back pain, heart + palpitations, headaches, and other things like that. He healed the most + obvious organic disease; crippled bent legs, withered hands, blind eyes, + paralysis. + +6. He raised the dead. + + He raised the dead. He came up on a funeral and he raised the dead! You + remember that? Here comes the funeral procession; the widow is going to + bury her son and Jesus stops the procession, touches the casket and says, + "Young man, arise!" and the dead man sat up and began to speak. Now, I + will tell you something, people who tout the gift of healing today don't + spend a lot of time in funeral processions; the reason is obvious. And + you need to note, by the way, that Jesus did virtually all His healings + and raising the dead in public before vast crowds of people. Why? + Because the gift of healing was real and it was an authenticating gift. + He used it to confirm the claim that He was the Son of God in a way that + displayed His power and compassion. + +Then we ask the question, "How did the disciples or apostles heal? How did +they heal? How did the Twelve, and the Seventy, and others who worked with +them, like Barnabas, and Philip, and Stephen?" And those are the only ones; +it didn't just run rampant through everybody in the Church. But those people +who had that gift; how did they heal? How did they do it? Well, the same +way; they healed with a word or a touch. We see that in the Book of Acts: +they healed instantaneously, immediately. Remember the temple gate with +Peter and John? The man immediately went to his feet, started leaping, +walking, and praising God. They healed totally, not partial, total. They +healed everybody. In fact, people who got under Peter's shadow got healed! +They healed organic disease, not just functional, psychosomatic, symptomatic +problems, and the apostles even raised the dead. Now, nobody is exhibiting +those six traits in a healing ministry today. So if this is supposed to be +the recapturing of the Apostolic era it is really "out of sync" with that. + +And a final note; according to Scripture, those who possess those abilities +to heal could use their gift at will. That's not true of the contemporary +healers because they don't have that gift. They play games with people's +minds--the power of suggestion. They prey upon people, making them believe +things that aren't really true and they use deception. Look at the Apostle +Paul, in Philippians 2, he mentions that his good friend Epaphroditus was +very sick. Now, Paul had previously displayed the ability to heal, but he +doesn't heal Epaphroditus. It's fair to say that, maybe, that gift was +passing out of operation, but it is sure fair to say that the gift of healing +was never (listen carefully) intended to keep Christians happy and healthy! +In fact, you look through the New Testament and find out how many healings +occurred to believers--absolutely rare--Peter's wife mother, Dorcas. [But +there were] masses of unbelievers; masses of people who may or may not have +believed anything about Christ or the Apostles. But it surely wasn't given +to keep everybody in the Church healthy; and yet today it is being portrayed +as something that is supposed to be done for believers to keep them healthy, +to show them that in the atonement is their healing: totally foreign to +Scripture. + +Second Timothy 4:20, Paul mentioned he that he left Trophimus sick at +Miletus; now, why leave a good friend sick? Why did he leave his Christian +friend sick? Why didn't he heal him? Well, maybe he didn't have that +ability as the time passed on out of the Apostolic era, but for sure he +recognized that healing was not something you run around doing for your +Christian friends. It was never intended as a permanent way to keep the +Church healthy; yet today Charismatics teach that God wants every Christian +well all the time. If that is true, then why did He let them get sick to +start with? It seems a basic question. God didn't give you an HMO in your +salvation, a sort of supernatural HMO that works automatically. God heals +when He wants and when He wishes, but that's up to Him. + +Has God promised to heal everybody who has faith? He doesn't promise that He +will always heal, but I think the Christian can look to heaven for healing. +Now, I want to turn the table a little bit as I close in the next couple of +minutes. I think that we can go to the Lord for healing. I think that we +can pray to Him for deliverance from disease, and I do believe that there are +times when God touches us. Sometimes He heals through medicine, sometimes He +heals through surgery, sometimes He heals through natural process working in +the body. The body is an amazing self-healing thing. And sometimes He may +just heal supernaturally because it is His will, and we can look to heaven +for that. We can cry out to God in our sickness and ask for His healing. I +would suggest that there are three reasons why we could expect that God might +heal: + +1. He might heal because of His person. + + You remember his Old Testament name, that wonderful name: it's really + Yahweh Rapecca (sp.)--The Lord that Heals. God heals because of His + person. "I the Lord am your healer," He told the Israelites. And the + very fact that when Jesus came into the world He could have done a lot of + different miracles. I mean if He wanted to convince people about His + Messiahship He could have just flown around, and He could have said, + "See, I can do this, and who else can do this?" Or He could have jumped + a building at a single bound, or flown faster than a speeding bullet, or + He could have put on a "Superman Show" and everybody would have been in + awe of that. But why did he choose to heal people? Because He was + demonstrating His compassion, and a compassionate God has a heart to + heal. And I think that we have experienced that at times in our life; + God raises up someone from sickness. + +2. God heals because of His promise. + + He says, "Whatever we ask in His name, believing and according to His + will, He will do it." And there must be times when He will do that. + There is certainly a description in James 5 of a broken, shattered, + devastated person, who goes in for prayer. The elders gather around that + individual and while the pain of that situation is spiritual it has + tremendous physical ramifications, and through prayer that person is + restored. "The effectual fervent prayer avails much." If in God's will + He has designed that [then] He will do that because of His promise. + +3. God heals because that is His pattern. + + It is true that in the atonement God bore our diseases, Matthew 8 says + it. Matthew 8 says, "He Himself took our infirmities, and carried away + our diseases." Now, we have already discussed 1 Peter 2:24 and I won't + do it again; it doesn't mean that healing for every sickness is in the + atonement for now! But healing for every sickness is in the atonement + for someday--isn't it? And someday He will remove all of those diseases. + Ultimately, eternally we will be delivered from sickness and infirmity. + And it may just be that He would chose because of that pattern of + providing a salvation that ultimately delivers us from bodily infirmity + when we get a glorified body, that maybe He will give us a taste of + "Glory Divine." + +God may heal. That poses the final question, "Should a Christian go to the +doctor?" And we come all the way back to Hobart Freeman again. We would +never advocate such idiocy. You say, "Well, does the Bible say anything +about this?" Sure, read Isaiah 38. Not now. I knew that you would do that; +your heads just go right down--that's good. Pavlov's dogs! Just instant +response. That's not derogatory, by the way, that's trained response. In +Isaiah 38, King Hezekiah was deathly ill, and you remember the king was +crying, and he was crying tears, and then he was crying to the Lord, and God +answered his request. And he says this, "Let them take a cake of figs and +apply it to the boil, that he may recover." Isn't that good? That's what we +used to call a poultice. Right? Now, God is saying, "Do the medical thing." +In Matthew 9:12, Jesus confirmed the same idea when He said this, "It is not +those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick." And so +the Lord has given us that instruction also. + +Now, in closing, I simply say, I want to reiterate that I believe that God +can heal. God can do anything He wants to do. I do not believe the gift of +healing is for today because it was to authenticate the Biblical message and +messenger. That is in place; it needs no more authentication then the +authentication given to it by the Spirit of God to the heart of the reader. +But I do believe that God may in His grace chose to heal, and we have every +right to pray for that, and at the same time seek the finest medical help +that we can because to Lord desires us to do that as well. + +Let's pray. Father, thank you for letting us cover all of this tonight. Our +minds are full of these considerations. Lord, we would not at all be +ungracious to the many people who are victims of these kinds of things. And +even Lord, there may be some in these movements who are well meaning and well +intentioned, who for some reason or other believe that these things really +are happening. + +Lord, we would pray for those who have a true and a pure intention, and who +are genuinely believing that this is true, that You would show them the truth +of Your word and help them to see the light. And then Lord, for those who +are just playing with the hearts and minds and the wallets of people, that +you would cause them to be struck with the truth of what they are doing. To +be literally stopped in their tracks by the fear of God, as they would +misrepresent You. + +Lord, we pray for Your Church to be discerning, clear minded. And then Lord, +even as we close tonight, we would remember to pray for those in our +congregation who have physical illness, disability, physical pain and +suffering, some with even the diagnosis of a fatal disease, that Lord, You +would be gracious to them. We know that You are going to heal them someday, +and if it would suit Your glorious purpose and bring honor to the name of +Jesus Christ, we would ask that you heal them now; that You might receive +glory for that. But if not, that You might give them the grace to +acknowledge Your perfect will. And help us to know Lord that it is not +through these kinds of miraculous things that people are going to believe the +truth. It is through hearing about Jesus Christ and reading the Scripture +and having it presented to them, not only on the page but through the work of +the Holy Spirit in their hearts, that they shall come to the truth. And so +may we faithfully proclaim this word, which can authenticate itself by the +Holy Spirit to the heart of one who hears. + +Thank You again Father for the clear word that You do care and that there is +a day of healing coming for us all. We rejoice in anticipation of it, in +Christ's name. Amen. + + +BIBLE BULLETIN BOARD MODEM (318)-949-1456 +BOX 130 300/1200/2400/9600/19200/38400 DS HST +SHREVEPORT, LA 71110 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/charis11.txt b/religious documents/charis11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f2b1a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/charis11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,751 @@ +The following message was delivered at Grace Community Church in Panorama +City, California, By John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, +GC 90-62, titled "Charismatic Chaos" Part 11. A copy of the tape can be +obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. + +I have made every effort to ensure that an accurate transcription of the +original tape was made. Please note that at times sentence structure may +appear to vary from accepted English conventions. This is due primarily to +the techniques involved in preaching and the obvious choices I had to make in +placing the correct punctuation in the article. + +It is my intent and prayer that the Holy Spirit will use this transcription +of the sermon, "Charismatic Chaos" Part 11, to strengthen and encourage the +true Church of Jesus Christ. + + + + Charismatic Chaos - Part 11 + + "What is True Spirituality?" + by + John MacArthur + + +Now we come to the next in our series that we have been studying on the +Charismatic movement. Tonight we want to talk about the subject, "What is +True Spirituality?" In Romans 12:2 we find a good starting point for our +thinking tonight, and that is this statement by the Apostle Paul, "Do not be +conformed to this world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." +Transformed by the renewing of your mind. + +Many Charismatics believe that you can renew your mind and achieve holiness +without any conscious effort. They would say (some of them), that +sanctification can come to you through an experience, effortlessly; sometimes +even through subliminal conditioning. My first exposure to the notion of +subliminal spirituality came a few years ago when I received a flyer +advertising subliminal neckties. They were fairly stylish paisley ties; +normal looking at a casual glance. But the ad copy informed the prospective +buyer, + + Hidden in the fabric, almost totally undetectable to the human + eye are the words "Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves." The ties are made + from anointed cloth offered by a Charismatic enterprise [and] + can be yours for a tax deductible love gift of $30. You could + also buy seven for a tax deductible gift of $200 to help us feed + the hungry. + +We are not sure who the hungry are but I am sure that would help. Quoting +the ad further, + + For years Russian and Communist scientists have experimented + with subliminal advertising designed to influence unsuspecting + consumers to their ideology and propaganda. Now, the Lord has + revealed to His people how to use it for His glory. + +A magnified picture of one of the ties revealed that indeed the words "Jesus +Saves, Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves," were over and over again woven +through the fabric. "When worn," the leaflet promised, "The words 'Jesus +Saves' are actually being planted in the subconscious minds of everyone who +sees it." In other words, you can do your witnessing without ever having to +say a word to anybody. At the time it frankly struck me as a bizarre, +somewhat atypical oddity, but in retrospect I see that it was something of a +harbinger of one of the latest fads in the Charismatic movement: this idea of +subliminal messaging. Despite having some occult overtones and some New Age +involvement, and for all intents and purposes being absolutely useless, it +has quickly become a popular means of addressing spiritual, emotional, and +health problems among Charismatics. + +I mentioned earlier in our study the subliminal word therapy tapes offered by +the Raffa Ranch (sp.) as a means of healing cancer patients. Raffa offers +the subliminal messaging cassette tapes for $14.95 each, and although the +price seems high, thousands of people desperately seeking cure for cancer +have evidently been willing to pay the price. Linda Fell (sp.) explains how +the tapes were born; she says, + + In 1983, God healed me of Breast Cancer and called me to raise + up a place where cancer victims can come and be healed. In + obedience to that call, our family of four moved to 70 acres of + land in a small rural community in Northwest Florida, and there + we began construction on the 5,000 square foot Raffa Ranch + lodge. After almost two years we had received our first cancer + patient and quickly realized that our commission would not be an + easy one. Over the next two years we learned much, but + continued to see the majority of our guests die. We continually + cried out to God to show us how to get the Word in His precious + people in their crisis situation, and one day we stumbled on to + a television program describing how the subliminal process was + helping masses of people use positive affirmation. + + The idea came--could the pure Word of God be used in a similar + fashion? After two months of some research and much prayer we + knew we had not only a creative idea but a mandate from God to + produce a tool that would help heal the sick. The Lord said + that I was to be the voice since He could trust my spirit, and + use Christian musicians, engineers and studios to create this + tape. In June of '88 "The Word Therapy Healing" tape was + released and healing reports were immediate; within two weeks a + woman was healed of cancer. + +To those who, by the way, might have fears that subliminal therapy is of the +Devil, Mrs. Fells writes, + + Your cautions are justified as you approach subliminal tapes; be + assured of this, there is no need to fear our tapes. They are + holy and have the blessing of the Lord on them; we use no + hypnosis, no relaxation technique, no New Age, or deceptive + practices; simply a modern technological method of multi-track + duplication of the pure Word of God. Your first tape will + convince you as the anointing will destroy the yoke. If the + Apostles were alive today, they would consider "Word Therapy" a + scroll of the 90's. + +Several Charismatic ministries offer these subliminal tapes; one group called +"Renew Ministries" offer continuous play tapes for $20 (a continuous play +means you don't have to rewind them); they promise you freedom from doubt, +fear, failure, fear of death, guilt, grief, depression, temper, pride, lust, +temptation, pornography, procrastination, unforgiveness, rejection, drugs, +alcohol, smoking, anger, rebellion, anxiety, panic, judging, homosexuality, +scars from child abuse, and molestation--all for $19.95! + +Other Renew tapes promise to speak into being. They will speak into being in +your life: prosperity, weight loss, peace, healing, self-esteem, salvation, +marital harmony, surrender to God, acceptance of God's Love, and a closer +walk with God. And according to Renew, "Bible-based subliminal messages hit +controlling spirits where they live and command them to leave in Jesus' name +and then the void is filled with the Word of God." + +Now, you might be asking, "What are the mechanics of such tapes?" Renew puts +multiple voices on different tracks, simultaneously chanting a message aimed +at indwelling demons. For example, one tape designed for people struggling +with homosexuality includes this message, "I speak to you spirits of +homosexuality, I curse you and cast you down in the name of Jesus!" That +message is followed by Scripture verses relating to moral purity. And so it +goes. + +Other companies use variations of that approach. "Life Source," an El Paso +based ministry, uses an audible track of ocean waves. Inaudible, subliminal +background tracks carry Scripture verses. You can hear the waves, you can't +hear the verses. Healing evangelist Vicky Jamineson Peterson (sp.) of Tulsa, +Oklahoma, plays a reading of the entire King James Version, New Testament, at +a rapid speed on a 60 minute cassette. Imagine, the entire New Testament in +60 minutes! Her brochures promise that positive suggestions are being stored +in your belief system at a rate of 100,000 suggestions an hour! + +You wrap this all up and it's all so easy and it's all so effortless; you put +on a tape and you get 100,000 suggestions for your spiritual life, you get +cured of every problem you have, you get all the demons chased away, and if +you put it on your tie the people who see your tie are going to get saved! +This is all so painless, it's all so easy. Supposedly you can absorb +Scripture without ever paying attention to it. You can get involved in +spiritual development, spiritual growth, miracles, and so forth without ever +opening your Bible. Things like fervent prayer and diligent holiness, and +earnest devotion, and careful study, and conscientious meditation on the +things of God are rendered unecessary by this approach. It used to be that +losing weight required self-control and some discipline. Now, we are told a +continuous play tape can exercise demons of fat and gluttony for you and +there is absolutely nothing to it; pay the money and you are delivered. More +important, it used to be that faith and spiritual understanding and +righteousness were pursued through disciplined lives of devotion and study +and prayer, and now the proponents of subliminal therapy promise that +holiness can happen to you even while asleep! + +Subliminal sanctification and the Charismatic movement seem to be good +partners; they fit together perfectly. From the very beginning Charismatic +movements, whichever of them, have promised primarily shortcuts to spiritual +maturity. One of the greatest attractions of the Charismatic movement has +always been that it offers believers "Power, Understanding, and Spirituality" +immediately through some kind of experience; and if you just have the +experience--you've got it without the time, without the pain, without the +progress, without the struggle that's natural to any growth process. + +The question is, "Is this really a shortcut to sanctification? Can a +believer receive subliminal messages, a divine jolt, or some other kind of +quick, immediate power boost and be instantly brought out of infancy into +maturity?" The answer is, "Not according to Scripture." For the typical +Charismatic the gateway to spirituality is through an experience, and that +experience is usually defined as the "Baptism of the Spirit with speaking in +Tongues." They tell us that if you have that experience--you are zapped! It +accurately describes the way most Charismatics view sanctification; they +think you go along in your Christian life until you get the Baptism of the +Spirit, speak in Tongues, you get the "zap" and then you have been elevated +to sanctification. Some would go so far as to say you've reached the "Second +level of Grace." + +There are many Charismatics who will even use the word "zap" and say, "Well, +may Jesus zap you!" I had the occasion (it was a strange and bizarre one) to +be invited to speak at the "Full Gospel Businessmen's Luncheon." That is a +Charismatic group. They were having their Southern California Luncheon and +somebody in the group thought that I had had the Gift of Tongues, that +somewhere along the line I had gotten the Baptism of the Spirit and had +spoken in Tongues; and they invited me to be the speaker. They asked me to +speak on "Speaking in Tongues." This is true! And this was when Jay Leddy +was still on our church staff and he went with me. I thought they were just +open and wanted to hear the other side. They thought I had the "Gift." And +so I went and they had a nice lunch and after lunch I got up, and I launched +into my Biblical discussion on the reality of what the Bible says about +Tongues. And I could note there was a severe amount of nervousness and +movement in the crowd, and I didn't know why because I thought these gracious +people just wanted to know what the other side believes. + +So I continued to "wax eloquent" about what I believed the Bible was teaching +about the cessation of the Gift of Tongues, and that it had no part for today +and that it was a false standard of spirituality and things like that. It +was the only time that I can remember in my ministry that I was literally, +physically, pulled out of the pulpit! A man grabbed my arm and pulled me +down in a chair--before I was finished! And he got up and he said, "We've +got to stop and have prayer for this brother because he's deceived and +confused" (and then I was really confused because I thought that I was doing +what they expected me to do). I will never forget his prayer. He started +out by saying, "We want to pray for this brother, that sometime soon, in the +middle of the night, the Holy Spirit will zap him!" That's exactly what he +said and that's what he prayed. So I have heard that term used. + +Charismatic evangelist, Norvall Hayes (sp.) explained what happened when he +got his zap, + + God came on me so strong and started blessing me so much, I just + fell on my knees and began crying and weeping and getting + blessed. I found out that God loves me and He was petting me + because I obeyed the Holy Spirit. + +That's somewhat like the experience of many. Unfortunately, the Charismatic +movement has divided Christianity into two levels--the Zapped and the +Unzapped. And the Zapped believe they are at least a bit more spiritual then +the Unzapped. Like it or not, the effect has been severely schismatic. Some +of the Unzapped wonder why they don't have the experiences that their +Charismatic friends describe. Charismatics argue that unless you have the +Baptism of the Holy Spirit with Tongues, you can't function the way God +really wants you to; you're missing something. If on the other hand, you do +have the Baptism of the Spirit with Tongues, you have been elevated to a +level of spirituality and sanctification. + +A good example of this particular kind of viewpoint is Melvin Hodges' book +called "Spiritual Gifts" and I quote, + + While the full manifestation of a person's gift and ministry + must await the fullness of the Spirit, there may be a partial + measure of spiritual ministry and incomplete manifestation of + spiritual gifts or endowments before the culmination of the + Pentecostal gift is experienced. We must not lose sight of the + fact that in the New Testament, the Baptism in the Holy Spirit + (with the Charismatic experience) is considered an essential and + primary requisite for a fully developed spiritual life and + ministry. + +And he is doing deference to people like me and others who have some kind of +a ministry, because you just can't just flatly deny that people have a +ministry, but it is a second class ministry: it is a partial measure of +spiritual ministry, an incomplete manifestation of spiritual gifts and +endowments because we have never had the culminating Pentecostal Gift of the +Baptism of the Spirit and that "Zap." + +Now, are these people correct when they say this? Is there a gap between +Christians? Are there two levels? Do the Charismatics have some other level +of Spirituality they have attained? And are non-Charismatic Christians +somehow mired in the muck of a second-classed Christianity? We want to +answer that question by considering the Scripture. I think we need to be +very direct in going to the Word of God so that we can understand it. A +foundational place to go (and you can turn there in your Bible, and we are +going to go through these fairly rapidly because I know these are truths with +which you are familiar) but it is 1 Corinthians 2, and I want to kind of give +you a little bit of a feeling here for some of the terminology that is +important to the issue. + +1 Corinthians 2, verses 14 and 15, + + But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of + God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand + them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is + spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by + no man. + +Paul spent most of 1 Corinthians 2 discussing the difference between the +natural man and the spiritual man, and that's the difference between the +unsaved and the saved. The unregenerate is the natural man and the +regenerate is the spiritual man. The natural man doesn't know God, he is +unsaved, isolated in his humanness and sin, and headed for hell. He cannot +understand the things of the Spirit. In contrast the spiritual man knows God +and understands spiritual things. + +Now, that is very basic, and what I want you to understand is according to +1 Corinthians 2, all Christians are--what? Spiritual! It's basic; its basic +terminology. That's our position in Christ. We are alive in the Spirit; we +have the life of God within our souls; we possess the Holy Spirit (as Romans +8:6-9 clearly indicates). And again in Romans 8, if we look at that, and I +would just draw you there for a brief moment (chapter 8 of Romans) to affirm +that same thought. Romans 8:6, + + The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the + Spirit is life and peace, [same contrast] because the mind set + on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject + itself to the law of God, for it's not even able to do so; and + those who are in the flesh cannot please God, however you are + not in the flesh but in the Spirit. + +And then he goes on to say the Spirit of God dwells in you. Only two kinds +of people: those in the flesh and those in the Spirit. Those in the Spirit +are Spiritual, and those who are natural are also fleshly. So in the purest, +truest, simplest sense, there are only two kinds of people: spiritual people, +and natural people, who are also carnal people. The first understanding that +I want you to have is that unregenerate people are natural; that is, they +live according to human nature and they are carnal or "fleshy." They operate +out of the flesh--the impulse of the flesh. Christian people are spiritual; +the Holy Spirit dwells within them; their inner man has been made alive; they +are new creations; they are sensitive to God and alive to spiritual reality. +Now, that's basic. + +Now, to be spiritual simply means to be alive to God, to possess the Holy +Spirit, and all Christians are spiritual and all non-believers are carnal and +natural. But let me take it a step further. It is possible for a spiritual +believer to act in a carnal way. In other words, it is possible for us to +behave like our old self. We understand that don't we? We still have the +remaining flesh; that carnal reality is there and it is very possible that +that carnal reality, that unredeemed human flesh, can still exercise and +exert its power. And so I want you to look for a moment at +1 Corinthians, chapter 3. Christians are spiritual--they just don't always +act spiritual. And that is really contrary to our own new nature. + +But Paul says (interesting way he words his words in 1 Corinthians 3:1), + + I brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, I should + have been able to talk to you as spiritual men, but I couldn't, + and I had to speak to you as men of flesh. I had to talk to you + like you were still unregenerate, as if you were just infantile + in Christ. + +Obviously, one who is new in Christ, one who is an infant in Christ is going +to have a greater struggle with the flesh (right?) then one who is mature in +Christ. And so he says, + + You're acting as if you're brand new baby Christians struggling + with the flesh that's continually gaining the victory over you, + and I can't even talk to you as spiritual because you have + succumbed so frequently to the flesh. + +In verse 2, he says, + + I can't even give you meat (solid food); I have to give you milk + because you can't handle the meat, (verse 3) "Because you are + still fleshy. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, + are you not fleshy, ("fleshly" it says but "fleshy" is a good + way to translate that) and are you not walking like mere men?" + +There's the key! He says, you're walking like natural men; you're acting +like you used to act. You're spiritual but you are acting like a natural +man, and that is, you are succumbing to the flesh. He should have been able +to talk to them as spiritual because they were Christians, but they weren't +acting spiritual; they were not receiving the Word; there was unholiness in +their lives; they were behaving carnally; and they had to be dealt with as if +they were brand new baby Christians who were still being victimized by the +things that used to be a part of their life. + +Now, all Christians face the same problem. All Christians are spiritual +positionally, but we are not always spiritually practically, right? We are +alive to God, we sense God, the Spirit lives in us; the life of Christ has +manifested itself in us and we are a new creation, but we don't always act +like that because we are incarcerated in the unredeemed flesh and it rears +its ugly head. I think a good illustration of this is the Apostle Peter, +borrowing a little bit from a pre-Church text, but he fits the picture so +well. In Matthew 16 Peter recognized Christ as the Son of the Living God, +you remember that, and Jesus immediately responded and said, "Blessed are +you, Simon, and now I am going to change your name to Peter (which meant +rock). You are going to be a new person: you are going to be solid like a +rock." + +But in John 21, a lot later, Jesus met Peter on the shore of the Sea of +Galilee and Peter had denied Christ (you know all about that). But Peter, +even after the resurrection, was still weak. Before the resurrection he was +in a denial state; after the resurrection he was in a disobedient state. And +he had gone back to fishing and the Lord confronts him and calls him to task +and asks him if he loves Him, and if he'll feed His sheep and goes through +all of that. And when the Lord talked to him, remember those three times He +said, "Do you love Me?" He didn't call him Peter; what did He call him? +"Simon! Simon, Simon, Simon!" Why did He do that? After all he had been +given a new name, "Rock." I'll tell you why He did it, because he wasn't +acting like a rock; he was acting like a Simon. He wasn't acting like a +transformed man; he was acting like the guy he used to be. Whenever he acted +like the guy he used to be Jesus called him by his old name, which is a +pretty vivid reminder. + +What Peter had done and what all of us do, from time to time, is temporarily +cease from following closely after Christ. Even after Pentecost Peter +continued to struggle. And do you realize that if you go back to Galatians, +chapter 2, you read one of the most devastating accounts. Galatians 2:11-12; +the Apostle Paul had to go nose-to-nose with Peter and confront him because +he was acting in a carnal way. And he did that publicly before all those +Jews up there, and confronted Peter in Antioch, and that whole thing was so +embarrassing to Peter. And it got written in the Bible; as if Peter didn't +have enough "Bad Press" in the gospels, he has to show up in the epistles? +And there he is again getting labeled as this "Guy who can't seem to get his +act together." And he says, "You are acting in a fleshy way!" + +There is some measure of comfort in that for all of us, to find out that one +of the choicest apostles of all "stumbles and bumbles" his way around, both +before and after Pentecost. We would like to relegate him to some other +dispensation and make ourselves feel more guilty, I guess, for our failures, +but it is fortunate that he failed after the resurrection and Pentecost just +so that we know that this is reality. So it is that we do the same thing; we +are new creations and we have been transformed, but very often we act in a +fleshy way. I think the Apostle Paul fully understood this (don't you, in +Romans 6-7?), he says, "With my mind the law of God; with my redeemed nature, +but also with my flesh I serve the law of sin or the principle of sin +operating in me." And he says, "I can't stand this struggle because I don't +want to do what I do and I don't do what I want to do, and I am a wretched +man and how am I going to get out of this mess?" + +Spirituality, beloved, is not some permanent state that you enter into the +minute you get zapped! You are spiritual positionally, but practically you +never enter into a permanent state of spirituality. You don't have some zap +and become spiritual. Spirituality is simply receiving the Living Word daily +from God and letting it dwell in you richly and then living it out in the +fullness of obedience. It is walking by the Spirit, and you will not carry +out the desire of the flesh. It doesn't say, "Have one zap and you are set +for life, of five zaps, or wait for the next zap, or go to the meeting where +they zap you." It just says, "Walk in the Spirit and you'll overcome the +flesh." + +The word "walk" is a very important word in the New Testament. It means +"moment by moment conduct." It's a choice word: you walk one foot at a time +and one step at a time. Paul said in Galatians 5:25, "If we live by the +Spirit," and we do--better to translate, "Since we live by the Spirit, since +we are spiritual, then let's just take one step at a time in the power of the +Spirit. Obedient to the Word which dwells in us richly." Walking speaks +about a measured pace, one step at a time, and that's how true spirituality +functions--one step at a time, one moment at a time. A basic mark, just to +kind of help you follow this through a little bit more, a basic mark of true +spirituality is a deep awareness of sin. You know I hear people who say they +reach a certain level of being zapped, and now they feel they reached a +certain level of holiness. That is a dead giveaway that there is no sense of +an understanding of spirituality. + +You show me a truly spiritual man and I will show you a man that is +overwhelmed, not with his holiness but with his sinfulness; even though it +may appear to everybody else to be less than the rest, it is monumental to a +spiritual man! It is not that he now feels himself to have arrived, it is +that when he is spiritual he knows full well that he is far from where he +ought to be. The spiritual man is aware of his sin. In Scripture, those who +most despise their sinfulness were often those who were the most spiritual. +Paul didn't say, "I have arrived at a very high level of spirituality." Paul +said, "I am (not was, 1 Timothy 1:15) the chief sinner!" Peter said, "Depart +from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man" (Luke 5:8). Isaiah, the godliest man +in his nation, said, "Woe is me! Damn me! Curse me! Sentence me to +judgment for I am a man with a dirty mouth" (Isaiah 6:5). The spiritual man +realizes he is in a death struggle with sin, and Paul said, "Look, (1 +Corinthians 15:31) I have to die" How often? "Daily! This war goes on every +day and I have to slay this guy name Paul, this fleshly man, who though +spiritual in the inner man is still victimized by his remaining humanness." + +The ultimate objective of the spiritual man is to be like Christ and nobody +gets there. Paul writes, "Not that I have already obtained it (in this life, +not until glory)." Paul writes, + + Not that I have already obtained it, or have already have become + perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for + which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do + not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I + do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what + lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the + upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14). + +And what was the goal? Christlikeness, and the goal is the prize. The prize +is Christlikeness and the goal is Christlikeness. Paul said, "I am not +there; I haven't attained it; I'm pressing towards it." Many Charismatics, +however, insist that once you get the Baptism of the Spirit--spirituality is +yours! But unfortunately it doesn't work that way, so you know what happens? +They live under a false assumption of their true spiritual condition. When +the glow of one experience fades they are forced to find another experience, +and then another experience. And they find that a second work of grace is +not enough, and a third, and a forth, and a fifth, and so on. And they seem +to have diminishing returns, and in their effort to seek something more they +often unwittingly abandon the Bible; they unwittingly abandon prayer and the +true path of spirituality and they run errantly and wildly down a road of +experience that leads to an inevitable increasing carnality. + +Charismatic books and pamphlets and articles are filled with testimonies, +also of how a certain special experience brought a new degree of +spirituality. The testimony follow something like this, + + When I was baptized by the Spirit, when I spoke in tongues, then + I began to live a more holy life (you've heard that). I had + more power, I had more freedom, I had more joy, I had effective + witness, more love, more fulfillment as a Christian. + +I have heard that many, many times. And although not all Charismatics are +consistent on this point, most would strongly connect that with speaking in +tongues as a means of obtaining that spirituality. But Scripture just +doesn't support that idea. In 1 Corinthians 1:7, Paul commended the Church +at Corinth and this is what he said, "You are not lacking in any gift, you +are not lacking in any gift." They had all the gifts: they had the gifts of +prophecy, knowledge, miracles, healings, tongues, interpretations of +tongues--they had them all in the Corinthian Church! They also had every +imaginable spiritual problem. They were spiritual in terms of their gifts, +they had spiritual gifts. The true Christians were spiritual in terms of +their position, but their actions were carnal and the Church was in carnal +chaos. You see spirituality isn't related to your gifts or to even some +supernatural kind of manifestation through those gifts of miracles, healings, +tongues, and interpretation. + +The Corinthian believers of the First Century were not unique; Christians +today face similar problems. We are saved, we have the Holy Spirit, we have +certain spiritual gifts but we still struggle with the flesh. Your spiritual +gift doesn't change your struggle with the flesh at all. If tongues is a +spiritual gift then why in the world would tongues change your spiritual +struggle? It certainly didn't do anything for the Corinthians; they were +still fleshly, carnal. He said that to them in chapter 3, as I read a little +bit ago, "You have all the gifts and you are carnal!" So even having the +gift of tongues has no relationship to your spirituality. Do you see that? +It doesn't have any relationship to it. No spiritual gift will guarantee +that you are going to win the struggle and live on a supernatural spiritual +plain. The only way you can win the spiritual battle and live according to +your position as a spiritual being, having been transformed, is to walk in +the Spirit; Galatians 5:16, "Walk in the Spirit and you will not +fulfill. . ." what? "The lusts of the flesh." + +You overcome the flesh by a daily, step-by-step obedience to the Spirit of +God. And I have to say that any discerning Charismatic will, and perhaps +some do, admit that he or she has just as much trouble with the flesh and the +appetites and lusts and desires of the flesh as anybody else! Enthusiasm, +euphoria, fervor, excitement, emotion, all of that stuff, all the things +Charismatics tend to equate with spiritual intensity, have no power to +restrain lusts, no power to conquer pride, no power to overcome selfishness, +no power to deal with greed; none at all. + +Charismatics, whose only strength is drawn from the last high, the last +experience, in fact, are more likely to be spiritually weak and spiritually +immature. Dr. Charles Smith, who is now with the Lord, was the dean of our +seminary, points out, and I quote, + + The doctrines of free love and spiritual marriages have too + often appeared in association with tongues. Perversion of the + Biblically teaching relating to sex and marriage can be seen in + the Mormons and the Shakers. Amy Simple McPherson (started the + Four Square Church) was not the only tongues leader to receive a + revelation that her marriage was not "in the Lord" and that she + should enter another union. One of the serious problems of the + Pentecostal movement has been the fact that many of its leaders + have fallen into immorality. One well known Pentecostal + preacher, a woman widowed for three years, professed to be with + child by the Holy Ghost! Pharham, father of the modern + Pentecostal movement was arrested for the grossest of + immoralities. + +Now what he is pointing out is something we continue to see played out on the +scene today, right? This problem of gross immorality, this problem of a +lifestyle totally inconsistent with spirituality; what you have got here are +people who are getting "zapped" all the time but on the contrary are not only +not spiritual, but tend to give manifestations of unspiritual lives, carnal +fleshly lives that are preoccupied with lust, pride, selfishness, and greed. +To compound the difficulty, when they stumble they are not even likely to +take the responsibility for it. They are going to blame demonic power, +rather than examining their theology or their fleshly will or their Biblical +ignorance. + +With all their claims of new power and a new level of spirituality the +Charismatics have no guarantee that any of their ecstatic experiences will +put them in any kind of lasting spiritual condition. Now, please understand +that I am not saying there aren't people in the Charismatic movement who are +spiritual--there are. There are people who are in those churches who walk in +the Spirit because they love Christ truly, they study His word; but the upper +echelon propagation, the stuff they are telling people and the "party-line" +(if you will) about spirituality is not legitimate. No matter what kind of +experience they think they've had, no matter how often they speak in tongues, +no matter how frequently they get slain in the Spirit (One of their leaders +said, "If you not slain in the Spirit every week, you're never going to able +to live the Christian life."), no matter how many times they fall over +backwards they still face the same challenge given to every Christian--they +have to walk in the power of the Spirit and obedience to the Word which they +understand; die to self and sin everyday. + +There isn't any shortcut. And I want to submit to you that begins with the +mind and not the emotion. That begins with an understanding of truth, an +understanding of Scripture, an understanding of God, and Christ, and man, and +sin, and the Holy Spirit. It starts with the mind. Unfortunately there is +so much doctrinal ignorance in the movement that the people are trying to +function without an understanding of who God is, who Christ is, what the +Bible teaches about the Spirit and spiritual life. How many people join that +movement because they have been promised an easy answer to problems and a +quick and easy path to instant godliness? It's sad. Sometimes I look at it +and I think it's more giddy than godly. You can turn on, almost any night, +on Charismatic television and see it. + +It's emphasizing amusement and frivolity, and there is a lot of laughing and +sort of breathless gushing and time for silliness, bafoonery, and shallow +talk. You look at the expensive lavish clothing and the whole scene that +goes with it, the behavior, so many women who seem, to me at least, to +violate most everything that is taught in 1 Peter 3 and 1 Timothy 2, and I +get embarrassed because I know the watching world is looking at this and +assuming that this is Christianity. I mean, this has got to be +Christianity--it says it is! There is nothing wrong with being happy, I am a +happy person. I mean, I am always happy. In fact, I've always said that, "I +think God has taken happiness from a whole lot of people just to give it to +me because I have more than anyone could imagine." + +There is nothing wrong with praising God and laughing and feeling self- +fulfilled, enjoying your Christian life and enjoying life in general. But, +it seems to me that many in the Charismatic movement seem so determined to +pursue the emotional high, the quick thrill, the exciting event, the +electrifying moment, the exhilarating conference, that they don't know +anything about the serious part of spiritual life. They don't know about the +consistent walk with God that deals with the reality of your life, and +therefore, they have given up the rich rewards of that walk; and they have +settled for a superficial frivolity, sort of a cheap substitute; and gaiety +is no substitute for godliness. + +Real godliness doesn't carry with it some kind of silly emotional high. +Again I say, that the truly spiritual and truly godly person pursues +righteousness with a burning sense of conviction, with a deep awareness of +his own sin. And when the Spirit of God is at work there is deep joy, but +there is also a sort of corresponding profound sorrow. Walter Chantery (sp.) +has aptly written and I quote from him, + + When the Holy Spirit comes to sinful men, He initially brings + sorrow, but in Charismatic circles there is only the boast of + rapid transport to joy and peace. Any religious experiences + that brings immediate rejoicing and uninterrupted cheerfulness + are not to be trusted. There is much more to spirituality than + a lifting of the spirits and the entering into the exuberant + life and in extending one's succession of thrilling experiences. + Yet, in many of the popular neo-Pentcostal societies, you will + look in vain for anything else. No one who has God's spirit can + walk through our world without deep groanings of sorrow and + distress when the stench of immorality feels his nostrils. The + spirit filled man cannot be happy, happy, happy, all the day! + If the Spirit were to come powerfully today, it would not be to + make men clap their hands for joy but to make them smite their + breasts in sorrow. + +And Chantrey (sp.) adds, "He's not the jolly spirit--He's the Holy Spirit!" +Charismatics usually give the impression however, that it is more jolly than +holy. And I don't want to be ungracious to those in the movement who are +genuine, and there are many. But the face of Charimaticism that we see cast +before us projects so much of this. Meanwhile, the self-indulgence in +immoderation gets louder, gaudier, flashier, and more eccentric. This trend +I don't see as the fruit of genuine godliness. + +One of the most unfortunate characteristics of this movement is the continual +emphasis also on the astonishing, and the dramatic, and the sensational, and +the idea that that has got to be the part of everyday life. The effect +really is to intimidate anybody who is not getting the same kind of results: +tongues and prophecies and spiritual pyrotechnics and whatever else is going +on, miraculously filled fuel tanks and audible voices from God and all that. +There are people--you've got to know that those churches are filled with +people who don't quite have that spectacular list of events on their weekly +schedule. They are getting, frankly, not any spectactular things at all, and +they live through a dry spell. And you have got to wonder what they think +and how unfulfiling and sad of heart they find themselves. + +The Apostle Paul knew what it was to be scorned, and he knew what it was to +be intimidated by people who felt they had attained a higher level than he. +Did you know that? Second Corinthians, you don't have to turn to it, we +don't have time, but in 2 Corinthians, you read chapter 9 and to the end, and +Paul talks about the "Super Apostles." Remember he had poured out 18 months +of his life and love establishing the Corinthian Church. And when he wrote +back two letters, obviously there were so many problems. The worst of it, +from his viewpoint was, some guys had risen in the Church who wanted to +destroy Paul. There whole view was that Paul was not an honorable man and +that they had reached a higher level of spirituality than he and they were +the "Super Apostles." By the way, the leader of that group, I believe, was +the thorn in the flesh, the messenger from Satan that really tore him up. + +They came to town while he was gone, or they rose from the congregation while +he was gone. They were the new guys. They love to extol themselves and +elevate themselves; they had the power, they had the experience, they had the +estacies. They had swept the Corinthian believers off their feet and it +broke the heart of Paul because people in the Church were believing them and +following them and turning their back on Paul. And it all came back to Paul +that his spirituality was in question. He didn't measure up to the +superstars; he didn't measure up to these new guys. They were saying that +Paul couldn't play in their league. How did Paul respond? He didn't rattle +off a list of healings or other miracles he had performed; instead he +presented his credientials. He didn't say, "Well, I have raised five and you +know, I've healed a 1,000. I've cast demons out of 1,500; here's a few +illustrations." Do you know what he said? He said, + + I want to present my credientials: five times I received thirty- + nine lashes. Three times I had been beaten with rods, once I + had been stoned and left for dead, three times I have been + shipwrecked, I have spent a night and a day in the sea. I have + been hungry and sleepless, I have been in dangers from robbers + and Gentiles and even my own countrymen. I have been run out of + town more times than I can even remember. I've got a thorn in + the flesh that the Lord won't even take away and I have asked + Him three times. You know what? Do you want to know my + credientials? I am well content with weakness, insults, + ditresses, persecutions, difficulties for Christ's sake, for + when I am weak then I am strong. I have become foolish; you + yourselves compelled me. Actually, I should have been commended + by you for in no respect was I inferior to the most immenient + apostles, even though I am a nobody. + +Wow, what an amazing list of credentials. It seems to me very doubful that +Paul would have made much of a guest on a Charismatic television show. +Instead of being "Slain in the Spirit" he was almost slain in the body over +and over again. He couldn't even remember his visions; he couldn't even get +on to tell them. Second Corinthians 12:1-4 he mentions being caught up to +the third heaven fourteen years before, but he couldn't rememeber the +details. Now, how are you going to make a career out of that if you can't +even remember what happened? Instead of emphasizing his miraculous trip to +the third heaven and back, he wanted to talk about his weakness, and he +wanted to talk about his pain! Because all of that weakness and all of that +pain put all the glory in the place it should be and gave it to God. That's +the kind of true spirituality that is missing in the movement, and that's the +kind of true spirituality that doesn't make it on the "Best Seller" chart. + +According to Paul, his life was weak, his life was wretched, his life was +desperate, he was humble, he was the chief sinner, he was in a constant state +of stress, tension, fear, even misery from the time he came to Christ until +his head got cut off. The same is true of the other apostles: Peter, James, +[and] John. You never find anywhere some kind of catalog of all their +escapades. See, they learned that true spirituality was walking humbly +before God in the power of the Holy Spirit; that's where spirituality is. + +Well, there is much more to be said, but I just remind you that perhaps the +best and clearest definition of true spirituality comes in the simple +statement of Ephesians 5, which says, "Be not drunk with wine, in which is +excess; but be filled with the Spirit." I wish we had time to go into all +that that means but allowing the Holy Spirit to control your life is the +essential issue; and that comes when you submit yourselves to the Word of +God. The path to true spirituality is through the Word, prayer, daily step +by step commitment to the Holy Spirit. + +Aesop told about a dog who was crossing a bridge with a bone in his mouth. +He looked over the edge, saw the reflection in the clear stream. The bone in +the water looked better than the one in his mouth, so he gave up the reality +for the reflection. + +My great fear is that there are many Christians who with great zeal and +lacking knowledge are doing the very same thing. A false standard of +spirituality will not restrain your flesh; witnesses are abundant to prove +that. The only way to restrain your flesh and gain victory is true +spirituality. Again I say, the path is through the Word and prayer to a +daily walk with the Spirit. Let's bow in prayer. + +Father, just touching these things tonight reminds us that even while we are +endeavoring to understand a movement that we feel doesn't honor You we don't +want to leave it at that, we want to bring this into our own hearts and ask +if we are on the path of true spirituality to the place of true obedience; if +we are walking in the Spirit so that we don't fulfill the lusts of the flesh. +Since we are spiritual and the Spirit dwells within us we must walk according +to His will. So Father, may the Word of Christ dwell in us richly, and may +that Word become the controlling principle that moves through our mind to our +volition and yields our body and our mind to the controlling Spirit. May we +know true spirituality, we who are spiritual, and give no occasion to the +flesh, that we might live to your glory for Jesus' sake. Amen. + +Transcribed by Tony Capoccia of + +BIBLE BULLETIN BOARD MODEM (318)-949-1456 +BOX 130 300/1200/2400/9600/19200/38400 DS HST +SHREVEPORT, LA 71110 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/charis12.txt b/religious documents/charis12.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..76abd36 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/charis12.txt @@ -0,0 +1,725 @@ +The following message was delivered at Grace Community Church in Panorama +City, California, By John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, +GC 90-63, titled "Charismatic Chaos" Part 12. A copy of the tape can be +obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. + +I have made every effort to ensure that an accurate transcription of the +original tape was made. Please note that at times sentence structure may +appear to vary from accepted English conventions. This is due primarily to +the techniques involved in preaching and the obvious choices I had to make in +placing the correct punctuation in the article. + +It is my intent and prayer that the Holy Spirit will use this transcription +of the sermon, "Charismatic Chaos" Part 12, to strengthen and encourage the +true Church of Jesus Christ. + + + + Charismatic Chaos - Part 12 + + "Does God Promise Health and Wealth?" + (Part 2) + by + John MacArthur + + +The subject tonight in our study of the Charismatic Chaos is the Health, +Wealth, and Prosperity gospel. We can title this message with a question, +"Does God Promise Health and Wealth?" + +When I was in the Soviet Union a couple of weeks ago they said to me, "We +want you to preach on the 'Health and Wealth' gospel." I was talking to +hundreds of pastors, and Pastor DuChanchenko (sp.) who heads up the Church +there in the Ukraine said, "I want you to preach on the 'Health-Wealth' +gospel." I said, "You're not telling me that that's a problem here?" How +could anybody go to the Soviet Union and promise people wealth? A whole +nation in poverty! He said, "It's here." He said, + + Recently, outside of Kiev, a man came from America and he called + the people in the city together, and he said [that] he represented + Jesus Christ, and he was going to preach. And a great crowd of + non-Christian people came to hear him, and he promised them that + God wanted them healthy and wealthy! And he said that if they + came back the next night the power of God would fall and they + would all be healed! And so they came. A large crowd came and + nobody got healed--and they spit on the man! They spit on the + man! + +The kind of foolish promises that are being made that cannot be fulfilled +bring a terrible reproach to the name of Christ. + +One of the most unusual legacies of World War II has been what are known as +the "Cargo Cults of the South Pacific." Anybody who lives in Australia or +New Zealand knows about them. Many Aboriginal Island people ranging from +northern Australia to Indonesia were first exposed to modern civilization +through the allied armed forces during World War II. The American military, +in particular, often used these remote islands in the South Pacific as sites +for temporary landing strips and supply depots. And those of you who +remember the scenario of World War II--personally I have absolutely no memory +of any of it because I was so small, but I have read and I know what +occurred--some of you will even remember, and some of you will remember your +history books and be reminded of the fact that we were all over the South +Pacific on remote little islands with our landing strips and our supply +depots so that we could keep our men in the air particularly. And so when +Americans and other allies came to these little islands and met these +Aboriginal island people they came bringing cargo. They flew in there, +created these airstrips so they could fly larger equipment in there. And +then they brought in huge warehouses full of cargo and they left as quickly +as they came when the war ended. The tribal people had absolutely no +opportunity to learn the ways of civilization, but for a brief moment they +saw high technology up close. Cargo planes would swoop in from the sky, they +would land, they would unload their payload and then takeoff. + +Natives that lived in the bush all of a sudden saw cigarette lighters that +produced fire instantly and they believed it to be miraculous. They saw +large machines come in and push trees down. They went all the way from not +even having a wheel or a cart to seeing a Jeep, modern weaponry, +refrigerators, radios (talking boxes), power tools, and many varieties of +food in all kinds of cans and jars. They were fascinated by all of that and +many of those tribal people concluded that the white men were gods. When the +war was over and the troops were gone tribesmen built shrines to the "cargo +gods." Their tabernacles were perfect replicas of cargo planes, control +towers and airplane hangers. They made them out of bamboo and woven +material. These structures look remarkably like the control towers and the +plane hangers and the planes themselves, but they were really nonfunctional; +all they were was shrines or temples to the cargo gods. + +On some of those remote islands today the cargo cults still thrive. Some +have personified all Americans in one deity and they call that deity "Tom +Navy." They pray for holy cargo from every airplane that flies over. They +venerate religious relics like Zippo lighters, cameras, eyeglasses, ballpoint +pens, nuts and bolts, and so on. As civilization has begun to penetrate some +of these cultures their fascination for cargo has not diminished. In fact, +missionaries that have been sent to these areas where cargo cults have +flourished receive a warm reception at first because the cargo cultist view +their arrival as the "Second Coming" of the cargo god. But they are looking +for cargo--not gospel. And missionaries say they find it very difficult to +penetrate the materialism that is the essence of the cargo cults. + +In recent years the Charismatic movement has spawned its own variety of cargo +cult. It is called the "Word-Faith Movement"; known otherwise as the "Faith +Movement," known as the "Faith Formula," known as the "Word of Faith," +"Hyperfaith," "Positive Confession," "Name It and Claim It," "Health, Wealth, +and Prosperity Teaching," all of those titles. This subdivision of the +Charismatic movement, listen, is easily as superstitious and materialistic as +the "Cargo Cults" of the South Pacific. The Leaders of this Word-Faith +movement, including Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Robert +Tilton, Fred Price, and Charles Capps (sp.), promise each believer financial +prosperity and perfect health; anything less, they argue, is not God's will! +And there are many people who "chime" in with this; in fact, if I understand, +last week there was a great, great convocation at the church of Fred Price, +which espouses this, attended by many, not only Charismatics and Pentecostals +but even a leading Presbyterian pastor in our area. They were all there. + +The tentacles of this kind of theology has reached out far and wide. They +have sought mainstream acceptance and they have managed to build +relationships with people, who because of those relationships will not speak +the truth against them, and so the thing flourishes like a wildfire. And of +course it appeals to people because it demands nothing but faith; it doesn't +demand holiness, it doesn't demand devotion or dedication, it only demands +faith and it promises that if you have enough you'll get rich and +healthy--that's a popular message. + +I suppose that we could say that virtually every false religion ever spawned +by man worships a god whose function it is to deliver some kind of "cargo." +That is, human religion invariably invents gods for utilitarian reasons. +They invent gods that give them what they want. They invent deities to serve +them rather than the other way around. The Word-Faith theology has turned +Christianity into a system that is no different from the lowest human +religions. It is a form of voodoo where God can be coerced, cajoled, +manipulated, controlled, and exploited for the Christian's own ends. + +I received a mailing sent out by one rather extreme Word-Faith teacher named +David Eppley (sp.). A brochure was included with a bar of prayer-blessed +soap, quote, + + We are going to wash away all bad luck, sickness, misfortunes, + and evil! Yes, even that evil person you want out of your + life. Jesus helped a man wash blindness from his eyes; I want + to help you concerning hexes, vexes, home problems, love, + happiness, and joy. (the brochure said). + +Inside the brochure were testimonies from people who had been blessed by that +ministry. "Door opens to new job!" said one. "An $80,000 dream comes true!" +said another. "Couldn't use my hand for twelve years!" said another. Also +inside was a personal letter from the pastor closing with a full page of +instructions on how to use the soap. If you used it right it would bring you +healing and money, + + Now, after you wash the poverty from your hands, take out the + largest bill or check you have. That $100, $50, or $20 bill, + hold it in your clean hands and say, "In Jesus' name I dedicate + this gift to God's work and expect a miracle return of money." + +And of course, your largest bill or check must be sent to David Eppley (sp.). +The last paragraph said, + + Through this gift of discernment, I see someone sending a $25 + offering and God is showing me a large check coming to them in + the next short while I mean "large;" it looks like over $1,000! + I know this sounds strange but you know me well enough to know + that I have to obey God when He speaks. I'll be here waiting + for your answer. + +Frankly, that sounds more like Black Magic. Certainly a more outrageous +example than most, but still it reflects a style that is typical of nearly +all Word-Faith ministries. If it was just plain hucksterism that would be +bad enough. I guess I could tell you honestly, I could take Reverend Ike. I +could take Reverend Ike because . . . (I don't know if you know who he is, but +if you don't, don't worry about him)--but, I can take Reverend Ike because +he uses the same gimmick, but he doesn't make it Christian! What corrupts so +devastatingly is to tie this kind of con game into Christ! + +Word-Faith teachers have corrupted the heart of New Testament Christianity. +They have moved the believers' focus off sound doctrine, worship, service, +sacrifice, and ministry; and they have shifted it instead to promised +physical, financial, and material blessings. Those blessings are the cargo +that God is supposed to deliver to those who know and follow the Word-Faith +formula. + +Word-Faith writings . . . and there are myriad of these things, you can't even +keep up with them. I got a new one this week that somebody sent me to try to +help me to see the truth. It's a thick book and it is all about all of these +Word-Faith teachers. It has all their pictures on the front. There is +almost no end to the proliferation of literature (many trees are dying in +this operation to be used for pulp and paper). Word-Faith articles carry +titles like, "How to Write Your Own Ticket with God," "Godliness is +Profitable," "The Laws of Prosperity," "God's Creative Power Will Work for +You," "Releasing the Ability of God Through Prayer," "God's Formula for +Success and Prosperity," "God's Master Key to Prosperity," "Living in Divine +Prosperity," and so it goes. + +In Word-Faith religion the believer uses God, whereas, the truth of Biblical +Christianity is--God uses the believer! Word-Faith theology sees the Holy +Spirit as a Power to be put to use for whatever the believer wants. The +Bible teaches, however, that the Holy Spirit is a person who enables the +believer to do whatever God wants. It is absolutely the opposite of +Scripture. Many Word-Faith teachers claim that Jesus was "Born Again" so +that we might become "little gods." Scripture, however, teaches that Jesus +is God and it is we who must be born again. + +Frankly, I have little or no tolerance for these deceptions, these corruptions +of Scriptures and false claims of the Word faith movement. I have absolutely +no constraints on me to speak to this issue because I believe that I am +literally bound by my obligation as one called to minister the truth of God +to so speak, because this defies everything I understand to be true about +Scripture. + +The movement [Word-Faith] closely resembles some of the destructive greed +sects that ravaged the early church. Paul and other apostles were not +accommodating to or conciliatory with the false teachers who propagated ideas +like that in their day. They identified them as dangerous false teachers and +urged Christians to avoid them. Paul warned Timothy, for example, about "Men +of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a +means of gain." This isn't anything new. Paul was dealing with those who +thought godliness was a ticket for money. Paul further said to Timothy, + + But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare + and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin + and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts + of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the + faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang. But flee from + these things. [1 Tim 6:9-11, NASB]. + +These cults are generated, know this, out of a love for money! They develop +a religion to accommodate their lusts. Jude wrote of the greed mongers of +his day, + + Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay + they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished + in the rebellion of Korah. These men are those who are hidden + reefs in your love-feasts when they feast with you without fear, + caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by + winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild + waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; + wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved + forever . . . They are grumblers, finding fault, following after + their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for + the sake of gaining an advantage. [Jude 11-13, 16 NASB]. + +There is nothing that I could say that would be as strong as that, and that +is out of God's Word. Peter wrote, + + But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there + will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly + introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who + bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And + many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way + of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will + exploit you with false words. [2 Pet 2:1-3, NASB]. + +Peter went on to say, + + Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction + is not asleep . . . For speaking out arrogant words of vanity + they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, [that is, they + entice you by the things you lust for], and they entice those + who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising + them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for + by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. [2 Pet 2:3, + 18-19, NASB]. + +You show me a person who preaches the "Money Gospel," the "Money Message," +the "Wealth Message," I'll show you a person who has been corrupted by the +love of money; that's what Peter is saying. Paul said covetousness is +idolatry and Paul forbade the Ephesians to be partakers with anyone who +brought either a message of immorality or a message of covetousness (Eph. +5:5-7). + +Now the question is, "How closely do modern Word-Faith teachers resemble the +greedy false teachers that the apostles described? Is it fair to write the +movement off as heretical? As sub-Christian?" Well, I want us to look at +that, and let's find out. In some ways I hesitate to label the Word-Faith +movement as a cult only because its boundaries are, as yet, somewhat hazy. +Many sincere Christians hover around the periphery of the Word-Faith +teaching. It isn't a sort of a bordered, identifiable cult. It is somewhat +amorphous and it floats in an almost undefined way and bumps in and out of +all kinds of groups of Christians. And so while on the one hand we can't say +that everybody that it touches is cultic, all of the elements within it are +cultic: + + It has a distorted Christology that is a warped view of Christ. + + It has a distorted view of man, an exulted view of man. + + It has a theology built on human works. + + It has a process of sanctification that justifies greed. + + It has a belief that new revelation from within the group is unlocking + secrets that have been hidden from the Church for years. + + It believes that extrabiblical human writings are inspired and + authoritative. + + It has an exclusivity that compels its adherents to shun any and every + criticism of the movement. In fact, as you know, Benny Hinn said if + anybody criticizes him he wants, "to get a Holy Ghost machine gun and + blow their head off!" + +Without some exacting corrections in the movement's doctrinal foundations it +will become a clearly identifiable cult, if it is not already so. It +certainly is the closest thing on earth to the greed cults of the New +Testament era which the apostles bluntly labeled heresy. Now, I know that is +a serious verdict, but I think there is ample evidence to bear it out. At +almost every turn the Word-Faith movement has tainted, twisted, garbled, +misunderstood, corrupted, or obliterated the crucial doctrines of Christian +faith. Let me help you with that by looking at some of them. + +First of all, The Word-Faith movement has the wrong god! It has the wrong +god. I believe that it is fair to say that the god of the Word-Faith +movement is not the God of the Bible. Word-Faith teaching, in effect, listen +to this, sets the individual believer (are you ready for this?) above God, +and turns God into Santa Claus, or a genie, or a valet who is there to do +whatever the Christian tells Him. See, these Word-Faith teachers are their +own supreme authority. Kenneth Hagin, who is patriarchal in this movement, +wrote this booklet called, "How To Write Your Own Ticket With God." He tells +about seeing a vision of Jesus and he says to Him, + + Dear Lord, I have two sermons I preach concerning the woman who + touched your clothes and was healed when you were on earth. I + received both of these sermons by inspiration. + +I am quoting him. Later on he quotes what Jesus told him in reply, Jesus +said, + + You are correct, My Spirit, the Holy Spirit, endeavored to get + another sermon into your spirit but you failed to pick it up. + While I am here I will do what you ask, I will give you that + sermon outline. Now, get your pencil and paper and write it + down. + +That's what Jesus said to him, he says. Hagin claims to have received +numerous visions as well as eight personal visitations from Jesus. Hagin has +written, "The Lord Himself taught me about prosperity. I never read about it +in a book; I got it directly from heaven." That claim is a lie: outright, +I'll show you why a little later. You see they believe or they want every +body else to believe that God is giving this information to them. Do you +understand beloved that if you do not have a closed Canon, and if Scripture +did not end with the Book of Revelation, if you believe that God is still +giving revelation--there is no way to stop the flood. + +Everybody is claiming God speaks to them. Fortunately, for the Word-Faith +people, God is telling them exactly what they want Him to say. They have +created God in the image that they want Him to be. For example, they have no +concept of God as sovereign. Scripture says in Psalm 103:19, "The Lord has +established His throne in the heavens; and His sovereignty rules over all." +What that simply means is, God's in charge of everybody and everything. God +is the blest and only sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (1 Tim +6:15), yet in the volumes of Word-Faith material that I have read, I have +not found one reference to the sovereignty of God--not one! The reason is +clear: they don't believe He is sovereign. + +Jesus, according to Word-Faith teaching, has no authority on earth: it is all +delegated to the Church. Kenneth Hagin says this in his book entitled, "The +Authority of the Believer," which, by the way, has long sections which were +taken verbatim from other books written by other people: and he says that he +got them from God; it is just not true. But he says that Jesus has no +authority, He delegated it all to the Church; we are in charge of God and we +are in charge of Jesus. + +Furthermore, Word-Faith theology teaches that God is bound by spiritual laws +that govern health and prosperity. God is bound by some laws; by some +principles. If we say the right words, or if we have the right faith, God is +forced to respond however we determine. Robert Tilton claims that God has +already committed to take His part in a covenant relationship with us. We +can make whatever commitment or promise to Him we want, quote, says Tilton, + + Then we can tell God, on the authority of His Word, what we + would like Him to do. That's right, you can actually tell God + what you would like His part in the covenant to be. + +In the Word-Faith system God is not Lord of all: He can't work unless we +release Him to work; He is dependent on human instruments; He is dependent on +human faith; and above all, He has to act in response to human words to get +His work done. Charles Capps (sp.) has written, "It is in your power to +release the ability of God." In other words, "God is Stuck--until we speak +His orders!" On the other hand, according to Charles Capps (sp.) "Fear +activates the devil." If you succumb to fear, even doubting a little, he +says, + + You've moved God out of it. You have stopped God's ability + immediately. Maybe it was just about to come into + manifestation, but now you have established Satan's word in the + earth, "That it is not getting any better, it is getting worse." + You have established his word. + +What he is saying is, "If you have fear, you release the devil to work; if +you have faith, you release God to work. So if you are afraid of Satan, you +have bottled God and set Satan loose," (My, you are a powerful person!). +According to Charles Capps, in his book, "The Tongue--A Creative Force," God +has turned over His sovereignty, including (listen to this) His creative +authority, to people. Capps has written, + + In August of 1973 the Word of the Lord came unto me saying, + [Just that is frightening. This is the Lord speaking to Charles + Capps] "If men would believe me, long prayers are not necessary. + Just speaking the Word will bring you what you desire. My + creative power is given to man in word form. I have ceased, for + a time, from My work and have given man the book of My creative + power. For it to be effective man must speak it in faith Jesus + spoke it when He was on earth and as it worked then, so it shall + work now, but it must be spoken by the body. Man must rise up + and have dominion over the power of evil by My words. It is my + greatest desire that My people create a better life by the + spoken word, for My word has not lost its power just because it + has been spoken once. It is still equally as powerful today as + when I said, 'Let there be light,' but for My word to be + effective, man must speak it; and that creative power will come + forth performing that which is spoken in faith." + +Simply saying, in other words what he is stating is this, "You have the +ability (if you have enough faith) to create with your words. You want +money? Create it with your faith filled words. You want healings? Create +it with your faith filled words." It escapes my how one of these popular +Word-Faith teachers could possibly be 5 Million dollars in debt; can't he +just speak it into existence? And then on the other hand, why pray at all if +your words have so much creative force? Why pray? What's there to ask for? +You really come up with a denial that you need to seek anything from God; +after all, God has given the sovereignty to you, He's yielded up His creative +power to you; it's not His word anymore, it was His word the first time, it +is your word now. Speak it into existence, you don't need Him--you're +sovereign. + +Another of their teachers, Norval Hayes (sp.), says it is better to talk to +your checkbook, talk to your disease, or talk to whatever predicament you're +in than to turn to God in prayer! I'm quoting, + + You aren't supposed to talk to Jesus about it; you're supposed + to talk directly to the mountain in Jesus' Name (whatever the + mountain is in your life). Stop talking to Jesus about it; stop + talking to anybody else about it; speak to the mountain itself + in Jesus' Name. Don't say, "Oh God, help me. Remove this + sickness from me," say, "Flu, I'm not going to let you come into + my body! Go from me in the name of Jesus! Nose, I tell you, + stop running! Cough, I tell you to leave in Jesus' name!" Say, + "Cancer, you can't kill me, I will never die of cancer in Jesus' + name!" [I'm quoting him further] Do you have a financial + mountain in your life? Start talking to your money. Tell your + checkbook to line up with God's word. Talk to your business. + Command customers to come into your business and spend their + money there. Talk to the mountain. + +You laugh at this, and I understand that, but there are a lot of people who +don't laugh at this--they are believing this. Norval Hayes (sp.) has several +publications and one of them titled "Putting Your Angels To Work" which +indicates that you are not only sovereign over this world but you are +sovereign over the angelic world as well. Hayes also teaches that believers +can exercise dominion over the angels, quote, + + Since angels are ministering spirits sent to minister to and for + Christians [he reasons], we can learn how to put them into + action on our behalf. We believers ought to be keeping those + angelic creatures busy! We ought to have them working for us + all of the time. + +And so I think it is fair to say that Word-Faith theology denies the +sovereignty of God, removes the need to pray to God for any relief from +burdens or needs and gives the Christian himself both dominion and creative +power. In my judgment it is human pride at its ugliest. Worse, it is +idolatry and the new idol is self, and God is dethroned. To follow this +wrong-God concept a little further, the Word-Faith movement teaches that when +you become a Christian you become part of a race of little gods. Kenneth +Copeland has explicitly stated what many Word-Faith teachers more subtly +imply. This is what Kenneth Copeland writes, + + He imparted in you, when you were born again . . .Peter said it + just as plain, he said, "We are partakers of the divine nature." + That nature is life eternal in absolute perfection, and that was + imparted, injected into your spirit-man and you have that + imparted into you by God just the same as you imparted into your + child the nature of humanity. That child wasn't born a whale, + he was born a human--isn't that true? Well now, you don't have + a human do you? You are one. And you don't have a god in + you--you are one! + +Copeland teaches that Adam was created in the god-class; that is, Adam was a +reproduction of God! Listen to what he says, + + He was not subordinate to God--Adam was walking as a god! What + he said "went," what he did "counted"; and when he bowed his + knee to Satan and put Satan up above him then there wasn't + anything God could do about it because a "god" had placed Satan + there. Adam, remember, was created in the god-class, but when + he committed high treason he fell below the god-class. + +"On the cross," according to Copeland, "Jesus won the right for believers to +be born again back into the god-class. Adam was created, not subordinate to +God, but as a god; he lost it, and in Christ we are taken back to the god- +class." In saying that, Copeland believes that Jesus, quote, + + Won healing, He won deliverance, He won financial prosperity, + mental prosperity, physical prosperity, family prosperity. He + said He would meet my needs according to His riches in glory by + Christ Jesus, and I am walking around and saying, "Yes, my needs + are met according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." + Glory to God, I am coveting to the "need meter"; I am coveting + to the I AM; Hallelujah! And I say this with all respect so + that it don't upset you too bad, but I say it anyway; when I read + in the Bible where He says "I AM" I just smile and say "Yes, I + AM too!" + +That is so blasphemous that it ought to make every true child of God cringe, +yet it is typical of Word-Faith teaching. For any human being to call +himself the "I AM," "YAHWEH" the eternal saving, sovereign God, is blasphemy. +In the face of criticism for some of his statements about the deity of the +believer, Copeland appeared with Paul and Jan Crouch on Trinity Broadcasting +Network's program "Praise the Lord!" and he was there to defend his teaching, +and this is the following conversation that ensued, + + Paul Crouch said: God doesn't even draw a distinction between + Himself and us. + + Kenneth Copeland said: Never, never, you never can do that in a + covenant relationship. + + Paul Crouch: Do you know what else that has settled then + tonight? This hue and cry and controversy that has been spawned + by the devil to try and bring dissension within the Body of + Christ that we are gods--I am a little god! + + Kenneth Copeland: Yes, yes! + + Jan Crouch: Absolutely, He gave us His name. + + Kenneth Copeland: The reason we are . . . + + Paul Crouch: I have His name! I am one with Him! I'm in + covenant relations. I am a little god! Critics be gone! + + Kenneth Copeland: You are anything that He is. + + Paul Crouch: Yes! + +Paul Crouch, head and "On Air" host of Trinity Broadcasting Network and +therefore one of the most powerful influential people in religious +broadcasting today, has reaffirmed repeatedly his commitment to the "little +gods" doctrine of Word-Faith, quoting him, + + That new creation that comes in the new birth, is created in + His image. It is joined then with Jesus Christ. Is that + correct? And so in that sense (I saw this many years ago) + whatever that union is that unites Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, + He says, "Father, I want them to be one with Me, even as You and + I are one in Us," so apparently [that's] what He does: He opens + up that union of the very Godhead and brings us into it. + +We become part of the Trinity in that view. Other Word-Faith teachers have +reiterated the heresy. Charles Capps (sp.) writes, + + I have heard people say, "Those who confess God's Word and say + the promises of God over and over are just trying to act like + God." Yes! That's exactly what we are trying to do, act as God + would in a similar situation. What did He do? He spoke the + thing desired. + +Or O'Palk (sp.), another of them, wrote, "Until we comprehend that we are +little gods and we begin to act like little gods, we cannot manifest the +Kingdom of God." Robert Tilton also calls the believer, "A god kind of +creature designed to be as a god in this world. Designed and created by God +to be the god of this world." Other of their popular preachers, Maurice +Serullo (sp.) had this televised conversation with Dwight Thompson, you see +him on Channel 40 frequently, + + Maurice Serullo (sp.): See when God created us in His image He + didn't put any strings on us--did He? He didn't make us + puppets. + + Dwight Thompson: No, not at all! + + Maurice Serullo: He didn't say, 'Maurice, raise your hand, + raise your, you know, and then here we are. We have no + absolute, no control over us. + + Dwight Thompson: No, no, no! + + Maurice Serullo: He made Dwight Thompson, he made Maurice + Serullo a small miniature god. Of course! The Bible says that + we are created in the image of God, His likeness. Where is that + god-likeness? He gave us power. He gave us authority. He gave + us dominion. He didn't tell us to act like a man, He told us to + act like a god. + +Benny Hinn adds, + + The new creation is created after God in righteousness and true + holiness. The new man is after God, like God, godlike, complete + in Jesus Christ. The new creation is just like God. May I say + it like this, "You are a little god on earth running around." + +And then Hinn responded to criticism of such teaching this way, he said, + + Now are you ready for some real revelation knowledge? Ok, now + watch this! He laid aside His divine form so one day I would be + clothed on earth with the divine form. Kenneth Hagin has a + teaching; a lot of people have problems with it, yet it is + absolute truth. Kenneth Copeland has a teaching, many + Christians have put holes in it, but it is divine truth. Hagin + and Copeland say, "You are god, you are gods." "Oh, I can't be + God!" Hold it! Let's bring balance to this teaching. The + balance is being taught by Hagin; it is those who repeat him + that mess it up. The balance is being taught by Copeland, who + is my dear friend, but it is those who repeat what he says that + are messing it up. You see there brother, when Jesus was on + earth, the Bible says that He first disrobed Himself of the + divine form. He, the limitless God, became a man that we men + may become as He is. + +You'll notice in this that they land on the verses that indicate that we +enter in and participate in some of the things that are true about God. But +they take it to the extreme where we become God. We do participate in the +love of God, don't we? And in the righteousness of God, and enjoy the grace +of God, but are not God. Hagin says, + + If we ever wake up and realize who we are we will start doing + the work that we are supposed to do, because the Church hasn't + realized yet that they are Christs, that's who they are. They + are Christs. + +Now, we are not only God--we are Christ! Thus, have the Word-Faith teachers +agreed to dispose God and to put us in His place. From that basic error flow +all the fallacies. Why do they teach that health and prosperity are every +Christian's divine right? Because, we're God--we deserve it! Right? If I +am God I deserve prosperity. Why do they teach that a believer's words have +creative and determinative force? Because in their system we're God, and God +could speak things into creation, and we're God so we can speak them into +creation. They have bought Satan's original lie. The serpent said to the +woman, "You surely shall not die, for God knows that in the day you eat from +this fruit, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God." That was a +lie. Man will never be like God. We will be a glorified man--not God. The +idea that man can be like God, is and always has been the satanic lie. It +was the very lie . . . listen to this, [that] brought the devil himself down. +He said, "I will be like God." + +Two proof texts are often used by the Word-Faith teachers to support their +teaching. In Psalm (you need to listen to this, this is their case here), in +Psalm 82:6 God says to the rulers of earth, "You are gods; and all of you are +sons of the Most High." They quote that all of the time, Psalm 82:6, you +might want to turn to it. And we will close with just a look at the two +texts they use, and we are going to take it up next week. Psalm 82:6, God +says to the rulers of earth, "You are 'gods'; and all of you are sons of the +Most High." And so they say, "See, God says we are gods!" + +A simple reading of the Psalm however, says something very, very, different +than that. If you look at the Psalm it will reveal to you that those words +were spoken to ungodly rulers who were on the brink of judgment: ungodly +rulers on the brink of judgment. Look at verse 7, (they never want to read +verse 7), "Nevertheless, you will die like men; and fall like any one of the +princes. Arise, O God, judge the earth." What is this? There is a note of +irony. God looks at these rulers and they have been rendering unjust +judgments. Back in verse 2 they have been judging unjustly; they have been +showing partiality to the wicked. They have been, rather, doing injustice +than justice and He says, "Look, in your own eyes you think you are gods, but +you are going to die like . . ." what? "Men." How could you ever rip that +6th verse out of that context and make it an affirmation that a Christian has +become a god? Far from confirming their godhood, God is condemning them for +thinking they were gods! + +Word-Faith teachers will immediately turn to their other favorite proof text, +John 10:33-34. Guess what? This is where Jesus quotes Psalm 82:6, so if you +understand Psalm 82:6 you don't have a problem understanding John 10. "The +Jews answered Him, 'For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy +because you being a man make yourself out to be God.'" And then Jesus +answered them, "Has it not been written in your law, 'I said you are gods.'" +Don't fail to notice Jesus' purpose for choosing that verse. It would have +been a very familiar one to the Scribes and Pharisees. They would have +understood that that verse was an condemnation of wicked rulers, and Jesus is +simply echoing the irony of the original Psalm. Walter Martin wrote an +excellent comment on this, He said, "Jesus mocks the people as if to say, +'You all think you are gods yourselves. What's one more god among you?'" +Oh, the irony. You are going to stone me for claiming to be God, you all are +claiming the same thing. What's one more god? The sarcasm. + +Walter Martin says, "Irony is used to provoke us, not to inform us. It is +not a basis for building a theology." Further he says, "It is also pertinent +to an understanding of John 10 that we remember that Satan is called the +"ruler of this world" by no less an authority than Jesus Christ, and Paul +reinforces this by calling him the "god of this age." We can make a god out +of anything: money, power, status, position, sex, patriotism, family, or as +in Lucifer's case--an angel. We can be our own god; but to call something +deity or to worship it, or to treat it as divine is quite another thing. +Then it is being by nature and in essence deity. Jesus is not calling them +"God" in the true sense; He is saying that you have made a god out of +yourselves just like the people in Psalm 82 who felt the blast of God's +judgment. God said to the rebellious Israelites in Isaiah 29:16, "You turn +things around! Shall the potter be considered equal with the clay" (Isaiah +29:16). Does the clay think it is equal to the potter?" According to the +Word-Faith movement, what's the answer? "Yes, if not superior." They have +the wrong god. + +Well, they have some other things that are wrong and I'll tell you what they +are next Sunday night, and we will start with the fact that they have the +wrong Jesus. + +Father, even as we talk about these things we are thrown almost into +disbelief, not because we are not used to error but we are not used to error +being received by people who say they belong to the truth. We are shocked +that so many Christians who would affirm their belief in the truth will +identify with the terrible heresies of this movement. We feel like +evangelical Christianity has become absolutely undefinable, it is so +amorphous that it has no boundaries. It is inexplicable. We almost feel +like we have to pull out of the whole thing and start all over again. Lord, +so many are confused, so many led astray. We just pray that somehow Your +truth will reach them and that they will worship you as the sovereign God and +not turn You into their valet, but fall on their face in your presence and +plead for the privilege to suffer if need be for your sake, sickness, poverty, +or death, if You so will. That like the Apostle Paul they would rejoice to +suffer, they would be thankful for persecutions, distresses, deprivations, if +it is your will because you are sovereign. + +Father, help us to know that we are at best men and no more. Men who have +been touched with the transforming grace of Christ. Men in whom the Holy +Spirit live, but we are men and no more, redeemed men and as men we must be +humbled before God. We grieve Father, that You have been so dishonored, so +humiliated that such a terrible reproach has come on your Holy Name from +those who teach and believe such foolish things. And we ask that You would +be exalted and bring a halt to this degrading teaching for the Savior's sake +we ask. Amen. + +Transcribed by Tony Capoccia of + +BIBLE BULLETIN BOARD MODEM (318)-949-1456 +BOX 130 300/1200/2400/9600/19200/38400 DS HST +SHREVEPORT, LA 71110 + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/charmed.txt b/religious documents/charmed.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..80632ab --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/charmed.txt @@ -0,0 +1,157 @@ +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +This article was written by Mike Nichols for the Magick Lantern BBS. It may be +freely distributed provided that the following conditions are met: +(1) No fee is charged for its use and distribution and no commercial use is +made of it; (2) It is not changed or edited in any way without the author's +permission; (3) This notice is not removed. +This article may be periodically updated by the author; this version is current +as of 9/28/88. Contact Mike Nichols at The Magick Lantern BBS [(816)531-7265, +7pm. to 11am., 300 baud ONLY] for more recent updates, or to leave your own +comments. +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +'Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true +happiness.' -- Bertrand Russell + + + CHARMED, I'M SURE + The Ethics of Love Spells + ========================= + by Mike Nichols + + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +To gain the love of someone: On a night of the full moon, walk to a spot +beneath your beloved's bedroom window, and whisper his/her name three times to +the nightwind. + + --Ozark love spell + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + + + It seems to be an immutable law of nature. You are interviewed by a local +radio or TV station, or in some local newspaper. The topic of the interview is +Witchcraft or Paganism, and you spend the better part of an hour brilliantly +articulating your beliefs, your devotion to Goddess and nature, the difference +between Witchcraft and Satanism, and generally enlightening the public at +large. The next day, you are flooded with calls. Is it people complimenting +you on such a splendid interview? No. People wanting to find out more about +the religion of Wicca? Huh-uh. People who are even vaguely interested in what +you had to say??? Nope. Who is it? It's people asking you to do a love spell +for them! This used to drive me nuts. I'd take a deep breath and patiently +explain (for the thousandth time) why I won't even do love spells for myself, +let alone anyone else. This generally resulted in my caller becoming either +angry or defensive, but seldom more enlightened. 'But don't you DO magic?', +they ask. 'Only occasionally,' I answer. 'And aren't most magic spells love +spells?', they persist. That was the line I really hated, because I knew they +were right! At least, if you look at the table of contents of most books on +magic, you'll find more love spells than any other kind. This seems as true +for the medieval grimoire as for the modern drugstore paperback. + + Why? Why so many books containing so many love spells? Why such an +emphasis on a kind of magic that I, personally, have always considered very +negative? And to make matters even more confusing, the books that do take the +trouble of dividing spells between 'positive' and 'negative' magic invariably +list love spells under the first heading. After all, they would argue, love is +a good thing. There can never be too much of it. Therefore, any spell that +brings about love must be a GOOD spell. Never mind that the spell puts a +straightjacket on another's free will, and then drops it in cement for good +measure. + + And that is why I had always assumed love magic to be negative magic. +Years ago, one of the first things I learned as a novice Witch was something +called the Witch's Rede, a kind of 'golden rule' in traditional Witchcraft. It +states, 'An it harm none, do what thou will.' One uses this rede as a kind of +ethical litmus test for a spell. If the spell brings harm to someone -- anyone +(including yourself!) -- then don't do it! Unfortunately, this rule contains a +loophole big enough to fly a broom through. It's commonly expressed, 'Oh, this +won't HARM them; it's really for their own good.' When you hear someone say +that, take cover, because something especially nasty is about to happen. + + That's why I had to develop my own version of the Witch's Rede. Mine +says that if a spell harms anyone, OR LIMITS THEIR FREEDOM OF THOUGHT OR ACTION +IN ANY WAY, then consider it negative, and don't do it. Pretty strict, you +say? Perhaps. But there's another law in Witchcraft called the Law of +Threefold Return. This says that whatever power you send out, eventually comes +back to you three times more powerful. So I take no chances. And love spells, +of the typical make-Bobby-love-me type, definitely have an impact on another's +free will. + + So why are they so common? It's taken me years to make peace with this, +but I think I finally understand. The plain truth is that most of us NEED +love. Without it, our lives are empty and miserable. After our basic survival +needs have been met, we must have affection and companionship for a full life. +And if it will not come of its own accord, some of us may be tempted to FORCE +it to come. And nothing can be as painful as loving someone who doesn't love +you back. Consequently, the most common, garden-variety spell in the world is +the love spell. + + Is there ever a way to do a love spell and yet stay within the parameters +of the Witch's Rede? Possibly. Some teachers have argued that if a spell +doesn't attempt to attract a SPECIFIC person into your life, but rather +attempts to attract the RIGHT person, whomever that may be, then it is not +negative magic. Even so, one should make sure that the spell finds people who +are 'right' for each other -- so that neither is harmed, and both are made +happy. + + Is there ever an excuse for the make-Bobby-love-me type of spell? +Without endorsing this viewpoint, I must admit that the most cogent argument in +its favor is the following: Whenever you fall in love with someone, you do +everything in your power to impress them. You dress nicer, are more attentive, +witty, and charming. And at the same time, you unconsciously set in motion +some very powerful psychic forces. If you've ever walked into a room where +someone has a crush on you, you know what I mean. You can FEEL it. Proponents +of this school say that a love spell only takes the forces that are ALREADY +there -- MUST be there if you're in love -- and channels them more efficiently. +But the energy would be there just the same, whether or not you use a spell to +focus it. + + I won't attempt to decide this one for you. People must arrive at their +own set of ethics through their own considerations. However, I would call to +your attention all the cautionary tales in folk magic about love spells gone +awry. Also, if a love spell has been employed to join two people who are not +naturally compatible, then one must keep pumping energy into the spell. And +when one finally tires of this (and one will, because it is hard work!) then +the spell will unravel amidst an emotional and psychic hurricane that will make +the stormiest divorces seem calm by comparison. Not a pretty picture. + + It should be noted that many spells that pass themselves off as love +spells are, in reality, sex spells. Not that there's anything surprising in +that, since our most basic needs usually include sex. But I think we should be +clear from the outset what kind of spell it is. And the same ethical standards +used for love spells can often be applied to sex spells. Last year, the very +quotable Isaac Bonewits, author of 'Real Magic', taught a sex magic class here +at the Magick Lantern, and he tossed out the following rule of thumb: Decide +what the mundane equivalent of your spell would be, and ask yourself if you +could be arrested for it. For example, some spells are like sending a letter +to your beloved in the mail, whereas other spells are tantamount to abduction. +The former is perfectly legal and normal, whereas the latter is felonious. + + One mitigating factor in your decisions may be the particular tradition +of magic you follow. For example, I've often noticed that practitioners of +Voudoun (Voodoo) and Santeria seem much more focused on the wants and needs of +day-to-day living than on the abstruse ethical considerations we've been +examining here. That's not a value judgement -- just an observation. For +example, most followers of Wicca STILL don't know how to react when a Santerian +priest spills the blood of a chicken during a ritual -- other than to feel +pretty queasy. The ethics of one culture is not always the same as another. + + And speaking of cultural traditions, another consideration is how a +culture views love and sex. It has often been pointed out that in our +predominant culture, love and sex are seen in very possessive terms, where the +beloved is regarded as one's personal property. If the spell uses this +approach, treating a person as an object, jealously attempting to cut off all +other relationships, then the ethics are seriously in doubt. However, if the +spell takes a more open approach to love and sex, not attempting to limit a +person's other relationships in any way, then perhaps it is more defensible. +Perhaps. Still, it might be wise to ask, Is this the kind of spell I'd want +someone to cast on me? + + Love spells. Whether to do them or not. If you are a practitioner of +magic, I dare say you will one day be faced with the choice. If you haven't +yet, it is only a matter of time. And if the answer is yes, then which spells +are ethical and which aren't? Then you, and only you, will have to decide +whether 'All's fair in love and war', or whether there are other, higher, +metaphysical considerations. diff --git a/religious documents/chi-hosp.txt b/religious documents/chi-hosp.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5ccaee --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/chi-hosp.txt @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ +Hospital Wards Off Satanism + + + CHICAGO (AP) - At his parents' home, Mike painted his room black, decorated +it with black candles and an altar, and put up obituaries and Satanic symbols +on the walls. + + He began driving recklessly, drinking heavily, experimenting with marijuana +and threatening his parents. + + That's when Mike ended up in one of the nation's first treatment programs +aimed at weaning away disturbed teen-agers from Satanism. + + ``At the time,'' said Michael Weiss, an adolescent psychologist, ``Satanism +seemed to have, for Mike, a lot of answers that he couldn't find elsewhere. It +gave him the sense that he could control all things. + + ``Now that he can find other ways to feel good and have some sense of +purpose ... he seems increasingly willing to put aside any Satanic +influence,'' said Weiss of Hartgrove Hospital on Chicago's North Side. + + Mike - not his real name - is among about a half dozen youths, ranging from +14 to 17, who've received treatment or are undergoing therapy at Hartgrove's +Center for the Treatment of Ritualistic Deviance. + + The center, attached to the hospital's adolescent unit, began receiving +patients in October, and referrals are trickling in as its reputation gets +established, Weiss said. + + The in-patient treatment program lasts four to eight weeks, and involves +individual as well as group therapy. + + Up to six patients can be treated at a time, but the capacity can be +expanded should the need arise, Weiss said. + + Most patients are admitted voluntarily based on referrals from mental +health workers, police and parents. + + Weiss said it's still too early to determine the success rate. + + ``We didn't know what to expect ... but I'm pleased with the way things are +right now,'' he said. ``We're certainly finding that we can work with these +kids and their families.'' + + A similar program exists at Denver's Bethesda PsychHealth. + + Hartgrove has received inquiries from hospitals in Texas, Virginia and +Wisconsin interested in starting their own Satanism treatment programs, said +social worker Dale Trahan. + + ``I definitely see the problem as growing,'' said Trahan, who's been +researching satanic beliefs for three years and was contracted to set up +Hartgrove's center. + + ``The factors that seem to be adding to a growth of the occult don't seem +to be going away - a breakdown in family, an abandonment of traditional +values, resistance towards traditional religious beliefs, and an increasing +number of youths who feel both alienated and powerless over their lives and +future.'' + + ``So many kids are feeling like they're ... not going to get their needs +met using traditional means so they're looking for alternatives ... and there +are many destructive alternatives'' such as street gangs, neo-Nazi groups, +drugs and Satanism, Trahan said. + + Cynthia Kisser, executive director of the Chicago-based Cult Awareness +Network, said there has been a marked increase in the number of young people +involved in Satanism. + + AP-NY-03-22-90 2108EST + (C) Copyright 1989, Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. diff --git a/religious documents/chldabse.txt b/religious documents/chldabse.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dcd5dc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/chldabse.txt @@ -0,0 +1,150 @@ + CHRISTIAN CHILD ABUSE + --------------------- + + "Paedophilia is the most serious problem we in the Church have had + to face for centuries." Rev. Thomas Doyle 1987. + + Christianity encourages perversions such as child molestation because it +represses normal physical drives as 'sins'. + + "It is good for a man not to touch a woman", states Paul (I Cor. 7:1) + + Jesus is even worse: "But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a +woman lustfully has committed adultery with her already in his heart." +(Matt. 5:28) + + It's no wonder that such repressive commandments which christians must +obey lest they burn in hell, result in various psychological abnormalities, +such as preference for little boys. + + The following are some examples of christian child abuse, extracted +from the book Christian Child Abuse: The Reality. + + (1) 1979, Newfoundland, Canada. Fr. Kelly convicted of 10 sexual +offences against 5 boys aged 13 to 17. After receiving a suspended +sentence, Kelly appointed vice-chancellor of Temporal Affairs for Toronto +Archdiocese. + + (2) 1984, Louisiana USA. Fr. Gauthe sentenced to 20 yrs. for +molestation of more than 100 boys, 1971-83, aged 7 to 9. His paedophilia +had been known since first yr. as priest, yet his superiors transferred +him whenever scandal threatened to become public. + + (3) 1986, Washington. Fr. Fontenot convicted of raping boy. He had +shared 4 boys with Gauthe in mid-1970's. + + (4) 1988, Newfoundland's best-known priest, Fr. Hickey, convicted of +32 sex crimes involving boys. Local vicar general had known about Hickey +since 1975, but had done nothing. + + (5) 1988, Newfoundland. Fr. Corrigan jailed for 7 offences against +boys aged 10 to 13. + + (6) 1988, Lancashire, England. Congregational Church Minister Garvock +convicted of raping 4 yr. old girl. + + (7) 1988, Winchester, England. 2 Anglican vicars, a choirmaster, a +solicitor, and an already convicted molester jailed on 21 charges of +sexually abusing boys at church outings, YMCA and churchyard. + + (8) 1989, Newfoundland. Fr. Bennet pleads guilty to 36 charges of +paedophilia. His Archbishop had known about him since 1979. + + (9) 1990, Taupo, New Zealand. Fr. Brown jailed for indecent assault +on 2 altar boys, 1980 to 1986. The Hamilton Diocese Archbishop states that +Brown could be assigned other duties when released, and describes him as "a +very compassionate man". + + (10) 1990, Minneapolis USA. Rev. Adamson admits paedophilia since +1961, in a lawsuit brought by a young man who had been abused by the priest +1979-87. Adamson was joined in the abuse in 1984 by a nun. The +Archdiocese had known of Adamson's paedophilia. + + (11) 1990, Solihull, England. Pentecostal Minister D. Stenhouse jailed +on 5 charges of indecent assault on boys aged 12 to 15. + + (12) 1991, Newfoundland. 9 Christian Brothers charged with sexual and +physical abuse of boys in their care at Mt. Cashel orphanage. + + (13) 1991, Minneapolis USA. Rev Thurner admits sexual abuse of a boy. +The Archdiocese had known of his paedophilia since 1982. + + (14) 1991, Ontario, Canada. Rev. Pappi convicted of 2 charges of +'sexual interference' of two 13 year old boys. + + (15) 1991, England. Baptist Minister Ashby Breneman jailed for +molesting 6 boys at his Christian Youth camp. + + (16) 1991, Arlington USA. Fr. Chleboski charged with 6 counts of +molesting a 13 yr. old boy, student of Our Lady of Victory School. + + (17) 1991, Hamilton, New Zealand. Lay Minister Whalley jailed for +indecent assault on a 10 yr. old boy. Had 5 previous convictions. His +Church had sought to keep him out of court. + + (18) 1988-1991, New Orleans USA. Fr. Cinel is discovered to posses +huge collection of child pornography, including 160 hrs. of homemade +videotapes depicting himself - and his dog - in homosexual acts with boys. +After a public outcry, the Catholic DA reluctantly charges Cinel with 60 +separate counts of possessing child porn, in 1991. + + (19) 1991. Civil suit brought against Ferrario, Bishop of Honolulu for +sexual abuse, 1972-1982, by David Figueroa, who states he had been abused +by priests since 1964, when he was 5. + + * * * + + "Because of the position of trust and authority a priest holds in a +child's life, when sexual abuse takes place the greatest damage done to the +child is the betrayal of trust. The damage is much more severe than sexual +abuse by a stranger or baby-sitter." + + Dr Mulry Tetlow, clinical psychiatrist & ex-Jesuit priest + + EXPOSE THIS OUTRAGE + + + SUPPORT THE + + INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST + + CHRISTIAN CHILD ABUSE + +Read: Child Abuse - The Reality. Fully documented, illustrated, book. $5.00 + + Stickers "Stop Christian Child Abuse.: Illustrated. $5/50. + + Leaflets. Distribute this leaflet. $4.00/100 + + PLEASE MAKE CHEQUES PAYABLE TO 'REALIST PUBLICATIONS' + P.O. BOX 38 262 PETONE WELLINGTON NEW ZEALAND + + * - * - * + + Typed in by Graeme Wilson (O.L.H.P.) + +If you want more info on any OLHP productions or want more info on +Satanism, contact me via the following computer networks: + + Fidonet: 3:770/510 + (Sword of Orion BBS, ph: +64 0-3-477-4541, 2400 baud) + Usenet: fenris@otago.ac.nz + Graeme.Wilson@f510.n770.z3.fidonet.org + +Also I may be contacted on other NZ BBS's: + + Alternative Reality: +64 0-3-471-0414 (14.4k baud) + Southern Lights: +64 0-3-455-6016 (14.4k baud) + The Left Hand Path: +64 0-3-454-5763 (2400 baud - soon 14.4k, my BBS) + Bad Dreams BBS: +64 0-9-528-3577 (leave message to 'Lucifer') + +If you wish to contact me via mail to swap texts, ideas, etc. then write +to: + + Graeme Wilson + 129 Scott Street + Waverley + Dunedin + South Island + New Zealand + diff --git a/religious documents/chrggdes.txt b/religious documents/chrggdes.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4c5a3e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/chrggdes.txt @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +Nachricht #9/14 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 18.Mar 92 16:34 +Von : Paul Seymour +An : All +Betreff: Charge of The Goddess + + The Charge of the Goddess + + + Whenever ye have need of any thing, once in the month, and + better it be when the moon is full, then shall ye assemble in + some secret place and adore the spirit of She, who is Queen of + all witches. There shall ye assemble, ye who are fain to learn + all sorcery, yet have not won its deepest secrets; to these will + She teach things that are yet unknown. And ye shall be free from + slavery; and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked + in your rites; and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and + love, all in Her praise. For Hers is the ecstasy of the spirit, + and Hers also is joy on earth; for Her law is love unto all + beings. Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it; let + naught stop you or turn you aside. For Hers is the secret door + which opens upon the land of youth and Hers is the cup of wine of + life, and the cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of + immortality. She is the gracious goddess, who gives the gift of + joy unto the heart of man. Upon earth, She gave the knowledge of + the spirit eternal; and beyond death, She gives peace and + freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor does + She demand sacrifice, for behold, She is the mother of all + living, and Her love is poured out upon the earth. + + She who is the beauty of the green earth, and the white moon + among the stars, and the mystery of the waters, and the desire of + the heart of man, calls unto thy soul. Arise, and come unto Her. + For She is the soul of nature, who gives life to the universe. + from Her all things proceed, and unto Her all things must return; + and before Her face, beloved of gods and men, let thine innermost + divine self be enfolded in the rapture of the infinite. Let Her + worship be within the heart that rejoiceth; for behold, all acts + of love and pleasure are Her rituals. And therefore let there be + beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, + mirth and reverence within you. And thou who thinkest to seek + Her, know thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not unless + thou knowest the mystery; that if that which thou seekest thou + findest not within thee, then thou wilt never find it without + thee. For behold, She has been with thee from the beginning; and + She is that which is attained at the end of desire. + +--- + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle, P.O.D.S. for CO. Springs (1:128/101) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/chrghgod.txt b/religious documents/chrghgod.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9fac150 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/chrghgod.txt @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ +Nachricht #8/14 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 18.Mar 92 16:33 +Von : Paul Seymour +An : All +Betreff: Charge of The Horned God + + The Charge of the God + + Listen to the words of the Horned God, the Guardian of all + things wild and free, and Keeper of the Gates of Death, + whose Call all must answer: + + I am the fire within your heart... + The yearning of your Soul. + I am the Hunter of Knowledge + and the Seeker of the Holy Quest + I - who stand in the darkness of light + am He whom you have called Death. + I - the Consort and Mate of Her we adore, + call forth to thee. + Heed my call beloved ones, + come unto me and learn the secrets of death and peace. + I am the corn at harvest + and the fruit on the trees. + I am He who leads you home. + Scourge and Flame, + Blade and Blood - + these are mine and gifts to thee. + + Call unto me in the forest wild + and on hilltop bare + and seek me in the Darkness Bright. + I - who have been called; + Pan, + Herne, + Osiris , + and Hades, + speak to thee in thy search. + Come dance and sing; + come live and smile, + for behold: + this is my worship. + You are my children and I am thy Father. + On swift night wings + it is I who lay you at the Mother's feet + to be reborn and to return again. + Thou who thinks to seek me, + know that I am the untamed wind, + the fury of storm and passion in your Soul. + Seek me with pride and humility, + but seek me best with love and strength. + For this is my path, + and I love not the weak and fearful. + Hear my call on long Winter nights + and we shall stand together guarding Her Earth + as She sleeps. + +--- + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle, P.O.D.S. for CO. Springs (1:128/101) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/christ.txt b/religious documents/christ.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..94f2bf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/christ.txt @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +Why Michael and Jesus Christ are not the same being. + +1) Michael, as an angel, was created. Jesus, however, as Son of God, is +the One by Whom Rall things were created, things in heaven and on earth, +visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or +authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.S (Colossians +1:16). Since the Watchtower Society delights in +logical+ conclusions, +allow a logician to ask this: can anything be both +A+ and +non-A+ in +nature? Certainly not! An oak tree cannot be anything but an oak tree. A +field mouse cannot live under water like a frog; its useless to even +suggest it. So, consider this: Jesus cannot have created =all= things +and Himself be created. + +2) While Michael is an angel, albeit of the highest order, Jesus Christ +is above the angels. RFor to =which= of the angels did God =ever= say, +You are my Son; today I have become Your FatherS (Hebrews 1:5). By using +the words =which= and =ever= the author purposely limits the +interpretation of this verse. Jesus cannot be an angel; the text does +not allow it. The first chapter of Hebrews is extremely vivid in its +explanation of who Jesus Christ is and is not. The Father calls Him +RSonS, and intentionally sets Him apart from the angels. + +The Watchtower Society has from the beginning denied the deity of +Christ, His bodily resurrection from the dead, the existence of hell, +the efficacy of the Cross to forgive sin and provide redemption, and +most other key teachings of the Bible. They claim to have the only hold +on the truth, and yet, teach the oldest lie in the world. Satan first +used it with Eve when he said, Ryou will be like GodS. I challenge +Jehovah+s Witnesses to examine the claims of scripture without the +filter of Charles Taze Russell clouding their vision. + +Greg Lawhorn 73507,2332 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/chrstfke.txt b/religious documents/chrstfke.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9da814e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/chrstfke.txt @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ + +the strange case of Mssr. Abelard Reuchelin and his deduction that... + + +Christianity is a hoax + +"the New Testament, the Church, and Christianity, were all the creation of the Calpurnius +Piso family, who were Roman aristocrats. The New Testament and all the characters in +it...are all fictional." And so begins one of the most amazing little pamphlets that I've +come across in many an aeon. Its conclusions, if true, are astounding, for they shake the +foundations of history and make a mockery of the wits and intellects of a great host of +epoch bending sages, philosophers, and theologians. Thus the gospel according to one +Abelard Reuchelin, an earnest researcher of historic genealogies who specialized in +ancient families. he began to zero in on one family in particular, the Piso family of +Roman Patricians, who dominated the Roman aristocracy over several generations, producing +caesars, consuls, generals, statesmen, philosophers, historians, scholars and bishops of +the early Church. blood and marriage relations within the Piso family included Tacitus, +Pliny the Younger, Suetonius, Trajan, Vitellius, Vespasian, Julius Caesar's uncle© Lucius +Piso, Galba Caesar, and on and on. Rome was essentially ruled by the same tribe directly +for over two hundred years, and indirectly via the Church up to the present. + +what did Mssr. Abelard discover, then? merely that the authorship of the New Testament, +and hence Christianity, was an ongoing Piso family project for over two generations, +utilizing some of the best literary minds of the age as a battering ram against a series +of alarmingly effective Jewish revolutions primarily in Judea, but also spreading to +Egypt. the Pharisee party was in a powerful geopolitical position to choke trade routes +and a powerful ideological position to challenge a variety of what they viewed as +idolatries, with a monotheism that was at its core anti©slavery. Roman abuses and the +abuses of their puppet regimes had created a tinderbox that could easily be fanned into a +full scale insurrection of the Eastern provinces. It was obvious to the patrician +strategists that the Jewish ideology had to be countered on its own terms. similar to the +fostering of American pacifism in the 1930's by Germany, a messianic splinter religion was +planted within Judea which preached a pacifist message. the writings of Matthew, Mark, +Luke and John, the subsequent Epistles, the personages including the Christ figure, the +apostles, the later important converts, Simon Peter, Saul/Paul, etc. were fabricated out +of various Eastern mythologies, and in some cases, the biographies of the conspirators, +themselves. + +the case for this argument is made stronger by a glaring and obvious body of supporting +historic fact, although fact by omission. one of the great conundrums to Biblical +research has been the nagging lack of independent contemporary documentation making any +reference whatsoever to a nascent Galilean religion. All extant literature dating from +before 100 A.D. which makes reference to early Christianity is from the pen of the +conspirators, often writing under pseudonyms. Reuchelin claims that the contemporary +Jewish General and historian© Flavius Josephus is, in fact, Arius Calpurnius Piso. +However the real dogbone to this bare cupboard of references to early Christianity is to +be found in the strange silence that surrounds researches into the famous Dead Sea +Scrolls; leather, parchment and metal scrolls written in Hebrew which have been unearthed +in the hundreds, often complete and in excellent condition. here are a records of +religious events, important commentaries and chronicles by a sect of Essene scribes and +scholars writing in Judea for a hundred years up to 70 A.D. And nowhere is mention made +of a new religion, a Messiah, a worker of miracles, a preaching to multitudes, a trial and +crucifixion. Nothing. this silence is a great embarrassment to Biblical scholars and is +treated extremely gingerly by the Biblical academic community. Perhaps Abelard Reuchelin +is on to something. you can decide for yourself by getting the pamphlet and a package of +photocopied abstracts from the Abelard Reuchelin Foundation, Box 5652, Kent WA 98064 or +Vector Associates, Box 6215, Bellevue, WA 98008. + + diff --git a/religious documents/churchst.txt b/religious documents/churchst.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3da732a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/churchst.txt @@ -0,0 +1,506 @@ +From: REXLEX@linac.fnal.gov +Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian +Subject: America & Xianity +Message-ID: +Sender: hedrick@farside.rutgers.edu +Date: 19 Jan 93 06:02:06 GMT +Organization: FNAL.GOV +Lines: 497 + +On 1/12, Brian Kendig put forth the liberal notion of separtaion of +church/state with such quotes as: + "Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the + private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep + the church and the state forever separated."- Ulysses S. Grant + +I have put together (mostly w/o references attached) a statement against that +position. I think that it is a myth that the founding fathers of this great +nation thought of separation of c/s as some now propose, including some supreme +court justices, and the far left liberals. In my word processor, it shows me +that I have typed out 13 pages of material, but I do not want to edit anything +out so I'm leaving it as is. Most of the material is verbatum of original +documents with some commentaries of that period. It is my hope that this will +help those who wish also to take the stand that the US was established as a +Christian nation, yet allowing the freedom of the worship of individuals of +others faiths. (many lib's quote Jeferson, but read toward the end of this +article what Jeff really said) --Rex + +From Christopher Columbus' Book of Propheces: + +"It was the Lord who put into my mind-I could feel His hand upon me . . ..All +who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me...There is no +question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because he comforted me +with rays of marvelous illumination from the Holy Scriptures...For the +execution of the journey. . . did not make use of intelligence, mathematics, +or maps. It is simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophesied.. .No one +should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Savior, if it is just and +if the intention is purely for His Holy service. ..the fact that the Gospel +must Stin be preached to so many lands in such a short time-this is what +convinces me." + + +From William Bradford's "History of Plymouth Plantation": + +"A great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at +least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the Gospel +of the Kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they +should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the per~ forming of so +great a work." + +The Mayflower Compact, from William Bradford's "History of Plymouth +Plantation": + +"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects +of our dread sovereign lord King James, by the grace of Gocl, of Great Britain, +France, and keland, king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken for +the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, and the honor of our +king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of +Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God +and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body +politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends +aforesaid; and by virtue hereof do enact, constitute and frame such just and +eclual laws, ordinances, acts, constitu~ tions and offices, from time to time, +as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the +colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness +whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of +November, in the reign of our sovereign lord KingJames of England, France and +Ireland, the eighteenth and of Scotland, the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620." + +From the "First Charter of Virginia:" + +"We, greatly commending and graciously accepting of their desires for the +furtherance of so noble a work, which may, by the providence of Almighty God, +hereafter tend to the glory of His Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian +religion to such people, as yet live in darkness and miserable +ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God, and may in time...." + +From George Washington's "Inaugural Speech to Both Houses of Congress," April +30, 1789: + +"Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience to the public +summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly improper to +omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty +Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations and +whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may +consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a +government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes....No people +can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the +affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which +they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been +distinguished by some token of providential agency. . . . We ought to be no +less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a +nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself +has ordainedJ and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the +destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply, +perhaps finally, staked on the experiment...." + +From Abraham Lincoln's "Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day," March 30, +1863: + +"Whereas, the Senate of the United States devoutly recognizing the Supreme +Authority and just Government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of +nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set +apart a day for national prayer and humiliation: + +And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their +dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and +transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance +will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in +the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are +blessed whose God is the Lord: + +And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are +subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world~may we not justly fear +that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land may be but a +punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of +our national reformation as a whole people; We have been the recipients of the +choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace +and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation +has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand +which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; +and we have vainly imagined,, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all +these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. +Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel +the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God +that made us! + +It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess +our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. [. . . ] + +All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the +hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will +be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our +national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to +its former happy condition of unity and peace. + +In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the +United States to be affixed. By the President: Abraham Lincoln. + + +Various Colony Declarations + +New England + +"The synod of the New England churches met at Cambridge, Mass, Sept 30, 1648, +and defined the nature of civil government, the functions of the civil +magistrate, adn the duties of the citizens, as follows: + I. God, the Supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil +magistrates to be under him, over the people, and for his own glory and the +public good; and to this end hath armed them with the power of the sword for +the defense and encouragement of them that do well, and for the punishment of +evil-doers. +II. It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of magistrate +when called thereunto. In the management whereof, as they ought especially to +maintain piety, justice, and peace, according to the wholesome laws of the +Commonwealth, so for that end they may lawfully now, under the New Testa~ ment, +wage war upon just and necessary occasions. +III. They who, upon pretence of Christian liberty, shall oppose any lawful +power, or the lawful exercises of it, resist the ordinances of God,. . .may be +called to account and proceeded against by the censure of the church and by the +power of the civil magistrate. +IV. It is the duty of the people to pray for magistrates, to honor their +persons, to pay them tribute and other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and +to be subject to their authority for conscience's sake." + + "Civil government on the basis of the Bible and free principles of a pure +Christianity was not the only object th~t the Puritans had in view in coming to +the New World. They had also the great and good end of extending and +establishing the kingdom of Christ, and of bringing the whole continent under +the reign of Christianity and filling it with its saving blessings" . + + "In 1643, a confederation between the colonies of Massachusetts, New +Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven was formed, in which it is affirmed that +'we all came into these parts of America with the same end and aim, namely, to +advance the kingdom of our Lord ]esus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties +thereof with purity and peace, and for preserving and propagating the truth and +liberties of the gospel"' (p. 56). + +Massachusetts + +"In the charter granted to Massachusetts, in 1640, by Charles I., the Colonies +are enjoined by 'their good life and orderly conversation to win and invite the +natives of the country to a knowledge of the only true God and Savior of +mankind, and the Christian &ith which, in our royal intention and adventurer's +free possession, is the principal end of this plantation"' + +Connecticut + +"In Connecticut the first organization of civil society and government was +made, in 1639, at Quinipiack, now the beautiful city of New Haven...A +constitution was formed, which was characterized as 'the first example of a +written constitution; as a distinct organic act, constituting a government and +defining its powers."' Listed below are some of the articles which made up the +constitution of Connecticut: + +I. That the Scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and +government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and men, +as well in families and commonwealths as in matters of the church. + +II. That as in matters which concerned the gathering and ordering of a church, +so likewise in all public offices which concern civil order,-as the choice of +magistrates and officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of +inheritance, and all things of like nature,-they would all be governed by those +rules which the Scripture held forth to them. + +III. That all those who had desired to be received free planters had settled in +the plantation with a purpose, resolution, and desire that they might be +admitted into church fellowship according to Christ. + +IV. That all the free planters held themselves bound to establish such civil +order as might best conduce to the securing of the purity and peace of the +ordinance to themselves, and their posterity according to God.' + + "The governor was then charged by the Rev. Mr. Davenport, in the most +solemn manner, as to his duties, from Deut. i. 16, 17:-'And I charged your +judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge +righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with +him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, but ye shall hear the small as +well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment +is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will +hear it'. The General Court, established under this constitution, +ordered,-'That God's word should be the only rule for ordering the affairs of +government in this commonwealth"'. + +New Hampshire + +"In 1679, NEW HAMPSHIRE, was separated from Massachusetts and organized as an +independent province. The colonists, having been so long a part of the +Christian commonwealth of Massachusetts, constituted their institutions on the +same Christian basis. Its legislature was Christian, and the colony greatly +prospered and increased in population". + +Pennsylvania + +"The settlement of the province of Pennsylvania by William Penn formed a new +era in the liberties of mankind. It afforded a resting-place where the +conscientious and oppressed people of Europe might repose, and enjoy the rights +of civil and religious freedom which mankind had derived as an inheritance from +the Creator. He [Penn] obtained from Charles II. a grant of territory that now +embraces the States of Pennsylvania, New ]ersey, and Delaware. He was legally +inducted to the governorship of this immense domain, in England, by the +officers of the crown, and in 1682 arrived in the New World and assumed the +civil government of the colony. He avowed his purpose to be to institute a +civil government on the basis of the Bible and to administer it in the fear of +the Lord. The acquisition and government of the colony, he said, was 'so to +serve the truth and the people of the Lord, that an example may be set to the +nations.' + "The frame of government which Penn completed in 1682 for the government +of Pennsylvania was derived from the Bible. He deduced from various passages +'the origination and descent of all human power from God; the divine right of +government, and that for two ends,-first to terrify evil doers; secondly, to +cherish those who do well;' so that government, he said, 'seems to me to be a +part of religion itself.'-'a thing sacred in its institutions and ends.' Let +men be good, and the government cannot be bad.' 'That, therefore, which makes a +good constitution must keep it,-namely men of wisdom and virtue,-qualities +that, because they descend not with worldly inheritance, must be carefully +propagated by a virtuous education of youth'. + "The first legislative act, December, 1682, "announced the ends of a true +civil government. 'Whereas the glory of Almighty God and the good of mankind is +the reason and end of government, and, therefore, government in itself is a +venerable ordinance of God..."' And it is the purpose of civil government to +establish "laws as shall best preserve true Christian and civil liberty, in +opposition to all unchristian, licentious, and unjust practices, whereby God +may have his due, Caesar his due, and the people their due, from tyranny and +oppression". + +". . . . . But religion, as a life, as an inward principle, though specially +developed and fostered by the Church, extends its domain beyond the sphere of +technical worship, touches all the relations of man, and constitutes the +inspiration of every duty. The service of the Commonwealth becomes an act of +piety to God. The State realizes its religious character through the religious +character of its subjects; and a State is and ought to be Christian, because +all its subjects are and ought to be determined by the principles of the +Gospel. As every legislator is bound to be a Christian man, he has no right to +vote for any laws which are inconsistent with the teachings of Scriptures. He +must carry his Christian conscience into the halls of legislation" (The +Collected Writings of James Henley Thomwell, Vol. IV, p. 517). + +_______________________________________________________ +Separation of Church & State +_______________________________________________________ + +Myth #1: The system of law and its principles are religiously or morally +neutral. + + It must be remembered that neutrality is impossible. Some authority, +whether it be God or man, is used as the reference point for all enacted laws. +If a political system rejects one authority, it adopts another. If a biblical +moral system is not being legislated, then an immoral system is being +legislated. Any moral system that does not put Jesus Christ at its center, +denies Christ: "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one +and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other..." (Matthew +6:24); and, "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather +with Me scatters" (12:30). "Our standard of right is that eternal law which God +proclaimed from Sinai, and which Jesus expounded on the Mount. We recogni2e our +responsibility to Jesus Christ. He is Head over all things to the Church, and +the nation that will not serve Him is doomed to perish" (James Henley +Thornwell, The Collected Writings of ]ames Henley Thomwell, Vol. IV, p. 517f. +). + +Myth #2: The First Amendment calls for a "separation of Church and State." + + When an individual is questioned as to whether a Christian should involve +himself in the political realm, a protest is made by an appeal to the +"separation of Church and State" found in the First Amendment to the +Constitution. Many Christians usually do not have an answer when they are +confronted with this standard argument. Most people do not realize that the +First Amendment says nothing about Church and State or a separation between the +two. It simply states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an +establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...." In the +Constitution of the Soviet Union, however, the doctrine of the separation of +Church and State is found: "In order to ensure to citizens freedom of +conscience, the church in the U.S.S.R. is separated from the State, and the +school from the church. Freedom of religious worship and freedom of +antireligious propaganda is recognized for all citizens" (Article 124). The +Constitution of the United States of America has the First Amendment as a +safe-guard so that the State can have no jurisdiction over the Church. Its +purpose was to protect the Church, not to disestablish it. + +Myth # 3: The silence of the Constitution regarding Christianity. + + It is assumed that the United States was never Christian in its basic +ideals and values because the Constitution does not specifically mention +Christianity. The myth is shattered when one realizes that it was never the +purpose of the Constitution to give religious content to the nation. Rather, +the Constitution was an instrument whereby already existing religious values of +the nation could be protected and perpetuated. The Constitution is not devoid +of Christian references, however. It is interesting to note that the +Constitution acknowledges Sunday as a day of rest: "If any bill shall not be +returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall +have been presented to him, the same shall be a law. . ." (Article I, section +7). Moreover, there is a direct reference to the Lord Jesus Christ in the +Constitution: "DONE in convention by the unanimous consent of the States +present, the seventeenth of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand +seven hundred and eighty seven and of the independence of the United States of +America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our Names." + Myth #4 The states were to be religiously neutral and that the federal +government had an obligation to ensure that the states remained religiously +neutral. + + By studying the State Constitutions, one begins to realize that they were +not religiously "neutral" but were, in fact, explicitly Christian. After the +adoption of the First Amendment, several states even had established Churches. +Here are some examples: + +The Connecticut Constitution (until 1818): "The People of this State...by the +Providence of God. . .hath the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves +as a free, sovereign, and independent State. . . and forasmuch as the free +fruition of such liberties and privileges as humanity, civility, and +Christianity call for, as is due to every man in his place and +proportion...hath ever been, and will be the tranquility and stability of +Churches and Commonwealth; and the denial thereof, the disturbances, if not the +ruin of both." + +The Delaware Constitution (1831): "...no man ought to be compelled to attend +any religious worship..." but it recognized "the duty of all men frequently to +assemble together for the public worship of the Author of the Universe." The +following oath of office was in force until 1792: "I. ..do profess faith in God +the Father, and in Jesus Christ His only son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God, +blessed for evermore; I do acknowledge the holy scriptures of the Old and New +Testaments to be given by divine inspiration." + +The Maryland Constitution (until 1851): "That, as it is the duty of every man +to worship God in such a manner as he thinks most acceptable to him; all +persons professing the Christian religion, are equally entitled to protection +in their religious liberty; wherefore no person ought by any law to be +molested...on account of his religious practice; unless, under the color +[pretense] of religion~ any man shall disturb the good order, peace or safety +of the State, or shall infringe the laws of morality. . .yet the Legislature +may, in their discretion, lay a general and equal tax, for the support of the +Christian religion." The Constitu~ tion of 1864 required "a declaration of a +belief in the Christian religion" for all State officers. + +The Massachusetts Constitution (until 1863): This state Constitution included +the "right" of "the people of this commonwealth to. . . invest their +Legislature with power to authorize and require, the several towns, parishes, +precincts, and other bodies-politic or religious societies to make suitable +provision, at their own expense, for the institution of the public worship of +God and for the support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, +religion, and morality in all cases where such provision shall not be made +voluntary." + +The North Carolina Constitution (until 1876): "That no person who shall deny +the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine +authority of the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles +incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of +holding any office or place of trust or profit in the civil department within +this State." + + These State Constitutions provide ample evidence that the First Amendment +was not originally intended to remove all Christian influence from our civil +government. "And yet, the Supreme Court and some Constitutional authorities ask +us to believe that the founding fathers would have forbidden even a voluntary +prayer in a school supported by a State....Paul Eidelberg "The Philosophy of +the American Constitution", p. 271), having cited these provisions of the State +constitutions, remarks that the various decisions of the Supreme Court +regarding the First Amendment and the 'establishment of religion' clause should +be reviewed in the light of this information" (James M. Bulman, It Is Their +Right, pp. 111-112, 119). +Myth #5 Historically the concept of the separation of Church and State has +been part of official governmental policy. + + "If the American people have ever adopted the principle of complete +separation of church and state, we would find the evidence of it in the federal +Constitution, in the acts of Congress, or in the constitutions or laws of the +several states. There is no such evidence in existence. In its absence, the +mere opinion of private individuals or groups that there should be absolute +separation of church and state (a condition that has not existed in recent +centuries in any civilized nation on earth) does not create a 'great American +principle"' (J.M. O'Neill, Religion and Education Under the Constitution, p. +4). The origin of the phrase "separation of church and state" is found in a +letter from Thomas Jefferson to a group of Baptist clergymen January 1, 1802). +Jefferson was assuring the Danbury Baptist Association that the First Amendment +guaranteed that there would be no establishment of any one denomination over +another. The Baptists feared that the Congregationalists would be the preferred +denomination. The Supreme Court has taken Jefferson's "separation" clause +(divorced from Jefferson's own explanation of the phrase) and used it to create +a new, and completely arbitrary, interpretation of the First Amendment. (cf. +Robert Borks' books/lectures on contitutional and the Supreme Court) + Since Jefferson is the best interpreter of Jefferson, his own words +concerning the issue of the national government's authority over individual +states and churches should be considered. In Jefferson's Second Inaugural +Address of March 4, 1805, he made the following comment: "In matters of +religion, I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the +Constitution independent of the powers of the General Government. I have +therefore undertaken, on no occasion, to prescribe the religious exercise +suited to it; but have left them, as the Constitution found them, under the +direction and discipline of state and church authorities acknowledged by the +several religious societies" (Saul K. Padover, ed., The Complete Jefferson, p. +412). + Jefferson also feared the Supreme Court. He believed that the Court by its +exercise of the power of judicial review was in the process of usurping the +authority of the national and state governments. In 1820 he wrote: "To consider +the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very +dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of +an oligarch [rule by a few]....The Constitution has erected no such single +tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time +and party, its members would become despots" (Letter to Jarvis, 1820). + +(Jefferson also wrote about the need for the Bible to be taught to society at +large -as a utilitarian ethic- and so enacted such legislation as the head of +education. He put forth the principle that it was to be the standard from +which school teachers were to teach. He also encouraged prayer in the class +room!!!) + + +[I've seen these arguments in other groups, and there are just as long +sets of quotations (sometimes from the same people) indicating the +reverse. My conclusion from this is that people in the 18th Cent. +were no more unanimous in their intentions than people are now. I am +certainly convinced that many people saw the U.S. as in some sense a +Christian enterprise. Thus I think the complete and radical +disassociation between Christianity and the State that is sometimes +advocated now is not what they had in mind. On the other hand, it's +also clear that they had seen entirely too many religious wars and +religious tyrannies in Europe, and thus that they did want to make +sure that no specific church or creed had authority over the State. + +In the current debates, the choices presented seem to me generally too +extreme on both sides. It is clear that some Christians want to use +the State as a vehicle to enforce their Christian ideas on everyone. +This seems to me exactly the sort of thing that the Bill of Rights was +intended to prevent. On the other side, it is also hard to envision +that the Founding Fathers would have wanted a situation where one +can't mention God in any publicly sponsored forum, for fear of having +the State appear to support religion, which seems to be the goal of +others. Somehow, between alternating volleys of quotations from +devout Founding Fathers and anti-clerical quotatios from Tom Paine, +we've got to find a better approach. + +One complicating issue is that there is one basic situation that is no +longer true. I just looked through the Federalist Papers, and found +no very explicit discussion of the relationship between Church and +State. What I did find was the following interesting statement. +(This is taken from the Project Gutenberg on-line edition.) + +FEDERALIST No. 2 + +Concerning Dangers from Foreign Force and Influence +For the Independent Journal. + + JAY + + To the People of the State of New York: + + ... + + With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice that Providence + has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united + people--a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same + language, professing the same religion, attached to the same + principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs, + and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side + by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established + general liberty and independence. + This country and this people seem to have been made for each + other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an + inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united + to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a + number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties. + +For better or worse, this is no longer true. (Of course it wasn't +really true then either, but non-Christians were in a position that +one could conveniently ignore them.) I don't have a real solution to +this problem, and as moderator it probably isn't my job to supply one +in any case. How I do think it's appropriate to ask people to try to +avoid oversimplified answers. --clh] diff --git a/religious documents/circcere.txt b/religious documents/circcere.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1919f1d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/circcere.txt @@ -0,0 +1,106 @@ + CIRCLE CEREMONY +WATER + Blessings upon thee, O creature of water, I cast out from +thee all impurities and uncleanness of the spirits of phantasm, +confusion, or any other influence not for the free will of all. +SALT + Blessings be upon this creature of salt; let all malignity +and hindrance be cast forth thencefrom, and let all good enter +therein. Wherefore I bless thee and invoke thee, that thou +mayest aid me. +MIXING + I take this salt of the Earth, Blessed with the will of + Fire; I take this water of spirit,Exorcised with mind of merit; + I mix them with words of power, + Dedicated to every Tower. + By the power of moon and sun, + By the power of Spirit,earth and sea, + God and Goddess are part of One, + As I Will, so mote it be! + CASTING OF THE CIRCLE + I conjure thee, O circle of power, + As thou encircle every Tower. + That thou beest a place of Truth, Joy and love, + Encircling Flight of Eagle, Hawk and Dove. + Mighty Aegis of the Lady and Lord, + Rampart of thought, action and word. + To work in Peace, Powerful and Free, + Who walk between two worlds conjure thee; + A boundary to Protect, Concentrate and Contain, + That Power raised here be not in vain. + + Wherefore do I bless thee and consecrate thee, in the names of +Cernunnos and Aradia. + + SEALING OF THE CIRCLE +(seal with water/salt mixture) +With potion of earth and water, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking air and fire! +With potion of earth and air, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking fire with water! +With potion of earth,air,and fire, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking water with the Earth! +As the four directions are brought to merge, +Let influence of the mighty ones converge! +(Seal with Censer) + With Incense and air of Mind, + East to South,I do Bind! + With Incense and air of mind, + South to West, I do Bind! + With Incense and air of Mind, + West to North, I do Bind! + With Incense and air of Mind, + North to East Completion Find! +(Seal with Candle) + With the Fire of emotion and will + East to South, our dedication fulfill! + With the Fire of veneration and Will, + South to West, our allegiance fulfill! + With the Fire of Devotion and Will, + West to North, our consecration fulfill! + + With the Fire of Commitment and will, + From North to East, This inscription fulfill! + Within the circle All wills be free, + The circle is sealed, So Mote it Be! + + SETTING THE WATCHTOWERS + Ye Lords of the Eastern Tower, + Airy Lords of Spirit; + Let your influence of Power, + Aid our minds with merit! +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to +guard the circle. + Ye Lords of Southern Power + Fiery Lords of Will. + Pray do grace your Tower, + Your Powers to fulfill! +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to +guard the circle. + Ye Lordsœ of the Watchtowers of the West, + Watery Lords of Death and Initiation; +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to +guard the Circleœ. + Ye Northern Lords of the Earth, + Though we be yet but Mortals; + Bless our work with worth, + Boreas, guardian of Northern portals. +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to +guard the Circle. + Goddess and God, I would know, + As 'tis above, so 'tis below + Blessings on this work, please bestow! + This be my will, true and free, + I do so will, so mote it be + + INVOCATION OF THE ELEMENTS + Air, Fire, Water, Earth, + Elements of astral birth, + I call you now; attend to me! + In the Circle, rightly cast, + Safe from curse or blast, + I call you now, attend to me! + From cave and desert,sea and hill, + By wand, blade,and pentacle, + I call you now, attend to me! + This Is my will, so mote it be! diff --git a/religious documents/circdnce.txt b/religious documents/circdnce.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..acdbf07 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/circdnce.txt @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ +Date: 05-22-89 22:34 +From: the Bard +To: Blackwolf +Subj: Song lyrics ( tape coming to you ) + +EID:8b4a 12b6b446 + + ************************************************************** + + CELTIC CIRCLE DANCE + copyright 1984 W. J. Bethancourt III + recorded: CELTIC CIRCLE DANCE + WTP-0002 + tune: Same Old Man/Leatherwing Bat + + Hi said the Norn, sittin in the sand + once I talked to a great Grey Man + spun three times and said with a sigh + "Hadn't been for the Runes had his other eye!" + + Chorus: hi diddle i diddle i day + hi diddle i diddle i diddle ay + hi di diddle i diddle i day + fol the dink a dum diddle do di day + + Hi said the Lady, dressed in green + prettiest thing I've ever seen + she went down underneath the hill + and came back out of her own free will + + Brian Boru, on Irish ground + walked three times the Island round + Norsemen came lookin for a fight + just another Irish Saturday night! + + Hi said Lugh on the banquest night + a poet and a player and a good wheelwright + a harper and a warrior and none the least: + a Druid and he got in to the Feast! + + Harold Haardrada's face was red! + Came to Britain and he wound up dead + Stamford Bridge is where he's found + got six feet of English ground + + the Legion with it's Eagles bright + marched into the Pictish night + met them there upon the sand + gave em up to the Wicker Man! + + eight-legged steed and hound of Hel + the one-eyed Man, he loves ya well + fire burn and fire spark + are you then feared of the dark? + + The Circle forms, the Circle flows + the Circle goes where no man knows + Hail to the Lady, one in three: + Present is Past and Past is Me! + + Rhiannon's Birds are still in flight + all thru the Day all thru the Night + Hail to the Lady, one in Three + Present is Past and Past is Thee! + + Hi said the Lady dressed in white + sang the Day and sang the Night + sang the Land and sang the Sea + sang the Song, and then sang Me! (extra verses:) + + Salt and oil and mirror bright + fire and fleet and candlelight + by fin and feather, leaf and tree, + fill the cup and blessed be! + + From the misty crystal sea + came the Lady to the lea + Sword and Roses in Her Hand + spread their seeds thruout the Land + + Came the Stag from oaken wood + saw the Lady where she stood + by the fire burning bright + came to know his heart's delight! (end of extra verses) + + By Sword and Harp, and Irish Hound + Blessed Be: the Day I've found + Hail to the Lady, one in Three + Present is Past and Past is WE + + By Oak and Ash and Holy Thorn + blessed be the Day you're born! + Fire burn and fire bright + walk in safety thru the night + + * end * + ************************************************************* + * Origin: <<>> (Opus 1:114/29) + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/circle1.txt b/religious documents/circle1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa8b086 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/circle1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,141 @@ +ab:circle1.txt 16jan90 + + + + Casting the Circle + +Needs: Altar, 2 Altar Candles, Water Bowl, Salt Dish, Pentacle, + Censer, Athame, Bell; Presence Lamp; 4 Quarter Candles; + Sword (optional), Candle Snuffer (optional) + +Let all be fit to enter into the presence of the Gods. + +Start in the dark. + +Ritual Leader waits until it feels like time to begin, then rises: + +LIGHTING OF THE CANDLE: +R: "I light this Candle (lights Presence Lamp) + in the name of that ancient presence, + which is, was, and ever shall be + male, female, all-knowing, all-powerful + and present everywhere. + + And in the names of the four Mighty Ones, + the rulers of the elements, + may power and blessing descend + in this hour upon this place + and those gathered here." + +R lights the two altar candles, the charcoal, and the four quarter candles +from the Presence Lamp. + +EXORCISM OF THE WATER: +R kneels before the altar and places the Water Bowl upon the Pentacle. +R purifies the water by plunging the tip of his/her athame into the water, +saying: + +R: "I exorcise thee, O Creature of Water, that thou cast out from + thee all the impurity and uncleanliness of the world of phantasm. + In the names of Cernunnos and Cerridwen." + +BLESSING OF THE SALT: +R sets the Water Bowl aside and in its place sets the Salt Dish upon +the Pentacle. R touches salt with tip of athame, saying: + +R: "Blessings be upon thee, O Creature of Salt; let all malignity and + hindrance be cast forth from thee, and let all good enter within. + Wherefore do I bless and consecrate thee, that thou mayest aid me. + In the names of Cernunnos and Cerridwen." + +Using the tip of the athame, R takes three measures of salt and puts +it into the water, then stirs deosil three times with the athame, saying: + +R: "But ever mind that as water and salt purifies the body, + so the scourge purifies the soul. So mote it be !" + +CASTING THE CIRCLE: +R draws a circle, continuous from north deosil unto north with the Sword +(or athame), saying: + +R: "I conjure thee, O Circle of Power, that thou beest + a boundary between the world of men and the realms of the Mighty Ones; + a meeting place of love and joy and truth; + a shield against all wickedness and evil; + a rampart and protection that shall preserve and contain + the power that we raise within thee. + Wherefore do I bless thee, and consecrate thee, + in the names of Cernunnos and Cerridwen." + +(If others are without, a gate is opened, and they are now brought +into the Circle with a kiss, and the Circle is resealed.) + +CONSECRATION OF THE CIRCLE WITH THE FOUR ELEMENTS: +R takes up the consecrated water and asperges the Circle with his/her +fingertips, from north deosil unto north; and then touches each person within +with the water, being touched in turn by his/her working partner (or another of +the opposite sex to R, if available). Water Bowl is returned to altar. + +R then takes up the censer, and likewise censes the Circle from north unto +north. + +Lastly R takes around the Presence Lamp (or a candle lit from the Presence Lamp +and returned to it). + +CALLING THE MIGHTY ONES: +All stand and salute the East. R stands in front of group facing East. +Maiden stands at back of group with the Bell. M rings Bell. + +With athame, R draws three deosil circles and then an invoking earth pentagram, +saying: + +R: "Ye Lords of the Watchtowers of the East, ye Lords of Air; + I, N....., do summon, stir and call you up, to witness our + rites and guard the Circle !" + +All turn and face South. Ritual Leader and Maiden move to corresponding +positions; others just turn in place. M rings Bell. + +With athame, R draws three deosil circles and then an invoking earth pentagram, +saying: + +R: "Ye Lords of the Watchtowers of the South, ye Lords of Fire; + I, N....., do summon, stir and call you up, to witness our + rites and guard the Circle !" + +Similarly, in West: + +R: "Ye Lords of the Watchtowers of the West, ye Lords of Water; + Lords of Death and Initiation; I, N....., do summon, stir and call + you up, to witness our rites and guard the Circle !" + + +And in North: + +R: "Ye Lords of the Watchtowers of the North, ye Lords of Earth; Boreas, + thou Guardian of the Northern Portals; I, N....., do summon, stir + and call you up, to witness our rites and guard the Circle !" + +All turn back to the East and salute. + +Now all turn to North again. M rings Bell. R says: + +R: "Ye Mighty Ones, + Lords of the Watchtowers of the Universe, + Dread Lords of the outer spaces, + Thou powerful God, thou gentle Goddess, + We invite you to our meeting. + (pause) + O thou Loving Cerridwen. + O thou Mighty Cernunnos, + we gather (I stand) before you + to ...." (state intent) + +The Circle is now perfect. + +---------- +-Adapted from Farrars' '8 Sabbats', but published all over the place + in several versions. +-'Lighting of Candle' added by Khaled, Sekhet & Random. +-'Exorcism of Water' & 'Blessing of Salt' closely follow those of the Key + of Solomon, Book 2, Chapt. V. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/circle2.txt b/religious documents/circle2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8bd9a0 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/circle2.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/circle3.txt b/religious documents/circle3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d148a68 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/circle3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +ab:circle2.txt 16jan90 + + + Closing the Circle + +When the Circle's work is done, R goes to the East, athame in hand, salutes, +and draws a banishing Earth pentagram, saying: + +R: "Ye Lords of the Watchtowers of the East, ye Lords of Air, we thank + you for attending our rites; and ere ye depart to your beauteous + realms, we bid thee Hail and Farewell..." + +All: "Hail and Farewell !" (R extinguishes Quarter Candle) + +Repeat for the remaining Quarters, addressing each with the titles by which +it was invoked. + +R thanks and says goodbye to the God and Goddess. (Words To Be Decided.) and +extinguishes altar candles. + +R then thanks and dismisses any spirits who have gathered. + +R: "The Circle is open but unbroken. Merry meet, merry part and + merry meet again." + +R extinguishes the Presence Lamp, saying: + +R: "This rite is ended !" + +All: "So mote it be !" + +---------- +-lots of published versions +-this version comes from Quicksilver diff --git a/religious documents/circrit.txt b/religious documents/circrit.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee1d9e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/circrit.txt @@ -0,0 +1,120 @@ + CIRCLE CEREMONY +WATER + Blessings upon thee, O creature of water, I cast out from thee all impurities and uncleanness of the spirits of phantasm, confusion, or any other influence not for the free will of all. +SALT + Blessings be upon this creature of salt; let all malignity and hindrance be cast forth thencefrom, and let all good enter therein. Wherefore I bless thee and invoke thee, that thou mayest aid me. +MIXING + I take this salt of the Earth, Blessed with the will of + Fire; I take this water of spirit,Exorcised with mind of merit; + + I mix them with words of power, Dedicated to every Tower. + + By the power of moon and sun, + By the power of Spirit,earth and sea, + God and Goddess are part of One, + As I Will, so mote it be! + + CASTING OF THE CIRCLE + + I conjure thee, O circle of power, + As thou encircle every Tower. + That thou beest a place of Truth, Joy and love, + Encircling Flight of Eagle, Hawk and Dove. + Mighty Aegis of the Lady and Lord, + Rampart of thought, action and word. + To work in Peace, Powerful and Free, + Who walk between two worlds conjure thee; + A boundary to Protect, Concentrate and Contain, + That Power raised here be not in vain. + + Wherefore do I bless thee and consecrate thee, in the names of Cernunnos and Aradia. + + SEALING OF THE CIRCLE +(seal with water/salt mixture) + +With potion of earth and water, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking air and fire! +With potion of earth and air, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking fire with water! +With potion of earth,air,and fire, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking water with the Earth! + +As the four directions are brought to merge, +Let influence of the mighty ones converge! + +(Seal with Censer) + + With Incense and air of Mind, + East to South,I do Bind! + + With Incense and air of mind, + South to West, I do Bind! + + With Incense and air of Mind, + West to North, I do Bind! + + With Incense and air of Mind, + North to East Completion Find! + +(Seal with Candle) + + With the Fire of emotion and will + East to South, our dedication fulfill! + + With the Fire of veneration and Will, + South to West, our allegiance fulfill! + + With the Fire of Devotion and Will, + West to North, our consecration fulfill! + + With the Fire of Commitment and will, + From North to East, This inscription fulfill! + + Within the circle All wills be free, + The circle is sealed, So Mote it Be! + + SETTING THE WATCHTOWERS + + Ye Lords of the Eastern Tower, + Airy Lords of Spirit; + Let your influence of Power, + Aid our minds with merit! +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to guard the circle. + + Ye Lords of Southern Power + Fiery Lords of Will. + Pray do grace your Tower, + Your Powers to fulfill! +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to guard the circle. + + Ye Lordsœ of the Watchtowers of the West, + Watery Lords of Death and Initiation; +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to guard the Circleœ. + + Ye Northern Lords of the Earth, + Though we be yet but Mortals; + Bless our work with worth, + Boreas, guardian of Northern portals. +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to guard the Circle. + + Goddess and God, I would know, + As 'tis above, so 'tis below + Blessings on this work, please bestow! + + This be my will, true and free, + I do so will, so mote it be + + INVOCATION OF THE ELEMENTS + + Air, Fire, Water, Earth, + Elements of astral birth, + I call you now; attend to me! + In the Circle, rightly cast, + Safe from curse or blast, + I call you now, attend to me! + + From cave and desert,sea and hill, + By wand, blade,and pentacle, + I call you now, attend to me! + + This Is my will, so mote it be! \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/clergyab.txt b/religious documents/clergyab.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ec6400 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/clergyab.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1229 @@ +From: Ammond Shadowcraft +To: All Msg #80, 19-Feb-90 21:09edt +Subject: Clergy Abuse part 1 of 14 + + Clergy and Laity Abuse of People + by Alisandra and Ammond Shadowcraft + + The following newspaper clippings are taken from FREETHOUGHT +TODAY, published by The Freedom From Religion Foundation, P.O. Box +750 Madison. WI 53701. My very special thanks to Alisandra for +typing almost all of this file. + + A woman suspected of being a witch was dragged from her hut, +tied to a tree, and then axed to death by neighbors in an eastern +village in India, the latest in several killings of women suspected +of being "witches." The Santhal tribes believe many women, +especially widows, have the power to heal the sick and cast evil +spells. (AP/Quad City Times 4/26/89 + + REV. GARY HEIDNIK, convicted of raping and killing women he +chained in his Philadelphia church-home basement, received a 2nd +death sentence. (USA Today, 3/3/89) + + Every state except West Virginia has made snake-handling +illegal. There have been 11 documented deaths since 1945, although +snake-handling is also practiced in parts of Ohio, Michigan, +Indiana and Tennessee, thanks to Mark, chapter 16:17-18. "See, I +handle serpents because it's in the Bible, like a commandment. And +I drink strychnine because the Bible says it won't hurt me. Now, +either every word in that Bible is right or it's wrong," says +snake-handler DEWEY CHAFIN. (People Magazine 4/26/89) + + A volunteer Sunday School teacher, music teacher and +groundskeeper at Bethel Baptist Church, Novoto, CA, CONFESSED to +raping and murdering a 13 year old girl on April 13. "I murdered +her. I strangled her and I bludgeoned her," SCOTT MARTIN WILLIAMS, +29, told police a week later. He lured Jenifer Moore, a popular 8th +grade student, into the church, tied her up, raped her, strangled +her with a cord and beat her with a baseball bat. His friends +insisted he could not be guilty, although police traced him through +incontrovertible evidence. "He is a devout Christian," who likes +to talk about God and the Bible, said a clerk at the food mart +managed by Williams, where he has spoken often about the unsolved +murder. (San Francisco Chronicle, 4/21/89) + + BARTLEY J. DOBBEN was judged mentally ill and guilty of 1st +degree murder for putting his 2 sons, ages 2 and 15 months, in a +red-hot foundry ladle on Thanksgiving Day. Dobben said "God had +dictated through the Bible" that he kill his sons since they were +going to die anyway. He had joined Emmanuel Fellowship whose +preacher violently attacked his own mother and checked himself into +a psychiatric hospital in late April. (AP 5/4/89; Mohave Valley +News, 5/18/89) + + Four members of the Ecclesia Athletic Association were +convicted of 1st degree manslaughter for beating an 8 year old girl +to death on Oct 13. Dayna Broussard was the daughter of the group's +founder. CONVICTED were: WILLIE K. CHAMBERS, 35; BRIAN K. BRINSON, +31; CONSTANCE Z. JACKSON, 38; and FREDRICK P. DOOLITTLE, 28. +(Sacramento Union, 5/13/89) + + REV. HERMAN FOUNTAIN was sentenced to 1 year in jail and 4 +years' probation for striking a Mississippi state trooper. +Fountain, 39, a Baptist, operates the notorious Bethel Children's +Home in Lucedale, MS, which has refused to turn over records on +children in its custody, many of whom have run away and reported +gross maltreatment. (Montgomery Advertiser, 5/17/89) [More later +on Rev. Fountain.] + + A Christian fundamentalist got 12-year probation, was ordered +to pay court costs and work 500 hours for setting 19 fires at +Indianapolis bookstores, massage parlors and their customer's cars, +causing $170,000 in property damage and injuring two firefighters. +Two other followers of REV. GREG DIXON'S Baptist Temple await +trial. (Indianapolis Star, 4/22/89) + + TONY ALAMO, leader of a Christian sect, was charged with +felony child abuse in the beating in 1988 of an 11 year old boy at +the group commune in Santa Clarita Valley. "I favor spanking +children; you know that. It says so in the Bible. People have to +decide whether to do what the Lord says or the state." Alamo issued +orders over a speaker phone, listing each of the child's +transgressions and dictated how many times to paddle the child. The +child could not sit down without a pillow for 2-3 weeks. Five of +his followers were also charged. (LA Times, 4/15/89) + + Officials stoned to death 11 prostitutes and 4 pimps in a +sports stadium as thousands watched in the Gulf city of Bushehr. +A court had convicted them of "spreading corruption on Earth," +according to the newspaper KAYHAN. Typical execution by stoning +involves hooding and burying prisoners in a hole (waist deep for +men, chest-high for women). Judicial officials or police stand in +a circle around the convict. The sentencing judge throws the first +stone as others follow, shouting 'Allah-O Akbar' (God is Great). +(Houston Post, 4/26/89) + + PIERRE LACROIX, a French Canadian Catholic TV evangelist, was +freed on bail from prison -- only 2 days after he was sentenced to +2 years in prison. He was convicted of molesting a teenage boy for +5 years during counseling sessions. Sentencing Justice Jean +Bienvenue said Lacroix carried on a "marathon of gross indecency" +at his "Marathon of Love" rallies. Pedophiles should not be loose +on the streets, he said. However, Judge Yves Bernier, Quebec Court +of Appeal, said Lacroix's return to society is not a public danger. +The verdict and sentence are under appeal. A Crown psychiatrist +said the married father of 4 showed no remorse or understanding of +the gravity of his crime. (The Spectator, 3/16/89; Canadian Press, +3/18/89) + + Prominent former priest BRENDAN FOLEY was charged with +sexually assaulting boys between 1982 and 1985 when he worked as +a parish priest. Foley, 43, was known as the "Singing Priest." He +is the 8th well-known and popular member of Newfoundland's Roman +Catholic community to be charged with sexual abuse. Two priests are +serving 5 year prison terms; 3 other priests and a former priest +await preliminary hearings. The province of 567,000 people, one- +third Catholic, only has 100 priests. (Spectator, 3/18/89; Chicago +Tribune, 3/27/89) + + COL. JAMES L. MOODY, Brooke Army Medical Center's top +chaplain, who faced up to 19 years, reached a tentative deal to +serve no more than 3 years' prison for sexual misconduct involving +2 female clients. (San Antonio Light, 3/29/89) + + The Roman Catholic Archdiocese-Atlanta is paying $358,000 to +families of 3 altar boys molested by British priest ANTON MOWAT. +The Church returned Mowat to England for treatment rather than +reporting him to police. Mowat fled the treatment center and is a +fugitive. He was charged last year with molesting 4 boys from a +suburban Stone Mountain parish. (Idaho Statesman, 4/6/89) + + Delaware TV preacher WILLIAM J. KEICHLINE, 52, known for +homeless work, is charged with 3 years of rape, bondage and +homemade pornography involving a girl, now aged 10. As her +landlord, he threatened to evict her family if she said anything. +He was charged with multiple counts by New Castle Co. police. +Mission of Care, the 2-state ministry he founded in 1979 -- +including a TV show, "camp for needy children," and outreach center +-- ousted him following the charges. The group, long affiliated +with PTL Club, was honored by the state legislature in 1983 for +opening a shelter for 17 homeless people during record cold; +however the shelter closed after 4 days for code violations. +Keichline is married with 3 grown sons. ([Wilmington] News Journal, +3/17/89; Sacramento Union, 3/18/89) + + ROBERT CUSHING, 36, of Dubuque, was sentenced to 10 years +after pleading guilty to a felony sex charge of molesting boys at +Wahlert Catholic High School, and 2 years to a charge of +prostitution. (Clinton Herald [IA], 4/4/89) + + DR. THOMAS HAVEL, a Catholic priest who heads the psychiatric +unit at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, Calif., is being sued +by a 34-year-old former client who says he sexually exploited her +for 5 years starting when she was 13. Her attorney says the priest +admitted the abuse, offered the woman a $135,000 confidential +settlement and threatened to commit suicide if she didn't take it. +The hospital, which never investigated the charges, says his work +there is "flawless." (San Jose Mercury News, 3/29/89) + + SHAWN CHARLES "BROTHER DUSTY" WILLIAMS, 50, got 10 years in +jail after pleading guilty to showing pornography and fondling 2 +young boys. The preacher-plumber worked as a volunteer bus driver +for the New Covenant Fellowship Church of San Antonio, picking up +stray kids to take them to church. He blamed the "devil" for his +crimes. (San Antonio Light, 4/6/89) + + The Roman Catholic Archdiocese-Baltimore made a secret +settlement with a couple who accused REV. WILLIAMS Q. SIMMS of +molesting their 13 year old son, an altar boy. He suffered +depression and required psychiatric treatment, following the +inflicted "ritualistic sexual fantasies." The family had asked for +$12 million. (Maryland Sun, 3/28/89) + + REV. WILLIAM EDWARD THOMPSON, JR., 45, charged with 21 counts +of child sexual abuse, pleaded guilty in a plea bargain. The +married father of 4 sons was headmaster at St. Timothy's Episcopal +Church in Catonsville. He was charged with child pornography and +molesting 7 boys, ages 11 to 16, in his home and on church +property. A social worker reported him. (The Maryland Sun, 4/8/89) + + REV. THOMAS HUNT was convicted by a jury of sexually abusing +a 5 year old girl and her 7 year old brother during visits in the +rectory. He was children's choir director at the United Methodist +Church in East Benton. The girl had nightmares before visits and +asked her mother to make the minister "stop rubbing" Vaseline on +her "privates." The boy added, "Believe her, mommy, he did it to +me too." (Scranton Times, 4/4-7/89) + + ROBERT MESSERSMITH, 46, a catechism instructor at Our Lady of +Victory Catholic Church in north Minneapolis who works with many +youth groups, was charged with coercing 10 boys to perform sex +acts. Boys ages 12-15 say he showed them pornography and urged them +to masturbate during camping trips. In 1976, when director of the +Salem, NH Boys Club, he was convicted of sexually assaulting 2 12- +year-old boys and was given 2 years' probation. He is married with +3 children. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 3/28/89) + + PAUL ROSS INGRAM, 43, who formerly ran the Thurston Co. crime +prevention program, is charged with rape and statutory rape. Ingram +was the GOP county chair from 1986-1988, and is a member of the +Four Square Gospel Church. Two other men linked to law enforcement +and community service were also charged. (Seattle Post- +Intelligencer, 4/4/89) + + JAMES CLIFTON NALLEY, a volunteer at Bible Baptist Church in +Fernandina Beach, Fla., was charged with fondling 2 church girls, +ages 9 and 11. Church members phoned police after a child reported +the abuse. (Florida Times-Union, 4/4/89) + + A federal sting operation to find child +pornographers/molesters yielded 6 arrests in Philadelphia, +including Presbyterian minister JOHN MCVAY, 53. He allegedly +solicited sex with 2 girls ages 9 and 12. He was charged with +criminal solicitation to commit involuntary deviant sexual +intercourse. He also sent a 15 year old girl obscene material and +a letter soliciting sex. (Intelligencer-Record, 3/10/89) + + Evangelist TONY LEYVA received a 20 year prison sentence on +March 28 for running a child prostitution ring. Federal Dist. Judge +James Turk called him and his 2 partners "bad to the core." Leyva +was previously sentenced to 2.5 years for sexually abusing 2 boys +in Virginia. His religious accomplices RIAS EDWARD MORRIS, 27, got +15 years, and FREDDIE H. HERRING, 50, got 12 years. All were fined +$5,000. Agents located at least 30 boys, some as young as 8, +molested by Leyva in the past 20 years; some put the total at 800 +victims. (New York Times, 3/29/89) + + Indianapolis music minister REV. CLAYTON DUANE HEIL, 42, +employed by Lighthouse Tabernacle, is being sued by a 14 year old +choir girl for rape over a 3 month period in 1985. The suit also +names REVS. WILLIAM W. and DAVID TOTMAN. Said a church official, +"they're not just fighting us, they're fighting God." (Carmel News- +Tribune, 4/5/89) + + Baptist minister HENRY BAZIL WATERS, 49, was convicted of +fondling 3 young boys and untold others at the Grace Baptist Temple +Church in Statesboro, Ga., and in his home and car. Waters' +testimony that he "saved" youth through "sex instruction" matched +testimony of the victims. Waters admitted fondling boys in Latin +America, saying "I have no idea" how many children he had abused. +Waters was given permission to attend church while free on bond. +(Atlanta Journal, 2/18/89) + + REV. THOMAS V. COSSAIRT, 72, retired former pastor of First +Baptist Church, Carter Lake, received a suspended 1 year jail +sentence and 2 years' probation after pleading guilty to indecent +contact with a child. A charge involving a 2nd child was dropped. +He lives in Commerce, Okla. (Omaha World Herald) + + JOSEPH NEWMAN, of Lucedale, Miss., says he married his +secretary and her 8 year old daughter "under orders from God." +After officials removed the child and her brother from his home, +Newman vowed that "God is angry" because the Koran gives him the +right to "up to four wives," including child brides. (Mobile Press +Register, 3/11/89; Press Register Reporter) + + Former Salvation Army Capt. JACK HOLCOMB, 50, pleaded guilty +to having intercourse with a girl under the age of 14 while heading +the chapter. During his tenure, he received a community service +award for trying to house and feed refugees in the Plattsburgh, NY +area. (Syracuse Herald-Journal, 3/1/89) + + "Popular, dedicated" youth pastor DOUGLAS BOUDINOT, 39, +married with children, has been charged with 2 counts of rape while +leading a Christian youth group in California. Santa Cruz +authorities charged him with rape when a young woman reported that +Boudinot had sexually assaulted her in 1983, when she was 17 and +a member of Young Life. Professing medical expertise, he reportedly +committed many of the assaults under the guise of conducting +medical examinations. Washington police have also located victims +reportedly abused while Boudinot worked as youth pastor at Kent +Covenant Church, taking youth groups on overnight outings and trips +to Germany and Mexico. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2/23/89) + + Radio preacher REV. FRED KENTON BESHORE, 63, of Newport Beach, +Calif., was charged with influencing the testimony of a witness, +a felony. He is accused of phoning the father of a girl reportedly +molested by neurosurgeon Dr. Francis Williams, offering him $1,500 +a month for 2 years if he would stop his daughter's testimony. +Police taped offers. Charges against the neurosurgeon for molesting +preteen and adult patients were dropped, but could be reopened. +Beshore runs Bible Institute of the Air, buying bibles to smuggle +into communist countries. (Orange Co. Register, 2/28/89; 3/1/89) + + PAUL SLATER, 64, a traveling evangelist, was charged with 4 +counts of sexual battery after 8 and 12 year old sisters reported +being molested and raped by him. Slater, a "trusted neighbor," +befriended their family. An investigator said, "We encourage people +to listen to what their children have to say. Many of these cases +go on for months and years." (Ocala Star-Banner, 2/18/89) + + A 25 year old San Jose woman reports being molested and raped +between the ages of 11-13 by a priest, who was also her mother's +lover. She saw him rape her younger sister. Their mother is now +demanding that the Diocese of San Jose take action against the +priest, still pastor of a Santa Clara church: "We want him to admit +this happened... We want him removed from situations where children +are at risk." After 10 months of negotiating, no action to remove +the priest or protect children has been taken. The criminal statute +of limitations has run out. (San Jose Mercury News, 3/10/89) + + FATHER HARRY MCINTEE is charged with sexually assaulting +children from the 1950s to the 1980s at a church-run native +residential school at St. Joseph's Mission, British Columbia. +(Ottawa Citizen, 2/27/89) + + Former priest JOHN BAUER, 52, is a fugitive being hunted for +making child pornography in Mexico. Three other suspects are +involved, including DAVID NEGRETTE, 26, an assistant scoutmaster. +Police say the four men regularly made trips from the Los Angeles +area 200 miles south to Ensenada. Poor boys aged 8 to 14 were paid +small amounts to perform sexual acts with each other and the men +in shacks and hotels. Videotapes were distributed around the world. +Bauer worked as a priest for 7 years in social work projects, +including group homes for neglected children in Helena, Mont. He +left the church in 1970 and directed the social work program at +Montana State University. He had owned 3 pornographic west coast +bookstores. (Billings Gazette, 4/14/89) + UPDATE: Bauer, a former priest who often wore his clerical +collar even after leaving the church in 1970, was arrested in +Spokane by FBI authorities, facing charges of producing of child +pornography and conspiring to molest children in California. Bauer, +self-described "porno priest," was on the run for 15 months, after +charges surfaced that he exploited youths and runaways from Mexico. +He worked as a director of the social work program in Montana State +University-Bozeman during the 1970s, then opened 4 pornography +shops. (Spokesman-Review, 12/13/89) + + Despite multimillion dollar lawsuits in 2 states against +Church of Christ public humiliation ("disciplining") of women for +"sexual misconduct," Nashville elders vow to continue their +crusade. What about all the wayward ministers? (Nashville Banner, +2/14/89) + + REV. JOHNATHAN HAMLIN, 24, convicted of shooting his live-in +girlfriend last July, got 15 years in prison. Hours after the +shooting he preached at 1 of the 3 Mississippi Baptist churches he +served. (Palm Beach Post, 1/7/89) + + Florida authorities say twin girls, 7 months old, were +deliberately suffocated. They were left alive in the care of REV. +JOHN W. HEFLIN JR., 45, of Belleview, their babysitter. + + New reports of child abuse prompted the removal of two minors +from the notorious Bethel Children's Home in Lucedale, Ms. A 15 +year old from Alabama and 12 year old from New York were removed +following reports of abuse by a runaway. Last June 72 children were +removed from the welfare department; many testified to excessive +beatings and boot-camp type regimens. In contempt of court, REV. +HERMAN FOUNTAIN and colleagues have $300,000 in unpaid penalties, +and face a jury trial for assaulting police officers. The state +requires no licensing for religious homes. However, the legislature +passed a bill, in effect July 1, requiring 24-hour childcare homes +to submit monthly lists of names and places of origin for each +child and staff member, and educational information. (Mobile +Register, 4/11/89) + + REV. SHIRLEY FREEMAN, a 74 year old vicar, murdered his wife +of 46 years when he was unable to find his favorite program on the +radio. He bludgeoned her for over 2 hours. He was sentenced to +spend the rest of his life in a monastery in southern England +because he was too old for prison. (LA Times, 2/20/89) + + A woman accompanying a friend to a Brooklyn, NY abortion +clinic was tossed against a wall 3 times by an off-duty police +officer who shouted, "In the name of Jesus Christ, do you know +what's going on in there?" When she lodged a complaint against him +at a police station, she was strip-searched and jailed. The officer +was convicted of reckless assault. A state jury found the officer +liable for $400,000 and the city liable for $600,000. (NYT, +12/14/88) + + MARK RIPPBERGER and SUSAN MIDDLETON-RIPPBERGER were sentenced +to 5 years' probation and fined $5,000 on Nov. 2 after being found +guilty of criminal negligence in the death of their 8 month old +daughter in 1984 from untreated meningitis. "She was not beaten to +death or starved, but she's dead just as if she were beaten and +starved," said the prosecution. The judge ordered the couple to +take a family health or first aid course, read Good Housekeeping's +"Family Health and Medical Guide," and authorize emergency medical +care for their other school-age children. The Christian Science +Monitor accused California of "unhidden antagonism toward Christian +Science" for prosecuting the case. With 1,945 churches, it is the +largest US religious organization shunning medical care. +(Reuters/Newark Star-Ledger, 11/5/89; Washington Post, 11/11/89) + + The Circuit Court in Alpena, MI ruled in favor of Dr. Michael +Taylor, who was sued by Jehovah's Witness Cindy Werth for +transfusing blood to her in a post-childbirth crisis. Werth said +it violated her religion; the court said it saved her life. (USA +Today, 11/7/89) + + A woman from Waukegan, IL who was injured in a traffic +accident in Wisconsin bled to death after refusing a blood +transfusion because of her religious beliefs. Gloria H. Carter, 54, +a Jehovah's Witness, died on Dec. 14 of massive internal injuries. +An elder from her church complained: "Even though they made a big +deal over the blood issue in Kenosha, that was not the cause of her +death." ([Waukegan] News-Sun, 12/15/89) + + Authorities found a seriously-ill 6 year old girl whose father +went to jail along with his pastor rather than tell her +whereabouts. The sect rejects medical treatment. The girl was +located in a secluded log home after an anonymous tip. Swollen and +anemic, Melinda Sue James appeared to have kidney failure. She +disappeared May 5 after the state ordered her to be medically +examined. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8/1/89) + + A mother who starved to death her daughter, 4, in order to +exorcise her of evil spirits, received a 7 year prison term for 3rd +degree murder. The Florida mother, DARLENE JACKSON, 33, agreed to +testify against MARY NICHOLSON, an evangelist charged with +influencing Jackson to withhold food from daughter Kimberly McZinc. +Jackson told the judge she would devote herself to "exposing people +like Mary Nicholson." Nicholson's trial is in February. The girl +died on Feb. 8, 1988. The home had been investigated for neglect +prior to her death, but a state agency had taken no action. +Jackson, who has a master's degree, was also ordered to pay $23,000 +in court costs and serve 8 years' probation. (AP/Miami Herald, +7/27/89; Pensacola News Journal, 11/30/89) + + LARRY AND LEONA COTTAM, found guilty in Wilkesbarre, PA in +September of starving their 14 year old son Eric to death, are free +on bail pending an appeal. Eric's 69-pound body was found Jan. 4, +1989 after the family had fasted for 6 weeks. Larry, a former +Seventh-Day Adventist minister, had $3,700 but would not buy food +with it, saying it belonged to the Lord. "We were wondering, 'Is +our faith being tested?' like when God asked Abraham to go up and +sacrifice his son on the altar," Cottam said. "It was a kind of +very close family togetherness," Cottam said. In the understatement +of the decade, he added, "In some way, we lost perspective on +reality." Their daughter Laura, now 13, who weighed 77 pounds when +she was found after her brother's death, is in foster care. The +Cottams are basing their appeal on grounds that the boy starved +himself to death to express his freedom of religion. (Scranton +Times, 8/29/89; Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/2-9/89; AP, 12/26/89) + + VIRGINIA JENKINS, 37, of Anderson, SC, was ruled incompetent +to stand trial in charges that she sexually assaulted her son, 14, +during an exorcism. She also rubbed glass and salt into his wounds. +(USA Today, 1/4/90) + + The principal of Cornerstone Christian Academy (near +Indianapolis) and her husband were charged with battery for +paddling 2 pupils, ages 10 and 12, for bad grades. (Indianapolis +Star, 12/15/89) + + DAVID L. DOUGLASS, principal of Mountain View Christian School +in Derry Township, PA, was found guilty of paddling a 7 year old +child until he was bruised. The boy was paddled for talking in +class. "What we are talking about," said the prosecutor, "is a man +who is blinded by his religion. The man does not see that the way +to treat a hyperactive child is not to beat him into submission." +(Express, 9/24/89) + + A Fayetteville, NC minister, his wife and another woman were +charged with felony child abuse for beating 4 children last year. +They are part of Holy Tabernacle storefront church, where Rev. John +Charles McCollum, 39, is "chief apostle." He also preaches over +radio stations in North and South Carolina and in tent revivals. +Four children, who range in age from 3 to 15 years, suffered +permanent scars on their bodies from serious physical injury. One +is scarred permanently on the face. They were removed from the +McCollum home in December, where Irish Lamont Williams, 32, mother +of two of the children, also lives. Two other adults are being +sought for abusing the children. (Fayetteville Times, 1/11/89) + + New Hampshire authorities have filed felony assault charges +against a fundamentalist couple for beating their children with a +stick and paddle. The kids were removed from their home. STEPHEN +and JOANNE DECOSTA have found support in their church, and in +character witnesses such as a former governor and a police officer +whose children attend a church-run school with the DeCosta +children. "The Bible definitely and expressly teaches the use of +the rod in the discipline of children and we believe it, and we do +it, and I teach it," said DeCosta's pastor, Richard Anderson of the +Calvary Independent Baptist Church, Meredith. (AP/Clinton Herald +[IA], 10/31/89) + + REV. ROBERT G. HALVERSTADT, 61, of Victory Center Church, +Pueblo, CO, was sentenced to a year in jail, after admitting he +used games, coercion and drugs to sexually molest 3 girls in his +congregation. Charges involving 4 other victims were dropped when +he pleaded guilty to reduced counts. He was given credit for 135 +days already spent in jail, plus 4 years' probation. Halverstadt +assaulted a girl, 9, who volunteered to help him clean his church. +Another girl said he gave her something to drink that made her fall +asleep. She woke up naked with pain in her groin area. (Chieftain, +12/15/89) + + The Kansas Supreme Court upheld the convictions of REV. DARWIN +G. DAMEWOOD, 54, sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping a +teenager in 1987 and sexually assaulting him. The Court affirmed +all 8 counts against Damewood, formerly with the Rossville +Methodist Church, ruling it permissible for another teenager to +testify at the trial that Damewood had molested him too. (Topeka +Capital-Journal, 12/9/89) + + STANLEY DENNIS CUMMINGS, 34, a bible school teacher, was +sentenced to more than 2,000 years in prison after being convicted +of 60 counts of child molesting and sexual exploitation of a minor. +Cummings befriended 8 boys he met through church, friends and +employment, molesting, sodomizing and photographing them in sexual +acts. He beat one victim, tape-recording it for sexual +gratification. "Ten seconds of indiscretion is ruining my entire +life," he complained, referring to oral sex with a boy, 10. He told +the judge: "But I have an illness. You cannot make me a criminal." +(Arizona Daily Star, 9/19/89) + + REV. JOHN MICHAEL LIADIS, 56, of Largo, FL, was sentenced to +10 years' probation after a no-contest plea to 1 count of +committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 16. He was +also fined $500, told to stay away from children, and ordered to +undergo a psychiatric evaluation. He grabbed a girl, 15, the +daughter of friends, at a church retreat. Liadis was relieved of +his duties at the church camp. (NT Times, FL, 11/4/89) + + MARY LOU GALLUP, 61, was sentenced to 2 years in prison for +child molestation, and must pay for counseling for her victim, a +4 and a half year old girl. Her husband, Edward Sr. and son, were +convicted of molesting kids at the family's two Christian +preschools in Portland. (Register-Guard [Eugene, OR], 12/5/89) + + REV. WALTER N. STONE, pastor of Rollstone Congregational +Church in Fitchburg, MA, was sentenced to 7-15 years in prison +after being convicted by a jury of 8 counts of molesting 2 boys. +Two victims, now 18 and 21, testified Stone befriended them during +church counseling and activities. Stone, 56, is married with 4 +children, an Air Force veteran, with a doctorate in theology from +Boston University. Several friends and colleagues wrote letters of +commendation for him. (Worcester Telegram, 11/10/89) + + REV. ROBERT DUANE SCHULTZ, 52, of Washington, Iowa, was +sentenced to 30 years in prison after confessing to acts described +as "horribly perverse" on boys under age 12, involving 1 count of +sexual abuse and 3 others of lascivious acts. Officials are giving +him polygraph tests and blood tests in an effort to identify other +victims. The married minister was a foster parent honored in 1989 +by Gov. Terry Branstad for volunteer service. Victims included +foster children; five were removed from his home upon his arrest. +The prosecution said a law preventing prosecution for sex assaults +occurring more than 4 years ago should be changed, and would have +resulted in more charges against Schultz. Rev. John Bennett told +Schultz' congregation at First Christian Church (Disciples of +Christ), "Bob has fallen...into a deep pit of despair. But Bob has +not fallen from the grace of God." Church policy requires that he +be defrocked for committing a felony. (Des Moines Register, 10/30- +11/3/89; AP/Clinton Herald, 10/30/89) + + REV. DAVID SWOPE, minister at Sparks United Methodist Church, +NV, was sentenced to 1 year in county jail, suspended to 3 years' +probation, and psychological counseling. Swope pleaded no contest +to a plea bargain of open & gross lewdness. He molested a girl, age +10, after choir practice, telling her she was one of his favorites +and it meant nothing sexual. He was accused of taking indecent +liberties with another girl 8 years ago. (Reno Gazette Journal, +10/28/89) + + JOHNNIE VERNON WOODS JR., 36, a lay minister at a North Little +Rock church, got 3 consecutive sentences for abducting and raping +a girl, 9. A jury found him guilty of 2 counts of rape and 1 count +of kidnapping. (Tulsa World, 10/29/89) + + BRUCE KRAHN, 37, pleaded guilty to molesting a student, 15, +at Calvary Academy where he taught math. He got 1 year probation, +a $500 fine, and a possible 60-day jail sentence. He asked her to +stay after school, turned off the lights, shut the door, asked her +questions about sex education she got in the public schools, +hugged, fondled her and asked her to touch him. She reported it to +her parents. He was fired and the state will revoke his teaching +license. (Journal-Register [Springfield, IL], 10/25/89) + + GEORGE DEGOLYER, 42, pastor of Verona Christian Fellowship, +WI, was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 5 years' probation after +pleading no contest to 1st degree sexual assault of an 8 year old +girl visiting his home. He carried the girl upstairs, pulled down +her pants and molested her. He was ordered to have no unsupervised +conduct with minors except his children. The DA agreed to ask the +court to amend the charge to 4th degree if he does not violate +probation. (Wisconsin State Journal, 11/1/89) + + JAMES KENNEDY, a Salvation Army pastor from LaCrosse, WI, was +sentenced to 6 years in prison plus 10 years' probation for 1st +degree sexual assault of a girl, 10. He was ordered to pay for +counseling. She was sexually abused at his home 4 times in 1985. +Supporters have rallied to his cause. The day after his sentencing, +he was released on $15,000 bond posted by a relative, pending +appeal. (AP/Wisconsin State Journal, 12/22/89) + + REV. L.G. GILSTRAP, 54, an Assemblies of God minister, was +convicted by a jury on 3 counts of child molestation and sentenced +to 33 years in prison for a string of fondling incidents in 1988 +involving brothers aged 10 and 13. The older boy said Gilstrap once +tried to have sex with him in the shower. Eight men testified +during the trial that they too were molested by the minister when +they were boys. Three said they were also abused by the Sunday +school teacher, who was not tried. Gilstrap denied the charges but +corroborated their accusations against the teacher. The prosecutor +called Gilstrap the "Pied Piper of pedophilia." Gilstrap, +defrocked, started a new church, New Hope Ministries. Married, he +was a former clerk for the Georgia House of Representatives. +(Atlanta Constitution, 9/22/89) + + REV. THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN, 58, was sentenced to 18 months in +prison for sexually molesting a boy, 12, after pleading guilty in +exchange for dismissal of 6 other charges. He was pastor of Church +of the Resurrection in New Albany and St. Mary Church in Marion, +Ohio. The mother of the victim asked the judge for leniency. "I was +flabbergasted," noted Logan Co. prosecutor Gerald Heaton. "I can't +recall, in my seven years of prosecuting cases, having the parent +of a victim, especially a sexual abuse victim, speak in support of +the perpetrator." The priest blamed his actions on "his disease" +rather than himself. (New Herald, 1989) + + REV. RICHARD ZULA, 48, former pastor of Sts. Mary and Ann +Church in Marianna and Washington counties, PA, received 1 to 5 +years in prison for sexually molesting an altar boy. He also got +5 years' probation. He was arrested in 1984 in Somerset County for +molesting a boy, 15, pleading guilty in May 1989 to 2 counts of +corrupting minors. He still faces sentencing in Washington County +after pleading guilty to a similar charge. (Scrantonian Tribune, +12/9/89) + + BROTHER SALVATORE BILLANTE, 50, was sentenced to 8 years in +prison for molesting a boy, 13, as youth director at a Catholic +camp. He also worked at Corpus Christi School in San Francisco. +(Bay City News Service, 1989) + + REV. ROBERT A. KULZER, 65, was convicted of molesting 2 boys +at Faith Temple Church, in Brighton. He was sentenced to 1 to 3 +years in prison but it was stayed pending appeal, meaning if he can +make $10,000 cash bail he will not serve time yet. The married +grandfather was convicted of 3 counts of sodomy and 1 count each +of promoting prostitution, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare +of a child involving boys aged 12 to 16. Abuse included oral sex +with a 16 year old boy, putting a condom on a 12 year old boy +during a discussion about "the facts of life," and arranging for +a boy to have sex with a 62 year old woman in the parsonage. +Defense involved Kulzer's "good deeds," including being a +missionary in Africa. (Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, 12/13/89) + + REV. THOMAS WELSCH, 39, and his wife Jean, 40, were sentenced +to 30 years in prison with all but 6 years suspended, after +pleading guilty to 5 counts each of child sexual abuse. Originally +they were charged with 571 counts involving 3 victims. Welsch and +his wife abused twin sisters, 13, and a 17 year old girl. He was +pastor at Immanuel United Church of Christ in Cambridge, MD for 10 +years. The state's attorney praised all 3 victims for showing "a +lot of courage" in testifying against their popular pastor. +(Washington Post, 12/10/89; The Sun) + + REV. JAMES A. FORSYTHE of Holy Cross Church, Overland Park, +KS, pleaded guilty to charges of having sexual relations with a +teenage boy about 20 times. Forsythe, 35, molested the boy in the +rectory of the church, where he was pastor for 2 years. He was +relieved of his duties and was receiving counseling pending the +sentencing. A therapist reported suspicions to the Kansas +Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. A statement by +Archbishop Ignatius J. Strecker of Kansas City, KS seemed to place +child molestation on par with extramarital sex: "God's wondrous +gift of human sexuality is made beautiful in the holy bonds of +marriage. On the other hand, it loses its beauty and its wonder +when it is offended in or outside of marriage. It is all the more +so when the offender is someone as trusted as a Catholic priest." +(Kansas City Star, 12/8,9/89) + + BROTHER MARCEL CRETE, 55, at the Notre Dame Institute in +Alfred, ME, pleaded guilty to 5 counts of gross sexual misconduct +for having sex with a boy, 12, in 1983. Two other charges were +outside the statute of limitation. Crete operated a public skating +rink in an old barn. The victim picked apples in the Institute's +orchard, worked in the kitchen and spent some nights in a room +close to Crete's. Crete underwent counseling for 6 months in +Maryland. "We feel that he's doing everything that he can, he can't +do any more than he's doing," said Brother Patrick Menard, head of +the Institute. (Journal Tribune [Biddeford, ME], 9/19/89) + + REV. WILLIAM MURRAY HENDRICKS JR., 50, pastor of Clay Hill +Baptist Church, pleaded guilty to 2 counts of lewd & lascivious +assault on a minor. The victim: a girl, 7, molested at the church, +parish house in 1988 where he pastored for 15 years. As a plea +bargain he agreed not to perform pastoral duties until his +probation ended. (Florida Times-Union, 9/19/89) + + It took a jury only 28 minutes to find ANTONIO S. MARTINEZ, +59, a Pentecostal evangelist from Mathis, FL, guilty of aggravated +sexual assault of a girl, 12. He claimed they had a common-law +marriage. He first assaulted her when she was 11 and in 5th grade. +Her grandmother forced her into the arrangement. A doctor turned +Martinez in after Martinez asked him why she didn't become +pregnant. (Corpus-Christi Caller Times, 9/27,28/89) + + REV. JIM "PAPA" CATER, 50 founder and head of Living World +Church in Dickson Co., TN was indicted on 6 new counts of child +sexual abuse, for a total of 56 charges. The crimes reportedly +occurred at the church compound during April, May and June 1989. +The state raided the church in June, taking 11 children into +protective custody, ordering him to close his illegally operating +residential child-care facility. Cater became a minister after +converting while serving time in Florida for strong-armed robbery +and forgery. His ministry specialized in helping recovering +alcoholics & addicts. Following the arrests, he was injured in the +county jail after inmates attacked him, calling him "baby raper." +(Huntsville Times, 11/9/89) + + JAMES ALLEN WELLER, 31, a day care teacher and youth counselor +at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Redwood City, CA, was booked on 20 +counts of child molestation., oral copulation, sexual battery and +child exploitation. A counselor in another state contacted police +after a boy reported being abused by Weller. Boys ages 13 to 17 +told police he paid or tricked them into posing for pornographic +photographs over the last 3 years. Weller was also a Boy Scout +leader and coached a youth basketball team at the church. Church +officials hired him even though they knew he was a convicted felon +who had served 6 years in prison for bank fraud, and was on parole. +(San Jose Mercury News, 12/2/89) + + FATHER LUCIEN MEUNIER, 74, retired from a rural parish in +British Columbia, was extradited from West Palm Beach to stand +trial on charges of molesting 6 boys in the 1950s and 1960s. At +least 7 boys and 1 girl have accused him of molestation when he +worked as a parish priest in BC and Saskatchewan, sometimes at the +church altar, in the rectory or church car. One victim said when +Meunier fondled him, he "talked of how God had given these +beautiful things...to enjoy." "Father Meunier told me that it was +God's will that I should do this for him, and that it was just like +a confessional where no one is supposed to tell anyone," the man +wrote in a sworn statement. After performing oral sex on the boy, +"he would then say short little prayers of praise." Another man +signed a statement that Meunier molested him at a table just before +the family gathered for dinner. "After saying grace and during the +course of the dinner...Meunier had me masturbate him." Meunier +pleaded no contest to 2 counts of child molestation at a South +Phoenix Catholic Church in 1975 and was ordered in 1976 to serve +1 to 3 years in prison. (Palm Beach Post, 12/2/89; 1/13/90) + + Charges of sex crimes against minors were filed in Spokane Co. +against 4 members of the hedonistic sect, C.E. Hobbs Foundation of +Religious Training and Education. Two members were previously +charged with similar offenses in Pend Oreille Co. Young women +reported being sexually exploited as teenagers by adult church +members during "sharing sessions" condoned by founder Clifford E. +Hobbs. Officials are probing a transfer of the church's $10 million +complex to a family trust, to protect Hobbs from civil lawsuits or +IRS action. Hobbs, a steelworker-turned-evangelist who transferred +his Illinois church to Washington in 1976, hasn't been charged with +any crimes. (Skagit Valley Herald, 11/25/89) + + FATHER WILLIAM GROVES, pastor of St. Ignatius Church in +Ignacio, Colorado, pleaded "not guilty" on Dec. 1 to 3 felony +charges related to child molestation and 2 misdemeanor charges. A +trial date was set for April. Groves, 37, represented by a public +defender, is "on retreat." He previously served in Missouri, +Nebraska, and Kansas. Hildy Ochtrup, pastoral assistant, declared: +"He's a blessing" and parishioners are "grateful to have Father +Hall [sic] here." (Chronicle of Catholic Life, 12/89) + + WALTER HEROLDO SOLIS, 54, charged with molesting 3 girls at +Glendale Spanish 7th-day Adventist Church in Glendale, was killed +Nov. 29 after stepping into a traffic lane in what police believe +was a suicide. (LA Times, 12/8/89) + + ROY YOUNG, 29, charged in Washington state in 3 molestation +cases, is now suspected of molesting dozens of boys in Austin, TX, +whom he befriended as a volunteer for youth programs at 2 churches. +He lived in Austin for 8 years until moving to Washington 18 months +ago, where he was busted for molesting boys in bible study groups +he formed. Police seized a collection of photographs, some +pornographic, involving as many as 65 Texas boys (ages 8 to 13). +At least 4 Texas youths say they were molested. Police regard the +photographed boys as suspected victims. Young, who is not married, +is accused of performing sex acts in front of Austin children, +showing them adult movies, giving them massages, photographing some +in the nude and providing some with alcohol. For years he took +young boys to movies, dinner, roller-skating, camping and on +motorcycle rides, buying kids watches, boots, bracelets & gifts. +He also invited youths to spend the night with him. "He gained the +confidence of the parents by pretending to be a devout Christian +who wanted to enhance the spiritual life of the kids," said a +detective. (Austin-American Statesman, 12/8/89) + + REV. BRUCE RITTER, 62, founder of a $85-million-a-year +fundraising operation called Covenant House, was accused by a +benefactor of having sexual relations with him, and improperly +spending $25,000 of program money on him. The Manhattan DA is +investigating charges. After a search by Covenant House, a Texas +college professor came forward saying the accuser is his son -- a +"pathological liar" with a personality disorder. Covenant House +operates in about 15 US and Canadian cities and 4 Central American +countries, sending blue-and-white vans into the streets looking for +young runaways. Ritter has been honored recently by Ronald Reagan +and Pres. Bush, as well as being mentioned in a 1984 State of the +Union address. Ritter admits he took several trips with his +accuser, Kevin Lee Kite, spending nights alone with him. He called +that an "almost unforgivable" lapse in judgment. He says he has +shared his rooms with hundreds of runaway youths over the last 20 +years. Covenant House has been criticized for ineffectiveness, and +for its "mentor" program whereby staff spend free time with kids, +inviting troubled youth home with them. "The mentors are encouraged +to take the kids home and treat them as their own children," said +spokesperson John Kells. Ritter says an audit proves Covenant House +spent "only" $9,800 to house, employ and help educate Kite, lower +than the average of $15,000 (!) usually spent on a case. About 10% +of its funds are public. (LA Times, 12/16/89; New York Times, +12/15, 21/89; AP, 12/15/89) + + REV. RENE POIRER, 46, a popular priest at Sacred Heart Church +in Chapleau, Ontario, surrendered after a warrant was issued on 2 +charges of sexual assault. He was known for "helping the poor" in +the Philippines, where he spent 12 years, and Haiti. (Spectator, +11/14,15/89) + + A priest from Toronto was charged with sexual abuse of a girl +under 14 for an incident occurring in British Columbia. The judge +banned publication of the priest's name. (Spectator, 11/13/89) + + Following the arrest of JAMES BOWEN, 51, a religious school +teacher, on 84 child pornography counts, a legislator is seeking +a review of private school rules. Florida law did not prevent Bowen +from opening his own school despite a 1966 conviction for child +molestation. Minimum qualifications for teachers & course standards +are not required. Ten percent of school children attend private +schools in Florida, most religious. (Miami Herald, 9/28/89) + + REV. ANGEL CANDALARIA, 70, was charged with sexual contact +and endangering the welfare of a girl, 10, at his church in +Vineland, NJ. (Daily Journal, 11/15/89) + + MICHAEL GILFORD, 36, was charged with aggravated criminal +sexual assault & criminal sexual abuse for molesting girls at a +YWCA camp in Round Lake, IL where he was visiting. (News-Sun +[Waukegan, IL], 10/21/89) + + $450,000 jury award against UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF +ILLINOIS upheld by Judge Stuart Shiffman involving REV. WILLIAM +FYFFE, who molested 3 brothers in Macon, 1982. Church held +responsible because it knew Fyffe had molested boy at Taylor Ridge +parish, 1975, but still ordained him, expunged records of +counseling for molestation, transferred to community unaware of +episode. Fyffe served nearly 3 years of prison after pleading +guilty to Macon molestings. (Quad-City Times, 9/7/89; 10/18/89) + + Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix was sued by couple whose 2 +sons were victims of REV. GEORGE BREDEMANN, 47, serving 1 year in +jail. Also named are priest, St. Catherine of Sienna Church. Public +was shocked by priest's light sentence in July, since he admitted +molesting boys sent to him for counseling for previous sexual +abuse, plus 15 others in past. Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien intervened +on priest's behalf, then "apologized." (Arizona Republic, 8/10/89) + + Lawsuits were filed against REV. ALBERT C. MAGNUSON, pastor, +Redeemer Covenant Church, Brooklyn Park, MN, for molesting 3 +brothers, their sister, seminary student nearly 20 years ago when +they went to him for counseling. Church, church's Northwest +Conference likewise sued for negligence. (Star Trib., 6/89) + + Parents of boy molested by Newfoundland priest JAMES HICKEY +are suing Archbishop Alphonsus Penney for negligence, the 1st +lawsuit following 18 charges or convictions against Newfoundland +priests. Other victims are suing government. Hickey was sentenced +Sept. 1988 to 5 years in prison for assaulting 20 boys since 1970. +Parents say Penney knew of abuse but did nothing. (Hamilton +Spectator, 9/2/89) + + Father is suing Methodist Home of New Orleans, charging that +son, 12, was molested by counselor during field trip. REV. DALE +HAGGARD pleaded guilty in Jan. 1989, was sentenced to 4 years' +probation, 500 hours community service, therapy. Haggard, Louisiana +Methodist Conference also named. Suit alleges Conference knew +Haggard "had a propensity to engage in sexual acts with young +boys." (Times-Picayune, 7/19/89) + + Lawsuit against REV. THOMAS ADAMSON, Archdiocese of St. Paul, +Minneapolis & Winona Diocese, was settled out of court for +undisclosed amount. This is most recent of four suits involving +Adamson to be settled; 20 other victims are suspected. Case +involved boy, 13, molested on recreational outings. Suit charged +church with continuing to assign Adamson to parishes after learning +of sexual abuse. (St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch, 9/20/89) + + Father of young child raped by HEATH TURNER, 16, childcare +worker at First United Methodist Church, Mount Dora, is suing +church for negligence. Turner convicted of assaulting child at +church with toy boat, finger, ice. Church's youth minister, RALPH +SMITH, testified on Turner's behalf, has since been charged with +indecent assault of child. Suit says church failed to check +backgrounds, supervise childcare, Sunday school classes. (Daily +Commercial, 10/10/89) + + Man, 25, suing Portland Archdiocese, REV. JOHN GOODRICH for +$2.5 million in damages because priest abused for 14 years (1974- +1988) on church premises. Diocese officials knew of Goodrich's +conduct as early as 1973, according to suit. (Oregonian, 9/14/89) + + Six girls sexually abused by REV. FRANCIS G. HAIGHT, head of +ex-Baptist Christian Academy, Monroe, WI, awarded total of $57,440 +in court settlements. Haight serving 20 year term for molesting +children; is eligible for parole in 4 years. (8/14/89) + + An undisclosed out-of-court settlement was made by the Mormon +Church to Cynthia Brown of Mesa, who accused the church of failing +to report to law enforcement authorities that a man had molested +her daughter, age 2. A July 1988 ruling by the Arizona Court of +Appeals had compelled two Mormon bishops and another church +official to testify about conversations they had with RICHARD +KENNETH RAY about molesting children. Ray, 47, was sentenced in +Sept. 1984 to 61 years in prison for molesting 5 girls, including +Brown's daughter. (Arizona Republic, 1/11/90) + + In a precedent-setting decision, the Anglican church made a +secret out-of-court settlement of damages to an altar boy molested +by a parish priest 4 years ago. REV. CHARLES GRIGGS, 61, former +rector of St. Bede's, near Winnipeg, pleaded guilty in 1986 to +charges of molesting a 13 year old. He received a 2 year suspended +sentence and was ordered to receive counseling. Anglican officials +offered wide and glowing support for Griggs after his confession. +An uproar resulted when Archbishop Walter Jones allowed Griggs to +continue as rector following his conviction, saying Griggs' +confession of sin was sufficient repentance. Jones removed him from +his post a month later. Griggs left the priesthood and lives in +rural Manitoba. Molestings occurred after church services and at +the priest's home. The family says former diocese bishop Barry +Valentine had received complaints about Griggs prior to assaults +on their son, but did nothing. Bishop Valentine, now in Baltimore, +MD, says he received "only one" complaint, and immediately removed +him as director of a diocesan summer camp. the Anglican Journal +editorialized: "Similar incidents, just as serious, have received +little or no publicity because ecclesiastical authorities have +stepped in, quietly removed the priest from the parish, appeared +with him in court and arranged for psychiatric help. But although +such action protects the church's image, it gives little public +warning to priests of the consequences they face for a breach of +trust, and nothing to alert society that it has an alarming problem +in its midst." (Anglican Journal, May 1989) + + The Catholic Diocese of Altoona and Johnstown, PA says turning +over documents from its "secret archive" about a molesting priest +would violate state/church separation. A man, 20, claiming REV. +FRANCIS E. LUDDY, 47, molested him when he was ages 9 to 16, asked +a Somerset Co. court to order release of the records. Luddy is on +leave of absence at a Catholic treatment home in New Mexico. +(Scranton Times, 12/19/89) + + Parents of 2 Norfolk boys sexually assaulted by their Cub +Scout leader filed a $35 million lawsuit against Boy Scouts of +America & the sponsoring Mormon Church. Both groups were called +negligent for failing to check the background of Scout leader ERIC +PATRICK "RICKY" AVANT, 29, who is serving 26 years in prison after +admitting he molested the boys. Avant was convicted of similar +offenses in 1979. (Washington Post, 11/1/89) + + GARY HAMBRIGHT, a Southern Baptist minister accused of +molesting dozens of children at the Presidio daycare in San +Francisco, died of AIDS Nov. 8. Between 60-102 tots were suspected +victims of child sexual abuse by Hambright and others, but 2 +investigations led to dismissal of charges. Five children had +contracted chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease. The Army +daycare was closed. Parents have filed more than $60 million in +claims against the Army alleging negligence led to sexual abuse of +kids. The claims haven't been heard. Hambright died maintaining his +innocence, leaving an obituary rife with references to "my Lord and +Savior, Jesus Christ." A Presidio spokesperson said none of the +children have shown signs of AIDS. (San Jose Mercury News, 1/5/90; +Orange Co. Register, 1/6/90) + + Mount Cashel orphanage, a once-respected 90-year-old orphanage +in St. John's, Newfoundland, will close. Run by the Congregation +of Irish Christian Brothers, it is the subject of a government +inquiry and police investigations, leading to the charging of 9 +brothers and former brothers with sexually and physically abusing +orphan boys. Nineteen other priests or brothers in Newfoundland +have also been charged or convicted of similar sex crimes. Most of +the orphanage crimes occurred in the 1970s. The inquiry is +investigating why a 1975 police probe was halted, maybe covered up. +In November, BROTHER GERARD COX was charged with 3 counts of +sexually abusing boys there; 38 orphans will be transferred out. +MSGR. WILLIAM BOONE, 65, of Corner Brook, was also charged in +November with indecent assault and gross indecency against a young +man. (Canadian Press, 11/11/89; Buffalo News, 12/3/89) + + REV. VAUGHAN QUINN, flamboyant ex-director of Detroit's Sacred +Heart Rehabilitation Center for alcoholics, agreed to pay $20,000 +to a woman charging he raped her while she was a patient in 1986. +Sacred Heart will also pay her $10,000 to settle a suit charging +he abused their "psychotherapist-patient and priest-penitent +relationship" to "force and coerce her" into sex. A recovering +alcoholic himself, Quinn built Sacred Heart into one of Michigan's +largest residential alcoholic treatment centers, and was socially +well-connected. Actor Mike Connors wanted to star Robert Redford +in a movie about him. The production never panned out. Quinn +resigned in 1987, and is now chaplain at Collins Bay Institution, +a medium security prison in Kingston, Ontario. (Detroit Free Press, +1/4/90) + + + BAD MONEY + + The Vatican bank ("Institute for Religious Works") agreed to +pay $250 million to the creditors of Banco Ambrosiano. Archbishop +Paul Marcinkus, the "Pope's Banker," was accused of being an +accessory to the fraudulent bankruptcy of the bank, which collapsed +in 1982 amid mysterious deaths. In 1988, an Italian court annulled +a warrant for the arrest of Marcinkus, who had been given sanctuary +at the Vatican, saying Italy had no jurisdiction over Vatican +affairs. (LA Times, 3/10/89) + + Although more than $300,000 was raised since 1973 by an +Episcopal Church in Paoli, Pennsylvania, to benefit impoverished +Pine Ridge Sioux, the tribe has not received it. Good Samaritan +Episcopal Church minister Daniel Sullivan did not ask for an +accounting of the money, given to REV. FRANCIS APPLE, a Sioux +Indian, to oversee. The money was meant to pay for a cattle herd, +a children's home, alcoholism treatment and other aid. The only +Indian family to benefit, however, appears to be Father Apple's. +He is under investigation by the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota. +At least 6 other Episcopal churches sent money to Apple. +(Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/1/89) + + A live-in maid was accused of using drugs and forgery to take +more than $800,000 from a 71 year old paraplegic widow, then +donating most of the loot to a North Carolina ministry. Fountain +of Life insisted the donations were given by the widow freely and +used for "God's work." (News & Observer, 5/2/89) + + REV. AL SHARPTON was arraigned on charges of stealing $250,000 +from National Youth Movement, a charitable group he launched as a +youth in New York. Sharpton was involved in the Tawana Brawley +case. (AP/Wisconsin State Journal, 6/30/89) + + A Chicago circuit judge ordered 70 people who participated in +an illegal pyramid scheme to return the $12,000 each received from +the venture. South Side preacher T.L. BARRETT engineered three +pyramid schemes taking in more than $3 million between May and +November, 1988, allegedly to help the needy. (Chicago Sun Times, +6/27/89) + + A Chicago pastor and his daughter were indicted by federal +authorities for using his deceased niece, who had muscular +dystrophy, to collect nearly $1 million in fraudulent life +insurance proceeds. REV. COLUMBUS EWINGS, 57, pastor of Community +Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, named himself as her +beneficiary to collect money, using his daughter and others to +impersonate her after she died in 1987, and concealing her medical +condition. (Chicago Tribune, 6/28/89) + + A 72 year old Indianapolis man was robbed of $2,607 at +knifepoint by a bible-toting trio who invited him to a religious +study group. (Sun, 7/11/89) + + REV. JOSEPH L. DAVIS, a close friend of the mayor of East St. +Louis, was convicted of operating a major cocaine ring and +laundering drug profits through Mount Zion Baptist Church. Davis +lived luxuriously and conducted antidrug seminars for youngsters. +His congregation stood behind him. (AP/Clinton Herald, 7/22/89) + + A civil suit by 9 members of the House of Prayer at Zebulon +charge that leaders enriched themselves by requiring members to +give the church their paychecks. Pastor CHARLES E. SMITH and +EVANGELINE SMITH collected more than $600,000 in 2 years to buy +real estate, according to the suit. (Mrs. Smith served a month in +jail along with 12 other female church members for assaulting 3 of +the plaintiffs because the pastor had seduced them.) (News & +Observer [Raleigh, NC], 7/7/89) + + REV. ROY GREENHILL was convicted and sentenced to 5 years in +prison for swindling an 83 year old man out of $40,000 in a scam +to publish a revised version of the bible. He bilked Georgians and +South Carolinians of nearly $400,000. (Atlanta Constitution, +7/21/89) + + REV. JOSEPH OCTAVIO TYE is charged with embezzling as much as +$500,000 from an Arizona church, but supporters staged letter- +writing campaigns and rallies to protest the popular priest's +arrest. (Arizona Daily Star, 8/9/89) + + REV. EUGENE PROFETA was released from county jail in New York +after serving part of a 6 month sentence for filing a false tax +return and witness tampering. Profeta was ordered to pay $26,000 +in back taxes too. Jessica Hahn had sought help from him after +being raped by Jim Bakker. His congregation at the Full Gospel +Tabernacle Church on Long Island continues to support him. (New +York Times, 7/22/89) + + DAVID and JAMES TAGGART, PTL aides, were convicted of evading +$525,000 in income taxes on money they took from PTL. (New York +Times, 7/26/89) + + Richard Dortch, former VP of the PTL Club, was sentenced to +8 years in prison and fined $200,000 for bilking followers of +millions. Fraud involved "lifetime partnerships" that Jim Bakker +and Dortch sold at Heritage USA. A one-time $1,000 donation +supposedly entitled partners to 3 nights' free lodging each year, +but partnerships were oversold and the hotels were never built or +were not completed. (New York Times, 8/26/89) + + A Missouri couple who sealed their deals with prayer were +charged with bilking about 75 investors, many of them older people +who handed over life savings, of $3 to $5 million. PAUL and JUDITH +BROCK of Neosho were also named in a civil suit by some investors. +(Kansas City Times, 8/8/89) + + ROBERT W. CAULEY, an Avon, Ohio priest, pleaded no contest to +reduced charges of stealing $40,000. He was originally accused of +stealing more than $100,000 from two elderly women (claiming he +would safeguard or invest their egg nests). The women said they had +not come forward because they did not want to disgrace the church. +(Plain Dealer, 8/22/89) + + REV. MERTON PEKRUL, pastor of Family Bible Church, Mesa, AZ, +was fined $100,000, ordered to pay $398,000 to 8 victims and +sentenced to a year and a half in prison for his role in a $400,000 +gold-digging scheme. He was also fined $58,000 by the Arizona +Corporation Commission for various securities violations. He +pleaded no contest to reduced charges of abetting an illegal +enterprise, in exchange for testifying against his partner. Pekrul +still has defenders, even among some of his victims. In the 1970s, +Pekrul's ministry took the Evangelical Free Church in Wisconsin +Rapids, WI $200,000 in debt. (Tempe Daily News Tribune, 7/15,29/89; +Arizona Republic, 8/19/89) + + Community Churches, a fundamentalist church in Glendale, CA, +improperly spent $117,787 earmarked for low-income housing, then +tried to sell the building for a huge profit. HUD found that funds +for the 150-unit high rise had paid officers of the church and had +been used to purchase 2 vans for church events. HUD reached a +settlement with the church on misspent money, not specified. +AP/Miami Herald, 8/28/89) + + An Oakland public school payroll clerk was accused of using +her bible study group in a scheme to embezzle more than $24,000 +from the district. MARIE LOUISE BELL was charged with grand theft +for overpaying janitors, who kicked back money to her. (LA Times, +8/27/89) + + Bank robber JAMES HATCH said he robbed a bank of $2,500 in +June in order to donate it to the "Lord's Covenant Church," which +teaches "that the Federal Reserve System was causing the collapse +of the American economy." After Hatch had donated $7,000 in cash, +he said a church member called and urged him to rob a bank. +(Deseret News [Salt Lake City], 9/89) + + Three men with ties to Olivet Nazarene University bilked +friends and associates of $1 million in a phony investment scheme, +charged Neil Hartigan, Illinois Attorney General. Hartigan said +they "shamelessly misused the good will of the people of the church +and the community." (AP/Quad-City Times, 9/29/89) + + A jury convicted PTL leader Jimmy Bakker of all 24 counts of +mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. Prosecutors said he diverted +$3.7 million of the $158 million sent in for PTL partnerships for +his own use. He received 10 years in prison. + + The Eternal Crown Ministries run by REV. EDGAR HARTIGAN and +partner CHARLES GOLLAHON was termed "the most convoluted labyrinth +that I have ever seen as part of a plot to defraud people" by a +banking attorney. A mansion in Dayton, Ohio housed a church, +production company, broadcasting school and modeling agency, +serving as a front so the men could take advantage of its tax- +exempt status for their businesses. The men have several unpaid +loans through a bank in West Alexandria, almost causing the bank +to fold. Hartigan pleaded guilty to aiding in the misappropriation +of bank funds. A civil lawsuit is in progress. (Dayton Daily News, +10/29/89) + + PHILIP SHIRL, who operates Lincoln Ministerial Alliance, was +charged with embezzling federal funds for emergency food and +shelter. Shirl is accused of using $1,654.50 for personal use. +(Northwest Arkansas Morning News, 10/29/89) + + Teresa Brown, who formerly ran a notorious bordello in San +Antonio, won a civil lawsuit against three Christians who recruited +her to their church, then swindled her of a number of her homes. +A jury awarded her $172,500. One defendant, Amos Villanueva, was +found guilty of swindling another woman of her home. (San Antonio +Light, 11/8/89) + + A building contractor who filed bankruptcy in 1988 says he +wants to raise $20-$30 million in public contributions to open +"HeavensBank," a national bank whose profits would aid TV +ministries such as Jimmy Swaggart. Charles Hopkins, of Indiana, +admits he knows nothing about banking but plans to raise $1 million +a day for a month using pledge cards mailed to Indiana churches. +(AP/Lafayette Journal & Courier, 11/12/89) + + The pastor of Airport Baptist Church in Des Moines resigned +after telling his congregation that he took an unspecified amount +of church money. No legal action was planned against REV. DAVID +CORTNER. (Clinton Herald, 11/15/89) + + A judge called SISTER ELIZABETH MANHERTZ, 71, "despicable" for +stealing $3,441 from deceased residents of a nursing home in +Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The nun pocketed money she was supposed +to return to relatives by forging signatures. The home she +administered was found to be dirty, cockroach-ridden and +inadequately staffed. (Ottawa Citizen, 11/3/89) + + The Indianapolis Securities Commission is spending half its +time and resources looking into complaints against religious +groups, according to Securities Commissioner Mark E. Maddox. The +state agency issued a cease-and-desist order against REV. LARRY +LILLY, pastor of Faith Baptist Church, Avon, Indiana, stopping +sales of unregistered bonds. Church members said $1.6 million is +missing and they question Rev. Lilly's lifestyle of sports cars and +private planes. The televangelist left a church in Virginia +$350,000 in debt. Other action was pending against Fairhaven Church +of Chesterton for selling unregistered bonds and promissory notes, +and against a British West Indies group selling unregistered +securities to members of Amish communities in southeastern Indiana. +(Indianapolis Star, 11/11/89) + + MSGR. EUGENE F. HOTCHKISS, 68, was convicted in Oshkosh, WI +of embezzling more than $46,000 from donations, collection +envelopes and fees to his church over a four year period. +(Milwaukee Sentinel, 11/10/89) + + REVS. SAM JOHNSON and JOHN WESLEY FLETCHER, two associates of +Jim Bakker, were indicted for lying to a federal grand jury about +$10,000 in hush money paid to silence Jessica Hahn. (USA Today, +12/5/89) + + The Roman Catholic Church sent the mayor of Levico Terme, +Italy a bill for $22,000 for a series of special Masses celebrated +since 1630, requested during the plague! + + The US Supreme Court refused to overturn rulings forcing +Louisiana-based Jimmy Swaggart Ministries to pay California +$183,000 in back taxes. +------------------------------------------------------------------- + diff --git a/religious documents/clip-88.txt b/religious documents/clip-88.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3259c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/clip-88.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1903 @@ +Newspaper Witchcraft Articles +Rowan Moonstone +P. O. Box 1842 +Colorado Springs, CO 80901-1842 + + 1951 + +4-21-51 - "British Make it Official; Witches no Longer Exist", by Reuters, +New York Times, positive + + + 1970 + +5-5-70 - "Witchcraft Bubbles, Boils. Old Black Magic Casting New Spell", by +Bill Harlett, Los Angeles Times, Positive. 5 pp. + + + l972 + +7/27/72 - "A Bewitching Look at Covens", John Godwin, Chicago Tribune (UA) +positive + + + 1974 + +3/6/74 - "Witchcraft Defended", Doug Domeier, Dallas Morning News, 2 pp. +(UA) positive + +5/19/74 - "Shadows of 'Old Religion' Looms Large Against Reality of Today's +Society", Emma Livingstone, Richmond (VA) Times Dispatch (UA) positive + +12-5-74 - "Not Satanists. Witch Fighting for Better Public Image", Los +Angeles Times, positive. + + + 1975 + +4/20/75 - "Witchcraft, It's Message For Today", San Francisco Examiner, 2 +pp. (UA) positive + +10-31-75 - "It's the Witches Day to Howl. Halloween is New Years for +Practitioners", by Russell Chandler, Los Angeles Times, positive, 2 pp. + + + 1976 + +1/25/76 - "Witches Embroiled", Wes Hills, Dayton (OH) Daily News (UA) +neutral + +2/10/76 - "An Old American Custom", Linda Bernier, L.A. Times Herald, (UA) +positive + +8/23/76 - "Parents Proud Of Witch Daughter", S.F. Chronicle (UA) neutral to +negative + +10-31-76 - "Real Witch in Demand For This Time of Year", Bismarck Tribune, +positive (CRF) + + + 1977 + +5-77 - "The Adams Family and the Grail Tradition", by Andrew E. Rothovius +East-West Magazine, positive + +8-77 - "The Dragon Tradition on the New World", by Andrew E. Rothovius, +East-West Magazine, positive + + + 1978 + +6/5/78 - "Group That's Preparing For Witch War", San Francisco Chronicle +(UA) negative + +10-15-78 - "Bad Press Plagued Witches", Beverly Narum, Kansas City (MO) +Star (UA) positive + +10/27-78 - "Ghosts of Halloween", Darci Vanderhoff, Dallas Morning News +(IHP) neutral + + + 1979 + +2-9-79 - "The Legend(s) of John Todd", Editorial, Christianity Today, (S. +Crocker) neutral to positive + +9&10/79 - "Halloween? God Has A Better Idea", Ted Roberts, Virtue Magazine +(IHP) negative + + + 1980 + +2-18-80 - "that old white magic", by Constance Brissenden, Macleans, +positive 2 pp. + +8-8-80 - "Separation of Church and Witch", by W. Harold Fuller, +Christianity Today, negative + +9/28/80 - "A Convention of Witches is Viewed Darkly by Some in Amarillo", +William K. Stevens, N.Y. Times (UA) neutral + +10-80 - "What's Behind Halloween", Changing Times, negative + +10-13-80 - "No evil potions for modern witches", by Chuck Nowlen, Milwaukee +Sentinel, positive (LH) + +10/18/80 - "Witches Unwittingly Cast Prayer Spell on Amarillo" +Richard A. Abrams, Austin American Statesman, (UA) neutral + +10/19/80 - "Bomb Threat Interrupts Witches' Seminar in Texas" +William K. Stevens, N.Y. Times, (UA) positive + +10/19/80 - "Witches Dispersed by Bomb Threat", Associated Press, New +Orleans Times Picayune, (UA) positive + +10/19/80 - "Witches' Toil Interrupted by Bomb Threat Trouble" +Richard A. Abrams, Austin American-Statesman, (UA) positive + +10/20/80 - "The Witches Talk, The Christians Sing", William K. Stevens, N. +Y. Times, (UA) positive + +10-20-80 - "Texas Hexes Witches' Group", Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, +(UA) positive + +10-20-80 - "Witches Say Amarillo 'Violent, Unfriendly'", AP, New Orleans +Times-Picayune, (UA) positive + +10-20-80 - "Some Enchanted Evening", Kent Biffle, Dallas Morning News, (UA) +positive + +10-27-80 - "A Treat (No Trick): Even Witches Can Be Good", Georgie Anne +Geyer, L.A.Times (UA) positive + +10-27-80 - "Things that go bump in Victoria", by Paul Gresco, Macleans, +neutral to positive 2 pp. + +10-29-80 - "How the Pumpkin Lost Its Teeth", Tom Sinclair-Faulkner, + +10-31-80 - "Mother of Seven Studies Nightly to Become A Witch", Stephanie +Sansom, Daily Californian, (UA) positive + + + 1981 + +1981 - "Forensic Sciences Aspects of Santeria, A Religious cult of African +Origin", C.V. Wetli & R. Martinez, Journal of Forensic Sciences, (CAN) +neutral to negative + +2-18-81 - "Dungeons and Dragons, The Occult Goes to School", by Bob Elmer, +Olympia (WA) News (BADD) negative + +5-10-81 - "High Priestess Seldom Leaves Mythic Domain", Gloria Ohland, +Dallas Times Herald (IHP) negative + +6-81 - "Witchcraft In America", Us Magazine, 3 pp. (BE) positive + +9-27-81 - "Ways of the Covens Flourishing in Secret", by Bill Lazarus, New +Haven Register, (UA) positive + +10-31-81 - "A Spirited Subject, Tracing the Religious, Secular Roots of +Halloween", Pat Zajac, Ft. Worth Star Telegraph, (IHP) +neutral + + + 1982 + +2-14-82 - "Witch Who can read your body like the palm of your hand", by +Cynthia Raymond, Los Angeles Times, positive 2 pp. + +6-14-82 - "Victoria Police Hunt Reported Satanic Baby Sacrifice", by +Barbara McLintock, Vancouver Sun (KC) positive + +6-15-82 - "Satanic Rumors, Baby Sacrifice Alert Out", Vancouver Sun (KC) +positive + +6-17-82 - "Satanist Alert An Error", Victoria Sun (KC) positive + +8-1-82 - "Bedeviled by a wild rumor, they fight back", by Terry Bivens, +Philadelphia Inquirer, positive + + +8-16-82 - "Doing Corporate Battle With Satan", by Shona McKay, Macleans, +neutral + +10-20-82 - "An Evangelical Feminist Confronts The Goddess" +Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Ph.D., Christian Century (UA) +neutral + +10-31-82 - "A house is Not A Home, but The Dogs Are The Pits", +Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, (IHP) negative + + + 1983 + +3-3-83 - "Fiscal Woes Hex Witches Convention", Dallas Morning News, (IHP) +neutral + +6-24-83 - "Law Allows Casting Spells If You Do It For Free", Dallas Morning +News, (IHP) neutral + +7-11-83 - "Sacrifices, Spirits Part of Miami Life", by Barry Bearak, +neutral. 2 pp. + +8-83 - "Brujeria: Manifestations of Palo Mayombe in South Florida", C.V. +Wetli & Robert Martinez, Journal of the Fla. Med. Assn. (CAN) neutral to +negative + +10-83 - "Night of the Wandering Souls", by Jack Santino, Natural History, +positive, 5 pp. + +10-12-83 - "Witchcraft: A Real But Controversial Way of Life" +Edna Boone Johnson, Birmingham (AL) News, 2 pp. (UA) neutral + +10-13-83 - "Kidnap Threat At Hospital Boosts Security", Vancouver Sun, +positive (KC) + +10-21-83 - "Witchcraft: An Inside View", J. Gordon Melton, Christianity +Today, 2 pp., positive + +10-29-83 - "Bad Image, Witches Haunted By History", by Scott Smith, +Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph Leisuretime Magazine, positive (GLB) 2 +pp. + +11-5-83 - "Witches, Paganists Eschew Satanism Study Says" +John Dart, L.A. Times, (UA) positive + +11-7-83 - "Americans Spend Millions on Occultism", Cindy Skrzycki, Dallas +Morning News, (IHP) negative + +11-7-83 - "The Occult Blossoms into Big Business", by Cindy Skrzycki, U.S. +News and World Report, (neutral) + + + 1984 + +1-14-84 - "Youth Claims Cult Gave Him Body of Baby", Cindy Rugeley, Ft. +Worth Star-Telegram, (IHP) negative + +1-14-84 - "Drug Raid Turns up Baby's Bones", Anne Reifenberg, Dallas +Morning News, (IHP) negative + +Spring 84 - "Ultrafundamentalist Sects and Child-Abuse", by Lowell D. +Streiker, Free Inquiry, positive, 7 pp. + +3-9-84 - "She Sees Witchcraft In Loss of College Job", John Crust & L.W. +McGarry, L.A. Times, (UA) positive + +3-23-84 - "The Devil and Colorado's Young", by Leslie Petrovski, Up The +Creek, negative (CuCO) 2 pp. + +4-22-84 - "Lucas Says Cult Inspired Killings", Gayle Reaves, Ft. Worth Star +Telegram, (C.A.N.) negative + +4-23-84 - "Murders in the Name of the Devil", Sacramento Union + +5-22-84 - "Satan Worship Uplifted on NBC", NFD Journal, (IHP) negative + +6-84 - "Satan worship Rituals on the Increase", Battle Cry Publications + +6-22-84 - "Police Raid Religious Commune", Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel, (C.A.N) +negative + +6-24-84 - "Ex-Warlock fights the satanism cults", by Wynne Bilby, Sunday +Denver Post, negative, (CuCo) + +6-24-84 - "Witches, women leave everyday routines to honor sisterhood, the +Craft", by Wynne Bilby, Denver Post, positive, 2 pp. + +6-24-84 - "Priestess bewitched but not bothered, bewildered", by Wynne +Bilby, Denver Post, positive, 2 pp. + +7-8-84 - "Youth Arrested in 'Cult' Murder Takes Own Life", Newport Daily +Press, Newport News, Va, (B.A.D.D.) negative + +7-8-84 - "Youth in Devil Cult Is Found Hanged", Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, +(IHP) negative + +7-8-84 - "6 Fetuses Found in fire Rubble", Sacramento Union + +7-9-84 - "Teen's Cult Leaves Sinister Scar on City", Margaret Hornblower, +Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, (IHP) negative + +7-15-84 - "Drugs Changed Life of Teen Charged in Satanic Killing" +Pat Milton, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, (IHP) negative + +7-15-84 - "Voodoo In Brazil: A Way of Life", Stephen G. Bloom, Dallas Life +Magazine (IHP) neutral + +7-18-84 - "Shock Waves of Teen's Death Shake Long Island Suburb" +Michael Coakley, Ft. Wayne News- Sentinel, (CAN) negative + +8-17-84 - "Hamlet In England Gives Witch The Devil Over Plans For Coven", +Elizabeth Grice, Dallas Morning News, (IHP) neutral + +8-17-84 - "Yorkshire In Devil of a Row Over Witches Coven Moving In", +Elizabeth Grice, L.A. Times, (UA) neutral + +8-23-84 - "Nine are Apprehended in area Cult Setting", Centralia Sentinel, +(BADD) negative + + +9-16-84 - "Matter of Mind Control", Ron Hutchinson, Ft. Worth Star- +Telegram, (IHP) negative + +10-84 - "The Witches of Berkeley", by Nancy Churnin Demac, San Francisco, +positive 7 pp. + +11-4-84 - "Game Suspected as Factor in Boys Deaths", Dallas Morning News, +(IHP) negative + +11-10-84 - "Hazardous Horoscopes? Scientists Ask Papers For Dis-claimer to +Warn Gullible Stargazer", (IHP) negative + +11-15-84 - "It's a Rare Medium Who is Well Done", Letters to Anne Landers, +Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, (IHP) negative + +11-22-84 - "Kids In the Dark", by David Breskin, Rolling Stone Magazine , +neutral to negative, 14 pp. + + + 1985 + +1-85 - "Satanists Vandalize Churches", Christian Enquirer + +1-19-85 - "Arlington Teen Kills Himself in Front of Class", Lorraine +Ianello, Dallas Times-Herald, (IHP) negative + +1-31-85 - "Is Dungeons and Dragons Game a Macabre Influence on Teens?", +Howard Witt, Dallas Morning News, (IHP) negative + +2-85 - "Magic: A Deadly Solution", Denver Magazine, negative (CuCo) 6 pp. + +3-15-85 - "Rock'n'Roll Sermon Nets Listeners, Doubters", Marlene Perrin, +Iowa City Press Citizen, (CAN) neutral + +4-17-85 - "Satanist Gathering Suspected", Courier, Findlay, Ohio, (CAN) +negative + +4-18-85 - "Rumor Bedevils Proctor & Gamble", Margot Hornblower, Washington +Post, neutral + +4-25-85 - "P&G Drops Logo: Cites Satan Rumors: Man in Moon Loses a Job", +Sandra Salmans, New York Times, neutral + +5-19-85 - "Occult Took Me To Brink of Death, Priest Tells", by Peter Haran, +Sunday Mail, Australia, BADD, negative + +5-29-85 - "Wise Guys - And Newspapers - Still Bedevil P&G About it's +Infamous Corporate Logo", by John Bussey, Wall Street Journal, humorous + +6-18-85 - "Portsmouth Family victim of Gruesome Vandalism", by +George Shadroui, Virginian Pilot + +6-28-85 - "Strange Case - Quartet Guilty of Child Molestation", by Charles +Postell, Albany (Ga) Herald, (BADD) negative + +7 & 8-85 - "By the Power Invested in Me", by Scott James, Liberty Magazine +(JH) positive + +7-8-85 - "Satanic Bible In Public Libraries", Rev. Roger Hudson, Update +Magazine (WATCH) negative + +*7-8-85 - "Satanic Cult", (AP) negative + +7-13-85 - "Satanic Cults Termed "Present Danger", Marjorie Rommel, Chicago +Sun-Times, (CAN) negative + +*7-14-85 - "Satanic Slaying", San Francisco (AP) negative + +7-29-85 - "Satanism Haunts Tales of Child Sex Abuse", John Crewdson, +Chicago Tribune, 7-29-85 (BADD) negative + +8-23-85 - "Children allege animal Sacrifices", by Anne Pifine, Nevada +Appeal (Carson City, NV) (BADD) negative + +8-27-85 - "Drug Agents Arrest 3, Seize Satanic Material in Weld", Rocky +Mountain News, neutral + +9-2-85 - "Satanic Killing", (AP) negative + +9-15-85 - "They Turn To Magic, Not Satan", George Flynn, San Diego Union, +(UA) positive + +9-15-85 - "Devil Worship: What's Behind It?", Mary Flood, Houston Post, +(BADD) negative + +9-15-85 - "Satanists Blend into Society", Houston Post (BADD) +negative + +9-16-85 - "Night Stalker", People Magazine, 3 pp., (IHP) negative + +9-16-85 - "Parents vs. Rock", by Stephen Dougherty, People Magazine, +negative, 8 pp. + +9-19-85 - "Witch Says She is Victim of Job Bias", George Flynn, San Diego +Union, (UA) positive + +9-22-85 - "Cult Movement Growing; Outcome Bears Watching", by Georgie Anne +Geyer, El Paso Times (BADD) negative + +9-24-85 - "Satanism, Cult of the 1980's", Georgie Anne Geyer, Dallas +Morning News, (IHP) negative + +10-11-85 - "Pentagram Not Evil", Letter to the Editor, Lurline Jennings, +L.A. Herald Examiner (LJ) positive + +10-15-85 - "Obstacles Don't Deter Witches' Worship", Gayle White, Atlanta +Journal, 2 pp., (UA) positive + +10-23-85 - "A Natural Rite", by Mary Mashburn, Colorado Springs Sun, (GLB) +positive 2 pp. + +10-25-85 - "Man Charged in Stalker Murder", USA Today, BADD, negative + +10-31-85 - "Witches Aren't Flying Very High In Today's Culture", Lucretia +Steiger, San Diego Union, (UA) neutral to positive + +10-31-85 - "What a Halloween haul! Snickers, an apple and the New +Testament", by Dale D. Buss, Wall Street Journal, neutral + + +10-31-85 - "There's Trouble Brewing For Witches This Halloween", Jan +Lindstrom, San Gabriel Valley, L.A. Herald-Examiner (LJ) neutral to +positive + +11-85 - "The Myth of the Halloween Sadist", by Joel Best, Psychology Today, +positive 2 pp. + +11-13-85 - "A New Broom", Oklahoma Gazette, positive + +11-23-85 - "Sex Slave Keeper Receives 104 Years", Ft. Worth Star Telegram, +(IHP) negative + +11-28-85 - "Tax Exemption for Witches Haunts Congress", Paula Fisher, +Wanderer, 2 pp., (IHP) positive + +12-1-85 - "Horse Owner Fears Cult at Blame in Mutilation", Dallas Morning +News, (IHP) negative + +12-17-85 - "Cult Member Lacks Remorse for Torture Death of Thimm", Wyoming +State Tribune (BADD) negative + +12-31-85 - "Brazil Clergy Tacitly Approves Cult Worship", Bryna Brennan, +Dallas Times Herald, (IHP) neutral + + + 1986 + +1-86 - "Witches, ACLU Foil Helms, Casting Off His Evil Curse", by Rebecca +Pitman, Washingtonian, positive + +1-3-86 - "Satan Cult Site Found", by Debbie Stone, Montgomery Journal, +BADD, negative + +1-8-86 - "Devil Worship Prompts Arrest", Newport News (VA) Daily Press + +1-86 - "The Devil Made Me Do It", Dr. Joel Norris & Jerry Allen Patter, +Penthouse, 9 pp. (CAN) (VOICES) negative + +1-86 - "The Teacher Hurt Me, Mommy", by Joanne Michaels, Redbook, neutral 4 +pp (VOICES) + +1-16-86 - "Waverly News", negative (WBBBS) + +1-26-86 - "Lure of New Age philosophy has biblical scholar worried", by +Bill Husted, Rocky Mountain News, (CuCo) negative + +2-4-86 - "Letter To Mike Warnke Ministries", by Lt. Larry M. Jones (IHP) +negative + +2-16-86 - "Fad or Fanatic Cult?", Diana Washington, El Paso Times +(BADD) negative + +2-16-86 - "Some Call it a Cult; Others A Religion", Diana Washington, El +Paso Times (BADD) negative + +2-16-86 - "WATCH Network Keeps Eye On Occult", Diana Washington, El Paso +Times (BADD) negative + +2-16-86 - "El Paso Area Is Dotted With Apparent Ritual Sites", Diana +Washington, El Paso Times (BADD) negative +2-16-86 - "Selfishness is the Point of Satanism", Diana Washington, El +Paso Times, (BADD) negative + +2-17-86 - "The World of Dark Rock", by Rob Lamp, The New American, +negative, 5 pp. (DG) + +2-20-86 - "Monroe Officials Link Teen Death To Satanism", by Joe Swickard, +Detroit Free Press (BADD) negative + +2-20-86 - "'Sacrificial' Death", Denver Post, negative + +2-25-86 - "Prosecutor To Seek Death in Devil Worship Killings", Eric Zorn, +Chicago Tribune, (CAN) negative + +2-26-86 - "Angel of Satan On Trial", Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) +(CAN) negative + +2-27-86 - "Teen Guilty in Ax Murder", Northwest Herald, Crystal Lake, IL, +(CAN) negative + +*3-3-86 - "Kern Molest", (AP-CMBBS) San Francisco, CA, negative + +*3-3-86 - "Finders", (AP-CMBBS) neutral + +*3-7-86 - "Canbriefs", (AP-CMBBS) Calgary, Alberta + +*3-17-86 - "Satanic Farm Field", Greeley, CO (AP) negative + +3-19-86 - "Library Refuses to Ban Book On Witches", Connie Petty, Albany +(OR) Democrat-Herald (ED) neutral to positive + +3-20-86 - "Pickets Protest Book On Witches", Carter Wood, Albany (OR) +Democrat-Herald, (ED) neutral to positive + +*3-20-86 - "Prank Graves", (AP-CMBBS) Yontis, TX, weird + +*3-28-86 - "Chef Murder", Flemington, N.J. (AP) negative + +4-2-86 - "Letter To Warnke Ministries", Glenn Gibbs (IHP) negative + +*4-3-86 - "Son of Sam", (AP-CMBBS) negative + +*4-14-86 - "Grave Robbers", Pottsville, AK (AP-CMBBS) negative + +4-18-86 - "Putting Satan's Work into Perspective", by Randy Frame, +Christianity Today, (neutral) 2 pp. + +*4-20-86 - "Satanic Rumor", (AP-CMBBS) Huntsville, AL, negative + +4-22-86 - "Boy 14, Accused in Satan Assault", Andrew Herman, Chicago Sun- +Times, (CAN) negative + +4-22-86 - "Spell of Unemployment", by Egan, Woman's World Weekly, (UA) +positive + +*4-22-86 - "Teenage Satanism", (AP-CMBBS) Salt Lake City, UT negative + +*4-23-86 - "Sex Trial", by Woody Baird Memphis, Tenn. (AP-CMBBS) negative + + +4-22-86 - "Satan Bible Feud Linked to Slaying", by Susanne Burks, +Albuquerque Journal (BADD) negative + +4-22-86 - "Cults: Growing Problem Among Nevadans", by Dorothy Kosich, +Carson City Nevada Appeal (BADD) negative + +*4-24-86 - "Night Stalker", by Sun Manning, L.A. Times (AP-CMBBS) negative + +*4-24-86 - "Sex Trial", by Woody Baird, Memphis, TN (AP-CMBBS) negative + +*4-25-86 - "Sex Trial II", by Woody Baird, Memphis, TN (AP-CMBBS) negative + +4-27-86 - "Satan Worship Called Dangerous, Growing", Eric Zorn, Chicago +Tribune, (IHP) negative + +* 5-4-86 - "Satanic Cults", (AP-CMBBS) Chattanooga, TN, negative + +5-4-86 - "Devil Did It! A British Man Nets $313,000", by Joseph Lelyveld, +New York Times Sunday, neutral + +5-7-86 - "Teenagers, Rock'n'roll and Satan", by Judith Graffam Press +Enterprise , Riverside, CA (BADD) negative + +5-7-86 - "Cults Are Dangerous, says Vatican document", Denver Catholic +Register, negative (CuCo) + +5-13-86 - "Teen To Stand Trial As Adult in 3 Deaths", Nolan Clay, Daily +Oklahoman, negative + +*5-13-86 - "Vandalism",* (AP-CMBBS) Ft. Collins, CO + +5-20-86 - "Charleston Rector Quits Says He's Been Bewitched", Charlotte +Observer, (JM) neutral to strange + +*5-24-86 - "Party Death"- (AP CMBBS) E. Lansing, Mich + +5-29-86 - "Witchcraft Issue Heats Up School Censorship Battle", Fred Grimm, +Charlotte Observer, (JM) negative + +6-86 - "Violent Ritualistic Victimization: An Attack on the Mind, Body, and +Spirit", by Florangel M. Mendez, NCASA News (BADD) negative + +*6-1-86 - "Child Sex", (AP-CMBBS) + +6-5-86 - "The Noble Search For Devil Worshippers And Other Godless Commies, +Q&A with Deputy Sheriff Dave Gaerin, San Diego Reader, 12 pp., (UA) +negative + +6-6-86 - "Witchcraft: A Persecuted Religion", Letter to the Ed. Adrian +Russell, Charlotte Observer, (JM) positive + +6-7-86 - "2 Ex-Va. Students Quizzed in London About Stabbing Deaths", by +Tom Sharwood, Washington Post (BADD) negative + +*6-7-86 - "Voodoo Incident", Dallas Tx. AP (CMBBS) negative + +6-10-86 - "Meet a Witch Plan Brews up Parent Protest", Los Angeles Times, +positive. + + +6-11-86 - "Reader Warns Against Lies of Metaphysics", Letter to Ed. Don +Watson, Oklahoma Gazette, negative + +6-12-86 - "Pagans By God", Letter to the Editor, Patrick Mckinnion, San +Diego Reader (UA) positive + +6-17-86 - "Groups Unite to Fight Growing Teen Satanism", by Susan Allen, +USA Today (BADD) negative + +6-24-86 - "Sex Crimes Lead To Guilty Plea", Nolan Clay, Daily Oklahoman, +negative + +6-25-86 - "Each of us Holds Potential of God As His Children", letter to +Ed. Denise Rodgers, Okla. Gazette, positive + +6-25-86 - "Picketing Coven", Oklahoma Gazette, positive + +6-26-86 - "View Both Sides of Mind Control", Letter to Ed., Keith Gibson +(OK) Gazette, negative + +7-86 - "Let Us Prey", Stephen J. Parker, Newlook, 4 pp., (UA) negative & +VERY strange + +*7-7-86 - "Satanic Slaying", San Francisco, (AP-CMBBS) negative + +7-9-86 - "Study of Metaphysics Can Be Frightening", Letter to Ed., TMB, +Oklahoma Gazette, negative + +7-9-86 - "Pomona College Witch studying Wicca Ways", by Dick Roraback, Los +Angeles Times. Positive, 4 pp. + +7-17-86 - "Christian Parents Blast 'The Wizard of Oz' At Trial", Daily +Oklahoman, neutral + +7-23-86 - "Ex-Cityan Charged In Death", Nolan Clay, Daily Oklahoman, +negative + +*7-23-86 - "Sex Trial", by Woody Baird, Memphis Tenn. negative (CMBBS) + +*7-25-86 - "Satanic Crime"- (AP-CMBBS) Macon, Ga. + +7-25-86 - "Pleas Bargain Denied in Lafayette Sex Case", by Charlie Brennan, +Rocky Mountain News, neutral + +*7-26-86 - "Preschool Molest", by Linde Deutsch, L.A. (AP) negative + +*7-26-86 - "Strange Slaying", Bunnel, Fla. AP (CMBBS) negative + +8-9&10-86 - "Is Satanism linked to crimes", by Thomas D. Elias, St. Louis +Globe Democrat, negative, 4 pp. (WBBBS) + +8-26-86 - "Not Even In Whispers", Letter to the Editor, B.J. Stenberg, +Portland Oregonian (ED) positive + +8-27-886 - "We don't worship Satan, witchcraft priestess says", by Chris +Martell, Wisconsin State Journal, positive (LH) + +9-86 - "Isis Has Devil of a Time With Network Television", Isis Newsletter, +positive + +9-86 - "Bewitching Salem", National Geographic Traveler, positive + +*9-2-86 - "Satanic Killing", (AP-CMBBS) negative + +*9-2-86 - "Satanic Cult", (AP-CMBBS) North Carolina, negative + +9-22-86 - "Satanism Influenced Teen, Defense Says", Nolan Clay, Daily +Oklahoman, negative + +9-23-86 - "Trial Expected to Include Testimony About Satanism", Nolan Clay, +Daily Oklahoman, negative + +9-25-86 - "Teen Drew Pictures In Blood, Former Co-Worker Testifies", Nolan +Clay, Daily Oklahoman, negative + +9-27-86 - "Suspect Reported Seeing Demons Fly", Nolan Clay, Daily +Oklahoman, negative + +9-30-86 - "Macy, Attorney Argue In Murder Trial", Nolan Clay, Daily +Oklahoman, negative + +10-86 - "America's Best Kept Secret", John Frattarola, Passport Magazine, +12 pp., (WATCH) VERY NEGATIVE + +10-86 - "Demon Possession", Raul Ries, Passport Magazine, (WN) negative + +10-86 - "Cults: Organized, Armed & Protected by the First Amendment, by Kim +Remesch-Allnutt, The Police Product News, negative 5 pp. (DG) + +10-1-86 - "Testimony of Psychologists Conflicts", Nolan Clay, Daily +Oklahoman, negative + +10-2-86 - "Teen Guilty of Killings, Jury Rules", Nolan Clay, Daily +Oklahoman, negative + +10-3-86 - "Teen Killer Gets Death", Nolan Clay, Daily Oklahoman, negative + +10-5-86 - "Teen Ager's Murder Trial Presented Basics of Satanism", Nolan +Clay, Sunday Oklahoman, negative + +10-7-86 - "Fantasy Game Victim of Undeserved Attack", Letter to Ed., Kerry +Tolan, Daily Oklahoman, positive + +10-10-86 - "Expert: Voodoo Chicken Disease Could Threaten Other Poultry", +Tallahassee Democrat, (CAN) neutral to negative + +10-12-86 - "A Devilish Choice Noted", Letter to the Editor, R. Lynn Green, +Daily Oklahoman, neutral + +10-12-86 - "Modern witches Try To Improve Ancient Image", Jenkin Lloyd- +Jones, Daily Oklahoman, positive + +10-15-86 - "Game Harmless", Letter to the Editor (KDH) Daily Oklahoman, +positive + +10-16-86 - "Evil One Plotting Against America", Letter to Ed., S. Smith, +Daily Oklahoman, negative + +10-25-86 - "Dungeons and Dragons Devilish Game", Letter to Editor (PJP) +Daily Oklahoman, negative +10-26-86 - "In League With the Devil", Glenn Gibbons, Jr, Portland +Oregonian (ED) negative + +10-30-86 - "Lawmen Tire of Haunting Rumor", Chris Kinyon, Daily Oklahoman, +neutral + +*10-30-86 - "Satan Worship", Levelland, Tex. (AP-BBS) + +*11-6-86 - "Devil Worshippers", (AP-CMBBS) + +11-12-86 - "Fantasy Games, Deadly Fun?", by Patricia Hillyer, Denver +Catholic Register, negative (CuCo) 3 pp. + +11-14-86 - "Rezoning For Wiccans Denied", Wisconsin State Journal (CNN) +neutral + +11-14-86 - "Wiccan Priestess To Fight Ban By Iowa county Board", Gene +Conrad, Capital Times, Madison, (WI) (CNN) neutral + +*11-14-86 - "Mysterious Remains", (CMBBS) negative + +11-23-86 - Letters to the Editor, Portland Oregonian Re: +"In League With the Devil", positive +"Panning Pan"- Michael Dion, positive +"Benevolent Gathering"- Norma Joyce, positive +"Takeoff on Tabloids"- Mark Van Dyke, positive +"No Devil Devotion"- The Rev. Nestor Perala, positive +"Hopkins Hardly Holy"- Frank C. Johnson, positive + +*11-24-86 - "Grave Robbing", Brownburg, Ind. (AP-CMBBS) + +*11-27-86 - "Child Sex", Memphis, Tenn. AP (CMBBS) negative + +12-86 - "The Rules, the Roles, The Risks of Dungeons and Dragons", Richard +White, Standard (Va. Beach, VA) (BADD) negative + +*12-8-86 - "Church Bomb", AP (WBBBS) + +*12-12-86 - "Cistern Death" - Carthage Mo. (AP-CMBBS) + +*12-18-86 - "Cult Abuse", by Ric Leyva, L.A. (AP-CMBBS) + +12-9-86 - "A Boy's Love of Satan Ends In Murder, a Death Sentence, and +Grisly Memories", Michelle Green, People Magazine (IHP) negative + +12-11-86 - "Satanic Probe", (AP-CMBBS) Lincoln City, OR + + + 1987 + +1-23-87 - "Kern Drops Satanism case", by Steve E. Swenson, Bakersfield +Californian , neutral + +1-25-87 - "Salem's Official Witch, Laurie Cabot, Finds Grave Errors in +Eastwick", by Cable Neuhaus, People Magazine, positive 2 pp. + +1-27-87 - "Shirley MacLaine Movie Called a Fraud", Letters to the Ed. Don +Watson, Daily Oklahoman, negative + + +2-87 - "Children of Yoruba", Rod Davis, Southern Magazine, 11 pp., (JM) +neutral to positive + +2-87 - "Satanism: The Law Enforcement Response", Robert J. Barry, National +Sherrif, 4 pp., (CAN) negative + +2-87 - "Crimes of the Occult", Carole Allen w/ Pat Metoyer, Police +Magazine, 13 pp., (WLPA) negative + +2-7-87 - "Cult Link Seen in Case of Unidentified Children", by Jon +Nordheimer, York Times National News, neutral + +2-8-87 - "Maclaine Failed In Search for God", Letter to the Editor, Jo Anne +Coleman, Daily Oklahoman, negative + +2-8-87 - Letters to the Editor Re:"Out on a Limb" +"Don't Condemn", R. Scott Taylor, positive +"Satan Fooling People", Greta Nikkel, negative +"Stop Arguing", Karem Kemler, positive + +2-8-87 - "Telephone Threats to Children Put Fla. Police on Armed Alert", +Sunday Oklahoman, neutral + +2-13-87 - "Double Whammy, 13th, Full Moon", Eldon Barrett & Maureen +McDonald, USA Today, neutral to positive + +2-13-87 - "Fla. Child Abuse Probe Minimizes Satanism Link", Timothy McQuay, +USA Today, neutral to positive + +*2-15-87 - "Satanic worship", (AP-CMBBS) + +*3-4-87 - "Cult Calls", (AP-CMBBS) San Jose, CA, neutral to negative + +3-4-87 - "Party line invited teens to dial number on Satanism, occult", by +Michael Oricchio, San Jose Mercury News, neutral to negative, 2 pp. + +3-5-87 - "Expert witness denies defense's claim of a 'cult' slaying", by +Nancy Montgomery, neutral, 2 pp. + +3-5-87 - "Fryman: 'They had no evidence against me'", by Bob Musselman, +negative, 2 pp. + +*3-7-87 - "Margo McKee", By S.J. Guffey, Moses Lake, WA (AP-CMBBS) negative + +3-13-87 - "Rumors of devil worshippers in area set county on edge", by +Lesia J. Shannon, Sun-News (Myrtle Beach, SC) neutral + +3-14-87 - "Cult Rumors Rattle South Carolina", by John Collins, State +(Columbia, SC) neutral + +*3-14-87 - "Cult Probe", Deming, NM (AP-CMBBS) + +*3-14-87 - "Cult", Deming, NM (AP-CMBBS) negative + +3-14-87 - "Prank prompts statewide concern", by Elizabeth Fortner, +Spartanburg Herald-Journal, negative 2 pp. + +3-14-87 - "Public fascination and fear grow over the topic of devil +worship", by Jim DeBrosse, Cincinnati Enquirer, negative, 3 pp. + +*3-15-87 - "High School Principal Says Allegations of Satanic Cult +Overblown", Deming, NM (AP-CMBBS) + +3-15-87 - "Police Battling Satan's evil shadow", by Charlie Brennan, Rocky +Mountain News, negative (CuCo) + +3-15-87 - "Satanic gang rears its head with graffiti", by Charlie Brennan, +Rocky Mountain News, negative (CuCo) + +3-15-88 - "Area rates as inferno for occult", by Charlie Brennan +Rocky Mountain News, negative (CuCo) + +3-15-87 - "Police probing reports of satanic cult in N.M.", (AP) +Rocky Mountain News, negative (CuCo) + +3-16-87 - "Killer blames Satan for turn to crime", by Charlie Brennan, +Rocky Mountain News, negative, (CuCo) 2 pp. + +3-16-87 - "Adolescents susceptible to Satanism", by Rocky Mountain News +Staff, Rocky Mountain News, negative (CuCo) + +3-16-87 - "Evidence points to satanic crimes in state", Rocky Mountain news +staff, Rocky Mountain News, negative, (CuCO) + +*3-16-87 - "Colorado Satanism", Denver, CO (AP-CMBBS) negative + +*3-21-87 - "Finders", by Ed. Birk (AP-CMBBS) + +*3-21-87 - "Jury Reccommends Death for Cult Slayer", by Susan Kuczka, +Wheaton, Ill. AP (CMBBS) negative + +3-22-87 - "Old mine shaft draws satanists, police treat gatherings +seriously", by Gracie L. Lawson and James E. Smith, Oakland Press (Pontiac, +MI) negative, 3 pp. + +3-22-87 - "Satanic mysteries intrigue youngsters", by Gracie L. Lawson and +James L. Smith, Oakland Press (Pontiac, MI) negative + +3-22-87 - "The Witches Among Us", by Sally Norman, Cleveland (OH) Plain +Dealer, positive 4 pp. + +*3-23-87 - "Manson Followers Run Prison" + +3-24-87 - "Into the Dark", Ben Fenwick, Oklahoma Daily, neutral to negative + +3-24-87 - "Oxford police seal mine linked to demon worship", by Robert +Ourlian, Detroit News, negative + +3-26-87 - "Clarification re: Into the Dark", Letter to the Editor +Bob Bursick, Oklahoma Daily, neutral + +*3-26-87 - "Canadian Witch", (AP-CMBBS) positive + +*3-28-87 - "Chef Murder", Flemington, NJ (AP-CMBBS) negative + +*3-30-87 - "Satanic Signs", Oxford, MI (AP-CMBBS) + +4-87 - "Which Is Witch", Letter to Police Magazine, A.J. Monaghan & C. +Allen Reed, positive + +*4-2-87 - "Watson Unremorseful for Manson Family Killings, psychiatrists +say", by Michael Malinski, San Louis Obispo, (CMBBS) negative + +4-2-87 - "Prayer Session Turns Into A Devil Of a Time", Albany (OR) +Democrat, (ED) neutral to positive + +4-5-87 - "Minister:Dabbling in occult dangerous", by Barry Kawa, Ogden (UT) +Standard-Examiner, negative 2 pp. + +4-12-87 - "Children who turn to the Devil", by Judith Graffam, Riverside +(CA) Press-Enterprise, neutral 4 pp. + +*4-13-87 - "Music Protest", by Joel Williams, Dallas TX (AP-CMBBS) negative + +4-15-87 - "Brewing Pagan Political Magic", Ellie Kirzner, Now Magazine, 2 +pp., (ED) positive + +4-16-87 - "Little House of Horrors", by Terry E. Johnson, Newsweek + +4-20-87 - "Slain baby case remains unsolved", by Genevieve Reilly, +Bridgeport (CT) Post, neutral to negative + +4-26-87 - "Rock & Religion, The sounds often aren't sweet as sides clash on +viewpoints concerning music and morality", by Shawn Ryan, Birmingham News, +negative, 5 pp. + +4-26-87 - "Rock music can be detrimental but won't drive you mad all by +itself", by Shawn Ryan, Birmingham News, neutral 2 pp. + +4-26-87 - "What the songs really say: a look at some of rock's stronger +lyrics", by Shawn Ryan, Birmingham News, negative, 2 pp. + +5-1-87 - "Are the Children Lying?", by Debra Cassens Moss, ABA Journal, +neutral 4 pp (VOICES) + +*5-3-87 - "Satanic Cults", (AP-CMBBS) + +*5-4-87 - "Grave Robbing", Westminster, Md. (AP-CMBBS) negative + +*5-5-87 - "Wyo. Satanic Worship", Riverton, Wyo. (CMBBS) negative + +5-6-87 - "Occult Crimes", Jim Bryant, Police Magazine, 5 pp. (WLPA) +negative + +*5-6-87 - "Ma - I'm no Warlock", by Dana Kennedy (AP-CMBBS) neutral + +*5-6-87 - "Priest Charges", (AP-CMBBS) negative + +*5-7-87 - "Ritualistic Abuse", by Roy Formanek (AP) Chicago, negative + +5-9-87 - "Salem Has The Nation ,Media Spellbound", Mark Pillsbury, Salem +(MA) News (WLPA) positive + +5-10-87 - "Cults Legal, but can be dangerous", by Harry Saltzgraver, Pueblo +(CO) Chieftain, (CuCo) negative + +5-10-87 - "Signs of Satanism Concern Officials", by Roger Burr, Farmington +(NM) Daily Times, neutral to negative, 2 pp. + + +5-10-87 - "Church may be way for youth to express rebellion", by Roger +Burr, Farmington (NM) Daily Times, neutral 2 pp. + +5-11-87 - "Two Teens Testify In Sexual Attack Case", Daily Oklahoman, +negative + +*5-11-87 - "Voodoo Thieves", by Linda Jones, Detroit News +negative (CMBBS) + +*5-12-87 - "Satanic Sheets", Laguna Niguel, Ca. (CMBBS) AP silly + +5-13-87 - "Arkansas Man Held In Attack On His Parents", Daily Oklahoman, +negative + +5-13-87 - "A Political Potion. 'Witch' Cabot In Mayoral Run", Mark +Pillsbury-Salem, (MA) News, (WLPA) negative + +*5-14-87 - "Manson Disciple", San Louis Obispo AP (CMBBS) negative + +5-21-87 - "Prison's Chaplaincy Program Needs More Counseling Staff", +Bismarck Tribune (PW) neutral to positive + +*5-25-87 - "Satanic Worship", Michigan City, Ind. (AP-CMBBS) negative + +*5-28-87 - "Witch Mayor", (AP-CMBBS) positive + +5-29-87 - "Witch Casts Spell On Race", Mark Pillsbury, Salem News (WLPA) +positive + +*5-30-87 - "Devilish Invitations", Jeffersonville, IN (AP) silly + +6-87 - "Crimes of the Occult Not A Witch Hunt: Editorial", Gregg A Payne, +Police Magazine, (WLPA) neutral to negative + +6-4-87 - "Writers Find Salvo's Remarks Offensive To Witches", Letters to +the Editor, Salem Evening News, +"No Passing Fad", Christine Dumas, positive +"Apology Due", Claudia Dremann,positive +"Here To Stay, B.J. Stenberg,positive +"Hatred Perpetuated", Tina Sciola,positive +"Never Again",Jo and James Dixon,positive +"Long Lasting Fad",Cathy Beer,positive + +6-8-87 - "Inside the Circle of Witches Modern", by Derk Kinnane Roelfsma, +Washington Times, Insight, positive, 3 pp. + +6-10-87 - "Sacrifice", AP (WBBBS) + +6-14-87 - "Satanistic discoveries questioned", by Nancy Montgomery, +Anchorage Daily News, negative, 2 pp. + +6-20-87 - "Witches Gather", (AP-CMBBS) Lake Tawakoni, TX, positive + +6-30-87 - "Satanic ritual rumors investigated", by Emily M. Smith, +Lafayette (IN) Journal and Courier, neutral, 2 pp. + +6-30-87 - "Official:Worship itself is legal", by Emily M. Smith, neutral + +7-3-87 - "Detective wonders how black is the magick in Oswego", by Casey +Gilmore, Binghamton (NY) Press and Sunday Bulletin, negative +7-4-87 - "Rainbow Nation : 60's Live Again", Mike Foley, Gastonia Gazette, +neutral to negative + +7-4-87 - "Counterculture Tribes Townspeople Co-Existing", Mike +Foley,Gastonia Gazette, neutral to negative + +7-5-87 - "The Witches of New York", by Susanne Lingemann, New York Daily +News, positive, 2 pp. + +7-12-87 - "Witches: here, but not harmful", by Steve Brewer, Albuquerque +Journal, positive, 2 pp. + +7-17-87 - "Devil Worship", AP Salem, MA, (CMBBS) negative + +7-24-87 - Letters to the Editor, Prince George's Journal, "Questions +Authority to Pray to 'Our Mother'", by Rodgers Gore +(CS) negative + +8-1-87 - Letters to the Editor, Prince George's Journal, "Religious +Tolerance Respect Urged", by Cybele Selene, positive +(CS) + +8-87 - "Unplugging the New Age", Tim Minnery, Focus on the Family Magazine, +neutral + +8-22-87 - "Reputation Undeserved, Practicing Witch Claims", Letter to Ann +Landers, Daily Oklahoman, positive + +10-31-87 - "Privileged disinformation", and "The King is Dead", Prediction +Magazine, positive and neutral (AF) + +9-87 - "Witchcraft", Joan Scobey, 5 pp., positive +"Altered States of Mind", Joan Scobey, positive +"One witch's Story", Lois Bourne, positive - New Woman Magazine + +9-5-87 - "Witchcraft Connection Not True", Letter to Dear Abby, Daily +Oklahoman, positive + +9-8-87 - "Folk Sayings Can Help You Predict the Weather", Cliff Barr, +National Enquirer, neutral to positive + +9-27-87 - "Police expert warns of Satanism", by Kevin Diaz, Minneapolis +Star and Tribune, negative 2 pp. + +9-27-87 - "Exorcism Performed in Home for Retarded", by Roger Talbot , +Manchester (NH) Union Leader, neutral + +10-2-87,"Halloween Opponents Get School to Ban Boos", Buffalo News, (BE) +neutral to negative + +10-11-87 - "When Demons Preyed pt. 1", by Edward Baumann and John O'Brien. +Chicago Tribune, negative 2 pp. + +10-12-87 - "When Demons Preyed, pt. 2", by Edward Baumann and John O'Brien. +Chicago Tribune, negative. 2 pp. + +10-17-87 - "The Brigade of Light", Jerome Klein, Creative Loafing, neutral + +10-19-87 - "Professor sets record straight on movies' voodoo caricature", +by Peter A. Katz, Beverly (MA) Times, positive +10-25-87,"Witches or Wimps? You Make the Call", Alex Heard, Washington Post +Magazine + +10-25-87 - "Worshipping the Goddesses", by Jim Spencer, Chicago Tribune, +positive, 4 pp. + +10-26-87 - "Witches, Pagans Cast Aside Shroud of Secrecy", by Grant Willis, +Air Force Times, positive + +10-26-87 - "Adherents' Motto :"If It Harms None, Do As You Will", by Grant +Willis, positive, 2 pp. + +10-28-87,"Felines Placed on Hold", Daily Oklahoman, negative + +10-29-87 - "Feminism of the soul", by Margaret Trimer, Detroit Free Press, +positive, 2 pp. + +10-29-87 - "Satanic", by Tom Bowman, Harrisburg (PA) Patriot, negative + +10-30-87 - "Real-Life Witch Calls Coven Home", Kevan Goff Majors, Daily +Oklahoman, positive + +10-30-87 - "Halloween Big Night for Witches", Kevan Goff-Majors, Daily +Oklahoman, positive + +10-30-87 - "Don't Deny Children the Fun of Halloween", USA Today, positive + +10-30-87 - "Protect out children from Evil of Halloween", Ralph P. Forbes, +USA Today, negative + +10-30-87 - "More Fun For Kids than Mothers", Sherry Roberts, USA Today, +neutral + +10-30-87 - "The Halloween Sadist, Bogeyman for Our Time", Joel Best, USA +Today, negative + +10-30-87 - "Witches a Persecuted Minority", Leo Louis Martello, USA Today, +positive + +10-30-87 - "Voices From Across The USA, How Do You Feel About the +Celebration of Halloween?", USA Today , positive & negative + +10-30-87 - "Some Christians find no treat in observance of Halloween", by +Russ White, Orlando Sentinel, negative, 2 pp. + +10-31-87 - "Bewitching: Covens of the '80s Don't Match Lore Stirred by +Tales Of Halloween Past", by Carol McGraw, Los Angeles Times, positive +(WLPA) + +10-31-87 - "Halloween: the sinister and the saintly, Occult practices +embrace variety of beliefs, rituals", by Julia Duin, Houston Chronicle, +positive & negative, 3 pp. + +10-31-87 - "Deliverance and exorcism explained", by Julia Duin, Houston +Chronicle, negative, 2 pp. + +10-31-87 - "How one Houston church marches away from ghouls", by Cecile +Holmes White, Houston Chronicle, negative + + +10-31-87 - The Lives and Times of Modern Witches", by Catherine Warren, +Hartford (CT) Courant, positive, 2 pp. + +10-31-87 - The Good Witch", by Angela Carbone, Holyoke, MA Transcript- +Telegram, positive, 3 pp. + +10-31-87 - Christians Decry Halloween Paganism", by Richard C. Dujardin, +Providence Journal, neutral to negative, 2 pp. + +10-31-87 - "Halloween: from God to Goblin", by Jeanne Pugh, St. Petersburg +Times, neutral to negative, 2 pp. + +10-31-87 - "Pastor bemoans absence of spirit", by Ted Delaney, Colorado +Springs Gazette Telegraph, negative, 2 pp. + +11-1-87 - "Satanism facts are vital for parents", by John Wilcox , South +Bend Tribune, neutral + +*11-2-87 - "Wyo. Satanic Rituals", Rawlings, WY (CMBBS) negative + +*11-3-87 - "Satanism"- (AP-CMBBS) San Francisco, CA, negative + +*11-7-87 - "Double Homicide", (AP-CMBBS) Rockford, IL + +11-7-87 - "Satanic Material Linked to Thefts in Nichols Hills", R. L. +Smith, Daily Oklahoman, negative + +11-8-87 - "Soldier calls probe a witch hunt", by Linda Goldston, San Jose +Mercury News, neutral, 2 pp. + +*11-11-87 - "Devil Worship", by Dennis Oliver, (AP-CMBBS) Hayward, CA, +negative + +11-12-87 - "Records Center Colonel Heads Satanic Religion", by Philip Dine, +St. Louis Post Dispatch, neutral, 2 pp. + +11-16-87 - "The Second Beast of Revelation", by Jerry Adler with Pamela +Abramson and John Whitinger, Newsweek, neutral + +11-17-87 - Letters to the Editor, Daily Oklahoman +"Witch Articles Glorify the Occult", John & Helen Crawford, negative "Witch +Badly Needs God", Mark James, negative + +11-20-87 - "Suspects' Occultism Doubted", by Paul Shell, Daily +Oklahoman, neutral + +*11-20-87 - "Satanic claim", (AP-CMBBS) San Francisco, Ca. negative + +11-21-87 - "Cult Rumors Stir up Main towns", by John S. Day, Bangor Daily +News, negative, 2 pp. + +11-22-87 - "Southeast's 'Witches' dismiss occult rumors", by Sharon Hamric, +Wichita Eagle-Beacon, neutral to negative (LL) + +11-22-87 - "Satanic altars arouse fears", by John Impemba, Boston Herald, +negative, 2 pp. + +11-27-87 - "Witches in U.S. Military Forces Seeking Recognition of +Religion", (AP) Daily Oklahoman, positive + +11-30-87 - Letters to the Editor, Daily Oklahoman "Lady Lathina Deserves +Praise", by Rick Holland, positive + +12-1-87 - "Probing the Psyches of Devil Worshippers", by Jamie Talan, (Long +Island NY) Newsday, negative, 2 pp. + +12-13-87 - "Sex charges unravel Spiral of Friends", by Laura Misch, Rocky +Mountain News, neutral to negative + +*12-18-87 - "Unknown Children", (AP-CMBBS) + +12-28-87 - "Police probe reports of Satan worship", by Zillah Bahar, +Dispatch (Gilroy, CA) extremely negative 2 pp. + +12-28-87 - "Counselor: Band of teen-age girls tried to halt confession by +Gilroy student", by Zillah Bahar, Dispatch (Gilroy, CA) EXTREMELY negative +2 pp. + + + 1988 + +1-5-88 - "Ceremonial Blessing", Daily Oklahoman, positive + +1-7-88 - "For this Detective, Staking Out Graves Is Just Part of the Job", +by Alex Kotlowitz, Wall Street Journal, negative +(WLPA) + +1-8-88 - "Callers Back Courses In Supernatural", by Ron Davis +Springfield (MO) News-Leader, neutral to positive (WLPA) + +1-10-88 - Letters to the Editor, Insight Magazine, Springfield (MO) News- +Leader "Springfield's Fundamentalists Seem to be on Witch Hunt", by Lee +Prosser, positive (WLPA) + +1-11-88 - "Teen Kills Mom, Then Self", Gastonia Gazette (RW) +negative + +1-12-88 - "Devil Worshipper Holds Sensitive Army Post and Top Brass Say 'No +Problem'", by Chris Fuller, National Enquirer, +negative + +1-13-88 - "Study Leads to Tragedy", Daily Oklahoman negative + +1-13-88 - "Courses in Supernatural May Arise From Dead", by Ron Davis, +Springfield Mo. News Leader, neutral to positive, (WLPA) + +1-17-88 - "Reincarnation Belief Cited in Boy's Burning", Daily Oklahoman +by Paul Shell, negative + +1-17-88 - Letters to the Editor, Springfield (MO) News-Leader +"Oppose Repression by Writing School Officials", by Nora Jennings, negative +"Prejudice ,Ignorance Stifle Courses in Occult", by Jim Kelley, positive +"Witchcraft Courses Lure Unwary to Devil's Work", by Rev. James Mills, +negative (PW) + +2-1-88 - "The Dawn of Religion", by Sharon Begley w/ Elizabeth Jones, +Newsweek, historical (WLPA) + +2-88 - "Satanism and Crime", Criminal Intelligence Report, negative (WLPA) +5 pp. +2-10-88 - Letters to the Editor, Oklahoma Gazette, "Another Hoax is Trotted +Out", by Don Watson, negative + +2-17-88 - "Satanists Focus on Bored, Curious Teens, by Denise Linke, Voice +(Elk Grove, IL) neutral, 2 pp. (VOICES) + +2-18-88 - "Devils Work", by John Pifer, The Province, negative (PW) + +2-21-88 - "Sympathy for the Devil, Students, Satanism, and suicide", by +Lisa Levitt Ryckman, Arkansas Democrat, negative, 3 pp. + +2-21-88 - "Heavy metal music: Sound of Satanism?", by Lisa Levitt Ryckman, +The Arkansas Democrat, negative, 2 pp. + +2-28-88 - "Discovery of Body May Rewrite European History", Fargo N.D. +Forum., historical background (WLPA) + +3-88 - "Which is General witch?", Criminal Intelligence Report, positive +(WLPA) + +3-88 - "Witchcraft in America", Criminal Intelligence Report", EXCELLENT +article, very negative follow up. (WLPA) 10 pp. + +3-9-88 - "Sheriff Seeks Library List on Occult", (AP) St. Louis Post- +Dispatch, negative (BH) + +3-12-88 - "Incidents Spark Fear of Rise in Teen Cults", by Renate Robey, +Denver Post, negative + +3-18-88 - "School Deviled by Rumors", (AP) Daily Oklahoman, negative + +3-20-88 - "Parents,teacher urge action against Satanism", by Rosanne +Simborski, Fort Collins Coloradoan, neutral to negative, 2 pp. + +3-20-88 - "Conversation with a Witch", by Jean Pfleiderer, Boulder (CO) +Daily Camera, positive, 2 pp. + +3-21-88 - "Witchcraft and worship welcome spring", by Catherine Warren, +Hartford (CT) Courant, positive + +3-24-88 - "Ultimate Evil, Ultimate Victory", By Laurie Jamis, Bismarck +Tribune, negative (PW) + +3-24-88 - "Vandals Start Fires, Paint School", Bismarck Tribune, negative +(PW) + +3-26-88 - "Satanic Crime Increasing? Police, Therapists Alarmed", by +Melissa Berg, Kansas City Times (BW) negative + +3-26-88 - "Therapists Unlock Horrors of Cult Abuse", by Melissa Berg, +Kansas City Times, negative (BW) + +3-26-88 - "Satanists Classified by Police", by Melissa Berg, Kansas City +Times, negative (BW) + +3-26-88 - "Fascination With Occult Spans Centuries"- by Melissa Berg, +Kansas City Times, negative (BW) + +3-26-88 - "Children may become targets of satanic torture", by Cara Neth, +Fort Collins Coloradoan, negative +4-2-88 - "Priest Sought in Connection With Mafia Narcotics Ring", by Alex +Michelini and Patrice O'Shaughnessy, New York Daily News (PW) + +4-2-88 - "Police source says most Satanists join cult to be in its orgies", +by John Maines, Jackson (MI) Clarion Ledger, neutral to positive + +3-14-88 - "Haunted by dark suspicions, an Indiana Lawman digs into a +mystery of empty graves", by Alan Richman, People Magazine, neutral, 3 pp. + +4-15-88 - "British Lawmaker Urges Outlawing of Witchcraft", AP +Albany (OR) Democrat-Herald, negative (WLPA) + +4-17-88 - "State Trooper Charged With Sex Assaults", Bismarck Tribune, +negative (PW) + +4-20-88 - "Crimes in the name of Satan", by Lee Hancock, Dallas Morning +News, neutral to negative, 3 pp. + +4-20-88 - "Occultism: the fad of the '80's?", by Lee Hancock, Dallas +Morning News, negative, 2 pp. + +4-25-88 - "Satanism", by Warren Bates, Las Vegas (NV) Review Journal, +negative, 2 pp. + +5-1-88 - "Pagans, worshippers take up alternative to today's organized +religions", by Melinda Huddleston, Arkansas Democrat, positive + +5-1-88 - "Rumor of satanic cult ritual spooks McComb , children kept home", +by John Maines, Jackson (MI) Clarion-Ledger, neutral to positive 2 pp. + +5-4-88 - "Christians join in prayer against Satanic cults", by Chip Rowe, +Boise (ID) Statesman, negative, 2 pp. + +5-5-88 - "Satanism reports concern local officials", by Daniel Rice, +Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, neutral to negative + +5-5-88 - "Local police say Satanism on the rise", by Sharon Curtis-Flair, +Nashville (TN) Banner, negative, 2 pp. + +5-6-88 - "Officer quits in dispute over grave robberies", by Beth L. +Rosenberg, Indianapolis Star, neutral to positive + +5-8-88 - "Canada's most visible Witch seeks acceptance of beliefs", by Jeff +Bradley, Lawrence Journal World, positive (WLPA) + +5-8-88 - "Some criminals drawn to Satanism", by Mark Skertic, Fort Wayne +Journal-Gazette, negative, 2 pp. + +5-8-88 - "Police learn to identify Satanism", by Darrell Dunn, Dallas Times +Herald, negative + +5-13-88 - "Witch is it to be?", News Services, positive (KC) + +5-15-88 - "Police mull charges against "cultists'"by John Impemba, Boston +Herald, neutral to negative. + +5-16-88 - "Witches' Fight Brewing in Election of King", London Observer +Service, Bismarck Tribune, positive (PW) + +5-16-88 - "Unholy Smoke!", by News Services, The Province, negative (KC) +5-22-88 - "Satanism feared in eastern Colo. child-abuse case", by Paul +Hutchinson, Denver Post, negative, (CuCo) 3 pp. + +5-22-88 - "4-year-old tells horrifying story of ritualistic abuse", by Paul +Hutchinson, Denver Post, negative, (CuCo) 2 pp. + +5-25-88 - "Mutilations raise specter of Satanism", by Erin Emery, Colorado +Springs Gazette Telegraph, negative, 2 pp. + +5-29-88 - "Experts say sheriff needs help on Akron abuse case", by Paul +Hutchinson, Denver Post, negative, 2 pp., (CuCo) + +5-29-88 - "Johns failed to file charges on separate occasion, suit says", +Paul Hutchinson, Denver Post, negative (CuCo) + +5 & 6 -88 - "Satanism and its relationship to crime", Police and Security +News, negative (WLPA) 2 pp. + +5 & 6 -88 - "Satanic Groups Updated", by Herbert Peterson, Police Marksman, +negative, (WLPA) 2 pp. + +5-8-88 - "Witches - The Lawrence-based Web of Oz network fights 'bad witch' +stereotypes", Topeka Capital-Journal Accent, positive (WLPA) 3 pp. + +6-1-88 - "Parson Urges Christians to Bedevil Satan", by Mary Miller, Salem +Evening News, negative (WLPA) + +6-2-88 - "Salem witches : We are NOT Satan Followers, Group responds to +Spiritual Warfare", by Mary Miller, Salem Evening News, positive (WLPA) + +6-7-88 - "They Sat in Nude Group", by Barbara McLintock, The Province, +neutral (KC) + +6-8-88 - "Borrowed Rituals", by Barbara McLintock, The Province, neutral +(KC) + +6-9-88 - "Ritual Kisses", by Barbara McLintock, The Province, neutral (KC) + +6-10-88 - "Marijuana Used 'as sacrament'", by Barbara McLintock, +The Province, neutral (KC) + +6-11-88 - "Cult 'was really fun'", by staff reporter, The Province, neutral +(KC) + +6-12-88 - "Catholic priest says satanism on rise in U.S., Denver at +center", by Virginia Culver, Denver Post, negative + +6-12-88 - "'Witch show' casts a spell", by Barbara McLintock, The Province, +neutral (KC) + +6-14-88 - "Witch Spurns Devil Worship", by Barbara McLintock, The Province, +neutral (KC) + +6-16-88 - "Satanic 'reminders'", by Barbara McLintock, The Province +neutral, (KC) + +6-17-88 - "Pace Church Members Consign Immoral Toys to Trash Bin.", by +Allison Smith. Pensacola, Fla. News Journal. negative (WLPA) + + +6-17-88 - "Evil May be Child's Play, author Says", by Dave Goodwin, +Pensacola News Journal. negative, (WLPA) 2 pp. + +6-21-88 - "Amazing Witch Makes Shorties Grow and Sun Shine", by Jack +Pleasant, Examiner, positive + +6-21-88 - "Ban Urged on Religious Sacrificing, Maiming of Animals", by +Scott Harris, L.A. Times, negative, 2 pp. + +6-22-88 - "Witch accuser ousted", by John Trethewey, The Province, +positive, (KC) + +6-22-88 - "Definitely Not Boy scouts", by Rev. Michael Marren, Interior +News, negative (KC) + +6-23-88 - "Holy War?", The Province, positive (KC) + +6-23-88 - "Coven god 'is Christ'", by Barbara McLintock, The Province, +neutral (KC) + +6-24-88 - "'They'd Kill Jesus'", staff reporter, The Province, neutral (KC) + +6-24-88 - "Allegations of Satanic Involvement in Murder May Be Actionable", +New York Lay Journal, neutral (JO) 2 pp. + +6-29-88 - "He Listens to the Devil", by Barbara McLintock, The Province, +neutral (KC) + +7-3-88 - "Spellbinding Trial", by Barbara McLintock, The Province, neutral +(KC) + +7-3-88 - "Symbols Tied to Satan", by Barbara McLintock, The Province, +neutral (KC) + +7-5-88 - "She Thought She Was Going to Die", by Barbara McLintock, The +Province, neutral (KC) + +7-5-88 - "Searching for secrets in the stars", by Alan Bunce, Christian +Science Monitor, negative (CRF) 2 pp. + +7-6-88 - "Little Cult on the Prairie?" Twin Cities Reader, negative, WLPA + +7-11-88 - "Age-Old Fear of New Age Concerns", by Derk Kinnane Roelofsma, +Insight magazine, negative (WLPA) + +7-11-88 - "Liberians Take Introspective look at endurance of Witchcraft", +by Blaine Harden, Washington Post, negative (CRF) 3 pp. + +7-13-88 - "Witch Query Denied", by Don Hauka, The Province, neutral + +7-13-89 - "Astrologer quits county post", Washington Times, negative (CRF) + +7-14-88 - "Two Stillwater Teens Facing Death Charge", by Ellen Knickmeyer, +Daily Oklahoman, neutral + +7-15-88 - "Sun a Satanist, defence argues", by Don Hauka, The Province, +neutral (KC) + +7-17-88 - "Libel trial seeks naked truth", by Don Hauka, The Province, +neutral (KC) +7-17-88 - "Bismarck's shocking best seller", by Maureen Willenbring, +Bismarck Tribune, negative (PW) 3 pp. + +7-20-88 - "Witch Wins Jury says televangelist libelled Lion Serpent Sun. +Sun Was Libelled", by Don Hauka, The Province neutral (KC) + +7-21-88 - "Appeal Mulled", by Don Hauka, The Province, neutral (KC) + +7-21-88 - "Thor's Back!" The Province, positive (KC) + +7-21-88 - "Violence on Plane", The Province, negative (KC) + +7-21-88 - "Alabama Mayor proclaims "National Voodoo Week", (AP) Arizona +Daily Star, strange (PW) + +7-21-88 - "Parent Upset by 'New Age' books in child's school", Letter to +the Editor, by Geri Masters, Prince George's Journal + +7-22-88 - "L.A. Investigates Afro-Cuban cult in Animal Killings", (AP) +Arizona Daily Star, neutral (PW) + +7-22-88 - "L A animal tortures- killings blamed on sect", San Francisco +Chronicle, negative (WBBBS) + +7-24-88 - "Tucson's ram's horns found in home of Calif. 'Survivalist' by +Douglas Kreutz, Arizona Daily Star, neutral (PW) + +7-26-88 - "Devil Worshiping kids; shocking confession, We killed chickens, +dogs, cats - and a teenage girl - to please Satan!" +by Jack Alexander, Weekly World News, negative + +7-26-88 - "Ex-cult leader gives bloodcurdling account of evil rite,I saw a +virgin sacrificed - in the name of Satan", by Dick Donovan, Weekly World +News, negative. + +7-28-88 - "God's government or zodiac signs?" Christian Science Monitor, +negative (CRF) + +8-88 - "DPS Keeping Tabs on Metaphysical Groups", Omega New Age Directory, +negative + +8-3-88 - "Dog's Death Creates Outrage", by Marc Conrad, Bismarck tribune, +negative (PW) + +8-6-88 - "Dukakis Action Could Come Back to Haunt Him", by Glen Johnson and +Andrew Brengle, Salem (MA) Evening News, negative + +8-7-88 - "Devil Worship Hits the Coastal Bend", by Shelley Emling,Corpus +Christi Caller Times, negative (IOC) + +8-7-88 - "Satanism 'sucked in' local boy", by Shelley Emling, Corpus +Christi Caller Times, negative (IOC) + +8-8-88 - "Teen Satanism alarms area mental-health officials", by Shelley +Emling, Corpus Christi Caller Times, negative (IOC) + +8-8-88 - "Believers in occult found in rural areas", by Diana Griego, +Denver Post, negative, 2 pp. + + +8-8-88 - "Actual Child Abuse Often Overlooked Amid Public Uproar Over +Satanism", by Katherine Corcoran, Denver Post, neutral 2 pp (VOICES) + +8-9-88 - "Area Citizens report satanism evidence, officials say", by Shelly +Emling, Corpus Christi Caller Times, negative (IOC) + +8-9-88 - "Dealing with Satanism, Personal problems underlie cultism, health +workers say", by Cindy Tumiel with Shelley Emling, Corpus Christi Caller +Times, negative (IOC) + +8-11-88 - "Crisis Services Flooded by Calls on Satanic Cults", by +Dave Ferman, Corpus Christi Caller Times, negative (IOC) + +8-12-88 - "Vandals Batter Carson church, Flasher rectory", by Maureen +Willenbring, Bismarck Tribune, negative (PW) + +8-12-88 - "In Search of the Finders", by Jon Cohen, City Paper, neutral +(WLPA) 15 pp. + +8-14-88 - "Demonic Possession", by Shelley Emling, Corpus Christi Caller +Times, negative (IOC) + +8-14-88 - "History Matches Evil Spirits with Good Ones", by Rosemary +Barnes, Corpus Christi Caller Times, negative (IOC) + +8-21-88 - "Pupils Return to Class After Satanic Rumor", (AP) Washington +Times, negative (BF) + +8-28-88 - "Questions and Answers", Parade, Sunday News Magazine, neutral +(PW) + +8-29-88 - "Born-Again Pagans by Rosemary Sawyer, Start and Stripes, +positive (WLPA) + +9-88 - "Dukakis Names Official Salem Witch", by David Balsinger, negative +(WIN) + +9-2-88 - "Ritual Killings Have Satanic Overtones", by Katherine Kam, +Christianity Today, negative 3 pp. + +9-5-88 - "Experts Explain Lure of Cult Telltale Signs of Practitioners", by +John Christoffersen, Elizabeth (NJ) Daily Journal, negative (CRF) + +9-5-88 - "Satan worship concerns police throughout country", by John +Christofferson, Elizabeth (NJ) Daily Journal, neutral, 2 pp. + +9-6-88 - "Counselors say Satanism draws teens with problems", by John +Christofferson, Elizabeth (NJ) Daily Journal, neutral (CRF) + +9-8-88 - "Attend cult death investigation seminar", photo only, Booneville +(MS) Banner Independent , neutral (FF) + +9-21-88 - "Rescue from cult tolf at mental halth talk", by Wally Gail +Gilmore, Lawton (OK) Constitution, neutral, (FF) + +9-25-88 - "Satanic", by Andy Mead, Lexington (KY) Herald Leader, neutral to +positive, 2 pp. + +9-17-88 - "Park graffiti's link to satanic cults probed", by Denise Buffa, +Freenwich (CT) Times, neutral to negative (FF) +9-29-89 - "Group formed to combat Satan worship", by Kathy Jumper, Mobile +(AL) Press, negative (FF) + +9-29-89 - "Group organizes to battle devil worship", by Kathy Jumper, +Mobile (AL) Register, negative 2 pp. (FF) + +9-30-88 - "Cult rumors lead to exodus from school", by Curtis Austin, +Charleston (WV) Gazette, neutral 2 pp. + +9/10-1988- "Satanism spreading", Venturing Inward, negative. + +9&10-1988 - "The Weird and the Unknown", by Joseph Melnichak, Police +Marksman, negative WLPA 3 pp. + +10-88 - "A Growing Darkness: Satanism in America", by Carl Raschke, +Eternity, negative 3 pp. (CARIS) + +10-1-88 - "Comedian Evangelist Schedules Concert Here", Bismarck Tribune +neutral (PW) + +10-2-88 - "Missing Kids all too often a myth", by Scott McKeen, Edmonton +Journal, positive (KC) 2 pp. + +10-2-88 - "Therapists stunned as patients tell of satanic rituals", by +Alfred Lubrano, Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer, negative, 3 pp. + +10-3-88 - "Children's tales of satanic cults hard to ignore", by Alfred +Lubrano, Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer, negative 2 pp. + +10-4-88 - "Devil Rumors Force Photographer From Town (AP) positive (PW) + +10-7-88 - "Satanic rumors unfounded but still causing anguish", by Frank +Hutchins, Charleston (WV) Daily Mail, neutral 2 pp. + +10-7-88 - "Officials take Satanism reports very seriously", by Kathy +Jumper, Mobile (AL) Press Register, negative 3 pp. (FF) + +10-7-88 - "Christian Connection swamped with queries as satanism rumors +fly", by Kathy Jumper, Mobile Register, neutral (FF) + +10-8-88 - "Witches of Theodore Share Beliefs", by Kathy Jumper, Mobile (AL) +Press Register, negative (CM) + +10-10-88 - "Police More Aware of Cults", (AP) Bismarck Tribune, negative +(PW) + +10-18-88 - "Community Residents Worried About Series of Cat Mutilations", +by Patrick Casey, Daily Oklahoman, negative, +2 pp. + +10-18-88 - "Religious Cults Still Form, Researcher-Author Says", by John +Dart, Santa Rosa, Ca. Press Democrat, neutral (CRF) + +10-18-88 - "Expert says satanic rites on increase", by Dorothy Lewis, St. +Paul (MN) Pioneer Press-Dispatch, negative 2 pp. + +10-19-88 - "Satanists Trail, Dead Pets to a Human Sacrifice", by Tamara +Jones, negative 4 pp. + + +10-20-88 - "Halloween Welcomed Back to Two Area School districts", by +Rebecca Cantwell, Rocky Mountain News, positive (BF) + +10-20-88 - "'Fun' Killers Now Paying Devil's Dues", by Tamara Jones, L.A. +Times, negative, 5 pp. + +10-20-88 - "Occult Seminar set for Nov. 4", Brownsville (TX) Herald, +neutral (FF) + +10-21-88 - "Alleged Satanic practices probed in Chinook", by Gordon +Gregory, Great Falls (MT) Tribune, neutral 2 pp. + +10-23-88 - "Satanism garnering large following thanks to pop culture, +lecturer says", by C. Eugene Emery Jr. neutral 2 pp. + +10-23-88 - "Board hears warning", by Karen Haave, Frankfort (IL) Star, +neutral, 2 pp. (FF) + +10-24-88 - "Witchcraft doesn't always spell evil", by Tim Hrenchir, Topeka +(KS) Capital-Journal, positive 3 pp. + +10-26-88 - "Satan's Children A cult rises in central Illinois", by Marnie +Mead, Peoria (IL) Journal Star, negative + +10-26-88 - "Police officials given pointers on recognizing satanic crimes", +by Lawrence Muhammad, Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal, neutral + +10-26-88 - "Devil Worship spreads in U.S.", by Marnie Mead, Peoria (IL) +Journal Star, negative + +10-27-88 - "Suspect in wife's Death Saw Show on Satanism", (AP) Daily +Oklahoman, negative + +10-27-88 - "The rituals of Satanism: too bizarre to be fiction", by Marnie +Mead, Peoria (IL) Journal Star, negative 2 pp. + +10-27-88 - "I felt I had a dark secret", by Maija Penlkis, Appleton (WI) +Post-Crescent, negative + +10-28-88 - "Satanism is new way to 'get a buzz'", by Marnie Mead, Journal +Star (Peoria, IL) negative 2 pp. + +10-28-88 - "Gospel businessmen to host conference on Satanic Cults", Laredo +(TX) Morning Times, neutral to negative (FF) + +10-30-88 - "Satanism Growing Police Worry", by Roger Talbot, Manchester +(NH) Sunday News, neutral to negative, 2 pp. + +10-30-88 - "Witch-trial defendants' kin face resistance over statue", New +York Times Service , San Antonio Sunday Express-News, positive (BW) + +10-30-88 - "Apartment Managers Act To Halt Cat Maimers", +by Isabel Valle, San Antonio Sunday Express-News, negative (BW) + +10-30-88 - "S. Texas Witches Decry Persecution", (lead story) by Thomas +Edwards, San Antonio Express-News, positive, 3 pp. + +10-30-88 - "The Business of Witchcraft", by Manchester (NH) Sunday News, +positive 3 pp. + +10-31-88 - "Real witches Today Don't Stew Newts, Not in Wisconsin", by +Scott McMurray, Wall Street Journal, positive, 3 pp. + +10-31-88 - "Teen Interest in Cult Grows Over Years", by Karen Haymon Long, +Tribune Religion Editor, Tampa Tribune, negative (CRF) 4 pp. + +10-31-88 - "It's Only Witchcraft", by Debbie Mckinney, Anchorage Daily +News, positive (WLPA) 3 pp. + +10-31-88 - "Believers Explain What Draws them to Witchcraft", by Thomas +Edwards (front page), San Antonio Express-News, positive, 2 pp. + +10-31-88 - "Sadistic Worm is Slashing Cats", by Roddy Stinson, San Antonio +Express-News, negative (BW) + +10-31-88 - "Witches Offer Aid on Occult Crimes", by Thomas Edwards San +Antonio Express-News, positive (CP) + +10-31-88 - "Boy Cuts Wrists, Stomach", By Janell Cole, Bismarck Tribune, +negative (PW) + +10-31-88 - "Rumors of satanic activity sweep state's north", by Maryanne +Mrowca, Madison (WI) Capital Times. negative, 2 pp. + +10-31-88 - "It's Only Witchcraft", by Debbie McKinney, Anchorage (AK) Daily +News, positive, 3 pp. + +10-31-88 - "Teen interest in cult grows over years", by Karen Haymon Long, +Tampa (FL) Tribune, neutral, (FF) + +11-1-88 - "Police tie sacrifice killings to Satanism, but disagree on exact +count involved", by Dick Cockle, Portland (OR) Oregonian, neutral to +negative. + +11-1-88 - "Aurora Parents Warned of Satanism", by Angel Hernandez, Rocky +Mountain News, negative (BF) + +11-2-88 - "Violence, crime common in occult world", (AP) Cullman (AL) +Times, negative (FF) + +11-3-88 - "Halloween Sets off Search for Satan", by Vicki Voskuil, Bismarck +Tribune, positive (PW) 2 pp. + +11-3-88 - "Geraldo television show led to mom's slaying, teen says", by +J.D. Callaway, negative + +11-4-88 - "Beg Your Pardon, No Witchcraft", Bismarck Tribune, positive (PW) + +11-5-88 - "Cross Carved in bound Girl's Head, Man and Four Girls Facing +Charges", Times Colonist, negative (KC) + +11-6-88 - "Man, 4 Girls Charged After Teen Assault", Vancouver Times +Colonist, negative (KC) + +11-6-88 - "Devilish Torture", by Barbara McLintock, Province,negative (KC) + +11-9-89 - "More clues of teen cult found: behavior patterns identified", by +Holly Nelson, Oscoda (MI) Press, neutral, (FF) + +11-10-88 - "Victoria Satanism", Province , neutral (KC) +11-13-88 - "Satanic activities in Maine perplex local, state police", by +Linda McRea, Lewiston Auburn Sun-Journal, negative, 2 pp. + +11-14-88 - "Halloween is the satanists' holiday", Letter to the Editor by +Rosemarie Sibley, Bismarck Tribune, negative (PW) + +11-14-88 - "Locals Think Satanic Items Just a Prank", by Ishmael Ahmad, +Montgomery (AL) Journal and Advertiser, neutral to negative, 2 pp. + +11-16-88 - "Satanism in Juneau: the facts and the fiction", by Annabel +Lund, Juneau Empire, negative, 3 pp. + +11-22-88 - "The Devil Made Me Do It", by Claire Safran, Woman's Day, +positive 5 pp. + +11-27-88 - "Devil Worship apparently Rising in State", by Lamar James, +Little Rock (AR) Gazette, negative, 2 pp. + +11-27-88 - "Daniels sees evidence of satanic movement", by Maija Penikis, +Appleton (WI Post Crescent, neutral to negative 2 pp. (FF) + +11-27-88 - "Iowa pagans revive ancient rituals", by Veronica Fowler, Des +Moines (IA) Register, positive 2 pp. + +11-28-88 - "Search intensifies for 'Satanic' dens", by Beverly Ford, Boston +Herald, neutral to negative + +11-30-88 - "The Lure of Satan/ Youth, Drugs and the Occult", by Carol +Eisenberg, Rochester (NY) Times-Union, negative 8 pp. (FF) + +12-88 - "Law Enforcement's Response to Satanism", by Paul Banner, +unidentified magazine, neutral to negative, (FF) 7 pp. + +12-1-88 - "Cult Seminar Draws Response", by Susan Castro, Southwest +Advocate (Houston, TX), neutral (CRF) + +12-1-88 - "Cult seminar draws response", by Susan Castro, Houston Southwest +Advocate, negative, (FF) + +12-4-88 - "The Satanism Scare", by Phil Jurik, Kansas City (MO) Star, +negative, + +12-6-88 - "Expert wary of growth in stanic activity", by Ted Gregory, +Barrington (IL) Daily Herald, neutral to negative, (FF) + +12-8-88 - "D&D 'potentially deadly','witchcraft'" by Mary Ann Herold, +Letters to the Editor, Thermopolic (WY) Independent Record, (FF) + +12-9-88 - "Official says satanic worship not as open as some believe", by +Kathy Jumper, Mobile Register, negative, (FF) + +12-10-88- -"Mahaska County finds signs of devil", by Gretchen Eveland, +Ottumwa (IA) Courier, (front page) negative, 2 pp. (FF) + +12-11-88 - "Troubled teens going to the devil", by Rick Murray, Atlantic +City (NJ) Press, negative 3 pp. + +12-11-88 - "Satanism cults worry N.C. Police", by Libby Lewis and Susan +Sawyers, Greensboro (NC) News and Record, neutral to negative, 2 pp. + +12-12-88 - "Satan's musical scions.... or just kids having fun? by Rick +Murray, Atlantic City (NJ) Press, neutral to negative, 2 pp. + +12-13-88 - "Smite your brother, is credo of satanists", by Rick Murray, +Atlantic City (NJ) Press, negative. + +12-13-89 - "Devil Worship Evident in Kansas", by Judy Lundstrom, Wichita +(KS) Eagle-Beacon, negative 2 pp. (FF) + +12-14-88 - "Satanic Assault By Girls", The Province, negative (KC) + +12-15-88 - "Teens Called Prime Occult Targets", by Evie Tracy, +Crawfordsville (IN) Daily & Sunday, negative (CRF) + +12-15-88 - "Moonie Kidnapping Verdict Weakens all Religions", +Letter to the Editor by Geoffrey Walker, Denver Post, positive (BF) + +12-15-88 - "Satanism and its youngest victims", by David Barry, L.A. Herald +Examiner, negative, 2 pp. + +12-16-88 - "Networking to Beat the Devil", by David Gates with Tim Padgett +and Pamels Abramson, Newsweek, neutral. + +12-17-88 - "Couple travel country warning", by Peggy Miller, Frankfort (IN) +Times, negative, (FF) + +12-17-89 - "Searching lesds some to flirt with Satan", by Skip Connett, +neutral, Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer, negative (FF) + +12-18-88 - "Signs of Satanism worry Officials", by A.J. Algier, Westerly +Rhode Island Sun, negative, 2 pp. + +12-19-88 - "Dangers of Satanism concealed in gulf between fact, fantasy", +by Robin Brown, Wilmington (DE) Evening Journal, neutral to negative, 2 pp. + +12-19-89 - "Some Warning Signs for parents", by Robin Brown, Wilmington +(DE) Morning News, neutral (FF) + +12-29-88 - "Opinions differ on seriousness of Satanism", by Cheryl +Terhorst, Benton,(IL) Evening News, negative, (FF) + + +List continued on Clip89.lst \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/clip-89.txt b/religious documents/clip-89.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..777dd32 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/clip-89.txt @@ -0,0 +1,885 @@ +Continuation of Rowan Moonstone's Clipping List + + + 1989 + +1-89 - "Satanism: Where are the Folklorists?", by Phillips Stevens, Jr. New +York Folklore (Vol.XV,nos.1-2), positive (GO) 12 pp. + +1-89 - "A Rumor-Panic About a Dangerous Satanic Cult in Western New York", +by Jeffrey S. Victor, New York Folklore (Vol XV, nos. 1-2), positive (GO) +14 pp. + +1-89 - "Chemistry of Voodoo", by Mark Kemp, Discover Magazine, positive +(VV) 3 pp. + +1-89 - "Cult Expert to Speak at Pax Christi", Courier (Winona, MN), neutral +(CRF) + +1-2-89 - "Dabbling in the Occult:Teen Vandals on the Rise", by Joe Jackson, +Virginia Pilot (Norfolk, VA), negative, 4 pp. + +1-3-89 - "Letter to the Editor, "Satanic Groups Abuse Pentagram", by Archie +Whitehall, Virginia Pilot (Norfolk, VA), positive + +1-3-89 - "Satanism Limited, Pima Detective says,", by Dan Huff, (Tucson) +Arizona Daily Star neutral to positive, 3 pp. (PW) + +1-4-89 - "Satanism A Growing concern", Jackson Herald (Jefferson, GA), +front page, negative (CRF) 2 pp. + +1-7-89 - "Psychologist to present occult seminar Sunday", by Robin Schill, +Texarkana Gazette, negative (CRF) + +1-8-89 - "No Killing", (photo only), positive (BF) + +1-8-89 - "Police Investigating Satanic Activities", by James Flinchum, +(Cheyenne) Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, negative + +1-10-89 - "Organization Against Cults",by Meg Murray, Omaha World-Herald, +neutral (FF) + +1-15-89 - "Salvation army Violated Religious Rights By Firing Witch Judge +Rules", Rocky Mountain News, positive + +1-15-89 - "Reports of Satanism put police here on guard", by anne Bothwell, +Milwaukee Journal, negative 2 pp. + +1-15-89 - "Symposium on Satanism", (front page), Missouri City (TN) Mirror, +negative (CRF) + +1-16-89 - "Allegations of Satanism Shock Town", by Carol Morello, +Philadelphia Inquirer, negative 2 pp. + +1-16-89 - "Reports of Satanism, murder plot shake Texas towns", by Bruce +Nichols, Austin American-Statesman, negative (BW) + +1-16-89 - "Satanic seminar set Saturday", Borger (TX) News-Herald, neutral +to negative (FF) + + +1-18-89 - "School has talk on occult, Satanism", Whitehall (OH) News, +negative (CRF) + +1-19-89 - "Sheriffs Assoc. Seminar", Mid-York Weekly (Syracuse Market +Area), negative (CRF) + +1-19-89 - "Satanism: Myth or Reality?", Hubbard City (TX) News, negative +(CRF) + +1-19-89 - "Claims Prove False, Authorities say satanic allegations untrue, +costly", by Debby Woodin, Joplin (MO) Globe News, positive (CRF) + +1-20-89 - "Occult Lecture", Crescent News (Defiance, OH), negative (CRF) + +1-20-89 - "Religious Leaders Seminar on Cult Phenomenon", Jewish Floridian +(Miami), negative (CRF) + +1-24-89 - "Austin Satanism Limited to Minor Criminal Actions", by John +Harris, Austin American Statesman, positive (CRF) + +1-25-89 - "Watch your children, Speakers Warn", by Dan Hester, (front +page), Humble Echo (Channelview, TX), negative (CRF) + +1-25-89 - "Couple Goes After Devil Worshippers", by Caroline McDonald, +(Conway, S.C.) Field & Herald, neutral (FF) + +1-25-89 - "An Evil Message on the Wall", by Tone E. Windsor, Seaford (DE) +Leader, negative (FF) + +1-28-89 - "Hats off to principal for doing what's right", letters to the +editor by Lisa Land Libman, Champaign (IL) News Gazette, positive (CRF) + +1-31-89 - "Satanism has a long history", by Bear Mills, Pampa (TX) News, +negative, 4 pp. (FF) 3rd part of a six-part series. Other parts missing + +2-89 - "The Great Oregon Witch Hunt", by Stephanie Fox, Fate Magazine, +negative, 5 pp. + +2-1-89- "Teen Satanism Reportedly Rife", by Carole A. McKelvey +Rocky Mountain News, negative (BF) + +2-3-89 - "Satanism: What Parents Should Know", by Scott Ellis, Pigeon Forge +(TN) Weekly Star, negative (CRF) + +2-5-89 - "Dangers of Occult Confront Teenagers", by Connie Mulqueen, +(Lawrenceville,GA) Gwinnett Daily News, negative 3 pp. + +2-5-89 - "Practice of Satanism growing in region", by Kevin Riordan, Camden +(NJ) Courier-Post, neutral to negative 2 pp. (FF) + +2-6-89 - "Satanism & cults courses for police", Albany (NY) Eagle, negative +(CRF) + +2-6-89 - "Rise in Satanism Among Teens Alarms Authorities", by Jeff South, +Dallas Times Herald, neutral 2 pp. + +2-6-89 - "Cult Victims' calls for help increase", by Virginia Hahn, Daily +Pasadena (TX) Citizen (front page) neutral (CRF) + + +2-6-89 - "Clearinghouse Issues Warning Signs", by Ellen Futterman, St. +Louis Post Dispatch, neutral, (FF) + +2-8-89 - "Crowd Hears About Satanic Cults", Anahuac (TX) Progress, +negative (CRF) + +2-9-89 - "Self-styled Satanists thought to be active in Cloud County", by +Laura Hamod, Concordia (KS) Blade-Empire, negative 2 pp. (FF) * 2nd in a +series of undetermined length, other parts missing. + +2-12-89 - "In Harm's Way", by Bill Ruehlmann, the Norfolk VA-Pilot, +negative 3 pp. + +2-12-89 - "Grave sites Desecrated by Vandals", by Barbara McLintock", +negative (KC) + +2-12-89 - "How to combat Satan", Waterloo Courier/Cedar Rapids (IA) Record, +negative (CRF) + +2-13-89 - "In Hrm's Way", by Bill Ruehlmann, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, +Ledger-Star, neutral to negative, 3 pp. (FF) + +2-16-89 - "Mississippi Brothers Accused in Plot To Kill Judge With Voodoo +Curse", (AP) Daily Oklahoman, negative + +2-17-89 - "Store to Halt Anti-Catholic Book Sales", by John Perry, Daily +Oklahoman, positive + +2-18-89 - "Experts say Valley fertile area for cults", by Lawn Griffiths, +Tempe (AZ) Daily News Tribune, negative (FF) + +2-19-89 - "We Thought Cults Were Gone", Seattle Times, negative (CRF) + +2-19-89 - "A Conspiracy of Evil?", by Carey Quan Gelernter, Seattle Times, +positive 4 pp. + +2-19-89 - "Tracing Satan Through the Ages", by Carey Quan Gelernter, +Seattle Times, neutral (historical) + +2-20-89 - "Searching for Evidence", by Carey Quan Gelernter, Seattle Times, +positive 2 pp. + +2-21-89 - "Skeptics Cite Various Reasons for Cult Stories", by Carey Quan +Gelernter, Seattle Times, positive 3 pp. + +2-21-89 - "Modern-day witch walks a fine line", by Cynthia R. Benjamins, +Prince George's Journal, Lanham, MD, positive (BF) + +2-21-89 - "Witchcraft Labeled 'largely innocuous'", by Cynthia Benjamins, +Prince George's Journal, positive (BF) + +2-21-89 - "Satanism and Juveniles: Serious Threat of a Fad?", by Carey Quan +Gelernter, Seattle Times, positive 2 pp. + +2-21-89 - "Tales From the Dark Side", by Martha Szalo, (Peoria) Journal +Star, negative + +2-22-89 - "Assistant DA Wants to talk to cult expert", Humble Echo, +(Channelview TX) (front page), positive (CRF) + +2-22-89 - "Cult Expert Shares Insights on Topic", by Gaylon Vickers, Upper +Arlington News (Columbus, OH), neutral (CRF) + +2-22-89 - "Expert:Cult involvement like drug abuse", by Gaylon Vickers, +Upper Arlington News (Columbus, OH), neutral (CRF) + +2-22-89 - "Wagoner authorities investigating origin of devil worship +literature", by Liz McMahan, Muskogee (OK) Phoenix & Times Democrat, +neutral to negative, (FF) + +2-23-89 - "Groups main goal to aid youths, fight Satanism", by Randy Hall, +neutral to negative, (FF) + +2-25-89 - "Denver Witch Community shuns association with Satanism", by +Carole A. McKelvey, Rocky Mountain News, positive (BF) + +2-25-89 - "Boca Resident Specializes in Fighting Satan Worship", by Margie +Kacoha, Boca Raton News, negative (CRF) + +2-25-89 - "DA Seeking 'sacrifice' information", by Virginia Hahn, Daily +Pasadena (TX) Citizen, positive (CRF) + +2-26-89 - "Satanic Cults Growing in Preserves", by John Husar, Chicago +Tribune, negative (VOICES ) + +2-28-89 - "Police officers featured speakers at Pierre seminar +investigating Satanism and cults", Capital Journal (Pierre, SD), neutral +(CRF) + +3-89 - "Evil in the Land", by Jeff Lilley, Moody Monthly, negative, 3 pp. +(CARIS) + +3-2-89 - "Cults: Subject of March 9 conference, Warwick (RI) Beacon, +neutral CRF + +3-2-89 - "Satanism cultism conference slated at Butler", Woonsocket (RI) +Call, neutral, (FF) + +3-3-89 - "CAJE sponsors program on issues of New Age Movement, +Intermountain Jewish News, Denver CO, neutral CRF + +3-3-89 - "Questions Raised About Bob Larson Campaign", by Lynn Cryderman, +Christianity Today, positive, 2 pp. + +3-5-89 - "Expert warns of satanic crimes", by Bette Pearce, Ironton (OH) +Tribune, neutral (FF) + +3-6-89 - "Tale of child's ritual slaying vexes lawmen", by Bill Disessa, +Houston Chronicle, positive (CRF) + +3-8-89 - "Expert offers theory on why body burned", by John Green, Lawton +(OK) Constitution, negative (CRF) + +3-9-89 - "Kemp recruited into occult life witness testifies", by John +Green, Lawton (OK) Constitution, negative (CRF) + +3-9-89 - "Reader Upset with Coverage of Satan", letter to the editor by H. +Brauch, Westmont Dupage Progress (Downers Grove, IL), negative (CRF) + + +3-9-89 - "Harsher Penalties sought for ritualized child abuse", by Mark +Lewis, San Antonio Light, neutral (BW) + +3-12-89 - "Satanism in Gloucester County?" by Jim Six, Woodbury (NJ) +Goulcester County Times, neutral 3 pp. (FF) + +3-13-89 - "Salvation of society lies in Christianity, not Witchcraft", +Letter to the editor by Geri Masters, Prince George's Journal, negative +(BF) + +3-13-89 - "'Hidden' Lyrics May Be In Ear of the Beholder", by C. Eugene +Emery,Jr. Providence Journal, positive + +3-15-89 - "Occult scare is a boy circulating pamphlets", by Cindy Pfaff, +Bucyrus (OH) Telegraph-Forum, neutral to negative (FF) + +3-16-89 - "Official Denies Cult Linked to Boy's Death", by Lee Coleman, +Schenectady Gazette, positive (CRF) + +3-17-89 - "Occultist religions should be outlawed", letter to the editor by +Lawrence K. Marsh, Prince George's Journal, negative (BF) + +3-17-89 - "Satanic Crimes increasing, says expert", by Kevin Freking, +Texarkana Gazette, negative (CRF) + +3-18-89 - "Dabbling in occult", by Jeanie Gelsomino, Princeton (IL) County +Republican neutral to negative (FF) * part 2 of a series; rest of series +missing. + +3-21-89 - "Goddess predates God by thousands of years", letter to the +editor by Kathleen Stine, Prince George's Journal, positive (BF) + +3-23-89 - "Area Police attend Sheriff's Association Seminar on Satanism", +Horseheads (NY) Chemung Valley Reporter, neutral, (FF) + +3-23-89 - "Satanic recruiters operate in our schools, expert says", by R. +L. Kemp, Ennis (TX) Press, neutral to negative, (FF) + +3-27-89 - "Parents Can Block Lure of Satanism, Police Here Told", by John +Shearer, Chattanooga News-Free Press, negative (FF) + +4-89 - "The Dark Side of the Anasazi", Discover Magazine, neutral (VV) + +4-89 - "Die Mother Father Brother", by Esther Davidowitz, Redbook, neutral +to positive 7 + +4-89 - "Seminar on Cults", Baltimore Chronicle, neutral (CRF) + +4-1-89 - "Cult Awareness", photo and caption, Indiana Gazette, neutral + +4-4-89 - "Cult Awareness Conference", by Marion LaMartina, Racine (WI) +Daily, neutral (CRF) + +4-6-89 - "Experts say tales are bunk", by Rex Springston, Richmond News +Leader, positive (KC) 2 pp. + +4-6-89 - "Cults Seminar", Baltimore Weekly, neutral (CRF) + +4-6-89 - "Winfrey guest accuses Jews of ritual child sacrifices", San Jose +Mercury News, neutral (VV) + +4-7-89 - "Psychologist to talk about cult experiences", Northern California +Jewish Bulletin, neutral (CRF) + +4-7-89 - "Survivors are convinced they witnessed ritual torture and +sacrifice", by Rex Springston, Richmond News Leader, positive (KC) + +4-7-89 - "Local believers short on evidence", by Rex Springston, Richmond +News Leader, positive (KC) 2 pp. + +4-8-89 - "Seminar on cults begins Sunday night", Argus-Courier, Petaluma, +CA, neutral (CRF) + +4-8-89 - "worship of Satan leaving its 'marks' on Berrien County", by Jill +Rauh, St. Joseph (MI) Herald Palladium, negative to neutral, 3 pp. (FF) + +4-9-89 - "Shrink says most crazy people are.. Possessed by the devil", by +Susan Jimison, Weekly World News, negative + +4-11-89 - "Mass Grave Found in Mexico", (AP) negative (WBBBS) + +4-11-89 - "American Found in Mass Grave", (AP) negative (WBBBS) + +4-11-89 - "Drug Cult Sacrificed 12", (AP) negative (WBBBS) + +4-11-89 - "Satanic princess on run after blowing lid off devil-cult +killing", by Joe Cassidy, negative (FF) + +4-12-89 - "12 Dead, Satanic Rite Blamed", (AP) (WBBBS) + +4-12-89 - "Satanism Blamed in 12 Deaths at Border", by Shelley Emling, +Corpus Christi Caller Times, negative (IOC) 3 pp. + +4-12-89 - "UT Student, 11 others found slain", by David Hanners, Dallas +Morning News, neutral, 2 pp. + +4-12-89 - "Mass Grave Discovered at Border", (AP) Daily Oklahoman, neutral + +4-12-89 - "'Occult' probe stymied by lack of a 'witness'", by David Krapf, +Tomball (TX) Sun, positive (FF) + +4-13-89 - "Adult Meeting Set on Satanic Cults", Dundee N.Y. Observer, +neutral (CRF) + +4-13-89 - "Suspected Cult Leader Sought in U.S., Mexico", Dallas morning +News, negative + +4-13-89 - "Clements Questions Mattox appearance", by Wayne Slater, Dallas +Morning News. + +4-13-89 - "Kilroys Blame Drugs for Son's Death", by Bruce Nichols, Dallas +Morning News, neutral + +4-13-89 - "Tourists Abandon Matamoros", by Bruce Nichols and Anna Macias", +Dallas Morning News, neutral + +4-13-89 - "Matamoros Massacre", Editorial, Dallas Morning News, (emphasis +on drug abuse NOT occult activity), positive + + +4-13-89 - "Mexico Police Seek More Bodies, Ringleader in Satanic Murders +(front page), Daily Oklahoman, negative, 2 pp. + +4-13-89 - "Cult Leader Sought In U.S., Mexico", by Lee Hancock, (lead +story), Dallas Morning News, negative + +4-13-89 - "Cult Godfather Hunted", by Julie Morris, USA Today, negative + +4-13-89 - "Cult Members Confess to Slayings", by Shelley Emling, Corpus +Christi Caller Times, negative (IOC) + +4-13-89 - "Raising a New Age Child", by Ellen Creager, San Jose Mercury +News, neutral (VV) 2 pp. + +4-13-89 - "Sumter Devil-Worship Target of Workshop" Lake Panasoffkee (FL) +Sumter Journal, neutral (FF) + +4-14-89 - "Mexican Police Order Cult Suspect to Dig Up Grave", (AP) Daily +Oklahoman, negative + +4-14-89 - "The Smoking Gun? Law officials finding link between the occult, +drug violence", by Shelley Emling, Corpus Christi Caller Times, negative +(IOC) 3 pp. + +4-14-89 - "We Don't Understand Those Things, if she did them", Father +Says", by Armando Villafranca, Corpus Christi Caller Times, negative (IOC) +2 pp. + +4-14-89 - "Remains of 13th Victim Discovered", by Eloy O. Aguilar, Corpus +Christi Caller Times, negative (IOC) 3 pp. + +4-14-89 - "Mexicans Descend on Matamoros in Search of Missing Relatives", +by Joel Williams, Dallas Morning News, negative + +4-14-89 - "1100 Gather at Anti-Satan Meetings", by Patricia Salisbury, New +Federalist, negative (GO) + +4-14-89 - "Cult Killings", by Peter Eisner, New York Newsday, negative (KC) +3 pp. + +4-14-89 - "Devil cultist forced to dig up 13th body", by Tina Barneburg, +San Antonio Express-News, negative (BW) 2 pp. + +4-14-89 - "Two-day seminar on Satanism begins today", San Antonio Express- +News, neutral (BW) + +4-14-89 - "Satanists defy cult concepts, experts say", by Cecile Holmes +White, Houston Chronicle, neutral to negative, (FF) + +4-15-89 - "Desperate Families Look for Relatives", (AP) Daily Oklahoman, +negative + +4-16-89 -"Cult of Death", by Jacque Crouse, Insight, neutral (BW) 2 pp. + +4-16-89 - "Satanic cult puts black mark on local witches", by Thomas +Edwards, positive, (BW) + +4-16-89 - "At first, Kilroy's disappearance looked like spring break +scrape", by Tina Barneburg, San Antonio Sunday Express-News, negative (BW) + +4-16-89 - "New site eyed in occult probe", (AP) San Antonio Sunday Express- +News, negative (BW) + +4-16-89 - "Number 13 is lucky, especially for females", Rocky Mountain News +Sunday Magazine, neutral (VV) + +4-16-89 - "Sacrifices put fear of the devil in Americans", by Mark +Hosenball Washington, London (ENGLAND) Sunday Times negative (FF) + +4-18-89 - "Man Arrested in Ritual Deaths", (AP) negative (WBBBS) + +4-18-89 - "Cult 'Witch' Ordered Killed?", (AP) negative (WBBBS) + +4-18-89 - "Cult Victims Drug Pushers?", (AP) negative (WBBBS) + +4-18-89 - "11 Indicted in Cult Slayings", (AP) negative (WBBBS) + +4-18-89 - "Cults dangers, lure explained to county PTAs", by Nancy K. +Urban, Beaver (PA) Times, negative (CRF) 2 pp. + +4-18-89 - "Blue Knights & the Black Art", by Marjorie Hyer, Washington +Post, negative (AM) 3 pp. + +4-19-89 - "Satan Seminar", by Bob Knight, New York Times, negative (AM) + +4-19-89 - "Witches protest 'high priestess' link", (AP) San Antonio Light, +positive (BW) + +4-19-89 - "Police look for help from DARE", Emmett (ID) Messenger Index +(front page) neutral, (FF) + +4-20-89 - "Calhan home vandalized Satanic symbol painted on living room +wall", by Monty Gaddy, Ranchland News (Peyton, CO), negative + +4-20-89 - "Satanism: Does Ozaukee County have devil worshippers?", by Karen +Gladstone, (Cedarburg, WI) News-Graphic Pilot, neutral 2 pp. (FF) + +4-21-89 - "Jesus set good example for responding", by Terry Cadwell, +Roseburg (OR) News-Review, neutral (FF) + +4-23-89 - "Fear controls Satan worshippers", by Dr. Val Farmer, Rapid City +(SD) Journal, negative, (FF) + +4-23-89 - "Clergy divided on devil's influence", by Mark O'Leary, Aurora +(IL) Beacon-News, neutral, (FF) + +4-24-89 - "Cult of the Red-Haired Devil", by Richard Woodbury, Time, +negative + +4-24-89 - "Ritual Murder in Mexico", by Frank Gibney Jr., Newsweek, +negative + +4-24-89 - "'It seems to make sense', one teen on Satan's Bible", by Mark +O'Leary, Aurora (IL) Beacon-News neutral to negative 3 pp. (FF) + +4-25-89 - "Witch Gets Religious Rights", Rocky Mountain News, positive (BF) + +4-25-89 - "Evil Satanists breed babies to sacrifice in grisly rites", by +Robert Boyd, National Examiner, negative (FF) + +4-26-89 - "AF Witch gets OK to note 8 holidays", (AP) Denver Post, positive +(VV) + +4-25-89 - "Missing teen is a runaway, not cult victim, police now say", by +Bruce Golding, Yonkers (NY) Herald Statesman + +4-26-89 - "Rural Life", by Dr. Val Farmer, Heron Lake (NM) Tri-County News +negative (FF) + +4-27-89 - "'Buddy' Martin: the Cape's Cult Cop", by Dan Hamilton, (Yarmouth +Port, MA) Register, neutral (FF) 3 pp. + +4-27-89 - "Occult Practices Workshop Planned Saturday", (Harlingen,TX) +Valley Morning Star, neutral, (FF) + +4-28-89 - "Group Does Fight Satanism" Letter to the Editor, Calhoun County +Concerned Citizens, (Port Lavaca,TX) Wave, negative,(FF) * reply to a +previous letter. Do they have original letter??? + +4-30-89 - "Groups offer help, education about Satanism", by Melanie Smith, +(Decatur,AL) Daily, negative 3 pp. (FF) + +4-30-89 - "Satanic Activity said to be on the increase", by Nancy Pieters, +negative 4 pp. (FF) + +5-5-89 - "Satanism starts in home Exodus group tells crowd" by Charlyn +Finn, (Port Lavaca,TX) Wave, negative, 2 pp. (FF) + +5-7-89 - "Mexico Ritual Slayings Underscore Need for "Cult Cops", (AP) +Daily Oklahoman, neutral + +5-7-89 - "Satanic Sleuth Up to Elbows in Odd Beat", (AP) Daily Oklahoman, +positive + +5-7-89 - "Jews Protest Sacrifice Tale on Oprah Show", N.Y. Times News +Service, Chicago Tribune, positive (VOICES) + +5-8-89 - "Cultist Ordered His OWn Killing", (AP) Daily Oklahoman, negative + +5-11-89 - "Huge Crowd told Satanism a major threat", by Lee Provost, +Kankakee (IL) Daily Journal, neutral (FF) + +5-21-89 - "Stalking Satanists", by Richard Stewart, Corpus Christi Times, +negative (IOC) + +5-21-89 - "Florida hospital treats teen-agers caught up in satanism", by +Ellen McGarrahan, Vallejo(CA) Times Herals neutral to negative, (FF) + +6-3-89 - "Former spiritualist spreads message of anti-satanism", by Bee +Staff Reports, Modesto (CA) Bee, negative (FF) + +6-5-89 - "Witch says prejudice victimizing daughter", by Raymond McCaffrey, +Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, positive + +6-16-89 - "New ministry sponsors satan expose", by Roselle Goza, Ridgecrest +(CA) Daily Independent, negative (FF) + +6-19-89 - "Schools brand peace symbol satanic", (AP) Austin American- +Statesman, negative (BW) + +6-13-89 - "What Do You Think?", by Rabun L. Brantley, Sylvania (GA) +Telephone, negative, (FF) + +6-20-89 - "Schools ban peace symbol", (AP) Colorado Springs Gazette +Telegraph, negative + +6-30-89 - "Texan charged in poisoning of ancient tree", Denver Post, +negative + +6-30-89 - "Treaty Oak case called witch hunt", by Sylvia Martinez, Austin - +American Statesman, strange, (BW) + +6-30-89 - "Wiccans defend faith, rejecting links to child's disappearance", +by Lisa Mule, Fort Worth Star Telegram, positive (RW) + +7-5-89 - "Cat Killings at prison investigated", (Knight Ridder Newspapers) +negative + +7-12-89 - Letter to the editor, "Lay Minister is concerned", by Eric R. +Filmer, Savannah (GA) Morning News, negative (FF) + +7-18-89 - "Callers cast doubt on alleged abduction", by Sylvia Martinez, +Austin (TX) American-Statesman, neutral to positive, (FF) + +7-21-89 - "Signs of satanism: Guide for parents", by Michelle Melton, St. +Charles (MO) Journal, negative (FF) + +7-21-89 - "Police See Growing Satanism-Crime Link", by Derek Smith, +Savannah Evening Press, neutral (FF) + +7-22-89 - "media, police blamed for satanism hype", by Dee Anne Finken, +Bakersfield Californian, neutral to positive, (FF) + +7-23-89 - "Treasure Valley teens may be joining occult", AP, Lewiston (ID) +Tribune, negative (FF) + +7-23-89 - "Animal rights, religious freedom at odds in Santeria priest's +fight", by John Fernandez, West Palm Beach (FL) Post, neutral to negative, +(FF) + +7-26-89 - "Three Area Doctors Study Rise of Satanic Cults in Crescent", by +Billy Vaughn, McDonough (GA) Henry Herald, neutral (FF) + +7-27-89 - "The Satanic Roots of Rock 'n Roll", by Donald Phau, New +Federalist, negative (GO) 4 pp. + +7-27-89 - "Some blame their woes on evil forces", by Tom Brisson, +Bakersfield (CA) Californian, neutral, (FF) + +7-27-89 - "Former witch says she saw over 100 human sacrifices", by Tammy +Twyman, Cumberland (MD) Times-News negative (FF) *part of a series, +installments unknown. Have last part of series. Need middle. + +7-27-89 - "Deputy blasts credibility of Satanic cult information",no author +given, Shelton (WA) County Journal, neutral to positive, (FF) 2.pp + +7-27-89 - "Teen-age loners drawn to satanism" no author given, Stroudsburg +(PA) Record, neutral, (FF) + + +7-27-89 - "5 arrested in Satanist kidnapping", by Robert H. Orenstein and +Sean Connolly, Allentown (PA) Morning Call, (front page) neutral, (FF) 2 +pp. + +7-27-89 - "Kiwanians Learn About Satanism", by Jj Johnson, Perry (GA) +Times, negative, (FF) + +7-29-89 - "Cult expert describes levels of involvment with satanism", by +Chuck Biedka, Cumberland (MD) Times-News, neutral to negative, (FF) 2 pp. * +last part of a series. Have 7-27-89. Missing middle + +7-30-89 - "Santeria practitioners to go to court over law banning animal +sacrifice", San Jose Mercury News, positive, (VV) + +7-30-89 - "Court to take up lawsuit by church on animal ritual", by Luisa +Yanez, Ft. Lauderdale (FL) Sun-Sentinel, neutral (FF) + +7-31-89 - "Wiccan Replies" by Karl R. Wolff, Jr. Letters to the Editor, Air +Force Times, positive * original article missing + +8-89 - "The Three Faces of Satan", by Chas. S. Clifton, Gnosis Magazine, +positive (VV) 10 pp. + +8-89 - "Why troubled teenagers might turn to satanism", by David K. Curran, +The American School-Board Journal, positive (FF) 4 pp. + +8-1-89 - "Police say teens make up satanic cults practicing here", by +Stephen M. Greenlee, neutral to negative, (FF) 3.pp + +8-3-89 - "Teens enticed by thrill of cults", by Brenda Ritter, Fort Bend +(TX) Advocate, neutral to negative (FF) + +8-4-98 - "Scandal Over Satanism Hits Nebraska GOP Figure", by Suzanne Rose, +New Federalist, negative (GO) + +8-4-89 - "Ritual abuse meeting draws crowd of 300", by Suzi Brakken, +Ukiah(CA) Daily Journal, ( front page) negative (FF) 2.pp + +8-4-89 - "Expert backs Santeris bid for religious animal sacrifices", by +Luisa Yanez, Ft. Lauderdale (FL) Sun-Sentinel, neutral to positive, (FF) + +8-4-89 - "Santeris Suit", no author given, Orlando (FL) Sentinel, neutral, +(FF) + +8-5-89 - "Satanism is not the biggest evil", by Tom Schaefer, Wichita (KS) +Eagle-Beacon, neutral to positive, (FF) + +8-6-89 - "Voodoo, Mystic art sales out of this world, Devotees find art +objects uplifting, not creepy", by Marina Pisano, San Antonio Express News, +neutral (FF) 3.pp + +8-6-89 - Letters to the editor, Cumberland (MD) Times-News + "Dislikes Times-News series on occult", by Robert Meyer, pos. + "Says heavy metal music not all bad", by Laura Parkinson, pos. + "Terms former witch a fundraiser's dream", by Jack Finnigan, pos. + +8-6-89 - "Satanic abuse revealed", by Susannah Pugh, Springfield (MA) +Sunday Republican, negative (FF) + + +8-7-89 - "Psychologist: Media distort satanic cults", no author given, +Stroudsburg (PA) Pocono Record + +8-9-89 - "Police Assess Occult", by Carolyne Zinko, Peninsula (CA) Times, +neutral (VV) + +8-10-89 - "Teen lock in set at Nemaha Valley, no author given, Centralia +(KS) Journal Leader, neutral, (FF) + +8-10-89 - "Manson murders: did you know..." by Ed Green Jr. Athens (GA) +Observer, neutral (FF) + +8-11-89 - "A Look Behind The Satanic Game Dungeons & Dragons", by A. +Chaitkin and E. Corpus, New Federalist, negative (GO) 2 pp. + +8-11-89 - "Satanic Underground Can Protect Child Abusers", special to New +Federalist, New Federalist, negative (GO) + +8-12-89 - "Demon's visit changed teen's life", by Colleen LaMay, +Hattiesburg(MS) American, negative (FF) + +8-12-89 - "Chickopee's ghostbusters warn of occult", by Sandra Dias, +Holyoke (MA) Transcrpit-Telegram, neutral, (FF) + +8-13-89 -"Speaking out: What do you think of a court ruling that +legitimizes witchcraft?" various authors, Wilkesbarre (PA) Times Leader, +negative to positive. (FF) + +8-13-89 - "Witchcraft followers say they were not Satanists", by Sura +Rubenstein, Portland Oregonian, positive (FF) + +8-13-89 - "Adherent says too many 'Satanists' have it wrong", by Carmel +Finley, Portland Oregonian, neutral, (FF) + +8-13-89 - "Lawman says'survivors' are providing information", by Dick +Cockle, Portland Oregonian, negative, (FF) + +8-13-89 - "Officials measure the threat it poses", by Dana Tims, Portland +Oregonian, neutral, (FF) 3 pp. + +8-15-89 - "Minister says he battles devil worshippers", no author given, +Brawley (CA) News, negative (FF) + +8-16-89 - (Untitled) Big Timber (MT) Pioneer, by Dr. Val Farmer, neutral to +negative, (FF) + +8-17-89 - "Rhode Island witches win tax exempt status", (AP) Austin +American Statesman, positive (BW) + +8-17-89 - "Editorial: Missing Children", no author given, Glenville (GA) +Sentinel, negative, (FF) + +8-18-89 - "Seminar to explore 'the cult explosion'"no author given, Klamath +Falls,(OR) Herald and News, neutral, (FF) + +8-19-89 - "'White witch' admits luring victim to death", by Wayne Wilson, +Sacramento (CA) Bee, negative (FF) + +8-20-89 - "Former satanists warn of dangers in the occult", by Patrick +Driscol, Big Spring (TX) Herald negative (FF) 2 pp. + +8-20-89 - "Cult Killing", by Paul Cantin, Ottowa (Can) Sun, weird, (FF) + +8-21-89 - "Witches are starting to tax our patience", by Colin McEnroe, , +Hartford (CT) Courant, sarcastic,(FF) + +8-25-89 - "How 'new' the "New Age"? by Bishop Kenneth Povish, Flint (MI) +Catholic Weekly, negative (FF) + +8-26-89 - "Expert: Students first dabble in occult", by Nora Lopez, San +Antonio Express-News, neutral to positive, (FF) + +8-27-89 - "Talk on satanism hits home here", by Karinne Young, Goldsboro +(NC) News-Argus, (front page) negative (FF) 2 pp. + +8-28-89 - "Experts tell Pinellas educators how to recognize, battle cults", +by Cesar Alvarez III, St. Petersburg Times, neutral, (FF) + +8-29-89 - "Snimal-sacrifice case nears end", by Jeanne De Quine, USA Today +Wash. D.C., neutral, (FF) + +8-31-89 - "Priest places occultism blame", by Leon Stennis, Youngstown (OH) +Vindicator, negative (FF) + +8-31-89 - "80 meet to discuss Satanic crimes", by Bahbra Y. Boykin, +Danville (IL) Commercial News, neutral to negative, (FF) + +8-31-89 - "Satanism: Arny investigator agrees to hold public sessions too", +by Mary Jo Denton, Cookeville (TN) Herald-Citizen, neutral (FF) + +9-89 - "Satanism, cult watchers worry about an upsurge in teen Devil +worship", by Jeff Meade, Teacher magazine, neutral, (FF) 3 pp. + +9-1-89 - "Santeria Priest Challenges Fla. City's Ban on Ritual Animal +Sacrifice", by Mike Williams, Atlanta Constitution, positive (FF) 2.pp + +9-1-89 - "Satanism: Who do people 'convert'?", by Kevin Gibson, +Jeffersonville (IN) Evening News, neutral, (FF) + +9-3-89 - "Cults: Man preaches against practices", by Richard W. Jaeger, +Madison (WI) State Journal, positive to neutral, (FF) 2.pp + +9-3-89 - "Religion of Materialism, Fear of Satanism is fueled more by rumor +than fact", by Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Pittsburgh Press, neutral to positive +(FF), 3 pp. + +9-3-89 - "Witchcraft at root of evil, says bishop", by Randall Beach, New +Hven (CT) Register negative (FF) + +9-3-89 - "Pagan African Spirits", no author given, Los Angeles Catholic +Twin Circle, negative, (FF) + +9-3-89 - "Santeria Caribbean Cult in America", no author given, Los Angelse +Catholic Twin Circle, negative (FF) 3 pp. + +9-3-89 - "Satanism- not a 'tidal wave' but still dangerous in our diocese", +by Rick Wade, Catholic Times (Springfield IL) neutral to negative (FF) 2 +pp. + +9-3-89 - "Louisiana priest says satanic cults more common than people +think", (CNS) Catholic Times (Springfield IL) neutral, (FF) + +9-5-89 - "Satanism: 'More secret than the underworld', Rumors from Hell", +by Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Pittsburgh (PA) Press, neutral to positive, (FF) 3 +pp. *part 2 of three parts. Still need part 3 + +9-5-89 - "Police say satanic followers leave behind clues", by Kevin +Gibson, Jeffersonville (IN) Evening News, neutral, (FF) + +9-6-89 - "where you can turn for help", no author given, Pirrsburgh Press, +neutral (FF) + +9-7-89 - "Hospital to treat Satanism victims", no author given, Anderson +(IN) Herald-Bulletin, neutral (FF) + +9-8-89 - "Satanism threat", no author given, Perry (NY) Herald, neutral +(FF) + +9-9-89 - "Murder as sacrifice and sacrament, The blood of Innocents", by +Denis Collins, San Jose Mercury-News, (book review) neutral (FF) 2 pp. + +9-11-89 - "Breaking Satanism's deadly grip on teens", by Laurie Goering, +Buffalo (NY) News, neutral, (FF) + +9-12-89 - "Don;'t overreact to so-called Satanism", by Patrick Cox, +positive (FF) + +9-14-89 - "'I started screaming' as followers of Satan sacrificed a 17- +year-old", by Joyce Price, Washington (D.C) times, negative (FF) + + +ARTICLES OF INDETERMINATE ORIGIN AND DATE + +"Your Favorite Christmas Greenery Has the Power to Repel Demons", (BE) +neutral + +"Which Goddess Represents Your Attitudes & Traits?", (BE) neutral + +"A Bewitching Bash", (BE) neutral + +"Witch 'Church' Gains Exemption", (BE) neutral + +"Witch Sues College For Holidays Off", (BE) neutral to positive + +"Convict Sues for Right To Practice Witchcraft In Prison", (BE) +positive + +"Witches Are Tax Exempt", Lewis Clifton (BE) neutral to positive + +"20Th Century Witches: A Thoroughly Civilized Lot", Paula Vogel (BE) +positive + +"Fire Goddess Jinxes Filchers", by Gerda Klein (BE) neutral to positive + +"Witch-Hunting by Taxation", by Daniel Jussim, Bateman Archives (BE) +positive + +"45 Are Arrested Trying To Crash Stonehenge Rite", UPI (BE) neutral + +"Modern-day Witch uses phone rather than broomstick to cast her spells", +(BE) VERY POSITIVE + +"How Modern-day witches use their white magic to perform 'helpful' +miracles", Jim Barnard (BE) positive + +"Witches Get Into Halloween Spirit", (AP) (BE) positive + +"Witches Are Becoming Hospital Nurses! .. With Shocking Success" +(BE) positive + +"They'll get Head Start on Solstice", Mike Vogel (BE) neutral + +"Druids, Hippies Ring in Solstice At Stonehenge", (UPI) (BE) neutral + +"Investigating Satanic Cults", by Robert Gillespie, negative (CuCo) + +"Youth Tells of 2 years at Satanic meeting", Pueblo (CO) Chieftan, negative +(CuCo) 2 pp. + +"Girl Soon Learned of Pain", Pueblo (CO) Chieftan, negative (CuCo) 2 pp. + +"The Strange Case of Dianne Cullam", neutral (KC) 2 pp. + +"The Devil Made 'Em Do It", by Charles Allen Dews (LM) + +"Rumors of Satanic Worship Probed", by Kathy Jumper, Mobile (AL) Press +Register (no date) + +"Fallen angels, who is stalking the children for Satan?", by Kathy Cawthon, +Portfolio Weekly (Hampton Roads, VA), negative, 6 pp. (WBBBS) + +"Sorcery Puts Soccer--- and Cats... In Bag", negative + +"Being a witch could be handy in getting some help from Bush", by Mike +Kelley, negative (BW) + +"Hostage describes captivity", by John Bryant, Austin American-Statesman, +negative (BW) + +"Police say woman lied about abduction", by Morgan Montalvo, Austin +American-Statesman, positive (BW) + +"Witchcraft's deities? You walk on them", by Rachel O'Neal, positive (VV) + +"3 Arrested in Erie grave-digging", by Kevin McCullen, Rocky Mountain News  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/clipping.txt b/religious documents/clipping.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec07e51 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/clipping.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1185 @@ + Clipping List for Witchcraft Article + Rowan Moonstone + P O Box 2105 + OKC, OK 73120 + + 1970 + + 5/5/70 "Witchcraft Bubbles, Boils. Old Black Magic Casting New Spell," by + Bill Harlett, Los Angeles Times, Positive. 5 pp. + + 1972 + + "A Bewitching Look at Covens," John Godwin, Chicago Tribune (UA) positive + + 1974 + + 3/6/74 "Witchcraft Defended," Doug Domeier, Dallas Morning News, 2 pp. + (UA) positive + + 5/19/74 "Shadows of `Old Religion' Looms Large Against Reality of Today's + Society," Emma Livingstone, Richmond (Va.) Times Dispatch (UA) positive + + 12/5/74 "Not Satanists. Witch Fighting for Better Public Image,"a Los + Angeles Times, positive. + + + 1975 + + 4/20/75 "Witchcraft, Its Message For Today," San Francisco Examiner, 2 pp. + (UA) positive + + 10/31/75 "It's the Witches Day to Howl. Halloween is New Years for + Practitioners," by Russell Chandler, Los Angeles Times, positive, 2 pp. + + + 1976 + + 1/25/76 "Witches Embroiled," Wes Hills, Dayton (Ohio) Daily News (UA) + neutral + + 2/10/76 "An Old American Custom," Linda Bernier, L.A. Times Herald, (UA) + positive + + 8/23/76 "Parents Proud Of Witch Daughter," S.F. Chronicle (UA) neutral to + negative + + + + 1977 + + 5/77 "The Adams Family and the Grail Tradition," by Andrew E. Rothovius + East/West Magazine( Positive) + + 8/77 "The Dragon Tradition on the New World," by Andrew E.Rothovius, + East/West Magazine (positive) + + + 1978 + + 6/5/78 "Group That's Preparing For Witch War," S. F. Chronicle (UA) negative + + 10/15/78 "Bad Press Plagued Witches," Beverly Narum, Kansas City (Mo) Star + (UA) positive + + 10/27/78 "Ghosts of Halloween," Darci Vanderhoff, Dallas Morning News (IHP) + neutral + + + 1979 + + 2/9/79 "The Legend(s) of John Todd," Editorial, Christianity Today,(S. + Crocker) neutral to positive + + + 9&10/79 "Halloween? God Has A Better Idea," Ted Roberts, Virtue Magazine + (IHP) negative + + + 1980 + + 9/28/80 "A Convention of Witches is Viewed Darkly by Some in Amarillo," + William K. Stevens, N. Y. Times (UA) neutral + + 10/18/80 "Witches Unwittingly Cast Prayer Spell on Amarillo," Richard A. + Abrams, Austin American-Statesman, (UA) neutral + + 10/19/80 "Bomb Threat Interrupts Witches' Seminar in Texas," William K. + Stevens, New York Times, (UA) positive + + 10/19/80 "Witches Dispersed by Bomb Threat," Associated Press, New Orleans + Times-Picayune, (UA) positive + + 10/19/80 "Witches' Toil Interrupted by Bomb Threat Trouble," Richard A. + Abrams, Austin American-Statesman, (UA) positive + + 10/20/80 "The Witches Talk, The Christians Sing," William K. Stevens, N. Y. + Times, (UA) positive + + 10/20/80 "Texas Hexes Witches' Group," Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, + (UA) positive + + 10/20/80 "Witches Say Amarillo `Violent,Unfriendly'," Associated Press, New + Orleans Times-Picayune, (UA) positive + + 10/20/80 "Some Enchanted Evening," Kent Biffle, Dallas Morning News, + (UA) positive + + 10/27/80 "A Treat (No Trick): Even Witches Can Be Good," Georgie Anne Geyer, + L.A.Times (UA) positive + + 10/31/80 "Mother of Seven Studies Nightly to Become A Witch," Stephanie + Sansom, Daily Californian, (UA) positive + + + 1981 + + 1981- "Forensic Sciences Aspects of Santeria, A Religious Cult of African + Origin," C.V.Wetli & R. Martinez, Journal of Forensic Sciences, (CAN) + neutral to negative + + 2/18/81 "Dungeons and Dragons, The Occult Goes to School," by Bob Elmer, The + Olympis News, Olympia Wash, BADD, negative + + 5/10/81 "High Priestess Seldom Leaves Mythic Domain," Gloria Ohland, Dallas + Times Herald, (IHP) negative + + 6/81 "Witchcraft In America," Us Magazine, 3 pp., (BE) positive + + 9/27/81 "Ways of the Covens Flourishing in Secret," by Bill Lazarus, New + Haven Register, (UA) positive + + 10/31/81 "A Spirited Subject, Tracing the Religious ,Secular Roots of + Halloween," Pat Zajac, Ft. Worth Star Telegraph, (IHP) neutral + + + 1982 + + 2/14/82 "Witch Who Can Read Your Body Like The Palm of Your Hand," by + Cynthis Raymond, Los Angeles Times, 2 pp., positive + + 10/20/82 "An Evangelical Feminist Confronts The Goddess," Virginia Ramey + Mollenkott, Ph.D., Christian Century, (UA) neutral + + 10/31/82 "A House Is Not A Home, But The Dogs Are The Pits," Ft. Worth + Star-Telegram, (IHP) negative + + + 1983 + + 3/3/83 "Fiscal Woes Hex Witches Convention," Dallas Morning News, (IHP) + neutral + + 6/24/83 "Law Allows Casting Spells If You Do It For Free," Dallas Morning + News, (IHP) neutral + + 7/11/83 "Sacrifices, Spirits Part of Miami Life," by Barry Bearak, 2 pp., + neutral + + 8/83 "Brujeria: Manifestations of Palo Mayombe in South Florida," C.V. Wetli + & Robert Martinez, Journal of the Fla. Med. Assn. (C.A.N.) neutral to + negative + + 10/12/83 "Witchcraft: A Real But Controversial Way of Life," Edna Boone + Johnson, Birmingham (Ala.) News, 2 pp., (UA) neutral + + 10/21/83 "Witchcraft: An Inside View," J. Gordon Melton, Christianity Today, + 4 pp., positive + + 11/5/83 "Witches, Paganists Eschew Satanism Study Says," John Dart, L.A. + Times, (UA) positive + + 11/7/83 "Americans Spend Millions on Occultism," Cindy Skrzycki, Dallas + Morning News, (IHP) negative + + + 1984 + + 1/14/84 "Youth Claims Cult Gave Him Body of Baby," Cindy Rugeley, Ft. Worth + Star-Telegram, (IHP) negative + + 1/14/84 "Drug Raid Turns up Baby's Bones," Anne Reifenberg, Dallas Morning + News, (IHP) negative + + 3/9/84 "She Sees Witchcraft In Loss of College Job," John Crust & L.W. + McGarry, L.A. Times, (UA) positive + + 3/23/84 "The Devil and Colorado's Young," by Leslie Petrovski, Up The Creek, + (Denver, CO), 2 pp., negative (CuCO) + + 4/22/84 "Lucas Says Cult Inspired Killings," Gayle Reaves, Ft. Worth + Star-Telegram, (C.A.N.) negative + + 4/23/84 "Murders in the Name of the Devil," Sacramento Union + + 5/22/84 "Satan Worship Uplifted on NBC," NFD Journal, (IHP) negative + + 6/1984 "Satan Worship Rituals on the Increase," Battle Cry Publications + + 6/22/84 "Police Raid Religious Commune," Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel, (C.A.N) + negative + + 6/24/84 "Ex-Warlock Fights the Satanism Cults," by Wynne Bilby, Sunday + Denver Post, negative, (CuCo) + + 7/8/84 "Youth Arrested in `Cult' Murder Takes Own Life," Newport Daily + Press, Newport News (VA), (B.A.D.D.) negative + + 7/8/84 "Youth in Devil Cult Is Found Hanged," Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, (IHP) + negative + + 7/8/84 "6 Fetuses Found in Fire Rubble," Sacramento Union + + 7/9/84 "Teen's Cult Leaves Sinister Scar on City," Margaret Hornblower, Ft. + Worth Star-Telegram, (IHP) negative + + 7/15/84 " Drugs Changed Life of Teen Charged in Satanic Killing," Pat + Milton, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, (IHP) negative + + 7/15/84 "Voodoo In Brazil: A Way of Life," Stephen G. Bloom, Dallas Life + Magazine, (IHP) neutral + + 7/18/84 "Shock Waves of Teen's Death Shake Long Island Suburb," Michael + Coakley, Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel, (CAN) negative + + 8/17/84 "Hamlet In England Gives Witch The Devil Over Plans For Coven," + Elizabeth Grice, Dallas Morning News, (IHP) neutral + + 8/17/84 "Yorkshire In Devil of a Row Over Witches Coven Moving In," + Elizabeth Grice, L.A. Times, (UA) neutral + + 8/23/84 "Nine Are Apprehended in Area Cult Setting," Centralia (CA) + Sentinel, (B.A.D.D.) negative + + 9/16/84 "Matter of Mind Control," Ron Hutchinson, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, + (IHP) negative + + 11/4/84 "Game Suspected as Factor in Boys Deaths," Dallas Morning News, + (IHP) negative + + 11/10/84 "Hazardous Horoscopes? Scientists Ask Papers For Disclaimer to + Warn Gullible Stargazer," (IHP) negative + + 11/15/84 "It's a Rare Medium Who is Well Done," Letters to Anne Landers, Ft. + Worth Star-Telegram, (IHP) negative + + + 1985 + + 1/85 "Satanists Vandalize Churches," The Christian Enquirer + + 1/19/85 "Arlington Teen Kills Himself in Front of Class," Lorraine Ianello, + Dallas Times-Herald, (IHP) negative + + 1-31-85 "Is Dungeons and Dragons Game a Macabre Influence On Teens?," Howard + Witt, Dallas Morning News, (IHP) negative + + 2/85 "Magic: A Deadly Solution," Denver Magazine, 6 pp., negative (CuCo) + + 3/15/85 "Rock'n'Roll Sermon Nets Listeners, Doubters," Marlene Perrin, Iowa + City Press Citizen, (CAN) neutral + + 4/17/85 "Satanist Gathering Suspected," The Courier (Findlay, OH), (CAN) + negative + + 4/18/85 "Rumor Bedevils Proctor & Gamble," Margot Hornblower, The Washington + Post, neutral + + 4/25/85 "P&G Drops Logo: Cites Satan Rumors: Man in Moon Loses a Job," + Sandra Salmans, New York Times, neutral + + 5/19/85 "Occult Took Me To Brink of Death, Priest Tells," by Peter Haran, + Sunday Mail, Australia, (B.A.D.D.) negative + + 5/29/85 "Wise Guys - And Newspapers - Still Bedevil P&G About It's Infamous + Corporate Logo," by John Bussey, Wall Street Journal, humorous. + + 6/18/85 "Portsmouth Family Victim of Gruesome Vandalism," by George + Shadroui, Virginian Pilot + + 6/28/85 "Strange Case - Quartet Guilty of Child Molestation," by Charles + Postell, Albany (GA) Herald, (B.A.D.D.) negative + + 7&8/85 "By the Power Invested in Me," by Scott James , Liberty Magazine, + (JH) positive + + 7/8/85 "Satanic Bible In Public Libraries," Rev. Roger Hudson, Update + Magazine (WATCH) negative + + *7/8/85 "Satanic Cult" (AP) negative + + 7/13/85 "Satanic Cults Termed `Present Danger'," Marjorie Rommel, Chicago + Sun-Times, (CAN) negative + + *7/14/85 "Satanic Slaying," San Francisco (AP) negative + + 7/29/85 "Satanism Haunts Tales of Child Sex Abuse," John Crewdson, Chicago + Tribune, (B.A.D.D.) negative + + 8/23/85 "Children Allege Animal Sacrifices," by Anne Pifine, Nevada Appeal, + Carson City (NV), (B.A.D.D.) negative + + 9/2/85 "Satanic Killing," (AP) negative + + 9/15/85 "They Turn To Magic, Not Satan," George Flynn, San Diego Union, (UA) + positive + + 9/15/85 "Devil Worship: What's Behind It?," Mary Flood, Houston Post, + (B.A.D.D.) negative + + 9/15/85 "Satanists Blend into Society," Houston Post (B.A.D.D.) negative + + 9/16/85 "Night Stalker," People Magazine, 3 pp., (IHP) negative + + 9/19/85 "Witch Says She is Victim of Job Bias," George Flynn, San Diego + Union, (UA) positive + + 9/22/85 "Cult Movement Growing; Outcome Bears Watching," by Georgie Anne + Geyer, El Paso Times, (B.A.D.D.) negative + + 9/24/85 "Satanism, Cult of the 1980's," Georgie Anne Geyer, Dallas Morning + News, (IHP) negative + + 10/11/85 "Pentagram Not Evil," Letter to the Editor, Lurline Jennings, L.A. + Herald Examiner, (LJ) positive + + 10/15/85 "Obstacles Don't Deter Witches' Worship," Gayle White, Atlanta + Journal, 2 pp., (UA) positive + + 10/25/85 "Man Charged in Stalker Murder," USA Today, (B.A.D.D.) negative + + 10/31/85 "Witches Aren't Flying Very High In Today's Culture," Lucretia + Steiger, San Diego Union, (UA) neutral to positive + + 10/31/85 "What a Halloween Haul! Snickers, an Apple and the New Testament," + by Dale D. Buss, Wall Street Journal (neutral) + + 10/31/85 "There's Trouble Brewing For Witches This Halloween," Jan Lindstrom, + San Gabriel Valley, L.A. Herald-Examiner, (LJ) neutral to positive + + 11/13/85 "A New Broom," Oklahoma Gazette, positive + + 11/23/85 "Sex Slave Keeper Receives 104 Years," Ft. Worth Star Telegram, + (IHP) negative + + 11/28/85 "Tax Exemption for Witches Haunts Congress," Paula Fisher, The + Wanderer, 2 pp., (IHP) positive + + 12/1/85 "Horse Owner Fears Cult at Blame in Mutilation," Dallas Morning + News, (IHP) negative + + 12/17/85 "Cult Member Lacks Remorse for Turture Death of Thimm," Wyoming + State Tribune, (B.A.D.D.) negative + + 12/31/85 "Brazil Clergy Tacitly Approves Cult Worship," Bryna Brennan, + Dallas Times Herald, (IHP) neutral + + + 1986 + + 1/86 "Witches, ACLU Foil Helms, Casting Off His Evil Curse," by Rebecca + Pitman, Washingtonian, positive + + 1/3/86 "Satan Cult Site Found," by Debbie Stone, Montgomery Journal, + (BADD), negative + + 1/8/86 "Devil Worship Prompts Arrest," Newport News (VA) Daily Press + + 1/86 "The Devil Made Me Do It," Dr. Joel Norris & Jerry Allen Patter, + Penthouse, 9 pp., (CAN) negative + + 1/26/86 "Lure of New Age Philosophy Has Biblical Scholar Worried," by Bill + Husted, Rocky Mountain News, (CuCo) negative + + 2/4/86 "Letter To Mike Warnke Ministries," by Lt. Larry M. Jones, (IHP) + negative + + 2/16/86 "Fad or Fanatic Cult?," Diana Washington, El Paso Times, (BADD) + negative + + 2/16/86 "Some Call it a Cult; Others A Religion," Diana Washington, El Paso + Times, (BADD) negative + + 2/16/86 "WATCH Network Keeps Eye On Occult," Diana Washington, El Paso + Times, (BADD) negative + + 2/16/86 "El Paso Area Is Dotted With Apparent Ritual Sites," Diana + Washington, El Paso Times, (BADD) negative + + 2/16/86 "Selfishness is the Point of Satanism," Diana Washington, El Paso + Times, (BADD) negative + + 2/20/86 "Monroe Officials Link Teen Death To Satanism," by Joe Swickard, + Detroit Free Press, (BADD) negative + + 2/25/86 "Prosecutor To Seek Death in Devil Worship Killings," Eric Zorn, + Chicago Tribune, (CAN) negative + + 2/26/86 "Angel of Satan On Trial," Northwest Herald, Crystal Lake (IL), + (CAN) negative + + 2/27/86 "Teen Guilty in Ax Murder," Northwest Herald, Crystal Lake (IL), + (CAN) negative + + * 3/3/86 "Kern Molest," (AP/CMBBS) San Francisco, CA negative + + * 3/3/86 "Finders" (AP/CMBBS) neutral + + * 3/7/86 "Canbriefs" (AP/CMBBS) Calgary, Alberta + + * 3/17/86 "Satanic Farm Field," Greeley (CO), (AP) Negative + + 3/19/86 "Library Refuses to Ban Book On Witches," Connie Petty, Albany (OR) + Democrat/Herald, (ED) neutral to positive + + 3/20/86 "Pickets Protest Book On Witches," Carter Wood, Albany (OR) + Democrat/Herald, (ED) neutral to positive + + * 3/20/86 "Prank Graves," (AP/CMBBS) Yontis, TX, Weird + + * 3/28/86 "Chef Murder," Flemington, NJ, (AP) negative + + 4/2/86 "Letter To Warnke Ministries," Glenn Gibbs, (IHP) negative + + * 4/3/86 "Son of Sam," (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 4/14/86 "Grave Robbers," Pottsville, AR, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 4/20/86 "Satanic Rumor," (AP/CMBBS) Huntsville, AL, negative + + 4/22/86 "Boy 14, Accused in Satan Assault," Andrew Herman, Chicago + Sun-Times, (CAN) negative + + 4/22/86 "Spell of Unemployment," Cy Egan, Woman's World Weekly, (UA) + positive + + * 4/22/86 "Teenage Satanism," (AP CMBBS) Salt Lake City, UT, negative + + * 4/23/86 "Sex Trial," Woody Baird, Memphis, Tenn. (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 4/22/86 "Satan Bible Feud Linked to Slaying," Susanne Burks, Albuquerque + Journal, (BADD) negative + + 4/22/86 "Cults: Growing Problem Among Nevadans," Dorothy Kosich, Carson City + Nevada Appeal, (BADD) negative + + * 4/24/86 "Night Stalker," Sun Manning, Los Angeles, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 4/24/86 "Sex Trial," Woody Baird, Memphis, TN (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 4/25/86 "Sex Trial II," Woody Baird, Memphis, TN, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 4/27/86 "Satan Worship Called Dangerous, Growing," Eric Zorn, Chicago + Tribune, (IHP) negative + + * 5/4/86 "Satanic Cults" Chattanooga, TN (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 5/4/86 "Devil Did It! A British Man Nets $313,000," Joseph Lelyveld, New + York Times Sunday, neutral + + 5/7/86 "Teenagers, Rock'n'roll and Satan," Judith Graffam, Press Enterprise + (Riverside, CA), (BADD) negative + + 5/7/86 "Cults Are Dangerous, Says Vatican Document," Denver Catholic + Register, (CuCo) negative + + 5/13/86 "Teen To Stand Trial As Adult in 3 Deaths," Nolan Clay, Daily + Oklahoman, negative + + * 5/13/86 "Vandalism," (AP/CMBBS) Ft. Collins, CO + + 5/20/86 "Charleston Rector Quits Says He's Been Bewitched," Charlotte + Observer, (JM) neutral to strange + + * 5/24/86 "Party Death," (AP/CMBBS) East Lansing, MI + + 5/29/86 "Witchcraft Issue Heats Up School Censorship Battle," Fred Grimm, + Charlotte Observer, (JM) negative + + 6/86 "Violent Ritualistic Victimization: An Attack on the Mind, Body, and + Spirit," Florangel M. Mendez, NCASA News, (BADD) negative + + * 6/1/86 "Child Sex," (AP/CMBBS) + + 6/5/86 "The Noble Search For Devil Worshippers And Other Godless Commies, + Q&A with Deputy Sherrif Dave Gaerin," San Diego Reader, 12 pp., (UA) + negative + + 6/6/86 "Witchcraft: A Persecuted Religion," Letter to the Ed. by Adrian + Russell, Charlotte Observer, (JM) positive + + 6/7/86 "2 Ex-Va. Students Quizzed in London About Stabbing Deaths," by Tom + Sharwood, Washington Post, (BADD) negative + + * 6/7/86 "Voodoo Incident," Dallas, TX, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 6/10/86 "Meet a Witch Plan Brews up Parent Protest," Los Angeles Times, + positive. + + 6/11/86 "Reader Warns Against Lies of Metaphysics," Letter to Ed. by Don + Watson, Oklahoma Gazette negative + + 6/12/86 "Pagans By God," Letter to the Ed. by Patrick McKinnion, San Diego + Reader (UA) positive + + 6/17/86 "Groups Unite to Fight Growing Teen Satanism," Susan Allen, USA + Today, (BADD) negative + + 6/24/86 "Sex Crimes Lead To Guilty Plea," Nolan Clay, Daily Oklahoman + negative + + 6/25/86 "Each of us Holds Potential of God As His Children," letter to Ed. + by Denise Rodgers, Oklahoma Gazette positive + + 6/25/86 "Picketing Coven," Oklahoma Gazette positive + + 6/26/86 "View Both Sides of Mind Control," Letter to Ed. by Keith Gibson, + Oklahoma Gazette negative + + 7/86 "Let Us Prey," Stephen J. Parker, Newlook, 4 pp., (UA) negative & VERY + strange + + * 7/7/86 "Satanic Slaying," San Francisco, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 7/9/86 "Study of Metaphysics Can Be Frightening," Letter to Ed. by TMB, + Oklahoma Gazette negative + + 7/9/86 "Pomona College Witch Studying Wicca Ways," Dick Roraback, Los + Angeles Times, 4 pp., positive + + 7/17/86 "Christian Parents Blast `The Wizard of Oz' At Trial" Daily + Oklahoman neutral + + 7/23/86 "Ex-Cityan Charged In Death," Nolan Clay, Daily Oklahoman negative + + * 7/23/86 "Sex Trial," Woody Baird, Memphis TN, (CMBBS) negative + + * 7/25/86 "Satanic Crime," (AP/CMBBS) Macon, GA + + * 7/26/86 "Preschool Molest," Linde Deutsch, L.A. (AP) negative + + * 7/26/86 "Strange Slaying," Bunnel, FL (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 8/26/86 "Not Even In Whispers," Letter to the Ed. by B.J. Stenberg, Portland + Oregonian (ED) positive + + 9/86 "Isis Has Devil of a Time With Network Television," Isis Newsletter, + positive + + 9/86 "Bewitching Salem," National Geographic Traveler, positive + + * 9/2/86 "Satanic Killing" (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 9/2/86 "Satanic Cult," North Carolina, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 9/22/86 "Satanism Influenced Teen, Defense Says," Nolan Clay, Daily + Oklahoman negative + + 9/23/86 "Trial Expected to Include Testimony About Satanism," Nolan Clay, + Daily Oklahoman negative + + 9/25/86 "Teen Drew Pictures In Blood, Former Co-Worker Testifies," Nolan + Clay, Daily Oklahoman , negative + + 9/27/86 "Suspect Reported Seeing Demons Fly," Nolan Clay, Daily Oklahoman, + negative + + 9/30/86 "Macy, Attorney Argue In Murder Trial," Nolan Clay, Daily + Oklahoman,negative + + 10/86 "America's Best Kept Secret," John Frattarola, Passport Magazine, + 12 pp., (WATCH), VERY NEGATIVE + + 10/86 "Demon Possession," Raul Ries, Passport Magazine, (WN) negative + + 10/1/86 "Testimony of Psychologists Conflicts," Nolan Clay, Daily Oklahoman + negative + + 10/2/86 "Teen Guilty of Killings, Jury Rules," Nolan Clay, Daily Oklahoman + negative + + 10/3/86 "Teen Killer Gets Death," Nolan Clay, Daily Oklahoman negative + + 10/5/86 "Teen Ager's Murder Trial Presented Basics of Satanism," Nolan Clay, + Sunday Oklahoman negative + + 10/7/86 "Fantasy Game Victim of Undeserved Attack," Letter to Ed. by Kerry + Tolan, Daily Oklahoman positive + + 10/10/86 "Expert: Voodoo Chicken Disease Could Threaten Other Poultry," + Tallahassee Democrat, (CAN) neutral to negative + + 10/12/86 "A Devilish Choice Noted," Letter to the Ed. by R. Lynn Green, + Daily Oklahoman neutral + + 10/12/86 "Modern Witches Try To Improve Ancient Image," Jenkin Lloyd-Jones, + Daily Oklahoman positive + + 10/15/86 "Game Harmless," Letter to the Ed. by KDH, Daily Oklahoman positive + + 10/16/86 "Evil One Plotting Against America," Letter to Ed. by S. Smith, + Daily Oklahoman negative + + 10/25/86 "Dungeons and Dragons Devilish Game," Letter to Editor by PJP, + Daily Oklahoman, negative + + 10/26/86 "In League With the Devil," Glenn Gibbons, Jr, Portland + Oregonian,(ED), negative + + 10/30/86 "Lawmen Tire of Haunting Rumor," Chris Kinyon, Daily Oklahoman, + neutral + + * 10/30/86 "Satan Worship," Levelland, TX, (AP/BBS) + + * 11/6/86 "Devil Worshippers" (AP/CMBBS) + + 11/12/86 "Fantasy Games, Deadly Fun?" Patricia Hillyer, Denver Catholic + Register, 3 pp., (CuCo) negative + + 11/14/86 "Rezoning For Wiccans Denied," Wisconsin State Journal (CNN) + neutral + + 11/14/86 "Wiccan Priestess To Fight Ban By Iowa County Board," Gene Conrad, + The Capital Times, Madison (WI), (CNN) neutral + + * 11/14/86 "Mysterious Remains," (CMBBS) negative + + 11/23/86 Letters to the Ed., Portland Oregonian, Re: "In League With The + Devil" (positive): + "Panning Pan," Michael Dion, positive + "Benevolent Gathering," Norma Joyce, positive + "Takeoff on Tabloids," Mark Van Dyke, positive + "No Devil Devotion," The Rev. Nestor Perala, positive + "Hopkins Hardly Holy," Frank C. Johnson, positive + + * 11/24/86 "Grave Robbing," Brownburg, IN, (AP/CMBBS) + + * 11/27/86 "Child Sex," Memphis, TN, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 12/86 "The Rules, the Roles, The Risks of Dungeons and Dragons," Richard + White, The (Va. Beach, VA) Standard, (BADD) negative + + * 12/12/86 "Cistern Death," Carthage, MO (AP/CMBBS) + + * 12/18/86 "Cult Abuse," Ric Leyva, L.A. (AP/CMBBS) + + 12/9/86 "A Boy's Love of Satan Ends In Murder, a Death Sentence,and Grisly + Memories," Michelle Green, People Magazine (IHP) negative + + 12/11/86 "Satanic Probe," (AP/CMBBS) Lincoln City, OR + + 1987 + + 1/27/87 "Shirley MacLaine Movie Called a Fraud," Letters to the Ed. by Don + Watson, Daily Oklahoman, negative + + 2/87 "Children of Yoruba," Rod Davis, Southern Magazine, 11 pp., (JM), + neutral to positive + + 2/87 "Satanism: The Law Enforcement Response," Robert J. Barry, National + Sherrif, 4 pp., (CAN) negative + + 2/87 "Crimes of the Occult," Carole Allen w/ Pat Metoyer, Police + Magazine, 13 pp., (WLPA) negative + + 2/8/87 "Maclaine Failed In Search for God," Letter to the Ed. by Jo Anne + Coleman, Daily Oklahoman, negative + + 2/8/87 Letters to the Editor, Daily Oklahoman, Re:"Out on a Limb" + "Don't Condemn," R. Scott Taylor, positive + "Satan Fooling People," Greta Nikkel, negative + "Stop Arguing," Karem Kemler, positive + + 2/8/87 "Telephone Threats to Children Put Fla. Police on Armed Alert," + Sunday Oklahoman, neutral + + 2/13/87 "Double Whammy, 13th, Full Moon," Eldon Barrett & Maureen McDonald, + USA Today, neutral to positive + + 2/13/87 "Fla. Child Abuse Probe Minimizes Satanism Link," Timothy McQuay, + USA Today, neutral to positive + + * 2/15/87 "Satanic worship," (AP/CMBBS) + + * 3/4/87 "Cult Calls," San Jose, CA, (AP/CMBBS) neutral to negative + + * 3/7/87 "Margo McKee," S.J. Guffey, Moses Lake, WA (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 3/14/87 "Cult Probe," Deming, NM (AP/CMBBS) + + * 3/14/87 "Cult," Deming, NM (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 3/15/87 "High School Principal Says Allegations of Satanic Cult + Overblown," Deming, NM (AP/CMBBS) + + 3/15/87 "Police Battling Satan's Evil Shadow," Charlie Brennan, Rocky + Mountain News, (CuCo) negative + + 3/15/87 "Satanic Gang Rears Its Head With Graffiti," Charlie Brennan, Rocky + Mountain News, (CuCO) negative + + 3/15/87 "Area Rates As Inferno For Occult," Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain + News, (CuCo) negative + + 3/15/87 "Police Probing Reports of Satanic Cult in N.M.," Rocky Mountain + News, (AP/CuCo) negative + + 3/16/87 "Killer Blames Satan For Turn To Crime," Charlie Brennan, Rocky + Mountain News, 2 pp., (CuCo) negative + + 3/16/87 "Adolescents Susceptible to Satanism," Rocky Mountain News Staff, + Rocky Mountain News, (CuCo) negative + + 3/16/87 "Evidence Points to Satanic Crimes in State," Rocky Mountain News + Staff, Rocky Mountain News, (CuCo) negative + + * 3/16/87 "Colorado Satanism," Denver, CO, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 3/21/87 "Finders," Ed Birk, (AP/CMBBS) + + * 3/21/87 "Jury Recommends Death for Cult Slayer," Susan Kuczka, Wheaton, + IL, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 3/23/87 "Manson Followers Run Prison," + + 3/24/87 "Into the Dark," Ben Fenwick, Oklahoma Daily, neutral to negative + + 3/26/87 "Clarification Re: Into the Dark," Letter to the Ed. by Bob Bursick, + Oklahoma Daily, neutral + + * 3/26/87 "Canadian Witch," (AP/CMBBS) positive + + * 3/28/87 "Chef Murder," Flemington NJ, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 3/30/87 "Satanic Signs," Oxford, MI (AP/CMBBS) + + 4/87 "Which Is Witch," Letter to Police Magazine by A.J. Monaghan & C. Allen + Reed, positive + + * 4/2/87 "Watson Unremorseful for Manson Family Killings, Psychiatrists + Say," Michael Malinski, San Louis Obispo, CA, (CMBBS) negative + + 4/2/87 "Prayer Session Turns Into A Devil Of a Time," Albany (OR) Democrat, + (ED) neutral to positive + + * 4/13/87 "Music Protest," Joel Williams, Dallas, TX, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 4/15/87 "Brewing Pagan Political Magic," Ellie Kirzner, Now Magazine, 2 pp., + (ED) positive + + 4/16/87 "Little House of Horrors," Terry E. Johnson, Newsweek + + * 5/3/87 "Satanic Cults," (AP/CMBBS) + + * 5/4/87 "Grave Robbing," Westminster, MD, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 5/5/87 "Wyoming Satanic Worship," Riverton, WY, (CMBBS) negative + + 5/6/87 "Occult Crimes," Jim Bryant, Police Magazine, 5 pp., (WLPA) negative + + * 5/6/87 "Ma, I'm No Warlock," by Dana Kennedy, (AP/CMBBS) neutral + + * 5/6/87 "Priest Charges," (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 5/7/87 "Ritualistic Abuse," Roy Formanek, Chicago, (AP) negative + + 5/9/87 "Salem Has The Nation, Media Spellbound," Mark Pillsbury, Salem (MA), + News, (WLPA) positive + + 5/10/87 "Cults Legal, But Can Be Dangerous," Harry Saltzgraver, Pueblo (CO) + Chieftan, (CuCo) negative + + 5/11/87 "Two Teens Testify In Sexual Attack Case," Daily Oklahoman, negative + + * 5/11/87 "Voodoo Thieves," Linda Jones, Detroit News, (CMBBS) negative + + * 5/12/87 "Satanic Sheets," Laguna Niguel, CA (AP/CMBBS) silly + + 5/13/87 "Arkansas Man Held In Attack On His Parents," Daily Oklahoman, + negative + + 5/13/87 "A Political Potion. `Witch' Cabot In Mayoral Run," Mark Pillsbury, + Salem (MA) News, (WLPA), negative + + * 5/14/87 "Manson Disciple," San Louis Obispo (CA), (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 5/21/87 "Prison's Chaplaincy Program Needs More Counseling Staff," Bismarck + (ND) Tribune, (PW) neutral to positive + + * 5/25/87 "Satanic Worship," Michigan City, IN (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 5/28/87 "Witch Mayor," (AP/CMBBS) positive + + 5/29/87 "Witch Casts Spell On Race," Mark Pillsbury, Salem (MA) News, + (WLPA) positive + + * 5/30/87 "Devilish Invitations," Jeffersonville, IN, (AP) silly + + 6/87 "Crimes of the Occult Not A Witch Hunt: Editorial," Gregg A. Payne, + Police Magazine, (WLPA) neutral to negative + + 6/4/87 "Writers Find Salvo's Remarks Offensive To Witches," Letters to the + Ed., Salem Evening News, + "No Passing Fad," Christine Dumas, positive + "Apology Due," Claudia Dremann, positive + "Here To Stay," B.J. Stenberg, positive + "Hatred Perpetuated," Tina Sciola, positive + "Never Again," Jo and James Dixon, positive + "Long Lasting Fad," Cathy Beer, positive + + * 6/20/87 "Witches Gather," Lake Tawakoni, TX, (AP/CMBBS) positive + + 7/4/87 "Rainbow Nation: 60's Live Again," Mike Foley, The Gastonia Gazette, + neutral to negative + + 7/4/87 "Counterculture Tribes Townspeople Co-Existing," Mike Foley, Gastonia + Gazette, neutral to negative + + * 7/17/87 "Devil Worship," Salem, MA, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 7/24/87 Letters to the Ed., Prince George's Journal, "Questions Authority to + Pray to `Our Mother'" by Rodgers Gore (CS) negative + + 8/1/87 Letters to the Ed., Prince George's Journal, "Religious Tolerance + Respect Urged," by Cybele Selene, (CS) positive + + 8/87 "Unplugging the New Age," Tim Minnery, Focus on the Family Magazine, + neutral + + 8/22/87 "Reputation Undeserved, Practicing Witch Claims," Letter to Ann + Landers, Daily Oklahoman, positive + + 9/87 New Woman Magazine -- "Witchcraft," Joan Scobey, 5 pp., positive; + "Altered States of Mind", Joan Scobey, positive; "One Witch's Story", Lois + Bourne, positive + + 9/5/87 "Witchcraft Connection Not True," Letter to Dear Abby, Daily + Oklahoman positive + + 9/8/87 "Folk Sayings Can Help You Predict the Weather," Cliff Barr, National + Enquirer, neutral to positive + + 10/2/87 "Halloween Opponents Get School to Ban Boos," Buffalo News, (BE) + neutral to negative + + 10/11/87 "When Demons Preyed, Part 1," Edward Baumann and John O'Brien, + Chicago Trubune, 2 pp. negative + + 10/12/87 "When Demons Preyed, Part 2," Edward Baumann and John O'Brien. + The Chicago Tribune, 2 pp. negative + + 10/17/87 "The Brigade of Light," Jerome Klein, Creative Loafing, neutral + + 10/25/87 "Witches or Wimps? You Make the Call," Alex Heard, Washington Post + Magazine + + 10/28/87 "Felines Placed on Hold," Daily Oklahoman negative + + 10/30/87 "Real-Life Witch Calls Coven Home," Kevan Goff-Majors, Daily + Oklahoman positive + + 10/30/87 "Halloween Big Night for Witches," Kevan Goff-Majors, Daily + Oklahoman positive + + 10/30/87 "Don't Deny Children the Fun of Halloween," USA Today, positive + + 10/30/87 "Protect Our Children From Evil of Halloween," Ralph P. Forbes, USA + Today negative + + 10/30/87 "More Fun For Kids Than Mothers," Sherry Roberts, USA Today, + neutral + + 10/30/87 "The Halloween Sadist, Bogyman for Our Time," Joel Best, USA Today, + negative + + 10/30/87 "Witches: A Persecuted Minority," Leo Louis Martello, USA Today, + positive + + 10/30/87 "Voices From Across The USA, How Do You Feel About the Celebration + of Halloween?" USA Today, positive & negative + + 10/31/87 "Bewtiching: Covens of the '80s Don't Match Lore Stirred by Tales + Of Halloween Past," Carol McGraw, Los Angeles Times, (WLPA) positive + + * 11/2/87 "Wyoming Satanic Rituals," Rawlings, WY, (CMBBS) negative + + * 11/3/87 "Satanism," San Francisco, CA, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + * 11/7/87 "Double Homicide," Rockford, IL, (AP)CMBBS) + + 11/7/87 "Satanic Material Linked to Thefts in Nichols Hills," R.L. Smith, + Daily Oklahoman, negative + + * 11/11/87 "Devil Worship," Dennis Oliver, Hayward, CA, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 11/17/87 Letters to the Ed., Daily Oklahoman + "Witch Articles Glorify the Occult," by John & Helen Crawford, negative + "Witch Badly Needs God," by Mark James, negative + + 11/20/87 "Suspects' Occultism Doubted," by Paul Shell, Daily Oklahoman, + neutral + + * 11/20/87 "Satanic claim," San Francisco, CA, (AP/CMBBS) negative + + 11/22/87 "Southeast's `Witches' Dismiss Occult Rumors," Sharon Hamric, + Wichita Eagle-Beacon, (LL) neutral to negative + + 11/27/87 "Witches in U.S. Military Forces Seeking Recognition of Religion," + Daily Oklahoman, (AP) positive + + 11/30/87 Letters to the Ed., Daily Oklahoman + "Lady Lathina Deserves Praise," by Rick Holland, positive + + * 12/18/87 "Unknown Children," (AP/CMBBS) + + 1988 + + 1/5/88 "Ceremonial Blessing," Daily Oklahoman positive + + 1/7/88 "For this Detective, Staking Out Graves Is Just Part of the Job," + Alex Kotlowitz, Wall Street Journal (WLPA) negative + + 1/8/88 "Callers Back Courses In Supernatural," Ron Davis, Springfield (MO) + News Leader, (WLPA) neutral to positive + + 1/10/88 Letters to the Ed., Insight Magazine, Springfield (MO) News-Leader, + "Springfield's Fundamentalists Seem to be on Witch Hunt" by Lee Prosser, + (WLPA) positive + + 1/11/88 "Teen Kills Mom, Then Self," Gastonia Gazette, (RW) negative + + 1/12/88 "Devil Worshipper Holds Sensitive Army Post and TopBrass Say `No + Problem'," Chris Fuller, The National Enquirer, negative + + 1/13/88 "Study Leads to Tragedy," Daily Oklahoman, negative + + 1/13/88 "Courses in Supernatural May Arise From Dead," RonDavis, + Springfield (MO) News-Leader, (WLPA) neutral to positive + + 1/17/88 "Reincarnation Belief Cited in Boy's Burning," Paul Shell, Daily + Oklahoman, negative + + 1/17/88 Letters to the Ed., Springfield (MO) News-Leader + "Oppose Repression by Writing School Officials" by Nora Jennings, negative + "Prejudice, Ignorance Stifle Courses in Occult," by Jim Kelley, positive + "Witchcraft Courses Lure Unwary to Devil's Work," by Rev. James Mills, + negative (PW) + + 2/1/88 "The Dawn of Religion," Sharon Begley w/ Elizabeth Jones, Newsweek + (WLPA) historical + + 2/88 "Satanism and Crime," Criminal Intelligence Report, 5 pp., (WLPA) + negative + + 2/10/88 Letters to the Ed., Oklahoma Gazette, + "Another Hoax is Trotted Out," by Don Watson, negative + + 2/18/88 "Devils Work," John Pifer, Province, (PW) negative + + 2/28/88 "Discovery of Body May Rewrite European History," Fargo (ND) Forum. + (WLPA) historical background + + 3/88 "Which is General Witch?" Criminal Intelligence Report (WLPA) positive + + 3/88 "Witchcraft in America," Criminal Intelligence Report, 10 pp., (WLPA) + EXCELLENT article, very negative follow up. + + 3/9/88 "Sheriff Seeks Library List on Occult," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, + (AP/BH) negative + + 3/18/88 "School Deviled by Rumors," Daily Oklahoman, (AP) negative + + 3/24/88 "Ultimate Evil, Ultimate Victory," Laurie Jamis, Bismarck Tribune, + (PW) negative + + 3/24/88 "Vandals Start Fires, Paint School," Bismarck Tribune, (PW) negative + + 3/26/88 "Satanic Crime Increasing? Police, Therapists Alarmed," Melissa + Berg, Kansas City Times, (BW) negative + + 3/26/88 "Therapists Unlock Horrors of Cult Abuse," Melissa Berg, Kansas City + Times, (BW) negative + + 3/26/88 "Satanists Classified by Police," Melissa Berg, Kansas City Times, + (BW) negative + + 3/26/88 "Fascination With Occult Spans Centuries," Melissa Berg, Kansas City + Times, (BW) negative + + 4/2/88 "Priest Sought in Connection With Mafia Narcotics Ring," Alex + Michelini & Patrice O'Shaughnessy, New York Daily News, (PW) + + 4/15/88 "British Lawmaker Urges Outlawing of Witchcraft," Albany (OR) + Democrat-Herald, (AP/WLPA) negative + + 4/17/88 "State Trooper Charged With Sex Assaults," Bismarck Tribune, (PW) + negative + + 5&6/88 "Satanism and its Relationship to Crime," Police and Security News, + 2 pp., (WLPA) negative + + 5&6/88 "Satanic Groups Updated," Herbert Peterson, Police Marksman, 2 pp., + (WLPA) negative + + 5/8/88 "Witches--The Lawrence-based `Web of Oz' Network Fights `Bad Witch' + Stereotypes," Topeka Capital-Journal Accent, 3 pp., (WLPA) positive + + 5/8/88 "Canada's Most Visible Witch Seeks Acceptance of Beliefs," Jeff + Bradley, Lawrence Journal World, (WLPA) positive + + 5/13/88 "Witch Is It To Be?" News Services (KC) positive + + 5/16/88 "Witches' Fight Brewing in Election of King" London Observer + Service, Bismarck Tribune (PW) positive + + 5/16/88 "Unholy Smoke!" by News Services, Province (KC) negative + + 5/22/88 "Satanism Feared in Eastern Colo. Child-Abuse Case," Paul + Hutchinson, Denver Post, 3 pp., (CuCo) negative + + 5/22/88 "4-year-old Tells Horrifying Story of Ritualistic Abuse," Paul + Hutchinson, Denver Post, 2 pp., (CuCo) negative + + 5/29/88 "Experts Say Sheriff Needs Help on Akron Abuse Case," Paul + Hutchinson, Denver Post, 2 pp., (CuCo) negative + + 5/29/88 "Johns Failed to File Charges on Seperate Occasions, Suit Says," + Paul Hutchinson, Denver Post, (CuCo) negative + + 6/1/88 "Parson Urges Christians to Bedevil Satan," Mary Miller, Salem + Evening News, (WLPA) negative + + 6/2/88 "Salem Witches: We Are NOT Satan Followers, Group Responds to + Spiritual Warfare," Mary Miller, Salem Evening News, (WLPA) positive + + 6/7/88 "They Sat in Nude Group," Barbara McLintock, Province, (KC) neutral + + 6/8/88 "Borrowed Rituals," Barbara McLintock, Province, (KC) neutral + + 6/9/88 "Ritual Kisses," Barbara McLintock, Province, (KC) neutral + + 6/10/88 "Marijuana Used `As Sacrament'," Barbara McLintock, Province, (KC) + neutral + + 6/11/88 "Cult `was really fun'," Staff Reporter, Province (KC) neutral + + 6/12/88 "`Witch Show' Casts a Spell," Barbara McLintock, Province, (KC) + neutral + + 6/14/88 "Witch Spurns Devil Worship," Barbara McLintock, Province, (KC) + neutral + + 6/16/88 "Satanic `Reminders'," Barbara McLintock, Province, (KC) neutral + + 6/17/88 "Pace Church Members Consign Immoral Toys to Trash Bin," Allison + Smith, Pensacola (FL) News-Journal, (WLPA) negative + + 6/17/88 "Evil May be Child's Play, Author Says," Dave Goodwin, Pensacola + News-Journal, 2 pp., (WLPA) negative + + 6/22/88 "Witch Accuser Ousted," John Trethewey, Province, (KC) positive + + 6/23/88 "Holy War?" Province, (KC) positive + + 6/23/88 "Coven God `is Christ'," Barbara McLintock, Province, (KC) neutral + + 6/24/88 "`They'd Kill Jesus'," Staff Reporter, Province, (KC) neutral + + 6/29/88 "He Listens to the Devil," Barbara McLintock, Province, (KC) neutral + + 7/3/88 "Spellbinding Trial," Barbara Maclintock, Province,(KC) neutral + + 7/3/88 "Symbols Tied to Satan," Barbara MacLintock, Province, (KC) neutral + + 7/5/88 "She Thought She Was Going to Die," Barbara MacLintock, Province, + (KC) neutral + + 7/6/88 "Little Cult on the Prarie?" Twin Cities Reader, (WLPA) negative + + 7/11/88 "Age-Old Fear of New Age Concerns," Derk Kinnane Roelofsma, Insight + Magazine, (WLPA) negative + + 7/13/88 "Witch Query Denied," Don Hauka, Province, (KC) neutral + + 7/14/88 "Two Stillwater Teens Facing Death Charge," Ellen Knickmeyer, + Daily Oklahoman, neutral + + 7/15/88 "Sun A Satanist, Defence Argues," Don Hauka, Province, (KC) neutral + + 7/17/88 "Libel Trial Seeks Naked Truth," Don Hauka, Province, (KC) neutral + + 7/20/88 "Witch Wins -- Jury Says Televangelist Libelled Lion Serpent Sun. + Sun Was Libelled," Don Hauka, Province, (KC) neutral + + 7/21/88 "Appeal Mulled," Don Hauka, Province, (KC) neutral + + 7/21/88 "Thor's Back!" Province, (KC) positive + + 7/21/88 "Violence on Plane," Province, (KC) negative + + 7/26/88 "Devil Worshiping Kids; Shocking Confession, We Killed Chickens, + Dogs, Cats, and a Teenage Girl To Please Satan!" Jack Alexander, Weekly + World News, negative + + 7/26/88 "Ex-Cult Leader Gives Bloodcurdling Account of Evil Rite; I Saw a + Virgin Sacrificed - in the Name of Satan," Dick Donovan, Weekly World News, + negative + + 8/7/88 "Devil Worship Hits the Coastal Bend," Shelley Emling, Corpus Christi + Caller Times, (IOC) negative + + 8/7/88 "Satanism `Sucked In' Local Boy," Shelley Emling, Corpus Christi + Caller Times, (IOC) negative + + 8/8/88 "Teen Satanism Alarms Area Mental-Health Officials," Shelley Emling, + Corpus Christi Caller Times, (IOC) negative + + 8/9/88 "Area Citizens Report Satanism Evidence, Officials Say," Shelly + Emling, Corpus Christi Caller Times, (IOC) negative + + 8/9/88 "Dealing With Satanism, Personal Problems Underlie Cultism, Health + Workers Say," Cindy Tumiel w/ Shelley Emling, Corpus Christi Caller Times + (IOC) negative + + 8/11/88 "Crisis Services Flooded by Calls on Satanic Cults," Dave Ferman, + Corpus Christi Caller Times, (IOC) negative + + 8/12/88 "Vandals Batter Carson Church, Flasher Rectory," Maureen + Willenbring, Bismarck Tribune, (PW) negative + + 8/14/88 "Demonic Possession," Shelley Emling, Corpus Christi Caller Times + (IOC) negative + + 8/14/88 "History Matches Evil Spirits With Good Ones," Rosemary Barnes, + Corpus Christi Caller Times, (IOC) negative + + + ARTICLES OF INDETERMINATE ORIGIN AND DATE + + "Your Favorite Christmas Greenery Has the Power to Repel Demons," (BE) + neutral + + "Which Goddess Represents Your Attitudes & Traits?" (BE) neutral + + "A Bewitching Bash," (BE) neutral + + "Witch `Church' Gains Exemption," (BE) neutral + + "Witch Sues College For Holidays Off," (BE) neutral to positive + + "Convict Sues for Right To Practice Witchcraft In Prison," (BE) positive + + "Witches Are Tax Exempt," Lewis Clifton, (BE) neutral to positive + + "20th Century Witches: A Thoroughly Civilized Lot," Paula Vogel, (BE) + positive) + + "Fire Goddess Jinxes Filchers," Gerda Klein, (BE) neutral to positive + + "Witch-Hunting by Taxation," Daniel Jussim, The Bateman Archives, (BE) + positive + + "45 Are Arrested Trying to Crash Stonehenge Rite," (UPI/BE) neutral + + "Modern-Day Witch Uses Phone Rather than Broomstick to Cast Her Spells," + (BE) VERY POSITIVE + + "How Modern-Day Witches Use Their White Magic to Perform `Helpful' + Miracles," Jim Barnard, (BE) positive + + "Witches Get Into Halloween Spirit," (AP/BE) positive + + "Witches Are Becoming Hospital Nurses! .. With Shocking Success," (BE) + positive + + "They'll Get Head Start on Solstice," Mike Vogel, (BE) neutral + + "Druids, Hippies Ring in Solstice At Stonehenge," (UPI/BE) neutral + + "Investigating Satanic Cults," Robert Gillespie, (CuCo) negative + + "Youth Tells of 2 Years at Satanic Meeting," Pueblo, CO, 2 pp., (CuCo) + negative + + "Girl Soon Learned of Pain," Pueblo CO, 2 pp., (CuCo) negative " The Strange + + "Case of Dianne Cullam," 2 pp., (KC) neutral \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cntrdcts.txt b/religious documents/cntrdcts.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..905da88 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cntrdcts.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2198 @@ +The following messages (about 20 of them) are all parts of a file +of contradictions and curious things in the Old and New Testaments. +It was written by a friend of mine several years ago. I've taken +it from the WordPerfect file it was originally in, but there are some +characters that may have been obliterated, particularly some of the +verse and chapter numbers. In a few cases, I have put a bracketed +note with question marks; in others, I left the original mangled +character. I encourage people to look at all the verses first in +order to appreciate the original verse. + +I found as I was typing this and reading it that I was getting angry: +there are thousands of people who want us to be good christians and +believe as they do, and they have no idea what they believe, only +that It's All True. + + +"Every word of God proves true." says the Bible, Proverbs 30:5. +KJ version). Is the Bible, then, entirely the word of God? Does +every word prove true? Also, is the traditional King James (KJ) +bible an inspired translation, literal, infallable, down to every +jot and tittle, as some denominations have claimed? + + Consider the following. and decide.... + + CONTRADICTIONS + +(This first item is apparent in the KJ version. but much clearer +in other translations, such as the New American Bible.) + + At least two Creation stories appear in the Bible, and they +disagree. The first is in Genesis 1:1 to 2:3, the second in the +remainder of Chapter 2. + + In the first version, God (Elohim in the manuscripts) +created men & women on the same day (1:27). subsequent to the +creation of all animals (1:25). In the second version, God +(Jehovah) created Adam first (2:7). then animals & birds (2:19). +then Eve (2:22). In the first version. trees appeared before man +(1:11): in the second. the world was barren of vegetation at the +time of man's creation (2:5). and plantlife was created later +(2:8-9). + + Compare these with Genesis 5:1-2, a third creation story, +which strongly suggests the simultaneous creation of man & woman. +It states that at the time of the creation of men and women. God +blessed them and called them "man" (in the Hebrew text, adam). + + Most translators and Bible scholars candidly admit the +differences in the Creation stories. and call the first two the +Priestly and the Yahwehist versions. (In particular, see the New +American Bible and its fine commentary.) The versions differ +strongly in texture and language as #ell as content. ln some +translations, however, verb tenses are subtly altered to conceal +the problems. + +(This item is clearest in the New International Bible and the +Revised KJ Bible.) + + Genesis 6:4 The Nephilim (9iants) lived on earth prior +to the Flood. + Genesis 7:23 Only Noah and his family, and the animals +on the Ark, survived the Flood. + + Numbers 13:33 Long after the Flood, the Nephilim +(Giants) still lived. + + + + Genesis 9:3-4 God makes a covenant with Noah: Mankind will +be permitted to eat the flesh of any living creature, as long as +the blood is drained. + + Deuteronomy 14:7-20 God goes back on his word. + + + + Genesis 11:1,6-9 In the days of Babel, generations after the +Flood, the world had one common language. God "confused the +tongues" to create many. + + Genesis 10:5 Prior to this. the Bible speaks of many +"nations", each with its own language. + + Some apologists suggest the Babel story was a "flashback"; +the events in Genesis 11:1-9 actually occured prior to those in +Genesis 10:5. It's possible, but nothing in the source +manuscripts support it. The narrative link at the beginning of +Chapter 11 is the same which elsewhere is translated as "and", +and invaribly implies a normal sucession of events. + + Exodus 4:11 God admitted He is the cause of blindness. +deafness. dumbness. + + Isaiah 53:2 It is sometimes God's will to crush people +or to cause them to suffer. + + Lamentations 3:33 Yet, God does not willingly cause +grief or affliction. + +(In the KJ version:) + + Genesis 15:13.16 God fortold the enslavement of the +descendants of Abram (Abraham). but said they would return in the +"fourth generation". + + The return actually occured in the fifth generation--or the +sixth. if you wish to count Abraham. The generations were: 1. +Abraham: 2. Isaac (Gen 21:3): 3. Levi (Ex 1:3); 4. Kohath (Ex +6:16); 5. Aram (Ex 6:18): 6. Moses (Ex 6:20). + + + + Genesis 11:26.32 Terah lived 135 years after begetting +Abraham. Acts 7:4 + Abraham departed Haran when his father (Terah) was dead. +Genesis 12:4 + + Abraham was 75 years old when he departed Haran. Thus, +after living 135 years. Abraham was only 75 years old! + + + +(In the KJ version:) + + Genesis 23:1 God tempted Abraham. + + James 1:13 God tempts no one. + + + + Who brought Joseph to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, the +courtier of Pharaoh? + + Genesis 37:38,36 The Midianites. + + Geneis 39:1 The Ishmaelites. + + + + Exodus 3:10. 4:19-23 God sent Moses to Egypt to speak to +Pharaoh. + + Exodus 4:24-26 God immediately and arbitrarily attempted to +kill Moses before Moses could carry out the mission. No +explanation provided. + + + + Exodus 9:3-6 God killed all the cattle (field animals) of +the Egyptians with a grevious murrain. including the horses. +asses, camels, oxen and sheep. None survived the plague. + + Exodus 9:19-21,25 Later. at least some of the Egyptian field +animals were mysteriously alive again, to suffer a plague of +hail. + + + + Exodus 6:2-3 God informed Moses that previousiy His name +(Jehovah) had been unknown even to the patriarchs. such as +Abraham. Isaac and Jacob. + + Genesis 4:26 long before this. men began to call on the +name of the Lord, "Jehovah". + + Genesis 22:14 Abraham named a place Jehovah-jireh. "The +Lord will provide." + Note: In each passage in the Pentateuch manuscripts. the +name given is Yod-He-Vau-He, YHVH. generally interpreted as +"Yahweh", "Yehovah" or "Jehovah". + + + + Exodus 20:4 Image-making forbidden. + + Exodus 25:18 Commanded. + + + + Exodus 20:13 Murder forbidden. + + Exodus 23:27 Commanded. + + + + Exodus 20:15 Stealing forbidden. + + Exodus 3:21-22 Commanded. + + + + Exodus 20:16 Lying forbidden. + + I Kings 22:20 Commanded. + + + + Leviticus 11:6 The Bible maintains that hares chew cud, +like cows. + + leviticus 11:21-23 Also, that locusts. beetles and +grasshoppers have four legs. + + + + Leviticus 3:17, 11:1-47 God gave many rules about what +may be eaten or handled. + + Colossians 2:21-22 Such rules come from man, not God. + + + + Leviticus 19:15 You must judge your neighbor. + + Matthew 7:1 Judge not. + + + +(In the KJ version:) + + Numbers 23:19; I Samuel 15:29 God does not repent. + Genesis 6:6; Exodus 32:14: I Samuel 15:11.35: Psalms 42:10: +Jonah 3:10 God does repent. + + + + Numbers 23:19: Titus 1:2 God cannot lie. + + I Kings 22:20-30: II Chronicles 18:19-22 God +deliberately sent a "lying spirit" into the mouth of Ahab's +prophets. + + II Thessalonians 2:11-12 God sends delusions on people to +make them believe false things and be damned. + + Ezekiel 13:9. 14:9 The Lord deceives prophets (puts false +words into their mouths) in order to get rid of them. + + + + Numbers 31:7.9,15-18 The Israelites slew all the +Midianites. except some of the female children. + + Judges 6:1.5 Later. the Midianites invaded the +Israelites. + + + + Numbers 33:37-42 Aaron died on Mount Hor, on the border of +Edom. Immediately thereafter. the Israelites went to Zalmonah +and Punon. + + Deuteronomy 10:6-7 Aaron died in Moserah. Right after that, +the Israelites traveled to Gudgodah and Jotbathah. (See also +Deut 32:50.) + + + + Deuteronomy 6:5: Matthew 22:37 We must love God. + + Deuteronomy 6:13: I Peter 2:17 We must fear God. + + I John 4:18 Perfect love cannot be mingled with fear. + + + + Who inscribed the Ten Commandments on the second set of +stone tablets? + + Deuteronomy 10:1-2.4 God inscribed them. + + Exodus 34:27-28 God dictated whiie Moses inscribed them. + + + Joshua 8:28 Joshua burnt the city of Ai, making it an +ash heap forever. + + Nehemiah 7:32 Ai still exists as a city. + + + + Joshua 10:38-39 Joshua utterly destroyed the inhabitants of +Debir; he did not leave a living soul. + + Joshua 15:15,17; Judges 1:1,11,13 Othniel the son of Kenaz +conquored Debar. It's evident that this was after Joshua's +death. + + + + Judges 4:21 Jael killed Sisera by driving a tent stake +through his head while he slept, fastening his head to the +ground. + + Judges 5:26-27 When Jael killed Sisera. he sank to the +ground at her feet. and died. + + + + I Samuel 15:7-8,20 Saul completely destroyed the +Amalekites. + + I Samuel 27:8-9 Then David completely destroyed the +Amalekites. + + I Samuel 30:1-2,17 Later, David destroyed a raiding +party of Amalekites. Only 400 men escaped. + + I Chronicles 4:42-43 Finally the Simeonites killed all +the Amalekites. + + + + I Samuel 16:10.11 Jesse had seven sons besides his +youngest, David. + + I Chronicles 2:13-15 David was the seventh son. + + + + How did King Saul become acquainted with David? Two +contradictory accounts: + + I Samuel 16:18-23 Saul met David when David entered Saul's +servce as a royal harper. David was a warrior. A servant +informed Saul of the identity of David's father. Thereafter +David remained in Saul's service as both harper and armor bearer. + I Samuel 17:14-15,26,31-32,55-56, 18:1-2 David was a +shepherd, and unlike his brothers did not follow Saul to war. +Saul sent for him. having heard that David was asking about the +reward for killing Goliath. Saul did not know the identity of +David's father, and had to ask. Thereafter David remained in +Saul's service and did not return home. + + + + I Samuel 28:6 Saul attempted to consult the Lord. + + I Chronicles 10:13-14 Saul did no such thing. + + + + How did King Saul die? + + I Samuel 31:4-6: I Chronicles 10:4-5 He committed suicide. +II Samuel 1:8-10 An Amalekite slew him. + + II Samuel 21:12 The Philistines slew him. + + + + How many horsemen did David take from Hadadezer? + + II Samuel 8:4 Seven hundred. + + I Chronicles 18:4 Seven thousand. + + + + II Samuel 10:18 David slew 700 Aramean charioteers and +40,000 horsemen. + + I Chronicles 19:18 He slew 7000 Aramean charioteers and +40,000 footmen. + + + + II Samuel 24:9 & I Chronicles 21:5 Contrary census +totals for Israel. + + + + I Kings 6:2: II Chronicles 3:3 The size of Solomon's temple +was about ninety feet by thirty feet by fourty-five feet high. + + I Chronicles 23:4 And yet, managing it required 23.000 +servants. + + + How many chiefs or officers did Solomon have to oversee the +people? I Kings 9:23 Five hundred fifty. + + II Chronicles 8:10 Two hundred fifty. + + + + I Kings 16:6,8 Baasha, King of Israel. died in the 26th +year of Asa's reign over Judah. + + II Chronicles 16:1 In the 36th year of Asa's reign, +Baasha built a city. + + + + I Chronicles 21:1 Satan "rose up" against Israel and +incited King David to take a census. + + II Samuel 24:1 It was God who directly incited the census +(apparently seeking an excuse to vent anger on Israel). + + In both versions, God responded by killing thousands of +Israelites (I Chron 21:7 onward & II Samuel 24:15 onward). In +both versions, David criticised God for slaughtering so many +innocents (I Chron 21:17, II Samuel 24:17). + + + + II Samuel 24:24 King David paid 50 shekels of silver for the +threshing floor, oxen, wheat, etc.. which he appropriated for +ceremonial purposes. + + I Chronicles 21:1 He paid 600 shekels of gold. + +(Most explicit in the New American Bible and the International +Bible:) + + I Samuel 17:23.50-51 David slew the Philistine, Goliath of +Gath. + +II Samuel 21:19 Elhanan son of Jair slew Goliath of Gath. Note: +In the standard KJ translation, the story is altered in the +second instance, so that Elhanan slays the cousin of Goliath; the +prevarication is disclosed by the italics in most editions. The +contradiction stands in the source texts. See any good Bible +commentary. + + + +(Clearest in the Revised KJ version:) + + II Samuel 6:23 Michal. the daughter of Saul, was +childless. + II Samuel 21:8 She bore five sons. + + Note: The Authorized (standard) KJ version says Michal +"brought up" the five sons. but the more honest Revised KJ +version makes it clear that these were her sons by birth. Some +other translations substitute "Merab" or "Merob" for Michal in +the same passage, but translators and commentators admit that in +the majority of Septuagint sources, the name is Michal. + + + +(In the New International Bible:) + + II Kings 1:17 Joram became King of Israel in the second year +that Jehoram son of Jehosaphat reigned over Judah. + + 11 Kings 8:16 Jehoram son of Jehosaphat became King of Judah +in the fifth year of Joram's reign over Israel. Note: Joram +(son of Ahab). the King of Israel. was also sometimes called +Jehoram. Do not confuse him with the other Jehoram (son of +Jehosaphat). the King of Judah. Again. see any good commentary. + + + + II Kings 9:6-9, 10:11,30 The Lord commanded Jehu to destroy +the house of Ahab. Jehu obeyed. destroying everyone in the city +of #ezreei who was of the house of Ahab, including friends and +priests. God commended him for these actions. + + Hosea 1:4 God promises to punish the House of Jehu for +the massacre. + + + +(In the KJ and Revised KJ versions only:) + + How old was King Ahaziah when he began to reign? + + II Kings 8:26 22 years old. + + II Chronicles 22:2 42 years old. + + + + II Kings 16:5 King Ahaz of Judah (Jerusalem) was not +conquered by the kings of Israel and Syria. (See also Isaiah +7:1-7. in which God prophesied that Israel and Syria will fail to +conquor Jerusalem.) + + II Chronicles 28:5-6 The kings of Israel and Syria did +conquer him. + + + II Kings 23:29-30 King Josiah was slain at Magiddo. +Servants brought his dead body to Jerusalem. + + II Chronicles 35:22-24 He was wounded at Magiddo. Servants +brought him alive to Jerusalem, where he died. + + + + II Kings 25:19-20 Nebuzaradan, commander of the invading +Babylonian army, took five royal advisors as prisoners. + + Jeremiah 52:25-26 He took seven advisors as prisoners. + + + + Compare Ezra 2:1-67 with Nehemiah 7:6-68 to find a number of +contradictions. Each passage purports to be a comprehensive +list, by family unit, of the inhabitants of Jerusalem who +returned from Babylonian captivity. Compare numbers for each +family: fourteen of them disagree. Moreover the addition is +wrong. Both Ezra and Nehemiah put the total at 42,360 plus 2,337 +servants. but simple addition shows it to be 29,818 in Ezra, and +31.089 in Nehemiah. + + + + + + Psalms 104:5 (KJ version); Ecclesiastes 1:4 The Earth will +last forever. + +II Peter 3:10; Hebrews 1:10-11 The Earth will perish. + + + + Proverbs 26:4 & 26:5 Contradictory advice, in adjacent +verses! + + + + Leviticus, chapters 1-7 After delivering the Jews from +Egypt, God went into minute detail regarding sacrifices and burnt +offerings. + + Jeremiah 7:22 God denied that he ever said anything +about sacrifices or burnt offerings. + + + + Job 7:9: Ecclesiastes 9:5 The dead will never rise +again. They will have no further reward. + + John 5:28-29: I Corinthians 15:16,52 The dead will rise +again to be rewarded or punished. + + + Deuteronomy 24:16: II Kings 14:16; II Chronicles 25:4 The +son should not be punished for the father's sin. Every man bears +guilt only for his own transgressions. + + Ezekiel 18:20 Again. the son does not bear guilt for the +sins of the father. + + Exodus 20:5 Ang yet. God blames children for the iniquities +of the father. even for four generations. + + Deuteronomy 5:9 His curse or punishment may extend far +beyond the third or fourth generation. + + Romans 5:12,14.19, 6:23 Also, all men are considered sinners +because of Adam's sin. Death, the punishment for sin, is +inflicted even on those who did not sin, because Adam sinned. + + + + Who was the father of Joseph--Jacob (Matthew 1:16) or Heli +(Luke 3:23)? The Bible provides two geneoiogies for #oseph. +Jesus's earthly Father, one in Chapter 1 of Matthew and the other +in Chapter 3 of Luke. Both are by line of male descent. They +contradict. See Luke 3:23-31 and Matthew 1:6-15 for the +conflicting Portions. The two versions occasionally come +together so other questions occur. For example, who was father +to Sheatiel and grandfather to Zerubbabel? Was it Neri (Luke +3:27) or Jeconiah (Matt 1:12)? + + More problems arise when we compare the New Testament +geneologies with the version in the first chapters of I +Chronicles. For example, in Matthew, the son of Zerubbabel +(Zorobabbel) is Abiud (Matthew 1:13). In Luke, his son is Rhesa +(Luke 3:27). But I Chronicles lists seven sons for Zerubbabel (I +Chron 3:19-20), and neither Abiud nor Rhesa are among them. + + + + Another problem with the geneology: + + Matthew 1:8-9 Joram was the father of Uzziah (Ozias). who +was the father of Jotham (Joatham). + + I Chronicles 3:11-12 Joram was the father of Ahaziah, father +of Joash, father of Amaziah. father of Azariah--who. finally. was +the father of Jotham. + + + + Yet another problem: + + Matthew 1:11 Josiah was the father of Jechoniah. + I Chronicles 3:15-16 Josiah was the grandfather of +Jechoniah. + + + + And another: + + Matthew 1:12: Luke 3:27 Zerubbabel was the son of +Shealtiel (Salathiel). + + I Chronicles 3:17-19 Zerubbabel was the son of Pedaiah: +Shealtiel was his uncle. + + + + And another: + + Matthew 1:17 Matthew says there were fourteen generations +from the Babylonian captivity to the birth of the Messiah. + + Matthew 1:12-16 Count carefully. There were only +thirteen. + + + + And another: + + Luke 3:35-36 Shelah was the son of Cainan, and great- +grandson of Shem. + + Genesis 11:11-12 Shelah was the son of Arpachsnad. and +grandson of Shem. + + + + John 1:18, 6:46: I John 4:12 No one has ever seen God. + + Exodus 33:11 God says no man will ever see His face and +live. But ... the Lord appeared to Abraham + + (Gen 18:1#. Jacob saw God face-to-face (Gen 32:30). Moses +and the Elders gazed upon God (Exodus 24:9-11). God spoke to +Moses face-to-face (Exodus 33:11: Deut 34:10). God allowed Moses +to see his "back parts" (Exodus 33:22-23). Isaiah saw God in a +vision (Isaiah 6:1,5). Ezekiel also saw God in a vision and +described Him in some detail (Ezekiel 1:27-28). Amos saw God +(Amos 7:7). + + + + Matthew 1:20: Luke 1:26-35 Before Jesus's birth, angels +appeared and clearly informed both Joseph and Mary that their +child was the Son of God. + Luke 2:49-50 In spite of this, Joseph and Mary did not +understand Jesus when he refered to God as his "father". + + + + Matthew 2:1,14-15,22-23 Joseph and his family fled Judea +(Bethlehem) in order to avoid Herod. stayed in Egypt a while, +feared to return to Judea after Herod's death, and so settled in +Galilee (Nazareth). + + Luke 1:26-27, 2:1,4-5,39-40 Joseph was an original resident +of Galilee (Nazareth) at the time of his marriage. only briefly +visited Judea (Bethlehem) to register for the census, and +returned peacefully to Galilee after fulfilling ritual +prescriptions concerning childbirth. + + + + Mark 1:7-13 Immediately after Jesus's baptism and encounter +with Paul, Jesus went into the wilderness for fourty days, and +dwelled alone. + + John 1:27-40 After the encounter, Jesus continued to live +near Galilee, and went about gathering disciples. + + + + Mark 1:14,16-18 Jesus gathered Simon. Andrew and other +disciples after John the Baptist was imprisoned. + + John 1:40-42. 3:22-24 Jesus already had his disciples-- +including Simon and Andrew--before John was imprisioned. + + + + Mark 1:29-30,40-42 Jesus healed the leper after visiting +Simon Peter's house. + + Matthew 8:1-3.14 Jesus heaied the leper before visiting +the house. + + + +(Most explicit in the New American Bible and the New +International bible:) + + Matthew 4:5-8 The Devil took Jesus first to the parapet of +the temple, then to a high place to view all the kingdoms of the +world. + + Luke 4:5-9 The Devil took Jesus first to a high place to +view the kingdoms, then to the parapet of the temple. + + + Matthew 11:2-3: Luke 7:18-22 While imprisioned. John the +Baptist sent followers to Jesus to inquire if Jesus was the +Messiah. + + John 1:29-34,36 John already knew Jesus was the Messiah. + + + + John 3:13 Jesus said that no man but himself has ever +ascended to heaven. + + II Kings 2:11 Elijah ascended to heaven in a whirlwind. + + Genesis 5:24: Hebrews 11:5 Enoch was taken bodily into +Heaven. + + + + Mark 2:26 David ate consecrated bread from the House of God. +and gave some to his companions, in the days of Abiathar the high +priest. + + I Samuel 21:1-6 This event actually occured in the days +of Ahimelech the high priest. + + I Chronicles 24:6: I Samuel 23:6 Abiathar was the son of +Ahimelech (they were high priest at different times). + + + + Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus will give rest and peace to his +followers: his yoke is easy, his burden light. + + Hebrews 12:6 God will disciplin and punish, or scourge, +everyone who comes to him. + + II Timothy 3:12 The followers of Christ will suffer +great persecution. + + + + John 2:14-16 The purging of the temple occured near the +beginning of Jesus's ministry. two or three years before the +crucifixion. + + Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-46 The +purging occured + + Note: Some apologists have suggested that Jesus purged the +temple twice. If so, and if we assume the gospels are +independent accounts as apologists insist. it is remarkab|y +unlikely that one of them shouid mention oniy the first purging. +and three should mention only the second. + + + John 3:36 Only those who beiieve in the Son of God will +be saved. + + Luke 10:25-28 No! To be saved. it suffices to love God +and your fellow man. + + Matthew 19:16-21 Jesus told one man that to gain "eternal +life", it was necessary only to obey the Ten Commandments. Only +if the man wanted to be "perfect" did he need to sell his +possessions and follow Jesus. + + Acts 10:34-5 God will accept anyone who fears Him and +"works righteousness". + + + + John 6:17,19.21 Jesus walked all the way across the +lake: he did not climb into the boat. + + Matthew 14:25,32: Mark 6:48,51 Jesus walked only part +way. and finished the journey in the boat. + + + + Matthew 5:1, 6:9-13, 7:28 Jesus delivered the Lord's Prayer +during the Sermon on the Mount before the multitudes. + + Luke 11:1-4 He delivered it before the disciples alone, and +not as part of the Sermon on the Mount. + + + + Matthew 5:3-11 The sermon contained nine Beatitudes. + + Luke 6:20-22 The sermon contained only four Beatitudes. + + + + Matthew 6:5-6 Jesus condemned public prayer. + + I Timothy 2:8 Paul encouraged public prayer. + + + + Matthew 6:25-28, 30-34 We should take no thought for +ourselves, or for tomorrow: we should not toil: tomorrow will +take care of itself. + + II Thessalonians 3:10 If a man does not provide for himself +or his own, he has denied his faith. and he is worse than an +infidel. + I Corinthians 3:8 If anyone does not work, he should not +be allowed to eat. + + + + Matthew 8:26, 9:9 Jesus acquired Matthew as a disciple +after stilling the tempest. + + Mark 2:14. 4:39 Jesus acquired Matthew (Levi) before +stilling the tempest. Note: The context identifies Levi as +another name for Matthew. Compare Matt 9:9-17 with Mark 2:14-22 +& Luke 5:27-39. or see any good commentary. + + + + Matthew 8:5-7 The Centurion approached Jesus, beseeching +help for a sick servant. + + Luke 7:3.6-7 The Centurion did not approach Jesus. He sent +friends and elders of the Jews. + + + + Compare the names of the Twelve Apostles, meticulously +listed in four places in the Bible. + + Matthew 10:2-4: Mark 3:16-19 Lebbaeus Thaddaeus was one of +the Twelve. + + Luke 6:14-16: Acts 1:13 Judas the brother of James (not +Iscariot) has replaced him. + + + + Acts 13:39 All sins can be forgiven. + + Mark 3:29 Cursing or blaspheming the Holy Spirit is +unforgivable. + + + + Luke 8:41-42 Jairus approached Jesus for help, because +his daughter was dying. + + Matthew 9:18 He asked for help, saying his daughter was +already dead. + + + + Mark 6:8 Jesus instructed his disciples to wear sandals and +take a staff on their journey. + + Matthew 10:9 Jesus instructed them not to take a staff, +not to wear sandals. + + + Matthew 11:12,14. 17:12-13 Jesus said that John the +Baptist was Elijah. + + John 1:21 John the Baptist maintained that he was not +Elijah. See also Malachi 4:5. which predicts that Elijah must +return before the final days of the world. And see Mark 9:13, +where Jesus insists that Elijah has, indeed. returned. + + + + John 5:22 God the Father entrusted all judgment to Jesus. +John 5:27,30, 8:26: Matthew 25:31-32: II Corinthians 5:10; Acts +10:42 Other verses which imply that Jesus passes judgment. + + John 8:15, 12:47 Jesus. however, said that he judges no one. +Luke 12:14; John 8:50 Verses which agree that Jesus does not +judge. I Corinthians 6:2 It will be the "saints" who judge the +whole world. + + + + Mark 8:12-13; Matthew 12:38-40 Jesus announced that no signs +would be given to that generation. except possibly the +Resurrection itself. + + John 20:30: Acts 2:22 Yet. Jesus provided many wonders and +signs. See also: Mark 16:20: Acts 5:12, 8:13 + + + + Matthew 12:40 Jesus predicted that he would spend "three +days and three nights" in the earth. + + Matthew 27:57-60,62, 28:1-6: Mark 15:42-43,46, 16:1-6; Luke +23:53-54, 24:1-3 In fact. Jesus was paced in the tomb on the +evening of Preparation Day, the day before the Jewish Sabbath, +and arose by the morning after the Sabbath. Time elapsed in the +earth: two nights. one day. + + + + Matthew 13:55-56: Mark 6:3; Galatians 1:19 These passages +imply that James the Less, Joseph (Joses), Simon and Judas were +Jesus's brothers. Jesus also seemed to have several sisters. + + Matthew 27:56: Mark 15:40,47 These imply that James and +Joseph (Joses) were sons of some other Mary, not Jesus's mother. + + Matthew 10:3: Mark 3:18 These state that Alpheus was +father to James. + Matthew 27:56 & John 19:25 Taken together, these imply +that Clophas, not Alpheus. was husband to the Mary the mother of +James. + + Note: The Greek word generally translated as "brother" in +the Gospel manuscripts can also sometimes mean "cousin": this may +be a partial resolution to these problems. + +On the other hand. Luke 2:7 imples that Jesus was the first of +several offspring. and John 1[11? - typist]:26-27 suggests that +he had at least one sibling. + + + + Matthew 17:1-2 Six days after Jesus made his prophecy of +his second coming. the Transfiguration occured. + + Luke 9:28-29 It occured after about eight days. + + + + Who requested that James and John, Zebedee's children, +should sit beside Jesus in his Kingdom? + + Matthew 20:20-21 Their mother requested it. + + Mark 10:35-37 James and John made the request. + + + + Matthew 20:29-30 Following this last incident, on the way +out of Jericho, Jesus encountered two blind men. + + Mark 10:46-47 He encountered only one blind man. + + + + Matthew 21:2-7 Next, two of the disciples brought Jesus an +ass and a colt from the village of Bethphage. + + Mark 11:2-7 The brought him only a colt. + + + + Matthew 21:17-19 Jesus cursed the fig tree after purging +the temple. + + Mark 11:14-15.20 He cursed it before the purging. + + + + Mark 11:12-14,20 The morning after Jesus cursed the fig +tree. the disciples noticed it had withered. and expressed +astonishment. + Matthew 21:9 The fig tree withered immediately. and the +disciples registered surprise then and there. + + + + Matthew 23:35 Jesus said that Zechariah was the son of +Berechiah. + + II Chronicles 24:20-22 Zechariah was the son of Jehoiada. + + + + John 13:34-35 Jesus commanded us to love one another: in +this #ay. all men will recognize his disciples. + + Luke 14:26 You cannot be a disciple of Jesus unless you hate +your father and mother, your siblings, your children. your wife. + + + + Mark 14:16-18: Luke 22:13-14 The Last Supper was the +Passover meal. + + John 13:1. 18:28,39. 19:14-18 The Last Supper occured +the day just before Passover. The trial and curcifixion occured +on Passover Day. + + + + John 18:12 Jesus was arrested by a detachment of Roman +soldiers and some Jewish officials. + + Matthew 26:47: Mark 14:43: Luke 22:47 Jesus was +arrested by "multitudes" sent by the priests. + + + + John 18:19,24 After his arrest, Jesus's preliminary +interrogation was before Annas; after that, he was brought to +Caiaphas. + + Matthew 26:57 He was led directly to Caiaphas. + + + + Matthew 27:28 Immediately after Pilate had Jesus flogged. +the soldiers dressed Jesus in a scarlet robe. + + Mark 15:17: John 19:2 It was a purple robe. + + + + Mark 14:30,57-72 As Peter denied Jesus three times, the +cock crowed twice. + Luke 22:34.60-61: Matthew 26:34.69-74 The cock crowed only +once. Note that each version of the story conveniently adjusts +Jesus's prophecy to fit the events. + + + + To whom did Peter make his three denials? + + First denial: to a maid and others (Matt 26:69-70): to the +maid only (Mark 14:66-68). + + Second denial: to another maid (Matt 26:71-72); to a man +(Luke 22:58): to several people (John 18:55). + + Third denial: to several bystanders (Matt 26:73-74): to a +single man (Luke 22:59-60); to one of the servants (John 18:26- +27). + + + + Matthew 27:3-8 Judas returned the thirty pieces of silver to +the chief priests, then hanged himself. The priests used the +silver to establish a graveyard. + + Acts 1:16-18 Judas purchased land with the silver, and +subsequently died in a fall. + + + + John 19:17 Jesus carried his own cross. + + Matthew 27:32: Mark 15:21: Luke 23:26 Simon the Cyrenian +was forced to carry Jesus's cross. + + + + Mark 15:25 Jesus was crucified at about 9:00 a.m. (the +"third hour"). + + John 19:14-15,31 He was crucified after noon on Preparation +Day (the "sixth hour"). + + + + Each Gospel reports a different wording for the inscription +placed above Jesus during the crucifixion. + + Matthew 27:37 The inscription was, "This is Jesus the +King of the Jews." + + Mark 16:26 The inscription was simply, "The King of the +Jews". + Luke 23:38 It was. ''This is the King of the Jews,'' in +three languages. + + John 19:19 It was. "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the +Jews." + + + + Mark 15:32: Matthew 27:44 Both of the criminals +crucified with Jesus taunted him. + + Luke 23:39 Only one of the criminals taunted him. + + + + Matthew 27:46-50: Mark 15:34-37 Jesus's last words were: +"My God. my God. why hast thou forsaken me?" (KJ version). +(According to Matthew, he cried out once more in a loud voice.) +Then Jesus died. + + Luke 23:46 Jesus's last words were. "Father, into your hands +I commend my spirit." Then Jesus died. + + John 19:30 The last words were, "It is finished." Then +Jesus died. + + + + Matthew 27:55-56: Mark 15:40; Luke 23:49 The women, +including Mary Magdalene and Jesus's mother, watched the +crucifixion from a "distance" or from ''afar". + + John 19:25 They stood near the cross or next to the +cross. + + + +(KJ Version only:) + + Luke 23:44 At the moment of Jesus's death, darkness covered +the whole earth for three hours. + + But extensive documents are available from this period in +history. No historian. no scientist. no astronomer--in Rome. +Greece. Egypt. Palestine. Arabia. India. China or any other +land--reported such an unusuai phenomenon. + + + +(In the New American Bible and the New International Bible:) + + Luke 23:54-56, 24:1 On the day before the Sabath, the women +prepared spices and ointments for Jesus's body. + Mark 16:1 They did not purchase the spices until the day +after the Sabath. + + + + How many women visited Jesus's tomb on the morning of the +Resurrection, and when? + +What did they discover? + + John 20:1 Mary Magdalene. alone, first visited the tomb. +It was "still dark." She found the stone rolled away. + + Matthew 28:1-2 It was Mary Magdaline and another Mary who +visited the tomb. It was dawn. They found the tomb still +covered: thereupon an angel rolled back the stone. + + Mark 16:1-4 The visitors were Mary Magdalene, Mary the +mother of James, Johanna, and an undetermined number of other +women. They found the stone rolled back. + + + + John 20:8-9 The disciples did not know or understand that +Jesus was to rise from the dead. + + Luke 14:6-8: Matthew 20:17-19. 27:63-64: Mark 8:31, 10:34 +Jesus had carefully explained to them. in simple terms. that this +was to happen. Even Jesus's enemies understood the prophecy of +the Resurrection. + + + + Matthew 28:2.5: Mark 11 [???]:5-6 Immediately upon visiting +Jesus's tomb. the women met one young man or angel. who +addressed them. + + Luke 24:4-5 The women encountered two young men or +angels. + + John 20:8-12 Mary Magdalene met two angels, but only +later, after the disciples had examined the tomb and found it +empty. + + + + Mark 16:1,8 Mary Magdalene, Mary and Salome. discovering +that Jesus had risen from death. fled in fear and said nothing to +anyone. + + Luke 24:8-9 Mary Magdalene, Mary. Johanna and other women. +discovering this, returned and reported to the eleven apostles. + + + Matthew 28:9 The women saw Jesus on their way back to +report to the disciples. + + Luke 24:9,22-23 The women apparently did not see Jesus. + + + + Matthew 28:1,9 Mary Magdaline obviously recognized Jesus +when she first saw him after the Resurrection. + + John 20:14 She did not recognize him. + + + + Matthew 28:16-17 After the Resurrection. Jesus first +appeared to the disciples in Galilee. + + Luke 24:33.36 He first appeared to them in Jerusalem. + + + + Luke 24:15,18,32-34.36,50-51 Jesus appeared first to Celopas +and Simon Peter, then to all eleven disciples; then he +immediately ascended to heaven. + + John 20:14.19,26. 21:1 Jesus appeared first to Mary +Magdalene, then to most of the disciples, a week later to a +larger group of disciples, and later still to the disciples while +they were fishing. + + I Corinthians 15:4-8 Jesus appeared, in order. to Cephas +(Peter). then to "the Twelve" (although Judas was dead at this +time. and the others had not yet appointed Matthias to replace-- +see Acts 1:23.26). then to a crowd of five hundred. then to +James, then to all the apostles, and lastly to Peter. + + + + John 2:13. 5:1 (?). 6:4, 11:55 Jesus's ministry spanned +at least three, perhaps four passovers. + + Matthew 26:1: Mark 14:1: Luke 22:1 The other Gospels mention +only one passover. and strongly imply that Jesus's ministry +lasted only about one year. + + + + Acts 5:21 [???] We ought to obey God rather than man. + + I Peter 2:13-14 Submit yourselves to man's 1aw. + + + Acts 7:15-16 Jacob was buried in Sychem. in a sepulchre +which Abraham had purchased from Emmor. + + Genesis 50:13 Jacob was buried in Canaan. in a cave which +Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite. + + + + Acts 9:7 The men travelling with Saul heard Jesus's +voice. + + Acts 22:9 They did not hear the voice. + + + + Acts 9:19-20,26-30 After his conversion, Paul (Saul) stayed +with the disciples in Damascus, preached in the synagogues. fled +to Jerusalem and preached there also, then went to Tarsus by way +of Caesarea. + + Galatians 1:16-21 After his conversion, Paul "conferred not +with flesh and blood" (KJ version). but instead went off to +Arabia, then returned to Damasucs. Three years later he went to +Jerusalem; the only apostle he met was James. This account. Paul +swears before God, the the true one. Thereafter, Paul says, he +went to Syria and Cilicia. + + + + Acts 13:18-22 (KJ version) The Israelites wandered 40 years +in the wilderness after the release from Egypt. After that they +had judges for 450 years. Then, Saul was king for 40 years. +Total: 530 years. + + Acts 13:18-22 (New International Bible) The time in the +wilderness and the subsequent conquest of seven nations in Cannan +took 450 years. After that, the Jews had judges for an +unspecified period. Then Saul ruied for 40 years. Total: more +than 490 years. + + I Kings 6:1 (both versions) Much, much later, in the fourth +year of Solomon's reign, only 480 years had passed since the +release from Egypt. (Some versions of the Septuagint make this +only 440. making the contradiction even more drastic.) + + + + I Corinthians 11:14 Paul preaches that it is a shame for +any man to have long hair. + + Judges 13:15; Numbers 6:2,5: I Samuel 1:11 All verses which +imply that long hair on a man is. or can be, a sign of holiness. + + + Galatians 2:7-8 Peter was apostle to the Jews. + + Acts 15:7 Peter was apostle to the Gentiles. + + + + Galatians 4:22: Genesis 16:15-16, 21:2-3 Abraham had two +sons: first Ishmael, then Isaac. + + Hebrews 11:17 Isaac was his only son. + + + + I John 4:1-2 If a spirit confesses that Christ has come, +it is a spirit of God. + + Matthew 8:29; Mark 1:23-24. 3:11, 5:7: Luke 4:41 Cases +where demons or unclean spirits confessed that Christ has come. + + + + John 12:3#-40 # Isaiah 6:10 God causes people not to believe +the truth in order to prevent them from being "healed". + + II Thessalonians 2:11-12 God sends strong delusions on +certain people in order to make them believe false things and be +damned. + + Romans 9:18 (& subsequent verses) More of the same. +Salvation is a matter of God's whim: people have no choice or +control or responsibility in the matter. + + I Timothy 2:4 Contrary to all this, God "desires all men +to be saved" and to have the truth! + + + + Galatians 6:2 We should bear one another's burdens. + + Galatians 6:5 Every man should bear his own burdens. + + + + Romans 2:13 Those who keep the law will be declared +just. + + Romans 3:19 Keeping the law does not make anyone just. + + + + Romans 3:23 All men have sinned in God's eye. + + Genesis 6:9 Noah was perfect. + + Job 1:1 Job was perfect. + + + + Revelations 8:7 Fire will consume all the grass in the +world. + + Revelations 9:4 Later, an army of locusts will be +instructed not to harm any of the grass. + + + + * * * + + + + FAILED PROPHECIES + + + + Genesis 15:18 God promised Abram (Abraham) that his +descendants. the Jews, would receive all the land from the River +of Egypt (the Nile) to the river Euphrates. + + Joshua 1:3-4 Israelite territory will extend as far as the +Euphrates. But Israelite territory has never extended to the +Euphrates, and it is very doubtful that it ever even extended to +the Nile. + + + + Genesis 17:3.8 God gave the whole land of Canaan to Abraham +and his descendants, to inhabit forever. (See also: Gen 13:15, +Ex 32:13.) Canaan was the land west of the Jordan and the Dead +Sea, between those waters and the Mediterranean. the general +region later called Palestine. As a matter of history. the Jews +did not receive all of Canaan for an everiasting possession. +Revolts of the Jews against Rome in 132-135 AD led to their +dispersal throughout the world. For eighteen centuries, Turkish, +Persian and Arabic peoples occupied Palestine. The Jews began to +return in significant numbers only in 1921, shortly before the +creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948. + + See Acts 7:5 and Hebrews 11:13, which candidly admit that +God's promise or prophecy, in this case. failed. + + + + Psalms 89:3-4 God promised David this his royal line and +throne would last through "all generations". + + Psalms 89:35-37 Again, God promised that David's royal +throne will last as long as the sun and the moon. + Yet, after Zedekiah, there was no Davidic king for 450 +years. The royal line was finally restored with Aristobulus, of +the Hasmonean dynasty, but eventually that ended also. According +to New Testament prophecy, Jesus will receive the throne of David +and reign forever (Luke 1:32-33). but even so. the royal line +has a very evident break and the prophecy has failed. + + + + Isaiah 17:1 A prophecy of the city of Damascus. It +will become "a heap of ruins." But Damascus, the capital of +Syria, thrives today. one of the oldest cities in the world, and +has been continuously inhabited since its founding. It has never +been a heap of ruins. + + + + Isaiah 34:8-10 A prophecy that the land of Edom (which +borders the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba) will become "burning +pitch". The streams will become pitch. the soil will become +brimstone. it will lay waste for generations. none will pass +through it forever, and the smoke from the burning will go up +forever. But this has never happened, and people continue to +pass through Edom to this day. + + + + Jeremiah 9:11 A prophecy that Jerusalem and the cities of +Judah will become heaps of ruins, desolate, without inhabitants. +Neither Jerusalem nor Judah have ever been desolate and +uninhabited for any period. (The New Testament predits that +Jerusalem will be an eternal city.) + + + + Jeremiah 42:17 The Jews who returned to live in Egypt will +all die by the sword, by famine or by pestilence: none will +survive. But many Jews have lived in Egypt and died peacful +deaths. Many live there today. In fact. in Alexandria the Jews +established a great cultural center in the first century A.D. + + + + Jeremiah 49:33 Hazor, an ancient city of Israel, will become +a dwelling place for jackals (or dragons. KJ version). and no one +will live there, forever. But people have never stopped living +in the city of Hazor. and continue to do so today. + + + + Jeremiah 51:24-26.28-31,40,53-55,58 Highlights from a long +prophecy of the violent demise of Babylon and of all inhabitants +of Babylonia or Chaldea. Many enemies will attack them: the +walls of Babylon will be leveled, the gates set on fire: it will +be as a burned-out mountain, a heap or ruins. a desolation +forever. + + Isaiah 14:23 Another prophecy of Babylon's destruction. +It will become swampland. a haunt for owls. Apologists have +claimed that the fulfillment of these prophecies proves the +literal veracity of the Bible. Yet history shows that the +violent permanent destruction of Babylon never happened. The +context of the prophesied destruction indicates that it was to be +a punishment for Babylon's domination of the Israelites. from 586 +to 538 B.C. But when Babylon finally died, it was with a +whimper, not a bang, in the second century A.D., when its last +inhabitants abandoned it--long, long after the citizens could +still be considered responsible for ancient Babylon's treatment +of Israel. + + Many enemies marched against Babylon throughout its history, +and from time to time an enemy would capture or occupy it or +cause some damage. as occured to most other great cities, but +there was never a holocaust with permanent effects. In 538 b.c., +for example, the Persians conquored Babylon. The city later +revolted. then the Persians captured it again. destroying the +city walls in the process. But the walls were rebuilt and the +city suffered little damage. In 330 B.C.. Alexander the Great +captured Babylon. Most of the inhabitants move to the new city +of Selucia. Henceforth, Jews inhabited the city until the second +century A.D., when it was peacefully abandoned. Babylon is even +mentioned in the New Testament (I Peter 1:1, 5:13). + + Ezekiel 26:3-4,7-12, 27:32,36, 28:19 A prophecy of the +downfall of Tyre (Tyrus). King Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon will +come with an army, batter down the walls and towers, trample the +streets, kill all the people, and toss the rubble into the sea. +Tyre will come to a terrible end and "never shalt be any more" +(KJ version). Despite the prophecy, and in spite of much effort. +Babylon failed to capture or destroy Tyre. (The Bible admits, in +fact, that the effort failed -- so God gave Egypt to +Nebuchadnezzer as compensation! See Ezekiel 29:18-19.) + + The eventual conquest of Tyre was a feat reserved for +Alexander the Great, 240 years later. Again. in spite of all +prophecy. Tyre was rebuilt, and the New Testament even mentions +it (Acts 7:20; Luke 10:13; Mark 7:24.31). Today, Tyre (Sur) has +over 10.000 inhabitants. + + + + Ezekiel 29:9-12 Egypt will become "utterly waste and +desolate", and no man or animal will pass through it, and no one +will inhabit it, for fourty years. The Egyptians will be +scattered through other nations. None of this has ever occured, +and history shows that Egypt has been continuously inhabited +since the days of this prophecy. + Ezekiel 29:15 Egypt will be "diminished" and never again +rule over other nations. Yet, in the 1820's, Egypt conquered and +ruled the Sudan. + + Ezekiel 30:4-16.22-26 King Nebuchadnezzar will destroy the +multitudes of Egypt. Ethopia, Libya and "all the mingled people" +will fall by the sword. The rivers will run dry, the Egyptians +will be scattered among other nations and dispersed through many +countries. There will be no more Egyptian prince. Historically. +this never occured. Egyptians still live in Egypt (the United +Arab Republic): they were never scattered or dispersed. +Nebuchadnezzer never destroyed Egypt, nor conquored Ethopia, +Libya or Lydia. Princes continued to rule in Egypt long after +Nebuchadnezzar's death. The rivers of Egypt have not run dry. + + + + Daniel 9:26 Jerusalem will be destroyed by a flood. No +flood has ever destroyed Jerusalem, nor caused permanent damage. + + + + Micah 7:13: Zephaniah 1:2-3,18 God will destroy everything +on earth, including man and beast. fish and fowl: the whole world +will be consumed, and become desolate, because of the wicked +deeds of its inhabitants. Of course this has never occured. And +in the light of New Testament prophecy, it never will occur! + + + + Matthew 16:27-28 Jesus predicted his Return within the +lifetime of some of his listeners. He will be accompanied by his +angels, he said, and will "reward each man according to his +works" (KJ version). + + Matthew 24:3-35; Mark 13:24-30; Luke 21:27-32 Jesus's +extensive and detailed description of the end of the world, and +of his second coming. All will occur before the present +generation passed away. (Some apologists have defended these +passages with the observation that the word "generation" may also +be translated as "race". But God had promised Abraham that the +Jewish race would possess Palestine forever, so such an +interpretation would simply render the passages meaningless.) + + John 5:25 Very specific statement by Jesus that the "hour +has now come" when the dead will #hear the voice of the Son of +God" and "those who hear will live." + + John 21:20-23 A suggestion by Jesus. after the Resurrection, +that he would "return" during the lifetime of at least one of his +disciples. Note that the anonymous author or scribe of the Book +of John recognized the ostensible failure of this prophecy, and +attempted to explain it in the subsequent verses. + I Thessalonians 4:15-17 Another statement, by Paul, that +Jesus's return would occur within the lifetime of some of his +contemporaries. + + I Peter 4:7: I Corinthians 7:29-31: Hebrews 10:37 Further +statements that Jesus's second coming was imminent. Paul even +advised people not to make plans for the future. + + I John 2:18 John was even more specific than Paul. The +final hour was at hand, and various Antichrists had already +appeared on the earth. See also: Matthew 23:25: Hebrews 1:2. +9:26: I Timothy 6:13-14: I Peter 1:20: Revelations 22:20. All +these passages imply that the apocalypse was very close, not in +some mystical sense, but in human terms. + + + + Acts 18:9-10 In a vision. Jesus guaranteed Paul that he +would not be harmed or attacked so long as Paul continued +preaching. Acts 21:20. a crowd attacked Paul: 23:2, the +priests's attendant struck Paul: 24:27, Paul was imprisoned: +27:41-43. shipwrecked. + + + + Isaiah 52:1 A prophecy that the "uncircumcised and unclean" +shall no longer enter the city of Jerusalem. In spite of the +prophecy. the uncircumcised and the unclean travel in Jerusalem +to this day. + + + + ** * + + + + CRUELTIES AND INCONGRUITIES + + + + Genesis 3:14,17 God punished Adam & Eve for disobeying.His +warning and + +eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. + + Genesis 2:25. 3:6-7, 3:22 But as God admits. until Adam & +Eve ate from this tree, they did not know right from wrong. +Therefore they could have not known it was wrong to disobey God's +warning. + + + Exodus 4:21. 7:1. 10:1 It was actually God who caused +Pharaoh to be obstinate about freeing the Jews. (Pharaoh's +refusal was not an act of free will.) + + + + Exodus 21:17 God proclaimed that a child must be put to +death if. in a moment of anger. he reviles either of his parents +for any reason. + + + + Exodus 21:20-21 God also proclaimed that it is permissible +for a man to beat a slave. as long as death does not occur +immediately. The reason: "For the slave is the man's property." + + + +(KJ version only:) + + Exodus 22:28 God commanded us not to revile or denigrate +other "gods." + + Exodus 24:12. 31:18, 32:19. 34:1.4,10-28 These passages +demonstrate great confusion about the identity of the Ten +Commandments, the Decalogue inscribed on both the first and +second set of stone tablets, which Moses placed in the Ark of the +Covenant. The traditional version of the commandments appears in +Exodus Chap. 20. According to Exodus. however. these are not the +true Ten Commandments. Read the passages carefully. The true +Commandments appear in Exodus 34:10-26, and they include such +curious injunctions as: "Do not cook a young goat in its +mother's milk," and "Do not offer a sacrifice to the Lord along +with anything containing yeast." + + Deuteronomy 5:4-22 The traditional Commandments appear +here. + + + + Exodus 32:27-28 Moses had the Levites murder their brothers, +neighbors and companions over a religious difference. Three +thousand people die. + + + + Leviticus 19:21 God declared it a sin to trim your beard +or sideburns. + + + + Leviticus 19:28 God said that tatoos are a sin. + + + Leviticus 25:44-46 God authorized slavery. + + + + Numbers 15:32-36 God commanded a man to be stoned to death +for gathering sticks on the Sabbath Day. + + + + Numbers 31:17-18 Moses ordered innocent women and chiidren +ki|ied. and commanded his officers to keep the virgins alive for +themselves. + + + + Deuteronomy 2:34 Again. Moses ordered the slaughter of +women and chiidren captured in war. + + + + Further bioody injunctions from Moses to the Israelites: +Deuteronomy 13:6-10 A man must slay his daughter, wife, son or +friend for a difference in religion. + + Deuteronomy 13:12-16 Whole cities must be destroyed. +plundered and burned, the inhabitants all slaughtered, for the +same reason. + + + + Deuteronomy 20:12-17 God's injunction to Moses: If a city +does not enslave itself to him immediately, lay seige to it. kill +all the males and take women and children as slaves. Some +cities, however, must be destroyed utterly: even women, children +and babies must be murdered. + + + + Deuteronomy 21:11-14 Female prisoners-of-war. said God, must +be subject to the sexual whims of their captors. They may have +only one month of mourning for slain parents. Thereafter, when +the captor grows tired of a prisoner, he may cast her aside. + + + + Deuteronomy 22:25-29 The penalty for raping a betrothed +virgin is death: but the penalty for raping an unbetrothed virgin +is to pay a fine to the father and then marry the woman. (This +is the only Biblical injunction against rape!) + + + + Deuteronomy 23:1-3 A man who has suffered sexual injury or +mutulation has no right to worship in church (enter the assembly +of the Lord). Illegitimate children. or children of incestious +relationships, also may not worship or enter. In fact. you may +not attend if any of your ancestors were illegitimate, up to ten +generations back. + + + + Deuteronomy 25:11-12 If a wife attempts to attempts to +rescue or protect her husband from an assailant. and if in so +doing she deliberately or accidently touches the assailant's +private parts, her hand must be cut off. This is God's direct +command. + + + + Joshua's acts of mass murder, commanded or condoned by the +Lord: Joshua 6:21 After capturing Jericho, the Israelites under +Joshua's command slaughtered women, children and old men. Even +the animals of the city were killed. + + Joshua 8:2,24-25 Under God's command. Joshua killed all the +inhabitants of the city of Ai, including women and children. + + Joshua 10:28-37,40 Continuing in this fashion, Joshua +obliterated the complete populations of Makkedah, Libnah, +Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron, and all who dwelled in "the +country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of +the springs'' (KJ version). He destroyed everything that +breathed, and did not even spare suckling babies. + + + + Joshua 7:20-26 A man named Archen kept some of the plunder +from Jericho for himself, instead of turning it all over to the +priests. He confessed to the crime. As punishment. Joshua not +only had Archen stoned and burned, but Archen's innocent sons and +daughters as well. This deed appeased God. + + + + Judges 8:16 Gideon, the son of Joshua (and the same Gideon +for whom the Gideon Bible is named) used torture on the captive +elders of Succoth. + + + + Judges 11:24 The Bible recognizes the existence of the +Ammonite god. Chemosh. + + + + Intimations of human sacrifice in the Bible: + Judges 11:30-32.34.39 God delivered Jepthah's enemies into +his hands in exchange for a human sacrifice. + + Leviticus 27:28-29 Human beings "devoted" or made sacred to +God must be put to death. (See also Exodus 22:28-29 in this +context.) + + II Samuel 21:1,8,9,14 God accepts the sacrifice (by +dismemberment) of seven innocent men, and removes a famine. + + + + I Samuel 15:3.8 On God's orders, Saul killed all the +Amalekits, including women, infants and suckling babies. + + + + II Samuel 6:6-7 Uzzah saved the Ark of the Covenant from +tipping over by steadying it with his hand. God's response was +to strike him dead. + + + + II Samuel 12:14-18 God punished a man by killing his +innocent child. + + + + II Kings 2:23-24 The prophet Elisha (protegee of Elijah) +caused bears to tear children apart for laughing at his bald +head. + + David, the "favorite of God," lived by robbery and +unprovoked massacre of neighboring tribes, slaughtering both men +and women (I Sam 27:8-9). lied afterwards about the killings (I +Sam 27:10-11). ordered the blind and lame of the city of Zion to +be killed (II Sam 5:8). murdered prisoners of war (II Sam 8:2). +maimed horses (II Sam 8:4)# tortured and killed more prisoners of +war (II Sam 12:31 & I Chron 20:3, KJ version). With his last +breath, he betrayed an oath and advocated murder (I Kings 2:8-9). + + I Kings 11:6. 15:3,5; Acts 13:22 David followed the Lord +completely. All his deeds were right in the eyes of God. except +for those regarding Uriah (a small matter of adultery, betrayal +and a single murder: see II Sam 11). David was a man after God's +heart. + + + + I Chronicies 16:30 The earth does not move through +space. + + Matthew 4:8; Luke 4:5 Also, two verses that suggest the +earth is flat. + + + II Chronicles 1:11-12 God promised that Solomon would have +material wealth greater than any other king, before or since. +History shows otherwise. Solomon was weathy. but several kings +in Solomon's day. and many since, were much wealthier. Some have +been so wealthy that could have misplaced the value of all of +Palestine without missing it. Note that if you reinterpret +"wealth" to mean "spiritual wealth", the prophecy also fails. +because Solomon lived his later years in spiritual darkness. + + Job 1:6-12 Satan saw God. + + III John 1:11 Those who have seen God do not do evil. + + + + The Bible (KJ version and sourcetexts) seems to insist that +the soul, or consciousness, exists in the kidneys (reins) and +heart. + + Psalms 73:21 "Thus my heart was grieved. and I was +pricked in my reins." + + Psalms 16:7 "My reins also instruct me in the night +seasons." + + Psalms 7:9 "God trieth the hearts and reins." + + Proverbs 23:16 "My reins shall rejoice when my lips speak +right things.'' + + Reve#ation 2:23 "' am He which searchelh the reins and +heart. On the other hand, the Bible never mentions the brain as +the center of anything mental or spiritual. + + + + Psalms 109:9.10,12 A holy psalm which cruelly calls down +misery and suffering on a man's innocent wife and children. + + Psalms 139:21.22 A holy psalm which declares "nothing +but hatred" on those who oppose God. + + Psalms 137:9 This psalm proclaims happiness for those who +dash Babylonian children against rocks. + + + + Biblical statements and prophecies about the "son of man" +(KJ version): Psalms 146:3 Put not your trust in the son of man, +in whom there is no help. + + Job 25:6 The son of man is a worm, or like a worm. + Psalms 8:4 & 144:3, in the KJ version, also belittle the +"son of man". + + + + Proverbs 14:15 The wise man does not have blind faith in +everything said to him. but looks for proof. (Clearest in the +New English Bible.) + + + + Ecclesiastes 3:18-22 Men are as beasts: they have the same +fate, the same "breath" (spirit): all go to the same place: none +know if the breath (spirit) of man and beast have different +destinies. + + Ecclesiastes 12:9-10,12 The preacher or teacher who wrote +these things was wise, and what he wrote was true. Be warned of +any attempt to add to his words or change them. + + + + Isaiah 23:17-18 Revenue from prostitution will be used to +provide abundant food and fine clothes for those living in God's +grace. + + + + Jeremiah 19:9 God intentionally forces people into acts of +cannabalism. The victims are innocent children. + + + + Hosea 13:16 Because Samaria rebelled against God, God +ordained that its pregnant women will be ripped open and innocent +children dashed to the ground. + + + +(KJ version only:) + + Exodus 32:14 God does evil. + + Isaiah 45:7 God creates evil. + + Jeremiah 26:3 God inflicts evil. + + Amos 3:6 God causes evil. + + Lamentations 3:38 Evil comes from the mouth of God. + + + Mark 4:11-12 Jesus deliberately spoke in parables in order +to exclude some people from being converted and being forgiven +their sins. + + See also: John 12:39-40: Isaiah 6:10. + + + + Matthew 5:31-39 Jesus admitted that scripture contains +errors. He disagreed with several specific teachings from the Old +Testament, in particular Deut 24:1, Ex 21:24, Lev 24:20. Deut +19:21. + + + + John 14:12 Jesus declared that anyone who believes in him +will perform the same miracles and greater miracles than He +performed. (Thus, anyone who does not perform greater miracles +is. by Jesus's own words, an unbeliever.) + + Mark 16:17-18 Also, that believers will be immune to poison +and poisonous serpents, and will cure the sick by laying-on of +hands. Note: The passage from Mark is absent from the two +earliest. most reliable Greek manuscripts of the gospel. + + + + Matthew 5:33-37 The Bible prohibits oaths or vows in any +form, even oaths before God or oaths on the Bible. + + + + Matthew 10:34-36 Jesus's purpose on earth was not to bring +peace, but conflict, strife, discord. + + Luke 12:49,51 Jesus came to spread fire on the earth, and to +cause not peace. but division. + + Luke 22:3# Jesus commanded his followers to procure +swords. + + + + Matthew 15:22-28 A Canannite woman pleaded with Jesus to +he|p her aflicted daughter. Jesus refused to answer. She +continued to plead. The disciples reviled her. Jesus announced +that he will only help Israelites: to help Gentiles would be +like taking bread from the Jews and casting it to dogs. The +woman continued to humiliate herself. Finally, Jesus relented +and agreed to heal the child, using the occasion the deliver a +little homily on the virtues of faith and persistence. + + + Luke 7:36-50 By Jesus's own words, a woman was saved by her +faith even before the crucifixion. Thus the crucifixion was not +absolutely necessary for salvation. + + + + Luke 15:7 A verse that implies that some people need no +repentence. + + + +(KJ version & New International version:) + + Luke 14:26 Jesus demanded that his disciples hate their +parents. Matthew 10:35-36 Jesus said he came to turn children +against their parents. + + + + Luke 19:27 Jesus implied, in a parable. that those who do +not accept him are to be killed. + + + + Matthew 19:17; John 14:28 Verses implying that Jesus +believed he was not God, but less than God. + + John 14:28 God is Jesus's God as well as our God. Again, it +appears that God and Jesus are not identical. + + + + Matthew 19:21; Luke 14:33; Mark 10:21: Luke 3:11 Verses +implying that those with wealth will never enter heaven. + + + + Matthew 19:28 Speaking to the twelve disciples, Jesus gave +his solemn word and prophecy that all twelve of them--including +Judas!--will sit on twelve thrones in Heaven and judge the Twelve +Tribes of Israel. (This was clearly when Judas was still a +disciple.) + + + + Matthew 24:29: Revelation 6:13 In the days of the +Apocalypse. the stars will fall from the sky and land on the +earth like ''figs". In other words, the stars are small and +subject to earthly gravity. + + + + Matthew 27:52-53 At the moment of Jesus's death, many of +the Jewish saints or patriarchs rose from the dead. They waited +in their tombs until after Jesus's resurrection. three days +later, then came forth and wandered about Jerusalem. The +resurrection of the Jewish saints is easily the most spectacular +miracle in Jesus's career. yet one hears very little of it. Not +a word of it appears in the other gospels! + + + + Acts 5:10 Ananias. a new convert to Christianity, sold his +land and turned most of the money over to the apostles, but kept +part for himself. Saint Peter. who wanted all the money. +considered this deceitful. Peter reviled and criticised Ananias. +and Ananias fell down dead. Heartlessly, Peter's followers threw +him into a grave without telling his wife what had happened. +Three hours later, the wife came looking for him. Peter reviled +her the same way. She also expired on the spot. and the same +followers threw her summarily into the ground. + + + + Romans 13:1-7 Civil authorities receive their power from +God, and everyone should submit to them. To rebell against +governmental authority is to rebell against God. (See also Titus +3:1 and I Peter 2:13-14.) Therefore. faithful Christians must +not disobey or oppose laws they regard as distasteful--e.g., laws +regarding abortion. taxation. the teaching of evolution, and even +restriction of worship in Communist countries. + + + + What about Universalism, the doctrine that all souls must +eventually be saved? Many fundamentalists regard it as a +terrible heresy. and yet some passages in the Bible seem to +support it. + + Psalm 72:11: Daniel 7:14.27 All nations. all kings, all +people will serve and obey the messiah. + + Joel 2:27-28 God will pour out his spirit upon all flesh. +Psalms 103:9: + + Lamentations 3:31 The Lord will not reject anyone forever, +or keep His anger forever. + + Colossians 1:20 God will reconcile all things to +himself. + + Romans 11:26 All Israel shall be saved; salvation will +be universal among the Jews. + + II Peter 3:9 It is God's will that none will perish, +that all will come to repentance. + + + I Corinthians 11:5 When women pray, they must have their +heads covered. + + + + I Corinthians 12:24-37 There will be only harmony and no +conflict or disagreement (discord) within the "body of Christ" +(the Christian church). 2000 years of conflict and schism show +this is untrue. Or else, nearly all Christians are damned. + + + + I Corinthians 14:34-35 Women may never speak in chruch. + + + + II Corinthians 12:2 There is more than one Heaven. + + + + Galatians 5:2-3 Saint Paul insists that Christ is of "no +use" to those who have themselves circumcised. Anyone +circumcised is obligated to obey the entire Jewish law. + + Philippians 3:5; Luke 2:21 And yet. Paul himself was +circumcised: Jesus was circumcised. + + + + I Timothy 2:11-12 No woman is to teach, nor to have +authority over men. + + + +(In the KJ and Revised KJ versions:) + + I Timothy 3:2.12: Titus 1:6 Bishops may wed. + + I Timothy 6:1: Titus 2:9 Two of many passages in the New +Testament which explicitly condone slavery. + + + + Ephesians 6:5: I Peter 2:18: Colossians 3:22 Slaves should +serve their masters in all respects: never question: never +rebell. + + + + Revelation 21:1 After the Apocalypse, the new Earth will +have no sea. + + + ** * + + + +Scholars have estimated that the Bible contains over two thousand +explicit or implicit contradictions. Some are major. some +trivial: this list is only a small selection. Through history, +attmpts to resolve these contradictions have produced thousands +of volumes, few of which agree. And in the process, men have +spilled thousands of gallons of blood. Yet, the contradictions +remain. What do you make of them? + + + + Perhaps the best answer is the simplest: that the Bible is +not all the perfect, infallable word of God. Interestingly, the +Bible itself confirms this. It tells us that all scripture is by +inspiration of God (II Timothy 3:16). but also tells us that +some of its parts are not from divine inspiration (I Corinthians +7:6. 5:12: II Corinthians 11:17). What could be clearer? + + Please understand the purpose of this booklet. It is not to +make believers into non-believers, but simply to make some non- +questioners into questioners. + + + + I hope it has succeeded. + + + + + +Kenneth E. Nahigian +Sacramento +July, 1988 + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/codes.txt b/religious documents/codes.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb2227b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/codes.txt @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +Grey + +This is a Grey Side code as written by Farer. +There are emotions, yet we have Serenity. +There is Chaos, yet Harmony is produced. +There are passions, yet there can be Balance. +There's often hurry, still we cultivate patience. +There's much ignorance: this knowledge is wisdom. +-- + +Through pain comes wisdom; But not without ignorance comes knowledge. +There is no power; only the force. +There are no sides; only the whole. +Peace and justice comes to those who are willing +To seek it and grasp it through whatever comes upon them. +No darkness, no light, only understanding. + +*** + +Light + +There is no emotion; there is peace +There is no ignorance; there is knowledge +There is no passion; there is serenity +There is no death; there is the Force + +*** + +Shadow + +I am at Peace; for I know Emotion. +I have Power; for I also have Knowledge. +I have Passion; for I am Serene. +I can embrace Mortality; for I know Death +I am balanced through the Force. + +*** + +Dark + +There is no peace, there is anger. +There is no fear, there is power. +There is no death, there is immortality. +There is no weakness, there is the Dark Side. + +*** + +Sith + +Peace is a lie, there is only passion +Through passion I gain strength +Through strength I gain power +Through power I gain victory +Through victory my chains are broken +The Force shall set me free \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cof9201b.txt b/religious documents/cof9201b.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de37c44 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cof9201b.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +Rings of Saturn and the Authorized Version + +Some years ago, a NASA space probe gave the world its first close-up of +the rings of Saturn. Prior to this the nature and structure of these rings +were thought to be fairly straightforward. In fact, it was shown to be +quite the opposite! Not only did the rings orbit Saturn, but the rings +themselves contained orbiting "rings." They displayed a previously +unimagined complexity. But the closer one looks, the more it reveals the +hand of God. It bears witness to the fact that indeed it is the +fulfillment of God's promise to preserve His original work of inspiration. +Far from its "problem passages" revealing any deficiency; under scrutiny, +these reveal "dust of gold" (Job 28:6). And what is more, they test the +heart and motives of all who come to its pages! - Jack A. Moorman, Conies, +Brass, and Easter: Answers to `Problem' Passages in the Authorized Version + + diff --git a/religious documents/cog.txt b/religious documents/cog.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7456071 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cog.txt @@ -0,0 +1,201 @@ + THE COVENANT OF THE GODDESS + +PURPOSE + + The Covenant of the Goddess was founded in 1975 to increase cooperation + among Witches, and to secure for Witches and covens the legal protec- + tion enjoyed by members of other religions. + +FUNCTIONS + + The Covenant publishes a newsletter; issues ministerial credentials on + request to qualified persons; sponsors a national festival each summer; + and encourages networking nationally, as well as regionally through + local councils. + +STRUCTURE + + The Covenant is incorporated as a non-profit religious organization in + California, though it has grown to be a nationwide organization. It is + a confederation of covens and solitaires of various traditions, who + share in the worship of the Goddess and the Old Gods and subscribe to a + common code of ethics. The Covenant holds a Grand Council annually to + elect national officers, set a budget, and decide matters which require + deliberation by the full membership. Decisions are usually made by + consensus. + +CODE OF ETHICS + + * An ye harm none, do as ye will. + + * Since our religion and arts and practices peculiar to it are the gift + of the Goddess, membership and training in a local coven or tradition + are bestowed free, as gifts, and only on those persons who are deemed + worthy to receive them. However, a coven may expect each of its mem- + bers to bear a fair share of its ordinary operating expenses. + + * All persons have the right to charge reasonable fees for the services + by which they earn a living, so long as our religion is not thereby + exploited. + + * Every person associated with this Covenant shall respect the autonomy + and sovereignty of each coven, as well as the right of each cove to + oversee the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical development of + its members and students in its own way, and shall exercise reasonable + caution against infringing upon that right in any way. + + * Members of this Covenant shall respect the traditional secrecy of our + religion. + + * Members of this Covenant should ever keep in mind the underlying + unity of our religion as well as the diversity of its manifestations. + + * These ethics shall be understoond and interpreted in light of one + another, and especially in light of the traditional laws of our reli- + gion. + +CONFIDENTIALITY + + All information give to the Covenant of the Goddess or any of its offi- + cials is considered strictly confidential, unless you indicate other- + wise. No information about members is published or given out without + explicit written permission. Direct access to the Covenant's mailing + list is limited to the Board of Directors. Maximum privacy is assured. + +NEWSLETTER + + At every Sabbat the Covenant publishes a newsletter of Craft and Pagan + news, original articles, poetry, humor, rituals and announcements. + Member covens receive the newsletter automatically. Individual co- + veners and non-members who donate a suitable tax-deductible gift will + also be placed on the mailing list, to receive the newsletter and other + mailings. Circulation is limited to members and friends of the + Covenant. + +FINANCES + + An annual membership tithe is set every year by the Grand Council to + cover bare expenses, based on the previous year's expenses and any + projected cost increases. The annual financial statement is published + in the newsletter. Other activities are supported by fund-raising. + All contributions to the Covenant of the Goddess are greatly appre- + ciated and are tax-deductible. + +APPLYING FOR MEMBERSHIP + + Any Goddess-supporting coven or solitaire can be eligible for member- + ship in the Covenant of the Goddess if certain criteria and require- + ments are met. All inquiries into membership should be sent to the + National Credentials Officer. If the coven or solitaire is in an area + near a local council, the National Officer will forward the inquiry to + the local Credentials Officer, who will respond. A member can apply in + person at a council meeting, or by filling out the appropriate form and + sending it in with the initial membership tithe. + +GENERAL CRITERIA FOR COVEN MEMBERSHIP + + * Generally focus thealogy and ritual, etc., around worship of the God- + dess and the Old Gods (or the Goddess alone). + + * Believe and follow a code of ethics compatible with that of the Cove- + nant. + + * Have beem meeting monthly or oftener for at least six months. + + * Have three more more members who have been formally accepted into the + clergy. + + * Be a cohesive, self-perpetuating group. + +REQUIREMENTS FOR MEMBERSHIP + + Full Membership: The applicant must be recommended without reservation + by two active members of the Covenant. + + Provisional Membership: The applicant may be recommended by one mem- + ber; and then within a year and a day make a viable effort to get to + know other members, in order to achieve Full Member status. + + The appropriate Credentials Officer (National or local) shall verify + information regarding criteria and credentials. + +COVEN-AT-LARGE + + This is the term we use to represent the many Witches who are soli- + taires, i.e. practicing alone. Each local council may devise its own + standards for admission of coveners-at-large, in harmony with national + guidelines. + +LOCAL COUNCILS + + A local council is a smaller branch of the Covenant, consisting of at + least three member covens of at least two different traditions, in + reasonably close geographic proximity to each other. The local coun- + cils generally meet more often than the national organization. They + may initiate independent projects, sponsor local festivals and work- + shops, and generally work together for common goals close to home. As + the Covenant continues to grow, we encourage new member covens close to + one another to form their own local councils. + +VOTING + + When a matter requiring a decision is presented before the Covenant in + council, it is discussed by the members in attendance until a consensus + is reached. If a consensus cannot be reached, then a vote is taken. A + coven holding a current Full Membership is entitled to one vote. Each + such coven also holds the power to veto, though this is exercised only + in extreme cases. A coven with Provisional Membership is entitled to + one vote, but does not hold veto power. + + A coven-at-large is entitled to one vote if, and only if, three indi- + viduals are physically present at the council and unanimous in their + choice of vote. + +MINISTERIAL CREDENTIALS + + In order to receive Ministerial Credentials as a Priestess or Priest, a + person shall: + + 1. Be an active member of a coven which is a Full Member of the Cove- + nant. + + 2. Have been "confirmed" to taking on the full commitment to the re- + quirements of that coven's Tradition of our religion. + + 3. Have undergone at least a full year of active training for the + ministry of that Tradition. + + These credentials shall remain valid only so long as the person remains + an active member of the coven which remains an active member of the + Covenant. + + In order to be eligible to receive Ministerial Credentials as an Elder, + a person shall: + + 1. Satisfy (2.) and (3.) above. + + 2. Have undergone an additional full year of active training for the + ministry. + + 3. Be fully able to form a coven, admit members, and train them in the + tenets and practices of that Tradition. + + These credentials shall remain valid for life, unless specifically + revoked, so long as the person remains in contact with the Covenant. + +THE NATIONAL FESTIVAL + + The annual Grand Council or national business meeting is held as part + of a national festival, which is open to the whole membership as well + as well as Pagans and Witches who are not part of the Covenant. The + festival is usually held at a secluded campground or resort, and moves + to a different area of the country each summer. In addition to the + council meeting, the program includes workshops on magick and the + Craft, concerts, a potluck feast, a talent show, and the opportunity to + purchase (or barter for) art, crafts and ritual tools by Pagan arti- + sans. Registration information is available in the newsletter. + +FOR MORE INFORMATION: + + Write to: Covenant of the Goddess, P.O. Box 1226, Berkeley, CA 94704. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cogb.txt b/religious documents/cogb.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ac9310 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/cogb.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/cogpldg.txt b/religious documents/cogpldg.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33034f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cogpldg.txt @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ + To: All Message #: 2441 + From: Paul Seymour Submitted: 30 May 91 17:56:00 + Subject: C.O.G. Pledge Status: Public +Received: No Group: METAPHYSICAL (35) + +MSGID: 1:301/9 5f11f146 + + A Pledge to Pagan Spirituality + + + + I am a Pagan and I dedicate Myself to channeling the Spiritual Energy + of my Inner Self to help and to heal myself and others. + + + * I know that I am a part of the Whole of Nature. May I grow in + understanding of the Unity of all Nature. May I always walk in + Balance. + + * May I always be mindful of the diversity of Nature as well as its + Unity and may I always be tolerant of those whose race, appearance, + sex, sexual preference, culture, and other ways differ from my own. + + * May I use the Force (psychic power) wisely and never use it for + aggression nor for malevolent purposes. May I never direct it to + curtail the free will of another. + + * May I always be mindful that I create my own reality and that I have + the power within me to create positivity in my life. + + * May I always act in honorable ways: being honest with myself and + others, keeping my word whenever I have given it, fulfilling all + responsibilities and commitments I have taken on to the best of my + ability. + + * May I always remember that whatever is sent out always returns + magnified to the sender. May the Forces of Karma move swiftly to + remind me of these spiritual commitments when I have begin to falter + from them, and may I use this Karmic feedback to help myself grow and + be more attuned to my Inner Pagan Spirit. + + * May I always remain strong and committed to my Spiritual ideals in the + face of adversity and negativity. May the Force of my Inner Spirit + ground out all malevolence directed my way and transform it into + positivity. May my Inner Light shine so strongly that malevolent + forces can not even approach my sphere of existence. + + * May I always grow in Inner Wisdom & Understanding. May I see every + problem that I face as an opportunity to develop myself spiritually + in solving it. + + * May I always act out of Love to all other beings on this Planet -- to + other humans, to plants, to animals, to minerals, to elementals, to + spirits, and to other entities. + + * May I always be mindful that the Goddess and God in all their forms + dwell within me and that this divinity is reflected through my own + Inner Self, my Pagan Spirit. + + * May I always channel Love and Light from my being. May my Inner + Spirit, rather than my ego self, guide all my thoughts, feelings, and + actions. + + SO MOTE IT BE + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) +=-=-=-=-= diff --git a/religious documents/coinci.txt b/religious documents/coinci.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db035b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/coinci.txt @@ -0,0 +1,205 @@ +The following report is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 6, Issues 10-12, +1989. The author holds all rights. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual +subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life +Literature, Bible Baptist Church, 1219 N. Harns Road, Oak Harbor, +Washington 98277. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to +Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0. + + WHAT AN AMAZING COINCIDENCE! + + By David W. Cloud + +How often do we hear the tired argument by the world that the sure +consequences of sin are only "coincidence." Consider with me a few +examples, and I think it will appear just how amazing it would be if +indeed these were but coincidences: + +Consider first--The coincidence that the vast majority of AIDS can be +traced directly to behavior that the Bible calls immoral and which it +warns us to avoid--homosexuality, adultery, fornication, and other forms +of sexual activity outside of holy matrimony. + +How many times we have heard the wise of this world scoff at the idea that +those things the Bible calls immorality are destructive. The Bible says +that immorality is innately destructive; it is also punished by a holy and +righteous God. It would seem that nothing could prove the truth of this +more clearly than the terrible AIDS plague. It is such a horrible, +frightful disease and it can be traced directly to things the Bible calls +immoral and wicked. But of course, all of this must be a coincidence +because we know God does not punish homosexuals or other moral perverts. +It couldn't be more than a coincidence. Could it? + +Consider second--The coincidence that pornography often leads to +increasing moral debasement. + +Serial murderer Ted Bundy testified that pornography had played a role in +his moral downfall, that he started looking at pornography as a small boy, +and had become addicted to increasingly viler and viler forms of it, and +had experienced connected, compelling desires to act out his wicked +thoughts. Many other murderers and rapists have testified the same thing. +Scientific surveys and studies have come to the same conclusion. + +"Some alarming evidence buttresses the contention that a correlation +exists between pornography and sex crimes: Twenty- nine serial murderers +interviewed by FBI agents confessed that pornography influenced their +thinking and conduct. The Los Angeles Police Department points out that in +the more than 40 child sex abuse cases it investigated between October +1976 and March 1977, pornographic photos were found in every case. +According to attorney Charles Keating, founder of the Arizona- based +Citizens for Decency Through Law, police vice squads report that 77 +percent of child molesters of boys and 87 percent of child molesters of +girls admitted trying out the sexual behavior modeled by pornography. A +study by Canadian scholar Dr. William Marshall of Canadian rapists in +prison reported that "various forms of pornographic fantasies may lead to +crime." Ten of 18 rapists confessed that pornography influenced them to +coerce females to have sex. In thousands of cases of sexual abuse of +children throughout the United States, police have discovered that the sex +offenders either collected or produced pornography." (The Christian News, +February 27, 1989) + +"From an FBI study of 36 serial murderers, 81 percent said pornography was +one of their highest sexual interests. Dr. William Marshall found that 86 +percent of rapists regularly used pornography, with 57 percent admitting +they imitated porn scenes when they carried out their crime. Child +molesters are often hooked by kiddie porn. Detective William Dworin of the +Los Angeles Police Department has helped arrest more than 700 child +molesters in the last 10 years. More than half had child pornography in +their possession." ("Off a Deep and Dangerous End," by Mike Yorkey and +Dean Merrill, Focus on the Family, October 1989) + +Bundy testified: "In the beginning (pornography) fuels this kind of +thought process ... Like an addiction, you keep craving something that is +harder, harder, something which ... gives you a greater sense of +excitement. Until you reach a point where the pornography only goes so +far, you reach that jumping off point where you begin to wonder if maybe +actually doing it would give you that which is beyond just reading it or +looking at it ... I am saying now that there (are) loose in the towns and +... communities people like me today whose dangerous impulses are being +fueled day in, day out by violence in the media in various forms, +particularly sexual violence." + +But of course, we can't believe any of this. It couldn't be true. The +close connection between pornography and moral debasement could not be +more than an interesting coincidence. Could it? + +Consider third--The coincidence that the legalization of gambling results +in an increase in compulsive gamblers. + +With government sponsored lotteries so popular now, we hear on every side +the wise men of this world laughing at the idea that there might be a +direct connection between legal lotteries and the rise in compulsive +gambling. The Bible says man's nature is fallen and sinful and +excess-prone. When we make gambling or alcohol or pornography readily +accessible, the Bible and common sense tell us men will be much more +influenced by these things. In fact, a study commissioned by the U.S. +Congress stated, "A government that wishes merely to legitimize existing +illegal wagering must recognize the clear danger that legalization may +lead to unexpected and ungovernable increases in the size of the gambling +clientele." But of course, all the evidence indicating a direct connection +between legalization of gambling and a dramatic increase in gambling +addiction could not possibly be anything more than coincidence. Could it? + +Consider fourth--The coincidence that immoral, violent music leads to +immorality and violence. + +Great numbers of people have noted a connection between the increase in +the popularity of rock music and the increase in immorality and violence +among the youth. And as rock music as grown increasingly violent, +increasingly immoral, increasingly suicidal and occultic, youth who listen +to this music have become increasingly involved in all these things. What +an amazing coincidence. Of course it couldn't be more than coincidence. +Could it? + +Consider fifth--The coincidence between the removal of Christian influence +in public education and the terrible breakdown in morals within the public +school system. + +Until the 1950s and early 1960s, public education in many parts of America +was influenced greatly by the Bible and Christians. Bibles were allowed to +be given to students, and millions upon millions of New Testaments were +distributed this way to the young people of our nation. Prayer was +frequently said at the beginning of the school day, and at many school +functions. The Bible was often used in the classroom by Christian +teachers. Christmas--in addition to the attention always given to Santa +Claus and Jingle Bells and mistletoe--was also a time for Bible-based +plays about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, for singing Christian +hymns, and for other activities highlighting the fact that Jesus Christ +was a historical character who came to this earth as the virgin- born Son +of God to die for man's sins. The Ten Commandments and other portions of +the Holy Scriptures were displayed prominently in many schools. +Evangelistic Bible clubs were allowed on school property. All of this was +conducted in the public schools of America until just a few years ago! +Since legal decisions were made to remove Christian and Bible influence +from the public school system, though, there has been a horrible breakdown +in morals, in discipline; a frightful increase in violence, in vandalism, +in unwed mothers, in cheating, in beatings, in looting, in nakedness, and +other forms of destructive behavior. A report in The Inner Circle, March, +1987, sheds some light on the changes which have happened in the public +education system: + +"It is interesting to note the top seven offenses in public schools in +1940 and 1982. In 1940 the top seven were talking, chewing gum, making +noise, running in halls, getting out of turn in line, wearing improper +clothing, and not putting paper in wastebaskets. In 1982, however, the top +seven were rape, robbery, assault, burglary, arson, bombings, and murder +... behavior in the public schools resembles a `mini-nuthouse'." + +To be more specific, consider these facts: + +Nearly 600,000 babies are born each year to girls between 10 and 18 years +old. + +One out of 5 children in the United States has sexual intercourse by age +13 or 14. + +In 1978, 9,000 babies were born to girls 11 or younger. + +More than half of all illegitimate births in 1980 involved teenagers. + +Children are having children at the rate of 1,540 per day; every hour +about 64 babies are born to teenage girls. + +Counting estimated miscarriages, there were 11.1 million teenage +pregnancies in 1980. + +Out-of-wedlock teen births tripled between 1950 and 1980. Today the United +States has the highest teenage birth rate of any industrial nation. +(Christian News, December 2, 1985) + +Of course, we all know this seeming connection between the removal of +Christianity from public education and the breakdown in discipline and +morals in that same school system is nothing more than coincidence. It +couldn't be more than that. Could it? + +Consider sixth--The coincidence that the promotion of evolution has gone +hand-in-hand with increase in suicide and other inhumanities. + +Thirty-four years ago I started attending the public school system of +America. In 1967, twelve years later, I graduated from high school in that +system. During that time, a dramatic change occurred in the basic +worldview underlying the educational system. Whereas it had been based on +a worldview which accepted the Bible and God and creation as truth, it +became based on a worldview which denied these realities. The religion of +humanism became ascendant and youth were taught that man evolved, that man + was merely an animal, that spiritual and eternal realities were myths. + +As the worldview of humanism replaced that of the Bible, there was a +terrible decline in morals among the young people involved. The suicide +rate among youth was almost zero in the 1950s, but has doubled over the +past 20 years, becoming the second most common cause of death after +traffic accidents. + +"Every 90 seconds a young American attempts suicide.... Each year in the +United States an estimated 30,000 people kill themselves, including some +5,000 young Americans between the age of 15 and 24. An estimated 100,000 +youths attempt suicide annually. Almost 1,900 adolescents, most of them +white males, succeed in killing themselves each year." (The Rising Nepal, +Friday, May 5, 1989) + +Of course, if you teach young people that they are mere animals and that +they have no spiritual or eternal existence, it is nothing more than +coincidence if they begin acting like animals in their morals, if they +begin to take their own lives because they cannot see any meaning in their +existence and have no great dread of going into eternity without a Savior. +But of course, this couldn't be more than a coincidence. Could it? (O +Timothy magazine, Volume 6, Issues 10-12, 1989) diff --git a/religious documents/commgame.txt b/religious documents/commgame.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d95c0a Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/commgame.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/compare.txt b/religious documents/compare.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b29ee4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/compare.txt @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +From: ROWAN MOONSTONE +To: ALL +Subj: CHRISTIANITY AND WICCA +The following is the comparison listing of Christianity and Wicca that I +mentioned in a previous message. It was prepared by Kerr Cuchulain, who is the +Canadian Chapter Head for the Witches League for Public Awareness, in response +to a request from a Christian minister who contacted the League. + +Christianity Wicca +Patriarchal/Paternalistic Duotheistic (Goddess/God)* +Dualistic: divinity seperate Monistic: Divinity inseperable +from everyday world from everyday world +Resurrection Reincarnation +Heaven: destination of Christian Summerland: resting place between +souls incarnations +Hell No equivalent +Satan No equivalent +Original Sin No equivalent +Redemption/Atonement/Confession Karma/Threefold Law( evil returns + upon the perpetratoe three - fold) +Heirarchy/Authoritarian No heirarchy/ Autonomy +Bible( scripture) No equivalent ** +Sabbats based upon Biblical Seasonal and Lunar Sabbats +and Christian historical events +Prophets/Saints/Messiahs no equivalent +Generally daylight worship Some worship nocturnal(lunar esbats) +Churches/temples Circles case where convenient usually + no formal temple no size restrictions + on small groups (covens) 3-13 people + usual though congregations may be + larger +10 Commandments Wiccan Rede Harm none +Psychic phenomena generally Psychic abilities encouraged +discouraged except for (magick) +"miracles" +* Names vary from tradition to tradition. lDifferent aspects of the +Goddess/God have different names creating the impression that Wicca may be +pantheistic. +** Wiccans use a book called the "Book of Shadows". This is a working notebook +rather than a scriptural text. +--- QuickBBS v2.03 +* Origin: Rock Island (on) Line - Newalla, Ok.- (405)391-9488 (1:147/3) diff --git a/religious documents/concept.txt b/religious documents/concept.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c600d7a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/concept.txt @@ -0,0 +1,234 @@ + CONCEPTS OF WICCA + by + - Jehana Silverwing - + (Written 1988 -- Disseminate freely) + + The elements/concepts of Witchcraft or Wicca that I've roughly dissected +out below should be interweaved in order to form a whole. Keep in mind that +there may well be variances on the "specifics" mentioned. This began life as +a series of mail messages on CompuServe. + + CONCEPTS + + -The balancing of the individual is seen as a part of the balancing of +the world that surrounds the individual. A sense of balance is also relevant +to a Pagan or Wiccan approach to the environment. People, ideally, are seen +as being in balance between two or more outwardly-antithetical aspects. These +aspects (ie night and day; generous & stingy, etc.) are not really +antithetical -- each, as exemplified in the symbology of yin/yang, contains +elements of the other. Individuals learn to explore their own particular +balance, and try to harmonize and deal with things which may be out of kilter. +(Being in balance doesn't mean being static, or stuck right in the middle, +either. People are expected to evolve, albeit at their own pace and general +direction.) Because of this approach, shades of grey are important. + + -The microcosm = the macrocosm. A very important concept. This is one +which allows us to see that concepts such as the balance between night and +day, for instance, may have value in our own lives. Wicca is a religion rife +with symbolism. (Words are symbols, themselves.) On other levels, this +expression means that what goes on in the world around us affects us; and what +we do affects it. + + -The concept of God/Goddess(es): Deity is seen as immanent, a part of +the here-and now; not transcendent (as in other-worldly). God/dess(es) is seen +in every tree, leaf, star, planet, person and animal. Wiccans walk in balance +with nature and the world for this reason. (Some don't see God/dess(es) in +man-made objects like skyscrapers -- I disagree.) A reading of Jung will help +one understand the important archetypal aspects we find in Deity. Individual +Gods are expressed in many aspects -- they are seldom if ever fully omnipotent +(usually an unimportant concept for Wiccans) and seldom aloof to our concerns. +They may have lessons to teach and not all lessons are sweetness and light. +("Beware of asking for Wisdom -- you may get it.") The feminine aspect(s) of +Deity are very important in all perspectives. While some groups do not +consider the masculine aspects of Deity to be important, many of us give +respect to all faces of Deity. + + -Grounding and centering. Grounding is a way of "channelling" energy flow +back into the Earth, much as a lightning rod dispells electricity. These +concepts are more than semantics -- they are very useful in dealing with +stress, as well as occurences which may be considered more "metaphysical" than +physical. As for centering: + + -Centering: It is that which, while drawing upon the pathways and +energies one uses to deal with the world, is the face one presents to one's +Inner Self and to Deity (God/dess(es)). Centering, from a purely physical +approach, involves finding one's center of gravity. Centering, from a mental +approach, involves finding one's center of awareness -- perhaps synthesizing +the right-brain/left-brain dicotomy in thought. Centering, from an emotional +approach, involves finding the central point(s) of one's emotional balance +(refer back to the Concept of Balance). And centering, from the spiritual +angle, involves finding the center of that interconnecting web which makes up +a person's whole being -- right where it intersects with Deity. This sort of +Centering involves finding the "rightness" of Deity --it is a place where it +does not matter at all if Goddess is "merely" an archetype or if Goddess +really and tangibly exists --(YES on both counts!) This sort of Centering +involves being fully aware of both self and Deity in a manner which is +terribly hard to put into adequate words. No, it does not seem to be something +which people can be constantly aware of every moment of their waking lives (at +least not to its fullest extent) --but it is something that a trained (and +sometimes an untrained) person can reach into or call upon, when needed. It is +more than a tool to contact Deity. It is more than a tool, period, although +this Centering is useful as such, when working to develop the spiritual +aspects of self. + + -"An it harm none, Do what thou Wilt" -- the Wiccan Rede. This is more +than an excuse for licence. It contains several concepts discussed below +(ethics, Will, among others). + + -Ethics: Not seen as being imposed from "outside", from external dogma. +They are integral, however, because they are based on common sense and respect +for others (see microcosm = macrocosm), including the environment around us. +Ethics respects the need for others to make their own choices in life, though +we may provide guidance. Ethics means not hurting others unnecessarily, or for +what we percieve as "their own good". The Golden Rule applies. Manipulative, +cohersive magic has no part to play in a responsible, respectful approach to +the Craft. + + -Will: The concept of doing YOUR magical "Will" involves finding out +exactly what it is -- one of the things Wiccan exercises help for. Just any +passing fancy is not necessarily your "Will". Needing to dominate or decide +for others is also not, in this sense, an expression of Will. Many times, +what may be mistaken for Will turns out to be in actuality a knee-jerk +counterreaction to something (for instance, a vengeful counterreaction). In +one important sense, however, Will is finding that thing (or things); that +mode of being, which "centers" you -- and living it. + + -The loss of a sense of guilt: A sense of guilt implies being made to +feel blame for something within. Guilt tends to be self-generated, although +one's environment may magnify a disposition to it. The ideal is that we +should live a guilt-free life -- but as with all things in human nature, +people often end up feeling guilty over feeling guilty, which doesn't address +the issue. (There should be no "shoulds" in the Craft -- Did you catch that??) +Therefore, accepting that one may feel guilt can be important, in order to +work through it. A Wiccan works to know who he or she _is_ -- and, once +knowing, needs no guilt to justify staying on the "straight and narrow". +However, besides our recognition of ideals, in a practical sense we must +recognize and understand the existence of guilty feelings. Guilt is not seen +as a method for control within the Craft. You don't do something just to +assauge it -- rather, you try to understand its roots and deal with that. +There is no "original sin" in this religion. + + -An acceptance of magic: In the most metaphorical sense, this is a belief +that one can transform and be transformed. That one's own actions and the help +of the energies one can call upon for aid -- whether they be seen by the +individual as gods, goddesses, unnamed forces of nature, elemental energies, +personal inner fields of strength, archetypes, or etc. -- can result in the +transformation of either the self or the macrocosm at large (Wiccans are their +own priests and priestesses in this regard.) + + -Dedication -- there is a sense of internal goal-setting. Things don't +all come easy, and the barriers along the way can be learned from -- indeed, +it is important to do so. The Wiccan is dedicated both to her personal growth, +and in co-operation with others, to the goals of the coven (if he/she is IN a +coven), which she quite often has input in creating and developing. Mutual and +uncohersed cooperation is an ideal signpost of whatever goals the Wiccan seeks +to acheive. A corollary to this aspect of Wicca is a developing sense of +responsibility. This responsibility taps in in a living mode to the other +concepts of Witchcraft I have mentioned, as well as in to our day-to-day +"mundane" dealings with people. No, we can't make ourselves responsible for +everything that happens (that way lies burn-out), but we do aim to invoke +responsibility in a balanced, loving, and intelligent manner (which may differ +from person to person). + + -Caring, support, love. Self-explanatory, I hope. These are the +underpinnings of what we hope to achieve. Without these, the rest is just +hollow form. + + -Karma: At its worst, a "it happened, so you must have gotten what you +deserved" reaction is no better than a New Age substitute for guilt, and is a +terrible attitude. At its best, karma is a realization that no action occurs +in a vacuum, that "what goes around comes around". Karmic action need not be +seen as a simple one-on-one action/re-action. Nor is every sickness or +unpleasant thing that happens to us a karmic debt we are paying off. + + -Purpose: Many Witches feel that they are embued with a sense of purpose. +This purpose, for which they are here/doing what they are doing/ etc., differs +for different Wiccans. This idea relates to the concept of involvement with +and in this world. As has been noted, Eastern philosophies tend to study many +of the same things as do we -- but Wicca is more western-oriented in that it +finds an active role and a sense of involvement in the material plane for its +participants. Witchcraft is not as detached in focus. This idea of a purpose +for existence in the here and now is very integral. Often I have run into +Wiccans who have quite evidently found their purpose or purposes -- at other +times Wiccans feel strongly aware that they do have a special purpose they are +here to achieve -- they just haven't figured out quite what it is, yet. (As +well as there being a mixture of both types of awarenesses in some Wiccans, +also!) + + -As Wicca is a religion based on the here and now, a concept similar to +the Christian Heaven is not utilized. What Wiccans believe happens after death +varies quite markedly among individuals. Some believe in reincarnation, +feeling that they may come back in future lives after a visit to a Summerland +in order to learn from the mistakes they made in this life. In other words, +they will come back to work through the karma of past lives. Others, on +another hand, are quite content to deal with karma as a concept with relevance +to this life only -- in such a case, karma is not as heavily a controlling +factor in the circumstances of their existence (ie, then in such cases it +obviously doesn't determine one's birth circumstances); although the idea, as +I have expressed it before, that nothing occurs in a vacuum, still holds sway. +There are those who do not expressly believe in reincarnation. I for one do +not expressly believe in it (but I don't fully disbelieve it, either!). I do +think some part of my life force or energy continues on, but probably not in a +form that I could strictly call "Me". This is why I think the things I do in +this life are terribly important, and it works, for me. + + -"Blessed Be": We are all blessed. The "Be" signifies action here; it is +not a passive condition. We are blessed, and we walk in sacred space. Here and +now. It becomes a matter of growing aware of it. + + -Cycles; the concept of the Circle: The circle is a metaphor for all +kinds of things. There is the moon cycle, the cycle of night and day, the life +cycle. Cycles meet together to form the spiral of the "Spiral Dance" +(Starhawk's book title). The elements form a circle/cycle. Refer back to the +concept of the microcosm = the macrocosm. One can pinpoint cycles in one's own +life. And, as in the concept of balance, this is also an evolving idea, not a +static one. + + -Truth: There are many paths to Truth. There may or may not be one +ultimate Truth out there, but whatever the case, it is seen by the Wiccan as +being approachable by the routes laid open by many choices. This doesn't mean +that there is no such thing as a wrong choice; it does mean that two people +can find Truth by markedly different paths. (And if Capital T Truth is seen as +one ultimate Truth, this doesn't mean that there aren't a whole slew of small +t truths out there.) In the same way, we acknowledge that perception +determines how we view reality; and hence, how we view those truths when we +come upon them. The perception hurdle is out there for everyone -- it is how +we deal with it on our searchings for Truth. As a corollary, it must be +mentioned here that relativism when applied to ideas and ideals doesn't +necessarily mean that every idea or ideal is equal to every other idea/ideal. +They aren't. + + -Perfect Love and Perfect Trust: This is the relationship between the +Wiccan and the concept of God/dess(es). You can concieve of it for +simplicity's sake as an ultimate form of Centering (see above). + + -Keep in mind that the rules in Wicca are internal -- they are not dogma +per se, imposed from outside. This is by and large an experiential religion +-- although we do have some structure (some groups or traditions within Wicca +more so than others). Rules that certain groups or traditions may encourage +often have to do with 1) maintaining group identities (which can also help +foster a sense of "familial" community -- important for growth as a group), 2) +maintaining ethical standards (which will ideally come from within -- if you +don't want to live it, it will be difficult for you to bridge that "psychic" +gap that should connect you with the group, among other things) and 3) other +practical considerations. Those sorts of expectations are not to be seen as +restricting -- and if a seeker finds them constricting within a specific +group, my advice is to look towards another group with another (perhaps more +congenial) approach, or to practice solitary. Contrarywise, some people need +or want a more structured approach. Not everyone looks for or needs the same +type of environment to grow, even within the Craft -- that's why we've got the +diversity we've got. + + -Symbols: While external symbols are hardly as important as that which +one finds in the heart, one sometimes-misinterpreted symbol is the pentagram, +either standing alone or drawn within a circle. It may be interpreted as a +representation of the five elements (earth, air, fire, water, ether/spirit), +or as a representation of Man. Another oft-misrepresented symbol is the +athame, which is a tool used by many Witches as a representation of the +sharpness of Will (see above) which may be dedicated as a tool of Fire +(energy) or as a tool of Air (intellect), depending upon the system used. + + Blessed Be! + + + diff --git a/religious documents/cone.txt b/religious documents/cone.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..78f9e39 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cone.txt @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +ab:cone.txt 16jan90 + + + + Cone of Power + +HP leads a ring dance deosil about HPS who stands in the center. +Coveners are arranged man and woman alternately, facing inwards and holding +hands (left plams up, right palms down). All dance and chant either the +Witches' Rune or the call of the ancient Mysteries: + +All: "Eo, Evohe !" + +Dance and chant faster and faster until HPS senses that the time is right, +whereupon she calls: + +HPS: "Down !" + +All shall drop to the ground in a circle facing the HPS. If there is coven +work to be done, now is the appropriate time to do it. Or a meditation upon the +Moon's season, or such other matter as may be fitting or needful. At an esbat +Wine and Cakes will follow, but at a Sabbat the Great Rite comes first. +---------- +-From "The Witches' Way" by the Farrars. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cone2.txt b/religious documents/cone2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32b3932 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cone2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +ab:cone2.txt 16jan90 + + + The Cone of Power + + + This was the old way. The circle was marked out and people stationed to + whip up the dancers. A fire or candle was within it in the direction + where the object of the rite was supposed to be. Then all danced round + until they felt they had raised enough power. If the rite was to banish + they started deosil and finished tuathil, so many rounds of each. Then + they formed a line with linked hands and rushed towards the fire + shouting the thing they wanted. They kept it up 'til they were + exhausted or until someone fell in a faint, when they were said to have + taken the spell to its destination. +---------- + -Published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way"; from GBG's + BOS (Text B and C give identical versions) + -Doreen Valiente gives just about the same text in "The Rebirth of + Witchcraft", describing it as notes she made from Gerald Gardner's + description of the ritual used to deter Hitler from invading Great + Britain + diff --git a/religious documents/consec1.txt b/religious documents/consec1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..505e354 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/consec1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +ab:consec1.txt 16jan90 + + + Consecrating a Sword or Athame + + Lay sword (or athame) on pentacle, preferably by, and touching, another, +consecrated, weapon. The man asperges them with consecrated salt and water, +whereupon the woman picks up the weapon to be consecrated and passes it through +the imcense smoke and replaces it on the pentacle. Both lay their right hands +upon the weapon and press down, saying: + + Both: "I conjure thee, O Sword (Athame), by these Names, Abrahach, Abrach, + Abracadabra, that thou servest me for a strength and defence in all + magical operations against all mine enemies, visible and invisible. + I conjure thee anew by the Holy Name Aradia and by the Holy Name + Cernunnos; I conjure thee, O Sword (Athame), that thou servest me + for a protection in all adversities; so aid me now !" + + Again the man asperges, and the woman censes, and the weapon is returned to +the pentacle, saying: + + Both: "I conjure thee, O Sword (Athame) of Steel, by the Great Gods and + Gentle Goddesses, by the virtue of the heavens, of the stars + and of the spirits who preside over them, that thou mayest receive + such virtue that I may obtain the end I desire in all things + wherein I shall use thee, by the power of Aradia and Cernunnos." + + The Partner gives the Fivefold kiss unto the owner of the weapon. +If the owner is not present, or if the weapon is jointly owned by them both, +the man will give the Fivefold kiss to the woman. For the final kiss upon +the mouth, the weapon is suspended between their breasts, held there by the +pressure of their embrace. As they seperate, the owner of the weapon +immediately uses it to recast the Circle, but without words. + +Notes: If possible, lay sword with an already consecrated sword or athame. +It should, if possible, be consecrated by both a man and a woman, both of whom +are initiated, and both naked as drawn swords. During consecration, press down +on sword hard with consecrated sword or athame. If possible partake of Cakes +and Wine first, then Magus should sprinkle with water, Witch should cense in +First Conjuration, then sprinkle and cense and conjure again with Second +Conjuration. If true sword and athame are available, a sword and athame can be +consecrated at the same time in which case Magus should press with sword on +sword, and Witch with athame on athame, and new sword and athame should touch. +In any case, when finished the weapon should be handed to new owner with +Fivefold Salute, and should be pressed against the body for a time to get the +aura; and it should be in as close connection as possible to the naked body for +at least a month, i.e. kept under pillow, etc. Do not allow anyone to touch or +handle any of your tools until thoroughly impregnated with your aura; say six +months or as near as possible. But a pair working together may own the same +tools, which will be impregnated with the aura of both. + +---------- +-published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches Way" +-They say it comes from GBG's BOS (Text B/C version) +-They say that he derived it from "The Greater Key of Solomon", but had + dropped the Hebrew and other magical names by text B (they were in text + A). +-See 'Key of Solomon' Book 2, Chapt. VIII. 1st conjuration follows the text + closely, but 2nd and instructions differ. +-The Farrars say that GBG's text A version can be found in "The Key of +Solomon" and "High Magic's Aid" + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/consec2.txt b/religious documents/consec2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e9413e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/consec2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +ab:consec2.txt 16jan90 + + + + Consecrating Other Working Tools + (except a sword or athame) + + Place tool on pentacle, and lay right hand(s) on it, saying: + + "Aradia and Cernunnos, deign to bless and to consecrate this + White-Hilted knife (or whatever) that it may obtain the necessary + virtue through you for all acts of love and beauty." + + Magus sprinkles, Witch censes. Then say: + + "Aradia and Cernunnos, bless this instrument prepared in your honour." + (if Scourge or Cords, add "... that it may serve for a good cause and + end and for your glory.") + + Again Magus sprinkles and Witch censes. (Hand tool to new owner as you +would a sword or athame, with a Fivefold Salute.) + + All these weapons should be presented to the new owner with Salute. If +a Witch Queen, the downward pointing triangle as in the first Degree +Initiation. (I rephrased the previous sentence, as the Farrar's version +is untypeable. --Sekhet) End ceremony with Fivefold Salute. The new owner +should immediately use the new instruments, i.e. form Circle with Sword, +then Athame, incise something with White-Handled knife, exhibit Pentacle to +Four Quarters, cense to Four Quarters, use Cords and Scourge; and should +continue to use all of them in a Circle as often as possible, for some +time. + + To mark out a new Circle, stick sword or athame in ground, make a loop in +cord, and slip over; then, using cord, mark out a circle, and later mark it +with point of sword or athame. Always renew the Circle with sword or athame +when about to use, but have it marked so that you always retrace it in same +place. Remember the Circle is a protection, a guard against evil influences, +and to prevent power created from dispersing; but the Witch, not being evil, +may enter and leave freely. But in Art Magic, it is a barrier against forces +raised, and when once in the Magus may not leave without great danger. If any +great danger is manifested it would be advisable to take refuge in the Circle; +but ordinarily sword or athame in hand is perfect protection against anything. +Those who make these tools must be purified, clean and properly prepared. When +not in use, all tools and weapons should be put away in a secret place; and it +is good that this should be near your sleeping place, and that you handle them +each night before retiring. +---------- +-published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way" +-They say it comes from GBG's BOS (Text B/C) +-They say GBG's original (text A) may be found in "The Key of Solomon" + and in "High Magic's Aid". + diff --git a/religious documents/contradi.txt b/religious documents/contradi.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9998925 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/contradi.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1895 @@ +In article <19920701141445@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (mathew) writes: + +>26. "Does anyone have a list of Biblical contradictions?" + +> + +> American Atheist Press publish an atheist's handbook detailing Biblical + +> contradictions: + +> + +> "The Bible Handbook" W.P. Ball and G.W. Foote American Atheist Press + +> 372 pp. ISBN 0-910309-26-4, 2nd edition, 1986. Bible contradictions, + +> absurdities, atrocities, immoralities... contains Ball, Foote: "The Bible + +> Contradicts Itself", AAP. Based on the King James version of the Bible. + +> + +> AAP's address is: + +> + +> American Atheist Press + +> P.O. Box 140195 7215 Cameron Road + +> Austin, TX 78714-0195 Austin, TX 78752-2973 + +> Phone: (512) 458-1244 Fax: (512) 467-9525 + + + +Will this do? I put it together myself + + + + + +Contradictions -- The Bible is riddled with repetitions and + +contradictions, things that the Bible bangers would be quick to point + +out in anything that they want to criticize. For instance, Genesis 1 + +and 2 disagree about the order in which things are created, and how + +satisfied God is about the results of his labors. The flood story is + +really two interwoven stories that contradict each other on how many + +of each kind of animal are to be brought into the Ark -- is it one + +pair each or seven pairs each of the "clean" ones? The Gospel of John + +disagrees with the other three Gospels on the activities of Jesus + +Christ (how long had he stayed in Jerusalem -- a couple of days or a + +whole year?) and all four Gospels contradict each other on the details + +of Jesus Christ's last moments and resurrection. The Gospels of + +Matthew and Luke contradict each other on the genealogy of Jesus + +Christ'f father; though both agree that Joseph was not his real + +father. Repetitions and contradictions are understandable for a + +hodgepodge collection of documents, but not for some carefully + +constructed treatise, reflecting a well-thought-out plan. + + + +Of the various methods I've seen to "explain" these: + +1. "That is to be taken metaphorically" In other words, what is + + written is not what is meant. I find this entertaining, especially + + for those who decide what ISN'T to be taken as other than the + + absolute WORD OF GOD - which just happens to agree with the + + particular thing they happen to want... + + + +2. "There was more there than...." This is used when one verse says + + "there was a" and another says "there was b", so they decide there + + was "a" AND "b" -which is said nowhere. This makes them happy, + + since it doesn't say there WASN'T "a+b". But it doesn't say there + + was "a+b+litle green martians". This is often the same crowd that + + insists theirs is the ONLY possible interpretation (i.e. only "a") + + and the only way. I find it entertaining they they don't mind + + adding to verses. + + + +3. "It has to be understood in context" I find this amusing because it + + comes from the same crowd that likes to push likewise extracted verses + + that support their particular view. Often it is just one of the + + verses in the contradictory set is suppose to be taken as THE TRUTH + + when if you add more to it it suddenly becomes "out of context". + + How many of you have goten JUST John 3:16 (taken out of all context) + + thrown up at you? + + + +4. "there was just a copying/writing error" This is sometimes called + + a "transcription error", as in where one number was meant and an + + incorrect one was copied down. Or that what was "quoted" wasn't + + really what was said, but just what the author thought was said when + + he thought it was said. And that's right - I'm not disagreeing with + + events, I'm disagreeing with what is WRITTEN. Which is apparently + + agreed that it is incorrect. This is an amusing misdirection to the + + problem that the bible itself is wrong. + + + +5. "That is a miracle". Naturally. That is why it is stated as fact. + + + +6. "God works in mysterious ways" A useful dodge when the speaker doesn't + + understand the conflict between what the bible SAYS and what they WISH + + it said. + +============================================================================= + + + +REFERENCES: + + + +The King James version of the Bible. quotes provided. + + + +Self-contradictions of the Bible. + +William Henry Burr + +ISBN 0-87975 416 -8 + + + +Burr, William Henry, 1819-1908. + + Self-contradictions of the Bible / William Henry Burr ; with an + + introduction by R. Joseph Hoffmann. [Buffalo, NY : Prometheus Books], + + c1987. + + Series title: Classics of Biblical criticism. + + UCB Moffitt BS533 .B798 1987 + + UCD Main Lib BS533 .B798 1987 + + + +Cooper, Robert, secularist. + + The "Holy Scriptures" analyzed, or, Extracts from the Bible : shewing its + + contradictions, absurdities and immoralities / by Robert Cooper. 2nd ed., + + to which is added, a vindication of the work. Manchester, [Greater + + Manchester] : J. Cooper, 1840. + + Series title: Goldsmiths'-Kress library of economic literature ; no. + + 31887. + + UCLA AGSMgmt H 31 G57 Microfilm + + + +DeHaan, M. R. + + 508 answers to Bible questions : with answers to seeming Bible + + contradictions / M.R. DeHaan. Grand Rapids, Mich. : Zondervan, [1968?], + + c1952. + + UCSB Library BS538 .D43 1968 + + + +Thaddaeus, Joannes, fl. 1630. + + The reconciler of the Bible inlarged : wherein above three thousand + + seeming contradictions throughout the Old and New Testament are fully and + + plainly reconciled ... / by J.T. and T.M. .. London : Printed for Simon + + Miller ..., 1662. + + Series title: Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1052:9. + + UCSD Central MICRO F 524 Current Periodical Microform + + + +Poole, Matthew, 1624-1679. + + Annotations upon the Holy Bible. Vol. II : wherein the sacred text is + + inserted, and various readings annex'd, together with the parallel + + scriptures : the more difficult terms in each verse are explained,... The + + third edition, with the addition of a new concordance and tables, by Mr. + + Sam. Clark; the whole corrected and amended by the said Mr. Sam. Clark and + + Mr. Edward Veale .. London : Printed for Thomas Parkhurst [and 6 others], + + MDCXCVI [1696]. + + Series title: Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1041:1. + + UCSD Central MICRO F 524 Current Periodical Microform + + + +"the x-rated bible" by ben edward akerley, published by + +american atheist press, austin texas, 1985. + + + + + +============================================================================= + +A good source of _literal_ Biblical self-contradictions is (surprise) + +"Self-Contradictions of the Bible", written by William Henry Burr in + +1859 as a response to fundamentalism. It is currently published by + +Prometheus Books, 700 East Amherst St., Buffalo, NY 14215. P.B. also + +publishes a large number of books on religious inquiry and biblical + +critiques, the majority of which have a humanistic/atheistic slant. + +As far as "Self-Contradictions ..." goes, it contains about 140 textual + +inconsistencies, classified under "Theological Doctrines", "Moral Precepts", + +"Historical Facts", and "Speculative Doctrines." + +============================================================================= + +"The Bible Handbook" is a compilation of several previous works by several + +authors, including W P Ball, G W Foote, and John Bowden. Also, the writing + +by Mr Foote is dated 1900, so we see that this is not a new endeavor. + +_The Bible Handbook_ by W.P. Ball, et al., available for nine dollars from the + +the American Atheist Press, P.O. Box 2117, Austin TX 78768-2117. It's a + +collection of biblical contradictions, absurdities, atrocities, immoralities, + +indecencies, obscenities, unfulfilled prophecies and broken promises. This + +372-page volume will give the atheist tons of scriptural ammunition for + +shooting down the flimsy arguments of the reality impaired. + +============================================================================= + +Additional contributions were given by: + +markn@mot.com (DX560 Mark Nowak) + +JHAYNES@MPS.OHIO-STATE.EDU + +loren%sunlight.llnl.gov@lll-lcc.llnl.gov + +lmoikkan@Bonnie.ICS.UCI.EDU + +gerry@cs.cmu.edu + +gerry@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu + +smith_w@apollo.hp.com + +icsu7039@caesar.cs.montana.edu + +XWUU@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU + +bjorn%consens.UUCP@nac.no + +EETLO29%TECHNION@TAUNIVM.TAU.AC.IL + +refling@envy.eng.uci.edu + +mgo@inel.gov + +rkp@drutx.att.com + +daveh@sequent.com + +markn%mot.com@tin.berkeley.edu + +aa485@cleveland.freenet.edu (John Strekal) + +============================================================================= + +>God good to all, or just a few? + +PSA 145:9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are + +over all his works. + + + +JER 13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fa- + +thers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor + +spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. + +============================================================================= + +>War or Peace? + +EXO 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name. + + + +ROM 15:33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. + +============================================================================= + +> Who is the father of Joseph? + + + +MAT 1:16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was + +born Jesus, who is called Christ. + + + +LUK 3:23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of + +age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son + +of Heli, + + + +============================================================================= + +> Who was at the Empty Tomb? Is it : + + + +MAT 28:1 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward + +the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary + +to see the sepulchre. + + + +MAR 16:1 And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary + +the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that + +they might come and anoint him. + + + +JOH 20:1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, + +when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone + +taken away from the sepulchre. + + + +============================================================================= + +>Is Jesus equal to or lesser than? + + + +JOH 10:30 I and my Father are one. + + + +JOH 14:28 Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come + +again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, + +I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. + + + +============================================================================= + +>which first--beasts or man? + + + +GEN 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and + +cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the + +earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. + +GEN 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our + +likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, + +and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all + +the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the + +earth. + + + +GEN 2:18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man + +should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. + +GEN 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast + +of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto + +Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called + +every living creature, that was the name thereof. + +============================================================================= + +>number of beasts in the ark + + + +GEN 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, + +the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, + +the male and his female. + + + +GEN 7:8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and + +of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, + +GEN 7:9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the + +male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. + +============================================================================= + +>how many stalls and horsemen? + + + +KI1 4:26 And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his + +chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. + + + +CH2 9:25 And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and + +chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the + +chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem. + +============================================================================= + +>folly to be wise or not? + + + +PRO 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and + +with all thy getting get understanding. + + + +ECC 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that in- + +creaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. + + + +1 Cor.1:19: "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and wil + +bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." + +============================================================================= + +>human vs. ghostly impregnation + + + +ACT 2:30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had + +sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, ac- + +cording to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his + +throne; + + + +MAT 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as + +his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came togeth- + +er, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. + +============================================================================= + +>sins of the father + + + +ISA 14:21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of + +their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor + +fill the face of the world with cities. + + + +DEU 24:16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the chil- + +dren, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: + +every man shall be put to death for his own sin. + +============================================================================= + +>The bat is not a bird. + + + +LEV 11:13 And these are they which ye shall have in abomination + +among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomina- + +tion: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, + +LEV 11:14 And the vulture, and the kite after his kind; + +LEV 11:15 Every raven after his kind; + +LEV 11:16 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and + +the hawk after his kind, + +LEV 11:17 And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great + +owl, + +LEV 11:18 And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, + +LEV 11:19 And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapw- + +ing, and the bat. + + + +DEU 14:11 Of all clean birds ye shall eat. + +DEU 14:12 But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the ea- + +gle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, + +DEU 14:13 And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his + +kind, + +DEU 14:14 And every raven after his kind, + +DEU 14:15 And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and + +the hawk after his kind, + +DEU 14:16 The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, + +DEU 14:17 And the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the cor- + +morant, + +DEU 14:18 And the stork, and the heron after her kind, and the + +lapwing, and the bat. + +============================================================================= + +>Rabbits do not chew their cud. + + + +LEV 11:6 And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth + +not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. + + + +'Gerah', the term which appears in the MT means (chewed) cud, and + +also perhaps grain, or berry (also a 20th of a sheckel, but I think + +that we can agree that that is irrelevant here). It does *not* mean + +dung, and there is a perfectly adequate Hebrew word for that, which + +could have been used. Furthermore, the phrase translated 'chew the cud' + +in the KJV is more exactly 'bring up the cud'. Rabbits do not bring + +up anything; they let it go all the way through, then eat it again. + +The description given in Leviticus is inaccurate, and that's that. + +Rabbits do eat their own dung; they do not bring anything up and + +chew on it. + +============================================================================= + +> Insects do NOT have four feet. + + + +LEV 11:21 Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing + +that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet, to + +leap withal upon the earth; + +LEV 11:22 Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his + +kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after + +his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. + +LEV 11:23 But all other flying creeping things, which have four + +feet, shall be an abomination unto you. + +============================================================================= + +>Snails do not melt. + + + +PSA 58:8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass + +away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see + +the sun. + +============================================================================= + +>fowl from waters or ground? + + + +GEN 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the + +moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the + +earth in the open firmament of heaven. + +GEN 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature + +that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after + +their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw + +that it was good. + + + +GEN 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast + +of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto + +Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called + +every living creature, that was the name thereof. + +============================================================================= + +> odd genetic engineering + + + +GEN 30:39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought + +forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted. + +============================================================================= + +>shape of the earth + + + +ISA 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, + +and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth + +out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to + +dwell in: + + + +MAT 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high + +mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the + +glory of them; + + + +Astromical bodies are spherical, and you cannot see the entire exterior + +surface from anyplace. The kingdoms of Egypt, China, Greece, Crete, + +sections of Asia Minor, India, Maya (in Mexico), Carthage (North + +Africa), Rome (Italy), Korea, and other settlements from these + +kingdoms of the world were widely distributed. + +============================================================================= + +>Snakes, while built low, do not eat dirt. + + + +GEN 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou + +hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every + +beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt + +thou eat all the days of thy life: + +============================================================================= + +>earth supported? + + + +JOB 26:7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and + +hangeth the earth upon nothing. + + + +JOB 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the + +earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. + + + +>Heaven, too... + +}JOB 26:11 The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at + +}his reproof. + +============================================================================= + +>hydrological cycle + + + +ECC 1:7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not + +full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they + +return again. + + + +JOB 38:22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or + +hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, + + + +Storehouses are not part of the cycle + +============================================================================= + +} order of creastion + +Here is the order in the first (Genesis 1), the Priestly tradition: + + + +Day 1: Sky, Earth, light + +Day 2: Water, both in ocean basins and above the sky(!) + +Day 3: Plants + +Day 4: Sun, Moon, stars (as calendrical and navigational aids) + +Day 5: Sea monsters (whales), fish, birds, land animals, + +creepy-crawlies (reptiles, insects, etc.) + +Day 6: Humans (apparently both sexes at the same time) + +Day 7: Nothing (the Gods took the first day off anyone ever did) + + + + Note that there are "days", "evenings", and "mornings" before + +the Sun was created. Here, the Deity is referred to as "Elohim", which + +is a plural, thus the literal translation, "the Gods". In this tale, + +the Gods seem satisfied with what they have done, saying after each + +step that "it was good". + + + +The second one (Genesis 2), the Yahwist tradition, goes: + + + +Earth and heavens (misty) + +Adam, the first man (on a desolate Earth) + +Plants + +Animals + +Eve, the first woman (from Adam's rib) + + + +============================================================================= + +How orderly were things created? + +#1: Step-by-step. The only discrepancy is that there is no Sun or Moon + +or stars on the first three "days". + +#2: God fixes things up as he goes. The first man is lonely, and is + +not satisfied with animals. God finally creates a woman for him. + +(funny thing that an omniscient god would forget things) + +============================================================================= + +How satisfied with creation was he? + +#1: God says "it was good" after each of his labors, and rests on the + +seventh day, evidently very satisfied. + +#2: God has to fix up his creation as he goes, and he would certainly + +not be very satisfied with the disobedience of that primordial couple. + +(funny thing that an omniscient god would forget things) + +============================================================================= + +> Moses's personality + +Num.12:3: "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon + +the fact of the earth." + + + + Num.31:14, 17, 18: "And Moses was wroth...And Moses said unto them, "Have ye + +saved all the women alive? ... Now therefore kill every male among the little + +ones, and kill every woman, ... But all the women children ... keep alive for + +yourselves." + +============================================================================= + +>righteous live? + + + +Ps.92:12: "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree." + + + +Isa.57:1: "The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart." + +============================================================================= + +Acts 1:18: "Now this man (Judas) purchased a field with the reward of + +iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his + +bowels gushed out." + + + +Matt. 27:5-7: "And he (Judas) cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, + +and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests...bought + +with them the potter's field." + +============================================================================= + +>Jesus' first sermon plain or mount? + +Matt.5:1,2: "And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when + +he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught + +them, saying...." + +Luke6:17,20: "And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the + +company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people...came to hear him.. + +And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said..." + +============================================================================= + +>Jesus' last words + + + +Matt.27:46,50: "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, + +saying, "Eli, eli, lama sabachthani?" that is to say, "My God, my God, why hast + +thou forsaken me?" ...Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, yielded u + +the ghost." + + + +Luke23:46: "And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, "Father, unto + +thy hands I commend my spirit:" and having said thus, he gave up the ghost." + + + +John19:30: "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is + +finished:" and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." + +!@# + +============================================================================= + +>years of famine + + + +II SAMUEL 24:13: So God came to David, and told him, and said unto him, shall + +SEVEN YEARS OF FAMINE come unto thee in thy land? or will thou flee three + +months before thine enemies, while they pursue. thee? + + + +I CHRONICLES 21:11: SO God came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the + +LORD, Choose thee. Either THREE YEARS OF FAMINE or three months to be destryed + +before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee; + +============================================================================= + +>moved David to anger? + +II SAMUEL 24: And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, + +and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Isreal and Judah. + + + +I CHRONICLES 21: And SATAN stood up against Isreal, and provoked David to + +number Israel. + +============================================================================= + +>The GENEALOGY OF JESUS? + +In two places in the New Testament the genealogy of Jesus son of Mary (PBUH) + +is mentioned. Matthew 1:6-16 and Luke 3:23-31. Each gives the ancestors of + +Joseph the CLAIMED husband of Mary and Step father of Jesus(PBUH). The first + +one starts from Abraham(verse 2) all the way down to Jesus. The second + +one from Jesus all the way back to Adam. The only common name to these two + +lists between David and Jesus is JOSEPH, How can this be true? and also + +How can Jesus have a genealogy when all Muslims and most Christians believe + +that Jesus had/has no father. + +============================================================================= + +>God be seen? + + Exod. 24:9,10; Amos 9:1; Gen. 26:2; and John 14:9 + + God CAN be seen: + + "And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my backparts." + + (Ex. 33:23) + + "And the Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his + + friend." (Ex. 33:11) + + "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." + + (Gen. 32:30) + +God CANNOT be seen: + + "No man hath seen God at any time." (John 1:18) + + "And he said, Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man + + see me and live." (Ex. 33:20) + + "Whom no man hath seen nor can see." (1 Tim. 6:16) + +============================================================================= + +>CRUEL, UNMERCIFUL, DESTRUCTIVE, and FEROCIOUS or KIND, MERCIFUL, and GOOD: + + "I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy." (Jer. 13:14) + + "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and + + spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling." + + + + "The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." (James 5:11) + + "For his mercy endureth forever." (1 Chron. 16:34) + + "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his + + works." (Ps. 145:9) + + "God is love." (1 John 4:16) + +============================================================================= + +>tempts? + + "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham." + + (Gen 22:1) + + + + "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God + + cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." (James 1:13) + +============================================================================= + +>Judas died how? + + "And he cast down the pieces of silver into the temple and departed, + + and went out and hanged himself." (Matt. 27:5) + + + + "And falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all of his + + bowels gushed out." (Acts 1:18) + +============================================================================= + +> ascend to heaven + + "And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." (2 Kings 2:11) + + + + "No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, + + ... the Son of Man." (John 3:13) + +============================================================================= + +What was Jesus' prediction regarding Peter's denial? + + + +Before the cock crow - Matthew 26:34 + + + +Before the cock crow twice - Mark 14:30 + +============================================================================= + + + +>How many times did the cock crow? + + + +MAR 14:72 And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to + +mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow + +twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he + +wept. + + + +MAT 26:74 Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know + +not the man. And immediately the cock crew. + +MAT 26:75 And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said + +unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he + +went out, and wept bitterly. + + + +LUK 22:60 And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And + +immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew. + +LUK 22:61 And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter + +remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before + +the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. + + + +JOH 13:38 Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my + +sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, + +still thou hast denied me thrice. + + + +JOH 18:27 Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock + +crew. + + + +============================================================================= + +>who killed Saul + + + +SA1 31:4 Then said Saul unto his armourbearer, Draw thy sword, + +and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come + +and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armourbearer would + +not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword, and + +fell upon it. + +SA1 31:5 And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he + +fell likewise upon his sword, and died with him. + +SA1 31:6 So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, + +and all his men, that same day together. + + + + + +SA2 1:15 And David called one of the young men, and said, Go + +near, and fall upon him. And he smote him that he died. + + + +============================================================================= + +>How many beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount + + + +MAT 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the king- + +dom of heaven. + +MAT 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comfort- + +ed. + +MAT 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. + +MAT 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after + +righteousness: for they shall be filled. + +MAT 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. + +MAT 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. + +MAT 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called + +the children of God. + +MAT 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteous- + +ness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. + +MAT 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and per- + +secute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, + +for my sake. + + + +LUK 6:20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, + +Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. + +LUK 6:21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. + +Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. + +LUK 6:22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they + +shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, + +and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. + +LUK 6:23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, + +your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their + +fathers unto the prophets. + + + +============================================================================= + +>Does every man sin? + + + +KI1 8:46 If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that + +sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to + +the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of + +the enemy, far or near; + + + +CH2 6:36 If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which + +sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over + +before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a + +land far off or near; + + + +PRO 20:9 Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from + +my sin? + + + +ECC 7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth + +good, and sinneth not. + + + +JO1 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and + +the truth is not in us. + +JO1 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to for- + +give us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. + +JO1 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, + +and his word is not in us. + + + +JO1 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his + +seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of + +God. + +============================================================================= + +>who bought potter's field + + + +ACT 1:18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of ini- + +quity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and + +all his bowels gushed out. + +ACT 1:19 And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; + +insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Acelda- + +ma, that is to say, The field of blood. + + + +MAT 27:6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, + +It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is + +the price of blood. + +MAT 27:7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the + +potter's field, to bury strangers in. + +MAT 27:8 Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, + +unto this day. + + + +============================================================================= + +>Who prophesied the potter's field + +Matthew 27:9-10 (mentions Jeremy but no such verse in Jeremiah) + +is in Zechariah 11:12-13 + +============================================================================= + +>who bears guilt? + + + +GAL 6:2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of + +Christ. + + + +GAL 6:5 For every man shall bear his own burden. + + + +============================================================================= + +>Do you answer a fool? + + + +PRO 26:4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou + +also be like unto him. + + + +PRO 26:5 Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise + +in his own conceit. + + + +============================================================================= + +> How many children did Michal, the daughter of Saul, have? + + + +SA2 6:23 Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto + +the day of her death. + + + +SA2 21:8 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter + +of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and + +the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up + +for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: + + + +============================================================================= + +>How old whas Jehoiachin when he began to reign? + + + +KI2 24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to + +reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother's + +name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. + + + + + +CH2 36:9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, + +and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did + +that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. + + + +============================================================================= + +>marriage? + +Proverbs 18:22 + +1 Corinthians 7 (whole book. See 1,2,27,39,40) + +============================================================================= + +>Did those with Saul/Paul at his conversion hear a voice? + + + +ACT 9:7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, + +hearing a voice, but seeing no man. + + + +ACT 22:9 And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and + +were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to + +me. + + + +============================================================================= + +>Where was Jesus three days after his baptism? + + + +MAR 1:12 And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilder- + +ness. + + + +JOH 1:35 Again the next day after John stood, and two of his + +disciples; + + + +(various trapsing) + + + +============================================================================= + +>How many apostles were in office between the resurection and ascention + +1 Corinthians 15:5 (12) + +Matthew 27:3-5 (minus one from 12) + +Acts 1:9-26 (Mathias not elected until after resurrection) + + + +MAT 28:16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into + +a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. + +============================================================================= + +Judging + +1 Cor 3:15 " The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself + +is not subject to any man's judgment:" (NIV) + + + +1 Cor 4:5 " Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the + +Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose + +the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from + +God." + + + +============================================================================= + +Good deeds + +Matt 5:16 "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see + +your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (NIV) + + + +Matt 6:3-4 "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what + +your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secert. Then your + +Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (NIV) + + + +============================================================================= + +>for or against? + + + +MAT 12:30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that + +gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. + +(default is against) + + + +MAR 9:40 For he that is not against us is on our part. + +(default is for) + + + +LUK 9:50 And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is + +not against us is for us. + +(default is for) + + + +============================================================================= + +Whom did they see at the tomb? + + + + + +MAT 28:2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the + +angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back + +the stone from the door, and sat upon it. + +MAT 28:3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment + +white as snow: + +MAT 28:4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became + +as dead men. + +MAT 28:5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear + +not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. + + + +MAR 16:5 And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man + +sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and + +they were affrighted. + + + + + +LUK 24:4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed + +thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: + + + +JOH 20:12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the + +head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had + +lain. + + + +============================================================================= + +>God change? + +malachi 3:6 + +james 1:17 + +1 samuel 15:29 + +jonah 3:10 + +genesis 6:6 + +============================================================================= + +>destruction of cities (what said was jeremiah was zechariah) + + + +MAT 27:9 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the + +prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the + +price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel + +did value; + + + + + +zechariah 11:11-13 + +(nothing in Jeremiah remotely like) + +============================================================================= + +>who's sepulchres + +acts 7:16 + +genesis 23:17,18 + +============================================================================= + +>strong drink? + +proverbs 31:6,7 + +john 2:11-11 + +============================================================================= + +>When second coming? + + + +MAT 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, + +till all these things be fulfilled. + + + +MAR 13:30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not + +pass, till all these things be done. + + + + + + + +LUK 21:32 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass + +away, till all be fulfilled. + + + +1 thessalonians 4:15-18 + +============================================================================= + +Solomon's overseers + + + +550 in I Kings 9:23 + + + +250 in II Chron 8:10 + + + +============================================================================= + +The mother of Abijah: + + + +Maachah the daughter of Absalom 2 Chron 9:20 + + + +Michaiah the daughter of Uriel 2 Chron 13:2 + + + +============================================================================= + +When did Baasha die? + + + +26th year of the reign of Asa I Kings 16:6-8 + + + +36th year of the reign of Asa I 2 Chron 16:1 + + + +============================================================================= + +How old was Ahaziah when he began to reign? + + + +22 in 2 Kings 8:26 + + + +42 in 2 Chron 22:2 + + + +============================================================================= + +WHo was Josiah's successor? + + + +Jehoahaz - 2 Chron 36:1 + + + +Shallum - Jeremiah 22:11 + + + +============================================================================= + + + +The differences in the census figures of Ezra and Nehemiah. + + + +============================================================================= + +What was the color of the robe placed on Jesus during his trial? + + + +scarlet - Matthew 27:28 + + + +purple John 19:2 + + + +============================================================================= + +What did they give him to drink? + + + +vinegar - Matthew 27:34 + + + +wine with myrrh - Mark 15:23 + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/contrast.txt b/religious documents/contrast.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f6807d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/contrast.txt @@ -0,0 +1,944 @@ + STUDIES IN CONTRASTS: THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST + + The Bible contains many statements that on the surface seem to fight +one another. It tells us to be both happy and sad, agressive and meek, +dependent and independent, peaceful and warlike. + + Why is this? Partly because the Bible equips us to respond in +different ways to ever-changing circumstances and needs. In Ecclesiastes +3:1-4, Solomon wrote: + + To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under + heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to plant, + and a time to pluck...; A time to kill, and a time to heal; A + time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a + time to laugh; A time to mourn, and a time to dance. + +Solomon went on to say, "(God) has made everything beautiful in its time" +(Eccl. 3:11). It's for good reason that the Bible encourages us to break +down and to build up, to laugh and to cry, to heal and to kill. The +challenge of spiritual maturity is to understand how to respond to these +contrasting truths. + + RBC senior research editor Herb Vander Lugt has written this booklet +to show how contrasting bibilical ideas contribute to a more complete +knowledge of the doctrine of Christ. It is our prayer that through these +pages you will gain a better understanding of the life-changing truths of +the "whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27). + + + + THE RESURRECTION IS A MATTER OF : REASON / FAITH + + Many well-educated Christian leaders set forth in great detail the +historical and logical evidence for Christ's resurrection, believing that +it has great apologetic value. But other Christian scholars, equally +convinced that Jesus conquered death, see little value in this evidence. +They insist that we must accept the biblical teaching about Christ's +resurrection by faith alone. Which view is correct? Can both be right? + + + The Resurrection is a Matter of Reason + +1. Christ's resurrection is a well-supported, historical event reported + by contemporaries of Christ and is preserved as a matter of historical + record in thousands of good manuscript copies (see Luke 1:1-4; 1 Cor. + 15:3-8). + +2. The changed lives of the apostles is a powerful evidence of their + belief that Jesus truly conquered death (Acts 2:14-40; 3:11-4:21; cp. + John 18:15-18, 25-27). + +3. The church was founded in the first century on the message of the + resurrection (Acts 2:22-36; 3:13-15; 4:8-10). + +4. Sunday, the day of our Lord's resurrection, replaced the Jewish + Sabbath as the day of worship well before AD 100 (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. + 16:2). + +5. Paul used logic to argue that the ressurection of Christ from the dead + is essential to Christianity. He said that without it the gospel + message would be a lie, he would be a liar, and Christians would be + deceived and without hope (1 Cor. 15:12-19). + + + The Resurrection is a Matter of Faith + +1. Historical events by their very nature cannot be laboratory-tested and + therefore cannot be viewed as scientifically provable. + +2. The resurrection of a dead person is so contrary to scientific laws + that believing in it, no matter how great the historical evidence, + requires a step of faith. + +3. Faith, which God demands as the condition for salvation, requires + trusting what the Word of God says about that which cannot be seen + (Rom. 8:24,25; Heb 11:1,6). + + +Explanation + + In Peter's sermon to the assembled Jews just 50 days after Christ's +resurrection, he could declare that all the apostles were witnesses to the +fact that they saw their resurrected Savior. Luke, the author of Acts, +reported these words and went to great lengths to make sure that he was +giving an accurate report of what happened (Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1-3). Even +liberal scholars believe that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians only 35 years after +the resurrection. And in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 he could affirm the +historicity of the resurrection of Christ without fear of rebuttal, because +many people who had seen the resurrected Christ were still alive and could +testify that they had seen Him. This is first-hand testimony to the fact +of the resurrection, the kind of evidence that is acceptable in a court of +law today. + + This historical evidence possesses real value. It shows us that God +does not expect us to take a blind, irrational leap of faith. However, we +must realize that all this evidence and logic does not provide scientific +proof. The non-Christian is not forced to believe in the resurrection in +the same way he must believe in something that is proven through laboratory +evidence. + + The New Testament writers, though affirming the fact of the +resurrection, also emphasized the need for faith. Paul declared that our +hope involves fiath. If it were an expectation based on scientific proof, +it would no longer be hope (Rom. 8:24,25). Moreover, the writer of +Hebrews, though affirming the historical validity of the gospel, declared +that we take a step of faith when we believe in God (11:6). + + We do not face a problem of choosing between belief and reason. Nor +is it a matter of using reason as far as it will take us and then taking a +leap of faith. Rather it is using our minds and exercising faith at the +same time. + + F. F. Bruce points out that believing in the resurrected Christ, +though involving our thought processes, is at heart a moral decision. +Certainty comes when the Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit (Rom. +8:16,17). + + +Resolution + + We can be encouraged by the solit evidence that supports the +historicity of Christ's resurrection. Yet belief in it calls for the +exercise of faith--a reasonable faith to be sure but faith nonetheless. + + +Application + +* We should be able to give those to whom we witness good evidence for + our belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 3:15). + +* Because we cannot prove the resurrection by empirical evidence, we + must urge poeple to take a reasonable step of faith. + +* We must walk in obedience and continual dependence on the Holy Spirit + so that we can enjoy the certainty of faith that comes through His + inner witness (Rom. 8:16,17). + + + + CHRIST CAME TO: LIVE FOR US / DIE FOR US + + Popular books and movies about Christ tend to emphasize His exemplary +life, but they portray His death as untimely and unfortunate. In sharp +contrast, many conservative Christians say very little about Christ's life +and teachings. Instead they focus primarily on the cross and the empty +tomb. Whis is it: Did Christ come to live for us, or did He come to die +for us? + + +Christ Came to Live for Us. + +1. By living as God among men, He showed us what God is like (John 14:9). + +2. By living out the human experience, He showed us how God wants us to + live (1 John 2:6). + +3. By living an unembittered, unretaliating, uncomplaining life even in + the face of suffering and death, He showed us how to endure the + problems of life (1 Pet. 2:21-23). + +4. By living a perfect life, He was qualified to be our Savior (Heb. + 5:8,9). + +5. By living obediently in the face of temptation, He showed us how to + overcome evil (Matt. 4:1-11; Heb. 2:18; 4:15). + + +Christ Came to Die for Us. + +1. His death on the cross was predicted in the Old Testament as His + central mission (Ps. 22; Is. 52:13-15; Is. 53). + +2. His death on the cross was the means by which He became our Savior, + fulfilling the message of the angel to the virgin Mary (Matt. 1:21; + Heb. 2:14,15). + +3. His death on the cross was announced by John the Baptist at the + beginning of His ministry when John declared, "Behold! The Lamb of + God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). + +4. His impending death on the cross was in His mind from the very + beginning of His public ministry as "the hour" for which He had come + into this world (John 2:19-22; 10:11, 17, 18; 12:23,27; 13:1; 16:32; + 17:1). + +5. His death on the cross was just as necessary for the salvation of + sinners as the death of a seed is to produce a plant (John + 12:24,32,33). + + +Explanation + + Yes, Jesus Christ lived for us. He did so for a little more than 30 +years to reveal God and to show us how to live. He told Philip that all +who had observed Him had seen the Father (Joh 14:9). John gives us the +standard for our lives, saying that we should "walk as He walked" (1 John +2:6). And Peter told us that Jesus showed us how to suffer unjust +treatment (1 Pet. 2:21). + + However, it is also true that He came to die for us. At the very +beginning of Christ's ministry, John the Baptist referred to Him as the +"Lamb of God"--an allusion to His coming death as a Lamb. The Old +Testament writers predicted His death as a sacrifice for sinners (Ps. 22; +Is. 52,53). Jesus declared Himself to be the good Shepherd who would give +His life for the sheep. And Paul announced the reason for His death: +"Christ died for our sins" (1 Cor. 15:3); that is, to pay the penalty we +all deserve at the hand of a holy God (Rom. 6:23). + +Resolution + + As you can see, the Bible teaches that Christ came both to live for us +and to die for us. Neither His life without His death nor His death +without His life would be adequate for our complete salvation. + +Application + +* We must recognice that our salvation is entirely a gift of God, earned + for us by the substitutionary life and death of Jesus Christ. + +* We must earnestly seek to follow the example of Jesus Christ, being + satisfied with nothing less than a perfect life. + +* We must view our good conduct as a means of glorifying God and + expressing our thanks to Him, but never as a means of contributing to + our salvation. + + + + CHRIST CAME TO BRING: PEACE / DIVISION + + An elderly American citizen who emigrated from the Ukraine as a young +man tells how he experienced severe conflict with his parents, relatives, +and acquaintances when he became a Christian. + + He had grown up in the state church but turned to atheism because of +the hypocrisy of the clergy. When he began to proclaim his unbelief +zealously, his family was disturbed, but they didn't oppose him. + + One day, however, his atheism was challenged by a Christian. After a +few weeks of daily meetings, he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal +Savior. He went home that evening to tell his parents what had happened, +thinking that they would be glad. Much to his surprise, his father became +so angry that he struck him on the head and ordered him to leave the house. + + His family and acquaintances turned against him and his employer fired +him. Strangely, they preferred atheism to a vibrant faith in Christ. He +did odd jobs and continued to be persecuted until he found a way to escape +to America. + + This man's Christianity caused conflict and division in his +relationships. Is this what Jesus promised? Didn't He come to bring +peace? + +Christ Came to Bring Peace + +1. Zacharias, before Christ's birth, prophesied that the Messiah would + "guide our feet into the way of peace" (Luke 1:78,79). + +2. Christ laid the basis for peace between God and us through His death + on the cross (Rom. 5:1; Col 1:20). + +3. Christ gives those who trust Him an inner peace far beyond anything + the world can offer (John 14:27). + +4. Christ calls on us to follow His example--to be peacemakers (Matt. + 5:9), to turn the other cheek (Matt. 5:39), and to love our enemies + (Matt. 5:44). + + +Christ Came to Bring Division + +1. Christ often brings a "sword" instead of "peace" into family + relationships, causing those who reject Him to hate those who believe + in Him (Matt. 10:34-36). + +2. Christ said that those who followed Him would be hated by the world + because the world hated Him, and because His followers would not + belong to the world (John 15:18,19; 17:14). + +3. Christ divides people into two groups--those who receive Him and those + who do not (John 1:11-13). + +4. Christ will bring about an eternal separation of those who believe in + Him from those who do not believe (John 5:28,29). + +Explanation + + By his atoning sacrifice on the cross, Christ paid the price for sin +and made it possible for sinners to be at peace with a holy God (Col. +1:19,20). Jesus also gives believers who are trusting in Him the peace of +God (John 14:27). This inner peace of God is the absence of spiritual +unrest and the assurance of His loving presence in the midst of all +circumstances. + + Yes, Jesus also said, "I did not come to bring peace but a sword" +(Matt. 10:34). He then specified that belief in Him would divide family +relationships (v.35) and even create enemies of family members (v.36). +People who reject Christ often hate those who accept Him because they are +offended by their testimony and conduct (John 17:14). + +Resolution + + Jesus Christ made it possible for us to be at peace with God and to +have the inner peace of God. But following Him puts us at odds with those +who reject Christ's rule over their lives, causing division and conflict. + +Application + +* We should be thankful for the inner peace God gives us and do our best + to promote a peaceful relationship between ourselves and others--both + saved and unsaved. + +* We must not expect complete freedom from conflict with the unspiritual + or unsaved. A close walk with the Lord puts us at odds with those who + are disobedient and rebellious. + +* We must be willing to endure hatred and pray for those who persecute + us (Matt. 5:44). + + + + JESUS CHRIST WAS: EQUAL TO THE FATHER / LESS THAN THE FATHER + + The old man was respectful toward the young woman who was telling him +about her faith in Christ. He knew quite a bit about the Bible and viewed +Jesus as more than a great teacher. But he said, "I can't believe that He +is God. There can be only one truly supreme Being. Even Jesus said that +He wasn't as great as His Father." + + The young woman was quite unprepared for this response. She had +always believed in Jesus' deity and equality with the Father. But now she +was confronted with the fact that some Bible passages affirm His equality +with the Father while other seem to treat Him as less. + +Jesus Christ was Equal to the Father + +1. He is eternal, like the Father. He is called "Everlasting Father" + (Is. 9:6), and the unchanging "I AM" (John 8:58). + + +2. He is called God, like the Father (John 1:1; 20:28; Titus 2:13; Heb. + 1:8). + +3. He is referred to as Lord, like the Father (Joel 2:32; Rom. 10:13; + Heb. 1:10-12). + +4. He is portrayed as the Creator of all things, like the Father (Col. + 1:16; Heb. 1:10; cp. Gen 1:1,26). + +5. He declared Himself to be the Son of God, using a term that His + contemporaries understood as a claim to equality with the Father (John + 5:18). + +6. He stated His equality with the Father: "I and My Father are one" + (John 10:30-39). + +7. he revealed an authority that made Him equal to the Father when He + forgave sins (Matt. 9:1-8). + + +Jesus Christ was Less than the Father + +1. Jesus declared, "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28). + +2. Jesus grew in wisdom (Luke 2:52); the Father has always knows + everything (Ps. 147:5). + +3. Jesus became tired (John 4:6); the Father never grows weary (Is. + 40:28-31). + +4. Jesus said He didn't know the day nor the hour of His return; the + Father did (Matt. 24:36). + +5. Jesus said, "I can of Myself do nothing". (John 5:30), affirming His + dependence on the Father. + +6. Jesus often felt the need to pray to His Father (Matt. 14:23; 26:36; + Luke 6:12; John 14:16). + +7. Jesus subjected Himself to His Father's will (Matt. 26:39; Heb. 10:5- + 7). + +8. Jesus' right to judge mankind was given to Him by the Father (John + 5:22,23). + +Explanation + + The Bible strongly affirms Christ's essential equality with the +Father. John 1:1 explicitly declares, "The Word was God." To be God, He +had to be without any limitations--eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, +everywhere present. Moreover, Jesus identified Himself as the great "I AM" +of Exodus 3:14, declaring that He had existed from all eternity before +Abraham came into being (John 8:58). The writer of Hebrews identified Him +as God, whose "throne is forever and ever" (Heb. 1:8). Logic demands that +all three persons in the Trinity be co-equal and co-eternal. + + While on earth in His humanity, however, Jesus "grew in wisdom" (Luke +2:52), expressed His dependence on the Father (John 5:30), and declared His +Father to be greater than He (John 14:28). He said these things because, +in becomming a human being, He had voluntarily let go of the rights, +powers, and honors that were His as God. He did this so that He could be +completely human--enduring temptation, suffering, and even dying a painful +and shameful death. He so fully identified with us that He actually +depended on the Holy Spirit to perform miracles (Matt. 12:28) and offered +Himself as a sacrifice on Calvery through the "eternal Spirit" (Heb. 9:14). +But all the while He remained God. + + In heaven today, Jesus Christ possesses a glorified human body (Acts +1:9-11; 2:29-33; Heb. 10:12,13). He is still God and man in one person +(Col. 1:15-20; Heb. 1:1-12). However, He is no longer in the state of +humiliation, as He was when He lived on earth. In His body He can be in +only one place at one time, but in the unity of the Trinity with the Father +and the Holy Spirit, He is present everywhere (Matt. 28:19,20). + +Resolution + + Since Jesus is God, He is equal to the Father. But in becoming a +member of the human family, He temporarily laid aside the independent +exercise of His divine rights and powers. + +Application + +* We must honor Jesus Christ as God, recognizing that He is equal with + the Father. + +* We must humbly asknowledge the great mystery that the eternal second + person of the Trinity lives in a glorified human body. + +* We can rejoice in the assurance that though we will always be finite + creatures, we will someday receive glorified bodies and be like Jesus + (1 John 3:1-3). + + + + CHRIST IS: FIRSTBORN / ETERNAL + + Susan, a churchgoing young mother, had been taught to believe that +Jesus Christ is God. But two members of a large religious group going from +house to house challenged her concept of Jesus Christ. "The Bible says +that He is the firstborn over all creation", they stated. "How then can He +be God if He is not eternal?" They also pointed out that the Bible calls +Jesus "the only begotten Son". Susan was perplexed. She didn't know what +to say. + + +Christ is Firstborn and Begotten + +1. He became God's Son on a certain day (Ps. 2:7). + +2. He is the firstborn of a large family with many brothers and sisters + (Rom. 8:29). + +3. He has the position of the oldest son in a family (Col. 1:15). + +4. He is "the only begotten Son" (John 1:14,18; 3:16,17; 1 John 4:9). + +Christ is Eternal + +1. Isaiah gave Him the name "Everlasting Father" (Is. 9:6). + +2. Micah prophesied that the origins of the coming Messiah would be + rooted in eternity (Mic. 5:2). + +3. Jesus claimed to have existed from eternity as the second person of + the Trinity. In Isaiah 9:6, He is given the name "Everlasting + Father", which means that He is an eternal being. Micah 5:2 declares + that "His goings" (that is, His origin) reach back through all time + into eternity. + + Jesus declared, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham + was, I AM" (John 8:58). The expression I AM indicates His + timelessness and identifies Him as the eternal, unchanging Yahweh of + Exodus 3:14. + + The words begotten and firstborn do not deny Christ's eternal + existence. The declaration, "You are My Son; today I have begotten + You" (Ps. 2:7), is based on God's promise to David in 2 Samuel 7:14. + These words were spoken as a part of the coronation ritual for the + kings in the Davidic line. In the New Testament, they are linked to + Christ's right to rule--as evidenced by His resurrection (Acts + 13:33,34; Rom. 1:4; Heb. 1:5,8; 5:5). + + + The expression only begotten in John 1:14 is the translation of + the Greek monogenes, from the root genes which means "kind" or + "class". The word begotten should not appear in the translation of + this verse. Jesus Christ is "in a class by Himself," "the only one of + His kind," "unique." He is unique in that He, though appearing in + human form, existed from all eternity. + + The expression firstborn in Colossians 1:15 (also Rom. 8:29 and + Heb. 1:6) refers to His place of preeminence as the God-man. He + possesses and exercises the rights of a firstborn son. + + Resolution + + As the second person or the Trinity, Jesus Christ existed from + eternity, but His existence as a human being began when He was born of + Mary. The terms firstborn and only begotten relate to His God-man + role and status. + + Application + + * All who reject the absolute deity and full humanity of Jesus + Christ are distorting the message of the Bible. + + * All who believe on Jesus Christ as God-man and Savior should + honor Him and make Him their Lord. + + + + + CHRIST PAID FOR OUR SINS / WE PRAY FOR OUR SINS + + + Ralph, a wealthy Christian businessman, became romantically involved +with his secretary. He often took her to lunch and gave her expensive +presents. Mary enjoyed these favors, soothing her conscience by telling +herself that she was being unjustly cheated of the better life because of +the small salary her husband made as a Christian worker. Ignoring the +warnings of their church leaders, Ralph and Mary divorced their mates and +married each other. + + Within 2 years, Ralph developed physical problems. He cries when he +talks about what he did, and says he remembers the warning of a friend who +told him he would suffer consequences for his sin. But he had gone ahead, +confident that all the punishment for his sins had been paid for by Christ. + + His new wife is also quite unhappy. The things money can buy don't +produce the pleasure she expected from them. She feels trapped - caring +for a sick man she doesn't really love. + + Are both of these people paying for their sin? If so, how does this +square with the idea that Jesus Christ paid for all of our sins on the +cross? + + +Christ Paid For Our Sins + +1. Christ died to take away our sin (John 1:29) and to release us from + condemnation (Rom. 8:1). + +2. Christ's death is the basis on which our sins are paid for, once and + for all (Heb. 9:25-28; 10:10-18), and through which we are given a + completely new standing before God (Rom. 4:25). + +3. Christ's blood was shed so that our sins could be forgiven and not + held against us (Matt. 26:28; Rom. 3:21-26; 5:6-11). + +4. Christ's death makes it possible for us to stand before God as "holy, + and blameless" (Col. 1:21,22). + + +We Pay For Our Sins + +1. Moses paid for his sin of anger and disobedience by being forbidden to + enter the Promised Land (Deut. 32:48-52; 34:1-12). + +2. The Bible warns both believers and unbelievers that sin has bad + consequences (Gal. 6:7,8). + +3. Careless observance of the Lord's Supper was the cause for sickness + and death among the believers in Corinth (1 Cor. 11:27-30). + +4. People who have been forgiven through faith in Christ will still stand + before Him for judgement (2 Cor. 5:10). + + +Explanation + + The full penalty for all our sins has been paid by Christ. Hebrews +9:27,28 tells us that just as Christ was once sacrificed to bear the sins +of many (all who trust Him), He will return to complete the salvation of +those who look for Him. Paul, in Colossians 1:20-22, declared that Christ +amde peace between sinners and God through His death on the cross. This +truth is reiterated throughout the Scriptures. + + Christ met the full requirements of God's just anger against sin. +Therefore, God can forgive and accept us without violating His holy nature. +At the moment we place our faith in Christ, God as our Judge declares us +righteous and accepts us into His family. The forgiveness of 1 John 1:9 +relates to our new relationship with God. As our Father, He removes our +daily sins so that they will not be barriers to our fellowship with Him. + + Yes, Christ died for our sins. But Paul warned believers against +fooling themselves into thinking they can sin with impunity. He siad that +we will reap what we sow (Gal. 6:7). + + God may allow sin to work out its natural consequences - a broken +home, venereal disease, financial difficulty, a diseased liver - in the +life of a Christian. Furthermore, He will chasten us like an earthly +father does a disobedient child (Heb. 12:6). + + In some cases, for example, He will bring pain, distress, or even +physical death (1 Cor. 11:30-32) to a Christain who refuses to turn away +from a sinful lifestyle. + + Ultimately, He will deal with unconfessed and unforsaken sin at the +judgment seat of Christ. Every Christian will stand there to "receive the +things done in the body,...whether good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:10). But this +will not be punishment. Rather, it will be an evaluation of the quality of +our lives for the purpose of determining rewards. + +Resolution + + God as Judge views us a guiltless because Jesus Christ has paid the +full penalty for our sins. but as righteous Father He chastens us when we +are disobedient and lets us reap the natural consequences of our +transgressions. + +Application + +* When we as believers fall (through deliberate transgressions) or fall + (through weakness), we need not despair and think we will be condemned + to hell. Christ Jesus paid the complete price for all our sins -- + past, present, and future. + +* We mock God and will reap sad consequences if we presume on His grace + by living sinful lifestyles (see Gal 6:7,8). + +* We must always bear in mind that Christ knows our every thought, hears + our every word, and observes our every deed, and that the quality of + our lives will be evaluated at the judgement seat of Christ (2 Cor. + 5:10). + + + + JESUS CHRIST: IS / IS NOT GOD'S ONLY SON + + + Jesus Christ is the only Son of God. This has been the teaching of +Christians down through the centuries. "Not so," say many people. "The +Bible often refers to angels and people as the sons of God." Some point to +Paul's statement in Acts 17:28 where he, speaking to pagan philosophers, +approvingly quoted one of their own writers who said, "For we are also His +offspring." Since angels and people are called sons of God, how can it be +said that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God? + +Jesus Christ is God's Only Son + +1. He is specifically referred to as the "only " Son (John 1:18, + 3:16,18; 1 John 4:9). + +2. He is unique in His sonship in that He alone is the Son who is the + "brightness" of God's glory, the "express image" of God's person, the + One who is "upholding all things", the One who has "purged our sins", + and "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:1-3). + +3. He is distinguished from the prophets in that God, who once revealed + Himself through them, has now "spoken to us by His Son" (Heb. 1:1,2). + +4. He is distinguished from the angels in that He is the Son who is + called "God", He is credited with the creation of all things, and He + is said to be everalstingly the same (Heb. 1:5-14). + + +Jesus Christ is not God's Only Son + +1. Angels are called "sons of God" (Job 1:6; 2:1). + +2. The Israelites as individuals are designeated "the sons of the living + God" (Hos. 1:10) and collectively as "My son" (Hos. 11:1). + +3. We have been taught to pray, "Our Father in heaven" (Matt. 6:9), + indicating that we are His children. + +4. We are born into God's family and therefore are called His children (1 + John 3:1,2,10; 5:1,2). + +5. We are adopted as sons of God, co-heirs with Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:14- + 16; Gal. 4:4-7). + +6. We are assured that Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers + (Heb. 2:10,11). + + +Explanation + + Passages like John 1:18, 3:16,18; and 1 John 4:9, which refer to Jesus +as the "only begotten Son", emphasize His uniqueness. The Greek word +translated "only begotten" is better translated "unique Son" or "one and +only Son". Moreover, in Hebrews 1:1-3 the author points out that Jesus +Christ's sonship is different from that of all creatures, even angels. He +is the perfect reflection of God, something that cannot be said of any +created being. Our Lord's sonship is therefore absolutely unique. + + In Job 1:6, angelic beings are referred to as the "sons of God". They +are the sons of God because they were created by God with the capacity to +know Him and choose to obey or disobey Him. In 1 John 3:2, believers are +called "children of God", an applicable term because we who have placed our +trust in Christ have been born into the family of God. Like angels, we +were created as "sons of God", but we lost our family relationship through +sin. Through faith in Christ we have received a new birth, which makes us +members of God's redeemed family. + + In Galatians 3:26, Paul refers to Christians as "sons of God", a title +that designates our status as mature sons and daughters, co-heirs with +Jesus Christ. The apostle refers to our "adoption" (Rom. 8:15,23; Gal. +4:5), the act of God by which He gives us the rights and privileges of full +inheritance. + +Resolution + + Although every moral being is a son of God by virtue of being created +by Him, and believers become His sons and daughters as members of His +spiritual family, only Jesus Christ is the unique and eternal Son as second +person of the Trinity. + +Application + +* Since Jesus Christ as God's unique Son perfectly reflects the Father, + we as members of God's family should also seek to reflect His + character. + +* As the sons and daughters of God, brothers, and sisters of Jesus + Christ, we can go through life with the assurance of a glorious + eternity. + + + + CHRIST IS IN US / WE ARE IN CHRIST + + + The Bible tells us that Christ is in those who believe in Him, but it +also says that believers are in Christ. This seems to be a contradiction +in terms. How can we be "in Christ" and at the same time have Him living +"in us"? In trying to resolve this difficulty, a Christian cartoonist drew +a picture of a mouse peeking out of one of the holes in a piece of Swiss +cheese saying, "I am in the cheese." The picture showed this mouse with +his sides bulging saying, "Now the cheese is in me!" + + This characterization doesn't help solve the problem, though, because +the two positions are not chronological. One doesn't follow the other. +Christ in us and we in Christ occurs simultaneously. So how do we resolve +this conflict? + +Christ Is In Us + +1. Christ lives in us as the Father lives in the Son (John 17:21-23). + +2. Christ lives in our dying bodies, giving us a life that cannot die + (Rom. 8:10,11). + +3. Christ lives in us to give us the power of His resurrection life so + that we may be able to overcome sin (Gal. 2:22). + +4. Christ lives in us and is completely at home there when we are living + a Spirit-filled life (Eph. 3:17). + +5. Christ lives in all His people and provides the source of their hope + (Col. 1:27). + +We Are In Christ + +1. Christ lives in us as the Father lives in the Son (John 17:21-23). + +2. Christ lives in our dying bodies, giving us a life that cannot die + (Rom 8:10,11). + +3. Christ lives in us to give us the power of His resurrection life so + that we may be able to overcome sin (Gal. 2:20). + +4. Christ lives in us and is completely at home there when we are living + a Spirit-filled life (Eph. 3:17). + +5. Christ lives in all His people and provides the source of thei hope + (Col. 1:27). + +We Are In Christ + +1. Being in Christ guarantees our future bodily resurrection (1 Cor. + 15:19-23; 1 Thess. 4:16). + +2. Being in Christ removes our guilt as members of the fallen race and + makes us members of the family of God (2 Cor. 1:21; 5:17). + +3. Being in Christ frees us from a law-system that cannot fully reveal + God or provide salvation (2 Cor. 3:14-18). + +4. Being in Christ is pictured in baptism, a ceremony that speaks of our + identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection + (Rom. 6:1-11; Gal. 3:27). + +5. Being in Christ entitles us to the present enjoyment of heavenly + possessions and experiences (Eph. 1:3). + + +Explanation + + When Jesus said, "I in them, and You in Me" (John 17:23, He was +expressing the truth that He comes into those who trust Him and establishes +a relationship similar to that which has always existed between the Father +and the Son. Paul referred to this same truth in both Galatians 2:20 and +Colossians 1:27. When we believe in Jesus Christ, He comes into our lives +to transform us and assure us of our ultimate glorification with Him in +heaven. Thsi truth is life-changing and comforting. + + Paul said that those who are in Christ will receive glorified +resurrection bodies (1 Cor. 15:20) when they are raised just before living +believers are translated at Christ's return (1 Thess. 4:16). He was +speaking of our legal position before God -- justified and therefore +members of God's family. Similarly, in 2 Corinthians 5:17, the person who +is in Christ is a member of a new humanity -- redeemed and under +condemnation. + + Christ in us is related to His living in us to change us. This +practical holiness. Our being in Christ is related to our new standing. +This is positional holiness. + +Resolution + + When we receive Christ, He comes into our lives to completely +transform us on the inside. We are in Christ because God the Judge has +taken away our standing as guilty and has declared us guiltless and +accepted. + +Application + +* The truth that we are in Christ is tremendously comforting, assuring + us that because we stand before God in Christ He does not see us in + our sin and guilt. Rather, He sees us as clothed in Christ's perfect + righteousness. + +* The truth that Christ is in us is motivation for holy living. It + gives us the desire and the enablement to defeat the world, the flesh, + and the devil. + + + + CHRIST IS: SERVANT / LORD + + + In the past few years, a number of Christian books have been published +that emphasize the servanthood of Jesus Christ. They call attention to the +fact that Jesus came to establish a new order and to model a new way of +living -- serving one another. The authors usually focus on John 13:1-11, +which describes that moment in the upper room when Jesus rose from supper, +took a towel, and washed the disciples' feet. These books depict the Lord +Jesus as a servant and example for all believers. + + Other teachers however, seem more concerned that we remember the +authority and lordship of Christ. They remind us that Jesus is not our +servant, but our God, our Lord, and our King. They concentrate on His +power as Creator and on His role as Judge. They emphasize not only His +sovereignty but also the lines of authority He has built into governmental +leaders, employers, pastors, husbands, and parents. + + So who is right? Where should our emphasis be -- on Christ's +servanthood or on His supreme authority as Lord? + + +Christ is Servant + +1. Old Testament prophecies describe Christ as a coming servant (Is. + 42:1; 52:13; 53:11; Zech. 3:8). + +2. Jesus referred to Himself as the One who came to serve (Luke 22:27), + not to be served (Matt. 20:28). + +3. Paul indicated that Jesus adopted the role of a servant (Phil. 2:7). + +4. Jesus spoke of Himself as having the attitude of a servant, being + "gentle and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11:28,29). + + +Christ is Lord + +1. Jesus is referred to as King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 19:16). + +2. When Thomas saw Jesus' wounds, he cried, "My Lord and My God!" (John + 20:28). + +3. In his Pentecost sermon, Peter told the Jews that Jesus was "both Lord + and Christ" (Acts 2:36). + +4. Jesus was referred to as Lord in prayer (Acts 7:59,60; 1 Thess. 3:11; + 2 Thess. 2:16; 3:16). + +Explanation + + Servanthood is one of the amazing qualities of Jesus Christ. He is +the suffering Servant of Isaiah 52:13-53:12 who bears our sins and provides +salvation to all who know Him. In Philippians 2:5-11 Paul traces the +journey of the Lord Jesus from His place of equality with God to that of a +servant who dies a humble death on the cross to His eternal glorification +and exaltation as the God-man, world Redeemer, and King. In Luke 22:27 and +Matthew 20:28, we find Jesus explaining His lowly role, declaring that He +came to serve, not to be served. + + Christ's servanthood, however, never caused Him to be less than God. +Thomas rightly confessed Him as "my Lord and my god" (John 20:28). Peter, +after depicting the fact that men were able to reject Jesus and nail Him to +a cross, declared Him to be exalted as "Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). And +in Revelation 19:16, Jesus appears as King of kings and Lord of lords. + + We tend to have trouble mixing leadership and lordship with +servanthood. But that is because we have a different view of authority +than God has. We see it selfishly. He who is love sees servanthood as a +way of providing salvation for sinners. In fact, God revealed His servant +nature when He chose to create us as free moral agents, though He knew we +would rebel against Him and make necessary His becoming a member of our +humanity to save us from our sins. + + When we accept Christ's act of humble servanthood on our behalf, we +also place ourselves under His lordship. And what could be better than +having a Lord who uses His authority to help us! + +Resolution + + Jesus Christ, who as second person of the eternal Trinity enver ceased +to be Lord, voluntarily left heaven to become a member of the human family +and fill the role of servant, even to the point of being crucified, to make +possible our salvation from the penalty and power of sin. + +Application + +* After the Lord Jesus had stooped to wash the feet of His disciples, He + said, "I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done + to you" (John 13:15). + +* When our Savior spoke of what He would endure as the object of the + hatred of wicked men, He gave this warning: "Remember... 'A servant + is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will + also persecute you" (John 15:20). + +* Jesus encouraged us to follow His example of servanthood by saying, + "For whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself + will be exalted" (Luke 14:11). + +--- +Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version, (c) 1979, +1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. + +"Studies in Contrast: The Doctrine of Christ" by Richard De Haan. +Copyright 1989 Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, Michigan. +Used by Permission. +--- +This file has been forwarded to you by: + Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS + (301)862-3160 HST + Sysop: "Buggs" Bugnon + P.O. Box 463 + California, MD 20619 + diff --git a/religious documents/copt_art.txt b/religious documents/copt_art.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7b423f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/copt_art.txt @@ -0,0 +1,486 @@ +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + _ + ( ) + --+-- + | + A | W + + + AN INTRODUCTION TO THE COPTIC ART OF EGYPT + + By: Azer Bestavros + + + +Introduction +------------ +Coptic art, the distinctive Christian art of Egypt, includes works of a +diverse character because there was no separation between ``art'' and +``craft'' in the early Christian era; the capital of a column or an +illustrated manuscript were as much forms of creative expression as paintings +and sculpture. From burial grounds, there are objects like funerary stelae, +or tombstones, cartonnage sarcophagi and fragments of woven textiles from +clothing in which the deceased were laid to rest. Monastic centers, churches +and shrines provide stone and wood-carvings, metalwork, wall and +panel-paintings, as well as a wealth of utilitarian objects like ivory combs, +wooden seals for impressing sacred bread, pottery and glassware. + + +Early sources of influence +-------------------------- +The Coptic art -- like any other form of artistic expression -- was +influenced by two main sources: the classical (Hellenic) world and the +ancient Egyptian world. Objects made in Greek style, or under the direct +influence of classical art, include stone carvings of winged victories or +cupids bearing garlands, the vine branches of Bacchus, Aphrodite, Leda, and +Hercules. Monuments of mixed Greek-Egyptian character are relief slabs that +were probably used as wall decorations in churches; they frequently feature +pilasters surmounted by stylized Corinthian capitals, sphinxes or fish -- the +earliest symbol of Christianity. Ancient Egyptian influence is best seen in +funerary stelae, which have survived in large number throughout Egypt. They +are either square or rectangular in shape and are sometimes curved at the +top, or have a triangular pediment. Many have a tiny square cavity, which +penetrated to the back of the stele. Such cavities were common in Ancient +Egyptian cemeteries (incense was burned in them in the belief that the spirit +of the dead would enjoy its perfume). In the early Christian era stelae came +from pagan and Christian burial grounds, and were usually inscribed with the +name of the deceased, details of his/her life or titles, and the day of +his/her death, written in the Greek language or the Coptic language (the last +stage of the Egyptian language). The carvings on them included Greek-Egyptian +motifs: a figure, often robed like an aristocratic Greek reclining on a bed +and holding a drinking vessel or grapes, for example, might be flanked by the +jackal-god Anubis and the hawk-heated Horus. + +The persistence of ancient Egyptian symbolism in early Christian art is +pretty much accepted among biblical historians. It is both easy and natural +to recognize evidence of that influence in early Christian art. For example, +it is accepted that the ansate cross, the ``ankh'' or Hieroglyphic sign for +the word ``life'', was intentionally adopted by early Christians. In fact, +many relief slabs show both the ``ankh'' and the Christian ``cross'' +together, frequently flanked by the first and last letters of the Greek +alphabet, the Alpha (A) and the Omega (W), in an early form of what was to +become the monogram of Jesus Christ the Lord for, in Revelation 1:8, He said: +``I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.'' Other examples +of Egyptian symbolism in early Christian art are the Holy Spirit in the early +church shown descending in the form of a winged bird, like the soul of the +deceased, the "ba", in ancient Egypt; the archangel Michael weighing souls in +the balance, which is akin to the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom, Thoth, +weighing the heart of the deceased in the scales of justice; the portrayal of +Christ triumphant over noxious beasts is evidently derived from that of Horus +upon the crocodiles, as shown on the famous Metternich stele. And Saint +George and the dragon also call to mind the god Horus depicted spearing Set, +often portrayed as an evil serpent. + +In addition to the classical, Egyptian and Greek-Egyptian heritages in Coptic +art, there are also Persian, Byzantine and Syrian influences. Egyptian +master weavers and artists were attracted to Persia in the third century with +the rise of the Sassanian kingdom before the founding of Constantinople. When +they returned to Egypt, a new Persian repertory of themes like opposing +horsemen or two facing peacocks drinking out of the same vessel, was +introduced to Egypt. Borrowing from one culture to another is a natural +process of cultural growth. In the fourth century, when Christianity made a +triumphal entry into the Roman world the art forms of ascendant Byzantium +spread to Egypt, and continued even after the Coptic Church broke away from +the Eastern Roman Church because Egypt remained, politically, a part of the +Roman Empire. The Copts, however, began to turn increasingly towards the Holy +Land, the birthplace of the Lord Jesus Christ; Syrian influence on Coptic art +became apparent in the fifth century. And, rigidity came with it. Some motifs +that made their way to Egypt from Syria were ultimately of Persian origin, +including animals and birds in roundels, and griffins. + +The integration of contrasting configurations -- classical, Egyptian, +Greek-Egyptian and Persian pagan motifs, as well as Byzantine and Syrian +Christian influence -- led to a trend in Coptic art that is difficult to +define, because a unity of style is not possible to trace. Unfortunately, +early collections of Christian art were made without recording details of the +sites from which they came, making it virtually impossible to trace artistic +development through time. There is no way to tell, for example, how long +classical and Greek-Egyptian motifs continued after the adoption of +Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire. All that can be said +is that Coptic art is a distinctive art, and that it differed from that of +Antioch, Constantinople and Rome. + + +Evolution of Coptic Art +----------------------- +Efforts have been made to classify Coptic art into epochs but this is +somewhat artificial. While every culture has phases of cultural production, +this is visible only when seen from an historical vantage. E.R. Dodds in his +book (Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety) comments on this by saying: +``The practice of chopping history into convenient lengths and calling them +"periods" or "ages" has [...] drawbacks. Strictly speaking, there are no +periods in history, only in historians' analyses; actual history is a +smoothly flowing continuum, a day following a day''. + +This is true of art in general and Coptic art in particular. Day by day, +through the centuries of Ptolemaic rule, while the Greek culture became +inextricable from the ancient Egyptian, a national heritage still remained. +This apparent contradiction is best exemplified by referring to the +literature of the Late Period, in which such syncretistic compilations as the +Hermetic texts developed alongside a more or less consistent pattern of +thought and behavior, as exemplified in the Instruction literature. In art, +the diverse influences resulted in an admixture of motifs. Yet, despite this, +distinctive ``Egyptian'' traits set Coptic art apart from any other. + +The influence of the different powers on the development of Coptic art can be +clearly seen by examining the famous monasteries of Wadi ElNatroun. During +the fourth and fifth centuries, these monasteries were affected by factional +disputes between the Melkites and Coptic monks. The Melkites remained in +control until the Arab conquest when the Copts took over the area again. +Then, in the eighth century one of the monasteries was purchased and restored +by a Syrian. There were serious Bedouin raids from the eighth to the eleventh +centuries. An essential part of any Monastery is a large stone ``fortress'', +where monks would hide in the event of a Bedouin raid. While ``portable'' +precious artwork was easy to hide in these fortresses, a great deal of damage +was done to the ancient churches and buildings of the Monasteries. In these +raids, the Bedouins would rob the monsateries of treasures and staples, often +killing any monks who would not have made it to the fortresses, and sometime +burning most of the churches and buildings, along with whatever artwork, +books, and records in there. + +The Coptic monasteries in Wadi ElNatroun were restored in Fatimid times, +during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and the Fatimids themselves used +local craftsmen, who were mostly Copts, for enlarging and embellishing the +city of Cairo; when Copts executed designs and motifs that were acceptable to +their Arab patrons, they did this as competently as they had, in classical +times, produced classical themes for their Greek patrons. In each case they +adopted some of the motifs or designs for their own use. therefore, when one +visits the monasteries of Wadi ElNatrun, it must be borne in mind that some +wall-paintings were produced under the instructions of Melkites monks, others +under the instructions of Coptic monks. Also, Alexandrine, Byzantine and +Syrian-inspired art were produced there, as well as non-figurative metalwork, +wooden sanctuary screens, cabinets and furniture, inspired by Persian art. + +Craftsmanship +------------- +In studying the objects in the Coptic Museum of Cairo and in various Coptic +Museums all over the world, as well as in the various monastic centers, it +becomes clear that some sophisticated work must have been produced by highly +talented craftsmen. At the same time, though, other work is characterized by +folk simplicity. This can be seen in ivory work, tapestries, paintings and +architectural decorations. There is a convincing explanation for this +discrepancy in sophistication. + +Egypt had a long tradition of master craftsmen of different trades who, +throughout ancient history, worked under the direction of a supervisor who +was a highly professional man: sometimes a High Priest (as in the Old +Kingdom) or an Overseer of All the Works of the King (New Kingdom). The +supervisor could recognize inferior workmanship, correct drawings and +generally maintain the required standard, whatever that happened to be during +different periods. If there were changes in the theme or style, this could +only be brought about by the master craftsman who was empowered to execute +the change. Naturally such a man had an experience in handling large groups +of men. Throughout the period of Roman rule of Egypt there was a tendency for +such master craftsmen to move around the Roman empire, gravitating towards +the centers that could pay for their professional services. They worked in +Alexandria and summoned by the emperors to Rome and Constantinople. There +they sculpted classically draped forms as competently as they had the +stylized Egyptian, and they carved languid reclining figures with no less +devotion. + +Scholars are not in agreement over which works of art can be safely regarded +as Alexandrine -- that is to say, executed by Egyptian craftsmen in +Alexandria. Many such works, however, can be safely attributed to Egypt +through consideration of subject matter and/or style. Examples of such works +include a casket now in the museum in Wiesbaden that is sculpted with a +sphinx and the allegory of Father Nile, a small box in the British Museum +showing the squat, typically Coptic figure of Saint Mena in a niche, and +three plaques from the side of Maximianus' throne at Ravenna Museum that have +been attributed by art historians to Egyptian carvers. Also, when the Copts +separated from the Eastern Church, master craftsmen who had mastered the +technique of deeper drill carving and supervised the execution of works of +great sophistication, ``vide'' the stucco wall decorations to be found in the +Monastery of the Syrians at Wadi ElNatrun and the friezes from Bawit in the +Coptic Museum of Cairo. + +Meanwhile, however, monasteries and churches that were built in Upper Egypt, +especially in the fifth and sixth centuries, were adorned with carvings and +paintings that show an expression of faith that was highly personal and +authentic, executed by craftsmen who were not controlled by either the +rulings of ``religious authorities'' (as was the case in ancient Egypt), or +by a supervisor who maintained standards. There are stone and wood friezes, +painted panels and ivory work that is crude and that depends for its appeal +largely on qualities of design. This is especially apparent in the +representations of the human figure, which are of strange proportion, being +somewhat squat with large heads. Several explanations for this have been +made. The most convincing of these explanations suggests that Coptic artists +were producing work in reaction to the realism of ancient Egyptian and Greek +paganism and that this, too, is the reason why early Christians did not +encourage the production of statuary in the round. While the tendency seems, +indeed, to have been a departure from Hellenistic Alexandrine tradition, +towards an abstract two-dimensional style, this may not necessarily have been +calculated. Rather, it may be an example of free artistic expression: naive, +unsophisticated, yet forceful. It is the simplicity of Coptic Art that gives +it its unique flavor. + +There are two art forms in which continuity of craftsmanship can be traced, +namely the techniques of weaving and illustration. That is to say, Coptic +textiles and manuscripts. While the motifs in the former, and the calligraphy +in the latter, changed from age to age, the artistic execution of the work, +as well as the techniques and the materials used, was of longstanding +tradition. + + +Weaving +------- +Weaving in the early Christian era was, as in earlier times, mainly on linen +although there is also some evidence of silkweaving. the techniques -- the +so-called tapestry-weave and loom weaving -- were inherited from the ancient +Egyptians. The width of the loom used in Coptic tapestries is the same as +that in the time of the pharaohs, and the special ``Egyptian knot'' was used +as well. in the fourth century wool was introduced and a variant was +loopweaving, in which the waft was not pulled tight. Silk became popular in +the sixth century and by the eighth century full clerical tunics were woven +in linen and silk. The weaving of some are so fine as to appear more like +embroidery. + +Coptic textiles, which developed into one of the finest of all Coptic arts, +included wall hangings, blankets and curtains in addition to garment +trimmings. The motifs show great diversity and include classical and +Greek-Egyptian themes: lively cupids, dancing girls riding marine monsters, +or birds and animals woven into foliage. Fish and grapes were popular +Christian motifs as well as biblical scenes such as the Virgin on a donkey +holding the Child Jesus in front of her. After Constantinople became the +capital of the empire, the weavers' repertoire was increased and enriched +with Byzantine and Persian themes. All the textiles show a great sense of +liveliness in the stylized figures, and there was an eager market throughout +the Roman world in late antiquity, especially for trimings for clerical +robes; the most commonly woven were tunics of undyed linen onto which +decorative woven bands were worked. In the tenth century, after the Arab +conquest, Copts wove textiles for Muslim patrons and the Arab ``Kufie'' +script was introduced into their own designs, especially after Arabic started +to replace the Coptic language one century later. + + +Illustration +------------ +Coptic manuscripts fall into five main groups: in Greek, Greek and Coptic, in +Coptic, Coptic and Arabic and, finally in Arabic and transliterated Coptic. +The art of illustrating texts dates to pharaonic times when prayers and +liturgies were written on papyrus paper with reed pens and deposited in the +tomb of the deceased. The mortuary texts were traced in black outline with +catchwords written in red. They were illustrated with figures of Egyptian +deities and protective symbols. These vignettes were frequently painted in +bright colors with border designs at the top and bottom. + +In the Christian era, religious writings were also written on papyrus paper +and parchment. The texts were written in black, with red used for titles and +the beginnings of the chapters. Many were decorated with designs in bright +colors including figures of Martyrs, Saints, Apostles, and Angels, as well as +birds, animals, foliage and geometrical designs. A medieval Arab writer, Omar +Tussun, wrote about a group of copyists at the Monastery of Saint Makar in +Wadi ElNatroun, who were capable of drawing Coptic letters in the form of +birds and figures. This is still an art form in Egypt, and Arabic +caligraphers still use the reed pen -- an art that they inherited from their +Coptic ancestors. Copts started to translate their religious literature into +Arabic late in the twelfth century and decorated the opening page with lavish +pictures and with border designs. It was not until the nineteenth century +that Coptic texts transliterated using Arabic started to appear. + + +Portraits +--------- +No other early Christian movement has such an abundance of paintings of +persons who received honour in their own country. Egypt's martyrs, saints, +patriarchs, hermits and ascetics, some of whom were honoured throughout +Christian world, received special distinction in Egypt. Their heroic deeds, +sufferings or miracles were worded in songs and pictured on the walls of +ancient temples that were converted to chapels or churches. + +The human figures, whether in paintings, carvings or tapestries, are in +frontal position with serene faces and a depth of idealized expression. The +outlined, almond-shaped eyes are strongly reminiscent of the painted wooden +panels from Bawit and the Fayoum, dating back to the first and second +centuries, which were placed over the head of the deceased and bound into the +mummy wrappings. These panels themselves resemble ``cartonnage'' sacrophagi +of the late pharaonic period. In fact, the Fayoum portraits, with the full +face and large obsessive eyes -- a feature of Roman medallions and much early +Christian art -- are now regarded by art historians as the prototypes for the +Byzantine icons. + +The Lord Jesus Christ was usually shown enthroned, surrounded by triumphant +Saints and Angels, or blessing a figure beside Him. He was always depicted as +King, never the suffering servant. Egypt was a land where leadership was +idealized and kingship, both on earth and in the afterlife, was something the +people understood. A triumphant Jesus -- reborn, benevolent and righteous -- +is one of the most significant and continuous characteristics of Coptic art. +Another is that Egyptians did not delight in painting scenes of torture, +death, or sinners in hell; in the few exceptions where a holy figure is +painted undergoing torture, it is implied rather than graphically depicted. +This is in tune with ancient Egyptian artistic tradition which, in the words +of Cyril Aldred (in his book Egyptian Art in the Days of the Pharaohs, Thames +and Hudson, 1980) ``magnify only the heroic and beneficent qualities of +divinities and kings, and not the horrific power of tyrants and demons''. + + +Paintings +--------- +It is fitting to conclude this list of artforms with Coptic paintings, which +is true art as against what we today call the crafts. The wall paintings +reveal an unsophisticated, almost crude style, and a refined, highly +developed one. The former may have emerged in the early years of Christianity +when ancient temples were converted into churches. Pharaonic reliefs were +covered with layers of plaster and Christian themes were painted on the +stucco base. These wall-paintings survive ``in situ'' in some places in Egypt +including Bagawat in the Kharga Oasis, Saint Simeon's Monastery at Aswan, in +the temple of Luxor, the White Monastery at Sohag, the Monastery of Saint +Makar in Wadi ElNatroun, and the sanctuary of the Ethiopian Saint Takla +Hemanout in the Church of AlMoallaka in Old Cairo. Early wall-paintings that +have been transfered to the Coptic Museum include niches from the Monasteries +of Bawit and Sakkara. the Copts loved bright, clear color and were extremely +talented in mixing different dyes and powdered rock, often using the white of +an egg to combine them. + +Icons, or images of sacred personalities painted on wooden panels, that are +themselves regarded as sacred, were a later development. When it was realized +that the war on paganism launched by the emperor Theodosius had not stopped +pious people from sanctifying holy relics, the church authorized the painting +of religious themes that would aid the faithful in an understanding of +Christianity, especially scenes depicting the Nativity, the Virgin and Child, +the apostles and the lives of the saints. According to the Arab historian +AlMakrizi, the Pope Cyril I hung icons in all the churches of Alexandria in +the year 420 A.D. and then decreed that they should be hung in the other +churches of Egypt as well. + +In the earliest development of icon painting the artists worked directly on +the wooden panel but later they began to cover the surface with a soft layer +of gypsum onto which lines could be chiseled to control the flow of liquid +gold. There is indication that more than one artist was involved in the +production of a single work but the face was painted by the master. Such +division of labor resulted in greater production, but it also brought an end +to any personal expression of piety such as had characterized the wall +paintings. When Egypt turned increasingly towards Syria and Palestine after +the schism in the fifth century, her saints and martyrs began to take on the +stiff, majestic look of Syrian art. There began to be an expression of +spirituality rather than naivety on the faces of the subjects, more elegance +in the drawing of the figures, more use of gold backgrounds and richly +adorned clerical garments. + +Painters were not, at first, constrained by a rigid code. They were free to +experiment with their themes. Consequently, there is a variety of +interpretations in the treatment of a single subject that is quite striking. +By the fifth and sixth centuries the angel Gabriel, for example, was +sometimes painted with a sword, another time with a cross, and on occasion, +with a trumpet; he either wore a flowing robe or was clad in richly +embroidered vestments. Such variations are especially notable in scenes of +the Annunciation and the Nativity, which are seldom rendered twice with the +same details. + +Paintings produced in Egypt under Byzantine rule did not resemble the opulent +frescoes and mosaics of the eastern Roman Empire, which was state-sponsored +art between 550 A.D. and the conquest of the Turks in the fifteenth century. +Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, however, a stronghold of the Melkite +faction, was rebuilt in the Golden Age of Justinian and adorned with some of +the finest Byzantine icons to be found in the world. Some were painted on +site, and others were imported from the provinces of the empire and from +Constantinople itself. + +Few centuries after the Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century +paintings became successively less ``Coptic'' in character. This became even +more apparent in the thirteenth century when the art of copying panels and +miniatures started and Anba Gabriel produced exquisite and brilliantly +adorned work. He set a standard for copyists. Little original work was +produced. By the senventeenth and eighteenth centuries painters like John +ElNassikh, Baghdady Abu ElSaad, and John the Armenian -- who are among the +greatest painters of icons in Egypt -- turned to Syrian and Byzantine models +for inspiration. Finally, Anastasy, a Greek artist, was commissioned by the +Copts to paint many of the icons that today hang in the churches of Old +Cairo. + +Coptic Art History +------------------ +The study of Coptic art and architecture was for too long a sadly neglected +field. One of the reasons for this is that early archaeologists showed no +interest in Christian antiquities. They focussed their attention on Ancient +Egypt. For example, it is astonishing to us today to note that Champollion, +the French scholar who deciphered Hieroglyphics from the famous Rosetta +Stone, carried out excavations at Medinet Habu on the Theban necropolis, +discovered a fine fifth century church there and did not even mention it in +his official report. In places where ancient Egyptian temples had been +converted into churches and the walls plastered and painted with Christian +themes, these were removed as just so much debris obscuring the ancient +Egyptian reliefs below. No effort was made to photograph the wall-paintings +before removal, or record any architectural features. Vital evidence was +consequently lost from numerous temples including Deir el Bahri, Medinet Habu +and Karnak temples at Luxor, and those of Dendera and Edfu. + +The first person to realize the value of the Coptic art and make an effort to +preserve it was the French scholar Gaston Maspero. In 1881, in his capacity +as director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service (now Antiquities +Organization) he set aside one of the halls of the Museum of Antiquities, +then in the suburb of Boulac, for the first collection of Coptic art. He +encouraged Egyptologists to undertake serious excavation, resulting in the +preservation of the remains of the Monastery of Saint Apollo in Bawit, about +10 miles south-west of Assiut in Middle Egypt, and the Monastery of Saint +Jeremias on the Sakkara plateau. Several scholars published descriptions of +Coptic churches, carvings and crafts. + +In 1910 the Coptic Museum was founded and in 1937 a new wing was added. The +exhibits, which represent the richest collection of Coptic art in the world, +have been separated according to media: stonework, woodwork, metalwork, ivory +carvings, tapestries, pottery, glassware and manuscripts. It is extremely +difficult to visualize them in context when one visits the museum. For +example, patriarchal chairs in woodwork in the old wing are separated from +patriarchal crowns and ecclesiastical vestments that are in the new. Wooden +doors of ancient churches and monasteries are separated from their metal +bolts and keys. Similar themes in different mediums, like the portrayal of +the Virgin and Child, or the use of vine as a decorative motif in stone +carvings, wooden panels and tapestries, cannot be compared. And wide +variations in style that developed in different localities cannot be +observed. Compounding the problem is the fact that the objects span fifteen +hundred years, from the fourth to the nineteenth centuries! + +Nor do the monastic centers and old churches of Egypt facilitate an +understanding of artistic development because of the continuous stages of +construction and renovation of the churches. This is mainly attributed to the +fact that these sites are still used heavily by Copts for religious functions +as a result of a 20-year Governmental policy of not granting Copts permits to +build new churches or Coptic centers. Today, within the limited resources +]available to them, Coptic Christians are trying their best to preserve their +treasures. A good example is the Monastery of Anba Makar in Wadi ElNatroun, +which (unlike other poorly and unprofessionally restored monasteries) was +miraculously dug out of the sand of the Western Desert! Thanks to the efforts +and hardwork of its monks, the monastery of Anba Makar still possesses the +largest doom in Egypt, built completely using self-supporting woven small red +bricks. + + +Restoration of Coptic Heritage +------------------------------ +Only a decade ago, French and Dutch archaeologists were among the few foreign +experts who began restoring and preserving Coptic monuments. Before this, in +view of the inaction and limited resources of Governmental agencies, Coptic +monks alone used to fix haphazardly crumbling parts of their churches and +monasteries. Many medieval Coptic churches are still in a miserable state of +repair. Their facades are crumbling to dust and richly decorated walls inside +have been damaged by incense-burning rituals over the centuries that required +closed doors and windows. In addition, vacant monasteries have often been +inhabited by nomads, shepherds and their herds. + +Several international organizations have recently extended a helping hand to +the Copts in order to self-preserve and record their heritage. For example, +in August of 1991, the Dutch Ministry of Education has proposed a program +whereby Dutch scholars will train Coptic monks in such fields as art history, +scientific methods of preservation and care of Coptic monuments, usage of +index systems and collecting data. In the summer of 1990, a group of three +Coptic monks spent six months last year in the Netherlands for training in +the history of Christian art and its preservation, and traveled to other +European countries where they became acquainted with different Christian +congregations. + +There are many efforts to record and learn about Coptic art. In the +Cairo-based Institute of Coptic Studies, for example, students learn about +Coptic Icons by painting their own reproductions using authentic dyes mixed +with special oils and egg white. Even outside Egypt, in the United States, +two Coptic artists in residence in the Church of St. Mary and St. Mena in +Rhode Island, produce dozens of Coptic icons to embellish Churches and homes +of Emigrant Copts. + +Much more work remains to be done to save an integral part of Egypt's +history, culture, and art. This can be only done through a concerted effort +by the Egyptian people with the help of national and international agencies. +The first step is, perhaps, a better education, understanding, and +appreciation of Coptic art among the public. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ diff --git a/religious documents/course.txt b/religious documents/course.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfd37a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/course.txt @@ -0,0 +1,413 @@ +BASIC TECHNOLOGIES OF WITCHCRAFT + +This is the outline for a collection of four semi-formal training sessions +for people interested in starting out in "The Craft" or Neopaganism. It is +intended to give enough grounding to effectively participate in ritual, +with the expectation that those that are really dedicated, skilled, and/or +interested will undertake further study. +Since this is for beginners, there are no textbooks, no required reading, +and the course only deals with such material as can be taught in four 1-1/2 +to 2 hour informal sessions. + +I. DAY ONE: Neopagan Traditions + + The first day's material is a basic overview of Neopagan history and + tradition, intended to make people more comfortable with the subject. + + A. History of The Craft + + Examine two topics to show how they influence the modern witch: + how Neopagan witchcraft grew out of and borrows from the + Gardnerian Reformation, and how our Craft Law developed from a + variety of traditions and needs. + + 1. Origins, Ancient (?) and Modern + + Fact before theory: discuss the evolution of witchcraft + from Gardner onwards, then overview the evidences that + witchcraft is a pre-Christian and (possibly) pre-historic + religion. + + a. The Gardnerian Reformation + + Discussion of Gerald Gardner and both the original and + modern versions of Gardnerian Witchcraft (with a quick + side-line into its off-shoot and competitor, Alexandrian + Witchcraft). + + b. The Church of All Worlds and Neopaganism + + History of the Church of All Worlds and its contri- + butions, including the word "neopagan" and "Green Egg", + the journal in which the framework of modern, Neopagan + witchcraft was developed from the framework of + Gardnerianism crossed with Greco/Roman and Egyptian + pagan traditions. + + c. The Non-Pagan Branches of the Craft + + Other types of witches: Feminist Wicca, Church of Wicca, + the Masonic Druids of England, and the Family Tradition- + alists. + + d. Evidences of Stone-Age Witchcraft + + Discuss some of the evidence that witchcraft carries on + a tradition with stone-age origins and a 10,000 year + history, both pro and con. Emphasize that there is no + conclusive evidence one way or the other. + + 2. Craft Law, Ancient and Modern + + a. The Reasons for Craft Law + + Discuss how the in-bred fear of of the Powers of Evil, + combined with the need to trust each other against the + Inquisition, gave birth to the concept of Craft Law. + + b. The Wiccan Rede + + "An it harm none, do what thou will." Stress both the + libertine and the disciplinarian interpretations of that + law. Discuss the Law of Karma, and how the Wiccan Rede + (interpreted properly) becomes more of a safety rule + than a Commandment. + + c. The Rule of Secrecy + + Gloss quickly over the Inquisition (everybody knows + enough), and examine some of the evidence that a "witch- + hunt" is being begun. Encourage the students to + recognize that the decision to be public or secretive + has to be made by each individual, and they have the + right to expect others to respect their privacy on this + matter. + + 3. Magick in Theory and Practice + + Magick is the unifying force in all of the Neopagan + Traditions. To lay the groundwork for Day Two, explain the + basic theories of magick, and how they influence the design + and practice of Neopagan ritual. + + a. The Basic Rules of Magick + + Explain that the central theory of magick is that + reality can be altered by a sufficiently strong will, + focused by the proper ritual. For comparison and + contrast, mention Bell's Hypothesis, from quantum + physics. Discuss seriously the possibility that all + that the magician alters is his own mind and awareness + of how the world works. + + b. Magick and Neopagan Ritual + + Define the two classic types of ritual: religious and + magickal, or (better terms) theurgical and thauma- + turgical. Show how magick is used in both, and where + the rituals diverge. + + B. The Magick Circle + + Even more than the pentacle, the Magick Circle is the central + symbol of Neopagan Witchcraft. The final topic for Day One is + the purpose, symbolism, and protocols of a pagan Circle. + + 1. Purpose and Symbolism + + a. Ceremonial Magic and Qabbalism versus the Pagan Circle + + Most people get their idea of what a circle is for from + the Ceremonial magicians and kaballists, who use it for + protection from outside magick. Emphasize that the + quantum leap that Gardner made was to think of using the + circle INSTEAD to keep beneficial magick WITHIN the + ritual area until it is fully built-up, focused, and + directed. + + b. The Power of the Circle: The Five Elements + + Discuss how the classic Four Elements of Greek science + are the symbols for four types of power, four states of + matter, four types of personality, and so forth, showing + correspondences. Highlight the difference between + elemental power, psychic power, and divine power - and + the similarities. Explain how the elements are used + in casting the circle. + + c. Ritual Tools + + Discuss one-by-one the tools that a witch uses to focus + her mind - the athame, the elemental symbols (salt or a + pentacle for earth, a candle or lamp for fire, the + incense and the wand for air, the chalice for water), + the magic mirror, the sword, candles, herbs, and the use + of images. + + 2. Conduct within the Circle + + Two final bits of information needed inside the circle: the + directions of casting and the integrity of the circle. + + a. Widdershins and Deosil + + Define the terms (deosil = clockwise, widdershins = + counter-clockwise). Explain that widdershins is often + mistaken for evil, but show that the difference is more + accurately raising or bannishing power. Stress that, in + order to get along, when in doubt, go deosil. + + b. The Integrity of the Circle + + Remind people that, since no evil magick is involved, + there is no RISK involved in leaving a circle. However, + stress that since a circle is supposed to CONTAIN energy + it should not be punctured hastily or unnecessarily. + Teach how to open and close gateways in the circle, and + when to and not to do so. + +II. DAY TWO: MEDITATION AND VISUALIZATION + + The second day's concentration is on the mental aspects of magick and + ritual work, and is mostly in workshop form. + + A. Meditation + + Describe meditation as a means of altering your mental state by + relaxation and concentration. Contrast meditation and trance + state. Discuss the use of posture (asana) and paradoxical + breathing (pranayama) to attain a meditative state, then do a few + quick exercises. + + B. Visualization(s) + + Explain the difference between imagining and visualizing, then + stress the similarities. Stress the fact that visualization is + something that you will continually get better at - but there is + still no "wrong way." Then lead the students through the + following exercises: + + 1. Grounding and Centering + + Using the seven chakras as steps along the way, guide them to + visualize energy being drawn up from the Earth and blown + through the tops of their heads (at the crown chakra) in a + free-flowing fountain. Then (if they seem up to it), guide + them to mold and direct that energy flow into a circle, then + a sphere of blinding white light. Have them draw the circle + back down through their spines until it is returned to the + Earth. + + 2. Contacting Your Magickal Self + + Get them as relaxed as possible and in a deep meditative + state, then starting with a visualization of a Safe Place in + the forest, lead them to a fairy hill, then through the Maze + of the subconscious until they are somewhat lost. Guide them + to a long stairway, then through the door at the top. Then + set the mental setting - that at the doorway they change into + a powerful magician, and suddenly all of the tools and + symbols in the room are meaningful. Instruct them to study + the tools for a while. After a minute or two, lead them back + out through the maze, then to the clearing, and wake them + back up. + + 3. Aura Reading and Healing + + a. Diagnosis + + Guide them to ground and center (as II.B.1, above), then + stand in front of an evenly-lit white wall. Have them + open their eyes and stare at a point in the distance + beyond the instructor. (Note: this will for some of + them be the first time that they'll be channeling power + with their eyes open, so take your time.) Instruct them + to look for the greyish line around me (that is actually + an optical illusion). Once they've found it, instruct + them to visualize it being replaced with a wash of + color. Have them examine it for variations in thickness + or color. + + b. Treatment + + Point out an ill or sore region on the instructor's + body. Have them examine it for variations in color or + brilliance. Pick one student, then have him wrap his + hands in the energy that he's drawing, then "tune" it to + the color of the healthy areas in the aura. Instruct + him to use his hands as if he were rubbing on oil or + paint to color over the sick area, visualizing the new + color (healthy energy) replacing the older area, and + continue until the color stays changed after he's no + longer touching it or until he gets tired. + +III.DAY THREE: BASIC RITUAL TECHNIQUES + + The previous two courses teach the full minimum necessary to work solo + magick. The remaining two days will concentrate on group ritual. In + Day Three, we will discuss the basic techniques. + + To explain the outline, relate the outline of the three Essentials of + Eastern magick - mandalla, mantra, and mudra. + + A. Mantra - Music and Chanting + + Discuss the three types of mantra most often used in Neopagan + ritual: memorized chants (for creating and focusing the Group + Mind), impromptu chanting (for advanced meditation and growing + together), and plainsong (for worship). + + 1. Memorized Chants + + Teach them the chants listed below. Then run quickly (for + familiarization purposes only) through "We Wander Now", "Hoof + and Horn", "Burn Bright", "Circle 'Round the Fire", and any + others that I can remember on the spot. + + a. "We All Come from the Goddess" + + We ALL - COME from the GODdess + AND to HER we SHALL reTURN + LIKE a DROP - OF - RAIN + FLOWing TO the O-CEAN (repeat) + + b. "I Circle Around" + + I CIRcle aROUND, I CIRcle aROUND ... + the BOUN-'DRIES OF the EARTH ... + WEARing my LONG tail FEAthers AS I GLIDE ... + WEARing my LONG tail FEAthers AS I GLIDE ... (repeat) + + c. "Air I Am" + + (evenly spaced, every syllable emphasized) + + Air I am, + Fire I am, + Water, Earth and Spirit I am ... (repeat) + + d. "The Goddess Chant" + + iSIS, aSTARte, diANna, HECaTE, + deMEter, KALi - inNAna (repeat) + + 2. Impromptu Chanting + + Discuss the uses of impromptu chanting: ecstatic magick + (where one can't count on elaborate chants) and for deep + probing rituals, where they are used for free association. + As an example, demonstrate the three-word style that Starhawk + teaches in SPIRAL DANCE. Emphasize the use of beat and tempo + as unifying factors. + + 3. Plainsong + + For contrast, sing the NROOGD classic, "O Earth Mother" to + demonstrate that not all ritual music needs to be in the form + of basic chants. + + B. Mudra - Movement and Dance + + 1. Ritual Dance + + (This section has not yet been finalized. Current plans + focus on simple circle-dance steps, the famed "spiral dance", + and then brief discussion of free-form dance and ecstatic + ritual.) + + 2. Theater Techniques + + Remind people that one of the purposes of ritual is to catch + and hold the attention of Child Self, and point out that the + language that Child Self speaks best is melodrama. Instruct + them that gestures and actions in the Circle should speak + loud enough that words are not necessary. Then, since they + undoubtedly won't get the point, do two exercises to rub + their noses in it. + + a. Banishing Exercise + + Set up a circle, then pick out someone who seems to know + a bit about magick. Get him to go to one of the + quarters and ground and center. Then have him visualize + a threat approaching from his quarter, and tell him to + do a banishing. (He will inevitably do something + traditional, elaborate, and sterile.) Relax him, then + ask the class how THEY would have reacted, if THEY were + attacking the circle, to what he had done. Pick an + absolute novice, put him in the same place, ground and + center, pump them up with melodrama and heroics, then + describe a different menace and instruct them to scare + it off, turn it away (don't use the word "banish"). See + if the gestures aren't more dramatic. + + b. Charging Exercise + + Pick a couple who seem to know a bit about magick (if + possible), and have them ground, center, and use the + wand and chalice for a symbolic Great Rite. (See if + they do anything more sexual than just stick the wand + into the cup - I doubt it.) Relax them, then point out + to the class that the energies to be raised in this + exercise are to be earthy and sexual, EXACTLY like the + "rush" or thrill of heavy flirtation. Then pick the + most COMPATIBLE-looking couple (if possible) and repeat + the exercise (and see if they don't make it more + energetic). + +IV. NEOPAGAN SYMBOLISM + + Today's lecture has two purposes. First, we will deal with the + legends, meta-legends, and conventions that form the basis for most + Neopagan ritual. Then we will discuss the purposes behind a witchcraft + initiation, and walk through the one that the graduates of this class + will perform. + + A. Theology/Thealogy + + Theology and thealogy (the alpha-ending, Thea, being the Greek + feminine ending) are outlined to show how Neopagans relate to + their own and other people's choices of gods. The hook on which + this will all be hung is that most of the Gods represent facets of + human experience personified. + + 1. Forms of the God + + Discuss the various types of masculine gods that appear in + pagan and Neopagan myth: the Sun-child, the Horned Hunter, + the Sensitive Artist, and the Lord of Death. + + 2. Forms of the Goddess + + Discuss the image of the Three-Fold Goddess: the Maiden, the + Mother, and the Crone. + + B. The Wheel of the Year + + Read aloud the story of the Wheel of the Year from THE SPIRAL + DANCE, pages 28 and 29. Point out that this is the solar + calendar, and relate it to the agricultural cycle. Then add the + mystical component by telling the story of Persephone's descent + into the underworld, showing how it relates to the Wheel. + + C. Initiation + + Tell the story of how Osiris was slain by his jealous brother, + Set, and how his sister/wife Isis went down into the Underworld to + gain the secret of resurrection from the dead (for reminders, use + Wilson's account in COSMIC TRIGGER). + + Discuss how Isis's humiliation in the land of the dead compares to + the psychology of initiation (with a brief aside into Paul's + revelation of Eleusis: "Except a seed of grain fall into the Earth + and die, it cannot rise again"). Use this and the discussion from + Day One of how Craft Law arose to outline the dual purpose of a + witchcraft initiation: to lead the initiate through humiliation + and death into elevation and new life, and to bind the initiate to + the laws necessary for the group experience of the Craft. + + Finally, if time permits, do a walk-through of the initiation to + familiarize the candidates with it, then give them their scripts + to memorize. +ough of the initiation to + familiarize the can \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/coven.txt b/religious documents/coven.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..83e0452 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/coven.txt @@ -0,0 +1,175 @@ +SYSOP'S NOTE: This excellent food-for-thought was downloaded from +EarthRite BBS, 415-651-9496. - Talespinner, Sysop WeirdBase +----------------------------------------------------------------- + +LOOKING AT YOURSELF + +before you go a step further, take a good long look at your +desires, motivation and skills. What role do you see yourself +playing in this new group? "Ordinary" member? Democratic +facilitator? High Priestess? And if the last -- why do you want +the job? + +The title of High Priestess and Priestess are seductive, +conjuring up exotic images of yourself in embroidered robes, a +silver crescent (or horned helm) on your brow, adoring celebrants +hanging on every word which drops from your lips... + +Reality check. The robes will be stained with wine and candle +wax soon enough, and not every word you speak is worth +remembering. A coven leader's job is mostly hard work between +rituals and behind the scene. It is not always a good place to +act out your fantasies, because the lives and well-being of +others are involved, and what is flattering or enjoyable to you +man not be in their best interest. So consider carefully. + +If your prime motive is establishing a coven is to gain status +and ego gratification, other people will quickly sense that. If +they are intelligent, independent individuals, they will refuse +to play Adoring Disciple to your Witch Queen impressions. They +will disappear, and that vanishing act will be the last magick +they do with you. + +And if you do attract a group ready to be subservient Spear +Carriers in your fantasy drama -- well, do you really want to +associate with that kind of personality? What are you going to +do when you want someone strong around to help you or teach you, +and next New Moon you look out upon a handful of Henry +Milquetoasts and Frieda Handmaidens? If a person is willing to +serve you, the they will also become dependent on you, drain your +energy, and become disillusioned if you ever let down the +Infallible Witch Queen mask for even a moment. + +Some other not-so-great reasons for starting a coven: a) because +it seems glamorous, exotic, and a little wicked; b) because it +will shock your mother, or c) because you can endure your boring, +flunkie job more easily if you get to go home and play Witch at +night. + +Some better reasons for setting up a coven, and even nomination +yourself as High Priest/ess, include: a) you feel that you will +be performing a useful job for yourself and others; b) you have +enjoyed leadership roles in the past, and proven yourself +capable; or c) you look forward to learning and growing in the +role. + +Even with the best motives in the world, you will still need to +have -- or quickly develop -- a whole range of skills in order to +handle a leadership role. If you are to be a facillitatir of a +study group, group process insights and skills are important. +These include: + + 1) Gatekeeping, or guiding discussion in such a way that + everyony has an opportunity to express ideas and + opinions; + + 2) Summarizing and clarifying; + + 3) Conflict resolution, or helping participants understand + points of disagreement and find potential solutions which + respect everyone's interests; + + 4) Moving the discussion toward consensus, or at any rate + decision, by identifying diversions and refocussing + attention on goals and priorities; and + + 5) Achieving closure smoothly when the essential work is + compleated, or an appropriate stopping place is reached. + +In addition to group process skills, four other competencies +necessary to the functioning of a coven are: ritual leadership, +administration, teaching, and counseling. In a study group the +last one may not be considered a necessary function, and the +other three may be shared among all participants. But in a coven +the leaders are expected to be fairly capable in all these areas, +even if responsibilities are frequently shared or delegated. Let +us look briefly at each. + +Ritual leadership involves much more that reading invocations by +candlelight. Leaders must understand the powers they intend to +manipulate: how they are raised, channeled and grounded. They +must be adept at designing rituals which involve all the sensory +modes. They should have a repertoire of songs and chants, dances +and gestures or mudras, incense and oils, invocations and spells, +visual effects and symbols, meditations and postures; and the +skill to combine these in a powerful, focused pattern. They must +have clarity of purpose and firm ethics. And they must +understand timing: both where a given ritual fits in the cycles +of the Moon, the Wheel of the Year, and the dance of the spheres, +and how to pace the ritual once started, so that energy peaks and +is channeled at the perfect moment. And they must understand the +Laws of Magick, and the correspondences, and when ritual is +appropriate and when it is not. + +By administration, we refer to basic management practices +necessary to any organization. These include apportioning work +fairly, and following up on its progress; locating resources and +obtaining them (information, money, supplies); fostering +communications (by telephone, printed schedules, newsletters +etc.); and keeping records (minutes, accounts, Witch Book +entries, or ritual logbook). Someone or several someones has to +collect the dues if any, buy the candles, chill the wine, and so +forth. + +Teaching is crucial to both covens and study groups. If only one +person has any formal training or experience in magick, s/he +should transmit that knowledge in a way which respects the +intuitions, re-emerging past life skills, and creativity of the +others. If several participants have some knowledge in differing +areas, they can all share the teaching role. If no one in the +group has training and you are uncertain where to begin, they you +may need to call on outside resources: informed and ethical +priest/esses who can act as visiting faculity, or who are willing +to offer guidance by telephone or correspondence. Much canbe +gleaned from books, or course -- assuming you know which books +are trustworthy and at the appropriate level -- but there is no +substitute for personal instruction for some things. Magick can +be harmful if misused, and an experienced practitioner can help +you avoid pitfalls as well as offering hints and techniques not +found in the literature. + +Counseling is a special role of the High Priest/ess. It is +assumed that all members of a coven share concern for each +other's physical, mental, emotional and spiritual welfare, and +are willing to help each other out in practical ways. However, +coven leaders are expected to have a special ability to help +coverners explore the roots of teir personal problems and choose +strategies and tactics to overcome them. This is not to suggest +that one must be a trained psychoanalyst; but at the least, good +listening skills, clear thinking and some insight into human +nature are helpful. Often, magickal skills such as guided +visualization, Tarot counseling and radiesthesia (pendulum work) +are valuable tools as well. + +Think carefully about your skills in these areas, as you have +demonstrated them in other organizations. Ask acquaintances or +co-workers, who can be trusted to give you a candid opinion, how +they see you in some of these roles. Meditate, and decide what +you really want for yourself in organizing the new group. Will +you be content with being a catalyst and contact person -- simply +bringing people with a common interest together, then letting the +group guide its destiny from that point on? Would you rather be +a facilitatir, either for the first fonths or permanently: a low- +kdy discussion leader who enables the group to move forward with +a minimum of misunderstanding and wasted energy? Or do you +really want to be High Priestess -- whatever that means to you -- +and serve as the guiding spirit and acknowledged leader of a +coven? And if you do want that job, exactly how much authority +and work do you envision as part of it? Some coven leaders want +a great deal of power and control; others simply take an extra +share of responsibility for setting up the rituals (whether or +not they actually conduct the rites), and act as "magickal +advisor" to less experienced members. Thus the High Priest/ess +can be the center around which the life of the coven revolves, or +primarily an honorary title, or anything in between. + +That is one area which you will need to have crystal-clear in +your own mind before the first meeting (of if you are flexible, +at least be very clear that you are). You must also be clear as +to your personal needs on other points: program emphasis, size, +meeting schedule, finances, degree of secrecy, and affiliation +with a tradition or network. You owe it to prospective members +and to yourself to make your minimum requirements known from the +outset: it can be disastrous to a group to discover that members +have major disagreements on these points after you have been +meeting for six months. diff --git a/religious documents/covenant.txt b/religious documents/covenant.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd69a69 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/covenant.txt @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ + BELIEFS AND CUSTOMS OF WICCA + + +Not every Wiccan will subscribe to all of these points, but +generally they are representative. + + +1. The divine Spirit is present in all creatures and things: +people, animals, plants, stones... + +2. The ultimate creative force manifests in both feminine and +masculine modes; therefore it is often symbolized as the Goddess +and The God. + +3. In some covens, both are celebrated equally. In others, The +Goddess is given precedence or even celebrated without reference +to the God. + +4. All Goddesses and Gods are aspects of The Goddess and The God. + The aspects most popular in Wicca are the Triple Goddess of the +Moon (Maiden, Mother and Crone) and the Horned God of death and +rebirth. + +5. Reincarnation and karma are valid concepts. Upon death one +goes to a state of rest and reflection, and eventually chooses +where and when s/he will be reborn. + +6. Magick is practiced for positive (helping) purposes: +spiritual development, healing, guidance, safety, etc. + +7. Rituals are generally performed outdoors when possible, at the +New and Full Moons, and at eight Sabbat festivals which mark the +progression of the seasons. + +8. Magick and celebration are performed in small groups, usually +3 to 13, called covens. These are basically autonomous -- there +is no central church authority or hierarchy. + +9. There is no holy book, or prophet, no equivalent of the Bible +or Jesus or Mohammed. Individuals have access to the divine, and +do not require an intermediary. Every initiate is regarded as a +priest/ess. + +10. The central ethic is "And ye harm none, do as ye will." +Whatever energy you send out returns threefold, so it is wise to +be kind to others. + +11. We should live in harmony with the Earth and Nature, and not +exploit them. + +12. Though Wicca is a valid spiritual path, it is not the only +one. There is no recruiting, and people should be free to choose +the path that best fits their needs. + +13. The concepts of original sin, sacrifice, redemption, +Šconfession, the divinity of Jesus, sinfulness of sex, Judgment, +Heaven and Hell, denigration of women, bodily resurrection, and +the Bible as divine revelation are not part of Wicca. Neither are +Satanism, the Black Mass, desecration of cemeteries, the sacrifice +of animals, etc. + +EARTH-RITE / Mission San Jose, CA / 415-651-9496 +Copyright (c) 1983 Amber K., Our Lady of the Woods. Used by +Permission + diff --git a/religious documents/covtgdes.txt b/religious documents/covtgdes.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33921d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/covtgdes.txt @@ -0,0 +1,252 @@ + + +From: Paul Seymour +To: All Msg #67, 03/06/91 14:01cst +Subject: COG (1of4) + + THE COVENANT OF THE GODDESS + +PURPOSE + + The Covenant of the Goddess was founded in 1975 to increase +cooperation among Witches, and to secure for Witches and covens +the legal protection enjoyed by members of other religions. + +FUNCTIONS + + The Covenant publishes a newsletter; issues ministerial +credentials on request to qualified persons; sponsors a national +festival each summer; and encourages networking nationally, as +well as regionally through local councils. + +STRUCTURE + + The Covenant is incorporated as a non-profit religious +organization in California, though it has grown to be a +nationwide organization. It is a confederation of covens and +solitaires of various traditions, who share in the worship of +the Goddess and the Old Gods and subscribe to a common code of +ethics. The Covenant holds a Grand Council annually to elect +national officers, set a budget, and decide matters which require +deliberation by the full membership. Decisions are usually made +by consensus. + +CODE OF ETHICS + + * An ye harm none, do as ye will. + + * Since our religion and arts and practices peculiar to it +are the gift of the Goddess, membership and training in a local +coven or tradition are bestowed free, as gifts, and only on +those persons who are deemed worthy to receive them. However, a +coven may expect each of its members to bear a fair share of its +ordinary operating expenses. + + * All persons have the right to charge reasonable fees for +the services by which they earn a living, so long as our +religion is not thereby exploited. + + * Every person associated with this Covenant shall respect +the autonomy and sovereignty of each coven, as well as the right +of each coven to oversee the spiritual, mental, emotional and +physical development of its members and students in its own way, +and shall exercise reasonable caution against infringing upon +that right in any way. + + * Members of this Covenant shall respect the traditional +secrecy of our religion. + + * Members of this Covenant should ever keep in mind the +underlying unity of our religion as well as the diversity of its +manifestations. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) + + +From: Paul Seymour +To: All Msg #68, 03/06/91 14:02cst +Subject: COG (2of4) + + PART II + * These ethics shall be understoond and interpreted in light +of one another, and especially in light of the traditional laws +of our religion. + +CONFIDENTIALITY + + All information give to the Covenant of the Goddess or any of +its officials is considered strictly confidential, unless you +indicate otherwise. No information about members is published or +given out without explicit written permission. Direct access +to the Covenant's mailing list is limited to the Board of +Directors. Maximum privacy is assured. + +NEWSLETTER + + At every Sabbat the Covenant publishes a newsletter of Craft +and Pagan news, original articles, poetry, humor, rituals +and announcements. Member covens receive the newsletter +automatically. Individual coveners and non-members who donate +a suitable tax-deductible gift will also be placed on the mailing +list, to receive the newsletter and other mailings. Circulation +is limited to members and friends of the Covenant. + +FINANCES + + An annual membership tithe is set every year by the Grand +Council to cover bare expenses, based on the previous year's +expenses and any projected cost increases. The annual +financial statement is published in the newsletter. Other +activities are supported by fund-raising. + All contributions to the Covenant of the Goddess are greatly +appreciated and are tax-deductible. + +APPLYING FOR MEMBERSHIP + + Any Goddess-supporting coven or solitaire can be eligible +for membership in the Covenant of the Goddess if certain +criteria and requirements are met. All inquiries into membership +should be sent to the National Credentials Officer. If the +coven or solitaire is in an area near a local council, the +National Officer will forward the inquiry to the local +Credentials Officer, who will respond. A member can apply in +person at a council meeting, or by filling out the appropriate +form and sending it in with the initial membership tithe. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) + + +From: Paul Seymour +To: All Msg #69, 03/06/91 14:04cst +Subject: COG (Part 3of4) + + PART III +GENERAL CRITERIA FOR COVEN MEMBERSHIP + + * Generally focus thealogy and ritual, etc., around worship +of the Goddess and the Old Gods (or the Goddess alone). + + * Believe and follow a code of ethics compatible with that of +the Covenant. + + * Have beem meeting monthly or oftener for at least six +months. + + * Have three more more members who have been formally +accepted into the clergy. + + * Be a cohesive, self-perpetuating group. + +REQUIREMENTS FOR MEMBERSHIP + + Full Membership: The applicant must be recommended without +reservation by two active members of the Covenant. + + Provisional Membership: The applicant may be recommended by +one member; and then within a year and a day make a viable +effort to get to know other members, in order to achieve Full +Member status. + + The appropriate Credentials Officer (National or local) +shall verify information regarding criteria and credentials. + +COVEN-AT-LARGE + + This is the term we use to represent the many Witches who are +solitaires, i.e. practicing alone. Each local council may devise +its own standards for admission of coveners-at-large, in harmony +with national guidelines. + +LOCAL COUNCILS + + A local council is a smaller branch of the Covenant, +consisting of at least three member covens of at least two +different traditions, in +reasonably close geographic proximity to each other. The local +councils generally meet more often than the national +organization. They may initiate independent projects, +sponsorlocal festivals and workshops, and generally work +together for common goals close to home. As the Covenant +continues to grow, we encourage new member covens close to one +another to form their own local councils. + +VOTING + + When a matter requiring a decision is presented before the +Covenant in council, it is discussed by the members in attendance +until a consensus is reached. If a consensus cannot be reached, +then a vote is taken. A coven holding a current Full Membership +is entitled to one vote. Each such coven also holds the power to +veto, though this is exercised only in extreme cases. A coven +with Provisional Membership is entitled to one vote, but does not +hold veto power. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) + + +From: Paul Seymour +To: All Msg #70, 03/06/91 14:05cst +Subject: COG (Part 4of4) + + + A coven-at-large is entitled to one vote if, and only if, +three individuals are physically present at the council and +unanimous in their choice of vote. + +MINISTERIAL CREDENTIALS + + In order to receive Ministerial Credentials as a Priestess or +Priest, a person shall: + + 1. Be an active member of a coven which is a Full Member of +the Covenant. + + 2. Have been "confirmed" to taking on the full commitment +to the requirements of that coven's Tradition of our religion. + + 3. Have undergone at least a full year of active training +for the ministry of that Tradition. + + These credentials shall remain valid only so long as the +person remains an active member of the coven which remains an +active member of the Covenant. + + In order to be eligible to receive Ministerial Credentials as +an Elder, a person shall: + + 1. Satisfy (2.) and (3.) above. + + 2. Have undergone an additional full year of active training +for the ministry. + + 3. Be fully able to form a coven, admit members, and train +them in the tenets and practices of that Tradition. + + These credentials shall remain valid for life, unless +specifically revoked, so long as the person remains in contact +with the Covenant. + +THE NATIONAL FESTIVAL + + The annual Grand Council or national business meeting is held +as part of a national festival, which is open to the whole +membership as well as Pagans and Witches who are not part of the +Covenant. The +festival is usually held at a secluded campground or resort, and +moves to a different area of the country each summer. In +addition to the council meeting, the program includes +workshops on magick and the Craft, concerts, a potluck feast, a +talent show, and the opportunity to purchase (or barter for) art, +crafts and ritual tools by Pagan artisans. Registration +information is available in the newsletter. + +FOR MORE INFORMATION: + + Write to: Covenant of the Goddess, P.O. Box 1226, Berkeley, +CA 94704. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) diff --git a/religious documents/cow-g01.txt b/religious documents/cow-g01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..48400a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cow-g01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,161 @@ + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ MOO-COW â-1 ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + Released By + The Office Of The High Preest of MOO + Floyd Gecko + + Proclamation â-1 + Carrot Divination + + Hi, and welcome to the exciting world of the MOO-COW Gamma series of High +Preest revelations, proclamations, stipulations, exacerbations, and +aggravations. +In this proclamation, we will explore the wonderful new vision of the Carrot +deck, as revealed to Floyd Gecko after a hideous tarot-MAO game (if you don't +know, DON'T ASK)... + + Part One: Tarot/Carrot + + The MOOish peoples will shortly have long had a retroactive tradition of +Carrot Divination, using the mystical system of the Carrot Deck, somewhat +related +to the Tarot Deck of many other peoples. As the Tarot Deck may be related to +the +Kabbalah, so may the Carrot Deck be related to the Kobbler. However, the +Carrot Deck is far more sophisticated than the Tarot Deck, as it allows +divination to proceed through the mind of the interpreter, a far more flexible +device than a deck of cards. To wit, the reader simply makes up an +explanation. +Its structure is indicated below, as compared with that of the Tarot. It is +clearly more sophisticated: + +Tarot Structure: +Minor Arcana: 4 Suits with 14 cards each +Major Arcana: 22 cards with meaning + Suits: Cups, Swords, Disks, Wands + Made Of: 1-10, Queen, Princess, Prince, Knight + +Carrot Structure: +Short Arcana: 4 suits with 11 cards each +Tall Arcana: 23 cards with no meaning +Stoopid Arcana: 23 specific predictions +Major Inana: 1 Carte Blanche, 1 green card, 2 greeting cards, 1 punch card, + 2 credit cards, 2 Jokers, 1 Batman +Minor Inana: The 4« of Forks + Suits: Cups, Knives, Plates, Spoons + Made Of: 1, 6, 7, 8, Dopey, Sneezy, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Doc + + Part Two: Doin' The Funky Carrot + + The correspondences of the Carrot Deck with the Tarot Deck are superficial +at best. The Tarot Deck is composed of 78 meaningful cards, while the Carrot +Deck is composed of 101 meaningless cards, into which the interpreter can read +whatever is appropriate. Some readers may find that certain meanings instantly +apply themselves to the cards, and start to use those. This is foolish: the +Carrot Deck is completely meaningless and utterly useless as a divinatory tool. + There are 46 cards not specified in the above listings, those of the Tall +Arcana and Stupid Arcana. The Tall Arcana are based entirely on the Kobbler +Koncept, and are grouped into five groups. They are as follows: + +Halfy Group: Happy, Sad, Confused, Alien. +Olypmpics: Yes, No, Maybe, Summer, Winter +Venn Group: 2A, 2B, Not-2B +Pentagon: Anarchy, Bureaucracy, Peace, Nothing, Copyright +Lumpy Group: Plaid, Paisley, Taco, Elvis, 401 +No Group: Unsociable + + In order to increase the precision of this deck (if not the accuracy), the +Stoopid Arcana consists of 23 specific precictions, quotes, or commentaries, +corresponding to fundamental emmanations from the Carrot Sphere. Thus, since +there's no such thing as a Carrot Sphere, these predictions, if they come true, +do so only by random chance: "Beware Brick Lobbing Beavers", "Gilligan's +Island +Rerun's On At 7:00", "That Idiot Behind You Has A Gun", "There Is A Loaded GNU +Next Door", "There Are Squids Hiding In Your Underpants Drawer", "This Card Is +Temporarily Out Of Order", "Never Mind, Too Late", "Elvis Will Pay You A Visit +Soon", "Vote For Hellhound >101< In Whatever He Happens To Be Running For NOW", +"Ah, Blow It Out Your Ear, Cinnamon Feet", "Quid Pro Quo", "Stop Asking Me +Stupid +Questions, You Goof", "There Is A Bomb In Your Piano", "Your Head Would Make A +Good Paperweight", "Never Play Golf With A Lawnmower", "Contemplate Your +Navel... +Then Figure Out Why You Have One", "MOO", "The Price Of Linguini Noodles Will +Go +Up In The Near Future", "DUCK!", "DUCK!", "GOOSE!", "Your Elephant Will +Spontaneously Combust In The Near Future", and, of course, "Burrito-12". + + Part Three: Deck Layout For Divination + + Lay out the deck thus: ÚÄÄÄ¿ + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÚÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ + ÚÄÄÄ¿ ³ 15 ³ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ ³ ³ ÚÄÄÄ¿ + ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ³ 29 ³ ³ 6 ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ + ³ 9 ³ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄ¿ ÚÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÙ ³26 ³ + ³ ³ ÚÄÄÄ¿ ³ 14 ³ ÚÄÄÄ¿ ³ ÃÄ´ ³ ÀÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ + ÀÄÄÄÙ ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄ´ ÃÄ¿ ³ 3 ³4³ 5 ³ ³ 23 ³ ÀÄÄÄÙ + ÚÄÄÄ¿ ³12«³ ÚÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ 1 ³2³ ³ ÃÄ´ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄ¿ + ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ÀÄ´ ÃÄÙ ÀÄÄÄÙ ÀÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ + ³ 10³ ÀÄÄÄÙ ³13 ³ ÀÄÄÄÙ ³ 30 ³ ³ 24 ³ ³27 ³ + ³ ³ ÚÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ³ ³ + ÀÄÄÄÙ ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄ´ 19 ÃÄÄÄ¿ ÉÍÍÍ» ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ÀÄÄÄÙ + ÚÄÄÄ¿ ³12 ³ ÚÄÄÄ¿ ³ ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ³ º º ³ 25 ³ ÚÄÄÄ¿ + ³ ³ ³ ³ ÚÄ´ ÃÄ¿ ³18 ³ 20 ³ 22³ º7&8º ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ³ ³ + ³11 ³ ÀÄÄÄÙ ³1³16 ³7³ ³ ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ ³ º º ³28 ³ + ³ ³ ÀÄ´ ÃÄÙ ÀÄÄÄ´ 21 ÃÄÄÄÙ ÈÍÍͼ ³ ³ + ÀÄÄÄÙ ÀÄÄÄÙ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÀÄÄÄÙ + Significance Of Positions: + +00001: The questioner +00002: The questioner's life +00003: The questioner's mother +00004: The questioner's siblings (if any) +00005: The questioner's father +00006: The questioner's dog's previous owner's goldfish +00007: The questioner's girlfriend/wife +00008: The questioner's boyfriend/husband +00009: The question being asked +00010: The question not being asked +00011: The question that would have been asked yesterday at the same time +00012: The question the questioner REALLY wants the answer to +0012«: The answer the querstioner wants to hear +00013: The real answer to the question +00014: The price of rice in China +00015: The... Uhhh, well, actually none, it just looked good up there +00016: The card on top +00017: The card on bottom +00018: The meaning of life +00019: The tensile strength of cotton candy +00020: The number of MOOists it takes to screw in a lightbulb +00021: The number of angels which can dance on the point of a pin +00022: The reason for death +00023: The location of that thing you JUST CAN'T EVER SEEM TO FIND +00024: The plot of the next movie the questioner will see +00025: The average longevity of the questioner's potted plants +00026: The questioner's sex life +00027: The questioner's social life +00028: The questioner should get a life +00029: The questioner's opinion vis-a-vis King Kong's martyrdom +00030: The ultimate truth of all reality. Really. + + Part Four: Interpreting A Carrot Reading + + Don't. + + Part Five: Carrot Designs + + The design on the back of the cards should be a picture of a carrot, held +aloft among floating Knives, Spoons, Plates, and Cups, speared by a fork in the +midst of a bright light emmanating from a real huge lightbulb. The pictures on +the faces are left to deck designers and other assorted deckhands. The designs +should reflect the underlying order and symmetry of the philosophy behind the +deck. To wit, none. For this reason, the Carrot Deck has never actually been +designed, in keeping with this principle. However, blasphemers and Gnu Popes +may +wish to create their own decks designs. There has already been a proposal for +a Cyberspace Deck of the Carrot system, in which each card is replaced by a +floppy disk with a .GIF image of the card on it in 2023x2023x23-bit colour. + + + +[1355670306.8264 by floyd.gecko #668 (neighbor of the beast)] diff --git a/religious documents/cow-g10.txt b/religious documents/cow-g10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f049225 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cow-g10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,168 @@ + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ MOO-COW â-10 ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + Released By + The Office Of The High Preest of MOO + Pfflqfoide Q Gehqo + + Proclamation â-10 + On The Qabbalistic Significance Of Elvis Aron Presley And + The Second Coming Of Jesus Christ, Saviour-On-A-Stick + + This is the tenth in the MOO-COW series of revelations and proclamations +from the Office of the High Preest of MOO, Pfflqfoide Q Gehqo, and it concerns +a matter of pressing importance to us all, namely the hypostasis of the +Kabbalistic essense of Elvis. + + Part One: Cabala, What The Hell Is It? + + Qabalah is the Hebrew word for "tradition", and it has come to mean the +Mystical tradition of the Jews, which is heavily involved, rather complex, and +extremely useful to Mystics who want to prove something equal to something +else if they can't figure out why it should be. Notwithstanding this, it's a +really cool thing. + Now the Kabalah, like anything, has a theoretical level and a practical +level. The theoretical level has much to do with the En Sof, and the +Sefiroth,and all sorts of other words like that, and makes for entertaining +reading,especially for a mathematician, who generally can't fathom why 0=2. +The practical level is much to do with words and letters and stuff. + It seems that the Hebrew alphabet was around with God in the +beginning,when She did all that creating of the Heavens and the Earth and all +those useful things we live in, and the alphabet got assigned numbers, and +essences, and eventually got formed into the Torah (all this makes for +fascinating reading when explained by someone deeply trained in the social +politics of alphabets). Anyway, the point is this: special magick stuff can be +done using the Cabbalistic significances of Hebrew Letters. This is part of +the Practical side. + But what has this to do with Elvis? + + Part Two: The Messiah And Elvis + + Much has been devoted to comparisons of Jesus and Elvis. You know the +sort of thing... Jesus came from a Land of Grace, while Elvis lived in +Graceland. Jesus rose from the dead and was seen by zillions of people all +over the place (the Pentecost), while Elvis may or may not have died, and has +been seen in zillions of 7-11s (the PennyCost). Most of this appears on the +surface to be dalderbash, and permutations thereof, but in fact, it is a +reasonable comparison,especially in light of modern Qablah. + Why does the Hebrew alphabet get special treatment in the Eyes of God? +Well, no special reason except that it was the language of the time when that +particular bit of highly-important-stuff was going on, back about 700BC. Of +course, then it was claimed that all the Words of God were in Hebrew, since +those were the Primordial Letters. And other such outrageous claims. + Not that there's anything wrong with "Outrageous Claims"... Certainly +that's the label given to anything printed in the Weekly World GNUs, the +National Enquirer, and other such sources of Elvis data, the significance of +which will shortly become, if not obvious, at least a little less convoluted +than it is right at the moment, not entirely unlike this sentence. Speaking +of sentences,some of them have been written in Arabic, such as those in the +Koran. Now Islamic knowledgeables say that Arabic is the only language of God +(i.e. Allah,Blessed Be His Nose), and Al Qur'an is only accurately the Words +of God if written in Arabic. Odd, for a God who allegedly only speaks Hebrew. + The fact of the matter is, God is everywhere, and EVERY Word is, by +definition, the Word of God, on account of God Owns Everything, and has a Deed +to prove it. Not that Words and Deeds can really be compared, but there you +go. The point is, no language is favoured, and the Cablah can, in theory, be +applied to any old language at all, including English. + This means that, since the Land of Grace and Graceland have a nice +correlation in English, they must be closely connected in the Eyes of God, +Nose of Allah, Toes of Jehovah, and so forth. And much else... + + Part Three: Elvis Lives + + One thing worthy of note is that the Hebrew for "Messiah" and for +"Serpent" have the same Kabblistic number attached to them (counting the +numbers assigned to each letter, you see)... This means that the essence of +each one is supposedly the same, since the Primordial Alphabet Soup has +combined in the same Essence in each one. So in some medieval images, Christ +is portrayed as a Snake-On-A-Stick: a serpent draped over the Cross. + But the SERPENT was EVIL, right? Well, it certainly had a rough time of +it in the Garden of Eden after Jah had figured out what was going down the +pipes with this apple nonsense (the Golden Apple of Discord and all that). So +CHRIST is identified with something supposedly EVIL. + Well, in ENGLISH, ELVIS and EVILS have the same letter combinations TOO. +Well how about that? Plus which, we can see the ELVIS and LIVES thing going +on,too, giving us the Hidden Mystical Message that Elvis is the bringer of +life, as was Jesus. Could anything be more obvious? How anyone can deny that +Elvis Presley was the Second Coming of the Saviour On A Stick is beyond me. +But wait! There's more! + Now one of the real big things in Jewish Mysticism is the T +tragrammaton,the four-letter Name O' God, YHVH (Yod, He, Vau, He). That's +Yahweh, Jehovah,and a number of other things, because the Jews of the time +disdained vowels. Now you add the letter Shin in the middle, you get YHShVH, +Joshuah or Yeheshuah,which got Romanized into "Jesus". It's symbolic, you +see, of the Holy Spirit (Shin, which looks like a little fire) being inserted +into the material world (the four elements, natch). It's the adding of that +one letter into the name that says the spirit of the lord is being inserted +into the world. So what about Elvis? Any letters being stuck in HIS name +from something else? + No, but check THIS out... Elvis Aron Presley's middle name is Aron (in +case you hadn't guessed). Now on his "Tombstone" it's spelled Aaron, with TWO +A's... The insertion of an A. On the other hand, it CAME from "Garon", which +was the name of his dead identical twin brother, Garon (this is true, look it +up). So we have a G going away when he's born, and an A coming in after his +death. Now back to the Hebews. + The Hebrew G is Gimmel, which also means Camel (Elvis's birth was +supposedly accompanied by the spontaneous combusion of several camels in the +Middle East, which confused many a Bedouin). But the ATTRIBUTIONS of Gimmel +are with the Priestess in the Tarot, thus the Shekhinah, which is the female +part of God, and also the "manifestation of God". Also, in English, G is the +7th letter of the Alphabet, and 7 is a number that pops up a whole heap in +descriptions of the Day of Judgement, when God fools around manifesting a +lot. Thus, the G going away means that Elvis has persuaded God to not have a +Day of Judgement just now,saving us from Damnation. Hallelujah! + The Hebrew A is an Aleph, which is connected with the Pure Fool, like as +in the Tarot, and heaps of other things, such as the element called Air, whose +symbol looks peculiarly like an A itself, with a line across the bottom: a +triangle cut into two bits, as it is in the Eye-In-Pyramid design. In fact, +this identifies the return of the Sirian Illuminati as the cause of Elvis's +death. He gave his life, as Jesus did, not so that we would be delivered from +damnation or any such thing, but so that his mind, his software, could be +dumped into the Sirian computer, called VALIS, and described by Philip K. Dick +in his "novel" of that name, PUBLISHED THE YEAR AFTER ELVIS'S "DEATH". + In fact, as you can see, VALIS permutes into ALVIS, which is ELVIS with +an A. This is another manifestation of the "Arrival of the letter A" +phenomenon. + + In fact, as you can see, VALIS permutes into ALVIS, which is ELVIS with +an A. This is another manifestation of the "Arrival of the letter A" +phenomenon. Elvis, but accepting the arrival of the A, became VALIS, the +Sirian Illuminati's substation which they use to contact WOMBAT here on +Earth. But that's another point entirely. + + Part Four: Elvis Now + + So Elvis may have been the Second Coming of Jesus, our Saviour On A +Stick,and he may have saved us from the Days of Wrath, but what do we do about +it NOW? After all, now that Elvis is inside Valis, there must be something to +be done to contact him, perhaps through WOMBAT? + Well, in fact there is. Consider: +1) Elvis also permuted to Levis. Anyone wearing Levis Jeans belongs to the +Neo-Tribe of Levis, as referred to in the Book Of Revelations, Gecko-Remix, +which describes the Judgement that Elvis saved us from. By wearing these +jeans, you express your gratitude to Elvis. Trust us, WOMBAT knows what +you're wearing, and so does Valis. +2) Valis will no longer permute to Evils as Elvis did (this is symbolic of +the fact that Elvis saved us from our Evils, and they no longer Xist). The +closest to this is Avils, which is close to Anvils. The addition of the "n" +refers us to the Greek, where "n" is "nu" (compare "new" and "gnu"). So in +the NU aeon,we can contact Valis by using Anvils, but only if we abandon the +ways of MOO and embrace the GNU testament. +3) Jesus transubstantiates in Bread and Wine because this was his last meal. +Elvis's last meal, typically for him, was a deep-fried peanut butter and +banana sandwich and some drugs (the alleged cause of his "death"). You too +can commune with Elvis by the ritual eating of peanut butter and banana +sandwiches and the taking of drugs. + The currently proper ritual for MOOists communing with VALIS through +WOMBAT, reaching the manifestation of Elvis, and thus Jesus, is this. +First,abandon MOOism as preached in the Book of MOO, and accept the GNU +testament. While wearing Levis jeans, take some drugs and eat a peanut butter +and banana sandwich whilst listening simultaneously to the Anvil Chorus and +any of Elvis's Greatest Hits. The resulting neurological backwash will put +you in immediate psychic contact with Our Saviour In Siris (blessed be his +belly) through WOMBAT and VALIS. + + + [ ( ) 1355670812.1273 Pffflqoide Q Gehqo ] + Love Is The Thing, Something Something Something + Do What Thou Something Something Something Something diff --git a/religious documents/cow-p03.txt b/religious documents/cow-p03.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68fe113 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cow-p03.txt @@ -0,0 +1,136 @@ + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ MOO-COW è-3 ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + Released By + The Office Of The High Preest Of MOO + Floyd Gecko + + Number Three in a series of confusing and/or enlightening releases of one +thing or another from that High Preest guy, who co-ordinates this carp. + Special thanks to the Ministry Of Fish. + + IN THIS ISSUE: + +MOOish MystiSchism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lloyd Taco + +PART ONE + + In MOOism, there is no such thing as Misty-Sizzle in the ordinary sense +of the unword. You know, KOäMOâENEäIä and éEOèANH and all the other +miscellaneous accoutrements that give religion meaning. MOOism is a +Metagnostic Agnostic Anti-Church, in a sense (of which we all have five, this +being only one). As Metagnostics,we believe in whatever comes to mind. As +Agnostics, we don't even trust that. As an Anti-Church (see MOO-COW â-6) we +don't so much believe in things as suspend our disbelief. Willing suspension +of disbelief is the key to MOOist MystiSchism. + In fact, this is the basic reason we renamed it such: the whole point of +what we're doing here is to break the mental world apart into its component +parts and shuffle them around. Without this kind of shuffling in the head, +successful combinations can't be found. By the Holy Rite of Schism, we +promote divergence, and then later on, Conjugation, of Sects. + In terms of the evolution of mind, MOOism the the first Sectually +Reproducing Organism in history. + And that's the trick... Before this century, we were in the middle of +intellectual Dead Airedale: the process which happens when the mind decomposes +from a functioning complex entity into a whole bunch of undifferentiated +cells. Old Churches, with +monolithic Dogma (the Dead Airedale I mentioned) were like fungi: +undifferentiated cells. In a mushroom, all the cells are the same,except for +the spores. In a mush-brained Church, all the believers have the same +beliefs, except for the clergy, so the transmission of new ideas drops to zero +(Dead Air). + Now there are certain things that seem obvious to me, +Mystically Speaking , but they may not seem obvious to other people. Like +the fact that it's inevitable that self-expansive patterns like intelligence +and life will eventually reach a point at which that information can be stored +in "DreamTime", the pre-dimensional, non-local part of spacetime that's +everywhere and everywhen at once. That's a thing that sort of leaps out at +me. But maybe not so to you, and even though I'm right, and you're wrong, that +doesn't make your concepts any less valid. That's the Metagnostic Influence... + We all live in every possible reality that accounts for what's going on +vis-a-vis our inputs, like the senses, what happens in the mind. Now, since +you're reading something that I've written (that's a good bet, anyway), you +must have some overlap with where YOUR mind lives and where MY mind lives. +With pretty-damn-close certainty, some of where you live must follow my +beliefs, but then,a whole heap of it probably doesn't. Whatever you believe +is partly true. + By willing suspension of disbelief, Anti-Doubt, you allow yourself to +explore bits of where you are that you hadn't thought of before. Since part +of your reality lives there, those ideas will almost certainly be useful, and +they definitely can't hurt. So run with it. Whatever occurs to you that MIGHT +be true, +certainly IS true in some reality, linked to the one you think you're in by +the mere fact that it LOOKS the same. + Of course, you don't have to believe this. You can believe whatever you +want, and MOOism will sit there and nod its fool head,grin its fool grin, and +make stupid comments about it. + +PART SIX + + So let's do an exercise in MOOish MystiSchism. For the moment, let's +discard the MOOist attitude, and masquerade it as "Legitimate" Mysticism, +like, as in, Cosmogeny instead of +Cosmopolitan, Eschatology instead of S-Scatology, and so forth. Dumping the +dumb-fool sarcasm that we keep up just to remind you that we're Metagnostic +Agnostics. Here she lies: + +Part Q: The Book Of Nothing In Particular + +1) Before the beginning there wasn't nothing. Without comparison,there could +be no nothing. The non-nothing was everything and nothing at the same time, +because nobody was there to tell it what it couldn't do. But everything +without distinction is just more nothing. And so there wasn't nothing, but +everything was. +2) After the end, there won't be nothing, for just the same reasons. +3) Between the middle, there remains no nothing, because the gaps have all +been filled in by emptiness, which is Something, even if not very much. And +so as it was in the beginning, and as it will be after the end, so it is now, +between the middle and itself. 4) Everything is held back only by its +overwhelming tendency not to exist HERE, and NOW, because of the inconceivable +smallness of HERE and NOW when compared with everything. And the everything +was separated into Information, which was the pattern of the non-nothing. +5) With the discrimination of Information, there became division,and +separation, and this is why not Everything exists for us,because Information +separates the True from the False. +6) Inside the non-nothing which is Everything, True and False were separated +from each other in Every possible way, because it was Everything, and so +things came to be, as we see around us today,and also as we don't, but not +HERE and NOW. +7) So finally there was Something, which came from Information,which came +from Everything, and Everything was not-Nothing. +8) But where there was Something to compare it with, the not-Nothing was less +than Something, and was called Nothing. So from the not-nothing which was +Everything comes Something and Nothing,created together everywhere, at all +times. +9) Something and Nothing exist Sometimes in Balance and Sometimes +Not-In-Balance, but almost always there is more Nothing than Something, +because almost always there is only One Thing HERE and NOW. And the One +Things are separated by Information which is a great deal of Nothing. +10) So it is that Nothing separates us from each other, since it is here in +great abundance, and the only Something that exists exists in the form of One +Things or Sometimes Nothing at all. 11) But Information is the Nothing that +separates us, and also what makes us what we are, and so at Some HEREs and +NOWs, we are not, but at others we are, and in Some of those HEREs and NOWs +the Information that we are, in other places, exists. +12) So it is that after we die, we are dead, but remembered, and in some +places, we are known, but aren't standing, because there is less Nothing +separating us from those Somewheres than from the others, and we are closer to +them. + +PART FIVE + + As you can see, this makes almost no sense at all. This is,in many ways, +a lot like Real Life, and MOOism in general. Of course, it has a lot more +explanations than Real Life, and it doesn't seem to contradict itself as much +as MOOism in general, but that's what makes it MystiSchism. + Obviously, MOOism is everywhere, sort of like the not-Nothing in the Book +of Nothing In Particular. Because everyone believes what they do, or else +they don't, and everyone follows their beliefs, or else they don't, which is +the credo of any Metagnostic Agnostic Anti-Church: Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be +The Whole of The Law, Unless Thou Wilt Not Follow The Law. + Everyone is a Pope of their own Sect of Metagnostic Agnotisc MystiSchism: +they do what they like, unless they don't want to. They choose to behave the +way they do, unless someone or something else chooses for them. Whatever they +do, it's the Holy Dogma of MOO that they MUST do it, unless they feel like +breaking Holy Dogma, which is also okay. + So don't worry about converting them to your own Sect of MOO, diff --git a/religious documents/craftbib.txt b/religious documents/craftbib.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d02b94d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/craftbib.txt @@ -0,0 +1,373 @@ + + An annotated bibliography for the class + + W I T C H C R A F T + + the Magic of Ancient Celtic Beliefs + in a Contemporary Society + + =================================== + + + The purpose of this listing is to help the novice sort out the reliable + from the sensational in the wealth of material that is now available on + Witchcraft. I have left out old historical treatices (records of the + Inquisition and such) which are of little value to the modern student, and + have concentrated instead on contemporary sources. This also yeilds a much + more objective perspective. + - Michael Nichols + + + + THE TEXTS: + + 'Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans + in America Today' - 2nd ed. - by Margot Adler. Beacon Press trade paperback. + You may have already heard Margot's voice, as she was once hostess of + National Public Radio's news program, 'All Things Considered'. This book is + the end result of five years of research and interviews. (The 2nd edition is + an update published eight years after the original.) This landmark study + focuses on the rise of the Neo-Pagan movement (which includes Witchcraft, of + course) especially as it relates to the values and beliefs of the + counterculture of the mid-60's, hippies, flower children, et. al. It is the + single most comprehensive study of modern American Witchcraft in existence. + + 'What Witches Do: The Modern Coven Revealed' - 2nd ed. - by Stewart Farrar. + Phoenix trade paperback. + If Adler's book gives a comprehensive overview of modern American + Witchcraft, Farrar's is a complimentary look at traditional British + Witchcraft. Concentrating on the Alexandrian tradition (which is only + marginally different from Gardnerian, easily the largest Craft tradition + extant), Farrar lays stress on the actual working of Covens and the + integration of novice Witches into them. Also included is much of the + Gardnerian (via Alexandrian) Book of Shadows. So there is plenty here for + someone who wants to begin practice. + + 'The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess' by + Starhawk (pseud. for Miriam Simos). Harper & Row trade paperback. + This book shifts back to America again, this time with a slight emphasis + on feminist Witchcraft, arguably the fastest growing branch of the Craft. + Starhawk is herself High Priestess of two California Covens and her book is + insightful, genuine, and beautifully poetic. This overview also contains + specific instructions for Circles, chants, spells, invocations, creating + rituals and, in short, everything you need to get started. And it is a + delight to read. + + 'Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft' by Raymond Buckland. Llewellyn trade + paperback. + British-born Ray Buckland can, with some validity, be considered Gerald + Gardner's American successor. Not only did he introduce Gardnerian Witchcraft + to the United States, but he also founded his own tradition of the Craft, + called Seax (Saxon) Wicca, which has grown to worldwide practice. His early + books, like 'Witchcraft from the Inside', did much to dispel negative + stereotypes of Wicca in the 60's. And 'The Tree: Complete Book of Saxon + Witchcraft' remains one of the best published Books of Shadows to date. The + present volume has a practical orientation, with chapters set up as 'lessons', + covering every imaginable aspect of modern Wicca. The book is Traditionalist + in approach, making a nice counterpoint to works by Adler and Starhawk. + + + + OTHER SOURCES: + + 'A Witches' Bible, Compleat' by Janet & Stewart Farrar. Magickal Childe trade + paperback tandum edition of 'Eight Sabbats for Witches' and 'The Witches' + Way', respectively, also called 'A Witches' Bible, Vol 1 & 2'. + The first book is an examination of the festival Holidays of the Old + Religion - the Solstices and Equinoxes and the cross-quarter days - together + with the rich folk customs associated with them. The second book contains the + long-awaited remainder of the previously unpublished portions of the + Gardnerian Book of Shadows. In both of these books, the Farrars had the + invaluable help of Doreen Valiente, who actually wrote parts of the Gardnerian + liturgy. The three Farrar books taken together form the most complete system + of Witchcraft currently available. Their more recent book 'The Witches' + Goddess' focuses on the feminine archetype, and contains a gazetteer of + Goddesses that is mind-boggling in its thoroughness. + + 'Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex, & Politics' and 'Truth or Dare: Encounters + with Power, Authority, and Mystery' both by Starhawk. Beacon Press trade + paperback and Harper & Row hardback, respectively. + If we have gained new religious insights from Pagan and feminist + philosophy, how are we to incorporate those insights into our daily lives? + Starhawk, the author of one of our principal texts, pulls together a wide + range of materials to answer this question in two books as beautifully poetic + as her first. Some of these things have waited a long time to be said - and + they couldn't have been said better! + + 'The White Goddess' by Robert Graves. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux trade + paperback. + A rather weighty and yet poetic book, tracing the female deity of + Witchcraft - Goddess of Birth, Love, and Death; of the New, Full, and Old + Moon, worshipped under countless titles. Fascinating for the advanced + student. Know your Celtic mythology (particularly Welsh) before you start, + though! (If you need a quick intro to this book, check out the feature in the + Reviews SIG.) + + 'Witchcraft Today' and 'The Meaning of Witchcraft' by Gerald B. Gardner. + Magickal Childe trade paperbacks. + Gerald Gardner has the distinction of being the first practicing Witch to + write a book about Witchcraft. He was initiated into one of the surviving + traditional British Covens, and onto the tattered remnants of magic and ritual + inherited from them, he grafted elements of ceremonial magic. The synthesis + that emerged came to be called 'Gardnerian' Witchcraft, and it became the + major cause of the Witchcraft revival of the twentieth century. Because + Gardner was the first to deal with this material in written form, it sometimes + seems very disorganized, but its historical importance is immense + 'An ABC of Witchcraft', 'Natural Magick', and 'Witchcraft for Tomorrow' all by + Doreen Valiente. Phoenix trade paperbacks. + British Witch Doreen Valiente is perhaps best known for her work with + Gerald Gardner in creating the Gardnerian canon of liturgy. However, in her + own books, she really shines as an amateur folklorist, managing to convey a + sense of Witchcraft as a folk religion, tied very much to the locality, the + land, and the oldest strains of folk wisdom and nature. Her sense of history + and tradition is rich and deep, and she often presents fascinating historical + tidbits about the Craft. From no other author can one gain such a rich sense + of heritage. + + 'A History of Witchcraft: Sorcerers, Heretics, & Pagans' by Jeffrey B. + Russell. Thames and Hudson trade paperback. + This book represents the approach of a gifted Cornell historian. Although + Russell doesn't always adequately cover modern sources, he has become famous + for his ability to integrate a sensible approach to the evidence of medieval + Witchcraft with an acceptance of modern Neo-Pagan Witchcraft. + + 'Magical Rites from the Crystal Well' by Ed Fitch. Llewellyn trade + paperback. + A book of rites, simple celebrations of land and water, wind and fire. + Rites of passage, seasonal celebrations, magical workings, healings, and many + more. Ed Fitch (one of the founders of Pagan Way) is truly in his element + here. And it is one of the most beautiful books on the Craft ever published. + The art work alone is worth the price of the book! + + 'A Book of Pagan Rituals' by Herman Slater. Weiser trade paperback. + Originally published in two volumes as the 'Pagan Way Rituals', this + extremely beautiful book is just what it says it is: a book of rituals. Not + authentic Wiccan rituals, but very nearly so, these rituals are often used by + Covens in the training of neophytes. Like a good Catholic missal, the words + are printed in 'sense lines' using BOLD PRINT (easier to read by candlelight). + Anyone who is at least part animist or nature-lover is going to cherish this + beautiful book. + + 'Celtic Heritage' by Alwyn and Brinley Rees. Thames and Hudson trade + paperback. + A good deal of modern Witchcraft can be traced to ancient Celtic sources. + This book, based in comparative religion, mythology, and anthropology, gives + one a clear picture of the Celtic world-view. Drawn mainly from Ireland and + Wales, the study focuses on the interplay of Light and Darkness, Day and + Night, Summer and Winter, and all the seasonal myths and rituals that make up + the great Celtic yearly cycle. + + + + OTHER USEFUL BOOKS: + + + 'The Politics of Women's Spirituality: Essays on the Rise of Spiritualist + Power Within the Feminist Movement' by Charlene Spretnak. Doubleday trade + paperback. + A huge (and, one is tempted to say, the definitive) anthology of feminist + and Pagan theology. Many familiar authors here: Starhawk, Weinstein, Daly, + et. al. Subjects range from Amazons to the ethics of magic. A real bargain! + + 'Sex in History' by Reay Tannahill. Stein & Day trade paperback. + It has often been said that Witchcraft grew out of an earlier 'fertility + religion' and, although 'fertility' is probably the wrong word here, it is + undeniable that the history of Witichcraft is irrevocably bound up with the + history of sexuality. Like Tantrists and many others in the East, Witches + tend to view sex as sacramental. Since this is quite contrary to the + prevailing attitudes of our own culture, it may be helpful to understand how + our culture acquired such negative ideas about sex in the first place. Ms. + Tannahill's unique landmark study will not only answer this question but also + indicate the many options other cultures throughout history have chosen. + + 'When God Was A Woman' by Merlin Stone. Harcourt, Brace, & Jovanovich trade + paperback. + At the foundations of the religion of Witchcraft is the religion of the + Goddess. Ms. Stone's book is an archeological tour-de-force of that religion, + which is found at the beginnings of virtually every known culture (yes, even + the Judeo-Christian culture). In this book, one learns about the worship of + Astarte, Isis, Ishtar, and many others. Also recommended is her 'Ancient + Mirrors of Womanhood'. Both are splendid books! + + 'A Different Heaven and Earth' by Sheila D. Collins. Judson Press trade + paperback. + By one of the leading feminist theologians of our day, this book asks what + are the psychological and social implications of worshipping a male deity + exclusively, while ignoring the feminine principle in religion. This is one + of the most influencial books I've read in the last ten years. It changed my + way of thinking (for the better) and I dare say it will change yours. + + 'The Way of Wyrd' by Brian Bates. Harper & Row hardback. + What Carlos Castaneda did for Native American tradition, this author does + for ancient Pagan Anglo-Saxon tradition. Subtitled 'The Book of a Sorcerer's + Apprentice' and based on authentic manuscripts found in the British Museum, it + is the chronicle of a young Christian monk sent into the wilds beyond Mercia + in 674 to record the heresies (beliefs) of the Pagans. He is lucky to have as + his guide the Anglo-Saxon shaman Wulf. Throughout this documentary novel, the + Christian and Pagan beliefs are juxtaposed for a better understanding of both. + Not since 'The Mists of Avalon' has a book accomplished this task so neatly. + + 'Positive Magic' - revised edition - by Marion Weinstein. Phoenix + Publications trade paperback. + Although a book about how to use magic to change your life could be + extremely tedious, this one is far from it. While it is true that Marion uses + a simple and direct style of writing, it is used on such difficult and subtle + questions as the ethics of magic. She draws upon her own experiences to + create a book that is truely positive. If I had to recommend one book on + magic, this would be it! + + 'Earth Power' by Scott Cunningham. Llewellyn trade paperback. + Scott is arguably the strongest of the young writers in the immensely + popular 'Llewellyn's Practical Magick Series'. This is, in fact, a book of + spells. Practical, down-to-earth, useful, everyday, garden-variety spells. + It is the only such book in this bibliography. Although I do not recommend a + 'cookbook' approach to magic, this book will be extremely helpful when used as + a guide for creating your own spells. Also, Scott concentrates on 'natural' + or 'folk' magic, as opposed to 'ritual' or 'ceremonial' magic. This is the + type of magic (involving Sun, Moon, stars, trees, rocks, springs, etc.) that + is the natural heritage of Witchcraft. An excellent starting-place for the + novice spell-wright. His many other books, especially 'The Magical + Household', are all highly recommended. + + 'The Medium, the Mystic, and the Physicist' and 'Alternate Realities' by + Lawrence LeShan. Ballantine paperbacks. + Dr. LeShan does not deal with magic or Witchcraft per se, but what he has + to say about the nature of the cosmos is magical indeed. He is an + 3 MINUTES REMAINING! + + experimental psychologist, an Esalen veteran, director of ESP research, + psychic healing, and other projects. His is a synthesis of philosophy, + parapsychology, and Einsteinian physics. His other books, especially 'How To + Meditate' (Bantam paperback), are also of great value. + + 'Seth Speaks' and 'The Seth Material' by Jane Roberts. Bantam paperbacks. + Yet another startlingly clear (albeit less scientific) look at + metaphysics. This is probably the cream of the crop of all modern mediumistic + data: Seth is the communicant, and the late Jane Roberts is the medium. The + other 'Seth' books are also of value. + + 'Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science' by Edgar Mitchell, edited by + John White. Putnam trade paperback. + This anthology serves as an excellent introduction to the scientific field + of parapsychology. Each chapter is an extensive review article on laboratory + work carried out in one particular sub-genre of the field: telepathy, + clairvoyance, precognition, psychokinesis, OOBE's, apparitions & hauntings, + etc. These excellent articles will bring you up-to-date on virtually + everything that is currently known about the topic in question. Other + chapters deal with the history of the discipline, social & psychological + implications, military applications, etc. This book could open the mind of + the severest skeptic. But at the same time, it could serve as a necessary + check on those too-credulous souls who have a tendency to 'believe + everything'. + + + + BOOKS ON RELATED SUBJECTS: + + ASTROLOGY: For the absolute beginner, 'Chart Your Own Horoscope' by Ursula + Lewis. Pinnacle paperback. The find-at-a-glance tables and charts are worth + their weight in gold. For the more advanced students, Michael Meyer's 'A + Handbook for the Humanistic Astrologer' is highly recommended for its + 'humanistic' (a la Dane Rudyar) approach. If you want to really learn to do + astrology, try 'The Only Way To Learn Astrology, Vol I-IV' by March & McEvers. + Books by Linda Goodman, Grant Lewi, Ronald Davison, and Liz Greene are also + recommended. + + TAROT: 'Secrets of the Tarot' by Barbara Walker is the best of the newest + books on Tarot. You may know Barbara as the author of the amazing 'Woman's + Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets'. Bill Butler's 'Dictionary of the Tarot' + is a wonderful reference book which encompasses works by such authors as Case, + Crowley, Douglas, Gray, Huson, Kaplan, Mathers, Papus, Waite, et. al. + + ESP: Any and all books by J. B. and Louisa Rhine, Gertrude Schmeidler, Thelma + Moss, Charles Tart, D. Scott Rogo, J. G. Pratt, Raynor Johnson and Lawrence + LeShan would be highly recommended. + + PALMISTRY: 'The Palmistry Workbook' by N. Altman is clearly the leader here. + The book actually has hand-prints, not just line drawings! + + GHOSTS: Firstly, I'd recommend 'An Experience of Phantoms' and 'The + Poltergeist Experience' both by D. Scott Rogo (Penguin paperbacks), who is a + kind of historian of psychical research. Also, 'The Poltergeist' by William + Roll, director of the Psychical Research Foundation, and this country's + leading authority on ghosts. And most importantly, 'Conjuring Up Phillip' by + Iris M. Owen, the account of a group of Canadian researchers who 'created' a + ghost! This last title is now out of print, but if you can find one in a used + book store, it's well worth it. + SURVIVAL: 'At the Hour of Death' by Karlis Osis is exceptional. Books by + Elizabeth Kubler-Ross are adequate, but not as good. And, if you can find it, + the out-of-print 'Life Is Forever' by Susy Smith is perhaps the best + introduction. + + OUT-OF-THE-BODY EXPERIENCES: 'Journeys Out of the Body' and 'Far Journeys' + both by Robert A. Monroe. The narative of a much-researched psychic, the only + one of its kind. Also, 'Astral Projection' by Oliver Fox, and any early works + by Sylvan Muldoon and Hereward Carrington, if you can find them. + + MEDIUMSHIP: Firstly, the 'Seth' books by Jane Roberts, listed above. Any and + all books by Eileen Garrett. Plus, 'Here, Mr. Splitfoot' by Robert Sommerlot, + 'Singer in the Shadows' by Irving Litvag, and 'She Spoke to the Dead' by Susy + Smith. + + CABALISM: Introductory works include 'The Magician: His Training and Work' + and 'Magick: Its Ritual, Power, and Purpose' both by W. E. Butler. Later, + works by Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley (definately not for the novice). + + + + BOOKS OF LORE & MYTHOLOGY: + + 'The Mists of Avalon' by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Ballantine trade paperback. + This Arthurian fantasy novel, which reached the N.Y. Times best-seller + list, is truly superlative. It is narrated by Morgan le Fay and so we finally + understand that strange antipathy that exists between her and Arthur. The + religious and philosophical conflict between the Old Religion and the newer + one of Christianity is beautifully portrayed. An excellent choice. + + The Prydain Chronicles of Lloyd Alexander, a pentology on Dell paperbacks: + 'The Book of Three', 'The Black Cauldron', 'The Castle of Llyr', 'Taran + Wanderer', and 'The High King'. + These award-winning children's fantasies are based on ancient Welsh + mythology. Alexander admits that the two authors who most influenced him were + J. R. R. Tolkien and T. H. White. The books are also the basis of the recent + animation feature from Disney studios. I'm often asked about pagan books to + recommend for children. These are them. + + The Deryni Chronicles of Katherine Kurtz: 'Deryni Rising', 'Deryni Checkmate', + 'High Deryni', 'Camber of Culdi', 'Saint Camber', Camber the Heretic', 'The + Bishop's Heir', 'The King's Justice' and 'The Quest for Saint Camber', all + Ballantine paperbacks. + Set in the landscape of ancient Wales, the Deryni are a race with magical + powers which must fight for its life against a medieval Church Militant. + Kahterine is someone who knows what magic is all about. + + 'The Once and Future King' and 'The Book of Merlyn' both by T. H. White. + Berkely paperbacks. + Sparkling books, and my own personal favorites. The final crystalization + of centuries of Arhturian romance. The books on which 'Camelot' was based. + + 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen', 'The Moon of Gomrath', 'Elidor', and 'The Owl + Service' by Alan Garner. All Ballantine paperbacks. + Garner is one of the best British fantasy authors, with a superb sense of + local 'color' and folklore. The first two (related) titles are in the heroic + quest mold, the third is a story about the four 'hallows' of Arthurian + legends, and the fourth is an eerie modern re-creation of the fourth branch of + the 'Mabinogi'. + + 'A Wizard of Earhtsea', 'The Tombs of Atuan', and 'The Farthest Shore' by + Ursula K. LeGuin. A trilogy on Bantam paperbacks. + This is the chronicle of a young boy who is an apprentice mage. LeGuin, a + leading science fiction and fantasy author, has some fascinating things to say + about the light side and dark side of magic, and how they're related. And she + says it very well, indeed. + + 'Lammas Night' by Katherine Kurtz. Ballantine paperback. + In this case, the author of the important Deryni fantasies turns her + attention to a historical setting: England in World War II. There is a + long-standing tradition that Hitler's thwarted plans for invading England owed + a certain something to the many Covens throughout Britain who combined their + efforts to stop him. There is even a hint that the Royal Family itself was + involved. Ms. Kurtz's historical research is, of course, impeccable. + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/creashun.txt b/religious documents/creashun.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a613cc2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/creashun.txt @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ + + CREATION + + (AN ORAL TEACHING OF THE FAERY TRADITION OF WITCHCRAFT) + + + Alone, awesome, complete within Herself, the Goddess, She +whose name cannot be spoken, floated in the abyss of the outer +darkness, before the beginning of all things. And as She looked +into the curved mirror of black space, She saw by her own light +her radiant reflection, and fell in love with it. She drew it +forth by the power that was in Her and made love to Herself, and +called Her "Miria, the Wonderful". + + Their ecstasy burst forth in the single song of all that is, +was, or ever shall be, and with the song came motion, waves that +poured outward and became all the spheres and circles of the +worlds. The Goddess became filled with love, swollen with love, +and She gave birth to a rain of bright spirits that filled the +worlds and became all beings. + + But in that great movement, Miria was swept away, and as She +moved out from the Goddess She became more masculine. First She +became the Blue God, the gentle , laughing God of love. Then She +became the Green One, vine-covered, rooted in the earth, the +spirit of all growing things. At last She became the Horned God, +the Hunter whose face is the ruddy sun and yet dark as Death. But +always desire draws Him back toward the Goddess, so that He +circles Her eternally, seeking to return in love. + + All began in love; all seeks to return to love. Love is the +law, the teacher of wisdom, and the great revealer of mysteries. + diff --git a/religious documents/creation.txt b/religious documents/creation.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a613cc2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/creation.txt @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ + + CREATION + + (AN ORAL TEACHING OF THE FAERY TRADITION OF WITCHCRAFT) + + + Alone, awesome, complete within Herself, the Goddess, She +whose name cannot be spoken, floated in the abyss of the outer +darkness, before the beginning of all things. And as She looked +into the curved mirror of black space, She saw by her own light +her radiant reflection, and fell in love with it. She drew it +forth by the power that was in Her and made love to Herself, and +called Her "Miria, the Wonderful". + + Their ecstasy burst forth in the single song of all that is, +was, or ever shall be, and with the song came motion, waves that +poured outward and became all the spheres and circles of the +worlds. The Goddess became filled with love, swollen with love, +and She gave birth to a rain of bright spirits that filled the +worlds and became all beings. + + But in that great movement, Miria was swept away, and as She +moved out from the Goddess She became more masculine. First She +became the Blue God, the gentle , laughing God of love. Then She +became the Green One, vine-covered, rooted in the earth, the +spirit of all growing things. At last She became the Horned God, +the Hunter whose face is the ruddy sun and yet dark as Death. But +always desire draws Him back toward the Goddess, so that He +circles Her eternally, seeking to return in love. + + All began in love; all seeks to return to love. Love is the +law, the teacher of wisdom, and the great revealer of mysteries. + diff --git a/religious documents/creed2.txt b/religious documents/creed2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..831c00a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/creed2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +(The following upload is reprinted with author's permission.) + + THE AUTARCHIC CREED + +We of the Old Religion have our own particular compact with our +deities that charges simply, "An it harm none, do as ye will." +And our gods do not despise us for being human but delight in our +celebrations of life and love. We are ageless souls, only for a +while within bodies - merely visitors upon this plane. We are +brothers to the gods and only temporarily cousins to the ape, +and our lives belong to us, not to this world nor to its earthly +governors. We are not doomed to shame and decay; not lost; not +indentured to perish with earthly manifestations; not disposed +to eternal misery for any past or present lapses of courage or +wisdom. We are as children in the school of life who must learn +our lessons, on life at a time, before we graduate. Our lives +span the march of time, striving upward, subordinate only to our +individual probity and growth. + +But in this mortal life, greedy, trivial hierophants and mundane +rulers have perpetrated a fraud upon humanity. They have purloined +for profit and temporal power, our legitimate heritage, and that of +all society, and have substituted for it shame, despair, and fear, +inventing evil deities to terrify and to constrain mankind from the +exercise of his own native conscience. + +Still we take our uncertain portion time and again, joining with the +species on this plane, only to meet with earthly disunity and distress; +only to be told by bogus, uncelestial shepherds that we are deficient +and fundamentally iniquitous; constantly rebuked that our natural +birthright is insubstantial or even sinful, and that we must cleave +to the pious injunctions of reigning mortals, no matter how oppressive, +or suffer beyond measurable time, yearning for some mythical golden +glory just out of reach, but somehow never quite worthy of it. + +That is the apocryphal hell and the fabled satan; they are of mortal +creation; they are now, not in some remote bye-and-bye; and those who +choose to believe in them perpetuate them in this earth. But nevertheless, +by by sublime design, despite narrowness, folly or fear, we all, each +and every one, possess this wonderous legacy: + + that each of us sustains a singular covenant with the cosmic, in that +the soul is and ever was, one with the universe, conducting itself in +concordance with the absolute. And whatever paths it may walk, or +whichever faith it may follow, on sojourn at a time, each shall as a +consequence of that oneness, and attuning with its destiny, eventually +return on its own to its source to again be part of that totality, +atoned, aware and unshackled. + "JUSTIFICUS" diff --git a/religious documents/crn0002a.txt b/religious documents/crn0002a.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7a7225 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/crn0002a.txt @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------- +Copyright 1993 by the Christian Research Institute. +---------------------------------------------------------------- +COPYRIGHT/REPRODUCTION LIMITATIONS: +This data file is the sole property of the Christian Research +Institute. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may +be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation as "freeware," +without charge. All reproductions of this data file must contain +the copyright notice (i.e., "Copyright 1993 by the Christian +Research Institute"). This data file may not be used without the +permission of the Christian Research Institute for resale or the +enhancement of any other product sold. This includes all of its +content with the exception of a few brief quotations not to +exceed more than 500 words. +If you desire to reproduce less than 500 words of this data file +for resale or the enhancement of any other product for resale, +please give the following source credit: Copyright 1993 by the +Christian Research Institute, P.O. Box 500, San Juan Capistrano, +CA 92693. +----------------------------------------------------------------- +"Nostradamus" (an article from the Christian Research Newsletter, +Volume 1: Number 3, 1988) by Elliot Miller and Craig Hawkins. + + The editor of the Christian Research Newsletter is Ron +Rhodes. + +From the RESEARCH NOTES column: +------------- + + In recent weeks, a French seer has become a very common name +in American households. This is primarily a result of an +earthquake that he supposedly predicted to occur in California +during the month of May. But what is the story behind the man who +is sending Californians running for cover? + + Michel Nostradamus was a sixteenth century French astrologer +and physician. His Centuries (an assortment of brief rhymed +prophecies call quatrains), have been interpreted as predictions +of the French Revolution, the Second World War, and many other +events ranging over half a millennium. Nostradamus is perhaps the +most respected occult prophet of all time. + + In Italy, Nostradamus reportedly predicted that Felix Paretti, +a young swine herder who had become a monk, would one day be +Pope. Two years after Nostradamus's death Paretti became Pope +Sixtus V. Many other accurate predictions of events in his own +era are attributed to Nostradamus. + + Nostradamus's more astonishing prophecies, however, are those +that seem to foretell major European events that occurred 200-400 +years after his death. It must be admitted that some of his +predictions do seem to fit certain events well, such as the +flight of Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette from Paris, +their capture in Varennes, and their ultimate execution. However, +most of his predictions are vague and open-ended. As it is +observed in _Man, Myth and Magic - An Illustrated Encyclopedia of +the Supernatural:_ "Generation after generation of Nostradamus +enthusiasts have supposed that the quatrains, no mater how +obscure their contents, must be regarded as genuine prophetic +messages. It is conceivable, however, that Nostradamus composed +them with tongue in cheek, and that he was well aware that there +is an enduring market for prophecies and particularly for veiled +ones." (Vol.15, p.2017). + + The prediction of a giant earthquake to occur in California +actually gets its base from a film about Nostradamus. In the +Orson Welles narrated film "The Man Who Saw Tomorrow," the +details about the prediction are made. + + Nostradamus bases his predictions on the alignment of planets +and constellations particularly Saturn, Capricorn, Jupiter, +Mercury in Taurus, Venus, Cancer, and Virgo. Unfortunately for +his prognostitions, the planets are not lined up according to how +they were predicted to be. + + The possibility of an earthquake occurring in California +around the time of Nostradamus's prediction is likely. The +primary reason though is that California is earthquake country. +Particularly over the past several months, earthquakes have been +happening on a regular basis. + + Nostradamus was a Roman Catholic of Jewish descent, but it is +clear that he did not foretell events through the biblical gift +of prophecy (I Cor. 12:10). He relied heavily upon horoscopes and +other occult methods of divination and so we must say if any +supernatural power was responsible for his accuracy, that power +was not of God (Deut. 18:9-14). + + The Bible does not teach that Satan has a full knowledge of +the future. However, it is conceivable that through his superior +intelligence he could accurately predict certain events, or, for +that matter, exert his power over man to cause previously +predicted events to come to pass. This could serve Satan's +purposes by leading some people to embrace occultism because it +_appears_ to really "work." + +End of document, CRN0002A.TXT (original CRI file name), +"Nostradamus" +release A, March 9, 1993 +R. Poll, CRI +(A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in +the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.) + +----------------------------------------------------------------- +YOURS FOR THE ASKING + +The Christian Research Institute (CRI) -- founded in 1960 by the +late Dr. Walter R. Martin -- is a clearing house for current, in- +depth information on new religious movements and aberrant +Christian teachings. We provide well-reasoned, carefully- +researched answers to concepts and ideas that challenge orthodox +Christianity. + +Did you know that CRI has a wealth of information on various +topics that is yours for the asking? We offer a wide variety of +articles and fact sheets free of charge. Write us today for +information on these or other topics. Our first-rate research +staff will do everything possible to help you. + +Christian Research Institute +P.O. Box 500 +San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693 +(714) 855-9926 + +----------------------------------------------------------------- +(C) Copyright 1993 by the Christian Research Institute. CRI +files are available for downloading from Christian BBS Abba II: +619-487-7746 (up to 14,400 baud). Look for the CRI File Area or +search for keyword "CRI". For a list of CRI files officially +released by the Christian Research Institute, download the file +CRIFILES.TXT. Information about new releases can be found in the +Abba II Conference on CRI Files. +----------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/crn0006a.txt b/religious documents/crn0006a.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..04aa4e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/crn0006a.txt @@ -0,0 +1,195 @@ +---------------------------------------------------------------- +Copyright 1993 by the Christian Research Institute. +---------------------------------------------------------------- +COPYRIGHT/REPRODUCTION LIMITATIONS: +This data file is the sole property of the Christian Research +Institute. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may +be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation as "freeware," +without charge. All reproductions of this data file must contain +the copyright notice (i.e., "Copyright 1993 by the Christian +Research Institute"). This data file may not be used without the +permission of the Christian Research Institute for resale or the +enhancement of any other product sold. This includes all of its +content with the exception of a few brief quotations not to +exceed more than 500 words. + +If you desire to reproduce less than 500 words of this data file +for resale or the enhancement of any other product for resale, +please give the following source credit: Copyright 1993 by the +Christian Research Institute, P.O. Box 500-TC, San Juan +Capistrano, CA 92693. +----------------------------------------------------------------- + +"How 'New Age' is New Age Music?" (an article from the +Christian Research Newsletter, Volume 2: Number 1, 1989) +by Elliot Miller. + + The editor of the Christian Research Newsletter is Ron +Rhodes. + +From the RESEARCH NOTES column: +------------- + + There can be no disputing that the increasingly popular +and profitable "New Age music" has roots in the New Age +movement -- the identical names are not a coincidence. + + The trend began with jazz luminaries like Paul Horn and +John Fahey seeking to create music especially conducive to +New Age spirituality. Then, as recounted by New Age +seminar leader and entrepreneur Dick Sutphen,in the latter +1970s Steven Halpern created a "soothing music that +was...great for visualization. Structured on a pentatonic +scale, there was no tension, no resolve, and it inspired +without distracting." ("The Emergence of New Age Music," +_Self-Help Update_, issue 29, 14.) Halpern, who holds a +Master's degree in the psychology of music, was +deliberately attempting to facilitate the development of +"higher" levels of consciousness. + + This has remained a central goal for many New Age +musicians today. Even Swiss harpist Andreas Vollenweider, +whose records have sold in the millions, explains that the +purpose of the tranquil sound is to "build a bridge +between the conscious and the subconscious. We have to +somehow excite our spirituality." (Bill Barol with Mark D. +Uehling and George Raine, "Muzak for a New Age," +_Newsweek_, 13 May 1985, 68.) + + For many involved in this burgeoning field, however, +the primary incentives appear to be artistic expression +and/or financial gain. Windham Hill, the leading New Age +label, has in 10 years grown into a $21 million record +company. Its artists include such popular names as George +Winston and Shadowfax. While strongly expressing their +commitment to creative over monetary values, they +explicitly deny any commitment to the New Age movement. +Correspondingly, they do not pursue the more "hard-core" +New Age music (which Sutphen calls "Inner Harmony New Age +Music") that is used as background for meditation and +healing sessions. Instead, they have become associated +with "New Age jazz," a progressive blend of jazz, rock, +folk, and other influen- ces. + + It is this jazz-oriented form of New Age music, along +with the electronic sound associated with names like +Vangelis (_Chariots of Fire_) and Tangerine Dream, that is +played on most "New Age" radio stations. Prominent among +these is KTWV, Los Angeles ("The Wave"), which is syndicating +its programming nationwide. + + The common thread that unites these otherwise diverse +forms of New Age music is supposed to be _feeling_ -- +listening to them generates a peaceful and uplifting mood. + + How dangerous is New Age music, if at all? The +primary means for conveying spiritual influences through +music is words. Since most New Age music is nonverbal, +except for song titles, this opportunity rarely exists. + + When it comes to melodies and rhythms, there is much +greater possibility than with words for the original +intention to become diffused in the medium. Thus, while +the composer may intend to elicit a particular mystical +mood, the noninitiate listener simply becomes more +relaxed. I believe this would be the case with most +"inner harmony" New Age music. + + After all, even when New Agers are specifically +attempting to induce altered states of consciousness +through their music, much of their applied theory is based +on New Age presuppositions which Christians would not be +inclined to accept. These include belief in the +correspondence of particular sound frequencies with more +or less mystical levels of consciousness, and an equation +of certain relaxed or emotional states with mystical +states. In any case, by and large only the inner harmony +school appears to be seriously attempting such an effect. + + The strongest potential for a truly _New Age_ musician +to use his music for the New Age cause would lie in live +performances. He could evangelize between tunes, or lead +the group in a medita- tion or visualization. For +example, Hawaiian New Age musician Robert Aeolus Myers +likes to share the spiritual basis behind his music with +his audiences. "I just feel like there's a personal +responsibility to allow people the opportunity for +awakening," he explains. (Mike Gordon, "The New Age of +Music," _Honolulu Star-Bulletin_, 5 Nov. 1987.) + + Additionally, some New Age melodies are so obviously +patterned after familiar mystical or meditative rhythms +(e.g., the mystical refrain "om") that their pagan +associations are inescapable. Listening to such music for +entertainment or relaxation could easily result in someone +being stumbled -- either the listener or another believer +(see 1 Cor. 8). + + Although these are valid concerns, I must say that I +have listened extensively to the Southern California New +Age stations, and have found almost nothing objectionable +(though this does not exonerate _all_ New Age stations +_everywhere_. Some are clearly New Age in every sense of +the word). It would seem to me that if the discerning +Christian remains alert to the possibility of undesirable +influences occasionally coming through, he or she could +listen to the progressive varieties of New Age music, in +moderation, without ill effect. + + Given the heavily mystical orientation of inner harmony +New Age music, I would advise against the Christian going +out of his or her way to listen to it. As a general +practice, it is not wise to passively submit to the +influences of one who is seeking by those influences to +produce an unchristian effect. But if such music happens +to be playing within earshot (e.g., a relative or fellow +worker is listening to it), the likelihood of being +adversely affected is slight. And even then it would +probably have more to do with the Christian's _perception_ +of the music (e.g., associating it with his or her past as +a New Ager) than any hypnotic or occultic power in the +music itself. +------------- +End of document, CRN0006A.TXT (original CRI file name), +"How 'New Age' is New Age Music?" +release A, May 28, 1993 +R. Poll, CRI +(A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in +the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.) +----------------------------------------------------------------- +YOURS FOR THE ASKING + +The Christian Research Institute (CRI) -- founded in 1960 +by the late Dr. Walter R. Martin -- is a clearing house +for current, in- depth information on new religious +movements and aberrant Christian teachings. We provide +well-reasoned, carefully- researched answers to concepts +and ideas that challenge orthodox Christianity. + +Did you know that CRI has a wealth of information on +various topics that is yours for the asking? We offer a +wide variety of articles and fact sheets free of charge. +Our informative newsletter is freely available upon +request as well. Write or call us today for information +on topics of interest to you. Our first-rate staff will +do everything possible to help you. + +Christian Research Institute +P.O. Box 500-TC +San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693 +(714) 855-9926 + +Additional CRI files are available from Christian BBS +Abba II: 619-487-7746 +-------------------------------------------------------- +---------------------------------------------------------- +CHRISTIAN BBS ABBA II 619-487-7746 + +- Specializing in Apologetics - Information about Cults +- Bible Studies & Discussions - Daily News from Israel +- Home of Christian Press Report - Active Message Areas +- High-Quality Christian Files - Informative Discussions + ++ Files and Programs from the Christian Research Institute +---------------------------------------------------------- + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/crone.txt b/religious documents/crone.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..674f7d5 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/crone.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/crossroa.txt b/religious documents/crossroa.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..83e25bc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/crossroa.txt @@ -0,0 +1,406 @@ + PAGANISM AT THE CROSSROADS + +by Skytoucher + + These are tricky and dangerous times. Paganism has grown in +size to the point where we no longer enjoy the luxury of +obscurity. We now face a choice that all initiatory paths face +at some time in their development; whether to remain a viable +initiatory path, and if so under what circumstances; or to +devolve into a mere religion. + I'd better backtrack -- some readers may not understand what +an initiatory path is or how it differs from a religion. Others +may think paganism is a religion already, and wonder what I mean +by suggesting it is or could be something else. + A defense often used against fundamentalist Christians and +others who attack paganism on a religious basis is to say "We are +not like you, only different in a few not-so-important ways. We +are a religion, like you, another belief system, harmless, +ordinary. We worship the Earth, the Goddess, the same way you +worship your abstract God. You should extend tolerance to us for +the same reason you extend it to Muslims or Buddhists or +Catholics or Jews. When you single us out as something weird, +you are exhibiting hysterical paranoia." It's an effective +defense, but somewhat disingenuous. + We are different. We aren't just a religion. We are at +present, and in my view should try to remain, a path of +initiation. It may be inevitable that a religion grow up around +us. It may even be desirable to employ such a religion as a +cloak, or a doorway, to both. But a Pagan religion is also a +threat to the Pagan path of initiation. We need to ensure that +the growth, if it occurs, is that of a tree from a seed, not of a +pearl from a grain of sand. + A tree produces more seeds. + A pearl only hide the sand to save the oyster from +discomfort. + What is an initiatory path? And what, then, is initiation? + We touch here upon a word badly misunderstood by many +Pagans. Initiation is one thing; an initiation ritual is +another. A person is not an initiate, in the sense I mean here, +just because he or she has passed through an initiation ritual. +Initiation is a personal experience in which one becomes aware of +mysteries; realities that were previously hidden and which cannot +be communicated by one person to another in words or symbols, but +must be experienced directly, firsthand. This last point is +crucial. One finds "mysteries" communicated in coven initiations +or even at festivals, but these are only hidden meanings of +symbols and tools used in the Craft, or of stories told about the +Gods. The fact that they can be communicated makes them not true +mysteries, only secrets. + A body of teaching, practice, and ritual which facilitates +initiation is an initiatory path. Most religions start out as +paths of initiation. + Religion tends to be conservative. Initiation, however, is +always revolutionary. + Initiation transforms a person's life, bringing inner peace, +greater insight into the workings of fate, and awareness of the +connections linking all things, as well as magical power. If it +were a commonplace event, if people went through initiation as +surely as they go through puberty, we would have a far different +and better world. + Even if the circle of initiates included a significant +minority of the population, the magical effect of such a number +of altered minds on the world would be profound and positive. + Of course, this very fact means that initiatory paths will +be opposed by those interests, both human and non-human, that are +opposed to positive change. The opposition is not really a +conspiracy; it seems more than an automatic reaction, a law of +nature. + Initiation is not an instantaneous event, but one that +occurs through years of effort and devotion. It seems likely +that there is no end to the process, and that the idea of there +"fully enlightened being" is a peculiar Oriental fantasy. There +are times, it is true, when revelation comes in a flash like +lightning, but such moments are exclamation marks punctuating a +story that unfolds chapter by chapter. + Many tools and methods for achieving initiation have evolved +over the ages. Some are intellectual, aiming to expand +consciousness through thought: Vedanta and the Caballah come to +mind as among the most impressive. Others are ritual or +devotional; Bakhti Yoga, chanting the names of the Gods, drawing +down the Moon, the meditations of the monastics. Some are also +physical: Hatha Yoga, Sufi dancing, some forms of martial art. +Some aim at expanding consciousness directly by stretching it to +its limits; meditation, Raja Yoga, guided visualizations, vision +quest. Then there are sex magic, drugs, drumming, austerities, +use of talismans, self-discipline, and so on. Most of these +techniques evolved outside a pagan context, but they are +amendable to incorporation in a pagan framework. Initiation +rituals, of course, are another method, but they are seldom +sufficient by themselves. + Initiates can be found into the context of any religion, +including those least similar to Neopaganism. St. Francis of +Assisi was an initiate, and many a Sufi and Caballist, Buddhist +and Yogi, Taoist and shaman. A modern Neopagan initiate has far +more in common with them than with an illiterate, superstitious +pagan of the Roman Empire, gobbling the flesh of sacrificed +animals while contemplating how to backstab his competitors. All +initiates of all paths have a common heart; it is religions, +which circle the periphery of the sacred, that differ. + But, while Christian, Jewish and Muslim initiates do exist, +the established religions don't make it easy. For every +illuminated Catholic saint, there are hundreds of burned +heretics. Indeed, many post-Constantinian saints escaped burning +themselves only by miracles greater than those for which they +were canonized. Burning is passe nowadays but condemnation for +heresy is not, and thrives as well in most Protestant +denominations. So bound about with the fetters of faith is the +Christian that initiation is virtually impossible, except for +their boldest and best minds. + This is no accident. + The tragedy of Christianity is that it began so well and +decayed so quickly into such a parody of its beginnings. This is +a recurring phenomenon. Again and again, the initiatory message +has presented itself in some new form and met with some success, +only to be hidden in a maze of illusions, and crusted over with +barriers and restrictions. There are always counterattacks from +outside the new path, from established religions, but the truly +effective counterattacks come from within, so that what began as +a bright new hope becomes a mere religion. The priests, the +figures in authority, forge an instrument for the furtherance of +their own authority, to which genuine initiation is a serious +threat. The initiatory impulse is carefully bled off into +harmless channels, and all magic outside those channels is +ruthlessly suppressed. + There is a great deal of magic in Christian monastic orders, +and more still in Hindu and Buddhist ashrams, or wielded by +wandering saddhus. But these illuminated souls, both Western and +Eastern, are sworn to poverty, chastity, humility. Many do not +reproduce, ensuring that, if there is a genetic component to +magic, it will be weakened by removing its best practitioners +from the gene pool. Too, in renouncing the world, they ensure +that their spiritual insight will play a small role shaping +events. In contrast, a few secret initiatory paths remain active +and true to their original mission. These paths, which include +Hermeticism, the Caballah, surviving shamanic traditions, and a +few branches of Sufism, have made themselves non-threatening in a +different way. They continue to live in the world and to learn +and teach practical as well as spiritual magic, but in such tiny +numbers and in so furtive a fashion that they hold little promise +of genuine large-scale transformation. There is not really +anything wrong with this; such secret orders have acted over the +centuries to preserve the Mysteries, not to spread them. Without +them, efforts to break the chains on a large scale would be to no +avail. But Paganism is different. + Neopaganism is unique--at this time, though not +historically--in that it is a genuine initiatory path that has +grown large. Moreover, in its diversity and flexibility, its +protean and progressive nature, it promises to incorporate all of +the virtues of the other surviving paths. It may not be the most +advanced, the most powerful, or the most aesthetically refined, +but these characteristics can all be absorbed from the smaller +paths which possess them, for Paganism is an all-gobbling magical +amoeba, sucking up the mythos, methods, and knowledge of every +other path in existence. Once again, an initiatory path +threatens to break out and make some changes in reality. + On schedule, opposition has begun to arise. + As always, some of the opposition is from the outside, but +I don't think we need to be concerned about that. A strain of +paranoia is built into our origin myths and traditions, and is +always a greater danger than the persecution we fear. The +external opposition has seldom been very effective against any +path. Some right-wing Christians are beginning to engage in +Witch-hunting of a relatively genteel sort, mostly involving +propaganda. However, propaganda is legitimate (they have a right +to express their opinions about what we do, as we have the right +to speak in counterpoint.) There may be more serious +difficulties, even occasional violence, but the Burning Times are +gone for good, barring a complete collapse of civilization. We +have more important things to worry about within our own ranks. + The rapid increase in our numbers in the last few decades +means there are many newcomers. Newcomers are ripe for +exploitation, both monetary and political, and both have begun to +occur. The first fills me with amusement and outrage. The +second is more alarming. + There seems to be a growing desire in some quarters to +commercialize Neopaganism and profit from it. That's only +natural, but when crystal athames go for $1,400 and classes are +taught in return for a pledge of a percentage of the students' +income in perpetuity, somebody is getting fleeced. This is bad +enough, but not nearly as bad as what might happen in reaction. +Better a crowd of poorer and wiser novices, the hucksters filling +the role of the Dweller on the Threshold, than a Paganism reduced +from a path of initiation to a mere religion, its bright promise +gone dull, as have so many others. + The seeds of this development lie chiefly in individuals we +might call Pagan politicians, and in our response to them. They +may not be high initiates or powerful magicians, but they are +skillful at organizing, they like to strike poses in public, and +they know how to work the media. Sometimes they appear on +television to say "This is what Paganism is. This is what +Witchcraft is," self-appointed spokespersons for the entire Pagan +community. Their power over the Craft may be small, but it could +easily grow as the Craft grows, as they sink their hooks into +more and more beginners. + An experienced initiate is unlikely to be moved by a picture +on television, or a story in the newspaper. It is otherwise for +a novice. When first appraising something, it is the surface one +sees. And there are two dangers in this trend; First, that +insightful, intuitive, independent people, the kind who would +make good Witches, maybe turned off by the media spectacle +(analogy: What is your reaction to the words "New Age?".) +Secondly, that those who are not repelled may develop a kind of +mundane "Neopaganism," a mere religion, based as other religions +are on faith, dogma, and prescribed observances, conservative (in +the sense of resisting progress, not of voting Republican) and +anti-initiatory. There may be points in common between it and us +(such as an environmental ethic or "worship" (how I despise that +word!) of a Goddess), as a baboon might wear a tuxedo, but the +heart and soul would be gone. Anyone who sought initiation would +have to pass the gauntlet of this other paganism first and then +unlearn this religion to approach the new path. Few could be +expected to do so. + It is important to recognize these politicos for what they +are. They are our would-be clergy who, like Christian priests, +Muslim mullah and Jewish rabbis, would be religious leaders but, +with rare exceptions, no initiates. Their authority would derive +from knowledge of accepted doctrines and from political acumen, +rather than spiritual awareness. Pagan pontiff pretenders are +not necessarily malevolent, but they do not comprehend the +purpose of initiation or the fundamental ways in which Paganism +differs, not just from this or that religion, from all religions. +Consequently, they do not understand that priests, ministers, +rabbis, and so forth are not good role models for Pagan spiritual +leaders, even if allowances are made for differing value systems. +Paganism, as currently practiced, is not simply a different +religion, but a different category of thing altogether. Not +only does it not suffer without an organization comparable to +that of established religions, but creating such an organization +may bury us. + The bishops who created the Catholic Church were not +particularly evil men. But they were misguided, and the result +of their labor was disastrous. Yet some movement on this road is +inevitable. It is the fruit of growth, a sign that a path of +initiation has matured into a serious threat to the status quo. +It represents a counterattack by the forces of inertia. + Let's not be unduly alarmist. We are not in immediate +danger, but the clouds can be seen on the horizon, and we need to +prepare ourselves, and consider whether anything can be done to +avoid the usual fate of an initiatory path at the crossroads. +All our predecessors, on reaching this juncture, have taken the +wrong turning. But we have ;advantages former initiatory paths +lacked. That no one has succeeded up to now is not so imposing +an obstacle as it might seem. + One of our advantages is the First Amendment to the United +States Constitution and similar provisions, in fact and tradition +if not law, guaranteeing religious liberty in all Western +democracies. It is literally impossible for a Pagan Catholic +Church, even if one comes into existence, to exile or execute +dissident Pagans, as was done to dissident Christians after the +Council of Nicaea. It is unlikely that any Pagan organization, +or that of any other religion, could get a modern Western +government do its dirty work to any significant degree. Overt +persecution is reduced from a terror to a nuisance. That's no +small achievement. + Another advantage is modern information technology. +Communication of ideas is now so easy, and suppression of them so +difficult, that to contain or channel or eliminate the initiatory +message will be harder than ever before, and may be impossible. +Of course, the downside of this development is the proliferation +of blatant nonsense. But I think that is an acceptable price. +Better the truth be heard whispering through shouted lies and +bellowed folly than that it not be heard at all. + The third, subtlest and possibly the greatest advantage we +have over our predecessors is science. + By science I do not mean any particular bit of knowledge +which has been uncovered by scientists, although all that is +useful as well. I mean the attitudes of science. I mean the +methods of science. Above all, I mean the vision of science. + Thanks to science, we no longer think of all knowledge as +being handed down to us from the past. Thanks to science, we can +consider magic not only in its sacred and spiritual and aesthetic +dimensions--though these are certainly important--but in its +technical dimensions as well, as seek the laws and principles +that underpin magic, analogous to the laws of physics that +underpin technology. + Best of all: Thanks to science, we are not limited to what +we know today. We understand that even our best picture of +reality is only an approximation, that we will have a better +picture tomorrow. This gift promises to upset the creeping +authoritarianism that has ruined so many paths of initiation and +created so many religions. + These are potent advantages. I believe they allow us the +possibility of success. But not the certainty. As we approach +the crossroads, there are a number of things that need doing. +Some of these steps are simply a matter of keeping our attitudes +in the right places. Others involve research, development, and +artistic creation. Others still involve magical tasks. We need +to understand that modern Paganism, though built on the past, is +not limited by it, that we are capable of improving on our +ancestor's wisdom--even to the extent that their wisdom is not a +product of our own romantic imagination, which is large measure +it is. We need to recognize, once and for all, and say so, that +our origin myths are just that: Wicca is not a survival from the +pre-Christian past, but an eclectic/creative construct meant to +imitate what such a survival should ideally be. Its resemblance, +and that of Neopaganism in general, to ancient paganism in any of +its multitude of forms is slight and ultimately besides the +point. + We need to do these things because they will allow us to +take the next step, which is to expand Paganism, as a path of +initiation, to its potentia. We cannot do that so long as we are +locked into an old model--real or romanticized. The initiatory +paths of the past have failed. Therefore, we need something +better than what has gone before. We can take the essentials of +Neopaganism, the broad strokes of its mythology and ritual, as a +starting point, but we must go beyond that start. + First, we need to penetrate beneath the level of religious +symbolism to what might be called the physics of magic, the nuts +and bolts and laws of nature that account for what magic does and +is. Next to the initiatory experience itself, which can never be +communicated or replaced by anything--that point cannot be +emphasized too much or too often--the physics of magic would be +the deepest level of understanding, accounting for all forms of +symbolic knowledge. I have developed on system of laws which I +believe to be workable. (An account of those laws will appear in +an upcoming issue of Enchante.) It is the duty of every +scientifically-minded reader to rip them apart as best as +possible, to test them, and improve on them. + Secondly, we need to improve our tool chest of spiritual +methods. Much of the work has already been done by initiates +outside Paganism. All we have to do is translate it and +incorporate it within our own framework. At the same time, an +expanded and improved body of poetic ritual would be useful. +These things have already begun to happen, but the pace should be +accelerated. A common recognition of both the possibility and +the need would be a valid step. We must acknowledge that Yoga +can meditate us into a corner, that the Caballah theorizes rings +around us, and that any good shamanic lineage works magic to put +us to shame. We must also insist that Paganism has advantages +over these that should not be surrendered, and work to +incorporate what other paths can teach us into our own framework. + These accomplishments would serve to strengthen and fortify +the initiatory path of Paganism. It will need all the strength +it can get if it is to resist turning into a religion. But there +are other things that need doing as well, on both the +communicative and magical fronts. + Those of us with active pens must communicate the idea of an +initiatory path that lies within the mythical and ritual +structure of the Pagan religion, as it out to and once did lie +within all religions. There is, at present, no established Pagan +doctrine or dogma, no established pagan clergy, and no +established Pagan pantheon, and this also must be made clear. + The magical side of the battle may be the most important +one. Here, the guiding principle should be a clear visualization +of what we want Paganism to be. + Should exoteric Pagan religions grow up around the +initiatory core, then, ideally, we would want the priest/esse/s +of this religion to be initiates. But this may not be +practicable. First, many of us are unsuited for or uninterested +in the role of ministering to those who are unready for +initiation. Second, there may be too many newcomers to Paganism +(by some estimates the fastest-growing religion in North America) +and too few initiates. + I believe we could agree on two goals; a viable and visible +initiatory tradition must be maintained within the religion and +no exoteric priesthood must be allowed to gain preeminence over +the path. To those ends, then, the following magical workings +are suggested. + Weave the Net. There is a tenuous telepathic link among all +initiates. This can be invoked as part of the opening of any +major magical work, which will strengthen both the work and the +net. Some covens and individuals already do this. Reach out the +heart's fiery hand and feel the love of one another, both within +the coven and beyond it, setting aside the quarrels of the mind, +poles of a tipi each supporting each, moving faster, faster, +circles made of love. In this way, a synergistic entity, a +collective consciousness, may be generated, incorporating all our +diversity yet stronger than any of us alone. This consciousness +can be invoked like any deity, and can be a guide and +empowerment. We can give it names; there will be private names +known to individual covens or solitaries, but among us all the +name is Love. + Shine like a Beacon. Another working, which I feel is +appropriate to a Full Moon ritual, is one to avoid the light- +under-a-bushel syndrome, to illuminate all minds equipped with +eyes to see. The metaphor of a lighthouse beacon seems +appropriate; we can visualize this light shining brightly, +overpowering any attempt to hide it, so that truth cannot be +hidden from those able to understand it, initiation cannot be +denies to those capable of attaining it. + Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom; or, Divide and Rule. Assume +that a mundane Paganism must arise; above all we must not allow +any one sect or denomination of the Pagan religion to achieve +preeminence over the others. It doesn't matter how much we like +or dislike what the leaders of this or that sect are saying. Any +Pagan doctrine will always be wrong, even if it's right, because +initiation cannot be conveyed in words or symbols. We can, +through our magic, encourage diversity and creativity in the +ranks of newcomers and noninitiate leaders, preferring chaos to +conformity, and subtly bend the path of discourse so that it +leads toward initiation rather than away from it. We must avoid +the temptation to encourage a unified, strong Paganism, and that +temptation will arise! A fractious, splintered, disorganized, +and confusingly multi-headed Paganism may be somewhat +embarrassing when it appears on network news or in Time magazine. +But if the initiatory tradition is clearly visible within, we +will be far better served by chaos than by an order which serves +its own purposes, not ours. + I believe--certainly I hope--that these steps can preserve +the Neopagan path of initiation, prevent its burial under the +mantle of religion, and permit what has never before happened: +genuine, large-scale, beyond-the-point-of-no-return breakout of +the Mysteries, leading to the transformation of human culture and +this planet--assuming, of course, that civilization survives the +crisis of the coming years. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/crstexps.txt b/religious documents/crstexps.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9791a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/crstexps.txt @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ + CHRISTIANITY + EXPOSED + + ORDER OF THE + LEFT-HAND PATH + + "In Christianity the instincts of the subjugated and the oppressed +come into the foreground: it is the lowest classes which seek their +salvation in it. Here the casuistic business of sin, self-criticism, +conscience-inquisition is practised as a specific against boredom; here an +emotional attitude towards a power called 'God' is kept constantly alive +(through prayer); here the highest things are considered unachievable, +gifts, 'grace'. Here also public openness is also lacking; the +hole-and-corner, the dark chamber is Christianity. Here the body is +despised, hygiene repudiated as sensuality; the Church even resists +cleanliness (the first measure taken by the Christians after the expulsion +of the Moors was the closure of the public baths of which Cordova alone +possessed 270). A certain sense of cruelty towards oneself and others is +Christian; hatred of those who think differently; the will to persecute. +Mortal hostility against the masters of the earth, against the 'noble', +that is also Christian. Hatred of mind, of pride, courage, freedom, +libertinage of mind, is Christian; hatred of the sense, of the joy of the +senses, of joy in general is Christian..." - Friedrich Nietzsche. + + * * * + + JEHOVAH: THE TYRANT-GOD + + The Judaeo-Christians' own Bible shows Jehovah, their god, to be a +psychotic megalomaniac. + One of Jehovah's first actions towards mankind was to attempt to +deny his new creation wisdom, lest his position as slavemaster be +threatened. (Gen. 2:16-17, 3:1-7). + Jehovah is a god whose bloodlust against humanity can't be +satisfied until the Apocalypse described by John in The Revelation destroys +most of mankind and leaves Jehovah and Jesus enthroned as world tyrants +above remnant. + From his rejection of the fruit offering of Cain in favour of the +blood sacrifice of Abel (Gen. 4:3-5) until the final Apocalypse, when +blood will flow from 'the winepress of the wrath of God' (Rev. 14:19-20) +the hands of Jehovah are dripping with blood. + + * * * + + OLD TESTAMENT PATRIARCHS & PROPHETS + + The Old Testament makes it clear that the patriarchs and prophets +chosen by Jehovah to be revered by mankind as 'holy' are nothing but the +lowest scum. + +ABRAHAM pimps his wife off as a whore onto Pharaoh and King Abimelech, by +claiming she is his sister; a trick with Jehovah acting as a criminal +accomplice, which gains him much loot. (Gen. 12, 20). + +LOT, Abraham's nephew, offers his two daughters to a mob when they threaten +to homosexually rape two angels. (Gen. 19:8). + +DAVID commits adultery with Bathsheba then arranges for her husband to be +killed in battle. (Sam. II-11). + +ELISHA, successor to Elijah as Jehovah's great prophet. Whilst travelling +to Bethel he is teased by a large group of little children about his +baldness. The prophet curses them in the name of Jehovah, and two +she-bears come out of the woods and tear 42 of them. (II Kings 2:23-24). + + * * * + + JESUS + + Jesus merciful and loving is the image portrayed of him by the +Christian churches. The New Testament, however, shows him to be just as +psychotic and megalomaniacal as his alleged father Jehovah. This is not +surprising since, (according to Matt. 1:1) he comes from the tainted +lineage of Abraham, David and other criminals. + While he demands of his followers that they remain totally +submissive in relation to their own enemies (Sermon on the Mount, Matt. +5-7) Jesus commands that those who do not submit to his reign be brought +before him and slain. (Luke 19:27). + Jesus declares that all those who refuse to accept his divinity +shall be damned. (Mark 16:16). What this damnation shall be is made +clear: 'everlasting fire.' (Matt. 25:41). + Jesus' megalomania gets out of hand when he describes the day when +he will "come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he +sit upon the throne of his glory." (Matt. 25:31). + + * * * + + THE FINAL HOLY BLOOD-ORGY + + It is appropriate that the Judaeo-Christian Bible should end with +an orgy of bloodlust against Jehovah's long-suffering human creation. + In The Revelation we read of the torment of fire and brimstone upon +most of mankind, in the presence of a sadistic Jesus and his angels. (Rev. +14:10-11). + Jesus will then reign over the earth for 1000 years, after which he +finds it inexplicably necessary to again slaughter much of humanity by a +colossal war. (Rev. 20:6). He and Jehovah will then sit up thrones, +attended by servants, within a city built of precious stones: an Oriental +despot's fantasy! (Rev. 21-22). + + * * * + + THE LEGACY + + Wherever Judaeo-Christianity has exerted influence it has ravaged +mankind morally, intellectually and physically. + Christianity has sought to impose limitations upon the mind. +Ignorance is elevated to a holy state. Paul declares: "For wisdom of this +world is foolishness to God." (I Cor. 3:19). + This is the mentality which gave history the Dark Ages, the +Inquisition, book-burning, a legacy of dark ignorance which continues to +have its impact today. + It is the same mentality which even now motivates 'concerned +Christian parents' to burn books containing material far less 'immoral' +than the chronicle of rape, murder and pillage contained in their own +Bible. + It is Christianity which has soured relations between the sexes +with its commandments for the subjugation of women. "Wives must submit +yourselves to your husbands"; "But I shall suffer not a woman to teach, not +to usurp authority over man", writes the neurotic Paul. How different this +is to the attitude of pre-Christian Europe, which regarded women as +prophetesses. + The Judaeo-Christian dogma has been nothing but a curse upon +mankind. Now, as we strive to free ourselves from this plague, may it be +humanity's turn to curse the tyrant-god, the demented Nazarene, and their +whole noxious creed. + + * * * + +For a complete refutation of the Judaeo-Christian creed, read: +ANTI-CHRIST: THE BIBLE RECONSIDERED +Over 80 references cited, written by an ex-Christian priest. +$3.00 Overseas add $2.00 postage +Cheques & Money Orders payable to +"Realist Publications". +Write: Order of the Left-Hand Path +Box 38-262 Petone, New Zealand. + + * - * - * + + Typed in by Graeme Wilson (O.L.H.P.) + +If you want more info on any OLHP productions or want more info on +Satanism, contact me via the following computer networks: + + Fidonet: 3:770/510 + (Sword of Orion BBS, ph: +64 0-3-477-4541, 2400 baud) + Usenet: fenris@otago.ac.nz + Graeme.Wilson@f510.n770.z3.fidonet.org + +Also I may be contacted on other NZ BBS's: + + Alternative Reality: +64 0-3-471-0414 (14.4k baud) + Southern Lights: +64 0-3-455-6016 (14.4k baud) + The Left Hand Path: +64 0-3-454-5763 (2400 baud - soon 14.4k, my BBS) + Bad Dreams BBS: +64 0-9-528-3577 (leave message to 'Lucifer') + +If you wish to contact me via mail to swap texts, ideas, etc. then write +to: + + Graeme Wilson + 129 Scott Street + Waverley + Dunedin + South Island + New Zealand diff --git a/religious documents/csad.txt b/religious documents/csad.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34f3999 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/csad.txt @@ -0,0 +1,111 @@ + +CHURCHES SHIFT ABUSE DEFENSES +Holding Groups Responsible 'violates religious freedom' + +By Virginia Culver + +Attorneys for three local church organizations that recently lost court +cases involving sexual misconduct by clergyclaim that holding churhces +accountable for ministers' conduct robs them of their religious freedom. + +In "friend of the court" briefs filed this month with the US Supreme +Court, attorneys in two Denver United Methodist cases and a third +involving Denver's Bear Valley Church of Christ say lower-cour rulings +making curches liable for ministers' actions violate the First Amendment +by restricting the churches "free exercise of religion". + +The attorneys said that telling churches how to "select, assign, supervise +and discipline clergy, and how religious organizations may conduct their +administration and how a clergy person does pastoral counseling" violates +the First Amendment. + +Questioning how churches operate "directly interferes with the +institutions' free exercise of religion," the attorneys charge. + +The legal arguments were filed in defense of the Colorado Episcopal +Diocese and its appeal of a sexual misco9nduct case. In that case, the +diocese is appealing to the US Court of Appeals a $728,000 udgment to Mary +Moses Tenantry. She alleged that a sexual relatinship with her priest, +the Rev. Paul Robinson, cause her extreme, psychological and spritual +harm. + +Tenantry and Robinson became involved when he was an assoicate past of St. +Philip and St. James Episcopal Church in southwest Denver. + +A jury awarded her $1.2 million from the diocese in 1991. The diocese +appeled that decision to the Colorado Supreme Court, which reduced the +judgment to $728,000. + +The United Methodist cases, both this year, involved Dianne R. Winkler of +Aurora and Christa Bohrer of Denver. + +Winkler was awarded more than $163,000 in January by a Denver District +Court jury in her civil suit against the Rev. Glenn Chambers, former +pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in southeast Denver. She alleged +sexual harassment. Chambers and the church appealed the verdict to the +Colorado Court of Appeals this month. + +Bohrer was awarded more than $700,000 in her civil suit in Denver District +against former minister Daniel DeHart and the United Methodist Annual +Conference (the equivolent of a diocese). She alleged DeHart seduced her +into a sexual relationship when she was 13 and he was youth minister at +First Methodist Church in Greeley. + +In the Church of Chirst suit in 1992, a Dever woman and her son were +awarded $450,000 by a Denver Distric Court jury. The woman, who son was a +minor at the time, claimed the minister, Homer Wolfe, inappropriately +massaged and fondled him during counseling sessions for five years. That +case is before the Colorado Court of Appeals. + +In all three judgements, juries concluded church officials failed to +properly screen, hire anbd supervise the ministers. All three juries also +ordered the church or conference to pay at least half the damages. + +Friend of the court briefs are filed by parties who stand to be materially +affected by the outcome of a pending decision--in this case, the high +court's decision about whether to review the Tenantry case. In their +briefs, the church attorneys threaten to appeal their judgments--to the US +Court of lAppeals, if necessary. + +But an expert in constitutional law at the University of Dever said he +doubts the First Amendment claims will get anywhere. + +Stephen Pepper, BU law professor, said for the goverment to say how a +relgious chooses it rabbi or priest "gets into the freedom of relgion." + +Religious groups do have the right to the free exercise of their +religion, he said, in all matters of administration, "but if your +minister hurts someone, you'll have to pay." said Pepper. + +He called the First Amendment defense "a live issue" that has been used in +other church cases, particularly those involving discrimination. "It's +kind of a knee-jerk defense." + +"But it's pretty hard to defend agaisnst statutory rape and sexual +harassment," he said. + +The attorneys filing the friend of the court briefs are Neil Quigley, who +represented the United Methodists in the Bohrer and Winkler cases and the +Church of Christ in the third case; and Jim Johnson, attorney for HOmer +Wolfe. + +The attorneys say in the briefs that they have been "involved in many +lawsuits in Colorado for almost ten years where religious institutions +have had claims against them for sexual improprieties." + +Devern attorney Joyce Seelen, who represented Tenantry, Winkler, Bohrer and +the woman who sued on behalf of her sone, yesterday refused to comment +about the recent briefs. Two others briefs supporting the Episcopal +diocese and citing the First Amendment argument have been filed with the +US Court of Appeals. + +The American Association of Pastoral Counselors, headquartered in +Virginia, said the lower court "did not understand that pastroal +counseling and supervision of parish clergy is not the equivolent to +employment supervision." + +The other brief was filed by a coalition of Colorado religious groups, +including Catholics and Protestants. + + + diff --git a/religious documents/cult017.txt b/religious documents/cult017.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e0d878 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cult017.txt @@ -0,0 +1,318 @@ +FID:A1020001 + + + WITCHCRAFT + + + + Witchcraft is known as the "Old Religion" and is an ancient + + practice dating back to biblical times. Witchcraft can be defined as the +performance of magic forbidden by God for non-biblical ends. The word +witchcraft is related to the old English word (wiccian), + +"practice of magical arts." + + It was during the Middle Ages that witchcraft experienced a great + + revival. It was an age where everyone believed in the supernatural and +superstition abounded. + + If someone wanted to become a witch, there was an initiation + + process. Some of the techniques were simple and some were complicated, but +there were usually two requirements. The first requirement was that the +would-be witch must join of his or her own free will. The second requirement +was that the prospective witch must be willing to worship the devil. + + + + One writer decsribed a witch in the following manner: + + + + Witches are those who, because of the magnitude of their crimes, are +commonly called (malefici) or evil doers. These Witches, by the permission +of God, agitate the elements, and disturb the minds of men less trusting in +God. Without administering any poison, they kill by the great potency of +their charms....For they summon devils and dare to rouse them so that +everyone kills his enemies by evil stratagems. For these witches make use of +the blood of victims, and often defile the corpses of the dead....For the +devils are said to love blood, and so when the witches practice the black +arts, they mingle blood with water, so that by the color of blood they can +more easily conjure up the devils (Gratian, Decretum). + + + + WITCHCRAFT TODAY + + + + The modern witch does not fit the stereotype of the old hag, for + + many people who are practicing this art are in the mainstream of society. +The question is why? Why a renewed interest in this ancient art among both +the educated and the ignorant? Daniel Cohen list a couple of possible +reasons: + + + + First, there is the eternal appeal of magic, the promise, however + + muted, that there are secrets available that will give a person power, +money, love, and all those things he or she desires but cannot seem to +obtain. Second, witchcraft is a put-down and a revolt against some of the +establishment beliefs in organized religion, science, and rational thinking. +The historic connection between witchcraft and drugs and sex also has +undoubted appeal. Here is a set of beliefs that claim to be part of an +extremely ancient religion. Yet this is a religion in which drugs and free +sexuality are not condemned, but might be encouraged. (Daniel Cohen, A +Natural History of Unnatural Things, New York; McCall Pub. Co., 1971, pp. +31,32). + + + Modern witchcraft bears little resemblance to the witchcraft of + + the Middle Ages or to witchcraft in still primitive, preliterate +societies. Modern witchcraft is a relatively recent development (the last +200 years), embraces hundreds of beliefs and practices and has hundreds of +thousands of adherents. The one common theme running through modern +witchcraft is the practice of and belief in things forbidden by God in the +Bible as occultic. + + + + Today, in a massive spin-off from the culture-wide interest in the + + occult, this has changed. Tens of thousands across America - some of them +with university degrees - are dabbling in witchcraft, Satanism, voodoo, and +other forms of black and white magic. Witches sppear openly on television. +Every high school is said to have its own witch. In Cleveland you can rent a +witch to liven up a party. There are some 80,000 persons practicing white +magic in the United States, with 6,000 in Chicago alone. (George Vandeman, +Psychic Roulette, Nashville TN}}}, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1973, pp. 99, +100). + + + + Witchcraft is not dead today as can be observed by an article + + appearing in the Los Angeles Times concerning the goddess movement: + +.....Eerie monotones...reverberated on the UC Santa Cruz camous. + + Cheers and whoops went up for the goddesses of yore - Isis, Astara, +Demeter, Artemis, etc. + + + + +...The event was indicative of a burgeoning spiritual dimension to + + the women's liberation movement in America.... + + Christine Downing, head of San Diego State University's religious + + studies department, estimates that many - if not most - spiritually +sensitive women in the women's movement are willing to replace the biblical +God with a frankly pagan and polytheistic approach. + + Witchcraft is aiding the women in their search for roots and + + rituals - without the connotations of evil usually associated with +witchcraft. + + A Santa Cruz woman...said, "Some of the women think of themselves + + as witches, but not all." + + A brief, unscheduled appearance - met with enthusiastic applause - + + was made by Z Budapest. A self-described witch...the goddess movement +knows her more as a leader of the Susan B Anthony Coven No. 1 in Los Angeles +and a chrismatic spokeswoman for a feminist brand of Wicca, an ancient +women's religion (witchcraft). + + The goddess movement, also called the women-spirit movement, + + apparently considers its first major gathering to have been a conference +attended by about 1,200 women at the University of Massachusetts in late +1975..... + + + The ancient Mediterranean world, pagan Europe, Native America and + + Hindu tradition are all sources for goddess imagery.... + + A religious phenomenon virtually unknown outside feminist circles, + +"goddess consciousness" will be widely known in three to five years + +(Los Angeles Times, April 10, 1978). + + + + THE BIBLE AND WITCHCRAFT + + + + Both the Old and New Testament make repeated references to the + + practice of witchcraft and sorcery, and whenever these practices are +referred to they are always condemned by God. The Bible condemns all forms +of witchcraft, including sorcery, astrology and reading human and animal +entrils. The following passages describe the various forms of witchcraft +which are condemned by God. You shall not allow a sorceress to live (Exodus +22:18, NASB). + + + + You shall not eat anything with blood, nor practice divination or + + soothsaying (Leviticus 19:26, NASB). + + + + Do not turn to mediums or spiritist; do not seek them out to be + + defiled by them. I am the Lord your God (Leviticus 19;31, NASB). + + + + Now a man or a woman who is a medium or spiritist shall surely be + + put to death. They shall be stoned with stones, their bloodguiltiness is +upon them (Leviticus 20:27, NASB). + + + + You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God, for every + + abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for their gods; for +they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods + +(Deuteronomy 12:31, NASB). + + + + There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his + + daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices +witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a +spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead....For +those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice +witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not +allowed you to do so (Deuteronomy 18:10,11,14, NASB). + + + + For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is + + as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, +He has also rejected you from being king (1 Samuel 15:23, NASB) + + + + Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the + + fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do +evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him (2 Kings 17:17, NASB). + + + + And he made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft + + and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritist. He did much +evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger (2 Kings 21:6, NASB). + + + Moreover, Josiah removed the mediums, and the spiritist and + + teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land +of Judah and in Jerusalem. that he might confirm the words of the law which +were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the +Lord (2 Kings 23:24, NASB). + + + + So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against the Lord, + + because of the word of the Lord which he did not keep; and also because he +asked counsel of a medium, making inquiry of it, and did not inquire of the +Lord. Therefore He killed him, and turned the kingdom to David the son of +Jesse (1 Chronicles 10:13, NASB). + + + + And when they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the spiritist + + who whisper and mutter," should not a people concult their God? Should +they consult the dead on behalf of the living? (Isaiah 8:19, NASB). + + + + Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them; + + and I will confound their strategy, so that they will resort to idols and +ghosts of the dead, and to mediums and spiritist (Isaiah 19:3, NASB). + + + + Stand fast now in your spells and in your many sorceries with + + which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you will be able to +profit, perhaps you may cause trembling. You are wearied with your many +counsels; let now the astrologers, those who prophesy by the stars, those +who predict by the new moons, stand up and save you from what will come upon +you (Isaiah 47:12,13, NASB). + + + + But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, + + your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who speak to you +saying, "You shall not serve the king of Babylon." For they prophesy a lie +to you, in order to remove you far from your land; and I will drive you out, +and you will perish (Jeremiah 27:9,10, NASB). + + + + "Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift + + witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those +who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his +wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien, and do +not fear Me." says the Lord of Hosts (Malachi 3:5, NASB). + + + And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, + + they found a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was +Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of +intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the +word of God. But Elymas the magician (for thus his name is translated) was +opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, +who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze upon +him , and said, "You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the +devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked +the streight ways of the Lord?" (Acts 13:6-10, NASB). + + + + Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, + + impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, +outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, +carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have +forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the +kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21, NASB). + + + + But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers + + and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part +will be in the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second +death (Revelations 21:8, NASB). + + .W#04? \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cult021.txt b/religious documents/cult021.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68de572 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cult021.txt @@ -0,0 +1,337 @@ +Prescript: This silliness was downloaded from the Nazi-4-christ +network. It appears to be a christian ritual to summon their god +"Satan," near as I can tell. August 31, 1990 + + +=========================== Text Begins ========================= + +Note: This file is a transcription of a prepared booklet that was +being used by certain youth in my community before one of them was +saved. While being involved in the Satan worship, animal sacrifices +were preformed and other acts. This textfile is presented only for +the purpose if educating the Christian community as to the actions +of some children and we might be more informed as to what is taking +place behind our backs. + + + +Dear Member, + Welcome to the good times ahead: + + First off Satan and his organization would like to thank you for +showing faith and solidarity: we are sure that through our mutual +help of one and other we will defeat the diseased minds of the priests +of the churches and temples of the world that seek to slander our +mighty lord Lucifer: Eventually, our mighty leader Satan will regain +his position of prominence: Those who help in our crusade will be +rewarded handsomely, your every dream will be fullfilled: Those who +work against our master will be punished: + + In all our years of research of the different ways to make contact +with the mighty Satan, our experience has taught us that the most +effective way is as follows: First you must get yourself a table which +will serve as your alter. Next, you need a sword to lay on the alter. +Use a long knife if no sword is available. Next you need a chalice or +a goblet filled with wine. Next you need a parchment or a piece of +brown paper if a piece of commercial parchment is unavailable. Do not +kill an animal if none is available. Next you need a black candle. As +far as clothing is considered, it is definatily prefered to ware a +black robe. If black is unavailable, simply get any color and dye it +black. + + Now you must wait until the sun sets and it is dark. Next you must be +totally and completely alone in your house or apartment. Satan does not +make group mettings. This is an extremely personal and confidential affair. +Place all the elements on your alter. Turn off your light. Light the candle +and repeat: + + "Emperor Lucifer, master of the rebellious spirits, I beg you to be +favourable to me, when now I call for your minister, the great Lucifuge +Rofocale, as I desire to sign a contract with him. I beg also that Prince +Beelsebub may protect my enterprise. O Astaroth, great count, be favourable +likewise, and make it possible for the great Lucifuge to appear to me in +human form and force, without bad ordour, and that he grant me, by the +agreement which I am ready to sign with him, all riches I need. O great +Lucifuge, I pray that you leave your dwelling wherever it may be to come +here and speak to me." + + Next you must write on the parchment whatever you desire. (You only do +this for the first time till your wish is fullfilled. After just place +the inscribed contract on the alter.) Do youself a favour and set your +sights on logical goals, it takes time for Satan to gradually take you +into his confidence. + + Next take a small pinch of the sacred powder and sprinkle it over the +candle. Now chant the following 3 times: + + In the name of Satan, the Ruler of the earth, the King of the world, +I command the forces of Darkness to bestow their Infernal power upon me: + + Open wide the gates of Hell and come forth from the abyss to greet me +as your brother (sister) and friend: + + Grant me the indulgences of which I speak: + + I have taken thy name as part of myself: I live as the beasts of the +fields, rejoicing in the fleshly life: I fovor the just and curse the +rotten: + + By all the Gods of the pit, I command that these things of which I +speak shall come to pass: + + Come forth and answer to your names by manifesting my desires: + + After you have done this you should take the sword, hold it with both +hands straight in front of your self and state: + + Hail Satan: + Hail Satan: + Hail Satan: + + Behold: The mighty voices of my vengenance smash the stillness +of the air and stand as monoliths of wrath upon a plain writhing +serpants. I am become as a monstrous machine of annihilation to the +festering fragments of the body of he (or she) who whould detain me. + + It repenteth me not that my summons doth ride upon the blasting +winds which multiply the sting of my bitterness; And grant black +slimy shapes shall rise from brackish pits and vomit forth their +pustulence into his (her) puny brain. + + I call upon the messengers of doom to slash with grim delight +this victim I have chosen. Silent is that voiceless bird that feeds +upon the brain-pulp of him (her) who hath tormented me, and the agony +of the is to be shall sustain itself in shrieks of pain, only to serve +as signals of warning to those who would resent my being. + + Oh come forth in the name of Abaddon and destroy him (her) whose +name I giveth as a sign. + + Oh great brothers of the night, thou who makest my place of comfort, +who rideth out upon the hot winds of Hell, who dwelleth in the devil's +fane; move and appear: Present youselves to him (her) who sustaineth +the rottenness of the mind that moves the gibbering gaggling tongue +and close his (her) throat, Oh Kali; Pierce his (her) lungs with the +stings of scorpions. Oh Sekhmet: Plunge his (her) substance into the +dismal void, Oh mighty Dagon: + + I thrust aloft the bard of Hell and on its tines resplendently impaled +my sacrifice through vengeance rests: + + Hail Satan: + Hail Satan: + Hail Satan: + + Now you take a few sips from the goblet. + + Once you have completed the first half of the ceremony you are ready +to begin the second half. Before you do, however you must understand +several things. They are as follows: You must realize that all things +belong to the mighty Satan and that you can only have tempory use of +them. You must not be so vain-glorious as to think that you own anything. +You come into the world destitute of everything and go out of it with +nothing except character -- and some go with out that: While you remain +here you may borrow from Satan something or nothing according to you +manner of thinking. + + Now you should go over to your bed and lie down on your back with +your arm stretched out by your side. Your legs should also be stretched +out and not crossed. Now in order to draw from the vast reserviour of +infernal power residing in out master you must guide your mind as follows: + + FIRST: Meditate and ask Satan if there is any reason why you should +not have the thing you desire to create. + + This removes all uncertainty from your mind about the advisability +of creating it. Uncertainty produces a negative condition, disturbs your +aura and therefore delays the materialization of your creations. When you +have received the answer that is right and proper for you to have the thing +you desire, you are then in a positive condition of mind and can forcefully +draw from Satans vast reservoir of infernal power. + + SECOND: Having decided to create something make you mental picture of it +and demand it unfalteringly until it comes. + + A person after having received a favorable answer from Satan often +commences his creations, but abandons them after a time because his +objective mind suggests that he may have been mistaken about his answer +from Satan and it is not best to continue with his demmands. Do not +listen to the suggestions from your objective mind, but once having +decided upon your creations go on with them to the end. + + THIRD: A positive demand accomplishes more and better results than a +request or a petition. + + The mental attitude while making a demand should always be +reverential but very positive. + + FOURTH: Demand from Satan specifically what you want. Every word of +this rule is important. First you must make a demand. Then that demand +must be specific. Make your mental picture clear-cut. The clearer your +mental picture, the sooner it will materialize. Demand speifically what +you want -- not what some one else wants you to have, not what you believe +it is your duty to want -- but what you believe you yourself, wish to have. + + The converse of this rule is equally important. Never demand what +you do not want. If you want money do not demand work. Almost everyone +makes that mistake when the begin to make demands from Satan because it +is hard to break the customs of many years. Diseased bodies and unhappy +conditions of mind are the result of selfish demands made to our mighty +master without proper patronage paid to him. + + FIFTH: Only demand when your desire is strong. + + When you feel the need of a thing , your desire for it is strongest. +Many followers of our leader begin enthusiastically to make their demands, +but soon grow lukewarm. A good way to intensify your desires is to think +of the pleasure the possession of the thing would give you, and when the +desire for it comes sweeping over you then make a demand for it. Do not +demand only when the hour set apart for demanding and paying homage to +our lord Satan has come, or because you regard it as duty you have assumed. +Demands made under such conditions amount to nothing, and the time put into +work of this kind is wasted. + + SIXTH: Mind works best when the body is still. + + If you are drumming with your fingers or swinging your feet while +making demands, a part of your mental force goes into physical motions +you are making; and your forces being devided , the mental work is robbed +of much of its power. You should conserve your force. At intervals during +the day you may think of your demands and you can hold them sub-consciously +in mind much of the time; and while this kind of picture-making does not +accomplish as much as when the body is at rest it does help in increasing +your ability to draw from the infernal power of Satan. + + SEVENTH: Never demand when excited. + + You may have a strong desire but no excitement. A demand made during +intense excitement is always met forcefully. This is an important rule, +the observance of which may save you much inconvience. At times it is +quite likely that you may become impatient and are tempted to make +postitive and often violent demands. It is a dangerous thing to do +as we shall show you through this illustration. + + At one time we had a follower of CASH who had met with several +misfortunes. Disasters followed each other till everything he had on +the material plane was swept away. But after joing CASH he learned how +to make demands from Satan. He demanded ten thousand dollars from Satan, +which to him was financial opulence. However the demand was not met +immediately, and our follower became impatient and finally angry. And +when he awakened one morning to find himself without money enough to +pay for his breakfast, he walked to the park, threw himself upon the +ground and lay there for several hours with his teeth set, hands +clenched and with perspiration standing out all over his body, so +intense was his excitement while making his demand for money he has +pictured. The next day he boarded a freight train and after the usual +delays and inconveniences attending upon transporttion of that kind, +out member managed to reach a western town. But he had no sooner entered +the place than a cyclone came along and swept it off the face of the earth. +When our member came to consciousness he was lying on the ground some +distance from the place where he was at the last moment of his recollections. +His body was a mass of bruises, and when he tried to rise to his feet he +found one leg broken. Bodies of dead animals and men lay around him and +wagon loads of debris were strewn in all directions; but just within +reach of his arm lay a plethoric leather wallet. Our member reachet his +best arm out and got the wallet and immediately examind its contents. +There were just ten-one thousand dollar bills in it and not a scrap of +paper or card to tell whom it belonged. He placed the money in his pocket +of his ragged coat and crept on his hands and knees for some distance +till someone came to his relief. He was cared for and finally got well. +The owner of the money count not be found, and our member kept the money +as an answer to his violent demand which nearly cost him his life. + + We are not saying that our member caused the cyclone. But he was +drawn into it and suffered the horrors of it because of his own +tempestuous mental condition when making a demand which had to be +met after the manner that it was made. + + EIGHTH: Always be deliberate and quiet but positivd when demanding +help from Satan. + + Never demand in a hurry. Mental perturbation engendered by hurry, +delays Satans help in the materialization of your creation. + + NINTH: Avoid speculating on the time when or the way in which your +demands will be met by Satan. + + When you begin speculating about the ways and means by which your +demonstrations will come, immediately the infernal power of Satan +becomes scattered or divided and a repellent expectancy arises. There +is an expectancy that draws and also one that repels. The quiet +expectancy, is helpful in drawing to you whatever you have demanded. +But the impatient expectancy of your objective mind is repellant because +it causes your aura to become disturbed and then nothing you want can +reach you. + + For example: You have made a demand from Satan and have commenced +to wonder through whom Satan will fullfill your demand. Your objective +mind suggests Mr. Blank as the most probable person, and if you accept +the suggestion when you meet mr. Blank you are not mentally poised because +of your impatient expentancy. Mr. Blank feels your mental condition and +if he were inclined to form a business connection with you he would +hesitate and become uncertain because of your perturbed condition; thus +the ways and means that you expected to bring your demonstration would +not be used because of your repellant expectancy. The member who violates +this rule is likely to make bad investments + + TENTH: Anger, discontent, envy and lack of self-control repel and +delay a demand. + + If you make a mental picture of a thing and hold it for a long +time it will materialize, but it will be delayed if you indulge in any +of the mental attitudes just mentioned; because any of these puts your +aura into a perturbed condition, which is repellant. + + This rule is one of the hardest to observe but like anything else +it can bve followed. It is the disregard of this rule which leads +investigators and beginners to disbelieve in the infernal power of +Satan and which makes too many followers of the almighty Satan finally +abonden in despair their efforts to tap a part of this tremendous +generator of power. + + ELEVENTH: The earnestness with which a demand is made, the frequency +with which it is made and the persistency with which the mental image is +consciously held in mind hastens the demonstration. The earnestness, the +frequency and the persistency of your demands and concentration draw it +faster and faster. Never destroy a mental picture. + + TWELVETH: The realization that you are using an immutable law +hastens your demands from Satan. + + THIRTEENTH: After your creation is made and you have demanded it +the declaration, "Satan has met my demand"' hastens the material +manifestation of the demonstration. + + Once you have understood the above mentioned rule you are well on your +way towards drawing from the infernal powers of the mighty Satan. However +you must understand that you must as well work mentally in order to +acomplish what ever you desire. Remember, results are absolutely certain +if all laws are complied with. + + If you will but persist in your faith in Satan and continue to +practice the procedure we have outlined there can be no limit to +your possablities. If you can get Satan to demonstrate a piece of +carpet three feet long you can get him to demonstrate a million +dollars for you. If he can cure a headache, in the course of time +he can cure any disease; if he can get you a seat in a streetcar +he can get you a seat in the congress in the course of time. The +more you follow and serve him the more he will do for you. + + It rests with you wheather you will or you will not serve him. +There are some of you who will. There is always a percentage of +persons who succeed and a percentage of persons who give up. Each +of you can do with your knowledge what you choose. However this +much is true, if you persist for one year to consciously help Satan +you can be sure that at the end of the year your environment will +be sufficiently better and demonstrations will have been made to +prove to you that you are dealing with the infernal power of the +mighty Satan: + + Looking forward to hearing from you and all your new accomplishments: + + HAIL SATAN: + + +From: The Rock - Computers For Christ El Dorado, Arkansas +(501) 864-0699 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cult_pro.txt b/religious documents/cult_pro.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6498588 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cult_pro.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2631 @@ +LISTSERV FILENAME: CULT-PRO BIBLIO + +DESCRIPTION: The bibliography and table of contents from Ingrid + M. Haase's dissertation, _Cult Prostitution in the + Hebrew Bible_? (University of Ottawa, 1991). + +LOCATION: Listserv@uottawa or Listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca + +FTP FILENAME: CULT-PRO.TXT (low ascii text) + +FTP LOCATION: Directory pub\religion + PANDA1.UOTTAWA.CA or 137.122.6.16 + +AUTHOR'S ADDRESS: IMHAASE@uottawa or IMHAASE@acadvm1.uottawa.ca + Department of Religious Studies, University of Ottawa + 177 Waller Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA K1N 6N5 +======================================================================= + + + +Cult Prostitution in the Hebrew Bible? + +by +Ingrid M. Haase + + + + +A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the +Requirements for the Degree of Master's of Arts in +Religious Studies + +University of Ottawa, Canada +April 1990 + + + + Table of Contents + + +Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 + +Chapter I: Cult Prostitution in Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 + I. The Classical Writers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 + II. The Egyptian Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 + A. Concubines and Prophets (24); B. `Hieros + Gamos' (36); C. Qudshu (40); D. + Hierodouloi and Hetaerai (57) + III. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 + +Chapter II: Cult Prostitution in Mesopotamia. . . . . . . . . 74 + I. Herodotus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 + II. Mesopotamian Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 + A. `Hieros Gamos' (81); B. The Akitu Festival + (85); C. The Qadishtu (87); D. The Veil (90) + III. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 + +Chapter III: Cult Prostitution in Canaan. . . . . . . . . . . 94 + I. The Mythological Texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 + II. Economic and Administrative Texts (Lists). . . . . . 97 + III. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 + +Chapter IV: Cult Prostitution in Israel . . . . . . . . . . .100 + I. Qedeshim/Qedeshot = `Cult Prostitutes'?. . . .101 + A. Tamar: A Woman Procures Her Rights - Genesis 38 + (103); B. Deuteronomy 23:17(18)-18(19) (117); C. + I Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46(47); II Kings 23:7 (141); + D. Hosea 4:14 (181); E. Job 36:14 (193) + II. Other Biblical Passages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197 + A. All Passages containing `znh' (197); B. + Individual Passages (199) + III. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210 + +Chapter V: Further Influences on the Concept of Cult + Prostitution in the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214 + I. The parakuptousa in Hellenistic Literature . .217 + A. The Legend of the parakuptousa (218); B. The + Verb parakuptein (230); C. The Archaeological + Evidence (237); D. Summary (239) + II. The parakuptousa in the Tanach and the + Septuagint. .243 A. Proverbs, Chapter VII (244); B. + Other Biblical Passages using the parakuptousa + Image (249); C. The Sacrifice (zebhach) (253); + D. Summary (257) + +Summary and Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .259 +Abbreviations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .270 +Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .275 + + + + Abbreviations + + +AfO Archiv fur Orientforschung +AJSLL American Journal of Semitic Languages + and Literatures +AJT American Journal of Theology +ANEP Pritchard/The Ancient Near East in Pictures +AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament +ARCE American Research Center in Egypt +ATD Acta Theologica Danica +BA Biblical Archaeologist +BAR Biblical Archaeology Review +BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of + Oriental Research +BEvTh Beitrage zur Evangelischen Theologie +BIFAO Bulletin de l'Institut Francais + d'Archologie Orientale du Caire +BRL Galling/Biblisches Reallexikon +BSFE Bulletin de la Societe Francaise + d'Egypte +BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin +BZ Biblische Zeitschrift +BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die + Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft +CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental + Institute of the University of Chicago +CBQ The Catholic Biblical Quarterly +CH Code of Hammurabi +CNRS Centre National de la Recherche + Scientifique +CTA The Sigla of the Ugaritic Tablets employed by + Mlle. Herdner in her Official Edition +DA Dictionnaire d'Archeologie Chretienne et + de Liturgie +DB Dictionnaire de la Bible +DB Suppl. Dictionnaire de la Bible Supplement +DS Dictionnaire de Spiritualite, Ascetique + et Mystique, Doctrine et Histoire +DW Grimm/Deutsches Worterbuch +Eph. Th. Lov. Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses +EPRO Etudes Preliminaires aux Religions Orientales + dans l'Empire Romain +ER Encyclopedia of Religion +ERE Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics +GGA Gottingische Gelehrte Anzeigen +GM Gottinger Miszellen ... zur + agyptologischen Diskussion +HUC Hebrew Union College +IDB The Interpreter's Dictionary of the + Bible +IEJ Israel Exploration Journal +IESS International Encyclopedia of the Social + Sciences +JAAR Journal of the American Academy of + Religion +JAC Jahrbuch fur Antike und Christentum +JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society +JARCE Journal of the American Research Center + in Egypt +JBL Journal of Biblical Literature +JCS Journal of Cuneiform Studies +JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology +JESHO Journal of the Economic and Social + History of the Orient +JEvThS Journal of the Evangelical Theological + Society +JIR Jewish Institute of Religion +JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies +JQR Jewish Quarterly Review +JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of + Great Britain and Ireland +JRH Journal of Religious History +JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old + Testament +JSS Journal of Semitic Studies +JTS Journal of Theological Studies +KAI Donner/Rollig, Kanaanaische und + Aramaische Inschriften +KP Kleiner Pauly +LIMC Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologicae + Classicae +LThK Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche +MVAG Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen- + Agyptischen Gesellschaft +NGGW Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der + Wissenschaften zu Gottingen +OA Oriens Antiquus +OED Oxford English Dictionary +OLZ Orientalische Literaturzeitung +Or Orientalia +PAPS Proceedings of the American + Philosophical Society +PEQ Palestine Exploration Journal +PW Pauly/Wissowa, Real-Encyclopadie der + Classischen Altertumswissenschaft +RAC Reallexikon fur Antike und Christentum +RB Revue Biblique +RdE Revue d'Egyptologie +Rec. de Trav. Recueil de Travaux Relatifs a la + Philologie et a l'Archeologie + Egyptiennes et Asyriennes +RGG Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart +RhM Rheinisches Museum fur Philologie +RHR Revue de l'Histoire des Religions +RLA Reallexikon fur Assyriologie +RVV Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und + Vorarbeiten +SAK Die Sumerischen und Akkadischen + Konigsinschriften +SBL Society of Biblical Literature +SBS Stuttgarter Bibelstudien +SMSR Studi e Materiali di Storia delle + Religioni +SOTS Society for Old Testament Studies +SVT Supplements to Vetus Testamentum +ThDOT Theological Dictionary of the Old + Testament +ThEv Theologica Evangelica +ThHWAT Theologisches Handworterbuch zum Alten + Testament +ThLZ Theologische Literaturzeitung +ThSt Theological Studies +ThWAT Theologisches Worterbuch zum Alten + Testament +ThWNT Theologisches Worterbuch zum Neuen + Testament +TS Theologische Studien +UF Ugaritische Forschungen +UT Gordon/Ugaritic Textbook +VT Vetus Testamentum +ZA Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie und + Verwandte Gebiete +ZAS Zeitschrift fur Agyptische Sprache und + Altertumskunde +ZAW Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche + Wissenschaft +ZDPV Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina- + Vereins + + + + Bibliography + + +Editions of the Bible: + +Biblia sacra iuxta latinam vulgatam versionem ad codicum +fidem. Romae: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1926 -. + +The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha. Revised +Standard Version containing the Second Edition of the New +Testament and an Expanded Edition of the Apocrypha. New +York: Oxford UP, 1977. + +The Old Testament in Greek, According to the Text of Codex +Vaticanus, Supplemented from Other Uncial Manuscripts, with a +Critical Apparatus Containing the Variants of the Chief Ancient +Authorities for the Text of the Septuagint. Cambridge: At +the University Press, - . + +Septuagint Version of the Old Testament and Apogrypha with an +English Translation by L.L. Breton. London: Samuel Bagster, +1851. + +Septuaginta. Id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX +interpretes. Edidit Alfred Rahlfs. Stuttgart: +Wurttembergische Bibelanstalt, 1935. + +Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum graecum. Auctoritate +academiae scientiarum Gottingensis editum. Gottingen: +Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, - . + +Torah, Neviim, Kethuvim. 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(Bibliotheca Orientalis Hungarica, +8) Budapest: Akademiai Krado, 1964. + +Aistleitner, Joseph. Worterbuch der ugaritischen Sprache. +Herausgegeben von Otto EiBfeldt. (Berichte uber d. +Verhandlungen d. sachsischen Akademie d. Wissenschaften zu +Leipzig, Phil.-hist. Klasse, 106,3) Berlin: Akademie Verlag, +1963. + +Albrecht, Michael von. "Diodoros." KP II (1975) 41-42, +#12. + +Albright, William Foxwell. Archaeology and the Religion of +Israel. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1968. + +Albright, William Foxwell. "The High Place in Ancient +Palestine." SVT 4 (1957) 242-258. + +Albright, William Foxwell. "New Light on the History of Western +Asia in the Second Millenium B.C." BASOR 78 (1940) 23-31. + +Albright, William Foxwell. "Some Observations on the New +Material for the History of the Alphabet." BASOR 134 +(1954) 26. + +Albright, William Foxwell. "A Vow to Asherah in the Keret Epic." +BASOR 94 (1944) 30-31. + +Albright, William Foxwell. Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan. +Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1968. + +Aletti, J.N. "Seduction et paroles en Proverbes I-IX." +VT 27 (1977) 129-144. + +Alfonso, L.J. "Prostitution." Encyclopedia Judaica 13 +(1972) 1243-1247. + +Alt, Albrecht. Kleine Schriften zur Geschichte des Volkes +Israel. 3 Bande Munchen: Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, +1953. + +Amiet, Pierre. Art of the Ancient Near East. New York: +Abrams, 1977. + +Amiet, Pierre. "Deesses d'Ugarit au XIVe siecle." Les +annales archeologiques arabes syriennes 29 (1979) 163-166. + +Amiran, Ruth. "The Tumuli West of Jerusalem. Survey and +Excavations, 1953." IEJ 8 (1958) 205-227. + +Anati, Emmanuel. "The Question of Fertility Cults." pp. 2-15 in +Archaeology and Fertility Cult in the Ancient +Mediterranean. Edited by A. Bonanno. Amsterdam: Gruner, +1985. + +"Ancient Ivory: the Story of Wealth, Decadence and Beauty." +BAR 11/5 (1985) 41-53. + +Anderson, Francis I. and David Noel Freedman. Hosea. A New +Translation with Introduction and Commentary. (Anchor +Bible) Garden City: Doubleday, 1980. + +Anderson, Gary A. Sacrifices and Offerings in Ancient Israel: +Studies in Their Social and Political Importance. +(Harvard Semitic Museum, Harvard Semitic Monographs, 41) +Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987. + +Annandale, J. "A Comparison between the Priesthood of Ugarit and +Israel." Theol. Evangelica 1 (1968) 53-61. + +Antoninus Liberalis. Les Metamorphoses. Texte etabli, +traduit et commente par Manolis Papathomopoulos. (Collection +des Universites de France) Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1968. + +Aristophane. Texte etabli par Victor Coulon et traduit +par Hilaire van Daele. Sixieme tirage recu et corrige. Paris: +Les Belles Lettres, 1969. + +Aristophanes with the English Translation of Benjamin +Bickley Rogers in Three Volumes. (The Loeb Classical +Library) London: Heinemann, 1950. + +Aristophanis. Comoediae. Recognovervnt brevique +adnotatione critica instrvxervnt F.W. Hall & W.M. 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Konigtum Gottes in Ugarit und Israel; zur +Herkunft der Konigspradikation Jahwehs. (BZAW, 80) +Berlin: Topelmann, 1966. + +Schmokel, Hartmut. Heilige Hochzeit und Hoheslied. +(Abhandlungen fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 32, 1) +Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1956. + +Schneider, K. "Hetaira ( )." PW 16. Halbband +(1913) 1331-1372. + +Schneider, K. "Meretrix." PW 15 (1931) 1018-1027. + +Scholl, Reinhold. "Hierodoulos im griechisch-romischen +Aegypten íEpigraphic Testimonyù." Historia 34/4 (1985) +466-492. + +Scholz, Piotr. "Furstin Iti - Schonheit aus Punt." SAK +11 (1984) 529-556. + +Schottroff, Willy. "Book Review: W. Fauth, Aphrodite +...." ZDPV 83 (1967) 206-208. + +Schungel-Straumann, Helen. "Tamar. Eine Frau verschafft sich ihr +Recht." Bibel und Kirche 39 (1984) 148-157. + +Schunk, Klaus-Dietrich. " , bamah." ThDOT II +(1975) 139-145. + +Schunk, Klaus-Dietrich. Benjamin. (BZAW, 86) +Berlin: Topelmann, 1963. + +Schunk, Klaus-Dietrich. 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"Polemics and Apology in Biblical +Historiography, 2 Kings 17: 24-41." 57-68 in Richard E. +Friedman. The Creation of Sacred Literature: Composition and +redaction of the Biblical Text. (Near Eastern +Studies, 22) Berkeley: U. of California Pr., 1981. + +Tarragon, Jean-Michel de. Le culte a Ugarit d'apres les +textes de la pratique en cuneiformes alphabetiques. +(Cahiers de la revue biblique, 19) Paris: Gabalda, 1980. + +Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) with an English +Translation by John Sargent in Two Volumes. (Loeb Classical +Library) London: Heinemann, 1947. + +Terence (Publius Terentius Afer). Texte etabli et traduit +par J. Maraugeau. (Collection des Universites de France) +Paris: `Les Belles Lettres', 1949. +Teubal, Savina and Raphael Patai. Sarah the Priestess: The +First Matriarch of Genesis. Athens, Ohio: Swallow, 1984. + +Thimme, Jurgen. Phonizische Elfenbeine. (Bildhefte +des Badischen Landesmuseums Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, 1973. + +Thomas, David Winton. "Kelebh `Dog': Its Origin and some Usages +of it in the Old Testament." VT 10 (1960) 410-427. + +Thomas, David Winton. "Textual and Philological Notes on some +Passages in the Book of Proverbs." 280-292 in Wisdom in +Israel and the Ancient Near East. Presented to Harold Henry +Rowley ... in Celebration of his 65th. Birthday, ... edited by M. +Noth and D. Winton Thomas. Leiden: Brill, 1969. + +Thum, Beda. "Erotik und Religion." Lexikon fur Theologie und +Kirche 3 (1959) 1041-1042. + +Tomaschek, ? "Aratos." PW 3 (1895) 383-399. + +Toorn, Karel van der. "Female Prostitution in Payment of Vows in +Ancient Israel." JBL 108 (1989) 193-205. + +Tov, Emmanuel. "Did the Septuagint Translators Always Understand +their Hebrew Text." 53-70 in De Septuaginta. Studies in +Honour of John William Wevers on his Sixty-fifth Birthday. +Edited by Albert Pietersma and Claude Cox. Mississagua, Ontario: +Benben Publications, 1984. + +Trible, Phyllis. "Depatriarchalizing in Biblical +Interpretation." 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"Melanges - I Neby Samouil." RB +31 (1922) 360-402. + +Vincent, L.-H. "La notion biblique du haut-lieu." RB +55 (1948) 245-278, 438-445. + +Virolleaud, Charles. Le palais royal d'Ugarit. +(Mission de Ras Shamra, 7, 11 í1953, 1957ù) Paris: +Klincksieck, 1965. + +Volkmann, Hans. "Hetairai ( )." KP 2 (1975) +1122-1124. + +Vorlander, H. "Der Monotheismus Israels als Antwort auf die +Krise des Exils." 84-139 in Der einzige Gott. Die Geburt des +biblischen Monotheismus. Hrsgb. von Bernhard Lang. Munchen: +Kosel, 1981. + +Vos, Clarence J. Women in Old Testament Worship. Delft: +Judels and Brinkman, 1968. + +Ward, William A. "Reflections on some Egyptian Terms presumed to +mean `Harem, Harem-Woman, Concubine'." Berytus 31 (1983) +67-74. + +Watterson, Barbara. The Gods of Ancient Egypt. London: +Batsford, 1984. + +Watterson, Barbara. Introducing Egyptian Hieroglyphs. +Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1981. + +Weber, Max. Ancient Judaism New York: Free Press, 1952. + +Weber, Max. Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Religionssoziologie +III. Tubingen: Mohr, 1983. + +Weicker, ? "Iphis." PW 18 (1916) 2023-2025. + +Weidner, Ernst. "Hof- und Harems Erlasse assyrischer Konige aus +dem 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr." AfO 17 (1954/6) 257-293. + +Weinberg, Joel P. "Netinim und `Sohne der Sklaven Salomos' im +6.-4. Jh. v.u.Z." ZAW 87 (1975) 355-371. + +Weinfeld, Moshe. Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School. +Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1972. + +Weinfeld, Moshe. "Deuteronomy - The Present State of Inquiry." +JBL 86 (1967) 249-262. + +Weinfeld, Moshe. "Josiah (Heb. ) +Encyclopedia Judaica 10 (1971) 288-293. + +Weinfeld, Moshe. "Sarah and Abimelech (Genesis 20) against the +Background of an Assyrian Law and the Genesis Apocryphen." +AOAT, 215 (1985) 431-436. + +Weinfeld, Moshe. "The Worship of Molech and of the Queen of +Heaven and its Background." UF 4 (1972) 133-158. + +Weippert, H. "Elfenbeine." BRL2 (1977) 67-72. + +Weisberg, David B. "Royal Women of the Neo-Babylonian Period." +447-454 in Rencontre assyriologique internationale, 19, 1971, +Paris. Le palais et la royaute, archaeologie et civilisation: +compte rendu. Edite par Paul Gorelli. Paris: Geuthner, +1974. + +Welten, Peter. "Kulthohe und Jahwetempel." ZDPV 88 +(1972) 19-37. + +Welwei, K.W. "Abhangige Landbevolkerung auf `Tempelterritorien' +im hellenistischen Kleinasien und Syrien." Ancient +Society 10 (1979) 97-118. + +Westermann, Claus. Genesis, 37-50. (Biblisher +Kommentar, Altes Testament, 1, 20) Neukirchen-Vluyn: +Neukirchner Verlag, 1981. + +Westermann, Claus. Genesis. (Ertrage der +Forschung, 7, 48) Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche +Buchgesellschaft, 1972-75. + +Westermann, William Linn. The Slave Systems of Greek and +Roman Antiquity. (Memoirs of the American Philosophical +Society, 41) Philadelphia, 1955. + +Wevers, John W. "Septuagint" IDB 4 (1962) 273-278. + +Whitaker, Richard E. A Concordance of the Ugaritic +Literature. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1972. + +Whitehouse, Owen C. "Holiness (Semitic)." ERE 6 (1913) +751-759. + +Whitley, Charles Francis. The Genius of Ancient Israel; the +Distinctive Nature of the Basic Concepts of Israel Studied +Against the Cultures of the Ancient Near East. Amsterdam: +Philo Press, 1969. + +Whybray, Roger Norman. The Book of Proverbs; Commentary. +(Cambridge Bible Commentary: New English Bible) London: +Cambridge UP, 1972. + +Whybray, Roger Norman. "Some Literary Problems in Prov. 1-9." +VT 16 (1966) 482-496. + +Whybray, Roger Norman. Wisdom in Proverbs; The Concept of +Wisdom in Proverbs 1-9. London: SCM Press, 1965. + +Widengren, Geo. "Early Hebrew Myths and their Interpretations." +149-203 in Myth, Ritual and Kingship. Edited by Samuel +Henry Hooke. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1960. + +Williger, Eduard. "Hagios, Untersuchungen zur Terminologie des +Heiligen in den hellenisch-hellenistischen Religionen." +RVV 19/1 (1922) 1-108. + +Winter, Urs. Frau und Gottin. Exegetische und ikonographische +Studien zum weiblichen Gottesbild im Alten Israel und in dessen +Umwelt. (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 53) +Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1983. + +Wolff, Hans Walter. Anthropologie des Alten Testaments. +Munchen: Kaiser, 1974. + +Wolff, Hans Walter. Hosea. A Commentary on the Book of the +Prophet Hosea. (Hermeneia - A Critical and Historical +Commentary on the Bible) Philadelphia: Fortress, 1974. + +Wolfgang, Hans. "Cheops" KP I (1975) 1143. + +Wolkstein, Diane and Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna: Queen of +Heaven and Earth. Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer. New +York: Harper & Row, 1983. + +Wright, G. Ernest. "The Discoveries at Megiddo, 1935-39." +BA 13 (1950) 28-46. + +Wright, G.R.H. "Pre-Israelite Temples in the Land of Canaan." +PEQ 103 (1971) 17-32. + +Wyttenbach, Daniel. Lexicon Plutarcheum. 2 vols. +Hildesheim: Olms, 1962 (reprint of the Oxford 1830 ed.) + +Xella, P. I Testi Rituali di Ugarit - I Testi. Roma: +Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Centro di Studio per la +civilta Fenicia e Punica, 1981. + +Yadin, Yigael. "Beer-Sheba. The High Place destroyed by King +Josiah." BASOR 222 (1976) 5-17. + +Yamauchi, Ed.M. "Cultic Prostitution." Orient and +Occident. AOAT 22 (1973) 213-222. +Yeivin, S. "The High Place at Gibeon." Revue de l'histoire +juive en Egypte 1 (1947) 143-147. + +Young, Douglas G. Concordance of Ugaritic. (Analecta +Orientalia. Commentationes scientificae de rebus orientis +antiqui, 36) Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1956. + +Ziegler, Konrat. "Mars." KP 3 (1975) 1046-1049. + +Zimmern, H. "Die Babylonische Gottin im Fenster." OLZ 31 +(1928) 1-3. + +Zwicker, Johannes. "Promachos." PW 45 (1957) 642-646. diff --git a/religious documents/cultdang.txt b/religious documents/cultdang.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3e16eb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cultdang.txt @@ -0,0 +1,60 @@ + CULT DANGER EVALUATION FRAME + + +Rate each from 1 to 10, with 1 being Very Low and 10 being Very High + +1- INTERNAL CONTROL: amount of internal political + power exercised by leader(s) + over members. 1._____________ + +2-WISDOM CLAIMED: by leader(s); amount of infalli- + -bility declared about decisions. 2._____________ + +3-WISDOM CREDITED: to leader(s) by members; amount + of trust in decisions made by + leaders. 3._____________ + +4-DOGMA: rigidity of reality concepts taught; + amount of doctrinal inflexibility. 4._____________ + +5-RECRUITING: emphasis put on attracting new + members; amount of proselytizing. 5._____________ + +6-FRONT GROUPS: number of subsidiary groups using + different names from that of main + group. 6._____________ + +7-WEALTH: amount of money and/or property desired + or obtained; emphasis on members' donations. 7.____________ + +8-POLITICAL POWER: amount of external political + inflience desired or obtained. 8.____________ + +9-SEXUAL MANIPULATION: of members by leader(s); + amount of control over sex + lives of members. 9.____________ + +10-CENSORSHIP: amount of control over members' + access to outside opinions on group, + its doctrines or leader(s). 10.____________ + +11-DROPOUT CONTROL: intensity of efforts directed + at preventing or returning + dropouts. 11.____________ + +12-ENDORSEMENT OF VIOLENCE: when used by or for + the group or its + leader(s). 12.____________ + +13-PARANOIA: amount of fear concerning real or + imagined enemies; perceived power + of opponents. 13.____________ + +14-GRIMNESS: amount of disapproval concerning jokes + about the group, its doctrine, or + leader(s). 14.____________ + + + * end * + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cultlaw.txt b/religious documents/cultlaw.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b53e3b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cultlaw.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1158 @@ +NOTICE: This report is copyrighted 1989 by Robert Hicks and is Licensed to +Cassandra-News a news service of the United Wiccan Church a 501(c)(3) +California non-profit, tax-exempt religious corporation. Cassandra-News +grants License for Non-Commercial electronic and print reproduction and +distribution as long as no fee is charged for these reproductions other +than the cost of reproduction and printing. The name and address of the +United Wiccan Church, Robert Hicks and this notice must be preserved on all +copies. + + United Wiccan Church + P. O. Box 16025 + North Hollywood California, 91615-6025, U.S.A., NA. + (818) 899-3687 (3/12/2400 Baud 8N1) + FIDO 1:102/922 + + + + Satanic Cults: A Skeptical View of the Law Enforcement Approach + + + + + + Rev. 9/89 + + + + + + Adapted from a presentation given at the llth annual crime + prevention conference of the Virginia Crime Prevention Association, + Chesapeake, Virginia, June 23, l989 + + +NOTE: The views expressed herein are those of the author and do +not necessarily reflect opinions of the Department of Criminal +Justice Services or the Commonwealth of Virginia. + + + +Robert Hicks + +Criminal Justice Analyst/Law Enforcement Section +Department of Criminal Justice Services +805 E. Broad Street +Richmond, Virginia 232l9 +804-786-842l + + + I wish to alert you to a dangerous cult that has implanted itself not +only in Virginia but throughout the country. This group, called the +Tnevnoc cult, is a "communal, sectarian group affiliated with a large and +powerful international religious organization."/1 I can communicate +something to you of the methods and goals of the organization by describing +the cult's recruitment and indoctrination practices. The cult aims to +recruit young women, either teenagers or young adults, and does so openly +at schools and colleges. Following indoctrination into the cult, young +women eventually lose any power of will, succumbing entirely to the regimen +of the cult. + + Cult members must abandon their former lives, even surrendering their +outside friendships and personal possessions. Cult members' activities, +then, involve the cult exclusively. Members must arise at 4:30 in the +morning, wear prayer beads attached to their wrists, engage in long, +monotonous chants and prayers, and in one of the most bizarre activities, +members consumed food they were told represented the dead cult founder's +body. Women must even pledge in writing absolute obedience to the cult. +To further distance itself from worldly affairs, the cult assigns new names +to members and designates as their birthdays the dates of their entry into +the cult. + + After hours of performing menial tasks such as scrubbing floors +coupled with the incessant recitation of ritualistic prayers, members might +occasionally transgress rules which are punished harshly. For example, +punishment might require women to go without food, having to beg on their +knees for the crumbs from others' plates. But the most shocking ritual of +all required members to become brides to the dead cult leader. + + I hope that I have sufficiently aroused your curiosity, if not your +indignation and anger that such activities could happen in the United +States. In case you haven't figured it out, Tnevnoc is Convent spelled +backwards. I have just described the socialization of young women into +Christian convents. But, you say, convents are harmless, in a criminal +sense anyway, and in part comprise established religion in our society. In +short, convents are legitimate. + + I have described the working of Christian convents in this way for a +few reasons. First, I have used the jargon of police satanic cult seminars +to describe a familiar phenomenon. Viewed in cult seminar terms, convents +appear evil and pernicious. I sprinkled in the description words which are +never defined by cult crime experts, that is, "cult" and "ritual." Cult +crime experts, as they call themselves, by not defining such words, impart +to them connotations of evil, the demonic, the supernaturally criminal. If +you don't think my description of Christian convents provides a fair +comparison to the way non-Christian religions are described at cult crime +seminars, think again. When convents appeared in the United States during +the last century, many citizens objected to their manipulative, +authoritarian methods by describing the same practices in the same ways to +arose public mortification. Similarly, one reads newspaper accounts +nowadays of how officers investigate ceremonial sites with altars, +pentagrams, melted candle wax in ritually significant colors, all +frequently involving innocuous teenage antics but sometimes attributable to +small non-Christian groups who show no criminal involvement. + + Law enforcement officals flock to training seminars about satanic +cults and crime. The seminars offer a world view that interprets both the +familiar and explainable--and unfamiliar and poorly understood--as +increasing participation by Americans in satanic worship. The seminars +further claim that satanism has spawned gruesome crimes and aberrant +behavior that might presage violent crime. I suggest that the current +preoccupation with satanism and cults involves nothing new: the phenomenon +has a firm and documented historical and sociological context. I also +suggest that the news media have largely defined the law enforcement model +of cult activity since the evidence offered at cult seminars for cult +mayhem is nothing more than newspaper stories. Frequently, though, the +same news stories don't even attribute nasty incidents to cults, but the +police have been quick to infer from them cause-effect relationships +anyway. The law enforcement model of cult crime is ill-considered, based +on nondocumented secondary sources or other unsubstantiated information, +and is rife with errors of logic. Such errors include false analogies, +faulty cause-effect relationships, and broad, unsupported generalizations. +The cult crime model betrays an ignorance of a larger academic context of +anthropology, sociology, psychology, and history. + + Even the law enforcement literature makes the same mistakes. For +example, Law Enforcement News, a publication of the John Jay College of +Criminal Justice in New York, began an article on cult crime with a +titillating opener: "A l4-year-old Jefferson Township, N.J., boy kills his +mother with a Boy Scout knife, sets the family home on fire, and commits +suicide in a neighbor's backyard by slashing his wrists and throat. +Investigators find books on the occult and Satan worship in the boy's +room."/2 The article, then, implied some connection between reading books +on the occult and the murder/suicide. But did the boy have a collection of +spiders? A stack of pornographic magazines under his bed? A girlfriend +who just jilted him? A history of psychiatric treatment for depression? +Newspaper accounts never mention other attributes of a crime scene since +only those touched by a nameless, faceless evil will suit the reader's +hunger for an explanation of why good boys do terrible things. And the +same newspaper article will be reproduced and circulated at cult seminars +to substantiate the satanic connection. + + The cult crime model is in part driven by Fundamentalist Christianity. +The most notable newsletter circulating among cult crime investigators, the +File l8 Newsletter, follows a Christian world view in which police +officers, who claim to separate their religious views from their +professional duties, nevertheless maintain that salvation through Jesus +Christ is the only sure antidote to satanic involvement, whether criminal +or noncriminal, and point out that no police officer can honorably and +properly do his or her duty without reference to Christian standards. But +more of File l8 Newsletter in a moment. Other cult crime seminar speakers +make a living at it: Thomas Wedge, a former deputy sheriff, maintains a +Baptist line of thinking at his seminars by beginning with his brand of +"Theology l0l."/3 And while cult seminar presenters caution about +respecting First Amendment rights of citizens practicing unusual beliefs, +the same officers can't help but inflict their bias on audiences: anything +that is not mainstream Christianity is dubbed a "non-traditional belief." +Cult officers distribute handouts at seminars showing symbols to identify +at crime scenes, accompanied by their meanings. The cult cops attribute +fixed meanings to the symbols as if satanists world-wide universally use +the symbols in precise configurations with identical meanings. The +handouts typically attribute no sources but many derive from Christian +material. For example, the peace symbol of the l960's is now dubbed the +"Cross of Nero." Someone decided that the upside-down broken cross on the +symbol somehow mocks Christianity. In fact, common knowledge has it that +the symbol was invented in the l950's using semaphore representations for +the letters "n" and "d" for nuclear disarmament. But cult officers go on +their merry way, uncritically disseminating borrowed, undocumented +information. + + Fundamentalist Christianity motivates the proponents of cult crime +conspiracy theories in other ways. For example, arguing against their +theory is, to them, attacking their world view. Special Agent Ken Lanning +of the FBI understands this quite well. Lanning, an agent who specializes +in child abuse cases, has offered skeptical observations about satanic +crime at many seminars, only to be branded a satanist himself by Christian +groups. Lanning has noted the irony of this, since he raises his own +family according to Christian principles. But to some cult crime officers, +arguing against their model denies the existence of Satan as a lurking, +palpable entity who appears to tempt and torture us. Satan becomes the +ultimate crime leader: the drug lord, the Mafia don, the gang leader. +Chicago police investigator Jerry Simandl has demonstrated the cult officer +world view in his work. He doesn't just investigate crimes, he also +interprets cult behavior--particularly that which threatens Christians-- +according to the cult seminar world view, interpretations that were once +the province of crusading clergy. He can tell whether a church vandalism +was mindlessly committed by kids or purposefully by a cult group: "For +example, an organ might be vandalized by having its keys broken. That +means the vandals were seeking to deny a congregation the ability to +'communicate with God' through music."/4 Simandl draws amazing inferences +about a crime that experiences the lowest clearance rate because we are +frequently left with no suspects and no evidence beyond the vandalism. And +it apparently occurs to no one to link a church vandalism to, say, a bias +crime, a term coming to the fore these days in law enforcement practice, a +term now taking on a legal definition.* But no: the vandalism so shocks +Christian sensibilities that the cult officer--armed with his new world +view that cults cause crime--can only interpret the crime as satanic. + + As I noted before, cult crime officers do not define their terms: the +words "cult," "occult," "satanic," and "ritual" find casual usage, the +words imbued with demonic and evil associations. Evil is, indeed, the +operative word. Law enforcers who meld cult crime theories with their +professional world views have transformed their legal duties into a +confrontation between good and evil. So back to the File l8 + + + ------------------------------------------------------------- +* "Bias crimes, or incidents of hate violence, are words or actions +intended to intimidate or injure an individual because of his or her race, +religion, national origin, or sexual preference. Bias crimes range from +threatening phone calls to murder. The impact of these types of offenses +is far more pervasive than impacts of comparable crimes that do not involve +prejudice because the consequences frighten an entire group. The fear that +such acts generate . . .can victimize a whole class of people." From +Justice Research, November/December l987, p. l, published by the National +Criminal Justice Assocation. + -------------------------------------------------------------- + +Newsletter. The publication's editor, police officer Larry Jones, believes +that a satanic network exists in all levels of society, a network that +maintains extreme secrecy to shroud its program of murder. Defensive about +the lack of physical evidence of cult mayhem, Jones states: + + Those who deny, explain away, or cover up the obvious + undeniably growing mountain of evidence often demand + statistical evidence or positive linkages between + operational suspect groups. At best, this demand for + positive proof of a 'horizontal conspiracy' is naive. . . + + Consider the possibility that the reason supposedly + unrelated groups in different localities over various + time periods acting-out in a similar manner, is that + consistent directives are recieved [sic] independently + from higher levels of authority. Instead of being + directly linked to each other, these groups may be + linked vertically to a common source of direction and + control. This 'vertical conspiracy model' is consistent + with the 'authoritarian'. . .structure seen in many cult + and occult groups. + +Those who accept this theory as a reasonable possibility need to rethink +the meaning, scope, and effects of the term conspiracy!/5 In other +words, if the evidence doesn't seem to fit a particular conspiracy theory, +just create a bigger conspiracy theory. Other hints of File l8 +Newsletter's Fundamentalist bias show through in other ways. Writer Arthur +Lyons recounted receiving a copy of the newsletter accompanied by an +article from a Christian magazine, Passport, entitled, "America's Best Kept +Secret."/6 The article described the "best-kept secret" as the conspiracy +of satanists in America among all classes and races, and the article +further noted the "Wicca Letters," a spurious document which offers a +blueprint for takeover by satanists. Jones has apparently not decided to +abandon Passport of late: in a recent issue of File l8 Newsletter (Volume +IV, No. 89-4) the Passport article is once again available with an +accompanying videotape for "an effective training combination." But Jones +and other cult officers impose any model they can contrive on a hodge-podge +of ideas, claims, exaggerations, or suppositions. + + For example, cult investigators would have us believe that cult +practitioners learn skills in the vivisection of livestock and household +pets. One investigator, retired police captain Dale Griffis, says that +"occultists will stun the animal on his back with an electric probe. Then +they will spray freon on the animal's throat. . .The heart's still pumping +and they will use an embalming tool to get the blood out. It's fast and +efficient. Hell, the farmer heard the animal whine, and he was there +within five minutes."/7 + + A sheriff's investigator, in a memorandum about cattle mutilations, +interviewed a young woman who claimed to be an ex-satanic cult member who +had mutilated animals. Her cult, which consisted of "doctors, lawyers, +veterinarians" were taught by the vets how to perform the fatal surgery. +The animal's blood and removed organs, it seems, were used for baptismal +rites. She further related: + + When using the helicopter [the cult members] sometimes + picked up the cow by using a homemade. . .sling. . .and + they would move it and drop it further down from where + the mutilations occurred. This would account for there + not being any footprints or tire tracks. . .When using + the van trucks they would also have a telescoping lift + which. . .was about 200 feet long mounted outside the + truck and would use that to extend a man out to the cow, + and he would mutilate it from a board platform on the end + of the boom and would never touch the ground. . .They some- + times do three or four cows./8 + Of course, the cult members went to such lengths because they delight in baffling the police. + + + The sheriff's investigator reported to his supervisor each detail of +this story from a convincing woman, but he was obviously unacquainted with +a principle of logic, Occam's Razor. This principle suggests that when +faced with two hypotheses for an explanation, each of which can explain the +phenomenon, one chooses the simpler. The investigator never considered +here the work of a predator, or even the action of a vandal. Of course, +news accounts of such livestock deaths, particularly if related by cult +officers, will attribute deaths to cultists, and newspapers will use one of +my favorite adverbs for such activities: the animal was killed and organs +were surgically removed. Did a surgeon do the work? Can a police officer +tell the difference between a hole in a cow's head put there by a bullet, +scalpel, or predator's bite? But back to Occam's Razor. Imagine the +woman's story: trucks with 200-foot booms are not plentiful and would +appear conspicuous in rural America, particularly when the cultists call in +helicopter air support. + + In other areas, cult crime officers simply deny facts. For example, +one of the recent murders dubbed satanic by cult officers was that of +Stephen Newberry, a teenager from Springfield, New Jersey, whose friends +bashed him to death with a baseball bat. Even though Larry Jones quotes +local investigators, a prosecutor, a psychologist, and an academic cult +expert who claimed that no satanic sacrifice of Newberry occurred but +instead blamed drug abuse, Jones nevertheless offers the opinion that the +experts + + do not give credit to the strong influence of the + tenets of the satanic belief system over its initiates. + In some cases the subjects become involved with satanism . . . + prior to the onset of family problems. . . [T]he only true and + lasting solution to 'devil worship' or satanicinvolvement is a + personal encounter with true Christianity . . ./9 + + Jones's earlier guess that a "vertical conspiracy" might exist, that a +higher authority directs groups to murder as a form of worship to Satan +within an authoritarian cult led by a charismatic leader, is a ghost of the +cult officer's mind: the police have identified no such groups. + + Characteristically, law enforcement cult seminars all parley the same +model of satanic cults, circulating the same second-hand information, most +of it without documentation or sources for quotations. The model convinces +many because it takes phenomena familiar to the officer and imbues them +with new meanings: officers learn a new vocabulary to describe old +phenomena and therefore see the cult problem as a new threat to public +order. + + The self-proclaimed cult experts who teach the seminars advise +officers not to interfere with constitutionally-protected civil liberties, +yet proceed to do just that. Investigator Bill Lightfoot, Richmond, +Virginia, Bureau of Police, recommends confiscating books on the occult +whenever law enforcers find them during investigations (ritual crime in- +service seminar, Petersburg, VA, September l3, l988); other cult experts +such as Dale Griffis have advised officers to ask public libraries to turn +over to police lists of patrons who have borrowed books on the occult./10 +The same self-proclaimed experts take the bigoted stand that because a +person commits a vile crime and identifies himself as a satanist, then by +extension all satanists must have condoned the crime; the crime must be +sanctioned by the satanic order or church. That relationship between the +person and the belief, then, justifies police surveillance of non-Christian +groups. By contrast, we don't follow the same reasoning when Christians or +Jews commit crimes. In Richmond recently, police arrested a man who had +years ago murdered his family. He had since been living under a new +identity with a new wife. The fact that the murderer was a conservative +churchgoing Christian did not lead anyone to label his acts as Christian +crime, but if the man had professed a belief in Satan, or in any other so- +called "non-traditional belief," such as Yoruba, voodoo or hoodoo, cult +cops would be quick to label the crime as evidence of cult activity in +America. + + Larry Jones provides an example. In his File l8 Newsletter, he +discusses some "non-traditional" beliefs and ends up finding fault even +where he can't connect crime with the belief. In a discourse on Wicca +witchcraft, he posits, for example, that any belief system must set +absolute standards of conduct. Relative ones won't do because they "open +the door to excesses."/11 So in a treatment of Wicca he can only find +fault by abstracting this standard of absolute conduct that measures +somehow the legitimacy of belief systems. While concluding nevertheless +that Wicca is benign and that its practitioners claim no connection with +satanism, Jones lumps Wicca in with "Luciferian" Aleister Crowley with his +ties to Black Magic organizations. Larry Jones forgets that if a belief +system "opens its door to excesses," the history of Christianity provides +no small example of excesses committed for holy purposes. + + One doesn't condemn Christianity because Jim Jones and his group--all +Christians--committed mass suicide or because the Pope spurred a murderous +crusade in the Middle East some centuries ago. Whether or not people can +get criminal ideas from belief systems--whether from Buddhism, +Christianity, voodoo, Islam, or anything else--has little to do with the +belief system but rather with a person's own psychological make-up. And in +this realm the police have no jurisdiction. It is not a law enforcement +responsibility to guess at what might prompt a citizen to commit a crime. +Police arrest people who commit crimes under the influence of alcohol, but +we don't blame the alcohol. People who have domestic disputes live in +homes with guns and knives, but we don't take away such weapons to prevent +a crime. + + In the cult crime seminars, cult officers give a disjointed history of +satanism and witchcraft and usually peg two contemporary satanists who have +molded the philosophy of their movement: Aleister Crowley and Anton LaVey. +Crowley, described in police seminars as an "influential satanist," +although indulging in pagan shenanigans during the early part of the +century, promoted the Order of the Golden Dawn and the Ordo Templi +Orientis, "the largest practicing satanic cult operating today," according +to Griffis (advanced ritualistic crime seminar, Richmond, VA, September 22, +l989). Further, say the police, the main belief fostered by groups +deriving from Crowley's legacy involves "sexual perversion." + + LaVey, on the other hand, a former police photographer and circus +performer, founded the Church of Satan in San Francisco in l966 at the +zenith of Haight Ashbury hippiedom. Police officers teach that LaVey's two +books, The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Rituals Book, can be dangerous. +In particular, cult officers cite LaVey's nine principles of the Church of +Satan which include: + + l. Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence! + + 5. Satan represents vengeance, instead of turning the + other cheek! + + 8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they + lead to physical or mental gratification!/12 + + +Cult officers maintain that LaVey's dicta foster in his followers the +attitude, "If it feels good, do it," thus justifying criminal acts. + + Aleister Crowley, apparently, added a more wicked dimension to this +philosophy for in his Book of the Law he states, "Do what thou wilt shall +be the whole of the law."/13 Taken in context, however, the book consists +of a metaphorical jaunt through the ancient Egyptian pantheon full of +erotic and Masonic allusions. What Crowley said was not meant to be taken +literally, but figuratively. + + A reading of Crowley's text reveals that the damning statement refers +to people inevitably moving through their lives according to their +destinies, that people will act according to experience, impulse, and the +"law of growth." In other words, people are going to do what people are +going to do. Put another way, people are what they are. But Crowley did +not worship Satan nor spur his followers to worship Satan. + + I heard Investigator Lightfoot (noted earlier) give a cult crime +seminar (September l3, l988, Petersburg, VA) in which he held up a copy of +Crowley's book and said that short of obtaining one from a member of the +highly secretive Ordo Templi Orientis, one can only obtain a copy from an +obscure Pennsylvania occult bookstore. He said that he could not reveal +how he obtained his copy. I happened to examine the officer's copy, noted +the reprinting publisher's name and address, and called their customer +service representative. The company, Samuel Weiser, publishes quite a few +books under the New Age category. I asked how to obtain a copy of Crowley: +she replied that I need only send a check for $5.50 and I would soon +receive one. When I told her what Lightfoot had said about the difficulty +of obtaining a copy, she exclaimed, "But we'll sell it to anyone who asks!" +She apologized, though, because the book was only available in soft cover, +not hardback. + + LaVey, on the other hand, operates without mysticism or even a deity. +To the Church of Satan, the Evil One is no deity but rather a symbolic +adversary. The Church of Satan pulls a clever trick: + + 'What are the Seven Deadly Sins?' LaVey is fond of asking. + "Gluttony, avarice, lust, sloth--they are urges every + man feels at least once a day. How could you set your- + self up as the most powerful institution on earth? You + first find out what every man feels at least once a day, + establish that as a sin, and set yourself up as the only + institution capable of pardoning that sin./14 + + +LaVey, then, tries to subvert Christianity by offering what Christian +churches forbid. Since people's guilt, apprehension, and anxiety make them +ill rather than the urges themselves, the Church of Satan offers people a +release: indulge yourselves, says the Church, as long as you abide by the +law and harm no one. Some members have even found the Church of Satan +therapeutic: the Church engineered, for example, a psychodrama in which a +woman afraid of her domineering husband role-plays him to help reduce his +menacing effect on her. An anthropologist confirmed the therapeutic value +of Church of Satan membership for some people years ago in an academic +study based on months' long participant observation./15 + + Church of Satan deities even invoke fictional sources, such as H.P. +Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, and Ursula LeGuin. Writer Arthur Lyons observed, +"In joining the Church of Satan, these people not only managed to inject a +little mastery and exoticism into their otherwise banal lives, they +achieved a mastery of their own fates by the practice of ritual magic."/l6 + + If LaVey's ideology is contrived of fiction, symbolism, and a +deliberate antidote to Establishment Christianity, and Crowley retailed in +what we now call New Age thinking, why the law enforcement interest? Cult +officers focus on these two because they have published, because their +philosophies are within easy reach. They make easy targets. One article +in a law enforcement journal even pointed out that LaVey uses a symbolic +Satan and noted in context that the Church of Satan condemns sex crimes +including bestiality, but nevertheless stated, "It seems contradictory for +a group to encourage all forms of sexual expression, and at the same time +place parameters on that activity."/l7 + + Again, in the fashion of Larry Jones, law enforcers can't resist +criticizing others' beliefs. Consider, for a moment, law enforcers +teaching cult seminars by parading books by LaVey, Crowley, and others, +noting the dangerous ideas these books represent. But what is this? Is +this crime prevention? Is crime prevention served by providing officers +with lists of dangerous books? If we wanted to alert officers to books +that might incite people to slug it out, we'd also have to list The +Autobiography of Malcolm X, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, the Bible, the +Koran, to name a few. + + But some officers claim that books on the occult have some inherent +force of evil, that weak-minded people may pluck criminal ideas from them. +One law enforcement book went so far as to state, "[The authors] urge you +to continue your education in [satanism] by reading as widely as possible +on the subject. But note: intense study of resource books and materials by +occult sources or practitioners is hazardous. Preferred is studying +overviews and synopses. . .Study and/or experimentation are to be +avoided."/l8 I have tried to show with Crowley and LaVey that their own +purported guides to the occult hold no particular power or force other than +what readers may impart to them. The satanic or occult books that cult +officers use for show-and-tell either derive from scholarly sources or +represent modern invention. Few can be traced to some remote, pre- +Christian occult mysticism. + + Cult officers not only cite LaVey and Crowley as some compendia of +occult knowledge rising from the dim horizon of ancient history, but also +cite as dangerous the occult symbols on rock music albums, the songs' +lyrics, and the fantasy characters that appear in the popular game, +Dungeons and Dragons. Yet as the game's designers take pains to point out, +the D&D gods derive largely from the imaginations of game designers and the +encyclopedia./19 + + Cult investigators have constructed four general levels of satanic or +cult involvement. The outer, or fourth level, finds the "dabblers," mostly +children, teenagers, or young adults who might play with satanic bits and +pieces. Supposedly Dungeons and Dragons, heavy metal rock music, Ouija +boards and the like rope kids into the occult. Investigator Lightfoot, +like many other cult cops, maintains that satanic messages are present in +rock lyrics when the music is played backwards. But cult officers don't +distinguish between the presence of messages and their efficacy; they do +not critically discuss what effect the messages have nor agree on their +actual wording, and never describe how kids' brains are supposed to +assimilate the messages anyway. No studies prove the efficacy of +subliminal messages, satanic or otherwise. + + Cult officers strike at Dungeons and Dragons as the essential evil +where kids are concerned, estimating that anywhere from 95 to l50 +documented deaths of children exist that can be attributed to the game. +While similar figures appear in the press, the fact is that outside of +reporters' suggestions, no documented killing or suicide exists directly +attributable to playing the game. No reputable authority has ever detected +a causal link between playing D&D and anything but a healthy adventure in +the creative imagination. + + The next level of involvement includes self-styled satanists, the +killers such as John Wayne Gacey or Henry Lee Lucas. These men, social +isolates and psychopaths, invented or borrowed satanic trappings to justify +their crimes. This idea is the single most plausible component of the cult +crime model: sociopaths or psychopaths may choose an ideology that helps +them reconcile their crimes with their conscience. + + The second level of satanists we have already discussed, the +organized, public groups such as the Church of Satan or the Temple of Set. +While cult officers are forced to admit that such groups have small, fluid +memberships with doctrines that oppose violence and crime, the same +officers recommend placing them under surveillance because they may harbor +criminals or breed psychopaths. By this logic,then, we will have to do the +same for most Christian churches. What's more, no one even knows how many +cults exist in the United States. Estimates vary from 500 groups on up, +with total memberships from l50,000 to over ten million. Which brings us +back to the word "cult" and its lack of definition. + + What and who are cults? Notoriously lacking from cult seminars is the +voice of the "non-traditional belief." Law enforcers declare themselves +experts in and give seminars on groups whose members they've never met. +They interpret signs and symbols of groups that may not even exist. The +scholar of comparative religion Gordon Melton has noted that, "The term +'cult' is a pejorative label used to describe certain religious groups +outside of the mainstream of Western religion."/20 Melton's approach to +surveying cults, which he has published in The Encyclopedia of American +Religions and Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America, prefers to remove +bias and terms other beliefs as "alternative religions." I refer you to +Melton for further discussion of cults, sects, churches, their definitions +and attributes. + + Finally we reach the last level of satanic involvement, the real evil +meanies, the traditional satanists. These folks belong not to different +denominations of the same thing but rather to an international megacult +tightly organized in a clandestine hierarchy. Dale Griffis has been +selling law enforcers on the model of these people as driven by mind +control methods, slavishly participating in cult ceremonies including +sexual assault, mutilation, murder, to name the most important activities. +These satanists' belief in magic propels them to sacrifice people: they +release some primal energy force through killing which enriches the +participants. The abuse of children itself is a form of worship. While +these satanists use their own children for sacrifice, satanists sometimes +collect their lambs for slaughter at daycare centers. For example, +Lightfoot noted one daycare center at which parents dropped off their kids +at the start of the day, whereupon the daycare staff herded the kids onto +busses, took them to an airfield, flew them to a ceremonial site, used them +for rituals, sexually assaulted them and so on, then returned them to the +daycare center by the end of the day. The parents picked up their kids, +none the wiser. + + Supposedly, then, we have much to fear from these satanists. Ex- +deputy sheriff Thomas Wedge, who makes a living giving cult seminars, says, +"It doesn't matter what you and I believe. It's what they believe that +makes them dangerous . . .For the first time, we in law enforcement are +dealing with something we can't shout at. . .can't handcuff."/21 Larry +Jones has echoed the same sentiment, even pointing out that Christian +police officers are particularly well qualified to confront the menace. +Cult officers say that the ranks of secret satanists boast the +intelligentsia of our society, hence the moneyed power behind the rituals. +Patricia Pulling, a mother whose son committed suicide which she attributes +to playing Dungeons and Dragons and who founded Bothered About Dungeons and +Dragons (BADD), maintains that satanic ranks include "doctors, lawyers, +clergymen, even police."/22 + + Despite this large-scale conspiracy, police still have uncovered no +evidence of cults' murderous activities. Police say that the lack of +evidence owes to the cults' success: cultists eat bodies or dispose of +them without a trace. FBI's Ken Lanning has pointed out many times that +human history cannot produce a single example of any large scale organized +murder (on the order of 50,000 human sacrifices a year, as some cult +officers claim) without someone breaking ranks sooner or later. No such +enterprise has ever existed, one that can commandeer so many people to +carry out for so long thousands and thousands of violent crimes. People in +any group change their minds, get jealous, build empires, develop +rivalries, disagree, ally themselves in factions. Why should satanists be +any different? + + Cult officers cite two prime examples of the work of traditional +satanists: cult survivors' stories and child abuse cases. Cult survivors +are the offspring of satanic parents bred to a life of abuse and witnessed +murders. The prototype survivor is Michelle Smith who, with her +psychiatrist husband, Lawrence Pazder, wrote Michelle Remembers (l980). By +her own admission, Smith endured a rough, unhappy childhood with a violent, +alcoholic father. After years of psychotherapy with Pazder, a new story +emerged. Without prompting, Smith entered a trance in which she regressed +to a childhood persona. In that persona, she told of ceremonies she had +witnessed replete with black candles, black drapes, goblets, dismembered +bodies, sexual abuse, having dismembered baby limbs rubbed on her, +imprisonment in a snake-infested cage, confrontations with red spiders, and +watching satanists rend kittens with their teeth. And all of this through +the introduction of Michelle to satanism by her mother. Some curious loose +ends remain, though. Smith's father denied the incidents, Smith loved her +mother very much, as did her two sisters, not mentioned in the book, who +never witnessed any satanic involvement. One sister has been deeply +distressed at Smith's representation of her mother. Not mentioned either +was the Catholic Pazder's divorce, Smith's conversion as a Catholic and her +own divorce in order to marry Pazder, practices frowned upon by the +Catholic Church, yet the book extols Catholic ceremonies and ritual as a +way to combat Smith's terror./23 + + Nevertheless, Pazder reacts to the lurid stories of his patient thus: +"'I happen to believe you. . .for many reasons . . .but mostly for what I +feel with you. It feels real. . .I think the way you are expressing the +experience is very touching. It is authentic as an experience."/24 +Remember, this is a psychiatrist's talk, not a police officer's. Feeling +the authenticity of Smith's experience may aid a physician's clinical work. +Police officers must approach such stories differently. Smith is cited as a +Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) sufferer, a complex phenomenon that +afflicts some genuinely abused people, but not others. For a fuller +clinical description consult the DSM-IIIR, or Diagnostic and Statistical +Manual of Mental Disorders, third edition, revised, l987. Recent research +even reveals that distinct physiological changes accompany personality +changes in MPD sufferers. Such changes include rapidly appearing and +disappearing rashes, welts, scars, switches in handwriting and handedness, +allergies, vision changes and even color blindness. Such symptoms might +easily confuse and alarm an investigator. + + The preoccupation of cult officers with MPD sufferers presents police +with some contradictions. On the one hand, police cite the growing number +of cult survivor stories and their sameness as evidence of the satanic +underground (that is, people who have never met telling identical tales). +Yet most MPD sufferers, usually young women, do not present verifiable +stories. None has yielded physical evidence of crime other than +physiological symptoms which are part and parcel of MPD anyway. Hypnosis +for police purposes produces no results. MPD sufferers can take years to +interview to ascertain even a few facts. + + But another interpretation of cult survivors' claims can be offered. +As Ken Lanning has noted, he has been unable to find accounts by cult +survivors of Smith-like tales before the publication of her book. The mass +media have fanned Smith's experience through the tabloids and TV sets of +the world, supplemented by the slasher films and television shows that +produce quite creative and believable monsters. Some MPD sufferers +describe ceremonies and rituals that can only be traced to fiction since +many of them have no historic derivation. + + Stories of ritual abuse (that is, abuse committed incidental to a +ritual as a form of propitiation, as cult officers use the term) present no +new phenomena, as folkorist Jan Harold Brunvand has described in his +popular books about urban legends, The Choking Doberman (l984) and The +Mexican Pet (l986). Stories of abduction and mutilation of children, plus +regular appearances of Satan pervade European and American history. +Brunvand describes urban legends as "believed oral narratives," though not +necessarily believed wholely by their narrators all of the time. Some +stories are rumor, or "plotless unverified reports" as opposed to the +legend, or the "traditional believed story." Most importantly, "urban +legends. . .often appear to be 'new' when they begin to spread, but even +the newest-sounding stories may have gone the rounds before. A 'new urban +legend,' then, may be merely a modern story told in a plausible manner by a +credible narrator to someone who hasn't heard the story before, at least +not recently enough to remember it."/25 + + One can find abundant folklore literature--particularly the +dictionaries of folkore motifs--which contain all the satanic stories that +appear in the cult seminars, folklore with a very long history. I'll give +an example of a recurring urban myth the spreading of which takes place +every few years. A spurious police circular found its way through South +Carolina a few years ago telling of an LSD-impregnated Mickey Mouse +transfer, thus endangering children./26 Without verifying the circular, +the Pendleton, South Carolina, Police Department warned the community about +the transfers. After the public sufficiently worried itself, someone +checked out the source and found it was bogus. The same story, with the +same anonymous police circular, recently traveled throughout New Jersey +alarming citizens and police./27 + + In some cases, police have tried to keep citizens from believing +macabre stories about garden variety violence. In Eloy, Arizona, a +murdered man turned up in a trash bin, having died of head injuries, his +throat slashed. Nevertheless, the police had been powerless to stem local +rumors which persisted in creating the story that the victim had his chest +opened up, his heart ripped out, his blood sucked./28 In Roanoke, high +school faculty and some law enforcers have perplexedly tried to locate a +gang of violent youths, The Posse, to whom students attribute much violence +and disruption, but the local police have begun to suspect that the gang +doesn't exist. The Roanoke County Sheriff said, "All you have to do is get +two kids talking at a table in the cafeteria. Two other kids at the next +table hear half the conversation, and a rumor is spread."/29 + + Sociologist David Bromley of Virginia Commonwealth University +classifies such tales into three categories, one of which is the subversion +myth where many satanic tales fit. These myths are "cautionary tales," +stories that reveal tensions which "emanate most directly from pervasive +anxieties about dangers to children."/30 Another sociologist, Jeffrey +Victor, tracked down satanic rumors in western New York, stories which +became widespread and publically accepted, stories Victor likened to a +"collective nightmare." Throughout the region, rumors of cult meetings, +animal killings, ritual drinking of blood, and an impending sacrifice of a +"blond, blue-eyed virgin" reached a peak of hysteria on Friday the +thirteenth of May, l988./31 In this case, the Jamestown, New York, Police +Department acted with remarkable restraint and insight and even forestalled +a mob bent on vengeance. The police headed off a group of armed and angry +citizens that showed up at a rumored cult site. But another site, a +warehouse rumored to harbor cult meetings, received thousands of dollars in +damage. + + I'll give you another example of the police response to myth and +hysteria. The Allenstown, New Hampshire, Police Department received +reports a few months ago that six cats had been found hanging from a tree, +a decapitated dog turned up nearby, and the sound of drums could be heard +in a state park at night. A woman walking her dog came upon what was +described as a makeshift altar supporting a carcass of a mutilated beaver. +The beaver had been skinned. Another beaver turned up, found upright +surrounded by stakes. The police decided to turn to cult officer Sandi +Gallant, San Francisco Police, for help, who--though in San Francisco and +unable to inspect the animals--interpreted the findings as indicative of +satanic rituals. Since the carcasses were found near May l, the cult +officer said that the recent Walpurgis Night, a satanic holiday, probably +stimulated the sacrifices. The sergeant in charge of the investigation +worried about these events, linking those who sacrificed animals to drug- +taking, listening to heavy metal music, a view confirmed by a local Baptist +minister who believed the devil responsible. The sergeant wanted to find +the satanic group behind this. Characteristically, he said, "Their freedom +of worship is protected. . .but we want to monitor them."/32 The next day, +the Manchester, New Hampshire, Union Leader ran an editorial which stated, +"We have reached a sorry state of affairs when following the Devil is +defined as 'worship'. . ."/33 + + Within a few days, the mystery unravelled. In fact, no dead cats were +found in trees. The beavers were legally trapped in the state park. Other +dead animals reported by local residents were ones killed on the road and +stacked off the road for later pick-up./34 But even though the phenomena +turned out to be mundane, other law enforcers didn't remember the follow-up +news story but only the original news report. After the whole incident +passed from the headlines, the mayor of Manchester tried to ban the +appearance of a heavy metal band in town because they would stimulate more +incidents similar to what occurred in Allenstown, forgetting that the +Allenstown events had non-satanic explanations./35 + + In another incident, a few years back in Brown County, Indiana, a New +Age group called the Elf Lore Family (ELF) arranged to have a public +gathering at a public park. ELF posters around town mentioned camping, +feasts, dancing, "New Age workshops," "bardic tales and tunes," and other +similar events. Many of the organizers described themselves as witches and +even distributed "witchcraft fact sheets" to explain their beliefs./36 So +far, no problem. But by the ELF weekend gathering, a local church group +had planned a strategy to proselytize the ELFers, and the local sheriff's +department became involved through a deputy who had attended a cult seminar +given by two Indiana state police officers, self-proclaimed experts, who +had in turn received their information from cult consultant Dale Griffis. +Following the weekend, the local newspaper reported the event under the +title, "Satanic rites held at Yellowwood Forest," the article discussing +animal sacrifice, drinking blood in rituals, nude dancing, or dancing by +people in "devil-like costumes." Finally, the ELFers were seen eating "raw +flesh." The news reporter used one source for the article: the deputy +sheriff. Neither a local Baptist minister nor the park conservation +professionals nor the ELFers at all could corroborate the sacrifices, blood +drinking, nude dancing, or any of the other sensationalistic claims of the +local sheriff's department. The article dutifully noted, though, that +"[the sheriff's department] could not stop the satanic rites because of the +Constitutional right to freedom of religion that protected the +worshippers." But the ELFers are not satanic. The satanism was created by +the seminar-trained police who spent much time and effort watching the +ELFers simply because they were not Christians celebrating in a +conventional way. The sheriff's department, by feeding information to a +gullible journalist, created a new myth: the news article then becomes a +cult seminar handout proving that satanic activity is rampant in the USA. +An Indiana University folklorist who documented the event noted, "The +influence of second-hand opinions proved especially strong among the law +enforcement element." The preconceptions of the law enforcers colored +their perceptions of an innocuous camp-out, and thereby created a legend. + + Thus far I have mentioned cult expert Dale Griffis in several +contexts. Although Griffis appears to act out of concern for improving law +enforcement's handling of bizarre crimes, and although he certainly earns +no big bucks on the lecture circuit, his effort misleads and confuses. +Griffis, a retired police captain, used the title, "Ph.D." and other cult +cops refer to him as "Doctor Griffis." In truth, Griffis holds a doctorate +from Columbia Pacific University in California, a non-accredited non- +resident campus that offers low-cost degrees with only several months of +effort (according to the CPU brochure and detailed by John Bear in How to +Get the Degree You Want, Ten Speed Press, l982, and by William J. +Halterman, The Complete Guide to Nontraditional Education, Facts on File, +New York, l983). Primarily, CPU offers credit for life experiences, the +type of institution currently under scrutiny by Senate Bill l90 in +California which aims to tighten licensing standards for such "diploma +mills" (detailed in Community Crime Prevention Digest for May, l989, p. 8). +Griffis's degree is in law enforcement, based on a doctoral thesis, Mind +Control Groups and Their Effects on the Objective of Law Enforcement, which +carries no date and is even signed by Griffis with his title, "Ph.D." + + The dissertation reveals Griffis's cult pitch: almost a fourth of it +contains an ad misericordium argument that his message is grounded in +sincerity, fidelity to the police brother-and sisterhood, and concern for +our posterity. The following statement is typical: "I am a veteran member +of the 'Thin Blue Line'. that which lies between chaos and democracy" (p. +88). Griffis relies heavily on the work of Robert Jay Lifton (Thought +Reform and the Psychology of Totalism) to argue a priori that cults, +nebulously defined, deceptively recruit members, place them under control +of a charismatic leader, and direct members to commit crimes. To Griffis, +the link between the existence of cults and crime is also a priori. +Griffis even takes excursions into psychology with odd results: "Let it be +noted that a common factor among recruits is that a high percentage suffer +from sub-clinical depression" (p. 52). Griffis does not substantiate this +assertion, but as proof he offers that "recruiters carry out their +assignments with trained skills and precise detail. One only has to travel +through O'Hare Airport to see this in operation" (p. 53). Of the estimated +3000 cults in the USA (Griffis's estimate, not substantiated), he asserts +that "the interest, purpose, magnitude and ultimate goals differ from cult +to cult; however, all demand in common devotion, obedience, and ultimately, +submission" (p. 5l). Again, Griffis offers such statements repeatedly but +without substantiation, no critical review of pertinent literature on +cults, nor with any professional correspondence with academic experts. And +his dissertation has become his cult seminar platform. While the CPU +degree might academic standing somewhere, officers attending cult seminars +point to Griffis as the man with credentials in both worlds--the police +front line and the academy--to justify his role as cult ideologue. + + I can't discuss myths and legends without referring to the Matamoros +drug killings. When the news accounts first appeared in early April +concerning the discovery of bodies on a Mexican ranch near the Texas +border, the Associated Press dubbed the killings "satanic." That adjective +graced many newspaper headlines for weeks. Now, information concerning the +murders continues to be ambiguous because we have depended on second- and +third-hand information about them. The Mexican police promptly placed +their suspects before cameras to tell gruesome tales. We do not know much +of the backgrounds of the murderers in the drug gang, but recent evidence +suggests that the drug leader, Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, hobnobbed with +the Mexican city elite, providing drugs and limpias, or folk "cleansing +rites," recruited assistants from the northern Mexican prosperous families, +mostly young adults./37 Apparently, Constanzo did not employ the semi- +literate impoverished Mexicans from the northern part of their country, the +same type recruited for other criminal activities: gun and stolen vehicle +running and herding illegal aliens into the USA. + + Where does the satanic label come from? Rex Springston, a reporter +for the Richmond News Leader, decided to trace the label. In talking to +the American investigators cited in the news releases, he learned that none +of them classified the murders as satanic. Only the Texas attorney +general's assistant responded that the attorney general might have used the +label early on. So officials don't view the killings as satanic. Officials +now think that most of the murders victimized rival drug dealers, not +innocent people snatched off the street. The drug gang leader, Constanzo, +according to current thinking, was a Charles Manson who gathered whatever +symbolism and ritual he could to intimidate rivals and his own lackeys. So +he invented his own symbology (not a belief system, which he did not +invent) to justify his behavior, to offer his workers protection which he +was in fact powerless to provide, to convince people to risk their lives to +become involved with drug dealing where the monetary rewards for most are +meager. Matamoros represents violence associated with the drug trade with +a hint of borrowed religious ritual, nothing more. No evidence exists-- +insofar as details of the incident have been made public--of any +participation by Constanzo and his group in satanic activities, involvement +with a satanic organization, or human sacrifice to propitiate the devil. +By April l7, even the mass media had begun to focus on the incident as +drug-related, not satanic, almost one week after the first reports of the +killings./38 + + But although the Matamoros story is far from over, at least one local +police investigator still misrepresents the events, thus creating urban +myth. Detective Don Rimer, Virginia Beach Police, recently gave a seminar +citing the Matamoros killings as satanic. Rimer was quoted in the +newspapers as saying that the Matamoros killings "prove that human +sacrifices by Satanists are not simply 'urban myths.'"/39 "'Now, those +people who talked about the 'urban myth' and asked, 'Where are the bodies?' +are silent," the officer said to a citizens' group. Well, the Matamoros +business displaces nothing about urban myth, proves nothing about satanism, +and should be properly viewed in the context of Mexican border drug running +and its associated violence. + + The central aspect of satanic crime which has seared the American +conscience is child abuse. Beginning with a daycare center in Manhattan +Beach, California and another in Jordan, Minnesota, in l983, stories of +ritual abuse of children in daycare centers has spread to over l00 American +cities. At the core of such stories, one finds stories by children. The +same stories, uncorroborated by physical evidence or adult testimony, have +resulted in indictments of innocent people, their careers forfeited to the +publicity. In the most comprehensive and critical examination of such +investigations to date (conducted by the Memphis, Tennessee, Commercial +Appeal), investigative journalists found that the system of prosecution +fostered the spread of unfounded allegations. One social worker observed, +"During the course of the investigation, virtually every name that was ever +mentioned became a suspect." Alarmed at the manner in which parents and +therapists prompted and rewarded children's testimony, a psychiatrist +commented, "If [the investigator] got a child to the point where they +believe [the child] helped kill a baby or eaten flesh, I want to know +whether you're a child abuser."/40 + + The Jordan case, for example, began with a single child's allegation +of molestation and quickly thereafter 60 children began to claim the same +abuse. The phenomena reported by the children included being bussed to +ceremonial sites, digging up coffins, dismembering bodies, being thrown +into shark pits, cooking and eating babies, nude photography, and having +foreign objects inserted into a rectum or vagina, performing oral sex on +daycare staff, and sacrificing animals. In the end, though, after heated +accusations, the FBI concluded that the children made up the stories of +murders and noted that the investigations had been so flawed that people +truly guilty of child molesting may have gone free. + + So what has happened? Many states conduct trials unhampered by rules +of evidence that apply to adults: all states have dropped the requirement +that children's stories be corroborated by evidence or adults' testimony. +Therefore an opportunity develops to suggest the story to the child: their +stories evolve through coaxing until a coherent narrative emerges. +Psychiatrist and child therapist Dr. Lee Coleman has noted that + + [i]n all too many cases, the interviews with the + children are horribly biased. The interviewers assume, + before talking with the child, that molestation has + taken place. The accused persons are assumed to be + guilty, and the thinly disguised purpose of the inter- + view is to get something out of the child to confirm + these suspicions. It is all too easy, with repeated + and leading and suggestive questions, to get a young + child so confused that he or she can't tell the + difference between fact and fantasy./41 + Dr. Coleman provided the Commercial Appeal with the + + +following interview between a social worker and a four-year-old: +Interviewer: What's Miss Frances doing while children are in the other +room? + +Child: I don't know. + +Interviewer: Come here. . .I want to talk to you a second. (Boy's name), +you do know. Look at me. Look at me. You know about the secret. But +see, it's not a secret any more, because (another child) told us about it +and (another child) told us about it, and your parents want you to tell us. +. .You can be a very good boy and tell us about it. . . + +Child: I don't know. + +Interviewer: Yes, you do. [Later, near the end of the interview, the +social worker asks if the same things happened to the boy that were +reported by other children.) + +Interviewer: She did it to you, too. + +Child: No. She didn't do it to me. + +Interviewer: It's not your fault, OK? + +Child: She didn't do it to me. + +Interviewer: Yes, she did; yes, she did (stroking the child's head). + + Some therapists and counselors--and police officers--inject into these +cases an ideology that presumes that children don't lie about abuse. We +have even created aids to encourage and facilitate children's stories. +Anatomically-correct dolls have proven useful, but not exclusively so: the +dolls themselves can constitute leading questions by suggesting abuse, or +the dolls themselves may have bodies so disproportionate and bizarre that +children can't use them. And recently two psychologists have estimated +that "for every person correctly identified as a child sexual abuser +through such techniques, four to nine are incorrectly identified."/42 In +abuse cases, children may undergo up to fifty interviews, most by parents +and therapists even before the police become involved. Again, the same +parents or therapists feel that the children must be believed because they +have neither the experience nor vocabulary to talk about sexual +molestation. But the parents and therapists ask leading questions, offer +rewards, and refuse to accept children's denials that molestation occurred: +the kids are called "dumb" for not admitting to abuse. + + Law enforcers must remember that they themselves and the therapists +pursue different goals in these investigations. Therapy overcomes trauma; +police investigate offenses for prosecution. Of danger to law enforcement, +one criminal justice academic noted that if in interviews, "children denied +victimization, then it was assumed they were concealing the truth, which +must be drawn out by some inducement or reinforcement. The therapeutic +process thus became an infallible generating mechanism for criminal +charges. . ."/43 Police must not simply believe the children; rather, as +FBI's Lanning urges, police must listen. Don't ignore the possibility of +bona fide molestation by losing a case in the pursuit of Satan. + + So where do we stand? Child abuse does exist. Some people commit +violent crimes while invoking the power of Satan. Such people may act with +others. But law enforcers cannot demonstrate the existence of a widespread +satanic conspiracy: the evidence doesn't exist. No evidence links fantasy +role-playing games to teen suicides. No evidence supports the idea that +daycare workers subject children to abuse in propitiation of Satan. No +evidence exists supporting the literal truth of cult survivors' claims. +Officers can and should stick to the Constitutional basics: they +investigate irregular behavior based on a well-founded and legally-defined +reasonable suspicion; they arrest based on probable cause. No one expects +police to ignore pentagrams drawn in blood at a homicide scene: complete +documentation of crime scenes has always been the rule. But we have no +justification for carrying on unwarranted explorations of the beliefs of +the unpopular few, or from waving books at seminars and pronouncing them +dangerous. + + Law enforcers have taken on the role of religious theorists. As +Gordon Melton observed sadly: + + The Satanic literature has been carried almost + totally by the imaginative literature of non- + Satanists--primarily conservative Christians who + describe the practices in vivid detail in the + process of denouncing them./44 + +Law enforcers do have tools adequate to do their jobs, if not always the +money to buy them. Advances in criminal investigation from the Automated +Fingerprint Identification System or from DNA typing promise to +revolutionize the business. The FBI's serial crime psychological profiling +model incorporates, without the satanic bias, the proper questions to ask +to correlate a possible criminal ideology to ritualized (that is, committed +similarly on multiple occasions) violent crimes. + + In short, law enforcers must remove the "cult" from cult crime and do +their jobs accordingly. Thank you. + + + References Cited + +1/Bromley, David G., and Shupe, Anson D., Jr. The Tnevnoc Cult. +Sociological Analysis, 40(4): 36l-366. l979 + +2/Clark, J.R. The macabre faces of occult-related crime. Law Enforcement +News, XIV (279, 280). October 3l, November l5, l988. + +3/Hyer, M. Blue Knights and the Black Art. The Washington Post, April l8, +l989. + +4/Clark, op. cit. 5/File l8 Newsletter, IV (89-l), l989. 6/Lyons, Arthur. +Satan Wants You. The Mysterious Press, New York, l988, p. l49. 7/Kahaner, +Larry. Cults That Kill. Warner Books, New York, l988, p. l46. + +8/Ibid., p. l48. + +9/File l8 Newsletter, op cit. + +10/ American Library Association, Office of Intellectual Freedom, +Memorandum, January/February, l988. 11/File l8 Newsletter, III (88-3), +l988, p. 7. + +l2/LaVey, Anton. The Satanic Bible. Avon Books, New York, l969, p. 26. + +l3/Crowley, Aleister. The Book of the Law. Samuel Weiser, Inc., York +Beach, Maine, l976 (reprint), p. 9. +l4/Lyons, p. lll. + +l5/Moody, E.J. Magic therapy: an anthropological investigation of +contemporary Satanism. In I.I. Zaretsky and M.P. Leone (eds.), Religious +Movements in Contemporary America. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, +l974. + +l6/Lyons, p. ll6. + +l7/Barry, R. J. Satanism: The Law Enforcement Response. The National +Sheriff, XXXVIII (l): 39, l987. + +l8/Smith, Lindsay E. and Walstad, Bruce A. Sting Shift. Street-Smart +Communications, Littleton, Colorado, l989, p. l04. + +l9/Stackpole, Michael. Game Manufacturers' Association. Personal +communication, l988. + +20/Melton, J. Gordon. Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America. Garland +Publishing Company, New York, l986, p.3. + +21/Hyer, op. cit. + +22/Briggs, E. Satanic cults said to entice teens with sex, drugs. +Richmond Times Dispatch, March 5, l988. + +23/Things that go bump in Victoria. Maclean's, October 27, l980. + +24/Smith, M. and L. Pazder. Michelle Remembers, Congdon and Lattes, Inc., +New York, l980, p. l93-4. + +25/Brunvand, Jan H. The Choking Doberman and Other "New Urban Legends" W. +W. Norton, New York, l984, p. 4-5. + +26/Ibid., p. l62. + +27/Kolata, G. Rumor of LSD-Tainted Tattoos Called Hoax, The New +York Times, December 9, l988. + +28/Satanism reports mostly rumor, detectives say. Tucson Citizen +(Arizona), December l9, l988. + +29/Hammack, L. Fears grow as rumors spread. Times and World News (Roanoke, +Virginia), November 25, l988. + +30/Bromley, David. Folk Narratives and Deviance Construction: Cautionary +Tales as a Response to Structural Tensions in the Social Order. In C. +Sanders (ed.), Deviance and Popular Culture, in press, p. ll. + +31/Victor, Jeffrey S. A Rumor-Panic About a Dangerous Satanic Cult in +Western New York. New York Folklore, XV (l-2): 23-49, l989. + +32/Recounted in Noonan, Veronica. Satanic Cult Killed Animals in +Allenstown, Police Say, Union Leader (New Hampshire), May 3, l989. + +33/Satanism in NH. Editorial in the Manchester Union Leader, May 4, l989. + +34/Zitner, Aaron. N.H. police chief discounts alleged signs of cult +activity, The Boston Globe, May 5, l989. + +35/Zitner, Aaron. Cult scare seen as overrated, The Boston Globe, May 28, +l989. + +36/Guinee, William. Satanism in Yellowwood Forest: The Interdependence of +Antagonistic World Views. Indiana Folklore and Oral History, l6(l): l-30, +l987. + + +37/Miller, Marjorie, and Kennedy, J. Michael. Potent Mix of Ritual and +Charisma. Los Angeles Times, May l6. Also, Debbie Nathan, investigative +reporter, El Paso, l989. + +38/Applebone, Peter. On North-South Line, Violence Grows, The New York +Times, April l7, l989. + +39/Crocker, Bonnie. Detective warns of Satanism, Daily Press (Newport News, +Virginia), June l0, l989. + +40/Charlier, T., and S. Downing. Justice Abused: A l980s Witch--Hunt, The +Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee). Six-part series printed in +January, l988. + +41/Coleman, L. Therapists are the real culprits in many child abuse cases, +Augustus, IX(6): 7-9, l986. + +42/Moss, D.C. "Real" Dolls Too Suggestive. American Bar Association +Journal, December l, l988, p. 24-26. + +43/Jenkins, P. Protecting Victims of Child Sexual Abuse: A Case for +Caution, The Prison Journal, Fall/Winter l988: 25-35. + +44/Melton, p. 76. + + - 3 0 - + diff --git a/religious documents/curricul.txt b/religious documents/curricul.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b9fce2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/curricul.txt @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +WICCAN CURRICULUM FOR FIRESTAR + +Note: sessions will be LONG (3 hrs. w/ break in the middle) and +there will be many people (hopefully), so MUST start no later +than 7:00 pm. In fact, earlier is much preferable. In any case, +sessions have to start on time! + +I. PHILOSOPHY/THEORY OF PAGANISM/WICCA +A. Historical Background + } one session +B. General overview of present sects & systems (specifically pagan) +C. Comparative religion - finding what is valuable in all Ways + (specifically non-pagan. Kabalism goes here, among other things) + D. Ethics +E. God/dess forms & names + } one session +F. Elements/Correspondences. Tools (as link to the practical, which + follows) +II. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS +A. Ritual (teach basic NROOGD here, ONCE), Ritual Drama. (The outer + structure of a working) +B. Active Psychic Skills - visualisation, energy + manipulation, etc. (The inner force of a working) + C. Psychic Healing +D. Trance/Astral Travel +E. Languages, Anthropology, Folklore. (Material for rituals!) +F. Scrying & other passive Psi +G. Environment/Earth studies. Primitive/wilderness skills. + H. Herbal lore & medicines. +I. Votive Art (have Diana as guest lecturer?) Pictures, + sculpture, etc. +J. Music/Poetry (forms, metres, tunes, chanting, drumming, etc.) +K. Spirits, Ghosts & other Bogeys (this one is for Don) +L. Magic & the Sciences (and this one is for Sean & David) +M. Do-it-yourself (incense/candle-making, equipment-construction, + ritual-writing, etc.). Whatever else was left out. + +Further notes: + +Each session will consist of: 1) An "attunement" by Robin, +lasting no more than 10 minutes (optional; depends on the desires +of the lecturer); 2) A talk by the lecturer putting forth the +issues, plus what s/he knows about them, lasting 30- 40 minutes; +4) A break; 5) further discussion and/or hands-on practise, +lasting 40 minutes. + +Handouts will include: reading lists, outlines, and whatever else +the lecturer provides in the way of xeroxes from books, pictures, +etc. + +During the warmer months, sessions can (and should!) be held +outdoors. "Field trips" to the UC Botanical Garden, Tilden Park, +and the beach, should be arranged. + +This makes 17 sessions. At one per month, the program will last +almost a year and a half, at the end of which, hopefully, +everyone will have the theoretical basis for a white cord. +Delivery of same is, of course, up to the discretion and/or whim +of You Know Who. + +There should be some way of evaluating progress, either self- +evaluation by the individual, or evaluation by us. What should +this way be? Homework? Essays? Testing? + +Progress, either self-evaluation by the individual, or evaluation +by us. What should this way be? Homework? Essays? + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cwcr.txt b/religious documents/cwcr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..78119fa --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cwcr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2588 @@ + + A COMMENTARY ON + + THE CHYMICAL WEDDING OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ: ANNO 1459 + + + FOREWORD + + +"The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz: Anno 1459" was written down +in 1604, and first published in Strasbourg in 1616, having been widely +circulated in manuscript during the intervening years. + +It was written down by Valentin Andreae, then a seventeen-year-old student in +Tubingen University, later to become a Lutheran pastor. Of him Rudolf Steiner +says: "His hand wrote it, his body was present; but through him a spiritual +power not then on earth wished to communicate this to men, in a way which at +that time was possible." 1 (Lecture, December 9, 1923). + +"The year 1459 in the title indicates the year in which, in a decisive and +actual way - the new Rosicrucian Movement was founded in the West."2 (Karl +Heyer: Lecture Course on the Historical Impulse of Rosicrucianism) (SEE NOTE +1) + +Rudolf Steiner speaks of Rosicrucianism as "a Mystery School having as its aim +the cultivation of an understanding of the Christ Mystery in a way suited to +the new era".3(Lecture: European Mysteries and their Initiates) It is a +continuation of The Order of the Grail and the Order of the Templars; its +contents are couched in different terms in succeeding centuries to meet +changes in human consciousness and changing human needs.2 + +When "The Chymical Wedding" was first written down, it was still possible to +convey spiritual revelations as they are here conveyed, in pictorial +Imaginations. Later, such Imaginations dried out into abstract, purely +conceptual thinking. Today the time is ripe to enliven the intellectual +consciousness into a renewed pictorial one. It is therefore in accordance +with the spiritual demands at this point of time that "The Chymical Wedding" +again begins to attract notice and that its beautiful sequences of imaginative +piectures again begin to speak to our hearts and understanding. + +Christian Rosenkreutz, the Founder of the Rosicrucian Movement, is in our time +the Keeper of the Gate, the spiritual leader of this modern age. "The +Chymical Wedding" tells of a spiritual adventure, a kind of initiation +journey, undertaken by him as the pioneer of a new way into the higher worlds +suited to our present epoch. It is therefore a book of great significance for +our time, one that it is important should be studied both for the deep +impression made by its Mystery pictures and for an understanding of its +spiritual revelations. We need it as a traveller needs guide-book and map +when he journeys into an unknown land; for the journey of which it tells is a +journey we must all take sooner or later. + +Who was, who is, Christian Rosenkreutz? (See Note 2) Rudolf Steiner has told +us that in the middle of the thirteenth century a child was born who had a +very special destiny. He came into the care of the twelve wisest men of that +age, who by world destiny were gathered in a certain spot in Europe. The +child was very carefully trained by them, and taught their twelve-fold wisdom. +As a young man, he became very ill; he took no nourishment; his body became +almost transparent; and finally he lay in a trance for some days. When he +returned to consciousness it seemed as if the twelve streams of wisdom had +been woven by him into an all-embracing wisdom. Soon after this he died, +having in this incarnation been kept withdrawn from outer earthly activity. +He was reborn in 1378 (1 The Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz) In 1406, when +he was twenty-eight years of age, he began a seven-year journey to many +Centres of Mystery Wisdom, returning in 1413, when he was thirty-five years of +age (see Note 3). He had gathered from these centres the essence of their +teaching and now grasped intellectually the radiant wisdom that had suffused +his feeling-life in the previous century. He was just over eighty years of +age when the experience came to him which is recounted in "The Chymical +Wedding"; at the age of 106 he died.(2 Fama Fraternitas Roseae Crucis - first +printed 1614) + +This individuality is said to have reappeared at the French Court at the time +of the French Revolution as the Comte de St. Germain. He warned the royal +family and the nobility of their approaching fate, but in vain. He gave to +the world the watchwords "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"; and though these +were misunderstood by the French Revolutionists in the first flush of wild +excitement, rightly interpreted they can become watch-words of our present +epoch and the key to the development of the future. (3 The Problems of Our Time) + +It is said that Christian Rosenkreutz is in almost continuous incarnation, +powerfully directing events from a hidden Centre, and always in the service of +the Christ Power. Those who wish to know of this important subject should +read The Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz, its Character and Purpose, by +Rudolf Steiner. + +Plato said of the myth of Isis and Osiris that it could be understood on +twenty different levels, and was true on all of them. This could equally be +said of "The Chymical Wedding." Our Commentary looks at its pictures on the +very simplest level; but for those who would go deeper a few slight +indications of other levels are given in the Notes. + +This booklet is the substance of a course of lectures given at Hawkwood +College, July 2-9, 1964. It is printed in response to requests from members +of the Course to have the material in a permanent form for further study. We +send it out in the hope that it may be of some pleasure and profit not only to +them but also to a wider circle of people interested in such matters, without +as well as within the Anthroposophical Movement. + +A distinguished Dutch lecturer who was present at the Course wrote later: "I +have started to read "The Chymical Wedding" and now I begin to love it. I can +read it ten times, like a child with its picture-book." This is in accord +with Rudolf Steiner's indication that all imaginative knowledge based on truth +is healing and health-giving, and that the best educator is this same +imaginative knowledge (1 Theosophy of the Rosicrucians), an indication which +points to the importance of study of such pictorial records of spiritual life +as this story. + +The outline of the story, which has been included for readers not already +familiar with the book itself, has of necessity had to be reduced to barest +essentials; but as far as possible we have retained the phraseology of the +first translation into English (made by Foxcroft in 1690), as this carries +with it something of the flavour of the language of the period in which it was +first written down. We understand that two unabridged translations into +modern English, one made in England, the other in America, will shortly be +available at the Rudolf Steiner Book Shop, 35 Park Road, London, N.W. 1, and +from New Knowledge Books, 18 Elizabeth Crescent, East Grinstead, Sussex. + +For this first tentative effort in understanding the story we have drawn +largely on Rudolf Steiner's three articles published in Das Reich (October +1917 to April 1918) entitled "The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz". +All quotations from these, (given in translation) are marked with an asterisks. +All other books and lectures quoted are by Rudolf Steiner unless otherwise +stated. + + OUTLINE OF THE STORY + + THE FIRST DAY + +On Easter eve I was sitting at my table in my cottage on a hilltop, preparing +my heart for the next day's festival, when all of a sudden there arose so +horrible a tempest that the hill whereon my little house was founded was like +to fly all in pieces. + +I feared this to be another trick of the devil, who had done me many a spite; +and now I felt my coat being twitched behind me. Hugely terrified, I turned +to look; and there I beheld a fair and glorious lady, in garments of sky-blue, +bespangled with golden stars, and with large and beautiful wings, full of +eyes, wherewith she could mount aloft and fly swifter than any eagle. In her +right hand was a golden trumpet, and in her left a great bundle of letters in +all languages, which she (as I afterwards understood) was to carry into all +countries. + +From among them she chose a small one and laid it reverently on the table. +Then, without speaking, she spread her wings and mounted upward, blowing so +mighty a blast on her gallant trumpet that for a full quarter of an hour +afterward the whole hill echoed thereof. + +I took up the letter in fear and trembling, and found it so heavy as almost to +outweigh gold. It was sealed with a little seal which bore a curious cross, +together with the inscription, "In this Sign conquer," at which I felt greatly +comforted, knowing that this sign was little acceptable, and much less useful, +to the devil. + +Inside I found this verse written, in golden letters on an azure ground: + + "This day, this day, this, this, + The Royal Wedding is. + If you by birth and by God's choice + Are bidden to this feast, rejoice! + Forthwith now to the mountain wend + Whereon three stately Temples stand, + And there see all from end to end. + Yourself examine first with care; + Let him who weighs too light beware; + No guest this Wedding can endure + Who keeps not watch and is not pure." + +As I read these warnings, all my hair stood on end. Seven years previously, I +had learned in a vision that one day I would be invited to a Royal Wedding; +and when I now calculated the positions of the planets, I found that this was +indeed the appointed time. But when I examined myself, as bidden by the +letter, and contemplated my blindness in mysterious things, my ticklings of +the flesh, my rearing of stately palaces in the air and other like carnal +designs, I was so overwhelmed by my own unworthiness that I swung between hope +and fear. The obscure words concerning the three Temples also afflicted me. + +At last I begged of my good angel that I might be rightly directed in my +sleep. + +In my sleep I found myself in a dark dungeon, fettered, with a multitude of +companions all struggling with their chains and swarming like bees over each +other. When presently we heard trumpets and kettle drums, and the dungeon was +uncovered, and a small light lowered into it, I contrived to slip from under +the rest and heave myself on to a boulder against the dungeon wall. + +Then an old man with ice-grey locks appeared at the edge of the opening, +calling for silence. He announced that, by the grace of his ancient Mother, a +rope would be let down seven times among us, and that whoever was able to +cling to it would be drawn up and set at liberty. + +When the Ancient Matron's servants let down the rope, I could get nowhere near +it, while the heaving of the rest was pitiful to see. After seven minutes a +little bell rang, and the rope was drawn up with four men clinging to it. +Again and yet again the rope descended, and each time a few more were drawn +up, those already released helping the servants to pull. + +At its sixth lowering, the rope swung aside, so that I was able to catch it, +and so beyond all hope came out, bleeding from a head-wound received from a +sharp stone on the way. + +Now the dungeon was covered again, and those of us who had been drawn up were +freed from our fetters, and our names recorded on a golden tablet. As we +thanked the Ancient Matron for our deliverance and took our leave of her, each +of us was given a piece of gold to spend by the way, stamped on one side with +the rising sun, and on the other with the letters D.L.S. + +As for me, I could scarcely well go forward for the wounds left on my feet by +the fetters. The Ancient Matron, seeing this, said to me: "My son, let not +this defect afflict you, but thank God, Who hath permitted you, even in this +world, to come into so high a light. Keep these wounds for my sake." + +Pondering my dream when I awoke, I well understood from it that God had +vouchsafed me to be present at this mysterious and hidden Wedding. So I rose +and arrayed myself in a white linen coat with a blood-red stole bound cross- +wise over my shoulders; then, with four red roses stuck in my hat, and taking +bread, salt and water for food by the way, I set out joyfully on my journey. + + THE SECOND DAY + +Now I went singing through a forest filled with Nature's rejoicings, emerging +on a green heath, where stood three tall cedar trees, to one of which was +fastened a tablet, offering a choice of four ways to the Wedding. + +The first it described as short but dangerous, leading into rocky places +scarcely possible to pass. The second was long, but easy provided we kept to +it and were guided by our magnet. The third was a royal road, which only one +in a thousand might follow. The fourth was a consuming way, encompassed by +fire and cloud, fit only for incorruptible bodies. + +The tablet warned us that once we had entered upon any of these ways there +could be no turning back, and that if we knew ourselves by the smallest fault +to be unworthy, we should not venture further. + +At these dire warnings, I sank down beneath the tree in great perturbation of +spirit. While I sat perplexed, pondering whether to turn back, and, if not, +which way to follow, I took out a slice of my bread from my bag and began to +eat. + +At once a snow-white dove fluttered down from the branches above, betaking +herself to me very familiarly, and I willingly shared my slice of bread with +her. But now a black raven darted down at the dove, who took refuge in +flight, the raven hastening after her and I after him. + +When I had chased the raven away, I bethought me of my bag and bread, left +behind beneath the cedar. But when I turned myself about, to go back to +retrieve them, a contrary wind was so strong against me that it was ready to +fell me; yet if I went forward, I perceived no hindrance. Looking about me, I +saw I was already, without my knowledge, entered upon one of the four ways - +the long, circuitous one. + +So all that day I followed this road, taking care to stray neither to the left +nor to the right. The way itself was so rugged that I was often in doubt +about it; but the dove had flown due south, so with the help of my compass I +kept strictly to that direction. + +At last, just as the sun was setting, I spied a stately Portal, set high on a +distant hill. So now I made mighty haste, to reach it before nightfall, seeing +elsewhere no other abiding-place. + +As I drew near, a venerable man in a sky-blue habit stepped forth, made +himself known as the Guardian of the Portal, and asked for my Letter of +Invitation. With what joy did I present it! + +When the Guardian heard my name and that I was a Brother of the Rose Cross, he +both wondered and seemed to rejoice at it, and treated me with abundance of +respect, saying: "Come in, my brother. An acceptable guest you are to me!" + +In exchange for my bottle of water, the Guardian gave me a golden token, and +with it a sealed letter for the Guardian of the Second Portal, entreating me +that when these stood me in good stead I would remember him. + +Dusk was now falling; and a beautiful Virgin, robed in sky-blue and bearing a +glorious torch, was lighting lanterns along the road to the inner Portal. To +this I hastened, and was dismayed to find it barred by a terrible chained +lion, who, as soon as he espied me, arose and made at me with great roaring. + +This awoke the Guardian, who was asleep on a slab of marble; he drove back the +lion, and, having read the sealed letter, greeted me with great respect, +crying: + +"Now welcome in God's name unto me, the man who of long time I would gladly +have seen!" + +In exchange for my salt, this second Guardian gave me a second token. + +By now the dusk had deepened, and a bell began to ring within the Castle. The +Guardian warned me to run apace, or I would not reach the innermost gate +before it closed for the night. The lights along the path were already being +extinguished, and I was thankful to have the Virgin's torch to guide me +through the darkness. As I entered the Third Portal at her very heels, the +gate clapped to so suddenly that part of my coat was locked out, and, since +its Guardian could not be prevailed upon to open the gate again, had to be +left behind. + +The Third Guardian now wrote my name in a little book of vellum, and gave me a +third token, together with a new pair of shoes, for the floor of the Castle +was pure shining marble. My old pair I bestowed on a beggar who sat by the +gate. + +Two pages, each bearing a torch, now conducted me into the Castle, and left me +alone in a little room, where, to my terror, invisible barbers cut away the +hair from the crown of my head, but on my forehead, ears and eyes they +permitted my ice-grey locks to hang. The hair cut off was carefully gathered +up by invisible hands and carried away. + +Now a little bell began to ring; and the two pages, returning, lighted me +through many doors and up winding stairs to a spacious hall, where there was a +great multitude of guests -- emperors, kings, princes, lords, noble and +ignoble, rich and poor, all sorts of people, including some I knew well, and +as yet had never any reason to esteem; these, when I enquired of them as to +their route, I found had mostly been forced to clamber over the rocks. + +When, presently, trumpets sounded to bid us to the feast, these were they who +scrambled for the highest seats, so that for me and some other sorry fellows +there was hardly a little nook left at the lowermost table. But next to me +was sitting a very fine, quiet man, who discoursed of excellent matters. + +Meat was now brought in, and served by invisible hands, everything so orderly +managed that it seemed as if every guest had his own attendant. When one +boasted that he could see these invisible servitors, one of them reached him +so handsome a cuff upon his lying muzzle that not only he, but many who were +by him, became as mute as mice. + +As they grew warm with wine, these guests of the lewder sort began to vaunt of +their abilities; one heard the movements of the Heavens, the second could see +Plato's Ideas, the third could number the atoms of Democritus. One would prove +this, another that; and commonly the most sorry idiots made the loudest noise. + +In this tumult I had almost cursed the day wherein I had come hither, and I +opined that the Lord Bridegroom would have done well to seek some other fool +than me for his wedding. But this was really one part of the lameness whereof +I had dreamed. + + +Suddenly we heard strains of such delicate music that the babel was hushed and +no one spoke one word for the space of half an hour. Then came louder music, +all so master-like as if the Emperor of Rome had been entering. The door +opened of itself, and many thousands of lighted tapers entered, marching of +themselves, and followed by a gliding gilded throne, on which sat the Virgin +whose torch had lighted me to the Castle. She was robed no longer in sky- +blue, but in snow-white, sparkling with purest gold. + +She welcomed us in the name of the Bride and the Bridegroom, but warned us +that next morning we must all be weighed, to determine which were worthy to +stay and assist at the Wedding. Any who felt assured of his own worthiness +was now to be conducted to his bed-chamber; any who felt doubtful was to spend +the night in this hall. + +When she had departed on her gliding throne, the tapers, held by invisible +hands, conducted the confident to their beds. Only I and eight others +remained in the hall, among them my table companion. An hour later, pages +came in, bound all nine of us with ropes, and left us to spend the night in +darkness and discomfort, bewailing our presumption in accepting the Wedding +invitation. + +But during the night I dreamed that I stood on a high mountain, overlooking a +great valley, in which a multitude of men were suspended, some high, some low, +by ropes looped round their necks. An ancient man flew up and down among +them, cutting the ropes with his shears. Those who had hung near the earth +fell gently; those who had hung high had a most shameful fall. This scene +joyed me at the heart, till, in my highest fit of jollity, I waked. + +This dream I recounted to my companion, who felt assured that by it some +comfort was intended. So he and I lay side by side in the dark, and passed +the time till daybreak in harmonious discourse. + + THE THIRD DAY + +At daybreak those who had deemed themselves worthy came again into the hall +where we others still lay bound. Then a fanfare of trumpets ushered in the +Virgin, arrayed now in red velvet, girded with a white scarf, and on her head +a green wreath of laurel, which much became her. + +She was attended by two hundred knights in armour, with surcoats of red and +white; some of these she directed to unbind us, and to place us where we could +see well what was to follow. Seeing me among them, she laughed and exclaimed: +"Good lack! Have you also submitted yourself to the yoke? I imagined you +would have made yourself very snug!" + +Great golden scales were now brought in and hung in the middle of the hall, +beside them was placed a little table covered with red velvet and bearing +seven weights - a pretty great one, then four little ones, then two great ones +severally; these weights in proportion to their bulk were so heavy that no man +can believe it. The knights were divided into seven groups, the captain of +each being placed in charge of one of the weights. + +A stately Emperor was the first to step into the scale. One by one the +captains laid in their weights; the first six he withstood, but when the +seventh was added he was outweighed; he was therefore bound and delivered over +in great anguish to the sixth band of knights. One by one the other Emperors +were in turn weighed and also found wanting, except the last, who held out so +steadfastly that methought had there been more weights he would have outstood +these, too. + +To him the Virgin, rising and bowing, gave a red velvet gown and a laurel +branch, and seated him on the steps of her throne. + +The other ranks - kings, lords, gentry, learned and unlearned - were now all +weighed in turn. In each condition, one, at most two, but mostly none, passed +the test; those who did so were, like the Emperor, honoured with a red velvet +gown, a laurel bough, and a seat on the steps of the Virgin's throne. + +Now it was our turn, we who had slept in the hall. Only my companion and I +outstayed all the weights. My companion held out bravely, whereupon all +applauded him, and the Virgin showed him deep respect. When, with trembling, +I myself stepped up, my companion, who already sat by in his velvet, looked +friendly upon me, and the Virgin herself smiled a little. + +So far did I outstay all the weights that to these the Virgin added three +knights in full armour. Still I outweighed them all, upon which one of the +pages stood up, and cried out, exceeding loud: + "That is he!" + +Because I had proved the weightiest, the Virgin graciously permitted me to +release one of the captives, whomsoever I pleased; I elected the first +emperor, who was immediately set free, and with all respect seated among us. +Meanwhile, the Virgin espied my roses, which I had taken out of my hat into my +hands; thereupon by her page she graciously requested them of me, which I +readily sent her. + +By ten in the forenoon we had all been weighed. At the meal which followed, +we in our red velvet robes were seated at the high table, which was also +decked with red velvet and set with drinking-cups of pure silver and gold. +Here two pages presented to us, on the Bridegroom's behalf, the insignia of +the Golden Fleece and the Flying Lion. + +The attendants who before had been invisible were now visible to us, whereat I +was exceeding joyful. To those others who had failed, and who were now seated +at a lower table, the attendants were still invisible. + +When the meal was over, and a golden chalice sent by the Bridegroom had gone +round, we new Knights of the Golden Fleece, seated on the steps of the +Virgin's throne, were carried into the garden, to see those who had failed +receive judgement. Here the Virgin led us by winding stairs into a gallery. +But how the Emperor whom I had released behaved towards me I cannot relate for +fear of slander. + +And now that the virgin who had brought me my invitation, and whom I had +hitherto never since seen, stepped forward and, giving one blast upon her +trumpet, declared sentence on those guests who had been weighed and found +wanting. Those who had weighed only a little too light were allowed to redeem +themselves with gold and jewels, and to depart with dignity, receiving at the +door the Draught of Forgetfulness. Some, who were lighter, were to be +stripped and sent forth naked. Some, lighter yet, were to be scourged forth +with rods and whips. Those who were proved imposters, and had never been +invited, were to forfeit their lives to sword or halter. + +Watching the execution of these sentences, I felt my eyes run over, till at +last the garden, which had been so full, was emptied, and a silence fell upon +it. + +Into this silence delicately stepped a snow-white unicorn, a golden collar +about his neck. He knelt in reverence before a lion who stood on a fountain +with a naked sword held in his paw. The lion broke the sword, and the pieces +sank into the fountain; then he reared till a snow-white dove came flying to +him with an olive branch in her bill. This the lion devoured, and so was +quieted; and the unicorn returned to his place with joy, while our Virgin led +us back down the winding stairs. + +When we had washed our heads and hands in the fountain, we each received from +the Virgin a richly habited and learned page, able aptly to discourse on all +subjects, by whom we were conducted back into the Castle, and shown its +paintings, treasures, and antiquities. Many occupied themselves in copying +the paintings; but I, on whom the page of greatest power had been bestowed, +was led with my companion into parts of the Castle usually kept private, the +keys of these having been committed to my page. + +Here for several hours we stayed, seeing treasures none of the others were +permitted to see, such as the Royal Sepulchre, with its glorious Phoenix, and +a most noble Library. Though by now it had struck seven, and I began to feel +the pangs of hunger, I was yet well content; I could be happy to fast all my +life with such an entertainment. + +When the King sent his page for the keys, we were shown a costly clockwork +regulated according to the course of the planets; and next a huge terrestrial +globe, on which we found our native lands marked with little rings of gold; +others doing likewise, we discovered that our company was drawn from all parts +of the Earth. + +This globe being hollow, we were able to sit within it and contemplate the +stars glittering in an agreeable order in the interior of the Earth, and +moving so gallantly that I had scarce any mind ever to go out again, as our +page told our Virgin, and with which she twitted me, for it was already supper +time, and I was almost the last at table. + +At supper, as all grew merry with wine, the Virgin began to propound enigmas, +for which, try as we would, we could find no solution. She told us, for +example: + +"My sister and I have an eagle, whom we both cherish. One day we entered our +chamber and found him with a laurel branch in his beak. I also had one in my +hand; my sister had none in hers. The eagle went first to her, and gave her +his branch, then came to me, motioning me to give him mine. Now whom did he +love the better, my sister or myself?" + +The Virgin was become so familiar that I adventured and requested her name. +Smiling at my curiosity, she replied in another riddle: + +"My name contains 6 and 50, yet has only 8 letters. The third is a third part +of the fifth, which, added to the sixth, will produce a number whose sum will +exceed the third itself by just the first, and which is half of the fourth. +The fifth and seventh are equal. So are the last and first. The first and +second together equal the sixth, which contains four more than the third +tripled. Now, my lord, how am I called?" + +The answer was intricate enough; yet I left not off, but said: "Noble and +virtuous Lady, may I not obtain only one letter?" + +"Yea," said she, "that may well be done." + +"What, then," I proceeded, "may the seventh contain?" + +"It contains," said she, "as many as there are lords here". + +With this I easily found her name, at which she was well pleased. + +She now invited us to assist at the ceremony of Hanging Up the Weights. Six +virgins entered, bearing lights and escorting a stately Duchess, less worldly +than our Virgin, and looking up towards Heaven rather than towards Earth. We +all took her for the Bride, but were much mistaken, although in honour, riches +and state she much surpassed the Bride, and afterwards ruled the whole +Wedding. + +To me she said: "You have received more than others; see that you also make a +larger return." + +To me this was a very strange sermon. + +Though the scales had been removed from the hall, the weights were still +standing on their little table. The Duchess directed each of her virgins to +take up one, and to our Virgin she gave her own, the largest and heaviest. +The company then went in procession up to seven chapels, in the first of which +our Virgin hung up the Duchess's weight, while in each of the others one of +the other virgins hung up hers; in all the chapels, led by the Duchess, we +sang a hymn together and prayed that the Royal Wedding might be blessed. + +Then each of us was conducted by his page to a richly furnished bedchamber, +where the page lay on a pallet near him, in case he had need of anything in +the night. This was the first night that I slept in quiet; and yet a scurvy +dream would not suffer me to rest, for I was troubled with a door which I +could not open, though at last I did so; and with these fantasies I passed the +time till I awaked. + + THE FOURTH DAY + +Next morning I over-slept my breakfast, they being unwilling to waken me +because of my age; but I was soon ready with my habit, and found the rest +assembled beside the fountain in the garden. + +Today the lion on the fountain, in place of his broken sword, bore a tablet +announcing that in its water Prince Mercury had a healing medicine for all +ills, and concluding: + + "Let him drink of me who is able. + Let him who will, wash. + Let him trouble me who dares. + Drink, Brethren, and live!" + +When we had all washed in the fountain, and drunk of its water from a golden +cup, we were given new garments of cloth-of-gold, gloriously set out with +flowers, and a new insignia of the Golden Fleece, from which hung a disc of +gold, with the sun and the moon on one side, and on the other this +inscription: + +"The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun; and the light of the +sun shall be seven times brighter than at present." + +Led by our Virgin with sixty virgins in attendance, and by musicians clad in +red velvet, we mounted a winding staircase of 365 steps to the Royal Hall, +where I saw the young King and Queen as they sat in their majesty amid +unspeakable glory; for besides that the room glittered of pure gold and +precious stones, the Queen's robes were so made that I was not able to behold +them. + +Our Virgin presented us to the King as wedding guests who had ventured hither +at peril of body and life. It would have been fitting for one of us to have +spoken somewhat on such an occasion; but, seeing we were all troubled with a +falling of the uvula, old Atlas, the Court Astrologer, stepped forward and +welcomed us on the King's behalf. + +The young King and Queen sat under a great arch at the western end of the +hall; each wore a wreath of laurel, and over them hung a large and costly +crown. On one side of them sat enthroned an ancient grey-bearded king with a +fair young queen; on the other, a black king, middle-aged, with a veiled and +dainty old matron. + +Cupid darted hither and thither; sometimes he seated himself between the two +lovers; sometimes he made as if he would shoot one of us; he was so full of +his waggery that he would not spare even the little birds, which flew about +the chamber in multitudes. The virgins also had their pastimes with him; and +when they could catch him, it was no easy matter for him to get from them +again. Thus this little knave made all the sport and mirth. + +Before the King and Queen stood a little altar, bearing six curious objects -- +a book bound with black velvet, overlaid with gold; a taper alight in an ivory +candlestick, upon which Cupid now and then puffed in sport; a celestial globe, +turning of itself; a chiming clock; a crystal fountain of red water; and a +skull through whose eye-holes a small white snake wound in and out. + +The audience over, the musicians played us down the winding stairs again to +our own hall, where, our mirth falling into our feet, virgins and lords struck +up a civil dance together; after which we attended their Majesties through +many stately walks to the House of the Sun, to see a merry comedy, the Duchess +leading, carrying a small pearl crucifix, her six virgins carrying the sacred +objects from the altar, and Atlas bringing up the rear. + +The merry comedy opened with an ancient King sitting upon his throne; a little +chest found floating on the sea was brought to him. In it he found the infant +princess of a neighbouring kingdom, who had been stolen by the Moors. He had +her tenderly and royally brought up, and planned to marry her to his son when +she came of age. + +Again she fell into the hands of the Moors and was rescued by an ancient +knight; she was restored to her lost kingdom and crowned queen. A third time, +and now of her own free will, she fell into the hands of the Moor, who usurped +her kingdom, stripped and scourged her, and cast her into prison. + +The young king to whom she was betrothed made war upon the Moors on her +behalf, and was victorious; he released the young queen, and restored her to +her kingdom; they were married amid great rejoicings; and the play closed with +a wedding hymn, calling down blessing on our King and Queen, and praying that +a fairer future race might spring from them. + +We now returned to the Royal Hall for the wedding feast. Though the tables +were richly furnished, and all the royal persons were attired afresh in snow- +white glittering garments, there was no music, the young King sighed often, +the old King and Queen were grave, and all was performed with such state and +solemn stillness, and all things had so strange a face, that foreboding of +some imminent peril hung over us all. + +Presently the young King took the black-bound book from the altar, and asked +those of us who were resolved to keep faith with him to write our names in it. +One after another, we all rose and did so. Then the crystal fountain of red +water was brought, and with it a small crystal drinking-cup, from which the +whole company drank the Draught of Silence, as in any House of the Mysteries. + +At the tolling of a bell, the white garments were exchanged for black ones; +floors, ceiling, walls, all were covered with black velvet. Our Virgin +brought in six black taffeta scarves, with which she bound the eyes of the +three Kings and the three Queens. The tables were removed, and six covered +coffins placed in the centre of the hall, around a low black seat. Finally, +in came a coal-black Moor, with a naked axe in his hand. + +The old King was led to the low black seat, and there solemnly and reverently +beheaded. His head was wrapped in a black cloth; his blood was caught in a +golden cup; both were placed with his body in the first coffin. One after +another, the other two Kings and the three Queens submitted with silent +dignity to the same fate. Then the black executioner, preparing to withdraw, +was himself beheaded, and his head placed with his axe in a little shrine. + +To me this seemed indeed a bloody Wedding, and I and others wept; but our +Virgin bade us be of good courage, telling us: + +"The life of these Kings and Queens stands now in your hands; if you will but +follow me, this death shall make many to live." + +She bade us all good-night, bidding our pages conduct us to our chambers. +Mine alone looked out over the lake. About midnight, being unable to sleep, I +became aware of a bright glow on the water, and, rising from by bed, I saw +seven ships sailing swiftly to the Castle, all full of lights. Over each ship +hovered a flame; as soon as I saw them I knew: + +"These are the spirits of the beheaded." + +As the ships drew gently to land, our Virgin went through the night to meet +them, torch in hand; behind her came attendants, bearing the six covered +coffins and the little shrine, which they placed one in each ship. I roused +my page; together we saw all the lights but one on each ship go out; the +flames pass again across the lake; and the Virgin return to the Castle, +leaving hundreds of watchmen encamped along the shore, to keep guard through +the night. + +Then my page and I again retired to rest; and at last, being extremely weary, +we both fell asleep. + + THE FIFTH DAY + +Next morning, being awake long before the rest, I entreated my page to lead me +a little about the Castle, and show me somewhat that was rare, whereupon he +led me down an underground staircase to an iron door, on which was inscribed +in copper letters: + +"Here lies buried Lady Venus, the fair woman who hath undone many a great +man." + +My page led me by the hand through this door and along a dark passage to +another, normally kept locked, but unlocked today because the coffins had +yesterday been brought out through it. Through it we reached the King's +Treasury, a glorious vault which had no other light but from certain huge +carbuncles, and where, my page told me, I would see things which no human eye +outside the Royal Family had ever seen till now. + +In the middle of the vault was a rich tomb, like an altar, triangular in +shape, supported by an ox, and eagle and a lion, and made entirely of gold and +precious stones. On it, in a vessel of polished copper, stood an angel, +bearing a tree in his arms. From this tree fruit fell continually into the +vessel, turned there to water, and ran out into three smaller golden bowls. + +Opening a copper door in the pavement, my page now led me down another +exceeding dark staircase to an even deeper chamber. I was mightily terrified +when he lit a torch from a small, ever-burning taper, and asked how he durst +do this. He gave me for answer: + +"As long as the Royal Persons are still at rest, I have nothing to fear." + +In this chamber, by the light of the torch, I espied a rich bed hung about +with curious curtains, one of which my page drew, and I saw the Lady Venus, +stark naked (for he heaved up the coverlets, too), lying there in such beauty +that I was almost beside myself. + +Behind the bed was tablet, on which was inscribed: + +"When the fruit of my tree shall be completely melted, then will I awake and +be the mother of a King." + +When we ascended again to the King's Treasury, I there observed small tapers of +pyrites, burning with flames so still and clear that I had mistaken them +before for precious stones. It was the heat from these that melted the fruit +on the tree held by the angel, and caused more fruit continually to grow. + +No sooner had we re-entered the Treasury than in flew the little Cupid, who +promptly locked the copper door leading down to Venus's chamber, exclaiming: + +"My old busy grandsire, you might lightly have served me a scurvy trick, had +you been aware of this door. I must look better to it! Yet can I not let it +pass unrevenged that you were so near stumbling upon my dear mother." + +And he heated the point of his dart in one of the taper-flames, and with it +pricked my hand. I thanked God he had lighted on us no sooner, for at his +unlooked-for appearance I felt more like the dead than the living. + +I now joined my fellow-guests in our hall, where Cupid would needs have me +show him my hand, where he still found a little drop of blood, at which he +heartily laughed, and had the rest have a care of me, as I would shortly end +my days. We all wondered how he could be so merry and have no sense of +yesterday's sad passages. + +Our Virgin, dressed in black velvet, now conducted us to the garden, where we +found six sepulchres under a roof supported by seven columns, above which +floated a flag with a Phoenix painted on it. Here we assisted at the +interring of six coffins and a little shrine. The other guests thought they +had been present at the royal funeral; only I knew differently. + +Our Virgin now reminded us of our oaths of allegiance to the Bridegroom, and +invited us to sail with her to the island Tower of Olympus, to assist in +preparing the medicaments needed to restore the Royal Persons to life. We +willingly followed her to the shore, where the seven ships still lay at +anchor, five of them flying planetary signs, one a globe and one a pyramid. +Here she assigned us to the various ships, which then set sail in this order: + +Foremost, A, the Pyramid, carrying the Moor's head, with twelve musicians +making excellent music. Then B, C, D, abreast, in which we were disposed, our +Virgin and I being in C, which flew the Globe. Then the two stateliest ships, +E and F, whose flags were the Sun and Moon, having no passengers. In the +rear, G, in which were forty virgins. + +From the lake we passed through a narrow strait into the sea, where sirens, +nymphs and sea-goddesses swam to meet us, begging to be allowed to sing to us. +Our Virgin, having re-arranged her ships in a pentagon about the Sun and Moon, +yielded to their entreaties, whereupon the sirens sang of love so delicately +and sweetly that I no more wondered at Ulysses for stopping the ears of his +companions; Cupid began to work with me, too, which tended little to my +credit. This was the wound I received on my head in a dream. + +Presently we sailed on, and after some hours came within sight of the Tower of +Olympus. Its Warden, a very ancient man, came out in a gilded pinnace to +receive us and conduct us to his island. This was a perfect square, with a +great wall running all round it, two hundred and sixty paces thick. The Tower +itself was as if seven round towers had been built one by another, yet the +middlemost was somewhat higher, and within they all entered one into another. + +At the gate of the Tower, we were led a little aside while the six coffins and +the little shrine were brought in without anyone but myself noticing. Then +we were taken into its underground laboratory, to wash herbs, crush precious +stones and extract juices and essences, our Virgin being so busy with us, and +so full of directions, that she knew not how to give us employment enough. + +By nightfall these tasks were completed; a little broth and a little wine were +distributed, and mattresses were laid on the laboratory floor. I could not +sleep, but walked for a while in the garden, where, coming to stone steps +leading to the top of the wall, I mounted them, to contemplate the calm, +moonlit sea and the starry sky. + +Here I was much moved to observe a conjunction of the planets such as is +seldom seen. Then, just before midnight, I saw the seven flames appear again +far across the sea, and pass over it to the island, coming to rest above the +spire of the central tower. + +Suddenly the winds rose, the sea grew rough, and clouds covered the moon. +Hastily I stumbled back to the laboratory, where, lulled by a gently purling +fountain, I quickly fell asleep. + + THE SIXTH DAY + +Next morning the Warden of the Tower entered the underground laboratory, +followed by youths carrying ladders, ropes and large wings. + +"My dear sons," he said, "one of these three things must each one of you this +day constantly bear about with him. To make choice you shall cast lots." + +My lot fell on a ladder, twelve foot long, and pretty weighty; and I must be +forced to carry it, whereas the others could handsomely coil their ropes about +them, while as for the wings, the old man joined them so neatly on to the +third sort as if they had grown upon them. + +He then withdrew, taking with him the fruits of our yesterday's labours, and +locking the door behind him, so that we imagined we had been imprisoned in the +Tower. But after a quarter of an hour, a round hole in the ceiling was +uncovered from above, where we saw our Virgin, who bade us a cheerful +goodmorrow, desiring us to come up. The winged sort were able to do so +instantly. Those with ladders followed, each drawing up his ladder after him. +But those with ropes had to wait until these had been suspended for them from +iron hooks, and even then the ascent was not compassed without blisters. + +The hole being covered again, we found ourselves in a laboratory surrounded by +six stately vestries, to which we were first directed, to pray for the life of +the King and Queen. The twelve musicians who had sat in the ship of the +Pyramid now brought in a fountain, and with it a great oval casket, which, as +I surmised, contained the bodies of the beheaded Kings and Queens. Then, +while they played a most delicate voice of music, in came our Virgin, bearing +the little shrine containing the Moor's head, and followed by veiled virgins +with laurel boughs and torches. + +All now stood round the fountain while our Virgin took from the little shrine +the Moor's head, wrapped in taffeta, and placed it in a vessel, into which +were then poured the essences and tinctures prepared yesterday. It was from +the Moor's head that this solution conceived so great a heat, the virgins also +placing their torches on spikes beneath the vessel, so that the water driving +from the fountain seethed and simpered. Their laurel boughs they stuck into +holes all round the fountain, so that the spray falling on them dropped into +the vessel coloured a deeper yellow. + +For two hours the fountain played, and the distillations dripped into the oval +casket till the bodies it contained were quite dissolved. Then our Virgin had +a golden globe brought in; into this ran a red liquid from the oval casket; +then the globe was carried forth again. + +We laborators now sat alone for a quarter of an hour or so, till I, perceiving +a trampling overhead, had an eye to my ladder. The cover in the ceiling was +lifted; and up we went by wings, ladders and ropes. It did not a little vex +me that our Virgin could go up another way; yet I could judge we must leave +somewhat for the old man (the Warden) to do. + +And indeed, when we came up to this third conclave, we found the golden globe +already suspended by a strong chain from the centre of the ceiling. The walls +of this third laboratory were nothing but windows alternating with mirrors, so +optically opposed that the sun was everywhere reflected, so that in all +quarters of the room there was nothing but suns. + +The heat from all these artificial refractions beat blindingly upon the golden +globe, till our Virgin judged the desired temperature to have been reached. +She gave orders now for the mirrors to be covered, and, when the globe had +cooled, for us to lift it down and cut it asunder. After much disputation, +this was at last done with a diamond; and when the two halves fell apart, a +great snow-white egg was disclosed, so beautiful that we stood around it as +jocund as if we ourselves had laid it. + +As soon as our Virgin was satisfied that the shell had sufficiently hardened, +she carried the egg from the room, locking the door behind her. What she did +abroad with the egg, I know not; we were again to pause for one quarter of an +hour, till the third hole opened, and we, by means of our instruments, came up +to the fourth floor. + +Here we found a great square copper vessel, filled with silver sand, in which +the egg was placed and warmed over a gentle fire, till, being ready, it was +taken out, but needed no cracking, for the Bird soon freed himself, looking +very jocund. + +Our Virgin warned us to tie him up before we fed him; this we did, setting him +on the warm sand and bringing him the blood of the beheaded Kings and Queens +to drink, whereupon he grew before our eyes, became covered with black +feathers, and bit and scratched so devilishly that, could he have had his will +upon any of us, he would soon have despatched us. + +When we brought him other meat, he grew tamer and more tractable; he moulted +his black feathers and replaced them with snow-white ones. At his third +feeding, his feathers began to be so curiously coloured that I never saw the +like for beauty, and he now behaved himself so friendly with us that, our +Virgin consenting, we released him from captivity. + +At dinner we began to make merry together, spending our time for the most part +with our Bird; after which, our Virgin and our Bird departed from us, and the +fifth room was opened, which we reached after the former manner. + +Here we found our Bird awaiting us, and a cool milky bath prepared for him, in +which he pleasantly sported; as the lamps beneath it made it warmer, we had +enough to do to keep him in the bath, and therefore clapped a cover on, +suffering him to thrust out his head through a hole. + +In this heated bath, the Bird lost all his feathers, which the water consumed +turning blue, and the Bird stepped out as smooth as a new-born babe. The +bath we heated further, till all the water had evaporated, leaving only a blue +stone: this we ground to powder, with which we painted the Bird blue all over, +except for his head, which remained white. + +Again our Virgin departed with her Bird, and we ascended through the ceiling +to the sixth conclave, where we found a little altar set up in the middle of +the chamber, and on it the book, the lighted taper, the heavenly globe, the +chimingclock, the crystal fountain, and the skull with its white serpent, +every way like those in the King's hall. + +The Bird stood on the altar, and drank from the blood-red fountain, then +pecked at the white serpent till she bled. The heavenly globe turned till a +certain conjunction was reached, then a second, then a third; after each +conjunction the clock chimed. + +Then the poor Bird himself submissively laid down his neck upon the book, and +willingly suffered his head to be smitten off by one of us, thereto chosen by +lot. Howbeit, he yielded not one drop of blood till he was opened on the +breast, and then the blood spun out so fresh and clear as if it had been a +fountain of rubies. His death went to the heart of us, yet we might well +judge that a naked bird would stand us in little stead. We assisted the +Virgin to burn the body (together with a little tablet hanging by) to ashes, +with fire kindled at the little taper, and to lay them in a box of cypress +wood. + +Here I cannot conceal what a trick I, with three more, was served. + +"My Lords," said the Virgin, "we are here in the sixth room, and have only one +more before us. I have found among you these four (pointing to me and three +others) lazy and sluggish laborators, and I purpose that they shall be +excluded from the seventh and most glorious action." + +The Virgin so well knew how to keep her countenance that the water of our +grief soon ran over our baskets. The musicians were fetched and with cornets +blew us out of doors with such derision that they themselves could scarcely +sound for laughing. But as soon as we were come out of the door, they bid us +be of good cheer, and follow them up the winding stairs to the eighth floor +under the roof, where we found the old man standing. + +He received us friendly, and congratulated us that we were hereto chosen by the +Virgin; when he had understood the fright we conceived, his belly was ready to +burst with laughing that we had taken such good fortune so heinously. +"Hence," said he, "my dear sons, learn that man never knoweth how well God +intendeth him". + +Our Virgin, running in with her cypress box of the Bird's ashes, also joined +in the laughter; and we four were set to work under the direction of the old +Warden, moistening the ashes to a dough with prepared water, heating this +paste, then casting it into two little moulds. + +While this was cooling, we peeped through a crevice in the floor at our +fellows, now busy on the storey below, where we saw them industriously blowing +at furnaces, and making gold, imagining they were herein wonderfully preferred +before us. + +When we opened our two little moulds, we found two bright and almost +transparent little images, angelically fair babes, a male and a female, each +being but four inches long. These we laid on two little satin cushions, and +beheld them till we were almost besotted upon so exquisite an object. + +Under the old man's direction, we let the blood from the Bird's breast fall +drop by drop from a golden cup into their mouths, till they had reached their +perfect full growth, with curled gold-yellow hair. The old man commanded us +to lay them on a long table covered with white velevet and to cover them with +white taffeta, which, because of their unspeakable beauty, it went hard with +us to do. + +Our Virgin now entered with two curious garments, which could have been +crystal but that they were gentle and not transparent. These she laid upon a +table; and while her musicians played, she and the old man performed many +ceremonial gestures directed towards the roof. This was arched into seven +hemispheres, and at the top of the middle and highest of these I spied a small +aperture. + +Now entered six virgins, each bearing a large trumpet, wreathed with a green, +glittering, burning material. The old man took them one by one, placing them +one after another on the mouths of the two sleepers, with their wider ends +directed to the roof. Along each of the funnels thus made, I saw a bright +stream of flame shoot down from the aperture in the roof, and enter the +sleeping image, which immediately twinkled its eyes though scarcely stirring. + +Next the two sleepers were neatly laid by each other in a travelling bed, +where they continued to sleep behind drawn curtains. Meanwhile, we sat very +still, attending when our married couple would awake; and thus about half an +hour was spent. Then Cupid flew in, and tormented them till they waked, which +happened to them with very great amazement, for they imagined that they had +slept from the hour in which they were beheaded; and when our Virgin had +clothed them in their new garments, all present kissed their hands, and +escorted them down the stairs and out to the royal ship, in which, with Cupid +and a train of virgins, they set sail for home. + +At supper the Virgin brought us again to our former companions, where we were +to carry ourselves as if we had truly been in a lamentable condition. At this +supper the old lord was with us; I learned most by this old lord, and if men +would but take notice of his procedure, things would not so often and +untowardly miscarry. + +After supper, the old lord led us into his closet of rareties where we saw +such wonderful productions of Nature and other things which man's wit, in +imitation of Nature had invented, that we needed a year sufficiently to survey +them. Thus we spent a good part of the night by candle-light. + +We then retired to handsome bed-chambers; and I, being weary with continual +labour, had good rest, continuing in one dream from eleven of the clock till +eight the next morning. + + + THE SEVENTH DAY + +Next morning, the morning of the seventh and last day, we met in the +nethermost vault of the Tower, and were given habits entirely yellow, together +with our golden fleeces, for we were still dressed in our black funeral garb. + +After breakfast, the old lord presented each one of us with a golden medal, +bearing on one side the words, "Art is the priestess of Nature," and on the +other, "Nature is the daughter of Time". So we went forth to the sea, where +our ships lay richly equipped. The ships were twelve in number, six of ours +and six of the old lord's; but he betook himself to us in our ship, where we +were all together. In the first the musicians seated themselves, of which the +old lord had a great number. Our flags were the twelve celestial signs, and +we sat in Libra. The sea was so calm that it was a singular pleasure to sail; +but that which surpassed all was the old man's discourse, who so well knew how +to pass away our time with wonderful histories that I could have been content +to sail with him all my life long. + +After two hours' sailing we passed from the sea into the narrow strait, and +out of this into the lake, which we found covered with 500 ships which had +sailed from the Castle to meet us, led by one sparkling with gold and precious +stones, in which sat the young King and Queen, on whose behalf Old Atlas +welcomed us. + +The rest of our companions were in a huge amazement whence this King should +have arisen, for they imagined no other than that they must again awaken him. +We carried ourselves as if it seemed strange to us, too. After Atlas's +oration, out steps our old man, wishing the King and Queen all happiness and +increase, after which he delivered a curious small casket, but what was in it +I know not; it was delivered to the custody of Cupid, who hovered between them +both. + +So we sailed on a good time together, till we arrived at another shore, near +the first gate at which I first entered. + +Horses awaited us there; and when we disembarked, the old lord and I rode +with the young King, each of us bearing a snow-white ensign with a Red Cross; +I, indeed, was made use of because of my age, for we both had long grey beards +and hair. I had fastened my tokens round my hat, of which the young King soon +took notice, and demanded if I were he who at the gate had redeemed these +tokens. I answered yes in the most humble manner; but he laughed on me, +saying there henceforth needed no ceremony, I was HIS Father. + +When we reached the first Portal, the Guardian in his sky-blue habit awaited +us, a supplication in his hand; this he delivered to me, begging me to use my +good offices in lying it before the King. On the way to the second Portal, +therefore, I asked the King about this Guardian, and he replied that he was a +very famous astrologer; but having on a time committed a fault against Venus +by beholding her in her bed of rest, this punishment was imposed upon him, +that he should so long wait at the gate till someone should release him from +thence. +"May he then be released?" I asked. +And the King replied. +"Yes; if another commits the same transgression, he must take his place." + +This word went to my heart; conscience convinced me that I was the offender, +yet I held my peace, and delivered the supplication. As soon as the King had +read it, he was mightily terrified; and as soon as we alighted, he called for +Old Atlas to come to him in a little closet, and showed him the writing. +Atlas made no long tarrying, but rode out to the Portal to take better +cognisance of the matter. + +It was now announced that after supper each of us could crave some boon of the +King. Meanwhile the King and Queen began to play together a game not unlike +chess, with the virtues and vices one against another, where it might be +observed with what plots the vices lay in wait for the virtues, and how to re- +encounter them. During the game in comes Atlas again, and makes his report in +private; yet I blushed all over, for my conscience gave me no rest. + +The King now handed me the supplication to read. In it the Guardian of the +First Portal reported that his observations of the stars revealed that one +of the King's guests had uncovered Venus; thus the time had come when he himself +should be released from his office, and he beggged to be permitted to be +present at that evening's banquet in the hope of discovering his successor. + +The King accordingly sent to invite his to join us; and as we all sat at table +he made his strict survey. Then certain curious chairs were placed in a +circle, in which we, toggether with the King and Queen, both their old men, +and the ladies and virgins, were to sit. A handsome page then announced that +the King, in recognition of our services, had elected each of us Knight of the +Golden Stone, and required us to make these five vows: + I. To ascribe our Order only to God and His handmaid, Nature. + II. To abominate all whoredom, and not defile our Order with such + vices. + III. To use our talents to assist all that have need of them. + IV. Not to strive for wordly pride and high authority. + V. Not to wish to live longer than God would have us. + +At this last article we could not choose but laugh. + +We were now, with due ceremony, installed Knights, and conducted in procession +to a little chapel, where I hung up my golden fleece and my hat. And because +everyone was to write his name there, I writ thus: + "The highest wisdom is to know nothing. + Brother Christian Rosenkreutz. + Knight of the Golden Stone. + 1459." + +The King then retired to a little closet, to which each of us was to come in +private, to request our boons. I decided, even at my own peril, to release +the Guardian of the First Portal from his office; so, when I was called in, I +made a full confession. + +The King wondered mightily at this, and wished me to step aside a little; and +as soon as I was called in again, Atlas declared to me that it was grievious +to the King's Majesty that I, whom he loved aboved others, was fallen into +such a mischance; yet, because it was not possible for him to transgress his +ancient usages, the other must be released and I placed in his stead. Nor was +my own release to be hoped for till the marriage feast of his future son. +This sentence near cost me my life; yet I took courage, and related how this +gatekeeper had been my benefactor, having bestowed a token on me by whose +assistance I had stood upon the scale, and so had been made partaker of all +the honour and joy already received. Hereupon the good man was pronounced +free, and I imagined no other than that I must finish my life under the gate. + +The ring of office was now placed upon my finger, and the King embraced me, +telling me this was the last time I would see him in this manner, from all of +which I understood that in the morning I, most wretched man, had nobody to +show me the way, who should approach me but the two august old lords -- Atlas +and the Warden of the Tower -- who conducted me into a glorious lodging, in +which stood three beds, and each of us lay in one of them. + + * * * + +At this point the narrative breaks off abruptly in the middle of a sentence; +and this colophon is added: + +"Here are wanting about two leaves in quarto; and he (the author hereof) +whereas he imagined he must in the morning be door-keeper, returned home.:" + +------------------------- +END OF FILE +------------------------- +CHYMICAL WEDDING OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ FILE 2 of 2 + + COMMENTARY ON THE STORY + + +(Readers who are unfamiliar with the description of the being of man and the +epochs of world-evolution as described in Spiritual Science will find it +helpful to read page 62 before beginning the Commentary.) + + THE FIRST DAY (SATURDAY) (see Note 4) + +The house of Christian Rosenkreutz is situated on a hill, a picture of +higher consciousness. (We are reminded of Belmont, "the beautiful mountain," +the home of Portia in The Merchant of Venice.) It is a cottage, a picture of +his own simplicity and humility of soul, of which we shall hear much in the +story. + +While he is meditating, it seems to him that a great storm blows up. The act +of meditation has lifted his consciousness to the etheric world, where all is +in movement, in contrast to the stiff immobility of the physical world.* This +is the storm which sweeps the creative artist at the moment of creation when +music, a poem, a picture is conceived. It seems about to shatter his house to +pieces - even his physical body is affected. + +This heightened consciousness makes him aware of a spiritual being behind him. +As he turns to look at her, light streams from his own being; meeting his +spiritual visitant, it is rayed back and gives him the impression of a blue +mantle. All is not rayed back, however; and where it is absorbed by the being +he has the impression of stars. Thus he pictures her in a blue, star-spangled +garment.* + +The visitor bears in her hand letters in all languages, for her message is +universal, and given to men all over the earth who are sufficiently mature to +receive it. Christian Rosenkreutz does not follow the way of the mystic, but +of the alchemist; while the mystic strives to come to spiritual truth by +entering more deeply into his own being, the alchemist wishes to penetrate to +the supersensible which is hidden behind Nature. He knows that in order to do +this he must develop a greater capacity for distinguishing between truth and +illusion. This pilgrim, having heightened his sense for truth by uniting +himself with the Christ being, feels secure in his belief that this spiritual +experience is a reality, because he sees on the letter the sign of the cross, +and the words In hoc Signo vinces. Because its contents are of very great +spiritual importance to him, it feels heavier than gold.* + +In the letter he is told that he is invited to a Royal Wedding "by birth and +by God's choice" ' it lies in his destiny, but is also bestowed on him by +grace. He is bidden to go to a place where three temples stand, whence he +will see the direction he must take. He does not at the moment understand +this, but he knows that a spiritual seeker has Imaginations from time to time +which he has to allow to ripen within him until he is mature enough to +understand them; if he tried to explain them intellectually he would spoil his +apprehension of them. Seven years earlier he had not understood an impression +which came to him that he would one day receive an invitation to the wedding +of a king. It is only now that he apprehends this experience.* + +He next makes a diligent search into the positions of the planets, and finds +he may venture to hope for a spiritual experience at this time. It is +important for him that it is Easter 1459, called in the story "the year of +balance", for he knows that human development must move harmoniously with +earth evolution if it is to come about in the right way (see Note 1.) + +However, he feels very unworthy and is still unsure whether he should go. He +decides to ask his good angel to help him, and in this mood he falls asleep. +Because his soul has already to a certain degree been transformed, his dreams +are real experiences in the spiritual world. Many people have such +experiences, but only those who are mature bring back a memory of them into +waking life. + +In the "Tower of Blindness" he feels cramping and distress because his soul is +trying to free itself from sense-experience. What binds the soul to the body +are the forces of life and growth. But these do not give consciousness. This +only arises because man takes into himself the forces of old age and death, +which are portrayed in the story by the "ice-grey man".* Only that soul can +participate in the vision of the spiritual world who becomes aware of these +forces which in everyday life are hidden behind age. This force has power to +tear the soul away from the realm of sense-experience. Thus it is the ice- +grey man who helps the prisoners to escape from the dungeon.* + +It is interesting that the prisoners who were heaving and struggling with one +another in the depths are ready to help those who are less fortunate than +themselves once they have attained the next higher stage of consciousness. + +Each prisoner is brought by the ice-grey man before the "Ancient Mother," the +powers that lie behind Nature. As each leaves her she gives him a gold coin +to spend by the way. On one side is a picture of the rising sun, and on the +other D.L.S. (deus lux solis - God, the Light of the Sun). Henceforth all +Nature will seem changed to them. The pilgrim will experience a new wealth of +understanding and an awareness that a spiritual sun is hidden within Nature. + +In this experience Christian Rosenkreutz has received wounds on the head and +feet, and these he refers to later. The head-wound is spoken of in connexion +with his experience with Venus. There is a mysterious connexion between the +power of physical procreation and intelligence, the power of spirit +creativeness. Man must transmute the former into the latter; failure to do so +is like a "wound in the head". Later we shall see the meaning of this more +fully (see Note 5). + +Of the wounds in the feet caused by the fetters, the Ancient Mother says to +him, "Keep these wounds for my sake". It has been suggested that this +mysterious saying has reference to the Washing of the Feet, an experience +undergone early in Christian initiation. In the latter it is a training in +humility, and we shall see how the humility of this pilgrim is of service to +him in his future experiences. He must not forget what a struggle it was for +him to get free of the body and thus receive a deeper understanding of Nature. + +When Christian Rosenkreutz awakes he knows that he is allowed to make the +journey and he arrays himself in his wedding garment. This is a white linen +coat (we are reminded of the wedding garment of the guests in the parable). +He wears a red stole crosswise, as a priest wears his. In the language of +myth and fairy-tale this scissor-cross points to that human ego-consciousness +which in man has a certain association with the crossing of the optic nerves +which allows the eyes to focus and thus obtain clear sense-impressions beyond +the scope of animals, with their parallel sight. (In fairy-tales the use of +scissors shows this ego-consciousness in action, as when Red Riding Hood cuts +open the wolf to release her grandmother.) + +He also carries four red roses in his cap which he afterwards, at her request, +gives to the Virgin who guides his initiation. These are symbols of his own +inner development and show us that, for the true alchemist, alchemy consists +above all in the transmutation of his own being. His giving these faculties +to the Virgin indicates his wish to use them in the service of the spiritual +world (see Note 6). + +He then takes bread, water and salt and sets out joyously on his way. Salt is +a picture of his thinking, water of his feeling, and bread of his will. We +shall see how he has to surrender these personal qualities as he penetrates +more and more deeply into the spiritual world. + + THE SECOND DAY (SUNDAY) + +It is Easter Morning when Christian Rosenkreutz sets out on his initiation +journey. This is the day on which Christ created His resurrection body, and +our traveller (to take the story on a higher level of meaning) is setting out +to undergo an experience which will enable him to create a copy of this body +for himself (see Note 7). + +He remembers the golden token of his dream, whereby he was to see Nature +henceforth in a new way; and he goes on his way rejoicing, because all Nature +seems reborn. At length he reaches an open space where there are three mighty +cedar trees. In the margin of the original story "Three Templa" are spoken of +at this point. We know that the Templum was a sacred spot dedicated to a god +- in this case to Mercury, for his sign is on a tablet nearby. A Templum was +also a place for taking auspices - this happens here in the incident of the +dove and the raven. So now we understand the "three temples" to which the +letter directed him to go in order to find his further road. Mercury was also +the God of Travellers, and Christian Rosenkreutz is setting out on a journey. + +The traveller is confronted by four roads and is greatly troubled to know +which to take, especially as the tablet tells him that, whichever he chooses, +there is no turning back. The first is rocky and dangerous, for the arid +rocks of dry materialism give rise to deceit. A spiritual seeker has to be +very mature to tread this road in safety. + +The second is a long but safe road, the way of earthly life, the way of +faithful and patient meditation that leads slowly but surely to the goal, +provided that the traveller turns neither to the right nor to the left. The +one temptation leads to neglect of earthly tasks in unrealistic dreaming - +this is called, in Spiritual Science, the way of Lucifer, the deviation to the +left. The deviation to the right leads astray into so deep an immersion into +material things that anything spiritual seems to have no reality - this is the +way of Ahriman. + +The third path is the Royal Road, by which men who have attained maturity in a +previous incarnation can quickly and easily find their way to the Spirit. The +fourth, encompassed by fire and cloud, could only be traversed by those who +were not in the flesh; it is fit only for incorruptible bodies (see Note 8). + +Christian Rosenkreutz sits down, bewildered and doubtful as to which road he +should take, and begins to eat his bread. At once the snow-white dove +flutters down, the messenger of peace and love, and he shares his bread with +her. We may say his will is put at the disposal of this messenger of the +spirit. But the raven who molests her is also a messenger from the spiritual +world - we remember the ravens of Elijah and that the Raven was the first +degree in certain initiations. + +Pursuing the two birds in his endeavor to help the dove, the traveller finds +himself already on the second road. Such a choice cannot be taken by the +conscious mind, and we know that events of seeming mischance may be messengers +leading us to take a step in the right direction. Christian Rosenkreutz feels +pity and love for the bird, and these feelings are often a surer guide than +intellectual judgement. He turns round and considers going back; but so +strong a wind blows up against him that he sees it would be impossible. Once +embarked on an occult path, the spiritual seeker may not turn back. He finds +that he has left his bread - his personal will - behind him. + +So he keeps faithfully along this road all day long, travelling south, +following the direction of the dove's flight, and using his magnet (compass) +so that he may err neither to right nor to left. There is a very beautiful +diagram in the book of the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians which shows us +the significance of the magnet in the story. It portrays a hand holding a +Magnet Stone with the inscription, "I attract all those seeking God and the +Truth. I am the Magnet Stone of Divine Love, attracting the iron-hard men on +the road to the truth." + +When Christian Rosenkreutz reaches the Castle he has to pass the three gates +which lead into Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition. These names are given +in Spiritual Science to three degrees of heightened awareness towards which +every human being can train himself. It becomes possible to pass from a +physical seeing to a seeing which is based on the activity of an inner light - +a sense-free perception which enables one to become aware of the etheric body +and also of the happenings in the etheric world. This is the capacity of +Imaginative perception, or Imagination. This term for a quite exact and +reliable seeing should not be confused with the term imagination, loosely used +for any fantasy. + +A further faculty of the mind, a faculty which allows us to become aware of +our own astral body and of events in the astral world, is called Inspiration. +This is a further development of the faculty of hearing, in the same way that +Imagination is an extension of the sense of sight. It would take too long to +go into the question here of why awareness of the astral is connected with +sound.1 + +There is a thrid faculty which enables man to be fully conscious of his own +Ego, and also to enter into the being of others and to become cognisant of +spiritual beings. To describe this gift Rudolf Steiner chose the word +Intuition.1 Again, this must not be confused with the dim feeling often +called by that name. + +At the first gate he meets the Guardian, an elderly man whose blue mantle is a +picture of devoted service. On the seventh day we see the full significance +of this meeting, and of his warm greeting to the Rosicrucian Brother. The +latter has to give up his water - his personal feeling - in order to obtain +the token which will allow him to pass into the imaginative world; for in the +realm of Imagination the man who works out of his personal feeling and fantasy +will be lead astray. + +By this time it is dusk, and he is relieved to meet a beautiful Virgin who +carries a flaming torch which lights the way for him. A seeker's first steps +into the spiritual world are in part lit by a spiritual being, who comes to +aid him, responsive to his need. At the gate he is confronted by a terrible +lion, a picture of his own being as it appears in the etheric world in which +he now finds himself. It is also a revelation to him of how he appeared +before he came down into the sense-world. In the physical world the life of +instincts, impoulses and emotions is held in chains to a man's ideas and +thoughts.* IN the etheric world the true nature of his being is portrayed to +him in this raging lion; speaking in psychological terms, we might say that he +has to face his subconscious being, which is to be transmuted by his further +experiences. + +At this point Christian Rosenkreutz has to surrender his salt (his power of +personal thinking) for he is entering the realm of Inspiration. again he must +depend on the help of the Virgin, for as yet his powers are not strong enough +to create the light by which he can find his way. As he reaches the last +portal, the gate is suddenly clapped to, so that he has to leave behind his +cloak, which is caught in the door. When we enter the spiritual world we must +lay aside the cloak of our ordinary consciousness, which serves us well enough +in everyday life. The keeper of the third gate gives the traveler a new pair +of shoes - he has now to tread the ground beneath his feet in quite a +different way. He gives his old shoes to a beggar; for as new spiritual gifts +are given to us, we must continually pass on to others what we have received. + +Now he finds he is to be tonsured. Hair is connected with natural, atavistic +clairvoyance, as we recall in the story of Jacob and Esau, "the hairy man"' it +was the hairless Jacob who bore the forces of the future within him. The old +clairvoyance, dependent upon the organism, has to be surrendered in order that +a new spirituality may develop. But the shaving of the head also uncovers the +fontanel, by which pure spirit can later, when he has consciously and over a +long period prepared himself, pour into a man's being. + +The guests are now summoned to a banquet, and Christian Rosenkreutz is +surprised to find such a large assembly of all sorts and conditions of men - +including some acquaintances of whom he has never thought very highly. When +he enquires how they have come, they mostly tell him they have travelled by +the rocky road, the road of barren intellectualism, but also of corrupt +occultism. These people are now scrambling for all the best places, and there +is scant room at the lowest table for him and the other more modest members of +the party who do not push forward. + +At this point he makes friends with a "fine quiet man", and hereafter refers +to him as "my companion", "my friend", "my brother" (see Note 9). + +The beings of the spiritual world are as yet invisible to him and to most of +the guests; and one who pretends to be able to see those who are serving them +receives speedy punishment. The unworthy guests boast that they can see the +Platonic Ideas, hear the movements of the planets, and so on. They have +considerable intellectual knowledge of the occult, but have not transformed +their soul-powers, and so have to pretend to experiences which are not real +for them. To see these would-be guests sitting at the top table and boasting +of their achievements makes Christian Rosenkreutz bitter and ironic. He says +"This was part of the lameness I experienced in my dream". We remember that +the wounds on his feet were caused through the fetters by which the soul was +held to sense-experience, though it struggled to get free. It would seem that +he is still vulnerable through sense-experience, for when he is scorned by +other guests whom he knows to be of less value than himself he is hurt by it. +He recognizes sadly that his humility is not yet complete. + +But the mood of our traveller changes when a new experience recalls to him the +holiness and wonder of the Castle. There is beautiful music, and no-one +speaks for the space of half an hour. We are reminded of the "silence in +heaven for the space of half an hour" before the opening of the seventh seal +in the Apocalypse. There must always be a "creative pause" to prepare the +mind for something new which is about to take place. + +The entrance of the Virgin is most impressive, and we realise for the first +time the importance of her role as Initiator of the wedding guests. After +welcoming them, she warns them of the test that awaits them next day, then +allows them to make their own judgement of their own worth by either accepting +a bed-chamber for the night or, if they feel unworthy, spending the night in +the hall. Only Christian Rosenkreutz and eight others remain there, among +them his new friend. It is just this sense of humility which enables him, +during the following days, to develop spiritual power. + +The binding by the pages is a picture of his feeling of spiritual impotence, +which leads him to feel fettered. It is important to notice the functions of +the virgins and the pages. The female beings portray spiritual beings - help +given from the spiritual world - while the young males, the pages, are a +picture of the will implulses arising in the soul.* Thus the feeling of being +bound arises from within, and is not due to any action by those in the Castle. + +During the night he has a dream. Those who are hanging high have a shameful +fall, and those who are hanging only a little way above the earth fall gently. +He has a feeling that the meaning is that those who have made such vain boasts +will be put to shame, and those who have been more modest, even if they do not +pass the test, will at least not be so deeply disgraced. Awaking, he tells +his friend of the dream, and is assured that it was sent to him for comfort. +They feel that they and their seven companions have chosen the better part. +It is right that they have felt the fetters of soul-impotence in face of the +spiritual world, for this feeling of powerlessness will later be transformed +into power.* + + THE THIRD DAY (MONDAY) + +The day opens with the testing of the guests. They are to be weighed on the +scales of gold, for the test concerns not head knowledge, but knowledge that +has become heart wisdom, and gold concerns the heart. + +The weights are the Seven Liberal Arts:* Grammatica, Rhetorica, Dialectica, +Arithmetica, Geometrica, Musica and Astronomica, through the study of which, +up to the fifteenth century, students were trained. They were meant as an +education towards the Spirit. The Quadrivium, the four last named, was +already a way of initiation in ancient Egyptian Mystery Schools. Later the +Trivium was added, for instance in the schools of Plato. Grammar was then +thought of as the revelation of man as spirit through the word; Rhetoric was +the revelation of man through the beauty of the word; and Dialectic, the +revelation of the soul through forms of thought. + +In earlier times seven living Goddesses stood before the soul; later they were +presented to the student as pictures, and finally dried out into abstractions. +Even up to the seventh century the pupils could learn to become aware of a +mighty living Being, the Goddess Natura (described as the Ancient Mother in +our story), who appeared before them in her full radiance and taught them the +secrets of Nature. In the Christian Mystery Schools, she was spoken of as the +Handmaid of Christ. The pupils did not learn of abstract laws of Nature but +of the creative power of the Goddess Natura. She it was who led them to a +knowledge of minerals, plants, animals and the elements as filled with divine +power and substance. + +Only then were the pupils taught Astronomica - how through a knowledge of the +wandering stars they could learn the secrets of the soul; and through that of +the fixed stars, the secrets of the ego.1 + +It is remarked that the weights are heavy out of all proportion to their bulk +- the knowledge conveyed opens up in the true student profound vistas of +wisdom. One can easily understand Grammatica, the revelation of the Word; +Musica, the harmony of the Spheres; and Astronomica, the star-wisdom which was +a revelation of man's relation to the heavens, being spoken of as the +weightiest of all. + +In the case of Christian Rosenkreuz and the eight others who pass the tests, +the knowledge has so ripened in them as to give them the weight of soul +necessary for the experiencing of initiation into the spiritual world.* The +rejected guests, especially the intruders, have merely acquired intellectual +knowledge - they have come "the rocky way". Some of them are even charlatans +who have misled other guests by claiming bogus occult wisdom. Andreae has +much to say of the imposters in his own day who reaped fortunes from the +credulous by such false occult claims. + +The first Emperor could only sustain the first six weights - perhaps one could +say he had not fathomed the implications of star-wisdom. There is only one +Emperor who stands the test, and this one is described as a short man with a +curly brown beard. As the test goes on we see how very high is the standard +required by the spiritual world of the would-be candidate for initiation. At +length only those are left who had spent the night fettered in the great hall; +and of these only the Rosicrucian Brother and his friend are found not +wanting. The former can support not only all the weights, but also these +together with three men in armour. + +On seeing this, one of the pages cries out loudly, "This is he!" - this is the +one for whom the wedding is consummated, the other guests in a sense being +witnesses of the ceremony. Since the pages are a picture of the will-impulses +arising in the soul, the cry of the pages is to be thought of as a sudden +leaping up of self-consciousness, a piece of self-knowledge. + +Christian Rosenkreutz is told that, because he has more than enough weight to +pass the test, he may help one of those who have failed. He chooses the first +Emperor, who had been so shattered by his failure. One is allowed to pass on +spiritual wisdom to help another in need, just as one man helps another in the +physical world.* But whereas a material gift leaves the donor poorer, a +spiritual gift blesses him that gives and him that takes. It is sad to read a +little later that the Emperor repays his kindness by very scurvy treatment +(see Note 10). + +It is at this point that the Virgin asks for Christian Rosenkreutz's four red +roses, and is given them -- he dedicates to the service of the spirit all that +he has so far gained in occult development. + +We notice that during this ceremony the Virgin and her attendants are clothed +in crimson, and that as each successful guest takes his seat on her throne he, +too, is given a crimson mantle. Crimson is the colour of selfless love and we +realize that, however stern the tests, they are made through love alone. The +mantle of which the successful guests are found worthy reveals that no other +soul-qualities are of avail without it. A mood of love suffuses the banquet, +for the table is also decked in this same crimson. After these experiences +the chosen few are able to see the servitors who were invisible to them the +previous night - they have already attained a measure of clairvoyance. + +The king sends them the insignia of the Golden Fleece and the Flying Lion. +The Golden Fleece signifies that they have transformed their feeling-life, and +the vehicle of the feelings shines like pure gold, as in the days when man had +not yet fallen. The Flying Lion would seem to indicate the power of the +feelings to soar upwards to the spirit. + +After the conclusion of the meal, they all repair to the courtyard where +justice will be meted out to the unsuccessful guests and imposters. It is at +this point that Christian Rosenkreutz remarks on the ill-treatment given to +him by the rejected Emperor whom he had helped. + +Those who are genuine but not yet mature are sent away with dignity and given +a Draught of Forgetfulness. On returning to ordinary life they will not +remember what has happened to them; something of the kind happens to most of +us every morning when we awaken from sleep. The impostors are so severely +punished that the Rosicrucian Brother weeps at the sight. We realise that +human judgements are very different from those of the world of the spirit, and +that perfect love can be more stern than human weakness can understand. + +The Rosicrucian Brother now finds dawning within him the power to see his +intelligence in a way that is new to him. This appears before him as an +Imagination of a unicorn. This wonderful creature is a picture of pure +clairvoyance (for this reason it can only be caught by a pure maiden). It is +a white horse (pure intelligence), with a horn which grows from a jewel in its +brow (the two petalled lotus-flower) see Note 6). There is no earthly +substance it cannot pierce, and nothing that this creature cannot see, for his +power is supersensible. The unicorn kneels before the lion, who breaks a +sword, the pieces of which sink into the fountain. The purified thinking bows +before the feelings and calms them, but the two are not yet one, as they will +be later. + +Each guest now purifies himself further by washing head and hands in the +fountain, and is then given a page to conduct him round the Castle. We have +seen that the page represents a spiritual activity of the one he is serving, +and so we recognise that each guest is now left to his own initiative as he +penetrates further into the spiritual world. Some occupy themselves in +copying the paintings - they think that what is required of them is faithfully +to reproduce the beauty that has already been created. Christian Rosenkreutz +has a more powerful page who has the key to those parts of the castle not +usually shown (see Note 11). + +He and his companion visit the grave of the kings with its glorious Phoenix - +a picture of the Mysteries of death and transformation through a sacrificial +act that leads to re-birth. Andreae wants to describe how the "Chymical +Wedding" stands at a special turning-point of time. The old way of initiation +has died, and the new rises from the grave of the old. For all new +developments must be founded on what has been right and good in the past.* + +The Rosicrucian Brother and his companion learn that to become the leaders of +the modern age they must not go the old way of initiation with the help of a +hierophant, but through voluntary self-sacrifice come to a re-birth such as +will be consummated in the "wedding" they are so soon to witness. Thus they +approach the developments of the following days with open and expectant +hearts.* + +Nevertheless, the spiritual seeker has to enrich his soul through a knowledge +of the past evolution of man - hence their visit to the Library, the Akashic +Record. + +The king sends his page to get the keys back from their page - the rulers of +the Castle would prefer spiritual life to continue along its old lines. Dr. +Steiner remarks here that even today the spiritual investigator finds that his +strongest opponents are those who want to continue an old way of approach to +the spiritual world.* + +Christian Rosenkreutz and his companion now visit the great globe and are +interested to see that the rings which mark the home of each wedding guest are +scattered all over the globe. This indicates that the new wisdom is +universal, and not confined to either east or west. As they sit at the centre +of the globe they see the power of the planets working within the earth - they +learn the secrets of the seven metals which have been called "the deeds of the +planets within the earth" (see Note 12). + +Christian Rosenkreutz is so entranced that he can hardly tear himself away, +and is laughed at for his tardy arrival at supper. + +While they are eating and drinking, the Virgin propounds a riddle and asks the +guests to find the answer. Then some of the guests do the same. In each +case, the intellect can find no solution. Andreae wants to show that in the +spiritual world the human power of judgement must be suspended.* Reality is +richer than can be surmised by judgement based on sense-experience. + +Christian Rosenkreutz is now emboldened to ask the Virgin her name. From her +indications he works it out as follows: - + +First letter 1=A +Second 12=L +Third 3=C +Fourth 8=H +Fifth 9=I +Sixth 13=M +Seventh 9=I +Eighth 1=A + ___ + + 56 + ___ + +Her name is Alchimia. We are invited to consider her being more closely. She +is the imaginative representation of spiritual knowledge. Andreae wants to +show how true alchemy is concerned with the transformation of spiritual +substance into physical and how a true understanding of physical substance +leads to the supersensible.* We now understand that it was Alchimia who led +Christian Rosenkreutz with a torch as he drew near to the Castle, when the +approach to the spiritual world seemed dark. True alchemy throws light on the +pathway to the spirit. + +And now there enters a very stately figure who reveals herself as Theologia. +This duchess is more other-worldly than Alchimia. One must not think of her +in terms of the rather dry picture called up by the word "theology" today, but +rather see her as the earthly reflection of Sophia, divine Wisdom. Her way is +the way of faith, Alchimia's the way of knowledge. She looks toward heaven; +Alchimia seeks to penetrate the secrets of earth. + +The guests take her for the Bride, but in honour and riches Theologia much +surpasses her. The Bride is the Higher Ego of Christian Rosenkreutz, the +Duchess a reflection of the Cosmic Wisdom which reunites man to God. For this +reason her weight is the heaviest of all. It is given to Alchimia, for this +heavenly wisdom borne by earthly wisdom gives perfect enlightenment. She +reminds our Rosicrucian Brother that he has received most, so most will be +expected of him. He finds this very strange - his humility always forbids his +understanding how great his spiritual wisdom really is. + +Each of the weights, which we have come to know as the Liberal Arts, is hung +in a chapel - knowledge is dedicated to the service of God. The guests then +pray for a blessing on the Royal Wedding. + +Christian Rosenkreutz's dream in the night is of a door which needs great +effort before he can open it. This is to remind him that his experiences so +far are not of intrinsic value, but that they have helped to generate a force +which will need to be strengthened by still greater effort on his part if he +is to go further on his quest.* + + THE FOURTH DAY (TUESDAY) + +This is the middle day of the seven, the heart of the story. It opens with a +visit to the Fountain, which we now recognise as the Fountain of Healing and +Inspiration, presided over by Mercury. The lion is redeemed; he is now the +servant of Mercury ; hence, after bathing in these healing waters, the guests +are given new insignia of the Golden Fleece - they have achieved a greater +purification of the feeling-life. This garment is covered with flowers - a +reminder that the future body of man will be more flower-like in its texture, +and will shine more brightly; at the same time, the moon and sun will shine +more brightly, too. + +Christian Rosenkreutz has now to face his own soul power* - he has to mount +three hundred and sixty-five steps, perhaps a picture of a cycle of faithful, +daily meditation; self-knowledge is not easily or quickly to be achieved. He +meets three kings and their consorts - thinking, feeling, and willing together +form the foundation for conceptual life. Dr. Steiner also speaks of them as +the powers of memory and ideation on either side of the ego.* The very old +king would then represent the power of memory - a human faculty acquired in +the dim past - wedded to the etheric life-forces, which, as we know, grow +younger as the physical organism grows older. + +The black king may be thought of as the power of intellectual thinking, in +which the light of wisdom has been darkened. The female counterpart of this +is the dim intuition of the woman's mind, a delicate and veiled apprehension +of ideas which a man's brain seizes in a more concrete way. This power of +intuition was active in very ancient times; hence the queen is described as a +"dainty old matron". The young king and queen represent, perhaps, the first +dawn of imaginative thinking, to which only the ego can give birth. + +The guests are welcomed by Atlas, the being who bears the burden of the earth +on his shoulders. He receives them gladly because the transformation ofeven +one individuality awakens in him the hope that one day his burden will be +lightened, for the initiate works upon himself not for his own sake, but to +help mankind and the earth. "Man is the Messiah of Nature," said Novalis, and +the events of the sixth and seventh days reveal the depth of meaning in his +words. + +The symbols on the altar are very ancient Mystery tokens, showing man's +connexion with the universe. The book points to the thought-content of man, +the influx of world-creative thought into the soul. Through the little light +it is indicated that world-thougths are active in the world-ether and give +illumination to men. Cupid blows upon the light - light and love are two +polar opposites which are active in all growth and becoming. The sphere +indicates how man is interwoven with spatial existence, as the clock speaks of +his connexion with cosmic time. The fountain from which blood-red liquid +flows, and the death's head with the serpent, show how birth and death appear +to the spiritual seeker as founded in the Cosmos. The power of planets and +zodiac interweave to bring about the life and destiny of man.* + +The comedy which is played represents the story of the soul of man during a +lifetime, but also, on a second level, the development of the soul during +earth-evolution. Taking it in its simplest meaning, we see how birth is, as +often, represented as an infant borne to solid ground on the waters of the +etheric (we are reminded of the story of Moses in the bulrushes). As the king +takes the child out of the water, he comments that she has previously been +stolen by the Moor. In this connexion Rudolf Steiner speaks of the way in +which the power of evil (called Ahriman in occult literature) often fastens on +the brain of a soul on its way to incarnation.1 (Life on Earth and in the +Spiritual Worlds.) + +The princess is royally brought up by ancient wisdom, but at puberty she falls +again into the hands of the Moor. She is rescued by an ancient knight - still +working out of the good forces of the past - and is restored to her kingdom. +When she comes of age she falls once more into the hands of the dark power - +this time of her own free will - and is brutally ill-treated. The young +prince, her higher self, has to conquer, not only the Moor, but also her own +weakness and folly, before she is fit and able to become his bride. When at +last higher and lower self are united, the multitude pray that from them a +fairer race may spring. (We have echoes of part of this story in +Shakespeare's Winter's Tale and Tempest.) + +But now the dread moment approaches when the consciousness of the spiritual +seeker must go through death in order to attain new life. At every step +forward in occult development, it is necessary to overcome fear; and at this +point a nameless fear overcomes Christian Rosenkreutz and the guests. The +young king, the consciousness of the spiritual seeker, exacts an oath of +faithfulness from his guests. We have spoken of the way in which this story +must be read on many levels; and at this point the guests, in one sense +perhaps representing concretely the stage attained by the greatest of earth- +initiates, are to be thought of in another sense, as the nine members of man's +being, each of which has been brought to special perfection by one of the +"guests". The whole being of man must take part in his regeneration, else his +lower nature will betray him; hence the oath of fealty given to the young +king. As Alchimia says, "The life of the king, and many more, stand now in +your hands." Christian Rosenkreutz is to lead humanity into a new age. + +The beheading signifies, on one level, the sacrifice of the forces of ideation +and memory in order that a new, living thinking may be created. In another +sense, it is the physical body that is to be regenerated in order to become +the "resurrection body" which is the gift of Christ to the future. After the +six have been beheaded by the Moor (who is the same figure of evil as we have +seen in the play), he himself suffers the same fate. He is a picture of the +Judas individuality, who again and again has to act as "the betrayer", the +agent of a tragic fate, which nevertheless is a necessity in the working-out +of karma. Yet it is an act of betrayal, and brings punishment in its train. +The head of this being is gathered up and is a necessary ingredient in the +alchemy by which the king and queen are given new life. A mysterious +admixture of darkness belongs to the creation of new light. + +The fate of the kings reminds us of the beheading of John the Baptist, who +thus sacrifices the first half of the evolution of the earth, during which man +developed the power of intellectual thinking. From the grave of this thinking +is to arise the power of living thinking. Through this sacrifice and the +uniting of his being with the power of the Christ Being he was able to play an +important part in the unfolding of the new age. + +At this point Rudolf Steiner speaks at length of how the two soul-forces, +memory and ideation, are dependent on the same kind of physical condition as +growth. But the forces of growth bear within them the forces of decline and +death; therefore they can only give rise to dead thinking. Thus the spiritual +seeker must realise in the foundation of his soul-processes the metamorphosis +of the growth-processes in his body. Usually these life forces are only +changed into cognitional forces by taking death into themselves. This is +Nature's alchemy. The spiritual seeker has to carry this alchemy further.* + +To do this he must realise that, just as in the development from flower to +seed certain forces are held back in order to produce something new, so the +higher forces of knowledge have been held back as a seed, at the point where +Nature has developed knowledge forces for what is dead. The next step, to +awaken living forces of cognition, must be carried out by the would-be +initiate himself. Such an achievement is "a further shoot of renewed life in +the being of the world"* (see Note 13). + +Christian Rosenkreutz sleeps in a room which looks out over a lake - the +etheric world. He has already achieved something of the consciousness which +will be the possession of the man of the future. During the night he sees the +seven flames of the seven beings who have lost their lives hover above ships +which are to bear the bodies to the place of resurrection. He is the only one +who sees this, for, after all, it is his forces that are undergoing the +change. He seems that the Castle in which he is staying is well guarded by +many watchmen, just as the temple of the body is guarded at night by spiritual +beings. So, at long last, he falls asleep. + +--------------------------- +END OF FILE +--------------------------- +THE CHYMICAL WEDDING OF CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ [FILE 3 of 3] + + THE FIFTH DAY (WEDNESDAY) + +Christian Rosenkreutz has now to penetrate into the realm of Venus, the source +of life. We must recall what was said concerning the task of the initiate who +seeks to bring life into his thinking. He must penetrate into the processes +of Nature to the point at which she brings forth life. This is a dangerous +realm, the realm of the Lady Venus, where Nature works with the force of love +to produce new life. This realm is underground, because as yet Venus still +works in the sphere of the unconscious will-forces. It is all too easy for +the seeker to be overcome by the instincts, unless his heart is filled with +the purity of Christ. While Christian Rosenkreutz passes safely through this +test, he nevertheless fears he has committed a grave fault in seeing the Lady +Venus, whereas for these forces to be raised to consciousness was legitimate +in the new initiation, though not in earlier times.* + +He first sees the tree of Venus, on an altar-like stone supported by the three +beasts who traditionally represent thinking, feeling and willing - the eagle, +the lion and the bull. The fourth being, man, the synthesis of the three, is +not represented - but above is the angel, the higher nature of man, holding +the fallen tree of life. The decaying fruit continually falls, melted by the +flame of pyrites, which may be said to represent the sacrifice of Christ. It +must become completely liquid - etheric; this liquid falls into golden +vessels. The tablet by the side of Venus is inscribed: "When the fruit of my +tree shall be completely melted, then will I awake and become the mother of a +king". When the way of procreation has been completely transformed and +purified, love will bring forth man worth of the name -- "a king" (see Note +15, concerning the gift of the old lord to the king and queen). + +The guests are now to view death from the earthly side - after death the +interring of the remains is a sad task. Only Christian Rosenkreutz, through +the experiences of the night, knows the truth, that the coffins are but empty +shells, and that the beings who died the previous day are already on their +journey to the place of re-birth. The guests are given an indication of what +is to come by the flag bearing the picture of the Phoenix, always a symbol of +resurrection. + +The guests are now reminded of their oath of allegiance to the young king and +invited to sail with Alchimia to the Isle of Olympus. Olympus, the Heaven of +the Greek gods, and in particular of Jupiter, is the sun-filled ether sphere. + +It will be noted that the ships set forth in the configuration of the cross +and triangle. The foremost is the bearer of the Moor's head - the sign of the +Pyramid seems to indicate that a solid grounding on the earth is necessary +even for the most spiritual transformation of man's being. The next three +ships form the cross-beam, as it were, of the cross; these are Mars - Earth - +Mercury (see Note 1, paragraph 3). Christian Roesenkreutz is naturally on the +ship bearing the sign of the Globe (Earth) for he is concerned wholly with +earth-development. The virgins in the ship behind bear laurel branches. +Their ship carries the sign of Venus; the laurel, an emblem of sun-filled +thinking, prefigures the future - the redeemed Venus power. This ship with +Sun and Moon make the triangle. As the cross is the sign of earth-life, so is +the triangle an emblem of heaven. Jupiter is not represented, for it is to +the Island of Jupiter, the Isle of Olympus, that they are bound. Jupiter is +the laboratory of the gods, the home of Plato's Ideas, which are there formed +before coming into physical manifestation. + +Before the Virgin gives permission for the sirens to sing to the voyagers, she +changes the formation of her little fleet, which now makes a pentagon as if +protecting the ships bearing the bodies of the kingds, which fly the signs of +the Sun and Moon. The pentagon encloses the pentagram, which in an occult +sense is the image of the perfect man of the future - the Mercury man to be +developed in the second half of earth-evolution. + +The sirens - primal love - who belong to the realm of the Father, are then +allowed to sing their sweet but seductive song. It moves even the Rosicrucian +Brother in such a way that he remarks "This was the wound in my head". We are +again reminded of the mysterious connexion between ideation and the +reproductive powers (see Note 5). + +As they draw near to the Tower of Olympus the Ancient Warden comes out to +greet them. We have seen that the island is situated in the sea of the +etheric. It is square in form, the perfection of the earth-form; we are +reminded of the New Jerusalem, which also was "four-square". On the island is +a Tower, the hidden laboratory of the Powers of Creation. In this Tower the +work of regeneration will take place. It has a ground-plan of seven +interlacing circles, the plan of many ancient Mystery temples, and stands +seven stories high.1 (See The First Goetheanum as a Modern Mystery Temple by +D.J. van Bemmelen - Anthroposophical Quarterly, Spring 1964) This is a +picture of the sevenfold being of man, and also, on another level, of the +seven epochs of earth-development, in the course of each of which one vehicle +of the soul of man was to be developed.2(Occult Science) Seven has always to +do with earthly time, just as twelve is the number of space. + +The guests are now set to work in an underground laboratory at their first +task, which is the preparation for use of herbs and crystals. This is +Nature's alchemy, which has to be faithfully carried out before the spiritual +seeker can bring about something new. + +When night falls, Christian Rosenkreutz goes out into the garden and looks up +at the stars. He is delighted to see a conjunction of the planets which gives +him confidence that their enterprise is rightly timed. He then sees the seven +flames of the dead persons cross the ocean and come to rest over the top of +the Tower, where their souls will await the new bodies which are to be +prepared for them. + + THE SIXTH DAY (THURSDAY) + +This is Thursday - Jeudi, the day of Jupiter, the day of new creations. The +experiences of this day are the core of the whole initiation. + +Concerning the pictures in which these experiences are conveyed to us by +Andreae, Rudolf Steiner says that they are in a sense unimportant, since +another occultist could have conveyed the same process in different pictures. +What is important is what happens in the soul of the reader as he ponders upon +them.* + +The experiences of this day can be read on many different levels - in one +sense they are an initiation through which man attains the power of living +thinking; in another, the stages of experience between death and a new birth; +or again, the development of the seven vehicles of man's being through the +seven epochs of earth-evolution; and yet again, these epochs themselves. It +seems simplest to follow the process as that of re-incarnation and of the +creation of a new resurrection body, the body that has been spoken of as the +future gift of Christ to man. It should be noted that in the fifteenth +century the understanding of re-incarnation and karma was confined to those +Rosicrucians who had attained to the highest degree of initiation. They +placed this story before the world so that men might grow familiar with a +picture which in the future could awaken within them an understanding of its +full meaning. In the same way a real fairy tale conveys to a child in +pictures spiritual wisdom which is only transformed into concepts much later +in life.1 (From Jesus to Christ) + +The day begins with the old Warden's bestowal upon each guest of one of three +means of climbing to the next higher stage of spiritual experience - wings, +ladders and ropes. We note that they are given out by lot, and we remember +how Christian Rosenkreutz was led, seemingly by chance, to one of the four +roads that was his destined way. At crucial moments we may trust "chance" +events to be a surer guide to a right destiny than the conscious choice of the +limited wisdom of man. "Wings" are obviously the privilege of the very +few initiates present, who can at will mount to each next higher realm. A +"ladder" is the picture of the means by which the spiritual seeker ascends who +still rises step by step, not without effort, but in his own strength. Those +who have "ropes" whose spiritual exercises sit more lightly upon them day by +day, find the climb more arduous and have to be helped by those above them. + +The collaborators are first asked to pray for the success of their enterprise; +it has been said that the scientist of the future will go to his laboratory as +to an altar. Now a great oval casket containing the bodies of the dead kings +and queens is brought in, and also a small shrine containing the Moor's head. +A fountain whose water is to be heated reminds us of the processes carried out +in the alchemist's laboratory. The distillation is brought about to the +strains of beautiful music. Of this Rudolf Steiner says: "What the intellect +perceives as law, in the spiritual world is music; all pictures shining with +light are at the same time sounding". + +The tinctures and essences prepared the previous day, together with the Moor's +head, are used in this first process. These, since the basis of matter and +earthly substance is spirit, can generate the spiritual power and spiritual +heat necessary to transform physical substance into etheric liquid. We +remember the same process going on in the domain of the sleeping Venus. The +liquid is then placed in a golden globe - gold is always an alchemical picture +of the Sun Sphere, the Sphere of Christ. + +Before each of the processes there is a creative pause of "a quarter of an +hour". We notice that at each stage a preparation is made by an unseen being +before the collaborators can begin their work. We realize the old Warden is +active behind the scenes, though he is not seen, and then only by the chosen +four, till the very end. + +In this third storey they are in the Sun Sphere - there is sunlight +everywhere, and it is the light and heat from the sun that creates the snow- +white egg. We are made to realise something of the joy of creation - the +guests "are as jocund as if they themselves had laid the egg". We are all too +apt to think that any creative work in which we take a part is our own, +instead of realising that we are, after all, only humble collaborators with +the spiritual power that wills to work through and with us. + +On the fourth floor, the see the Bird - the human soul in its astral condition +- emerge; at first very wild, and only gradually tamed. Fed first on the +essence of the former earth-life - the blood of the kings and queens - he +grows feathers, always a picture of thoughts; memories of earth-life produce +black feathers, unenlightened by heaven's wisdom. When a change is made to +heavenly food the bird's feathers become white. Later they are still further +irradiated by the glory of heaven and become many-coloured and full of beauty. +And now the Bird is docile and friendly. + +In the fifth stage the Bird loses these transformed thoughts; in the +alchemical process they become a blue liquid with which the Bird is painted, +all except the head. Blue is the colour of Saturn, the bearer of cosmic +memory, who retains the essence of earthly thoughts which become deeds in a +new life; for what has been learned in one life is transmuted into a faculty +in the next. The head of one incarnation is, however, discarded; having +served its purpose it is not painted with the rest of the body, and presently +is struck off. + +In the sixth storey we again find an altar. Previously, the altar showed +man's relation to the cosmos from an earthly point of view; now it is seem +from the cosmic aspect. The six objects had relation to the planets' work +upon earth; now we are shown that the planetary influence is powerful in +forming the faculties of the human being in his new life. The collaborators +make the Bird drink from the fountain of birth, to which he is averse - he +pecks at the serpent till she bleeds, perhaps indicating the soul's reluctance +to come into connexion with the mysteries of death and rebirth. As Novalis +has said, "A birth on earth is a death in the spiritual worlds." + +The clock chimes when certain conjunctions are reached. It is the solemn +"midnight hour" when the soul must turn anew towards the earth. The hour of +re-birth depends upon the constellations in the heavens - the soul's gifts and +faculties must enter the world on the streem with which it is associated.1 +(Between Death and a New Birth) This does not mean that man is ruled by the +stars, as the ancients thought, but reveals that a man, his fellow men, and +the universe are one, and must live in mutual harmony. + +The Bird's head is severed from the body; the forces of trunk and limbs will +be transformed in the new life. This is the moment of sacrifice; the past is +sacrificed that its forces may be metamorphosed into new ones for the future. +The body is burned, together with a little tablet hanging by - the previous +earth-life's karmic record; the ashes of both are preserved and used in the +creation of the new body. The ashes represent the essence of the destiny of +the soul, which is built into the whole structure of the human being about to +be born. + +And now Andreae tells us of a little joke which the Virgin plays upon four of +the wedding guests. (It is refreshing to find that jokes are played in +heaven!) Here Andreae deliberately keeps a light, satiric touch, to avoid any +approach to sentimentality.* The Virgin pretends that Christian Rosenkreutz, +his friend, and two others have been unsatisfactory co-workers; they are +therefore not to take part in the seventh process. Feeling very shame-faced, +they are driven from the room, only to find themselves led up in honour to the +eighth floor, and there met by the old Warden, with whom they are now +permitted to take part in the final mystery of the new creation (see Note 14). + +The ashes are mixed with prepared water - the substance of karma with the +etheric life-forces - to shape the transformed bodies of the young king and +queen, which at first are very tiny. While waiting to carry out the next +stage the four guests watch the other five on the floor below, busy carrying +out alchemistic processes in the old way, thinking that they are more honoured +in this task than the four who have left them. one imagines these could well +be the guests who in the Castle painted copies of the beautiful pictures; they +are not aware that something new is needed at this momentous point of time. + +The chosen four watch the little embryo-forms grow and are enchanted by their +beauty. We feel again that here is the joy of creation, known to all artists, +and realise the truth of Rudolf Steiner's words; "Now there is nothing which +may in reality be called bliss except the vision of the process of creation, +the process of becoming".1 (Life between Death and Re-birth) + +The tiny beings are fed with the Bird's blood, the quintessence, it would +seem, of the earlier life. They are almost transparent - this is the +fundamental form of the resurrection body, which is to receive the soul. The +old Warden is active in this part of the initiation, "performing many +ceremonial gestures towards the roof," where, as Christian Rosenkreutz knows, +the souls are awaiting incarnation. The trumpets are the means by which the +souls enter the mouths of the king and queen. They shoot down like a +brilliant streak of flame, and the images begin to stir. We are reminded of +the statue scene in Shakespeare's Winters Tale, which is obviously written out +of a knowledge of this whole ceremony. + +After a "creative pause" during which the king and queen sleep, they are +awakened and have no memory of anything that has happened to them since their +last earth-life. At this point of time, man has no memory of the time between +death and re-birth. The Virgin now clothes them in white garments "which +could have been crystal but that they are gentle and not transparent" - a +beautiful description of the new fleshly body. They now start on their +journey to the scene of their earthly activities. + +The nine guests meet again at supper, which is made into a festival by the +wisdom and charm of the old Warden, the Lord of Olympus. Afterwards they are +shown the rarities in the Tower. We remember that we are in the region of +archetypes, the realm of Jupiter. + +At length they sleep. Their work of transubstantiation is complete. Rudolf +Steiner reminds us that such a process is not carried out solely for the +benefit of the individuality concerned, but for humanity. Later on there must +be brought about, by already transformed individualities, the +transubstantiation of society; and later again that transubstantiation of the +earth of which St. Paul speaks.* + + THE SEVENTH DAY (FRIDAY) + +After their wonderful experience in the heights, the guests are led back to +the lowest regions of the Tower, preparatory to their return to earth-life. +They now wear yellow garments (the colour of Mercury), together with the +insignia of the Golden Fleece. + +The old lord, the Warden, gives each a medallion. On the one side is +inscribed "Art is the Priestess of Nature". The process which they have +just carried out is "art" in the deepest sense of the word. By penetrating to +the realm where Nature weaves the dead into the living and becoming, they have +carried this process further in the transubstantiation of the being of man. +The other side of the medallion bears the words, "Nature is the Daughter of +Time". Evolution gradually comes forth from the womb of time. Although the +events of the previous day have only been briefly portrayed, the seven storeys +of the Tower remind us of the time-element which must be present in all growth +and becoming. + +The guests re-cross the sea in ships that now bear, not the planetary signs, +but the signs of the zodiac. They sail under Libra--the sign of balance; they +are still in "the year of balance", and, moreover, have now to find the +balance between spiritual and temporal existence. Christian Rosenkreutz is +especially delighted by the company of the old lord: "I could have sailed with +him all my life long". We remember his comment on the previous day: "If men +would but take notice of his procedure things would not so often and so +untowardly miscarry". We are given a glimpse of what it can mean to men to +develop the power to make contact in full consciousness with great earthly +personalities who are living in the spiritual world, and take council with +them. Rudolph Steiner has spoken of the importance of developing the power to +bring about this conscious interweaving between the two worlds. He once said, +for example: "This is the sole real healing that humanity needs".1 (Some +Characteristics of Today) + +We shall now return to the level of interpretation which portrays Christian +Rosenkreutz as having experienced an initiation through which his higher self +has been brought to birth within him. + +The travellers are greeted by five hundred ships which come out to meet them-- +perhaps (like the parable of the five thousand) an indication of the Fifth +Post-Atlantean Age in which we are living. Old Atlas (the Earth-bearer) comes +forth eagerly to greet them, for "the earth is hungry for initiates" (see Note +15). + +The other five guests are astonished to see the young king, already alive and +active. The four who took part in the final awakening are silent as to this; +the initiate's lips are sealed concerning his most inward experiences. + +The old lord gives his warm good wishes to the young couple and then delivers +into the hands of Cupid a small casket, the contents of which are kept secret +(see Note 16). + +The shore where they land is near the first gate at which Christian Rosenkreutz +had entered. The initiate has to return to his earth-life precisely at the +point where he stood before his initiation. The young king, the old lord and +himself are now given horses--they have now to resume earthly thinking. They +carry a snow-white ensign with a red cross; this, the ensign carried by the +risen Christ, was also the flag both of St. George and of the Templars. In +response to the young king's question, he tells him how he gave up his water +and salt (personal feeling and thinking) in return for the tokens on his cap. +The young king then tells him he is HIS father--the initiate may in a sense be +said to have fathered the birth of his own higher self.* + +And now we are told of a very strange happening. We know that Christian +Rosenkreutz was destined to become the Guardian of the modern age, to +replace the former guardian. This he at first regards as punishment, not +understanding its full significance. The old guardian delivers to him a +petition for the king, begging to be relieved of his task. He also had +"looked upon Venus" and had been condemned to be gatekeeper until another +committed the same fault. In earlier times it was not permitted even in +initiation to enter consciously the realm where life is generated. +Procreation took place in unconscious sleep.1 (The Mysteries of Herta) + +But in the new initiation it is pemissible, and indeed necessary, to enter +this dangerous realm as Christian Rosenkreutz had done; he does not, however, +realise that he is guiltless, and therefor suffers torments of conscience. It +seems that the young king and the old lord are in no haste to reassure him. +One has a feeling that this portrays the way in which the working of the +spiritual world is often misunderstood by the human being. As the old lord +had remarked on the previous day, "Man never knoweth how well God intendeth +him". The Rosicrucian Brother has to take his courage in both hands to make a +full confession, saying that as the old gatekeeper had been his benefactor on +his arrival at the castle, he must set him free at whatever cost to himself. +He feels he must repay his debt to ancient wisdom, which has been the +foundation on which his new knowledge has grown. He sadly recieves the ring +of office, thinking that he must for many years "sit under his gate". + +He is becoming the gatekeeper, also, of his own thoughts and inner life, and +this does not, as he fears, preclude him from entering the spiritual world, +but, indeeed, is a necessity. But he is also to work for humanity, and this +is shown by his being made, together with the other guests, "Knight of the +Golden Stone". To see dead substance as a revelation of the spirit, this is +the Golden Stone.* Ordinary knowledge is a corpse; spirit-permeated knowledge +is the Golden Stone. But also the spirit-permeated body is the Golden Stone. +And the Knights of the Golden Stone are those who, having brought about this +transubstantiation in themselves and in thier thinking, are pledged to work +for the transubstantiation of society, as indicated by the five vows. + +That the initiate's new work for humanity will not be allowed to unfold +unhampered by the Spirits of Hindrance has already been pictured forth in the +game "not unlike chess," with the virtues and vices pitted one against the +other, played by the young king and queen. It warns the spiritual seeker that +to range oneself on the side of the Spirits of Light is to invite attacks from +the Spirits of Darkness. It is interesting to recall that one of Dr. +Steiner's exhortations to vigilance in face of such surprise attacks on the +part of the Adversary is couched in terms of this particular Imagination - +"Never forget the Invisible Chess-Player." + +At the end of this troublous day Christian Rosenkreutz finds himself, greatly +to his surprise, honoured by sleeping with the old lord and Atlas. Again and +again we see in him this quality of beautiful humility, which is always +startled to find a recognition of any spiritual stature in himself. + +Abruptly he "came home" into the physical body. Even if he is the "Guardian" +of the Age, the spiritual seeker of today must re-enter everyday life, and +continue earthly tasks; but now his higher self is working in all that he +does. The young king had said, "This is the last time you will see me in this +manner," which our friend had taken to be a farewell. But though it is only +in the spiritual world that we can see the higher self face to face, as it +were, this higher self, once won, works on within us. We do not behold, but +we feel, its power. + +Rudolf Steiner concludes his comments by saying: "Doubtless some readers will +be specially curious to know how the change was accomplished, but only one who +has experienced it can understand the transition back to everyday life. +Andreae says "one or two pages are lost," thus showing how expertly he +understands the conditions of esoteric life."* + + EXPLANATORY (PAGE 62) + +The following brief outline is included for readers who are unfamiliar with +the description of the being of man and the evolution of the world as +described in Spiritual Science. + +The soul and spirit of the human being dwell, not only in a physical body, but +also in what may be called a body of life-and growth-forces (the etheric +body). These two vehicles the plant and animal worlds also possess. In +addition, man shares with the animal world the possession of a vehicle of the +life of feeling (the astral body). Man alone has an ego. But he also has +what may be termed the vehicles of his higher self, only the first of which, +the Spirit Self, is as yet, and that only in part, developed by the average +man. This may be said to be the transformed body of feelings in so far as a +man has achieved love and unselfishness. In the future he will transform his +body of etheric forces, so that it will be filled with health and life. This +is termed Life Spirit. Finally, in the far future, the physical body will be +transformed - the human being will attain to Spirit Man. The transformed +physical body is the "resurrection body" described in Note 7. + +Each of these vehicles of the soul and spirit of man has been, or is to be, +developed during successive "Culture Epochs". The physical body was developed +in the remote past; the etheric body (the body of life-and growth-forces) +during what is known as the Ancient Indian Civilisation; while to perfect the +astral body (the body of feeling life) was the task of the Ancient Persian +Civilisation. + +The vehicle of the ego is threefold, each stage of development needing a whole +cultural epoch for its development. The Sentient Soul (the soul that lives +chiefly in the feelings) was developed in the Egyptian-Chaldean Age; to +develop the Intellectual Soul (which lives chiefly in the thinking) was the +task of the civilisation of the Greeks and Romans. This modern age (which +began in 1413 is concerned with the growth of the so-called Consciousness +Soul, which lives especially in the will-life of the ego. The above bare +outline can be confirmed by a thoughtful review of world-history. + +Our own age will be followed by a more spiritual one in which man will be +called upon to develop the Spirit Self. This may be called the Sixth Cultural +Epoch. The transformed Cultural Epoch, and the transformed physical body +(already transformed by Christian Rosenkreutz, as pictured in this story), +will only be acquired by the average man in a far distant future. + +This very incomplete sketch is only given as a help in studying the foregoing +pages. A fuller knowledge may be gained from many books and lectures by +Rudolf Steiner, in particular from "Occult Science". + + NOTES + +Note 1 (Foreword, Page 5) The writer calls the year 1459 "a year of balance" +and it is important to understand why he does so. We know that the laws of +cause and effect work in such a way that the cause of a certain happening may +be sought the same number of years before the "point of balance" as the event +happened after. Thus, if we take away 1459 from 1604, when the story was +written down, we arrive at a period of 145 years. Now, 145 years before 1459, +in 1314, the Order of Knights Templars was suppressed by Philippe le Bel. The +Rosicrucian Order had the task of carrying forward the work of this Order. + +Moreover, the year 1459 may be called "a year of balance" in a much deeper +sense. Rudolf Steiner has called the year 333 A.D. the dead centre of earth- +evolution. Owing to a time-lag caused by the Spirits of Hindrance, the +second half of earth-evolution actually began in 1413, at the dawn of the +fifth cultural epoch, its workings being first actively implemented in 1549 by +the founding of the Rosicrucian Order. + +This may also be spoken of as the transition from the Mars half to the Mercury +half of earth-evolution; during the first half the Mars-forces of +materialisation were working; during the second half the Mercury-forces, +etherealising matter, must increasingly hold sway. Thus the Mars half of the +earth's history has meant the growth of intellectual thinking, and ever deeper +descent into materialism, while the Mercury half will bring the development of +living thinking. The Mars-period has brought a hardening of man's physical +body; the Mercury-period brings the possibility of its etherisation. 1 +(Theosophy of the Rosicrucians and An Outline of Spiritual Science or +Anthroposophy (1906) + +There is yet another important respect in regard to which this was a time of +balance. A danger had arisen that mankind would split into two groups, those +who wished to live a spiritual life in seclusion and those who carried out the +practical life of the world. A form of initiation had to be instituted which +would not preclude the spiritual seeker from taking part in the life of the +everyday world. Christian Rosenkreutz was the first of the new initiates +whose task it was, and is, to find the balance between spiritual and material +life.2 (Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner, by Guenther Wachsmuth) + + +Note 2 (Foreword, Page 6) It is important to know, concerning an +individuality, not only who he was, but also to which stream of humanity he +belongs. This is especial import in the case of Christian Rosenkreutz. He is +the Guardian of the modern age of technics; as such he belongs to the Cain- +Hiram stream. This is made clear through the Temple Legend, entrusted by +Christian Rosenkreutz to the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross. + +In this we are told that Cain was the son of Eve and one of the Elohim, while +Jahve created Adam, whose sons by Eve were Abel and Seth. Jahve accepted the +offering of Abel, but rejected that of Cain, because the latter had not been +created at His command. Cain therefore slew Abel and was cast out from the +company of Jahve. + +From the race of Cain came all that had to do with the earth; he and his +descendants originated Art and Science. One of his descendants, Tubal-Cain, +was skilled in the handling and mixing of metals. From this same line came +Hiram, the famous Master Builder, skilled in all the science and technics of +his age. + +Solomon was descended from the race of Seth, gifted in all that Jahve could +bestow of tranquil wisdom. He conceived the magnificent idea and plan of the +Temple, but his wisdom had nothing to do with technics or the creations of the +human will; therefore he had to call in Hiram to aid him. The divine wisdom +of Solomon was to be the heart of the Temple, clothed in earthly substance by +the skill of Hiram. + +But at this time Balkis, Queen of Sheba, bearer of the old clairvoyance, +visited Solomon and was wooed by him. Having accepted the king, she met Hiram +and straightway fell in love with him, thereby rousing bitter jealousy in her +royal lover. Solomon's enmity brought about Hiram's death.1 (The Mystery of +the Rosicrucians.) + +From this time on the two streams, Cain-Hiram, Abel-Seth-Solomon, pursued +their way through the centuries, the rift unhealed; the sons of Cain still +masters of art and science, the sons of Solomon pursuing philosophy and +religion. It was the task of Christian Rosenkreutz to unite both streams in +his own being, and thus begin the healing of the breach. + +Note 3 (Foreword, Page 6) Our present era, the era in which man had to +develop the Consciousness Soul, began in 1413. In the evolution of the single +individuality, the consciousness Soul is developed in the seven years from 35 +to 42. + +Christian Rosenkreutz was 35 in 1413 - a further instance of the wonderful way +in which his own evolution harmonised with world-evolution. + +Incidentally it may be noted here that as one aspect of the Consciousness Soul +man develops the "onlooker consciousness" and with regard to the experiences +about to be related Christian Rosenkreutz is at once participator and +onlooker. + +Note 4 (Page 34) Christian Rosenkreutz is careful to show that his adventure +begins on Easter Eve, Saturday. It is important to notice that each +succeeding day has a character of its own, corresponding to its planetary +significance. We recall that Saturday is Saturn's day, a day dedicated to +reviewing the past, for Saturn is the bearer of cosmic memory; it is therefore +the appropriate day for Christian Rosenkreutz to review his own past before +deciding whether he is worthy to undertake the journey. Saturn is also the +planet of destiny, and today is a very fateful day for him. + +Sunday belongs to the Sun and is a day of new beginnings. On this day he sets +out on a journey which may be said to be a new beginning not only for himself +but for all humanity. + +Monday, the Moon's day, reminds us that this cosmic body possesses great +hardening forces and brings about a tendency to materialise, but also to +atavistic clairvoyance. These must be consciously resisted and overcome if a +man is to be a treu spiritual seeker. Hence, in the story, Monday is the day +of testing the guests. + +Tuesday (in Old Germanic Ziu's day, in French Mardi) is the day of Mars. +Wednesday (in Germanic Wotan's day, in French Mercredi) is the day of Mercury. +(For the significance of Mars-Mercury see Note 1.) In the story, Tuesday, the +day of "dying into matter" is the day the kings are beheaded. Wednesday +(Mercury's day) sees the beginning of the process of resurrection. + +Thursday (in Germanic Thor's day, in French Jeudi) is Jove's or Jupiter's day. +The planet Jupiter is the realm of archetypes, of Plato's Ideas. It is +fitting that on this day the guests are at work in the Tower of Jupiter +bringing to consummation the resurrection of the kings. In the next +incarnation of the earth, called the Jupiter-evolution, man himself will be +called upon to take a hand in creation. + +Friday (in Germanic Freya's day, in French Vendredi) is the day of Venus. The +true Venus holds the mystery of selfless love and service to our fellow men. +On thi day the guests are made Knights of the Golden Stone. + +In this amazing story we can read a meaning on many levels - as the story of +an initiation, leading to living thinking; as the story of man's evolution, +leading to his developing the "resurrection body"; as a picture of human +development throughout the seven culture epochs of earth-evolution; and, +again, as a picture of the seven incarnations of the earth. And in the names +of the consecutive days of the week, we have reminders of all these stages of +development. + +Note 5 (Page 36) The wound in the head: Christian Rosenkreutz here hints at +the mysterious connexion that exists between ideation and procreation. In +times long past, when the sexes were first divided, conscious spiritual +activity began. From that moment part of the energy which man had hitherto +used in bringing forth children was directed towards the development of his +own being. The power with which man has been enabled to create for himself an +instrument of thought is the very same power whereby in very ancient times he +fertilised himself.1 (Atlantis and Lemuria) + +This gives a key to the temptation that assails the highly intellectual man, +and explains the connexion twice spoken of by Christian Rosenkreutz between +the "wound in the head" and his meeting with Venus, also his reaction to the +song of the sirens. It is interesting that the genius of language retains an +awareness of this connexion in that the same word is used for an idea, a +conception in the mind, as for procreation, conception, of a new human being. + +Note 6 (Page 37) The roses are a picture of the development of the so-called +lotus-flowers, the organs of higher perception. The two-petalled between the +eyes, the sixteen-petalled in the larynx, the twelve-petalled in the region of +the heart, and the ten-petalled at the pit of the stomach, are the first four +to be developed.2 (see Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment) It +is interesting that the first Rosicrucian cross was pictured with four roses; +the others were added later. + +Note 7 (Page 37) The Resurrection Body: In the lectures, From Jesus to +Christ, Dr. Steiner devotes much time and thought to this all-important +subject. Briefly, he says: What is the physical body? We are accustomed to +say that man lays aside his physical body at death. But is this really so? +What man puts off at death no longer possesses the most important thing that +this body has in life - namely, its form. In a short time it crumbles into +formless earthly substances. It is quite clear, then, that the form, which is +the real physical body, withdraws at death. To the substances and forces +which a man has experienced as his physical body during life, something else +has been added, the Form, or as Dr. Steiner calls it, the Phantom. In the +earliest days of man's incarnation, the physical body was not visible. It +only became visible after the Fall, when Lucifer led men more and more deeply +into physical matter, which was necessary if man was to win the gift of +freedom. The physical body is really transparent, crystal clear. Through +Lucifer men have taken earth substances and forces into this body - it has +become solid and opaque, and at the same time it has taken into itself the +forces of death. By the time of the Mystery of Golgotha there was a danger +that the body would become unfit as a vehicle for the ego of man. + +Then came the Mystery of Golgotha, and through this happening it came to pass +that one man, who was the bearer of the Christ, passed through such a death +that after three days the specifically mortal part disappeared into the earth, +and from the grave there rose the pure Phantom - that which it was intended +from the beginning man should have. That spiritual body which rose from death +on the first Easter morning is like a seed for the renewal of all mankind. It +gradually imparts itself to every man who makes the right connexion with +Christ. In the future this body will be the gift of Christ to every man who +has chosen to take His forces into himself. + +The true purpose of the true alchemist was to prepare this higher body.1 (The +Foundation Stone by Dr. F.W. Zeylmans van Emmichoven) We shall see on the +sixth day how Christian Rosenkreutz does this. + +Note 8 (Page 38) The four roads are the paths opened up by the four +incarnations of our planet - the Old Saturn, Old Sun, Old Moon and Earth +evolutions.1 (Occult Science) + +The rocky and dangerous road is that of Ancient Moon; the long safe road, that +of Earth; the Royal Road, that of Ancient Sun, which only high initiates may +travel; the road "fit only for incorruptible bodies" is the way of Old Saturn. + +At this point a tentative hypothesis may be put forward. We learn from Rudolf +Steiner that in the fourth century the great being Manes called together in +the supersensible world the three great Bodhisattvas, Scythianos, Buddha, and +Zarathustra, and that at this Council a plan for the future evolution of the +civilizations of the earth was decided upon and carried over into the European +Mysteries of the Rose Cross.2 (The East in the Light of the West) As the +Chymical Wedding in 1459 was the inception of their plan for the modern age, +it would seem natural to suppose that these three exalted individualities were +present among the wedding guests; Scythianos, as the Initiate of the West, +travelling, but immaculately, by the rocky road; Zarathustra, as a King of +Wisdom, by the Royal Road; and the Buddha by the Saturn Road, "fit only for +incorruptible bodies"; and that in the Initiator directing the +alchemical processes of re-birth the great Manes himself could be indicated. + +Note 9 (Page 41) There is only one individuality of whom Rudolf Steiner has +said that he was the friend (and pupil) of Christian Rosenkreutz.3 (The +Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz) That is the Buddha, whom he sent to Mars in +1604, the year in which The Chymical Wedding was written down. Supposing the +Buddha to have been among the guests, as we have surmised, would it not be +likeliest that it is he who is "the fine, quiet man" whom our traveller +henceforth refers to as his friend and companion? + +Note 10 (Page 44) It has been suggested that the first Emperor may be thought +of as Solomon, a man rich in all wisdom, which he possessed as a gift from +above with no effort on his own part. He had a wealth of star-wisdom, but it +was not till much later that man began to explore the depths of his own soul, +and to strive to unite it with the cosmos. We know that the wisdom of the +Salomonic Age was repeated in the first millennium after Christ, and that the +spirit of Solomon lived and moved in the most outstanding figures of that +age.1 (The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric) But it was not until +towards the close of the first thousand years after Christ that men attained +any degree of self-consciousness. We remember that Astronomica, as taught in +later centuries, revealed how through a knowledge of the planets the pupils +could learn the secrets of the soul, and through an apprehension of the zodiac +the secrets of the ego. This knowledge Solomon could not attain in earlier +days. May it not be that for this reason he cannot sustain the seventh +weight? Yet, having such riches of cosmic wisdom, the failure would be very +bitter to him. If this is a true reading of the story, it is easy to +understand that Christian Rosenkreutz might take the opportunity of a gesture +towards healing the age-long breach between the two streams here represented. +Unhappily, we see that the Emperor does not respond to this overture of +friendship. + +It has been surmised that the only Emperor to pass the test, described as "a +short man with a curly brown beared" might be Zarathustra, pictured as he may +well have appeared as Zarathos, in Babylon, in the sixth century B.C. It will +not seem so surprising that this wisest of men does not far surpass the other +guests if we remember that already as Zarathos his teaching was a mere shadow +of Zarathustra's radiant wisdom because of the density of the body then +available - a handicap which had grown even more serious by the time of the +Chymical Wedding. + +Note 11 (Page 45) Another possible confirmation of the conjucture concerning +the Buddha (described by Dr. Steiner as the friend and pupil of Christian +Rosenkreutz) is the fact that it is the page of the latter - his initiative - +who leads both in their exploration of the Castle. + +Note 12 (Page 46) Fully to understand this experience we must recall a +further incident in the Temple Legend.1 (The Reappearance of Christ in the +Etheric) + +Hiram wanted to mingle the seven metals in a Brazen Sea as the climax of his +achievement in the construction of the Temple. Some jealous apprentices +spoilt his work by pouring water in a wrong way into the molten metal. Hiram, +in despair, heard the voice of his ancestor, Tubal-Cain, telling him to plunge +fearlessly into the sea of molten metal, through which he would come to the +centre of the earth and there learn the secret of rightly uniting fire and +water, that is, the secret of rightly uniting water with the seven molten +metals. + +This is the innermost secret of the Rosicrucians: how to mingle the fire of +enthusiasm with the water of calm wisdom. It is the uniting of the Cain and +Abel streams, the Hiram and Solomon streams, which will only gradually emerge +into the reality of the physical world. It is brought about by the activity +of the stars within the earth, portrayed in the seven metals of the Brazen +Sea. It is the contemplation of this planetary activity while they are +sitting at the centre of the great globe that so deeply absorbs the two +friends. + +Ntoe 13 (Page 51) For further understanding of the principle of metamorphosis +see Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants or the explanation of Goethe's work in +Man or Matter by Ernst Lehrs. + +Note 14 (Page 57) The reader is referred back to Note 8, in which the +spiritual Council of the fourth century is mentioned. The crucial event now +to be described is the first unfolding of the plan then decided upon. We may +therefore form a hypothesis that the "Old Warden" is none other than Manes. +He is active behind the scenes until the last process is reached and then is +seen only by the chosen four, who are allowed to collaborate with him in the +highest and most occult process in the eighth storey. + +The creation of the resurrection body takes place in the Tower of Olympus, the +region of Jupiter. On the planet Jupiter a colony of advanced spiritual +beings is working at the preparation of the future Jupiter condition of the +earth. The stream of Christian Rosenkreutz cooperates with them in this +preparation, of which the alchemical processes taking place in the Tower of +Olympus are in a certain sense a part. Dr. Steiner tells us that these +Spirits of Jupiter were specially observed in that fourth century Council, +when Scythianos, Zarathustra and Buddha, under the guidance of Manes, met to +investigate the forces which must be developed for the evolution of humanity +from a starting point connected with the Jupiter forces - that is, to develop +Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition through the senses and the sense +world.1 (Mission of Folk Souls) + +Note 15 (Page 57) In the Portal of Initiation, Felix Balde, the Nature +mystic, comes to the Temple of Hidden Wisdom with this message: + + "A power which speaks from the very depths of earth + Unto my spirit, hath commanded me + To come unto this consecreted place; + Since it desires to speak to you through me + Of all its bitter sorrow and its need." + +Note 16 (Page 59) It is possible that the contents of the casket delivered +over to the care of Cupid, which cannot then be revealed, are concerned with +the procreation of the future, when Venus will awake and appear in her real +being. + +Concerning this secret, Rudolf Steiner says that the generative process and +all that stands in connexion with it will in the future pass over to another +organ. The organ that is already preparing to be the future organ of +generation is the human larynx. Later on, not only will the word be spoken +forth by the larynx, but man will pour forth his forces into the word in such +a way that he will "speak forth" a new human being, his own likeness. This in +the future will be the birth of a new man - that he is spoken forth by +another.2 (The Theosophy of the Rosicrucians) + + + + +__________________ + +END OF FILE + +_________________ + +_ + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cyber1.txt b/religious documents/cyber1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f2df25 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cyber1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,120 @@ +Date: 07-26-89 16:10 +From: Ammond Shadowcraft +To: All +Subj: Cyber Wicca Proposal + Cyber Wicca + Cyber Wicca-the art of living that integrates rational and + irrational process through mythopoetic structures primarily from + Wicca, then neo-Paganism and other related religious belief + systems. It should incorporate knowledge from newer and + emerging humanistic sciences. Principles of ethical + self-programming as written of by Timothy Leary, John Lilly, + Robert Anton Wilson, Antero Alli, and John Hyatt should be + incorporated into the relational processes, those setting + between solar and lunar knowledge. + It should be a political-religious-psychological system to + support and meet the needs of individuals who feel both a + romantic and classical approach is needed in their life. These + needs could be formatted into solar and lunar knowledge bases, + rational, irrational and relational process could all be used to + a maximal degree. + CCyber Wicca could incorporate many of the concepts +contained in Humanist Manifesto II. Cyber Wicca should be a +newer religious system that is more importantly a mode of +thinking. Smart thinking usually leads to smart living. +Additionally the application of Cyber Wicca to mundane life +should be easy and seamless. Instead of taking the individual out +of the social complex it should enable them to integrate easily +with the social complex. + Cyber Wicca should appeal to the atheist as well as the + religionist as it focuses upon mythopoetic stories and + structures and the mystical connections between what is and is + not seen, as opposed to dogmatic theoretical structures. + Theoretical structures could be included as long as they are + considered metaphorical structures or models existing within the + human mind first and foremost. These structures can then be + used to ferret out deep personal meaning. + Kingdoms or Domains are used metaphorically. More properly + they represent areas of interest. Higher and lower relate to + density of item more than social, cultural or ethical placement. + Higher and lower display some cultural heritage. Higher should + normally refer to more dense, thus the Lower Kingdom. + _External_(Public)_Faces_ Religious Aspects--Low Domain + The low domain or Kingdom, the basis of the religious belief + system, should reflect WoMankind's relationship to their home + planet. The Earth can be personified or considered the + Grandmother or Mother of WoMankind, depending upon personal + focus. It could be called Mom, Mother or the Matrix, the space + enabling the existence of all physical and non-physical local + planetary life forms. [The solar processes could consider this a + "self check" to prohibit WoMankind from polluting their + environment to the detriment of all physical life forms. + Other Matrixes may exist. Cyber Wicca should be concerned + with local planetary manifestations without denying the + existences of other Matrixes. + Other personified or romantic entities could exist within +the matrix. These could be the Lady and Lord and be more +important or of a relatively more immediate nature being seen as +doorways to other entities; other spaces, physical energetic +natures or psychic spaces. + + Working of the Craft--Mid Domain + The metaphorical mid domain or Middle Kingdom could be the + workings of the Craft. At the beginning level the emphasis could + be upon physicality. Special tools could be selected for an + individual or group. These tools may or may not reflect + traditional usage but should be more appropriate for a culture + and/or geographical locale than for a traditional usage. + Special robes may be appropriate. Nudity could be more + useful for metaprogramming. The individuals background should be + considered before choosing tools or coverings. If the individual + were normally a naturist the metaprogramming tool could be + robes, etc. + Tools and rituals could be used for immediate + metaprogramming efforts. Dramatic ritual could be used to + advantage for both individual programming or group alignment. + Experiments in communication with non-physical or discarnate + entities could be a major focus. New modes of relationship in + sexual or emotional life could be incorporated providing members + feel comfortable with the activities. Safety, both physical and + emotional, should be paramount. Training of individuals for + incorporation may be needed to assist them in their growth into + unknown areas. + Physical Sciences Incorporated--High Domain + The metaphorical high domain or Kingdom could be the human + and physical knowledge systems, ie, health (birthing, child care + and physical health), nutritional, exercise, cosmetic and + creative knowledge systems, ie. sewing, cooking, building + sciences, gardening and organic farming techniques, and personal + defense techniques. + Cyber Wicca could define the extent or degree of immersion +in a Domain. The individual or group could decide for themselves +what extent they need to go. + Organization + Cyber Wicca could attempt to incorporate proven techniques + of cell or smaller group management while retaining intimacy. + Cyber Wiccan leaders could be of either sex, of any sexual + preference, but must be emotionally sound. They may choose their + own names and titles. Or Cyber Wicca may assign a title in order + to establish a somewhat formalized but unrestricted tradition. + Group or cell size should be held to about 2 to 15. However + any number of cell members may be used providing genuine + intimacy is maintained. + Cyber Wicca should attempt to meet the economic and + political needs of its members. Resources are available that + address political activities in cells. An economic base must be + established in Cyber Wiccan method. Should a social threat + arise individual members may need to support themselves in a + strange or different environment. Personal enrichment and + empowerment as opposed to personal aggrandizement should be the + focus enabling the member to live well in any difficult or + strange economic or political environment. + _Internal_Faces_ + These are internal considerations not usually presentable to + the public at large. Pearls are delicate, we need not dirty + them. Internal faces can be determined at a later time. + Cyber Wicca is a game; the game of Life. Play it! + Ammond Shadowcraft, July 1989 +--- QuickBBS v2.04 + * Origin: WELCOME TO THE CRYSTAL CAVE. (719) 391-1092 128/50 +(1:128/50)  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/cybercft.txt b/religious documents/cybercft.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..395d0e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/cybercft.txt @@ -0,0 +1,419 @@ +Msg#:15036 *WICCA* +12/31/89 13:45:00 +From: AMMOND SHADOWCRAFT + To: ALL +Subj: CYBERCRAFT PROPOSAL + CYBERCRAFT -- The Proposal + +CyberCraft--An Interpretative Metaphor + + Welcome to the first ever CyberCraft Manual. We hope you will +enjoy and benefit from this little exploration into the majikal +mind-body complex. Our purpose is to help others operate at higher +levels on all planes of life. It isn't our purpose to help them just +feel better. Witchcraft has some very positive and life affirming +teachings. The authors of this document hope to interpret those +metaphors bringing them into a late 20th century framework from which +we can springboard into the 21st century. + + However we have strong forces to compete against. The first +struggle we are involved with is one of the mind-body complex. Who +will control our mind-bodies? Will it be the Aspirant, the one looking +a better life, or will it be the Controllers, the ones with the power +and monies to mold our minds to their purposes? And will we nurture +the emerging Changelings? Or let the Persecutors administer the Last +Rite to our offspring. + + CyberCraft is not meant to be an end in itself. We are hoping +that it will offer the Aspirant the options needed to create a better +world for them to live in. + + CyberCraft is the art of living that integrates rational and +irrational process through mythopoetic structures primarily from +Wicca, then neo-Paganism and other related religious belief systems. +It should incorporate knowledge from newer and emerging humanistic +sciences. Principles of ethical self-programming as written of by +Timothy Leary, John Lilly, Robert Anton Wilson, Antero Alli, and +Christopher Hyatt should be incorporated into the relational +processes; those setting between solar and lunar knowledge. + + Humans seem to have a need to be both rational and irrational at +the same time. In doing so we generate quite a few problems and reap +some benefits. At this point in human time we are not able to measure +magik, nor are we able to measure or sense the so called etheric or +astral. Providing that we are given time and if the interests are +still mounted, we may be able to invent measuring or sensing devices +for such indeterminate quantities. + + Further the practice of dividing the mind from the body has +broken sunder the human even further. For the purposes of CyberCraft +the mind-body is one complex, one swirl of energy. The mind and body +are one entity, undivided, inseparable, and indivisible. + + It is the opinion of this author that many features of the powers +are misunderstood. Over the centuries and in various cultures humans +have overlaid folk fables and their personal expectations of what the +powers are into the framework of human abilities. And in doing so + +--- QuickBBS v2.61 [EVALUATION] + * Origin: THE CRYSTAL CAVE, "DER MAGICK TREFFPUNKT"(719 391-1092 +(1:128/50.0) + + + +Msg#:15037 *WICCA* +12/31/89 13:46:00 +From: AMMOND SHADOWCRAFT + To: ALL +Subj: REPLY TO MSG# 15036 (CYBERCRAFT PROPOSAL) +needless baggage has crept into the consensus framework. It is time +that we looked at our human nature without the clouded and marred lens +of binary, Christian, Ceremonial and patriarchal expectations. + + At the base of the concern humans are animal by definition. Human +magik should firstly be animal magik. But does that mean we should be +satisfied with an animal expectation of what our abilities can be? +Should we push back the normal or natural boundaries? How far? + + The first order of business is to know ourselves. Does this mean +know just our bodies? How about desires? How about hopes, dreams and +aspirations? How about our minds? Why should we remain ignorant of +why and how we think? Do we know now? Or do we think we know without +really knowing? What part do preconceived concepts play in the +formulation of that sentiment? How do our respective cultures help us +define our consciousness? Are these definitions useful? What can be +replaced? With what? + + It is useful to frame these questions in the milieu of the human +mind. Everything we can think of is thought with the bio- computer we +term the brain. How does the brain work? Research effort is still in +progress but at the core we find that the brain is composed of +billions of cell bundles called neurons. Each neuron could have as +many as 10,000 gateways to other neurons. We know that information is +transmitted electro-chemically at about .07 volts. But we don't know +everything yet. And least of all we don't know why we think what we +think. + + The above mentioned authors are helping to shed light upon our +thought processes. The terms and structures they use should be +considered metaphorical. But they provide a viable framework from +which to build a newer, more appropriate belief system for our times. + + It should be a psychological-religious-political thought system +to meet and support the needs of individuals who feel both a romantic +and classical approach is needed in their life. These needs should be +formatted into solar and lunar knowledge bases, ie., rational and +irrational modes with relational processes sitting midway betwixt +them. These should be used to a maximal degree. + + Humans are discovering that there is pity poor little difference +between political and religious systems. In fact religious systems +replace the tribal chief or monarch with a discarnate chief or +monarch. This eases the task of governing the populace through the +revelations and commandments of the discarnate and absent ruler from +on high. Humans always fear most what they cannot see, understand or +comprehend. And we always fear the invisible punisher; the inner + +--- QuickBBS v2.61 [EVALUATION] + * Origin: THE CRYSTAL CAVE, "DER MAGICK TREFFPUNKT"(719 391-1092 +(1:128/50.0) + + + +Msg#:15038 *WICCA* +12/31/89 13:47:00 +From: AMMOND SHADOWCRAFT + To: ALL +Subj: REPLY TO MSG# 15037 (CYBERCRAFT PROPOSAL) +punisher who knows our greatest fears. Consequently religious systems +are political systems of a supplementary order. Political systems +should be considered metareligious systems in that political concerns +lay at the base of or stand behind religious concerns. Religious +systems are political systems of an inner nature. + + Understanding our thoughts should become a little easier in the +solar (daylight consciousness) and lunar (twilight consciousness) +framework. Additionally many other modes of consciousness could be +mounted which straddle these tropes. These should be termed the +relational or relative processes. + + Chemical assistance for modifying consciousness might be useful +in helping to determine how individuals might drive ethically chosen +programming deep into the psyche. But once the message is received we +should hang the phone up on chemical boosters. + + CyberCraft should incorporate many of the concepts contained in +Humanist Manifesto II. + + Secular humanists have pioneered many valuable ideas needful in +today's ever evolving political and social environments. CyberNauts +should augment some humanistic concepts with high technology answers +to pressing personal questions. And in applying technology to human +service systems we might make a difference not only in our little +corner of the planet but elsewhere. + + CyberCraft should foster a new class of technology termed +GreenTech. GreenTech should be those technologies which recycle and/or +use less of the Matrix's natural resources. + + CyberCraft is a new religious system that is more importantly a +mode of thinking. Smart thinking usually leads to smart living. +Additionally the application of CyberCraft to mundane life should be +easy and seamless. Instead of taking the individual out of the social +complex it should enable them to integrate easily with the social +composite. + + All human structures spawn from the human mind. More powerful +modes of thinking are needed to help us along our way in an ever +increasingly propaganda polluted knowledge environment. We should +take into our own hands the facilities to make rational, relative and +irrational decisions void of fear of the outcome and infatuation of +the process. + + CyberCraft should appeal to the atheist as well as the +religionist as it focuses upon mythopoetic stories and structures and +the mystical connections between what is and is not seen, as opposed +to dogmatic theoretical structures. + + + In Scott Peck's book A DIFFERENT DRUMMER he surmises the +following transitions for the religiously oriented. + + First is a stage of naivete in which the human mind/body complex + +--- QuickBBS v2.61 [EVALUATION] + * Origin: THE CRYSTAL CAVE, "DER MAGICK TREFFPUNKT"(719 391-1092 +(1:128/50.0) + + + +Msg#:15039 *WICCA* +12/31/89 13:49:00 +From: AMMOND SHADOWCRAFT + To: ALL +Subj: REPLY TO MSG# 15038 (CYBERCRAFT PROPOSAL) +is not programed. + + Then follows a phase of organization in which the mind/body +complex is programed by an acceptable religious structure. Over time +the individual discovers that the religious structure is focused in +ways not desirable to the follower. Stick is mounted upon stone until +a way of escape is formulated which provides an honorable withdrawal. + + Sometime afterwards the individual discovers they are bitter +because of some single or multiple set of experiences. This stage is +marked by some form of agnosticism or atheism. It's a rejection of +the organized systems which tend to exploit the seeker, the single, +the separate and lonely for financial and political gains. + + Still the seeker needs to feel they are a part of something +greater than the individual alone. A mystic phase encroaches whereupon +a glimmer of hope is seen in the natural intricacies of life. +Generally the mystic phase has an eclectic twist as the bio- computer +selectively compares, accepts and rejects concepts and structures +which are useful or not. This experience is intensely personal. In +many cases the experience is not expressible as words to describe the +framework are found wanting. + + Theoretical structures should be included as long as they are +considered metaphorical structures or models existing within the human +mind first and foremost. These structures can then be used to ferret +out deep personal meaning. + + The paragraph above is the patented anti-dogma catma. The catma +is needed to remind us the menu is not the meal; that mental +apprehensions of a reality are not the realities themselves. Meow! A +valuable demonstration of this is the simple exercise of saying aloud +the word pinch. Then give the your arm a good pinch. Think about the +difference. + + + Domains + + Domains are used metaphorically. More properly they represent +areas of interest. Higher and lower relate to density more than +social, cultural or ethical placement. However higher and lower still +display some cultural heritage. Higher should normally refer to more +dense, and thus would usually be considered the Lower Kingdoms in most +spirit focused theoretical structures. + + This is a reversal of the usual spirit based structures which +drive the initiate into seclusion and poverty. CyberCraft need be +neither ascetic nor bothersome. If CyberCraft arrives at a framework +which is not enjoyable the CyberCraft needs to die and be reborn. + + Higher refers to the relative density of matter. The human +sciences are more appropriate for humans, the spirit sciences more +appropriate for spirits. In the high domains herbal lore and self- + +--- QuickBBS v2.61 [EVALUATION] + * Origin: THE CRYSTAL CAVE, "DER MAGICK TREFFPUNKT"(719 391-1092 +(1:128/50.0) + +Msg#:15040 *WICCA* +12/31/89 13:50:00 +From: AMMOND SHADOWCRAFT + To: ALL +Subj: REPLY TO MSG# 15039 (CYBERCRAFT PROPOSAL) +help topics are more the rule than the exception. + + +External Faces (Public) + + Religious Aspects--Low Domain + + The Low Domain is the basis of the religious belief system should +reflect WoMankind's ethical relationship to their home planet. +Depending upon personal focus the Earth can be personified or +considered the Grandmother or Mother of WoMankind. It should be called +Mom, Mother or the Matrix, the space enabling the existence of all +physical and non-physical local planetary lifeforms. The involved +solar processes should consider this a "self check" to prohibit +WoMankind from polluting their environment to the detriment of all +lifeforms. + + Other Matrixes may exist. CyberCraft should be concerned with +local planetary manifestations without denying the existences of other +Matrixes. + + The Matrix is paired with Patrus, which is symbolic of everything +which has happened to and upon the Matrix. Included phenomena are +geologic events, meteorological events, intrusions from outside the +Matrix, meteor impacts, panspermia arrivals and direct interventions +of space faring races. + + Other personified or romantic entities should exist within the +matrix. These should be the Lady and Lord and be more important or of +a relatively more immediate nature being seen as doorways to other +entities, other spaces, physical energetic natures or psychic spaces. +Frequently the Lady and Lord should be celebrated as the perfect +patterns of WoMankind. Matrix and Patrus along with Lady and Lord +should be remembered at every fullmoon celebration. + + Working of the Craft--Mid Domain + + The metaphorical Mid Domain should be the workings of the Craft. +At first the emphasis should be upon physical representations of the +Mid Domain. Special tools should be selected for an individual or +group. These tools may or may not reflect traditional usage but should +be more appropriate for a culture and/or geographical locale than for +a traditional usage. + + Special robes may be appropriate. Nudity should be more useful +for metaprograming. The individuals background should be considered +before choosing tools or coverings. If the individual were normally a +naturist the metaprograming tool could be robes, etc. + + Tools and rituals should be used for immediate metaprograming +efforts. Dramatic ritual should be used to advantage for both +individual programming or group alignment. + + Experiments in communication with non-physical or discarnate +entities should be a focus. New modes of relationship in sexual or +emotional life should be incorporated providing members feel +comfortable with the activities. Safety, both physical and emotional, + +--- QuickBBS v2.61 [EVALUATION] + * Origin: THE CRYSTAL CAVE, "DER MAGICK TREFFPUNKT"(719 391-1092 +(1:128/50.0) + + + +Msg#:15041 *WICCA* +12/31/89 13:51:00 +From: AMMOND SHADOWCRAFT + To: ALL +Subj: REPLY TO MSG# 15040 (CYBERCRAFT PROPOSAL) +should be paramount. Training of individuals for incorporation may be +needed to assist them in their growth into unknown areas. + + Incorporated Physical Sciences--High Domain + + The metaphorical High Domain should be the human and physical +knowledge systems, ie, health (birthing, child care and physical +health), nutritional, exercise, cosmetic and creative knowledge +systems, ie. sewing, cooking, building sciences, gardening and organic +farming techniques, and personal defense techniques. + + CyberCraft should initially provide the framework for immersion +in a Domain. The individual or group should decide for themselves what +extent they need to go. + + Organization + + CyberCraft should attempt to incorporate proven techniques of cell +or smaller group management while retaining intimacy. CyberCraft +leaders could be of either sex, of any sexual preference, but must be +emotionally sound. They may choose their own names and titles. Or +CyberCraft may assign a title in order to establish a somewhat +formalized but unrestricted tradition. We suggest these +classifications: + + Aspirant--an inquiring mind of reasonably good health, + CyberNaut--a human moving from Four to Eight Circuits, an + apprentice CyberPriest/ess, + CyberPriest/ess--a fully functioning Eight Circuit human, + Transitioner--a young or eight circuit human + showing signs of physical metamorphosis + New Human--a fully functioning transitioned human. + + Group or cell size should be held to about 2 to 15. However any +number of cell members may be used providing genuine intimacy is +maintained. + + CyberCraft should attempt to meet the economic and political +needs of its members. Resources are available that address political +activities in cells. An economic infrastructure must be established in +CyberCraft method. Should a social threat arise individual members may +need to support themselves in a strange or difficult environment. +Personal enrichment and empowerment as opposed to personal +aggrandizement should be the focus enabling the member to live well in +any difficult or strange economic or political environment. + + Emotional Requirements + + What part does love play in CyberCraft? Love in its various +shades and flavors permeate CyberCraft. From love of Mother and +Father, to love of knowledge and wisdom, to the lust and love of ones +lover, on to love of pleasure of the mind-body complex, love of the +patterns one manifests through, including the love of changing one's +world to finally the love of navigating the non- local passages +between the worlds. Yes love plays a vital part. But we are not so + +--- QuickBBS v2.61 [EVALUATION] + * Origin: THE CRYSTAL CAVE, "DER MAGICK TREFFPUNKT"(719 391-1092 +(1:128/50.0) + + + +Msg#:15042 *WICCA* +12/31/89 13:52:00 +From: AMMOND SHADOWCRAFT + To: ALL +Subj: REPLY TO MSG# 15041 (CYBERCRAFT PROPOSAL) +naive to assume that only one type of love exists. Many different +shades and flavors make up this rainbow of emotion. CyberCraft should +experience and emphasize as many different forms of love as possible. + +Internal Faces + + These are internal considerations not usually presentable to the +public at large. Pearls are delicate. We need not dirty them. Internal +faces can be determined at a later time. + + CyberCraft is a game; the game of Life. Play it! + + You may contact Ammond Shadowcraft at the following address: + + Ammond Shadowcraft + c/o The Gaia Network + P.O. Box 49441 + Colo. Spgs., Colo. 80949 + (719) 599-5366 + + + +--- QuickBBS v2.61 [EVALUATION] + * Origin: THE CRYSTAL CAVE, "DER MAGICK TREFFPUNKT"(719 391-1092 +(1:128/50.0) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/d&dinfo.txt b/religious documents/d&dinfo.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7b3b67 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/d&dinfo.txt @@ -0,0 +1,226 @@ + + The following article was originally prepared for publica- + tion in a religious magazine. If you desire more information + concerning Dungeons and Dragons you will find my address at the + end of the article. + + + + + + + KEEPING THE HEART + + + Though I have been asked to write concerning a game called + Dungeons and Dragons, I believe that it is necessary to extend + our remarks beyond the game. We will show that Dungeons and + Dragons is a game which is devilish, and it should not be played. + At the same time, we will direct our remarks so that they will + cover all games and mental activities which are forbidden by + God's Word. Playing Dungeons and Dragons is not the problem, it + is a symptom of the problem. When a person goes to the doctor + with a piercing pain in his right side, the pain is not the prob- + lem. The pain is a symptom of the problem. This is what we mean + when we say that playing Dungeons and Dragons is not the problem. + As the title of this article suggests, the problem is in the + heart. If the heart is kept in the way of God, there will not be + a problem of someone becoming involved in practicing wrong + things. + Proverbs 4:23 says, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for + out of it are the issues of life." And Proverbs 23:7a states, + "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." These passages + teach us that what we do reflects what is in our hearts. There- + fore, if our hearts are right, we will not be involved in things + that are displeasing to God. And if we are doing things which + are displeasing to God, we will be participating in activities + that affect our desires. Thomas Manton said, "Desires are the + most vigorous faculties, they carry the whole soul along with + them. They will take up your thoughts, time, care, endeavours, + speeches. . . . Our thoughts will be conversant about what we + desire. We love to feed upon the sweet of those things that we + long for,--to enjoy them in our meditations before we really and + actually enjoy them. Thoughts are the pulses of the heart, you + may know by them how it beats. When desires are at a high pitch, + we shall not be able to put off those pleasing imaginations that + concern the object of these desires. Nay, they will haunt the + mind in the time of our usual repose and rest." (Vol. 3, p. + 238.) Please keep these things in mind as we study about + Dungeons and Dragons. + + WHY THIS GAME IS WRONG + + Dungeons and Dragons is a game which involves the heart + (soul) of the individual who is playing it. Gary Gygax, the man + who invented Dungeons and Dragons, said, "You have to pursue + Dungeons and Dragons with your entire soul if you're going to do + well at it." God tells us that we are to love Him and His Word + with our entire souls (Deuteronomy 6:4-7; Luke 10:27). It is + rebellion to God to turn ourselves over to anything that is con- + trary to the Bible. Since we are to love Him with all of our + heart, soul, mind, body and strength, we should not play a game + that requires us to commit our "entire soul" to it. Since David + was a man after God's "own heart" (Acts 13:22), let us follow his + heart's desire as expressed in Psalm 141:4: "Incline not my + heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that + work iniquity: and let me not eat of their danties." + Before howing what is involved in playing Dungeons and + Dragons, let us see what God's Word says. We will see that + Dungeons and Dragons is clearly condemned by God's Word. Deuter- + onomy 18:9-13 states, "When thou art come into the land which + the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after + abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among + you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through + the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or + an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with + fimiliar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do + these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of + these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from be- + fore thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God." This + passage clearly teaches that those who practice these things + "are an abomination unto the Lord." When we study the meaning of + all the things listed in the passage, we see that all forms of + witchcraft and sorcery are condemned: horoscopes; Ouija boards; + palm readers; fortune tellers; psychics; etc. According to their + own publications, Dungeons and Dragons is a game of sorcery. + "Swords and sorcery best describes what this game is all + about for those are the two key fantasy ingredients. Advanced + Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy game of role-playing which + relies upon the imagination of participants, for it is certainly + make believe, yet it is so interesting, so challenging, so mind- + unleasing that it comes near reality" (_D & D Handbook_, p. 7). + "Most spells have a verbal component and so must be uttered" + (_D & D Players Handbook_, p. 40). + "Magic users draw upon arcane powers in order to exercise + their profession . . . He or she must memorize and prepare for + the use of each spell, and its casting makes it necessary to + reabsorb the incantation by consulting the proper book of spells + . . ." (_D & D Players Handbook_, p. 25). + We can see already see that Dungeons and Dragons is a game + of serious consequences. It is a game which is associated with + magic, witchcraft and other devilish practices. But the game + goes deeper into wickedness than what has been shown. Here are + more quotes from their books to prove this. + "The spell caster should be required to show you what form + of protective inscription he or she has used when the spell is + cast. . . . Pictures of a magic circle, pentagram, and + thaumaturgic triangle" (_Dungeon Masters Guide_, p. 42). + "Serving a deity is a significant part of D & D, and all + player characters should have a patron god. Alignment assumes + its full importance when ties to the worship of a deity" (_Deities + & Demigods_, Instruction Manual, p. 5. + Many more quotes could be given to show that playing this + game involves casting spells, worshiping false gods and Satan, + death, human sacrifice, murder, cannibalism, and other wicked and + ungodly practices. (If the reader desires to have these quotes + he can contact me and I will send it to him.) Further, we desire + to show that Dungeons and Dragons has so influenced the lives of + some that they have transformed the game to their daily lives. + I trust that we have shown that we should keep our hearts + with all diligence lest we become involved with wicked prac- + tices. Also, I believe that it has been clearly demonstrated + that Dungeons and Dragons should be avoided. + This game has influenced some to commit wicked and ungodly + acts in society. In _The Wichita Eagle-Beacon_, Saturday, March + 30, 1985, an Associated Press story began as follows: "Colby - + The board game 'Dungeons and Dragons' helped prompt the crime + spree that left four dead and four wounded in northwest Kansas + last month, one of the suspects said in a report published Fri- + day. + "In a jail house interview Thursday with the Detroit News in + Colby, where three suspects were bound over for trial, Daniel + Remeta mentioned the name of the fantasy board game when asked + about the spree." The article quotes Remeta as saying, "I've got + five friends that are locked up for the same thing right now (be- + cause of the game)." The paper stated that one of Remeta's + friends was James Gainforth. He was convicted of killing a clerk + at a gas station south of Traverse City. The article further + stated, "Remeta gave the newspaper a hand-written note that read, + in part: + + I now hear the hiss of my dragon's rage + For he too is locked into a cage + He'll patiently wait for another to rise like me + He'll be fed and again shall rise ever so free + The game another shall carry on for we can't all fall + My treasure is becoming part of the dragon forever + Many shall die who strive to find our hidden treasure + But someone shall play our game for all do seek a + treasure. + + In conclusion the article said, "Remeta told the newspaper + he wanted to be executed. + "'I do want the death penalty,' he said. 'I can't see my- + self . . . maybe it's better that way.'" + Lisa Dunn, James Hunter and Remeta were "bound over for + trial on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, + aggravated battery of a law enforcement officer, aggravated + battery and aggravated robbery." + The Memphis, Tenn., _Commerical Appeal_, Monday, July 8, + 1985, gave an AP story concerning three youths who killed a 26- + year-old mother and convenience store cashier in Ragland, Ala. + The suspects were Cayce Moore (17), Scott Davis (17) and Chris + White (14). The article related that they "were considered + good, all-American boys, only children from fine families. + Clean-cut, polite, intelligent." The paper said that + classmates contributed the bond between the boys to "Dungeons + and Dragons." + In a 1985 _Los Angeles Times_ syndicated story by Paul Har- + vey, the following examples are given. "In Washington State, + Michael Dempsey, 15, shot himself in the head, dead. His + parents said he had 'evoked demons' from a game he was playing, + a game called 'Dungeons and Dragons.' + "In the months since, half a dozen suicides in Dallas have + been blamed on the game. + "Last September the body of a bright California boy washed + up on a San Francisco beach, apparently a suicide. + "Last November a Colorado boy, age 12, shot to death his + 16-year-old brother and then himself. + "Two days later in suburan Chicago a boy and girl, 17, ran + the family car in a closed garage, killed themselves." + Harvey noted that Howard Witt, of the _Chicago Tribune_, + "discovered that each of these victims had been an avid player + of 'Dungeons and Dragons.'" + Many such cases could be given to illustrate the danger of + playing this game. _Newsweek_, September 9, 1985, after relating + a suicide of two teen-agers said, "In both cases--and in some + 50 other instances of teen-age deaths--the National Coalition + on Television Violence and other critics link the aberrant be- + havior to an obsession that took up as much as 40 hours a week. + An obsession with a game: Dungeons & Dragons." The article + gives further information which shows the far-reaching con- + seqences of this wicked game. It stated that the Association + for Gifted-Creative Children not only endorses the game, but + that it said that D&D encourages the reading of such writers as + Tolkien and Isaac Asimov. _Newsweek_ said that Steven Spielberg, + the director of the movie "E.T.," used it to" test children's + role-playing abilities in casting." The article said that the + psychologist, Dr. Joyce Brothers, "sees no harm in D & D per + se, provided it doesn't become an obsession." However, Dr. + Brothers was formally a consultant of TSR Hobbies, Inc., the + manufacturer of D & D. + The above shows that Dungeons & Dragons not only reaches + across the nation, but encourages the reading and watching of + science fiction (which is in itself wicked). It is further + seen that this game has invaded the state school system through + the Association for Gifted-Creative Children. Without doubt + this is to be avoided. Listen to the wisdom of God's Word: + "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way + of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn form it, and pass + away" (Prov. 4:14-15). + We will conclude by reminding you that we should keep our + hearts in the way of righteousness. By doing this we will be + delivered from much wickedness of the world, and we will not be + attracted to such games as D & D. The Scriptures teach that + what we do reflects what is in our hearts (Proverbs 23:7a). + Therefore, if our hearts are right, we will not be involved in + things that are displeasing to God. "Keep thy heart with all + diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs + 4:23). + + Jimmy Barber + July, 1987 + Copyright, 1991, Veritas Publications + 829 Angelina Place + Memphis, TN 38122-5417 + diff --git a/religious documents/dance.txt b/religious documents/dance.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc52a75 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/dance.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +ab:dance.txt 16jan90 + + + + The Meeting Dance + + + The Maiden should lead. A man should place both hands on her waist, + standing behind her, and alternate men and women do the same, the + Maiden leading and they dance following her. She at last leads them + into a right-hand spiral. When the center is reached (and this had + better be marked by a stone) she suddenly turns round and dances back, + kissing each man as she comes to him. All men and women turn likewise + and dance back, men kissing women and women kissing men. All in time + to music, it is a merry game, but must be practiced to be done well. + Note, the musician should watch the dancers and make the music fast or + slow as is best. For the beginners it should be slow, or there will be + confusion. It is most excellent to get people to know each other at big + gatherings. +---------- + -Published in Janet & Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way", from GBG's + BOS (the same version exists in Text B and Text C of his BOS) + diff --git a/religious documents/dandd.txt b/religious documents/dandd.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c63996a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/dandd.txt @@ -0,0 +1,426 @@ +D&D.TXT +19JUN89 + ! ! ! W A R N I N G ! ! ! + + ******************************************* +* * * * * * * * * SOME PORTIONS OF THIS FILE MAY OFFEND * * * * * * * * * + ******************************************* + + A PRO FAMILY FORUM TRACT published by Christian Life Ministries + + D U N G E O N S + =============== + A N D + ===== + D R A G O N S + ============= + + O N L Y A G A M E ? + ---------------------- + + WHAT IS D & D ? + +Dungeons and Dragons (commonly known as D & D) is an elaborate fantasy game +which evolved from the war games popular in the late 1950's. Instead of a +historical battlefield and battle, D & D games are fought in the minds of +the players as the DM (dungeon master, or god) sets the stage in the fantasy +world. Each player assumes the identity of the character he creates. His +creature is based on chance roll of the dice. Each character will have six +basic abilities: strength, intelligence, wisdom, constitution, dexterity, +and charisma. The manual guideline will determine whether the character +will be "good" or "evil". + +The object of the game is to maneuver these characters through a maze of +dungeons (tunnels) filled with monsters, magic, ambushes, and adventures in +search of treasures. To survive, each character is equipped with special +aids - such as magical weapons, potions, spells, and magical trinkets (holy +water, garlic, wolves-bane, etc.). They are also given more conventional +weapons: daggers, hand axes, swords and battle axes. + +The game is for "three or more players, age 10 and upward." + +Each player can stay in the game as long as his character is not killed - +from hours to years. If it continues long, most players identify themselves +with their character, and the line between fantasy and reality tends to grow +fuzzy. One authority concerning this "game" said: "The stuff that makes me +nervous is over-identification with characters. I've seen people have fits, +yell for fifteen minutes, hurl dice at a grand piano when their character +dies." + +WHAT IS D & D ? Dr. Gary North, author of 'None Dare Call It Witchcraft', +says, "... after years of study of the history of occultism, after having +researched a book on the subject, and after having consulted with scholars +in the field of historical research, I can say with confidence: these games +are THE MOST EFFECTIVE, MOST MAGNIFICENTLY PACKAGED, MOST PROFITABLY +MARKETED, MOST THOROUGHLY RESEARCHED INTRODUCTION TO THE OCCULT IN MAN'S +RECORDED HISTORY." (see end-note 1.) + +WHAT IS D & D ? After extensive research, the Christian Life Ministries +concludes: "DUNGEONS & DRAGONS instead of a game is a teaching on +demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, murder, rape, blasphemy, suicide, +assassination, insanity, sex perversion, homosexuality, prostitution, Satan +Worship, gambling, Jungian psychology, barbarism, cannibalism, sadism, +desecration, demon summoning, necromantics, divination and many more +teachings, brought to you in living color direct from the pit of hell!!!" +(see end-note 2.) + +This is strong language! But its truthfulness is established by a careful +examinaton of the books. Look in almost any toy store or book store. You +will probably find twenty or more books on how to play D & D. They are +complicated, intricate, bizarre, expensive (many selling for $10.95 each ... +1981 price) - and popular! + + HOW WIDELY USED ? + +According to statistics released by the news media, over three million +Americans are playing D & D. The industry grossed more than 250 million +dollars in 1981, and expects a large increase in 1982. + +Many schools are using D & D, especially in Gifted and Talented programs. +Special "classroom versions" are being produced. Some state-supported +colleges offer classes, while others have cancelled them at the insistence +of concerned parents and taxpayers. + +Parents, teachers, ministers, youth directors, and all young people should +spend time in serious research on FRP (Fantasy Role Playing) games - because +their use is escalating; the issue must be faced by all of us sooner or +later. + + OTHER FRP GAMES + +New games are being created, more sophisticated and cruel than the original +D & D, such as Rune-Quest, Chivalry and Sorcery, Arduin Grimoire, Tunnels +and Trolls, etc. + +In the rule book to the Arduin Grimoire game (Vol. 1, p. 60) is listed the +"critical hit table." Options listed are: "Dice roll: 37-38; hit location: +crotch/chest; results: genitals/breast torn off, shock ... Dice roll: 95; +hit location: guts ripped out; result 20% chance of tangling feet, die in 1- +10 minutes ... Dice roll: 100 hit location: head; result: head pulped and +splattered over a wide area." + +On page 10: "The 'dread vampusa' a macho beast/man with writhing snakes for +hair and a skull face, bristles with Neanderthal sexual imagery, his left +hand holding a long, sharp lance sticking straight out from his genitals, +dripping blood, his penis hanging limp just above it." + +Arduin's creator, Dave Hargrave, defends the grisly specificity. He states: +"It's deliberately gruesome. You have to blow a hole through that video +shell the kids are encased in. They are little zombies. They don't know +what pain is. They have never seen a friend taken out in a body bag. +They've got to understand that what they do has consequences. The world is +sex. It is violence. It's going to destroy most of these kids when they +leave TV-land." (see end-note 3.) + +So Hargrave admits that the game is designed for kids! Supposedly to equip +them for the "reality" of life! + + WITCHCRAFT IS A RELIGION + +In the greater Sacramento (California) area there are some 1000 practicing +witches, divided into a number of covens. Several covens are recognized by +the state of California as bonafide religions, given tax-exempt status as +churches. + +George Marsh, member of the Cardova Park School Board (California) stated in +a letter to the editor (July, 1981) why he voted to remove D & D from the +school district's summer program: "The Supreme Court has already barred +religious activity from public facilities. Dungeons and Dragons is clearly +religious in content." (see end-note 4.) + +Although D & D is not a religion per se, it is teaching religious principles +and familiarizing its three million devotees with terms and rituals of +occult forms of religion. What does God say about this! + + When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth + thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those + nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh + his son or daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth + divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch + or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, + or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination + unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God + doth drive them out from before thee. + (Deuteronomy 18:9-12) + + QUOTES FROM THEIR OWN BOOKS (emphasis added) + +CONCERNING MAGIC AND SPELLS: +"Swords and sorcery best describes what this game is all about for those are +the two key fantasy ingredients. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy +game of role-playing which relies upon the imagination of participants, for +it is certainly make-believe, yet it is so interesting, so challenging, so +mind-unleashing that it comes near reality" (D & D Handbook, p. 7). As you +know, sorcery refers to the use of magic and witchcraft. + +"Most spells have a verbal component and SO MUST BE UTTERED" (D & D Players +Handbook, p. 40). + +"Magic users draw upon arcane powers in order to exercise their profession +... He or she must MEMORIZE and PREPARE FOR THE USE OF EACH SPELL, and its +casting makes it necessary to REABSORB THE INCANTATION by consulting the +proper book of spells ..." (D & D Players Handbook, p. 25). + +"The spell caster should be required to show you what form of protective +inscription he or she has used when the spell is cast." The three forms +mentioned are: "Pictures of a magic circle, pentagram, and thaumaturgic +triangle" (Dungeon Masters Guide, p. 42, referring to instructions for the +Aerial Servant spell, 6th level). According to those knowledgeable in the +occult, these symbols are commonly used in witchcraft and Satan worship. + +CONCERNING "CLERICS": +"A study of the spells usable by clerics will convey the main purpose of the +cleric. That is, the cleric serves to fortify, protect, and revitalize. The +cleric also has a limited number of attack spells ... Note that all spells +must be SPOKEN or READ ALOUD ... Clerics can employ a fair number of magic +items including most potions; clerical and 'protection' scrolls; most rings; +some wands, rods, and staves." (D & D Players Handbook, p. 20). + +"Another important attribute of the cleric is the ability to turn away (or +actually command into service) the undead and less powerful demons and +devils" (Players Handbook, p. 20). + +CONCERNING "DEITIES" OR "GODS": +"This game lets all your fantasies come true. This is a world where +monsters, dragons, good and evil; high priests, fierce demons; and even the +gods themselves may enter your character's life" (D & D Handbook, p. 7). + +In other sections the gods are referred to as "deity". + + (1) "It is well known to all experienced players ... spells bestowed + upon them by their respective deities" (Dungeon Master Handbook, p. + 38). + + (2) "Each cleric must have his or her own deity ..." (Ibid). + + (3) "The deity (you the DM 'Dungeon Master') will point out all the + transgressions ..." (Dungeon Master Handbook, p. 39). + +"Serving a deity is a significant part of D & D, and all player characters +should have a patron god. ALIGNMENT ASSUMES ITS FULL IMPORTANCE WHEN TIED TO +THE WORSHIP OF A DEITY" (Deities & Demigods, Instruction Manual, p. 5). + +"Changing Alignment: Whether or not the character actively professes some +deity, HE OR SHE WILL HAVE AN ALIGNMENT AND SERVE ONE OR MORE DEITIES OF THIS +GENERAL ALIGNMENT INDIRECTLY OR UNBEKNOWNST TO THE CHARACTER" (Dungeon +Masters Guide, p. 25). (In other words, in this game you serve a deity or +deities whether you want to or not. Read the quote again.) + +CONCERNING PRAYER AND FASTING: +"Clerical spells ... are bestowed by the gods, so that the cleric need but +pray for a few hours ..." (D & D Players Handbook, p. 40). + +"Cleric desires third through fifth level spells, THE MINIONS (angels, +demigods, or whatever) WILL BE LIKELY TO REQUIRE THE CLERIC to spend 2 to 8 +days in prayer, fasting, and contemplation of his or her transgressions, +MAKING WHATEVER SACRIFICES AND ATONEMENT ARE NECESSARY ... Spell recovery ... +requires about the same period of time. In order to pray and meditate ..." +(Dungeon Master, p. 38,39). + +CONCERNING DEATH: +"The character faces death in many forms. The most common death due to +combat, is no greater matter in most cases, for the character can often be +brought back by means of a clerical spell or an alter reality or wish" +(Dungeon Master, p. 15). + +"Resurrection" is referred to as "the revival of a character after its death, +BY MAGICAL MEANS" (Dungeon Master, p. 229). + +So death - with its stand and ultimate consequences - is trivialized; it can +be overcome without much difficulty, "by magical means." + +CONCERNING SATANISM: +In four pages (16-19) of the 'Monster Manual' the word demon appears 106 +times! And the player has been told to trust four of these demons as (lesser +gods). (Ref. Deities and Demigods, page 105, paragraph 5). + +In four pages (20-23) the word devil appears 94 times and the word hell +appears 25 times. + +CONCERNING HUMAN SACRIFICE: +"Kali (black earth mother): Her worship requires sacrifices of blood, and +even an occasional human sacrifice. Her cult includes many assassins. Those +sworn to defend her cult will often do so in a sort of berserk, suicidal +manner, slaying all who oppose them until they themselves are slain" (Deities +and Demigods, p. 71). + +"Tlaloc (Rain God): At each full moon, a priest of Tlaloc sacrifices a child +or baby to Tlaloc. Once a year, there is a great festival held in his honor. +Numerous babies are brought or taken from the populace. These babies are +sacrificed to Tlaloc, after which the priests cook and eat them. If the +babies cry during the sacrifices this is taken as a good sign that rain will +be abundant during the coming year" (Deities and Demigods, p. 35,36). + +"Tyaa (winged goddess of evil birds): Only women are permitted in the high +priesthood and Tyaa demands the sacrifice of body parts from her more +attractive worshippers" (Deities and Demigods, p. 88). + +"Orcs - Gruumsh - Greater god: To become a shaman of Gruumsh, an orc must +pluck out his own left eye. The proper worship of Gruumsh requires blood in +large quantities" (Players Handbook, p. 112). + +CONCERNING MURDER: +"If the Assassination is being attempted by or on behalf of a player +character, A COMPLETE PLAN OF HOW THE DEED IS TO BE DONE SHOULD BE PREPARED +BY THE PLAYER INVOLVED, and the precautions, if any, of the TARGET character +should be compared against the plan. Weapon damage always occurs and may +KILL the VICTIM even though 'assassination' failed." (Dungeon Masters Guide, +pl 75). Would you call this ONLY A GAME? Or would you call it training in +murder? + +"Important, popular, and or noble victims will be considered as being above +their actual level with respect to FEE. For example, an elder of a town who +is generous and just (thus popular) might be only 4th level, but for purposes +of PAYMENT or ASSASSINATION the character would be considered at three times +actual level" (Players Handbook, p. 29). + +CONCERNING CANNIBALISM: +"Non-human soldiers: The less intelligent non-human will serve for from 10% +to 60% less cost, but these evil creatures will certainly expect to loot, +pillage, AND RAPE FREELY AT EVERY CHANCE, AND KILL (AND PROBABLY EAT) +CAPTIVES" (Players Handbook, p. 31). + +"The sahuagin are cruel and brutal, the strongest always bullying the weaker. +Any injured, disabled, or infirm specimen will be slain, and eaten by these +cannibalistic monsters. Even IMPERFECT HATCHLINGS are dealt with in this +fashion. THIS STRICT LAW HAS DEVELOPED A STRONG RACE, HOWEVER," (Deities and +Demigods, p. 84). + +CONCERNING DEFILEMENT: +"Defilement of Fonts: If any non-believer blesses/curses an unholy/holy +font, or uses LESS REFINED MEANS SUCH AS EXCRETING WASTES into a font or +basin, the whole is absolutely desecrated, defiled, and unfit ... NOTE THAT +EITHER METHOD REQUIRES ACTUAL CONTACT WITH THE FONT AND ITS VESSEL. Any +blessing or cursing from a distance will be absolutely ineffectual and +wasted." (Players Handbook, p. 115). Note the equal use of bless/curse, +unholy/holy. + +Other quotes that indicate a need for serious concern about the game: + +"Release of word/sound-stored energy is not particularly debilitating to the +spell caster, as he or she HAS GATHERED THIS ENERGY over a course of time +prior to THE LOOSING OF THE POWER. IT COMES FROM OUTSIDE THE SPELL CASTER, +not from his or her own vital essence. The power to activate even a first +level spell would leave a spell caster weak and shaking if it were drawn from +his or her personal energy, and a third level spell would most certainly +totally drain the caster's body of life" (Dungeon Masters Guide, p. 40, 1979 +edition). + +OTHER RELIGIOUS TERMINOLOGY: +If D & D is ONLY A GAME, why do the writers use Christian terms: atonement, +clergy, deity, divine ascension, divine being, faith, gods, healing, heaven, +prayer, fasting, resurrection, soul, spirit, worship, spreading the gospel, +etc.? And in a blasphemous way! + +Every character must have a character class assigned to him or her. In the D +& D Players Handbook, p. 20-33, the five character classes are explained: the +Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, Thief, and Monk. There are also five sub- +classes: the Druid, the Paladin, the Ranger, the Illusionist, and the +Assassin. All five of the character classes involve either magic and spells, +or violence, or both. It seems that it would be impossible to play this game +as it is designed withour involvement in either magic or violence. + + WHAT IS WRONG WITH ROLE-PLAYING OR FANTASIZING ? + +Some mistakenly believe that role-playing is merely acting out a character. +Much more is involved. Psycho-drama techniques (the root of role-playing) +were introduced in the early 1900's by Dr Jacob L Moreno, contemporary of +Freud. He said his objective was to develop a "positive religion." His idea +was that if you can "play a role" - for instance, the role of God - and +develop that role and stop its playing at will, you will begin to learn how +not to be possessed of that role. He said: "The only way to get rid of the +God syndrome is to act it out." + +What is the "positive religion" that Moreno envisioned? The religion that +man is all-powerful, capable of answering all questions and solving all +problems apart from any Supernatural Being - more popularly known as +Humanism. Read his statement again. Then consider its application to D & D +and other FRP "games." + +A principle laid down long ago by God is: " For as he thinketh in his heart, +so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of +it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23). We ARE what we THINK. It is +ridiculous to believe that people, young or old, can absorb their minds with +violence, murder, human sacrifice, suicide, demonology, rape, desecration, +defecation, sadism, cannibalism, sex perversion, insanity, prostitution, +necromantics, Satan worship, witchcraft, and every other form of perverted +and violent conduct without being intensely - and perhaps permanently - +affected adversely. We ARE what we THINK! + +Young person, if you want to be successful, productive, well-adjusted, and +happy, then refuse to fill your wonderful mind with such garbage! Don't +allow someone else to take control of your mind. Think too much of yourself +to become a tool in the hands of those whose interest is to get your money +and destroy your faith in God. + + TESTIMONY OF NEGATIVE EFFECTS (see end-note 5.) + +John Torell, with Christian Life Ministries in California, received a phone +call from a medical doctor in Seattle, Washington. The doctor was treating a +policeman for severe depression caused by the suicide of his sixteen-year-old +son. The son, who had been heavily involved in D & D for two years, shot +himself with his father's service revolver. + +Some have argued that D & D is a healthy release of suppressed hostilities. +But seeing the power that can be seized in games, psychiatrist Laurance +Johnson cautions, "If I had a child who tended toward schizophrenia, I'd +never let him near D & D. There's a danger that it would reinforce feelings +of gradiosity, of omnipotence. Reality and fantasy are hard enough for +schizophrenics to differentiate." + +This reality distortion is frightening. A city police department in central +Washington asks, "Are you are a participant in Fantasy Role Games?" as a +standard question ... two people convicted of firing over three rounds into +passing motor vehicles admitted that they "constantly fantasized killing +someone." Other police departments have confirmed "some correlation" between +Fantasy Role Playing Games and incidents showing up on their police blotter. + +Many people have been innocently drawn into FRP Games. However, enough +information is now available to reveal their true nature and real danger - so +there's no need for wise and alert people to be further duped. + +Even some Christians try to defend D & D and other FRP "games". In this +futile attempt, one said: "But the game is helpful because it shows the +difference between good and evil characters." To this a brilliant young +player replied: "Not so. Nearly everybody would rather play evil characters +because they are much more powerful." + +In light of the quotes from their own literature, it would be wise to +consider: + +Does this "game" promote respect for the sanctity of life? Or does it rather +serve as basic training in brutality and disregard for life (such as +exemplified in the incredible massacres of recent years)? + +Does it increase, or decrease, a player's faith in God and His Word? + +Does it trivialize, and even blaspheme, Christianity? + +In summary: Does its over-all influence tend to build up, or tear down, +character? + + Notes + +1. Remnant Review, December 5, 1980, PO Box 2509, Tyler, Texas 75710 +2. Dungeons and Dragons, Christian Life Ministries, PO Box 41001, + Sacremento, Ca., 95841. +3. Dungeons and Dragons, Good or Bad? Christian Life Ministries. +4. Answers to Common Questions about Dungeons and Dragons, Christian Life + Ministries. +5. Ibid. + +REVISED PRINTING. Note: If page references differ from your book, remember +there are different editions of D & D books - for instance, at least two +versions of Deities & Demigods, the original with 144 pages and a newer +version with 128 pages. + + This is a Pro Family Forum Tract published by Christian Life Ministries + + Available from: + + Australian Federation for Decency, + PO Box 106, + Canterbury, VIC 3126 + + -------- + diff --git a/religious documents/darkmaid.txt b/religious documents/darkmaid.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24f1bcc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/darkmaid.txt @@ -0,0 +1,108 @@ + DISCOVERING THE MAIDEN GODDESS + by Shekhinah Mountainwater + + A group of sisters in Oregon put on a Goddess gathering one summer, +featuring the topic "Is there a fourth aspect to the Goddess?". Hearing +about this got me thinking that the answer might be yes, the Dark Maiden. + I first learned about this Goddess from a lover, who used to call me +her "dark maiden," and point out the waning crescent in the late night sky. +She would explain that there are two crescents and two maidens. The Bright +Maiden corresponds to the waxing crescent, curving towards the right. The +Dark Maiden corresponds to the waning crescent, curving towards the left. +Over the years, I have discovered the beauty of this symbol system and its +potential to give healing and enpowerment to women. + We all know about the great triad : Maiden, Mother and Crone. This three +fold archetype resonates deeply in our psyches as Begining, Middle and End +of all things, and is likely to be with us always. Yet a fourth aspect +might appear within the triad -- as well as a fifth or sixth. "When the +myths come alive for us they change," says Starhawk. Truly, there are no +limits to the Goddess, and all things are possible. + But why the special attention to the Bright and Dark Maiidens? For one +thing, they make a marvelous all-female alternative to the male-opposite- +female symbolism of patriarchy. The Bright Maiden who waxes, moves towards +the Light and the Sun. She is the young Goddess who is growing, the Amazon, +the woman who takes her powers of freedom, action, strength and +independence. She is the risk-taker, the woman who dares. in other words, she is all things our society tells us should be considered "male." Because +of our loss of Her image in our psyches, women find themselves accused of +becoming "like a man," when they express Her qualities. Known to us as +Diana, Artemis, Boudicea, the Amazon Warrior Woman... the Bright Maiden is +more familiar to us than the Dark. + The Dark Maiden who wanes, moves towards the Underworld, The Crone. She +is associated with aging, descent, introspection and magic. The Dark +Maiden is teh enchantress, She Who Pulls. In her positive attributes, She +represents some of the lost powers of woman. She surrenders to the flow +and pulls, like the pull of the moon, the suction of the undertow. This is +the magnetism of magic, our power to draw to us all that we require. Images +of the Dark Maiden appear to us as Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, the +Mermaid, Sirens, Sorceress. + In patriarchy the Bright and Dark Maidens tend to appear in negative +expression, and because of this, our impression of them can become +destorted. Patriarchs love to keep our Dark Maidens weak and dependent upon +them, and if we decide to act out of our Bright Maiden selves, they insist +we do so "like a man." These are some of the reasons why it is so important +for us to find woman-identified symbols for these parts of ourselves; +Goddesses that are soft and strong, magickal and free -- female expressions +of these qualities. + + DARK MAIDEN : AFFLICTED LIBERATED + --------- --------- + Weak Surrendering + Flaky Spontaneous + Passive Pulling + Victim Supporting + Self-Sacrificing Compassionate + "Loser" Gentle + Myopic Subjective + Over-reacting Intuitive + Deluded Imaginative + + BRIGHT MAIDEN : AFFLICTED LIBERATED + --------- --------- + Hard Boiled Strong + Superficial In control + Hyper-rational Organized + Militant Disciplined + Aloof Independent + Unemotional Objective + Mechanical Scientific + Power-over Power-from-within + Careless Playful + + The main thing to remember about the Dark Maiden is that She has the +power to Respond. She is the receptive and sensative part of us, which +we need for successful magic as well as personal wholeness. She is tender +and vulnerable, and it is important to keep our Bright Maiden qualities +so we can protect Her. Too many women with Dark Maiden qualities become +victims in our society, subject to the will of others. And too many Bright +Maidens become cold and hard. Feminist spirituality teaches us that we +have been programmed to act out these qualities in ways that men have +devised. Liberation lies not in discarding them, but in learning to reclaim +them in their older, female expressions. + Inevitably, this process will lead us back to the Three-fold and Five +fold expressions of the Goddess, because they offer flow and continium. +They teach us that any one quality when isolated at the expense of the +others becomes destructive and limiting. WHile the Bright and Dark Maidens +do pair off and become partners, companions and lovers...they can be seen +within the larger contexts of Maiden, Mother and Crone, or Fire, Water, +Air, Earth and Spirit. Sometimes I picture the two Maidens as Warrior and +Priestess within a cycle that includes Mother, Grandmother, and Lover. +Sometimes I see them as the Fall and Spring Equinoxes, known to the ancient +Greeks as the Anados (Goddess arising) and Kathados (Goddess Descending). +Thus we can integrate the duality of our Bright and Dark Maidens into the +three-fold, five-fold and eight-fold (the eight holy days of the year) +cycles of Life and Being. + This article is but a glimpse into the possibilities. I invite you to +search within yourself, in myths and amoung symbols that you know, for +signs of the Bright and Dark Maidens. +___________________________________________________________________________ + +Shekhinah Mountainwater is a long-time Muse and lover of the Goddess. She +offers teachings, rituals, music, writings, runes, tarot, workshops and +more to the woman-spirit community. For a catalogue send $1 to Shekhinah +Mountainwater, PO Box 2991, Santa Cruz, CA 95063. She is currently working +on two books, one of Tarot and one on theololgy, both of which will contain +images and discussions of the maiden Goddesses.... +___________________________________________________________________________ + + + diff --git a/religious documents/dathan.txt b/religious documents/dathan.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8acb5f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/dathan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ + PEOPLE OF THE BIBLE + + + + DATHAN + + + + +NUM 16:1 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and +Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, +took men: + +NUM 16:2 And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, +two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men +of renown: + +NUM 16:3 And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, +and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are +holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up +yourselves above the congregation of the LORD? + +NUM 16:4 And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face: + +NUM 16:5 And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to +morrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to +come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto +him. + +NUM 16:6 This do; Take you censers, Korah, and all his company; + +NUM 16:7 And put fire therein, and put incense in them before the LORD to +morrow: and it shall be that the man whom the LORD doth choose, he shall be +holy: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. + +NUM 16:8 And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi: + +NUM 16:9 Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath +separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to +do the service of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the +congregation to minister unto them? + +NUM 16:10 And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons +of Levi with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also? + +NUM 16:11 For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together +against the LORD: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him? + +NUM 16:12 And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab: which +said, We will not come up: + +NUM 16:13 Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that +floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make +thyself altogether a prince over us? + +NUM 16:14 Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk +and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out +the eyes of these men? we will not come up. + +NUM 16:15 And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the LORD, Respect not thou +their offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of +them. + +NUM 16:16 And Moses said unto Korah, Be thou and all thy company before the +LORD, thou, and they, and Aaron, to morrow: + +NUM 16:17 And take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye +before the LORD every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers; thou also, +and Aaron, each of you his censer. + +NUM 16:18 And they took every man his censer, and put fire in them, and laid +incense thereon, and stood in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation +with Moses and Aaron. + +NUM 16:19 And Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of +the tabernacle of the congregation: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all +the congregation. + +NUM 16:20 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, + +NUM 16:21 Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume +them in a moment. + +NUM 16:22 And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the +spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the +congregation? + +NUM 16:23 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, + +NUM 16:24 Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the +tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. + +NUM 16:25 And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of +Israel followed him. + +NUM 16:26 And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from +the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed +in all their sins. + +NUM 16:27 So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on +every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their +tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children. + +NUM 16:28 And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do +all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. + +NUM 16:29 If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited +after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me. + +NUM 16:30 But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and +swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into +the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD. + +NUM 16:31 And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these +words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: + +NUM 16:32 And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their +houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. + +NUM 16:33 They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, +and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. + +NUM 16:34 And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: +for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. + +NUM 16:35 And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred +and fifty men that offered incense. + +NUM 26:9 And the sons of Eliab; Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. This is that +Dathan and Abiram, which were famous in the congregation, who strove against +Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against the +LORD: + +DEU 11:6 And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of +Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their +households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, +in the midst of all Israel: + +PSA 106:17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of +Abiram. + + + + + ============================== + + + THE + + LECTRONIC IBRARY ECHANGE + + + P.O. BOX 19454 + + DENVER, COLORADO 80219 + + + BBS: 303-935-6323 + + FIDONET: 1:104/810.0 + + THENETWORK: 8:7703/11.0 + + + End Of File + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/dawncnst.txt b/religious documents/dawncnst.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cfc9ae9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/dawncnst.txt @@ -0,0 +1,126 @@ + CONSTITUTION + + DENVER AREA WICCAN NETWORK + + I. PURPOSE + The Denver Area Wiccan Network (hereinafter called DAWN) has + as its primary foci networking and the coordination of teaching + of matters pertaining to the Craft. DAWN may also serve as a + central network for coordinating activities between and among + Wiccan groups within the Denver area. Subsidiary functions will + be defined as necessary by the governing bodies of DAWN. + + II. SCOPE + DAWN will restrict its activities within both topical and + regional limits. Regionally, it will serve the area within a + reasonable driving distance of Denver, Colorado. Topically, it + will serve only the Wiccan, or Craft, community within this area. + DAWN is willing to aid or work with other similar Pagan groups, + but DAWN is not willing to serve as a clearing-house for them, + nor for other Occult groups. + + III. GOVERNANCE + DAWN will be made up of a Board of Directors (necessarily + small), a Steering Committee (necessarily larger than the Board), + and the general membership which shall consist of any coven or + member of the Craft community wishing to be a member of DAWN. + The function of these bodies, and the rules which govern them, + will be covered by the Rules and the Bylaws of DAWN. + + IV. AMENDMENTS + In order to amend this document, the proposed change must + receive the votes of at least 80 percent of the Directors and + must receive at least 80 percent of the votes cast at a proper + meeting of the Steering Committee, both bodies having received + at least 20 days notice of the proposed amendment. + + V. DEFINITIONS + + A. Craft, Wicca, or Witchcraft -- A magical Pagan or Earth + religion including diverse traditions derived from many cultural + sources. This religion usually worships at least one primary + deity who is feminine, and may also have a masculine deity or + deities. Some extant sources include Alexandrian, Celtic, Circle, + Dianic, English Traditional, Faerie, Family Traditional, and + Gardnerian Witchcraft. DAWN specifically excludes the Shamanic, + Native American, and Native African religions from its definition + of these terms. + + B. Earth religion (or Paganism) -- A religion, possibly + prehistoric in origin, a major tenet of which is a belief that we + must live in harmony with the Earth and all its creatures. + + + + + + + 1 + + + + + + + + + C. Coven -- Any small group of Pagans, affiliated + primarily for religious goals and purposes, which meets regularly + for the purpose of holding Esbats, holding Sabbats, teaching, or + for any other activity having a direct connection with Paganism. + + D. Esbat -- Meetings held once or twice each Lunar month. + Most Covens hold Esbat at the Full Moon. Many hold Esbat at the + New Moon or the Dark of the Moon (the three days preceding the + New Moon). + + E. Sabbat -- Meetings held at the eight major seasonal + demarcations: the Equinoxes and the Solstices (commonly called + the Quarter Days) and at the "time of power" of each season + (commonly called Cross-Quarter Days); the Cross-Quarter days fall + at or about the beginnings of the months of February, May, + August, and November. All individual names for these holidays + are optional. + + F. Magic -- The art of changing consciousness through + disciplined and systematic use of the will and other natural + forces. Some common goals in magic are healing, guidance, + protection, and insight. + + G. Occult -- Occluded or hidden, secret; the study of + hidden or secret knowledge. Secret societies include college + fraternities, the Masons, and the Rosecrucians. DAWN is not a + secret society. Its proceedings are open, but the privacy of its + members will be protected. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 2 + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/deadsea.txt b/religious documents/deadsea.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0576529 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/deadsea.txt @@ -0,0 +1,457 @@ +:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: + -----=====Earth's Dreamlands=====----- + (313)558-5024 {14.4} (313)558-5517 + A BBS for text file junkies + RPGNet GM File Archive Site +.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. + +From ralphw@thebox.rain.com Sun Jun 16 02:16:26 1991 +From: ralphw@thebox.rain.com (Ralph Winston) +Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.mideast,alt.activism,soc.history,soc.misc +Subject: Whatever Happened to the Dead Sea Scrolls? [part 1] +Date: 12 Jun 91 08:57:28 GMT +Organization: TheBox - Public Access Xenix + + + *** Whatever Happened to the Dead Sea Scrolls? *** + + By Martin A. Larson, Ph.D. +_____________________________________________________________________ + + Dr. Martin A. Larson is the author of 25 books dealing with +religious history, church-state issues and taxation, and is also a +financial columnist. This text is taken from Dr. Larson's lecture at +the 1981 International Revisionist Conference, in Los Angeles. Dr. +Larson gave an update on the Scrolls at the 1987 Revisionist +Conference. There has been no change in the situation as described in +this pamphlet by Dr. Larson. +_____________________________________________________________________ + + Let us first summarize some of the known facts concerning the Dead +Sea Scrolls and their authors, the religious organization known as the +Essenes, which existed in Judaea and the nearby desert from about 192 +B.C. to the date of their extinction and destruction in 69 or 70 A.D., +when the Roman armies marched through Palestine and finally destroyed +Jerusalem. Throughout its existence, the Essene sect was opposed to the +Jewish authorities. Although it accepted the Scriptures which +constitute the Old Testament, it revised, rewrote, or completely +reinterpreted them. Also, what is even more significant and important, +the Essenes gradually absorbed various elements from other sources, +such as Zoroastrianism and Pythagoreanism. As a result, they prepared +an entire corpus of original scripture which was not only a definite +departure from official Judaism, but in basic contradiction to, and a +repudiation of, this system of doctrine and ritual. + + By 143 B.C., as we learn from Josephus, three distinct groups had +been fully developed in the Jewish population: they were the Essenes, +the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, of whom the last represented the +wealthy, upper-class Jews, who had embraced Epicureanism as their +philosophy. + + Original Cultic Scriptures + + During the period from 192 to 60 B.C., the Essenes produced a +great corpus of literature under the inspiration of leaders known from +generation to generation as The Teacher of Righteousness. He was also +called the Holy Great One, and was given other titles signifying +revelatory powers as direct conduits of messages from the Supreme God +of the Universe, who, by the way, was something quite different from +Jehovah, the tribal god of the Jews. Extremely interesting is the fact +that two very important documents - _The Book of Enoch_ and _The +Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs _ were well known among the early +Christians and accepted by them as sacred literature of their own. +Scholars had no suspicion that these, although widely used in later +periods, were produced by the Essenes until the Scrolls were discovered +near the Dead Sea in 1947. Since hundreds of fragments of these +documents were found in the caves, it became obvious that they were +among the very important scriptures composed and used by the Essenes +themselves. + + Persecution and Separation + + Whatever else we may consider as firmly established, it is certain +that under the reign of Hyrcanus, who was affiliated with the Pharisees +previous to 104 B.C., there was persistent persecution of the Essenes, +partly because of doctrinal deviations but perhaps even more because of +their condemnations of the Jewish authorities, who frequently invaded +neighboring territories and forced people there to accept Judaism and +circumcision on pain of persecution and even death. Thus it was that +about 104 B.C., as we learn from Josephus, the Essenes became an +esoteric mystery-cult with its own communes, its own code of laws, +discipline, and organization, which included a total withdrawal and +separation from all public activity. As a result, it became the +depository of total religious comitment, living in expectation of the +day, not very far in the future, when an all-powerful divine personage +would appear, send all of their Jewish persecutors into everlasting +torture in hellish dungeons under the surface of the earth, and +establish the kingdom of the saints, (the Sons of Light) with its +capital in Jerusalem. + + Under Alexander Jannaeus, who ruled from 103-78 B.C., this +hostility and persecution intensified. The Essene documents written +during this period are filled with the fiercest denunciations of the +Jewish priests and authorities, who not only raided the communes of the +Holy Ones and decimated their membership, but were also guilty of +constant acts of aggression against their innocent and unoffending +neighbors. The documents in our posession which contain this material +are _The Habakkuk Commentary_, Parts IV and V of the _Book of Enoch_, +and various statements found in _The Testaments of the Twelve +Patriarchs_, the original portions of which were composed while +Hyrcanus was king. + + The Essenes became a secret brotherhood in 104 in order to avoid +total extermination; in spite of this, however, their persecution +continued; with their members under solemn vows of secrecy, their +organization survived and, in time, grew, especially under the +comparatively mild regimen which followed the conquest of Judaea by +Pompey in 64. + + The Execution and Deification of the Teacher + + The climactic event in Essene history occurred in 70 or 69 B.C. At +that time, the Teacher of Righteousness - that is, the Essene leader - +went boldy into Jerusalem and there, in the very temple itself, he +proclaimed and condemned the lawless corruption and aggressions of the +priests and authorities who ruled in Israel. He was therefore seized +and executed, by what means is not certain, but some scholars believe +that he was crucified. + + Shortly thereafter, the persuasion developed among his followers - +until it became actual dogma - that he was the Most High God of the +Universe Himself who had appeared for a time as a man among men; that +he died a sacrifical death for the redemption of sinners; that he had +risen from the grave on the third day; that he had returned to his +throne in heaven; and that, before the end of the then existing +generation, he would send a representative to the earth. + + The Essene Revelations Completed + + Except for a few original documents written after 69 B.C., and the +final interpolations added to _The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs_ +at the same time, the cult seems at this point to have considered its +corpus of literature and revelation complete. The members studied their +scriptures in the various communes scattered about Palestine. + + The Secret Esoteric Order + + Between 60 B.C. and 69 A.D., the communes, which increased to +4,000 male members, continued with little alteration, while awaiting +the coming of the Redeemer. However, as the Romans subjugated Galilee +on their southward march toward Jerusalem, they came across various +Essene communes and, suspecting the cultists of being a secret and +conspiratorial society planning the overthrow of Roman rule, tortured +members under interrogation to reveal their secret doctrines. However, +as Josephus tells us, they died, smiling, rather than violate their +sacred oaths to never, no never, reveal their beliefs to anyone, no +matter what the provocation might be. + + Secreting the Scrolls + + Then an extraordinary event occurred. As the Romans approached the +Dead Sea headquarters at Qumran, the Essenes placed their sacred +writings in hundreds of earthen jars, sealed them carefully, and +secreted them in various caves located in the rugged terrain. We +believe that they expected to return in the not-too-distant future to +resume their long-practiced way of life. But, of course, they never +did. + + Was Jesus an Essene? + + The existence of the Essene cult has long been known from the +extensive references to, and descriptions of, them in Josephus, Pliny, +and Philo Judaeus. Interestingly enough, Thomas De Quincey, a famous +English essayist, declared about 1825 that there never was a separate +Essene organization; that the so-called Essenes were simply Christians +gone underground; that otherwise we would have to accept the +blasphemous conclusion that there were two independent, yet almost +identical, revelations at the same time and in the same place. + + There are scholars who believe that Jesus had been a full-fledged +member of the Order; that he was persuaded that He was the personage +foretold in their scriptures who would be empowered to establish the +Kingdom of Righteousness, and that, therefore, he broke his vow of +secrecy and preached the doctrines of the Order in the highways and +byways of Galilee. Some scholars are also convinced that not only John +the Baptist but also the original core of men who established +Christianity had been members of the Order. Some believe in addition +that when their communes and headquarters were destroyed by the Romans, +many of the Essenes became an integral and decisive element in the +formation of the Christian movement. There was, in particular, one +segment known as the Ebionites, or the Poor Men, who recreated in +detail in their own literature, the doctrines, teachings, and +discipline of the Essene communities. Actually, the three Synoptic +Gospels, and especially Luke, are studded with statements in complete +harmony with the cultic teachings, as is the so-called Sermon on the +Mount, found in Matthew. The more we study the Dead Sea Scrolls and the +early canonical Christian Scriptures, the more striking are the +parallels which become evident. We have alredy noted that two important +Essene documents were widely accepted by the early Christian converts +as genuine scriptures of their own. Perhaps these converts had +previously been Essenes. + + The Great Discovery + + In 1947, an event of world-shaking significance occured. An Arab +shepherd-boy, following a stray goat, entered an aperture on the side +of a cliff and stumbled into a cave where the Essenes had secreted a +number of jars containing Scrolls. However, few of these were intact; +most had been broken, and their contents scattered about the floor, +much of the material torn into shreds. Obviously, the caves had been +invaded, perhaps several times, with damage which cannot easily be +assessed. After the Arabs had recovered two virtually complete +manuscripts of _Isaiah_, a copy of the _Manual of Discipline_, _The +Thanksgiving Psalms_, _The Habakkuk Commentary_, the _Damascus +Document_, and the _War_ Scroll, they sold these to a group in New +York; and, in a short time, they were made available to the world in +translations by Millar Burrows, Dupont-Sommer, Gaza Vermes, and +Theodore Gaster. + + Many More Scrolls Discovered + + Then began an archeological search without parallel in religious +history. One expedition after another went to the Dead Sea area in +search of more Scrolls. One team was headed by Millar Burrows, who +states in his _Dead Sea Scrolls_ that material sufficient to fill three +large volumes was found in a single cave, cave four, in which +two-thirds was original Essene scripture and the remainder consisted of +Jewish canonical books. After these were placed in the Jordanian Museum +in Jerusalem, an international team of eight scholars was selected to +collect, piece together, and prepare for publication this incomparable +treasure of source material; of these, four were Roman Catholics; three +had Protestant affiliations; and only one, John Marco Allegro, was +without personal religious commitment. Without much delay, Allegro +translated and published everything committed to him, including the +delicate _Copper Scroll_, which listed precious metals and jewels worth +millions of dollars secreted somewhere in the desert - where they still +remain. However, after he declared in an interview that the Teacher of +Righteousness may have been crucified in 70 or 69 B.C., by the Jewish +authorities, he was thereafter denied all access to the Scrolls and was +not even permitted to visit the Jordanian Museum in which they were +kept. He complained bitterly that after years of delay not one line of +the Scrolls, in addition to his, were translated and published; and +this in spite of the fact that no less than 400 separate documents had +been pieced together by 1965 and could just as easily have been given +to the world, as were the four or five published shortly after the +original discovery. + + _The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs_ contained a great many +passages which had always been considered of Christian origin because +they depict a personage in many respects similar to, or almost +identical with, the character and mission attributed to Jesus in the +New Testament. However, with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, +this theory became untenable as fragments of the _Testaments_ written +nearly a century before the emergence of Christianity were found +scattered about the caves which contained the very statements which had +always been believed to be Christian interpolations. + + The Fate of the Scrolls + + Over the years, until his death, I corresponded with Millar +Burrows, who had written a sympathetic review of my book, _The Essene +Heritage_, published in 1967. He refused to admit that there was any +attempt to delay or prevent the publication of the Scrolls. Once he +even declared that the Oxford Press was on the verge of releasing a +large volume of this material; but the publishers stated to me in a +letter that they had no such project under consideration. + + Thus, year after year, I kept prodding Burrows on the subject, and +his replies became more and more evasive until they ceased altogether. + +[Continued...] + + +-- +TheBox Public Access Xenix - Gresham OR +1 503-669-7291 +1 503-669-7395 + +:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: + -----=====Earth's Dreamlands=====----- + (313)558-5024 {14.4} (313)558-5517 + A BBS for text file junkies + RPGNet GM File Archive Site +.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. + +From ralphw@thebox.rain.com Sun Jun 16 02:16:43 1991 +From: ralphw@thebox.rain.com (Ralph Winston) +Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.mideast,alt.activism,soc.history,soc.misc +Subject: Whatever Happened to the Dead Sea Scrolls? [part 2] +Date: 12 Jun 91 08:59:59 GMT +Organization: TheBox - Public Access Xenix + + + One question continued to occupy my interest; what had become of +the Scrolls? Why were none of them published for so many years? +Sometimes I wondered whether they would survive or ever be made +available to the public. However, we should note that even in the +custody of the Jordanians, they were held in the strictest secrecy - +and why? I could only surmise that extreme pressure has been exerted by +both Christian and Jewish sources: from the former, because it would +not be beneficial to them should it be established that this faith grew +out of a Jewish cult and was, therefore, not an original revelation; +nor would the Israelis wish the Scrolls released, since they were +filled with fierce denunciation of Jewish religious leaders and civil +authorities. + + It is my considered opinion and my sad conclusion that the Dead +Sea Scrolls will never be given to the world unless basic changes +occur: first, they must be removed from the custody of the Israeli +government and, second, we must establish an intellectual climate in +the western world in which scholars and ministers can discuss religious +subjects without fear or reprisals, in the form of lost prestige, +removal from lucrative positions, loss of salaries or other sanctions +which can be enforced against anyone who dares interfere with the +emoluments or the powers of those who are most powerful and influential +in society. + + I think it is as simple as that. And at the back of my mind +lingers a gnawing fear that instead of being translated and published, +the leather or parchment on which the Scrolls are inscribed may be +physically destroyed or become undecipherable before anything is done +to release them. And it is highly significant that for several years +there has been little or no discussion anywhere concerning the Scrolls. +It seems that by ignoring the whole subject, its significance will die +in the public consciousness. + + The Future of the Scrolls + + I can think of no possible valid reason why the Scrolls have been +withheld now for nearly thirty years. If they could not be prepared for +publication in that length of time, would a century or two centuries be +enough? It seems to me that unless we can rescue them from their +present custody and also achieve a new and different intellectual world +climate, there is little hope that anyone now living will ever see any +translation of these Scrolls. + + I consider what has happened and is continuing to occur in the +matter of the Scrolls the greatest cover-up of important historical +material that has occurred in modern history. + +_____________________________________________________________________ + + Conclusion + + 1. We know from the Scrolls, as well as from many passages in the +New Testament, that both the Essenes and Jesus were bitterly opposed to +the Jewish authorities, especially the religious. There can be little +doubt that the Scrolls now crumbling into dust include many passages in +which the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Scribes are excoriated in the +most bitter terms and that the tyranny exercised by them over the +dissident Essenes is described in full detail. + + 2. John Allegro, mentioned earlier, states that the Scrolls: "pose +questions too hot for the scholars' liking - that has been the trouble +with the Scrolls; they impinge so much on Judaism and on +Christianity... they became a political football when the Israelis +marched in and seized Jerusalem from the Jordanians in the war of 1967. +They are now in Israeli custody and are still, so far as I am aware, +locked up in cabinets in the basements of the museum in Jerusalem, +where one bomb could destroy them anytime." + + 3. There is a general conspiracy to conceal the contents of the +remaining Scrolls, and, if possible, to hasten their destruction. +_____________________________________________________________________ + + The IHR has people available for lectures, debates, and radio and +TV interviews who can come to your area. Write to the director at the +address below for more information. + + 10 copies: $2.00 + 50 copies: $5.00 + 100 copies or more: 8 cents each + + THE INSTITUTE FOR HISTORICAL REVIEW + 1822 1/2 Newport Blvd., Suite 191 + Costa Mesa, California 92627 + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + If you found this interesting, read the Dead Sea Scrolls update, next +message. + + Ralph Winston + + +-- +TheBox Public Access Xenix - Gresham OR +1 503-669-7291 +1 503-669-7395 + +:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: + -----=====Earth's Dreamlands=====----- + (313)558-5024 {14.4} (313)558-5517 + A BBS for text file junkies + RPGNet GM File Archive Site +.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:. + +From ralphw@thebox.rain.com Sun Jun 16 02:17:30 1991 +From: ralphw@thebox.rain.com (Ralph Winston) +Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.mideast,alt.activism,soc.history,soc.misc +Subject: Dead Sea Scrolls Update! +Date: 12 Jun 91 09:02:15 GMT +Organization: TheBox - Public Access Xenix + + + From the _IHR Newsletter_, January 1991: + + THE SCROLLS: THE PLOT THICKENS + + The _IHR Newsletter_ and _The Journal of Historical Review_ have +reported on previous evidences that translation and publication of the +famous Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in Palestine in 1947, has been +delayed by Christian and Jewish authorities which have controlled +access to them since their discovery. A growing chorus of criticism +>from biblical scholars -- Jewish, Christian, and agnostic -- has echoed +the charges that IHR Editorial Advisor Dr. Martin Larson first raised +in his seminal paper delivered to the IHR's International Revisionist +Conference in 1981, printed in the Summer 1982 issue of the _Journal of +Historical Review_ and thereafter issued as a pamphlet, that there is +in fact a "conspiracy to keep [the] Scrolls secret," as Hershel Shanks, +editor of the _Biblical Archeology Review_, charged in that journal +(July/August 1989). + + The latest and most bizarre fillip to the scandal of the Dead Sea +Scrolls has been the dismissal of Dr. John Strugnell, the Harvard +Divinity School professor who had been chief editor of the project, by +the Israeli Antiquities Authority, which gained control of the Scrolls +following the Zionist seizure of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in +1967. According to press reports, Strugnell told an Israeli reporter +last November that he regarded "Judaism" as "originally racist" and "a +horrible religion" and that the state of Israel "is founded on a lie." + + In the past, Dr. Strugnell, one of the original editors of the +Scrolls, had himself been a target of critics of the snail's pace of +the Scrolls' publication. In November, however, Strugnell told a +reporter from the _Boston Herald_ that he had been confined to a mental +hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts for a leg injury, because "various +people here and in Israel are trying to get rid of me and keep me from +publishing the Scrolls" ("Scrolls Prof: People Trying to Get Rid of +Me," December 14, 1990). Allegations of "decades" of "mental health" +and "drinking problems" attributed to his former colleagues ("Biblical +Scholars Sort Issues behind Editor's Dismissal," _Orange County [CA] +Register_, December 24, 1990) leave unanswered the question of how such +a situation, if it existed, could be tolerated, particularly when +Strugnell was so swiftly dispatched for voicing, however combatively, a +few home truths about how certain influential Jewish opinion makers, +ancient and modern, see their Gentile neighbors. + + The solution to the scandal of the Dead Sea Scrolls remains what +Dr. Larson urged a decade ago: ". . .first, they must be removed from +the custody of the Israeli government, and second, we must establish an +intellectual climate in the western world in which scholars and +ministers can discuss religious subjects without feear of reprisals. . +." + +[An updated version of Dr. Larson's 1982 article "Whatever Happened to +the Dead Sea Scrolls?" is available in leaflet form. Order 10 copies +for $2, 50 copies for $5, 100 or more copies for 8 cents each from: +IHR, 1922 1/2 Newport Blvd., Suite 191, Costa Mesa, CA 92627.] + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + I hope this gives those who are interested some valuable and +interesting information concerning the fate of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls. + + Ralph Winston + + +-- +TheBox Public Access Xenix - Gresham OR +1 503-669-7291 +1 503-669-7395 + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/define.txt b/religious documents/define.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..07babcf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/define.txt @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ + "WITCH" as defined in the Bible: + + Please give the Greek and/or Aramaic word used + that was translated in the King James Version + as "Witch." Then let us translate it fully. + You will find it means "a poisoner of wells." + +WRONG! You will find no such thing. (It seems that I have to correct +THIS error about once every six months.) + +HEBREW: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance shows seven references to the +words "witch," "witchcraft," and "witchcrafts." It identifies three +words as receiving that translation. + +Two of them are the same root word: kashaph and kesheph. Strong's +observes that the proper translation for kashaph is "to whisper" as in +to whisper or mutter a spell. If they are correct, then perhaps the +best possible modern translations would be "enchanter" and +"enchantments" (from "chant"). In this context, Exodus 22:18 would +read, "Thou shalt not permit an enchanter to live." + +The remaining word is used only once, and that is qecem, which Strong's +identifies as derived from qacem, which means to determine by drawing +lots. They give the translation, based on this, as being "divination" +as in to read random elements such as tarot cards. By this context, I +Samuel 15:23 would read, "For rebellion is as the sin of divination." +GREEK: According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, the word "witch" +does not appear in the KJV New Testament; the word "witchcraft" appears +once in Galations 5:20. In that verse the Greek given is indeed the +much-mistranslated word pharmakeia. Strong's gives its derivation as +being from pharmakeus, which means potion. The word pharmakeus does not +appear anywhere in Greek literature to refer to "poison" except--and +there only if you really stretch it--in the trial of Paracelsus, the +father of modern medicine. + +In early Greek thought, a physik was an herbal remedy, and was +perscribed by physicians, or respected doctors. (Yes, early Greek +doctors were exclusively herbalists.) A conflicting school of thought +claimed that pharmakeoi, or potions derived from non-living matter, +might also have effect in some diseases. So in Galations 5:20, Paul is +telling us that those who use chemical potions (such as aspirin or +Tylenol) to cure diseases or disease symptoms are accursed of God. +In conclusion: the Greek New Testament nowhere refers to anything +resembling the modern religion or practices of Witchcraft. (Although it +is interesting to note that the first 11 apostles practiced something +roughly like qacem to pick a 12th--and if the later accounts are to be +read correctly, came up with a wrong answer.) The Hebrew Old Testament, +on the other hand, contains many unambiguous prohibitions of magical +practices, including (but not limited to) chanting of spells and +divination from random elements. + +(Reference: James Strong ed., _Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the +Bible_, 1894, as published by Abingdon Press, 1975.) + + -Brad Hicks + diff --git a/religious documents/descent.txt b/religious documents/descent.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f93c3b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/descent.txt @@ -0,0 +1,99 @@ + Descent Of The Goddess + Copyright 1993 Durwydd Mac Tara + +(With special thanks to G. B. Gardner, Freydis Vasa and Julia Phillips) + + In ancient times, our Lord, the Horned One, was (as he still is) the +Controller, the Comforter. But men know him as the dread Lord of +Shadows, lonely, stern, and just. + + But our Lady the Goddess would solve all mysteries, even the mystery +of death, and so she journeyed to the underworld. + + The Guardian of the Portals challenged her: 'Strip off thy garments, +lay aside thy jewels; for naught may you bring with you into this +our land, for it is written that your True Self is the only fitting +adornment for those in the realms of Death.' + + So she laid down her garments and her jewels, and was bound, as all +living must be who seek to enter the realms of Death, the Mighty One. + + Such was her beauty that Death himself knelt, and laid his sword and +crown at her feet, and kissed her feet, saying: 'Blessed be thy feet +that have brought thee in these ways. Abide with me; but let me place +my cold hand on thy heart.' + + And she replied: 'Why do you cause all things that I love, and +take delight in, to fade and die?' + + 'Lady,' replied Death, 'it is age and fate, against which I am +helpless. Age causes all things to wither; but when men die at the end +of time, I give them rest and peace and strength, so that they may +return. But you, you are lovely. Return not, abide with me.' + + And she replied, 'Nay, I love thee not and I am needed in the world +of the living.' + + Again Death knelt, and kissed her knees, saying: 'Blessed be thy +knees that kneel before the Altar. Abide with me; let me place my cold +hand on thy heart.' + + And she replied, 'Nay, I love thee not and I am needed in the world +of the living.' + + Death (still kneeling), and kissed her on the womb, saying: +'Blessed be thy organs of generation, without which none of us would be. +Abide with me; let me place my cold hand on thy heart.' + + And she replied, 'Nay though I feel the beginnings of love for +thee, I must return to those I fully love in the world of creation.' + + Death then stood, and kissed her on the breast, saying: Blessed be +thy breast, formed in strength and beauty. Abide with me; let me place +my cold hand on thy heart.' + + And she replied, 'Nay though I feel love for thee, I must not +abandon those I am responsible for, in the world of creation. I cannot +do this thing, better you would return with me.' + + 'Lady,' replied Death, It cannot be so. If I were to leave my +realm, and abandon those who seek their comfort and rest with me, then +the Wheel would no longer turn. Age and weakness would overtake those +whom you love, and they would have nowhere to find rest, and peace, and +reunion with those who have gone before. As age and debility overtook +your creations, there would quickly be no room for the new, only the +withered, the tired, and the stagnant.' He then kissed her lips, saying: +'Blessed be thy lips, which shall utter the Holy Names. Abide with me; +let me place my cold hand on thy heart.' + + And she replied, Let us BOTH lay our hands, each unto the heart of +the other, thereby claiming and uniting each unto the other. In this +way may I rule my kingdom of birth, creation, and life; yet share with +you your kingdom of death, rejuvenation, and rest. United in Perfect +Love and Perfect Trust, that the Universe may be whole and the Wheel +turn smoothly. + + Death replied, 'This is indeed WISDOM, So Mote it Be!' They +embraced, thus pledging their eternal love. + + And he taught her all his mysteries, and gave her the necklace which +is the circle of rebirth. And she taught him her mystery of the sacred +cup which is the cauldron of rebirth. + + They loved, and were one; for there be three great mysteries in the +life of mankind, and magic controls them all. To fulfil love, you must +return again at the same time and at the same place as the loved ones; +and you must meet, and know, and remember, and love them again. + + But to be reborn, you must die, and be made ready for a new body. +And to die, you must be born; and without love, you may not be born. + + And our Goddess is ever inclined to love, and mirth, and happiness; +and guards and cherishes her hidden children in life, and in death +she teaches the way to her communion; and even in this world she +teaches them the mystery of the Magic Circle, which is placed between +the worlds of men and of the Gods. + +And thus we are taught of the beginnings of the wheel of the year +wherein the Lord and the Lady share their rulership of the year, and the +basis of that sharing. diff --git a/religious documents/dianism.txt b/religious documents/dianism.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cfdc530 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/dianism.txt @@ -0,0 +1,121 @@ +From: Inanna Seastar +To: All Msg #266, 09-Dec-88 23:57edt +Subject: Dianism (1 of 3) + +This is an article I wrote for PROTEAN SYNTHESIS, a semi-private newsletter +after it was solicited by the editor: + +DIANISM IN A NUIT-SHELL + + Recently, I got back in touch with my teacher after nearly two years and +dropped a couple of bombshells on her: I had changed gender identity and had +come together with two other women to form a Dianic coven. When the initial +shock wore off, Rita sent me a complete run of Protean Synthesis and a +solicitation for this article. + Several years ago I subscribed to several stereotypes regarding "those +peculiar Dianics". They were thealogically unbalanced, they hated men, they +denied that men had souls, they were all lesbians, they couldn't spell (in the +orthographic sense; no one has yet accused Dianics of inability to work +magick), etc. etc. When I came together with my covensisters, I realized that +these notions were at most partially true and some cases were patently false. + I believe there are only three valid generalizations that can be made +about Dianics: 1) We are all feminists. 2) We all look to the Goddess(es) +far more than to the God(s). 3) We are all eclectics. Note well that there +are plenty of non-Dianic feminist Witches, non-Dianic eclectics, and non- +Dianics who are primarily Goddess-oriented. There are also doubtless a good +many feminist, Goddess-oriented eclectics who do not choose to call themselves +Dianic. In my own case I use the "If it quacks like a duck, it probably is a +duck" argument, as well as the fact that my HPS learned the Craft as a Dianic +and runs Dianic rituals. + Some of the stereotypical generalizations I can dismiss out of hand. I +don't know of a single Dianic who denies that men have souls. Even Z Budapest +doesn't believe that piece of tripe anymore! It is true that Dianism is +particularly attractive to separatists, and many separatists actually hate +men. Many Dianics are lesbians. Some misspell words like "woman", women", +"egalitarian", and "holistic" on purpose. Not all fit these, however, and I +think that Z Budapest in her younger, or spiritual bomb-throwing, days +represents an extreme and a small minority. There are a number of males +involved in Dianism, and some of those are men [NB: I use the terms "man" and +"woman" to indicate gender identity, that is, how one's heart, mind, and/or +soul are configured. I use "male" and "female" to indicate physical sex, that +is, how one's plumbing is configured. I hope this dispels confusion.]. + + Thealogical and magickal imbalance is not so easily dismissed and needs +to be addressed further, as that is the most valid objection that thoughtful +Witches have to Dianism. The apparent imbalance comes from the Dianic +emphasis on Goddess-worship, often to the complete exclusion of God-worship. +This upsets many Witches' sense of polarity balance. The resolution of this +apparent imbalance lies in the consideration of other polarities than +sexual and/or gender as the primary polarity. There are indeed many other +polarities to consider: true-false, life-death, dark-light, rational- +mystical, creation-destruction, order-chaos, and good-evil, to name but a few. +One problem with the masculine-feminine polarity is that there is a strong +tendency to express all other polarities in terms of it. The Chinese were +particularly fond of this, and mapped everything they liked into the yang +side, and everything they disliked or feared into the yin side, the +patriarchal no-accounts! + One thing I have discovered is that if you look hard enough, you can find +goddesses to fit both ends of most polarities. Some even occupy both ends +simultaneously. Inanna, my matron goddess, is a good case in point. She is +the Sumerian goddess of love, war, wisdom (which she won in a drinking bout!), +adventure, the heavens, the earth, and even of death (in the guise of her dark +aspect, Ereshkigal). A very busy lady indeed is Inanna. At this point it +becomes largely a matter of personal preference rather than of polarity, +whether one chooses a god or a goddess to occupy a particular place in a +ritual. + No Dianic I know of denies the existence of the God. Indeed, He gets +mentioned as the consort of the Goddess with some frequency in Z Budapest's +HOLY BOOK OF WOMEN'S MYSTERIES, which is close a thing as there is to a Dianic +version of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows. He is there, and sometimes we will +invoke Him, when it is appropriate. He makes His own path, and we follow our +own, and when they cross naturally we honor Him and do not avoid Him. We also +do not force the paths to cross simply to lend an artificial balance to a +ritual where none is really needed. + + Now that I have spilled a good deal of ink over what Dianism is not, I +should now say a few words about what it is: a movement of feminist, +eclectic, Goddess-oriented Witches. + Feminism: This covers a vast multitude of virtues and sins. I do not +think the stereotypical radical lesbian separatist is as common as is +believed. Moderate to liberal feminism is probably far more common, even +among Dianics. Certainly my own coven contains no separatists! There are too +many nice men out there, even though surveys have shown that 70% or more of +all men are potential rapists. The nice ones are found among those who are +not in that repulsive majority; you just have to look to find them. One of +the places you might find such nice men is in Dianic covens! Some are mixed +groups, at least some of those of the branch founded by Morgan McFarland. My +own is something of a mixed up group, I suppose. While we do not currently +have any men in the coven, two of the three of us were born male and still +have original-equipment plumbing. The Goddess and our HPS accept us +unreservedly as women. + Eclecticism: If there is one dictum of Z Budapest's that bears repeating +to everyone in the Craft, and which gets followed by many, it is "When in +doubt, invent." Dianics tend toward creative ritual, drawing from any and all +possible sources. I have yet to see a Dianic equivalent of the Gardnerian +Book of Shadows, nor do I ever hope to see one. + Goddess Orientation: I've discussed this at some length while talking +about polarity. There are some wags who have said that Dianics are nothing +but matriarchal monotheists. I tell you three times: The Dianic Goddess is +NOT Jehovah in drag! The Dianic Goddess is NOT Jehovah in drag! The Dianic +Goddess is NOT Jehovah in drag! A much closer analogy would be that Dianics +have taken the Classical pantheon and reclaimed most of the roles. This, +too, is oversimplifying, but it is not nearly as wide of the mark as the usual +criticism. At some point I may write up a long exegesis on the Dianic +Goddess, but not here. My own personal involvement with Her comes from a +great feeling of comfort I do not find elsewhere. She feels right. I have a +great deal of difficulty accepting known rapists (most of the Olympian males +are this, especially Zeus, Hades, and Pan!) into my personal pantheon. I also +feel a personal vocation from the Mother; it is rather incongruous to me to +embrace a male deity wholeheartedly when the Goddess comes to me and calls me +Her daughter. This goes doubled, redoubled, in pentacles, and vulnerable for +lovers of women. + I hope this little discussion of Dianism-in-a-Nuitshell has proved +enlightening to you. It is not a path for everyone, but it is a valid path +for some, and in considering it I hope that you can now ignore the garbage +that has been put forth in the past as "data" regarding it. + + Inanna Seastar + Birdsnest Coven + + + diff --git a/religious documents/diction.txt b/religious documents/diction.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0838ada Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/diction.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/dig9310f.txt b/religious documents/dig9310f.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3799378 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/dig9310f.txt @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +Christian Research Institute (CRI) not dependable + +The Christian Research Institute, founded by the late Walter Martin, is a +ministry dedicated to exposing false teaching. It has a tremendous +influence across North America through its "Bible Answer Man" radio +programs and its broad range of literature. + +Recently, CRI director Hank Hanegraaf published a book which exposes some +of the errors of certain charismatic leaders, particularly Kenneth Hagin, +Kenneth Copeland, and Benny Hinn. Hanegraaf focuses on such things as the +"little gods" idea which says that Christians are gods and have the same +power that Christ had, the "spiritual death of Christ" teaching which +holds that Christ died spiritually and descended into Hell to be tormented +by the devil before he could atone for sin, and the "positive confession" +idea which says God's power and provision are released through the +Christian's words. + +While we are happy that CRI exposes these gross errors, we must warn that +CRI is not to be trusted when dealing with the charismatics or with many +other important matters. In an interview with Charisma magazine, May 1993, +Hanegraaf admitted that he himself is a charismatic and that more than +half of the CRI staff are charismatic. He said, "Spiritual gifts are not +an issue at CRI. We have never made a single anti-charismatic statement on +our show." + +This is a serious problem, because the danger of the charismatic movement +is found in its very foundational doctrines, not just the extremism of the +movement. The charismatic understanding of Spirit baptism, second +blessing, healing, miracles, extra-biblical revelation, sign gifts, +apostolic succession, kingdom power, and "holding out faithful" is the +foundation upon which movement is built. To warn of charismatic extremes +without warning of these issues is like warning of Purgatory in Romanism +without mentioning the Mass. + +The problem with CRI is not only its failure to see charismatic error +clearly, but its failure to see cultic error clearly. We are happy that +CRI does take a stand against many hurtful cults, but they refuse to stand +against two of the chief cults - Roman Catholicism and Seventh-day +Adventism. + +In Walter Martin's book Kingdom of the Cults, Seventh-day Adventism is +treated as evangelical rather than as apostasy. Martin claimed that the +SDA gospel is sound, whereas, in reality, it is a demonic mixture of law +and grace. + +As for Romanism, CRI "firmly maintains that Roman Catholicism is a +religious system which includes both orthodox biblical Christianity and +elements of unbiblical or `cultic' doctrine and practice. ... We +acknowledge the presence in Roman Catholicism of many genuine brothers and +sisters in the Lord ... in spite of the vast differences between Catholics +and evangelicals, I believe our points of agreement provide us with common +ground through which we can share and discuss the gospel in love and with +understanding" (CRI Perspective sheets). + +This is a serious error. The Apostles did not treat false teachers in such +a manner. Paul did not treat the Galatian heretics in this way. He did not +focus on the common ground he held with these heretics and seek to "share +and discuss" their differences. No, he said they were cursed of God +because they had perverted the gospel, and he warned God's people to stay +away from them! There is no common ground with those who preach a false +gospel! + +Friends, be careful about Christian Research Institute. There is +tremendous error mixed in with the good. + diff --git a/religious documents/drawmoon.txt b/religious documents/drawmoon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4d9234 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/drawmoon.txt @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +ab:drawmoon.txt 16jan90 + + + Drawing Down the Moon + + +Needs: Wand, Scourge, Priestess' Athame + Priest, Priestess + +Follows: Casting Circle + Witches' Rune +Next: The Charge + + +HPS stands in God position in N. before altar, holding scourge and athame. +Coveners are in S. facing altar. +HP kneels before HPS and salutes her with the Fivefold kiss (as he kisses +her womb, she opens into blessing position). + +HP again kneels before HPS who stands in Goddess positon (right foot +slightly forward). HP invokes the Goddess, saying: + +HP: "I invoke thee and call upon thee, + Mighty Mother of us all, (touch right breast) + bringer of all fruitfulness; (touch left breast) + by seed and root, (touch womb) + by stem and bud, (touch right breast) + by leaf and flower and fruit, (touch left breast) + by life and love (touch womb) + do I invoke (raising wand) + thee to descend upon the body + of this thy servant and priestess. + Here, speak with her tongue, + touch with her hands, + kiss with her lips, + that thy servants may be fulfilled." + +As he invokes, HP touches HPS gently with wand upon r. breast, l. breast, +womb and upon the same three places again. + +As he finishes the invocation, he spreads his arms in adoration (still +kneeling) and says: + + HP: "Hail, Aradia ! From the Amalthean Horn + Pour forth thy store of love; I lowly bend + Before thee, I adore thee to the end, + With loving sacrifice thy shrine adorn. + Thy foot is to my lip [kiss], my prayers upborne + Upon the rising incense smoke; then spend + Thine ancient love, O Mighty One, descend + To aid me, who without thee am forlorn." + + HP stands and takes a step back. All adore in silence as HPS traces +invoking Earth pentagram in air before them with athame, saying: + + HPS: "Of the Mother, darksome and divine, + Mine the scourge, and mine the kiss, + The five-point star of love and bliss - + Here I charge you, in this sign." + + This completes Drawing Down the Moon. HPS and HP now face the Coven +and deliver the Charge. +---------- +-Lots of published sources + eg. Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches Way" + diff --git a/religious documents/drdideas.txt b/religious documents/drdideas.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..65ea091 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/drdideas.txt @@ -0,0 +1,230 @@ + What Neopagan Druids Believe + (c) 1984 P. E. I. Bonewits + Reprinted from "The Druids' Progress" #1 + + Here's a brief introduction to the basic beliefs that I expect +will characterize most members of ADF (a Neopagan Druid organiza- +tion). These spiritual beliefs are similar to most of those held +by other Neopagans (see Margot Adler's book, "Drawing Down the +Moon") and the similarities are far more important than whatever +specific distinctions of doctrine or ethnic focus there might be +between us and other Neopagans. I should also mention that not +all Neopagans who consider themselves Druids will necessarily +agree with every point of the following list. Nonetheless, these +beliefs will be the roots of ADF's polytheology, the source of +the spiritual grove we seek to plant. + + 1) We believe that divinity is both immanent (internal) and +transcendent (external). We see the Gods as being able to mani- +fest at any point in space or time, including within human +beings, which they might choose, although they may often have +their preferences. Often this develops among some Neopagans into +pantheism ("the physical world is divine") or panentheism ("the +Gods are everywhere"). We tend more towards the latter position. + + 2) We believe that divinity is as likely to manifest in a +female form as it is in a male form, and that therefore women and +men are spiritually equal. We insist on a dynamic balance between +female and male deities honored and/or invoked at every ceremony, +and a strict gender balance in whatever theories of polytheology +that we eventually develop. We're "liberals" about women's rights +and gay rights, but not "radicals;" that is to say, we're unwill- +ing to subordinate all our other principles in order to promote +this particular principle. People who wish to make feminism or +gay activism the absolute center of all their spiritual activity +will probably be happier in other groups. + + 3) We believe in a multiplicity of gods and goddesses, all of +whom are likely to be worthy of respect, love and worship. Some- +times we believe in these divinities as individual and inde- +pendent entities; sometimes as Jungian "archetypes of the collec- +tive unconscious" or "circuits in the psychic Switchboard;" some- +times as aspects or faces of one or two major deities (the "High +God/dess" and/or "the Goddess and the Horned God"); and sometimes +as "all of the above!" We feel that this sort of flexibility +leads to pluralism (instead of monism), multi-valued logic sys- +tems and an increased tolerance of other people's beliefs and +lifestyles. All of these are vital if our species is ever going +to learn to live in peace and harmony amid a multiplicity of +human cultures. + + 4) We believe that it is necessary to have a respect and love +for Nature as divine in her own right, and to accept ourselves as +a part of Nature and not as her "rulers." We tend to accept what +has come to be known as "the Gaia hypothesis," that the biosphere +of our planet is a living being, who is due all the love and +support that we, her children, can give her. This is especially +important in our modern era, when 3000 years of monotheistic +belief that "mankind is to have dominion over the Earth" have +come close to destroying the ability of the biosphere to maintain +itself. Many Neopagan groups refer to themselves as "Earth reli- +gions" and this is a title which we believe Neopagan Druidism +should proudly claim, and which we should work to earn. Thus we +consider ecological awareness and activism to be sacred duties. +If the ecology, conservation and anti-nuclear movements are ever +to have "chaplains," we should be among them. + + 5) We believe in accepting the positive aspects of western +science and technology, but in maintaining an attitude of wari- +ness towards their supposed ethical neutrality. The overwhelming +majority of Neopagans are technophiles, not technophobes. We tend +to be better scientifically educated than the general population, +and thus we have a religious duty to speak out about the econo- +mic, political and ecological uses and abuses of science and +technology. + + 6) We share with most other Neopagans a distaste for monolith- +ic religious organizations and would-be messiahs and gurus. Ob- +viously, this places the founders of Neopagan religious tradi- +tions in a complex position: they need enough religious authority +to focus the organizations they're founding, but not so much as +to allow them (or their successors) to become oppressive. Since +the pluralistic approach denies the existence of any One True +Right and Only Way, and since Neopagans insist upon their own +human fallibility, we expect to be able to steer ADF between the +Scylla of tyranny and the Charybdis of anarchy. + + 7) In keeping with this, we believe that healthy religions +should have a minimum amount of dogma and a maximum amount of +eclectism and flexibility. Neopagans tend to be reluctant to +accept any idea without personally investigating both its practi- +cality and its long-range consequences. They are also likely to +take useful ideas from almost any source that doesn't run too +fast to get away. We intend ADF to be a "reconstructionist" +tradition of Druidism, but we know that eventually concepts from +nonDruidic sources will be grafted on to our trees. There's no +harm in this, as long as we stay aware of what we are doing at +every step of the way, and make a legitimate effort to find +authentic (and therefore spiritually and esthetically congruent) +parallels in genuine Indo-European sources first. As for flexi- +bility, Neopagan Druidism is an organic religion, and like all +other organisms it can be expected to grow, change and produce +offshoots as the years go by. + + 8) We believe that ethics and morality should be based upon +joy, self-love and respect; the avoidance of actual harm to +others; and the increase of public benefit. We try to balance out +people's needs for personal autonomy and growth, with the neces- +sity of paying attention to the impact of each individual's +actions on the lives and welfare of others. The commonest Neo- +pagan ethical expression is "If it doesn't hurt anyone, do what +you like." Most Neopagans believe in some variant or another of +the principle of karma, and state that the results of their +actions will always return to them. It's difficult for ordinary +humans to successfully commit "offenses against the Gods," short +of major crimes such as ecocide or genocide, and our deities are +perfectly capable of defending their own honor without any help +from mortal busybodies. We see the traditional monotheistic con- +cepts of sin, guilt and divine retribution for thought-crimes as +sad misunderstandings of natural growth experiences. + + 9) We believe that human beings were meant to lead lives +filled with joy, love, pleasure, beauty and humor. Most Neopagans +are fond of food, drink, music, sex and bad puns, and consider +all of these (except possibly the puns) to be sacraments. Al- +though the ancient Druids appear to have had ascetics within +their ranks, they also had a sensualist tradition, and the common +folk have always preferred the latter. Neopagan Druids try to +keep these two approaches in balance and harmony with each other +by avoiding dualistic extremes. But the bedrock question is, "If +your religion doesn't enable you to enjoy life more, why bother?" + + 10) We believe that with proper training, art, discipline and +intent, human minds and hearts are fully capable of performing +most of the magic and miracles they are ever likely to need. +This is done through the use of what we perceive as natural, +divinely granted psychic powers. As with many other Neopagan +traditions, the conscious practice of magic is a central part of +most of our religious rituals. Unlike monotheists, we see no +clearcut division between magic and prayer. Neither, however, do +we assume an automatic connection between a person's ability to +perform "miracles" and either (a) their personal spirituality or +(b) the accuracy of their poly/theological opinions. + + 11) We believe in the importance of celebrating the solar, +lunar and other cycles of our lives. Because we see ourselves as +a part of Nature, and because we know that repeating patterns can +give meaning to our lives, we pay special attention to astronomi- +cal and biological cycles. By consciously observing the sol- +stices, equinoxes and the points in between, as well as the +phases of the moon, we are not only aligning ourselves with the +movements and energy patterns of the external world, but we are +also continuing customs that reach back to the original Indo- +European peoples and beyond. These customs are human universals, +as are the various ceremonies known as "rites of passage" -- +celebrations of birth, puberty, personal dedication to a given +deity or group, marriage, ordination, death, etc. Together these +various sorts of observations help us to find ourselves in space +and time -- past, present and future. + + 12) We believe that people have the ability to solve their +current problems, both personal and public, and to create a +better world. Hunger, poverty, war and disease are not necessary, +nor inevitable. Pain, depression, lack of creative opportunity +and mutual oppression are not necessary either. What is necessary +is a new spiritual consciousness in which short-sighted greed, +power-mongering and violence are seen as absurd, rather than +noble. This utopian vision, tempered with common sense, leads us +to a strong commitment to personal and global growth, evolution +and balance. + + 13) We believe that people can progress far towards achieving +growth, evolution and balance through the carefully planned +alteration of their "normal" states of consciousness. Neopagans +use both ancient and modern methods of aiding concentration, +meditation, reprogramming and ecstasy. We seek to avoid being +locked into single-valued, monistic "tunnel realities," and in- +stead work on being able to switch worldviews according to their +appropriateness for each given situation, while still maintaining +a firm spiritual, ethical and practical grounding. + + 14) We believe that human interdependence implies community +service. Neopagan Druids are encouraged to use their talents to +help others, both inside and outside of the Neopagan community. +Some of us are active in political, social, ecological and chari- +table organizations, while others prefer to work for the public +good primarily through spiritual means (and many of us do both). +As Neopagan Druids we have the right and the obligation to +actively oppose (physically and spiritually) those forces which +would kill our planet, oppress our fellow human beings, and +destroy our freedom of religion. Also, however, we have a con- +stant need to evaluate our own methods and motives, and to make +sure that our actions are coming from the depths of our spiritual +beings, and not from petty or short-sighted desires for power. + + 15) We believe that if we are to achieve any of our goals, we +must practice what we preach. Neopagan Druidism should be a way +of life, not merely a weekly or monthly social function. Thus we +must always strive to make our lives consistent with our pro- +claimed beliefs. In a time when many people are looking for +something solid to hang on to in the midst of rapid technological +and cultural changes, Neopagan Druidism can offer a natural and +creative alternative to the repressive structures of mainstream +monotheism. But our alternative will not be seen as such unless +we can manage to make it a complete lifestyle -- one with con- +cern, if not always immediate answers, for the problems of every- +day life, as well as the grand cosmic questions. + + Obviously, there's a great deal more to Neopaganism in general +and our version of it in particular. The details of Neopagan +polytheology will take years to develop. The section of the +"Druid Handbook" dealing with beliefs will consist of statements +with commentaries (and even arguments) about the meanings of the +statements. The purpose of this format is multiple: to emphasise +that there are no final answers to the great questions of human +existence; to express clearly that Neopagans can disagree with +each other about subtle details of interpretation, while still +remaining members of the same religion; and to allow the belief +system to grow and adapt to changing cultural and technological +needs. Neopagan Druidism is to be a religion of the future, as +well as of the present and the past. + +***************************************************************** +This article has been reprinted from "The Druids' Progress", +issue #1, and is copyright 1984 by P. E. I. Bonewits. "DP" is the +irregular journal of a Neopagan Druid group called "Ar nDraiocht +Fein", founded by Bonewits (author of "Real Magic"). For more +data, send an S.A.S.E. to: Box 9398, Berkeley, CA, USA 94709. +Permission to distribute via BBS's is hereby granted, provided +that the entire article, including this notice, is kept intact. +***************************************************************** diff --git a/religious documents/drdpol.txt b/religious documents/drdpol.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e53aa3 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/drdpol.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/dstos.txt b/religious documents/dstos.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..627b52f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/dstos.txt @@ -0,0 +1,691 @@ + Dark Shadows (T.O.S.) Synopsis + +Format: Due to the extreme number of episodes and plotlines this +synopsis will not go into full detail. Those aspects of the show which +follow its supernatural nature will be concentrated on. The Dark +Shadows Companion has been a great help in creating this. Any comments +on something I have forgotten or left out will be greatly appreciated. +Please forgive any spelling or punctuation problems. + +Background: Dark Shadows aired on June 27, 1966. It was on the air +through 1971 and comprised over 1200 episodes and two full length +movies. While on the air the series was continually at the mercy of the +ratings. As a result it constantly tested the bounds of what had been +done before on tv and what was considered acceptable. + + Episodes 1 - 300 + + Dark Shadows began with the arrival of Victoria Winters to the +Collinwood estate; hired as the new governess for the Collins family. +Having been raised as an orphan she is convinced that a key to her past +lies with this family in Collinsport, Maine. She soon finds that the +Collins family is far from normal. Her ward, David, is a constant +trouble and has a developing interest in the occult. For the first +couple of months the plot centers around attacks on Victoria's life and +the grudge between the Collins family and businessman Burke Devin. +Things remain pretty much like any other soap. Nothing happens out +of the ordinary until episode 70. With failing ratings Dan Curtis +decides to go out with a bang. While playing in the Old House David +discovers Josette's portrait, and subsequently her ghost. In addition, +after being locked(by David) in the closed off section of Collinwood +Vicki encounters the ghost of Mallory, a recently murdered character. +The plot proceeds with the hunt for Mallory's killer and Vicki's past. +The murderer, Matthew, takes Vicki captive and hides her in the Old +House. David is convinced by Mallory's ghost to help her. Josette's +ghost appears and protects Vicki when Matthew tries to kill her. He +soon dies from fright after being visited by Mallory's ghost. + Now that the murder has been solved the plot shifts. Laura +Collins, Roger's wife and David's mother, has returned to Collinwood to +get a divorce and custody of David. This is bewildering to all, as +Laura supposedly died in a fire in Phoenix, AR. Even more so when it is +discovered that her body was positively identified in the remains. It +is then revealed that Laura is a phoenix, but the family doesn't know +this yet. The Collins family gradually gather clues. After tracing +Laura's maiden names through women who appear to die every hundred years +a pyschic investigator, Guthrie, is called in. Guthrie discovers that +Laura has some sort of powers but is unsure what she is. He decides to +conduct a seance to contact Josette and expose Laura. Guthrie is killed +by Laura. The seance goes ahead as planned. Laura makes her move to +destroy David and herself in flames. However, Vicki has been warned by +Josette's ghost and she saves David. + Having survived more trials, Dark Shadows is again plagued by +ratings problems. The supernatural was called on again to save the +show, this time with a vampire. Willie Loomis, a drifter, had been +introduced briefly already in the series. Willie was fascinated with +the portrain of Barnabas Collins and the legend about a secret family +treasure. While searching for the treasure in the family crypt he +discovers a chained coffin, the perfect place to hide jewels. +Unfortunetly when he opens the lid a hand emerges, grasping Willie +firmly about the neck. Thus is introduced Barnabas Collins. + Barnabas assumes the identity of a cousin from England and +"arrives" at Collinwood. A weakened Willie is found at the Blue Whale, +with puncture wounds on his wrists. He is diagnosed as suffering from +blood loss. Barnabas gains permission to move into the Old House, with +Willie as his servant. Barnabas sees a resemblance in Maggie to his +lost love Josette. He devises a plan intended to recreat Josette. +After several night meetings with Barnabas Maggie becomes weaker and is +hospitalized. Everyone thinks she dies, until her body disappears. +She is in fact being held captive by Barnabas. To protect himself, +Barnabas switches the blood samples Dr. Woodard took from Willie. +Maggie eventually escapes through the aid of Sarah, the ghost of +Barnabas' nine-year-old sister. Maggie suffers from a memory loss +and has reverted to her childhood. She is found by Sam and Joe and +secretly sent to the Windcliff Sanitarium. Her doctor there is Julia +Hoffman. Barnabas has now switched his intentions to Vicki, hosting +a costume ball to get Vicki in Josette's dress. At the party a seance +is held and Vicki goes into a trance. Josette speaks though her. + Meanwhile, Julie Hoffman has been probing into Maggie's mind. +She finds, under hypnosis, that Maggie is deathly afraid of the name +Barnabas. Julia decides to go the Collinwood to find the answers, +posing as a visiting historian. While at the Old House she notices that +Barnabas casts no reflection. She returns to find Barnabas in his +coffin and offers to help him find a cure. Dr. Woodard and Burke start +to become curious about Barnabas. At the same time Sarah helps Maggie +escape. She stumbles into the Blue Whale and collapses. Julia is then +forced to hypnotize Maggie to cover her memory of Barnabas. However, +Barnabas has come to the conclusion Maggie must be killed. When he +attempts to do this he is stopped by Sarah's ghost. Barnabas' plans +are in doubt when Vicki decides to marry Burke. Therefore, Barnabas +decides that Burke must be destroyed. + + Episodes 301 - 600 + + Anxious to be with Vicki/Josette Barnabas urges Julia to hurry with +the cure. Julia has however become highly enamoured of Barnabas. +Meanwhile Burke continues to investigate Barnabas, to Vicki's +disapproval. Sarah starts to show up often. She shows David the secret +room in the crypt and leaves her shoe in Maggie's room. All attempts by +Barnabas to talk to her prove fruitless. He becomes afraid that she +will expose him. David is locked in the secret room when he hides there +from Barnabas and Willie. Barnabas knows Sarah talks to him and is +afraid that he knows the truth. Sarah helps David out of the room and +Burke arrives before Barnabas can do anything. David does, however, +start to have nightmares about Barnabas. + With Maggie's memory returning she is once again a threat. The +police shoot an intruder outside her bedroom, only to discover it is +Willie. Barnabas has decided to frame him for Maggie's kidnapping. +Dr. Woodard diagnoses Willie as mentally unsound. + Barnabas has now switched to scare tactics with David. However, +the boy sneaks into the Old House and finds the open coffin. Julia +manages to stop Barnabas from killing him. David's story has caused a +search to be conducted of the Old House by Burke and Dr. Woodard, it +turns up nothing. Unfortunetly, Sarah has been talking to Dr. Woodard. +He confronts Barnabas and later steals Julia's notebook, containing the +specifics of Barnabas' condition. Julia is forced by Barnabas to help +kill Woodard. The death is made to look like a heart attack. + Vicki becomes distraught when she learns that Burke's plane has +crashed without survivors. Barnabas takes this opportunity to get +closer to her. However, Julia is jealous and hypnotizes Vicki so +that she finds Barnabas very unattractive. Growing impatient Barnabas +forces Julia to hurry the cure. As a result he ages to his true age of +200 years. Carolyn coming to check on David's story sneaks into the Old +House. The aged Barnabas catches her and puts the bite on her. Which +causes him to return to normal, and with a new slave. Carolyn catches +Julia hypnotizing Vicki and Barnabas is furious. He swears to kill her. +Julia saves her life by blackmailing Barnabas with her notebook, which +she has given to Tony Peterson for safekeeping. Carolyn attempts to +steal it but is caught. Barnabas starts to play mind games with Julia. +Sarah visits her but will not help her. Sarah tells Barnabas that he +must be "good". A seance is held to determine if David is telling the +truth. While it is going on Vicki dissappears. + Vicki has been transported to 1795. She meets Barnabas before he +became a vampire. There is a striking resemblance between the old and +new Collins families. Jeremiah, Barnabas' uncle, agrees to help Vicki +get hired as the new governess. Josette's maid, Angelique, arrives. +She has her own plans for Barnabas. When his fiancess arrives(Josette) +Angelique uses witchcraft to cause Barnabas to nearly choke to death. +She then uses her witchcraft to turn the Collins servant, Ben Stokes, +into her slave. She casts a spell causing Jeremiah and Josette to fall +in love. Millicent Collins, a family heiress, arrives. When Jeremiah +trys to leave town, Angelique turns Barnabas' father Joshua into a cat. +Natlie suspects there is a witch but believes it is Vicki. She urges +Barnabas to hurry with the wedding. Before it can occur Jeremiah and +Josette run off together. Unfortunetly, it does not change Barnabas' +mind. Natalie and Joshua's sister Abagail find Vicki's charm bracelet +and are convinced she is a witch. Jeremiah and Josette return. +Barnabas challenges Jeremiah to a duel, which he wins by mortally +wounding Jeremiah. Abagail has meanwhile solicited the aid of Rev. +Trask, a fanatic who supposedly reveals witchs. Barnabas and Nathan +hide Vicki in Collinwood, which is under construction. Upset by events +Angelique takes it out on Sarah. She promises to cure her if Barnabas +will marry her. Jeremiah, who has been in a coma, dies. + Barnabas now agrees to marry Angelique. As an added incentive, she +has enlisted the aid of Jeremiah's ghost. Barnabas is disinheirited for +his wedding plans, but is given the Old House as a wedding gift. Vicki +tells Barnabas she is from the future. Ben is caught by Abagail and +confesses his part. Thinking Vicki is in the Old House Rev. Trask +exorcises it. Angelique causes Vicki to run out of hiding into the +Rev's waiting arms. She is put in jail. Ben is forced by Barnabas to +reveal Angelique. Barnabas tries to kill her but she threatens to kill +Josette. When Barnabas shoots Angelique she believes she is dying and +puts a curse on Barnabas. A giant bat is sent to him. When she doesnt +die she regrets this and tries to save Barnabas. Josette believes Vicki +is the witch and emplores her to help Barnabas. Unfortunetly, +Barnabas dies anyway. Angelique does not want him to revive as a +vampire so she goes to stake him. He rises and kills Angelique. + Sarah sees Barnabas and follows. When he finds his first victim +she is terrified and runs away. Ben later finds her in the cemetary. +She has contracted pneumonia and dies in Barnabas' arms. Feeling +remorse Barnabas tells Ben to put a stake through his heart. The spirit +of Angelique returns and prevents this. She then summons Josette and +Barnabas nearly bites her. In a short time he can no longer hold back +and bites Josette, the subsequent strange behavior of Josette does not +go unnoticed. Joshua discovers that Barnabas' coffin is empty. + To stop Barnabas' plans at having a vampire bride, Angelique calls +Josette to Widow's Hill and causes her to fall to her doom. The +witchcraft trial of Vicki begins. Barnabas decides to revive Josette +but is shocked by her disfigured face. She wishes to return to death. +Barnabas moves his coffin to the Old House basement but is caught by +Abagail, who dies from fright. Vicki is accused of being responsible. + During Vicki's trial Ben trys to tell the truth, but Angelique +shows up to testify. Vicki is sentanced to hang. Barnabas knows that +Trask is responsible for this. He kills a woman and puts her in Trask's +bed. He later forces Trask to write a declaration of Vicki's innocence. +After which he bricks Trask up in the Old House basement to die. +Meanwhile, Joshua has discovered Barnabas' coffin and decides he must +destroy Barnabas. Millicent is bitten by Barnabas. Joshua brings in a +good witch, Buthia Mapes, to help Barnabas. Unfortunetly, she goes up +in flames with a little help from Angelique. Vicki escapes from jail +but is wounded. Nathan tells Naomi that Barnabas is a vampire. She +takes poison and dies as she tells Barnabas that she forgives him. +When Barnabas finds out it was Nathan who told her he plans to kill him, +and does. Joshua finds he is unable to destroy Barnabas so he chains +his son in the coffin to protect the Collins name. Vicki is hung. +Peter vows to someday find her. When the hood is removed Vicki is gone, +replaced by Phyllis With. Vicki has returned to the present. + Barnabas is now afraid that Vicki learnt of his condition in the +past, so he bites her. He is terrified to learn she has bought a +portrait of Angelique. Barnabas convinces Vicki to marry him. Before +this can happen though Vicki wrecks the car they are in, when she sees +a Peter look alike. In the hospital, Barnabas is exposed to sunlight +and learns he is partially cured due to a blood transfution. The +hospital doctor, Lang, has an assistant who looks just like Peter +Bradford, Jeff. Vicki believes he is in some way Peter and calls off +the wedding. Dr. Lang plans to finish the cure and give Barnabas +Jeff's physical features, by transferring him to a body made of human +parts. Roger arrives with a new bride, Cassandra. It becomes obvious +to Vicki that she is actually Angelique. Angelique renews Barnabas' +curse with a dream curse, passed on to whoever it is told to. +Cassandra kills Lang. Julia plans to finish his experiment but when +she does the results are not right. Barnabas is still alive, but the +creature comes to life, as Adam. Adam gradually matures and learns to +talk. Barnabas has Sam age the portrait of Angelique, and Cassandra +ages as well. Cassandra has it stopped by blinding Sam. Willie taunts +Adam and he escapes. After he trys to kill Barnabas, Barnabas decides +to kill Adam. Adam kidnaps Carolyn but is later captured. He is put in +jail but escapes. He saves Carolyn from leaping off Widow's Hill, and +then jumps himself. He is not killed however. Julia and several others +hold a seance to contact Trask in the hopes he can stop Angelique. Trask +is set on revenge with Barnabas however. He holds a mock trial with +Barnabas' 1795 victims and finds Barnabas guilty. When Julia sees +Josette's ghost she realizes what has happened to Barnabas. He has been +walled up in the Old House basement. Julia and Willie save him. + Meanwhile the dream curse has ended, because Sam dies before he can +relate it to anyone. Trask is finally sucessful in exorcising +Angelique. However, Warlord Nicholas Blair arrives, posing as +Cassandra's brother. He searchs for her and eventually brings her +back. Cassandra raises Sam so that he can tell the dream to Vicki. +Barnabas tries to help her by listening to the dream. He survives it +but is then attacked by a bat and is believed to be dead. Julia +discovers that Adam is alive and knows Barnabas is because of the link +they have. Stokes and Julia save Barnabas, who is still human. + Nicholas learns that Julia brought Adam to life. He befriends +Adam. When Cassandra tries to kill Adam, Nicholas is upset and takes +her powers away. Cassandra confeses to Barnabas but he refuses to +forgive her. Adam is upset that Carolyn doesnt like him and demands a +mate for him be made. Vicki decides to marry Jeff but Adam kidnaps her. +Nicholas brings Angelique back as a vampire under his control. When +Adam starts to get testy, Julia agrees to make him a mate. Tom is +killed by Angelique, and returns as a vampire. He attacks Julia who +then stops the experiment. Barnabas comes to the rescue and stakes Tom, +although the coffin is later missing. Willie tells Nicholas how Adam +was made and Angelique overhears. She bites Jeff and uses him to start +the experiment, intending to resurrect herself. Vicki calls off her +wedding because of Jeff's strange behavior. Barnabas manages to stop +the experiment but is beaten around by Adam for it. Maggie's memory +of Barnabas starts to return. + Carolyn now volunteers to be the lifeforce for the next +experiment and Julia begins. However, something goes wrong and Carolyn +dies, but the body disappears. She later reappears in full health. +Danielle Roge is summoned by Nicholas to serve as a life force for his +own experiment. As it happens she was a very nasty person from the 18th +century. Danielle's body, Adam, and the new Eve all disappear +afterwards. Eve appears to tell Nicholas about her hatred for Adam. + + Episodes 601 - 900 + + Barnabas plans to kill Eve, so Adam hides her in Nicholas' +basement. When Barnabas goes there he finds Angelique waiting. He is +bitten by her and is put under her spell. However, Nicholas forbids her +from seeing Barnabas without his permission. Joe is rejected by +Angelique and tries to kill himself. When Barnabas takes him to Julia +they discover bite marks on his neck. Nicholas sends Eve on a trip to +the past to meet Peter Bradford, who she is in love with via Jeff. +Unfortunetly, Peter does not feel the same way. Nicholas proposes to +Maggie but is turned down. Barnabas is ordered to poison Joe by +Angelique. Joe in turn tries to strangle Barnabas. Julia discovers +that Peter has been bitten and tries to lock him up, but he escapes. +Angelique tries to run off with Barnabas, but he escapes and is found by +Vicki. It appears that Angelique has been getting around when Julia +finds that Adam too has been bitten. Nicholas decides to destroy +Angelique, but he cannot find her, the coffin is empty. It appears that +Angelique got wise and moved it. She sends Eve back in time to 1796 to +find Peter. Peter is in jail, waiting to be hung. He refuses aid from +Eve but gives her a note just before he dies. Eve returns and gives the +note to Jeff, who then calls off the wedding with Vicki and goes to +Peter's grave. When he digs it up he finds it empty. Adam kills Eve. +Chris Jennings arives, mistaken by some for his brother Tom. +Angelique takes a field trip to the Netherworld to discuss some things +with Diablos (aka Satan). She tells him of Nicholas' love for Maggie. +Subsequently, Diablos orders Nicholas to sacrifice Maggie in a Black +Mass. Vicki learns of these plans so Nicholas calls up Tom Jennings to +stop her. He is destroyed by Barnabas. + Adam tries to revive Eve but is stopped by Barnabas. Around +this time Nicholas is believed destroyed by a fireball. Adam kidnaps +Vicki in order to try once more at the experiment, but he fails. Jeff +discovers that he is indead Peter Bradford. Jeff and Vicki are married +but Jeff fades back to the past. Amy, Chris' sister, moves into +Collinwood. David shows her a phone (disconnected) where she talks to +Quentin Collins. David and Amy then hold a seance to contact Quentin. +Meanwhile, another seance is held so that Vicki can contact Jeff. David +and Amy are possesed by the ghosts of Quentin and Beth Chavey. They +then try to kill Roger. As a result, a pyschic medium, Janet Findley, +is brought in to investigate. Unfortunetly, the children trap her and +she dies of fright when Quentin pays a visit to her. Jeff stops by the +present one more time and takes Vicki to the past with him (in reality +the actress was pregnant). Maggie takes over as governess. + Following several shadowy appearances, Chris transforms into a +werewolf and attacks Joe. With many strange things occuring Barnabas +decides to take the children to Boston for awhile, for safety. Joe +starts having vampire and werewolf dreams and is put in Windcliff +Sanitarium. There is evidence that Vicki wants to return to the present +and that she dies in the past. Barnabas decides to time travel to save +her. Angelique offers to help in the past, but changes her mind. Vicki +is saved when Barnabas torches Angelique. Barnabas has himself chained +up in his coffin and is revived in the present by Julia and Willie. + All this while Liz was believed to be dead. Actually she was +paralyzed in her coffin (actually the actress was doing a play). After +she senses Carolyn is in danger, attacked by the werewolf, she revives. +One of Carolyn's friends visits Chris and is killed by the werewolf. +Chris is jailed for the murder, but is released when Barnabas provides +an alibi. Chris confides in Barnabas. The ghost of Quentin recognizes +Chris as his descendant and tries to poison him. David is punished by +Maggie and gets very upset, he vows revenge. When Barnabas finds a +child's coffin with a pentagram in it he calls in Ezra Raithwaite for +assistance. Ezra realizes who Quentin is but dies of fright. Chris is +protected on the next full moon by Barnabas. David is punished for not +following Quentin's orders. Quentin starts to be a very annoying ghost +and the family abandons Collinwood. David sneaks back in and ends up in +a coma. Barnabas attempts an I Ching trance, to contact Quentin, but +ends up in 1897. + Barnabas uses the same line of being a cousin from England, but +Quentin is suspicious. Quentin has been trying to get his grandmother, +Edith, to reveal the family secret. She realizes that Barnabas is the +secret. Edith dies and Quentin has her will stolen. Barnabas finds +another Josette look alike in Rachel. Quentin and Evan Hanley hold a +ritual in order to obtain aid in dealing with Barnabas. They get +Angelique. She puts Rachel under a spell and Barnabas must then get a +amulet from the gypsy Magda to protect her. Everyone is shocked when +they learn Judith, the house mistress, is Edith's only benificiary. + Previously Quentin had married Jenny, but his eyes roamed. He ran +off with his brother's wife, Laura. Leaving his pregnant wife at home. +She has twins, a son and a daughter. Since Jenny is considered to be +insane the children are taken away and Jenny is locked in the tower +room. Quentin returned later. + Now Jenny escapes and attacks Rachel. Judith tries to hide Jenny, +but she escapes whe she hears Quentin's music. Jenny stabs Quentin and +leaves him to die. Angelique is summoned by Barnabas to help. He is +resurrected as a zombie, possesing Jamison. When he starts misbehaving +a ceremony is performed to try and bring things back to normal (or +Collinwood's equivilent). Rev. Gregory Trask attempts to exorcise +Quentin from Jamison's body. When things work out, Trask thinks he is +responsible. Barnabas bites his daughter Charity. Laura Collins now +returns to Collinwood. Much to Quentin's anger, since he saw he burnt +on a pyre in Egypt (the phoenix returns). He tries to kill her and is +injured. Angelique offers to help, but only if Barnabas marries her. +Laura is warned by Rachel about her children's treatment at Rev Trask's +school. When he refuses to return the children to her the school +catches fire. + Quentin tries to destroy Laura's source of supernatural power. +Laura calls on the god Ra for aid. Clues gather for the rest of the +family about Laura's true nature. She admits to returning for the +children. It has decided by Quentin and Barnabas that they must destroy +Laura. However, she has already sent Jenny to stop them. During a +struggle, Quentin kills Jenny. + It turns out the Jenny was the daughter of Magda, a gypsy witch. +She places the werewolf curse on Quentin and his descendants. Not +realizing that she had grandchildren by him, who are also cursed now. + A character names Dirk, who works for Laura, finds a diary in the +grave of Ben Stokes. Laura learns from it that Barnabas is a vampire +and plans to destroy him. Quentin attempts another ceremony intended to +destroy Laura. Ra is again called on by Laura in order to destry +Angelique. Laura has written a letter to Judith describing Barnabas' +condition. Barnabas manages to destroy it after attacking Dirk. Laura +attempts to take the children into the fire with her, but she is +destroyed by a spell Angeliques casts. + Quentin now devotes his time to the werewolf curse. When Barnabas +cannot get any straight answers he bites Beth, she becomes his slave. +Barnabas is told by Magda about a possible cure for Quentin, but +Barnabas has his own problems. When Dirk reveals his secret Barnabas +attacks him, he later rises as a vampire. Dirk tries to get Barnabas +to bring Angelique back to life, but then Edward stakes Dirk. + Enter Count Petofi. A powerful, yet eccentric, sorcerer. Petofi +had suffered as a werewolf and had killed the last unicorn in grief. +In addition, for killing one of them, the gypsies severed his hand, +where his power was centered. It now travels the earth in its own +box. Magda returns afer a long trip with a mysterious, bearing the box. + Carl sees Barnabas enter the masoleum and is trapped there by +Quentin. Barnabas rises and kills him Carl. Barnabas later finds his +coffin chained up and with a cross on it. Trask is now on Barnabas' +trail and attempts to use Charity to trap him. Trask marries Judith and +reveals to her Barnabas' secret. Magda uses the hand of Petofi in an +attempt to cure Quentin. However, the werewolf is caught in an animal +trap and the hand stolen by Evan. Judith has now come to the opinion +that she is Minerva, Trask's recently deceased wife. Minerva's ghost is +raised by Trask and Evan. Judith is "persuaded" to commit herself. +Aristede, a new character addition, forces Quentin to relinquish the +hand to him. Quentin then goes to Angelique for help. Unfortunetly, +Angelique attempts a cure but fails. A gypsy, Julianha?, persuades +Barnabas that she can cure Quentin, if the hand is returned to the +gypsies. Aristede captures Quentin and threatens his life if he doesnt +give Aristede the hand. Julianha is found dead. When she is contacted +through a seance she refuses to help Quentin and curses Magda. When +Magda's loved ones start to die she tries to destroy the hand. + A new character appears, Victor Fenn-Gillons. Magda and Quentin +soon discover that he is in fact Count Petofi, come for his hand. +Petofi devises a cure for Quentin. Charles Delaware Tate arrives to +paint Quentin's portrait. He has been given a power by Petofi. +Instead of Quentin turning into a wolf his portrait does, it also gives +the effect of immortality. Through a few plot manipulations Petofi is +reunited with his hand. Count Petofi tries to extort the secret of time +travel from Barnabas. He chains Barnabas in his coffin. Quentin +manages to release Barnabas. Magda is placed on trial by the gypsies. +Quentin now appears to be fully cured, but Petofi has made a deal with +Edward to trap Barnabas. + Back in the present, Beth's ghost appears and explains to Julia how +Quentin dies. Julia travels back to 1897. Julia agrees to stay and +cure Barnabas, but she is taken hostage by Petofi who wants the I Ching +wands used in time travel. Barnabas manages to rescue her. He and +Angelique make a deal to destroy Petofi. Lady Kitty Soames arrives, +and suprise, she looks just like Josette. Before this can be expanded +on, Barnabas is staked by a posessed Charity. His coffin is sealed in a +cave. Petofi discovers that he needs a body in the future to time +travel, so he begin manipulations to posess Quentin. Julia is called +back to the present. Angelique is warned about the mind switch. + Now it is revealed that Barnabas was not killed (he actually took +a vacation). It was only a double created by Angelique. In fact, he is +human again (Julia's cure worked). Kitty is becoming aware that she is +Josette and goes to Barnabas. Angelique is forced to tell Petofi how +she created the double. Petofi attempts to time travel but is called +back. Quentin manages to reverse the mind switch and orders Aristede +to kill Petofi. Judith has returned, fairly sane, with the knowledge +that Trask is after the family wealth. She has him bricked up in +Quentin's room. Though the effects of several sub plots, Petofi is +destroyed in the burning studio of Tate. Kitty fades into the past and +Barnabas does likewise. Josette believes that he has betrayed her and +kills herself. + Barnabas is captured by the Leviathans. A Lovecraftian race of +ancient beings. Barnabas is returned to the present with the task of +finding a suitable couple to raise a Leviathan child. There are two +new inhabitants of Collinsport, Philip and Megan Todd. They run a local +antique shop. Megan is given the box containing the essence of the +Leviathan leader and the Leviathan comes to live with them. Paul +Stoddard now appears, Carolyn's father. The book on the Leviathans is +stolen by David. Paul realizes that the Leviathan's want Carolyn, due +to a deal he had made with them years ago. + + Episodes 901 - 1245 + + Evidence of the Leviathan child comes when Carolyn hears loud, and +strange breathing coming from the baby's room. Due to his sucess before +in the series, Quentin is brought back. While taking a drive Barnabas +hits a man who mysteriously looks just like Quentin. The man claims to +be Grant Douglas, but Julia believes him to be Quentin. Meanwhile the +Leviathan child has aged rapidly into a little boy, and is introduced +as Alexander. The Leviathan's gain control of Liz and Paul realizes who +Alexander is. Julis attempts to restore Grant's memory as Quentin, but +to no avail. Julia discovers that Harrison Monroe is in fact Charles +Delaware Tate. Alexander ages further and is now introduced as Michael. +Barnabas is ordered by the Leviathans to kill Julia, but tries to bring +her into the group instead. Paul escapes from Collinwood and goes to +the police. Chris goes to Tate in the hopes that he can cure him by +painting his portrait. Olivia Corey reveals that she is actually Amanda +Harris and tells of a pact she made in 1897. In order to survive she +must get Quentin to remember. Julia discovers that Angelique is back. +She is married to Sky Rumson and wants nothing to do with the Collins +anymore. + Michael traps Maggie in a secret passage and orders Megan to kill +Philip, but Barnabas stops her. Michael is ready to transform into the +next stage but he is having second thoughts. Barnabas decides to help +Paul and saves him when he is attacked. When Julia shows Quentin his +1897 portrait his memory returns. It was gone due to damage to the +portrait. Amanda and Quentin try to escape the mysterious Mr. Best but +their plans go awry and Amanda is buried alive. The sheriff +investigates the antique shop but only finds Jeb Hawkes, the fully grown +Leviathan child. Jeb believes it is Barnabas who has betrayed him. + Julia realizes who Jeb is and confronts Barnabas. To Barnabas' +rage Jeb proposes to Carolyn. Barnabas then goes to Angelique and begs +her for help. Jeb hides Maggie in a crypt, with Sheriff Davenport (who +he has raised from the dead). A Leviathan follower arrives in town, +Bruno. Sabrina attempts to cure Chris with a special flower. As it +turns out the only thing which can harm a Leviathan is a werewolf. Jeb +gets edgy when he finds out there is one near. Bruno tells Jeb that +Sabrina can identify the werewolf. Jeb's true nature is revealed to +Carolyn in a dream. The werewolf attacks, but doesnt kill, Jeb. +Barnabas prevents Jeb from learning who the werewolf is and conducts a +seance to contact Josette. Philip attempts to steal the Leviathan box, +but is caught by Jeb. Due to Barnabas' treason against the Leviathans, +Jeb decides to punish him. Barnabas is bitten by a vampire bat, a +becomes once more a vampire. As revenge, Barnabas sets fire to the +antique shop. Julia agrees to try and cure him again. Nicholas Blair +returns to town to help the Leviathans, whose plans seem to be going +wrong. Barnabas makes Megan his servant. Angelique discovers that her +husband is a Leviathan. Quentin saves Maggie from Barnabas. + Without a husband, and just a little bit peeved, Angelique returns +her sights to Barnabas. She casts a spell causing Quentin and Maggie to +fall in love. Jeb decides he actually loves Carolyn and renounces his +Leviathan ties. Because of this Blair punished him with a shadow which +follows him everywhere, growing larger. A hanging man is seen in +David's room. Bruno learns that Chris is the werewolf and orders +Davenport to destroy him during the next full moon. He changes his mind +and decides to get in good with the Leviathans by destroying Jeb. He +tricks Jeb into getting trapped with Chris just before the full moon. +Megan is attacked by Barnabas. + Jeb learns that Julia cured Barnabas once and has her kidnapped +by an army of zombies, in the hopes that she can make him human. +Nicholas warns Julia not to interfere. Zombies bury Quentin alive. +Carolyn has a dream and learns that Jeb killed her father. Peter +Bradford's ghost appears and threatens to destroy Jeb. Philip falls +off Widow's Hill to his death. Angelique vows to destroy Jeb. Carolyn +and Jeb are married. + With failing ratings a new twist to time travel is tried, this +time sideways in time. Barnabas discovers a room in the closed off east +wing which looks into a parallel universe. Julia informs Barnabas of +Stokes' theory of parallel time. Carolyn learns about the shadow which +is stalking Jeb. To protect Chris, Sabrina tries to kill Bruno. Bruno +takes her hostage and sets a trap for Carolyn, trapping her with the +werewolf. Angelique finally agrees to help Jeb, if he kills Nicholas. +The shadow curse is transferred to Nicholas and he is killed by it. +Sky vows revenge and pushes Jeb off Widows Hill, unfortunetly he was +human enough to die. Barnabas observes the paralled universe for a time +and decides to enter, in the hopes that he will be cured of vampirism. + In the parallel universe things are different. Julia is a +housekeeper in league with Angelique and Barnabas never became a +vampire. When he enters he is still a vampire though and attacks Willie +Loomis' wife Carolyn. Willie, who is an author (of the history of +Barnabas Collins no less), traps Barnabas and learns everything. He +chains Barnabas in a coffin. The newlyweds Quentin and Maggie return +to Collinwood. Quentins first wife, Angelique, is dead and his son is +David. David decides to drive Maggie away, he believes his mother is +going to return. Angelique's twin sister Alexis arrives. Scientist +Cyrus Longworth is experimenting with the good and evil sides of people. +Maggie leaves Collinwood out of jealousy of Alexis. Bruno thinks Alexis +is Angelique and tries to dig up her grave but is stopped by Quentin. +Cyrus tests his formula with Jeckyll/Hyde effects. A seance is held to +contact Angelique. As a result Sabrina believes Angelique was +murdered. Hannah Stokes informs Bruno that Angelique's spirit is at +Collinwood. Quentin and Alexis come to the opinion that Angelique +isn't at rest. Collinwood is haunted by the ghost of Damion Edwards. +Under the influence of his potion, Cyrus becomes John Yaeger and flirts +heavily with Buffie Harrington, the Blue Whale barmaid. Bruno tries to +kill Alexis, believing she is Angelique. + Angelique comes to life and kills Alexis, taking her place. +Damion's ghost warns Quentin he'll die by hanging. Angelique tries to +get tid of Damion's ghost. Gladstone finds out about Cyrus/Yaeger and +blackmails him. Daniel becomes mesmerized by Barnabas' portrait. +Joshua Collins spirit warns there is an evil spirit at Collinwood. +Yaeger discovers a passageway to the Old House basement and finds +Barnabas' coffin. Will stops him from opening it but is bitten by +Barnabas, who "arrives" posing as an English cousin. Quentin is +suspicious of him. Angelique reveals to Hoffman who she is and performs +voodoo on Quentin. Angelique brings Maggie back to Collinwood hoping to +disolve her marriage with Quentin. Angelique kills lawyer Larry Chase, +using his body heat to survive. Buffie is bitten by Barnabas and become +becomes his spy. Maggie is driven to suicide but Liz stops her from +killing herself. Barnabas confronts Angelique. She goes to her father +Timothy Stokes for help. Yaeger kidnaps Maggie. + Barnabas returns briefly to normal time. He talks to Julia then +returns to parallel time to save Maggie. Yaeger kills Sabrina and +tries to kill Maggie but Barnabas saves her, killing Yaeger/Cyrus in the +process. Julia arrives just in time to stop Hoffman from staking +Barnabas. She kills Hoffman and takes her place. Julia discovers how +Angelique is staying alive. Barnabas and Julia find Stokes secret lab. +Quentin is framed for Angelique's and Bruno's deaths. Angelique panics +when Barnabas takes a life force from the secret lab. Angelique tries +to get Barnabas' secret out of Will, but he jumps from the tower room to +his death. Barnabas manages to partially revive the life force (aka +Roxanne Drew). After various events Angelique finds out who Julia is. +Roxanne comes fully to life, killing Angelique as a result. Barnabas +bites Roxanne and later rescues Julia. However, Roxanne dies. +Barnabas is distraught over Roxanne's death. Collinwood is set on fire +by Stokes. Julia and Barnabas return to normal time, but the year 1995. +They find Collinwood deserted. Carolyn is insane and living in a beach +shack. She is convinced that the family will return. The sheriff warns +Barnabas and Julia to leave. +Barnabas and Julia see Davids ghost. They are warned of danger by +Quentin. Gerard's ghost appears to Quentin and Julia. Quentin believes +Prof. Stokes is responsible for Collinwood's disaster. Barnabas finds +out Carolyn is dead and discovers her description of the destruction of +Collinwood. The sheriff is killed by Barnabas. Julia and Barnabas +manage to return to the present by using a stairway through time. It +is learned the Daphne (who appeared as a ghost in the future) was the +1840 governess. Her and Gerard's graves are found. Liz consults an +astrologer after learning about the future. Stokes niece, Hallie, is +found dressed in 19th century clothing. A west wing playroom is +discovered by David and Hallie. Daphne's ghost appears to Quentin and +he discovers her diary. Daphne tries to kill Quentin but he convinces +her not to. The spirit of Tad Collins speaks through David. Barnabas +meets Roxanne Drew, who is identical to the parallel time Roxanne. +A dollhouse is found by David and Hallie. The dolls look like them in +19th century clothes. They destroy the dolls but discover them back in +the dollhouse. Their 1840 counterparts are seen in the playroom. It is +learned that the stairway used by Julia and Barnabas was made by +Quentin. David and Hallie's 1840 counterparts motion them toward the +staircase but it disappears. Gerard's ghost menaces David. Liz is +warned by Sebastion that the stranger in her future may not be alive. +Gerard possesses Liz and appears to David and Hallie. Maggie colapses +and Julia discovers bite marks on her neck. Barnabas convinces her that +he was not responsible. Julia prepares to give Maggie a blood +transfusion. After Carolyn sees Gerard she is possessed by Letricia +Faye. Barnabas and Julia decide they must get David and Hallie out of +Collinwood. However, Gerard leads David to the real Rose Cottage(aka +the dollhouse). David and Hallie are possessed by Tad and Carrie. They +conduct a ceremony to bring Daphne and Gerard back to life. The newly +risen Daphne talks to Quentin. She refuses to help Gerard come back so +he sets fire to the Cottage with her in it. Carolyn (aka Letricia) +stops him. Julia finds that Daphne is alive. Barnabas confronts +Gerard. Willie discovers Maggie next to an empty coffin. The other +vampire is Roxanne. Barnabas stops Sebastion from killing her and +chains her in the coffin. Maggie is taken to Windcliffe. Sebastian +announces Gerard will take control of Collinwood. Gerard kills the +children. Julia travels back in time to 1840 by using the stairway. + Julia hides from the current inhabitants. She is saved from an +insane Daniel Collins by Ben. Ben and Julia set Barnabas free, but +he doesn't recognize her. Julia poses as Barnabas Collins sister from +England. Barnabas and Roxanne decide to spend eternity together. +Julia tries to stop him and Barnabas attacks her. The 1970 Barnabas +possesses his 1840 body and saves her. Daniel gives Barnabas the Old +House. Ben is shown the mystical head of Judah Zachery. Judah's +powers kill Ben. The head also affects Desmond. Samantha is surprised +when her dead husband Quentin arrives. He tells her that Tad is also +alive. Daphne meets Quentin and decides that he is the man she is +going to kill. Lamar Trask uses Letricia's powers to discover what +happened to his father, the Rev Trask. Desmond discovers the vault +containing the body of Judah. Lamar's father warns of evil. Judah's +escapes and kills Tim Blaikwater. Samantha tells Quentin that Tad is +not his son and that she will stay married to Gerard. Julia tries to +warn Daphne. Angelique discovers that Barnabas is free. Julia and +Letricia try to rejoin Judah's head. Angelique warns Barnabas +that she will turn Roxanne into a vampire. The jeweled mask of Judah +is needed to reunite the head and body. The mask is found and the body +revived but in a coma. A fire burns the body but the head lives. +Angelique remembers Judah's original threats of revenge in 1692. Gerard +hides Judah's head. With Charles Dawson's help Judah possesses +Gerard. Barnabas meets Roxannes's brother. Angelique hides Julia in a +abandoned lighthouse. Quentin reveals to Gerard his time travel +therories. Gerard (aka Judah) trys to bring Edith and Daphne into the +coven. Daphne admits she is the sister of Joanne. Barnabas rescues +Julie and Roxanne rises as a vampire. Quentin is accused of being a +warlock. Randall is killed after finding Judah's mask. Quentin is +arrested for the murder. Gerard and Charles talk David into changing +his will. Gerard convinces Angelique that Judah had possessed Quentine. +David suffers a stroke and dies. His sole beneficiary is Gerard. The +constable's wife dies in Quentin's cell and he is now on trial for +witchcraft. Samantha testifies that Quentin brought a spirit to +Collinwood. Ben's diary is found and subsequently Trask's skeleton. +Lamar bricks up Barnabas in the basement. Angelique realizes that +Gerard may be Judah. Desmond is arrested and admits to having Judah's +head. Prof. Stokes arrives from the future with information. Barnabas +shows up mysteriously as Quentin's lawyer. Gerard has Mordenia Grimes +killed to prevent testimony for Quentin. Daphne sees paralled time in +the east wing. Quentin is convicted but he and Desmond escape. Daniels +ghost kille Gabriel. Quentin and Daphne are trapped in the paralle time +room but escape. Joanna forces Samantha off Widows' Hill. Daphne is +put under a spell and marries Gerard. Quentin is sent back to jail and +Barnabas goes to Angelique for help. Gerard takes away Angelique's +powers. But she still stops the execution by arriving with Judah's +head, freeing Gerard. Lamar shoots Angelique and she dies in Barnabas' +arms. Julia and Barnabas return to the present to find everything back +to normal, history had been changed. + That ends the normal storyline and characters for Dark Shadows. The +last plotline took place in the paralled time of 1841. Bramwell Collins +(played by Jonathan Frid) tries to convince Catherive to marry him +instead of Morgan Collins. Before Justin Collins dies he gives Morgan +a letter describing the curse on the family. Morgan is put in charge of +the lottery. A drawing to determine which of the family is to spend the +night in the cursed room. If they come out sane the curse is broken. +Bramwell abducts Catherine. It is discovered Melanie Collins has a +mental disorder. She discovers Stella Young being held captive in the +tower room, but Stella is stabbed and dies. With a memory loss Melanie +is not for sure if maybe she killed Stella. Morgan and Catherine +prepare to marry. Bramwell loses his duel with Morgan, wounded in the +process (he didnt fire his gun). Gerard Stiles and Kendrick Young find +the secret grave of Stella. The family is warned during a seance that +the lottery must take place. Melanie gets the plague. Gabriel Collins +is chosen to stay in the room but escapes from Collinwood. Quentin +comes down with the plague. Morgan returns Gabriel and he spends the +night in the room. The next morning Morgan discovers a villagers dead +body in the room in place of Gabriel. Justin's spirit warns the curse +isn't over. Having gone insane in the room Gabriel attacks Kendrick. +Bramwell tries to marry Catherine's sister Daphne but Catherine trys to +stop them, to no avail. Catherine is pregnant with Bramwell's child. +Catherine gets the next turn in the room but Morgan takes her place. He +comes out insane, possessed by James Forsythe, the man who placed the +curse on the family. The ghost of Brutus Collins haunts Morgan. +Kendrick discovers Melanie has a split personality. Catherine admits +she loves Bramwell and Daphne becomes suicidal. Julia is saved from +Morgan by Quentin. Forsythe's spirit reveals why he cursed the family. +Daphne gets an undiagnosable illness. Brutis ghost traps Morgan and +Julia in a secret corridor with two bodies. Morgan kills Gabriel. +Josette Collins, Bramwell's mother, reveals to Melanie that she and +Barnabas are her parents. Daphne dies. Melanie marries Kendrick but +goes insane. The lottery is held again and Kendrick draws the slip. +Morgan learns Catherine is pregnant. He traps Bramwell in the room and +adds Catherine when he finds out the child is Bramwell's. She is +temporarily possessed by Amanda Forsythe. Bramwell and Catherine banish +the Brutus' ghost and break the curse. Morgan wounds Bramwell and tries +to kill Catherine but Kendrick stops him. Melanie recovers. + Two bite marks are found on Melanie's neck. Ben comments there may +be a vampire around. However, the final voice over reveals that it was +merely a wild animal loss on the estate. So ends the original Dark +Shadows series. diff --git a/religious documents/dulltale.txt b/religious documents/dulltale.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5862a00 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/dulltale.txt @@ -0,0 +1,179 @@ +DULL TALES OF THE OCCULT + +by Morgain Blake + + + Sometimes I think that it's a real shame that witchcraft and Satanism don't +live up to their media image. Ah, the romance of those cavernous crypts lit +by massive black candles and filled with dizzying clouds of incense! Those +robed, chanting figures, those beautiful though damned maidens, those +magnificently choreographed circle dances and orgies! When will I taste the +mystic potion which sends the hypnotised heroine into such erotic and +transporting visions? Where are those ancient houses with secret passages +leading to paneled chambers with horrifying sights? How can I join those +beautiful people dancing to the strains of supernatural piping in a stone +circle under the full moon? + + Alas, scenes like these seem to exist mainly in movies and between the pages +of books. I've never seen anything like them in ten years of occult +experience, and friends with longer track records than mine seem to have +missed them as well. + + I once had the illuminating experience of giving a ride to a man who was +about to attend his first ritual with our group. When I came to his door and +introduced myself as the person his friend had persuaded to offer him +transport, his eyes widened. I don't know what he was expecting, but what he +got was an ordinary redhead in street clothes with a battered Chevy Nova +rattling in the driveway. He gathered up a bundle of clothes which looked as +though they had been through a number of revels at meetings of the Society for +Creative Anachronism and new-looking copies of BOTH _The Satanic Bible_ and +_The Spiral Dance_ by Starhawk, and followed me to my car, chattering +nervously. On the way to the house where the ritual was to be held, he told +me how important he was in the Society for Creative Anachronism; how his +powers had been revealed to him in a childhood vision and how successfully he +had been warding off a series of psychic attacks by his enemies. + + I suppose that I should not have been surprised when he didn't know how to +behave during the ritual and constantly had that "what do I do with my hands" +look which comes over people who are in totally new situations. However, I +was completely shocked when the ritual, which I considered to be beautiful and +highly moving (I had written it myself) bored him to tears. He cornered me in +the kitchen later while I was loading my plate with the usual sumptuous +after-ritual feast (six casseroles, two salads, five desserts and six kinds of +chips, washed down with Diet Pepsi and various strange-looking wines). "Are +your rituals always like this?" he asked plaintively. + + I shrugged. "Sometimes shorter, sometimes, longer, sometimes totally +unrestrained." + + He brightened. "Totally unrestrained?" + + "Yeah. You were lucky today. The High Priest kept his face straight all +the way through and Leon the punster didn't make any rude remarks. Sometimes +we end up laughing so hard we can't go on for five minutes." + + "Oh. Is there ever any sexual involvement?" + + "We save that for afterwards," I leered and carried my teetering plate over +to the sofa where my two favorite fellow-worshippers had been beckoning +lewdly to me. Poor Fred! The most excitement he got that night was watching +the more lecherous members of the group figure out ways to hug and nibble the +ears of all the women in the group while simultaneously demolishing the food +and managing not to miss any of "Star Trek". + + Needless to say, Fred never came back. + + Recalling Fred's first and only visit to a Real-live Magical Ritual makes +me realize that the so-called "occult experts" who appear on network and local +TV and speak to parent's groups across the nation are concealing two important +and horrible truths from the American Public. + + First of all, the experts have bought the legends hook, line and sinker. +They believe that we worship in those smoky crypts and god-haunted groves +instead of suburban living rooms and basements. They believe that we feast on +murdered infants instead of tuna noodle hot dish and walnut brownies, and that +we don't fill our chalices with Diet Pepsi, but with human blood. I have it +on the excellent authority of Frank Medina, a Wisconsin-based probation officer +who is one of the few REAL occult experts in the country, that it is not even +POSSIBLE to drink a cup of blood. The acrid, caustic properties of blood make +it much more likely that the drinker would dash off to the bathroom to be sick +or even to an emergency room to have his stomach pumped than that he would +rise up filled with fervor and praising Satan. However, the "experts" would +far rather believe in legend than in fact, and they desperately want to +conceal their lack of real evidence from their audiences. + + The second horrible truth that these stars of the Oprah Winfrey Show are +hiding from the American people is that most of the people who inhabit the +occult world are ordinary, normal, and yes, BORING. The High Priests and +Priestesses of satanic and wiccan covens across the nation are not pale, +glamorously dressed tempters and temptresses who sleep by day in the luxurious +homes maintained by their private fortunes, then rise as night to perform +unspeakable acts of horror and perversion. We are nurses, secretaries, waiters, +engineers, graphic designers, college teachers, soldiers, computer programmers, +security guards, and lawyers. + + Yes, Mr. and Mrs. Average American, we have infiltrated all walks of +American life. We might even (perish the thought) be living right next door +to you! How can you tell who we are so that you can protect your precious +pets, children and selves from us? Well, here are a few dead giveaways. + +1. Most of us are well-educated. I have seldom met a witch or a satanist who + does not at least have a bachelor's degree. Those who have not attended + or finished college have made up for it by voracious and eclectic reading + and seldom can be distinguished from their more-educated co-religionists. + +2. We have LOTS of books. Not all of those books, or even the majority of + them, will be on occult topics. Our bookshelves overflow with gardening + books, cookbooks, science fiction, mysteries, anthropology texts and even + romance novels. + +3. We have LOTS of pets. Many of us have at least one, and usually more than + one cat or dog or other cute little creature. Mysteriously, these pets + do not usually end their lives as blood sacrifices, but are cherished, + coddled and taken to the vet as often as pets raised in Christian + households. + +4. Not too many of us were raised without the benefits of "true religion". + A startling number of both satanists and witches were raised Catholic, and + most groups include former Lutherans, Baptists and even Jews. A + conventional religious background can even add to the fervor of our new + religious feelings, and it certainly adds to the rituals. Unless he has + a theatrical background, it is a sad sight to see a lifelong atheist or + agnostic conducting a ritual as High Priest--he usually won't have the + experience to perform without self-consciousness or with truth conviction + as a lapsed Christian can. + +5. Those occult people have funny names like Bob and Michael and Sue and + Delores. Certainly, you will find people named Morgain and Rhiannon and + Shadowdancer and Wolf, but you will also find that they generally revert + to their birth names outside of magical groups. + +6. They listen to a lot of music. Oddly enough, this is seldom heavy metal + or punk music with those vicious Satanic lyrics we've all been warned + against. Their record libraries generally contain a lot of folk music, + Beatles albums, New Age compact disks, and even jazz. They tend to + subscribe to public radio and TV stations. + +7. As mentioned before, they eat a lot. As many recipes are swapped after + occult rituals as after church services, and not just for guaranteed love + potions and remedies for charming off warts. + +8. People who are involved with the occult tend to be devoted followers of + "Star Trek". It is well known that almost all of the occult groups which + hold their meetings on the same night that "Star Trek" is shown in their + viewing area always finish their rituals in time to watch the show. The + reason for this is unknown. + +9. For some reason, a lot of the women have red hair. I once had to get up + at an occult conference and announce to the group that although Morgain, + Mairi, and Maura all had red hair and glasses, we were not the same person + and would appreciate it if people would bother to learn to distinguish us + rather than addressing us indiscriminately by each other's names. One + would perhaps think that there is a genetic predisposition for redheads to + go into magic were it not for the fact that most magical redheads dye + their hair! (Except for me, of course.) + +10. Satanists and Witches are devoted to the Constitution of the United + States, expecially the First Amendment which preserves their right to + worship as much as it does that of fundamentalists, Lutherans, Catholics, + Jews, Buddhists and Hindus. I once heard a fundamentalist at an "occult + seminar" reply to this argument that, except for the fundamentalists and + the Lutherans, the rest of the people in that list were all damned and + didn't deserve religious rights anyway. I wonder why the Lutherans were + OK? + + Now then, Mr. and Mrs. Average American, don't these dreadful and +threatening occult types sound an awful lot like you and your spouse? That +is, in fact, the most horrible truth which the modern witch-hunters are trying +to conceal from you. If everyone knew the truth, that being a satanist or +witch can be as ordinary and normal and boring as being a Presbyterian, then +the witch-hunters would be out of a job. Their mission would be unnecessary, +they would no longer be able to raise (and probably skim) funds, and they +themselves would become laughing stocks. + + Do you want the world to go on being deceived by the suppression of these +horrible truths? If not, then spread them, promulgate them, foment them! Let +the whole world know, and then maybe we can all get on with our lives in peace +and without fear. + + (c) Copyright 1989, 1990 by Morgain Blake. All rights reserved. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/earth.txt b/religious documents/earth.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb21ae1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/earth.txt @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +ab:earth.txt 16jan90 + + + Earth + + +Crone +Astrological Rulers: Venus, Saturn + +Keys: Law Principle, Solidity + Auriel ("Lord of Awe") +Rules: birth & death, body, growth, nature, stones & metals, material things, + caves, chasms, silence, graves, fields + Sanguine; Sensation; calm, imperturbable +Virtues: strength, endurance, commitment, responsibility, thoroughness, + practicality, wisdom, patience, sense of timing +Vices: dullness, lack of conscience, melancholy, boredom, inertia, stagnation, + hoarding of resources (including information) + +Yule & midnight +North, Boreas +Colour: green + +Symbols: oak, rock crystal, salt, bull or cow, stag, grains, comfrey, ivy +Tools: pentacle, altar stone (body of Anima Mundi) +Spirits: gnomes under Gob (friendly & easy to reach, teach access to own depths + & caverns & how to mine & work the vein of gold therein) + +Shortage: spaciness, hyper-activity, instability +Excess: body heaviness, general lack of energy, inertia, etc. + +Here follows the earth symbol, drawn (badly) in ascii--- + + + *************** + * * + * * + ********* + * * + * * + * * + * + + +---------- +-various sources including June Johns' "King of the Witches" (appendix), + Starhawk's "Spiral Dance", Ellen Cannon Reed's "Witches Qabala" and a + lovely pamphlet on the elements put out by Church of the Seven Arrows. +-putting elemental notes into the BOS (instead of in a Grimoire or in a set + of teaching notes) also appears to be Khaled's idea + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ecc-proc.txt b/religious documents/ecc-proc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..461652f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ecc-proc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ + ECCLESIASTICAL PROCLAMATION + + + + + +WHEREAS the beliefs on matters of death and resurrection are + especially promulgated during the weekend of the + First Sunday after the first full moon after the + Vernal Equinox, and + +WHEREAS these concepts are so closely tied by many in many + churches to ancient ceremonies of fertility and + symbolized by Bunnies and Eggs and other esoteric + symbols of rebirth and new life, and + +WHEREAS the promise of eternal life was extended to everyone + as far back as 1939 (or even earlier, to hear some + tell it) and that possibility is recognized by lots + of folks, and + +WHEREAS the Saturday prior to the Sunday mentioned above has + heretofore remained generally unclaimed, unnamed, and + uncelebrated, now, + + + + +THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Saturday before the First + Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal + Equinox be proclaimed and known as ELVIS SATURDAY + from this day forward, and be celebrated by the + faithful in joyous recognition of all Spring + Festivals associated with rebirth and fertility with + the eternal melodies of St. Elvis Aron Presley, who + lives forever in the eternal present. + + + + + Wherefore I have set my mark and caused to be + affixed the seal of the Church of Elvis ULC + on this 14th day of April, 1990. + + + + + + Bishop C.A.Jennings, D.D. + Saturday, April 14, 1990 + + ** Church of Elvis-P.O.Box 64575-Baton Rouge, LA 70896 ** diff --git a/religious documents/ecrit1.txt b/religious documents/ecrit1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d04570e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ecrit1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ + To: All Message #: 3802 + From: Paul Seymour Submitted: 04 Jun 91 13:45:00 + Subject: Ritual (Part 1 of 3) Status: Public +Received: No Group: METAPHYSICAL (35) + +MSGID: 1:301/9 620dc0fc + AN ECLECTIC CIRCLE CEREMONY + Durwydd MacTara, 1989-90 + PART ONE: + Preliminaries + +WATER : + + Blessings upon thee, O creature of water, I cast out from +thee all impurities and uncleanness of the spirits of phantasm, +confusion, or any other influence not for the free will of all. + +SALT : + + Blessings be upon this creature of salt; let all malignity +and hindrance be cast forth thencefrom, and let all good enter +therein. Wherefore I bless thee and invoke thee, that thou +mayest aid me. + +MIXING : + + I take this salt of the Earth, Blessed with the will of + Fire; I take this water of spirit,Exorcised with mind of +merit; + + I mix them with words of power, Dedicated to every Tower. + + By the power of moon and sun, + By the power of Spirit,earth and sea, + God and Goddess are part of One, + As I Will, so mote it be! + + CASTING OF THE CIRCLE + + I conjure thee, O circle of power, + As thou encircle every Tower. + That thou beest a place of Truth, Joy and love, + Encircling Flight of Eagle, Hawk and Dove. + Mighty Aegis of the Lady and Lord, + Rampart of thought, action and word. + To work in Peace, Powerful and Free, + Who walk between two worlds conjure thee; + A boundary to Protect, Concentrate and Contain, + That Power raised here be not in vain. + +Wherefore do I bless thee and consecrate thee, in the names of +Cernunnos and Aradia. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) +=-=-=-=-= diff --git a/religious documents/ecrit2.txt b/religious documents/ecrit2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cfb12f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ecrit2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ + To: All Message #: 3803 + From: Paul Seymour Submitted: 04 Jun 91 13:46:00 + Subject: Ritual (Part 2 of 3) Status: Public +Received: No Group: METAPHYSICAL (35) + +MSGID: 1:301/9 620dc52f + AN ECLECTIC CIRCLE CEREMONY + Durwydd MacTara, 1989-90 + PART TWO: + + SEALING OF THE CIRCLE + +(seal with water/salt mixture) + +With potion of earth and water, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking air and fire! +With potion of earth and air, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking fire with water! +With potion of earth,air,and fire, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking water with the Earth! + +As the four directions are brought to merge, +Let influence of the mighty ones converge! + +(Seal with Censer) + + With Incense and air of Mind, + East to South,I do Bind! + + With Incense and air of mind, + South to West, I do Bind! + + With Incense and air of Mind, + West to North, I do Bind! + + With Incense and air of Mind, + North to East Completion Find! + +(Seal with Candle) + + With the Fire of emotion and will + East to South, our dedication fulfill! + + With the Fire of veneration and Will, + South to West, our allegiance fulfill! + + With the Fire of Devotion and Will, + West to North, our consecration fulfill! + + With the Fire of Commitment and will, + From North to East, This inscription fulfill! + + Within the circle All wills be free, + The circle is sealed, So Mote it Be! + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) +=-=-=-=-= diff --git a/religious documents/ecrit3.txt b/religious documents/ecrit3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a22a2cb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ecrit3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ + To: All Message #: 3804 + From: Paul Seymour Submitted: 04 Jun 91 13:48:00 + Subject: Ritual (Part 3 of 3) Status: Public +Received: No Group: METAPHYSICAL (35) + +MSGID: 1:301/9 620dcada + SETTING THE WATCHTOWERS + + Ye Lords of the Eastern Tower, + Airy Lords of Spirit; + Let your influence of Power, + Aid our minds with merit! +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to +guard the circle. + + Ye Lords of Southern Power + Fiery Lords of Will. + Pray do grace your Tower, + Your Powers to fulfill! +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to +guard the circle. + + Ye Lords of the Watchtowers of the West, + Watery Lords of Death and Initiation; +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to +guard the Circle. + + Ye Northern Lords of the Earth, + Though we be yet but Mortals; + Bless our work with worth, + Boreas, guardian of Northern portals. +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to +guard the Circle. + + Goddess and God, I would know, + As 'tis above, so 'tis below + Blessings on this work, please bestow! + This be my will, true and free, + I do so will, so mote it be + + INVOCATION OF THE ELEMENTS + + Air, Fire, Water, Earth, + Elements of astral birth, + I call you now; attend to me! + In the Circle, rightly cast, + Safe from curse or blast, + I call you now, attend to me! + + From cave and desert,sea and hill, + By wand, blade,and pentacle, + I call you now, attend to me! + This Is my will, so mote it be! + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) +=-=-=-=-= diff --git a/religious documents/egypt.txt b/religious documents/egypt.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aaf485e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/egypt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4667 @@ + + 2401 BC + + THE PAPYRUS OF ANI + (THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD) + + Translated by E.A. Wallis Budge + + + + + + + + + +HYMN_TO_OSIRIS + HYMN TO OSIRIS +- + "Homage to thee, Osiris, Lord of eternity, King of the Gods, whose +names are manifold, whose forms are holy, thou being of hidden form in +the temples, whose Ka is holy. Thou art the governor of Tattu +(Busiris), and also the mighty one in Sekhem (Letopolis). Thou art the +Lord to whom praises are ascribed in the nome of Ati, thou art the +Prince of divine food in Anu. Thou art the Lord who is commemorated in +Maati, the Hidden Soul, the Lord of Qerrt (Elephantine), the Ruler +supreme in White Wall (Memphis). Thou art the Soul of Ra, his own +body, and hast thy place of rest in Henensu (Herakleopolis). Thou +art the beneficent one, and art praised in Nart. Thou makest thy +soul to be raised up. Thou art the Lord of the Great House in +Khemenu (Hermopolis). Thou art the mighty one of victories in +Shas-hetep, the Lord of eternity, the Governor of Abydos. The path +of his throne is in Ta-tcheser (a part of Abydos). Thy name is +established in the mouths of men. Thou art the substance of Two +Lands (Egypt). Thou art Tem, the feeder of Kau (Doubles), the Governor +of the Companies of the gods. Thou art the beneficent Spirit among the +spirits. The god of the Celestial Ocean (Nu) draweth from thee his +waters. Thou sendest forth the north wind at eventide, and breath from +thy nostrils to the satisfaction of thy heart. Thy heart reneweth +its youth, thou producest the.... The stars in the celestial heights +are obedient unto thee, and the great doors of the sky open themselves +before thee. Thou art he to whom praises are ascribed in the +southern heaven, and thanks are given for thee in the northern heaven. +The imperishable stars are under thy supervision, and the stars +which never set are thy thrones. Offerings appear before thee at the +decree of Keb. The Companies of the Gods praise thee, and the gods +of the Tuat (Other World) smell the earth in paying homage to thee. +The uttermost parts of the earth bow before thee, and the limits of +the skies entreat thee with supplications when they see thee. The holy +ones are overcome before thee, and all Egypt offereth thanksgiving +unto thee when it meeteth Thy Majesty. Thou art a shining Spirit-Body, +the governor of Spirit-Bodies; permanent is thy rank, established is +thy rule. Thou art the well-doing Sekhem (Power) of the Company of the +Gods, gracious is thy face, and beloved by him that seeth it. Thy fear +is set in all the lands by reason of thy perfect love, and they cry +out to thy name making it the first of names, and all people make +offerings to thee. Thou art the lord who art commemorated in heaven +and upon earth. Many are the cries which are made to thee at the Uak +festival, and with one heart and voice Egypt raiseth cries of joy to +thee. + "Thou art the Great Chief, the first among thy brethren, the +Prince of the Company of the Gods, the stablisher of Right and Truth +throughout the World, the Son who was set on the great throne of his +father Keb. Thou art the beloved of thy mother Nut, the mighty one +of valour, who overthrew the Sebau-fiend. Thou didst stand up and +smite thine enemy, and set thy fear in thine adversary. Thou dost +bring the boundaries of the mountains. Thy heart is fixed, thy legs +are set firm. Thou art the heir of Keb and of the sovereignty of the +Two Lands (Egypt). He (Keb) hath seen his splendours, he hath +decreed for him the guidance of the world by thy hand as long as times +endure. Thou hast made this earth with thy hand, and the waters, and +the winds, and the vegetation, and all the cattle, and all the +feathered fowl, and all the fish, and all the creeping things, and all +the wild animals therof. The desert is the lawful possession of the +son of Nut. The Two Lands (Egypt) are content to crown thee upon the +throne of thy father, like Ra. + "Thou rollest up into the horizon, thou hast set light over the +darkness, thou sendest forth air from thy plumes, and thou floodest +the Two Lands like the Disk at daybreak. Thy crown penetrateth the +height of heaven, thou art the companion of the stars, and the guide +of every god. Thou art beneficent in decree and speech, the favoured +one of the Great Company of the Gods, and the beloved of the Little +Company of the Gods. + His sister [Isis] hath protected him, and hath repulsed the +fiends, and turned aside calamities (of evil). She uttered the spell +with the magical power of her mouth. Her tongue was perfect, and it +never halted at a word. Beneficent in command and word was Isis, the +woman of magical spells, the advocate of her brother. She sought him +untiringly, she wandered round and round about this earth in sorrow, +and she alighted not without finding him. She made light with her +feathers, she created air with her wings, and she uttered the death +wail for her brother. She raised up the inactive members of whose +heart was still, she drew from him his essence, she made an heir, +she reared the child in loneliness, and the place where he was not +known, and he grew in strength and stature, and his hand was mighty in +the House of Keb. The Company of the Gods rejoiced, rejoiced, at the +coming of Horus, the son of Osiris, whose heart was firm, the +triumphant, the son of Isis, the heir of Osiris." + +REFERENCES + REFERENCES +- + Following is a list of frequently-mentioned geographical +locations, and their commonly-known names: + Abtu Abydos + Abu Elephantine + Anu Heliopolis + Bast Bubastis + {REFERENCES ^paragraph 5} + Hensu Herakleopolis + Het-ka-Ptah Memphis + Khemenu Hermopolis + Per-Menu Panopolis + Qerrt Elephantine + {REFERENCES ^paragraph 10} + Sau Sais + Sekhem Letopolis + Suat Asyut + Tetu Busiris + Two Lands Upper and Lower Egypt + {REFERENCES ^paragraph 15} + Unu Hermopolis + +HYMN_TO_RA_THE_SUN_GOD +- + A HYMN OF PRAISE TO RA WHEN HE RISETH IN THE EASTERN PART OF HEAVEN: +Behold, the Osiris Ani, the scribe of the holy offerings of all the +gods, saith: Homage to thee, O thou who hast come as Khepera, +Khepera the creator of the gods, Thou art seated on thy throne, thou +risest up in the sky, illumining thy mother [Nut], thou art seated +on thy throne as the king of the gods. [Thy] mother Nut stretcheth out +her hands, and performeth an act of homage to thee. The domain of Manu +receiveth thee with satisfaction. The goddess Maat embraceth thee at +the two seasons of the day. May Ra give glory, and power, and +thruth-speaking, and the appearance as a living soul so that he may +gaze upon Heru-khuti, to the KA of the Osiris the Scribe Ani, who +speaketh truth before Osiris, and who saith: Hail, O all ye gods of +the House of the Soul, who weigh heaven and earth in a balance, and +who give celestial food [to the dead]. Hail, Tatun, [who art] One, +thou creator of mortals [and] of the Companies of the Gods of the +South and of the North, of the West and of the East, ascribe ye praise +to Ra, the lord of heaven, the KING, Life, Strength, and Health, the +maker of the gods. Give ye thanks unto him in his beneficent form +which is enthroned in the Atett Boat; beings celestial praise thee, +beings terrestial praise thee. Thoth and the goddess Maat mark out thy +course for thee day by day and every day. Thine enemy the Serpent hath +been given over to the fire. The Serpent-fiend Sebau hath fallen +headlong, his forelegs are bound in chains, and his hind legs hath +Ra carried away from him. The Sons of Revolt shall never more rise up. +The House of the Aged One keepeth festival, and the voices of those +who make merry are in the Great Place. The gods rejoice when they +see Ra crowned upon his throne, and when his beams flood the world +with light. The majesty of this holy god setteth out on his journey, +and he goeth onwards until he reacheth the land of Manu; the earth +becometh light at his birth each day; he proceedeth until he +reacheth the place where he was yesterday. O be thou at peace with me. +Let me gaze upon thy beauties. Let me journey above the earth. Let +me smite the Ass. Let me slit asunder the Serpent-fiend Sebau. Let +me destroy Aepep at the moment of his greatest power. Let me behold +the Abtu Fish at his season, and the Ant Fish with the Ant Boat as +it piloteth it in its lake. Let me behold Horus when he is in charge +of the rudder [of the Boat of Ra], with Thoth and the goddess Maat +on each side of him. Let me lay hold of the tow-rope of the Sektet +Boat, and the rope at the stern of the Matett Boat. Let Ra grant to me +a view of the Disk (the Sun), and a sight of Ah (the Moon) unfailingly +each day. Let my Ba-soul come forth to walk about hither and thither +and whithersoever it pleaseth. Let my name be called out, let it be +found inscribed on the tablet which recordeth the names of those who +are to receive offerings. Let meals from the sepulchral offerings be +given to me in the presence [of Osiris], as to those who are in the +following of Horus. Let there be prepared for me a seat in the Boat of +the Sun on the day wheron the god saileth. Let me be received in the +presence of Osiris in the Land of Truth-speaking- the Ka of Osiris +Ani. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nekht, Brit. Mus. No. 10471, Sheet 21) +- + NEKHT, THE CAPTAIN OF SOLDIERS, THE ROYAL SCRIBE, SINGETH A HYMN +OF PRAISE TO RA, and saith:- Homage to thee, O thou glorious Being, +thou who art dowered [with all sovereignty]. O Tem-Heru-Khuti +(Tem-Harmakhis), when thou risest in the horizon of heaven a cry of +joy goeth forth to thee from all people. O thou beautiful Being, +thou dost renew thyself in thy season in the form of the Disk, +within thy mother Hathor. Therefore in every place every heart +swelleth with joy at thy rising for ever. The regions of the South and +the North come to thee with homage, and send forth acclamations at thy +rising on the horizon of heaven, and thou illuminest the Two Lands +with rays of turquoise-[coloured] light. O Ra, who art Heru-Khuti, the +divine man-child, the heir of eternity, self-begotten and self-born, +king of the earth, prince of the Tuat (the Other World), governor of +Aukert, thou didst come from the Water-god, thou didst spring from the +Sky-god Nu, who doth cherish thee and order thy members. O thou god of +life, thou lord of love, all men live when thou shinest; thou art +crowned king of the gods. The goddess Nut embraceth thee, and the +goddess Mut enfoldeth thee at all seasons. Those who are in thy +following sing unto thee with joy, and they bow down their foreheads +to the earth when they meet thee, the lord of heaven, the lord of +the earth, the King of Truth, the lord of eternity, the prince of +everlastingness, thou sovereign of all the gods, thou god of life, +thou creator of eternity, thou maker of heaven wherin thou art +firmly stablished. + The Company of the Gods rejoice at thy rising, the earth is glad +when it beholdeth thy rays; the people who have been long dead come +forth with cries of joy to behold thy beauties every day. Thou goest +forth each day over heaven and earth, and thou art made strong each +day be thy mother Nut. Thou passest over the heights of heaven, thy +heart swelleth with joy; and the Lake of Testes (the Great Oasis) is +content thereat. The Serpent-fiend hath fallen, his arms are hewn off, +the Knife hath severed his joints. Ra liveth by Maat (Law), the +beautiful! The Sektet Boat advanceth and cometh into port. The South +and the North, and the West and East, turn to praise thee. O thou +First, Great God (PAUTA), who didst come into being of thine own +accord, Isis and Nephthys salute thee, they sing unto thee songs of +joy at thy rising in the boat, they stretch out their hands unto thee. +The Souls of the East follow thee, and the Souls of the West praise +thee. Thou art the Ruler of all the gods. Thou in thy shrine hast joy, +for the Serpent-fiend Nak hath been judged by the fire, and thy +heart shall rejoice for ever. Thy mother Nut is esteemed by thy father +Nu. + +HYMN_TO_OSIRIS_UN_NEFER + HYMN TO OSIRIS UN-NEFER +- + A Hymn of Praise to Osiris Un-Nefer, the great god who dwelleth in +Abtu, the king of eternity, the lord of everlastingness, who +traverseth millions of years in his existence. Thou art the eldest son +of the womb of Nut. Thou was begotten by Keb, the Erpat. Thou art +the lord of the Urrt Crown. Thou art he whose White Crown is lofty. +Thou art the King (Ati) of gods [and] men. Thou hast gained possession +of the sceptre of rule, and the whip, and the rank and dignity of +thy divine fathers. Thy heart is expanded with joy, O thou who art +in the kingdom of the dead. Thy son Horus is firmly placed on thy +throne. Thou hast ascended thy throne as the Lord of Tetu, and as +the Heq who dwelleth in Abydos. Thou makest the Two Lands to +flourish through Truth-speaking, in the presence of him who is the +Lord to the Uttermost Limit. Thou drawest on that which hath not yet +come into being in thy name of "Ta-her-sta-nef." Thou governest the +Two Lands by Maat in thy name of "Seker." Thy power is wide-spread, +thou art he of whom the fear is great in thy name of "Usar" (or +"Asar"). Thy existence endureth for an infinite number of double henti +periods in thy name of "Un-Nefer." + Homage to thee, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and Prince of +Princes. Thou hast ruled the Two Lands from the womb of the goddess +Nut. Thou hast governed the Lands of Akert. Thy members are of +silver-gold, thy head is of lapis-lazuli, and the crown of thy head is +of turquoise. Thou art An of millions of years. Thy body is all +pervading, O Beautiful Face in Ta-tchesert. Grant thou to me glory +in heaven, and power upon earth, and truth-speaking in the Divine +Underworld, and [the power to] sail down the river to Tetu in the form +of a living Ba-soul, and [the power to] sail up the river to Abydos in +the form of a Benu bird, and [the power to] pass in through and to +pass out from, without obstruction, the doors of the lords of the +Tuat. Let there be given unto me bread-cakes in the House of +Refreshing, and sepulchral offerings of cakes and ale, and +propitiatory offerings in Anu, and a permanent homestead in +Sekhet-Aaru, with wheat and barley therein- to the Double of the +Osiris, the scribe Ani. + +COMING_FORTH_BY_DAY + THE CHAPTERS OF COMING FORTH BY DAY +- + HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF COMING FORTH BY DAY, AND THE SONGS OF +PRAISING AND GLORIFYING WHICH ARE TO BE RECITED FOR "COMING FORTH" AND +FOR ENTERING INTO KHERT-NETER, AND THE SPELLS WHICH ARE TO BE SAID +IN BEAUTIFUL AMENTET. THEY SHALL BE RECITED ON THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL, +ENTERING IN AFTER COMING FORTH. +- + The Osiris Ani, the Osiris the scribe Ani saith:- Homage to thee, +O Bull of Amentet, Thoth the king of eternity is with me. I am the +great god by the side of the divine boat, I have fought for thee, I am +one of those gods, those divine chiefs, who proved the +truth-speaking of Osiris before his enemies on the day of the weighing +of words. I am thy kinsman Osiris. I am [one of] those gods who were +the children of the goddess Nut, who hacked in pieces the enemies of +Osiris, and who bound in fetters the legion of Sebau devils on his +behalf. I am thy kinsman Horus, I have fought on thy behalf, I have +come to thee for thy name's sake. I am Thoth who proved the truth of +the words of Osiris before his enemies on the day of the weighing of +words in the great House of the Prince, who dwelleth in Anu. I am +Teti, the son of Teti. My mother conceived me in Tetu, and gave +birth to me in Tetu. I am with the mourners [and with] the women who +tear out their hair and make lament for Osiris in Taui-Rekhti, proving +true the words of Osiris before his enemies. Ra commanded Thoth to +prove true the words of Osiris before his enemies; what was +commanded [for Osiris], let that be done for me by Thoth. I am with +Horus on the day of dressing Teshtesh. I open the hidden water-springs +for the ablutions of Urt-ab. I unbolt the door of the Shetait Shrine +in Ra-stau. I am with Horus as the protector of the left shoulder of +Osiris, the dweller in Sekhem. I enter in among and I come forth +from the Flame-gods on the day of the destruction of the Sebau +fiends in Sekhem. I am with Horus on the day[s] of the festivals of +Osiris, at the making of offerings and oblations, namely, on the +festival which is celebrated on the sixth day of the month, and on the +day of the Tenat festival in Anu. I am the UAB priest (libationer) +in Tetu, Rera, the dweller in Per-Asar. I exalt him that is upon the +high place of the country. I look upon the hidden things (the +mysteries) in Ra-stau. I recite the words of the liturgy of the +festival of the Soul-god in Tetu. I am the SEM priest, and [perform] +his duties. I am the UR-KHERP-HEM priest on the day of placing the +Henu Boat of Seker upon its divine sledge. I have taken in my hand the +digging tool on the day of digging up the earth in Hensu. + Hail, O ye who make perfect souls to enter into the House of Osiris, +make ye the well-instructed soul of the Osiris the scribe Ani, whose +word is true, to enter in and to be with you in the House of Osiris. +Let him hear even as ye hear; let him have sight even as ye have +sight; let him stand up even as ye stand up; let him take his seat +even as ye take your seats. + Hail, O ye who give cakes and ale to perfect souls in the House of +Osiris, give ye cakes and ale twice each day (in the morning and in +the evening) to the soul of the Osiris Ani, whose word is true +before the gods, the Lords of Abydos, and whose word is true with you. + {COMING_FORTH_BY_DAY ^paragraph 5} + Hail, O ye who open up the way, who act as guides to the roads [in +the Other World] to perfect souls in the House of Osiris, open ye up +for him the way, and act ye as guides to the roads to the soul of +the Osiris, the scribe, the registrary of all the offerings made to +the gods, Ani, [whose word is true] with you. May he enter the House +of Osiris with boldness, and may he come forth therefrom in peace. May +there be no opposition made to him, and may he not be sent back +[therefrom]. May he enter in under favour [of Osiris], and may he come +forth gratified [at the acceptance of] his true words. May his +commands be performed in the House of Osiris, may his words travel +with you, may he be glorious as ye are. May he be not found to be +light in the Balance, may the Balance dispose of his case. +- +- + (In the Turin Papyrus, ed. Lepsius, this Chapter ends with the +following.) +- + Permit thou not me to be judged according to the mouths of the +multitude. May my soul lift itself up before [Osiris], having been +found to have been pure when on earth. May I come into thy presence, O +Lord of the gods; may I arrive at the Nome of Maati (Truth); may I +rise up on my seat like a god endowed with life; may I give forth +light like the Company of the Gods who dwell in heaven; may I become +like one of you; may I lift up my footsteps in the town of Kher-Aha; +may I look upon the Sektet Boat of the god, Saah, the holy one, as +it passeth across the sky; may I not be repulsed; may I look upon +the Lords of the Tuat, or, according to another reading, the Company +of the Gods; may I smell the savour of the divine food of the +Company of the Gods; may I sit down with them; may my name be +proclaimed for offerings by the KHER-HEB priest at the sacrificial +table; may I hear the petitions which are made when offerings are +presented; may I draw nigh unto the Neshem Boat; and may neither my +Heart-soul nor its lord be repulsed. + {COMING_FORTH_BY_DAY ^paragraph 10} + Homage to thee, O Chief of Amentet, thou god Osiris, who dwellest in +the town of Nifu-ur. Grant thou that I may arrive in peace in Amentet. +May the Lords of Ta-Tchesert receive me, and may they say unto me: +"Hail, hail; welcome, welcome!" May they make ready for me a seat by +the side of the President of the Chiefs; may the Nursing-goddesses +receive me at the seasons, and may I come forth into the presence of +Un-Nefer true of word. May I be a Follower of Horus in Ra-stau, and of +Osiris in Tetu; and may I perform all the transformations which my +heart may desire to make in every place wherein my Double (KA) wisheth +to be. +- + RUBRIC: If this text be known [by the deceased] upon earth or if +he causeth it to be done in writing upon [his] coffin, then will he be +able to come forth on any day he pleaseth, and to enter into his +habitation unrepulsed. Cakes and ale and joints of meat from those +which are on the altar of Ra shall be given unto him, and his +homestead shall be among the fields of the Field of Reeds +(Sekhet-Aaru), and wheat and barley shall be given unto him therein, +and he shall flourish there even as he flourished upon earth. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nekhtu-Amen, ed. Naville, I, 5) +- + THE CHAPTER OF MAKING THE SAHU TO ENTER THE TUAT ON THE DAY OF THE +FUNERAL, WHEN THE FOLLOWING WORDS ARE TO BE SAID: Homage to thee, O +thou who dwellest in the Holy Hill (Set-Tchesert) of Amentet! the +Osiris, the royal scribe, Nekhtu-Amen, whose word is true, knoweth +thee, he knoweth thy name. Deliver thou him from the worms which are +in Ra-stau, which live upon the bodies of men and women, and feed upon +their blood, for Osiris, the favoured servant of the god of his +city, the royal scribe Nekhtu-Amen, knoweth you, and he knoweth your +names. Let the order for his protection be the first command of +Osiris, the Lord to the Uttermost Limit, who keepeth his body +hidden. May he give him release from the Terrible One who dwelleth +at the bend of the River of Amentet, and may he decree the acts that +will make him to rise up. Let him pass on to him whose throne is +placed within the darkness, who giveth light in Ra-stau. O thou Lord +of Light, come thou and swallow up the worms which are in Amentet. Let +the Great God who dwelleth in Tetu, and who is himself unseen, hear +his prayers, and let those who cause afflictions hold him in fear as +he cometh forth with the sentence of their doom to the Divine Block. I +the Osiris, the royal scribe, Nekhtu-Amen, come, bearing the decree of +Neb-er-tcher, and I am the Horus who taketh possession of his throne +for him. His father, the lord of all those who are in the Boat of +his Father Horus, hath ascribed praise unto him. He cometh bearing +tidings....... let him see the town of Anu. Their chief shall stand on +the earth before him, the scribes shall magnify him at the doors of +their assemblies, and thy shall swathe im with swathings in Anu. He +hath led heaven captive, and he hath seized the earth in his grasp. +Neither the heavens nor the earth can be taken away from him, for, +behold, he is Ra, the firstborn of the gods. His mother shall nurse +him, and shall give him her breast on the horizon. +- + RUBRIC: The words of this Chapter shall be said after [the deceased] +is laid to rest in Amentet; by means of them the region Tenn-t shall +be contented with her lord. And the Osiris, the royal scribe, +Nekhtu-Amen, whose word is truth, shall come forth, and he shall +embark in the Boat of Ra, and [his] body upon its bier shall be +counted up, and he shall be established in the Tuat. + +GIVING_A_MOUTH_TO_ANI +- + THE CHAPTER OF GIVING A MOUTH TO THE OSIRIS ANI, THE SCRIBE, AND +TELLER OF THE OFFERINGS WHICH ARE MADE TO ALL THE GODS, WHOSE WORD +IS TRUE, WHO SAITH:- I rise up out of the Egg in the Hidden Land. +May my mouth be given unto me that I may speak therewith in the +presence of the Great God, the Lord of the Tuat. Let not my hand and +my arm be repulsed in the presence of the Chiefs (Tchatchau) of any +god. I am Osiris, the Lord of Ra-stau. May I, the Osiris, the scribe +Ani, whose word is true, have my portion with him who is on the top of +the Steps (Osiris). According to the desire of my heart I have come +forth from the Island of Nesersert, and I have extinguished the fire. + +GIVING_A_MOUTH_TO_ANI|APPENDIX + APPENDIX + [The following passage is taken from the Saite Recension] +- + [THE CHAPTER OF GIVING A MOUTH TO THE OSIRIS, THE SCRIBE ANI, WHO +SAITH]:- Homage to thee, O thou lord of brightness, Governor of the +Temple, Prince of the night and of the thick darkness. I have come +unto thee. I am shining, I am pure. My hands are about thee, thou hast +thy lot with thy ancestors. Give thou unto me my mouth that I may +speak with it. I guide my heart at its season of flame and of night. +- + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known by the Osiris the scribe Ani, +upon earth, [or if it be done] in writing upon [his] coffin, he +shall come forth by day in every form which he pleaseth, and he +shall enter into [his] abode, and shall not be repulsed. And cakes, +and ale, and joints of meat [from those which are on] the altar of +Osiris shall be given unto him; and he shall enter in peace into +Sekhet-Aaru, conformably to the decree of the Dweller in Busiris. +Wheat and barley (dhura) shall be given unto him therein, and he shall +flourish there just as he did upon earth; and he shall do whatsoever +it pleaseth him to do, even as do the Company of the Gods who are in +the Tuat, regularly and continually, for millions of times. +- +- + {GIVING_A_MOUTH_TO_ANI|APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} + (From the Paprys of Nebseni, Sheet 3) +- + THE CHAPTER OF COMING FORTH BY DAY AND OF OPENING UP A WAY THROUGH +THE AMEHET: Behold, the scribe Nebseni, whose word is truth, saith:- +Homage to you, O ye Lords of Kau, ye who are without sin, and who live +for the endless and infinite aeons of time which make up eternity. I +have opened up a way for myself to you. I have become a spirit in my +forms, I have gotten the mastery over my words of magical power, and I +am adjudged a spirit; therefore deliver ye me from the Crocodile +[which liveth in] this Country of Truth. Grant ye to me my mouth +that I may speak therewith, and cause ye that sepulchral offerings +shall be made unto me in your presence, for I know you, and I know +your names, and I know also the name of the mighty god before whose +face ye set your celestial food. His name is "Tekem." [When] he +openeth up his path on the eastern horizon of heaven, [when] he +alighteth towards the western horizon of heaven, may he carry me along +with him, and may I be safe and sound. Let not the Mesqet make an +end of me, let not the Fiend (Sebau) gain the mastery over me, let +me not be driven away from the doors of the Other World, let not you +doors be shut in my face, for my cakes are in the city of Pe, and my +ale is in the city of Tep. And there, in the celestial mansions of +heaven which my divine father Tem hath stablished, let my hands lay +hold upon the wheat and the barley, which shall be given unto me +therein in abundant measure, and may the son of my own body make ready +for me my food therein. And grant ye unto me when I am there +sepulchral meals, and incense, and unguents, and all the pure and +beautiful things whereon the god liveth, in every deed for ever, in +all the transformations which it pleaseth me [to perform], and grant +unto me the power to float down and to sail up the stream in the Field +of Reeds (Sekhet-Aaru), [and may I reach Sekhet-hetepet (the Field +of Offerings)]. I am the twin Lion-gods (Shu and Tefnut). + +WEIGHING_OF_THE_HEART_OF_ANI + TEXTS RELATING TO THE WEIGHING OF THE HEART OF ANI +- + THE NAMES OF THE GODS OF THE GREAT COMPANY:- 1. Ra Harmakhis, the +Great God in his boat. 2. Temu. 3. Shu. 4. Tefnut. 5. Keb. 6. Nut, the +Lady of Heaven. 7. Isis. 8. Nephthys. 9. Horus, the Great God. 10. +Hathor, Lady of Amentet. 11. Hu. 12. Sa. +- + THE PRAYER OF ANI:- My heart, my mother; my heart, my mother! My +heart whereby I came into being! May nought stand up to oppose me at +[my] judgment, may there be no opposition to me in the presence of the +Chiefs (Tchatchau); may there be no parting of thee from me in the +presence of him that keepeth the Balance! Thou art my KA, which +dwelleth in my body; the god Khnemu who knitteth together and +strengtheneth my limbs. Mayest thou come forth into the place of +happiness whither we go. May the Sheniu officials, who make the +conditions of the lives of men, not cause my name to stink, and may no +lies be spoken against me in the presence of the God. [Let it be +satisfactory unto us, and let the Listener god be favourable unto +us, and let there be joy of heart (to us) at the weighing of words. +Let not that which is false be uttered against me before the Great +God, the Lord of Amentet. Verily, how great shalt thou be when thou +risest in triumph.] +- + THE SPEECH OF THOTH:- Thoth, the judge of right and truth of the +Great Company of the Gods who are in the presence of Osiris, saith: +Hear ye this judgment. The heart of Osiris hath in very truth been +weighed, and his Heart-soul hath borne testimony on his behalf; his +heart hath been found right by the trial in the Great Balance. There +hath not been found any wickedness in him; he hath not wasted the +offerings which have been made in the temples; he hath not committed +any evil act; and he hath not set his mouth in motion with words of +evil whilst he was upon earth. + {WEIGHING_OF_THE_HEART_OF_ANI ^paragraph 5} +- + SPEECH OF THE DWELLER IN THE EMBALMMENT CHAMBER (ANUBIS):- Pay +good heed, O righteous Judge to the Balance to support [the testimony] +thereof. Variant: Pay good heed to the weighing in the Balance of +the heart of the Osiris, the singing-woman of Amen, Anhai, whose +word is truth, and place thou her heart in the seat of truth in the +presence of the Great God. +- + THE SPEECH OF THE GODS:- The Great Company of the Gods say to +Thoth who dwelleth in Khemenu: That which cometh forth from thy +mouth shall be declared true. The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is +true, is holy and righteous. He hath not committed any sin, and he +hath done no evil against us. The devourer Am-mit shall not be +permitted to prevail over him. Meat offerings and admittance into +the presence of the god Osiris shall be granted unto him, together +with an abiding habitation in the Field of Offerings (Sekhet-hetepet), +as unto the Followers of Horus. +- + {WEIGHING_OF_THE_HEART_OF_ANI ^paragraph 10} + THE SPEECH OF HORUS TO OSIRIS IN INTRODUCING ANI TO HIM:- Horus, the +son of Isis, saith: I have come to thee, O Un-Nefer, and I have +brought unto thee the Osiris Ani. His heart is righteous, and it +hath come forth from the Balance; it hath not sinned against any god +or any goddess. Thoth hath weighed it according to the decree +pronounced unto him by the Company of the Gods, and it is most true +and righteous. Grant thou that cakes and ale may be given unto him, +and let him appear in the presence of the god Osiris, and let him be +like unto the Followers of Horus for ever and ever. +- + THE SPEECH OF ANI:- And the Osiris Ani saith: Behold, I am in thy +presence, O Lord of Amentet. There is no sin in my body. I have not +spoken that which is not true knowingly, nor have I done anything with +a false heart. Grant thou that I may be like unto those favoured +ones who are in thy following, and that I may be an Osiris greatly +favoured of the beautiful god, and beloved of the Lord of the Two +Lands, I who am a veritable royal scribe who loveth thee, Ani, whose +word is true before the god Osiris. +- + DESCRIPTION OF THE BEAST AM-MIT:- Her forepart is like that of a +crocodile, the middle of her body is like that of a lion, her hind +quarters are like those of a hippopotamus. + +PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS +- + HERE BEGIN THE PRAISES AND GLORIFYINGS OF COMING OUT FROM AND OF +GOING INTO THE GLORIOUS KHERT-NETER, WHICH IS IN THE BEAUTIFUL +AMENTET, OF COMING FORTH BY DAY IN ALL THE FORMS OF EXISTENCE WHICH IT +MAY PLEASE THE DECEASED TO TAKE, OF PLAYING AT DRAUGHTS, OF SITTING IN +THE SEH HALL, AND OF APPEARING AS A LIVING SOUL: + The Osiris the scribe Ani saith after he hath arrived in his haven +of rest- now it is good for [a man] to recite [this work whilst he is] +upon earth, for then all the words of Tem come to pass- +- + "I am the god Tem in rising. I am the Only One. I came into +existence in Nu. I am Ra who rose in the beginning, the ruler of +this [creation]." +- + Who is this? + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 5} +- + "It is Ra, when at the beginning he rose in the city of Hensu, +crowned like a king for his coronation. The Pillars of the god Shu +were not as yet created, when he was upon the steps of him that +dwelleth in Khemenu. + "I am the Great God who created himself, even Nu, who made his names +to become the Company of the Gods as gods." +- + Who is this? + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 10} +- + "It is Ra, the creator of the names of his limbs, which came into +being in the form of the gods who are in the train of Ra. + "I am he who cannot be repulsed among the gods." +- + Who is this? + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 15} +- + "It is Temu, the dweller in his disk, but others say that it is Ra +when he riseth in the eastern horizon of the sky. + "I am Yesterday, I know To-day." +- + Who is this? + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 20} +- + "Yesterday is Osiris, and To-day is Ra, when he shall destroy the +enemies of Neb-er-tcher (the lord to the uttermost limit), and when he +shall establish as prince and ruler his son Horus. + "Others, however, say that To-day is Ra, on the day when we +commemorate the festival of the meeting of the dead Osiris with his +father Ra, and when the battle of the gods was fought, in which +Osiris, the Lord of Amentet, was the leader." +- + What is this? + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 25} +- + "It is Amentet, [that is to say] the creation ofthe souls of the +gods when Osiris was leader in Set-Amentet. + "Others, however, say that it is the Amentet which Ra hath given +unto me; when any god cometh he must rise up and fight for it. + "I know the god who dwelleth therein." +- + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 30} + Who is this? +- + "It is Osiris. Others, however, say that his name is Ra, and that +the god who dwelleth in Amentet is the phallus of Ra, wherewith he had +union with himself. + "I am the Benu bird which is in Anu. I am the keeper of the volume +of the book (the Tablet of Destiny) of the things which have been +made, and of the things which shall be made." +- + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 35} + Who is this? +- + "It is Osiris. + "Others, however, say that it is the dead body of Osiris, and yet +others say that it is the excrement of Osiris. The things which have +been made, and the things which shall be made [refer to] the dead body +of Osiris. Others again say that the things which have been made are +Eternity, and the things which shall be made are Everlastingness, +and that Eternity is the Day, and Everlastingness the Night. + "I am the god Menu in his coming forth; may his two plumes be set on +my head for me." + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 40} +- + Who is this? +- + "Menu is Horis, the Advocate of his father [Osiris], and his +coming forth means his birth. The two plumes on his head are Isis +and Nephthys, when these goddesses go forth and set themselves +thereon, and when they act as his protectors, and when they provide +that which his head lacketh. + "Others, however, say that the two plumes are the two exceedingly +large uraei which are upon the head of their father Tem, and there are +yet others who say that the two plumes which are upon the head of Menu +are his two eyes. + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 45} + "The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is true, the registrar of all +the offerings which are made to the gods, riseth up and cometh into +his city." +- + What is this [city]? +- + "It is the horizon of his father Tem. + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 50} + "I have made an end of my shortcomings, and I have put away my +faults." +- + What is this? +- + "It is the cutting of the navel string of the body of the Osiris the +scribe Ani, whose word is true before all the gods, and all his faults +are driven out. + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 55} +- + What is this ? +- + "It is the purification [of Osiris] on the day of his birth. + "I am purified in my great double nest which is in Hensu on the +day of the offerings of the followers of the Great God who dwelleth +therein." + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 60} +- + What is the "great double nest"? +- + "The name of one nest is 'Millions of years,' and 'Great Green +[Sea]' is the name of the other, that is to say 'Lake of Natron' and +'Lake of Salt.' + "Others, however, say the name of the one is 'Guide of Millions of +Years,' and that 'Great Green Lake' is name of the other. Yet others +say that 'Begetter of Millions of Years' is the name of one, and +'Great Green Lake' is the name of the other. Now, as concerning the +Great God who dwelleth therein, it is Ra himself. + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 65} + "I pass over the way, I know the head of the Island of Maati." +- + What is this? +- + "It is Ra-stau, that is to say, it is the gate to the South of +Nerutef, and it is the Northern Gate of the Domain (Tomb of the god). + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 70} + "Now, as concerning the Island of Maati, it is Abtu. + "Others, however, say that it is the way by which Father Tem +travelleth when he goeth forth to Sekhet-Aaru, [the place] which +produceth the food and sustenance of the gods who are [in] their +shrines. + "Now the Gate Tchesert is the Gate of the Pillars of Shu, that is to +say, the Northern Gate of the Tuat. + "Others, however, say that the Gate of Tchesert is the two leaves of +the door through which the god Tem passeth when he goeth forth to +the eastern horizon of the sky. + "O ye gods who are in the presence [of Osiris], grant to me your +arms, for I am the god who shall come into being among you." + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 75} +- + Who are these gods? +- + "They are the drops of blood which came forth from the phallus of Ra +when he went forth to perform his own mutilitation. These drops of +blood sprang into being under the forms of the gods Hu and Sa, who are +in the bodyguard of Ra, and who accompany the god Tem daily and +every day. + "I, Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, have filled for thee +the utchat (the Eye of Ra, or of Horus), when it had suffered +extinction on the day of the combat of the Two Fighters (Horus and +Set)." + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 80} +- + What was this combat? +- + It was the combat which took place on the day when Horus fought with +Set, during which Set threw filth in the face of Horus, and Horus +crushed the genitals of Set. The filling of the utchat Thoth performed +with his own fingers. + "I remove the thunder-cloud from the sky when there is a storm +with thunder and lightning therein." + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 85} +- + What is this? +- + "This storm was the raging of Ra at the thunder-cloud which [Set] +sent forth against the Right Eye of Ra (the Sun). Thoth removed the +thunder-cloud from the Eye of Ra, and brought back the Eye living, +healthy, sound, and with no defect in it to its owner. + "Others, however, say that the thunder-cloud is caused by sickness +in the Eye of Ra, which weepeth for its companion Eye (the Moon); at +this time Thoth cleanseth the Right Eye of Ra. + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 90} + "I behold Ra who was born yesterday from the thighs of the goddess +Mehurt; his strength is my strength, and my strength is his strength." +- + Who is this? +- + "Mehurt is the great Celestial Water, but others say that Mehurt +is the image of the Eye of Ra at dawn at his birth daily. + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 95} + "[Others, however, say that] Mehurt is the utchat of Ra. + "Now Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, is a very great one +among the gods who are in the following of Horus; they say that he +is the prince who loveth his lord." +- + Who are the gods who are in the train of Horus? +- + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 100} + "[They are] Kesta, Hapi, Taumutef, and Qebhsenuf. + "Homage to you, O ye lords of right and truth, ye sovereign +princes (Tchatcha) who [stand] round about Osiris, who do away utterly +sins and offences, and who are in the following of the goddess +Hetepsekhus, grant ye that I may come unto you. Destroy ye all the +faults which are within me, even as ye did for the Seven Spirits who +are among the followers of their lord Sepa. Anpu (Anubis) appointed to +them their places on the day [when he said unto them], "Come ye +hither." +- + Who are the "lords of right and truth"? +- + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 105} + "The lords of right and truth are Thoth and Astes, the Lord of +Amentet. + "The Tchatcha round about Osiris are Kesta, Hapi, Tuamutef, and +Qebhsenuf, and they are also round about the Constellation of the +Thigh (the Great Bear), in the northern sky. + "Those who do away utterly sins and offences, and who are in the +following of the goddess Hetepsekhus, are the god Sebek and his +associates who dwell in the water. + "The goddess Hetepsekhus is the Eye of Ra. + "Others, however, say that it is the flame which accompanieth Osiris +to burn up the souls of his enemies. + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 110} + "As concerning all the faults which are in Osiris, the registrar +of the offerings which are made unto all the gods, Ani, whose word +is truth, [these are all the offences which he hath committed +against the Lords of Eternity] since he came forth from his mother's +womb. + "As concerning the Seven Spirits who are Kesta, Hapi, Tuamutef, +Qebhsenuf, Maa-atef, Kheribeqef and Heru-khenti-en-ariti, these did +Anubis appoint to be protectors of the dead body of Osiris. + "Others, however, say that he set them round about the holy place of +Osiris. + "Others say that the Seven Spirits [which were appointed by +Anubis] were Netcheh-netcheh, Aatqetqet, Nertanef-besef-khenti-hehf, +Aq-her-ami-unnut-f, Tesher-ariti-ami-Het-anes, +Ubes-her-per-em-khetkhet, and Maaem-kerh-annef-em-hru. + "The chief of the Tchatcha (sovereign princes) who is in Naarutef is +Horus, the Advocate of his father. + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 115} + "As concerning the day wherein [Anubis said to the Seven Spirits], +'Come ye hither,' [the allusion here] is to the words 'Come ye +hither,' which Ra spake unto Osiris." +- + Verily may these same words be said unto me in Amentet. +- + "I am the Divine Soul which dwelleth in the Divine Twin-gods." + {PRAISES_AND_GLORIFYINGS ^paragraph 120} +- + Who is this Divine Soul? +- + "It is Osiris. [When] he goeth into Tetu, and findeth there the Soul +of Ra, the one god embraceth the other, and two Divine Souls spring +into being within the Divine Twin-gods." + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nebseni, Brit. Mus. No. 9900, Sheet 14, ll. +16ff.) +- + "As concerning the Divine Twin-gods they are Heru-netch-her-tefef +and Heru-khent-en-Ariti (Horus the Advocate of his father [Osiris], +and Horus the sightless). + "Others say that the double Divine Soul which dwelleth in the Divine +Twin-gods is the Soul of Ra and the Soul of Osiris, and yet others say +that it is the Soul which dwelleth in Shu, and the Sould which +dwelleth in Tefnut, and that these two Souls form the double Divine +Soul which dwelleth in Tetu. + "I am the Cat which fought near the Persea Tree in Anu on the +night when the foes of Neb-er-tcher were destroyed." +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} + Who is this Cat? +- + "This male Cat is Ra himself, and he was called 'Mau' because of the +speech of the god Sa, who said concerning him: 'He is like (mau) +unto that which he hath made'; therefore, did the name of Ra become +'Mau.' + "Others, however, say that the male Cat is the god Shu, who made +over the possessions of Keb to Osiris. + "As concerning the fight which took place near the Persea Tree in +Anu [these words have reference to the slaughter] of the children of +rebellion, when righteous retribution was meted out to them for [the +evil] which they had done. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 10} + "As concerning the 'night of the battle,' [these words refer to] the +invasion of the eastern portion of the heaven by the children of +rebellion, whereupon a great battle arose in heaven and in all the +earth. + "O thou who art in thine egg (Ra,) who showest from thy Disk, who +risest on thy horizon, and dost shine with golden beams in the +height of heaven, like unto whom there is none among the gods, who +sailest above the Pillars of Shu, who sendest forth blasts of fire +from thy mouth, [who illuminest the Two Lands with thy splendour, +deliver] thou Nebseni, the lord of fealty [to Osiris], from the god +whose form is hidden, and whose eyebrows are like unto the two arms of +the Balance on the night when the sentences of doom are promulgated." +- + Who is this invisible god? +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 15} + "It is An-a-f (he who bringeth his arm.). + "As concerning 'the night when the sentences of doom are +promulgated,' it is the night of the burning of the damned, and of the +overthrow of the wicked at the Block, and of the slaughter of souls." +- + Who is this [slaughterer of souls]? +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 20} + "It is Shesmu, the headsman of Osiris. + "[Concerning the invisible god] some say that he is Aapep when he +riseth up with a head bearing upon it [the feather of] Maat (Truth). +But others say that he is Horus when he riseth up with two heads, +whereon one beareth [the feather of] Maat, and the other [the symbol +of] wickedness. He bestoweth wickedness on him that worketh +wickedness, and right and truth upon him that followeth +righteousness and truth. + "Others say that he is Heru-ur (the Old Horus), who dwelleth in +Sekhem; others say that he is Thoth; others say that he is +Nefer-Tem; and others say that he is Sept who doth bring to nought the +acts of the foes of Nebertcher. + "Deliver thou the scribe Nebseni, whose word is truth, from the +Watchers, who carry murderous knives, who possess cruel fingers, and +who would slay those who are in the following of Osiris." + May these Watchers never gain the mastery over me, and may I never +fall under their knives! + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 25} +- + Who are these Watchers? +- + "They are Anubis and Horus, [the latter being] in the form of +Horus the sightless. Others, however, say that they are the Tchatcha +(sovereign princes of Osiris), who bring to nought the operations of +their knives; and others say that they are the chiefs of the Sheniu +chamber. + "May their knives never gain the mastery over me. May I never fall +under the knives wherewith they inflict cruel tortures. For I know +their names, and I know the being, Matchet, who is among them in the +House of Osiris. He shooteth forth rays of light from his eye, being +himself invisible, and he goeth round about heaven robed in the flames +which come from his mouth, commanding Hapi, but remaining invisible +himself. May I be strong on earth before Ra, may I arrive safely in +the presence of Osiris. O ye who preside over your altars, let not +your offerings to me be wanting, for I am one of those who follow +after Nebertcher, according to the writings of Khepera. Let me fly +like a hawk, let me cackle like a goose, let me lay always like the +serpent-goddess Neheb-ka." + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 30} +- + Who are those who preside over their altars? +- + "Those who preside over their altars are the similitude of the Eye +of Ra, and the similitude of the Eye of Horus. + "O Ra-Tem, thou Lord of the Great House [in Anu], thou Sovereign +(life, strentgh, health [be to thee]) of all the gods, deliver thou +the scribe Nebseni, whose word is truth, from the god whose face is +like unto that of a greyhound, whose brows are like those of a man, +who feedeth upon the dead, who watcheth at the Bend of the Lake of +Fire, who devoureth the bodies of the dead, and swalloweth hearts, and +who voideth filth, but who himself remaineth unseen." + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 35} +- + Who is this greyhound-faced god? +- + "His name is 'Everlasting Devourer,' and he liveth in the Domain [of +Fire] (the Lake of Unt). + "As concerning the Domain of Fire, it is that Aat which is in +Naarutef, and is near the Sheniu chamber. The sinner who walketh +over this place falleth down among the knives [of the Watchers]. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 40} + "Others, however, say that the name of this god is 'Mates,' and that +he keepeth watch over the door of Amentet; others say that his name is +'Beba,' and that he keepeth watch over the Bend [of the stream] of +Amentet, and yet others say that his name is 'Herisepef.' + "Hail, Lord of Terror, Chief of the Lands of the South and North, +thou Lord of the Desert, who dost keep prepared the block of +slaughter, and who dost feed on the intestines [of men]!" +- + Who is this Lord of Terror? +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 45} + "It is the Keeper of the Bend [of the stream] of Amentet." +- + Who is this Keeper? +- + "It is the Heart of Osiris, which is the devourer of all slaughtered +things. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 50} + "The Urrt Crown hath been given unto him, with gladness of heart, as +Lord of Hensu." +- + Who is this? +- + "He to whom the Urrt Crown hath been given with gladness of heart as +Lord of Hensu is Osiris. He was bidden to rule among the gods on the +day of the union of earth [with earth] in the presence of Nebertcher." + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 55} +- + Who is this? +- + "He who was bidden to rule among the gods is the son of Isis +(Horus), who was appointed to rule in the room of his father Osiris. + "As concerning [the words] 'day of the union of earth with earth,' +they have reference to the union of earth with earth in the coffin +of Osiris, the Soul that liveth in Hensu, the giver of meat and drink, +the destroyer of wrong, and the guide to the everlasting paths." + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 60} +- + Who is this? +- + "It is Ra himself." +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 65} + "[Deliver thou the Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth] +from the great god who carrrieth away souls, who eateth hearts, who +feedeth upon offal, who keepeth watch in the darkness, who dwelleth in +the Seker Boat; those who live in sin fear him." +- + Who is this? +- + "It is Suti, but others say that it is Smamur, the soul of Keb. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 70} + "Hail, Khepera in thy boat, the two Companies of the Gods are in thy +body. Deliver thou the Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, +from the Watchers who pass sentences of doom, who have been +appointed by the god Nebertcher to protect him, and to fasten the +fetters on his foes, and who slaughter in the torture chambers; +there is no escape from their fingers. May they never stab me with +their knives, may I never fall helpless into their chambers of +torture. I have never done the things which the gods hate. I am he who +is pure in the Mesqet chamber. And saffron cakes have been brought +unto him in Tannt." +- + Who is this? +- + "It is Khepera in his boat; it is Ra himself. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 75} + "As concerning the Watchers who pass sentences of doom, they are the +Apes Isis and Nephthys. + "As concerning the things which the gods hate, they are acts of +deceit and lying. He who passeth through the place of purification +within the Mesqet chamber is Anpu (Anubis), who is hard by the +coffer which containeth the inward parts of Osiris. He to whom saffron +cakes have been brought in Tannt is Osiris. + "Others, however, say that the saffron cakes in Tannt represent +heaven and earth, and others say that they represent Shu, the +strengthener of the Two Lands in Hensu; and others say that they +represent the Eye of Horus, and that Tannt is the burial-place of +Osiris. + "Tem hath builded thy house, and the double Lion-god hath laid the +foundations of thy habitation. Lo! medicaments have been brought. +Horus purifieth Set and Set strengtheneth, and Set purifieth and Horus +strengtheneth. + "The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth before Osiris, +hath come into this land, and he hath taken possession thereof with +his two feet. He is Tem, and he is in the city. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 80} + "Turn thou back, O Rehu, whose mouth shineth, whose head moveth, +turn thou back before his strength." Another reading is, 'Turn thou +back from him who keepeth watch, and is himself unseen.' Let the +Osiris Ani be safely guarded. He is Isis, and he is found with her +hair spread over him; it is shaken out over his brow. He was conceived +by Isis, and engendered by Nephthys, and they have cut away from him +the things which should be cut from him. + "Fear followeth after thee, terror is about thine arms. Thou hast +been embraced for millions of years by arms; mortals go round about +thee. Thou smitest down the mediators of thy foes, and thou seizest +the arms of the power of darkness. Thy two sisters (Isis and Nephthys) +are given to thee for thy delight. Thou hast created that which is +in Kher-aha, and that which is Anu. Every god feareth thee, for thou +art exceedingly great and terrible; thou [avengest] every god on the +man who curseth him, and thou shootest arrows at him. Thou livest +according to thy will. Thou art Uatchet, the Lady of Flame, evil +befalleth those who set themselves up against thee." +- + What is this? +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 85} + "'Hidden in form, given of Menhu,' is the name of the "tomb. 'He who +seeth what is on his hand' is the name of Qerau, or, as others say, it +is the name of the Block. + "Now, he whose mouth shineth and whose head moveth is the phallus of +Osiris, but others say it is [the phallus] of Ra. 'Thou spreadest +thy hair, and I shake it out over his brow" is said concerning Isis, +who hideth in her hair, and draweth it round about her. + "Uatchet, the Lady of Flames, is the Eye of Ra." + +SEVEN_ARITS + THE SEVEN ARITS +- +- + The First Arit. +- + The name of the Doorkeeper is Sekhet-her-asht-aru. The name of the +Watcher is Smetti. The name of the Herald is Hakheru. + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, shall say when he cometh unto +the First Arit: "I am the mighty one who createth his own light. I +have come unto thee, O Osiris, and, purified from that which +defileth thee, I adore thee. Lead on. Name not the name of Ra-stau +to me. Homage to thee, O Osiris, in thy might and in thy strength in +Ra-stau. Rise up and conquer, O Osiris, in Abtu. Thou goest round +about heaven, thou sailest in the presence of Ra, thou lookest upon +all the beings who have knowledge. Hail, Ra, thou who goest round +about in the sky, I say, O Osiris in truth, that I am the Sahu +(Spirit-body) of the god, and I beseech thee not to let me be driven +away, nor to be cast upon the wall of blazing fire. Let the way be +opened in Ra-stau, let the pain of the Osiris be relieved, embrace +that which the Balance hath weighed, let a path be made for the Osiris +in the Great Valley, and let the Osiris have light to guide him on his +way." +- +- + {SEVEN_ARITS ^paragraph 5} + The Second Arit. +- + The name of the Doorkeeper is Unhat. The name of the Watcher is +Seqt-her. The name of the Herald is Ust. + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he cometh to +this Arit]: "He sitteth to carry out his heart's desire, and he +weigheth words as the Second of Thoth. The strength which protecteth +Thoth humbleth the hidden Maati gods, who feed upon Maat during the +years of their lives. I offer up my offerings [to him] at the moment +when he maketh his way. I advance, and I enter on the path. O grant +thou that I may continue to advance, and that I may attain to the +sight of Ra, and of those who offer up [their] offerings." +- +- + {SEVEN_ARITS ^paragraph 10} + The Third Arit. +- + The name of the Doorkeeper is Unem-hauatu-ent-pehui. The name of the +Watcher is Seres-her. The name of the Herald is Aa. + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he +cometh to this Arit]: "I am he who is hidden in the great deep. I am +the Judge of the Rehui, I have come and I have done away the offensive +thing which was upon Osiris. I tie firmly the place on which he +standeth, coming forth from the Urt. I have stablished things in Abtu, +I have opened up a way through Ra-stau, and I have relieved the pain +which was in Osiris. I have balanced the place whereon he standeth, +and I have made a path for him; he shineth brilliantly in Ra-stau." +- +- + {SEVEN_ARITS ^paragraph 15} + The Fourth Arit. +- + The name of the Doorkeeper is Khesef-her-asht-kheru. The name of the +Watcher is Seres-tepu. The name of the Herald is Khesef-at. + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he +cometh to this Arit]: "I am the Bull, the son of the ancestress of +Osiris. O grant ye that his father, the Lord of his god-like +companions, may bear witness on his behalf. I have weighed the +guilty in judgment. I have brought unto his nostrils the life which is +ever lasting. I am the son of Osiris, I have accomplished the journey, +I have advanced in Khert-Neter." +- +- + {SEVEN_ARITS ^paragraph 20} + The Fifth Arit. +- + The name of the Doorkeeper is Ankhf-em-fent. The name of the Watcher +is Shabu. The name of the Herald is Teb-her-kha-kheft. + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he +cometh to this Arit]: "I have brought unto thee the jawbone in +Ra-stau. I have brought unto thee thy backbone in Anu. I have gathered +together his manifold members therein. I have driven back Aapep for +thee. I have spit upon the wounds [in his body]. I have made myself +a path among you. I am the Aged One among the gods. I have made +offerings to Osiris. I have defended him with the word of truth. I +have gathered together his bones, and have collected all his members." +- +- + {SEVEN_ARITS ^paragraph 25} + The Sixth Arit. +- + The name of the Doorkeeper is Atek-tau-kehaq-kheru. The name of +the Watcher is An-her. The name of the Herald is Ates-her-[ari]-she. + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he +cometh to this Arit]: "I have come daily, I have come daily. I have +made myself a way. I have advanced over that which was created by Anpu +(Anubis). I am the Lord of the Urrt Crown. I am the possessor [of +the knowledge of] the words of magical power, I am the Avenger +according to law, I have avenged [the injury to] his Eye. I have +defended Osiris. I have accomplished my journey. The Osiris Ani +advanceth with you with the word which is truth." +- +- + {SEVEN_ARITS ^paragraph 30} + The Seventh Arit: +- + The name of the Doorkeeper is Sekhmet-em-tsu-sen. The name of the +Watcher is Aa-maa-kheru. The name of the Herald is Khesef-khemi. + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, shall say [when he +cometh to this Arit]: "I have come unto thee, O Osiris, being purified +from foul emissions. Thou goest round about heaven, thou seest Ra, +thou seest the beings who have knowledge. [Hail], thou, ONE! Behold, +thou art in the Sektet Boat which traverseth the heavens. I speak what +I will to his Sahu (Spirit-body). He is strong, and cometh into +being even [as] he spake. Thou meetest him face to face. Prepare +thou for me all the ways which are good [and which lead] to thee." +- + {SEVEN_ARITS ^paragraph 35} + RUBRIC: If [these] words be recited by the spirit when he shall come +to the Seven Arits, and as he entereth the doors, he shall neither +be turned back nor repulsed before Osiris, and he shall be made to +have his being among the blessed spirits, and to have dominion among +the ancestral followers of Osiris. If these things be done for any +spirit he shall have his being in that place like a lord of eternity +in one body with Osiris, and at no place shall any being contend +against him. + +PYLONS_OF_THE_HOUSE_OF_OSIRIS + THE PYLONS OF THE HOUSE OF OSIRIS +- + The following shall be said when one cometh to the FIRST PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Lady of +tremblings, high-walled, the sovereign lady, the lady of +destruction, who uttereth the words which drive back the destroyers, +who delivereth from destruction him that cometh." The name of her +Doorkeeper is Neruit. +- + The following shall be said when one cometh to the SECOND PYLON. The +Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Lady of heaven, +Mistress of the Two Lands, devourer by fire, Lady of mortals, who +art infinitely greater than any human being." The name of her +Doorkeeper is Mes-Ptah. +- + The following shall be said when one cometh to the THIRD PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Lady of the +Altar, the mighty lady to whom offerings are made, greatly beloved one +of every god sailing up the river to Abydos." The name of her +Doorkeeper is Sebqa. + {PYLONS_OF_THE_HOUSE_OF_OSIRIS ^paragraph 5} +- + The following shall be said when one cometh to the FOURTH PYLON. The +Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Prevailer with +knives, Mistress of the Two Lands, destroyer of the enemies of the +Still-Heart (Osiris), who decreeth the release of those who suffer +through evil hap." The name of her Doorkeeper is Nekau. +- + The following shall be said when one cometh to the FIFTH PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Flame, Lady of +fire, absorbing the entreaties which are made to her, who permitteth +not to approach her the rebel." The name of her Doorkeeper is +Henti-Reqiu. +- + {PYLONS_OF_THE_HOUSE_OF_OSIRIS ^paragraph 10} + The following shall be said when one cometh to the SIXTH PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Lady of light, +who roareth mightily, whose breadth cannot be comprehended. Her like +hath not been found since the beginning. There are serpents over which +are unknown. They were brought forth before the Still-Heart." The name +of her Doorkeeper is Semati. +- + The following shall be said when one cometh to the SEVENTH PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Garment +which envelopeth the helpless one, which weepeth for and loveth that +which it covereth." The name of her Doorkeeper is Saktif. +- + The following shall be said when one cometh to the EIGHTH PYLON. The +Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Blazing fire, +unquenchable, with far-reaching tongues of flame, irresistible +slaughterer, which one may not pass through fear of its deadly +attack." The name of her Doorkeeper is Khutchetef. + {PYLONS_OF_THE_HOUSE_OF_OSIRIS ^paragraph 15} +- + The following shall be said when one cometh to the NINTH PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: +"Chieftainess, lady of strength, who giveth quiet of heart to the +offspring of her lord. Her girth is three hundred and fifty khet, +and she is clothed with green feldspar of the South. She bindeth up +the divine form and clotheth the helpless one. Devourer, lady of all +men." The name of her Doorkeeper is Arisutchesef. +- + The following shall be said when one cometh to the TENTH PYLON. +The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith: "Goddess of the +loud voice, who maketh her suppliants to mourn, the awful one who +terrifieth, who herself remaineth unterrified within." The name of her +Doorkeeper is Sekhenur. +- + {PYLONS_OF_THE_HOUSE_OF_OSIRIS ^paragraph 20} + Nu, the steward of the keeper of the seal, saith when he cometh to +the ELEVENTH PYLON of Osiris: "I have made my way, I know you, and I +know thy name, and I know the name of her who is within thee: She +who slayeth always, consumer of the fiends by fire, mistress of +every pylon, the lady who is acclaimed on the day of darkness" is +thy name. She inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. +- + The Osiris Nu, the steward of the keeper of the seal, saith when +he cometh to the TWELFTH PYLON of Osiris: "I have made my way, I +know you, and I know thy name, and I know the name of her who is +within thee: Invoker of thy Two Lands, destroyer of those who come +to thee by fire, lady of spirits, obeyer of the word of thy Lord" is +thy name. She inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. +- + The Osiris Nu, the steward of the keeper of the seal, saith when +he cometh to the THIRTEENTH PYLON of Osiris: "I have made my way, I +know you and I know thy name, and I know the name of her who is within +thee: Osiris foldeth his arms about her, and maketh Hapi (the +Nile-god), to emit splendour out of his hidden places" is thy name. +She inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. + {PYLONS_OF_THE_HOUSE_OF_OSIRIS ^paragraph 25} +- + The Osiris Nu, the steward of the keeper of the seal, saith when +he cometh to the FOURTEENTH PYLON of Osiris: "I have made my way, I +know thee, and I know thy name, and I know the name of her who is +within thee. Lady of might, who trampleth on the Red Demons, who +keepeth the festival of Haaker on the day of the hearing of faults" is +thy name. She inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. +- + THE FIFTEENTH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is truth, +shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Fiend, red of hair and +eyes, who appeareth by night, and doth fetter the fiend in his lair. +Let her hands be given to the Still-Heart in his hour, let her advance +and go forward" is thy name. She inspecteth the swathing of the +helpless one. +- + {PYLONS_OF_THE_HOUSE_OF_OSIRIS ^paragraph 30} + THE SIXTEENTH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is truth, +shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Terrible one, lady of the +rain-storm, destroyer of the souls of men, devourer of the bodies of +men, orderer, producer, and maker of slaughter" is thy name. She +inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. +- + THE SEVENTEENTH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is +truth, shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Hewer-in-pieces in +blood, Ahibit, lady of hair" is thy name. She inspecteth the +swathing of the helpless one. +- + THE EIGHTEENTH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is +truth, shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Fire-lover, pure +one, lover of slaughterings, cutter off of heads, devoted one, lady of +the Great House, slaughterer of fiends at eventide" is thy name. She +inspecteth the swathing of the helpless one. + {PYLONS_OF_THE_HOUSE_OF_OSIRIS ^paragraph 35} +- + THE NINETEENTH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is +truth, shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Light-giver for +life, blazing all the day, lady of strength [and of] the writings of +the god Thoth himself" is thy name. She inspecteth the swathings of +the White House. +- + THE TWENTIETH PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is truth, +shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Dweller in the cavern of +her lord, her name is Clother, hider of her creations, conqueror of +hearts, swallower [of them]" is thy name. She inspecteth the swathings +of the White House. +- + {PYLONS_OF_THE_HOUSE_OF_OSIRIS ^paragraph 40} + THE TWENTY-FIRST PYLON. The Osiris Heru-em-khebit, whose word is +truth, shall say when he cometh to this pylon: "Knife which cutteth +when [its name] is uttered, slayer of those who approach thy flame" is +thy name. She possesseth hidden plans. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Turin Papryus, ed. Lepsius, Bl. 64, the text referring +to the twenty-first Pylon.) +- + THE OSIRIS AUFANKH, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, SAITH: Hail, saith Horus, O +Twenty-first pylon of the Still-Heart! I have made the way. I know +thee. I know thy name. I know the name of the goddess who guardeth +thee. "Sword that smiteth at the utterance of its own name, stinking +face, overthrower of him that approacheth her flame" is thy name. Thou +keepest the hidden things of the avenger of the god, thou guardest +them. Amam is his name. He maketh the ash trees (cedars) not to +grow, and the shenu trees (acacias) not to blossom, and preventeth +copper from being found in the mountain. The Tchatcha (Chiefs) of this +Pylon are Seven Gods. Tchen, or Anthch (At), is the name of the one at +the door. Hetepmes is the name of another there. Messep is the name of +another there. Utchara is the name of another there. Beq is the name +of another there. Anp (Anubis) is the name of another there. + I have made the way. I am Menu-Heru, the avenger of his father, +the heir of his father Un-Nefer. I have come. I have given [offerings] +to my father Osiris. I have overthrown all his enemies. I have come +daily with the word of truth, the lord of fealty, in the house of my +father Tem, the Lord of Anu, I, the Osiris Auf-ankh, whose word is +truth in the southern heaven. I have done what is right for him that +made the right, I have celebrated the Haker festival to the lord +thereof. I have acted as the leader of the festivals. I have given +cakes to the Lords of the Altar. I have been the leader of the +propitiatory offerings, cakes, ale, oxen, geese, to my father Osiris +Un-Nefer. I am the protector of the Ba-soul, I have made the Benu bird +to appear [by my] words. I have come daily into the house of the god +to make offerings of incense. I have come with the shenti tunic. I +have set the Neshem Boat afloat on the water. I have made the word +of Osiris Khenti Amenti to be truth before his enemies. I have carried +away in a boat all his enemies to the slaughter-house of the East, and +they shall never escape from the wardship of the god Keb who +dwelleth therein. I have made the Kefaiu gods of Ra to stand up, I +have made his word to be truth. I have come as a scribe. I have +explained [the writings]. I have made the god to have power over his +legs. I have come into the house of him that is upon his mountain +(Anubis). I have seen the Chief of the Seh hall. I have entered into +Ra-stau. I have made myself invisible. I have found for myself the +boundary. I have approached Nerutef. I have clothed the naked. I +have sailed up the river to Abydos. I have performed the ceremonies of +Hu and Sa. I have entered the house of Astes. I have made supplication +to the Khati gods and to Sekhmet in the temple of Net (Neith), or +the Aged Ones. I have entered Ra-stau. I have made myself invisible. I +have found the frontier. I have approached Nerutef. I have clothed the +naked. I have sailed up the river to Abydos. I have performed the +ceremonies of Hu and Sa. I have received. I have risen like a king +crowned. I fill my seat on the throne in the place of my father, the +God Who was at the beginning. I have praised the Meskhen of +Ta-tchesert. My mouth is full of Maat (Truth). I have overwhelmed +the Akhekhau serpents. I have come into the Great House with [my] body +in a flourishing condition. I have caused myself to travel in the Boat +of Hai. The myrrh unguent of..... is in the hair of men (Rekhit). I +have entered into the House of Astes. I have approached with worship +the two Khati gods and Sekhmet, who are in the temple of the Aged +One [in Anu]. + [And the god Osiris saith:] "Thou hast come, thou shalt be a +favoured one in Tetu, O Osiris Auf-ankh, whose word is truth, the +son of the lady Shert-en-Menu, whose word is truth." + +PRIESTS_ANMUTEF_AND_SAMEREF + THE PRIESTS ANMUTEF AND SAMEREF +- + THE SPEECH OF THE PRIEST ANMUTEF. + I have come unto you, O ye great Tchatcha Chiefs who dwell in +heaven, and upon earth, and in Khert-Neter, and I have brought unto +you the Osiris Ani. He hath not committed any act which is an +abomination before all the gods. Grant ye that he may live with you +every day. + The Osiris the scribe Ani adoreth Osiris, Lord of Rasta, and the +Great Company of the Gods who live in Khert-Neter. He saith: "Homage +to thee, Khenti Amenti, Un-Nefer, who dwellest in Abtu. I come to +thee. My heart holdeth Truth. There is no sin in my body. I have not +told a lie wittingly, I have not acted in a double manner. Grant +thou to me cakes, let me appear in the presence, at the altar of the +Lords of Truth, let me go in and come forth from Khert-Neter [at +will], let not my Heart-soul be driven away [from me]; and grant me +a sight of the Disk and the beholding of the Moon for ever and ever. +- +- + THE SPEECH OF THE PRIEST SAMEREF. + {PRIESTS_ANMUTEF_AND_SAMEREF ^paragraph 5} + I have come unto you, O ye Tchatcha Chiefs who dwell in Rasta, and I +have brought unto you the Osiris Ani, grant ye unto him cakes, and +water, and air, and a homestead in Sekhet-hetep as to the followers of +Horus. + The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, adoreth Osiris, +the Lord of everlastingness, and the Tchatcha Chiefs, the Lords of +Rasta. He saith: "Homage to thee, O King of Khert-Neter, thou Governor +of Akert! I have come unto thee. I know thy plans, I am equipped +with the forms which thou takest in the Tuat. Give thou to me a +place in Khert-Neter, near the Lords of Truth. May my homestead be +lasting in Sekhet-hetep, may I receive cakes in thy presence." + +JUDGES_IN_ANU + THE JUDGES IN ANU +- + Hail, Thoth, who madest to be true the word of Osiris against his +enemies, make thou the word of the scribe Nebseni to be true against +his enemies, even as thou didst make the word of Osiris to be true +against his enemies, in the presence of the Tchatcha Chiefs who are +with Ra and Osiris in Anu, on the night of the "things of the +night," and the night of battle, and of the fettering of the Sebau +fiends, and the day of the destruction of the enemies of Neb-er-tcher. +- + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs in Anu are Tem, Shu, Tefnut, [Osiris +and Thoth]. Now the "fettering of the Sebau fiends" signifieth the +destruction of the Smaiu fiends of Set, when he wrought iniquity a +second time. + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris Ani to be true against +his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Tetu, on the +night of setting up the Tet in Tetu. +- + {JUDGES_IN_ANU ^paragraph 5} + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Tetu are Osiris, Isis, +Nephthys, and Horus the avenger of his father. Now the "setting up +of the Tet in Tetu" signifieth [the raising up of] the shoulder of +Horus, the Governor of Sekhem. They are round about Osiris in the band +[and] the bandages. + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris Ani to be true against +his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Sekhem, on +the night of the "things of the night" in Sekhem. +- + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Sekhem are +Heru-khenti-en-ariti and Thoth who is with the Tchatcha Chiefs of +Nerutef. Now the night of the "things of the night festival" +signifieth the dawn on the sarcophagus of Osiris. + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris the scribe Ani to be +true against his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in +the double town Pe-Tep, on the night of setting up the "Senti" of +Horus, and of establishing him in the inheritance of the possessions +of his father Osiris. + {JUDGES_IN_ANU ^paragraph 10} +- + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Pe-Tep are Horus, Isis, +Kesta (Mesta) and Hapi. Now the "setting up of the 'Senti' of Horus" +hath reference to the words which Set spake to his followers, saying +"Set up the Senti." + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris the scribe Ani to be +true, in peace, against his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs +who are in the Lands of the Rekhti (Taiu-Rekhti), in the night when +Isis lay down, and kept watch to make lamentation for her brother +Osiris. +- + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Taiu-Rekhti are Isis, +Horus, Kesta (Mesta) [Anpu and Thoth]. + {JUDGES_IN_ANU ^paragraph 15} + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris true against his +enemies, make thou the word of Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is +truth, in peace, to be true against his enemies, with the great +Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Abtu, on the night of the god Haker, when +the dead are separated, and the spirits are judged, and when the +procession taketh place in Teni. +- + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Abtu are Osiris, Isis, +and Up-uat. + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris, the scribe and assessor +of the sacred offerings which are made to all the gods, Ani, to be +true against his enemies, with the Tchatcha Chiefs who examine the +dead on the night of making the inspection of those who are to be +annihilated. +- + {JUDGES_IN_ANU ^paragraph 20} + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are present at the examination +of the dead are Thoth, Osiris, Anpu and Asten (read Astes). Now the +inspection (or, counting) of those who are to be annihilated +signifieth the shutting up of things from the souls of the sons of +revolt. + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris true against his +enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris the scribe Ani to be true +against his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are present at +the digging up of the earth [and mixing it] with their blood, and of +making the word of Osiris to be true against his enemies. +- + As concerning the Tchatcha Chiefs who are present at the digging +up of the earth in Tetu: When the Smaiu fiends of Set came [there], +having transformed themselves into animals, these Tchatcha Chiefs slew +them in the presence of the gods who were there, and they took their +blood, and carried it to them. These things were permitted at the +examination [of the wicked] by those [gods] who dwelt in Tetu. + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris to be true against +his enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris [the scribe] Ani to be +true against his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in +Nerutef on the night of the "Hidden of Forms." + {JUDGES_IN_ANU ^paragraph 25} +- + Now the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Nerutef are Ra, Osiris, Shu +and Bebi. + Now, the night of the "Hidden of Forms" referreth to the placing +on the sarcophagus [of Osiris] the arm, the heel, and the thigh of +Osiris Un-Nefer. + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris true against his +enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris, whose word is truth, to +be true against his enemies, with the great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in +Rasta, on the night when Anpu lay with his arms on the things by +Osiris, and when the word of Horus was make to be true against his +enemies. +- + {JUDGES_IN_ANU ^paragraph 30} + The great Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Rasta are Horus, Osiris, and +Isis. The heart of Osiris is happy, the heart of Horus is glad, and +the two halves of Egypt (Aterti) are well satisfied thereat. + Hail, Thoth, who didst make the word of Osiris true against his +enemies, make thou the word of the Osiris the scribe Ani, the assessor +of the holy offerings made to all the gods, to be true against his +enemies, with the Ten great Tchatcha Chiefs who are with Ra, and +with Osiris, and with every god, and with every goddess, in the +presence of the god Nebertcher. He hath destroyed his enemies, and +he hath destroyed every evil thing which appertained to him. +- + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be recited for, or over, the deceased, he +shall come forth by day, purified after death, according to the desire +of his heart. Now if this Chapter be recited over him, he shall +progress over the earth, and he shall escape from every fire, and none +of the evil things which appertain to him shall ever be round about +him; never, a million times over, shall this be. + +OPENING_THE_MOUTH +- + THE CHAPTER OF OPENING THE MOUTH OF THE OSIRIS ANI. To be said:- The +god Ptah shall open my mouth, and the god of my town shall unfasten +the swathings, the swathings which are over my mouth. Thereupon +shall come Thoth, who is equipped with words of power in great +abundance, and shall untie the fetters, even the fetters of the god +Set which are over my mouth. And the god Tem shall cast them back at +those who would fetter me with them, and cast them at him. Then +shall the god Shu open my mouth, and make an opening into my mouth +with the same iron implement wherewith he opened the mouth of the +gods. I am the goddess Sekhmet, and I take my seat upon the place by +the side of Amt-ur the great wind of heaven. I am the great +Star-goddess Saah, who dwelleth among the Souls of Anu. Now as +concerning every spell, and every word which shall be spoken against +me, every god of the Divine Company shall set himself in opposition +thereto. + +BRINGING_SPELLS_TO_ANI +- + THE CHAPTER OF BRINGING WORDS OF POWER TO THE OSIRIS ANI, who +saith:- I am Tem-Khepera who produced himself on the thighs of his +divine mother. Those who dwell in Nu have been made wolves, and those +who are among the Tchatcha Chiefs have become hyenas. Behold, I will +gather together to myself this charm from the person with whom it is +[and from the place] wherein it is [and it shall come to me] quicker +than a greyhound, and swifter that light. Hail, thou who bringest the +Ferry-Boat of Ra, thou holdest thy course firmly and directly in the +north wind as thou sailest up the river towards the Island of Fire +which is in Khert-Neter. Behold, thou shalt gather together to thee +this charm from wheresoever it may be, and from whomsoever it may be +with [and it shall come to me] quicker than a greyhound, and swifter +than light. It (the charm) made the transformations of Mut; it +fashioned the gods [or] kept them silent; by it Mut gave the warmth +[of life] to the gods. Behold, these words of power are mine, and +they shall come unto me from wheresoever they may be, or with +whomsoever they may be, quicker than greyhounds and swifter than +light, or, according to another reading, "swifter than shadows." + +BRINGING_SPELLS_TO_ANI|APPENDIX + APPENDIX +- + THE CHAPTER WHICH MAKETH A MAN TO REMEMBER HIS NAME IN +KHERT-NETER. [The deceased] saith:- Let my name be given to me in +the Great House (Per-ur), and let me remember my name in the House +of Fire (Per Neser), on the night wherein the years are counted up, +and the number of the months is told. I am dwelling with the Divine +One, I take my seat on the eastern side of the sky. If any god +cometh after me, I shall be able to declare his name forthwith. + +GIVING_A_HEART +- + THE CHAPTER OF GIVING A HEART TO THE OSIRIS ANI IN KHERT-NETER. He +saith:- Let my heart be with me in the House of Hearts. Let my +heart-case be with me in the House of heart-cases. Let my heart be +with me, and let it rest in [me or] I shall not eat the cakes of +Osiris in the eastern side of the Lake of Flowers, nor have a boat +wherein to float down the river, nor a boat to sail up the river to +thee, nor be able to embark in a boat with thee. Let my mouth be to me +that I may speak therewith. Let my legs be to me that I may walk +therewith. Let my arms be to me that I may overthrow the foe +therewith. Let the two doors of the sky be opened to me. May Keb, +the Erpat of the gods, open his jaws to me. May he open my two eyes +which are blinded by swathings. May he make me to lift up my legs in +walking which are tied together. May Anpu make my thighs to become +vigorous. May the goddess Sekhmet raise me, and lift me up. Let me +ascend into heaven, let that which I command be performed in +Het-ka-Ptah. I know how to use my heart. I am master of my heart-case. +I am master of my hands and arms. I am master of my legs. I have the +power to do that which my KA desireth to do. My Heart-soul shall not +be kept a prisoner in my body at the gates of Amentet when I would +go in in peace and come forth in peace. + +NOT_LETTING_THE_HEART_ANI_BE_TAKEN +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF THE OSIRIS, THE ASSESSOR +OF THE DIVINE OFFERINGS OF ALL THE GODS, ANI, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH +BEFORE OSIRIS, BE DRIVEN BACK FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. He saith:- My +heart of my mother. My heart of my mother. My heart-case of my +transformations. Let not any one stand up to bear testimony against +me. Let no one drive me away from the Tchatcha Chiefs. Let no one make +thee to fall away from me in the presence of the Keeper of the +Balance. Thou art my KA, the dweller in my body, the god Khnemu who +makest sound my members. Mayest thou appear in the place of +happiness whither we go. Let not make my name to stink Shenit +Chiefs, who make men to be stable. [Let it be satisfactory unto us, +and let the listening be satisfactory unto us, and let there be joy of +heart to us at the weighing of words. Let not lies be told against +me before the Great God, the Lord of Amentet. Verily, how great +shalt thou be when thou risest up in triumph!] +- + RUBRIC I: These words are to be said over a scarab of green stone +encircled with a band of refined copper, and [having] a ring of +silver; which shall be placed on the neck of the Khu (the deceased), +etc. + RUBRIC II (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 21): If this Chapter be +known [by the deceased] he shall be declared a speaker of the truth +both upon earth and in Khert-Neter, and he shall be able to perform +every act which a living human being can perform. Now it is a great +protection which hath been given by the god. This Chapter was found in +the city of Khemenu upon the slab of ba, which was inlaid with +[letters of] genuine lapis-lazuli, and was under the feet of [the +statue] of the god, during the reign of His Majesty, the King of the +South and North, Menkaura (Mycerinus), true of word, by Prince +Herutataf, who found it during a journey which he made to inspect +the temples. One Nekht was with him who was diligent in making him +to understand it, and he brought it to the king as a wonderful +object when he perceived that it was a thing of great mystery, [the +like of] which had never [before] been seen or looked upon. This +Chapter shall be recited by a man who is ceremonially clean and +pure, who hath not eaten the flesh of animals, or fish, and who hath +not had intercourse with women. And behold, thou shalt make a scarab +of green stone, with a rim [plated] with gold, which shall be placed +above the heart of a man, and it shall perform for him the "opening of +the mouth." And thou shalt anoint it with myrrh unguent, and thou +shalt recite over it the following words of magical power. [Here +follows the text of the Chapter of Not Letting the Heart of Ani Be +Taken from Him.] + +NOT_LETTING_THE_HEART_SOUL_BE_CARRIED_AWAY +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART-SOUL OF A MAN BE SNATCHED +AWAY FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris the scribe Ani saith:--I, +even I, am he who cometh forth from the Celestial Water (Akeb). He +(Akeb) produced abundance for me, and hath the mastery there in the +form of the River. +- + (This is a portion of a longer Chapter which is included in the +appendix.) + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (The following is from the Papyrus of Nefer-uben-f, Naville, op. +cit., I, Bl. 72.) +- + THE CHAPTER OF DRINKING WATER IN KHERT-NETER. The am khent priest, +Nefer-uben-f, whose word is truth, saith:- I, even I, am he who cometh +forth from the god Keb. The water-flood is given to him, he hath +become the master thereof in the form of Hapi. I, the am khent +Nefer-uben-f, open the doors of heaven. Thoth hath opened to me the +doors of Qebh (the Celestial Waters). Lo, Hepi Hepi, the two sons of +the Sky, mighty in splendour, grant ye that I may be master over the +water, even as Set had dominion over his evil power on the day of +the storming of the Two Lands. I pass by the Great Ones, arm to +shoulder, even as they pass that Great God, the Spirit who is +equipped, whose name is unknown. I have passed by the Aged One of +the shoulder. I am Nefer-uben-f, whose word is truth. Hath opened to +me the Celestial Water Osiris. Hath opened to me the Celestial Water +Thoth-Hapi, the Lord of the horizon, in his name of "Thoth, cleaver of +the earth." I am master of the water, as Set is master of his +weapon. I sail over the sky, I am Ra, I am Ru. I am Sma. I have +eaten the Thigh, I have seized the bone and flesh. I go round about +the Lake of Sekhet-Ar. Hath been given to me eternity without limit. +Behold, I am the heir of eternity, to whom hath been given +everlastingness. +- +- + (The following two Chapters are from the Papyrus of Nu, Sheets 7 and +12) +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} + THE CHAPTER OF DRINKING WATER AND OF NOT BEING BURNT UP BY FIRE +[IN KHERT-NETER]. Nu saith:- Hail, Bull of Amentet! I am brought +unto thee. I am the paddle of Ra wherewith he transported the Aged +Gods. Let me neither be burnt up nor destroyed by fire. I am Beb, +the firstborn son of Osiris, to whom every god maketh an offering in +the temple of his Eye in Anu. I am the divine Heir, the Mighty One, +the Great One, the Resting One. I have made my name to flourish. +Deliverer, thou livest in me [every day]. +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT BEING BOILED IN FIRE. Nu saith:- I am the +paddle which is equipped, wherewith Ra transported the Aged Gods, +which raised up the emissions of Osiris from the Lake of blazing fire, +and he was not burned. I sit down like the Light-god, and like Khnemu, +the Governor of lions. Come, cut away the fetters from him that +passeth by the side of this path, and let me come forth therefrom. + +GIVING_AIR +- + THE CHAPTER OF GIVING AIR IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- I +am the Egg which dwelt in the Great Cackler. I keep ward over that +great place which Keb hath proclaimed upon earth. I live; it liveth. I +grow up, I live, I snuff the air. I am Utcha-aab. I go round about his +egg [to protect it]. I have thwarted the moment of Set. Hail, Sweet +one of the Two Lands! Hail, dweller in the tchefa food! Hail, +dweller in the lapis-lazuli! Watch ye over him that is in his +cradle, the Babe when he cometh forth to you. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 12) +- + THE CHAPTER OF GIVING AIR TO NU IN KHERT-NETER. He saith:- Hail, +thou God Temu, grant thou unto me the sweet breath which dwelleth in +thy nostrils! I am the Egg which is in Kenken-ur (the Great +Cackler), and I watch and guard that mighty thing which hath come into +being, wherewith the god Keb hath opened the earth. I live; it liveth; +I grow, I live, I snuff the air. I am the god Utcha-aabet, and I go +about his egg. I shine at the moment of the mighty of strength, +Suti. Hail, thou who makest sweet the time of the Two Lands! Hail, +dweller among the celestial food. Hail, dweller among the beings of +blue (lapis-lazuli), watch ye to protect him that is in his nest, +the Child who cometh forth to you. +- +- + THE CHAPTER OF GIVING AIR IN KHERT-NETER. Nu saith:- I am the jackal +of jackals. I am Shu. I draw air from the presence of the Light-god, +from the uttermost limits of heaven, from the uttermost limits of +earth, from the uttermost limits of the pinion of Nebeh bird. May +air be given unto this young divine Babe. [My mouth is open, I see +with my eyes.] +- +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} + THE CHAPTER OF SNUFFING THE AIR WITH WATER IN KHERT-NETER. Hail, +Tem. Grant thou unto me the sweet breath which dwelleth in thy +nostrils. I am he who embraceth that great throne which is in the city +of Unu. I keep watch over the Egg of Kenken-ur (the Great Cackler). +I grow and flourish as it groweth and flourisheth. I live as it +liveth. I snuff the air as it snuffeth the air. + +NOT_LETTING_THE_HEART_BE_SNATCHED_AWAY +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF A MAN BE SNATCHED AWAY +FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, +saith:- Get thee back, O messenger of every god! Art thou come to +[snatch away] my heart-case which liveth? My heart-case which liveth +shall not be given unto thee. [As] I advance, the gods hearken unto my +propitiation [prayer] and they fall down on their faces [whilst] +they are on their own land. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nu) +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT ALLOWING THE HEART.... TO BE CARRIED AWAY DEAD IN +KHERT-NETER. [Nu, whose word is truth, saith]:- My heart is with me, +and it shall never come to pass that it be carried away. I am the Lord +of Hearts, the slayer of the heart-case. I live in truth, I have my +being therein. I am Horus, the Dweller in Hearts, [I am] in the +Dweller in the body. I have life by my word, my heart hath being. My +heart-case shall not be snatched away from me, it shall not be +wounded, it shall not be put in restraint if wounds are inflicted upon +me. [If] one take possession of it I shall have my being in the body +of my father Keb and in the body of my mother Nut. I have not done +that which is held in abomination by the gods. I shall not suffer +defeat [for] my word is truth. + +NOT_LETTING_THE_HEART_CASE_BE_TAKEN +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART-CASE OF A MAN BE TAKEN AWAY +FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, ye who steal and +crush heart-cases [and who make the heart of a man to go through its +transformations according to his deeds: let not what he hath done harm +him before you]. Homage to you, O ye Lords of Eternity, ye masters +of everlastingness, take ye not this heart of Osiris Ani into your +fingers, and this heart-case, and cause ye not things of evil to +spring up against it, because this heart belongeth to the Osiris +Ani, and this heart-case belongeth to him of the great names +(Thoth), the mighty one, whose words are his members. He sendeth his +heart to rule his body, and his heart is renewed before the gods. +The heart of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is to him; he hath +gained the mastery over it. He hath not said what he hath done. He +hath obtained power over his own members. His heart obeyeth him, he is +the lord thereof, it is in his body, and it shall never fall away +therefrom. I command thee to be obedient unto me in Khert-Neter. I, +the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace; whose word is truth +in the Beautiful Amentet, by the Domain of Eternity. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 5) +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF NU, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, +BE CARRIED AWAY FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. He saith:- Hail, thou +Lion-god! I am Unb (the Blossom). That which is held in abomination to +me is the block of slaughter of the god. Let not this my heart-case be +carried away from me by the Fighting Gods in Anu. Hail, thou who +dost wind bandages round Osiris, and who hast seen Set. Hail, thou who +returnest after smiting and destroying him before the mighty ones! +This my heart weepeth over itself before Osiris; it hath made +supplication for me. I have given unto him and I have dedicated unto +him the thoughts of the heart in the House of the god (Usekh-her), +have brought unto him sand at the entry to Khemenu. Let not this my +heart-case be carried away from me. I make you to ascend his throne, +to fetter heart-cases for him in Sekhet-hetep, [to live] years of +strength away from things of all kinds which are abominations to +him, to carry off food from among the things which are thine, and +which are in thy grasp through thy strength. And this my heart-case is +devoted to the decrees of the god Tem, who guideth me through the +caverns of Suti, but let not this my heart, which hath performed its +desire before the Tchatcha Chiefs who are in Khert-Neter, be given +to him. When they find the leg and the swathings they bury them. +- +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEART OF NU, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, +BE DRIVEN AWAY FROM HIM IN KHERT-NETER. He saith:- My heart of my +mother. My heart of my mother. My heart-case of my existence upon +the earth. Let no one stand up against me when I bear testimony in the +presence of the Lords of Things. Let it not be said against me and +of that which I have done "He hath committed acts which are opposed to +what is right and true," and let not charges be brought up against +me in the presence of the Great God, the Lord of Amentet. Homage to +thee, O my heart (ab). Homage to thee, O my heart-case. Homage to you, +O my reins. Homage to you, O ye gods, who are masters of [your] +beards, and who are holy by reason of your sceptres. Speak ye for me +words of good import to Ra, and make ye me to have favour in the sight +of Nehebkau. + +BREATHING_THE_AIR +- + THE CHAPTER OF BREATHING THE AIR AND OF HAVING POWER OVER WATER IN +KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- Open to me! Who art thou? +Whither goest thou? What is thy name? I am one of you. Who are these +with you? The two Merti goddesses (Isis and Nephthys). Thou separatest +head from head when [he] entereth the divine Mesqen chamber. He +causeth me to set out for the temple of the gods Kem-heru. +"Assembler of souls" is the name of my ferry-boat. "Those who make the +hair to bristle" is the name of the oars. "Sert" ("Goad") is the +name of the hold. "Steering straight in the middle" is the name of the +rudder; likewise, [the boat] is a type of my being borne onward in the +lake. Let there be given unto me vessels of milk, and cakes, and +loaves of bread, and cups of drink, and flesh, in the Temple of Anpu. +- + RUBRIC: If the deceased knoweth this Chapter, he shall go into, +after coming forth from Khert-Neter of [the Beautiful Amentet]. + +SNUFFING_THE_AIR_IN_KHERT_NETER +- + THE CHAPTER OF SNUFFING THE AIR, AND OF HAVING POWER OVER THE +WATER IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, thou Sycamore +tree of the goddess Nut! Give me of the [water and of the] air which +is in thee. I embrace that throne which is in Unu, and I keep guard +over the Egg of Nekek-ur. It flourisheth, and I flourish; it liveth, +and I live; it snuffeth the air, and I snuff the air, I the Osiris +Ani, whose word is truth, in [peace]. + +NOT_DYING_A_SECOND_TIME +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT DYING A SECOND TIME IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris +Ani saith:- My hiding place is opened, my hiding place is opened. +The Spirits fall headlong in the darkness, but the Eye of Horus hath +made me holy, and Upuati hath nursed me. I will hide myself among you, +O ye stars which are imperishable. My brow is like the brow of Ra. +My face is open. My heart-case is upon its throne, I know how to utter +words. In very truth I am Ra himself. I am not a man of no account. +I am not a man to whom violence can be done. Thy father liveth for +thee, O son of Nut. I am thy son, O great one, I have seen the +hidden things which are thine. I am crowned upon my throne like the +king of the gods. I shall not die a second time in Khert-Neter. + +NOT_ROTTING_IN_KHERT_NETER +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT ROTTING IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- +O thou who art motionless, O thou who art motionless, O thou whose +members are motionless, like unto those of Osiris. Thy members shall +not be motionless, they shall not rot, they shall not crumble away, +they shall not fall into decay. My members shall be made [permanent] +for me as if I were Osiris. +- + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known by the deceased he shall never +see corruption in Khert-Neter. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 18) +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE BODY PERISH. The Osiris Nu saith:- +Homage to thee, O my divine father Osiris! I come to embalm thee. Do +thou embalm these my members, for I would not perish and come to an +end [but would be] even like unto my divine father Khepera, the divine +type of him that never saw corruption. Come then, strengthen my +breath, O Lord of the winds, who dost magnify these divine beings +who are like unto thyself. Stablish me, stablish me, and fashion me +strongly, O Lord of the funeral chest. Grant thou that I may enter +into the land of everlastingness, according to that which was done for +thee, along with thy father Tem, whose body never saw corruption, +and who himself never saw corruption. I have never done that which +thou hatest, nay, I have acclaimed thee among those who love thy KA. +Let not my body become worms, but deliver thou me as thou didst +deliver thyself. I pray thee, let me not fall into rottenness, as thou +lettest every god, and every goddess, and every animal, and every +reptile, see corruption, when the soul hath gone out of them, after +their death. + And when the soul hath departed, a man seeth corruption, and the +bones of his body crumble away and become stinking things, and the +members decay one after the other, the bones crumble into a helpless +mass, and the flesh turneth into foetid liquid. Thus man becometh a +brother unto the decay which cometh upon him, and he turneth into a +myriad of worms, and he becometh nothing but worms, and an end is made +of him, and perisheth in the sight of the god of day (Shu), even as do +every god, and every goddess, and every bird, and every fish, and +every creeping worm, and every reptile, and every beast, and every +thing whatsoever. Let [all the Spirits fall] on their bellies [when] +they recognize me, and behold, the fear of me shall terrify them; +and thus also let it be with every being that hath died, whether it be +animal, or bird, or fish, or worm, or reptile. Let life [rise out +of] death. Let not the decay caused by any reptile make an end [of +me], and let not [enemies] come against me in their various forms. +Give thou me not over to the Slaughterer in this execution-chamber, +who killeth the members, and maketh them rot, being [himself] +invisible, and who destroyeth the bodies of the dead, and liveth by +carnage. Let me live, and perform his order; I will do what is +commanded by him. Give me not over to his fingers, let him not +overcome me, for I am under thy command, O Lord of the Gods. + Homage to thee, O my divine father Osiris, thou livest with thy +members. Thou didst not decay, thou didst not become worms, thou didst +not wither, thou didst not rot, thou didst not putrefy, thou didst not +turn into worms. I am the god Khepera, and my members shall have being +everlastingly. I shall not decay, I shall not rot, I shall not +putrefy, I shall not turn into worms, and I shall not see corruption +before the eye of the god Shu. I shall have my being, I shall have +by being; I shall live, I shall live; I shall flourish, I shall +flourish, I shall flourish, I shall wake up in peace, I shall not +putrefy, my intestines shall not perish, I shall not suffer injury. My +eye shall not decay. The form of my face shall not disappear. My ear +shall not become deaf. My head shall not be separated from my neck. My +tongue shall not be removed. My hair shall not be cut off. My eyebrows +shall not be shaved away, and no evil defect shall assail me. My +body shall be stablished. It shall neither become a ruin, nor be +destroyed on this earth. + +NOT_PERISHING +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT PERISHING AND OF BEING ALIVE IN KHERT-NETER. +The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail ye children of the god Shu. The Tuat +hath gained the mastery over his diadem. Among the Hamemet Spirits may +I arise, even as did arise Osiris. + +NOT_GOING_TO_THE_BLOCK_OF_THE_GOD +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT GOING IN TO THE BLOCK OF THE GOD. The Osiris +Ani saith:- My head was fastened on my body in heaven, O Guardian of +the Earth, by Ra. [This] was granted [to me] on the day of my being +stablished, when I rose up out of a state of weakness upon [my] two +feet. On the day of cutting off the hair Set and the Company of the +Gods fastened my head to my neck, and it became as firm as it was +originally. Let nothing happen to shake it off again! Make ye me +safe from the murderer of my father. I have tied together the Two +Earths. Nut hath fastened together the vertebrae of my neck, and [I] +behold them as they were originally, and they are seen in the order +wherein they were when as yet Maat was not seen, and when the gods +were not born in visible forms. I am Penti. I am the heir of the great +gods, I the Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth. + +NOT_BEING_TRANSPORTED_TO_THE_EAST +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT BEING TRANSPORTED TO THE EAST IN KHERT-NETER. The +Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, Phallus of Ra, which advanceth and beateth +down opposition. Things which have been without motion for millions of +years have come into life through Baba. I am stronger thereby than the +strong, and I have more power thereby than the mighty. Now, let me not +be carried away in a boat, or be seized violently and taken to the +East, to have the festivals of Sebau Devils celebrated on me. Let +not deadly wounds be inflicted upon me, and let me not be gored by +horns. Thou shalt neither fall [nor] eat fish made by Tebun. +- + Now, no evil thing of any kind whatsoever shall be done unto me by +the Sebau Devils. [I shall not be gored by] horns. Therefore the +Phallus of Ra, [which is] the head of Osiris, shall not be swallowed +up. Behold, I shall come into me fields and I shall cut the grain. The +gods shall provide me with food. Thou shalt not then be gored, +Ra-Khepera. There shall not be then pus in the Eye of Tem, and it +shall not be destroyed. Violence shall not be done unto me, and I +shall not be carried away in [my] boat to the East to have the +festivals of the Sebau Devils celebrated on me in evil fashion. +Cruel gashes with knives shall not be inflicted upon me, and I shall +not be carried away in [my] boat to the East. I the Osiris, the +assessor of the holy offerings of all the gods, Ani, whose word is +truth, happily, the lord of fealty [to Osiris]. + +NOT_LETTING_THE_HEAD_BE_CUT_OFF +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE HEAD OF A MAN BE CUT OFF FROM HIS +BODY IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- I am a Great One, the +son of a Great One. [I am] Fire, the son of Fire, to whom was given +his head after it had been cut off. The head of Osiris was not removed +from his body, and the head of Osiris Ani shall not be removed from +his body. I have knitted myself together, I have made myself whole and +complete. I shall renew my youth. I am Osiris Himself, the Lord of +Eternity. + +UNITING_THE_SOUL_TO_ITS_BODY +- + THE CHAPTER OF MAKING THE SOUL TO BE JOINED TO ITS BODY IN +KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, thou god Aniu! Hail, thou +god Pehreri, who dwellest in thy hall, the Great God. Grant thou +that my soul may come to me from any place wherein it may be. Even +if it would tarry, let my soul be brought unto me from any place +wherein it may be. Thou findest the Eye of Horus standing by thee like +unto those beings who resemble Osiris, who never lie down in death. +Let not the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, lie down dead among those +who lie in Anu, the land wherein [souls] are joined to their bodies in +thousands. Let me have possession of my Ba-soul and of my Spirit-soul, +and let my word be truth with it (the Ba-soul) in every place +wherein it may be. Observe then, O ye guardians of Heaven, my soul +[wherever it may be]. Even if it would tarry, cause thou my Ba-soul to +see my body. Thou shalt find the Eye of Horus standing by thee like +[the Watchers]. + Hail, ye gods who tow along the boat of the Lord of Millions of +Years, who bring it over the sky of the Tuat, who make it to journey +over Nent, who make Ba-souls to enter into their Spirit-bodies, +whose hands hold the steering poles and guide it straight, who grasp +tightly your paddles, destroy ye the Enemy; thus shall the Boat +rejoice, and the Great God shall travel on his way in peace. Moreover, +grant ye that the Ba-soul of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth +before the gods, may come forth with your navel cords in the eastern +part of the sky, and that it may follow Ra to the place where he was +yesterday, and may set in peace, in peace in Amentet. May it gaze upon +its earthly body, may it take up its abode and its Spirit-body, may it +neither perish nor be destroyed for ever and for ever. +- + RUBRIC: These words shall be said over a model of the Ba-soul made +of gold, and inlaid with precious stones, which shall be placed on the +breast of the Osiris. +- + +NOT_LETTING_THE_SOUL_BE_HELD_CAPTIVE +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT LETTING THE SOUL OF A MAN BE HELD CAPTIVE IN +KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, thou who art exalted! +Hail, thou who art adored! Hail, Mighty One of Souls, thou divine Soul +who inspirest great dread, who dost set the fear of thyself in the +gods, who are enthroned upon thy mighty seat. Make thou a path for the +Spirit-soul and the Ba-soul of the Osiris Ani. I am equipped with +[words of power]. I am a Spirit-soul equipped with [words of power]. I +have made my way to the place where are Ra and Hathor. +- + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known by the deceased he shall be able to +transform himself into a Spirit-soul who shall be equipped with [his +soul and his shadow] in Khert-Neter, and he shall not be shut up +inside any door in Amentet, when he is coming forth upon the Earth, or +when he is going back into [Khert-Neter.] + +OPENING_THE_TOMB_TO_THE_BA_SOUL +- + THE CHAPTER OF OPENING THE TOMB TO THE BA-SOUL AND THE SHADOW, AND +OF COMING FORTH BY DAY, AND OF HAVING MASTERY OVER THE TWO LEGS. The +Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- The place which is +closed is opened, the place which is shut (or sealed) is sealed. +That which lieth down in the closed place is opened by the Ba-soul +which is in it. By the Eye of Horus I am delivered. Ornaments are +stablished on the brow of Ra. My stride is made long. I lift up my two +thighs [in walking]. I have journeyed over a long road. My limbs are +in a flourishing condition. I am Horus, the Avenger of his Father, and +I bring the Urrt Crown [and set it on] its standard. The road of souls +is opened. My twin soul seeth the Great God in the Boat of Ra, on +the day of souls. My soul is in the front thereof with the counter +of the years. Come, the Eye of Horus hath delivered for me my soul, my +ornaments are stablished on the brow of Ra. Light is on the faces of +those who are in the members of Osiris. Ye shall not hold captive my +soul. Ye shall not keep in durance my shadow. The way is open to my +soul and to my shadow. It seeth the Great God in the shrine on the day +of counting souls. It repeateth the words of Osiris. Those whose seats +are invisible, who fetter the members of Osiris, who fetter +Heart-souls and Spirit-souls, who set a seal upon the dead, and who +would do evil to me, shall do no evil to me. Haste on the way to me. +Thy heart is with thee. My Heart-soul and my Spirit-soul are equipped; +they guide thee. I sit down at the head of the great ones who are +chiefs of their abodes. The wardens of the members of Osiris shall not +hold thee captive, though they keep ward over souls, and set a seal on +the shadow which is dead. Heaven shall not shut thee in. +- + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known by the deceased he shall come forth +by day, and his soul shall not be kept captive. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papryus of Nebseni, Sheet 6) +- + That which was shut hath been opened [that is] the dead. That +which was shut fast hath been opened by the command of the Eye of +Horus, which hath delivered me. Established are the beauties on the +forehead of Ra. My steps are long. My legs are lifted up. I have +performed the journey, my members are mighty and are sound. I am +Horus, the Avenger of his Father. I am he who bringeth along his +father, and his mother, by means of his staff. The way shall be opened +to him that hath power over his feet, and he shall see the Great God +in the Boat of Ra, when souls are counted therein at the bows, and +when the years also are counted up. Grant that the Eye of Horus, which +maketh the adornments of splendour to be firm on the forehead of Ra, +may deliver my soul for me, and let darkness cover your faces, O ye +who would imprison Osiris. O keep not captive my soul. O keep not ward +over my shadow, but let a way be opened for my soul and my shadow, and +let them see the Great God in the shrine on the day of the counting of +souls, and let them hold converse with Osiris, whose habitations are +hidden, and those who guard the members of Osiris, and who keep ward +over the Spirit-souls, and who hold captive the shadows of the dead, +and who would work evil against me, so that they shall [not] work evil +against me. A way shall be for KA with thee, and thy soul shall be +prepared by those who keep ward over the members of Osiris, and who +hold captive the shadows of the dead. Heaven shall not keep thee fast, +the earth shall not hold thee captive. Thou shalt not live with the +beings who slay, but thou shalt be master of thy legs, and thou +shalt advance to thy body straightway in the earth, [and to] those who +belong to the shrine of Osiris and guard his members. + +LIFTING_UP_THE_FEET_AND_APPEARING_ON_THE_EARTH +- + THE CHAPTER OF LIFTING UP THE FEET, AND OF COMING FORTH ON THE +EARTH. The Osiris Ani saith:- Perform thy work, O Seker, perform thy +work, O Seker, O thou who dwellest in thy circle, and who dwellest +in my feet in Khert-Neter. I am he who sendeth forth light over the +Thigh of heaven. I come forth in heaven. I sit down by the Light-god +(Khu). O I am helpless. O I am helpless. I would walk. I am +helpless. I am helpless in the regions of those who plunder in +Khert-Neter, I the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace. + +MAKING_A_WAY_THROUGH_AMENTET_BY_DAY +- + THE CHAPTER OF FORCING A WAY INTO AMENTET [AND OF COMING FORTH] BY +DAY. The Osiris Ani saith:- The town of Unu is opened. My head is +sealed up, Thoth. Perfect is the Eye of Horus. I have delivered the +Eye of Horus which shineth with splendours on the brow of Ra, the +Father of the gods, [I am] that self-same Osiris, [the dweller in] +Amentet. Osiris knoweth his day, and he knoweth that he shall live +through his period of life; I shall have by being with him. I am the +Moon-god Aah, the dweller among the gods. I shall not come to an +end. Stand up therefore, O Horus, for thou art counted among the gods. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (Naville, op. cit., I, Bl. X) +- + THE CHAPTER OF FORCING A WAY INTO THE TUAT. The Am Khent priest +Nefer-uben-f, whose word is truth, saith:- Hail, Soul, thou mighty one +of terror. Behold, I have come unto thee. I see thee. I have forced +a way through the Tuat. I see my father Osiris. I drive away the +darkness. I love him. I have come. I see my father Osiris. He hath +counted the heart of Set. I have made offerings for my father +Osiris. I have opened all the ways in heaven and on earth. I love him. +I have come. I have become a Spirit-body and a Spirit-soul, who is +equipped. Hail, every god and every Spirit-soul, I have made the ways. +I am Thoth.... +- +- + ANOTHER CHAPTER OF THE TUAT AND OF COMING FORTH BY DAY. +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} + Open is the land of Unu. Shut is the head of Thoth. Perfect is the +Eye of Horus. I have delivered the Eye of Horus, the shining one, +the ornament of the Eye of Ra, the Father of the Gods. I am that +same Osiris who dwelleth in Amentet. Osiris knoweth his day, which +cometh to an end. I am Set, the Father of the Gods. I shall never come +to an end. + +COMING_FORTH_BY_DAY_&_LIVING_AFTER_DEATH +- + THE CHAPTER OF COMING FORTH BY DAY AND OF LIVING AFTER DEATH. The +Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, thou One, who shinest from the moon. Hail, +thou One, who shinest from the moon. Grant that this Osiris Ani may +come forth among thy multitudes who are at the portal. Let him be with +the Light-God. Let the Tuat be opened to him. Behold, the Osiris Ani +shall come forth by day to perform everything which he wisheth upon +the earth among those who are living [thereon]. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 13) +- + Hail, thou god Tem, who comest forth from the Great Deep, who +shinest gloriously under the form of the twin Lion-gods, send forth +with might thy words unto those who are in thy presence, and let the +Osiris Nu enter into their assembly. He hath performed the decree +which hath been spoken to the mariners at eventide, and the Osiris Nu, +whose word is truth, shall live after his death, even as doth Ra every +day. Behold, most certainly Ra was born yesterday, and the Osiris Nu +was born yesterday. And every god shall rejoice in the life of the +Osiris Nu, even as they rejoice in the life of Ptah, when he appeareth +from the Great House of the Aged One which is in Anu. + +COMING_FORTH_AFTER_PASSING_THROUGH_THE_AAMHET +- + THE CHAPTER OF COMING FORTH BY DAY AFTER FORCING AN ENTRANCE THROUGH +THE AAMHET. The Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, Soul, thou mighty one of +terror! Verily, I am here. I have come. I behold thee. I have passed +through the Tuat. I have seen Father Osiris. I have scattered the +gloom of night. I am his beloved one. I have come, I have seen my +Father Osiris. I have stabbed the heart of Suti. I have made offerings +to my Father Osiris. I have opened every way in heaven and on the +earth. I am the son who loveth his Fathers (sic) Osiris. I am a +Spirit-body. I am a Spirit-soul. I am equipped. Hail, every god and +every Spirit-soul. I have made the way [to Osiris]. I the Osiris the +scribe Ani, whose word is truth. + +MAKING_MAN_TO_RETURN_TO_LOOK_UPON_HIS_HOUSE +- + THE CHAPTER OF MAKING A MAN TO RETURN TO LOOK UPON HIS HOUSE ON +EARTH. The Osiris Ani saith:- I am the Lion-god who cometh forth +with long strides. I have shot arrows, and I have wounded my prey. I +have shot arrows, and I have wounded my prey. I am the Eye of Horus, I +traverse the Eye of Horus at this season. I have arrived at the +domains. Grant that the Osiris Ani may come in peace. + +MAN_COMING_FORTH_BY_DAY_AGAINST_HIS_ENEMIES +- + ANOTHER CHAPTER OF THE COMING FORTH OF A MAN BY DAY AGAINST HIS +ENEMIES IN KHERT-NETER. [The Osiris Ani saith:-] I have divided the +heavens. I have cleft the horizon. I have traversed the earth +[following in] his footsteps. I have conquered the mighty Spirit-souls +because I am equipped for millions of years with words of power. I eat +with my mouth. I evacuate with my body. Behold, I am the God of the +Tuat! Let these things be given unto me, the Osiris Ani, in perpetuity +withou fail or diminution. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 21) +- + THE CHAPTER OF COMING FORTH AGAINST ENEMIES IN KHERT-NETER. The +Osiris Nu saith:- Hail, Am-a-f (Eater of his arm), I have passed +over the road. I am Ra. I have come forth from the horizon against +my enemies. I have not permitted him to escape from me. I have +stretched out my hand like that of the Lord of the Urrt Crown. I +have lifted up my feet even as the Uraei-goddesses lift themselves up. +I have not permitted the enemy [to be saved] from me. As for mine +enemy, he hath been given to me, and he shall not be delivered from +me. I stand up like Horus. I sit down like Ptah. I am strong like +Thoth. I am mighty like Tem. I walk with my legs. I speak with my +mouth. I chase my enemy. He hath been given unto me, and he shall +not be delivered from me. + +HYMN_TO_RA_WHEN_HE_RISETH_AND_SETTETH +- + A HYMN OF PRAISE TO RA WHEN HE RISETH UPON THE HORIZON, AND WHEN +HE SETTETH IN THE LAND OF LIFE. Osiris the scribe Ani saith:- Homage +to thee, O Ra, when thou risest as Tem-Heru-Khuti. Thou art to be +adored. Thy beauties are before mine eyes, [thy] radiance is upon my +body. Thou goest forth to thy setting in the Sektet Boat with [fair] +winds, and thy heart is glad; the heart of the Matet Boat rejoiceth. +Thou stridest over the heavens in peace, and all thy foes are cast +down; the stars which never rest sing hymns of praise unto thee, and +the stars which are imperishable glorify thee as thou sinkest to +rest in the horizon of Manu, O thou who art beautiful at morn and at +eve, O thou lord who livest, and art established, O my Lord! + Homage to thee, O thou who art Ra when thou risest, and who art +Tem when thou settest in beauty. Thou risest and thou shinest on the +back of thy mother [Nut], O thou who art crowned the king of the gods! +Nut welcometh thee, and payeth homage unto thee, and Maat, the +everlasting and never-changing goddess, embraceth thee at noon and +at eve. Thou stridest over the heavens, being glad at heart, and the +Lake of Testes is content. The Sebau-fiend hath fallen to the +ground, his fore-legs and his hind-legs have been hacked off him, +and the knife hath severed the joints of his back. Ra hath a fair +wind, and the Sektet Boat setteth out on its journey, and saileth on +until it cometh into port. The gods of the South, the gods of the +North, the gods of the West, and the gods of the East praise thee, O +thou Divine Substance, from whom all living things came into being. +Thou didst send forth the word when the earth was submerged with +silence, O thou Only One, who didst dwell in heaven before ever the +earth and the mountains came into being. Hail, thou Runner, Lord, Only +One, thou maker of the things that are, thou hast fashioned the tongue +of the Company of the Gods, thou hast produced whatsoever cometh forth +from the waters, thou springest up out of them above the submerged +land of the Lake of Horus. Let me breathe the air which cometh forth +from thy nostrils, and the north wind which cometh forth from thy +mother Nut. Make thou my Spirit-soul to be glorious, O Osiris, make +thou my Heart-soul to be divine. Thou art worshipped as thou +settest, O Lord of the gods, thou art exalted by reason of thy +wondrous works. Shine thou with the rays of light upon my body day +by day, upon me, Osiris the scribe, the assessor of the divine +offerings of all the gods, the overseer of the granary of the Lords of +Abydos, the real royal scribe who loveth thee, Ani, whose word is +truth, in peace. + Praise be unto thee, O Osiris, the Lord of Eternity, Un-Nefer, +Heru-Khuti (Harmakhis), whose forms are manifold, whose attributes are +majestic [Praise be unto thee], O thou who art Ptah-Seker-Tem in +Anu, thou Lord of the hidden shrine, thou Creator of the House of +the KA of Ptah (Het-ka-Ptah) and of the gods [therein], thou Guide +of the Tuat, who art glorified when thou settest in Nu (the Sky). Isis +embraceth thee in peace, and she driveth away the fiends from the +entrances of thy paths. Thou turnest thy face towards Amentet, and +thou makest the earth to shine as with refined copper. Those who +have lain down in death rise up to see thee, they breathe the air, and +they look upon thy face when the disk riseth on the horizon. Their +hearts are at peace since they behold thee, o thou who art Eternity +and Everlastingness. + +THE_SOLAR_LITANY + THE SOLAR LITANY +- + Homage to you, O ye gods of the Dekans in Anu, and to you, O ye +Hememet-spirits in Kher Aha, and to thee, O Unti, who art the most +glorious of all the gods who are hidden in Anu, + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. +- + Homage to thee, O An in Antes, Heru-khuti, who dost with long +strides march across the heavens, + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. + {THE_SOLAR_LITANY ^paragraph 5} +- + Homage to thee, O Everlasting Soul, thou Soul who dwellest in +Tetu, Un-Nefer, the son of Nut, who art the Lord of Akert, + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have done +aught with deceit. +- + Homage to thee in thy dominion over Tetu, upon whose brow the Urrt +Crown is established, thou One who createst the strength to protect +thyself, and who dwellest in peace, + {THE_SOLAR_LITANY ^paragraph 10} + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. +- + Homage to thee, O Lord of the Acacia Tree, whose Seker Boat is set +upon its sledge, who turnest back the Fiend, the Evildoer, and dost +cause the Eye of Ra (utchat) to rest upon its seat, + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. +- + {THE_SOLAR_LITANY ^paragraph 15} + Homage to thee, O thou who art mighty in thine hour, thou great +and mighty Prince who dost dwell in Anrutef, thou Lord of Eternity and +Creator of the Everlastingness, thou Lord of Hensu, + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. +- + Homage to thee, O thou who restest upon Truth, thou Lord of Abtu, +whose limbs form the substance of Ta-tchesert, unto whom fraud and +deceit are abominations, + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. + {THE_SOLAR_LITANY ^paragraph 20} +- + Homage to thee, O thou who dwellest in thy boat, who dost bring Hapi +(the Nile) forth from his cavern, whose body is the light, and who +dwellest in Nekhen, + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. +- + Homage to thee, O thou Creator of the gods, thou King of the South +and North, Osiris, whose word is truth, who rulest the world by thy +gracious goodness, thou Lord of the Atebui, + {THE_SOLAR_LITANY ^paragraph 25} + O grant thou unto me a path whereover I may pass in peace, for I +am just and true; I have not spoken falsehood wittingly, nor have I +done aught with deceit. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Saite Recension, ed. Lepsius, Bl. V) +- + Homage to thee, O thou who comest as Tem, who didst come into +being to create the Company of the Gods. + Homage to thee, O thou who comest as the Soul of Souls, the Holy One +in Amentet. + Homage to thee, O President of the Gods, who illuminest the Tuat +with thy beauties. + Homage to thee, O thou who comest as the Light-god, who travellest +in thy Disk. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} + Homage to thee, O thou greatest of all gods, who are crowned King in +heaven, Governor in the Tuat. + Homage to thee, O thou who makest a way through the Tuat, who dost +lead the way through all doors. + Homage to thee, O thou who art among the gods, who dost weigh +words in Khert-Neter. + Homage to thee, O thou who dwellest in thy secret places, who dost +fashion the Tuat with thy might. + Homage to thee, O great one, O mighty one, thine enemies have fallen +in places where they were smitten. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 10} + Homage to thee, O thou who hast hacked the Sebau-fiends in pieces, +and hast annihilated Aapep. + Grant thou the sweet breeze of the north wind to the Osiris +Auf-ankh, whose word is truth. + +HYMN_TO_RA_WHEN_HE_RISETH_AND_TO_THOSE_IN_HIS_TRAIN +- + A HYMN OF PRAISE TO RA WHEN HE RISETH IN THE EASTERN PART OF HEAVEN. +Those who are in his following rejoice, and the Osiris, the scribe +Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- Hail, thou Disk, thou lord of +rays, who risest on the horizon day by day. Shine thou with thy +beams of light upon the face of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, +for he singeth hymns of praise to thee at dawn, and he maketh thee +to sit at eventide [with words of adoration]. May the soul of the +Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, come forth with thee into heaven! May +he set out with thee in the Matet Boat [in the morning], may he come +into port in the Sektet Boat [in the evening], and may he cleave his +path among the stars of heaven which never rest. + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, being at peace [with his +god], maketh adoration to his Lord, the Lord of Eternity, and +saith:- Homage to thee, O Heru-khuti, who art the god Khepera, the +self-created. When thou risest on the horizon and sheddest thy beams +of light upon the Lands of the South and of the North, thou art +beautiful, yea beautiful, and all the gods rejoice when they behold +thee, the king of heaven. The goddess, the Lady of the Hour, is +stablished upon thy head, her Uraei of the South and of the North +are upon thy brow, and she taketh up her place before thee. The god +Thoth is stablished in the bows of thy boat to destroy utterly all thy +foes. Those who dwell in the Tuat come forth to meet thee, and they +bow to the earth in homage as they come towards thee, to look upon thy +beautiful Form. And I, Ani, have come into thy presence, so that I may +be with thee, and may behold thy Disk every day. Let me not be kept +captive [by the tomb], and let me not be turned back [on my way]. +Let the members of my body be made new again when I contemplate thy +beauties, even as are the members of all thy favoured ones, because +I am one of those who worshipped thee upon earth. Let me arrive in the +Land of Eternity, let me enter into the Land of Everlastingness. This, +O my Lord, behold thou shalt ordain for me. + AND MOREOVER, THE OSIRIS ANI, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, IN PEACE, THE +TRUTH-SPEAKER, SAITH:- Homage to thee, O thou who risest on thy +horizon in the form of Ra, who restest upon Law, [which can neither be +changed nor altered]. Thou passest over the sky, and every face, +watcheth thee and thy course, for thou thyself art hidden from their +gaze. Thou dost show thyself [to them] at dawn and at eventide each +day. The Sektet Boat, wherein Thy Majesty dwelleth, setteth forth on +its journey with vigour. Thy beams [fall] upon all faces, thy light +with its manifold colours is incomprehensible [to man], and thy +brilliant rays cannot be reported. The Lands of the Gods see thee, +they could write [concerning thee]; the Deserts of Punt could count +thee. Thy creation is hidden. It is one by the opening of thy mouth. +Thy form is the head of Nu. May he (Ani) advance, even as thou dost +advance, without cessation, even as Thy Majesty [ceaseth not to +advance] even for a moment. With great strides thou dost in one little +moment pass over limitless distances which would need millions and +hundreds of thousands of years [for a man to pass over; this] thou +doest, and then thou sinkest to rest. Thou bringest to an end the +hours of the night, even as thou stridest over them. Thou bringest +them to an end by thine own ordinance, and dawn cometh on the earth. +Thou settest thyself before thy handiwork in the form of Ra, and +thou rollest up on the horizon....... Thou sendest forth light when +thy form raiseth itself up, thou ordainest the increase of thy +splendours. Thou mouldest thy limbs as thou advancest, thou bringest +them forth, thou who wast never brought forth, in the form of Ra, +who rolleth up into the height of heaven. Grant thou that I may +reach the heaven of eternity, and the region where thy favoured ones +dwell. May I unite with those holy and perfect Spirit-souls of +Khert-Neter. May I come forth with them to behold thy beauties as thou +rollest on at eventide, as thou journeyest to thy mother Nut (the +Night-sky), and dost place thyself at the right hand (in the West). My +two hands are raised to thee in praise and thanksgiving when thou +settest in life. Behold, thou art the Creator of Eternity, who art +adored when thou settest in Nu. I have set thee in my heart, without +wavering, O thou who art more divine than the gods. + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- Praise and thanksgiving +be unto thee, O thou who rollest on like unto gold, thou Illuminer +of the Two Lands on the day of thy birth. Thy mother brought thee +forth on her hand, and thou didst light up with splendour the circle +which is travelled over by the Disk. O Great Light who rollest +across Nu, thou dost raise up the generations of men from the deep +source of thy waters, and dost make to keep festivals all districts +and cities, and all habitations. Thou protectest [them] with thy +beauties. Thy KA riseth up with the celestial food hu and tchefau. O +thou mightily victorious one, thou Power of Powers, who makest +strong thy throne against the sinful ones, whose risings on thy throne +in the Sektet Boat are mighty, whose strength is widespread in the +Atett Boat, make thou the Osiris Ani to be glorious by virtue of his +word, which is truth, in Khert-Neter. Grant thou that he may be in +Amentet free from evil, and let [his] offences be [set] behind thee. +Grant thou that he may [live there] a devoted slave of the +Spirit-souls. Let him mingle among the Heart-souls who live in +Ta-tchesert (the Holy Land). Let him travel about in the Sekhet-Aaru +(the Elysian Fields), conformably to [thy] decree with joy of heart- +him the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. + [And the god maketh answer]:--Thou shalt come forth into heaven, +thou shalt sail over the sky, and thou shalt hold loving intercourse +with the Star-gods. Praises shall be made to thee in the Boat. Thy +name shall be proclaimed in the Atett Boat. Thou shalt look upon Ra +within his shrine. Thou shalt make the Disk to set [with prayer] every +day. Thou shalt see the Ant Fish in his transformations in the +depths of the waters of turquoise. Thou shalt see the Abtu Fish in his +time. It shall be that the Evil One shall fall when he deviseth a plan +to destroy thee, and the joints of his neck and back shall be hacked +asunder. Ra saileth with a fair wind, and the Sektet Boat +progresseth and cometh into port. The mariners of Ra rejoice, and +the heart of the Lady of the Hour is glad, for the enemy of her Lord +hath been cast to the ground. Thou shalt behold Horus standing on +the pilot's place in the Boat, and Thoth and Maat shall stand one on +each side of him. All the gods shall rejoice when they behold Ra +coming in peace to make the hearts of the Spirit-souls to live, and +the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, the assessor of the holy +offerings of the Lords of Thebes, shall be with them! + +THE_NEW_MOON + THE CHAPTER OF THE NEW MOON +- + THE FOLLOWING IS TO BE RECITED ON THE DAY OF THE MONTH (NEW MOON +DAY). The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, in peace, +whose word is truth, saith:- Ra ascendeth his throne on his horizon, +and the Company of his Gods follow in his train. The God cometh +forth from his hidden place, [and] tchefau food falleth from the +eastern horizon of heaven at the word of Nut. They (the gods) +rejoice over the paths of Ra, the Great Ancestor [as] he journeyeth +round about. Therefore art thou exalted, O Ra, the dweller in thy +Shrine. Thou swallowest the winds, thou drawest into thyself the north +wind, thou eatest up the flesh of thy seat on the day when thou +breathest truth. Thou dividest [it among] the gods who are [thy] +followers. [Thy] Boat saileth on travelling among the Great Gods at +thy word. Thou countest thy bones, thou gatherest together thy +members, thou settest thy face towards Beautiful Amentet, and thou +comest there, being made new every day. Behold, thou art that Image of +Gold, thou hast the unitings of the disks of the sky, thou hast +quakings, thou goest round about, and art made new each day. Hail! +There is rejoicing in the horizon! The gods who dwell in the sky +descend the ropes [of thy Boat] when they see the Osiris Ani, whose +word is truth, they ascribe praise unto him as unto Ra. The Osiris Ani +is a Great Chief. [He] seeketh the Urrt Crown. His provisions are +apportioned to him- the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. [His] fate is +strong from the exalted body of the Aamu gods, who are in the presence +of Ra. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is strong on the earth and +in Khert-Neter. O Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, wake up, and be +strong like unto Ra every day. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, +shall not tarry, he shall not remain motionless in this land for ever. +Right well shall he see with his two eyes, right well shall he hear +with his two ears, the things which are true, the things which are +true. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is in Anu, the Osiris +Ani, whose word is truth, is as Ra, and he is exalted by reason of +[his] oars among the Followers of Nu. The Osiris Ani, whose word is +truth, cannot tell what he hath seen [or] narrate [what he hath heard] +in the House of the God of Mysteries. Hail! Let there be shouts of +acclamation of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, the divine body of +Ra in the Boat of Nu, who beareth propitiatory offerings for the KA of +the god of that which he loveth. The Osiris Ani, whose word is +truth, in peace, whose word is truth, is like Horus, the mighty one of +transformations. +- + RUBRIC: This Chapter is to be recited over a boat seven cubits long, +made of green stone of the Tchatchau. Make a heaven of stars, and +purify it and cleanse it with natron and incense. Make then a figure +of Ra upon a tablet of new stone in paint, and set it in the bows of +the boat. Then make a figure of the deceased whom thou wilt make +perfect, [and place it] in the boat. Make it to sail in the Boat of +Ra, and Ra himself shall look upon it. Do not these things in the +presence of any one except thyself, or thy father, or thy son. Then +let them keep guard over their faces, and they shall see the +deceased in Khert-Neter in the form of a messenger of Ra. + +HYMN_TO_RA_FOR_THE_DAY_OF_THE_NEW_MOON +- + A HYMN TO RA [WHICH IS TO BE SUNG] ON THE DAY OF THE MONTH (THE +DAY OF THE NEW MOON) [WHEN] THE BOAT OF RA SAILETH. [The Osiris the +scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:-] Homage to thee, O thou who +dwellest in thy Boat. Thou rollest on, thou rollest on, thou sendest +forth light, thou sendest forth light. Thou decreest rejoicing for +[every] man for millions of years unto those who love him. Thou givest +[thy] face to the Hememet spirits, thou god Khepera who dwellest in +thy Boat. Thou hast overthrown the Fiend Aapep. O ye Sons of Keb, +overthrow ye the enemies of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, and +the fiends of destruction who would destroy the Boat of Ra. Horus hath +cut off your heads in heaven. Ye who were in the forms of geese, +your navel strings are on the earth. The animals are set upon the +earth..... in the form of fish. Every male fiend and every female +fiend shall be destroyed by the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. +Whether the fiends descend from out of heaven, or whether they come +forth from the earth, or whether they advance on the waters, or +whether they come from among the Star-gods, Thoth, [the son of +Aner], coming forth from Anerti shall hack them to pieces. And the +Osiris Ani shall make them silent and dumb. And behold ye, this god, +the mighty one of slaughters, the terror of whom is most great, +shall wash himself clean in your blood, and he shall bathe in your +gore, and ye shall be destroyed by the Osiris Ani in the Boat of his +Lord Ra-Horus. The heart of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, shall +live. His mother Isis giveth birth to him, and Nephthys nurseth him, +just as Isis gave birth to Horus, and Nephthys nursed him. [He] +shall repulse the Smait fiends of Suti. They shall see the Urrt +Crown stablished upon his head, and they shall fall down upon their +faces [and worship him]. Behold, O ye Spirit-souls, and men, and gods, +and ye dead, when ye see the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in the +form of Horus, and the favoured one of the Urrt Crown, fall ye down +upon your faces. The word of the Osiris Ani is truth before his +enemies in heaven above, and on earth beneath, and before the +Tchatchau Chiefs of every god and of every goddess. +- + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a large hawk standing +upright with the White Crown upon his head, [and over figures of] Tem, +Shu, Tefnut, Keb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, [Suti] and Nephthys. And they +shall be painted in colour upon a new tablet, which shall be placed in +a boat, together with a figure of the deceased. Anoint them with heken +oil, and offer unto them burning incense, and geese, and joints of +meat roasted. It is an act of praise to Ra as he journeyeth in his +boat, and it will make a man to have his being with Ra, and to +travel with him wheresoever he goeth, and it will most certainly cause +the enemies of Ra to be slain. And the Chapter of travelling shall +be recited on the sixth day of the festival. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Turin Papyrus) +- + ANOTHER CHAPTER WHICH IS TO BE RECITED WHEN THE MOON RENEWETH ITSELF +ON THE DAY OF THE MONTH [WHEREON IT DOETH THIS]. Osiris unfettereth +the storm-cloud in the body of heaven, and is unfettered himself; +Horus is made strong happily each day. He whose transformations are +many hath had offerings made unto him at the moment, and he hath +made an end of the storm which is in the face of the Osiris, Auf-ankh, +whose word is truth. Verily, he cometh, and he is Ra in journeying, +and he is the four celestial gods in the heavens above. The Osiris +Auf-ankh, whose word is truth, cometh forth in his day, and he +embarketh among the tackle of the boat. +- + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known by the deceased he shall become a +perfect Spirit-soul in Khert-Neter, and he shall not die a second +time, and he shall eat his food side by side with Osiris. If this +Chapter be known by the deceased upon earth, he shall become like unto +Thoth, and he shall be adored by those who live. He shall not fall +headlong at the moment of the intensity of the royal flame of the +goddess Bast, and the Great Prince shall make him to advance happily. + +ADVANCING_TO_THE_TCJATCHAU_CHIEFS_OF_OSIRIS +- + THE CHAPTER OF ADVANCING TO THE TCHATCHAU CHIEFS OF OSIRIS. The +Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I have built a house for my +Ba-soul in the sanctuary in Tetu. I sow seed in the town of Pe (Buto). +I have ploughed the fields with my labourers. My palm tree [standeth +upright and is] like Menu upon it. I abominate abominable things. I +will not eat the things which are abominations unto me. What I +abominate is filth: I will not eat it. I shall not be destroyed by the +offerings of propitiation and the sepulchral meals. I will not +approach filth [to touch it] with my hands, I will not tread upon it +with my sandals. For my bread shall be made of the white barley, and +my ale shall be made from the red grain of the god Hapi (the +Nile-god), which the Sektet Boat and the Atett Boat shall bring +[unto me], and I will eat my food under the leaves of the trees +whose beautiful arms I myself do know. O what splendour shall the +White Crown make for me which shall be lifted up on me by the +Uraei-goddesses! O Doorkeeper of Sehetep-taui, bring thou to me that +wherewith the cakes of propitiation are made. Grant thou to me that +I may lift up the earth. May the Spirit-souls open to me [their] arms, +and let the Company of the Gods hold their peace whilst the Hememet +spirits hold converse with the Osiris Ani. May the hearts of the +gods lead him in his exalted state into heaven among the gods who +appear in visible forms. If any god, or any goddess, attack the Osiris +Ani, whose word is truth, when he setteth out, the Ancestor of the +year who liveth upon hearts [Osiris] shall eat him when he cometh +forth from Abydos, and the Ancestors of Ra shall reckon with him, +and the Ancestors of Light shall reckon with him. [He is] a god of +splendour [arrayed in] the apparel of heaven, and he is among the +Great Gods. Now the subsistence of the Osiris Ani, whose word is +truth, is among the cakes and the ale which are made for your +mouths. I enter in by the Disk, I come forth by the god Ahui. I +shall hold converse with the Followers of the Gods. I shall hold +converse with the Disk. I shall hold converse with the +Hememet-spirits. He shall set the terror of me in the thick +darkness, in the inside of the goddess Mehurt, by the side of his +forehead. Behold, I shall be with Osiris, and my perfection shall be +his perfection among the Great Gods. I shall speak unto him with the +words of men, I shall listen, and he shall repeat to me the words of +the gods. I, the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace, have +come equipped. Thou makest to approach [thee] those who love thee. I +am a Spirit-soul who is better equipped than any [other] Spirit-soul. + +CHANGING_INTO_A_SWALLOW +- + THE CHAPTER OF MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO A SWALLOW. The +Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am a swallow, [I am] a +swallow. [I am] that Scorpion, the daughter of Ra. Hail, O ye gods +whose odour is sweet. Hail, O ye gods whose odour is sweet. Hail, +Flame, who comest forth from the horizon. Hail, thou who art in the +city. I have brought the Warder of his corner there. Give me thy two +hands, and let me pass my time in the Island of Flame. I have advanced +with a message, I have come having the report thereof [to make]. +Open to me. How shall I tell that which I have seen there? I am like +Horus, the governor of the Boat, when the throne of his father was +given unto him, and when Set, that son of Nut, was [lying] under the +fetters which he had made for Osiris. He who is in Sekhem hath +inspected me. I stretch out my arms over Osiris. I have advanced for +the examination, I have come to speak there. Let me pass on and +deliver my message. I am he who goeth in, [I am] judged, [I] come +forth magnified at the Gate of Nebertcher. I am purified at the +Great Uart. I have done away my wickednesses. I have put away +utterly my offences. I have put away utterly all the taints of evil +which appertained to me [upon the earth]. I have purified myself, I +have made myself to be like a god. Hail, O ye Doorkeepers, I have +completed my journey. I am like unto you. I have come forth by day. +I have advanced on my legs. I have gained the master over [my] +footsteps. [Hail, ye] Spirit-souls! I, even I, do know the hidden +roads and the Gates of Sekhet Aaru. I live there. Verily, I, even I, +have come, I have overthrown my enemies upon the earth, although my +body lieth a mummy in the tomb. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX +- + RUBRIC: (Naville, op. cit., II, Bl. 202) + If this Chapter be known by the deceased, he shall enter in after he +hath come forth by day. +- + RUBRIC: (Saite Recension) + If this Chapter be known by the deceased, he shall come forth by day +from Khert-Neter, and he shall go [again] after he hath come forth. If +this Chapter be not known [by the deceased], he shall not go in +again after he hath come forth [and he] shall not know [how] to come +forth by day. + +CHANGING_INTO_A_HAWK_OF_GOLD +- + [THE CHAPTER] OF MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO A HAWK OF GOLD. +The Osiris Ani saith:- I have risen up out of the seshett chamber, +like the golden hawk which cometh forth from his egg. I fly, I +alight like a hawk with a back of seven cubits, and the wings of which +are like unto the mother-of-emerald of the South. I have come forth +from the Sektet Boat, and my heart hath been brought unto me from +the mountain of the East. I have alighted on the Atet Boat, and +there have been brought unto me those who dwelt in their substance, +and they bowed in homage before me. I have risen, I have gathered +myself together like a beautiful golden hawk, with the head of the +Benu, and Ra hath entered in [to hear my speech]. I have taken my seat +among the great gods, [the children of] Nut. I have settled myself, +the Sekhet-hetepet (the Field of Offerings) is before me. I eat +therein, I become a Spirit-soul therein, I am supplied with food in +abundance therein, as much as I desire. The Grain-god (Nepra) hath +given unto me food for my throat, and I am master over myself and over +the attributes of my head. + +CHANGING_INTO_A_DIVINE_HAWK +- + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO A DIVINE HAWK. The +Osiris Ani saith:- Hail, thou Great God, come thou to Tetu. Make +thou ready for me the ways, and let me go round [to visit] my thrones. +I have laboured. I have made myself perfect. O grant thou that I may +be held in fear. Create thou awe of me. Let the gods of the Tuat be +afraid of me, and let them fight for me in their halls. Permit not +thou to come nigh unto me him that would attack me, or would injure me +in the House of Darkness. Cover over the helpless one, hide him. Let +do likewise the gods who hearken unto the word [of truth], the Khepriu +gods who are in the following of Osiris. Hold ye your peace then, O ye +gods, whilst the God holdeth speech with me, he who listeneth to the +truth. I speak unto him my words. Osiris, grant thou that that which +cometh forth from thy mouth may circulate to me. Let me see thine +own Form. Let thy Souls envelop me. Grant thou that I may come +forth, and that I may be master of my legs, and let me live there like +Nebertcher upon his throne. Let the gods of the Tuat hold me in +fear, and let them fight for me in their halls. Grant thou that I +may move forward with him and with the Ariu gods, and let me be firmly +stablished on my pedestal like the Lord of Life. Let me be in the +company of Isis, the goddess, and let [the gods] keep me safe from him +that would do an injury unto me. Let none come to see the helpless +one. May I advance, and may I come to the Henti boundaries of the sky. +Let me address words to Keb, and let me make supplicaion to the god Hu +with Nebertcher. Let the gods of the Tuat be afraid of me, and let +them fight for me in their halls. Let them see that thou hast provided +me with food for the festival. I am one of those Spirit-souls who +dwell in the Light-god. I have made my form in his Form, when he +cometh to Tetu. I am a Spirit-body among his Spirit-bodies; he shall +speak unto thee the things [which concern] me. Would that he would +cause me to be held in fear! Would that he would create [in them] +awe of me! Let the gods of the Tuat be afraid of me, and let them +fight for me [in their halls]. I, even I, am a Spirit-soul, a +dweller in the Light-god, whose form hath been created in divine +flesh. I am one of those Spirit-souls who dwell in the Light-god, +who were created by Tem himself, and who exist in the blossoms of +his Eye. He hath made to exist, he hath made glorious, and he hath +magnified their faces during their existence with him. Behold, he is +Alone in Nu. They acclaim him when he cometh forth from the horizon, +and the gods and the Spirit-souls who have come into being with him +ascribe fear unto him. + I am one of the worms which have been created by the Eye of the Lord +One. And behold, when as yet Isis had not given birth to Horus, I +was flourishing, and I had waxed old, and had become pre-eminent among +the Spirit-souls who had come into being with him. I rose up like a +divine hawk, and Horus endowed me with a Spirit-body with his soul, so +that [I] might take possession of the property of Osiris in the +Tuat. He shall say to the twin Lion-gods for me, the Chief of the +House of the Nemes Crown, the Dweller in his cavern: Get thee back +to the heights of heaven, for behold, inasmuch as thou art a +Spirit-body with the creations of Horus, the Nemes Crown shall not +be to thee: [but] thou shalt have speech even to the uttermost +limits of the heavens. I, the warder, took possession of the +property of Horus [which belonged] to Osiris in the Tuat, and Horus +repeated to me what his father Osiris had said unto him in the years +[past], on the days of his burial. Give thou to me the Nemes Crown, +say the twin Lion-gods for me. Advance thou, come along the road of +heaven, and look upon those who dwell in the uttermost limits of the +horizon. The gods of the Tuat shall hold thee in fear, and they +shall fight for thee in their halls. The god Auhet belongeth to +them. All the gods who guard the shrine of the Lord One are smitten +with terror at [my] words. + Hail, saith the god who is exalted upon his coffer to me! He hath +bound on the Nemes Crown, [by] the decree of the twin Lion-gods. The +god Aahet hath made a way for me. I am exalted [on the coffer], the +twin Lion-gods have bound the Nemes Crown on me and my two locks of +hair are given unto me. He hath stablished for me my heart by his +own flesh, and by his great, two-fold strength, and I shall not fall +headlong before Shu. I am Hetep, the Lord of the two Uraei-goddesses +who are to be adored. I know the Light-god, his winds are in my +body. The Bull which striketh terror [into souls] shall not repulse +me. I come daily into the House of the twin Lion-gods. I come forth +therefrom into the House of Isis. I look upon the holy things which +are hidden. I see the being who is therein. I speak to the great +ones of Shu, they repulse him that is wrathful in his hour. I am Horus +who dwelleth in his divine Light. I am master of his crown. I am +master of his radiance. I advance towards the Henti boundaries of +heaven. Horus is upon his seat. Horus is upon his thrones. My face +is like that of a divine hawk. I am one who is equipped [like] his +lord. I shall come forth to Tetu. I shall see Osiris. I shall live +in his actual presence.... Nut. They shall see me. I shall see the +gods [and] the Eye of Horus burning with fire before my eyes. They +shall reach out their hands to me. I shall stand up. I shall be master +of him that would subject me to restraint. They shall open the holy +paths to me, they shall see my form, they shall listen to my words. + [Homage] to you, O ye gods of the Tuat, whose faces are turned back, +whose powers advance, conduct ye me to the Star-gods which never rest. +Prepare ye for me the holy ways to the Hemat house, and to your god, +the Soul, who is the mighty one of terror. Horus hath commanded me +to lift up your faces; do ye look upon me. I have risen up like a +divine hawk. Horus hath made me to be a Spirit-body by means of his +Soul, and to take possession of the things of Osiris in the Tuat. Make +ye for me a path. I have travelled and I have arrived at those who are +chiefs of their caverns, and who are guardians of the House of Osiris. +I speak unto them his mighty deeds. I made them to know concerning his +victories. He is ready [to butt with his] two horns at Set. They +know him who hath taken possession of the god Hu, and who hath taken +possession of the Powers of Tem. + Travel thou on thy way safely, cry out the gods of the Tuat to me. O +ye who make your names pre-eminent, who are chiefs in your shrines, +and who are guardians of the House of Osiris, grant, I pray you, +that I may come to you. I have bound up and I have gathered together +your Powers. I have directed the Powers of the ways, the wardens of +the horizon, and of the Hemat House of heaven. I have stablished their +fortresses for Osiris. I have prepared the ways for him. I have +performed the things which [he] hath commanded. I come forth to +Tetu. I see Osiris. I speak to him concerning the matter of his +Great Son, whom he loveth, and concerning [the smiting of] the heart +of Set. I look upon the lord who was helpless. How shall I make them +to know the plans of the gods, and that which Horus did without the +knowledge of his father Osiris? + Hail, Lord, thou Soul, most awful and terrible, behold me. I have +come, I make thee to be exalted! I have forced a way though the +Tuat. I have opened the roads which appertain to heaven, and those +which appertain to the earth, and no one hath opposed me therein. I +have exalted thy face, O Lord of Eternity. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (In the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 14, the Chapter ends with the +following.) +- + Exalted art thou on thy throne, O Osiris! Thou hast heard fair +things, O Osiris! Thy strength is vigorous, O Osiris! Thy head is +fastened on thy body, O Osiris! Thy neck is made firm, O Osiris! Thy +heart is glad, [O Osiris!]. Thy speech is made effective, O Osiris! +Thy princes rejoice Thou art established the Bull in Amentet. Thy +son Horus hath ascended thy trrone, and all life is with him. Millions +of years minister unto him, and millions of years hold him in fear. +The Company of the Gods are his servants, and they fold him in fear. +The god Tem, the Governor, the only One among the gods, hath spoken, +and his word passeth not away. Horus is both the divine food and the +sacrifice. He made haste to gather together [the members of] of his +father. Horus is his deliverer. Horus is his deliverer. Horus hath +sprung from the essence of his divine father and from his decay. He +hath become the Governor of Egypt. The gods shall work for him, and +they shall toil for him for million of years. He shall make millions +of years to live through his Eye, the only one of its lord, +Nebertcher.] +- + (From the Turin Papyrus, Bl. XXX) +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} + Exalted is thy throne, O Osiris. Thou hearest well, O Osiris. Thy +strength flourisheth, O Osiris. I have fastened thy head [on thy] body +for thee. I have stablished thy throat, the throne of the joy of thy +heart. Thy words are stable. Thy shenit princes are glad. Thou art +stablished as the Bull of Amentet. Thy son Horus hath ascended thy +throne. All life is with him. Millions of years work for him. The +Company of the Gods fear him. Tem, the One Power of the Gods, hath +spoken, and what he hath said is not changed, Hetu Aabi. Horus hath +stood up. I have gone about collecting his father. Horus hath +delivered his father. Horus hath delivered [his mother]. My mother +is Horus. My brother is Horus. My uncle is Horus. I have come. Horus +followeth his father.... there the dirt of his head. The gods shall +serve him. Millions of years...... in his Eye, the Only One of its +Lord, Neb-er-tcher. + +CHANGING_INTO_THE_PRINCE_OF_TCHATCHAU_CHIEFS +- + THE CHAPTER OF BEING TRANSFORMED INTO THE PRINCE OF THE TCHATCHAU +CHIEFS. The Osiris Nu, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the god +Tem, the maker of the sky, the creator of the things which are, who +cometh forth from the earth, who made the seed of man to come into +being, the Lord of things, who fashioned the gods, the Great God, +who created himself, the Lord of Life, who made to flourish the Two +Companies of the Gods. Homage to you, O ye divine Lords of things, +ye holy beings, whose seats are veiled! Homage to you, O ye Lords of +Eternity, whose forms are concealed, whose sanctuaries are +mysteries, whose places of abode are not known! Homage to you, O ye +gods, who dwell in the Tenait (Circle of Light)! Homage to you, O ye +gods of the Circle of the country of the Cataracts! Homage to you, O +ye gods who dwell in Amentet! Homage to you, O ye gods who dwell +within Nut! Grant ye to me that I may come before you, I am pure, I am +like a god. I am endowed with a Spirit-soul. I am strong. I am endowed +with a Heart-soul. I bring unto you incense, and spice, and natron. +I have done away with the chidings of your mouths. I have come, I have +done away the evil which was in your hearts, and I have removed the +offences which appertained to you [against me]. I bring to you deeds +of well-doing, and I present before you truth. I know you. I know your +names. I know your forms which are not known. I come into being +among you. My coming is like unto that god who eateth men, and who +feedeth upon the gods. I am strong before you even like that god who +is exalted upon his pedestal, unto whom the gods come with +rejoicing, and the goddesses make supplication when they see me. I +have come unto you. I have ascended my throne like your Two Daughters. +I have taken my seat in the horizon. I receive my offerings of +propitiation upon my altars. I drink my fill of seth wine every +evening. I come to those who are making rejoicings, and the gods who +live in the horizon ascribe unto me praises, as the divine +Spirit-body, the Lord of mortals. I am exalted like that holy god +who dwelleth in the Great House. The gods rejoice greatly when they +see my beautiful appearances from the body of the goddess Nut, and +when the goddess Nut bringeth me forth. + +CHANGING_INTO_THE_SERPENT_SATA +- + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE SERPENT SATA. +The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the serpent Sata +whose years are infinite. I lie down dead. I am born daily. I am the +serpent Sa-en-ta, the dweller in the uttermost parts of the earth. I +lie down in death. I am born, I become new, I renew my youth every +day. + +CHANGING_INTO_THE_CROCODILE_GOD +- + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE CROCODILE-GOD. +The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the Crocodile-god +(Sebak) who dwelleth amid his terrors. I am the Crocodile-god and I +seize [my prey] like a ravening beast. I am the great Fish which is in +Kamui. I am the Lord to whom bowings and prostrations are made in +Sekhem. And the Osiris Ani is the lord to whom bowings and +prostrations are made in Sekhem. +- +- + (From the Papyrus of Nebseni) +- + Behold, I am the dweller in his terrors, I am the crocodile, his +firstborn. I bring (prey) from a distance. I am the Fish of Horus, the +Great One in Kamui. I am the lord of bowings in Sekhem. + +CHANGING_INTO_PTAH +- + THE CHAPTER OF MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO PTAH. The Osiris Ani +[whose word is truth, saith]:- I eat bread. I drink ale. I gird up +my garments. I fly like a hawk. I cackle like the Smen goose. I alight +upon that place hard by the Sepulchre on the festival of the Great +God. That which is abominable, that which is abominable I will not +eat. [An abominable thing] is filth, I will not eat thereof. That +which is an abomination unto my KA shall not enter my body. I will +live upon that whereon live the gods and the Spirit-souls. I shall +live, and I shall be master of their cakes. I am master of them, and I +shall eat them under the trees of the dweller in the House of +Hathor, my Lady. I will make an offering. My cakes are in Tetu, my +offerings are in Anu. I gird about myself the robe which is woven +for me by the goddess Tait. I shall stand up and sit down in +whatsoever place it pleaseth me to do so. My head is like unto that of +Ra. I am gathered together like Tem. + Here offer the four cakes of Ra, and the offerings of the earth. + I shall come forth. My tongue is like that of Ptah, and my throat is +like unto that of Hathor, and I remember the words of Tem, of my +father, with my mouth. He forced the woman, the wife of Keb, +breaking the heads near him; therefore was the fear of him there. +[His] praises are repeated with vigour. I am decreed to be the Heir, +the lord of the earth of Keb. I have union with women. Keb hath +refreshed me, and he hath caused me to ascend his throne. Those who +dwell in Anu bow their heads to me. I am [their] Bull, I am stronger +than [the Lord] of the hour. I unite with women. I am master for +millions of years. + +TURNING_INTO_THE_SOUL_OF_TEM +- + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE SOUL OF TEM. The +Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I shall not enter into the +place of destruction, I shall not perish, I shall not know [decay]. +I am Ra, who came forth from Nu, the Soul of the God who created his +own members. What I abominate is sin; I will not look thereon. I cry +not out against truth, nay, I live therein. I am the god Hu, the +imperishable god, in my name of "Soul." I have created myself with Nu, +in the name of "Khepera." I exist in them like Ra. I am the Lord of +Light. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nu) +- + That which is an abomination unto me is death; let me not go into +the chamber of torture which is in the Tuat. I am the delight of the +Khu of Osiris. I make to be content the heart[s] of those who dwell +among the divine things which are beloved [by me]. They cause the fear +of me [to abound], they create the awe of me to be in those divine +beings who dwell in their own circles. Behold, I am exalted on my +own standard, and upon my throne, and upon my seat which is assigned +[to me]. I am the god Nu, and those who commit sin shall not destroy +me. I am the firstborn of the primeval god, and my soul is the Souls +of the Eternal Gods, and my body is Everlastingness. My created form +is [that of] the god Eternity, the Lord of Years, and the Prince of +Everlastingness. I am the Creator of the Darkness, who maketh his seat +in the uttermost limits of the heavens, [which] I love. I arrive at +their boundaries. I advance upon my two legs. I direct my resting +place. I sail over the sky. I fetter and destroy the hidden serpents +which are about my footsteps [in going to] the Lord of the Two Arms. +My soul is the Souls of the Eternal Gods, and my body is +Everlastingness. I am the exalted one, the Lord of the Land of Tebu. I +am the Child in the city: "Young man in the country" is my name. +"Imperishable one" is my name. I am the Soul Creator of Nu. I make +my habitation in Khert-Neter. My nest is invisible, my egg is not +broken. I have done away the evil which is in me. I shall see my +Father, the Lord of the Evening. His body dwelleth in Anu. I am made +to be the Light-god, a dweller in the Light-god, over the Western +Domain of the Hebt bird. + +CHANGING_INTO_THE_BENU_BIRD +- + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE BENU BIRD. The +Osiris, the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I flew up out +of primeval matter. I came into being like the god Khepera. I +germinated like the plants. I am concealed like the tortoise [in his +shell]. I am the seed of every god. I am Yesterday of the Four +[Quarters of the Earth, and] the Seven Uraei, who came into being in +the Eastern land. [I am] the Great One (Horus) who illumineth the +Hememet spirits with the light of his body. [I am] that god in respect +of Set. [I am] Thoth who [stood] between them (Horus and Set) as the +judge on behalf of the Governor of Sekhem and the Souls of Anu. [He +was like] a stream between them. I have come. I rise up on my +throne. I am endowed with Khu. I am mighty. I am endowed with +godhood among the gods. I am Khensu, [the lord] of every kind of +strength. +- + RUBRIC: [If] this Chapter [be known by the deceased], he shall +come forth pure by day after his death, and he shall perform every +transformation which his soul desireth to make. He shall be among the +Followers of Un-Nefer, and he shall satisfy himself with the food of +Osiris, and with sepulchral meals. He shall see the Disk [of the Sun], +he shall be in good case upon earth before Ra, and his word shall be +truth in the sight of Osiris, and no evil thing whatsoever shall +have dominion over him for ever and ever. + +CHANGING_INTO_A_HERON +- + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO A HERON. The +Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the master of +beasts brought for sacrifice, [and] of the knives which are [held] +at their heads [and] their beards; those who dwell in their emerald +[fields], the Aged Gods, and the Spirit-souls, are ready at the moment +for the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace. He maketh slaughter +on the earth, and I make slaughter on the earth. I am strong. I follow +the heights unto heaven. I have made myself pure. I walk with long +strides to my city. I have become an owner of land there. I advance to +Sepu...... is given to me in Unu. I have set the gods upon their +roads. I have made splendid the houses and towns of those who are in +their shrines. I know the stream of Nut. I know Tatun. I know Teshert. +I have brought along their horns. I know Heka. I have hearkened to +this words. I am the Red Bull-calf which is marked with markings. +The gods shall say when they hear [of me]: Uncover your faces. His +coming is to me. There is light which ye know not. Times and seasons +are in my body. I do not speak [lies] in the place of truth, daily. +The truth is hidden on the eyebrows. [By] night [I] sail up the +river to keep the feast of him that is dead, to embrace the Aged +God, and to guard the earth, I the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Saite Recension) +- + RUBRIC: If this Chapter be known [by the deceased], he will live +like a perfect Spirit-soul in Khert-Neter; no evil thing whatsoever +shall overthrow him. + +CHANGING_INTO_A_LOTUS +- + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE LOTUS. The +Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am the holy lotus that +cometh forth from the light which belongeth to the nostrils of Ra, and +which belongeth to the head of Hathor. I have made my way, and I +seek after him, that is to say, Horus. I am the pure lotus that cometh +forth from the field [of Ra]. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (Naville, op. cit., I, Bl. XCIII) +- + Chapter of making the transformation into a lotus. The Osiris, the +lady of of the house, Aui, whose word is truth, in peace, saith:- +Hail, thou Lotus, thou type of the god Nefer-Temu! I am the man who +knoweth your names. I know your names among the gods, the lords of +Khert-Neter. I am one among you. Grant ye that I may see the gods +who are the Guides of the Tuat. Grant ye to me a seat in +Khert-Neter, near the Lords of Amentet. Assign to me a habitation in +the land of Tchesert. Receive ye me in the presence of the Lords of +Eternity. Let my soul come forth in whatsoever place it pleaseth. +Let it not be rejected in the presence of the Great Company of the +Gods. + +TURNING_INTO_THE_GOD_WHO_LIGHTENETH_DARKNESS +- + [THE CHAPTER OF] MAKING THE TRANSFORMATION INTO THE GOD WHO +LIGHTENETH THE DARKNESS. The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is +truth, saith:- I am the girdle of the garment of the god Nu, which +giveth light, and shineth, and belongeth to his breast, the +illuminer of the darkness, the uniter of the two Rehti deities, the +dweller in my body, through the great spell of the words of my +mouth. I rise up, but he who was coming after me hath fallen. He who +was with him in the Valley of Abtu hath fallen. I rest. I remember +him. The god Hu hath taken possession of me in my town. I found him +there. I have carried away the darkness by my strength, I have +filled the Eye [of Ra] when it was helpless, and when it came not on +the festival of the fifteenth day. I have weighed Sut in the celestial +houses against the Aged One who was with him. I have equipped Thoth in +the House of the Moon-god, when the fifteenth day of the festival come +not. I have taken possession of the Urrt Crown. Truth is in my body; +turquoise and crystal are its months. My homestead is there among +the lapis-lazuli, among the furrows thereof. I am Hem-Nu, the +lightener of the darkness. I have come to lighten the darkness; it +is light. I have lightened the darkness. I have overthrown the +ashmiu-fiends. I have sung hymns to those who dwell in the darkness. I +have made to stand up the weeping ones, whose faces were covered over; +they were in a helpless state of misery. Look ye then upon me. I am +Hem-Nu. I will not let you hear concerning it. [I have fought. I am +Hem-Nu. I have lightened the darkness. I have come. I have made an end +to the darkness which hath become light indeed.] + +NOT_DYING_A_SECOND_TIME +- + THE CHAPTER OF NOT DYING A SECOND TIME. The Osiris Ani, whose word +is truth, saith:- Hail, Thoth! What is it that hath happened to the +children of Nut? They have waged war, they have upheld strife, they +have done evil, they have created the fiends, they have made +slaughter, they have caused trouble; in truth, in all their doings the +strong have worked against the weak. Grant, O might of Thoth, that +that which the god Tem hath decreed [may be done!] And thou +regardest not evil, nor art thou provoked to anger when they bring +their years to confusion, and throng in and push in to disturb their +months. For in all that they have done unto thee they have worked +iniquity in secret. I am they writing-palette, O Thoth, and I have +brought unto thee thine ink-jar. I am not of those who work iniquity +in their secret places; let not evil happen unto me. + The Osiris, the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- Hail, Temu! +What manner of land is this unto which I have come? It hath not water, +it hath not air; it is depth unfathomable, it is black as the blackest +night, and men wander helplessly therein. In it a man cannot live in +quietness of heart; nor may the longings of love be satisfied therein. +But let the state of the Spirit-souls be given unto me instead of +water and air, and the satisfying of the longings of love, and let +quietness of heart be given unto me instead of cakes and ale. The +god Tem hath decreed that I shall see thy face, and that I shall not +suffer from the things which pain thee. May every god transmit unto +thee his throne for millions of years. Thy throne hath descended +unto thy son Horus, and the god Tem hath decreed that thy course shall +be among the holy princes. In truth he shall rule from thy throne, and +he shall be heir to the throne of the Dweller in the fiery Lake +[Neserser]. In truth it hath been decreed that in me he shall see +his likeness, and that my face shall look upon the face of the Lord +Tem. How long then have I to live? It is decreed that thou shalt +live for millions of years, a life of millions of years. Let it be +granted to me to pass on to the holy princes, for indeed, I have +done away all the evil which I committed, from the time when this +earth came into being from Nu, when it sprang from the watery abyss +even as it was in the days of old. I am Fate and Osiris, I have made +my transformations into the likeness of divers serpents. Man knoweth +not, and the gods cannot behold the two-fold beauty which I have +made for Osiris, the greatest of the gods. I have given unto him the +region of the dead. And, verily, his son Horus is seated upon the +throne of the Dweller in the fiery Lake [of Neserser], as his heir. +I have made him to have his throne in the Boat of Millions of Years. +Horus is stablished upon his throne [among his] kinsmen, and he hath +all that is with him. Verily, the Soul of Set, which is greater than +all the gods, hath departed. Let it be granted to me to bind his +soul in fetter in the Boat of the God, when I please, and let him hold +the Body of the God in fear. O my father Osiris, thou hast done for me +that which thy father Ra did for thee. Let me abide upon the earth +permanently. Let me keep possession of my throne. Let my heir be +strong. Let my tomb, and my friends who are upon the earth, +flourish. Let my enemies be given over to destruction, and to the +shackles of the goddess Serq. I am thy son. Ra is my father. On me +likewise thou hast conferred life, strength, and health. Horus is +established upon his tomb. Grant thou that the days of my life may +come unto worship and honour. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Leyden Papyrus of Ra) +- + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a figure of Horus, made +of lapis-lazuli, which shall be placed on the neck of the deceased. It +is a protection upon earth, and it will secure for the deceased the +affection of men, gods, and the Spirit-souls which are perfect. +Moreover it acteth as a spell in Khert-Neter, but it must be recited +by thee on behalf of the Osiris Ra, regularly and continually millions +of times. + +ENTERING_THE_HALL_OF_MAAT +- + [THE CHAPTER OF] ENTERING INTO THE HALL OF MAATI TO PRAISE OSIRIS +KHENTI-AMENTI. The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- +I have come unto thee. I have drawn nigh to behold thy beauties (thy +beneficient goodness). My hands are [extended] in adoration of thy +name of "Maat." I have come. I have drawn nigh unto [the place +where] the cedar-tree existeth not, where the acacia tree doth not put +forth shoots, and where the ground produceth neither grass nor +herbs. Now I have entered into the habitation which is hidden, and I +hold converse with Set. My protector advanced to me, covered was his +face.... on the hidden things. He entered into the house of Osiris, he +saw the hidden things which were therein. The Tchatchau Chiefs of +the Pylons were in the form of Spirits. The god Anpu spake unto +those about him with the words of a man who cometh from Ta-mera, +saying, "He knoweth our roads and our towns. I am reconciled unto him. +When I smell his odour it is even as the odour of one of you." And I +say unto him: I the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace, whose +word is truth, have come. I have drawn nigh to behold the Great +Gods. I would live upon the propitiatory offerings [made] to their +Doubles. I would live on the borders [of the territory of] the Soul, +the Lord of Tetu. He shall make me to come forth in the form of a Benu +bird, and to hold converse [with him.] I have been in the stream [to +purify myself]. I have made offerings of incense. I betook myself to +the Acacia Tree of the [divine] Children. I lived in Abu in the +House of the goddess Satet. I made to sink in the water the boat of +the enemies. I sailed over the lake [in the temple] in the Neshmet +Boat. I have looked upon the Sahu of Kamur. I have been in Tetu. I +have held my peace. I have made the god to be master of his legs. I +have been in the House of Teptuf. I have seen him, that is the +Governor of the Hall of the God. I have entered into the House of +Osiris and I have removed the head-coverings of him that is therein. I +have entered into Rasta, and I have seen the Hidden One who is +therein. I was hidden, but I found the boundary. I journeyed to +Nerutef, and he who was therein covered me with a garment. I have +myrrh of women, together with the shenu powder of living folk. +Verily he (Osiris) told me the things which concerned himself. I said: +Let thy weighing of me be even as we desire. + And the Majesty of Anpu shall say unto me, "Knowest thou the name of +this door, and canst thou tell it?" And the Osiris the scribe Ani, +whose word is truth, in peace, whose word is truth, shall say, +"Khersek-Shu" is the name of this door. And the Majesty of the god +Anpu shall say unto me, "Knowest thou the name of the upper leaf, +and the name of the lower leaf?" [And the Osiris the scribe Ani] shall +say: "Neb-Maat-heri-retiu-f" is the name of the upper leaf and +"Neb-pehti-thesu-menment" [is the name of the lower leaf. And the +Majesty of the god Anpu shall say], "Pass on, for thou hast knowledge, +O Osiris the scribe, the assessor of the holy offerings of all the +gods of Thebes Ani, whose word is truth, the lord of loyal service [to +Osiris]." + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Brit. Mus. No. 10477, Sheet 22) +- + [THE FOLLOWING] WORDS SHALL BE SAID BY THE STEWARD OF THE KEEPER +OF THE SEAL, NU, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, WHEN HE COMETH FORTH TO THE HALL +OF MAATI, SO THAT HE MAY BE SEPARATED FROM EVERY SIN WHICH HE HATH +COMMITTED, AND MAY BEHOLD THE FACES OF THE GODS. The Osiris Nu, +whose word is truth, saith: Homage to thee, O great God, Lord of +Maati! I have come unto thee, O my Lord, and I have brought myself +hither that I may behold thy beauties. I know thee, I know thy name, I +know the names of the Forty-two Gods who live with thee in this Hall +of Maati, who live by keeping ward over sinners, and who feed upon +their blood on the day when the consciences of men are reckoned up +in the presence of the god Un-Nefer. In truth thy name is +"Rehti-Merti-Nebti-Maati." In truth I have come unto thee, I have +brought Maati (Truth) to thee. I have done away sin for thee. I have +not committed sins against men. I have not opposed my family and +kinsfolk. I have not acted fraudulently in the Seat of Truth. I have +not known men who were of no account. I have not wrought evil. I +have not made it to be the first [consideration daily that +unnecessary] work should be done for me. I have not brought forward my +name for dignities. I have not [attempted] to direct servants [I +have not belittled God]. I have not defrauded the humble man of his +property. I have not done what the gods abominate. I have not vilified +a slave to his master. I have not inflicted pain. I have not caused +anyone to go hungry. I have not made any man to weep. I have not +committed murder. I have not given the order for murder to be +committed. I have not caused calamities to befall men and women. I +have not plundered the offerings in the temples. I have not +defrauded the gods of their cake-offerings. I have not carried off the +fenkhu cakes [offered to] the Spirits. I have not committed +fornication. I have not masturbated [in the sanctuaries of the god +of my city]. I have not diminished from the bushel. I have not filched +[land from my neighbour's estate and] added it to my own acre. I +have not encroached upon the fields [of others]. I have not added to +the weights of the scales. I have not depressed the pointer of the +balance. I have not carried away the milk from the mouths of children. +I have not driven the cattle away from their pastures. I have not +snared the geese in the goose-pens of the gods. I have not caught fish +with bait made of the bodies of the same kind of fish. I have not +stopped water when it should flow. I have not made a cutting in a +canal of running water. I have not extinguished a fire when it +should burn. I have not violated the times [of offering] the chosen +meat offerings. I have not driven away the cattle on the estates of +the gods. I have not turned back the god at his appearances. I am +pure. I am pure. I am pure. My pure offerings are the pure offerings +of that great Benu which dwelleth in Hensu. For behold, I am the +nose of Neb-nefu (the lord of the air), who giveth sustenance unto all +mankind, on the day of the filling of the Utchat in Anu, in the second +month of the season Pert, on the last of the month, [in the presence +of the Lord of this earth]. I have seen the filling of the Utchat in +Anu, therefore let not calamity befall me in this land, or in this +Hall of Maati, because I know the names of the gods who are therein, +[and who are the followers of the Great God]. + +THE_NEGATIVE_CONFESSION + THE NEGATIVE CONFESSION +- + Hail, Usekh-nemmt, who comest forth from Anu, I have not committed +sin. + Hail, Hept-khet, who comest forth from Kher-aha, I have not +committed robbery with violence. + Hail, Fenti, who comest forth from Khemenu, I have not stolen. + Hail, Am-khaibit, who comest forth from Qernet, I have not slain men +and women. + Hail, Neha-her, who comest forth from Rasta, I have not stolen +grain. + {THE_NEGATIVE_CONFESSION ^paragraph 5} + Hail, Ruruti, who comest forth from heaven, I have not purloined +offerings. + Hail, Arfi-em-khet, who comest forth from Suat, I have not stolen +the property of God. + Hail, Neba, who comest and goest, I have not uttered lies. + Hail, Set-qesu, who comest forth from Hensu, I have not carried away +food. + Hail, Utu-nesert, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not +uttered curses. + {THE_NEGATIVE_CONFESSION ^paragraph 10} + Hail, Qerrti, who comest forth from Amentet, I have not committed +adultery, I have not lain with men. + Hail, Her-f-ha-f, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have made none +to weep. + Hail, Basti, who comest forth from Bast, I have not eaten the heart. + Hail, Ta-retiu, who comest forth from the night, I have not attacked +any man. + Hail, Unem-snef, who comest forth from the execution chamber, I am +not a man of deceit. + {THE_NEGATIVE_CONFESSION ^paragraph 15} + Hail, Unem-besek, who comest forth from Mabit, I have not stolen +cultivated land. + Hail, Neb-Maat, who comest forth from Maati, I have not been an +eavesdropper. + Hail, Tenemiu, who comest forth from Bast, I have not slandered +[no man]. + Hail, Sertiu, who comest forth from Anu, I have not been angry +without just cause. + Hail, Tutu, who comest forth from Ati (the Busirite Nome), I have +not debauched the wife of any man. + {THE_NEGATIVE_CONFESSION ^paragraph 20} + Hail, Uamenti, who comest forth from the Khebt chamber, I have not +debauched the wife of [any] man. + Hail, Maa-antuf, who comest forth from Per-Menu, I have not polluted +myself. + Hail, Her-uru, who comest forth from Nehatu, I have terrorized none. + Hail, Khemiu, who comest forth from Kaui, I have not transgressed +[the law]. + Hail, Shet-kheru, who comest forth from Urit, I have not been wroth. + {THE_NEGATIVE_CONFESSION ^paragraph 25} + Hail, Nekhenu, who comest forth from Heqat, I have not shut my +ears to the words of truth. + Hail, Kenemti, who comest forth from Kenmet, I have not blasphemed. + Hail, An-hetep-f, who comest forth from Sau, I am not a man of +violence. + Hail, Sera-kheru, who comest forth from Unaset, I have not been a +stirrer up of strife. + Hail, Neb-heru, who comest forth from Netchfet, I have not acted +with undue haste. + {THE_NEGATIVE_CONFESSION ^paragraph 30} + Hail, Sekhriu, who comest forth from Uten, I have not pried into +matters. + Hail, Neb-abui, who comest forth from Sauti, I have not multiplied +my words in speaking. + Hail, Nefer-Tem, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have wronged +none, I have done no evil. + Hail, Tem-Sepu, who comest forth from Tetu, I have not worked +witchcraft against the king. + Hail, Ari-em-ab-f, who comest forth from Tebu, I have never +stopped [the flow of] water. + {THE_NEGATIVE_CONFESSION ^paragraph 35} + Hail, Ahi, who comest forth from Nu, I have never raised my voice. + Hail, Uatch-rekhit, who comest forth from Sau, I have not cursed +God. + Hail, Neheb-ka, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not acted +with arrogance. + Hail, Neheb-nefert, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not +stolen the bread of the gods. + Hail, Tcheser-tep, who comest forth from the shrine, I have not +carried away the khenfu cakes from the Spirits of the dead. + {THE_NEGATIVE_CONFESSION ^paragraph 40} + Hail, An-af, who comest forth from Maati, I have not snatched away +the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city. + Hail, Hetch-abhu, who comest forth from Ta-she (the Fayyum), I +have not slain the cattle belonging to the god. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nebseni) +- + Hail, Usekh-nemmt, who comest forth from Anu, I have not committed +sin. + Hail, Hept-Shet, who comest forth from Kher-aha, I have not robbed +with violence. + Hail, Fenti, who comest forth from Khemenu, I have done no violence. + Hail, Am-khaibitu, who comest forth from Qerrt, I have not stolen. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} + Hail, Neha-hau, who comest forth from Rasta, I have not slain men. + Hail, Ruruti, who comest forth from heaven, I have not made light +the bushel. + Hail, Arti-f-em-tes, who comest forth from Sekhem, I have not +acted deceitfully. + Hail, Neba, who comest and goest, I have not stolen the property +of the god. + Hail, Set-qesu, who comest forth from Hensu, I have not told lies. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 10} + Hail, Uatch-nesert, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not +carried away food. + Hail, Qerti, who comest forth from Amenti, I have not uttered evil +words. + Hail, Hetch-abhu, who comest from Ta-she, I have attacked no man. + Hail, Unem-snef, who comest forth from the execution chamber, I have +not salin a bull which was the property of the god. + Hail, Unem-besku, who comest [forth from the Mabet chamber], I +have not acted deceitfully. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 15} + Hail, Neb-maat, who comest forth from Maati, I have not pillaged the +lands which have been ploughed. + Hail, Thenemi, who comest forth from Bast, I have never pried into +matters [to make mischief]. + Hail, Aati, who comest forth from Anu, I have not set my mouth in +motion. + Hail, Tutuf, who comest from from A, I have not been wroth except +with reason. + Hail, Uamemti, who comest forth from the execution chamber, I have +not debauched the wife of a man. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 20} + Hail, Maa-anuf, who comest forth from Per-Menu, I ahve not +polluted myself. + Hail, Heri-uru, who comest forth from [Nehatu], I have terrorized no +man. + Hail, Khemi, who comest forth from Ahaui, I have not made attacks. + Hail, Shet-kheru, who comest forth from Uri, I have not been a man +of anger. + Hail, Nekhem, who comest forth from Heq-at, I have not turned a deaf +ear to the words of truth. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 25} + Hail, Ser-Kheru, who comest forth from Unes, I have not stirred up +strife. + Hail, Basti, who comest forth from Shetait, I have made none to +weep. + Hail, Her-f-ha-f, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not +committed acts of sexual impurity, or lain with men. + Hail, Ta-ret, who comest forth from Akhkhu, I have not eaten my +heart. + Hail, Kenmti, who comest forth from Kenmet, I have cursed no man. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 30} + Hail, An-hetep-f, who comest forth from Sau, I have not acted in a +violent or oppressive manner. + Hail, Neb-heru, who comest forth from Tchefet, I have not acted +[or judged] hastily. + Hail, Serekhi, who comest forth from Unth, I have not.... my hair, I +have not harmed the god. + Hail, Neb-abui, who comest forth from Sauti, I have not multiplied +my speech overmuch. + Hail, Nefer-Tem, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not acted +with deciet, I have not worked wickedness. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 35} + Hail, Tem-Sep, who comest forth from Tetu, I have not done things to +effect the cursing of [the king]. + Hail, Ari-em-ab-f, who comest forth from Tebti, I have not stopped +the flow of water. + Hail, Ahi-mu, who comest forth from Nu, I have not raised my voice. + Hail, Utu-rekhit, who comest forth from thy house, I have not +curse God. + Hail, Neheb-Nefert, who comest forth from the Lake of Nefer, I +have not acted with insufferable insolence. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 40} + Hail, Neheb-kau, who comest forth from [thy] city, I have not sought +to make myself unduly distinguished. + Hail, Tcheser-tep, who comest forth from thy cavern, I have not +increased my wealth except through such things are [justly] my own +possessions. + Hail, An-a-f, who comest forth from Auker, I have not scorned [or +treated with contempt] the god of my town. +- +- + ADDRESS TO THE GODS OF THE TUAT + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 45} + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Brit. Mus. No. 10477, Sheet 24) +- + THE FOLLOWING ARE THE WORDS WHICH THE HEART OF TRUTH THAT IS SINLESS +SHALL SAY WHEN HE COMETH WITH THE WORD OF TRUTH INTO THE HALL OF +MAATI; THEY SHALL BE SAID WHEN HE COMETH TO THE GODS WHO DWELL IN +THE TUAT; AND THEY ARE THE WORDS WHICH ARE [TO BE SAID] AFTER [HE +COMETH FORTH FROM] THE HALL OF MAATI. +- + Nu, the steward of the keeper of the seal, whose word is truth, +saith:- Homage to you, O ye gods who dwell in your Hall of Maati! I +know you, I know your names. Let me not fall under your knives of +slaughter, and bring ye not forward my wickedness to this god in whose +following ye are. Let not evil hap come upon me through you. Speak +ye the truth concerning me in the presence of Neb-er-tcher, for I have +done what is right and just in Ta-Mera. I have not cursed the god, and +my evil hap did not come upon him that was king in his day. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 50} + Homage to you, O ye who dwell in your Hall of Maati, who have +nothing false in your bodies, who live upon Truth, who feed yourselves +upon Truth in the presence of Horus who dwelleth in his Disk, +deliver ye me from Beba, who feedeth upon the livers of the great ones +on the day of the Great Judgment. Grant ye that I may come before you, +for I have not committed sin, I have done no act of deceit, I have +done no evil thing, and I have not borne [false] witness; therefore +let nothing [evil] be done to me. I have lived upon truth, I have +fed upon truth, I have performed the ordinances of men, and the things +which gratify the gods. I have propitiated the god by doing his +will, I have given bread to the hungry man, and water to him that +was athirst, and apparel to the naked man, and a ferry-boat to him +that had no boat. I have made propitiatory offerings and given cakes +to the gods, and the "things which appear at the word" to the Spirits. +Deliver then ye me, protect then ye me, and make ye no report +against me in the presence [of the Great God]. I am pure in respect of +my mouth, and I am clean in respect of my hands, therefore let it be +said unto me by those who shall behold me: "Come in peace, Come in +peace." For I have heard that great word which the Sahu spake to the +CAT, in the House of Hapt-ra. I have borne witness to Her-f-ha-f, +and he hath given a decision [concerning me]. I have seen the things +over which the Persea tree which is in Rasta, spreadeth its +branches. I have made petitions to the gods, [and I] know the things +[which appertain to] their bodies. I have come, travelling a long +road, to bear righteous testimony, and to set the Balance upon its +supports within Aukert. + Hail, thou who art exalted high upon thy standard, thou Lord of +the Atef Crown, who dost make thy name to be "Lord of the Winds," +deliver thou me from thy divine Envoys who punish and afflict +according to [thy] decrees, and who make calamities to arise, and +whose faces are without coverings, for I have done what is right and +true for the Lord of Truth. I am pure. My breast is purified by +libations, and my hinder parts are made clean with the things which +make clean, and my inner parts have been dipped in the Lake of +Truth. There is no single member of mine which lacketh truth. I have +washed myself clean in the Lake of the South. I have rested myself +in the City of the North, which is in Sekhet Sanhemu (the Field of the +Grasshoppers), where the mariners of Ra wash themselves clean at the +second hour of the night, and at the third hour of the day. The hearts +of the gods are gratified when they have passed over it, whether it be +by night or whether it be by day, and they say unto me, "Let thyself +advance." They say unto me, "Who art thou?" And they say unto me, +"What is thy name?" [And I reply], "Sept-kheri-nehait-ammi-beq-f" is +my name. Then they say unto me, "Advance straightway on the city which +is to the North of the Olive Tree. What dost thou see there?" The +Leg and the Thigh. What dost thou say unto them? Let me see rejoicings +in these lands of the Fenkhu. What do they give unto thee? A flame +of fire and a sceptre-amulet [made] of crystal. What dost thou do with +them? I bury them on the furrow of M'naat, as things for the night. +What dost thou find on the furrow of Maat? A sceptre of flint, the +name of which is "Giver of winds." What now didst thou do with the +flame of fire and the sceptre-amulet [made] of crystal, after thou +didst bury them? I said a spell over them, and I dug them up. I +quenched the flame of fire and I broke the sceptre-amulet, and I +made a lake of water. [Then shall the Two and forty gods say unto me]: +"Come now, pass in over the threshold of this door of the Hall of +Maati, for thou hast knowledge of us." "We will not allow thee to +enter in over us," say the bars of this door, "unless thou tellest +us our names." [And I reply], "Tekh-bu-maa" is your name. The right +lintel of this door saith: "I will not allow thee to pass over me +unless thou tellest me my name." [And I reply], "Henku-en-fat-maat" is +thy name. The left lintel of this door saith: "I will not allow +thee to pass over me unless thou tellest me my name." [And I reply], +"Henku-en-arp" is thy name. The ground of this door saith: "I will not +allow thee to pass over me unless thou tellest me my name." [And I +reply], "Aua-en-Keb" is thy name. And the bolt of this door saith: +"I will not open the door to thee unless thou tellest me my name." +[And I reply], "Saah-en-mut-f" is thy name. The socket of the +fastening of this door saith: "I will not open unto thee unless thou +tellest my name." [And I reply], "The Living Eye of Sebek, the Lord of +Bakhau," is thy name. The Doorkeeper of this door saith: "I will not +open to thee, and I will not let thee enter by me unless thou +tellest my name." [And I reply], "Elbow of the god Shu who placeth +himself to protect Osiris" is thy name. The posts of this door say: +"We will not let thee pass in by us unless thou tellest our name." +[And I reply], "Children of the uraei-goddesses" is your name. The +Doorkeeper of this door saith: "I will not open to thee, and I will +not let thee enter in by me unless thou tellest my name. [And I +reply], "Ox of Keb" is thy name. [And they reply], "Thou knowest us, +pass in therefore by us." The ground of this Hall of Maati saith: "I +will not let thee tread upon me [unless thou tellest me my name], +for I am silent. I am holy because I know the names of two feet +wherewith thou wouldst walk upon me. Declare, then, them to me." +[And I reply], "Besu-Ahu" is the name of my right foot, and +"Unpet-ent-Het-Heru" is the name of my left foot. [The ground +replieth]: "Thou knowest us, enter in therefore over us." The +Doorkeeper of this Hall of Maati saith: "I will not announce thee +unless thou tellest my name." [And I reply], "Discerner of hearts, +searcher of bellies" is thy name. [The Doorkeeper saith]: "Thou +shalt be announced." [He saith]: "Who is the god who dwelleth in his +hour? Speak it" [And I reply], "Au-taui." [He saith]: "Explain who +he is." [And I reply], "Au-taui" is Thoth. "Come now," saith Thoth, +"for what purpose hast thou come?" [And I reply]: "I have come, and +have journeyed hither that my name may be announced [to the god]." +[Thoth saith]: "In what condition art thou?" [And I reply], "I, even +I, am purified from evil defects, and I am wholly free from the curses +of those who live in their days, and I am not one of their number." +[Thoth saith]: "Therefore shall [thy name] be announced to the god." +[Thoth saith]: "Tell me, who is he whose heaven is of fire, whose +walls are living serpents, and whose ground is a stream of water? +Who is he?" [And I reply], "He is Osiris." [Thoth saith]: "Advance +now, [thy name] shall be announced to him. Thy cakes shall come from +the Utchat (Eye of Horus or Ra), thy ale shall come from the Utchat, +and the offerings which shall appear to thee at the word upon earth +[shall proceed] from the Utchat." This is what Osiris hath decreed for +the steward of the overseer of the seal, Nu, whose word is truth. +- + RUBRIC: THE MAKING OF THE REPRESENTATION OF WHAT SHALL HAPPEN IN +THIS HALL OF MAATI. This Chapter shall be said by the deceased when he +is cleansed and purified, and is arrayed in linen apparel, and is shod +with sandals of white leather, and his eyes are painted with antimony, +and his body is anointed with unguent made of myrrh. And he shall +present as offerings oxen, and feathered fowl, and incense, and +cakes and ale, and garden herbs. And behold, thou shalt draw a +representation of this in colour upon a new tile moulded from earth +upon which neither a pig nor any other animal hath trodden. And if +this book be done [in writing, the deceased] shall flourish, and his +children shall flourish, and [his name] shall never fall into +oblivion, and he shall be as one who filleth the heart of the king and +of his princes. And bread, and cakes, and sweetmeats, and wine, and +pieces of flesh shall be given unto him [from among those which are] +upon the altar of the Great God. And he shall not be driven back +from any door in Amentet, and he shall be led along with the kings +of the South and the kings of the North, and he shall be among the +bodyguard of Osiris, continually and regularly for ever. [And he shall +come forth in every form he pleaseth as a living soul for ever, and +ever, and ever.] + +DEIFICATION_OF_THE_MEMBERS + THE CHAPTER OF THE DEIFICATION OF THE MEMBERS +- + The hair of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the hair of Nu. + The face of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the face of Ra. + The eyes of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the eyes of +Hathor. + The ears of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the ears of +Up-uatu. + The lips of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the lips of +Anpu. + {DEIFICATION_OF_THE_MEMBERS ^paragraph 5} + The teeth of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the teeth of +Serqet. + The cheeks of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the cheeks of +Isis. + The arms of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the arms of +Ba-neb-Tetu. + The neck of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the neck of +Uatchit. + The throat of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the throat +of Mert. + {DEIFICATION_OF_THE_MEMBERS ^paragraph 10} + The breast of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the breast +of the Lady of Sais. + The backbone of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the backbone +of Set. + The trunk of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the trunk of +the Lords of Kher-aha. + The flesh of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the flesh of +Aa-shefit. + The belly of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the belly of +Sekhmet. + {DEIFICATION_OF_THE_MEMBERS ^paragraph 15} + The buttocks of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the +buttocks of the Eye of Horus. + The phallus of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, is the phallus +of Osiris. + The thighs of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the thighs of +Nut. + The feet of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the feet of +Ptah. + The fingers of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the +fingers of Saah. + {DEIFICATION_OF_THE_MEMBERS ^paragraph 20} + The toes of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, are the toes of the +Living Uraei. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Pyramid of Pepi I, ll. 565ff.) +- + The head of this Meri-Ra is the head of Horus; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The skull of this Pepi is the Dekan star of the god; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The brow of this Meri-Ra is the brow of..... and Nu; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The face of this Pepi is the face of Up-uatu; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} + The eyes of this Meri-Ra are the eyes of the Great Lady, the first +of the Souls of Anu; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into +heaven. + The nose of this Pepi is the nose of Thoth; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The mouth of this Meri-Ra is the mouth of Khens-ur; he cometh +forth therefore, and ascendeth therefore, and ascendeth therefore into +heaven. + The tongue of this Pepi is the tongue of Maaa (Truth) in the Maat +Boat; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The teeth of this Pepi are the teeth of the Souls of [Anu]; he +cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 10} + The lips of this Meri-Ra are the lips of........; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The chin of this Pepi is the chin of Nest-khent-Sekhem (the throne +of the First Lady of Sekhem); he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + The thes bone of this Pepi is the thes bone of the Bull Sma; he +cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The soulders of this Pepi are the shoulders of Set; he cometh +forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + [The...... of this Pepi].........; he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 15} + [The......of this Pepi] ........of Baabu; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The breast of this Meri-Ra is the breast of Bast; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The belly of this Meri-Ra is the belly of Nut; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + [The........of this Pepi] ........; he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + [The........of this Pepi] .......of the two Companies of the gods; +he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 20} + The two thighs of this Pepi are the two thighs of Heqet; he cometh +forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The buttocks of this Meri-Ra are like the Semktet Boat and the +Mantchet Boat; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The phallus of this Pepi is the phallus of the Hep Bull; he cometh +forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The legs of this Meri-Ra are the legs of Net (Neith) and Serqet; +he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The knees of this Meri-Ra are the knees of the twin Souls who are at +the head of the Sekhet-Tcher; he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 25} + The soles of this Meri-Ra are like the Maati Boat; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + The toes of this Pepi are the toes of the Souls of Anu; he cometh +forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + Now this Pepi is a god, the son of a god; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + This Pepi is the son of Ra, who loveth him; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + Ra hath sent forth Meri-Ra; he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 30} + Ra hath begotten [this] Pepi; he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + Ra hath given birth to Pepi; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth +into heaven. + This spell therefore is in the body of Meri-Ra; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + This Meri-Ra is the Power, the Great Power, among the Great +Council of Chiefs in Anu; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into +heaven. + He worketh the boat; Pepi cometh forth therefore and ascendeth +into heaven. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 35} + [Pepi is] Horus, the nursling, the child; Meri-Ra cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + Pepi hath not had union with Nut, she hath not given her hands to +him; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + Keb hath not removed the obstacles in his path; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + No god hath smitten the steps of this Meri-Ra; he come forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + [Though] Pepi is not censed is not mourned, hath not washed +himself in the vessel, hath not smelt the haunch, hath not carried the +meat-offering, hath not ploughed the earth, hath not dedicated an +offering, he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 40} + Behold, it is not this Pepi who hath said these things to you, O +ye gods, it is Heka who hath said these things to you, O ye gods, +and this Meri-Ra is the support which is under Heka; he cometh forth +therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + Every god smiteth the feet of Pepi; he cometh forth therefore and +ascendeth into heaven. + He plougheth the earth, he dedicateth an offering, he bringeth the +vessel of [blood], he smelleth the haunch, and he bringeth the meat +offering; he cometh forth therefore and ascendeth into heaven. + Every god graspeth the hand of Meri-Ra in heaven, +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 45} + He conducteth him to the House of Horus in the sky. + The word of his Double is truth before Keb. +- +- + THE CHAPTER OF REPULSING SLAUGHTER IN HENSU + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 6) + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 50} +- + THE CHAPTER OF DRIVING BACK THE SLAUGHTERS WHICH ARE PERFORMED IN +HENSU. The Osiris Nu, whose word is truth, saith:- O thou land of +the Sceptre! O thou White Crown of the divine form! O thou rest of the +ferry-boat! I am the Child. (Repeat four times). Hail, Abu-ur! Thou +sayest daily: "The slaughter-block is made ready as thou knowest, +and thou hast come to destruction." I am Ra, who stablisheth those who +praise him. I am the Knot of the god in the Aser tree, the twice +beautiful one, who is more splendid to-day than yesterday. (Repeat +four times). I am Ra, who stablisheth those who praise him. I am the +Knot of the god within the Aser tree, and my appearance is the +appearance [of Ra] on this day. + My hair is the hair of Nu. My face is the face of the Disk. My +eyes are the eyes of Hathor. My ears are the ears of Up-uat. My nose +is the nose of Khenti-Khabas. My lips are the lips of Anpu. My teeth +are the teeth of Serqet. My cheeks are the cheeks of the goddess Isis. +My hands are the hands of Ba-neb-Tet. My forearms are the forearms +of Neith, the Lady of Sais. My backbone is the backbone of Suti. My +phallus is the phallus of Beba. My reins are the reins of the Lords of +Kher-aha. My chest is the chest of Aa-shefit. My belly and back are +the belly and back of Sekhmet. My buttocks are the buttocks of the Eye +of Horus. My hips and legs are the hips and legs of Nut. My feet are +the feet of Ptah. [My fingers] and my toes are the [fingers and] +toes of the Living gods. There is no member of my body which is not +the member of a god. Thoth protecteth my body altogether, and I am +Ra day by day. I shall not be dragged back by my arms, and none +shall lay violent hold upon my hands. And shall do me hurt neither +men, nor gods, nor the Spirit-souls, nor the dead, nor any man, nor +any pat-spirit, nor any rekhit-spirit, nor any hememet-spirit. + I am he who cometh forth advancing, whose name is unknown. I am +Yesterday. "Seer of Millions of Years" is my name. I pass along, I +pass along the paths of the divine celestial judges. I am the Lord +of Eternity: I decree and I judge like Khepera. I am the Lord of the +Urrt Crown. I am he who dwelleth in the Utchat and in the Egg, and +it is granted unto me to live therein. I am he who dwelleth in the +Utchat when it closeth, and I exist by the strength thereof. I come +forth and I shine; I enter in and I come to life. I am in the +Utchat, my seat is upon my throne, and I sit in the tent chamber +before it. I am Horus. [I] traverse millions of years. I have +decreed [the stablishing] of my throne, and I am the ruler thereof; +and in very truth my mouth keepeth an even balance both in speech +and in silence. In very truth my forms are inverted. I am Un-Nefer, +from one period even unto another, and what I have is within me. I +am the only One, who proceedeth from an only One, who goeth round +about in his course. I am he who dwelleth in the Utchat. No evil thing +of any shape or kind shall spring up against me, and no baleful +object, and no harmful thing, and no disastrous thing shall happen +unto me. I open the door in heaven. I rule my throne. I open the way +for the births which take place on this day. I am the child who +traverseth the road of Yesterday. I am To-day for untold nations and +peoples. I am he who protecteth you for millions of years. Whether +ye be denizens of heaven, or of the earth, or of the South, or of +the North, or of the East, or of the West, the fear of me is in your +bodies. I am he whose being hath been wrought in his eye. I shall +not die again. My moment is in your bodies, but my forms are in my +place of habitation. I am "He who cannot be known." The Red Fiends +have their faces directed against me. I am the unveiled one. The +period when the heavens were created for me and were enlarged the +bounds of earth, and multiplied the progeny thereof, cannot be found +out. They shall fail and not be united again. By reason of the +speech which I address to you, my name setteth itself apart from all +things evil which are in the mouths of men. I am he who riseth and +shineth, a wall which cometh out of a wall, an only One who proceedeth +from an only One. There is never a day that passeth without the things +which appertain unto him being therein; passing, passing, passing, +passing. Verily I say unto thee, I am the Plant which cometh forth +from Nu, and my mother is Nut. Hail, my creator, I am he who hath no +power to walk, the Great Knot who dwelleth in Yesterday. The might +of my strength is within my hand, I am not known [by thee], but I am +he who knoweth thee. I cannot be held in the hand, but I am he who can +hold thee in his hand. Hail, O Egg! Hail, O Egg! I am Horus who liveth +for millions of years, whose flame shineth upon you, and bringeth your +hearts unto me. I am master of my throne. I advance at this season. +I have opened a path. I have delivered myself from all evil things. +I am the golden dog-headed ape, three palms and two fingers [high], +which hath neither arms nor legs, and which dwelleth in Het-ka-Ptah. I +go forth as goeth forth the dog-headed ape who dwelleth in +Het-ka-Ptah. +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 55} + RUBRIC: Behold the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, arrayed in +fine linen, and shod with sandals of white [leather], and anointed +with the very finest myrrh unguent. There are offered unto him a +fine bull, and incense, and ra geese, and flowers, and ale, and cakes, +and garden herbs. And behold, thou shalt draw a representation of a +table of offerings on a clean tile with pure colours, and thou shalt +bury it in a field whereon no swine hath trodden. And if a copy of +this book be written upon it, he shall rise [again], and his +children's children shall flourish and prosper, like unto Ra, +without cessation. He shall be in high favour with the king, and +with the shenit nobles of his court, and there shall be given unto him +cakes and cups of drink, and portions of flesh, upon the altar-table +of the Great God. He shall not thrust aside at any door in Amentet; he +shall travel in the train of the Kings of the South and the Kings of +the North, and he shall abide with the followers of Osiris near +Un-Nefer, for ever, and for ever, and for ever. +- +- + Vignette + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheet 24) +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 60} + The steward of the overseer of the seal, Nu, whose word is truth, +begotten of the steward of the overseer of the seal, Amen-hetep, whose +word is truth, saith:- Hail, ye Four Apes who sit in the bows of the +Boat of Ra, who convey truth to Nebertcher, who sit in judgment on the +oppressed man and on [his] oppressor, who make the gods to be +contented by means of the flame of your mouths, who offer holy +offerings to the gods, and sepulchral meals to the Spirit-souls, who +live upon truth, and who feed upon truth of heart, who are without +deceit and fraud, and to whom wickedness is an abomination, do ye away +with my evil deeds, and put ye away my sins [which deserved stripes +upon earth, and destroy ye every evil thing which appertaineth to me], +and let there be no obstacle whatsoever on my part towards you. O +grant ye that I may make my way through the Amehet, let me enter +into Rasta, let me pass through the hidden pylons of Ament. O grant +that there may be given unto me shens cakes, and ale, and persen +cakes, even as to the living Spirit-souls, and grant that I may +enter into and come forth from Rasta. + [The Four Apes make answer, saying]: Come thou, for we have done +away with thy wickedness, and we have put away thy sin, along with thy +sins upon earth which deserved stripes, and we have destroyed every +evil thing which appertained to thee upon earth. Enter, therefore, +unto Rasta, and pass through the hidden pylons of Amentet, and there +shall be given unto thee shens cakes, and ale, and persen cakes, and +thou shalt come forth and shalt enter in at thy desire, even as do +those who are favoured [of the God], and thou shalt be called [to +partake of offerings] each day in the horizon. + +THE_TET_OF_GOLD +- + THE CHAPTER OF A TET OF GOLD. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, +saith:- Thou risest up for thyself, O Still-heart! Thou shinest for +thyself, O Still-heart! Place thou thyself on thy base, I come, I +bring unto thee a Tet of gold, thou shalt rejoice therein. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nebseni and the Papyrus of Nu) +- + Rise up thou, O Osiris, thou hast thy backbaone, O Still-heart, thou +hast thy neck vertebrae and thy back, O Still-heart! Place thou +thyself on thy base. I put water beneath thee, and I bring unto thee a +Tet of god that thou mayest rejoice therein. +- + RUBRIC (From the Papyrus of Nu): [This Chapter] shall be recited +over a Tet of gold set in a stand made of sycamore wood which hath +been steeped in a tincture of ankhamu flowers, and it shall be +placed on the neck of the deceased on the day of the funeral. If +this amulet be placed on his neck he shall become a perfect Khu in +Khert-Neter, and at the festivals of the New Year he shall be like +unto the Followers of Osiris continually and for ever. +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} + RUBRIC (From the Turin Papyrus): [This Chapter] shall be said over a +Tet of gold fashioned out of the trunk of a sycamore tree, and it +shall be placed on the neck of the deceased. Then shall he enter in +through the doors of the Tuat. His words whall be silenced. He shall +place himself on the ground on New Year's Day among the Followers of +Osiris. + If this Chapter be known by the deceased he shall live like a +perfect Khu in Khert-Neter. He shall not be sent back from the doors +of Amentet. There shall be given to him the shens cake, and a cup of +wine, and the persen cake, and slices of meat on the altars of Ra, +or as some read, Osiris Un-Nefer. And his word shall be truth before +his enemies in Khert-Neter continually, and for ever and for ever. + +THE_TET_OF_RED_STONE +- + THE CHAPTER OF A TET OF CARNELIAN. The Osiris Ani, whose word is +truth, saith:- The blood of Isis, the spells of Isis, the magical +powers of Isis, shall make this great one strong, and shall be an +amulet of protection [against him] that would do to him the things +which he abominateth. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX +- + RUBRIC (From the Papyrus of Nu): [This Chapter] shall be said over a +Tet of carnelian, which hath been washed in a tincture of ankhamu +flowers, and is fashioned out of the trunk of a sycamore tree. It +shall be placed on the neck of the deceased on the day of the funeral. +If this be done for him the magical powers of Isis will protect his +members. Horus, the son of Isis, shall rejoice when he seeth him. [No] +road shall be blocked to him. His hand shall be to heaven, his hand +shall be to earth, for ever. Do not let anyone see him. Verily.... +- + RUBRIC (From the Saite Recension): [This Chapter] shall be said over +a Tet of carnelian, anointed with a tincture of ankhamu flowers, +made from the trunk of a sycamore tree. It shall be placed on the neck +of the Khu. If this book be done for him, the magical spells of Isis +shall protect him, and Horus the son of Isis shall rejoice [when] he +seeth him. No road shall be blocked to him. His hand shall be to +heaven, his hand shall be to earth....... If this book be known by him +he shall be in the following of Osiris Un-Nefer, and his word shall be +truth in Khert-Neter. The doors in Khert-Neter shall be opened to him. +Wheat and barley shall be given to him in Sekhet-Aanru. His name shall +be like [the names of] the gods who are there, the Followers of +Horus who reap. + +HEART_OF_SEHERT_STONE +- + THE CHAPTER OF A HEART OF SEHERT STONE. The Osiris Ani, whose word +is truth, saith:- I am the Benu bird, the Heart-soul of Ra, the +guide of the gods to the Tuat. Their Heart-souls come forth upon earth +to do what their KAU wish to do, and the Heart-soul of the Osiris +Ani shall come forth to do what his Ka wisheth to do. + +THE_HEAD_REST +- + THE CHAPTER OF THE HEAD-REST, which is to be placed under the head +of the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. Awake out of thy sufferings, O +thou who liest prostrate! Awake thou! Thy head is in the horizon. I +lift thee up, O thou whose word is truth. Ptah hath overthrown thine +enemies for thee. Thine enemies have fallen, and they shall never more +exist, O Osiris. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nebseni, Sheet 21) +- + THE CHAPTER OF THE HEAD-REST [OR PILLOW]. Awake out of thy +sufferings, O thou who liest prostrate. They (the gods) keep watch +over thy head in the horizon. Thou art lifted up, thy word is truth in +respect of the things which have been done by thee. Ptah hath cast +down headlong thine enemies. This work was ordered to be done for +thee. Thou art Horus, the son of Hathor, Nesert, Nesertet, who +giveth back the head after it hath been cut off. Thy head shall not be +carried away from thee, after [it hath been cut off]; thy head shall +be carried away from thee, never, never! + +TEXTS_IN_THE_FUNERAL_CHAMBER + THE TEXTS IN THE FUNERAL CHAMBER +- + SPEECH OF ISIS. Isis saith:- I have come to be a protector unto +thee. I waft unto thee air for thy nostrils, and the north wind +which cometh forth from the god Tem unto thy nose. I have made whole +for thee thy windpipe. I make thee to live like a god. Thine enemies +have fallen under thy feet. I have made thy word to be true before +Nut, and thou art mighty before the gods. +- + SPEECH OF NEPHTHYS. Nephthys saith unto the Osiris Ani, whose word +is truth:- I go round about thee to protect thee, O brother Osiris. +I have come to be a protector unto thee. [My strength shall be near +thee, my strength shall be near thee, for ever. Ra hath heard thy cry, +and the gods have made thy word to be truth. Thou art raised up. Thy +word is truth in respect of what hath been done unto thee. Ptah hath +overthrown thy foes, and thou art Horus, the son of Hathor.] +- + SPEECH OF THE TET. I have come quickly, and I have driven back the +footsteps of th god whose face is hidden. I have illumined his +sanctuary. I stand near the god Tet on the day of repelling +disaster. I watch to protect thee, O Osiris. + {TEXTS_IN_THE_FUNERAL_CHAMBER ^paragraph 5} +- + SPEECH OF KESTA (Mesta). I am Kesta, thy son, O Osiris Ani, whose +word is truth. I come to protect thee. I will make thy house to +flourish, permanently, even as Ptah hath commanded me, and as Ra +himself hath commanded. +- + SPEECH OF HAPI. I am Hapi, thy son, O Osiris Ani, whose word is +truth. I come to protect thee. I bind together thy head and the +members of thy body. I smite down for thee thine enemies under thee. I +give unto thee thy head for ever and for ever, O Osiris Ani, whose +word is truth, whose word is truth in peace. +- + {TEXTS_IN_THE_FUNERAL_CHAMBER ^paragraph 10} + SPEECH OF TUAMUTEF. Tuamutef saith:- I am thy son Horus, who +loveth thee. I come to avenge thee, O my father Osiris, upon him +that did evil unto thee. I have set him under thy feet for ever and +for ever, permanently, permanently, O Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, +whose word is truth. +- + SPEECH OF QEBHSENUF. Qebsenuf saith:- I am thy son, O Osiris Ani, +whose word is truth. I come to protect thee. I have collected thy +bones and I have gathered together thy members. [I have brought thy +heart, and I have placed it upon its throne within thy body. I make +thy house to flourish after thee, O thou who livest for ever.] +- + SPEECH OF THE FLAME. I protect thee with this flame. I drive him +[the foe] away from the valley of the tomb. I cast the sand about [thy +feet]. I embrace the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace. + {TEXTS_IN_THE_FUNERAL_CHAMBER ^paragraph 15} +- + SPEECH OF THE FLAME. I come to hew in pieces. I have not been hewn +in pieces, and I will not permit thee to be hewn in pieces. I come +to do violence [to thy foe], but I will not permit violence to be done +unto thee. I protect thee. +- + A SOUL SAITH:- The Osiris Ani, whose is truth, praiseth Ra when he +rolleth up into the sky in the eastern horizon of heaven. +- + {TEXTS_IN_THE_FUNERAL_CHAMBER ^paragraph 20} + A SOUL SAITH:- The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in peace in +Khert-Neter, praiseth Ra when he setteth in the western horizon of +heaven, [and saith], "I am a perfect soul." +- + SPEECH OF ANI. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- I am a +perfect soul dwelling in the divine egg of the Abtu Fish. I am the +Great Cat which dwelleth in the Seat of Truth, wherein the god Shu +riseth. +- + SPEECH OF THE USHABTI FIGURE [THE CHAPTER OF NOT DOING WORK IN +KHERT-NETER]. Illumine the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth. Hail, +Shabti Figure! If the Osiris Ani be decreed to do any of the work +which is to be done in Khert-Neter, let everything which standeth in +the way be removed from him- whether it be to plough the fields, or to +fill the channels with water, or to carry sand from [the East to the +West]. The Shabti Figure replieth: I will do it, verily I am here +[when] thou callest. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nu and the Papyrus of Nebseni) +- + The Speech of Anpu: Anubis the dweller in the mummy chamber, +Governor of the Divine House, layeth his hands upon the lord of +life, the scribe, the draughtsman of Ptah, Nebseni, the lord of +fealty, begotten of the scribe and mason Thena, born of the lady of +the house Mut-rest, whose word is truth, and devoting himself to him +as his guardian, saith:- Homage to thee, thou happy one, lord! Thou +seest the Utchat. Ptah-Seker hath bound thee up. Anpu hath exalted +thee. Shu hath raised thee up, O Beautiful Face, thou governor of +eternity. Thou hast thine eye, O scribe Nebseni, lord of fealty, and +it is beautiful. Thy right eye is like the Sektet Boat, thy left eye +is like the Atet Boat. Thine eyebrows are fair to see in the +presence of the Company of the Gods. Thy brow is under the +protection of Anpu, and thy head and face, O beautiful one, are before +the holy Hawk. Thy fingers have been stablished by thy scribe's +craft in the presence of the Lord of Khemenu, Thoth, who hath bestowed +upon thee the knowledge of the speech of the holy books. Thy beard +is beautiful in the sight of Ptah-Seker, and thou, O scribe Nebseni, +thou lord of fealty, art beautiful before the Great Company of the +Gods. The Great God looketh upon thee, and he leadeth thee along the +path of happiness. Sepulchral meals are bestowed upon thee, and he +overthroweth for thee thine enemies, setting them under thy feet in +the presence of the Great Company of the Gods who dwell in the House +of the Great Aged One which is in Anu. + +SEKHET_HETEPET +- + [HERE] BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF SEKHET-HETEPET, AND THE CHAPTERS OF +COMING FORTH BY DAY, OF ENTERING INTO AND COMING FORTH FROM +KHERT-NETER, OF ARRIVING IN SEKHET-AANRU, AND OF LIVING IN PEACE IN +THE GREAT CITY, THE LADY OF WINDS. [The Osiris the scribe Ani, whose +word is truth, saith:-] Let me be master there. Let me be a khu there. +Let me plough there. Let me reap there. Let me eat there. Let me drink +there. [Let me beget there]. Let me do there all the things which +one doeth upon earth. The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- +Horus vanquished Set when [he] looked at the building of +Sekhet-Hetepet. [He] spread air over the Divine Soul in its Egg, in +its day. He delivered the interior of the body of Horus [from the +Akeru Gods]. I have crowned him in the House of Shu. His house is +the stars. Behold, I take up my place in its nomes. He hath guided the +hearts of the Company of the Firstborn Gods. He hath reconciled the +Two Fighters (Horus and Set), the guardians of life. He hath done what +is fair, bringing an offering. He hath reconciled the Two Fighters +with him that belongeth to them. He hath cut off the hairy scalp of +the Two Fighters. He hath destroyed the revolts of [their] children. I +have done away all the evil which attacked their souls. I am master in +[Sekhet-Hetepet]. I know it. I have sailed over its lakes that I might +arrive at the cities thereof. I have made strong my mouth. The +Spirit-souls are ready [to fight], but they shall not gain the mastery +over me. I am equipped in thy Fields, O god Hetep. What thou wishest +thou shalt do, [saith this god]. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nebseni, Sheet 17) +- + HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF SEKHET-HETEPET, AND THE CHAPTERS OF +COMING FORTH BY DAY; OF GOING INTO AND OF COMING FORTH FROM +KHERT-NETER; OF ARRIVAL IN SEKHET-AARU; OF LIVING IN SEKHET-HETEPET, +THE MIGHTY CITY, THE LADY OF WINDS; OF HAVING POWER THEREIN; OF +BECOMING A SPIRIT-SOUL THERE; OF PLOUGHING THERE; OF REAPING THERE; OF +EATING THERE; OF DRINKING THERE; OF MAKING LOVE THERE; AND OF DOING +EVERYTHING THERE EVEN AS A MAN DOETH UPON EARTH. NEBSENI, THE SCRIBE +AND DRAUGHTSMAN OF PTAH, SAITH:- Set vanguished Horus, who was looking +at the building in Sekhet-Hetepet. I set free Horus from Set. Set +opened the paths of the Two Eyes (the Sun and Moon) in the sky. Set +ejected water with air upon the soul of his Eye, which dwelt in the +town of Mert; he delivered the interior of the body of Horus from +the hands of the Akeru Gods. Behold me! I paddle this great boat +over the Lake of the god Hetep; I seized upon it in the mansion of +Shu. The mansion of his stars reneweth youth, reneweth youth. I paddle +over the Lakes thereof so that I may arrive at the towns thereof. I +sail up to the town of the god Hetep.... Behold, I am at peace with +his times, and with his guidance, and with his will, and with the +Company of the Gods, who are his firstborn. He maketh the Two Fighters +(Horus and Set) to be at peace [with each other], and to keep ward +over the living whom he hath created in fair form, and he bringeth +peace; he maketh the Two Fighters to be at peace with those who +watch over them. He cutteth off the hair from their divine fighters, +he driveth away storm from the children. He guardeth from attack the +Spirits. I have gained power therein. I know it. I have sailed over +its Lakes so that I might arrive at its towns. My mouth is strong. I +am equipped against the Spirits. They shall not gain the mastery +over me. I am rewarded [with] these thy Fields, O god Hetep. What thou +wishest that do thou, O lord of the winds. I shall be a spirit +therein. I shall eat therein. I shall drink therein. I shall plough +therein. I shall reap the grain therein. I shall be strong therein. +I shall make love therein. My words shall be strong therein. I shall +not be in subjection therein. I shall be a man of might therein. +Thou hast made strong the mouth and throat. Hetep Qettbu is its +name. [It is] stablished upon the pillars of Shu, and is linked with +the pleasant things of Ra. He is the divider of years, the hidden of +mouth; silent is his mouth, hidden is what he uttereth, he +fulfilleth eternity, he taketh possession of everlastingness of +existence as Hetep, Neb-Hetep. Horus maketh himself strong like unto a +hawk which is one thousand cubits in length, and two thousand cubits +in life. He that equipments with him, he journeyeth on, he cometh to +the place where his heart would be, among the Lakes which are in its +towns. He begetteth in the birth-chamber of the god of the town, he is +satisfied with the food of the god of the town; he doeth what ought to +be done there, in the Field of Smas-er-Khet..... everything of the +birth-chamber of the god of the town. Now [when he] setteth in the +[land of] life like crystal he performeth everything therein, [which +things are] like unto the things done in the Lake Neserser, wherein +there is none that rejoiceth, and wherein are evil things of all +kinds. The god Hetep goeth in and cometh out, and marcheth hither +and thither in the Field of Smas-er-Khet, the Lady of the +birth-chamber of the god of the town. [Let me] live with the god +Hetep, clothed, and not despoiled by the Lords of the North, and may +the Lord of things bring food unto me. May he make me to go forward. +May I come forth. May he bring to me my Power there, may I receive it, +and may I be rewarded by the god Hetep. May I be master of the great +and mighty word in my body in this my place. Make me to remember it. +Let me [not] forget it. Let me go forward, let me plough. I am at +peace with the god of the town. I know the water, the towns, the +nomes, and the lakes which are in Sekhet-Hetepet. I live therein. I am +strong therein. I shine therein. I eat therein. I..... therein. I reap +the harvest therein. I plough therein. I beget children therein. I +am at peace therein with the god Hetep. Behold I sow seed therein. I +sail about on the lakes thereof, and I arrive at its towns, O god +Hetep. Behold my mouth is equipped, it possesseth horns . Give unto me +the abundance of the KAU (Doubles) and Spirit-souls. He who counteth +me is Shu. I know him not. I come to its towns. I sail over its lakes. +I walk about in Sekhet-Hetepet. Behold, it is Ra who is in heaven. +Behold, it is Hetep [who is] its double offering of peace. I have +advanced to its territory. I have put on my apparel. I have come +forth. I have given what it was upon me to give. I have made glad in +[my] heart. I have conquered. I am strong. I have given directions +to Hetep. + [Hail], Unen-em-hetep, I have come to thee. My soul followeth me. +The god Hu is on my hands. [Hail], Nebt-taui, in whom I remember and +forget, I have become alive. I have attacked none, let none attack me. +I have given, give thou to me gladness. Make thou me to be at peace, +bind thou up my veins, let [me] receive air. [Hail], Unen-em-hetep, +the Lord of Winds. I have come there. I have opened my head. Ra +sleepeth. I watch not, [for] the goddess Hetemet is at the door of +heaven by night. Obstacles have been put before, but I have +collected his emissions. I am in my city. O Nut-urt (Great City), I +have come into thee. I have counted up my abundant stores. I advance +on my way to Uakh. I am the Bull which is tied with a rope of +lapis-lazuli, the lord of the Field of the Bull, the lord of the words +of the god, the goddess Septet (Sothis) at her hours. O Uakh, I have +come into thee. I have eaten my food. I am master of choice pieces +of the flesh of oxen and of feathered fowl, and the birds of Shu +have been given unto me. I follow the gods, and I come [after the +Doubles]. O Tcheft, I have come into thee. I array myself in +apparel, and I gird about myself the sat garment of Ra. Behold the +Court of the sky, and the followers of Ra who dwell in heaven. O +Un-em-hetep, the lord of the Two Lands, I have come into thee. I +have plunged into the Lakes of Tchesert; behold, impurity of every +kind hath removed from me. The divine Great One flourisheth therein. +Behold, I have found [him]. I have netted geese, and have fed full +upon the finest of them. O Qenqentet, I have come into thee. I have +seen the Osiris [my father]. I have saluted my mother. I have begotten +children. I have snared the serpents, and I am delivered. I know the +name of the god who is with the goddess Tchesert, and who hath +straight hair, and is equipped with horns [ready to gore]. He reapeth, +and I both plough and reap. O Hetemet, I have entered into thee. I +have approached the lapis-lazuli. I have followed the winds of the +Company of the Gods. The Great God hath given my head unto me. He +who hath bound my head on my body for me is the Mighty One, with +eyes of lapis-lazuli, namely, Ari-en-ab-f ("He doeth as he pleaseth"). +O Usert, I have come into thee, to the house wherein food is brought +unto me. O Smam, I have come into thee. My heart watcheth, my head +is equipped with the White Crown. I act as the guide of the +celestial beings. I make to flourish terrestrial beings. There is +joy of heart for the Bull, and for the celestial beings, and for the +Company of the Gods. I am the god, the Bull, the Lord of the gods, who +maketh his way over the turquoise. O wheat and barley of the nome of +the god, I have come into thee. I have come forward. I have lifted +[you] up, following the best offerings of the Company of the Gods. I +have moored my boat to the tying-up post in the lakes of the celestial +beings. I have pulled up the typing-up post. I have recited words, and +I have ascribed praises unto the gods who dwell in Sekhet-Hetepet. + +PROVIDING_THE_DECEASED_WITH_MEAT_MILK_ETC + THE CHAPTER OF PROVIDING THE DECEASED WITH MEAT, MILK, ETC. +- + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, saith:- Homage to thee, O Ra, +the Lord of Truth, the Only One, the Lord of Eternity and Maker of +Everlastingness. I have come before thee, O my Lord Ra. I would make +to flourish the Seven Cows and their Bull. O ye who give cakes and ale +to the Spirit-souls, grant ye that my soul may be with you. Let him be +born on your thighs. Let him be like unto one of you for ever and +for ever. Let the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, have glorious power +in the Beautiful Amentet. +- +- + The Names of the Seven Holy Cows and their Bull: +- + 1. Het-Kau Nebtertcher. + {PROVIDING_THE_DECEASED_WITH_MEAT_MILK_ETC ^paragraph 5} + 2. Akertkhentetasts. + 3. Khebitetsahneter. + 4. Urmertusteshertshenti. + 5. Khnemtemankhanuit. + 6. Sekhmetrensemabats. + {PROVIDING_THE_DECEASED_WITH_MEAT_MILK_ETC ^paragraph 10} + 7. Shenatpetuthestneter. +- + Bull: Kathaihemt. +- +- + ADDRESSES TO THE FOUR RUDDERS OF HEAVEN + {PROVIDING_THE_DECEASED_WITH_MEAT_MILK_ETC ^paragraph 15} +- + Hail, thou Beautiful Power, thou Beautiful Rudder of the Northern +Heaven. + Hail, thou who circlest, Guide of the Two Lands, Beautiful Rudder of +the Western Heaven. + Hail, Splendour, Dweller in the temple of the Ashemu gods, Beautiful +Rudder of the Eastern Heaven. + Hail, Dweller in the temple of the Red gods, Beautiful Rudder of the +Southern Heaven. + {PROVIDING_THE_DECEASED_WITH_MEAT_MILK_ETC ^paragraph 20} +- +- +- + ADDRESSES TO THE FOUR COMAPNIES OF THE GODS +- + Hail, ye gods who are above the earth, ye Guides of the Tuat. + Hail, ye Mother-goddesses, who are above the earth in Khert-Neter, +in the House of Osiris. + {PROVIDING_THE_DECEASED_WITH_MEAT_MILK_ETC ^paragraph 25} + Hail, ye gods who guide Ta-tchesert, who are above the earth and are +guides of the Tuat. + Hail, ye Followers of Ra, who follow in the train of Osiris. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Nu) +- + RUBRIC: [These words] shall be said when Ra appeareth over [figures] +of these gods written in colour upon a tablet, and thou shalt place +offerings of tchefau food before them, cakes, ale, flesh, geese, and +incense. They shall cause the deceased to enjoy the "offerings which +come forth at the word [of command]" before Ra; and they shall give +the deceased an abundance of food in Khert-Neter, and shall deliver +him from every evil thing whatsoever. And thou shalt not recite this +Book of Un-Nefer in the presence of anyone except thine own self. If +this be done for the deceased Ra shall be a rudder for him, and +shall be to him a strong protecting power, and he shall destroy all +his enemies for him in Khert-Neter, and in heaven, and upon earth, and +in every place whereinsoever he may enter, and he shall enjoy +celestial food regularly and continually for ever. +- +- +- + (From the Saite Recension) +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} + THE BOOK OF MAKING PERFECT THE KHU in the heart of Ra, of making him +to have the mastery before Tem, of magnifying him before Osiris, of +making him mighty before Khent-Amentet, and of setting awe of him +before the Company of the Gods. It shall be recited on the day of +the New Moon, on the sixth day festival, on the fifteenth day +festival, on the festival of Uak, on the festival of Thoth, on the +Birthday of Osiris, on the festival of Menu, on the night of Heker, +[during] the Mysteries of the Tuat, during the celebration of the +Mysteries in Akertet, at the smiting of the emissions, at the +passage of the Funerary Valley, [and] the Mysteries...... [The recital +thereof] will make the heart of the Khu to flourish and will make long +his strides, and will make him to advance, and will make his face +bright, and will make it to penetrate to the God. Let no man witness +[the recital] except the king and the Kherheb priest, but the +servant who cometh to minister outside shall not see it. Of the Khu +for whom this Book shall be recited, his soul shall come forth by +day with the living, he shall have power among the gods, and it will +make him irresisitible for ever and ever. These gods shall go round +about him, and shall acknowledge him. He shall be one of them. [This +Book] shall make him to know how he came into being in the +beginning. This Book is indeed a veritable mystery. Let no stranger +anywhere have knowledge of it. Do not speak about it to any man. Do +not repeat it. Let no [other] eye see it. Let no [other] ear hear +it. Let no one see it except [thyself] and him who taught [it to +thee]. Let not the multitude [know of it] except thyself and the +beloved friend of thy heart. Thou shalt do this book in the seh +chamber on a cloth painted with the stars in colour all over it. It is +indeed a mystery. The dwellers in the swamps of the Delta nad +everywhere there shall not know it. It shall provided the Khu with +celestial food upon in Khert-Neter. It shall supply his Heart-soul +with food upon earth. It shall make him to live for ever. No [evil] +thing shall have the master over him. +- + THE ADDRESSES OF THE FOUR RUDDERS +- + Hail, Power of Heaven, Opener of the Disk, thou Beautiful Rudder +of the Northern Heaven. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 10} + Hail, Ra, Guide of the Two Lands, thou Beautiful Rudder of the +Western Heaven. + Hail, Khu, Dweller in the House of the Akhemu gods, thou Beautiful +Rudder of the Eastern Heaven. + Hail, Governor, Dweller in the House of the Tesheru Gods, thou +Beautiful Rudder of the Southern Heaven. +- + Grant ye cakes, and ale and tchefau food to the Osiris Auf-ankh, +whose word is truth. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 15} +- + Hail, Father of the Gods! Hail, Mother of teh Gods in Khert-Neter! +Deliver ye the Osiris from every evil thing, from every evil +obstruction, from every dire attack of an enemy, and from that +deadly snarer with knife-like words, and from men, and gods, and +Spirit-souls, and the damned, on this day, on this night, on this +present festival of the fifteenth day, and in this year, and from +the things of evil thereof. + +HYMN_TO_OSIRIS_KHENTI_AMENTI_UN_NEFER + HYMN TO OSIRIS KHENTI-AMENTI UN-NEFER +- + The Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, praiseth Osiris Khenti-Amenti +Un-Nefer, and saith:- Hail, my Lord, who dost hasten through eternity, +whose existence is for ever, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, +Sovereign, God of the Gods, who live in their shrines,.... gods.... +men. Make thou for me a seat with those who are in Khert-Neter, who +adore the forms of thy KA, and who traverse millions of millions of +years....... May no delay arise for thee in Ta-mera. Let them come +to thee, all of them, great as well as small. May this god give the +power to enterin and to come forth from Khert-Neter, without +repulse, at any door of the Tuat, to the KA of the Osiris Ani. + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + (From the Papyrus of Sutimes) +- + SUTIMES, THE LIBATIONER AND PRESIDENT OF THE ALTAR CHAMBER OF THE +APTS, DIRECTOR OF THE SCRIBES OF AMEN, WHOSE WORD IS TRUTH, PRAISETH +OSIRIS, AND DOETH HOMAGE TO THE LORD OF ETERNITY, AND SATISFIETH THE +WILL OF THE GOD, AND SPEAKETH TRUTH, THE LORD OF WHICH IS UNKNOWN, AND +SAITH:- Homage to thee, O thou Holy God, thou mighty and beneficent +being, thou Prince of Eternity, who dwellest in thy abode in the +Sektet Boat, whose risings are manifold in the Atet Boat, unto whom +praises are rendered in heaven and upon earth. Peoples and nations +exalt thee, and the awe of thy terror is in the hearts of men, and +Spirt-souls, and the dead. Thy soul dwelleth in Tetu, and the awe of +thee is in Hensu. Thou settest the visible emblems of thyself in +Anu, and the majesty of thy transformations in the holy place. I +have come unto thee. Truth is in my heart, and in my breast there is +neither craft nor guile. Grant thou that I may have my being among the +living, and that I may sail up and down the river among those who +are in thy following. + +PRAISE_TO_HATHOR_LADY_OF_AMENTET + THE CHAPTER OF THE PRAISE OF HATHOR, LADY OF AMENTET +- + Hathor, Lady of Amentet, the Dweller in the Great Land, the Lady +of Ta-Tchesert, the Eye of Ra, the Dweller in his breast, the +Beautiful Face in the Boat of Millions of Years, the Seat of Peace +of the doer of truth, Dweller in the Boat of the favoured ones..... + +APPENDIX + APPENDIX + THE CHAPTER OF THE FOUR TORCHES + (From the Papyrus of Nu, Sheets 26 and 27) +- + THE CHAPTER OF THE FOUR LIGHTED LAMPS WHICH ARE MADE FOR THE +SPIRIT-SOUL. Behold, thou shalt make four rectangular troughs of +clay wherein thou shalt scatter incense, and thou shalt fill them with +the milk of a white cow, and by means of these thou shalt extinguish +the lamps. The Osiris Nu, the steward of the overseer of the seal, +whose word is truth, saith:- The fire cometh to thy KA, O Osiris +Khenti-Amenti! The fire cometh to thy KA, O Osiris Nu, whose word is +truth. The ordering of the night cometh after the day. [The fire +cometh to thy KA, O Osiris, Governor of those who are in Amenti], +and the two sisters of Ra come likewise. Behold it (the fire) riseth +in Abtu, and it cometh; I cause it to come, the Eye of Horus. It is +set in order upon thy brow, O Osiris Khenti-Amenti; it is set in thy +shrine and riseth on thy brow; it is set on thy brow, O Osiris Nu, +it is set on thy brow. The Eye of Horus protecteth thee, O Osiris +Khenti-Amenti, and it keepeth thee in safety; it casteth down headlong +all thine enemies for thee, and all thine enemies have fallen down +headlong before thee. O Osiris Nu, the Eye of Horus protecteth thee, +it keepeth thee in safety, and it casteth down headlong all thine +enemies. Thine enemies have fallen down headlong before thy KA, O +Osiris Khenti-Amenti. The Eye of Ra protecteth thee, it keepeth thee +in safety, and it hath cast down headlong all thine enemies. Thine +enemies have fallen down headlong before thy KA, O Osiris Nu, whose +word is truth. The Eye of Horus protecteth thee, it keepeth thee in +safety, it hath cast down headlong for thee all thine enemies, and +thine enemies have fallen down headlong before thee. The Eye of +Horus cometh. It is sound and well, it sendeth forth light even as +doth Ra in the horizon. It covereth the powers of Suti with +darkness, it mastereth him, and it bringeth its flame against him by +its own command. The Eye of Horus is sound and well, thou eatest the +flesh thereof, thy body possesseth it. Thou acclaimest it. The Four +Fires enter into thy KA, O Osiris Khenti-Amenti, the Four Fires +enter into thy KA, O Osiris Nu, the steward of the overseer of the +seal, whose word is truth. + Hail, ye sons of Horus, Kesta, Hapi, Tuamutef, and Qebhsenuf, ye +have given your protection to your divine Father Osiris Khenti-Amenti, +give ye your protection to the Osiris Nu, whose word is truth. Now +therefore, inasmuch as ye have destroyed the Opponent of Osiris +Khenti-Amenti, who liveth with the gods, having smitten Suti with +his right hand and arm when dawn came upon the earth, and Horus hath +become master [of Suti], and hath avenged his divine Father himself; +and inasmuch as your divine Father hath been made to flourish +through the union of the KA of Osiris Khenti-Amenti, whch ye effected, +and the Eye of Horus hath avenged him, and hath protected him, and +hath cast down headlong for him all his enemies, and all his enemies +have fallen down before him, even so do ye destroy the Opponent of the +Osiris Nu, the steward of the overseer of the seal, whose word is +truth. Let him live with the gods, let him smite his enemy, let him +destroy him, when light dawneth on the earth. Let Horus be master +and avenge the Osiris Nu, and let the Osiris Nu flourish through his +union with his KA which ye have effected. O Osiris Nu, the Eye of +Horus hath avenged thee. It hath cast down headlong all thine +enemies for thee, and all thine enemies have been cast down headlong +before thee. + Hail, Osiris Khenti-Amenti, grant thou light and fire to the perfect +Heart-soul which is in Hensu. And [O ye Sons of Horus], grant ye power +unto the living heart-soul of the Osiris Nu by means of his fire. +Let him not be repulsed, and let him not be driven back at the doors +of Amentet! Let his offerings of bread and of linen garments be +brought unto him among the lords of funeral oblations. O offer ye +praises, as unto a god to the Osiris Nu, the destroyer of his Opponent +in his form of Truth, and in his attributes of a god of truth. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 5} +- + RUBRIC: [This Chapter] shall be recited over four torches of atma +cloth, which hath been anointed with the finest Thehennu unguent, +and the torches shall be placed in the hands of four men who shall +have the names of the pillars of Horus written upon their shoulders, +and they shall burn the torches in the beautiful light of Ra, and this +shall confer power and might upon the Spirit-soul of the deceased +among the stars which never set. If this Chapter be recited for him he +shall never, never perish, and he shall become a living soul for ever. +These torches shall make the Spirit-soul to flourish like Osiris +Khenti-Amenti, regularly and continually for ever. It is a struggle. +Thou shalt not perform this ceremony before any human being except +thine own self, or thy father, or thy son, because it is an +exceedingly great mystery of the Amentet, and it is a type of the +hidden things of the Tuat. When this ceremony hath been performed +for the deceased, the gods, and the Spirit-souls, and the dead shall +see him in the form of Khenti-Amenti, and he shall have power and +dominion like this god. +- + If thou shalt undertake to perform for the deceased that which is +ordered in this "Chapter of the four blazing torches," each day, +thou shalt cause the form of the deceased to come forth from every +hall [in the Tuat], and from the Seven Halls of Osiris. And he shall +live in the form of the God. He shall have power and dominion +corresponding to those of the gods and the Spirit-souls for ever and +ever. He shall enter in through the secret pylons and shall not be +turned back in the presence of Osiris. And it shall come to pass, +provided that the following things be done for him, that he shall +enter in and come forth. He shall not be turned back. No boundary +shall be set to his goings, and the sentence of the doom shall not +be passed upon him on the Day of the Weighing of Words before +Osiris- never, never. + And thou shalt perform whatsoever [is written in] this book on +behalf of the deceased, who shall thereby become perfect and pure. And +thou shalt "open his mouth" with the instrument of iron. And thou +shalt write down these things in accordance with the instructions +which are found in the books of Prince Herutataf, who discovered +them in a secret coffer (now they were in the handwriting of the god +[Thoth] himself and had been deposited in the Temple of the goddess +Unnut, the Lady of Unu) during a journey which he was making in +order to inspect the temples, and the temple-estates, and the +sanctuaries of the gods. And thou shalt perform these ceremonies +secretly in the Tuat-chamber of the tomb, for they are mysteries of +the Tuat, and they are symbolic of the things which are done in +Khert-Neter. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 10} + And thou shalt say: I have come, I have advanced hastily. I cast +light upon his (the deceased's) footsteps. I am hidden, but I cast +light upon his hidden place. I stand up close to the Tet. I stand up +close to the Tet of Ra, I turn back the slaughter. I am protecting +thee, O Osiris. +- + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a Tet of crystal, which +shall be set upon a brick made of crude mud, whereupon this Chapter +hath been inscribed. Thou shalt make a cavity in the west wall [of the +tomb], and having turned the front of the Tet towards the east, thou +shalt wall up the cavity with mud which hath been mixed with extract +of cedar. This Tet shall drive away the enemies of Osiris who would +set themselves at the east wall [of the tomb]. +- + And thou shalt say: I have driven back thy foes. I keep watch over +thee. He that is upon his mountain (Anpu) keepeth watch over thee +ready for the moment when thy foes shall attack thee, and he shall +repulse them for thee. I will drive back the Crocodile at the moment +when it attacketh thee, and I will protect thee, O Osiris Nu. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 15} +- + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a figure of Anpu made +of crude mud mixed with incense. And the figure shall be set upon a +brick made of crude mud, whereupon this Chapter hath been inscribed. +Thou shalt make a cavity in the east wall, and having turned the +face of the figure of Anpu towards the west wall [therein] thou +shalt wall up the cavity. This figure shall repulse the enemies of +Osiris, who would set themselves at the south wall. +- + And thou shalt say; I am the belt of sand round about the hidden +coffer. I turn back the force of the blazing fire of the funerary +mountain. I traverse the roads, and I protect the Osiris Nu, the +steward of the overseer of the seal, whose word is truth. +- + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 20} + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a brick made of crude mud +whereon a copy of this Chapter hath been inscribed. And thou shalt +place a reed in the middle thereof, and thou shalt smear it with +pitch, and set light thereto. Then thou shalt make a cavity in the +south wall, and, having turned the front of the brick towards the +north, thou shalt wall the brick up inside it. [It shall repulse the +enemies of the Osiris Nu] who would assemble at the north wall. +- + And thou shalt say: O thou who comest to set fire [to the tomb or +mummy], I will not let thee do it. O thou who comest to cast fire +[herein], I will not let thee do it. I will burn thee, and I will cast +fire upon thee. I protect the Osiris Nu, the steward of the overseer +of the seal, whose word is truth. +- + RUBRIC: This Chapter shall be recited over a brick of crude mud, +whereon a copy of this Chapter hath been inscribed. [And thou shalt +set upon it] a figure of the deceased made of palm wood, seven fingers +in height. And thou shalt perform on it the ceremony of "Opening the +Mouth." Then thou shalt make a cavity in the north wall, and having +[placed the brick and the figure inside it], and turned the face of +the figure towards the south, thou shalt wall up the cavity. [It shall +repulse the enemies of the Osiris Nu], who would assemble at the south +wall. + {APPENDIX ^paragraph 25} +- + And behold, these things shall be done by a man who is washed clean, +and is ceremonially pure, and who hath eaten neither meat nor fish, +and who hath not [recently] had intercourse with women. And behold, +thou shalt make offerings of cakes and ale to these gods, and shalt +burn incense on their fires. Every Spirit-soul for whom these things +shall be done shall become like a holy god in Khert-Neter, and he +shall not be turned back at any gate in Amentet, and he shall be in +the following of Osiris, whithersoever he goeth, regularly and +continually. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/enroll.txt b/religious documents/enroll.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae4ab7d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/enroll.txt @@ -0,0 +1,133 @@ +Welcome to what we call Wicca 101 + +Please answer these questions at your leisure and return them at the +next class. Please keep the answers short. + +1. What is your childhood religion? + + + +2. What is your definition of a Witch? + + + +3. Why are you attracted to Wicca and Witchcraft? + + + +4. What books have you read and please rate them (1-5 low to high) for +content, information, and usefulness to you. + + + + + + + + + + +5. Are you married or do you have children, and how do you think they +will react to your study of Wicca? + + + + + +6. Do you have any question that we can help you with at this time? + + + + + + + + + +FULL NAME _________________________________________________________ + +ADDRESS ___________________________________________________________ + +PHONE _________________________ NICKNAME _________________________ + + +SIGNIFICANT OTHER? Y _ N _ NAME AND AGE __________________________ + +CHILDREN? Y _ N _ NAMES AND AGES___________________________________ + +___________________________________________________________________ + +FOOD OR DRUG ALLERGIES? ___________________________________________ + +___________________________________________________________________ + + +BIRTH DATA + +DAY _______ MONTH ________ YEAR ______ TIME ______ AM PM + +TOWN OR LARGEST CITY WITHIN (50 MILES OF BIRTH PLACE) + + +STATUS: + +WICCA 101 CLASSES COMPLETED: + +1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 + +SPIRAL DANCE TESTS COMPLETED: + +1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 + + +RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND:______________________________________________ + +___________________________________________________________________ + +___________________________________________________________________ + +___________________________________________________________________ + +___________________________________________________________________ + + +BOOKS READ TO DATE: _______________________________________________ + +___________________________________________________________________ + +___________________________________________________________________ + +___________________________________________________________________ + +___________________________________________________________________ + +___________________________________________________________________ + + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/entrop01.txt b/religious documents/entrop01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fdfd9d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ + + The Eris Entripocus + ______________________ + Book One + + Doctrine of The Holy Chapter of Froot Loops, and Useful Text file. + + Devised by his Assholiness S'wingitus Dickitomus + and his Nunzio John Kanash Esq. + + THE MAGNUM OPIATE OF Swinging Dick! + + Wherein Is Explained + Absolutely Everything Worth Knowing + About Absolutely Anything + and then Some, but not as much + as before....Wich was more. + + + + This Text File describes a Wayward sect of The Discordian Soceity. +The Froot Loops Cult as it is come to be called by some, is not as +religously devout as others of its kind, and Prefers to work in Mundane +guises. Essentially We are to Fido What Erisians are to Christianity. + We have developed our Entire Culture around the Tellecomunications medium +of our Faith. We speak of BBS's as one might of their Temples. We speak +of Echos as one might of their Streets or Plazas or Stables. WE speak of +Fresh meat and dirty linen as if it were Fresh meat and Dirty linen so +as you can see, we are "tetched by the fever". + + ________ Introduction _____________ + + Much as Inspired by the Devout faith of Erisians,and the Principia +Discordia, This book destined to be a (Literatus Immortalus) as great +as perhaps something written by wise old guys, who are long since dead. + Perhaps even greater than the Principia Discordia, or the Farmers Almanac. + One thing that Distresses me, is that the author of the PD, + was so Vague about who created, as if anyone cared that an alien Inteligence +of Some magnitude had created this text file, in order to subvert human Kind +into its servitude...I mean this is immaterial. + + + Entropian Motto: It Feels Good Do it> + + Point of Eris . + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop04.txt b/religious documents/entrop04.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1bd5417 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop04.txt @@ -0,0 +1,106 @@ + + PART FOUR OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + +Today is the First day, of the Rest of your Enemys Life. Cherish it. +________________________________________- + +Erisian Influenced, Moo Inspired, FROOT LOOPIAN HYMN: + +Author: Flog Sonata + +Title : Getting drunk and bugging the fuck out of you. + +Now why the hell did I do that? + +Alcohol claimed my soul. +Alcohol, takes its toll. +I am not a dwarf or troll, +I miss watching "Kids in the Hall", +I haven't got it on the ball, +and it's all the fault of alcohol! + + +Everybody sing! + +Al-co-hol! +Al-co-hol! +Let's go get wasted at the mall! +Sing and get drunk and fall down in the hall, +Oh wonderous and joyous al-co-hol! + +[The following is read in a soft, rough voice as people go "ooo-oooo" in the +background...] + +I was at Hellhound's party... I got kinda fucked up. +And there was Half-Mad, his shaved head glistening in the moonlight. +And I don't know why, but like some kind of insect, I buzzed around him. +And he had the decency not to reach out and *swat* me. +Halfy, you're a gentleman and a scholar, and I dedicate this song to you. + +Everybody sing! + +Al-co-hol, +Al-co-hol! +We all have been in its enthrall! +We all get wasted, +We all have tasted, +the wonderous power of alcohol! + +If I live to be 90, or perhaps 84, +And I learn to walk upright, +And not crawl on the floor, +I'll dedicate my life to AA +and helping the mauled... + +But I'll never... +No I'll never... +Give up...... + +(dramatic silence. We're all waiting for a repeat of that word so common to +this song. Yet it seems the singer has passed out. Oh well.) + +------------Ancient Greeks beleived Jim Morrison Orignated this Hymm---- + they were wrong. + + FROOT LOOPS partial list of SAINTS: + +St Ulik, Dean of Saints. +St Weasel, Saint of Irritating the old +St.Grape Ape, Of the Hannabarbarians +St.Emerlinger, of lingering Emurs +St.Frank-N-furter, Perfecter of a perfectly working, Transmolecular device. +St.Sherman, Saint of Mythology +St.S'wingius D'ickitius, Ancient Hittite who lived in Rome. +St.Pummice, considered self to have created froot loops, sadly mistaken. +St.Johnstone, Saint of those,without clues. +St.Cospuh, Saint of Weed. +St.Fergusin, Saint of flatulence +St.Joseph Hyde II-writer of ancient Scriptures. +St. Sanders, great Colonel, Fryer of Chickens. +St. Lance-Sacred Cat of Hungry,Impatient Pets +St.Augustine,City and home of Ripleys beleive it or not Museum and pukatorium +St.YappleDapple, Saint of Eris +St.Paper Dragon, First to Hail the Holy Loops. +St.Anixmander, Of Orlando +St. Manson, Icon of the Counter-Counter-Culture +St. Burlap, While never being in Froot loops, pretty cool despite it. +St. Half-Mad, Only half-saint, Highness of Sister faith MOO. + +___________________________________________________________________ + +The Great Poly Step-Father and Megalomodater of the FROOT LOOPIAN Faith, +is Dean Jones of Disney Fame, however he was never the same after Walt +died, and passed this honorific to none other Than John Kanash, or +Swinging Dick, whose anscestor was St. S'wingus D'ickitius. + +``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````` + +Remember when Flying it is best, to Tuck and Roll when you hit the +ground. + + ---Example of Deep Thought, to whit revered by the mighty of Froot +Loops. The ancient Scriptures (text files) have wisdom beyond measure +and are subject of great conjecture and discussion, by the holy and unholy +of frootLoopianism. + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop05.txt b/religious documents/entrop05.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cbd7555 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop05.txt @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ + + PART Five OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + +Rules,Rules, Rule, Since the Code OF Hamurapi, the ancient Pre-cursors, +who envisioned the enlightened age of Frootlooptopia, Dreamed of many +many rules. These rules are for sale, and anyone with money, should see +brother Ramen, To purchase them. + Actually, One should study, the many many many Rules of FROOT LOOPS, but +not to closely, for the ancient curse of Eyecrossia or Boredomi may +vent its frustration on those seeking the wisdom of the sacred rules. + Rules are neccesary, judged by another Faith, the faith of FIDO, it is +our firm beleif, that the only way to enjoy life is to have lots and +lots of rules, then change them. + +It is my firm beleif, that it is not wise, to hold firm beleifs. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Belboian Printout: + The Templars have something to do with everything, + what follows is not true, + Jesus was crucified under pontius pilate + The sage Omus founded the Rosy cross in Egypt + There are cabalists in provence + Who was married at the feast of Cana? + Minnie Mouse is Mickys Fiancee + It logically follows that + if + the druids venerated black virgins + then + Simon Magus identifies sophia as Prostitute of Tyre + Who was married at the feast of Cana? + The Merovvingians proclaim themselves king by divine Right + The Templars have something to do with everything. + + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + +Froot Lopian Proverb: + + Those that Can, Do. + Those that Do, Do. + Those that Doo-Doo, can. + + + __________________________________________________ + +A FrootLoopian Templar, is a Knight,and a priveladged Rank, wich can +be taken away, but not without much skiddoo and hub-bub* + +This rank is only given to the Sysop in possesion of a link to the +Holy echo of FROOT_LOOPS. The Goddess giveth, but Fido can taketh +away. + + +*note: Hullaballoo might be substituted for Hub-bub, if there is a shortage. + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop06.txt b/religious documents/entrop06.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8793e4e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop06.txt @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ + PART Six OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + Superstition brings Badluck + ---Raymond Smullyan 5000 B.C + Early Froot Loopian + + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + + + RHPS, find out what it means to me, + --Aretha Franklin, + sung while stoned at a late night movie. + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + + + Agartha is the Center of the World, and there upon lies the tip of +The united Avalon. There is a great Circle K there, that unlimited Big +Gulps and the most riteous of Bahama Mamas can be had, these are not +to be eaten on Friday, for thou would be cast from the center of the +World, by Rashish, keeper of the night-shift and deity of the Circle-Kians. +His brother Achhachmed, highest of the assistant managers shall come and +find that Rashish has not ordered the correct size slushee container lids, +and be so angered that Volcanos shall erupt on the Land, and Much spillage +of Slushees, there shall be. + + --S'wingitus D'ickitius, + book of Dick 2 + +Ancient words of Power: + + Cheter + + Bina Choch-ma + + Cheuora Heled + + Teferet + c + o d Nezach + + Ielod + + Malachut + + ___________ + + +It is beleived that these symbolize the Pendulum or law of Five, or +that they were rejected names of projected Dodge automobiles. + +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ +Author: Grinning Coyote +To: Rubashov +Subject: Interested/fnord + + > Would someone explain to me, if it is possible, what Discordia is + > all about? Other than eating hot dog buns? + +Nononono! Thou shalt *NOT* eat hot dog buns on Fridays... + +Discordia was the goddess who tossed the golden apple that started the Trojan +War... + +As to Discordianism... + +Discordians (at least those of us at F.U.C.K.) promote ILLUMINATION and WISDOM +(knowledge through transfer of information via textfiles, etc.). We founded +the "Just Say Know" movement (not very big yet, but growing) out of Operation +Mindfuck (O.M.). + +Discordians are generally very much into O.M....The purpose of O.M. is to +spread information (Factual, not "Truth") to the masses through tricking them +into thinking for themselves...something that the masses have been trained not +to do for many centuries... +That would probably be considered the "Prime Directive" so to speak of +Discordianism...the rest is to have fun doing it! + + +--- Hail Eris! + * Origin: First Untied Church Kalisti/(deleted by Illumanati/HST/V32b/V42b diff --git a/religious documents/entrop07.txt b/religious documents/entrop07.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d7bd4a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop07.txt @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ + PART Seven OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + + "take heart, I said to myself:don't think of Wisdom now;ask the help + of science." --unknown. + + It is a belief of Frotopians, that The Forces of Nature, and the soul + of Mankind has been de-ifed by other religions. Not wanting to be + total copy-cats we proffess to be aware of what they were up to with + their myths and commen beleifs. + + There seems to be some Confusion on our position regarding + Spirituality and Science. That is something we should endeavor + to maintain. + ______________________________________ + +Let me Enlighten you, as To The Stance of Lopers: + + There is more than The Beleifs Athiest, Agnostic and Fundamentalist +Christian. Among them, I classify these as: + -----Devout of another Faith + -----Lip service of any Faith + -----Enlightened Christian + -----Erisian + -----Lopian. + + Let me define Enlightened Christian: Someone who adheres to some Xtian +doctrines or has some beleif in the Teachings of Christianity. They do +not accept every myth of Xtianity as Truth or Fact. They are in effect, +the "Self-correcting" element of Christianity. While it might not move +with the speed and Efficiency of Science, it surely does evolve. + + Erisian-People who do not really Take Religion or Philosophy, altogether + that seriously. Deeply rooted in Zen. + + Froot-Lopian it is basically Erisian, and of the Firm beleif, that The +forces of Evolution and Creation, whatever they were, have been de-ified +by many religous faiths. We beleive, that whatever electrical Impulses that +make up our conciousness and is that force wich we equate to "life" is +what is considered the "Soul" by many religous faiths. We feel that, +although they may have mystified some elements of what science defines by +more mundane terms, and they may have attributed the workings of those +elements to divine/deified natural forces, That it does not diminish +or invalidate their religion. I do not think, that whatever they say,is +neccisarily true or false, but that their beleif system and myths are useful +in having a soceity and understanding the past. It also good to Use to +pick up chicks. + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + +Wee haue divers curious clocks; and other like Motions of Return. + ....Wee haue also houses of deceits of the senses, where we represent + all manner of feats of juggling, false apparitions, Impostures, and + illusions....There are many, my sonne, the riches of Solomons's + House. + ----Francis Bacon, + The new Atlantis, + PP 41-42 + + Consider the New Atlantis, next to Bensalem, just west of The Turnpike, + from United Avalon, and Six flags. + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop08.txt b/religious documents/entrop08.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b4d78c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop08.txt @@ -0,0 +1,91 @@ + PART Eight OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + + Hokmah, most ancient of Prophets, Of the Chok'Mah, Was able to + predict the coming of the Transylvanians, and their infiltration + of Earth. He did not realize, they would eventually get bored, and + return home. + + Stoned for his beleifs, he died happy. + --------------------------------------- +From: Flog Sonata +To: Altar Ego +Subject: What hymn I hath Wrought while hammered. + +Everything I said while drunk at Hound's is here by copy righted and cannot be +reproduced in any way, shape or form, without first consulting the author +(moi) and paying an excessive royalty fee, because I said so.All rights +reversed. + +By the way, this very morning I repeated that wonderous phrase that we all +know and love: + +"Ugh, I'll never drink again." + +Especially since I blew about 80 bucks last night, and I have no recollection +as to where it all went. 20 on beer. 10 on Sunshine. 10 on junkfood. +That's 40. Then we went to Dunn's and had food... 20. And then two pints at +Mayflower two.... 10. Ok, there's 70 bucks of it. + +Sheesh it's expensive to be stupid. + + +* Origin: Midler's Drain sucks up Atheists. (1:163/???) +?= Questions. +Questions =answers. +Answers not garanteed to be correct. + +****************************************************************** + +The following Things might be True: +The Masters of the World, who live beneath the world, Hate He-man. +The Comte De Sainte-Germain, who lives forever, does not pay income tax. +The secrets of the Solar System are contained in the measurements of +the Great pyramid. +The Satanic Initian rites of the Knight Templar are used by Fransican +Fraternitys. +the Tie between Rosicruscians and Brazillian Voodoo is enormous. +Elvis was the second Messiah. He Left happy, but forgot to bring down +armeggedon, for he so loved the jelly donut... + +They might be False. + +*******************************************************88 + +Q is the most interesting charecter on Star Trek, Is he relation +the Squire of Trelane, from Star Trek the old generation? + +********************************************************* + +Abulafia, Medieval Jewish Cabalist, was right all along. + Except, it matters, in wich he was wrong. + + __________________________________________________________ + + Froot Loopians Worship their Computers, we love them, and just using +our modems brings us great joy, and closer to the Goddess. It is always +best if we Plug them in, and pay our phone bill, but if one is short from +cash, from following the Dead across the state, then one must make do, +as best as one can. + The memory of the Computer is the greatest of all memory (except extended + memory, wich is bogus).Expanded memory, sounds much cooler. EXPANSION!! + Our Credo. Computer Memory is much better than Real Memory, because real + memory at the cost of much effort learns to remember, but not to forget. + To each memorable image, you attach a thought, a label, a category, + a peice of the cosmic furniture, syllogisms, an enormous sorites, chains + of apothegms,strings of hypallages,rosters of zuegmas, dances of hysteron + proteron, apophantic logoi, hierarchic stoichea, processions of equinoxes + and parrallaxes, herbaria, genealogies of Gymnosophists--and so on, + to infinity. + You have only to cast your mind back to your visions and immediately you +could reconstruct the great chain of being, in love and joy, because all that +was disjointed in the universe was disjointed in your mind. + When the Goddess constructed the Ars Obvionolis, she did not remember to +come up with the rules for forgetting. It was left up to her brothers to +decide, and they chose to let it happen by the natural process, like stroke +and amnesia, and such self-intervention as drugs, alcohol and watching of +facts of life. + The Computer, can however, merely reset and it is wiped clean, unless you +beleive in the deadly myth of the undeletia Ridiculosia. + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop09.txt b/religious documents/entrop09.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..691b4f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop09.txt @@ -0,0 +1,111 @@ + PART nine OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + + He who attempts to Penetrate into the Rose Garden of the Philosophers + without the key, resembles a man who would walk without feet. + ---Micheal Mair + Atalanta Fugiens, + 1618 A.D. + + -------------Anno Dominus----non Erisian Year system. + + FROOT LOOPIAN, F.L, The year on the Calender of the Mundanes of + the world, the ones who do not adhere to the teachings of Lopian + is set to Anno Dominus, in the year of our lord, A.D. in this reality. + Lopians preffer to use a different, very, very secret dating system, + we cannot tell anyone about. + It is so secret, that we use the Dating system of others, to convince + them, that we infact, don't really have a very elaborate dating system, + based on the End of "all in the Family". + + ------------------All other Erisian Calender requirements of the + Principia Discordia, are followed, except for the ones, wich are not. + + ----------------------------------------------------------------- +A further method of defining what lopers believe, regarding the nature of +Mans need for Religion, as something to define values: + + While Humans differ widely in how they worship, but not as much as you +might think in how they should behave. They might differ in what their +Priests claim is divine, but not what their prophets describe as humane. +You can find Discrepancys of this opinion, but when you look at some of +the fundamental beleifs, you will find universal similaritys: + + The Golden Rule: + + Christianity: Mathew 7:12 All things whatsoever ye would that men should +do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law of the prophets. + + Judaism: Talmud,Shabbat 31a What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow +man. That is the entire law, the rest is commentary, + + Islam: Sunnah: No one of you is a beleiver until he desires for his brother +that wich he desires for himself. + +Eris: Principia Discordia: The bearer of this card is a pope, please +treat him good forever. (All those of erisian faith, may claim to be +a pope). + + Brahmanism:Mahabharata 5,1517 This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto +others wich would cause you pain if done to you. + + Buddhism:Udana Varga 5,18 Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would + find hurtful. + + Confucianism: Analects 15,23: IS there one maxim that ought to be acted + upon throughout ones whole life? surely it is the maxim of loving kindness: + Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. + + Taoism: T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien (as translated by Lewis Browne) : +Regard your neigbors gain as your own gain, and your neigbors loss, as your +own loss. + + Zoroasrianism: Dadistian-i-dinik: That nature alone is good wich refrains +from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself. + +Froot Loops:This very part of the book: You should be nice to people who +are nice to you. You should beat the crap out of those, that are not, +if you can, unless they can be persuaded to do something of value for +you, without being beaten. You should run, from those that can beat +the crap out of you, unless you can convince them, that you can do something +for them, if they do not beat you. + +There are distinctions in the wordings, but no difference in meaning. Though +diverse, they are not all completely different. While I do not beleive +all Religions follow this pattern, It would be safe to say, that Charity +Is a rather commen thread in the magor religions of the World. + + +========================== + +The Law of Fives, Can be expanded with the Law of Ten Sefirot: + Keter,Hokhmah,Binah,Hesed,Gevurah, Tiferet,Nezah, Hod, Yesod,Malkhut. + + Seek the Lost writings of Sefer Yesirah, for more info. + + ==================================== + +From: Altar Ego +To: Flog Sonata +Subject: What you said while stammered + + FS> Sheesh it's expensive to be stupid. + + Isn't it true? Hey, welcome to the club, but don't loose your sense of +humour as well as your money, or you'd be spiritually bankrupt. + Stay goofy, AE + ----- + note the rest of this Exchange has been sold to the Chinese. + + ----- + + + Secret number:36 + + divide your holy number by it to equal + 3.333333 + + Multiply that by 2, for the number of Alistair Crowley. + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop10.txt b/religious documents/entrop10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d00b901 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ + PART Ten OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + The Holy Math fable of Tetragrammaton + _____________ + dedicated to Math Teachers and Rosicrucians everywhere + + Begin by combining this name, YHWH, at the beginning alone, + and examine all its combinations and move it and turn it about + like a wheel, front and back, like a scroll, and do not let it + rest, but when you see its matter strengthened because of the great + motion, because of the fear of confusion of your imagination and the + rolling about of your thoughts, and when you let it rest, return to + it, until there shall come to your hand a word of wisdom from it, + do not abandon it. + ---Abulafia, + Medieval Jewish Cabalist + Hayye ha Nefas, + 65a-65b + + ================================================ + + Abraham Abulafias "Hokmath ha Zeruf" was at once the science of the + combination of letters and the science of purification of the heart, + Mytic Logic, letters whirling in infinite change. Many of Abulafias + disciples were unable to walk the fine line between the search for + the true torah or the Contemplation of the names of god, and the + Practice of magic. It is with this in mind, that cryptographs and + Coding devices in messages should be dedicated to the master. + + ========================================= + + Froot Loops Code, + Give it a try, all the combinations of YHVH + + 10 rem anagrams + 20 input L$ (1),L$ (2),L$ (3),L$(4), + 30 Print + 40 for I1=1 to 4 + 41 Format C: + 42 Print "Y" + 50 For I2=1 to 4 + 60 if I2=I1 then 130 + 70 for I3=1 to 4 + 80 If I3=I1 then 120 + 90 If I3=I2 then 120 +100 let I4-10-(I1+I2+I3) +110 Lprint L$ (I1);L$(I2);L$(I3);L$ (I4) +120 next I3 +130 next I4 +140 next I1 +150 End. + +you will have (X) amount of names of God. Sefir Yesirahs lost teachings +indicate beyond seven letters a man should stop Figuring. That god does +not have a middle initial, and that in the hebrew alphabet their are no +vowels, only twenty-two consants and five variants--possible names would +have 29 digits. + +This is a highly valuable study. Trying to learn the name of God. + +_____________________________ + +Surgeon General Warns, that now it is determined to be futile to determine +the name of God. You may ask Eris, but its likely she will not reply. +The fido people cut her feed. + +-------------------------------------------------------- + + + Confuscianian Loopian Proverb: + Man who eat of the Jelly bean, + shall fart in the Technicolor, + --St Fergusin. + + ------------------------------------------ + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop11.txt b/religious documents/entrop11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d7834f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ + PART Eleven OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + + The Ignoble subfaith of Transylvania, Not Quite fully claimable by + Froot Loops, It is obviously the Film equivalant of the Ten Commandments + starring Charlton Heston, To Erisians. + + A pilgramage to go to see this film, many times is to be undertaken, + and drink heavily. The holiest among you, shall dress as charecters + from the film, and wear Fishnet stockings, to rub during the Floor + show. + The Proliferaters, Herby known as Icons: + + Frank-n-furter, great Scientific mind, and Transvestite. + Rif Raf, Servent and later commander of Transelvanyan Forces + Magenta, Hideous sister of Rif, and Incestous lover. Exquisite Chef + of Steam, and Caniblism. + Meatloaf, Long since beleived to be dead. + Rocky,-Meatloafs twin, and rock-n-roll biker. Later Eaten. + Columbia, Judy andrews, she is not. + Brad, This is how the holiest, spell ASSHOLE. + Janet, This is how the Holiest, spell SLUT. + Dr.Scott, Former Tutor, and nazi. + Narrarator, Had no career after bond Movie. + + ----These are divine beings, the likes of wich will probably never + be known or seen again. They are to be reviled, as great things and + other stuff. + + ------------------------------------------------------------- + + Do not expect much of the end of the World. + ---Stanislaw J.Lec + Leading Pessimest + --"Mysli nieuczsane" + + + -------------------------------------------------------------- + Zen Question, Considered Timeless: + +Subject: Knowledge is power? + + Rocket scientists vs. ignorant sunovabitch with a missile launcher. + + Which one do you think invented the missile launcher? + + -------------Mooists Across Canada, restle with this dillemna. + + + --The Draining of the Dragon, is the most holiest of Endeavors, + and one of the most rewarding. It should be Done, by all that can, + and in doing so, you are Paying homage to Froot Loops. + When Flatulating, You are paying homage, to ST. Fergusin, and your + thoughts should be towards him, especially if in a small, unventalated + room, alone. + + + + + "Having Come from The Light and from the gods, here I am in Exile, + seperated from them". + ------Fragment of Turfa'n M7 + + + + + "I'm in you" + --Frampton, + Frampton Comes Alive. + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop12.txt b/religious documents/entrop12.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5166e09 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop12.txt @@ -0,0 +1,93 @@ + PART Twelve OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + An Ancient Myth of Divine Proportion. + +Quoth the Scripture to me? The Divine Profit, my great Ancestor + S'wingus Dickitius, the ancient Roman toleitry officer, who was +in charge or Wiping the son of the one true gods buttcheeks on his +way to be crucified, had written many scriptures, yet they are not +seen in an Testaments published or not published, for it was written +and yet forgotten. However, I shall impart some of his divine Aspiration +unto thee, and expect a Tithe of many dollars in abudance. + + + The Book of S'wingus Dickitius + +1:1:1 So unto the masses did the great and mighty S'wingus churn forth +his spew and hurl at the gathered masses in the square of the merchant +walimarticus. He that had brought his lunch to bear upon the unelightened +crowd looked up, and spoke with such a voice, that he imparted wisdom, not +in his words, but in the mere not listening to what he said. + + +1:1:2 So with a great and heavy voice, did he lean back and squeal like +a piggie. Let It rain down big gulps and Fiery bahama mamas freshly eaten +from the CircleKitorium, said the Divine Profit of the Truth and with the +understanding that their would be free packets of Relish and mustard +for all that had gathered that day to learn the Wisdom of the Ancient +ones. + +1:1:3 Let those among you who think they are above flatulence, be the first to +pass a stone, said the great s'wingus to his flock. Many times he +would be inspired by his deity and get so enraptured in his own +spirituality that he would become confused and speaketh to his frock. +Lest other times, members of his congregation bade him not speak to his +apparel, but unto the masses that had gathered for other purpouses at +the Wingandthingsitorium to imbibe their daily meals. + +1:1:4 So he would travel from Village to Village spreading the word +and the Dung of Cows as he travelled. Cast out and ridiculed by the Heathens, +he swore to show them a divine miracle, and So it happened one day. He +had found Mary Magdalaine and was laid for the first time. He did not have +many denarii that day, and so only received the laying on of handjobs. +However he felt anointed with a new feeling of spirituality and some +strange itch around his groinus. + +And so, Layman and unbelievers, read the gospell, and send me money. +Or I may recite more of it to you. + + Swinging Dick + Divine Poly-step Father of The Church OF Loopus, + + +=================================== + + "In his Right hand he held a Golden Trumpet" + ---Johann Valentin Andeae, + Die Chymische Hochzeit des Christian Rosencreutz + + -------------------------------------------------- + +++++++++++UNPAID ADVERTISEMENT+++++++++ + From: Swinging Dick + To: All Turtlenecks +Subject: INSANITYFEST + + + + iNSANTITY FEST THIS COMING SATURDAY!!!! + + +Big Time InsanityFest Planned!!!! + + People so Inclined may be Combustibles and Other Tools... + + + +Big Fun for Everyone!!!!! + + (go to Berts....) + + + + + + And Lo, This was the Holiest of The Entropicus, For it was the 12th + of the 15th Chapter in the Book of Principia of Eris, and there was + much celebration... + + + "Elf shot the food" + --Old 20th Century video-game. + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop14.txt b/religious documents/entrop14.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..469ee45 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop14.txt @@ -0,0 +1,122 @@ + PART Fourteen OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + Know O Beleivers, that the number 13 is considered Unlucky, and no + chapter of Principia Entropius was Written, in the number 13. + + Released From: Anaximander + Originally To: St.Paper Dragon +subject: generalisimo Franco Frunaldi + + I remember the last astral travel my companion and I took. We hopped +the magic bus and took a left at Malkut. We ended up ina holding pattern +underneath Ireland. I noticed that we were circling around a small Leprechuan +who was playing the nose-flute. I asked him why he had a proclivity for +instruments that were not to his ethnicity. He simply replied that he had +tried to take up the digery-doo but it was hard to play when you could fit +your whole head in the mouthpiece. We pondered this for a moment, stopped at +the shiva-shine buswash, and headed to the third star to the left and straight +on till evening. This is the nasty opposite to never-never land. The found +boys have a pretty good strip bar there. + + + ++++++============================================++++++++++++++ + (Note there was a 13th Chapter of Principia Entropius, but it was eaten + by Mr. Momotos Brother.) + + + Monk speaking to God after having spent a faithful life in Celibacy: + "You mean, it was "CElebrate"...WE had it all wrong?" + + --------------- + Corinthians 9:12 + Ren and Stimpy are Role-Models for Children, they should be left + Unnattended to Watch The show, for hours at a time. They are to be + considered Demi-gods spawned of Eris's own Phlegm. + + (note Celibate Monk who had mis-read the Scriptures, Had only occaisonally + molested Choir-boys and so was allowed to enter Paradise.) + (MEDICAL FACT OF KNOWLEDGE) + + It seems you are quite unaware of the medical value of the sperm of a +mature spider monkey. + + It seems that when such sperm is generously applied to areas of human +skin with a particularly advanced stage of wrinkling, within days, there seems +to be a pronounced tightening of the skin. The wrinkles seem to disappear. It +leaves the individual looking 10 to 20 years younger than they would normally +appear. Although totally cosmetic in nature, multiple applications of spider +monkey sperm can essentially erase 10 to 20 years from your physical +appearance. + +(Very few people know that there are over 200 milligrams of Spider Monkey +sperm +in Oil of Olay. This is very controversial since the FDA has not yet given +its seal of approval to its use.) + + Although the scientific community is conducting on-going research trying +to unharness other possible uses for this "wonder liquid", it is ironic to +note that the initial discovery of its powers came about quite by accident. It +seems Dick Clark, as a child, had many spider monkey pets. Before he would +put them to bed at night, it became a ritual for him to tell them bedtime +stories. But his stories were always very erotic and would cause the spider +monkeys to ejaculate uncontrollably, dousing young Dick with their sperm. The +long term effects were astounding. To this day, Dick Clark appears *decades* +younger than he actually is. And, he always travels with a group of spider +monkeys wherever he goes. + + Doctors and scientists are well aware of this tightening effect the sperm +has on human skin. But, thus far, they have not been able to find other +useful medical purposes. Supposedly, it makes an excellent salad topping as +well. + + But, the tightening of the skin effect is profound and could have +widespread ramifications in the appearance of future aged Americans. By the +year, 2050, if spider monkey sperm should ever get final approval by the FDA, +the appearance of an 80-yr-old man could be exactly the same as a 30-yr-old. +Johnson & Johnson's Corporation already has obtained legal first rights to +market the product when it becomes available (supposedly under the name ... +MONK-KUM) Also, the marketing researchers at Johnsons & Johnson's are +considering mixing it with spermicidal jelly. + So, do not be too quick to kill any spider monkeys, + + --Dr.Emerling + Mutual of Oklahoma + Illuminatus Front Organization + + \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\////////////////////// +" Its been said that Poetry consists of letting the word be heard beyond +words. And Goethe says, "All things are Metaphors." Everything thats +transitory is but a metaphorical reference. Thats what we all are." + -----Joseph Campbell + The Power of Myth, Pg 230. + + + "I do not like Green Eggs and Ham" + -Dr.Suess + + + + Official Religous Titles OF froot_loops, Miscellaneous Grab-bag, + available to any that claim them: + +ADVICE GUY! + +INQUISTITOR OF THE PAINFUL STICK + +WEILDER OF THE POINTED STICK + +JUSTICIAR OF ASSISTANCE + +TOADLICKER + +BUTTWIPE J.g (junior Grade) + +ASSISTANT FARTKNOCKER + +LIUETENANT DILLHOLE OF THE PEE PEE DANCE + + you may only choose one, and that title is for Eternity, unless Otherwise + notified. + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop15.txt b/religious documents/entrop15.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fbc34ca --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop15.txt @@ -0,0 +1,110 @@ + PART Fifteen OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + "Eden is the Kingdom of The Father and it is spread upon the Earth, + and men do not see it." + + + + + + + + +"Subject for your approval - a middle-aged computer enthusiast gets involved +in meeting new people over the phone lines. People he has neither met nor +seen. People he knows nothing about. He agrees to become part of a network +of mindless banter that soon takes a bizarre twist ... there is no terminating +this relationship with the sick minds with which he has become embroiled. +There's no way out of this terror. As continues aimlessly down the highway of +electronic frustration, there are no off ramps. The sign post up ahead says +.... The Eris Zone" + + + + + + ----------------------|\ + | THE ERIS ZONE \ + | (straight ahead) / + ----------------------|/ + + You will have to use your Pineal Gland, to discern where the + goddess has hidden her Secret Erisonogeous Zone. The First whose sun-dial + is at high-noon, should excuse himself, and Flog his Sonato. + + ===================================================================== + + Greg Kinnear of the "E" network, is the anti-Letterman. He bears the + mark of the Unholy "E". + + A Most Riteous Abulafia Question: +SS> KN>JA> : What's the ground drag coefficient of an unhusked +SS> KN>JA> turtle? + +SS> KN> 18.4 mg/ft^2/sec + +SS> Eighteen point four MILLIGRAMS?????... per square foot per +SS> second? + + Exactly! The FROOT_LOOPS scientific staff took your inquiry very +seriously and has been conducting extensive research and data collection over +the past week. Sadly, it has resulted in the death of many innocent turtles, +but such is the price of scientific achievement. They did not die in vane. + +SS> You are a disgrace. Turn in your decoder ring and phunny +SS> hat. + --------------Whoomp Dare it Tis, + Latin for "I am an Ignoramus" + + Do you think, that a mere 15 of 15 Is the Complete Works of Principia +Discordia? No My Child, my student, therein Lies the Mysterys, IF you +seek it, there it shall be, and more shall follow, but less shall be +revealed. So it is, and so it was not. + `````````````````````````````````````````` + + The Lessons of The Monk Tom Gnos, + NC for the Fransiscan/Dominican_net, + In his Cyberpapal newsletter: + +California Attorney General Dan Lungren proposed in October that the state +measure the pain-killing attributes of cyanide gas in order to demonstrate +that the gas chamber is not "cruel and unusual" punishment, as contended by +the American Civil Liberties Union in a recent lawsuit. Lungren proposed that +the state put rats in pain by "colon balloon distention" - inserting balloons +in the anuses of 60 rats and inflating them until the rats squeal - and then +administering cyanide at different doses to see if the pain subsides. + + --------------------------- + +The Los Angeles Times reported that the Novel Cafe in Santa Monica recently +featured Kopi Luwak, the SUmatran coffee reputed to be the most expensive in +the world, at $130 per pound. According to the cafe's owners, a certain +kangaroolike Sumatran animal eats only the "ripest, best" coffee cherries, +digests them, and excretes them, after which natives pick the beans and wash +and process them into Kopi Luwak. + + --------------------------- + +(Meanwhile back in Georgia:) + + --------------------------- + +In February, a squirrel apparently fell into a small vent on the roof of Kim +Richardson's home in Lawrenceville, GA., and got into the plumbing pipes. +Richardson reported that she sat down on the toilet and felt a scratching on +her derriere. She "almost died," she said later. The squirrel had drowned by +the time help had arrived. + + --------------------------- + + + ***************************** + + --And Finally nothing is Cabalistically inferred from vinum, save + VISNUMerorum, upon which numbers this Magia depends. + ------Cesare della Riveria, + ---Il Mondo Magico degli Eroi, pp 65-66 + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop16.txt b/religious documents/entrop16.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e60b0d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop16.txt @@ -0,0 +1,161 @@ + PART Sixteen OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + Anonymoose Says: + + And it came to pass that Moses needed his socket set back. So he fell + upon his knees, and prayed to the Lord, 'Oh, Lord, might thee return + my socket set?' And verily, the Lord sent down an angel. And the + angel made much fanfare and blowing of horns, and gave Moses back his + socket set. And there was much rejoicing. And Moses was grateful unto + the Lord, and he said to the angel, 'Tell my Lord He truly is mighty, + and just, and great, and all that.' And the angel said unto Moses, + 'Well, actually, the Lord could really rather use your lawnmower.' + And Moses, being a good man, said 'Oh, Ok.' And verily, the angel did + take Moses lawnmower, and his gas can. + + ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ + Exert Pressure Upon Your Enter Key To Continue: + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + Beavis and Butthead are both Saints, for it is that St.Butthead, + who can Fart, like no other, weilds his magic Long Staff, and + St Beavis of Fire, FIRE, FIRE...Is a magor influence on the Faith + of FROOT_LOOPS. All those that enter into it, shall do so in the + understanding,that these two mythical being represent the epitome + of everything that is cool. huh Huh. + + "Huh Huh Huh, M Huh, + huh Huh Huh Huh Huh Uh huh, + M Huh Huh Uh M Huh, + + -St. Beavis + -Haiku, Made in Vandriessons Class. + + + From: Advice Guy + To: Wilbur Gaglestein +Subject: Ask an Idiot + +Yes, + + you came to the Right place. Whenever anyone has a question, adress it +to ADVICE GUY and the SUBJECT should be "ASK AN IDIOT". + +Ok, I am sensing a lot of love coming from you, Wilbur. Lets examine what +you wrote, shall we? + +WG> I heard that you are both the moderator in this echo and +WG> also the source of excellent advice. I thought I remember + + I beleive it was "Florida" on good times who once said: + +" You got that right, honey child. " + +WG> My problem is with women! I'm 21 years old, 5' 7", +WG> weigh 185 lbs, and I am a Computer Science major at Memphis +WG> State University. You would think that would be enough to + +I think it was Burl Ives who said: + +"Grunt Big For Daddy" + +and what he meant by that, is Obviously better left to the Rhetorical +conciousness of the sublimanal factors as illustrated in the book by +Salmon Rushdie and Howard Stern "Feel your Vein". However to Paraphrase: + +Love is Ok, Sex is Ok, + Sex with a partner, is much better. + +I think you can see where I am going with that, can't you? +I am sure you can, and can summize your own fallacys with those +words of wisdom, so elequently written, by yours truly. + + +WG> little shy, however. For instance, I don't really want to +WG> TALK with them, or go on a DATE or anything. I'm not sure I +WG> am ready for anything as deep as that. I just want a + +In the Words of K.C and the sunshine Band: + +"Thats the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I Like it." + +Wich in this instance,is reffering to your innefectual Inner Child who +is in self-Riteous mode. I say don't edit yourself, and don't be afraid +to Experiment here. + Perhaps, instead of People, Try dating Inanimate Objects for a While, +A desk or Chair. Establish a relationship with the Chair, take it on +little "Excursions" massage the chair. + Work your way up to Small furry animals, and perhaps one day, primates. +Let the healing take its natural course. + +WG> when I return to Little Rock, Arkansas (my home) this + +This is your problem. Blow up the town you live in, and then you can +absolve yourself of emotional constrainsts. + +WG> while she changes clothes. I could call her and pretend I +WG> was somebody else. I could drop little notes in her mailbox +WG> and in her car while she is not looking. I could sacrifice + +Very normal. I think it was Norman Fell who once wrote: + +"Jack, You better Put mrs's Ropers Pantys back where you found them!" + +Ofcouse, we all know that this is often mis-quoted,but if we look +at the Metaphysical realitys of a self-inherint Jack, one that is +metaphoric for our rapid decrease in abhoria, then the condition is +malevant and Obstentious. With increased dyscordian Dynamics the +effort is resolved and all Alterior Pyschotransitional Expereinces +with the Multiplex is going to increase with the Interjection of the +hoffman Principles. so You can see, that what you are feeling is +perfectly normal, and healthy for a boy your age. + +WG> deep devotion. I would rummage their her trash to find +WG> keepsakes. + +This is another deep problem, instead of Rummaging her trash, say +"what is wrong with my own trash?" confront your garbage inadequacy +feelings, and take your trash and put on her lawn late an night, and +then light it on fire. This might eliminate the negative feelings you +are having. + +Well I am sure I have solved your problem, Feel free to ask me about +another one at some time. + + + + + + + + + as the alien in Muppet's bathtub once said to me: + + S N E B I T ! ! ! + + + + + + + + + + + ALL HAIL ERIS, ALL HAIL FROOT LOOPS!!!!! + + FNORD! + +The Cyber-Papacy of FROOT LOOPs, or its MODUS OPERANDI DIVINTIA, +shall be known as a "Moronacy" , as a form of government, likened +unto Utopia and New Atlantis. + Morons never do the Wrong thing. The get the reasoning wrong. Like the +fellow who says all dogs are pets and all dogs bark, and cats are pets too, +and therefore all cats bark. Or that all Athenians are mortal, and all +citizens of Piraeus are mortal, so all the citizens of Piraeus are +Athenians. + Wich they are, but only accidentally. Morons will occaisonally say some +thing right, but they will say it for the wrong reason. + + ALL HAIL MORONS! + +The great Copulation,is to Cop to the Opionion that if you admit, that you +are an Idiot, your life will be smoother, and you will have less Pressure +to acheive. You have to ofcourse, expect less. Then when you get more, +it will seem even cooler. + + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop17.txt b/religious documents/entrop17.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d302d1e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop17.txt @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ + PART Seventeen OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + Gods Will to Unmask Cosmic Moronism + ______________________________________ + + Morons are Tricky, You can spot him right away, but the Moron reasons almost +the way you do;The Gap is almost infintismal. A moron is a master of a +paralogism. For an editor, its bad news. It can take him an eternity to +identify a moron, plenty of morons books are published, because they are +convincing at first glance. An editor is not required to weed out the morons, +if the Academy of Science doesn't, why should he? + Philosophers, don't either. Saint Anselm's ontological Argument is +moronic, for example." God must exist because I can conceive of him as a +being perfect in all ways, including existance". The saint confuses existance +in thought, with existance in reality. + Gaunilon's refutation is moronic, too. " I can think of an Island in the +sea even if the Island doesn't exist". He confuses thinking of the Possible +with the thinking of the neccesary. --Also known as The "Forbess's Car +argument" + A duel between Morons. And God loves every minute of it. He chooses to be +unthinkable only to prove that Anselm and Gaunilon were morons. What a +sublime purpouse for creation, or rather the act by wich god willed himself +to be: To unmask Cosmic moronism. + + The Law of Syllogisms states that: universal conclusions cannot be drawn +from Two Paticulars. + + The Legend of Saint Paul, Epistle to Titus + _____________________________ + +Epimedes the Cretin says all Cretans are Liars. It must be true, because +he is a Cretan himself, and knows his countrymen well. + Fnord. On the other hand, Those who call Epimedes a liar have to think +all Cretans aren't, but Cretans don't trust other Cretans, Therefore no +Cretan Calls Epimedes a liar. + + Is this an Example of Moronic Thinking>? Even Morons can win a nobel +Peace Prize. Moronism Is Wisdom! + The Whole history of Logic consists of our attempts to define an acceptable +notion of Moronism. A Task too immense. Every Great thinker, is someone +else's Moron. + + What is moronism to one, is inchoherant to another! + + ------------------------------------------------------------- +--------------------------------------------------------------------- +By: EchoList Announcer +To: All +Re: Tag: STARGOAT was Added. +St: +---------------------------------------------------------------------- +The following reflects the current entry in The International EchoList +database +on 8-Aug-93 1:47:33 pm +Tagname: STARGOAT Area Key: STARGOAT +Title: Mutant Cosmic Star Goat +Description: The Restored Church of the Star Goat is pleased to provide a + forum for the distribution of the Star Goat cults' dogma. As + most intelligent life forms in the galaxy know, Star Goat is + a mental construct of Douglass Adams' wholly remarkable + four- part trilogy. (For the rest of you, the secret is, + "bang your rocks together, guys!") What's not generally + known, (since it's a secret cult) is that there is a secret + cult which has followed Star Goat since the 'B' ark landed. + The Moderator is an ordained and _legal_minister_ and + publishes the wholly remarkable magazine "Green Pastures" + generally on a monthly basis. (BATF officers are not + encouraged to participate.) +Origin: 1:666/666.0 +Distribution: Private (secret) distribution +Gateways: +# Nodes: 1 Volume: Rule File: +Flags: +Moderators: Lucifer Hoof, 1:666/666.0@fidonet +Seen by: 1:666/666.0@fidonet +Paths: +Date added: 8-Aug-93 +Last changed: 8-Aug-93 Changed by: Lucifer Hoof, 1:666/666@fidonet + +--- ELISTUPD/2 2.2.4 + + The Great StarGoat Faith, is considered to be Waywardly Erisian, +yet those of that Faith, would deny it. That is their way of admitting +that It is the Truth. + + ************%%%%%%%%%%************* + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop18.txt b/religious documents/entrop18.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4fb0186 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop18.txt @@ -0,0 +1,85 @@ + PART Eighteen OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + Lunatics Vs. Morons + ____________________ + a Lunatic is a Moron, who does not yet know the Ropes. The Moron proves +his Thesis; he has a logic, however twisted it may be. The Lunatic on the +other hand, doesn't concern himself at all with logic; he works by short +circuits. For him, everything proves everything else. The lunatic is all +(idee Fixe--or fixed in his thought), and whatever he comes across confirms +his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes in commen sense, by +his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he will +bring up the Illimunati conspiracy. + (note the rest of this document was seized by unknown forces) + + + ___________________ + + + In Buddhism moral virtue (sila) and contemplative practices of mental + cultivation (samadhi) are stages on the path to wisdom,(panna) a higher + riteousness. + In Froot Loops, those that can bully and harrass others into thinking + they are right, are infact..correct. This is a path to higher Faith + (doggdookiea) and Riteousenss (BullWinkliusness). + _________________ + + His Sterility was infinite. It was part of the ectasy. + ---E.M Cioran, + ---pensees etrangles + 1969 + ------------ + Bono-------------- + +The name Bono, for years has been worshipped by primitive African tribes as +a spirit with a big nose. + +Bono of U2 not only has a large nose, but also loooks like Shemp of the +three stooges. + +Sonny Bono, popular early 70's musician Also has a big nose, and a big +Moustache. + + +Bono is also the name of a popular clown, who delighted audiences of +children with his delightful antics, and his huge red nose, until one +day he snapped and carved the mark of the devil into a childs forhead +at one show. +Bono the Wonderclown has since gone into hiding. + +Bono Bread, is a popular Bread amongst people who only have 39 cents to buy +bread, and is owned by a miserly old man, named Harvey Elle, who not only +has a big nose, but also his last name has four letters, as does bono. + + + +coincedence? +chance? +Bullshit? + +You be the judge, This is a highly delicate subject, bound to have lots +of controversy, first brought to light in Star magazine, and then in a later +expose' by renowned journalists working for the globe. I can imagine +PRo-bono's massing great sit-ins across this nation and being firebombed for +their beleifs by Anti-bono advocates. + +What do you think? + + ******************************************************************** + + If you fill the world with Children who do not bear your name, no one + will know they are yours. Like being God in plain Clothes. You are God, + you wonder through the City, you hear people talking about you, God this, + God that, what a wonderful Universe this is, and how elegant the law + of Gravity, and you smile to yourself behind your fake beard (no better + to go without a beard, for in a beard God is immediatelly recognizable). + You soliloquize (God is always Soliliquizing):" Here I am the one, and + they don't even know it." IF a pedestrian Bumps into you on the street, + you humbly apologize and move on, even though your God, and with a snap + of your fingers you can turn the world to Ashes. But infinitely powerful + as you are, you can afford to be long-suffering. + + ********************************************************************** + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop19.txt b/religious documents/entrop19.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..17b2d3a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop19.txt @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ + PART Nineteen OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + "How can life be so bountiful, providing such sublime rewards for + Mediocrity?" + ---William S. + + + ##################################################### + dronF + ----- + + + Exalt not the Wise, + So that the people shall not scheme and contend. + ---Taoist Doctrine + + #################################################### + +SOMEWHERE AT THIS MOMENT, way far away,There may be Erisians in a Galaxy +fighting against Lord Malamar of the Lemurites and the Dreaded Spider nut +monkey race. + + + +Subject: turtle data\Front Anon Groups of Secret Covert Illumanati + + + "ORGANIZATION OF MEN WHO DO NOT WANT TO WAKE UP WITH THEIR + PENIS SEVERED" + +"ORGANIZATION OF PEOPLE WHO FEAR DRINKING MERCURIC ACID" + +"ORGANIZATION OF WOMAN WHO DON'T WANT TO DATE JEFFREY DAHMER" + +"ORGANIZATION OF PEOPLE WHO DO NOT LIKE STICKING PINS IN THEIR RETINA" + + ----------------&------------------------ + + Fido-Loops Policy emmenating from the Book of Ptah-Hotep + _____________________________________________________ + +IF thou are Annoyed at a thing, if thou are tormented by someone who is +acting within his rights, get out of his sight, and remember him no more +when he has ceased to adress thee. + -------------------------------------------------------------- + + þ *** CAUTION! *** +from Saint Emer of the ling +To: All +Re: Sing-along-with-Dave + + + + If I had a hammer ... I'd hammer in the evening. + + I'd hammer in the morning ... + + + + + And probably be making minimum wage. + + ----------------------------------------------- + +From: Anaximander +To: Tori s +subject: lunch meat +The most sacred text of all: + It was written on a loaf of turkey baloney. Upon the 23 slices were put the +most inspired words of the gODDESS herselph. They exposed the universe to a +power unlike that of anything yet to be seen. All of the pages but one were +mistakenly made into a school lunch. The remaining page rests in the sacred +fantastic four lunchbox withe the Wholly Wrelic of the apple of yappledapple. +it is difficult to read after ten years but the words are still earth +shattering. I can furnish a transcription upon request if you would like or if +anyone reading this would like. + Anaximander +-life is like a bag of cheez wiz with holes in the fabric of reality + + This Statement is True><- Stop casting porosity -><- Keep the lasagna flying + + =================================================================== + + Sub umbra Alarum tuaram, Jehova. + ---Fama Fraternitatis, + ----Allgemeine und general reformation, + 1514 + + ------------------------------------- + + Froot loops is not Religous, Religion IS froot Loops. + + --------------------------------------------------- + + Sylabus of The Collegiate Froot Lopus University + Tetrapyloctomy Department + Location: Unknown + A School of Comparative Irrelevance, Where useless of Impossible courses + are given. The Schools aim, is to turn out scholars capable of endlessly + increasing the number of unneccesary subjects. + The Tetrapyloctomy Depts purpouse is to Inculcate a sense of irrelevance. + The Adynata or Impposibilia Dept purpouse is Urban planning for Gypsies. + + Courses are offered in: + + Morse Syntax + The History of Antartic Agriculture + The History of Easter Island Painting + Contempary Sumerian Literature, + Montessori Grading, + Assyrio-Babylonian Philately, + The Technology of the Wheel in pre-Columbian Empires, + The Phonetics of the Silent Film + Crowd Psychology in the Sahara. + + -Furthermore: + The essence of the discipline is the comprehension of the underlying +reason for a things absurdity. + + The Oxymoronic Department: dealing in Matters of self-contradiction. + + Courses include: + Tradition in Revolution, + Democratic Oligarchy, + Parmenidean Dynamics, + Shermanite Miracles-proving something happened, that cannot happen. + Heraclitan Statics, + Spartan Sybaratics, + Tautological Dialectics, + Boolean Eristic. + Grammar of Solecisms. + + + Send now for the Prospectus, and Aquire a Scholarship, and a set + of valuable Wind-chimes! + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop21.txt b/religious documents/entrop21.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..05d3f5a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop21.txt @@ -0,0 +1,109 @@ + PART Twenty-one OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + --One fine day, the King of Fance, The Holy Roman Emperor, King +Baudoin III of Jerusalem, and the Grand Masters of the Templars and the +Hospitallers all decided to lay seige to Ascalon. They set together: King, +Court, Patriarch,Priests carrying Crosses and banners, and the archbishops of +Tyre,Nazareth, Caesarea. It was like a big Party.orriflames and standards +flying, tents pitched around the enemy city, drums beating. + Ascalon was defended by one hundred and Fifty Towers, and the inhabitants +had long since been preparing for seige: All the houses had slits in the +walls, They were like fortresses within fortresses. + The Templars were smart fighters, they should have known This was going to +be tough, but no...everyone got excited, and they built battering rams, and +wooden towers. They had Catapults firing under the cover of The wooden +Sheildwalls they erected. + The Asconalites tried to burn their Towers, but the wind was against them, +and they accidentally burned their own walls instead. It was in one place +in the walls, that a breach was made, and the attackers charged the city. + Then a strange thing Happened, the Grand Templar, had a cordon set up, that +only his men could enter the City. Cynics say he was trying to make sure +the templars would get all of the Booty.A kinder explanation is that he +feared a trap, and wanted to send his own brave men in first. Either way, +he wasn't the brightest of Commanders. Forty Templars ran full steam straight +through the city, came to a screeching halt in a great cloud of dust, when +they reached a wall on the other side, looked at one another and wondered +what they hell they were doing there. Then they about faced and ran past the +Saracens, who pelted them with rocks and darts, slaughtering alot of them, +Grand Master included. + Then they closed the breach, hung the corpses from the Walls, and jeered at +the Christians, with obscene gestures and horrid laughter. + It is beleived from these Violent Exchanges, the Concept of Tom and Jerry +was begat. + +------------------------------------------------------- + + + INSANITY FEST CANCELLED + + ON ACCOUNT OF LARD AND PARASITES. + + MARK THE DAY ON YOUR INVIS-O-PORT A CALENDERS + + dang, and I was planning on not attending. + + ------------------------------------------- + + Perhaps the lard will help grease the wheels of progressionalliationality? + Or perhaps the Lard will fall on you to your utter utterlyness? + The answers must be known. + ---Crysarides of Eris. + +--------------------------------------------------------- + +An Open Letter to The Goddess Eris: + + Sirs, + It has come to my attention that Monte Python has not be fully + recognized as a Biblical Pantheon by your Faith. Since it is clearly + the case, that this is so, and I fully recognize their comedy genius, + excepting ofcourse references in their program "Monte Pythons Flying + Circus" to Womens Undergarments, so on and so forth, + --Brigadeir General (ret) + E.R. Cummings, + (mrs.) + + + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +From: Flog Sonata +To: Altar Ego + Fundamental Truth: It's expensive to be st00pid. + +Lose my sense of humour? Never! It's a code that will stay with me until the +day I die, handed down to me by buddhist monks from the castle wall of the +great and wonderous Tibikikaka shrine. + +"Take this, young Flog!" they yelled, as battle roared around us. + +I took the tablets with the sense of humour code and rode off in to the woods +on my mighty steed. There, I paused by a brook, and read the code, digested +it. I did more than memorize it: I found the inner meaning of it and fused it +with my mind and soul. + +Then, I wanked off. + +Or maybe I just wanked off to the good bits of humour code. There was this +one page from "Monk Monthly" that was taped to the underside of one of the +tablets. Miss February 1888 was a damn sight sexier than the god damned codes +of humour. Come to think of it, the codes of humour were pretty damn dull, +and I chucked 'em into the brook and made Miss Feb part of my soul. Oh well. +I'm sure it was as profound an experience as those boring codes of humour +would have been, had I taken the time to read 'em. + + + ((((((((((((AVAILABLE IN NO SOUND))))))))))))) + Where available + + Cowardism: + +Can you call yourself a Coward simply because the courage of others seems +to you out of proportion to the triviality of the occaison? Thus wisdom +creates Cowards. And thus you miss the oppurtunity while spending your life +on the look out for it. You have to seize the oppurtunity instinctively, +without knowing at the time that it is the oppurtunity. + But suppose you passed up the Oppurtunity, because you felt it was +inadequate? + + -------------------------f---n----o------r-----d-------------- + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop22.txt b/religious documents/entrop22.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0562f40 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop22.txt @@ -0,0 +1,111 @@ + PART Twenty-two OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + Anceint Celtics Did not know how to play basketball. + They did however, have Baskets, + And the Technology to make Balls. + Coincidence? + You be the Judge........... + + +=============================/\================================ +By: Sir Goawaine +To: Knightstalker +Re: Methinks, therefore Meam... +What Ho,.... + Knightstalker, Doth Thou Stalketh Knights? Well Stalketh no longer, +For Here I am, Sir Go-Awaine, to clear up a few misconceptions, for instance, + Old Aenglish mispellings and Misconceptions about the Aurthurian age. +Did Thou Knoweth: + Camelot, as you call was actually called "Crapalot", for when making it +a Rookery of birds did roost and eat all the Bread set out to cool, they then +bombarded us for days with the nasty whitestuff. We thought it was sorcery and +we're forced to Rape and Burn a fair young Virgin to Ward them off. + In Welsh legends, it was Called "smuckers, land of the Grape". +When Lady Gynevhyver and her Vixenous freind Lady Isolde first came to +Crapalot, the name of the Castle was temporarily changed to "Cumalot", wich +was soon changed back, after Aurthur married Gynevhyver.... + + + Sir Lancelot, was actually sir Dancealot, the Predecessor to the person +thou doth know as Danny Terrio of Dance Fever.....He was the greatest Dancer +in the land, not the greatest Jouster. + + + Excrabitor, was not a sword. Aurthur got it from the lady of the lake, but +it was the name we gave to the disease wich you call "The Crabs"....In +Aurthurs time It marked you as a man of great power and Flatulencey. + +It was Sir Ferguson of the Rusted Gate, That was known to All of the Britons +as the Greatest Knight, for he was feared near and wide, for his Flatulencey. +This was the mark of a True Knight.... + + + Sir GalIhad, Not Sir Galahad....He was always bragging about what Gal he had +had....He was not to bright, as many times mistaken a Horses Rear, for that +of a ladys Mouth. + + + Sir Sherman of the Shelbyites, a Tribe in the far northern reaches of +Logres, Known as a gobbler of Goo, and a wobbler of Woo. None were sillier +than he. + + +Sir De Bovine, Was indeed a cow...who we thought would be funny to knight. + It was always entertaining to read storys written later about him, as if he +had actually done them. + + +Sir Pumice, a Vile Saxon Knight, Known for claiming to have built Crapalot, +and to be the true king of The Britons, even though everyone knew he was +an idiot, he was allowed to sulk around Crapalot. A Truer Imbecile, there +never was. + + + + Well, Knightstalker I must ride, yonder calls the voice of Adventure +and I must meet it, and my Destiny...I shall stop to share with you some +more facts about The Aurthurian Legends one day, but let me also say- + That Robin Hood did not exist at the time of King Aurthur, we never sang +and Danced as the Play Camelot would show us (except for Sir Dancealot), +and the Aurthurian Legends were all a myth, including myself, they never +existed. + + Methanks you from the bottom of meheart, + + Sir Go a waine, + +:Origin Camelot BBS\(901)353-5013\Myth_net + +======================================================================== + +"religions Can disagree, and still each be true because peoples spiritual +needs come in different forms." + ---Harold Kushner. + +"Do not forget the importance of the Impossible, nor Imagine that it is +really Unattainable." + ---Ancient Erisian Doctrine. + + \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ + + Attention Illuminatis meeting moved to Provins, France... + Center of the Earth, Via Caverns. + + ========================================== + My Balogna has a First name, its F-N-O-R-D...... + + ---------- + + After Beaujeu, The Order hs never Ceased to Exist, not for a moment, +and after the Aumont We find an un-interuppted sequence of Grand Masters +of the Order down to Our own Time, and if the name and seat of the True +Grand Master and True Seneshchals who rule the Order and guide its sublime +Labors remain a mystery Today, an Imprenetrable Secret known only to the +truly enlightened, it is because the hourhas not struck and the time +is not ripe............. + -----G.A Shiffman, + --Die Entstehung der Reiitergrade in der Freimauererei um de mitte + des XVIII Jarhunderts + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop23.txt b/religious documents/entrop23.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7453e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop23.txt @@ -0,0 +1,104 @@ + PART Twenty-Three OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + + The Great Scholar Trithemius, would have been proud of FROOT_LOOPS, + As a Medieval version of the Internet, Trithemius, would have probably + Found great use for Froot Lopian Logic and Reasoning, and surely would + have designed more interesting Cryptograms. + + Consider this: + + The Night of Saint John + 36 years post hay wain + 6 messages intact with seal + for the knights with white cloaks (Templars) + Relapsi of provins for Vainjance (revenge) + 6 times in 6 places + Each time 20 years makes 120 years + This is the Plan + The first go to the Castle + iterum again after 120 years the second join those of the + Bread + Again to the Refuge + Again to our lady beyond the River + Again to the Hostel of the Popelicans + Again to the Stone + 3 times 666 before the feast of the great white Whore. + + -- + This was found, and deciphered from The various placings of the Stamps + from Trithemius's Own Ed Mac Mahons Clearing house Sweepstakes Finalists + Edition Order form, wich was never mailed. + Theologians, Cryptobuffs and People named Ed, cannot agree on what it + means. + ------------ + + Monty Pythons Quest for the Holy Grail + is considered distinctly Frootiopian/Erisian. + + The lesson to be learned from its tale, can be gleaned thusly: + + The Middle Ages Awaited the hero of the Graal and expected that the head +of the Holy Roman empire would become an Image and a manifestation of that +"King of the World"...The Invisible Emperor was to become also the visible +one, and the middle ages would be "middle" in the sense of "central"... +The Invisible, invioble center, the sovereign who must reawaken, the same +hero, avenging and restoring. These are not fantasies of a Dead,Romantic past +but, rather, the simple truth for those who, today, alone, can legitimately +call themselves alive. + ------Julius Evola. + + Also, That going around saying in your best Phoney English Accent "we are + the knights who say nit!" is a sure sign, that you are in need of a life, + and that others view you as a nerd. + + +* Forwarded Request from the Froot Loops Illumanati office * + of Request Forwarding, With attached Auto-response: + + +G> I'd like to sign up for the sub-moderator post of Research, +GG> since I know a lot of really useless stuff, but I am +GG> temporarily out of form TTYL8RFormJ. Please send me more +GG> form TTYL8RFormJ packets, so that I may fill one out and +GG> distribute the others to local vagrants. + + + Two crates of form TTYL8RFormJ are on the way! Along with a copy +machine, a 486/66 computer, a fax machine, your own personal secretary, a +janitor to empty your trashcans, and a maid to clean your office. + + Thank you for offering your services to the FROOT_LOOPS research +department. There are several on-going projects at this time that are being +funded by the dues paid by the 1000's of FROOT_LOOPS members: + +1. A user-installable chip that allows a 14.4 modem to emulate a 300 baud + modem. + +2. The testing of a hypothesis that a particular ingredient in a Zagnut candy + bar is actually a cure for Tuberculosis. + +3. Data collection (by means of psychological interviews) of the cause and + nature of bad Acapulco cliff divers. This project is having difficulty + getting started due to the surprising lack of candidates that fit the + desired profile. + +4. Tom Jones ... Engelbert Humperdink. Brothers? Cousins? Genetic cloning? + Coincidence? + +5. + + ----Note this auto-Response was designed using Theorys of Fnord +subliminal messages. If it worked, you will not be able to understand what +it is supposed to mean. + + + -------------------Shazam---------------- + Ancient Power Word, or Colliquial Expletive? + __________________________________________ + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop24.txt b/religious documents/entrop24.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bffff46 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop24.txt @@ -0,0 +1,86 @@ + PART Twenty-Four OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + The Analogy of Oppissites is the relation of light to shadow, peak to + abyss, fullness to void. Allegory, mother of all Dogmas, is the +replacement of the seal by the hallmark, or reality by shadow; it is +the Falsehood of Truth, and the truth of Falsehood. + + + +********************************************************************* + +If one had to choose between Mary-ann or Jeanie? Wouldn't the choice +be obvious? Even if she could not grant wishes? + +********************************************************************** + The Lessons of The Monk Tom Gnos, + NC for the Fransiscan/Dominican_net, + to a Lesser Acoylote: + +I beleive it was Tommy smothers who once said: "You can tell who +is running the country, by how much clothes they have on. The normal +people, why we are the less-ons, see we have less clothes, and the +people running the country, they are the more-ons" + +Thats why he was out of work for about 50 years or whatever when +they cancelled his show. It wasn't cause it was to radical, it +was just because it sucked. + + + > Cute. Just because I'm ignorant about the workings of the + > silicon trails.... + +hey, The day you claim you understand how fido works, is the day +I will say you are full of shit. I don't think anyone really knows +how everything works. Maybe Greg Jansen, but I am pretty sure he +is full of shit (G). + + * * * + + + our faith is open to Werewolves and Vampires and And anyone/thing, we do +not discriminate. We do however reserve the right to pass judgement, and +beat the crap out of you, if we can get away with it. + + * * * + + + "...of these mysterious initiates---now become numerous, bold, conspiring- +all was born: Jesuitism,Magnetism, Martinism, Philosophers Stone, +Somnambulism, eclecticism." + ---C.L. Cadet-Gassicourt, + -Le Tombeau de Jaques de Molay + + + ----------------------- + + Illuminati/Codewords to Remember: + + "John has a long mustache". + + countersign: + + "The Chair is against the Wall" + + --------------------------------- + + Fiji said that Mord says that Omar says that we are all unicorns anyway. + ----------------------------------- + +Three Stooges Cult/Shempism as Dogma. + + The highest of the Three: + Arch-Saint Moe + St. Larry + St. Curly + St. Shemp (or the black Shemp) + + This paticular grouping of Saints is revered as Universally Wise, and + truly erisian. Their propensity to do each other Damage, yet to stay + together, signifys truly moronic proportions of Divine Calibre. These + are the greatest of Morons,and it is upon whose shoulders, the morons of + this age.For we truly sit on the shoulders of Giants. + Perhaps we should have went Wee-Wee, before we got all the way up there. + + diff --git a/religious documents/entrop25.txt b/religious documents/entrop25.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e8bcf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/entrop25.txt @@ -0,0 +1,90 @@ + PART Twenty-Five OF 15 PRINCIPIA ENTROPIUS + ____________________________________ + + + All The Traditions of Earth must be seen as deriving from a fundamental + mother-tradition that, from the beginning, was entrusted to sinful man, + and to his first off-spring. + ---L.C.de Saint Martin, + --De l'esprit des choses + + + "You Chotesmoker" + --St.Butt-head. + + + ////////////////////////////////////////////////// + + + Historical Materialism--an apocalyptic Erisian cult, that came out of + the Trier region. Infinite are the powers of synretism, look into it. + + \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ + + St Gulik, (also a Roach), God of Trickery, Crossroads and Theives. Messenger +of Eris. The Creator of Writing, which is the art of evasion and +dissimulation and a naviagation that carrys us to the end of all boundarys, +says that WE should not step on him, unless he jumps on us, or on our food. + he was also called St. Hermes... +=============================================================== + + From: Advice Guy + To: Albert Kabell +Subject: Ask an Idiot + +Albert, + +AK> Hey Advice Guy, do you know much about computers? + +I beleive it was Chaka Kahn, who wrote: + "Tell me something good" + +and by that I must tell you that I know something about computers +but not about using them. I know about breaking them, and urinating +on them at partys. + +AK> I have been calling bbs's for almost 2 years now, but +AK> I've decided I want to run my own board now. I want to have + +This is classic "Cosby Syndrome" you have been in the network for +awhile, and now you want to own the network. Clearly severe counsiling +is needed. Anyone who wants to run a bbs is clearly sick. Especially +a good bbs as you outlined. As you can see most sysops have not reached +that level of madness, they just run crappy bbs's, as they are "borderline +psychotics". You are truly too ill to be counselled in this text medium. +I think mass quanitys of lithium and caffeine are in order. + +AK> and interesting door games, and I want to carry every +AK> fidonet echo in existence. + +if Froot_loops is on the list, then you might have hope, for I beleive +it was Bob Hope, who said: +"What?, where the hell am I?" + +Wich is a sign of the insanity going into remission state, as the minds +eye focuses and naturally wonders where it is, and what it has done. + +AK> One problem, I don't even know how to delete a file. + +You need to read the dos manual cover to cover, its only 697 pages +of the dryest reading you might ever do. Its that or make freinds with +someone who will do it for you. A word of advice: don't let people with +handles like Immortus or Slayer have access to your dos, despite the +good intentions they may have... + +AK> Do you think my lack of DOS knowledge will provide an + +not if you are running Os/2 + +Well I am sure I have solved your problem, feel free to ask +me about something else you may need proffesional guidence with. + +--- --------- ------------ + + It is with this that we End this Book of the Principia Entropius, +atleast within the form That Is recognizable in this Reality. The alien +Entity, whose plan for Global Fnord Domination, has for some reason +chosen to end Book one here, except for the part wich is invisible. +You are left to ponder the mystery of that decision. + + diff --git a/religious documents/equaltim.txt b/religious documents/equaltim.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d8aada --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/equaltim.txt @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ + +CHURCH OF ELVIS DEMANDS EQUAL TIME + +The founders of The Church of Elvis have demanded a mandate to require that at +any public event held on public property in Baton Rouge Louisiana where +invocations are inflicted by members of the Great American Christian Jihad, that +an equal amount of time be allowed for an invocation proffered by the followers +of the teachings of St. Elvis Aron Presley. + +The Louisiana Legislature recently passed legislation allowing voluntary student +led prayer in public schools. Church officials hailed this legislation believing +it would finally afford them the opportunity to reach high-school students who +are ripe for worship of the flesh. + +Fundamentalist Christian interests are expected to decry this move as an +unacceptable application of the fairness doctrine. Church of Elvis officials are +confident that if any persons shall be required to submit to the orations of +worshipers of a dead man named Jesus,that others can sit quietly and consider +the orations of worshipers of a living lord like Elvis. + +Members of the Church of Elvis have many feast days in the church,and celebrate +the life of their King. The church promotes Freedom,Food, and Sexuality as its +trinity. Many of the members have been worshiping in secret, and are happy that +the law is now opening doors for them to share their belief openly. Many of them +are believed to be on the rolls of protestant churches only for social reasons, +knowing the truth and worshiping the Lord Elvis privately. + +As was written in the book of Elvis, "I am but a HunkaHunka burnin' love" and +"Don't be Cruel" + +Such beatitudes are celebrated by faithful followers of Elvis who are beginning +to assert themselves and their right to public professions of faith now that the +Fundamentalist Christians have demanded that the government become a Christian +Theocracy. + +Elvisites report that they "think that may be good, but if we go to a Theocracy, +we need to afford free drugs, sex, and rock-n-roll to all, including the poor +and destitute, and the rich and stuck-up." + +Officials of the Church of Elvis were not available for comment. The +Archbishop's butler said he was at the beach with Elvis today considering +whether to accept a nomination for the presidency. When asked what he thought of +the mandate, he said, "It is good. Praise Elvis!" + diff --git a/religious documents/esbat.txt b/religious documents/esbat.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b0aa10 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/esbat.txt @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +ab:esbat.txt 13jan90 + + + Esbat Ritual + +Needs: Everything needed to cast a Circle, + Wand, Scourge, Priestess' Athame + Priest, Priestess + +Here is the sequence of modules in a standard Esbat ritual. + +Cast Circle +(optional; rare) declaim Ancient Call +Drawing Down the Moon +Charge +(optional; rare) HP declaims Ancient Call +Great God Cernunnos Invocation (generally omitted if Drawing Down the Sun) +Witches' Rune (or other circle chant, eg. Ancient Call) +Cone of Power +---insert optional Circle work here (eg. Sabbat ritual)-------------- +Wine Blessing +Cake Blessing +---relax and chat; Coven business discussion, teaching, etc. --- +Close Circle + +---------- +-A "standard" BOS usually lists its owner's standard modules so that they + follow each other, and optional pieces are probably given seperately with + no written explanation of how to put things together. +-Obviously, the term "modules" is not traditional. +-There are a large number of published sources for the Esbat ritual as a + whole. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/essenc.txt b/religious documents/essenc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0909502 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/essenc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,153 @@ +ESSENTIAL OIL TECHNICAL DATA + +Name Bot. name. Constituents Solubility + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Angelica A. archangelica phellandrene; 6 vols 90% EtOH + valeric acid + +Anise P. anisum 80-90% anethole; 3 vols EtOH; ether + methylchavicol chloroform + +Asarum A. canadense pinene; methyleugenol 2 vols 70% EtOH + +Balm M. officinalis chiefly citral EtOH + +Basil O. basilicum methylchavicol; 2 vols 80% EtOH + eucalyptol; linalool ether; chloroform + +Calamus A. calamus 76% beta-asarone EtOH + +Caraway C. carvi 53-63% carvone; 1 vol 90% EtOH; + d-limolene 8 vols 80% EtOH + +Cinnamon C. cassia 80-90% cinnamaldehyde EtOH; glac. acetic + acid + +Citronella C. nardus 25-50% citronellal 10 vols 80% EtOH + 25-45% geraniol + +Clove E. caryophyllata 82-87% eugenol EtOH; ether; + glac. acetic acid + +Dill A. graveolens 50% carvone; apiole 1 vol 90% EtOH + +Eucalyptus E. globulus 70-80% eucalyptol; abs EtOH; oils + alpha-pinene 5 vols 70% EtOH + +Fennel F. vulgare 50-60% anethole; 1 vol 90% EtOH; + 20% fenchone ether; chloroform + +Geranium P. odoratissimum geraniol esters 3 vols 10% EtOH; + (geranyl tiglate) ether; chloroform + +Ginger Z. officinale l-zingiberene; ether; carbon + d-camphene disulfide + +Hops H. lupulus 65-70% humulene ether + +Hyssop H. officinalis 50% pinene 2-4 vols 80% EtOH + +Juniper J. communis pinene; cadinene; 4 vols EtOH; amyl + camphene; terpineol alcohol; chloroform + + +Lavender L. officinalis 30-40% esters 4 vols 70% EtOH + (linalyl acetate) absolute EtOH + +Lemon C. limonum 90% limonene 3 vols EtOH; glac. + acetic acid + +Lemon grass C. citratus 75-85% citral 3 vols 70% EtOH; + ether; chloroform + +Marjoram O. marjorana 40% terpenes 2 vols 80% EtOH; + ether; chloroform + +Nutmeg M. fragrans 60-80% d-camphene 1 vol EtOH; + myristicin; elemicin 3 vols 90% EtOH + +Parsley P. hortense chiefly apiole 8 vols 80% EtOH; + ether + +Patchouli Labiatae species patchouli oil ether + +Pennyroyal M. pulegium 85% pulegone 3 vols 70% EtOH; + H. pulegioides ether; chloroform + +Peppermint M. piperita >50% menthol 4 vols 90% EtOH + +Rosemary R. officinalis >10% borneol 10 vols 80% EtOH + +Rue R. graveolens 90% methyl nonyl ketone 3 vols 70% EtOH + +Sandalwood S. album 90% alcohols (santalol) 5 vols 70% EtOH + +Sassafras S. albidum 80% safrole 2 vols 90% EtOH + +Spearmint M. spicata >50% carvone equal vol 80% EtOH + +Sweet Bay L. nobilis eucalyptol; eugenol EtOH + +Tansy T. vulgare thujone; borneol; EtOH; ether; + camphor chloroform + +Thyme T. vulgaris 20-40% thymol 2 vols 80% EtOH + +Valerian V. officinalis bornyl esters (acetic, EtOH; ether; + formic, isovaleric) chloroform + +Vetiver V. zizanioides 8-35% sesquiterpene 1-3 vols 80% EtOH; + ketones oils + +White Cedar T. occidentalis d-thujone; l-fenchone 4 vols 70% EtOH + +Wormwood A. absinthium Thujyl alcohol; thujyl 2 vols 80% EtOH; + acetate; thujone ether + +Yarrow A. millefolium cineol EtOH; ether +Abbreviations: + +EtOH - ethyl alchol HOAc - acetic acid +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Properties of constituents: + +Compound Property +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Anethole carminative +Apiole carminative +Borneol perfumery, incense +Bornyl esters sedatives, antiseptics, counterirritants +Camphor anti-infective, counterirritant,antipruritic +Carvone flavoring, perfumery, carminative +Cinnamaldehyde flavoring, perfumery +Citral flavoring, perfumery +Citronellal insect repellant +Eucalyptol flavoring +Eugenol dental analgesic, insect attractant +Fenchone counterirritant, perfumes +Geraniol perfumery, insect attractant, +Humulene urinary antiseptic (?) +Limonene skin irritant, sensitizer +Linalool perfumery +Menthol antipruritic, flavoring, carminative, anesthetic +Myristicin mild hallucinogen +Phellandrene fragrances +Pinene manufacture of organic compounds +Safrole topical antiseptic, pediculicide, carminitive +Santalol in perfumes, soaps, detergents +Thujone [ingestion can cause convulsions] +Thymol antifungal, antithelmintic, antiseptic +Valeric acid intermediate in perfumery + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +This information may be of use to some more advanced herbalists. The +solubility information will be of use to anyone who prepares essential oils. +This is for informational purposes only. I do not endorse the use of any of +these agents, especially by the untrained. Many of these agents are very +toxic. + +Prepared by Gary Ross [CIS 73317,3317] diff --git a/religious documents/esspr1-4.txt b/religious documents/esspr1-4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e69adad --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/esspr1-4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,242 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU + +The document's ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the +coombspapers top level INDEX file. + +Date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 +=============================================================================== +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his kind +permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, ie. paper +copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, +Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK. Tel (0222) 228858 email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be sent +to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded on in +person by myself - B.F. + +NOTE: +You may find and odd sentence or missing information every now and again in the +files. Hopefully not to frequently. This is because the files were originally +written on a machine using CP/M and had to be converted to dos format. Many of +the 5.25 disks were very old and had bad sectors - thus missing info. + +................................Beginning of file.............................. + +.....................................1 0f 4.................................... + + + FIRST ESSAY + + AN INTRODUCTION + TO ZEN TAOISM AND ITS PRECEPTS + +In common with many things which are unusual, deep or complex, it is easier to +say what Zen is not, rather than what it is. To many people, looking at it +from the outside, Zen seems to be an introverted process in which the +practitioner sits for hours, contemplating, daydreaming, or undergoing some +form of self-indulgent analysis. To others, who perhaps have read something of +the history of Zen, it is a philosophy for warriors to live by; whilst those +who are concerned with cultural pursuits, probably interpret the information +with which they are presented as meaning that Zen is for the intellectual elite. + +As though to add to the confusion, some publications from the U.S.A. during the +1950s and 1960s described various psychadelic experiences as being 'Zen-like' +(which of course, they are not). Since there was comparatively little authentic +information available on Zen in the English language at that time, Zen became +thought of quite commonly as being an 'alternative' or 'hippy philosophy', +whereas in reality the misleading information published at that time now seems +to have been an attempt to promote the use (or abuse) of hard drugs, an activity +which no Zen practitioner would condone. Such misconceptions are of course +common, and can occur easily with regard to any philsophy, especially since +philosophy is not something which many people think about, much less, practice +in their lives. + +Whilst the 'hippy' picture is an inaccurate picture, painted by those who are +prepared to capitalize on the deprivation needs (discussed later) ignorance or +weaknesses of others, the other three pictures, the warrior, the intellectual +and the meditator are not without some validity, and are in some ways each +quite symbolic of Zen, for each can represent the battle we might engage in +when trying to discover our own true nature. Sometimes this battle will be +quite ferocious, whilst at other times it can be a stressful process, but a +process which results in quietude and serenity. + +In any instance though, it is a misconception to think of Zen as being no more +than meditation, intellectualization or the martial arts, for it is much more +than these, and more even than self-awakening; it contains a deep philosophy +which can be applied to virtually any situation, and has been the source of +inspiration to countless individuals and many aspects of Western as well as +Eastern society. Its influences range from the creative or fine arts, to the +martial arts; from drama to pottery, and from literature to philosophy. + +Some early misconceptions concerning Zen probably resulted from the fact that +it was the martial arts, rather than the fine or creative arts which served to +introduce Zen to the west, for there has long been a worldwide interest in the +various forms of combat and self-defence, such as Karate, Judo, Ninjitsu, Kendo, +Iaido and Aikido, which have their roots in Zen philosophy. However, in world +literature there is now a wakening appreciation of Zen poetry epitomised by the +Haiku, Waka and Tanka, whilst in music the sound of the Shakuhatchi is no +longer strange to our ears. The effect of Zen upon the graphic arts such as +surface pattern and fashion is now well known, whilst in psychology, sociology +and international politics, the Zen Taoist influence has been strengthened by +the work of such eminent writers as Erich Fromm, Carl Gustav Jung, Abraham +Maslow and Dag Hammarskjold to name but four, and in ceramics the work of the +raku potter, Shoji Hamada, echoes the same philosophy. + +To those unfamiliar with Zen, it seems strange that a single philosophy could +encompass and influence so many areas of life, but to the practitioners of Zen +there is nothing surprising in this at all....in fact they would probably be +surprised if it were not so. This is not to imply that everything in the world +has been influenced by Zen, and neither is it to claim that the most eminent +people in every field of work have been influenced by Zen, but it can be said +in all honesty that Zen Taoism (the oldest form of Zen) and Zen Buddhism have +between them influenced very many people, who through their own application of +Zen philosophy have made real their own creative potential, and made positive +marks upon the world, not least of which are the outspoken and sometimes +particularly courageous arguments for world peace. + +Such acts as these, the deep rooted philosophy, its application to such a wide +range of topics and areas of life, do indicate that Zen is unlike many other +ways of life. Although it considers thoughts and words to be important, it also +considers that action is important. In this respect an 'action' can be a single +act, or it can be 'the act of living', which is to say 'the manner in which we +live our lives'. This of course is the major difference between Zen and other +philosophies or religions which frequently satisfy their adherents at a verbal, +conceptual or 'public appearance' level, and which do not call upon them to +show any kind of 'active' proof. + +Briefly then, the proof of Zen philosophy is in its application. This does not +mean that the Zen student has to prove to his teacher (called a 'Roshi', which +translates literally as 'old scholar') that everything he or she does is a Zen +act; what it does imply is that as the student progresses in study and +application, more and more of the actions concerned with life are performed in +a Zen manner. Just what it is that constitutes a 'Zen manner' is difficult to +define in summary form, but in essence, it is to act according to the principles +of Zen. In Zen Buddhism these fundamental principles are found in 'The Four +Noble Truths' and 'The Eightfold Path' and in Zen Taoism (discussed in more +detail later) they are found in the 'precepts', these being guidelines which +it is believed lead the individual to realization (making real) of his or her +latent potential. + +There is no pretence in Zen Taoism that it is easy to apply the precepts, but +this is not so much due to the precepts themselves as it is to the manipulative, +inhibiting and even damaging aspects of society which they assist us in +overcoming. Novice students are usually reminded when 'the going gets tough' +that if the precepts were unnecessary there would be no need of Zen itself, and +that if they were easy to apply there would be no need of 'sesshin' (group +meetings), 'naisan' or 'dokusan' (private, confidential tutorials), and no need +of private study. + +Zen Taoism believes that the vast majority of human beings are born with +inherent potential which is never realized (made real by being manifested or +used), because it is inhibited or repressed by certain negative elements in +society which we allow, frequently by default, to govern our lives. The fact +that Zen never has been, and probably never will be an 'establishment +philosophy' is probably due to the fact that it considers the socio/economic/ +political philosophy of most establishment orders to be generated around what +it terms 'self-serving motivation' (the need, which they percieve, to serve or +preserve their own power or authority, rather than serving those who give them +that power or authority). This self-serving motivation is believed in Zen to +be a major negative element in our lives, the manipulative aspects of which are +often mirrored within the smaller units of the social structure (even the +family), and between individuals at all levels from the public and political to +the personal and intimate. + +It must be admitted however that there is a particular problem which underlies +the application of Zen Taoist precepts; this is not a problem in actually +applying them, but in understanding them. This problem exists for many novice +Zen students, and (it must be further admitted) is due in no small part to the +esoteric or mystical language in which they are expressed. There have been +attempts to explain the reason for this, the most common being that Zen Taoism +is iteslf essentially spiritual. This is not my own belief. Without going +into considerable detail on the history of Zen Taoism, it is hopefully +sufficient to say that both Lao Tzu and the Boddhidharma, who between them +originated what we call Zen Taoist philosophy, were both extremely pragmatic +men. This is not to say that they were without spirituality, but they were +both 'of the world', being concerned more with saving humanity from itself, +than from anything which might exist on a 'spiritual plane'. + +Having accepted though, that the literature of Zen Taoism is more than +liberally strewn with poetic, esoteric or mystical phrases, the question still +remains as to why should this be the case if it is meant to be practical and +useable. There is hopefully no need to explain the poetic nature of much of the +literature, since that which is beautiful needs to be defended only against +barberians, and one reason why so much of Zen literature is shrouded in +mysticism is, in my opinion, similar to this. It is that the use of this style +defended the teachings from the establishment figures and groups who might +have perceived it as a danger to their own self-serving interests if it had +been phrased in more obvious terms. + +The second reason for the use of such language is, I believe, the inherent +limitaion of language itself. Those states, processes and experiences which +Zen speaks of are not of themselves mystical, but are meant to be experienced, +and many of them can be understood only through experience. The Bodhidharma +expressed this 'experiential' nature of Zen perfectly in the phrase, + "It is a transmission beyond words." + +It is with these words in mind that the Zen student is advised to both study +and practice; and the reason for this is that the realization of Zen occurs +through both. Whilst a book might provide a means of study, there is no book +which is a valid substitute for experience. Zen sesshin is not only a 'study +group' because it also provides the opportunity for experience...and that which +might be experienced in a Zen Taoist sesshin is something of the reality of the +precepts. However, Zen teaches that 'experience makes knowledge real', not that +experience replaces knowledge. Provided that we enter Zen 'with an empty cup', +any Zen Taoist Roshi would appreciate the fact that a would be student has at +least tried to discover what Zen is about..... and what it is about is described +in its precepts, which are discussed in the following essays. For your +convenience however, and because so many of us like to experience where we are +going before we arrive (or in s/me cases, even before we set out on the journey) +the precepts are listed overleaf. + +Have compassion for all sentient beings, +causing them no unnecessary hurt, nor needless harm. + +Refrain from needless competitiveness, +from contriving for self-advantage, +and from subjugating others. + +When accepting authority over others, +k.ow also that you accept responsibility for their wellbeing. + +Value true friends(ip, and fulfidd your obligations, +rather than striving with egotistical motive. + +Seek liberation from the negative passi +let the mind be like running water. + +When you are required to act, +remember that right motive +is essential to right action, +just as right thought is essential to right words. + +Beware of creating burdens +for yourself or others to carry. + +Act with necessary distinction, +being both creative and receptive, +and transcending subject/object dichotomy. + +Know that you are not the centre of the universe, +but learn to put the universe at your centre, +by accepting the instant of your being. + +Seek security within yourself, +rather than in others. + +Know that even great worlddy wealth, +and the accumulation of material things +are of little worth, +compared with the priceless treasures; +love, peace and the freedom to grow. + +Allow yourself to be, +so that your life may become a time of blossoming. + +.................................End of file................................ +....................................1 of 4.................................. + + + diff --git a/religious documents/esspr2-4.txt b/religious documents/esspr2-4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9634623 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/esspr2-4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,494 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU + +The document's ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the +coombspapers top level INDEX file. + +Date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 +=============================================================================== +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his kind +permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, ie. paper +copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, +Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK. Tel (0222) 228858 email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be sent +to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded on in +person by myself - B.F. + +NOTE: +You may find and odd sentence or missing information every now and again in the +files. Hopefully not to frequently. This is because the files were originally +written on a machine using CP/M and had to be converted to dos format. Many of +the 5.25 disks were very old and had bad sectors - thus missing info. + +................................Beginning of file.............................. + +......................................2 of 4................................... + + + SECOND ESSAY + + ACTING WITH RIGHT MOTIVE: + WITHOUT CONTRIVING FOR SELF-ADVANTAGE + +There are many philosophies which teach that 'actions speak louder than +words', but in Zen Taoism it is both the thought or motive, and the action, +which are considered important. This view was expressed by Lao Tzu, who +in the sixth century before the Christian era, wrote the definitive work +of Taoist philosophy, a book of eighty-one very short but expressive chapters, +known as the 'Tao Te Ching'. It was Lao Tzu's only written work, and has +been translated from the original classical Chinese into most mod +ern languages, including over thirty English translations. In chapter +thirty-seven of the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu tells us, + "To act without contrived intent + is to act without contriving; + this is the way of nature, + and so is the way of the Tao." + +This is expressed in the precepts as, + "Know that right motive is essential to right action, + just as right thought is essential to right words." + +Such statements as this frequently give rise to the question, "What does +Zen teach is right, and what does it teach is wrong?". +In this sense it must be admitted that Zen teaching is difficult for the +uninitiated to follow, for it says very little about 'wrongdoing', but gives +examples by means of which we might ponder for ourselves on such matters +as right and wrong, and of course, other issues raised by the precepts. + +These examples are frequently provided in the form of 'koan', which are +riddles or paradoxes, sometimes being asked as questions, or simply told +as stories by the roshi during a part of sesshin known as 'sosan' or 'sanzen', +the period in which the roshi addresses the students as a group. Alternatively +the roshi might present a koan for a student during naisan or dokusan. +In either case though, the most difficult type of koan are probably those +stated simply as a story, usually taken from real life, and referred to as +'genjo koan'. The reason for this is that it is usually difficult for the +student to work out what problem the story is supposed to contain. It could +be, and often is the case that the problem or exercise being set by the roshi +is learning to identify the relevant problem contained within the story. + +An example of this is demonstrated in the story below, which refers to an +aphorism mentioned in the previous essay, concerning 'right action and right +motive' as these relate to a student when he or she meets the roshi for +the first time. The aphorism is a cautionary tale, taken from 'Tao, the +Gateless Gate', a small collection of Zen Taoist stories. + +This particular story tells of a young man who wished to attend Zen sesshin. +Having a friend who already did so, he asked could his friend mention to the +roshi that he would like to attend. His friend agreed, but warned him, + 'If the roshi agrees to meet you, for goodness sake + be careful that you do not appear to think that you + know too much. The roshi is really very kind, but he + believes very much that we should not boast of what + we know. He told a story once of an ancient teacher + interviewing a new student for the first time. Well, + it seems that the student kept boasting of what he + already knew, but the teacher ignored his boasting, + and asked the student if he would like a cup of tea. + The student held the cup, and the old teacher began + to pour some tea into it.......but the student kept + on boasting. The more the student boasted, the more + tea was poured, until it overflowed onto the student's + lap. He shouted out for the teaher to stop, and the + old man did so, but said, + "When the cup is full, behold, no room for more. + So if, this mystic wisdom, you would sup, + ensure that you come hither with an empty cup." + +The young man laughed at the story, and thanked his friend for the warning, +assuring him that he would remember it. When the time came for him to meet +the teacher, he presented himself. Bowing deeply, he said, + "Behold master, my cup is empty." + +To his surprise, the teacher shook his head sadly, and said to him, + "Oh dear. You'd best go away, and come back + when you've learnt some manners." + +When the young man next saw his friend, he complained at the treatment he +had received, and told him exactly what had happened. His friend replied, + "That's a real pity, but you can't say that + I didn't warn you." + +If this was your first introduction to a koan, do not be too concerned if +you do not fully understand its implications. What it is meant to illustrate +is that motive, words and actions must support each other. In the koan +just cited, although the student's bow (the action) was appropriate, his +words implied that he thought he both knew and understood about having 'an +empty cup'. However, the fact that it was the first thing he said, illustrated +to the teacher that he did not understand it well enough to apply it, for it +really says that a student, especially a novice, should accept that he or she +can know very little, especially compared with a teacher from whom he or she +wishes to learn. + +To someone who knows nothing of Zen, the roshi's response to the student +in the koan might seem somewhat harsh. However the relationship between +any Zen teacher and student is a special one, and what occurs in the intial +interview is therefore important, especially since it provides both student +and teacher with an opportunity to decide whether they feel that there is +a sufficient empathy between them for the teacher/pupil relationship to +be of value. This is described in a short verse from 'Tao, the Gate +less Gate', + 'With that same right + the student has to choose his guide, + the master also makes his choice + as to whom to teach, and whom to leave alone. + For as the student seeks a master + in whom he sees that which he seeks, + so does the master, through his experience, + seek to test the student, + and his willingness to learn." + +Whilst some followers of Zen believe that it should give more instruction +on what is wrong or should not be done, in general and in specific situations, +others maintain that the emphasis on what is right leads naturally to 'right +motive and right action', and that this in turn leads to a positive attitude +towards life. In essence, 'right motive' is a motive which is directed +towards harmonious interaction, whereas 'right action' is the physical +manifestation or realization (making real) of that motive. There are many +things like this, which Zen maintains are 'right', and these are described +in the precepts by such statements as, + "Have compassion for all sentient beings, + causing them no unnecessary hurt, nor needless harm." + +It should be noted that this phrase talks of 'unnecessary hurt' and 'needless +harm' as though it is impossible not to cause hurt or harm. This is in +fact an accurate perception of the Zen view, which is that it is very unlikely +that we can go though life without causing any hurt or harm at all. For +example, we may kill an animal or plant for food as a necessity of life; +and many parents are hurt when their offspring leave home, even though they +know logically that it is a natural occurrence. In neither case does this +mean that the hurt is caused deliberately, but that it would be unrealistic +to believe that it did not occur at all, just as we should accept that using +a sharp instrument in order to remove a splinter might cause hurt, but is a +neccessity, if only as an act of compassion which we might carry out in order +to prevent an infection which might otherwise occur. + +True compassion, as described in Zen Taoism, seems to be somewhat different +from that described in many religions; or at least as far as its motives +are concerned, for in Zen we are told that even an act which might benefit +another person is not really an act of true compassion if it is carried +out for reasons of self- advantage. In this instance it seems that many +religions teach that compassion can 'reach beyond the grave', since they +advise that our reward for such acts will be found in heaven. Zen off +ers no such promise, and considers it wrong that we should be compassionate +in order to 'store up credits' as though heaven is a great 'Open University +of the cosmos'. The Zen Taoist view is that we should not be without +compassion, because without compassion, we are incomplete; and if we have +compassion as part of our being, then we will not need to contrive or think +of 'being' compassionate. This is the same as saying that with regard to +compassion, we should be without motive. In chapter five of the Tao Te +Ching, Lao Tzu says, + "Even when he seems to act + in a manner kind or benevolent, + the sage is not acting with such intent, + for he is amoral and indifferent." + +This is not to say that the sage is indifferent to human suffering or needs, +but that when he performs an act which is compassionate, he does so simply +because it is his nature to do so, rather than out of any sense of morality +or reward. + +Zen Taoism considers that there are 'three precious attributes', namely, + compassion, + economy of effort (efficiency), + and courage. +On the benefits of compassion, Lao Tzu tells us (in chapter sixty-seven), + "Only he who is compassionate + can show true bravery, + and in defending, show great strength. + Compassion is the means by which + mankind may be guarded and saved, + for heaven arms with compassion + those whom it would not see destroyed." + +Whilst it is considered by some that Zen does not provide sufficient +information on what it considers 'wrong', there is nevertheless a particular +way in which it does in fact give us advice or direction away from what it +considers to be 'wrong', or to be more precise, away from that which it +considers to be harmful to the development of the individual and to society. +We are advised in the precepts to, + "Seek liberation from the negative passions + of hatred, envy, greed and rage, + and especially from delusion, + deceit and sensory desire." + +In many respects this statement relates closely to the precept referring +to 'needless hurt and unnecessary harm', since Zen teaches us that hurt +and harm are often caused unnecessarily or needlessly as a result of these +'needless passions'. It teaches that liberation from them reduces the +likelihood of our causing hurt or harm to others. Examples of hurt being +caused to others as a result of hatred and rage are obvious, but envy and +greed are themselves negative emotions which can drive the unwary individual +to perform acts against others which he or she might later regret. However, +it is not only the hurt or harm we cause others which is the concern of Zen, +but also the hurt or harm which we might cause ourselves to undergo, and it +is for this reason that delusion is included as a negative passion or emotion. + +As was stated in the first essay, there are many misconceptions concerning +Zen, and those who do not know its reality are sometimes concerned that +it may be a 'cult', similar in some way to those which gain their followers +by promising such rewards as 'instant enlightenment', 'sexual liberation', +or 'eternal salvation'. Of course, Zen offers no such promises (in fact +it makes no promises at all) and offers no rewards. What it does do though +is to offer an alternative 'path' which some, and not others. On the choice +of a path, 'Tao, the Gateless Gate' offers the following advice, + "Many are the true paths + which to enlightenment do lead, + and there is no enlightened one + who would deny the truth of any one of these. + But among those paths we must avoid + are those which would deny enlightenment + to those who other paths have chosen. + And also, false are they which do but seek + to gratify the body, senses, or the mind, + and those which do require + that we abstain from worldly life. + + Apart from these, we have no right + by which we might deny a man his chosen path, + unless his path denies our right to choose, + or can be seen to do the chooser harm. + + True paths all lead to that estate + which we may call enlightenment, + And all men have the gift to use it, + to pass beyond that concept of themselves, + which they, or others have allowed + to predetermind what they are, + and what they should remain. + +Whilst illustrating well that Zen does not consider itself the only path +of value, this verse does provide a warning against those paths which offer +'escape' from reality by means of 'gratification of the body, senses or +the mind', or by delusion (those paths which 'do the chooser harm'). + +Sensory desire (literally the desire to 'feed' or gratify the senses) is +considered to be a form of lust for that which we see or apprehend through +any of the senses, and try to obtain with disregard for ethical considerations. +This does not mean that we should cease to want or need, nor that we should +ignore sensory pleasure; rather it implies that we should not allow sensory +considerations to take priority over our dealing with other human beings. +It is considered in Zen that such desires, if not temper +ed by ethical considerations or compassion, frequently lead to deceit, another +negative emotion from which we should seek liberation. However, it is not +only the senses which demand gratification, for there are many who live +much of their lives in the quest to 'gratify the mind'; that is, through +intellectualizing rather than allowing themselves to experience life. Another +story from 'Tao, the Gateless Gate' illustrates quite amusingly how this +'quest for knowledge' might be misused (and how a Zen teacher might help a +student through that 'barrier'). The type of discussion illustrated, on the +nature of existences, and what and how we know of them, is known in western +philosophy as 'epistomology' (theory of knowledge). This story indicates how +Zen tends to deal with such matters in a non-intellectual manner. + "A master and his student stood beside a rock. + 'I say that rock exists', the master said. + The student did reply, 'And I say it does not, + for the picture that we see of things perceived, + is only in the mind.' + The master then said, 'Right, take off you shoe + and kick that rock which isn't there. + The student laughed and made reply, + 'No thanks, what of the pain which will result?' + 'How can there be a pain within the toe, + from kicking nothing?' his teacher asked. + 'No pain within the toe,' the student did respond, + 'for, as you have taught me, the pain is in the mind.' + The master then, without ado, stamped upon + the student's toe. He lifted up his injured foot, + and danced about. + The master asked, 'And is the pain is in the head, + why do you hold your toe?' + The student turned to answer him, and, in turning, + tripped upon the rock." + +Although the teacher may have hurt the student's toe, we assume that this +hurt would not last long. In Zen, this would be considered a small price +to pay to drive out sush intellectual delusion. Unfortunately though, there +are of many instances in real life where the hurt is'within the mind'. +We need to think only of the changing nature of intimate human relationships +to realise how much hurt and harm is caused by the hedonistic desire for +continued sensory pleasure, or continued 'ownership' of another person, or +when in reality a relationship has ended. It is with regard to this aspect +of life, the ability or inability to let go, that Zen offers what is perhaps +its strongest guidance, expressed in the precepts as, + "Learn to let go of that which cannot be owned, + or which is destroyed by grasping." + +It is not only when a relationship has ended that we need to let go. It +is believed in Zen, that even trying to demand a wanted emotion or feeling +from another person when it does not exist within them at that time, can +create resentment, hurt or harm, and that this can have the reverse effect +to that which is desired. Many a relationship has come to an end as a result +of one of the people involved trying to 'own' the other, whereas the reality +of a loving relationship requires 'the freedom to love', which cannot survive +if a relationship becomes a prison. The breakdown (or change for the worse) + +As well as being relative to intimate human relationships, this warning +is relevant also to many other situations. In a society which uses competition +amongst the many in order to create greater wealth for the few, even 'winning', +or continuing to win, can become a burden. There are many astute manipulaters +who can perceive ambition in subordinates, and who increase their burden +without a thought as to the consequences. Whilst it is not denied that +many survive unscathed, there are many who feel unable to recognise such +manipulation, and who suffer as a result of it. Similarly, the fact that an +indivual may accept a burden, is no guaruntee that he or ashe will be able to +predict the outcome of accepting that burden. + +One of the aspects of Zen Taoist training which many students appreciate +is that it place no burden upon them, and that what they do is of their +volition. To be sure, the roshi may tell them from time to time that they +are not making enough effort, but only for the benefit of the student; but +there is no obligation on the part of the student even to continue to take +instruction. This is quite often a reason why 'outsiders' are puzzled by +the commitment of many Zen students to their 'training'; it seems st +range to someone who is not commited, to appreciate what can be gained in +terms of personal growth, by such a commitment. + +This does not mean that everyone who attends sesshin is committed to Zen, +but those for whom sesshin becomes a 'buirden', simply stop attending. +Nothing more is expected of them, but those who have the courtesy to inform +the roshi or 'jikijitsu' (director of ceremonies) that they are not going +to return are never questioned on their decision, since to do so might create +a burden for that person. + +It is of corse essential in life to learn to distinguish between 'needless +burdens' on the one hand, and responsibilities and obligations, on the other, +and It is perhaps for this reason, the need to distinguish, that Zen advises +us in the precepts to, + Act with necessary distinction". + +What is meant by this statement is that in all areas of our lives we should +distinguish when necessary. We are not taught that 'everything is the same', +but that in some instances we should make destinctions, whilst in other +instances we should not, and that we should learn to distinguish both when +and how to make such distinction as is necessary. For example, Zen tells +us that it is necessary ('right')to distinguish right and wrong action, +and 'wrong' in the majority of instances to discriminate against +or distiguish between one or another sex, or between people because of the +difference in the colour of their skin. In fact, the ancient Zen Taoists +(of whom more will be said later) would be delighted to see that the +anti-apartheid movement has adopted the Taoist symbol (the 'Tai Chi') as +their own. + +Rules and regulations can and should provide us with a sense of 'belonging' +or security, and they are meant to be used for that purpose. There are, +for example, the rules of etiquette which enable us to feel at ease when +we 'dine out', the 'rules of behaviour' which we observe when visiting someone +else's home, and the different modes of behaviour which we observe when +visiting, say, a church or a fairground. Conversely though, the observance +of such rules should not be allowed to detract from our observance of the +precepts. There is a story which illustrates well 'letting go', necessary +distinction and 'creating burdens'. If it were used in sesshin as a koan, +the students might be asked to consider it in the light of those precepts. +This is the story. + +Two Buddhist monks were walking along a country road together in meditation. +They belonged to a contemplative, celibate order, which means that no +unnecessary talk should take place, and that the monks (and nuns) should not +have physical contact with members of the opposite sex. + +As the two monks approached a stream which crossed the road, they saw a +beautiful young lady trying to ford the stream. She was wearing a kimono, +which was obviously new and expensive, and the monks saw that she was +encountering considerable difficulties, since every time she placed her foot +in the shallow stream, the hem of her kimono would be threatened by its muddy +waters. + +As they approached the young lady, one of the monks ignored her, but the +second monk picked her up in his arms and carried her across the stream, +depositing her on the furthest bank. The two monks resumed their silent +stroll for some three miles or so, when the first monk suddenly said to +the second, + "You shouldn't have done that!" + "Done what?" asked the second monk. + "Picked up that woman" replied the first monk. + "What woman?" asked the second monk. + "That woman you picked up and carried across + the stream!" said the first monk angrily. + "Oh, that woman", replied the second monk, + "I put her down three miles back." + +As it relates to 'letting go', the first monk had not let go of the rule +regarding people of the opposite sex, and in scolding his friend, he was +creating a burden for him, and by becoming annoyed, was creating a burden +for himself to carry. Furthermore, he had not acted with necessary distinction +between the rules of his sect, and the precept concerning compassion. + +Such stories as these are often used as koan, and in such instances are +told during sosan (mentioned earlier). This is usually followed by 'mondo', +which really means 'question and answer', and is a discussion period in +which the students ask questions of the teacher and each other, in order +to improve or confirm their understanding of the issues raised in the koan. +When it appears that the students understand the key issues they will be +asked to 'offer proof'. They then prepare a statement which is mean +t to prove their understanding and ability to apply those issues. Each +student then gives a response to the roshi (sometimes in note form) and +the roshi replies to the response in terms of both its content and form. + +If a student were to describe the content of the above koan in terms of +letting go, creating burdens, compassion, or necessary distinction, this +would meet with the approval of the roshi as far as content is concerned, +but in order for the form to be +approved the answer would have to be stated in a 'Zen manner'. Just what +distinguishes this manner from any other is difficult to define, but in +essence the answer would be brief, and would be a generalized statement +or an allegory or analogy based on the original story. + + +With further regard to competitiveness and necessary distinction, we should +learn that there may be times when it is unavoidable in the system or society +in which we live, but when there is no need to compete, we should not turn +the situation into a competition, for to do so is to create an unnecessary +burden both for ourselves and others. The relevant precept tells us, + "Refrain from needless competitiveness, + from contriving for self advantage, + and from subjugating others." + +The reason for refraining from competitiveness unless it is a necessity, +lies in the last line of this precept, namely that through competitiveness, +somebody is subjugated; that by 'winning' we create at least one loser. +By creating a loser in order to feed our own ego, we could be causing needless +hurt or unnecessary harm to another, especially if that person is not +competative by nature, and even more so if he or she is vulnerable to such +pressures. + +On the other hand, if our chosen working environment is competative by its +very nature (as is the case in sporting activities) we are told, + "When you are required to act, + in movement be as the dragon riding the wind." +Zen has many sayings and aphorisms of this poetic nature, which it has inherited +from its early Chinese origins, (known as 'Taoism'), many Zen practitioners +believing that Zen is in fact a unique development of Taoist and Buddhist +philosophies. The early Taoists were particularly synergic (non-competitive) +and if a Taoist (or a Zenji for that matter) were to engage in a career +in the market place, he or she would not 'try to sell, no matter how'. +Even in such a career as marketing, Zen teaches that we sho +uld consider our motives, thoughts and actions. + +It is frequently the case in marketing a product or service that the +'salesperson' is the 'subject matter expert' in that he or she knows more about +what is being offered than the prospective client. In such instances, the +salesperson is in authority, and with regard to such situations we are reminded, + "When accepting authority over others, + know also that you accept responsibility + for their wellbeing." + +In administrative or other leadership terms, this equates with ensuring +the wellbeing of one's subordinates, and with regard to marketing, it advocates +that giving a service to the buyer creates a long-term customer who might +actually wish to make his or her subsequent purchases from us, and that +this is of far greater value to the selling (and producing) organization +than an order won against the real wishes of the client. This in turn equates +with the precept, + "Be just and honourable, + taking pride in what you do, + rather than being proud of what you have accomplished." + + +...................................End of file................................. +......................................2 of 4................................... + + diff --git a/religious documents/esspr3-4.txt b/religious documents/esspr3-4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..439a25b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/esspr3-4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,366 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU + +The document's ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the +coombspapers top level INDEX file. + +Date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 +=============================================================================== +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his kind +permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, ie. paper +copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, +Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK. Tel (0222) 228858 email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be sent +to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded on in +person by myself - B.F. + +NOTE: +You may find and odd sentence or missing information every now and again in the +files. Hopefully not to frequently. This is because the files were originally +written on a machine using CP/M and had to be converted to dos format. Many of +the 5.25 disks were very old and had bad sectors - thus missing info. + +................................Beginning of file............................. +.....................................3 of 4................................... + + +Human relationships are of course the roots of society, and begin in infancy +within the family, extend when we begin to attend school, and grow even +more with friendships and intimate relationships. It is hardly surprising +therefore that so many of the precepts are concerned with our relationships +with our fellow human beings, and Zen Taoist sesshin (meetings) are conducted +in a anner which shows that it is possible to act in an harmonious manner +towards others without having to discard or subjugate our own individuality. +Even within the framework of the precepts, there is ample room for individual +expression, and many people benefit from the structure of sesshin to gain +confidence when in discussion with others ... many people who believed +themselves too shy to express an opinion 'in public' find that they can begin +to do so in sesshin. + +In this way, through the application of Zen Taoism, the most fundamental +precept of all is being followed, but in a manner which succeeds because +it occurs from within the individual, rather than through any attempt to +apply external pressure. The precept being applied in such circumstances +is, + "Allow yourself to be, + so that your life may become a time of blossoming." + +As mentioned, this is probably the most individual or personal precept of +Zen Taoism. We believe that there are many people who never realise (make +real) their full potential. Sometimes this is because of adverse aspects +in upbringing, sometimes because of the hazards encountered in psychological +development, or it might simply be because the individual could not identify +their latent potential. In this last instance, such people frequently come +to 'sesshin' in order to discover for themselves, what potential they have, +and continue to attend because they find that what they receive from sesshin +helps them in many other ways. + +We might say that such people as have just been described, discover that +they have more courage than they believed, and if this is the case, they +would be discovering and applying the precept, + "Seek the courage to be; + to defend yourself, and your convictions." +There are of course others who attend sesshin for other motives, or who +discover a value in sesshin which they had not previously considered to +be important. I am thinking here of some who are perhaps somewhat too brash, +or over confident, for it is usually the case that they learn the value +of listening. Similarly, there are some Zen students who express themselves, +and may feel impatient when listening to someone who is not gifted in that +way; but even impatient students learn that those not so adept as themselves +can often have something of value to contribute. So it is that people of +all descriptions, with a wide range of attributes and skills, feel that +they gain considerably from sesshin and the application of Zen Taoism to +everyday life, with regard to their attitude both to themselves and to others. +They are of course following the percept which tells us, + "Act in harmony with your fellow beings, + with nature, and with inanimate objects." + + +We believe that much of the antagonism and anguish in life stems from human +relationships, and that the root of many human relationship problems may +be found in the ego, that is, in the attitude which many people have that +the world revolves around them, or that it should have their needs as its +priority. This 'ego need' manifests itself in many different ways. We +can easily recognise it in situations where we might say to ourselves woefully, + "Why does it always happen to me?", +as though life itself contrives against us, but it is not so easy to recognise +in someone, who, with the best will in the world, complains that those whom +he or she wants or tries to help, will not listen. This is not to say that +it is wrong to help others who are in need (it may be remembered that there +is a specific precept on compassion), but that we should know the motive +from which we function, even if our action benefits others. It is important +to realise though that examination of our motive for performing an act does +not mean we should stop performing the act if we discover that it stems +from 'wrong motive', but that we should not pretend the motive is other +than it is in reality. + +In Zen terms, ego-centredness is called 'puting oneself at the centre of +the universe' and is considered to be a barrier to one's own development, +and a negation of society and the world at large, especially if it results +in our applying one set of rules to ourselves, and a different set to the +rest of society. This is referred to in the precept which tells us, + "Know that you are not the centre of the universe, + but learn to put the universe at your centre." + +This precept is particularly difficult for those who do not participate +in Zen. What it means is that we should try to 'encompass the universe +within ourselves', which implys that we should try to appreciate how even +macrocosmic laws (the Tao) are reflected in the individual at microcosmic +level, and within society at intermediate level. In Zen we are taught that +this can be accomplished by 'right meditation' and positive interaction. +Probably the most elementary form of positive interaction is friendship, +and true friendship is believed to occur only if there is no egotistical +motive. In this respect the precepts advise us, + "Value true friendship, and fulfil your obligations, + rather than striving with egotistical motive." + +Meditation is one of the cornerstones of Zen. Whilst it cannot be fully +explained in only a few words, one outcome of the Zen meditative state is +that the individual becomes, albeit temporarily, egoless. With continued +meditative practice, the individual learns how to act 'naturally', that +is, without ego, and this in turn aids positive interaction with our fellow +beings. Although it is somewhat over-simplified, friendship is an elementary +form of this interaction. Positive interaction and the meditative or egoless +state combine in a manner which is described as 'synergic', and it is this +manner which is believed to be of benefit to the individual and society. +Synergy is the action of two or more elements when they are combined, the +action of this combination being greater than the actions of the elements +if separate. In human terms, this means that a synergic interaction between +two or more people will have a greater and more positive outcome than could +be produced by those people if they were not working together. The synergic +response is in fact considered to be 'exponential'. This cannot easily +be defined, but, for example, when two people work together in order to +move a heavy object, and manage to do so when another two people of equal +strength have failed, the latter action could be described as synergic. +The reason for this is that the effect of synergy is to multiply rather +than to add. + +In order for two or more people to act in a synergic manner, or to act in +a manner which produces a synergic result, they must interact with each +other, rather than one acting upon the other or both acting separately. +It is a Zen belief that in society, human beings are 'interactively +interdependent', which means that they both act upon each other and depend +upon each other. Whilst this may be difficult to comprehend, it becomes +easier to understand if we think of the actions of human beings upon each +other as being what makes society what it is at any time. If we act upon +each other in an antagonistic manner, society itself becomes antagonistic, +but if our interactions are synergic, we engender a society which is itself +positive, constructive and supportive to the development of human potential. + +Zen meditation has already been mentioned, and whilst it cannot be fully +described here (since it must be practiced in order to be 'understood') +it is hopefully worth describing in a little more detail. As has already +been stated, one purpose of meditation is to 'let go of the ego', but as +is quite well known, a particular function or outcome of meditation is that +it reduces the unhealthy effects of stress by promoting relaxation. This +is referred to in the precepts with relationship to health, the relevant +precept being, + "Remember to renew the source, + in order to retain good health." + +Although some people consider meditation to be somewhat mystical, and although +in some respects it possibly does have a mystical element, it also functions +at a very basic anatomical and physiological level. The key to Zen meditation +probably lies in the method of breathing which is employed. This is known +as 'diaphragmatic breathing' and involves using the diaphragm as a mechanical +pump in order to clear the lower lobes of the lungs of stale air. This +in turn enables the breathing rate to be reduced without causing oxygen +deprivation. The effect of the slowed down breathing rate is that the metabolic +rate decreases, and it is this which aids the relaxation response. As physical +relaxation progresses, so it seems, the conscious mind 'relaxes' or at least +becomes less active. The result is both physical and psychological 'stillness'. +On meditative practice, the Zen student is advised in the precepts, + "Seek neither brilliance nor the void; + just think deeply, and work hard. + When still, be as the mountain; + When in movement, be as the dragon riding the wind. + Be aware at all times, + like the tiger which only seems to sleep, + and at all times let the mind be like running water." + +To those who do not meditate, it may seem strange that reference to 'the +dragon riding the wind' occurs now with regard to meditation, whereas it +was used previously with regard to action. However, those who do participate +in meditation will understand that although meditation is stillness, it +is not without its own energy and that when the diaphragmatic breathing +technique has become natural, the action of inhaling and exhaling +diaphragmatically is smooth and continuous, and not without its own beauty. +The 'movement' referred to is that of the abdomen rising and falling in regular +and rhythmic waves, without disruption. In this way it was likened (somewhat +poetically) by the early Taoists to 'the dragon riding the wind'. + +The statement which advises us to 'be still, as the mountain' refers to +the stability of the sitting posture, for Zen teaches us that when learning +meditation, the entire body must be stable so as not to distract us from +the psychological aspects of the meditative process. The reference to 'deep +thought and hard work' might seem somewhat paradoxical, considering the +outcome of meditation, but in this instance, deep thought implies concentration +on what is being undertaken, and hard work refers to the fact that meditation, +although simple, is far from easy. In telling us that we should 'seek neither +brilliance nor the void', the precepts are advising us that it is impossible +to meditate if we are consciously thinking of what we hope to achieve, whether +it is 'enlightenment' (brilliance) or 'emptiness' (the void). The 'awareness' +which is mentioned in the same precept, is in fact (admittedly somewhat +obscurely) described in the following line which tells us that the manner +in which we should be aware should be like 'the tiger which only seems to +sleep'. If we observe such an animal as the tiger when it is in sleep, +it is perfectly relaxed, but at the slightest sign (sound or smell) of danger, +the response of the tiger is immediate; it is as though the natural +preparedness of the animal does not disrupt its equally natural sleep pattern. +Finally, 'the mind like running water' is referred to quite often in Zen, and +implies that even if we are distracted from what we are doing, the practice of +meditation will enable us to return virtually immediately to the previous act. +In meditation itself, this implies that even if our meditation is disturbed, +we should be able to return to it immediately the distraction has ceased. +The fact that this does occur with experienced meditators has been confirmed +by the use of electroencephalographs, which record the 'rhythms' of the brain. + +As will now be evident, Zen is a mixture of the pragmatic and the idealogical, +of the straight-forward and the mystical, of the physical and the psychological, +and the prosaic and the poetic. It is perhaps for these reasons that it +appeals to such a diverse range of people as attend Zen sesshin around the +world. In the two major sects of Zen Buddhism (Soto and Rinzai Zen), sesshin +is conducted in a manner which conforms to Buddhist teaching, but Zen Taoist +sesshin has no religious formality. This does not mean that it has no +formality, but that the formality is concerned more with providing a structure +or pattern within which the needs of the students can best be met. Zen Taoist +sesshin usually include, or are followed by an informal 'cup of tea' and +discussion on what has occured during sesshin. The Roshi does not usually stay +for this discussion (since he or she knows that students feel more free to talk +without their teacher being present), but since every Roshi has been (and in +many respects remains) a student, it is usually a source of much pleasure +to the teacher to know that so many people of different ages and background +are able to converse with and help each other. Also, the sound of laughter +from the dojo (place of learning) as the students relax after sesshin can +also be a source of amusement to the teacher, for Zen contains much humour, +and the teacher might deliberately have created a 'diversion' to amuse the +students during this informal discussion period. + +It is during this period that a student who wishes to talk privately with +the Roshi will seek a 'private interview' (known as 'Dokusan' or 'Naisan'), +and it is no exageration to describe these inimate discussions as being, +on occassion 'magnificent' in their synergic effect, for there can be few, +if any relationships which equal the intimacy and understanding which exists +between a Zen Taoist teacher and his or her students. It is in part because +of the input of energy and length of training which is necessary on the +part of the Roshi to gain and retain the skills required that Zen students +are told in the precepts, + "Have humility and respect; + give thanks to those from whom you learn, + or who have otherwise helped you." + +Although the student is expected to have respect for the Roshi, this does +not mean that students are required to accept everything which is said without +question. In fact, students are advised in the precepts, + "Know that there is no shame in questioning." + +This precept is in fact a condensed version of an aphorism by an early Chinese +philosopher, the aphorism being known as 'The Code of Scholarship'. It +is, in full, + "To ask may bring a moment's shame, + but not to ask is to remain in ignorance, + and so condemn oneself to lifelong shame." + +Sesshin is not the only period in which the student is expected or provided +with the opportunity to learn, for Zen Taoism is not a monastic order, but +is very much 'in the world'. Outside of sesshin time, Zen Taoists go about +their daily lives doing very much the same sort of things as anyone else. +It is therefore appropriate that learning should continue outside of sesshin, +and students frequently seek an opportunity of applying in their daily lives +the precepts which have been learned and discussed in sesshin. For example, +the student is told, + "Help those who are suffering or disadvantaged, + and as you yourself become awakened, + help those who seek to make real their own potential." + +The term 'awakened' refers to what is hopefully an ongoing process in which +the student's own potential is made real. This means that the student is +in fact being advised to offer help (by providing help) for anyone who is +in any way disadvantaged or suffering, but should take care not to assume +the teaching role until he or she has been told by the Roshi that the student +has reached a sufficient level of awakening. With further regard to helping +others, and also to 'necessary distinction', the student is taught that +in order to discover if one is in a position to help others it is often +necessary to distinguish between the value placed on something as it relates +to oneself, and the value which may be placed upon it by another person. +This means that if we ourselves are not thirsty, a glass of waater would +be of little or no value, but because it would be of value to someone who +is thirsty, we should not consider it to be valueless. To do so would be +to think of it only from our own subjective frame of reference, and this +would be to think of ourselves as 'the centre of the universe'. The relevant +precept tells us, + "Know that a thing or an action + which may seem of little value to oneself, + may be a priceless treasure to another. + +As may be appreciated from this example, the precepts are not separate entities, +but form an integrated structure of concepts. Although they are expressed +in the form of advice, the structure they form is in reality the Zen Taoist +frame of reference. A major aspect of this frame of reference is that nothing +is static. This is usually expressed in a more positive manner, in the +expression, 'all things are in a state of flux'. Our relationship or attitude +to change is therefore considered important, and we are advised in the precepts, + "Accept transience, the inevitable and the irrevocable. + Know that change exists in everything." + +The term 'transience' describes the fact that nothing remains for ever, +and that the nature of all things and processes is only temporary. The +'inevitable' refers to the fact that although there are some things which +we can influence, there are others which we cannot influence and the +'irrevocable' is a reference to the fact that something which has already +occurred cannot 'unoccur'. In total, these three terms imply that it is +fruitless to wish or pretend that things are different than they are, or that +something which has happened did not occur. Whilst this makes sound sense to +all of us, it is quite often difficult to prevent such thoughts or wishes from +arising, but Zen teaches that the reason for this is the confusion between +'wishing' and 'faith or hope'. Whilst we might have faith in a divinity, or +hope that a change will occur to improve a particular state, neither of these +is the same as 'wishing' in the delusory sense in which it has been used +here. This sort of wishing, although understandable, is not to be recommended, +especially since it can easily change to a state of pretending that things +are other than they really are; and this will undoubtedly prevent us from +discovering just what can and what cannot be influenced. Zen does not teach +that we should merely 'allow things to happen' and neither does it teach +that we should not respond to situations; but it does help us to discover +(through necessary distinction) where it is appropriate to respond or attempt +to influence a situation, and where it is inappropriate or without value +to do so. + +Inability to act, or to determine when it is appropriate to act is considered +in Zen to be a barrier to our awakening, and we are told in the precepts +that we should overcome these barriers. The relevant precept adtually advises, + "Negate the barriers to your awakening; + discover ther positive in the negative." + +This is a reference to a particularly significant Zen teaching called 'The +Gateless Gates', in which we are told that there are numerous gateways in +life, and that part of our purpose in individual and social development +is to learn to recognise and pass through these gateways. The concept of +the gateless gates is interesting because it enables us to broaden our frame +of reference by realizing that some things which are usually thought of +as negative can in fact be positive, or even that something which is negative +can be converted to the positive. If, for example we are too shy to speak +in public, this is a negative factor, and therefore something which 'inhibits +our awakening'. It is like a locked gate in front of us. However, in +overcoming such an inability we 'unlock' or pass through that gate. If we +think of a locked gate as a barrier, an unlocked or open gate is a form of exit +and entry. In this instance the same gate can act as a barrier, or an exit +from or entry to a different 'mode of being', from a state where we were +unable to converse in public, to a state wehre we are able to do so. A +negative gate or barrier will then have been converted, by our action, into +a positive gateway. + +Zen does not provide a definitive list of the gateless gates, because any +individual has his or her own gates through which to pass. However, there +are certain 'gates' through which every individual does pass, two of these +being birth and death (referred to respectively as 'the gateway to life' +and 'the gateway to eternity'. Birth is considered to be the physical +manifestation of our true being, and death, our return to the infinite or +eternal from which we come, and in which we dwell for ever. + +...............................End of file................................... +..................................3 of 4..................................... + diff --git a/religious documents/esspr4-4.txt b/religious documents/esspr4-4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d907d98 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/esspr4-4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,269 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU + +The document's ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the +coombspapers top level INDEX file. + +Date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 +=============================================================================== +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his kind +permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, ie. paper +copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, +Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK. Tel (0222) 228858 email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be sent +to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded on in +person by myself - B.F. + +NOTE: +You may find and odd sentence or missing information every now and again in the +files. Hopefully not to frequently. This is because the files were originally +written on a machine using CP/M and had to be converted to dos format. Many of +the 5.25 disks were very old and had bad sectors - thus missing info. + +...............................Beginning of file............................... +....................................4 of 4..................................... + + +This aspect of Zen teaching, the existence of the positive in the negative +is difficult for many people to comprehend, especially since it is also +taught that both the positive and the negative (Yang and Yin) co-exist in +interactive interdependency in what is termed the 'Tai Chi' (symbolised +by the Yin and Yang aspects linked together in the two halves of a circle. +But even more than this, it is further taught that the Tai Chi is only a +way of conceptualizing the infinite or absolute which contains 'all that +which is, and all that which is not'. This concept seems to be unique to +Taoism and Buddhism, and it is usually only advanced students who enter +'mondo' (question and answer, or discussion) on topics such as these, and +such matters are not frequently discussed during normal sesshin. The reason +for this (apart from the complexities involved) is that Zen students arae +not encouraged to consider abstract or mystical matters until they are quite +advanced. Such matters as 'the infinite', and 'eternity', are termed 'the +song of the absolute', and we are warned in the precepts, + "Be diligent in your practice, + and on hearing the music of the absolute, + do not be so foolish as to try to sing its song." + +This statement is in fact a reference to the difference between experiential +learning (learning through experience) and cognitive learning (learning +through study). In meditation we lose awareness of the ego, and might sthus +sometimes lose awareness of the 'self'. Although this does happen without +meditation (and without Zen) for some people, it is more usual for it to +occur in a meditative state. It is an essential precursor to deep meditation, +and to a state or attitude known as 'kufu' (the technique beyond technique). +What the student is being told in the above precept is that although such +states can and do occur, they are experiential rather than cognitive, which +is to say that their value is in the experience rather than thinking about +or discussing the experience. If this seems vague or esoteric, it shuld +be considered in the same way as or riding a bicycle, both of which improve +with practice rather than with discussion. Although we usually know that +this is true, many people nevertheless do discuss how they swim, cycle, +paint, etc, but the reason is quite often to seek the approval or praise +of others. Whilst it can be constructive to receive honest criticism, when +we request it, we usually hope that it will be favourable, and we therefore +need to ask ourselves what is our true motive for asking. It should not +surprise us if we find that the answer is insecurity. + +It is a strong Zen belief that insecurity is a major inhibiter of human +development, and that the 'establishment' or ruling faction is most social +structures use insecurity as a means of gaining and retaining control over +their members. In brief, many people will be prepared to accept considerable +lack of personal growth for the sake of security, particularly since we +cannot have experienced the result of growth or development which has not +yet occurred ... so it is that many of us settle for the security which +results from what we believe is the 'status quo'. Zen teaches that there +is no real security other than that which we can find or develop within +ourselves. The advice given in the precepts is quite simply, + "Seek security within yourself, + rather than in others." + +Whilst many people spend a lifetime seeking a security which in reality +does not exist, others might spend their time in a tranquil way, neither +seeking nor finding others. Whilst neither of these is strictly a Zen Taoist +path, the latter is certainly closer to Taoist teaching than the first. +However, it is a Zen Taoist teaching that although we should not strive +with egotistical motive, life can be much more rewarding, both to oneself +and others, if we are able to find or develop a purpose in life which has +meaning for us, and if possible, to society. The precept tells us, + "Seek a meaningful purpose in what you do." + +Just what is considered to be a 'meaningful purpose' is difficult to define. +This again is not because of any shortcoming in Zen Taoist teaching, but +because each of us has a different concept of what is meaningful, and that +which is meaningful to one person, may be meaningless to another. The reason +for this is that 'meaning' is subjective. + +When responding to a situation, we respond, not necessarily to what it is, +but to what it means to us. Similarly, finding a purpose in life, or in +what we do with life, is not so much a matter of 'what life is', but what +life means to us. Without a meaningful purpose we can enter what is known +as the 'existential vacuum', this being a state in which existence itself +is empty and without meaning. Some people mistakenly think that this is +what is meant by the Buddhist term 'Nirvana', however Nirvana is not a state +devoid of meaning, but a state which is beyond subjective or objective meaning, +and which, if it has any meaning at all, has a meaning which is neither +subjective nor objective, but is absolute. Zen Taoism believes that it +is very rarely, if ever, possible to develop 'absolute meaning' during one's +earthly life, since this period of our existence is material or finite, +and it is the finite which exists within the infinite or absolute, rather +than the reverse. + +It is probably given to very few people that they develop the ability to +achieve absolute meaning during their earthly lives. Such an occurrance +is so rare however, that it is beyond the comprehension even of most students +who have practiced for many years, and it is therefore very unlikely that +discussion on this or similar matters would occur during normal sesshin +unless a specific request were made to the Jikijitsu (Director of Ceremonies) +by the student group. In common with other matters which might be the concern +of a particular student, but possibily beyond the comprehension of the majority, +such matters as this might however be a topic for dokusan or nisan. + +Whilst the nature of absolute meaning might not be commonly discussed during +normal sesshin, the concept of meaningful purpose in life could be a topic +for sosan (a short talk or lecture given by the Roshi during sesshin) or +subsequent mondo. It is believed in Zen that human beings have free will, +and that this is directed in its natural state towards the provision of +meaning and the development of a meaningful purpose in life. It is also +believed that where this fails to occur, the will may degenerate to power +or nihilistic pleasure, or directly to the existential vacuum mentioned +previously. A meaningful purpose in life is therefore considered to be +important to the psychological health and wellbeing of any individual. +As was also stated previously, just what constitutes a meaningful purpose +in life can only be determined by the individual, but Zen Taoism believes +that there are three essential prerequisites to a meaningful life. Because +they are essential they are known as 'the three treasures'. The relevant +precept tells us also that Zen Taoism does not condemn or criticise the +material aspect of our lives, provided it does not take precedence over +the development of meaningful purpose in life. The precept reads, + "Know that even great worldly wealth, + and the accumulation of material things + are of little worth, + compared with the priceless treasures; + love, peace and the freedom to grow." + +Such terms as 'love', 'peace' and 'the freedom to grow' serve as an example +of the subjective nature of meaning, for they are meaningful to some, but +possibly in different ways, and meaningless to others. However, even those +people for whom such terms as these are meaningful might have extreme difficulty +or reluctance in discussing or describing them. In this sense at least +it is not unfair to describe Zen as being somewhat 'mystical', for the word +'mystical' is really nothing other than a term we employ to describe processes +which we cannot fully comprehend through logical analysis. Whilst this +is probably true of many esoteric, spiritual or affective mental processes, +it is probably nowhere more true than in relationship to the Zen concept +which bears the name 'Kufu', and which is probabbly the aspect of Zen which +is most concerned with the realization of individual creative potential. +Even those whose successful application of Zen is in the creative (or martial) +arts are usually unaware of how it works, or unable to explain the process +of kufu, through which it functions. + +'Kufu' is described in many ways, but it is in fact a difficult state to +define or describe with accuracy, and in much of the Zen literature it is +refered to as, + "the technique beyond technique", +or more poetically, as + "The one technique which still remains + when all techniques are learnt". + +In order to understand such references, it is useful to know that virtually +all forms of Zen expression are very much the products of their culture +and period, and that they are expressed in a manner designed to appeal to +a particular 'student population'. When we also know that the particular +expressions quoted immediately above were popularized in the 'Kamakura Period', +the period in which the samuri warriors of Japan were beginning to express +an interest in the philosophical teachings and techniques of Zen, it perhaps +becomes easier to understand why so many of the best known references to +'Kufu' relate to swordsmanship and the other martial arts. The reality +though is that this particular concept is probably the most wide reaching +and diverse in application of all the Zen Taoist concepts, for 'Kufu' +represents a particular aptitude which has a psychological and somatic +(physical) manifestation which is possibly the most 'Zen' of all the Zen +concepts, namely, + 'Transcendence of subject/object dichotomy'. + +In the precepts, this process is referred to in conjunction with both +creativity and receptivity, the precept being, + "Be creative and receptive, + transcending subject/object dichotomy." + +Although it is not easy to explain this concept briefly, it is useful to +have at least some idea of its meaning. To this end, we can think of the +first part of the phrase as advising us not to forget that an essential +part of the creative process is receptivity. To understand the latter part +of the phrase, it is helpful to think of it in terms of its constituent +elements, these being: + transcendence; to overcome or rise above + dichotomy; to separate or divide into two + subject; the part of speech frequently represented by 'I' + object; the part of speech frequently representing what is + accomplished by subject, or the person or thing to whom it +is done. + +Therefore (in somewhat oversimplified terms) the phrase, + 'Transcendence of subject/object dichotomy' represents the ability +to overcome (transcend) that which divides or separates (the dichotomy) +us (the subject) from what we do, or the person or thing (the object) +to which we are trying to relate. + +Referring once again to the 'techniques' mentioned in the literature of +Zen, and shown earlier, it should now be more apparent that Kufu itself +is not a technique at all, or at least, that it is not a technique in the +sense of the techniques of painting or swordsmanship, but is in fact something +which we might develop 'when all techniques are learnt'; something which +might enable us to reach beyond the level of technical ability (although +that ability should not be belittled) to the level of creative, aesthetic +or artistic accomplishment. + +An area of life in which the influence of Zen has been of particular +significance is creativity, as witnessed by the now quite frequent use of its +philosophy of aesthetics, and adaptation of its unique visual imagery in the +fine and graphic arts. Similarly, in literature, the terse, esoteric, but +nevertheless hightly aesthetic nature of Zen poetry has been a considerable +influence on many modern poets. + +For many westerners, the word 'Zen' conjures up two pictures, one being +of a person sitting deep in meditation, and the other being warriors locked +in combat. These two pictures are in fact very symbolic of Zen, for both +can represent the battle we might engage in when trying to discover our +own true nature. Sometimes this battle will be quite ferocious, whilst +at other times it can be a quiet and thoughtful process. In either case +however, Zen is of course much more than either meditation or the martial +arts; it contains a deep philosophy which can be applied to virtually any +situation, and has been the source of inspiration to countless individuals +and many aspects of Western as well as Eastern society. Its influences +range from the creative or fine arts, to the martial arts; from drama to +pottery, and from literature to philosophy. + +It is probably the martial arts, rather than the fine or creative arts which +have served to introduce Zen to the west, and today there is worldwide interest +in the various forms of Karate, Judo, Ninjitsu, Kendo, Iaido and Aikido. +In world literature there is now a wakening appreciation of Zen poetry +epitomised by the Haiku, Waka and Tanka, whilst in music the sound of the +Shakuhatchi is no longer strange to our ears. The effect of Zen upon the +graphic arts such as surface pattern and fashion is well known to those with +an interest in such matters, and in psychology, sociology and international +politics, the Zen Taoist influence has been strengthened by the work of such +eminent writers as Erich Fromm, Carl Gustav Jung, Abraham Maslow and Dag +Hammarskjold to name but four. In ceramics the work of the potter Bernard +Leach echos the techniques as well as the philosophy of his teacher, Shoji +Hamada, the Zen potter who made rakuware famous. + +To those who are unfamiliar with Zen Taoism or Zen Buddhism, it seems strange +that a single philosophy could encompass and influence so many areas of +life, but to the practitioners of Zen there is nothing surprising in this +at all....in fact they would probably be surprised if it were not so. This +is not to imply that everything in the world has been influenced by Zen, +and neither is it to claim that the most eminent people in every field of +work have been influenced by Zen, but it can be said in all honesty that +Zen Taoism (the oldest form of Zen) and Zen Buddhism have between them +influenced very many people, who through their own application of Zen philosophy +have made real their own creative potential, and made a positive mark upon the +world, not least of which are the outspoken and sometimes particuleative +or fine arts, to the martial arts; from drama to pottery, and from literature +to philosophy. + +..................................End of file................................... +.....................................4 of 4..................................... + diff --git a/religious documents/ethics&e.txt b/religious documents/ethics&e.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fa5bde Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/ethics&e.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/ethics.txt b/religious documents/ethics.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..388f3ca --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ethics.txt @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ + +FROM: Paul Hume + +SUBJECT: Ethics + +George - +The outcry at the end of your last post of three: does this belong on +Mundane or are ethics central enough to religion (presumably Wiccan +religion) to stay on Magicknet, triggers this response in my guts: +If ethics are not a central consideration in magico-religous dialog, +we are all in the wrong line of work. + +What indeed are the ethics of the witch/mage/shaman? Most of the +principle guides to our behavior are "shorthand," almost koans, which +guide the "initiate" but are meaningless or even scary/dangerous to the +"common man." + +"Do what thou wilt..." +"An it harm none..." +"The eightfold noble path" + +It is all well and good to say "listen to the inner voice." When the +inner voice (or a plausible imitation) says "Kill them all, let God sort +them out," what then? + +Can occult ethics generate an ethical code for the non-occultist? +Crowley tried his hand at this, and some of the modern Wiccan writers do, +as well as assorted New Age writers, whose stuff at least has the +advantage of innocence as a rule. + +My aikido sensei recently remarked "What we do is not for everyone." +This was not in defense of excluding anyone from the dojo, but rather to +answer the puzzlement of several people when a person who'd seemed quite +interested observed class, and left with some denigrating observations on +the "wimpy" nature of our style. Heaven knows what he thought aikido +was. + +Not only our magick but our lifestyle is not for everyone. The terrible +burden of freedom from authority, of distinguishing ethics from morals, +of fixing the eye on the star of the Will and steering by that alone: +these scare the excrement out of many people. "I don't KNOW what's +right," they cry! "I need someone to tell me." + +Our perfect world contains people who perform right action automatically, +by virtue of training themselves to do so. Your "good practice" rather +than "good law," to paraphrase you and Confucius. + +The Rede, Thelema, etc. are enough for their adherents - they are not +enough - cannot be enough - for +anyone who has not taken that first step onto the path of initiation (I +use the term in its widest sense - not just "formal" initiation into a +trad., order, etc.). + + diff --git a/religious documents/exegesis.txt b/religious documents/exegesis.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd01154 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/exegesis.txt @@ -0,0 +1,147 @@ +EXEGESIS ON THE WICCAN REDE +by Judy Harrow + +originally published in HARVEST - Volume 5, Number 3 (Oimelc, 1985) +second publication: THE HIDDEN PATH - Volume X, Number 2 Beltane, 1987) + + All religions began with somebody's sudden flashing insight, +enlightenment, a shining vision. Some mystic found the way and the words to +share the vision, and, sharing it, attracted followers. The followers may +repeat those precise and poetic words about the vision until they congeal into +set phrases, fused language, repeated by rote and without understanding. +Cliches begin as great wisdom - that's why they spread so fast - and end as +ritual phrases, heard but not understood. Living spirituality so easily +hardens to boring religious routine, maintained through guilt and fear, or +habit and social opportunism - any reason but joy. + + We come to the Craft with a first generation's joy of discovery, and a +first generation's memory of bored hours of routine worship in our childhood. +Because we have known the difference, it is our particular challenge to find +or make ways to keep the Craft a living, real experience for our grandchildren +and for the students of our students. + + I think the best of these safeguards is already built into the Craft as +we know it, put there by our own good teachers. On our Path, the mystic +experience itself is shared, not just the fruits of mysticism. We give all our +students the techniques, and the protective/supportive environment that enable +almost every one of them to Draw the Moon and/or Invoke the God. This is an +incredibly radical change from older religions, even older Pagan religions, in +which the only permissible source of inspiration has been to endlessly +reinterpret and reapply the vision of the Founder (the Bible, the Book of the +Law, the Koran, ... ). The practice of Drawing the Moon is the brilliant crown +of the Craft. + + But notice how often, in the old myths, every treasure has its pitfalls? +I think I'm beginning to see one of ours. Between the normal process of +original visions clotting into cliche, and our perpetual flow of new +inspiration, we are in danger of losing the special wisdom of those who +founded the modern Craft. I do not think we should assiduously preserve every +precious word. My love for my own Gardnerian tradition does not blind me to +our sexist and heterosexist roots. And yet, I want us to remain identifiably +Witches and not meld into some homogeneous "New Age" sludge. For this, I think +we need some sort of anchoring in tradition to give us a sense of identity. +Some of the old sayings really do crystallize great wisdom as well, +life-affirming Pagan wisdom that our culture needs to hear. + + So I think it's time for a little creative borrowing from our neighbors. +Christians do something they call "exegesis;" Jews have a somewhat similar +process called "midrash." What it is is something between interpretation and +meditation, a very concentrated examination of a particular text. The +assumption often is that every single word has meaning (cabalists even look at +the individual letters). Out of this inspired combination of scholarship and +daydream comes the vitality of those paths whose canon is closed. The +contemporary example, of course, is Christian Liberation Theology, based on a +re-visioning of Jesus that would utterly shock John Calvin. + + Although our canon is not closed - and the day it is is the day I quit +-I'm suggesting that we can use a similar process to renew the life of the +older parts of our own still-young heritage. + + So, I'd like to try doing some exegesis on an essential statement of the +Craft way of life. Every religion has some sort of ethic, some guideline for +what it means to live in accordance with this particular mythos, this +worldview. Ours, called the Wiccan Rede, is one of the most elegant statements +I've heard of the principle of situational ethics. Rather than placing the +power and duty to decide about behavior with teachers or rulebooks, the Rede +places it exactly where it belongs, with the actor. + + eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill: + AN IT HARM NONE, DO WHAT YOU WILL. + +I'd like to start with the second phrase first, and to take it almost word by +word. + +Do what YOU will. This is the challenge to self-direction, to figure out what +we want, and not what somebody else wants for us or from us. All of us are +subject to tremendous role expectations and pressures, coming from our +families, our employers, our friends, society in general. It's easy to just be +molded, deceptively easy to become a compulsive rebel and reflexively do the +opposite of whatever "they" seem to want. Living by the Rede means accepting +the responsibility to assess the results of our actions and to choose when we +will obey, confront or evade the rules. + +Do what you WILL. This is the challenge to introspection, to know what we +really want beyond the whim of the moment. The classic example is that of the +student who chooses to study for an exam rather than go to a party, because +what she really wants is to be a doctor. Again, balance is needed. Always +going to the library rather than the movies is the road to burnout, not the +road to a Nobel. What's more, there are others values in life, such as +sensuality, intimacy, spirituality, that get ignored in a compulsively +long-term orientation. So, our responsibility is not to mechanically follow +some rule like "always choose to defer gratification in your own long-term +self interest," but to really listen within, and to really choose, each time. + +DO what you will. This is the challenge to action. Don't wait for Prince +Charming or the revolution. Don't blame your mother or the system. Make a +realistic plan that includes all your assets. Be sure to include magic, both +the deeper insights and wisdoms of divination and the focusing of will and +energy that comes from active workings. Then take the first steps right now. +But, beware of thoughtless action, which is equally dangerous. For example, +daydreaming is needed, to envision a goal, to project the results of actions, +to check progress against goals, sometimes to revise goals. Thinking and +planning are necessary parts of personal progress. Action and thought are +complementary; neither can replace the other. + + When you really look at it, word by word, it sounds like a subtle and +profound guide for life, does it not? Is it complete? Shall "do what you will" +in fact be "the whole of the law" for us? I think not. The second phrase of +the Rede discusses the individual out of context. Taken by itself, "DO WHAT +YOU WILL" would produce a nastily competitive society, a "war of each against +all" more bitter than what we now endure. That is, it would if it were +possible. Happily, it's just plain not. + + Pagan myth and modern biology alike teach us that our Earth is one +interconnected living sphere, a whole system in which the actions of each +affect all (and this is emphatically not limited to humankind) through +intrinsic, organic feedback paths. As our technology amplifies the effects of +our individual actions, it becomes increasingly critical to understand that +these actions have consequences beyond the individual; consequences that, by +the very nature of things, come back to the individual as well. Cooperation, +once "merely" an ethical ideal, has become a survival imperative. Life is +relational, contextual. Exclusive focus on the individual Will is a lie and a +deathtrap. + + The qualifying "AN IT HARM NONE," draws a Circle around the individual +Will and places each of us firmly within the dual contexts of the human +More [Y,n]? + +community and the complex life-form that is Mother Gaia. The first phrase of +the Rede directs us to be aware of results of our actions projected not only +in time, as long-term personal outcomes, but in space - to consider how +actions may effect our families, co-workers, community, and the life of the +Earth as a whole, and to take those projections into account in our decisions. + + But, like the rest of the Rede, "an it harm none" cannot be followed +unthinkingly. It is simply impossible for creatures who eat to harm none. Any +refusal to decide or act for fear of harming someone is also a decision and an +action, and will create results of some kind. When you consider that "none" +also includes ourselves, it becomes clear that what we have here is a goal and +an ideal, not a rule. + + The Craft, assuming ethical adulthood, offers us no rote rules. We will +always be working on incomplete knowledge. We will sometimes just plain make +mistakes. Life itself, and life-affirming religion, still demands that we +learn, decide, act, and accept the results. + + + Judy Harrow diff --git a/religious documents/faith.txt b/religious documents/faith.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03a46bc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/faith.txt @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ + <<<<<< A Lesson In Faith >>>>>>> + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + A lesson in faith, in yourself. people around you try very hard living +their lives through your skin. in this instant, you'll find that people will +tell you throughout your life, you should not practice Witchcraft; but to +tell the truth, there are very few feelings on earth that can come even close +to the feelings you get when you are doing a ritual. It is similar to the +love between people of like mind and feelings. You know you are not alone. + + You know what you want and your mind and heart are clear and true. Remain +true to yourself and don't look back. Because, when everyone has gone, you +will have to live with your decisions whatever they may be. + + People of the Craft know what I'm talking about. You are at peace with +yourself and people around you. We have an understanding about life and +nature that most people do not. We know how to love without the guilt. We +know what most people only dream of. We are home. + + To me the craft is home. I have never been happier in my life. The peace +is more than I could have hoped for. the love again is something else. + + So the next time someone tells you that you should not practice the Craft +, don't listen. But do listen to yourself. Have faith. You can do it. Most +of us who practice the Craft don't listen to people who try to live our +lives for us. This is for the others who are not in control. I wish you +peace. Make up your mind, and have faith. After all it is your life; maybe +it is up to you after all. + More Power To You + + Blessed Be. + diff --git a/religious documents/faq_satn.txt b/religious documents/faq_satn.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93a37eb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/faq_satn.txt @@ -0,0 +1,535 @@ +Okay, finally here is the latest version of the FAQ. Maybe someday we'll get +around to posting it at semi-regular intervals. + +Alterations: very slight. A few words added here and there, where somebody +has complained about lack of clarity, and a few more books. The +introduction (which ran last time) is from the alt.atheism FAQ--maybe we +should ask their FAQkeeper for permission if we intend to keep it? + +If anyone has suggestions, complaints, comments, praise, or offers of money, +go ahead and post it for discussion if you so desire, but please e-mail me +the information. I'll be out of town for the weekend and I get a high +turnover rate, so I may miss some posts. + +--Semhaza (The Antichrist) +rtsumn01@ulkyvx.louisville.edu + +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- + THE ALT.SATANISM FAQ +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- + + This file is for all new readers of alt.satanism. + + Many groups of a `controversial' nature have noticed that new + readers often come up with the same questions, misstatements or + misconceptions and post them to the net. The purpose of this + file is to prevent continual restatement of previously debated-- + often several times debated--topics. + + This isn't to say that these things are not subject to further + debate. It is to say that these things *have* been considered by + the readers here. If you have something significant to add to + the debate on a particular topic then please do post. + + Contributors to date are: + Semhaza (The Antichrist) + Shaitaneth Baphomet (The Adversary) + Lupo the Polish Butcher + Frater (I) Nigris (666) + +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- + + Frequently Asked "Questions" of Alt.Satanism: + + 1. What is Satanism? + 2. What is _The Satanic Bible_? + 3. Are there other Satanic organizations? + 4. Satan is a Christian God! + You aren't Satanists, just nasty atheists! + 5. Aren't Satanists ritualistic baby murderers? + 6. Do Satanists have orgies? If so, where do I sign up? + 7. What is Xian? COS? TOS? TSB? OT? NT? + Do you say "Xian" rather than "Christian" in order to insult + Christianity? + 8. Have you considered the message of _The Bible_? + 9. For the Christians among us: should you feel inclined to preach. + You are all going to hell. + Jesus saves! + [As regards Christian evangelism, see also the alt.atheism FAQ.] + 10. How can I get more information about Satanism? + +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- + +1. What is Satanism? + + At first glance this may look like a simple question to answer: "Go + look it up in the dictionary." would seem to be straightforward + enough. In fact, I'll do it for you: + + Satanism, n. 1. the worship of Satan or the powers of + evil. 2. a travesty of Christian rites in which Satan + is worshipped. 3. diabolical or satanic disposition, + behavior, or actions. + + [from _Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English + Language_, (c) 1989] + + Unfortunately it's not that easy. There is no one set of beliefs that + comprise Satanism. Because there is no set of doctrines or scriptures + agreed upon by a majority of Satanists, would-be practitioners must + define their beliefs for themselves, based upon a minimum of shared + information. The issue is further confused by the fact that, + historically, most records of real or imagined Satanism have been made + by Satanists' traditional enemies, Christians. However a few + generalizations can be made: the average Satanist disagrees with much + of Christianity, believes in no absolute moral code, and places + emphasis on the individual and personal rights. If you think this + sounds like Libertarianism, you're right; many Satanists consider + themselves Libertarians or feel close to the party on social issues. + + I would divide Satanists into several main groups: + + 1. The Dabblers: adopt Satanic trappings for a brief + period of time, usually for entertainment rather than + serious purposes. Some modern youth fall into this + category, along with past groups like the 18th century + Hell-Fire Club. + + 2. Atheistic Satanists: don't believe in spiritual + entities. Satan is only a symbol for humankind's + freedom from moral obligation. Most Usenet Satanists + fall into this category. + + 3. Miltonian Satanists: do believe in a deity, Satan + or another Entity with connotations to what has been + recognized as evil in other societies. This Entity has + been misrepresented in history and is not actually + maleficent. + + 4. Dark Satanists: also believe in a literal Satan, + but not the "higher" being of the Miltonians. Rather, + it is a force for self-gratification, power, or other + craved "fruits" forbidden by Christian mythos. + + 5. Secondary Satanists: follow a faith outside the + Christian mainstream. While they might not think of + themselves as Satanic, and strictly speaking do not + fall under the definition of Satanists, outsiders + sometimes perceive them as such. Santeria is a good + example. + + 6. Lovecraftian Satanists: take their rituals + seriously, conjuring dark beasties to devour their + enemies or to destroy the ferocious neighbor's dog + which barks incessantly during the most critical + rituals. One of their favorite deities is Cthulhu, + lurker beneath the depths who is "dead but dreaming". + These Satanists take their Necronomicon seriously (I + don't think it's the Necronomicon available from Avon + Books). + +2. What is _The Satanic Bible_? + + _The Satanic Bible_ is a book describing the philosophy of Anton + LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan. This organization holds the + view that there is no higher god than oneself, and that one should + worship accordingly. Life is the Great Indulgence and Death is the + Great Abstinence, as there is no afterlife. The basic ideas of _The + Satanic Bible_ are laid out in the Nine Satanic Statements: + + 1. Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence! + + 2. Satan represents vital existence, instead of + spiritual pipe dreams! + + 3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom, instead of + hypocritical self-deceit! + + 4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, + instead of love wasted on ingrates! + + 5. Satan represents vengeance, instead of turning the + other cheek! + + 6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible, + instead of concern for psychic vampires! + + 7. Satan represents man as just another animal, + sometimes better than, more often worse than those that + walk on all fours, who, because of his "divine + spiritual and intellectual development," has become the + most vicious animal of all! + + 8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they + all lead to physical, mental, or emotional + gratification! + + 9. Satan has been the best friend the church has ever + had, as he has kept it in business all these years! + + _The Satanic Bible_ can be found (in America) in most chain bookstores + in the New Age, Philosophy, or Religion sections. + + The Church of Satan can be contacted at: + + Church of Satan + P.O. Box 210082 + San Francisco, CA 94121 + + $100 will get you a lifetime membership. Contrary to popular opinion, + the Church is not tax-exempt. It turned down tax-exemption (despite + being eligible) on the grounds that a church is a business and should + not receive preferential treatment. + +--- Squish v1.01 + * Origin: Casino & Micro Maniacs Combo (2:220/801.801) + +Ä ALT.SATANISM (2:222/352) ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ALT.SATANISM Ä + Msg : 28 of 29 + From : rtsumn01@ulkyvx.louisville.e2:220/801.801 Wed 25 Nov 92 19:24 + To : All Sun 29 Nov 92 11:42 + Subj : 02/alt.satanism FAQ version 2.11 +ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ +.UFGATE newsin 1.27 +.SPLIT: 25 Nov 92 19:35:50 @220/801 3 02/03 ++++++++++++++++++++ + Some people question whether the term "Satanism" is appropriate for + the Church's beliefs, due to its atheistic stance. Since the Church + has been in existence for over 20 years its definition is probably + here to stay, although it isn't the only definition. + +3. Are there other Satanic organizations? + + Yes. The best-known and longest-lasting is the Temple of Set, founded + by former Church of Satan member Michael Aquino. The Temple + encourages members to apply Setian philosophy to their soul or psyche + in the process of Xeper, which means "coming into being". The goal is + for the individual to achieve self-actualization and divinity. The + Temple operates in a more religious and supposedly more intellectual + atmosphere than the Church of Satan. + + The Temple of Set can be contacted at: + + Temple of Set + P.O. Box 470307 + San Francisco, CA 94147 + +4. Satan is a Christian God! + You aren't Satanists, just nasty atheists! + + Most (probably all) religions have gods or demons that represent the + principle of adversity: that which is forbidden by society. Satan is + one among these, originally conceived by the Hebrews long before the + birth of Jesus. The name first appears (in _The Bible_, at any rate) + in the book of Job. Satan was a fallen angel, not a god, in the + monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. + + "Satan" is understood by most Satanists in a context different than + that of Christian theology. Satan is a powerful archetype, to the + Euro-American Usenet majority at least, bringing to mind such things + as sexuality, power, individualism and control over one's destiny. + The Satanist can choose what s/he likes from the varied portrayals of + Satan, and may add principles of adversity from other cultures as + well. + +5. Aren't Satanists ritualistic baby murderers? + + Some misleading reports exist about Satanists: they are organized + into nationwide cults; they commit ritual murders on a grand scale; + they raise their children with psychological disorders; they kidnap + people for blood sacrifice; they organize day-care centers and abuse + the children placed in their care. A whole class of books exists + detailing the exploits of these Satanic groups. + + The problem with all these works is that they are fictional rather + than truthful accounts. Much is claimed based on scanty evidence that + would be better explained by another scenario. Claims of involvement + with Satanism are made by patients under hypnosis (hypnotized subjects + are notorious for their suggestibility and tendency to produce + fictions). Other "former Satanists" distort the truth in search of + attention and money. These sensationalists never go to the police + regarding the criminal activities they allegedly took part in, which + calls the veracity of their claims and the sincerity of their remorse + into question. + + Evidence does not exist to support what is said to occur. If the + number of murders said to be committed by Satanists was accurate, some + bodies should have been found by now. While means have been suggested + by which bodies could be concealed, it stretches the imagination to + believe that every body has been successfully hidden thus. Evidence + in other areas is similarly lacking. + + Individuals investigating suspected Satanic crimes misinterpret what + they find to fit their expectations. The _Necronomicon_, published by + Avon Books, is used as an authoritative guide to Satanic practices. + Yet few Satanists take the book seriously in any way, and none follow + it to the letter. This and other things lead some non-Satanists to + see what simply is not there. + + The observant reader may note that there have been a few crimes linked + to Satanism. In all cases the criminal(s) worked alone with no + connections to other groups. Some cases have been publicized by the + media as being related to Satanism when in fact they involve another + religion, as in the Matamoros case. + + The lesson to be learned is that although a book may appear in the + "Non-fiction" section of a bookstore, that doesn't make it so. + +6. Do Satanists have orgies? If so, where do I sign up? + + Hmmm...I trust that some do, but I have been unable to locate any as + of yet. + +7. What is Xian? COS? TOS? TSB? + Do you say "Xian" rather than "Christian" in order to insult + Christianity? + + Some users in this and other newsgroups find themselves discussing + Christianity frequently. In order to cut down on keystrokes they type + "Xian" and "Xianity" rather than the longer versions. A few users may + intend it partly as a slur, but most do it only for convenience. The + abbreviation itself is far from insulting; it is accepted and used by + many Christians including (I am told) the Pope. + + A few other abbreviations occur frequently in this newsgroup. They + are normally defined in a conversation, but here they are for your + convenience: + + COS = Church of Satan + TOS = Temple of Set + TSB = _The Satanic Bible_ + OT = Old Testament + NT = New Testament + +8. Have you considered the message of _The Bible_? + + Yes. Most Satanists, along with most other members of Western + cultures, are familiar with the teachings of Christianity and many + have read _The Bible_ or part of it. They simply consider _The Bible_ + to be false and disregard it much like Christians would disregard + books which represent the foundation of another religion. Attempting + to discuss Christianity will, in most cases, only get you flamed and + not inform the Satanist of "something they didn't know". If you are + still tempted to post about _The Bible_ because you feel that we may + have missed an important point, I suggest you seek out and read the + alt.atheism FAQ before proceeding. Many of its points are applicable + to alt.satanism. + +9. For the Christians among us: should you feel inclined to preach. + You are all going to hell. + Jesus saves! + + Quite often, members of fundamentalist Christian groups see fit to + post various evangelical messages in alt.satanism. The reason for + this is not clear. It has been suggested by various members of this + net, who I shall lump under the convenient category of "Satanist," + that the reason for this posturing is that many (perhaps most) + Born-Again Christian types are closet masochists. It has also been + suggested that Christians need to save a certain number of souls to + get a good seat in paradise, similar in spirit to selling candy-bars + or magazines to fund various extra-curricular activities in school. + Presumably Satanist souls, being sold to the devil already, are worth + more points. + While these theories have some merit, considering the teachings + of their (allegedly) chosen religion, an attempt should be made to be + open-minded enough to see their side of things. + Many Christians, when asked why they do this, respond something + to the effect that it is charity, something they do out of the + goodness of their hearts, out of concern for people etc. etc. Well, + if the Christian is really concerned with people, why not preach to + those who have not heard the message? Most "Satanists" are well + acquainted with the messages of Christianity. They have been preached + to ad infinitum, and are fed up with it. That is part of the reason + they are Satanists instead of plain old agnostics. Many Satanists are + angered by such posts, and justifiably so. + + Now consider this: + You will never convert a Satanist over USENET. You either + 1) are too infuriating; + 2) look like a fool. + + There is NO logical reason to convert to Christianity. The only + appeals are to the emotions, and as stated before they either look + foolish or infuriating. Things like, "But Jesus LOVES you; he died + for your sins!" or "Your soul is in danger!" are appeals to guilt and + fear respectively; not reason. As most Satanists have chosen this + path out of reason, these appeals will never work. As for those + Satanists who are so for emotional reasons, their minds are as closed + as that of the Born-again Christian. Perhaps, if indeed preaching is + done for humanitarian, and not egotistical or masochistic reasons, + your energies are better spent educating those who know little of your + faith: those born atheistic, communists, buddhists etc. If, as + suspected, your purposes are more egotistical (look reverend; I + converted a Satanist!) forget it. There are no "lost souls," waiting + to be found, in this community. + For the masochistically inclined, we suggest self-flagellation. + It costs less disk space, is probably more satisfying, and is + certainly less offensive to the general public. + + Otherwise; GROWL! BOOGA BOOGA! HASTUR ASTAROTH LEVIATHAN + ISHTAR!!!!!!!!! XILKA XILKA! BESA BESA! go away already... + +10. How can I get more information about Satanism? + + Recommended Reading: + + _The Satanic Bible_, by Anton Szander LaVey, Avon Books, 1969. + Presents the Satanic views and doctrines of the Church of Satan, + along with an introduction to its rituals. + + _The Compleat Witch_, by Anton LaVey, Lancer Books, 1971. + _The Satanic Rituals_, by Anton LaVey, University Books, 1972. + More books discussing LaVey's brand of Satanism. + + _The Secret Life of a Satanist_ by Barton Blanche, Mondo Press. + The authorized biography of Anton LaVey, and a basic guide to + Satanic philosophy. + + _The Second Coming_, by Arthur Lyons, 1970 [out of print] + A history of Satanism through the Middle Ages and the modern era. + + _Satan Wants You_, by Arthur Lyons, Mysterious Press (Warner), 1988. + Presents an overview of Satanism and the history of Satan, plus + an in-depth look at popular misconceptions. + + H. P. Lovecraft, collected works. + Classic horror fiction that has served as inspiration for many + Satanists. + + _The Black Arts_, by Richard Cavendish, Perigee Books (Putnam), 1967. + An objective introduction to magic, demonology, and classical + views of Satanism. + + _Black Magic in Theory and Practice_, by Michael Aquino. + + _The Necronomicon_ [by the Mad Arab], Avon Books, 1977. + Purported ritual book of great efficacy. Generally regarded as + fiction interspersed with translations of Mesopotamian texts. + Mileage may vary, depending on how seriously you take babble. + + _The Satan Seller_, Mike Warnke's imagination, Logos International, + 1972. + A Christian presents his alleged experiences in a Satanic cult + before his conversion to Christianity. + + _Cornerstone_, Volume 21, number 98, "Selling Satan," Jon Trott & Mike + Hertenstein, 1992. + This gets *highest* recommendation. From a Christian magazine + which does a great job of discrediting Mike Warnke's accounts + mentioned in _The Satan Seller_ and elsewhere + + _Satanism: The Seduction of America's Youth_, Bob Larson, Thomas + Nelson Publishers, 1989. + The facts on the *conspiracy* now coming to a lonely town near + you!!! (You're reading the FAQ, so it's already here!) + + _Paradise Lost_ by John Milton. + An epic poem telling the tale of Lucifer from when he is thrown + out of heaven, to the Fall of Adam and Eve. It makes Lucifer + into a heroic figure, whilst God is made out to be a little vague + and weak. + + _The Divine Comedy_ by Dante. + Another epic poem in three parts (Inferno, Purgatorio and + Paradisio) covering the author's pilgrimage through them. + + _The Prince of Darkness_ by Jeffrey Burton Russell, Cornell University + Press, 1988. + Historian's work on the history of Satan from earliest history + through the twentieth century. A summary of a four-book series + (The Devil, Satan, Lucifer, and Mephistopheles, by the same + author) which may be too much reading for casual interest. + + _The Old Enemy_ by Neil Forsyth, Princeton University Press, 1987. + Another history of Satan focusing on the Middle East and early + Christianity. + + _La-Bas (Down There)_ by J. K. Huysmans (1891?) translated by + Keene Wallace. + Fiction novel of the occult and the black mass in late + nineteenth century Paris. + + _ABRASAX #4_ A magazine published by the American Gnostic Church. + Issue #4 is dedicated to Satan & satanic matters generally. They + can be reached at: + + American Gnostic Church + PO BOX 1219 + Corpus Christi, TX, 78403-1219 + + (This is an old address--I have not checked yet.) + + _The Occult_ by Colin Wilson + An excellent objective introduction to the subject. + + _Cosmic Trigger_ by Robert A. Wilson + This book describes various initiations and occult phenomena + experienced by Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson has had a great influence + on 20th century occultism, and his books should be read by any + serious student of the occult. + + _Apocalypse Culture_ collected by Adam Parfey. + A shocking work, depicting the worldviews of various "fringe" + sects and individuals, ranging from necrophiliacs to ultra-right + wing Christians. + + _Snapping; America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change_ by Flo + Conway & Jim Siegelman. + An interesting work utilizing information theory in the study of + sudden personality change as occurs in religious cults, and the + "Born-Again" phenomenon. + + _Who Wrote the Bible?_, by Richard Elliott Friedman, Harper & Row, + 1987. + A biblical scholar attempts to answer the question of the title, + and in the process comes up with some interesting reasons for + events in _The Bible_ (why does Moses have horns? Why the scene + with the golden calf?). An interesting read, and possibly + amusing for the cynic. + + _The Dead Sea Scrolls_ + There are many good books on this subject for those who need to + debunk Christianity historically as well as philosophically. + Among them: + + _Dead Sea Scrolls & the Bible_ by Roland E. Murphy (a Roman + Catholic at that) 1968 + + _A Crack in the Jar; What ancient Jewish Documents tell + us about the New Testament_ by Niel Fujita (also a + Christian scholar) 1986 + + _The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth_ by John + Allegro (one of the original Dead Sea Scholars) 1984 + + Note than all of the above scholars are of the old school of + scroll study. While all do a good job of debunking Christianity, + the latest generation of scholarly works is even more damning. + + Following are a number of works recommended dealing with Satanism's + links with crime, multiple personality disorder, etc. + + _The Satanism Scare_, ed. James T. Richardson, Joel Best, and David G. + Bromley (NY: Aldine, 1991): 145-172. + + _Satan's Power: A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult_, by William Simms + Bainbridge, U of CA Press, 1978. + + _Battle for the Mind_, by William Sargent, Harper & Row, 1957. + + _In Pursuit Of Satan_, by Robert D. Hicks (Prometheus Books), + + _Satanism In America_, issued by the Committee for the Scientific + Examination of Religion. + + "Occult Crime: A Law Enforcement Primer" + [To obtain a copy of this report, write to + + California Office of Criminal Justice Planning + 1130 K Street, Suite 300 + Sacramento, CA 95814 + + (Phone: (916) 324-9100). Request the "Research Update, Special + Edition, Winter 1989-1990, Volume 1, Number 6" issue. No mention + is made of a donation, but it may be useful to inquire + beforehand.] + diff --git a/religious documents/faq_tos.txt b/religious documents/faq_tos.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d29618b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/faq_tos.txt @@ -0,0 +1,845 @@ +Newsgroups: alt.satanism,alt.magick,alt.pagan,alt.paranormal +From: jyouril@netcom.com (John Youril) +Subject: Temple of Set FAQ +Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 08:55:45 GMT + +-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + THE TEMPLE OF SET FAQ + +Last revision: July 27, 1994 +Next expected revision: August 27, 1994 + +This is an evolving document and should be considered obsoleted +after: December 1, 1994 + + +-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + + +This document is Copyright (c) 1994, Temple of Set. +All rights reserved. Permission to distribute the collection is +hereby granted providing that distribution is electronic, no money +is involved, reasonable attempts are made to use the latest version +and all credits and this copyright notice are maintained. +Other requests for distribution will be considered. + + +-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + + +Part 1 -- General Information and Admissions Policies + +File: InfoAdms + +TEMPLE OF SET +Post Office Box 470307 +San Francisco, CA 94147 +U.S.A. +MCI-Mail: 314-3953 +Internet: 3143953@mcimail.com +Telex: 6503143953 +* * * * * * * * * * * * + +GENERAL INFORMATION AND ADMISSIONS POLICIES +(c) 1986-1994CE Temple of Set +- Updated May 24, 1994 CE - + +The Temple of Set is an institution unlike any you have previously +encountered. Before you can make an informed decision concerning +possible affiliation, it is necessary for you to consider the history of +the Temple, its basic tenets, its current design and programs, and the +benefits and obligations incurred by each Setian. + +HISTORY OF THE TEMPLE + +While the Temple of Set as an organization was formally incorporated +in 1975 CE, its magical and philosophical roots are prehistoric, +originating in mankind's first apprehension that there is "something +different" about the human race - a sense of *self-consciousness* +that places humanity apart from and above all other known forms of +life. + +Ancient religions - of which those of Egypt are generally +acknowledged the eldest - either exalted or feared this self- +consciousness. Those which exalted it took the position that the +human psyche is capable of opposition to and domination of the +forces of nature. Those fearing it warned man that such a +presumption of independence would be sinful and dangerous. +Therefore, they said, such "will to power" should be concealed, +sublimated - and if necessary punished and exterminated - that +mankind might return to an Eden-like "state of nature" untroubled by +the burdens of having to take responsibility for decisions, +judgments, and actions based upon an essentially personal +determination of "good" and "evil". + +The psyche-worshipping religions were more intellectually demanding +than their nature-worshipping counterparts, since it is more +difficult to reason a path through one's span of conscious existence +than it is to be swept along by a current of semi-rational stimulus +and response. The reasoning religions - or schools of initiatory +philosophy - attained levels of abstract knowledge that made them +mysterious to the masses. In a few societies, such as Egypt and +Greece, such groups were respected and admired. More often, however, +their exclusive elitism and "supernatural" activities made them +objects of resentment and persecution. + +While all philosophical schools embraced the psychecentric +consciousness to some degree, there were a very few that made it +avowedly and explicitly the focus of their attention. The divine +personifications ("gods") of such schools have come down to us as +symbols of what most Western religions, worshippers of non- +consciousness, consider the supreme "evil": the Prince of Darkness +in his many forms. Of these the most ancient is Set, whose +Priesthood can be traced to predynastic times. Images of Set have +been dated to ca. 3200 BCE, with astronomically-based estimates of +inscriptions dating to ca. 5000 BCE. + +The original Priesthood of Set in ancient Egypt survived for twenty- +five recorded dynasties (ca. 3200-700 BCE). It was one of the two +central priesthoods in predynastic times, the other being that of +HarWer ("Horus the Elder"). Unification of Egypt under both +philosophical systems resulted in the nation's being known as the +"Two Kingdoms" and in its Pharaohs wearing the famous "Double Crown" +of Horus and Set. + +Originally a circumpolar/stellar deity portrayed as a cyclical +counterpart to the Solar Horus, Set was later recast as an evil +principle by the cults of Osiris and Isis. During the XIX and XX +Dynasties Set returned as the Pharaonic patron, but by the XXV +Dynasty (ca. 700 BCE) a new wave of Osirian persecution led to the +final destruction of the original Priesthood of Set. When the +Hebrews emigrated from Egypt during the XIX Dynasty, however, they +took with them a caricature of Set: "Satan" (from the hieroglyphic +_Set-hen_, one of the god's formal titles). + +Originally a sort of "prosecuting angel for YHVH", the Hebrew Satan +was changed by Christianity into a personification of everything God +was not - and since God was supposed to be "good", Satan was +necessarily "bad". Alluring or mysterious deities from religions +competing with early Christianity - such as the Hellenic/Roman +Mysteries and the Persian Mithraic faith - were also "bad", hence +the Christian Satan was decorated with many of their +characteristics, such as Pan's horns & cloven hoofs. Non-Christian +gods generally were redefined as Christian "demons" and given a +place in the Christian "Hell" (another name stolen and perverted +from ancient Norse mythology). + +Christian propaganda notwithstanding, there is no record of any +actual "Satanic religious underground" throughout the course of +Christian European history. The *myth* of such a "witch cult", +however, was promoted and actively used by the Christian churches to +terrorize their followers into docile obedience and to eliminate +those who could not be threatened. The number of accused "Satanists" +tortured and burned to death in medieval and Renaissance Europe will +never be known conclusively, but estimates run as high as 13 +million. Many European museums still display the grisly, almost +unbelievably cruel devices used in such torture, and detailed +records of the "trials" and "confessions" of the victims survive in +shameful abundance. + +Cases of torture, murder, and genocidal extermination of "infidels" +and "heathens" in other areas of the world similarly abound - and +stand collectively in testimony to the appalling legacy of the +world's major monotheistic religions. It must further be remembered +that the more "tolerant" climate of modern times did not come about +through the wishes of conventional churches themselves, but rather +through their increasing rejection by a mankind exhausted by +religious warfare and terrified by the wanton viciousness of such +establishments as the "Holy Office" (better known as the +Inquisition). + +If the "Enlightenment" of the 17th and 18th centuries succeeded in +reducing Christianity - the dominant monotheism of Europe - to a +secular moral metaphor, it was not until the late 19th century that +the so-called "Black Arts" began to be tolerated, and then only in +their most simplistic and socially innocuous forms. From Freemasonry +came a ceremonial magical offshoot - Rosicrucianism - which became +increasingly more sophisticated in the Rosicrucian Society of +England (S.R.I.A.) and then in the famous Hermetic Order of the +Golden Dawn (G.'.D.'.). + +In 1904 an Adept of the G.'.D.'. named Aleister Crowley broke away +from that disintegrating body to form his own Order of the Astrum +Argenteum (A.'.A.'.). To the Rosicrucian/ceremonial magical +philosophy of the G.'.D.'., Crowley added first a strong emphasis on +attainment of the highest level of self-consciousness ("Knowledge +and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel") and later the +Masonic/sexual magic practices of Germany's Order of Oriental +Templars (O.T.O.). The latter practices, together with Crowley's +cavalier lifestyle, brought him public notoriety. His organizations +survived his 1947 death only in highly-fragmented and doctrinarily +simplistic factions. + +In 1966 a San Francisco sorcerer named Anton Szandor LaVey founded +the Church of Satan as a medium for the study of the Black Arts and +as an ethical statement repudiating the religious hypocrisy of +conventional society. This event marks the creation of Satanism as a +religion in its own right. Publicly its "Satan" was not the evil +scarecrow of Christian myth, but rather a champion of anti-hypocrisy +- a crusader against the corruption and moral bankruptcy of society, +which LaVey blamed largely upon Christianity. In another, more +private context, the Satan of the Church of Satan was understood to +be an authentic metaphysical presence: a being not evil, but rather +independent, assertive, and creative - a true Prince of Darkness +after the imagery of Milton, Blake, Baudelaire, and Twain. + +The Church remained principally a San Francisco phenomenon for its +first four years, then during 1970-1974 branched out across the +United States and Canada with local "Grottos" headed by those +ordained to the Satanic Priesthood (the Priesthood of Mendes - named +after a city in Ptolemaic Egypt whose hedonistic festivals +particularly horrified the early Christian church). + +The Church of Satan's attitude towards magic was more pragmatic and +utilitarian than that of such mystically-based organizations as the +G.'.D.'. and A.'.A.'. It saw no need for exhaustive studies into the +often incoherent and inconsistent concepts of the Cabala, nor did it +see anything extraordinarily significant in sex-magic. Rather it +chose to approach the occult arts and sciences more rationally and +even scientifically, employing "Occam's razor" to design and conduct +Workings of ritual magic that were simple and direct, yet effective. + +In this the Church was generally successful, but it continued to +experience increasing difficulty with the basic nihilism and +negative connotations of its religious imagery. It could not escape +the self-assumed limitation of being "anti-Christian" in a society +in which Christianity - and its "evil scarecrow" concept of Satan - +were overwhelmingly predominant. Simultaneously the Church began to +feel constrained by even its own redefinition of Satanism, as the +parameters of philosophy and metaphysics extend far beyond the +conceptual and symbolic limits of the Judaic/Christian tradition. + +The Satanic religion proposes to raise the individual to personal +godhood, free from enslavement to any other "God" [or gods]. +Unfortunately this is a question not just of power, but also of +ethics, morality, and psychological maturity. The Church of Satan's +initial prescriptions - as outlined in LaVey's 1969 book _The +Satanic Bible_ - were used by some as a basis for metaphysical +growth, but by others as merely an excuse for egoistic +irresponsibility. The Church suffered periodically from petty crises +and scandals among the general membership, and finally Anton LaVey +lost confidence in its organizational viability. In 1975 he made a +decision to redesign it as a non-functional vehicle for his personal +expression, exploitation, and financial income. + +This decision was emphatically rejected by the majority of the +Priesthood, who immediately resigned from the Church in protest and +denied its legitimacy as a true Church of Satan henceforth. The +senior Initiate, Michael A. Aquino, invoked the Prince of Darkness +in quest of a new Mandate to preserve and enhance the more noble +concepts which the Church of Satan had conceived and outlined. That +Mandate was given in the form of _The Book of Coming Forth by Night_ +- a statement by that entity, in his most ancient semblance as Set, +ordaining the Temple of Set to succeed the Church. The Temple was +incorporated in California as a non-profit church in 1975, receiving +both state and federal recognition and tax-exemption later that same +year. It has since remained the sole "Satanic" religious institution +possessing these legal credentials. + +THE CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENT + +In the United States the 1960-70s CE, despite [and in part because +of] periodical psychopolitical strains such as the Vietnam War, +generally represented a period of flourishing liberalism and freedom +in personal affairs. Exploration and innovation were tolerated and +encouraged in society. It was a time of breakthroughs in civil +rights; of increased respect for racial, ethnic, sexual, and +religious groups. There was controversy; but on the whole it was +constructive and progressive in tone. By the end of the 1970s, +despite continued growing pains, Western culture appeared to have +moved decisively into the utopian "Age of Aquarius". + +The 1980s, however, heralded a sharp and surprising reversal of this +climate into conservatism and intolerance. The most primitive, +fundamentalist branches of Christianity gained converts and sought +political power. And controversial minority groups were assaulted +with fresh waves of discrimination and repression. + +Nowhere did this "new Inquisition" strike more directly than at "New +Age" religions in general and at Satanism in particular. Invoking +the same despicable tactics that their predecessors used over the +centuries against alternative creeds, fundamentalists now began to +disseminate hate-propaganda accusing "Satanism" of the most hideous +crimes imaginable: human & animal sacrifice, cannibalism, the +kidnapping/sexual abuse/murder of children. That none of this was in +the least true mattered not at all to the accusers. If the Big Lie +could be repeated loudly & often enough, it would catch hold. +Suddenly it became dangerous to be an avowed Satanist in communities +infected with anti-Satanic hysteria. The witch-hunt eventually +spread to several other countries as well, among them the United +Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Germany. + +Why should the same post-World War II generation that had grown up +in the open atmosphere of the 60s-70s tolerate, even encourage a +relapse into the brutish hatreds and persecutions of the Middle +Ages? Perhaps for the very reason that it was a generation +unprepared for what might be termed humanity's "religious impulse". +During the 60s-70s religion was generally dismissed as something +quaint and obsolete: superstition embarrassing to an age of science, +computers, and Project Apollo. "God was dead", and Christianity was +invoked merely as an excuse for Christmas revelry and other +entertainments (such as _Jesus Christ Superstar_ & the "Jesus Freak +revolution" of 1970). Even the formation of the Church of Satan in +1966 was somewhat anti-climactic: It didn't arise in response to a +"threatening" Christianity - for Christianity already appeared to be +a dead horse. The carcass was there to be kicked around a bit for +the sake of theatre, but there was no expectation that it had any +energy left to get up and kick back. + +The "religious impulse" proved to be important to both Satanists and +non-Satanists. In the case of Satanists it brought about an +increasing interest in exploring the "human equation" and the +metaphysical and psychological roots of the great Satanic/psyche- +centered philosophies of history. Even had Anton LaVey not provoked +the crisis of 1975, it is clear that the evolution of Church of +Satan into something like the Temple of Set - a completely non- +Christianized, positive "high Satanism" - would have proceeded +inexorably. + +Non-Satanists, meanwhile, found themselves adrift in a society whose +Judaeo/Christian moral values had disintegrated into materialistic +hypocrisy. In such an "arid wilderness of steel and stone", there +arose a longing for "something/anything spiritual" - and the +remnants of Christianity were there to offer the appropriate opium +after various "New Age" fantasies had been tried and found to be +wanting. + +In the 1980s, however, there was a difference in Christian +evangelism. The new herd of converts had *not* received a gradual +education enabling it to see Christianity in at least some +historical context. Rather it perceived Christianity as a completely +novel experience - and so it was far more vulnerable to Christian +propaganda than the previous, more worldly generation had been. The +result was an eruption in the 1980s of a fundamentalism as mindless +and brutish as that of the Middle Ages. Now, as before, it needed a +scarecrow - and "Satanism" was a word with an appropriately scary +sound. Christian fanatics who knew [and cared] nothing whatever +about *actual* Satanism suddenly embarked upon passionate [and +financially profitable] campaigns brandishing the scarecrow before +credulous followers. + +Complicating the situation was the perennial impulse among alienated +youth and antisocial elements to deliberately shock society by +flaunting its bogymen. If prudish elements of the community were +going to terrify themselves with "scarecrow Satanism", then Heavy +Metal rock music would affect this same image, as would the +occasional psychotic criminal and teenage gang. Fundamentalists +happily showcased such aberrations as "proof" of the scarecrow's +existence. + +The Temple of Set, now the world's preeminent Satanic religious +institution, found itself in the awkward position of having not only +to defend authentic Satanism against the shrill screams of the +scarecrow-merchants, but also to reject superficial glorification of +the scarecrow that would return Satanism's image to nothing more +than anti-Christian "Devil worship". Both challenges have been +addressed, but not without the cost of time and energy drained from +the Temple's own magical and philosophical interests. + +As we enter the 1990s CE the initial danger has been largely +averted. We have been able to establish the truth about Satanism +sufficiently to expose the falsehoods of the scarecrow-merchants in +all but the most ignorant backwaters of society. That same society, +however, continues to flail about for the moral anchor that the +large mass-religions claim to offer. Christianity's strength lies +today, as throughout its history, in the *absence* of intellectual +education and mental effort which it demands of its sheep. It has +also become quite accomplished at exploiting humanity's fear of +death, sexual neuroses, and other irrational hatreds and +insecurities. + +This is therefore a time of critical importance for the Temple of +Set. Our philosophy has never been more sophisticated, yet we pursue +it in the midst of a confused, superficial, and paranoid social +environment. It is not the task of the Temple of Set to be a "savior +of the masses" - but rather to help suitable individuals to +apprehend and attain their own divinity. The wisdom with which our +Initiates exercise this divinity may well determine whether humanity +advances to the stars - or succumbs to the entropy of the universe +as one more inconsequential curiosity of nature. + +THE SETIAN PHILOSOPHY + +Since movements dedicated to the Prince of Darkness have been so +ill-tolerated by the masses of humanity wherever and whenever they +have appeared, why have they survived at all? Why do they continue +to exercise such uncanny attraction, and why now should you consider +approaching this particular one? + +The appeal of occultism is much the same as that of conventional +religion: Logical positivism and scientific materialism, though they +have made great strides towards explaining the "how" of existence, +have failed entirely to explain the "why". Hence the curious seek +answers in metaphysical philosophy or religion. Metaphysical +philosophy requires a logical base from which various suprarational +principles are induced. Conventional religion is the simplification +of such a philosophy into a crude ideology, which adherents need not +understand, but only accept as an act of blind faith. + +Conventional religions, with their colorful mythologies analyzed in +terms of the underlying philosophical principles, represent simply +the primitive longing of man to feel "at one" with the Universal +harmony he perceives about him. "White" magic, as advocated by +primitive pagan and modern institutional religions, offers devotees +the illusion of "re-inclusion" in the Universal scheme of things +through various ritualistic devotions and superstitions. + +The Black Magician, on the other hand, rejects both the desirability +of union with the Universe and any self-deceptive antics designed to +create such an illusion. He has considered the existence of the +individual psyche - the "core you" of your conscious intelligence - +and has taken satisfaction from its existence as something unlike +anything else in the Universe. The Black Magician desires this +psyche to live, to experience, and to continue. He does not wish to +die - or to lose his consciousness and identity in a larger, +Universal consciousness [assuming that such exists]. He wants to be. +This decision in favor of individual existence is the first premise +of the Temple of Set. + +The second premise of the Temple is that the psychecentric +consciousness can evolve towards its own divinity through deliberate +exercise of the intelligence and Will, a process of *becoming* or +*coming into being* whose roots may be found in the dialectic method +expounded by Plato and the conscious exaltation of the Will proposed +by Nietzsche. + +Ironically it is the very ease with which any individual can +apprehend and appreciate his or her personal psyche that has +frightened the many religions of the world which deny and oppose the +power of that psyche. Clothed though they may be in riches, ritual, +and respectability, they always have been and remain obsessed with +the suppressed knowledge of their own essential falsehood. They +endeavor to distract attention from this by sponsoring shows of +mind-numbing drugs, mantras, masses, privations, entertainments, and +penances to coax or cow their flocks of adherents into a confused, +apprehensive, but trusting state of faith and automatic obedience. +They shudder with horror at the psyche; they paint it red and add +horns, cloven hooves, and a forked tail to dramatize how "dangerous" +it is. Yet they can never escape it or defeat it, because they have +never really succeeded in opposing themselves to it - merely in +distorting and perverting it. How could they destroy something +which, in the final analysis, is the conscious self of every human +being? + +The "worship" of Set is thus the "worship" of individualism. In the +Church of Satan this was taken to mean *indulgence* in all [legal] +desires of the body and ego. Since many such desires are impulsive +and destructive, the Church found itself in the awkward position of +_de facto_ endorsing many practices which were degrading rather than +exalting, and which simply accelerated the tensions resulting in the +eventual crisis of 1975. + +The Temple of Set determined to preserve the principle of +individualism, but to add to it the evolutionary "higher self" +aspirations of Aleister Crowley's pre-O.T.O. philosophy of +_Thelema_. Glorification of the ego is not enough; it is the +complete psyche - the entire self or soul - which must be +recognized, appreciated, and actualized. The process by which this +exaltation of the psyche is sought is called by the name _Xeper_ +[pronounced "Kheffer"; it is the Egyptian hieroglyphic term for "to +become" or "to come into being"]. + +The means by which Setians seek to _Xeper_ are many. As a matter of +principle the Temple declines to standardize its approach to +Initiates. Each may pursue topics of greatest personal interest with +whatever emphasis and at whatever rate desired. The Temple seeks +merely to be a forum for Setians to communicate and cooperate with +one another constructively and courteously. Many ideas and +philosophies are discussed within it, but such discussion does not +constitute the dictation of dogma. + +Indeed dogma - to include fixed ideology in any form - is repugnant +to the Temple. We strive rather towards an atmosphere of "best +possible premises", which are always subject to constructive, +intelligent examination and criticism. That same atmosphere is +Socratic, however, in that foolish, pretentious, or destructive +egotism under the guise of exploration is neither respected nor +endured. + +While it is obvious that Setians have more than enough interests to +occupy an organization with many times our membership and resources +on a full-time basis, the Temple of Set is not intended to consume +the energies or lifestyles of its Initiates. Since a truly Adept +magician must interact constructively and comfortably with +conventional society, encouragement of monastic isolation within +Temple circles would be counterproductive to personal development +and even constrictive of the flexibility necessary to the entire +Temple. Setians are accordingly advised to pursue as wide a variety +of secular interests as possible, and to let Setian philosophy apply +to them only as appropriate. + +STRUCTURE AND OPERATION + +The deliberately individualistic atmosphere of the Temple of Set is +not easily conducive to group activities on a routine or programmed +basis. There are no congregations of docile "followers" - only +cooperative philosophers and magicians. + +Executive authority in the Temple is held by the Council of Nine, +which appoints both the High Priest of Set and the Executive +Director. Initiates are Recognized according to six degrees: Setian +I*, Adept II*, Priest or Priestess of Set III*, Magister/Magistra +Templi IV*, Magus/Maga V*, & Ipsissimus/Ipsissima VI*. + +Recognition as an Adept II* constitutes certification by the Temple +that one has in fact mastered and successfully applied the essential +principles of Black Magic. The bulk of Temple systems are geared to +attainment of and subsequent support for the II*, and that is the +level of affiliation which most Setians will maintain. It is +understood that this is an organizational principle, as each Adept's +magical and philosophical evolution will continue as he or she +continues to energize and actualize it. + +The III*-VI* are properly seen not as further benchmarks of +individual attainment, but as specialized religious offices +conferred by Set alone, and Recognized within the Temple according +to his Will. + +The design, care, and operation of the Temple are entrusted by Set +to the Priesthood. All Initiates of the Priesthood are originally +highly-qualified Adepts in the Black Arts. Most of your contact with +them will be in this context. Because they are responsible for the +integrity of the Temple as a whole, however, they have the authority +both to evaluate and Recognize Initiates' competence and, if +necessary, to suspend or expel individuals who have proven +themselves incapable of maintaining Setian standards of dignity and +excellence. The Priesthood takes all of these responsibilities +extremely seriously, since it regards its name literally and its +trust as sacred. In this respect it stands significantly apart from +conventional religious clergy, who _de facto_ consider their +"priesthoods" as social professions and their deities as mere +symbols and metaphors for their institutional or personal +exploitation. + +The knowledge of the Temple of Set is made available through four +principal avenues: an extensive reading list of published works in +twenty-four specialized fields; the newsletter _Scroll of Set_, the +publications of the Temple's various specialized Orders; and the +series of encyclopaedias entitled the _Jeweled Tablets of Set_. The +contents of the _Scroll_ and the Order periodicals are time-dated, +of course, but those of the _Tablets_ change periodically as ideas +are advanced, improved, or disproved; or as they become more or less +relevant to the Temple's areas of concern. The _Scroll_, Order +newsletters, and _Tablets_ are reproduced simply and inexpensively +[similar to this letter] to preclude excessive membership +expenditure for frequently-revised publications. + +Because of the non-group-oriented design of the Temple, many +Initiates are geographically distant from one another. This +necessitates an organizational design geared more towards services +to the individual than to localized "congregations". Recognizing the +value - and fellowship - of a seminar environment, however, the +Temple provides for "Pylons" (named after the unique gates of +ancient Egyptian temples). Pylons are often geographically +localized, but some are "correspondence" Pylons with global +membership and interaction. While each Pylon is under the trust and +responsibility of a II*+ Sentinel, they are emphatically not +"leader/follower congregations", but rather cooperative and +interactive forums for individual Initiates. Each new Setian is +expected to affiliate with at least one Pylon within a year of +admission to the Temple and Recognition to the II* will normally be +recommended and/or formalized by that Pylon. + +Individuals admitted to the Temple are provided with a personal copy +of the _Crystal Tablet of Set_, which contains a wide range of +organizational, philosophical, and magical information pertinent to +qualification as an Adept. There is a two-year time-limit for each +new Setian to qualify for Adept Recognition. If such Recognition is +not received by that time, affiliation is cancelled. + +The Orders of the Temple are entirely different in concept and +operation from its Pylons. Each Order specializes in one or more +particular fields of the magical arts and sciences. Such a +specialization may be transcultural or oriented to a specific +geographic area, time-period, or conceptual tradition. Within one +year after II* Recognition, each Adept is expected to affiliate with +an Order reflective of his or her personal interests and aptitudes. +The collective knowledge of all of the Orders is available to the +Temple membership generally. + +Setians may also communicate with one another by means of a +regularly-updated InterCommunication Roster, contained in the +_Crystal Tablet_, and periodic Conclaves are scheduled on a +regional, national, and international basis. + +A recent addition to the Temple's structure is Glinda, a computer +database and bulletin-board system accessible by Setians only. +Besides offering a means for electronic mail and conferencing, +Glinda serves as a repository for a constantly growing library of +Temple documents which Setians can download at their convenience. + +Personal affiliation with the Temple is kept confidential; your +admission is known only to the Priesthood. If you desire to meet +other Setians, you may do so under a magical name if desired. In +summary, you may apply the services and systems of the Temple as you +wish, and as you deem most complementary to your _Xeper_; otherwise +they will not intrude upon you. + +AN IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION + +Regretfully there still exist some individuals whose idea of +"Satanism" is largely a simple-minded synthesis of Christian +propaganda and Hollywood horror movies. The Temple of Set enjoys the +colorful legacy of the Black Arts, and we use many forms of +historical Satanic imagery for our artistic stimulation and +pleasure. But we have not found that any interest or activity which +an enlightened, mature intellect would regard as undignified, +sadistic, criminal, or depraved is desirable, much less essential to +our work. + +The Temple of Set is an evolutionary product of human experience. +Such experience includes the magical and philosophical work of many +occult individuals and organizations which have preceded us. Some of +these were socially acceptable by contemporary or modern standards; +others were not. Some made brilliant discoveries in one field of +interest while blighting their reputations with shocking excesses or +tragic failures in others. In examining the secret and suppressed +corners of history for valuable and useful material, the Temple +insists upon ethical presentation and use of such discoveries as it +makes. Setians who are in any doubt as to the ethics involved in any +of the fields which we explore should seek counsel from the +Priesthood. All Setians are further expected to display a high +measure of maturity and common sense in this area. + +The Black Arts are *dangerous* in the same way that working with +volatile chemicals is dangerous. This is most emphatically *not* a +field for unstable, immature, or otherwise emotionally or +intellectually weak-minded people. Such are a hazard to themselves +and to others with whom they come into contact. The Temple endeavors +to not admit them to begin with. If such an individual should gain +admittance and later be exposed, he will be summarily expelled. In +cases of doubt the Temple may be expected to place the burden of +proof on the individual, for the sake of all Setians and the +Temple's integrity. + +The Temple of Set evaluates conventional religions as erroneous in +principle and therefore unworthy of peer status. We feel no need to +concern ourselves with their activities, or for that matter to +maintain any sort of "diplomatic relations" with them [as in +councils of churches]. Our position is that they may serve a useful +social function as purveyors of soothing myths and fantasies to +humans unable to attain Setian levels of self-consciousness. Hence +we ignore conventional religious organizations unless they intrude +upon our affairs. + +These warnings are not intended to be oppressive or intimidating, +but they should be taken seriously. The Temple is a forum for the +investigation of many subjects which conventional society finds odd, +mysterious, and even extremely frightening. The Temple will be +tolerated only to the extent that it is known to be pursuing its +interests carefully, expertly, and responsibly. It occupies a +delicate position in a world which is largely unhappy with itself, +and which is ceaselessly searching for scapegoats. Hence the Temple +must take care to maintain its social balance with prudence and +dignity. + +AFFILIATION + +The Church of Satan learned that there were many people who wished +to "visit", to "study", and to "observe" without the least intention +of a personal commitment. For many years the Church endeavored to +accommodate such dilettantes on the assumption that, upon exposure +to its philosophy, they would appreciate its essential requirement +for such a commitment. Once being in the position to enjoy the +"accessories" of the philosophy without having to confront its core +principle, however, such persons continued to vampirize the Church +indefinitely. They contributed as little as they could, took as much +as they could, and ultimately constituted the single most +destructive influence leading to the Church's disintegration in +1975. + +The Temple of Set has determined that it will not make the same +mistake. Its activities, publications, knowledge, and services are +reserved for those who affiliate with it, or on an individual-case +basis, for non-Setians who request assistance from the Temple that +we deem to be in our interests or in the interests of the community +as a whole. The First Degree (I*) of Temple affiliation is regarded +as a "status of mutual evaluation" wherein the Initiate and the +Temple can assess one another's merit from the standpoint of minimum +investment and involvement. If a I* Initiate should decide that the +Temple is not, after all, appropriate to his wants or needs, he is +welcome to depart with our good wishes for satisfaction elsewhere. + +Aspirants to the Temple should understand that it is not a club or +fraternal society whose principles may be collected along with those +of other social affiliations, occult or otherwise. Membership in the +Temple of Set beyond the I* precludes membership in any other +religious organization. + +Members or former members of non-religious occult organizations +should understand that within the Temple of Set they will be +expected to respect and observe the Temple's protocol, and that +literature and other information from the Temple is not to be passed +to non-Temple individuals or organizations without prior approval of +the Priesthood. If the Temple of Set can assist other deserving +organizations or individuals on occasion, it will be pleased to do +so. But it must exercise reasonable care over the Temple materials +that are made available - both so that our own Initiates may enjoy +the fruits of their honest labor [and that of their predecessors] +and so that the Temple of Set may continue to enjoy its exclusive +reputation for excellence in the disciplines it has pioneered. + +Should you have questions which are reasonably pertinent to your +serious consideration whether or not to apply for admission to the +Temple, you are welcome to address them to the Executive Director of +the Temple. If you wish to apply for admission as a Setian I*, there +are two avenues of approach available to you: + +(1) If you are already in contact with a Priest or Priestess of Set, +you may request him or her to sponsor your application. In that case +you may send a letter to the Executive Director mentioning this +sponsorship. With your letter enclose a check or money order for +US$60 (US$70 for overseas applicants), payable to Temple of Set. +[Please note that this amount must be in U.S. dollars, either drawn +on a U.S. bank or as an international money order only.] If +Priesthood sponsorship is verified, approval of your application +will be automatic. + +*Important note*: If you are admitted, and if you are an overseas +resident, your admission packet will be sent to you by surface mail. +Depending upon the destination, this can take as long as two months. +If you wish the packet sent via air mail, your application check +should be for the amount of US$100 to cover the extra air mail +postage. + +(2) If you are not known to a member of the Priesthood, write a +letter to the Executive Director introducing yourself, summarizing +whatever aspects of your background you feel to be relevant, and +stating your reasons for deciding to seek entrance into the Temple. +Enclose the admission fee. The Temple will make a decision and +respond to you accordingly. If necessary you will be asked for +additional information. Should your application not be approved for +any reason, the fee will be refunded. Persons applying for admission +via this procedure should be as objective and candid as possible in +their self-assessment. There is no point in misleading the Temple +concerning one's suitability for admission, which will only result +sooner or later in the truth coming to light - with the consequent +waste of both the individual's and the Temple's time. If there are +crucial areas of possible incompatibility, it is incumbent on the +applicant to identify them before affiliation so that they may be +addressed and, if possible, resolved. + +Whichever method you apply through, please be certain to include: + +(1) Your full legal name [no pseudonyms] and sex. +(2) Your complete mailing address. +(3) Daytime and evening telephone numbers. +(4) Date of birth. +(5) Present organizational affiliations. + +Annual renewal fee for all Initiates is US$50 (US$55 overseas). [The +first year is pro-rated from the month of your entry.] These fees +are designed, as is the admissions fee, to cover the cost of +mailings to you and the administration of the Temple. As a matter of +policy the Temple is not designed to make a profit on its +operations, and its assets are used exclusively for benefits to its +Initiates as a whole. There are no other regular or recurring fees, +save that Orders and Pylons may set reasonable charges for their +newsletters or other time/effort services. Special publications of +the Temple and events scheduled by the Temple are customarily made +available on a non-profit basis to Initiates who are interested. + +The only physical requirement for admission is that the aspirant be +at least 18 years of age. Those below the age of 18 may not visit +Temple functions, ceremonial or otherwise, whether or not they are +relatives of Initiates. The Temple has no programs for children. It +is our position that children and adolescents should not be +indoctrinated into the assumptions and prescriptions of *any* +suprarational system, whether it be our own philosophy or the faiths +and superstitions of conventional religions. Rather their youthful +years should be a time of *exclusively rational* training and +education, giving them a sound and meaningful basis by which, as +adults, they may consider and choose whatever philosophy or faith +seems most meaningful to them. + +If your application is approved, you will receive notification from +the Executive Director's office, together with membership +identification, certificate, copy of the _Crystal Tablet of Set_ +[including the current reading list & intercommunication roster, +most recent issues of the _Scroll of Set_ and Order publications [as +determined by the Order Grand Masters], and Setian I* pendant +medallion. + +Then the initiative is yours. The Temple of Set is designed to +assist you in the ways we have found to be the most practical, +productive, and factually accurate. But, as helpful as the Temple +may be, and as proud of it as we are, it is nevertheless properly +understood as a *tool*. *You* are the one who must put that tool to +use in a way that will enable you to _Xeper_. + +Such is the Word of the AEon of Set. + + + +-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + +Part 2 -- Electronic Resources + +The XEPERA-L mailing list is for serious discussion of Setian Philosophy, and +is available to both members and non-members of the Temple of Set. + +Subscription: + To: listserv@astaroth.sacbbx.com + text: Subscribe Xepera + Reference: mailto://jyouril@astaroth.sacbbx.com (John Youril) + FAQ: mailto://xepera.txt@astaroth.sacbbx.com + Digests: ftp://netcom.com/pub/jyouril/tos/xepera/ + +Discussions of Setianism also take place on alt.satanism + +-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + +Over the years, a number of files pertaining to the Temple of Set were +made available. These were generally intended for limited distribution, +but over time were archived on various InterNet and FTN sites along with +material *about* the Temple of Set which did not originate *from* the +Temple of Set. Many of these files contain dated information; the +accuracy and authenticity of others is doubtful. In future revisions +of this document, comments about these files will be added. + +Some sources for these files are: + + ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/jyouril/tos + Reference: mailto://jyouril@astaroth.sacbbx.com (John Youril) + + ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/religion/satanism + + ftp://etext.archive.umich.edu/pub/Quartz/occult/set + Reference: mailto://ftp@etext.archive.umich.edu (Paul Southworth) + + ftp://nic.funet.fi + +-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + +Some Temple of Set documents are often made available to serious +researchers and other interested parties. Such inquiries should be +directed to 2784041@mcimail.com (Dr. Michael A. Aquino). + +-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + +Current and future editions of this document can be retrieved +via FTP and e-mail: + + ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/jyouril/tos/tos.faq + mailto://tos.faq@astaroth.sacbbx.com + +-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + +For further information about the Temple of Set: + mailto://3143953@mcimail.com (Temple of Set) + +-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + +For submissions/comments/corrections to this document: + mailto://jyouril@netcom.com (John Youril) + +-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + +Contributors: + Infoadms -- Dr. Michael A. Aquino + Resources/Compilation -- John A. Youril + +-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + /end of file + + diff --git a/religious documents/faqsatan.txt b/religious documents/faqsatan.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2bbb34 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/faqsatan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,363 @@ + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ WHAT IS SATANISM? ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ + 1. FAQ Usenet Alt.SATANISM +ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ + +1. What is Satanism? + + At first glance this may look like a simple question to answer: "Go + look it up in the dictionary." would seem to be straightforward + enough. In fact, I'll do it for you: + + Satanism, n. 1. the worship of Satan or the powers of + evil. 2. a travesty of Christian rites in which Satan + is worshipped. 3. diabolical or satanic disposition, + behavior, or actions. + + [from _Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English + Language_, (c) 1989] + + Unfortunately it's not that easy. There is no one set of beliefs that + comprise Satanism. Because there is no set of doctrines or scriptures + agreed upon by a majority of Satanists, would-be practitioners must + define their beliefs for themselves, based upon a minimum of shared + information. The issue is further confused by the fact that, + historically, most records of real or imagined Satanism have been made + by Satanists' traditional enemies, Christians. However a few + generalizations can be made: the average Satanist disagrees with much + of Christianity, believes in no absolute moral code, and places + emphasis on the individual and personal rights. If you think this + sounds like Libertarianism, you're right; many Satanists consider + themselves Libertarians or feel close to the party on social issues. + + There are several divisions one could make as to the belief systems of + various "Satanic" groups. This (arbitrary) division is made more to + outline some belief systems than to categorize groups. Most defy + categorization. The Process Church, for example, is surely a gnostic + group, but neither of the two listed fit the Process very well. + + 1. The Dabblers: adopt Satanic trappings for a brief + period of time, usually for entertainment rather than + serious purposes. Many modern youths fall into this category. + + 2. Churches of Satan: are patterned after the teachings of + Anton LaVey. These groups believe in individualism, gratification + of the ego, self-reliance and the ideal of the Neitzchean Superman. + These groups use Magick as a tool for earthly power. They see + Satan as the driving force behind achievment in mankind. + The two main organizations in this category are Anton LaVey's + Church of Satan and Michael Aquino's Temple of Set. The two groups + differ philosophically and organizationally. + + 3. Gnostics: can be divided into two major categories + 3a. Promethian Gnostics: Believe in a literal "Satan", but believe + that the creator of the world (Jehovah) is the evil deity. Satan is + seen as the "bringer of light"; a beneficient god. This is an old + "heresy" seen in groups such as the Yezidis. + 3b. Dark Gnostics: Worship the dark force in nature. These groups + follow the whims of a capricious god, which most westerners would + see as being "evil." There are a few historical christian heresies + which would fall into this category. Kali worshippers could also + be categorized here. + + 4. Secondary Satanists: follow a faith outside the Christian + mainstream. Most would not consider themselves as being "Satanic" + and strictly speaking should not be defined as satanists (as per se + with some of the Gnostic groups), but the ignorant often categorize + them as Satanists. Voodoun and Santiera could be grouped here, as + could medeaval wicca (if it actually existed). + + 5. Hellfire Clubs: Were a phenomenon of the 18th century. The + first of these was founded by the Duke of Wharton in the early + 1700's. Most infamous was sir Francis Dashwood's Medmenham club + (Often incorrectly called the hellfire club). Dashwood was a + close freind of Benjamin Franklin, who may have been a member of + this group. Franklin's description of the Medmeham club's + secret chambers is one of the few we have, so his membership seems + likely. In any case, Dashwood and Franklin co-authored the + "Franklin Prayer Book" (often called the Book of Common Prayer) which is + commonly used in america. Another famous member of the + Medmanham club was the Earl of Sandwich, inventor of (guess + what) the Sandwich. Hellfire clubs were exclusive groups + dedicated to much political intrigue, partying, and some + occasional occult activities. + + + + have read _The Bible_ or part of it. They simply consider _The Bible_ + to be false and disregard it much like Christians would disregard + books which represent the foundation of another religion. Attempting + to discuss Christianity will, in most cases, only get you flamed and + not inform the Satanist of "something they didn't know". If you are + still tempted to post about _The Bible_ because you feel that we may + have missed an important point, I suggest you seek out and read the + alt.atheism FAQ before proceeding. Many of its points are applicable + to alt.satanism. + + 9. For the Christians among us: should you feel inclined to preach. + You are all going to hell. + Jesus saves! + + Quite often, members of fundamentalist Christian groups see fit to + post various evangelical messages in alt.satanism. The reason for + this is not clear. It has been suggested by various members of this + net, who I shall lump under the convenient category of "Satanist," + that the reason for this posturing is that many (perhaps most) + Born-Again Christian types are closet masochists. It has also been + suggested that Christians need to save a certain number of souls to + get a good seat in paradise, similar in spirit to selling candy-bars + or magazines to fund various extra-curricular activities in school. + Presumably Satanist souls, being sold to the devil already, are worth + more points. + While these theories have some merit, considering the teachings + of their (allegedly) chosen religion, an attempt should be made to be + open-minded enough to see their side of things. + Many Christians, when asked why they do this, respond something + to the effect that it is charity, something they do out of the + goodness of their hearts, out of concern for people etc. etc. Well, + if the Christian is really concerned with people, why not preach to + those who have not heard the message? Most "Satanists" are well + acquainted with the messages of Christianity. They have been preached + to ad infinitum, and are fed up with it. That is part of the reason + they are Satanists instead of plain old agnostics. Many Satanists are + angered by such posts, and justifiably so. + + Now consider this: + You will never convert a Satanist over USENET. You either + 1) are too infuriating; + 2) look like a fool. + + There is NO logical reason to convert to Christianity. The only + appeals are to the emotions, and as stated before they either look + foolish or infuriating. Things like, "But Jesus LOVES you; he died + for your sins!" or "Your soul is in danger!" are appeals to guilt and + +--- + * Origin: Two Wheelers gateway (1:106/88.0) + +Message number 4984 in "Satanism" +Date: 02-26-93 12:28 +From: Lupo +To: All +Subj: Pt 4/5: FAQ posting + +SPLIT: 27 Feb 93 09:18:56 @106/88 506 04/05 +++++++++++ + +PID: Fred 1.9n6 + fear respectively; not reason. As most Satanists have chosen this + path out of reason, these appeals will never work. As for those + Satanists who are so for emotional reasons, their minds are as closed + as that of the Born-again Christian. Perhaps, if indeed preaching is + done for humanitarian, and not egotistical or masochistic reasons, + your energies are better spent educating those who know little of your + faith: those born atheistic, communists, buddhists etc. If, as + suspected, your purposes are more egotistical (look reverend; I + converted a Satanist!) forget it. There are no "lost souls," waiting + to be found, in this community. + For the masochistically inclined, we suggest self-flagellation. + It costs less disk space, is probably more satisfying, and is + certainly less offensive to the general public. + + Otherwise; GROWL! BOOGA BOOGA! HASTUR, ASTAROTH, LEVIATHAN + ISHTAR!!!!!!!!! XILKA XILKA! BESA BESA! go away already... + + +10. How can I get more information about Satanism? + + Recommended Reading: + + _The Satanic Bible_, by Anton Szander LaVey, Avon Books, 1969. + Presents the Satanic views and doctrines of the Church of Satan, + along with an introduction to its rituals. + + _The Compleat Witch_ (the new edition is called _The Satanic Witch_), + by Anton LaVey, Lancer Books, 1971. + _The Satanic Rituals_, by Anton LaVey, University Books, 1972. + More books discussing LaVey's brand of Satanism. + + _The Secret Life of a Satanist_ by Barton Blanche, Mondo Press. + The authorized biography of Anton LaVey, and a basic guide to + Satanic philosophy. + + _The Second Coming_, by Arthur Lyons, 1970 [out of print] + A history of Satanism through the Middle Ages and the modern era. + + _Satan Wants You_, by Arthur Lyons, Mysterious Press (Warner), 1988. + Presents an overview of Satanism and the history of Satan, plus + an in-depth look at popular misconceptions. + + _ABRASAX #4_ A magazine published by the American Gnostic Church. + Issue #4 is dedicated to Satan & satanic matters generally. They + can be reached at: + + American Gnostic Church + PO BOX 1219 + Corpus Christi, TX, 78403-1219 + + (This is an old address--I have not checked yet.) + + + _The Black Arts_, by Richard Cavendish, Perigee Books (Putnam), 1967. + An objective introduction to magic, demonology, and classical + views of Satanism. + + _Black Magic in Theory and Practice_, by Michael Aquino. + + _The Necronomicon_ [by the Mad Arab], Avon Books, 1977. + Purported ritual book of great efficacy. Generally regarded as + fiction interspersed with translations of Mesopotamian texts. + Mileage may vary, depending on how seriously you take babble. + + _The Satan Seller_, Mike Warnke's imagination, Logos International, + 1972. + A Christian presents his alleged experiences in a Satanic cult + before his conversion to Christianity. + + _Cornerstone_, Volume 21, number 98, "Selling Satan," Jon Trott & Mike + Hertenstein, 1992. + This gets *highest* recommendation. From a Christian magazine + which does a great job of discrediting Mike Warnke's accounts + mentioned in _The Satan Seller_ and elsewhere + + _Do What You Will_ by Geoffry Ashe + A history of philosophers & groups who use this thelemic motto. + Especially nice history of the "Hellfire Clubs" + + _Satanism: The Seduction of America's Youth_, Bob Larson, Thomas + Nelson Publishers, 1989. + The facts on the *conspiracy* now coming to a lonely town near + you!!! (You're reading the FAQ, so it's already here!) + + _Paradise Lost_ by John Milton. + An epic poem telling the tale of Lucifer from when he is thrown + out of heaven, to the Fall of Adam and Eve. It makes Lucifer + into a heroic figure, whilst God is made out to be a little vague + and weak. + + _The Divine Comedy_ by Dante. + Another epic poem in three parts (Inferno, Purgatorio and + Paradisio) covering the author's pilgrimage through them. + + _The Prince of Darkness_ by Jeffrey Burton Russell, Cornell University + Press, 1988. + Historian's work on the history of Satan from earliest history + through the twentieth century. A summary of a four-book series + (The Devil, Satan, Lucifer, and Mephistopheles, by the same + author) which may be too much reading for casual interest. + + _The Old Enemy_ by Neil Forsyth, Princeton University Press, 1987. + Another history of Satan focusing on the Middle East and early + Christianity. + + _La-Bas (Down There)_ by J. K. Huysmans (1891?) translated by + Keene Wallace. + Fiction novel of the occult and the black mass in late + nineteenth century Paris. + + H. P. Lovecraft, collected works. + Classic horror fiction that has served as inspiration for many + Satanists. + + Frederick Neitzsche, various works + Neitzschean philosophies form the core of Satanism. Much of the _Satanic + Bible_ owes its philosophical and literary roots to works such as + _Thus Spoke Zarastrutha_ and _The Anti-Christ_ by Neitzche. + Michel Foucault, works + Though not a direct influence on Satanic thought, Foucault's work + extended and modernized that of Neitzsche, making it more applicable + to the present day. He is also largely responsible for the "post-modern" + philosophical movement. + + _The Occult_ by Colin Wilson + An excellent objective introduction to the subject. + + _Cosmic Trigger_ by Robert A. Wilson + This book describes various initiations and occult phenomena + experienced by Mr. Wilson. + + _Apocalypse Culture_ collected by Adam Parfey. + +--- + * Origin: Two Wheelers gateway (1:106/88.0) + +Message number 4985 in "Satanism" +Date: 02-26-93 12:28 +From: Lupo +To: All +Subj: Pt 5/5: FAQ posting + +SPLIT: 27 Feb 93 09:18:56 @106/88 506 05/05 +++++++++++ +PID: Fred 1.9n6 + A shocking work, depicting the worldviews of various "fringe" + sects and individuals, ranging from necrophiliacs to ultra-right + wing Christians. + + _Snapping; America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change_ by Flo + Conway & Jim Siegelman. + An interesting work utilizing information theory in the study of + sudden personality change as occurs in religious cults, and the + "Born-Again" phenomenon. + + _Who Wrote the Bible?_, by Richard Elliott Friedman, Harper & Row, + 1987. + A biblical scholar attempts to answer the question of the title, + and in the process comes up with some interesting reasons for + events in _The Bible_ (why does Moses have horns? Why the scene + with the golden calf?). An interesting read, and possibly + amusing for the cynic. + + _The Dead Sea Scrolls_ + There are many good books on this subject for those who need to + debunk Christianity historically as well as philosophically. + Among them: + + _Dead Sea Scrolls & the Bible_ by Roland E. Murphy (a Roman + Catholic at that) 1968 + + _A Crack in the Jar; What ancient Jewish Documents tell + us about the New Testament_ by Niel Fujita (also a + Christian scholar) 1986 + + _The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth_ by John + Allegro (one of the original Dead Sea Scholars) 1984 + + Note than all of the above scholars are of the old school of + scroll study. While all do a good job of debunking Christianity, + the latest generation of scholarly works is even more damning. + + Following are a number of works recommended dealing with Satanism's + links with crime, multiple personality disorder, etc. + + _The Satanism Scare_, ed. James T. Richardson, Joel Best, and David G. + Bromley (NY: Aldine, 1991): 145-172. + + _Satan's Power: A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult_, by William Simms + Bainbridge, U of CA Press, 1978. + + _Battle for the Mind_, by William Sargent, Harper & Row, 1957. + + _In Pursuit Of Satan_, by Robert D. Hicks (Prometheus Books), + + _Satanism In America_, issued by the Committee for the Scientific + Examination of Religion. + + "Occult Crime: A Law Enforcement Primer" + [To obtain a copy of this report, write to + + California Office of Criminal Justice Planning + 1130 K Street, Suite 300 + Sacramento, CA 95814 + + (Phone: (916) 324-9100). Request the "Research Update, Special + Edition, Winter 1989-1990, Volume 1, Number 6" issue. No mention + is made of a donation, but it may be useful to inquire + beforehand.] + + + + +--- + * Origin: Two Wheelers gateway (1:106/88.0) + diff --git a/religious documents/file18md.txt b/religious documents/file18md.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d15a65 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/file18md.txt @@ -0,0 +1,341 @@ +Reachout & Larry Jones & File 18 + +As readers of ORCRO will be aware we keep an eye on the American +fundies and their links to the home grown variety. We have then great +pleasure in presenting Maureen Davies of the Reachout Trust as she was +featured in the File 18 Newsletter (ORCRO passim), a rabidly anti +anything non-christian publication that pretends to present facts +about "occult crime" to american police officers. + +Readers will doubtless judge for themselves how useful, and how +accurate this publication is, from Maureens' contribution, which is +reprinted in full below: + +From File 18 newsletter, October 1989. Copies available, full recent +mailing list also available in certain circumstances. + +The quotation begins with File 18 Newsletter editor Larry Jones +commenting: + +A Trans-Atlantic telephone call to Maureen Davies, Director of the +North Wales Reachout group, was most enlightening. She spoke of their +extensive work with ex-cultists who described human sacrifice rituals, +of children sadistically abused at the hands of satanists, of drugs +and pornography linked to entrenched satanic worship organisations, of +"brood-mares" (a reference the Editor mistook for animal mutilation +until Maureen explained these were women who conceived and gave up +their infants for sacrifice, i.e.: our "breeders"), of satanic +infiltrators in positions of authority, of sceptical police officials, +of apathetic government systems which were slow to respond to gruesome +reality...does this sound familiar? MAureen also reported that she had +contacts with similar workers and groups in Europe and Africa who had +documented the same types of reports. + +WHere do the contrived controversies of "...urban myth..." and +statistical dinosaurs stand now in the light of international +confirmation that the same satanic crime problems exist across the +globe? Since 1986, File 18 has not been describing isolated incidents, +urban myths, societal aberrations, or the products of a few mad-men's +scrambled minds. The issues of satanic/cult/occult-motivated crimes +and victimisations are internationally linked, global in scope. Let +the detractors, the confusers, the compromisers, the rationalisers +address the real issues in their world-wide context, instead of +isolating, denying, singling-out, ridiculing. We can openly admit +international drug, pornography, and terrorist cartels exist, yet we +have problems considering the existence of satanic worldwide links, +even though unlimited money, power, and influence are the rewards. + +File 18 Newsletter has received permission to reproduce portions of +MAureen Davies article entitled "Satanic Ritual Abuse." You will +recognise the writing style of Britain; the stark facts presented are +identical to those we have encountered in the U.S., Canada, and +Mexico. + +[ORCRO has not received permission from either File 18 or Reachout, +and suggests that they sue] + +Satanic Ritual Abuse + +By Maureen Davies. + +Reachout Trust is a Christian organisation. Part of the work of the +Reachout Trust is to help those people who are trapped in the occult, +and we co-operate with other agencies in this. At present I head up +the occult side of the work on a national level...divided into three +parts: + +a) To monitor the occult problem in this country [North Wales] by +doing research into this field, where necessary taking action against +some activities and teaching other[s] how to do this. + +b) To come alongside and give support to victims and their families. +To encourage, counsel and share with them the different avenues they +can pursue. + +c) To challenge and educate the church about the problem of the occult +and ritual abuse. + +Three years ago I was asked to be involved with a teenager who had +been arrested for desecrating a church. The story that was unfolded by +the mother left me realising how easy it was to be involved in black +magic and brainwashed without realising the dangers. The answer the +court gave was to place the teenager in care for his own safety away +from the recruiters, yet they ignored the root of his problem, his +emotional need, coping without a father and his craving for +supernatural power. + +Since then we have had many enquiries from parents and other relatives +whose teenage sons or daughters have become involved in Witchcraft or +Satanism asking what can they do. Some have attempted suicide, become +psychologically disturbed or have just placed an increased strain on +the family. There are no slick easy answers to this problem, only +commitment, time and dedication. + +A year ago I was introduced to my first case of ritual child abuse. +Since then I have been involved in or contributed to helping over 15 +situations of satanic abuse. [I don't think she means exactly that, +ORCRO Ed] Referrals have been through church leaders, social services, +the medical profession and other voluntary organisations. We are now +having inquiries from France, Germany, Norway, South Africa, and +America. + +The details which I will share with you in this article may be +difficult for you to believe. You may ask, "Do these problems in the +occult really exist?" I would have to say yes, from my own personal +experience and from the inquiries we receive. It is hard to realise +that human beings can be so cruel to one another. But for the sake of +the victims, whether they be children, or adults who have been +recruited, I am asking you to listen sensitively to what they say. +They will be putting out feelers, asking "Will you still love me and +believe me if I tell you what I have been involved in?" For them, this +could be the beginning of their sharing some of the horrific +experiences they have been through. + +Millions of pounds are spent on the occult every year in this country +and abroad. There are hundreds of occult products listed in their mail +order catalogues -- tarot cards, Ouija boards, and satanic ritual +regaila. Some are also involved in pornography and drug dealing. Most +of the satanic groups, if not all, are networked with other groups in +this country, Europe and the rest of the world, in particular, +America. + +The subject of the occult is vast and varied. Occult shops are opening +up everywhere and under many banners, for example, they are sometimes +called "New Age Centre" or "Alternative Life-style" shops, or just +plain Occult shops. These shops can be open recruiting grounds for +satanic and witchcraft groups, preying on the minds of teenagers +especially those craving for power and control on others, or those who +are lacking in self-esteem and worth, thinking power will give them a +boost. Who would want to have a girl-friend through manipulation that +is not real love? The occult openly distorts the truth and undermines +the security of family life. We have to act. We are not saying that +everyone involved in witchcraft is molesting children, but +unfortunately there are groups that do. + +HOW ARE CHILDREN INTRODUCED TO SATANISM? + +The social background of people involved can range from those in the +highest places in this country to the poorest. The children are +involved through three ways: + +a) generational Witchcraft and Satanism + +b) Recruitment programmes + +c) Involuntary processes + +Generational Witchcraft or Satanism. ...the children are involved +through one or two of their parents, grandparents, aunt or uncle. They +are initiated at a young age and told their soul now belongs to Satan. + +Recruitment Programmes. The recruitment programmes are far more subtle +and well organised...here are some examples... + +1. Through someone already in a coven or temple. Even 8 year old +children have been given soft drinks laced with drugs, then introduced +to pornographic literature. + +2. Via occult magazines that are easily available in shops... + +3. Organised parties where the Ouija board is introduced or the tarot +cards...Gradually they are introduced to a third persons who will tell +them that Satan has the power... + +4. At parties where drink laced with drugs is available...perverted +sex takes place...Photographs are taken...then they are blackmailed +that their parents will be informed id they do not cooperate... + +5. Children who have run away from home are recruited from railway +stations, under embankments, enticed with food, money, attention, and +anything else that will suck them up. + +6. Psychic Fayres and New Age festivals. + +INVOLUNTARY MEANS. ...involved through involuntary means, especially +if they have run away from home. They feel lonely, unwanted, unloved. +The recruiters prey on this and realise on one will come looking if +they are missing. A perfect individual for a human sacrifice. + +WHAT GOES ON IN THE RITUALS IN BRITAIN TODAY + +Whenever we come across ritual abuse, the same evil practices occur +again and again. The following list contains activities reported to me +by the children themselves and these reports are backed up by people I +know personally, who have come out of Satanism. + +1. Children are given drugs, by injection, medicine or in +drinks...either to sedate them or to cause them to hallucinate. Muscle +relaxants are also given, so that if they are young they can still be +used in the sexual activities of participants without causing too much +physical damage. + +2. Candles are laced with drugs to give the effects mentioned above. +Also, incense that excites the emotions is used to induce sexual +arousal. + +3. Some are taught self-hypnosis, and have a trigger word that starts +an abnormal fear. + +4. Chanting takes place during these rituals to call up the demons. + +5. They are taught to hate God, Jesus, Church and everything that is +good, applying the principle that good is evil and evil is good. + +6. In some of the rituals the people dress up in robes and masks, +e.g.: goats heads, etc., in order to frighten the children. + +7. Nursery rhymes are recited with indecent overtones, e.g.: "Ring a +Ring of Roses, a pocket full of posies, Atishoo, Atishoo! We drop our +pants down." + +8. The children are urinated upon frequently and excrement [sic] is +wiped all aver their bodies including their heads...to defile innocent +children and ruin their purity. Urine and excrement [are] mixed with +blood and semen and the children are made to eat it the semen and +blood [are] also wiped all over the dishes before they eat out of +them. The blood can be human or from animals. + +9. After the blood ritual the children have to drink the blood. +Sometimes they have to drink from human skulls of children and adults. +The blood is also smeared over their bodies. + +10. These children are threatened with death if they tell what they +are involved in. One way they are kept silent is by involving them in +the rituals themselves. Fear is a tremendous tool... + +11. Children are placed in coffins and buried alive...(perhaps hours +later) the satanist leader comes, to show them that he is the only one +who really cares. + +12. Children are placed in cages. Some children state that they have +had an electric shock when they touch the bars. + +13. Children are made to eat insects...and told that whenever they see +these insects there will be someone watching them. + +14. Perverted sex takes place...[and the children]... have objects +such as live snakes, crosses, pieces of wood and other instruments +placed up their anus or vagina. + +15. Sex with animals, humans, and dead bodies takes place...with some +children actually abusing others...the victim becomes the victimiser +in the rituals. + +16. Snakes seem to play an important part in the torture. [The +children]...report that when they are screaming the adults are +laughing at them. + +17. Upside down crosses are used to inflict pain or punishment. +Children are left to hang on them for hours...satanists say the pain +makes them purer. + +18. Sacrifice. The children have to witness and take part in a variety +of sacrifices. + +BROOD MARES. In the temples or covens they have young girls or older +women that they call "Brood Mares"...[who]...are there to be made +pregnant purely for sacrifices. When they are five and a half months +pregnant, the birth is induced. At this stage the foetus is alive and +can be sacrificed. The blood of the infant is then drunk, and the body +eaten. What is not eaten is stored for the next ritual. + +Full term babies whose births have not been registered. + +Children who have been born into the temple or coven before the time +of registering are also used as sacrifice. These leave no trace as +they have not been registered. + +OLDER CHILDREN. The children have told me about older children being +sacrificed. This can be either by placing on an upside down cross and +slitting their throats, or by stabbing with a dagger through their +heart, after which the bodies are set on fire. The children state that +before a child is sacrificed, its mouth is taped so it cannot shout. + +Another disturbing factor that has been reported to us is the +willingness of some of those who are going to be sacrificed. They are +promised a better life after they have died because they believe in +reincarnation. + +ADULT SACRIFICE. The children state how someone goes "shopping for a +victim" and comes back with an individual who is then ritually +murdered either by slitting the throat, stabbing through the heart, or +by being burnt. + +In certain cases the children themselves take part in sacrifice. +Teenage girls and adult women have to sacrifice their own children. +This makes them guilty of murder which is then used to bring about +another aspect of fear, showing them that they are in the system and +can't get out. + +After the sacrifice they take out the heart, spleen and eyes and eat +them. The children are also taught how to remove these parts of the +body. The children state how bodies are chopped up. What is not eaten +of the foetus is stored. Some of the bodies are melted down. The fat +is used for candles and the bones are ground down and the powder used +as an aphrodisiac. + +What I have reported so far is only a partial picture. I know that +there are other types of rituals which I have not mentioned. From our +information a lot of these rituals are videoed by the people involved. + +[Larry Jones then notes:] Mrs. Davies' article also deal s with +symptoms shown by ritually abused children, significant satanic +festival dates, and inter-agency networking ideas. She summarised her +information by giving three case histories: + +Example 1. One 19 year old rang up after being involved in a satanic +group which she had been introduced to by her mother and father. She +had been made pregnant four times since the age of 14 purely for +sacrifice. When she was five months pregnant the birth was induced. +The live baby was placed on an altar and sacrificed by stabbing a +dagger through its heart, drinking its blood then eating the body. The +remains were left in the deep freeze until another ritual. After her +last pregnancy, the birth was induced and she had to kill her own baby +herself. She has now come out of the cult but her brothers and sisters +are still involved. + +Example 2. Two children now six and four were introduced to the cult +by their father. The little boy witnessed human sacrifice through +stabbing a dagger through the heart and the subsequent burning of the +victim's body on a cross. They were also subjected to sexual abuse, +physical and emotional abuse. The child was sent to his mother's house +by the father to set it on fire. + +Example 3. A 15 year old was recruited through the tarot cards, +enticed back to a house and drugged. Perverted sex then took place. +The subject was then blackmailed and then subjected to black magic +rituals. Now she has horrific nightmares and a personality change. + +CONCLUSION. The part we have played is to help people have a better +understanding of the occult and what it means. We are convinced that +there is a supernatural realm, which is not imaginary and which is +used for extremely evil and perverted ends. We are convinced that the +statements the children made actually happen and we are beginning to +have a picture of this scene on a national level. By doing research on +the subject we are ready to inform the various agencies about occult +activity in their area. We are also able to put people in touch with +those who are prepared to help the victims. + +File 18 Quote Ends. + + diff --git a/religious documents/fire.txt b/religious documents/fire.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f7fba0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fire.txt @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +ab:fire.txt 16jan90 + + + Fire + + +Temptress +Astrological Rulers: Sun, Mars, Jupiter + +Keys: Light Principle, Action + Michael (victor over ignorance) +Rules: force, energy, spirit, heat, mental plane, blood, sap, life, will, + surgery, destruction, purification, hearth fires, volcanoes, explosions + Choleric; Intuitive; lively +Virtues: courageous, self-assertive, chivalrous, enthusiastic, passionate, + experienced, virile +Vices: self-centred, ruthless, fanaticism, vindictiveness, anger, hatred + +Midsummer & noon +South, Notus +Colour: red + +Symbols: fire opal, almond (in flower), garlic, hibiscus, pepper, olibanum +Tools: scourge, sword, athame +Spirits: salamanders under Djinn (elusive & hostile, teach power over fire + & energy) + +Shortage: body heavy or chilled, thoughts drag-gy, unenthusiastic +Excess: hot, hyper, flitting thoughts, insomnia, anger, snappishness + +Here follows the fire symbol, drawn (badly) in ascii--- + + * + * * + * * + * * + * * + * * + * * + *************** + +---------- +-various sources including June Johns' "King of the Witches" (appendix), + Starhawk's "Spiral Dance", Ellen Cannon Reed's "Witches Qabala" and a + lovely pamphlet on the elements put out by Church of the Seven Arrows. +-putting elemental notes into the BOS (rather than in a Grimoire or in a + set of teaching notes) also appears to be Khaled's idea + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/fiveflm.txt b/religious documents/fiveflm.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5daa1af --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fiveflm.txt @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ + + Ritual of the Five Flames + by Frater Almost + +Stand and face the east. Take several deep breaths energizing each +in-going breath with the realization that this is what keeps us alive. +Do likewise with each out-going breath and watch the impurities leave +your body. When you are feeling very relaxed and very calm, begin as +follows: + + Visualize to your left a Pillar of White Light. (If you have Temple +pillars, stand between them) and to your right a Pillar of Darkness. +Turn to your left and face the White Pillar. It is the Male force or +Hadit. Continue after a few moments of contemplation and turn fully then +to the Black Pillar. Contemplate it as Nuit or the Female force. Now, +turning counter-clockwise, again face the East. + + Once you have fully established the pillars, visualize a bright, +white or silvery-gold flame jetting up from your feet to the top of your +head. Draw in your breath and feel the fire go down into your system. +Vibrate the name "EHIEH" five times. + + Now, visualize the flame as a bluish-gray colour. Breahte in it's +essence and vibrate the name "YHVH ELOHIM" five times. + + Now, see the light as a pure golden colour and do as above only +using the name "YHVH EL-OH-AH V'DAATH." + + Now see the flame turn a dark purple-red colour and vibrate the name +"SHADDAI EL-CHAI" five times. + + Now change the flame colour to a brownish-green and vibrate the name +of "ADONAI MELEKH" five times. + + Once this has been done, turn the flame to a bright electric blue +colour and try to feel it as a cool flame. Here, vibrate the word +"AUMGN" five times and, with each repition, see each of the pillars grow +llarger and more brilliant until they merge as one. Once this has been +done, Breathe all of the flame into yourself and exhale it iinto the +air. Stand in the sign of Harpocrates. + +This ritual is very unique in the sense that it breaks the Middle Pillar +apart. The MP seeks to establish "power centers" within the body while +this ritual seeks to deliver the energy of the Pillar of Beauty to every +part of the body. It is also an excellent banishment before meditative +work. It is completely self-contained and requires less time than the +Middle Pillar. + diff --git a/religious documents/force101.txt b/religious documents/force101.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98b48ed --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/force101.txt @@ -0,0 +1,556 @@ +.--------------- +occult main 14 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!Taliesin!Melisande Wed Apr 26 13:49:52 1989 +Subject: Re:witchcraft + Jrohr states that"Magic to a witch is the same thing as prayer to +a Christian" Then jrohr goes on to say"A witch would use magick in +the form of a spell or a circle to focus the power of mind that is +within us all." + Magick is not the same thing as prayer!Prayer is not used to focus +the power of mind that is within us all.Prayer is sent to outside +forces.The benefits are attributed to whatever god or gods the +supplicant believes in.It is also used without much hope of success. +It is considered "God's will",no matter whether your god is benevolent +or a zealous tyrant.I'm speaking in general about religions,not just +christianity. + If a ritual{such as the one's described}were being used to augment +the psychic abilities of us all,given that they exist,I fail to see +in what way it would be related to prayer,religion,or any sort of +spirituality. + If a spell or circle were being used to achieve the desired results +by calling on gods or goddesses in a carefully proscribed way,intending +to enforce their aid,willing or not,to enforce you will,I would not +call that prayer either. + I have read the Mists of Avalon.I thought it was a very interesting +book,both for her ideas on religion and feminism.I think it helps +make witchcraft very attractive as a religion.But is it really a religion? +Is it a science based on natural abilities?What is the role of magic +in witchcraft? + Many people object to witchcraft from a religious point of view.It +doesn't fit their beliefs or cultural biases.Others object to it +from a scientific point of view because they don't believe in magic. +Is a belief in magic necessary to embrace witchcraft as a religion? +Is a belief in religion {i.e.faith,mysticism,enlightenment}necessary +for the practice of the craft{magick}? + + +.--------------- +occult main 16 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!Taliesin!Sam Fri Apr 28 13:11:08 1989 +Subject: inspection +First, there is a world of difference between faith and BLIND faith. + +Second, I have seen no one on this board express a belief that witches +are evil. The only message that came even close to being inflammatory was +left months ago by an anonymous guest who (to my knowledge) has never +returned, so I am not sure who you are afraid of foisting their beliefs onto +All I find is friendly discussion among rational people. + +The impression I have gotten from your last two messages is that you do not +wish to continue this examination of the foundations of pagan beliefs. If +this is so, then please do post on pagan monogamy! If my impression is +incorrect, I will stand happily corrected. + +P.S. Pardon my blind eyes, but I took the quote from message #30 directly +from the original file. I did remove the line left by an editing error. +I apologize if this was a faux pas, and will remember to reproduce (quotes) +faithfully and accurately from now on. + + -Sam. + + +press enter to continue, q to quit + +.--------------- +occult main 17 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!jezebel Fri Apr 28 23:41:23 1989 +Subject: What the occult is (or may be) + Sorry, I guess my last message wasnt too clear. It was mostly a stream- +of-conciousness knee-jerk reaction to the preceding message. (My last message +was #6) + As a practising witch (and I do need the practise!) I simply cannot allow +a charge (as I saw it) of Satanism to go unanswered. I dont know if +the guy was trying to be funny or what, but it did get some disculssion +going, so thats something. + What I was trying to get at (reading it back) was just how little +the occult has to do with religion. Most of the occult is tied +up in religous beliefs, true, but then so was most of science back +before the Rennaisance and Copernicus. Before then, the greatest +. If we begin to treat the occult the same +way we would treat investigations int o physics or biology, then we +Parapsychologists are studying +occult and psycic phenomena, and coming up with some very interesting +results. True, they have not been able to definitivly prove or dis- +prove anything, but please keep in mind that they are working under +a tremendous social attitude that "theres some reasonable explaination +for all of this." I think, that given the nature of this particular +conference, we can make the assumption that occult and psychic phen- +omena exist, and can be worked with at a practical level., and therefor +we can go from there. (Something I picked up from religon class... +to keep people from nit-picking over minutiae, you list your assumptions +at the top of the page.) + So there we are. THE OCCULT EXISTS. The next step is to come up +with a satisfactory definition. To me, the occult consists of the +entire set of ritual and ritualized behaivors intended to promote +a particular psychic or psychological result. This can range from +ritual magic (Beltaine gatherings and the Catholic mass) to personal +rituals intended to help you get through an ordesal (sports figures +preparing to go into a game, or me preparing ot recieve a shot.). +to receive a shot). +These rituals (for lack of a better word, forgive) result in a +change in state, of the people involve as well as possibly a +d and possibly in the world +around (if such was the intent.) + That may not satisfy you. Remember that at this stage, definitions +are a highly personal thing., rather like your own personal philosophy. +I also write this under trying circumstances (a friend is loudly +championing her views as I type). + A word about bookstores. Remember, bookstores cater to the public, +and try to keep anything contriversial off the shelves. Unless they +are occult bookstores, DO NOT TRUST THE SUBJECT HEADINGS. Be careful +what you buy. Fluf and bunnies Shirley McLain is next to The Necro- +nomicon is next to 1400 Ways to Read Your Future in an +n Ordinary Deck +of Playing Cards is next to... You get my meaning. Your best bet +is to find a book someone else has read and liked and to special +order it. It may be more expensive, but you know what you are getting. + + +press enter to continue, q to quit + +.--------------- +occult main 18 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!jrohr Fri Apr 28 23:41:30 1989 +Subject: Occult (sigh) +It seems that thoughout history diiferent words have been given meanings that +are not really what they mean. The word "occult" is one of them. The word as +Jezebel pointed out means "hidden" or "secret". In fact early christianity +was a "occult religion" (I find it interesting and sad that a religion that was +so pursecuted in its infancy has turned around and in its power pursecuted othe +victim of bad press. The word "witch" and "faggot" are other examples. Did +you ever wonder where that word fag come from?? Well its because they used to +burn the homosexuals before that witches (hence "flamming faggot") To a Brit +the word means " a small thatch of kindling" I could go on but I will spare +you all.... Please keep in mind that langage is a powerful thing. + +Enough of my babblings..end note.. I personally hope for the day when people +can reach a level of open mindedness that no positive religion must be hidden +or secret and must spend all this time and energy saying what they are NOT. + +By the way speaking as a future librarian, most bookstores need to have a +intensive course in cataloging. I, who can find my way around Watson with +no problem get lost at Town Criers!! + + + +press enter to continue, q to quit + +.--------------- +occult main 19 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!jrohr Fri Apr 28 21:15:33 1989 +Subject: witchcraft +I hope this helps to clarify a few points. Magick to a witch is basically +the samething as prayer is a christian..again evidence of langage. A witch +would use magick in the form of a spell or circle to focus the power of the +mind that is within us all. For example I have a object that when I feel some +real negitive energy I concentrate that energy and "put" it into the object +then I ground out the object... another example is the burning of loveletters +after the relationship has gone away. This is a way of purging the focusing. +What I want to stress is that Wicca is the religion and witchcraft is the +practise. A good book to read is Marion Zimmer Bradleys "The Mists of Avalon" +It is basically a retelling of the Arthurian Legend though the eyes of the +women. It gives a good feel of the spirit of Wicca and its conlict with the +church (notice I said church not Christ) In fact Morgaine says "I have no +quarrel with the christ only his priests" Please keep in mind that the book +desciptions of the rituals are what it might have been like in the 6th century +Witches celebrate the holidays in a more modern manner. Just as the christians +celebrate edited versons of the orginal mass. + +About the word "faggot" I will have to confer with my oxford at work and my +gay friend that informed me of the conection more on that at a later time. + + + +press enter to continue, q to quit + +.--------------- +occult main 20 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!Melisande Fri Apr 28 23:41:45 1989 +Subject: RE:What occult is + I don't think that I can leave Jezebel's basic assumptions unchallenged. +I don't think that they are the minutiae but rather the basics of this +discussion. + I still think that you are stirring religion,mysticism,parapsychology, +and magic into one large cauldron of ideas and beliefs.It's rather more clear +to me that your definition of "occult"is closer to my definition of magic. +I'm not at all sure that you can give magic {or magic}the categorization +of a science. + Let's start with parapsychology.Parapsychologists do not consider their +field as having anything to do with the occult.They feel the same way about +being confused with magic or witchcraft{or ufology or cryptozoology or +forte +\033fortune-telling,etc.}as witches do about being confused with Satanists. +They're having a difficult enough time being accepted as a legitimate +science as it is,due to the subjective and elusive nature of "psi"and +it's inability to be reconciled with what we know to be true of"normal" +laws of nature. + Their are three main areas of paranormal study.Informational psi +{telepathy,clairvoyance,precognition,retrocognition},expressive psi +{psychokinesis and related effects}and survival-related experiences. +These are rather arbitrary divisions since it is often impossible +to determine which category of psi may be in effect. + If we have the given that people have psi experiences in all cultures +and that they are a common and normal part of human experience although +difficult to understand,it still requires a large conceptual leap to +conclude that one could influence their world through the use of magick +or ritual. + Witchcraft also has much to do with religion.Many religons have promoted +and accepted the inborn psi abilities of people,often without the trappings +or belief system associated with ritual magic.In fact,one anthropological +division made between magic and religion is the idea that religions use +prayer{politely asking the god or gods to intercede on their behalf]and +magic uses ritual designed to coerce or persuade the gods to act{or,if +you prefer,the universe to change itself to suit you.}Either way,both of +these things are quite different from the idea that people can sometimes +know or do things in ways that are as yet inexplicable,but will someday +be known. + If you accept the presence of psi as an innate human ability,it still +doesn't prove the existence of any god or gods,the efficacy of magic or +magical laws or rules.It doesn't justify one belief system over any others +although I can understand the temptation to point to PK and say,"see,people +can move things with their minds,therefore magic works." +What would be a good example of proof that their is something to"the +craft"in witchcraft?I don't know.Maybe jezebel or jrohr can answer that. +Does the acceptance of the existence of magic justify a belief in witch- +craft as a religion?I don't think so.I think that that is an entirely +different concept.If witchcraft is a religion at all,a belief in magic +would just be another part of that religion,although it may be necessary +to it. + +.--------------- +occult main 24 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!jezebel Fri Apr 28 21:35:58 1989 +Subject: RE: what +No, we do not worship Satan! The occult (the word means "hidden") +was a perfectly legitimate field of study among the Magi before and +during the Rennaisance. But with the birth of "science", notably +physics and chemistry (from alchemy), the study of the occult fell +into disfavor because it couldn't be "proved" in the same way that +the "hard" sciences can. Remember, the driving quest of the alchemists +was to discover how to turn lead into gold. That is now possible. +It's not easy, but it's now possible. the study of the occult has +been revived and renamed "parapsychology", and there are serious, +documented cases of telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, the +existence of ghosts, etc.. So there is some scientific (unless +you don't consider psychology to be science) evidence of "supernatural" +phenomena, which may prove to be a set of very natural occurences +after all. +If you are studying the occult as a non-scientist, you are probobly +studing ways in which a person can expand her own psychic powers. +Religon has little to do with it! Admittidly, the Christian church +attempts to discourage people from experimenting, but the Jewish +tradition has a splendid tradition of occult study in the Caballah. +It is important to realize that the occult is a tool by which many +things can be accomplished. THE OCCULT IS NOT EVIL IN AND OF ITSELF! +A hypodermic needle, for instance, can cause great harm, by being used +to inject poison or intravenous drugs (and helping the spread of such +diseases as hepatitis and AIDS.) But a needle can also be used to +inject vaccines, and antibiotics, and noone considers banning needles +simply because of the potential harm they can "do". The same is true of +the occult. It is not the fact of its use that is important, it is +rather the use to which it is put. An evil action is an evil action, +whether it is by spell or by physical means. The Wiccans have but one +law: An it harm none, do as you will. The Wiccans are also great users +of positive magic. + For a good, non religious look at the occult and its potential, I +suggest Marian Weinstein's book POSITIVE MAGIC. I found it at +Adventure here in lawrence, and I understand it can also be gotten +through Lamplighter Books. + + +.--------------- +occult main 25 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!Melisande Fri Apr 28 21:35:55 1989 +Subject: What is the "occult"? + I'm sorry,jezebel,but your reply to "guest"left me a bit confused. +Are you trying to define occult,or defend and rationalize belief +in the paranormal,or give a discourse on the ethics of the use of +ritual magic? + It seems to me that there are several issues here{admittedly,none +of which have anything to do with devil worship}."Occult" is a very +catch-all term.It seems to have been used for everything from +the Necronomicon to Shirley McClaine.{Have you ever looked in the "occult +section"of your local bookstore?"} + I"d really be interested in seeing more conversation on these +subjects. + + +press enter to continue, q to quit + +.--------------- +occult main 26 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!Sam Fri Apr 28 23:41:55 1989 +Subject: occult +Well, Melisande beat me to it - I too felt that jezebel had magic and the +occult confused. The occult concerns those forces/phenomena not explained +by science (if/when they are explained they won't be "hidden" anymore, +right?). Magic is the ritual manipulation or use of these forces. This, of +. Psi is a group of related forces (which may or may +not be used in a magical sense). Religion is not necessarily associated with +any of the above. HOWEVER, belief in "supernatural" forces is just that, +*belief*, and if you believe that when you practice magic, you affect people/ +the world about you, then you are accepting belief in these "supernatural" +forces. I feel that this belief presuposes a "religion" of sorts. I.e. if you +hold an unfounded belief (not supported by science) then you have "faith" and +"faith" begets "religion". So, can there be such a thing as an atheistic +witch? + +Go ahead, blast away. This was intended to provoke some comment! +All of the above represent my own opinions which are subject to change +without notice. + +.--------------- +occult main 28 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!Taliesin!jrohr Fri Apr 28 23:42:34 1989 +Subject: inpection +There is a world of differnce between a little inpection and outright +dissection. \027It seems to me that people must have "proof" in order for +something to be considered valid. That is the point that I am trying to +get across. Education is a good tool for showing people every side of +an issue. But if their faith (not some half-baked preacher) tells them +that something is wrong or right that also is valid. The issue is +freedom of choice (sound familar??) Although this person may feel one +way, he/she has no right to impose that on another person. The country +that we live in is based on the seperation of church and state. Period. +Is a person truly beleives that witches are evil and after been presented +with our point of view still believes this that is his right. But that +person does not have the right to take the freedom from another person +I guess that what i am trying to say in a long-winded fashion is TOLERANCE +is needed on both parties. Why can't we live and let live as long as +there is no harm being done. + + +P.S. the quote above is not quite correct. Please refer to message #30. +(the librarian comming out in me) + + + +press enter to continue, q to quit + +.--------------- +occult main 29 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!Taliesin!elspeth Fri Apr 28 21:36:17 1989 +Subject: 'occult' -- religion vs prayer vs magick +I, and several other posters, have thus far been playing in the shallows of +this interest area; I'm not the only one who's been avoiding the deeper +issues here set afloat. I understand the relevance of getting the basics +out in the open, where we may discuss them; I admire honest curiosity; and +I respect most sincerely the desire to understand each other's points of +view. So: All right, Melisande! I'll swim out to meet your questions +trusting to some of that faith in Providence that I'll not stray too far off +the course of logic nor yet be caught by the undertow of over-reaction. But +help me out if I start to stray *too* far from solid ground, hey? + +jrohr is quite right in pointing out that language is a powerful tool. It +can be a powerful nuisance also, at times. I doubt that any two or three of +us share precisely the same definitions -- both in denotation and connotation +-- for any randomly chosen set of words. That is in the nature of human +thought, and thus of human language; and I think it is no bad thing, in +itself. I would find it very boring to see the world always through the same +eyes as everyone else, with no more sudden surprises nor the delicious +strangeness of another's way of seeing. I've always preferred predictability +in moderate doses only. Generally our definitions have enough common ground +that we can communicate well enough; when we fail to quite understand what +is meant, we certainly ought to ask! And indeed we have some slippery terms +before us -- religion, magick, prayer. I've thought on my own meanings for +these, and reached somewhat of the premises and beliefs underlying them. I +do feel them to be separate and different things. Sam, your input regarding +faith, belief in the irreproducible and unprovable, strikes a very loud +chord. And by my definition, to be 'religiously' scientific is to accept the +results and some of the method of science on faith -- as those who believe +that psi cannot exist 'scientifically', considering not the difficulties of +proving a negative hypothesis. But to me faith is a necessary but NOT +sufficient condition; I've put off entering this discussion largely because +the other half of my understanding of religion is difficult to articulate. +To me, religion must have also an element of worship, of appreciation or love +for the object of that faith, removed from all expectations of gain or +profit. Prayer can be an act of worship -- but "Oh Deity or Deities, in your +infinite wisdom and grace and general wonderfulness, could you possibly +assist your humble servant?" is not in that category, while "Hey, nice +universe you got here, God(ess)(es), really awesome work, like wow" is. + +Prayer to me is essentially an attempt to communicate with the object of +faith and worship. (By the bye, I'm sorry if 'object of etcetera' is +beginning to wear on you all, but I do believe that the object of worship and +subject of religion may take any number of forms for any number of people.) +Prayer can attempt to communicate only faith or worship, or it can attempt +to communicate a desire or request. But as a purely communicative, not an +active, phenomenon, prayer cannot guarantee results, nor promise miracles. +If there really are a bunch of Christian pro-lifers out there praying for the +death of a pro-choice judge (I read that somewhere, but I've no idea if it's +a real-world example), they may be disappointed if s/he doesn't die off soon, +but it is an outcome they are prepared to accept. +Magick, on the other hand, is an attempt to DO something. A properly +structured spell performed under the right conditions is expected to have +certain results. Granted that there's more art than science to it, it has +still that element of expected repeatability, and of action. Magick may +certainly have a place in religion, and it may play an important role. For +example, when a clergymember of a faith that takes the literal view of the +sacrament of the eucharist performs that rite, he or she is indeed performing +a magickal act. I'll grant you freely that I have my doubts about the +cookies and grape juice really truly transubstantiating themselves into flesh +and blood, and frankly I'd not care to partake if I did believe it. (Just +squeamish, I suppose!). But that's not the issue. The issue is that it is +real to the person doing this, and that he (or she) expects it to happen -- +nay, KNOWS that it will happen, if the thing is done correctly. The +rationale for this expectability can vary -- to said clergymember, it's a +matter of right, and a promise made, and a covenant agreed to. All perfectly +reasonable reasons to expect it to work, in the framework of that belief. +It can just as well be rooted in a belief that the operator is exercising +some natural ability, just as s/he might push a car or dial a telephone on +a more mundane level -- although in the latter case, the magick need not be +part of a religion. (By this definition, psi may be treated as magick -- my +apologies to any parapsychologists out there, in advance!) It could be +derived, to the practitioner, from a bargain or from some aspect of the laws +of the universe that allows him/her to coerce a power to act. I follow +beliefs that do somewhat concern me regarding the source of the expectability +in magick; but we should perhaps discuss that separately, if anyone wishes +to, after we have agreed on definitions of terms. The current point, for me, +is that the rationale behind it doesn't make it magick; it's the presence +of that rationale, whatever it is, combined with the fact that the operator +expects results. + +Now, then. Here are my definitions, and several of my precepts, as best I +understand them. What do the rest of you think concerning them? Do you +differ on some points? Which ones, and why, and precisely how? Do you feel +that I've missed something? And again, where, in what manner, and why? Do +you found your definitions from other lines of thought entirely? Once more, +what are those lines of thought, exactly how do they treat the subjects to +hand, and why do you feel that way about it? + +Whether you agree or disagree, I would like to read of it. I would like to +know if we are stymied by essentially different views on how the world works, +or merely each by our own assumptions of what the other means. If any feel +threatened by this invitation to investigate further, my apologies: I intend +none, nor do I perceive any in this request (or Melisande's, or Sam's). The +one who does not care to examine his beliefs is trapped is as narrow a world +as he who declines to dream of anything intuitive and irreproducible in his +philosophy: a world view that can't stand to be looked at once in a while +makes a very poor window indeed to view the world through! Some of you have +said you are active in Wicca or the craft; I'm curious to know if you were +raised in the craft? If not, what belief system did you grow up in? Didn't +you look at those beliefs, new and old both, before you chose your path? +Don't be afraid to continue thinking, then, and to continue to examine what +you believe and why. + +Well, I've said my piece and then some more; I'll shut up now, thank you +all. So come on in, people -- the water's fine! + + + +press enter to continue, q to quit + +.--------------- +occult main 30 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!Taliesin!jrohr Fri Apr 28 21:35:51 1989 +Subject: witchcraft + I really must stick to my statement that a spell is very much like a +prayer. The diffition of stems from magick bringing about a altered state +of conciosness. I would not say that they are indentical. Each form fits the +needs of the population that uses it. + +There are some who say that science is a religion..If I could answer why people +need that facet in their life i would win the Nobel...I can anwser only for my- +self. Why must we disect things in order to understand them?? I have seen more +things torn apart because of human fear. Why can't we as Starhawk says "dare to +dream the dark" Living in such a technological and hard scientific world (as I +sit a a terminal ) i find some solace in that there are things that man +can not define to his(or her) satifaction. Thus prehaps the basis for the place +of religion. + +Have fun with this and please excuse my spelling-- it is late and I am on heavy +drugs in order to help my allergies which are h*** this time of year. + +NEXT TIME !: WITCHES AND MONOGAMY!!!- breaking down the assumption that just +because you are a witch mean that you are promiscous!!! I say NO! We as witches +enjoy sexual freedom. One of my petpeeves is that when I meet a man and he +discovers that I am a witch he automatically assumes that i am a wench (I am +trying to be polite) Someof us choose the path of a "closed relationship" +We are free in the fact that we CHOOSE not to carry the burden of "original +sin" ---more on that later.... + + + +press enter to continue, q to quit + +.--------------- +occult main 31 +.--------------- +From Taliesin!somewhere!Taliesin!Melisande Fri Apr 28 23:42:40 1989 +Subject: Oh,coome on,people + I have NOT been dissecting or tearing apart{through fear} +anyone's beliefs.And yes,I'm well aware that I haven't been directly +accused of doing so,but jrohr's message contained a heavily weighted +presupposition that I had. + I'm sorry,jrohr,that I threatened your religion {against it's +constitutional rights.}My intentions were purely honorable;that is, +to make some conversation,throw around some philosophical ideas, +and maybe learn something in the pe +process.I have asked questions for the sake of knowledge;I have attempted +to examine for the sake of speculation;and I have done so simply because +I believe that a life unexamined is alife unlived.I did not realize that +in your particular brand of paganism or witchcraft that it was "tabu" +to learn about,discuss,or examine your own faith-and the doctrines +therein. + I have only asked your {witchs'}opinion because I respected it;only +argued to gain clarification,so that I might more readily understand; +and only sought from a desire to know. + + +.--------------- +occult main 34 +.--------------- +From pars!salgamma +Subject: Where to jump in? +Greetings! After reading all of the new messages from the Tallesin side of the +house, I feel led to post my feelings. Firstly, I am the sysop of The Gates +of Delirium, a Wiccan/Pagan/Occult/New Age BBS here in KC. Secondly, I catch +a lot of the messages that pass through MagickNet. But that's "6 of one and +a half dozen of the other". + One of the questions brought up on MagickNet was the difference between +Magick and prayer, and how this ties into the scheme of things in general. +Well, I feel that prayer and magick are only loosly connected. In prayer, +a person pleas with their deity for assistance. Energy wise, the person +praying is asking that something be changed, and believes that the request +will result in a change. + In magick, we use out inner energy, combined with earthly and elemental energy and Diety energy, and send this forth do accomplish the goal of our spell. I think it's like "breaking" in the game of pool. We are controlling stick (our spell), while we gather the energy to push the stick/spell. Our Cone Of Power is like the cue ball, and the racked balls are the target, which effects a change (breaks, or the goal of our spell) from the force of our energy. There may be a point where prayer becomes a type of magick (or, a psychic event) if the person knows of the personal energies involved, and releases them with the prayer. + I feel that a prayer works the opposite way. The prayer is a request to effect a change in the ambient energy and involk God (using the Christian form). This change in energy is slower because it is "diluted" in the surrounding energy and depends solely on faith ("I believe it will happen, so it will"). + Am I out in left field or just being redundant? I forgive if I'm "running +at the mouth". Now I'll try and tie in Parapsychology. Magic and psi are +very closely related in that (aside for leaving out the 'k' in magicK) the +same form of energy is used. It's just on a different 'frequency'. When I do +an object reading or empathic reading on someone/thing, I'm recieving a type of +energy. When I send a Cone of Power, I'm using the same type of energy, but +on a (higher?) wavelength and with greater force and higher power. Grounding +negative feelings is an example of converting one form to the other. Auric +healing is the opposite. So, I feel the energies are inter-changable. + I ask, as Elsbeth has, "What do you think of THIS?" As someone stated +before, the definitions we are trying to define and clarify are our own, +much like our beliefs- our own. We are trying to find, I believe, common +ground between the nuances of our definitions and beliefs. + +Blessed Be! +Salgamma + diff --git a/religious documents/freeasoc.txt b/religious documents/freeasoc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..02e61c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/freeasoc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +Subject: Leaflet: Freemasonry and Society + +This is the text of a leaflet published by by the Board of +General Purposes of the United Grand Lodge of England in 1987. + + + Freemasonry and Society + +Introduction: + This leaflet is intended to expand a topic mentioned in the +leaflet "What is Freemasonry". It explains the United Grand Lodge of +England's view on Freemasonry and Society. + +Respect for the law: + Freemasonry demands from its members a respect for the law of any +country in which a man may work and live. + +Principles: + The principles of Freemasonry do not in any way conflict with its +members' duties as citizens, whether at work or at home or in public +life, but on the contrary should strengthen them in fulfulling their +private and public responsibilities. + +Use of Membership: + A Freemason must not use his membership to promote his own or +anyone else's business, professional or personal interests. This is +made clear directly or by inference several times during a Freemason's +early career so that no Freemason can pretend to be ignorant of it. A +Freemason who transgresses this rule may be suspended from Masonic +activities or even expelled. + +Family: + Freemasonry should not be allowed to harm a man's family or +other connections by taking too much of his time or his money or +causing him to act in any other way against their interests. + +Duty as a citizen: + A Freemason's duty as a citizen must always prevail over any +obligation to other Freemasons, and any attempt to shield a Freemason +who has acted dishonourably or unlawfully or to confer an unfair +advantage on another Freemason is contrary to this prime duty. + +Personal or business difficulties: + If it could be proved by evidence that any personal failure or +business difficulty was attributable to 'Masonic influence', Masonic +authority would take a serious view of the fact, as it would be +contrary to the principles of Freemasonry. + +Secrecy: + +* Freemasonry is not a secret society. + +* Like many other societies, it regards some of its internal affairs + as private matters for its members. + +* There is no secret about its aims and principles. Copies of the + constitutions and rules can be obtained from Freemasons' Hall by + interested members of the public. + +* The secrets of Freemasonry are concerned with its traditional modes + of recognition. Its ceremonies are private. + +* In ordinary conversation there is very little about Freemasonry + which may not be discussed. + +* On inquiry for acceptable reasons, Freemsons are free and will be + proud to acknowledge their own membership. diff --git a/religious documents/freemasn.txt b/religious documents/freemasn.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..160ecc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/freemasn.txt @@ -0,0 +1,244 @@ + +BAPHOMET XIø + +What is Freemasonry? + +An Excerpt on the +Reconstituted O.T.O. + +from his Confessions + +What follows is Crowley's own account of his motivations and methods +in reconstructing the O.T.O. and its rituals. It is excerpted from The +Confessions of Aleister Crowley, pp. 700-n-704. In this excerpt +Crowley discusses his revision of the ``Oasis'' initiation rituals of +Oø-n-IIIø. His explanatory introduction to these revised rituals, as +presented to then-Frater Superior Merlin Peregrinus Xø when the +reforms were proposed, appears elsewhere in this issue.--H.B. + +``WHAT IS FREEMASONRY?'' I collated the rituals and their secrets, +much as I had done the religions of the world, with their magical and +mystical bases. As in that case, I decided to neglect what it too +often actually was. It would be absurd to judge Protestantism by the +political acts of Henry VIII. In the same was, I could not judge +masonry by the fact that it had denounced the Concordat. I proposed to +define freemasonry as a system of communicating truth--religious, +philosophical, magical and mystical; and indicating the proper means +of developing human faculty by means of a peculiar language whose +alphabet is the symbolism of ritual. Universal brotherhood and the +great moral principles, independent of personal, racial, climatic and +other prejudices, naturally formed a background which would assure +individual security and social stability for each and all. + +The question then arose, ``What truths should be communicated and by +what means promulgated?'' My first object was to eliminate from the +hundreds of rituals at my disposal all exoteric elements. Many degrees +contain statements (usually inaccurate) of matters well known to +modern schoolboys, through they may have been important when the +rituals were written. I may mention one degree in which the candidate +is portentiously informed that there are other religions in the world +besides Christianity and that there is some truth in all of them. +Their tenets are explained in many cases with egregious error. The +description of Buddha as a god is typical. I saw no point in +overloading the system with superfluous information. + +Another essential point was to reduce the unwieldly mass of material +to a compact and coherent system. I thought that everything worth +preserving could and should be presented in not more than a dozen +ceremonies, and that it should be brought well within the capacity of +any officer to learn by heart his part during the leisure time at his +disposal, in a month at most. + +The eighteenth-century Rosicrucians, so-called in Austria, had already +endeavoured to unite the various branches of Continental freemasonry +and its superstructures; in the nineteenth century, principally owing + + + + + + + + +to the energy and ability of a wealthy iron master named Karl Kellner, +a reconstruction and consolidation of traditional truth had been +attempted. A body was formed under the name O.T.O. (Ordo Templi +Orientis) which purported to achieve this result. It is purported to +communicate the secrets, not only of freemasonry (with its Rites of +3ø, 7ø, 33ø, 90ø, 97ø, etc.,) but of the Gnostic Catholic Church, the +Martinists, the Sat Bhai, the Rosicrucians, the Knights of the Holy +Ghost and so on, in nine degrees, with a tenth of an honorary +character to distinguish the ``Supreme and Holy King''of the Order in +each country where it was established. Chief of these kings is the +O.H.O. (Outer Head of the Order, or Frater Superior), who is an +absolute autocrat. This position was at this time occupied by Theodor +Reuss, the Supreme and Holy King of Germany, who resigned the office +in 1922 in my favour. + +The O.H.O. put the rituals of this Order at my disposal. I found them +of the utmost value as to the central secret, but otherwise very +inferior. They were dramatically worthless, but the prose was unequal, +they lacked philosophical unity, their information was incomplete and +unsystematic. Their general idea was, however, of the right kind; and +I was able to take them as a model. + +The main objects of the instruction were two. It was firstly necessary +to explain the universe and the relations of human life therewith. +Secondly, to instruct every man how best to adapt his life to the +cosmos and to develop his faculties to the utmost advantage. I +accordingly constructed a series of rituals, Minerval, Man, Magician, +Master-Magician, Perfect Magician and Perfect Initiate, which should +illustrate the course of human life in its largest philosophical +aspect. I begin by showing the object of the pure soul, ``One, +individual and eternal,'' in determining to formulate itself +consciously, or, as I may say, to understand itself. + +It chooses to enter into relations with the solar system. It +incarnates. I explain the significance of birth and the conditions +established by the process. I next show how it may best carry out its +object in the eucharist of life. It partakes, so to speak, of its own +godhead in every action, but especially through the typical sacrament +of marriage, understood as the voluntary union of itself with each +element of its environment. I then proceed to the climax of its career +in death and show how this sacrament both consecrates (or, rather, +sets its seal upon) the previous procedure and gives a meaning +thereto, just as the auditing of an account enables the merchant to +see his year's transactions in perspective. + +In the next ceremony I show how the individual, released by death from +the obsession of personality, resumes relations with the truth of the +universe. Reality bursts upon him in a blaze of adorable light; he is +able to appreciate its splendour as he could not previously do, since +his incarnation has enabled him to establish particular relations +between the elements of eternity. + +Finally, the cycle is closed by the reabsorption of all individuality +into infinity. It ends in absolute annihilation which {...} may in +reality be regarded as an exact equivalent for all other terms soever, +or (by postulating the category of time) as forming the starting point +for new adventure of the same kind. + + + + + + + + + +It will be clear from the above that the philosophical perfection of +this system of initiation leaves nothing to be desired. We may write +Q.E.D. The practical problem remains. We have already decided to +incarnate, and our birth certificates are with our bankers. We do not +have to worry about these matters, and we cannot alter them if we +would; death and what follows death, are equally certain, and equally +able to take care of themselves. Our sole preoccupation is how to make +use of our lives. + +Now the O.T.O. is in possession of one supreme secret. The whole of +its system at the time when I became an initiate of the Sanctuary of +the Gnosis (IXø) was directed towards communicating to its members, by +progressively plain hints, this all-important instruction. I +personally believe that if this secret, which is a scientific secret, +were perfectly understood, as it is not even by me after twelve years' +almost constant study and experiment, there would be nothing which the +human imagination can conceive that could not be realized in practice. +{...} + +The injunctions of the sages, from Pythagoras, Zoroaster and Lao Tzu, +to the Cabalistic Jew who wrote the Ritual of the Royal Arch, and the +sentimental snob who composed those of the Craft degrees, are either +directed to indicating the best conditions for applying this secret, +or are mere waste of words. Realizing this, it was comparatively +simple for me to edit masonic ethics and esoterism. I had simply to +refer everything to this single sublime standard. I therefore answered +the question ``How should a young man mend his way?'' in a series of +rituals in which the candidate is instructed in the value of +discretion, loyalty, independence, truthfulness, courage, self- +control, indifference to circumstance, impartiality, scepticism, and +other virtues, and at the same time assisted him to discover for +himself the nature of this secret, the proper object of its employment +and the best means for insuring success for its use. The first of +these degrees is the Vø, in which the secret is presented in a +pageant; while he is also instructed in the essential elements of the +history of the world, considered from the standpoint of his present +state of evolution and his proper relation to society in general with +reference to the same. + +The degree of Knight Hermetic Philosopher follows, in which his +intellectual and moral attitude is further defined. In the VIø, his +position having been thus made precise, he is shown how to concentrate +himself to the particular Great Work which he came to earth in order +to perform. In the VIIø, which is tripartite, he is first taught the +principle of equilibrium as extended to all possible moral ideas; +secondly, to all possible intellectual ideas, and lastly, he is shown +how, basing all his actions on this impregnable rock of justice, he +may so direct his life as to undertake his Great Work with the fullest +responsibility and in absolute freedom from all possibility of +interferences. + +In the VIIIø, the secret is once more manifested to him, more clearly +than before; and he is instructed in how to train himself to use it by +certain preliminary practices involving acquaintance with some of +those subtler energies which have hitherto, for the most part, eluded +the observation and control of profane science. + +In the IXø, which is never conferred upon anyone who has not already +divined from previous indications the nature of the secret, it is + + + + + + + +explained to him fully. The conclusions of previous experiments are +placed at his service. The idea is that each new initiate should +continue the work of his predecessor, so that eventually the +inexhaustible resources of the secret may be within the reach of the +youngest initiate; for at present, we are compelled to admit that the +superstitious reverence which has encompassed it in past ages, and the +complexity of the conditions which modify its use, place us in much +the same position as the electricians of a generation ago in respect +of their science. We are assured of the immensity of the force at our +disposal; we perceive the extent of the empire which it offers us, but +we do not thoroughly understand even our successes and are uncertain +how to proceed in order to generate the energy most efficiently or to +apply it most accurately to our purposes. + +The Xø, as in the old system, is merely honorary, but recent +researches into the mysteries of the IXø have compelled me to add an +XIø, to illustrate a scientific idea which have been evolved by the +results of recent experiments. + +In the reconstituted O.T.O. there are therefore six degrees in which +is conveyed a comprehensive conception of the cosmos and our relation +therewith, and a similar number to deal with our duty to ourselves and +our fellows, the development of our own faculties of every order, and +the general advancement and advantage of mankind. + +Wherever freemasonry and allied systems contribute to these themes, +their information has been incorporated in such a way as not to +infringe the privileges, puerile as they often seem, which have been +associated hitherto with initiation. Where they merely perpetuate +trivialities, superstitions and prejudices, they have been neglected. + +I claim for my system that it satisfies all possible requirements of +true freemasonry. It offers a rational basis for universal brotherhood +and for universal religion. It puts forward a scientific statement +which is a summary of all that is at present known about the universe +by means of a simple, yet sublime symbolism, artistically arranged. It +also enables each man to discover for himself his personal destiny, +indicates the moral and intellectual qualities which he requires in +order to fulfil it freely, and finally puts in his hands an +unimaginably powerful weapon which he may use to develop in himself +every faculty which he may need in his work. + +{...} I believe that my proposals for reconstituting freemasonry on +the lines above laid down should prove critically important. +Civilization is crumbling under our eyes and I believe that the best +chance of saving what little is worth saving, and rebuilding the +Temple of the Holy Ghost on plans, and with material and workmanship, +which shall be free from the errors of the former, lies with the +O.T.O. +  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/freemin1.txt b/religious documents/freemin1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bbbf69e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/freemin1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,347 @@ + + FREEMASONRY: SATAN'S DOOR TO AMERICA? + + by J. Edward Decker + + + When the average American thinks of Masonry, the thoughts are + of Children's Burn Centers and Hospitals, and the Shrine + Circus, where handicapped children are often carried to front + row seats in the strong arms of weeping men who are wearing + the Red Fezes of their fraternity. Rarely do we see a parade + without these same Shriners driving up and down the parade + route in their little cars and motorcycles, wearing clothes + out of the Arabian nights, bringing laughter to the children + lined up along the way. + + On more serious occasions, such as the laying of public + building cornerstones or at the funeral of a Lodge member, + these same men, dressed in somber attire, wearing their + ornate sashes, medallioned chains of office and ceremonial + aprons, will perform with solemn dignity the rites handed + down through the centuries of their ritual secrecy. "Good + men," they say, "becoming better." + + Yet, once you get past the good-old-boy fraternal act, the + funny red hats of the Shriners and the sheltered reputation + of the local Blue Lodge Masonic groups, there is something + beyond the colorful mask, an aura of mystery, power and + intrigue, complete with undertones of false gods, blood + oaths, conspiracy and back room politics. + + The Fez itself, is an example of the double meaning behind + most of Freemasonry's facade. Worn and even carried to the + grave with pompous dignity, the history of the Fez is + barbaric and antiChristian. In the early 8th century, Muslim + hordes overran the Moroccan city of Fez, shouting, "There is + no god but Allah and Muhammed is his prophet." There they + butchered almost 50,000 Christians. These men, women and + children were slain because of their faith in Christ, all in + the name of Allah, the same demon god to whome every Shriner + must bow in worship (and proclaim him the god of his fathers) + in the Shrine initiation ceremony. + + The Shriner's blood oath and confession of Allah as God is + found in the sacred ritual book, THE MYSTIC SHRINE, An + Illustrated Ritual of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of + the Shrine, (1975 Ed., pp. 20-22). Realize that Allah is NOT + just another name for God. Allah is the name of another god + in usual occult fashion, the initate swears that he will be + inseparably obligated to this "most powerful and binding + oath.", in advance and that he may NEVER retract or depart + from it. + + During the butchering of the people of Fez, the streets + literally ran red with the blood of the martyred Christians. + The Muslim murderers dipped their caps in the blood of their + victims as a testimony to Allah. These blood stained caps + eventually were called Fezes and became the Muslim badge of + honor. The Shriners wear that same red Fez today. The + greatest tragedy is that the Fez is often worn by men who + profess to be Christians themselves. It must cause God to + weep. + + A curious piece of the Masonic conspiracy puzzle in the + founding of America is the actual street layout for our + Capital city, Washington, D.C. Actually, it's as much the + audacity of the thing as the conspiratorial nature of it. + You see, the city was laid out in the form of key Masonic + Symbols, the Square, the Compass, the Rule and the Pentagram. + + Take any good street map of downtown Washington, D.C. and + find the Capitol Building. Facing the Capitol from the Mall + and using the Capitol as the head or top of the Compass, the + left leg is represented by Pennslyvania Ave and the right + leg, Maryland Ave. The Square is found in the usual Masonic + position with the intersection of Canal St. and Louisana Ave. + The left leg of the Compass stands on the White House and the + right leg stands on the Jefferson Memorial. The circle drive + and short streets behind the Capitol form the head and ears + of what Satanists call the GOAT OF MENDES or Goat's head. + + On top of the White House is an inverted 5 pointed star, or + PENTAGRAM. The point is facing South in true occult fashion. + It sits within the intersections of Connecticut and Vermont + Avenues north to Dupont and Logan Circles, with Rhode Island + and Massachusetts going to Washington Circle to the West and + Mt. Vernon Square on the East. + + The center of the pentagram is 16th St. where, thirteen + blocks due north of the very center of the White House, the + Masonic HOUSE OF THE TEMPLE sits at the top of this occult + iceberg. + + The Washington Monument stands in perfect line to the + intersecting point of the form of the Masonic square, + stretching from the House of the Temple to the Capitol + building. Within the hypotenuse of that right triangle sit + many of the headquarter buildings for the most powerful + departments of government, such as the Justice Dept, U.S. + Senate and Internal Revenue Service. + + It would be great to know that your national Capital is + bathed in continual prayer and to believe that its buildings + and monuments have been dedicated in prayer, but do you + realize that EVERY KEY FEDERAL BUILDING from the White House + to the Capitol Building has had a cornerstone laid in a + Masonic ritual and had specific Masonic paraphernalia placed + in each one. Again, wonderful if we are talking about our + one true God in all this, but such is not the case. The + cornerstones of all these buildings have been laid in Masonic + ritual, dedicated to the demonic god of Masonry, JAO-BUL-ON. + That is the secret name of the Masonic god, the "LOST WORD" + in the rite of the Royal Arch degree. "JAO" is the Greek + name for the god of the Gnostics, laldabaoth or lao, "BUL" is + a rendering of the name, Ba'al and "ON" is the Babylonian + name of Osiris. + + What you see represented in this name of the Masonic Deity is a + three headed pagen deity so remote from the Christian faith and so + blasphemous as to damn the eternal soul of anyone who would dare + to pronounce its name in worship. The ritual, and full + explanation is found in DUNCAN'S MASONIC RITUAL AND MONITOR, + (Third ed., pp. 224-226, 249-251, esp note #1, p. 250). + + The Washinton Monument actually represents the Phallic Principle + upon which Speculative Masonry is based. From above, the monument + and its circular drive form the esoteric Masonic "Point within a + circle." The Reflecting Pool bears its shadowed image, with the + illusion duplicated in the Lincoln Memorial. + + Strange? Not if you understand the occult principles involved. + The respected Masonic author and authority, Albert Mackey states + in MACKEY'S MASONIC RITUALIST, (pp. 62-63): "The point within a + circle is an interesting and important symbol in Freemasonry...the + symbol is a beautiful but somewhat abstruse allusion + to...sun-worship and introduces us for the first time to that + modification of it known among the ancients as the worship of the + Phallus. The Phallus was an imitation of the male generative + organ. It was represented usually by a column, which was + surrounded by a circle at its base, intended for the cteis, or + female generative organ. The union of the Phallus and cteis, + which is well represented by the point within the circle, was + intended by the ancients as a type of the prolific powers of + nature, which they worshipped under the united form of the active + or male principle and the passive or female principle." + + Winding about the streets of D.C. are a hundred such applications + of "The Principle". They are there by design and we can barely + touch the simplest. Our nation and leaders have been deeply + effected by this occult power. + + The News Rocked the Nation! ASTROLOGY IN THE WHITE HOUSE! PEOPLE + magazine ran it as its cover story in the May 23, 1988 issue. + Nancy Reagan was manipulating the President's schedule based upon + astrological charts drawn up by a San Francisco soothsayer named + Joan Quigley. It wasn't the first time the resident of the White + House was doing a balancing act with the stargazers. Teddy + Roosevelt kept his own affected by this occult power. + + The News Rocked the Nation! ASTROLOGY IN THE WHITE HOUSE! PEOPLE + magazine ran it as its cover story in the May 23, 1988 issue. + Nancy Reagan was manipulating the President's schedule based upon + astrological charts drawn up by a San Francisco soothsayer named + Joan Quigley. It wasn't the first time the resident of the White + House was doing a balancing act with the stargazers. Teddy + Roosevelt kept his own affected by this occult power. + + The News Rocked the Nation! ASTROLOGY IN THE WHITE HOUSE! PEOPLE + magazine ran it as its cover story in the May 23, 1988 issue. + Nancy Reagan was manipulating the President's schedule based upon + astrological charts drawn up by a San Francisco soothsayer named + Joan Quigley. It wasn't the first time the resident of the White + House was doing a balancing act with the stargazers. Teddy + Roosevelt kept his own affected by this occult power. + + The News Rocked the Nation! ASTROLOGY IN THE WHITE HOUSE! PEOPLE + magazine ran it as its cover story in the May 23, 1988 issue. + Nancy Reagan was manipulating the President's schedule based upon + astrological charts drawn up by a San Francisco soothsayer named + Joan Quigley. It wasn't the first time the resident of the White + House was doing a balancing act with the stargazers. Teddy + Roosevelt kept his own a + such a design is a SPRITUAL DOOR to the occult, a planned invasion + by the powers of darkness against this Christian nation. "We have + been under siege from the first day our first President walked + into the Oval Office," Bill stated. + + Bill added that Albert Pike, the giant of Masonic philosophy who + is entombed just 13 blocks from the White House in the "House of + the Temple" has identified the pentagram (or "Pentapha") as the + blazing star which is at the heart of every Masonic lodge and + which represents the star Sirius. (MORALS AND DOGMA, pp. 14-15) + Now Sirius has been know for 5,000 years as the symbol of the + Egyptian devil, SET; and it is regarded as a star of GREAT EVIL! + (ALEISTER CROWLEY AND THE HIDDEN GOD by Kenneth Grant, p. 12). + + Bill emphasized that to the magician, the inverted pentagram has + one use only, and that is to call up the power of Satan and bring + the Kingdom of the Devil into manifestation on earth (MAN, MYTH + AND MAGIC, p 2159). Yet this very same symbol straddles the + corridors of our nation's power and is "aimed" right at the White + House! + + The pentagram is found almost constantly at sites of ritual + murders; and in the notebooks of teens who have become involved in + satanism and ended up killing themselves. In the Arizonia + Republic, 11/27/88; section B, an article by Bill Donovan and Mark + Shaffer, talks about 3 teenage suicides. The authors quote a + school administrator, + + All you have to do to know we have a large problem + on our hand is to drive down the street. There are + pentagrams everywhere, on top signs, buildings, trash + dumpsters, even one that's been on the post office. + Pentagrams are five-pointed stars used as a symbol by + practicing satanists. + + It is evident that death, destruction and carnage follow this + symbol everywhere. It is a key which opens up the door of hell; + at least according to sorcerers. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY? + + This star, which has been identified even by the Bible as the + accursed "tabernacle of Molech, and the star of your god, Remphan, + figures which ye made to worship them..." (ACTS 7:43, cf AMOS + 5:25-27) is an idolrous image sullied by unfold centuries of + debauched worship; and yet it is carefully placed right upon our + nation's capital. + + Every bit as staggering is the fact that this same pentagram is + the central symbol of the CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF HONOR, this + nation's highest military award for bravery. The inverted 5 + pointed star, within a circle is the highest form of satanic + expression, representing BAPHOMET, the Goat of Mendes, or the + embodiment of LUCIFER AS GOD. + + Of course, nearby the main part of Washington D.C. is one of the + most famous and distinctively shaped buildings in America, the + PENTAGON. Although most recognize the Pentagon as the nerve + center of our nation's defence establishment; few realize that the + Pentagon itself is a geometric design used in magic and witchcraft + as well. + + The Pentagon, through its use of the number 5 is associated + profoundly with the planet Mars and the ancient god of war, called + variously Aries, Horus or Mars. (see A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO + QABALISTIC SYMBOLISM by Gareth Knight, p. 124ff). This is because + Mars is the fifth planet on the magical diagram, the Tree of Life; + among other reasons. + + The pentagon is also one of the two secret symbols of the highest + levels of Freemasonry, the ANCIENT AND ILLUMINATED SEERS OF + BAVARIA (aka the Illuminati) - the other being the Pentagram. It + may be observed that EVERY PENTAGRAM HAS A PENTAGON WITHIN IT; and + that every proper pentagram can fit perfectly point-to-corner + within a pentagon. + + Thus, the magician sees the Pentagon as a GIGANTIC TALISMAN OF WAR + or battle. Bill Schnoebelen points out that throughout the + witchcraft underground of the U.S. there has been circulating a + rumor that a demonic war-god is imprisoned inside the pentagon and + that he is what keeps causing wars. During the anti-war movement + of the Vietnam era, in the midst of a demonstration at the + Pentagon, some "witches for peace" were present and actually + attempted to levitate the Pentagon and "exorcise" the demon god + "YOG SOTHOTH" from within it. Needless to say, the building + remained unlevitated. + + Freemasonry boasts 16 Presidents, including Ronald Reagan, 41 + Federal Judges, 60 Congressmen, 14 members of the Judiciary + Committee and 18 Senators. One can only guess at the numbers + involved within the many government departments. There is no + doubt that Masonic conspirators plotted against this nation from + its very inception to the present hour. WE PRAISE GOD that there + have been that many real Christians praying for this country and + its leaders to keep a rightous God from bringing deserved + judgement against this nation. + + IS THERE ANY WONDER THAT THE BATTLE SEEMS SO DIFFICULT? How have + such evils like greed and conspiracy within our national + leadership been able to rock our nation? How has the Federal + Judicial system become such a power cult that it is able to + violate our human rights with total freedom? How have such + Biblically opposed acts as abortion and homosexuality become + acceptable and even welcomed practices? When did this people give + up the right of freedom OF (and not from) Religion? When did we + say it was OK for the open practice of Witchcraft and Satanism in + our government and schools while Christianity is prohibited? When + did humanism and the New Age philosophies replace Christianity as + the Rock upon which this nation was built? + + Well, it began when we allowed the soothsayers and worshippers of + JaoBulOn to lay out our National Capital as a giant Satanic + Talisman, an open door to the demonic world of darkness. IT IS + NOW TIME FOR US TO TAKE BACK WHAT SATAN WOULD TAKE AWAY. + + Christian brothers and sisters, WE have the authority and power of + the believer. WE have the Biblical promise and example of the + power of prayer, the miracle of intercession. WE have the need + and the right to go to our knees in private and in our + congregations to break the power and influence of these demonic + abominations in our Nation, Church and families. LET'S DO BATTLE + IN SPIRITUAL PLACES (Eph. 6) LET'S CLOSE THAT NO-LONGER-SECRET + DOOR OF THE ENEMY IN OUR NATIONAL CAPTIAL! + + To those readers who would make light of this urgent message, the + Bible speaks directly to this national sin. "Be ye not unequally + yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath + righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light + with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what + part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" (2 Cor 6:14, 15) + + Verse 17 says, "Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith + the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive + you." + + Even as Elijah called out, "Ye have forsaken the commandments of + the Lord and thou has followed Baal!", I Cry out, "How long halt + you between two opinions? If the Lord be God follow him, But if + Baal [be your god], then follow him!" (1 Kings 18:18,21) + + If you are a Mason, I charge you to choose Jesus and the Church or + choose the Lodge and Lucifer, but stop playing games with God, + your family and your own soul. There is a reason that the Masons + do not allow Lodge prayers to include the name of Jesus. It's not + his temple you worship in, but that of JaoBulOn, or Lucifer. You + are not bound by those blood oaths! RENOUNCE JaoBulOn AND HIS + OATHS AND BE SET FREE! + + I pray that you will choose Jesus, repent and be set free from + this wicked power unto whom you have submitted your soul. If this + be your desire, remember that we have this promise: "If we + CONFESS our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and + to cleanse us FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS." (1 John 1:9) + + Write to us and let us know of your decision for Jesus Christ! + + For more information, write: + + FREE THE MASONS MINISTRIES + P.O. BOX 1077 + ISSAQUAH, WASHINGTON 98027 + + + TRANSCRIBED 8 FEBRUARY 1991 + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/fremas01.txt b/religious documents/fremas01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f891c3c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fremas01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,669 @@ +===========[ The Christian BBS - 604-478-2789 - 24 Hrs - 8,N,1 ]=========== +The following file has been put up, though not necessarily done by Dave +Geauvreau who is the Sysop of "The Christian BBS," and can be contacted for +more information by phoning the bulletin board at (604)-478-2789, or the +voice line at (604)-478-0254, or by writing to 3053 Metchosin Rd., +Victoria, B.C., Canada - V9B 4Y9! All donations if by check are to be to +"The Christian BBS," and please note that finances do not allow me to +accept long distance charges and return mail must be pre-postaged paid. +=========================================================================== + + + THE QUESTION OF FREEMASONRY + + INTRODUCTION + +The question of the Christian stand regarding Freemasonry seems to confront +our ministry at every turn lately. Because I have seen the exact parallels +of the Masonic legends and rituals carried throughout the "mysteries" of +Mormonism, I have had to study deeply into Masonic origins, purposes and +doctrine. + +In doing so, I have had to come to grips with the sad fact that the +esoteric doctrines of Freemasonry separate it, just as unequivocally as do +those of Mormonism, from the Christian theology. this holds true for every +branch of Masonry, from the Shriners to the Blue Lodge, the Eastern Star, +the Demolay, Job's Daughters and the Rainbow Girls! It holds true for the +Scottish rite or York rite! + +I know that this will cause offense to many Masons, and for that I am truly +sorry. But I would rather that the Mason be offended at me and be restored +to true fellowship with Jesus Christ than to remain silent any longer. + +This word of warning is not to the Masonic fraternity at large, but to +those Masons who claim to be both Masons and Christians! + +A recent newspaper insert, called "FREEMASONRY - A WAY OF LIFE" appeared in +many metropolitan areas. It pictured Freemasonry as a family-centered, +fraternal, benevolent organization, "as American as apple pie!" +(page 7) + +Not only does the article demonstrate the strength of Freemasonry among our +political leaders (both past and present), but makes much of its use of the +Holy Bible and its foundational belief in God. Masonry has a very strong +representation in the Christian denominations throughout the world. In +many of the churches we visit, I find Masons involved as deacons, elders, +board members and even pastors. + +Their claim and the claim of every Mason tot he outside world is that +Masonry and Christianity are totally compatible. They tell me that +religion is the experience of relating to God, and Masonry the experience +of relating to mankind. While separate, they can and do naturally coexist. + +The article mentioned above explains its "religious" position this way, +"Masonry is NOT a religion in any sense of the word, yet it is religious. +Church membership is not a requirement, yet membership in ANY church is no +bar to admission. There is nothing in the requirements of Masonry to +prevent a Catholic, a Mohammedan, a Jew, a Buddist, a Protestant, a Mormon, +or any member of any religion from becoming a member." +(page 3) + +On the surface, this might seem quite reasonable. I find no offense in +being involved in social, civic and benevolent activities with people of +other religious backgrounds. In fact, it's really an integral part of the +excitement of life! But, when it comes to my own personal worship of God, +and His revelation to me of His Word, there are some very clear guidelines! + +If Freemasonry is truly what it professes publicly, then "Bravo!"; it is a +welcome fellowship. If it is being deceptive, then it should be exposed. +It is simple. + +Let's see what Masonry TRULY teaches within its closed doors, and through +its own published documents. NO "anti-Masonic" publications will be cited +in explaining their TRUE theological position. + +The key document from which I quote is the most readily available and +universally approved doctrinal book of Freemasonry, "Morals and Dogma of +the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry," By Albert Pike, +Grand Commander, 1859-1891. Its title page states that it was prepared for +the "Supreme Council of the Thirty-Third Degree and Published by its +Authority." Originally published in 1871, I have used the 1966 Edition. +Except where other sources are noted, I cite page numbers only when using +this work. Emphases within quotes are my own. + + + MASONRY DESCRIBED + + CUSTODIAN OF TRUTH + +(Masonry)..."The custodian and depository (since Enoch) of the great +philosophical and religious truths, unknown to the world at large, and +handed down from age to age by an unbroken current of tradition, embodied +in symbols, emblems and allegories." +(page 210) + + + A RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION + +"Masonry is, in every sense of the word, except one, and that its least +philosophical, an eminently religious institution - that it is indebted +solely to the religious element which it contains for its origin and for +its continued existence and that without this religious element it would +scarcely be worthy of cultivation by the wise and good."..."Freemasonry is +NOT Christianity not a substitute for it"..."But the religion of Masonry is +not sectarian. It admits men of every creed within its hospitable bosom, +rejecting institutions; and on this ground mainly, if not alone, should the +religious Mason defend it." +(Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Albert G. Mackey, Revised Edition, 1921, +pages 618,619) + + + THE FOUNDATION OF RELIGION + +"It [Masonry] is the universal, eternal, immutable religion, such as God +planted it in the heart of universal humanity. No creed has ever been +long-lived that was not built on this foundation. It is the base and they +are the superstructure." +(page 219) + + + TEMPLE OF RELIGION + +"Every Masonic Temple is a Temple of Religion, and its teachings are +instructions in religion." +(page 213) + + + BUDDHA THE FIRST LEGISLATOR + +"The first Masonic legislator whose memory is preserved to us by history, +was Buddha, who, about a thousand years before the Christian era, reformed +the religion of Manous." +(page 277) + + + REVERENCES ALL REFORMERS + +"It [Masonry] reverences all the great reformers. It sees in Moses, the +lawgiver to the Jews, in Confucius and Zoroaster, in Jesus of Nazareth, and +in the Arabain Iconclast, great teachers of morality, and eminent +reformers, if no more; and allows every brother of the order to assign to +each such higher and even divine characteristics as his creed and truth +require." +(page 525) + + + NOT CREED-BOUND + +"The true Mason is not creed-bound. He realizes with the divine +illumination of his lodge that as a Mason his religion must be universal: +Christ, Buddha or Mohammed, the name means little, for he recognizes only +the light and not the bearer. He worships at every shrine, bows before +every altar, whether in temple, mosque or cathedral, realizing with his +truer understanding the oneness of all spiritual truth." +(The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, Manly P. Hall, 33rd, page 65, Macoy +Publishing and Masonic Supply Co. Richmond, Va., 1976.) + + + THE BAALIM + +"Masonry, around whose altars the Christian, the Hebrew, the Moslem, the +Brahmin, the followers of Confucius and Zoraster, can assemble as brethren +and unite in prayer to the one God who is above ALL the Ballim, must needs +leave it to each of its initiates to look for the foundation of his faith +and hope to the written scriptures of his own religion." +(page 226) + +The word, Baalim, is simply defined as "false god or idol." The Masonic +author has included the God of the Christian in that category. + + + THE SOURCE OF ALL GOOD + +"Everything good in nature comes from OSIRIS - order, harmony, and the +favorable temperature of the seasons and celestial periods." +(page 476) + +Osiris was the ancient Egyptian god whose annual death and resurrection +personified the self-renewing vitality and fertility of nature. "The All +Seeing Eye" is a masonic representation of Osiris. + + + MASONRY CONCEALS ITS TRUTHS + +"Masonry, like all the religions, all the Mysteries, Hermeticism and +Alchemy, CONCEALS it secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the +Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to +mislead those who deserve only to be misled; to conceal the Truth, which it +calls Light, from them, and to draw them away from it. Truth is not for +those who are unworthy or unable to receive it, or would pervert it." +(pages 104-105) + + + THE BLUE LODGE TO BE DECEIVED! + +"The Blue Degrees are but the outer court or portico of the Temple. Part +of the symbols are displayed there to the Initiate, but he is intentionally +misled by false interpretations. It is not intended that he shall +understand them, but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands +them." +(page 819) + + + WORSHIPFUL MASTER THE SOURCE OF LIGHT + +"Worshipful Master: The Head and Chief of the Lodge, the Source of Light, +of Knowledge and instruction in Masonry. He personifies the Sublime Art of +Masonry and is the Spokesman thereof." +(Arthur Waite, A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, 1970, page xxiv) + + + OBEDIENCE THE FIRST RULE + +"The first duty of every Mason is to obey the Mandate of the Master...The +order must at once be obeyed; its character and its consequences may be +matters of subsequent inquiry. The Masonic rule of obedience is like the +nautical, imperative: 'Obey orders, even if you break owners'." +(Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Albert Mackey, page 525) + + + THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE BIBLE + +"The teachers, even of Christianity, are, in general the most ignorant of +the true meaning of that which they teach. There is no book of which so +little is known as the Bible. To most who read it, it is as +incomprehensible as the Sohar." +(page 105) + + + THE INCOMPLETE BIBLE + +"All truly dogmatic religions have issued from the Kabalah and return to +it. Everything scientific and grand in the religious dreams of the +Illuminati, Jacob Boehme, Swedenborg, Saint-Martin, and others, is borrowed +from the Kabalah; all the Masonic associations owe to it their secrets and +their symbols. + +"The Kabalah alone consecrates the Alliance of the Universal Reason and the +Divine Word... + +"The Bible, with all the allegories it contains, expresses, in an +incomplete and veiled manner only, the religious science of the Hebrews. +The doctrine of Moses and the Prophets, identical at bottom with that of +the ancient Egyptians, also had its outward meaning and its veils. + +"The Hebrew books were written only to recall to memory the traditions; and +they were written in symbols unintelligible to the profane...thus was a +second Bible born, unknown to, or rather uncomprehended by, the Christians; +a collection, they say, of monstrous absurdities. + +"One is filled with admiration, on penetrating into the Sanctuary of the +Kabalah, at seeing a doctrine so logical, so simple and at the same time so +absolute." +(pages 744-745) + +The "Kabalah" is a book of ancient Jewish mysticism and magic. + + + DEITIES OF MASONRY + + THE ENERGIES OF LUCIFER + +"When the Mason learns that the Key to the warrior on the block is the +proper application of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the +Mystery of his Craft. The seething energies of LUCIFER are in his hands +and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to +properly apply [this] energy." +(Lost Keys of Freemasonry, Manly P. Hall, page 48) + + + YES, LUCIFER IS GOD + +"That which we must say to the crowd is - We worship a God, but it is the +God that one adores without superstition. + +"To you, Sovereign Grand Inspectors General, we say this, that you may +repeat it to the Brethren of the 32nd, 31st, and 30th degrees - The Masonic +Religion should be, by all of us initiates of the high degrees, maintained +in the purity of the Luciferian Doctrine. + +"If Lucifer were not God, would Adonay (The God of the Christians) whose +deeds prove his cruelty, perfidy and hatred of man, barbarism and +repulsion for science, would Adonay and his priests, calumniate him? + +"Yes, Lucifer is God, and unfortunately Adonay is also god. For the +eternal law is that there is no light without shade, no beauty without +ugliness, no white without black, for the absolute can only exist as two +gods: darkness being necessary for light to serve as its foil as the +pedestal is necessary to the statue, and the brake to the locomotive. + +"Thus, the doctrine of Satanism is a heresy; and the true and pure +philosophical religion is the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonay; but +lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against +Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil." +(Instructions to the 23 Supreme Councils of the World, Albert Pike, Grand +Commander, Sovereign Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry, July 14, 1889. +Recorded by A.C. De La Rive, La Femme et l'Enfant dans la Franc-Maconnerie +Universelle, page 588) + +The Word of God, the Bible, clearly puts Lucifer in his proper place, and +gives God's reasons. "How Art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of +the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the +nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will exalt my throne above +the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in +the sides of the north. I will ascend above the clouds; I will be like the +most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the +pit." +(Isaiah 14:12-15) + + + THE GRAND ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE + +Masonic ritual is concerned with the recovery of the "Lost Word," presumed +to be the name of God - supposedly lost through the murder of the +architect, Hiram Abiff, during the building of Solomon's Temple. This +quest is attained during the ritual of the ROYAL ARCH DEGREE. It is here +that the SECRET NAME of the DEITY OF MASONRY is revealed. That name is +"JAOBULON." "JAO" is the Greek word for Jehovah. "BUL" is a rendering of +the name, BAAL. "ON" is the term used in the Babylonian mysteries to call +upon the deity "OSIRIS"! The secret ritual book of the Craft prints the +letters J.B.O. It states that: "We three do meet and agree - in peace, +love and unity - the Sacred Word to keep - and never to divulge the same - +until we three, or three such as we - do meet and agree." Thus, no Royal +Arch Mason can pronounce the whole sacred name by himself! + +What you see represented, then, as the god of Freemasonry, is a three- +headed monster so remote from the Christian trinity and so blasphemous as +to damn the eternal soul of anyone who would dare to pronounce its name in +a ritual of worship! + + + THE GOD OF THE MYSTIC SHRINE + +The candidates for this ritual kneel at the ALTAR OF OBLIGATION with arms +bound, leaning upon the top, heads bowed. There they are required to +"assume a most powerful and binding oath, inseparably uniting yourself with +us, and once taken, it can never be retracted or departed from." + +The oath itself is curse enough, being four pages in length. Its penalty +includes "having my eyeballs pierced to the center with a three-edged +blade." + +The revelation of truth is in the candidates' sealing of the oath, +revealing the true nature of the masonic god of the "Mystic Shrine": + +"...and may ALLAH, the god of Arab, Moslem and Mohammedan, the GOD OF OUR +FATHERS, support me to the entire fulfillment of the same, Amen, Amen, +Amen. +(The Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, pages 35-39, Allen +Publishing Co. NY, NY.) + + + I AM THAT I AM + +During the ceremonies of the ritual for the Royal Arch degree, the +candidate is asked, "Brother Inspector, what are you?" and he replies, "I +AM THAT I AM." Can you imagine that? When Moses asked God to name +Himself, God said, "I AM THAT I AM" and He said, "Thus shalt thou say unto +the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." +(Exodus 3:14) + +Tell me how a Christian can take to himself the Biblical name of the God of +Israel? The God of the Christian faith said, "Ye are even my witnesses! +Is there a God besides me? Yea, I know not any! They that make a graven +image are ALL of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; +and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be +ashamed." +(Isaiah 44:8,9) + + + THE MASTER MASON - A GOD IN THE MAKING + +"Man is a god in the making, and as in the mystic myths of Egypt, on the +potter's wheel he is being molded. When his light shines out to lift and +preserve all things, he receives the triple crown of godhood and joins that +throng of Master Masons who, in their robes of Blue and Gold, are seeking +to dispel the darkness of night with the triple light of the Masonic +Lodge." + +"The glorious privileges of a Master Mason are in keeping with his greater +knowledge and wisdom...For Him the Heavens have opened and the Great Light +has bathed him in its radiance. The Prodigal Son, so long a wanderer in +the regions of darkness, has returned to his Father's house. The voice +speaks from the Heavens, its power thrilling the Master until his own being +seems filled with its divinity, saying, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I +am well pleased.' He [The Master Mason], in truth has become the spokesman +of the Most High. He stands between the glowing fire light and the world. +Through him passes Hydra, the great snake, and from its mouth there pours +to man the light of God." +(The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, Manly P. Hall, pages 92, 54-55, Macoy +Publishing and Supply Co., Richmond, Va, 1976) + +Friend, there is only one for whom the Father uttered those words and it +wasn't a Master Mason...nor will it ever be so. Jesus Christ is God's only +mediator for you and me. Do not let any MAN ever tell you that he is, or +you may become, the spokesman of the Most High! Further, if you think that +God speaks through HYDRA, the great snake, your god comes right out of the +pit! + + OTHER TEACHINGS AND PRACTICES + + USURPING THE PRIESTHOOD OF JESUS + +In the 19th level of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, the Initiate receives the +degree of GRAND PONTIFF. It is during this ritual that the candidate +swears an oath of secrecy and an oath of total obedience "to any Chapter of +this degree to which I may belong; and the edicts, laws and mandates of the +Grand Consistory of Sublime Princes and Commanders of the Royal Secret, as +well as those of the Supreme council of the 33rd degree..." + +It is then that the "Thrice Puissant" anoints him with oil on the crown of +his head and says "Be Thou a Priest Forever, after the order of +Melchizedek." + +After receiving the password (Emanuel) and the sacred word (Alleluia), he +is dressed in a robe of white linen and given a cordon (a ribbon or sash of +honor worn across the breast) of crimson color, with 12 starts representing +"the 12 gates of the "new city," and the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the +twelve fruits of the tree of life, the twelve tribes of Israel and the +twelve Apostles." (Scottish Rite Masonry Illustrated, The Complete Ritual, +Vol. 2, pages 26-27, E. Cook Publications, 1974) + +It must be pointed out that what has taken place here, is the Masonic +priesthood taking upon itself the Holy Priesthood of Jesus Christ. That is +a Priesthood that can be held by only one person and that one person is +clearly defined in scripture as Jesus Christ! + +Chapters 7 and 8 of the Book of Hebrews clearly explains that it was +ANOTHER priest to be raised up, not a group of priests! This Priest would +be our HIGH PRIEST and would be able to save from the Uttermost! He would +have "endless life"! The holder of THIS Priesthood would be "holy, +harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and made higher than the +heavens." (7:26) This is Jesus, our Holy Lord and God! + +This "ritual" takes Christ's Holy Priesthood from Him, and the Grand +Pontiff boldly puts it upon his own breast! Even the use of "Biblical" +words fails to cover up the adding in of the "signs of the Zodiac," a +direct alliance with the powers of darkness and a demonstration of +disobedience to God's Word. In Deuteronomy 18:10-12, it says that he who +"useth divination" (consulting the signs of the Zodiac to tell the future), +"or is and observer of times" (which is an ancient description for Augury +or Astrology - again dealing with the Zodiac) "is an abomination unto the +Lord"! + +Again, we see a mirror image of Biblical truth. The Priesthood power of +Jesus is given to the deceiver, Lucifer, the true god of Masonry, who hides +behind its mystery, ritual and allegory to snare his prey. + + + WASHED IN THEIR OWN BLOOD + +In the seventeenth degree, or Knights of the East and West, after the +candidates have completed the initiation and after revealing the password +(Jubulum) and the Sacred Word (Abaddon), "the Senior Warden conducts the +Candidate to the elevated vacant canopy at the right of the All Puissant." + +"This is supposed to represent the end of the world when all good masons +receive their reward by being conducted to a throne at the right hand of +the All Puissant, having been purified by washing their robes in their own +blood." + +In the lecture which follows between the All Puissant and the Senior +Warden, the Book with Seven Seals - which none but one can open (Rev. 5:5) +- is twisted to represent "A Lodge or Council of Masons which the All +Puissant alone has the right to convene and open." + +The Fourth Seal is represented by a skull or "Death's Head" and Masons are +told it "is the image of a brother who is excluded from a Lodge or +Council." The Fifth Seal is represented by a "Cloth Stained with Blood." +The All Puissant identifies this as a symbol "that we should not hesitate +to spill ours for the good of masonry." (Scottish Rite Masonry +Illustrated, The Complete Ritual, Vol. 1, Pages 453, 457, E. Cook +Publishing, 1974) + +What a gross misrepresentation of God's Holy Word! First and foremost, It +is Christ and He alone who "hath prevailed to open the book and loose the +seven seals thereof." To presume that honor and power is to deny Christ, +or yet in deeper perversity, to replace his power and authority with that +of the All Puissant, even in the representation of the power to save and to +enthrone. This is the very spirit of the AntiChrist! + +Again, another clue to the true identity of the Masonic deity is revealed +in the "Sacred Word" of this ritual, "Abaddon." In Revelation 9:11, we +learn that "they [the demons and workers from hell] had a king over them, +which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue +is ABADDON!" + + + BLOOD OATHS NOT OF CHRIST! + +Throughout the initiation rituals of the "BLUE LODGES" and through all 33 +degrees of Freemasonry, the candidates are sword to secrecy by bloody +oaths. Such as is the oath swore by the Entered Apprentice of first +degree, "...binding myself under no less penalty than that of having my +throat cut across, my tongue torn out by its roots, and my body buried in +the rough sands of the sea, at low-water mark." The Master Mason swears, +"...under no less penalty than that of having my body severed in two, my +bowels taken from thence and burned to ashes, the ashes scattered before +the four winds of heaven..." (Duncan's Ritual of Freemasonry by Malcom +Duncan, Third Edition, pages 36, 39, D. McKay Publishing Co., N.Y., N.Y.) + + + RAISING THE DEAD + +It is in this final "Blue Lodge" degree that that candidate is laid out "in +death" and is raised from the dead by the "Worshipful Master" of the Lodge +(representing King Solomon), using the "strong grip" (or "Lion's Paw") of +the Master Mason. + +Let no Mason deceive you! We again face this replacement of our Savior by +the power and authority of Lucifer. Paul said that if anyone should preach +any other gospel "than that which we have preached unto you, let him be +accursed." (Gal. 1:8,9) + +The simplicity of the Gospel is this, "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto +you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and +wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I +have preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. for I delivered +unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for +our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he +rose again the third day according to the scriptures." (1 cor. 15:1-5) + +The infinite power of Jesus was confirmed by Him when He said, "ALL power +is given unto ME in heaven and in earth." (Matt. 28:18) This power is His +alone! "For if by one man's offense death reigned by one; much more they +which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall +reign in life by one, Jesus Christ!" (Romans 5:17) + +Jesus was the one who rose from the dead. Jesus is the only one with the +power to raise from the dead. Jesus is the only one who frees us from the +sting of death! + +How can a Mason who calls himself Christian allow himself to partake of a +ritual resurrection by the power of Lucifer? This is Satanic! He stands, +having been born again and raised from the dead as a Master Mason, through +the power of the Masonic god, whom the God of Israel cast into the pit! + + + MASONIC OATHS ABOVE THE LAW + +One the "five points of fellowship," he and his "savior" pass the sacred +word, Mah-Hah-Bone. + +Also, while in this position, the new Master Mason solemnly vows "3d, +Breast to Breast: that you will ever keep in your breast a brother's +secrets, when communicated to you and received as such, murder and treason +excepted." (Duncan's Rituals, Revised and Complete, pages 35, 96, 120, 121, +E. Cook Publications, 1974) + +It should further be noted that in the Royal Arch Degree, the candidate +swears to protect the "brethren," "Murder and treason not excepted!" This +places the Masonic oath above that of our courts and our country. What hope +would you have against a Mason in a Criminal or Civil court with a Judge +who is a 32nd or 33rd degree Mason? None, by the nature of their oaths! + + + PAGAN COMMUNION - EATING THE DEAD + +"QUESTION: What is to us the chief symbol of man's ultimate redemption and +regeneration? + +"ANSWER: The fraternal supper, of bread which nourishes, and of wine which +refreshes and exhilarates, symbolical of the time which is to come, when all +mankind shall be one great harmonious brotherhood; and teaching us these +great lessons: that as matter changes ever, but no single atom is +anniliated, it is not rational to suppose that the far nobler soul does not +continue to exist beyond the grave: that many thousands who have died +might claim to be joint owners with ourselves of the particles that +compose our physical bodies; for matter ever forms new combinations; and +the bodes of the ancient dead, the patriarchs before and since the flood, +the kings and the commonpeople of all ages, resolved into their +constintuant elements, are carried upon the wind over all continents, and +continually enter into and form part of the habitations of new souls, +creating new bonds of sympathy and brotherhood between each man that lives +and all his race. And thus, in the bread we eat, and in the wind we drink +tonight may enter into and form of us part of us the identical particles of +matter that once formed parts of the material bodies called Moses, +Confucius, Plato, Socrates, or Jesus of Nazareth. In the truest sense, we +eat and drink the bodies of the dead; and cannot say that there is a single +atom of our blood or body, the ownership of which some other soul might not +dispute with us." (page 539) + + + I EXHORT YOU! + + COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM + +IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, AND HIS SHED BLOOD AT CALVARY, I EXHORT YOU +WHO CLAIM TO BE A MASON AND A CHRISTIAN, "Come out from among them and be +ye separate, saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing; and I will +receive you." (2 Cor. 6:17) + +"This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become +the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for +there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be +saved." (Acts 4:11-12) + +"For there is One God and One Mediator between God and men, the man Christ +Jesus." (1 Tim. 2:5) + +"According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise +masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. +But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other +foundation can no man lay that that is laid, with is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. +3:10-11) + +"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is +above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of +things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that +every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God +the Father." (Phil. 2:9-11) + +"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship +hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hat light with +darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he +that believeth with an infidel?" (2 Cor.6:14,15) + + + ONE OR THE OTHER + +Even as Elijah called out "Ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord +and thou has followed Baal!" I cry out "How long halt you between two +opinions?L If the Lord be God, follow Him. But if Baal, then follow him!" +(1 Kings 18:18,21) + +I am sorry, but there is not other choice for you right now. If you are a +Mason who professes to be a Christian either renounce your Christian faith +or renounce Masonry. One is from on high and the other is from the pit! +You cannot cling to both! + +Dare YOU risk laying your good works before the Lord on that last day only +to be told, "I never knew you, depart from me!" (Matt. 7:21-23) + +Every "Blue Lodge" member who reads this can no longer maintain his defense +of ignorance. Today, it stands revealed! Today, you must make your +choice! Every Mason, through the highest degree, has had the mask of +secrecy ripped away. You are without defense. Choose Jesus or choose +Lucifer. Renounce Jesus if you must, but do not stand in the assembly of +His saints and mock Him! Your unrepentant presence in the congregation of +a Christian body is a grieving of the Holy Spirit. + +I pray that you will choose Jesus, repent, and be set free from this wicked +power unto whom you have submitted your very soul! If this is your desire, +remember that we have this promise, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful +and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all +unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) + +Pray this prayer with me right now! "Father in Heaven, in the name of the +Lord Jesus, I confess that I have sinned. I confess that I have allowed +myself to fall under the power and authority of Lucifer, the god of +Masonry. I confess it as sin, and ask that you forgive me. I reject it +and cast it from me and will immediately remove my name from its rolls! +Jesus, I call you Lord and Saviour and ask that you come into my heart and +fill me with your love and Holy Spirit. Let no unclean thing remain! I am +yours and yours alone! I am set free! In Jesus' name, Amen!" + +Write to me, dear friend and let me know of your decision for Jesus Christ! +Your Brother in the Lord, J. Edward Decker Jr. + + + "And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; + Is it a small thing for you to weary men, + But will ye weary my God also?" + ISAIAH 7:13 + + FREE THE MASONS MINISTRIES + P.O. BOX 1077 + ISSAQUAH, WA 98027 + + diff --git a/religious documents/fremas02.txt b/religious documents/fremas02.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fced958 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fremas02.txt @@ -0,0 +1,241 @@ +===========[ The Christian BBS - 604-478-2789 - 24 Hrs - 8,N,1 ]=========== +The following file has been put up, though not necessarily done by Dave +Geauvreau who is the Sysop of "The Christian BBS," and can be contacted for +more information by phoning the bulletin board at (604)-478-2789, or the +voice line at (604)-478-0254, or by writing to 3053 Metchosin Rd., +Victoria, B.C., Canada - V9B 4Y9! All donations if by check are to be to +"The Christian BBS," and please note that finances do not allow me to +accept long distance charges and return mail must be pre-postaged paid. +=========================================================================== + + A PASTOR AND FREEMASONRY + WHAT'S A PASTOR TO DO? + + Harmon R. Taylor + + International Director H R T Ministries, Box 12, Newtonville NY 12128 + +I write this article as a pastor and as a former Mason. I served as head +of Welcome Lodge in Amsterdam, New York in 1980, and as Grand Chaplain of +the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York from +1983. Then a Christian brother's witness caused me to flee and to study +the roots of Freemasonry. The more I have studied since November 25, 1984 +when I renounced Freemasonry, the more embarrassed I have become that I was +ever a member, much less spiritual supervisor of 150,00 Masons in New York +State. + +Pastors need to consider the relationship of their church, their ministry +and their flock relative to Freemasonry. Masons are in the pulpits, in +other positions of leadership in the church and in the pews. In every case +they are either grossly deceived as I was for eleven years, or they are not +truly Christians. + +Charles G. Finney, the greatest of the 19th Century evangelists, left +Freemasonry when he acknowledged Christ as Savior and Lord of his life. He +wrote a book on the subject of Freemasonry. It has been reissued by Crown +Publication, Burlington, Ontario, Canada under the title, The Antichrist of +the Masonic Society. On page 139 he states correctly: "God hold the church +and every branch of it, responsible for its opinions and actions in +accordance with the best light, which, in His providence, is afforded them. + +"While Masonry was a secret, the church had no light, and no responsibility +respecting it ... Hence God did not require the church to bear any +testimony on the subject as long as Masonry was secret. "Freemasonry is +now revealed. It is no longer a secret from any who wish to be informed. + +"Since these revelations (the rituals) have been made, and both the church +and the world can know what Masonry really is, God demands, and the world +has a right to expect, that the church will take due action and bear a +truthful testimony in respect to this institution. She cannot now +innocently hold her peace. The light has come. Fidelity to God, and to +the souls of men, require that the church, which is the light of the world, +should speak out, and should take such actions as will plainly reveal her +views of the compatibility or incompatibility of Freemasonry with the +Christian religion. + +"...How can we fail to pronounce Freemasonry an anti-Christian institution? +... Its morality is unchristian, ... its oath-bound secrecy is unchristian, +... taking of its oaths are unchristian, ... Masonic oaths pledge its +members to commit most unlawful and unchristian acts, deliver each other +from difficulty whether right or wrong, favor Masonry in political action +and business transactions, sworn to retaliated, to persecute unto death the +violators of Masonic obligations, ...its oaths are profane, the taking of +the name of God in vain, ...the penalties of these oaths are barbarous and +even savage, ...its teachings are false and profane, ...its design is +partial and selfish, ...it is an enormous falsehood. + +"Every local branch of the Church of Christ is bound to examine this +subject, and pronounce upon this institution, according to the best light +they can get. God does not allow individuals, or churches, (or pastors), +to withhold action, and the expression of the opinion, until other churches +are as enlightened as themselves. + +"If churches who are known to have examined the subject withhold their +testimony; if they continue to receive persistent and intelligent +Freemasons; if they leave the public to infer that they see nothing in +Freemasonry inconsistent with a creditable profession of the Christian +religion, it will be justly inferred by other branches of the church, and +by the world, that there is nothing in it so bad, so dangerous and +unchristian as to call for their examination, action, and testimony. + +"It is almost universally conceded that persistent Freemasons, who +continued to adhere and cooperate with them, ought not to be admitted to +Christian churches." + + WHAT CAN PASTOR DO? + +What shall we as pastors say to our flocks that contain perhaps a great +number of professed Christians who are Freemasons? Again we look to +Brother Finney: + +"Let them (Freemasons) have no more to do with it. Let Christian men labor +with them, plead with them, and endeavor to make them see that their duty +is to abandon it." + +To these words of Brother Finney I can lend an "AMEN!" What can pastors +do? They can receive this article into their hands, perhaps from one of +their lambs, and prayerfully consider it. They can study at their library. +Albert Pike, Albert Mackey, 33rd degree, Henry Wilson Coil, 33rd degree, +and Arthur Edward Waite are all recognized authorities by State Grand +Lodges. They may contact me or this ministry for further information. +They can read an excellent sermon, "Freemasonry and Christianity" by Dr. +Alva J. McClain, founder and first president of of Grace Theological +Seminary. + +You will find and excellent resource in a six-part series on Freemasonry +which aired across the country in April and May of 1986. The series is +entitled, "THE MASONIC LODGE; Behind closed doors." It is available +through The John Ankerberg Show, Box 8977, Chattanooga, TN 37411 in audio +or VHS cassettes as well as in written transcript form. + + THE ONE THING THAT PASTORS CAN'T DO, IS NOTHING! + +A pastor is accountable to God Almighty for Christ's sheep in their flock. +I would never become involved in Freemasonry if a pastor had preached even +the poorest of sermons against Freemasonry in my youth. If he even +whispered in my ear! I spent eleven years in Masonry. I defended it to my +family, my church, my colleagues. God forgive me! + +Thank God my teen-agers didn't swallow my line. One went and educated +himself and both of them prayed, one for four years, and one for two years, +that I might be set free from the abomination of the cult of Freemasonry. +The day came when a Christian brother and former Mason, had the courage to +risk our friendship. He opened up his Masonic bible and shared the Light +as he there had found it in Jesus, the Light of the World. That Light +showed the light of Freemasonry to be darkness and deception. Each verse +he shared brought out Masonic debris like "Salvation by Works" from the +closets of my life. With the living room of my life now cluttered with the +false doctrines of Freemasonry, I renounced it that very day! I will never +forget the joy in the voices of my children as I told them over the phone! +I will never forget the tears on my mother's cheeks as she exclaimed, +"Another prayer answered! One more to go before I die!" Yes, and the +joyous embrace of my obedient wife! + + WE MUST RENOUNCE IT + +In the year after I renounced Freemasonry, I personally sat with each Mason +in my congregation and shared my testimony. Most defended the Fraternity. +Some even began a campaign against their pastor. So be it! "Greater is He +that is in me than he that is in the world!" Some left their positions of +authority in the church without ever being asked. On October 13, 1985 I +delivered a sermon entitled, "Mixing Oil With Water -- Christianity & +Freemasonry." That light exposed the darkness of Masonry and unrenouncing +Masons still in positions of authority fled in shame. In their place God +sent new people literally from across this country to take up the slack. +Finances that were threatened by these Masonic families, instead, increased +by 40%! The pledging units increased by 25%! Pastor, stand for God and He +will bless! + +I thank God for Bible-believing pastors. If you are one, know that in love +I say to you, "Pastor, you preach the Word with me! Yes, there will be +opposition. In the world you will have tribulation, said Jesus, but be of +good cheer because I have overcome the world." + +Preach boldly as we are instructed in Acts 18:9, Col. 1:28, 2 Tim. 4:2-5, +Heb. 2:11. Know that there will be rewards for any persecution that you +may face as recorded in James 1:3, 12. + +Pastor, did you know that Freemasonry will not permit the Name of Jesus to +be used in any regular and well governed Lodge? Did you know that when +they use a passage such as 1 Pet. 2:5 or 2 Thes. 3:6, they delete the +phrase that includes the name of our blessed and only Saviour, Jesus +Christ? That is not just an oversight, as reference to it states (*slight, +but necessary modifications have been made). Would you call deleting Jesus +Christ a "slight" or "necessary" modification? No! No Christian should! +1 John 2:22-23 says "Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the +Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever +denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son +has the Father also." Read also 1 John 4:2 in relation to this same +thought. + +Pastor, Hosea 4:6 declares, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. +Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being +priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will +forget your children." + + LET NONE PERISH + +As fellow pastors, we must agree that we do not want to see anyone perish. +Certainly, not the lambs in our own flock! Labor with me. As I share with +you, 433 men have renounced Masonry and are living more productive +Christian lives. They discovered that the "friendships" of the Lodge were +based on a Masonic bond and not upon genuine friendship. In every +instance they found Christians coming forward who had held back from +fellowship with them, not knowing how to confront their Christian brother +in his error. Without exception, they have confessed that their present +friends are more genuine and more fulfilling to their lives than what they +thought they had in the fraternity. + +If you have Masons in the membership of Christ's church, you, as pastor, +need to become educated and confront them in love. I was delivered from my +love of Freemasonry and left with an abiding love for Masons. I pray daily +for their release from the cult of Freemasonry. With prayer, preparation, +and sharing, they will come out of either Freemasonry or the Church. + + DWIGHT L. MOODY SPEAKS OUT + +Dwight L. Moody said, "I do not see how any Christian, most of all a +Christian minister, can go into these secret lodges with unbelievers. They +say they can have more influence for good: but I say they can have more +influence for good by staying out of them, and reproving their evil deeds. +Abraham had more influence for good in Sodom than Lot had." + +For this, D. L. Moody was challenged, "If you talk this way, you will drive +all the members of secret societies out of your meetings and out of our +churches." + +To this the bold pastor proclaimed, "But what if I did? Better men will +take their places. Give them the truth anyway, and if they would rather +leave their churches than their lodges, the sooner they get out of the +churches, the better. I would rather have ten members who are separated +from the world than a thousand such members. Better one with God than a +thousand without Him." + + WHAT'S A PASTOR TO DO REGARDING FREEMASONRY? + + - Pray for guidance and direction. + + - Study Freemasonry together with your Bible. + + - Write down your thoughts. + + - Share them with Masons when you're sure enough not to be deceived + by their uninformed or misinformed tales. + + - Proclaim from your pulpit the dangers of the double walk of a + Christian in Freemasonry. Let your flock know again that they + cannot serve two masters, nor can they have any other God before + them. (Masonry permits any and every god at the altar.) + +If you are a pastor, thank you for listening and may God bless you as you +serve Him and your flock for the glory of God. If you are a layman, your +pastor needs your support and your help. Pray for your Pastor; then share +this article. Continue to pray with expectation for your pastor and be +ready to assist your pastor in proclaiming the Truth and setting free the +oppressed. + + Free The Masons + P.O. Box 1077 + Issaquah, Wa. 98027 + + diff --git a/religious documents/fremas03.txt b/religious documents/fremas03.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c07d97a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fremas03.txt @@ -0,0 +1,223 @@ +===========[ The Christian BBS - 604-478-2789 - 24 Hrs - 8,N,1 ]=========== +The following file has been put up, though not necessarily done by Dave +Geauvreau who is the Sysop of "The Christian BBS," and can be contacted for +more information by phoning the bulletin board at (604)-478-2789, or the +voice line at (604)-478-0254, or by writing to 3053 Metchosin Rd., +Victoria, B.C., Canada - V9B 4Y9! All donations if by check are to be to +"The Christian BBS," and please note that finances do not allow me to +accept long distance charges and return mail must be pre-postaged paid. +=========================================================================== + + + FREEMASONRY + A GRAND CHAPLAIN + SPEAKS OUT + + GRAND LODGE + FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS + OF THE + STATE OF NEW YORK + + GRAND CHAPLAIN + 1983-1984 + REV. HARMON R. TAYLOR + + NOVEMBER 25, 1984 + +Dear Servant of God, + +Knowing that you desire to serve the Lord with all your heart, I share this +letter with you. Perhaps you have been struggling with the same situation. +On November 22nd, I sent the facts contained in this letter to all masonic +bodies of which I am a member. I invite you to prayerfully read it. It +will explain why I as a Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of Free and +Accepted Masons of the State of New York am requesting a demit from all +bodies of the masonic fraternity. There is much more that I could share. +I would be happy to share more if it will help you in the Lord's service. + +Many have asked me if Freemasonry is a religion. I have always responded +"No". Others have told me that it is a religion. Study has revealed the +fact that learned writers in the fraternity say MASONRY IS A RELIGION. The +Lord Jesus Christ said, "In the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word +is established" (Matthew 18:16). In order to be brief, I will quote only +four masonic authorities that masonry is a religion. + +Albert Mackey, one of the most well known masonic authorities, wrote in A +LEXICON OF FREEMASONRY (Pg. 402): "The religion, then, masonry, is pure +theism...". + +Albert Pike, the most important of all American masonic authorities wrote +in MORALS AND DOGMA (Pg. 213-214): "Every masonic lodge is a temple of +religion, and its teachings are instructions in religion...this is true +religion revealed to the ancient patriarchs; which masonry has taught for +many centuries, and which it will continue to teach as long as time +endures. + +J.S.M. Ward, a masonic authority who has written several important books on +masonry, wrote in his book FREEMASONRY: ITS AIMS & IDEALS (Pg.185): "I +consider freemasonry is a significantly organized school of mysticism to be +entitled to be called a religion." Ward continues on page 187, +"Freemasonry...taught that each man can by himself, work out his own +conception of god and thereby achieve salvation." It holds that there are +many paths that lead to the throne of the all-loving father which all start +from a common source. Freemasonry believes, according to Ward, "that +though these paths appear to branch off in various directions, yet they all +reach the same ultimate goal, and that to some men, one path is better and +to other, another. + +"Frank C. Higgins, a high mason, wrote in ANCIENT FREE MASONRY (Pg.10), "It +is true that Freemasonry is the parent of all religionl" + +These masonic witnesses all agree in their doctrine that masonry is, +indeed, a religion. It is necessary now to ascertain whether masonry is a +true religion or a false religion. In an article entitled, "HOW TO +RECOGNIZE A FALSE RELIGION" (Faith for the Family Nov/Dec 1974), a +prominent Christian leader wrote: "All false religions,have some things in +common. Here are three simple tests by which any religion should be +judged; + +FIRST: What is its attitude toward the Bible? + +SECOND: Any religious teaching should be tested by this question; What is +its attitude toward Jesus Christ? + +THIRD: In judging a religious system, we should ask, What is its attitude +toward the blood of Jesus Christ!" + +According to these three tests, masonry is a false religion manifesting a +satanic attitude toward the Bible, the Deity of Jesus Christ, an dht eblood +atonement of Jesus Christ. In order to establish this charge, keep in mind +the Wordo our Lord Jesus Christ who said, "In the mouth of two or three +witnesses every word shall be established. Please consider now the +testimony of masonic authorities which reveal masonry's satanic attitude +toward the Bible, the Deity of Jesus Christ and the vicarious atonement for +the sins of mankind by the shedding of christ's blood on the cross. + +Joseph Ford Newton, a famous authority and writer, in an article entitled +"The Bible and Masonry" wrote "The bible so rich in symbolism is itself a +symbol...thus, by the very honor which masonry pays the Bible, it teaches +us to revere every book of faith in which men find help for today and hope +for tomorrow, joining hands with the man of Islam as he takes his oath on +the Koran, with the Hindu as he makes covenant with God upon the book that +he loves best." + +Albert Pike, in Morals & Dogma, wrote (Pg.718) "Masonry propagates no creed +except it's own most simple sublime one; that universal reigion, taught by +nature and reason." + +One who is truly born-again can see from the above statement that masonry +totally rejects the doctrine of an infallible, God-breathed, inerrant +Bible. + +According to the Second Test, masonry is a false religion because it +totally rejects the crucial doctrine of the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. + +J.D. Buck, M.D., another masonic writer of importance, in his book +Symbolism of Mystic Masonry wrote (Pg.57) "In the early Church as in the +secret doctrine, there was not one Christ for the world but a potential +Christ in every man. Theologians first made a fettish of the impersonal, +Omnipresent divinity; and then tore the Christos from the hearts of all +humanity in order to Deify Jesus; that they might have a God-Man +particularly their own." + +One would have to look far and wide in the writings of false teachers to +find statements more blasphemous than this about the person of Jesus +Christ, my Lord. + +According to the Third Test, masonry is a fase religion because masonry +dogmatically rejects the doctrine of salvaion from the penalty of sin by +faith in the vicarious atonement of Christ's shed blood on the cross. + +Thomas Milton Steward, another masonic author, in his book Symbolic +Teaching on Masonry and Its Message, to support his doctrine quoted +favorable an apostate Episcopal minister who wrote (Pg.177), "Did Jesus +count Himself, conceive of Himself as a proprietary sacrifice and of His +work as an expiation? The only answer possible is, clearly, He did +not...He does not call Himself the world's priest, or the world's victim." + +Salvation by Faith in the vicarious atonement are not "ingnorant +perversions of the original doctrines" as masonry teaches, but they are +vital ingredients of the Glorious Gospel of Christ, which is the power of +God unto Salvation to everyone who believes. THEREFORE, masonry fails all +three tests. It manifests a satanic attitude toward the Bible, the Deity +of Christ, and the vicarious atonement. In addition to failing these +tests, there is much more proof that masonry is a false religion. + +For instance, Henry C. Clausen, 33 decree, Sovereign Grand Commander of +the Supreme Council 33 Decree mother council of the world, in the NEW AGE, +November, 1970, (Pg.4) wrote regarding masonry, "It is dedicated to +bringing about the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, and making +better men in a better world." + +The doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man is not +found in the Bible. It is a doctrine taught consistently by apostates. +Also, the Bible makes it crystal clear that no organization, masonry +included, can make better men. Only God can make better men! + +According to a masonic creed, found in the Masonic Bible, masonry teaches +that "character determines destiny." + +The teaching that character determines destiny is a false doctrine of the +Arch Deceiver of Souls. The Bible says, "There is none that doeth good," +and "For by Grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; +it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." + +Masonry is anti-Christian in its teachings. For example, J.M. Ward in +FREEMASONRY - ITS AIMS AND IDEALS wrote (Pg.187), "I boldly avere that +freemasonry is a religion, yet it no way conflicts with any other religion, +unless that religion holds that no one outside its portals can be saved." +Ward, in his statement, reveals the fact that masonry has no conflict with +any apostate religion on the face of the earth, but he also reveals that +masonry is in conflict with Christianity. The Bible says, "Neither is +there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven +given among men whereby we MUST be save" (Acts 4:12). Jesus said, "No man +cometh unto the Father but by Me." (Jn. 14:6). The Bible is plainly +teaching that there is only one way to heaven and the is Christ. + +A prominent college president said of masonry, "It is a luciferian +religion. We are fully aware of its diabolical origin and purpose. I +believe that any born-again Christian, when the facts from the lips of +masonic writers themselves are presented showing that masonry is a religion +and is the worship of Satan, will immediately withdraw." To this I must +add my hearty agreement! + +The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only True and Living God, +has clearly commanded Christian, "Be ye not unequally yolked together with +unbelievers, and swear not at all, and have no fellowship with the +unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." + +Charles Finney, the famed evangelist who God used to bring a revival in +America in the 1830's, in his book, FREEMASONRY wrote (Pg.115), "Surely, if +masons really understood what Masonry is, as it is delineated in these +books, no Christian Mason would think himself to remain at liberty to +remain another day a member of the fraternityl. It is as plain as possible +that a man knowing what it is, and embracing it in his heart, cannot be a +Christian man. To say he can is to belie the very nature of Christianity." + +For me, the signs of the time compared with prophetic Scripture, make it +apparent that we are livin in the last days prior to the Rapture of the +Church. Satan is hard at work trying to hinder believers' spiritual +growth, as well as trying to keep the unsaved from entering God's Family. +Freemasonry, I have come to believe, is one of Satan's master deceptions. +Many ministers, elders, deacons, trustees, and Sunday School teachers +belong to this cult. Today, my membership ends! Today, a new ministry +begins. There is a tremendous need to scrutinize the cultic nature of +Freemasonry in view of the massive infiltration of its effects on the +working body of the Church. It should be exposed to the True Light - Jesus +Christ! + + Love in Christ, Harmon R. Taylor + + FOR INFORMATION CONTACT REV. HARMON R. TAYLOR + BOX 12 NEWTONVILLE, NY 12128 + + OR + + FREE THE MASONS MINISTRIES + P.O. BOX 1077 + ISSAQUAH, WA 98027 + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/fremas04.txt b/religious documents/fremas04.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d120aa2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fremas04.txt @@ -0,0 +1,118 @@ +===========[ The Christian BBS - 604-478-2789 - 24 Hrs - 8,N,1 ]=========== +The following file has been put up, though not necessarily done by Dave +Geauvreau who is the Sysop of "The Christian BBS," and can be contacted for +more information by phoning the bulletin board at (604)-478-2789, or the +voice line at (604)-478-0254, or by writing to 3053 Metchosin Rd., +Victoria, B.C., Canada - V9B 4Y9! All donations if by check are to be to +"The Christian BBS," and please note that finances do not allow me to +accept long distance charges and return mail must be pre-postaged paid. +=========================================================================== + + WHO SAID A CHRISTIAN CAN'T BE A MASON? + +The Hebrew word "Messiah" and the Greek word "Christ" both mean annointed; +usually a consecrated person. When applied to Jesus, it means "God's +annointed one." The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is the Christ in many +places but the most definitive statements are found in Mark 14:61,62; +Matthew 16:15-17; and John 4:25,26. + +To deny that Jesus is the Christ is to condemn oneself to eternal +damnation. 1 John 2:22,23 says, "who is the liar but the one who denies +that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the +Father and the Son. whoever denies the Son does not have the Father, the +one who confesses the Son has the Father also." Revelation 21:8 says that +the unbelieving and liars will all be in the lake that burns with fire and +brimstone. + +Masonic tradition teaches the worship of the supreme God, the Great +Architect of the Universe. Who is this God? Investigate the words of +Albert Pike, 33rd degree Mason and author of Morals and Dogma, p.226: + + Masonry, around whose altars the Christian, the Hebrew, the Moslem, the + Brahmin, the followers of Confucius and Zoroaster, can assemble as + brethren and unite in prayer to the one God who is above all the + Ballim, must needs leave it to each of its Initiates to look for the + foundation of his faith and hope to the written scriptures of his own + religion. + +God teaches in Exodus 20:3-5, that "You shall have no other gods before Me, +you shall not make for yourself an idol...you shall not worship them or +serve them..." + +In Judges 1 and 2, the Israelites did not drive out the followers of false +gods and God's verdict was, "They shall become as thorns in your sides, and +their gods shall be a snare to you." (Judges 2:3) God's commandment to us +as Christians is not only should we not be bound together with unbelievers, +(2 Corinthians 6:14-17) but we should seek to make disciples of all nations +(Matthew 28:19-20) by preaching the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. + +Freemasonry is in direct conflict with the Bible in that Masonry condones +communal worship of a generic deity: + + To respect all forms of worship, to tolerate all political and + religious opinions; not to blame, and still less to condemn the + religion of others; not to seek to make converts; but to be content if + they have the religion of Socrates; a veneration for the Creator, the + religion of good works, and grateful acknowledgment of God's blessings. + (Morals and Dogma, p.333) + +In order for Masonry to be acceptable to all faiths, it is necessary to +relegate the Bible to a position of equality among all religious books: + + The Book of the Law shall be an indispensable article of the lodge + furniture. This book, however, need not necessarily be the Holy Bible; + but according to the religious faith of the members of the lodge. It + may be the Koran, the Zen Avesta, or the Vedas or Shasters. (The + Freemasons Pocket Companion, p.44-45) + +This statement, by implication, makes Jehovah God one god equal to many; an +interesting situation for the Masonic Christian whose all-knowing God knows +of no others (Isaiah 44:8). + +The final straw is laid on the proverbial camel's back when the deity of +Jesus is denied by Albert Pike. On page 524 of Morals and Dogma, he +states, + + We do not undervalue the importance of any Truth. We utter no word + that can be deemed irreverent by anyone of any faith. + +(Jesus, in John 14:6, declares Himself to be the Truth, exclusively.) In +the same paragraph, Pike make the blasphemous statement, + + And as little do we tell the sincere Christian that Jesus of Nazareth + was but a man like us, or His history but the unreal revival of an + older legend. + +In one paragraph, he destroys the very foundation of Christian beliefs and +then, as if he was totally oblivious to his own writings, states on the +facing page, + + Thus Masonry disbelieves no truth, and teaches unbelief in no creed, + except so far as such creed may lower its lofty estimate of the Deity, + degrade Him to the level of the passions of humanity. (Morals and + Dogma, p.525) + +The Gospel of the Bible is a gift to us from God and available to all who +simply believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer, the one who died for +sins and is resurrected. Christianity does not require a special meeting +place to conduct secret rituals that are sealed with blood oaths. (Matthew +5:34-37; Luke 12:1-3) At your next lodge meeting, ask yourself if you are +worshipping the Great Architect of the Universe, the God of all religions, +or are you truly worshipping Jehovah God, the one true God of the Bible. +If your answer is the latter, then you must ask yourself if your presence +in the lodge is truly honoring and glorifying your God. + +In answer to the question, "Who said a Christian can't be a Mason?", a +modern paraphrase could be made from the words of God's prophet Elijah: + + How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord + is God, follow Him; but if the "Great Architect of the Universe" is + God, follow him." (1 Kings 18:21) + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name + (besides Jesus) under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. + He who has ears to hear, let him hear. (Acts 4:12; Mark 4:9) + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + diff --git a/religious documents/fremas05.txt b/religious documents/fremas05.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c67f2c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fremas05.txt @@ -0,0 +1,199 @@ +===========[ The Christian BBS - 604-478-2789 - 24 Hrs - 8,N,1 ]=========== +The following file has been put up, though not necessarily done by Dave +Geauvreau who is the Sysop of "The Christian BBS," and can be contacted for +more information by phoning the bulletin board at (604)-478-2789, or the +voice line at (604)-478-0254, or by writing to 3053 Metchosin Rd., +Victoria, B.C., Canada - V9B 4Y9! All donations if by check are to be to +"The Christian BBS," and please note that finances do not allow me to +accept long distance charges and return mail must be pre-postaged paid. +=========================================================================== + + + THE F.A.T.A.L. FLAW + +"They he brought me to the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the +north; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz." Ezekiel 8:14 + +Since 1868, thousands of decent Christian women have innocently taken part +in pagan rites around an altar to the gods of witchcraft. They have been +deceived into bowing the knee to gods so vile and ancient that even the +pagan priests of Egypt blotted them out from their history. Women who +would blush with shame at the mention of satanism have been led to Satan's +altar by people they trusted. Often their own husbands, who were given +stewardship over them by Jesus Christ have violated that trust by leading +them into paths of idolatry. + +Alarming accusations! Yet this altar of idolatry is nestled right in the +bosom of Christianity - The Order of the Eastern Star! Much has been +written on the spiritual dangers of Freemasonry. Yet the "Star," is +equally perilous. + + SPIRITUAL "ADOPTION" + +The Star is known as "Adoptive" Masonry. This means mothers, daughters, +wives and sisters of Freemasons my be spiritually "adopted" into the +Masonic order. Hence, they come under its spiritual authority. Now since +Lucifer is the acknowledged god of Masonry, what does this "adoption" mean +for the woman who joins the Star? She is submitting herself to the +spiritual headship of Lucifer? Even a Christian woman is surrendering +herself, however innocently, to the gods of Masonry - and this will give +Satan an entry point into her life, regardless of how devout she is. + +When anyone, man or woman, becomes a Christian they are adopted into the +family of God (Rom.8:15-17). Yet when they kneel at a Masonic altar and +take those oaths, they are entering Satan's dominion, whether then know it +or not. This opens the door to all manner of problems. We have dealt with +women who entered the Star and then found their nights troubled by strange +dreams and demonic activity. As soon as they repented of their involvement +in the Star and renounced their oaths in the name of Jesus, the oppression +ceased. + +This is why we are told by Paul to avoid all contact with idolatry because +of what it can bring to our very door: "Do not be yoked together with +unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or +what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there +between Christ and Belial? ...Therefore come out from them and be +separate, says the Lord." - 2 Cor.6:14-15,17. + + HOOFPRINTS ARE EVERYWHERE! + +We need not look far into the Star to find evidence of Satan's presence. +His hoofprints are everywhere! To begin with the most obvious, we look at +the "signet" of the Order, which is an inverted five-pointed start- called +a pentagram in witchcraft. The fact is that this inverted pentagram is so +deeply and unmistakably associated with satanism that many witches fear to +use it for fear of the demons they attract. This star is used to draw down +the kingdom of Satan into manifestation on earth! (MAN, MYTH AND MAGIC, +vol.16,p.2159) + +This star can be drawn with the goat's-head inside. It then becomes the +badge of the Satanist, the infamous Goat of Mendes! This goat's name is +Baphomet, and it is the blasphemous god of the 12th Century Knights Templar +(the ancestors of today's Freemasons). + +Here is this sinister star, exalted as the very centerpiece of the Chapter! +Not only is the star inverted, by the colorful attributes of the 5 points +are even the correct colors for the four magical elements, air (blue), +earth (yellow), water (green) and fire (red); plus the fifth point, the +bottom, represents "akasha," the spiritual power of the "astral plane" +which is the fusion of all the other "rays" of the star into white. + +It is evident that the person who designed the Eastern Star had more than a +passing knowledge of black magic. That, in itself should make Christians +nervous. The Bible forbids any involvement with sorcery: + +"Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the +fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in +witchcraft, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. - +Deut.18:10-11 + +Worship of starts is especially condemned: + +The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled +like this place, Topheth - all the houses where they burned incense on the +roofs to all starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods. - +Jer.19:13 + +He (King Manassah) built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his +own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted +mediums and spiritists. -2 Kings 21:5-6 + +Please note the grievous sins associated with star-worship. "Tophet" is a +place where during the days of deepest sin in Israel, parents sacrificed +their children to the god Molech! It is a "place of burning" which later +on came to be known as Gehenna, the word often used by Jesus for hell! +(EERDMANS' CONCISE BIBLE HANDBOOK, P.203). Manassah sacrificed his own son +in the fire! + +If you lay out a satanic star and offer devotions at it, the moral and +spiritual consequences are ominous! You may say that you have been in the +Star for years and you are still a good member of your church and that you +aren't making sacrifices of your children - but think! + +Are our children not being sacrificed every day through abortion? Are not +the generations reared under the influence of the Star the first mothers to +lay their babies willingly upon the altars of the abortion clinic by the +millions? Are we not seeing the dividends of this pagan worship in the +corruption of the very ideals of motherhood? Are we not witnessing the +moral destruction of whole generations of children because of the mothers' +participation in these "harmless rituals"? + +Perhaps it is too much to blame the moral decay of our children on the +Star, but remember how in the Bible, the people of Israel kept falling into +disaster because they allowed a ""little" idolatry to creep into their +culture. If you wish to corrupt a culture, corrupt its mothers - and the +spiritual leprosy of Masonry is doing just that! + + "HIS STAR IN THE EAST" + +At this point you may protest and say that the Star is based on biblical +stories and that the star of the altar is intended to represent the "star +in the east" mention in Mt.2:2 which heralded the birth of Jesus. You may +point out that the motto of the order is: "We have seen his star in the +East and are come to worship Him." This sounds very pious, but actually it +is misdirection! + +First of all, the star of Bethlehem could not have been an "eastern star," +since most biblical expositors agree that the magi came form the east, and +that therefor a star over Judea would be in the western sky to their +viewpoint. Some scholars feel that the passage means that the magi were +"in the east" when they saw the star - others say that the term "in the +east" can also be translated alternately as "seen when it rose," meaning +that they saw the star as it rose. + +STRONG'S CONCORDANCE, in fact, gives the primary meaning of the Greek word +there, Anatole, as a rising of light; with "eastern" as only a figurative +meaning. VINE'S EXPOSITORY DICTIONARY concurs. The "Eastern Star" cannot +be the star of Bethlehem! Then whose star is it? + +In reality, the Eastern Star is a term among sorcerers for the star Sirius. +(See CITY OF REVELATION by John Michell, p.4) This fits perfectly because +in black magic, the inverted pentagram is the sign of Sirius or Set. (See +ALEISTER CROWLEY AND THE HIDDEN GOD by Kenneth Grant, p.12). But who is +Sirius, or Set? + +Sirius is the "Dog Star", the first star to rise in the east in the +latitudes of Egypt. It is sacred to Set, the satanic figure of Egyptian +religion. The Egyptians celebrated Sirius' ascendancy in the skies with +horrible, obscene rituals! In fact, the rites of Sirius or Set were so +debased that later rulers of Egypt deface their temples and obelisks and +tried to drive them from the land (See Grant, pp.70-71). + + "THE F.A.T.A.L FLAW" + +When the ladies of the Star say, "We have seen His Star in the East and are +come to worship Him.", who is "Him?" Is it the Jesus of Calvary or is it +some dogheaded, obscence god named Set? What does the evidence tell us? + +The Biblical elements in the Star ceremony are suspect to say the least - +based as they are upon dubious actions and mythical additions to the Bible. +Yet the occult elements in the Star's symbolism are obvious for anyone to +see! The Eastern Star is not the star which heralds Jesus, but the star +which heralds Set - the most ancient form of Satan in recorded history! + +But you may say that you don't believe in Set, and that you believe that +you are performing pious exercises. You say that you thought the Star was +a order which worships the true God. But my dear friends, every person +believes that the god they worship is the true God. The important they is +that if you are a Christian, the Bible tells you to "avoid even the +appearance of evil." -1 Thess. 5:22 and to "keep yourselves from idols." -1 +Jn.5:21. How can you keep yourself from idols when every other week or so +you gather around the most ancient and evil idol in human history? + +Is your presence in the Chapter really pleasing to the God who thundered +from Mt. Sinai and said, "I am the Lord your God..you shall have no other +gods before me." You can no longer protest innocence. You know the evil +origins of the symbols of the star and you know that the Lord Jesus forbade +the taking of oaths of any kind (Mt.5:33-37). What more do you need than +the knowledge that you are breaking the commands of the Gentle Master Whom +you serve? + +That is the F.A.T.A.L. flaw of the Star. The very term "cabalistic word" +refers to an ancient system of Jewish magic--the Quabalah! The Star's +"word" may be "Fairest Among Thousands Altogether Lovely," but it is asking +you to choose between the star of the evil and One who is your beloved +Bridegroom, "...dazzling and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand." - +Cant.5:10 Flee the headship and authority of Satan, and return to the arms +of Him who should be your Head, your Bridegroom, and your Savior, Jesus +Christ! + diff --git a/religious documents/fremas06.txt b/religious documents/fremas06.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..063fdad --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fremas06.txt @@ -0,0 +1,405 @@ +=========[ The Christian BBS - (604)478-2789 - 24 Hrs - 8,N,1 ]========= +Dave Geauvreau is the Sysop of "The Christian BBS," and can be contacted +for more information by phoning the bulletin board at (604)-478-2789, or +the voice line at (604)-478-0254, or by writing to 3053 Metchosin Rd., +Victoria, B.C., Canada - V9B 4Y9! All donations if by check are to be +to "The Christian BBS," and please note that finances do not allow me to +accept collect long distance charges/return mail must be pre-postaged +paid. +======================================================================== + + FREEMASONS + THE SECRET AGENDA OF THE MANAGERS OF HISTORY + +For many people recalling their school days seldom includes fond +memories of the history class. Boring lists of dates and names, who, +when and where but rarely ever why; it was all seemingly disjointed and +almost contrived to be instantly forgettable. + +The two-hundredth anniversary of the founding of America was celebrated +in 1976 and the same anniversary is being celebrated by the people of +the French Republic in 1989. There, is of course, an historical +connection which may not be too clear in many minds but even less clear +is why each celebration has been attended by some harsh criticism. A +glimpse behind the scenes of textbook history, however, reveals a hidden +agenda and exposure of this not only enables many historical episodes to +fall into place but provides a very clear picture of where present-day +world events are taking us. + +We begin early +in sixteenth century Europe where the invention of the printing press +had made both Bibles and the works of the Greek philosophers available +to many would-be scholars. The Background Ever since the fourth century +when the Roman emperor Constantine I made Christianity the official +religion, the Latin Church had gained increasing power and by the +sixteenth century the Western world was virtually ruled by the priest. +The Latin clergy in Europe, and the Pope in particular, had tremendous +power. But power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely with +the result that although Christian principles were generally the basis +for law, they were enforced more by the letter than by the spirit. + +The old Latin Church had governed by providing the people with all the +schools, universities and hospitals and ensured that everyone received +Christian instruction; most knew Scriptural principles and many, though +poor, tried to live by them. The ruling classes, however, received a +more extensive private education, often paid mere lip service to +Christian principles and believed it was their God-given right to keep +the poor in submission. The feudal working classes were thus submitted +to both priest and landowner who was in turn submitted to the King. But +then we find the shadowy figure of the priest standing behind every +throne! + +The corruption in the Latin Church eventually became so extreme that a +revolt was finally triggered against the papal system in Germany led by +Martin Luther; the date was 1517. England rejected the Latin pope about +a decade later only to make King Henry VIII pope of the Church of +England. These were the beginnings of the Protestant Church. + +The Latin Church continued and, after the Council of Trent (1545-1563), +became the Roman Church we know today. The Protestant Church dominated +Britain, Holland and parts of Germany and, at first, tried to adhere to +Biblical principles but power corrupts... Protestants generally regarded +the Roman Church as the root of all evil although in England by the +Seventeenth century, the Protestant Church itself was as full of +hypocrisy as the Roman Church was of superstition; both were filled with +corruption and each went to war against the other. + +Certain free-thinking men in England and in Europe perceived that it was +not just the Roman Church but Christianity itself which was responsible +for all the wars, corruption and inequality which had besieged Europe +for the past several hundred years. These men, who became the founders +of the "Enlightenment", wanted a total change. But it was dangerous to +speak openly against the Church and the King and organized discussion +had to be in secret. It happened that there were a number of secret +societies already in existence including the Rosicrucians and the +Freemasons. + +The latter were the builders of the great cathedrals and other major +buildings across Europe and England; they were a kind of early trade +union. In most parts of Continental Europe their numbers dwindled after +the Reformation and the Wars of Religion but in England they were still +very active. Then, in the late seventeenth century, they took on a very +different character. The free-thinkers, who were for the most part +Protestant, educated and influential, joined the Freemasons and, since +most of these gentlemen would not have known a square from a compass, +they were enrolled as "Speculative Masons" to distinguish them from the +original "Craft Masons". + +The distinction was of little consequence to the gentlemen of the +Enlightenment who had cuckooed their way into the secret society and +could now make their plans and network their intentions across Europe +with little fear. The dissatisfaction with Church and King had produced +four literary works on the Utopia theme: Thomas More began the trend +with his Utopia in 1516, Sir Francis Bacon followed with his New +Atlantis published posthumously in 1627; in Italy, Tommaso Campanella +produced his City of the Sun about 1634 and later, in France, Jean +Jacques Rousseau published his Social Contract in 1762. + +The authors of these works were well aware that the Greek philosopher, +Plato, writing in the 5th century BC, had also been dissatisfied with +corruption in the various systems of government. He had proposed a +Republic in which a team of "wise men" ruled the people. Plato's +Republic then became an ideal for the humanist free-thinkers in England +and Europe; the objective adopted by the speculative Masons was to +replace the existing order of rule by Church and King with a Republic. + + +They realized that in order to bring this form of government into +existence, they had to continue to work secretly and internationally +with the aim of first destroying the existing order. The long-term aim +was world peace through the elimination of wars between nations. But, +this would only be possible by dissolving all national sovereignty and +introducing a new world order un der one Republican World government. +The Masonic organization became world-wide from India to the Americas +under the old British Empire and, as we shall see, has been dedicated to +these lofty aims ever since. + +Who are the Masons? Although the history of Masonry has been +deliberately obscured, much work has been done in recent years by non- +Masonic historians to restore a reasonable measure of truth. However, +far worse than distorted Masonic history is the fact that Masonic +involvement in the affairs of nations has been completely erased from +the textbook. Thus, textbook history has been left as a series of +disjointed episodes without an agenda. Proof of this is the fact that +the early accounts of such leading historical characters as Benjamin +Franklin or Giuseppe Garibaldi make it very clear that Freemasonry +played a central part in their lives. However, by the time history was +written up in formal and scholarly tomes by the fellows of Trinity +College, Cambridge, there is not one hint that anyone was ever a Mason! +Cambridge historians George Trevelyan and his son, Sir George, were in +all likelihood fellow Masons and their censorship has, in a sense, been +too complete; the absence of any reference to Masonry is quite +noticeable. + +Masonic historical works are available in public libraries and they like +to claim many eminent names as their own; this is a starting point but +caution is necessary because some, like Voltaire, entered the +brotherhood virtually on their deathbed. Nevertheless, the point of +persuading eminent men to join, even though they may not be active, is +that their names can legitimately be used later to influence others. +Rousseau, Goethe, Mozart and Kipling to name a few, were all Masons. In +this way, many kings and presidents have become Masons. In England, for +example, we find Kings Charles I and II, William III, George IV, William +IV, Edward VII, George V and George VI were all Masons and several were +masters of the Grand Lodge. We will also find an impressive list of +Church of England Bishops among them (Calvert 1917). + +Then, in America, we will find that most signers of the Declaration of +Independence, including Franklin and Hancock, were Masons together with +practically every president since George Washington; president Reagan +was elected into the Scottish rite just before he left office and +president Bush has been a senior Mason for a many years. Some of these +men will have been aware of the ultimate aims of the brotherhood, others +will have been duped in by association with the great names in history +and remain blissfully unaware of the real objectives; president Reagan +was probably one of the latter. + +The roots of Masonry are closely allied with Sir Francis Bacon (1561- +1626) and Sir Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) in England. Both were associated +with the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons (Gould 1904, 243 and Webster +1924, 120). Ashmole was the founder of the Asmolean Museum at Oxford and +Bacon has been credited with today's "scientific method". Perhaps of +greater interest is Bacon's New Atlantis which describes the land of +Bensalem in which there is a co-operative college of science called +Solomon's house. The house is essentially a religious community in which +the men must all take an oath of secrecy; there are 33 orders of tasks. +The similarity between this and modern Masonry with its emphasis on +Solomon's temple and 33 degrees is surely more than coincidental. But +wait, careful reading of New Atlantis shows that there were three more +orders making a total of 36 and these last three are called +"Interpreters of Nature". Theirs is the most important and secret task +since all the others report to them. + +Is it possible that there are three higher orders in Masonry who oversee +the grand plan? From the number of Shriners in North America, each of +whom is a 32nd or 33rd Mason, it is amazing that not one, as far as is +known, has ever broken down and confessed all. The most likely +explanation is that most of the Shriners have no idea of the grand plan. +The effort to convince the public (but not the Inland Revenue Service) +and their own members that the Masonic objectives are charitable works +has evidently been highly successful. Many of the Rosicrucian and +Masonic groups were fused in 1717, the year of the inauguration of the +Grand Lodge, and their ritual standardized and canonized at this time. +John Toland is said to have been responsible for introducing the legend, +ritual and theology of speculative Masonry which he took from the +Hermetic and ancient Egyptian religions. + +Masonry itself is a religion while their own publications admit this; +they meet in a "temple", worship the "Grand Architect", use the King +James Bible but are very careful not to mention the name of Jesus. The +name is omitted from 1 Peter 2:3-5 which is their opening prayer. This +alone should indicate that their religion is anti-Christian by nature. +Bernal (1987, 173) has shown more recently that although the Masonic +objective was to create a band of illuminati who would lead the world to +a better, more peaceful and more tolerant way of life, many millenarians +within their ranks believed that knowledge had to be reassembled before +the coming thousand-year reign. It was this thinking added to the +thought that "wise men" needed to be trained in readiness for the first +Republic, that resulted in the establishment of the Royal Society in +1662. + +Founded by King Charles II, a Mason, the first president was Sir Isaac +Newton who was a Deist and most probably a Mason. The original craft +Masons always had a strong attachment to Egypt. The route is perhaps +tenuous but in the recognition that the ancient Egyptians were indeed +masters of building in stone, amythology was built up in which the +Masons saw themselves in theimage of Hiram, the half-Phoenician +craftsman builder of Solomon's temple. The Phoenicians were firmly +linked to the Egyptians in the Bible--both are listed as sons of Ham-- +and Hiram Abif is at the core of Masonic mythology. The name Hiram Abif +appears only in the Coverdale translation of the Bible published about +1540 and becomes simply "Hiram King of Tyre" in the King James version +(1 Kings 5:1). Every Masonic temple is patterned after the Egyptian +temples, aligned East to West with the main entrance at the East end and +the altar at the West end so that at the vernal equinox the rising sun +will cast a shaft of light through the entrance to the altar. This is a +vestige of pagan sun worship. + +The Egyptian obelisk has been adopted as a symbol of Masonic victory +over traditional Christianity and, once recognized, serves as a very +useful guide. In Egypt, the obelisk was a phallic symbol of the +resurrection through procreation, that is, the phallus was the means by +which man lived again through his off-spring. Thus, as a symbol of the +resurrection the obelisk has been used as a grave marker by the Masons, +particularly those in the senior ranks, since the sixteenth century. It +seems that the bodies of most of the English humanist thinkers +gravitated to Westminster Abbey in London and the place fairly bristles +with obelisk tomb markers. A few cemetery obelisks will contain a +Masonic square and compass to leave no doubt as to the connection but it +will be found that the personal graves of many an influential man is +topped by an obelisk: the grave of George Washington and of Sir John A. +MacDonald, first prime minister of Canada, are classic examples. The +craft Masons also tend to use the broken column as their marker but very +seldom will the empty cross be found marking a Masonic grave. + +As far as their use as victory markers, an obelisk was erected to mark +the battle of the River Boyne in Northern Ireland where Protestant +William of Orange defeated Catholic King James II in 1690. There is no +evidence that William II was a Mason but the obelisk was erected in the +following century to celebrate the victory of Protestantism over +Catholicism. The Masonic organization has always opposed the Roman +Church while the Roman Pontiffs have known this and have forbidden their +people to join the Masonic Order. In recent years, however, Masons have +infiltrated the Vatican and there now seems to be some sort of unholy +alliance. The largest stone obelisk in the United States is the 550 ft. +tall Washington Monument purportedly to commemorate George Washington's +birth place. There was a great scandal when it was erected because it +was done so at public expense and the people of the time knew its real +purpose was to commemorate Masonic victory over King George III and even +victory over Christianity itself in 1776. The monument was completed in +1884. Various other victories, real and perceived, will be found to be +marked by obelisks such as that at Bunker Hill in Charleston. The French +Revolution was even more successful than the American and they had to +have an even larger obelisk to celebrate their victory. + +There is a genuine obelisk stolen from Egypt to mark the victory of the +Bastille in Paris and then there is the daddy of them all, the Eiffel +Tower, just twice as tall as the Washington Monument and completed in +time for the centenary celebrations in 1889. + +These victory markers will be found world-wide and enquiry will usually +show that the loser in the battle will have been some sort of +Christianity while the victory will have been asignificant step towards +the establishment of a Republic. For example, on a hill in Sicily there +is an obelisk to commemorate the Masonic victory at Gibilrossa under +Garibaldi (A Grand Orient Mason) in 1860 which led to today's Italian +Republic. + +Masonic Objectives Achieved The plans had been made, the location was +sufficiently remote from Old World authority and a mildly oppressive +opportunity presented itself to justify the beginning of arevolution. +The place was Philadelphia and the date was 1776. + +Benjamin Franklin, journalist and publisher, was also shuttle diplomat +between like-minded revolutionaries in England and in Paris. Franklin +had persuaded Englishman and fellow-Mason, Thomas Paine, to return to +Philadelphia to help liberate America by inciting the common man to +revolt against King George III. Paine produced his Common Sense and, +after a successful revolution, this booklet was used a few months later +to form the basis for the now famous Declaration of Independence. Of the +fifty-six signatures, eight of the signatories are known to have been +Masons while twenty-four others are also claimed by the Masons to be of +their own (Knight 1983, 34). + +America was no longer a British colony but a Masonic Republic: Plato +would have been delighted. The problem with Plato's Republic however, is +that the "wise men" form a one-party government in which there are no +checks and balances. Many people in America at this time knew that this +was simply inviting trouble and insisted on an opposition party. A +right-wing Democratic party was formed, however, since that time, both +parties have slipped progressively further to the left and today the +Democratic party has overtaken the Republican in its quest for the left. + +It was mentioned earlier that the craft Masons looked to the early +Egyptians as masters of their craft but at the same time the speculative +Masons saw in early Egyptian government an ideal closely approaching +that of Plato's republic. The Egyptian pyramid epitomized both ideals: +extreme skill and a hierarchy of power. In choosing the Great (Cheops) +pyramid for the reverse side of the Great Seal of America. Would it be +idle speculation to suggest that the missing capstone of this pyramid +representsthe elite, the three final and secret degrees, seeing but not +being seen? The Great Seal of the United States was designed in 1789 and +it was American President and 32-degree Mason, Franklin Delano +Roosevelt, who commissioned the Great Seal to be placed on the back of +the one dollar bill in 1935. The reverse side of the Seal shows the +Great pyramid with the capstone replaced by the all-seeing eye and the +Latin caption which proclaims: "1776: + + +In this year began the New World Order". The French Revolution was a +contrived affair from the beginning with many of the same prime movers +as in the American Revolution thirteen years earlier. The difference was +that by 1789 every Protestant had been driven from France and the Roman +Church was fully in control whereas America had become the home to many +of the persecuted Protestants. A food shortage was engineered in Paris +and the people incited to revolt against authority. The focal point was +a great prison house, the Bastille, which was said to contain many +hundreds of their compatriots. On July 14th, 1789 the mob stormed the +Bastille only to find it occupied by seven dirty old men; one of them +was the Marquis De Sade who well deserved to be there! A hollow victory +but one which has been celebrated by Frenchmen now for 200 years. + +The story of the French Revolution ha s been told many times and has +been vilified and glorified according to every writer's viewpoint. For +those who find comfort in the thought of living in a Socialist Republic, +the French Revolution was the most wonderful thing that could have +happened. Liberty, equality and just fraternity were promised but what +did the promises really mean? Liberty from God, equality for all except +the ruling elite and fraternity such as may be found in a thieve's +kitchen! We might also recall that the Russian people have lived under a +Socialist Republic ever since their revolution in 1918. Royalty was +beheaded and the church defrocked and drummedout. Priests had the +choice: publicly renounce their faith or accept the guillotine. Churches +were closed, bibles publicly burned and within three short years the +country had moved from Catholicism to atheism to paganism. Pantheism and +Nature worship had replaced whatever vestige of Christianity there was +in France in a matter of months. With a zeal to completely change th +eentire order of things, the Metric system was introduced in 1793 and +attempts were also made at this time to metricate time itself with a +ten-day week. Fortunately, the long-suffering Frenchman refused this but +the idealists have been trying to introduce the ten-day week with every +revolution since; it has never been successful. + +The first French Republic was a failure and so was the second; +eventually, the 'wise-men' turned out to have feet of clay and Napoleon +Bonaparte was invited to rule over the brave new Republic. He was not +even a Frenchman and was generally regarded by the Christian world as +the Antichrist himself. + +Napoleon was a diabolically clever megalomaniac and Mason who knew just +what he was about. He led thousands of the best of the nation 's young +men to their death in a futile attempt to bring the World under one +Republican rule. Lord Acton in his Essays on the French Revolution +wrote: "The appalling thing in the French Revolution is not the tumult +but the design. Through all the fire and the smoke we perceive the +evidence of calculating organization. The managers remain studiously +concealed and masked; but there is no doubt about their presence from +the first" (Webster 1969, ix). + +The managers are still there, still manipulating with one steadfast +purpose: to destroy the existing order and install in its place a one +World Republic. If we have any doubts about the identity of the managers +we have only to look to the statue of Liberty in New York harbour. +Presented in 1884 as a gift from the Masons of France to the Masons of +America in celebration of the centenary of the first Masonic Republic +and liberty from the laws of God. At the great bicentenary celebrations +in Paris on July 14th 1989, it was no coincidence that the G7 Conference +was held there at the same time. Today's managers were there: +M.JacquesDelors, the President of the ECC, Helmut Kohl, President Bush +and the others, many known to be Masons, lined up for the publicity +photograph. A typical Masonic touch was the backdrop to the picture: a +large pyramid especially erected for the occasion. + +1992 will see the dissolution of European and British national +sovereignty and the making of one monolithic European Republic. +Government will no doubt still have the appearance of being democratic +with opposition parties but, in fact, there will be only token +opposition because every party, no matter what the name, will be as it +is today, stacked with like-minded individuals and with one Masonic +objective. Welcome to Plato's Brave New World. + +REFERENCES + +Bernal, Martin. 1987. Black Athena .Volume 1. London: Free Association +Books. + +Calvert, Albert. 1917. The Grand Lodge of England:1717-1917. London: +Herbert Jenkins Ltd. + +Gould, Robert F. 1904. A Concise History of Freemasonry. London: Gale +and Polden. + +Knight, Stephen. 1983. The Brotherhood . London: Grenada Publications. + +Webster, Nesta. [1919] 1969. The French Revolution . Reprint. Hawthorne, +CA.: Christian Book Club of America. + +Confirmatory evidences are invited, please send them to: TFE Publishing +P.O. Box 5015, Station F Toronto, Ontario CANADA M4Y 2T1 + +Copyright TFE Publishing 1989 + + End of Text + *********** + + diff --git a/religious documents/frmsawol.txt b/religious documents/frmsawol.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eb32608 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/frmsawol.txt @@ -0,0 +1,159 @@ +From: Peter Trei +Subject: Pamphlet: Freemasonry as a way of Life. + + + What follows the is a verbatim copy of a booklet printed for + distribution to prospective members of Masonry. It attempts to + explain what Masonry is about and to address many of the popular + myths. + + It was published by the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Ancient Free + and Accepted Masons of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1980 (so + the numbers are somewhat dated). + + FREEMASONRY--A WAY OF LIFE + + The Fraternity of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons is the oldest, + largest, amd most widely known fraternal organization in the world. + + Literally thousands of books have been published about Freemasonry, + but its organization and philosophy are still misunderstood by many. + + This folder therefore has been prepared to present correct + information for everyone and thereby dispel incorrect beliefs. + + HISTORICAL SKETCH + + In a broad sense, the history of Freemasonry may be divided into + three periods, namely: the ancient or legendary, the medieval or + operative, and the modern or speculative. + + The ancient or legendary period has been traced by historians to the + Tenth Century B.C. when masons, or stone workers, were employed in + the building of King Solomon's Temple. During the medieval or + operative period, guilds or associations of artisans were formed as + operative masons. Their work was largely confined to the building + of cathedrals. As artificers in stone, these masons traveled + through Europe making use of their skill and secrets of their + guilds. + + The modern or speculative period occurred during the 17th Century. + It was then that ecclesiastical building declined. This caused many + guilds of stonemasons, then known as "Operative Masons" to accept as + members those who were not a part of the mason's craft. These + members were then called "Speculative," and acquired the designation + of "Accepted Masons." + + As a result of this significant development, Freemasonry, as it is + known today, had its historic beginning. + + In 1717 four Lodges of Freemasons meeting in London, England, formed + the first Grand Lodge in the world. This Grand Lodge chartered + Masonic Lodges and Provincial Grand Lodges in many countries, + including the United States. + + MASONRY IN MASSACHUSETTS + + Regular and duly constituted Freemasonry in North America was born + in Massachusetts in 1733. It was on July 30 of that year in Boston, + that Henry Price organized the Provincial Grand Lodge of + Massachusetts at the famous Bunch of Grapes Tavern. This followed + the issuance of a deputation in April 1733 by the Mother Grand Lodge + of England appointing Henry Price the "Provincial Grand Master of + New England and Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging." + + The Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts is the administrative + authority for the Masonic Lodges within the Commonwealth of + Massachusetts as well as Lodges located in the Canal Zone, Chile, + China, Japan, and Caribbean Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; with a + membership of approximately 95,000. + + MASONRY AROUND THE WORLD + + There are approximately 6,000,000 Masons who are members of about + 150 Grand Lodges in the world today. Of these, there are 49 Grand + Lodges in the United States with a membership of about 4,000,000 + Masons. + + A MASONIC LODGE + + The basic unit of all Grand Lodges is the Masonic Lodge, commonly + referred to by its members as the "Blue Lodge." This is where + Masonry operates on a local level under the Jurisdiction of its + Grand Lodge. It is here that the Masonic Lodge receives and acts on + petitions for membership in Freemasonry, and confers the three + Symbolic Degrees known as the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and + Master Mason Degrees. + + MEMBERSHIP + + Membership in Freemasonry is limited to adult males without regard + to race, color, or creed, who are of good character and reputation. + + Information concerning membership must be requested by a man of his + own free will and accord, from one one he believes to be a Mason. + This is necessary because Freemasonry does not solicit members, nor + can a Mason invite a friend to join. All inquiry is strictly + voluntary on the part of the applicant. Then he must be recommended + by a member of the Masonic Lodge to which he is seeking admission. + When his application is favorably received by the Lodge, the + applicant must be given a unanimous ballot before he can receive the + Degrees. + + A VIEW OF FREEMASONRY + + Freemasonry is many things, but one brief description could be that + it is a society for the joint effort of its members towards + individual self-improvement, a fraternity for learning and + culivating the art of living and the building of character. + + It is not a club, nor a mutual benefit or insurance society. It is + not an organization or a forum for political or social reform, and + profit is not one of its motives, although members of the Fraternity + do share in the many services and charity that are afforded them. + + The principles of Freemasonry are steadfastly acclaimed as Brotherly + Love, Relief and Truth. In its teachings great emphasis is placed + on the cardinal virtues of all ages: Temperance, Fortitude, + Prudence, Justice, Faith, Hope, and Charity. Its ethical principles + can be accepted by all good men, and tolerance toward all mankind is + embraced by the entire membership. + + MASONIC SECRECY! + + Freemasonry is secret only in the manner by which one member + recognizes another, and its method of symbolic instruction. It is + not a secret society, but a society with secrets. Freemasonry makes + no attempt to conceal its existence, its principles, its purpose, or + its aim. Its members proudly declare their affiliation. Masonic + buildings are publicly located and clearly identified. Gatherings + of its members are frequently public with announcements published in + the press. Its Constitutions are printed for any to see, and its + rules and regulations are available for inspection. + + IS MASONRY A RELIGION? + + Though religious in character, Masonry is not a religion, nor a + substitute for one. It fosters belief in a Supreme Being--this + being a prerequisite for membership. Freemasonry accepts good men + who are found to be worthy, regardless of their religious + convictions, and strives to make better men of them by emphasizing a + firm belief in the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, and + the Immortality of the Soul. + + A good Mason is invariably a better church member, and a regular + church attendant makes a better Mason. Religious men go to church, + not to their Lodge, to worship God. They go to their Masonic Lodge + to learn moral truths and how to apply them to their everyday home + and business lives. + + A WAY OF LIFE + + Freemasonry is Charity for all mankind; practice of the Golden Rule; + love of country; serving God with reverence; treating the home and + family with tenderness and affection; being humble; helping the weak + and lowly; adherence to the cardinal virtues; and greeting everyone + on the same level of human understanding. All these, and many other + ways constitute + + FREEMASONRY AS A WAY OF LIFE diff --git a/religious documents/fuchu.txt b/religious documents/fuchu.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ab1d83 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fuchu.txt @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ + ************************************************************** + + S P E C I A L O F F E R BY F.U.H.C.U. !! + + ************************************************************** + + Hello, you disenfranchised folks out there in echoland! 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No need to plug it in to + any outside source for complete operability! + + Your _Document of Godhood_ is lovingly crafted by a divinely in- + spired scribe, complete with a limited (though extensive) library + of obscurantist iconography and fonts to personalize your One True + Godness from all other False Gods , then carefully + shipped to you via netmail in .JPG format (or .GIF, though costs + and curses by sysops increase) For an extra bonus to the first + ten who apply, a *special clause* will be added to denounce all + other One True Gods and mere demigods or members of panthea + as Satan or a Dark Dualist Half of your choice...absolutely FREE + OF CHARGE! + + This Document will establish that you, the One True God, have + inspired the document which loudly, joyously proclaims that you + are indeed the One True God . No need to muck around with mere + demigod status, or content to be simply "a god"--you're Number + One--not just The Big Kahuna, but the one who the Kahuna answers + to! King of Kings! God of All Gods! Judge, Jury, Executioner! + + **************************************************************** + + [*] NOT VOID WHERE PROHIBITED: This Document entitles you to + all perks and privileges of being the One True God on + Earth as it is in Heaven, but a gentle disclaimer must ac- + company this advertisement which warns that: + + 1) certain heathen nations who govern themselves according + to the doctrine Separation of Church and State may hold + you personally liable for any genocides, murders, or les- + ser felonies and misdemeanors perpetrated by either you + or an adherent to your faith who commits a crime in your + name or according to you, God, speaking to them. + + 2) other heathen nations who have foolishly cast their lot + with theocracies established on impostor gods may attempt + to justify trying you on grounds established within the + bounds of their false religion. (Sorry Gods-to-be, but + this document only establishes you're God--you and your + followers will have to fight it out in the trenches with + the heathen believers to convince them of their folly.) + + **************************************************************** + + To take advantage of this WONDERFUL OFFER, simply fill out the + form in the next post and send it via netmail to Robert Jackson + at (1:390/87). You will receive a UUencoded .JPG file in return + which will confer instant One True Godhood immediately upon + UUdecoding and saving to your hard disk. You may print out copies + of your Document for distribution to potential believers, but any + subsequent alteration of the Document may hamper efforts to be + perceived as infallible by skeptics and religion debunkers. + + **************************************************************** + + Brought to you by FUHCU: "Hostile Takeovers and LBOs of All the + World's Major Religions by the Year 2020!!" diff --git a/religious documents/fuck_001.txt b/religious documents/fuck_001.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..041dde8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fuck_001.txt @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ + F.U.C.K. Sermon 001 + (FUCK_001.TXT or FUCK_001.ZIP) + + Practice Random Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty + ----------------------------------------------------- + by Deufreuddwyd + +It's a crisp winter day in San Francisco. A woman in a red +Honda, Christmas presents piled in the back, drives up to +the Bay Bridge tollbooth. "I'm paying for myself, and for +the six cars behind me," she says with a smile, handing over +seven commuter tickets. + +One after another, the next six drivers arrive at the +tollbooth, dollars in hand, only to be told, "Some lady up +ahead already paid your fare. Have a nice day." + +The woman in the Honda, it turned out, had read something on +an index card taped to a friend's refrigerator: "Practice +random kindness and senseless acts of beauty." The phrase +seemed to leap out at her, and she copied it down. + +Judy Foreman spotted the same phrase spray-painted on a +warehouse wall a hundred miles from her home. When it +stayed on her mind for days, she gave up and drove all the +way back to copy it down. "I thought it was incredibly +beautiful," she said, explaining why she's taken to writing +it at the bottom of all her letters, "like a message from +above." + +Her husband, Frank, liked the phrase so much that he put it +up on the wall for his seventh graders, one of whom was the +daughter of a local columnist. The columnist put it in the +paper, admitting that though she liked it, she didn't know +where it came from or what it really meant. + +Two days later, she heard from Anne Herbert. Tall, blonde, +and forty, Herbert lives in Marin, one of the country's ten +richest counties, where she house-sits, takes odd jobs, and +gets by. It was in a Sausalito restaurant that Herbert +jotted the phrase down on a paper place mat, after turning +it around in her mind for days. + +"That's wonderful!" a man sitting nearby said, and copied it +down carefully on his own placemat. + +"Here's the idea," Herbert says. "Anything you think there +should be more of, do it randomly." + +Her own fantasies include: (1) breaking into +depressing-looking schools to paint the classrooms, (2) +leaving hot meals on kitchen tables in the poor parts of +town, (3) slipping money into a proud old woman's purse. +Says Herbert, "Kindness can build on itself as much as +violence can." Now the phrase is spreading, on bumper +stickers, on walls, at the bottom of letters and business +cards. And as it spreads, so does a vision of guerrilla +goodness. + +In Portland, Oregon, a man might plunk a coin into a +stranger's meter just in time. In Patterson, New Jersey, a +dozen people with pails and mops and tulip bulbs might +descend on a rundown house and clean it from top to bottom +while the frail elderly owners look on, dazed and smiling. +In Chicago, a teenage boy may be shoveling off the driveway +when the impulse strikes. What the hell, nobody's looking, +he thinks, and shovels the neighbor's driveway too. + +It's positive anarchy, disorder, a sweet disturbance. A +woman in Boston writes "Merry Christmas!" to the tellers on +the back of her checks. A man in St. Louis, whose car has +just been rear-ended by a young woman, waves her away, +saying, "It's a scratch. Don't worry." + +Senseless acts of beauty spread: A man plants daffodils +along the roadway, his shirt billowing in the breeze from +passing cars. In Seattle, a man appoints himself a one man +vigilante sanitation service and roams the concrete hills +collecting litter in a supermarket cart. In Atlanta, a man +scrubs graffiti from a green park bench. + +They say you can't smile without cheering yourself up a +little -- likewise, you can't commit a random act of +kindness without feeling as if your own troubles have been +lightened if only because the world has become a slightly +better place. + +And you can't be a recipient without feeling a shock, a +pleasant jolt. If you were one of those rush-hour drivers +who found your bridge fare paid, who knows what you might +have been inspired to do for someone else later? Wave +someone on in the intersection? Smile at a tired clerk? Or +something larger, greater? Like all revolutions, guerrilla +goodness begins slowly, with a single act. Let it be yours. diff --git a/religious documents/fuck_eth.txt b/religious documents/fuck_eth.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c02a412 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fuck_eth.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ + First Untied Church Kalisti + Ethics + - Copyright 1992 by Grinning Coyote + +1. An it harm none, do what thou Will. + +2. Be free in thought and word, except in opposition to #1. + +3. Have no constrictions in life, be they clothing, + lifestyle, or state of being, as all constrictions have + adverse effects on the soul. Such things as bigotry, + tight clothing, etc. are hazardous to the soul and are + to be shunned. + +4. Learn something new every day of your life without + exception, as Knowledge is the only True Path to + Nirvanna, and Ignorance is the quickest route to + oblivion. + +5. Do not solicit your faith, but instead propagate "Just + Say Know". Do not, however, offer such information in + the name of F.U.C.K. unless asked, as overt solicitation + of faith is constricting to others. diff --git a/religious documents/fuck_int.txt b/religious documents/fuck_int.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4edf706 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fuck_int.txt @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ + First Untied Church Kalisti + Introduction + - Copyright 1992 by Grinning Coyote + +F.U.C.K. offers its Sermons as text files for download or +online viewing, and for File Request and File Echo (.TIC) +between BBSs. The magic name SERMON will always get the +latest sermon. + +Sermons may be submitted by any Pope to the Mother Church +(1:314/23@FIDO or 143:602/753@GodNet) for distribution. +These Sermons may be on any topic, though they should be +tied into the Tenets and/or Ethics of F.U.C.K. or +Discordianism in general. + +Sermons will be released as soon as they are reviewed by the +Avatar. Any sermon containing illegal material (credit card +numbers, etc.) will be deleted upon review, and a letter +regarding the ethics of such transmission will be sent to +the originator. + +The nomenclature for the Sermon submittals shall be +S#??????.TXT (.ZIP for the archived version) with the ?s +being the Fido or GodNet Node Number whenever possible, or +first six letters of your Order Name, or some way of +identifying who sent the Sermon has come from. Hard Copy +submittals should be sent to F.U.C.K., P.O. Box 4062, +Kingman, AZ 86402. diff --git a/religious documents/fuck_org.txt b/religious documents/fuck_org.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a4c1c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fuck_org.txt @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ + First Untied Church Kalisti + Organization + - Copyright 1992 by Grinning Coyote + +The AVATAR + There shall be one Avatar of F.U.C.K. He or she is + answerable only to Eris, Coyote and other deities. The + responsibilities of the Avatar are as follows: + + A. Review and release all sermons. + B. Maintain F.U.C.K. Headquarters BBS, paying all phone + bills for the Headquarters, and upgrading whenever + possible and/or necessary. + C. Keep copies of all F.U.C.K. materials in the + Download and File Request areas online and backed up + at all times. + D. Make all Church Policy. + E. Able to Appoint any position except Popes of Eris + and Kalisti, except on his or her own BBS. + +1. POPES of DISCORDIA + There shall be either one or two Pope of Discordia + per BBS which is part of F.U.C.K. He and/or she is + answerable only to the Avatar regarding Church + matters, but have full and complete power over his + and/or her own BBS. The responsibilities of the + Popes of Discordia are as follows: + + A. Able to submit Sermons. + B. Maintain the BBS which they are in charge of. + C. Offer F.U.C.K. materials whenever possible. + D. Make all BBS policy. + E. Able to appoint any position below them. + +2. POPES of ERIS + Popes of Eris are appointed as needed in order to + help individual Popes of Discordia in the workings + of their BBSs. Responsibilities of Popes of Eris + are as follows: + + A. Able to submit Sermons + B. Help the sponsoring Pope of Discordia in any way + requested. + C. Be knowledgible of F.U.C.K. materials. + D. Able to appoint Popes of Nox and below. + +3. POPES of KALISTI + Popes of Kalisti are appointed under special + circumstances by Popes of Discordia. They have no + responsibilities that they may submit Sermons. + Other benefits are the sole responsibility of the + sponsoring Pope of Discordia on the individual BBS + involved. + +4. POPES of NOX + Popes of Nox are appointed at any time by Popes of + Eris and above as a reward for Illumination. They + are allowed to submit Sermons, but have no other + responsibilities or benefits whatsoever. + +5. PRACTITIONERS and PETITIONERS + Practitioners and Petitioners are considered members + who hold no office. The practitioner is the normal + member of F.U.C.K. Petitioners are those + Practitioners who have submitted a Sermon but have + not yet had it accepted by the Avatar. Once the + Sermon has been accepted, the Petitioner will be + notified of his or her new status as a Pope of Nox. diff --git a/religious documents/fuck_ten.txt b/religious documents/fuck_ten.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc7430b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/fuck_ten.txt @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ + First Untied Church Kalisti + Tenets + - Copyright 1992 by Grinning Coyote + +1. First Untied Church Kalisti (hereafter known as + F.U.C.K.) is a Religious Organization dedicated to the + Illumination of Humanity to its highest potential. This + Illumination is given by electronic media as messages + and text files on electronic bulletin board systems + (BBSs) located around the world for that purpose. All + services are held in this manner. The mailing address + for the main organization is P.O. Box 4062, Kingman, AZ + 86402. The data phone number is (602) 753-3784. The + voice message phone number is (602) 753-3615. + +2. F.U.C.K. follows the supreme rules of Agnosticism + tempered by the attention of the Goddess Eris, the God + Coyote, and other deites of "Excrement Occurs", and the + recognition of the fundamental Truth of Murphy's Laws. + +3. F.U.C.K. does not condone actions which are illegal or + unethical in nature. F.U.C.K. ethics are defined in the + document "First Untied Church Kalisti Ethics" + (FUCK_ETH.ZIP). + +4. F.U.C.K. Organization includes one Avatar, plus at least + one Pope of Discordia per BBS. Popes of Discordia have + final say on their on BBSs, as all F.U.C.K. positions + are voluntary, including the use of any equipment, + including Computer and any other information media, and + if a volunteer leaves the Church, he or she takes their + equipment with them. F.U.C.K. is not responsible for + costs incurred by volunteers, nor will it receive + payment from them for any reason whatsoever. + +5. F.U.C.K. holds education in all subjects as the Key to + Illumination and the only True Path to Nirvanna, so it + has begun a campaign to "Just Say Know", which is + considered the answer to Life, the Universe, and + Everything. We believe that the human species will rise + to a higher plane of existance when bigotry and + ignorance are extinct and freedom of the soul is + complete with no constraints. diff --git a/religious documents/future.txt b/religious documents/future.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32de3fc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/future.txt @@ -0,0 +1,793 @@ + FUTURE + THE + SECOND COMING OF CHRIST + + I. Introduction + + The Bible tells us that as Christians we are only pilgrims in this + world, citizens of a Heavenly Kingdom, looking forward to our + salvation in the Second Coming of Christ and Eternity. In the + book of 1 Thessalonians and in the Gospel of Matthew we are told + that the coming of Christ will be on a day much like today; a day + when people will be eating and drinking, marrying and being given + in marriage (Mat 24:38). It will come like a thief in the night + and at an hour when we do not expect it (1 Thess 5:2). So that it + does not take us by surprise we are warned to be ready for Him, to + keep watch, (Mat 24:42,44), and to encourage one another to live + godly lives (1 Thess 5:8,11). According to God's calendar of + events it could begin at anytime, today, tonight, or tommorow. + + In light of this I would like us to consider some of the major + passages of the Bible concerning the Second Coming of Our Lord + Jesus Christ and the events of the end times so that we may more + eagerly look forward to our coming salvation in the return of + Christ. + + I have linked many Scriptures together chronologically to form a + picture of the end time events as I believe they will happen. I + would like you to take a trip forward in time right where you are + and view the events of the end times as history, as if you are + hearing a story that has already occurred. Can you picture us in + eternity future, looking backwards toward this era? Let me be + your guide. + + A. Voice from the Future + + Picture us standing right now in the Father's House, in the + city called the New Jerusalem. The walls of our city are + crystal clear like a diamond and the streets are made of + pure gold like transparent glass. There is no night here + for brilliant light shines everywhere. Neither is there + death nor sin for the old order of things has passed away. + + The New Jerusalem is extremely large. It measures + approximately 1400 miles square and is an unbelievable 1400 + miles high (Rev 21:4). It is surrounded by a jeweled wall + 200 feet high which has twelve gates made from pearls and + the gates are attended by angels. In the city is the Tree + of Life just like the one that was in the Garden of Eden, + and we all eat of its fruit. We drink from the spring of + the Water of Life that flows down the main street of the + city. The glory of God is the illumination of the city. + We experience total joy and perfect peace here with God. + + Now permit me to share some of the chronological account of + the major events that have taken place since Jesus came for + us at the end of the Church Age. + + II. Events Prior to Second Coming + + A. Rapture + + 1) The Promise (John 14:2-3) + + When the beloved Jesus ministered on the earth during His + first coming, He had promised His followers in the Church + that He would return to Heaven for a while and then come + back for His bride. In fact His exact words were, "In my + Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would + have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for + you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come + back and take you to be with me that you also may be where + I am." + + Because it had been so long, some in the Church Age had + struggled with the fact that Jesus would come back. They + knew that He said He would return but life seemed so normal + and therefore highly unlikely He would return in their + generation. Yet, as Jesus said in the Book of John, "I will + not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (14:18). + + 2) The Event (1Thess 4:16-17) + + Yes, Jesus came back exactly as it was recorded in the + Scriptures. Jesus had told us to, "...keep watch, because + you do not know on what day your Lord will come...the Son of + Man will come at an hour when you least expect Him" (Mat + 24:42,44). + + It was a day that was like many others on the earth. Some + Christians were at their jobs busily involved in their + assignments, mothers were changing diapers and cleaning the + home; in other parts of the earth the Christians were asleep + in their beds. Many young believers were busy in their + classrooms at school, some Christians were in prayer + meetings at church, and there were the persecuted Christians + around the world that were being tortured because of their + faith in Jesus. + + There were even some believers who were involved in acts of + sin when their Master returned for them, but everyone in + every situation was taken by utter surprise when suddenly, a + loud thundering voice was clearly heard from up in the sky. + Every Christian on earth instantly looked up and could see + the magnificent splendor of our Glorious Savior Jesus + Christ. "He was dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet + and with a golden sash around His chest. His head and hair + were white like wool, as white as snow,...His face was like + the sun shining in all its brilliance" (Rev 1:13-14,16). + + The loud command that we heard was comparable to the time + when Jesus called Lazarus from the grave with "a loud + voice, 'Lazarus, come out!'" (John 11:43). Jesus called + each Christian to come up to Him. At about the same + time there was a voice of an archangel and a resounding + trumpet call and then all those who had died believing in + Christ rose from the grave in immortal bodies and ascended + up to Jesus. Then in what seemed to be a "twinkling of an + eye" all the believers who were alive suddenly lifted off + the earth to also join their Savior, and were gloriously + changed into beautiful immortal bodies. + + Then Jesus led us, His resurrected and glorified followers + back to the third heaven. We traveled faster than the speed + of light and were in the Father's House in a moment's time. + + + B. Chaos and Wrath On Earth + + 1) The Chaos + + Our sudden disappearance caused widespread chaos throughout + the world, for we were approximately 5,000,000 people in + number, not counting the multitude of resurrected saints. + Airplanes crashed because essential crewmembers were + missing. Cars were strewn on many freeways for lack of + drivers. Husbands were frantically searching for wives who + had vanished. Wives too were left waiting for husbands who + would not be returning home. Teen-agers were searching for + parents, and likewise, some parents were also looking for + their teen-age sons and daughters. + + Some world leaders were also among the missing, many + people speculated that they were abducted by terrorists. + Behind the Iron Curtain the authorities were furious over + the unexplained disappearance of their "religious + prisoners." Some churches were left nearly empty and + others were full of the "falsely religious" including the + Pastor and the Elders. + + + 2) The Explanation + + The world sought answers for the millions of missing + persons. Some guessed that it may have been the Rapture + that some Christians had mentioned would occur some day, + but this was quickly discounted by the leading false + religions which remained, such as, the Roman Catholic + Church, the Mormons, and the Jehovah Witnesses to mention a + few. It was then decided that the Christians who had + disappeared were the "fanatics," the ones who were always + talking about Jesus, the Bible and the need to be Born + Again. It was assumed that we had all gathered in giant + communes somewhere to pursue our religious zeal. + + But while the world was still in a state of shock and + chaos, a man arose who offered solutions to the problems, + promising "Peace and Safety." He was the one the Bible had + said would come someday--the Antichrist. But soon the + world discovered that his peace was only superficial and + temporary. + + 3) The Seal Judgments + + The Antichrist was bent on conquering the world. He had + easily conquered Europe by deceit and began the conquest of + the rest of the nations. But other nations were not so + easily overcome and soon a full scale world war broke out + which caused tremendous destruction over the entire globe. + + Food supplies became critical because of the many destroyed + agricultural areas. The famine was so severe over the + world that a man had to work one day just to earn enough + money to buy a day's meal for himself; his family often + went hungry. During the war, chemical weapons and germ + warfare were utilized causing widespread disease. Even the + wild animals were affected and those animals that survived + became savage towards men. The casualties resulting from + the war, the famine, the plagues and the from the attacks + of the wild beasts accounted for the deaths of over one and + one-quarter billion people, one-fourth of the earth's + population (Rev 6:1-8). + + The Antichrist took advantage of the war and gained in + power and began to establish a one-world government. He + established his own religion and was opposed to the gospel + of Jesus Christ and engineered one of the greatest + persecutions of Christianity the world had ever seen. Many + Christians were murdered, because they would not partake in + the government sponsored one-world religion (Rev 6:5-11). + Then the wrath of God was again poured out on all the world + because of its sin and rebellion against the Holy and True + One. + + + 4) The Trumpet Judgments + + God sent hail and fire mixed with blood down to the earth. + Nuclear war continued and, "A third of the earth was burned + up, a third of the trees were burned up and all the green + grass was burned up" (Rev 8:7). + + As God continued to punish the earth and its people with + each new judgment, He also continued to give man the + opportunity to repent by allowing a period of time to pass + before the next curse. But instead of the unbelievers + crying out to God for mercy, they, "...called to the + mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the + face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the + lamb...'" (Rev 6:16). + + Jesus then turned one-third of the seas into literal blood, + killing one third of the sea creatures. He also caused + one-third of the ships to be destroyed. Then His judgment + fell on a third of the rivers and springs of waters causing + them to become polluted and many more people died (Rev + 8:10-11). After a period of time Jesus reduced the hours of + sunlight and moonlight by one-third, and even caused a third + of the stars to turn dark (Rev 8:12). Crops all over the + world died because of the sudden imbalance between night and + day. + + Life on earth had become very difficult. Stealing, murder, + rape and sexual immoralities were common occurrences as law + and order began to "breakdown." Still man did not turn to + God but continued to openly worship demons (Rev 9:20-21). + Fittingly, Jesus then ordered the "Bottomless Pit" to be + opened which allowed millions of wicked demons to infest the + world. This judgment was so severe that men and women tried + to commit suicide but God would not let them die (Rev 9:1-6). + + Then the armies from the East began to march across the land + to Israel the place of their final battle, "Armageddon." The + army slaughtered over one billion people while enroute (Rev + 9:13-18). At this point over one-half of the world's total + population had been destroyed. + + + 5) The Two Witnesses (Rev 11:1-13) + + Our Most Beloved Savior continued to show mercy in the midst + of His wrath when He sent two prophets to the earth to + powerfully declare the truths of the gospel. For three and + one-half years these two brothers preached the Good News of + salvation through Christ. They also inflicted severe plagues + and droughts upon the earth as part of God's judgments. Fire + destroyed anyone who attempted to take their lives. + + Finally, God allowed them to be killed, and the people of the + earth were so pleased that they had worldwide celebrations + and sent gifts to one another. They left the dead bodies of + these two saints lying in the streets of Jerusalem, refusing + them burial. The entire world watched the bodies on + Satellite TV for three and one-half days. Then Our Sweet and + Precious Savior raised them to life and caused them to ascend + up through the heavens in full view of a watching world. + Suddenly an earthquake "hit" Jerusalem and one-tenth of the + city collapsed. + + + 6) The Bowl Judgments + + Now, as the world's dictator, the Antichrist, demanded that + he and an image of himself be worshipped as god by all men. + He was aided by one who could perform many signs and wonders + by the power of the devil. Because of his power he deceived + most people on earth and ordered that no one could buy or + sell any item unless they had the "Mark of the Antichrist" on + their forehead or right-hand. These two also decreed that + anyone refusing to worship the Antichrist would be killed + (Rev 13). Many dear brothers and sisters in Christ were + beheaded because they would not worship the Antichrist or his + image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or + their hands (Rev 20:4). + + God too had a mark, but only for the followers of the + Antichrist, "...ugly and painful sores broke out on the + people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image" + (Rev 16:2). God also gave men blood to drink! Because the + world had shed the blood of God's saints and prophets + throughout history, Jesus turned the oceans, the rivers, and + the springs of water into real blood (which killed every + living thing in the waters) (Rev 16:3-7). + + The world was staggering under the weight of all of God's + judgments, yet men and women still refused to repent and + glorify God. God then caused the sun to scorch the earth and + its people with intense heat. This judgment was quickly + followed by total darkness yet men and women, "gnawed their + tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of + their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of + their sins" (Rev 16:8-11). + + God then sent his final judgment upon the earth. This was + the most severe yet. A violent earthquake occurred that was + so strong that all the cities of the nations collapsed. New + York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, London, + Copenhagen, Cairo, Rome, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Indianapolis, + yes every city of the world was destroyed by the earthquake! + Coupled with this was a terrible hailstorm that dropped huge + hailstones weighing about a hundred pounds each. What was + man's response? It was to curse God because the plague was so + terrible (Rev 16:17-21). + + Chaos reigned on the earth. The food supply had all but + disappeared, there was only blood to drink, and most of + mankind was without shelter. The only organizations that had + any structure left were the armies that were fighting outside + of Jerusalem at the Battle of Armageddon. The earth was + enclosed in utter darkness for the sun no longer shone and + the stars had disappeared. It was cold and only the light + and heat of weapons exploding jarred the terror of the + continuous night (Mat 24:29). + + + III. Second Coming of Christ + + While the earth was cloaked in darkness and terror, there was + light and bliss up in the third heaven. The redeemed of God + had been there in their glorified bodies for seven years. + They were living in their Father's house, which is the New + Jerusalem, the vast city of beauty and light. Each saint has + his own room designed and decorated by his God and Lord--Jesus + Christ. + + One day, suddenly there appeared something very unusual in + heaven, horses, white horses which came silently and stately + down the golden streets. There were millions of them and each + horse seemed to know exactly where they were to go. For one + white horse stopped by each room of the redeemed. The saints + joyfully mounted their horses and all rode to the gates of the + city. The horses and riders rode out through the pearly gates + and all gathered in columns outside the city. Then Jesus + joined the army of saints riding His own white horse. + + On His head were many crowns and He was clothed in a robe + which had his name written on it: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF + LORDS. All of the saints and the chorus of angels sang praise + unto His Name. He looked at the redeemed with a deep love in + His eyes and said, "Follow Me." Although there were millions + upon millions of saints on white horses and all following + Jesus, each believer could see Jesus. It was as if each was + riding right next to Him! This is the way heaven is, for + although there is only one Jesus and He is in bodily form, He + seems to be visible and accessible to everyone at once. + + It was so wonderful that Our Precious Lord Jesus would allow + His saints to be a part of that moment in history. Jesus was + assembling His army to conquer the earth. In His army were + the Holy Angels and all those who had hungered and thirsted + for righteousness. There was Moses, Joseph, David, Bathsheba, + Rahab, Peter, James, John, Mary, Martha, and Paul. I could + see Moody, Spurgeon, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and many + other great men and women of God. + + But there was also great joy in seeing those in the Lord's + army who were former great sinners such as former homosexuals, + former murderers, former fornicators and former liars, all had + been redeemed and restored, and were sitting on their horses + dressed in pure white fine linen because of the cleansing + power of the Blood of Jesus Christ. There were even those who + had never walked on the earth but were murdered by the act of + abortion, they too were sitting pure from the original sin of + Adam because of the Cross of Calvary. What an incredible + sight it was! + + As we rode out we traveled faster than the speed of light and + suddenly, as Jesus turned His eyes to the earth they changed, + becoming like blazing fire. We could then see the planet, but + the darkened sun did not illumine it; it was the light of + Jesus as He emanated a brilliant radiance (Rev 19:11). Then + fire began to appear all around us, along with loud thundering + sounds and blinding flashes of lightning. + + + A. Rider on White Horse (Rev 19:11-16) + + On earth, those fighting in the darkness of Armageddon were + suddenly blinded by the light of Jesus Christ and His army. + In an instant, the Lord Almighty came with, "thunder and + earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and + flames of a devouring fire" (Isa 29:5-6). + + It was Isaiah who prophesied, "See, the Lord is coming with + fire, and His chariots are like a whirlwind; He will bring + down His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of + fire. For with fire and with His sword the Lord will + execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain + by the Lord" (Isa 66:15-16). + + + B. Return to the Earth + + 1) Response of Those on the Earth + + Every eye on earth saw Jesus return and mankind began to + mourn for their own lives knowing that the hour of judgment + had come (Mat 24:30). They fled, "...to caves in the rocks + and to holes in the ground from the dread of the Lord and + the splendor of His majesty..." (Isa 2:19). + + 2) Standing on Mount of Olives + + Jesus Christ, the King of the Earth, dismounted from His + White Horse directly upon the Mount of Olives. As soon as + His feet touched the mountain it split in two, exactly as + prophesied in Zechariah 14, "...His feet will stand on the + Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives + will be split in two from east to west, forming a great + valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half + moving south" (v. 4). + + When the mountain split it created a large valley which was + called the Valley of Decision (Joel 3:14). + + + C. Judgment of Earthly Wicked + + 1) Armies Set to Attack Christ + + Then the Antichrist and "...the kings of the earth and their + armies gathered together to make war against the rider on + the horse and His army" (Rev 19:19) It seemed incredible + that those who were fighting on the earth could be confronted + with the supernatural return of Jesus Christ from Heaven and + yet turn their weapons on the Savior and His army as if God + could be destroyed. + + + 2) Beast, False Prophet, and Armies Judged + + But before they could fire one weapon, the Lord struck + them with great fear and a plague that caused their flesh, + their eyes and their tongues to decompose while they were + still standing on their feet. This caused great panic and + some soldiers attacked and killed one another (Zech 14:12- + 13). The Antichrist and the false prophet were then captured + and thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. + Then the rest of the wicked army was killed by the command + of Jesus. Their flesh was given to be eaten by the birds of + the air (Rev 19:21). + + D. Chaining of Satan + + While the birds gorged themselves on the defeated armies, Satan + was captured, bound with a chain and locked away for 1,000 + years. The place of his torment is the "Abyss" which means the + "bottomless pit." The demons were also bound with Satan, just + as Isaiah had revealed would happen when the Lord returned, + saying "In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the + heavens above...They will be herded together like prisoners + bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be + released after many days" (Isa 24:21-22). + + E. The Judgment of the Living + + Then all the remaining people, the noncombatants, of the + earth were transported to the Valley of Decision where Jesus + judged them. He sat on a throne in all of His heavenly glory + and separated the people one from another, placing the + Christians on His right and the unbelievers on His left (Mat + 25:31-33). + + Then King Jesus said to the Christians on His right, "Come, + you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the + kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world..." + (Mat 25:34). The kingdom He gave to them was the Millennial + Kingdom that was about to begin. + + Then the King said to those on His left, "Depart from me, + you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the + devil and his angels..." (Mat 25:41). Then the unbelievers + went away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to + eternal life (Mat 25:46). + + + F. Thousand Years + + There was a 75 day transition time after the battle ended + before the 1,000 year reign of the Lord began. In fact, it + took seven months just to bury the remains of the dead. And + some of the weapons from the war were used for fuel in Israel + and lasted for seven years (Ezek 39:9-16). + + 1) Earth is Restored to Beauty + + Jesus began to remove the curse of sin from the earth. The + earth was restored, every valley was raised up, every + mountain and hill was made low, and the rough ground became + level, the rugged places became a plain (Isa 40:4). Mt. + Zion was established as the chief among the mountains; it was + raised above the hills (Isa 2:2). The desert regions were + covered with many pools of waters from the new rivers and + springs. Jesus set beautiful trees everywhere. There were + pines, firs, cedars, olives, and many other kinds of trees + (Isa 41:18-19). Beautiful flowers burst in bloom, just like + the crocus, all over the earth (Isa 35:1-2), and every land + was fertile and cultivated (Ezek 36:36). + + + 2) A Kingdom of Light + + The Millennium was truly a kingdom of light. The moon was + as bright as the original premillennial sun and the sunlight + of the kingdom was seven times brighter than before, like + the light of seven full days (Isa 30:26). The night of + the Millennium was as bright as the old noonday sun. + + 3) The Inhabitants of the Kingdom - Parents + + Now, the only people that were left alive in the Millennium + were the believing Gentiles and Jews. The entire world + consisted of Christians with Jesus Christ reigning as the + King of the earth. But there were also young unsaved + children who were under the age of accountability, who could + still choose to reject the gospel. And the adult christians + had many children born during the Millennium who like all + children since Cain and Able, were born into the world as + sinners. + + 4) The Inhabitants of the Kingdom - Children + + The children living in the Kingdom all needed salvation, but + they were given plenty of opportunities to hear the gospel, + for their parents were Christians, Jesus Christ was visibly + on the earth as King, and there were a multitude of immortal + glorified saints (you and me) ruling and reigning with Our + Master Jesus Christ. + + 5) Life in the Kingdom + + a) Long Life + + Most mortals who lived on the earth during the Millennium + lived out their years (Isa 65:20). Their life spans were + like those in the days prior to the Flood when, for example, + Methuselah lived for 969 years! Those born at the beginning + of the Millennium lived for 1,000 years. + + b) Death in the Kingdom + + Yet, there was death in the glorious Kingdom of Light, just + as the Bible had revealed to us, "...he who dies at a + hundred will be thought a mere youth...and he who fails to + reach a hundred will be considered accursed [condemned to + Hell]" (Isa 65:20). Jesus gave children up to the age of 100 + to make a decision for Him and at that point, if they + remained in unbelief, Jesus took their lives in judgment. + + c) Peace on Earth + + The earth was a place of great peace and safety just as God + had declared in the Book of Isaiah, "They will neither harm + nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be + full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the + sea" (Isa 11:9) + + Jesus was enthroned in His headquarters in Jerusalem; the + law went out from Zion, the word of the Lord went from + Jerusalem. He judged between the nations and settled + disputes for many peoples. The nations recycled their + weapons of war into farming equipment. Nation did not + take up sword against nation, nor did they train for war + anymore (Isa 2:3-4). + + d) Peace in the Animal Kingdom + + Truly peace reigned everywhere, even in the animal kingdom. + The lion did lie down with the lamb. The wolf and the lamb + fed together, and the lion ate straw like an ox (Isa 65:25). + The wolf lived with the lamb, the leopard laid down with the + goat, the calf and the lion and the colt together; and + little children led them around. The cow ate with the bear + and the young calves and the cubs laid down together (Isa + 11:6-7). + + Infants played near the holes of cobras, and young children + put their hands into the nests of vipers to play with them + (Isa 11:8). + + Life in the Kingdom was indeed very blissful, and we the + immortal redeemed, were there assisting Our Savior in His + rule. We were daily interacting with the mortals and enjoyed + with them this time of true peace on earth. + + + G. Satan's Doom + + At the end of the one thousand year Kingdom, Jesus ordered + Satan to be released from prison. Immediately the devil + went out to deceive the nations to make war against Jesus + and His people. Satan actually got an attacking force to + surround the city of Jerusalem. But fire came down from + heaven and devoured them. Satan was then thrown into the + lake of burning sulfur, his final resting place, to be + tormented for ever and ever (Rev 20:7-11). The devil was + never to be seen or heard of again. He would never again + trouble God's people. Amen. + + H. The Total Destruction of Heaven and Earth + + Immediately following this judgment of Satan, Jesus then + removed all the mortal believers from the earth. They were + translated into their glorified bodies and given their room + in the Father's House. He then raised from the graves "the + rest of the Dead" (Rev 20:5). These were those who had + died throughout the ages of time and had failed to believe + God's word for salvation. They had been held in torment + since the day of their deaths, awaiting the day of final + judgment. + + Then God destroyed the earth and the heavens by fire. The + heavens disappeared with an explosive thundering sound; the + elements were destroyed by fire, melting in the intense + heat (2 Pet 3:10-12). + + + I. Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11-15). + + It was now time for God to judge the sins of all the + generations of unsaved people. God brought them to stand + before His Great White Throne for judgment by Jesus Christ + who was seated there. Each person was judged according to + what he had done in his life as recorded in the books. + These deeds were compared with God's perfect Word as He had + revealed it to each generation. + + The judgment was simple. The standard by which one could + enter into heaven was a life on earth without one recorded + sin. One sin would result in the eternal judgment of Hell + and any additional sins would increase the amount of torment + and agony he would eternally receive. As each person was + brought before the judge his sins were revealed. Then the + Lamb's Book of Life was open to see if the person had allowed + Jesus to pay for their sins. None were found to have trusted + Jesus for salvation. Therefore, each unbeliever was found + guilty and then thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented + for ever an ever (Rev 20:11-15). + + As we, the redeemed watched, we knew that we too had sinned + in our own earthly lives, but we remembered that at the + Cross of Calvary all of our sins were charged to the account + of the sinless one Jesus Christ. Because He took our sins + upon Himself our books of sins contained nothing but pure + white blank pages, washed clean by the Blood of Jesus + Christ. + + No one could ever fault the Judge Jesus at the Great White + Throne for not showing mercy, for even as He sentenced the + unsaved to torment, one could clearly see the scars on His + hands and on His feet from the nails of crucifixion and the + scar in His side from the Roman spear. Jesus offered mercy + to all when they were on earth and for those who desired to + remain in their sins He could only then give His wrath. + + + J. Eternity + + After the Great White Throne Judgment only the Trinity, the + angels, and the redeemed saints remained in Heaven. The + old earth and heavens had been destroyed and all those who + had rejected Christ were forever bound in the Lake of Fire. + Jesus then created a new heaven and a new earth and brought + "the Father's House," the New Jerusalem down from heaven and + placed it on the new earth. Then God Himself came down to + earth to live forever with redeemed man (Rev 21:1-3). + + Life in the Eternal State is perfect. There is no more + death, no more mourning, no more crying or pain (Rev 21:4). + But the most magnificent sight in all of Eternity is the + Precious Lord Jesus Christ. His beauty is without equal and + His love for each believer is never ending. We never tire + of worshipping Jesus and learning more about Him. + + + IV. Conclusion + + We have heard the record of God's future accomplishments. As + we now step backward in time to the present, the scenario I + have just painted has not yet occurred. But the Scriptures are + clear, that it will indeed happen, with perhaps some slight + changes from this chronology. It only awaits the Rapture of + the Church to set it all in motion. And the Bible indicates + that this event could happen at any moment. + + What should be our response to these truths of Scripture? + What should we do from now until the Rapture? + + A. If Unsaved + + If you are not saved then seek salvation today. There are + no salvation opportunities after our moment of death. The + Bible declares, "...man is destined to die once, and after + that to face judgment" (Heb 9:27). Jesus Christ has + revealed these truths to warn you of the tribulations to + come. He wants to cleanse you of your sins and receive you + into His Kingdom. Repent of your sins, confess Jesus + Christ as Lord and Savior, receiving His glorious free gift + of salvation. + + + B. If Saved + + 1) Renewed Desire to Serve Jesus + + For those of us who are saved, we should feel humbled + that God would love us and save us from the wrath that + our sins deserve. He will give us a new and glorious + body, a room in the Father's House, and an eternal + blissful future. We should renew our dedication to Him + and strive to serve Him with all our mind, soul, and + strength. + + 2) Renewed Compassion for the Lost + + Let us show compassion for the lost. We have seen what + awaits the unbeliever when Jesus returns to the earth. + And those judgments, as terrible as they are, are mild + compared to the endless torment and agony of the eternal + Fiery Lake of Burning Sulfur. + + We must attempt, by the power of the Holy Spirit within + us, to live holy lives before our lost families, friends, + coworkers, and neighbors. We are their only hope, for if + they do not see Jesus Christ in us, then they will not + see Jesus at all. This will cost us, for we must be + different than the world in order to "stand out as light." + + + a) Our Conversation + + Our speech must be gracious and yet seasoned with the salt + of the truths of the Bible. In Ephesians 5:4 God reminds us + that for a Christian there must never be obscenity, foolish + talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather + thanksgiving." + + + b) Our Life Styles + + We must be a holy people in order to lead others to Christ. + + In this age of sexual freedom God reminds the Christian that + in our lives, "...there must not be even a hint of sexual + immorality, or of any kind of impurity..." (Eph 5:3). + + In fact, God clearly tells us, what we should have uppermost + in our thinking, "...whatever is true, whatever is noble, + whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, + whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or + praiseworthy--think about such things..." (Philippians 4:8). + + We must keep ourselves pure, for the evil one is constantly + attempting to corrupt us. Let us not be deceived, nearly all + that is on television, in popular magazines and in books today + are things that do not please God. A Christian cannot be + entertained by the world and still please God. To watch and + be entertained by TV murders, TV adulteries, TV violence, TV + drunkenness, and TV crime is to partake in what God calls sin. + Even when we drive our cars we must maintain the high + Christian standard and never purposefully exceed the posted + speed limits. Radar detectors have no place in a car + belonging to one of God's children. + + + C. Final Thoughts + + Jesus is coming back for us soon with the Rapture, at an + hour when we least expect Him. Once we are gone the horrors + of the tribulation period will be unleashed. Many of our + loved ones, friends and acquaintances would be left behind to + face God's wrath if Jesus came for us today. He has + privileged us to know the future and to play integral parts + in His plan. May we do all that we can by the power of the + Holy Spirit to help those around us who are lost to share in + the wondrous salvation we possess. + + +Tony Capoccia +Bible Bulletin Board +Box 130 +Shreveport, LA 71110 +MODEM (318)-949-1456 +300/1200/2400/9600 Baud \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/gardner.txt b/religious documents/gardner.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..871da12 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/gardner.txt @@ -0,0 +1,199 @@ + Gardnerianism + by Kyril Oakwind & Judy Harrow + appearing in the spring/summer 1989 issue of FireHeart + + + Each year, Garderians come together for the Annual Samhain + Garderian Gather. In the years since it began, the Gather + has grown from a small local get-together to a national + gathering, with participants from both East and West coasts. + This year, England was represented as well ! Our experience + in the Gardnerian community has shown that we are not a + homogeneous group. These family reunions have allowed us to + maintain a certain amount of continutity while learning + about of differences. There is a spectrum within Gardnerian + practice. Kryil represents the more traditional or + conservative side of the family, while the practices of + Judy's coven look more eclectic or innovative. We felt that + by working together, we could describe our tradition more + clearly than either of us could writing alone. + Gardnerianism as a distinct Tradition began with the + writings of Gerald B. Gardner. He was initiated into the + New Forest coven in England by "old Dorothy" Clutterbuck. + During World War II, Gardner participated in the efforts of + British Witches, led by Dorothy Clutterbuck, to turn back + Germany's invasion troops. Gardner was active in the Craft + and published a fictional novel about medeival Witchcraft in + 1949. He started a Museum of witchcraft on the Isle of Man + after the 1951 repeal of the last anti-witchcraft law in + England. Coming out publicly as a Witch in 1954, he + published "Witchcraft Today". + At that time, he believed the Craft was dying out-most of + the members were older and few young members were being + initiated. Gardner stronly believed not only in + reincarnation, but that he would be reborn to the craft. If + it died out, this could not be, and so he dedicated himself + to reviving the Craft. Unable to directly reveal much of + his coven's workings, he developed a system that was a + systhesis of various elements from Masonic ritual, + ceremonial magick, French Mediterranean Craft and the + teachings of his coven. Gardner and later Doreen Valiente, + rewrote some of the ritual, improving its poetic qualities + and adding yet another dimension. As generations of + Witches, they became the basis of Garnderianism, and those + who practiced these rituals as handed down (not as + published) became known as Garnderians. + Gardneriansim was brought to America by the Bucklands in + 1962. Their coven was passed on to Lady Theos and Pheonix + in 1972 and to Lady Rhiannon in 1985. + Judy notes that the existence of the earlier New Forest + coven is unproven, and not particularly important. We may + not know wether our Craft is old or new. We know for sure + that it works. What we can prove is that Gerald Gardner, + Doreen Valiete, and their associates did develop a ritual + and symbolic system, drawing from many sources including + their own inspirations. Their single greatest innovation + was to make the Goddess their main focus. The fruit of that + generation's research, innovation and creativity was a + strong and flexible ritual structure that forms a foundation + for the research, innovation and creativity of later + generations. In fact, we know that each successive + generations of Gardnerians did augment the materials they + + + + + + received, and develop the Tradition. As we live with this + material, use it and practice it, while continuing to study + whatever Pagan sources we can find and, we hope, grow in our + understanding both experientially and intellectually, we + must and will make changes. A tradition that does not + change is dead. + Gardnerisnism, like mush of the craft, is an initiatory, + Mystery Tradition. To become a member of the Tradition, an + individual must be initiated by a Garnderian who was + initiated by a Gardnerian, on back to Gardner and his High + Priestesses, and the initiation ritual used must be the + Gardnerian ritual. Initiation is more than a rite of + passage that unties the participants. They have not only + undergone a similar death and rebirth but are reborn into a + particular world. That world is a microcosm of the universe + with a unique psychic pattern of the created by the + particular ritual, energy current, and vibration of the + Deity names used by the participants. They take on the + group karma of their new family and clan, and they add to it + as well. They also take an oath of secrecy. + From a more eclectic Gardnerian viewpoint, any initiation + ritual that is based on the Gardnerian structure and + contains certain elements is a valid Gardnerian initiations. + Lineage-the sense of family and continuity- is intensely + important to Garderians. Within Judy's line, any variants + on initiation or elevation rituals must be checked with the + Priestess immediately senior to the one making the changes. + In this way, we make room for growing understanding and + changing times without sacrificing the continuity that all + Garderians value equally. + Kyril points out that Neo-Gardnerian or Gardnerian based + groups using the published versions of Gardnerian rituals, + while performing and having perfectly valid initiatory + experiences, are not being "reborn" into the same psychic + pattern as that of the Gardnerian Tradition. A real + difference exists in the energy they draw on and the psychic + patterning that is being done. Gardnerianism is very much a + family. We have our different covens and our different + practices, But the family feeling is very strong. We are + bound by the magickal ties of the initiation and our oath of + secrecy. We are bound by the ties of love. No amount of + book knowledge can ever replace human contact and the + feeling of belonging to a loving family. This is why Judy + feels a re-written ritual within the context of lineage, + makes you a Gardnerian in a way that a word-perfect ritual + out of a book never could. + Gardnerianism as a Tradition has a body of rituals passed + down from Gardner that helps to form the core identity-a + shared current of energy which is added to and drawn on by + all the initiates, secret Deity names, and a specific group + Karma. It also has a hierarchial form of leadership, a + three degree systems of training, experienced and + knowledgeable Witch Queens and Maguses (high Priestesses and + High Priest who have successfully trained a coven to the + point where another coven has hived off from theirs) from + which to draw on. And there is an oath of secrecy. + Judy feels Gardnerianism is not much so the body of + rituals as the ritual system and the symbolic vocabulary. + She tells her students that Gerald, Doreen and their + associates were the architects, but we are the interior + decorators. The structural pattern can be gotten from books + + + + + + almost as easily as a particular script can be. More and + more, she believes that the personal affiliation, the group + Karama if you will, and the energy current are as definitive + as the ritual and symbol system. + Our respect for lineage, and for the seniors within our + lineage, is very important. But Judy does not think of it + as hierarchical. In hierarchy, those "above" us would have + been assigned by those above them, without our consent. We + choose to work with our teachers, our Priest/esses, our + Queens and Maguses out of respect and love and trust. The + bond is freer and more flexiable- and far more real. Nor + are they considered to be holier or higher, simply more + experienced. + The tree degree system is an uncomfortable but necessary + form of quality control. An initiation is a statement, not + only to the Gods, but also to the community, that this + person is a Priest/ess, qualified to fulfill certain roles. + If we initiate people, or do degree elevations, before they + are competent, harm amy result. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/geraldo.txt b/religious documents/geraldo.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c50190c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/geraldo.txt @@ -0,0 +1,580 @@ + + G E R A L D O + + Witches and Witchcraft + +GERALDO RIVERA .......................................................... Host + + Guests: + + SELENA FOX, Witch + DON FREW, Witch + LADY SABRINA, Witch + MARION WEINSTEIN, Witch + WHITLEY STRIEBER, "Cat Magic" + + WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT + +GERALDO: "Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble." +Some of America's most well known witches will reveal their magic, their ritu- +als, and their positions on this special Halloween week edition of Geraldo. + [Titles] + Thank you. Before we meet our four real witches and being our examination +of modern day witchcraft, Selena Fox, a high priestess of Circle Sanctuary is +performing a special witch blessing on our studio. Now, as Selena makes this a +so-called "safe space," why don't the rest of us take a quick look at some of +the background on the evolution of witches and witchcraft. + + GERALDO [voice over]: "When shall we three meet again? In thunder, + lightning, or in rain." Three hellish spirits, the weird sisters, so open + Shakespeare's MacBeth. And that horrific image of boiling cauldrons sur- + rounded by stooped, wart-covered hags mixing magic potions and calling on + the forces of evil to do their wicked bidding, it's still what most of us + think of when we picture witches and witchcraft. + In medieval times witch hatred and false myths about them spread + like wildfire, carrying tales of black magic, or spell-bound cats let + loose to wreak havoc on unsuspecting innocents, and of black-caped crones + astride broomsticks, flying across moonlit skies. And where there's fear, + deep fear, there's usually mass hysteria, like we had during the infamous + Inquisition, when thousands and thousands of women, young and old, were + killed because they were alleged to be witches. To save their lives and + protect their beliefs many of them went underground. + Well, these days many witches are out of the closet, practicing + their rituals and traditions right along side other believers in the + supernatural, like those who turned out for the world-wide celebration of + the Harmonic Convergence last August. Laurie Cabot is another example of + how witches have entered the mainstream. She's the official witch of + Salem. Remember, it was the town of Salem that was the center of this + country's witch hysteria. That was back in the lat 16- and 1700's. + + LAURIE CABOT, Official Witch of Salem: Here we are. We're the witches. + We're still alive and well and living in Salem, you know, and all over + the world. And then they go, "Oh, my God, witches." + + GERALDO [voice over]: Laurie and her coven of witches are now a familiar + sight in New England, finally winning some degree of acceptance after + years of distrust and suspicion. Like witches everywhere, they meet to + practice their ancient rituals. Their sole purpose, they say, is to be in + harmony with nature, the earth goddess, and forces of good and healing. + +GERALDO [on camera]: Okay, let's meet our four real life witches now, starting +with Selena Fox, of the Circle Sanctuary, the woman who was doing that cere- +mony. She's been a witch since she was 21 years old. She is also a Wiccan +minister and she'll tell us what that means. Next to her is Don Frew, who has +been a witch since he was 12, and is a priest with the Covenant of the +Goddess, in San Francisco. Okay? Next to Don is Lady Sabrina, who has been a +witch for 10 years and runs Our Lady of Enchantment, which is, you should +know, the only public witchcraft school in the country. I don't know if it's +supported with property taxes, but you can tell us that. Marion Weinstein, +author of "Positive Magic," has been a witch for 30 years. And Whitney +Strieber, next to Marion, is a Catholic and is not a witch. He's investigated +the Wiccan traditions for his book, you can see it, it's called "Cat Magic." +And Whitney has also, as a lay person, has had some incredible experiences +that he will, I'm sure, tell us about today. + So, first, Selena, tell us about the ceremony you were - + +SELENA FOX, Witch: What I was doing is a word called "smudging," that the Na- +tive Americans would call it. It's basically using incense to purify the space +to create a good environment for us to have a discussion here. I was facing +each of the directions, as well as the earth and the sky and the center. + +GERALDO: But in making it a safe space, were you driving off any evil forces +or - + +Ms. FOX: Driving away influences that don't need to be here today, and allow- +ing, hopefully, good communication and connections with each other to be here. + +GERALDO: Oh, I hope for the same thing, for sure. That is a kind of occultish +use of witchcraft. Are there more down to earth kinds of uses? + +Ms. FOX: I don't know if I would call that occultish. Would you say that about +the Native American religion? Because they do a very similar kind of thing. + +GERALDO: Okay, I'm not trying to get you mad. + +Ms. FOX: No, no. It's a magical practice. And I think it's very down to earth. +In fact, I recommend that people do some kind of blessing on their home, no +matter what their particular religion is, to ward off robbers and to bring +some social harmony to one's place. + +GERALDO: Halloween is coming. + +Ms. FOX: That's right. + +GERALDO: Does Halloween have some special meaning for you all? I mean - + +Ms. FOX: It's part of the New Year. + +GERALDO: It is? + +Ms. FOX: Yeah. + +GERALDO: It's the witches' new year? + +Ms. FOX: Right. It's the last of our harvest festivals. In fact, that's where +the pumpkins and the apples and the other harvest decorations come from. It +also is a time for paying respects to those loved ones who have departed, who +have gone to the spirit world, to our ancestors. Trick or treat comes from the +old custom of people setting aside the best of the food and drink that they +have on Halloween night, a place setting for the parted love one, for those +who had passed on, in honor of them. And if that was done, the idea was that +your ancestors would bring blessings on you for the coming year. If you +neglected your ancestors you might have some problems in the coming year. +That's where trick or treat came from. It also is a time for looking into the +new year to see what kinds of things might be in store for us. + +GERALDO: Was there a connection between the traditional celebration of the +harvest and Thanksgiving, and the witches' Halloween celebration? Has that +been around for a while? + +Ms. FOX: For a long time. It goes back at least to Celtic times, and probably +before that. It's the last of the harvest festivals, and it's a time of pre- +paring for winter. So, in addition to it being a solemn holiday in some ways, +it also was a time of really great celebration. In fact, Mt. Horeb, where my +farm is near, is near Madison, Wisconsin, and it's a city-wide festival, thou- +sands of people go out in the street in costumes and there are bonfires and +great parties in the streets every year at Halloween. + +GERALDO: They have those down in Greenwich Village here in New York also. It's +a slightly different celebration. I asked Selena, Don. Do you you use witch- +craft for any practical things? + +DON FREW, Witch: Well, if you call everyday life practical. + +GERALDO: Sure, well - + +Mr. FREW: In a way I do magic, and, yes, we talk about doing spells and doing +these kinds of rituals - + +GERALDO: And, incidentally, we're going to do some spells and some potions +later on in the program + +Mr. FREW: - and that definitely is part of witchcraft. That's the craft part +of witchcraft. But for most of us practicing magic is a way of life. You +discover these laws of nature - you might say subtle laws of nature - and by +living by them you become more connected to nature, more connected to +yourself, more connected to everybody else, such that life just works better. +Coincidences start to mount up in your life. You might say synchronicity. You +find you really need money and suddenly a check comes in the mail out of +nowhere, somebody you didn't even know - + +GERALDO: Did that really happen to you? I want you to be specific? + +Mr. FREW: It actually happened to me just two weeks ago. Coming back from a +trip to Seattle I was really concerned about making it through the month, and +the car was having problems, and we pulled into a town and were trying to find +some relatives who weren't there, and called some other relatives to see if +they knew where they were. And they said, "No, we don't know where they are, +but, by the way, there's a check for $10,000 here for you." And I said, +"What?" And a relative that I don't know, my wife's relative, had decided to +give us money because, you know, various things - she'd come into some money +and wanted to pass it on. And it seems like - that was unusually dramatic - +but it seems like whenever I really need something in my life, whether it's +companionship or money or a place to live or something, it's there. And I +think that's part of this whole - + +GERALDO: And you credit witchcraft? + +Mr. FREW: I credit magic. And witchcraft is one of the many magical religions. +It's part of that living in tune with the cycles and the seasons. + +GERALDO: So witchcraft is different than magic - or witchcraft is one type of +magic. + +Mr. FREW: Witchcraft, for most of us, is a religion. And one of the tools +within the religion is magic. Just like - you might say that in Catholic +church, for example, within the religion there's also the tools, you could +say, of blessing, or consecrating spaces. When a priest does that for a church +he's doing a magical ritual essentially. He's just praying to a different God +than we're praying to. + +GERALDO: Any practical application of this magic for you, Sabrina? + +LADY SABRINA, Witch: Well, when we first moved to New England we had a small +duplex that we were running a school out of. Well, needless to say - I don't +work outside. I work, you know, strictly for the school, and it's a non-profit +organization so I don't take a salary. So, the two gentlemen that are part of +the organization - one of them was too young, the other one had no credit, and +I had no job. But we spotted the house and decided we were going to go for it, +and all we had at the time was $1,100 in the bank. And so we started doing a +ritual. We signed the papers and the realtor said, "How much are you going to +put down?" And we said, "How much do we have to put down?" And she said, "How +much do you have?" We said "$1,100." And I thought she was going to faint. But +three weeks later we got two checks. One from a student who had just signed +up. He's never met me, I'd never met him. He sent us one for $3,000, a money +order. And then another one sent us one for $5,000. + +GERALDO: Have you ever thought of going down to Wall Street? + +Mr. FREW: I should point out that things this dramatic are exceptions. What +keeps us doing this are lots of little coincidences day to day, happening all +the time. + +SABRINA: And this took a lot of work. I mean, we had a specific ritual that we +were doing, and there were four of us doing it. And we timed it out. And we +had to fast before it. And there was no, you know, drinking or smoking or +having coffee or sex or anything before this thing was done. So all our energy +went into that. And there's no way you could possibly continually get that +kind of dynamic energy going and kept it. I mean, you'd be gone. + +Ms. FOX: I think there's another kind of magic, too, which is the day to day +magic of communing with nature, whether you live in the city or out in the +country. And I find one of the greatest magical experiences is when I am in +our stone circle on our 280 acre nature preserve near Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. I +will turn to a direction and then there will be a hawk there flying overhead. +I didn't try to will that hawk there or whatever, but I see it as a sign of +communing with the divine and that I'm on track wiht my spiritual beliefs. + +Mr. FREW: Exactly. + +GERALDO: Sounds good. Let's hear from Marion and Whitley when we come back. +More amazing stories, potions, rituals and witchcraft, today on Geraldo. We'll +be right back. + + [Commercial break] + +1st AUDIENCE MEMBER: Relating to the practice of witchcraft and the fact that +all these happen, when you need the money the check comes in the mail and +etc., etc. I don't practice witchcraft and I've had the same kind of luck. +But I was born on Halloween. Could there be any relation to that? + +Ms. FOX: It could be. In fact, people work magic all the time whether you +realize it or not. Every time you start thinking negative thoughts you're +actually creating a worse reality for your thought. It's the power of positive +thinking. Basically that's what the magic aspect of the Wiccan religion is. +But the wiccan religion really is a religion, and the core of it is to harm no +one when you're doing magic. We have one law: An it harm none, do what you +will. There is a great deal of variety within the wiccan religion, and each of +us here comes from a different wiccan church and orientation, as well as +someone who's from a Catholic orientation. + +GERALDO: Let's meet Marion, then we'll jump on to Whitley, the Catholic, the +Christian - + +WHITLEY STRIEBER, "Cat Magic": Don't jump on me. + +GERALDO: Did you use the power of positive thinking to find a lost child once? + +MARION WEINSTEIN, Witch: Well, I don't call it the power of positive thinking, +although I work in a positive way. I often find lost objects by doing a thing +called string magic, which I teach in my books. + +GERALDO: String? + +Ms. WEINSTEIN: String magic. It's a very simple technique that I teach in my +books to bring back lost objects. But sometimes when something so precious is +lost, like a person or a living creature, you want to do something really +special to find out where that being is. You know, our magic is no different +from prayer, except that we don't supplicate. A lot of people call it praying. +It's very similar. Anyway, when there was a child lost in the country once, I +did light a candle and call on the goddess to show me where he was so that we +could find him, because he didn't know the address he was visiting and he +didn't know my name even. He knew my first name. He couldn't have told +neighbors. And I did light a candle, and I did do a thing, and I did see him. +I actually saw where he was standing. He was standing somewhere by the water, +and it was very easy to find him after that. + +GERALDO: Really? And you said other creatures. Animals also? + +Ms. WEINSTEIN: And it's a great comfort. Animals. My cat's always wandering +away. + +GERALDO: Oh, this is a trick that could apply in general. Now, Whitley, you +are not a witch, although - + +Mr. STREIBER: No, I'm not. I was doing research for my book, "Cat Magic," when +I discovered that the craft, wicca, was not evil and satanic at all like I had +assumed it was before. In fact, what it was was a very beautiful earth- +oriented religion, an ancient nature religion, like native American religion, +and something we need more of and should certainly respect. + +GERALDO: The line of people leading the applause, I should say - You come from +- what's it called? + +AUDIENCE: Enchantments. + +GERALDO: Oh, the witches of the East Village, here in New York. Why don't you +stand up. We'll take a look at your outfits. Thanks, we'll talk with some of +you later. Now, why don't you convert from Catholicism to wiccan then? + +Mr. STREIBER: I still think - well, I've been a Catholic all my life. + +GERALDO: I mean, do you believe in the wiccan religion or just in the +existance of it as a benign religion? + +Mr. STREIBER: Oh, it's not a non-religion. It is definitely a religion. + +GERALDO: No, I said "benign religion." + +Mr. STREIBER: Benign religion. It is another beautiful religion. And it is a +terribly important one right now because of its emphasis on the planet and the +needs of the planet. Our earth is in deep trouble and a religion like this can +really help us today. + +GERALDO: Have you, although a non-witch, experienced any of these magical - + +Mr. STREIBER: Yes, I certainly have. I went to Selena Fox's place, Circle +Wicca, on a vision quest. + +GERALDO: What is a vision quest? I know it's a movie, but what is it? + +Mr. STREIBER: Well, a vision quest is - no, this had nothing to do with the +movie. I see it as going into yourself to find your truth. That's what I +really - and to ask whatever may be willing to help you to help you. I asked +for what I needed the most, and I went out into the woods, and it was dark and +moon lit, the wind was blowing, and I was sitting on this little piece of +groundcover that I had taken with me. And I laid down finally - I was planning +to stay there all night - and pulled the blanket up over me because I was +cold. And after a couple seconds it crossed my mind that I hadn't brought a +blanket with me. So, what was on me? And it was very warm under there, it was +very nice, and I felt this thing without looking at it. It was soft and I +thought, you know, Selena is not rich, and this is like a cashmere blanket. So +I sat up and looked at it and it was gray in my hands. A big blanket. And I +thought, "now, wait a minute, this is very wierd here." And so I got out of +the thing, and I just took it off me and was a little startled by it, wrapped +it up in the ground cloth I had brought - + +GERALDO: This is the next morning? + +Mr. STREIBER: No, no, this is right there. I took it back to the house. And I +opened the groundcover up and I thought, "Now this is really going to be +something." And there was nothing in there. The blanket was only - it was like +a symbolic thing that kind of was part of my mind and part of reality at the +same time. But I felt so craddled and so much at peace, as if I had suddenly +become so much closer to the planet that made me. + +2nd AUDIENCE MEMBER: All of you have referred to magic, implying a super- +natural power of some kind. Could you identify the source of that supernatural +power? + +Ms. FOX: I think it's a natural power that we have all within us. And I think +modern psychology as well as modern physics is starting to tap into this. + +Mr. FREW: I think it's God. + +Ms. FOX: Yeah, the source is the divine. + +GERALDO: How do you react to that? + +2nd AUDIENCE MEMBER: Well, it doesn't sound like the way I perceive God to +operate. + +Ms. FOX: How do you perceive God to operate? + +2nd AUDIENCE MEMBER: Well, through his word rather than through magic or +mystical experiences. + +Ms. FOX: Do you see God as a man or as a woman? + +2nd AUDIENCE MEMBER: As a being. + +Ms. FOX: As a being? Does he have a name? + +2nd AUDIENCE MEMBER: God. + +SABRINA: Well, that's what's so beautiful about personal visions of deity. +They can vary from person to person and be equally powerful for everyone. +There was a time when many of us might have been, shall we say, severely +harmed for speaking out. And now, what's so beautiful about this culture and +this country, is that we can all, in a sense, create our own vision of deity, +our own religion, worship it fully and be left alone in peace. + +Ms. FOX: Well, I would like to just kind of qualify that. For most people in +many places in this country. However, I myself am, and my church, Circle +Sanctuary, is in the middle of a zoning battle with local government +officials, and we've been trying to settle it peacefully for a year and a half +now. They're basically trying to use zoning laws to drive us off our land +because we're witches. And I think in this 200th year of the American +constitution, it's really important for all of us, no matter what our +religious background or orientation is, to really take a look at the religious +freedom upon which this country is founded. People are still losing their jobs +because they're witches. And I think we need to live in peace and harmony and +bring the reality that Marion's talking about everywhere in this country, and +hopefully everywhere in the world if that's right. + +GERALDO: When we come back we're going to have some secret witches' love +potions. That's after this break. Love potion number nine, remember that? + + [Commercial break] + +GERALDO: Okay, Selena, tell us what this is about. What's going on? + +Ms. FOX: Well, what I'm doing is getting a bunch of herbs out here from our +sanctuary, because we have an herb farm there as well as a nature preserve. +And what I'm going to do is what I call a happiness potion. + +Mr. FREW: It smells really wonderful in here, by the way. + +Ms. FOX: It's a modern stress management technique that has ancient roots. So +essentially what I'm going to be doing is working with each of these herbs. + +GERALDO: Smells great, doesn't it? + +Ms. FOX: Oh, thanks. And this is something, no matter if your wiccan or not, +that you can do. + +GERALDO: Now, wiccan, wiccan, we've heard that word. Whitney, you describe +what wiccan is as she goes ahead - Selena goes ahead and - + +Mr. STREIBER: Well, wicca is an old word, an older word for witchcraft, and +people who practice this religion feel more comfortable with it because the +word witch has a bit of bad press in the Western world recently, I mean in the +past couple hundred years. I don't know if you've noticed. + +GERALDO: Yeah, at Salem they did, it's true. + +Mr. STREIBER: And a lot of other places too. + +Ms. FOX: Okay, so what I'm going to do, I have an enamel-ware cauldron, hot +water, bringing it up to a boil. And I'm going to put in three ingredients, +basil, lemon balm, and mint, and then energize it. + +GERALDO: Great. + +Ms. FOX: Basil, - + +GERALDO: Basil. So people can do this at home then? + +Ms. FOX: - for delight and pleasure. Mint, for joy and refreshment. + +GERALDO: Smells great. + +Ms. FOX: Lemon balm, for wellbeing and renewal. + +GERALDO: All right. Double, double, toil and trouble. + +Ms. FOX: No, no. The chant I'm going to use is: + Magic herbs + Three in one + Magic brew + The potion's done. + +GERALDO: Heh. Are you going to pour some out now? + +Ms. FOX: What we're going to do is we're going to let this steep a little bit, +and I'm going to move on to part two of my demonstration here. + +GERALDO: Okay. + +Ms. FOX: Which is actually - + +GERALDO: So this one's cooking, sort of? + +Ms. FOX: Yeah. So the energy's in, now it needs to steep for 13 minutes or +more. Okay, now what I have here is a rock from our land - sandstone - with +some blue corn, which is a native American sacred herb representing the earth +and the physical body. Air, representing the mind. This is frankicense. Those +of you who are in other churches may recognize the smell. Fire, representing +the energy. Water, representing our emotions. And a crystal, representing the +spirit, or the divineness everywhere. So what I'm going to do - + +GERALDO: Should we move the globe out of the way so we can see it, or what? Or +you need it? + +Ms. FOX: We're going to - Yeah, we're going to do to it, and this is something +if anyone here would like to participate, no matter what your background is, +then I welcome you, as I move into this very short prayer, to focus on each of +the things that I'm doing. And - + +GERALDO: Wait, before we decide whether or not to do that, what's the end +product going to be? + +Ms. FOX: What we're going to do is send love to the planet. + +GERALDO: Oh, so you're not going to make anything, you're going to beam out +some love feelings. + +Ms. FOX: This is a very short example of a longer ritual that we often do. + +GERALDO: So anyone who wants to participate in beaming love out, focus. + +Ms. FOX: Okay. + +GERALDO: Go ahead. All right. + +Ms. FOX: + May the land be pure, + May there be food, shelter and homes enough + For all the world's people, + May there be clear clean air, + May humankind's intelligence and knowledge be increased, + May there be responsible use of energy, + May there be creative solutions to all the world's problems, + May there be clean waters throughout this globe, this earth, + May there be understanding and love amongst all people + Of all ages, of all races, of all nations, of all sexual orientations, + Of all lifestyles and of all religions, + May humankind walk in balance with the plants and the animals + And all the other life forms on this planet and in other worlds. + + Imagine a light, a white light, from your heart flowing into this + crystal, and send on that light love, spiritual love, and whatever your + particular spiritual orientation is. And as I channel this crystal and + the light into this globe, a symbol of the earth, feel that energy + flowing around the earth, and call to the mother earth if it feels right + for you in the next few moments by chanting her name. + + Mo-ther earth + Mo-ther earth + Mo-ther earth + Mo-ther earth + + So mote it be. + +AUDIENCE: So mote it be. + +GERALDO: So this commercial must be. We'll be right back. + + [Commercial break] + +GERALDO: Before Lady Sabrina shows us her love potion I just want to see what +the audience thinks. + +3rd AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi. I'm a total unbeliever. I'll tell you why. Nine years +ago I got involved in what you call white or good witchcraft, and it looked +very beautiful at first. It was very etheral and mystical and all this, and +the more I was in it I began to be driven, I began to be depressed, I couldn't +sleep at night, I began to go on food binges. And praise God someone told me +that Jesus Christ is alive and could live in my heart and change my life. I +met Jesus Christ, he delivered me, and I just want to say that I don't care +what kind of witchcraft it is, God says it's abomination, and there are +results and there's a penalty to that it's sin, and you will pay. + +GERALDO: Wait, wait. [Crosstalk] Let Whitney answer, then you. + +Mr. STREIBER: I would like to say something right now. And that is I am a +Christian too, a Catholic. And all I have to say is, when one starts to think +in oneself that the other man's religion is evil, you have to look in your own +heart, because that's where something is really wrong. + +GERALDO: Let me make the dialogue less intense. + +Mr. STREIBER: Lighten it up. + +GERALDO: Yeah, let me lighten it up a bit. What about the people who are at +home who aren't reacting in a religious way, but who are saying, "Oh, come on. +It's nice and it's nice words, but it's all mumbo jumbo." + +Ms. FOX: I think each of us has to find a religion that is right for us. I am +very glad that you have found a religion that is right for you - + +GERALDO: A non-religious answer, please. + +Ms. FOX: A non-religious? Well - + +GERALDO: What about the people who just say - + +Mr. STREIBER: Does magic really work, Selena? + +GERALDO: - the "Oh, come on people" rather than - + +Mr. FREW: Wait a second. We heard people laughing when she had the globe out +here. And granted, the nice little inflatable globe was funny. But it's +important to realize that these kinds of things are not what the magic is all +about. That's just a symbol. We need something so we can all say, "Oh, yeah, +the earth." But that's the kind of thing that people laugh at, and it's not +important, it's not an important part of the magic. + +GERALDO: Give us the love potion then. + +SABRINA: The love potion? Okay, it's not a potion, it's a spell. And what \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/gleen.txt b/religious documents/gleen.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..99f00d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/gleen.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5154 @@ +[PAGE 1] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + + GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + BY + + MAX HEINDEL + [1865-1919] + + + + A SERIES OF ESSAYS ON + PRACTICAL MYSTICISM + + + + + THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS + MT. ECCLESIA + P.O. BOX 713 + OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054 U.S.A. + + + + + +[PAGE 3] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + FORWARD + + The contents of this book are among the last writings of Max Heindel, the +mystic. They contain some of his deepest thoughts, and are the result of +years of research and occult investigation. He, too, could say as did +Parsifal: "Through error and through suffering I came, through many failures +and through countless woes." At last he was given the living water with +which he was able to quench the spiritual thirst of many souls. He also de- +veloped to their depths pity and love, and could feel the heart throbs of +suffering humanity. + + Strong souls are usually endowed with great energy and impulse, and +through these very forces, they forge to the front ranks though they often +suffer much. As a result they are filled with compassion for others. The +writer of these lessons sacrificed his physical body on the altar of ser- +vice. + + In writing the books and monthly lessons of the Fellowship, in his lec- +tures and class work, and in the arduous pioneer work of establishing Head- +quarters within the short span of ten years, Max Heindel accomplished more +than many who are blessed with perfect health could have accomplished in a +lifetime. His first book, his masterpiece, " The Rosicrucian Cosmo- + + +[PAGE 4] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +Conception," was written under the direct guidance of the Elder Brothers of +the Rose Cross. It carries a vital message to the world. It satisfies not +alone the intellect, but also the heart. His "Freemasonry and Catholicism," +has found its way into many Masonic libraries. The occultist has received +much from the book entitled, "The Web of Destiny," which is a mine of mysti- +cal knowledge and helpful occult truths. It is also a guide to the investi- +gator, establishing danger signals for the venturesome ones who wish to take +heaven by storm. To the science of astrology he has given more in a few +years than has previously been discovered for centuries. His two valuable +works, "Simplified Scientific Astrology" and "The Message of the Stars," +deal largely with the spiritual and medical aspects of astrology. The lat- +ter gives methods of diagnosis and healing which form a valuable addition to +the works of other authors, both ancient and modern. These books may be +found in the libraries of many doctors of the old school. + + In "Gleanings of a Mystic" are found twenty-four lessons which were for- +merly sent out to students. It is the wish of the writer of this introduc- +tion that these lessons may carry a message of love and cheer to the +soul-hungry reader and hope to the disconsolate one. + + Augusta Foss Heindel + + +[PAGE 5] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + + TABLE OF CONTENTS + +Chapter I. + Initiation: What It Is and Is Not--Part I. 7 +Chapter II + Initiation: What It Is and Is Not--Part II. 14 +Chapter III. + The Sacrament of Communion--Part I. 21 +Chapter IV. + The Sacrament of Communion--Part II. 28 +Chapter V. + The Sacrament of Baptism. 37 +Chapter VI. + The Sacrament of Marriage 46 +Chapter VII. + The Unpardonable Sin and Lost Souls. 54 +Chapter VIII. + The Immaculate Conception. 61 +Chapter IX. + The Coming Christ. 69 +Chapter X. + The Coming Age. 77 +Chapter XI. + Meat and Drink as Factors of Evolution. 85 + + +[PAGE 6] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +Chapter XII. + A Living Sacrifice. 94 +Chapter XIII. + Magic, White and Black. 101 +Chapter XIV. + Our Invisible Government. 108 +Chapter XV. + Practical Precepts for Practical People. 114 +Chapter XVI. + Sound, Silence, and Soul Growth. 121 +Chapter XVII. + The "Mysterium Magnum" of the Rose Cross 130 +Chapter XVIII. + Stumbling Blocks 138 +Chapter XIX. + The Lock of Upliftment. 147 +Chapter XX. + The Cosmic Meaning of Easter--Part I. 153 +Chapter XXI. + The Cosmic Meaning of Easter--Part II. 160 +Chapter XXII. + The Newborn Christ. 167 +Chapter XXIII. + Why I am a Rosicrucian. 173 +Chapter XXIV. + The Object of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. 180 + + +[PAGE 7] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT + + CHAPTER I + + INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT + + PART I + + IT IS NO rare occurrence to receive questions relating to Initiation, and +we are also frequently asked to state whether this order or that society is +genuine, and whether the initiations they offer to all comers who have the +price are BONA FIDE. For that reason it seems necessary to write a treatise +on the subject so that students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship may have an +official statement for reference and guidance in the future. + + In the first place let it be clearly understood that we consider it repre- +hensible to express condemnation of any society or order, no matter what it +practices. It may be perfectly sincere and honest ACCORDING TO ITS LIGHT. +We do not believe that we rise in the opinion of discriminating men and +women by speaking in disparaging terms of others; neither are we laboring +under the delusion that WE have all the truth and the other societies are +plunged in Egyptian darkness. We reiterate what we have often said before, + + +[PAGE 8] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +that all religions have been given to mankind by the Recording Angels, who +know the spiritual requirements of each class, nation, and race, and have +the intelligence to give each a form of worship perfectly suited to its par- +ticular need; that thus Hinduism is suited to the Hindu, Mohammedanism to +the Arab, and the Christian religion to those born in the Western Hemi- +sphere. + + The Mystery Schools of each religion furnish to the more advanced members +of the race or nation embracing its higher teaching, which IF LIVED, ad- +vances them into a higher sphere of spirituality than their brethren. But +as the religion of the backward races is of a lower order than the religion +of the pioneers, the Christian nations, so also the MYSTERY TEACHING OF THE +EAST IS MORE ELEMENTARY THAN THAT OF THE WEST, and the Hindu or Chinese Ini- +tiate is on a correspondingly lower rung of the ladder of attainment than +the Western Mystic. Please ponder this well so that you may not fall a vic- +tim to misguided people who try to persuade others that the Christian reli- +gion is crude compared with oriental cults. Ever westward in the wake of +the shining sun, the light of the world, has gone the star of empire, and is +it not reasonable to suppose that the spiritual light has kept pace with +civilization, or even preceded it as thought precedes action? We hold that +such is the case, that the Christian religion is the loftiest yet given to +man, and that to repudiate the Christian religion, esoteric or exoteric, for +any of the older systems is analogous to preferring the older textbooks of + + +[PAGE 9] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT + +science to the newer ones which embrace discoveries to date. + + Neither are the practices of Eastern aspirants to the higher life to be +imitated by Westerners; we refer particularly to the breathing exercises. +They are both beneficial and necessary to the unfoldment of the Hindu, but +it is otherwise with the Western aspirant. To him it is dangerous to prac- +tice breathing exercises for soul unfoldment; they will even prove subver- +sive of soul growth, and they are, moreover, absolutely unnecessary. The +reason is this: + + During involution the threefold spirit has become gradually incrusted in +a threefold body. In the Atlantean Epoch man was at the nadir of material- +ity. We are just now rounding the lowest point on the arc of involution, +and starting upward on the arc of evolution. At this point, then, all man- +kind is immured in this earthly prison house to such a degree that spiritual +vibrations are almost killed. This is, of course, particularly true of the +backward races and the lower classes in the Western world. The atoms in +such backward race bodies are vibrating at an exceedingly low rate, and when +in the course of time one of these people develops to a point where it is +possible to further him upon the path of attainment, it is necessary to +raise this vibratory pitch of the atom so that the vital body, which is the +medium of occult growth, may to a certain extent be liberated from the dead- +ening forces of the physical atom. This result is attained by means of + + +[PAGE 10] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +breathing exercises, which in time accelerate the vibration of the atom, and +allow the spiritual growth necessary to the individual to take place. + + These exercises may also be used by a great number of people in the West- +ern world, particularly those who are not at all concerned about their +spiritual advancement. But even among those who desire soul growth there +are many who are not yet at the point where the atoms of their bodies have +evolved to such a pitch of vibration that acceleration beyond the usual mea- +sure would injure them. Here the breathing exercises would do no harm; but +if given to a person who is really at the point where he can enter the path +of advancement ordinarily mapped out for the Hindu's precocious brothers and +sisters in the West, in other words, when he is nearly ready for Initiation +and when he would be benefited BY SPIRITUAL EXERCISES, then the case is far +otherwise. + + During the aeons which we have spent in evolution since the time when we +were in Hindu bodies, our atoms have accelerated their vibratory pitch enor- +mously, and as said in the case of one who is really nearly ready for Ini- +tiation, the pitch of vibration is higher than that of the average man or +woman. Therefore he does not need breathing exercises to ACCELERATE this +pitch, but certain spiritual exercises suited to him individually which will +advance him on the proper path. If such a person at this critical period + + +[PAGE 11] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT + +meets some one who ignorantly or unscrupulously gives him breathing exer- +cises, and if he follows the instructions accurately in the hope of GETTING +QUICK RESULTS, he will get them quickly but in a manner he has not looked +for, since the vibratory rate of the atoms in his body will in a very short +time become accelerated to such a pitch that it will seem to him as if he +were walking on air; then also an improper cleavage of the vital body may +take place, and either consumption or insanity follows. Now please put this +down where it will burn itself into your consciousness in letters of fire: +INITIATION IS A SPIRITUAL PROCESS, AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS CANNOT BE ACCOM- +PLISHED BY PHYSICAL MEANS, BUT ONLY BY SPIRITUAL EXERCISES. + + There are many orders in the West which profess to INITIATE ANYONE WHO +HAS THE PRICE. Some of these orders have names closely resembling our own, +and we are constantly asked by students whether they are affiliated with us. +In order to settle this once and for all, please note that the Rosicrucian +Fellowship has constantly taught that NO SPIRITUAL GIFT MAY EVER BE TRADED +FOR MONEY. If you bear this in mind, you may know we have no connection +with any order which demands money for the transference of spiritual power. +He who has something to give of a truly spiritual nature will not barter it +for money. I received a particular injunction to this effect from the Elder +Brothers in the Rosicrucian Temple, when they told me to go to the English +speaking world as their messenger, a claim I do not expect you to believe + + +[PAGE 12] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +SAVE AS YOU SEE IT JUSTIFIED BY FRUITS. + + Now, however, about Initiation: What it is? Is it ceremony as claimed by +these other orders? If so, any order can certainly invent ceremonies of a +more or less elaborate kind. They may by flowing robes and clashing swords +appeal to the emotions; they may appeal to the sense of wonder and awe by +rattling chains and by deep sounding gongs, and thus produce in their mem- +bers an "OCCULT FEELING." Many revel in the adventures and experiences of +the hero in "The Brother of the Third Degree," thinking that this is surely +Initiation, but I tell you that it is very far from being the case. NO CE- +REMONY CAN EVER GIVE TO ANY ONE THAT INWARD EXPERIENCE which constitutes I- +nitiation, no matter how much is charged or how fearful the oaths, how awful +or beautiful the ceremony, or how gorgeous the robes, any more than passing +through a ceremony can convert a sinner and make him a saint, for conversion +is to the exoteric religionist exactly what Initiation is in the higher mys- +ticism. Please consider this point thoroughly, and you will have the key to +the problem. + + Do you think that any one could go to a person of depraved character and +agree to convert him for a certain sum and carry out his part of the agree- +ment? Surely you know that no amount of money could bring about that change +in a man's character. Ask a true convert where he got his religion and how +he got it. One may tell you that he received it upon the road as he was + + +[PAGE 13] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +walking along; another says that the light and the change came to him in the +solitude of his room; another that the LIGHT STRUCK him as it struck Paul +upon the road to Damascus, and forced him to change. Every one has a dif- +ferent experience, and the outward manifestation of that inward experience +is that IT CHANGES THE MAN'S WHOLE LIFE from the very least to the very +greatest aspect. + + So it is with Initiation; it is an inward experience, entirely SEPARATE +AND APART FROM ANY CEREMONIAL WHATEVER, and therefore it is an absolute im- +possibility that any one could sell it to any one else. Initiation changes +a man's whole life. It gives him a confidence that he never possessed be- +fore. It clothes him with a mantle of authority that never can be taken +from him. No matter what the circumstances in life, it sheds a light upon +his whole being that is simply wonderful. Nor can any ceremony effect such +a change. We therefore hold that anyone who offers initiation into an oc- +cult order by ceremonials to everyone who has the price, brands himself as +an imposter. For the true teacher, if he were approached by an aspirant +with an offer of money for spiritual attainment, would answer indignantly in +the words used by Peter to Simon the sorcerer, who offered him money for +spiritual powers: "Thy silver perish with thee." + + +[PAGE 14] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + CHAPTER II + + INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT + + PART II + + TO OBTAIN a better understanding of what constitutes Initiation and what +the prerequisites are, let the student fix firmly in his mind the fact that +humanity as a whole is slowly progressing upon the path of evolution, thus +very slowly, almost inperceptibly, attaining higher and higher states of +consciousness. The path of evolution is a spiral when we regard it from the +physical side only, but a lemniscate when viewed in both its physical and +spiritual phases. (See the diagram of chemical caduceus in THE ROSICRUCIAN +COSMO-CONCEPTION, page 410.) In the lemniscate, or figure 8, there are two +circles which converge to a central point, which circles may be taken to +symbolize the immortal spirit, the evolving ego. One of the circles signi- +fies its life in the physical world from birth to death. During this span +of time it sows a seed by every act and should reap in return a certain +amount of experience. But as we may sow seed in the field and lose return +on that which falls on stony ground, among thorns, et cetera, so also may +the seed of opportunity be wasted because of neglect to till the soil and + + +[PAGE 15] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT + +the life will then be barren of fruit. Conversely, as diligence and care +in cultivation increase the productive power of garden seed enormously, so +earnest application to the business of life--improvement of opportunities to +learn life's lessons and extract from our environment the experience it +holds--brings added opportunities; and at the end of the life-day the ego +finds itself at the door of death laden with the richest fruits of life. + + The objective work of physical existence over, the race run, and the day +of action spent, the ego enters upon the subjective work of assimilation ac- +complished during its sojourn in the invisible worlds, which it traverses +during the period from death to birth, symbolized by the other ring of the +lemniscate. As the method of accomplishment this assimilation has been most +minutely described in various parts of our literature, it is needless to re- +peat it here. Suffice it to say that at the time when an ego arrives at +thecentral point in the lemniscate, which divides the physical from the psy- +chic worlds and which we call the gate of birth or death according to +whether the ego is entering or leaving the realm where we, ourselves, happen +to be at the time, it has with it an aggregate of faculties or talents ac- +quired in all its previous lives, which it may then put to usury or bury +during the coming life-day as it sees fit; but upon the use it makes of what +it has, depends the amount of soul growth it makes. + + +[PAGE 16] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + If for many lives it caters mainly to the lower nature, which lives to +eat, drink and be merry, or if it dreams its life away in metaphysical +speculations upon nature and God, sedulously abstaining from all unnecessary +action, it is gradually passed and left behind by the more active and +progressive. Great companies of these idlers form what we know as "backward +races"; while the active, alert, and wide-awake who improve a larger per- +centage of their opportunities, are the pioneers. Contrary to the commonly +accepted idea, this applies also to those engaged in industrial work. Their +money-getting is only an incident, an incentive, and entirely apart from +this phase their work is as spiritual as or even more so than that of those +who spend their time in prayer to the prejudice of useful work. + + From what has been said, it will be clear that the method of soul growth +as accomplished by the process of evolution requires ACTION in the physical +life, followed in the post-mortem state by a RUMINATING PROCESS, during +which the lessons of life are extracted and thoroughly incorporated into the +consciousness of the ego, though the experiences themselves are +forgotten--as we forget our labor in learning the multiplication table, +though the faculty of using it remains. + + This exceedingly slow and tedious process is perfectly suited to the +needs of the masses; but there are some who habitually exhaust the experi- +ences commonly given, thus requiring and meriting a larger scope for their + + +[PAGE 17] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT + +energies. Difference of temperament is responsible for their division into +two classes. + + One class, led by their devotion to Christ, simply follow the dictates of +the heart in their work of live for their fellows--beautiful characters, +beacon lights of love in a suffering world, never actuated by selfish mo- +tives, always ready to forego personal comfort to aid others. Such were the +saints; they worked as they prayed; they never shirked in either direction. +Nor are they dead today. The earth would be a barren wilderness in spite of +all its civilization did not their beautiful feet circle it on errands of +mercy, were not the lives of sufferers made brighter by the light of hope +which radiates from their beautiful faces. Had they but the knowledge pos- +sessed by the other class they would indeed outdistance all in the race for +the Kingdom. + + Mind is the predominating feature of the other class. In order to aid it +in its efforts toward attainment, mystery schools were early established +wherein the world drama was played to give the aspiring soul while he was +entranced, answers to the questions of the origin and destiny of humanity. +When awakened, he was instructed in the sacred science of how to climb +higher by following the method of nature--which is meditating upon the expe- +rience, and incorporating the essential moral to make thereby commensurate +soul growth; also with this important feature, that whereas in the ordinary + + +[PAGE 18] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +course of things a whole life is devoted to sowing and a whole post-mortem +existence to ruminating and incorporating the soul substance, this cycle of +a thousand years, more or less, may be reduced to a day, as held by the mys- +tic maxim, "A day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." +To be explicit, whatever work has been done during a single day, if rumi- +nated over at night before crossing the neutral point between waking and +sleeping, may thus be incorporated into the consciousness of the spirit as +usable soul power. When that exercise is faithfully performed, the sins of +each day thus reviewed are actually blotted out, and the man commences each +day as if it were a new life, with the added soul power gained in all the +preceding days of his probationary life. + + But!--yes, there is a great big BUT; NATURE IS NOT TO BE CHEATED; God is +not to be mocked. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Let +no one think that the mere perfunctory review of the happenings of a day +with perhaps the light-hearted admission of, "I wish I had not done that," +when reviewing a scene where he did something palpably wrong, will save him +from the wrath to come. When we pass out of the body into purgatory at +death and the panorama of our past life unfolds in reverse order to show us +first the effects and then the causes which produced them, we feel in inten- +sified measure the pain we gave others; and unless we perform our exercises + + +[PAGE 19] INITIATION: WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT + +in a similar manner SO THAT WE LIVE EACH EVENING OUR HELL as merited that +day, acutely sensible of every pang we have inflicted, it will avail noth- +ing. We must also endeavor to feel in the same intense manner, gratitude +for kindness received from others, and approbation on account of the good we +ourselves have done. + + Only thus are we really living the post-mortem existence and advancing +scientifically towards the goal of Initiation. The greatest danger of the +aspirant upon this path is that he may become enmeshed in the snare of ego- +tism, and his only safeguard is to cultivate the faculties of faith, devo- +tion, and an all-embracing sympathy. It is difficult, but it can be done, +and when it has been accomplished the man or woman becomes a wonderful power +for good in the world. + + Now, if the student has pondered the preceding argument well, he has +probably grasped the analogy between the LONG CYCLE of evolution and the +short CYCLES or steps used upon the path of preparation. It should be quite +clear that no one can do this post-mortem work for him and transmit to him +the resulting soul growth. You think it preposterous when a priesthood of- +fers to shorten the sojourn of a soul in purgatory. How, then, can you be- +lieve that anyone else can--no matter what the consideration--obviate the +necessity of a number of purgatorial existences for your benefit and trans- +mit to you at once the usable soul power you would have acquired had you + + +[PAGE 20] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +pursued the ordinary course of life to the day you are ready for Initiation? +Yet this is what the offer to initiate a person not yet upon the threshold +means. You must have the soul power requisite for Initiation or no one can +initiate you. If you have it, you are upon the threshold by your own ef- +forts, beholden to no one, and may demand Initiation as a right which none +would dare dispute or withhold. If you have it not and could buy it, it +would be cheap at twenty-five million dollars, and the man who offers it for +twenty-five dollars is as ridiculous as his dupe. Please remember that if +anyone offers to initiate you into an occult order, no matter if he calls it +"Rosicrucian" or by any other name, his demand of an initiation fee at once +stamps him as an imposter; explanations ot the effect that the fee is used +to purchase regalia, et cetera, are only added evidence of the fraudulent +nature of the order for it is said, "Initiation is most emphatically not an +outward ceremony, but an inward experience." I may further add that the +Elder Brothers of the Rose Cross in the Mystic Temple where I received the +Light made it a condition that their SACRED SCIENCE MUST NEVER BE PUT IN THE +BALANCE AGAINST A COIN. Freely had I received, and freely was I required to +give. This injunction I have obeyed, both in spirit and to the letter, as +all know who have had dealings with the Rosicrucian Fellowship. + + +[PAGE 21] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION + + CHAPTER III + + THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION + + PART I + + + TO OBTAIN a thorough understanding of the deep and far-reaching sig- +nificance of the manner in which the Sacrament of Communion was instituted, +it is necessary to consider the evolution of our planet and of composite +man, also the chemistry of foods and their influence on humanity. For the +sake of lucidity we will briefly recapitulate the Rosicrucian teachings on +the various points involved. They have been given at length in the +ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION and our other works. + + The Virgin Spirits, which are now mankind, commenced their pilgrimage +through matter in the dawn of time, that by the friction of concrete exist- +ence their latent powers might be transmuted to kinetic energy as usable +soul power. Three successive veils of increasingly dense matter were ac- +quired by the involving spirits during the Saturn, Sun and Moon Periods. +Thus each spirit was separated from all other spirits, and the consciousness +which could not penetrate the prison wall of matter and communicate with +others was forced to turn inwards, and in so doing it discovered--ITSELF. + + +[PAGE 22] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +Thus self-consciousness was attained. + + A further crystallization of the before mentioned veils took place in the +Earth Period during the Polarian, Hyperborean, and Lemurain Epochs. In the +Atlantean Epoch, the mind was added as a focusing point between the spirit +and body, completing the constitution of composite man, who was then +equipped to conquer the world and generate soul power by endeavor and expe- +rience, each having free will and choice except as limited by the laws of +nature and his own previous acts. + + During the time man-in-the-making was thus evolving, great creative Hier- +archies guided his every step. Absolutely nothing was left to chance. Even +the food he ate was chosen for him so that he might obtain the appropriate +material wherewith to build the various vehicles of consciousness necessary +to accomplish the process of soul growth. The Bible mentions the various +stages, though it misplaces Nimrod, making him to symbolize the Atlantean +kings who lived BEFORE the Flood. + + In the Polarian Epoch pure mineral matter became a constituent part of +man; thus ADAM was made of earth, that is, so far as his dense body was +concerned. + + In the Hyperborean Epoch the vital body was added, and thus his constitu- +tion became plantlike, and CAIN, the man of that time, lived on the fruits + + +[PAGE 23] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION + +of the soil. + + The Lemurian Epoch saw the evolution of a desire body, which made man +like the present animals. Then milk, the product of living animals, was +added to human diet. ABEL was a shepherd, but it is nowhere stated that he +killed an animal. + + At that time mankind lived innocently and peacefully in the misty atmo- +sphere which enveloped the earth during the latter part of the Lemurian Ep- +och, as described in the chapter on "Baptism" Men were then like children +under the care of a common father, until the mind was given to all in the +beginning of Atlantis. Thought activity breaks down tissue which must be +replaced; the lower and more material the thought, the greater the havoc and +the more pressing the need for albumen wherewith to make quick repairs. +Hence necessity, the mother of invention, inaugurated the loathsome practice +of flesh eating, and so long as we continue to think along purely business +or material lines we shall have to go on using our stomachs as receptacles +for the decaying corpses of our murdered animal victims. Yet we shall see +later that flesh food has enabled us to make the wonderful material progress +achieved in the Western World, while the vegetarian Hindus and Chinese have +remained in an almost savage state. It seems sad to contemplate that they +will be forced to follow in our steps and shed the blood of our fellow crea- +tures when we shall have outgrown the barbarous practice as we have ceased + + +[PAGE 24] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +cannibalism. + + The more spiritual we grow, the more our thoughts will harmonize with the +rhythm of our body, and the less albumen will be needed to build tissue. +Consequently, a vegetable diet will suffice our needs. Pythagoras advised +abstinence from legumes to ADVANCED scholars because they are rich in albu- +men and apt to revive lower appetites. Let not every student who reads this +rashly conclude to eliminate legumes from his diet. Most of us are not yet +ready for such extremes; we would not even advise all students to abstain +entirely from meat. The change should come from within. It may be safely +stated, however, that most people eat entirely too much meat for their good; +but this is in a certain sense a digression, so we will revert to the fur- +ther evolution of humanity in so far as it has a bearing upon the Sacrament +of Communion. + + In due time the dense mist which enveloped the earth cooled, condensed, +and flooded the various basins. The atmosphere cleared, and concurrently +with this atmospheric change a physiological adaptation in man took place. +The gill clefts which had enabled him to breathe in the dense water-laden +air (and which are seen in the human foetus to this day) gradually atro- +phied, and their function was taken over by the lungs, the pure air passing +to and from them through the larynx. This allowed the spirit, hitherto + + +[PAGE 25] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION + +penned up within the veil of flesh, to express itself in word and act. + + There in the middle of Atlantis the sun first shone upon MAN as we know +him; there he was FIRST BORN into the world. Until then he had been under +the absolute control of great spiritual Hierarchies, mute, without voice or +choice in matters pertaining to his education, as a child is now under the +control of its parents. + + But one day when he finally emerged from the dense atmosphere of +Atlantis; when he first beheld the mountains silhouetted in clear, sharp +contours against the azure vault of heaven; when he first saw the beauties +of moor and meadow, the moving creatures, birds in the air, and his fellow +man; when his vision was undimmed by the partial obscuration of the mist +which had previously hampered perception; above all, when he perceived HIM- +SELF as SEPARATE and APART FROM ALL OTHERS, there burst from his lips the +glorious triumphant cry, "I AM." + + At that point he had acquired faculties which equipped him to enter the +school of experience, the phenomenal world, as a free agent to learn the +lessons of life, untrammeled save by the LAWS OF NATURE, which are his safe- +guards, and the reaction of his own previous acts, which become DESTINY. + + The diet containing an excess of albumen from the flesh wherewith he +gorged himself, taxed his liver beyond the capacity and clogged the system, +making him morose, sullen, and brutish. He was fast losing the spiritual + + +[PAGE 26] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +sight which revealed to him the guardian angels whom he trusted, and he say +only the FORMS of animals and men. The spirits with whom he had lived in +love and brotherhood during early Atlantis were obscured by the veil of +flesh. It was all so strange, and he FEARED them. + + Therefore it became necessary to give him a NEW FOOD that could aid his +spirit to overpower the highly individualized molecules of flesh (as ex- +plained in the ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, chapter on Assimilation, p. +457), brace it for battle with the world, and spur it on to self-assertion. + + As our visible bodies composed of chemical compounds can thrive only upon +chemical aliment, so it requires spirit to act upon spirit to aid in break- +ing up the heavy proteid and in stimulating the drooping human spirit. + + The emergence from flooded Atlantis, the liberation of humanity from the +absolute rulership of visible superhuman guardians, their placement under +THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE AND THE LAWS OF NATURE, and THE GIFT OF WINE are de- +scribed in the stories of Noah and Moses, which are different accounts of +the same event. + + Both Noah and Moses led their followers through the water. Moses calls +heaven and earth to witness that he has placed before them the blessing and +the curse, exhorts them to choose the good or take the consequences of their +actions; then he leaves them. + + +[PAGE 27] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION + + The phenomenon of the rainbow requires that the sun be near the horizon, +the nearer the better; also a clear atmosphere, and a dark rain cloud in the +opposite quarter of the heavens. When under such conditions an observer +stands with back to the sun, drops as a rainbow. In early Atlantean times +when a warm, moist fog through which the sun appeared as one of our arc +lamps on a foggy day, the phenomenon of the rainbow was an impossibility. +It could not have made its appearance until the mist had condensed to rain, +flooded the basins of the earth, and Noah, which thus points TO THE LAW OF +ALTERNATING CYCLES that brings day and night, summer and winter, in +unvarying sequence, and to which man is subject in the present age. + + Noah cultivated the vine and provided a spirit to stimulate man. Thus, +equipped with a composite constitution, a composite diet appropriate +thereto, and divine laws to guide them, mankind were left to their own de- +vices in the battle of life. +[PAGE 28] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + CHAPTER IV + + THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION + "IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME." + + PART II + "THE LORD JESUS, the same night in which he was betrayed took bread; and +when he had given thanks, he brake it and said, Take, eat; This is MY body, +which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same man- +ner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New +Testament in MY blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of +me. For as often as ye eat This bread, and drink This cup, ye do shew the +Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat This bread, and +drink This cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood +of the Lord . . . . For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and +drinketh damnation to himself . . . . For this cause many are weak and +sickly among you, and many sleep."--I Cor 11:23-30. + + In the foregoing passages there is a deeply hidden esoteric meaning which +is particularly obscured in the English translation, but in the German, +Latin and Greek, the student still has a hint as to what was really intended + + +[PAGE 29] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION + +by that last parting injunction of the Savior to His disciples. Before ex- +amining This phase of the subject, let us first consider the words, "in re- +membrance of me." We shall then perhaps be in better condition to under- +stand what is meant by the "cup" and the "bread." + + Suppose a man from a distant country comes into our midst and travels +about from place to place. Everywhere he will see small communities gather- +ing around the Table of the Lord to celebrate This most sacred of all Chris- +tian rites, and should he ask why, he would be told that they do This in re- +membrance of One who lived a life nobler than any other has lived upon This +earth; One who was kindness and love personified; One who was the servant of +all, regardless of gain or loss to self. Should This stranger then compare +the attitude of these religious communities on Sunday at the celebration of +This rite, with their civic lives during the remainder of the week, what +would he see? + + Every one among us goes out into the world to fight the battle of exist- +ence. Under the law of necessity we forget the love which should be the +ruling factor in Christian lives. Every man's hand is against his brother. +Every one strives for position, wealth, and power that goes with these at- +tributes. We forget on Monday what we reverently remembered on Sunday, and +all the world is poor in consequence. We also make a distinction between + + +[PAGE 30] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +the bread and wine which we drink at the so-called "Lord's Table," and the +food of which we partake during the intervals between attendance at +Communion. But there is no warrant in the Scriptures for any such distinc- +tion, as anyone may see, even in the English version, by leaving out the +words printed in italics which have been inserted by the translators to give +what they thought was the sense of a passage. On the contrary, we are told +that whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, all should be done to the +glory of God. Our every act should be a prayer. The perfunctory "grace" at +meals is in reality a blasphemy, and the silent thought of gratitude to the +Giver of daily bread is far to be preferred. When we remember at each meal +that it has been drawn from the substance of the earth, which is the body of +the indwelling Christ Spirit, we can properly understand how that body is +being broken for us daily, and we can appreciate the loving kindness which +prompted Him thus to give Himself for us; for let us also remember that +there is not a moment, day or night, that He is not suffering because bound +to earth. When we thus eat and thus realize the true situation, we are in- +deed declaring to ourselves the death of the Lord, whose spirit is groaning +and travailing, waiting for the day of liberation when there shall be no +need of such a dense environment as we now require. + + But there is another, a greater and more wonderful mystery hidden in + + +[PAGE 31] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION + +these words of the Christ. Richard Wagner, with the rare intuition of the +master musician, sensed This idea when he sat in meditation by the Zurich +Sea on a Good Friday, and there flashed into his mind the thought, "What +connection is there between the death of the Savior and the millions of +seeds sprouting forth from the earth at this time of the year?" If we +meditate upon that life which is annually poured out in the spring, we wee +it as something gigantic and awe-inspiring; a flood of life which transforms +the glove from one of frozen death to rejuvenated life in a short space of +time; and the life which thus diffuses itself in the budding of millions and +millions of plants is the life of the Earth Spirit. + + From that come both the wheat and the grape. They are the body and blood +of the imprisoned Earth Spirit, given to sustain mankind during the present +phase of its evolution. We repudiate the contention of people who claim +that the world owes them a living, regardless of their own efforts and with- +out MATERIAL responsibility on their part, but we nevertheless insist that +there is a SPIRITUAL responsibility connected with the bread and wine given +at the Lord's Supper; IT MUST BE EATEN WORTHILY, OTHERWISE, UNDER PAIN OF +ILL HEALTH AND EVEN DEATH. This from the ordinary manner of reading would +seem far-fetched, but when we bring the light of esotericism to bear, exam- +ine other translations of the Bible, and look at conditions in the world as + + +[PAGE 32] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +we find them today, we shall see that it is not so far-fetched after all. + + To begin with, we must go back to the time when man lived under the +guardianship of the angels, unconsciously building the body which he now +uses. That was in ancient Lemuria. A brain was needed for the evolution of +thought, and a larynx for verbal expression of the same. Therefore, half of +the creative force was turned upwards and used by man to form these organs. +Thus mankind became single-sexed and was forced to seek a complement when it +was necessary to create a new body to serve as an instrument in a higher +phase of evolution. + + While the act of love was consummated under the wise guardianship of the +angels, man's existence was free from sorrow, pain and death. But when, un- +der the tutelage of the Lucifer Spirits, he ate of the Tree of Knowledge and +perpetuated the race without regard for interplanetary lines of force, he +transgressed the law, and the bodies thus formed crystallized unduly, and +became subject to death in a much more perceptible manner than had hitherto +been the case. Thus he was forced to create new bodies more frequently as +the span of life in them shortened. Celestial warders of the creative force +drove him from the garden of LOVE into the wilderness of the world, and he +was made responsible for his actions under the cosmic LAW which governs the +universe. Thus for ages he struggled on, seeking to work out his own salva- +tion, and the earth in consequence crystallized more and more. + + +[PAGE 33] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION + + Divine hierarchies, the Christ Spirit included, worked upon the earth +from without as the group spirit guides the animals under tis protectorate; +but as Paul truly says, none could be justified under the law, for under the +law all sinned, and all must die. There is in the old covenant no hope be- +yond the present, save a foreshadowing of ONE WHO IS TO COME and restore +righteousness. Thus John tells us that the LAW was given by Moses, and GRACE +came by the Lord Jesus Christ. But WHAT IS GRACE? Can grace work contrary +to the law and abrogate it entirely? Certainly not. The laws of God are +steadfast and sure, or the universe would become chaos. The law of gravity +keeps our houses in position relative to other houses, so that when we leave +them we may know of a surety that we shall find them in the same place upon +returning. Likewise all other departments in the universe are subject to +immutable laws. + + As LAW, APART FROM LOVE, GAVE BIRTH TO SIN, SO THE CHILD OF LAW, TEMPERED +WITH LOVE, IS GRACE. Take an example from our concrete social conditions: +We have laws which decree a certain penalty for a specified offense, and +when the law is carried out, we call it JUSTICE. But long experience is be- +ginning to teach us that justice, pure and simple, is like the Colchian +dragon's teeth, and breeds strife and struggle in increasing measure. The +criminal, so-called, remains criminal and becomes more and more hardened + + +[PAGE 34] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +under the ministrations of law; but when the milder regime of the present +day allows one who has transgressed to go under suspended sentence, then HE +IS UNDER GRACE and not under law. Thus, also the Christian, who aims to +follow in the Master's steps, is emancipated from the law of sin by grace, +provided he foresake the path of sin. + + It was the sin of our progenitors in ancient Lemuria that THEY SCATTERED +THEIR SEED regardless of law and without love. But it is the privilege of +the Christian to redeem himself by purity of life in remembrance of the +Lord. John says, "His seed remaineth in him," and This is the hidden mean- +ing of the bread and wine. In the English version we read simply: "This is +the CUP of the New Testament," but in the German the word for cup is +"Kelch," and in the Latin, "Calix," both meaning the outer covering of the +seed pod of the flower. In the Greek we have a still more subtle meaning, +not conveyed in other languages, in the word "poterion," a meaning which +will be evident when we consider the etymology of the word "pot." This at +once gives us the same idea as the chalice or calix--a receptacle; and the +Latin "POTARE" (to drink) also shows that the "cup" is a receptacle capable +of holding a fluid. Our English words "potent" and "impotent" meaning to +possess or to lack virile strength, further show the meaning of this Greek + + +[PAGE 35] THE SACRAMENT OF COMMUNION + +word, which foreshadows the evolution from man to superman. + + We have already lived through a mineral, plant and an animal-like exist- +ence before becoming human as we are today, and beyond us lie still further +evolutions where we shall approach the Divine more and more. It will be +readily conceded that it is our animal passions which restrain us upon the +path if attainment; the lower nature is constantly warring against the +higher self. At least in those who have experienced a spiritual awakening, +a war is being fought silently within, and is all the more bitter for being +suppressed. Goethe with masterly art voiced that sentiment in the words of +Faust, the aspiring soul, speaking to his more materialistic friend, Wagner: + + "Thou by one sole impulse art possessed, + Unconscious of the other still remain. + Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast, + And struggle there for undivided reign. + One, to the earth with passionate desire, + And closely clinging organs still adheres; + Above the mists the other doth aspire + With sacred ardor unto purer spheres." + + It was the knowledge of this absolute necessity of chastity (save when +procreation is the object) upon the part of those who have had a spiritual +awakening which dictated the words of Christ, and the Apostle Paul stated + + +[PAGE 36] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +an esoteric truth when he said that THOSE WHO PARTOOK OF THE COMMUNION WITH- +OUT LIVING THE LIFE WERE IN DANGER OF SICKNESS AND DEATH. For just as under +a spiritual tutelage, purity of life may elevate the disciple wonderfully, +so also unchastity has a much stronger effect upon his more sensitized bod- +ies than upon those who are yet under the law, and have not become partakers +of grace by the cup of the New Covenant. + + +[PAGE 37] THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM + + CHAPTER V + + THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM + + + HAVING studied the esoteric significance of our Christian festivals, such +as Christmas and Easter, and having also studied the doctrine of the Im- +maculate Conception, it may be well now to devote attention to the inner +meaning of the sacraments of the church which are administered to the indi- +vidual in all Christian lands from the cradle to the grave, and are with him +at all important points in his life journey. + + As soon as he has entered upon the journey of life, the church admits him +into its fold by the rite of BAPTISM which is conferred upon him at a time +when he himself is irresponsible; later, when his mentality has been some- +what developed, he ratifies that contract and is admitted to COMMUNION, +where BREAD is broken and WINE is sipped in memory of the Founder of our +faith. Still further upon life's journey comes the sacrament of MARRIAGE; +and at last when the race has been run and the spirit again withdraws to God +who gave it, the earth body is consigned to the dust, whence it was derived, + + +[PAGE 38] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +accompanied by the blessings of the church. + + In our Protestant times the spirit of protest is rampant in the extreme, +and dissenters everywhere raise their voices in rebellion against the fan- +cied arrogance of the priesthood and deprecate the sacraments as mere mum- +mery. On account of that attitude of mind these functions have become of +little or no effect in the life of the community; dissensions have arisen +even among churchmen themselves, and sect after sect has divorced itself +from the original apostolic congregation. + + Despite all protests the various doctrines and sacraments of the church +are, nevertheless, the very keystones in the arch of evolution, for they in- +culcate morals of the loftiest nature; and even materialistic scientist, +such as Huxley, have admitted that while self-protection brings about "the +survival of the fittest" in the animal kingdom and is therefore the basis of +animal evolution, self-sacrifice is the fostering principle of human ad- +vancement. When that is the case among mere mortals, we may well believe +that it must be so to a still greater extent in the Divine Author of our be- +ing. + + Among animals might is right, but we recognize that the weak have a claim +to the protection of the strong. The butterfly lays its eggs on the under- +side of a green leaf and goes off without another care for their well-being. +In mammals the MOTHER instinct is strongly developed, and we see the + + +[PAGE 39] THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM + +the lioness caring for her cubs and ready to defend them with her life; but +not until the kingdom is reached does the FATHER commence to share fully in +the responsibility as a parent. Among savages the care of the young practi- +cally ends with the higher we ascend in civilization the longer the young +receive care from their parents, and the more stress is laid upon mental +rather than from the physical point of vantage; for the further we proceed +along the path of development the more we shall experience the power of mind +over matter. By the more and more prolonged self-sacrifice of parents, the +race is becoming more delicate, but what we lose in material ruggedness we +gain in spiritual perceptibility. + + As this faculty grows stronger and more developed, the craving of the +spirit immured in This earthly body voices itself more loudly in a demand +for understanding of the spiritual side of development. Wallace and Darwin, +Haxley and Spencer, pointed out how evolution of FORM is accomplished in na- +ture; Earnest Haeckel attempted to solve the riddle of the universe, but no +one of them could satisfactorily explain away the DIVINE AUTHOR of what we +see. The great goddess, NATURAL SELECTION, is being forsaken by one after +another of her devotees as the years go by. Even Haeckel, the arch materi- +alist, in his last years showed an almost hysterical anxiety to make a place + + +[PAGE 40] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +for God in his system, and the day will come in a not far distant future +when science will have become as thoroughly religious as religion itself. +The church, on the other hand, though still extremely conservative is never- +theless slowly abandoning its autocratic dogmatism and becoming more scien- +tific in its explanations. Thus in time we shall see the union of science +and religion as it existed in the ancient mystery temples, and when that +point has been reached, THE DOCTRINES AND SACRAMENTS of the church will be +found to REST UPON IMMUTABLE COSMIC LAWS OF NO LESS IMPORTANCE THAN THE LAW +OF GRAVITY which maintains the marching orbs in their paths around the sun. +As the points of the equinoxes and solstices are turning points in the cy- +clic path of a planet, marked by festivals such Christmas and Easter, so +birth into the physical world, admission to the church, to the state of mat- +rimony, and finally the exit from physical life, are points in the cyclic +path of the human spirit around its central source--God, which are marked by +the sacraments of BAPTISM, COMMUNION, MARRIAGE, and THE LAST BLESSING. + + We will now consider the rite of baptism. Much has been said by dissent- +ers, against the practice of taking an INFANT INTO CHURCH AND PROMISING FOR +IT A RELIGIOUS LIFE. Heated arguments concerning SPRINKLING VERSUS PLUNGING +have resulted in division of churches. If we wish to obtain the true idea +of baptism, we must revert to the early history of the human race as re- +corded in the Memory of Nature. All that has ever happened is indelibly + + +[PAGE 41] THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM + +pictured in the ether as a moving picture is imprinted upon a sensitized +film, which picture can be reproduced upon a screen at any moment. The +picutes in the Memory of Nature may be viewed by the trained seer, even +though millions of years have elapsed since the scenes there portrayed were +enacted in life. + + When we consult that unimpeachable record it appears that there was a +time when that which is now our earth came out of chaos, dark and unformed, +as the Bible states. The currents developed in This misty mass by spiritual +agencies, generated HEAT, and the mass ignited at the time when we are told +that God said, "Let there be light." The heat of the fiery mass and the +cold space surrounding it generated MOISTURE; the fire mist became sur- +rounded by water which boiled, and steam was projected into the atmosphere; +thus "God divided the waters . . . . from the waters . . . . "--the dense +water which was nearest the fire mist from the steam (which is water in sus- +pension), as stated in the Bible. + + When water contained sediment is boiled over and over it deposits scale, +and similarly the water surrounding our planet finally formed a crust around +the fiery core. The Bible further informs us that a MIST went up from the +ground, AND WE MAY WELL CONCEIVE how the moisture was gradually evaporated +from our planet in those early days. + + +[PAGE 42] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + Ancient myths are usually regarded as superstitions nowadays, but in re- +ality each of them contains a great spiritual truth in pictorial symbols. +These fantastic stories were given to infant humanity to teach them moral +lessons which their newborn intellects were note yet fitted to receive. +They were taught by myths--much as we teach our children by picture books +and fables--lessons beyond their intellectual comprehension. + + One of the greatest of these folk stories is "THE RING OF THE NIEBELUNG," +which tells of a wonderful treasure hidden under the waters of the Rhine. +It was a lump of gold in its natural state. Placed upon a high rock, it il- +luminated the entire submarine scenery where water nymphs sported about in- +nocently in gladsome frolic. But one of the Neibelungs, imbued with greed, +stole the treasure, carried it out of the water, and fled. It was impos- +sible for him, however, to shape it until he had forsworn love. Then he +fashioned it into a ring which gave him power over all the treasures of +earth, but at the same time it inaugurated dissension and strife. For its +sake, friend betrayed friend, brother slew brother, and everywhere it caused +oppression, sorrow, sin and death, until it was at last restored to the wa- +tery element and the earth was consumed in flames. But later there arose, +like the new phoenix from the ashes of the old bird, a new heaven and a new +earth where righteousness were re-established. + + +[PAGE 43] THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM + + That old folk story gives a wonderful picture of human evolution. The +name NIEBELUNGEN is derived from the German words, NIEBEL (which means +mist), and UNGEN (which means children). Thus the word NIEBELUNGEN means +CHILDREN OF THE MIST, and it refers back to the time when humanity lived in +the foggy atmosphere surrounding our earth at the stage n its development +previously mentioned. There infant humanity lived in one vast brotherhood, +innocent of all evil as the babe of today, and illuminated by the Universal +Spirit symbolized as the Rhinegold which shed its light upon the water +nymphs of our story. But in time the earth cooled more and more; the fog +condensed and flooded depressions upon the surface of the earth with water; +the atmosphere cleared; the eyes of man were opened and he perceived himself +as a separate ego. Then the Universal Spirit of LOVE and SOLIDARITY was su- +perseded by egotism and self-seeking. + + That was the rape of the Rhinegold, and sorrow, sin, strife, treachery, +and murder have taken the place of the childlike love which existed among +humanity in that primal state when they dwelt in the watery atmosphere of +long ago. Gradually This tendency is becoming more and more marked, and the +curse of selfishness grows more and more apparent. "Man's inhumanity to +man" hangs like a funeral pall over the earth, and must inevitably bring +about destruction of existing conditions. The whole creation is groaning + + +[PAGE 44] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +and travailing, waiting for the day of redemption, and the Western Religion +strikes the keynote of the way to attainment when it exhorts us to love our +neighbor as we love ourselves; for then egotism will be abrogated for uni- +versal brotherhood and love. + + Therefore, when a person is admitted to the church, which is a SPIRITUAL +institution where love and brotherhood are the mainsprings of action, it is +appropriate to carry him UNDER THE WATERS of baptism in symbol of the beau- +tiful condition of childlike innocence and love which prevailed when mankind +dwelt UNDER THE MIST in that bygone period. At that time the eyes of infant +man had not yet been opened to the MATERIAL advantages of This world. The +little child which is brought into the church has not yet become aware of +the allurements of life either, and others obligate themselves to guide it +to lead a holy life according to the best of their ability, because experi- +ence gained since the Flood has taught us that the broad way of the world is +strewn with pain, sorrow, and disappointment; that only by following the +straight and narrow way can we escape death and enter into life everlasting. + + Thus we see that there is a wonderfully deep, mystic significance behind +the sacrament of baptism; that it is to remind us of the blessings attendant +upon those who are members of a BROTHERHOOD where self-seeking is put into +the background and where SERVICE to others is the keynote and mainspring of + + +[PAGE 45] THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM + +action. While we are in the world, he is the greatest who can most success- +fully dominate others. In the church we have Christ's definition, "HE WHO +WOULD BE THE GREATEST AMONG YOU, LET HIM BE THE SERVANT OF ALL." + + +[PAGE 46] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE + + + WHEN STRIPPED of nonessentials the argument of the orthodox Christian re- +ligion may be said to be as follows: + + First, that tempted by the devil, our first parents sinned and were ex- +iled form their previous state of celestial bliss, placed under the law, +made subject to death, and became incapable of escaping by their own ef- +forts. + + Second, that God so loved the world that He gave Christ, His only begot- +ten Son, for its redemption and to establish the kingdom of heaven. Thus +death will finally be swallowed up in immortality. + + This simple creed has provoked the smiles of atheists, and of the purely +intellectual who have studied transcendental philosophies with their nice- +ties of logic and argument; and even of some among those who study the West- +ern Mystery Teaching. + + Such an attitude of mind is entirely gratuitous. We might know that the +divine leaders of mankind would not allow millions to continue in error for +millennia. When the Western Mystery Teaching is stripped of its exceedingly + + +[PAGE 47] THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE + +illuminating explanations and detailed descriptions, when its basic teach- +ings are stated, they are found to be in exact agreement with the orthodox +Christian teachings. + + There was a time when mankind lived in a sinless state; when sorrow, +pain, and death were unknown. Neither is the PERSONAL TEMPTER of Christian- +ity a myth, for the Lucifer Spirits may very well be said to be fallen an- +gels, and their temptation of man resulted in focusing his consciousness +upon the material phase of existence where he is under the law of de- +crepitude and death. Also it is truly the mission of Christ to aid mankind +by elevating them to a more ethereal state where dissolution will no longer +be necessary to free them from vehicles that have grown too hard and set for +further use. For This is indeed a "body of death," where only the smallest +quantity of material is really alive, as part of its bulk is nutrient matter +that has not yet been assimilated, another large part is already on its way +to elimination, and only between these two poles may be found the material +which is thoroughly quickened by the spirit. + + We have in other chapters considered the sacraments of baptism and com- +munion, sacraments that have to do particularly with the spirit. We will +now seek to understand the deeper side of the sacrament of marriage, which +has to do particularly with the body. Like the other sacraments the insti- +tution of marriage had its beginning and will also have its end. The com- +mencement was described by the Christ when He said, "Have ye not read that + + +[PAGE 48] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said: +For This cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his +wife; and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, +but one flesh." Matt. 19:4-6. He also indicated the end of marriage when +he said: "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, +but are as the angels of God in heaven." Matt. 22:30 + + In This light the logic of the teaching is apparent, for MARRIAGE became +necessary in order that BIRTH might provide new instruments to take the +place of those which had been ruptured by DEATH; and when death has once +been swallowed up in immortality and there is no need of providing new in- +struments, marriage also will be unnecessary. + + Science with admirable audacity has sought to solve the mystery of fecun- +dation, and has told us how invagination takes place in the walls of the +ovary; how the little ovum is formed in the seclusion of its dark cavity; +how it emerges therefrom and enters the Fallopian tube; is pierced by the +spermatozoon of the male, and the nucleus of a human body is complete. We +are thus supposed to be "at the fount and origin of life!" But life has +neither beginning nor end, and what science mistakenly considers the foun- +tain of life is really the source of death, as all that comes from the womb + + +[PAGE 49] THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE + +is destined sooner or later to reach the tomb. The MARRIAGE feast which +prepares for BIRTH, at the same time provides food for the insatiable jaws +of DEATH, and so long as marriage is necessary to generation and birth, dis- +integration and death must inevitably result. Therefore, it is of prime im- +portance to know the history of marriage, the laws and agencies involved, +the duration of This institution, and how it may be transcended. + + When we obtained our vital bodies in Hyperborea, the sun, moon and earth +were still united, and the solar-lunar forces permeated each being in even +measure so that all were able to perpetuate their kind by buds and spores as +do certain plants of today. The efforts of the vital body to soften the +dense vehicle and keep it alive were not then interfered with, and was these +primal, plantlike bodies lived for ages. But man was then unconscious and +stationary like a plant; he made no effort or exertion. The addition of a +desire body furnished incentive and desire, and consciousness resulted from +the war between the vital body, which builds, and the desire body, which de- +stroys the dense body. + + Thus dissolution became only a question of time, particularly as the con- +structive energy of the vital body was also necessarily divided, one part or +pole being used in the vital functions of the body, the other to replace a +vehicle lost by death. But as the two poles of a magnet or dynamo are re- + + +[PAGE 50] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +quisite to manifestation, so also two single-sexed beings became necessary +for generation; thus marriage and birth were necessarily inaugurated to off- +set the effect of death. DEATH, THEN, IS THE PRICE WE PAY FOR CONSCIOUSNESS +IN THE PRESENT WORLD; marriage and repeated births are our weapons against +the king of terrors until our constitution shall change and we become as +angels. + + Please mark that it is not stated that we are to become angels, but that +we are to become AS ANGELS. For the angels are the humanity of the Moon Pe- +riod; they belong to an entirely different stream of evolution, as different +as are human spirits from those of our present animals. Paul states in his +letter to the Hebrews that man was made FOR A LITTLE WHILE inferior to the +angels; he descended lower into the scale of materiality during the Earth +Period, while the angels have never inhabited a globe denser than ether. +This substance is the direct avenue of all life forces, and when man has +once become as the angels and has learned to build his body of ether, +naturally there will be no death and no need of marriage to bring about +birth. + + But looking at marriage from another point of view, looking upon it as a +union of souls rather than as a union of the sexes, we contact the wonderful +mystery of Love. Union of the sexes might serve to perpetuate the race, of +course, but the true marriage is a companionship of souls also, which + + +[PAGE 51] THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE + +altogether transcends sex. Yet those really able to meet upon that lofty +plane of spiritual intimacy gladly offer their bodies as living sacrifices +upon the altar of LOVE OF THE UNBORN, to woo a waiting spirit into an im- +maculately conceived body. Thus humanity may be saved from the reign of +death. + + This is readily apparent as soon as we consider the gentle action of the +vital body and contrast it with that of the desire body in a fit of temper, +where it is said that a man has "lost control" of himself. Under such con- +ditions the muscles become tense, and nervous energy is expended at a sui- +cidal rate, so that after such an outbreak the body may sometimes be pros- +trated for weeks. The hardest labor brings no such fatigue as a fit of +temper; likewise a child conceived in passion under the crystallizing ten- +dencies of the desire nature is naturally short-lived, and it si a regret- +table fact that LENGTH OF LIFE is nowadays almost a misnomer; in view of the +appalling infant mortality it ought to be called BREVITY OF EXISTENCE. + + The building tendencies of the vital body, which is the vehicle of love, +are not so easily watched, but observation proves that contentment lengthens +life of any one who cultivates this quality, and we may safely reason that a +child conceived under conditions of harmony and love stands a better chance +of life than one conceived under conditions of anger, inebriety, and pas- +sion. + + +[PAGE 52] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + According to Genesis it was said to the woman, "In sorrow shalt thou bear +children," and it has always been a sore puzzle to Bible commentators what +logical connection there may be between eating of fruit and the pains of +parturition. But when we understand the chaste references of the Bible to +the act of generation, the connection is readily perceived. While the in- +sensitive Negro or Indian mother may bear her child and shortly afterward +resume her labors in the field, the western woman, more acutely sensitive +and of high-strung nervous temperament, is year by year finding it more dif- +ficult to go through the ordeal of motherhood, though aided by the best and +most skilled scientific help. + + The contributory reasons are various: In the first place, while we are +exceedingly careful in selecting our horses and cattle for breeding, while +we insist upon pedigree for the animals in order that we may bring out the +very best strain of stock upon our farms, we exercise no such care with re- +spect to the selection of a father and mother for our children. We mate +upon impulse and regret it at our leisure, aided by laws which make it all +to easy to enter or leave the sacred bonds of matrimony. The words pro- +nounced by minister or judge are taken to be a license for unlimited indul- +gence, as if any man-made law could license the contravention of the law of + + +[PAGE 53] THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE + +God. While animals mate only at a certain time of the year and the mother +is undisturbed during the period of pregnancy, this is not true of the human +race. + + In view of these facts is it to be wondered at that we find such a dread +of maternity, and is it not time that we seek to remedy the matter by a more +sane relation between marriage partners? Astrology will reveal the temper +and tendencies of each human being; it will enable two people to blend their +characters in such a manner that a love live may be lived, and it will indi- +cate the periods when interplanetary lines of force are most nearly condu- +cive to painless parturition. Thus it will enable us to draw from the bosom +of nature, children of love, capable of living long lives in good health. +Finally the day will come when these bodies will have been made so perfect +in their ethereal purity that they may last throughout the coming Age, and +thus make marriage superfluous. + + But if we can love now when we see one another "through a glass darkly," +through the mask of personality and the veil of misunderstanding , we may be +sure that the love of soul for soul, purged of passion in the furnace of +sorrow, will be our brightest gem in heaven as its shadow is on earth. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 54] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE UNPARDONABLE SIN AND LOST SOULS + + SOME OF OUR students have been exercised about the unpardonable sin, and +as this subject has a certain connection with the subject of marriage, one +being a sacrilege and the other a sacrament, it might be well to elucidate +the matter from a different point of view than has been formerly taken in +our literature. + + First let us see what is meant by a sacrament, and why the rites of bap- +tism, communion, marriage, and extreme unction are properly so called; then +we shall be in a position to understand what sacrilege is and why it is +unpardonable. + + The Rosicrucians teach, only with more detail, the same doctrine that +Paul preached in the 15th Chapter of 1st Corinthians, starting at the +thirty-fifth verse, that in addition to the body of flesh and blood we have +a soul body, SOMA PSUCHICON (mistranslated "natural" body) and a spiritual +body; that each of these bodies is grown from a different SEED atom and that +there are THREE stages of unfoldment for Adam, or man. The first Adam was + + +[PAGE 55] THE UNPARDONABLE SIN + +taken from the ground and was without sentient life. Soul was added to the +SECOND ADAM; thus he had life within, a leaven laboring to elevate the clod +to God. When the potential of the soul extracted from the physical body has +been raised to the spiritual, the LAST ADAM will become a life GIVING +spirit, capable of transmitting the life impulse to others directly as flame +from one candle can be communicated to many without diminishing the magni- +tude of the original light. + + In the meantime the germ for our early body had to be properly placed in +fruitful soil to grow a suitable vehicle, and generative organs were pro- +vided from the beginning to accomplish this purpose. It is stated in Gen- +esis 1:27 that Elohim created them MALE and FEMALE. The Hebrew words are +"SACRE VA N'CABAH." THESE ARE NAMES OF THE SEX ORGANS. Literally trans- +lated, SACR means "bearer of the germ." Thus marriage is a sacr-ament, for +it opens the way for transmission of a physical seed atom from the father to +the mother, and tends to preserve the race against the ravages of death. +Baptism as a SACRament signifies the germinal urge of the soul for the +higher life. Holy Communion, in which we partake of bread (made from the +SEED of chaste plants), and of wine (the cup symbolizing the passionless +SEE-pod), points to the age to come, and age wherein it will be unnecessary +to TRANSMIT the seed through a father and mother , but where we may feed di- +rectly upon cosmic life and thus conquer death. Finally, extreme unction is + +[PAGE 56] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +the SACRament which marks the loosening of the silver cord, and the extrac- +tion of the sacred germ, freeing it until it shall again be planted in +another N'CABAH, or mother. + + As the seed and ovum are the root and basis of racial development, it is +easy to see that no sin can be more serious than that which abuses the cre- +ative function, for by that SACR-ilege we stunt future generations and +transgress against the Holy Spirit, Jehovah, who is warder of the creative +lunar forces. His angels herald births, as in the cases of Isaac, John the +Baptist, and Jesus. When he wanted to reward his most faithful follower, he +promised to make his seed as numerous as the sands on the seashore. He also +meted out a most terrible punishment to the Sodomites who committed +SACR-ilege by misdirecting the seed. He even visits the sins of the fathers +upon the children to the third and fourth generations, for under his regime +LAW reigns supreme. Man has not yet evolved to the point where he can re- +spond to LOVE. He requires from his enemies an eye for an eye, and with the +same measure that he metes, it is meted unto him. + + Though this seems very cruel to us who are each day evolving more and +more the faculties of love and mercy, we must remember that this retributive +justice relates purely to the physical body, which is under the laws of Na- +ture just as much as any other chemical composition in the universe. When + + +[PAGE 57] THE UNPARDONABLE SIN + +abuses have weakened it, it is incapable of fulfilling its mission and meet- +ing our demands in any respect, just as is the case with any other machinery +which we have made from materials around us. There are no miracles such as +would be required to generate a sound and healthy body from parents who have +transgressed the laws of nature by their abuses; therefore but when time and +care have restored the necessary strength and vigor, the body will again +perform its functions in a normal and healthy manner. + + Thus we understand that under the law there is no mercy, for mercy is +dictated by love. Therefore, it was perfectly in consonance with cosmic or- +der when CHRIST, THE LORD OF LOVE, said that all things would be forgiven to +men which they did against Him, as LOVE is the reigning feature in His king- +dom; but whatsoever was done contrary to the LAW of Jehovah must meet its +full retribution. We cannot be sufficiently thankful for the wonderful re- +ligion which He gave us, particularly if we compare it with those under +which less evolved peoples are now struggling. Take the Buddhists, for in- +stance; grand and beautiful though their leader was, he saw only SORROW, a +constant struggle against the law of nature. He aimed to teach his follow- +ers to transcend that condition by perfect obedience such as that whereby we +have conquered the laws of electricity and other forces in nature. The + +[PAGE 58] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +Buddhist sees nothing but the cold and merciless law; on the other hand, we +of the Western World have before our eyes from the cradle to the grave a +beautiful picture of One who said, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are +heavy laden, and I will give you rest." + + But it may be asked, "What about LOST SOULS; are they a figment of the +imagination also?" To this question may be answered, "yes", although it +needs some qualification. We shall best understand the case if we go back +into the history of mankind and view the experiences of some who have trans- +gressed , for they will furnish us an example of what may happen. In order +to establish the point properly we shall reiterate a few of the Rosicrucian +teachings regarding the genesis of the earth and of man upon it. Three +great stages of unfoldment have preceded the present Earth Period. THE FA- +THER is the highest Initiate of the Saturn Period, inhabiting particularly +the Spiritual Sun. THE SON, the cosmic Christ, is the highest initiate of +the Sun period, inhabiting the Central Sun and guiding the planets in their +orbits by a ray from Himself, which becomes the indwelling spirit of each +planet when it has been sufficiently ripened to contain such a great Intel- +ligence. Jehovah, the HOLY SPIRIT, is the highest Initiate of the Moon Pe- +riod and dwelling in the physical, visible sun. He is regent of the various +moons thrown off by the different planets for the purpose of giving beings +who have fallen behind in the march of evolution more rigid discipline under + + +[PAGE 59] THE UNPARDONABLE SIN + +a firmer law, to awaken them and spur them on in the proper direction if +possible. + + When we look into space, we perceive that some planets have a number of +moons and others have none; but as there are laggards in any large company, +and as moons are required to aid these stragglers to retrieve their lost es- +tate if possible, we may be sure that these planets which have no moons now +have had them in the past. Those Great Beings of whom the ROSICRUCIAN +COSMO-CONCEPTION speaks as "Lords of Venus" and "Lords of Mercury" were, in +fact, stragglers from those two planets. In the dim distant past they in- +habited moons which encircled their respective planets, and were successful +in retrieving their loss in a large measure under the discipline given them +there. Later they received the opportunity to serve to secure a return to +the home planet whence they had been exiled. They were LOST under the LAW, +but REDEEMED BY LOVE; and thus we may infer that opportunities for service +will also bring to other beings, who may become "lost" the opportunity to +retrieve the past. + + Since it may puzzle the student as to what becomes of the moons upon +which such beings dwell for a time, we may say that the solar system is to +regarded as the body of the Great Spirit whom we call God, and as any growth +caused by an abnormal process pains us when it occurs in our body, so also + + +[PAGE 60] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +such crystallizations as moons are sources of discomfort to that Great Be- +ing. Furthermore, as our own systems endeavor to eliminate such abnor- +malities as growths, so also the universe endeavors to expel moons which +have served their purpose. While the beings who have been exiled to a moon +are there, the Planetary Spirit of the primary planet by his care for these +beings, hold the moon in its orbit, and we speak of his love for them as the +Law of Attraction; but when they have returned to the parent planet, the +Planetary Spirit has no further interest in their cinder-like habitation. +Then slowly the orbit of the vacated moon widens, it commences to disinte- +grate, and it is finally expelled into interstellar space. The asteroids +are remnants of moons which once encircled Venus and Mercury. There are +also other seeming moons and lunar fragments in our solar system, but the +ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION does not concern itself with them as they are +outside the pale of evolution. + + +[PAGE 61] THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + + + THE PERIODICAL ebb and flow of the material and spiritual forces which +invest the earth are the invisible causes of the physical, moral, and mental +activities upon our globe. + + According to the hermatic axiom, "As above so below," a similar activity +must take place in man, who is but a minor edition of Mother Nature. + + The animals have twenty-eight pairs of spinal nerves and are now in their +Moon stage, perfectly attuned to the twenty-eight days in which the moon +passes around the zodiac. In their wild state the group spirit regulates +their mating. Therefore there is no overflow with them. Man, on the other +hand, is in a transition stage; he is too far progressed for the lunar vi- +brations for he has thirty-one pairs of spinal nerves. But he is not yet +attuned to the solar month of thirty-one days, and he mates at all times of +the year; hence the periodical flow in woman, which under proper conditions +is utilized to form part of the body of a child more perfect than its par- +ents. Similarly, the periodical flow in mankind becomes the sinew and + + +[PAGE 62] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +backbone of racial advancement; and the periodical flow of the earth's +spiritual forces, which occurs at Christmas, results in birth of Saviors who +from time to time give renewed impetus to the spiritual advancement of the +human race. + + There are two parts to our Bible, the Old and the New Testaments. After +briefly reciting how the world came into being, the former tells the story +of the "Fall" In view of what has been written in our literature we under- +stand the Fall to have been occasioned by man's impulsive and ignorant use +of the sex forces at times when the interplanetary rays were inimical to +conception of the purest and best vehicles. Thus man became gradually im- +prisoned in a dense body crystallized by sinful passion and consequently an +imperfect vehicle, subject to pain and death. + + Then commenced the pilgrimage through matter, and for millennia we have +been living in this hard and flinty shell of body, which obscures the light +of heaven from the spirit within. The spirit is like a diamond in its rough +coat, and the celestial lapidaries, the Recording Angels, are constantly en- +deavoring to remove the coating so that the spirit may shine through the ve- +hicle which it ensouls. + + When the lapidary holds a diamond to the grindstone, the diamond emits a +screech like a cry of pain and the opaque covering is removed; but gradually +by many successive applications to the grindstone the rough diamond may + + +[PAGE 63] THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + +become a gem of transcendent beauty and purity. Similarly, the celestial +beings in charge of our evolution hold us closely to the grindstone of expe- +rience. Pain and suffering result, which awaken the spirit sleeping within. +The man hitherto content with material pursuits, indulgent discontent which +impels him to seek the higher life. + + The gratification of that aspiration, however, is not usually accom- +plished without a severe struggle upon the part of the lower nature. It was +while wrestling thus that Paul exclaimed with all the anguish of a devout +aspiring heart: "Oh wretched man that I am * * * * The good that I would, I +do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do * * * * I delight in the +law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members warring +against the law of my mind and bringing it into captivity to the law of sin +which is in my members." (Rom. 7:19-24) + + When the flower is crushed, its scent is liberated and fills the sur- +roundings with grateful fragrance, delighting all who are fortunate enough +to be near. Crushing blows of fate may overwhelm a man or woman who has +reached the stage of efflorescene; they will but serve to bring out the +sweetness of the nature and enhance the beauty of the soul till it shines +with an effulgence that marks the wearer as with a halo. Then he is upon +the path of Initiation. He is taught how unbridled use of sex regardless of + + +[PAGE 64] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +the stellar rays has imprisoned him in the body, how it fetters him, and how +by the proper use of that same force in harmony with the stars he may +gradually improve and etherealize his body and finally attain liberation +from concrete existence. + + A shipwright cannot build a staunch oak ship from spruce lumber; " men do +not gather grapes of thorns;" like always begets like, and an incoming ego +of a passionate nature is drawn to parents of like nature, where its body is +conceived upon the impulse of the moment in a gust of passion. + + The soul who has tasted the cup of sorrow incident to the abuse of the +creative force and has drunk to the dregs the bitterness thereof, will +gradually seek parents of less and less passionate natures, until at length +it attains to Initiation. + + Having been taught in the process of Initiation the influence of the +stellar rays upon parturition, the next body provided will be generated by +Initiate parents without passion, under the constellation most favorable to +the work which the ego contemplates. Therefore the Gospels (which are for- +mulae of Initiation) commence with the account of the immaculate conception +and end with the crucifixion, both wonderful ideas to which we must some +time attain, for each of us is a Christ-in-the-making, and will sometime +pass through both the mystic birth and the mystic death adumbrated in the +Gospels. By knowledge we may hasten the day, intelligently co-operating + + +[PAGE 65] THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + +instead of as now often stupidly frustrating through ignorance the ends of +spiritual development. + + In connection with the immaculate conception misunderstandings prevail at +every point; the perpetual virginity of the mother even after the birth to +other children; the lowly station of Joseph, the supposed foster-father, +etc. We will briefly view them in the light of facts as revealed in the +Memory of Nature: + + In some parts of Europe people of the higher classes are addressed as +"wellborn," or even as "highwellborn," meaning that they are the offspring +of cultured parents in high station. Such people usually look down with +scorn upon those in modest positions. We have nothing against the expres- +sion "wellborn;" we would that every child were well born, born to parents +of high moral standing no matter what their station in life. There is a +virginity of soul that is independent of the state of the body, a purity of +mind which will carry its possessor through the act of generation without +the taint of passion and enable the mother to carry the unborn child under +her heart in sexless love. + + Previous to the time of Christ that would have been impossible. In the +earlier stages of man's career upon earth quantity was desirable and quality +a minor consideration, hence the command was given to "go forth, be fruit- +ful, and multiply." Besides, it was necessary that man should temporarily +forget his spiritual nature and concrete his energies upon material + + +[PAGE 66] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +conditions. Indulgence of the sex passion furthers that object, and the de- +sire nature was given full sway. Polygamy flourished, and the larger the +number of their children, the more a man and a woman were honored, while +barrenness was looked upon as the greatest possible affliction. + + In other directions the desire nature was being curbed by God-given laws, +and obedience to divine commands was enforced by swift punishment of the +transgressor, such as war, pestilence or famine. Rewards for dutiful obser- +vance of the mandates of the law were not wanting either; the "righteous" +man's children, his cattle and crops were numerous; he was victorious over +his enemies and the cup of his happiness was full. + + Later when the earth had been sufficiently peopled after the Atlantean +Flood, polygamy became gradually more and more obsolete, with the result +that the quality of the bodies improved, and at the time of Christ the de- +sire nature had become so far amenable to control in the case of the more +advanced among humanity that the act of generation could be performed with- +out passion, out of pure love, so that the child could be immaculately con- +ceived. + + Such were the parents of Jesus. Joseph is said to have been a carpenter, +but he was not a worker in wood. He was a "builder" in a higher sense. God +is the Grand Architect of the universe. Under Him are many builders of + + +[PAGE 67] THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + +varying degrees of spiritual splendor, down even to those whom we know as +Freemasons. All are engaged in building a temple without sound of hammer, +and Joseph was no exception. + + It is sometimes asked why Initiates are always men. They are not; in the +lower degrees there are many women, but when an Initiate is able to choose +his sex he usually takes the positive masculine body, as the life which +brought him to Initiation has spiritualized his vital body and made it +positive under all conditions, so that he has then an instrument of the +highest efficiency. + + There are times, however, when the exigencies of a case require a female +body, such as, for instance, providing a body of the highest type to receive +an ego of superlatively high degree. Then a high Initiate may take a female +body and go through the experience of maternity again, after perhaps having +eschewed it for several lives, as was the case with the beautiful character +we know as Mary of Bethlehem. + + In conclusion, then, let us remember the points brought out, that we are +all Christs-in-the-making; that sometime we must cultivate characters so +spotless that we may be worthy to inhabit bodies that are immaculately con- +ceived; and the sooner we commence to purify our minds of passionate +thoughts, the sooner we shall attain. In the final analysis it only depends +upon the earnestness of our purpose, the strength of our wills. Conditions +are such now that we can live pure lives whether married or single, and + + +[PAGE 68] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +cold, sister-and-brother relationships are not necessary either. + + Is the life of absolute purity beyond some of us yet? Be not discour- +aged; Rome was not built in a day. Keep on aspiring though you fail again +and again, for the only real failure consists in ceasing to try. + + So may God strengthen your aspirations to purity. + + +[PAGE 69] THE COMING CHRIST + + + CHAPTER IX + + THE COMING CHRIST + + + WE HAVE previously seen how infant humanity in Atlantis lived in unity +under direct guidance of divine leaders, and how they were eventually +brought out of the water into a clear atmosphere where the separateness of +each individual from all others became obvious at once. + + "God is Light"--the Light which became life in man. It was dim and +achromatically diffused in the misty atmosphere of early Atlantis, as color- +less as the air on a densely foggy day in the present age, hence the unity +of all beings who lived in that light. But when man rose above the waters, +when he emerged into the aire where the godly manifestation, Light, was re- +fracted in multitudinous hues, this variously colored light was differently +absorbed by each. Thus diversity was inaugurated, when mankind went through +the mighty arch of the rainbow with its variegated and beautiful colors. +That bow may therefore be considered an entrance gate to "the promised +land," the world as now constituted. Here the light of God is no longer an + + +[PAGE 70] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +insipid single tint as in early Atlantis. The present dazzling play of +color tells us that THE WATCHWORD OF THE PRESENT AGE IS SEGREGATION, and +therefore so long as we remain in the present condition under the law of al- +ternating cycles, where summer and winter, ebb and flow, succeed each other +in unbroken sequence, so long as God's bow stands in the sky, an emblem of +diversity, it is yet the day of the kingdoms of men, and the kingdom of God +is held in abeyance. + + Nevertheless, as surely as the Edenic conditions upon the fire girt is- +lands of ancient Lemuria ended in separation into sexes, each expressing one +element of the creative fire, and making the union of man and woman as nec- +essary to the generation of a body as is the union of hydrogen and oxygen to +the production of water; and as surely as emergence from the watery atmo- +sphere of Atlantis into the airy environment of ARYANA, the world of today, +promoted further segregation into separate nations and individuals, who war +and prey upon one another (because the sharply differentiated forms which +they behold blind them to the inalienable unity of each soul with all oth- +ers); just as certainly will this world condition give place to a "new +heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." + + In early Atlantis we lived in the deepest basins of the earth where the +mist was densest; we breathed by means of gills and would have been unable +to live in an atmosphere such as we have now. In the course of time desire + + +[PAGE 71] THE COMING CHRIST + +to explore beyond caused the invention of airships, which were propelled by +the expansive force of sprouting grain. The "ark" story is a perverted +remembrance of that fact. Those ships actually did founder upon mountain +tops where the atmosphere was too rare to sustain them. Today our ships +float upon the element in which the Atlantean ships were at one time im- +mersed. We have now contrived various means of propulsion able to carry us +over the highlands of the earth which we occupy at present, and are commenc- +ing to reach out into the atmosphere to conquer that element as we have sub- +jected the waters; and as surely as our Atlantean ancestors made a highway +of the watery element which they breathed AND THEN ROSE ABOVE IT TO LIVE IN +A NEW ELEMENT, just as certainly shall we conquer the air and then rise +above it into the newly discovered element which we call ether. + + Thus each age has its own peculiar conditions and laws; the beings who +evolve have a physiological constitution suited to the environment of that +age, but are dominated by the nature forces then prevailing until they learn +to conform to them. Then these forces become most valuable servants, as for +instance, steam and electricity, which we have partially harnessed. The law +of gravity still holds us in its powerful grip, although by mechanical means +we are trying to escape into the new element. We shall at a not distant + + +[PAGE 72] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +time attain to mastery of the air, but as the ships of the Atlanteans foun- +dered upon the mountains of the earth because their buoyancy was insuffi- +cient to enable them to rise higher in the light mist of those altitudes, +and because respiration was difficult, so also will the increasing rarity of +our present atmosphere prevent us from entering the "new heaven and the new +earth," which are to be the scene of the New Dispensation. + + Before we can reach that state, physiological as well as moral and +spiritual changes must take place. The Greek text of the new New Testament +does not leave us in doubt as to this, though lack of knowledge of the mys- +tery teachings prevented the translators from bringing it out in the English +version. Did we but believe the Bible even as we have it, we should be +spared many delusions and much uneasiness concerning the time of this. +Whole sects have disposed of their belongings in anticipation of the advent +of Christ or even as God, have married, raised families, and died, leaving +their sons, who were supposed to be Christs, to fight for the kingdom. A +temporal government was forced to banish one of these militant "Christs" to +an island of the Mediterranean, and another to an Asiatic city where he is +now under military supervision. Nor is there any sign that the future will + + +[PAGE 73] THE COMING CHRIST + +lack similar claimants; rather, the sacrilegious imposture is spreading. + + WE MAY REST ASSURED THAT THE DIVINE LEADERS OF EVOLUTION MADE NO MISTAKE +WHEN THEY GAVE THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION TO THE WESTERN WORLD-- THE MOST AD- +VANCED TEACHING TO THE MOST PRECOCIOUS AMONG MANKIND. It may therefore be +regarded as a detriment when an organization undertakes to graft a Hindu re- +ligion (which is excellent for the people to whom it was divinely given) +upon our people. The imported Hindu breathing exercises have certainly sent +may people to insane asylums. + + If we believe Christ's words: "My kingdom is not of this world," +(KOSMOS, the Greek word used for "world" meaning " order of things" rather +than our planet, the earth, which is called GAEA), we shall know better than +to look for Christ today. + + "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." any more than the +gill-breathing creature of early Atlantean times was fit to live under the +natural conditions prevailing in the present age where "the resurrection, +does not say as in the English translation, "There is a natural body and +there is a spiritual body." I Cor. 15:44. He affirms that there is a "SOMA +PSUCHICON," a soul body, and tells in the preceding verses how this is gen- +erated from a "SEED" in the same way as explained in the Rosicrucian teach- +ings. The Bible affirms that our bodies are corruptible. (It also teaches + + +[PAGE 74] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +that one organ, the heart, is an exception. This has reference to the seed +atom in the heart. Ps. 22:26) Therefore our bodies must be changed before +Christ can come. + + If these things were believed, few would run after impostors, and the +latter would have their labors for their pains. But Western papers unfortu- +nately give notoriety to such schemers, though regarding them as a joke as +well they may, for it would be preposterous to believe that the great and +wise Being who guides evolution could be so shortsighted as not to know that +the Western World would never accept the scion of what it regards as a +semi-barbaric race for its Savior. + + When preparations were made 2000 years ago, for the embodiment of the +Savior of the world, Galilee was the Mecca for roving spirits. Thither +flocked people from Asia, Africa, Greece, Italy, and all other parts of the +world of that day. Conditions there were exceptionally congenial and at- +tractive so that, as declared by various scholars who have investigated the +matter, Galilee was as cosmopolitan as Rome itself. It was, in fact, the +"melting pot' of that day. Among others, Joseph and Mary, the parents of +Jesus, had emigrated from Judea to Nazareth in Galilee before the advent of +their firstborn, and the body generated in that environment was different +from the ordinary Jewish race body. + + It is an incontrovertible fact that environment plays a great part in + + +[PAGE 75] THE COMING CHRIST + +evolution. We have today upon earth THREE GREAT RACES. One, the Negro, has +hair which is FLAT in section, and the head is long, narrow and FLATTENED on +the sides. The orbit of the eye is also long and narrow. The Negroes are +descendants of the Lemurain Race. + + The Mongols and kindred peoples have ROUND heads. Their hair is round in +section, and orbits of their eyes are also round. They are the remnants of +the Atlantean Race. + + The ARYAN RACE have oval hair, oval skulls, and oval orbits of the eyes, +these features being especially pronounced in the Anglo-Saxons, who are the +flower of the race at present. + + In America, the Mecca of nations today, these various races are of course +represented. Here is the "melting pot" in which they are being amalgamated. +It has been ascertained that there is a difference in children belonging to +the same family. The SKULLS OF YOUNGER CHILDREN BORN IN AMERICA ARE MORE +NEARLY OVAL THAN THE HEADS OF THEIR OLDER BROTHERS AND SISTERS BORN ABROAD. + + From this fact and from others which need not be mentioned here, it is +evident that a new race is being born on the American continent; and reason- +ing from the known fact that the Christ came from the most cosmopolitan part +of the civilized world of 2000 years ago, it would be but logical to expect +that if a new embodiment were sought for that exalted Being, His body would + + +[PAGE 76] THE COMING CHRIST + +more likely be taken from the new race than from an ancient one. Otherwise, +if there is virtue in obtaining a Savior from the older races, why not get a +Bushman or a Hottentot? + + But we may be sure that though impostors deceive for a time, they are +found out sooner or later, and their plans come to naught. Meanwhile, pro- +gression continues to bring us nearer the Aquarian Age, and A TEACHER IS +COMING to give the Christian Religion impetus in a new direction. + + +[PAGE 77] THE COMING AGE + + + CHAPTER X + + THE COMING AGE + + + WHEN WE speak of the "Coming Age," of the "New Heaven and the New Earth" +mentioned in the Bible, and also of the "Aquarian Age," the differences may +not be quite clear in the minds of our students. Confusion of terms is one +of the most fertile seed grounds of fallacy, and the Rosicrucian teachings +aim to avoid it by a particularly definite nomenclature. Sometimes an extra +effort seems necessary to disperse the haze engendered by current cloudy +conceptions of others as sincere as the present writer, but not so fortunate +in having access to the incomparable Western Wisdom Teachings. + + It has been taught in our literature that four great epochs of unfoldment +preceded the present order of things; that the destiny of the earth, its at- +mospheric conditions, and the laws of nature prevailing in one epoch were as +different from those of the other epochs as was the corresponding +physiological constitution of mankind in one epoch different from those in +he others. + + +[PAGE 78] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + The bodies of ADM (the name means RED EARTH), the humanity of fiery +Lemuria, were formed of the "dust of the ground," the red, hot, volcanic +mud, and were just suited to their environment. Flesh and blood would have +shriveled up in the terrible heat of that day, and though suited to present +conditions, Paul tells us that they cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. It +is therefore manifest that before a new order of things can be inaugurated, +the physiological constitution of mankind must be radically changed to say +nothing of the spiritual attitude. Aeons will be required to generate the +whole human race and fit them to live in ethereal bodies. + + On the other hand, neither does a new environment come into existence in +a moment, but land and people are evolved together from the smallest and +most primitive beginnings. When the mists of Atlantis commenced to settle, +some of our forbears had grown embryonic lungs and were forced to highlands +ages before their compeers. They wandered in "the wilderness" while " the +promised land" was emerging from the lighter fogs, and at the same time +their growing lungs were fitting them to live under present atmospheric con- +ditions. + + Two more races were born in the basins of the earth before a succession +of floods drove them to the highlands; the last flood took place at the time +when the sun entered the watery sign Cancer, about ten thousand years ago as +told Plato by the Egyptian priests. Thus we see there is NO SUDDEN change + + +[PAGE 79] THE COMING AGE + +of constitution or environment for the whole human race when a new epoch is +ushered in, but an overlapping of conditions which makes it possible for +most of the race by gradual adjustment to enter the new condition, though +the change may seem sudden to the individual when the preparatory change has +been accomplished unconsciously. The metamorphosis of a tadpole from a +denizen of the watery element to one of the airy gives an analogy of the +past, and the transformation of the caterpillar to a butterfly soaring in +the air is an apt simile of the coming age. When the heavenly time marker +came into Aries by precession, a new cycle commenced, and the "glad tidings" +were preached by Christ. He said by implication that the new heaven and +earth were not ready then when He told His disciples: Whither I go you can- +not NOW follow, but you shall follow afterwards. I go to prepare a place +for you and will come again and receive you. + + Later John saw in a vision the new Jerusalem descending from heaven, and +Paul taught the Thessalonians "BY THE WORD OF THE LORD" that those who are +Christ's at His coming shall be caught up IN THE AIR to meet Him and be with +Him FOR THE AGE. + + But during this change there are pioneers who enter the kingdom of God +before their brethren. Christ, in Matt. 11:12, said that " the kingdom of +heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." This is not a +correct translation. It ought to be: The kingdom of the heavens HAS BEEN + + +[PAGE 80] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +INVADED (BIAXETAI), and invaders seize on her. Men and women have already +learned through holy, helpful lives to lay aside the body of flesh and +blood, either intermittently or permanently, and to walk the skies with +winged feet, intent upon the business of their Lord, clad in the ethereal +"wedding garment" of the new dispensation. This change may be accomplished +through a life of simple helpfulness and prayer as practiced by devoted +Christians, no matter with what church they affiliate, as well as by the +specific exercises given in the Rosicrucian Fellowship. The latter will +prove barren of results, unless accompanied by constant ACTS of love for +LOVE will be the keynote of the coming age as LAW is of the present order. +The intense expression of the former quality increases the phosphorescent +luminosity and density of the ethers in our vital bodies, the fiery streams +sever the tie to the mortal coil, and the man, once BORN OF WATER upon his +emergence from Atlantis, is now born OF THE SPIRIT into the kingdom of God. +The dynamic force of his love has opened a way to the land of love, and in- +describable is the rejoicing among those already there when new invaders ar- +rive, for each new arrival hastens the coming of the Lord and the definite +establishment of the Kingdom. + + Among the religiously inclined there is a definite unceasing cry: How +long, O Lord; how long? And despite the emphatic statement of Christ that +the day and hour are unknown, even to Himself, prophets continue to gain + + +[PAGE 81] THE COMING AGE + +credence when they predict His coming on a certain day, though each is dis- +comfited when the day passes without development. The question has also +been mooted among our students, and the present chapter is an attempt to +show the fallacy of looking for the Second Advent in a year or fifty or five +hundred. The Elder Brothers decline to commit themselves further than to +point out what must first be accomplished. + + At the time of Christ the sun was in about seven degrees of Aries. Five +hundred years were required to bring the precession to the thirtieth degree +of Pisces. During that time the new church lived through a stage of offen- +sive and defensive violence well justifying the words of Christ: "I came +not to bring peace but a sword." Fourteen hundred years more have elapsed +under the negative influence of PISCES, which has fostered the power of the +church and bound the people by creed and dogma. + + In the middle of the last century the sun came within orb of influence of +the scientific sign AQUARIUS, and although it will take about seven hundred +years before the Aquarian Age commences, it is highly instructive to note +what changes the mere touch has wrought in the world. Our limited space +precludes enumeration of the wonderful advances made since then; but it is +not too much to say that science, invention, and resultant industry have +completely changed the world, its social life, and economic conditions. The + + +[PAGE 82] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +great strides made in means of communication have done much to break down +barriers of race prejudice and prepare us for conditions of Universal Broth- +erhood. Engines of destruction have been made so fearfully efficient that +the militant nations will be forced ere long to "beat their swords into +plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." THE SWORD HAS HAD ITS +REIGN during the Piscean Age, but SCIENCE WILL RULE in the Aquarian Age. + + In the land of the setting sun we may expect to first see the ideal con- +ditions of the Aquarian Age: A blending of religion and science, forming a +religious science and a scientific religion, which will promote the health, +happiness and the enjoyment of life in abundant measure. + + SUGAR FOR ALCOHOL + + In the chapter elucidating the Law of Assimilation in the ROSICRUCIAN +COSMO-CONCEPTION, we stated that minerals cannot be assimilated because they +lack a vital body, which lack makes it impossible for man to raise their vi- +bratory rate to his own pitch. Plants have a vital body and no +self-consciousness, hence are most easily assimilated and remain with man +longer than cells of animal flesh, which is permeated by a desire body. The +vibratory rate of the latter is high, and much energy is required in as- +similation; its cells also quickly escape and make it necessary for the +flesh eater to forage often. + + +[PAGE 83] THE COMING AGE + + We are aware that alcohol is a "foreign spirit" and a "spirit of decay" +because IT IS GENERATED BY FERMENTATION OUTSIDE the consumer's system. Be- +ing "spirit," it vibrates with such intense rapidity that the human spirit +is incapable of tuning it down and controlling it as food must be, hence me- +tabolism is out of the question. Nay, more, as we cannot reduce its vibra- +tory rate to that of our bodies, this foreign spirit may accelerate their +vibratory pitch and control us as happens in the state of intoxication. +Thus alcohol is a great danger to mankind and one from which we must be +emancipated ere we can realize our divine nature. + + A stimulant spirit is necessary while we live on a DIET OF FLESH or +progress would stop, and A FOOD has been provided for the pioneers of the +West that answers all requirements; its name is "sugar." FROM SUGAR THE EGO +ITSELF GENERATES ALCOHOL INSIDE the system by the very processes of me- +tabolism. This product is therefore both food and stimulant, perfectly +keyed to the vibratory pitch of the body. It has all the good qualities of +alcohol in enhanced measure and none of its drawbacks. To perceive properly +the effect of this food, consider the peoples of eastern Europe where little +sugar is consumed. They are slavish; they speak of themselves in terms of +depreciation; the pronoun "I" is always spelled with small letters but "you" +with a capital. England consumes five times as much sugar per capita as + + +[PAGE 84] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +Russia. In the former we meet a different spirit, the big "I" and the +little "you." In America the candy store becomes a most dangerous rival of +the saloon, for THE MAN WHO EATS SWEETS WILL NOT DRINK, and there is no +surer cure for alcoholism than to induce the sufferer to eat freely of +sweets. The drunkard abhors sugar, however, while his system is under the +sway of the "foreign spirit." + + The temperance movement was begun in the land where MOST SUGAR IS CON- +SUMED, and has GENERATED "THE SPIRIT OF SELF-RESPECT." + + +[PAGE 85] MEAT AND DRINK + + + CHAPTER XI + + MEAT AND DRINK AS FACTORS IN EVOLUTION + + + IN PREVIOUS chapters we saw how infant humanity was cared for by superhu- +man guardians, provided with appropriate food, led out of danger's way, and +sheltered in all respects until grown to human stature and fit to enter the +school of experience to learn the lessons of life in the phenomenal world. +We saw also how the rainbow points to natural laws peculiar to the present +age, how man was given free will under these laws, and how the spirit of +wine was given to cheer and to stimulate his own timid, fearful spirit, to +nerve it for the war of the world. + + In an analogous manner the irresponsible little child who has been +brought under the waters of baptism by its natural guardians is cared for +through the years of childhood while its various vehicles are being orga- +nized. When the parental blood stored in the thymus gland has been ex- +hausted and the child thus emancipated from the parents, it awakens to indi- +viduality, to the feeling of "I AM." It has then been prepared with a + + +[PAGE 86] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +knowledge of good and evil with which to fight the battle of life; and at +that time the youth is taken to the church and given the bread and wine to +nerve and nourish him spiritually, also as a symbol that henceforth he is a +free agent, only responsible to the laws of God. A blessing or a curse, +this freedom, according to the way it is used. + + In early Atlantis mankind was a universal brotherhood of submissive chil- +dren with no incentive to war or strife. Later they were segregated into +nations, and wars inculcated loyalty to kin and country. Each sovereign was +an absolute autocrat with power over life and limb of his subjects, who were +numbered in hundreds of millions, and who yielded ungrudging and slavish +submission, an attitude maintained to the present day among millions of Asi- +atics, who are vegetarians and consequently need no alcohol. + + As flesh eating came into vogue, wine became a more and more common bev- +erage. In consequence of flesh eating much material progress was made im- +mediately preceding the advent of Christ, and because of the practice of +drinking wine an increasing number of men asserted themselves as leaders, +with the result that instead of a few large nations such as people Asia, +many small nations were formed in the southwestern portion of Europe and +Asia Minor. + + But though the great mass of people who formed these various nations were +ahead of their Asiatic brethren as craftsmen, they continued submissive to + + +[PAGE 87] MEAT AND DRINK + +their rulers and lived as much in their traditions as did the latter. +Christ upbraided them because they gloried in being Abraham's seed. He told +them that "before Abraham was, I AM," that is, the ego has always existed. + + It is His mission to emancipate humanity from Law and lead it to LOVE, to +destroy "the kingdoms of men" with all their antagonism to one another, and +to build upon their ruins " the kingdom of God." An illustration will make +the method clear: + + If we have a number of brick buildings and desire to amalgamate them into +one large structure, it is necessary to break them down first and free each +brick from the mortar which binds it. Likewise each human being must be +freed from the fetters of family, hence Christ taught, " Unless a man leaves +his father and mother he cannot be my disciple." He must outgrow religious +partisanship and patriotism and learn to say with the much misunderstood and +maligned Thomas Paine: "THE WORLD IS MY COUNTRY, AND TO DO GOOD IS MY RELI- +GION." + + Christ did not mean that we are to foresake those who have a claim upon +our help and support, but that we are not to permit the suppression of our +individuality out of deference to family traditions and beliefs. + + Consequently He came "not to bring peace, but a sword;" and whereas the +eastern religions discourage the use of wine, CHRIST'S FIRST MIRACLE WAS TO +CHANGE WATER TO WINE. The sword and the wine cup are signature of the + + +[PAGE 88] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +Christian religion, for by them nations have been broken to pieces and the +individual emancipated. Government by the people, for the people, is a fact +in northwestern Europe, the rulers being that principally in name only. + + But the fostering of the martial spirit as prevails in Europe was only a +means to an end. The segregation which it has caused must give place to a +regime of brotherhood such as professed by Paine. A new step was necessary +to bring this about; A NEW FOOD must be found which would act upon the +spirit in such a way as to foster individuality through ASSERTION OF SELF +WITHOUT OPPRESSION OF OTHERS AND WITHOUT LOSS OF SELF-RESPECT. We have +enunciated it as a law that only spirit can act upon spirit, and therefore +that food must be a spirit but differing in other respects from intoxicants. + + Before describing this let us see what flesh has done for the evolution +of the world. + + We have noted previously that during the Polarian Epoch man had only a +dense body; he was like the present minerals in this respect, and by nature +he was inert and passive. + + By absorbing the crystalloids prepared by plants he evolved a vital body +during the Hyperborean Epoch and became plant-like both in constitution and +by nature, for he lived without exertion and as unconsciously as the plants. + + Later he extracted milk from the then stationary animals. Desire for + + +[PAGE 89] MEAT AND DRINK + +this more readily digestible food spurred him on to exertion, and gradually +his desire nature was evolved during the Lemurian Epoch. Thus he became +constituted like the present day HERBIVORA. Though possessed of a passional +nature, he was docile and could not be induced to fight save to defend him- +self, his mate, and family. Hunger alone had the power to make him aggres- +sive. + + Therefore, when animals began to move and sought to elude this ruthless +parasite, increasing difficulty of obtaining the coveted food aroused his +craving to such an extent that when he had hunted and caught an animal, he +was no longer content to suck its udders dry but commenced to feed upon its +blood and flesh. Thus he became as ferocious as our present day CARNIVORA. + + Digestion of flesh food requires much more powerful chemical action and +speedy elimination of the waste than that of a vegetable diet as proved by +chemical analysis of the gastric juices from animals, and by the fact that +the intestines of Herbivora are many times longer than those of a car- +nivorous animal of even size. Carnivora easily become drowsy and averse to +exertion. + + When prodded by the pangs of hunger the ferocious wolf does indeed pursue +its prey with unwavering perseverance, and the spring of the crouching king +of beasts overmatches the speed of the wing-footed deer. By ambush the fe- +line family foil the fleetest in their attempts to escape. The cunning of + + +[PAGE 90] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +the fox is proverbial, and the slinking nocturnal habits of the hyena and +kindred scavengers illustrate the depth of depravity resulting from a diet +of decayed flesh. + + The vices generated by flesh eating may be said to be lassitude, feroc- +ity, low cunning, and depravity. We may tame the herbivorous ox and el- +ephant. Their diet makes them docile and stores enormous power which they +obediently use in our service to perform prolonged and arduous labor. The +flesh food required by the constitutional peculiarities of Carnivora makes +them dangerous and incapable of thorough domestication. A cat may scratch +at any moment, and the muzzling ordinances of large cities are ample proof +of the danger of dogs. Besides, energy contained in the diet of Carnivora +is so largely expended in digestion that they are drowsy and unfitted for +sustained labor like the horse or elephant. + + The drowsiness following a heavy meal of meat is too well known to re- +quire arguement, and the custom of taking stimulants with food is an out- +growth of the desire to counteract the deadening effect of dead flesh. The +intensified effect of feasting upon FLESH IN AN ADVANCED STATE OF DECAY is +well illustrated in "society," where banquets of game that is "high" are ac- +companied by orgies of the wildest nature and followed by indulgence of the +vilest instincts. + + The Westerner who can live upon a clean, sweet, wholesome diet of veg- +etables, cereals and fruit, does not become drowsy from his food; he needs + + +[PAGE 91] MEAT AND DRINK + +no stimulant. THERE ARE NO VEGETARIAN DRUNKARDS. The soothing effects of +vegetable food manifest as finer feelings, which replace the ferocity fos- +tered by flesh food. Many need the mixed diet yet, for the practice of +flesh eating has furthered the progress of the world as nothing else except +perhaps its companion vice--drunkenness; and though we cannot say that they +have been a blessing in disguise, they have at least not been unmitigated +curses, for in the Father's kingdom all seeming evil nevertheless works for +good in some respect, though it may not be apparent upon the surface. We +shall see how presently. + + A private corporation, the East India Company, commenced and practically +achieved the subjugation of India with her three hundred million people, for +the English are voracious flesh eaters, while the Hindu's diet fosters do- +cility. But when England fought the flesh eating Boers, Greek met Greek, +and the valor displayed by both sides is a matter of brilliant record. +Courage, physical as well as moral, is a virtue and cowardice a vice. Flesh +has fostered self-assertion and helped us to develop backbone, though unfor- +tunately often at the expense of others who still retain the wishbone. It +has done more as will be illustrated: + + As said previously, the crouching cat is forced to employ strategy to +save strength when procuring its prey, so that it may retain sufficient en- +ergy to digest the victim. Thus brain becomes the ally of brawn. In + + +[PAGE 92] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +ancient Atlantis DESIRE FOR FLESH DEVELOPED THE INGENUITY OF PRIMITIVE MAN +AND LED HIM to trap the elusive denizens of field and forest. The hunter's +snare was among the first LABOR-SAVING DEVICES--which mark the beginning of +the evolution of mind, and of the uncompromising, unflagging struggle of the +meat fed mind for supremacy over matter. + + We say "THE MEAT FED MIND," and we reiterate it, because we wish to em- +phasize that it is by the nations which have adopted flesh food that the +most noteworthy progress has been made. The vegetarian Asiatics remain upon +the lower rungs of civilization. The further west we travel, THE MORE THE +CONSUMPTION OF MEAT INCREASES AS DOES THE DISINCLINATION FOR BODILY EXER- +CISE, AND CONSEQUENTLY THE ACTIVITY OF THE MIND IS INCREASED TO A HIGHER AND +HIGHER PITCH IN THE INVENTION OF LABOR-SAVING DEVICES. The American +agriculturists' acres are counted by thousands, and they harvest large crops +with less labor than the peasant of the East who has only a small patch of +ground. The reason is that the poor, plodding grain fed Easterner has only +his hands and his hoe, which he keeps in motion all day and day after day, +while the meat fed, progressive Westerner turns power-driven implements into +his fertile fields and sits down in a comfortable seat to watch them work. +One uses muscle, the other mind. + + +[PAGE 93] MEAT AND DRINK + + Thus the indomitable courage and energy which have transformed the face +of the Western World are virtues directly traceable to flesh food, which +also fosters love of ease and invention of labor-saving devices; while alco- +hol stimulates enterprise in execution of schemes thus hatched to procure +the maximum of comfort with a minimum of labor. + + But the spirit of alcohol is obtained by a process of fermentation. It +is a SPIRIT OF DECAY, altogether different from the SPIRIT OF LIFE in man. +This counterfeit spirit lures man on and on, always holding before his vi- +sion the dreams of FUTURE grandeur, and goading him to strenuous efforts of +body and mind in order to attain and obtain. Then when he has achieved and +attained, he awakens to the utter worthlessness of his prize. Possession +soon shatters illusion as to the worth of whatever he may have acquired; +NOTHING THE WORLD HAS TO GIVE CAN FINALLY SATISFY. Then again the lethal +draught drowns disappointment, and the mind conjures up a new illusion. +This he pursues with fresh zeal and high hopes, to meet disappointment again +and again, for lives and lives, until at last he learns that "wine is a +mocker," and that "all is vanity but to serve God and to do His will." +[PAGE 94] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + + CHAPTER XII + + + A LIVING SACRIFICE + + VOLUMES, OR RATHER libraries, have been written to explain the nature of +God, but it is probably a universal experience that the more we read of +other people's explanations, the less we understand. There is one descrip- +tion, given by the inspired apostle John when he wrote "GOD IS LIGHT," which +is as illuminating as the others are befogging to the mind. Anyone who +takes this passage for meditation occasionally will find a rich reward wait- +ing, for no matter how many times we take up this subject, our own develop- +ment in the passing years assures us each time a fuller and better under- +standing. Each time we sink ourselves in these three words we lave in a +spiritual fountain of inexhaustible depth, and each succeeding time we sound +more thoroughly the divine depths and draw more closely to our Father in +heaven. + + To get in touch with our subject, let us go back in time to get our bear- +ing and the direction of our future line of progress. + + +[PAGE 95] A LIVING SACRIFICE + + The first time our consciousness was directed towards the Light was +shortly after we had become endowed with mind and had entered definitely +upon our evolution as human beings in Atlantis, the land of the mist, deep +down in the basins of the earth, where the warm mist emitted from the cool- +ing earth hung like a dense fog over the land. Then the starry heights of +the universe were never seen, nor could the silvery light of the moon pen- +etrate the dense, foggy atmosphere which hung over that ancient land. Even +the fiery splendor of the sun was almost totally extinguished, for when we +look in the Memory of Nature pertaining to that time, it appears very much +as an arc lamp on a high pole looks to us when it is foggy. It was exceed- +ingly dim, and had an aura of various colors, very similar to those which we +observe around an arc light. + + But this light had a fascination. The ancient Atlanteans were taught by +the divine Hierarchs who walked among them, to aspire to the light, and as +the spiritual sight was then already on the wane (even the messengers, or +Elohim, being perceived with difficulty by the majority), they aspired all +the more ardently to the new light, for they feared the darkness of which +they had become conscious through the gift of mind. + + Then came the inevitable flood when the mist cooled and condensed. The +atmosphere cleared, and the "CHOSEN PEOPLE" were saved. Those who had + + +[PAGE 96] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +worked within themselves and learned to build the necessary organs required +to breathe in an atmosphere such as we have today, survived and came to the +light. It was not an arbitrary choice; THE WORK OF THE PAST CONSISTED OF +BODY BUILDING. Those who had only gill clefts, such as the foetus still +uses in its prenatal development, were unfit physiologically to enter the +new era as the foetus would be to be born were it to neglect to build lungs. +It would die as those ancient people died when the rare atmosphere made gill +clefts useless. + + Since the day when we came out of ancient Atlantis our bodies have been +practically complete, that is to say, no new vehicles are to be added; but +from that time and from now on THOSE WHO WISH TO FOLLOW THE LIGHT MUST +STRIVE FOR SOUL GROWTH. The bodies which we have crystallized about us must +be dissolved, and the quintessence of experience extracted, which as "soul" +may be amalgamated with the spirit to nourish if from impotence to om- +nipotence. Therefore, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was given to the an- +cients, and THE LIGHT OF GOD DESCENDED UPON THE ALTAR OF SACRIFICE. This is +of great significance: The ego had just descended into its tabernacle, the +body. We all know the tendency of the primitive instinct towards selfish- +ness, and if we have studied the higher ethics we also know how subversive +of good the indulgence of the egotistic tendency is; therefore, God immedi- +ately placed before mankind the Divine Light upon the Altar of Sacrifice. + + +[PAGE 97] MEAT AND DRINK + + Upon this altar they were forced by dire necessity to offer their cher- +ished possessions for every transgression, God appearing to them as a hard +taskmaster whose displeasure it was dangerous to incur. But still the Light +drew them. They knew then that it was futile to attempt to escape from the +hand of God. They had never heard the words of John, "God is Light," but +they had already learned from the heavens in a measure the meaning of in- +finitude, as measured by the realm of light, for we hear David exclaim: +"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy pres- +ence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, +thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the ut- +termost part of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy might +hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the +night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but +the night shineth as the day, for the darkness and the light are both alike +to thee." + + With every year that passes, with the aid of the greatest telescopes +which the ingenuity and mechanical skill of man have been able to construct +to pierce the depths of space, it becomes more evident that the infinitude +of light teaches us the infinitude of God. When we hear that "men loved +darkness rather than Light because their deed were evil," that also rings + + +[PAGE 98] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +true to what we unfortunately know as present day facts, and illumines the +nature of God for us; for is it not true that we always feel endangered in +the dark, but that the light gives us a sense of safety which is akin to the +feeling of a child who feels the protecting hand of its father? + + To render permanent this condition of being in the Light was the next +step in God's work with us, which culminated in the birth of Christ, who as +the bodily presence of the Father, bore about in Himself that Light, for the +Light came into the world that whosoever should believe in Christ should not +perish, but have everlasting life. He said, "I am the Light of the World." +The altar in the Tabernacle had illustrated the principle of sacrifice as +the medium of regeneration, so Christ said to His disciples: Greater love +hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my +friends. And forthwith He commenced a sacrifice, which, contrary to the ac- +cepted orthodox opinion was not consummated in a few hours of physical suf- +fering upon a material cross, but is as perpetual as were the sacrifices +made upon the altar of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, for it entails an +annual descent into the earth and an endurance of all that the cramping +earth conditions must mean to such a great spirit. + + This must continue till a sufficient number have evolved who can bear the +burden of this dense lump of DARKNESS which we call the earth, and which + + +[PAGE 99] A LIVING SACRIFICE + +hangs as a millstone about the neck of humanity, an impediment to further +spiritual growth. Until we learn to follow "in His steps," we can rise no +higher towards the Light. + + It is related that when Leonardo da Vinci had completed his famous paint- +ing "The Last Supper," he asked a friend to look at it and tell him what he +thought of it. + + The friend looked at it critically for a few minutes and then said: + + "I think you have made a mistake in painting the goblets from which the +apostles drink so ornamental and to resemble gold. People in their posi- +tions would not drink from such expensive vessels." + + Da Vinci then drew his brush through the entire set of vessels which had +drawn the criticism of his friend, but he was heartbroken, for he had +painted that picture with his soul rather than with his hands, and he had +prayed over it that it might speak a message to the world. He had put all +the greatness of his art and the whole-hearted devotion of his soul into +that effort to paint a Christ who should speak the word that would lead men +to emulate His deeds. + + Can you see Him as He sits there at that festive board, THE EMBODIMENT OF +LIGHT, and speaks those wonderful, mystic words: THIS IS MY BODY, THIS IS +MY BLOOD, GIVEN FOR YOU-- a living sacrifice. + + +[PAGE 100] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + In the past period of our spiritual career we have been looking for a +Light EXTERIOR to ourselves, but now we have arrived at the point where we +must look for the Christ light within and emulate Him by making of ourselves +"living sacrifices" as He is doing. Let us remember that when the sacrifice +which lies before our door seems pleasant and to our liking, when we seem +able to pick and choose our work in His vineyard and do what pleases us, we +are not making a real sacrifice as He did, nor are we when we are seen of +men and applauded for our benevolence. But when we are ready to follow Him +from that festive board where He was the honored one among friends, into the +garden of Gethsemane WHERE HE WAS ALONE and wrestled with the great problem +before Him while His friends slept, then are we making a living sacrifice. + + When we are content to follow "in His steps" to that point of +self-sacrifice where we can say from the bottom of our hearts, "THY WILL, +NOT MINE," then we have surely THE LIGHT WITHIN, and there will never hence- +forth be for us that which we feel as darkness. WE SHALL WALK IN THE LIGHT. + + This is our glorious privilege, and the meditation upon the words of the +apostle, "God is Light," will help us to realize this ideal provided we add +to our faith, WORKS, and say by our deeds as did the Christ of da Vinci, +"THIS IS MY BODY AND THIS IS MY BLOOD," a living sacrifice upon the altar of +humanity. + + +[PAGE 101] MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK + + + CHAPTER XIII + + MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK + + + FROM TIME to time as occasion requires we warn students of the +Rosicrucian Fellowship in our private individual letters not to attend +spirit seances, hypnotic demonstrations, or places where incense is burned +by dabblers in occultism. Black Magic is practiced by both consciously and +unconsciously to an extent that is almost unbelievable. "Malicious animal +magnetism," which is only another name for the Black Force, is responsible +for more failures in business, loss of health, and unhappiness in homes than +most people are aware of. Even the perpetrators of such outrages are, as +said, often unconscious of what harm they have done. Therefore it seems ex- +pedient to devote a chapter to an explanation of some of the laws of magic, +which are the same for the white as for the black. There is only one force, +but it may be used for good or evil; and according to the motive behind it +and the use that is made of it, it becomes either black or white. + + It is a scientific axiom that "EX NIHIL, NIHIL FIT" (out of nothing noth- +ing comes). There must be a seed before there can be a flower, but where + + +[PAGE 102] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +the first seed came from is something which science has failed to explain. +The occultist knows that all things have come from ARCHE, the infinite es- +sence of chaos, used by God, the Grand Architect, for the building of our +universe; and , given the nucleus of anything, the accomplished magician can +draw upon the same essence for a further supply. Christ, for instance, had +some loaves and some fishes; by means of that nucleus He drew upon the pri- +mordial essence of chaos for the rest needed in performing the miracle of +feeding a multitude. A human magician whose power is not so high can more +easily draw upon things which have already materialized out of chaos. He +may take flowers or fruit belonging to some one else, miles or hundreds of +miles away, disintegrate them into their atomic constituents, transport them +through the air, and cause them to assume their regular physical shape in +the the room where he is entertaining friends in order to amaze them. Such +magic is GREY at best, even if he sends sufficient of his coin to pay for +what he has taken away; if he does not, it is Black Magic to thus rob an- +other of his goods. Magic to be white must always be used unselfishly, and +in addition, for a noble purpose--to save a fellow being suffering. The +Christ, when He fed the multitude from chaos, gave as His reason that they +had been with Him for several days and if they had to journey back to their + + +[PAGE 103] MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK + +homes without physical food they would faint by the wayside and suffer pri- +vation. + + God is the Grand Architect of the Universe and the Initiates of the White +Schools are also arche-tektons, builders from the primordial essence in +their beneficent work for humanity. These Invisible Helpers require a +nucleus from the patient's vital body, which is, as students of the +Rosicrucian Fellowship know, given to them in the effluvia from the hand, +which impregnates the paper when the patient makes application for help and +healing. With this nucleus of the patient's vital body they are able to draw +upon virgin matter for whatever they need to restore health by building up +and strengthening the organism. + + The Black Magicians are despoilers, actuated by hatred and malice. They +also need a nucleus for their nefarious operations, and this they obtain +most easily from the vital body as spiritualistic or hypnotic seances, where +the sitters relax, put themselves into a negative frame of mind, drop their +jaws, and sink their individualities by other distinctly mediumistic prac- +tices. Even people who do not frequent such places are not immune, for +there are certain products of the vital body which are ignorantly scattered +by all and which may be used effectively by the Black Magicians. Chief in +this category are the hair and fingernails. The Negroes in their voodoo +magic use the placenta for similar evil purposes. One particularly evil +man, whose practices were exposed a decade ago, obtained from boys the vital + + +[PAGE 104] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +fluid which he used for his demoniac acts. Even so innocent a thing as a +glass of water placed in close proximity to certain parts of the body of the +prospective victim, while the Black Magician converses with him can be made +to absorb a part of the victim's vital body. This will give the Black Magi- +cian the requisite nucleus, or it may be obtained from a piece of the +person's clothing. The same invisible emanation contained in the garment, +which guides the bloodhound upon the track of a certain person, will also +guide the Magician, white or black, to the abode of that person and furnish +the Magician with a key to the person's system whereby the former by help or +hurt according to his inclination. + + But there are methods of protecting oneself from inimical influences, +which we shall mention in the latter part of this chapter. We have debated +much whether it were wise or not to call to call the attention of students +to these facts, and have come to the conclusion that it does not help anyone +to imitate the ostrich which sticks its head into a hole in the sand at the +approach of danger. It is better to be enlightened concerning things that +threaten so that we may take whatever precautions are necessary to meet the +emergency. The battle between the good and the evil forces is being waged +with an intensity that no one not engaged in the actual combat can compre- +hend. The Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucians and kindred orders which, we + + +[PAGE 105] MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK + +may say, in their totality represent the Holy Grail, live on the love and +essence of the unselfish service which they gather and garner as the bees +gather honey, from all who are striving to live the life. This they add to +the lustre of the Holy Grail, which in turn grows more lustrous and radiates +a stronger influence upon all who are spiritually inclined, imbuing them +with greater ardor, zeal and zest in the good work and in fighting the good +fight. Similarly the evil forces of the Black Grail thrive on hate, treach- +ery, cruelty, and every demoniac deed on the calendar of crime. Both the +Black and White Grail forces require a pabulum, the one of good and the +other of evil, for the continuance of their existence and for the power to +fight. Unless they get it, they starve and grow weaker. Hence the relent- +less struggle that is going on between them. + + Every midnight the Elder Brothers at their service open their breasts to +attract the darts of hate, envy, malice, and every evil that has been +launched during the past twenty-four hours. First, in order that they may +deprive the Black Grail forces of their food; and secondly, that they may +transmute the evil to good. Then, as the plants gather the inert carbon di- +oxide exhaled by mankind and build their bodies therefrom, so the Brothers +of the Holy Grail transmute the evil within the temple; and as the plants +send out the renovated oxygen so necessary to human life, so the Elder +Brothers return to mankind the transmuted essence of evil as qualms of + + +[PAGE 106] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +conscience along with the good in order that the world may grow better day +by day. + + The Black Brothers, instead of transmuting the evil, infuse a greater dy- +namic energy into it and speed it on its mission in vain endeavors to con- +quer the powers of good. They use for their purposes elementals and other +discarnate entities which, being themselves of a low order, are available +for such vile practices as required. In the ages when men burned animal oil +or candles made from tallow of animals, elementals swarmed around them as +devils or demons, seeking to obsess whoever would offer an occasion. Even +wax tapers offer food for these entities, but the modern paraffin candles, +are uncongenial to them. They still flock around our saloons, slaughter +houses, and similar places where there are passionate animals, and +animal-like men. They also delight in places where incense is burned, for +that offers them an avenue of access, and when the sitters at seances inhale +the odor of the incense they inhale elemental spirits with it, which affect +them according to their characters. + + This is where the protection we spoke about before may be used. When we +live lives of purity, when our days are filled with service to God and to +our fellow men, and with thoughts and actions of the highest nobility, then +we create for ourselves the GOLDEN WEDDING GARMENT, which is a radiant force +for good. No evil is able to penetrate this armor for the evil then acts as + + +[PAGE 107] MAGIC, WHITE AND BLACK + +a boomerang and recoils on the one who sent it, bringing to him the evil he +wished us. + + But alas, none of us are altogether good. We know only too well the war +between the flesh and the spirit. We cannot hide from ourselves the fact +that like Paul, "the good that we would do, we do not, and the evil that we +would shun, that we do." Far too often our good resolutions come to naught +and we do wrong because it is easier. Therefore we all have the nucleus of +evil within ourselves, which affords the open sesame for the evil forces to +work upon. For that reason it is best for us not unnecessarily to expose +ourselves at places where seanes are held with spirits invisible to us, no +matter how fine their teachings may sound to the unsophisticated. Neither +should we take part even as spectators at hypnotic demonstrations, for there +also a negative attitude lays one liable to the danger of obsession. We +should at all times follow the advice of Paul and put on the whole armor of +God. We should be positive in our fight for the good against the evil and +never let an occasion slip to aid the Elder Brothers by word or deed in the +Great War for spiritual supremacy. + + +[PAGE 108] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + + CHAPTER XIV + + + OUR INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT + + + IT IS WELL known to students of the Rosicrucian Philosophy that each spe- +cies of animals is dominated by a group spirit, which is their guardian and +looks after these, its wards, with a view to bringing them along the path of +evolution that is best suited to their development; it does not matter what +the geographical position of these animals is; the lion in the jungles of +Africa is dominated by the same group spirit as is the lion in the cage of a +menagerie in our northern countries. Therefore these animals are alike in +all their principal characteristics; they have the same likes and dislikes +with respect to diet, and they act in an almost identical manner under +similar circumstances. If one wants to study the tribes of lions or the +tribe of tigers, all that is necessary is to study one individual, for it +has neither choice nor prerogative, but acts entirely according to the dic- +tates of the group spirit. The mineral cannot choose whether it will crys- +tallize or not; the rose is bound to bloom; the lion is compelled to prey; +and in each case the activity is dictated entirely by the group spirit. + + +[PAGE 109] OUR INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT + + But man is different; when we want to study him we find that each indi- +vidual is as a species by himself. What one does under any given circum- +stances is no indication of what another may do; "one man's meat is another +man's poison"; each has different likes and dislikes. This is because man +as we see him in the physical world is the expression of an individual +indwelling spirit, seemingly having choice and prerogative. + + But as a matter of fact man is not quite as free as he seems; all stu- +dents of human nature have observed that on certain occasions a large number +of people will act as though dominated by one spirit. It is also easy to +see without recourse to occultism that the different nations have certain +physical characteristics. We all know the German, French, English, Italian, +and Spanish types. Each of these nations has characteristics which differ +from those of the other nations, thus indicating that there must be a RACE +SPIRIT at the root of these peculiarities. The occultist who is gifted with +spiritual sight knows that such is the case, and that each nation has a dif- +ferent race spirit which broods as a cloud over the whole country. In it +the people live and move and having their being; it is their guardian and is +constantly working for their development, building up their civilization and +fostering ideals of the highest nature compatible with their capacity for +progress. + + +[PAGE 110] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + In the Bible we read the JEHOVAH, ELOHIM, who was the race spirit of the +Jews, went before them in a pillar and a cloud, and in the Book of Daniel we +gain considerable insight into the workings of these race spirits. The im- +age seen by Nebuchadnezzar with its head of gold and feet of clay showed +plainly how a civilization built up in the beginning with golden ideals de- +generated more and more until in the latter part of its existence the feet +were of unstable, crumbling clay, and the image was doomed to topple. Thus +all civilizations when started by the different race spirits have great and +golden ideals, but humanity by reason of having some free will and choice +does not follow implicitly the dictates of the race spirits as the animals +follow the commands of the group spirits. Hence in the course of time a na- +tion ceases to rise, and as there can be no standing still in the cosmos, it +begins to degenerate until finally the feet are of clay and it is necessary +to strike a blow to shatter it, THAT ANOTHER CIVILIZATION MAY BE BUILT UP ON +ITS RUINS. + + But empires do not fall without a strong physical blow, and therefore an +instrument of the race spirit of a nation is always raised up at the time +when that nation is doomed to fall. In the tenth and eleventh chapters of +Daniel we are given an insight into the workings of the invisible government +of the race spirits, the powers behind the throne. Daniel is much disturbed +in spirit; he fasts, for fully THREE WEEKS, praying for light, and at the +end of that time an arch-angel, a race spirit, appears before him and + + +[PAGE 111] OUR INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT + +addresses him: "Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set +thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words +were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of +Persia withstood me ONE AND TWENTY DAYS, but lo, Michael, one of the chief +princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the king of Persia." +After he explains to Daniel what is to happen, he says: "Knowest thou where- +fore I came unto thee? AND NOW WILL I RETURN TO FIGHT WITH THE PRINCE OF +PERSIA: AND WHEN I AM GONE FORTH, LO, THE PRINCE OF GRECIA SHALL COME, and +there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael, your +prince." The archangel also says: "In the first year of Darius the Mede, +even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him." + + So when the handwriting is on the wall, some one is raised up to adminis- +ter the blow; it may be a Cyrus, a Darius, an Alexander, a Caesar, a Napo- +leon, or a kaiser. Such a one may think himself a prime mover, a free indi- +vidual acting by his own choice and prerogative, but as a matter of fact he +is only the instrument of the invisible government of the world, the power +behind thrones, the race spirits, who see the necessity of breaking up +civilizations that have outlived their usefulness, so that humanity may get +a new start and evolve under a new and a higher ideal than that which +ensouled it before. + + +[PAGE 112] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + Christ himself when upon earth, said: "I came not to bring peace, but a +sword," for it was evident to Him that as long as humanity was divided into +races and nations there could be no "peace on earth and good will among +men." Only when the nations have become united in a universal brotherhood +is peace possible. The barriers of nationalism must be done away with, and +to this end the United States of America has been made a melting pot where +all that is best in the old nations is being brought together and amalgam- +ated, so that A NEW RACE WITH HIGHER IDEALS AND FEELINGS OF UNIVERSAL BROTH- +ERHOOD MAY BE BORN FOR THE AQUARIAN AGE. In the meantime the barriers of +nationalism have been partially broken down in Europe by the terrible con- +flict just past. This brings nearer the day of universal amity and the re- +alization of the Brotherhood of Man. + + There is also another object to be gained. Of all the terrors to which +mankind is subjected, there is none so great as DEATH, which separates us +from those we love, because we are unable to see them after they have +stepped out of their bodies. But just as surely as the day follows the +night, so will every teardrop wear away some of the scale that now blinds +the eyes of man to the unseen land of the living dead. We have said repeat- +edly and we now reaffirm that one of the greatest blessings which will come +from the war will be the spiritual sight which a great number of people will +evolve. The intense sorrow of millions of people, the longing to see again + + +[PAGE 113] OUR INVISIBLE GOVERNMENT + +the dear ones who have so suddenly and ruthlessly been torn from us, are a +force of incalculable strength and power. Likewise those who have been +snatched by death in the prime of life and who are now in the invisible +world are equally intense in their desires to reunite with those near and +dear to them, so that they may speak the word of comfort and assure them of +their well being. Thus it may be said that two great armies comprising mil- +lions upon millions are tunneling with frantic energy and intensity of pur- +pose through the wall that separates the invisible from the visible. Day by +day this wall or veil is growing thinner, and sooner or later the living and +the living dead will meet in the middle of the tunnel. Before we realize +it, communication will have been established, and we shall find it a common +experience that when our loved ones step out of their worn and sick bodies, +we shall feel neither sorrow nor loss because we shall be able to see them +in their ethereal bodies, moving among us as they used to do. So out of the +great conflict we shall come as victors over death and be able to say: "O +death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" + + +[PAGE 114] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + + CHAPTER XV + + PRACTICAL PRECEPTS FOR PRACTICAL PEOPLE + + + "IF I WERE to do business on the principles laid down in the Sermon on +the Mount I would be down and out in less than a year," said a critic re- +cently. "Why, the Bible is utterly impracticable under our present economic +conditions; it is impossible to live according to it." + + If that is true there is a good reason for the unbelief of the world, but +in a court the accused is always allowed a fair trial, and let us examine +the Bible thoroughly before we judge. What are the specific charges? "Why, +they are countless," answered the critic, "but to mention only a few, let us +take such passages as, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the +Kingdom of Heaven;' 'Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth;' +'Take no thought for the morrow, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink.' +Such ideas point the way to the poorhouse." + + "Very well," says the apologist, "let us take the last charge first. +King James' version says: 'No man can serve two masters. Ye cannot serve + + +[PAGE 115] PRACTICAL PRECEPTS FOR PRACTICAL PEOPLE + +God and mammon, therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, +what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye +shall put on. Is not the life more than food and the body than raiment? +Behold the fowls of the air: they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather +into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better +than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stat- +ure? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the +field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say +unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. +Wherefore, if God so clothe the grasses of the field, which today is and to- +morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of +little faith? Therefore take no thought saying, What shall we eat? or, What +shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? for after all these +things do the Gentiles seek; your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need +of all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righ- +teousness and all these things shall be added unto you.'" + + If this is intended to mean that we should wastefully squander all we +have in prodigal or riotous living, then it is of course not only impracti- +cal but demoralizing. Such an interpretation is, however, out of keeping +with the tenor and teaching of the whole Book, and it does not say so. The +Greek word MERIMNON means being overly careful or anxious, and if we read + + +[PAGE 116] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +the passage with this alteration we shall find that it teaches a different +lesson which is entirely practical. Mammon is the Syriac word for riches, +desired by foolish people. In the preceding paragraph Christ exhorted them +not to become servants or slaves to riches, which they must leave behind +when the silver cord is broken and the spirit returns to God, but seek +rather to live lives of love and service and lay up treasures of good deeds, +which they might take with them into the Kingdom of Heaven. In the mean- +time, He exhorted, be not overly anxious regarding what you shall eat and +drink and clothe yourself with. Why worry? You cannot add a hairbreadth to +your height or a hair to your head by worrying. Worry is the most wasteful +and depleting of all our emotions, and it does no good whatever. Your heav- +enly Father knows you need material things, therefore seek first His kingdom +and righteousness and all else needed will be added. On at least two occa- +sions when multitudes came to Christ in places far from their homes and dis- +tant from towns where refreshment was obtainable, He demonstrated this; He +gave them first the spiritual food they sought and then ministered to their +bodily needs direct from a spiritual source of supply. + + Does it work out in these modern days? Surely there have been so many +demonstrations of this that it is not at all necessary to recount any spe- +cial one. When we work and pray, pray and work, and make our lives a living + + +[PAGE 117] PRACTICAL PRECEPTS FOR PRACTICAL PEOPLE + +prayer for opportunities to serve others, then all earthly things will come +of their own accord as we need them, and they will keep coming in larger +measure according to the degree to which they are used in the service of +God. If we regard ourselves only as stewards and custodians of whatever +earthly goods we possess, then we are really "POOR IN SPIRIT" so far as the +evanescent earthly treasures are concerned, but rich in the more lasting +treasures of the Kingdom of Heaven; and if we are not out and out material- +ists, surely this is a practical attitude. + + It is not so long ago that "CAVEAT EMPTOR," "Let the buyer beware," was +the slogan of the merchants who sought after earthly treasures and regarded +the buyer as their legitimate prey. When they had sold their wares and re- +ceived the money, it did not matter to them whether the buyer was satisfied +or not. They even prided themselves on selling an inferior article which +would soon wear out, as evident in the short-sighted motto, "The weakness of +the goods is the strength of the trade." But gradually even people who +would scorn the idea of introducing religion into their business are dis- +carding this CAVEAT EMPTOR as a motto, and are unconsciously adopting the +precept of Christ, "HE THAT WOULD BE THE GREATEST AMONG YOU, LET HIM BE THE +SERVANT OF ALL." Everywhere the best business men are insistent in their +claim to patronage on the ground of the service they give to the buyer, + + +[PAGE 118] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +because it is a policy that pays, and may therefore be classed as another of +the practical precepts of the Bible. + + But it sometimes happens that in spite of their desire to serve their +customers, something goes wrong and an angry, dissatisfied customer comes +blustering in, decrying their goods. Under the old shortsighted regime of +CAVEAT EMPTOR the merchant would have merely laughed or thrown the buyer out +of the door. Not so the modern merchant, who takes his Bible into business. +He remembers the wisdom of Solomon that "a soft answer turneth away wrath," +and the assertion of Christ that "THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH," so he +apologizes for the fault in the goods, offers restitution, and sends the +erstwhile dissatisfied customer away smiling and eager to sing the praises +of the concern that treats him no nicely. Thus by obeying the practical +precepts of the Bible, keeping his temper in meekness, the business man +gains additional customers who come to him in full faith of fair treatment, +and the added profit in sales made to them soon overbalances the loss on +goods which may have caused the dissatisfaction of other customers. + + It pays dividends in dollars and cents to keep one's temper and be meek; +it pays greater dividends from the moral and spiritual standpoints. What +better business motto can be found than in Ecclesiastes: "Wisdom is better +than weapons of war. Be not rash in thy mouth, be not hasty in thy speech + + +[PAGE 119] PRACTICAL PRECEPTS FOR PRACTICAL PEOPLE + +to be angry, for anger reseth in the bosom of fools." Tact and diplomacy +are always better than force; as the Good Book says: "If the iron be blunt +we must use more strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct." The line of +least resistance, so long as it is clean and honorable, is always best. +Therefore, "LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, DO GOOD TO THEM THAT DESPITEFULLY USE YOU." +It is good practical business policy to try to reconcile those who do us +harm lest they do more; and it is better for us to get over our ill feeling +than to nurse it, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap, and +if we sow spite and meanness, we breed and beget in others the same feel- +ings. Furthermore, all these things will apply in private life and in so- +cial intercourse just as in ordinary business. How many quarrels could be +avoided if we cultivated the virtue of meekness in our homes; how much plea- +sure would be gained; how much happiness would come into our lives if in so- +cial and business relations we learned to DO UNTO OTHERS AS WE WOULD THAT +THEY SHOULD DO UNTO US! + + There is no need for the great mental strain that so many of us are work- +ing under concerning what we shall eat and what we shall drink. Our Father +in Heaven does own the earth and the fullness thereof; the cattle on a thou- +sand hills are His. If we learn truly to cast our cares upon Him, there is +no doubt that the way out of our difficulties will be provided. + + +[PAGE 120] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + It is a fact, acknowledged by all authorities who have investigated the +subject, that comparatively few people die from lack of necessities of life, +but a great many die because of overindulgence of the appetites. It is the +practical experience of the writer and numerous others that if we do our +work day by day as it appears before us, faithfully and to the best of our +ability, the wherewithal for the morrow will always be provided. If we go +according to the instruction of the Bible, doing all "as unto the Lord," it +does not matter what line of honest work we follow; we are then at the same +time seeking the Kingdom of God. But if we are only time servers, working +for fear or favor, we cannot expect to succeed in the long run; health, +wealth, and happiness may attend us for a little while, but outside the +solid foundation of the Bible there can be no lasting joy in life and no +real prosperity in business. + + +[PAGE 121] SOUND, SILENCE, AND SOUL GROWTH + + + CHAPTER XVI + + + SOUND, SILENCE, AND SOUL GROWTH + + SINCERE STUDENTS of the Science of the Soul are naturally anxious to grow +in grace that they may serve so much better in the Great Work of Human +Upliftment. Being humble and modest they are only too painfully aware of +their shortcomings, and frequently while casting about for means to fa- +cilitate progress they ask themselves, "WHAT HINDERS?" Some, particularly +in bygone ages when life was lived less intensely than now, realized that +the everyday life among ordinary humanity had many drawbacks. To overcome +these and further their soul growth they withdrew from the community to a +monastery or to the mountains where they could give themselves over to the +spiritual life undisturbed. + + We know, however, that that is not the way. It is too well established +in the minds of most of our students that if we run away from an experience +today, it will confront us again tomorrow, and that the victor's palm is +earned by overcoming the world, not by running away from it. The environ- +ment in which we have been placed by the Recording Angels was our own choice + + +[PAGE 122] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +when we were at the turning point of our life cycle in the Third Heaven, we +then being pure spirit unblinded by the matter which now veils our vision. +Hence it is undoubtedly the one that holds lessons needed by us, and we +should make a serious mistake if we tried to escape from it altogether. + + But we have received a mind for a definite purpose--to reason about +things and conditions so that we may learn to discriminate between essen- +tials and non-essentials, between that which is designed to hinder for the +purpose of teaching us a virtue by overcoming it, and that which is an out +and out hindrance, which jars our sensibilities and wrecks our nerves with- +out any compensating spiritual gain. It will be of the greatest benefit if +we can learn to differentiate for the conservation of our strength, accept- +ing only that which we must endure for the sake of our spiritual well-being. +We shall then save much energy and having much more zest in profitable di- +rections than now. The details of that problem are different in every life; +however, there are certain general principles which it will benefit us all +to understand and apply to our lives, and among them is the effect of si- +lence and sound on soul growth. + + At first blush it may surprise us when the statement is made that sound +and silence are very important factors in soul growth, but when we examine +the matter we shall soon see that it is not a far-fetched notion. Consider + + +[PAGE 123] SOUND, SILENCE, AND SOUL GROWTH + +first the graphic expression, "War is hell," and then call up in imagination +a war scene. The sight is appalling, even more so to those who see it with +the undimmed spiritual vision than to those who are limited to physical +sight, for the latter can at least shut their eyes to it if they want to, +but the whole horror lies heavily upon the heart of the Invisible Helper who +not only hears and sees but FEELS in his own being the anguish and pain of +all the surrounding suffering as Parsifal felt in his heart the wound of +Amfortas, the stricken Grail king; in fact, without that intensely intimate +feeling of oneness with the suffering there could be no healing or help +given. But there is one thing which no one can escape, the terrible noise +of the shells, the deafening roar of the cannon, the vicious spitting of the +machine guns, the groans of the wounded, and the oaths of a certain class +among the participants. We shall need no further arguement to agree that it +is really a "hellish noise" and as subversive of soul growth as possible. +The battle field is the last place anyone with a sane mind would choose for +the purpose of soul growth, though it is not to be forgotten that much of +this has been made by noble deeds of self-sacrifice there; but such results +have been achieved IN SPITE of the condition and not because of it. + + On the other hand, consider a church filled with the noble strain of a +Gregorian chant or a Handel oratorio upon which the prayers of the aspiring + + +[PAGE 124] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +soul wing their way to the Author of our Being. That music may surely be +termed "HEAVENLY" and the church designated as offering an ideal condition +for soul growth, but if we stayed there permanently to the neglect of our +duties we should be failures in spite of the ideal condition. + + There remains, therefore, only one safe method for us, namely, to stay in +the din of the battle field of the world, endeavoring to wrest from even the +most unpromising conditions the material of soul growth by unselfish ser- +vice, and at the same time TO BUILD WITHIN OUR OWN INNER SELVES A SANCTUARY +filled with that silent music which sounds ever in the serving soul as a +source of upliftment above all the vicissitudes of earthly existence. Hav- +ing that "living church" WITHIN, being in fact under that condition "LIVING +TEMPLES," we may turn at any moment when our attention is not legitimately +required by temporal affairs to that spiritual house not made with hands and +lave in its harmony. We may do that many times a day and thus restore con- +tinually the harmony that has been disturbed by the discords of terrestrial +intercourse. + + How then shall we build that temple and fill it with the heavenly music +we so much desire? What will help and what will hinder? are questions which +call for a practical solution, and we shall try to make the answer as plain +and practical as possible, for this is a very vital matter. The LITTLE +THINGS are particularly important, for the neophyte needs to take even the + + +[PAGE 125] SOUND, SILENCE, AND SOUL GROWTH + +slightest things into account. If we light a match in a strong wind it is +extinguished ere it has gained a fair start, but if the little flame is laid +on a brush heap and given a chance to grow in comparative calm, a rising +wind will fan the flame instead of extinguishing it. Adepts of Great Souls +may remain serene under conditions which would upset the ordinary aspirant, +hence he should use discrimination and not expose himself unnecessarily to +conditions subversive of soul growth; what he needs more than anything is +POISE, and nothing is more inimical to that condition than NOISE. + + It is undeniable that our communities are "Bedlams," and that we have a +legitimate right to escape some noises if possible, such as the screeching +made by street cars rounding a curve. We do not need to live on such a cor- +ner to the detriment of our nerves or endeavors at concentration, but if we +have a sick, crying child that requires our attention day and night, it does +not matter how if affects our nerves, we have no right in the sight of God +or man to run away or neglect it in order to concentrate. These things are +perfectly obvious and produce instant assent, but the things that help or +hinder most are, as said, the things that are so small that they escape our +attention entirely. When we now start to enumerate them, they may provoke a +smile of incredulity, but if they are pondered upon and practiced they will +soon win assent, for judged by the formula that "by their fruits ye shall + + +[PAGE 126] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +know them," they will show results and vindicate our assertion that "Silence +is one of the greatest helps in soul growth," and should therefore be culti- +vated by the aspirant in his home, his personal demeanor, his walk, his hab- +its, and paradoxical as it seems, even his speech. + + It is a proof of the benefit of religion that it makes people happy, but +the greatest happiness is usually too deep for outward expression. It fills +our whole being so full that it is almost awesome, and a boisterous manner +never goes together with that true happiness for it is the sign of superfi- +ciality. The loud voice, the coarse laugh, the noisy manner, the hard heels +that sound like sledge hammers, the slamming of doors, and the rattling of +dishes are the signatures of the unregenerate, for they love noise, the more +the merrier, as it stirs their desire bodies. For their purpose church mu- +sic is anathema; a blaring brass band is preferable to any other form of en- +tertainment, and the wilder the dance, the better. But it is otherwise, or +should be, with the aspirant to the higher life. + + When the infant Jesus was sought by Herod, with murderous intent, his +only safety lay in flight, and by that expedient were preserved his life and +power to grow and fulfill his mission. Similarly, when the Christ is born +within the aspirant he can best preserve this spiritual life by fleeing from +the environment of the unregenerate where these hindering things are + + +[PAGE 127] SOUND, SILENCE, AND SOUL GROWTH + +practiced, and seek a place among others of kindred ambitions provided he is +free to do so; but if placed in a position of responsibility to a family; it +is his duty to strive to alter conditions by precept and example, par- +ticularly by example, so that in time that refined, subdued atmosphere which +breathes harmony and strength may reign over the whole house. It is not es- +sential to the happiness of children that they be allowed to shout at the +top to their voices or to race pell-mell through the house, slamming doors +and wrecking furniture in their mad race; it is indeed decidedly detrimen- +tal, for it teaches them to disregard the feelings of others in +self-gratification. They will benefit more than mother by being shod with +rubber heels and taught to reserve their romps for outdoors and to play qui- +etly in the house, closing doors easily, and speaking in a moderate tone of +voice such as mother uses. + + In childhood we begin to wreck the nerves that bother us in later years, +so if we teach our children the lessons above indicated, we may save them +much trouble in life as well as further our own soul growth now. It may +take years to reform a household of these seemingly unimportant faults and +secure an atmosphere conducive to soul growth, especially if the children +have grown to adult age and resent reforms of that nature, but it is well +worth while. We can and MUST at least cultivate the virtue of silence in + + +[PAGE 128] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +ourselves, or our own soul growth will be very small. Perhaps if we look at +the matter from its occult point of view in connection with that important +vehicle, THE VITAL BODY, the point of this necessity will be more clear. + + We know that the vital body is ever storing up power in the physical body +which is to be used in this "School of Experience," and that during the day +the desire body is constantly dissipating this energy in actions which con- +stitute experience that is eventually transmuted to soul growth. So far so +good, but the desire body has the tendency to run amuck if not held in with +a tight reign. It revels in UNRESTRAINED motion, whistle, sing, jump, +dance, and do all the other unnecessary and undignified things which are so +etrimental to soul growth. While under such a spell of in harmony and dis- +cord the person is dead to the spiritual opportunities in the physical +world, and at night when he leaves his body the process of restoration of +that vehicle consumes so much time that very little, if any, time is left +for work, even if the person has the inclination to think seriously of doing +such work. + + Therefore, we ought by all means to flee from noises which we are not +obliged to hear, and cultivate personally the quiet yet kindly demeanor, the +modulated voice, the silent walk, the unobtrusive presence, and all the +other virtues which make for harmony, for then the restorative process is +quickly accomplished and we are free the major part of the night to work in + + +[PAGE 129] SOUND, SILENCE, AND SOUL GROWTH + +the invisible worlds to gain more soul growth. Let us in this attempt at +improvement remember to be undaunted by occasional failures, remembering +Paul's admonition to continue in well-doing with patient persistence. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 130] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + + CHAPTER XVII + + + THE "MYSTERIUM MAGNUM" OF THE ROSE CROSS + + + Occasionally we get letters from students voicing their regret that they +are alone in the study of the Rosicrucian Philosophy, that their husbands, +wives, children or other relatives are unsympathetic or even antagonistic to +the teachings, despite all efforts of the said student to interest favorably +these friends and thus obtain companionship in their studies, or at least +freedom from their bent. This friction causes them a certain amount of un- +happiness according to their various temperments, and we are asked by these +students to advise them how to overcome the antagonism and convert their +relatives. This we have done by personal letters and have been privileged +to help conditions in not a few homes when our advice has been followed; but +we know that frequently those who suffer most acutely are silent, and we +have therefore decided to devote a little time to a discussion of the sub- +ject. + + It is truly said, very truly, that "a little knowledge is a dangerous +thing," and this applies with the same force to the Rosicrucian teachings as + + +[PAGE 131] THE "MYSTERIUM MAGNUM" + +to any other subject. Therefore, the very first step is to find out IF YOU +HAVE ENOUGH KNOWLEDGE to be on the safe side. So let me ask the question: +What is the Rosicrucian teaching which you are so anxious to have others +share and to which they object? Is it the twin laws of "CAUSATION" and "RE- +BIRTH?" They are excellent for explaining a great many problems of life, +and they are a great comfort when the grim reaper appears and robs our home +of some one near and dear. But then you must remember that there are many +who do not feel the need of any explanation whatever. They are constitu- +tionally as unfit to apply it as a deaf mute is to use the telephone. It is +true that we work to better advantage when conscious of the law and its pur- +pose, but let us take comfort from the fact that these laws work for good to +all whether they know it or not, and therefore THIS KNOWLEDGE IS NOT ESSEN- +TIAL. They will suffer no great loss because they do not embrace this doc- +trine, and they may escape the danger incident to the possession of "a +little knowledge." + + In India where these truths are known and believed by millions, people +make little effort at material progress because they know that they have +endless time, and what they do not accomplish in this life may wait till the +next or a later life. Many Westerners who have embraced the doctrine of re- +birth have ceased to be useful members of their community by adopting a life + + +[PAGE 132] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +of indolence, thereby bringing reproach on these so-called higher teachings. +If your friends will have none of this teaching, leave them alone. Making +converts is by no means the essential point of the Rosicrucian teaching. +The Guardian of the Gate will not examine them as to knowledge, and he may +admit some who are entirely ignorant of this matter and shut the door in the +face of others who have devoted their lives to studying, lecturing on, and +teaching these laws. + + Then if the doctrines of "Causation" and "Rebirth" are unessential, what +about the COMPLEX CONSTITUTION OF MAN? Surely it is essential to know that +we are not merely this visible body, but have a vital body to charge it with +energy, a desire body to spend this force, a mind to guide our exertions in +channels of reason, and that we are virgin spirits enmeshed in a threefold +veil as egos. Is it not essential to know that the physical body is the ma- +terial counterpart of the Divine Spirit, that the vital body is a replica of +the Life Spirit, and that the desire body is the shadow of the Human Spirit, +the mind forming the link between the threefold spirit and the threefold +body? + + No, IT IS NOT ESSENTIAL TO KNOW THESE THINGS. Properly used, this knowl- +edge is an advantage, but it may also be a very decided disadvantage in the +case of those who have only "a little knowledge" in that direction. There +are many such who are always meditating on "the higher self" while entirely +forgetful of the many "lower selves" groaning in misery at their very doors. + + +[PAGE 133] THE "MYSTERIUM MAGNUM" + +There are many who dream day and night of the time when they will take their +daily SOUL FLIGHTS as "invisible helpers" and ease the sufferings of the +sick and sorrowful, yet would not spend a five cent car fare and an hour's +time to bring a poor, friendless soul in a city hospital a flower and a word +of cheer. Again I say that the Guardian of the Gate is more likely to admit +him who did what he could than him who dreamed much and did nothing to help +his suffering fellow man. + + If you could get people to study the Rosicrucian teachings about death +and the life after, you would feel it important that they should also know +about the silver cord remaining unbroken for a period approximately three +and one-half days after the spirit has left the body, and that it must be +left undisturbed while the panorama of its past life is being etched into +the desire body to serve as arbiter of its life in the invisible world. You +would like them to know all about the spirit's life in purgatory--how the +evil acts of its life react upon it as pain to create conscience and keep it +from repeating in a later life the acts that cause the suffering. You would +have them know how the good acts of life are transmuted into virtues usable +in later lives as set forth in our philosophy. + + You have no doubt been surprised at the assertion that a knowledge of the +great twin laws in unessential. Probably the next assertion that it is + + +[PAGE 134] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +immaterial whether others learn about the constitution of man as we know it +may have scandalized you; and you will undoubtedly feel shocked to have it +stated that the Rosicrucian teachings concerning death and the passing of +the spirit into the unseen worlds are also comparatively unnecessary to the +purpose we aim to accomplish. It really does not matter whether your +relatives understand or believe in these teachings. So far as your own +passing is concerned, an earnest request that they leave your body quiet and +undisturbed for the proper period will probably be carried out to the let- +ter, for people have an almost superstitious regard for such "last +requests"; and if any of your friends pass over, YOU are there with your +knowledge and can do the right thing for them. So never mind if they refuse +to take up that part of the Rosicrucian teaching. + + But the student may say, "If a knowledge of the before mentioned subjects +which seems of such practical value is immaterial to advancement, then it +follows that study of the Periods, Revolutions, World Globes, etc., is en- +tirely so. That disposes of everything taught in the 'COSMO,' and there is +nothing left of the Rosicrucian teaching which we have embraced and to which +we have pinned our faith! + + IS NOTHING LEFT? Yes, indeed, ALL IS LEFT, for those things mentioned +are only the husks which you must remove to get at THE MEAT IN THE NUT, the +kernel of it all. You have read the "COSMO" many times perhaps. Maybe you + + +[PAGE 135] THE "MYSTERIUM MAGNUM" + +have studied it and feel proud of your knowledge of the world mystery, but +HAVE YOU EVER READ THE MYSTERY HIDDEN IN EVERY LINE? That is the great and +essential teaching, the one teaching to which your friends will respond, if +you can find it and give it to them. The "COSMO" preaches on every page THE +GOSPEL OF SERVICE. + + For our sakes Deity manifested the universe. The great creative Hierar- +chies have all been and some of them still are OUR SERVANTS. The luminous +star angels, whose fiery bodies we see whirling through space, have worked +with us for ages, and in due time Christ came to bring us the spiritual im- +petus needed at that time. It is also significant in the extreme that in +the parable of the last judgment Christ does not say, "Well done, thou great +and erudite PHILOSOPHER, who knoweth the Bible, the Kabala, the "COSMO" and +all the other mysterious literature which reveals the intricate workings of +nature" but He says, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: * * * enter +thou into the joy of thy lord. * * * * For I was an hungered, and you gave +me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; * * * ." Not one single word +about knowledge; THE WHOLE EMPHASIS WAS LAID UPON FAITHFULNESS AND SERVICE. + + There is a deep occult reason for this: SERVICE BUILDS THE SOUL BODY, +the glorious wedding garment without which no man can enter into the kingdom +of the heavens, occultly termed "THE NEW GALILEE," and it does not matter + + +[PAGE 136] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +whether we are aware of what is going on, so long as we accomplish the work. +Moreover, as the luminous soul body grows in and around a person, this light +will teach him or her about the Mysteries without the need of books, and one +who is thus God taught knows more than all the books in the world contain. +In due time the inner vision will be opened and the way to the Temple shown. +If you want to teach your friends, no matter how skeptical they may be, they +will believe you if you preach the gospel of service. + + But you must PREACH BY PRACTICE. You must become a servant of men your- +self if you would have them believe in you. If you want them to follow, you +must lead, or they will have the right to question your sincerity. Remem- +ber, "ye are a city upon a hill," and when you make professions they have a +right to judge you by your fruits; therefore SAY LITTLE, SERVE MUCH. + + There are many who love to discuss the harmless, peaceful life at dinner, +oblivious of the fact that the red roast on the table and the cigar in the +mouth dull the effect. There are others who make a god of the stomach and +would rather study dietetics than the Bible; they are always ready to but- +tonhole their friends and discourse upon the latest food fad. I knew one +man who was at the head of an esoteric group. His wife was antagonistic to +occultism and the meatless diet. He forced her to cook his vegetables at + + +[PAGE 137] THE "MYSTERIUM MAGNUM" + +home, and told her that if she ever dared to bring meat into HIS kitchen or +contaminate HIS dishes with it, he would pitch her and the dishes into the +street, adding that if she must make a pig of herself she could go and get +flesh food in a restaurant. + + IS IT TO BE WONDERED AT THAT SHE JUDGED THE RELIGION BY THE MAN AND WOULD +HAVE NONE OF IT? Surely he was to blame, being "his brother's keeper," and +though this is an extreme case, it makes the lesson more obvious. It is to +the everlasting praise of Mahomet that his wife became his first disciple, +and it speaks volumes for his kindness and consideration in the home. His +is an example we should all do well to follow if we would win our friends to +the higher life, for though all religious systems differ outwardly THE KER- +NEL OF ALL IS LOVE. + + +[PAGE 138] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + + STUMBLING BLOCKS + + + Not infrequently the remark is made by people who have no sympathy with +our aspirations to live the higher life, that it unfits people for the +world's work. Unfortunately it cannot be denied that there is seeming jus- +tification for the assertion, though in reality the very first requisite for +living the higher life involves an obligation to comport oneself irreproach- +ably in dealing with material matters, for unless we are faithful in the +little things, how can we expect to be trusted with greater responsi- +bilities? It has therefore been deemed expedient to devote a lesson to the +discussion of some of the things which act as stumbling blocks in the life +of aspirants. + + In the Bible story where the king sent out his servants with invitations +to the feast he had prepared, we are told that his invitations were refused +on various grounds. Each one had material cares, buying, selling, marrying, +therefore they could not attend to the spiritual things, and such people we +may say represent the greater number of humanity today, who are too + + +[PAGE 139] STUMBLING BLOCKS + +engrossed in the cares of the world to devote even a thought to aspiration +in the higher direction. But there are others who become so enthusiastic +upon the first taste of the higher teachings that they are ready to give up +all work in the world, repudiate every obligation, and devote their time to +what they are pleased to call "helping humanity." They will readily admit +that it takes time to learn how to be a watchmaker, a shoemaker, an engi- +neer, or a musician, and they would not for a moment dream of giving up +their present material business to establish themselves as shoemaker, watch- +maker, or music teacher just because they felt enthusiastic about or in- +clined to take up such work. They would know that lacking the proper +preparation and training they would be doomed to failure, and yet they think +that just because they have become enthusiastic over the higher world's work +and devote their time to service similar, even though in a lesser degree, to +that rendered by the Christ in His ministry. + + One writes to Headquarters: "I have given up flesh eating, and I long to +live the ascetic life, far from the world's noise that jars upon me. I want +to give my life for humanity." Another says: "I want to live the spiritual +life, but I have a wife who needs my care and support. Do you think I would +be justified in leaving her to help my fellow men?" Still another says: " I +am in a business which is unspiritual; every day I must do things which are + + +[PAGE 140] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +against my higher nature, but I have a daughter dependent upon me for an +education. What shall I do: continue or give up?" There are of course many +other problems presented to us, but these serve as fair samples, for they +represent a class which is ready to give up the world at the slightest word +of encouragement, and rush off to the hills in the expectation of sprouting +wings immediately. If the people who are in that class have any ties, they +break them without a scruple or a moment's consideration. + + Another class still feels some obligation, but could be easily persuaded +to repudiate it in order that they might live what they call " the spiritual +life." It cannot be denied that when people get into this state of mind, +when they lose their ambition to work in the world, when they become shift- +less and neglectful of their duties, they merit the reproach of the commu- +nity. + + But as already said such conduct is based upon a misunderstanding of the +higher teachings and is not at all sanctioned by the Bible or the Elder +Brothers. + + It is a step in the right direction when a person ceases to feed on flesh +because he feels compassion for the suffering of the animals. There are +many people who abstain from flesh foods for health's sake, but theirs being +selfish motive, the sacrifice carries with it no merit. Where the aspirant +to the higher life is prompted to abstain from flesh food because he + + +[PAGE 141] STUMBLING BLOCKS + +realizes that the refining influence of a meatless diet upon the body will +aid him in his quest by making the body more sensitive to spiritual influ- +ences, there is no real merit either. Truly, the person who abstains from +flesh foods for the sake of health will be much benefited, and the person +who abstains to make his body more sensitive will also get his reward in +that respect, but from the spiritual point of view neither will be very much +better. On the other hand, whoever abstains from flesh food because he re- +alizes that God's life is immanent in every animal just as in himself, that +in the final analysis God feels all suffering felt by the animal, that it is +a divine law, "Thou shalt not kill," and that he must abstain out of compas- +sion, this person is not only benefited in health and by making his body +more sensitive to spiritual impacts, but because of the motive which prompts +him he reaps a reward in soul growth immeasurably more precious than any +other consideration. Therefore we would say by all means abstain from flesh +food, but be sure to do so prompted by the right spiritual motive or it will +not affect your spiritual interests one iota. + + When the enthusiast says that he wants to get away from the world and the +noise that jars upon him to live the ascetic life, it is truly a strange +idea of service. The reason why we are here in this world is that we may +gather experience, which is then transmuted into soul growth. If a diamond +in the rough were laid away in a drawer for years and years, it would be no + + +[PAGE 142] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +different than before, but when it is placed against the gridstone by the +lapidary the harsh grinding process removes the last atom of the rough coat- +ing and brings out the beautiful, luminous gem. Every one of us is a +diamond in the rough, and God, the Great Lapidary, uses the world as a +grindstone which rubs off the rough and ugly coating, allowing our spiritual +selves to shine forth and become luminous. The Christ was a living example +of this. He did not go away from the centers of civilization, but moved +constantly among the suffering and the poor, teaching, healing, and helping +until by the glorious service rendered, His body was made luminous on the +Mount of Transfiguration, and He who had trodden the Way exhorted His fol- +lowers to be "in the world but not of it." That is the great lesson that +every aspirant has to learn. + + It is one thing to go out in the mountains where there is no one to con- +tradict or to jar upon our sensibilities and keep our poise there; it is an- +other thing entirely to maintain our spiritual aspirations and keep our bal- +ance in the world where everything jars upon us; but when we stay on this +path, we gain a self-control which is unattainable in any other manner. + + However, though we are careful to prepare our food well and to abstain +from flesh eating or any other contaminating OUTWARD influence, though we +want to get away to the mountains to escape the sordid things of city life, + + +[PAGE 143] STUMBLING BLOCKS + +and we want to rid ourselves of every outward thing that may prove a +stumbling block to our progress, still what about the things that come from +WITHIN, the thoughts we have in our minds and our mental food? It will +avail us not one iota of good if we could feed our bodies upon nectar and +ambrosia, the ethereal food of the gods, when the mind is a charnel house, a +habitat of low thoughts, for then we are only as whited sepulchres, beauti- +ful to behold from without but inwardly full of a nauseating stench; and +this mental delinquency can be maintained just as easily and perhaps it is +even more apt to be maintained in the solitude of the mountains or in a +so-called spiritual retreat than in a city where we are busy with the work +of our vocation. It is indeed a true saying that "an idle brain is the +devil's workshop," and the safest way to attain to interior purity and +cleanliness is to keep the mind busy all the time, guiding our desires, +feelings, and emotions toward the practical problems of life, and working, +each one in his own immediate environment, to find the poor and the needy +that he may give them whatever help their cases require and merit. That +class which has not ties of its own may profitably make ties of love and +friendship with those who are loveless and friendless. + + Or if it is the care of a relative--wife, daughter, husband, or anyone +else that claims us, let us remember the words of Christ when He said, "Who + + +[PAGE 144] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +are my mother and my brother?" and answered the question by saying, "Those +who do the will of my Father." This saying has been misconstrued by some to +mean that Christ repudiated His physical relationships for the spiritual, +but it is only necessary to remember that in the last moments of His life on +earth He called to His mother, giving him to her as a son and charging the +disciple to care for His parent. Love is the unifying force in life, and +according to the higher teachings we are required to love our kin, but also +to extend our love natures so that they may also include everyone else. It +is good that we love our own mother and father, but we should also learn to +love other people's mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, for universal +brotherhood can never become a fact so long as our love is confined only to +the family. It must be made all inclusive. + + There was one among the disciples of Christ whom He loved especially, and +following His example we also may bestow a particular affection upon certain +ones, though we ought to love everyone and do good even to them that de- +spitefully use us. These are high ideals and difficult of accomplishment at +our present stage of development, but as the mariner steers his ship by a +guiding star and reaches his desired haven though never the star itself, so +also by setting our ideals high we shall live nobler and better lives than + + +[PAGE 145] STUMBLING BLOCKS + +if we do not aspire, and in time and through many births we shall eventually +attain, because the inherent divinity in ourselves makes it imperative. + + Finally then, to sum up, it does not really matter where we are placed in +life, whether in a high station or a low. Present environment with its op- +portunities and limitations is such as suits our individual requirements as +determined by our self-made destinies in previous existences. Therefore it +holds for us the lesson we must learn in order to progress properly. If we +have a wife, a daughter, or other family relations to hold us to that envi- +ronment, they must be considered as part of what we have to reckon with, and +by doing our duty to them we learn the required lesson. If they are an- +tagonistic to our belief, if they have no sympathy with our aspirations, if +we have on their account to stay in a business and do things which we are +not pleased with, it is because we must learn something from these things, +and the proper way for the earnest aspirant is to look conditions squarely +in the face with a view to finding out just what it is that is needed. This +may not be an easy matter. It may take weeks, months, or years to solve the +problem, but so long as the aspirant applies himself prayerfully to the +task, he may be sure that the light will shine some day, and then he will +see what is required and why these conditions were imposed upon him. Then +having learned the lesson or found out it purpose, he will if he has the +right spirit prayerfully bear the burden, for he will know that he is upon + + +[PAGE 146] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +the right road and that it is an absolute certainty that as soon as the les- +son of that environment has been learned a new way will be opened up showing +him the next step upon the path of progress. Thus the "stumbling blocks" +will have been turned into "stepping stones," which would never have hap- +pened if he had run away from them. In this connection we would quote the +beautiful poem. + + "Let us not waste our time in longing + For bright but impossible things. + Let us not sit supinely waiting + For the sprouting of angel wings. + Let us not scorn to be rush-lights, + Everyone can't be a star, + But let us fulfill our mission + By shining just where we are. + + "There is need of the tiniest candle + As well as the garish sun; + And the humblest deed is ennobled + When it is worthily done. + + We may never be called on to brighten + Those darkened regions afar, + So let us fulfill our mission + By shining just where we are." + + +[PAGE 147] THE LOCK OF UPLIFTMENT + + + CHAPTER XIX + + + THE LOCK OF UPLIFTMENT + + + HAVE YOU ever seen how ships going up a canal or river are lifted from +one level to another? It is a very interesting and instructive process. +First the ship is floated into a small enclosure where the water level is +the same as that of the lower part of the river where the ship has previ- +ously been sailing. Then the gates of the enclosure are shut and the ship +is cut off from the outside world by the high wall of the lock. It cannot +go back to the river without; even the light is dimmed around it, but ABOVE +the moving clouds or the brightest sunshine are seen beckoning. The ship +cannot rise without assistance, and the law of gravity make it impossible +for the water in that part of the river where the ship has been sailing to +float it to a higher level, hence no help may be looked for from that +source. + + There are also gates in the upper part of the lock which prevent the wa- +ters on the higher levels from rushing into the lock from above, otherwise + + +[PAGE 148] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +the inrushing water would flood the lock in a moment and crush the ship ly- +ing at the bottom level because acting in conformity with that same law of +gravitation. It is from ABOVE, nevertheless, that the power must come if +the ship is ever to be lifted to the higher level of the river, and so to do +this safely a SMALL STREAM is conducted to the bottom of the lock, which +lifts the ship VERY SLOWLY AND GRADUALLY BUT SAFELY to the level of the +river above. When that level has been reached, the upper gates may be +opened without danger to the ship, and it may sail forth upon the expansive +bosom of the higher waterway. Then the lock is SLOWLY emptied and the water +it contained added to the water at the lower level, which is thereby raised +even if but slightly. The lock is then ready to raise another vessel. + + This is, as said in the beginning, a very interesting and instructive +physical operation, showing how human skill and ingenuity overcome great ob- +stacles by the use of nature's forces. But it is a source of still greater +enlightenment in a spiritual matter of vital importance to all who aspire +and endeavor to live the higher life, for it illustrates the only safe +method whereby man can rise from the temporal to the spiritual world, and it +confutes those false teachers who for personal gain play upon the too ardent +desires of the unripe, and who profess ability to unlock the gates of the +unseen worlds for the consideration of an initiation fee. Our illustration +shows that this is impossible, because the immutable laws of nature forbid. + + +[PAGE 149] THE LOCK OF UPLIFTMENT + + For the purpose of elucidation we may call our river the river of life, +and we as individuals are the ships sailing upon t; the lower river is the +temporal world, and when we have sailed its length and breadth for many +lives, we inevitably come to the lock of upliftment which is placed at the +end. We may for a long time cruise about the entrance and look in, impelled +by an inner urge to enter but drawn by another impulse towards the broad +river of life without. For a long time this lock of upliftment with its +high, bare walls looks forbidding and solitary, while the river of life is +gay with bunting and full of kindred craft gaily cruising about; but when +the inner urge has become sufficiently intense, it imbues us with a determi- +nation not to go back to the river of worldly life. But even at that stage +there are some who falter and fear to shut the gate behind them; they aspire +to ardently at times to the life on the higher level, but it makes them feel +less alone to look back upon the river of worldly life, and sometimes they +stay in this condition for lives, wondering why they do not progress, why +they experience no spiritual downpouring, why there is no uplift in their +lives. Our illustration makes the reason very plain; no matter how hard the +captain might beg, the lock keeper would never think of releasing the stream + + +[PAGE 150] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +of water from above until the gate had been closed behind the ship, for it +could never lift the ship, for it could never lift the ship an inch under +such conditions but would flow through the open gates to waste in the lower +river. Neither will the guardians of the gates of the higher worlds open +the stream of upliftment for us, no matter how hard we pray, until we have +shut the door to the world behind us, and shut it very tight with respect to +the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, the sins that so easily beset us +and are fostered by us in the careless worldly days. We must shut the door +on them all before we are really in a condition to receive the stream of +upliftment, but once we have thus shut the door and irrevocably set our +faces forward, the downpouring begins, slowly but surely as the stream of +the lock keeper which lifts the vessel. + + But having left the temporal world with all its deed behind and having +set his face towards the spiritual worlds, the yearning of the aspirant be- +comes more intense. As time passes he feels in increasing measure the void +on both sides of himself. The temporal world and its deeds have dropped +from him as a garment; he may be bodily in that world, performing his du- +ties, but he has lost interest; he is in the world but not of it, and the +spiritual world where he aspires to citizenship seems equally distant. He +is all alone and his whole being cries and writhes in pain, longing for +light. + + +[PAGE 151] THE LOCK OF UPLIFTMENT + + Then comes the turn of the tempter: "I have a school of initiation, and +am able to advance my pupils quickly for a fee," or words to that effect, +but usually more subtle; and who shall blame the poor aspirants who fall be- +fore the wiles of these pretenders? Lucky are they if, as is generally the +case, they are merely put through a ceremonial and given an empty degree, +but occasionally they meet one who has really dabbled in magic and is able +to open the flood gates from the higher level. Then the inrush of spiritual +power shatters the system of the unfortunate dupe as the waters of the river +above would wreck a vessel at the bottom of the lock is an ignorant or mali- +cious person were to open the gates. The vessel must be lifted slowly for +safety's sake, and so must the aspirant to spiritual upliftment; patience +and unwavering persistence in well-doing are absolutely indispensable, and +the door to the pleasures of the world must be kept closed. If that is done +we shall surely and certainly accomplish the ascent to the heights of the +unseen world with all the opportunities for further soul growth there found, +for it is a natural process governed by natural laws, just as is the eleva- +tion of a ship to the higher levels of a river by a system of locks. + + But how can I stay in the lock of upliftment and serve my fellow man? If +soul growth comes only by service, how can I gain by isolation? These are +questions that may not unnaturally present themselves to students. To + + +[PAGE 152] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +answer them we must again emphasize that no one can lift another who is not +himself upon a higher level, not so far above as to be unreachable, but suf- +ficiently close to be within grasp of the reaching hand. There are, alas, +too many who profess the higher teachings but live lives on the level with +ordinary men and women of the world or even below that level. Their profes- +sions make the higher teachings a byword and call down the scorn of scoff- +ers. But those who live the higher teachings have no need to profess them +orally; they are isolated and marked in spite of themselves, and though +handicapped by the misdeeds of the "professors," they do in time win the +respect and confidence of those about them; eventually they call out in +their associates the desire of emulation, they convert them in spite of +themselves, reaping in return for this service a commensurate soul growth. + + Now is the time of the year (Christmas) when the crest wave of spiritual +power envelops the world. It culminates at the winter solstice, when the +Christ is reborn into our planet, and though hampered by the present (from +the limited viewpoint) deplorable war conditions, His life given for us may +be most easily drawn upon by the aspirant at this season to further +spiritual growth; therefore all who are desirous of attaining the higher +levels would do well to put forth special efforts in that direction during +the winter season. + + + +[PAGE 153] THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER + + + + CHAPTER XX + + + THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER + + + ON THE MORNING of Good Friday, 1857, Richard Wagner, the master artist of +the nineteenth century, sat on the verandah of a Swiss villa by the Zurich +Sea. The landscape about him was bathed in the most glorious sunshine; +peace and good will seemed to vibrate through nature. All creation was +throbbing with life; the air was laden with the fragrant perfume of budding +pine forests--a grateful balm to a troubled heart or a restless mind. + + Then suddenly, as a bolt from an azure sky, there came into Wagner's +deeply mystic soul a remembrance of the ominous significance of that +day--the darkest and most sorrowful in the Christian year. It almost over- +whelmed him with sadness, as he contemplated the contrast. There was such a +marked incongruity between the smiling scene before him, the plainly observ- +able activity of nature, struggling to renewed life after winter's long +sleep, and the death struggle of a tortured Savior upon a cross; between the +full throated chant of life and love issuing from the thousands of little + + +[PAGE 154] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +feathered choristers in forest, moor and meadow, and the ominous shouts of +hate issuing from an infuriated mob as they jeered and mocked the noblest +ideal the world has ever known; between the wonderful creative energy ex- +erted by nature in spring, and the destructive element in man, which slew +the noblest character that ever graced our earth. + + While Wagner meditated thus upon the incongruities of existence, the +question presented itself: Is there any connection between the death of the +Savior upon the cross at Easter, and the vital energy which expresses itself +so prodigally in spring when nature begins the life of a new year? + + Though Wagner did not consciously perceive and realize the full sig- +nificance of the connection between the death of the Savior and the rejuve- +nation of nature, he had, nevertheless, unwittingly stumbled upon the key to +one of the most sublime mysteries encountered by the human spirit in its +pilgrimage from clod to God. + + In the darkest night of the year, when earth sleeps most soundly in +Boreas' cold embrace, when material activities are at the very lowest ebb, a +wave of spiritual energy carries upon its crest the divine creative "Word +from Heaven" to a MYSTIC BIRTH at Christmas; and as a luminous cloud the +spiritual impulse broods over the world that "knew it not," for it "shines +in the darkness" of winter when nature is paralyzed and speechless. + + +[PAGE 155] THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER + + This divine creative "Word" has a message and a mission. It was born to +"save the world," and "to give its life for the world." It must of neces- +sity sacrifice its life in order to accomplish the rejuvenation of nature. +Gradually it BURIES ITSELF IN THE EARTH and commences to infuse its own vi- +tal energy into the millions of seeds which lie dormant in the ground. It +whispers "the word of life" into the ears of beast and bird, until the gos- +pel or good news has been preached to every creature. The sacrifice is +fully consummated by the time the sun crosses its Easter (n) node at the +spring equinox. Then the divine creative Word expires. IT DIES UPON THE +CROSS AT EASTER in a mystical sense, while uttering a last triumphant cry, +"It has been accomplished" (consummatum est). + + But as an echo returns to us many times repeated, so also the celestial +song of life is re-echoed from the earth. The whole creation takes up the +anthem. A legion-tongued chorus repeats it over and over. The little seeds +in the bosom of Mother Earth commence to germinate; they burst and sprout in +all directions, and soon a wonderful mosaic of life, a velvety green carpet +embroidered with multicolored flowers, replaces the shroud of immaculate +wintry white. From the furred and feathered tribes "the word of life" +re-echoes as a song of love, impelling them to mate. Generation and multi- +plication are the watchwords everywhere--THE SPIRIT HAS RISEN to more abun- +dant life. + + +[PAGE 156] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + Thus, mystically, we may note the annual birth, death, and resurrection +of the Savior as the ebb and flow of a spiritual impulse which culminates at +the winter solstice, Christmas, and has egress from the earth shortly after +Easter when the "word" ASCENDS TO HEAVEN" on Whitsunday. But it will not +remain there forever. We are taught that "thence it shall return," "at the +judgement." Thus when the sun descends below the equator through the sign +of the scales in October, when the fruits of the year are harvested, +weighed, and assorted according to their kind, the descent of the spirit of +the new year has its inception. This descent culminates in birth at Christ- +mas. + + Man is a miniature of nature. What happens on a large scale in the life +of a planet like our earth, takes place on a smaller scale in the course of +human events. A planet is the body of a wonderfully great and exalted Be- +ing, one of the Seven Spirits before the Throne (of the parent Sun). Man +isalso a spirit and "made in their likeness." As a planet revolves in its +cyclic path around the sun whence it emanated, so also the human spirit +roves in an orbit around its central source--God. Planetary orbits, being +ellipses, have points of closest approach to and extreme deviation from +their solar centers. Likewise the orbit of the human spirit is elliptical. +We are closest to God when our cyclic journey carries us into the celestial + + +[PAGE 157] THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER + +sphere of activity--heaven, and we are farthest removed from Him during +earth life. These changes are necessary to our soul growth. As the festi- +vals of the year mark the recurring events of importance in the life of a +Great Spirit, so our births and deaths are events of periodical recurrence. +It is as impossible for the human spirit to remain perpetually in heaven or +upon earth as it is for a planet to stand still in its orbit. The same im- +mutable law of periodicity which determines the unbroken sequence of the +seasons, the alternation of day and night, the tidal ebb and flow, governs +also the progression of the human spirit, both in heaven and upon earth. + + From realms of celestial light where we live in freedom, untrammeled by +limitations of time and space, where we vibrate in tune with infinite har- +mony of the spheres, we descend to birth in the physical world where our +spiritual sight is obscured by the mortal coil which binds us to this lim- +ited phase of our existence. We live here awhile; we die and ascend to +heaven, to be reborn and to die again. Each earth life is a chapter in a +serial life story, extremely humble in its beginnings, but increasing in in- +terest and importance as we ascend to higher and higher stations of human +responsibility. No limit is conceivable, for in essence we are divine and +must therefore have the infinite possibilities of God dormant within. When +we have learned all that this world has to teach us, a wider orbit, a larger + + +[PAGE 158] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +sphere of super-human usefulness, will give scope to our greater capa- +bilities. + + "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, + As the swift seasons roll! + Leave thy low vaulted past! + Let each new temple, nobler than the last, + Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, + Till thou at length art free, + Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea." + + Thus says Oliver Wendell Holmes, comparing the spiral progression in the +widening coil of a chambered nautilus to the expansion of consciousness +which is the result of soul growth in an evolving human being. + + "But what of Christ?" someone will ask. "Don't you believe in Him? You +are discoursing upon Easter, the feast which commemorates the cruel death +and the glorious, triumphant resurrection of the Savior, but you seem to be +alluding to Him more from an allegorical point of view than as an actual +fact." + + Certainly we believe in the Christ; we love Him with our whole heart and +soul, but we wish to emphasize the teaching that Christ is the first fruits +of the race. He said that we shall do the things He did, "and greater." +Thus we are Christs-in-the-making. + + "Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, + And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn. + The cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain, + Unless within thyself it be set up again." + + + +[PAGE 159] THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER + + Thus proclaims Angelus Silesius, with true mystic understanding of the +essentials of attainment. + + We are too much in the habit of looking to an outside Savior while har- +boring a devil within; but till Christ be formed IN US, as Paul says, we +shall seek in vain, for as it is impossible for us to perceive light and +color, though they be all about us, unless our optic nerve registers their +vibrations, and as we remain unconscious of sound when the tympanum of our +ear is insensitive, so also must we remain blind in the presence of Christ +and deaf to His voice until we arouse our dormant spiritual natures within. +But once these natures have become awakened, they will reveal the Lord of +Love as a prime reality; this on the principle that when a tuning fork is +struck, another of identical pitch will also commence to sing, while tuning +forks of different pitches will remain mute. Therefore the Christ said that +His sheep knew the SOUND of His voice and responded, but the voice of the +stranger they heard not (John 10:5). No matter what our creed, we are all +brethren of Christ, so let us rejoice, the Lord has risen! Let us seek Him +and forget our creeds and other lesser differences. + + +[PAGE 160] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + + CHAPTER XXI + + + THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER + + + ONCE MORE we have reached the final act in the cosmic drama involving the +descent of the solar Christ Ray into the matter of our earth, which is com- +pleted at the Mystic Birth celebrated at Christmas, and the Mystic Death and +Liberation, which are celebrated shortly after the vernal equinox when the +sun of the new year commences its ascent into the higher spheres of the +northern heavens, having poured out its life to save humanity and give new +life to everything upon earth. At this time of the year a new life, an aug- +mented energy, sweeps with an irresistible force through the veins and ar- +teries of all living beings, inspiring them, instilling new hope, new ambi- +tion, and new life, impelling them to new activities whereby they learn new +lessons in the school of experience. Consciously or unconsciously to the +beneficiaries, this outdwelling energy invigorates everything that has life. +Even the plant responds by an increased circulation of sap, which results in +additional growth of the leaves, flowers, and fruits whereby this class of + + +[PAGE 161] THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER + +life is at present expressing itself and evolving to a higher state of con- +sciousness. + + But wonderful though these outward physical manifestations are, and glo- +rious though the transformation may be called which changes the earth from a +waste of snow and ice into a beautiful, blooming garden, it sinks into sig- +nificance before the spiritual activities which run side by side therewith. +The salient features of the cosmic drama are identical in point of time with +the material effects of the sun in the four cardinal signs, Aries, Cancer, +Libra and Capricorn, for the most significant events occur at the +equinoctial and solstitial points. + + It is really and actually true that "IN God we live and move and have our +being." Outside Him we could have no existence; we live by and through His +life; we move and act by and through His strength; it is His power which +sustains our dwelling place, the forts the universe itself would disinte- +grate. Now we are taught that man was made in the likeness of God, and we +are given to understand that according to the law of analogy we are pos- +sessed of certain powers latent within us which are similar to those we see +so potently expressed in the labor of Deity in the universe. This gives us +a particular interest in the annual cosmic drama involving the death and +resurrection of the sun. The life of the GOD MAN, CHRIST JESUS was moulded + + +[PAGE 162] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +in conformity with the solar story, and it foreshadows in a similar manner +all that may happen to the MAN GOD of whom this Christ Jesus prophesied when +He said: The works that I do shall ye do also; and greater works shall ye +do; whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me af- +terwards. + + Nature is the symbolic expression of God. She does nothing in vain or +gratuitously, but there is a purpose behind every thing and every act. +Therefore we should be alert and regard carefully the signs in the heavens +for they have a deep and important meaning concerning our own lives. The +intelligent understanding of their purpose enables us to work so much more +efficiently with God in His wonderful efforts for the emancipation of our +pace from bondage to the laws of nature, and for its liberation into a full +measure of the stature of the sons of God--crowned with glory, honor, and +immortality, and free from the power of sin, sickness, and suffering which +now curtail our lives by reason of our ignorance and nonconformity to the +laws of God. The divine purpose demands this emancipation, but whether it +is to be accomplished by the long tedious process of evolution or by the im- +mensely quicker pathway of Initiation depends upon whether or not we are +willing to lend our cooperation. The majority of mankind go through life +with unseeing eyes and with ears that do not hear. They are engrossed in +their material affairs, buying and selling, working and playing, without an + + +[PAGE 163] THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER + +adequate understanding or appreciation of the purpose of existence, and were +it unfolded to them it is scarcely to be expected that they would conform +and co-operate because of the sacrifice it involves. + + It is no wonder that the Christ appeals particularly to the poor and that +He emphasizes the difficulty of the rich entering the kingdom of heaven, for +even to this day when humanity has advanced in the school of evolution for +two millenia since His day, we find that the great majority still value +their houses and lands, their pretty hats and gowns, the pleasures of soci- +ety, dances, and dinners more than the treasurers of heaven which are gar- +nered by service and self-sacrifice. Although they may intellectually per- +ceive the beauty of the spiritual life, its desirability fades into +insignificance in their eyes when compared with the sacrifice involved in +attaining. Like the rich young man they would willingly follow Christ were +there no such sacrifice involved. They prefer rather to go away when they +realize that sacrifice is the one condition upon which they may enter dis- +cipleship. So for them Easter is simply a season of joy because it is the +end of winter and the beginning of the summer season with its call of out- +door sports and pleasures. + + But for those who have definitely chosen the path of self-sacrifice that +leads to Liberation, Easter is the annual sign given them as evidence of the +cosmic basis of their hopes and aspirations. As Paul properly states in + + +[PAGE 164] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +that glorious fifteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians, "If Christ be not risen, +then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. + + "Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified +of God that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up if so be that the +dead rise not. + + "For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. + + "And if Christ be not raised your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. + + "If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what +advantageth it me if the dead rise not? + + "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of +them that slept." + + But in the Easter sun which at the vernal equinox commences to soar into +the northern heavens after having laid down its life for the earth, we have +the cosmic symbol of the verity of resurrection. When taken as a cosmic +fact in connection with the law of analogy that connects the macrocosm with +the microcosm, it is an earnest that some day we shall all attain the cosmic +consciousness and know positively for ourselves by our own experience that +there is no death, but that what seems so is only a transition into a finer +sphere. + + +[PAGE 165] THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER + + It is an annual symbol to strengthen our souls in the work of well-doing +that we may grow the golden wedding garment required to make us sons of God +in the highest and holiest sense. It is literally true that unless we walk +in the light as God is in the light, we are not in fellowship; but by making +the sacrifices and rendering the services required of us to aid in the eman- +cipation of our race we are building the soul body of radiant golden light +which is the special substance emanated from and by the Spirit of the Sun, +the Cosmic Christ. When this golden substance has clothed us with suffi- +cient density, then we shall be able to imitate the Easter sun and soar into +the higher spheres. + + With these ideals firmly fixed in our minds, Easter time becomes a season +when it is in order to review our life during the preceding year and make +new resolutions for the coming season to serve in furthering our soul +growth. It is a season when the symbol of the ascending sun should lead us +up to a keen realization of the fact that we are but pilgrims and strangers +upon earth, that our real home as spirits is in heaven, and that we ought to +endeavor to learn the lessons in this life school as quickly as is consis- +tent with proper service, so that as Easter Day marks the resurrection and +liberation of the Christ Spirit from the lower realms, so we also may con- +tinually look for the dawn of that day which shall permanently free us from +the meshes of matter, from the body of sin and death, together with our + + +[PAGE 166] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +brethren in bondage, for no true aspirant would conceive of a liberation +that did not include all who were similarly placed. + + This is a gigantic task; the contemplation of it may well daunt the brav- +est heart, and were we alone it could not be accomplished; but the divine +hierarchies who have guided humanity upon the path of evolution from the be- +ginning of our career are still active and working with us from their side- +real worlds, and with their help we shall eventually be able to accomplish +this elevation of humanity as a whole and attain to an individual realiza- +tion of glory, honor, and immortality. Having this great hope within our- +selves, this great mission in the world, let us work as never before to make +ourselves better men and women, so that by our example we may waken in oth- +ers a desire to lead a life that brings liberation. + + +[PAGE 167] THE NEWBORN CHRIST + + + CHAPTER XXII + + + THE NEWBORN CHRIST + + + IT HAS OFTEN been said in our literature that the sacrifice of Christ +wass not an event which, taking place on Golgotha, was accomplished in a few +hours once and for all time, but that the mystic births and deaths of the +Redeemer are continual cosmic occurrences. We may therefore conclude that +this sacrifice is necessary for our physical and spiritual evolution during +the present phase of our development. As the annual birth of the Christ +Child approaches, it presents a never old, ever new theme for meditation, +from which we may profit by pondering it with a prayer that it may create in +our hearts a new light to guide us upon the path of regeneration. + + The inspired apostle gave us a wonderful definition of Deity when he said +that "God is Light," and therefore "light" has been used to illustrate the +nature of the Divine in the Rosicrucian teachings, especially the mystery of +the Trinity in Unity. It is clearly taught in the Holy Scriptures of all +times that God is one and indivisible. At the same time we find that as the + + +[PAGE 168] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +one white light is refracted into three primary colors, red, yellow, and +blue, so God appears in threefold role during manifestation by the exercise +of the three divine functions of CREATION, PRESERVATION, AND DISSOLUTION. + + When He exercises the attribute of CREATION, God appears as Jehovah, the +HOLY SPIRIT; He is the Lord of law and generation and projects the solar +fertilizing principle INDIRECTLY through the lunar satellites of all planets +where it is necessary to furnish bodies for their evolving beings. + + When He exercises the attribute of PRESERVATION for the purpose of sus- +taining the bodies generated by Jehovah under the laws of nature, God ap- +pears as the Redeemer, CHRIST, and radiates the principles of love and re- +generation DIRECTLY into any planet where the creatures of Jehovah require +this help to extricate themselves from the meshes of mortality and egotism +in order to attain to altruism and endless life. + + When God exercises the divine attribute of DISSOLUTION, He appears as THE +FATHER who calls us back to our heavenly home to assimilate the fruits of +experience and soul growth garnered by us during the day of manifestation. +This Universal Solvent, the ray of the Father, emanates from the Invisible +Spiritual Sun. + + These divine processes of creation and birth, preservation and life, and +dissolution, death and return to the Author of our being we see everywhere + + +[PAGE 169] THE NEWBORN CHRIST + +about us, and we recognize the fact that they are activities of the Triune +God in manifestation. But have we ever realized that in the spiritual world +there are no definite events, no static conditions; that the beginning and +the end of all adventures of all ages are present in the eternal "here" and +"now"? From the bosom of the Father there is an everlasting outdwelling of +the essence of things and events, which enters the realms of "time" and +"space." There it gradually crystallizes and becomes inert, necessitating +dissolution that there may be room for other things and other events. + + There is no escape from this cosmic law; it applies to everything in the +realm of time and space, the Christ ray included. As the lake which empties +itself into the ocean is replenished when the water that left it has been +evaporated and returns to it as rain, to flow again ceaselessly toward the +sea, so the Spirit of Love is eternally born of the Father, day by day, hour +by hour, endlessly flowing into the solar universe to redeem us in its death +grip. Wave upon wave is thus impelled outward from the sun to all the plan- +ets, giving a rhythmic urge to the evolving creatures there. + + And so it is in the very truest and most literal sense A NEWBORN CHRIST +that we hail at each approaching Yule-feast, and Christmas is the most vital +annual event for all humanity whether we realize it or not. It is not +merely a commemoration of the birth of our beloved Elder Brother, Jesus, but + + +[PAGE 170] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +the advent of the rejuvenating love of life of our Heavenly Father, sent by +Him to redeem the world from the wintry death grip. Without this new infu- +sion of divine life and energy we should soon perish physically, and our +orderly progress would be frustrated so far as our present lines of develop- +ment are concerned. This is a point we should endeavor to realize thor- +oughly in order that we may learn to appreciate Christmas as keenly as we +should. + + We may learn a lesson in this respect as in many others from our children +or from reminiscences of our own childhood. How keen were our anticipations +of the approaching feast! How eagerly we waited for the hour when we should +receive the gifts which we knew would be forthcoming from Santa Claus, the +mysterious universal benefactor who brought the toys for the coming year! +How would we have felt had our parents given us the dismembered dolls and +broken drums of yesteryear? It would surely have been felt as an overwhelm- +ing misfortune and would have left a deep sense of broken trust which even +time would have found it difficult to heal; yet it would have been as noth- +ing compared with the cosmic calamity that would befall mankind if our Heav- +enly Father should fail to provide the newborn Christ for our cosmic Christ- +mas gift. + + The Christ of last year cannot save us from physical famine any more than +last year's rain can drench the soil again and swell the millions of seeds + + +[PAGE 171] THE NEWBORN CHRIST + +that slumber in the earth awaiting the germinal activities of the Father's +life to begin their growth; the Christ of last year cannot kindle anew in +our hearts the spiritual aspirations which urge us onward in the Quest any +more than last summer's heat can warm us now. The Christ of last year gave +us His love and His life to the last breath without stint or measure; when +He was born into the earth last Christmas, He endued with life the sleeping +seeds which have grown and gratefully filled our granaries with the bread of +physical life; He lavished the love given Him by the Father upon us, and +when He had wholly spent His life, He died at Eastertide to rise again to +the Father, as the river by evaporation rises to the sky. + + But endlessly wells the divine love; as a father pities his children, so +does our Heavenly Father pity us, for He knows our physical and spiritual +frailty and dependence. Therefore we are now confidently awaiting the mys- +tic birth of the Christ of another year, laden with new life and love sent +by the Father to preserve us from the physical and spiritual famine which +would ensue were it not for this annual love offering. + + Younger souls usually find it difficult to disabuse their minds of the +personality of God, of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, and some can only +love Jesus, the man. They forget Christ, the Great Spirit, who ushered in a +new era in which the nations established under the regime of Jehovah will be +broken to pieces that the sublime structure of Universal Brotherhood may be + + +[PAGE 172] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +built upon their ruins. In time all the world will realize that "God is +spirit, to be worshiped in spirit and truth." It is well to love Jesus and +to imitate him; we know of no nobler ideal and none more worthy. Could a +cobler one have been found, Jesus would not have been chosen as a vehicle of +that Great One, the Christ, in whom dwelt the Godhead. We shall therefore +do well to follow "in His steps." + + At the same time we shall exalt God in our own consciousness by taking +the word of the Bible that He is spirit, and that we cannot make any like- +nesses which will portray Him for He is like nothing in heaven or on earth. +We can see the physical vehicles of Jehovah circling as satellites around +the various planets; we can also see the sun, which is the visible vehicle +of the Father and the source of all, appears to the greatest of human seers +only as a higher octave of the photosphere of the sun, a ring of violet-blue +luminosity behind the sun. But we do not need to see; we can feel His love, +and that feeling is never so great as at Christmas time when He is giving us +the greatest of all gifts, the Christ of the new year. + + +[PAGE 173] WHY I AM A ROSICRUCIAN + + CHAPTER XXIII + + Why I Am A Rosicrucian + + Not infrequently we find that some one takes the platform to explain why +he is a Baptist, Methodist, or Christian Scientist, and what his particular +faith may be. We have often been asked by our students for something which +would help make plain to their associates why they had embraced the teach- +ings of the Elder Brothers given through the Rosicrucian Fellowship, in +preference to the faith which they had left. We will, therefore, endeavor +to give a succinct resume of reasons which appeal to us as sufficient, but +students will doubtless find many other reasons equally good or better, +which they may add verbally to what is here said. + + It should be made clear in the very beginning that students in the +Rosicrucian Fellowship do not call themselves Rosicrucians. That title ap- +plies alone to the Elder Brothers, who are the hierophants of the Western +Wisdom Teaching. They are as far beyond the greatest living saint in the +spiritual development as that saint is above the lowest fetish worshiper. + + +[PAGE 174] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + When the bark of our life sails lightly upon smooth summer seas, wafted +along by the fair winds of health and prosperity, when friends are present +on every hand, eager to help us plan pleasures which will increase our en- +joyment of this world's goods, when social favors or political powers come +to us to gratify our every wish in whatever sphere our inclinations seek ex- +pression, then, indeed, we may say and seem justified in saying with our +whole heart and soul: "This world is good enough for me." But when we come +to the end of the smiling sea of success; when the whirlwind of adversity +has blown us upon the rocky shores of disaster, and a wave of suffering +threatens to engulf us; when friends have failed and every human help is as +far off as it is unavailing, then we must look for guidance to the skies as +does the mariner when he steers his ship over the waste of waters. + + But when the skipper scans the sky in search of a star whereby to steer +the ship safely, he finds that the whole heavens are in motion. Therefore +to follow almost any one of the myriad of wandering stars visible to the eye +would be disastrous. To meet the requirements the guiding star must be per- +fectly steadfast and immovable, and there is only one such, namely, the +North Star. By its guiding light the mariner may steer in full confidence +and bring his ship to a haven of rest and safety. Likewise one who is look- +ing for a guide which he may trust in days of sorrow and trouble should + + +[PAGE 175] WHY I AM A ROSICRUCIAN + +embrace a religion founded on eternal laws and immutable principles, able to +explain the mystery of life in a logical manner so that his intellect may be +satisfied, and at the same time containing a system of devotion that may +satisfy the heart, so that these twin factors in life may receive equal sat- +isfaction. Only when man has a clear intellectual conception of the scheme +of human development is he in a position to range himself in line therewith. +When it is made clear to him that this scheme is beneficient and benevolent +in the very highest degree, that all is truly ruled by divine love, then +this understanding will sooner or later call out in him a true devotion and +heartfelt acquiescence which will awaken in him a desire to become a +co-worker with God is the world's work. When seeking souls come to the door +of the church to seek surcease from sorrow, they cannot be satisfied with +the platitudes that it is the will of God that sorrow and suffering have +come to them, that in His divine providence He has seen fit to scourge them, +and that they must take it as an indication that He regards them as His be- +loved children and be satisfied no matter what happens. They cannot see +that Deity does justice when He makes some rich and many poor, a few healthy +and many sickly; and it is only too often in evidence that iniquity is pros- +perous while rectitude is in rags. + + +[PAGE 176] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + The Rosicrucian Teaching gives clear and logical information concerning +the world and man; it invites questions instead of discouraging them, so +that the seeker after spiritual truth may receive full satisfaction intel- +lectually; and its explanations are as strictly scientific as they are rev- +erently religions. It refers us for information regarding life's problems +to laws that are unchangeable and immutable in their realm of action as the +North Star is in the heavens. + + Though the world whirls upon its axis at the rate of one thousand miles +an hour, we stand safely anywhere upon its surface because the principle of +gravity prevents us from being hurled into space by the terrific speed. We +know that the law of gravity is eternal; it will not act today and suspend +action tomorrow. When we enter a hydraulic elevator we rest safely upon a +column of water because that fluid is more incompressible that most solids, +and this property is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Were its ac- +tion suspended for even a few moments, thousands of people would fall to +their death; but it is steadfast and sure, therefore we trust in implicitly. + + The law of cause and effect is also immutable; if we throw a stone into +the air, the act is not complete until by gravitation it has returned to +earth. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," is the way this +law is expressed in the realm of morals. "The mills of God grind slowly, +but they grind exceedingly small," and once an act has been done, the reac- +tion will come some time, some where, as surely as the stone that was thrown + + +[PAGE 177] WHY I AM A ROSICRUCIAN + +into the air will return to the earth. + + But it is manifest that all of the causes that we set going in life do +not ripen in the present existence, and it therefore follows that they must +find their fruition somewhere else at some other time, or the law would be +invalidated, a proposition that would be as absolutely impossible as that +the law of gravitation could be suspended, for either would make chaos out +of cosmos. The Rosicrucian Teachings explain this by a statement that man +is a spirit attending the School of Life for the purpose of unfolding latent +spiritual power, and that for this purpose he lives many lives in earthly +bodies of increasingly finer texture, which enable him to express himself +better and better. In the lower grades of this school of evolution man has +few faculties. Each life-day he comes to school in the morning of child- +hood, and is given lessons to learn, and at night when old and gray the +nurse maid of nature, "Death," puts him to sleep that he may rest from his +labors until the dawn of another life-day, when he is given a new child body +and new lessons. Each day "Experience," the teacher of the school helps him +to learn some of the lessons of life, and gradually he becomes more and more +proficient. Some day he will have learned the entire curriculum of the +school, which includes building of bodies as well as using them. + + Thus when we see one who has few faculties, we know that he is a young + + +[PAGE 178] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +soul who has gone to life's school only a few days; and when we find a beau- +tiful character, we recognize an old soul who has spent much time in master- +ing its lessons. Therefore we do not despair of God's love when we see the +inequalities of life, for we know that in time all will be perfect as our +Father in Heaven is perfect. + + The Rosicrucian teachings also take the sting of sorrow out of the great- +est of all trials, the loss of loved ones, even if they have been what is +called wayward or black sheep; for we know that it is an actual fact that IN +GOD WE LIFE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING; hence, if one single soul were +lost, a part of God would be lost, and such a proposition is absolutely im- +possible. Under the immutable law of cause and effect we are bound to meet +these loved ones some time in the future under other circumstances, and +there the love that binds us together must continue until it has found its +fullest expression. The laws of nature would be violated if a stone thrown +from the earth were to remain suspended in the atmosphere, and under the +same immutable laws those who pass into the higher spheres must return. +Christ said, "Ye must be born again," and "If I go to my Father, I will re- +turn." + + But although our reason may reach into the mysteries of life, there is +still a higher stage, actual firsthand knowledge. As a matter of fact the +foregoing propositions are capable of verification by each one, for we all +have a sixth sense latent in our being, which will sometime enable us to +view the spiritual world with the same distinctness as that with which we + + +[PAGE 179] WHY I AM A ROSICRUCIAN + +see the temporal. This sixth sense will be developed by all in the course +of evolution, and there are certain means whereby it may be developed now by +all who care to take the necessary time and trouble to do so. Some have +done this, and they have told us of their travels in the land of the soul. +We believe their testimony concerning that place just as we believe what +people who have traveled in Africa or Australia tell us of those countries. +And just as we say that we know the earth rotates upon its axis and revolves +in its orbit around the sun because we have been thus informed by scientists +who have made the investigations and calculations that establish these +facts, so also we say that we know the dead live, and that whether dead or +alive, in the body or out of it, we are all enfolded in the love of our Fa- +ther in Heaven, without whose Will not the smallest sparrow falls to the +ground, and that He cares for all and orders our steps in harmony with His +plans to develop our spiritual powers to the highest possible degree. + + So because of the logical, soul-satisfying philosophy of life given by +the Rosicrucians, we follow their teachings in preference to other systems, +and invite others who wish to share the blessings thereof to investigate. + + +[PAGE 180] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + CHAPTER XXIV + + THE OBJECT OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + + The object of the Rosicrucian Fellowship has been clearly stated in our +literature, as have the means whereby it is hoped to attain the end in view, +but in response to requests for a succinct summary we devote this chapter to +that subject. + + The world is God's training school. During the past we have learned to +build different vehicles, among other the physical body. By this work we +are promoted from class to class, each with its particular scope of con- +sciousness. We evolved eyes that we might see, ears that we might hear, and +other organs that we might taste, smell, and feel. But not all egos were +promoted at every step. When the mist in the air at the time of Atlantis +condensed and filled the basins of the earth with oceans of water, driving +men to the highlands, many perished by asphyxiation because they had not +evolved lungs. They could not pass through the portal of the rainbow, which +was, so to speak, the entrance gate to the new age with its dry atmospheric +conditions. + + +[PAGE 181] THE OBJECT OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + + Another great world transformation is coming, we know not when; even the +Christ confessed His ignorance of the day and the hour; but He warned us +that the day would come as a thief in the night, and He prophesied that the +conditions in the world would then be similar to those prevailing in the +days of Noah; they were living then in carefree enjoyment of life when sud- +denly the floodgates of heaven were opened, and death and destruction spread +before them. + + Christ told us that it is possible to take the kingdom of God by storm +and attain to the consciousness and conditions there prevailing. But Paul +informs us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; he states +that we have a soul body (SOME PSUCHICON-1 Cor. 15: 44), and that we shall +meet the Lord in the air when He comes. This soul body is therefore as nec- +essary to entrance into the new age of the kingdom of God, as a body +equipped with lungs was to the Atlanteans who desired to enter into the age +in which we are now living. Therefore it is necessary that we make our +calling and election sure by preparing the GOLDEN WEDDING GARMENT, the soul +body, which alone can secure our admission to the mystic marriage. + + The multitude is slowly moving in the right direction as led by the dif- +ferent churches, but there is an ever growing class that, so to speak, feels +the wings of the soul body sproating, people who feel an inner urge to take +the kingdom of God by storm. Though unaware of any definite ideal, they +sense a greater truth and more certain light than those which the Church + + +[PAGE 182] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +radiates; they are tired of parables and long to learn the underlying facts +at the very feet of Christ. + + The Rosicrucian Fellowship was started for the purpose of reaching this +class, to show them the way to illumination, to help them build their soul +body and evolve the soul powers which will enable them to enter consciously +into the kingdom of God and obtain first-hand knowledge. + + This is a large undertaking, none greater and even under the most favor- +able existing conditions progress must be slow, but if the aspirant will +continue with patient perseverance in well doing, it can be done. + + The methods are definite, scientific, and religious; they have been +originated by the Western School of the Rosicrucian Order, and are therefore +specially suited to western people. Sometimes, but very rarely, they bring +results in a short time; generally it requires years and even lives before +the aspirant attains, but the following system will in the end bring all to +their heart's desire. + + The Tabernacle in the Wilderness was a symbolic representation of the way +to God, and, as Paul says, held a shadow of better things to come. Every- +thing in it had its spiritual meaning. The table of shewbread gives us an +important lesson germane to our present consideration. Students will remem- +ber that the ancient Israelites were commanded to bring the shewbread to the + + +[PAGE 183] THE OBJECT OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + +tabernacle at stated intervals. The grain from which this was made was +given them by God but they must prepare the soil in which it was to grow, +they must plant and cultivate, they must weed and water, so as to secure the +greatest possible increase; they must harvest and thresh, grind and bake, +ere they had the loaves which they brought to the tabernacle as bread to +shew for their toil. Similarly, God gives to all the grain of opportunity +to serve, but it is our duty to cultivate these opportunities and nurse and +nourish them in the soil of loving kindness so that they may bring a great +increase. We must always bear in mind the words of Christ that He came to +minister and to serve. Therefore anyone aspiring to follow in His steps and +to be great in the kingdom of god must ever be on the lookout for opportuni- +ties to serve his fellows. Each day must be filled as full as possible with +kind and considerate deeds, for they are the warp and woof of which the +golden wedding garment is woven. Without these "works" no amount of prayer, +fasting, or other religious exercise will avail. It is useless to repair to +the temple without this bread to shew that we have really worked in the +Master's service. + + The foregoing is also the teaching of the exoteric churches; but the fol- +lowing is the exclusively Rosicrucian scientific teaching and method, based +upon the deepest knowledge of spiritual facts whereby the aspirant is en- +abled to gain the maximum soul growth in each life, so that his spiritual + + +[PAGE 184] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +advancement is accelerated beyond his very wildest dreams. Therefore this +is the most important spiritual teaching that has been given to man in mod- +ern times, and no one who tries honestly to follow this simple method can +fail to be enormously benefited: + + Ether is the medium of transmission light, that which etches a picture on +the photographic film. It permeates the air, and with every breath we draw +from birth to death ether enters our system and etches a picture of our sur- +roundings and actions on a little atom in the heart. Thus each carries with +him a complete record of his life, which is assimilated after death. Ex- +piation of the evil deeds causes paid and anguish in purgatory. These are +thus transmuted to conscience to prevent repetition of the same mistakes in +succeeding lives: the good deeds are transmuted to love and benevolence. +Instead of waiting for this post-mortem transmutation of the shrewbread of +life, the aspirant who desires to take heaven by storm may assimilate the +fruits of each day after retiring and before going to sleep by running over +the deeds done. The events of the day are considered in reverse order so +that that which happened in the evening is taken first, then the happenings +of the afternoon, forenoon, and morning. This is important for it conforms +to the way the life panorama acts after death, taking first the events just +prior to death, last the events of infancy. The object is to show the + + +[PAGE 185] THE OBJECT OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + +effects and then refer them to their antecedent causes. + + In this retrospection it will do the aspirant no good to run over the +events of the day and mildly blame himself where he did wrong-he is usually +sure enough to praise himself sufficiently for his good deeds. But he must +remember the altar of burnt offerings where the sacrifices for sin were of- +fered. They were first rubbed with salt and then placed on the altar to be +consumed by a divinely enkindled fire. Anyone knows what an intense pain is +caused when salt is rubbed into a wound, and this rubbing with salt is sym- +bolic of the pain the aspirant must feel for his wrongdoing. Now mark that +it was not permissible to place the sacrifice on the altar until it had thus +rubbed with salt. God would not accept it before, but WHEN IT HAD BEEN +SALTED IT WAS CONSUMED BY A FIRE KINDLED BY GOD HIMSELF. + + This tells us that unless we have washed our evil deeds of the day in the +salt of our tears and heartfelt contrition, God will not accept our sacri- +fice of repentance; but when we have really repented, our sins will be +washed away and our recording atom will be clean as the driven snow. With +respect to our good deeds we may remember that there were two little piles +of frankincense of the top of the shew bread. These were offered upon the +altar of incense, where the smoke ascended as a sweet savor to the Lord, so +different from the nauseating stench that went up from the altar where the + + +[PAGE 186] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +sin offerings were burned. Is it any wonder that God took no delight in the +sacrifice of bulls and calves, but delighted in a contrite heart and repen- +tant spirit? + + It is this spiritual aromatic extract of our good deeds that builds our +soul body. By the ordinary natural process it takes about one-third as many +years in our post-mortem existence as we lived in the body, to reap what we +have sowed. But when an aspirant has assimilated the fruits of life by +faithful retrospection at the end of each day, he is free as soon as he +leaves the body and may use the years spent by others in purgatory and the +first heaven as he pleases. Furthermore, as he needs neither food, shelter, +nor sleep, he may spend twenty-four hours a day doing good. Thus he has +practically as many years of service and soul growth after death as the num- +ber of his earth life; and being trained and schooled in this work his at- +tainments are probably greater than could be made in a number of lives in +the ordinary way. + + To aid deserving aspirants, still deeper and more definite teachings are +given by the Elder Brothers through the Rosicrucian Fellowship. Students +who feel the inner urge may ask for information concerning these teachings. + + +[PAGE 187] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + INDEX + +Abel, man of Lemuria, 23. +Action, desirability of, 16. +Action, good, required for soul body, 183. +A. D. M., red earth, 78. +Adam, a Polarian, 22. +Airships of Atlantis, 71. +Albumen not needed by spiritual, 24. +Alcohol, action, 83. +Altar of sacrifice, 96. +America, the melting pot, 112. +Angels, humanity of Moon Period 50. + lived in etheric world 50. + trusted guardians, 26 + wisely guided man 32. +Anglo-Saxons, pioneers of race, 75. +Animals ruled by group spirits 108. +Aquarian Age, science to rule in 82. + seven hundred years until 81 + teacher of 76. +Arche-Tektons, Initiates are 103. +Ark, airship of Atlantis, 71. +Aryan Age, invaders of 80. +Aryana, national segregation of 70. +Assimilation of life experiences 184. +Asteroids, remnants of Moons 60. +Astrology, value of in marriage 53. +Atlantis, destruction of 180. +Atlantean epoch, the nadir of materiality 9. +Atlanteans aspired to light 95 + divinely guided 69. +Atlantis, airships of 71. + atmosphere of 69. + man becomes man in 25. + peaceful conditions of 86. +Atmosphere, changes of 180. +Attainment, method of 171. + +Baptism, soul's urge for higher life 55. +Bible, only solid foundation 120; two parts of 126. + + +[PAGE 188] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +Black Brothers, increase evil 106. +Black magic, frequent practice of 101. + golden wedding garment protects against 106. + practices of 103. +Blood hound, follows invisible emanation 104. +Born of water and spirit 80. +Brain gained at sacrifice of creative force 32. +Breathing exercises, danger of 9. + use of 10. +Brotherhood, all members of 44. +"Brother of the Third Degree"--NOT Initiation 12. + +Cain, a Hyperborean 23. +Candles, tallow, attract elementals 106. +Causation 177. +Children, training of 127. +Chosen people 95. +Christ, annual coming of 171. + bodily presence of the Father 98. + forgiveness of 57. + Inhabits central sun 58. + man a Christ-in-the-making 158. + mission of 47, 87. + power of 158, 159. + preservation, principle of 168. + sacrifice of 98. +Christ, SEE ALSO Earth Spirit. +Church, doctrines of, keystones of evolution 38. +Civilization, evolution of 111. +Communication with dead 113. +Communion, points to age to come 55. + worthy celebration of 31. +Conscience gained in purgatory 184. +Consciousness result of ware between vital and desire bodies 49. +Conservation of strength 122. +Contentment lengthens life 41. +Contrition, importance of 185. +Conversion and Initiation 12. + inner experience 13. +Converts, making of 132. +Courage 91. +Creations, principle of Jehovah 168. +Creative hierarchies guide man 22. +Crystalloids aid in evolving vital body 88. + + +[PAGE 189] INDEX + +Dead, communication with 113. +Death, care of body after 134. + conquest of 56. + price of consciousness 50. +Dense body, care of after death 134. + crystallized state of 47 + raising vibrations of 10. + restoration of in sleep 128. + spiritualization of 74. + under laws of nature 57. +Desire body, control of 128. + destroys dense body 49. + evolution of, in Lemuria 23 + reaction of man's acts 25. +Dietetics, albumen not needed by spiritual 24. + legumes not to be rashly eliminated 24. +Diplomacy and force 119. +Dissolution the Father's power 168. +Divine hierarchies work upon man 22. +Divine leaders abolish religious errors 46. +Divine spirit and physical body 132. + +Earth conditions cramp humanity 99. + crystallization of due to man 32. +Earth Spirit body and blood 31. +Earth Spirit, SEE ALSO Christ. +Earthly goods, use of 177. +Easter, Christ's liberation 160. + vital, force of 161. +Effort brings opportunities 15. +Ego chooses work of life 64. +Egotism, protection from 19. +Elder Brothers hierophants of western wisdom teaching 173; + high status of 173. + injunction to Max Heindel 11, 20. + not mercenary 20. + transmute evil 105. +Elementals inhaled with incense 106. +Emancipation, God's purpose 162. +Environment chosen by ego 64, 122. + power of 74. +Epochs, changes of 77. + + +[PAGE 190] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + + +Ether etches pictures on seed atom 184. + medium of transmission of light 184. + new element 71. +Evolution 177; Evolution of man 35. + spiral path of 14; slow, tedious process 16. +Exercises: Breathing practices 9, 10. +Experience, a grindstone 63. +Extreme unction 56. + +Faculties, evolution of 177. +Fall, unchastity 62. +Family, duty to 127. +Father, The, dissolution principle of 168. + highest Initiate of Saturn period 58. + inhabits spiritual sun 58. +Finger nails used in Black Magic 103. +Flesh, difficult to digest, 90. + material progress result of 23, 86, 92. + necessitated by materialism 23. + sins of 90. +Flood, sun in Cancer 78. +Food, significance of 22. +Forgiveness of Christ 57. +Free Will 22. + of Initiate in choice of environment 64. + in Atlantis 25. + +Galilee, melting pot 74. +Gill clefts replaced by lungs 24. +Gills of early Atlantis 70. +Blass of water in Black Magic 104. +God, immanence of 161. +Golden wedding garment 165, 185. SEE ALSO Soul Body. +Good Friday 153. +Gospels formulae of Initiation 64. +Grace and forgiveness of sin 34. +Grail, SEE holy Grail. +Group Spirit 108. + +Hair used in Black Magic 103. +Healing, Rosicrucian method of 103. +Heaven, Third, turning point of life cycle 122. +Help, practical 133. +Hierarchies, service of 145. + still active 166. + + +[PAGE 191] INDEX + +Hindu breathing exercises 73, +Holy Grail, many orders constitute 105. + two forces of 105. +Holy Spirit SEE Jehovah. +Human spirit and desire body 132. +Humanity, salvation of 160. + slowly progressing 14. +Hyperborea, generation in 49. +Hyperborean epoch, man plantlike in 22. + vital body gained in 22. +Hypnotism, danger of 107. + +I am 25, 85, 87. +I as pronoun 83. +Inactivity causes straggling 16. +Incense, Black Forces use 106. +Inequalities, harmonizing of 178. +Initiates, arche-tektons 103. + bodies of, immaculately conceived 64. + choose own life work 64. + purity of 64. + may be women 67. +Initiation, changes life, 13. + confers authority 13. + free 13. + inner experience 12. + money cannot buy 11. + requirements for 20. + spiritual process 11. + spiritualizes vital body 67. + through spiritual exercises 11. + tribulation leads to 63. +Initiation fee, impossibility of 20. +Inner vision opened 136. +Intellectual conception of life 175. +Intensity of feeling 19. +Invisible Helpers require nucleus 103. + +Jehovah, creation principle of God, 168. + dwells in physical sun 58. + highest Initiate of Moon Period 58. + race spirit of the Jews 110. + regent of various moons 58. + warder of creative forces 56. +Jesus, race body of 74; noblest ideal 172. + + +[PAGE 192] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +Judgment, Sun in Libra 156. +Justice of life 175; with mercy 33. + +Knowledge, necessity for 131. +Larynx gained at sacrifice of creative force 32. +Law, knowledge of 131. +Law of Consequence given to Atlanteans 26. +Laws of nature and destiny 25. +Legumes not needed by ADVANCED scholars 24. +Lemniscate, meaning of 14. +Lemurian epoch, evolution of desire body in 23. +Life Spirit and vital body 132. +Light Atlanteans aspired to 95 + symbol of God 167. +Living church within 124. +Lords of Mercury, stragglers of past 59. +Lords of Venus, stragglers of past 59. +Lord's Supper, SEE communion. +Lost souls 58. +Love endlessly born 169. + keynote of coming age 80. + of soul for soul 53; transcends sex 51. +Lucifer spirits cause body's crystallization 32 +Lungs related to spirit's freedom 24. + +Man becomes man in Atlantis 25. + mineral-like in Polarian Epoch 88. +Marriage necessitated by disintegration and death 49 + sacrament of 55. + transcends sex 51. +Materialism, predominance of 163. +Matter, limitation of causes self-consciousness 22. +Materialization, varieties of 102. +Meat non-permanent as food 82. +Meat eating, SEE Flesh eating. +Michael, race spirit 111. +Milk aid in evolving desire boyd 89. + given in Lemuria 23. +Mind, effect of meat upon 93. + given during Atlantean epoch 22. + given for discrimination 122. + link between spirit and matter 132. +Minerals, assimilation impossible 82. +Moderation in food 136. +Mongols, descendents of Atlanteans 75. + + +[PAGE 193] INDEX + +Moons, discipline stragglers 59. + physical vehicles of Jehovah 172. + tumors of universe 60. +Moses led followers through water 26. +Motive, importance of 101. +Mysteries, soul body teaches 136. +Mystery schools furnish higher teaching 8. + +Nationalism must pass 112. +Nations, rise and fall of 110. +Negroes, descendants of Lemurians 75. +New Galilee 135. +New Heaven and new earth, SEE Aquarian Age. +New race 75. +Niebulungen ring 42. +Nimrod, misplaced in Bible 22. +Noah 27. +Noise, evil effects of 125. + stirs desire bodies 126. +Nucleus in magic practices 108. + +Orthodoxy, arguments of 46. +Panorama etched into desire body 133. +Passion, crystallizing power of 32. +Periodic flow of earth 62. +Philosophy, hidden meaning in 135. +Physical body, SEE Dense body. +Pioneers the active workers 16. + two classes of 17. +Pisces, creed and dogma of 81. +Planet, body of Great Spirit 156. + evolution of 41. + orbit of 156. +Poise, necessity for 125. +Polarian had only dense body 88. +Polarian epoch, dense body in 22. + mineral-like state of man in 22. +Polygamy 66. +Possession cures desire 93. +Post mortem experience 15. +Post mortem state 16. +Preservation, Christ principle 168. +Progress, impossible to unworthy 150. +13 + + +[PAGE 194] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +Proselyting unnecessary 132. +Providence of God 120. +Purity, redemption of 35. +Race spirits cause racial characteristics 109. + high ideals of 110. +Racial characteristics 109. +Rainbow, advent of 27. + emblem of diversity 70. + entrance to new age 180. + gates to promised land 69. +Rebirth and Causation 132. +Reconciliation, desirability of 119. +Recording angels give religions 7. +Religion, happiness from 126. +Religion given by Recording Angels 7. + suited to nations 8. +Religious errors, not long permitted 46. +Responsibility not to be shirked 127. +Resurrection, Easter Sun symbolizes 163. +Retrospection, good gained by; most important spiritual teaching 184. + importance of 18. +Rhine Gold 42. +Rosicrucian messengers 11. + methods, definite, scientific, religious 182. +Sacrament, Hebrew derivation of 55. + importance of 38. +Sacrifice, evolution result of 97. + soul growth from 165. +Sanctuary, inner 124. +Saints, 17. +Salt, 185. +Science becomes religious 40. + to rule Aquarian Age 82. +Seances, danger of 107. +Seasons symbolize diversity 70. +Self-Sacrifie, advancement from 38. + of Christ 100. +Selfishness bane of race 43. +Separation of sexes 32. +Service builds soul body 135. + essential in life 135. + redemption of stragglers 59. + the policy that pays 118. + +[PAGE 195] INDEX + +Sexes, separation of 32. +Silence, great help in soul growth 126. +Sin must be expiated 57. +Sixth sense 178. +Sleep, work during, gains soul growth 129. +Solar system body of God 59. +Son, SEE Christ. +Sorrow, keynote of Buddhism 57. +Soul amalgamates with spirit 96. +Soul body 54. + from seed 73. + light of, teaches man 136. + of new age 181. + methods of building 80. + protects against Black Magic 106. + wedding garment of new age 80. +Soul growth dissolves crystallized bodies 96. + helps in 126. + method of 17. +Sound, effect of 124. +Spinal nerves, animal twenty-eight pairs of 61. + man thirty-one pairs of 61. +Spirit orbit of 156. +Spiritual forces, ebb and flow of 61. +Spiritual sight result of war 112. +Spiritual world, time non-existent 169. +Spring and Earth Spirit 31. +Stellar ray 64. +Strength, conservation of 122. +Sugar, beneficial effects of 83 + cure of alcoholism by 84. +Sun ascends at Easter 165. + in Cancer, the flood 78. + invisible vehicle of God 172. + visible vehicle of Christ 172. + +Tact, value of 119. +Talents of ego 15. + +Teacher of New Age 76. +Temple, way to shown 136. +Though breaks down tissue 23. +Time, non-existent in spiritual world 169. +Tolerance for our families 137. +Tree of knowledge 32. + + +[PAGE 196] GLEANINGS OF A MYSTIC + +Tribulation prepares for Initiation 63. +Trinity, mystery of 167. + +Unfoldment, three states of 55. +Universal solvent 168. + +Vegetarianism, advantages of 91. +Vegetarian needs no alcohol 91. +Virgin spirits enmeshed in matter as egos 132. + self-consciousness attained by 22. +Vital body charges body with energy 132. + constructive energy of 49. + evolved by Hyperborean 22, 88. + medium of occult growth 9. + spiritualized by Initiation 67. + stores up power 128. + vehicle of love 51. + +War, spiritual aspects of 123. + spiritual intensity of 104. + spiritual sight result of 112. +Water, Noah and Moses led followers through 26. + used in Black Magic 104. +Wedding garment, SEE Soul Body. +Western Initiates more advanced 8. +Western Mystery Teaching Christian 47. +White Magic, unselfish 102. +Wine, given in Atlantis 26. + self-assertion from drinking 86. + stimulates spirit of man 27. +Word, cosmic meaning of 155. +Workers, the pioneers 16. +World, God's training school 180. +World change to come 181. +Worry, evil of 116. + +You as pronoun 83. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/glenda.txt b/religious documents/glenda.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..126b703 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/glenda.txt @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ + + Glenda, the Good Witch of the North : Portrait of a Power User + +Fire s burn and cauldrons bubble, and Witches, Warlocks, Druids, and assorted +other Pagans use computers-alot. In fact, a recent survey revealed that +computer professionals are the largest single occupational group within Pagan +religions, the book for which the survey was conducted, is a study of the +neo-pagan movement. Margot Adler found that roughly 11 percent, or 21 of 195 +respondents, were computer programmers, systems analysts, or software +developers. Adler's questionnaire also asked what, if any, relationship +exists between Paganism and computers. "The answers ran the gamut from +people who felt the question was ridiculous to those who were convinced that +80 percent of the Pagan community actively used computers and that there was +an important and striking relationship between the two." writes Adler. "Pagans +are playful by nature" one respondent said, "and the computer is the most +endlessly facinating toy ever invented." Some linked the magical aspects of +Paganism to the "magic" of computers. "Symbolic thinking and patterning are +essential to magical thinking. Like magic, computers work in unseen ways to +accomplish tasks," noted one respondent. "Like magic, computers require a +procedural and logical mind, yet sometime defy logic," said another. Another +explanation involves the right-brain/left-brain relationship. Some say that +when a person spends a great deal of time in intellectual pursuits, like +computer work, it's important to balance that with more intuitive, experiental +endeavors that involve the whole body." You'll see some computer programmers +out there dancing around the bonfire under a full moon having a great, wild +time," says Selena Fox High Priestess of the Circle Sanctuary, a spiritual +nature center, and Wiccan Church, in Brigham Township, Wisconsin. Fox believes +the allure of the religion for these so-called "techno-pagans" may be what +she sees as neo-paganism's futuristic aspects. "It's on the leading edge of +advances in all levels of society. For that reason, the people tend to be more +future directed and are looking for a form of spirituality that can take them +into the 21st century."Lady Sabrina, High Priestess and founder of Our Lady +of Enchantment, a school of witchcraft in New Hampshire, believes computers +are a new age technology and neo-paganism is a new age religion. She points +to the computers link with the new age through it's use of crystals, referring +to the microchips used in personal computers that are made of slices of silicon +crystals, "Crystals are little energy banks," says Lady Sabrina. "The computer +is a positive tool that can really help bring about social transformation. +It can bring people together and create better ways of sharing information." +says Fox. And Pagans like to share information. There are about 300 bulletin +boards for people involved in the neo-pagan movement. "I don't think you'll +find thats true for all religions." adds Fox. + +** Reprinted from the March 1989 issue of PC Computing +--Original story by Kenan Woods diff --git a/religious documents/gloss.txt b/religious documents/gloss.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91f046e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/gloss.txt @@ -0,0 +1,105 @@ + AN INCOMPLETE GLOSSARY OF PAGAN TERMS. + by Blackhawk + + +Pagan + A person who follows a religious path which is Earth-centered. + Including, but not limited to, Wicca, Druidic worship, Native + American Ways, Aboriginal Australian, pre-Christian African, and + in some respects, Shinto. + +Witch + An archaic term, from the Old English "wice", meaning "Wise + One". Modern usage varies, but it is sometimes used as a synonym + for Wiccan, a practioner of Wicca. Applies to either gender. + +Warlock + Often used to mean a male Witch, but this is incorrect. The word + actually comes from the Old English, and means "oath breaker". + It refers to the Inquisitors' early tactic against Witch covens, + where a deep-cover agent was sent to infiltrate a coven, and + upon being initiated was to betray the coven members. + Unfortunately for the agent, the Inquisitors usually tortured + ALL initiated members of the coven, which included the agent. + +Coven + Traditionally, a group of 12 plus a "leader". Most Witches + covens were originally built around this number, though the + Burning Times ended the widespread practice of this tradition, + as there were seldom 13 Witches alive in any given area. In + modern usage, "coven" refers to any group of pagans that wishes + to use the term. Note: The original "12+1" configuration can be + found in several Christian myths and traditions. Christ and his + 12 Apostles, Arthur and his original 12 Knights, the 13 stars in + Mary, the Queen of Heaven's crown, etc. + +Witchcraft + The forerunner of modern Wicca. Literally, "the Craft of the + Wise". An Earth-centered religion holding Life as sacred, and + honoring both the Divine Female and Male (Goddess and God). True + Witchcraft was all but destroyed during the Burning Times, + though some family traditions (famtrads) have survived in total + secrecy (until lately). + +witchcraft + (Note the small "w" here) During the Burning Times, the + Inquistitors tortured people for "witchcraft", which they + erroneously held to be a pact with the Christian Satan. Although + no Witches believed in Satan, the Church hierarchy did, and they + saw the Witches, with their pagan ways, as being servants of + Evil. Those who practiced witchcraft (small "w") were said to + sacrifice children and drink their blood, engage in wild orgies + under a full moon, and cause all sorts of trouble to the + "God-fearing". Confessions were extracted by the use of gruesome + tortures, and these confessions were usually used to convict the + accused at their "trial". The sentence was normally death, but + the accused or her/his family could sometimes buy their way out + by giving the local church all the accused's personal property. + +Burning Times + The name given by pagans to the period when people were + imprisoned, tortured, and killed under the office of the + Inquistion. Although initially begun as an internal hunt within + the Church for heretics, the Inquisition was expanded to include + non-Christians, who were tortured for witchcraft (see above). + The death-toll from the Burning Times is held to be 9 million, + but it is acknowledged that only a small percentage of these + were actually pagan. The vast majority were Christian women. + +Sabbat + A pagan Solar holiday. There are eight Sabbats in a year + occuring at approximately six-week intervals, corresponding to + solar events, i.e., solstices and equinoxes, and the midpoints + between them. The pagan New Year is usually Samhain (pronounced + Sah'-when), which occurs on October 31. This Sabbat, which is a + time for honoring those who have gone before, gave rise to + Halloween. Note that the word "sabbat" has been adopted by + certain satanic groups as a name for their own meetings, but + this is a modern corruption of the pagan practice. + +Esbat + A pagan Lunar holiday. There are usually 13 Esbats in a year, + occuring on the nights of full moons. On occasion, Esbats + coincide with Sabbats. These occasions call for a larger party + than normal. + +Pentagram + An ancient symbol, comprised of a five-pointed star in a circle. + The symbol has been given many meanings over the years. It has + stood for Mankind, the Element of Earth, as a protective symbol. + It is most often used to symbolize the five Elements (Air, + Earth, Fire, Water, and Spirit) bound together as one. It is + often called a "pentacle", but this actually refers to a flat, + round object inscribed with a pentagram. Either word is + acceptable, however. + +Magic + Difficult to define, as nearly everyone has their own + definition. Natural Magic does NOT require the intervention of + spirits, and this is the form of magic practiced by most + Wiccans. Other pagan groups will vary. Magic has been best + defined (in the author's opinion) as: 1) Energies that flow + through and permeate reality, that modern science has yet to + quantify; 2) the use of these energies to affect a change in the + status quo. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/gloss1.txt b/religious documents/gloss1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e2a75c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/gloss1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ + To: All Message #: 3354 + From: Paul Seymour Submitted: 14 Jun 91 21:51:00 + Subject: A Wiccan Glossary Status: Public +Received: No Group: METAPHYSICAL (35) + +MSGID: 1:301/9 6715d885 + GLOSSARY OF TERMS COMMONLY USED IN WICCA + PART 1 of 5 + Copyright 1991 by Rowan Moonstone and Durwydd MacTara + +AKASHA- the spiritual ether (or Aether); the omnipresent +fifth occult element which embraces the other four- earth, +air, fire, and water; and from which they stem. This is the +realm of "pattern" or causality, from which the realm the +normally thought of "five senses manifests. Some define it +is the "other" of the "two worlds" that the witch or +magician walks between. + +ARADIA- Daughter of the Goddess Diana, and a name for the +Goddess used by Italian Witches or Strega, commonly used in +many Wiccan traditions today. + +ATHAME- black handled, double edged dagger. Principally used +to cast and dissolve the circle, for which purposes it is +interchangeable with the magic sword. A tool of the +"Element" of Fire in the Georgian Tradition and some others. + +BELTANE- May Eve festival. One of the Ancient Celtic "Fire +Festivals." on this night, the cattle were driven between +two bonfires to protect them from disease. Couples wishing +for fertility would " jump the fires" on Beltane night. Also +the traditional Sabbath where the rule of the "Wheel of the +Year" is returned to the Goddess. This Festival also marks +the transition point of the threefold Goddess energies from +those of Maiden to Mother. + +BOOK OF SHADOWS- Traditionally hand copied book of rituals, +recipes, training techniques, guidelines, and other +materials deemed important to a Witch or a coven. Each +tradition has it's own standard version of the Book and each +Witch's book will be different as he or she adds to it with +time from many different sources. Only another Witch can see +your book of shadows. Also, traditionally, it may never +leave your hands or possession until death, when it should +be destroyed, or (in some traditions) returned to the coven +to be disposed of. + +BURNING TIMES- a term used by some Witches for the period of +persecution in the Middle Ages and later. It is in fact a +misnomer in some places, as Witches were only burned in +Scotland, and on the continent of Europe. In England and the +U.S., they were hanged. + +CANDLEMAS- Festival held on Feb. 1. One of the 4 Celtic +"Fire Festivals. Commemorates the changing of the Goddess +from the Crone to the Maiden. Celebrates the first signs of +Spring. Also called "Imbolc" (the old Celtic name). This is +the seasonal change where the first signs of spring and the +return of the sun are noted, i.e. the first sprouting of +leaves, the sprouting of the Crocus flowers etc. In other +words, it is the festival commemorating the successful +passing of winter and the beginning of the agricultural +year.This Festival also marks the transition point of the +threefold Goddess energies from those of Crone to Maiden. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) +=-=-=-=-= diff --git a/religious documents/gloss2.txt b/religious documents/gloss2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..07eb943 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/gloss2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ + To: All Message #: 3355 + From: Paul Seymour Submitted: 14 Jun 91 21:55:00 + Subject: A Wiccan Glossary (2 0f 5 Status: Public +Received: No Group: METAPHYSICAL (35) + +RE: A Wiccan Glossary (2 0f 5) +MSGID: 1:301/9 6715e45b + A GLOSSARY of TERMS Commonly Used in WICCA + Part 2 of 5 + Copyright 1991 by Rowan Moonstone and Durwydd MacTara + +CARDINAL POINTS- North, South, East, and West, marked in the +Georgian Tradition by candles of green, red, yellow, and +blue, respectively. The Circle is drawn to connect these +four points. + +CHALICE- one of the tools of the Witch. Placed on the altar +to represent the element of Water. + +CHARGE OF THE GODDESS- The Traditional words of the Goddess +to her followers, or "hidden children". Normally declaimed +by the HPS at every coven Circle. + +CIRCLE- the area in which the magickal worship and spells +takes place. Can also be used to designate a particular +group of Witches or Pagans such as "Silver Acorn Circle". + +CONE OF POWER- power raised in the circle by the Witches +assembled, and sent out into the world to work magick, is +usually visualized as being retained and built in the form +of a "cone" prior to release. + +COVEN- an organized group of Witches, led by a High +priestess and/or a High Priest who meet regularly for +worship and fellowship. The traditional membership is 13, +but in fact most covens number considerably less. 3 is the +minimum in the Georgian Tradition. In Middle English, +"Covin" a group of confederates; In Old French "Covine" a +band or group with a single purpose; Latin "Com"-together, +"Venire"-to come or move. + +COVENSTEAD- regular meeting place for a coven. Usually the +home of the High Priestess or High Priest. + +COWAN- a non-Witch. Formerly used in a very derogatory +manner. Still used in Masonic Ritual to indicate the non +initiate and/or pretender to "real craft". Not often used +today among most Witches. + +COYOTE ENERGY- trickster energies. Named for the American +Indian Trickster, Coyote, who tricks man into learning what +he needs to learn. Applies to one who constantly jokes and +clowns. Also applies to the concept of "Holy Fool" in many +traditions. + +CROSS QUARTER DAYS- The modern name for the Celtic Fire +Festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lammas. + +DEOSIL- clockwise, or sunwise. Traditional direction for +working "building" magick. + +DRAWING DOWN THE MOON- Ritual invocation of the spirit of +the Goddess into the body of the High Priestess by the High +Priest. + +DIVINATION- magical method of exploration or inquiry into a +situation via such methods as Tarot cards, runestones, I- +Ching, etc. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) +=-=-=-=-= diff --git a/religious documents/gloss3.txt b/religious documents/gloss3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46d3cd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/gloss3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ + To: All Message #: 3356 + From: Paul Seymour Submitted: 14 Jun 91 21:59:00 + Subject: Wiccan Glossary (3 of 5) Status: Public +Received: No Group: METAPHYSICAL (35) + +MSGID: 1:301/9 6715f555 + GLOSSARY OF TERMS COMMONLY USED IN WICCA + Part 3 of 5 + Copyright 1991 by Rowan Moonstone and Durwydd MacTara + +ELEMENTS- Earth, air, fire, and water, plus spirit, which +includes them all. These are regarded as realms or +categories of nature (both material and non-material) and +are not to be confused with the physicists table of +elements, which the modern witch, of course, accepts. + +ESBAT- weekly or biweekly meeting of a coven. Traditionally +held either on the full moon or the new moon. + +FAMILIARS- Either a Witch's pet animal which has been +trained to be a magickal helper, or an artificially +created "elemental" which performs the same functions as +the animal friend. + +FIVEFOLD KISS, FIVEFOLD SALUTE- The Witches' ritual salute, +with kisses; (1) on each foot, (2) on each knee, (3) above +the pubic hair, (4) on each breast, and (5) on the lips- +really 8 kisses in all. It is only used within the Circle, +but the words that go with it are the origin of "Blessed +Be." + +GARDNERIANS- Tradition of Witchcraft descended from the +teachings of Gerald Gardner. + +GNOMES- an "entity" or "elemental" that dwells in the plane +of Earth or is associated with the EARTH Element. + +GREAT RITE- The rite which is the main feature of the third +degree initiation, and which is also laid down for certain +festivals. It is sexual in nature, but may be `actual' +(and private to the couples concerned) or symbolic, as the +participants wish. + +HALLOWS- name used by some traditions for Samhain, or +Halloween + +HANDFASTING- Wiccan equivalent of a wedding. It can be made +legal if the Priestess and/or Priest are registered as +clergy with the local authorities, or it may only be +considered binding within the coven. + +HIGH PRIEST/ESS- Technically speaking, a Witch who has +received the 3rd. degree initiation. More usually, the male +and female leaders of a coven. + +IMBOLC- Celtic name for Candlemas. + +INVOCATION- The ritual "calling-in" of an entity (or +energies) higher than human, either for communication with +the caller through a medium or by visible manifestation or +else to enter into a human body as in the Drawing Down the +Moon. In some traditions, a Prayer. + +LAMMAS- August 1st. Witch Festival. The Old Celtic name for +this festival is Lughnassadh. It is the Festival of the +First Fruits, and is the first of the 3 harvests. This +festival also marks the change of the Threefold Goddess +energies from that of Mother to Crone. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) +=-=-=-=-= diff --git a/religious documents/gloss4.txt b/religious documents/gloss4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e2886a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/gloss4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ + To: All Message #: 3357 + From: Paul Seymour Submitted: 14 Jun 91 22:03:00 + Subject: WICCAN GLOSSARY (4 OF 5) Status: Public +Received: No Group: METAPHYSICAL (35) + +MSGID: 1:301/9 6716035b + A GLOSSARY OF TERMS COMMONLY USED IN WICCA + Part 4 of 5 + Copyright 1991 by Rowan Moonstone and Durwydd MacTara + +MAIDEN- An appointment held by one of the women of the +coven. She is virtually the assistant High Priestess. This +term is also the descriptive term used to describe the first +of the aspects of the Threefold Goddess Energies (Maiden, +Mother, and Crone). It is traditionally associated with the +Waxing Moon, and the period from Imbolc (Candlemas) to +Beltane (May eve) where the energies are those of +initiating, beginning, and creation. + +OLD RELIGION- another name for the Craft. + +PAGANING- Presentation of an infant to the Circle and to the +Gods. + +PENTACLE- a disc shaped talisman; in particular, the metal +disc which represents the earth element among the witch's +working tools. + +PENTAGRAM- The five-pointed star. With a single point +uppermost, it represents the human being. Inverted, with two +points uppermost, it can have Satanist associations; but not +necessarily. Some traditions of Wicca use the inverted +pentagram to signify an initiate of the second degree. + +QUARTERS- The North, East, South, and West parts of a +magickal circle or other ritual area. (See also +"Watchtowers") + +REDE- rule or law. + +SABBAT- one of the Eight festivals or high holy days of +Wicca. + +SALAMANDER- an entity that dwells in the realm of Fire. + +SAMHAIN- The festival of remembrance for the dead, held on +the eve of Nov. 1st. It is the last of the three harvests. +This festival also marks the transition of rulership of the +"Wheel of the Year from that of the Goddess to that of the +God. + +SCRYING- divination, usually using such methods as crystal +gazing, or divination via incense smoke, or water as opposed +to tarot or other manipulative means. + +SPELL- a prayer, or verbal direction of magickal energies +toward the accomplishment of some goal. + +SUMMONER- The male officer of the coven who corresponds to +the Maiden. He is the assistant High Priest. + +SYLPH- an "entity" or "elemental" that dwells in the plane +of Air or is associated with the AIR Element. + +TRADITIONS- any of the various "sects" of Wicca such as +Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Georgian, Seax, etc. + +UNDINE- an "entity" or "elemental" that dwells in the plane +of Water or is associated with the WATER Element. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle - Pagan/Occult Distribution System (1:301/9) +=-=-=-=-= diff --git a/religious documents/gloss5.txt b/religious documents/gloss5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9939efb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/gloss5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ + To: All Message #: 3360 + From: Paul Seymour Submitted: 14 Jun 91 22:07:00 + Subject: WICCAN GLOSSARY (5 OF 5) Status: Public +Received: No Group: METAPHYSICAL (35) + + * Moved from area WICCA Echo Area + +^aEID:d328 000400bd +^aMSGID: 1:301/9 67161ed2 + * Forwarded from "METAPHYSICAL" + * Originally from Paul Seymour + * Originally dated 06-14-91 22:05 + + A GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN WICCA + PART 5 OF 5 + Copyright 1991 by Rowan Moonstone and Durwydd MacTara + +WAND- A rod or staff that is prepared so that it may be used +for magickal or psychic purposes, usually to project some +form of power. + +WARLOCK- a term coined in the Burning Times . It was used to +denote a traitor to the Craft, or one who had betrayed the +followers of the Old Religion. It's origin is Scottish. +Because of the negative connotations, it is not used by most +Wiccans today. + +WATCH TOWERS- Originally from the Enochian branch of +Ceremonial Magick, now incorporated into many "Traditions" +of Wicca, these are the four elemental "directions" or +"quarters" (corresponding to the appropriate points on the +compass) called to protect the Circle during its +establishment. Each of them have a correspondence between +the compass point, an element, and (varying amongst +different traditions) color associated with them. + +WICCA- the name most modern day Witches use for the Craft. +It comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Wicce, meaning to bend or +to shape. This is the root word from which we get wicker. + +WIDDERSHINS- counter clock wise. Used for "tearing down" +OR BANISHING magick. + +WHITE HANDLED KNIFE- the working knife of a Witch. It is +used to carve candles, and for fashioning the other tools. +Traditionally, it can only be used in a Circle. + +--- OPMED 2.00 + * Origin: BaphoNet-by-the-Sea -- 718/499-9277 (1:278/666) +=-=-=-=-= diff --git a/religious documents/god.txt b/religious documents/god.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..453bbde --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/god.txt @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ + The Charge of the God + + Listen to the words of the Horned God, the Guardian of all + things wild and free, and Keeper of the Gates of Death, + whose Call all must answer: + + I am the fire within your heart... + The yearning of your Soul. + I am the Hunter of Knowledge + and the Seeker of the Holy Quest + I - who stand in the darkness of light + am He whom you have called Death. + I - the Consort and Mate of Her we adore, + call forth to thee. + Heed my call beloved ones, + come unto me and learn the secrets of death and peace. + I am the corn at harvest + and the fruit on the trees. + I am He who leads you home. + Scourge and Flame, + Blade and Blood - + these are mine and gifts to thee. + + Call unto me in the forest wild + and on hilltop bare + and seek me in the Darkness Bright. + I - who have been called; + Pan, + Herne, + Osiris , + and Hades, + speak to thee in thy search. + Come dance and sing; + come live and smile, + for behold: + this is my worship. + You are my children and I am thy Father. + On swift night wings + it is I who lay you at the Mother's feet + to be reborn and to return again. + Thou who thinks to seek me, + know that I am the untamed wind, + the fury of storm and passion in your Soul. + Seek me with pride and humility, + but seek me best with love and strength. + For this is my path, + and I love not the weak and fearful. + Hear my call on long Winter nights + and we shall stand together guarding Her Earth + as She sleeps. + diff --git a/religious documents/goddess.txt b/religious documents/goddess.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab85ad3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/goddess.txt @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ + The Charge of the Goddess + + Whenever ye have need of any thing, once in the month, and + better it be when the moon is full, then shall ye assemble in + some secret place and adore the spirit of She, who is Queen of + all witches. There shall ye assemble, ye who are fain to learn + all sorcery, yet have not won its deepest secrets; to these will + She teach things that are yet unknown. And ye shall be free from + slavery; and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked + in your rites; and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and + love, all in Her praise. For Hers is the ecstasy of the spirit, + and Hers also is joy on earth; for Her law is love unto all + beings. Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it; let + naught stop you or turn you aside. For Hers is the secret door + which opens upon the land of youth and Hers is the cup of wine of + life, and the cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of + immortality. She is the gracious goddess, who gives the gift of + joy unto the heart of man. Upon earth, She gave the knowledge of + the spirit eternal; and beyond death, She gives peace and + freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor does + She demand sacrifice, for behold, She is the mother of all + living, and Her love is poured out upon the earth. + + She who is the beauty of the green earth, and the white moon + among the stars, and the mystery of the waters, and the desire of + the heart of man, calls unto thy soul. Arise, and come unto Her. + For She is the soul of nature, who gives life to the universe. + from Her all things proceed, and unto Her all things must return; + and before Her face, beloved of gods and men, let thine innermost + divine self be enfolded in the rapture of the infinite. Let Her + worship be within the heart that rejoiceth; for behold, all acts + of love and pleasure are Her rituals. And therefore let there be + beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, + mirth and reverence within you. And thou who thinkest to seek + Her, know thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not unless + thou knowest the mystery; that if that which thou seekest thou + findest not within thee, then thou wilt never find it without + thee. For behold, She has been with thee from the beginning; and + She is that which is attained at the end of desire. diff --git a/religious documents/goodtime.txt b/religious documents/goodtime.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ec9e20 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/goodtime.txt @@ -0,0 +1,82 @@ + + SOME THOUGHTS ON A GOOD TIME + -Waermund Waeda + + Awhile ago, some friends from a fellow Asatru kindred and I spent a few +days at a Pagan gathering in Michigan. We talked with a number of quite +interesting people, we saw some fine samples of Pagan hand craft, we admired +many excellently endowed, scantily clad Pagan ladies, we went through several +gallons of mead, we made obnoxious remarks to one another about some of the +more bizarre people and events, we performed a Sumble for the curious and the +thirsty--in short, we behaved exactly like who we are, and we had a ripping +good time. When we left, we carried with us two im- portant perceptions. The +first is that we are indeed quite different, in our practices and in the way we +see the world, from other Pagans. The second is that, with a minimal effort on +both sides, our differences prevented neither us nor anyone else there from +getting along, enjoying one another's company, and having fun. + + Any religion that seriously seeks a future for itself must create a +"community of the faithful." That is one of the things that separates +religion from art, psychotherapy or a single-minded devotion to, say, auto +mechanics. It is also the way in which a religion becomes a metaphor for the +coherence in the midst of chaotic diversity that men and women have sought to +realize in their lives for practically as long as there have been men and +women. To succeed, a religion must be able to create within its confines a +more manageable, but no less whole and inclusive, replica of the society or +people from which it grows. It is not surprising that North American Asatru, +as a very young religion, is not yet accomplishing the task of creating such a +community. What is truly disturbing, however, is that it doesn't seem even to +be trying. + + To date, Asatruarfolk in this country have organized themselves in +accordance with one or another of two basic patterns: the kindred and the +hierarchical "church." Neither of these, by itself, is well-suited to the +creation of a true community. The kindred is modeled after the extended family +or, if it succeeds, the tribe. Its very existence depends on drawing a "magic +circle," separating itself from the "outside"; there are natural limits to how +much diversity it may include without losing its essential character. The +hierarchical organization arrives at the same result through different means; +it can become infinitely large and in- clusive, but the leaders at the top +determine what parts of the whole are "significant," and they generally do +this by promoting within the organization those who have essentially the same +world-view as themselves. Those excluded from the inner circle, if they have +any sense and self-esteem, eventually lose interest and leave. Because we +are a people of free men and women, not followers, we cannot remain satisfied +with creating a community in the shadow of a hierarchy--the Reformation is an +excellent historical example of this principle at work. + + That is not to say that kindreds and hierarchies are not useful, and even +necessary; they are both. Kindreds create a sense of belonging, and hier- +archies get things done. Neither our kindreds nor our hierarchies are stable, +however, without reference to a community; by themselves, they are too +unbalanced. To give perhaps the most obvious example, Asatru has been +unsuccessful in attracting significant numbers of women, apart from the wives +and girlfriends of Asatruarmenn. This is perfectly natural: why shouldn't most +women who are interested in Pagan spirituality be drawn to those traditions +primarily emphasizing the Goddess? However, if Asatru, consisting mostly of +men, cuts itself off from the rest of Paganism, then it will remain inherently +instable. And this is only one of many forms of imbalance that affect Asatru +in America. + + The point of all this is quite simple: Asatru, as presently constituted, +cannot create a true community, but Paganism can. Asatru needs a com- munity, +and one is already out there, in the process of formation, open to our +participation. All we need do to become a part of it is to acknowledge that we +are simply one part of a greater whole, and to let the other parts follow their +different paths without worrying ourselves about what, in any event, is none of +our business. Given that Asatru has always seemed to make it a point of honor +that it is not a universal religion, why don't we carry our premise to its +logical conclusion, and recognize that an in- dividual branch cannot realize +its destiny in isolation from the tree of which it is a part? Because our +faith is not universal, we will always need things, both obvious and subtle, +from others, and to pretend otherwise is psychologically unhealthy. In joining +with other Pagans, we will not lose our character as a proud and independent +religion. Rather, we will fully realize our character, and achieve wholeness +and stability, only by becoming responsible and productive, if somewhat +outrageous, members of the greater Pagan community. And I expect we will have a +better time, as well. + + * end * + +--- + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/goodwife.txt b/religious documents/goodwife.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa67fa8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/goodwife.txt @@ -0,0 +1,383 @@ +THE WISE GOODWIFE + + + "Gramma, I feel hot." + "Lands, child, on a cool fall day like this? Come here and let me +feel of your forehead. Tsk! Feels like fever. Off to bed with you!" + "Gramma, I don't feel good." + "I know, child, I know. I reckon it's time to ask Goody Hawkins +to help us." + "Who's Goody Hawkins?" + "Hush, now, try to sleep. I'll come back soon." + "Gramma, where did you go?" + "Out into the woods back of the farm, child." + "Why, Gramma?" + "To get Goody Hawkins' help." + "Who's Goody Hawkins?" + "Well, that's a long story." + "Tell me a story, Gramma." + + Well, you know 'bout the pilgrim days, Thanksgiving and all. +Those people way back then, that first time, were giving thanks that +they'd lived a whole year in a whole new country, without too many of +'em dyin'. + Lotta times you see pictures, drawings, with lots of Indians +standin' there to welcome them folks. Well, 'taint so. Weren't +nobody there when they got off that boat, not but one Indian, all +alone. Hist'ry books say it was him, Squanto, as taught them first +folks how to live through one of our winters -- ice 'n sleet 'n snow +'n all, not like they had back in England, where they come from. But +that ain't rightly so, neither. Squanto, and a few other friendly +Indians as wandered in later, they taught the menfolk. But the women, +those days, well, they weren't s'posed to be important, even though +they did most o' the work, so we don't hear 'bout them much. + Well, a woman come off'n that boat, not quite yet old as your +mamma, and her name was Grace Hawkins, but ever' one called her Goody +Hawkins. "Goody" is short for "good wife", and it's like callin' a +lady "Missus" today. + Goody Hawkins was young and pretty, though you couldn't tell that +very well, 'cause in those days the womenfolk wore long skirts and +long sleeves and bonnets to tuck in and hide their hair. So Goody +Hawkins had beautiful long brown hair, though you couldn't see it, and +skin soft as the skin of a peach. But she had a nice young husband +who loved her very much, and he knew how pretty she was. + And Goody Hawkins was one more thing that made her very special: +she was a wise woman, who knew plants and herbs and roots and barks to +make sick people feel better. They didn't have doctors like we do +now, just a lot of men who figured if you were sick your blood was bad +and so they'd make you bleed. That got people sicker, more often than +not. They thought they were real smart, them old doctors, and maybe +they were smart about gettin' money from folks. But they weren't +smart 'bout the folks themselves, mostly 'cause they were too busy +listening to each other talking 'bout high-falutin' doctor things in +big words than listening to the sick bodies of the sick people. + But Goody Hawkins was different. She listened to the people +talking 'bout what hurt them, and she felt of their heads and wrists +and looked into their eyes and ears and mouths. And sometimes she +didn't seem to look at them at all. She just closed her eyes and +looked at them with her heart. And then she'd go into big clay pots +and little wooden boxes in her house, and pick out just the thing a +sick person needed. And do you know how she knew just the right +thing, how Goody Hawkins could see with her heart and not just her +eyes? + Goody Hawkins was a witch. + No, not like you dress up at Halloween. A real witch, a real wise +woman. No warts, no wire hair, remember I told you she was pretty. +And no flying broom, neither. She didn't need to fly, 'cause she +could see ev'rything. + Well, no, she didn't have a crystal ball. But they way my granny +told me, and her granny told her, was that she had a big silver bowl, +a real treasure. And she'd pour clear rainwater in that bowl, and +look into it in the nighttime, with just a candle for light. And they +say she could see miles away, and even years away. Into yesterday, +say, or last year, or ten years ago. And sometimes, she could see +tomorrow. + A cauldron? Why of course she had a cauldron. Ever'one did, +those days, just like we have pots and pans today. But she only had a +little one at first--remember, they were poor in them first few years +in America, and iron costed a lot of money. Goody Hawkins had just +the little cauldron she brought with her from home, only as big as my +big soup pot. + What did she boil up in her cauldron? Well, not babies, I can +tell you that! It was herbs, mostly, tree bark and roots and such. +Anise and coltsfoot, simmered with a little sugar or honey, as good a +cough syrup as you can find nowadays, and even better than some. +That's a recipe my granny's granny knew, and likely Goody Hawkins as +well. Goody Hawkins made ointments from herbs and grease, she made +soaps for fleas and lice, she brewed teas, she made mashes for cuts +and bad hurts to make them heal clean and fast. + But I haven't told you the best part: Goody Hawkins could do +magic. Not like making scarves disappear in her fist or pulling +quarters out of your ear. I mean spells, oh yes, and special little +bundles of things in little bags to keep in your pocket or put under +your pillow. These had herbs in 'em, yes, and besides that she could +put in a special rock, maybe, or a little short twig from a certain +tree, or a piece of paper with secrets written on it, or any such +small thing. You could wear one for good luck, sleep on one to have +good dreams. + In the nighttime, often, you could see a light shining in Goody +Hawkins' cottage, warm and bright, and if you listened real hard, you +might hear words, strong and beautiful, or singing so soft and sweet +it might have come out of a fairy hill. + And in the daytime, oh, the smells that came out of that cottage! +You could tell what was brewing by the smells of the herbs in the +breeze. Rosemary, mint, clove and cinnamon, lemon-leaf, basil, +horehound and lavender. + And hanging from the ceiling in one corner of the cottage were +always bunches of drying herbs, filling the whole room with spicyness +and sweetness. She brought the little boxes special from her home in +England, but the rest she got right here, from the meadows and +forests. + One day she was in the forest, gathering plants for medicines. +Some of the plants were just like at home, she knew them right away. +Others she didn't know, and them she would look at, and smell, and +taste of--it was right dangerous, that, but weren't no other way to +find out about 'em. This spring day, after their first long hard, +winter had passed, Goody Hawkins went to pluck a leaf off'n a plant, +to taste it. + Suddenly, she heard a crashing in the bushes and a woman's voice +crying out to her. She turned around and who should she see but an +Indian woman, near her own age, come runnin' toward her, talkin' words +she couldn't understand. This Indian woman, she snatched that leaf +from Goody Hawkins and shooed her away from that plant quick as she +could. The Indian woman pulled out a thin stick, rounded at one end, +and waved it so that Goody Hawkins thought the other woman might hit +her with it, so she backed up, afraid. + But the Indian woman turned to the plant and commenced to digging +it out of the ground with her stick, digging up the roots. The Indian +woman pulled off the roots and pushed them into Goody Hawkins' hands, +keeping some for herself. She put the roots into a deerskin bag, and +'twas then that Goody Hawkins saw other herbs and things in that bag, +and figured out that t'other woman was in the woods for just the same +job as herself, namely, getting herbs. + Even though they didn't speak each other's language, by +pantomiming and pointing they oculd understand each other, and Goody +Hawkins learned that the leaf she'd been about to eat was deadly +poison. But the roots were good eating, roasted or boiled just like a +potato. How 'bout that! Plants are funny that way. + Goody Hawkins realised she owed her life to the Indian woman, for +warnin' her off'n them leaves. But she didn't know just how to thank +her new friend. Still, they spent the rest of the day walkin' in the +woods, an' Goody Hawkins learned more about the new world's plants in +one day than she could've in weeks if she'd had to figure things out +for herself. + And by the end of the day, Goody Hawkins knew some Algonquin, and +the Indian woman, Namequa, knew some words in English. Namequa saw +Goody Hawkins back to the little town and then faded into the trees +almost like magic. + Well, the seasons came and went, and Goody Hawkins had her hands +full trying to keep people well, what with the snakes and unfriendly +Indians and poisonous plants all around. The folks couldn't get none +of the plants they brought with 'em to grow very well, 'cause the +weather was so different from England's. That mean that folks weren't +eatin' right, and 'specially with the children that was bad. But +Namequa showed Goody Hawkins plants that were good eating, and Goody +Hawkins showed the other womenfolk, and for a time the folks there +lived like Indians, what with the menfolk learnin' to hunt and fish +from Squanto and the women learnin' to gather wild plants to eat from +Goody Hawkins and Namequa. + That first thanksgiving feast, they didn't eat just the corn and +squash and beans that Squanto showed the men how to grow, they also +had roasted-seed mush and lamb's-quarters gathered by the women. All +those, and the deer the neighboring Indians brought, well, that was +some dinner! + Well, little by little, them folks got settled. Other ships came, +with more people, and, later, with cows and other stock. And then +Goody Hawkins was busier than ever, 'cause she was s'posed to take +care of sick animals, too. Back then, if a cow didn't give milk, +folks were apt to think the fairies had stolen the milk in the night, +so 'twas only natural they should ask their wise woman for help. + Before long, there were babies, too, human and animal, and mothers +needed Goody Hawkins' help to bring 'em into the world. Somehow, +though, through all of this, Goody Hawkins kept time to visit with her +good friend, and to keep learning, and to look into her silver bowl +every now and again. + Well, the years went on, and ever'body got older, and some folks +just died from getting old. Goody Hawkins' husband died too, and they +hadn't any children, so Goody Hawkins should have been alone inthe +world. But she had her friend Namequa, and every little child in the +town called her "Aunt Grace"--she wasn't their real aunt, you know, but +they loved her like she was, 'cause she made them things, like +sweet-scented pillows, and spicy cookies, and she always listened to +them when they told her things. Goody Hawkins had learned a lot from +Namequa's tribe, and now that she had no husband to take care of, she +spent more time visiting with her Indian friends, and they learned +from her too. + Indian magic is full of drums and dreaming. Goody Hawkins' magic +was full of words and wishing. But she was careful not to let the +rest of the folks know she was learnin' and teachin' magic. Why not? +Well, folks don't like what they don't understand, is all. People +were afraid of lots of things in them days, 'specially in a strange +new place. + And as more o' them Puritan preachers come over from England, the +folks would be more secret 'bout visiting Goody Hawkins, not wanting +the preachers to know they was holding to the old ways. And the +preachers, 'specially one Pastor Langford, looked sidewise and never +straight on at Goody Hawkins, bein' afraid she might hex 'em or some +such nonsense. Well, Pastor Langford thought she was workin' for the +devil, but he didn't want to say it outright, 'cause folks liked her. + But even that was changing as Goody Hawkins spent more time with +Namequa's tribe, and folk got to whispering about it. There was a +number of men interested in marryin' to her, after her husband died, +saying it wasn't right for a woman to live alone, but she didn't care +'bout any of 'em. She said no to all of 'em, and some of 'em went +away mad. And folk got to saying things outright. + One lady said she seen Goody Hawkins dancing naked with all them +Indians. Another said there was a demon keeping Goody Hawkins +company, which was why she wasn't wanting to marry again. Somebody +else said that it was that demon that killed Goody Hawkins' husband. +All round town words buzzed like stinging wasps. Now, when a cow +wasn't giving milk, it was Goody Hawkins, not the fairies, who they +thought had stolen it. Folks began to keep their children away from +her. And Pastor Langford came right out and made fiery sermons about +witches and the devil and sin and punishment. + Goody Hawkins saw and heard all of this, but what could she do? +It was her word against the words of respectable folk, and nobody was +going to believe her. So she kept silent, kept to herself, and +waited. + She didn't have to wait long. One evening, she came home from a +visit to her Indian friends and found her cottage in ruins. Jars were +smashed, boxes thrown all over. The herb-bunches had been torn down +from the ceiling, her cauldron overturned, Bible verses scrawled all +over the walls with charcoal from her fireplace. "Thou shalt not +suffer a witch to live", they said, and Goody Hawkins felt cold in her +heart because she knew that the people wanted to kill her. + And worst of all, her beautiful silver bowl was all bent and +crushed, like someone had hit it with a hammer. Goody Hawkins sat +down at the table in the midst of the mess, and cried. + She felt helpless and angry. She wished she really could turn +people into toads. She made half-hearted tries at cleaning up, but +gave it up. Her heart burned with wanting to hurt the people who'd +done it, and froze with knowing her life wasn't worth a straw to 'em. + My granny said, that in that hour the devil did come to her, +offerin' to kill the townsfolk for her, if she'd give up her soul to +him, but Goody Hawkins chased him out with her broom. I think more +likely, she thought about putting poison in the well-water, but knew +that not only would that poison the townsfolk, it'd poison the water +and the earth, and the water and earth hadn't hurt her. And she knew +that killing all those folks would poison her soul, too, forever, make +her sour and angry as a real wicked witch. + So instead, she gathered all her power to her, all her love and +strength; she threw down her hiding bonnet, and shook out her hair, +which was getting grey by now, and walked proud and tall out into the +town square. The folks began to gather round, saying hateful things. +But Goody Hawkins lifted up her arms and began to sing, strong and +sweet, in the old tongue that nobody but wise folk could speak +anymore. And when the folks saw that their words couldn't hurt her, +they commenced to pick up stones to throw at her. + But before they could throw their stones, the preachers came and +said she'd have to have a proper trial. So soldiers took Goody +Hawkins away with them, away from the shouting people, and she was +still singing as they locked her up. + They tried to get her to tell them things, like was she partners +with the devil, and had she hexed people and animals, and did she have +a demon helper, and did she change into a cat to steal milk, but she +never did nothing but close her eyes and sing softly, smiling like she +saw something beautiful. So finally they gave up and took her to the +courthouse. + There all kinds of people told stories about Goody Hawkins and +things she'd never really done. And all through it, Goody Hawkins +stood tall, and looked straight in the faces of the folks as was doing +the telling. When ever'one was through with their lyin', the judge +asked Goody Hawkins had she anything to say. + Goody Hawkins looked round at the folks, looking like your momma +when she's gonna scold you, and began tellin' each one what she'd done +for them. This one wouldn't be alive if Goody Hawkins hadn't helped +his mother with the birthing. That one's daughter was deathly sick +with fever, and Goody Hawkins cured her. The other one's cows were +dropping down dead before Goody Hawkins found out they were eating +poisonous leaves. There wasn't one person in that courtroom Goody +Hawkins hadn't helped somehow over the years. And folks were looking +like you do when you're getting a scolding and you know you've been +wrong. + But Pastor Langford butted in and said that Goody Hawkins must +have led the cows to the poison leaves, she must have made the little +girl sick, she must have put a hex on the mother so her baby had +trouble being born. And even though some folks still looked +uncertain, the rest of 'em started howling for Goody Hawkins to die, +and that was that. + They took her out to the town square where there was a big oak +tree, to hang her onto it. Some soldiers held the crowd back, while +two of the others tied Goody Hawkins up, tied a rope around her neck, +and threw the other end over one of the branches of the tree. Goody +Hawkins wasn't scared to die, but she was scared of the pain, though +she didn't let the people see that. She looked out at them and +smiled, and was glad to see some people quit their shouting and look +worried. + Pastor Langford come up, looking nervous, and said, "Do you wish +to confess your sins? You may yet be forgiven and reach Heaven." + Goody Hawkins just smiled and said, "I have nothing to confess or +be forgiven for, nothing I am ashamed of. I want no part of your +heaven." + The preacher fairly threw a fit right there, choking and +stuttering, he wanted so bad to cuss and swear at her but couldn't in +front of the townsfolk. So he just pointed to the soldier holding the +end of the rope, and he commenced to hauling on it. + Goody Hawkins felt the rope tighten and her ears started to ring, +and she took what she was sure was her last breath. But suddenly +there was a scream, and the rope went loose. Her head cleared, she +looked around, and saw the soldier who'd been pulling her up holding +onto his arm, where there was an arrow sticking out of it. + Folks was shouting and running all over the place, and Goody +Hawkins saw that a whole tribe of Indians had come out of the woods +like magic with bows and arrows and spears and all. The soldiers +couldn't get a clear shot at none of the Indians, what with folks +running round like ants when their hill gets kicked over. And in the +middle of all that hollerin' and confusion, Goody Hawkins felt a sharp +blade between her wrists, cutting the ropes that tied her. + There was two Indians there, a big young man and Goody Hawkins' +friend Namequa who held a finger to her lips to shush her. The young +man scooped Goody Hawkins up in his arms, and ran into the woods +carrying her. + All of a sudden, the Indians disappeared like morning mist, and +when the folks looked round, Goody Hawkins was gone too. + The folks never saw her again, and Namequa's tribe were never as +friendly to them. Goody Hawkins' cottage was just left to fall down +and rot, and nothing in it was ever touched. But some folks was sorry +Goody Hawkins was gone, 'specially when they got sick, or their +children or animals. And one day a mother whose little baby was sick +as could be and nobody could help her, she went into the woods by +herself, carrying an iron pot. She walked into a clearing, and +waited, listening. The woods got quiet, like they were listening too, +and the lady commenced to talking about the baby's problem and asking +for help of whoever was listening. + She put the pot down, turned around, and walked out of the woods +without looking back. The next day, she came back, and where she'd +left the pot, there was a little bundle of herbs, wrapped up in a soft +deerskin. She ran home with it, and made it into tea for her baby, +and the baby got better. + Well, word of the cure got round among the womenfolk. Real quiet +like, it got round, not like the lies 'bout Goody Hawkins had gotten +round before. They kept it a secret from the preachers, and after a +while the preachers forgot about Goody Hawkins. + And ever' once in a while, a woman would slip away from the town, +out into the woods, carrying some small thing, that she thought Goody +Hawkins might be able to use, knowing that Goody Hawkins was out there +somewhere, and would hear them. And always there would be an herb +packet there the next day, or a little charm, or some such. + As the years went by, the herb packets stopped appearing, but the +woman who turned back would see a shaft of light fall on some plant, +and would take of that back home with her. And finally, even that +stopped, but somehow the help always came, somebody got better. There +was a song, too. My granny's granny taught her this song, and my +granny taught it to me, to sing to Goody Hawkins when we needed help: + + + With heavy heart I come and stand + The oak and bonny ivy, + A gift to offer in my hand. + The hazel, ash and bay tree. + + How can I hope for any good + The oak and bonny ivy, + By standing in the empty wood? + The hazel, ash and bay tree. + + But I will trust and dry my tears, + The oak and bonny ivy, + And know that the Wise Goodwife hears. + The hazel, ash, and bay tree. + +Tsk! Asleep already. Good. + + + "Child, what are you doing out of bed?" + "I feel better, gramma!" + "Let me feel of your forehead. Well, that's fine." + "Gramma, can I have my coat?" + "Where are you going, child?" + "Out to the woods, gramma." + "What's that you have there?" + "It's a picture, gramma, look." + "Well, that's right nice. I think I can guess who that is. And I +see you've given her back her silver bowl! She'll be happy. Off you +go, then." + "Bye bye, gramma. I'll come back soon." + + +(c)copyright 1986, Leigh Ann Hussey. Used with permission. + +If you enjoyed this story, send $5 to: Leigh Ann Hussey, 2240 Blake St. +#308, Berkeley, CA 94704, and I'll send you a nicely typeset copy for +your library! + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/gordon.txt b/religious documents/gordon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93febfa --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/gordon.txt @@ -0,0 +1,107 @@ +By Barbara Blake Hannah, former Independent Senator and an Independent +Candidate in the next General Elections. Fall-Winter, 1986. + + "His foundation is in the holy mountains; Our Lord loveth the gates of +Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of +thee, O city of God. Selah." Psalm 87. + Of a man, were these words once spoken. I heard briefly that his body +went to rest a few Sundays ago. His name was Keith Gordon, more commonly +known as Niah Keith. I also heard that a view of this man's life was recently +written in a Jamaican paper, and I hope to be able to offer another - if +different - view. A spiritual view, for this was the only category in which I +was privileged to know him and the Brothers and Sisters of the Ethiopian Zion +Coptic Church. + In the 70's, when I used to write a lot of articles on ganja, and in +favour of its legalisation, one of my articles was re-published in the widely +distributed Coptic Times. I felt it was time to find out who these people +were, and whether they were truly defending - as they claimed - the principles +of Marcus Garvey as well as the legalisation of ganja. So I went to see them +at their farm in St. Thomas, and ultimately to visit them at their Star +Island home in Miami. + What I found surprised me at first, but then I realised that Coptic was a +perfectly genuine and legitimate expression of Rasta - a movement of which I +was then an active promoter - and one which attempted to realise the dream of +Rasta/Black African aspirations in Jamaica, of a nation whose economy is based +on reaping the wealth to be earned from ganja. + +Plant herb for its many uses. + I have ceased to promote these views, but at that time it was a dream +that could have been realised, had Jamaica been bold enough to do what the +Coptics advocated and plant herb for its many uses - glaucoma medicine, cancer +therapy, paper for printing money and Bibles, paint, rope, cloth, etc. In the +early '70s, before ganja, crime and cocaine became linked by laws that +classified them as equal and dangerous, there was a time when this dream could +have been realised. + Many individuals and groups tried to do so. Coptic tried. How they +succeeded is something that as a journalist, I never wanted to know, and as a +person I could only speculate on. + But I found out the Coptics secret. It was, quite simply, prayer. +Psalms, chants, reasonings from Garvey's words - this was their +hree-times-daily meal which gave the power of success; constant prayer and +divine reasoning was their foundation. Their prayer sessions were a joy of +harmony and spirit, and the most beautiful session I attended was one at which +Toots Hibbert added his great voice to the singers in the church. + Another interesting aspect of the Coptics was the total intermingling of +black and white minds in a consciousness of the principles of black history +and goals. The white Coptics were the most surprising, and at the same time +strongest, aspect of Coptic. It was astonishing to see true brotherly, +inter-race love in action. Indeed, "Love" was their constant greeting. + The man at the center of this, was Niah Keith. So great was his +considered wisdom, that many saw him as God and a Christ. He stirred up a +religious effort of Rasta's claim for the Herb in Righteousness, which only +failed when - in my opinion - they chose to make their battlefield America, +rather than Jamaica. + The case - I was the only journalist there, which made me very +conspicuous - put the U.S. drug laws on trial, bringing evidence to prove +ganja's medicinal and spiritual values, but of course the U.S. Courts ruled +against their claim, and today some of the white brethren - the brightest +minds of Coptic - are jailed in America. + The sometimes-opulent lifestyle they lived in Jamaica and America - many +cars, many houses - showed the wealthy possibilities which can be reaped from +ganja. But their wealth was not spent on gold or clothes, but on acquiring +land and equipment for large-scale farming. + Needless to say, since these actions are not approved of by our present +national and international laws, everything was done to discredit and +embarrass the Coptics, and their success. Yet, there are thousands of people +all over Jamaica today who benefited from Coptic - "ordinary" men and women, +who were set up in small businesses by Coptic - taxi drivers, sno-cone men, +construction workers, and most of all, farmers. + +Our real wealth. + Indeed, in St. Thomas Coptic set up its most visible display of "wealth", +a large farm which not only gave employment to hundreds of the people of the +area, but was also proof of what could be done through ganja to enable the +unfinanced poor to use our real wealth, the land. + He was unlettered, they say, of Niah Keith, but he was a man of words and +wisdom. Sitting in a Coptic reasoning was always an uplifting experience for +me. Through Niah and the Coptics, Jamaica is not only richer with the +information on Garvey which they published in their excellent free newspaper, +but also from the information I gained when they sponsored a nine-month course +of study for me at the greatest resting place of black historical documents, +the Schomberg Museum in Harlem. It was also in Harlem that I met Captain +James Thornhill, Garvey's bodyguard - an old man of 98 still alive, who would +love to spend his last days in the homeland of his beloved Mr. Garvey, and who +filled me with first hand memories of the great man. + I don't know about a Coptic cocaine connection and I know that Niah never +used the stuff. If anything made Niah's flesh and spirit part, It was the +vanity and covetousness of others, that took the beloved brother from us. + "I will make mention of Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia, this man was +born there," Psalm 87. + +Teaching of Garvey. + Will the Coptic dream of legal ganja be realised? Who knows. That is +not my battle anymore. But one battle of the Coptics that is definitely mine, +is their advocacy that the teachings of Garvey can be used as the foundation +for a new Jamaica of true independence. + That is what Niah Keith stirred up in Jamaica, and advocated all his +life. For that he will always be remembered. + Some people laugh when flesh and spirit of a famous person part, and +some rush to speak ill. But when a work has been performed, the flesh and its +evils must be laid down. Niah Keith's work was performed, and he was a brave +warrior in an unusual war, bold enough to speak the words and fight the fight. + Interestingly, at his funeral, the several hundreds who attended were +able to take away with them, sackfulls of grapes from a broad and fruitful +vine which surrounds the Coptic Church - a sacramental wine which was Niah's +final gift to his friends. + A new mystic is blowing in Jamaica, and Niah Keith is part of it + I wonder what will happen next. diff --git a/religious documents/great.txt b/religious documents/great.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8737d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/great.txt @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +ab:great.txt 16jan90 + + + + The Great Rite + (Alternative Verse Version of Priest's Declamation) + + Assist me to build + As the Mighty Ones willed + An altar of praise + From beginning of days. + Thus doth it lie + 'Twixt the points of the sky + For thus was it placed + When the Goddess embraced + The Horn'd One, her Lord, + Who taught her the Word + That quickened the womb + And conquered the tomb. + Be thus as of yore, + The shrine we adore, [kiss] + The feast without fail, + The life-giving Grail. [kiss] + Before it uprear + The Miraculous Spear [touches own phallus] + And invoke in this sign + The Goddess divine ! [kiss] + Thou who at noon of night doth reign + Queen of the starry realms above, + Not unto thee may we attain + Unless thine image be of love. [kiss] + By moon-ray's silver shaft of power, + By green leaf breaking from the bud, + By seed that springeth into flower, + By life that courseth in the blood, [kiss] + By rushing wind and leaping fire, + By flowing water and green earth, + Pour us the wine of our desire + From out thy Cauldron of Rebirth. [kiss] + Here may we see in vision clear + Thy secret strange unveiled at length, + Thy wondrous Twin Pillars rear + Erect in beauty and in strength. [kisses on the breasts] + Altar of mysteries manifold, + The Sacred Circle's central point + Thus do I sign thee as of old; + With kisses of my lips anoint. [kisses of the Third Degree Sigil] + Open for me the secret way, + The pathway of intelligence + beyond the gates of night and day, + Beyond the bounds of time and sense. + Behold the Mystery aright; + The five true points of fellowship, + Here where the Lance and Grail unite, + And feet and knees and breast and lip. + +-------- + +-This replaces the Priest's declamation in the standard Great Rite. +-It was published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way". +-They say it was written by Doreen Valiente, and included in GBG's + Text C. + diff --git a/religious documents/greatgod.txt b/religious documents/greatgod.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..082f2e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/greatgod.txt @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +ab:greatgod.txt 16jan90 + + + Great God Cernunnos Invocation + + +HPS and HP turn to salute altar with the Horned God's salute as HP says: + +HP: "Great God Cernunnos, return to earth again ! + Come at my call and show thyself to men. + Shepherd of Goats, upon the wild hill's way, + Lead thy lost flock from darkness into day. + Forgotten are the ways of sleep and night - + Men seek for them whose eyes have lost the light. + Open the door, the door which hath no key, + The door of dreams, whereby men come to thee. + O Mighty Stag, O answer to me !" + +HPS & HP say: + +Both: "Akhera goiti + - akhera beiti !" (lowering their hands) +---------- +-published sources include Janet and Stewart Farrar's "Eight Sabbats For + Witches" +-The Farrars say it is "the Invocation to Pan from Chapter XIII of 'Moon + Magic' by Dion Fortune, with ...[Cernunnons]...substituted for ...Pan". + diff --git a/religious documents/greenpin.txt b/religious documents/greenpin.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b316841 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/greenpin.txt @@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ + +A letter from a Craft sister in Texas + +A job transfer had moved us 1200 miles. The hardest thing to +deal with was the isolation. No one in our home Circle had +contacts in the new town. Instead of lessons twice a month, and +the loving safety net of our circle, we had each other, phone +calls, and homesick letters. We were suddenly involuntary +solitaires. We had to find new ways to deal with things. +Holidays, once filled with an extended family of 25 or more, are +a trifle flat when the turkey only has to feed two. So we +volunteered to work at a charity dinner for senior citizens, and +I wore my pentagram tucked inside my shirt. As I was pouring +coffee for one of the guests, it fell out. + + She: "Is that what I think it is?" (pointing) + Me: "Yes, Ma'am." + She: "But if you're a...I mean... What are you doing here?" + Me: "My religion teaches me to value and respect others; + and the elderly are our memories." + +She nodded and went back to her meal. Next time someone tries to +tell her that witches are evil, it will be my face she remembers. + +Finally we met another group, and shared a Circle for the first +time in months. It felt like coming home. Later, it turned out +one of our newfound friends knew a lonely solitary in our home +town. In the same city where we know four covens, countless +solitaires, and a rich Pagan social life, she is alone. She +can't find anyone, and the isolation is painful. + +Excuse me while I get on my soapbox. + +This has gone on long enough. I am tired of hearing the Lady's +name spoken in whispers. I am tired of pretending, tired of +hiding, sick unto death of knowing Pagan parents must teach their +children to hide. As I write, it is March '87. I am about to +put to paper my favorite "gee-if-only." Indulge me. Join me. +Dream along. + +Let it begin small. The first year, we will all agree on some +recognition symbol; a green button. Anytime you see someone else +wearing a blank green button, you'll know this person is a fellow +Pagan, one who has read this and shares the dream. (I hope +you'll share it as well: start by finding someone with a button- +maker, and become your local supplier.) Anytime you see someone +wearing a blank green button, give them your name and address and +get theirs too. This is called "networking" _ and suggest they +send their address also to us at "Come from the Shadows". + +Pass the word. Every time you talk to a friend who's in the +Craft, share the dream. Make sure they get a button, too. + +The second year we change our blank buttons for ones that say +"I.P.T." That's the easy part. We only intensify our work. +Kindred, our neighbors are afraid of us. It is a fear born of +misinformation and it will continue only as long as we permit it. +The second year we work to raise public awareness, challenging +stereotypes. That means we all get to do our part, with articles +like this, with letters to the editor politely responding to +silly Halloween articles, and with volunteer work. We walk a +Path that teaches the Threefold Law; let's start putting some +time, energy, and love into our towns. Answer the crisis phone +line, visit the elderly, donate books on the Craft to the +library, become an active member of your community. + +And in your spare moments, print and distribute the buttons for +the big day. Let's dream big: let's plan on Winder Solstice of +1990. The buttons would be available all the preceding year at +our rituals, bookstores, lectures, etc., distributed and put away +until the appointed time. + +Here's my dream, see it with me. + +She's a para-legal, and after three years of preparation, she's +still very scared. Meditation helps. She pins the button, kept +on her alter for months, to her blouse. Her phone rings. A +friend across the city needs encouragement. Reassuring him +reassures her. She walks out to her car with her head held high. + +He's a telephone lineman. He pins the button on his workshirt, +helps his second-grader pin one on as well. "Let's do it," he +says, and they smile. from the door, his wife calls, "Good +luck!" + +A couple exchange kisses in the driveway. The buttons clatter +together. He gets into his car, headed for the shipyard. She +drives the other way, headed for the university. + +They aren't alone. Winter Solstice has dawned bright and clear, +and across the country every Pagan we could reach in three years +is taking part. This is the day it all pays off, the networking, +the community work, the countless rituals for healing and +understanding. It's solstice Morning and they have walked out of +their doors to go about their daily routine wearing buttons that +say: + + I'm Pagan too! + Come from the Shadows + +How many? Estimates of the number of Pagans in this country +vary, but thousands at the very least. Can you see it? + +The para-legal and the parking attendant exchange shocked +glances. The telephone lineman takes a service call and the +farmer who answers the door is wearing a button. His wife gives +her "extra" button to a woman in the grocery store _ a solitaire, +somehow missed by the networking efforts, she is close to tears +when she realizes that she is not alone. The shipyard engineer +counts buttons in rush hour traffic, while his wife loses count +on campus before lunch. + +The media go crazy, interviewing people all over the place. The +public are suddenly aware of the Pagans in their midst, not as +isolated freaks but as a group. We are not the faceless enemy -- +we are their neighbors, their coworkers. We are their league +coaches, their Red Cross volunteers. We are citizens concerned +about our towns, our country, our planet. We are contributing to +the care of our fellow wo/man and asking for the right to worship +as we choose. + +We are the children of the Earth and the Sky come home, re- +claiming our right to walk in the sunlight. "Enough. It is +time." + +Pleas send comments, suggestions, etc. to: + +Come from the Shadows, c/o B.C. Fogle +2041 1st Street East #118, RAFB, Texas 78150 + diff --git a/religious documents/greyinit.txt b/religious documents/greyinit.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..28140d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/greyinit.txt @@ -0,0 +1,81 @@ +GREY INITIATION + +There are only two ceremonies associated with becoming a member of the +Order. One is the 'answer three questions' ritual. The questions can +take many forms, but usually it involves something silly, and yet +thought provoking. The other ceremony involves an interesting phenomenon +sometimes known as "the infilling of the Force," and anciently known as +the Lumen Naturae. + +The initiation ritual takes exactly 24 hours from beginning to end. The +inductee is given an herbal mix reputed to cause a loosening of the +barriers in the mind which normally are used to repress the Dark side. +This includes inhibitions (both instinctive and learned), psychic +'engrams' (often placed in the mind while the Jedi was still in the +creche), and fears. Deeply disturbing, when these fears begin to +surface, the initiate is closeted in a private space. + +Afterwards the inductee is brought before other members, sometimes more +but never less than three. Whatever activities take place the overall +effort is to meditate. For the inductee, this is a period of +'stretching' the mind, using various excercises into the Dark side +within, without losing the connection to the Light. The ultimate goal is +to become a bridge between them. They are called The Grey Exercises, for +obvious reasons. + +During the final hours all participants increase their meditative levels +gradually until the group-mind is at a peak. The inductee's psyche is +stripped bare of all defenses. The Dark side -- potentialities, latent +irrationalities, imaginative fantasies are all exposed to the group +mind. At this point the inductee will have some deep revelation +pertinent to overcoming their own fear of and attraction to the Dark +side. + +The signal to end the ceremony comes when one member begins a movement +in the Force, which is carried through by the others. The initiate +experiences an "infilling of the Force," which often includes physical +manifestations such as involuntary levitation and phosphorescent +displays. The lights are kept low during this period (probably so the +other members can enjoy it-- it is reported to sometimes be +spectacular). The body of the initiate is literally over-saturated with +the Force-- and if this sounds groovy to you, then maybe you'd enjoy +having a million volts go through you some time. + +Among the changes to be expected after the initiation will be a +telepathic bond shared with the others in the room. The bond is +consistent to all initiates, and is no different from a Jedi telepathic +bond, except that it is shared only with other members of the Order +(with some limits due to distance). As with a Master and Padawan, it +takes focus and a little effort, but the ability is undeniable. + +To a large extent, the entire Order consists of a network of Force +bondings, and the Force is not static but moves through and between +bodies. Thus individuals who have bonded in this way are connected to +all others who've undergone the rite. + +The physics of the bond created during a Grey Initiation rite are +difficult to pinpoint. It is similar to the Jedi bond, yet more limited +in scope; thus the mechanics are different. It is believed by some that +because the initiate allows themselves such deep scrutiny by other +members, an incredibly strong bond of trust is formed. The ability to +send telepathic images and words may be a byproduct of this level of +intimacy. + +However, because the body of the initiate undergoes such intense +chemical reactions from the infilling of the Force (the metabolism alone +increases to about ten times its normal speed for a period of at least +ten minutes, which forces intense chemical reactions throughout the +bodies of any and all species), one must expect that the brain is +effected to some degree. This may also explain the subsequent telepathic +bond. The bond is said to be 'permanent' but that has not been verified. + +It has been pointed out that such a telepathic bond between Grey Jedi +may be a form of insurance against betrayal by any of its members. It is +not, however, possible for the Grey to be 'mind-readers' so much as they +are 'message-receptors' to eachother. A strong, directed thoughtform is +needed, rather than simple curiosity. Jedi almost always have training +in telepathic abilities (the so-called Jedi Mind Trick, for example). +These abilities may be enhanced. + +The limits of the telepathic bond have not yet been determined. + diff --git a/religious documents/ground.txt b/religious documents/ground.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb12b4f Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/ground.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/handbook.txt b/religious documents/handbook.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec37e55 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/handbook.txt @@ -0,0 +1,247 @@ +Excerpt from the U.S. Army's Religious Requirements and Practices of +Certain Selected Groups: A Handbook for Chaplains (pgs 231-236). +Available from: + + USAF Chaplain's Service Institute + Resource Division + 525 Chenault Circle + Maxwell AFB + Montgomery, AL 36112-6429 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Begin Transcribed Text +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +WICCA + +ADDRESS: No central address. Wiccan worship groups, called covens, are +essentially autonomous. Many, but far from all, have affiliated with: + + Covenant of the Goddess + P.O. Box 1226 + Berkeley, CA 94704 + +OTHER NAMES BY WHICH KNOWN: Witchcraft; Goddess worshippers; +Neo-Paganism, Paganism, Norse (or any other ethnic designation) +Paganism, Earth Religion, Old Religion, Druidism, Shamanism. Note: All +of these groups have some basic similarities and many surface +differences of expression with Wicca. + +LEADERSHIP: No central leadership. The Covenant of the Goddess annually +elects a First Officer and there is a constitutional limit of two +consecutive terms, but in practice officers have almost always served +for one year only. In 1991, there are two co-First Officers, Phoenix +Whitebirch and Brandy Williams. + +MEMBERSHIP: Because of the complete autonomy of covens, this cannot be +determined. There are an estimated of 50,000 Wiccans in the United +States. + +HISTORICAL ORIGIN: Wicca is a reconstruction of the Nature worship of +tribal Europe, strongly influenced by the living Nature worship +traditions of tribal peoples in other parts of the world. The works of +such early twentieth century writers as Margaret Murray, Robert Graves +and Gerald B. Gardner began the renewal of interest in the Old Religion. +After the repeal of the anti-Witchcraft laws in Britain in 1951, Gardner +publicly declared himself a Witch and began to gather a group of +students and worshipers. In 1962, two of his students, Raymond and +Rosemary Buckland (religious names: Lady Rowen and Robat), emigrated to +the United States and began teaching Gardnerian Witchcraft here. At the +same time, other groups of people became interested through reading +books by Gardner and others. Many covens were spontaneously formed, +using rituals created from a combination of research and individual +inspiration. These self-created covens are today regarded as just as +valid as those who can trace a "lineage" of teaching back to England. +In 1975, a very diverse group of covens who wanted to secure the legal +protections and benefits of church status formed Covenant of the Goddess +(CoG), which is incorporated in the State of California and recognized +by the Internal Revenue Service. CoG does not represent all, or even a +majority of Wiccans. A coven or an individual need not be affiliated +with CoG in order to validly practice the religion. But CoG is the +largest single public Wiccan organization, and it is cross-Traditional +(i.e. non-denominational). + +BASIC BELIEFS: Wiccans worship the sacred as immanent in Nature, often +personified as Mother Earth and Father Sky. As polytheists, they may use +many other names for Deity. Individuals will often choose Goddesses or +Gods from any of the world's pantheons whose stories are particularly +inspiring and use those Deities as a focus for personal devotions. +Similarly, covens will use particular Deity names as a group focus, and +these are often held secret by the groups. It is very important to be +aware that Wiccans do not in any way worship or believe in "Satan," +"the Devil," or any similar entities. They point out that "Satan" is a +symbol of rebellion against and inversion of the Christian and Jewish +traditions. Wiccans do not revile the Bible. They simply regard it as +one among many of the world's mythic systems, less applicable than some +to their core values, but still deserving just as much respect as any +of the others. Most Wiccan groups also practice magic, by which they +mean the direction and use of "psychic energy," those natural but +invisible forces which surround all living things. Some members spell +the word "magick," to distinguish it from sleight of hand +entertainments. Wiccans employ such means as dance, chant, creative +visualization and hypnosis to focus and direct psychic energy for the +purpose of healing, protecting and aiding members in various endeavors. +Such assistance is also extended to non-members upon request. Many, but +not all, Wiccans believe in reincarnation. Some take this as a literal +description of what happens to people when they die. For others, it is +a symbolic model that helps them deal with the cycles and changes +within this life. Neither Reincarnation nor any other literal belief +can be used as a test of an individual's validity as a member of the +Old Religion. Most groups have a handwritten collection of rituals and +lore, known as a Book of Shadows. Part of the religious education of +a new member will be to hand copy this book for him or herself. Over +they years, as inspiration provides, new material will be added. +Normally, access to these books is limited to initiated members of the +religion. + +PRACTICES AND BEHAVIORAL STANDARDS: The core ethical statement of Wicca, +called the "Wiccan Rede" states "an it harm none, do what you will." The +rede fulfills the same function as does the "Golden Rule" for Jews and +Christians; all other ethical teachings are considered to be +elaborations and applications of the Rede. It is a statement of +situational ethics, emphasizing at once the individual's responsibility +to avoid harm to others and the widest range of personal autonomy in +"victimless" activities. Wicca has been described as having a +"high-choice" ethic. Because of the basic Nature orientation of the +religion, many Wiccans will regard all living things as Sacred, and show +a special concern for ecological issues. For this reason, individual +conscience will lead some to take a pacifist position. Some are +vegetarians. Others will feel that, as Nature's Way includes +self-defense, they should participate in wars that they conscientiously +consider to be just. The religion does not dictate either position, but +requires each member to thoughtfully and meditatively examine her or his +own conscience and to live by it. Social forces generally do not yet +allow Witches to publicly declare their religious faith without fear of +reprisals such as loss of job, child custody challenges, ridicule, etc. +Prejudice against Wiccans is the result of public confusion between +Witchcraft and Satanism. Wiccans in the military, especially those who +may be posted in countries perceived to be particularly intolerant, will +often have their dogtags read "No Religious Preference." Concealment is +a traditional Wiccan defense against persecution, so non-denominational +dogtags should not contravene a member's request for religious services. +Wiccans celebrate eight festivals, called "Sabbats," as a means of +attunement to the seasonal rhythms of Nature. These are January 31 +(Called Oimelc, Brigit, or February Eve), March 21 (Ostara or Spring +Equinox), April 30 (Beltane or May Eve), June 22 (Midsummer, Litha or +Summer Solstice), July 31 (Lunasa or Lammas), September 21 (Harvest, +Mabon or Autumn Equinox), October 31 (Samhain, Sowyn or Hallows), and +December 21 (Yule or Winter Solstice.) Some groups find meetings within +a few days of those dates to be acceptable, others require the precise +date. In addition, most groups will meet for worship at each Full Moon, +and many will also meet on the New Moon. Meetings for religious study +will often be scheduled at any time convenient to the members, and +rituals can be scheduled whenever there is a need (i.e. for a healing). +Ritual jewelry is particularly important to many Wiccans. In addition to +being a symbol of religious dedication, these talismans are often +blessed by the coven back home and felt to carry the coven's protective +and healing energy. + +ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE: Most Wiccans meet with a coven, a small group +of people. Each coven is autonomous. Most are headed by a High +Priestess, often with the assistance of a High Priest. Some are headed +by a High Priestess or High Priest without a partner, and some regard +themselves as a gathering of equals. Covens can be of mixed gender, or +all female or male, depending on the preferences of the members. Every +initiate is considered to be a priestess or priest. Most covens are +small. Thirteen is the traditional maximum number of members, although +not an absolute limit. At that size covens form a close bond, so Wiccans +in the military are likely to maintain a strong affiliation with their +covens back home. There are many distinct "Traditions" of Wicca, just +as there are many denominations within Christianity. The spectrum of +Wiccan practice can be described as ranging from "traditional" to +"eclectic," with Traditions, covens and individuals fitting anywhere +within that range. A typical difference would be that more traditional +groups would tend to follow a set liturgy, whereas eclectic groups would +emphasize immediate inspiration in worship. These distinctions are not +particularly important to the military chaplain, since it is unlikely +that enough members of any one Tradition would be at the same base. +Worship circles at military facilities are likely to be ad-hoc +cross-Traditional groups, working out compromise styles of worship for +themselves and constantly adapting them to a changing membership. +Therefore, the lack of strict adherence to the patterns of any one +Tradition is not an indicator of invalidity. While many Wiccans meet in +a coven, there are also a number of solitairies. These are individuals +who choose to practice their faith alone. They may have been initiated +in a coven or self initiated. They will join with other Wiccans to +celebrate the festivals or to attend the various regional events +organized by the larger community. + +ROLE OF MINISTERS: Within a traditional coven, the High Priestess, +usually assisted by her High Priest, serves both as leader in the +rituals and as teacher and counselor for coven members and unaffiliated +Pagans. Eclectic covens tend to share leadership more equally. + +WORSHIP: Wiccans usually worship in groups. Individuals who are +currently not affiliated with a coven, or are away from their home +coven, may choose to worship privately or may form ad-hoc groups to mark +religious occasions. Non-participating observers are not generally +welcome at Wiccan rituals. Some, but not all, Wiccan covens worship +in the nude ("skyclad") as a sign of attunement with Nature. Most, but +not all, Wiccan covens bless and share a cup of wine as part of the +ritual. Almost all Wiccans use an individual ritual knife (an "athame") +to focus and direct personal energy. Covens often also have ritual +swords to direct the energy of the group. These tools, like all other +ritual tools, are highly personal and should never leave the possession +of the owner. Other commonly used ritual tools include a bowl of water, +a bowl of salt, a censer with incense, a disk with symbols engraved on +it (a "pentacle"), statues or artwork representing the Goddess and God, +and candles. Most groups will bless and share bread or cookies along +with the wine. All of these items are used in individual, private +worship as well as in congregate rituals. + +DIETARY LAWS OR RESTRICTIONS: None. + +FUNERAL AND BURIAL REQUIREMENTS: None. Recognition of the death of a +member takes place within the coven, apart from the body of the +deceased. Ritual tools, materials, or writings found among the effects +of the deceased should be returned to their home coven (typically a +member will designate a person to whom ritual materials should be +sent). It is desirable for a Wiccan priest or priestess to be present +at the time of death, but not strictly necessary. If not possible, the +best assistance would be to make the member as comfortable as possible, +listen to whatever they have to say, honor any possible requests, and +otherwise leave them as quiet and private as possible. + +MEDICAL TREATMENT: No medical restrictions. Wiccans generally believe +in the efficacy of spiritual or psychic healing when done in tandem +with standard medical treatment. Therefore, at the request of the +patient, other Wiccan personnel should be allowed visiting privileges +as though they were immediate family, including access to Intensive +Care Units. Most Wiccans believe that healing energy can be sent from +great distances, so, if possible, in the case of any serious medical +condition, the member's home coven should be notified. + +OTHER: With respect to attitude toward military service, Wiccans range +from career military personnel to conscientious objectors. Wiccans do +not proselytize and generally resent those who do. They believe that +no one Path to the Sacred is right for all people, and see their own +religious pattern as only one among many that are equally worthy. +Wiccans respect all religions that foster honor and compassion in their +adherents, and expect the same respect. Members are encouraged to learn +about all faiths, and are permitted to attend the services of other +religions, should they desire to do so. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +GENERAL SOURCE BOOKS: +The best general survey of the Wiccan and neo-Pagan movement is: Adler, +Margot. Drawing Down the Moon. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986. 595pp + +For more specific information about eclectic Wicca, see: Starhawk. The +Spiral Dance. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. + +For more specific information about traditional Wicca, see: +Farrar, Janet, and Stewart Farrar. Eight Sabbats for Witches. London: +Robert Hale, 1981. 192pp. +______________. The Witches' Way. London: Robert Hale, 1984. 394pp. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: + +Pagan Military Newsletter c/o Terri Morgan, Editor, 829 Lynnhaven +Parkway 114-198 Virginia Beach, VA 23452 + +Because of the autonomy of each coven and the wide variance of specific +ritual practices, the best contact person would be the High Priestess or +other leader of the member's home coven. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/healing1.txt b/religious documents/healing1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f010ca9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/healing1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,105 @@ + + HEALING - A COMMUNICATION WITH YOURSELF + + + Quick Reference Note: The file RELAX.ZIP will come in handy as a prep + for the following information... + + + Self healing involves the inner communication with ones self. + Visualization, another word for self communication is used in this + text. In the following document, the usage of visualization is quite + important, so open your mind, and prepare yourself for the experience. + + One of the most important facts to consider when trying to use self + healing techniques, is an understanding of the meaning behind our + ailments. And so here I offer some guidelines to help you get in touch + with the messages within yourself. + + To begin with, I want to remind you that "The limits of your beliefs + define the limits of your reality". For, this reason it is important + that you allow yourself to be open to all possibilities. If your mind + is closed to the notion of inner guidance, then no amount of + visualizing will produce it. If you are open to finding an inner + source of knowing, then--with patience and trust--you will. + + The second point I want to make has to do with guilt and self-blame. + While accepting that your illness is related to sub-conscious thoughts + and beliefs is essential for healing yourself, it is also essential + that you not blame yourself for your illness. Our diseases point to + positive new directions where we need to go in our lives. Staying + stuck in guilt serves only to keep us stuck in self-destructive + feelings. + + Third, I would like to mention that the consensus among those sources + that I have researched, was that if it is not in the best interests of + the whole organism to overcome disease at this time, these techniques + will not immediately eliminate the disease. Understanding the + message of the disease will, however, indicate where you need to make + life changes, and become the first step toward a new relationship with + your body and mind. + + And, finally, these and the other healing techniques in this text + should not be used apart from medical consultation. "If you are sick, + then you should see a doctor". What is suggested here is totally + compatible with traditional medical therapies and may assist them in + helping the healing process. + + + SELF HEALING PROCEDURE SCRIPT + + + Begin the visualization by becoming deeply relaxed. Using your own + relaxation method, or one from RELAX.ZIP (available on this system) + allow yourself to totally relax your mind and body, so that you are + totally focused on your inner screen, so to speak. + + When you feel yourself deeply relaxed, go to a place in your inner + movie (visualization) that is very beautiful and very peaceful. It + might be a quiet, empty beach with waves gently billowing onto the + sand. Or it could be a lovely meadow on a glorious spring afternoon. + Or it might be a place where you've vacationed and where you remember + being very happy and relaxed. + + When you feel yourself very comfortable in this beautiful place, look + around for a person or an animal. If you don't see it at first, keep + looking within your minds eye. + + When the figure appears, ask it to talk with you. Tell it why you have + come looking for it. Tell it that you need its help. + + Allow yourself to be with this figure as comfortably as you would be + with a friend in your own living room. It is a part of you. It is + your own creation. It is benign...it is there to help you! + + When you feel comfortable and accepting of your advisor (person or + animal), ask it the question you have been wanting to ask. Ask it to + kindly tell you the message of your illness or pain. Then wait + patiently and receptively for the answer. If an answer doesn't come + immediately, ask your adviser how you can find the answer to your + question. + + Keep asking questions until you have the answers that you have sought. + When your answers come and you feel satisfied that they are what you + sought, that your adviser and tell it that you will return again to + visit with it. + + Allow yourself to come back into the here and now of outer reality. + Allow yourself to feel good and to feel that you have found out what + you wanted to know. + + Allow yourself to use the information you have received with wisdom and + love. Allow yourself to return to the beautiful place where you met + with your adviser whenever you feel a need for guidance. + + Allow yourself to know that "YOU" are giving yourself a great and + important gift by discovering the message of your illness or pain. + + + + May you find the peace that you deserve, and may this text assist you + in your task ahead.... + The Wizard Ariel> + + EOF> + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/healing2.txt b/religious documents/healing2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16e588e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/healing2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ + + HEALING A COMMUNICATION WITH YOURSELF + + + HEALING SPECIFIC AILMENTS + + + STEP 1 + + Visualize "HEALING ENERGY" circulating through and soothing the + disharmonious part of you. This energy might appear as golden or white + light, or in another form that you recognize as healing. + + If your energy is low and your're feeling tired, depressed, weak or + chilled, breathe in energy from imagined sunlight. If you're feeling + hyperactive and restless, see your excess energy flowing out through + your feet into the ground. + + When you know that "HEAT" is an appropriate medical remedy (check with + your doctor), visualize and feel warmth in the sick or injured area. + This facilitates the flow of blood with its healing properties to the + area. (Sometimes refered to as Autogenic Therapy - Developed by Dr. + J.H. Schultz and Wolfgang Luthe). + + + STEP 2 + + Visualize the "HEALING PROCESS". This can be either symbolic or based + on images from medical texts or X-Rays. + + Begin by picturing your disorder, mental or physical. Kenneth + Pelletier says that if it looks exactly like what you expected, odds + are that the image is wrong; it's more likely to be something + completely unexpected. + + Examine the picture in as much detail as possible. Then transform the + picture into a positive image. See the disease actually healing, VERY + IMPORTANT! (For more information consult the book by Dr. Mike Samuels, + called...Be Well) + + + STEP 3 + + Visualize a "STATE OF WELLNESS". In this visualization, see the sick + or injured part of you as healed and your whole person as radiantly + healthy. See yourself as you wish to be: happy, energized, feeling + positive about your life. Another important factor is think to + yourself the words "RADIATE" "RADIATE" "RADIATE", and feel the energy + flow throughout your body and soul. + + Recall yourself at the healthiest time of your life, with the added + bonus of your present maturity. Sense how you were then: how you + breathed, felt, moved, and looked at the time. + + See yourself in this marvelous healthy state walking in the sunshine + and feeling in tune with life. Know that this is how you "ARE" right + now, just beneath the symptoms that mask your wellness. + + + + May you find the peace and joy you deserve, and may this text assist + you in your healing process... + + The Wizard Ariel> + + EOF> + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/healing3.txt b/religious documents/healing3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b1aa92 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/healing3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ + + HEALING A COMMUNICATION WITH YOURSELF + + + VISUALIZATION FOR HEALING PAIN + + + + STEP 1 + + Use "NOISE REMOVAL BREATHING" to wash the pain out of your system. + + + STEP 2 + + Visualize the pain diluting and diffusing throughout the body, and then + leaving the body through the skin. + + A variation on this is to breathe in with each inhalation soothing, + relaxing nourishment and breathe out with each exhalation the tension, + tightness and discomfort. Each time you inhale, bring twice as much + healing oxygen into your system. Each time you exhale, remove twice as + much tightness, pain, or discomfort. + + "Actually see the pain LEAVE"! + + + STEP 3 + + Focus very closely on your area of pain. Then experience its geometric + shape. Then see its color. And then estimate how much water it could + hold if it could hold water. Repeat these three steps until the pain + is gone. "IT WORKS", so don't give up when it hasn't seemed to work + after a few go-rounds. (This technique is adapted from on used in the + EST training, where it is known as the "Headache Process". EST + recommends it for minor aches and pains only.) + + + May you find the peace and joy that you deserve, and may this text + assist you in your healing process... + + The Wizard Ariel> + + EOF> + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/healing4.txt b/religious documents/healing4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6dde3d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/healing4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ + + HEALING A COMMUNICATION WITH YOURSELF + + + ASSISTING MEDICAL THERAPY + + + Keep in mind that all healing is ultimately self-healing. The most + superb medical attention is finally worthless if someone doesn't want + to be healed. Conversely, the most mediocre medical attention, or + perhaps even none, can bring phenomenal cures if the patient actively + participates in the healing process. + + Here are some suggestions for how you can help whatever medical therapy + you may be receiving: + + + STEP 1 + + Visualize the medical treatment you are getting doing exactly what it + is supposed to do. + + For example, visualize the drug that's been prescribed for you moving + through your bloodstream to the site of the disease, and then doing + what it's meant to do, such as destroying viruses or depressing the + pain receptors. It would be helpful for you to find out exactly how + the drug you're using works in the body. + + + STEP 2 + + If you are receiving a treatment such as physical therapy, massage, or + even radiation, you can help it by simultaneously visualizing the + process working. Allow yourself to be receptive to its healing effect. + See it doing what it's supposed to do. + + + + May you find the peace that you deserve, and may this text assist you + in your healing process.... + + The Wizard Ariel> + + EOF> + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/healing5.txt b/religious documents/healing5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..25b38b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/healing5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ + + HEALING A COMMUNICATION WITH YOURSELF + + + VISUALIZATION FOR FIRST AID + + + This script guides you through the psychological effects of medical + traumas. By repeating the behavior at the time of the accident, in the + minds eye, you remove the ill-effects of the emotions associated with + the upset. Positive reaframation is the key to the success of this + script... + + Example: If you have burned your hand on the stove, you review in your + imagination all the things that happened just before, during, and after + the accident. + + This reduces the fear associated with the event and again focuses your + attention on the injured part that you have avoided because of the + pain. The very "FEAR" and avoidance unconsciously block the healing + process, by decreasing the blood flow to the hands, feet, and injured + part of the body. + + + + Let's Begin with the Script + + + Pick a time interval surrounding the injury, say five seconds before to + ten seconds afterward. Following one sensation at a time, review this + time interval. Include such sensations as pain, awareness of injured + parts, temperature, sounds, words, actions, attitudes, and thoughts. + + Go over the sam time interval, being aware of all the sensations at + once, as they actually happened. Repeat the action in your mind's eye + and in pantomine, if necessary. (act out the experience) Pay + particular attention to thoughts and attitudes in this total sensation. + + Repeat steps one and two until the pain stops or greatly diminishes. + This may take between five minutes to an hour. + + Build up an awareness of the injured part and see it having been healed + and normal again. Repeat this frequently during and after the + emergency assist. + + + + May you find the joy and happiness that you deserve, and may this text + help you in your healing process... + + The Wizard Ariel> + + EOF> + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/healing6.txt b/religious documents/healing6.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4011934 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/healing6.txt @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ + + HEALING A COMMUNICATION WITH YOURSELF + + + VISUALIZATION FOR ENERGY FLOW + + + + This is a minds picture (visualization) that is based on the Chinese + concept of CHI, or life energy, which circulates into and out of the + body from the earth and cosmos and flows through it along prescribed + circuits or meridians, in an ever-continuing cycle. + + + + Begin by relaxing your body and breathing deeply from the abdomen. When + you feel relaxed, focus your eyes inward and begin to see energy + streaming through your body, warming you, vitalizing you, energizing + you and cleansing you. + + As you inhale bring a wave of energy up the front part of your body, + beginning with your toes and moving to the top of your head. + + As you exhale see the energy move down the back of your body, out the + back of your heels and into the ground. + + The energy may take the form of golden or white light, or be a + vibratory sensation or resemble a flowing brook or molten lava, or be a + series of lights successively turned on. It makes no difference if + your image is very similar to, or very different from, these; "Whatever + you see is your unique and accurate perception of your inner process." + + Continue to circulate the energy with each deep inhalation and + exhalation. + + As you observe the energy circulating through your body, be alert to + areas of tension and blockage. Direct the energy to penetrate those + places, to unblock them and soothe them. + + Allow the energy to massage every part of your inner body. + + When you feel soothed, relaxed, and revitalized, open your eyes and + return to the here and now of physical reality. + + + + May you find the joy and peace that you deserve, and may this text + assist you in your healing process... + + The Wizard Ariel> + + EOF> + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/healing7.txt b/religious documents/healing7.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d207ea --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/healing7.txt @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ + + HEALING A COMMUNICATION WITH YOURSELF + + + NOISE-REMOVAL BREATHING + + + + Begin by relaxing the body and breathing deeply from the abdomen. (The + text on breathing is great to use as a pre-prep to this script) + + When completely relaxed, and as you "INHALE", imagine you have a nose + in your feet, a nostril in the bottom of each foot, between mid-arch + and the sole of each foot. (Keep your wits now!) Imagine as you + breathe in deeply that you are pulling in air up through your feet. + + Feel as if each breath coming in through your feet and up through your + legs and body is swirling up through the tensions, toxins, tiredness, + and other noise that had been cluttering the tissues and cells of that + part of your body. Feel your breath swirling through and carrying away + all that unwanted stuff. Feel your exhaled breath carrying that noise + out of your body, carrying away anything that doesn't belong. + + Feel your "EXHALED" breath to be laden with that stuff you are pulling + up and carrying out of your system, so much from you system just + pouring into your breath that your breath begins to actually "FEEL" + warm and rich. That extra warmth and richness is felt especially near + the end of your exhaled breath, so really push that noise out of your + system by exhaling very deeply. + + As you pull noise up from your body and push it out with your exhaled, + breath, you are not only cleaning up your system but doing a good thing + by creating a lot of new life energy. + + Keep noise-removal breathing very deeply, pulling noise up and + loosening it with your breath, and especially breathe out very deeply, + and sooner or later you will experience through you noise-removal + process heat in your throat and upper chest near the end of each + exhaled breath. + + Experimentally noise-removal breathe in through different parts of your + body. Feel a real pull as your breath comes in through those different + areas, swirling up and carrying away the noise you are pushing out with + your exhaled warm, rich breath. + + Keep freeing your mind-brain-body-spirit system with this noise-removal + breathing, feeling all kinds of stuff coming out. When you feel + drained of all the noises in your body and mind, come fully alert, + feeling terrifically good. + + Now that you have estabilished this experience of noise removal + breathing, you can turn the process on at any time, in any level of + consciousness. + + + + May you find the joy and peace that you deserve, and may this text + assist you in your healing process... + + The Wizard Ariel> + + + EOF> + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/healing8.txt b/religious documents/healing8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6113750 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/healing8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ + + HEALING A COMMUNICATION WITH YOURSELF + + + THE ENERGY-COLUMN VISUALIZATION + + + + + Become very conscious of the top of your head. + + Now also become very conscious of the bottoms of your feet. + + Now become conscious of the space connecting the two, the top of your + head and the bottoms of your feet. + + Now, like filling up a transparent bottle with white milk, let that + space fill and light up with tingling bright electric life energy. + + Now extend one end of that column down through your feet, beyond the + bottoms of your feet....extend that end of your energy column way down + beyond the bottoms of your feet....way beyond. + + Now extend the other end of that column way up through and beyond the + top of your head--far--farther still--WAY farther still. + + Now noise-removal breathe throughout this entire extended column of + energy for five minutes or longer each time. + + + + May you find the joy and peace that you deserve, and may this text + assist you in your healing process... + + The Wizard Ariel> + + + EOF> + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/hellopen.txt b/religious documents/hellopen.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd5a261 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/hellopen.txt @@ -0,0 +1,265 @@ + + + + + The following article appeared in the February 1990 edition + of the Trinity Broadcasting Network monthly newsletter to its + supporters: + + THE GATES OF HELL OPENED? + + Scientists are afraid that they have opened the gates to hell. + A geological group who drilled a hole about 14.4 kilometers deep + (about 9 miles) in the crust of the earth, are saying that they + heard human screams. Screams have been heard from the condemned + souls from earth's deepest hole. Terrified scientists are afraid + they have let loose the evil powers of hell up to the earth's + surface. + "The information we are gathering is so surprising, that we + are sincerely afraid of what we might find down there," stated Mr. + Azzacov, the manager of the project to drill a 14.4 kilometer hole + in remote Siberia. + The geologists were dumbfounded. After they had drilled + several kilometers through the earth's crust, the drill bit + suddenly began to rotate wildly. "There is only one explanation - + that the deep center of the earth is hollow," the surprised Azzacov + explained. The second surprise was the high temperature they + discovered in the earth's center. "The calculations indicate the + given temperature was about 1,100 degrees Celsius, or over 2,000 + degrees Fahrenheit," Dr. Azzacov points out. "This is far more than + we expected. It seems almost like an inferno of fire is brutally + going on in the center of the earth." + "The last discovery was nevertheless the most shocking to our + ears, so much so that the scientists are afraid to continue the + project. We tried to listen to the earth's movements at certain + intervals with supersensitive microphones, which were let down + through the hole. What we heard, turned those logically thinking + scientists into a trembling ruins. It was sometimes a weak, but + high pitched sound which we thought to be coming from our own + equipment," explained Dr. Azzacov. "But after some adjustments we + comprehended that indeed the sound came from the earth's interior. + We could hardly believe our own ears. We heard a human voice, + screaming in pain. Even though one voice was discernible, we could + hear thousands, perhaps millions, in the background, of suffering + souls screaming. After this ghastly discovery, about half of the + scientists quit because of fear. Hopefully, that which is down + there will stay there," Dr. Azzacov added. + + Translated from AMMENUSASTIA, a newspaper published in Finland. + + Their address: + -------------- + TBN + P.O. Box A + Santa Ana, CA 92711 + + + + + HELL.DOC Page 1 + + + A SHORT STUDY ON HELL + ===================== + by Rick Fortier + + + BIBLICAL REFERENCES ON HELL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT + + 1. Hell is located in the heart of the earth. + + Matthew 11:23 "...brought down to hell..." + Luke 10:15 "...thrust down to hell..." + Matthew 12:40 "...in the heart of the earth..." + + 2. There is an unquenchable fire in hell. + + Matthew 5:22 "...in danger of hell fire..." + Mark 9:43,45 "...into the fire that never shall be + quenched..." + Luke 16:24 "...for I am tormented in this flame..." + + 3. Hell was originally meant for the fallen angels. + + 2 Peter 2:4 "For if God spared not the angels that + sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them + into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgement;" + + 4. Is a temporary holding place for the wicked dead until the Great + White Throne Judgement. Then those in hell will be cast into the + Lake of Fire. + + Luke 12:5 "...after he hath killed hath power to cast + into hell..." + 2 Peter 2:4 "...to be reserved unto judgment..." + + Revelation 20:12-14 "And I saw the dead, small and great, + stand before God; and the books were opened: and another + book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead + were judged out of those things which were written in the + books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the + dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up + the dead which were in them; and they were judged every + man according to their works. And death and hell were + cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." + + 5. References on humans that are under the earth. + + Matthew 10:28 "...able to destroy both the soul and body in + hell..." + + Philippian 2:10 "That at the name of Jesus every KNEE should + bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things + UNDER the earth;" (note that the things have knees) + + Revelation 5:3 "...And no MAN in heaven, nor in earth, NEITHER + UNDER THE EARTH..." + + + HELL.DOC Page 2 + + + + + 6. The discovery of the physical location of hell could be an end + time sign. + + Acts 2:19 "...And I will show wonders in the heaven + above, and SIGNS IN THE EARTH BENEATH; blood, and fire, + and vapor of smoke..." + + + 7. Persons dead in hell have complete senses, desire, and memory + intact with remembrance of what occurred before death. + + Luke 16:22-31 + 22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was + carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man + also died, and was buried; + 23 And in hell he lift up HIS EYES, being in torments, + and SEETH Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. + 24 And HE CRIED and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on + me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of HIS + FINGER in water, and cool MY TONGUE; for I am tormented + in this flame. + 25 But Abraham said, Son, REMEMBER that thou in thy + lifetime received good things, and likewise Lazarus evil + things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. + 26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a + great gulf fixed: so that THEY WHICH WOULD pass from + hence to you cannot; neither CAN they pass to us, that + would come from thence. + 27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou + wouldest send him to my father's house: + 28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto + them, lest they also come into this place of torment. + 29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the + prophets; let them hear them. + 30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto + them from the dead, they will repent. + 31 And he said unto him, IF THEY HEAR NOT MOSES AND THE + PROPHETS, NEITHER WILL THEY BE PERSUADED, THOUGH ONE ROSE + FROM THE DEAD. + + Comments: + + v 23. The rich man recognized Abraham, and knew who he was + even though he had never seen him before indicating either + that he was more aware after he died than while he was alive, + or that he had the ability to be taught after he died. He also + saw Lazarus and recognized and remembered him. Also, our souls + must have recognizable features just like our bodies because + he could discern between Abraham and Lazarus. + + v 24. Evidently after death we can speak and will have + emotion. And we will have fingers and tongues that can sense + death. + + + HELL.DOC Page 3 + + + + + + v 25. The rich man in hell must have had the ability to + remember, because Abraham tells him "REMEMBER". Also, it must + be that we will experience either comfort or torment after + death depending on our location. + + v 26. The dead still had the capability of desire, because + Abraham says "THEY WHICH WOULD", meaning "those that desire + to". Also, Abraham states that it is impossible to pass the + gulf, thus indicating that there was no mercy to be granted + after death, which rules out purgatory. + + v 27. It is interesting to note that the rich man still + thought that he could boss around people even after he was + dead. + + v 28-31. People that are alive now must believe and be + persuaded by the scriptures. Physical evidence, such as + someone being raised from the dead will not cause people to + become believers. + + + CLOSING COMMENTS + + + The article printed in TBN's newsletter does not definitively + state that they found the gates of hell. Even if they did have + physical evidence, that would not necessarily persuade non-believ- + ers into becoming believers. + Think about this, if Jesus could have shocked people into + believing that he had rose from the dead, then why didn't he just + walk through Jerusalem a few days after his death with his hands + raised in the air? They definitely would have known where he had + been by the daylight that was showing through the holes in his + hands! You might ask, "Why didn't he?". To that question I would + have to reply that if it was the best method of gaining believers + then he would have done it. During the forty days after his resurr- + ection, Jesus showed himself to many people. But he only showed + himself to those that were already believers at the time of his + death. It wasn't until after the preaching started that the church + began to grow. Preaching is the best method to gain believers. + People that are already believers don't require evidence to + maintain their beliefs. What is accomplished with signs and wonders + is that some of the non-believers will become curious and read their + Bibles and find the truth. Don't close your eyes to the truth. Read + Matthew 13:10-17. If you're reading this now, then you're not too + late. Make up your mind now that you will not reject the article + without first investigating all of the facts. + + Rick Fortier + 14411-114 Kittridge St. + Van Nuys, CA 91405 + + + + HELL.DOC Page 4 + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/heresy.txt b/religious documents/heresy.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..381f8ce --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/heresy.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1146 @@ +A Call to Heresy + +Containing Biblical Quotations Regarding Women, Sex, Slavery, Race, and the +End of the World, as well as a Collection of Contradictions, Atrocities and +Absurdities, Biblical Facts and Commentary. Compiled and Published in this +First Edition by Trevor Blake in August, September, and October of 1991 e.v. +(era vulgaris, the common era) and Based on No Small Amount of Research. + +[The word "heresy"] comes from a greek noun form (hairesis) of a verb in the +middle voice (haireisthai) meaning "to take for oneself" -- to choose. This +concept corresponds aptly to the conviction that there can be no faith without +personal decision... There are... two principle ways people arrive at +convictions. If a person's beliefs, however many or few, are to be really +his, he should choose maturely which of the two ways appears the more sound +and then apply its methodology to select or form such beliefs. This is his +heresy: his choosing for himself. The results of such choosing may also be +heresy in the other, more commonplace, sense of the word... Therefore, if both +the positive and negative meanings of hairesis are taken into account, every +truely believing individual is heretical in the positive sense, whether or not +what he has chosen to believe is heretical in the negative sense. - Bishop +James Pike, If This Be Heresy. + +This document has been prepared as an ASCII text file for IBM and compatable +computers, and may be reproduced and distributed by any means including BBS, +disk or in printed form. If you find this document interesting, informative, +useful or amusing then please consider sending a Postal Money Order made out +to "Trevor Blake" for five dollars or more at the following address. Do not +send any other sort of money order; send only a Postal Money Order, available +at most post offices. Do not send checks or credit cards. Well-hidden cash +or mint U.S. postage stamps of an equal value are also acceptable. In +gratitude, you will receive a free issue of OVO magazine (send S.A.S.E. for +further information regarding OVO). Send all additions, corrections, +amplifications and suggestions to the following address for consideration in +future editions of this document. + +Trevor Blake, Post Office Box 23061, Knoxville Tennessee 37933-1061, United +States. + +A Call to Heresy + +Part One: Bible Quotations + +The Bible on Women + +Unto the women he (God) said "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy +conception; in sorrow thou shall bring forth children and thy desire shall be +to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." -Genesis 3:16 + +If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be +unclean seven days... But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean +two weeks... +- Leviticus 12:2-8 + +And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be +washed with water, and be unclean until the even. The woman also with whom +man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in +water, and be unclean until the even. And if a woman have an issue, and her +issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever +toucheth her shall be unclean until the even. And every thing that she lieth +upon in her separation shall be unclean. And whosoever toucheth her bed shall +wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. +And whoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes, and +bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even. And if any man lie +with her at all, and her flowers be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; +and all the beds whereon he lieth shall be unclean... This is the law of him +that hath an issue, and of him whose seed goeth from him, and is defile d +therewith; and of her that is sick of her flowers, and of him that hath an +issue, of the man, and of the woman, and of him that lie with her that is +unclean. +- Leviticus 15:17-33 + +Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. +-Colossians 3:18 + +Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands... +- 1 Peter 3:1 + +Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor +unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel... +- 1 Peter 3:7 + +[Women] are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. +- I Corinthians 14:34 + +But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head +of the woman is the man... +- 1 Corinthians 11:3 + +Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. +- 1 Corinthians 11:9 + +But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be +defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband: Then the +priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing and the priest shall say +unto the woman, The LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; +and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy +belly swell, and thy thigh to rot: and the woman shall say Amen, amen. +- Numbers 5:20-22 + +But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the +damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's +house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die... +- Deuteronomy 22:20-21 + +It is better to live in a corner of the roof than in a house shared with a +contentious woman. +- Proverbs 25:24 + +Now that she is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth +supplications and prayers night and day. But she that liveth in pleasure is +dead while she liveth. +- 1 Timothy 5:5-6 + +Let your women keep silent in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them +to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. +- 1 Corinthians 14:34 + +Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman +to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. +- 1 Timothy 2:11-12 + +Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands, as unto the Lord. For the +husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church... +- Ephesians 5:22-23 + +The Bible on Sex + +It is good for a man not to touch a woman. +- 1 Corinthians 7:1 + +For there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb; and +there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men; and there be eunuchs +which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that +is able to receive it, let him receive it. +- Matthew 19:12 + +Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly +lusts, which war against the soul. +- 1 Peter 2:11 + +For I would that all men were even as I myself [see Matthew 19:12]... I say +therefore to the unmarried and widows. It is good for them if they abide even +as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry +than to burn. +- 1 Corinthians 7:7-9 + +The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged +worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do +not marry... +- Luke 20:34-35 + +Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death. +- Exodus 22:19 + +And if a man lieth with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall +slay the beast. +- Leviticus 20:15 + +If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have +committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall +be upon them. +- Leviticus 20:13 + +Now Jacob fled to the land of Syria, and Abraham served for a wife, and for a +wife kept he sheep. +- Hosea 12:12 + +And the man that committeth adultry with another man's wife, even he that +committeth adultry with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress +shall surely be put to death. +- Leviticus 20:10 + +If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall +both of them die... +- Deuteronomy 22:22 + +Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, +fornication, uncleanliness, lasciviousness. +- Galatians 5:19 + +Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife, and perform your duty +as a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother." And Onan +knew that the offspring would not be his; so it came about that when he went +in to his brother's wife, he wasted his seed on the ground, in order not to +give offspring to his brother. But what he did was displeasing in the sight +of the LORD; so he took his life also. +- Genesis 38:8-10 + +And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondsmaid... she shall be +scourged... And he shall bring his tresspass offering unto the Lord... +- Leviticus 19:20-21 + +The Bible on Slavery and Race + +Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but +of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. +- Romans 13:1 + +Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with +eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God. +- Colossians 3:22 + +Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be +to the king, as supreme: or unto governors... +- 1 Peter 2:18 + +... Then said the Lord to me, Go ye, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet +an adulteress... so I bought her... +- Hosea 3:1 + +The Scribes and Pharises sit in Moses seat; all, therefore, whatsoever they +bid you observe, that observe and do. +- Matthew 23:2-3 + +I councel thee to keep the king's commandment... whoso keepeth the commandment +shall feel no evil thing. +- Ecclesiastes 23:2-5 + +Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall be unto his bretheren. +- Genesis 4:25 + +I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, +and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people afar off; for the Lord +hath spoken it. +- Joel 3:8 + +Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and +gentle, but also to the foward. +- 1 Peter 2:18 + +Let as many servants as are under your yoke count their own masters worthy of +all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. +- 1 Timothy 6:1 + +Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, +with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. +- Ephesians 6:5 + +Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well +in all things; not answering again; not purloining, but showing good fidelity; +that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. +- Titus 2:9-10 + +And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his +hand; he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or +two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money. +- Exodus 21:20-21 + +If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he +shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by +himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his +master has given him a wife, and she has born him sons or daughters; the wife +and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And +if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; +I will not go free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall +also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore +his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever. +- Exodus 21:2-6 + +Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's... +- Matthew 22-21 + +For everyone that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to +death. +- Leviticus 20:9 + +Both thy bondsmen, and thy bondsmaids, which thou shall have, shall be of the +heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondsmen and +bondsmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangrs that do sojourn among +you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they +begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them +as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a +possession... +- Leviticus 25:44-45 + +For ye, bretheren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are +in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, +even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own +prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to +all men. +- 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15 + +And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:The first and the last, who was +dead, and has come to life, says this: I know your tribulation and your +poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews +and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. +- Revelations 2:9 + +[Jews calling for the crucifiction of Jesus:] "... His blood be on us and on +our children!" +- Matthew 27:25 + +After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for he would not walk in Jewry, +because the Jews saught to kill him. +- John 7:1 + +The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die. +- John 19:7 + +[Jesus Christ addressing Jews:] "You are of your father the devil, and you +want to do the desires of your father... you are not of God." +- John 8:44-47 + +Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Etheopean woman whom +he had married, for he had married an Etheopian woman. +-Number 21:1 + +The Bible on The End of the World + +But the end of all things is at hand... +- 1 Peter 4:7 + +Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist +shall come, even now there are many antichrists; whereby we know that it is +the last time. +- 1 John 2:18 + +Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and +the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven... and +then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the +tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the +clouds of heaven... This generation shall not pass, till all these things be +fulfilled. +- Matthew 24:29-34 + +And [Jesus Christ] said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that there be some +of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen +the kingdom of God come with power. +- Mark 9:1 + +For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and +then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, +there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the +Son of man coming in his kingdom. +- Matthew 16:27-28 + +... the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light and the +stars of heaven shall fall... And then shall he send his angels, and shall +gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the +earth... Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all +these things be done. + - Mark 14:24-30 + +But I tell you as a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste +of death, till they see the kingdom of God. +- Luke 9:27 + +And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars... +Men's hearts failing them for fear... and then shall they see the Son of man +coming in a cloud... This generation shall not pass till all be fulfilled. +- Luke 21:25-32 + +Contradictions in the Bible + +Think not that I come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a +sword. +- Matthew 10:28 + +... all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. +- Matthew 26:52 +*** +For wrath killeth the foolish man... +- Job 5:2 + +... let not the sun go down on your wrath. +- Ephesians 4:26 +*** +And no man hath ascended up to heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. +- John 3:13 + +... and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. +- 2 Kings 2:11 +*** +If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. +- John 5:31 + +I am one that bear witness of myself... +- John 8:18 +[Jesus Christ was the speaker in both of these quotes] +*** +A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children... +- Proverbs 13:22 + +Sell that ye have and give alms... +- Luke 12:33 +*** +Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord... Wealth and riches shall be in his +house... +- Psalms 112:1-3 + +It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich +man to enter the kingdom of God. +- Matthew 19:24 +*** +I and my father are one. +- John 10:30 + +... I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. +- John 14:28 +[Jesus Christ was the speaker in both of these quotes] +*** +Thou shalt not kill +- Exodus 20:13 + +Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side... and +slay every man his brother... +- Exodus 32:27 +*** +Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. +- Exodus 20:8 + +The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with: it +is iniquity. +- Isaih 3:22 +*** +Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything +that is in heaven... earth... [or] water. +- Leviticus 26:11 + +And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make +them. +- Exodus 25:18 +*** +For by grace are ye saved through faith... not of works. +- Ephesians 2:8-9 + +Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. +- James 2:24 +*** +God is not a man, that he should lie: neither the son of man, that he should +repent. +- Numbers 23:19 + +And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. +- Exodus 32:14 +*** +... the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his +voice, and come forth... +- John 5:28-29 + +As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the +grave shall come up no more. +- Job 7:9 +*** +... thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for +hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. +- Exodus 21:23-25 + +... resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn +to him the other also. +- Matthew 5:39 +*** +Honor thy father and mother. +- Exodus 20:12 + +If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and +children, and bretheren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be +my disciple. +- Luke 14:26 +*** +Lay not up for yourself treasures upon the earth... +- Matthew 6:19 + +In the house of the righteous is much treasure... +- Proverbs 15:6 +*** +I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. +- Genesis 32:30 + +No man hath seen God at any time. +- John 1:18 +*** +The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father. +- Ezekiel 18:20 + +... I the lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers +upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. +- Exodus 20:5 +*** +Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. +- Proverbs 3:13 + +For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth +sorrow. +- Ecclesiastes 1:18 +*** +The Lord is good to all. +- Psalm 145:6 + +I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things. +- Isaiah 45:7 +*** +Whosoever shall say Thou fool, shall be in danger of hellfire. +- Matthew 5:22 + +[Jesus said] Ye fools and blind. +- Matthew 23:17 +*** +For all have sinned. +- Romans 3:23 + +There was a man... whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright. +- Job 1:1 +*** +Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to regin. +- 2 Kings 8:26 + +Fourty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign. +- 2 Chronicles 22:2 +*** +If a man vow a vow unto the Lord or swear an oath... he shall do according to +all that proceedeth out of his mouth. +- Numbers 30:2 + +But I say unto you, swear not at all; neither by heaven... nor by earth. +- Matthew 5:34-35 +*** +... the earth abideth forever. +- Ecclesiastes 1:4 + +... the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works +that are therein shall be burned up. +- 2 Peter 3:10 +*** +... for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever. +- Jeremiah 3:12 + +Ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever. +- Jeremiah 17:4 +*** +... God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. +- James 1:13 + +And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham. +- Genesis 22:1 +*** +And God saw everything that he made, and behold it was very good. +- Genesis 1:31 + +And it repented the Lord that he had made man on earth, and it grieved him at +his heart +- Genesis 6:6 +*** +For now have I chosen and sanctified this house that my name be there forever; +and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually. +- II Corinthians 7:16 + +Howbeit the most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands. +- Acts 7:48 +*** +[God dwells] in the light which no man can approach unto. +- I Timothy 6:16 + +The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. +- I Kings 8:12 +*** +And the Lord called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, +I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid. +- Genesis 3:9,10 + +Ye hath neither heard his voice, at any time, nor seen his shape. +- John 5:37 +*** +Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of +Israel. And they saw the God of Israel... They saw God, and did eat and +drink. +- Exodus 24: 9-11 + +Whom no man hath seen nor can see. +- I Timothy 6:16 +*** +With God all things are possible. +- Matthew 29:26 + +And the Lord was with Judah, and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain; +but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had +chariots of iron. +- Judges 1:19 +*** +God is not the author of confusion. +- I Corinthians 24:33 + +Out of the mouth of the most high proceedeth not evil and good? +- Lamantations 3:38 +*** +Those that seek me early shall find me. +- Proverbs 8:17 + +Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, +but shall not find me. +- Proverbs 1:28 +*** +On the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of attonement; it +shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls and +offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. +- Leviticus 23:27 + +For I spake not unto your fathers, nor comanded them in the day that I brought +them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offering or sacrifices. +- Jerimiah 7:22 +*** +And the priest shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice, an +offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord. +- Leviticus 1:9 + +Your burnt offering are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. +- Jerimiah 7:20 +*** +God is not a man, that he should lie +- Numbers 23:19 + +And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have +deceived that prophet. +- Ezekial 24:9 +*** +There is none other God but one. +- I Corinthians 8:4 + +And God said, Let us make man in our image. +- Genesis 1:26 +*** +When ye go, ye shall not go empty; but every woman shall borrow of her +neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver and jewels +of gold, and rainment; and ye shall put them on your sons and upon your +daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. +- Exodus 3:21,22 + +Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, nether rob him. +- Leviticus 19:13 +*** + +At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso +sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. +- Genesis 4:5,6 + +And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. +- Genesis 4:15 +*** +Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do +they spin... if God so clothe the grass of the field... shall he not much more +clothe you? Therefore, take no thought, saying what shall we eat? or what +shall we drink? or wherewithal shall we be clothed?... Take, therefore, no +thought for the morrow. +- Matthew 6:28, 30-34 + +But if any provideth not for his own, especially for those of his own house, +he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. +- I Timothy 5:8 +*** +Be ye angry and sin not. +- Ephesians 4:26 + +Be not hasty in they spirit to be angry; for anger resideth in the bosom of +fools. +- Ecclesiastes 7:9 +*** +Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works. +- Matthew 5:16 + +Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them. +- Matthew 6:1 +*** +And Solomon stood before the alter of the Lord, in the presence of all the +congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven... +- I Kings 7:22 + +When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to +pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they +may be seen of men... +- Matthew 6:5 +*** +And no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nararite unto +God from the womb. +- Judges 8:5 + +Doth not even nature itself teach you, that if a man hath long hair, it is a +shame unto him? +- I Corinthians 6:14 +*** +Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. +- Exodus 20:8 + +One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. +Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. +- Romans 14:5 +*** +For in the six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in +them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath +day and hallowed it. +- Exodus 20:11 + +And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord +thy God brought the out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out +arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded the to keep the Sabbath day. +- Deuteronomy 5:15 +*** +There is nothing unclean of itself. +- Romans 14:14 + +Nevertheless, these shall ye not eat, of them that chew the cud or of them +that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel and the hare, and the coney; for +they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof, therefore they are unclean unto +you. And the swine, because it divideth the hoof, yet cheweth not the cud, it +is unclean unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, nor touch their dead +carcass. +- Deuteronomy 14:7,8 +*** +Cursed is he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the +daughter of his mother. +- Deuteronomy 27:22 + +And Abraham said... She is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but +not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. +- Genesis 20:11,12 +*** +If bretheren dwell together, and one of them die and have no child, the wife +of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger; her husband's brother +shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife. +- Deuteronomy 25:5 + +If a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing... they shall +be childless. +- Leviticus 20:21 +*** +He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness. +- Mark 3:29 + +And by him that believe are justified from all things. +- Acts 13:39 +*** +[John the Baptist] is Elias which was for to come. +- Matthew 11:14 + +And they asked him, what then? Art thou [John the Baptist] Elias? And he +saith, I am not. +- John 1:21 +*** + +Now, after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the +gospel of the kingdom of God. +- Mark 1:14 + +After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea... and +John was also baptising Enon... for John was not yet cast into prison. +- John 3:22-24 +*** +And it was in the third hour, and they crucified him. +- Mark 25:3-4 + +And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour; and he +saith unto the Jews, behold your king... Shall I crucify your king? +- John 19:14-15 +*** +They gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. +- Matthew 27:34 + +And they gave him to drink, wine mingled with myrrh. +- Mark 15:23 +[Jesus was the thirsty chap in both verses.] +*** +And the men which journyed with [Paul] stood speechless, hearing a voice, but +seeing no man. +- Acts 9:7 + +And they that were with me [Paul] saw indeed the light and were afraid; but +they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. +- Acts 22:9 +*** +Abraham had two sons; one by a bonds-maid, the other by a free woman. +- Galtians 4:22 + +By faith, Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac... his only begotten son. +- Hebrews 11:17 +*** +Therefore Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child unto the day of her +death. +- II Samuel 6:23 + +The five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul. +- II Samuel 21:8 +*** +And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David +against them to say, Go, number Israel. +- II Samuel 24:1 + +And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. +- I Chronicles 21:1 +*** +All power is given unto [Jesus] in heaven and in earth. +- Matthew 28:18 + + +And [Jesus] could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands on a +few sick folk and healed them. +- Mark 6:5 +*** +There shall no evil happen to the just. +- Proverbs 12:21 + +Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. +- Hebrews 12:6 + +Atrocities and Absurdities in the Bible + +And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it unto thine hands, thou shalt smite +every male thereof with the edge of the sword: but the women, and the little +ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoils +thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine +enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. +- Deuteronomy 20:13-14 + +For my love they are my adversaries... When he shall be judged, let him be +condemned... Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his +children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually +vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate +places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers +spoil his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let +there be any to favor his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; +and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. +- Psalm 109:4-13 + +For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft... +- 1 Samuel 15:23 + +You shall not allow a soceress to live. +- Exodus 22:18 + +He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the Lord alone, shall be utterly +destroyed. +- Exodus 22:20 + +[Moses to his soldiers:] Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, +and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women +children that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for +yourselves. +- Numbers 31:17-18 + +And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name they shall cast out +devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if +they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on +the sick, and they shall recover. +- Mark 16:17-18 + +But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring +them hither, and slay them before me. +- Mark 9:34 + +Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and +burned them... So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. +- Acts 19:19-20 + +... if through falshood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I +still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come, as +some people slanderously charge us with saying? Their condemnation is just. +- Romans 3:7-8 + +You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads, nor harm the edges of +your beard. You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead, nor make +any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD. +- Leviticus 19:27-28 + +Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces. +- Malachi 2:3 + +And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that +cometh out of man... +- Ezekiel 4:12 + +Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung and thou shalt prepare thy +bread therewith. +- Ezekiel 4:15 + +... Hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat +their own dung, and drink their own piss with you? +- Isaiah 36:12 + +Wherefore my bowels shall sound like aharp for Moab, and mine insard parts for +Kirkarcsh. +- Isaiah 16:11 + +Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. +- Psalms 137:9 + +Jesus Christ on the Bible + +Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to +destroy, but to fulfill... Till heaven and earth shall pass, one jot or one +tittle shall in no wise pass from the law... + +- Matthew 5:17-18 + + + +Part Two: Facts About the Bible + + + +1. John 3:2 refers to Jesus Christ as "Rabbi," but teachers of the Jewish law + were not called Rabbis until after the destruction of the Temple in 70 e.v. + Jesus was supposed to have died several years prior. + +2. Jesus Christ refered to himself as the "son of man." In some instances, the + word used for "son" could also be translated "invention." Jesus, the + invention of man. + +3. Mark 7:1-5 and Matthew 15:1-6 relate a controversy beween Jesus and the + Pharasees regarding the washing of hands before meals. However, the + institution of washing hands before meals took place only after the year 65 + e.v. + +4 The "Golden Rule" was not an invention of Jesus Christ. It is found in + Leviticus 19:18 and in Tobit 4:15 but was also stated by teacher Hillel a + full generation before Christ when he said "Whatever is hateful to you, do + not do to your fellow man." + +5. Timothy 3:16, which states "All scripture is inspired by God," was writen + when there was no New Testament Canon; at most, it can only refer to the + Old Testament and the Apocrypha. + +6. In the seventh chapter of Mark Jesus is reported as going through Sidon on + his way to Tyre to the Sea of Galilee. Not only is Sidon in the opposite + direction, but there was in fact no road from Sidon to the Sea of Galilee + in the first century AD, only one from Tyre. + +7. Mark 10:12 represents Jesus as saying "If a woman divorces her husband and + marries another she is guilty of adultery." This would have been + meaningless in the Jewish world, where women have no right of divorce. + +8. The gospels were writen at least over two hundred years after the death of + Jesus Christ, and not by the apostles they are named after. + +9. Although Paul's writings comprise a substantial proportion of the New + Testament, he was apparently entirely ignorant of Jesus' life. He does not + name Jesus' parents, where he was born, where he lived, or when. His books + contain no mention of Jesus' parables or "miracles," no reference to his + trial before Pilot, nor of Jerusalem as the place of his execution. On his + own admission, Paul never knew Jesus and based his whole faith on a vision + he claimed to have received of the ressurected Jesus. + +10.There is no historical corroberation that King Herrod killed children as + reported in Matthew 2:16, although a wealth of information on Herrod is + known. + +11.In Isaiah 7:14, "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son," the + passage used to justify the Messiah-status of Jesus in Matthew, the + original text of Isaiah used the word 'almah, which simply means "young + woman." Only in the 3rd century e.v. was the Greek word parthenos (virgin) + inacurately used as a translation for 'almah. Further, Mark 6:3 lists + Jesus' brothers and sisters, entirely dismissing Jesus' claim to a virgin + birth and Mary's status as a virgin mother. + +12.Luke announces the birth of Jesus as taking place in the reign of Herod the + Great, who is known to have died in 4 BC. In Luke 2:1-3 it is said "Now at + this time Casaer Augustus issued a decree for a census of the whole world + to be taken. This census -- the first -- took place while Quirinus was + governor of Syria, and everyone went to his home to be registered..." The + first-ever census among Jews did take place during Quirinius' governorship, + but this did not and could not have happened until at least 6 e.v, the + first year that Judaea came under direct Roman rule, when it was reliably + recorded by Josephus as an unprecedented event of that year. + + +13.The releasing to the multitude of any one prisoner whom they wanted during + the feast of the governor where Barabbas was chosen over Jesus as reported + in Matthew 27:15 has no historic corroberation. + +14.According to Matthew 1:16 Joseph, surrogate father of Jesus, was the son of + Jacob. According to Luke 3:23, Joseph was the son of Heli. + +15.According to Isaiah 11:12 and Revelations 7:1, the world has four corners. + Other bible verses speak of the earth as a flat object with massive caves + underneith and a bowl-shaped sky above. The sun and moon move under the + bowl of the sky, and stars are small holes in the dome of the sky. + + + +Part Three: Commentary on the Bible and Christianity + + + +As a literary monument the Bible is of much later origin than the Vedas; as a +work of literary value it is surpased by everything writen in the last two +thousand years by authors even of second rank, and to compare it seriously +with the productions of Homer, Sophocles, Dante, Shakespeare or Gothe would +require a fanatacized mind that had entirely lost its power of judgement. Its +conception of the universe is childish, and its morality revolting, as +revealed in the malicious vengance attributed to God in the Old Testament and +in the New, the parable of the laborers of the eleventh hour and the episodes +of Mary Magdalen and the woman taken in adultry. Historical investigations +have revealed to us the origin and growth of the Bible. We know that by this +name we designate a collection of writings as radically unlike in origin, +character and contents, as if the Nibelungen Lied, Mirabeu's speeches, Heine's +love poems and a manual of zoology had been printed and mixed up +promiscuously, and then bound into one volume. We find collected in this book +the superstitious beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, with +indistinct echoes of Indian and Persian fables, mistaken imitations of +Egyptian theories and customs, historical chronicles as dry as they are +unreliable, and miscellaneous poems, amatory, human and Jewish-national, which +are rarely distinguished by beauties of the highest order, but frequently by +superfluity of expression, bad taste, and genuine Oriental sensuality. - Max +Nordau, Conventional Lies of Our Civilization + +Our study of pornography, our living of life, tells us that the myth of +feminine evil lived out so resolutely by the Christians of the Dark Ages, is +alive and well, here and now. Our study of pornography, our living of life, +tells us that though the witches are dead, burned alive at the stake, the +belief in female evil is not, the hatred of female carnality is not. The +Church has not changed its premises; the culture has not refuted those +premises. It is left to us, the inheritors of that myth, to destroy it and +institutions based on it. - Andrea Dworkin, Women Hating + +Leaders in the field of marketing products of divinity, the Christian churches +have bowed to the pressures of the commodity system and put on a display of +contortionism which will not cease until their trade-mark, the chameleon-like +Jesus, has been discared entirely. Son of God, son of a whore, son of the +virgin, worker of miracles and maker of loaves, militant and steward, pederast +and puritan, accuser and accused, convict and astronaut... no role is outside +the range of this amazing puppet figure. He has been a hawker of suffering, +waiter dispensing favors... he has been a sansculotte and socialist, a fascist +and anti-fascist, a stalinist and barbudo, a Reichian and anarchist. He has +marched on every side under every flag; he has been in every self-doubt and +stood at both ends of the lash, and present at most executions where he has +held the hand both of the executioner and of the executioner's victim. He has +his place in police-station and prison and school, brothel and barrac k, +department store and guerilla-held territory. He has been used as a pendant +and dipstick, as a scarecrow standing guard over the resting dead and the +kneeling living; he has been used as torment and short rations: and once the +hawkers of the blessed foreskins have rehabilitated sin as a commercial +proposition he will serve as a dildo... Jesus Christ, superdrug and superstar, +all the images of the man who sold out to God, caught up in the hard sell of +the Godhead. - Raul Vaughnaheim, The Subsistence Society + +... Most of the world is ruled by Biblical religious beliefs -- even Africa +now. I want to encourage anything that's a statement against Christianity, +because over the past 500 years Christian missionaries systematically +destroyed virtually all of world's diverse cultures, making the world a much +less interesting place. No other religion -- Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, +Paganism -- did anywhere near the damage Christianity did. Bishop Landa +burned almost all the one-of-a-kind Mayan codices -- an incalculable +historical loss. There have been so many atrocities (like the Inquisition and +the Salem witch trials) in the name of Christianity that -- it can't be too +soon to be rid of that alien belief plague. In fact, aliens from Outer Space +could hardly have devised a more crippling weapon against the people of planet +Earth than the Christian religion. - V. Vale, Re/Search #12: Modern +Primitives + +With all of the contradictions in the Christian scriptures, many people +currently cannot rationally accept Christianity the way it has been practiced +in the past. Great numbers of people are beginning to doubt the existence of +God, in the established Christian sense of the word. So, they have taken to +calling themselves "Christian Athiests." True, the Christian Bible is a mass +of contradictions; but what could be more contradictory than the term +"Christian Athiest?" If prominent leaders of the Christian faith are rejecting +the past interpretation of God, how then can their followers be expected to +adhere to previous religious traditions? With all the debates about whether +or not God is dead, if he isn't he had better have MEDICARE! r- Anton LaVey, +The Satanic Bible + +The mind that becomes soiled in youth can never again be washed clean. I know +this by my own experience, and to this day I cherish an unappeasable +bitterness against the unfaithful guardians of my young life, who not only +permitted but compelled me to read an unexpurgated Bible through before I was +fifteen years old. None can do that and ever draw a clean, sweet breath again +this side of the grave. - Mark Twain. + +I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature. - Thomas Jefferson, +quoted in Salvation for Sale by Gerard Thomas Straub + +The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never +give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma. - Abraham +Lincoln, quoted in Salvation for Sale by Gerard Thomas Straub + +Those who do not violently set themselves against religion, the bogus God, the +parasitic priests -- these professors of resignation are assimilable to the +pact with the countless vermin of Christianity, vermin which must be +exterminated. - Andre Breton, What is Surrealism? + +Christianity -- the religion dominant in our present society -- has had a +history that is simply FILLED with examples of disregard of individual +liberty, equality of men and women, and the dignity of all races of people. +The religion has exhibited over a period of almost two thousand years... a +self-righteous desire to impose itself on anyone and everyone through law, and +a total intense suppression of criticism and questioning of itself. How can +anyone with any shred of love for freedom call himself or herself part of THAT +tradition? Religion is a terrible and opportunistic thing. The fact is that +something in it will always attempt to seize on anything in the world that can +lever it into an even more secure position of dominance. If the spirit of the +time is for slavery, then it is for slavery; if the tendency evolves towards +fascism, it is fascistic. And true to form when protest is the hallmark of an +age, the churches turn into abodes of singing nuns with guitars, or earnest +young ministers decrying nuclear weapons. - Fred Woodworth, Strike + +There is nothing more negative than the result of the critical study of the +life of Jesus. The Jesus of Nazareth who came foward publicly as the Messiah, +who preached the ethic of the Kingdom of God, who founded the Kingdom of +Heaven upon earth, and died to give his work its final consecration, never had +any existence... This image has not been destroyed from without, it has fallen +to pieces, cleft and disintegrated by the concrete historical problems which +came to the surface one after another... - Albert Schweitzer, The Quest for +the Historical Jesus. + +I do indeed think that we can now know almost nothing concerning the life and +personality of Jesus, since the early Christian sources show no interest in +either, are moreover fragmentary and often legendary. - Rudolf Bultmann + +An old adage says, "Where a priest has trod, no grass will grow!" That means, +in other words, if a person is once in the clutches of the priests, his +intellect becomes barren -- his intellectual functions cease to operate in a +normal way, and instead religious maggots and divine worms wriggle through his +brain. He resembles a sheep that has the staggers. These misguided, unhappy +wretches have been defrauded of the real object of life; but what is worse, +they form the great crowd in the train of the opponents to science and the +march of reason, to revolution and to liberty. Whenever new chains are to be +forged for mankind, they are willing to work at the anvil as if possessed by +demons... Away, then, with the Christian theology! Away with a god invented +by preachers of the bloody faith, who, without their important nothing, by +means of which they explain everything, could no longer revel in superfluity; +no longer glorify poverty and live in luxury themselves; no longer preach +submission and practice arrogance; but who would, through the march of reason, +be hurled into the deepest depths of oblivion. - Johann Most, The God +Pestilence + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/heretic.txt b/religious documents/heretic.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29b4305 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/heretic.txt @@ -0,0 +1,203 @@ + + THE HERETIC'S CORNER + by Buck Jump + + Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed +to you; may the bugs flee your patch as from a crow; may the +gentle rain fall softly on your flower beds; and may your lovers +be all you wish them to be. Now at the season of long lovely +days and short passionate nights, when our Mother the fair Earth +is at her richest and most bountiful, it is hardly the season for +deep thinking. + + When nature is at its very best and the season most +enjoyable are we not all of us tempted to shut off the mental +processes and enjoy life in a purely sensual mammalian way? Of +course we are, to do less would be an insult to creation. + + At this glad time, here comes that old pest, the heretic, +like the ghost at Ceasar's feast. Consider, dear friends, even +as the screech owl is put into this world to scare goose bumps on +our backs, the here-tic is put into the world to ask hard +questions and discomboomerate the quiet mind. The only place on +this sweet earth where we can look for a quiet unchanging stay is +a graveyard. It is so with me, even as with you. + + The other day when I was minding my own business [a most ha- +zardous occupation], a stranger came to me with a request. He +wanted me to magically restore to him a lost love. It seems that +he had, by his own actions, turned his lady's love if not to +hate, at least to an active dislike. He was sorry. He knew it +was all his own fault. He agreed that she was justified in +leaving him. He beat his chest and cried `mea culpa', but he +wanted her back, and he wanted me or someone to, as he put it, +"push the right button", and change the situation. Before he +came to me he had been to a friend of mine. The friend is a +scholar and practical magician who is rather more daring than +most- he had by magic means caused the lady to recall the best of +the past. With that, the lady consented to talk with her ex- +enamorata, and dis-cuss, in a civilized fashion, her decision to +be done with him. At that, the magician bowed out. He pointed +out to the petitioner that from there on, it was up to him. My +friend the magician can be, when he has to be, a most impressive +man, and I gather he dismissed the `lorn lover' with a definite +dismissal. + + Then he came to me. I pointed out that there ain't no free +lunch in the universe and I had no intention of taking on a +karmic debt of considerable proportion for his possible benefit. +I told him that it is easier to move a mountain than to move a +human mind if it will not be moved. I told him that he was +trying to find someone to do for him what could only be properly +done by himself. I pointed out to him that his situation was an +effect of a cause, a cause that he was respon-sible for. I told +him that magic is fine as a last resort, but hardly to be +considered as first aid. I told him ...... I wasted my breath. +Such a one hears only what he wants to hear. + + The petitioner only said, "I just need someone to push the +right button - she used to love me. I am not asking much, I just +want things to be like they were." + + I refrained from pointing out that Hitler could have said +the same thing in the bunker. Then he said, "I am willing to pay +you. Just tell me how much it's going to cost." Some things are +an insult from a knowledgeable person, and a joke from a fool. I +laughed. He was the sort who would ask "How much?", referring to +one's head. + + Now I am, I think, a reasonable sort, patient, and in my own +way polite, but enough is enough, and this chap was rapidly +becoming too much. I told him flatly, that I was not about to do +any button pushing. I gave him what I felt was good advice. +That is, I told him that if he was determined to further his +amours by magic means to learn to do it himself. I referred him +to a most knowledgeable teacher. I was in that way certain that +he would either learn what was involved in his request and give +it up, or more likely abandon the whole thing as too slow and too +difficult. (The teacher informs me that he never bothered to +even go around to see what the teacher had to offer. A case of +"Gimme my daily bread, I'm willing to wait with my mouth open".) + + Then he countered that if I wouldn't "push the button" could +I refer him to someone who could, or would. I inquired around. +One col-league I know is willing to try just about anything. He +once did a weather spell out on the high plains in tornado season +and another time worked a charm to rid a field of grasshoppers in +hail season. I add, both were successful in a disastrous way. +When I contacted him with the case, his words were, "I'd like to +but I'm going on a trip to South America." Surprised, I asked +about the trip, adding I hadn't known about it. He replied, "I +didn't know about it either, but if that dude shows up here, I'm +going!" + + Failing to find a genuine scholar and practicing magician +to attempt the matter, I tried a couple of unethical charlatans. +In view of the fact that the petitioner was a large muscular sort +who would expect instant results, they regretfully declined. + + + I was beginning to feel like Sinbad the Sailor when he +carried the old man of the sea piggyback around the island. At +wit's end (where I have lived for years), I suggested that he try +religion. I offered to introduce him to some nice Pagan folks, +or even get him in touch with some T.V. type evange-lists. He +refused on the grounds that they would be too slow and uncertain. +He wanted instant gratification. + + At last, thanks be to the power that watches over well- +meaning fools like me, another lady hove into sight, and he took +off in her direction with deep breath and flashing eyes. This +sad fellow is but one of many I've had the misfortune to meet. I +am sure most of you could recount similar sad tales. We'll all +have to get together and I'll haul out the portable wailing wall, +and we can share a cup of tea and all sympathize with each other. + + I wouldn't have bored you with this all too familiar tale +except I have a question. How does one deal with such people? +Is there some way to tell a person with a real problem who can be +helped from the person who has an endless amount of wants and no +energy to help himself? That is, some way, without finding out +the hard way? I can handle skeptics (I am one myself), I can +handle cynics, I can handle atheists and deal with convinced true +believers of all sorts, but how do I deal with a person who +believes that I can work miracles? + + One question leads to another. I have a few more on the +same line. How comes it that as soon as people, some of them at +least, find that one is not part of some main line orthodox +church, they straightway want you to work some magic? Are Roman +Catholic and Episcopal priests pes-tered by miracle seekers? Are +T.V. evangelists? If not, why not? They deal in magic as much +as any Pagan or free thinker. Is the prevalence of lazy +freeloaders the reason that Christianity for the last fifteen +centuries or so has been down playing the magical basis of the +early Church? This is a topic worthy of our consideration. + + Another question comes to mind at this point. A question +about magic in general. I am sure you know what magic is, just +is I am sure I know what it is. The defi-nitions are many and +varied, but they all basically state in one way or another, that +magic is the prac-tical side of religion, and the practice of +magic is the art of causing changes in the tangible by intangible +means. Or, to put it another way, magic is a mental way of +changing the physical by means of the spiritual. That is what +magic is, no question there. The question is what does the +uninitiated, uninformed layman think magic is? + + If you are going to make a living repairing televisions and +radios, it is not enough that you know electronics. You must +also know what your customers believe about electronics. The +degree of success in the TVRadio repair business is generally in +direct proportion to the amount of customer knowledge the +proprietor of the business has. The rule is, if you deal with +the run of humanity, you must understand the general run of +humanity. You must not know only what you know, but also what +people ignorantly suppose you know. + + I pass this bit of wisdom on to you, for I think it has +value to any serious student of matters intangible. An old +doctor of medicine told me this some forty years ago. The +occasion was a patient of his inquiring about an operation for a +then inoperable condition. I, only an army medic, was astounded +at the fellow's ignorance and when the Doc and I were alone, said +as much. "Son," the old doctor said, "Here is something to +remember Anything that works that you don't understand is magic + and a magician can do anything. That's not the truth, but +ninety per cent of the human race believe it is." That is how +people who have never studied the arts of magic see it. To them +it is a power without cost and without limit. + + Now, the final question for this time is, what should we do +about this situation? How should one handle a request made in +good faith, to do something clearly impossible? Don't tell me +the answer is nineteenth century elitist secrecy. Even if one +is a member of The Mystic Confraternity of the Aureate, six +fifteen A.M. some well intentioned ill informed citizen is going +to crawl out of your woodwork either begging for a miracle or +demanding one. Secrecy restricts the free flow of information +and the cross fertilization of ideas, besides which it don't +work. I fear that people more or less like the chap I described +at the start of this will ever be with us. What can we do about +them, how should we do it? I am as always serious with my ques +tions. If anyone has some idea on the subject please let us all +know. Write the editorial staff of the RMPJ. Don't hide your +light in this dark world. + + Now, having done my best to dispel the boredom of too much +of a good thing, I part now from you. May the sunshine fall +softly on you, tanning but not burning. May our sweet Mother the +Earth long know your shadow. May you go ever with the current of +the power of the Absolute. My blessings on one and all. + (c)1986, by Buck Jump +.........from R.M.P.J. 8/86 + +This article is excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal. +Each issue of the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal is published by +High Plains Arts and Sciences; P.O. Box 620604, Littleton Co., +80123, a Colorado Non-Profit Corporation, under a Public Domain +Copyright, which entitles any person or group of persons to +reproduce, in any form whatsoever, any material contained therein +without restriction, so long as articles are not condensed or +abbreviated in any fashion, and credit is given the original +author.! diff --git a/religious documents/heretic1.txt b/religious documents/heretic1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3bd340f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/heretic1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1030 @@ + THE HERETIC +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +July 1992 C.I. - Incorporating The Watcher & The Realist - No. 1 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + SELF - OVERCOMING : The Pagan Way + + Recently an aspirant to Adeptship returned a course paper in which +he expressed a fatalistic and defeatist attitude towards life. To a +consideration of how the Quest for self-realization can be travelled, he +answered that in his case it cannot be. That which was halting him was his +own negative image, and it is his 'destiny' that he be kept where he is. + This aspirant could not be initiated into our Order's IIø while +possessing such an outlook. Without trying to lay down any 'Satanic dogma', +our Order does possess quite specific purposes, one of which is to +encourage the Adept in his Quest for ever higher states of Being. This +requires a lifestyle, a practical outlook; thus our Order's Satanism is +more than a religion or a philosophy - it is a way of living. + This Satanic life-style is predicated on a Nietzschean +Self-Overcoming, impelling one to transcend all obstacles and limitations - +whether imposed by Self or others - a Promethean defiance. + As Nietzsche himself put it: "That which does not destroy, makes me +stronger." + The fatalism of a 'destiny' which so overwhelms the outlook of its +possessor that it cannot be confronted and overcome is an Oriental +intrusion which leads to stagnation, and belongs to what we call the +Right-Hand Path. It is akin to "the will of god" that cannot/must not, be +resisted. + Our aspirant expressed a hope that perhaps he will reincarnate into +a better life. + The very essence of the Satanic life is that of defiance. Our +outlook is essentially pagan. The Norse believed in fate/destiny (wyrd) but +they were in no way bowed or restrained by it. If fate imposed hardship, +then it was to be defied. The warrior would either succeed or die +honourably in the struggle. What he would not do is raise up his hands in +resignation, or bow his head in grief and blame 'fate', 'destiny', or the +"will of Odin" for his plight. + The Satanist is the contemporary pagan warrior. He confronts his +personal 'wyrd' and strives to overcome all obstacles on his Quest for +Selfhood, and is stronger for it. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + EDITORIAL + +CHRISTLING FOLLIES + The past few months have not been good for the Christlings. Their +anti-Satanist campaign has gone out with a whimper in both N.Z. and +Australia, and has been discredited in Britain and the USA through a series +of court fiascos involving alleged 'ritual abuse.' + Now it seems the Devil is getting his own back. The media has +turned its attention to the odd sexual escapades of the 'men of god' +themselves. It is difficult to get too indignant over the Irish Bishop who +has a son by a parishioner, which was well covered by the media here, when +one considers the ongoing cases of christian child abuse. In Feb. NZ Truth +- which has previously done its bit in the anti-Satanist hysteria - this +time came out with a properly documented feature quaintly titled "Church +tries to hide sex pervert." This concerned the exposure of an Assembly of +God pastor who was charged with numerous account of child abuse many other +of which were dropped because of church pressure on parents. The article +also listed several other recent examples of christian child abuse. + Then in Australia, the media dropped its attention of Satanic +paedophiles and cannibals and turned its eye on the Children of God sect, +which is being accused of child abuse and child porn. In March Owen +Dowling, Anglican Bishop of Canberra, was charged with propositioning an +off-duty police officer - male - for sex. + Who was it who said: "He who is without sin, cast the first stone"? +Or as the Chinese sages would put it: "Don't spit in the wind or you'll get +your own back." + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + REVIEWS + +The Fifth Path #3, Editor R. Ward. 66 pages. + This magazine is unique in being a review of alternative and +underground culture and philosophy from a non-left/liberal perspective. +Thus it can truly be called heretic. + To quote Adam Parfrey of Feral House Publishers: "I think it will +fill a vacuum in music publications. Many left-leading types of publication +are totalitarian and exclusionist in their coverage, and your issue gives +needed perspective on people who have been ignored or shunned." + Issue #3 carries reviews of music and literature. Featured is Boyd +Rice, social-Darwinist musician/composer, priest in the Church of Satan, +and founder of the 'occult-fascist think-tank', the Abraxas Foundation. +(See review below of his paper Wake). Indicative of his philosophy is the +quote: "You can't separate creative and destructive force; there has to be +a balance between them." + Part I of an interview with Tony Wakefield of Sol Invictus, +explains his views on Norse paganism, and the danger of "economic mass +culture." + "In the Service of Odin" is an interview with Freya Aswynn, +priestess of Odin and authoress of books on Norse paganism. She asks: "Do +you have to go walking around, wallowing in guilt, disgusted with yourself +because you happen to be white, because of what some stupid capitalist +asshole did some hundred, two hundred years ago?" + Michael Moynihan of Blood Axis, and an associate of Boyd Rice, is +interviewed on his musical and literary endeavours. + Feature articles include an overview of the life and ritual suicide +of Japanese writer and neo-Samurai nationalist Yukio Mishima; the +traditionalist but innovative music of Carl Orff; the rise of neo-nazi +skinheads in Germany. +Cost: USA, Mexico, Canada - $5. Europe - $6.50. Asia, Africa, Pacific Rim - +$7.25, from: The Fifth Path, PO Box 1632, Carmichael, Ca. 95609-1632 USA. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Wake #1, Editor Boyd Rice. + This is the periodical of the Abraxas Foundation, the aim of which +is to facilitate "a renaissance of resurgent atavism; creating a vanguard +of New Barbarianism." + Abraxas is taken from the name of the gnostic deity, a description +of which is given from a quote by Carl Jung. Briefly, Abraxas represents +the balance of Opposites. AF's symbol is the Wolfsangle, based on the 13th +of the Norse runes. It is the Norse reflection of the Abraxian principle, +"representing the balance point between creative and destructive force, +good and evil, life and death." + "Wake" consists principally of quotes reflecting this message. +"Natures Eternal Fascism" is an attack on the dogma of equality. + +$US2; overseas airmail - $3 from: Abraxas Foundation, Box 300081, Denver, +Co. 80203, USA. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Hysteron Proteron: The Inner Teachings of the O.N.A. 20pp. 1 Pound; +overseas $US3 - cash only. (Add $US10.00 for bank charges if paying by +cheque), from: Thormynd Press, Box 700, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. + Introduction: "This present work contains secret MSS circulated +among members of the Satanic organization, the Order of Nine Angles. These +MSS contain details of the most secret teachings of that Order, and +compliment the material already issued in works such as "Naos", "The Black +Book of Satan", and "Hostia". They are being made available to explicate +the true nature of traditional Satanism." + Amongst the 8 papers, "The Hard Reality of Satanism" explains what +Satanism is and is not. It is "a quest for self-excellence", intensely +elitist and individualistic. What Satanism is NOT, is a religion serving as +a crutch for individual weakness. "A Satanist never surrenders to anything +- and would rather die, proud and defiant, than submit." + "The Satanic Dialectic" is an outline of practical strategy to +cause important changes. It includes the ONA's conception of "Aeonics", a +method of historical analysis comparable to Spengler's cyclical theory. On +one level this involves propagating heretical ideas that defy the current +social/political norms. Examples of this are given as opposition to +equalitarian dogma and pacifism and the questioning of some of the sacred +cows left over from World War II propaganda. + "On a higher level, the dialectic is concerned with long-term +evolution - with the creation and change of civilizations" and the +evolution of "a new species". + "The reason 'why' there is a sinister strategy - a dimension beyond +the personal - is simple: it is in the nature of Satanism (genuine +Satanism, anyway) itself. Satanism at its highest level is concerned with +'cosmic change' - that is, it is an expression of the level of _conscious_ +existence. Evolution is something we as conscious beings can participate in +and indeed create - by so doing we are extending the range of out being..." + "Thus Satanism, correctly understood is more than a glorification +of the ego, or an indulgence in pleasures, or some kind of intellectual, +'esoteric' knowledge... _It is Satanists playing at god_: altering +themselves, others, societies, civilizations and evolution itself." + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + 'THE PIT & THE PENDULUM' + + A Film Review by Nevus, OLHP IIIø + +Directed by Stuart Gordon +Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe + + Set in 14th Century Spain during the Inquisition, this movie shows +the terror that the Church used to sway humanity to betray itself. It also +shows several of the many horrendous methods of torture practiced on +heretic and witches, most of whom were innocent, and used only to show that +the Church would not be denied. Thus were people brought into the human +stockyard. + After viewing this film the 'common person' would probably say, +'good movie', and think no more of it, as though it was something akin to +'Terminator': completely made-up for the pathetic 'couch potato'. + As a Satanist and a man who likes to analyze, it had a lasting +effect upon me. + Such things of the Church should be undone!! + Recommended viewing. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + SANCTUS SATANAS + by H.D. Baynes, OLHP IIIø + + Nine time + the bell does ring. + South, East, North and West. + Altarlight, candlebright, + Infernal light of night, + Out the open window rage, + The clouds across the moon. + Stand alone, apart from time, + aglow this sacred room. + One temple, one word, + The mighty will be heard. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Uncle Setnakt Says + + Uncle Setnakt wishes to send his congratulations to Mr. Bolton on +his victory with the New Zealand Press Council. I would like to take this +opportunity to talk about why we bother dealing with society at all when it +would be so much easier to remain an Underground movement and safe from the +bricks and torches of the followers of the Prince of Peace. + 1. Society gives us an opportunity to practice White Magic. White +magic is when we appeal to a man-made entity outside ourselves for a change +in our condition. Rather than choosing an overworked and therefore nearly +meaningless entity like Jehovah or "the Goddess," we choose a man-made +creation to support with sacrifice -- money and/or time -- and expect +rewards from in a manner greater than our work has won. This fulfills the +human need for a god to turn to when we need slack, and we get far better +results with these gods than with Jehovah. If we Understand this as a +magical process, we get far better results indeed. + 2. Society gives us an opportunity to practice Lesser Black Magic. +Lesser Black Magic is manipulation accomplished through guile and cunning +(or through the application of little known physical laws). When we use +Lesser Black Magic we create a sense of wonder, terror, sensuality, or +sentiment in our targets. We present them with these emotional gifts in +exchange for their loyalty and aide. We also remind ourselves that we have +the same capacity to be bamboozled, and to constantly re-examine our values +against the vast roar of cultural propaganda. + 3. Society gives us an opportunity to practice Greater Black Magic. +Greater Black Magic is the application of a spiritual technology to change +the objective and subjective universes in accordance with our Will. The +only place to learn how truly effective our magic is is by causing things +to come into being in the human world. If we're counting on creating +ourselves as divine beings, we need a non-subjective test of our powers. We +need to know how well our magic really works. The best test is to alter the +world of men and use that alteration to further our own Becoming. If we can +bring about beneficial change change in the world, we know that we can +create forces in the objective universe to sustain us the way our bodies +currently do. + 4. Society gives us an opportunity to practice conventional evil. +If we are to have the inner independence necessary to break the fetters +that hinder us on our path to godhood, we need to have the spiritually +strengthening practice of being an outsider. We need to stand alone. One of +the most effective ways of doing this is the practice of social evil. If +you really want to know what it is to stand outside of your society, try +breaking a simple taboo that hurts no one. Try not mowing your lawn. Nobody +rushes forward to defend this as your civil right. Watch the ultimate fire +of hate blossom in your neighbor's eyes -- because you're not cutting up an +organism. They'll give you letters, legal threats, and social ostracism. If +you can withstand this pressure, you may be able to withstand the pressures +willing up within that try to force back to sleep. + 5. Society gives us a laboratory to search for the transcendental +Good. It is all very well to say that your magic is bringing about your +values the world, but unless you examine your values in the details of life +they are worthless. How far will you push yourself to accomplish your life +mission? How quickly do you sell out against the forces of sleep? Unless +you constantly seek new horizons to push against, you have lost yourself in +the mire of subjectivity. You will have already died if you choose to +merely live in your daydreams. The condition that most of mankind faces +after death -- the dreamy semi-aware state that the Greeks called Hades -- +will have already claimed you. But if you constantly strive to bring new +impulses to the world, you may achieve divine status before you die. You +may Become a creator, a god. + 6. Society gives us the opportunity to find other who can sharpen +our practice by support and challenge. If we want to truly transform +ourselves in accordance with our will, we need the tools. These tools are +not by and large in some book or whispered to us by demons in circles. +These tools come from watching how others succeed and fail in their magical +quests. These tools come from articulating our own life philosophy and +considering the articulations of others. The real magician is the one +always eager to learn, because it saves him so much suffering and +traveling down blind alleys. If we interact openly with society, we can +attract others to challenge us and spur us on, as well giving ourselves the +chance to further our thought by the necessity of having to articulate for +those entering into our black order. Uncle Setnakt is very proud that the +Temple of Set is engaged in just such expansion in Australasia now. Catch +the black tide! + 7. Society gives us a measuring stick of our individual progress. +If we set up to interact with Society on a regular basis -- the way Uncle +Setnakt does by writing his column -- we examine how we've changed each +time. We use society as a reminder to check our progress on regular +intervals. Can I speak with greater ease in public? Have my ideas become +more coherent? Am I truly shaping my life and mind in the direction I want +to be? With forethought our interaction with society Becomes a series of +way-stations of our Initiation. + 8. Society gives us the opportunity to align ourselves with the +Aeon. If we choose to interact with society as Initiators, we have to find +the current of our initiation within ourselves. We seek after the Mystery +Hidden deeply within ourselves of our own individual and unique Becoming. +When we discover that we discover that the same Mystery is Hidden deeply +within the objective world. When we can interact with (or become aligned +with) that Mystery, we can achieve a status of more then purely human +being, and exercise the true powers of Black Magic to create a path of +individually determined freedom. + 9. Society reminds us of the great truth. When we interact with the +semiconscious mass of mankind, we are reminded of the great truth of the +Left Hand Path. If you live for anything other than your own Becoming, you +represent something other than yourself and ultimately you are a slave. How +much better it is to live for your own Becoming -- to take whatever truths +you might find and place them as lighted spheres around the dark center of +your being. Become like Yog-Sothoth, letting the dark Mystery of yourself +be undefined and ever advancing -- let all your gods (whether created by +you or thrust upon you) merely be ephemera which serve your freedom. They +may seem eternal to the sleepers, but to the Seeker they will pass away +until he alone remains then he shall recognize that he has become the +perfect mind and shall remake the Cosmos in the eternal glory of his +Satanic will. + Uncle Setnakt hopes you have a pleasant day. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + LETTER TO A BRITISH ISRAELITE + + The following letter was written by the editor of the Canadian +heretical magazine The Promethean to a christian Right-winger. It reflects +a challenge increasingly emerging to the worn-out, fallacious concepts of +the Judaeo-christian political Right. The Promethean may be contact via +TW#108, 225 Wyandotte St. E. Windsor, Ontario, N9A 3H5, Canada. + + * * * + + June 7 + +Dear Geoff, + + This letter is in reply to your communication of May 10. The delay +is due to the fact that I only recently returned from a short vacation. + + Unfortunately your May 10 letter was quite vituperative; I was +hoping for a direct discussion of the points I raised in my last letter +rather than you comparing me to Marxists and "secular humanists". I think +it is unfortunate that you feel there is no point in further discussion +over our varying points of ideology; for one thing, I don't think we even +adequately _began_ to discuss our positions, and, for another, I am quite +confident enough in my ideological grounding to be able to defend it. + + Firstly, you stated in your letter that I appear to have been +converted to "secular humanism". This is an imprecise term, borrowed from +the Zionist fundamentalist movement in the United States. I reject this +ridiculous and insubstantial term for my belief system, thought I admit +that I would rather be called a "secular humanist" than be a +bought-and-paid-for whore of the illegal Zionist entity in Palestine today! +If you find my "conversion" disturbing, you can imagine how I find your +apparent alignment with the running dogs of the world Zionist money-power! +You also compare me to Marxists, so forgive me if I feel compelled to put +the issue into perspective. Nietzsche, Malthus, Darwin, Spengler, Wagner +and Spencer can in no way be considered Marxists or proto-Marxists, and all +their work points in the opposite direction of Marx! Only in the festering +mind of someone like Jerry Falwell could Darwin be aligned with Marx. In +contrast, Christianity is fully in line with Marxism, as evidenced by the +Bible itself! + + When the fundamentalists sound off about the communists, invariably +they rant about how the Reds want to abolish private property, and uphold +the good ole US ZOG as standing up for "individual rights" and property. +Yet in Matthew chapter 5 Jesus tells his sheep not to "lay up treasures on +earth"... One can also recall the verse about the "eye of the needle" +(Matthew 19:23-24) and the story of the "rich young ruler" to see the +_real_ attitude towards private enterprise held by this Judaic creed. + + Despite the claims of the Christians to uphold "family values" +they, like the Marxists, are in fact anti-family. Look in your Bible to +Luke 14:26 and Luke 12:51-52. Here we have the Jewish messiah telling the +flock the true attitude towards the family held by his religion. + + Christianity is an international creed, as the "go ye into all the +world and preach the gospel" commandment shows. Additionally, doesn't the +Bible say something about there being "no Jew, nor Greek, nor barbarian, +but all are one" in the church? + + In total contrast, compare Nietzsche, who championed nobility and +Self-Overcoming. Or Wagner, who demanded a folkish, sensual national +culture. Or Darwin, who revealed the truth of the natural order. These men +weren't communists! + You further make a statement which begs clarification when you +assert that "a national under God is traditionally more stable and +content..." What possible example of such a phenomenon has ever existed at +any time in history? The Middle Ages was a time when all Europe was ground +beneath the bootheel of Christianity, yet was rent by hundreds of wars! +Christians behave as if all "real" history began with the birth of Jesus, +yet for millenia before the new testament, societies far more stable and +just than any Christian society flourished without ever hearing of the +Jewish god! Look for our real history at ancient Sumeria, Egypt, Crete, +Hellas and Rome! Here we find such things as irrigation, codified laws +(based on logic and reason rather than neurotic superstitious fear), music +and art. Compare to the supposedly "Aryan" (according to Identity) +Israelites or the Medieval Europeans! + As for the mistaken Identity doctrine, I was compelled in believing +in it for a mixture of wrong reasons. While I believed in it sincerely, and +spent a lot of time/money/effort promoting it, I always had some doubts +about the historical accuracy of its claims, and, when I pressed Identity +believers for answers to questions raised by the likes of Eric Thomson, I +was met either with hostility or ignorance. However, my contact with some +ex-British Israelites had convinced me that the Identity faith is +fundamentally flawed. + Kerry Bolton, a researcher from New Zealand and a former B-I +adherent has shown that when the Habiru related the "Cain and Abel" story +(purloined, incidentally, from every other creation-myth of the time) they +could have been casting "Cain" as a symbol for their enemies, the +Indo-Europenans. According to Identity, the "Cainites" were the Jews (or +Blacks), but in Genesis we read that Cain built the first cities and +founded metal-working and music, and obvious picture of our noble Sumerian +ancestors. In additional, Cain was supposedly a "tiller of the soil" rather +than a hunter-gatherer or herder. Bolton has shown that the glyph "AR", +which meant both "king" and "plough" could have been the root of "aryan" +("noble ones"). + + I don't have any desire to be a "true Jew", considering that not +only is my real heritage much richer and more valuable, but also because +the old testament is so puerile. Having at last thoroughly researched the +old testament, I cannot see how anyone would want to claim such a legacy. +Far from being "race purists", the Habiru ("Israelites") were exclusive for +religious rather than racial reasons. The story of Phineas killing the +"race-mixer" in Numbers 25 is cited as being an example of pro-White direct +action. BUT, read the _whole_ chapter, and you'll see that the killing was +motivated by religious bigotry, not by racial awareness. Moses himself, +incidentally, married an Ethiopian woman. In Deuteronomy 20:13-18 god tells +the Jews to kill their male enemies -- but to "take" the children and +women! White Power? Keeping reading, look at Deuteronomy 21:10-12. No +Identity person can adequately explain verses like these. + + Anyway, I am sorry that this letter is so long and involved. I not +only invite but welcome discussion of all the above. I think that further +dialogue is important; I really don't see why it should be fraught with +animosity. You and I still are committed to the same goal of national +liberation, which comes first. Take care and I hope to hear from you soon. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + CURRENT COMMENT + +MONEY POWER RULES IN DEMOCRACY + Renegade National M.P. Winston Peters once again enraged both +sides of "The House" with his allegations of bribery of politicians by big +business. He is the only politician of stature to condemn the role of the +financial coteries in politics. + However, his assertions that 'true democracy' cannot function under +such influences, requires scrutiny. The very function and purpose of +democracy is to serve money. Democratic revolutions and parliaments were +inaugurated for the very purpose of dispossessing the aristocracy and +landed gentry in favour of the newly emergent merchant class. "The people" +are never a factor in determining such matters. As Spengler stated 60 years +ago, "Along with abstract concepts, abstract money - money divorced from +the prime values of the land - appear as political forces.... it must be +concluded that democracy and plutocracy are one and the same thing..." +(Decline of the West). + The purpose of democracy as a front and slogan for High Finance +necessitates a parliament not of strong individualists and independents, +but party hacks, careerists and opportunists who will not challenge the +status quo - i.e. the situation we have now. Peters as a man of integrity +and independence is indeed an embarrassment to his fellow M.P.'s. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + PATH WORKING WITH THE SATANIC TAROT + by H.D. Baynes, OLHP IIIø +[Path working: a method of meditating upon a symbol to contact what Dr C G +Jung called the "archetypes of the Collective Unconscious".] + +The Aeon: + It is again very dark but I know that I am inside a round, empty +space; I am in control of the situation. Feeling the confines of this +space, I at once realize this as being an egg and break though the shell to +a blinding light. Looking about, there is nothing to see but sand and +clear, blue sky. The horizon is empty. "Where am I", I shout. A Vulture +appears hovering about me and to my right. "The Wasteland", he replies. I +look about again and ask if he is of the Left Hand Path. "I am the guiding +light of your Self; I am of nature." + "How must I better myself as a Satanist", I ask him. He settles to +the ground next to me, his red eyes blinking. "You must not do anything +that is unnatural to you". I understand this and ask him to show me +something, He bends towards the sand and stretching out a clawed hand to a +grain of sand, he holds it in front of me in his palm. + +Interpretation: The 'egg' is the confines of herd conformity, while the +--------------- blinding light is Luciferian in nature. To the Satanist, +a lot of what surrounds us is indeed 'Wasteland' - the old dogmas and +morals of a Tyrant's creed. The Vulture is stressing the importance of the +Self, an affirmation of Crowley's Thelemic Law. + +[Satanic Tarot: booklet & cards: $30.00 from Realist Publications]. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + OZ PAGANS RECLAIM EASTER + + The Dark Circle Collective, (reported in _The Watcher_ #11, held +its 8th annual Eostre Magickal Retreat over 16-20 April. At a rural +location in New South Wales, pagan celebrations and rites were held that +included the Egyptian, Norse, Voudoun, Thelemic, Shamanic and Wiccan +traditions. The D.C. puts out a number of quality publications, and may be +contacted at: Box 1639, Chatswood 2057 NSW Australia. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + The Meaning of Physis + by D. Myatt (Physis Foundation) + + Physis is a Greek word which can be translated as "Nature" - it +also means the 'natural unfolding' or evolution which occurs in Nature as +well as the 'character' or nature' of a person. In many ways, it is that +harmony or balance which 'holds the cosmos together' in a natural way. + The ancient Greeks had a concept of living and an approach to the +gods which was pagan - they believed that a proper life (I am writing about +pre-Platonic views here) was a balanced one: that the relationship of the +individual to the gods was important. This relationship of the individual +to the gods was important. This relationship was not based on concepts of +sin nor on a morbid denial of life and its pleasures. Rather, it was based +on respect - the individual respected the gods and believed the respect +(and thus personal fortune) of the gods could be obtained or given if the +individual strove to achieve excellence. It was considered unwise to be +excessive - in anything. The Greek mystery cults went further, and believed +life could be enhanced - and immortality attained - by living in a certain +way and performing certain rites. Central also was a pragmatic view - that +the cosmos possessed a natural order which could be understood if one +thought hard enough or observed it for long enough or if one attained an +insight into it. + These things established a framework for understanding genuine +paganism in general - insofar as 'the West' and its psyche is concerned. It +is better to begin in this way, via the ancient Greeks, since the evidence +and the sources are preserved more completely than other 'Western' pagan +tradition. It is unfortunate that most modern pagans derive their +understanding from myths and legends and practices which are often obscure +or incomplete - what is missing is difficult to understand often being +interpreted romantically. Naturally, this approach via the Greeks assumes +that there are similarities between the different forms paganism assumed +among the peoples of the West at various times - that is, that the +variations are different expressions of the same spirit or 'view of the +world', an expression which pre-dated the morally abstract religion of the +Nazarene and extended from the ancient Albion around the time of the +building of Stonehenge to the Anglo-Saxons, the Celts and the Vikings. I +believe this assumption to be a valid one - for what is important are not +the details of the legends or the attributes of the gods or even the +various religious forms and rites, but rather the instinctive apprehension +of life and the cosmos which gave rise to the religious forms of paganism +in the first place: that which is our collective or 'folk' psyche. Thus, we +may say that while the paganism of the ancient Greeks and that of the +Vikings represent or express this psyche, the abstract religion of +Christianity does not. + There is an esoteric tradition which regards ancient Albion (or +rather the civilization of Albion which flourished between c. 5,000 BP and +3,000 BP) as the original home of the god whom the Greeks called Apollo and +thus the inspiration of the Greeks. This tradition - which names the +civilization the 'Hyperborian' in honour of this fact - recounts Albion as +inventing the wheel among other things, including agriculture, and +possessing a knowledge of and skill in astronomy (evident in Stonehenge and +other monuments of the civilization) as well as esoteric crafts. The Druids +are regarded by this tradition of being among the last remants of the +decayed civilization. + Whatever the truth or otherwise of this tradition, I believe the +ancient Greeks give us the most comprehensive information regarding +paganism - or rather, that paganism which is appropriate to those whose +psyche is "Western". [I use this term "Western" with misgivings since today +it generally and unfortunately implies that materialistic power structure +of European and American states, rather than a definite culture. "European" +is no better, and both 'Indo-European' and 'Aryan' are liable to +misinterpretation. By 'West' is meant that culture exemplified by Albion, +ancient Greece and Rome, the Celts, Vikings and so on.] + This ancient Greek foundation gives us two important contributions +missing from the other traditions - what may be called the 'pragmatic' and +the _conscious_ expression of our relationship with the gods. The former is +exemplified in that essentially rational approach to living which is so +typically Greek, the latter in Greek tragedy and some of the pre-Socratic +philosophers. + What this amounts to is nothing really new - just another way of +viewing what esoteric tradition has established, of sorting out the +valuable from the dross, enabling perspective. Essentially, esoteric +tradition (call it 'the Occult' for convenience) maintains that we have +latent abilities and are capable of evolving still further - of developing +higher levels of consciousness. Part of this is in understanding and +mastery of the Occult arts - e.g. like divination and 'magick' - and part +is in developing an empathy or awareness with and of others and the cosmos. +One aspect is the belief that we can attain Immortality - e.g. by alchemy, +be that alchemy a practical one with the production of an Elixir or an +internal one with the production of Adeptship and beyond. + This way means, if its potential is to be fulfilled, a certain way +or ways of living rather than a 'hobby' or an 'interest' or a 'diversion'. +Part of this is an attitude and part of it is observance or participation, +usually by some form of ritual or rite. That is, there is an approach to +life, which may be intuitive - a 'feeling' about the world, and a desire to +do something, participate, or achieve. + Naturally there is in the Occult a confusion and multitude of ways +and systems and beliefs. But most of these, deriving from unclear sources, +have lost (if they ever possessed) the meaning or essence behind the outer +forms: a meaning or essence which the two contributions from the Greeks, +mentioned above, explicate most clearly. + Hitherto, both the dogmatic and the religious approach to the +Occult (evident in the revival of past forms and ways, for example) have +failed because the forms and means chosen have seldom if ever been +conscious. That is, they exist on the unconscious, symbolic level or on the +directly religious one, presuming in the first instance a lack of +self-awareness and in the second instance a faith in arcane religious forms +and/or deities. In brief, the attitude of mind thus cultivated tends +towards uncritical acceptance and 'superstition' - and a lack of real +understanding regarding the relationship between the individual and the +gods. + The realization of the Occult requires a specific way of living - +one that takes the individual away from the modern world with its +abstractions, its beliefs, its dogma, its noise, frenetic pace and crowds. +This way returns individuals to themselves, to confront and understand what +is within, and then having achieved a self-understanding and thus +liberation, to an understanding of 'Nature'/the gods and thus the cosmos. + The attitude of mind required is an openness - an enquiring +approach which combines a pragmatic view with intuition or insight. Such an +attitude may for convenience be called 'Thinking' or 'contemplation' - it +is a reasoned empathy developed by various methods or Occult techniques, +and may be said to represent the essence of paganism, and essence capable +of being apprehended and developed only by the way of living mentioned +above. + Such an understanding as arises from such an attitude is highly +individual - that is, it cannot be constrained within a dogma or form part +of a religious belief. There is thus the development of an entirely new +type of conscious apprehension - a new way of 'Thinking' or being, and thus +a new way of living. Fundamentally, this new understanding is what "Physis" +means - and to achieve this is the aim of a Physis community or foundation. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + PAN PACIFIC PAGAN ALLIANCE + + This is an organization which was formed recently in Australia to +counter-act anti-pagan defamation by fundy christians, et al. who are +seeking to fan a new witch-hunt against those who don't conform to their +dogma. + Despite their worthy principles, PPPA has established a dogma and +denied entry to Satanists and others of the Left Hand Path, and is thus +playing into the hands of their own enemies. + It has already undergone considerable criticism by Tim Hartridge of +the Dark Circle, because of its anti-LHP orientation and its divisive +policy. Now it seeks entry into NZ. + PPPA recently contacted Tanith Feye of Equipus Spiritae, seeking +her support in creating a Regional Council in NZ. While the Alliances Julia +Phillips writes that it is "for all pagans" she states in the same sentence +that they must then conform to three principles, and that membership is not +being offered to Satanists. + Tanith Feye sent the following to Ms Phillips in response: + "Thankyou for your letter regarding the PPPA. While I know I could +be of help to you ... you have effectively cut me off. I am Left Hand Path. + "You comment about not wanting to be associated with Satanic +practices shows that you have no real understanding of LHP beliefs and +practices. It should be noted that Satanic 'deities', so-called, were +around long before Christianity or Judaism, and were deities long before +they were demons. Need I remind you that the traditional Wiccan Horned God +is the basis for the christian devil? + "As with all LHP people, I cannot agree with your three statements. +I would be interested to know who has decided that these are the basis for +paganism? Wicca, maybe, but not paganism in general. It is a gross +injustice to translate wiccan creeds across to non-wiccan paths. Who is +anyone to decide what anyone else is to believe? The way these statements +are presented constitutes a dogma. + "In my over 20 years of practice, the main difference I have found +between LHP dogmas and RHP pagans is that those who follow the LHP +philosophy tend to be tolerant of ALL pagans, whereas those who follow the +RHP tend to show the same level of ignorance and bigotry towards LH Paths, +that christians show to paganism in general. + "I hear a lot about unity, human rights, and freedom of beliefs; +but it appears to me that the reality is 'unity (if you conform to us), +human rights (ours - not yours), and freedom of beliefs (as long as we +approve them first). What makes you any different then from the christians +you purport to be rallying against? Perhaps your organization should be +more truthfully titled "Pan Pacific Selected & Approved Pagans Only +Alliance". + "The PPPA's discriminatory view is unfortunate as it lowers the +tenor of the organization to that of christianity; it encourages +dissensions and schisms, it makes a liar of the organization and everyone +in it, and it cuts off a lot of valuable people... + "Realistically, I do not think you should hold out much hope of +getting any real foothold in NZ. NZ pagans, although widespread and often +unconnected, still have a very real understanding of the need to stick +together." + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + THE CALLING + +Distantly the clouds are darkening, +Thunder roars with lightning flash. +Fearful cries of Christling spawn, +Awaiting fateful, final clash. + +Black-clad legions harken bravely, +Prepare for battle one & all. +Sharpen sword, axe & spear, +Harken to that far-off call. + +Through ages Christlings rule, +Burned & tortured in holy reign. +Now the pagan ethos wakens, +Time for primal law again. + +Satan's battlers marching steady, +Berserker's yell fills the sky. +As of old Christlings tremble, +To the sound of warrior's cry. + +Here now stand the Dark Lord's legions, +Atop ruins of the Church. +Mountains high are skulls of prelates, +For the holy - do not search. + +Victory to the Earth's noblest, +Honour-bound, defy once more. +All the petty Christling worms, +Defeated by the Will of Thor. + +Now New Aeon has been ushered, +Satan's reign over world supreme. +Human kind's potential unfettered, +Fulfilling yet the Faustian dream. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + ADAMITE & CAINITE + - PART I - + + The Hebrew scriptures are a paste-up job drawn from a variety of +religions and cultures, such as those of Sumeria, Babylonia and Egypt. +However, a consideration of the Hebrew scriptures, because they are based +on the earlier epics of these High Cultures, can be instructive. + Genesis, for example, is based on Sumerian and Babylonian creation +myths, and can render a more complete account than the remnants that have +survived in Sumer. (Ref. George Smith, _Chaldean Account of Genesis_). + The Hebrew version identifies two "seeds" or lineages of humanity +destined historically to be at enmity. The Judaeo-christian bible is +virtually an account of this enmity. The two sees are the Adamite, +continued through Seth, and that of the Serpent, continued through Cain. + The Adamites are described as the "Holy _seed_" in _Isaiah 6:13_. +The Jehovic covenant with Abram was that his "_seed_" would inherit the +land from the Nile to the Euphrates. (_Gen. 15:18_). Jesus returns to the +issue of the two distinct seeds and the historical enmity between them, +quoted in _Matt. 13-37-39_ as stating: + "He answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good + seed is the son of man, the field is the world; the good seed are + the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the + wicked one, the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is + the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels." + + Ezra and other prophets condemned the "holy seed" for mingling with +Canaanites, Hittites, Midianites, et al, whose higher culture and religions +often turned the Israelites from Jehovah worship. This was _NOT_ however an +injunction for racial segregation, as certain christian Right-wing sects +claim, in order to maintain racial purity, as the women and children of +such nations were usually grafted on to Israel as war booty, according to +Jehovic sanction. + This dual attitude of religious purity, but racial grafting, +ensured that the Cainite line/seed would continue even through Israel. +Indeed, Moses, according to the biblical account, married a Midianite after +fleeing from Egypt, and sired sons by her. Moses' father-in-law was a high +priest who apparently initiated Moses into the serpent cult. The Hebrew +scribes rewrote the figure of Moses to conform to the demands of their +religion, making him the voice of Jehovah and foe of the Midianites, et al. +During Moses' reign, supposedly, Phineas killed an Israelite and a +Midianite woman for cohabiting. (British Israelite/Identity christians +cite this as an example of biblical racism, but never mention that Moses +himself was the father of Midianite sons). He was even given a childhood +copied from the myth of the life of the Babylonian king Sargon, and a +completely fallacious 'exodus' with Moses at the head was invented). + If there ever was an historical Moses, he seems to have deserted +Jehovah worship for the serpent cult of his Midianite wife and priestly +father-in-law. He was possibly taught an esoteric doctrine and craft, as +_Exodus 4:3-4_, has him handling a serpent and performing magickal feats. +In _Numbers 21_ he casts a brass serpent idol and endows it with magickal +properties. (The Hebrew scribes of course have him doing these deeds in the +name of Jehovah!). + Much later, the serpent cult was rooted out by the Judahite king +Hezekiel, who destroyed the serpent idol accredited to Moses, as this had +become the centre of a cult among the Israelites. (_II Kings 18_). + The Midianites were a branch of Kenites, who traced their decent +from Cain. (Kenites=nomadic metal workers. Ken/Kan/Cain = Semitic = metal +worker). + The enmity existing between the Pharisee caste and the Jesus cult +seems to be a reflection of the rivalry which existed between the two +seeds. While the New Testament traces Jesus' lineage to Abraham, Jesus +condemns the Pharisees as the seed of the serpent and of Cain. + + PART II NEXT ISSUE : "THE FALL" & "ARYANS ARE CAINITES" + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + PLAY THAT OLD TUNE + +"Turn the other cheek", +Is but a holy sham. +'Tis preached by the meek, +And welcomed by the lamb. + +Victory belongs in might, +But in weakness lies slavery. +For the wise do know that strength make right, +And pacifism stems from knavery. + +The eagle supreme does soar, +While doves fall prey to bloodied claw. +The noblest yearn for heroic war, +And look to days of primal law. + +In bygone times was heroism held in high esteem, +And the cowardly plead for god's salvations. +Now we have the coward's dream, +And the noble hero cursed to damnation. + +But primal law shall come again, +As 'men of peace' are put to sword. +And noble heroes yet shall reign, +While the sickly pray, "oh lawd." + +"Peace is an ideal & war a reality", +Said Oswald Spengler in deep concern. +No world can live forever on pacifist fatality, +And such a fact do the wise discern. + +And as old Lionel Terry once said, +"A world without war means stagnation and rust". +The idealist's dream is but the peace of the dead, +For nature decrees that strife is a must. + +So play that old tune of war drum's beat, +And raise high the flag of nobility. +We'll take no more of the gospel of defeat, +Nor the weakling's reign of sterility. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + ADVERTS + +BALDER - WESTERN MAGICK and the WAY OF THE WARRIOR: +--------------------------------------------------- +the Pan-European Brotherhood for resurgence of the Tribes & power catalyst +for the Occult World: + +FACILITIES: Monthly _Journal_; _The European Library_ (incl. +archive/copying by mail). _Book discounts_ & publishers networkings; _Grade +Degree_ studies (Temporal/Spiritual); international _rituals_, workshops, +path workings; _Study farms_, England; _Alexandrian Scholarships_ (free +study holidays, England); _Global network_-Sportsmen/Artists/Musicians; +_Action_ programmes; _Courses_ e.g. Autonomis, Sports Magick, Dioscuris, +Chaos, Teuton/Celt mythology, Faustianism, Self-overcoming, Magick & New +Right, Runes, Meditation, Solaris, Tribal Psyche, Yggdrasil, Sex Magick; +_Lodges_ being established in all countries. +AGE: Min. 18yrs. Europe/21 USA. Youth: 15-18yrs. on request (incl. +extra education facilities). +TROTH: adult: UK:œ26. Europe:EEC=œ27/Non-EEC=œ29. + Americas/Antipodes:œ33/$65 + youth: UK:œ21. Europe:EEC=œ22/Non-EEC=œ22. + Americas/Antipodes:œ24/$50 +LINKING: members in 18 countries. Working links with many occult & +regionalist groups & mags. +JOURNAL: Pan-European (inc. Mythology; Folklore; History; Magick; +Satanism; Runes; Warriorship; +Subjects Philosophy; Subversion; Ethnography; Pagan esoterics; Sports +Magick; Self-overcoming +Format: A5. 32 pages. + book reviews; other orders; Library update; +Balder news +ENQUIRIES: (in strict confidence) full details: 24 page book/forms/latest +zine send 4$/œ2 or = IRC's +ADDRESS: Nautonier: Stephen Cox, 60 Elmhurst Road, Reading, Berks. +RG15HY, England. U.K. + + --- + +MIGHT IS RIGHT $20.00 from Realist Publications. +Wholesale discounts: $10.00 each for 10 or more copies. +- 153 pages - + +FOREWORD + + Ragnar Redbeard (Arthur Desmond) was born in New Zealand sometime +during the mid - 19th Century. here he was an active socialist, ran for +parliament, and edited _The Tribune_. + + In 1892 Desmond left for Australia, continued his political +activities, wrote poetry, and influenced the famous Australian folk poet +Henry Lawson. Desmond must have repudiated his socialist philosophy at this +time, as it is said that he left Australia in 1895 with the manuscript for +_Might Is Right), the very antithesis of socialist theory. Desmond's life +after departing Australia is a matter of conjecture. + + _Might Is Right_ stands alongside Friedrich Nietzsche's +_Anti-Christ_, _Twilight of the Idols_, and _Thus Spoke Zarathustra_ as +among the most heretical works of the last one hundred years. Desmond was +clearly influenced by Nietzsche in both style and philosophy. Herein are +challenged and demolished all the sacred cows of Desmond's and our own +time: christianity, humanitarianism, pacifism, egalitarianism - the herd +moralities and the herd religions which similarly drew Nietzsche's wrath. + + _Might Is Right_ has exerted a continual influence on heretical +thinkers. It provided the basis for _The Book of Satan_ in LaVey's _Satanic +Bible_ (first published in 1969). Today its line provide lyrics and +inspiration for "Social-Darwinist" musician-composer Boyd Rice, who is +proclaiming the Ragnarian message to a new generation of "Iron Youth". + + Realist Publications dedicates this edition of _Might is Right_ to +this emerging generation of "Iron Youth", that they may grasp the +opportunity to take the future, and to History's warrior elite of all +nations. 1992. + + --- + + NOW IN... + Limited number of copies of + The Satanic Bible $16.95 + The Satanic Rituals $14.95 + + $3.00 p&p + Equipus Spiritae + 1st Floor, Regent Theatre Bldg. + Broadway Ave. + Palmerston North + + --- + +TEMPLE OF SET - A Left Hand Path Order based on the evolution of individual +pschecentric consciousness. PO Box 470307 SF Ca. 94147 U S A + + --- + + REJUVENATION MAGAZINE +Issue #2 now out for 1992CE. An occult-black magick forum with many helpful +hints for successful, happy living for all ages, including teenagers! +Strategic rebellion tips & criticism against Christianity & other +spirituality. Send $2 (USA) $3 (elsewhere) cash, certified cheque or money +order to: Joseph E Aufricht, Box 711, Lakewood, Ohio 44107 USA. + + --- + + THE LUCIFERIAN LIGHT GROUP + Masters of The Satanic Sciences + and Publishers Of ONSLAUGHT + Issued Bi-Monthly + $20 yearly U.S./$25 Foreign + Sample Issue $4 + + The Luciferian Light Group + PO Box 7207 + Tampa, Florida 33673 USA + + For information concerning details + of membership please send self- + addressed, stamped envelope.* + * International, please send three + IRC's. + + --- + + ORDER OF THE LEFT HAND PATH + +A pagan warrior esoteric & philosophical Order, dedicated to the +evolutionary, cultural and spiritual ascent of humanity, and ushering of a +Faustian Civilization. Send SAE or International Reply Coupon for details +to: OLHP PO Box 38-262 Petone Wgtn.NZ. + + --- + + PERSONAL AD + +Would you like to correspond with a Polish Satanist?! I'd like to +correspond with young Satanists who want to talk about our philosophy! I'm +20 years old and I'm waiting for your letter! Piotr Marek Blumicz Pionierow +13, 62510, Konin, Poland. + + --- + + THE FAUSTIAN SOCIETY + +Heretical books on politics, history & philosophy. Send SAE or +International Reply Coupon for literature list to : Realist Publications. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + THE HERETIC + + _The Heretic_ undertakes to publish views of a non-conformist +nature, which confront the status quo and slay its sacred cows. We are +therefore opposed to all creeds, ideologies and religions which seek to +impose global uniformity on humanity, whether it be in the guise of +capitalism, socialism, pacifism, egalitarianism or humanitarianism, or in +the name of Christ, Allah or Jehovah. + We champion the creative individual above the mass, the defiant +above the submissive. + Views expressed in signed articles or letters are the sole +responsibility of their writers, and do not necessarily reflect the views +of the Editor. + The appearance of an advertisement does not necessarily indicate +that the Editor has any knowledge of, interest in, or support for the +product, service, or function being advertised. + All contents copyright (C). 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It lacks the pictures and title art of the +original and has been slightly restructured, and advertisements now appear +in one section at the end of the actual articles, rather than throughout. + + Transcribed by Graeme Wilson (O.S.V.) + +RECENT EVENT: The Order of the Left Hand Path has changed its name to: + Ordo Sinistra Vivendi. + +To find out more about O.S.V. look out for the text file call: OSVINTRO.TXT + + Ordo Sinistra Vivendi may be contacted at the following addresses: + +NEW ZEALAND: + +(Wellington) + Ordo Sinistra Vivendi + World Headquarters + PO Box 38-262 + Wellington Mail Centre + New Zealand + +(Dunedin) + Ordo Sinistra Vivendi + Dunedin Headquarters + PO Box 5293 + Dunedin + New Zealand + +POLAND: + Jacek Szczepanski + Zielna 44 + 99-300 Kutno + Poland + +Rep's are also in Auckland (NZ) and FINLAND. Until they set up contact +addresses, contact them via the World Headquarters address. + diff --git a/religious documents/hermebib.txt b/religious documents/hermebib.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..372e0bb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/hermebib.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1540 @@ + + HERMENEUTICS + + + + CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES: + APPROACHES IN THE HUMAN SCIENCES + + Volume 2 + + + A Bibliographic Series + by Douglas Rayment + + + + Edition 1.0 + November 1992 + + + + + Edited for Network Distribution by + Michael Strangelove + + + + + + + Research Centre for the Study of Religion + Centre de Recherche en Sciences des Religions + Universite d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa + + + + +Copyright (C) 1992 by Douglas Rayment. + +All rights reserved. This bibliography may be archived +for public use in electronic or other media, as long as +it is maintained in its entirety and no fee is charged to +the user; any exception to this restriction requires the +written consent of the author. + + Douglas Rayment + Religious Studies Department + University of Ottawa + 177 Waller + Ottawa, Ontario + CANADA K1N 6N5 + (613) 564-2300 (Voice) + (613) 564-6641 (Fax) + + + + This bibliography was made possible through + the support of the Research Centre for the + Study of Religion, Department of Religious + Studies, University of Ottawa. + + + HOW TO OBTAIN A COPY + + +The bibliography Hermeneutics is freely available via the +international academic networks (BITNET/Internet) from the +CONTENTS Project fileserver via FTP from the node +panda1.uottawa.ca (137.122.6.16) in the directory /pub/religion/ as +the files: + +hermeneutics-biblio.ps (Postscript file) +hermeneutics-biblio.ps.Z (Unix compressed Postscript file) +hermeneutics-biblio.txt (low ASCII text) + +This bibliography is also available as a low ASCII text via the +CONTENTS Project Listserv fileserver as the file: + + HERMENEU BIB-TXT + +from Listserv@uottawa or Listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca + + + + HERMENEUTICS -- A Chronological Bibliography + + + + Table of Contents + + + +1. Hermeneutics: General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 + +2. Biblical Hermeneutics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 + + + 1. Hermeneutics: General + + +Aristotle, Peri hermeneias; translated as On Interpretation by E. +M. Edgill in The Basic Works of Aristotle edited by Richard McKeon +(New York: Random House, 1941) pp. 40-61 this is a reprint of the Oxford +translation completed in 1931; with commentaries by St. Thomas Aquinas and +Cajetan, translated from the Latin De interpretatione by Jean T. Oesterle +(Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1962). + +David Hume, introduction to A Treatise on Human Nature Bks. I and II, +2 vols (London, 1739) Bk. III (London, 1740); modern editions are by L. A. Selby +Bigge (Oxford, 1888 and 1896) and by A. D. Lindsay (London and New York, +1911, 2 vols.). [the most effective formulation of the English tradition of +empirical, inductive science, no presuppositions, an increasing knowledge of +regularity, see Gadamer 1960{1975e} for account of influence on 19thc. +hermeneutics] + +Ernesti, Johann August, Institutio Interpretis Novi Testamenti (1761); 4th +ed. with observations by Christopher Fr. Ammon (Leipzig: Weidmann, 1792); +Eng. trans. by Moses Stuart, Elements of Interpretation 3rd ed. (Andover: +M. Newman, 1827); 4th ed.; (New York: Dayton and Saxton, 1842). another Eng. +trans. by Charles H. Terrot, Principles of Biblical Interpretation 2 vols. +(Edinburgh: T. Clark, 1832-33). + +Herder, Johann Gottfried von (1744-1803), "Auch eine Philosophie der +Geschichte zur Bildung der Menschheit," Samtliche Werke, ed. Bernhard +Suphan, vol. v, pp. 489f. [Gadamer on `reaching up to humanity' (1975e:10) idea +of self-formation or cultivation] + +Kant, Emmanuel, Critique der Urteilskraft (1799); Critique of +Judgement . + +Wolf, Friedrich August, "Darstellung der Altertumswissenschaft nach Begriff, +Umfang, Zweck und Wert," in Museum der Altertumswissenschaft ed. F. +A. Wolf and Ph. Buttman, Vol. I. (Berlin: Reimer, 1807). + +Wolf, Friedrich August (1759-1824), Vorlesung uber die Enzyklopadie der +Altertumswissenschaft (date?) Vorlesungen uber die Altertumswissenschaft +series, ed. J. D. Gurtler, Vol. I (Leipzig: Lehnhold, 1831). [defined hermeneutics +as "the science of the rules by which the meaning of signs is recognized." "Die +Wissenschaft von den Regeln, aus denen die Bedeutung der Aeichen erkannt wird" +p. 290 (Palmer 1969:81)] + +Ast, Friedrich, Grundlinien der Grammatik, Hermeneutik und Kritik +(1808). ["Basic Elements of Grammar, Hermeneutics and Criticism" one of two +major works on philology; conceived originally as an introduction to the larger +`Grundiss'] + +Ast, Friedrich, Grundiss der Philologie (1808). ["Outlines of Philology"] + +Schleiermacher, Friedrich, lectures on hermeneutics (1819); reprinted in +Hermeneutik edited with an introduction by Heinz Kimmerle (Heidelberg: +Carl Winter, Universitatsverlag, 1959){check this}. ["Hermeneutics as the art of +understanding does not exist as a general field, only a plurality of specialized +hermeneutics." (H 79) enunciates his fundamental aim to frame a general +hermeneutics; Kimmerle's edition put together in chronological order for the first +time all the writings on hermeneutics in Schleiermacher's own hand, this edition +revealed the earlier, language-centered and less psychological Schleiermacher, an +earlier (1838) edition of Schleiermacher's work on hermeneutic edited by his +friend Friedrich Lucke drawn mostly from student's notes and included none of +the notes in Schleiermacher's own hand dated before 1819;] + +Schleiermacher, Friedrich, "Ueber den Gegriff der Hermeneutik, mit Bezug auf +F. A. Wolfs Andeutungen und Asts Lehrbuch," Akademiereden (1829) +reprinted in Hermeneutik edited with an introduction by Heinz Kimmerle +(Heidelberg: Carl Winter, Universitatsverlag, 1959). + +Comte, Auguste, Course de philosophie positive (1830). [just as laws had +been found for the inter-action of elements in nature, so, and by the same +methods, they could be found for the interactions of men in society. The physics +of mechanical movements uncovered in nonhuman systems would be +complemented by a `social physics' for humans. With this in place, the unified +"philosophical system of the moderns will be in fact complete." Compte (1896), +I:6] + +John Stuart Mill, supplement to A System of Logic (London, 1843). +translated into German in 1863. [`System' is the classic study of eliminative +induction; in the supplement to this work Mill sought to outline the possibilities +of applying inductive logic to the human sciences; German translator calls these +Geisteswissenschaften and according to Gadamer this is the origin of the +popularization of this term in German; "From this very context of Mill's +Logic it is apparent that it is not a question of recognising that the human +sciences have their own logic but, on the contrary, to show that it is the inductive +method, basic to all experimental science, which alone is valid in this field as +well." (Gadamer 1975e:5); in the German edition Mill's phrase `Moral Sciences' +in the heading of Book VI was rendered into German by the newly coined term, +Geisteswissenschaften - `human sciences'; Mill argued that Kant's a priori +synthesizing principles are derived soley from the association of repeated +experiences, the laws of thought are reduced to the passive registering of +sensations and the later conversion of these in some way into necessary +principles;] + +J. G. Droysen, Historik (1843; reprint, 1925; ed. E. Rothacker). [author +and discoverer of the history of Hellenism; called for a Kant who "would show +the living source from which the historical life of manking flowed'. He expressed +the hope `that the more profoundly grasped idea of history will be the center of +gravity in which the chaotic movement of the human sciences will gain discipline +and the possibility of further progress.' (p. 97; appears in Gadamer 1975e:7) +pressing task of raising historical knowledge to logical self-consciousness] + +H. Helmholtz, "Uber das Verhaltnis der Naturwissenschaften zur Gesamtheit der +Wissenschaftern," (1862); in Vortrage und Reden 4th edn. pp. 167ff. +[famous speech by a great natural scientist comparing the natural and human +sciences; distinguished between two kinds of induction: logical and artistic- +instinctive induction, both make use of the inductive conclusion, but the +conclusions of the human sciences are unconsciously arrived at, the practice of +induction is tied to particular psychological conditions, "It requires a kind of tact +and other intellectual qualities as well, eg a well-stocked memory and the +acceptance of authorities ... " (Gadamer 1975e:7) Gadamer's point is that +Helmholtz was not able to conceive of any other methodological ideal for the +human sciences than that of the inductive procedures familiar to him from Mill's +logic] + +Dilthey, Wilhelm, Das Leben Schleiermachers (Vol. I, Berlin, 1870; Vol. +II, Berlin and Leipzig, 1922, enlarged from unpublished notes of Dilthey's by +Herman Mulart; edited by Martin Redeker, Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, +1967). [not in the original 12 volumes of the Gesammelte Schriften but +to be reissued as vols. XIII & XIV of GS] + +Farrar, Frederic W., History of Interpretation (1884); (Grand Rapids, +Mich." Baker Book House, 1961). + +Bergson, Speech on `le bon sens' given at the prize-giving at the Sorbonne +(1895). Ecrit et paroles I (RM Mosse-Bastide), pp. 84ff. + +Comte, Auguste, The Positivist Philosophy of Auguste Comte, freely +translated and condensed by Harriet Martineau, with an introduction by Frederic +Harrison (3 Vols. London: George Bell and Sons, 1896). + +Dilthey, Das Erlebnis und die Dichtung (Leipzig and Berlin, 1905; 13th +ed., Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner, 1957). ("Experience and Poetry"). [not included in +the Gesammelte Schriften; an essay on Goethe whose first version under +a different title was published in 1877; Dilthey the first to give conceptual +function to the word `Erlebnis', many European languages took it over as a loan +word] + +Dilthey, Wilhelm, "Die Entstehung der Hermeneutik"; Eng. trans. by Frederic +Jameson, "The Rise of Hermeneutics," in New Literary History: A Journal of +Theory and Interpretation 3:229-244. [`the father of hermeneutics'; "We call +exegesis or interpretation the art of comprehending vital manifestations fixed in +a durable fashion"; "The art of comprehending gravitates around the interpretation +of human testimonies preserved by writing"; "We call exegesis, interpretation, the +art of comprehending the written manifestations of life." {Ricoeur 1974 p. 64}] + +Lomer, Gerhard R., The Concept of Method (New York: Teachers +College, Columbia University, 1910). [first part on the "Historical Types of +Method" Greeks, Bacon, Descartes, Comenius, Kant; related to the fundamental +concept and problems of education] + +Dilthey, Wilhelm (1833-1911), Gesammelte Schriften 12 vols. (Leipzig +and Berlin, 1914-1936; 2nd ed., Stuttgart and Gottingen, 1957-1960; vols. XIII +and XIV {life of Schleiermacher} issued in 1967). [second edition the first +complete one, vol. X, on moral philosophy, did not appear in the first edition; +vols. I-II contain extensive contributions to the changing religious and philosophic +conceptions of man; vols. V & VI are devoted to the philosophy of life; vols. I +& VII develop the theory of the human studies, vol. VII contains Dilthey's final +and most original contributions to this subject; about 100 pages of selected +passages representing the central thought of Vol. VII have been translated and +edited by J. P. Rickman, Meaning in History: Dilthey's Thought on History +and Society (London, 1961; New York, 1962); note also Dilthey, Wilhelm, +Introduction to the human sciences, (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University +Press, c1989). [Morisset B 3216 .D82 E5 1985] + +Wach, Joachim, Das Verstehen: Grundzuge einer Geschichte der +hermeneutischen Theorie im 19. Jahrhundert 3 vols. (Tubingen: J. C. B. +Mohr, 1926-1933). Vol. I: Die grossen System (1926). Vol. II: Die +theologische Hermeneutik von Schleiermacher bis Hoffmann (1929). Vol. III: +Das Verstehen in der Historik von Ranke bis zum Positivismus (1933). +reprinted I vol. (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1965). + +Heidegger, Martin, Sein und Zeit (Halle: Niemeyer, 1927). Eng. trans. +by John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson as Being and Time (London: +SCM Press, 1962). + +Ogden, C. K., and I. A. Richards, Meaning of Meaning (London, 1930). + +Cohen, M. R., "Method, Scientific" in Encyclopaedia of the Social +Sciences (New York, 1933). ["The term method denotes any procedure which +applies some rational order or systematic pattern to diverse objects."] + +Hjelmslev, Louis, Prolegomena to a Theory of Language (1943). +[theorized about the presuppositions of linguistic theory] + +Abel, Th., "The Operation Called Verstehen," (1948) reprinted in Feigl (1953) pp. +677-687. [the locus classicus attacking psychologistic, empathetic hermeneutics +(which supposed that an observer calls into play his own memories, impressions, +or imagination of `what it's like' to be in a certain situation and on the basis of +these to be able to experience an understanding of why this event occurred or was +the way it was)]; + +Hempel, Carl, "The Function of General Laws in History," (1942). reprinted in +Fiegl, Herbert, and Brodbeck, May (eds.), The Philosophy of Science +(New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1953) pp. 459-471. [the moment when +logical positivism made explicit contact with the hermeneutic question raised by +Dilthey." (Howard 1982, p. 25); Hempel turned his attention to historical +argumentation and specifically to the historian's language; Hempel's theory (the +`covering law model') holds "that an historical event is explained when a set of +circumstances antecedent to it can be subsumed under a general law, established +from other studies, so that a deductive combination of statements of the law and +statements of the circumstances would trigger a statement predicting the event, if +not absolutely then with a high degree of probability." (Howard 1982, p. 26); only +one form of explanation, a methodological monism holding that the methodologies +appropriate to the cultural and natural sciences are essentially one: "In every case +to explain rationally some phenomenon is to see that a set of circumstances grew +to become the instantiation of a known lawlike relationship and hence that the +event in question was bound, or bound with great probability, to occur. To +`understand' the phenomenon in question can only mean something like this." +(Howard 1982, pp. 28-29); `a classic position paper' which has ever after served +as a reference point for modern debate between the `explanation' and +`understanding' schools of philosophy; coined the (derisive) phrase `the method +of empathetic understanding' to describe a psycholinguistic or philosophically +oriented hermeneutics] + +Buchler, Justus, Toward a General Theory of Human Judgement (1951); +2nd rev. ed. (New York: Dover Publications, 1979). [development of `horizon' of +understanding in terms of the notion of perspective, a domain between the subject +and its objects preserving the open region within which they can encounter each +other, a kind of order shared by a community of `proceivers' + +Hodges, H. A., The Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey (London: Routledge +& Kegan Paul, 1952). [see also earlier and shorter `Introduction the the +Philosophy of Wilhelm Dilthey' by the same author and publisher] + +Fiegl, Herbert, and Brodbeck, May (eds.), The Philosophy of Science +(New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1953). + +Hempl, Carl, and Oppenheim, Paul, "The Logic of Explanation," (1953) in Fiegl, +Herbert, and Brodbeck, May (eds.), The Philosophy of Science (New +York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1953) pp. 319-352. + +Cassirer, Ernst, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms Vol. 1: +Language E.T. Ralph Manheim (New Haven: Yale University Press, +1953). Vol. 2: Mythical Thought E.T. Ralph Manheim (New Haven: Yale +University Press, 1955). Vol. 3 (1957). + +de Lubac, H., L'Exegese medievale: Les quatre sens de l'Ecriture 4 vols. +(Paris, 1953-65). + +Betti, Emilio, Zur Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Auslegungslehre +(Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1954); reprinted from Festschrift fur Ernst +Rabel (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1957) I, 79-168. [a heavily documented +`hermeneutical manifesto' giving advance notice of his magnum opus of 1955] + +Betti, Emilio, Teoria generale della interpretazione 2 vols. (Milan: Dott. +A. Giuffre, 1955); translated into German by the author as Allegmeine +Auslegungslehre als Methodik der Geisteswissenschaften (Tubingen: J. C. B. +Mohr, 1967). [encyclopedic work sought to renew the 19th c. German tradition of +hermeneutics as the general problematic of interpretation (Humbolt, von Schlegel, +Bockh, Savigny (Jurist) Niebuhr, Ranke and Droysen] + +Buchler, Justus, Nature and Judgement (1955). + +Bultmann, R., "The Problem of Hereneutics" Essays, Philosophical and +Theological (London: SCM 1955) 234-61. + +institute for interpretation theory founded in Rome by Emilio Betti, 1955. + +Dray, William, Laws and Explanation in History (New York and London: +Oxford University Press, 1957). [argues against Hempel's position: "there simply +cannot be any Hempelian laws in historiography because the effort to specify such +laws so that the antecedent circumstances could be subsumed under them would +necessitate such a narrowing of the so-called general law that it would finally be +a `law' with only one concrete application, and hence, in losing its general +applicability, no law at all [see Dray 1957, pp. 33-39]." (Howard 1982, p. 28) + +Ullmann, Stephen, The Principles of Semantics (New York: Philosophical +Library, 1957). + +Lonergan, Bernard, "The Truth of Interpretation" in Insight: A Study of +Human Understanding Rev. ed. (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1958). pp. +562-94. + +de Saussure, Ferdinand, English translation by Wade Baskin as Course in +General Linguistics (New York: Philosophical Library, 1959). [treated signs +as differences within a system] + +Heidegger, Martin, On the Way to Language (1959); trans. Peter Hertz +and Joan Stambaugh (New York: Harper & Row, 1971). + +Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Wahrheit und Methode: Grundzuge einer +philosohischen Hermeneutik (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1960; 2nd ed. 1965). +Eng. trans. from the 2nd edn. as Truth and Method (London: Sheed and +Ward Ltd., 1975; New York: Crossroad, 1988). + +Buchler, Justus, The Concept of Method (New York and London: +Columbia University Press, 1961). [an exploration of what makes any particular +method `methodic', the universal and essential traits, and the nature of methodic +activity as such; examines concept of method in Cohen, Bentham, Coleridge, +Descartes, Dewey, Whitehead, his own conception with Buchler's own developed +general philosophical structure] + +Betti, Emilio, Die Hermeneutik als allgemeine Methodik der +Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie und Geschichte series, Pamphlet Nos. 78-79 +(Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1962). [protest against Gadamer's approach to +hermeneutics; Betti undertakes to formulate a general methodological theory fro +interpretation, Gadamer has failed to provide normative methods for distinguishing +a right from a wrong interpretation, he lumps together very different modes of +interpretation pp. 43-44 {see notes in Palmer "Betti versus Gadamer"}] + +Ricoeur, Paul, "The Hermeneutics of Symbols and Philosophical Reflection," +trans. by D. Savage International Philosophical Quarterly 2 (1962). + +Waelhens, Alphonse de, "Sur une hermeneutique de l'hermeneutique," Revue +philosophique de Louvain (1962) 60:573-591. + +Cornelius, David K., and Vincent, Edwin St. (eds.), Cultures in Conflict: +Perspectives on the Snow-Leavis Controversy (Chicago: Scott, Foresman, and +Co., 1964). + +Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, "On the Phenomenology of Language" in Signs +E.T. Richard McCleary (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1964) pp. +84-97. + +Lonergan, Bernard, Insight: A Study in Human Understanding (London: +Longmans, 1964). + +Robinson, James M., and John B. Cobb, jr (eds.), The New Hermeneutic +(New York: Harper & Row, 1964). [Fuchs, `The New Testament and the +Hermeneutical Problem': `the language of man belongs in the sphere of love' + +Gadamer, Hans-Georg, second edition of Wahrheit und Methode +(Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 2nd ed. 1965) includes "Foreward to the Second +Edition". [this forward replies to objections raised by Betti and emphasizes the +nonsubjective character of understanding, considers the historically operative +consciousness not as a subjective but an ontological process; "the purpose of my +investigation is ... to discover what is common to all modes of understanding and +to show that understanding is never subjective behavior toward a given `object', +but towards its effective history [Wirkungsgeschichte] - the history of its +influence; in other words, understanding belongs to the being of that which is +understood." xix {`operative history'}; Eng. trans. is from the 2nd edn.] + +Ricoeur, Paul, De l'interpretation: essai sur Freud (Paris: Editions du +Seuil, 1965); English translation by Denis Savage as Freud and Philosophy: +An Essay on Interpretation The Terry Lectures (New Haven: Yale University +Press, 1970). + +Underwood, Richard A., "Hermes and Hermeneutics: A Viewing from +thPerspective of the Death of God and Depth Psychology" Hartford +Quarterly 6 (Fall 1965): 34-53. + +Funk, Robert W. Language, Hermeneutics and the Word of God: The +Problem of Language in the New Testament and Contemporary Theology +(New York: Harper and Row, 1966). + +Greimas, A. J., La Semantique structurelle (Paris: Larousse, 1966). + +Ricoeur, Paul, Fallible Man vol. 1 of Finitude and Guilt, translated into +English by H. Regnery (1966)?. + +Apel, Karl-Otto, Analytic Philosophy of Language and the +Geisteswissenschaften (New York: Humanities Press, 1967). + +Hirsch, Eric D. Jr., Validity in Interpretation (New Haven and London: +Yale University Press, 1967). [first full treatise in general hermeneutics written in +English; authorial intention the norm by which the validity of any interpretation +must be measured {see Palmer notes}] + +Hopper, Stanley Romaine, and David L. Miller (eds.), Interpretation: The +Poetry of Meaning (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967). see esp. +Heinrich Ott, "Hermeneutics and Personhood," pp. 14-33. + +Long, Charles, "Archaism and Hermeneutics" in The History of Religions: +Essays on the Problem of Understanding ed. Joseph M. Kitagawa vol. 1 of +Essays in Divinity ed. Jerald C. Brauer (Chicago: University Press, 1967) +pp. 67-87. + +Kimmerle, Heinz, "Hermeneutische Theorie oder ontologische Hermeneutik," +ZThK, LIX (1962), 114-30. Eng. trans. as `Hermeneutical Theory or Ontological +Hermeneutics' History and Hermeneutic (Tubingen: Mohr 1967). + +Wax, M. L., "On Misunderstanding Verstehen: A Reply to Abel," Sociology +and Social Research (1967) 323-333. + +Broadbeck, May, ed. Readings in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences +(New York: Macmillan, 1968). + +Brown, Raymond E., "Hermeneutics," Jerome Biblical Commentary R. +E. Brown, et al. (eds.) (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1968) pp. 610-619. + +Chomsky, Noam, Language and Mind (New York: Harcourt, Brace, +Janovich, 1968). + +Ricoeur, Paul, "Structure, Word, Event," Philosophy Today (1968) +12:114-129. + +Kisiel, Theodore, "The Hermeneutics of Gadamer and Heidegger," Man and +World 2 (August 1969) 358-85. + +Palmer, Richard E., Hermeneutics: Interpretation Theory in Schleiermacher, +Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer (Evanston, Ill., Northwestern University +Press, 1969). [Palmer's work an effort to bring the phenomenological approach to +hermeneutics in the work of Heidegger, Gadamer to the English speaking reader, +counterbalance Hirsch's emphasis on the logic of validation, a preparation for the +reception of Gadamer's work translated into English] + +Ricoeur, Paul, La Symbolique du mal (Paris: Aubier, 1960); English +translation by Emerson Buchanan, The Symbolism of Evil vol. 2 of +Finitude and Guilt (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969). + +Ricoeur, Paul, Le Conflit des interpretations: Essais d'hermeneutique +(Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1969); translated into English by various authors and +appearing as The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics Don +Ihde (ed.), Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential +Philosophy (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1974). + +Snow, C. P., The Two Cultures: And a Second Look (Cambridge: +Cambridge University Press, 1969). + +Bubner, Rudiger, et al., eds., Hermeneutik und Dialektik 2 vols. +(Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1970). +[discussion occasioned by Gadamer's Truth and Method] + +Ricoeur, Paul, "Qu'est-ce qu'un texte?" in Bubner (1970) pp. 181-200. + +Ricoeur, Paul, Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation English +translation by Denis Savage, The Terry Lectures (New Haven: Yale University +Press, 1970). + +Gadamer, Hans-Georg, "Rhetorique, hermeneutique, et critique de l'ideologie," +Archives de Philosophie (1971) 34:207-230. + +Habermas, Jurgen, Knowledge and Human Interests translated by Jeremy +J. Shapiro (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971). + +Ihde, Donald, Hermeneutic Phenomenology: The Philosophy of Paul +Ricoeur (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1971). + +Taylor, Charles, "Interpretation and the Sciences of Man," Review of +Metaphysics (1971) 25:3-51. [see also Anscombe, Kenny (the nature and +explanatory role of the practical syllogism; with Taylor), Danto and Davidson (the +logic of action), von Wright and Hintikka (the development of special logics for +problems raised by the concept of action), and Winch for Analytic work relevant +to hermeneutical theory] + +Gadamer, Hans-Georg, "Hermeneutik als praktische Philosophie," in M. Riedel +(ed.) Zur Rehabilitierung der praktischen Philosophie (Freiburg: +Rombach, 1972). + +Floistad, Guttorm, "Understanding Hermeneutics," Inquiry (1973) 16:445- +465. + +Habermas, Jurgen, Theory and Practice translated by John Vietrel +(Boston: Beacon Press, 1973). + +Linge, David E., "Dilthey and Gadamer: Two Theories of Historical +Understanding," Journal of American Academy of Religion (1973) 41:536- +553. + +Palmer, Richard E., "Phenomenology as Foundation for a Post-Modern +Philosophy of Literary Interpretation," Cultural Hermeneutics (1973) +1:207-223. + +Ricoeur, Paul, "Ethics and Culture: Habermas and Gadamer in Dialogue," +Philosophy Today (1973) 17:153-165. [cited as 1973a) + +Ricoeur, Paul, "Hermeneutique et critique des ideologies," in Enrico Castelli (ed.) +Demythisation et ideologie (Paris: Aubier, 1973) pp. 25-61. + +Ricoeur, Paul, "Existence and Hermeneutics," in D. Ihde (ed.),The Conflict +of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics Northwestern University Studies +in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (Evanston: Northwestern University +Press, 1974). + +Ricoeur, Paul, "Philosophy and Religious Language" Journal of Religion +54 (January 1974): 71-85. + +Zaner, Richard M., "A Certain Rush of Wind: Misunderstanding Understanding +in the Social Sciences," Cultural Hermeneutics (1974) 1:383-402. + +Batens, Diderik, Studies in the logic of induction and in the logic of +explanation (Brugge: De Tempel, 1975). + +Bourgeois, Patrick L., Extension of Ricoeur's hermeneutic (The Hague: +Martinus Nijhoff, 1975). + +Chomsky, Noam, Language and Mind (New York: Harcourt, Brace, +Jovanovich, 1975). + +Homans, Peter, "Psychology and Hermeneutics: An Exploration of Basic Issues +and Resources" Journal of Religion 55 (July 1975): 327-47. + +Bubner, Rudiger,"Theory and Practice in the Light of the Hermeneutic-Criticist +Controversy," in Cultural Hermeneutics (1975) 2:337-377. + +Gadamer, Hans-Georg, "Hermeneutics and Social Science," Cultural +Hermeneutics (1975) 2:307-336. + +Petit, Philip, The Concept of Structuralism: A Critical Analysis (Berkeley, +Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1975). [the model of +structural linguistics began to be applied to theories of anthropology and literature] + +"Bibliographic Guide to Hermeneutics and Critical Theory," Cultural +Hermeneutics (1975) 2:379-390. + +Wolff, Janet, Hermeneutic Philosophy and the Sociology of Art: An Approach +to some of the Epistemological Problems of the Sociology of Knowledge and the +Sociology of Art and Literature (London and Boston: Routledte & Kegan +Paul, 1975). + +Manninen, Juha, and Raimo Tuomela (eds.), Essays on Explanation and +Understanding: Studies in the Foundations of Humanities and Social Sciences +(Dordrecht and Boston: D. Reidel, 1976). + +Bubner, Rudiger, "Is Transcendental Hermeneutics Possible?" in Manninen, Juha, +and Raimo Tuomela (eds.), Essays on Explanation and Understanding: Studies +in the Foundations of Humanities and Social Sciences (Dordrecht and Boston: +D. Reidel, 1976) pp. 59-77. + +Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Philosophical Hermeneutics translated and edited +by David E. Linge (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California +Press, 1976). + +Misgeld, Dieter, "Critical Theory and Hermeneutics: The Debate between +Habermas and Gadamer," in John O'Neill (ed.), On Critical Theory (New +York: Seabury Press, 1976) pp. 164-183. + +Ricoeur, Paul, "History and Hermeneutics," Journal of Philosophy (1976) +73:683-695. + +Gauld, Alan, Human action and its psychological investigation (London, +Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977). + +Ricoeur, Paul, "Expliquer et compredre. Sur quelques connexions remarquables +entre la theorie du texte, la theorie de l'action et la theorie de l'histoire," +Revue philosophique de Louvain (1977) 75:126-147. + +Allen, Douglas, Structure and creativity in religion: hermeneutics in Mircea +Eliade's phenomenology and new directions foreword by Mircea Eliade (The +Hague: Mouton, 1978). SERIES Religion and reason [Call number: BL 43 .E4 +A68 1978; Includes bibliography] + +Bauman, Zygmunt, Hermeneutics and Social Science (New York: +Columbia University Press, 1978). + +Ermarth, Michael. Wilhelm Dilthey: the critique of historical reason +(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978). [B 3216 .D84E67 1978] + +Hirsch, Eric D., Jr., The Aims of Interpretation (Chicago: University of +Chicago Press, 1978). + +Hoy, David Couzens, The Critical Circle: Literature, History, and +Philosophical Hermeneutics (Berkely, Los Angeles, London: University of +California Press, 1978) + +Itkonen, Esa, Grammatical theory and metascience: a critical investigation +into the methodological and philosophical foundations of "autonomous" +linguistics (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1978). [P 151 .I86 1978; Linguistics +-- History -- 20th century. * Positivism. * Hermeneutics; Grammar, Comparative +and general. * Linguistics -- Methodology; Languages -- Philosophy] + +Lamb, Matthew L. History, method, and theology: a dialectical comparison +of Wilhelm Dilthey's critique of historical reason and Bernard Lonergan's +meta-methodology (Missoula, Mont.: Published by Scholars Press for the +American Academy of Religion, c1978)). [B 3216 .D84 L35 1978; Dilthey, +Wilhelm, 1833-1911. * Lonergan, Bernard J. F. * Theology -- Methodology. * +Christianity and politics. * History -- Philosophy] + +Mazzeo, Joseph Anthony, Varieties of interpretation (Notre Dame, Ind.: +Notre Dame University Press, c1978). + +McKnight, Edgar V. Meaning in texts: the historical shaping of a narrative +hermeneutics (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, c1978. [BS 2331 .M3 1978; Bible. +N.T. -- Hermeneutics. * Structuralism (Literary analysis); Hermeneutics] + +Ricoeur, Paul, The Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur: An Anthology of His +Work, edited by Charles E. Reagan and David Steward (Boston: Beacon Press, +1978). + +Riedel, Manfred, Verstehen oder Erklaren: zur Theorie und Geschichte der +hermeneutischen Wissenschaften (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1978). + +Winquist, Charles E., 1944- Homecoming: interpretation, transformation, and +individuation (Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, c1978). [BV 4509.5 .W53 +1978; Identification (Religion) * Story-telling (Christian theology) * Experience +(Religion) * Hermeneutics. * Individuality] + +Bozarth-Campell, Alla, The Word's Body: An Incarnational Aesthetic of +Interpretation (University Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 1979). +[looks quite interesting with lots of bibliog. material] BD 241 B67 + +Gerhart, Mary, The question of belief in literary criticism: an introduction +to the hermeneutical theory of Paul Ricoeur (Stuttgart: Heinz, 1979). [PN 94 +.G47 1979; Ricour, Paul * Hermeneutics. * +Criticism * Literature -- History and +criticism] + +Kermode, Frank, 1919- The genesis of secrecy: on the interpretation of +narrative (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979). [PN 81 .K4 +1979; Narration (Rhetoric) * Hermeneutics] + +Olson, Alan M. Transcendence and hermeneutics: an interpretation of the +philosophy of Karl Jaspers (The Hague ; Boston: M. Nijhoff, c1979). [B 3279 +.J34 O47 1979; Jasper, Karl, 1883-1969. * Idealism; Hermeneutics, +Transcendentalism] + +Panikkar, Raimundo, Myth, faith and hermeneutics: cross-cultural studies +(New York: Paulist Press, c1979). [BL 722 .P345 1979; Hermeneutics * Religions +* Mythology * Faith] + +Raschke, Carl A. The alchemy of the word: language and the end of +theology (Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, c1979). [BR 115 .L25 R37 1979; +Christianity and language. * Hermeneutics. * Philosophical theology] + +Bleicher, Josef, Contemporary Hermeneutics: Hermeneutics as Method, +Philosophy and Critique (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980). + +Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Dialogue and Dialectic: Eight Hermeneutical Studies +on Plato translated with an introduction by P. Christopher Smith (New Haven +and London: Yale University Press, 1980). + +Juhl, Peter D., Interpretation, an essay in the philosophy of literary +criticism (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c1980). [PN 81 .J83 +1980; Criticism. * Hermeneutics] + +Parret, Herman. Contexts of understanding (Amsterdam: Benjamins, +1980). [BD 241 .P338 1980; Hermeneutics. Comprehension. Semantics +(Philosophy) * Languages; Philosophy] + +Ricoeur, Paul, La Narrativite (Paris: Ed. du C.N.R.S., 1980). [original +French version of Brick Lectures given at the University of Missouri at Columbia, +Missouri, 1978; formed the core of later Temps et Recit] + +Ricoeur, Paul, The Contribution of French Historiography to the Theory of +History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980). [Zaharoff Lecture of 1978-79 given +at the Taylor Institution, St. Giles College, Oxford; formed part of later Temps +et Recit] + +Schrag, Calvin O. Radical reflection and the origin of the human sciences +(West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 1980). [BD 450 .S37 1980; +Hermeneutics. * Philosophical anthropology. * Humanities, Philosophy. * +Knowledge, Theory of] + +Thiselton, Anthony C. The two horizons: New Testament hermeneutics and +philosophical description with special reference to Heidegger, Bultmann, +Gadamer, and Wittgenstein (Exeter, England: Paternoster Press, c1980). [BS +476 .T46 1980; Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976. * Bultmann, Rudolf Karl, +1884-1976. * Gadamer, Hans Georg, 1900- * Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 1889-1951. +* Bible. -- Hermeneutics. * Hermeneutics] + +Myth, symbol, and reality (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame +Press, c1980). [BL 304 .M87 1980; Myth -- Addresses, essays, lectures. * +Symbolism -- Addresses, essays, lectures. * Hermeneutics -- Addresses, essays, +lectures. * Reality -- Addresses, essays, lectures] + +Altieri, Charles, Act & quality: a theory of literary meaning and humanistic +understanding (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, c1981). [PN 81 +.A453 1981; Hermeneutics. * Semantics. * Literature -- Philosophy] + +Dallmayr, Fred R., 1928- Beyond dogma and despair: toward a critical +phenomenology of politics (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, +c1981). [JA 76 .D23 1981; Phenomenology. * Political science. * Frankfurt school +of sociology * Hermeneutics] + +Garfinkel, Alan, 1945- Forms of explanation: rethinking the questions in +social theory (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, c1981). [BD 241 +.G36 1981; Relativity. * Philosophy. * Hermeneutics. * Reductionism. * Social +sciences -- Philosophy] + +Jameson, Fredric. The political unconscious / narrative as a socially symbolic +act (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1981). [PN 81 .J29 1981; Fiction +-- History and criticism. * Criticism. * Hermeneutics. * Narration (Rhetoric) * +Communism and literature] + +Ricoeur, Paul. Hermeneutics and the human sciences: essays on language, +action, and interpretation edited by J. B. Thompson (Cambridge [Eng.]; New +York: Cambridge University Press; Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de +l'homme, 1981). [BD 241 .R484 1981; Hermeneutics -- Addresses, essays, +lectures. * Social sciences -- Philosophy -- Addresses, essays, lectures] + +Ricoeur, Paul, "The Hermeneutical Function of Distanciation," in +Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences edited by J. B. Thompson +(Cambridge: University Press, 1981). + +Ricoeur, Paul, "Hermeneutics and the Critique of Ideology," in Hermeneutics +and the Human Sciences edited by J. B. Thompson (Cambridge: University +Press, 1981). + +Ruthrof, Horst. The reader's construction of narrative (London: +Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981). [PN 3451 .R87 1981; Narration * Hermeneutics] + +Thompson, J. B. (ed.), Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences +(Cambridge: University Press, 1981). +Contemporary literary hermeneutics and interpretation of classical texts += Hermeneutique litteraire contemporaine et interpretation des textes +classiques edidit, praefatione introductioneque instruxit Stephanus Kresic +(Ottawa: Ottawa University Press, c1981. [PA 39 .C635 1981; Hermeneutie +feminisme et les religions, et se deroulera au cours du mois de mars 1991.1,Ll +deux autres conferences au cours des annees 1992-1994; Les travaux de recherche +du groupe d'etudes interdisciplinaires sur les femmes et les religions se +poursuivent sous la direction du Professeure Elisabeth J. Lacelle. Une groupe de +dix chercheuses, professeures et etudants, preparent une serie d'etudes qui +para tront dans un livre intitule, Femmes, Religions Prostitutions. Bien que +theoriquement "absent" en conge sabbatique bien merite, la Professeure Lacelle +continue de consacrer genereusement de son temps et ses energies au Centre]. + +Brenneman, Walter L. The seeing eye: hermeneutical phenomenology in the +study of religion in association with Alan M. Olson (University Park: +Pennsylvania State University Press, c1982). [BL 51 .B683 1982] + +Bruns, Gerald L. Inventions, writing, textuality, and understanding in literary +history (New Haven: Yale University Press, c1982). [PN 81 .B78 1982; +Hermeneutics] + +Howard, Roy J., Three Faces of Hermeneutics. An Introduction to Current +Theories of Understanding (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982). +[an elementary introduction to philosophical hermeneutics; modern hermeneutical +theories oppose the monomethodological thesis often found in empiricist writings, +and in particular the version which holds that all explanations are causalist in +form." p. 32; Two wings of the hermeneutical movement: a) an analytic wing +inspired especially by the work of the later Wittgenstein; b) phenomenological +wing basically dialectical and Hegelian in character within which can be +distinguished Marxist or Husserlian and Heideggerian influence; "What is common +to the analytic and phenomenological versions of contemporary hermeneutics is, +besides their aversion to monomethodologism, the contention that intentionality +and purpose are noetic and not merely psychological categories.... Far from +making the causalist sciences, such as physics, the models of rationality - with the +consequence that purposefulness and value-judging become emotional and +irrelevant appendages to rationality - hermeneutic philosophy in some ways makes +intentional or non-causalist uses of language ... the fundamental and primordial use +that makes even causalist explanations possible ... " pp. 32-33] + +Seung, T. K., 1930- Semiotics and thematics in hermeneutics (New York: +Columbia University Press, 1982). [P 99 .S443 1982; Hermeneutics. * Criticism. +* Speech acts (linguistics) * Semiotics] + +Seung, T. K., 1930- Structuralism and hermeneutics (New York: +Columbia University Press, 1982). [B 841.4 .S45 1982; Structuralism. * +Structuralism (Literary analysis) * Hermeneutics] + +Spence, D., Narrative and Historical Truth (New York: Norton, 1982). +[concerned to redefine psychoanalysis as a hermeneutical discipline] + +Todorov, Tzvetan, 1939- Symbolism and interpretation (Ithaca, N.Y.: +Cornell University Press, c1982). [BD 241 .T5813 1982; Hermeneutics. * +Symbolism. * Structural linguistics] +De-structuring the novel: essays in applied postmodern hermeneutics +edited by Leonard Orr (Troy, N.Y.: Whitston, 1982). [PN 3365 .D48 1982; +Hermeneutics * Fiction -- Technique -- History and criticism] + +Interpretive human studies: an introduction to phenomenological research +(Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, c1982). [HM 26 .I57 1982; +Languages -- Philosophy. * Philosophy, German -- 20th century. * +Phenomenology -- History. * Hermeneutics -- History] + +Knowledge and values in social and educational research, edited by Eric +Bredo and Walter Feinberg (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1982). [HM +24 .K589 1982 Includes bibliographical references; Sociology -- Research. Social +sciences -- Research. Education Research Positivism. Hermeneutics. * Criticism +(Philosophy)] + +Bernstein, Richard J. Beyond objectivism and relativism: science, +hermeneutics, and praxis (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, +1983). [BD 241 .B415 1983; Bibliography: p. [267]-276; Hermeneutics. * Science +--Philosophy. * Objectivity. * Relativity, Practice (Philosophy)] + +Cummins, Robert, The nature of psychological explanation (Cambridge, +Mass.: MIT Press, c1983). [BF 38.5 .C85 1983; Psychology -- Philosophy. * +Hermeneutics. * Cognition] + +Klemm, David E., 1947- The hermeneutical theory of Paul Ricoeur: a +constructive analysis (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press ; London: +Associated University Presses, c1983). [B 2430 .R554 K46 1983; Ricour, Paul. * +Hermeneutics -- History -- 20th century] + +Ricoeur, Paul, Temps et Recit 3 vols. (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1983, +1984, 1985); English translation by Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer as +Time and Narrative 3 vols. (Chicago and London: University of Chicago +Press, vol. 1 1984; vol. 2 1985; vol. 3 1988). PN 212 R5213 + +Whallon, William, 1928- Inconsistencies: studies in the New Testament, the +Inferno, Othello, and Beowulf (Woodbridge [East Suffolk]: D.S. Brewer ; +Totowa, N.J.: Biblio, 1983). [PN 511 .W49 1983; Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321. * +Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. * Beowulf * Literature -- History and criticism. +* Hermeneutics. * Criticism, Textual. * Last Supper] + +Corrington, Robert S., "A Comparison of Royce's Key Idea of the Community +of Interpretation with the Hermeneutics of Gadamer and Heidegger," +Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society 20:3 (Summer 1984). + +Fiorenza, Francis Schussler. Foundational theology: Jesus and the church +(New York: Crossroad, 1985, c1984). [BT 75.2 .F56 1985; Jesus Christ -- +Resurrection. * Theology, Doctrinal. * Hermeneutics * Church. * Mission of the +church] + +Grunbaum, Adolf, The Foundations of Psychoanalysis: a philosophical +critique Pittsburgh Series in Philosophy and History of Science (Berkely: +University of California Press, 1984). + +Hermeneutics: Questions and Prospects edited by Gary Shapiro and Alan +Sica (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984). [essays by Betti, +Gadamer, Paul de Man, and others] + +Dancy, Jonathan, An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology (Oxford +and New York: Basil Blackwell, 1985). [study of knowledge and justification of +belief] + +Gaetz, Ivan, Methodical hermeneutics: Bernard Lonergan's treatment of +hermeneutic (Toronto, 1985). + +Rescher, Nicholas, The Strife of Systems: An Essay on the Grounds and +Implications of Philosophical Diversity (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh +Press, 1985). [Roots in Hegel, Johann Friedrich Herbart, and Dilthey; critiques +proposals of Richard Rorty and Robert Nozick to abandon or revise traditional +philosophy] + +Weinsheimer, Joel. Gadamer's hermeneutics: a reading of Truth and +method (New Haven: Yale University Press, c1985). [B 3248 .G33 W3438 +1985] + +Hermeneutics and Praxis edited with an introduction by Robert Hollinger +(Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1985). [focuses on +Heidegger, Gadamer, and Rorty, all seen as holding onto the middle ground +recognizing that many of our practices, beliefs, and values are both contingent or +hstorical and rational; one of REVISIONS series, ed. by S. Haueras and Alasdair +MacIntyre] + +The Hermeneutics Reader: Texts of the German Tradition from the +Enlightenment to the Present edited with and introduction and notes by Kurt +Mueller-Vollmer (New York: Continuum, 1985). [introduction: "Language, Mind, +and Artifact: An Outline of Hermeneutic Theory Since the Enlightenment" pp. 1- +53] + +Cady, Linnell E., "Hermeneutics and Tradition: The Role of the Past in +Jurisprudence and Theology," Harvard Theological Review (1986) 79:439- +463. + +Hekman, Susan J. Hermeneutics and the sociology of knowledge (Notre +Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986). [BD 241 .H35 1986; +Hermeneutics -- History -- 20th century. * Knowledge, Sociology of History -- +20th century] + +Klemm, David E., Hermeneutical inquiry (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, +c1986). [SUBJECT: hermeneutics and religion] + +Lukacher, Ned, Primal Scenes: Literature, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis +(Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1986). ["In the place of the +transcendental ground of subjective memory, `Primal Scenes' substitutes a textual +memory; in lieu of a human subject, a series of intertextual constructions." p. 12; +sources Freud (notion of the primal scene, a theory of the unsaid) and Heidegger +(notion of the history of Being)] + +Newton, K. M. In defence of literary interpretation: theory and practice +(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986). [PN 81 .N44 1986; Hermeneutics] + +Ricour, Paul, Du texte a l'action (Paris: Editions du Seuil, c1986). + +Schrag, Calvin O. Communicative praxis and the space of subjectivity +(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, c1986). [P 90 .S36 1986; Communication +-- Philosophy. * Subjectivity. * Hermeneutics] + +Wachterhauser, Brice R., "Introduction: History and Language in Understanding," +in Hermeneutics and Modern Philosophy ed. B. Wachterhauser, (Albany: +State University of New York Press, 1986) pp. 5-61. [a good introduction to the +field of hermeneutics: sees hermeneutical thinkers united by their common concern +"to resist the idea of the human intellect as a wordless and timeless source of +insight. The human intellect ... does not have the capacity for a `pure' seeing of +reality `in itself,' a wordless intuition of reality sub specie aeternitatis. Instead, +hermeneutical theories of understanding argue that all human understanding is +never `without words' and never `outside of time'. On the contrary, what is +distinctive about human understanding is that it is always in terms of some +evolving linguistic framework that has been worked out over time in terms of +some historically conditioned set of concerns and practices. In short, +hermeneutical thinkers argue that languabe and history are always both conditions +and limits of understanding." pp. 5-6; `special types of transcendental conditions +of all understanding', `transitory a prioris' {Habermas} different in different +contexts vs the assumption that understanding takes place in terms of conditions +that are always and everywhere the same, hermeneutical accounts "do not ground +intelligibility in the private sphere of a pregiven, essentially changeless subject but +in the public sphere of evolving, linguistically mediated practice." p. 6; (2) the +concept of `historicity' (Geschichtlichkeit): denotes our participation in and +intractable belonging to history, "perhaps hermeneutics' most central and most +compelling claim." p. 7; our being, who we are, is through and through historical, +human being is essentially and `ontologically' related to our being in particular +historical circumstances "This means that what we are cannot be reduced to a +noumenal, ahistorical core such as a transcendental ego or, more broadly, to a +human nature that is the same in all historical circumstances." p. 7 {or rather what +the hermeneute in interested in dr.} etc. (3) language: in learning a +language we inherit a past we have not shaped, can never transcend the +fundamental linguisticality (Sprachlichkeit) of our own understanding etc. (4) +the finite, conditioned, and situated nature of all understanding: leads to +a `holistic' or `contextualist' theory of meaning etc. (5) Hegel and +Dilthey: (6) Heidegger; (7) Gadamer; (8) summary of contents of collected +essays] + +Hermeneutics and Modern Philosophy ed. Brice R. Wachterhauser, +(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986). [editor intends the collection +"to provide an insight into the contemporary status of hermeneutics, as it stems +from thinkers like Heidegger and Gadamer." p. 41; sections devoted to +Hermeneutics and History, Language, Critical Theory, and `Post-Modernism'; +outstanding collection of contributers] BD 241 H365 do summaries end of Intro + +Brenkman, John, Culture and domination (Ithaca: Cornell University +Press, 1987). [HM 101 .B74 1987; Culture. * Sociology -- Philosophy. * +Hermeneutics. * Literature and society] + +Buker, Eloise A. Politics through a looking-glass: understanding political +cultures through a structuralist interpretation of narratives (New York: +Greenwood Press, 1987). [JA 75.7 .B85 1987; Political culture, Hermeneutics, +Functionalism (Social sciences), Tales -- Structural analysis. * Political culture -- +United States -- Case studies] + +Caputo, John D., Radical Hermeneutics: Repetition, Deconstruction, and the +Hermeneutic Project (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, +1987). [Kierkegaard, Husserl, Heidegger, Derrida etc.] + +Corrington, Robert S., The Community of Interpreters: On the Hermeneutics +of Nature and the Bible in the American Philosophical Tradition Studies in +American Biblical Hermeneutics 3 (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1987). +[BD 241 .C644 1987; origins of American Hermeneutics: C. S. Peirce and Josiah +Royce; Language Mysticism in the Continental Hermeneutics of Gadamer and +Heidegger; 3. Horizontal Hermeneutics; Bible; philosophy of nature etc.] + +Moss, M. E., Benedetto Croce Reconsidered: Truth and Error in Theories of +Art, Literature, and History (Hanover and London: University Press of New +England, 1987). [the past in order to be understood had to be integrated with the +present, historical knowledge is self-knowledge] + +Outhwaite, William. New philosophies of social science: realism, +hermeneutics, and critical theory (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987. + +Rabinowitz, Peter J., 1944- Before reading: narrative conventions and the +politics of interpretation (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987). + +Rosen, Stanley, 1929- Hermeneutics as politics (New York: Oxford +University Press, 1987). [BD 241 .R64 1987; Hermeneutics. * Political science] + +Valdes, Mario J., 1934- Phenomenological hermeneutics and the study of +literature (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, c1987). [PN 81 .V34 1987; +Criticism. * Hermeneutics] + +Walzer, Michael, Interpretation and social criticism (Cambridge, Mass.: +Harvard University Press, 1987). + +Warnke, Georgia. Gadamer: hermeneutics, tradition, and reason +(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1987). [B 3248 .G34 W37 1987; +Gadamer, Hans Georg, 1900- * Hermeneutics -- History -- 20th century] + +Anti-foundationalism and practical reasoning: conversations between +hermeneutics and analysis (Edmonton: Academic Print. & Pub., c1987). [BD +241 .A568 1987; Hermeneutics. * Analysis (Philosophy). * Political science. * +Methodology. * Law -- Philosophy] + +Les Regles de l'interpretation (Paris: Cerf, 1987. [SUBJECT: +HERMENEUTICS AND RELIGION] + +Brescia, Giuseppe. Sant'Agostino e l'ermeneutica del tempo: analisi e +trasposizioni (Milazzo: Spes, 1988?). [SERIES] Mnemosyne. [BD 638 .B74 +1988; Augustine, * Time. * Hermeneutics] + +Bubner, Rudiger, Essays in Hermeneutics and Critical Theory Eng. trans. +by Eric Matthews (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988). + +Horisch, Jochen, Die Wut des Verstehens: zur Kritik der Hermeneutik +(Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1988). + +Hoy, Terry, Praxis, Truth, and Liberation: Essays on Gadamer, Taylor, +Polanyi, Habermas, Gutierrez, and Ricoeur (Lanham: University Press of +America, 1988). + +Jameson, Fredric, The ideologies of theory: essays 1971-1986 +(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c1988). + +Madison, G. B., The Hermeneutics of Postmodernity: Figures and Themes +Series Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (Bloomington and +Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988). [critique of Hirsch's `Validity'; +Husserl, Merleau-Ponty; Ricoeur (on Metaphor and Subject); Gadamerian response +to deconstruction; note 10. "The Hermeneutics of (Inter)Subjectivity, or: The +Mind-Body Problem Deconstructed"; 11. "The Philosophical Centrality of the +Imagination: A Postmodern Approach"] + +Messer, S., L. Sass and R. Woolfolk, Hermeneutics and Psychological +Theory (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1988). + +Phillips, D. Z. Faith after foundationalism (London ; New York: +Routlege, 1988). + +Resweber, Jean Paul, Qu'est-ce qu'interpreter?: essai sur les fondements de +l'hermeneut? (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1988). + +Riedel, Manfred, Fur eine zweite Philosophie: Vortrage und +Abhandlungen (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, c1988). + +Sica, Alan, 1949- Weber, irrationality, and social order (Berkeley: +University of California Press, c1988). [HM 22 .G3 W4576 1988; Weber, Max, +1864-1920 -- Views on rationalism. * Pareto, Vilfredo, 1848-1923. * Irrationalism +(Philosophy) * Hermeneutics] + +Vattimo, Gianni, The end of modernity: nihilism and hermeneutics in +postmodern culture (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988). + +Life after postmodernism: essays on value and culture (Houndmills, +Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Education, 1988). + +The Narrative path: the later works of Paul Ricoeur edited by T. Peter +Kemp and David Rasmussen (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1989, c1988). B +2430 .R554 N37 1989; "This work originally appeared as volume 14, no. 2, of the +journal Philosophy and social criticism" "Selected bibliography of Ricoeur's +English works": p. [103]-121. [SUBJECT] Ricour, Paul -- Contributions in +hermeneutics. * Ricour, Paul -- Hermeneutics. * Narration (Rhetoric) * Metaphor] + +Hermeneutics: questions and prospects (Amherst: University of +Massachusetts Press, 1988. + +Hermeneutics versus science?: three German views essays (Notre Dame, +Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, c1988). + +Biere, Bernd Ulrich, Verstandlich-machen: hermeneutische Tradition, +historische Praxis (Tubingen: M. Niemeyer, c1989). + +Dilworth, David A., Philosophy in world perspective: a comparative +hermeneutic of the major theories. (New Haven: Yale University Press, +c1989). + +Evans, C. Stephen, Wisdom and the Humanness In Psychology: Prospects For +A Christian Approach (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1989). [understanding +psychology as a hermeneutical discipline allows psychology to take seriously +meaning, values, and freedom. requires the rejection of empiricism, but not the +rejection of empirical research; interpretive elements are already fully present in +psychology, even in experimental research; such a reconceptualization of +psychology would allow for more explicit recognition of the value-laden character +of psychology as a discipline, and this in turn opens the door to distinctively +Christian perspectives on the discipline and analogous perspectives from other +religions and moral standpoints {Philosopher's Index, Spring 1990}] + +Evans, Jeanne, Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics: the imagination as the creative +element (Toronto, 1989). + +Force, Pierre, Le probleme hermeneutique chez Pascal (Paris: Librairie +philosophique J. Vrin, 1989). + +Gerigk, Horst-Jurgen, Unterwegs zur Interpretation: Hinweise zu einer +Theorie der Literatu (Hurtgenwald: Pressler, c1989). + +Hogan, John P. Collingwood and Theological Hermeneutics College +Theology Society studies in religion 3 (Lanham MD: University Press of America, +1989). + +Neville, Robert C. Recovery of the measure: interpretation and nature +(Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, c1989). +Sheriff, John K., 1944- The fate of meaning: Charles Peirce, structuralism, +and literature (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c1989). [PN 81 +.S43 1989; Peirce, Charles S. 1839-1914 -- Influence. * Literature -- Philosophy. +* Hermeneutics. * Meaning (Psychology) * Semiotics and literature. * Criticism] + +Sullivan, Robert R. Political hermeneutics: the early thinking of Hans-Georg +Gadamer (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, c1989). [JC +263 .G35 S86 1989; Gadamer, Hans Georg, 1900- -- Political science. * +Gadamer, Hans Georg, 1900 -- Philosophy. * Political science -- Philosophy. +Hermeneutics] + +About interpretation: from Plato to Dilthey: a hermeneutic anthology +(New York: P. Lang, c1989). [BD 241 .A26 1989; Bible -- Hermeneutics. * +Hermeneutics. * Hermeneutics -- Religious aspects] + +Dialogue and deconstruction: the Gadamer-Derrida encounter (Albany: +State University of New York Press, c1989). [B 3248 .G34 D53 1989; Gadamer, +Hans Georg, 1900- * Derrida, Jacques. * Hermeneutics -- History -- 20th century. +* Deconstruction -- History] + +Entering the circle: hermeneutic investigation in psychology edited by +Martin J. Packer and Richard B. Addison (Albany: State University of New York +Press, c1989). + +Hermeneutics and medieval culture (Albany: State University of New +York Press, c1989). + +The Hermeneutics reader: texts of the German tradition from the +Enlightenment (New York: Continuum, 1989). + +L'Interpretation des textes (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1989). + +Lonergan's hermeneutics: its development and application (Washington, +D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, c1989). [BD 241 .L74 1989; +Lonergan, Bernard J. F. * Hermeneutics -- History -- 20th century] + +Bourgeois, Patrick L., Trace of understanding: a profile of Heidegger's +hermeneutics (Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, c1990). [B 3279 .H49 B684 +1990] + +DeConcini, Barbara, Narrative remembering (Lanham: University Press +of America, c1990). [P 302.8 .D4 1990] + +Gemunden, Gerd, Die hermeneutische Wende: Disziplin und Sprachlosigkeit +nach 1800 (New York: P. Lang, c1990). + +Hamacher, Werner, "The Promise of Interpretation: Reflections on the +Hermeneutical Imperative in Kant and Nietzsche," in Looking After +Nietzsche edited by Laurence A. Rickels (Albany: State University of New +York Press, 1990) pp. 19-47. + +Evans, Jeanne, Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics the imagination as the creative +element o? (Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1990). + +Makkreel, Rudolf, Imagination and Interpretation in Kant: The +Hermeneutical Import of the Critique of Judgement (Chicago and London: +University of Chicago Press, 1990). + +Manen, Max van. Researching lived experience: human science for an action +sensitive pedagogy ([Albany, N.Y.]: State University of New York Press, +c1990). + +Mesure, Sylvie, 1959- Dilthey et la fondation des sciences historiques +(Paris: Presses universitaires de France, c1990). + +Polka, Brayton, Truth and interpretation: an essay in thinking (New +York: St. Martin's Press, c1990). + +Schweiker, William. Mimetic reflections: a study in hermeneutics, theology, +and ethics (New York, N.Y.: Fordham University Press, 1990). [BF 357 .S29 +1990] + +Stock, Brian. Listening for the text: on the uses of the past (Baltimore: +Johns Hopkins University Press, c1990). [D 13 .S844 1990] + +Sullivan, Edmund V., 1938- Critical psychology and pedagogy: interpretation +of the personal world (Toronto: OISE Press, 1990). [BF 38 .S937 1990] + +Terwee, Sybe J. S., Hermeneutics in psychology and psychoanalysis +(Berlin ; New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990). + +Wilson, Barrie A., Hermeneutical studies: Dilthey, Sophocles, and Plato +(Lewiston [N.Y.]: E. Mellen Press, 1990). + +Festivals of interpretation: essays on Hans-Georg Gadamer's work +(Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, c1990). [B 3248 .G34 F45 +1990] + +Jung and Christianity in dialogue : faith, feminism, and hermeneutics, +(New York: Paulist Press, c1990). [BR 110 .J85 1990] + +The Hermeneutic tradition: from Ast to Ricoeur edited by Gayle L. +Ormiston and Alan D. Schrift (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, +c1990). [BD 241 .H355 1990] + +Reading material culture: structuralism, hermeneutics, and +post-structuralism (Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, MA, USA: B. Blackwell, 1990). + +Textual fidelity and textual disregard (New York, N.Y.: P. Lang, c1990). + +Transforming the Hermeneutic Context: From Nietzsche to Nancy, edited +with an introduction by Gayle L. Ormiston and Alan D. Schrift, SUNY series +Philosophy and Critical Theory (Albany: State University of New York Press, +1990). [essays by Nietzsche, Foucault, Eric Blondel, Kristeva, Derrida, Peter +Caws, Manfred Frank, Werner Hamacher and Jean-Luc Nancy; with select +bibliography pp. 262-291] [BD 241 .T69 1990] + +Behler, Ernst, Confrontations : Derrida, Heidegger, Nietzsche, (Stanford, +Calif.: Stanford University, 1991). [B 3317 .B42613 1991] + +Copeland, Rita, Rhetoric, hermeneutics, and translation in the Middle +Ages (Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1991). [PA 8035 +.C6 1991] + +Ricour, Paul, From text to action, (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern +University Press, 1991). [B 2430 .R551 V347 1991] + +Streib, Heinz, Hermeneutics of metaphor, symbol, and narrative in faith +development, (Frankfurt am Main ; New York: P. Lang, c1991). [BT 771.2 +.S86 1991] + +Weinsheimer, Joel, Philosophical hermeneutics and literary theory (New +Haven: Yale University Press, c1991). [BD 241 .W44 1991] +Gadamer and hermeneutics, (New York, NY: Routledge, Chapman & +Hall, 1991). [BD 241 .G34 1991] + +Fogelin, Robert J., Philosophical interpretations, (London ; New York : +Oxford University Press, 1992). [BD 241 .F63 1992] + + + 2. Biblical Hermeneutics + + +Spinoza, Benedict de, A Thologico-Political Treatise (?). Eng. trans. by +R. H. M. Elwes, Classics of the St. John's Program series (Ann Arbor, Mich.: +Edwards Brothers, 1942). + +Ernesti, Johann August, Institutio interpretis Novi Testamenti 4th ed. with +observations by Christopher Fr. Ammon (Leipzig: Weidmann, 1792) (1st ed., +1761). Eng. trans. by Moses Stuart, Elements of Interpretation 3rd ed. +(Andover: M. Newman, 1827); 4th ed.; (New York: Dayton and Saxton, 1842). +another Eng. trans. by Charles H. Terrot, Principles of Biblical +Interpretation 2 vols. (Edinburgh: T. Clark, 1832-33). + +Farrar, Frederic W. History of Interpretation (1884); reprinted (Grand +Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1961). + +Heinrici, Georg, "Hermeneutik," Realenzyklopadie fur protestantische +Theologie und Kirche, 3rd ed. (1899) 719. + +Dobschutz, E., "Interpretation," Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, VII +(1914), 390-95. + +Bultmann, Rudolf, Jesus (Berlin: Deutsche Bibliothek, 1926; reprinted +Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1958). Eng. trans. by Louise Pettibone Smith and +Erminie Huntress Lantero, Jesus and the Word (New York: Scribner's, +1958). + +Behm, Johannes, "Ermeneuo, ermeneia ... " article in the Theologisches +Worterbuch zum Neuen Testament 1935. Eng. transl. Geoffrey W. Bromiley +(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1964). + +Smalley, B., The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (2nd ed. Oxford: +Blackwell, 1952). + +Bultmann, Rudolf, Theologie des Neun Testaments, (Tubingen, J.C.B. +Mohr, 1954), translated into English by K. Grobel, Theology of the New +Testament, 2 vols. (New York: Scribner's, 1951 and 1955) + +Ebeling, Gerhard, The Problem of Historicity in the Church and Its +Proclamation trans. Grover Foley (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967). +[originally published in German in 1954] + +Fuchs, Ernst, Hermeneutik (Stuttgart: R. Mullerschon, 1963; originally +published 1954). + +Bultmann, Rudolf, "The Problem of Hermeneutics" in Essays, Philosophical +and Theological James C. G. Greig trans. (London: SCM 1955), pp. 234-61. +["The hermeneutical method of Rudolf Bultmann seems to include three basic +principles. First, the interpreter must have a relationship in his own life to the +subject expressed in the text of the past, so that there is a common context for +interpreter and text. Second, the interpreter must have a specific prior +understanding based on this common context, and by means of such prior +understanding the interpreter can formulate questions to put to the text. Third, +real understanding involves a specifically existentialist questioning of the text - a +questioning about the possibilities for human existence revealed in the text, or a +listening to the questionposed by the text to the interpreter in the form of a claim +concerning the existence of the interpreter as a self. This third step of +interpretation necessitates demythologizing as a refocusing of the interpreter's +attention from the external form of the text to the existential claim which is the +essential content of the text." [from Stover, Dale, "Linguisticality and theology: +Applying the hermaneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer", Studies in Religion / +Sciences Religieuses Vol.5, No.1, 1975/6, p. 39]; "Bultmann's concern to refer +all understanding to self-understanding seems highly subjectivist. There is no real +otherness to any subject matter for Bultmann is the self is the only real subject in +all texts.... By stressing linguisticality Gadamer preserves the radical historicality, +the tradition-boundness, of human understanding from the tendency to be idealized +into an absolute horizon. Bultmann's demythologizing program considers +linguistic form to be depensable, believing that understandion operates in the +existentialist mode of human possibilities by which historical distance is +transcended in the act of the self. Bultmann's basic presupposition appears to be +that of human subjectivity as a transhistorical structure of being in relation to +which texts may represent possibilities for existence to particular human subjects." +Stover, pp. 39-40; + +Macquarrie, John, An Existential Theology: A Comparison of Heidegger and +Bultmann (London: SCM Press, 1955). + +Blackman, E. C., Biblical Interpretation (Philadelphia: Westminister +Press, 1957). + +Bultmann, Rudolf, History and Eschatology (Gifford Lectures), +(Edinburgh, 1957) [see A. MacIntyre's review in The Philosophical +Quarterly, Vol. 10 (1960), 92] + +Ramsey, Ian, Religious Language: An Empirical Placing of Theological +Phrases (New York: Macmillan, 1957). + +Bultmann, Rudolf, Jesus Christ and Mythology (New York: Scribner, +1958) [presents in a discursive way Bultmann's proposal to `demythologise' the +New Testament message and to interpret it in terms of the existentialist philosophy +of Martin Heidegger. see Kerygma und Mythos] + +Ebeling, Gerhard, `Jesus und Glaube' (1958), in Wort und Glaube, +(Tubingen, 1960). Eng. transl. by James W. Leitch as Word and Faith +(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963). [see (1958) pp. 203ff., esp. 238ff.; +understanding of history and reality as `word-event', and as the `nature of reality +as speech'; in events themselves something is uttered as speech, historical reality +bears the character of statement and address, and therefore we encounter it as +`word'; Jesus is the `witness of faith', in his preaching and his attitude, his person +and his work, there is a concentration of every element in the coming to speech +of faith; this concentration `simply compelling', it must have occured in the +existential life of Jesus; faith not merely the demand which he makes, but the +decisive gift which he gives: the faith of Jesus arouses faith] + +Wood, James D., The Interpretation of the Bible: A Historical +Introduction (Naperville, Ill.: Alec R. Allenson, 1958). + +Ebeling, Gerhard, "Hermeneutik," Die Religion in Geschichte und +Gegenwart 3rd ed., III (1959), 242-64. + +Fuchs, Ernst, Zum hermeneutischen Problem in der Theologie (Tubingen: +J. C. B. Mohr, 1959). + +Ott, Heinrich, Denken und Sein: Der Weg Martin Heigedders und der Weg +der Theologie (Zollikon: Evangelischer Verlag, 1959). + +Robinson, James M., A New Quest of the Historical Jesus Studies in +Biblical Theology, no. 25 (London: SCM Press, 1959). [a standard treatment of +the subject] + +Macquarrie, John, The Scope of Demythologizing: Bultmann and His +Critics (London: SCM Press, 1960). + +Fror, Kurt, Biblische Hermeneutik: Zur Schriftauslegung in Predigt und +Unterricht (Munich: Kaiser, 1961); 3rd revised ed. appeared as Wege zur +Schriftauslegung: Biblische Hermeneutik fur Unterricht und Predigt +(Dusseldorf: Patmos, 1967). [Eng. translation should be available] + +Ogden, Schubert M., Christ Without Myth (New York: Harper, 1961). + +Smart, James D., The Interpretation of Scripture (Philadelphia: +Westminister Press, 1961). + +Steiger, Lothar, Die Hermeneutik als dogmatisches Problem (Gutersloh: +Gerd Mohn, 1961). + +Brown, James, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Buber, and Barth: Subject and Object +in Modern Theology (New York: Collier Books, 1962). + +Fuchs, Ernst, "Existentiale Interpretation von Romer 7, 7-12 und 21-23," ZThK, +LIX (1962), 285-314. + +Ebeling, Gerhard, Theologie und Verkundigung: Ein Gesprach mit Rudolf +Bultmann (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1962). Eng. trans. by John Riches, +Theology and Proclamation (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966). + +Barthel, Pierre, Interpetation du langage mythique et theologie biblique: etude +de quelques etapes de l'evolution du probleme de l'interpretation des +representation d'origine et de structure mythique de la foi chretienne (Leiden: +Brill, 1963). + +Bultmann, Rudolf, The History of the Synoptic Tradion trans. John Marsh +(Oxford: Blackwell, 1963). + +Grant, Robert M, A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible (rev. +edn. New York: Macmillan, 1963). + +Robinson, James M., and John B. Cobb, Jr. (eds), The Later Heidegger and +Theology New Frontiers in Theology series, Vol. I (New York: Harper, 1963). + +Bartsch, Hans Werner, ed. Kerygma and Myth Eng. trans. by Reginald +H. Fuller, 2 vols. (2nd ed. London: Billing, 1964). + +Ebeling, Gerhard, Wort Gottes und Tradition: Studien zu einer Hermeneutik +der Konfessionem (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964). + +Michalson, Carl, The Rationality of Faith: An Historical Critique of +Theological Reason (New York: Scribner's, 1964). + +Neill, Stephen, The Interpretation of the New Testament: 1861-1961 +(London: Oxford University Press, 1964). + +Robinson, James M., "Theology as Translation," Theology Today XX +(1964) 518-27. + +Robinson, James M., and John B. Cobb, Jr. (eds), The New Hermeneutic +New Frontiers in Theology series, Vol. II (New York: Harper, 1964). [see valuable +introduction, pp. 1-77] + +Funk, Robert, and Gerhard Ebeling (eds.), The Bultmann School of Biblical +Interpretation: New Directions? Journal of Theology and the Church series, +Vol. I (New York: Harper, 1965). + +Barr, James, Old and New in Interpretation (New York: Harper, 1966). + +Braaten, Carl E., History and Hermeneutics New Directions in Theology +Today series, ed. William Hordern, Vol. II (Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1966). + +Funk, Robert, Language, Hermeneutic, and Work of God (New York: +Harper, 1966). [another book by Funk on language and hermeneutics should now +be published] + +Herzog, Frederick W., Understanding God (New York: Scribner's, 1966). + +Ogden, Schubert M., The Reality of God and Other Essays (New York: +Harper, 1966). + +Ebeling, Gerhard, God and Word trans. by James W. Leitch, The Earl +Lectures at pacific School of Religion, 1966 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967). + +Funk, Robert, and Gerhard Ebeling (eds.), History and Hermeneutic +Journal of Theology and the Church series Vol. IV (New York: Harper, 1965). + +Marle, Rene, L'hermeneutique (?). Eng. trans. by E. Froment and R. +Albrecht as Introduction to Hermeneutics (New York: Herder & Herder, +[1967]). + +Robinson, James M., and John B. Cobb, Jr. (eds), Theology as History +New Frontiers in Theology series, Vol. III (New York: Harper, 1967). + +Spiegler, Gerhard, The Eternal Covenant: Schleiermacher's Experiment in +Cultural Theology (New York: Harper, 1967). + +Forstman, H. Jackson, "Language and God: Gerhard Ebeling's Analysis of +Theology," Interpretation XXII (1968) 187-200. + +Fuchs, Ernst, Marburger Hermeneutik (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1968). + +Robinson, James M., "World in Modern Theology and in New Testament +Theology," in Soli Deo Gloria: New Testament Studies in Honor of William +Childs Robinson (Richmond, Va.: John Knox Press, 1968) chapter 7. + +Doty, William G., A New Utterance: Studies in New Testament +Hermeneutics (New York: Herder & Herder, 1969?). + +Frei, Hans W., The Identity of Jesus Christ (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, +1975). [narrative theology] + +Ricoeur, Paul, "Philosophical Hermeneutics and Biblical Hermeneutics," in +Franois Bovon and Gregoire Rouiller, eds. Exegesis: Problems of Method +and Exercises in Reading (Genesis 22 and Luke 15) translated by Donald G. +Miller (Pittsburgh: Pickwich Press, 1978), p. 321-39. + +Stroup. George W., The Promise of Narrative Theology (Atlanta: John +Know Press, 1979). + +Dulles, Avery, "Scripture: Recent Protestant and Catholic Views." Theology +Today 37:7-26 (1980). + +White, Leland J., "Historical and Literary Criticism: A Theological Response." +Biblical Theology Bulletin 13:32-34 (1983). + +Fackre, Gabriel, The Christian Story rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: +Eerdmans, 1984). [narrative theology] + +Batdorf, Irvin W., "Interpreting Jesus since Bultmann: Selected Paradigms and +Their Hermeneutic Matrix." in Society of Biblical Literature 1984 Seminar +Papers edited by Ed. Kent Harold Richards (1984) pp. 187-215 . + +Osborne, Grant R., "Christology and New Testament Hermeneutics: A Survey of +the Discussion." in Social-scientific Criticism of the New Testament and its +Social World edited by Robert Jewitt. Semeia 30 (1985) pp. 49-62. + +Ricoeur, Paul, "Le recit interpretatif. Exegese et Theologie dans les recits de la +Passion," Recherche de Science Religieuse, 73 (1985):17-38. + +Thiemann, ronald F., Revelation and Theology (Notre Dame, IN: +University of Notre Dame Press, 1985). [narrative theology] + +Frei, Hans W., "The `Literal Reading' of the Biblical Narrative in the Christian +Tradition: Does It Stretch or Will It Break?" in Frank McConnell, ed., The +Bible and the Narrative Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986) +pp. 36-77. + +Schneiders, Sandra M., "Feminist Ideology Criticism and Biblical Hermeneutics." +Biblical Theology Bulletin (1989) 19:3-10. + +Wallace, Mark I., "Parsimony of Presence in Mark: Narratology, the reader and +genre analysis in Paul Ricoeur," Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses +(1989) 18(3):201-212. + + + END OF DOCUMENT diff --git a/religious documents/hern2deg.txt b/religious documents/hern2deg.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7e9bcd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/hern2deg.txt @@ -0,0 +1,176 @@ +This is a ceremony we have used a couple of times (with variations to +suit the candidate) for the second degree initiation. You will note +that it borrows from many sources: Masonic, Gardnerian, Celtic, and +Flight of Fancy. We've done it robed, sky clad, and some interesting +combinations. Seems to work ok either way. If the candidate has done +the work, the initiation ceremony is more of a public "rite of +passage" or recognition of that fact... the real "initiation" is +between the Gods and the candidate, and therefore cannot really be +"conferred". +...Gary Dumbauld, High Priest, Hernesgaard Circle + + + A ceremony to recognise completion + of the 2nd degree + course of study + + +The Circle is cast as usual. All are properly prepared and purified. +High Priestess and High Priest perform the Ceremony in concert. The +candidate is brought into the circle by a friend and circled 3 times +deosil, ending north of the altar, facing the Priest, who is standing +south of the altar (where else?). + +PRIEST: + +"This is the time of Full Moon, a time for rekindling of light. The +struggle for higher light is: That we may see it, and seeing it, work +and live by it. We are about to embark upon a solemn ceremony to +rekindle the light of Knowledge, the light of Will, the light of +Compassion, the light of Steadfastness; we will combine these lights, +and rekindle the light of Dedication in our Sister here before us. +_____ _________ , here have you been taught the ways of the Wise, that +you might count yourself among those who serve the Gods, among the +brothers and sisters of the Wicca, those who are called the shapers of +the universe." + +PRIEST: + +"I now direct your attention to the two lights upon our altar, the one +representing the Sun, the God, and the High Priest; the other +representing the Moon, the Goddess, and the High Priestess. The High +Priest and Priestess, presiding over the coven, may be thought of as +`One light to rule the day, one light to rule the night'. Since these +lights are both beneficent, each having honor in its place, the Craft +of the Wise does not set day against night, God against Goddess, +Priest against Priestess. In the Craft, we do not define evil as a +negative power, rather as the lack of light; where there is the light +of Sun or Moon, God or Goddess, there can be no lack of light. Choose +one, or both; place light within yourself, and nurture it." + +"In times past, the Circle of Initiation was called a `Hermetic +Circle', after Hermes, the ancient name for the planet Mercury." + +In astrology, the house of the Sun is in the zodiacal sign of the +lion, which is the fifth house; the house of the Moon is in Cancer, +the crab, and is in the fourth house; and the day house of the planet +Mercury is in the Gemini, the Twins, and is the third house. These +numbers, three, four and five, were sacred to many ancient peoples, as +the dimensions of the Pythagorean Triangle, in which the square of +five, twenty five, is equal to the sum of the squares of four and +three, or sixteen and nine. Knowledge of this triangle was essential +to builders; you are also a builder-you are building your character." + +PRIESTESS: + +"I now direct your attention to the several lights surrounding us, in +the East, South, West, and North. Let us now examine these lights, +and see what we can discern within them of human character." + +"In the building of character, the Eastern light is denoted the Lamp +of Beauty, and stands for accomplishments; for learning, skill in art, +poetry, in song and instrumental music, in painting and sculpture. It +exemplifies the art of making one's self attractive to those about +one. It is an old saying that `Beauty is as Beauty does.' It causes +great distress to see these noble graces of character prostituted to +ignoble ends. Remember well the lesson of the Lamp of Beauty, and +accept the blessing of the East." + +Initiate is censed with incense from the censer which has been +previously placed in the East. + +PRIEST: + +"The light in the South is denoted the Lamp of Life, and stands for +individuality, and for energy; for fervency, for zeal and vitality. +It exemplifies passions, desires and appetites. It means loves and +hates, sympathies and abhorrences, and what is more than all the rest +of these, it means heart and joy in the work of life. Remember well +the lesson of the Lamp of Life, and accept the blessing of the South." + +Initiate is circled three times with the brazier, previously placed in +the South. + +PRIESTESS: + +"Look now to the West, and observe the Lamp of Compassion, which +stands for `fellow-feeling'. Every work in life demands a price. +Labor, tears, self-denial, self-recrimination, the very blood of life +is sometimes the price of a truly great work. Look to your fellow +travellers on the road; note with care what sacrifice they have made +in their progress toward the truth; allow them their faults, +commiserate with them in their failures, and rejoice with them when +they succeed. Remember well the lesson of the Lamp of Compassion, and +accept the blessing of the West." + +Initiate is circled three times with water, and his/her hands washed +in a laving bowl, previously placed in the West. + +PRIEST: + +"Look now to the North, and observe the lamp of obedience. The laws +of the Gods are inevitable, and the more we, as children of the Gods, +understand and work in accordance with them, the greater is the sum of +our happiness. Obedience in character means order, the subjection to +one's principles, the fear to do wrong, and the desire to learn and do +right. Many would rather give charity than do justice. They swell +with emotion, weep with sentiment, howl with the mob, so long as their +own particular little tyranny or injustice is not touched. The Lamp +of Obedience exemplifies firm will and determination of character, in +spite of difficulties, dangers and losses. So also the Lamp of +Obedience stands for self-control, for perseverance, and for prudence. +In time of peace, prepare for war; when shines the sun, expect the +cloud; and in darkness wait patiently for the coming light. `When all +the sky is draped in black and beaten by tempestuous gales, and the +shuddering ship seems all awreck, calmly trim once more the tattered +sail, repair the broken rudder, and set again for the old determined +course.' Remember well the lesson of the Lamp of Obedience, and +accept now the blessing of the North." + +Initiate's hands are marked with damp earth from a bowl in the North. +Initiate is then led back south of the altar. + +PRIESTESS: + +"Of the character thus illuminated and thus guided by the lights here +on the altar, and by the Lamps of Beauty, Life, Compassion and +Obedience, it may be said, `Though the world perish and fall away, +he/she remains.' + +Initiate then takes the Oath/Obligation, kneeling. + +`In the names of Arianhrod and Bran; Diana and Appolyon; Heartha and +Cernunnos; and by the powers of Earth, Air, Fire and Water, I, +__________________ , pledge to love, worship and honor the Goddess in +her many aspects; and her Consort, the Horned One, Lord of Death and +Ruler of Chaos; to always be true to the Art and its secrets; to never +abuse the Art or my own powers; and to keep this pledge always in my +heart, in my mind, in my body and in my spirit. This I pledge, by the +Circle of Life, by Cerridwen's Sacred Cauldron, and by my own hopes of +a future life.' + +Initiate stands. High Priestess places a necklace over Initiate's +head. + +PRIESTESS: + +"The Circle is a place between the worlds and outside time. The +Circle is also the Symbol of Life, Death, and Rebirth. We wear the +necklace as a token of the Sacred Circle and as a sign that we are +part of all it symbolizes." High Priest strikes the bell three +times. + +PRIEST: + +"Hear ye, Lady of Life and Lord of Death! Hear ye, Ancient Guardians +of the Powers of Air, Fire, Water and Earth! In this place, by our +hands and will, _____ ______________ , known to us as _______________, +has been duly pledged and anointed a Priest/ess of the Second Degree!" + + + +CAKES AND WINE TO FOLLOW + +..............Alorien + Wolf House, Hernesgaard + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/hidnmana.txt b/religious documents/hidnmana.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e94bf4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/hidnmana.txt @@ -0,0 +1,350 @@ + THIS WRITING IS APPROVED FOR ONLINE DISTRIBUTION + IN ANY BULLETIN BOARD OR OTHER ONLINE SERVICE. + + + Copyright (C) 1992 George W. Demers + + Box 112O-13, Campton, NH O3223 + E-Mail at EXEC-PC or GEnie: G.DEMERS2 + + *ALL COMMERCIAL PRINT RIGHTS RESERVED* + + + + + + HIDDEN MANNA + ============ + + "For there is nothing covered + that shall not be revealed + NEITHER HID, THAT SHALL NOT BE KNOWN." + + - Luke 12:2 + + +This is an investigational report which reviews stated Scriptural facts from +Jesus' own word in testament. In this, we inspect the testimony of Jesus and +the Apostles, concerning the 'loaves and fishes' events. This is NOT an effort +to disprove that something good happened, but an effort to see what REALLY +happened by judging thru testimony. Doing so, we find things which stand out +within the testimony concerning the event and in particular, an event which +occurred afterwards. By these, we are able to find some things NOT previously +understood about either of these events. + +Nothing is read into Scripture which Christ did not say or define Himself +first. This is an objective investigation which is not affected by any +particular religious or secular point of view and is based on His definitions +and doctrinal teaching, also found to be perpetuated by the Apostles. + +It is suggested that you use a KJV Bible for verification and the reading of +connective Scripture outlined below. Any Scripture quoted is sourced from the +KJV Bible. The source of testimony for the following is within: Matthew +14:2O-21/15:29-39, Mark 6:3O-44/8:1-21, Luke 9:1O-17 and John 6:1-14. + +EMPHASIZED sections are in CAPS. FOOTNOTES will be found at the end of the file +and will be noted within by a number within parentheses,"(12)". + +=============================================================================== + + One has to take all facts concerning the 'Miracle of the loaves and the +fishes' into consideration, in order to understand what actually happened. The +reports and connective testimony concerning this event must be read +comprehensively. The best way to do this is to actually place yourself within +the situation, applying your own feelings. Let's first examine the main event +and all facets of it. + + In the feeding of the multitudes, 5,OOO people (4,OOO in another event) +traveled far enough to have to be put up somewhere, as they were too far from +home. In our day and age, this is an everyday occurance; an accepted thing. +When we go somewhere, we can pretty much get what we need when we get there. +However, in the time of this event, such was not so. These people knew that +they were in for a long trip and stay. As nomads are, these were. They knew +when they had to go distances, they had to be prepared. However, it must be +also seen that some of these 5,OOO must have been from somewhere closer by and +perhaps had brought no food in preparation and of course, some just didn't +have any food to bring. These were poor people. (1) + + So the chances were good that there were SOME that had nothing to eat, but +the belief that 5,OOO people ALL came without provisions of some type (as some +would say), raises itself as almost ridiculous. According to three of the +accounts, Jesus and the Apostles came with proper provisions. Certainly, if +THEY came prepared, others in the crowd must have done the same. The people +knew where they were going. Why would they (with some exceptions) NOT do the +same thing as Jesus and his followers? + + Going where He was going, some must have taken the same precautions that He +had taken. While it's possible that one or more may have forgotten to bring +food, what has to be remembered is that these were conditioned to travel in +those days. Think of Peter, who took to the sea for a living prior to these +things. Provisions were of utmost importance to ANY traveler. Further, seeing +as the occurance of multiplication had taken place at the end of the event, it +may also be seen that all (or again, some) had taken provisions, BUT that some +had run out during the course of the long event. According to one account, even +Jesus and the Apostles, after three days of the event, had provisions to spare; +Mt. 15:34. + + What this presents is a case for those of the multitude holding out on each +other when it came to the sharing of foodstuffs. Knowing the length of time +already spent there, to be further spent there AND the long journey back +BEFORE they could replenish their provisions, they held back. They would cling +to what they had in their possession. What happened here, was that a body of +people came together to hear one man, but when it came to taking care of the +body, it fell apart when it came to its physical need in total. The 'haves' +claimed also to be as the 'have-nots' in order to keep what they had in store +for themselves and their own. This would be a natural response, something that +you may even do yourself. (2) + +Conversations which had to have taken place during this event (how else would +they know?), probably went like this: +=============================================================================== +Q: "Sir, we've nothing to eat here. Have you any bread?" + +A: "Sorry, we're all out." +=============================================================================== + + Hypocrites, hardened hearts and the hungry. This touches the account of the +event afterwards concerning the Apostles; see Mark 8:17 AND that seen further +below. + + Let's inspect and understand fully, this next piece of evidence... + +John 6:9 +======== + +"There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves +and two small fishes, but what are they among so many?" + + John's account of the event doesn't even claim that the goods belonged to +Jesus and the Apostles, BUT to someone else in the crowd. (3) This would have +made the event very embarrassing to those there, convicting by conscience. He +would have been the ONLY one from within the body of people to have come +forward with his food to share. This was done in open view. This is something +upon which one can come to their own conclusion: If the boy and/or Jesus and +His group had food to share, THEN what of OTHERS in the multitude? + + Hearing, seeing and knowing all of this, Jesus knew what He would do. He +broke up and gave what He and the Apostles (or the boy) had in a public +fashion. He would not say that they hadn't enough to share with others. He +would not be a hypocrite, knowing that the example itself was the teacher. (4) + + Remember, this was no ordinary crowd. The very reason that the multitude was +there was to receive The Word; to be taught. These people were students. The +act of giving freely by the teacher, set them up to do the same among +themselves as it was ALSO an act of teaching. The GREATEST part of His teaching +concerned the turning away from hypocrisy. (5) + + Out of that 'nothing' came baskets of abundance, which were evidence of the +hidden abundance of those in the multitude. (6) "Thou shalt love thy neighbor +as thyself" was not proving itself as a commandment being followed. The teacher +used a subtle but heavy hand on those He had just spent much time teaching. +Hypocrites discovered that they had enough to share with their neighbors, AFTER +receiving the example. + + Putting YOURSELF within that teacher/taught situation, how would YOU have +reacted, if YOU had food in your possession? + + What should also be seen, is that the multiplication of the foodstuffs DIDN'T +occur at the place that He broke the bread, BUT among the crowd. There was NO +account of 'bread falling from heaven' or any other supernatural event +concerning it directly, which brings us to this next piece of evidence. + + In John's account (6:25-33), Jesus stated that men didn't seek Him later +because they saw a miracle, but because they ate. This of course, indicated +that the men were at the scene, yet hadn't seen anything. After this, those +that sought Him asked for a sign in order to believe in Him. This also said +that they DIDN'T see any miracles of a supernatural kind previously. If they +had, they would NOT have asked for another sign and it would have been a quite +different situation in which they faced Him. Stating that given their fathers, +they wanted a similar sign of 'bread from heaven'. He stated that the 'true +bread from heaven' was Himself, NOT physical bread, which denied them a sign. + + More exacting evidence concerning the reality of things in this situation +is not truly seen until AFTER the event. This is in another event in which the +Apostles tell Jesus that they have no (or not enough) bread to eat during a +journey, a similar circumstance. One will see and understand that Jesus tied +these two events together inextricably thru His word concerning the earlier +example. HIS words and questioning put this together. + +Let's journey with them and listen... + +Mark 8:14-21: +============= + +'Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship +more than one loaf. + +And He CHARGED them, saying "Take heed, BEWARE OF THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES +and of the leaven of Herod". + +And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. + +And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, "Why reason ye, because ye have no +bread? PERCEIVE YE NOT, NEITHER UNDERSTAND? HAVE YE YOUR HEART YET HARDENED? + +"HAVING EYES, SEE YE NOT? AND HAVING EARS, HEAR YE NOT? AND YE DO NOT REMEMBER? + +"When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of +fragments took ye up?" And they say unto Him, twelve. + +"And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full took ye up? And +they said, seven. + +And He saith unto them, "HOW IS IT THAT YE DO NOT UNDERSTAND?"' (7) + +=============================================================================== + + What He did here was to make the connection of the feeding of the multitudes +that had 'no food' to the feeding of the Apostles, who had 'no food'. The +circumstances were the same. He brings the event with the multitudes directly +into remembrance for that specific reason. It turned that there was really +plenty. He then asks them why they still DON'T understand AFTER receiving those +examples.(8) + + AFTER being told that there wasn't enough or none (same problem), He charges +them (gives them a duty to perform) and says "Take heed, Beware the leaven of +the Pharisees", the definition of which He gave in... + +Luke 12:1-2 +=========== +"Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, WHICH IS HYPOCRISY. +FOR THERE IS NOTHING COVERED THAT SHALL NOT BE REVEALED, +NEITHER HID, THAT SHALL NOT BE KNOWN." + + It is thru this saying to the Apostles, that He speaks of hidden things +within the boat journey event; THEIR hypocrisy. By stating this in connection +to the boat journey event, He DIRECTLY connected the revealing of hypocrisy to +the 'loaves and fishes' events. There can be NO OTHER reason for this. + + If that isn't clear, then a telling piece of testimony connecting directly to +that revealed hypocrisy is found in this ACCUSING question asked by Jesus of +the Apostles: "HAVE YE YOUR HEART YET HARDENED?" + + This is a question which can ONLY pertain to HOW THEY WERE TREATING EACH +OTHER. Again, there can be NO OTHER reason for this. This is a description used +many times in Scripture and one which we use to this day. This not only tells +us what happened here, but clues us into what went on previously at the scene +of the feeding of the multitudes, by His connection of the leftover baskets and +the leaven of the Pharisees. These stood as evidence of a situation concerning +something of the same nature and He used the instance SPECIFICALLY. (Mark +8:17-2O) + +Picture yourself within this situation on the boat: +=============================================================================== +Q: "I forgot to bring anything to eat. Can't seem to find anything either. How + about you?" + +A: +=============================================================================== + + Even having a full-blown Christian belief, there is still a twinge of "What +of myself? What do I need?", prior to any sharing of what you have, if you do +it at all. You know where you're going and how long it may be before you can +replenish provisions. + + Seeing all of these things tells us that Jesus knew EXACTLY what was going +on. Someone (but not all) among them had possession of food, thus the reference +to the leaven of the Pharisees, (hypocrisy) and to the leftovers, which +remained as evidence of it. + + Again, hardened hearts, hypocrisy and the hungry. Again, "Thou shalt love thy +neighbor as thyself" was not proving itself as a teaching being followed. It +was just as tight for goods, etc., in that situation as it was for the +multitude. The tighter it gets, the tighter the grip gets. Self-preservation; +one keeps for his own future. Jesus' accusation about the hardened hearts of +the Apostles in this situation and the finding that there was AT LEAST one +person at the previous scene with food who would share it (the boy and/or Jesus +and the Apostles) are the true things which give this away. + + This was a stepping off point for the rest of the testimony which was +connected to the event with the multitudes. They knew THAT HE KNEW THE ANSWER +ALREADY; that their hypocrisy, as that of the Pharisees, was revealed to Him. +The teacher was using a subtle but heavy hand on the students; conviction by +conscience. He used their hearts and their own reasoning power. In this +situation, He gave the Apostles every piece of the puzzle which would let them +ALL eat, when THEY put it together. + + THIS was the rationale BEHIND the 'not speaking of bread, but of the leaven +of the Pharisees' statement in the reports; Mt. 16:12. He focused on the +mentality BEHIND the apparent lack of food; that of hypocrisy among those that +wished to make sure that they ate and were more comfortable than their +neighbor. (8) + + The testimonial evidence in BOTH events tells us some things that He already +understood about men: + +1) That there were hypocrites in the multitude. He taught them by a direct + physical example. + +2) That there were hypocrites AND those that didn't learn even AFTER seeing the + example among the multitude work. + + This second group, was/were those who were commanded to beware the "leaven + of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy". He RE-taught these by word and direct + reference to the physical example of the multitude. + + The multitude learned it but the Apostles had to RE-learn it, as they had +forgotten or refused to remember or believe in it. What He was doing when He +directed them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, was to tell them to +perform a specific duty among themselves. The physical example set in front of +the multitude was also a call to that duty. What one needs to remember is that +the Apostles were STILL learning. Indeed, the Gospels are an account of that +learning process. + + All of this says something that flies into the face of dogma, that there was +NO supernatural work performed among the multitudes, but a 'man-made' miracle; +not the type of work that men are taught to believe in by clergy, their own +superstition or misunderstanding of the term. This is NOT to say that nothing +good happened, BUT that NOTHING of supernatural nature happened concerning the +'loaves and fishes' event. + +=============================================================================== + +FOOTNOTES: + +(1) Further, they were going to a place (desert) where nothing would be readily +available to them. Preparation would be especially seen in the cases where +entire families traveled. What father would go the distance without making +certain that the children or elderly would be fed? + +(2) The reports also state that fasting took place, which would have provided +for an abundance of foodstuffs, as they initially withheld it from themselves. +Does one not prepare to break fast? It seems that at least one did just that. + +(3) It may be that this account may only have touched upon only one of the +events, as John mentions no other as Matthew and Mark do. None of the others +mention the boy, however. + +(4) These particular circumstances also connect to something also shown by +James; James 2:14-16. Hypocritical acts (works) do not show faith in teaching, +either by example or word. + +(5) A physical act of faith, based on His example, reinforced by the example of +the boy in John's account. + +(6) See Luke 12:1-3 again. 'There is nothing covered that shall not be +revealed, neither hid that shall not be known." + +(7) What is noteworthy BY ITS OMISSION, is that there is NO testimony +concerning the rectification of the problem of not having enough to eat. It is +left as part of a mystery to be solved. + +(8) What should also be seen here, is how Jesus' statement and question fit +into the context of the report and the situation itself. By saying these things +in response to lack of bread, His answer seems at first non-sequitorial; ALMOST +nonsensical. It is odd in comparison to the readily apparent nature of the +problem: "We need bread, not a lesson." + + But upon close inspection, it gives the appearance that He knew the REAL +nature of the problem. The questioning after the 'no bread' statement is ALSO +of an investigational nature; making them answer questions which He already +knew the answer to. It is a method of self-conviction by conscience which He +used on more than one occasion, in different circumstances. + +::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: +: : See other writings which may be in this database, +: : "SMOKING GUN: A Trial Of Jesus Christ", a +: (C) 1992 George W. Demers : revealing and alternative view of Christianity, +: : its creation and its current status. +::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/highdegr.txt b/religious documents/highdegr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14ce77d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/highdegr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1389 @@ +WHE HIGHER DEGREES HANDBOOK +by J.S.M. Ward + + +PREFACE. + +In attempting to give an outline sketch of the various degrees in +Freemasonry in a book of this description, I am faced by many +difficulties, not the least of which is how to write in an +interesting way about degrees, which many of my readers have not +taken, without giving away more than is permissible. + +One of my reasons for writing this book is to encourage Brethren to +take these "Advanced Degrees." We still meet Brethren who say that +there is nothing beyond the Craft worth taking. As one who has +taken all the degrees for which he is qualified, I can state from +personal experience that, with one or two small exceptions, +practically all the degrees are of the greatest value. + +Of course, my readers must bear in mind that a Brother gets out of +Masonry in proportion to what he brings into it. If he approaches +it with a keen intellectual mind, based on a reasonable amount of +study of the meaning of symbolism, he naturally will learn far more +than if he approaches it merely from the point of view of a man who +knows a good dinner when he eats one, and cares nothing about the +meaning of the ceremonies which take place in the Lodge Room. + +In conclusion I must express my indebtedness to Messrs. Toye & Co. +for the loan of the blocks which illustrate this book. + +J.S.M.W. + + + +CONTENTS + +Chapter 1. Historical Survey + +Chapter 2. The Mark Degree.............10 + +Chapter 3. The Holy Royal Arch.........17 + +Chapter 4. The Cryptic Degrees.........28 + +Chapter 5. The Allied Degrees .........35 + +Chapter 6. The Ancient and Accepted +Rite........................43 + +Chapter 7. The Royal Order of Scotland..54 + +Chapter 8. The Knights Templar and Knights of Malta.............66 + +Chapter 9. The Remaining Degrees........78 + +Conclusion........................... 83 + +CHAPTER 1. + +HISTORICAL SURVEY. + +The early history of the so-called "Higher Degrees" is even more +obscure than that of the Craft, and in consequence a tendency has +grown up to regard them as "Manufactured" during the 18th century. + +In my opinion this is too hasty a conclusion, for some of these +degrees at any rate bear every evidence of antiquity, and contain +that wisdom which has been handed down from generation to +generation. + +The third degree clearly foreshadows a subsequent degree, wherein +the lost s...s will be finally recovered, in fact without such a +degree the whole of the Craft ceremonies would be meaningless. +Moreover, as we shall show later, the most important Higher Degrees +use Sns. of great antiquity, which have been clearly handed down +from ancient days in precisely the same way as have our Craft Sns., +of which full evidence has been given in the History Handbook. +There is also documentary evidence to show that the legends of some +of these degrees were well known by our medieval ancestors, and +actually incorporated in the Ancient Charges. As, for example, the +two pillars which were set up before the flood, survived that +deluge, and were subsequently re-discovered by masons. This legend +forms the theme of the 13th degree of the A. and A. Rite which is +called the Royal Arch of Enoch. + +The earliest printed references to any of the Higher Degrees are to +the Royal Arch in 1741, and to the Royal Order of Scotland in 1743, +when it was in such a vigorous state of health that it had a +Provincial Grand Lodge in London, with at least two Chapters under +its control. + +The Higher Degrees appear to fall into three main groups:-(1) Those +that extend the story of the Craft; (2) Those which purport to +restore the lost S..s; and (3) The Chivalric Degrees. With regard +to the first group two tendencies seem to have been at work during +the 18th century. The one being to cut out of the Craft various +parts of the legend, and the other being to enlarge certain +incidents referred to in the Craft stories, add picturesque detail, +and evolve out of them a new degree. My own convictio n is that +the root matter of nearly all the Higher Degrees comes from +traditions and legends cherished by our medieval predecessors. + +There is no doubt that all our rituals, the Craft included, +underwent considerable revision during the 18th century. In the +case of the Craft Degrees a considerable amount of excision was +necessitated by the alteration of the clause in the constitution +which changed Masonry from a Christian to a non-Christian basis. +This process of excision of all Christian references was not +completed until the time of the Treaty of Union, in 1813, and one +example for England will suffice. Dunckley, in the second half o f +the 18th century, declared that the "Blazing Star" meant the star +at Bethlehem which guided the wise men to the infant Christ. In +Scotland to this day there still survives a distinct reference to +the Christ in the Craft Degrees, for the V.S.L. is opened by the +D.C. with a quotation from the opening verse of the gospel of St. +John, - "In the beginning was the Word," - whilst the Lodge is +closed with the following quotation from the same sou rce, "And the +Word was with God." Now this clearly indicates the e xistence of a +Christian explanation of the lost S..s which, though no longer +countenanced in the Craft Degrees in England, survives in such +degrees as the Rose Croix. + +We thus see that anything Christian was eliminated from the lower +degrees, and this explains the probable origin of some of the +Higher Degrees. At the same time, the general style of our Craft +Rituals has been altered. Apparently in early days the actual part +taken by the candidate during the ceremony was comparatively small, +and the bulk of the work consisted of lectures, some parts being by +question and answer, while other parts contained various legends +connected with the Order. Gradually the tendency arose to make the +candidate take a more active and dramatic part in the ceremony, and +in order to do this legends and incidents which did not immediately +connect with the main theme began to be dropped. These parts were +prized by the older members, and rather than see them perish they +made them into side Degrees, nor are we justified in assuming that +they invented the Sn..s to go with these degrees. In the Royal +Order of Scotland to-day the bulk of the cer emony consists of +questions and answers put by the M. to the Wardens, and include the +giving of S..ns at certain points in the catechism, which S..ns, +however, are not specifically taught to the candidate. No doubt +when similar portions were cut out and became Christian degrees the +Sns. went with them, and naturally became tests to prove that a +Brother had taken this new Side Degree, which was nevertheless in +reality very ancient. + +A characteristic example of a degree which has been cut out of an +existing craft degree is the Mark, which was almost certainly part +of the ceremony of a F.C., although no doubt it has been amplified +since it started on its independent career. On the other hand some +of the intermediate degrees of the A. and A Rite, such as the +Knights Elect of Nine, are merely amplifications of incidents +dismissed in a few words in the Craft ceremony. The Knights Elect +of Nine relates in dramatic form the apprehension of one of the +criminals. + +To an entirely different order belong degrees like the Royal Arch, +the Royal Order of Scotland, and the Rose Croix. Each of these in +its own way claims to be the completing degree, in which the lost +s..s are discovered. The explanation in the case of the last two +is Christian, in the case of the R.A. non-Christian, whilst their +survival indicates the existence of two diametrically opposed +traditions. The Christian Degrees represent the solution put +forward in Medieval times, whereas the R.A., though now overlaid +with Jewish matter taken from the O.T. in the 18th century, has +still within it traces of a tradition which goes right back to +pre-Christian times, and clearly comes in part from Egypt, and in +part from India. + +The third group claim to carry on the teaching of the Chivalric +Orders of the Middle Ages, and contain evidence of a mystical +tradition which was not entirely orthodox. A characteristic +example of these degrees is the Knights Templar. + +With regard to these Chivalric Degrees, it may at first sight +appear difficult to justify the claim of a building guild to be +linked in any way with the proudest Order of Chivalry known to +exist in the Middle Ages, but those who hastily brush away this +tradition ignore certain salient features of the Templar +organisation. The Templars contained at least three sections, or +sub-orders, within their ranks, i.e., the Knights themselves, the +Templar Priests, and the so-called Serving Brethren, among whom +were m any Masons. + +When the Order was suppressed thousands of Knights escaped the +general persecution, and simply disappeared from history. How did +they do it, and what became of them? The most reasonable +explanation is that they disguised themselves as Serving Brothers +and Lay Brothers of the Temple, and were shielded by these humbler +members of their own Order, who entirely escaped persecution. I +have gone into this question at great length in "Freemasonry and +the Ancient Gods," and will therefore content myself by saying here +that there was undoubtedly a link between Masonry and the Templars, +which is quite sufficient to explain a partial survival of Templar +Rites among the Masonic Brotherhood. The Templars certainly had a +mystical teaching very similar to that enshrined in Freemasonry, +and traces of it can still be detected in the present rituals of +the Masonic Knights Templar, despite the fact that they have been +considerably revised in the last half century . + +CHAPTER 11. THE MARK DEGREE. + +Those of my readers who have already studied the first three +Handbooks of this series will realise that the true S..s of a M.M. +are not restored to them. The real S.. which was lost was +comprehension of the Nature of God, and our Third Degree quite +clearly indicates that, despite popular beliefs, we shall not be +able to comprehend God as soon as we are dead. The Craft degrees, +in short, take us through birth, life and death, and shadow forth +the Creative, Preservative and Destructive sides of the Deity. The +majority of the other degrees either deal with what befalls a man +after death, or else endeavour to explain, or fill in, certain gaps +in that historic narrative which is the allegorical basis of the +Craft Degrees. + +The Mark degree in part belongs to the latter group, and is in +reality the completion of the Second Degree. Unquestionably a +Brother should receive his Mark when he becomes a F.C., and the +degree itself still shows strong operative influence. + +It is ruled by Mark Grand Lodge, which meets and has its offices at +the Temple in Great Queen Street, next door to the Connaught Rooms. +All who love the Higher Degrees owe a debt of gratitude to Mark +Grand Lodge, which has acted as Fairy Godmother to many of the +Higher Degrees which were left stranded after the Treaty of Union +in 1813. Indeed, in many cases it has more or less taken them +under its wing, and in consequence we shall have to refer again and +again to the fact that the Grand Body which rules a particular +degree has its Head Quarters at "Mark Mason's Hall." + +The Mark Degree has its own regalia and a special jewel, and +perhaps our younger Brethren will be glad of the warning that, with +the exception of the R.A., no jewels of the Higher Degree may be +worn in a Craft Lodge. + +The jewel of the Mark Degree consists of a keystone, made usually +of white cornelian, on which are engraved certain mystic letters, +the meaning of which are revealed to members of the Degree. It is +suspended from a blue and red ribbon. The aprons and collars are +also made of blue and red silk. + +The teaching of this Degree is largely an amplification of the +Second, and tells of education and reward for labour. It also +contains a dramatic warning against attempting to obtain wages to +which we are not justly entitled, and there is a Messianic hint in +the fact "That the stone which the builders rejected has become the +headstone of the corner." Incidentally the stone is a keystone, +hence the origin of the jewel of the degree. + +Several facts lead us to suspect that at one time the Degree may +have been more pronouncedly Christian than it is to-day. We know +that it was flourishing as far back as 1760 in Lodges attached to +the Ancients, who were unquestionably strongly pro-Christian. + +The legend as now given relates to a period in the building of the +Temple previous to the tragedy, although there is abundant evidence +to show that as late as the time of the formation of Mark Grand +Lodge, 1856, many Mark Lodges in the North had a somewhat similar +legend to that now used, but associated it with the second Temple +instead of with the first. + +Mark therefore, is, or should be, really part of our Craft system, +and in Scotland Craft Lodges still have the power to confer it, and +constantly do so. In that country it is a necessary qualification +for the Excellent Master which itself is an essential qualification +for the Royal Arch. We shall refer to the Excellent Master more +fully when we come to the Royal Arch, but it is desirable to point +out that in Scotland Royal Arch Chapters also have the right to +confer the Mark Degree, if a candidate has not already taken it in +his Craft Lodge. + +The Mark, as we have said, is the completion of the Second Degree, +and in itself contains what are practically two degrees, namely, +Mark Man and Mark Master. There has been much learned controversy +as to whether the Mark Master was at one time conferred on a man as +soon as he received his Second Degree. Since it is impossible at +the moment to decide when the Mark Degrees arose in their present +form, all we can say definitely is that so far as documentary +evidence goes, i.e., back to 1760, it appears as if there were +always the Degrees of Mark Man and Mark Master, and that although +at any rate in theory, Mark Man might be conferred on a F.C., Mark +Master seems always to have been restricted to Master Masons. In +modern times both Mark Degrees are conferred together, and always +on a M.M., although the Mark ritual throughout emphasises the +connection with the Second Degree. + +THE ARK MARINER. + +The Mark Degree, or Degrees, also have associated with them, but in +a separate "Lodge," the Royal Ark Mariner Degree. This appears to +be old "Operative" work, probably built up in the 18th century by +genuine operative masons in the North of England, anxious to have +some way of distinguishing a real "Working" mason from a +"Speculative." The same explanation probably brought into existence +the Degree of St. Laurence the Martyr, of which more anon. The Ark +Mariner legend relates to the Deluge, and is taken d irect from the +Bible. The most interesting features are the use of a stone, +instead of the V.S.L., on which to take the Ob.. The reason for +this is explained in the ritual, but it may be that we have here a +survival of the old custom of swearing on a stone altar, which was +the earliest form of a binding oath. There is also some +interesting work with a triangle, but in the main it must be +confessed that there is not much really deep teaching in the Degre +e. It is, however, quite a pretty little Degree, and has many +ardent supporters. It is under the direct rule of Mark Grand +Lodge. + +CHAPTER III. + +THE HOLY ROYAL ARCH OF JERUSALEM. + +The Mark completes the Second Degree, but to the youngest Master +Mason it must be obvious that a further degree is needed to +complete the Third Degree. + +The genuine S..s were lost; but were they never re-discovered? +Moreover, since they were known to three people, why could not the +two survivors have appointed a successor and given him the lost +S..s? The Royal Arch sets out to give at any rate one answer to the +question - "What were the Gen. S..s of a M.M.?" + +Briefly, it is a lost W., but that W. conveys in symbolism a most +interesting and illuminating explanation of the nature of God. +Indeed, the teaching of the Craft may be summed up by saying that +it teaches a man his duty to his neighbour, whereas the "Arch" +instructs him in his duty towards God. What is the nature of God +therein depicted? It is a trinity, but not the Christian Trinity; +it is more like the Hindoo Trinity of Creator, Preserver, and +Destroyer. It also clearly indicates the union of Body, Sou l, and +Spirit, and shows that by that Union we become united with God. +Thus, in its very essence the Royal Arch is supremely mystical, and +teaches of the Beatific Vision. + +The legend deals with the "Discovery" of the lost S..s at the +re-building of the Temple after the return from the Captivity. It +will thus be seen that the "Setting" of the degree is from the Old +Testament, and this fact must be noted, for there is another +explanation of the "Lost Word" which is given in some of the other +"Higher" degrees, namely, that the "Lost Word" is Christ, the +Logos. + +But we have not yet obtained an answer to the very natural +question, "Why could not the other two, who knew the S., appoint a +successor?" The full exoteric explanation, and also how it was that +the S.s came to be deposited in a place of security is given in one +of the "Cryptic Degrees," to which we shall refer later in this +book. Briefly however, three persons were necessary in order to +convey it, but in reality, of course, this is symbolism, and +implies that Body, Soul and Spirit must be in union before t hey +can fully comprehend the Divine Trinity. While, on the one hand, +no living man, trammelled by the bonds of the flesh, can really +comprehend the nature of God, nor even do so immediately after +death, for our souls will not yet be sufficiently evolved, on the +other, hand it is clearly taught that our body does not completely +perish, but is rather transmuted, even as St. Paul himself says +will take place at the day of judgment. This is no doubt a very +profound dogma and difficult for us to understand, bu t if we can +realise the fact that matter as well as Spirit is in its original a +manifestation of God, and therefore a part of Him, we shall +perceive that Matter also is indestructible, although its form may +change. This fact is perfectly well recognised by modern science. + +In the original form of the Royal Arch, which still survives in +Bristol, in Scotland, and in America, the Candidate must pass +through four veils, which correspond to various spiritual states of +existence which lie beyond the grave, each being a little nearer to +the Divine Being than was the previous one. The four Veils are +coloured respectively Blue, purple, red and white, and at each Veil +the Candidate is challenged by a "Guardian of the Veil" who demands +of him the W. and Sn. of the previous Veil. This ceremony in +Scotland forms a distinct degree known as the Excellent Master, and +the Jewel thereof is a pentacle set with brilliants, which jewel, +of course, represents, among other things, man and his five senses. +The penal S. of this degree is of great antiquity, and is made by +Vishnu when in the form of the Lion Incarnation. Vishnu descended +to earth to overthrow an evil giant which was oppressing the world, +and slew him by disembowelling him. In Scotla nd no English Royal +Arch Mason can be admitted to a Scotch Chapter unless he previously +receives the Degree of Excellent Master, which degree he cannot +receive unless he has first taken the Mark. + +The Passing of the White Veil is really an integral part of the +Arch ceremony, and the Sn. corresponding to the S.s of the other +Veils is one well known to English Royal Arch Masons. It is only +after having passed this barrier that the candidate is enabled to +obtain the real S.s of an M.M., the ceremony being very similar to +our own Royal Arch. In other words, it is only when we have passed +through various spiritual stages of existence that we shall at +length be able to comprehend the nature of God. The deletion of +the Veils from our ceremony has tended to obscure this important +lesson in the English form of the R.A. + +A slightly different lesson is taught us by the fate of our +predecessor in the Craft. He could not have revealed the S. even +if he had wished to do so, for it was an experience, and therefore +could not be communicated by words to any living man. We cannot go +into a detailed explanation of this deeply mystical ceremony in a +book of this nature, but a brief explanation of a certain vault +which plays a prominent part therein is essential. Like all +symbols in Freemasonry it has several meanings, but the two most +important are (a), the underworld, or the grave into which man +descends at death, and from which his Soul ultimately ascends to +realms of Light. (b) The Mystical interpretation is that it is the +M.Ch., that dark recess of the Soul, where dwells the Divine Spark. + +The jewel of this degree depicts quite clearly the nature of God. +The Double Triangle within the Circle and the Point therein, which +is represented by the All-Seeing Eye, is the age-old symbol for +God. The triangle within the Circle represents the Spirit within +the Circle of Infinity, and is peculiarly associated with God the +Creator. R.A. Masons will perceive the significance of this fact +in connection with the Altar. The Point within a Circle, among the +Hindoos, stands for Paramatma, the All-pervading , the Source and +End of All. The triangle with the point downwards is the symbol of +rain (water) and represents the preservative side of God (Vishnu), +while the triangle with the point upward represents fire, whose +flames go up to Heaven, and is therefore the emblem of the +Destructive, or rather the transformative, side of God (Shiva). +This great symbol was sacred to Babylonian, Egyptian and Jew, and +had to each the same inner meaning. It is also sacred to the +modern Hindoo, and was so to the ancient Mex ican, and indeed is +one of the most venerated symbols in the world. + +It will thus be seen that the jewel of the R.A., far from being a +mere ornament, contains in itself a summary of the sublime +teachings of that degree; the more so as it also has a triple tau. +With regard to the tau cross, we have already shown in our earlier +handbooks that in its origin it was a Phallic symbol representing +the Creative power. We shall remember also that we make a tau +cross every time we receive the S.s in the Craft Degrees. Thus the +M.M. has himself made the triple tau. It is also worth reminding +our readers that only those who have passed the chair and actually +ruled a Lodge are entitled to wear three tau crosses on their +aprons. + +As a Phallic symbol it became an emblem of the Creator, and also, +in time, of our animal passions, which must be trampled under foot +if we are to advance in Spiritual knowledge. By the time we have +reached the Arch, symbolically this has been done, and we are +reminded of this by the Union of these three taus beneath the +triangles, emblems of the spirit. Moverover, though this is +essentially a non-Christian degree we cannot forget that there were +three Crosses on Calvary. + +The presence of the triple tau, after the experience we have had of +it in the Craft, shows how carefully each degree leads on to the +next, and it also conveys this important lesson. Each degree in +the Craft taught the evolution and purification of (1) the body; +(2) the soul; (3) the spirit. These three, now in perfect union, +rest under the Shadow of the Supreme Being depicted by the Double +Triangles. Thus the presence of the tau crosses teaches us that +Man will ultimately rest in the Presence of the King of Kings. + + +In fact the Royal Arch is full of interesting symbolism: the +colours of the regalia, red and purple, the shape of the altar, the +position of the three Principals, all convey important lessons, but +we cannot spare the space in a small Handbook like this to enlarge +further on this degree. Nevertheless, one cannot omit pointing out +that as in the Craft the W.M. represented the Spirit, the S.W. the +Soul, and the J.W. the Body, so do the corresponding officers in +the R.A., although here they are no longer separa ted, but are side +by side, and in all cases act as one. The reason for this is that +the R.A. depicts that sublime state wherein Body, Soul and Spirit +are truly one, and are at Peace in the Presence of God - now +properly comprehended. + +Our readers will thus perceive that no Craft Mason can consider he +has fulfilled his duty as a Mason, until he has taken the Royal +Arch, for he has not recovered those lost S..s which he has +promised to try and find. + +The regalia includes apron and a sash of purple and red. + +CHAPTER VI. THE CRYPTIC DEGREES. + +The Cryptic Degrees are four in number and are ruled by a Grand +Council of their own which, however, in reality is in close +alliance with Mark Grand Lodge, whose Hall is their Head Quarters. + +They are "The Most Excellent Master," "The Royal Master," "The +Select Master," and "The Super-Excellent Master," and their legends +bridge the gap, historically, between the first Temple and its +destruction. The "Most Excellent Master" must not be confounded +with the "Excellent Master" which is worked in Scotland and is +really the "Passing of the Veils" in the Royal Arch, although it is +kept separate and given first. Its Legend, therefore, is +associated with the Second Temple, while the "Most Excellent +Master" on the contrary deals with the completion and dedication of +the first temple. The apron, which is seldom worn, is white edged +with purple, and there is a purple collar. The colour refers to +the grief felt by the Brethren for the loss of the third Principal, +whose chair is vacant. The most striking feature in the Lodge room +is a small replica of the Ark of the Covenant. In theory the +qualification for the "Most Excellent Master" is only Mark, but as +it is always followed by the "Royal Master," for which the +Qualification is Mark and Arch, in practice the Cand. must hold +both these degrees. + +The Royal Master is a most interesting degree, for it shows how the +R.A. S..s came to be deposited in the place in which they were +subsequently found. Though H.A.B.'s chair was vacant in the "Most +Excellent Master," in the Royal Master he is the chief character, +and his disquisition on the subject of "Death" is one of the most +beautiful pieces of ritual in Freemasonry. + +The apron in this degree is black, edged with red, but it is seldom +worn. The three Principals, however, wear robes similar to those +worn by the same officers in the R.A. + + +The "Select Master," unlike the preceding degrees, has a special +jewel of its own, namely a silver trowel within a triangle of the +same metal, which is suspended from a black collar edged and lined +with red. The apron is white, edged with red and gold, and is of a +triangular shape, but in England neither it nor the jewel are +usually worn. In Scotland the jewel of the Cryptic Degrees +combines the triangle and the trowel, whereas in England we wear +the Jewel of the "Super-Excellent Master" to represent all four +degrees. + +The "Select Master" is supposed to be held in a crypt (hence the +name "Cryptic Degrees") which is the same crypt in which the S..s +of the R.A. were at a later date discovered. The legend is similar +to that of one of the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, and +relates how a well known mason employed by K.S. accidentally +intruded into this crypt when K.S. and H., K. of T., were present. +The intruder was subsequently pardoned, but the O.G. who should +have prevented his entry, was punished in his place. This is +undoubtedly an old legend which crops up again in a third degree, +namely, the "Grand Tyler of K.S." one of the Allied Degrees. Its +symbolic meaning is that those who push their occult investigation +beyond reasonable limits, and without the assistance and protection +of more experienced investigators, run serious risks. + +The "Super-Excellent Master" is short and not very interesting, but +it brings the story of the first Temple down to the time of its +threatenened destruction and so bridges the gap between the "Most +Excellent Master" and the R.A.. The lesson taught is unswerving +loyalty to Jehovah. The colour of this degree is crimson, and a +crimson collar should be worn. In practice, however, this is worn +only by members of the Grand Council. The Jewel of these degrees +is a white enamel triangle with the point downwards, that is, the +triangle of the Preserver, and is as a rule the only regalia worn. + +The most interesting part of this degree is a carpet on the floor +with the following design thereon. Inside a square is a circle, +within which is a triangle pointing towards the West, and within +the triangle is the C. of the C. on which rests an altar, and on +the altar is the ark of the covenant. As the "Floor" design is not +adequately explained, the following will be of use. + +The triangle pointing West is the symbol of the Preserver, and has +been adopted as the jewel of all these degrees in England, and it +certainly denotes the underlying principle of the series. + +(1). The "Most Excellent Master" teaches us that despite the loss +of the chief architect God preserved the work of the Temple and it +was duly completed. + +(2). The "Royal Master" tells us how the R.A.S..s came to be +preserved. + +(3). In the "Select Master" the over zealous friend of K.S. was +preserved from the dire fate which threatened him. + + +(4). In the "Super-Excellent Master" we are shown how God preserved +a remnant of the people because they preserved their faith in Him. + +The triangle within a square denotes the Descent of the Spirit into +Matter, while the Circle symbolises Infinity - whence the Spirit +comes. The point links the Infinite with the emblem for the +All-Pervading - it also refers to each individual "Ego." + +The whole symbol, therefore, means that God the Preserver descended +from Eternity, and entering into Matter became flesh, and He is one +with the All-Pervading. It is therefore a most sacred emblem, and +the fact that the Ark of the Covenant stands on the C. shows that +the New Dispensation arises out of the old, and the Prophetic +reference to this fact is emphasised by the real g. which should +remind us of Him Who died upon the Cross. Thus this degree has a +Messianic, esoteric meaning, often overlooked by t hose who have +taken it. + + +CHAPTER V. THE ALLIED DEGREES. + +Under this heading are grouped a number of different degrees having +little in common. In theory the Grand Council which meets at Mark +Masons' Hall controls a large number of degrees, including five +which are androgamous, but in practice they only work six degrees. +At Newcastle-on-Tyne, however, the Time Immemorial Council also +works one or two others, including the Royal Arch Knight Templar +Priest, a highly mystical and beautiful ceremony. + +The six degrees worked in London are not restricted to Christians, +and the only qualifications are Mark and Arch. This is despite the +fact that St. Laurence the Martyr and the Knights of Constantinople +are clearly Christian degrees. Most of these degrees are of +secondary importance, but the Red Cross of Babylon and the High +Priest are old and important. The degrees are as follows:- + +(1). St. Laurence the Martyr. The Jewel is a gridiron, and it is +quite possible that it is to this fact that we owe the ribald tales +current in the outside world as to what befalls a man at his +initiation into Freemasonry. The legend of this degree in reality +has nothing whatever to do with Freemasonry, and is well known to +every student of Medieval legends of the Saints. The lesson taught +is that of fortitude. This degree appears to be a piece of old +Operative ritual brought from Lancashire, and original ly worked up +into a degree in order to enable a genuine "Working mason" to +distinguish other Operatives from "These newfangled Speculatives." + +(2). The Knights of Constantinople is associated with the Emperor +Constantine, and inculcates the useful lesson of universal +equality. The Jewel is a cross surmounted by a crescent moon, +hardly a happy choice, for it suggests the triumph of the Crescent +over the Cross. + + +(3). The Secret Monitor is very similar to the first degree of the +Secret Monitor as worked by the Grand Conclave, and is associated +with David and Jonathan. Its presence among the Allied Degrees +bears testimony to an unfortunate split which occurred during the +early years of the organisation of the Grand Conclave of the Secret +Monitor. It is the only degree in English Freemasonry which is +under the control of two entirely distinct bodies. The Jewel is a +"Hackle" suspended from a crown, and on the ribbon above the jewel +is a bow. + +(4). The Grand Tyler of King Solomon relates the story of the +accidental intrusion of a F.C. into the secret vaults where K.S., +K.H. of T., and H.A.B. were met in consultation. The legend is +very similar to that related in the "Select Master" though there +are interesting variations, in particular. "The Period" of the +legend being earlier. The Jewel is the triangle of the Preserver, +point downwards, with certain Hebrew letters engraven in gilt upon +a black enamel background. + +All these degrees are interesting, but can hardly be called really +important, whereas the next two stand in quite a different +category. + +(5). The Red Cross of Babylon is undoubtedly old, and the sixteenth +degree of the A. and A. Rite also bears on the same theme, while +similar incidents likewise occur in the Royal Order of Scotland. +The Degree in historical order follows, and is closely associated +with, the Royal Arch and the rebuilding of the second Temple, and +in Scotland is actually controlled by the Supreme Royal Arch +Chapter. It has many interesting details, but its outstanding +feature is the crossing of the Bridge. This, although tr ansformed +into a physical and historical bridge, undoubtedly symbolises +something quite different. We are here in the region of +eschatology and are being told what befalls a man after death. In +all the great religions of the world there is a tradition that +sooner or later after death the soul must cross a certain "Bridge." +Clearly this "Bridge" means the passing from one state of +existence in the world beyond the grave to another, and indicates a +further advancement of the Soul away from earth conditions and +towards God. The Japanese, Chinese, Parsees, Mahomedans, and +Medieval Christians, all speak of this bridge. For example, the +Parsees say that the mourners must rise at dawn on the third day +after the death of their friend and pray for him, for at that hour +he comes to the bridge which he must cross to reach Paradise. The +bridge spans the gulf of Hell, and in the middle of the Bridge the +Soul will be met by a female form. If his life has been good this +form will be that of a beautiful woman who will lead him into +Paradise, but if his life has been evil it will be a hideous hag +who will meet him and fling him from the bridge into the bottomless +pit. + +In England this bridge was called "The Brig of Dread," and is +depicted in a twelfth century fresco at Chaldon Church, Surrey, +where it is shown as if built like a saw. Among those attempting +to cross it is a Mason with his tools in his hand. It is also +spoken of in an old Lancashire dirge which relates what befalls the +Soul of the dead man immediately after it has left its dead body. + + + +"When thou from hence away art passed Every night and alle; To +whinny-muir thou comest at last And Christ receive thy soule." + +"From whinny-muir when thou mayest pass Every night and alle; To +'Brig of Dread' thou comest at last And Christ receive thy soule." + +The exoteric lesson of the degree is "Great is Truth," but the +hidden reference to the Bridge of Testing which the soul must pass +on its journey towards Paradise is the most striking feature. The +Jewel is two crossed swords on a dark green background of enamel. + +(6). The High Priest, unlike the other degrees, can only be +conferred on a mason who has been a 3rd Principal in a R.A. +Chapter. It deals with the Priesthood "after the Order of +Melchisedic," and the jewel is the triangle with the point upwards, +on which is imposed a mitre. + +Briefly then the Allied Degrees link the Old Testament with the +New, and the most important are the Red Cross of Babylon and the +High Priest, although the other four are not without interest. + + +CHAPTER VI. THE ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED RITE. + +The Rose Croix of Heredom is now regarded as the 18th Degree of the +A. and A. Rite, whose total number of degrees is 33, in reference +to the 33 years of our Lord's Life. In practice, however, only the +18th, 30th, 31st, 32nd and 33rd are worked in full in England, and +the last three are but sparingly conferred. + +In America all the intermediate degrees are worked, i.e., 4th to +33rd inclusive, but in England the 4th to the 17th are merely +conferred by name. The 18th is worked in full, but the 19th to the +29th inclusive are similarly conferred by name only. + +The qualification for the 18th is one year a Master Mason, and for +the 30th it has usually been Prelate or M.W.S., the latter being +the title of the ruler of a Rose Croix Chapter. The 18th degree is +a highly mystical degree and full of the deepest interest, and in +England is restricted to professing Christians. In the U.S.A. and +on the Continent of Europe, however, it is not usually regarded as +Christian, and non-Christians can become members. One school of +Masonic research has prepounded a theory that t he Rose Croix was +originally Roman Catholic, and invented by the Jacobites. +Personally, I have, after very careful search, been unable to find +any evidence in support of this view, and frankly I cannot conceive +of any conscientious Roman Catholic taking part in the ceremonies. + +It seems more probable that the degree is due to Rosicrucian +influence, and the earliest historic evidence we can find of these +mystics shows that they were Lutheran, but it is quite probable +that they inherited an earlier tradition. There appear to be +references to Rosicrucian doctrines in Dante, and the Commacine +Masons carved the Rose and Compasses over their Lodge door at +Assisi in the opening years of the 15th century. Moreover, the +ancient Aztecs who likewise venerated the cross had a very similar +R ite with the same Sn..s and many of the same incidents. Finally, +we cannot ignore the fact that Henry Adamson, M.A., in "The Muses +Threnodie" written in 1636, says:- + +"For we are Brethren of the Rosie Cross, We have the Mason's Word +and Second Sight:" + +Now this shows an association of the "Mason's Word" with the Rosie +Cross. Personally, I think this refers, not to the present 18th +degree, but to the Rosy Cross of the Royal Order of Scotland. + +It indicates, however, Rosicrucian influence on Freemasonry long +before the rise of the Jacobite movements, and is in a poem +describing Protestant Perth. + +To revert to the 18th degree as we know it to-day, we find it has +four distinct sections. The first consists of the conferring by +name of the intermediate degrees, and the other sections form the +Rose Croix Degree itself. It is a highly mystical piece of +symbolism, and expresses the passage of Man through the Valley of +the Shadow of Death accompanied by the Masonic Virtues F.H. and C.. +It ends with his final acceptance into the abode of Light, life and +Immortality, and with his recovery of the L.W. + +The Badge is twofold; on one side it is black, having in its centre +a red calvary cross; on the other side it is white, edged with rose +colour; on the apron itself is embroidered a Pelican feeding its +young, while on the flap is a triangle within which are certain +Hebrew Characters. + +There is a collar which is similarly two faced; on the reverse it +is black with three red crosses, and on the front rose pink, richly +embroidered. Among the symbols depicted are the crown of thorns +and the serpent holding its tail in its mouth, the emblem of +Eternity. The jewel which is suspended from the collar is a golden +compass extended to an angle of 60 degrees, surmounted by a +celestial crown. On the one side is a scarlet cross within the +compasses, and beneath it a Pelican feeding its young. On t he +reverse the cross is silver, with a silver eagle rising towards the +heavens, and on both sides at the joint of the compasses is a rose. + +Despite its present Christian setting it appears that this degree +in its main details is a very ancient ceremony. All its essential +features are found in the Bora Ceremony of the Australian +Aborigines, one of the most primitive races still living. In India +and China the Sns. of this degree are associated with God the +Preserver. In Ancient Egypt certain parts of the Book of the Dead +cover the same ground and show the same Sns. in use. The Ancient +Aztecs in Mexico appear to have had practically the same c eremony, +as already stated, and some of the Sns. which they make have +survived among the Red Indians to this day. In Medieval Europe we +find constant examples of the use of the two principal Sns. +employed, as for example at Coire Cathedral, - in both 12th and +15th century work, - in a fresco at Basle, painted in the opening +years of the 16th century, and in a 17th century panelled room now +in the Engadine Museum at St. Moritz. Moreover, a certain Sn. +associated with the 9th degree of the A. and A. Rite wh ich +indicates sorrow is also found side by side with these Rose Croix +Sns. in every one of the above mentioned cases in Europe. Facts +like these cannot be brushed aside lightly, and preclude us from +accepting the view that the Rose Croix was invented in the 18th +century. Indeed, the Mexican Codices, which practically show the +complete ceremony, are at least two and a half centuries earlier +than the date at which it has been suggested that this degree was +invented. + + +THE GRAND ELECT KNIGHT KADOSH + +The other name for this, the 30th degree, is Knight of the Black +and White Eagle. In Latin Countries it is strongly Templar in tone, +and has acquired a sinister significance because in some of the +rituals the duty of avenging the Death of Molay, and the other +slaughtered Knights Templars, is taught in a dramatic way. Since +the chief culprits responsible for the slaughter of Molay and his +Knights were Philip, King of France, and Clement, the Pope, this +fact is stated to have been utilised to teach the Cands . that King +and Church are the oppressors of the People. Probably this inner +meaning is by no means so universally applied on the Continent as +anti-masonic writers pretend, but in any ease the English Ritual +has been purged of any such idea, if indeed it ever possessed it. + +The degree is an elaborate one, necessitating three chambers and an +ante-room when worked in full, and only the Supreme Council itself +can confer it. The regalia, which may be worn in Rose Croix +Chapters, consists of a broad black sash suspended from the left +shoulder, the point fringed with silver bullion, and on it are +embroidered the emblems of the degree. These are an eagle soaring +towards the sun, holding the Anchor of Hope in his talons; on the +extremity is the banner of England and Wales, which is on a red +ground three golden lions; this is crossed by the banner of the +Supreme Council, and below it is a red cross formed of four tau +crosses, usually called the Cross of Jerusalem. + +The breast jewel is a cross pattee in red enamel, with the number +"30" upon a blue enamel ground in the centre. From a collarette of +black ribbon with a silver edging is hung a black double +spreading-eagle, surmounted by a crown, and holding a sword in its +claws. + +The word "Kadosh" is Hebrew, and means "separated" or +"consecrated." The remaining three degrees of the Ancient and +Accepted Rite are but sparingly conferred, and take the place to a +large extent of Grand Rank in other, degrees. + +It will be many years before the young mason attains to these +exalted heights, and therefore any detailed description even of the +regalia is hardly necessary in a Handbook of this nature. As soon, +however, as he becomes a Rose Croix mason he is certain to have an +opportunity of seeing from time to time members of these exalted +degrees, and learning from them as much as he is entitled to know +before they are conferred upon him. + +The Ancient and Accepted Rite as now organised derives its +authority from the charter granted to it in 1845 by the Supreme +Council of the Southern Jurisdiction of the U.S.A., but the Rose +Croix, Kadosh, the 28th degree, and several other intermediate +degrees were fully established and at work in the 18th century, as +historic records show, although how much further they date back is +still a matter of dispute. + +With regard to the intermediate degrees it is a mistake to assume +that they are of no value or interest. They vary considerably in +merit, but such degrees as the Royal Arch of Enoch, with its clear +indication of Rosicrucian influence, and the account of the +discovery of one of the Ancient Pillars inscribed with old time +learning, (mentioned in the Ancient Charges), is worthy of careful +study, and the same is true of several of the other degrees. For +this reason I strongly urge all Rose Croix Masons to att end the +annual festival of King Edward VII. Rose Croix Chapter of +Improvement, which is held in the Spring each year at Mark Masons' +Hall, when two of the intermediate degrees are rehearsed in full. + +This then is the Ancient and Accepted Rite; a great Rite +undoubtedly, which is full of mystical lore, and sets out to show +its members that the quest of the lost word ends, not at the Temple +at Jerusalem, but on Mount Calvary. + +CHAPTER VII + +THE ROYAL ORDER OF SCOTLAND + +This Order rules two degrees, the Harodim and the Rosy Cross. The +Harodim is conferred in a body called a Chapter, and so in this +Order a Chapter is below a Lodge. In practice, however, these two +bodies are the same. + +The Royal Order has many peculiar features, and it is impossible to +do it justice in one chapter of this book. + +Firstly, we may note that the Order is unique in that it has one +governing body for the whole world, and is the only English Masonic +body of which this is true. Grand Lodge must always meet in +Scotland. + +Qualifications, as laid down by the Grand Lodge in Scotland, is +five years a Master Mason, but the Metropolitan Provincial Grand +Lodge in practice will only admit members of the 30th degree of the +Ancient and Accepted Rite. London Masons, who have not attained to +that degree, must therefore go to the Provincial Grand Lodge of the +Southern Counties, which meets at Windsor. + +These degrees are of great antiquity, and, personally, I consider +them the greatest of all our masonic degrees. They are not so +dramatic as certain others, such as the Order of the Knights +Templar, but they have a unity of purpose and an ancient ritual +which is full of the most profound mystical teaching. + +It is in curious old Border verse, for the most part, and from +internal evidence would appear to ante-date our present form of +even the Craft degrees, though it clearly presupposes their +existence. + +From historical records we know that these "Scotch" degrees were at +work in 1743 in London, for there is a record of a Provincial Grand +Lodge in London, having at least two Chapters under its control, at +that time. + +The mere fact that there were at least two Chapters of Harodim at +work at this date precludes the possibility of the Order having +come into existence in 1743, and the fact that it had to travel +from Scotland, and then establish itself and spread in London, +justifies us in considering that it can hardly be later in origin +than the date of the formation of the Craft Grand Lodge of Scotland +itself, which was in 1736. Seven years is, I consider, far too +short a time to allow a new degree to spread from Scotlan d to +London and establish itself firmly therein, but if we take this +date we shall see that the Royal Order takes precedence in +antiquity of any high degree. But, in view of these facts, we +cannot dismiss lightly the evidence of Henry Adamson's metrical +description of Perth, "The Muses Threnodie," written in 1638, +practically a century earlier, in which he writes :- + +"For we are brethren of the Rosie Cross We have the Mason's Word, +etc." + +Note. - He uses the phrase "Rosie Cross," the exact title of the +2nd degree of the Royal Order, and adds that "We have the Mason's +Word." + +Now the Royal Order purports to give its members the lost "Mason's +Word." + +Therefore, if language means anything, it means that the brethren +of the Rosie Cross claimed to have the true Mason's Word, a claim +still made by the Brethren of the Rosy Cross of the Royal Order. + +My firm conviction is, therefore, that Adamson, who was a M.A. and +a clergyman, was a member of the Royal Order of Scotland, and since +the style and language of the ritual fits in with this period, or +with one even earlier, I consider that the Royal Order goes back to +that period at least. In connection with this it is well to +remember that the first record of the initiation of a speculative +into Freemasonry in England is on the 20th May, 1641, when Robert +Moray, "General Quartermaster of the armie of Scotl and," was +initiated at Newcastle by members of the Lodge of Edinburgh, who +were with the Scottish Army, which had entered England in arms +against King Charles. + +Moreover, Moray, was "Protector" of Vaughan, the famous 17th +century Rosicrucian. If therefore beyond the Craft lay a +Rosicrucian Masonic Order, which could only be entered by those who +had first qualified as Freemasons, then we can see an excellent +reason why Moray, who was clearly interested in Mysticism in +general, and Rosicrucianism in particular, should trouble to be +initiated into a Lodge despite the fact that the Army of which he +was Quartermaster-General was actually on a campaign. + +Incidentally, these facts go clean counter to the theory still held +by a few students that the Royal Order was Jacobite. Indeed, the +closer one studies this Order the less grounds can one find for +this view. + +In such a case one would naturally look for some reference to the +Martyr King himself. Be it noted this could have been done with +perfect safety, for in the Prayer Book of the Established Church of +England there was, during the Eighteenth Century, a special service +in memory of Charles, King and Martyr. Thus the inclusion of +reference to the White Rose, or Charles the Martyr, could easily +and safely have been worked into this ritual. + +Secondly, let us consider the teaching of the degree. Both the Old +and the Young Pretender were Roman Catholics; we should therefore +expect that either there would be traces of Roman Catholic teaching +in the ritual, or at least that care would be taken to avoid +anything that would be in direct opposition to the faith of the +hero of the Jacobites. Yet, on looking into the ritual, we find +certain most significant omissions. There is no mention of the +"Holy Catholic" Church, nor of the "Communion of Saints," both +relies of medieval days left standing intact in the Episcopal +Churches of Scotland and of England, but further, the ritual goes +out of its way to declare we shall obtain salvation through Christ +only, thus hitting at the doctrine of the Intercession of the +Saints, and even says that our salvation is by Faith alone. + +Now this is just one of the particular points of cleavage between +Protestantism and Catholicism, for the latter always has maintained +the necessity of faith being proved by good works. Salvation by +faith alone was one of the outstanding tenets of the Presbyterians, +and shows clearly that the ritual in its present form is +Presbyterian, and emphatically so. + +Would men who were inventing a degree to foster the Jacobite cause +go out of their way to insert phrases which must wound their hero, +and many of his loyal supporters? + +This aspect is further emphasised by the fact that among all the +paraphernalia employed in the degrees there is neither cross nor +crucifix, although we find them in other Masonic High Degrees. The +omission must be deliberate, for from the nature of the ritual +these emblems might well have been employed. + +Against these facts, no word in the ritual of a pro-Jacobite nature +can be adduced, and so I can see no reason for claiming these +degrees were made up to help the Jacobites. + +The degrees themselves are highly mystical, and take the candidate +from the Master Mason stage, through the Old Testament, over the +"Bridge," onto the second Temple, and finally trace Christ's life +and death, and show that He is the L.W. . + +There are clear traces of that outlook on life which is called +"Rosicrucian," and so they are good argument for those who claim +that Rosicrucianism did influence Freemasonry. Keeping strictly to +the Royal Order, we find in it the root matter of many of our +Higher Degrees, and it is possible that some of these have been +elaborated out of incidents passed over beliefly in the Royal Order +rituals. + +As some guide I will indicate references to ideas which were +probably subsequently developed further, though it is but fair to +add that the alternative also is possible, namely, that these +degrees also already existed, and had contributed to the ritual of +the Royal Order, instead of having simply evolved from them. These +are Royal Arch, Mark, Red Cross of Babylon - the latter very +clearly - Templar and Rose Croix. In addition there are many +sections entirely unrepresented elsewhere in Masonry. + +The ritual works mainly by question and answer, as in the Craft +lectures, but one significant ritual practice deserves particular +mention. At certain times the Brn. travel the reverse way of the +Sun. This is correct, for they are then supposed to be in the +region of the D - d, and popular tradition has always taught that +the ghosts of men go reverse of the Sun. + +The Tower too is most significant, and calls to mind a somewhat +similar building described in the Mystical and "Chimycal" Marriage +of Christian Rosy Cross, translated by W. Bro. Waite. + +The Sns. used in this degree are many in number, and every one is +of great antiquity and can be found in various parts of the world +associated with Heathen Gods and ancient Rites of Initiation. The +actual Sn. of the Harodim is to be seen in the ancient Aztec +manuscripts, and is shown in a scene on a vase found at Chama, +Mexico. This scene clearly depicts a cand. being initiated into a +Mexican Rite, and being taught the Sn.. The case is certainly not +later than 1500 A.D. and was only dug up a few years ago . In +India the Sn. of Harodim is associated with Vishnu the Preserver. +In Ancient Egypt it is shown on a fresco from Thebes dated about +1500 B.C., fragments of which are in the British Museum. Numerous +examples could be quoted from Medieval work in Europe, for example +in the 17th century panelled room known as the "Audience Chamber of +the Visconti-Venosta," which is now in the Engadine Museum at St. +Moritz, to which we referred in the previous chap ter. This room +also shows examples of the Sn. attached t o the Rosie Cross degree, +and, in the corners of it are figures making the Drinking Sn. of +the Royal Order of Scotland. These figures are arranged in pairs +as if answering each other. + +Perhaps, however, the most significant fact of all is that the +ritual of the Hung Society in China, known also as the Triad +Society, or the Society of Heaven and Earth, is almost precisely +the same in its main incidents as the ceremonies of this Scotch +Order. + +The regalia of the Order is fairly elaborate. It consists of a +Garter, star and two sashes, one red for the Harodim, and one green +for the Rosy Cross, and an elaborate apron of white, edged with +bands of red and green. + +Each candidate receives . . . which is supposed to show his +characteristic virtue, and which, as a rule, is spelt without any +vowels. + +This must suffice for the Royal Order, though it deserves far more +space. + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR AND KNIGHTS OF MALTA. + +The Knights Templar carry on the tradition of the Medieval Order, +and may be regarded as teaching the Christian life in action. How +far there is any historical connection between the Masonic Order +and their Medieval predecessors is a question on which Masonic +students are at variance. The writer considers that a strong +probability exists that there is a definite connection, and has +given his reasons at considerable length in "Freemasonry and the +Ancient Gods." + +It is not proposed to go fully into this controversy in this book, +since its purpose is to indicate, so far as is permissible, the +meaning of the Degrees, rather than their history. Certain facts, +however, deserve to be placed on record: + +(1) That in England, and still more in Scotland, the Order, though +nominally suppressed in 1307 et seq., did not suffer the merciless +slaughter of its members which fell upon them in France. Moreover, +owing to the fact that Scotland was in open revolt against Edward +II., who was supposed to rule it, enforcement of the edicts against +the Knights was quite impossible. + +(2) That certain branches of the Order - e.g., in Spain and +Portugal - unquestionably survived, merely adopting a new name. + +(3) The Charter of Transmission claims to carry on the succession +in France. That Charter now hangs in Mark Masons' Hall, and if it +were generally accepted as genuine it would practically settle the +matter. The fact that it anathematizes the Scotch Templars, if it +is genuine, would indicate a separate organisation of the survivors +in Scotland, and therefore explain whence Scotch and English +Templary derive. + +(4) The undoubted fact that not only many Knights, but also the +whole of the Templar Priests and lay Brothers, some of whom were +Masons, were not even imprisoned, points to another possible line +of descent. + +Be that as it may, the Ritual worked to-day, though it has been +revised several times in recent years, contains many curious +features which would indicate considerable antiquity. + +At Bristol a man may not take the Rose Croix unless he is a +Templar, and this supports the theory of those who believe that +originally the Rose Croix was the inner working of the Templars. +The Royal Order of Scotland also shows clear indications of a +connection with Templary, both in the legend of its foundation and +in the use of a certain word common to both Orders, and used in no +other Degrees. + +In view of the fact that the Royal Order has its Knightly Degree of +the "Rosy Cross," these points are of special significance. + +The Legend of the foundation of the Royal Order is that Bruce, +after Bannockburn, created the Degree of the Rosy Cross so as to +reward those Masons who had assisted him in the battle, and +conferred on them the honour of Knighthood. Now we know that the +Templar Knights, instead of surrendering themselves to Edward II. +when he sent his commissioners into Scotland to arrest them, joined +his enemy, Bruce. + +Is it then not probable that Bruce, by the foundation of this new +Order, thus rewarded these Templars and restored to them the +Knighthood which by the abolition of the old Order had lapsed? + +The Ritual as used to-day has undergone drastic revision recently. +To give but one example, there appears no doubt that the altar in +the East is a modern innovation, beautiful though it is. Formerly +there was only a sepulchre, and there are still a few preceptories +where the old Ritual is permitted. Even in the modern Ritual +members will recollect that they took the O. at the sepulchre, +which significantly is in the C., and not at the East. + +This is a matter of great importance as we shall see in a moment. +In Scotland the Degree is divided into Novice, Esquire, and Knight. +In England there are still three points corresponding to these +Medieval divisions, though the fact is rather slurred over. If we +recollect + +(a) The Robe marks the Novice; (b) The Tunic marks the Esquire; (c) +It is only the Knight who is invested with the Mantle; + +we shall perceive that the Ritual still bears witness to these +three stages. + +The Cup of Remembrance in the U.S.A. is still drunk from an unusual +resectable, and is emphatically the Cup of Mystical Death. + + +The Ritual of the Knight Templar, as we know it to-day, has +obviously an exoteric and an esoteric meaning. The exoteric +lesson, and a very good lesson too, is that the Christian soldier +must have ever before his eyes in his struggle with the world the +precepts of the Master - Christ. He must be a good soldier of +Christ outside the doors of Temple; he must uphold truth and +justice, defend the weak, and set a fine example of chivalrous +conduct in his daily life. In short, he must not only profess +Christian ity but really live it. + +It will thus be seen that a candidate would need to be a Christian, +even if he was not definitely called upon to defend the Christian +faith - which he is. But within this sound practical lesson there +lies a high mystical message. We are taught of the Lamb who was +mystically slain before the beginning of the world. We enter as a +pilgrim striving to escape from the worldly spirit. We dedicate +ourselves to Christ at the C., that is to say, in the hidden +recesses of our souls. + +In that hidden place our past life of sin lies dead, even as the +earthly body of the Redeemer lay in the tomb. Therefore, on it we +dedicate ourselves, finding that over our dead past rises, as it +were, the figure of The Crucified. + +Armed with the weapons of the Spirit we go forth on our spiritual +journey, and after long and painful travels return victorious from +our conflict with the spiritual foes of man. Note the symbolical +three years, corresponding with the three years of Christ's life of +ministry on Earth. + +But after action must come penance and meditation, and above all we +must meditate, not merely on physical death, but still more on that +greater mystery, the mystical death; and being thus prepared, we +must offer our sacrifice. Nay, more, we must be marked with the +sign of His sacrifice, but in Christian mysticism we are taught +that the true mystic must spiritually crucify himself, even as the +Great Master physically suffered on the Cross, and this is the +mystical death. Is that last incident in the life of the mystic +forgotten in the Ritual of this great Order? Think it over, Brother +Knights. + +This is veiled language, and as far as is permissible, I have +endeavoured to indicate that Masonic Templary has a great mystical +lesson. There are countless small points in the Ritual which +support this view, but for obvious reasons I have omitted them, +e.g., the gradual investiture of the candidate indicates the +acquisition by degrees of certain spiritual qualities. + +THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA. + +If we regard the Knights Templar as one Degree we find that the +Order has two, or possibly three Degrees in all. After the K.T. +comes the Mediterranean Pass. It is now, practically, merely a +passing Degree leading to the Malta, but it has a significance of +its own. The sign, to begin with, is undoubtedly old. Major +Sanderson found the same sign in use among the Yaos in Central +Africa, and it was also known and venerated by the Arabs. In view +of the tradition connecting the Mediterranean Pass and the Ma lta +Degrees with the Arabs, this fact is obviously significant. Nor, +esoterically, can we ignore the importance of the serpent in +connection with a mystical journey, and in like manner "The Sea" is +a phrase well known among mystics to imply certain spiritual facts, +and is always said to lie beyond the mystical resurrection. + +To make myself clear to non-mystical readers, let me add that +mystical death and resurrection are well recognised stages in the +development of the soul of the man who, while still in the body, is +striving to reach spiritual union with God. St. Paul says that he +died daily in Christ. + +When we reach the Hall in which the degree of Malta is to be +worked, we pass certain emblems which we are told indicate birth, +life, death, resurrection and ascension. These are a symbolic +summary of our whole Masonic career from the time we entered the +Craft till the time we axe finally made a Knight of Malta. +Further, resurrection is a new birth which, in itself, presupposes +a new life, and in the mystical world we must, like St. Paul, be +prepared to die daily in Christ. + +The Malta, then, is a Degree of mystical, not physical +resurrection, and the fact is emphasised by the linking up of the +symbolical acts with the true history of the old Knights of St. +John of Malta. The symbols on the table should be studied with +this key, particularly that of the galley which bore the souls to +safety though it perished itself. Our body must one day die, but +if we have lived aright it will bring our souls in safety to the +"Islands of the Blest." This is true whether viewed mystically, or +in regard to life in the world of action. + +The Sns. used in this Degree are certainly old, and the Pen. most +peculiar and significant. It could hardly have been invented in +the 18th century. The Sn. in the Templar degree is shown in the +room of the Visconti Venosta to which we have already referred, and +in the same room are to be seen figures making the Sn. of the +Knights of Malta. + +The colour of the Templar robes are white with a red cross, i.e., +the "Blood of the Lamb," in which we have washed and become thereby +as white as snow. But those of Malta are black, with a white +cross: out of the black night of the Soul, out of the darkness of +mystical death, the cross of Salvation rises, no longer a cross of +suffering, but one of resplendent glory. + +CHAPTER IX. THE REMAINING DEGREES. + +There still remains another Order of Christian Chivalry and its +outstanding feature is that it is the only Order open to English +masons which avowedly sets out to give a Christian interpretation +of the Craft and Royal Arch. The degrees which constitute this +Order are:- + +(a) The Knights of the Red Cross of Constantine, and + + +(b) The Knights of St. John and the Holy Sepulchre. + +Like the Knights Templar this Order has its Head Quarters at Mark +Masons' Hall. + +The Knights of the Red Cross of Constantine teach us the well-known +story of how Constantine came to be converted, but the Lecture +contains a most interesting reference to the Roman College of +Architects, whom I personally regard as the direct ancestors of the +Comacine Masons, from whom Freemasonry descends. I must admit, +however, that I should require fairly strong evidence to convince +me that Constantine himself was a member of one of the Collegia. + +But in any case this degree is merely a stepping stone to the +really great degree of the Knights of St. John and the Holy +Sepulchre. This degree appears to have consisted once of three +degrees and even now has at least three "points," in it, though +these may be interpreted as corresponding to novice, esquire, and +knight. The ceremonies are solemn, dramatic and of deep mystical +significance, but their most striking feature is an attempt to +explain the Craft and Royal Arch Ceremonies in a Christian sense. + +While not prepared to admit that this is the only, or even the +original inner meaning of these degrees, I do consider that the +interpretation given is of a most interesting and instructive +nature, and if we realise that all through the middle ages +Freemasonry was avowedly Christian, and demanded of its members +belief in the essential doctrines of the Church, we shall see that +this interpretation is deserving of very great respect. + +Since those desirous of obtaining this interpretation can do so by +joining these degrees, no good purpose would be served in +disclosing the points interpreted, beyond saying that the Architect +of the Temple is identified with Christ, and the various incidents +in the history of our hero are similarly interpreted in the light +of the Christian story. The outstanding fact, however, is that +here we are definitely told that our ceremonies have a secret inner +meaning and this is the only degree in English Freemas onry, of +which I am aware, which does endeavour to give the meaning of the +Craft and Arch. + +The degrees enumerated up to this point are all that can be called +strictly masonic which are open to the average English Freemason, +but there are several quasi-masonic Orders, or Societies as they +are usually called, which for all practical purposes are masonic, +since they require a masonic qualification, and like other masonic +degrees work a ritual with special secrets. These we will now +consider. + +QUASI-MASONIC DEGREES. + +The Secret Monitor which works under the Grand Conclave is one of +the best known of these Societies, only Master Masons are admitted, +and there are two degrees and a Chair degree. Attached to it is +the order of the Scarlet Cord, which has no less than seven +degrees. The real object of the Secret Monitor is to strengthen +the bonds of Brotherhood and enforce the principle that a Brother +should, whenever possible, help another Brother. The Conclaves +often do possess more warmth than the average London Lodge , but +there is not much inner meaning in the ceremonies and no very +valuable lessons will be learnt from them. + +Of quite a different type is the Soc. Ros. in Anglia. This, like +the Secret Monitor, admits none but Master Masons, and its rulers +are eminent members of the Craft. There are nine degrees and the +higher ones are said to be conferred only for merit. The Order +always has a Lecture at each of its meetings on some abstruse +subject. The Soc. Ros., as it is affectionately called by its +members, claims to have the same objects as the Medieval +Rosicrucians, and it seems probable that there is some historical +con nection. It is, however, not the only body which puts forth +this claim, even in England, but these are in no sense Masonic. + +The Soc. Ros. is also linked with the Illustrious Order of Light +which works only at Bradford, at present, and with another Order. +It is not so much that these orders are under the control of the +Soc. Ros. as that the leading spirits in each are closely +associated with the Soc. Ros. and that the members of the Orders +are derived only from that Society. + +CONCLUSION. + +Thus it will be seen that practically all the degrees in +Freemasonry have a definite lesson to teach, and an inner meaning +to their ceremonies. Some, no doubt, are more important than +others, degrees but the man who has never gone beyond the Craft has +still much to learn. He has made no real effort to recover that +which was lost, and therefore has signally failed to make a daily +advancement in Masonic, knowledge. If he has not time to take all +the degrees, at least let him try to complete his second degr ee by +taking the Mark, and obtain one answer to the question of what was +lost, by taking his Royal Arch. + +If he has done this, and has gone no further, let him still avoid +saying "I don't think much of the Higher Degrees" Until he has +taken them he is in no position to form any kind of opinion, and +after he has done so I feel sure that he will no longer speak +slightingly of some of the greatest mysteries of this or any Age. + + diff --git a/religious documents/holiness.txt b/religious documents/holiness.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..baf5be9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/holiness.txt @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ + + THE HOLINESS OF GOD + + + Holiness is an attribute of God which is so full that one + wonders where to start. However, of all the attributes of God, + this one is mentioned or referred to more than any other. "God + is oftener styled Holy than Almighty, and set forth by this part + of His dignity more than by any other. This is more fixed on as + an epithet to His name than any other. You never find it ex- + pressed 'His mighty name' or 'His wise name,' but His great name, + and most of all, His holy name. This is the greatest title of + honour; in this latter doth the majesty and venerableness of his + name appear" (Stephen Charnock, taken from _The Attributes of + God_ by A. W. Pink). To deny God of holiness is in essence to + deny God. For if God be not holy, then, He would not be pure, + and He could not create nor make laws nor judge righteously. In + essence, He would be unholy which is a contradiction to the very + nature of God. + I. What is holiness? Simply stated it means to be holy or + pure; to be without sin or any defilement from the heart. To say + the word is almost enough to define it--it has a sound of purity. + Also, the word carries the meaning of separation; to be set + apart. And truly God is set apart from all other beings in every + way. + Holiness is one of those attributes of God which is com- + municable. By this, we simply mean that God communicates or + gives it, in a limited way, to man. Let us not think that we + shall every be as holy as God. + II. Wherein does God's holiness lie? God's holiness is in + and of Himself originally; man's holiness can only be in and of + God. There is no holinesss prior nor superior to God's. He is + the source and fountain of all holiness. Even the holy angels + derive their holiness from God and not from within themselves. + For God to swear by His holiness is for Him to swear by Himself + (Heb. 6:13; Ps. 89:35; Amos 4:2; 6:8). + In Psalms 27:4, David said, "One thing have I desired of the + Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of + the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the + Lord, and to inquire in His temple." What is "the beauty of the + Lord" but the beauty of His holiness (II Chron. 20:21). Not to + see the beauty of holiness is not to see the beauty of God. In + Exodus 15:11, God is declared "glorious in holiness." Listen + again to Charnock: "Power is God's hand or arm, omniscience His + eye, mercy His bowels, eternity His duration, but holiness is His + beauty." Therefore, to see the beauty and glory of God is to see + His holiness. + While the majority of Christendom stresses and emphasizes + the love of God, the Scriptures magnify His holiness. Therefore, + we can see the importance of knowing more about God's holiness + because to do so is to see His beauty and glory. + III. How holy is God? When we think of something being + pure, without spot, having no sin nor any such thing, we think of + it as being holy. In fact, we who are the people of God look + forward to the day when we will be with God in glory and not have + any sin. But when this comes to pass, we will not be as holy as + God is (I Sam. 2:2). Though the redeemed will be without sin and + will stand before God "holy and without blame" (Eph. 1:4), yet, + their holiness is not derived within themselves. And if they + were to become inherently holy after the work of God in their + lives, there would remain the time prior to this when they were + not holy, but were living in darkness (Eph. 5:8). In God there + is "no darkness at all" (I Jn. 1:5). God is so pure that ab- + solutely considered, He cannot "look on iniquity" (Hab. 1:13). + The idea that God can look at sin and iniquity and pass it by is + false. God, who is omniscient, sees and knows all things, even + sin and iniquity. He is so pure and holy that He will bring + "every work into judgment" (Ecc. 12:14; 11:9; Pv. 24:9). It is a + greater contrast to compare God's holiness to that of man's than + to compare the sun to a cinder of coal. + Those holy angels who have never sinned and have retained + their purity from creation are holier than man. However, God's + Word says that even they are not pure in the presence of God (Job + 4:17-18). Yes, even they have to cover their faces in heaven + when singing of the Lord's glorious holiness (Isa. 6:2-3). This + is not to say that the angels are impure in any way, but that + their holiness cannot be compared to God's. And remember that + God derives His holiness from Himself, but the angels, like man, + receive their holinesss from God and not from within themselves. + The only reason the angels remain sinless and unfallen is because + of God upholding them. + IV. How is God's holiness manifested? First, the holiness + of God is seen in creation. When God created the heavens and the + earth and all things therein, He said that "it was very good" + (Gen. 1:31). When one drives across this earth and sees the + towering mountains, luscious valleys, the green trees, and beau- + tiful flowers, along with the various and sundry cattle, beast, + and all creeping things, together with the stars, moons, suns and + planets, with the mighty oceans, he is made to say that God cre- + ated all things good. The creation as we know it has been under + the influence of the curse of sin for about 6,000 years. There- + fore, as we now view the creation it is vile, filthy, wicked and + ugly compared to its original state. With all this, we can still + say with the Psalmist, "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, + and holy in all His works" (Ps. 145:17). + Second, the holiness of God is seen in His works of provi- + dence. God did not create and then withdraw Himself. No, He is + continuing to keep the earth on its axis, the stars in their + sockets, the sun and moon in their paths, and supplies man and + beast with daily bread (Heb. 1:1-3; Mt. 6:26-32; job 26:7; 38:39- + 41). To see trials and wickedness on every hand, and, yet, know- + ing that all these things work to the good of the people of God + and His glory (Rom. 8:28; Eph. 1:11), one is made to know that + only a holy God can do such things. + Third, the holiness of God is seen in His law. This is that + perfect standard which reveals God's character. Here we only + need to look at Rom. 7:12 and Ps. 19:8-9. + Fourth, the holiness of God is shown in its greatest + strength in His hatred for sin. It was the holiness of God that + drove Adam and Eve out of the garden; cursed Cain; destroyed the + world in the days of Noah; took David's child and let not the + sword depart from his house; and, destroyed Israel and Judah with + the Assyrians and Babylonians. But the highest display of the + holiness of God was when Jesus Christ died on the cross. Stephen + Charnock said, "Not all the vials of judgment that have or shall + be poured out upon the wicked world, nor the flaming furnace of a + sinner's conscience, nor the irreversible sentence pronounced + against the rebellious demons, nor the groans of the damned crea- + tures, give such a demonstration of God's hatred of sin, as the + wrath of God let loose upon His Son. Never did Divine holiness + appear more beautiful and lovely than at the time our Saviour's + countenance was most marred in the midst of His dying groans. + This Himself acknowledges in Psa. 22. When God had turned His + smiling face from Him, and thrust His sharp knife into His heart, + which forced that terrible cry from Him, 'My God, My God, why + hast Thou forsaken Me?' He adores this perfection--'Thou art + holy,' v. 3." + May we like the angels in heaven "rest not day and night, + saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, + and is to come" (Rev. 4:8). + + Jimmy Barber + February 26, 1991 + Copyright, 1991, Veritas Publications + 829 Angelina Place + Memphis, TN 38122-5417 + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc001.txt b/religious documents/htomc001.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..598f461 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc001.txt @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ + + ATTENTION ALL SUBGENII, SEMI-NORMS, AND CASUAL OBSERVERS! + N O T A N A D V E R T I S E M E N T + O R I N D U C E M E N T T O B U Y + A N Y T H I N G ! ! ! + + DISCLAIMER: I neither advocate, nor endorse the information + that follows. I just thought you might like to know... + + (excerpted from Stark Fist of Removal) + + 2nd Authorized FisTemple Lodge of the Church of the Subgenius + Dr. Philo Drummond, 01 and Cookie Drummond, F.G.O.T.R + P.O. Box 1572 + Maryland Heights, MO 63043 + + Yes, "Bob" inexplicably transferred his right-brain man (the first + and only *true* OverMan) from Dallas to Dioxinland near St. + Louis. Those who dare can now contact Philo himself at this + only other fully-sanctioned P.O. Box. When Philo and Cookie + (and the UberBaby, Christinita) were Transported, Church + combo Drs. for Wotan split into WOTAN SOUTH (Dallas) and + Philo's new 2000 DOKTORS. Unless the music is directly + Dobbs-oriented, send your self-produced EPs to Philo, not + the Foundation. Philo knows Dobbs better than anyone -- so + all Church Bribes should be sent to him as well. + + And Philo possesses the last known stash of the second STARK + FIST (tabloid sized issue). It's out of print and a sure- + fire collector's item. You can order these precious back + issues for $5 apiece FROM PHILO ONLY. We probably will + reprint it again, but it'll *LOOK* like a reprint. NHGH got + to the originals in the form of a fungus that attacks rubber + cement. + + "The church of the SubGenius was founded in 1978 by DOBBS + and Doktor Philo Drummond, whose true identity remains a + secret lest his prominent family in Dallas be mortified by + his unorthodox religious activities." + + (end of excerpt) + + I personally spoke with Dr. Drummond and Rev. Stang recently + at the opening date for Drummond's latest Doktor Band, "The + Swinging Love Corpses". The MagicK of Mail Order Sales is + *STILL ALIVE*. Be sure and ask about the new video. And + tell'em "Some Damn Old Nobody" from SWBT sent ya'! + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +| J. Camron "Cam" Spillman - Southwestern Bell Telephone | Mystery Clench of | +| {uunet, bellcore, pyramid} ...!swbatl!cam | "X-Marxist-Spot" | +| My employer is not responsible, and neither am I.... | *UberMan for Hire* | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc002.txt b/religious documents/htomc002.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0ff5ce --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc002.txt @@ -0,0 +1,432 @@ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +******** C H U R C H of the S U B G E N I U S ********* +******* ******** +****** *N*E*W*S ******* + Contents: + + Official SLACK Test!!! + Robert Tilton- SubGenius Exposed!! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + THE PIPE-SUCKING, GUT-BLOWING ALL NEW NEW AND + IMPROVED SLACK QUIZ #1 + +This is a fairly medium-sized test based on the Purity Test. Unlike the +Purity Test, which gauges purity (something we could care *less* about), +this measures SLACK! + +*ISCLAIMER: This test gives results only roughly representative of the actual +slack of a person. For the true results, you must learn to whiffread, and +to learn that skill, you must SEND YOUR MONEY to the Church. Yes, folks, +send that green right in. But first, send it to ME! Through E-MAIL! And +I'll send it for you with my personal blessings. OR KILL ME!!!! + +Now that that's out of the way, ....... + + PART ONE: MULTIPLE CHOICE +(Answer to the best of your knowledge). + +1. The term 'SubGenius' means: + a) Below the genius level + b) A smart person in a U-boat. + c) The level of classification immediately above subspecies + d) Nothing. + +2. Which of the following is _not_ a valid SubG motto: + a) Fuck `em if they can't take a joke! + b) Joke `em if they can't take a fuck! + c) Suck `em if they can't fake a toke! + d) You're gonna burn in HELLFIRE for this blasphemy! + +3. The proper SubG disclaimer is: + a) Or kill me + b) Or nuke me + c) Or make me write bad checks + d) Or take all my money + +4. A SubGenius follows the word of: + a) God + b) Cod (as in "Hi, have a fish") + c) "Bob" + d) FUCK YOU pink boy, SubGenii follow *nobody*! + +5. The proper way to explain the Church to an uniformed (non-pink) person is: + a) Give him/her a copy of the Book of the SubGenius + b) SELL him/her a copy of the Book of the SubGenius + c) Tell him/her, "It's a slack thing, you wouldn't understand" + d) Rabid sexual encounters + +6. "Slack" is + a) An excess of material + b) Undefinable, by definition + c) Definable, by undefinition + d) This question is pink. + +7. "Nental Ife" is roughly similar to: + a) The Soul + b) The Heel + c) The Odor-Eater[tm] + d) Thrash bands from Philadelphia + +8. The "Third Nostril" is used for + a) Producing excess phlegm + b) Breathing underwater + c) Whiffreading + d) Weird sexual practices + +9. The "X-ists" are: + a) In league with "Bob" + b) In league with NHGH + c) In the Major League, playing for the Cleveland Indians + d) A comic book about mutants. + +10. The "Room of Excremeditation" is where you + a) Read the Book of the SubGenius + b) Export the *only* product most of us are really good at making + c) Sleep + d) Slack off + +11. The Pipe is + a) What you smoke `Frop' in + b) A phallic symbol + c) What water goes through + d) A UNIX feature + +12. We are all born with: + a) Original sin + b) Original slack + c) Original fingerprints + d) Original recipe + +13. A SubGenius must have + a) Slack + b) Sex + c) Money + d) Balls (or ovaries) of steel + +14. Slack will *not* bring you + a) Luck + b) Money + c) Fame + d) A personalized photo of Dan Quayle in drag + +15. Chapter 19 is + a) After Chapter 18 + b) Before Chapter 20 + c) The location of the TRUTH about EVERYTHING + d) A new bankruptcy provision + +16. NHGH is + a) A terrible and largely unknown god + b) A product division of Digital + c) The sound one makes when strangled + d) Yo' mamma! + +17. The proper way to explain the Church to a *pink* is: + a) Ignore him/her + b) Kill him/her + c) Take his/her money + d) Sodomize him/her + +18. The X-ists will come by way of + a) Flying saucers + b) Flying cups + c) Greyhound + d) Nebraska + +19. Money is the root + a) of all evil + b) of all enjoyment + c) canal + d) at an obscure internet site in Oklahoma + +20. Doktormusic is + a) The theme song for a popular BBS science fiction show + b) What physicians play in their waiting rooms (ugh!!) + c) A means of conveying the word of "Bob" + d) Communist propaganda + +21. True Utopia is where + a) Everyone is perfect + b) Everyone is dead + c) We can all make mistakes + d) Dan Quayle goes on vacation + +22. Pinks have no + a) Nental Ife + b) Social Life + c) Slackful Wife + d) Butcher Knife + +23. The pink of Pinks is the color of + a) A newborn baby's skin + b) The negative essence of money (well, magenta at least) + c) Conjunctivitis + d) Toxic waste + +24. The luck plane is + a) Influenced by slack + b) A woodworking tool + c) Parallel to the equator + d) Taking off from gate 19 in ten minutes. + +25. The Skor is + a) A candy bar + b) Thirty-two to nothing in the sixth inning, and it looks like the + Reds are really getting the better of the Mariners here today. + c) Changable by instant replay rules + d) The events that will occur + +26. SubGenii descended from + a) Apes + b) Yeti + c) Abdominal Snowmen + d) Mountains + +27. The Headquarters of the Church is in + a) Dallas + b) New York + c) Mars + d) Cleveland (makes you wonder where the Hindquarters of the Church is) + +28. In 1998, + a) The X-ists will come + b) Jesus will come + c) Rocky LXVII will be out in theaters + d) A Democrat will be elected President. + +29. `Frop' is + a) an herb + b) a spice + c) a swear word + d) A motorcycle gang + +30. Obo is + a) An obscure Christian sect + b) A television production company ("Sit, Obo, sit! Good dog! ") + c) A musical instrument + d) The Anti-Bob + +31. JHVH-1 is + a) The serial number on an IBM 3270 control stream manual + b) The first Jail House Varsity Hockey team + c) Also known as "God" + d) A music channel similar to MTV but for yuppies. + +32. If Jesus Christ came back today he'd be + a) Driving a `57 Chevy + b) In an X-ist spaceship + c) Very, very old + d) Very, very pissed + + + TRUE-FALSE SECTION + +33. Connie is "Bob"'s wife (well one of them at least) +34. The Con is a guy who hustles cars +35. Pstench is noticed by people who can't pspell. +36. "Bob" was once a salesman. +37. "Bob" was once a salesman for IBM. +38. "Bob" has slack. +39. Rev. Stang has slack. +40. Ted Kaldis has slack. +41. The Church is a joke. +42. The joke is on the Pinks. +43. Yetisyny is a new food additive. +44. God does not play dice with the Universe. +45. God plays loaded dice with the Universe. +46. Fnord refers to a land feature in scandanavian countries. +47. "Bob" is a fan club. +48. "Bob" is not a fan club. +49. There is no question 49. +50. This test is over. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Scoring: Multiple choice: +1: a) 0 b) 0 c) 0 d) 2 +2: a) 0 b) 1 c) 1 d) 3 +3: a) 4 b) 2 c) 0 d) -2 +4: a) -1 b) -2 c) -3 d) 2 +5: a) 0 b) 1 c) 2 d) 5 +6: a) -2 b) -3 c) -2 d) 9 +7: a) 3 b) 0 c) 1 d) 0.5 +8: a) -2 b) -2 c) -1 d) -3 +9: a) 3 b) -1 c) 2 d) 0 +10:a) 1 b) 1 c) 1 d) 1 +11:a) 2 b) -73 c) 1 d) 1 +12:a) -2 b) 4 c) 1 d) 1 +13:a) 3 b) 1 c) 0.5 d) 0.3 +14:a) 1 b) 1 c) 1 d) 5 +15:a) 2 b) 2 c) 3 d) 0 +16:a) 4 b) 2 c) 3 d) 0 +17:a) 5 b) 5 c) 5 d) 5 +18:a) 3 b) 2 c) 0 d) -5 +19:a) -2 b) -1 c) -2 d) -3 +20:a) 0 b) 0 c) 1 d) 0 +21:a) -1 b) 0 c) 3 d) 2 +22:a) 4 b) 3 c) 2 d) 1 +23:a) -1 b) 2 c) 1 d) 3 +24:a) 1 b) 0 c) 0 d) 0.5 +25:a) 0 b) 7 c) 2 d) 3 +26:a) 0 b) 2 c) 0 d) 1 +27:a) 4 b) 0 c) 0 d) -2 +28:a) 4 b) 0 c) 0 d) -7 +29:a) 1 b) 0 c) 0 d) 0 +30:a) 1 b) 2 c) 3 d) 4 +31:a) 0 b) 0 c) 2 d) 1 +32:a) 1 b) 1 c) 2 d) 3 + +TRUE/FALSE: + +33: T) 3 F) 0 +34: T) 0 F) 1 +35: T) 0 F) 4 +36: T) 3 F) 0 +37: T) -2 F) 0 +38: T) 5 F) 0 +39: T) 3 F) 0 +40: T) -19.3 F) 1 +41: T) -7 F) 2 +42: T) 7 F) -2 +43: T) -2 F) 3 +44: T) 0 F) 0 +45: T) 3 F) 0 +46: T) -1 F) 2 +47: T) -3 F) 2 +48: T) -3 F) 3 +49: T) 3 F) -5 +50: T) -10 F) 7 + +Now, total up your score. If the result is: + +-150 to -101: You are undoubtedly so f**king pink that you haven't + had an original thought since you were born. + +-100 to -51: Go get a lobotomy. You'll do us all a favor. + +-50 to 1: When the X-ists come, don't bother waiting for a ride. + +0 to 49: You have a little bit of SubG in you, but not much. + +50 to 99: Smoke some 'frop and give me all your money. You + aren't a SubGenius, but at least you can do the rest + of us a favor. + +100 to 150: You are beginning to see the light, you just need + your butt kicked a little more. + +151 to 170: You are either a) incapable of addition, in which + case you're just like every other stupid fool to + come out of the public school system, or b) cheating, + in which case you've got more slack in you than any + of the other poor schmucks who actually added up the + score. + +I dunno, I printed it +out and smoked it!: Congratulations, you have slack. Now give me your + money anyway. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +If you actually bothered to add up the score, congratulations, in spite of +anything said above, you are undeniably pink. And so is this posting. And +that's because we all need our slack, and I can't afford to waste any on this +damn system. So gimme slack, or gimme food, or kill me. Or not. + +| Bill White Internet: bwhite@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu | +| COOPER'S LAW: | +| All machines are amplifiers. | + +------------------------------------------- + +Subject: Robert Tilton Ministries +Organization: Knights of Christianity Against Legal Sex + +Holy hallelujah and fuckwad, Pee Dog! + +One of my Pink acquaintances pointed out a potential ShorDurPerSav for me. +He said: + +"Have you watched Reverend Robert Tilton on television? He's the +hottest up-and-coming T.V. evangelist anywhere. He doesn't even +bother talking about goodness and such; his main point is that, if you +are poor and send him in $1000 you don't have, God will deposit it +your bank account right after you mail in the letter. He does all the +wonderful gimmicks; he speaks in tongues, he asks the viewers to place +their hands on the screen, "touching" his, and "feel the energy", and +he brings in people who used to be poor who tell great stories of how +they sent in money to Robert and suddenly found their lives +overflowing with wealth." + +So of course I began watching Tilton every day and putting my hand on +the screen along with Robert. I watched every fake tear, praised his +weekly "miracles." But it wasn't until I received his prayer book in +the mail that I learned that Robert is, praise "Bob", a SubGenius. + +Here's why: + +o He calls himself "Bob" exclusively. In fact, he doesn't even sign + his name "Bob Tilton", just "Bob". +o He understands that ripping off Pinks is the ideal way to make a living. +o The mail I got from him today is too unbelievably SubG. I received: + + - "Life-Sized Poster of Me Praying the Prayer of Agreement With You" + - "Anointing oil" + - "Prayer of Agreement Seals" + - "Complete Instructions on How to Receive Your Miracle" + - "An Illustration of the Life-Changing Vision God Gave Me About The + Prayer of Agreement and You" + - A red miracle prayer cloth, made out of the cheapest fabric I've + ever seen. He wants you to send it back, even. + - Three "Miracle envelopes" (the one for week 1 is pink, by the way) + - "much more!" + +o Some quotes from the material: + + - "This miracle package has been especially designed under God's + anointing to meet your toughest miracle needs." + - "Sign here and join me in faith for your miracle!" + - "every day for the next 21 days...say out loud `I stand in agreement + with you, Bob, and believe God for my miracle!'" + - "God promises that the truths outlined within this miracle + package will work for you if you are willing and obedient to act upon + them. Get started today on your road to miracles in every area of + your life! In Christ Jesus, Bob" + - "Week #1: Bob, please pray over my urgent prayer requests during + our 21-day miracle campaign." + - "I'm not slack, saith the Lord, concerning My promises..." + +o And what's the address of the Robert Tilton Ministries? It's... + + P.O. Box 819000 + Dallas, TX 75381 + + ...right next to Dobbs! + +I urge all of you to send off for this free book/poster/oil/prayer +cloth. For pure slack, this rivals the Stark Fist. + +Just write them at the above address, or call (214) 620-6200 and ask +for Bob's free book. They'll ask you what they can help you pray for. +Tell them you just got a raise and you aren't sure if the money should +go to God or to a new car. But don't give them your phone number. + + +Praise Dobbs! Praise Tilton! Praise free slack! + + +-St. Mog the Unholy + + + + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc003.txt b/religious documents/htomc003.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1bf70be --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc003.txt @@ -0,0 +1,271 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ C H U R C H of the S U B G E N I U S $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S $$$$$$$ +$$$$$ Praise "Bob" Or Kill me. $$$$$$ +$$$$ Issue #3 $$$$$ + + Contents: + + Updated Pledge + Barbeque of Doom + The Book of SHAG + PHILOsophy of the day + New Clench + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Coined by Rodney Ward, a man well known and... well, not exactly loved, +by the University of California Police, Berkeley Precinct {smirk} + + I PLEDGE A MILLION + TO THE FUND + OF THE AMERICAN SPHERE OF INFLUENCE, + AND TO THE REPUBLICANS + FOR WHOM WE SCAM. + + ONE NATION, + UNDERFED, + INDEFENSIBLE, + WITH LIBERTY FOR JUST US + OVER ALL. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +BAR-BE-QUE OF DOOM (a space age love story) + + She led him into the bedroom with a smile on her +lip. + "Aha! Good easy buttsex!" he thought +lackadaisically. "Good thing I brought my penis!" he +chuckled to himself. + "What?" she asked, momentarily unsure of the +situation. After all, he wasn't good looking, what with +a cleft head and all. + "Oh, nothing!" he said with a toothy grin. + "No, really, what?" she said aging. + "Oh, I was just glad I brought this." He reached +into his pocket and pulled out a swollen ivory fist. + "ooooh, ahhhh," she grunted. "That's good, because +I brought THIS!" she reached into her pouch and pulled +out a disfigured foot. + "This will be fun! Just like you promised in your +ad!" he blurted. + She drew him down onto the futon. He lay back, but +something pricked him in the back. + "Ack! What's this?!?" he articulated, pulling a huge +mandible out from under the covers. + "Oh, don't worry yourself with that, love. Look at +this?" she said thrusting her cat in his face. + "What!" + "Oh, woops. I mean this?" she said, shoving her +face in his face. + "Hm." he thought, "she has a weird face." In fact, +she had a huge wiry hair coming out of her tooth. She +kissed him with restrained abandon. The way her hair +tickled his esophagus really excited his pulsating fist. + "Watch this!" he whispered lewdly, hoping to turn +her on. He friskily fluttered his eyeflap at her lap, +which groaned restlessly with a torpid passion. + "Do me!" she said sarcastically. She rolled over +and spread her cheeks in a very ladylike fashion, which +reminded him of Princess Di or Al Sharpton. He drew out +his ivory fist and paused. She reached back and handed +him some tarry looking substance with bits of meat and +bone in it. He lubricated the fist thoughtfully and +gingerly rammed it home. She cried for more while he +increased the tempo of his plunging stroked her well- +formed placenta until she climaxed. A thick and soupy +sludge emerged from her sternum with tired irony. + "oh you're so good!" she sighed. He removed the +fist and she rolled over, gasping for nitrogen. He +pensively caressed her lungbag with his good stump. + Suddenly, she hit him in the head with the +disfigured foot. + "Ngsfll!" he screamed. "What'd you do that for?!?" + "That tickled, " she countered with disdainful +flatulence as she careened his cleft cranium again. + "Snit!" he cried as his tooth flew from his sweaty +mouth. + "C'mere lover. Do me right!" She threw him back +against the bed and straddled him. He smiled in spite +of the blood flowing from his gums. Suddenly, a three +fingered appendage quickly emerged from her gaping +vaginal orifice to grab his manhood. It dropped the leg +and then correctly pulled the pulsating pecker into the. + "Hi-yah!" he screamed wildly. She held him down w/ +all of her arms. "Smanch Snig Fnortgobbel Shit!" she +screamed. Her jaws opened to a monstrous proportion and +ripped off his lips with her suction leg. Amidst all of +his screaming and wild gyrating, he strangley thought, +"hm. funny I never noticed those suction legs." +That was the last thought he ever thought, though, +because she then opened her vagina and sucked him in, +where a small creature inside efficiently dismembered his +cerebellum. + "Thanks, Dad." said the creature inside as it +absorbed the flesh voraciously. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + THE BOOK OF SHAG + + Heed my words, oh miniscule and pulchritudinous ones. Hear and heed, you + who do not fellatiate, and you who know not the meaning of the great and + high remex. The end is near. You must heed and follow the things I will + speak unto you, the words of the great gods, the god of the windowshade, + the god of the distributor cap, the god of the blue bikini underwear and + most importantly the god of the dead japanese beetle somewhere on the + campus of rutgers university. By heeding these words, you will improve + the gas mileage of your car, enter into a new age of harmony, peace, + happiness, and belgian waffles. Bring things home each day and not pay + for them until next september, and make sure that your life is sanctioned + and guarded by the great race of aliens which will land any day now in + Starkville Mississippi and revolutionise the way you wash dishes. Be sure + to not be left out when all human males become obsolete as females flock + to the alien males and their new, improved, user-friendly genitalia mark + five systems! You must make your genitalia blue, anointing it with + indigo. Anoint also your ears, your nose, the back of your neck, and the + fourth toe of each foot, the most holy of all toes. + + I speak to you of the coming of the greater race. You shall know them by + their stature, by their countenance, by their language, unlike any that + man has ever heard, and by their sexual prowess. Behold, they shall land + in a small town, Starkille, and shall walk the earth among the children, + and you shall not know them. Many will say in those days, "The gods are + walking the earth, the gods are walking the earth," but they shall be + scoffed upon and spit upon and fucked hard by prostitutes in cheap motels + then bankrupted by the media. But you will pay them no attention and + merely stop sending your donations. But then, the greater race will + reveal themselves in all their glory for all mankind to see. The truth + will be known, and the truth will be that mankind has not paid their lease + and is being evicted, a new race takes over the planet, please move the + furniture out and clean the carpeting before you leave. Behold a wonder: + your children and their children shall mate, producing a better race yet, + but you, the unbelievers, shall be sentenced to 40 time units of wandering + in the outer dust clouds of the andromeda sector aboard a tiny spaceship + called the minnow. + + So, lo, woe, yo, repent while you still are young on an archaelogic scale. + The world must be saved by the horrors that are low-density disks, AM + radio, and non-FOX television. You must learn to live without processed + spinach products, to wean your children on their father's milk,. and to + accept that power strips and LSD are things of the past. Synthesise your + offspring carefully so that when the time of the great choosing comes, + your sons and daughters may be chosen by the greater race to participate + in furthering their race, in the strange ritual of the cosmic fuck, the + antithesis of the hells of knowledge, riches, and power, the fulfillment + of the postmodern dream of red lights, t-squares, and paint blotches. + Prepare yourselves for the day of the final inkblot judgement, wherein all + shall be tested for blot and blood type. In that day, some will say, + "verily, it is an aston-martin, in O positive." To those, the coming one + will say, "farewell, you were never a phlebotomist, just a prick, depart + from here into an eternity of dimness and cheap paperback novels and + genuine IBM computers." But in that fateful day, some will say, "truly, + it is two schnauzers chasing a naked woman, in AB negative." To those, + the coming one will say, "come, join me at the cosmic sock hop, you are + one of my own, you will live an eternity of free drinks and beautiful + tragically hip waifs." + + For I have been spoken these things by the angels of light, hermetic + seals, and the small purple man painted on my wall, who read them from the + great platinum plates upon which they were inscribed from the supernatural + force of the great god of the cunny, who swallows all things for the + better of his followers. I have seen the light, I have been enlightened, + I speak the truth to you, heed it and save your lives and those of your + fellow neighbour's wife and your neighbour's ass, or do not hear my words, + and turn a deaf ear to them, and forever suffer in this meaningless + existance. The gods have spoken, I have written, and the pen, having + writ, runs out of ink, on this, the next to the last of the last days... + + + -The Book of Shag- + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ A lonely women fled down the street. + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ She was angry at the world and + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ generally unhappy. Then she tripped + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ over a rock and became enlightened. + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ Her lightness was very contagious + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ and with a few days her entire town + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ was enlightened and by the end of the + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ month, a crisis crisis was felt in + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ full force. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ Then it wore off and everyone got + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ back to fighting, lying and generally + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ being unhappy. It seems that her + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ enlightenment was not a Bud + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ enlightenment. + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ YOU'VE ONLY GOT EIGHT YEARS, PINK BOY + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Subject: fuck it, man...just gimme da bread +Keywords: CASH! MONEY! SLACK! ah, feh. + + Anyone who's got their head to bleed enough, send me a dollar for +cool stuff, two bucks for stuff that sucks the skin off, but leaves your +warts intack, five bucks for tapes of my tea parties with the xists, and +$500,000 for a limb of your choice. Or just send me a stamp. + + Reverend Suspect Device + P.O. Box 156 + Amherst, NY 14216 + + ALL ONE! Shit, guys...just piss in an envelope and I'll be in +raptures. Put a check in though. And if you can handle the extra postage, +slip in the most nubile female available. Or livestock - we're not +picky. SNAP INTO IT! + +-- +Rev. Suspect Device v061regm@ubvmsd.bitnet "Fuck 'em if they can't take +Fnepnfz vf gur bayl v061regm@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu a joke." - J.R. "Bob" Dobbs +fvta bs vagryyvtrapr Naq Lrnu! Fraq zr gjragl Attn: all SubGeniuses! The +qbyynef sbe "Obo"! Cvaxf Shpx Bss!!! *4 LINES!* FCEEEB wants YOU(r money)! + + + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc004.txt b/religious documents/htomc004.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bcff5b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc004.txt @@ -0,0 +1,332 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ C H U R C H of the S U B G E N I U S $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S $$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ Issue #4 $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ Praise "Bob" Kill "Bob" Eat "Bob" Fnord "Bob $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + Contents: + + What is SLACK? + Witness for "Bob" + Tearing Down the Malls + Just who the hell is this "Bob" guy, anyway? + Clench Update + Update from Santa Cruz 25 Hour Clench + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Slack is a warm puppy. +Slack is a gigantic warm-fuzzy, wrapped around a steaming, bloody dagger. +Slack is like alt.sex, but without the calm, accepting charm. +Slack is what "Bob" brings to all of us. +Slack is in Dan Quayle. Slack is in COBOL. Slack is in the walking dead. +Slack is in really, really bad haiku. +William Shakespeare has slack. Dodobirds had slack, but they died. +Salack is slack misspelled. +Freud had no slack. Oral Robert's only slack is in his name. +When you have slack, the world beats a path to your door, and then ties you +up and licks warm mayonaisse of your nipples. When you have no slack, the +world beats up up, turtles piss on you, and big, ugly, hairy guys named Bruno +sodomize you repeatedly. Which is better? You be the judge. +This is not to say I have anything in particular against being sodomized by +big, ugly, hairy guys named Bruno. Hell, everyone needs a hobby. It's just +not for me. And I have no slack. So there. +Slack is warm and slippery. WHen you have lots of slack, it oozes out of +you, and lightly coats your floor, and sticks to your shoes. +Slack is in hostess twinkees. +Slack is in Plan Nine From Outer Space. +Slack is in The Witches. +Slack is not in Darkman. +Slack is really sort of sweet and smurflike, and you want to love everything +and be sweet and buy carebears and then RIP THEIR HEADS OFF AND SHIT ON THEM +AND DESECRATE AND BURN THE LITTLE RATFUCKERS. Slack is full of +contradictions, and is good. +Slack is a warm puppy. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAA! + + +....herein lies my witnessing to the power of "Bob": + My car was stolen while I was reveling in Slack at WICN, a public station, +gleefully playing tunes for my audience [small as it is]. Well, I finally +arrived home [after having been given a Test to see if I still exercise my Sense +of Humour] at 06h00...attempting to sleep [and failing], I was moved to get out +of bed at about 8ish as one of my Friendly Neighbors thought that 8 in the +morning is a good time to save my soul with cheezy gospel tunes [the ones that +all sound the same-- a sustain-by-vibrato on every word]. I was rolling in my +angst until about 11ish, when I decided to hear the "What did we tell you about +that town" lecture from my father; I wound up hanging up, very -ahem- distraught +and Slackless. Glenn was headed to That's Entertainment, so I felt the need to +tag along. I recouped my lost Slack by pouring over lurid pulp comics, and +feeling generally good. + I went back to my place refreshed, only to have to deal with my father trying +to harrass me more. While I was being harrassed, Jeremey [mpython] burst in +with words that I will never forget: "I found your fuckin car, man!" I hung up +on my father, grabbed the flak jacket and zoomed out the door. Two blocks from +my house, I found it there...intact...with junk food wrappers all up in it and +tghe only [visible] damage beyond scratches and minor dents was that they had +cracked the column to get it going. + Needless to say, I was elated...I looked up from the car...and there, there +RIGHT where the car was ditched not TWO blocks from my house...THERE, sprayed +on the concrete...was a Dobbshead and the message: "Slack". + Jeremey is now the longest-lasting ShortDurPerSav that I have ever had. He is +marked by Dobbs...Honour him... + + +Disclaimer: "I'm the only one foolish enough to claim these opinions as mine." +------------Reality---------------------------Outside---------- +INet: crimson@wpi.wpi.edu 100 Insitute Rd #296 +UUNet: ...!wpi!crimson Worcester MA 01609 +Others: crimson%@wpi.wpi.edu + +Blue Blaze Irregular Havoc In The Society: Bronnton of Atlantia +Rev. Dkr. Nick LaRG0, ASC of the First Orthodox MegaSpooTemple of the + Squirting Yeti Dobbs, Clench of the Unrepentant Gunman and Shrine of the + Sacred Bleeding Head. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +"He's seeing monsters. He's losing his mind and he feels it going." + +Last Friday I went to the mall to be a Part of the Problem, on this, +the busiest shopping day of the year. + +Yeah! + +I went to Dillards and bitched the lady out for not having the right +color of perfume! "My girlfriend wants blue, dammit, blue!!" +(I don't even have a girlfriend...) + +Yeah! + +And I bought a Hot Dog, with Ketchup and Mustard, and a Pepsi, a +Medium Pepsi, "that'll be 89 cents for your Pepsi, sir..." and +sat down on the bench and ate the hell out of my Hot Dog, much +to the unhappiness of a couple grils who passing by on their +way to J C Penny's 5% off sale, for they really hate it when +strange xibotic characters eat the hell out of Hot Dogs in public. + +"Grosssss!" she said. That's what she said. + +Yeah! + +And I went to the arcade, to vent my frustrations of not having anyone +to buy presents for, cuz I have no girlfriend, and don't particularly +like my family, they live in Texas anyway, so I go into the arcade, to +play SmashTV for a couple hours, but they don't have SmashTV, so I smash +a couple other CRT's and come out even MORE frustrated then before. + +"Mommy, that guy just smashed Ms.Pacman!" + +Yeah! + +So back into the Mall go I. Walking along past the Radio Shack, where +they're having a 3 1/2 % off sale on items they've been selling for +the past 15 years. "Only $999 for this cruddy old XT-compatible computer!" +"Comes with DOS!" So I go into Radio Shack, where they have bins of +batteries, separated by type, and I MIX up the contents of the bins, +so every bin has every type of battery, and then I walk out. + +"Can I sign you up for our catalog mail service, sir?" "No! Fuck off!" + +Yeah! + +And I walk by these two pretty sorority babes who've just came out +of a shoe store where they've bought three pairs of high heels. I hate +high heels. Every time I see high heels I think of the abuse the spikes +are doing the floor, and I just wanna scream. So I do. + +And they give me nervous looks and run away. + +Yeah! + +Next thing I know I'm in a toy store and I'm buying this ultra-realistic +copy of the AK-47, wondering why a toy has to be so realistic, but anyway, +I take the copy, and I go to Santa Claus, and I walk over the barriers, +and all the children scream, "he's cheating!" and take a little girl out +of Santa's lap and I throw her back into the crowds, and I prod the AK-47 +into Santa's belly, and the Elf, Santa's helper, yells "Omigod he's taken +Santa Claus HOSTAGE!" + +"AAAAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" I screamed, maniacally, as all the people +and the snotty little kids run away. + +And then the security guards came and I ran like hell. + +And that's how I celebrated Thanksgiving. + + +Xibo + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +In article <3753@qip.UUCP>, bobm@qip.UUCP (Bob Maccione) writes: +> OK, could somebody please explain 'slack' and BoB ( or is it bob ) to me. +> I asked everybody here and no-one knows ( or else they aren't telling ). +> I think I saw the bob you all talk about in the Badger comic book awhile +> back. Guy with a suit and a pipe, right ? + +No. "Bob" was the pipe with the guy and a suit. "Bob" was the suit with a +guy and a pipe. "Bob" was the region of 4-space which was hollowed out by +the guy with the suit and the pipe. "Bob" was the region between the ink +and the page. "Bob" is what you read when you read between the lines on a +blank sheet of paper. "Bob" is the sound of one hand picking wallets. + +You can learn even less about "Bob" by going to a bookstore and buying the +"Book of the SubGenius." You may even be able to find The Book at a library, +but it will be in a welded, lead-lined safe in the Rare and Ancient Book +section. + +The less you know about "Bob" the closer to "Bob" you are. "Bob" himself is +COMPLETELY IGNORANT of his own existance. Praise be to "Bob"!! +-- +John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (508) 626-1101 +...!decvax!frog!john, john@frog.UUCP, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw@eddie.mit.edu + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +I thought you all would like to be informed of the tremendous existance of +the Goddess of the Northeastern United States, Tennessee, Arkansas, +Cleveland and Tulsa in the church of the SubGenius(the church being +something I haven't heard mentioned at all on this news group). She +is the most incredible female anyone will ever be cognizant of in +their lifetime. Seriously. She does the Rochester, NY version of +the Hour of Slack, and all the hierarchs want to make mad passion- +ate love to her. Just listen to either KPFA or KNON. SHe loves you, +and y'all should love her too. Eris played euchre with her in college +and agrees she is worthy of your attentions. Very, extremely humble, too. +Watch for her in the next Stark Fist (called the Stark Filth) and +Factsheet 5. Not that I'm advertising for her wonderfulness, but if +you'd like to send her money, or just experience for yourself the only +female avatar fof slack(and a nice, smart girl too) you can contact\ +her at pobox 18754, Rochester NY 14618. +Remember, GOBI, she's neat, sweet, has great feet, knows her glands +and can whip Nhee Ghee's butt in a second. Connie is jealous of her! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Yes well, here is a latest update from the Santa Cruz 25 Hour Clench. + + If ya'll don't know where Santa Cruz is, well lets just say that + its the same town that is depicted in the movie Lost Boys. Its + much spookier than that though.... The Boardwalk (the amusement + park from the movie) is opening a Two-Story Indoor Miniature Golf + Course. This alone makes this town a mondo-bizarro cool place to + hang and chase bobbies. Killer Clowns from Outer Space was also + filmed here... + + We have a *huge* SubGenius colony here. Ya can't go too far in this + town without seein that piped-and-'smilin face starin right back at ya. + Under bridges, on cars, deep in the forest, in the bookstores, and + especially on our gleaming campus of UC Santa Cruz (or is it UC + Santa Carla???) that overlooks the Monterey Bay. + + Some of the Reverends in Residence here are: + + Rev. Kareem du Gristle (myself) + Rev. Patio Daddy-o + Rev. Banshee + Rev. Chroma + Rev. Seaweed (Demi-glob Seaweed) + Rev. Superior + Rev. Borneo (king of the free faxin of "Bob" to random places) + Rev. Madwoman + Rev. Lorax (Dominatrix Maximus) + Rev. Das (famous for his Negativland work on Escape from Noise) + Rev. Sarahel + Rev. Pseudo + Rev. Uberbutt (Uberman inc) + Rev. Crisper Diction + + this to name a few.... + + I recently had a "Bob" face starin out at a large campus wide + lip-sync contest, and had a "Bobtar" on stage with me during our + rendition of "Sweat Loaf" by the Butthole Surfers. + + Soon, the band NoMeansNo will play here. These true musical gods + are immortalized in a quote from their song The Day Everything Became + Nothing: "Its weird being a Bob, but I'll get used to it, I'll have to!" + + As far as "Bob" TV appearances are concerned, we have all seen the + automobile ad with the "YIELD TO BOB" signs all over it... + + But a much more notable appearance is at the end of the movie + Cleopatra Jones, when she walks away after vanquishing the bad guys, + "Bob" piped and smiling, looks on from the crowd.... very clear + sighting there.... + + enjoy jello, + + Rev. Kareem du Gristle + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ A lonely women fled down the street. + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ She was angry at the world and + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ generally unhappy. Then she tripped + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ over a rock and became enlightened. + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ Her lightness was very contagious + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ and with a few days her entire town + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ was enlightened and by the end of the + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ month, a crisis crisis was felt in + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ full force. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ Then it wore off and everyone got + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ back to fighting, lying and generally + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ being unhappy. It seems that her + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ enlightenment was not a Bud + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ enlightenment. + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ YOU'VE ONLY GOT EIGHT YEARS, PINK BOY + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc005.txt b/religious documents/htomc005.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a045543 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc005.txt @@ -0,0 +1,426 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ C H U R C H of the S U B G E N I U S $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S $$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ Issue #5 $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ Killing "Bob" over and over again each day $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + Contents: + + What is Slack? + PsychoSlackPoem + Native American Slack + The Church of the Small Boy + Dobbshead Offer + Undercover Subgenius: Rev. Robert Tilton + Kultural Kriticism Korner + "Bob"'s Diet Tips + RTP Slack Update + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + + ..and yes, this IS the clench that is responsible for covering the + Free Expression Tunnel at NCSU with millions of Dobbsheads... + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +> +>Hope I'm not insulting anyone, but what is SLACK? +>Did I cause any of it through this post? +> +>Bob + +If you were BoB and not just Bob, you wouldn't need to ask the question. But +the opportunity to rant on Slack is irresistable... + + What is Slack? + +Slack is the universal substance of true divinity, it is grace, baraka, free +time, having more food than you need. Slack is the state of security where +nothing anyone says could possibly insult you. Slack is the sound of one hand +giving the finger to the Con in all its manifestations. He who has Slack +can have any mood he desires, or no mood at all. The slackful person is +indifferent to the presence or absence of possessions of all types. + +You cannot buy or sell slack, but money can be converted into slack if you +have the proper attitude. If you need to ask what the proper attitude is, +you do not have Slack and cannot convert money into it. You can have slack +without money, again with the proper attitude. + +Superficial imitators, those who do not have slack but covet it, will tell you +all sorts of things about it, usually the most boring manifestation is that +they ask you to send them money. The truly slackful person would not accept +money from people stupid enough to send it to them. + +It is actually possible to configure a dorm or other room to maximize its +slack-attractiveness, but this task cannot be done according to surface +evaluations of how cool, sexual, rebellious, or kitschy each individual item +may or may not be according to temporary, youth-culture standards. The +arrangement of the items in the room, and their composition, is more important +than any socio-cultural connotations of those objects. + +If you believe any of this, and try to act on it, you have no slack. The +holder of true slack is totally indifferent to what slackless people say about +slack, or about anything else. Slack is bullshit, in contrast to the Con and +its minions, who are all horseshit-based. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +It matters not that the police of thought +Are breathing down my back. +They will back down, for I act like a clown +And fool them all with slack. + +"What's all the fuss? He's ridiculous." +The Men In Black shall intone. +I'll scamper and drool. I'll play the fool, +And I'll keep my mind my own. + +In plain sight I'll hide. I'll let them feel pride +Believing the've taken my Sallack. +But as I cavort, I'll have my own sport +And stab them in their fat backs. + +Hide in plain sight. +No one cares what the clowns do. +(Until they pull out the knives, but then it's too late.) + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Oh all this talk about pinks and cons. Makes me wonder how history could have +been different if the Native Americans of North America know about "Bob". Out +on the old long and lonesome praire it must have been a snap to spot the Pinks. + +I heard a story about one Brave who had SLACK whether he or anybody +else knew it. After his traditional way of life was destroyed he took to +hanging out on the Main Street (TM) of Pinksville. By playing dumb, he made +his living. When folks new to the West came to town, the first thing +they heard about was the indian who was so stoopid that he didn't know the +value of money; if you offered him a dime and a nickel, but only told him he +could take one, he would take the nickel, because it was bigger. Finally, one +of the Brave's friends said to him, "now lookee here, you know a dime is +worth more than a nickel, so why do you take the nickel?" And the Brave +answered, "Because if I took the dime, they wouldn't do it any more". + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Now hear this: + +The Church of The Small Boy lives! BoB is with us and is living +on our Fridge Door, guarded by the Red-Double-Decker Bus fridge-magnet +the fire-engine magnet, and The Pocket Anarchist. + +We *ARE* BoB's true disciples in London, accept no other and send +US all of your money NOW! You CAN be saved from the forces of PINK! +Accept SLACK! SLACK FLOWS IN LONDON AT LAST! Nasty Americans, send +US YOUR SLACK! Post it to us HERE and NOW! Your soul can be saved! + + +We shall return. + +----------- +Disclaimer: "Bluebell Railway!" +mail: the address at the top, epsilon@cix.uucp +----------- + +---------------------------------------------------------- + + For a limitted time we are proud to offer you this once in a + lifetime chance to "own" "Bob"!! + + Thats right! Now you can be the envey of those around you by + having "Bob" in your very own home, dorm, apt. or even right in your + hip pocket. + + This special product will bring good-luck, spirtural-fulfillment, + and above all, dramatically increased sexual powers! + + + And this is how: Send me 1(one) U.S. dollar and a SASE and + I will send you a B&W "scanned" "Bobs-head" suitable for framing, + displaying, or lining your cat's litterbox. + + For 1(one) dollar and the price of a stamp you will receive: + + 2 (two) 11 X 17 inch (huge!) "Dobbs-heads" + + 3 (three) 81/2 X 11 inch (still real big!) "Dobbs-heads" + + These reproductions are of the highest quality and are waiting for you! + + And, for a limitted time, if you also send a 5 1/4 or 3 1/2 inch + diskette (unformatted!) I will also send you the TIFF file of "Bob" + so you can make your own posters, go into busness for yourself, and + make millions! + + YES! All this and extra SLACK! for only 1(one) dollar. + You cannot afford to pass this offer up. Act now...or pay latter! + + + Louis B. Stein + 350 S. Graham St. + Apt #3 + Pittsburgh, PA + 15232 + +---------------------------------------------------------- + + tm tm +Brothers and sisters, again I feel compelled to update you on the +single greatest source of slack known to mankind: + + +Bob Tilton. + + +Yes, your favorite TV evangelist is still out there and GOING STRONG! +Ever since I called the Robert Tilton Ministries at (214) 620-6200 and +asked for my "free book", I have been mailed, free of charge: + +The aforementioned book, _God's Miracle Plan for Man_ ($$$ --> salvation) +Three "miracle" prayer cloths +A package of miracle anointing oil +The Jordan River Holy Anointing Water flask +5 large posters of Bob +The "Miracle Ropes of Deliverance" to "Bind Demons" (see p.128, #15, the BOOK) +Several copies of their magazines and newspapers +Many, many, many "convincing" Biblical arguments for why I should send $$$$ +...and lots more! + + +Bob Tilton is a SubGenius. + + +Here are a few reasons why: + +1) He rips off pinks for a living +2) He rants like a mother fucker ("Satan I BIND THEE! Demons of + tobacco smoking I BIND THEE! Demons of lymph node cancer I BIND + THEE!") In fact, in his latest rant, just today he said: "I'm a Pink + Duck, I'm not a white duck! They don't know what to do with me! + Everyone else is a white duck, they just waddle around...I'm drunk + with the holy spirit today...I'm a Pink Duck..." +3) He signs everything "Bob", (no quotes, but close enough!) +4) Where does he live? Dallas, TX? Hmmm... +5) The latest copy of his newspaper had a drawing on the cover that + looked almost exactly like the cover of "Three-Fisted Tales", except + it was Tilton's face instead of J.R.'s. The article is entitled, + "Take Your Foot Off the Brake"...sound familiar? + + +If you want to fall over laughing every couple of days when you read +your mail, call (214) 620-6200 and ask them to "send you information." +You'll be on their mailing list for months. Don't give them your +phone number, though. Do it, or kill me. + + +I usually have too much slack to even care about posting, but +something about this article in the latest issue of "Circle of +Blessing", written by Tilton's wife made me do it: + +"You wives must submit to your husbands' leadership in the same way +you submit to the Lord. For a husband is in charge of his wife in the +same way Christ is in charge of his Body the Church...So you wives +must willingly obey your husbands in everything, just as the Church +obeys Christ." -Marte Tilton + +God I love fundamentalists. Praise "Bob" (& Bob!) + + +-St. Mog the Unholy + + +---------------------------------------------------------------- +"`Brakes' are all that keep us from committing ANYTHING WE MIGHT +IMAGINE IN OUR MOST WARPED FANTASIES" + -Book of the SubGenius, p. 39 + +"Take your foot off the brake!" + -Bob Tilton, "Circle of Blessing", Oct 1990 p.12 +------------------------------------------------------------------ +---------------------------------------------------------- +Subject: Kultural Kriticism Korner + + Ever notice that most breakfast cereal campaigns, especially those +targeted at the young, are based on torment and suffering? Here +are some examples: + + Trix: The Trix Rabbit is in an eternal existential dilemma, +his existence centered around a substance that generations of smiling, +rosy-cheeked Calvinist children deny him, intoning the mantra +'Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!' + + Lucky Charms: Here, the character is the eternal bearer of the +desired commodity, but this only makes him fair game for all types +of assaults on his life and liberty. Much like Prometheus, Lucky +the Leprechaun is tortured for the gifts he bears. + + Cocoa Puffs: The Cocoa Puffs Bird is, quite simply, the moral +equivalent of a recovering alcoholic. Of course, the armies of +[white anglo-saxon] children are always tempting him with the +substance he plainly both wants to and needs to avoid at all costs. +Those who wonder why otherwise reasonable adults will try to serve +drinks to a known alcoholic need look no further than this modern +morality play. + + Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles: The Pebbles cereals are presented as +so desirable that Barney Rubble will repeatedly, and with no apparent +regrets, resort to fraud and theft against his best friend Fred +Flintstone. + + Anyone needing to know why the young people of America seem to +be amoral nihilists need only consider the moral lessons they get +free with every box. + + T. Rev + +---------------------------------------------------------- + + DIET TIPS + +1. Begin your diet by weighing yourself while wearing a parka, several + hats, the ski outfit you haven't worn in years, construction boots, + a codpiece, and thirty or forty rectal thermometers. Each week, wear + one less thing when weighing yourself. + +2. Discontinue drinking carbonated beverages. Switch to products + whose fizz has been created by the addition of helium. + +3. Start drinking. + +4. Always keep in mind that two of the fastest ways to lose excess + weight are amputation and decapitation. + +5. Keep a picture of Roseanne Barr on your refrigerator. Play "special" + rendition of the Star Spangled Banner during meal times. + +6. Install a superconducting maglev bathroom floor under your scale. + +7. Start smoking. + +8. Hang around with fat people. You won't lose weight this way, but + you'll feel much better. + +9. Read "Diuretics" by L. Ron Hubbard. + +10. Eat whole grain foods, cottage cheese, and low calorie plain + yoghurt. Throw up. Repeat indefinitely. + +---------------------------------------------------------- + +In article <4811@helios.TAMU.EDU> jamie@stat.tamu.edu (James) writes: +>I have no money. +>I have no job. +>I have no job openings found after a semester and a half of searching. +>I have no ties. + +Congratulations on your achievement. Many of us spend many years *working* in +order to attain such SLACKfullness. + +>i am lost + +Excremeditate on the pure white light of stupidity. Consult the Firesigns, +especially the words of Barney *HONK*. I think we're all bozos on this bus. + +>i need slack + +It appears that you have attained the SLACK that is not SLACK. Or not. Or +kill me. Or kill "Bob." + +>Where can I find slack? + +Send all of your remaining money to + + First Church of Kryste (Alchemist) and + Discount House of Worship + 3021 Cornwallis Road + Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 + + Attention: Dobbshead Acolyte Putz + +you will receive SLACK in abundance. You will not receive SLACK in the return +mail. You will, through the inexplicable and, in fact, unreturnable mystery +of Fornicationalism, receive SLACK immediately upon inserting your post paid +Izness Eply Nvelope into the mail. Put your hands on the mailbox. Say +Hallelujah. Thank you. Give me a dollar. + +> alt.slack? +> +>no +>i just tried that +>there was no slack there + +Of course. It has all gone to PSUVM. + +>*sigh* + + spl +-- +Steve Lamont, sciViGuy (919) 248-1120 EMail: spl@ncsc.org +NCSC, Box 12732, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 +"...though you may have the falcon yet we certainly have you." + Dashiell Hammett, _The Maltese Falcon_ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ A lonely women fled down the street. + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ She was angry at the world and + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ generally unhappy. Then she tripped + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ over a rock and became enlightened. + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ Her lightness was very contagious + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ and with a few days her entire town + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ was enlightened and by the end of the + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ month, a crisis crisis was felt in + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ full force. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ Then it wore off and everyone got + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ back to fighting, lying and generally + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ being unhappy. It seems that her + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ enlightenment was not a Bud + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ enlightenment. + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ | + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ -+- + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ j + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ YOU'VE ONLY GOT EIGHT YEARS, PINK BOY + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Send all soiled female underwear to: + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PO Box 30904 + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Raleigh, NC 27622 + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc006.txt b/religious documents/htomc006.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e0d255 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc006.txt @@ -0,0 +1,452 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S $$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ Issue #6 $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ Killing "Bob" over and over again each day $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + Contents: + + FREE!! FREE!! FREE K-Y Jelly!!!!!! + Another Dobbs Sighting + Dobbstown BBS + The Jolly Green Trademark + An Eschatological Laundry List + Door-to-door Religion Salespeople + Clench Info + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + FREE!! FREE!! FREE K-Y Jelly!!!!!! + +I was with my SO today, while she was purchasing some "feminine supplies" +and she showed me the outside of a box of o.b. tampons that had "FREE K-Y +Jelly!" Written on the side. Upon closer inspection, I saw the words "(When +you call the toll-free # inside.)" Just below it. Being a sucker for +toll-free numbers, I promptly ripped the box open, and found the little +booklet entitled "Why K-Y Can be Your Tampon's Best Friend." + Inside said wonderful little booklet, I found out why. :) + + Because if you dial this number: + + **************** + *1-800-526-3967* + **************** + + The people at Johnson & Johnson (makers of that find K-Y stuff) +"will send you A FREE SAMPLE OF K-Y Personal Lubricant + .50 coupon toward +your next purchase + an illustrated booklet on when and why to use K-Y." + + (Their words, not mine! :) ) + + So, in case you missed that number, it's: + + **************** + *1-800-526-3967* + **************** + + That's: + + **************** + *1-800-526-3967* + **************** + + Don't delay! Call today! + + **************** + *1-800-526-3967* + **************** + + + ...And thank you for your support! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + YEEEEAHAAWW! And kiss my great horned lizard, the One Who Smokes +and Walks was sighted in Buffalo on Friday! Us of the Faith and Lubrication +were up on the roof, making 'frop sales and rude innuendos to Garth and Joe +and Betty and Joe and Bill driving by on the Avenue of the One True Beetle, +when we all fell dead from Radiation Burns, though later on it would be +reported as "a freak episode of ball lightning". Then YEA! did we see below +us a man, a great man walking down the street towards us, pipe with 'frop +ablaze, and a smile to kill a rancher. Murmurs fell from the lips of the +masses as he aproached. "No...it couldn't be Him...we've only heard tales, +and no matter the FistNumber, he wouldn't be HERE...would he?" So the High +Priest called down, ""Bob"!", and the head of the One Who Blows No Chunk +turned up to look at us and said, "yes". + "Is your name "Bob"?" + "Yep." + The air stood still, yet mountains wept. + "Your name is *really* "Bob"? It's *really* You????" + "Yep." + And then he walked past the writhing heathens, and on his way... + + + Nothing's been quite the same since Dobbs stopped by our temple, +but nothin's gonna change the way I clean my ears. + +Rev. Capt. Devious (SuSpEcT dEvIcE) + + +PS. Rev. 3.0: Kill me, you are blessed! + +--- +CAPTAIN DEVIOUS!!! v061regm@ubvmsd.bitnet "Fuck 'em if they can't take +Fnepnfz vf gur bayl v061regm@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu a joke." - J.R. "Bob" Dobbs +fvta bs vagryyvtrapr Naq Lrnu! Fraq zr gjragl Attn: all SubGeniuses! The +qbyynef sbe "Obo"! Cvaxf Shpx Bss!!! *4 LINES!* FCEEEB wants YOU(r money)! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Zowie. If you can call long-distance on someone else's bill, you might want to +check this out... + +Exciting conversations! Titillating discussions with the opposite + +species! FREE Access. FREE Downloads. WIERD files. NO Call-Back + +Verification. NO ratios. Wow! + + +Call... + + DoBBStown BBS!!! + + (407) 679-3624 + + 300/1200/2400 bps + + 24 hours a day!!! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +>>In Australia, they have the Big Pineapple, the Big Banana, a hotel +>>shaped like a crocodile... but most tacky of all is the Big Merino, +>>a huge, unpainted concrete *sheep* situated somewhere near Goulburn, +>>NSW. +> +>It's what keeps the Jolly Green Giant jolly. What, you thought that's +>why he kept Sprout around? Go wash your minds out with soap! + +Want to know what REALLY makes him Jolly? Read further. +Have a weak stomach or are eating dinner? DON'T READ FURTHER! + +Tastlessness ahead... last warning! + + + + +(C) 1991 James Parry + +THE JOLLY GREEN TRADEMARK + + The Jolly Green Giant was feeling jollier than usual tonight. He gulped +down another six gallons of tomato vodka and reached for a refill. He +downed it and looked over his Valley. + "Ho, ho, hwuuuulllllllppppppp!!!!!!" + A giant-sized stream of green vomit arced across the blue sky and landed +on the Cauliflower In Real Cheese Sauce. It was ruined, rendered unfit +for human consumption. So they relabeled it. + + -- K. + +............................................................................. +James "Kibo" Parry kibo@world.std.com Independent graphic designer +271 Dartmouth St. #3D, Boston, MA 02116 specializing in logo and +(617) 262-3922 typeface design. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + An Eschatological Laundry List + ==-==============-=======-==== + (A partial register of the 927 eternal Truths) + ==-=======-========-==-===-===-=======-======= + +1. This is it! +2. There are no hidden meanings. +3. You can't get there from here, and besides, there's no place else to go. +4. We are all already dying, and we will be dead for a long time. +5. Nothing lasts. +6. There is no way of getting all you want. +7. You can't have anything unless you let go of it. +8. You only get to keep what you give away. +9. There is no particular reason why you lost out on some things. +10. The world is not necessarily just. Being good often does not pay + off and there is no compensation for misfortune. +11. You have a responsibility to do your best nonetheless. +12. It is a random universe to which we bring meaning. +13. You don't really control anything. +14. You can't make anyone love you. +15. No one else is any stronger or any weaker than anyone else. +16. Everyone is, in his own way, vulnerable. +17. There are no great men. +18. If you have a hero look again: you have diminished yourself in some way. +19. Everyone lies, cheats and pretends (yes, you too, and most certainly, + I myself.) +20. All evil is potential vitality in need of transformation. +21. All of you is worth something, if you only own it. +22. Progress is an illusion. +23. Evil can be displaced but never eradicated, as all solutions breed + new problems. +24. Yet, it is necessary to keep on struggling toward solutions. +25. Childhood is a nightmare. +26. But it is so very hard to be an on-your-own-take-care-of-yourself- + cause-there-is-no-one-else-to-do-it-for-you grown up. +27. Each of us is ultimately alone. +28. The most important things, each man must do for himself. +29. Love is not enough, but it sure helps. +30. We have only ourselves, and one another. That may not be much, + but that is all there is. +31. How strange, that so often it all seems worth it. +32. We must live within the ambiguity of partial freedom, partial + power, and partial knowledge. +33. All important decisions must be made on the basis of insufficient data. +34. Yet we are responsible for everything we do. +35. No excuses will be accepted. +36. You can run, but you can't hide. +37. It is most important to not run out of scapegoats. +38. We must learn the power of living with our helplessness. +39. The only victory lies in surrender with ourselves. +40. All of the significant battles are waged within the self. +41. You are free to do whatever you like. You need only face the consequences. +42. What do you know...for sure...anyway? +43. Learn to forgive yourself, again and again and again and again... + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Door-to-door religion salespeople (was Re: Some wicked ideas!) + +In article <3JUN91222640@acad3.alaska.edu> fsspr@acad3.alaska.edu writes: +>Actually, this isn't about Brother Jed, but I do find neato ways to +>annoy Mormon missionaries.... +>[story deleted for brevity's sake] + +This reminds me of something that happened to my friend Fred.... + +He was living in a mobile home in Alaska. There was a knock on the +door. "Hi. We're from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day +Saints, and we'd like know if you'd like to discuss the Bible with us." + +It was a dull day, so he figured "Why not?" and let the two Mormons +in, and proceeded to show them "proper hospitality." + +With a straight face, he asked them "Can I get you something? Maybe +you'd like some coffee? Tea? Perhaps you'd like a Coke?" + +They of course declined, and the three had a friendly chat for about +half an hour. + +There was another knock on the door. Fred answered, looked at the duo +at the door. "Hi! We'd like to chat with you for a few minutes." + +Fred noticed copies of the "Watchtower" sticking out of their +briefcases (read: they were Jehovah's Witnesses) and eagerly invited +them in, saying "Come on in! I have two friends I'd like you to +meet!" + +Fred says this is when he decided religion should be a spectator +sport. The two pairs went at it for about half an hour, until Fred +finally had to step in before they started exchanging blows. + +------ + +Another Fred-and-door-to-door-fundies incident took place just a +couple of weeks ago. He now lives in an apartment building in the San +Francisco bay area. + +One of his neighbors warned him that a door-to-door Scientologist was +coming around. + +Well, Fred and I sing in a music group, and he just happened to be +working on one of the songs we were doing in our upcoming concert. +As he was picking his part out on the guitar, the Scientologist came +to the door and engaged him in conversation. The guy asked Fred what +he was working on. Fred asked him if he wanted to hear it; the guy +(of course) said "Yes!" Fred proceeded to sing, and only got through +one verse before the guy started running away. The song: + +(to "Da Doo Ron Ron") + +He keeps on writing novels though his life is through +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +Some folks say it shows what Dianetics do +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +Yeah, his life is through +Yeah, what Dianetics do +Yeah, when I saw the name +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! + +He wrote before he founded Scientology +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +But soon he found religion makes bucks easily +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +Scientology +Makes bucks easily +Yeah, Dianetics pays +For L. Ron, Ron, Ron! For L. Ron, Ron, Ron! + +Oh yeah, Oh yeah, Oh yeah \ +L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! > (sung simultaneously 2x) +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! / + +Twenty-two best sellers and there's more to come! +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +Heaven only knows where they're a-comin' from +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +Yeah, more books to come +Yeah, who knows where from +Yeah, this I've gotta see +>From L. Ron, Ron, Ron! From L. Ron, Ron, Ron! + +Oh yeah, Oh yeah, Oh yeah* \ +L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! > (sung simultaneously 4x) +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! / + +*optional ad-libbing done here + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +WHY NOT! +NOW you can join the 13013th Clench of Dobbs Infiminite. +Just take two big stacks of dollar bills, pee on one, and mail the other +to: + +Anti-nuke Fnord-spams From Beyond Your Mothers Grave +2500 Howell Branch Rd #353 +Winter Park, FL 32792 + +-------- + +The New STARK FIST OF REMOVAL magazine is STILL available... +127 Mind-numbing pages of Slack published in breathtaking cheap newsprint +that smudges and everything! Lot's o'dogma, short stories, artwork and +Things to WANT and BUY. I got a hot copy from Pastor Buck Naked. You'll +have to pay, net.pinks! + +$3.95 + $1 postage to: + + PO Box 140306 + Dallas, TX 75214 + +Yiyiyiyiyiyiyi! + +-Reverend 3.0 +P.S. Coming soon: S.L.A.K.* patches to sew onto your favorite shit-kickin' + outfit. +(*Subgenius League of Ass Kickers) + +-------- + +The latest issue of 3dpsnewS, the Official Newsletter of the 3 Dips Who +Are God, is now available! One year ahead of schedule! +Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: + + Cattfish + 915 W. Wisconsin Ave. #412 + Milwaukee, WI 53233-2373 + +-------- + +>>By the way, where may one who is seeking enlightenment find the scriptures +>>of BoB and other literature of the CotSG? +> +>The WHOLLY post office box: +> +>The Church of the SubGenius +>P.O.Box 140306 +>Dallas TX 75214 +> +>$1 for a pamphlet, $20 for a church membership and ordainment, and +>$10,000 will make you a POPE! + + Yea, verily, it will change your life! Why since I've become an +Overman(tm) I've metamorphosed into a Major Mediacretin Personality (with +Xtra Glitz), witnessed (first hand!) a major escalation in the quality *and* +quantity of my sex life (are there *really* that many more 18-year-old +pom pom girls around these days?) and have so much slack that I usually don't +bother to post in alt.esperanto.and.computer.rants. + Needless to say, I've also learned to pull the wool over my own eyes. +And hers, too. + One small corection, though: the $10k should be sent to the following +address: + "One Step Beyond" + c/o KDHX-FM + PO Box 63328 + St. Louis. Mo. 63163 +Thank you. + +Chuck, the Doge of South St. Louis +Sundays, 3 to 6 pm on KDHX, 88.1 FM + +"Give me liberty or give me death" -- Patrick Henry +"Give me slack or kill me" -- J.R. "Bob" Dobbs +Dioxinville Magical Mystery Clench of the Air, St. Louis + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I walked in to the Burger King the + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ other day, and told the woman at the + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ register that I had misdialed Fiji. + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ She said she couldn't give me instant + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ credit. I said, "AT&T always did". + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ She blubbered, "But you're not dealing + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ with AT&T!" "Well I am NOW!" I said + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ as I stormed out the door. Then I + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ walked to the nearest pay phone,called + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ the operator and ordered a Whopper. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ $ $ $ $ $ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ 1 3 0 1 3 + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ | + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ -+- + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ j + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ YOU'VE ONLY GOT EIGHT YEARS, PINK BOY + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Pen up your Nose! No One is Safe! + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Send all soiled female underwear to: + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PO Box 30904 + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Raleigh, NC 27622 + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc007.txt b/religious documents/htomc007.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8256c64 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc007.txt @@ -0,0 +1,389 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S $$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ Issue #7 $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ Grinding "Bob"s bones into the Ultimate Hamburger $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + Contents: + + Bowling for Grenades + The Good Humor Escapade, part 1 + "Bob" and Slack + TV + Operation FindMuck, and How To Thwart It + SubGenius Calendar + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +silver@xrtll.UUCP (Hi Ho Silver) writes: +> gypsy@alembic.acs.com (the dark girl) typed: + +>> the people upstairs from us ... started making bowling balls in the +>> back bedroom and testing them by throwing them down the stairs. + +> It would have been wholly irresponsible of them not to have done so. +> An untested bowling ball may have a hidden defect which could be +> uncovered at a very unfortunate time, causing grave injuries to +> innocent passersby. + +An untested bowling ball sits in the rack, down at the Pizza and Bowl, +Twenty Lanes, No Waiting, on league night, fretting, fretting, fretting. + +A pot-bellied, balding fellow who rents his bowling sneakers by the +hour, wears a white short sleeved sport shirt through which his +sleeveless tee-shirt and matted black chest hair is clearly visible, +smokes mentholated cigarettes, and smells of minty smoke, picks the ball +up with the gleam in his eye that says "this ball is going to take three +pins off my handicap today", and the ball starts to get real performance +anxiety. + +And things go OK for a while, except that our hero is not rolling quite +up to par, and is starting to mutter under his breath that maybe this +_isn't_ the ball that is going to do magic for his game, and the ball +starts to burn with untrammeled insecurities. + +And now it is the tenth frame, and our hero can still make a respectable +showing if he can pick up a 4-10 split, but as he's right handed this +one is a bitch to throw, so he glares at the ball and tells it to hook +or pay the consequences, and he winds up and prances to the foul line +and puts all the miseries of male pattern baldness, tobacco breath, +failing to live up to his teammates' expectations, and a string of +rejections from the bar girls running back five years into his throw. + +And the ball screams down the left side of the alley, spinning like +mad, trying to get enough of a grip on the lane to hook a little to the +right and knock the four pin cleanly into the ten, and overdoes it, and +hits the four pin square on, and the undiscovered flaw gives way. + +And the enormous pressure of distilled accumulated blazing angst, let +loose through poor quality control, throws screaming shrapnel across the +waiting bowlers in six lanes on either side, chopping them into messy, +irregular chunks of meat, plastic pocket protectors, rental shoes, thick +glasses, and cheap, gaudy hair ornaments, and the gutters run with blood, +and the air is full of the screams of the dying. + +Kent, the man from xanth. + +-- +Better let 'em test the bowling balls, dark lady; it's the humanitarian +thing to do. You test your guitar and amps at 2AM just to keep things +fair. Think quality control. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + The Refined and Erudite Adventures of Captain Sodomy and His + Amazing Pastel-Colored Buick Regal. + + "The Good Humor Escapade", Part 1 + + + Hot summer days. My favorite. Little boys, little girls, faces caked with + grime that adheres to their sweat as they play in their little dirtpiles, + forming shapes that only their subconscious can identify. If one were to take + pictures of the formations in the mud and show them to these budding artists + upon their apex of sexual maturity, they would most probably blanch and deny + their own handiwork. Round mounds tipped with pebbles, long tumescent rounded + ridges, walled canals in the dirt to contain mysterious liquids... + + I am their saviour of sweat, their salvation of saline solution that oozes + from their pores as the mercury oozes towards the top of the cheap thermometer + mounted on the doorframe of their ticky-tacky abodes of family apathy and + indifference. I am the one who brings them their sweet escapes, their cool + restful breaks in an otherwise monochrome collage of mindless sidewalk + activity. + + I am the Good Humor Man. + + I sell creamy globs and frosty concoctions from my white vehicle to these + playthings. As I cruise down their block in air-conditioned comfort, barely + recognizable cartoon blares distortedly from the open accepting mouth of the + converted megaphone atop the dusty white delivery van. The sound is like + pheromones to a moth. Clutching their shiny quarters in their tiny dirt-dull + hands, they race out of their swing sets, out of their Big Wheels, out of + their chalked-in confines of sidewalk to follow a slowly careening vehicle + of ice-cream dispensation in a youthful imitation of a bawdy conga line. + + I stop the truck and move into the back, change dispenser at ready. + + The children, sensing their iminent purchase, halt in their drunken + swaying parade, too expactant to be anything but silent. I let them hang + for a minute. The tension rises like over-yeasted bread dough set aside for + too long. I ready the freezers, opening the condensation-filmed steel doors. + The side panel swings up and out, and the kids ('prey', in my mental + dictionary) cluster around the open gateway to refreshment. They thrust + their cute little fists out, showing me faint glittery glimmers between the + fingers of a hand too small to successfully contain more than two quarters and + a dime. They all scream out their demands. + + I do my best to serve them. Because I know that later, they'll serve me. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +In <2995@vela.acs.oakland.edu> atterlep@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Alan T. Terlep) +writes: + +>I CAN"T BELIEVE IT!! For quite a while now I've been looking for an entrance +>into the world of Slack. I've heard only fragmented rumours of the existence +>of "that whole Bob thing", +>but I never thought I'd find them. So---what's the deal? + +You see, Friend Alan, that's just the catch... + +There is *no deal*. + +You can buy a stick of gum, you can read a book on plumbing, you can rent +a roto-tiller, you can rob a pharmacy, you can borrow a condom. But +you can't *deal* in "Bob." Or, I mean, you can, or something. + +PART 1 -- "The whole "Bob" thing" + "Bob" is an uncle of mine who lives in Fairlawn. "Bob" has a big +face with big features, and he does big things. + "Bob" is the guy who narrates the car rally commercials from the +Cow Palace to the Spectrum to the Meadlowlands. "40000 yard-feet of nitro +burning funny car POWER!! (power power power ower wer rr)" "Bob" came up +with the name of Anusol(tm) brand Anus treatment. + "Bob" sprays willing women's nipples with Alar. "Bob" is the special +consul to the police in the Philippines who shot a man today while he was +trying to commit suicide. + "Bob" is the voice on the second or third track of Negativland's +"Escape from Noise" album that mispronounces David "Magpie" Bowie's name. +"Bob" molested your Aunt Rhoda when she was in third grade. "Bob" gave +$666 dollars in counterfeit $3 to Oral Roberts. "Bob" *is* Oral Roberts, +especially the "Oral" part. + +PART 2 -- "Slack" + There is no such thing as slack. Or there is, or something, but you +can't have it unless you don't want it, and everyone wants it. Or not, +or something. + +Good luck. Buy The Book, and then send five times your purchase price +to: + +World Otherness Ministries +P.O. Box 8502 +Stanford, CA 94309-8502 + +Thank you. + +-- +# Daniel M. Rosenberg // Stanford CSLI // Chew my opinions,not Stanford's. +# dmr@csli.stanford.edu // decwrl!csli!dmr // dmr%csli@stanford.bitnet + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Shortly after being weaned from mother's milk, young children are +taught to absorb the junk food of television through their eyeballs. + +"Here, kids, suck on this. Just be quiet and don't wake Daddy. If +you're good, you can watch all day, and if you don't see the fnords, +they won't eat you." + +Parents are conditioned to feed this teenage mutant fuck you crap to +their kids so that what little brains they inherited from mom and dad +will be so hopelessly atrophied that the final brainwashing will be a +breeze. + +Society has now degenerated to the point that when TV does try to put +out a good social message, they have to make it "following the rules," +rather than "be a good citizen who occasionally gives two neurons +worth of thought toward a fellow human being." + +Case in point: A Saturday morning "Public Service Announcement" +starring Conspiracy programmed robots that look like kids telling +other kids out there in the vast video wasteland to "Be Cool. Follow +the rules." + +Oh, so back when we were growing up, it was OK to not bend to pressure +>from others. "Be yourself," they said. "Don't worry what other +people think. You don't have to do what everyone else tells you to do +to be cool," and nowadays they expect kids to knuckle under to the +peer pressure to "Follow the rules" when just a little while ago they +were saying that it's OK to be different. + +I don't know about you, but my kids (when I get around to having some) +are damn sure not going to be little video perfect clones walking +around going "Be Cool. Be Cool. Follow +the rules. Yes, officer my daddy was smoking something +that smelled funny. " + +Saturday morning cartoons and the blipverts in between them are a +prime example of the tools that the Con uses to control people. After +all, money isn't power. He has ultimate power over a thing who can +destroy that thing. The Con wants ultimate power over the human race. +Money is only a Con created tool which allows them to gather up the +real tools they need to exercise their ultimate power. Of course they +don't have any slack so they can't possibly realize that they will only +acheive ultimate power at the moment of their mutual destruction and +won't have even that moment to enjoy it. + +There is no longer any slack in Saturday morning cartoons. + +Except for Beetle Juice. + +-- +Mc"B" - OverMan 1st Class of the Clench of the Stark Pistol of Removal. +Just say NO to the war on your freedom which, by the way, is being fought +with YOUR money. + +----- + + Q: Which of these is actually on my TV set right now? + + a) "Star Trek: The Next Generation"--Mr. Data becomes addicted +to Nintendo and his head explodes and the Enterprise almost blows up but +five seconds before the show's over they push a button and it's all ok. + + b) "Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous" visits Patty Hearst. + + c) "The "Bob" Channel" begins broadcasting 25 hours a day +subliminally (across the bottom of the screen on all the other channels.) + + d) Jay Leno announces that his guest host will be Lyndon LaRouche. + + Send $1 for the answer. + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Operation FindMuck, and How To Thwart It + +There has been an ongoing campaign by some local people to screw with people's +heads in every way possible. This "brute-force illumination technique" has +been dubbed "Operation FindMuck." There are some easy things YOU can do to +stymie and confuse these dastardly villains... + + 1. Write strange things on dollar bills and buy things with them. + + 2. Send ALL your money to the DobbsTown BBS's crack squad of anti- + FindMuck terrorist-guerilla-philosophers. + + 3. Print strange flyers asking for money to be sent here. + + 4. Walk around muttering the word "fnord" under your breath + constantly. + + 5. Oppose authority everywhere. + + 6. Upload the ASCII image of "Bob" into the "message to next caller" + of every board in town. + + 7. Hire a skywriter to write "SLACK" in the sky. + + 8. Repent, Quit your Job, and Slack Off. + +If you follow these instructions, the FindMuckers are bound to be horribly +confused (even more so than they are now) and they will probably stop trying +to do whatever it is they are trying to do. + + Whatever you do, kill "Bob" at every possible opportunity. + + + +This has been a public service announcement of Nobodies for Everybody. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +> It sure is convenient that all the major religions follow, or at least +> tolerate, the seven-day week. Image the hassle if half the country +> operated on (say) an eleven-day cycle. + +Hehehe... Naive pink-boy. + +Naturally, the true SubGenius favours a 13 day week with two rest days. 13013, +the Holy Number of "Bob", tells us this. + +13013 = 13 0 13 <- "Thirteen! Oh, [I see,] Thirteen!" - number of days in week. + ^-^-^---- "Two numbers [of] about zero" - two days of rest. + +The original X-ist names for the thirteen days are: + +Oneday - First day of the week. +Chewsday - Day of Holy Junk-food Frenzy. +Whensday - The SubGenius may proclaim Whensday whenever he wishes, at any + position within the SubGenius calendar week, according to choice. + It is the first day of rest. Once it has been taken, the remaining + days continue in sequence until the week has been filled. +Turdsday - Day of Sacred Excremeditation. +Flyday - Traditionally, the day on which X-ist saucers are sent on missions + to raid Earth and harass pinks. +Satallday - The second Holy Day of Rest. +Gunday - A time to prepare for the difficult times ahead in 1998. +Pinkday - The day on which most pink-harassment occurs. +Krillday - Origin unknown. +Fropday - A day for sacred frop-based rituals. +Slackday - Mistakenly thought by pinks to be a day of rest, it is in reality + the day which commemorates J.R. "Bob" Dobbs' discovery of Slack. +"Bob"day - Presumed to commemorate the birth of Dobbs. +Xday - The final day of the week; not to be confused with X-day, which + is the-final-day-period. + +I hope that that explains everything. If not, try The Book. + +mathew. +Hamburgers for WOTAN, Inc. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I walked in to the Burger King the + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ other day, and told the woman at the + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ register that I had misdialed Fiji. + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ She said she couldn't give me instant + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ credit. I said, "AT&T always did". + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ She blubbered, "But you're not dealing + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ with AT&T!" "Well I am NOW!" I said + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ as I stormed out the door. Then I + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ walked to the nearest pay phone,called + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ the operator and ordered a Whopper. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ $ $ $ $ $ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ 1 3 0 1 3 + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ | + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ -+- + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ j + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ His Rightful Assholiness + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ D R O N F The pipe is + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ R N alive! + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ O O + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ N R + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Pen up your Nose! No One is Safe! + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Send all soiled female underwear to: + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PO Box 30904 + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Raleigh, NC 27622 + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc008.txt b/religious documents/htomc008.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..69d83a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc008.txt @@ -0,0 +1,558 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ Issue #8 $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ High Weirdness Issue $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + Contents: + + High Weirdness update + MicroRant + "Bob" invades the NeXT computer + Banished CPU BBS ad + execution of Those Who Prefer Miracle Whip + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +The "High Weirdness by Mail" concept needs to be perpetuated. Most of the +things listed in the book don't exist any more! + +What better source for current information than alt.slack? I propose that +if you know of some utterly slackful or even slackless source, POST IT! That +way, we can all join in the fun... + +I'll start. Here's a good one: + + Dean M. Epstein + International Student Complex + Alternative Learning Programs + 1023 Hilgard Avenue + Los Angeles, CA 90024-0841 + + (213) 208-7813 + +These people claim to want to promote "world harmony and understanding." All +I can see that they do is ask for money (sound familiar?). Their approach is +novel; at first, they act like they don't want your money, but, if you +show the slightest interest, you will be bombarded with incredibly +strange mailings (tantric healings, glasnost poetry, worms of the world) and, +if you use a "foreign" sounding name, they will send you the most hilarious +materials in bad foreign languages. I used a fake Japanese name, and had +a friend look at the results. He said it was meaningless nonense-but +what a concept! Their English stuff is pretty good, so I used another +address and wrote in German-the results were wild! I'm not sure what this is +all about, but it is funny, and since I think it is at least partially +tax supported, it should be free for the asking. + + +Anyway, boys and girls, let's find the best sources of free entertainment +and post 'em here! "Bob" would want you to! + +-------------------- + +>I recommend "The Skeptical Inquirer" as an excellent and refreshing +>alternative to the unsubstantiated claims of the paranormal that we are +>frequently exposed to and often asked to accept. Subscriptions are $22.50 per +>year (Box 229, Buffalo NY 14215-0229). +> + +Other publications of the same type are: + + The British & Irish Skeptic + (Manchester Skeptics + 71, Bury & Bolton Road + Radcliffe, Manchester UK M26 0LF) + 10 pounds UK. 14 pounds overseas surface + +Local, regional, and national organizations "with aims similar to those of +SCICOP" also publish their own newsletters. There are currently over 70 such +organizations worldwide. A listing can be found in any SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. + +-------------------- + + + NSCE REPORTS + National Center for Science Education + P.O. Box 9477 + Berkeley, CA 94709-0477 + +The NSCE is mainly concerned with science education in public schools, and +especially with countering the attempts to introduce "creationism" into +public school *science* curricula. There are state organizations, commonly +called "Committees of Correspondence," loosly associated with NSCE, and +sharing the same goals. The California Committee publishes BACC SCIENCE. +Four other committees publish regular newsletters. A listing of these +newsletters can be found in the July-August NSCE REPORTS. + +-------------------- + + CREATION/EVOLUTION + 7 Harwood Drive + P.O. Box 146 + Buffalo, NY 14226-0146 + +This is the premier resource for debunking of creationist claims. It is +published by the American Humanist Association, but I detect no Humanist +bias in the material. A subscriber will however, find himself on the +Humanist mail lists. + +-------------------- + +Damn straight! What an excellent idea! Much of "High Weirdness" was culled +>from Factsheet Five, a weirdness source. If you want to subscribe: + + Factsheet Five + c/o Michael Gunderloy + 6 Arizona Ave. + Rensselear, NY 12144 + + Bulk Rate 1st Class + Sample $3 $3.75 + 6 issues $16 $21 + +-------------------- + +CULTS: (WHACKO CHRISTIAN) + + Jumping for Jesus Club! + +Coach Dennis Clark forms ministry clubs of little kids who jump +rope for Jesus, travelling the country spreading the Good Word. +Teams have names like the Popping Preachers, The Hallelujah +Hoppers, and the Faith Movers. Pretty slick, huh? Repetitive +physical movement and religious indoctrination have always been a +good way to brainwashh people and little kids are ideal subjects. +Hmmmmm.....Hey, Robbie, c'mere! Jump this rope... + +Church of the Creator: + +PinKs Vs Muds!!!!! Yes, the glories of the Racial Loyalty +Newletter brought to you in glorious black and white! Try the +Religion of the White Trash Race! Forget God, Jesus, even Odin! +---- only Aryan mortals are worthy of global ownership! The MUD +RACES must DIE! Yes join the Church of the Creator, and learn +what it really is to be a twisted , senile, over the top +hatemonger.... + +Find out about Hitler's UFO Forces! +The 'Rotten Roots' of Jesse Jackson! +Christmas is Baal-Worship! +The Dangers of Eating Pork! +Obey! or Taste My Loving Wrath! + + +The Christian Technocrats: + +The White Brotherhood must stand up to the The Forces of Darkness! +Only those santified by the Pure Light of Scientific Reason can +truly understand why Our Lord came to this miserable mud ball.He +came many light years ago crossing the Endless Void alone to +carry the message of the Space Brothers.... + + +The Council of Chalcedon: + +Masturbation is Murder!!!! Yes, that's RIGHT!!! Women want +rights over their bodies?? But what rights do 20 million unborn +babies have over their VERY SOULS!!?? And what about SPERMS!!?? +Don't you think they cry out in horror as they meet needless +death on the cold, hard tile of the bathroom floor?!!!! + +-------------------- + +National Socialist Movement +PO Box 42 +Chillicothe +OH 45601 +USA + +Polish the jackboots, honey, we're going to the Party! My +enemy's enemy is my friend, Right? Sieg...I mean, God Bless +Amerika! + +-------------------- + +Fusion Magazine (and other LaRouche booklets) +Box 17149, +Washington DC 20041 + +The People's Temple of Politics, with Jonestown just around the +corner... Do NOT subscribe yourself. These people are so rich +and so off the wall they're scary... Approach with caution; these +guys can afford to use the kind of tactics the poorer hate groups +can only fantasize about.... + +-------------------- + +National Federation For Decency +PO Drawer 2440 +Tupelo MS 38803 + +Bet you thought sex was NATURAL, right? Wrong! It's evil and +depraved and practised in the dark by twisted, dopesucking +buttfucking commie pinko queers like YOU! + +-------------------- + +Christian National Socialist White America Party +Box 1133 +Pacific Palisades +CA 90272 + +What can you say? Put your MP on their mailing list. + +-------------------- + +Christians Awake +PO Box 3513 +West End Station +Birmingham +AL 35211 + +All politicians are under the control of UFO Zionist Freemasons! +Even Jesus is the AntiChrist --- half of the time!!! One issue +of their magazine goes into mind-boggling detail showing how the +mathematical dimensions of the Washington monument prove that it +is a phallic symbol erected by Masonic Jews and Catholic Devils. + +-------------------- + +Action Amenities +1093 Broxton Ave +Suite 567 +Los Angeles +CA 90024 + +Hate-psychosis materials for the seriously stoned. Psycho-racist +rant cassettes and spiritually obscene materials.... That's Right! +Love Me ---- or Die! + +-------------------- + +Christian Anti-Communist Crusade +227 E.Sixth St +Box 890 +Long Beach +CA 90801-0941 + +Name says it all. Stereotypes apply here. Put your local Church +on their mailing list. Wait, what if they're ALREADY on it? + +-------------------- + +Spiral Feedback +PO Box 80323 +Lincoln +NE 68501 + +George Bush is about to put everyone in concentration camps! +Ronald Reagon was a Disney created Android! Freedom of Choice +is a Tool of Satan! The Pope is the AntiChrist! Time is running +out! + +-------------------- + +Spiral Mobius +Spiral Enterprises +347 N.Union Station +Kennet Square +PA 19348 + +Government-built UFOs! Clone Androids of high US officials! +Gang rapes by alien bloodsuckers maquerading as +telecommunications engineers, ice-creams salespeople and +intelligence operatives! + +-------------------- + +Truth Missionaries of Positive Accord +PO Box 42772 +Evergreen Park +IL 60642 + +Listen Unheeding Earth-Fools...Are YOU one of the assigned +creatures? No? Well bad luck, pal, because you'll miss out on the +Milk Rays from the Black Hole, Eternal Youth, Riches Beyond Your +Wildest Dreams, and ETERNAL LIFE --- or your MONEY BACK!!! + +-------------------- + +Asatru Free Assembly +PO Box 1754 +Breckenridge +TX 76024-1754 + +Hoar-Frost Giants LIVE! If you're into Marvel Comix Thor, you'll +feel right at home amongst these hairy 'Doctors For Wotan' +Frolic with burly red-bearded Agar and the other Dwarf-Lords at +the Northern Lights Hot Tub and Spa! + +-------------------- + +Entertaining Demons Unawares +SouthWest Radio Church +PO Box 1144 +Oklahoma City +OK 73101 + +Star Wars/Dungeons and Dragons and WonderWoman's AntiChrist +Satanic connections in horrifying detail. You'll be raptured to +death over this one! + +-------------------- + +Lighthouse Publications +2402 E.Denmar Avenue +Lufkin +TX 75901 + +Cloned Homo Nazi Punks In YOUR Future. Gags and restraining +straps not included. + +-------------------- + +Aryan Nations +Church of Jesus Christ Christian +Box 362 +Hayden Lake +ID 83835 + +You don't even need to play it backwards! Yes! 'Bye Bye Miss +American Pie' is an unbelievably detailed piece of Biblical +Prophecy! This one song reveals the 'decisive struggle' between +America and the heathen armies gathering on our central american +doorstep. Yes! MORE will be REVEALED!!!! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Let us not speak of Ferraris and Audis and other pacifiers of the +CON generation. Those adult playthings that are sucked upon to +please the Andrew Jacksonheads in our pockets. Pablumstyles of +the Rich and would-be-famous. + +Let us speak instead of the Xists Giant Terrarium, that ozone depleted +chunk of rock we call the Earth. It is now nearly 2000 years since +a guy was nailed to a tree for saying how nice it would be if we would +all give each other some slack. + +Things are even weirder now than they were then and this is the first +run-on sentence of the third paragraph and if you don't like it, well +kill me, and I'll just keep right on talking, er, typing, er having +telepathy with this silicon life form because I just had a Margarita +on a Sunday afternoon after decorating the house because the CON says +I should and I don't want to blow my cover just yet because great things +are in store for the following solar year that the CON says is 1991 but +really isn't because they've brainwashed us all and changed the calendar +on us and decided not to tell the really stupid people because they might +panic and then the CON would have a whole pile of excrement on their +collective appendages and the Sunday afternoon Sun coming through my +office window is setting on my would-be-bleeding head and Frosty the +Snowman is on the root window of my Xist Window screen and I'm feeling +a little... + +Oh wow. There's a cloud outside my window that looks like a flying +Saucer. + +Theeey're Heeeeere. + +-- +Krazy Little-endian MoFo +Clench of the Pin-shaped Head of Benny +uunet!wang!gozer!klm + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Just sitting here reading my copy of 0.9 NeXT manuals, and low and +behold , on page 171 "Bob" appears: + +[instructions for the format of a data document]: + +"For example, to set the value of a field to + + J.R. "Bob" Dobbs + +enter the value + + "J.R. ""Bob"" Dobbs" + +not much going on here on a late, weird Friday afternoon, so I thought +Bob had done "it" to us again!!! + +;^>scb + +-- +Steven C. Blair Computer Services Manager +Frame Technology Inc. 2911 Zanker Road San Jose, Ca. 95134 +Pick-A-Bone: scb@frame.com sblair@riacs.edu frame!scb@ames.arc.nasa.gov +UUCP: {backbone(ames,adobe,riacs,vsi1)}!frame!nevdull!scb + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + YES, you should MOST CERTAINLY call: + + + \ ______________ / + | | + -| Banished CPU |- + |______________| + / \ + __________________________ + [__________________________] + _ _ + [_] Not Recommended by [_] + _ _ + [_] Thought Police [_] + __________________________ + [__________________________] + + + o System Operator: Maynard "the Main Nerd" + o BBS software: RemoteAccess v1.01 and Waffle v1.64 + o Most relevant hardware: + o 300-38,400 bps (MNP 1-5, v32, v42, v42bis) Intel 9600EX modem + o 675-megabyte 16ns Maxtor hard drive + o Expanding and still under construction! We plan to go + MULTI-LINE soon! + o We plan to have regular Usenet news feeds soon! + o No usage fees at this time! + o Open to callers starting 00:01 AM, Friday, 08-09-91! + o Telephone number: (503) 232-6566 + + + -=> All points of view are welcome! + -=> Primarily dedicated to FREEDOM OF SPEECH + -=> Also dedicated to EXPOSING and FIGHTING FASCISM and RACISM + -=> The Sysop is DISGUSTED with ISRAEL'S POLICIES! + + + Support FREEDOM OF SPEECH! Read and speak FREELY about + controversial things that are CENSORED elsewhere! Download and + save COMPLETELY LEGAL (in the U.S.), EXTREMELY REVEALING texts -- + easily among the MOST FREQUENTLY CENSORED in the WORLD! Exercise + your right to INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM! Find out who is CONTROLLING + HISTORY, the MEDIA, and the GOVERNMENT in America and elsewhere, + EVEN AS YOU READ THIS! + ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ + + Keep freedom ALIVE! + + Call today! + + (503) 232-6566 + + _____________________________________________________________ + | | + | Please TELL YOUR FRIENDS about Banished CPU. This ad tends | + | to be censored. | + |_____________________________________________________________| + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Summary: execution of Those Who Prefer Miracle Whip +Sender: Rev. Moses of the Dobbsodoxic Clench,3rd pyroneural orthonoxious synod + +(This is about to be a public service message from the Screamin' Church o' de +Epilectic Jesus, so, like, listen up) + +Yeah....so the Stark Fist had grabbed me on that Special Part, I guess it must +have been the Stark Fist of Retrieval tryin' to retrieve some o' my genetic +material, and it was pretty close, but I guess it's presence triggered some +Conspiracy sensors, and they turned off the hot water in my shower, and the +Fist just fled and it took most of my slack with it...Yeah, I guess it's true +what they say, that +HE WHO TOUCHES HIMSELF SHALL EAT THE BREAD OF AFFLICTION, +but it's a tastier bread than the homogenized pablum the Conspiracy shoves +down our throats...we swallow-not-spit and think we like it.... +man, the Con is everywhere...it's all around us...it's fat ladies in checkered +dresses beating their children in the A&P...it's Christ without a penis...it's +Presidents of these United Castor-head Pussies of America that look like they +can't get erections anymore...it's waves radiating from your TV and telephone +and family pets at subliminal levels advocating consumerism and life-without- +mind...it's the whorship of millions of Americans of an obese aging unfropped +Elvis...it's wave after wave of cattle mutilations sweeping the Midwest with +the Xist-controlled media limiting the coverage of them to the Weekly World +News, the only non-Con paper around...but I guess you knew all that...yeah, +when they let me out they gave me a piece of paper that said my mind is OK, +I got it right here...oh, wait, that's my brother's, he's still inside... +anyway, how many people do you know that got a piece of paper says their mind's +OK? I bet those ladies down at Job Service who threw me out don't have one, +although actually what I have is a loaner mind they had lying around at the +Place, they really kept my mind, I didn't like the idea at first but after +their drugs and treatments under the Machine I came to see that it was best +that my mind be kept there for analysis and experimentation, for the safety +of humanity...Yeah, it's true that I've been bad...slackless...I've taken the +Con's false drugs and partaken of it's false sex...but I repent, and I pray: +O "BoB", you know that I am a fucker, a dickwad, shithead, and a pee-monger +But "BoB", as you see me in my...naked glory +Glorify me, that I may glorify YEE, yeah YEE who was were not the prophet +spoken of by the prophet Eez-a--pee when he saith: Dokters fer BoB...and yet +was somehow unconnected to the later slaying of John Lennon. Yeah, you know +that Hypercleats, he ate my brain and vomited my mind back up into my brain pan +...I think there's some of my brain still in there with the diced carrots and +creamed corn...but you know, I'm not sure. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I walked in to the Burger King the + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ other day, and told the woman at the + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ register that I had misdialed Fiji. + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ She said she couldn't give me instant + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ credit. I said, "AT&T always did". + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ She blubbered, "But you're not dealing + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ with AT&T!" "Well I am NOW!" I said + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ as I stormed out the door. Then I + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ walked to the nearest pay phone,called + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ the operator and ordered a Whopper. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ $ $ $ $ $ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ 1 3 0 1 3 + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ | + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ -+- + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ j + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ His Rightful Assholiness + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@--WOOF! D R O N F The pipe is + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ R N alive! + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ O O + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ N R + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Pen up your Nose! No One is Safe! + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Send all negotiable securities to: + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PO Box 30904 + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Raleigh, NC 27622 + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc009.txt b/religious documents/htomc009.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..efcc4b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc009.txt @@ -0,0 +1,387 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ Issue #9, but who's counting? $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E + F R E E + F R E E + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + PO Box 30904 SLACK@ncsu.edu + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + + This is the first issue of the HToMC News in nearly a year. Only the + extremely slackful mail from Priestesses Beth and MB saved us. + + NEWS since the last time: + + Washington DC Pro-Choice Rally: Largest rally ever held in the + capital. Several Dobbsheads sighted; favorite sport was lobbing + tennis balls onto the White House lawn, much to the chagrin of the + Secret Service spooks. Disappointingly few anti-choice demonstrators + to harrass, although they all took a copy of The Pamphlet. + + DragonCon in Atlanta: Successful Gut-Blowout in Room 538, with the + "Bob"'s Blood drink quickly running out: not enough time to kill + another "Bob". This event was also covered by MTV. + + WorldCon in Orlando, Florida over Labor Day Weekend. Yeah, I know, + this also overlaps with the World SubGenius Convention in Chicago, + but the WSC is staged to draw the bobbies away from the *real* party. + + HToMC will be at PhenomiCon this year- see ad in this issue. + + Keep those cards and letters pouring in! Due to the new zine format, + drawings and other artwork will also be accepted for upcoming issues. + + DOBBS SIGHTINGS: + + Flaming Carrot Comics #28 + Dark Horse Comics + 10956 SE Main St. + Milwaukie, OR 97222 + + Dobbs helps uncover the secret of the Man in the Moon + + Hyena #1 + Tundra Publishing Ltd. + 320 Riverside Dr. + Northampton, MA 01060 + + THE RETURN OF PEE DOG! Plus, an entire magazine of + worthy stories and artwork. Destined to be a classic! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + A New MacDonalds Advert + by mathew + +There's a difference at MacDonalds +Come and eat here if you dare +Our latest restaurant's open +It's just off Tienanmen Square + +To our friends the Chinese government [Neat picture here, if you +We give our hearty thanks had the hardcopy version, +They've cleared away the rubble pink boy!] +And they've hidden all the tanks + +It's fun for all the family +Please bring your children too +We love kids at MacDonalds +We've a special place for you + +The clown Ronald MacDonald +Has not arrived here yet +He's giving forced abortions +To the women of Tibet + +He's rounding up the dissidents +The students and the rest +For summary execution +Via a bullet in the chest + +Come join us at MacDonalds +And help us make a buck +When it comes to human rights abuse +We couldn't give a fuck + +That's the difference at +MacDonalds you'll enjoy + +-------------------------------------- +J. Walter Thompson, a huge ad agency, has a test for all wannabe +copywriters. They print it every few years as a full page ad in many +major newspapers. They call the campaign "Write if you want work." + +My response to the question, "Write the history of the +United States in 100 words or less": + +Creation. Evolution. Civilization. Exploration. Colonization. Taxation. +Representation? Declaration. Revolution. Celebration. Constitutionalization. +Election. Inauguration. Succession. Institutionalization. Conflagration. +Migration. Plantation. Expansion. Destination Manifestation. Annexation. +Secession. Rebellion. Abolition. Emancipation Proclamation. Assassination. +Reconstruction. Industrialization. Assassination. Invention. Transportation. +Urbanization. Exploitation. Stratification. Assassination. Unionization. +Protection. Regulation. Suffrage Extension. Balkanization. Destruction. +League of Nations. Prohibition. Immigration. Depression. Socialization. +Construction. Isolation. Deterioration. Penetration. Fission-n-Fusion. +Annihilation. Radiation. Polarization. Militarization. Partition. +Persecution. Automation. Failed Invasion. Assassination. Investigation. +Division. Demonstration. Mind Alteration. Space Exploration. Bra +Incineration. Obfuscation. Resignation. Elation. Stupification. Abortion. +Stagflation. Gas Station. Computerization. Communication. Deregulation. +Pollution. Deforestation. Kinder, Gentler Nation. Reunification. +Reconciliation. Verification. Recession. Demarcation. Obliteration. +Glorification. Education? + +copyright 1992 david hyatt -- don't rip it off if you're taking the +same test! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + AWESOME NEW IDEAS FOR NINTENDO VIDEO GAMES THAT WILL BRING IN MUCH $$$ + + + After a year sharing a dorm with a roomate who's purpose in life was to +play video games, I've noticed that just about all video games are of +the hack/slash/bonk/kill everything you see on the screen variety. Even +the so called "educational" software titles gave up a long time ago. +Video games have no redeeming qualities, but perhaps a new idea will bring +in a waft of fresh air, and make the inventor rich as well. + + +IDEA #1: + + Flower Delivery Man- You are Humphrey T. Widdleshuns, a delivery + man for a florist. The object of the game is to bring happiness and + sunshine to all your customers and flower recipitents. You get points + for driving your delivery van in a safe and courteous manner, and the + happier the world is, the more points you get. The 'fire' button makes + your character smile, so if you smile at a passer by, you get more points. + The other fire button makes your character say, "Have a nice day!". + + You go up on different levels, with different scenarios. First level would + be easy. You deliver flowers to people in sleepy Winnionia, Idaho, where + life is easy and everyone is nice. You go up through New York city, + downtown LA, Crack neighborhoods in DC, conquering all the unhappy people + with gifts of flowers and love. The last level is in the Serbia/Yugoslovokian + border, where you must melt the hearts of grizzled rebel leaders with + a slavo of "Have a nice day!" (In Serbianish, of course) and smiles. + + The game ends when the whole world is singing in harmony and there's + sunshine and happiness everywhere, and all the leaders of the world + hold a big barbecue where *everyone* is invited in your honor. + + +IDEA 2# + + Maybe peace and happiness isn't what people want, so might as well + cut the crap and give 'em what they want. You are Captain H.T. Bludd, + veteran from the Star Troopers. Your mission is to crush the enemy, the + Orinians, with the latest Star Trooper battlecruiser. Your battlecruiser + is big and massive, with unlimited shields, endless supply of enemy seeking + fusion missles, two billion anti-matter bombs, fifty seven hull mounted + laser cannons, special "energy wave" disruptors, orbiting fire drone + assistants, computer-controlled target aquisition, three hundred "smart + bombs", cobalt space mines, super-warp light speed, auto-repair, and + everything goes off at once when you push the fire button. And that's + just to start out, and you get more weapons as the mission progresses. + The Orinians, on the other hand, are centuries behind weapons technology + compared to the Star Troopers. The best defense the Orinians are able to + come up with are a thin spread of slow-moving chemically powered single + man space capsules, with only a weak laser for offensive capabilities + and don't even have any shields. Blowing up the Orinians' home planet + is a piece of cake, since your ship is automatically navigated, and + all you have to do is hold down the fire button. It'll sell like + hotcakes, I assure you. + + Derrick + +============================================================================ + +"Can God make a penis so big that even he can't masturbate it?" + [Jim Bakker] + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +From: jalb@geocub.geocub.fr (Jean-Alain Le Borgne) +Subject: Advance Registration + +Hi, here is the Pope of Spametics speaking. This is *not* +advertising, this is your first chance to join the + + < First And Last Multiversal Church Of Spam > + [ A Schismatic Division Of The Church Of The Subgenius ] + { And Of The First Church Of Appliantology } + +All you have to do is send me back the following Advance Registration +Form, and the Day you perform your Spametics Deed and show the Pope +Tangible Proof of it, you will in Return receive your very own +Officially Certified, Sacred Title from the Church. + +1. Administriva + + Last name: ..................... + First name: ..................... + Birthdate: ..................... + +2. Title (check one): + _ _ _ + |_| Popess |_| Cardinal |_| Rabbi + |_| Buddha |_| Messiah |_| Prophet + |_| Archbishop |_| Bishop |_| Priest + |_| Binge Master |_| Holy Ignoramus |_| Sacred Bum + |_| Other: ............ + +3. Totem (check one): + _ _ _ + |_| Bill the Cat |_| Dr Gonzo |_| Zippy the Pinhead + |_| Other: ............ + +Thank You. + J.-A. L. B. + + + + + + [There's another neat-o graphic + here, but you're just TSOL. + + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + OFFICE ART Page #1 + + + [But, that's graphic too. Tough Luck.] + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + PHENOMICON 1992 announcement: + + November 13-15 + Castlegate Hotel and Conference Center + Atlanta, GA + + Guests include: + William Gibson + Bruce Sterling + Johnathan Vankin + Adam Parfey + Rev. Ivan Stang + Kerry Thornley + + Rates: $20 August 1 until October 1, 1992 + $25 at the door + + Make checks payable to PhenomiCon + + Mail to: P.O. Box 12141 + Atlanta, GA 30355-2141 + + SASE appreciated + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Ways to be Offensive at a Funeral + + 1. Tell the widow that the deceased's last wish was that she make + love with you. + 2. Tell the undertaker that he can't close the coffin until you find + your contact lens. + 3. Punch the body and tell people that he hit you first. + 4. Tell the widow that you're the deceasd's gay lover. + 5. Ask someone to take a snapshot of you shaking hands with the deceased. + 6. At the cemetery, play taps on a kazoo. + 7. Walk around telling people that you've seen the will and they're + not in it. + 8. Ask the widow to give you a kiss. + 9. Drive behind the widow's limo and keep honking your horn. + 10. Tell the undertaker that your dog just died and ask if he can + sneak him into the coffin. + 11. Put a hard-boiled egg in the mouth of the deceased. + 12. Slip a whoopee cushion under the widow. + 13. Leave some phony dog poop on top of the deceased. + 14. Tell the widow that you have to leave early and ask if the will + can be read before the funeral is over. + 15. Urge the widow to give the deceased's wooden leg to someone poor + who can't afford firewood. + 16. Walk around telling people that the deceased didn't like them. + 17. Use the deceased's tongue to lick a stamp. + 18. Ask the widow for money which the deceased owes you. + 19. Take up a collection to pay off the deceased' gambling debts. + 20. Ask the widow if you can have the body to practice tattooing on. + 21. Put crazy Glue on the deceased's lips just before the widow's last kiss. + 22. Show up at the funeral services in a clown suit. + 23. If the widow cries, blow a trumpet every time she wipes her nose. + 24. When no-one's looking, slip plastic vampire-teeth into the deceased's + mouth. + 25. Toss a handful of cooked rice on the deceased and scream + "MAGGOTS! MAGGOTS!" and pretend to faint. + 26. At the cemetary take bets on how long it takes a body to decompose. + 27. Goose the widow as she bends over to throw dirt on the coffin. + 28. Circulate a petition to have the body stuffed instead of buried. + 29. Tell everyone you're from the IRS and you're confiscating the coffin for + back-taxes. + 30. Promise the minister a hundred dollars if he doesn't keep a straight face + while praising the deceased. + + + [Gee, you're really missing out + on some earthshattering graphics] + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ The Truth of it is that Love shits in + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ your mouth. And the taste of Love's + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ shit is an acquired taste of both + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ fools and geniuses alike. It is + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ necessary for survival. Keats was + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ wrong. Beauty is not Truth. And Truth + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ has nothing to do with Beauty. Maybe + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ they had an affair in the late 18th + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ century, but then Beauty dumped Truth, + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ and Love shit in Truth's mouth and the + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ rest has been sour milk ever since. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ This is the reason that all lovers are + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ insane. Every last one of them. They + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ have gone crazy from the taste of + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ Love's shit. We are all but Turds + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ in an Ocean of Love. + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ a mr HEINOUS/RICHH joint + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ A Snake! + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ His Rightful Assholiness + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@--WOOF! D R O N F The pipe is + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ R N alive! + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ O O + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ N R + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Pen up your Nose! No One is Safe! + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Send all negotiable securities to: + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PO Box 30904 + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Raleigh, NC 27622 + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + + + [Captured Conspiracy Propoganda here] + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc010.txt b/religious documents/htomc010.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6ce626 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc010.txt @@ -0,0 +1,607 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ Issue #10, SAVE Ren & Stimpy !!! $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E + F R E E + F R E E + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + PO Box 30904 SLACK@ncsu.edu + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + + NEWS since the last time: + + *** FREE NEWSLETTER *** + + Dead Milkmen + PO Box 58152 + Philadelphia, PA 19102-8152 + + Look for Cherry Jubilee #1 on the comic shelves! Celebrating 10 years + of everyone's favorite slut, Cherry Poptart. + + Video Xcitement magazine - listings of the best amateur home videos. + Now that everyone has a camcorder, this scene is getting hot! + + Upcoming convention listings: see expanded section inside! + + DOBBS SIGHTINGS: + + Subgenius Influnce noted in Tiny Toon Adventures + "BoB" Owns Speilberg, discovered by Jon Luckey (luckey@rtfm.mlb.fl.us) + + Its obvious that "BoB: Dobbs has either bought or infiltrated Amblin. + + If you saw the cartoon with Plucky Duck as a baby, riding up and down the + elevator, one time when the elevator doors open you see the words XXIST is + the background. + + Obviously "BoB" is using subliminals to desensitize the Pinks so their + trauma isn't too bad come X-day, when the Xists come to take us away in + their nun-snake domintrix piloted pleasure saucers. + + ---------------- + Aaron "Moses" Moore (jajmoore@lambert.uwaterloo.ca) found: + + GAMES magazine, 2nd ed., Vol. 16 No. 5 or Issue 111, October 92 is written + on the cover but only I know why and it's on newsstands now (buy now with + this special 1-800 offer!). Page 48. That's right, page 48. + + ...."telephone impersonation"...hmm... [Dobbs spotted on side of a + van in D.C. also.....] + +----Page-Break-----------Page-Break-----------Page-Break------------------ + + + IdEAL ORDER Psychic TV Activities in September and October + +From: idealord@dorsai.com (Jeff Harrington) +Organization: The Dorsai Diplomatic Mission, +1.212.431-1944 + +Here are some of the recent broadcasts IdEAL ORDER Psychic TV has +disrupted: + +1. Senate nomination hearings of Robert Gates for Director of Central + Intelligence. + +2. Senate nomination hearings of Judge Clarence Thomas for Supreme + Court Associate Justice (Judge Thomas' testimony). + +3. World News Tonight (ABC Evening News) with Peter Jennings, every + Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday night. + +4. CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, every Thursday night. + +Also, additional testing was performed with home video equipment in +September. This time, I did not use any ambient light source. The +camera and mirror were placed in a sealed and completely dark closet. +The same effects were produced as in the previous tests, i.e., spots +of light were seen fluctuating near the center and bottom of the camera +lens. Please leave me mail if you would like the previous postings +describing the other two experiments. + +I contend that my Thursday night illuminative disruption of CBS +Evening News is itself a legitimate scientific test of a repeatable +and verifiable psychic phenomenon. + +IdEAL ORDER Psychic TV continues its previously scheduled illumination +of broadcasting television cameras as follows: + +Thursdays - CBS Evening News +Monday - Wednesday + Friday - ABC Evening News + +IdEAL ORDER Psychic TV is the process whereby I "will" a bright spot of +light in the broadcasting television camera by meditating on the ongoing +broadcast. Only the person on camera sees the light. The other viewers +of the show will notice that in a "zapped" broadcast the newscasters will +be visibly disturbed, blink more often, and often lose their ability to +read from a cue card. + +The ongoing Thursday "zap" of CBS Evening News is for the purpose of +demonstrating the difference between "zapped" and "non-zapped" broadcasts. + +As I have stated in my previous posts - IdEAL ORDER Psychic TV intends to +disrupt the media/state and spread beautiful, chaotic consciousness globally. +This process has been kept secret by an ongoing cult of secrecy which includes +prominent members of the "skeptical" community. + +(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*) +(*) IdEAL ORDER (*) Zappin' CBS Evening News (*) +(*) Psychic TV (*) Since 1983! (*) +(*) idealord@dorsai.com (*) Now Thursdays Only (*) +(*) Meditate Today! (*) For Greater Verifiability (*) +(*) NO MORE WARS! (*) Count The Blinks! (*) +(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*)*(*) + +----Page-Break-----------Page-Break-----------Page-Break------------------ + + +************* E M E R G E N C Y B U L L E T I N ********************* + + +>from DAILY VARIETY, Wednesday, September 23, 1992 + +_NICK NIXES KRICFALUSI_ + +The Nickelodeon children's cable network has taken "The Ren & Stimpy Show" +away from its creator/producer/director John Kricfalusi, reportedly for +exceeding budgets, not meeting deadlines and producing shows the network +found too offensive for airing. + +Sources inside Spumco ... said Nick had fired the estimated 20 to 35 +Spumco staffers Monday as part of its break with Kricfalusi. + +Staffers were given two weeks' notice, but source said Nick has contacted +a couple of Spumco animators about resuming production on the series -- +without Kricfalusi. + +[bits omitted] + +Kricfalusi did not return phone calls. A Nick spokesperson gave no +details of the break-up, but confirmed the cable network was "in +discussions with John K. and Spumco to reorganize production +responsibilities for the ... show." + +When Kricfalusi struck his deal with Nick, he sold all rights to the show +to the cabler, so the network is free to produce the show without him. + +But because the cartoon reflects Kricfalusi's unique vision, some question +whether Nick can carry it off without him. + +"It's like someone saying we like this 'Little Tramp' character, but let's +get rid of this Chaplin guy," said David Silverman, an animation director +at rival animator Film Roman. + +Spumco layout artist Tuck Tucker said there is solidarity within the +organization behind Kricfalusi. He doubts any Spumco staffers will jump +ship to work for Nick without Kricfalusi. "No one wants to do the show +without him," said Tucker. + +[These excerpts posted without permission. So sue me.] + +THOSE FILTHY WORMS! THOSE BLOATED SACKS! I WEEL KEEL THEMMMMMM!!!!! + +Seriously guys, this really sucks. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Yes folks, it is true. John K. and staff have been axed from Ren and Stimpy, +in favor of commercialism and corporate greed. Here is the article from the +9/24/92 USA Today. I encourage EVERYONE on this group to not only send a +nasty letter to Nick, but to have all your friends who love R & S do the same. +I know I will. + + MTV Networks + Route 10 + Universal City Plaza, 30th Floor + Universal City, CA 91608 + + Phone: (818) 505-7800 + When I called I was forwarded to a voicemailbox of one Linda Alexander. + She's probably in public relations or something similar. + + +----Page-Break-----------Page-Break-----------Page-Break------------------ + +========================================================================== +'Ren & Stimpy' run into trouble at Nick +========================================================================== +By Donna Gable +USA TODAY + + The future of Nickolodeon's cult hit The Ren & Stimpy Show is in +doubt after reports that creater John Kricfalusi was ousted for failing to +produce new episodes in time. + The retro '50s grossout animated series was the centerpiece of Nick's +new Saturday night of original programming, launched last month. + The cable network planned to air 13 original episodes but like +scrawny Ren's asthma, repeats of last year's six original episodes became +chronic. + Nickolodeon isn't talking. Nor is Spumco animation studios, where +there's little "Happy, happy, joy, joy" -- to quote Stimpy's favorite tune. + Inquiries were met with a terse "no comment." + Daily Variety says 25-35 Spumco employees were axed as a result of the +breach. + In addition, Nickolodeon, which owns the rights to Ren & Stimpy, +reportedly rejected at least two episodes [the eeediots, oh, sorry] -- with +a new character named George Liquor -- because they were inappropriate and +offensive. + Kricfalusi (say: Kris-fa-loo-see) was unavailable for comment but +Nickolodeon's Bronwyn McElroy says Nick, "is currently in discussion with +John and Spumco to re-organize production duties." + Ren & Stimpy fan Jim Wilson, 48, of New York, says: "What do they +want from the guy? You can't expect him to crank out all the pictures, the +stories and supply the voice of Ren as well." + Add catoonist Gary Hallgren, "If they fire that creative team, the +feature will go down the toilet." + In August, Kricfalusi, who also supplies Ren's raspy voice, hinted +he may have taken on too much by agreeing to provide 13 episodes on the net- +work's timetable. + About the show's initial and much-repeated run of six episodes, he +said, "I thought we could do more. I was wrong. It was REALLY hard doing +those six." + "The nature of our show is that it's custom-made. Very few people +work on the show. It's not a big factory studio like Hanna-Barbera. We're +trying to do them as fast as we can." + But, he noted, "I love doing them. I could make a hundred of them +.... if it weren't so hard." + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- +I called MTV Networks last night to ask specifically *who* complaints +should be addressed to regarding the firing of John Kricfaluci and +was directed to Nickelodeon Headquarters, Press Department. + +Nickelodeon Headquarters +1515 Broadway +New York, NY 10036 +(212)258-7500 +(212)258-7575 FAX + +Slightly radical, you say, well maybe. I'm tired of sitting back and +letting these corporate f**ks affect my life. + +Happy, happy, mail, mail. + + +----Page-Break-----------Page-Break-----------Page-Break------------------ + + ********************** PINKS of the MONTH ******************************** + + The following is copied from "The End of the World and 'Prophecies' About It" + by Rev. Minagawa in the August 20 edition of _Intercessors for Japan_. + + RAPTURE FEVER - The World Ends on October 28!!! + +Today, this is happening in Korea. According to 1 Thess. 4:16-17 at the +time of the second coming, the dead in Christ will rise, then the saints +who are living at that time will also be caught up to meet the Lord in the +air. Thus, they shall always be with the Lord. + +Right now, in Korea, many people are saying that this will happen +October 28, 1992 precisely at midnight. This has become quite a feverish +movement. According to the _Yomiuri News_ some 250 churches and groups +nationwide are teaching this. People are selling their homes and giving +fortunes to the churches, quitting their jobs, leaving their homes. +Families are suffering upheaval and divorce. Teens are fleeing their homes +and schools and joining groups in churches by the hundreds. Their families +meanwhile are forming groups and strategies in an effort to get them to +come back. + +_The Hot Waves of 1992_, a book by Rev. Lee Jang Iim, and a pamphlet "The +1992 Return of the Lord in the Air" (Taberah World Mission) were sent to my +desk. + +It seems that the roots of these predictions are the same as those of the +infamous Nostradamus, namely human history ending after 6000 years followed +by the millenial kingdom. They have made some of the following predictions. + + ** After the Barcelona Olympics and as a prelude to the rapture, these +disasters will occur. Chicago, San Francisco and Japan will suffer +gigantic earthquakes. At this time, the doors to North Korea will be +opened and many missionaries from South Korea will enter. After August, +the doors will suddenly be shut. They will not be able to return home and +will suffer persecution and martyrdom there. + + ** October 28, 1992 midnight, will be the rapture in the air. Only those +who believe this date will be in fact raptured. + + ** After this will come the 7 years of great tribulation. The +Anti-Christ will rule the world. All people will get a bar code 666 on +their forehead or arm. Those living without it will not be able to buy and +sell to get the necessities for living. Persecution on a national level +and martyrdom will occur. + In the first 3 1/2 years, World War III will occur. At the end of the +last 3 1/2 years will be the Battle of Armageddon. The Lord will return to +defeat Anti-Christ and his hosts and Satan will be bound in hell for 1000 +years. + + ** The Millenial Kingdom will begin in the year 2000. + +Pastors are introducing the teachings and visions of these "prophets" to +their people. They strongly exhort them like this. "The time is so close, +that it is O.K. to abandon normal gospel and only preach and warn about the +Oct. 28 rapture. Your grapevine in heaven has one fruit (grape) because of +your belief in the normal gospel. Preaching this will make it into +clusters. The diamonds in your house in heaven will increase. If you +don't believe this rapture, you will be left behind with the winepress of +persecution and martyrdom awaiting you. All who cannot stand for the Lord +will be cursed with Satan and thrown into hell." + +It is this "gospel" of promise, curse, and fear that is feeding the +"Rapture Fever" in Korea. + +----Page-Break-----------Page-Break-----------Page-Break------------------ + + I just heard, on the TV, Dan Quayle giving + a speech. The following is an excerpt + from this speech, as it was given in an + alternate dimension: + + [All this is mind- "My message will be democracy, democracy, + blowing graphics. and more democracy, because with democracy + Too bad you're stuck comes freedom, and with freedom comes + with the ASCII hope, Bob Hope, yes "Bob" IS our HOPE! + version, eh?] Yes, you elected a secret policeman so the + government could know what you think, but + you haven't yet PAID to know what you + REALLY THINK!" + + At this point, Men dressed all In Black + haul him away, spouting smoke from a + suddenly-appearing pipe. + + +----Page-Break-----------Page-Break-----------Page-Break------------------ + + [Office Art page - not available in ASCII....too bad] + +----Page-Break-----------Page-Break-----------Page-Break------------------ + + U P C O M I N G C O N V E N T I O N S + +October 2-4, 1992 (Iowa) + + ICON 17(01-D). Best Western Westfield Inn, 1895 27th Ave., Coralville, + IA 52241. GoH: Mercedes Lackey; FGoH: Rex Bryant; TMs: Mickey Zucker + Reichert, Rusty Hevelin; Guests: Joe Haldeman, Gay Haldeman, Larry + Dixon, William A. "Biljon" Johnson, Roger E. Moore, Glen Cook, Erin + McKee, more. Info: Icon 17, PO Box 525, Iowa City, IA 52244; + (319)377-5929. + +October 2-4, 1992 (New York) + + CONTRADICTION 12. Radisson Hotel, Niagara Falls, NY; rms $78 sngl/dbl; + (716)285-3361. GoH: Harry Turtledove; SGoH: C.J. Cherryh; Guests: Nancy + Kress, Josepha Sherman, S.M. Stirling, more. Memb: $22. Info: + Contradiction 12, Box 2043, Newmarket Stn., Niagara Falls NY 14301. + +October 2-4, 1992 (Ohio) + + CONTEXT 5. Hilton Inn North, 7007 N High St., Worthington (near + Columbus) OH 43085; rms $63; (614)436-0700. GoH: George Alec Effinger; + EGoH: Martin H. Greenberg; SGoH: Joan Slonczewski; FGoH: Debbie + Hoginson; Guests: Robert & Juanita Coulson, Dennis McKiernan, more. + Panels, Short Story contest, Children's Programming, Art Show/Auction, + Masquerade, more. Memb: $35 (checks payable to Fanaco, Inc.). Info: + Context 5, Box 2954, Columbus OH 43216; (614)889-0436. + +October 2-4, 1992 (Virginia) + + ROVACON 17. CANCELLED. + +October 2-4, 1992 (Canada, British Columbia) + + I-CON 3. CANCELLED. Info: I-Con 3, P.O. Box 30004, 104 - 3995 Quadra + Street, Victoria, BC V8X 5E1 Canada. + +October 2-4, 1992 (England) + + FANTASYCON XVII. Midland Hotel, New Street, Birmingham. GoH: Lisa + Tuttle. Memb: TBA. Info: 15 Stanley Rd., Morden, Surrey, SM4 5DE. + +October 2-4, 1992 (England) + + CONTANIM'eT. New Cobden Hotel, Hagley Rd., Birmingham. Anime con. + Memb: L16; L5 supporting. Info: Contaminet 92, c/o Denzil Brown, 20 + Field Ridge, Shaw, Newbury, Berkshire, UK. + +October 8-11, 1992 (Canada, Ontario) + + BOUCHERCON XXIII. Royal York Hotel, Toronto ON Canada; rms C$119 + sngl/dbl. GoH: Margaret Millar; Lifetime Achievement: Charlotte + MacLeod; TM: Otto Penzler. Convention with emphasis on Mystery. Memb: + US$60/C$70/L30. Info: Bouchercon XXIII, Box 23, Station 'S', Toronto ON + M5M 4L6, Canada. + +October 9-11, 1992 (Florida) + + NECRONOMICON '92. Airport Holiday Inn, 4500 W. Cypress, Tampa FL; rms + $55; (813)879-4800. GoHs: James P. Hogan, Ray Aldridge, Glen Cook. + Memb: $20. Info: Necronomicon '92, Box 2076, Riverview FL 33569; + (813)677-6347. + +----Page-Break-----------Page-Break-----------Page-Break------------------ + + U P C O M I N G C O N V E N T I O N S + +October 9-11, 1992 (Illinois) + + SPYCON 8. Quality Hotel, 920 E. Northwest Highway, Palatine, Illinois + 60067; rms $47; (708)359-6900. SGoH: Sam Rolfe. Memb: $25; $10 + supporting. Info: SPYCON, P.O. Box 8403, Rolling Meadows, IL 60008. + +October 9-11, 1992 (Maryland) + + OKTOBERTREK '92. Marriott's Hunt Valley Inn, Hunt Valley, MD. Guests: + Brent Spiner, DeForest Kelley. Memb: $45. Info: OktoberTrek Associates, + Inc., 6656 Aspern Drive, Elkridge, MD 21227; (410)379-6930. + +October 9-11, 1992 (Minnesota) + + MINNCON 22. Sunwood Inn, St. Paul MN. GoH: Robert Bloch. (Fritz + Leiber was scheduled to have been another GoH before his death.) Memb: + $20 in advance, $30 at door. Info: Minncon 22, c/o John Brower, 3136 + Park Ave., Minneapolis MN 55407; (612)825-8256. + +October 9-11, 1992 (Texas) + + ARMADILLOCON 14. Wyndham Austin at Southpark Hotel, Austin TX; rms $55 + sngl, $65 dbl, $75 trpl/quad; 1-800-433-2241. GoH: Neal Barrett, Jr.; + AGoH: Darrell K. Sweet; FGoH: Al Jackson; EGOH: Gardner Dozois; TM: Kim + Stanley Robinson. Memb: $25 until 9/30/92. Info: ArmadilloCon 14, Box + 9612, Austin TX 78766-9612; (512)453-2199 (before 10pm Central Time). + +October 16-18, 1992 (Minnesota) + + VALLEYCON XVII. Regency Inn, Moorhead, MN. GoH: TBA; AGoH: Robert + Daniels. Info: ValleyCon, PO Box 7202, Fargo, ND 58108; + jenkins@mhd1.moorhead.msus.edu. + +October 16-18, 1992 (Ireland) + + OCTOCON [IRE] 3. Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoighre (near Dublin), + Ireland. GoH: Orson Scott Card; Guests: Diane Duane, Katherine Kurtz, + Anne McCaffrey, Scott McMillan, Peter Morwood, James White.. Irish + National Convention. Memb: L13; L6 supporting. Info: Octocon 3, c/o + Helen Ryder, 30 Beverley Downs, Knocklyon Rd., Templeogue, Dublin, + Ireland; phone: (353)1 934712. + +October 17-18, 1992 (Canada, Quebec) + + CON-CEPT '92. Ramada Renaissance Du Parc, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; rms + C$95. GoHs: Roger Zelazny, Gregory Benford; TM: Larry Stewart. Memb: + C$23. Info: Con-Cept, Box 405, Station H, Montreal, Quebec H3G2L1, + Canada. + +October 23-24, 1992 (Colorado) + + MILEHICON 24. Sheraton, Lakewood CO. GoHs: Steven Brust, Emma Bull, + Will Shetterly, Pamela Dean, Kara Dalkey. Memb: $21 until 9/30/92, $24 + after. Info: MileHiCon 24, Box 27074, Lakewood CO 80227l (303)426-0806. + +October 23-24, 1992 (Ohio) + + DITTO V/OCTOCON 29. Harley Hotel, Cincinnati OH; rms $59.90. Sf + Convention with emphasis on fanzines. Memb: $20. Info: c/o Roger&Pat + Sims, 34 Creekwood Square, Glendale OH 45246; (513)771-7587. + +----Page-Break-----------Page-Break-----------Page-Break------------------ + +October 23-25, 1992 (Ohio) + + OHIO VALLEY FILK FEST VIII. Hilton Inn North, 7007 N. High St., + Worthington OH 43085; rms $60; (614)436-0700. GoH: Kathy Mar; TM: Larry + Warner; Listener of Honor: Marie Schneider. For all Fen with a Song in + their Heart. Memb: $20 (children $15) Info: OVFF, PO Box 211101, + Columbus OH 43221; (614)451-3154. + +October 23-25, 1992 (Texas) + + CHILI CON CARNAGE. Dallas Parkway Hilton Hotel, 4801 LBJ Freeway, + Dallas, TX 75244; rms $59 sngl/dbl, $64 tpl/quad; 1-800-356-3924. GoH: + C. Dean Anderson; AGoH: Jean Elizabeth Martin; Filk GoH: Cat Kingsgrave. + Horror, Dark Fantasy, Suspense and SF convention including Art show, + Dealer's room, gaming, horror tales by candlelight, videos, movies, + animation, filking, panels, masquerade, Saturday dance, more. Memb: $15 + until 10/22/92, $20 after. Info: Fantom Productions, Attn: John + Manning, 4828 Alcott #102, Dallas, TX 75204; (214)826-7756. + +October 29 - November 1, 1992 (Georgia) + + 1992 WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION. Callaway Gardens Resort at Pine + Mountain, GA; $105 sngl/dbl. Guests: Michael Bishop, John Farris, + Martin H. Greenberg, Anne McCaffrey, Martin Gould. Memb: $100 in + advance; $50 supporting. Info: World Fantasy Convention '92, Box 148, + Clarkston GA 30021; (813)441-1360 or (404)921-7148. + +October 30 - November 1, 1992 (Missouri) + + CONTRACEPTION 4. Howard Johnson's, 4200 S. Noland Rd., Independence, MO + 64055; (816)373-8856. GoH: Rick Erdiales; AGoH: Cat Conrad; FGoH: Mike + McCain. Adults-only relaxacon - must be over 21 to attend. Memb: $15 + until 10/1/92, $17 after. Info: Contraception 4, Box 1046, Lee's Summit + MO 64063; (816)524-4852 (6pm-10pm). + +October 30 - November 1, 1992 (Washington) + + INCON '92. Cavanaugh's On Fourth, Spokane WA. GoH: Steve Perry; AGoH: + Crystal Marvig; FGoH: Russel Campbell; TM: Jim Glass; Memb: $20 until + 10/25/92, $25 after. Info: InCon '92, P.O. Box 1026, Spokane, WA + 99201-1026. + +October 30 - November 1, 1992 (Washington) + + DREAMCON 7. Quality Inn Hotel & Conference Center, Everett, Wa. GoH: + David Brin. Memb: $25 until 9/30/92. Info: Dreamcon 7, c/o 10121 + Evergreen Way, Suite 103, Everett, WA 98204-3877; (206)283-8090. + +October 30 - November 1, 1992 (Canada, Ontario) + + MAPLECON 13. Chimo Inn, Gloucester (suburb of Ottawa), Ontario, Canada. + AGoH: Gabriel Morrissette; FGoH: Keith Braithwaite; MCs: Lloyd & Yvonne + Penney; Other Guests: Hal Clement, Martin Springett, Michael Lennick, + Ronn Sutton. Comics, masquerade, art show, Star Trek, model show & + contest, more. Memb: C$25 (seniors and children under 12 C$12.50) until + 9/30/92, C$30 (seniors and children C$15) after; group/"family" and + daily rates also available. Info: MapleCon 13, P.O. Box 20234, 390 + Rideau St. E., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 9P4. + +October 30 - November 1, 1992 (Germany) + + CAPITALCON 1992. Zeiss Grossplanetarium/Prenzlauer Berg Hotel, Berlin, + Germany. GoHs: Norman Spinrad, N. Lee Wood. Memb: 25DM until 10/1/92, + 30DM after. Info: Capitalcon 1992, c/o Wolfgang Both, Vorstadtweg 20, + Berlin, 0-1141, Germany. + +----Page-Break-----------Page-Break-----------Page-Break------------------ + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ REN + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ & + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ STIMPY + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +Holy Temple of + Mass Consumption +PO Box 30904 SAVE +Raleigh, NC 27622 + + REN and Stimpy from [Graphic of the + evil anti-R&S + network exec + [Graphics] the EVIL pink CONSPIRACY demon] + DUPES! + + + + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc011.txt b/religious documents/htomc011.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..032108a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc011.txt @@ -0,0 +1,576 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ Issue #11, Throw Away Your Vote for "Bob" $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E + F R E E + F R E E + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + PO Box 30904 SLACK@ncsu.edu + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +YEEEEEHAAAAAAAA + +November 3rd is SMASH THE CONSPIRACY DAY!! + +Send a message to George Nyarlathotep Bush and the rest of the snarling +Pink masses! Tear up a picture of the Pope AND Bush AND Quayle AND Helms +AND Robertson AND "Bob" ! Nuke a Bush/Quayle poster for FREEDOM!! + +Dobbs-Approved write-in candidates for the top 2 spots include: + + 1) Ren Hoek and Stimpy 5) Rush Limbaugh and Torquemada + 2) Ron and Russell Post 6) George Liquor and Mr. Horse + 3) John K. and Mojo Nixon 7) The entire Spumco staff + 4) Charles Manson and Pat Buchannan (they need a job, you know) + + NEWS: + +New comix: Scan #1 by Matt Howarth, featuring the Mad Empress + New Savage Henry, and *2* new Post Brothers this month! + + Also check out Killer Cults #1 + + + [Exclusive picture of Dobbs at the 1992 Crusade for Cash tour] + + [Also contains subneutrovibraton sonic phrases from the earthshattering + appearance of Rev. Fukk on Rob & Bill's Talk Show, 10/17/92 WRDC] + "Throw Away Your Vote For "Bob"" + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +************************ +** SLACK OF THE MONTH ** +************************ Jerry Pat George + +This month's award goes Falwell Buchanan Bush +to the unidentified man +who exposed himself to +the "pro-life" booth at +the NCSU State Fair +last week. Yeah, he got +arrested, but what a +worthy cause!! + +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ D O N ' T L E T +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ T H E M G E T + +MORE COMICS---- A W A Y W I T H I T ! + + Ren & Stimpy #1 by + Marvel comics is + finally in!! Grab yours + now, this one may be + sold out already! + Comes with scratch-and- [Disgusting picture with Dan Quayle, + sniff air fouler shaped Pat Robertson, and Jesse Helms together] + like Ren. Stories are + much more gross than TV + censors will allow. + Don't open the bag, or + it will be WORTHLESS!!! + + + Killer Cults #1 + Comic Zone Productions + Exploring the lurid + world of cults gone + bad, this one starts + up with the entire + story of Jim Jones and + the Jonestown massacre. + +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + +Review: George Bush at +NC Fairgrounds, 10/21/92 + +After donning the official fake Press Pass and worming my way onto the press +platform, I had the perfect view of a tired and incoherent G. Bush. At enormous +taxpayer expense, he arrived aboard "The Spirit of America" train (what the +hell was that "Operation Lifesaver" banner on the locomotive?). The only part +of his 14-minute speech that made any sense at all was the call for a line- +item veto. Other than that, it was the same old Reagan cheerleading +BEST BANNERS: Clinton supporters who infiltrated the event had signs: +"Re-elect Bush? Wouldn't Be Prudent." and "George Bush- The Farewell Tour". +BEST JOKE: goes to Fuhrer Bush himself: "Clinton wants to turn the White House +into the Waffle House." MOST INTERESTING COMMENTARY: the continuous dialog, +Rocky Horror style, of the reporters on the platform. The press REALLY does +HATE Bush. "Annoy the Media, Re-Elect Bush" stickers don't help. + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +A midterm campaign examination on everything we have learned so far: + +1. Which promise on taxes by George Bush do you find more persuasive? + a. His 1988 pledge: "Read my lips. No new taxes." + b. His new, improved 1992 pledge: "I am not going to do it again. + Ever, ever." + +2. Which action by a college student do you consider more important in + determining your vote in 1992? + a. What Bill CLinton did to avoid getting drafted to fight in a war + he opposed. + b. What Dan Quayle did to avoid getting drafted to fight in a war he + supported. + +3. In the Great Owl Debate of "jobs vs. environment" posed by the Bush + campaign, which would be more upset to wake up tomorrow morning and + find was gone? + a. Your job. + b. Your planet + +4. Which of the following would you be willing to bet your next paycheck + that the Vice President of the United States could spell correctly? + a. Antidisestablishmentarianism + b. Potato + c. Cat + +5. What is your favorite family value? + a. The right to choose whether to have a family. + b. The right to watch "Murphy Brown." + c. The Grand Slam Special at Denny's. + +6. Which candidate has the most appeal among young voters? + a. Clinton, because he plays that hip musical instrument, the + saxaphone. + b. George Bush, because he talks in rap. + c. Al Gore, because he looks like Superman. + d. Dan Quayle, because he looks like Jimmy Olsen. + e. Ross Perot, because he's an elf. + +7. Bush says the election is about trust. Which of the following would + you trust Bush to do if elected to a second term? + a. Never to raise taxes again. Ever, ever. + b. To select only the best-qualified Americans for important jobs + such as the vice presidency and the US Supreme Court. + c. Not to throw up on heads of state while visiting other nations. + +8. During the sale of US missiles to Iran, the late Ronald Reagan was + napping through the presidency and Vice President Bush was "out of the + loop." Write your best guess as to who was running the United States. + + +9. What is your primary concern about the US economy? + a. How to spend the big bonanza if Bush finally succeeds in cutting + capital gains taxes. + b. Whether US jobs are on a fast track or a slow track to Mexico. + c. That there be one again. + +10. What about George Bush reminds you most of Harry Truman? + a. Nobody thinks he's going to win. + b. He likes to fish and recently rode on a train. + c. He's a dead man. + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + REN AND STIMPY UPDATE + +From: Jenny.Lerew%bbs@quake.sylmar.ca.us (Jenny Lerew) + + OK, first let me say that I'm a professional in the animation business +who's been following the posts here for some time with great interest. My +reason for this is that I know John K. and his core group of artists, +personally as well as professionally. After the events of a few weeks ago, +John and I were discussing the situation, and I told him about the reaction +of the guys on Usenet. He was impressed by the action a lot of you said you +were taking on behalf of his show. I also told him how, with each new +development, rumors were flying re: the reasons for Nickelodeon's yanking +R&S, the future of the series, and whether or not he was going to have any +involvement in it creatively. + He asked me if I'd post something to clear up a few things. I'm going +to try to be as succinct as possible. First: + + Nickelodeon's claims of *having* to take the show away because of +missed deadlines and going over budget are false. John had gotten the series +ON TIME. Nick has just put the show behind by their actions. As has been +mentioned before, they didn't have to show reruns so early this season--they +did it because they suddenly decided not to air the new episodes they had. +Furthermore, these episodes WERE EXACTLY THE SAME, SHOT FOR SHOT, AS THE +STORYBOARDS THEY'D APPROVED MONTHS AGO, so Spumco WAS NOT pulling a fast one +on Nick, as some have said. I know, since I saw the boards, *and* Nick's +notes on those boards, and the finished show. So why they got cold feet-- +who knows? + + As for the budget: When Nick took the show from John/Spumco, all they +got was Bob Camp and some drawings. No equipment, no space, and NO staff... +as I write this Nick has opened a new, expensive office for Bob Camp, they +still need to buy everything to go in it, plus they have a standing offer to +Spumco's artists to "go over" and work there for a big increase in salary. +Sound like they're worried about the budget to you? Incidentally, not one +of the important artists that drew/wrote Ren & Stimpy have taken them up on +that offer. These are people who work in a currently tight market, who have +house payments and (some of them) kids to feed. No sir, they won't do it. + + Some of the best work John & Co. has ever done might never be seen, as +Nick is NOW slicing and dicing away at the remaining shows, in their various +stages of completion. John is not going to allow his name to go on these +shows, so be warned. When I heard that John had been made a "consultant" on +R&S, I asked him what that meant. What it means, folks, is NOTHING. It's +PR on Nickelodeon's part, to calm down all the angry fans they've been +hearing from. Unless John has the creative control that got the series +conceived in the first place, he won't involve himself. Anything less would +amount to WAY too much less. + + The question is: do you want to see the shows listed in FILM THREAT the +way they were intended to be seen, done by an artist who has been killing +himself to perfect them? Or will you settle for a vastly inferior version, +as Nickelodeon thinks, plans and hopes smugly that you will? + +Bob Camp, to put it mildly, is out of his depth as the "head" of production +of Ren & Stimpy. If he *does* somehow manage to eke out the shows, the +shows will suffer for it. It's entirely possible that when Nick sees +disaster looming, they'll realize their mistake and go back to the source +for help. + + If any of you think *that* would be a nice turn of events-- if you know +that the reason this show exists is Spumco--John and the rest of his loyal +cartoonists--then let Nickolodeon know. Don't be snowed by the company +line. Tell them you know the difference between the real thing and a +corporate, plastic changeling they would put in its place, if they can get +away with it. + +BTW, the "inside dope" about John directing a Rescue Rangers movie +for Disney is pretty funny to John. Where do these things come from? + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Andre Nancy + MARROU / LORD + ------------------------ + Presidential Ticket + ------------------------ + Libertarians '92 + + + [Picture of About Andre Marrou, the Libertarian Presidential Nominee + Andre Marrou] Andre Marrou is a graduate of MIT and has worked as an + engineering manager. Marrou was elected in 1984 to the + Alaska State Legislature where he introduced legislation + to limit the size of government and reduce taxes. In 1988 + Marrou was the LP vice-presidential nominee and running + mate of Congressman Ron Paul. + + + [Picture of About Nancy Lord, the Libertarian Vice-Presidential Nominee + Nancy Lord] Nancy Lord has degrees in medicine and law and is an + attorney specializing in medical-legal and constitutional + issues. As a businesswoman Lord could see first-hand + how taxation and bureaucratic regulation were stifling + entrepreneurship; this sparked her decision to run for + mayor of Washington, D.C. in 1990. + + + + Scott + McLAUGHLIN + NC Governor + + - Abolish the sales tax on food and medicine + - Throw out the professional politicians in Raleigh + - Let parents -not bureaucrats- control our schools + - Restore constitutional liberty & responsibility to our people + - Cut state government and income tax by 30% + - Free enterprise will put our people back to work + - End corruption by electing citizens, not politicians + - It's time now for a real change in Raleigh + For more information call (800) 292-3766 + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Andre Marrou and Nancy Lord + 1992 Libertarian Presidential Ticket + + + The Libertarian Party + is the Party of the future. The LP is America's third largest and + fastest growing party. It has elected over one hundred candidates, + and in 1990 polled over five million votes. + + A Party of Principle + The LP has always stood for personal freedom and self responsibility. + No Libertarian has ever raised your taxes or increased government spending. + In fact, Libertarians have stopped or repealed taxes, including the Alaska + income tax. + + Libertarian Ideas are American Ideas + The Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights are libertarian + documents. We believe, as the Founders did, that people must be left + free to live their own lives, must be responsible for their own actions, + and must not harm others. The only just role for government is to defend + use against force and fraud. The Constution and Bill of Rights limited + government to that role, but the politicians have gone beyond those limits. + + The LP Challenges *US* to Fight Back + A 3% tax led The Founders to rebel against England. Now our taxes are + nearly 50%. This money is wasted. The government gives billions to + foreign governments, millions more to farmers who grow no food, thousands + to cover Congressional bounced checks. They've even given millions to + both tobacco farmers *and* campaigns against smoking. + + THE LP HAS A BETTER WAY + + The Libertarian Way + Let's stop giving billions to foreign governments, millions to farmers + who grow no food, thousands for Congressional privilege, and millions + more to tobacco companies. Let's make government do its real job - + *keep our streets safe and our land defended*. + + What if your bill for government went from 50% of earnings to 10% or less? + What if your spendable income nearly doubled? What would your life be + like? What causes would you support? What could you do for your children? + + *Nothing is free*. The government's supposed free services cost dearly. + You pay for waste and political favors. Get more for your money. Confine + government to the protection of your safety, and both your safety and your + wealth will grow. We'll have safe streets, a strong economy, and the + money we need to give our children the education they deserve. + + That's the Libertarian Way -you choose- + government waste and inefficiency, or safety and abundance for you + and your family? + + To help build this responsible alternative to the old parties, + call or write... + + The Marrou/Lord Campaign + P.O. Box 12417 + Las Vegas, NV 89112 + (702) 434-6362 + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +< Page filled with other graphics> + [Cartoon] + + Wedding anniversary gifts...NOT! + +1st.....Naugahyde +2nd.....Saladmaster(TM) Cookware +3rd.....Axes +4th.....Pillows +5th.....Golden Hamsters +6th....."Star Trek, The Next Generation" Trading Cards +7th.....Spatulas +8th.....Cellular Phones +9th.....8-Track Cartridges +10th....Spiders +15th....Liver +20th....Voodoo Dolls +25th....Bungee Cords +30th....Bauxite +35th....Hydrogen +40th....Weasels [Dobbs Picture] +45th....Polystyrene +50th....Tar +55th....Wicker +60th....Crotch guards +70th....Hearing Aids +80th....Plutonium + + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + N O V E M B E R C O N V E N T I O N S + +November 6-8, 1992 (Massachusetts) + + WISHCON 2 Sheraton at Monarch Place, Springfield, Mass. (413) 781-1010 + Guests: George Takei, Majel Barrett, Wil Wheaton, and more. Advance + pre-registration by Oct. 15: 17.00 one day/25.00 Weekend. $20/35 at + the door, $19 for Saturday Night Buffet Dinner. Info: K & L Productions + 500 Monroe Turnpike, Monroe, Ct. 06468 (203) 459-0413 + or E-mail: Chreotho@cup.portal.com + +November 6-8, 1992 (Alabama) + + CON*STELLATION XI/SCORPIO. Hilton, Huntsville AL; rms $49. GoHs: + Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Dean Wesley Smith; AGoH: Stephen Hickman; FGoH: + Mike Glicksohn; TM: Michael Flynn. Memb: $18 until 9/30/92, $22 after. + Info: Con*Stellation XI: Scorpio, Box 4857, Huntsville AL 35815. + +November 6-8, 1992 (Florida) + + VULKON. Hilton & Towers, St. Petersburg, FL; rms $60-70; (813)894-5000. + Guests: Leonard Nimoy, David McDonnell, Ann Crispin, Cheryl Mandus. + Memb: $30 until 10/9/92, $40 after (children under 10 free). Info: + Vulkon, c/o Joe Motes, 12237 Southwest 50th Street, Cooper City, FL 33330. + +November 6-8, 1992 (Illinois) + + WINDYCON XIX. Hyatt Regency Woodfield, 1800 E. Golf Road, Schaumburg, + IL 60195; rms $77 sngl/dbl, $90 tpl/quad. GoH: Robert Shea; AGoH: Todd + Cameron Hamilton; Living Legend GoH: Julius Schwartz; FGoH: Wolf Foss; + TM: Rick Foss; Guests: Spider and Jeanne Robinson, John Varley, Barry + Longyear, George Alec Effinger, more. Memb: $20 until 10/1/92, $30 + after. Info: Windycon, P.O. Box 184, Palatine, IL 60078-0184; + (708)383-6948. + +November 6-8, 1992 (Massachusetts) + + WISHCON II. Sheraton at Monarch Place, Springfield, MA; rms $78 + sngl/dbl, $88 tpl/quad; (413)781-1010. Guests: George + Takei, Majel Barrett, Wil Wheaton, Arne Starr, Michael Jan Freidman, + Margaret Bonanno, Peter David, Bob Greenberger, Howard Weinstein, Joe + Straczynski. Memb: $25 until 10/1/92, $35 after. Info: K&L + Productions, 500 Monroe Tpke, Monroe CT 06468; (203)459-0413. + +November 6-8, 1992 (England) + + NOVACON (UK) 22. Forte Post House, Birmingham. GoH: Storm Constantine. + Memb: L20 until 10/6/92, L25 after. Info: Novacon 22, c/o Bernie Evans, + 121 Cape Hill, Smethwick, Warley, W. Midlands, B66 4SH UK; + (021)558-0997. + +November 13-15, 1992 (Georgia) + + PHENOMICON '92. Castlegate Hotel & Conference Center, Atlanta, GA; rms + $55. Guests: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, more. Emphasis on UFOs, + conspiracies, weirdness. Memb: $20 until 10/1/92, $25 after. Info: + Phenomicon '92, Box 12141, Atlanta GA 30355. + +November 13-15, 1992 (Pennsylvania) + + PHILCON '92. Adam's Mark Hotel, City Avenue & Monument Road, + Philadelphia PA. GoH: Greg Bear; AGoH: Boris Vallejo; Filk GoH: Tom + Smith; SGoHs: Pamela Sargent, Ray Harryhausen. Memb: $25 until 11/1/92, + $30 after (children under 6 free, 6-12 $15). Info: Philcon '92, P.O. + Box 8303, Philadelphia, PA 19101; (609)764-8294. + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + N O V E M B E R C O N V E N T I O N S + +November 13-15, 1992 (Virginia) + + SCI-CON 14. Holiday Inn Executive Center, Greenwich Road, Virginia Beach + VA; rms $58 sngl/dbl; (804)499-4400. GoH: Elizabeth Scarborough; AGoH: + Don Maitz; SGoH: Janny Wurts, Frank & Laura Kelly Freas; FGoHs: Steve & + Elaine Stiles; Gaming GoH: Frank Chadwick. Memb: $20 until 10/1/92, $25 + after. Info: Sci-Con 14, Box 9434, Hampton VA 23670. + +November 20-22, 1992 (Oklahoma) + + SOONERCON 8. Central Plaza Hotel, 112 South M.L. King, Oklahoma City, + OK; rms $40 by 11/1/92; (800)233-2219. GoHs: L. Sprague de Camp, + Catherine Cook de Camp; AGoH: Frank Kelly-Freas; TM: Mark Schulzinger; + Filk GoH: Juanita Coulson; FGoH: Martha Beck; SGoH: Wilson "Bob" Tucker. + Memb: $18 until 11/1/92, at least $22 after. Info: Soonercon 8, Box + 1701, Bethany OK 73008; (405)843-6427 (until 10pm). + +November 20-22, 1992 (Oregon) + + ORYCON 14. Red Lion/Columbia River, Portland OR; rms $61. GoH: Esther + Friesner; AGoH: James Warhola; FGoH: Steve Forty; SGoH: Peter S. Beagle. + Memb: $20 until 10/31/92, $25 after (children 5 and under free, 6-12 + half price). Info: OryCon 14, Box 5703, Portland OR 97228; + (503)283-0802; 74007.3342@compuserv.com. + +November 27-29, 1992 (New York) + + CREATION CONVENTION Ramada Inn (formerly The Penta), New York City, + 33rd Street and Seventh Avenue. Guest: Marina Sirtis + +November 27-29, 1992 (California, Northern) + + SILICON '92. Santa Clara Westin Hotel, Santa Clara CA. GoH: Robert + Jordan; AGoH: Richard Hescox; FGoH: Michelle Sagawa; TM: James P. + Blaylock. Info: Silicon '92, Box 8029, San Jose CA 95155-8612; + (408)977-0562. + +November 27-29, 1992 (California, Southern) + + LOSCON 19. Airport Marriott, Los Angeles CA. GoH: Barbara Hambly; + EGoH: David Hartwell; FGoH: Mike Glyer. Memb: $30 until 11/1/92, $35 + after. Info: LASFS, 11513 Burbank Blvd., N. Hollywood CA 91601; + (213)772-1511. + +November 27-29, 1992 (Maryland) + + DARKOVER GRAND COUNCIL MEETING '92. Holiday Inn, Timonium MD; rms $59. + Emphasis on Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Darkover" books. GoH: Janet Kagan; + AGoH: Rillan MacDhai; SGoHS: Marion Zimmer Bradley, Katherine Kurtz. + Memb: $24 until 11/1/92, $28 after. Info: Darkover Grand Council + Meeting, Armida Council, Box 7203, Silver Spring, MD 20907; + (202)737-4609 (before 11pm). + +November 27-29, 1992 (Chicago) + + VISIONS '92 Ramada Hotel O'Hare. 6600 N. Mannheim Road, Rosemont, Illinois + 60018 1-708-827-5131. British SF and Fantasy media con. onfirmed Guests: + Colin Baker, Bill Baggs, Jeremey Bentham, Nicola Bryant, Jan Chappell, + Craig Charles, Frank Conniff, Nickolas Grace, Robert Llewellyn, John Peel. + $45 for 3-day membership, $35 for 2-day, $25 for 1-day until 11/15/92. + Info: Her Majesty's Entertainment, Ltd., P.O. Box 1202, Highland Park, + Illinois 60035-1202 1-708-405-WHO1 + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ "Bob" is so sweet, his grandmother + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ cavorts with floppy disks! + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ Damn! "Bob" is kinda similar to some + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ lower primates! + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ "Bob" is worth his weight in mold. + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ May Mighty Mouse cough on "Bob" rudely. + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ You know, "Bob" is Tiffany! + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ "Bob" has the ghost of Elvis for brains + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ Ketchup reminds me of "Bob". + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ I heard that "Bob"'s niece does invade + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ the living dead. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ "Bob" is more enchanting than the + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ Jackson family. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ "Bob" has a spiffy navel. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ May Jim & Tammy Bakker run off with + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ "Bob"'s newly seeded lawn. + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ "Bob" has billions and billions of + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ hallucinations for brains. + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ May some Playboy Bunnies befriend + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ "Bob"'s beige stereo wrongly. + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ "Bob" reminds me of zygote droppings. + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ "Bob" is not horribly as normal as a + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ thick sauce. + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ "Bob" reminds me of a million pools of + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ blood -- five for each foot... + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ "Bob" is not far as normal as Madonna. + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ Actually, 500 runaway space aliens + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ remove "Bob". + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ [ Rev. Squid, One-world Temple of ] + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ [Enlightenment and Chinese Laundry] + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Praise Tina Chopp or Die!! + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PO Box 30904 + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Raleigh, NC 27622 + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + + + + [More cartoons and graphics not available in text version] + + + + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc012.txt b/religious documents/htomc012.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0dfd5a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc012.txt @@ -0,0 +1,407 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ Issue #12: Free Money $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E + F R E E + For more info, send all your money to: *********************************** + * AUTHENTIC SACRED RELICS * + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption * 22nd SubAtomic Dobbs Devival * + PO Box 30904 * enclosed in random mailings * + Raleigh, NC 27622 * May include: Devival fliers * + * Cards from Overman pinata' * + NEWS since the last time: * Dobbs-blood soaked MONEY... * + *********************************** + PHENOMICON '92 in Atlanta: DOBBS DEVIVAL - heads successfully launched! + Possibly the best convention yet to hit Atlanta- with tons of conspiracies, + vampires, sleaze, face-fucking bats, and SLACK-ful anti-music supplied by the + Swingin' Love Corpses Anti-Music Dissemination Corp and Recreational + Chemical Analysis Brigade. Terrific videos too- with 2 fantastic 24-hour + movie rooms...and the Bob Tilton Fart Video. Full-scale devival included: + Rev. Ivan Stang, Sister Mary Squared, Papa Joe Mama, Janor Hypercleats, and + a host of others performing schisms, miracles, rants, launchings, and + "Bob" killings. Don't miss this next year! Memorable quotes: + + Sister Susie the Floozie: + "Without slack, life is like a bowl of shit with the handle on the inside" + + Sister Mary Squared: "Feed me, pet me, milk me, eat me." + + Janor Hypercleats: "To join the Church of Don, you must TAKE A LIFE!!" + + Rev. Ivan Stang: "Haven't they released those bats YET?" + + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + Comics: Fabulous Furry Freak Bros. #12 by Sheldon and Mavrides + Rip-Off Press - PO Box 4686 + Auburn, CA 95604 (also ask for 1992 Fall/Holiday catalog) + + Savage Henry #23, Tequila with Clint Ruin. (Also from Rip-Off Press) + + Ren & Stimpy #2, Marvel comics. Sick and twisted, as it should be. + 387 Park Ave. South, NY 10016 + + ****** The Church of Tina Chopp has transmutated into....... ******** + + The Church of Hemp! Dedicated to fight to re-legalize the + PO Box 1511 sacred Cannabis plant! Still with the + Bellingham, WA 98227-1511 GREAT Jack Chick-ripoff comic books!! + + Also check out the book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" by Jack Herer, + $14.95, available from: Help End Marijuana Prohibition, 5632 Van Nuys + Blvd #210, Van Nuys, CA 91401 (213) 392-1806 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + This news article was transcribed during a trance session. Mr. Ambasgun, +completely zonked on 'Frop [TM] (Trade Name for Hazafropzipulops Herb Blend), +apparently viewed it precognitively during a trance rant at the Chicago chapter +of The Clench of the Stark Fist of Removal. T_Deacon transcribed the session, +with annotations by T_Rev. + + + BYRNE AND BYRNE BURN BYRNE, THEN BURN + +CHICAGO(UPI) - The bodies of famed entertainer David Byrne, comic book writer +John Byrne, and former Chicago mayor Jane Byrne were identified this morning as +apparent victims of a murder-suicide pact at the former site of the 3 Penny +Theatre. Firefighters were alerted by the theatre's fire alarms almost +immediately, but their attempts to control the blaze proved futile as the +structure burned to the ground. + +The bodies were found near a locked iron box, which escaped the flames +undamaged. The box contained old campaign posters, several recent issues of +_Superman_, and Laurie Anderson's album, _Home of the Brave_. Police +detectives also discovered an encrypted note describing in detail the motive +and means of the murder. "It appears that John Byrne, in his final effort to +subjugate women, enlisted the aid of the musician in a bizarre plot to protest +women in politics and boost his employer's sagging sales in the comics +industry," said police captain Margaret Sawyer. On the subject of the +murder/suicide's details, Captain Sawyer explains, "It was a pretty grisly +scene. We believe that John and David immolated the ex-Mayor, then doused +the theatre with gasoline and set it ablaze, dying on their own pyre." +Preliminary autopsy reports, including dental records, indicate a strong +resemblance between Ms. Byrne and supposedly deceased Chicago political +"Boss" Richard Daley. Pop psychologist Eric Berne, author of _I'm OK, +You're OK_, was unavailable for comment. + +The comics and music industries have been badly shaken by the news. DC Comics +released a statement that performance artist Laurie Anderson will take over +the plotting and scripting of _Superman_. Many changes are in store for +Anderson's Man of Steel. Anderson said, "As my new colleague Chris Claremont +pointed out, 'Is there any reason why this character _can't_ be a woman?' +I'll be exploring the implications of this in the months to come." +Aforementioned comics writer Chris Claremont will be taking over David Byrne's +mantle as songwriter/lead singer of the rock group Talking Heads. "I +believe that the band will be reissuing _Life During Wartime_, and I personally +have an idea for a Jerry Harrison limited series. Crossover characters will +probably include Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, and Janet Van Dyne. Also, Louise +[Simonson] has suggested that Power Pack be included." + +A lead to a possible link between the tragedy and a pornography ring +based in the harbors of Chicago is being pursued. Any citizens having +relevant infomation should contact the Chicago Police Department. + + + [Soul-saving graphics here] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + "You'll pay to know what you really think" - Dobbs + +I'm here to quote various SubGenii sources and do a mini-Rant while waiting for + Stang or someone to come rant for a while. Thanks to BoB TeCH (or however + it's capitalized these days) for the group and the first introductory rant. + Perhaps someday soon I'll do a real rant, for now though, I'll slack off... + +"We lie constantly and DO NOT TRICK YOU. The Conspiracy lies constantly and + TRICKS YOU. We talk in absolutely _no-bullshit_ fashion about a FUCKED-UP + WORLD, and the Conspiracy hems and haws and bullshits and FUCKS THE WORLD UP" + - St. Clair McNutt non-pervert and Dad, in the _Stark_Fist_of_Removal_, + "A Short Hate Rant On The Word "FUCK" And The New Child Sex" + +"`Bob's` surreavolutionary doctrine of PATRIO-PSYCHOTIC ANARCHO-MATERIALISM + has found ever-larger number of zealous adherents despite relentless + persecution by the FBI and other robot engines of the Conspiracy" + - SubGenuis propaganda pamphlet + + +For those of you who have not achieved slack, have not attended devivals and +do not understand Bulldada, there is time. Yes, For J.R. "Bob" Dobbs is the +perfect "Bob" to ask when you need someone to cut you some SLACK. He alone, +I say that he ALONE represents on Earth the true manifestation of SLACK so +necessary to the SubGenuis. + +Take the first step in fighting of the Conspiracy and avoiding the pinks. + + Quit your Job! Slack Off! + + dammit + + + [Neuro-hypnotic graphics at the bottom of this page] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Prom Night Do you get tongue-tied, flustered, + and turn to jello when an + Johnny was excited. Prom night was attractive woman propositions +finally here. He had been waiting for you? Well, world-famous author +this day for two months. His knees were Snavely Patch is here to help +shaking. "Is she gonna like me? Geesh, I you with his highly acclaimed +hate first dates. Why did I have to make manual..... +our first date Prom?" He donned his +tuxedo and went down stairs. + HOW TO SAY +"Doesn't our little boy look so grown up!" "NO" TO WOMEN + + "Mom...stop that. When are you going to +let me grow up?" + + "She means well son. Come here a minute, [graphic] +I want to talk to you," his dad said as he +ushered him off to the corner. "You need +some money?" + YOU WILL LEARN: + "No dad. Well on second thought I could +use a little, 'ncase I run out of gas or * Humiliating put-downs that +somthing." will devastate women so + thoroughly they will think + "No sweat, how about a $50?...That's twice before ever molesting +what I thought. Uh... Johnny, do you have you again +your party hat?" + * Rejections that don't + "Dad, nobody wears top hats anymore, sound corny. +c'mon..geesh!" + * Subtle reflex maneuvers for + "No Johnny, what I mean is, well, uh... diverting their grasp from +Are you planning to fuck your date tonight? your genitalia. + + "Oh. Yes Dad I have my Party Hat." * Where all the "icebergs" +Johnny couldn't believe it. His dad, never hang out +acted like this before. "Prom must be +something special," he said to himself as * 101 uses for a properly +he left to get his date. "After all, it slung sidearm. +isn't every night that a Catholic priest +offers to give his illegitimate son condoms CALL BEFORE MIDNIGHT - $29.95 +to fuck his companion on their first date. Visa/MC/AmEx 1-800-555-BLOW + + + A GOVERNMENT DOES NOT HAVE TO + [more graphics] PUT CHAINS ON PEOPLE WHO WILL + PUT THEM ON THEMSELVES. WHAT + ARE YOU CHAINED TO? + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + [Blatant ad for:] + + Church of the SUBGENIUS + + Radio Show + + 12pm Sunday Night + + KZSU 90.1 FM + + + [Great graphics by Dr. Howl] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Subject: Illuminatus Official Doc. 46364 +Organization: A.I.S.B., Jim Jones Cabal, Sphere of Bureaucracy, + Age of the Yog-Sathoth. +Keywords: + +I'm afraid there have been some rumours floating around that the Ancient Illumi- +nated Seers of Bavaria have had a hand in 1. Kennedy's Assasination, 2. +George Bush's Public Vomiting, and 3. The Church of the SubGenius founding, and +administration. + We here at the Jim Jones Cabal would like to get a few things straight +right now. We HAVE NEVER been a part of the JFK assasination, except for +hiring the killers, co-ercing the CIA and the Dallas Police into 'turning the +other way' for us, getting Lee Harvey Oswald to play the part of Dupe and take +the fall for the whole thing, securing the weapons and ammo., getting the +killers into position, hypnotising all of the members of the Warren Commision, +blackmailing Oliver Stone into putting out "JFK" to further cloud the issue, +and coming up with alt.conspiracy so that our little mis-information games +could continue. + We at the A.I.S.B. however are entirely responsible for the LHO +shooting though. After all, he was the Head Honcho for the Chaos branch of +the A.I.S.B. and we couldn't allow him to remain alive. + We hope you understand. + As for George Bush's Public Vomiting, except for one of our Secret +Service contacts slipping a canister full of synthetic Stomach Flu virus +into the Presidential Suite two nights before, we did nothing. +The Flu was synthesized at the POEE's SphincterZone Labs in Umbrage, +Vermintown, Atalantis (which is, BTW, the official name of Atlantis, which +is the commonly used name). We have had the labs check the Prime Minister of +Japan Brother Oliver Stone is hard at work on this one as well. + The Church of the SubGenius, though, is another bowl of tumours +entirely. The Church has been completely infiltrated by the A.I.S.B. and +is being finely tuned to bring the majority of those identifying themselves +as "the SubGenii", mostly college aged males, into line with official +A.I.S.B. and POEE mindset. Thus, as has been hypothesized before, the Church +of the SubGenius and all of its publications, trademarks, and upper ecshelon +are all Illunminatus puppets. "Bob" himself, who was, according to Jim Jones +files, born in Gary, Indiana in 1403 and 1924, and was killed officially, only +once, on May 23, 1985 (5/23/85 for all you numerology buffs), was first +conceived, in vitrio, in the same SphincterZone Labs. + The date for X-day; July 5, 1998; has been set, because that is +the day when the Eschaton will be immenantized. On this day, the Illuminati +will return to South America, and the Cracking of the Great Pyramid will +occur, taking all of the Illuminati to the safe havens under the ground. +This is where all of the SubGenius fantasies of the X-ists came from. +Unfortunately, we have already chosen the desirables from the UnFit, so +becoming a card-carrying member is pretty pointless. This doesn't mean, +however, that you should stop sending money; it goes to pay for our +doughnuts. + Sorry. + Novus Ordo Seclorum --><-- + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +Prince Reverend Doktor Lord Sam Widgets of Pendleton; Prince of the Milky +Way; Doktor of the Forbidden Sciences; Grand Master of the Ancient Illuminated +Seers of Bavaria, Jim Jones Cabal; Wise Siviast of the Ancient and Primitive +Memphis-Misraim Rite; Knight of the Black Cross of the Ancient and Accepted +Scottish Rite; Magister Templi (8=3) of the Ancient and Noble Guardians of the +Rosy Cross. + +C. Arnold gorilla@cats.ucsc.edu + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + FACTSHEET FIVE + Electronic version is now available. + + Finally, the fantastic zine listing/review magazine that went to shit after + Mike Gunderloy left it is *BACK AGAIN*, but for the time being, only for + people with Internet access. + + To subscribe, send e-mail to: jerod23@well.sf.ca.us + Updates, issues, or both methods are available; specify what you want on + the subject line. Updates are sent out as they are completed, issue + subscriptions will have 20-30 messages sent out all at once to your mailbox. + An issue subscription will generally insure that large file won't be lost. + + Printed versions may be available later. + + + ----------------------------- R A V E S ------------------------------------ + + SOUNDSHOCK presents | SAT DEC 5 - Groove to Moove 2 + "earth 2 elvis" | 10pm-230am at Cedar's, downtown + | Youngstown, OH. Call for directions + Fryday * December 4th | (216) 743-6560. Cedar's is a little + Hosts: Rick Phifer & Graflin | bar in BFE but the first Groove to +One for the money...Two for the Show! | Moove night was a BLAST so you'd + Been away too long...It's time to | better come out for this one. Live + TECH * TECH * TECHNO!!! | performances by Body Release, Big + "LIVE" Elvis | Engine. DJ's: Mike Filly (Cleveland), + | Nik Popa (Akron) + DJs: O'Die from Memphis |--------------------------------------- + DAZ from Memphis | SAT DEC 12 - Jive Alive and the + Chip B from Nashville | Everlasting Gobstopper. Nashville TN + with T-Zer Visual Attacks | Info: (615) 780-3730 + |--------------------------------------- + Smart Bar by Flip & Dip | Fallout Shelter - 2 S. West St. + 50000 Watts of Sound by Space Bass | Raleigh, NC. Mondays and Wednesdays + $10 Cover * $12 w/o invite | Industrial Dance Nights + Lights & Visuals by Technocolor |--------------------------------------- + Live performance by SoundShock | 88.1FM WKNC Raleigh, NC - Night Waves + Omni New Daisy on Beale Street | Wednesdays feature rave music, but + info 901.763.8064 | ignore Spam&Eggs, the reviewers + *** Memphis, TN *** |--------------------------------------- + | Depot - Raves with U.N.I.T.Y. +---------------------------------------| 300 E. Washington St, off Market St. + ELECTRONIC RAVES LISTINGS: | Greensboro, NC + SE-RAVES, southeast coast. |--------------------------------------- + to subscribe, send an empty message | Wilmington, NC: Metropolis + to: dickendj@ctrvx1.vanderbilt.edu | Located 1 block back from docks + with subject: "SUBSCRIBE SE-RAVES" |--------------------------------------- + | + MW-RAVES - midwestern region | Detroit: VOOM rave in the basement of + to subscribe, send an empty message | the "Bank". First date is Sat, Nov 21 + to: ajbennett@miavx1.ac.muohio.edu | FOR INFO, CALL (313) 433-2129 + with subject: SUBSCRIBE | +=============================================================================== + + C O N V E N T I O N S + +December 11-13, 1992 (Louisiana) + + SMOFCON 9. Doubletree Hotel, New Orleans LA. Convention for convention + organizers. Memb: $40 until 9/30/92, more after (checks payable to + William Jensen). Info: William Jensen, 8331 Donoghue St., New + Carrollton MD 20784. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Sing-song of the dead +@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ --------------------- +@@@@@ @@@@@@ An (ahem) original work. +@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ (c) 1990 by Senkrad Latot. +@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ +@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ I saw Elvis selling candy to the +@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ children on the corner +@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ He grinned and winked at me +@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ Right then, I knew he wasn't dead +@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ He and Mr. Freedom drink tea at Mae's +@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ on Sundays +@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ Don't ask me how I know +@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ The proof is in my head +@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ +@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ Buddy Holly cuts my hair- +@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ he's got a knack for it +@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ Just a bit of a snip or two +@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ He always gets it right +@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ Morrison sacks groceries at the +@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ five-and-dime on Bellevue +@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ You really can't tell that it's him +@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ Unless the light is right +@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ +@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ Saw Stevie Ray on Jeopardy-- +@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ he came in second place +@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ Didn't know all the answers +@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ But still he played the game +@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ Janice J. and Jimi own a KAO in Flagstaff +@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ They run an honest business +@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ Though they don't use their real names +@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ Some day soon the dead +@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ will arise +@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ before your eyes +@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ to your surprise +@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ But not mine +@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ They'll have a word or two +@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ for all you grievers +@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ non-believers +@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ deceivers +@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Of your own depressing minds +@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ They will say "Be happy + don't worry + Holy Temple of no hurry + Mass Consumption mustn't scurry + PO Box 30904 Around feeling down--it's all wrong + Raleigh, NC 27622 + "We should all be living + "Why No Holy Vegetable?" for the day + let us play + 'cause if we may + We'd like to have you join us in a song" + + [George Bush La la la la la la la ..... + graphics here] + Liberace is dead + I saw him die + And I don't know why + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc013.txt b/religious documents/htomc013.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6646702 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc013.txt @@ -0,0 +1,504 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ Issue #13, Put the "Xist" back in "X-Mas" $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E + F R E E + For more info, send all your money to: F R E E + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption Hardcopy - send SASE + PO Box 30904 SLACK@ncsu.edu + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere HAPPY + SOLSTICE!!! + NEWS since the last time: + + FUNDIES FALL DOWN ON JOB --- Possibly still comatose from their stinging + defeat last November, local fundamentalist churches have completely + FAILED in their yearly crusade to flood local parking lots with possibly + the best bulldada of all, the anti-commercialism pamphlets. WHERE HAVE + ALL THE "SATAN-CLAUS" FLYERS GONE??? After checking every mall, shopping + center, and grocery store in the region, the search yielded ABSOLUTELY + NONE of the poorly drawn, over-dramatic screeching hysterics that we've + come to love and expect over the years. Maybe they're all too busy trying + to pack the local school boards. They aren't even *decent* scumbags. + + If anyone can get some to us from your part of the country, it would be + appreciated. Best ones will be reprinted here, plus you will win a + SECRET PRIZE!!!! + + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + [graphics] + Comics: Post Brothers #28 + Rip-Off Press + [Motorcyclist with PO Box 4686 + no helmet?????] Auburn, CA 95604 + + Ron Post finds a new victim to tell his + [Aha- helmet hidden yearly story of his first car - a van - + under long-hair wig!] and how he lost it. Plus, grisly bits. + + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + HIGH WEIRDNESS by EMAIL 2.0 now available + + California motorcyclists, The ultimate guide to everything strange, + angered over a new law exciting, and just plain interesting which + requring that helmets be is available on the Internet. Includes + worn, are donning wig-helmets listings of electronic zines (ezines), FTP + to annoy and confuse archive sites for everything imaginable, + highway patrol officers. Internet BBS's, and more. Plus, mini- + reviews when available. For info, mail: + mporter@nyx.cs.du.edu, or look for this + great file in alt.slack... + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +From San Jose Mercury News November 18, 1991 + +GOLF GODDESS GUIDES JAPANESE DUFFERS + Really +Newsweek neat + graphics +TOKYO - Call it Zen and the art of lowering your all +handicap. In Japan, where golf is practically a over +religion, duffers now can turn to a "Golf Goddess this +of Mercy" before starting their rounds. page. + +The goddess is a statue called Gorufu Kannon that Too +sits in front of a 430 year old Zen temple in the bad +city of Annaka, 70 miles northwest of Tokyo. you're + stuck +Smiling benignly, the goddess holds a golf ball with +and putter. Behind her are 13 golf clubs the +representing 13 Buddhist teachings. ASCII + version. +Golfers flock to the temple on weekends, +leaving golf balls and tees on the altar in + front of the goddess. + + Police dog finds +COMMENTARY: stolen pizza + + +I do enjoy that old time religion and wish there +was more of it in the USA. This demonstrates the +views of our remote ancestors regarding the gods. +I'd like to see more of this in the future. + +-------------------------------------------------- + +Donning my Pink-resistant glasses, I ventured into the +Pinkest Place hereabouts: Crabtree Valley Mall, +in search of Subgenius. + +Not only was this Mall of Halls nearly illiterate (only +two bookstores), it was effectively literate in the +Pink-only sense. + +I asked the Clerk at the bookstore desk, "Have you any +copies of "The Book of Subgenius", author Staff of the +Subgenius Foundation, ISBN 007-0622299, McGraw-Hill, +$9.95, that you can sell me so that I will not have to +tie my large intestine into large Pink knots and spew +creamed corn onto your Pink Clerk's Counter?" + +The Clerk just laughed, saying "We don't have any weirdo +stuff here." + +Do not leave large piles of rotting refuse in this +bookstore. + +Do not EVER do this as often as possible. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +So we're speeding headlong into the eco-econocataclysm, business-as-usual, +corporations so big you scream "Fuck You" from the bottom of your lungs +and the echo from the top of the power pyramid comes back a year later +as a NOTICE OF DISHONOR OF CHECK form letter. Or no echo returns at all, +and you try to scream again but the wet-thick coughs rack your chest (too +much NOx from the street) and you realize that the corporate death aliens +are turning our air into a hydrocarbon copy of their smog-and-CO2 +atmosphere; "Boy Howdy! You can sell those humans anything! We've got +'em buying nuclear-waste fertilizer, we've got 'em buying mercury-loaded +meat by-products, we've got 'em buying FEAR as an entertainment industry... +We can sell them smog-making machines and ozone-wrecking machines, we sell +'em exotic cancers AND the expensive ineffective cures, we sell them +brain-rotting guilt-programming on our favorite electronic drug: TV!" +And the aliens LIKE television! Sure it slows a human's alpha waves and +puts us in the hypnogogic state for hours on end; sure, it turns our minds +into Play-Do for the mass-advertising jackals to shape into whatever +tractable sheeplike form pleases them. BAA! BAA! "Read my lips: No +new taxes!" "This is your brain on drugs." "GE brings good things to +life." And the Earth is their Third World and they've spent the past three +billion years mastering the Art of Vertical Integration AND our planet is +their latest levered buyout...TV is GOOD for them, that raster cutting across +the phosphor puts them into disease-free ECSTASY while turning our +brains to pink MUSH. + +So you eat some more paper because that's the only way your mind can find +its original shape, and you go into the woods, knowing that those trees +will only be there a few more years because the goddamn US Forest Service +is selling all of the "National" forests to Mazda and Mitsubishi Bank... +and subsidizing the sales with your own "no new tax" money. Yes, your +brain is on that hot skillet, sizzling, turning brown around the edges, and +you feel SANE for the first time in months. Because you've been getting +more and more paranoid lately, haven't you? You see a dumb horror flick +by a low-budget director while you're really baked and you realize it's +a fucking DOCUMENTARY, not just another teen slasher product, but a last-ditch +effort to wake people UP: They Live, We Sleep, OBEY, CONSUME, NO THOUGHT. +You see an old friend and he has a poster that says "Paranoid? Most of +your fears are real." And you really ARE paranoid, but if ever there was +a time for paranoia, it is now; you watch Jollie Ollie North casually +explain to Sen. Inouye his plans to suspend the Constitution, as if +there even WERE a Constitution anymore, after the National Security Act. +But the A gives you wisdom and comfort: YOU aren't going crazy, you're +JUSTIFIED in being paranoid because it isn't paranoia, it's being +brutally REALISTIC. Land of the Free, right, we live in McSuperPower and +who do you think sells this cheap plastic CRAP that TIME MAGAZINE calls +"the American Dream?" George Bush? HA! He is Pure Product, he IS chicken +McNuggets, he IS an expendable fuse through which the real powers dump +vast energies...the Trilaterals? The Council on Foreign Relations? +You don't even want to ASK about these guys, because they're the Big Boys, +the Grim Secret Men in Black, and just THINKING about them draws their +attention; it's like yelling HASTUR or YOG-SOTHOTH out loud, or invoking +the Freedom of Information Act to see your FBI file, you just don't want +to do it, if they notice you you're finished. + +So there are pretty vortical tracers flowing off your fingers now and +you remember that death is an illusion and Mind is the fundamental +ordering principle of the Universe...obvious things that everybody +including you seems to forget...and the neon rainbow colors remind you of +that new Floyd bootleg CD you bought from Second Coming records, GEE! +How do they get all that DATA onto one spectrally chromish disk? They can +store ENCYCLOPEDIAS on one of those things, and by GOD, the FBI must have +thousands of pages of surveillance info on EVERY SINGLE NETTER in North + +America, all neatly stored and indexed, ready to be consulted when they +find it necessary to send YOU to one of the FEMA camps...If you say, +"George Bush, ex-CIA director, was out of the loop" enough times maybe +they'll take pity and only use the thorazine; if you say "Lee Harvey +Oswald, acting alone, murdered President Kennedy" they may even send +you to Tiger Island to join up with the Death Squad Elite. You chant +over and over, "Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone..." and maybe you can even +convince yourself it's TRUE, but not while you're frying, because right +now you're NOT asleep, you see through the NSA even if they DO own over +half the Crays ever made, you see through the petty little treacheries +that are sold to the public every day: Reagan and Khomeini, Bush and Noriega, +goddamn GE and NBC bringing good things to life at Hanford and Pinellas, +Exxon and the environment President, BP on the move, RJR and their +sickeningly subliminal Smooth Character Penis Camel, the glorps at work +who don't MIND toxic waste as long as it's "disposed of" in some IBM-owned +Third-World country, and we BUY this shit. + +And above it all, you can HEAR the slack-sucking aliens laughing their +ASSES off, because this invasion was so damn easy it's pathetic. "Gawd, +you can sell them ANYTHING! Just last week we convinced them that +a war on their own country will make them MORE FREE! This 'Freedom' +product is the best scam since the $64,000 question!" Yes, Earth is +the laughingstock of the galaxy, creatures in the Small Magellanic Cloud +tell human jokes: "Hey Vornan-17, how many humans are buying Men-From- +Planet-X brand National Security at this very moment?" "Dunno." +"Three hundred million! HAW HAW HAW!" + +So now you're peaking, and tears are rolling down your cheeks from the +relentless giggling. It really is funny after all, this "Bob"cid is the +best fry you've had in years, at least the aliens haven't gotten their +tentacles on the vitamin A industry; in fact they made it a felony +because it makes you HUMAN again, blows their Jack-in-the-Box raster- +scanned molasses lint out of your brain...it should be given away FREE on +every street corner. + +And a Forest Ranger, wearing the official Weyerhauser smile, puts a +.38 to your head and turns you off. + + + . "You don't have many suspects who + DEATH . .. are innocent of a crime. That's + . . . contradictory. If a person is innocent + . . . . of a crime, then he is not a suspect." + . .. . . . . - Edwin Meese III + . . . . . .. +. . . . . . . + + + + [More neat-o graphics here] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + "$22 BILLS" - "LOVE 22" - "1993" (HOLIDAY-22-GIFT LIST OFFER) + + More neat stuff from: + + Love 22 + PO Box 4022 + Key West, FL 33040 + + + After 5 Independent Presidential campaigns, this will be the 18th year + for the "$22 BILLS". Being a past supporter of the infamous "LOVE 22", + here is the "UPDATE" all new "ADVANCE""1993" HOLIDAY GIFT LIST order form + "SHEETS". "PLEASE" take tim to "CLIP" "N MAIL" NOW to solve your holiday + gift ideas & support the "LOVE 22" Independent '96 campaign. Give them + what "THEY" all want for the holidays....the money!!! + + The eye catching funny money "$22 BILLS" plus PAPER FOLDED ACCESSORIES: + $22 rings, $22 bow ties, $22 shirts, and $22 boots will delight, both + young and old. With free "TRADES" a reality, you may now order "ALL NEW" + Canadian $22 bills. The "2200" Mexican Peso notes are on the drawing board. + As always, the new U.S. $22 bills which have been "CASHED" over 500 times, + "NOT ME", in their history are available + + A real "NICE" gift of course are the attention getting "LOVE 22" $22 + T-shirts & sweat shirts available both U.S. & Canadian sizes + (S) (M) (L) (XL) + + When not traveling as a "BUSKER" comic performer all over the world, + "LOVE 22" is now the official KY*WEST", Fla. Amabassador greeter by + proclamation from the Mayor. With best regards for a happy & healthy + holiday season, I look forward to serving you. + + + Sincerely, + + LOVE 22 + + + + +Name___________________________________________ MAIL ORDER: make check or money + order payable to: LOVE 22 + +Address_________________________________________ + + +City___________________________STATE_______________ZIP_____________ + + +"PLEASE" check below which items & send self addressed stamped envelope!! + + + __ UNITED STATES __ CANADIAN + "$22 BILLS" + + __ 5 for $1.00 __ Rings $1.00 T-Shirts __Canada __US + + __ 11 for $2.00 __ Shirts $1.00 __SM __Med __Lg __X-Lg + + __ 30 for $5.00 __ Bow Ties $1.00 Sweat Shirts __Canada __US + + __ 75 for $10.00 __ Boots $1.00 __SM __Med __Lg __X-Lg + + __ 222 for $22.00 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- C O N V E N T I O N S -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- + +January 1-3, 1993 (Virginia) + + EVECON 10. Doubletree Inn, 300 Army Navy Drive, Crystal City + (Arlington) VA. 24 hour gaming, 24 hour video room, costumes, 2 + live-action role-playing games, Saturday dance, more. Info: Evecon + 10, c/o Bruce Evry, 1601 Thomas Rd., Ft. Washington MD 20744; + (301)292-5231 (before 10pm Eastern). + +January 8-10, 1993 (Florida) + + TROPICON 11. Airport Holiday Inn, West Palm Beach, FL; rms $65; + (407)659-3880. GoH: Ramsey Campbell; Guests: Ben Bova, Richard Lee + Byers, Scott Ciencin, Hal Clement, Jack Haldeman II. Memb: $21 until + 11/30/92, $25 after. Info: Tropicon 11, c/o SFSFS, Box 70143, Ft. + Lauderdale FL 33307;(407)435-9572. + +January 14-17, 1993 (Los Angeles) + + Institute for Inquiry Seminar: "Astronomy and Pseudoscience", sponsored by + CSICOP, and "The Scientific Examination of Religion" by CODESH. Cost is + $125 for one, $225 for both, plus special benefit performance by Steve + Allen. Airport Marina Hotel, 8601 Lincoln Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. Hotel + number is 1-800-225-8126, for more info call CSICOP at (716) 636-1425. + +January 15-17, 1993 (Massachusetts) + + ARISIA '93. Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers, Boston MA; $72 sngl/dbl, $82 + tpl/quad. GoH: Ellen Kushner; AGoHs: Charles Lang, Wendy Snow-Lang; TM: + Marty Gear. Memb: $30 until 12/1/92, $40 after. Info: Arisia, Inc., 1 + Kendall Square Suite 322, Cambridge, MA 02139. + +January 15-17, 1993 (Tennessee) + + CHATTACON 18. Read House, Chattanooga TN. GoH: Glen Cook; AGoH: TBA; + SGoH: David&Lori Deitrick; TM: Brad Strickland. Memb: $15. Info: + Chattacon 18, Box 23908, Chattanooga TN 37422. + +January 15-17, 1993 (Washington) + + RUSTYCON 10. SeaTac Radisson Hotel, Seattle, WA. GoH: Roger Zelazny; + AGoH: Phil Foglio; FGoH: Greg Cox; SGoH: John G. Cramer. Memb: $30 + until 12/31/92, $35 after. Info: RustyCon 10, P.O. Box 84291, Seattle, + WA 98124-5591. + +January 16-19, 1993 (California, Northern) + + MAKING ORBIT '93. Berkeley Marina Marriott, 200 Marina Boulevard, + Berkeley, CA 94710; (510)548-7944. Convention for people interested in + space technology presented by the Space Access Society. Guests: Max + Hunter, Jerry Pournelle, Larry Niven, G. Harry Stine, Gary Hudson, + Jordin Kare, Steve Hoeser, Jim Ransom, Tim Kyger, Art Bozlee, J.P. Del + Fevero, more. Memb: $30 until 10/30/92, $35 until 12/31/92, $40 after. + Info: Making Orbit '93, 909 Marina Village Parkway #237, Alameda, CA + 94501; (408)321-0154. + +January 29-February 1, 1993 (Australia, Victoria) + + RADICON. Radisson President Hotel, Melbourne, Australia. Guests: Bjo & + John Trimble, other media guests. Convention also is a benefit + convention for the Red Cross. Info: Radicon, c/o Christopher Ballis, + Box 322, Bentleigh 3204, Australia; phone 011-61-3-557-7088. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + R-A-V-E-S + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + | December 26 +wonder party happening new year's eve: | Milwaukee + | The return of Drop Bass Network.. +thome tomato presents | SUPPORT THIS EVENT. it's important. + | (414) 283-1XHI + S M I L E |-------------------------------------- + | December 31 +thursday, dec 31st *new year's eve* | DC Area + | Catastrophic's New Years Rave +all night long --->$10 | call (703) 971-4555. +(you'll get your money's worth) |-------------------------------------- + | January - call for day/location +dj's | Chicago +--------------> | Liquid presents Moby, The Prodigy, +kevy kev jondy chilly willy | and Cybersonic. +dieselBoy ding thome tomato | (312) 509-8199 +mindcandy daisy (more to be added) |-------------------------------------- + | Info lines for up-to-date information +live pa's | 1-800-4-RAVELINE +--------------> | +body release | Unity Line (313) 741-HYPR +sonic | Chicago: (312) 509-2918 + | (312) 509-5192 + lighting by techno color | (312) 786-3909 + | (312) 712-0340 + effects by everybody | (312) 509-5022 + | Milwaukee: (414) 283-1XHI + enough strobes to make you smile | (414) 283-1031 + | (414) 571-2042 +25,000 watts of thumping bass (no shit)| (414) 283-1015 + | Madison: (608) 283-DEAD + smart bar by think smart | Minneapolis (612) 376-0226 + |-------------------------------------- +VOOM and BANG instant ravegear supplied| Detroit VOOM Raves have been BUSTED.. + | but check out the: + + SPECIAL GUESTS TBA | + | TRIBE Xmas Party +call: | 1515 Broadway, old Music Institute +CINCINNATI 513.860.6039 | Detroit +COLUMBUS 614.523.8711 | Christmas night- Doors open 11:59pm +CLEVELAND 216.348.4701 |-------------------------------------- +NEW YORK 800.4RAVELINE | Slack is the free car wash you get + | with every fill-up of "Bob" +=============================================================================== + +BROTHER JED 1992 TOUR ENDS at Univ. of Florida, Gainesville: + +Brother Jed made his appearance on the Plaza yesterday. He was in great +form. Last year he looked tired and burned out, but he was on top of his +game yesterday. I walked over while he was sitting on a bench, shook his +hand and thanked him for coming. He said, "Thank you, god bless you." I +forgot to tell him I was possessed by the demon Gnirut. + +Brother Tom, his understudy, had improved a lot since last year. He was +interactive, responding to questions and generally having a good time. +Sister Cindy isn't here. "The little baby machine," as Jed calls her, is +home taking care of the kids. + + Carl Turner turner@webb.psych.ufl.edu + +Brother Jed's next stop is off for holidays, then the west Coast. +Look for them in California this January!!!! + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@ @@@@@@ +@@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ +@@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ +@@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ +@@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ [Picture from +@@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ "classic" John K. episode +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ of Ren & Stimpy, not the +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ sanitized Corporate-Exec +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ Slime-approved cute and +@@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ +@@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ cuddly non-offensive +@@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ +@@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ Conspiracy BULLSHIT that +@@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ +@@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ is already creeping into +@@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ +@@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ not only this great toon, +@@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ +@@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ but EVERYTHING thats ever +@@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ WORTH a DAMN and actually +@@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ ENTERTAINS rather than +@@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ just fill time until the +@@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ next round of commercials +@@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ for "Math class is tough" +@@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ +@@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ Barbies that aren't just +@@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ overpriced cheap junk +@@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ trash for imaginationless +@@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ kids, but ACTUALLY a SYMBOL +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + of the mindless sheep-like + + For hardcopy w/graphics, send SASE to: morons that the PEOPLE WITH + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption THEIR FINGER ON THE BUTTON....] + PO Box 30904 + Raleigh, NC 27622 + ____ . _ . _____________ + For ezine version, mail: /# /_\_ |\_|/__/| / \ + | |/o\o\ / / \/ \ \ / Avenge \ + Slack@ncsu.edu to get on list | \\_/_/ /__|O||O|__ \ \ John K. !! / + quartz.rutgers.edu - back / |_ | |/_ \_/\_/ _\ | \ ___________/ + issues (128.6.60.6) | ||\_ ^| | | (____) | || |/ + | ||| \/ \/\___/\__/ // _/ + WARNING: What you | |||_ (_/ || + have just read was produced \// | | || + by pouring lukewarm tea || | | ||\ + for 42 seconds onto 9 people ||_ \ \ //_/ + chained to 6 Ouija boards. The \_| | \______// + secretary will disavow any /\___/ __ || __|| + knowledge of my actions in the / ||||__ (____(____) + event I am caught or killed. (___)_) + + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc014.txt b/religious documents/htomc014.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a55a2b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc014.txt @@ -0,0 +1,690 @@ +From: SLACK@ncsu.edu (Some Damn Old Nobody) +Date: 22 Jan 93 04:10:15 GMT +Newsgroups: alt.slack,alt.discordia,talk.bizarre +Subject: HToMC #14 + + + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$$$$$ Issue #14 $$$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ + $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E + F R E E + For more info, send all your money to: F R E E + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption Hardcopy - send SASE + PO Box 30904 SLACK@ncsu.edu + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere HAPPY + + NEWS since the last time: + + HToMC will be at the VulKon in Atlanta, GA on Feb. 19-21. For con info, + call Joe Motes at (305) 434-6060 or 12237 SW 50 St., Cooper City, FL + 33330-5406. This will be at the Hyatt Atlanta Airport, 1900 Sullivan + Rd - (404) 991-1234 for reservations. Guest include DeForest Kelley, + George Takei, and possibly Colm Meaney. Plus, slackful conventioneers. + + COMICS to Want and Buy: (tons of great stuff for 1993) + + Ren & Stimpy #3 The Hacker Files + R&S become South Am. dictators Operation Moonwitch (1.0) - Jan + Operation Moonwitch (2.0) - Feb + Ren & Stimpy #4 + Beatnick Stimpy, Java-crazed After a government sting operation + Ren, plus Muddy Mudskipper frames computer users, Hacker and + Scarecrow stage a daring breakout. + Plus story in Marvel Age #121 Features the Green Lantern. + + Marvel Comics DC Comics + 387 Park Ave. South 1325 Avenue of the Americas + NY, NY 10016 NY, NY 10016 + + Post Brothers #29 Flaming Carrot #30 + Ron fouls up an his new Flaming Carrot and The Man on + assassination job the Moon take on The Scribbler + + Savage Henry #24 Thirteen O'Clock by Richard Sala + A Night in Berlin: trouble Mr. Murmur faces the diabolical + with Bobbie Neuwave Doctor Q; stories from the MTV + Liquid Television animator + Both available from: + Rip Off Press Dark Horse Comics + PO Box 4686 10956 SE Main St + Auburn, CA 95604 Milwaukie, OR 97222 + + 1993 Cry For Dawn Calendar Prometheus' Gift + Adults only. Cross between Modern reinterpretation of the + Giger and Vargas, great pics Greek Myth. Weird stuff. + + Cry For Dawn Prod. Ltd. Cat-Head Comics + 360-A W. Merrick Rd. Ste 350 PO Box 576 + Valley Stream, NY 11580 Hudson, MA 01749 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Bay Area Skeptics + + PSYCHICS' PREDICTIONS FIZZLE FOR 1992 + +President Bush was not re-elected. Madonna did not become a gospel singer, and +a UFO base was not found in the Mexican desert. These were just a few of the +many predictions that had been made for 1992 by famous "psychics", but were +dead wrong, as chronicled by the Bay Area Skeptics. + +At the end of each year, many well-known "psychics" issue predictions for the +year to come. Twelve months later, they issue another set of predictions, +conveniently forgetting those made the year before, which are always nearly +100% wrong. Each year, however, the Bay Area Skeptics dig up the predictions +made the year before, to the embarrassment of those who made them. + +Many of the "psychic" predictions made are so vague that it is impossible to +say if they came true or not: for example, Jeane Dixon's prediction that +Tracey Gold "faces perilous periods in July and October" [The Star, April 14, +1992] is not obviously true or false. Many other "predictions" involve things +that happen every year, or else are not difficult to guess, such as terrorist +incidents, marital strife for Charles and Diana, or severe winter storms. +Many supposed "predictions" simply state that ongoing events and trends will +continue, such as economic uncertainty, or conflict in the Middle East. Some +predictions did of course come true, especially those that were unspecific, +or not at all difficult to guess: several "psychics" correctly predicted that +a hurricane would cause major destruction in Florida or Cuba, but not one was +specific as to the date or principal location of the damage. Hurricanes occur, +of course, every season in the Caribbean. Significantly, not one prediction +which was both specific and surprising came true. + +Other supposed "predictions" are not really predictions at all, but are +actually disclosures of little-known events which are already under way, such +as movie productions, marriage plans, business ventures, or developing +scandals. Because questionable claims of having made an amazing prediction +are frequently made in the wake of major news stories, the Bay Area Skeptics +only evaluates predictions that were published or broadcast before the events +they claimed to foretell. + +New York "psychic" Lou Wright predicted that three men would unsuccessfully +attempt to kidnap Candice Bergen in Paris, and Marlon Brando would be arrested +for trying to bust his son out of jail [Natl. Enquirer, Jan. 2, 1992]. + +Los Angeles "psychic" Maria Graciette predicted that a secret UFO base would +be found deep in the Mexican desert, thousands of years old, and that Vice- +President Dan Quayle, attending a World Series game, would impulsively inter- +fere with a play [National Enquirer, June 9, 1992]. + +New York "psychic" John Monti predicted that "a massive hurricane will +devastate Cuba and topple Castro's regime," that a huge AIDS epidemic would +"threaten to end professional sports" [National Enquirer, Jan. 2, 1992], and +that a scientific advance would allow women to delay menopause, allowing them +to have children into their 60s [National Enquirer, June 9, 1992]. + +The famous Washington, D.C. "psychic" Jeane Dixon, who supposedly has a "gift +of prophecy",saw that Fidel Castro would be overthrown, possibly resulting in +Cuba becoming part of the U.S., and Virginia governor Douglas Wilder would +gain enough support for a "vice-presidential invitation". President-elect +Bill Clinton, however, she described as "the Democratic shooting star," for +whom "an organization of women will try to block his path" [The Star, Jan. 21, +1992]. President Bush's ratings would climb, resulting in his reelection [The +Star, July 7, 1992]. She also predicted "a promising economic upturn in the +spring," and that "broccoli will become the miracle vegetable of the '90s" +[The Star, Jan. 21, 1992]. + +Chicago "psychic" Irene Hughes predicted that Vanna White and her husband +would purchase a "haunted" mansion in Beverly Hills, from which they would +flee in terror a week later. Madonna's career would be interrupted by a +"mystery illness," but she would recover after having a religious vision, and +become a gospel singer [National Enquirer, June 9, 1992]. + +New York "psychic" Laura Steele predicted that an earthquake would topple the +Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and that William Kennedy Smith would enter the +priesthood to become a missionary in Africa [National Enquirer, Jan. 2, 1992]. + +Los Angeles "psychic" Judy Hevenly predicted that George Bush would be re- +elected "by a landslide," that Madonna would be hit by a car while jogging in +New York's Central Park [National Enquirer, Jan. 2, 1992], and that Gennifer +Flowers would join the cast of a popular daytime soap opera [National +Enquirer, June 9, 1992]. + +Another Southern California "psychic," Clarisa Bernhardt, who is claimed to +make "uncanny earthquake predictions," warned that scientists would be +"shocked" in October when supposedly earthquake-proof Florida is hit by a +trembler, only weeks after being hit by "the worst hurricane in the state's +history." The prediction that this year's hurricane season would produce +Florida's worst destruction yet was correct,but the earthquake prediction was +dead wrong. Bernhardt also predicted that Joan Lunden would renew her +marriage vows on her TV show, "Good Morning America" [National Enquirer, June +9, 1992],that Michael Jackson would lose his voice and quit singing, and that +Joan Rivers would be plagued by three look-alikes created through "extensive +plastic surgery" [National Enquirer, Jan. 2, 1992]. + +Joan Quigley of San Francisco, White House astrologer to the Reagans, +predicted that Bill Clinton would run out of money toward the campaign's end, +and that the total eclipse of the sun on June 30 will cause earthshaking +events in China [Washington Post, April 18, 1992]. + +Here in Northern California, the date of that devastating California earth- +quake everybody keeps predicting was pegged for Oct. 17, the third anniver- +sary of the Loma Prieta quake, by "psychic" Ernesto A. Moshe Montgomery, who +claims an accuracy of 99 1/2 percent [San Jose Metro, Feb. 27, 1992]. + +Based on the continuing failure of the "psychics" to make accurate predictions +over the years, the Bay Area Skeptics urges everyone - especially the media- +to exercise some healthy skepticism when "psychics" and other purveyors of the +paranormal make extra-ordinary claims or predictions. Anyone who swallows +the "psychics'" claims year after year without checking the record is setting +a bad example for students and for the public. + +It is important to note that no "psychic" succeeded in predicting the +genuinely surprising news stories of 1992: The destructive fire in Windsor +Castle; the feud between Vice-President Quayle and Murphy Brown; the surpris- +ing presidential campaign of Ross Perot. These major news stories were so +totally unexpected that someone would have had to be genuinely "psychic" +to have predicted them twelve months ago! Given the sheer number of so-called +"psychics" out there, one would expect that if even one of them were genuine, +these things would have been correctly predicted; and since they were not, it +suggests that all such claims of "psychic powers" are without foundation. + +The Bay Area Skeptics is a group of people from all walks of life who support +the critical examination of paranormal claims, such as psychic powers, UFOs, +astrology, Bigfoot, biorhythms, etc. Similar skeptics' organizations are +active in many other areas of the country, including New York, Colorado, +Georgia, Illinois, Southern California, Arizona, Texas, and Ohio. The +Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal +(CSICOP), headquartered in Buffalo, NY, is an international Skeptics' organi- +zation, made up of many famous writers, scientists, and investigators, such +as Martin Gardner, Stephen Jay Gould, Carl Sagan, Philip J. Klass, and many +others. + +For more information about the activities and publications of the Bay Area +Skeptics, you can call their recorded message line at 510-LA TRUTH. + +THE MORAL: + + BEWARE of CONSPIRACY psychics!!! + Accept only 100% Dobbs-Approved hallucinations. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Fill out this coupon + and save the aliens + + Complete this simple questionnaire, and befriend a needy + space alien through the Save the Aliens Foundation. For + only sizty-five cents a day, your money can breathe life [graphics] + into an impoverished alien base...help hardworking aliens + fight for their dignity....turn despair into hope for an + alien who has known only life as an insect, reptile, or + clone. Sixty-five cents may not buy much where you live, + but for desperate aliens, it can work miracles. + + My Name is_______________________________________________ + + Address_______________________________________Apt._______ + + City__________________________State___________Zip________ + + Tell us how you want to help, by answering these questions: + + 1. What kind of alien would you like to sponsor: + + __ Tall Grey + __ Short Grey + __ Reptilian Master + + 2. What geographical area are you interested in? + + Urgent need exists in all the areas listed below, especially in + outer space. If you have a strong preference for a particular + location, check the area of your choice. If not, won't you please + let us assign an alien where the need is greatest? + + __ Certainly. Choose an alien for me in an area of greatest need. + + + __ Zeta Reticuli __ Belletrax __ Draco + __ Barnard's Star __ Groom Lake __ Area 51 + __ S-4 Base __ Dreamland __ Dulce Base + __ Pleiades __ Alomogordo __ The Moon + __ Mars __ Middle Earth __ Nightmare Hall + __ A very crowded and smelly planetoid heading toward Earth + __ Superstition Mountain + + 3. Would you like a frozen DNA sample of your sponsored alien? + + Shortly after we select an alien for you, we can send you a + photograph, a brief personal history and a registered DNA sample + stored in liquid nitrogen. You can grow one right in your own + home! (Cattle mutilation kit NOT included.) + + __ Yes __ No + + + 4. Would you like information about your alien's home planet or + underground base? + + Because 44 years of experience has taught us that direct handouts + of blood, tissue, and glandular secretions are the least effective + way of helping aliens, your sponsorship contributions are not + distributed that way. Instead they are used to help aliens in the + most effective way possible - by helping the entire underground + base with projects and services, such as human organs, batch + consignment slaves, street people to perform genetic experiments + on, and scientists to be kept as pets. You can receive detailed + reports - duly notarized by the Jason Scholars and MJ-12 - on these + activities which provide permanent improvements in your alien's + environment. + + __ Yes __ No + + + 5. Would you like to exchange correspondence? + + If desired, correspondence can help build a meaningful one-to-one + relationship. Translations, where necessary, are supplied by + Save the Aliens. + + __ Yes __ No + + + 6. How do you wish to send your sponsorship contribution? + + __ My check for $20 is enclosed for my first monthly + sponsorship contribution. + __ A pint of my blood and some thyroid and pituitary tissue + is enclosed. + __ Ten rocks of crack cocaine and a tenth of a gram of heroin + are enclosed. Please sell them to help the aliens. + + 7. Do you wish verification of Save the Aliens credentials? + + Save the Aliens is indeed proud of the handling of its funds. + Based on last year's audit, an exceptionally large percentage of + each dollar, tissue, or blood sample was used for direct aid to + the aliens in their bases. Drugs were sold by the CIA to the + dregs of society to help buy the alien bases. Due to slave labor + and materials that were purchased using Pentagon "Black Budget" + funds, your donation provides your alien with benefits worth + many times your total gift. Would you like to receive an + informative Annual Report (including a money laundering tracer + statement)? + + __ Yes __ No + + + 8. Would you rather make a contribution than become a sponsor + at this time? + + Please show up at Fred's Cafe in Dulce, New Mexico, anytime + during the next six months. We'll send one of our special + representatives to guide you to our corporate headquarters. + + + S A V E T H E A L I E N S + 1562 Mutilation Road, Dulce NM 97658 + + Member of the American Council for Involuntary Action + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Reprinted without permission from "Stop Making Sense" by The Talking Heads. + +TIPS FOR PERFORMERS: Playing cards have the top half upside-down to help +cheaters. There are a finite number of jokes in the universe. Singing is a +trick to get people to listen to music for longer than they would ordinarily. +There is no music in space. People will pay to watch people make sounds. +Everything on stage should be larger than in real life. + +LIVING WITH OTHER PEOPLE: Violence on television only affects children whose +parents act like television personallities. Table manners are for people who +have nothing better to do. Civilization is a religion. Civilized people walk +funny. There is always a party going on somewhere. People will remember you if +you always wear the same outfit. + +LIFE ON EARTH: Men like pastries, women like custards. Scientists have +invented a love drug, but it only works on bugs. Animals like earthquakes, +tornadoes, and volcanic activity. Nuclear weapons can wipe out life on Earth, +if used properly. Cats like houses better than people. Dolphins find people +amusing, but they don't want to talk to them. People look ridiculous when +they're in ecstasy. Schools are for training people how to listen to other +people. Body odor is the window to the soul. Sound is worth money. + +IN THE HOME: There have been cases where people's shoes got stuck on their +feet and could never be removed. The best way to get rid of unwanted flying +insects is to have strong body odor. There hasn't been a good=looking American +car in 20 years. There is always something on television. The best length for +television programs is either 30 seconds or 8 hours. + +THE SPACE PEOPLE: Space People read our mail. The Space People think that TV +news programs are comedies, and that soap operas are news. The Space People +will contact us when they can make money by doing so. The Space People think +factories are musical instruments. They sing along with them. Each song lasts +from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. No music on weekends. + +MONEY: People will do odd things if you give them money. When everything is +worth money, then money is worth nothing. If you keep your money in your shoe, +then people will know which bills are yours. If you crumple your money into +little bills, it will never stick together. The best way to touch money is by +the edges. U.S. money is the worst looking money in the world. + +WORLD TRAVEL: Passport pictures are what people really look like. Rich people +will travel great distances to look at poor people. Toast is the national dish +of Australia. People never travel to look at flat landscapes. People would +rather watch things than eat. Looking at postcards is better than looking at +the real thing. Looking up is as scary as looking down. + +IN THE FUTURE: In the future, women will have breasts all over. In the future, +it will be a relief to find a place without culture. In the future, plates of +food will have names and titles. In the future, we will all drive standing up. +In the future, love will be taught on television and by listening to pop +songs. + +WORK: Crime is a job. Sex is a job. Growing up is a job. School is a job. +Going to parties is a job. Religion is a job. Being creative is a job. + + + [Groovy graphics here] + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +[Recipient]: Please Reply. + +Hello Fellow SubG's, + +Bishop Oskee Boskee [B.O.B.] here. I'll be passing along a Brag here that I've +sent into Brother Stang in Dobbsland, Texas. Enjoy! + +"BRAG OF THE SYSOP SUBGENIUS" BISHOP OSKEE BOSKEE [B.O.B.] + + + "Sure I'll respect you in the morning. Now shut up." + + + I'm the Silicon Cul-De-Sac of telecommunications! I'm the first, + last and ONLY multi-tasking mutant! I infected JHVH-1's mainframe + with the SLACK Virus and sold 'em another copy as a viral purger! + Yeah baby, I'm crawling with computer bugs! I eat hackers for + breakfast and crap pure assembler code before lunch! I put the HEX + in hexidecimal! I think in binary and speak & write in 7 different + languages, none of which I understand! Miles Dyson was my kinda guy! + I NEVER read the documentation! I whiffread programs and re-write + the code in my pipe-dreams! I don't need peripherals! I am my own + goddamn hard drive! End users kiss my anal pucker just to get a feel + of my RAM! My joystick makes all video games obsolete! I don't need + a surge protector! I spike voltage for shits and giggles! Let the + Pinkboys play with their floppies! My animal magnetism wipes their + data disks every time! I back myself up 10 times a second! I threw + God into an endless loop a millennia ago! Christianity is still + trying to explain that one away! They don't know that the Bible was + a half-assed attempt at a user's manual! KREEEEEE-GAH!! I'm the + hackmaster behind getting the Dobbshead on the Slackless Atari! IBM + gets its best ideas from my worst designs! The System 360 was my + idea of running in a circle! Yi!! Yi!! I forced the Con into + merging IBM and Macintosh! Why do you think they call their + operating system PINK?? Just try to send me your trojans! Come on! + Try to crash me! I'll change your high voltage probe into a short + circuit! There isn't a dataprocessing chip with a throat large + enough for my wang! "Stick disk #3 in the drive," they say! "Hell, + I'll cram the WHOLE DAMN BOX of 'em in if I want!" I say! Yi!! Yi!! + I'm BEYOND artificial intelligence! I'm the mother of the first and + only Slackputer! I taught it the value of SexHurt! It connects to + anything and blows fuses for a cheap thrill! When the Pink ones + asked it "Is there a God?", my baby replied, "There is NOW!" The Con + asked me how to merge silicon with living beings! "Go pound sand up + your ass with a mallet!" I said! Now upload that + + [run-time error runs out] + + + +Copyright 1992 Dyson's Sphere Productions, Ltd. All Rights Reserved + + + One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day. + Dyson's Sphere WWIVnet @ 7470 + +---------------------------------------- + + +------ Join the Pythagorean Reform Church! . +\ / Repent of your evil irrational numbers . . + \ / and bean eating ways. Accept 10 into your heart! . . . + \/ Call the Pythagorean Reform Church BBS at 508-793-9568 . . . . + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [Blatant ad:] + + [appropriate graphics] + + + 10" of SLACK + + is a non-renewable petroleum-based vinyl record in the obtuse + 10" format. It features aPOPcalyptic hits from the Rev. Ivan + Stang + Huge Voodoo, Size Ten Jaw (featuring improv greats The + Shaking Ray Levis), King Kill 33, and Skull & Bones. Genuine + Bob-approved SLACK is now a reality in your own home, spinning. + + --------------------------------------------------------------- + + YES! Rush me my own *personal* copy of 10" of SLACK today! I + understand I may grumble loudly if not delighted with the results. + + Send $5.00 check or m.o. payable to: + + Andrew Pierce + 1747 Jericho Ct. + Tucker, GA 30084 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + C O N V E N T I O N S (also see page 1) + + +January 29-February 1, 1993 (Australia, Victoria) + + RADICON. Radisson President Hotel, Melbourne, Australia. Guests: Bjo & + John Trimble, other media guests. Convention also is a benefit + convention for the Red Cross. Memb: A$140 until 1/22/93, A$29 + supporting. Info: Radicon, c/o Christopher Ballis, Box 322, Bentleigh + 3204, Australia; phone 011-61-3-557-7088. + +February 5-7, 1993 (Oklahoma) + + PSUREALCON '93. Oklahoma City, OK. Info: Psurealcon '93, Box 2069, + Norman OK 73070. + +February 5-7, 1993 (Texas) + + CONNIPTION '93. Dallas, TX. Guests: TBA. Info: Conniption '93, PO Box + 260912, Plano TX 75026-0912. + +February 10-13, 1993 (Utah) + + LIFE, THE UNIVERSE & EVERYTHING 11. Brigham Young University, Provo, + UT. GoHs: Orson Scott Card, Barbara Hambly, Kevin J. Anderson; SGoHs: + Dave Wolverton, M. Shayne Bell, Michaelene Pendleton. Memb: $10. Info: + Life, the Universe & Everything 11, 3163 JKHB, Brigham Young Univ., + Provo UT 84602. + +February 12-14, 1993 (Alabama) + + CONTINUITY '93. Parliament House, Birmingham AL. GoH; Joe Haldeman. + Info: Continuity, c/o 620 80th Place S., Birmingham AL 35206; + (205)836-6460. + +February 12-15, 1993 (Pennsylvania) + + COSTUMECON 11. Sheraton, Station Square, Pittsburgh PA. Costumer's + convention. Memb: $55. Discounts to members of International + Costumer's Guild. Info: Costumecon 11, 200 N. Homewood Ave., Pittsburgh + PA 15208; (412)242-8837. + +February 19-21, 1993 (Massachusetts) + + BOSKONE XXX. Sheraton Tara, Rte 9 at Exit 12 on the Mass. Pike, + Framingham, MA; rms $84 sngl, $86 others, parking free; (508)879-7200. + GoH: Joe Haldeman; AGoH: Tom Kidd; SGoH: Beth Meacham. Boskone returns + to the Greater Boston area - come celebrate the craft and community of + SF. Memb: $29 until 1/17/93, $40 after. Info: NESFA, Box 809, + Framingham, MA 01701-0203; (617) 625-2311. + +February 19-21, 1993 (Virginia) + + SHEVACON. Ingleside Hotel & Resort, Staunton, VA. Info: Shevacon, c/o + The Dragon's Hoard, 15 E. Johnson, Staunton VA 24401. + +February 20-21, 1993 (Washington) + + BLOODCON 1. Executive Inn, Seattle WA. Memb: $15 until 1/30/93, $18 + after. Info: BLOODCON 1, 540-C NE Northgate, suite 236, Seattle, WA + 98125. + +February 26-28, 1993 (California, Northern) + + POTLACH II. Shattuck Hotel/Berkeley Convention Center, Berkeley, CA. + Literary sf conference. Memb: $30; $10 supporting. Info: Potlach II, + c/o Spike Parsons, Box 20132, Castro Valley CA 94546; (510)658-7176. + +February 26-28, 1993 (California, Southern) + + GALLIFREY ONE GOES FORTH. Airport Hilton, Burbank, CA; rms $69 + sngl/dbl. GoH: John Levene; TM: Larry Stewart. Emphasis on British + media. Memb: $40 until 2/1/93, $45 after. Info: P.O. Box 3021, N. + Hollywood, CA 91609. + +February 26-28, 1993 (Florida) + + HURRICON. Holiday Inn Beach Resort, Fort Walton Beach, FL; rms $45 + quad, $75 suite. FGoH: Robert Neagle; Guests: George Alec Effinger, + Margaret Weis, Douglas Niles, Ray Aldridge, more. Memb: $25 until + 1/31/93, $30 after. Info: Hurricon, Steven Earl Yoder, c/o Bards Tales + Book Shoppe, 109D Racetrack Road, Fort Walton Beach Fl 32547; + (904)862-7323. + +February 26-28, 1993 (Kentucky) + + UPPERSOUTHCLAVE 23. Park Mammoth Resort, Park City, KY; rms + $28/$38/$43/$48. GoH: Margaret Keifer. Memb: $15 until 2/5/93, $20 + after. Info: UpperSouthClave 23, c/o Gary Robe, Box 3221, Kingsport TN + 42135; (615)239-3106 + +February 26-28, 1993 (Washington) + + RADCON IA. Shilo Inn and O'Callahan's Restaurant, Richland, WA. GoH: + John Dalmas; AGoH: Betsy Mott; FGoH: Jon Gustafson. Info: Edgar + Lincoln, 104 Comstock, Richland, WA 99352; (509)943-0845 (weeknights). + +March 4-7, 1993 (Connecticut) + + 1993 WORLD HORROR CONVENTION. Sheraton, Stamford, CT; rms $87 sngl/dbl. + GoHs: Peter Straub, Les Daniels; AGoHs: J.K. Potter, Stephen Gervais; + TM: Stanley Wiater. Memb: $75; $25 supporting. Info: World Horror + Convention 1993, Box 191, Andover CT 06232. + +March 5-7, 1993 (California, Southern) + + CON-DOR #1. Town & Country Inn, 500 Hotel Circle, San Diego, CA 92108; + rms $69 sngl/dbl; (619)291-7131. GoHs: Octavia Butler, J. Michael + Straczynski. Memb: $25 until 2/15/93, $30 after (children under 12 + accompanied by parent - free). Info: Con-Dor, PO Box 15771, San Diego, + CA 92175. + +March 5-7, 1993 (Missouri) + + CONFLATION. Radisson, Clayton, MO. GoHs: Victor Milan, Mike Weaver. + Adults Only. Adults only convention. Memb: $15 until 1/15/93, $20 + after. Info: ConFlation, c/o Bibbi Wilt, 5138-B Old LeMay Ferry Rd., + Imperial MO 63052; (314)287-3825. + +March 5-7, 1993 (New York) + + ASTRONOMICON 2. Radisson Inn, Rochester, NY 14623; rms $60 sngl/dbl; + (716)475-1910. GoH: Michael Swanwick; AGoH: Phil Foglio; SGoH: The + Gunderson Corp.; guests: Nancy Kress, Nick Pollotta, John Allen Price, + Larry Stewart, Marcos Donnelly, S.M. Stirling, S.N. Lewitt. Memb: $20 + until 2/1/93, $25 after. Info: Rochester Fantasy Fans, P.O. Box 1701, + Rochester, NY 14603-1701; (716)342-4697; email: dmk (a t) mit.edu (David + Kushner). + +March 5-7, 1993 (Wisconsin) + + WISCON 17. Concourse Hotel, Madison, WI. GoH: Lois McMaster Bujold; + EGoH: Kristine Kathryn Rusch. SF convention; Tiptree Memorial Award + Ceremony. Memb: $18 until 2/21/93, $30 after. Info: Wiscon 17, Box + 1624, Madison WI 53701; (608)231-2324. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ===============R=A=V=E=S=============== +@@@@@@@~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~@@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@ @@@@@@ Sat Jan 30. Somewhere near Cincinnati.. +@@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ +@@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ Thome Tomato wants you to BOUNCE. +@@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ On the techno bouncing turntables: +@@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ Det: Boomer +@@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ Cin: DJ Daisy +@@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ Col: John D, Kevy Kev +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ + special guests djs from the MidWest +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ live - Cincinnati's Sonic +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ Columbus' Theory Collapse +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ This party will for the first time have +@@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ not one, but two moon bounces to rave +@@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ and ramble. Lighting by who-the-fuck- +@@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ cares-as-long-as-it's-trippy. Loops by +@@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ the Acid Minded Professor and Xeffects. +@@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ Smart bar by Jimmies Think Smart for +@@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ all those insomniak ravers. 40,000 +@@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ watts bass by Thundersound to shake the +@@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ building and your body. +@@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ +@@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ Sponsored by - +@@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ Bang Instant Rave Gear +@@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@~ ] @@@@@@ Wizards Records +@@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ Real Movies in Downtown +@@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ Call Jan 30 for directions to map point +@@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ Phone: 513-860-6039 +@@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~~~~~Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ --------------------------------------- +@@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ Feb 13 - Columbus OH - Temple of Noise +@@@@~~=~@@~ ~' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ +@@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ Industry Productions presents Temple of +@@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ Noise. A 7 hour continuous dance +@@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@| orgasm from 10pm to 5am. +@@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ 6 Intellibeams, 2 emulators,giant earth +@@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ quaking sound and mind numbing strobes. +@@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ From Pittsburgh: Dj Strobee +For hardcopy w/graphics, send SASE to:| Detroit: Boomer + | Columbus' best: Kevy Kev & Mike Leachio + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption | special guest: Cincy's Thome Tomato + PO Box 30904 | A 18 and over event. 21+ over full bar. + Raleigh, NC 27622 | Smart bar for smart people. + | +For ezine version, mail: | Info: 614-341-7345 + | + Slack@ncsu.edu to get on list |---------------------------------------- + quartz.rutgers.edu - back | + issues (128.6.60.6) |Atlanta Raves + | +--------------------------------------- 100 Monkeys - 95 Broad St, Atlanta. + Detroit parties: Raves every Friday, (404) 706-7626 for + info/directions. All ages and usually +February 12, 1993 inexpensive +Tentative show in Ann Arbor, MI +Sponsored by BMG & Jeffery 0, VOOM... Sun, Jan. 31 - Club-wide rave at the +DJs Stacey Pullen Masquerade with MOBY, PRODIGY, AND + D. Wynn CYBERTRONIC. $10.50 advance thru Ticket + Mike Huckaby master. On North Avenue. + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc015.txt b/religious documents/htomc015.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90c00a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc015.txt @@ -0,0 +1,490 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ Issue #15, Convention Time Again.. $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E + F R E E + For more info, send all your money to: F R E E + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + PO Box 30904 SLACK@ncsu.edu + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +** SPECIAL VULKON ISSUE ** + + Elements of the 29th Tactical Squadron of the Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + will be attending the Vulkon convention in Atlanta Ga. They may be easily + bribed with large sums of money, real estate, or hot steamy sex. Miracles, + dispensations, confessions, and financial advice may be obtained according + to your personal state of unworthiness, determined individually. + +"Bob" Sighting: + + Reported by A.J. Janschewitz : + + It seems that some misbegotten system administrator has gotten across the + fax-on-demand system at a Connecticut state government agency. If you call + 203-297-5698 from a fax machine and tone in 13013 after the recording begins, + you're prompted to start your fax machine, and after a cover sheet, a + Picture of the Piped One follows. + +New Comix: + + *** Death: The High Cost of Living 1 & 2 of 3 + Spin-off of Sandman, Death spends a day among the living. Maybe the reason + she looks like a 16-year old girl has something to do with the average age + of comic book buyers. Good story anyway. + + ** Ren & Stimpy in Space (#6) + Commander Hoek & Cadet Stimpy vs. The Croco-Men from Planet Zed. Nice + story, but I don't know how far they can go by reusing old gags from the + show. Let's see something original. Plus, ad-comic ratio is getting bad. + + ***** Cherry's Jubilee #2 + Cherry meets Russian underground classic Octobriana. Plus, Swede Racer, + Cherry in space, politics, and more. Great stuff. + + ***** Cry For Dawn vol. IX + Same great surreal comics, plus short stories, conspiracy theories, and + info from the Church of Dawn - videos, books and more available. + + *** The Mishkin File! + The story of the brilliant early animator Ted Mishkin, and the murals he + painted as part of his rehabilitation from neurosis. + + *** Simpsons #1 + More adventures of Bart and the other Simpsons. As twisted as the series, + the first story also contains veiled references to Ren & Stimpy debacle. + + **** The Hacker Files: Working-Class Hero 1 & 2 + Hacker helps refugees from Tienanmen Square massacre, and gets caught up + in more intrigue with Digitronix Corp. + +****************************************************************************** + + [Mysteries of the universe revealed in the + Asymptote of Absurdity graphic here + Reprinted from the Journal of Irreproducible Results] + + + I EAT MY OWN SHIT! I'm self substaining, self creating, half mutated +and built for speed! I fuck sheep and they LIKE it! "They" ripped my balls +off and I GREW EIGHT MORE, just to show 'em. I set my pubic hair on fire FOR +FUN! I'm indestructable, uncontrolable, excommunable, and completely +unspellable. My knees have fingers. I eat live camels. BEND OVER, peons, +because I may not need your worship, but you sure as HELL need mine. HUNGER +AND THIRST have no meaning for me. Godzilla stomps wine for me. Ten +thousand vampires sucked my blood while I sucked THEM! The government has +NO files on me, BUT IT USED TO! Drugs take ME! I'm the original hashish. +"Bob" stuck me in his pipe, and I blew _myself_ out his ass. I took Ringo +bowling and won 312 to 17. I COST LESS AND "WORK TWICE AS HARD"!! NOT +available in stores! + +anselm pepper called danburg@thor.stolaf.edu + danburgm@carleton.edu + +****************************************************************************** + +Now you've done it. You've goaded me into posting one of the short +stories I ghostwrote for the Church of the Subgenius(TM). It's about Zen. + +I'd like to point out that I in no way endorse the Church of the Subgenius(TM), +one of the most EVIL organizations in the world. J. R. "Bob" Dobbs is +the ANTICHRIST and MUST be DESTROYED. If you meet him on the road, kill +him, then kill yourself, then kill me. + +Everything in this story is true. + +================================================================== + + + Z E N A N D T H E A R T O F S L A C K + + by James "Kibo" Parry + (C) 1991 + +My mantra is "mantra, dammit". + As I sit here on my zafu (that's a Zen meditation pillow stuffed with +tofu), I reach satori even though I live downstairs from the demolition +derby rink. + I feel a oneness with the itch in my first chakra. I feel a oneness +with the Pet Rock I used to own. I feel a twoness with myself. +I realize that everything is either something or a hole in something. +Or, perhaps, everything is one big hole and the somethings are holes +within the hole. I shift my weight imperceptibly and the zafu makes a +fart noise. + Upstairs, two old Trans Ams, surplus from "Knight Rider", collide. + I can hear the sound of my blood moving through my inner ears. I +realize that everything which exists is made up of little dots arranged +in diagonal rows. A cockroach runs across the floor and into my zafu. + I realize that "Bob"'s teeth are clenched and his Pipe is not between +them. The teeth are joined and the Pipe ends in front of them. His nose +casts a shadow on the Pipe and the Pipe casts a shadow on his chin but +they do not touch. I have reached enfuckinglightenment! + As I nearly fall off my zafu, it farts again, blowing the cockroach +into the next room. + + There once was a novice monk named Bho Zho who asked the master, "Does +a house burn up or burn down?" + The master set fire to the novice's house, after taking all his money. + As the house burned both up and down, the novice was enlightened. + + I bow to the Sacred Halftone Print of "Bob" to thank him for the +enlightenment. As I do so, "Bob"'s face shimmers and blurs before my +face. All I see is the Dots but not the Smile. All I see is the Smile +without the Dots. I see both. I see neither. I see the hair of Desi +Arnaz, the eyes and mouth of Pee-wee Herman, the jaw of Jay Leno all +combined in a blender: "Bob". + "Bob" is before me and I am "Bob" and yesterday is tomorrow and I am +the walrus mama dada googoo chihuahuahuahua ommmmmmmmm + "Yo! Yo! Stop with the satori already!" "Bob" steps out of the +picture, slaps me, and pours himself a Dr Pepper. He sits on my zafu, +which makes a sound like a tuba. I sit on a tatami which is beginning +to sprout. "Bob" looks me in the eye. + "Cool it with the meditation, guy, it's dull. It's `Bosom Buddies' +without the laughtrack. It's the sound of one lip chapping. It's a +bicycle riding a fish, a steamroller being run over by a birthday cake. + It just doesn't compare to the fun stuff, especially sex." +I avoid meeting "Bob"'s gaze as I whisper, "He who claims someone does +not have Buddha-nature has no Buddha-nature." + "Hey, it's easier to say `Slack' than `Buddha-nature', you know. Or +`swellness'. They're all the same thing. You're on a true path to +enlightenment, but true paths have true dirt and true mosquitoes-false +paths are much better. Give me your money now." + "I have no money, just one zafu, one tatami, my oryoki, this setsu +stick, an inflatable Buddha, a tofu log, all three "Sweatin' to the +Oldies" tapes, a disposable zabuton, a pile of bulk miso, my +Zen-to-English dictionary." + "AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE!" "Bob" waggles his eyebrows and +smiles. "But seriously, pal, I'll take it all and pretend it's cash +equivalent. Hey, after I take your zafu, I'll even give you a receipt. +Get it? Re-seat!" + "Bob" packs all my worldly possessions into his seemingly bottomless +pockets and he leads me out of the monastery. Milliseconds later, a +black Trans Am falls through the ceiling, crashing right where we had +been sitting. It yells insults at us as we walk to the pebble garden. + + "This eggplant in my pocket is like an elephant," said Bhoddyohdor. + "Yet this elephant in my pocket is like a pair of wax lips," replied + Tai Dhee Bhoul. + Just then, Master Rhais Ahroni strolled past. "Tell us," begged + Bhoddyohdor and Tai Dhee Bhoul, "Is the eggplant like the elephant + which is like the wax lips, or should we just go watch sitcoms all + day?" + The master ate the eggplant, shot the elephant, and got germs on the + wax lips. The novices were not enlightened. The master laughed. + + "Bob" is using my rake to draw Snoopy in my pebble garden. "So, Kibo, +why the heck do you have all these pebbles filling up a perfectly good +wading pool?" + "Raking the pebbles is a task which accomplishes nothing. The goal is +to clear the mind by doing nothing." + "Um, hey, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't `doing nothing' doing +something? So by doing nothing, you're doing something, therefore +you're not accomplishing the nothing in the first place! You can't not +do anything." + He is clearly suffering from Bhudda called dhiarrhea of the mouth. I +say, "You have Bozo-nature." +"Of course. Because if I said I were not a bozo, I would be proving +myself to be a bozo! Now, are you a bozo?" + At that moment, the enlightenment clears from my mind and I devolve to +a lower plane of being. "Bob" congratulates me by giving me a wig like +his. We go out for a beer. + + "What is the meaning of this story?" asked the novice. "Also, what is + the sound of one hand clapping, and what's a zabuton? Why does Fox + cancel all its shows every season? And why the hell does your Pipe's + stem hover a quarter-inch in front of your mouth?" + "Slack," said the master. "Pure, unadulterated slack. But I lie." + At that moment, the novice's head exploded before he finished this sto + +-- +............................................................................. +James "Kibo" Parry kibo@world.std.com Independent graphic designer +271 Dartmouth St. #3D (specialty: logos & corporate +Boston, MA 02116 (617) 262-3922 identities) and type designer. + + [Comic strip here, not available in ASCII] + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + [MindFuck Collage #1: "TAMMY BAKKER: My hot tips for a heavenly marriage"] + + Sorry Pink Boy, not available in ASCII version. + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + Blatant Ad: + + BamaCon 7 + + March 18,19,20,21 1993 + Sheraton Capstone Inn and Bryant Conference center + Tuscaloosa, Alabama + + + Guests of Honor + Jonathan Frakes + (Cmdr. William T. Riker of Star Trek: The Next Generation) + + Hal Clement Brom and Stewart Wieck + (Still River, Mission of Gravity) (Dark Sun) (Pres./Editor White Wolf) + + Features + + Art show - A one week showing, no hanging fees + Movies - A movie festival with two rooms and + live shows around the clock + Gaming - Over 20 tournaments are planned, including + an AD&D Team Tournament with a $10,000 CASH + PRIZE!! Other prizes will also be awarded + Computer Room - 24 hour a day games + + Masquerade * Dealers Room * And More... + + For more information write to: + Bamacon 7 + PO Box 6542 University of Alabama + Tuscaloosa, AL 35486 + (205) 758-4577 + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + Yet Another Blatant Ad: + + Astronomicon 2 + Rochester's Science Fiction/Comics Convention + + March 5-7, 1993 + + The Radisson Inn, Rochester + 175 Jefferson Road, Rochester NY 14623 + (716) 475-1910- Room Rates: $60/day, S or D + + Guest of Honor: + + Michael Swanwick + 1992 Nebula Award for Best Novel + + Phil Foglio + Hugo Award-winning Artist + + Special Guests: + The Gunderson Corp. + Science Fictio Comedy Troupe + + + $25.00 per person Make Checks payable to & for more info: + at the door Rochester Fantasy Fans + PO Box 1701 + Rochester, NY 14603-1701 + (716) 342-4697 + +*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* + + + C O N V E N T I O N S + +March 4-7, 1993 (Connecticut) + + 1993 WORLD HORROR CONVENTION. Sheraton, Stamford, CT; rms $87 sngl/dbl. + GoHs: Peter Straub, Les Daniels; AGoHs: J.K. Potter, Stephen Gervais; + TM: Stanley Wiater. Memb: $75; $25 supporting. Info: World Horror + Convention 1993, Box 191, Andover CT 06232. + +March 5-7, 1993 (California, Southern) + + CON-DOR #1. Town & Country Inn, 500 Hotel Circle, San Diego, CA 92108; + rms $69 sngl/dbl; (619)291-7131. GoHs: Octavia Butler, J. Michael + Straczynski. Memb: $25 until 2/15/93, $30 after (children under 12 + accompanied by parent - free). Info: Con-Dor, PO Box 15771, San Diego, + CA 92175. + +March 5-7, 1993 (Missouri) + + CONFLATION. Radisson, Clayton, MO. GoHs: Victor Milan, Mike Weaver. + Adults Only. Adults only convention. Memb: $15 until 1/15/93, $20 + after. Info: ConFlation, c/o Bibbi Wilt, 5138-B Old LeMay Ferry Rd., + Imperial MO 63052; (314)287-3825. + +March 5-7, 1993 (New York) + + ASTRONOMICON 2. + +March 5-7, 1993 (Wisconsin) + + WISCON 17. Concourse Hotel, Madison, WI. GoH: Lois McMaster Bujold; + EGoH: Kristine Kathryn Rusch. SF convention; Tiptree Memorial Award + Ceremony. Memb: $18 until 2/21/93, $30 after. Info: Wiscon 17, Box + 1624, Madison WI 53701; (608)231-2324. + +March 5-7, 1993 (Canada, Nova Scotia) + + WOLFCON VI. Old Orchard Inn, Wolfville, NS, Canada. GoH: Gordon R. + Dickson. Memb: C$20 in advance, C$27 at door. Info: Wolfcon VI, Box + 796, Wolfville, NS, B0p 1X0, Canada. + +March 5-7, 1993 (England) + + TREK DWARF. Swallow Hotel, Peterborough, UK. GoH: TBA. Memb: (limited + to 500). Info: Trek Dwarf, 47 Marsham, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough PE2 + 5RN, UK; (073)391-1797. + +March 5-7, 1993 (England) + + MASQUE II. Birmingham, UK. British Costuming Convention. Memb: L20; + L7.50 supporting. Info: Maswue II, c/o Gytha North, 35 Iverley Road, + Halesowen, B63 3EP, UK. + +March 12-14, 1993 (Maryland) + + INTERCON VIII. Baltimore, MD. Live-action Role-playing Events + sponsored by the Interactive Literature Foundation. Memb: $30 until + 12/31/92, $35 until 3/1/93, $45 after (ILF members get $5 discount). + Info: Intercon VIII, Box 196, Merrifield, VA 22116-0196. + +March 12-14, 1993 (Canada, Alberta) + + S.T. CON 93. Ramada Hotel, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. GoHs: Ronald + Moore, Tanya Huff and Michelle Sagara. Memb: $25 until 3/11/93, $30 + after. Info: "S.T. CON," 44 Scenic Road NW, Cagary, Alberta T3L 1B9, + Canada; (403) 239-4207. + +March 17-21, 1993 (Florida) + + INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE FANTASTIC 14. Fort Lauderdale Airport + Hilton, Dania, FL. GoH: Ursula K. Le Guin. Memb: TBA. Info: IAFA, + College of Humanities, 500 NW 20th HU-50 B-9, Florida Atlantic U., Boca + Raton FL 33431; (717)532-1495. + +March 18-21, 1993 (Alabama) + + BAMACON 7. + +March 19-21, 1993 (Florida) + + CRACKERCON 2. Baymeadows Holiday Inn, Jacksonville, FL; rms $50; + (904)737-1700. GoH: Ben Bova; AGoH: Jeff Adams; SGoH: Walter Miller, + Jr.; MC: Rembert N. Parker. Memb: $20 until 2/15/93, more after. Info: + CrackerCon 2, Box 8356, Jacksonville FL 32239; (904)737-1700. + +March 19-21, 1993 (Kansas) + + NEOCON 4. Hilton East, Wichita KS. GoH: Wilson Tucker; AGoH: W.J. + Hodgson; FGoH: Jim Satterfield. Memb: $15 until 3/1/93, $18 after. + Info: NeoCon 4, Box 48431, Wichita KS 67201; (316)687-6424. + +March 19-21, 1993 (New York) + + LUNACON 36. Rye Town Hilton, 699 Westchester Avenue, Rye Brook, NY; + 1-914-939-6300; rms $83 singl/$89 dlb/ $98 trpl/quad. NY area + convention including Art Show, Dealers Room, Regency Dance, Masquerade, + Filing, Films, Videos, Panels, more. GoH: Orson Scott + Card; AGoH: Barclay Shaw; Pub. GoH: Richard Curtis; FGoH: Alexis + Gilliland. Memb: $25 until 2/20/93, $35 after (children 5 and younger + admitted free). Info: Lunacon 36, Box 338, New York, NY 10150-0338; + email 73766.267@compuserve.com. + +March 19-21, 1993 (Ohio) + + MILLENNICON -8. Stouffer's Center Plaza, Fifth & Jefferson St., Dayton + OH 45402; (513)224-0800; rms $65. GoH; Roger MacBride Allen; FGoH: Maia + Cowan. Memb: $20 until 2/1/93, $25 after. Info: Millennicon -8, Box + 636, Dayton OH 45405; (513)294-1997; email: usr6184a@cbos.uc.edu. + +March 25-28, 1993 (Washington) + + NORWESCON 16. Bellevue Red Lion, Bellevue WA; rms $72 sngl/dbl, $82 + tpl/quad. GoH: Betty Ballantine; AGoH: Janny Wurts; FGoH: Jane Hawkins; + SGoH: Anne McCaffrey; TM: Bonnie Baker. Memb: $35 until 3/1/93, $40 + after. Info: Norwescon 16, c/o NWSFS, PO Box 24207, Seattle, WA 98124; + (206)248-2010. + +March 26-28, 1993 (Iowa) + + DEMICON IV. Des Moines' Howard Johnson, Des Moines, IA. GoH: Mickey + Zucker Reichert; AGoH: Erin McKee; FGoH: Mark Moore; TM: Rusty Hevelin. + Memb: $17 until 3/1/93; $25 after. Info: Demicon 4, PO Box 7572, Des + Moines, IA 50322-7572; (515) 270-1312. + +March 26-28, 1993 (Tennessee) + + MIDSOUTHCON 12. Memphis Airport Hotel, (Airport exit off I-240 South + Loop) Memphis TN; rms $64 up to 4 people. GoH: Alan Dean Foster; AGoH: + Carl Lundgren; FGoH: Wilson Tucker. Memb: $25 until 3/1/93, $30 after + (children under 12 half-price). Info: MidSouthCon, Box 22749, Memphis + TN 38122; (901)274-7355. + +*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* + +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ HIGH WEIRDNESS BY EMAIL v2.1 +@@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@^ ~^ @ @@ @ @ @ I ~^@@@@@@ is now available! +@@@@@ ~ ~~ ~I @@@@@ +@@@@' ' _,w@< @@@@ The latest, updated High Weirdness By +@@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ Email, the world's best guide to all +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ the electronic strangeness you can +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ handle, including info on the movie: +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | ]@@@ "Wax, or The Discovery of Television +@@@@ ~_,,_ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ Among the Bees", is available at: +@@@@ _~ , , `@@@~ _ _`@ ]L J@@@ +@@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ slopoke.mlb.semi.harris.com, +@@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ /pub/incoming +@@@@@_|| @@@@@@P' @@P@@@@@@@@@@@[|c@@@@ red.css.itd.umich.edu, /incoming +@@@@@@w| '@@P~ P]@@@-~, ~Y@@^'],@@@@@@ somewhere on quartz.rutgers.edu +@@@@@@@[ _ _J@@Tk ]]@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@,@ @@, c,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ Files are: WEIRD2_1.DOC +@@@@@@@@@ i @w ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ WEIRD2_1.SUP +@@@@@@@@@@`,P~ _ ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ WAX +@@@@^^=^@@^ ^' ,ww,w@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@_xJ~ ~ , @@@@@@@P~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ ************ R A V E S **************** +@@ @, ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ saturday FEB 27 CINCINNATI SWITCH +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + | Featuring +For hardcopy w/graphics, send SASE to:| dj mike huckaby from detroit + | dj davy dave & hyperactive from chicago + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption | dj mind candy and daisy from cincinnati + PO Box 30904 | dj dieselboy from pittsburgh <--- ! + Raleigh, NC 27622 | + | Live PAs +For ezine version, mail: | body release from columbus <--- tsines! + | theory collapse from columbus + Slack@ncsu.edu to get on list | LUNIK from ne-raves + quartz.rutgers.edu - back | 513.557.3495 513.648.9647 614.299.9529 + issues (128.6.60.6) |----------------------------------------- + | saturday MAR 6 TORONTO KRYPTONITE +--------------------------------------| +MOONBASS ALPHA | brought to you by Genetix- 10 pm + (Unity & Diversity | Union Shuttle bus confirmed + ---- Welcome to Planet Rave) | 416.631.4927 +Nashville TN |----------------------------------------- +:::::::::::::::::::: | saturday MAR 13 TORONTO +Saturday March 6 ...... 9pm 'til 6am | +Anode & Bam! present: Moonbass Alpha | promoted by Pleasureforce +Command Control: Anode, Anastasia | 416.760.3232 +divine, Orange Julius Bass Command DJs|----------------------------------------- +Chip B, Bryan Meyer, Chek, Rick Phifer| saturday MAR 27 TORONTO PLANET X + | +Experience the ultimate in sci-fi | Brought to you by Insomnia +techno & tribal house as you go where | 416.322.4273 +no low frequency has gone before with |----------------------------------------- +50,000 watts of COSMIC SPACE BASS! | DETROIT: + | The Underground INFO LINE 313.927.DAM1 +Lunar illuminations with Intellabeams,| Detroits FREE weekly party location +loops & efx, lasers & strobes for a | information. Free to call - Free +visual enhancement of planetary pro- | Advertise - Free to keep in the know +portions! Full Smart Bar, free water | Preserved by the House Ink Company +and sweet treats to keep you in orbit |----------------------------------------- +'til dawn! |PITTSBURGH BOMB at RagTime Thursdays 8pm + | 2415 Forbes Ave +Spaced out costumes encouraged! | DJs: dieselBoy <---------- + | Soji-Fu +Admission $10 ... All Ages Welcome | Dr. Seuss +Call 615-780-3730) | spinning breakbeat, hardcore, trance + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc016.txt b/religious documents/htomc016.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f966b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc016.txt @@ -0,0 +1,635 @@ + + GET THE Department of the Conspiracy + CONSPIRACY Internal Revenue Service + YOU DESERVE + SEE PAGE 5 + $ $$$$ $$$$ $$$ + $$ $ $ $ $ $ $ + $ $$$$$ $$$$$ $$ + $ $ $ $$ + $ $$$$ $$$$ $$$$$ + + + What's Inside? + + No answers to frequently asked questions (page 5) + This is all a big mistake (page 70) + A note from the Communists (page 3) + Fast fucking (page 3) + Same old shit for 1993 (page 5) + Free tax confusion (page 6) + How to waste money on the government debt (page 8) + How to get more confusing forms (page 42) + Theft table (page 48) + Index (page 32763) + + + $ $$$ $ $$$ + $$ $ $ $$ $ $ + $ $ $ $ $ $ $ + $ $ $ $$$$$ $ $ + $ $$$ $ $$$ + + Forms and Instructions + + + Note: Kiss your hard-earned cash goodbye, suckers. We don't give a shit. + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + Internal Revenue Service Please use this Bulk Rate + P.O. Box 8905 label on your return Taxpayer Paid + Bloomington, IL 61702-8905 \/ IRS + ----------------------------- Permit No. X-69 + Official Business + Penalty for 1st Amendment, $500 + + + + .-------------------------------------------. + | ********** 5-DIGIT 27622 | + | FU 666-01-13013 333 X I | + | HOLY TEMPLE OF MASS CONSUMPTION R | + | PO BOX 30904 #16 S | + | RALEIGH NC 27622 | + `-------------------------------------------' + + Package 1040-1 + Cat. No. 12082Y + + +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + + THE IRS WANTS YOU + + +The story of the Internal Revenue Service is a history of a tax collection +agency drunk with power, ruthlessly smashing dissent among its own +personnel and brazenly roughing up taxpayers at will. The IRS defies and +intimidates its Congressional creatores to go virtually unchallenged in its +blatant illegal exercise of awesome powers against the American public. + +It should be remembered that our American system of constitutional free +enterprise is the envy of the people of the world. We love our country +and its traditions, but such love carries a responsibility to protect the +integrity of the system from the excessive use of power and abuse of +civil rights. + +Recent developments show the mechanics of our system to be dangerously "out +of sync", our oversized bureaucracy is sick, bloated with confiscated fruits +of the labor and the property of the people. The federal establishment is +slipping alarmingly close to totalitarianism. + +The violations of the rights of American people today by their own government +are ironically parallel to the injustices suffered by the Colonists in the +years preceding the Revolutionary War. + +The IRS has deserted its role as servant to the people. They have created +for themselves a new charter of nit-picking and captious regulations. It +has taken upon itself the role of master and intimidator of the public. As +one woman, who was waiting at the IRS accounting office, put it, "The IRS +is getting like the Gestapo was in Germany! When you hear their name, you +get scared." + +The people of this country are AFRAID; they are frightened by this runaway +arm of the government which has powers that no business or no other +government agency would dare claim or use. + +- Only the IRS can attach 100% of a tax debtor's wages and/or property +- Only the IRS can invade the privacy of a citizen without court process + of any kind +- Only the IRS can seize property without a court order +- Only the IRS can force a citizen to try his case in a special court + governed by the IRS +- Only the IRS can compel production of documents, records, and other + materials without a court case being in existence. +- Only the IRS can with impunity publish a citizen's debt to the IRS +- Only the IRS can legally, without a court order, subject citizens to + electronic surveillance. +- Only the IRS can force waiver of Statute of Limitation and other citizen + rights through power of arbitrary assessment. +- Only the IRS uses extralegal coercion. Threats to witnesses to examine + their taxes regularly produces whatever evidence the IRS dictates. +- Only the IRS is free to violate a written agreement with a citizen. +- Only the IRS uses reprisals against citizens and public officials alike. +- Only the IRS can take property on the basis of conjecture. +- Only the IRS is free to maintain lists of citizens guilty of no crime for + the purpose of harassing and monitoring them. +- Only the IRS envelops all citizens. +- Only the IRS publicly admits that its purpose is to instill fear into the + citizenry as a technique of performing its function. + +The citizens of the US are angry, because their constitutional and civil +rights are being ignored for the mere convenience of the tax collector. +They are outraged by an agency of government which tramples on the +Constitution in order to provice smooth sailing for the functionaries and +the henchmen of the IRS. + +The IRS is an extraordinary example of the end justifying the means. The +means of this agency is GROWTH. Like a fungus the IRS lives by growing, by +consuming, by expanding. And what it grows on is us. It is interesting that +the revenue officers within the IRS refer to taxpayers as "inventory"! + +There is only one justification or explanation for this incredible expansion +of the IRS into areas far removed from its legitimate duty as tax collector. +The IRS embodies the political realities of the selfish human desire to +dominate others. Thus, the end of this gigantic pretense of officialdom +is POWER, pure and simple. The meek may inherit the earth, but they will +never receive a promotion in an agency where efficiency is measured by the +number of seizures of taxpayer's property and by the number of citizens and +businesses driven into bankruptcy. + + +"What is the difference between a All the taxes paid over a lifetime by + taxidermist and a tax collector? the average American are spent by the +The taxidermist takes only your skin." government in less than a second. + [Mark Twain] + + +"Unquestionably, there is progress. Simplified 1040 + The average American now pays out + twice as much in taxes as he .-----------------------------------------. + formerly got in wages." |Latest Revision for: | + [H. L. Mencken] |1040 Federal Income 1992 | + | Tax Form 07 | + |=========================================| +"When Barbary Pirates demand a fee |Your Social Security # | - - | + for allowing you to do business, |-----------------------------------------| + it's called 'tribute money'. When | ///////////////| + the Mafia demands a fee for | Income | + allowing you to do business, it's |-----------------------------------------| + called 'the protection racket'. |1. How much money did you | | | + When the State demands a fee for | make last year?.......>| | | + allowing you to do business, it's |-----------------------------------------| + called 'sales tax'." | |//////|///////| + [Jeff Daiell] | | | | + |2. Send it in............>| | | + |-----------------------------------------| + "The average U.S. taxpayer is | |//////|///////| + proud to be paying taxes. Of `-----------------------------------------' + course, he could be just as + proud for half the money." + + +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + +WHAT THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING WITH YOUR STOLEN TAX MONEY: + +> At the end of this article I include a copy of Brian Davidson's two-year-old +> account of trouble on I-95 in Virginia. To it I'd like to add that for +> the past several years the Frederick County, MD police have had major drug +> checkpoints (many cruisers and officers) on I-270 after every DC-area +> Grateful Dead show. They stop you if you turn on your inside light, open a +> window, have a Dead sticker on your car, etc. etc. Basically anything you +> do short of looking middle-aged and conservative and driving with eyes to +> the fore and both hands on the wheel gets you stopped. +> +> Then they bring a drug dog to smell your car. In the spring of '90 an +> entirely sober nethead was stopped and had a bud in his pocket detected +> by the dog. His car was confiscated, and his two passengers were +> deposited on I-270 at 2AM. He went to jail. +> +> KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! You don't have to tell a police officer diddly. Ever! +> You can only get screwed by talking to the police. +> +> The proper answer to every question is, in your most polite but also +> deadly serious tone, "Officer, am I under arrest?" If yes, you ask +> to be allowed to contact an attorney. If no, you ask to be allowed +> to proceed. Under no circumstances (short of having his gun barrel in +> your mouth!) should you answer any question EVER! +> +> Obey direct commands regarding where and in what positions you and your +> belongings should be (remember: he has a gun!), but always make it clear +> that you do not "permit" him to do anything. If he asks you to step out +> of your car, roll up the windows and lock the car. Anything less can +> be interpreted as "permission" to search. + + From: davidson@mcnc.org (Brian Neal Davidson) + Subject: VA State police before RFK show + + At 11 am, myself and 2 of my friends were traveling up from Durham NC to see + the Dead in DC. At the toll booth in Petersburg we were approached by a few VA + state police officers who were asking people questions as they paid their + tolls. When we pulled up, they asked us where we were coming from and where + we were going. We told them we were going to DC and when the trooper asked + why, we told them we were visiting a friend and attending a concert. My + friend Jim, who was driving was as polite and helpful as possible. When the + trooper asked if we were going to the Dead show, Jim replied "yes" and we were + immediately told to pull the car over to the side of the road. + + During the next 20 minutes, we had our car, pockets, luggage and any and + every container opened and checked. The cop was rude and even though we + were very cooperative, he continued to be rude. No other cars were being + checked besides us, so it was obvious that they didn't like the looks of + us. Jim has a beard and ear ring, Mike has a pony tail and I'm overweight. + The fact that we were doing nothing illegal or carrying nothing illegal did + not ease us in knowing that we had been humiliated and our rights were + violated. We also got the feeling that they just wanted to have a reason to + put cuffs on us and take us away if we gave them any crap. + + The cop kept saying stuff to us like "you guys like the Grateful Dead, where + do you keep your drugs?" and "you better not have anything in here that + will cut me" (while he was going thru my toiletree bag). After we had been + humiliated and our stuff messed up, the cop didn't apologize or thank us + for our politeness, but said "I'll see you boys on the way back". + + I guess this experience has made me realize what people in countries like + South Africa and in Eastern Europe go through on a regular basis. There + was nothing "American" about the behavior of the VA state police. I can only + hope that the people of VA realize this and do something about it before more + people are violated and this country begins to resemble the countries of the + world that we commonly criticize for their treatment of their citizens. + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + + New Ultra-BOB + with NHGHOL + Now, there's a mind detergent + with built-in softener! + presents + + B O B ' S + B I G + B U F F A L O + B R A I N W A S H + B E N E F I T + + Buffalo, NY 31 March - 4 April 1993 + Proceeds to benefit Children's Hospital + + Wednesday 31 March 12 pm + Nietzche's + Standup Comedy featuring + Rev. Ivan Stang & magician extraordinaire Jeff MacBride + $3 + + Thursday & Friday 1-2 April + Rockwell Hall @ Buf. State + Magic performance by Jeff MacBride + Special Guest Rev. Ivan Stang + $12.50/$15 in advance + $15/$17.50 at the door + + Saturday 3 April 6-11 pm + Nietzche's + A BIG OL' SUBG DEVIVAL WITH BIG RED STRAPS + Music by John Bartles + Ranting by Rev. Ivan Stang + $5 in advance + $6 at the door + + Sunday 4 April 2 pm + The Curve, 132 Genesee Street + Brunch, featuring Stang baked in a manner previously unknown by him + Garnished with parsley and served with lemon sauce + $12 in advance + $15 at the door + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- +On Monday, 12 April 1993, the Florida Atlantic University Science-fiction +Troupe (FAUST) will be holding a special event so powerful that it will +MUTATE all in attendance: + + ATTACK FROM PLANET X + + Starring + + IVAN STANG + JANOR HYPERCLEATS + MARY SQUARED, AU CONTRAIRE + PAPA JO'MAMA + -and- + JACQUES TREATMENT + +with music, robots, and special effects by THE SPO-IT'S + +The event will take place at 8pm in Florida Atlantic University's +Gold Coast Room, $5 for students, $15 for non-students and will run +until 11pm, when all hell breaks loose! For directions and more +information, call Mike Marcus at (407) 852-7721 or e-mail michaelm@cse.fau.edu +GET HERE OR DIE TRYING!!! + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption PO Box 30904 + Raleigh, NC 27622 +NEWS since last time: slack@ncsu.edu + + HToMC will be at the Magnum Opus Con VIII (MOC) in Greenville SC on April 1-4. + Look for copies of HToMC and Hugo Speaks at the zine tables there. Retort + of the month: MGC display on the NCSU brickyard that some pink scrawled + "faggot" on; written reply: "No, MGC isn't gay, we're just dogging your mom." + +DOBBS SIGHTINGS: + + Watch MTV's show "Sex in the 90s" for the fighting Barbie dolls segment + from the official church MTV commercial. Note the Dobbshead on the wall. + +STANG SEZ: + + Pink alert: Boycott the Canadian "Bob's Media Ecology" people, who are + nothing but a RIP-OFF. Not only that, they are now claiming that THEY + are the ones who created the whole SubGenius thing, and that the 100s and + 1000s of REAL MUTANTS out here are the ones ripping *them* off. They ONLY + reason they're doing this is because they know that we're too broke to + take them to court. + + Also, try to make it to the Devivals. Or kill me. + +COMIX worth checking out: + +**** Cherry #14 - Contains the origin of Cherry; by going back in time, she + finds out the nature of her own conception. Now published by Kitchen + Sink Press, No. 2 Swamp Road, Princeton WI 54968 + +**** Savage Henry #25 - Battlin' Bambies - Henry and Caroline go on the + offensive, restoring Bobbie's financial empire by defeating 2 of the 3 + Bambi bodyguard clones. Rip Off Press, PO Box 4686, Auburn CA 95604 + +*** Death: The High Cost of Living part 3 - Fairly uneventful, but nicely + surrealistic ending to Death's day among the living. Vertigo/DC Comics + +**** The Hacker Files #9 - Working Class Hero 3.0 - Hacker & Yoshio break into + a slave-labor computer factory in Shanghai. DC Comics + +** Ren & Stimpy #6 - Even the appearance of Spiderman, milked for all its + worth R&S style, can't make up for the lack of *new* bizarreness. For the + second month in a row, this comic slips a notch. Marvel Comics. + +***** The Adventures of Fat Freddy's Cat #7 - New, great stories about the +house cat of the Freak Brothers. Consistently twisted. Rip Off Press. + +***** [What Lurks on] Channel X - Dripping with SLACK, this is by far the + best comic out this month. Comic/weird art barrage with "Those Ever Popular + Torqued-Out Maniacs" and other GREAT stuff by Starlen Baxter. Check out + collage in the middle. Iconographix, 621-B S. Main St. Plymouth MI 48170 + +**** Zippy Quarterly #1, "Anarchy in Absurdistan" - Although this collection + tends to be somewhat self-indulgent, it remains a consistently good demon- + stration of the Zen of Stupidity. Fantagraphics Books. + +****** MUST GET ***** + +Compendium Comix Anthology - Over 250 pages of work by tons of alternative +artists including Ace Backwords, Roy Tompkins, Julie Doucet, and many more. +100% Dobbs-Approved, includes many shorts with the Saint of Sales himself. +This is an utterly mind-blowing collection guaranteed to advance all +readers to the next level of mutatin. Mangajin Books, Box 489, Stn. P, +Toronto, Ontario M5S 2T1, Canada. Get this before the censors wise up. + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + + [Ren & Stimpy picture here] + + +I wake up and there's a map in my pocket, folded small like a paperback, +but not so thick. I unfold it and it's a map of a test site of some +kind. I look down, the sand is glass under my feet. I look up, the sky +is pale powder blue. There's some buildings off to my left. Glass crunching +under my feet, I head that way. + +The house is deserted. Weird, the windows and doors are intact. The siding +looks a little worn, but the electric light near the door is on. When I +reach for the door it opens on its own accord and I walk in. + +The living room (first thing after the door) is a little dusty, but +everything looks like it's holding up all right. A newspaper sits crumpled +like a badly pitched tent. I pick it up, and see it's from a couple weeks +ago. Before things began getting weird. I sit down in the overstuffed +chair and flip though the pages. I'm reading the funnies when I hear footsteps +from what looks like the kitchen. + +It's a man smoking a pipe and wearing a broad brimmed hat. He's almost +worryingly thin, but there's no weakness in him. He looks worried about +something, but it's apparently not a single worry. He walks into the +living room and turns on the radio. A Talking Heads song is playing, +a little staticky, but coming though ok. I thank god he's tuned to +an AOR station. He walks around the living room twice before addressing me. + +"There's a reason you showed up here, son. You know that." + +"I had a hunch," I say, trying to look cool, not looking up from the +paper. + +"There's a box for you over there." He says. I have to look up from the +paper to see where he's gesturing. The box is wrapped with tape, and +looks like something you'd get from UPS. It's addressed to me, c/o this +house (I run outside to check the address. Yes, this is the address on +the package.). I find a pocket knife and cut away the tape. More than +a little anxious now, I almost shred the lid trying to get it off. + +There's two packs of gum, an easter card, a cassette tape and player, +several pieces of loose paper, a t-shirt, a pair of large gumboots, +a small pouch with some rocks in it, and a note. + +"What am I supposed to do with all this?" I ask the man. + +He looks down at me, and doesn't say a damn thing. + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + + C O N V E N T I O N S + + +April 1-4, 1993 (South Carolina) <--- HToMC !!! Masssive partycon!!! + + MAGNUM OPUS CON 8. Hyatt, Greenville, S.C. Guests: Ben Bova, Melanie + Rawn, Robert Asprin, C.J. Cherryh, Jane Fancher, Brad Strickland. Info: + MOC 8, PO Box 6585, Athens, GA 30604; (404)549-1533. + +April 2-4, 1993 (Mississippi) + + COASTCON 16. Holiday Inn Express, Biloxi MS; rms $51. GoHs: Timothy + Zahn; FGoH: Lawrence Watt-Evans; AGoH: Keith Parkinson; Gaming GoH: + Michael Stackpole; TM: Andrew Offutt. Memb: $20 until 3/1/93, $25 + after. Info: Coastcon 16, Box 1423, Biloxi MS 39533-1423; + (601)864-6064. + +April 2-4, 1993 (Nevada) + + SILVERCON. Aladdin Hotel, Las Vegas, NV; rms $45 sngl, $60 dbl. + Guests: Poul Anderson, Julia Ecklar, William Rotsler, more. Memb: $25. + Info: Silvercon 2, Box 95941, Las Vegas NV 89193. + +April 8-12, 1993 (Australia, Western) + + SWANCON 18. Ascot Inn, Perth, Australia. GoH: Terry Pratchett; FGoH: + Craig Hilton. Australian National Con. Theme: Apocalypse. Memb: A$50; + A$20 supporting. Info: Swancon 18, Box 318, Nedlands 6009, Australia. + +April 8-12, 1993 (England) + + HELICON/EASTERCON '93. Hotel de France, St. Helier, Jersey, (Channel + Islands) UK; rms L32 sngl, L25 per person dbl (includes buffet + breakfast). GoHs: John Brunner, George R.R. Martin; FGoH: Larry van der + Putte. Memb: L28/US$60 until 4/1/93; L13/US$26 supporting. Info: + Eastercon '93, c/o 63 Drake Rd., Chessington, Surrey KT9 1LQ, UK. + +April 9-11, 1993 (Maryland) + + BALTICON 27. Marriott Hunt Valley Inn, Hunt Valley, MD; (410)785-7000; + rms $78. GoH: Allen Steele; AGoH: Don Maitz; Filk GoH: Leslie Fish. + Memb: $25 until 3/13/92, $35 after (children under 6 free, children 6-12 + half-price; babysitting available if arranged in advance). Info: + Balticon 27, Box 686, Baltimore MD 21203-0686; email: + bsfs@access.digex.com or 76130.1401@compuserve.com. + +April 9-11, 1993 (Minnesota) + + MINICON 28. Radisson Hotel South & Plaza Tower, 7800 Normandale + Boulevard, Bloomington, MN 55439-3145; rms $48 sngl/dbl/tpl/quad, $49 + Cabana, $99 one-bedroom suite, $139 two-bedroom suite; (612)835-7800. + EGoH: Susan Allison; SGoH: Don Fitch; other Guests: TBA. Memb: $20 + until 2/28/93, $50 after (children under 12 $10); $5 supporting. Info: + Minicon 28, P.O. Box 8297, Lake Street Station, Minneapolis, MN 55408; + (612)338-4728. + +April 10-12, 1993 (Virginia) + + TECHNICON 10. Donaldson Brown Center for Continuing Education, + Blacksburg, VA; rms $46 sngl/$54 dbl. GoHs: TBA; FGoH; Scott Quirk. + Memb: $22 until 4/1/93, $24 after (discount for students). Info: + Technicon 10, c/o VTSFFC, P.O. Box 256, Blacksburg VA 24063; (703) 952-0572. + +April 15-19, 1993 (Montana) + + MISCON VIII. Village Red Lion, Missoula MT; rms $55 sngl/$65 dbl. GoH: + David Brin; AGoH: Mary Hanson-Roberts; SGoH: Ben Dunn. Memb: TBA. + Info: Miscon, P.O. Box 9363, Missoula MY 59807. + +April 16-18, 1993 (Georgia) + + PHOENIXCON 8. Sheraton Century Center Hotel, Atlanta, GA; rms $65; + (404)325-0000. GoH: Lois McMaster Bujold; AGoH: Darryl Elliot; SGoHs: + Allen Steele, Tom Deitz; TM: Thomas Fuller; FGoH: Ed Kramer. Memb: $20 + until 1/17/93, $25 until 4/1/93, $30 after. Info: Phoenixcon 8, PO Box + 1513, Smyrna, Georgia 30081-1513; (404)578-8461 (Mike Dillson or Zanny + Leach). + +April 16-18, 1993 (Louisiana) + + 1993 Nebula Awards Weekend. Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, New Orleans, LA. + Info: Chuq Von Rospach, Nebula Awards Administrator, 35111-F Newark + Blvd., Suite 255, Newark CA 94560; (510)948-5394. + +April 16-18, 1993 (New York) + + I-CON XII. SUNY, Stony Brook, Long Island, NY. Guests: Gregory + Benford, Edward Bryant, Craig Shaw Gardner. Memb: TBA. Info: I-Con + XII, P.O. Box 550, Stony Brook, NY 11790. + +April 16-19, 1993 (New York) + + NOCON. Summit Motor Inn, Niagara Falls NY; rms $48 sngl/$55 dbl. GoH: + Michelle Sagara. First annual NFSFA Relaxacon. Memb: $16 in advance, + $20 at door. Info: NFSFA, Box 500, Bridge Station, Niagara Falls NY + 14305. + +April 16-18, 1993 (Texas) + + CON-TROLL. Airport Hilton, 500 E N Belt, Houston, TX 77060; rms $65; + 1-800-445-8667. GoHs: Larry Niven, Steven Barnes; Gaming GoH: Ed + Greenwood; AGoH: Dell Harris; Filk GoH: Judy Dugas; SGoH: Robert Neagle. + Memb: $20 until 1/15/93, $22 until 4/1/93, $25 after (children under 5 - + free, "kid in tow" half-price). Info: Con-Troll, P.O. Box 740969-1025, + Houston, TX 77274. + +April 16-18, 1993 (England) + + SMOFCON 10. Hotel de France, St. Helier, Jersey; rms L32 sngl, L25 per + person dbl (includes buffet breakfast). First European venue for the + convention geared toward organizers of conventions. Memb: L20/US$35 (L2 + or $5 discount for Helicon members); L10/US$20 supporting. Info: UK + address: Smofcon 10, c/o 63 Drake Rd., Chessington, Surrey KT9 1LQ, UK; + US address: Smofcon 10, PO Box 453, Needham MA 02194-004; email: + timill@cix.compulink.co.uk. + +April 23-25, 1993 (Ohio) + + MARCON 28. Hyatt Regency at the Ohio Center, Columbus, Ohio; rms $82. + Guests: Mike Resnick, Jane Yolen, Lois McMaster Bujold, Julius Schwartz, + more. Memb: $25 until 3/15/93, $28 after (children $20). Info: Marcon + 28, P.O. Box 211101, Columbus, OH 43211; (614)451-3154. + +April 24-25, 1993 (Idaho) + + BOISE FANTASY ARTS CONVENTION. Holiday Inn, Boise, ID. Guests: TBA. + Memb: $19 until 4/15/93, $22 after; $6 supporting. Info: Boise Fantasy + Arts Convention, P.O. Box 8602, Boise ID 83702. + +April 30 - May 2, 1993 (Arkansas) + + ROC-KON 17. Little Rock, AR. GoH: Suzette Haden Elgin; AGoH: Mary + Hanson-Roberts; FGoHs: Greg and Angela Bridges. Memb: $15 until + 4/16/93, $20 after. Info: Roc-Kon 17, P.O. Box 24285, Little Rock AR 72221. + +*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* + +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ ************ R A V E S **************** +@@@@@@^ ~^ @ @@ @ @ @ I ~^@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@@ ~ ~~ ~I @@@@@ Sat Mar 27 FELICITY'S BLISS Cleveland +@@@@' ' _,w@< @@@@ DJ's rob sherwood kevy kev +@@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ mike filly dieselBoy +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ PA body release +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | ]@@@ 11pm to ? * all ages * location TBA +@@@@ ~_,,_ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ call:216 491 4554 for info and location +@@@@ _~ , , `@@@~ _ _`@ ]L J@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ Sat Mar 27 ASCENSION Milwaukee +@@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ Drop Bass Network invite you to +@@@@@_|| @@@@@@P' @@P@@@@@@@@@@@[|c@@@@ rise up and dance on the "Grave of Rave" +@@@@@@w| '@@P~ P]@@@-~, ~Y@@^'],@@@@@@ LIVE PERFORMANCE BY: M O B Y +@@@@@@@[ _ _J@@Tk ]]@@@@@@ Starts 9pm Info: 414.256.1733 +@@@@@@@@,@ @@, c,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ Also 708.786.3923 608.258.0003 +@@@@@@@@@ i @w ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@@@@@@@`,P~ _ ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ Sat Mar 27 PLANET X Toronto +@@@@^^=^@@^ ^' ,ww,w@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Brought to you by Insomnia 416.322.4273 +@@@_xJ~ ~ , @@@@@@@P~_@@@@@@@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@ @, ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Sat Mar 27 LUNACY St. Louis +@@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ GOOD News line: (314)230-2378 +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Tix at: UltraSonic - 436.8912 + | West End Wax - 367.0111 +For hardcopy w/graphics, send SASE to:|---------------------------------------- + | Fri Apr 2 MUTATION Pittsburgh + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption | 100% legal location on the CMU campus + PO Box 30904 | $3 10:30pm - 4:00am + Raleigh, NC 27622 |---------------------------------------- + | Sat Apr 3 Wilmington, NC +For ezine version, mail: | Club Metropolis + | Info: (919) 274-8442 or 574-1812 + Slack@ncsu.edu to get on list |---------------------------------------- + quartz.rutgers.edu - back | Sat Apr 3 (E)CCENTRIC Louisville KY + issues (128.6.60.6) | DJ BOB A DOB & RAVE ON want you to get.. + | starring THE MWST'S MOST E-CCENTRIC DJ'S +This document will be surreptitiously | BOB-A-DOB cinci +uploaded to the hard disks of all | DJ JONDY columbus +Prodigy users. | DAVID "d-bass" HOLLANDS indy +--------------------------------------| MIKE "serious" TATAY indy +Sat Apr 3 PSYCHOSIS Chicago | RICK PHIFER nashville + The Exploding Galaxy Continues... | + special guests + live performance Psychic TV | 20,000 watts by THUNDERSOUND + Hard Acid Rock: dj docktor megatrip | x-traordinary lights by TECHNICOLOR + richie hawtin,mistressmix,hyperactive| GET SMART smart bar BOiNK? rave gear + Groove Tunnels: remould, markie mark | LOCATION INFO: + mystic bill (fly records) | cinci YUMYUM line 513.648.9647 + Massive Junglism: maddgroove, smack | lousiville 502.635.1913 + Motherboard: 10W argon/7W kryton H2O | indy 317.288.MARS + cooled lasers, hyperdelic video | TIX APRIL 2ND- 4-8PM 3RD - 10AM-8PM + (Tokyo/San Francisco), 4 block PA | BASEMENT at BETTERDAYS RECORDS + love and energy level [up arrow] | 1591 BARDSTOWN ROAD + large inflatables, full smart mart |---------------------------------------- +"Step into the future and join the | Sun Apr 11 SOUND OFF Columbus +family plan as the joy project grows. | PAs by body release, nevermor, 10 +Uniting new and old friends creating a| speed guillotine, and theory collapse +nation of organizers which will not | at club 1215 in columbus oh. +tolerate discrimination against sex or| info: tsines@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu +race.....one world our future." |---------------------------------------- +Sponsored/Supported by: ripe, drop | Sat Apr 24 CULTURE SHOCK Bloomington + bass, incredibeets, transmedia, | WIUS radio station benefit. in a large + crisp, carpe-noctem | meadow with body release and other +312.509.2963|708.786.3923|414.256.1733| types of performers, artists, etc. +219.873.1115|608.258.0003|314.963.4667| info: tsines@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc017.txt b/religious documents/htomc017.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2628564 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc017.txt @@ -0,0 +1,773 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ Issue #17: David Koresh is "Bob" $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E +Holy Temple of Mass Consumption F R E E +PO Box 30904 SLACK@ncsu.edu +Raleigh, NC 27622 StarFleet BBS (919) 782-3095 + +NEWS since the last time: + + SUCCESSFUL gut blow-out at the Jonestown (After Dark) party in Room 773 + at the Magnum Opus Convention. Easily the most slack-filled place on the + North American continent while it lasted, with special "potion", go-go + dancers, and the TWISTER TOURNAMENT, with enough Euro-trash gothic industrial + muzak to peel the paint off the walls. The punch was NOT spiked with codeine, + as verified by local police, but guests grew 2-7 extra appendages. + +COMIX to Want and Buy: + +**** The Hacker Files - Working-Class Hero (4.0) Hacker & Yoshio uncover +the evil conspiracy, and escape from the Chinese factory. +DC Comics 1325 Avenue of the America NY NY 10019 + +*** Yummy Fur #30 - Fuck, The Conclusion - Chester's mom dies in a mental +institution, plus encounters with the kleptomaniac girl. Drawn & Quarterly +Publications, 5550 Jeanne-Mance St. #16 Montreal, Quebec H2V-4K6 Canada + +*** Richard Speck: The Unauthorized Biography of a Serial Killer +An uncompromising look into the life of the miserable screw-up who murdered +8 student nurses one night in the summer of 1966 in Chicago. +Boneyard Press, 22 E. Chalmers, Champaign, IL 61820 + +***** Jeffrey Dahmer: The Unauthorized Biography of a Serial Killer +Factual account of Jeffrey Dahmer's gruesome campaign of death and cannibalism. +Although it contains no more info than court testimony and police reports, PLUS +the way it was intentionally presented so as not to offend anyone, without +condoning Dahmer in any way whatsoever, many people got upset *just because +it happens to be in comic book format*, without even reading it. It lead to a +protest march against Hart D. Fisher, Boneyard Press publisher, last June +13th. THIS BOOK IS NOW BANNED IN WISCONSIN due to court battles. Get it. + +**** The further adventures of Young Jeffy Dahmer, w/guest Young Dan Quayle +Due to the outrageous media farce over the original Dahmer comic, the Boneyard +Press guys have been unjustly labelled as Bad Guys. They've decided to play +it to the hilt, to show precisely what "offensive" REALLY is. This is the +first in a series to prove that NOBODY can take away their first amendment +rights in the guise of "good taste". Look for Jeff Dahmer vs. _____ +Boneyard Press, 22 E. Chalmers, Champaign, IL 61820 + +1st Amendment-destroying lawyer who would just LOVE to hear from you: + Thomas Jacobson Suite 1110, 100 East Wisconsin Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53202. + +^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V + +*** The Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft: The Music of Erich Zann - new set of comics +based on Lovecraft stories. This one does an adequate job, plus some bio +info on HPL. Caliber Press, 621-B S. Main St. Plymouth MI 48170 + +** Ren & Stimpy #7 - Stimpy trains and fights a boxing match, plus in a +continuation of the "Shaven Yak" gag, a telethon for prepubescent yaks. +Not much new- unfortunately, the comic is becoming like the post-John K. show. + +*** Psycho Killers: Human Vampyre special - true cases of psycho killers who +not only kill but drink the blood of their victims. THIS IS NOT FICTION! +Apparently AIDS doesn't bother you once you're that far gone. Comic Zone +Productions, Rt. 73 & Taunton Ave. Berlin NJ 08009 + +**** Griffith Observatory - Classic strips by Bill Griffith from 1977-80, in +the pre-Zippy era, plus 16 previously uncollected pages. Griffy moves into +an old observatory, and turns the telescope on the town, in what turns out +to be a scathing analysis of late 70s culture. Fantagraphics Books + +>>>> Cinefantastique - Interview with John Kricfalusi, unjustly fired <<<< +>>>> creator of Ren & Stimpy, talks about the show and upcoming projects <<<< + +ALSO NEW: + + Prometheus Books - Spring/Summer 1993 catalog is now available. Don't + leave home without a good reality check from their huge selection. + 59 John Glenn Drive, Buffalo, NY 14228-2197 1-800-421-0351 (24 hours) + + BOREDOM INC. 884 South 630 West Alpine, UT 84004 - Info on the + manifestation of bulldada via computer. A software company which creates + totally useless software for no apparent reason. They actually distribute + it too, via their BBS at (801) 226-8310. Plus, lots of other neat things + in their newsletter. A must for anyone who does any computing at all. + +CONCERTS: Don't miss these groups who are currently on the road: + King Missle (allegedly a SubGenius band) on the Mystical Shit tour, + Blue Oyster Cult - played Raleigh on 4/24, still GREAT! + +------------------------------------------------------ + + "David Koresh had warned + that anybody trying to harm + him would be "devoured by + fire." In the end, it was he + who died in the flames." + +Or so the Conspiracy Media tells us. [Picture showing how +What precisely was the nature of the Koresh made his escape] +meeting between J.R. "Bob" Dobbs and +David Koresh 2 years ago? Despite +unofficial spottings of Koresh at a +7-11 in Minnesota, rumors abound that +the compound in Waco Texas was merely +a training exercise for Koresh, who +has been appointed the new Security +Chief for the Dobbstown Compound. + +****************************************************************************** + +Did you hear about the new ice cream from Waco? + +It's called Mount Caramel but it has a few problems. +You have to melt it to get the nuts out. + +---------- + +Have you heard that David Koresh will soon be the + "poster boy" for the American Lung Association? +He finally quit smoking. + +Hey, did you hear Jeffrey Dahmer added a new item + to his favorite foods? +Koresh Kabob..... + +---------- + +What Does WACO stand for? + + 1. We Ain't Comin' Out + 2. We All Cremated Ourselves + 3. What a cook out! + 4 We're A Combustible Organization + +Q: What are they gonna call the TV Miniseries about David Koresh? +A: "A Match Made in Heaven" + +Q: What kind of pants do Branch Davidian's wear? +A: Charred-Ash Jeans + + +What were David KorASH's Last Words? + "No, Bud Light!" + "Just kidding, I'm not really God." + + +Q: What do David KorASH and Burger King Whopper have in common? +A: They are both flame broiled. + + +Q: Why is David KorASH still in the news? +A: Because of his smouldering personality. + +Q: What do David KorASH and Richard Simmons have in common? +A: They are both flamers. + +Q: Why did KorASH like the Brach Davidians? +A: Because they were such a bright group. + + +Q: When did the FBI get what they wanted? +A: When KorASH finally went out. + + +What is KorASH wearing right now? + + His best Sunday soot. + Charcoal slacks. + A smoking jacket. + + +Q: What do you call Asian Branch-Davidians? +A: Rice Crispies. + +Q: Which Simpsons character is most like David Koresh? +A: Mr. Burns + +Q: Why didn't KorASH surrender to the FBI? +A1: He didn't want to be grilled by authorities. +A2: He didn't want the FBI to give him the 10th degree. + +Q: How is the Hindenburg like Waco, TX? +A: Both have flammable compounds in them. + +Q: Why did David KorASH have so many wives? +A: They made excellent matches. + + +David KorASH Favorites: + +SONG: + + Light My Fire + I'm Burning Up + Great Balls of Fire + Eternal Flame + Hot in the City + You Light Up My Life + Blaze of Glory + Disco Inferno + Smoke Gets in Your Eyes + Burning Down the House + +MOVIES: + + Fareignheit 451 + Towering Inferno + Last of the Red Hot Lovers + Turk 182 + Backdraft + Firestarter + +MUSICIANS: + + Charo + +ATHELETES: + + Arther Ashe + +HOLIDAYS: + + Ash Wednesday + +---------------- + +The F.B.I. was looking through the remains of the Koresh's compound and found +his wardobe from the early seventies. + +A Blazer and Flared pants. + +---------------- + +>BATF: +>Barely +>Adequate +>Totally +>Fucked + +Bureau of +Assasination +Terrorism and +Fuckups + +---------------- + +There's a new resturant opening up in Waco: KFC. Koresh's Fried Christians. + +---------------- + +Q: How do you tell the Branch Davidians at a revival meeting? +A: They're the ones smoking in the corner! + +Q: Why did David Koresh's last manager like him so much? +A: He was a real self-starter! + +Did you hear who just stopped smoking? +David Koresh. + +What's the saddest thing about the Waco tragedy? +Rosanne Barr and Tom Arnold weren't inside the compound. + +How does Koresh like his chicken? +Extra crispy. + +Why did Koresh burn down the complex? +He was keeping up with the Joneses. + +What did God say to Koresh when he died? +"Well done." + +How do you pick up a Davidian girl? +With a Dust-Buster. + +Nobody was allowed to quit the Branch Davidians: +They were all fired. + +Q: Who cried the most after all the Waco cultists died? +A: The prospective lawyers! + +Q: Did you hear that Kraft has brought out a new salad dressing? +A: It's called Ranch Dividian, and it won't come out no matter how hard + you shake it. + +------ + +Did you hear what they were changing the name of WACO to. + + Corpus Crispy. + +------ + +The smoke was black, so David Koresh didn't get to be Pope. +But he did get to be a Frier. + +------ + +Q. What was David Koresh's last supper? +A. Flaming-young. + +What do you call a Branch Davidian with a fire extinguisher? +A heretic. + +What do you call a Scientologist with a flamethrower? +A copycat. + +------- + +Q: Why did the compound in Waco burn to the ground? +A: They couldn't put out the fire with their Kool Aid. (tm) + +Did you hear that David Koresh was a closeted gay? +He was flaming, but he didn't come out. + +Q: Why don't we have more prophets like David Koresh? +A: It's such a high stress job that burnout is almost inevitable. + +-------- + +The events in Waco could have been foreseen, had anyone in the FBI +understood that David Koresh was encapsulating Jewish history. + +First they re-enacted Passover, then there was the re-enactment of the +Warsaw ghetto uprising. + +--------- + +The Branch Davidian Church has split into two sects: +Orthodox and Extra-Crispy. + +NBC found a sponsor for the David Koresh mini-series: +Weber Barbecues, Inc. + +Q: What was the most popular name for Branch Davidian children? +A: Ashley. + +Q: How can we avoid future tragedies like the Waco conflagration? +A: Strict OSHA standards requring automatic sprinkler systems for +all cult compounds that accomodate 50 or more fanatics. + +Q: What was David Koresh's favorite breakfast cereal? +A: Crispy Critters! + +Q: How is Waco like a Snickers bar? +A: Roasted nuts. + +After the tragedy at Mt. Carmel on Monday, the Branch Davidians +will be holding a bar-b-que to attract new members. + +Q: How did David Koresh find out he was Jesus Christ? +A: God spoke to him through a burning building. + +What do you get when you cross David Koresh & Jeffrey Dahmer? +Brunch Davidian (barbeque naturally). + +Q: Why is Al Gore so upset with the Branch Davidians? +A: Because of their contribution to global warming. + +Q: Did you hear that David Koresh lost his job as the second messiah? +A: He got fired. + +Q: Did you hear about the tragedy at Waco? +A: Evidently an NBC News crew was trying to move in for a close-up... + +Q: Did you know that Ranch Apocalypse had an Internet connection? +A: Yes, and Koresh's last news post started: "Feel free to flame me, but..." + +I was just wondering, is it ethical to yell ``Branch Davidian'' in a +crowded movie theatre? + +**************************************************************************** + + + Posessed, as I am, by the FIRES of enLIGHTenment, I must Proclaim unto + the Five Corners of the Firmament, the Limbic Storm Intensity REVELATION + that I just experienced while doing the dishes. WAAAAAAA...HOOOOOOOO!!!! I + Shout it from the Rooftops, Scream it from the Ladders, Yell it at the Top + of my Lungs while I'm in the back seat of the Holy Police Squad car, and + Whisper it to my cellmates while I await my arraignment! SCREW my + Arraignment! This is my Enlightenment! + I tell you know of the Three Part Partial Cosmology of the + Philosopher-King. I say Three-Part because that's how many parts I know of + through the Crystal Diamond Bolt of Zero-sum Knowledge placed in my skull + by the _Object from Space_! I say partial because I'm sure there's more, + and I'll learn about THEM once I gt my head screwed into the fundaMENtal + truths of the Three Part Cosmology. I say Cosmology because THESE FORCES + RULE the UNIVERSE, or at least this particularly deranged part of it. + Here are the Three Parts, that which once reigned over even "BOB," but + now vie with him for Power and Dominion. They are: the Object from Space, + the Communist Munchkins from the Center of the Earth, and the Fungi from + Yoggoth! Eah has his role unto the Cosmos, and each shall be described upon + this BBS. Yes, the Revelation is here-- through the beneficience of the + Object from Space, flawlessly uploaded thanks to the benevolence of the + Communist Munchkins, and posted even while under the watchful Purple Gaze + of the Fungi from Yoggoth. + So okay, it's still dropping letters when it word-wraps. The Munchkins + aren't that slack. + The Object from Space is that being which bestows madness upon a + select few. The Object is clearly above constraints of good or bad, + because, although many receive madness, some go bad, others go good. Mass + murderers are the unlucky victims of the Object's Bad Karma. (Well, okay, + their victims have it worse.) Those killers who talk or write strangely, + like Manson or Jack the Ripper, are obviously touched by the fickle finger + of the Object. There is a sick wisdom that may be gleaned here. The + Ayatollah Khomeini, trapped in his delusions of power, is but a blind pawn + of the Object, which guides him not. Warped visonaries are everywhere. + On the other hand, there is much good in the Object, for its madness + also gives us the blazing insight and unrestrained joy of pure creative + genius. When Chuck Berry does his duckwalk, or when James Brown is onstage, + they are receiving the Good side of the Object from Space, and this is + Always a Holy Moment. When you see John Belushi doing his Samurai, that is + the Object. Sam Kinison's screams come from the Object. George Carlin is a + Saint, who has taken the touch of the Object and translated it into + continuing rational insight. Epopt Illuminatae of the Object from Space + include Little Richard, John Lennon, Salvador Dali, Lenny Bruce, Harlan + Ellison, the staff of the 1972-1974 National Lampoon, William Burroughs, + Buckminster Fuller, and Edgar Allan Poe. + The Communist Munchkins from the Center of the Earth are more commonly + knows as gremlins. Sullen imps of the netherworld, it's their job to fuck + things up. When Saint John's disks crash, it's the fault of the Munchkins. + The Iran-Contra affair was th Munchkins' work. The PTL Club was theirs + since 1970. Airplane crashes, hangnails, false alarms at SAC, + bacteriological warfare spills, and the Sargeant York tank are all theirs. + A truly paranoid element, and it is impossible to trace ANY kind of method + to their work. I think they do it because they have fun. + The Fungi from Yoggoth is a pale, sickly yellow that reminds one of + old, curdled fat. The Fungi from Yoggoth is manifested when an aging, + decript system or individual tries to keep power in its hands, and away + from the young, vital and intelligent. It's stagnation, pure and simple, + the entropic heat-death of the Universe in the face of the ongoing struggle + for life. Ronald Reagan, Frank Rizzo, Jerry Falwell, Jesse Helms, Tipper + Gore and the PMRC, the staff of the National Review, Norman Podhoretz, and + the Central Intelligence Agency are all manifestations of the Fungi from + Yoggoth. Your high school principal. In the entertainment world, it's Frank + Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Buddy Hackett, Joey Heatherton, Sammy + Davis, Jr., Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope (especially Bob Hope), Jan Murray and + Jack Carter. In short, everyone who wouldn't want to get hit by Robert + Crumb's Meatball. + + The best example of this is the loudspeaker voice at the University + City Thriftway, the one that says, 'Choppers, over in our Seafood + department, we now sell whale meat, only a dollar forty a can!' + Beware the Fungi from Yoggoth, because it can make you part of It. It + drains the exuberance and creativity of youth, my friends. It is that which + denies you SLACK, and it should be avoided at ALL costs! + +(A question was raised concerning how exactly this ties in with Brainsucking.) + +My three part cosmology ties in with brainsucking as follows. The Object from +Space bestows upon people the necessary madness to recognize the +intelligence-expanding properties of brain sucking. The Communist Munchkins +make sure that the equipment you buy to do it fucks up. (I tried using an +Electrolux vacuum on a chemistry major once-- yike! I flunked the chem final I +had the next day, too.) And the Fungi from Yoggoth will prevent you from +sucking the brains of others by telling you LIES! + You see, the Fungi from Yoggoth is very clever. First, it will lie to +you about the consequences. Then, when you finally try it, it will make sure +that the Brain you Suck will have a lower than average intelligence; or, it +may be under the influence of th Fungi from Yoggoth! One quick suck of THAT and +WHOOSH! there goes all of your youthful vim and vigor, to be replaced by the +dull yellow oppression of teh Fungi from Yoggoth. + I will attest to the healing properties of select Bob Dylan. I also +recommend "Subterranean Homesick Blues," from the same album. + As for Bon Jovi, I would either define him as False Object from Space, +or an undiscovered part of the cosmology. (Although I lke Springsteen, the +same thing applies-- he has no place in the discovered portions of the +Cosmology. However, what lies undiscovered may be Good, and he'd definitely +fall into that catgory.) + Definite rockers from the Object from Space also include Devo, the Sex +Pistols, early Clash, Creedence, and Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart. +(Especilally the last two!) + +OR Kill me. + + craig@cellar.org (Saint Craig) + +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +| VF1000R Intecptor Pilot | The Institute (215)-356-2543 - Turn on tune in +| DoD# None HA! | hang out and hang +| I Feel the need... | up. +| ...the need for speed. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + [Neat Fundamentalist video ad here] + + +(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.)(.) + + The True Story of Jim Morrison Part One + + In Which we learn of Dangerous Beings Who try (but fail) to stop + Rock'n'Roll + + + The Introduction + + The moon's crimson light illuminated a ghastly scene. Jim Morrison +peered from his hiding place and his stomach got all mushy inside like +when you've eaten something really greasy and washed it down with Jolt [TM] +or when you've got a real bad crush on somebody and you think 'well, maybe +they like me' but you're not sure enough to do anything about it and +you're not unsure enough to write them off but in any case really gurgly +at the sight in the clearing below. + What he saw was this: + Three disembodied heads with blood oozing from where their necks should +be, wailing and foaming at the mouth and floating about and mouthing old +'Three Stooges' routines, but the most horrible thing about them was that +they were the heads of CURLY, SHEMP, and JOE!!! + Eight two-headed black goats with glowing red eyes and green hooves. + A flying cloud of vomit. + Dan Quayle. + A red-skinned dwarf with six-inch tusks. + The assembled figures were dancing around a giant trout suspended in +mid-air in the middle of the clearing. He noticed several nethack ghosts +scattered around the clearing. + So astounded was he by this insane literary collage that he did not +notice when Dan Quayle, who had merely projected his astral form into +the clearing as a distraction, hit him over the head with the printout of +a month's worth of alt.slack messages from the fall of 1987. + + When he awoke, six months later, he was on a spaceship bound for +Sirius, a pipe in his mouth and an alien computer in his brain. + + [The gory details follow. Stay tuned to the same Slack-Channel!] + + + + ["Classic" Ren & Stimpy picture here] + + +$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$ + + + NEED SLACK? + + Dial the Church of the Subgenius(tm) sacred 900# + + + 1 - 900 - 990 - 5085 ext 324 + + $2.00 a minute + + + You'll hear the official "RANT of the WEEK" + + -Featuring- + + -Rev. Ivan Stang + -Pope David Meyer III + -Father Joe Mama + -Doctor Howl + -Saint Janor Hypercleats + + "Beware of false profit$. *These* are my chosen" - J.R. "Bob" Dobbs + + PLUS + + + Connie Dobbs's + + SIZZLING SECTS(tm) + HOTLINE! + + 1-900-990-5085 ext. 324 + + $2.00 a minute- A divine inspiration! + + + Under 18 need parent's permission. Touch-tone phone required + Maximum call, 5 minutes. Mystery Playhouse, Bradenton FL + +$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$-$ + + C O N V E N T I O N S + +April 30 - May 2, 1993 (Arkansas) + + ROC-KON 17. Little Rock, AR. GoH: Suzette Haden Elgin; AGoH: Mary + Hanson-Roberts; FGoHs: Greg and Angela Bridges. Memb: $15 until 4/16/93, + $20 after. Info: Roc-Kon 17, P.O. Box 24285, Little Rock AR 72221. + +May 7-9, 1993 (Georgia) + + MAGIC CARPET CON. Holiday Inn, Dalton, GA; rms $38. GoHs: Andre + Norton, Susan Shwartz. AGoH: Mike Poole; SGoH: Mary Hanson-Roberts; TM: + Steve Vance. Memb: $20 until 5/6/93, $25 after. Info: Magic Carpet + Con, c/o Clara Miller, 1726 Threadmill Rd., Dalton, GA 30720. + +May 7-9. 1993 (Canada, Ontario) + + FILKONTARIO 3. Holiday Inn, 2125 North Sheridan Way, Mississauga, ON, + L5K 1A3, Canada; rms C$78; (416)855-2000. Guests: Michael Longcor, John + Hall, Grant Millard, Clif Flynt, Dave Clement. Memb: C$25 until 4/1/93, + C$30 after. Info: Filkontario, 302 College Ave. W., Unit 20, Guelph, + Ontario, Canada N1G 1S8; Net: 75126.2744@compuserve.com. + +May 14-16 (Atlanta, Georgia) + + DIXIE TREK - GoH: Nichelle Nichols, David Hedison, Gary Conway. At the + Sheraton Century Center Hotel, 2000 Century Blvd at I-85 & Clairmont Rd + Memb: $30/20/15. Info: 780 Wayside Dr., Lawrenceville GA 30245 + +May 14-16, 1993 (Florida) + + OASIS 6. Altamonte Hilton, 350 S. North Lake Blvd., Altamonte Springs, + FL 32714; rms $63; (407)830-1985. GoH: Connie Willis; AGoH: Michael + Whelan; Guests: Ben Bova, Joe & Gay Haldeman, Andre Norton, Ron + Walotsky, more. Memb: $18 until 1/31/93, $21 until 4/16/93, $24 after. + Info: OASFiS, P.O. Box 940992, Maitland, FL 32792-0992. + +May 14-16, 1993 (Michigan) + + STARGAZING CONTRAPTION. The Somerset Inn, Troy, MI; rms $70; + (313)643-7800. GoH: C.J. Cherryh; FGoH: Marty Burke. Memb: $15 until + 3/15/93, $20 after. Info: Contraption, P.O. Box 2285, Ann Arbor, MI + 48106; (313)261-3502. + +May 14-16, 1993 (Tennessee) + + KUBLA KHAN 21. Ramada Inn South, 737 Harding Pl. at Trousdale, + Nashville, TN 37211; rms $45. GoH: Allen Steele; MC: Andrew J. Offutt; + SGoH: Charles L. Fontenay; FGoHs: Dan Caldwell, John Hollis. Memb: $20 + until 4/15/93, $30 after. Info: Kubla Khan 21, Ken Moore, 647 Devon + Dr., Nashville, TN 37220; (615)832-8402. + +May 14-16, 1993 (Canada, Ontario) + + CAN-CON '93. Delta Ottawa Hotel, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. GoHs: Karen + Wehrstein, Shirley meier, Bink, Robert J. Sawyer, Greg Ioannou. + Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Literature. Memb: C$25 + until 4/15/93, C$30 after. Info: Can-Con, Box 105, Woodridge Crs., + Nepean, Ont. Canada K2B 8G1; (613) 726-9097 (before 10pm EST). + +May 16-21, 1993 (Caribbean) + + SEATREK '93. Star Trek oriented cruise abord the SS Britanis, leaving +from Miami, Florida and stopping at Ocho Rios, Jamaica and Grand Cayman +Island. Q&A sessions, panels, informal meetings with stars from Star Trek, +more. Star Trek guests to be announced in April - last year's guests +included Majel Barrett, William Campbell, Robin Curtis, John deLancie, +James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Eric Menyuk, Nichelle Nichols, Marina Sirtis, +Carel Struycken, George Takei, Wil Wheaton, and Grace Lee Whitney. Memb: +ranges from $745-$1250 per person all inclusive. Info: SeaTrek +Enterprises, 8306 Mills Drive, Box 198, Miami, FL 33183; (800)326-8735 or +(305)388-2890. + +May 21-23, 1993 (Wisconsin) + + CORFLU 10. Inn on the Park, Madison, WI. Convention for Fanzine fans. + Memb: $35 until 4/14/93, $40 after; $10 supporting. Info: Corflu 10, + Box 1624, Madison, WI 53701; (608)255-3396. + +May 21-23, 1993 (Canada, Manitoba) + + KEYCON 10. Marlborough Hotel, 331 Smith Street, Winnipeg, MB, Canada; + rms C$65 sngl/dbl, C$75 tpl/quad; (204)942-6411. GoH: Roger Zelazny; + SGoH: Fred Saberhagen; AGoH: Bob Eggleton. Memb: C$30 until 4/30/93, + C$40 after. Info: Keycon 10, Box 3178, Winnipeg MB, R3C 4E6, Canada. + +May 28-31, 1993 (Washington D.C.) + + DISCLAVE '93. Dulles Airport Marriott, Chantilly, VA (near Washington, + D.C.). GoH: Katherine Kurtz; AGoH: Patricia Davis. Memb: $25 until + 4/30/93, $30 after. Info: Disclave '93, c/o John T. Sapienza, Jr., Box + 677, Washington DC 20044. + +May 28-31, 1993 (Canada, British Columbia) + + V-CON 20. Totem Residence, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, + B.C., Canada. GoH: TBA; AGoH: Rob Alexander; TM: Michael Coney. Info: + V-Con 20, Box 48478, Bentall Centre, Vancouver BC V7X 1A2, Canada. + +May 28-31, 1993 (England) + + MEXICON 5. St. Nicholas Hotel, Scarborough, UK. GoHs: Norman Spinrad, + Pat Cardigan. Info: Mexicon 5, c/o Bernie Evans, 121 Cape Hill, + Smethwick, Warley, W. Midlands B66 4HS, UK. + + + car window sign recovered + from World Trade Center: + _______ + / \ + / \ + / TERRORIST \ + / & 700 lbs \ + / OF EXPLOSIVES \ + / \ + \ O N / + \ / + \ B O A R D / + \ / + \ / + \ / + ------- + +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ ************ R A V E S **************** +@@@@@@^ ~^ @ @@ @ @ @ I ~^@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@@ ~ ~~ ~I @@@@@ April 30 Champaign/Urbana, Il. +@@@@' ' _,w@< @@@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ Psybersound in Chicago and Gravity +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ Communications in Champaign presents +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ ORBIT +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | ]@@@ +@@@@ ~_,,_ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ 10000 sq ft warehouse, 15000 watts pa +@@@@ _~ , , `@@@~ _ _`@ ]L J@@@ Roboscans plus other visual goodies +@@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ DJ's: James Johnson of Psybersound +@@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ DJ Hyperactive (Chicago) +@@@@@_|| @@@@@@P' @@P@@@@@@@@@@@[|c@@@@ DAZ (Mephis) +@@@@@@w| '@@P~ P]@@@-~, ~Y@@^'],@@@@@@ Sane and Jester (Chicago) +@@@@@@@[ _ _J@@Tk ]]@@@@@@ Eddie Acid & Chaz M VS. +@@@@@@@@,@ @@, c,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ Ron O. and Angel Garcia +@@@@@@@@@ i @w ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@@`,P~ _ ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ More Info Call: 217.359.0153 Tix $6 @ +@@@@^^=^@@^ ^' ,ww,w@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Record Service,Grungies in Champaign,IL +@@@_xJ~ ~ , @@@@@@@P~_@@@@@@@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@ @, ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ APR 30 COLUMBUS SYNERGY +@@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ DJs:Columbus-EZ Cheez,DJ Zero,Rob Engel + | Cincinnati - DJ Daisy + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption | PA: Body Release + PO Box 30904 | + Raleigh, NC 27622 | location: Valley Dale Ballroom + | (Sunbury Rd north of Ohio Domin.College) +SEND SASE for free copies! I can deal| info: 614.523.6290 or 614.844.5616 +with publishing but not postage!! |---------------------------------------- + | APR 30 CHAMPAIGN TIDAL RAVE +For ezine version, mail: | + | DJ's Psychotic Sid,Brian Clark(Kaboom!) + Slack@ncsu.edu to get on list | DJ Apocalypse, Flavor Dave + quartz.rutgers.edu - back | 1105 S. First Street....Champaign Il + issues (128.6.60.6) | tix available at Hey DJ 627.5 Green St + | WARNING: This is the frat party... +--------------------------------------|---------------------------------------- +MAY 1 NASHVILLE LOVE NATION | MAY 7 DETROIT STORM OF RAGE + | +DJs Chip B, Chek, Bryan Meyer | Live artists: underground resistance +DJ Suz E Cyclone from Washington D.C. | ghetto tech, altered states +PLUS live techno performance by ANODE | rob noise, claude young, + with CYBERGROOVE DANCERS | special invited guest jeff mills +NEW 6000 Sq. Ft. Space with 20' High | 50,000 watts of sound * hi-intensity +Infinity Walls, Intelligent Lighting | strobes * fog machines * smart bar +Smart Drinks and JOLT Bar by EINSTEIN | sci-fi techno arena & the tribal house + | +ALL AGES 8pm-MIDNITE, 18+ MIDNITE-6AM | pavilion entertainment center +Admission: $7 (under 18), $10 (18+) | 3415 middlebelt road +Call 615-780-3730 (24hrs) for info | Info: 595-6910 +--------------------------------------|---------------------------------------- +MAY 1 PITTSBURGH HIGH VOLTAGE!!! | MAY 8 COLUMBUS CANDYLAND + | +TurboZen Presents 9pm-6am | DJs: Boomer (Det) Will B. There (Cinci) + Neural Transmission Event | Magic Mike G.,Kevy Kev (Columbus) + | Jondy, Rob Engel (Columbus) +DJs Soji-Fu,Jeff E,Dr. Suess,Side 2 | PA: Theory Collapse + Finger,+FX,Simon,Deadly Buda, | Never before attempted 6 TURNTABLE + JediMindtrip,Terry Kicks,Vic Money| HYPERTECHNO TURNOUT - UNBELIEVABLE +Special Live Performance by | location: Valley Dale ballroom + Super Cool 187 | an 18 and over event + | info line: 614.341.7345 +Ticket Info available at: 412.621.7759| Tickets $9 adv, $10 day of show + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc018.txt b/religious documents/htomc018.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd494dd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc018.txt @@ -0,0 +1,617 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ Issue #18: Let's Do the Lincoln-Disney Twist! $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E +Holy Temple of Mass Consumption F R E E +PO Box 30904 SLACK@ncsu.edu +Raleigh, NC 27622 StarFleet BBS (919) 782-3095 + +SHIT ALERT - SHIT ALERT - SHIT ALERT - SHIT ALERT + + The 1993 Award for the worst, phoniest bullshit goes to the entire city of +MYRTLE BEACH, SC. After seeing it for the first time after a period of several +years, the remaining vestiges of fun have all been turned into cheesy T-shirt +shops. You can still play any kind of video game you like, as long as that +game is a Kung-fu-fighting game. The best clubs have closed down, the few that +remain have no slack or vibe whatsoever. The only thing that hasn't changed is +the legions of butthead police, who must save you from the evils of drinking a +beer or having fun. The beach itself is OK, being relatively free of toxic +wastes. Not even doing away with the Sunday alcohol blue-law has helped the +overall scene, though. If you're looking for fun, don't bother here. +[and for those who might say that its just *me* getting older and more cynical, +go look for yourselves. The psychic rot from NMB has finally spread south.] + +The only thing that kept the whole trip from being a complete fucking waste was +the only late show in town (in a town which once had TONS of midnight movies..) +Not for the squeamish, The Faces of Death part IV +is highly recommended. This is *real* death on +camera, ranging from the usual series of grisly +accidents, to attacks by deadly mutant creatures +from toxic pollution, culinary treats from other +their own people in the streets. Maybe the NRA +might be onto something after all. Plus, if you +can make it through the entire showing, you get +the OFFICIAL Faces of Death IV certificate of -> + survival. It doesn't mention whether + you made it through without tossing + G your cookies, as there were definitely + a few close calls in the theatre. + R + Congratulations, or something like that, to the graduating classes + A of 1993. Now that you've finished kissing the asses of a bunch of + Conspiracy teachers, get ready to pucker up and bend over for the + P Conspiracy "Bureaucrats" that will define your existence from this + point forward. Give a big thanks to Bill Clinton and previous + H administrations for your future career flipping greaseburgers at + your local McDonald's. Expect the only "change" that will occur + I under this current batch of do-gooders is that the pace of the + Conspiracy will INCREASE. Don't look at me- I voted for "Bob". + C +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +COMIX to Want and Buy: + +*** The Hacker Files - Showdown (1.0) The fight against the Conspiracy +continues. Hacker and gang infiltrate secret computer compound in Russia. +DC Comics 1325 Avenue of the America NY NY 10019 + +**** Sugarvirus - Someone is tracking down and killing members of a vampire +colony in Berlin, and they suspect that it might be another vampire. Not +for the squeamish. Tundra Publishing UK Ltd, Unit 23, Eurolin Business Ctr, +49 Effra Rd, Brixton, London SW2 1BZ + +*** Savage Henry #26 - Hawkwind vs. The Forces of Chaos - Dave Brock, lead +guitar for the band Hawkwind, starts slipping between reality levels. Henry +helps find out who dosed Dave. Rip Off Press, POB 4686, Auburn, CA 95604 + +**** Post Brothers #30 - In order to get paid for his latest assassination, +Ron needs the only witness, a little girl, to tell the police. But, in the +attempt to frighten someone in a world without fear, awesome forces are +unleashed. Rip Off Press. + +*** Ren & Stimpy #8 - "The Maltese Stimpy" - Twisted remake of the original +movie, with the same characters, but finally, a better story. Plus, more +humor aimed above the heads of the kiddies. Marvel Comics + +*** Vampire Lingerie Fantasy Catalog - The Frederick's of Hollywood-style +catalog for the well-endowed undead. Hopefully, some of these fashions will +make their way to the cons. Acid Rain Studios, 51795 Old Mill Rd, South Bend +IN 46637. Also ask for the 93 Vampire Bikini Comic Calendar. + +**** Milk & Cheese's 3rd Number One - Violence, mayhem, booze, and general +bad attitudes from dairy products gone bad. Every institution in the world +is their target. Slave Labor Graphics, 883 S Bascom Ave, San Jose, CA 95128 + +***** Milk & Cheese's 4th Number One - New heights of outrageousness as the +dairy products go on sugar rampages, wino parties, and attacks on comics. +This may be the last issue for a while. Slave Labor Graphics. + +**** The Tick #12 - Tick wins a secret hideout full of neat high-tech toys, +but when the previous owner goes mad, Tick also inherits a host of enemies. +New England Comics Press, PO Box 310, Quincy, MA 02269 + +*** Stickboy #6 - The Death of Stickboy, plus other cartoons and articles +from Dennis Worden. The next incarnation of Stickboy will be a VIDEO +ordered only from him, at PO Box 192, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693 ($15). +This great comic is from Starhead Comics, POB 30044, Seattle, WA 98103 + +**** Gregory III - More adventures of the insane, institutionalized boy +whose friends are rats and eats cockroaches. Piranha Press. + +*** Zippy Quarterly #2, "15 Minutes Ahead of His Time" - More strip adventures +of Zippy and Griffy, including the special story "Life Before Velcro", their +trip back to the 1890s. Fantagraphic Books,7563 Lake City Way, Seattle WA 98115 + +*** Heavy Metal July 1993 - with wild artwork by Ted McKeever, plus the usual +collection of flipped-out stories. HM is really pushing that "X" rating lately. + + + >>> *************** <<< + >>> FACTSHEET 5 #47 <<< + >>> *************** <<< + + + The ultimate resource is now on the bookshelves, or available from +PO Box 170099, San Francisco, CA 94117-0099. Sample issue $4.00 + +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + **** ZINES sent to the HToMC Sacred PO Box **** WE TRADE! + +The Nose #17 "exposing the west". I originally bought this magazine for the +**** interview with Rev. Ivan Stang **** with all the latest news about the +Church of the SubGenius (PO Box 140306 Dallas, TX 75214 and IGNORE the stupid +Canadian rip-offs!) The whole magazine is incredible, with an expose of Dr. +Gene Scott, Fashion from The Naked Guy, roadkills, reviews, and more stuff. +$5.00 from The Nose, 1095 Market St., Suite 812 SF, CA 94103 (415) 621-7028 + +Baby Sue vol 4 issue 1 - The art of Yard Sailing, Professions to Avoid, Ace +Backwords, plus the usual stream of outrageous and sickening comics. +POB 1111, Decatur, GA 30031-1111 $8 for 4 issues + +Eyewash 4 - Analysis of the Great American Psychopath as revealed in several +classic movies, plus tips on how to keep a fleet of $200 junk cars going. +GREAT stuff- Cyclone Publications, PO Box 20013 Dayton OH 45420-0013 (Trades) +Also available - Eleventh Pin - pictures of the traveling bowling pin + +3dipsnewS vol. 7 - the official journal of the 3dipswhoaregoD is not dead! +This one is a mind-expanding 8-pager. Pen up your nose! Send them money, +stamps, parsley, anything for this one. Catfish, 915 W. Wisconsin Ave. Rm 412 +(after August 15, use Rm 1012) Milwaukee, WI 53233 <- near Dahmner trial site + +The Church of Hemp has a NEW Jack-Chick-ripoff pamphlet: D.A.R.E: The Lost +Generation. Plus, other pamphlets on Reefer Racism, Marijuana and Christianity +plus other great books and magazines. For the latest, send $1 to: +The Church of Hemp PO Box 1511 Bellingham, WA 98227-1511 + +Liberty Vol 6 #4 - Libertarians with guts, who aren't afraid to point out the +pointless absurdities of the current administration, but their own foibles as +well. Insightful articles on Bill Clinton, multiculturalism, rent control, +Ayn Rand, and how to cut your taxes by 75%. $4.00 from Liberty, PO Box 1811 +Port Townshend, WA 98368 + +Karma Lapel #4 - Nice collection of counter-cultural articles, plus extensive +zine, comic, and music reviews. PO Box 5467 Evanston, IL 60204 $1 or trade + +0.U.Z.M.T. (The 0fficial-Unofficial Zine of the Muselix Throng of the M00se +Illuminati) issue 3-1. This chapter of the M00se Illuminati (BL00P!) can +also be found at various cons in the southeast. The zine is free from: +OUZMUT, the SnafuM00se Chapter, 702 Prince Edward Street Suite 4N +Fredericksburg, VA 22401 + +Messiah #2, The Journal of Sex, Politics and Religion - lots of on-target +social commentary, wiccan articles, humor, poetry, Rocky Horror news, and +more. $3 from Jef Williams, PO Box 10035 Winston-Salem NC 27108 + +Funny Pages #42 - Anything is fair game for the jokes in this zine, so be +prepared for politically incorrect, sick and disgusting material. Nice stuff. +$1.50 each, 12/15$ Funny Pages, PO Box 317025 Dayton, OH 45437 + +Weekly devotional flyer from the Intergalactic House of Fruitcakes. This +week, they are worshipping Libertinism, like any good Otis worshipper. With +many pictures of Puritan witch-hunting to remind us how far we've come. Send +Money! IHOF 955 Massachusetts Ave. Suite #209, Cambridge MA 02139-9183 + +Taproot Reviews #2.0 - this electronic zine is a FS5-like review of various +independent, underground, and experimental real-world publications. Info +and possibly subscriptions from: au462@cleveland.freenet.edu + +XDZebra #29 - Reviews of all the latest rave music, plus news & info. +Write to: Addiction, 266 Delmar St. Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1817 +electronic version send to all rave mailing lists, for info on one of them +mail: mw-raves-request@engin.umich.edu + + +============================================================================ + +Donating Money for U.S. Debt Is Like Giving Booze to a Wino +by Tom Barberi + + Am I missing something? + The government has dug a $4.2 trillion - that's $4,200,000,000,000 - +debt. It has done this by taking every dime it could, with every tax +imaginable and spending more than it took in. + Now the Clinton administration proposes to pay off the debt by taking +even more money from us. Not only that, but it is going to spedn a whole +bunch more on new stuff. On top of that, a 14-year-old North Dakota boy and +his well publicized $1,000 donation toward the national debt has fostered +similar nutty behavior. + Could it be the hole in the ozone layer?, El Nino?, gloval warming?, Not +evnough dietary fiber? + What prompts otherwise rational people to take time out of busy lives to +put on a bake sale and send the proceeds to that money-gobbling machine in +Washington? + I don't get it. Even a batch of fifth-graders from Ohio peddled baked +goodies cleverly named for our leaders: Bill Brownies, Gore Goodies, Capitol +Hill Cookies, Tipper Toffee and Oval Office Oatmeal. They raised $278.50. + I'm surprised they didn't try to market Socks Suckers. Maybe they +realized those might wake people up. This wave of citizen guilt for a +problem they didn't create isn't limited to school kids. + The staff of a weekly newspaper in North Dakota is planning a bake sale. +The Eskimo Pie Corp. has decided to donate to the same cause: 5 cents for +every box of its chocolate-coated vanilla ice cream snacks sold between +tomorrow and April 4th. + Isn't that like double taxation? If that company truly wanted to do +something for the economy, wouldn't it make more sense to lower the price of +an Eskimo Pie by 5 cents? That way the consumer would have more money to +spend supporting other businesses that pay taxes or employ people who pay +taxes. + Sending the government more money that it already confiscates from us is +like giving a wino a key to the state liquor store. What is the first thing +that a credit counselor does when people come in for help? He or she cuts up +the credit cards and creates a budget that will lead them out of debt. + The ease with which government created this mammoth debt was illustrated +the other night on the news when the manager of a former defense contractor, +who was shifting his company to perform in-military work, said the company +now would have to do some real thinking because private business won't pay +$600 for a toilet seat or $400 for a hammer. + To put out a fire you have to remove its fuel source. It only makes +sense that to put out this D.C. spending inferno, we must cut off its money +supply - or at least thin it out. + + + [super-neat graphics unrelated to US debt] + +&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& + + The True Adventures of Jim Morrison: Space Ranger Part 1 + + + The shooting had stopped. The jungle's quiet was disturbed only by +the sound of inch-long mosquitos flying through the humid summer air. +A full moon gave Morrison's face a ghastly pall as he reloaded his Tarantula +9000. The Tarantula was a fine weapon, a 50 caliber recoilless machine +pistol of a type that would not be mass-produced for another twenty years. + Damn. If only the Viet Cong patrol hadn't returned to their camp +half an hour early. Damn. If only he hadn't gotten separated from his +squad during the firefight. Damn. If only any of a vicious chain of events +that deposited him here, alone, hungry and sick, in the jungles of southern +Thailand, hundreds of miles away from his base camp, hadn't happened. Damn. + Morrison tried to clear his mind by concentrating on his Tarantula. +It was a prototype, a weapon he had rescued from the laboratories of a +dead Ceylonese weaponsmith, and he hadn't been taking proper care of it. +Now, the loading mechanism was jammed, and he didn't have the tools to +repair it correctly. He tried to improvise using his pocketknife, the one +he'd picked up during the Doors' last tour, years before. + He worked long into the night, slapping at the mosquitos that descended +in clouds to drink the blood from his exposed arms and chest. So intent +was he on his work that he did not notice the subtle change in the quality +of the moonlight as it slowly altered from silvery-white to blood-red, until +the sound of inhuman voices nearby attracted his attention. + + + [Moving shot from over the right shoulder of walking man. All we +can see of the man is his dark blue suit and that he has short Bryllcreemed +hair and a pipe, which occasionally trails smoke into the camera lens. +He walks down a steel-grey corridor, his shoes clicking on the concrete +floor. He stops at a door with two security guards in front of it. +The guards immediately stand at attention as the man approaches.] + + Man: Hi guys! Gee, it's a real scorcher outside, isn't it? + + Guard 1: Yes, Mr. Dobbs. + + [Guards stand aside as Dobbs approaches a small panel beside the door. +After a retinal scan, fingerprint scan, voice check, and magnetic ID check, +the bolt on the door automatically clicks open. The camera pans back as +Dobbs enters the room, revealing a blindingly white room, with computer and +medical equipment lining the walls. Dominating the room is a large plexi- +glass tank with a shadowy figure floating within. Around the tank are +arranged more pieces of equipment and white-coated technicans.] + + Dobbs: Hi everybody! Gee, it's a real scorcher outside, yep. + + TECHNICIANS: Hello Mr. Dobbs. + + [Dobbs approaches the tank] + + Dobbs: So this is our man, eh? Stang, fill me in. + + Dr. Stang: We found him in Thailand three days ago, during a routine +border patrol. He was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and malaria. +It's a miracle he survived as long as he did. At the time, he kept mumbling +'give me back my tarantulas'. However, by the time we got him back to +Dobbstown hospital, his condition had degenerated drastically, so I decided +to bring him here. + + Dobbs: Well, well, well. Let's have a look at him, okay? + + [Dr. Stang lifts back the cover of the tank to reveal the mad, +glittering eyes of Jim Morrison!] + + Dobbs: Hi Jim! Gee, it's a real scorcher outside, huh? + + Dr. Stang: "Bob", he can't hear you. + + Dobbs: Well, maybe not with his *brain* so much... + + Dr. Stang: We've scheduled the brain surgery to implant the microchips +for Thursday... + + Dobbs: Thursday? I go bowling Thursday... + + Dr. Stang: We've already cloned the replacement heart and right leg, +so this will be the last operation. He'll be recovering in the tanks for +a few months, though. + + Dobbs: You were able to save the... + + Dr. Stang: Uh, yes. + + Dobbs: Oh, good. Well, once you're back on your feet, Mr. Morrison, +what should I do with you? Computer? + + Computer: Hi there, "Bob"! + + Dobbs: Hi! What are the latest projections involving Jim by Project +Ragnarok? + + Computer: A real good question, "Bob"! It seems Mr. Morrison here +will be vitally important to our plans during the summer of 1997, but the +public can't be allowed to know that he's alive until 1993 at the earliest. +At least, that's what the precogs say. + + Dobbs: And not letting him do concerts would rob him of vital Slack. +Hmm... + + [Dobbs meditates briefly, and as he does, an eerie high-pitched hum +fills the air. A technician kicks the terminal next to her and the hum +stops.] + + Dobbs: Jeepers! I've got it! We'll put him on a mini-tour of this +arm of the galaxy. Jimi's been needing a vocalist, and we can't get Lennon. + + Dr. Stang: And since he'll be travelling most of the distance near +lightspeed, he'll hardly age, so he'll be in great shape for the end times! +Great work, "Bob"! + + Dobbs: Aw, shucks. + +-- +T.Rev? + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + C O N V E N T I O N S + +June 3-5, 1993 (Germany) + + HAMBURG PHANTASTIC '94/CON-COURSE '94/STARD '94. The Congress Center + Hamburg, Germany. The largest convention in Germany combining parts of + CON-COURSE '94 - the largest German Star Trek convention and STARD '94 - + Germany's biggest convention for gaming. Info: Hamburg Phantastic 1994, + Achim Sturm, Woltersburger Muhlenweg 10, W-3110 Uelzen, Germany; phone: + (0581)4 34 60. + +June 4-6, 1993 (Arizona) + + LEPRECON 19. Camelview Resort, Scottsdale, AZ. GoH: S.P. Somtow, AGoH: + Sue Dawe. Memb: $30. Info: Leprecon 19, Box 26665, Tempe, AZ 85285-6665; + (602) 245-1440 (Doug Cosper). + +June 4-6, 1993 (Illinois) + + DUCKON II. Lisle Hyatt, 1400 Corporetum Drive, Lisle, IL; + (708)852-1234; (800)233-1234; rms $62. GoH: Leo Frankowski, AGoH: Paul + MacNerland; Filk GoH; Lynn Fancher; FGoHs: Bill Higgins, Barry Gehm. + Memb: $30. Info: Duckon, Box 4843, Wheaton IL 60189; email: + duckon@meltdown.chi.il.us. + +June 4-6, 1993 (Kentucky) + + CONJURATION/DEEPSOUTHCON 31. Executive Inn East, Louisville KY; rms $57 + sngl/dbl, $67 tpl/quad. GoHs: Emma Bull & Will Shetterly; AGoH: Dawn + Wilson; FGoH: Genny Dazzo; TM: Andrew J. Offutt. SF convention, + Masquerade, Art Show, Dealer's Room, more. Memb: $35. Info: + Conjuration/DSC '93, Box 5231, Louisville KY 40255. + +June 4-6, 1993 (Oklahoma) + + THUNDERCON 3. Central Plaza Hotel, Oklahoma City, OK; (800)233-2219 + (outside OK); (800-522-4383 (in OK); rms $45. Guests: Rick Sternbach, + Larry Nemecek, Sylvester McCoy, Robert O'Reilly, more. Convention with + emphasis on Star Trek and SF/Media. Memb: $25 (children 5 and under + free; 6-12 half price). Info: ThunderCon 3, 207 Americana Court, Norman + OK 73069; (405)329-1737; email: brett@gallifrey.ucs.uoknor.edu. + +June 4-6, 1993 (Maryland) + + CONTERPOINT. Holiday Inn, 1800 Belmont Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21244; + (410)265-1400; rms $49. U.S. Northeast Science Fiction Folk Festival + including concerts, sing-a-longs, panels, workshops, dealer's room, + parties, more. GoH: Bill Roper; TM: Dick Eney. Memb: $30 in advance, + $35 at door; $10 supporting. Children 12 and under are free. Info: + Ellen Granzer, 18 Riverdale Street, Allston, MA 02134. + +June 4-6, 1993 (Canada, Ontario) + + AD ASTRA 13. Sheraton Toronto East Hotel, Toronto, ON, Canada; rms + C$82. GoH: Frederik Pohl; SGoH: Dave Duncan; AGoH: Robin Wood; guests: + Ben Bova, Hal Clement, Greg Costikyan, Shirley Meier, Karen Wehrstein, + Geoff Landis, Rob Sawyer, J.F. Rivken, Mark Asquith, more. Memb: + C$32. Info: Ad Astra 13, Box 7276, St. A, Toronto, ON, M5W 1X9, Canada. + +June 9-12, 1993 (New York) + + INSTITUTE FOR INQUIRY summer session. Ctr for Tomorrow, SUNY at Buffalo, + Amherst Campus (Maple Rd. and Millersport Hwy) Sessions are: "Investigating + UFOs" sponsored by CSICOP, and "Humanism, Religion and Mental Health" + sponsored by CODESH. $125 each/$225 both. Hotel: Hampton Inn 1-800-426-8766, + rms. $64/night. For seminar info call 1-800-634-1610 + +June 11-13, 1993 (Alabama) + + MOBI-CON. Mobile, Alabama. GoH: Margaret Weis; Gaming GoH: David 'Zeb' + Cook. Info: Mobi-Con, Inc., P.O. Box 161257, Mobile, AL 36616. + +June 11-13, 1993 (Tennessee) + + MOUNTAINTREK '93. Hyatt Regency, Knoxville TN. GoH: Jean Lorrah; FGoH: + Roland Castle. Star Trek Convention. Memb: $25 in advance, $35 at + door; $5 supporting. Info: Mountaintrek '93, c/o 2116 Belle Terra Rd + #C, Knoxville TN 37923; (615)632-7497 (days), (615) 690-8595 + (evenings/weekends). + +June 11-13, 1993 (North Carolina) + + HEROES CONVENTION. Charlotte International Trade Center, 200 N. College St + Charlotte, NC. Huge comic book convention with reps from Marvel, DC, + Valiant, Aardvark-Vanaheim, and more. Plus, contests, siminars, workshops, + exhibits. Info: Po Box 9181, Charlotte NC 28299-9181 1-800-321-4370 + +June 12-13, 1993 (Florida) + + VULKON. Orlando North Hilton, 350 South Northlake Blvd., Altamonte + Springs, FL; (407)830-1985; rms $69 sngl/dbl, $79 tpl, $89 quad. + Guests: Nana Visitor, Daniel Davis, Mike Okuda. Dealer's room, games, + films, costumes, panels, more. Memb: $40. Info: Vulkon, c/o Joe Motes, + 12237 SW 50th St., Cooper City, FL 33330. + +June 17-20, 1993 (Nevada) + + SCIENCE FICTION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION. Flamingo Hilton, Reno, NV; rms + $80; (800)648-4882 (be sure to mention UNR's SFRA Conference). GoH: + Poul Anderson. Other Possible Guests: Robert Silverberg, Lisa Mason, + Tom Maddox, Timothy Leary, Joan Slonczewski, Rudy Rucker, Frederik Pohl, + Jack Williamson, Pat Murphy, Elizabeth Lynn, Karen Haber, Robert + Reginald, Charles Brown. Info: Milton T. Wolf, Getchell Library, UNR, + Reno, Nevada 89557-0044; (702)784-4577. + +June 18-20, 1993 (Minnesota) + + DIVERSICON 1993. Seville Plaza, 8151 Bridge Road, Bloomington MN 55437; + (612)830-1300, 1-800-860-7408 (inside Minnesota), 1-800-328-7947 + (everywhere else); rms $44.94 king, $50.57 twin. GoHs: Eleanor Arnason, + A.C. Crispin. SGoH: Ruth Berman. Small, discussion-oriented + convention. Memb: $25 (Children $20); $5 supporting. Info: Diversicon + 1993, PO Box 8036, Lake Street Station, Minneapolis, MN 55408; (612) + 646-3852; (612) 825-9353; (612) 722-7577; email: + curt%quest.uucp@cs.umn.edu or tmcinroy@aol.com. + +June 18-20, 1993 (Texas) + + GALAXY FAIR '93. Sheraton Park Central, Dallas TX; rms $66. Memb: $25 + until 6/17/93, $30 after. Info: Galaxy Fair '93, Box 150471, Arlington + TX 76015; (817)467-0681. + +June 18-20, 1993 (Louisiana) + + NEW ORLEANS SF & FANATASY FESTIVAL. Clarion Hotel, 1500 Canal St., New + Orleans, LA 70112; (504)522-4500 or 1-800-824-3359; $65 sngl/dbl, $75 + tpl/quad. GoH: Robert Silverberg; AGoH: Bob Eggleton; FGoH: Sherry + Snyder; TM: Walter Jon Williams; Guests: George Alec Effinger, Joe + Haldeman, Jack Haldeman, Barbara Hambly, Neal Barrett, Jr.. Memb: $20 + until 5/31/93, $25 after. Info: New Orleans SF & Fantasy Festival 1993, + P.O. Box 791089, New Orleans, LA 70179-1089. + +June 18-20, 1993 (Missouri) + + CONTINUUM '93. Holiday Inn Convention Center, Cape Girardeau, MO. + GoHs: M.S. Murdock, media guests; AGoH: TBA; FGoH: Jean Kluge. Memb: + $40. Info: CONtinuum '93, 1617 Lyndhurst, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701; + (314)334-4386 (Janie McGaugh). + +June 19-21, 1993 (England) + + PROTOPLASM 4. Parker's Hotel, Manchester, UK. GoH: Bob Shaw; Guests: + Mary Gentle, Dean Wayland, Mike Gearing. Memb: L18. Info: Protoplasm + 4, 1 Shoesmith Ct., Merchants Place, Reading, Berks. RH1 1DT, UK. + +June 24-27, 1993 (Ohio) + + MIDWESTCONN 44. Quality Inn Central, Cincinnati, OH 45212; rms $65. + TM: Wilson Tucker. Relaxacon. Memb: $18.50 until 6/1/93, $23 after. + Info: Pat Sims, 34 Creekwood Swuare, Glendale OH 45246. + +June 25-27, 1993 (Georgia) + + ATLANTA FANTASY FAIR. Hyatt Atlanta Airport, Atlanta GA 30337. GoHs: + David Prowse, Grace Lee Whitney, Caroline Munro, Monique Gabrielle, Jeff + Rector, Gunnar Hanson, irish McCalla. Memb: $27 until 6/5, $30 at door. + Info: AFF, 4175 Eliza Court, Lithonia, GA 30058 (404) 985-1230 + +June 25-27, 1993 (California, Northern) + + ANIME AMERICA. Westin Hotel, Santa Clara, CA. GoHs: Fred Patten, Adam + Warren, Yoshihiro Yonezawa. Memb: $35 until 6/1/93, $45 after. Info: + Anime America, 298 4th Ave., #472, San Francisco, CA 94118. + +June 25-27, 1993 (Missouri) + + ARCHON 17. Collinsville, IL Convention Center & Collinsville Holiday Inn + ($70 sngl-quad, other nearby hotels cheaper; write PO Box for Housing + Bureau information); St. Louis area. GoH: Howard Waldrop; AGoH: Carl + Lundgren; FGoHs: Rich Cross, Tom Seymour, J.D. Streett IV, Ted Smith; + TM: Roger Zelazny. Six or more tracks of panels, seminars, & readings, + Children's & Grand Masquerades, art show & auction, dealers room, pool + parties, gaming, children's programing track, Fri. night meet-the-pro's + reception/dance and hall-costume contest, 2 video rooms plus Amateur + Video Contest (for info, write John Donigan, 7480 Rupert, St. Louis, MO + 63117), hospitality suite, more. Free Pizza Party With the Pro's on + Sunday for all volunteers who work 4 or more hours. Memb: $19 until + 5/31/93, $22 after (no mail-ins after 6/11/93; Children 6-12 $5 (under 6 + free) at all times, but MUST be accompanied by an adult member; MC and + Visa accepted. Info: Archon 17, P.O. Box 50125, Clayton, MO 63105; Rich + or Michelle Zellich (314) FAN-3026. email: + zellich@ST-LOUIS-EMH2.ARMY.MIL. + +June 25-27, 1993 (Czech Republic) + + PARCON '93. Czech Republic. Czech National Convention. Info: ODDM, + vila Doris, ul 17, Listopadu2, 78701 Sumperk, Czech Republic. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ ************ R A V E S **************** +@@@@@@^ ~^ @ @@ @ @ @ I ~^@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@@ ~ ~~ ~I @@@@@ June 5 AQUARIUS GREENSBORO NC +@@@@' ' _,w@< @@@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ Aquarius - the Underwater Rave +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ Featuring DJs Mr. Brett & Mr. Bill +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ at the Infinity Forum in Greensboro +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | ]@@@ +@@@@ ~_,,_ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ Info: (919) 288-9635 or 574-1844 +@@@@ _~ , , `@@@~ _ _`@ ]L J@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ June 5 PURE JUICE PITTSBURGH PA +@@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ +@@@@@_|| @@@@@@P' @@P@@@@@@@@@@@[|c@@@@ Opens 00:09:00 Trance/Tribal lounge +@@@@@@w| '@@P~ P]@@@-~, ~Y@@^'],@@@@@@ 18 and over Smart/Juice Bar +@@@@@@@[ _ _J@@Tk ]]@@@@@@ 5 bones MindMovies +@@@@@@@@,@ @@, c,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@ i @w ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ with dieselBoy, guest DJ Sleepy-C +@@@@@@@@@@`,P~ _ ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ +@@@@^^=^@@^ ^' ,ww,w@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ ZOOM, 826 Island Ave. Pittsburgh +@@@_xJ~ ~ , @@@@@@@P~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ (412) 771.1166 +@@ @, ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ June 11 COOL WORLD CHARLOTTE NC +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + | at the Park Elevator club +For hardcopy w/graphics, send SASE to:| 601 S. Cedar St. + | Info: (704) 376-8675 + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption | + PO Box 30904 |---------------------------------------- + Raleigh, NC 27622 | June 12 OBLIVION LEXINGTON KY + | +For ezine version, mail: | DJ Strobe/ or DJ Hyperactive + | DJ Boomer from Detroit + Slack@ncsu.edu to get on list | DJ Kevy Kev from Columbus + quartz.rutgers.edu - back | DJ Mind Candy from Cinci + issues (128.6.60.6) | DJ Wilbthere from Cinci (uc) + | 10,000+ Watts o' bass * +--------------------------------------| 20' Fractal/Mind's Eye Tripout Video* +************************************* | Loops by Sebastian * +>>> NC Rave Line - (919) 574-2555 <<< | Roboscans, Dataflashes, by Technocolor* +************************************* | Psychoactive Bar by GET SMART - Detroit + STRANGE BUT TRHE | For info call the Bluegrass Raveline at +Friday, Feb. 5th evening, a large | (606) 281-4144, or monitor MW-Raves +party near the Purdue campus was | email jsquared- +broken up and the residents of the | +apartment were cited for violation of |---------------------------------------- +the West Lafayette noise ordinance. | friday JUNE 18 till SALT LAKE CITY +Apparently, while watching The Little | sunday JUNE 20 +Mermaid, the students began to sing | +along with the movie loud enough to be| SOLSTICE +heard a block away. The students were | To be held in small canyon south of +allowed to keep their videotape, on | SLC, in an old cowboy camp. for more +the condition that they wouldn't sing | info contact: pashdown@slack.sim.es.com +quite so loudly. | +---------------- |---------------------------------------- +Several years ago two friends pulled | June 19 METAMORPHOSIS II GREENSBORO +an art prank. There was a art show | +going on, my friends took a 2 foot | DJ Darren Greensboro +section of a 2X4 and painted it blue, | DJ Threat Chapel Hill +then drove a 10 penny spike into the | DJ Thomas Velvet in Atlanta +side of it and mounted upright. They | w/special performace by PARIS +named it something odd like "Man's | +Inhumanity to Man". They not only won | West Market Fleat Market +a prize but some fool gave them 100 | 6500 W. Market St. Greensboro, NC +bucks for it. | Call NC Raveline for info + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc019.txt b/religious documents/htomc019.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db3e706 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc019.txt @@ -0,0 +1,652 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +C$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +e$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +n$$$$$$$$$$ $$$Censored$ +s$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +o$$$Banned$ $$$Illegal$$ +r$$$$$$$$$ Issue #19: Summer of Despair special $$$$Ideas$$ +e$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +d$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E +Holy Temple of Mass Consumption F R E E +PO Box 30904 SLACK@ncsu.edu +Raleigh, NC 27622 StarFleet BBS (919) 782-3095 + + +The Only News In The World Worth Mentioning: + + CONGRATS to Dan Savage of "Dan Savage and the Sex Kittens", Raleigh's + best cable access show! Produced right here in Raleigh, NC, it features + interviews and shows by some of the most beautiful girls in the best strip + bars. Despite attempts by the butthead fundamentalists to move his show from + the 10pm slot to midnight, the city council backed down when Dan challenged + them. PUT THIS SHOW ON YOUR TOWN'S PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNEL! For info, call + the Sex Kittens Hotline at (919) 233-2999. + + This show airs on Wednesdays at >>10:00pm<< on Raleigh cable channel 10 + +Buy these COMIX or die: + +**** Post Bros. #31 - Part 3, The Fearborn Thing - Ron and Russ confront the +Fear monster. Ron makes a deal with it to free them, takes the blame for the +earlier assassination, and they get paid. Rip Off Press, PO Box 4686, Auburn, +CA 95604. Ask for the **new** summer catalog with tons of neat new stuff. + +** The Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft - "The Picture in the House" - story of +the unaging cannibal hidden away in a remote New England valley. Lacks +some of the intensity of the original text work, though. Caliber Press + +**** Ren & Stimpy #9, "Native Son" - Shipwrecked, they land on a South +Seas island, where the natives wear Stimpy masks and worship him as a god. +Nice references to "Apocalypse Now". Plus, Marlon Hoek & Jacques Stimpy +do a undersea "Wild Kingdom" episode. One of their best issues in a while. + +**** Urban Legends #1, Dark Horse comics. Illustrated urban legends +including the baby in the microwave, Rod Stewart's trip to the hospital, +and more disgusting episodes by Bagge, Sala, and other artists. + +***** Wild Cartoon Kingdom #1 - Cartoon-oriented magazine. The cover story: +The Ugly Truth behind Nickelodeon's Ren & Stimpy takeover, and how it is +actually little more than part of a general hatred of all cartoons. That +explains why cartoons have been so crappy for so long: the good stuff is +destroyed by corporate goons. For anyone wanting an ugly look inside the +heart of the Conspiracy, this accounting of the Ren & Stimpy tragedy is one +of the best. Plus, a great Peanuts storyboard. Edited by Chris Gore of +"Film Threat", the same (great) sick humor continues. +LFP Inc. 9171 Wilshire Blvd,Ste.300 Beverly Hills CA 90210 <--Larry Flynt!! + + Reserve your seats on the Flying Saucers today! + + Connie Dobbs' Sacred Hotline - 1-900-990-5085 ext. 325 + + You'll fry without it! + + +burp-burp-burp-burp-burp-burp-burp-burp-burp-burp-burp-burp-burp-burp-burp + + +NOTE: The original author of JM:SR has been found!!! and he has actually +changed and continued the story! Wipe your neurons of the stories in the +past 2 issues, and get ready, its.... + + + Jim Morrison: Space Ranger + + by T.Rev hin9@midway.uchicago.edu + + Part 1 + + The shooting had stopped. The jungle quiet was disturbed only by +the sound of huge mosquitos flying through the humid summer air. A +full moon gave Morrison's face a ghastly pall as he reloaded his +Tarantula 9000. The Tarantula was a fine weapon, a .50 caliber +recoilless machine pistol of a type that would not be mass-produced +for another twenty years. + Damn. If only the Viet Cong patrol hadn't shown half an hour +early. Damn. If only he hadn't gotten separated from his squad +during the firefight. Damn. If only anything in the last eighteen +hours hadn't happened. Damn. + Morrison tried to clear his mind by concentrating on the gun. It +was a prototype, a weapon he had rescued from the laboratories of a +dead Ceylonese weaponsmith, and he hadn't been taking proper care of +it. Now, the loading mechanism was jammed, and he didn't have the +tools to repair it. He tried to improvise using his pocketknife, +the one he'd picked up during the Doors' last tour, years before, +but his hands were shaking so badly from malaria and hunger that he +couldn't make any progress. + He worked long into the night, slapping at the mosquitos that +descended in clouds to drink the blood from his exposed arms and +chest. He didn't notice the change in the moonlight as it drifted +from silvery-white to blood-red, until the sound of inhuman voices +nearby caught his attention. + Even after decades of war, or perhaps because of them, there were +things in Southeast Asia that men like Morrison were not meant to +know. Morrison saw the moon, and knew he was in trouble. + He sheathed the broken weapon and rose shakily to his feet. The +voices were louder now. He turned and broke into a trot, trying to +ignore the sick aching in his body. No use. After a few steps, he +faltered, tripped, and fell. He rolled, trying to rise to his feet- +-and he saw them. Black as tar, dripping wet, they were half the +height of a man and twice as wide, and they were roaring like angry +dogs, jaws opened wide and dripping foam. The first one grabbed him +and tossed him into the air like a rag doll. He flew against a tree +and felt his spine snap. The last thing he heard was gunfire. + + "What the hell were those things?" + "No idea. Not important. Morrison is here, like the boss said." + "Is he alive?" + "Does it matter? Get him in the chamber and let's get back to +base." + + Jim Morrison was dreaming. He dreamed that he was back on tour +with the Doors, dropping acid, getting in trouble with the police. +But, for all the sweetness and light normalcy, something was +terribly wrong. Maybe it was the fact that all the police had blank +silver panels where their faces should have been. Maybe it was the +fact that Robbie Krieger kept changing color, like a badly tuned +color TV. Maybe it was that the drugs he took the most were ones +he'd never heard of. Something was wrong. + + Jim Morrison sat up in bed with a start, his body drenched in +sweat and shivering uncontrollably. He felt terribly, violently +ill. His bones ached as if there were sand in the joints. Every +move of his eyes shot red lances of pain into the back of his skull. +His gut twisted with intense nausea. Through the tears welling up +in his eyes, he hazily saw a pipe and a lighter next to his bed. + What the hell. Maybe there's something left in the pipe. With +violently shaking hands, he took the smoking equipment from the +nightstand and lit up the pipe. + One puff and his agony dwindled to a vague uneasiness behind his +temples. The second brought with it a sublime joy that had nothing +to do with physical pleasure, as if Jim had touched the mind of God. + "Shit! What's in that stuff?" he gasped, hastily replacing the +pipe on the nightstand. As his vision cleared, he gave the room he +was in a brief inspection. Aside from the bed and the nightstand, +there was little in the rather cramped room. On the wall in front +of him was a television screen, and to either side of him were large +panels, doors perhaps. A low hum resonated through the room, and +Morrison guessed that he might be on a ship or airplane. + Morrison went through the mental stabilizing exercises he had +learned during his visit to Tibet. + Who was he? + Jim Morrison. + What was he? + Once a poet, a philosopher, and a musician; now just a +landless mercenary. + Where was he? + Not enough information; file away for the moment. + When was he? + The summer of 1974, he assumed; again, not enough +information. + What was the last thing he remembered? + Dying. + + Jim got out of bed, his pain quite gone. What was in that pipe? +He took stock of himself in the reflective surface of the television +screen. He noticed the faint scars that ran from his temples back +past his hairline, and the small metal plate behind his +right ear. What happened to me? + One of the panels slid silently open, and in the doorway stood +Jimi Hendrix. + Morrison should have been stunned. Instead, he only felt a vague +echo of surprise. "Jimi!" exclaimed Morrison. "I thought..." + "...I was dead? I could accuse you of the same thing, man. But, +like," Jimi said, spreading his arms and smiling, "the simple fact +is that I'm alive as you are." His smile seemed genuine, but there +was something subtly wrong with the way he walked, something that +didn't fit with friendly old Jimi. He walked like a jungle cat now, +Morrison realized. Not knowing what to do with the insight, +Morrison responded with a question. + "How much is that?" + "Uh, good question, man. Listen, I know you must have a lot of +questions, but I'm not, like, the person to ask. The reason I came +up here is to invite you to a jam session." + Morrison was taken aback. "But, uh..." + "Hey, calm down. You're safe right now, dig? Hold on a +minute..." Jimi walked over to the TV screen. "Just like I +thought, somebody left this turned off. The computer will explain +everything," said Jimi as he touched a button. "I gotta run. +Later." Jimi left the room. + "Computer?" + "Hi there!" said an unnaturally perky voice from the TV, as an +abstract pattern flickered to life on the screen. + "What the hell is going on?" + "Oh, that's simple. You're on a spaceship." + "A spaceship." Sure. Why not? + "Yup! A spaceship. You're on tour, okay, on tour, with you and +Jimi and Keith and everyone else!" + "On tour." + "Yeah!" continued the computer breathlessly. "And, um, also you +gotta do some...special...things. For Bob." + "Bob. Check." + "Bob's the guy who owns this ship and he's the guy who saved you +and Jimi and everyone else. So, that's the short version. Can you +dig it, Jim?" + "I guess." + "Great! You have a gig tonight and you gotta come down and +learn the set they're doing. Just follow the big blue dot!" On +cue, a glowing electric blue sphere appeared, floating at waist +level by the door. + "Yeah. Sure." + As he left, the lights in the ceiling went out, and the only +illumination was provided by the eerie green glow of the pipe. + + Jim Morrison woke from a dream of formless shapes and impossible +geometries. Blinking and squinting, he focused on the thing that +had awakened him--a strobelike pulsing from the video unit that +knifed through the darkness of the room. As he sat up in bed, the +pulsing stopped, and was replaced by a message: + GOOD MORNING MR. MORRISON. YOUR ATTENDANCE IS REQUESTED AT A +MISSION BRIEFING. PLEASE PREPARE YOURSELF AND WHEN YOU ARE READY +PLEASE FOLLOW THE BIG BLUE DOT. + Morrison stared at it contemptuously. + AS IF YOU CARED, THERE WILL BE COFFEE AND DOUGHNUTS AT THE +BRIEFING. HAVE A NICE DAY. + "Fuck off," Morrison said cheerily. Actually, he was feeling +almost unnaturally good, considering how long he'd jammed with Jimi +and the boys and how long they'd been drinking afterward. Just the +faintest headache. It wouldn't do, however, to be polite to a +computer. + He got out of bed, stretched, and jumped into the shower. +Several minutes later he was dressed and ready to leave the room. +As he walked through the doorway, the blue light floated away from +him, as if it was supposed to lead him somewhere. Shrugging his +shoulders, he followed. It led him down several hallways, where he +passed several men and women. The only one he recognized was Janis +Joplin, but she didn't seem to recognize him, so he walked on. The +light led him into an elevator that also seemed to know where to go, +back out, and finally into a small auditorium. + Jimi Hendrix was already there, in the front row, sitting next to +a table on which strange guns and less identifiable objects were +placed. Keith Moon was standing near the back, admiring a painting +on the wall. Hendrix motioned Morrison over. + "Hey, man," said Hendrix. "Sit and learn." + "From what?" asked Morrison. + "From that," Hendrix said, pointing at a large screen set into +the front wall. The screen was dark. + "It's dark, Jimi." + "Yeah, uh, watch." + Morrison squinted. "Is this one of those Zen questions?" + Hendrix pondered the question. "No, uh, watch." + Before Morrison could respond, the screen flickered to life. A +face dominated the screen. The face was of a distinguished-looking +man, blandly middle American, grinning, smoking a pipe. It was +obviously a puppet of some sort. The lips moved. The voice was +full and rich and tinged with arrogance, but had an artificial +quality. + Hendrix waved at the screen. "Hi Bob!" + "Hi there. I'm sure you're wondering what I'd like you to do." + "Yeah, like, tell us and we'll get with it, you know?" drawled +Hendrix. + Morrison quickly glanced over his shoulder to see what Moon was +doing. Moon flashed him a tight-lipped smile and Morrison stared +back at the screen. + "Well, okay, I need you to get a rather special artificial +intelligence from a research station on Sirius. Your cover, as +usual, will be as the New Jimi Hendrix Experience." + "Right, Bob." Moon approached the front of the auditorium. +"Tell us where it is, I'll get us in, Jim and Jimi will take care of +the guards. What else do we need?" + "You're going to need an Archetype." The capital letter was +audible. + Moon hissed. "No, not Jerry! Damn you, Bob, too many people die +when Cornelius is involved. Can't we do this without him?" + "Without Jerry Cornelius, we'll never get it. We need him. +That's the truth." + "I'm pleased to hear it." Jerry's voice was sardonic as he +entered the room rather theatrically and closed the door behind him. + Jim Morrison looked him over. He was very tall, and that pale +face, framed by the hair, resembled Morrison's own. His black eyes +did not seem at all kindly. + Jerry strolled toward the front of the auditorium. "This is +heavenly. What a smashing way to finish. Or begin." + Morrison's headache worsened. + Hendrix searched through the pile of weapons and equipment on the +table. He handed a small machine pistol and a battered plastic case +with inscriptions in Japanese and English to Moon, and a chrome dart +gun and a neatly folded black car coat to Jerry. For himself, he +took a modified gauss rifle. Its complicated sighting mechanism was +connected by a tangle of fiberoptic lines to a pair of silvered +goggles that he hung around his neck. To Morrison, he handed a +fragile-looking crystal and chrome gun, about the size of an AK-47. + "What's this?" Morrison asked sullenly. + "'Sa gun, luv," said Jerry. Morrison ignored him, stared at +Hendrix. + "What's this?" he repeated. + "That's the best weapon we got on the ship, man. That's a +Slampire V pulser. Use that on someone, you'll burn a hole in them, +and they'll get the worst case of, like, bad karma you ever seen." + Morrison hefted it. "What do I do with it?" + Hendrix smiled happily. "Blow up the bad guys. Handles like an +Uzi." + Morrison thought a moment. Sure. He'd been a mercenary before. +This Bob, whoever he was, saved Morrison's life. Why not? "What +bad guys?" + "Whoever Bob tells us to blow up." + "Moral absolutism!" clucked Jerry. "Oh, dear. What will I ever +do with you, Mr Hendrix?" + "Hey, Bob? We got a trank for Oscar Wilde here?" asked Moon, +gesturing toward Jerry. + Bob ignored him. "So, gentlemen, and Jerry," he continued, "the +full details of your mission can be found in the dossiers the +computer is about to print out for you. You have one week to plan +and prepare. Goodbye." + And the screen went dead. + + --end of part 1-- + + + [Appropriate graphics here] + + +******************************************************************************* + + SUNDAY JULY 4th, 1993 + + INHALE TO THE CHIEF + [Miscellaneous + +The 24th annual Washington D.C. hemp rally. + (a white house tradition) + graphics + + HIGH NOON + + all over + LAFAYETTE PARK + + the page + ---and--- + + in the + The 1993 NORML CONCERT ON THE MALL + + hardcopy + 4pm - MIDNIGHT + + version + 23'rd & CONSTITUTION AVENUE, NW + + only] + Featuring: + + Everything + + Blue Miricle + + Blind + + SEE-I + + and `special guests' + + + SPONSORED BY THE FOURTH OF JULY HEMP COALITION + + + Both events will feature speakers from across + the hemp/marijuana movement. + + For more information, contact: + + The July 4th Hemp Coalition at (202) 363-0068 + + or + + NORML at (900)-97-NORML + + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + + + D R A G O N * C O N + + & Atlanta Comics Expo + + + America's Largest Annual Convention + + for fans of: + + Science Fiction + Fantasy - Horror + Games - Comics + Film - Animation + Art & Lots More + + + July 16-18, 1993 + + Atlanta Hilton + + Atlanta, Georgia + + + Over 200 Featured Guests include: + + Ben Bova Clifford Stoll Huge Dealer's Room + Robert Bloch Roy Thomas Art Show & Print Shop + Terry Brooks Margaret Weis Amateur Video Festival + Peter David Tracy Hickman Live Role-Playing + Stan Lee and Writer's Workshops + Brian Lumley Ren & Stimpy's Film Screenings & More + Olivia Bob Camp & + Keith Parkinson Bill Wray + Fred Olen Ray and in concert: The Screamin' Lederhosen + + + Dragon*Con/ACE '93 $40 for 3 days Atlanta Hilton (404) 659-2000 + Box 47696 membership at door Atlanta Hyatt (404) 577-1234 + Atlanta, GA 30362 Ramada Hotel (404) 659-2727 + + Info: (404) 925-2813 This is a HToMC sanctioned event + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + C O N V E N T I O N S + + +July 2-4, 1993 (California, Northern) + + ANIME EXPO. Oakland Convention Center/Parc Oakland Hotel, Oakland, CA; + (510)451-4000; rms $62 sngl, $69 dbl, $75 tpl, $81 quad. Guests: Scott + Frazier, Hiroyuki Kitazume, Makoto Kobayashi, Michitaka Kikuchi. SF + Convention with emphasis on Japanese Anime. Memb: $40 until 6/1/93, $45 + at door (no memberships accepted between 6/15 and 7/4). Info: anime + Expo, c/o The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, 2425 B. + Channing Way, Suite 684, Burbank, CA 94704; email: shogun@sutro.sfsu.edu. + +July 2-4, 1993 (Indiana) + + INCONJUNCTION 13. Adam's Mark Hotel, Indianapolis, IN. GoH: David + Drake; AGoH: Patricia Davis; TM: Arlan Andrews. Info: Inconjunction 13, + Box 19776, Indianapolis, IN 46219; (317)839-5519. + +July 2-4, 1993 (Texas) + + TEX-TREK '93. Arlington Marriott & Arlington Convention Center, 1500 + Stadium Drive East, Arlington, TX 76011; (800)442-7275. Star Trek + convention. Guests: Colm Meaney, Grace Lee Whitney, George Takei, Bjo + Trimble, Walter Irwin, Shane Johnson, Lucy Synk, John Vornholt, Jamie + Murray, more. Events include a breakfast with the stars (additional + fee), Alien ambassador's ball (additional fee), live performances, + masquerade, art auction, UFO seminars, games, contests, role-playing, + pool parties, videos, filking, dealer's room and more. Memb: $35 + (children $15). Info: Tex-Trek '93, PO Box 353, Lillian, TX 76061. + +July 2-5, 1993 (Washington) + + WESTERCON 46. Red Lion, Holiday Inn, & Hilton Hotels, Bellevue WA; + (206)455-1300; rms $85. GoH: Greg Bear; AGoH: George Barr; FGoHs: F.M. + & Elinor Busby, Wally Weber, Wally Gonser; TM: George Alec Effinger. + Memb: $45 until 5/31/93, $55 after; $20 supporting. Info: Westercon 46, + Box 24292, Seattle WA 98124; (206)742-8943; email: wc46@kolvir.uucp, + 72450.2374@compuserve.com. + +July 9-11, 1993 (Colorado) + + IV-KHAN. Holiday Inn North, Colorado Springs, CO. GoH: John E. Stith; + TM: Edward Bryant. Memb: $15 in advance, $20 at door. Info: IV-KHAN, + c/o Penny Tegen, 2926 Valarie Cr.,Colorado Springs, CO 80917; (719)597-5259 + +July 9-11, 1993 (Maryland) + + SHORE LEAVE 15. Marriott's Hunt Valley Inn, Hunt Valley, Maryland; + (410)785-7000; rms $74. GoHs: Robin Curtis, Rene Auberjonois, Robert + O'Reilly; FGoH: Bjo and John Trimble; Guests: Peter David, Brad + Ferguson, Michael Jan Friedman, Bob Greenberger, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, + Arne Starr, Howard Weinstein, Joan Winston. Memb: $40 (children $10), + additional fees for various workshops. Mail-in registration deadline + 5/31/93, membership limited to 1500 people. Info: Shore Leave 15, P.O. + Box 6809, Towson, MD 21285-6809; (410)821-5563 (24-hour infoline). + +July 9-11, 1993 (Massachusetts) + + READERCON 6. Worcester Marriott, 10 Lincoln Square, Worcester, MA; + (508)791-1600; rms $70 sngl, $75 dbl/tpl, $80 quad, $125 suite. GoHs: + Brian Aldiss, Judith Merrill; Spiritual Guest of Honor: H.G. Wells. SF + convention devoted solely to books. No media, no customes. Memb: $23 + until 5/24/93, $30 after. Info: Readercon, PO Box 381246, Cambridge, MA + 02238; (508)643-2247. + +July 9-12, 1993 (Tennessee) + + LIBERTYCON 7. Comfort Hotel River Center, Chattanooga TN. GoH: Michael + McCollum; SGoH: John Maddox Roberts; AGoH: Mark Fults; TM: Wilson "Bob" + Tucker. Limited to 450 attendees. Memb: $25 to 6/15. then $35. Info: + Libertycon 7, Box 695, Hixson TN 37343. + +July 16-18, 1993 (Georgia) DON'T MISS THIS ONE + + DRAGONCON '93/ACE '93. Atlanta Hilton and Towers, Atlanta, GA; rms $95 + sngl/dbl, $125 tpl/quad; (404)659-2000. Guest: Robert Bloch, Ben Bova, + Terry Brooks, Nancy Collins, Roger Corman, Patricia Kennealy, Joe R. + Lansdale, Stan Lee, Keith Parkinson, Clifford Stoll, Charles N. Brown, + Steve Jackson, Brad Linaweaver, Julius Schwartz, Brad Strickland, many + more. Sf convention including Locus Magazine Awards, Costume contest, + Art Show, Dealer's Room, Video Room, Film Previews, Writer's Workshop, + Medieval Combat Demonstrations, Dances, Role-Playing, Locus Awards + Banquet, more. Memb: $35 until 6/14/93, $40 after. Info: Dragon Con + '93, Box 47696, Atlanta, GA 30362-0696; (404)925-2813. + +July 16-18, 1993 (Pennsylvania) + + CONFLUENCE '93. Palace Inn, Monroeville (Pittsburgh), PA. Guests: John + Barnes, John DeChancie, Julia Ecklar, Ted Reynolds, William Tenn, Kenneth + VonGunden, Robin Wood, "Lan" Laskowski, more. Memb: $20 until 7/1/93, $25 + after. Info: Confluence '93,Box 3681,Pittsburgh,PA 15230-3861; (412)344-0456 + +July 16-18, 1993 (Canada, Alberta) + + CONVERSION 10. Marlborough Inn, Calgary AB, Canada. GoHs: L. Sprague & + Catherine Crook de Camp. Memb: C$40. Info: Conversion 10, Box 1088, + Stn. M, Calgary AB T2P 2K9, Canada. + +July 16-18, 1993 (Canada, New Brunswick) + + KINGCON. Delta Brunswick Hotel, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. + Memb: $20 in advance, $25 at door. Info: Kingcon, MPO Box 1212, Saint + John, N.B. Canada E2L 4G7; email: brian.mcgee@acadiau.ca. + +July 23-25, 1993 (New Jersey) + + PHROLICON 9. Clarion Hotel, Rt. 73 at I-295, Mt. Laurel, NJ; + (609)234-7300; rms $68, $78 with jacuzzi. GoH: Craig Shaw Gardner. + Relaxacon featuring art show, dealer's room, filking, videos, gaming, + more. Memb: $20 until 7/10/93, $25 after. Info: Phrolicon 9, P.O. Box + 42195, Philadelphia, PA 19101-2195. + +July 23-25, 1993 (New Jersey) + + DEXCON 2. Holiday Inn Jetport, 1000 Spring St., Elizabeth, NJ; + (908)355-1700; rms $75. Gaming convention featuring live role-playing + games. Memb: $28 until 7/5/93, $35 after; additional fees for live + role-playing. Info: Dexcon, P.O. Box 3594, Grand Central Station, New + York, NY 10163; (718)881-4575. + +July 23-25, 1993 (Wisconsin) + + CONGENIAL V. Quality Inn South, Madison WI; rms $51. GoHs: Phyllis + Eisenstein, Fred Levy-Haskell, Steven Brust. Relaxacon. Memb: $20 + until 7/4/93, $25 after. Info: Congenial V, Box 44146, Madison WI + 53744-4146. + +July 23-25, 1993 (Canada, Ontario) + + TORONTO TREK VII. Regal Constellation Hotel, Toronto, Canada. Guests: + George Takei, Barbara Hambly, Marina Sirtis, Julia Ecklar, more. Memb: + C$35 until 6/30/93, C$40 after. Info: TORONTO TREK, Suite 0116, Box + 187, 65 Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5J 1E6 Canada; + (416)699-4666. + +July 30-August 2, 1993 (Minnesota) + + MYTHCON XXIV. Minneapolis East Bank campus of the University of + Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN. GoHs: Jane Yolen, Carol + Kendall; Keynote Speaker: Jack Zipes. Theme: Children's fantasy. Memb: + $45 until 5/31/93, $50 after. Info: The Mythcon XXIV Committee, Attn: + Joan Verba, Corresponding Entity, PO Box 1363, Minnetonka, MN 55345; + (612) 292-8887 (David or Jo Ann); email: d-lene@vm1.spcs.umn.edu or + d-lena@uminn1.bitnet or 70451.2545@compuserve.com. + +July 31-August 1, 1993 (Michigan) + + BACCHANAL 2. Lake Orion, MI. Relaxacon. Info: Bacchanal '93, Box 414, + Lake Orion MI 48361; (313)693-5543. + +July 30-August 1, 1993 (Rhode Island) + + NECON 13. Bryant College, Smithfield RI. GoHs: Ellen Datlow, Gahan + Wilson; AGoH: Rick Lieder; SGoH: Kathe Koja; TM: Matthew Costello; Memb: + $160 sngl/ $142 per person dbl (includes room and meals), $35 commuters. + Info: NECon, Box 528. E. Greenwich RI 02818; (401)823-3242. + +////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// + +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ** ZINES send to the Sacred PO Box: ** +@@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@^ ~^ @ @@ @ @ @ I ~^@@@@@@ Newsletter Part Deux from Boredom Inc.- +@@@@@ ~ ~~ ~I @@@@@ new stories, interviews, and all sorts +@@@@' ' _,w@< @@@@ of things you didn't know but should. +@@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ Send interesting stuff to them. Write to +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ 884 South 630 West, Alpine UT 84004 +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | ]@@@ Skeptical Inquirer, Summer 1993 - +@@@@ ~_,,_ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ this time they go after the notion that +@@@@ _~ , , `@@@~ _ _`@ ]L J@@@ the right hemisphere of the brain is the +@@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ "mystical" part. Plus, they go after +@@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ shoddy science textbooks, bad science, +@@@@@_|| @@@@@@P' @@P@@@@@@@@@@@[|c@@@@ false memory syndrome, and an interview +@@@@@@w| '@@P~ P]@@@-~, ~Y@@^'],@@@@@@ with the "Star Hustler". +@@@@@@@[ _ _J@@Tk ]]@@@@@@ Box 703, Buffalo NY 14226-0703 +@@@@@@@@,@ @@, c,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@@@ i @w ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ "CONSPIRACY" by Tony Alamo - The whole +@@@@@@@@@@`,P~ _ ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ story of how the Catholic church and the +@@@@^^=^@@^ ^' ,ww,w@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Cult Awareness Network are behind all +@@@_xJ~ ~ , @@@@@@@P~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ the evil nastiness in the world. First- +@@ @, ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ class ranting, plus he won the court +@@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ case that tried to repress him! +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + | Death to "Bob" #1 - Expose of the Church +For hardcopy w/graphics, send SASE to:| of the SubGenius, urging us to turn it + | back into a real, weird, throbbing + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption | *movement*. Well, we're trying. Plus, + PO Box 30904 | extra conspiracy/weird stuff. Weirdos + Raleigh, NC 27622 | Unite! Write to them at: MIT Room 50-309 + | 77 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge MA 02139 +For ezine version, mail: | + | "Meet the Enemy" - booklet on President + Slack@ncsu.edu to get on list | Clinton, "meet the man who wants control + quartz.rutgers.edu - back | over your life." Short, but maybe right + issues (128.6.60.6) | Info Panic, Hampshire College Box 728 + | Amherst, MA 01002 +--------------------------------------| +************************************* | Karkus Ratus #3-hard-drinking, trouble- +>>> NC Rave Line - (919) 574-2555 <<< | ridden clown predates Shakes the Clown +************************************* | by 3 years, but without much of the hard + -- temporarily out of order -- | edge. Mostly puns, 10-page comic book +--------------------------------------| from K.D. Schmitz, R.D. 4, Box 217 +Crave productions (UK, Canada, USA) | Pleasant Valley NY 12569, $1.00 +brings you `----------------------------------------- + +UNITY 93 ATTRACTIONS + +Saturday July 3, 1993 o Unique multi-level dance platforms +8:00pm-8:00am o Virtual reality screen + o 120 foot long by 1-1/2 story high stage +World Wide Info: 1-800-265-3091 o Crave dancers +Or in Metro Toronto: (416)631-4666 o The high energy super-fruity smart bar + o Concession stands and merchandise +OVERVIEW o Hot and cold food + o Ambient chill-out rooms and a green room +150 Kilowatts of 3D matrix surro o Fireworks +Biggest Light Show in North America o Fruit and citrus bar +three 20W multicoloured 3-D lasers o Glow-sticks +State of the art computerized visuals + +o $22.50 in advance <--- strongly advised +o $27.00 at the door or at the double decker bus meeting point. +o Bussing services from out of country/Hotel accomodation at reduced cost + call, leave name and information, will call back. + diff --git a/religious documents/htomc020.txt b/religious documents/htomc020.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9226560 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/htomc020.txt @@ -0,0 +1,673 @@ +From: aiken@unity.ncsu.edu (Wayne NMI Aiken) +Date: 22 Jul 93 05:31:04 GMT +Newsgroups: alt.slack,alt.discordia,talk.bizarre,alt.zines +Subject: HToMC #20 + +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +C$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +e$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +n$$$$$$$$$$ $$$Censored$ +s$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +o$$$Banned$ $$$Illegal$$ +r$$$$$$$$$ Issue #20: Illegal in 12 countries $$$$Ideas$$ +e$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +d$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E +Holy Temple of Mass Consumption F R E E +PO Box 30904 SLACK@ncsu.edu +Raleigh, NC 27622 StarFleet BBS (919) 782-3095 + +DragonCon '93 SPECIAL COLLECTOR'S ISSUE + +One of the biggest attractions of this year's con is Bob Camp and Bill Wray, +current producers of the Ren & Stimpy show. Yet, this may turn out to be one +of the most controversial of all of the events. I'm sure that by now, everyone +is aware of the sleazy, underhanded way that Nickelodeon has handled the whole +affair. For one of the best accounts of this, see the recent Wild Cartoon +Kingdom magazine, or ask Chris Gore yourself. The whole point is: why wait +until now to begin promoting R&S? The general concensus on the streets is +going straight downhill; even the best opinion is that the show "has definitely +lost its edge." LOTS of people, who once faithfully watched re-run after +re-run, now no longer bother to watch the new episodes. The hundreds of campus +R&S clubs which instantly sprang up have since disbanded, and the show that +once gained instant cult status now appears headed to the living-death nether- +world of bland corporate cartoons. + +As for Bob Camp, there are some who would brand him a traitor, or worse, for +aiding and abetting the coporate goons who wrecked the most inspired cartoon +in recent memory. On the other hand, I can certainly understand the need to +pay the rent, as well as advance in one's career. And I can also understand +-and admire- the desire to keep a good thing going, by whatever means. If +anything, perhaps the only thing that Camp should be blamed for is bad +judgement; the venom should be reserved for the real villains: Nickelodeon. +True Ren & Stimpy fans have been betrayed. What made the show great was John +Kricfalusi and Spumco as a whole; take it apart and you lose the show. Like +article said, R&S without John K. is like wanting to see The Little Tramp, but +without Charlie Chaplin. Despite a valiant effort by Camp, the show is slowly +disintegrating. THE MORAL: This is PRECISELY the end result to be expected +when the corporate censors are in charge of dictating stories. + + + Nickelodeon Corporate Censor-Approved R&S Script + ------------------------------------------------ + + "Porch Pals" + +[The scene opens with Ren and Stimpy in rocking chairs on a porch...] + +Stimpy: "Lemonade?" +Ren: "Please." +Stimpy: "I made it just for you." +Ren: "You are my best friend." [Drinks.] "Mmmm... This really + hits the spot." +Stimpy: "Mm, doesn't it though?" +Ren: "You make really good lemonade, Steempy." +Stimpy: "Ha, ha, ha. Thank you, Ren." + + *End of cartoon. Everybody watching turns off the tv and goes outside + to play. + [thanks to Boeky Whaley] + + +XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX + + Ignore these COMIX at your own risk + +**** Cherry's Jubilee #3 - Other artists do their interpretations of Cherry +Poptart. Includes strips by Leslie Sternbergh, Grass Green, Dan Fogel & +Duke Roosevelt, plus one by Larry Welz. Cherry Comics/Kitchen Sink Press +320 Riverside, Northampton MA 01060 + +*** Hacker Files - Showdown 2.0 - Hacker and his gang invade the central AI +operations of the Digitronix conspiracy. The AI has gotten completely out +of control, and even the bad guys want it shut down. Hacker, using a virtual +reality interface, lures the evil program into a Wild West simulation and traps +it there forever. Nice graphics, although the story is a bit too much like the +story in "Tron". And, since this is a DC comic, there are also gratuitous +super heroes, which are COMPLETELY unnecessary to this entire series. + +*** The Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft: Dagon part 1 of 2 - A quite good, +suspenseful adaptation of one of Lovecraft's early stories. By far the best +comic of this Lovecraft series so far, this one has that obvious, "eerie feel" +to it. Caliber Press 621-B S. Main St. Plymouth MI 48170 + +*** Savage Henry #27 - Henry is captured by a rich music collector who traps +him in a "zoo" for space musicians along with Klaus Schulze, the German +composer. They escape, and get the perfect revenge on the audiophile. +Rip Off Press PO Box 4686 Auburn, CA 95604 + +**** Dork #1 - Collection of great, miscellanous cartoons by Evan Dorkin, +including The Murder Family, Fisher-Price Theatre (great!), Milk and Cheese +Slave Labor Graphics, 983 S Bacom Ave. 95128 + +***** Tank Girl 2 - part 1 of 4 - The return of Tank Girl! After escaping +from the insane asylum, she returns to her beer-drinking, anarchistic ways. +Plus Jet Girl, and a take-off on Starsky & Hutch. Don't miss this 2nd series +if you missed the first. Dark Horse Comics, 10956 SE Main St. Milwaukie OR + +**** Weirdo #15 - the outrageous comic collection is back, edited by Peter +Bagge. This one has comix by J.D. King, S. Clay Wilson, Richard Crumb, Kim +Deitch, and others. Plus results of the Ugly Art Contest. Last Gasp comics + +**** Weirdo #16 - more comics by Mark A. Zingarelli, Drew Friedman, Richard +Crumb, D.P. Eichhorn, Dianne Noomin, David Collier, Kim Deitch, and more. +Also a great article on Punk Magazine, produced from 76-79. Last Gasp. + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + Zines [sent to the Sacred PO Box] + +Prometheus Books - Spring/Summer 1993 catalog, with hundreds of books on +skepticism, freethought, philosophy, health, science and more. Plus, it +is a source for "The Mask of Nostradamus", James Randi's new book exploring +the alleged prophecies of Nostradamus. (like the recent non-earthquake in LA) +Prometheus Books, 59 John Glen Dr. Buffalo, NY 14228-2197 800-421-0351 + +Trigger Cut #4 - feature BBS listings, "Jade Statue" story about the sad state +of the music scene, new Jello formulas, music reviews, and other ramblings. +PO Box 891 N. Olmsted, OH 44070 - #5 should be out in late Aug/early Sept. + +&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*& + +MR. AND MRS. P. H. +================== +by James "Kibo" Parry + + "I'm melting! I'm melting!" screamed Mr. Potato Head right after the +first blast. The mushroom cloud was already looming orange on the +horizon as Mrs. P. H. threw a bucket of water on him. It was too late. +His body had distorted and his facial features were fused to the brown +mass. His arms were white puddles on the floor. He sobbed into his +beloved wife's plastic '60s hairdo. + "None of the kids will love me now! I'm all El Greco-esque! Worse, +I'm Dalified! I'm gross, I'm hideous!" + "Honey, don't think of it that way. Look at the bright side. Now you +glow in the dark!" + He tried to put on a happy face, but the frown was welded to his skin. +"Why, gosh, you're right! I suppose I just might be even more appealing +to children of all ages now! Thank you, dear--that made me feel swell! +But--uh oh!" + "What is it, snookums?" + "My big blue sneakerfeet are permanently fused to our avocado-green +linoleum! How will the kidlets play with me if I can't leave home?" + "Gee, sweetheart, I don't know. Maybe I could borrow a plastic knife +from the Play-Doh Fun Factory next door and amputate." + "Wow! That would be super of you, dear!" + She ran off to get the precision instrument, returning in a few +seconds. Mr. P. H. could hardly wait. + "What was it like outside, snuggles? Was the Earth all devastated and +icky?" + "I'm afraid so, dear. It looks like our army lost the nuclear +war--G.I. Joe, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Transformers, even +Bazooka Joe seem to have been reduced to pools of glowing slag." + Mr. P. H. burst into tears. She began to saw off his feet. + Outside, the real potatoes opened their eyes. + +(THE END) + + + [Really cool graphic picture here] + + +VvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvV + + Jim Morrison: Space Ranger part 2 + + by T. Rev + + + At 0300 they were going to hit the domes. + At 3100 they hit the stage. They hit it late. Very late. A +thirty-two hour day will do that to you. + Cornelius came out first. He strapped on the six-string bass +with a contemptuous flourish and laid down a blues riff he'd +originally written for `You can't do that', twelve years ago and +half the Milky Way away. + Moon walked out then, picked up the rhythm, pushing it forward +with a stuttering, impatient point-counterpoint on snare and +cymbals. + Hendrix came in on guitar, which was strange, for no one had seen +him take the stage; they expected some dramatic entrance, perhaps. +But Hendrix had given that up. All he wanted to do was play, and +play well. + But the music was not alive until Morrison went to the +microphone, and then it was as if he had filled the club with dark +radiance, his eyes burning with a controlled madness. + A sideways glance, a feral sneer, a wave of his hand, and the +others took his energy and carried it along. Meanwhile, Morrison +cradled the microphone like a lover, his eyes heavy-lidded, his body +swaying gently. He began to speak: + "Green eyed lady + Taste of copper + Crawl on the sand + Shed our skin..." + A burst of enthusiastic chattering splashed from the audience. +Something about the local life form had given the words an +unexpected significance. Morrison looked up, curious; he realized +what had happened, smiled, and sang again. Words blended into +music, music into passion, passion into madness, and Morrison led +the savage parade. + They performed old Doors songs; old Hendrix, Dylan, and Deep Fix; +and finally an extended blues Jam, with Morrison's improvised lyrics +a Dionysian centerpiece. The audience howled and rocked and slapped +their limbs against their backs. They hadn't had this much fun +since Bonham, Rhoads and Scott had visited their outpost. + And then, it was over. The lights went up, the curtain fell, and +the magic fled. Hoots of approval came from the packed club, and +Morrison walked, dreamily, toward the curtain and the audience +beyond, until Moon grasped him firmly by the shoulder. + "Jim," he said gently, "we have work to do." + Morrison looked at Moon, stunned--then doubled up and vomited +violently onto the stage. + At 0330 they hit the domes. They hit them late. + + Moon peered over the edge of the dune towards the domes. He +paused a few times to transfer information from the nightscope to +his computer deck. The others sat in the darkness with their backs +to the dune, gripping their weapons. + Morrison stared at his rifle, turning it this way and that in the +moonlight, watching the light filter through the crystal. Once +again, he was caught up in something he didn't understand. Was he +responsible? He had been around the world, he had killed men, all +in trying to understand what that word meant. Now he was here, on +another world, ready to kill again, and he still didn't know. It +wasn't right action he was concerned with, but whether action was +right at all. He had had a long discussion with a holy man in Tibet +on that count. The man taught him a few interesting card tricks, +but they never had come to any real conclusions. A few weeks after +Morrison left Tibet, he heard that the Chinese had had the old man +shot for 'subversive activities'. Morrison found the incident an +interesting counterpoint to the romanticism he was sometimes prone +to. Art did not, apparently, cover such things. + Defining the problem seemed as difficult as solving it; he +couldn't even prove to himself that it needed solving. He hated +the idea of following orders, though. So what was he doing here? +Why was he taking orders from this Bob person? + Maybe it was just something to do, to keep from getting lost in +his own mind. He'd done that for a few months, rotting from the +inside in a bathtub in Paris. That was why he'd faked his death, +and become a soldier. There was no time to contemplate suicide in +the face of murder. But that was fading, and he found himself +facing the familiar horrors once more. As above, so below. + "I've got the final projections," said Moon. "Let's move." + + Snapshots from Hell: + Frame 1: + A man wearing a black uniform, white piping, silhouetted against +the night, chest slightly distorted by a crystal-slivered spray of +yellow light where the bullets are hitting his force-screen. +Slightly puzzled expression. + Frame 2: The guard's chest explodes inward in an oily black +shower. Expression unchanged. + + Hendrix ran from the back gate across the brightly lit courtyard +toward a small black building. Stopping in its shadow for a moment, +he scanned the area quickly, then motioned toward Morrison and Moon. +>From the other end of the compound came the boom of Cornelius's +shaped charges and the crackle of gunfire. The security would be +occupied for at least a few minutes. Moon dashed across the +courtyard, terminal case clutched tightly under one arm; Morrison +covered him, then ran across himself. + "Hey, Moonboy," panted Hendrix. "What are these crazy humans +doing on this planet, anyway? They're not the home-grown four-armed +music lovers we just left." + Moon glanced at him with a tight smile. "Where else would +CabalCo put a research project like this? This is a backwards +planet. No electronics more sophisticated than the Marshall amp. +Offworld spies would give themselves away. Easy to maintain +security. Why do you think we're taking a goddamned computer +program by force?" + There was a rumble of thunder above the gunfire. A wall of rain +swept over the compound, the patter undercutting the crackle of +bullets. + "Good. More distractions," said Hendrix. He cut from the cover +of the building deeper into the compound. Moon and Morrison +followed. + "This is the building," announced Moon. "Getting in shouldn't be +a problem." He pulled out a small metal drill and started removing +a plate in the wall. "Getting to our objective may be. I don't +actually know where the computers are. I'll know when I see them." +He removed the panel, exposing an anonymous jumble of cables and +fibers. He opened up the terminal case and pulled out some oblong +pieces of wire mesh attached to red metal lines. He attached one +with gold alligator clips to a grayish box tucked behind the tangle, +and the other to a similar black box. + "Watch the door," he said. + + Three low musical tones and the doors slid apart, the whisper +drowned out by the sounds of rainfall and gunplay. Another second +and they were through the door, Morrison, Hendrix, and Moon, and it +shut behind them, leaving them in a darkened corridor. The noise +outside was muffled here, competing with the efficient hum of hidden +cooling units. + Hendrix stepped away from the doorway into the open, pivoting +smoothly and quickly in a full circle before stopping in the center +of the floor. Dim blue light from the fiberoptic lines at his +temples traced jittering lines on the walls. + He gave a quick, sharp nod toward one end of the hall, and dashed +to the first junction. Moon followed. Morrison, rear guard, took +Hendrix's position in the hall near the door, until Hendrix had +moved again. They continued in this way for fifteen minutes--run- +stop-look-run--down halls and stairs and tunnels, until they stood +outside a thick door. + Moon nodded, produced a dull-gray sphere with two prongs covered +in red plastic. He pulled off the plastic sleeves and pressed the +prongs near the electronic lock. The door opened inward with a hum. + "Seems they discovered solid state before the wheel," he +remarked. + Beyond the door lay a huge room, lit with a rich, diffuse golden +glow. Glittering banks of lights lay at the edges of the room. +Moon smirked. + "Contact." + As Moon boldly entered the room, though, the light changed, going +from gold to silver, then fading almost to nothing. Then Hendrix +spoke. + "Hey, uh..." Hendrix looked confused. "What the hell am I +doing here?" he suddenly shouted, tearing the lines from his +forehead and throwing them and the rifle into a corner. "See you +later, man." And he stalked away into the dark. + "Jimi!" shouted Morrison in shock. He turned back to Moon. +"What..." Then Morrison saw the disappointed but unsurprised look +in Moon's eyes. + "He has a point, you know," said Moon with a sigh. "None of this +makes any sense." And with a shrug, Moon exploded upwards in a +spray of light. + Morrison's hand flew reflexively to his eyes as Moon's image +burned into his retinas. Blinded, in shock, Morrison sank to his +knees, then sat heavily on the concrete floor, blinking. But his +training asserted itself, even though he hadn't practiced the mental +exercises since Tibet, and his mind cleared before his vision did. + "Goddamn sonofaFUCK A PIG!" Not the incantation for banishing +spirits of fear, but good enough to focus his ki. He rolled to the +closest spot of cover--a box near the door which was slightly bigger +than he was. Then, his vision returned, he surveyed the room again. +The lights at the other side of the room were gone, as was the +unearthly glow. In fact, the room resembled nothing more than a +run-down warehouse. + He looked back through the door. Beyond lay a rain-slick street, +a Seven-Eleven sign cutting through the gloom. + He was in a run-down warehouse. + He stood, stiffly bringing himself to his full height. He walked +across the street and entered the store. In the garish florescent +light, the slurpee machine, the cheap beer, the cans of Dinty Moore +stew all seemed far more real than the ordeal he'd just been +through. He picked up a newspaper. THE PHILADELPHIA ENQUIRER. +JULY 19, 1987. It wasn't over, then. To Morrison, it was late +1974. And Philadelphia wasn't a city he cared to be in. Out in the +street, five cop cars came screaming by. Morrison counted. None of +them stopped. + He paid for the newspaper, and left the store. With only the +vaguest of plans, he walked around the warehouse, surveying it, +hoping to find Jimi, or some clue about what had just happened. It +began to rain again. Morrison didn't notice. + + On the other side of the warehouse, he found Jerry Cornelius. He +was sprawled crazily in the alleyway, half his face blown off. +Rainwater was collecting in the hollow around the other eye, running +down the side of his face like tears. + Morrison was surprised at the depth of his sorrow for the dead +man. In his own way, Jerry was just looking for a good time. +Morrison had been like that, once. Or maybe not. Maybe Jerry had +been trying to get killed all along. Then he and Morrison had that +in common, instead. + Morrison looked up, and for the first time noticed the rain. He +needed someplace to go. He checked his pockets. The knife he'd +picked up during the Doors's last tour. Some fake ID, that was ten +years out of date, and said he was a combat medic for the US 10th +Army. Keys to his apartment in Paris. He thought about his wife. +Would she recognize him? Would she speak to him if she did? With a +jerk, he pulled himself back to the present. One gun, which looked +like a piece of avant-garde sculpture--and might be. He'd never +fired it. He didn't know if it could be fired. No money. + He looked down at Cornelius. "Sorry, Jerry." He squatted down +and started searching through Jerry's clothes. He found ten gold +coins sewn in the lining of Jerry's car coat. His wallet contained +ten thousand British pounds, a bit less in US dollars. In an ankle +holster, an air pistol. Under his shirt, half a kilogram of plastic +explosive. Around his neck, a two-gram vial of cocaine. + Morrison took the coins and the wallet. He got up to leave, +rethought it, squatted back down, took the gun. He then walked into +the night, in search of a hotel where he could make a few phone +calls. + + <><><><><> TO BE CONTINUED..... <><><><><> + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + A Superfortress is our "Bob"! + +"And yet then did they come to him awash in the spirits, falling +and stumbling and calling out his name. But he walked on from them +until he came in unto Norton, and did spurt in her awhile, biding +his time unto the return of his disciplinarians, who were of goodly +number thereto." (Conniptions 1:23) + +NOw let me make this perfectly clear, there can be no escape. They +have installed doors by the stairwells. All lavatories have been +locked for your convenience. Thus, all forms must henceforth be filled +out in triplicate. The forms used heretofore will not be used nor will +they be accepted. The new forms are not available. You must get the +new forms from the secretariate in charge of forms. The secretariate +is closed until further notice. You will play by these rules or be +thrown into a CONDITION OF DOUBT from which you can only excape by +filling in the proper forms and having them signed by the lavatory +captain, who is now on leave. +All those who do not comply with these new TRs will be put on the RPF +and declared a Surpressive person. Do not let yourself be fooled. +Pick up the cans now or be sentenced to watch the ashes of the DEAD +ELRON! + +Take that one, Meester Beeg! +Quickly, Mosley, the safe! + + +**************************************************************************** + + +There are no such things as "things". Objects are ghostly, with no +definite properties. A new, endogenously created regional security +system -- aimed at regional cooperation and the nurturing of long-run +common interests in fields of defense -- has become a must. Picture a +football game without goals. Dying is a period of categorical +ambiguity in which a person is still among the mundane living, but +babbles of the past, a sign that he or she is also in the process of +becoming one with the ancestral shades. The transition between these +two is often referred to as the wetting--non-wetting transition. They +can experience this loss as a break in the continuity of the life +cycle. On the other hand, the left rotations of each gyroscope yield +zero weight change for all frequencies of rotation and both attitudes. +Couples also need help "in deciding when enough is enough," she said. +Further progress means eroding. + +Angular derviatives are zero. The great clustered eyes breaking and +remaking the spontaneous repertoire of the infant. Aesthetic practice +toward a science of ultimates. Imitative responses title the +enlightenment, the legacy of principal curvatures. The way of symbols. + +The two psychotherapies were selected because they were brief, +well-defined and easily distinguished from other psychotherapies. We +had no chamber pots in the room for the boys, but the girls had one. +It's at this juncture that more than a few falter, wondering if they +picked the wrong goal. A tangle of nameless limbs, whiplike +filaments, claws, wings... + +Moustache. Imipramine. Nadzornika. + + +------doom@portia.Stanford.EDU (Joseph Brenner) + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + [Full-page "POLICE - Whoever you vote for, we're always here" + poster on this page. Too bad you're stuck with the ASCII version.] + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + + U P C O M I N G C O N V E N T I O N S + + [from gandalf.rutgers.edu, /sfl/cons.txt] + +July 23-25, 1993 (New Jersey) + + PHROLICON 9. Clarion Hotel, Rt. 73 at I-295, Mt. Laurel, NJ; + (609)234-7300; rms $68, $78 with jacuzzi. GoH: Craig Shaw Gardner. + Relaxacon featuring art show, dealer's room, filking, videos, gaming, + more. Memb: $20 until 7/10/93, $25 after. Info: Phrolicon 9, P.O. Box + 42195, Philadelphia, PA 19101-2195. + +July 23-25, 1993 (New Jersey) + + DEXCON 2. Holiday Inn Jetport, 1000 Spring St., Elizabeth, NJ; + (908)355-1700; rms $75. Gaming convention featuring live role-playing + games. Memb: $28 until 7/5/93, $35 after; additional fees for live + role-playing. Info: Dexcon, P.O. Box 3594, Grand Central Station, New + York, NY 10163; (718)881-4575. + +July 23-25, 1993 (Wisconsin) + + CONGENIAL V. Quality Inn South, Madison WI; rms $51. GoHs: Phyllis + Eisenstein, Fred Levy-Haskell, Steven Brust. Relaxacon. Memb: $20 + until 7/4/93, $25 after. Info: Congenial V, Box 44146, Madison WI + 53744-4146. + +July 23-25, 1993 (Canada, Ontario) + + TORONTO TREK VII. Regal Constellation Hotel, Toronto, Canada. Guests: + George Takei, Barbara Hambly, Marina Sirtis, Julia Ecklar, more. Memb: + C$35 until 6/30/93, C$40 after. Info: TORONTO TREK, Suite 0116, Box + 187, 65 Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5J 1E6 Canada; (416)699-4666. + +July 30-August 2, 1993 (Minnesota) + + MYTHCON XXIV. Minneapolis East Bank campus of the University of + Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN. GoHs: Jane Yolen, Carol + Kendall; Keynote Speaker: Jack Zipes. Theme: Children's fantasy. Memb: + $45 until 5/31/93, $50 after. Info: The Mythcon XXIV Committee, Attn: + Joan Verba, Corresponding Entity, PO Box 1363, Minnetonka, MN 55345; + (612) 292-8887 (David or Jo Ann); email: d-lene@vm1.spcs.umn.edu or + d-lena@uminn1.bitnet or 70451.2545@compuserve.com. + +July 31-August 1, 1993 (Michigan) + + BACCHANAL 2. Lake Orion, MI. Relaxacon. Info: Bacchanal '93, Box 414, + Lake Orion MI 48361; (313)693-5543. + +July 30-August 1, 1993 (Rhode Island) + + NECON 13. Bryant College, Smithfield RI. GoHs: Ellen Datlow, Gahan + Wilson; AGoH: Rick Lieder; SGoH: Kathe Koja; TM: Matthew Costello; Memb: + $160 sngl/ $142 per person dbl (includes room and meals), $35 commuters. + Info: NECon, Box 528. E. Greenwich RI 02818; (401)823-3242. + +August 6-8, 1993 (Kentucky) + + RIVERCON XVIII. Hurstbourne Hotel & Conference Center, Louisville, KY; + $58 sngl/dbl, $62 tpl, $65 quad. GoH: Joe Haldeman; AGoH; Vincent DiFate; + FGoHs: Jane & Scott Dennis; TM: Bob Tucker. Memb: $20 until 7/20/93, $30 + after. Info: RiverCon XVIII, Box 58009, Louisville, KY 40268-0009. + +August 7-8, 1993 (Finland) + + FINNCON '93. Old Student House, Helsinki, Finland. GoHs: Terry Pratchett, + Bryan Talbot. Memb: NO FEE. Info: email: veintie@cc.helsinki.fi. + +August 13-15, 1993 (Kansas) + + MACABRECON. Family Inn, Wichita, KS; rms $29.77. FGoH: Crispin Burnham. + Relaxacon. Memb: $13. Info: Macabrecon, Box 47036, Wichita KS 67201. + +August 13-15, 1993 (Sweden) + + CONSCIENCE '93. Stockholm, Sweden. Foreign GoH: Jerry Pournelle; Other + guests: TBA. Memb: TBA. Info: Conscience '93,c/o Segerdahl, Prastgardsgatan + 19B, S-752 30 Uppsala, Sweden; email: cons93@bugend.edvina.se. + +August 14-15, 1993 (California, Southern) + + FandCon I. Nipomo CA. SG: Melisa C. Michaels. Info: Marji Holt + 466 Concepcion Ave, Nipomo, CA 93444-9131. + +August 19-22, 1993 (California, Southern) + + SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON. San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA. + Guests: Roger Zelazny, Michael Whelan, Robert Williams, Murphy Anderson, + Jerry Scott, Rick Kirkman, Charles Vess, more. Hundreds of writers, + artists, and others from comics, sf/fantasy, animation, films, tv; art + show; dealer's room; gaming; masquerade; Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive; + filking; more. Memb: $40 (children and seniors $20) until 7/10/93, $50 + ($25 for children and seniors) after. Info: Comic-Con, P.O. Box 128458, + San Diego, CA 92112; (619)685-8118. + +August 20-22, 1993 (Massachusetts) + + NECRONOMICON: THE CTHULHU MYTHOS CON. Sheraton Tara & Resort, Danvers + MA; $80 sngl/dbl + $15 per additional person. GoH: Robert Bloch; AGoH: + Gahan Wilson. Memb: $30 until 5/31/93, $40 after. Info: Necronomicon, + Box 1320, Back Bay Annex, Boston MA 02117. + +August 20-22, 1993 (Minnesota) + + REINCONATION 3. Radisson South, Bloomington MN; rms $63. GoH: Debbie + Notkin; guests: TBA. Memb: $18 until 7/20/93, $25 after (children $7 + until 7/20/93, $10 after). Info: Reinconation 3, P.O. Box 8297, Lake + Street Station, Minneapolis, MN 55408. + +August 20-22, 1993 (New Mexico) + + BUBONICON 25. Howard Johnson East, Albuquerque, NM; $42 sngl/dbl. + GoHs: Kevin J. Anderson, Robert C. Cornett; AGoH: Ann Marie Eastburn; + TMs: Jennifer Roberson, Mark O'Green. Memb: $18 until 5/31/93, $21 + until 7/31/93, $24 after. Info: NMSF Conference, Box 37257, + Albuquerque, NM 87176; (505)266-8905. + +August 22, 1993 (Wisconsin) + + FANTASTICON 10. Sheraton-Mayfair Hotel, Milwaukee WI. Emph: Star Trek. + Memb: $3. Info: Fantasticon SHows, 3368 N. 51st Blvd., Milwaukee WI + 53216; (414)871-1502. + +August 28-29, 1993 (France) + + FRANCE NATIONAL CON 20. PTT Centre Culturel de la Source, Orleans, + France. GoHs: TBA (all female). Info: France National Con 20, c/o + Danielle Martignol, 1 rue Gabrielle-Jaillard, Bondoufle F-91070, France. + +August 29-30, 1993 (California, Northern) + + COMEX '93. Civic Auditorium, San Jose, CA. Guests: John Skipp, Craig + Spector, other media guests. Memb: $9/day, $15/weekend, at door. Info: + Comex, Box 20392, El Sobrante CA 94820-0392; (510)222-8663. + +*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* + +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ ************ R A V E S **************** +@@@@@@^ ~^ @ @@ @ @ @ I ~^@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@@ ~ ~~ ~I @@@@@ Sat July 17 Atlanta, Ga. 404-936-9497 +@@@@' ' _,w@< @@@@ tix: $15 UTOPIA 10pm - 10am +@@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ DJs: Adam - X, Frankie Bones, Wink, +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ Leven Degeyndt, Scott Henry, MHZ +@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | ]@@@ MR SCAREY, D.J. Koolayd, FACTOR-E +@@@@ ~_,,_ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ +@@@@ _~ , , `@@@~ _ _`@ ]L J@@@ Massive Intelligent Lighting +@@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ Intellibeams, Emulators & +@@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ Optic Eruptions. +@@@@@_|| @@@@@@P' @@P@@@@@@@@@@@[|c@@@@ Orbitrons, 17 & up - Smart Beverages +@@@@@@w| '@@P~ P]@@@-~, ~Y@@^'],@@@@@@ +@@@@@@@[ _ _J@@Tk ]]@@@@@@ INTERNATIONAL BALLROOM +@@@@@@@@,@ @@, c,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ 6615 NEW PEACHTREE RD +@@@@@@@@@ i @w ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ ATLANTA, GA +@@@@@@@@@@`,P~ _ ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@---------------------------------------- +@@@@^^=^@@^ ^' ,ww,w@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Sat July 17 MIAMI BEACH, FL TIME +@@@_xJ~ ~ , @@@@@@@P~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ (800) 889-TIME Tix: $13, $17 door +@@ @, ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ +@@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ AN ALL NIGHT OUTDOOR BEACH PARTY. +@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ LIVE PERFORMANCE>> VINYL JUNKIES + | ---------------- +For hardcopy w/graphics, send SASE to:| DJs>> D.J. HELL, PAUL WITCHER, KIMBALL + | ----- COLLINS, SHARKEY, LUIS DIAZ + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption | SUGARDIKK (NY) & Guests + PO Box 30904 |---------------------------------------- + Raleigh, NC 27622 | Sat July 17 cocoa beach, fl + | (407)799-0600 Suburban Bass +For ezine version, mail: | + | DJs Chris Fortier, D Xtreme, John O'Neil + Slack@ncsu.edu to get on list | Andy Hughes, DJ Three + quartz.rutgers.edu - back | event is at marz in cocoa beach-3 miles + issues (128.6.60.6) | S of Ron's Liquor A1A behind ABC Liquor + | Gainsville (904)378-1524 +--------------------------------------| Orlando (407)422-1705 +Saturday, July 24 Winston-Salem (NC) | Cocoa/ Miami (407)799-0600 +METAMORPHOSIS III (919) 691-1407 |---------------------------------------- + | Sunday, July 18 WASHINGTON, DC +DJs: mickey, g-boy,rick phifer,graflin| (202) 331-4463 DAYBREAK +++live performance by "soundshock" | + | FREE PARTY! July 18 9 AM - Sunset +Winston-Salem (NC) Colliseum Annex |---------------------------------------- +11pm until 7am. This is Dry. Tix:$10 | Saturday, July 24 Gainsville, Fl. +University Parkway North, Right on | (407)872-1844 *****Day One******* + DEACON Blvd. Gate #5. | +--------------------------------------| DJ's:CHANG,CHRIS GALLEGER,HOUSE JUNKIE, +Sat July 24 South Beach, Miami | RICH ROSISAO,AK-1200,Todd Barron, +(407)331-3252 Xtension | Bruce Wilcox, DEBBIE-D, GYRA, VOYD +House Music against racism | SPECIAL GUEST PA: SHOCKWAVE +Deckmasters: Bob Day,Jorge Acosta,Andy| open at 10:00pm JULY 24 + Hughes,Carlos Espinosa,Chris Harshman|---------------------------------------- + | Sat August 7 WASHINGTON, DC +B-GROoV-e Doors open 11pm | * r a v e l a n d * +Club Nu $14 at door - ID | +245 - 22nd St. |an 18 hour gathering of epic proportions +South Beach, Miami | Performing LIVE: ALTERN-8, Eon, Dag, +--------------------------------------| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ XCrash, Prototype 909 +Sat August 17 Atlanta, Ga. | DJs: Bones, AdamX, Hyperactive, Wink, +FANTAZIA PART 2 the PLEASURE ZONE | Jimmy Crash, Lee, Jethro X, Finger, + ( 404) 662-6609 | dieselBoy, Hal X, Messiah, & MORE +A Taste of the Flyers to Come | * 80K sq' dance floor * 3 sound stages +Ticketmaster Outlets Nationwide | (202) 466-1692 (202) 296-9760 + +-- + +Holy Temple of Mass $ >>> slack@ncsu.edu <<< $ "My used underwear + Consumption! $ $ is legal tender in +PO Box 30904 $ BBS: (919) 782-3095 $ 28 countries!" +Raleigh, NC 27622 $ Warning: I hoard pennies. $ --"Bob" + diff --git a/religious documents/icr.txt b/religious documents/icr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b667db --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/icr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ + ** NEWS RELEASE ** + Provided as a public service. + + ICR UNDER CONTINUED ATTACK BY BILL HONIG + +(Santee, California) - A graduate school of science that +refuses to teach evolution as a fact but as an unproved +theory is rejecting the findings of an evaluation team sent +by Bill Honig, California's Superintendent of Public +Instruction. Honig's panel has recommended that state +"Approval" be withdrawn from the Institute for Creation +Research Graduate School, which would effectively shut down +the nine-year-old school. This violation of academic +freedom is being watched closely by all Christian schools +who fear more governmental interference in their operation +and curricula. + +Strangely, ICR was notified of the panel's findings through +the news media and not Honig's office. A San Francisco +Chronicle writer called ICR on Tuesday, January 16, for +ICR's response to the report, a document that ICR has yet +to see. On that day, Honig himself told a Los Angeles Times +reporter that the panel's recommendation "seems reasonable," +and he will act on the report in a month or so. In the +times interview, Honig said that the panel's findings were +unanimous, but in truth, as the Times reporter revealed, +one of the five members dissented and argued that the +school should be allowed to continue to operate as an +"Approved" institution. + +Honig has been threatening to deny the Institute for +Creation Research Graduate School its license to operate +unless either the creationist content is removed from +courses or the degrees issued by ICR be labeled as +theological rather than scientific. Honig has maintained +that science can only be taught in a framework of +evolution, even in private Christian institutions. The +Institute for Creation Research has rejected any such +compromise, and is investigating the possibility of legal +appeal if Honig persists in his determination to eliminate +creationism from ICR's graduate programs. + +Dr. Henry Morris, President of the Institute for Creation +Research in Santee, California, declared that "as a +non-public institution, we have the constitutional right to +teach science as we understand it, not as the state defines +science and commands us to believe." Dr. Morris also +asserted that Honig's efforts go "contrary to the +California Education Code, and are contrary to freedom of +speech and academic freedom. Such an action is clearly +unconstitutional and unconscionable." Dr. Morris noted that +the Supreme Court in its 1987 decision on creationism in +public schools declared that "teaching a variety of +scientific theories about the origins of humankind...might +be validly done." + +The ICR Graduate School has been offering masters' degrees +in four areas (biology, geology, astro-geophysics, and +science education) since 1981. Approximately 20 students +have received degrees and about 40 others are currently +enrolled in the program. In previous years, the Graduate +School had received unanimous recommendation from two state +review committees, and a visit in August of 1988 by another +evaluation panel came back with a 3-2 majority vote that +ICR continue to operate with an "Approval" rating. However, +on e of the committee members who was strongly opposed to +ICR even before he visited the Graduate SChool later filed +a "minority report," and Superintendent Honig then +successfully persuaded one of the other committee members +to change his mind and vote for disapproval. + +ICR attempted to negotiate with the Department in 1989, +which led to a compliance visit. In early August of 1989, a +new state panel visited the Graduate School - over +strenuous objections by ICR who had learned that a majority +of the committee members had expressed in print and in +public lecture a bias against creationism - and verbally +informed ICR that it would be denied "Approval" to operate. +The Graduate School intends to exhaust all feasible methods +of appeal of this attack on its academic freedom. + +ICR's graduate programs are strictly scientific with +courses taught by scientists who have doctorate degrees +in science from such respected institutions as Harvard and +Berkeley. In its own thorough study, ICR's graduate program +was shown to be comparable in content to other graduate +science programs - it is the small amount of creationist +interpretation to which Mr. Honig takes exception, and +which he used to persuade one committee member to change +his vote in 1988. + +"The future of academic freedom and free speech in +Christian schools is at stake and must be defended," +declared Dr. Morris. Honig's enforcement of the doctrinaire +teaching of evolutionism in all schools, including +Christian and other private education is in jeopardy +everywhere if Honig and his backers succeed in their +heavy-handed maneuvers. + +ICR's address is: + Institute for Creation Research + P.O. Box 2667 + El Cajon, CA 92021 + Phone: (619) 448-0900 + + +QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/idel2.txt b/religious documents/idel2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aca2f3b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/idel2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,454 @@ + II: The Primordial Light: The Ecstatics' Quest + Thursday 18 April 1991 + + [The introduction to the lecture + mentioned that the lecture series would + eventually be coming out as a book to + be published by the University of + Washington Press.] + + [The introducer mentioned an article + in the Jerusalem Post about Scholem and + Idel. Idel has established the basis + for a critical look at Scholem's work. + Scholem's approach was historical and + contextual: he interpreted the Kabbalah + as a system of thought. Idel's approach + is phenomenological: he endeavors to + discern what the symbolism and ritual + meant to those who practised it. For + Idel, the Kabbalah is not a system of + ideas but a practical path to mystical + experience. For Scholem, Kabbalah + entered Judaism from the outside, and + was the result of the influence of Greek + gnosticism on Rabbinic Judaism. It was, + in effect, an alien heresy with an + underground existence. For Idel, + Kabbalah is an esoteric tradition + flowing from within Judaism itself, + though with links and correspondences + with other mystical traditions. Idel + feels that the study of the manuscript + tradition has just barely begun, and + that therefore most of the field has yet + to be explored. + He also feels that even the most + theoretical texts are experientially + oriented. This has led him to try to + reconstruct the techniques that were + actually used. He has done so in part + through observation of practices of + ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel - + and they in turn have come to him for + technical advice on reading and + understanding their texts.] + + There is another paradigm through which the +story of the entry to Pardes can be read - one +which is not philosophical, but ecstatic. This +variety of paradigms by the way is very +important. It shows that Jews were less +interested in establishing a unified theology +than they were in finding secret interpretations +that would attract many different kinds of +people. They were open to having a different +way for each sort of person. This is a sign of +the openness of the elite culture to allowing +different approaches for a variety of people - +not so much to attract the masses, but to allow +for diversity among the elite. + This second interpretation of the Pardes was +the result of the merger of Jewish mysticism and +Neoplatonic philosophy. For Maimonides, it was +a Pardes ha Chokmah, a Pardes of Knowledge. It +had to do with the solution to cognitive +problems. For Maimonides, Adam was lost in +contemplation of metaphysical truths. Thus, for +Maimonides, R. Aqiva was the central figure, the +most perfect of the four sages. + But for some Kabbalists at the beginning of +the Thirteenth Century the major figure was not +R. Aqiva but Ben Azzai, the Talmudic master who +died. For them, the Pardes was not a matter of +intellect, but of the experience of a supreme +light. This Light was not an intellectual or +conceptual light, but an experiential light. + + Ancient Jewish textual material is rich in +emphasis on the importance of light - as in +Genesis, where Light is the first created +entity. Midrashic texts portray Adam as an +entity of Light, and as having garments of +Light, which were lost after his expulsion from +Eden. In this tradition, the basic activity of +Adam was the contemplation of the Light, of the +Shekinah. The "Light of the Shekinah" is a key +term in these texts. + Both Pardes and Paradise, in this tradition, +are seen as full of Light. Adam's experience in +the Fall is the loss of the possibility of +contemplating the Light. The loss of garments +of Light leads to their replacement by garments +of skin (a pun in Hebrew). This loss of the +possibility of experience of the Light is +crucial in ancient Hebrew texts. + For example, in the Book of Adam and Seth (as +preserved in Armenia): "But Adam .. in being +stripped of the Divine Light .. became an equal +of the dumb beasts. Enoch for forty days and +nights did not eat. Then he planted a garden .. +and was in it for 552 years. Then he was taken +up into heaven ...." [The quotation was quite a +bit longer; unfortunately, I couldnot keep up.] +This portrays an attempt by Enoch to reconstruct +and re-enter the situation of Adam. This is a +basic pattern in later discussions of the Pardes +texts: an attempt to return to the ability to +contemplate the Light as Adam once did. + In the Hekhaloth texts, too, the idea of Light +is paramount. Pardes is described as full of +the radiance of Light. + There is a manuscript text by an unknown +author - one which I needed some 60 pages to +analyze, so we can only deal witha small part of +it here. There are some ten lines in it about +Ben Azzai (who did not return). "Ben Azzai +peeked and died. He gazed at the radiance of +the Divine Presence like a man with weak eyes +who gazes at the full light of the sun and +becomes blinded by the intensity of the light +that overwhelms him... He did not wish to be +separated, he remained hidden in it, his soul +was covered and adorned ... he remained where he +had cleaved, in the Light to which no one may +cling and yet live." [Quotation approximate] + This text portrays people gazing not at a +Chariot or a marble throne, but at the radiance +of God (Tzvi ha Shekinah), a light so strong +that no one can bear it. The idea of +"overwhelming" is textually crucial. The idea +of having a great desire to cleave, as described +in the medieval text, is new. In ancient +literature, contemplation is of something far +away, across an unbridgeable gap. There is no +idea there of love, only of awe. Here, however, +we see a trace of a radical change: the +intensity of the experience is linked with a +great desire to cleave to the radiance of the +Shekinah. There is a strong experience of union +with the Divine, the result of a desire to enter +and become a part of the Divine realm. There is +an attempt to enjoy the Divine without +interruption. The language of desire implies +erotic overtones to the experience, especially +since "Shekinah" in Hebrew is feminine. The +text then is speaking about an attempt to cleave +to a feminine aspect of the Divine - also a +development unique to the medieval literature +(and not found in the ancient literature). And +also the idea of "sweet radiance" has erotic +overtones. + + So what happened? He couldn't return from the +experience. The Hebrew terms are very strong. +After his death he was "hidden away in the place +of his cleaving." This death was the death of +the pious ones whose souls are separated from +all concerns with the mundane world, and who +cleave to the supernal world. It was, in other +words, not an accident but an achievement. + There is a threefold structure implied here, +reminiscent of Christian and Neoplatonic +mysticism. The first phase is the via +purgativa, "Those who are separated from all +concerns of the lowly world." The second phase +is the via illuminativa. The third phase is the +via unitiva. There is here a combination of +ancient Jewish material with pagan or Christian +Neoplatonist material to portray or interpret +the experience of Ben Azzai. This interpretive +paradigm continued in active use from the +Thirteenth through the Eighteenth centuries, +where it was used among the Hasidim. It was a +tradition that lasted 600 to 700 years, and it +is exactly the kind of tradition it is hard to +study without looking at manuscripts. + + This text was also copied by a Thirteenth +Century Kabbalist who gave it an even stronger +nuance of mysticism. Ben Azzai died because of +the cleaving of his soul out of a great love; +his soul didn't return because he reached a +great attainment. The assumption: out of +intense love, his cleaving was total. Later, +there were even stronger formulations, in which +the soul and the Light become one entity. + This text is one example of texts dealing with +the unio mystica. It allows for bridging in a +total manner the gap between man and God. This +is another example of the formative power of the +Neoplatonic mystical tradition, as it also +expressed itself in Christianity and Islam. + However, for the Kabbalists the major events +took place in the past. He is reporting not on +a contemporary but on Ben Azzai. Is this simply +a matter of an intepretation? Or is there +something more to it - a practical interest? +Can we extract from the sources a method, a +practice? + + In my opinion, since the end of the Thirteen +Century there is evidence that there were +experiences of Light connected with the story of +Ben Azzai and the Kabbalists who discussed it - +but this is not always simple to demonstrate. + Another anonymous text, written in 1290 or so +in Galilee, describes a technique, and afterward +describes a personal experience characterized by +amazement, confusion, and a need for +clarification and interpretation. Its author +describes the Divine Light as attracting the +Light of the soul, "which is weak in relation to +the Divine Light." (There is a magnetic +metaphor here, and we can see in this adoption +of non-traditional metaphors an attempt to come +to terms with personal experience.) This +experience was the result of letter-combination +techniques. Later the anonymous Kabbalist +attempts to describe how he approached a master +to learn a technique to stop the experience. +Thus, discussing this experience in terms of the +story of Ben Azzai is an attempt to relate +personal experience to a model. It is not +simply an attempt to provide an interpretation +for the story of Ben Azzai. + Another ecstatic Kabbalist also relates his +experience to the story of Ben Azzai: "If a man +does that which his soul wishes in the proper +ways of hitbodeduth, his soul is immersed in +this light and he will die like Ben Azzai." + The Kabbalists tried to reach the pre-fall +state of the Primordial Man, to enteragain the +radiance of the Shekinah, and even to enter a +certain erotic relationship with the Divine +Presence, as later we find in the Zohar in other +forms. They also provided, by the end of the +Thirteenth Century, certain detailed techniques. +"By letter combinations, unifications, and +reversals of letters, he shall call up the Tree +of Knowledge of Good and Evil... [list of +encounter with various polarized qualities and +entities, e.g., Mercy and Severity] ... he will +be in danger of the same death as Ben Azzai." + + Beginning with the end of the Fourteenth +Century, there are descriptions of Kabbalists +studying together, and of each observing the +others to see if they become luminous. +"Likewise today, if someone will look at the +faces of students who are worshipping out of +love .. you will see on them the radiance of the +Divine Presence so that those who see them will +be afraid, and each of them will have the +radiance of the Divine Presence according to his +rank." There is, in other words, the +expectation of a corporeally observable +radiance. + + For Maimonides the experience of the Pardes +was mental, with no outward sign; for the +Kabbalists it was corporeal and visible. + For Maimonides, God was an intellect; for the +Kabbalists, God was a radiance. + For Maimonides, Adam was a perfect intellect; +for the Kabbalists, Adam was a creature of +Light. + For Maimonides, Paradise and Pardes were +intellectual (cerebral) states; for the +Kabbalists, they were corporeal, sensuous, +erotic, sexual and an object for practical +striving. + The Kabbalists developed techniques - +Maimonides had no clear method. + The Kabbalists attempted to describe +techniques, and signs of attainment. + Thus the Kabbalistic tradition is not one of +speculations about mysticism; it is full-fledged +mysticism. In the Kabbalistic tradition, an +extreme type of experience is sought out and +considered positive. + The mystical death is the real goal of +ecstatic Kabbalah. For Maimonides, the ideal is +to remain in a state of intellection. For the +ecstatic Kabbalists, extreme experience is final +experience. + + The Pardes was thus idealized by Jewish +mystics, and given new meanings. This +idealization opened another avenue, one +exploited especially by Eighteenth Century +Hasidic mysticism. We can see a continuous line +from the beginning of the Kabbalah up to the +founder of the modern Hasidic movement who +himself quoted parts of the same text. This can +be understood as an inner Jewish development, +and not a historical accident. + + + Questions + +Q: Did all Kabbalists wish actual death? For + those who did not, what was the rationale for + not wanting it? +A: That is a matter of the mystic's role in + society. Moses, it is said, wanted to die, + to leave the world, to remain in a state of + union. But God said he had a role as a + mystic - to reach the extreme and yet return. + But that is not the case for all Kabbalists: + not all of them were oriented toward society. + There as also a controversy about the + desirability of it, but the idea that it + could be achieved was admitted on all sides + of the controversy. It was not theologically + denied. Even those who opposed it admitted + that a total union was possible. +Q: In that case, how was Aqiva understood? +A: He was understood as someone who could + balance, who could enter and leave. Aqiva + (like Moses) could enter, but he knew when to + retreat. He knew how to combine the two. + +Q: On Tuesday you discussed the role of + Halakhic ritual as a way of controlling + impulses, for Maimonides. Tonight you did + not mention it at all. Did it have a role? +A: Maimonides was a Halakhist. But most of + the Kabbalists we have mentioned were not. + Most were anonymous - they were not Halakhic + masters, but mystics. For them, keeping the + norms was not as important as reaching beyond + the norms. Basically, they were a-nomian. + They did not regard the Commandments as a + major tool. They might be preparatory, but + they were not final. +Q: Certainly not all aspects of Halakha would + have been neutral: it afforded major + opportunities for ecstatic experiences on + certain feasts, for example... +A: These Kabbalists were not unobservant, they + were not antinomian. But as mystics (rather + than as Jews) they used other types of + rituals or techniques. Ritual anyway would + be suspended at the peaks of ecstatic + experience, when one cannot do anything. The + issue is not simple - but there seems to have + been no friction. It is highly significant + that there are no critiques of the use of + mystical techniques, e.g., of combining + Divine Names. Their practice probably did + not interfere with regular Halakhic + observances. + +Q: How did such experiences tend to affect + their experience of the material world? Did + it enhance their opinion of it? Lower it? +A: Here we touch on the paradoxical connection + of the mystic and the prophetic mission. As + ecstatics, they were escapist. But they also + felt that the experience prompted or provoked + a mission. In coming back, the return was + interpreted as a being sent forth, as having + a mission. This offered a rationale for + coming back. "You are permitted to return if + you are needed." Thus there was a tension + between the drive for attainment and the + feeling of a mission. + +Q: What about free will? Could one say that + Ben Azzai got what he wanted, and that Aqiva + got what he wanted? +A: Not exactly. At a moment in an experience + one may be caught up or captured by another + dynamic. You may lose control; free will may + be overwhelmed, overridden. + +Q: Is there an attempt to revive these things + in Israel? +A: Yes; some are studying and practising these + techniques. +Q: For example? +A: Breathing, letter combination - I have + contacted at least ten people I know. +Q: They base this on Kabbalistic descriptions? +A: They ARE Kabbalists. + +Q: In this Kabbalistic context God is + described as radiance, energy, but in basic + Judaism God is also anthropomorphic, + interested in the world. Is there a + connection? +A: If one is speaking about erotic experience, + there must be some sense of a personalistic + object. The Kabbalists tried to compromise + between anthropomorphic and spiritualistic + content. The Sefiroth were seen as a + structure of Light, but also as corporeal. + They were able to shape the anthropomorphic + content to a more spiritual, energic model. + + + [Afterward, as is usual at such lectures, + people approached the speaker with + congratulations, comments, and assorted + questions. Two stand out.] + + [A thin, intense young man kept asking Idel + about energy experiences, and the sense of + "energy coming in," and asked if anyone had + done any EEG studies of Kabbalists. Idel + said that Judaic studies were still in their + infancy; mostly they were textual studies, an + attempt to figure out what the texts actually + said and what they were about - and even just + to find them and get them edited and printed. + No one had gotten to doing anything else, + though he knew of the work by Ornstein and + others, and thought it would be interesting + to do in a Kabbalistic context. + [The young man, consumed by his questioning, + didn't quite see Idel's point about the + emphasis on textual scholarship; Idel + gradually realized the young man wanted + advice about his own meditational + experiences, and was a little taken aback, + and tried to achieve polite closure. + + [Idel turned to another questioner, who + asked something textual: + +Q: You mentioned that these techniques became + discussed and elaborated in the Thirteenth + Century or so. Is there any textual evidence + for their source? +A: Yes; in fact some of them can be found in + texts of the Hellenistic period, especially + those involving breathing and letter + combination and visualization. They seem to + be a part of a general fund of such + techniques at the time, parallel to similar + things one finds in Hellenistic magical + papyri, for example. + + [Then, as though realizing then that the + young man's questions {about what it meant + when energy came in, as opposed to finding + oneself elsewhere, about the dangers of + possession, and so on} were pressing, Idel + turned back {despite attempts by various + professors to ease him out of the hall} and + began quietly to address himself to his + queries.] + + [end of part II] diff --git a/religious documents/idel3.txt b/religious documents/idel3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd2f812 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/idel3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,369 @@ + Lecture III: Pardes: From Sefiroth to + Demonology + Monday 22 April 1991 + + + We have already examined two paradigms for +reading the story of the entry into Pardes. +Tonight, I want to talk about two others: +the Theosophical and Theurgical paradigms. +The paradigms already covered in the first +two lectures, different though they were, +had a common feature: both deal with inner +experience, whether intellectualistic or +ecstatic. The drama takes place in +consciousness. Even if ecstasy involves +possession, it is still occurring in human +consciousness. + The Divine is not affected by the entrance +of the philosopher or mystic into the +Pardes. This activity only affects the +human intellect or soul - not the Divine. + The two other paradigms also have an +assumption in common: that the entry into +the Pardes has a deep effect on the non- +human realms. In the Theosophical paradigm, +the Divine is not a simple entity, but a +system of divine powers. The entry into the +Pardes influences the relationships between +these divine powers. The other paradigm, +the Theurgic, involves an influence on, or +struggle with, the demonic realm. These two +may seem quite different, but, according the +Kabbalah, the demonic and the Divine share a +common anthropomorphic structure. The +Sefiroth are prototypes for the demonic as +well as the Divine realms. Both paradigms, +then, deal with attempts to affect the +structure and relationship of external +entities, either by inducing harmony in the +Divine world or by combatting some aspect of +the demonic world. + In both cases, the Pardes again represents +a danger zone: an aspect of these realms +that is too strong for most mortals. And +both approaches, in their reading of the +Pardes story, take as the key figure that of +Akher, or Elisha ben Abuya, the heretical +figure, he who "peeked and cut the shoots." +He is seen as one who was unable to +understand appropriately either the +sefirotic or Demonic realm. + I would like to deal first with the +demonic, so that we can finish with +something more positive. The basic +assumption of this type of Kabbalah became +important around the end of the Thirteenth +Century (it is not generally found earlier): +that the knowledge of the structure of the +demonic is the most profound form of +Kabbalah, the most recondite. A commonly +used name for members of this tradition can +be translated, "The More Profound +Kabbalists." Their texts run to long lists +of evil angels, and detailed discussions of +the relationships between the demonic and +the Divine. The tradition also includes a +strong reinterpretation of the Pardes story. +In this tradition, it was held (e.g. by +Moses de Leon) that it was a religious duty +to know, and pursue knowledge of, the +demonic world - but not to be immersed in +it. Only when one has the ability to +distinguish good and evil can one truly know +the good, and truly worship God. But this +must be done so that one is not attracted by +or immersed in or inundated by the demonic +realm. + Thus, one also finds in these texts long +lists of sinners, with Akher as the last +major figure. + These sinners were those who were attracted +by the demonic realm, who were, in essence, +sexually seduced by it. They were those who +had become immersed in a certain commerce or +intercourse with demonic sexual figures. +Thus one finds Adam (seduced by Lilith), and +Solomon, whose "thousand wives" were +regarded as a multitude of demonic powers, +and Balaam, said to have had intercourse +with his ass. These figures were all +seduced into sin. Sexual attraction, then, +becomes an explanation of the power of the +Pardes, which one must understand but not be +immersed in. + Why did this paradigm arise at the end of +the Thirteenth Century? Most of the +Kabbalists who used it lived in Castile, +where there was a certain phenomenon of Jews +having sexual relations with Christians, or, +more often, with Muslims. There are +discussions of this phenomenon in de Leon +and others: the fascination with the Other +is there portrayed as a demonic attraction. + Now, there is a basic pattern well-known in +the history of religions, often called +"katabasis:" the descent into hell to +perform some rite. Usually the katabasis is +a salvific descent - an attempt to rescue +some of the dwellers in hell (though +generally not demons). But in Cabalistic +tradition it often ends negatively: the +person who makes the descent is unable to +surface. Already in the Talmud Ben Abuya is +described as being in some relationship with +a prostitute. Kabbalists exploited this to +portray him as indulging in sexual +transgression. + The others are portrayed as more +successful. R. Aqiva entered, but did not +get involved. A parallel was seen with +Abraham, who descended into Egypt (often +taken as a type of the demonic realm) and +who was able to emerge in peace. Another +similarity was found with Noah, who +experienced the Flood but who came out in +safety. This is, in other words, a +typological approach. The Pardes story is +used to summarize certain prototypical +stories from Adam onward. That the +interpretations are typological is obvious +because of the range of figures adduced to +make the point. One of the most exciting is +the projection of the Pardes story onto the +Biblical story of Samson. At the beginning, +Samson is able into a relationship with +Delilah, and ultimately he is able to +destroy the realm of evil. Samson met +Delilah in the equivalent of Pardes: in a +vineyard. All of these are instances that +indicate that medieval Jewish hermeneutics +was in fact very typological - which quite +contradicts the claims of certain modern +scholars, who see the typological approach +as typical of scholastic philosophy, and not +at all Jewish. + This approach remains, from the Thirteenth +Century up through the Lurianic Kabbalah, +where it reaches an apex. + + The other paradigm I wish to consider +addresses itself to the Sephirotic realm. +This paradigm was typical of those +Kabbalists who assumed that the crucial +issue was to induce or re-induce the harmony +in the Divine spheres which had been +disturbed by primordial human transgression. +There were two metaphors for the Divine: +that of the Tree, and (to simplify) the +anthropomorphic one of the couple. In the +latter, the first nine Sefiroth were taken +as male, and the last as female. The basic +sin of Akher was to break the connection +between the first nine and the tenth (seen +as the shoots, or as a female figure). The +challenge created by this transgression is +to see the Pardes as a Garden. + In Paradise, the transgression was the +separation of the fruit from the tree, +projected on high. The transgression was +not eating, but separating one aspect of the +Divine from the rest. By separating the +fruit from the Tree, Akher (or Adam) +separated aspects of the Divine from each +other, thus inducing a disturbance in the +Divine realm often referred to as "the +devastation of the plantations." Even more +dangerously, by affecting the Divine world +in this way you are prone to accept the +assumption that there are two different +powers, to believe no longer in a Unity on +high, but a Duality. In the moment of +separation, in other words, the possibility +of a dualistic misunderstanding arises. The +challenge, then, is to heal this rupture, +which took place in the primordial era. + The work of restoring the lost unity is +open to Jews in general, but especially to +the Kabbalists, by the use of Jewish ritual, +which is seen as a Theurgical technique, +i.e., one able to influence God (which is +one way of understanding the word +"theurgy"). According to the Theosophical- +Theurgical Kabbalah, the major role of the +Kabbalist is to restore the organic unity +between the Divine powers. + It is, in a sense, the transposition of +the mystical project into another key, the +attempt to repair the rupture in the Divine +(rather than between the human and the +Divine) induced by human transgression. + R. Aqiva, then, was seen as one who was +able to act ritualistically to restore the +relationship between the two last Sefiroth +[the ninth and the tenth]. This projected a +certain type of sacramental value onto +Jewish ritual which was absent in other +forms of Kabbalah or in Maimonides. In +other traditions, the individual was the +center. But in these demonic or Sephirotic +pursuits, the focus is on repairing the +cosmos, on inducing a more harmonious state +in general, in the nation, and in the +cosmos. + + The last issue I wish to consider involves +making a comparative observation about the +distribution of the discussions of the +Pardes story. It is found of course in +ancient literature, but in the medieval +period, surprisingly (and this surprised me +when I first looked into this question), +only the Sephardi were interested in it. It +does not appear in medieval Ashkenazi texts. +The Sephardic literature is less interested +in the Talmud and the Hekhaloth, and more +interested in the Pardes. It was in the +Sephardi literature that the interpretations +we have discussed were invented. + Now, Sephardi culture was in much more open +contact with alien cultures, and thus more +endangered. Muslim (and even Christian +philosophic/scholastic) culture were +perceived as a danger, and openness to it +was experienced as a danger - a dangerous +ideal. + Ashkenazi society of the period was closed; +there was not much scholarly interchange +with other cultures. Ashkenazi culture was +very confident, and it was not open +precisely because it was confident that +Jewish culture was the highest form of +religion. Thus for it there was no +dangerous ideal. The story of "Entering +Pardes," then, did not meet any cultural +need, because there was no sense of cultural +danger. Even later, in the Sixteenth +Century, when the Pardes story is discussed, +the discussion is inspired by Sephardi +literature, and this is true even up to the +mid-Eighteenth Century. But by the +Nineteenth Century, a deep change has +occurred: all interest in the Pardes theme +is found among the Ashkenazim. This, I +think, is connected with the entry into +interaction with general culture, with the +Enlightenment. There came to be a need to +explain the meaning of this interaction. +Elisha ben Abuya, in fact, could be seen as +one of the major protagonists in much modern +Hebrew literature. + It was, then, cultural exposure and +openness which invoked, provoked, and evoked +(all three!) the interest in the Pardes +theme. The Pardes story explained the +encounter between the Jewish and other +mentalities. In fact, this may also be the +explanation for the Talmudic treatment of +Elisha Akher, especially if he is taken as a +Gnostic, as modern scholars often do. Even +the early forms of his story, then, would +typify the encounter of Jews with a general +culture - in this case, a Gnostic culture. +Akher would be someone open to a non-Jewish +type of culture - though in fact it is hard +to be sure which of many it might have been. + There area as many different scholarly +Elishas as there were contemporary cultures. +Akher typifies a situation in which there is +a willingness to be open, but a danger of +being unable to return to one's patrimony. +There is a danger that one will be seduced +by, and remain immersed in, philosophy, +Gnosticism, Neoplatonism ... or whatnot. +His plight is used to describe an +existential situation in which Jews found +themselves between Judaism and a general +culture that fascinated and endangered them. + + + Questions + +Q: Is there any connection between these + interpretations and a current of + opposition to Maimonides? +A: Well, I don't believe in single + explanations. All of these Cabalistic + explanations became published or exposed + after the period of Maimonides. Most + Cabalists were probably acquainted with + Maimonides. But this was probably not so + much a matter of a silent polemic with + Maimonides as a matter of a tension + between a ritualistic and experiential + approach and an intellectualistic one + (often regarded as alien). + +Q: One interpretation of the Pardes theme + is of an entry into the demonic sphere. + How was this combat carried out? +A: By the commandments - mitzvoth. The + idea was to explore, and attempt to + subdue, by performing the Commandments in + a Cabalistic manner, thus extricating some + part of the demonic world. In the + Sephirotic realm, by means of the positive + commandments, one worked to unify the + Divine world; by observing the + prohibitions, one could subdue (but not + eradicate) the demonic world. The + Kabbalists werequite uneasy with the idea + of destroying an aspect of reality, even a + demonic one. As a part of reality it was + needed, and had to be not destroyed but + managed or coped with. + +Q: How is the Pardes story understood and + used by Kabbalists now? +A: I don't know. I haven't yet discussed + this with them. After I make up my mind + on the basis of the texts, then I will go + to them and see what they think. + +Q: What about Ben Zoma: how was he seen? +A: As someone who had progressed to a + certain level, but who was not able to + enter metaphysics, so to speak. He forced + himself into the Physics, but he became + mentally disturbed. The ecstatic + Kabbalists took him as one who had + entered the strong experience and become + crazy. Others assumed that he had been + damaged by the demonic world. But he did + not receive much treatment as an ideal + type, unlike Akher or Ben Azai, or Elisha + the prototype of imperfection. Ben Zoma + was not a strong type, he was not so + interesting, so he was not taken as a + type. And I have not found him + interesting enough to discuss much + myself... + +Q: What if you are in a group having + religious experiences, can you then go out + into the world to change the world? +A: Look: most Kabbalists functioned at a + social level. Some were leaders, andwere + very important members of their + communities, so often they naturally were + social figures. But even ecstatic + Kabbalists who were sometimes very + individualistic became messianic in their + external activities. Most known + Kabbalists contributed the perfection of + the Divine, or of individual perfection, + in service of messianic aims. The same by + the way is often true of non-Jewish + mysticism, which could also be a way to + energize the personality to return to the + group in an activist manner. diff --git a/religious documents/idiot.txt b/religious documents/idiot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..400c855 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/idiot.txt @@ -0,0 +1,81 @@ +1 + + + Believe it or not, this comes up from time to time: +whether or not witches are tax-exempt. + Witches think they are, and the state of Rhode Island is +the latest to agree. The state granted tax-exempt status to Our +Lady of the Roses Wiccan Church in Providence. The witches claim +it's not the money, it's the principle of the thing. (Won't +anybody ever admit it's the money?) + The witches say they hope the state's approval will make +people accept witches as legitimate. This is something witches +want. There's even a Witches' Anti-Defamation League. Boy. If +you can't bad-mouth witches, who can you bad-mouth? (I am +actually considering starting some kind of minority subculture +that is willing to be defamed and perhaps actually seeks out +defamation. I bet it will be the most popular minority group +ever.) + I'm not sure the witches will get their wish. Some folks +probably liked witches better when they weren't hustling a free +ride from the government. Now, you probably get people scuffling +around Providence muttering, "If they treated us half as good as +they treat them witches...." + Witches, it turns out, are also bothered and bewildered +about the whole, as our president has taughht us to say, Satanism +thing. + You mean it was all a big misunderstanding? Whoo, are our +faces red. + I am willing to concede that current practitioners of +Wicca are causing no more trouble for the commonweal than, say, +the Elks, but I've got to assume that, way back when, a few +witches stepped out of line. I mean, if they were all bent on +curing shingles and landscape beautification, they never would +have got this bad rap. It only takes a few rowdy witches to spoil +things for everyone else. + The Rhode Island witches say they don't mess around with +newt eyes and Downey warts the way we have been led to believe. +The high priestess at Our Lady, one Jouce Siegrist, even put down +crystal balls. + I like the way these new witches talk. + Talking about root canal, a friend of mine once said, "It +might not be so bad, if only they called it something else." +Rhode Island tax officials took a similar position about witches. +If the folks at Our Lady called themselves Episcopo-Channelers or +Left-Brain Lutheran Spirit-Extruders, nobody would bat (you should +pardon the expression) an eye, the tax guys decided. + Still, don't expect the kind of perestroika here in nearby +Connecticut, witches. + This isn't Rhode Island, where life is cheap. Before you +get a tax break, we're going to insist on some heavy-duty +licensing. Put you through some testing just to make sure you got +all the basic witch moves, too. Otherwise, everybody would be +saying, "Me, too. I'm a witch, too." (And in connecticut, it +would be the money. To beat our current 73 percent sales tax, +most folks would be prepared to claim they worshipped tartar from +Judd Nelson's teeth if they thought it would help.) + Also in Connecticut, we'd have to insist on you witches +carrying some hex insurance. It's guaranteed in our state +constitution that everybody has to have lots and lots of insurance +and-even though you say you don't do that stuff anymore-what if +there's a big party and somebody gets turned into a skink? +Believe me, the litigants would have a field day. + Siegrist predicts the day will come when witchery is so +pedestrian that when people ask a witch "What's your religion?," +the witch will say, "I'm a witch," and the asker will say, "That's +nice." Except who dares ask anybody about their religion anymore? + Hardly anyone. + By the time public opinion swings around in the witches' +favor, the question will be totally taboo. + Too bad. + Employers might actuallly like hiring witches, especially +if they were willing to work on Christmas. Of course, they would +probably want all those witch holidays off. Elizabeth +Montgomery's birthday. That kind of thing. + + + + + + +Press ! \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/indsatan.txt b/religious documents/indsatan.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad1707a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/indsatan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ + +Haunted by dark suspicions, an Indiana lawman digs into a mystery of empty + graves. (Michael Nelson) + Alan Richman + People Weekly v29 p69(3) March 14, 1988 + + On midnight of the occult holiday known as St. Agnes's Eve, when the +clouds were low over Hendricks County and scuttling through the sky in a +buffeting wind, Lt. Michael Nelson, 39, churchgoer and family man, drove the +back roads in an unmarked police car. Scanning isolated churches and abandoned +graveyards, he was looking for satanic ceremonies, hoping to find a clue as to +why bodies seem to be disappearing from this corner of rural Indiana even +faster than working farms. + + Turning into an unlighted, muddy lane, he extinguished the headlights. +Ahead of him was a copse where dog bones and candle drippings were found in +September, suggesting a ritual mutilation. To his right was the 19th-century +Weaver-Dillon graveyard, obscured by brush, where one adult grave was found +empty and two infant graves were disturbed last year. A faint, eerie whine +carried across the tangled woods, and the air smelled of fresh, damp earth. + + Nelson took a light-enhancing night scope from a case and scanned the +fields. No cult festivities were evident this night, and as the wind died it +became apparent that the whine was coming from tra ctor trailers roaring by at +ungodly speeds on nearby Interstate 74. The smell of fresh earth emanated from +fertile cornfields, not spades reaching into hoary graves. Pulling back onto +the blacktop, Nelson headed toward an old house once inhabited by a woman who +decapitated her girlfriend. In the past year robed revelers were spotted on the +property. ''Frankly,'' said Nelson, a modern lawman hunting evildoers from a +more primitive age, ''this investigation scares the hell out of me.'' + + He began his inquiries in September, when a tip came into the Hendricks +County sheriff's office that a body had been taken from a rural graveyard +called Hadley Yards. Once his investigation became public knowledge, other +excavations were reported. It soon appeared that ever since 1986, grave robbers +had been working Hendricks County as industriously as door-to-door Bible +salesmen did in more orthodox days. + + Within the county's 417 square miles are 126 recorded graveyards, most of +them family plots. Not all the graveyards have been checked, so difficult are +many of them to reach, but at least six of the oldest burial places have been +dug into and, according to Nelson, the bones of as many as 15 adults have been +removed. No witnesses have come forward. The only known living descendant of a +suspected victim is Hugh Weaver, 72, a distant relative of Abia Dillon, whose +grave was found empty last year. ''It's just not very nice to think about,'' +said Weaver, who refused e ven to look into the empty hole where Abia once lay. +''I didn't have the guts.'' + + Whoever may be carrying off the remains of the county's early settlers is +surely not part of the mainstream of Hendricks County, which Sheriff Roy +Waddell, 49, describes as ''basically a rural, well-to-do, conservative, +bedroom community.'' Located just a few miles west of Indianapolis, the county +is mostly corn and soybean fields, peeling barns, tired farmhouses and spiffy +commuter subdivisions. + + Nelson suspected that the grave robbers might be looking for jewelry until +he decided that jewel thieves would not carry off entire skeletons. He +considered other explanations, including a black market in bones for medical +schools, but realized schools would prefer fresher specimens. Finally he set +out to educate himself about the occult. From his readings, which constitute a +best- seller list of the bizarre, he learned that some religious cults prize +old human bones, believing the spirits of the deceased reside in them, and that +some value the dirt from the graves of unbaptized infants. + + Nelson's hunch, however, was that the grave robbers were involved in +satanic worship, and these suspicions were corroborated by a former cult +priestess who agreed to an interview with him. (She now has a desk job instead +of a cult position -- the pay is better, the hours regular, and she no longer +has to fornicate with barnyard animals.) ''Satanic cults are the only thing +that makes sense to me,'' the woman told him after hearing the evidence. ''If +they took an entire skeleton, they might cremate it in a sacrificial manner.'' +She recommended that Nelson look for these ceremonies at abandoned or +little-used churches, particularly on occult holidays, and assured him that he +would have little difficulty identifying the participants: They would be +wearing robes or frolicking in the nude. ''This is not a traditional +investigation,'' Nelson sighed. + + Nelson's wife, Phyllis, 41, a former sergeant with the Indianapolis +airport police, now working for a private security firm, supports his belief +that satanic cult members are robbing graves. Nelson's superiors are not +convinced. Recently the sheriff ordered him back in uniform and placed him on a +patrol shift, in effect ending the investigation until new information is +forthcoming. + Sheriff Waddell has been playing devil's advocate in Nelson's +investigation. He points out there is nothing but a few deep holes to suggest +that bodies have been disturbed. He also notes that in the 28 years he has +lived in Hendricks County, he has never seen a sign of satanic activity, and he +hates the idea that outsiders might think the place is ''full of devil +worshipers.'' Asked how long a visitor would have to hang around in order to +see such local color, Sheriff Waddell replied, a little coolly, ''Probably +forever.'' + + In fact, evidence of satanic activity in the county seems to exist largely +in the imagination -- or at least in the assumptions -- of the beholder. Years +ago, recalls Nelson, he drove up to an isolated house outside the town of +Brownsburg and observed people standing around a bonfire on a snowy night. When +he approached in his marked car, the group scattered. He won't go so far as to +say that this was a satanic gathering, but he will say this: ''It wasn't a +wienie roast.'' + + John Roof, chaplain of the sheriff's department and rector of a local +Episcopal church, doesn't think the grave robbings amount to more than a prank +-- ''That's as much attention as I pay to it,'' he says -- but he conceded that +about 15 years ago some sacramental vessels were stolen from an Episcopal +church and recovered in an unoccupied house decorated with satanic symbols. +There have also been reports in the county of animal mutilations involving the +dismembering of cats and squirrels. + + A number of citizens, the sheriff among them, think the culprits might be +kids, not cults, though Nelson insists otherwise. ''This is not a gag or a +prank,'' he said. If youngsters are at work, they are probably the ones who +practice perfect penmanship and keep their desks neat in school because most of +the graveyard excavations have been meticulous jobs. Nancy Petercheff, 66, who +discovered two emptied graves on her farm, said, ''Somebody worked hard, and +somebody knew how to do it.'' + + Whoever these somebodies are, they are having a wicked effect on the home +life of the Nelsons, for Phyllis and Michael do not sleep nearly as well as +they did before the investigation started. About a month ago Phyllis woke up in +the middle of the night and said to Michael, ''Do you hear that? It's a man +moaning.'' He didn't hear a thing, but that didn't mean he was enjoying a +restful night. ''I read before I go to bed, different subjects that might apply +to the case, and I think that's the wrong thing to do,'' he said. ''What I read +about, I dream about. One night I woke up thinking they'd gotten me.'' + + Nelson believes that if he can proceed with the investigation, modern +police methods will prevail over those who live by superstition and depravity. +If the price he must pay is not resting easily, he knows that Abia Dillon, +David and Joanna Stout and the others who may have been taken from their graves +are no longer resting at all. + + COPYRIGHT Time Inc. 1988 + + diff --git a/religious documents/infoadm1.txt b/religious documents/infoadm1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db4c534 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/infoadm1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,854 @@ +File: InfoAdms + +TEMPLE OF SET +Post Office Box 470307 +San Francisco, CA 94147 +U.S.A. +MCI-Mail: 314-3953 +Internet: 3143953@mcimail.com +Telex: 6503143953 +* * * * * * * * * * * * + +GENERAL INFORMATION AND ADMISSIONS POLICIES +(c) 1986-1994CE Temple of Set +- Updated October 6, 1994 CE - + +Thank you for your inquiry. The Temple of Set is an institution +unlike any you have previously encountered. Before you can make an +informed decision concerning possible affiliation, it is necessary +for you to consider the history of the Temple, its basic tenets, its +current design and programs, and the benefits and obligations +incurred by each Setian. + +HISTORY OF THE TEMPLE + +While the Temple of Set as an organization was formally incorporated +in 1975 CE, its magical and philosophical roots are prehistoric, +originating in mankind's first apprehension that there is "something +different" about the human race - a sense of *self-consciousness* +that places humanity apart from and above all other known forms of +life. + +Ancient religions - of which those of Egypt are generally +acknowledged the eldest - either exalted or feared this self- +consciousness. Those which exalted it took the position that the +human psyche is capable of opposition to and domination of the +forces of nature. Those fearing it warned man that such a +presumption of independence would be sinful and dangerous. +Therefore, they said, such "will to power" should be concealed, +sublimated - and if necessary punished and exterminated - that +mankind might return to an Eden-like "state of nature" untroubled by +the burdens of having to take responsibility for decisions, +judgments, and actions based upon an essentially personal +determination of "good" and "evil". + +The psyche-worshipping religions were more intellectually demanding +than their nature-worshipping counterparts, since it is more +difficult to reason a path through one's span of conscious existence +than it is to be swept along by a current of semi-rational stimulus +and response. The reasoning religions - or schools of initiatory +philosophy - attained levels of abstract knowledge that made them +mysterious to the masses. In a few societies, such as Egypt and +Greece, such groups were respected and admired. More often, however, +their exclusive elitism and "supernatural" activities made them +objects of resentment and persecution. + +While all philosophical schools embraced the psychecentric +consciousness to some degree, there were a very few that made it +avowedly and explicitly the focus of their attention. The divine +personifications ("gods") of such schools have come down to us as +symbols of what most Western religions, worshippers of non- +consciousness, consider the supreme "evil": the Prince of Darkness +in his many forms. Of these the most ancient is Set, whose +Priesthood can be traced to predynastic times. Images of Set have +been dated to ca. 3200 BCE, with astronomically-based estimates of +inscriptions dating to ca. 5000 BCE. + +The original Priesthood of Set in ancient Egypt survived for twenty- +five recorded dynasties (ca. 3200-700 BCE). It was one of the two +central priesthoods in predynastic times, the other being that of +HarWer ("Horus the Elder"). Unification of Egypt under both +philosophical systems resulted in the nation's being known as the +"Two Kingdoms" and in its Pharaohs wearing the famous "Double Crown" +of Horus and Set. + +Originally a circumpolar/stellar deity portrayed as a cyclical +counterpart to the Solar Horus, Set was later recast as an evil +principle by the cults of Osiris and Isis. During the XIX and XX +Dynasties Set returned as the Pharaonic patron, but by the XXV +Dynasty (ca. 700 BCE) a new wave of Osirian persecution led to the +final destruction of the original Priesthood of Set. When the +Hebrews emigrated from Egypt during the XIX Dynasty, however, they +took with them a caricature of Set: "Satan" (from the hieroglyphic +_Set-hen_, one of the god's formal titles). + +Originally a sort of "prosecuting angel for YHVH", the Hebrew Satan +was changed by Christianity into a personification of everything God +was not - and since God was supposed to be "good", Satan was +necessarily "bad". Alluring or mysterious deities from religions +competing with early Christianity - such as the Hellenic/Roman +Mysteries and the Persian Mithraic faith - were also "bad", hence +the Christian Satan was decorated with many of their +characteristics, such as Pan's horns & cloven hoofs. Non-Christian +gods generally were redefined as Christian "demons" and given a +place in the Christian "Hell" (another name stolen and perverted +from ancient Norse mythology). + +Christian propaganda notwithstanding, there is no record of any +actual "Satanic religious underground" throughout the course of +Christian European history. The *myth* of such a "witch cult", +however, was promoted and actively used by the Christian churches to +terrorize their followers into docile obedience and to eliminate +those who could not be threatened. The number of accused "Satanists" +tortured and burned to death in medieval and Renaissance Europe will +never be known conclusively, but estimates run as high as 13 +million. Many European museums still display the grisly, almost +unbelievably cruel devices used in such torture, and detailed +records of the "trials" and "confessions" of the victims survive in +shameful abundance. + +Cases of torture, murder, and genocidal extermination of "infidels" +and "heathens" in other areas of the world similarly abound - and +stand collectively in testimony to the appalling legacy of the +world's major monotheistic religions. It must further be remembered +that the more "tolerant" climate of modern times did not come about +through the wishes of conventional churches themselves, but rather +through their increasing rejection by a mankind exhausted by +religious warfare and terrified by the wanton viciousness of such +establishments as the "Holy Office" (better known as the +Inquisition). + +If the "Enlightenment" of the 17th and 18th centuries succeeded in +reducing Christianity - the dominant monotheism of Europe - to a +secular moral metaphor, it was not until the late 19th century that +the so-called "Black Arts" began to be tolerated, and then only in +their most simplistic and socially innocuous forms. From Freemasonry +came a ceremonial magical offshoot - Rosicrucianism - which became +increasingly more sophisticated in the Rosicrucian Society of +England (S.R.I.A.) and then in the famous Hermetic Order of the +Golden Dawn (G.'.D.'.). + +In 1904 an Adept of the G.'.D.'. named Aleister Crowley broke away +from that disintegrating body to form his own Order of the Astrum +Argenteum (A.'.A.'.). To the Rosicrucian/ceremonial magical +philosophy of the G.'.D.'., Crowley added first a strong emphasis on +attainment of the highest level of self-consciousness ("Knowledge +and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel") and later the +Masonic/sexual magic practices of Germany's Order of Oriental +Templars (O.T.O.). The latter practices, together with Crowley's +cavalier lifestyle, brought him public notoriety. His organizations +survived his 1947 death only in highly-fragmented and doctrinarily +simplistic factions. + +In 1966 a San Francisco sorcerer named Anton Szandor LaVey founded +the Church of Satan as a medium for the study of the Black Arts and +as an ethical statement repudiating the religious hypocrisy of +conventional society. This event marks the creation of Satanism as a +religion in its own right. Publicly its "Satan" was not the evil +scarecrow of Christian myth, but rather a champion of anti-hypocrisy +- a crusader against the corruption and moral bankruptcy of society, +which LaVey blamed largely upon Christianity. In another, more +private context, the Satan of the Church of Satan was understood to +be an authentic metaphysical presence: a being not evil, but rather +independent, assertive, and creative - a true Prince of Darkness +after the imagery of Milton, Blake, Baudelaire, and Twain. + +The Church remained principally a San Francisco phenomenon for its +first four years, then during 1970-1974 branched out across the +United States and Canada with local "Grottos" headed by those +ordained to the Satanic Priesthood (the Priesthood of Mendes - named +after a city in Ptolemaic Egypt whose hedonistic festivals +particularly horrified the early Christian church). + +The Church of Satan's attitude towards magic was more pragmatic and +utilitarian than that of such mystically-based organizations as the +G.'.D.'. and A.'.A.'. It saw no need for exhaustive studies into the +often incoherent and inconsistent concepts of the Cabala, nor did it +see anything extraordinarily significant in sex-magic. Rather it +chose to approach the occult arts and sciences more rationally and +even scientifically, employing "Occam's razor" to design and conduct +Workings of ritual magic that were simple and direct, yet effective. + +In this the Church was generally successful, but it continued to +experience increasing difficulty with the basic nihilism and +negative connotations of its religious imagery. It could not escape +the self-assumed limitation of being "anti-Christian" in a society +in which Christianity - and its "evil scarecrow" concept of Satan - +were overwhelmingly predominant. Simultaneously the Church began to +feel constrained by even its own redefinition of Satanism, as the +parameters of philosophy and metaphysics extend far beyond the +conceptual and symbolic limits of the Judaic/Christian tradition. + +The Satanic religion proposes to raise the individual to personal +godhood, free from enslavement to any other "God" [or gods]. +Unfortunately this is a question not just of power, but also of +ethics, morality, and psychological maturity. The Church of Satan's +initial prescriptions - as outlined in LaVey's 1969 book _The +Satanic Bible_ - were used by some as a basis for metaphysical +growth, but by others as merely an excuse for egoistic +irresponsibility. The Church suffered periodically from petty crises +and scandals among the general membership, and finally Anton LaVey +lost confidence in its organizational viability. In 1975 he made a +decision to redesign it as a non-functional vehicle for his personal +expression, exploitation, and financial income. + +This decision was emphatically rejected by the majority of the +Priesthood, who immediately resigned from the Church in protest and +denied its legitimacy as a true Church of Satan henceforth. The +senior Initiate, Michael A. Aquino, invoked the Prince of Darkness +in quest of a new Mandate to preserve and enhance the more noble +concepts which the Church of Satan had conceived and outlined. That +Mandate was given in the form of _The Book of Coming Forth by Night_ +- a statement by that entity, in his most ancient semblance as Set, +ordaining the Temple of Set to succeed the Church. The Temple was +incorporated in California as a non-profit church in 1975, receiving +both state and federal recognition and tax-exemption later that same +year. It has since remained the sole "Satanic" religious institution +possessing these legal credentials. + +THE CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENT + +In the United States the 1960-70s CE, despite [and in part because +of] periodical psychopolitical strains such as the Vietnam War, +generally represented a period of flourishing liberalism and freedom +in personal affairs. Exploration and innovation were tolerated and +encouraged in society. It was a time of breakthroughs in civil +rights; of increased respect for racial, ethnic, sexual, and +religious groups. There was controversy; but on the whole it was +constructive and progressive in tone. By the end of the 1970s, +despite continued growing pains, Western culture appeared to have +moved decisively into the utopian "Age of Aquarius". + +The 1980s, however, heralded a sharp and surprising reversal of this +climate into conservatism and intolerance. The most primitive, +fundamentalist branches of Christianity gained converts and sought +political power. And controversial minority groups were assaulted +with fresh waves of discrimination and repression. + +Nowhere did this "new Inquisition" strike more directly than at "New +Age" religions in general and at Satanism in particular. Invoking +the same despicable tactics that their predecessors used over the +centuries against alternative creeds, fundamentalists now began to +disseminate hate-propaganda accusing "Satanism" of the most hideous +crimes imaginable: human & animal sacrifice, cannibalism, the +kidnapping/sexual abuse/murder of children. That none of this was in +the least true mattered not at all to the accusers. If the Big Lie +could be repeated loudly & often enough, it would catch hold. +Suddenly it became dangerous to be an avowed Satanist in communities +infected with anti-Satanic hysteria. The witch-hunt eventually +spread to several other countries as well, among them the United +Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, and Germany. + +Why should the same post-World War II generation that had grown up +in the open atmosphere of the 60s-70s tolerate, even encourage a +relapse into the brutish hatreds and persecutions of the Middle +Ages? Perhaps for the very reason that it was a generation +unprepared for what might be termed humanity's "religious impulse". +During the 60s-70s religion was generally dismissed as something +quaint and obsolete: superstition embarrassing to an age of science, +computers, and Project Apollo. "God was dead", and Christianity was +invoked merely as an excuse for Christmas revelry and other +entertainments (such as _Jesus Christ Superstar_ & the "Jesus Freak +revolution" of 1970). Even the formation of the Church of Satan in +1966 was somewhat anti-climactic: It didn't arise in response to a +"threatening" Christianity - for Christianity already appeared to be +a dead horse. The carcass was there to be kicked around a bit for +the sake of theatre, but there was no expectation that it had any +energy left to get up and kick back. + +The "religious impulse" proved to be important to both Satanists and +non-Satanists. In the case of Satanists it brought about an +increasing interest in exploring the "human equation" and the +metaphysical and psychological roots of the great Satanic/psyche- +centered philosophies of history. Even had Anton LaVey not provoked +the crisis of 1975, it is clear that the evolution of Church of +Satan into something like the Temple of Set - a completely non- +Christianized, positive "high Satanism" - would have proceeded +inexorably. + +Non-Satanists, meanwhile, found themselves adrift in a society whose +Judaeo/Christian moral values had disintegrated into materialistic +hypocrisy. In such an "arid wilderness of steel and stone", there +arose a longing for "something/anything spiritual" - and the +remnants of Christianity were there to offer the appropriate opium +after various "New Age" fantasies had been tried and found to be +wanting. + +In the 1980s, however, there was a difference in Christian +evangelism. The new herd of converts had *not* received a gradual +education enabling it to see Christianity in at least some +historical context. Rather it perceived Christianity as a completely +novel experience - and so it was far more vulnerable to Christian +propaganda than the previous, more worldly generation had been. The +result was an eruption in the 1980s of a fundamentalism as mindless +and brutish as that of the Middle Ages. Now, as before, it needed a +scarecrow - and "Satanism" was a word with an appropriately scary +sound. Christian fanatics who knew [and cared] nothing whatever +about *actual* Satanism suddenly embarked upon passionate [and +financially profitable] campaigns brandishing the scarecrow before +credulous followers. + +Complicating the situation was the perennial impulse among alienated +youth and antisocial elements to deliberately shock society by +flaunting its bogymen. If prudish elements of the community were +going to terrify themselves with "scarecrow Satanism", then Heavy +Metal rock music would affect this same image, as would the +occasional psychotic criminal and teenage gang. Fundamentalists +happily showcased such aberrations as "proof" of the scarecrow's +existence. + +The Temple of Set, now the world's preeminent Satanic religious +institution, found itself in the awkward position of having not only +to defend authentic Satanism against the shrill screams of the +scarecrow-merchants, but also to reject superficial glorification of +the scarecrow that would return Satanism's image to nothing more +than anti-Christian "Devil worship". Both challenges have been +addressed, but not without the cost of time and energy drained from +the Temple's own magical and philosophical interests. + +As we enter the 1990s CE the initial danger has been largely +averted. We have been able to establish the truth about Satanism +sufficiently to expose the falsehoods of the scarecrow-merchants in +all but the most ignorant backwaters of society. That same society, +however, continues to flail about for the moral anchor that the +large mass-religions claim to offer. Christianity's strength lies +today, as throughout its history, in the *absence* of intellectual +education and mental effort which it demands of its sheep. It has +also become quite accomplished at exploiting humanity's fear of +death, sexual neuroses, and other irrational hatreds and +insecurities. + +This is therefore a time of critical importance for the Temple of +Set. Our philosophy has never been more sophisticated, yet we pursue +it in the midst of a confused, superficial, and paranoid social +environment. It is not the task of the Temple of Set to be a "savior +of the masses" - but rather to help suitable individuals to +apprehend and attain their own divinity. The wisdom with which our +Initiates exercise this divinity may well determine whether humanity +advances to the stars - or succumbs to the entropy of the universe +as one more inconsequential curiosity of nature. + +THE SETIAN PHILOSOPHY + +Since movements dedicated to the Prince of Darkness have been so +ill-tolerated by the masses of humanity wherever and whenever they +have appeared, why have they survived at all? Why do they continue +to exercise such uncanny attraction, and why now should you consider +approaching this particular one? + +The appeal of occultism is much the same as that of conventional +religion: Logical positivism and scientific materialism, though they +have made great strides towards explaining the "how" of existence, +have failed entirely to explain the "why". Hence the curious seek +answers in metaphysical philosophy or religion. Metaphysical +philosophy requires a logical base from which various suprarational +principles are induced. Conventional religion is the simplification +of such a philosophy into a crude ideology, which adherents need not +understand, but only accept as an act of blind faith. + +Conventional religions, with their colorful mythologies analyzed in +terms of the underlying philosophical principles, represent simply +the primitive longing of man to feel "at one" with the Universal +harmony he perceives about him. "White" magic, as advocated by +primitive pagan and modern institutional religions, offers devotees +the illusion of "re-inclusion" in the Universal scheme of things +through various ritualistic devotions and superstitions. + +The Black Magician, on the other hand, rejects both the desirability +of union with the Universe and any self-deceptive antics designed to +create such an illusion. He has considered the existence of the +individual psyche - the "core you" of your conscious intelligence - +and has taken satisfaction from its existence as something unlike +anything else in the Universe. The Black Magician desires this +psyche to live, to experience, and to continue. He does not wish to +die - or to lose his consciousness and identity in a larger, +Universal consciousness [assuming that such exists]. He wants to be. +This decision in favor of individual existence is the first premise +of the Temple of Set. + +The second premise of the Temple is that the psychecentric +consciousness can evolve towards its own divinity through deliberate +exercise of the intelligence and Will, a process of *becoming* or +*coming into being* whose roots may be found in the dialectic method +expounded by Plato and the conscious exaltation of the Will proposed +by Nietzsche. + +Ironically it is the very ease with which any individual can +apprehend and appreciate his or her personal psyche that has +frightened the many religions of the world which deny and oppose the +power of that psyche. Clothed though they may be in riches, ritual, +and respectability, they always have been and remain obsessed with +the suppressed knowledge of their own essential falsehood. They +endeavor to distract attention from this by sponsoring shows of +mind-numbing drugs, mantras, masses, privations, entertainments, and +penances to coax or cow their flocks of adherents into a confused, +apprehensive, but trusting state of faith and automatic obedience. +They shudder with horror at the psyche; they paint it red and add +horns, cloven hooves, and a forked tail to dramatize how "dangerous" +it is. Yet they can never escape it or defeat it, because they have +never really succeeded in opposing themselves to it - merely in +distorting and perverting it. How could they destroy something +which, in the final analysis, is the conscious self of every human +being? + +The "worship" of Set is thus the "worship" of individualism. In the +Church of Satan this was taken to mean *indulgence* in all [legal] +desires of the body and ego. Since many such desires are impulsive +and destructive, the Church found itself in the awkward position of +_de facto_ endorsing many practices which were degrading rather than +exalting, and which simply accelerated the tensions resulting in the +eventual crisis of 1975. + +The Temple of Set determined to preserve the principle of +individualism, but to add to it the evolutionary "higher self" +aspirations of Aleister Crowley's pre-O.T.O. philosophy of +_Thelema_. Glorification of the ego is not enough; it is the +complete psyche - the entire self or soul - which must be +recognized, appreciated, and actualized. The process by which this +exaltation of the psyche is sought is called by the name _Xeper_ +[pronounced "Kheffer"; it is the Egyptian hieroglyphic term for "to +become" or "to come into being"]. + +The means by which Setians seek to _Xeper_ are many. As a matter of +principle the Temple declines to standardize its approach to +Initiates. Each may pursue topics of greatest personal interest with +whatever emphasis and at whatever rate desired. The Temple seeks +merely to be a forum for Setians to communicate and cooperate with +one another constructively and courteously. Many ideas and +philosophies are discussed within it, but such discussion does not +constitute the dictation of dogma. + +Indeed dogma - to include fixed ideology in any form - is repugnant +to the Temple. We strive rather towards an atmosphere of "best +possible premises", which are always subject to constructive, +intelligent examination and criticism. That same atmosphere is +Socratic, however, in that foolish, pretentious, or destructive +egotism under the guise of exploration is neither respected nor +endured. + +While it is obvious that Setians have more than enough interests to +occupy an organization with many times our membership and resources +on a full-time basis, the Temple of Set is not intended to consume +the energies or lifestyles of its Initiates. Since a truly Adept +magician must interact constructively and comfortably with +conventional society, encouragement of monastic isolation within +Temple circles would be counterproductive to personal development +and even constrictive of the flexibility necessary to the entire +Temple. Setians are accordingly advised to pursue as wide a variety +of secular interests as possible, and to let Setian philosophy apply +to them only as appropriate. + +STRUCTURE AND OPERATION + +The deliberately individualistic atmosphere of the Temple of Set is +not easily conducive to group activities on a routine or programmed +basis. There are no congregations of docile "followers" - only +cooperative philosophers and magicians. + +Executive authority in the Temple is held by the Council of Nine, +which appoints both the High Priest of Set and the Executive +Director. Initiates are Recognized according to six degrees: Setian +I*, Adept II*, Priest or Priestess of Set III*, Magister/Magistra +Templi IV*, Magus/Maga V*, & Ipsissimus/Ipsissima VI*. + +Recognition as an Adept II* constitutes certification by the Temple +that one has in fact mastered and successfully applied the essential +principles of Black Magic. The bulk of Temple systems are geared to +attainment of and subsequent support for the II*, and that is the +level of affiliation which most Setians will maintain. It is +understood that this is an organizational principle, as each Adept's +magical and philosophical evolution will continue as he or she +continues to energize and actualize it. + +The III*-VI* are properly seen not as further benchmarks of +individual attainment, but as specialized religious offices +conferred by Set alone, and Recognized within the Temple according +to his Will. + +The design, care, and operation of the Temple are entrusted by Set +to the Priesthood. All Initiates of the Priesthood are originally +highly-qualified Adepts in the Black Arts. Most of your contact with +them will be in this context. Because they are responsible for the +integrity of the Temple as a whole, however, they have the authority +both to evaluate and Recognize Initiates' competence and, if +necessary, to suspend or expel individuals who have proven +themselves incapable of maintaining Setian standards of dignity and +excellence. The Priesthood takes all of these responsibilities +extremely seriously, since it regards its name literally and its +trust as sacred. In this respect it stands significantly apart from +conventional religious clergy, who _de facto_ consider their +"priesthoods" as social professions and their deities as mere +symbols and metaphors for their institutional or personal +exploitation. + +The knowledge of the Temple of Set is made available through four +principal avenues: an extensive reading list of published works in +twenty-four specialized fields; the newsletter _Scroll of Set_, the +publications of the Temple's various specialized Orders; and the +series of encyclopaedias entitled the _Jeweled Tablets of Set_. The +contents of the _Scroll_ and the Order periodicals are time-dated, +of course, but those of the _Tablets_ change periodically as ideas +are advanced, improved, or disproved; or as they become more or less +relevant to the Temple's areas of concern. The _Scroll_, Order +newsletters, and _Tablets_ are reproduced simply and inexpensively +[similar to this letter] to preclude excessive membership +expenditure for frequently-revised publications. + +Because of the non-group-oriented design of the Temple, many +Initiates are geographically distant from one another. This +necessitates an organizational design geared more towards services +to the individual than to localized "congregations". Recognizing the +value - and fellowship - of a seminar environment, however, the +Temple provides for "Pylons" (named after the unique gates of +ancient Egyptian temples). Pylons are often geographically +localized, but some are "correspondence" Pylons with global +membership and interaction. While each Pylon is under the trust and +responsibility of a II*+ Sentinel, they are emphatically not +"leader/follower congregations", but rather cooperative and +interactive forums for individual Initiates. Each new Setian is +expected to affiliate with at least one Pylon within a year of +admission to the Temple and Recognition to the II* will normally be +recommended and/or formalized by that Pylon. + +Individuals admitted to the Temple are provided with a personal copy +of the _Crystal Tablet of Set_, which contains a wide range of +organizational, philosophical, and magical information pertinent to +qualification as an Adept. There is a two-year time-limit for each +new Setian to qualify for Adept Recognition. If such Recognition is +not received by that time, affiliation is cancelled. + +The Orders of the Temple are entirely different in concept and +operation from its Pylons. Each Order specializes in one or more +particular fields of the magical arts and sciences. Such a +specialization may be transcultural or oriented to a specific +geographic area, time-period, or conceptual tradition. Within one +year after II* Recognition, each Adept is expected to affiliate with +an Order reflective of his or her personal interests and aptitudes. +The collective knowledge of all of the Orders is available to the +Temple membership generally. + +Setians may also communicate with one another by means of a +regularly-updated InterCommunication Roster, contained in the +_Crystal Tablet_, and periodic Conclaves are scheduled on a +regional, national, and international basis. + +A recent addition to the Temple's structure is Glinda, a computer +database and bulletin-board system accessible by Setians only. +Besides offering a means for electronic mail and conferencing, +Glinda serves as a repository for a constantly growing library of +Temple documents which Setians can download at their convenience. + +Personal affiliation with the Temple is kept confidential; your +admission is known only to the Priesthood. If you desire to meet +other Setians, you may do so under a magical name if desired. In +summary, you may apply the services and systems of the Temple as you +wish, and as you deem most complementary to your _Xeper_; otherwise +they will not intrude upon you. + +AN IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION + +Regretfully there still exist some individuals whose idea of +"Satanism" is largely a simple-minded synthesis of Christian +propaganda and Hollywood horror movies. The Temple of Set enjoys the +colorful legacy of the Black Arts, and we use many forms of +historical Satanic imagery for our artistic stimulation and +pleasure. But we have not found that any interest or activity which +an enlightened, mature intellect would regard as undignified, +sadistic, criminal, or depraved is desirable, much less essential to +our work. + +The Temple of Set is an evolutionary product of human experience. +Such experience includes the magical and philosophical work of many +occult individuals and organizations which have preceded us. Some of +these were socially acceptable by contemporary or modern standards; +others were not. Some made brilliant discoveries in one field of +interest while blighting their reputations with shocking excesses or +tragic failures in others. In examining the secret and suppressed +corners of history for valuable and useful material, the Temple +insists upon ethical presentation and use of such discoveries as it +makes. Setians who are in any doubt as to the ethics involved in any +of the fields which we explore should seek counsel from the +Priesthood. All Setians are further expected to display a high +measure of maturity and common sense in this area. + +The Black Arts are *dangerous* in the same way that working with +volatile chemicals is dangerous. This is most emphatically *not* a +field for unstable, immature, or otherwise emotionally or +intellectually weak-minded people. Such are a hazard to themselves +and to others with whom they come into contact. The Temple endeavors +to not admit them to begin with. If such an individual should gain +admittance and later be exposed, he will be summarily expelled. In +cases of doubt the Temple may be expected to place the burden of +proof on the individual, for the sake of all Setians and the +Temple's integrity. + +The Temple of Set evaluates conventional religions as erroneous in +principle and therefore unworthy of peer status. We feel no need to +concern ourselves with their activities, or for that matter to +maintain any sort of "diplomatic relations" with them [as in +councils of churches]. Our position is that they may serve a useful +social function as purveyors of soothing myths and fantasies to +humans unable to attain Setian levels of self-consciousness. Hence +we ignore conventional religious organizations unless they intrude +upon our affairs. + +These warnings are not intended to be oppressive or intimidating, +but they should be taken seriously. The Temple is a forum for the +investigation of many subjects which conventional society finds odd, +mysterious, and even extremely frightening. The Temple will be +tolerated only to the extent that it is known to be pursuing its +interests carefully, expertly, and responsibly. It occupies a +delicate position in a world which is largely unhappy with itself, +and which is ceaselessly searching for scapegoats. Hence the Temple +must take care to maintain its social balance with prudence and +dignity. + +AFFILIATION + +The Church of Satan learned that there were many people who wished +to "visit", to "study", and to "observe" without the least intention +of a personal commitment. For many years the Church endeavored to +accommodate such dilettantes on the assumption that, upon exposure +to its philosophy, they would appreciate its essential requirement +for such a commitment. Once being in the position to enjoy the +"accessories" of the philosophy without having to confront its core +principle, however, such persons continued to vampirize the Church +indefinitely. They contributed as little as they could, took as much +as they could, and ultimately constituted the single most +destructive influence leading to the Church's disintegration in +1975. + +The Temple of Set has determined that it will not make the same +mistake. Its activities, publications, knowledge, and services are +reserved for those who affiliate with it, or on an individual-case +basis, for non-Setians who request assistance from the Temple that +we deem to be in our interests or in the interests of the community +as a whole. The First Degree (I*) of Temple affiliation is regarded +as a "status of mutual evaluation" wherein the Initiate and the +Temple can assess one another's merit from the standpoint of minimum +investment and involvement. If a I* Initiate should decide that the +Temple is not, after all, appropriate to his wants or needs, he is +welcome to depart with our good wishes for satisfaction elsewhere. + +Aspirants to the Temple should understand that it is not a club or +fraternal society whose principles may be collected along with those +of other social affiliations, occult or otherwise. Membership in the +Temple of Set beyond the I* precludes membership in any other +religious organization. + +Members or former members of non-religious occult organizations +should understand that within the Temple of Set they will be +expected to respect and observe the Temple's protocol, and that +literature and other information from the Temple is not to be passed +to non-Temple individuals or organizations without prior approval of +the Priesthood. If the Temple of Set can assist other deserving +organizations or individuals on occasion, it will be pleased to do +so. But it must exercise reasonable care over the Temple materials +that are made available - both so that our own Initiates may enjoy +the fruits of their honest labor [and that of their predecessors] +and so that the Temple of Set may continue to enjoy its exclusive +reputation for excellence in the disciplines it has pioneered. + +Should you have questions which are reasonably pertinent to your +serious consideration whether or not to apply for admission to the +Temple, you are welcome to address them to the Executive Director of +the Temple. If you wish to apply for admission as a Setian I*, there +are two avenues of approach available to you: + +(1) If you are already in contact with a Priest or Priestess of Set, +you may request him or her to sponsor your application. In that case +you may send a letter to the Executive Director mentioning this +sponsorship. With your letter enclose a check or money order for +US$60 (US$70 for overseas applicants), payable to Temple of Set. +[Please note that this amount must be in U.S. dollars, either drawn +on a U.S. bank or as an international money order only.] If +Priesthood sponsorship is verified, approval of your application +will be automatic. + +*Important note*: If you are admitted, and if you are an overseas +resident, your admission packet will be sent to you by surface mail. +Depending upon the destination, this can take as long as two months. +If you wish the packet sent via air mail, your application check +should be for the amount of US$100 to cover the extra air mail +postage. + +(2) If you are not known to a member of the Priesthood, write a +letter to the Executive Director introducing yourself, summarizing +whatever aspects of your background you feel to be relevant, and +stating your reasons for deciding to seek entrance into the Temple. +Enclose the admission fee. The Temple will make a decision and +respond to you accordingly. If necessary you will be asked for +additional information. Should your application not be approved for +any reason, the fee will be refunded. Persons applying for admission +via this procedure should be as objective and candid as possible in +their self-assessment. There is no point in misleading the Temple +concerning one's suitability for admission, which will only result +sooner or later in the truth coming to light - with the consequent +waste of both the individual's and the Temple's time. If there are +crucial areas of possible incompatibility, it is incumbent on the +applicant to identify them before affiliation so that they may be +addressed and, if possible, resolved. + +Whichever method you apply through, please be certain to include: + +(1) Your full legal name [no pseudonyms] and sex. +(2) Your complete mailing address. +(3) Daytime and evening telephone numbers. +(4) Date of birth. +(5) Present organizational affiliations. + +Annual renewal fee for all Initiates is US$50 (US$55 overseas). [The +first year is pro-rated from the month of your entry.] These fees +are designed, as is the admissions fee, to cover the cost of +mailings to you and the administration of the Temple. As a matter of +policy the Temple is not designed to make a profit on its +operations, and its assets are used exclusively for benefits to its +Initiates as a whole. There are no other regular or recurring fees, +save that Orders and Pylons may set reasonable charges for their +newsletters or other time/effort services. Special publications of +the Temple and events scheduled by the Temple are customarily made +available on a non-profit basis to Initiates who are interested. + +The only physical requirement for admission is that the aspirant be +at least 18 years of age. Those below the age of 18 may not visit +Temple functions, ceremonial or otherwise, whether or not they are +relatives of Initiates. The Temple has no programs for children. It +is our position that children and adolescents should not be +indoctrinated into the assumptions and prescriptions of *any* +suprarational system, whether it be our own philosophy or the faiths +and superstitions of conventional religions. Rather their youthful +years should be a time of *exclusively rational* training and +education, giving them a sound and meaningful basis by which, as +adults, they may consider and choose whatever philosophy or faith +seems most meaningful to them. + +If your application is approved, you will receive notification from +the Executive Director's office, together with membership +identification, certificate, copy of the _Crystal Tablet of Set_ +[including the current reading list & intercommunication roster, +most recent issues of the _Scroll of Set_ and Order publications [as +determined by the Order Grand Masters], and Setian I* pendant +medallion. + +Then the initiative is yours. The Temple of Set is designed to +assist you in the ways we have found to be the most practical, +productive, and factually accurate. But, as helpful as the Temple +may be, and as proud of it as we are, it is nevertheless properly +understood as a *tool*. *You* are the one who must put that tool to +use in a way that will enable you to _Xeper_. + +Such is the Word of the AEon of Set. + +* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +COMMONLY-ASKED QUESTIONS + +----- +Q: If the Temple of Set does not believe in Judaeo/Christianity, why +do you call yourselves a "Satanic" religion? Isn't Satan a demon +within J/C mythology? +----- + +A: For the last two thousand years most of the social cultures in +which the Temple of Set currently exists have been dominated by one +or more branches of Judaeo/Christianity. This influence is far more +pervasive than most people consciously appreciate, extending into +these societies' most basic assumptions about group & individual +relationships, law, justice, ethics, sexual mores, family units, +cosmology, and metaphysics. It is easy to not be a member of a +Christian church, or to call oneself a non-Christian; it is far more +difficult to escape from J/C social conditioning. + +Within this climate many of the aspects of Set are symbolized in +religious imagery by the positive, creative attributes of the J/C +Satan. While Judaism and Christianity created their "Satan" +distortion of the Set _neter_ of ancient Egypt in order to create an +"evil scarecrow" to intimidate and control their societies, they +could not help endowing "Satan" with such Setian attributes as +independence, creativity, and genius - as these same attributes, +except in severely circumscribed and approved forms, are "sins +against God" in J/C culture. + +Therefore many persons of Setian disposition and potential first +become aware of their true nature through an unusual interest in and +attraction to "Satan" and Satanic imagery. [This was also the case +of the Temple of Set as a whole, which from 1966 to 1975 as the +Church of Satan was exploring the Left-Hand Path from within J/C +imagery.] Hence it is initially necessary to use the "Satanic" +metaphor to communicate with them, and to be comprehensible to them. +Once they understand a little more what actually lies behind their +fascination and ambition, they will more easily be able to jettison +the entire cage of J/C reference-points, enter a much larger +universe of thought and being, and come into being as Setians. + +----- +Q: What is the relationship between the Temple of Set and the post- +1975 Church of Satan? +----- + +A: The Temple of Set considers itself to be the unbroken +continuation and evolution of the 1966-75 Church of Satan into a +beyond-J/C idiom. It considers the post-1975 "Church of Satan" to be +a deliberate fraud. + +After 1975 Anton LaVey continued to operate the "Church of Satan" as +a business for his personal financial gain. Although in 1975 he +insisted that he no longer believed in the actual existence of +Satan, he continued to use the name as a dramatic advertisement of +his own egoistic lifestyle. In subsequent years he built up a new +following of individuals either unaware of his 1975 announcement or +simply unconcerned about the "Church of Satan" either being an +actual church or believing in Satan. For him it is simply a +business. For them it is merely the glamor of the name - ironically +the result of the 1966-75 international success of the Church when +it was authentic and sincere. + +----- +Q: Will the Temple of Set teach me to do magic? +----- + +A: To begin with the Temple of Set will help you to understand just +what magic is - and indeed there are several different types of +magic to be learned and distinguished. But as magic enables you to +influence or change events in ways not understood or anticipated by +society, before you put it to use you must first develop a sound and +sophisticated appreciation for the ethics governing your own +motives, decisions, and actions. Merely using magic for impulsive, +egoistic desires is not Setian; it must become second-nature to you +to carefully preevaluate the consequences of what you wish to do - +then to choose the course of wisdom, justice, and creative +improvement. + +----- +Q: What if I join the Temple of Set and decide that I don't like it? +----- + +A: Then you are welcome to resign your membership at any time via a +letter to the Executive Director, and to depart with our best wishes +for your satisfaction elsewhere. The Temple never attempts to +convince former members to change their minds or return to the +Temple - though some, on their own initiative, have done so. + +The initiatory system of the Temple of Set is entirely dependent +upon one's own initiative and potential. By its very nature it +cannot be forced on anyone, nor would it work for someone +approaching it insincerely or without understanding. If someone +enters the Temple and finds it incomprehensible, frustrating, or +otherwise unsatisfactory, it is probably a sign that he or she is +not a Setian and should leave to explore other religious or secular +alternatives. + +----- +Q: How private is my membership? +----- + +A: The Temple of Set does not give out either membership statistics +or the name or personal data of any Initiate. To the extent that you +yourself decide to participate in Conclaves, the InterMember +Communication Roster or various publications, your name will become +known to other Setians. All Setians are asked to respect the privacy +of other members, both within and without the Temple itself. +Only Initiates of the Priesthood of Set are expected [or authorized] +to represent the Temple to the public or to the media, based on +their background, experience, and qualifications to do so +objectively and accurately. diff --git a/religious documents/init1.txt b/religious documents/init1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90a73c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/init1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,219 @@ +ab:init1.txt 16jan90 + + + First Degree Initiation + +People: Hierophant (H) (Initiator) + Candidiate (C) + Hierophant's Working Partner (P) + Summoner (S) (Hierophant does his part if S unavailable) + High Priestess (HPS) (actually, H or P, depending on gender) + +Needs: blindfold + nine foot red cord + short white cord + oil + scourge + all ordinary esbat requirements + +Preparation: + Candidate stands outside Circle to NE, blindfolded and bound + by members of the opposite gender. + Wrists are bound together in back by middle of a 9 foot red cord, + knotted in front at throat with ends hanging down front as cable-tow. + A short white cord is fastened to the right ankle with ends tucked in + so as not to trip C up, saying: + + "Feet neither bound nor free." + +HPS casts Circle. Opening ritual is followed to the end of the Drawing Down +of the Moon, but the Charge is not yet declaimed. + +Summoner fetches Sword (or athame) from the altar, and opens a gate in NE. +S, H, and P face C and S issues the Challenge: + +S: "O thou who standest on the threshold between the pleasant world of men + and the dread domains of the Lords of the Outer Spaces, hast thou the + courage to make the assay ?" + +Placing point of blade against C's heart, S continues: + +S: "For I say verily, it were better to rush on my blade and perish, + than make the attempt with fear in thy heart." + +C: "I have two passwords. Perfect love and perfect trust." + +S: "All who have such are doubly welcome." + +H: "I give thee a third to pass thee through this dread door." + +H grasps C above waist with H's left arm, kisses C on the lips, +and swings C into the Circle with H's body, from behind. + +S (or P if no S) closes the gate. + +H leads C to each Quarter in turn, saying: + +H: "Take heed, ye lords of the East (South/West/North) that + N... is properly prepared to be initiated a priest[ess] and witch." + +H leads C back to centre of Circle (via East) +while coven dances around, singing: + + "Eko, eko Azrak, (etc.)...." + + ... over and over, meanwhile pushing C back and forth among them, until +H calls a halt. + +Partner then rings bell three times as H turns C to stand before the altar, +with C's back to the altar (i.e. facing South if altar is in North). +H stands in centre of Circle, facing C (and altar). H says: + +H: "In other religions, the postulant kneels, while the + priest towers above. But in the Art Magical we are + taught to be humble, and we kneel to welcome + her [/him] and we say: [kneels] + + 'Blessed be thy feet, which have brought thee in these ways;' + [kiss r. foot, then l. foot] + 'Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel at the sacred altar;' + [kiss r. knee, then l. knee] + 'Blessed be thy womb[/phallus], without which we would not be;' + [kiss above pubes] + 'Blessed be thy breasts [/breast], erected in beauty [/formed in + strength] ;' [kiss r. breast, then l. breast] + 'Blessed be thy lips, that shall utter the sacred names.'" + [kiss on lips] [rises] + +H: "Now we are going to take your measure." + +H, aided by another witch of the same gender, stretches a button thread from +the ground by C's foot to crown of C's head and cuts it there with +athame or bolline. +Measure C once about the forehead with the cut thread and knot at the point of +overlap, again about the heart starting from the same end [knot], and lastly +about the hips across the genitals [knot]. The measure is wound and placed upon +the altar. H asks: + +H: "Before thou art sworn, art thou ready to pass the ordeal and be + purified ?" + +C: "I am." + +H, aided by another witch of the same gender, helps C to kneel, head and +shoulders bowed forward. The loose ends of the short cord are unwound and C's +ankles bound securely. The cable tow is fastened to the altar. H fetches +scourge from altar as Partner rings bell three times, saying: + +P: "Three." + +H scourges C firmly, but tenderly, thrice. + +P says (but doesn't ring bell): + +P: "Seven ... Nine ... Twenty-one." + +And each time H scourges C with the number of strokes P has named, and +all should be light, yet firm, save only the very last which may sting somewhat +as a reminder that H. has been deliberately restrained. Hierophant then says: + +H: "Bravely thou hast passed the test. Art thou ready to swear that thou + wilt always be true to the Art ?" + +C: "I am." + +H: "Art thou ever ready to help, protect and defend thy brothers and + sisters of the Art, even though it should cost thee thy life. ? + +C: "I am." + +H: "Then say after me: I, N..., in the presence of the Mighty Ones, do of + my own free will and accord, most solemnly swear, without any + reservation in me whatever, that I will ever keep secret, and never + reveal, the secrets of the Art, except it be to a proper person, + properly prepared within a Circle such as I am now in. This I swear + by my hopes of a future life, mindful that my measure has been taken; + and may my weapons turn against me if I break this my solemn oath." + +H and other witch of the same gender help C to feet. P fetches anointing oil +and chalice of wine. H moistens fingertip with oil saying: + +H: "I hereby sign thee with the Triple Sign. + I consecrate thee with oil ..." + +H touches moistened finger to just above pubes, right breast, left breast, and +above pubes again. H moistens fingertip with wine and anoints the same three +places, saying: + +H: "I consecrate thee with wine ..." +H: "I consecrate thee with my lips ... [kiss as above] + Priest[ess] and witch." + +C is now unbound and the blindfold removed by H and assistant of same gender. +New Initiate is welcomed by coven, then presented with the Working Tools. +As each tool is named, H takes it from the altar and passes it to the Initiate +with a kiss. As each tool is finished with, the assistant takes it from the +Initiate [kiss] and replaces it upon the altar. H says: + +H: "Now I present to thee the Working Tools. + + First, the Magic Sword. + With this, as with the athame, thou canst form all Magic Circles, + dominate, subdue and punish all renellious spirits and daemons, + and even pursuade angels and good spirits. + With this in thy hand, thou art ruler of the Circle. + + Next I present the Athame. This is the true witch's weapon and has all + the powers of the Magic Sword. + + Next I present the White-hilted knife. Its use is to form all + instruments used in the Art. It can only be used in a Magic Circle. + + Next I present the Wand. Its use is to call up and control certain + angels and genii to whom it would not be meet to use the Magic Sword. + + Next I present the Cup. This is the vessel of the Goddess, the Cauldron + of Cerridwen, the Holy Grail of Immortality. From this we drink in + comradeship, and in honour of the Goddess. + + Next I present the Pantacle. This is for the purpose of calling up + appropriate spirits. + + Next I present the Scourge. This is the sign of power and domination. + It is also used to cause purification and enlightenment. For it is + written: 'To learn you must suffer and be purified.' Art thou willing + to suffer to learn ?" + +C: "I am." + +H: "Next and lastly I present the Cords. They are of use to bind the + sigils of the Art; also the material basis; also they are necessary in + the Oath. + + I now salute thee in the name of Aradia, newly made priest[ess] + and witch." [kiss] + +H and P now face the new Initiate and deliver the Charge. + +The Initiate may consecrate his athame here; he must consecrate it before +using it. + +Cakes and Wine. + +The Initiate is now presented to each Quarter in turn by the Hierophant, +saying: + +H: "Hear ye Mighty Ones of the East [S./W./N.]; N... has been consecrated + priest[ess], witch and hidden child of the Goddess." + [to north declaim: "Hear ye Mighty Ones of the North; Boreas, thou + guardian of the Northern portals; thou powerful God, thou gentle + Goddess; N... .... (etc.)] + +Close Circle. + +A "graduation" party should follow. + + +---------- +-published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way" + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/init2.txt b/religious documents/init2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..23e0661 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/init2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,147 @@ +ab:init2.txt 16jan90 + + + Initiation of the Second Degree + + HPS casts Circle as usual. Esbat rite is followed to end +of Invocation of the Horned God. + + Candidate, properly prepared (in centre of Circle), is bound and +blindfolded as in the First Degree, but with the addition of a blue cord +bound about the knees. Hierophant leads Candidate to each Quarter in turn, +proclaiming: + + H: "Hear ye O Mighty Ones of the East [S, W, N], N...., + a duly consecrated Priest(ess) and Witch is now + properly prepared to be made a High Priest and + Magus (High Priestess and Witch Queen)." + + Candidate is returned to center, facing altar. Coven links hands +and thrice circle C. + + Candidate is now assisted to kneel and rebound securely, facing altar. +Hierophant says: + + H: "To attain to this sublime degree, it is necessary to suffer + and be purified. Art thou willing to suffer to learn ?" + + C: "I am." + + H: "I purify thee to take this great Oath rightly." + + The bell is rung thrice and purification follows: 3, 7, 9, 21 (=40) +strokes. Scourge and bell are returned to the altar as Hierophant says: + + H: "I now give thee a new name, N.... What is thy name ?" + (giving light smack or push) + + C: "My name is N.... ." + + Each member of the Coven in turn gives Candidate a light swat or push, +asking: + + Each Covener: "What is thy name ?" + + Candidate responds to each with his (her) new name. When all have put +the question, all return to their places and H. administers the Oath +saying: + + H: "Repeat thy new name after me: I, N...., swear upon my mother's + womb, and by mine honour among men and my Brothers and Sisters + of the Art, that I will never reveal, to any at all, any of the + secrets of the Art, except it be to a worthy person, properly + prepared, in the center of a Magic Circle such as I am now in; + and that I will never deny the secrets to such a person, if he + or she has been properly vouched for by a Brother or Sister of + the Art. All this I swear by my hopes of salvation, my past + lives and my hopes of future ones to come; and I devote myself + and my measure to utter destruction if I break this my solemn + oath." + + Kneeling, H. places left hand under Candidate's knee and right hand +upon his (her) head to form the Magical Link and concentrates long enough +to fully charge C., saying: + + H: "I will all my power into thee." + + Candidate's knees and ankles are now unbound, and he/she is assisted +to rise. Hierophant takes up oil and anoints C. at pubes, right breast, +left hip, right hip, left breast, and above pubic hair again, saying: + + H: "I consecrate thee with oil." + + And again with wine, saying: + + H: "I consecrate thee with wine." + + And lastly kisses Candidate in the same pattern: + + H: "I consecrate thee with my lips, + High Priest(ess) and Magus (Witch Queen)." + + The blindfold and cable-tow are now removed and the Initiate +is congratulated by coveners. + + H. takes up Magic Sword from altar, saying: + + H: "You will now show the use of each of the Working Tools in turn. + First the Magic Sword." (S) + + (Initiate silently redraws Circle and returns Sword with a S.) + + H: "Second the Athame." (S) + + (Initiate again recasts Circle in silence. S) + + H: "Third, the White-Hilted Knife." (S) + + (Initiate inscribes pentagram in new white candle. S) + + H: "Fourth, the Wand." (S) + + (Initiate circumambulates presenting Wand to each Quarter. S) + + H: "Fifth, the Cup." (S) + + (Initiate consecrates wine; may be assisted by H. S) + + H: "Sixth, the Pentacle." (S) + + (Initiate consecrates cakes; may be assisted by H. S) + + H: "Seventh, the Cords." (S) + + (Initiate, with help from Partner, binds H. as s/he was bound +to take this degree. S) + + H: "Eighth, the Scourge. For learn, in Witchcraft you must ever + give as you receive, but ever triple. So where I gave thee + three, return nine; where I gave thee seven, return twenty-one; + where I gave thee nine, return twenty-seven; where I gave + thee twenty-one, return sixty-three." + + (Initiate gives 9, 21, 27, 63 = 120 strokes with Scourge.) + + H: "Though hast obeyed the Law. But mark well, when thou receivest + good, so equally art thou bound to return good threefold." + + H. is unbound and assisted to rise, then leads Initiate to wach Quarter +in turn, saying: + + H: "Hear ye, Mighty Ones of the East [S. W. N.]: + N.... has been duly consecrated High Priest(ess) and Magus + (Witch Queen)." + + H. leads Initiate back to center of Circle, saying: + + H: "Having learned this far, you must know why the Wicca are + called the Hidden Children of the Goddess." + + Proceed with the Legend of the Descent of the Goddess. Generally +Initiate and Hierophant act the appropriate parts. H. appoints Narrator +and Guardian. + +---------- +-published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way" +-lots of other published sources too + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/init3.txt b/religious documents/init3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6654f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/init3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,137 @@ +ab:init3.txt 13jan90 + + + + Initiation of the Third Degree + + +HPS sits upon the altar, facing South, in the Osiris position. HP kneels +before her, kisses both knees, extends arms along thighs, and adores. HP +then fetches filled chalice and celebrates Wine and Cakes. HP again kneels +before HPS, kisses knees and extends arms in adoration as before. Both +rise. + +HP says: + +HP: "Ere I proceed with this sublime rite, I must beg purification + at thy hands." + +HPS takes up a red cord and binds his arms, then taking up the cable-tow, +leads him once about the Circle. +HP kneels facing altar. +Scourge. +HP rises and is unbound whereupon he binds HPS as she bound him, +leads her about the Circle and scourges her as she kneels before the altar. +HPS rises and HP takes her by the cable-tow to each Quarter in turn, +saying: + +HP: "Here ye, Mighty Ones of the East [S, W, N]: + the twice consecrated and holy N...., + High Priestess and Witch Queen [High Priest and Magus], + is properly prepared, + and will now proceed to erect the Sacred Altar." + +HP unties HPS and says: + +HP: "Now again I must beg purification." + +HPS binds him, leads him about the Circle and Scourges him kneeling +before the altar, as before. +He stands and is unbound and says: + +HP: "Now I must reveal a great mystery." + +HPS stands vefore altar in God Position. +HP gives her Fivefold Salute. [After he kisses feet, HPS opens into +Goddess position, still holding scourge and athame]. +HPS then sets scourge and athame aside and lies in the middle of the Circle +with her head to the East and her womb in the shekinah point. HP kneels +beside her facing North. [At each point marked (S) below he kisses her +womb unless instructed otherwise.] HP says: + +HP: "Assist me to erect the ancient altar, + At which in days past all worshipped, + The Great Altar of all things; + For in old times, Woman was the altar. + Thus was the altar made and placed; + And the sacred point was the point within the centre of the Circle. + As we have of old been taught that the point within the centre + is the origin of all things, + Therefore should we adore it. [kiss] + Therefore whom we adore we also invoke, + by the power of the Lifted Lance. [touch phallus] + O Circle of Stars [kiss] + Whereof our father is but the younger brother [kiss] + Marvel beyond imagination, soul of infinite space, + Before whom time is bewildered and understanding dark, + Not unto thee may we attain unless thine image be love. [kiss] + Therefore by seed and root, by stem and bud, + by leaf and flower and fruit, Do we invoke thee, + O Queen of Space, O dew of light, + Continuous one of the heavens [kiss] + Let it be ever thus, that men speak not of thee as one, but as none; + And let them not speak of thee at all, since thou art continuous. + For thou art the point within the circle [kiss] + which we adore, [kiss] + The fount of life without which we would not be, [kiss] + And in this way are erected the Holy Twin Pillars. + [kiss breasts, left then right] + In beauty and in strength were they erected, + To the wonder and glory of all men." + +[If the Great Rite is to be actual, non-participants leave, sealing gate +behind.] + + "O Secret of Secrets, + That art hidden in the being of all lives, + Not thee do we adore, + For that which adoreth is also thou. + Thou art That, and That am I. [kiss] + I am the flame that burns in the heart of every man, + And in the core of every star. + I am life, and the giver of life. + Yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death. + I am alone, the Lord within ourselves, + Whose name is Mystery of Mysteries." + +HP now kisses HPS in the Sigil of the Third Degree as follows: + +[There's a diagram in the non-computer version which I can't reproduce. It +shows the Priestess with the points of the Third Degree Sigil marked on her +body. The points are: 1. genitals/womb; 2. right foot; 3. left knee; 4. +right knee; 5.left foot; 6. genitals/womb; 7. lips; 8. left breast; 9. +right breast; 10. lips.] + +and then lays his body gently over hers, saying: + + "Make open the path of intelligence between us; + For these truly are the Five Points of Fellowship - + Foot to foot, + knee to knee, + Lance to Grail, + Breast to breast, + Lips to lips. + By the great and holy name Cernunnos; + In the name of Aradia; + Encorage our hearts, + Let the light crystalize itself in our blood, + Fulfilling of us resurrection. + For there is no part of us that is not of the Gods." + + ..... + + +HP rises and goes to each Quarter in turn saying: + +HP: "Ye Lords of the Watchtowers of the East [S, W, N]; + the thrice consecrated High Priestess greets you and thanks you." + + + +------------- +-published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way" and Stewart + Farrar's "What Witches Do". (Probably a few other places too, but these + are the ones I'm sure of.) The Farrars say that they are giving GBG's + Text B version. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/initiate.txt b/religious documents/initiate.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..50addc3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/initiate.txt @@ -0,0 +1,114 @@ + A PLEA FOR INITIATION STANDARDS + +I'm full of radical ideas. I think the terms "Priest, Priestess, +High Priest and High Priestess" are more than titles. I think +being a member of the Priesthood means more than status. I think +a coven is more than a study group, or a social gathering. I think +being a Witch is more than a protest against the patriarchy. + +I think receiving a First Degree should mean you have worked and +studied and grown and dedicated yourself to your path and your +Gods. I think an initiation should mean something. + +I know of a young man who received a third degree after having +proved he could lead a ritual. That's all he had to do, lead a +ritual. + +I know of a woman who claims third degrees in both the English and +American traditions of a well-known tradition. She shows +absolutely none of the qualities by which one usually recognizes a +High Priest or High Priestess. + +I know of a woman who refused to accept the standards set by her +High Priestess, who threw a fit when she didn't get her First on +demand. She went to another teacher, secretly received her First, +and a year later, her Second. Considering her attitude toward her +first teacher, I have absolutely no faith that she did any work to +earn her second. Yet she calls herself a High Priestess. + +When two members of Sothistar received their first degrees last +year, they had: studied and worked with the five magical +elements, worked at developing personal relationships with the +Gods, studied astrology, symbology, qabala, Tarot (both as a +divinational and meditational tool), several forms of divination, +writing rituals, leading rituals, drawing down the Moon, basic +spell-casting and various methods,ethics, the Egyptian deities and +mythology, ritual etiquette, the laws of the coven, the use of +stones and crystals, meditation, conducting rituals, the meaning +and duties of the priesthood, and the use of chants and songs. +Both had chosen (or been chosen by) deities to whom they wished to +make a special dedication. Both had proven their loyalty to the +coven and the Craft. Both had served as vessels for both the God +and the Goddess, and both had led rituals. After all of this, +they received First Degree. + +Am I saying that mine is the only way--that if your coven does not +study these subjects your initiations aren't valid? Certainly +not! I am saying that our tradition has standards for initiation. +Many other covens have standards--some more stringent and some +less demanding than mine. What I am saying is that I wish +everyone had standards. + +Why? Because when you have standards, the initiations you give +mean something. + +When we took the two mentioned above around to the four quarters and +pronounced them Priest/ess, they could not have been prouder of their +achievement. Nor could we. We had no doubt they could serve as +competent dedicated Priest and Priestess in a ritual. In the time +since, they've proved it over and over. When they make Second +Degree, and Third, and eventually have a coven of their own, they'll +continue to make us proud. When they represent the coven other +places, they do so in a manner that reflects well on the coven. +I've met many First Degrees of other covens who did not reflect well +on their teachers. (I've also met many who have.) + +You ask again, Why? I'll give you a personal reason--because it +irritates the hell out of me that the people mentioned at the +beginning of this article can put their noses in the air and claim +a higher status in the Craft than my two dedicated, hard-working, +sincere students. + +Once upon a time, a high school diploma meant something. You +couldn't get a decent job without one. These days, it means +nothing. These days, a Bachelor's Degree doesn't mean much. I +don't want that to happen to initiations! + +Perhaps I should discuss what I think initiation is. A true +initiation is not a ritual, it is not entrance into a club, +it is not just a dedication. An initiation is a spiritual step to +a higher stage in spiritual growth. There are many such steps. +Such "initiations" are not given by High Priest/esses. They are +given by the Gods. An initiation ritual is an acknowledgment by a +coven leader that the Initiate has, in that leader's opinion, +reached a certain stage in spiritual growth. + +Coven leaders are not omniscient. Although I'm sure such leaders +strive to serve as worth representatives of the God and Goddess, +they (the coven leaders) are not the God and Goddess. All of them +must find their own ways of determining whether their students +have achieved this growth. They must also give what guidance they +can to those attempting to achieve it. Our study program includes +many things not mentioned above, exercises and spiritual work +that, we hope will help our students reach that goal. If our +students apply themselves to all they are given to do, it is +possible for them to reach that stage. When we give a first +degree initiation, we are saying that the Initiate is *already* a +Priest/ess of the Goddess. + +I do not ask that all covens adopt our particular standards. I do +plead with you to *have* standards beyond simple attendance at +ritual for a year and a day. Insist that they work hard, that +they learn and grow, that they struggle, that they strive, that +they become, in your opinion, worthy servants of the Gods. + +Some months ago, I mentioned this to two leaders of a newly-formed +group north of here. Their eyes lit up and they said "You can +help us. We were just talking about setting standards!" No true +standards had been set for their initiations, and they felt the +lack. Oh, they had third degrees from their teacher, but they +wanted more meaning for those they gave than was given to their +own. Bravo! There's hope for the Craft yet! + +Ellen Cannon Reed + diff --git a/religious documents/initnote.txt b/religious documents/initnote.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc9356a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/initnote.txt @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +ab:initnote.txt 13jan90 + + + + O Thou who hast declared intent to become one of us, hear then that + which thou must know to do: Single is the race, single of men and of + Gods, from a single source we both draw breath, but a difference of + power in everything keeps us apart, for we are as nothing but the + Gods stay forever. Yet we can, in greatness of minds, be like the + Gods. Though we know not to what goal by day or in the night, Fate + has written that we shall run beyond all seas, and earth's last + boundaries. Beyond the Spring of night and the Heaven's vast + expanse there lies a majesty which is the domain of the Gods. Those + who would pass through the Gates of Night and Day to that sweet + place, which is between the world of men and the domains of the + Lords of the Outer Spaces, know that unless there is truth in thy + heart, thy every effort is doomed to failure. HEAR THEN THE LAW: + That thou lovest all things in nature. That thou walkest humbly in + the ways of men and the ways of the Gods. Also it is the law that + contentment thou shalt learn, through suffering, and from long + years, and from nobility of mind and of purpose. FOR THE WISE NEVER + GROW OLD. Their minds are nourished by living in the daylight of the + Gods and if among the vulgar some discoveries should arise + concerning some maxims of thy belief in the Gods so do thou, for + the most part, keep silent. For there is a great risk of those who + straightaway vomit up that which they hast not digested. And when + someone shall say to thee, thou knowest naught and it bites thee + naught, then knowest thou that thou hast begun the work. And as + sheep do not bring their food to the shepherd to show how much they + have eaten but digesting inwardly their provender do bear outwardly + wool and milk, even so, do not display the maxims to the vulgar, but + rather the works that flow when they are digested. + +---------- +-This is part of Lady Sheba's First Degree Initiation Ritual, where it is + given as a speech made to the Candidiate by the High Priestess + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/initstan.txt b/religious documents/initstan.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..124e6ae --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/initstan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,122 @@ + + +From: Paul Seymour +To: All Msg #183, 03/03/92 08:27cst +Subject: Coven Standards + + A PLEA FOR INITIATION STANDARDS + +I'm full of radical ideas. I think the terms "Priest, Priestess, +High Priest and High Priestess" are more than titles. I think +being a member of the Priesthood means more than status. I think +a coven is more than a study group, or a social gathering. I think +being a Witch is more than a protest against the patriarchy. + +I think receiving a First Degree should mean you have worked and +studied and grown and dedicated yourself to your path and your +Gods. I think an initiation should mean something. + +I know of a young man who received a third degree after having +proved he could lead a ritual. That's all he had to do, lead a +ritual. + +I know of a woman who claims third degrees in both the English and +American traditions of a well-known tradition. She shows +absolutely none of the qualities by which one usually recognizes a +High Priest or High Priestess. + +I know of a woman who refused to accept the standards set by her +High Priestess, who threw a fit when she didn't get her First on +demand. She went to another teacher, secretly received her First, +and a year later, her Second. Considering her attitude toward her +first teacher, I have absolutely no faith that she did any work to +earn her second. Yet she calls herself a High Priestess. + +When two members of Sothistar received their first degrees last +year, they had: studied and worked with the five magical +elements, worked at developing personal relationships with the +Gods, studied astrology, symbology, qabala, Tarot (both as a +divinational and meditational tool), several forms of divination, +writing rituals, leading rituals, drawing down the Moon, basic +spell-casting and various methods,ethics, the Egyptian deities and +mythology, ritual etiquette, the laws of the coven, the use of +stones and crystals, meditation, conducting rituals, the meaning +and duties of the priesthood, and the use of chants and songs. +Both had chosen (or been chosen by) deities to whom they wished to +make a special dedication. Both had proven their loyalty to the +coven and the Craft. Both had served as vessels for both the God +and the Goddess, and both had led rituals. After all of this, +they received First Degree. + +Am I saying that mine is the only way--that if your coven does not +study these subjects your initiations aren't valid? Certainly +not! I am saying that our tradition has standards for initiation. +Many other covens have standards--some more stringent and some +less demanding than mine. What I am saying is that I wish +everyone had standards. + +Why? Because when you have standards, the initiations you give +mean something. + +When we took the two mentioned above around to the four quarters and +pronounced them Priest/ess, they could not have been prouder of their +achievement. Nor could we. We had no doubt they could serve as +competent dedicated Priest and Priestess in a ritual. In the time +since, they've proved it over and over. When they make Second +Degree, and Third, and eventually have a coven of their own, they'll +continue to make us proud. When they represent the coven other +places, they do so in a manner that reflects well on the coven. +I've met many First Degrees of other covens who did not reflect well +on their teachers. (I've also met many who have.) + +You ask again, Why? I'll give you a personal reason--because it +irritates the hell out of me that the people mentioned at the +beginning of this article can put their noses in the air and claim +a higher status in the Craft than my two dedicated, hard-working, +sincere students. + +Once upon a time, a high school diploma meant something. You +couldn't get a decent job without one. These days, it means +nothing. These days, a Bachelor's Degree doesn't mean much. I +don't want that to happen to initiations! + +Perhaps I should discuss what I think initiation is. A true +initiation is not a ritual, it is not entrance into a club, +it is not just a dedication. An initiation is a spiritual step to +a higher stage in spiritual growth. There are many such steps. +Such "initiations" are not given by High Priest/esses. They are +given by the Gods. An initiation ritual is an acknowledgment by a +coven leader that the Initiate has, in that leader's opinion, +reached a certain stage in spiritual growth. + +Coven leaders are not omniscient. Although I'm sure such leaders +strive to serve as worth representatives of the God and Goddess, +they (the coven leaders) are not the God and Goddess. All of them +must find their own ways of determining whether their students +have achieved this growth. They must also give what guidance they +can to those attempting to achieve it. Our study program includes +many things not mentioned above, exercises and spiritual work +that, we hope will help our students reach that goal. If our +students apply themselves to all they are given to do, it is +possible for them to reach that stage. When we give a first +degree initiation, we are saying that the Initiate is *already* a +Priest/ess of the Goddess. + +I do not ask that all covens adopt our particular standards. I do +plead with you to *have* standards beyond simple attendance at +ritual for a year and a day. Insist that they work hard, that +they learn and grow, that they struggle, that they strive, that +they become, in your opinion, worthy servants of the Gods. + +Some months ago, I mentioned this to two leaders of a newly-formed +group north of here. Their eyes lit up and they said "You can +help us. We were just talking about setting standards!" No true +standards had been set for their initiations, and they felt the +lack. Oh, they had third degrees from their teacher, but they +wanted more meaning for those they gave than was given to their +own. Bravo! There's hope for the Craft yet! + +Ellen Cannon Reed + +--- + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle, P.O.D.S. for CO. Springs (1:128/101) diff --git a/religious documents/innjudas.txt b/religious documents/innjudas.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dbb283b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/innjudas.txt @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +From the San Francisco Chronicle, Friday, 1 April 1994 +(No, this is not an April Fool's joke) + +SOME BIBLE SCHOLARS SAY JUDAS WAS INNOCENT + +By Don Lattin +Chronicle Religion Writer + +Christians are told his story every year around this time, but his +name -- unlike Mary's, Matthew's, Mark's or John's -- is rarely given +to their children. + +Judas, the mysterious apostle who allegedly betrayed Jesus for 30 +pieces of silver, may have gotten a bad rap. In fact, some Bible +scholars say, he may not have even existed but is just an ancient, +anti-Semitic myth. + +"Judas" is a Greek way of spelling "Judah," the ancient Jewish +kingdom. + +"Everything about Judas just screams out that this is a +late-developing legend to transfer the blame of Jesus' death from the +Romans to the Jews," said Episcopal Bishop James Spong, author of the +new book, "Resurrection: Myth or Reality?" + +Spong's work is among a flood of books about "the historical Jesus," +many of which portray Jesus as a teacher of wisdom, peasant +revolutionary or social critic -- but not the resurrected savior and +Messiah talked about in most churches. + +Today, when the church gathers to remember the crucifixion of Jesus, +Spong and others are suggesting that Christians take another look at +the story of Judas Iscariot. + +"It is highly unlikely that there ever was a traitor named Judas," +said Spong, a popular author and the Episcopal bishop of Newark, NJ. +"And this is a tragedy of enormous dimensions." + +Spong delivered these remarks at a recent meeting in Santa Rosa of +the Jesus Seminar, a group of scholars re-examining the Bible and +other ancient evidence in an attempt to separate the historical Jesus +from the theological savior. + +After discussing Spong's theory, the scholars concluded that the +story of Judas probably arose about 40 years after Jesus' death. + +During that period, which saw the destruction of the Jewish temple in +Jerusalem, the early Jewish-Christian sect was struggling with other +Jewish leaders over whether Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. + +JUDAS AS SYMBOL "Judas became the symbol for all Jews who rejected +Jesus," said Robert Funk, founder of the Jesus Seminar. "The story +subsequently served as the basis for gentile anti-Semitism." + +Funk's band of scholars have recently published "The Five Gospels -- +What Did Jesus Say?" It concludes that no more than 20 percent of +the sayings attributed to Jesus were actually uttered by the +carpenter from Nazareth. + +Many conservative evangelicals are not impressed with the spate of +new Jesus books and what Christianity Today called "the new, +unimproved Jesus." + +"If nothing happened after Jesus' death, then any first century Jew +would have said what many have said since: He was another deluded +fanatic," scholar and evangelical N.Thomas Wright wrote in a recent +cover story for the respected evangelical monthly. + +"That is why, as a historian, I cannot explain the rise of early +Christianity unless Jesus rose again, leaving an empty tomb behind +him." + +In recent years, conservatives in the church have criticized Spong +for his liberal views on gay clergy, Biblical fundamentalism and such +cherished doctrines as the virgin birth. Spong insists that he +"really cares about the Bible." diff --git a/religious documents/insp01.txt b/religious documents/insp01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..110d10b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ + + One Solitary Life + +. He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. +He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop +until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant +preacher. +. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never +traveled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. +He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness. +. He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned +against him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the +mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. +When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave. +. Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is a central +figure of the human race and leader of mankind's progress. +. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever +sailed, all the kings that ever reigned have not affected the life of +man as much as that One Solitary Life. + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp02.txt b/religious documents/insp02.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d125f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp02.txt @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ + + He Gave the Very Best + +. A magazine article recently described the shopping spree of a +extremely rich man buying gifts for his family. Among the things he +bought were nineteen Cadillacs, for which he paid extra to have them +lengthened. Then he purchased two Porsches and six Mercedes, a +$40,000 speedboat and a truck to haul it in, sixteen refrigerators and +a stack of luggage. For good measure he added two Florida grapefruit +trees, two reclining chairs and a slot machine. The total bill was +$1,500,000 -- plus $194,000 to have it all delivered. +. There are only a few people in the world as rich, or richer, than +that man. When they give gifts, they can afford to give the best. +. But all their possessions combined are nothing compared to the +vast wealth owned by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. +. Jesus is the Creator of the Universe. He said a word and +galaxies were born. "For by Him were all things created, that are in +Heaven, and that are in earth ... all things were created by Him, and +for Him." (Colossians 1:16) +. Christ is rich in power and position for He said, "All authority +is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth." (Matthew 28:18) He knows +that true riches -- love, joy, peace -- cannot be purchased with a +credit card or check. God knew that no amount of material wealth +could raise man out of his spiritual poverty. So almost 2,000 years +ago He gave the best gift. God sent His Son to be our Savior. "For +ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, +yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might +be rich." (2 Corinthians 8:9) +. "He became poor." While Jesus was on earth, He was poor in +possessions for He had no real home. Even the tomb in which His +followers laid His body was borrowed. +. But more than that, Jesus Christ, the Creator of the Universe, +took on the form and limitations of His creatures. He became poor in +position, The first became last; the Sovereign became the Servant. +(Philippians 2:7) Lepers came to Him and were made clean; the blind +asked for sight and received it. Harlots came to His feet and were +forgiven. +. But Jesus' greatest sacrifice was when He gave His life on the +Cross for you and me. Salvation for our sins cost us nothing; it cost +Him everything. +. How can Jesus make you rich? By giving you Himself. When you +receive the Savior, you have forgiveness of sins because of His death +for you. (Colossians 1:14) Because He was raised from the dead and +now sits at the Father's right hand in Heaven, He gives you eternal +life and you are adopted into God's family. (John 5:24) By God's +grace you become a "joint heir" with Christ. (Romans 8:17) And daily +He Gives you power for living. (Philippians 4:13) +. God gave the very best. Are you spiritually poor? You can be +rich. The Bible says "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord +Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from +the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9) Receive Him and the +Riches He died to give you can be yours. + +-- Robin Sheffield + +Computers for Christ - Chicago + diff --git a/religious documents/insp03.txt b/religious documents/insp03.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4a0f4a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp03.txt @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ + + DREAM + +. One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the +beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. +For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one +belonging to him, and the other to the Lord. + +. When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back +at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the +path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also +noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his +life. + +. This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. +"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me +all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome +times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't +understand why when I needed you most you would leave me." + +. The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child, I love you and I +would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when +you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you." + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp04.txt b/religious documents/insp04.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a668f5e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp04.txt @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ + +Dear Friend, + +. I just had to send a note to tell you how much I love you and +care about you. I saw you yesterday as you were walking with your +friends. I waited all day hoping you would want to talk with me also. +As evening drew near, I gave you a sunset to close your day and you +never came. It hurt me, but I still love you because I am your +friend. + +. I saw you fall asleep last night and I longed to touch your brow. +So, I spilled moonlight on your pillow and your face. Again I waited, +wanting to rush down so that we could talk. I have so many gifts for +you. But you awakened late the next day and rushed off to work. My +tears were in the rain. + +. Today you looked so sad, so all alone. It makes my heart ache +because I understand. My friends let me down and hurt me so many +times too. But I love you. Oh, if you would only listen to me. I +really love you. I try to tell you in the blue sky and in the quiet +green grass. I whisper it in the leaves on the trees and breathe it +in the colors of the flowers. I shout it to you in the mountain +streams and give the birds love songs to sing. I clothe you with warm +sunshine and perfume the air with nature's scents. My love for you is +deeper than the oceans and bigger than the want or need in your heart. + +. If you only knew how much I want to help you. I want you to meet +my Father. He wants to help you too. My Father is that way you know. +Just call me and talk with me. I have so much to share with you. But +I won't force you. I'll wait because I love you. + +. Your Friend, JESUS + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp05.txt b/religious documents/insp05.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..19cb6e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp05.txt @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ + + HIS NICKNAME IS THUNDER + +. His Nickname is Thunder, but even in Cleveland, that is a +misnomer. The only thing outwardly intimidating about Andre Thornton +is his size. He looks like a guy who could snap a bat in half with +his bare hands. +. But don't be misled by appearances. His voice is tissue paper +soft, his manner extra polite. Andre Thornton is a deeply religious +man who has found in baseball a vehicle to convey a very special +message, even while he's terrorizing American league pitchers. That +is why the story of yet another remarkable comeback by the 32 year old +first baseman-designated hitter is unique. +. Through his 16 year professional baseball career, Andre Thornton +has survived frustration, rejection and the ultimate tragedy of losing +his wife and a child in a 1977 car accident. For two recent seasons, +the 6-foot-2, 205 pound Thornton was in virtual hibernation, chiefly +because of injury. But now he is back. In fact, he's on a rampage. +- Larry Whiteside, Sportswriter for the Boston Globe. + + TRAGEDY ... TRIUMPH + +. Obviously, power hitter Andre Thornton has endured much more than +baseball injuries or fickle batting slumps. His most painful +experience began on an icy night in October 1977 when the van he was +driving skidded off the Pennsylvania turnpike. Thornton's wife and 3 +year old daughter were killed, leaving only Andre and his 4 year old +son as survivors. +. "There is no doubt that the accident was like tearing the insides +right out of me," says Thornton. "My first wife and I both loved the +Lord. She was a wonderful woman. We spent seven years together. I +felt God's presence right there on that highway in Pennsylvania I felt +God's peace. Now I'm thankful that I knew Him years before, that I +didn't have to come to that point in my life and see my wife and child +lying on a highway and have no hope at all ... [Hope] is the essence +of life." +. That tragedy was the true test of Andre's faith. It proved that +his outer composure was more than just a mask - it was the result of a +deep inner stability, a firm spiritual foundation. That's why he +received the 1978 Danny Thompson award for "exemplary Christian spirit +in baseball," and the 9th annual Roberto Clemente Award for his +"sportsmanship, character, community involvement and contributions to +team and baseball." + + HOW IT ALL BEGAN + +. But Thornton remembers how it all began in 1968, just months +after entering professional baseball. He had just joined the National +Guard and was alone in his room. "It was one of the loneliest times +of my life," he says. "Everything seemed to be so confusing, and +questions about life were boiling inside of me. It wasn't money I was +looking for. It wasn't clothes or houses or a profession that had +prestige. I wanted to know what life was all about, why I was here, +where I was going. The questions were demanding an answer. Here I +was, experiencing all the things that most people want, but the world +could not give the true answers that I needed so urgently." +. It was then that Thornton started to read the small tract that +his mother had given him earlier. For the first time Thornton +understood Christ's words: "I came that they might have life, and +might have it abundantly." (John 10:10) "I knew that was what I was +looking for," Thornton says, "life, abundant life. Here was the +answer to my question. First God had a purpose for my life. He +created me in order that I might enjoy Him and serve Him. Second, +when I died, I could know that I would have eternal life with God." +. Thornton realized that he needed a new spiritual life. "The +Bible told me that 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of +God' (Romans 3:23), and that 'the wages of sin is death' (Romans 6:23) +which means spiritual separation from God." He understood that his +sin was the reason why he wasn't experiencing abundant life. "Then I +read that there was a solution to this problem," Thornton recalls. +"The key ... was my believing in God's Son, Jesus Christ. The Bible +says, 'God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He +who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does +not have the life. These things [were] written to you who believe in +the name of the Son of God, in order that you may KNOW that you have +eternal life' (I John 5:11-13). Believing that Jesus Christ had died +on the cross to pay the penalty for man's sin, and knowing that He had +risen from the dead, Thornton got down on his knees and asked Christ +to be his personal Savior. + + AN INFINITE RESOURCE + +. "It's been more than ten years since I invited Jesus Christ to +come into my life, to forgive me of my sins, and to change my life. +And I have found Him to be the source of joy, peace, love - of all +things I ever wanted in life. There have been trials and tragedies, +but God has brought me through all of them." +. Sometimes we experience problems and trials that we can't +understand. I've learned that there is one thing I can trust and that +is what God says in His Word. That comforts me and reassures me, even +when all of my questions aren't answered." +. That confident assurance enables Andre Thornton to remain calm +through all the circumstances of life. He has found a stability in +God, and inner foundation which holds him up when life threatens to +overwhelm him. He keeps swinging at life's tough pitches. + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp06.txt b/religious documents/insp06.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..64aad65 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp06.txt @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ + + OTHERS CAN .. BUT YOU CAN'T + +. If God has called you to be really like Jesus, He will draw you +into a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands +of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or +measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to +let other good people do things which He will not let you do. +. Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and +useful, may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out +their plans, but you cannot do it; and if you attempt it, you will +meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely +penitent. +. Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their success, +of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any +such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep +mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good +works. +. Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a +legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because +He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely a helpless +dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your +needs day by day out of an unseen treasury. +. The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you +hidden in obscurity, because He wants you to produce some choice, +fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the +shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let +others do a work for Him and get the credit for it, but He will make +you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then +to make your work still more precious, He may let others get credit +for the work you have done, and thus make your reward ten times +greater when Jesus comes. +. The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous +love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings, or wasting +your time, which other Christians never seem to get distressed over. +So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has a +right to do as He pleases with His own. He may not explain to you a +thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you, but +if you absolutely sell yourself to be His love slave, He will wrap you +in a jealous love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only +to those who are in the inner circle. +. Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the +Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your +tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He +does not seem to use with others. Now when you are so possessed with +the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and +delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship +and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found +the vestibule of heaven. + +G. D. Watson, in Living Words + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp07.txt b/religious documents/insp07.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..20211b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp07.txt @@ -0,0 +1,121 @@ + + MY TESTIMONY + +. I grew up in a family with 2 fine parents, neither of whom was a +Christian, although my Mother believed in God, doing good things, +leading a clean life and generally being kind and considerate to +others. I had a happy childhood and was encouraged to attend Sunday +School from an early age. I loved the singing and the Bible stories +but it meant nothing more than that. + +. When I was about 7 or 8, I heard an old man preaching the Good +News of Jesus on the beach. Every day during the summer months, he +would bring bibles, songbooks and a tent through the town and down to +the beach where he would conduct his one-man mission. Anyway, after +he had explained something about the love of Christ, he invited us +kids to say a prayer with him and give our lives to the Lord, and so I +did. Nothing felt different afterwards but I was still excited enough +to blurt it all out as soon as I got home for lunch. My parents told +me not to be so silly and to hurry up washing my hands because the +food was getting cold. I did as I was told (because that was how we +behaved) and forgot all about it for many years. + +. In my family, we all loved music, especially fine singing, and so +it was natural that I joined the church choir when I was about 9 or +10. I used to love the services because it was a chance to sing, I +could chatter quietly to my friends during the sermon, and if it was +an evening sermon, then I could screw up my eyes to look at the +candles and see each one as a cross. Best of all, we were paid to +sing! + +. Nothing much happened until I was about 13 or 14. My voice +started to break, the vicar suggested I should be confirmed and I ran +a mile. Me get confirmed? No way. As far as I was concerned the +church was full of stuffy old hypocrites and children who were goody- +goodies. I didn't want to be part of that. I was getting into a wild +stage of my life with under-age drinking, taking girls to the farmer's +barn and so on. And so I turned my back on the church and walked away +without any regret at the time. + +. Time passed. I grew out the other side of my wild patch and +married when I was 23. She was a lovely woman - everything I could +possibly want in a wife and far, far more than I could ever describe. +After 12 years, we had 3 super children, all boys. The first was 8, +the second 6 and the little one 18 months. Then life went sour, the +colors and the singing went out of it. My wife was diagnosed as +having terminal cancer. + +. This couldn't be. Not to us. She was so kind, so loving and I +needed her. No, there must be a mistake. But no, there was no +mistake and although we had access to the best doctors and treatments +in England, all we could hope for was to prolong her life. +. During the 2 years to 1980 when she was ill, Lyn used to go to +the Sunday morning service in church and to a Bible study class in the +vicar's house every Sunday night. She used to get great strength from +it and so, as a loving husband, I helped her all I could to make sure +she never had to miss one, even when it meant carrying her because she +was too weak to walk. I didn't see how she got so much out of it but +could see it did something wonderful for her. +. By early February 1980, she was so ill she was in the hospital. +We both knew she wouldn't be coming home again and reckoned there was +about 2 or 3 weeks left. Suddenly and with no apparent reason, I knew +we had to get to the hospital QUICKLY. We grabbed our shoes and +headed towards London. It was about 40 miles to the hospital, and +meant driving through nearly all of London on a Saturday lunchtime. +The streets were heaving with people, cars and lorries and yet, +somehow, it was as though a way was being cut through for us as we hit +speeds of 80 or 90. +. We reached the hospital and rushed up to Lyn's room. She was in +a coma and fighting for breath, fighting to hang on. I went to her +side and spoke, not knowing if she could hear me. Yes, she seemed to +be able to. Her breathing increased each time I spoke as if she +wanted to reply but couldn't. Then, suddenly, I SAW A HAND REACHING +DOWN FOR HERS and knew that it was OK. "Lyn", I said, "if you can see +a hand reaching down for you, take it." She gave a gentle sigh and +died in my arms. How could that not make an impact on a non-believer. + +. In the months that followed, I searched for some purpose to life, +for some spiritual input. I looked suspiciously at the Eastern cults +before deciding that they weren't for me. All the time my desperation +was growing, largely because I had just too much grief bottled up +inside me and I was too much in control to let it out. Then there +were the kids, super boys, and their hurt was hurting me more. Where +could I turn? + +. About 6 months before Lyn died, I started showing symptoms of +what I thought might be cancer. But with Lyn ill, what could I do? It +seemed the best thing was to leave it until she either recovered or +died. Well, by the February when she died, it had grown and was so +unsightly that people were keeping on at me to see my doctor and have +it treated. No way, I had seen what all that radiotherapy and +chemotherapy had done to Lyn, and didn't everyone reckon the treatment +was as bad as the disease? Forget it! + +. Well, 12 months later in February 1981, I was at the end of my +tether. I just couldn't cope with the pent-up grief, the pressure was +on at work, my own tumor had grown and was bleeding fairly often and I +still hadn't seen a doctor. I just wanted to curl up in a corner and +die. In the middle of all this I was searching desperately for a +spiritual side to my life. Every other religion and cult had seemed +like empty shams and I remembered that Lyn had drawn so much strength +from her Christianity. She had always been a good judge of things - +maybe she was right about this as well. + +. And so, I started reading Christian books, going to Christian +meetings and so on. I could feel something reaching me but I was +still holding back. I wasn't ready, I told the counselor, I'm not +good enough yet. Give me time to be more acceptable to God. Then he +explained about the Cross, about how His own Son went to the Cross, +bleeding, dying just for me and my sins. And how, through the +resurrection, he defeated death and sin. And how I could have Jesus +as my personal redeemer if I would only confess my sins, ask +forgiveness, and receive Jesus as Lord of my Life. + +. Well, I did and I can't explain the immediate happenings. Like +Close Encounters of the 3rd kind but a million times more powerful. +All I know is that because I'm human, I've made mistakes as I seek to +follow Christ more and more every day of my life, but I'm still +accepted by God through His Son, Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord! + +Computers For Christ - Chicago + diff --git a/religious documents/insp08.txt b/religious documents/insp08.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e5cf23 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp08.txt @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ + + The Touch of the Master's Hand + .............................. + + It was battered and scarred, and the auctioneer + Thought it sacrcely worth his while + To waste much time on the old violin, + But he held it up with a smile. + "What am I bidden, good folk?" he cried, + "Who'll start the bidding for me? + "A dollar - a dollar - then two, only two - + "Two dollars, and who'll make it three? + "Going for Three" - but no - + From the room far back, a gray-haired man + Came forward and picked up the bow, + Then, wiping the dust from the old violin, + And tightening the loosened strings, + He played a melody pure and sweet + As a caroling angel sings. + + + The music ceased, and the auctioneer, + With a voice that was quiet and low, + Said, "NOW what am I bid for the old violin?" + And he held it up with the bow. + "A thousand dollars - and who'll make it two? + "Two thousand - and who'll make it three? + "Three thousand once - three thousand twice - + "And going - and gone," cried he. + The people cheered, but some of them cried, + "We do not understand. + "What changed its worth?" Quick came the reply, + "The touch of the Master's hand." + + And many a man with life out of tune, + And battered and scarred with sin, + Is auctioned cheap, to a thoughtless crowd, + Much like the old violin. + A "mess of pottage" - a glass of wine, + A game - and he travels on: + He is going once - and going twice - + He's going - and almost gone! + But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd + Never can quite understand + The worth of a soul and the change that's wrought + BY THE TOUCH OF THE MASTER'S HAND. + + By Myra Brooks + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp09.txt b/religious documents/insp09.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..72d9d4d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp09.txt @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ + + TURN 'ONE OF THOSE DAYS' INTO PRAISE. + By Fiona Castle + +. Sometimes I don't feel like praying. Sometimes I don't feel like +reading the Bible. And sometimes I certainly don't feel a bit like +being loving and kind to anyone! +. But I thank God that my faith is not based on feelings, but on +the sure and solid fact of Jesus' death for me on the cross. In other +words, my salvation is not dependent on what I do for Jesus, but on +what he did for me. +. There is a verse in Psalm 22 which says: 'Oh thou that inhabitest +the praises of Israel.....' The modern translations are slightly +different but I like this version because it urges me to begin +praising God no matter how I feel - and he will inhabit those praises. +. As I start to praise God as an act of the will, he begins to live +in my praise until my spirit starts to lift and the weariness +disappears. My whole attitude to my prayer time changes, and my +praise comes from my heart, not just my lips! +. It is good, sometimes, to begin a prayer time by reading a Psalm +of praise, such as Psalm 104, which ends with the words: 'I WILL +praise him, Hallelujah!' +. I remember our pastor saying from the pulpit once: 'You can't say +Hallelujah with a long face!' You try it! It will make you begin to +laugh, especially if you say it in front of a mirror. +. Jesus wants us to praise him no matter what happens. That is the +wonderful privilege of belonging to him. He has promised us a peace +and a joy that are not dependent on our circumstances - they stem +directly from our relationship with him. +. So, if today is 'one of those days', when you don't feel like +being anything but negative, begin to praise Him and soon you will +find your mind and body are joining with your spirit as it soars +towards the Lord and brings joy to his heart. +. 'There I will go to the altar of God, my exceeding joy, and +praise him with my harp' - Psalm 43:4 + +Reproduced from 'Family' magazine (February 1985) with permission. + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp10.txt b/religious documents/insp10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d098ab --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ + + If Jesus came to your house. + + If Jesus came to your house to spend a + day or two + If he came unexpectedly, I wonder what + you'd do. + Oh, I know you'd give your nicest room + to such an honered Guest, + And all the food you'd serve to Him + would be the very best, + And you keep assuring Him + you're glad to have Him there + That serving Him in your own home is + joy beyond compare. + + But when you saw Him coming, + would you meet Him at the door + With arms outstreched in welcome to + your heavenly Visitor? + Or would you have to change your + clothes before you let Him in? + Or hide some magazines and put the + Bible where they'd been? + Would you turn off the radio and hope + He hadn't heard? + And wish you hadn't uttered that last, + loud, hasty word? + + Would you hide your worldly music and + put some hymn books out? + Could you let Jesus walk right in, or + would you rush about? + And I wonder if the Savior spent + a day or two with you, + Would you go right on doing the things + you always do? + Would you go right on saying the things + you always say? + Would life for you continue as it does + from day to day? + + Would your family conversation keep + up its usual pace? + And would you find it hard each meal + to say a table grace? + Would you sing the songs you always + sing, and read the books you read, + And let him know the things on which + your mind and spirit feed? + Would you take Jesus with you every- + where you'd planned to go? + Or would you, maybe, change your plans + for just a day or so? + + Would you be glad to have Him meet + your very closest friends? + Or would you hope they'd stay away + until His visit ends? + Would you be glad to have Him stay + forever on and on? + Or would you sigh with great relief + when He at last was gone? + It might be interesting to know the + things that you would do + If Jesus Christ in person came to spend + some time with you. + + Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp11.txt b/religious documents/insp11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfcdc18 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ + God Forgive me when I whine. + +. Today, upon a bus, I saw a lovely maid with golden +hair, I envied her, she seemed so gay, and I wished I +were as fair. + +. When suddenly she rose to leave, I saw her hobble +down the aisle; she had one foot, and used a crutch, +but as she passed, she had a smile. + +. Oh, God forgive me when I whine; I have two feet, +the world is mine. + +. And when I stopped to buy some sweets, The lad who +sold them had such charm. I talked with him, he said +to me, It's nice to talk to men like you, You see, he +said I'm blind. + +. Oh, God forgive me when I whine; I have two eyes, +the world is mine. + +. Then, as I passed along the way, I saw a child with +eyes of blue. He stood and watched the others play; +it seemed he knew not what to do. I stopped for a moment; +and then I said, "Why don't you join the others, dear?" +He looked ahead without a word, and then I knew he could +not hear. + +. Oh, God forgive me when I whine; I have two ears, +the world is mine. + +. With feet to take me where I'd go, +. With eyes to see the sunsets glow, +. With ears to hear what I would know, +. I'm blessed indeed. +. The world is mine. + +. Oh God, forgive me if I whine. + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp14.txt b/religious documents/insp14.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46e347e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp14.txt @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ + AND THE LORD SAID, "GO" + + And I said, "Who me?" + And He said, "Yes, you." + And I said, +. "But I'm not ready yet, +. and there is company coming, +. and I can't leave the kids, +. and you know there's no one to take my place." + And He said, "You're stalling." + + Again the Lord said, "Go." + And I said, "But I don't want to." + And He said, "I didn't ask if you wanted to." + And I said, +. "Listen, I'm not that kind of person +. to get involved in controversy +. besides, my family won't like it +. and what will my neighbors think?" + And He said, "Balony." + + And yet a third time the Lord said, "Go." + And I said, "Do I have to?" + And He said, "Do you love me?" + And I said, +. "Look, I'm scared +. people are going to hate me +. and cut me up in little pieces +. and I can't take it all by myself." + And He said, "Where do you think I'll be?" + + And the Lord said, "Go." + And I sighed, "Here I am, send me." + + Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp15.txt b/religious documents/insp15.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..38e7f7e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp15.txt @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ + + No Hurry + +. The story is told that some time ago Satan called together all +the hosts of the lower realm because he wanted to send another of his +diabolical assistants to earth. When they had all assembled he asked +them. +. "Who is willing to go to earth to assist me with the destruction +of the souls of the son's of men?" +. A young demon, hoping to attain a lower ranking quickly +volunteered to go. +. "And what is your plan for assisting me with the destruction of +the souls of the son's of men?" asked Satan. +. "I will tell them that there is no hell," replied the demon. +. "No, that will never do," Satan said. "For within the heart of +every man there is an awful sense of justice and because of that, no +matter how much they try to deny it or are otherwise taught, mankind +still senses that there must be a place of punishment. They will +never be convinced beyond question that there is no hell. You may not +go. Your plan will fail." +. Again Satan asked, "Who is willing to go to earth to assist me +with the destruction of the souls of the son's of men?" +. A somewhat older demon, who loved the opportunity to make the +younger demons look stupid, sneered at the first volunteer and said, +"I'll go." +. Again Satan asked, "What is your plan for assisting me with the +destruction of the souls of the son's of men?" +. With another sneer toward the younger demon he answered, "I'll +tell the son's of men that there is no heaven." +. "No," Satan replied again, "That will be no better. For, as we +know all to well, every man retains within him something of the image +of God his creator and because of that while they often wish they +could deny it they will never be fully convinced that there is no +heaven. No, your plan will not work and you may not go." +. A third time Satan asked, "Who is willing to go to earth to +assist me with the destruction of the souls of the son's of men?" +. Much to the surprise of all those present an old demon, who never +had much to say, volunteered to assist with the destruction of the +son's of men. +. Again Satan asked, "What is your plan for assisting me with the +destruction of the souls of the son's of men?" +. "I'll tell them," the old demon a bit timidly, "I'll tell them +that there is no hurry." +. "Go!" shouted Satan, "for your plan will surely succeed. All men +have within them the sense of both heaven and hell but if we can keep +them from considering their eternal destiny then hell will certainly +grab them before they take hold of heaven." + +Computers for Christ - Chicago + diff --git a/religious documents/insp16.txt b/religious documents/insp16.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1031557 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp16.txt @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ + + PERFECTION + By Steve Allen + + Let us reason together, saith the Lord... + Oh Father. I cry... + Where is Thy perfection? + For I look about me and this is what I see... + Imperfection and Falseness seems to be reality, + while Perfection and Rightousness seems to be the fantasy, a myth. + Ever since I was very young - + I grew, with this question strong in my heart. + And I saw a vision, + as I tried to imagine what perfection was... + One way it looked like a jigsaw puzzle - + where all the pieces fit and none missing. + It was the Law of creation I knew, + But I could not describe it - + for all my descriptions seemed to little for something + that contained Everything! + I was frustrated, and I searched for the words + for a long time that would fit. + And I reasoned with my father. + And I was led. + There was indeed much to see, + in order to answer this question. + + Before The Beginning... + There was GOD. + The Essence - from which all things are made. + The Father. + Here all things are the same, but + here you can find no difference in him, + as no difference can be found in boundaries. + Here GOD was the potential of all that is to happen. + Here he is the beginning and direction. + + In the Beginning... + GOD first cast the void, the abyss, + an emptiness in which to fill. + And GOD spoke. + And the words' meaning was - I AM. + And the words' own vibration separated time + from one moment to the next, + and GOD divided himself, + and multiplied, + and filled the void. + GOD created all things - from himself. + He drew boundaries and differences in himself, + all things fitting together + and governed by the laws of creation. + GOD's Law. + The Perfect Conception. + Laws of coexistence, + opposites and shades. + Laws of combining and separation. + Of selection and proportions, + of reception and reflection. + The law of wholeness and detail. + Laws of cause and effect and laws of balance and reason. + All the laws that would take forever to list! + GOD fathered all things from within. + Here GOD was the Perfect Creation. + And there was no falseness found in him. + Here GOD is truth. + And here is Christ... + The BODY of GOD. + Who was first born. + The Christ, which means the Perfection in All Things. + And here also is the Holy Ghost... + The TRUTH and REASON, the Law who testifies + of Christ, the Perfect Creation. + Who will one day be made man, for a reason. + The HOLY TRINITY, together. + + And from the beginning... + GOD knew of the perfection. + And GOD also knew of the imperfection, + in which he had left out. + And it's name is falseness + and it came from the void, + which in itself is nothing! + But when joined with creation it becomes Mis-conception. + Such as when black is joined with white, + the outcome is gray on top but + to look close you still see a lot of black and white. + The word "Mis" can not be alone - for it is nothing. + Therefore must be joined with something to exist at all. + Mis-conception. + + GOD is everything. + GOD is not False (a lie). + But falseness exists - How can this be? + Falseness is something that is not real... + joined with something that is real. + Certain parts, of a falsehood is based on real things. + GOD is that which is, + the void is that which is not (an emptiness) Gen. 1:2 + A lie will contain both. + The very root of lies are - insinuations. + That which tells the exact truth in such a way + as to lead someone to a false conclusion. + A conclusion that was never said. + Falseness can often be spread by accident, + by someone who does not make themself clear. + There are a lot of false elements: + Rumors + Vagueness + Mystery + Abstract + This requires a very close look... + Because each also has some truth! + And GOD gives the gift of Discernment. + + GOD knew this potential of falseness from the beginning + and in his wisdom knew it must come to pass. + If man was to be a companion, instead of a puppet. + And he must let it run + its entire path to completion. + And though it leads to destruction, + where all things look lost and the the end is death. + GOD tells all who listen + I'm sorry....and this is only a passing thing. + He has given us freedom of choice, and has also + shown us what we must never choose again. + GODs aim is not destruction but Life Everlasting. + And GOD knows what must be done to obtain it. + + I will never reason alone + for I now know that there is a reason to all things. + But no one knows the whole story - + For no-one must stop that which must happen + for all to see. + + Father - Let us reason together. + as I have many questions to ask... + + Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp17.txt b/religious documents/insp17.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a7a72a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp17.txt @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ + +Dear Church Member, + +. Don't wait until the hearse hauls you to church. If you do: + + 1. You will go, regardless of the weather. + 2. You will go, regardless of the condition of your body. + 3. There will be beautiful flowers there, but you won't enjoy them. + 4. You will go, regardless of how your family feels. + 5. The minister may say many good things, but they will do you no + good. + 6. There will be beautiful music, but you won't hear it. + 7. There will be heartfelt prayers, but they will not touch your + heart. + 8. There will be friends and relatives there, but you won't worship + with them. + 9. You will go, no matter how many hypocrites are there. + 10. You will go, no matter how much you are needed at home or work. + 11. You will receive no blessing from the service. + 12. You won't feel concerned about your clothes. + 13. You will never have to decide about attending church again. + +. Aren't you glad to be alive and well and full of zest and able to +choose to go to church? + +Walter Nuessle + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp18.txt b/religious documents/insp18.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7526f8c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp18.txt @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ + + The Utterly Unique Person + +. He was born in poverty, was reared in obscurity, and lived in +simplicity. He had no wealth or influence, and no college education. +Yet the profoundest wisdom of men has never equaled His. "Never man +spake like this man." + +. He never wrote a book, yet the largest library could not hold the +books that have been written about Him. He never wrote a song, yet He +has furnished the theme of more songs than all others combined. He +never founded a college, yet all the schools together cannot boast of +as many students as He has. + +. He never marshaled an army, drafted a soldier, or fired a gun. +Yet no leader ever had more volunteers, who under His orders made +rebels stack arms or surrender without a shot being fired. + +. He lives on although all other great men have come and gone. +Herod could not kill Him, Satan could not seduce Him, death could not +destroy Him, the grave could not hold Him. + +. He laid aside His purple robe for a peasant's gown. He was rich, +yet for our sakes He became poor. As to how poor? Ask Mary. Ask the +wise men. He slept in another's manger, cruised the lake in another's +boat, rode on a borrowed beast, was buried in another's tomb. + +. He conquered death, rose the third day as He said He would, +ascended into heaven and will one day return with power and great +glory. + +. He will judge the world in righteousness. Every knee shall bow +to Him and every tongue shall confess Him as Lord - His friends +gladly, but His enemies seeking for a place to hide from His face. + +. He came from the bosom of the Father to the bosom of a woman. He +put on humanity that we might put on divinity. He became the Son of +Man that we might become sons of God. + +. Thus we celebrate Christmas as the birthday of this utterly +unique person. But these facts are of no value to you unless you +acknowledge your sin and your need for such a Savior. Only by +believing in Him will you become a unique person: a child of God! + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp19.txt b/religious documents/insp19.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7fe128e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp19.txt @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ + + SO YOU'RE UPTIGHT? + +. So you're uptight? Turned off? Got real hang-ups? Well, let me +tell you like it is! See, a long time ago God said, "I think I'll +make me a universe." So He did just that. Then He really split the +scene - He made Man, and in His own image! +. Have we ever messed up that deal! Right from the very beginning. +And we've kept right on messing it up. In fact, it got so bad that +God said, "They're really copping out down there, but even so I still +love them. I figure the time has come to do something about it." +. So what does He do? He sends His only Son to save the world! +How does that grab you? Born over 1900 years ago in a barn! How +about that? The Son of God! Talk about identifying! +. But did we change? Oh no, we kept right on messing everything +up. We didn't even listen to God's Son, Jesus Christ. And this next +one is a clincher: Jesus kept right on loving us! In fact He even +died on the Cross for us! Now, man, that is really 'way out' love, +like you never saw! +. He let us nail Him to a tree and when He was hanging there, He +even asked His Father to forgive us! He said that we were uptight and +didn't know what we were doing! Talk about relating! Beautiful, +isn't it? +. So He died for us - shed His blood for us - to cover all these +dirty sins of ours. And, now sit down for this one, three days later +He rose from the grave! That's right, right up from the dead! He was +alive again! And, how about this: He's still living! +. Later He went to heaven to live with His Father. They're getting +things ready up there for everybody who believes in Jesus. Some day +I'm going to be with them. What a day that will be! +. You see, Jesus worked it all out. He sent His Holy Spirit down +here to be with us. The Holy Spirit is right here - right in us - all +the time. How's that for contact? That's what I call communication! +. You Say, "Man how can I communicate?" Well, it's like this. +You've got to tell Him what a mess you've made of your life. Tell Him +you're really sorry for everything you've done and that you want to +get on the right beam from here on in. Then ask Him to come in and +really take over. You've got to believe in Him and then, brother, +move over and let Him work, cause He will! +. See, I've tried it and I know it works! Jesus Christ can give +you real soul peace. He really fills you UP; He gives you a happiness +that is just something else! He is for real! But He's not pushing +Himself in where He's not wanted - you've got to really want Him. +And, I mean - you've got to mean business with Him. +. You say, "Man, no hurry, no sweat." I want you to know there'll +be nothing but sweat for you, forever more, if you decide against Him! +Plus, how do you know how long you will be around down here? You +might not have another chance. This isn't a 'sit on the fence' game. +No siree, you're either for Him or against Him, Kinda shakes you up, +doesn't it? +. And, no matter what you decide down here, there's coming a day +when you've got to answer for it all - and that includes me and +everybody else. And, boy I sure am glad I'm on Christ's side and He's +on mine, cause I know for sure it's the winning side! +. If you really want to take a trip - one that will really last +forever - take Jesus - make Him your own Savior. He'll never let you +down, but never! He's the Answers any hang-up anyone ever had. He's +what's happening and I'm telling you that's like it is!! + +- Jane J. Arundale - + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp20.txt b/religious documents/insp20.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46851c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp20.txt @@ -0,0 +1,161 @@ + + BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. Almost forty years ago my father gave me a wonderful little +plaque that said simply: "Never give up." The Never Give Up plaque +still hangs above my desk and contains three of the most powerful and +important words I've ever heard or read. +. I wrote the following poem just after learning that my dad, now +seventy-six, has cancer. I wrote it to honor this very special man +whom I have the privilege of calling my father. + + + +Dad, + +. Remember when I broke the window at the neighbor's house? You +know, the great big one? I tried to get you excited about the fact +that I'd hit a home run in the process; But by the look on your face +when you found out how much it was going to cost, I thought you were +going to strangle me, + +BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. And remember when you found out that I had sold the Minister some +books on how to mix drinks (that I'd found in the alley) just to make +some extra money for Christmas presents? I thought for sure that you +were going to tell me that there was going to be no more Christmas for +me, + +BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. Do you remember, Dad, when I borrowed your best knife, kinda +without your knowing it, and kinda lost it? Oh I felt awful. I knew +that you were going to tell me that I was a screwed-up, irresponsible +kid, + +BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. Remember, Dad, when I split my head open for the fourth time in +only three years? For sure, I expected you to tell me that it was a +really dumb thing to do, + +BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. O Dad, can you remember when you tried to teach me how to drive? +And I became an instant imbecile, unable to remember which pedal did +what, making the car jump up and down all over the road? I felt +certain that you'd adopt me out to another family until I finally +learned how to drive, + +BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. And, can you remember, Dad, when you let me use your car, for +that "extra special" date and I got into an accident because I was +trying to show off? I was afraid to come home because I told her you +were going to ground me ... for at lease a year, + +BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. O Dad, you were always surprising me, always loving me more than +I ever deserved. Somehow you always knew just what I needed. Like, +remember when I didn't make the team that year and I came home in +tears, feeling pretty sorry for myself? I was confident that you'd +join me in my self-pity party. + +BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. Or, years later, when I finally made the All City and All State +teams and even got a scholarship to go to Stanford? I thought you'd +be so impressed and tell me that now I "really had life made," + +BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. I guess that's why you didn't seem so surprised when I got thrown +in jail for "celebrating a little bit too hard" after a State +Championship game. Remember, Dad, (how could you ever forget) when +you and Mom got a phone call at 4:30 in the morning from the chief of +police asking you to come down to the jail and get your son? All the +way home I waited and waited for you to blast me. + +BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. The first words, in fact the only words, you said to me were: +"Come on, son, let's go have some breakfast." How did you know, Dad? +How did you know? At the time of most critical failure; at the very +time when I knew that I had let you down the most, you knew, you +remembered to remind me that I was your son - period ... in spite of +it all. + +. How did you know? For a man with only an eighth - grade +education and no time to read, because you were always working more +than one job just to keep your family going, you were sure smart. No, +more that that, Dad, you had some of that "wisdom" that must have come +from the Other Father. You always told me that you and "The Man +Upstairs" (as you were fond of calling Him) were pretty close friends. +. The years passed, and our friendship grew even closer. I can +remember, Dad, the first time we had lunch together - just you and me, +alone. I was in my late twenties - almost a grown man. We laughed +and you told me stories about your youth that I never knew before. +That lunch seemed to go on forever. After that, you seemed even +closer and I began to realize who you really were ... and how much I +really loved you. Memories ... Special ones ... Aren't we fortunate, +Dad, to have so many? Steve and I have a lot of rich memories, +because you made sure that we experienced a lot of life ... together. + +REMEMBER, DAD, + +. When we used to go duck hunting at Midnight, our little dog, was +so small that she couldn't drag the ducks back? +. When I brought forty-three kids home from a Young Life camp at +three in the morning, to sleep on the floor? +. When you and Mom could dance all night and still knock the socks +off everybody at work the next day? +. When your sons finally graduated from college (it was something +you always wanted for us)? + +REMEMBER, DAD, + +. When Steve, your number - one son and my number - one friend, got +married in Boston? What a grand celebration. You were so proud, +. When we couldn't wrestle anymore? +. When you got honored for being the top man in your region - an +honor few men get (still working) at the age of seventy-four? +. When you first had to tell me that "California was a long ways +away" and that you would like to come down, but maybe later...? + +O Dad, + +. I've never quite had enough words to be able to tell you and Mom +just how much I love you. + +. Remember when Pam and I finally got our first house and the +children came? We wanted so much for you to be able to come visit, + +BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. You couldn't anymore. For a growing number of reasons. You +wanted to so much, but California was "such a long way." + +. Remember, Dad, the day they broke the news to you that you had +cancer? Everyone else seemed to fall to pieces, + +BUT YOU DIDN'T + +. Never have I been more proud of you, Pop. The quiet courage that +you showed us all those years, sometimes when we weren't even aware of +it, has shown all the more brightly these past months. +. I never heard you complain. In fact, I've never seen you laugh +more richly, Pop, and never seen you so much at peace. +. I'm understanding, at even deeper levels, those three precious +words you gave me four decades ago. + +"Never Give Up", + +because, + +YOU DIDN'T + +From .. "What kids need most in a Dad." By Tim Hansel + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp21.txt b/religious documents/insp21.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfa3d65 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp21.txt @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@ + + EMPTY SEATS + +. "No, I made jelly yesterday, and I'm tired. I'm faithful enough +to stay at home this cloudy morning." Mrs. Clark curled up on the +couch with the Bible she had not opened for a week, but it soon +dropped from her hand. She was aroused by a strange voice saying: +. "Now, my good imps, what have you done today the weaken the +kingdom of God?" The voice came from a suspicious looking personage +seated on a throne of human skulls. Around him was gathered a crowd +of terrible beings, each with a crown of fire, in which gleamed some +name, such as malice, envy, pride, hatred, and kindred passions. +. "We have been busy today, making empty seats in churches," began +one. +. "Nothing could please me better," answered their king. +. "I persuaded one man that he had a headache, and kept him from a +sermon that might have changed his whole life," said one. +. "I induced one good man to slip to his store and fix up his +books," said another, with a horrid grin. +. "Good!" said the king. "He'll soon give up the Sabbath +altogether." +. "I was able to get one devoted young man to visit old friends, +"said one imp. +. "I worried a good sister about her old bonnet until she decided +to stay at home until she got a new one," spoke up the imp labeled +"Pride." +. "And I made several poor women who were hungry for God's Word +stay home to repine over their trials. I just said to them, 'Oh, +these rich people don't care for you; you can't wear fine clothes so I +wouldn't go where I was looked down upon.'" +. "I induced a good many men and women to think they were not +strong enough to go out," said one called "Indifference." "Of course, +all these men will be at their business tomorrow, even if they feel +worse. But they could not go to church, where they would have no +special mental or physical strain. And the ladies would have been +able to clean house or go calling; but I made them think they couldn't +walk to church unless they were perfectly well." +. "Very good," said the king, with a sulfurous grin. "Sunday +headaches might often be cured by getting out in the air, and +backaches forgotten by thoughts drawn to higher things. But you lying +imps must use every weakness to the flesh to help make empty seats." +. They all smiled, for in their kingdom "lying" was a great +compliment. +. "I'm the weather imp," said one gloomy fellow. "I go around +persuading people it is going to rain, or it is too cold, too damp or +too hot to venture out to church. It is enough to make even your +gloomy majesty laugh to see these same people start out the next day +in wind and weather. One would think it a sin to carry umbrellas or +wear coats to church." +. "I have a better scheme than that," said another, "I have a plan +that empties seats of the workers in the church." +. "I make these people overwork on Saturdays. For instance, I make +some good man the preacher depends upon, or some devout Sunday school +teacher, make Saturday the busiest day of the week. I just keep him +rushed with neglected things till late at night, and then he +oversleeps or is sick the next day, and can't get out. +. "Splendid plan!" cried Satan. +. "Yes, it works well with delicate women. If they clean house, or +have Saturday company, they can be kept at home without knowing they +have broken the Sabbath the day before. A church party late Saturday +night helps with empty seats." +. "You are doing fine, my imps," his majesty said warmly - for his +breath was a flame of fire. "Preachers may work and pray over their +sermons all week, but there will be no results in preaching to empty +seats. One of the most important things we have to consider is how to +keep people away from churches on Sunday. Your plans are excellent, +but I might suggest another good point. All preachers have human +imperfections -- some fault of manner or speech. Get Christians to +criticize their pastor, especially before their children. If you can +stir up a spirit of fault-finding against the preacher, or among the +members, it will help empty seats. People who get mad at each other +do not care to go to church together. If the seats are empty, the +minister may be a saint and preach like an angel to no purpose." +. "See the result of your labor on High Street church today. Not +only did the 200 people who stayed at home lose a blessing, but each +empty seat did its work against the Lord's kingdom. The preacher made +unusual preparation, and went with his heart on fire, but the empty +seats chilled him, and he did poorly." +. There was a special collection, but the best givers were away, so +it was a failure. It isn't a smart preacher, nor a rich congregation, +nor a good location, nor a paid choir, that makes a successful church. +It is the church members always being there that draws in the +unconverted, and makes an eloquent preacher. As soon as a Christian +begins to stay at home, from one excuse or another, I know I have a +mortgage on his soul which if he does not shake off, I will foreclose +on the judgment day." +. "You have none on mine!" cried Mrs. Clark, who had been listening +with baited breath; "I'll go to church, if only to defeat you." +. "What's the matter, dear?" asked he doctor. "Have you been +dreaming?" +. "Perhaps so; but I'm going to church if I get to my seat just in +time for the the benediction. I'll cheat Satan from this day out of +one empty seat." She has kept her word, and influenced many others to +let nothing trifling keep them from God's house; and one "downtown" +church has begun to grow, and will soon be a great power for God, +because of no "empty seats." + + FAITH PRAYER AND TRACT LEAGUE + GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. + + Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp22.txt b/religious documents/insp22.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc3a1a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp22.txt @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ + + DOES THIS RAILROAD LEAD TO HEAVEN? + As told by Pastor F.M. Dosh + +. This is a true story taken from the 1894 edition of "Touching +Incidents And Remarkable Answers To Prayer." As you'll see, this +wonderful story seems to speak to adults as well as to children. It's +easy to see why Jesus urged the disciples to "Permit the little +children to come to Me, for to such as these belongs the kingdom of +heaven." (Luke 18:16) + +. In traveling we often meet with people of different nationalities +and languages. We also come across various incidents, some sorrowful, +and others joyful. I recently witnessed one of the most joyful +incidents while traveling on the railroad. +. The train was going west, and it was evening. At a station a +little girl about eight years old came aboard, carrying a little purse +under her arm. She came into my car and quickly took a seat. She +then began to study each face, but all were strange to her. She +appeared weary, and using her purse for a pillow, she laid down on the +seat to try to get a little sleep. +. Soon the conductor came along collecting tickets and fare. +Observing him, she asked him if she could lie there. The gentlemanly +conductor replied that she could, and then kindly asked for her +ticket. She informed him that she didn't have one, and then I +overheard the following conversation. + +. Said the conductor: "Where are you going?" +. "I'm going to heaven," she answered. +. "Who's paying your fare?" he asked. +. She said, "Mister, does this railroad lead to heaven, and does +Jesus travel on it?" +. "I don't think so," he answered. "Why did you think that?" +. "Why, sir, before my mommy died she used to sing to me about a +heavenly railroad, and you looked so nice and kind that I thought this +was the railroad. My mommy used to sing about Jesus on the heavenly +railroad, and that He paid the fare for everybody, and that the train +stopped at every station to take people on board. My mom doesn't sing +to me anymore. Nobody sings to me now, and I thought I'd take the +train and go see my mommy. Mister, do you sing to your little girl +about the railroad that goes to heaven? You have a little girl, don't +you?" +. With tears in his eyes, he replied, "No, my dear, I have no +little girl now. I had one once, but she died some time ago and went +to heaven." +. Did she go over this railroad, and are you going to see her now?" +she asked. +. By this time every person in the coach was upon their feet, and +most of them were weeping. An attempt to describe what I witnessed is +almost impossible. Some said, "God bless this little girl." +. Overhearing someone say that she was an angel, the little girl +earnestly replied, "Yes, my mommy used to say that I would be an angel +some day." +. Addressing herself once more to the conductor, she asked him, "Do +you love Jesus? I do, and if you love Him, He will let you ride to +heaven on His railroad. I'm going there, and I wish you would go with +me. I know Jesus will let me into heaven when I get there, and He +will let you in too, and everybody that will ride on His railroad - +yes, all these people. Wouldn't you like to see heaven, and Jesus, +and your little girl?" +. These words, so pathetically and innocently uttered, brought a +great gush of tears from all eyes, but most profusely from those of +the conductor. Some who were already traveling on the heavenly +railroad shouted aloud for joy. +. She now asked the conductor, "Mister, may I lie here until we get +to heaven?" +. "Yes, dear, yes," he answered. +. "Will you wake me up when we get there so that I can see my +mommy, and your little girl, and Jesus?" she asked. "I so much want +to see them all." +. His answer came in broken phrases, but in words very tenderly +spoken, "Yes, dear angel, yes. God bless you." "Amen!" was sobbed by +more than a score of voices. +. Turning her eyes once more upon the conductor, she questioned him +again, "What should I tell your little girl when I see her? Should I +tell her that I saw her daddy on Jesus' railroad? Should I?" +. This brought a fresh flood of tears from all present, and the +conductor knelt by her side and, embracing her, wept the reply he +could not utter. At this point the brakeman called out the name of +another station. The conductor got up and asked the brakeman to take +care of his duty for him at that station, for he was busy. +. That was a precious place. I thank God that I was a witness to +this scene, and I was sorry that at that point I was obliged to leave +the train. + + THE SEQUEL + (A letter from the conductor to Pastor Dosh) + +Dear Pastor Dosh, + +. I wish to unburden my heart by writing to you and saying that +that angel visit on the train was a blessing to me, although I didn't +realize it in its fullness until some hours later. But blessed be the +Redeemer, I know now that I am His and He is mine. I no longer wonder +why Christians are happy. Oh, my joy, my joy! +. The instrument of my salvation has gone to be with God. I wanted +to adopt her in the place of my little daughter, who is now in heaven, +and with this intention I took her back to her hometown, where she +left the train. +. When I talked with my wife about adopting her, she replied, "Yes, +certainly, and immediately too, for there is a Divine providence in +this. Oh, "she said, "I could never refuse to take under my charge +the instrument of my husband's salvation." +. When I returned to the town where I had left the little girl, I +asked about her and learned that in just three days after her return +she died suddenly, without any apparent disease, and her happy soul +had gone to dwell with her mother, my little girl, and the angels in +heaven. +. I was sorry to hear of her death, but my sorrow is turned to joy +when I think that my daughter in heaven received word from earth +concerning her daddy, and that he is on the heavenly railway. Oh! +sir, I think I see my little girl near the Redeemer. I think I hear +her sing, "I'm safe at home, and daddy and mommy are coming." I find +myself sending back the reply, "Yes, my darling, we are coming and +will soon be there." Oh, my dear sir, I am so glad that I know you! +May the blessing of the great God rest upon you. Please write to me, +and be assured I would be most happy to meet you again. + +. We learn many things from this incident. "From the mouth of +infants and nursing babes Thou has established strength ..." (Psalm +8:2) Not only should we never be afraid to speak out for Jesus, no +matter where we are, but we should never give up praying for the +salvation of those we love. The conductor's wife was obviously a +godly woman who must have been praying for her husband's salvation. +It looks like God honored her prayers with a visit from this "little +angel" who came in love, boldness, and with a word from the Lord about +the conductor's daughter. The right word at the right time is a +mighty tool in the hand of God. + + + The Last Days Newsletter. + Box 40, Lindale, Tx. 75771-0040 + + Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp23.txt b/religious documents/insp23.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..823f28e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp23.txt @@ -0,0 +1,165 @@ + + The Emperor's Three Questions + (By Leo Tolstoy) + + +. One day it occurred to a certain emperor that if he only knew the +answers to three questions, he would never stray in any matter. + +. 1. What is the best time to do each thing? +. 2. Who are the most important people to work with? +. 3. What is the most important thing to do at all times? + +. The emperor issued a decree throughout his kingdom announcing +that whoever could answer the questions would receive a great reward. +Many who read the decree made their way to the palace at once, each +person with a different answer. + +. In reply to the first question, one person advised that the +emperor make up a thorough time schedule, consecrating every hour, +day, month and year for certain tasks and then follow the schedule to +the letter. Only then could he hope to do every task at the right +time. + +. Another person replied that it was impossible to plan in advance +and that the emperor should put all vain amusements aside and remain +attentive to everything in order to know what to do at what time. + +. Someone else insisted that, by himself, the emperor could never +hope to have all the foresight and competence necessary to decide when +to do each and every task, and what he really needed was to set up a +Council of the Wise and then to act according to their advice. + +. Someone else said that certain matters require immediate decision +and could not wait for consultation, but if he wanted to know in +advance what was going to happen he should consult magicians and +soothsayers. + +. The responses to the second question also lacked accord. + +. One person said that the emperor needed to place all his trust in +administrators, another urged reliance on priests and monks, while +others recommended physicians. Still others put their faith in +warriors. + +. The third question drew a similar variety of answers. + +. Some said science was the most important pursuit. Others +insisted on religion. Yet others claimed the most important thing was +military skill. + +. The emperor was not pleased with any of the answers, and no +reward was given. + +. After several nights of reflection, the emperor resolved to visit +a hermit who lived on a mountain and was said to be an enlightened +man. The emperor wished to find the hermit to ask him the three +questions, though he knew the hermit never left the mountains and was +known to receive only the poor, refusing to have anything to do with +persons of wealth or power. So the emperor disguised himself as a +simple peasant and ordered his attendants to wait for him at the foot +of the mountain while he climbed the slope alone to seek the hermit. + +. Reaching the holy man's dwelling place, the emperor found the +hermit digging a garden in front of his hut. When the hermit saw the +stranger, he nodded his head in greeting and continued to dig. The +labor was obviously hard on him. He was an old man, and each time he +thrust his spade into the ground to turn the earth, he heaved heavily. + +. The emperor approached him and said, "I have come here to ask +your help with three questions: When is the best time to do each +thing? Who are the most important people to work with? What is the +most important thing to do at all times?" + +. The hermit listened attentively but only patted the emperor on +the shoulder and continued digging. The emperor said, "You must be +tired. Here, let me give you a hand with that." The hermit thanked +him, handed the emperor the spade, and then sat down on the ground to +rest. + +. After he had dug two rows, the emperor stopped and turned to the +hermit and repeated his three questions. The hermit still did not +answer, but instead stood and pointed to the spade and said, "Why +don't you rest now? I can take over again." But the emperor +continued to dig. One hour passed, then two. Finally the sun began +to set behind the mountain. The emperor put down the spade and said +to the hermit, "I came here to ask if you could answer my three +questions. But if you can't give me any answer, please let me know so +that I can get on my way home." + +. The hermit lifted his head and asked the emperor, "Do you hear +someone running over there?" The emperor turned his head. They both +saw a man with a long white beard emerge from the woods. He ran +wildly, pressing his hands against a bloody wound in his stomach. The +man ran toward the emperor before falling unconscious to the ground, +where he lay groaning. Opening the man's clothing, the emperor and +hermit saw that the man had received a deep gash. The emperor cleaned +the wound thoroughly and then used his own shirt to bandage it, but +the blood completely soaked it within minutes. He rinsed the shirt +out and bandaged the wound a second time and continued to do so until +the flow of blood had stopped. + +. At last the wounded man regained consciousness and asked for a +drink of water. The emperor ran down to the stream and brought back a +jug of fresh water. Meanwhile, the sun had disappeared and the night +air had begun to turn cold. The hermit gave the emperor a hand in +carrying the man into the hut where they laid him down on the hermit's +bed. The man closed his eyes and lay quietly. The emperor was worn +out from a long day of climbing the mountain and digging the garden. +Leaning against the doorway, he fell asleep. When he rose, the sun +had already risen over the mountain. For a moment he forgot where he +was and what he had come here for. He looked over to the bed and saw +the wounded man also looking around him in confusion. When he saw the +emperor, he stared at him intently and then said in a faint whisper, +"Please forgive me." + +. "But what have you done that I should forgive you?" the emperor +asked. + +. "You do not know me, your majesty, but I know you. I was your +sworn enemy, and I had vowed to take vengeance on you, for during the +last war you killed my brother and seized my property. When I learned +that you were coming alone to the mountain to meet the hermit, I +resolved to surprise you on your way back and kill you. But after +waiting a long time there was still no sign of you, and so I left my +ambush in order to seek you out. But instead of finding you, I came +across your attendants, who recognized me, giving me this wound. +Luckily, I escaped and ran here. If I hadn't met you I would surely +be dead by now. I had intended to kill you, but instead you saved my +life! I am ashamed and grateful beyond words. If I live, I vow to be +your servant for the rest of my life, and I will bid my children and +grandchildren to do the same. Please grant me you forgiveness." + +. The emperor was overjoyed to see that he was so easily reconciled +with a former enemy. He not only forgave the man but promised to +return all the man's property and to send his own physician and +servants to wait on the man until he was completely healed. After +ordering his attendants to take the man home, the emperor returned to +see the hermit. Before returning to the place the emperor wanted to +repeat his three questions one last time. He found the hermit sowing +seeds in the earth they had dug the day before. + +. The hermit stood up and looked at the emperor. "But your +questions have already been answered." + +. "How's that?" the emperor asked, puzzled. + +. "Yesterday, if you had not taken pity on my age and given me a +hand with digging these beds, you would have been attacked by that man +on your way home. Then you would have deeply regretted not staying +with me. Therefore the most important time was the time you were +digging in the beds, the most important person was myself, and the +most important pursuit was to help me." +. "Later, when the wounded man ran up here, the most important time +was the time you spent dressing his wound, for if you had not cared +for him he would have died and you would have lost the chance to be +reconciled with him. Likewise, he was the most important person, and +the most important pursuit was taking care of his wound." +. "Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. +The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The +most important person is always the person you are with, who is right +before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other +person in the future? The most important pursuit is making the person +standing at your side happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life." + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp24.txt b/religious documents/insp24.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c7afa1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp24.txt @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ + + THE WAITING EAGLE + +. The following is the content of a sermon that I listened to a +couple of weeks ago on television. I can't remember the preacher, but +the message was loud and clear. His use of the eagle in the example +to follow has many hidden meanings. How many can you think of? + +. A young man was out hiking in Canada along the bank of a fast +flowing river. Large blocks and chunks of still-solid ice were +breaking away from the shoreline and slowly moving out into the fast +flowing water in the center of the river. Many insects and a few +small animals occasionally drifted out into the river perched atop the +blocks of ice, to be swept off into the distance and out of sight of +the watcher. +. As he walked along, getting closer and closer to the rapids and +the waterfall that he could hear in the distance, the young man +noticed an eagle circling in the sky. It swooped down close to a +piece of ice floating out in the middle, but did not quite touch the +ice. It was then that the young man noticed something small and fuzzy +scurrying around on the ice that the eagle had just dived at. +. As he walked along watching, the eagle made a couple more dives +at the little creature on the ice. Finally, the eagle came to land on +the edge of the block of ice, quickly capturing and killing his prey. +The eagle must have been very hungry as he did not take off, but +proceeded to start eating the little creature, glancing up from time +to time watching the ice's progress towards the now close rapids and +falls. +. At the top of a hill, the path the young man was following veered +off away from the river. Quickly, the man climbed a large rock which +gave him an excellent view of the river, the falls and the eagle still +riding the block of ice. +. Still the eagle stood on the edge of the ice eating. It looked +up again and again, evidently judging the time left before the ice +went over the edge of the falls. Surely, thought the young man, it +must take off now, but the eagle was waiting till the last minute +enjoying the now almost finished meal. +. Finally, the eagle decided that it was time to leave. But flap +as much as it would, the eagle could not leave the ice! It would +appear as though while the eagle had been riding the block of ice +eating and watching for the falls, waiting till the last possible +moment to make his escape, its feet had melted the ice then become +re-frozen, welding him permanently in place. +. The eagle flapped and flapped, feathers flying, literally beating +its wings to a pulp. But to no avail. As it went over the edge, the +scream it made sent shivers up the back of the young man watching from +the rock. It sounded just like the scream of a woman in agony as she +plunged to her death. + +. The point of the story is that the eagle, just like so many +people, kept watching the future approaching but choose to wait until +the absolute last moment to make a decision (as so very many wait all +of their lives knowing that they will have eternal life if they accept +and walk with Jesus, but try to put it off till the last possible +moment). The eagle, like so many "future watchers", lost. + +. Are you waiting till the last possible moment, watching the falls +approaching? Do you really want to take that chance and miss being +able to live eternally? Jesus is waiting for you to ask him into your +heart today. A whole new world can be yours for the asking if only +you'll accept Him as your Lord and Savior. If you have been waiting +and watching but are now convinced that you want to make the right +choice while you still have time, then pray the following prayer and +ask Jesus into your life. DO IT NOW! + +. "Dear Father, I know that I am a sinner and need forgiveness. I +believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins. I am willing to turn from +sin. I now invite Jesus to come into my heart and life as my personal +Savior. I am willing, by God's grace, to follow and obey Jesus Christ +as the Lord of my life." + +Jim Lewis, The Light BBS, (904) 625-2737 diff --git a/religious documents/insp25.txt b/religious documents/insp25.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7a9da0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp25.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ + 23rd PSALM FOR BUSY PEOPLE + + + The Lord is my Pacesetter, I will not rush. + He makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals. + He provides me with stillness, which restores my serenity. + He leads me in ways of efficiency, through calmness of mind; + and His guidance is peace. + Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day, + I will not fret, for His presence is here. + His timelessness, His all-importance will keep me in balance. + He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity + By anointing my mind with His oils of tranquillity. + My cup of joyous energy overflows. + Surely harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours, + And I shall walk in the peace of the Lord for ever. + + Toki Miyashina + + Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp26.txt b/religious documents/insp26.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1aebe8a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp26.txt @@ -0,0 +1,172 @@ + + PATHWAYS + A short story by Bob Sadler + + +. It was a brisk autumn night, nothing was happening (as usual), so +I decided to go check out what the Parks Department had planned for +the evening. You see, I was attending a family reunion in the +Southeast corner of Iowa, in a small town called Keosaqua. Just by +the name, you should realize that the excitement for this town, was +driving around a make believe square, in a hot rod or your fathers +tractor, whichever happened to be running. The parks department had a +night nature walk planned. +. Well, I decided that I could use the walk, and might even enjoy +seeing Lake Keosaqua at night, I mean it had to look better than in +the day. Anyway, I went on ahead to the Rangers office where everyone +was supposed to meet. When I had gotten there, to my surprise, there +were about twenty people waiting as I was now, to enjoy this brisk +walk in the cool Autumn air. The ranger showed up about five minutes +late, and checked out a fluorescent lantern to everybody, and then we +were off. +. We walked for awhile, all of us undoubtedly enjoying the quiet of +the evening. We came along to a fork in the path, and the ranger +abruptly stopped and turned to us and said, "This is as far as I will +lead you. From here on out, you must make your own choices." He sat +down on a log that had been conveniently left for him, and he began to +whistle silently, watching all the faces of the now confused and +shocked people. +. I decided to check out the situation, so I took a step towards +both paths, and looking down the left side of the path I could see +that this path was wide and well kept. Trees lined both sides and +everywhere, for as far as you could see, people were laughing and +having a good time. A few people who had come along on the walk, had +already started walking down this path. As they made their way +further and further down the path, I noticed that everyone on this +path came running towards them and screaming at them to put out their +lights. Each time someone would dim their light, a loud cheer arose +from the people who were on that path. Then I noticed something that +was before hidden by the darkness, there was a large pile of lanterns +in the middle of the path, it was higher than the eye could see. I +shook my head in wonderment, and began to look down the path on the +right. +. This was a narrow path, and although it held great beauty, there +were rocks scattered throughout the way, making it difficult for the +people to walk. Unlike the people on the first path I saw, the people +on this path carried their lamps and used them to light the way, not +only for themselves, but also for others following. And as before, a +few that were on the walk, had begun down this path, and those who +were already on this path, came rushing back to greet the newcomers, +and helped them along the way. +. Reflecting back on what I'd seen, I could feel a sense of unity +in those who were walking down the narrow path, and at the same time, +I could feel a sense of loneliness among those walking down the wide +path. Finally, I began my journey. +. People rushed towards me and as I got closer, one reached out and +hugged me. He showed me how to properly hold my lamp so it would give +out the most light to myself and others who happened to be following +me. He helped me along, accepting no thanks, and helped me over the +first few rocks, and even picked me up when I fell, and helped brush +me off. Not only was he watching out for me, but I could also see the +ranger that had led the group to the path, was now walking down this +path. As he passed me, he looked into my eyes, and said, "I love +you." I thought this to be a bit strange, but enjoyed the attention I +was receiving, I thanked him, and returned the saying. +. A little way further down the path, was a commotion. I rushed to +see what was happening, and there, about fifty feet in front of the +group, was a pack of wild wolves. Suddenly, the ranger appeared out +of nowhere, and without caring for his own safety, he charged the +wolves screaming. Most of the pack was so startled, that they ran +off. But one, who looked as big as a lion, wasn't too scared. He +leaped towards the ranger, and with one swipe of his large paw, he +killed the ranger. We sat still for a moment, as the wolf examined +his kill. Satisfied with what he'd done, the wolf walked off growling +assuredly. We rushed to where the ranger was, and confirmed what was +originally thought. I don't know why, but I felt a strange sense +about this loss, maybe it was that he'd been nice to me when passing, +and all I did was just to return his niceties with words. +. A group of people got together and buried the ranger, and we who +had started down the path, began our walk back. The path seemed to +get rockier and more precarious. When suddenly, the front of the +group stopped. I went ahead to see what the problem was, and before I +arrived, my lantern had gone out. I stumbled trying to find my way in +darkness, but finally reached the front of the group. As expected, I +found the reason for our stop was because everyone's lamp had gone +out. I stood there, and began to cry, trying to reason within myself +why I had chosen this path. I could see the other path now as I +looked to my left, and even a crossway. Everyone on that path kept +walking and talking as if nothing was wrong. They seemed to be used +to the darkness. Others from the group called out to them, and +proceeded to switch paths for the lack of safety. I sat and wondered +how it could be that they, on the other path, could see without having +trouble. I looked up and saw the man that had greeted me at the first +part of the path. He smiled and said, "Have faith friend, help will +come soon." I almost laughed out loud, but could see in his eyes that +he wasn't joking. I wondered what could happen, what could possibly +save us. I thought if only the ranger was here, he could surely lead +us, why he must have walked this path a thousand times, he could +probably do it in his sleep. +. Without warning, a voice whispered in my ear, "Take my hand" it +said. I tried to turn and see who was talking but could not. I sat +for what seemed like a lifetime, before I decided there wasn't much +else that I could do. I reached out, not knowing where I was +reaching, and felt a hand, strong and yet gentle. I felt this +strangers hand grasp mine, and he said, "I will lead you out of this +darkness." And he began to walk. I walked with him, trying +desperately to see who he was, but could not. Then I noticed that +someone else was holding onto my other hand, I looked back and saw the +group connected by their hands, following the stranger as I was. +. We walked for what seemed like days, and then I could feel we +were walking up a slant. It got progressively harder and harder to +walk up this unknown ground, and I could hear people giving up as we +walked. I whispered to the stranger who was leading, "Can't we stop, +so those who are having trouble can catch up with us?" He replied in +a loving, but firm voice, "They have made their choice, and now must +live with it." Immediately I realized that I had heard that voice +before, but it was impossible, it couldn't have been, but it sounded +so much like that of the ranger's. +. Suddenly I looked up and saw a light shining over the mountain +that we were climbing, although, no matter how hard I tried, I still +couldn't make out the face of the one that had taken my hand. When we +reached the top of the mountain, I looked back, and gave a hand to +those who were still behind me. When we were all at the mountain top, +with the sun blazing down on us, the man who had lead us out of the +darkness, turned and said to us, "Welcome, to my paradise." I could +hardly believe what I saw. It was him, the ranger had somehow come +back to life, and lead us out of the danger. I just couldn't believe +it. Then I remembered what he had said as he passed me on the path, I +began to cry. The ranger walked up to me and asked why I was crying. +I couldn't look into his eyes, and with my face buried in my hands, I +said, "I love you too!" There was no response so I looked up and saw +the ranger crying too. He said to me, "You don't know how long I have +waited for you to say that, and mean it in your heart." +. We all began to journey into the paradise of the ranger, when I +looked to my left. I saw those on the other path, who were being led +into what seemed to be like a roaring furnace. I called to the ranger +and said, "What is going on, why are they being lead into that thing?" +The ranger with tears in his eyes, said, "They chose to walk that +path. I made that path for someone other than they, and even along +the path gave them warning signs as to what lies ahead, but they +refused to listen, they refused to believe. The one that leads them, +he mocks me, and tells them that I will not harm them, and I was the +one who put them on that path. They couldn't realize for themselves, +that it was not I who chose for them, but themselves. And now, it is +not I who am sending them there, but it is their own selfish desires +that have led them there. But this is not the day of sadness for +them, because they have yet to realize the beauty and love that I +beheld for them. For a day will come, when I will call all of them up +to me, and they will stand before me, and answer as to why they chose +the way they chose. Then they will see the truth in their actions. +They will no longer deny their thoughts, they will see that it was +they, not me, who chose their final resting place." +. I cried out in anguish, and started back down the mountain, +trying to make my way back to the front of the path. The ranger +stopped me, and said, "It is not up to you to force people down this +path. You can go back and help those who have been discouraged, but +you cannot make the choice for them. You must let them make that +choice for themselves. This is the only way, that I will know that +they truly love me." +. My head was pounding when I awoke, people were standing over me, +with a relived look upon their faces. A man in a Ranger's uniform +stood over me with a wet cloth, "Sorry 'bout hitting your head with +that door, didn't know anybody was that anxious in getting started." +I reached up and felt the lump now growing on my head. I tried to +stand, and with the help of a couple of people was able to catch my +balance. The ranger came over to me, and looking into my eyes asked +how I was. I fought to no avail to hide the tears in my eyes. I +looked at the ranger and smiled, "Thanks," I said, "thanks for helping +when I really needed it." He smiled, and winked, "Anything to help a +friend." + +Computers for Christ - Chicago + diff --git a/religious documents/insp27.txt b/religious documents/insp27.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c792237 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp27.txt @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ + + THE BURGLAR + +. Ted Vogel says the burglar was cruising through one of our posh +suburbs looking for a target of opportunity. At one house he saw a +truck unloading a big screen television, stereo, and video outfit. All +the gear had to cost thousands of dollars. He made a mental note and +went on his way. +. The next day he was back in the same neighborhood. When he +drove past the house with all the goodies, he saw an elderly couple +loading suitcases into the trunk of their car. He could hardly wait. +. That night, without a moon in the sky and a heavy fog, he drove +up to the house. He rang the doorbell and when no one answered, broke +the lock on the kitchen door and went in. +. It was pitch black inside as he made his way through the +kitchen, then the dining room and into the den where he expected to +find the things he wanted to steal. + +. "I see you and Jesus sees you," a voice said. + +. The burglar froze in his tracks. + +. "I see you and Jesus sees you," the voice said again. + +. When nothing more happened, the burglar took out his flashlight +and shinned it in the direction of the voice. All he saw was a parrot +on its perch. + +. "I see you and Jesus sees you." + +. The burglar laughed. + +. "Just a dumb bird," he said. + +. The burglar closed the drapes before turning on a lamp and +that's when he saw a big and mean looking Doberman Pinscher sitting +beneath the parrot's perch. + +. "Sic him, Jesus!" the parrot said. + + +(Milwaukee Journal--by Alex Thien) + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp28.txt b/religious documents/insp28.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90e8d31 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp28.txt @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ + + 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE JESUS CAME + + 'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house, + Not a creature was praying, not one in the house. + Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care, + In hopes that Jesus would not come there. + + The children were dressing to crawl into bed, + Not one ever kneeling or bowing a head. + And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap, + Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap. + + When out of the East there arose such a clatter, + I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter. + Away to the window I flew like a flash, + Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash! + + When what to my wondering eyes should appear, + But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here. + With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray, + I knew in a moment this must be THE DAY! + + The light of His face made me cover my head, + It was Jesus returning just like He had said. + And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth, + I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself. + + In the Book of Life which He held in His hand, + Was written the name of every saved man. + He spoke not a word as He searched for my name; + When He said "It's not here" my head hung in shame. + + The people whose names had been written with love, + He gathered to take to His Father above. + With those who were ready He rose without a sound, + While all the rest were left standing around. + + I fell to my knees, but it was too late, + I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate. + I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight; + Oh, if only I had been ready tonight. + + In the words of this poem the meaning is clear, + The coming of Jesus is drawing near. + There's only one life and when comes the last call, + We'll find that the Bible was true after all! + + (author unknown) + + Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp29.txt b/religious documents/insp29.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a027c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp29.txt @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ + + A GAGGLE OF GEESE AND THE BODY OF CHRIST + OR + REFLECTIONS ON THE COMMUNITY OF THE SPIRIT + By Calvin Culver + +. As I was walked to work recently I heard above me a sound which, +for the past several months, has been absent from our skies - the +honking of geese flying overhead. I stopped to watch as their +formation flew by over me when it occurred to me that we could take a +lesson from these birds on the nature of discipleship. What, one may +ask, does a flock of birds have to do with the Body of Christ? Let me +start by asking this: why do geese fly in a V-formation? Well, as +most people probably know, such a formation helps tremendously to +decrease drag due to air resistance. This, especially on long +migratory flights, enables the geese to travel long distances before +tiring. Apart and by himself, a lone goose could probably never fly +the long route from summer home to winter haven and back again. +Together, however, a flock of geese can accomplish what is impossible +for one alone. +. At the head of the formation is, of course, the leader. Though I +know not the ways of geese, how they select their leaders, I would +speculate that the chosen is one who is strong enough to take the +brunt of the headwind while his fellows ride his draft, and in +addition is perhaps one who has traveled the road before. He rides at +the head while his flock follows, and guides them along the long and +difficult journey. +. Such then is the nature of our journeys in Christ; we seek not to +follow Christ alone, irrespective of our brothers and our leaders, for +then what would we have but a horde of geese all jostling and shoving, +trying to assume the position immediately behind the leader. Instead, +Paul wrote, "Follow me as I follow Christ." +. We may also see something of the nature of the Church here. For, +as I looked at the geese flying overhead I saw, not thirty-five or so +geese in the sky, but a diamond formation, moving in unison. To be +sure, there were individual geese in the formation but what I saw was, +above all, a flock. This, I believe, illustrates a facet of the +nature of the Church. We - modern, Western man - see the society +around us through our individualistic metaphysic; that is, the nature +of society is that it is nothing more, nor less, than a collection of +individuals. Concepts of such things as societal consciousness or +one's responsibility to society are next to unknown, having been +replaced by concepts of the sovereignty of the individual. +. Yet this was not always so. Medieval thought, for example, +tended to elevate society above individual, and it was almost +axiomatically held that an individual could not be fully realized +without acceptance and fulfillment of that niche to which society had +assigned him. This could be called an extreme form of societal, as +opposed to individualistic, metaphysic. +. The nature of the Church, I believe, lies somewhere in between +these extremes - in a sort of communal nature. It is certainly more +than a mere collection of individual Christians, yet neither do the +individualities of its members get subsumed in its whole. Still, +there is something of a communal nature to the Church that we, with +our Western individualism, have failed to recognize. Thus, for +example, it seems to me that, as the Roman Catholic church has +declared, there is no salvation outside the Church. Not, indeed, in a +narrow sense which would define the Catholic - or any other - church +as the one true Church, but in that God mediates his salvation through +the body of Christ. Hence, the logical order of events at one's +conversion is that he is first joined to the Church and then bestowed +with salvation. No one is truly saved who is not a member of the +Church. +. Again, it is in this sense that Scripture declares that we are +the temple of the Holy Spirit. That is, the Body of Christ is the +temple in which the Spirit of Christ has chosen to dwell. And again, +when declaring that "the kingdom of God is within (among) you", +Scripture announces that it is within the Body that God has +established his rule. It is our responsibility, as members of that +Body, to demonstrate to the world what is the nature of that kingdom. +And it is within this framework, as members of the true Flock, that we +are called to follow one another, as each of us seeks to follow +Christ. + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp30.txt b/religious documents/insp30.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..94202b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp30.txt @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ + + What is God? + +. For a written class assignment, a third grade teacher asked her +students to explain "God". This is one perspicacious response from +Danny Dutton, who attends the First Christian Church of Chula Vista. +Danny is eight years old. + +. "One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes these to put +in place of the ones that die so there will be enough people to take +care of things here on earth. He doesn't make grownups. Just babies. +I think because they are smaller and easier to make. That way He +doesn't have to take up His valuable time teaching them to talk and +walk. He can just leave that up to the mothers and fathers. I think +it works out pretty good. +. God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An +awful lot of this goes on, as some people, like preachers and things, +pray other times besides bedtime. God doesn't have time to listen to +the radio or T.V. on account of this. As He hears everything, not +only prayers, there must be a terrible lot of noise going into His +ears unless He has thought of a way to turn it off. +. God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere. +Which keeps Him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting His time by +going over your parents head and ask for something they said you +couldn't have. +. Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think +there are any in Chula Vista. At least there aren't any who come to +our church. +. Jesus is God's Son. He used to do all the hard work like walking +on water and doing miracles and trying to teach people about God who +didn't want to learn. They finally got tired of Him preaching to them +and they crucified Him. But He was good and kind like His Father and +He told His Father that they didn't know what they were doing and to +forgive them and God said ok. His Dad (God) appreciated everything He +had done and all His hard work on earth, so He told Him He didn't have +to go out on the road anymore. He could stay in heaven. So He did. +And now He helps His Dad out by listening to prayers and seeing which +things are important for God to take care of and which ones He can +take care of Himself without having to bother God with. Like a +secretary, only more important, of course. You can pray anytime you +want and they are sure to hear you because they've got it worked out +so one of them is on duty all the time. +. You should always go to Sunday School because it makes God happy, +and if anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip Sunday +School to do something you think will be more fun like going to the +beach. That is wrong. And beside the sun doesn't come out at the +beach until noon anyway. +. If you don't believe in God, besides being an Atheist, you will +be very lonely, because your parents can't go everywhere with you like +to camp, but God can. It's good to know He's around when you're +scared of the dark or when you can't swim very good and you get thrown +in real deep water by big kids. But you shouldn't think always of +what God can do for you. I figure God put me here and He can take me +back anytime He pleases. And that's why I believe in God." + + +. Taken from a paper published by the First Christian Church. 305 +W. California Ave. Vista, CA 92083-3595 + + Contributed by The Manna System + (714)-532-6310 + 300/1200 Baud + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp31.txt b/religious documents/insp31.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb2ce9b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp31.txt @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ + + Are You In The Dark? + +. Matthew 10:27 -- "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light; +and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops." + +. Semi-official notice: Christianity does not consist in a continuous +experience of victory, light and joy. Sometimes it's pretty dark out. + +. "What? Do you blaspheme the noble theology of success?" No, just facing +facts: at times I don't feel so great and full of light, and I think that at +least once in a while there is a legitimate reason behind it. + +. I don't think that the Lord wants to protect us from all the unenjoyable +experiences and depressing times that life naturally tends to bring our way. +He does offer the grace to endure and come through them not having given up +faith and hope, but I believe also that he actually wills for us to go through +some dark times so that he can tell us something in the darkness. There are +things he wants us to learn and ways in which he wants us to grow and mature +that we can't fully receive except in times of hardness and difficulty. + +. Is it sometimes dark in your life and you don't know why? If not, you're +either not normal or not being honest. But if so, remember: He IS with you, +although possibly incognito. He may be trying to reveal himself to you in a +new way ("What I tell you in darkness..."), to bring you into a greater depth +of maturity and faith. He is there, but the darkness makes it hard to see. +We need to be more spiritually sensitive, so we might hear when we can't see. +Maybe it's that sensitivity itself that he's trying to develop in us by +placing us in the dark. + +. Have you heard something from Christ during a time of darkness? Have you +benefited and grown through difficult and depressing experiences? "That speak +ye in the light." After the darkness has passed and we are walking in the +light again, we need to remember that others also pass through the darkness +and can benefit from our empathy, understanding, comfort and help. + +Charles Shelton + +Computers for Christ - Chicago + diff --git a/religious documents/insp32.txt b/religious documents/insp32.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..427ee65 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp32.txt @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ + + Wrestling With God + +. Genesis 32:24-26: "And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him +until the breaking of the day ... then he said, 'Let me go, for the day is +breaking.' But Jacob said, 'I will not let you go, unless you bless me.'" +(RSV) + +. Jacob's wrestling match with the angel at Peniel is, to me, a picture of +what he had been doing all his life -- wrestling with his conscience, with +God, and with the world around him. It started when he was born, when, as he +was coming from the womb he laid hold of his twin brother's heel, a portent of +his coming life and character. Later on in life he also laid hold of his +brother's birthright and his blessing. He was constantly trying to "supplant" +reality, to mold and conform it to his own will and desire, and he was often +successful, getting what he wanted. +. But as he grew older he became less and less satisfied with what he was -- +Jacob. The name means supplanter, deceiver. In the context of the story +about wrestling with the angel, Jacob was preparing to meet his brother Esau, +whom he had "ripped off" in the past. He was being faced with the +consequences of his character, which served to reinforce the knowledge that he +was not the man that he wanted to be, not the man that he should be. + +. Jacob's experience with the angel, who represented God more fully than +most angelic visitations, further reinforced his self-awareness to the point +of personal crisis. "What is your name?", the angel asked, giving Jacob a +chance to honestly face what he was like and confess it verbally, both to the +angel (and therefore also God) and to himself, which was even more important. + +. Jacob had become serious enough, desperate enough about his need for +change that when he wrestled the angel he refused to let go until he had +received what he needed. "I will not let go, unless you bless me." + +. But sometimes we can't change until we understand not only our need for +change, but also why we need to change. Therefore, he was led by the angel +(God) to the confession, "I am Jacob." I am a supplanter, deceiving myself +and those around me. This is what I am, and I need the blessing of an inward +change. And I am serious enough, desperate enough for such a change, that I +am going to hang on to you, God, whether it takes all night or the rest of my +life. I recognize that you can help, and I refuse to give up seeking until I +have received what I need. + +. And the angel at THAT point renamed Jacob, signifying that God had granted +the change, the blessing. Jacob was renamed "Israel," one who has struggled +with God and won. + +. God desires to make us all winners with Him. But often elements in our +lives and our characters hold us back from receiving the victory. We may need +to face up to these things, see them for what they are, confess them to +ourselves and to God, and decisively renounce them. As with Jacob, sometimes +it takes a crisis in our lives to bring us to the point of honesty with +ourselves and with God. We make excuses for ourselves, we rationalize and +play mind games to reduce the seriousness of our need, until a set of +circumstances might come along that strips it all away and forces us to see +the truth. + +. And just as Jacob, we then have a choice: we can face the truth ("This is +what I am.") and seize the opportunity to wrestle with God for inward change, +or we can give up, turn and walk away, letting go and refusing to struggle +with it any longer. We can then go on with our pattern of rationalization and +playing games with our minds. And we can also therefore fail to reach our +full potential as human beings in His image. + +. May God help us to seize Him, to overcome the struggle, and to refuse to +let go until we are blessed with real and significant change. "To him who +overcomes ... I will give to him ... a new name..." (Rev. 2:27) + + Charles Shelton + + Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp33.txt b/religious documents/insp33.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15171f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp33.txt @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ + + Shall We Bow Down? + +. The story of the three children of Israel in the fiery furnace in the +third chapter of the Old Testament book of Daniel is rightly considered a +religious classic. It has had an enduring popularity and importance for those +of Jewish and Christian persuasions. It's also been a favorite passage for +exposition in pulpits as well as the inspiration for much religious art and +music. + +. One of the major points that is often emphasized when the story is +brought to our attention (such as in a sermon) is God's miraculous deliverance +of those who were brave enough to be faithful to what they knew was right. +The three men had been tied up and thrown into a furnace of fire, but God sent +an angel to preserve and deliver them from death. A dramatic and remarkable +event, indeed. + +. But one thing that especially impresses me each time I read this Biblical +passage is the statement of the three men in verses 17 and 18: "Our God is +able to deliver us ... but even if he doesn't we will not serve or worship +your gods." Even if he doesn't. They had received no promise from God for +deliverance. They were simply convinced about what was right and were willing +to stand for the right rather than bow down to the Babylonian idols even if it +meant for them a painful death. They had to buck the pressure of the crowd +("everybody" was doing it, why not them?), the governmental authority (I made +this image, and it's the law that you bow down to it!), and their own natural +desire for self-preservation. Although they were delivered in the end, they +weren't sure that they would be -- they were literally facing death, yet their +moral values were more important to them than their own temporal lives. + +. It's easy to "stand up" for right when there's no cost involved. But +when the whole world around us is trying to squeeze us into its mold; when +resistance may cost us our reputation, our friends, our material goods, or +even our lives; it's then that we see the real strength of our inner +convictions and our commitment to act accordingly. + +. Idols exist in abundance today in our own cultural environment. There +is the widespread worship of wealth and prosperity, the great god Mammon (it's +even written "In God We Trust" on the face of our currency). Many worship the +great god Nation ("It's my country, right or wrong."). And many desperately +crave the acceptance and respect of some "in" group, the great god Party. + +. The reverence and respect of the majority for the idols of today creates +an intense pressure on us to conform to the common worship. For those who +resist such worship, the cost can be high. For those who develop a simple, +non-materialistic life-style; for those who take a critical stance toward the +wrongs and injustices they see in their government, their society, their +world; for those who realize that the acceptance and respect of the "in" group +is not worth seeking. But the one who wishes to live completely from God's +perspective should be prepared to pay the price, for "all who wish to live +godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (II Timothy 3:12) + +. It's not easy to stand against the idols of our society, especially when +so many Christians are bowing down around us. But how else will the idols be +seen for what they really are? God doesn't promise to always deliver us from +the cost, but to always give us the strength (if we really want it) to stand +up for the right rather than to bow down to false values and priorities. + + Charles Shelton + + Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp34.txt b/religious documents/insp34.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aec470c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp34.txt @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ + + Out of Context? + +. John 3:16 -- "For God so loved the world that he gave his only +begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but +have everlasting life." +. Over the years of my life (I'm close to 37 now, which I HATE to +realize) I have had quite a few friends and relatives die, some after +much pain and suffering. In times of suffering and death, especially +when seemingly good, innocent people are involved, some of us may +wonder (I know I often have) how God's love can be seen in the +situation. "If God is love, why did he allow my child to die?" "If +God loves me, why must I suffer this constant pain?" Some also wonder +about God's love when they think of the starving multitudes in Third +World nations. Why does he allow such suffering? How can he claim to +love someone and then sit by and watch them in excruciating life-long +pain, especially when he has the ability to stop that pain? +. To be honest, I am myself puzzled concerning the reasons behind +much of the apparent evil and suffering that I see or hear of in this +world. And some of the proposed solutions to the puzzle that I have +heard sound pretty shallow, and I imagine especially so to the one +faced with an actual situation of suffering. +. But I think that sometimes what aggravates the problem, making it +seem even worse than it already is, might be called an attempt to +"read" God's love out of context. Living in a culture that's +completely wrapped up in the concerns of this life, legitimate as +those concerns are, we can easily lose the "eternal perspective." We +tend to see things only within the context of this life, forgetting +that God's love in Christ is an eternal love, something that will find +its greatest fulfillment on the other side of this life, in the "life +to come." +. The Apostle Paul is aware of the eternal perspective when, in I +Corinthians 15, he speaks of the importance of faith in Christ's +resurrection. In verse 18 he says that if there is no resurrection, +then those who are dead in Christ have perished, which is the tragic +view of death and suffering from the perspective of this life alone. +He continues, "If it's only in this life that we have hope in Christ, +then we are the most miserable of all men." If this life is our only +evidence of God's love, then we ARE in pretty bad shape. "But now +Christ has risen from the dead, and he's only the first, for ... in +Christ all shall be made alive" (vv. 20,22). Thus, we are helped to +refrain from drawing hasty conclusions out of context, for when all of +this world's words have been spoken, we know that God has yet another +word. On that word we wait, trusting that it will put everything into +context. The atoning death of Christ on the cross ("For God so loved +the world that...") has given us this larger context. +. Surely, the eternal perspective should not be used as a cop-out +from our responsibility to be concerned with removing or reducing +suffering whenever and wherever we can, and of making the world a +better place for all to live in. But it can help us to understand, +when this life is unavoidably difficult, that suffering is never the +last word for those who live in the context of God's love. + + Charles Shelton + + Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp35.txt b/religious documents/insp35.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..abd5eb5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp35.txt @@ -0,0 +1,199 @@ + + AFRAID + +. The state of being afraid is an emotion which all of us have +experienced at one time or another. It can manifest itself in many +ways to different people. What is this thing that can creep into our +life and take such complete control if left unchecked? + +. There are two definitions which are related, yet quite different +in their applications. One is that on respectful awe and/or +reverence. This is the kind of fear referred to many times in +scripture when we are admonished to "fear God." This is a simple and +direct statement that we are to hold God in great respect. He is our +creator, our superior and is due all worship, adoration and praise. + +. This definition of fear is different from the day to day usage of +the word. It involves amazement and wonder. It is a POSITIVE thing. + +(I Peter 2:17) Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor +the king. + +(Revelation 14:7) Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to +him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made +heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. + +(Revelation 19:5) And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise +our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and +great. + +. Yes! There is trembling; there is a feeling of being scared when +we approach that infinite being which is so far beyond our limited +capacity to understand. But what hope is offered in that He will +remove all the false fears; He will make us joint heirs to all things; +He will, for those who seek Him, give the power to understand all +things. The reward is eternal joy, peace, and understanding. + +(Isaiah 35:4) Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear +not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a +recompense; he will come and save you. How wonderful that we need not +be afraid of the unknown. God will come and save us from the basal, +worldly traps. He will come with a vengeance and a recompense? Yes, +a vengeance for evil (not men) and His reward for those that fear Him +and not the things of the world. + + +. Now let us consider the other definition. This is the one that +involves feelings of agitation and anxiety whenever there is presence +or nearness of danger, evil, pain, sudden loss, etc. When we fall into +the grip of fear, it produces an unparalleled emptiness. Our direction +and purpose is lost until the fear is conquered; until we have restored +control of our emotions. + +. Our first recorded example, in scripture, of fear is in Genesis. +Fear makes its entrance into the world as a consequence of sin. After +Adam and Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit, "... the man and his +wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden +in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees +of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" +He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I +was naked; so I hid."(Genesis 3:8-10 NIV) As a result of sin, a brand +new emotion was born - anxiety - turmoil about what is to happen. + +. Today there are many fears which we must face on a nearly daily +basis - our physical and mental health, our security in maintaining +ourselves and our families, fear of accident, on and on. Fears range +from personal, private matters to those of great worldwide social +consequence. + +. There are times when fear is a healthy thing. There are things +that we should be afraid of for our own good - things that +realistically can harm us - standing in traffic, falling down stairs, +eating tainted food, touching a hot stove burner - these present a +real and present danger and to be unafraid of them is not only +unrealistic but stupid. A lack of fear in these situations is a +denial of being in the world, something we are advised to accept +during our temporary stay here, to be involved with living so that we +are the witness of the power of salvation. To exhibit a false lack of +fear of those things that can harm us is to be unrealistic in our +witness and to "tempt" God in trivial matters. Healthy fears protect +us. They are rational emotions that keep us from a self-destructive +path. + +. Unhealthy fear produces mental states that allow fear to grow; to +envelope us completely - loss of ability to reason, depression, and +inaction, just to mention some. It's no wonder that the "Great +Deceiver" uses fear as one of his most effective tools. Right from the +Garden of Eden until the present, evil has been disguised to be +appealing to the temporal mind. When we succumb to the lure and become +aware of the deception fear takes over to sustain and widen the gulf +between the sin and the reality. MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT, THE +GREATEST DANGER OF FEAR IS THE POWER OF FEAR TO TAKE CONTROL OF OUR +MINDS AND OUR ACTIONS. + +. I attended a company meeting recently where we listened to a +motivational speaker discuss mankind's general failure to effect +changes in its conditions. Fear was labeled as the greatest culprit. +Even though the speaker was referring only to earthly things, he +presented fear as an acronym which has good application in our +discussion here: + +. False +. Evidence +. Appearing +. Real + +. Exactly what Satan would have us believe! He is the great +deceiver! The illusion of reality can separate us from all control of +a situation. A powerful, downward spiral is created. Once control is +lost, error (sin) can then procreate itself, spreading to other things +and other situations. + +. Very early in scripture, God promised relief from fear for those +who trust him. Clear back to Abraham we find: + +(Genesis 15:1) After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram +in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy +exceeding great reward. + +. And a little later, to Isaac: + +(Genesis 26:24) And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and +said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, +and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's +sake. + +. Some of our greatest promises of comfort come in the Psalms: + +(Psalms 23:4) Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of +death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff +they comfort me. + +(Psalms 27:1) The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? +the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? + +(Psalms 27:3) Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall +not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be +confident. + +(Psalms 31:13) For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every +side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take +away my life. + +(Psalms 56:11) In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what +man can do unto me. + +(Psalms 91:5) Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for +the arrow that flieth by day; + +(Psalms 112:7) He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is +fixed, trusting in the LORD. + +. And that familiar passage in Proverbs: + +(Proverbs 3:24) When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, +thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. + +. Faith is the answer to fear. It is not an excuse for ignoring +adversity and hiding from reality, it is the God-given power to meet +fear and prove the falsehood of the situation and to conquer its power +over us. We have that promise stated many times in the Bible. It +WORKS! + +. In the New Testament something new is added. We were given +access to the third part of the Trinity - The Holy Spirit. Often +referred to as The Comforter, we now have the very real presence of +God to sustain us in every facet of life. This is the wonder of the +Trinity. It is the ultimate result of faith - constant assurance of +the promises of God. + +. The old hymn states the current status as well as any I have +found: + + Oh, spread the tidings 'round, wherever man is found, + Wherever human hearts and human woes abound; + Let every Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound: + The Comforter has come! + + The long, long night is past, the morning breaks at last; + And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast, + As o'er the golden hills the day advances fast! + The Comforter has come! + + Lo, the great King of Kings, with healing in his wings, + To every captive soul a full deliv'rance brings; + And thro' the vacant cells the song of triumph rings: + The Comforter has come! + + O boundless Love divine! How shall this tongue of mine + To wond'ring mortals tell the matchless grace divine - + That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine! + The Comforter has come! + + Sing, till the echoes fly above the vaulted sky, + And all the saints above to all below reply, + In strains of endless love, the song that ne'er will die: + The Comforter has come! + + + Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp36.txt b/religious documents/insp36.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f221864 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp36.txt @@ -0,0 +1,160 @@ + + THE GOSPEL OF + + THE GRACE OF GOD + +Dear friend, +. If you would take a few minutes and read this message from +the Word of God, it will show you how you can have all of your +sins completely forgiven by God Almighty--once and for all. +. But if reading this is making you uncomfortable, and you +would rather not face the truth about your sin problem, then just +throw it away. But remember: When you are burning in the Lake +of Fire and Brimstone for eternity because your sins were not +forgiven, you will remember this and the opportunity you had to +get them forgiven! +. Now I must start by telling you the bad news, otherwise you +will never appreciate the good news. Here is the bad news: + +. "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" +(Romans 3:23). + +. One example of a sin is telling a lie. A lie is simply an +untrue statement. So when you told your first lie, you became a +liar. Therefore you are a sinner and you will be held +personally accountable to God. Almighty for every single sin you +have ever committed in word, thought or deed. You then will +receive exactly what you earned for your sins: DEATH! + +. "For the WAGES of SIN is death..." (Romans 6:23). + +. See the word wages? A wage is something that you earn. See +the word sin? Did you notice the word sin is singular? +Therefore, all it takes is one sin to earn you death. + +. The reason that you will die physically one day is because +you are a sinner. This will be your first death. Than the split +second after you are dead, you soul will leave your body and you +will go down into the flames of HELL. After that, you will stand +before God Almighty to be JUDGED for all of the sins you have +committed in your lifetime. + +. "And I saw a GREAT WHITE THRONE, and him that sat on +it...And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and +the books were opened...and the dead were JUDGED out of those +things which were written in the books, according to their +works" (Revelation 20:11,12). + +. Then after you have been truthfully judged by God Almighty +and declared GUILTY, you then will receive your just punishment. +You will be cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where you +will burn forever and ever! + +. "...ALL LIARS, shall have their part in the lake which +burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the SECOND DEATH" +(Revelation 21:8). + +. Just try to imagine the excruciating torment you will +suffer because of your sins not being forgiven. If you are +wondering how it will feel to be in the Lake of Fire, try holding +your hand in an open flame for just 10 seconds. Now imagine +spending ETERNITY in a Lake of Fire and Brimstone! You will +scream, wail and gnash your teeth. And worst of all, you will +have NO HOPE of ever getting out. Your punishment for eternity +will be to burn in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone FOREVER. This +will be your second death...THE DEATH OF YOUR SOUL! That's the +bad news. + +. Now answer these two questions: Would you like to be saved +from the Lake of Fire? If your answer is yes, then you must get +ALL of your sins forgiven so that you don't go there. + +. Next question: Would you like to have all of your sins +completely forgiven by God Almighty? If your answer is yes, the +Bible has some good news for you: + +. "Being JUSTIFIED freely by his GRACE through the REDEMPTION +that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a +PROPITIATION..." (Romans 3:24,25). + +. See the word justified? To be justified means to be +declared righteous as God Himself is righteous. See the word +grace? The grace of God is all that He is free to do for you. +And what the Lord Jesus Christ did at the Cross for you is called +redemption. That means He freed you from your sin debt by paying +the price for those sins, which is death. Therefore, when the +Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins on the Cross, He became a +propitiation for you. A propitiation is a fully satisfying +sacrifice. And the Lord Jesus Christ became that just for you: +a fully satisfying sacrifice to God Almighty for your sins. + +. But all of this good news will not help you one bit if you +don't obey the next five words in the verse: + +. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption +that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a +propitiation THROUGH FAITH IN HIS BLOOD..." (Romans 3:24,25). + +. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that was shed on the +Cross is the ONLY sacrifice that God will accept as payment for +your sins. So when the Word of God says you must put "faith in +his blood", that simply means to "make a decision in your heart +to trust completely and exclusively in the blood of the Lord +Jesus Christ as the total payment to God Almighty for your sins." + +. My friend, even though you are guilty and worthy of death, +God Almighty DESIRES to save you! So if you want this free gift +of salvation, right now is your opportunity to receive it. + +. At this time you have the responsibility of making a +decision. What are you going to trust in to have all of your +sins forgiven? If you don't want to burn in the Lake of Fire and +for all eternity, the ONLY choice you may have is to trust in the +blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as the payment to God Almighty for +your sins. I BEG YOU, make the decision right now to trust the +blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then as soon as you do, God +Almighty will forgive you all of your sins AND save you from +spending eternity in the Lake of Fire. + + THE CHOICE IS NOW UP TO YOU... + +. Well? What did you decide? If you have wisely decided to +trust only in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as the total +payment to God Almighty for your sins, let me say to you on the +authority of the INFALLIBLE WORD OF God that all of your sins +have been completely forgiven AND you are now saved from the Lake +of Fire! + +. "In whom (Christ) we have redemption through his blood, THE +FORGIVENESS OF SINS, according to the riches of his grace" +(Ephesians 1:7). + +. "...having forgiven you ALL trespasses" (Colossians 2:13). + +. "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall +be SAVED FROM WRATH through Him" (Romans 5:9). + +. Or, if you have foolishly decided not to trust the blood of +the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty has a question to ask you + +. "And thinkest thou this, O man...that thou shalt ESCAPE the +judgment of God?" (Romans 2:3). + +. Well? Do you really think that you will escape the +judgment of God? If you do, you are DEAD WRONG because the Word +of God says: + +. "A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that +speaketh lies SHALL NOT ESCAPE" (Proverbs 19:5). + +. My friend, wisely make that decision NOW, before it's too +late... + + + Marty Richling + Bolingbrook Bible Church + 105 Talcott Court + Bolingbrook, IL 60439 + Phone: (312) 739-7973 + + diff --git a/religious documents/insp37.txt b/religious documents/insp37.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0fee35d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp37.txt @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ + + A Visit From Heaven. + by: + Orlando Wiebe + + 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the land + Every creature was stirring, as Caesar had planned; + A census was taken in which every soul + In the Empire of Rome must be placed on the roll. + Up from Galilee, out of Nazareth came + A pair which was Joseph and Mary be name; + To their city of birth which is called Bethlehem + They came as descendants of King David's stem. + There the days were accomplished that she should give birth + To a son who would reign as King o'er the earth. + She brought forth her first-born, and with her own hands + She wrapped the sweet Child in soft swaddling bands; + In a manger so lowly this life did begin, + Since there was no room for them in the inn. + + In the country the shepherds abode in the field, + Keeping watch o'er their flock as in silence they kneeled + In the shadows of night, with their rods and their staves, + Having just settled down in the warmth of the caves, + When out of the sky there shone a great light + That filled the men's hearts with a terrible fright. + They sprang from the ground with a leap and a dash + To see what was causing this unearthly flash. + 'Twas the glory of God shining down on the ground + With a halo of radiance on the sheep all around. + When, what to their questioning eyes should draw near, + But the angel of God with a message: "Don't fear! + For behold! I bring you good tidings of joy, + For all men and women, for each girl and boy; + For to you is born a Saviour this day, + In the city of David, as prophets did say." + + Then suddenly with the bright angel appeared + A heavenly host, praising God as they cheered: + "To God in the highest may glory abound, + On earth peace, and good will to men all around." + Near at hand, far beyond, on the left, on the right, + The heavenly seraphs were poised in their flight. + Then as snowflakes before the fierce storm winds do fly, + Passing o'er the wide fields, soar up to the sky, + So up into heaven the angels they flew + Having given their message so wondrously new. + Then the shepherds declared with faces aglow: + "To the village of Bethlehem quickly let's go, + And see this great thing which has come to pass, + Which the Lord in this night has made known unto us." + + There they found Joseph and Mary so mild, + And in the rough manger the dear little Child. + So when they had seen Him they made known abroad + The message as told by the angel of God. + The people they wondered at that which they heard + As told by the shepherds in angelic word; + But Mary, who knew all these things from the start, + Kept pondering this great event in her heart. + The shepherds returned giving glory and praise + To the God of their fathers, the Ancient of Days: + + "To god in the highest may glory abound, + On earth peace, and good will to men all around." + +(You can find this wonderful story in the Bible in the book written +by Matthew 1:18-25, 2:1-23, and the book written by Luke 2:1-52 + +the Good News BBS diff --git a/religious documents/insp38.txt b/religious documents/insp38.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..27ff320 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp38.txt @@ -0,0 +1,110 @@ + + WHAT WAS THE COST OF YOUR SALVATION? + +. When you think of God, what kind of image comes to mind? Far too +many people have a severely distorted image of God and it adversely +effects the way they relate to Him. Many see the Father as some kind +of old tyrant sitting on his big throne making tough laws that nobody +can obey perfectly and then getting angry over our failure, ready to +kill us any moment. When we envision Jesus, he is seen like a kind of +Jewish mother with chicken soup, always ready to protect us from the +ole' meanie and his bonger. Then there is the Holy Spirit, something +that is just kind of hovering around like a vapor doing something, but +few know quite what. +. While such confusing images are common to the world, it is +surprising how much of this kind of thinking is in the church. +Failure to properly discern the person of God is one of the basic +causes for failure to understand the nature and problem of sin. I +want to take a moment here to examine sin from God's perspective as +revealed in the Word of God. +. Jesus said that a wise man counts the cost of a thing before he +decides to proceed so that he will not look like the fool when he +comes up short. It is important to count the true cost of sin! We +have all heard the basic redemption story told from the angle of +Christ's suffering at the hands of the Sanhedrin and Romans. +Crucifixion was a Phoenician invention that the Romans perfected into +a fine science to make death as painful and slow as possible. Like +Gaius Caesar used to say, "make him feel like he is dying." After the +body is ripped to a bloody mass by the Roman lash, the convicted man +will be forced to carry his own cross-bar to the place of execution. +. There, the proficient executioners will secure the arms in place +and feel for the space between the bones just below the wrist. There +is a pain nerve that crosses this area, and it is here that the large +spike is driven through the wrist and fastened by the nail head to the +crossbar. Once the arms are secure, the feet are then also fastened +with a single spike so that the knees are slightly bent. The cross is +then lowered with a jolt into the hole, often causing the joints in +the body to be dislocated in places. +. The stress of the weight of the body on the chest with the arms +secured in this way is such that one cannot breathe. To breathe, one +must stand on the nail pinned feet to push the body up and relieve the +pressure on the diaphragm. Thus, survival is lengthened as the victim +repeatedly rises and falls in order to breathe. This is why breaking +the legs speeds up the death process. +. Friend, whenever you pull out your calculator and add up the cost +of sin, I dare you estimate the agony of Jesus. Yet it was your sin +that cost Him that pain and death. Our Father has made forgiveness so +easy and available that we have entered a "take it for granted" type +of attitude toward it. We seem to think that we can be lax on sin, +lax in prayer, diligence and holiness, reckless with our spiritual +walk and the only price we have to pay is taking the time to ask +forgiveness. Salvation may have been free for you, but it was not +cheap. Let's look a bit deeper here. +. Is there any doubt in your mind that the Father loved His Son? +What father doesn't, except the debased? How intensely the Father +loved His only begotten Son who was perfect in every sense of the +word. He NEVER disobeyed. Yet, "God so loved the world that He gave +His only begotten Son...", not just to let Him come to earth, but God +gave Him to the cross. The pain that must have been in God's heart is +unknowable. Not only did the Father allow Jesus to suffer a +horrendous physical death, but he also was forced by the law of +righteousness to turn His back on Jesus at His time of supreme need. +. On the cross Jesus quoted David's Psalm (22:1) when He said, "My +God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The verse goes on to say, +"Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my +groaning?" The penalty for sin is not only physical death, it +includes banishment from the presence of God. God must turn His back +on sin, and in eternity, turn away from the sinner that has not +forsaken his sin. On the cross, Jesus was dying as our substitute so +He had to experience the full impact of sin's penalty. When they +offered Jesus a pain killer he refused for He knew that He must +experience the full blast of God's wrath. He must not only drink the +bitter cup, He must drain it to the dregs. +. I can not imagine how it must have anguished the Father to so +turn His back on His Son. Why did He do it? Because, my friend, He +loved you! He saw you dead in your sin and there could only be one +substitute. The price for sin was either your life or His, and He +chose to give His for you. Jesus died for the sin of adultery because +it was the sin of adultery that drove those nails home. He died for +the sin of lying and bitterness, because those sins drove the Roman +lash. He died for your selfishness and rebellion, because man's +rebellion brought the curse of thorns into the world and forced a +crown of thorns into His precious brow. +. Get out your calculator and add it up! Before the sum reads +"Freebee Grace", remember the price somebody had to pay. Calculate it +out, friend, before you curse your circumstances, treat a brother +rudely, cop an attitude, or sleep with someone you should not be with. +If you can proceed with sin, knowing the cost Jesus and the Father had +to pay, then you lie when you say you love Him. Nobody would put +somebody they loved through that just to please the lusts of the +flesh. Sin is a reproach and deserving of eternal hell, especially if +it is persisted in in light of the cross. +. Finally, we have the command of Jesus Himself when He says that +we should forgive just as we have been forgiven. Before you cop an +attitude or embrace a bitter or unforgiving attitude in your heart +toward someone, remember the debt you were released from. If what +they did to you comes anywhere close to what your sins inflicted on +Jesus, then I suppose you are now dead and this message doesn't even +matter. If you are still alive, then you must forgive. +. I assure you, forgiveness is still just a repentant heart away, +but I pray that the knowledge of the weight of what it cost will cause +you to consider your ways and rush to an altar of prayer, not just for +forgiveness, but also for His delivering power. "Come near to God and +He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify +your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your +laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before +the Lord and he will lift you up" (James 4:8-10). + +J.Jefferson (John J. Clark II) + +Computers for Christ - Chicago diff --git a/religious documents/insp39.txt b/religious documents/insp39.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0856ee --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp39.txt @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ + + How Do You Spell ANXIETY? + Fr. Michael Crosby, OFM + +. There's a story told about St. Francis of Assisi, that one day he +noticed a serious young friar sitting alone, very much lost in +himself, while the rest of the community was enjoying good +conversation. Francis went over to him and whispered: "My son, if +you're in sin go find a confessor. If not, then come and join your +brothers." +. For Francis, the only real worry in life was being in sin, and +the Lord had already provided a remedy for that. So a hallmark of +spirituality was joy and peace. +. In this he was following the teaching of Jesus who so often +greeted his disciples with "peace", and urged them, "Fear not, I am +with you." +. Jesus and every Christian teacher since him has warned us about +the destructive power of fear, and the creative power even of personal +disaster when it is accepted with trusting love. Jesus reminded us +that most of the things we are worried about are out of our control +anyway, so we're much better off when we let go of our anxious cares +and let him be Lord. +. Just say the word "anxiety" slowly, and discover its weakness. +Right in the middle of "a-n-x-i-e-t-y" is that sound: "I". It stands +there like a little idol, that "I", that ego. It proclaims that I +trust more in me than in God, and that's why I am anxious about me +rather than trusting in him. There are other ways to spell anxiety, +such as guilt, trials and pain. All of them contain that central +weakness: the "I" that is afraid to surrender self-reliance to the +Lord. +. We read in the very first pages of scripture that after God +finished his work of creation, he saw that what he had done was good - +- not perfect, that was for another realm -- but good. So he rested +from his work. +. Now God did not rest because he was fatigued. He rested because +he wanted to appreciate the good he had accomplished, and to declare +his confidence in the stewardship he had invested in Adam and Eve. So +he backed off, not indifferent to the welfare of creation, but +confident in the eventual accomplishment of his purpose, no matter how +we humans might fumble and abuse his providence. +. That was a tremendous act of hope on the part of God. He +professed his trust in us, and followed through on that trust by +respecting our need to learn from our mistakes. Now it's our turn to +return that gift of trust by investing our security in God. +. Another peaceful saint, Philip Neri, was noted for his trust in +God. While still a seminarian, he was shooting pool when one of his +classmates tried to distract him with the question: "What would you +do, Philip, if you knew the Lord was going to call you home to himself +two minutes from now?" It was a problem calculated to cause anxiety. +But Philip never broke his concentration on either his game or his God +as he replied: "I'd sink the eight-ball into the side pocket." +. In our relationships with each other and with God, the less we +concentrate on us and the more we consider the other, the greater will +be our peace. Check this in your own life: the more you try to +control others the more anxiety you create for yourself. Even our +prayer life becomes anxiety-ridden if it is filled with ourselves and +our needs rather than with the Lord. St. Augustine observes wisely in +his Confessions: + +. "You are always present, O Lord, to those who seek your help. +You respond clearly, but we do not always hear you clearly. We ask +what we want, but we do not always hear the answer you want. Your +best servant is the one who is intent to hear not so much his own +wants responded to, as to respond to whatever he hears you want of +him." + +. One of the Psalms says it so directly: "Be at peace and accept +that I am God." When we admit God as Lord of our life, there is no +room for anxiety. diff --git a/religious documents/insp40.txt b/religious documents/insp40.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3104136 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp40.txt @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ + THE AGONY RELIEVED + + + + When your back's to the wall; + And you took all you can. + Your problems are mounting; + You faced them, then ran. + + Confused and bewildered + Knowing not where to turn. + Running away blindly + Defeated and spurned. + + By all earthly creatures + You have trusted and loved. + No fight for survival; + No help from above, + + You die. + + + But relief's on the way + It's there so just ask. + You haven't been the first: + You won't be the last; + + To feel God has left you + In amidst your despairs. + Humbly confront him, + You'll find that He cares. + + Selfpity doesn't work + So listen, after you pray. + God's ready with answers + To brighten your day. + + PLEASE TRY ! + + + --George Creighton--...... + diff --git a/religious documents/insp41.txt b/religious documents/insp41.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..163a1bb Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/insp41.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/insp42.txt b/religious documents/insp42.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..482ccde --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp42.txt @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ + +ARE YOU THE RIGHT PERSON FOR GOD'S WORK? + +A little known firm which specializes in analyzing candidates for management +positions in various organizations recently uncovered some old files +which throw some interesting light on what some might consider essential +skills and abilities for Christian service. I quote from the report: + +To: Jesus son of Joseph regarding: +12 candidates for management positions. + +Dear sir, + +Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for +positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of +tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also +arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and +vocational aptitude consultant. It is the staff opinion that most of your +nominees are lacking in backround, education and vocational aptitude for the +type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We +would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in +managerial abiluty and proven capability. +* Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. +* Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. +* The two brothers, James and John, place personal interest above company + loyalty. +* Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine + morale. +* We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted + by the greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. +* James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeaus definitely have radical leanings, + and they both register a high score on the manic depressive scale. +One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability +and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind and has +contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible. +We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. + +Sincerely yours, +Management Consultants Inc. + +(and you thought that things had changed a lot over the last 2000 years.) + +'If any one serves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall my +servant also be; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him.' John 12:26 + diff --git a/religious documents/insp43.txt b/religious documents/insp43.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffc52d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp43.txt @@ -0,0 +1,212 @@ + + THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS + +. In this article, I shall discuss some of the physical aspects of the +passion, or suffering, of Jesus Christ. We shall follow Him from +Gethsemane, through His trial, His scourging, His path along the Via +Dolorosa, to His last dying hours on the cross. +. I suddenly relized that I had taken the crucifixion more or less for +granted all these years - that I had grown callous to its horror by a too easy +familiarity with the grim details - and a too distant friendship with Him. It +finally occured to me that as a physician, I did not even know the actual +immediate cause of death. The Gospel writers do not help us very much on this +point, because crucifixion and scourging were so common during their lifetime +that they undoubtedly considered a detailed description totally superfluous - +so we have the concise words of the Evangelist: "Pilate, having scourged +Jesus, delivered Him to them to be crucified - and they crucified Him". +. What did the body of Jesus of Nazareth actually endure during those +hours of torture? +. This led me first to a study of the practice of crucifixion itself; +that is, the torture and execution of a person by fixation to a cross. +. The upright portion of the cross (or stipes) could have the crossarm (or +patibulum) attached two or three feet below it's top (this is what we commonly +think of today as the classic form of the cross, the one which we have later +named the Latin cross). However, the common form used in our Lord's day was +the Tau cross, shaped like the Greek letter Tau or like our "T". In this +cross the patibulum was placed in a notch at the top of the stipes. There is +fairly overwhelming archeological evidence that it was on this type of cross +that Jesus was crucified. +. The upright post, or stipes, was generally fixed in the ground at the +site of execution and the condemned man was forced to carry the patibulum, +apparently weighing about 110 pounds, from the prison to the place of +execution. Roman historical accounts and experimental work have shown that +the nails were driven between the small bones of the wrists and not through +the palms. Nails driven trough the palms will strip out between the fingers +when they support the weight of a human body. The misconception may have come +about through a misunderstanding of Jesus' words to Thomas, "observe my +hands". Anatomists, both modern and ancient, have always considered the +wrists as part of the hand. +. A titulus, or small sign, stating the victim's crime was usually +carried at the front of the procession and later nailed to the cross above the +head. This sign with it's staff nailed to the top of the cross would have +given it somewhat the characteristic form of the Latin cross. +. The physical passion of Christ began in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects +of this initial suffering, I shall only discuss the one of physiological +interest, the bloody sweat. It is interesting that the physician of the +group, St. Luke, is the only one to mention this. He says, "And being in +agony, He prayed the longer. And his sweat became as drops of blood, +trickling down upon the ground". +. Though very rare, the phenomenon of Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is +well documented. Under great emotional stress, tiny capillaries in the sweat +glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. This process alone could +have produced marked weakness and possible shock. +. We shall move rapidly through the betrayal and arrest. I must stress +again that important portions of the Passion story are missing from this +account. This may be frustrating to you, but in order to adhere to our +purpose of discussion only of the purely physical aspect of the Passion, this +is necessary. After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was brought +before the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas, the High Priest; it is here that the +first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus accross the face +for remaining silent when questioned by Caiaphas. The palace guards then +blindfolded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify each of them as they +passed by, spat on Him, and struck Him in the face. +. In the morning, Jesus, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and +exhausted from a sleepless night, is taken across Jerusalem to the Praetorium +of the Fortess Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, +Pontius Pilate. You are, of course, familiar with Pilate's acton in +attempting to pass responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea. +Jesus apparently sufferd no physical mistreatment at the hands of Herod and +was returned to Pilate. It was then, in response to the cries of the mob, +that Pilate ordered Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and +crucifixion. Most Roman writers from this period do not associate the two. +Many scholars believe that Pilate originally ordered Jesus scourged as his +full punishment and that the death sentence by crucifixion came only in +response to the taunt by the mob that the Procurator was not properly +defending Caesar against this pretender who claimed to be the "KING OF THE +JEWS". +. Preparations for the scourging are carried out. The prisoner is +stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. It is +doubtful whether the Romans made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this +matter of scourging. The Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than forty +lashes. The Pharisees, always making sure that the law was strictly kept, +insisted that only thirty-nine lashes be given. (In this way, they were sure +of remaining within the law in case of a miscount). The Roman legionnaire +steps forward with the flagrum in his hand. This is a short whip consisting +of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near +the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and +again accross Jesus' shoulders, back, and legs. At first the heavy thongs +cut through the skin only. Then as blows continue, they cut deeper into the +tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of +the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the +underlying muscles. The small balls of lead first produce large, deep +bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the +back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass +of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurian in charge +that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped. +. The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone +pavement, wet with His own blood. The Roman soldiers see a great joke in +this provincial Jew claiming to be a king. They throw a robe across His +shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still need a +crown to make their travesty complete. A small bundle of flexible branches +covered with long thorns (commonly used for firewood) are plaited into a shape +of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious +bleeding (the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body). After +mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick +from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into +His scalp. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn +from His back. This had already become adherent to the clots of blood and +serum in the wounds, and it's removal, just as in the careless removal of a +surgical bandage, causes excruciating pain... almost as though He were again +being whipped - and the wounds begin to bleed again. +. In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The +heavy patibulum of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession +of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman +soldiers headed by a centurion, begins it's slow journey. In spite of His +efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with +the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He stumbles and +falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacrated skin and muscles +of the shoulders. The centurian, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, +selects a stalwart North African onlooker - Simon of Cyrene, to carry the +cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of +shock. The 650 yard journey to Golgotha is finally completed. The prisoner +is again stripped of His clothes - except for a loin cloth which is allowed +the Jews. +. The crucifixion begins. Jesus is offered wine mixed with Myrrh, a mild +analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the +patibulum on the ground and Jesus is quickly thrown backward with His +shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the +front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through +the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly he moves to the other side and +repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to +allow some flexion and movement. The patibulum is then lifted in place at the +top of the stipes and the titulus reading "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the +Jews" is nailed in place. +. The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both +feet extended and toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, +leaving the knees moderately flexed. The victim is now crucified. As He +slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating - +fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain as +the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As He +pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full +weight on the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of +the feet. +. At this point, another phenomenon occurs. As the arms fatigue, great +waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, +throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. +Hanging by His arms, the pectoral muscles are parlyzed and the intercostal +muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be +exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. +Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and +the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, He is able to push Himself +upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen. It was undoubtedly +during these periods that He utterd the seven short sentences which are +recorded: +. The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His +seamless garment, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." +. The second, to the persistent thief, "Today thou shalt be with me in +Paradise." +. The third, looking down at the terrified, grief stricken, adelescent +John (the beloved Apostle), he said, "Behold thy mother", and looking to +Mary, His mother, "Woman, behold thy son." +. The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, "My God, my +God, why hast thou forsaken me?" +. Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending +cramps, intermittent partial asphixiation, searing pain as the tissue is +torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber. +Then another agony begins. A deep crushing pain deep in the chest as the +pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. +. Let us remember again the 22nd Psalm, verse 14: "I am poured out like +water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is +melted in the midst of my bowels." +. It is now almost over - the loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical +level, the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish +blood into the tissues, the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to +gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood +of stimuli to the brain. +. Jesus gasps His fifth cry, "I thirst." +. Let us remember another verse from the prophetic 22nd Psalm: "My +strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and +thou hast brought me into the dust of death." +. A sponge soaked in Posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple +drink of the Roman legionnaires, is lifted to His lips. He apparently does +not take any of the liquid. The body of Jesus is now in extremis, and He can +feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings +out His sixth words, possibly little more than a tortured whisper: "It is +finished." +. His mission of atonement has been completed. Finally He can allow His +body to die. +. With one last surge of strength, He once again presses His torn feet +against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters +His seventh and last cry: "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." +. The rest you know. In order that the Sabbath not be profaned, the Jews +asked that the condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The +common method of ending a crucifixion was by crurefracture, the breaking of +the legs. This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward; the tension +could not be relieved from the muscles of the chest, and rapid suffocation +then occurred. The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when they came +to Jesus, they saw that this was unnecessary. +. Apparently to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his +lance through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the +pericardium and into the heart. The 34th verse of the 19th chapter of the +Gospel according to St. John: "And immediately there came out blood and +water." Thus there was an escape of watery fluid from the sac surrounding the +heart and blood from the interior of heart. We therefore, have rather +conclusive postmortem evidence that our Lord died, not the usual crucifixion +death by suffocation, but of heart failure due to shock and a constriction of +the heart by fluid in the pericardium. +. Thus we have seen a glimpse of the epitomy of evil which man can exibit +toward man - and toward God. This is not a pretty sight and is apt to leave +us despondent and depressed. How grateful we can be that we have a sequel, a +glimpse of the infinite mercy of God toward man - the miracle of the atonement +and the expectation of Easter morning! + diff --git a/religious documents/insp44.txt b/religious documents/insp44.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1df4e5e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp44.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +A DAY OFF! + +So, you want the day off! +Let's take a moment to look at what you are asking for: + +There are 365 days available for work. +There are 52 weeks per year of which you already have 2 days off each weekend +leaving 261 days left available for work. +Since you spend 16 hours each day away from work that accounts for 170 days, +and there are 91 days left available for work. +You spend 30 minutes each day on breaks that accounts for 23 days each year, +leaving 68 days available for work. +You spend 1 hour a day at lunch, that accounts for another 46 days per year +leaving 22 days available for work. +You spend 2 days per year on sick leave leaving 20 days available for work. +You take 9 holidays per year, leaving 11 days available for work. +You take ten days vacation each year leaving 1 day left available for work +and...... + NO WAY + are you going to take that day off! + diff --git a/religious documents/insp45.txt b/religious documents/insp45.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e130255 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp45.txt @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ + + MILLIONS NOW LIVING ARE ALREADY DEAD! + + What is this - double talk? A paradox? Some kind of joke? + + Neither of these - Just a way to call your attention to a +universal situation because statistical facts "hammer home" the +startling information that 68 million flesh and blood people die +every year. Death is a big business with 160,000 people dying +every day. It's a deadly and frightening fact of life. + + O.K., so you're young - heathy and full of the old "spizzas!" +The truth is you're already on the Death list. You, like many +others, may be dead already. The unshakeable Word of God +declares that millions now apparently ALIVE are actually dead. +Spiritually dead. Listen to the Creator's words! + + "And you (believers in Christ) hath he (God) made alive, + who were dead in trespasses and sins." Ephesians 2:1 + + It is God who said: + + "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and + death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all + have sinned." Romans 5:12 + + Which means, my friend, that if you have not been born anew, +you carry Adam's death penalty in your soul. You may be +physically in your soul. You may be physically alive but +spiritually dead, and therefore, have no contact with God. God +in great mercy provided a glorious way out through His Son. Here +is His guarantee: + + "But as many as recieved Him, to them gave He power to + become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His + name." John 1:12 + + "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he + that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath + of God abideth on him." John 3:36 + + "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my Word, + and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and + shall not come into comdemnation; but is passed from death + unto life." John 5:24 + + By recieving Christ as your Saviour by faith, you will come +alive spiritually. You will also come alive in understanding the +Bible, God's Word. You will come alive with new desires, Godly +desires. You will come alive with a hope burning in your heart +of knowing that there will be life after death, life with Christ. + + Would you right now, from a repentant heart, cry out to God +with this prayer? + + "Believing the Gospel, that the Lord Jesus Christ died for + me, and that He was buried for me, and rose again the third + day from the dead for me, I now recieve Him as my Saviour, and + confess Him as my Lord." + + Charles Svoboda + +From the S.O.N. BBS, WI + diff --git a/religious documents/insp46.txt b/religious documents/insp46.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5193c5c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp46.txt @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +LESSONS of FAITH - 1 + + It ÿwas ÿin the bag. ÿHe was clutching it like it ÿwas ÿthe +last ÿthing he owned. ÿAnd it was. ÿThe attendants had to pry ÿit +from ÿhis ÿhands. ÿWhen they opened it, ÿthey ÿfound ÿover ÿ3000 +dollars, ÿÿmostly small bills. ÿBy some standards, ÿhe might ÿbe +considered rich, but you see, he wasn't. He was poor, ÿwandering +the ÿstreets, ÿsleeping in alleys and doorways, ÿbegging for food +and ÿmoney. ÿÿHe ÿhad found a good area where ÿthe ÿpeople ÿwere +generous. ÿHe asked and they gave. Yet, when they found him, dead +from ÿthe ÿcold and lack of good food, ÿhis clothes were old ÿand +dirty, ÿand his pockets were empty. ÿAll he had was that bag ÿand +3000 dollars. What happened? + + What ÿhappened is that he failed to follow one of the ÿmost +important ÿteachings in the Bible. ÿGod's principle of Use. ÿThis +same ÿprinciple is rarely applied in many of our own lives, ÿÿand +yet it is easily recognized as "missing" ÿin others. The man with +the bag failed to apply the principle. ÿHe was keeping all he had +hid in a paper bag. He was saving for a rainy day. He was so busy +saving ÿfor an unsure future, ÿhe failed to see the storm ÿaround +him, ÿÿand he ended up dead on the sidewalk, ÿclutching his ÿonly +belonging. It was in the bag. + + That which he cared so much about is now useless to him. ÿHe +didn't use what he had. ÿHe kept it hid in a bag, while he wasted +away. He didn't spend a cent for food, clothing, or anything. ÿHe +kept saving, saving, saving! Now it's too late. He didn't use it. +It was in the bag. + + Are ÿyou holding on to all you have? ÿAre you afraid to ÿuse +it? Are you saving for a rainy day? Don't! Don't die holding the +bag! ÿÿGod wants you to use your talents and your resources. ÿÿHe +gave ÿthem ÿto you, ÿnot so you can hide them in a bag, ÿÿbut ÿto +display ÿto ÿall ÿfor His Glory! ÿJesus, ÿin the parable ÿof ÿThe +Talents, ÿÿwas pleased at the servants that used what ÿthey ÿwere +given ÿand ÿangry at the servant that buried his portion ÿin ÿthe +ground. ÿ(See Matt. ÿ25:14) ÿJesus even instructs us not to ÿsave +treasures ÿon ÿearth where moth and dust ÿcorrupt, ÿÿand ÿthieves +steal, ÿbut to save treasures in heaven, ÿfor where our treasures +are, our heart will be also. (Matt. 6:19) + + Please, take it out of the bag! + + LRH 10/10/85 + + diff --git a/religious documents/insp47.txt b/religious documents/insp47.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd893a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp47.txt @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +Lessons in Faith - 2 ---------------- + + "Mom, why do we have go to church?" + "We go to church to pray and worship God!" + "But we can do that at home. I say my prayers before I go to +bed, and Dad thanks God for food before supper." + "At church we have fellowship with other people who ÿbelieve +in God." + "What is 'fellowship'?" + "Fellowship is caring about other believers and sharing news +about what God has done." + "Is that like when I told my friend about Jesus?" + "Not quite, ÿthat is called witnessing. ÿFellowship is ÿmore +like ÿgoing to a party where everyone knows your name, ÿÿeveryone +believes ÿin God and his son Jesus, ÿand everyone is always ready +and ÿhappy to help you in any way. ÿEveryone cares about what ÿis +happening ÿin your life, ÿand is ready to listen if you ÿneed ÿto +talk, ÿÿand ready to pray with you about your or ÿsomeone ÿelse's +needs." + "That ÿsounds like the Bible study you have here on Tuesdays +with all those ladies!" + "That's right! ÿWe all share God in common, ÿand are ÿalways +ready to share him and what he has done!" + "My teacher in Sunday School always asks 'What did God do in +your ÿlife this past week?' ÿOnce Joey said that God gave him ÿan +'A' on his math quiz!" + "Your Sunday School class is a fellowship!" + "Mom, is fellowshiping important?" + "Yes. ÿWithout fellowship, ÿa ÿbeliever might start to ÿfeel +alone in the world. ÿBelievers need to share, to know that God is +working in our, and other people's lives." + "Mom, ÿÿI ÿÿknow it's Friday, ÿbut could we go to church ÿto +fellowship now?" + + LRH 11/09/85 + + diff --git a/religious documents/insp48.txt b/religious documents/insp48.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee28f40 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp48.txt @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +Lessons in Faith - 3 +---------------- + + Give it your all! Why are you holding back? Why are you +reserving part of your energy? Is your faith doubtful? God wants +you to give Him your ALL! He wants your BEST. God is depending on +you! You have a partnership that can work miracles, but you must +give it your all! + + When God told Moses to raise his staff over the Red Sea, the +scene could have gone like this... + + Moses raises his Staff half way. "Moses" God calls, + "You're not giving Me your all." "Lord," Moses replied, "I'm + saving my energy in case nothing happens and I have to + swim!" + + ...but it didn't! Moses gave his all! At times he was tired, +and at times discouraged, but he always gave his ALL. And Noah +didn't hold back, the scene could have gone like this... + + Noah hammers the last nail into the twenty-four foot + yacht. "Noah," calls God, "That is not the ark I told you to + build." "Lord," replies Noah, "I was saving some lumber to + build a new split-level, with two garages for my family!" + + ...but it didn't! Noah kept nothing back and built the ark! +The scene with Joshua and the walls of Jericho could have gone +like this... + + Half of Joshua's army is circling Jericho. "Joshua," + calls God, "Where is the rest of your army?" "Lord," Joshua + replies, "Some are over here building catapults, battering + rams, ladders and other assorted weapons. Others are + guarding the camp, and scouting ways into Jericho." + + ...but it didn't! Joshua gave his all! He didn't hold back! +He didn't reserve energy! + + What do Moses, Noah and Joshua have in common? Faith! Faith +the God will do as He promises. Faith that God knows best! Faith +that the battle is won before it is started! + + What about Ananias and Sapphira? They sold thier land and +gave only part of the money to the apostles. They fell down dead! +They held back! You might not fall down dead, but you will not be +living to your fullest! + + Are you reserving energy, afraid you might have to swim? Are +you holding back, to build your own resources? Are you not giving +your best, in case the idea doesn't work? Don't! Put your faith +to the test, like Moses, Noah and Joshua! Give it your all! + + LRH 11/10/85 + + diff --git a/religious documents/insp49.txt b/religious documents/insp49.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f09b54 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp49.txt @@ -0,0 +1,352 @@ + + BREAKING UP THE FALLOW GROUND + + An Outline For Repentance + + + This ÿis ÿfor ÿChristians who have had trouble finding ÿthe ÿtrue +peace that is promised with conversion. ÿFor those who are frustrated +because ÿthey are constantly struggling with weakness and ÿsin, ÿÿthis +could well be the very help they've been praying for. ÿCharles Finney +saw ÿmore ÿtrue conversions in his life and ministry ÿthan ÿany ÿother +American before or since. ÿWe thank God for continuing to anoint ÿand +use his writings. ÿMany thousands have been helped by this article to +break ÿthrough to God's precious forgiveness. ÿRemember one thing ÿas +you ÿread this - God loves you so much, ÿand is waiting for you to ÿbe +thoroughly ÿcleansed by His grace through repentance. ÿ- ÿÿKeith ÿand +Melody Green + + The Jews were a nation of farmers, ÿand it is therefore a ÿcommon +thing for God to refer, ÿin the Scriptures, to scenes from their daily +lives ÿas ÿillustrations. ÿÿHosea ÿaddresses ÿthem ÿas ÿa ÿnation ÿof +backsliders, ÿÿbut uses words that farmers and shepherds are ÿfamiliar +with. ÿÿHe rebukes them for their idolatry and sharply warns them ÿof +the impending judgments of God. + A revival consists of two parts: ÿits effect on the Church, ÿÿand +its effect on the ungodly. ÿI will speak at this time of a revival in +the Church. ÿFallow ground is ground which has once been tilled, ÿbut +now ÿit lies waste and has gotten hard. ÿIt needs to be broken up and +made soft again, before it is ready to receive seed. + If you mean to break up the fallow ground of your heart, you must +begin ÿby looking at your heart: ÿexamine carefully the state of ÿyour +mind ÿand ÿsee where you are. ÿMany people never even seem ÿto ÿthink +about ÿdoing this! ÿThey pay no attention to their own ÿhearts, ÿÿand +never ÿknow whether they are doing well in their walk with the Lord or +not; whether they are gaining ground or going backwards; ÿwhether they +are bearing fruit or are totally barren. ÿNow you must draw off ÿyour +attention from all other things and look into this right now! ÿMake a +business of it, do not be in a hurry. Examine the state of your heart +thoroughly, ÿand see where you are: are you walking with God everyday, +or with the Devil? + Self-examination ÿconsists of looking at your life, ÿÿconsidering +your ÿmotives ÿand actions...calling up your past and seeing its ÿtrue +character. Look back over your past history. Take up your individual +sins one by one, ÿand look at them. This doesn't mean that you should +just take a casual glance at your past life, ÿand see that it has been +full of sins and then go to God and make a sort of general confession, +asking forgiveness. ÿThis is not the way. ÿYou must take them up one +by one. ÿIt's a good idea to take a pen and some paper as you go over +them, and write them down as they come to mind. + Go ÿover them as carefully as a businessman goes over his ÿbooks; +and ÿas often as a sin comes to your memory, ÿwrite it down! ÿGeneral +confessions of sin are not good enough. ÿYour sins were committed one +by ÿone; ÿand as much as you are able, ÿthey ought to be reviewed ÿand +repented of one by one. ÿNow begin, ÿand start with what are usually, +but ÿimproperly called 'sins of omission' ÿ(i.e. ÿthings you didn't do +that you should have). + +INGRATITUDE (unthankfulness). ÿTake this sin, for example, ÿand write +down under this heading all the times you can remember where you ÿhave +received ÿgreat blessings and favors from God for which you have never +given ÿthanks. ÿÿHow many cases can you remember? ÿÿSome ÿremarkable +protection ÿwhere your life was spared, ÿsome wonderful turn of events +that saved you from ruin. ÿWrite down the instances of God's goodness +to you when you were living in sin, ÿbefore your conversion, for which +you have never been half-thankful enough; ÿand the uncountable mercies +you ÿhave ÿreceived ÿsince. ÿHow long the list of ÿtimes ÿwhere ÿyour +ingratitude has been so black that you are forced to hide your face in +shame! ÿGet on your knees and confess them one by one to God, and ask +Him to forgive you. As you're confessing these, they will immediately +remind ÿyou of others...write these down too! ÿGo over them three ÿof +four times in this way, and see what an incredible number of times God +has given you mercy for which you have never thanked Him! + +LACK OF LOVE FOR GOD. ÿThink how grieved and alarmed you'd be, if you +suddenly ÿrealized ÿa great lack of affection for you ÿin ÿyour ÿwife, +husband, ÿor children; if you saw that someone else had captured their +hearts, ÿthoughts and time. ÿPerhaps in such a case you would ÿalmost +die with a just and holy jealousy. ÿNow, ÿGod calls Himself a jealous +God. ÿÿHave ÿyou not given your heart to other ÿloves ÿand ÿinfinitely +offended Him? + +NEGLECT OF THE BIBLE. ÿPut down the cases where for perhaps weeks, or +longer, God's word was not a pleasure. Some people, indeed, read over +whole chapters in such a way, ÿthat afterwards they could not tell you +what they had been reading. ÿIf that is so with you, ÿno wonder ÿyour +life has no direction, ÿand your religion (relationship with God), ÿis +such a miserable failure. + +UNBELIEF. ÿÿRecall the instances in which you have virtually ÿcharged +the God of truth with lying, ÿby your unbelief of His express promises +and declarations. If you have not believed or expected to receive the +blessings which God has clearly promised, you have called Him a liar. + +LACK ÿOF PRAYER. ÿThink of all the times you have neglected ÿprivate- +prayer, ÿfamily-prayer and group-prayer meetings; ÿor prayed in such a +way ÿas ÿto grieve and offend God more, ÿthan if you hadn't prayed ÿat +all. + +NEGLECT OF FELLOWSHIP. ÿWhen you have allowed yourself to make small, +and ÿfoolish excuses that have prevented you from attending ÿmeetings. +When ÿyou have neglected and poured contempt upon the gathering of the +saints merely because you "didn't like church!" + +THE MANNER IN WHICH YOU HAVE PERFORMED SPIRITUAL DUTIES. Think of all +the times when you have spoken about God with such lack of feeling and +faith, ÿin such a worldly frame of mind, ÿthat your words were nothing +more than the mere chattering of a wretch who didn't deserve that ÿGod +should ÿlisten ÿto him at all. ÿWhen you have fallen down ÿupon ÿyour +knees ÿand "said your prayers" ÿin such an unfeeling and careless way, +that if you had been put under oath five minutes later, ÿyou could not +say what you had been praying for. + +LACK ÿOF ÿLOVE ÿFOR ÿSOULS. ÿÿLook around at ÿall ÿyour ÿfriends ÿand +relatives, and ÿthink of how little compassion you have felt for them. +You ÿhave stood by and seen them going straight to hell, ÿand it seems +as though you didn't even care. ÿHow many days have there been, ÿwhen +you ÿhave ÿfailed to make their wretched condition the subject of even +one ÿsingle ÿfervent ÿprayer, ÿor to prove any real desire ÿfor ÿtheir +salvation? + +LACK OF CARE FOR THE POOR AND LOST IN FOREIGN LANDS. Perhaps you have +not ÿcared ÿenough ÿabout ÿthem ÿto even attempt ÿto ÿlearn ÿof ÿtheir +condition. ÿDo you avoid missions-magazines? ÿHow much do you really +know or care about the unconverted masses of the world? ÿMeasure your +desire for their salvation by the self-denial you practice, ÿin giving +from ÿyour ÿsubstance to send them the gospel. ÿDo you deny ÿyourself +even the hurtful expenses of life, such as tobacco, alcohol, expensive +food, ÿÿclothes, ÿand entertainment? ÿDo you defend your standard ÿof +living? ÿWill you not suffer yourself ANY inconvenience to save them? +Do you daily pray for them in private? Are you setting aside funds to +put into the treasury of the Lord when you go up to pray? ÿIf you are +not doing these things, ÿand if your soul is not agonized for the poor +and ÿlost ÿof ÿthis world, ÿthen why are you such a ÿhypocrite ÿas ÿto +pretend to be a Christian? Why, your profession of faith is an insult +to Jesus Christ! + +NEGLECT ÿOF ÿFAMILY DUTIES. ÿThink of how you have lived before ÿyour +family, how you have prayed, what an example you have set before them. +What ÿdirect ÿefforts ÿdo ÿyou habitually ÿmake ÿfor ÿtheir ÿspiritual +welfare? + +LACK ÿOF ÿWATCHFULNESS ÿOVER YOUR WITNESS. ÿHow many times ÿhave ÿyou +failed ÿto take your words and actions seriously? ÿHow often have you +entirely neglected to watch your conduct and speech, ÿand having ÿbeen +off ÿyour guard, ÿhave sinned before the world, the church, and before +God! + +NEGLECT TO WATCH OVER YOUR BRETHREN. ÿHow often have you broken ÿyour +covenant, ÿthat you would watch over them in the Lord? ÿHow little do +you ÿknow ÿor care about the state of their souls? ÿAnd yet ÿyou ÿare +under a solemn duty to watch over them. ÿWhat have you done to get to +know ÿthem ÿbetter? ÿHow many times have you seen ÿyour ÿbrothers ÿor +sisters ÿgrowing ÿcold ÿin ÿfaith and have not spoken ÿto ÿthem ÿabout +it...neglecting ÿone ÿspiritual duty after another, ÿand you ÿdid ÿnot +reprove ÿthem in love? ÿYou have seen them falling into sin, ÿand you +let ÿthem go on. ÿAnd you pretend to love them? ÿWhat ÿa ÿhypocrite! +Would ÿyou watch your wife or child going into disgrace, ÿÿor ÿfalling +into a fire, and hold your peace? + +NEGLECT OF SELF-DENIAL. ÿThere are many professing Christians who are +willing to do almost anything in religion that does not require ÿself- +denial. ÿÿThey think they are doing a great deal for God, ÿand ÿdoing +about as much as He ought to reasonably ask, ÿbut they are not willing +to deny themselves any comfort or convenience whatever for the sake of +serving ÿthe Lord. ÿThey will not willingly suffer reproach ÿfor ÿthe +name of Christ. Nor will they deny themselves the luxuries of life to +save ÿa ÿworld from hell. ÿSo far are they from realizing that ÿself- +denial is a condition of discipleship, that they do not even know what +it is. ÿThey never have really denied themselves a ribbon or a pin for +Christ ÿand the gospel. ÿOh, ÿhow soon ones such as these will be ÿin +hell! ÿÿSome are giving from their abundance, ÿand giving a lot, ÿand +will even complain that others do not give more; when, in truth, ÿthey +are ÿnot giving anything that they need, ÿor anything that they ÿwould +enjoy if they kept it. They only give of their surplus wealth! + + Now we turn to sins of commission... + +LOVE OF THINGS AND POSSESSIONS. What has been the state of your heart +concerning ÿyour ÿworldly possessions? ÿHave you looked ÿat ÿthem ÿas +really ÿyours - as if you had a right to use, ÿor dispose of ÿthem ÿas +your own? ÿIf you have, ÿwrite it down! ÿIf you have loved property, +and sought after it for its own sake, or to gratify ambition or to lay +it up for your family, you have sinned and must repent. + +VANITY. ÿHow many times have you spent more time decorating your body +to go to church than you have in preparing your heart and mind for the +worship of God? ÿYou have cared more about how you appeared outwardly +to men than how your soul appeared in the sight of God. You sought to +divide the worship of God's house, ÿto draw off the attention of God's +people, ÿto look at your pretty appearance. ÿAnd you pretend that you +do not care anything about having people look at you. Be honest about +it! ÿÿWould you take all this pain about your looks if ÿevery ÿperson +were blind? + +ENVY. ÿÿLook at the cases in which you were jealous of those who were +in ÿa higher position than you. ÿOr perhaps you have envied those who +have been more talented, ÿor more useful than yourself. ÿHave you not +so envied some, ÿthat it has caused you pain to hear them praised? It +has pleased you more ÿto ÿdwell ÿupon ÿtheir ÿfaults ÿthan ÿupon their +virtues...upon their failures rather than their successes. ÿBe honest +with yourself, ÿand if you have harbored this spirit of hell, ÿÿrepent +deeply before God. + +BITTERNESS. ÿÿRecall all the instances in which you have ÿharbored ÿa +grudge, ÿÿor ÿa ÿbitter ÿspirit toward someone, ÿÿor ÿhave ÿspoken ÿof +Christians ÿin a manner completely devoid of charity and love. ÿÿLove +"hopes all things", ÿbut you have given no benefit of doubt, ÿand have +suspected the worst! + +SLANDER ÿ(gossip). ÿÿThink ÿof all the times you have ÿspoken ÿbehind +people's backs of their faults, ÿreal or supposes, ÿunnecessarily ÿand +without ÿcause. ÿThis is slander. ÿYou need not lie to be guilty ÿof +slander; to tell the truth with the intent to injure is slander. + +LEVITY (a spirit of excessive humor). How often have you joked before +God, ÿÿas ÿyou ÿwould ÿnot have dared in the presence ÿof ÿan ÿearthly +dignitary or important official. ÿYou have either been an atheist and +forgotten that God existed, ÿor have had less respect for Him and ÿHis +presence, than you would have had for a mere judge on earth. + +LYING. ÿNow understand what lying is. Any form of designed deception +is ÿlying. ÿIf you purpose to make an impression other than the naked +truth, ÿyou lie. Put down all those cases you can recollect. ÿDo not +call them by any soft names. God calls them lies and charges you with +lying, ÿso you'd better charge yourself correctly! ÿThink of all your +words, ÿÿlooks, ÿand actions designed to make an impression on ÿothers +contrary to the truth, for selfish reasons. + +CHEATING. ÿSet down all the cases where you have dealt with anyone in +a way you, yourself would not like at all. That is cheating. God has +said that we should treat all men in the same manner we would like ÿto +be treated. ÿThat is the rule. And if you have not done so you are a +cheat! ÿGod did not say that you should do what you would expect them +to ÿdo, ÿÿfor if that were the rule it would allow for ÿall ÿkinds ÿof +wickedness in our actions. ÿBut it says, "Do what you would want them +to do to you! ÿ(Have you cheated the government? i.e., ÿunemployment +insurance, ÿÿwelfare, ÿfood stamps, ÿsocial security, ÿstudent ÿloans, +etc...gained by fraud?) + +HYPOCRISY. For instance, in your prayers and confessions to God, ÿset +down ÿall ÿthe ÿtimes in which you have prayed for things ÿyou ÿdidn't +really ÿwant. ÿHow many times have you confessed sins that you ÿnever +intended to stop doing? Yes, you have confessed sins when you knew in +your heart you as much expected to go and repeat them, as you expected +to live! + +ROBBING ÿGOD. ÿThink of all the instances in which you ÿhave ÿtotally +misspent your time, ÿsquandering the hours which God gave you to serve +Him, ÿÿand ÿsave souls. ÿPrecious time wasted in ÿvain ÿamusement ÿor +worthless ÿconversation, ÿÿin reading worldly novels, ÿor ÿeven ÿdoing +nothing; ÿÿcases ÿwhere you have misused your talents and ÿability ÿto +think. Think of how you have squandered God's money on your lusts, or +spent ÿit ÿfor ÿthings which you really didn't need, ÿÿwhich ÿdid ÿnot +contribute to your health, comfort, or usefulness. + +BAD TEMPER. ÿPerhaps you have abused your wife, or your children, ÿor +your family, or employees, or neighbors. Write it all down! + +HINDERING ÿOTHERS FROM BEING USEFUL. ÿYou have not only robbed God of +your own talents, but tied the hands of somebody else. ÿWhat a wicked +servant is he who not only is useless himself, ÿbut hinders the ÿrest! +This is done sometimes by taking their time needlessly. Thus you have +played into the hands of Satan, ÿand not only proved yourself to be an +idle vagabond, but prevented others from working also. + + SOME IMPORTANT GUIDELINES TO FOLLOW + + If you find you have committed a fault against anyone, ÿand ÿthat +person ÿis within your reach, ÿgo and confess it immediately, ÿand get +that ÿout of the way. ÿIf they are too far away for you to go and see +them, ÿÿsit ÿdown ÿand write them a letter (or better yet ÿcall ÿthem) +confessing ÿthe injury you have committed against them. ÿIf you ÿhave +defrauded anybody, send the money, the full amount and the interest. + Go thoroughly to work in all this! ÿGo now! ÿDo not put it off; +that ÿwill only make matters worse. ÿConfess to God those ÿsins ÿthat +have been committed against God, and to man, those sins that have been +committed ÿagainst man. ÿDo not think about getting off easy by going +around ÿthe ÿstumbling-blocks. ÿÿTake them up out of ÿthe ÿway. ÿÿIn +breaking up your fallow ground, you must remove every obstacle. Things +may be left that you may think are little things, ÿand you may ÿwonder +why you don't have your peace with God, ÿwhen the reason is your proud +and carnal mind has covered up something which God has required you to +confess and remove. ÿBreak up all the ground and turn it over. ÿDo not +turn aside for little difficulties; drive the plow right through them, +beam ÿdeep, ÿÿand turn the ground up so that it all may be mellow ÿand +soft, and fit to receive the grain and bear fruit, "a hundredfold". + When ÿyou ÿhave gone thoroughly over your whole history ÿin ÿthis +way, if you will then go over the ground a second time, ÿyou will find +that the ÿthings ÿyou have put down will suggest other things of which +you have been guilty, connected with them, or near them. Then go over +it a third time, ÿand you will recollect other ÿthings ÿconnected with +these. ÿAnd you will find when you are finished that you can ÿremember +an amount of history in specific detail, ÿthat you did not think ÿthat +you could remember even if you had all eternity. + Unless ÿyou take up your sins in this way, ÿand consider them ÿin +detail, ÿone by one, ÿyou can form no idea of the amount or weight ÿof +them. ÿÿYou should go over the list as thoroughly, ÿand as carefully, +and ÿas solemnly, ÿas if you were preparing yourself for the ÿjudgment +(1Corinthians 11:31). + As ÿyou ÿgo over the catalogue of your sins, ÿbe sure to ÿresolve +upon ÿimmediate ÿand entire reformation. ÿWherever you find ÿanything +wrong, ÿÿresolve at once in the strength of God to sin no more in that +way. ÿÿIt ÿwill ÿbe ÿof no benefit to examine yourself, ÿÿunless ÿyou +determine ÿto ÿchange, ÿin every aspect, ÿthat which you find wrong in +heart, temper, or conduct. + Set ÿyourself to the work now; ÿresolve that you will never ÿstop +until ÿyou ÿfind ÿyou ÿcan ÿpray. ÿLet there be ÿthis ÿdeep ÿwork ÿof +repentance and full confession, this breaking down before God, and you +will have as much of the spirit of prayer as your body can bear. ÿThe +reason why so few Christians know anything about the spirit of ÿprayer +is ÿbecause ÿthey ÿnever would take the pains ÿto ÿexamine ÿthemselves +properly, ÿand so they've never known what it is to have their ÿhearts +all broken up in this way. + It will do no good to preach to you while your hearts are in this +hardened, waste, and fallow state. ÿThe farmer might just as well sow +his ÿgrain upon concrete; ÿit will bring forth no fruit. ÿThis is why +there ÿare so many fruitless professing Christians in the Church, ÿand +why ÿthere is so much technique and tradition, ÿand so little ÿsincere +feeling. ÿÿLook ÿat the Sunday-school for instance and see ÿhow ÿmany +programs ÿand ÿtrappings ÿthere are, ÿand how little of the ÿpower ÿof +Godliness. ÿIf you go on like this, ÿthe work of God will continue to +harden you, ÿand you will grow worse and worse, ÿjust as the rain ÿand +snow ÿon ÿan ÿold ÿfallow field make the turf thicker ÿand ÿthe ÿclods +stronger. + Professing Christians should never satisfy themselves or expect a +revival just by getting all excited, ÿblustering about, and talking to +sinners. ÿThey must get their fallow ground broken up. ÿYou may ÿget +into ÿan excitement without this breaking up; ÿyou may show a kind ÿof +zeal, ÿbut it will not last long. ÿIt will not take hold of ÿsinners, +unless ÿyour hearts are broken up. ÿThe reason is, ÿthat you go about +mechanically, ÿÿwithout the Spirit, ÿhaving not broken up your ÿfallow +ground. + And now, finally, will you break up your fallow ground? Will you +enter ÿupon ÿthe ÿcourse now pointed out and persevere until ÿyou ÿare +thoroughly awake? ÿIf you fail here, ÿif you do not do this, ÿand get +prepared, ÿyou can go no farther with me. I have gone with you as far +as I can, ÿuntil your fallow ground is broken up. Now, ÿyou must make +thorough work upon this point or all I have further to say will do you +little good. ÿNo, rather it will only harden, and make you worse. If +you ÿdo ÿnot set about this work immediately, ÿI ÿshall ÿtake ÿit ÿfor +granted that you do not want to be revived. ÿIf you do not do this, I +charge you with having forsaken Christ, with refusing to repent and do +your first works (Revelation 2:5)! + +From Chapter Three of "Revival Lectures" By Charles G. Finney + +Edited and Paraphrased by Keith and Melody Green + + Contributed by The Manna System + (714)-532-6310 + 300/1200 Baud + diff --git a/religious documents/insp50.txt b/religious documents/insp50.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e466dc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp50.txt @@ -0,0 +1,137 @@ + L-A-+---T1----+-T--2----T----3--T-+----4T---+---T5----+-T--6----J----7--T-+--r +I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A FOOL + by John Goetsch + + It has been said that "everybody is somebody's fool." ÿI am +not any different than anyone else. I have always been a fool +for something. + + On July 31, 1967, ÿI was sitting in the auditorium at Camp +Chetek in Northern Wisconsin, listening to Dr. Eric Folsum preach +a message from the Bible on Hell. He read scripture throughout +the message that told about Hell being a place of everlasting +torment prepared for those who never personally ask Jesus Christ +to save them. At the close of the service he asked those who +wanted to be saved to come forward and have someone show them +from the Bible how to be saved and go to Heaven. + I felt very uneasy, ÿand those scriptures on Hell were really +convicting my heart. But, I couldn't walk down that aisle, why +everyone knew that John Goetsch was a Christian. I had grown up +in a Christian home, had gone to church and Sunday School all my +life. I went to Vacation Bible School and Youth Camp every +summer. I had been baptized and was a member of the Calvary +Baptist Church in Watertown, Wisconsin. In fact, I was president +of athe youth group in my church. But as I walked out of that +auditorium that night, I could not get away from those scriptures +on Hell. + That night and the next day I was miserable. ÿI kept asking +myself, "Am I going to Heaven or Hell?" Everyone else seemed to +think I was going to Heaven, but I wasn't sure. + The following night, ÿI couldn't listen to the preacher. ÿI +didn't hear a word he said. I kept asking myself over and over; +am I really going to Hell? Again at the close of the service the +invitation was given, ÿbut I couldn't seem to move. Something +inside kept saying, "You're good enough, You're better than most +of these other people, they are the ones that need to be saved," +and I listened. Later that night we watched a gospel film. In +the darkness of that room that night God began to speak in plain, +simple terms to me. He said, "John, if you don't get saved, you +are going to go straight to Hell, no matter what anyone else +thinks, you are not saved!" + Right then I realized I had been a fool for the devil. ÿHe +had tricked me into thinking that I had been good enough. As the +film ended, I ÿturned to a pastor who was sitting behind me and +asked him if he would help me. Pastor Don Phaffe took me to a +small room and there on my knees on August 1, 1967, at 10:30 p.m. +I personally asked Jesus Christ to save me. I claimed Romans +10:13 which says: "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord +shall be saved," and Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the +door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I +will come in..." The Lord didn't trick me that night like the +devil had. At that moment Jesus Christ forgave my sin and gave +me everlasting life. No longer was I a fool for the devil. + I ÿwent back to high school that fall with real joy and peace +in my heart knowing I was on my way to Heaven. During those high +school ÿyears I became very active in athletics playing football, +basketball, ÿÿand track, ÿand was achieving some success ÿin ÿall +sports. ÿBy the time I reached my junior and senior years, I ÿwas +completely ÿwrapped up in sports, ÿwith little time for ÿanything +else. + One day in Sunday School my Youth Pastor asked us to ÿwrite +down ÿsome goals for our lives. ÿMy goal for High School ÿwas ÿto +make all-conference in football. ÿFor my College goal, ÿI ÿÿwrote +down that I wanted to play College football, and for life my goal +was to get into some facet of professional sports. + Things went well and my senior year I captained the ÿfootball +team ÿto a 5 win and 3 loss record, ÿquite respectable since ÿour +high ÿschool ÿhad not won a single football game in ÿthree ÿyears +prior to that. ÿOffers began to come from various colleges asking +me ÿto play football. ÿOur basketball team was ranked 7th in ÿthe +state ÿof ÿWisconsin, ÿand I was looking forward to breaking ÿthe +school ÿrecord in the shot put in track that spring. ÿSports was +my god and I just didn't have time to serve Christ too. + On January 20, 1970, in the middle of my senior year, I ÿwas +sitting in one of my classes and my chest began to hurt. ÿI ÿhad +never felt any pain like it before, ÿbut I put off thinking about +it ÿbecause ÿwe had an important game that night. ÿThe pain ÿgrew +steadily worse that afternoon and evening and that night I played +the ÿworst ÿbasketball ÿgame I had ever played ÿin ÿmy ÿlife. ÿÿI +disgraced ÿmyself ÿand ÿthe ÿteam. ÿÿPhysically ÿhurting ÿand +emotionally upset, I went home to bed. However, as soon as I laid +down ÿflat on my back, ÿthe pain became sharp. ÿIt seemed ÿas ÿif +someone was taking a knife and cutting inside my chest. + At ÿ3:00 ÿÿa.m. ÿthe next morning my parents took me to ÿthe +hospital. They put me in a bed and I stayed in that bed, ÿunable +to move, ÿfor the next 3 months. I ÿhad a virus of the heart sac. +My heart sac was filled with poisonous liquid and was the size of +a basketball. ÿI missed the rest of my senior year, ÿthe rest of +basketball, and all of the track season. + All of the time I was in that hospital I never read my ÿBible +or ÿprayed once. ÿI ÿwas bitter against God because He had ÿtaken +everything I had dreamed of away. + For ÿthe ÿnext two years I ran from God and rebelled at ÿeven +the thought of surrendering my life to Him. I gradually worked my +body ÿback ÿinto ÿcondition until it was ÿstrong ÿand ÿcompletely +healthy. + Three weeks prior to my first college football game, ÿI ÿfelt +the ÿsame ÿpain ÿin my chest I had felt two ÿyears ÿbefore. ÿÿThe +doctors, ÿafter two weeks of tests told me that I had an enlarged +heart, ÿÿalmost ÿtwo times the size it was supposed to be. ÿÿThey +informed me that I would never play sports again. + I was crushed. ÿAll I had ever worked for was gone. ÿI ÿwent +back ÿand told the coaches that I would never play again. ÿÿAs ÿI +walked ÿacross ÿthe practice field that morning I looked ÿat ÿthe +footballs ÿlying there and walked away knowing I would never pick +one up again. At that moment my heart broke and I gave my life to +Christ. ÿI told the Lord I had run from Him long enough and if He +wanted my life, He could have it all. + I drove home and parked the car in the garage. My mother came +running ÿout and said, ÿ"John! ÿJohn! ÿyou can play football!" ÿI +said, ÿ"No, ÿthe doctors told me this morning that I would ÿnever +play again." ÿShe replied, ÿ"I know, ÿbut they just called. ÿThe +tests ÿwere read wrong. ÿYou are perfectly healthy and can ÿstart +playing tomorrow!" ÿI ÿbowed my head and thought, ÿ"If only I had +been ÿwilling ÿto give God my life two years ago when ÿHe ÿwanted +it..." + Though God allowed me to play 3 years of college football and +4 years of college basketball, I never again let myself be a fool +for sports and put anything before Christ. + I ÿwent to Maranatha Baptist Bible College and it was while I +was there that God called me to be a preacher and into Evangelism +to help others, ÿlike you, ÿfind Christ as your Saviour and serve +Him. + I Corinthians 3:18 ÿsays, "Let no man deceive himself, if any +man among you seemeth to abe wise in this world, let him become a +fool (for Christ), that he may be wise." + Today, ÿÿfriend, ÿÿdon't be a fool for the devil any ÿlonger. +Right ÿnow ÿin simple faith ask Jesus Christ to ÿcome ÿinto ÿyour +heart and life, ÿrepent your sin, and ask Him to give you eternal +life. + If ÿyou ÿhave ÿbeen saved, ÿdon't be a fool to ÿthe ÿtemporal +things of this life. ÿDedicate your life to your Saviour and be a +fool for Him. + +From the S.O.N. BBS, WI + +d didn't trick me that night like the +devil had. At that moment Jesus Christ forgave my sin \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/insp51.txt b/religious documents/insp51.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa395d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp51.txt @@ -0,0 +1,350 @@ + + FULFILLMENT + + by Cornelius R. Stam + + THE NEED FOR FULFILLMENT + + There is a great outcry these days for fulfillment. +Psychology professors and psychiatrists, most of whom show little +evidence of having themselves found true satisfaction in life, +keep emphasising man's need for fulfillment. As a result, the +younger gereration is presently engaged in a frantic search for +this precious commodity. They want fulfillment, physically, +intellectually and spiritually - mostly in that order. + + The reason for this latter is that godless "intellectuals" +in our institutions of learning have placed such heavy emphasis +upon the sensual that a truly lost generation of young people has +been brainwashed into supposing that if only man's physical +desires, his sensual passions, can be satisfied, the realization +of intellectual and then spiritual fullment will follow +naturally. + + Actually, the very opposite is the case: it is spiritual +fullment that straightens out all the rest and brings into proper +perspective. What man needs first and above all else is for his +spirit to be filled and satisfied with all the peace, assurance, +joy and victory that God's Spirit alone can bestow. Referring, +doubtless, to the influence of the Spirit of God upon the human +spirit, our Lord rightly said: + + "It is the Spirit that quickeneth [giveth life]; the flesh +profiteth nothing" (John 6:63). + + In Galations 6:8 the Apostle Paul declares: + + "He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap +corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit +reap life everlasting." + + In Romans 8:6 he states this same truth in even stronger + language: + + "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually +minded is life and peace." + + Some translators have rendered this passage: "the mind of +the flesh... the mind of the spirit," but the preceding verse +seems to indicate beyond doubt that the Apostle is speaking of +having one's mind on the flesh, or on the Spirit. to have one's +mind on the flesh, he says, is "death," but to have one's mind on +the Spirit is "life and peace." + + Significantly, it is since America has departed so far from +God, since men in the pulpit have so largely stopped teaching the +Bible, or even giving credence to it, that all this cry for +"fulfillment" has arisen. + + Thousands of clergymen are telling lost souls what they ought +to do and how they ought to live, simply because they themselves +are unregenerate men who merely went to seminary to prepare for +the ministry, but do not know Christ. These unsaved clergymen +know nothing of the riches of God's grace in Christ that their +hearers so sorely need. But, alas, even men of God, who know +Christ and believe the Bible, are in many cases failing to teach +God's Word, to "feed the flock" with those precious truths that +could so greatly enrich their lives. Hence this spiritual +starvation, this deep hunger on the part of so many, even +religious people, who do not know exactly what it is they lack. +These should know that the Bible, and particularly the epistles +of Paul, show us the way to glorious fulfillment. + + The orderly, satisfied, victorious lives of those who do +experience spiritual fulfillment, springs from their recognition +of the truth of God's declaration that, "man shall not live by +bread alone, but by every Word of God." + + The Bible has much to say about fulfillment, espically in +the epistles of Paul, but also in the writings of John, who wrote +long after Paul was raised up to make known to mankind how much +Christ accomplished for us by His death at Calvary. + + ENJOYING TRUE FULFILLMENT + + Paul had been a very religious man, very zealous of the +traditions of the fathers, but there was an emptiness in his life +and he became progressively more bitter until he came to know +Christ. Only then did he find true fulfillment - and then this +was all he could talk and write about! + + Picture him before Agrippa, standing there in chains in a +crowded courtroom, his very life at stake. He does indeed speak +in his own defense, but as we read the record this almost seems +to be secondary. He appears to be preaching to those assembled. +He preaches with such power that Festus interrupts him, shouting: +"Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee +mad", but Agrippa says: "Almost thou persuaded me to be a +Christian", whereupon Paul replies: + + "I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear +me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, +except these bonds" (Acts 26:29). + + The Apostle, even in chains, experienced true fulfillment. +Hence his mind was not upon himself. He saw Festus and Agrippa +and all those assembled in that courtroom as poor lost souls, +needing Christ, and the fulfillment that He alone can give. + + To these who sat in judgment upon him, the Apsotle said in +effect: "I wish you could all experience the satisfaction that I +enjoy!" And he did not speak thus, merely, as a zealot at a +public trial. To his Christian friends he wrote from his prison +in Rome about sitting "in heavenly places (Lit., the highest +heavens) in Christ," blessed with "all spiritual blessings" +(Ephesians 1:3). To the Philippians he wrote, triumphantly: + + "...the things which have happened unto me have fallen out +rather unto furtherance of the gospel; + + "So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, +and in all other places; + + "And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by +my bonds, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear" +(Phillipians 1:12-14). + + "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, rejoice!" (4:4) + + Paul had indeed found fulfillment and, bless God, there are +thousands upon thousands of us today who have found this same +fulfillment in Christ. We have the same assurance of sins +forgiven, of complete justification before a holy God, and, like +Paul, rejoice in our position and blessings in the heavenlies in +Christ. + + But now let us proceed to the doctrine of fulfillment as we +find it in the Word of God. + + THE DOCTRINE OF FULFILLMENT + + To make this as uncomplicated as possible we will consider +but one root word, which the Bible uses far more than any other +to express fulfillment. It is the Greek noun pleeroma and its +grammatical derivatives. + + This word is used in several passages in John's writings, +where it is indicated that God would have His people enjoy rich, +full lives, regardless of outward circumstances. + + Our Lord closed His famous discourse on the Vine and the +Branches by saying: + + "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might +remain in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11). + + Later, instructing His disciples as to how they should pray +in His absence, He said: + + "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye +shall recieve, that your joy may be full" (John 16:24). + + In the opening verses of his first epistle, the Apostle John +likewise writes: + + "And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be +full" (1 John 1:4). + + And those who trusted Christ, even in those early days +before the dispensation of grace, did find full-fillment. John +the Baptist, who heralded the coming of the King and introduced +Him to the people of Israel, declared: + + "And of His fulness have all we recieved, and grace for +[upon] grace" (John 1:16). + + This ful-fillment was not marred by adversity, for +consistently in the Acts record we find the persecuted apostles +and disciples joyful and victorious. After having suffered a +cruel beating and bitter threats from the Sanhedrin, we read in +Acts 5:41 that "they departed from the presence of the council, +rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his +name." + + Again, in Acts 13 we find a church born in the midst of +strife and persecution, yet of these persecution believers we +read: + + "And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy +Ghost" (Verse 52). + + "FULFILLMENT AND THE MYSTERY" + + But it was to Paul that the risen, ascended, exalted Lord +revealed Himself in what the Apostle calles "the mystery," a +secret hid from previous "ages and generation." Not only did this +"mystery" involve a program, God's great purpose concerning this +present dispensation of His grace; in the "mystery" our Lord also +revealed Himself and His glorious, all-sufficient work as the +secret of all the riches of grace which are ours in Christ. + + Had the Lord Jesus Christ remained in heaven, aloof from us +sinners, we could have known only condemnation and judgement, but +He came to be with us, yes, to become one of us, true man as well +as true God, to pay our debt of sin, so that by faith we might be +fully justified and find fulfillment in Him. + + If the Spirit-inspired apsotle makes anything clear and +emphatic it is that fulfillment can be found in the rejected but +glorified Christ alone, by an intelligent understanding and +believing appropriation of His person and work in our behalf. + + Col. 1:19: "For it pleased the Father that in Him should all +fulness dwell." + + Col. 2:9: "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the + Godhead bodily." + + Col. 2:10: "And ye are complete [made full] in Him..." + + Restless soul, you will never find complete satisfaction +until you find it in Christ, for the simple reason that all +fulness resides in Him. He is the fount of every blessing, the +Source of all supply. + + What do you want that is of any real and lasting value? +What do you want that will truly fill your life? Forgiveness? +Justification? A free Conscience? Peace? Assurance? Liberty? +Joy? All - every bit of it - is to be found in Christ alone. +Read the epistles of Paul and see how "all spiritual blessings" +are to to found only "in Christ." Read the above passages from +Colossians again, thoughtfully and prayerfully. "It pleased the +Father that in Him should all fulness dwell...in Him dwelleth all +the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete [made +full] in Him." + + But God wants us to see that all this blessing and joy, all +these riches of grace that reside in Christ, can become ours only +as we place our trust in Him. In Romans 15:13 the Apostle +writes: + + "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in + believing..." + + How I wish you could see, my dear unsaved friend, that god +simply wants to be believed, just as you want other to believe +you. He knows all about your sins but He Himself has settled all +the claims against you and now He wants you to leave the whole +matter with Him and accept salvation as "the gift of God through +Jesus Christ our Lord." Believe what He says about christ dying +to pay your debt and rising again in power to prove that your +debt is fully paid. Take Him at His Word, and He will "fill you +with joy and peace in believing." + + In Ephesians 3:17-19 the Apostle, divinely inspired, urges +you to let Christ "dwell in your heart by faith." And then, +"rooted and grounded in [His] love," he would have you measure +"what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height" of all +that Christ has for you and can be to you, as it is revealed in +the wonderful "mystery," the sacred secret made known through +him. And why would he have us "measure" these riches of grace +and glory? Listen: + + "...to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, +that ye might be filled with all fulness of God" (verse 19). + + How can we leave this passage without quoting the blessed +benediction that brings it to a close: + + "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above +all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in +us, + + "Unto Him be glory in the Church, by Christ Jesus, +throughout all ages, world without end. Amen" (verse 20,21). + + Do you see how believers are "made full," find fulfillment, +in Christ? Do you see how Paul had much more than material +matters in mind when he wrote to the faithful Philippian +believers: + + "But my God shall supply [Lit., fully fill] all your need +according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians +4:19). + + FULFILLMENT FOR CHRIST + + Perhaps the most profound and amazing aspect of the mystery +revealed through Paul is the divine truth that as we are "made +full" in Christ, so He is "made full" by His Body, the true +Church. + + Not only would the Apostle have us understand and enjoy the +riches of our inheritence in Christ; he also prays earnestly that +we might comprehend "what is the riches of the glory of His +inheritance in the saints"! (Ephesians 1:18). + + In Ephesians 4:10 we read that our Lord "ascended up far +above all heavens, that He might fill all things," but Chapter 1, +Verse 23, we are told that the Church is... + + "...His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." + + As Eve was given to Adam, and the two became "one flesh", +God now calling their name Adam (Genesis 5:2), so in a spiritual, +yet very real sense, believers are given to Christ as His blood- +bought possession, that we might be one with Him, the members of +His Body. And as we find fulfillment in us, whom He loved, for +whom He died and upon whom He joyously bestows all the riches of +grace which He purchased for us at Calvary. Think of it! We His +inheritance, and more - His fullness, His completeness. What and +evidence of His loving character is this! He would not be +complete in heaven without us any more than Adam would have been +complete or happy alone in the Garden of Eden. Christ needed the +love and companionship of His creatures. His divine capacity for +compassion and understanding and mercy and love needed +opportunity for expression. + + How much that Blessed Book, the Bible, has to say about +fulfillment and satisfaction and joy - and most of all in the +epistles of Paul. In discussing this subject we have cited many +occurrences of one Greek word for fulfillment: pleeroma, along +with its grammatical derivatives, but there is much, much more to +be found in the synonyms and arguments used, espically by Paul, +to show how rich believers are in Christ and, indeed, how rich He +has become since His love sent Him to Calvary to die in shame and +agony and blood for us! What joy will fill His heart, as well as +ours, when through the ages of eternity we finally love and adore +Him as, in our present state, we are unable to do! + + We are deeply conscious tha only with "stammering tongue" +have we endeavored to place before you what God's Word says about +"the peace that passeth understanding" and "the joy that passeth +knowledge," but one fact is unmistakably clear: such fulfillment +can be found in Christ alone. + + Have you recieved and acknowledged Him as your Lord and +Saviour? If not, will you do so now, without further delay? It +is His desire to fill with peace and joy, but you must recognize +your need of Him and acknowledge that you are the sinner for whom +He died, asking Him to save you. Be wise. Cast yourself upon +Him right now. + + "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; +for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. + + "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be +saved" (Romans 10:12,13). + +From The S.O.N. BBS, WI + diff --git a/religious documents/insp60.txt b/religious documents/insp60.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ce5b49 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp60.txt @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +MOTIVATE + +. Live by choice, not by chance. It's ironic; I first saw that at +Special Olympics. Compared to their struggle, our choice should be +easy, but we take it for granted. You must choose life everyday. +Living life and not use existing requires active participation. You +can't sit around and wait for life to take you by the hand - because +it won't. It's not what like can give you, but what you should put +into life. You have to take the initiative. +. I guess I should define what I mean by life and living. God +gives us life (everlasting life through Jesus Christ). And we should +live that life according to His perfect will -then and only then will +we know what living verses existing truly means. +. Yet God doesn't force man to do anything. We must reach out to +Him, ask of Him, cry out to Him, pray to Him.... We have to step out +in faith toward Him. Jesus chose to die for man; God chose us as His +children - He took the initiative and now never wavers or varies from +that choice. It's like the saying, "I'll meet you halfway." Jesus +died for you, and He is calling your name, but it's up to you to step +across the threshold. It's man's turn to choose and not vary from it. +In the choice for life, there is no grey, only black and white. +. So what is our motivation for life; where do we find the drive to +stick with our choice of life? You must take the first step towards +it. Motivation won't come looking for you. Look around you; don't be +caught up in the seen; look at what is unseen - Jesus, everlasting +life, love..... It's pretty obvious that good is an easier motivator +than bad. So search for good in everything and everyone. When you +find it, hold it close to your heart; make it a precious treasure. +Don't brush it aside, but experience it and live each moment as it +comes. Motivation is a day to day thing. Each day, as each situation +arises, stand by your choice. +. Don't be motivated by your emotions! If you let your emotions +control your motivation, you will run into trouble. Times will arise +when you don't feel like doing so and so, and you won't. You can't +sit around procrastinating and expect God to say, "You're motivated!" +and presto! There you go! You must persevere. +. This is where discipline comes in. Disciplines are like good +habits, only harder to form. Discipline is being faithful to the goal +you've set or to the choice you've made, regardless. So when all else +fails, you don't feel like doing it - lean on the strength of your +discipline. You'll find it is God. Stick to your guns; God will +honor your perseverance. That's His promise, not mine! + + Scripture: 2 Cor 4:18, 2 Tim 1:7, Rom 5:1-5, James 1:3-4 + +This is a lecture that my cousin will be presenting in Atlanta. I +thought that y'all would get something out of it. I did. Her name is +Marsha and is currently going after a medical degree. She's the only +other person in my family that I am sure of being saved. It's obvious +to me (maybe not to you guys) that God is able to use her. If there's +any questions about this outline, I'll try to answer them for you. If +I can't, I'll get in touch with Marsha. + diff --git a/religious documents/insp61.txt b/religious documents/insp61.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..655f5db --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp61.txt @@ -0,0 +1,378 @@ + +***************************************************************** +** My Heart - Christ's Home ** +** By Robert Munger ** +** (C) Copyright 1954 Inter-Varsity C.F. ** +** Typed by Servant, Used Without Permission ** +***************************************************************** + +[This file may be of some use to many of you who are attempting or +considering the Christian way of life, especially new Christians. +It applies to all who's goal as a Christian is to please Christ. +Please do not alter or add to this file! -Servant-] + +In Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, we find these words: "That [God] +would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be +strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ +may dwell in your hearts by faith" (Eph 3:16). Or, as another has +translated, "that Christ may settle down and be at home in your +hearts by faith." + +Without question, one of the most remarkable Christian doctrines is +that Jesus Christ himself through the presence of the Holy Spirit +will actually enter a heart, settle down and be at home there. +Christ will make the human heart his abode. + +Our Lord said to his disciples, "If a man love me, he will keep my +words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and +make our abode with him" (John 14:23). It was difficult for them to +understand what he was saying. How was it possible for him to make +his abode with them in this sense? + +It is interesting that our Lord used the same word here that he gave +them in the first of the 14th chapter of John: "I go to prepare a +place for you...that where I am, you may be also." Our Lord was +promising his disciples that, just as he was going to heaven to +prepare a place for them and would welcome them one day, now it +would be possible for them to prepare a place for him in their +hearts and he would come and make his abode with them. + +They could not understand this. How could it be? + +Then came Pentecost. The Spirit of the living Christ was given to +the church and they understood. God did not dwell in Herod's temple +in Jerusalem! God did not dwell in a temple made with hands; but +now, through the miracle of the outpoured Spirit, God would dwell in +human hearts. The body of the believer would be the temple of the +living God and the human heart would be the home of Jesus Christ. +It is difficult for me to think of a higher privilege than to make +for Christ a home in my heart, to welcome, to serve. to please, to +fellowship with him there. One evening that I shall never forget, I +invited him into my heart. What an entrance he made! It was not a +spectacular emotional thing, but very real. It was at the very +center of my life. He came into the darkness of my heart and turned +on the light. He built a fire in the cold hearth and banished the +chill. He started music where there had been stillness and he +filled the emptiness with his own wonderful loving fellowship. I +have never regretted opening the door to Christ and I never will-- +not into eternity! + +This, of course, is the first step in making the heart Christ's +home. He has said, "Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any +man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and +will sup with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:20). If you are +interested in making your life an abode of the living God, let me +encourage you to invite Christ into your heart and he will surely +come. + +After Christ entered my heart and in the joy of that new-found +relationship, I said to him, "Lord, I want this heart of mine to be +yours. I want to have you settle down here and be perfectly at +home. Everything I have belongs to you. Let me show you around and +introduce you to the various features of the home that you may be +more comfortable and that we may have fuller fellowship together." +He was very glad to come, of course, and happier still to be given a +place in the heart. + +THE LIBRARY + +The first room was the study -- the library. Let us call it the +study of the mind. Now in my home this room of the mind is a very +small room with very thick walls. But it is an important room. In +a sense, it is the control room of the house. He entered with me +and looked around at the books in the bookcase, the magazines upon +the table, the pictures on the wall. As I followed his gaze I +became uncomfortable. Strangely enough, I had not felt badly about +this before, but now that he was there looking at these things I was +embarrassed. There were some books there that his eyes were too +pure to behold. There was a lot of trash and literature on the +table that a Christian had no business reading and as for the +pictures on the wall -- the imaginations and thoughts of the mind-- + these were shameful. + +I turned to him and said, "Master, I know that this room needs a +radical alteration. Will you help me make it what it ought to be-- + to bring every thought into captivity to you?" + +"Surely!" he said. "Gladly will I help you. That is one reason I +am here. First of all, take all the things that you are reading and +seeing which are not helpful, pure, good and true, and throw them +out! Now put on the empty shelves the books of the Bible. Fill the +library with scriptures and meditate on them day and night. As for +the pictures on the wall, you will have difficulty controlling these +images, but here is an aid." He gave me a full sized picture of +himself. "Hang this centrally," he said, "on the wall of the +mind." I did and I have discovered through the years that when my +thoughts are centered upon Christ himself, his purity and power +cause impure imaginations to retreat. So he has helped me to bring +my thoughts into captivity. + +May I suggest to you if you have difficulty in this little room of +the mind, that you bring Christ in there. Pack it full with the +Word of God, meditate upon it and keep before it ever the immediate +presence of the Lord Jesus. + +THE DINING ROOM + +From the study we went to the dining room, the room of appetites and +desires. Now this was a very large room. I spent a good deal of +time in the dining room and much effort in satisfying my wants. + +I said to him, "This is a very commodious room and I am quite sure +you will be pleased with what we serve here." + +He seated himself at the table with me and asked, "What is on the +menu for dinner?" + +"Well," I said, "my favorite dishes: old bones, corn husks, sour +cabbage, leeks, onions and garlic right out of Egypt." There were +the things I liked -- worldly fare. I suppose there was nothing +radically wrong in any particular item, but it was not the food that +should satisfy the life of a real Christian. When the food was +placed before him, he said nothing about it. However, I observed +that he did not eat it, and I said to him, somewhat disturbed, +"Savior, you don't care for the food that is placed before you? +What is the trouble?" + +He answered, "I have meat to eat that you know not of. My meat is +to do the will of him that sent me." He looked at me again and +said, "if you want food that really satisfies you, seek the will of +the Father, not your own pleasures, not your own desires, not your +own satisfaction. Seek to please me, and that food will satisfy +you." And there about the table he gave me a taste of doing God's +will. What a flavor! There is no food like it in all the world. +It alone satisfies. Everything else is dissatisfying in the end. + +Now if Christ is in your heart, and I trust he is, what kind of food +are you serving him and what kind of food are you eating yourself? +Are you living for the lust of the flesh and the pride of life-- +selfishly? Or are you choosing God's will for your meat and drink? + +THE DRAWING ROOM + +We walked next into the drawing room. This room was rather intimate +and comfortable. I liked it. It had a fireplace, overstuffed +chairs, a bookcase, sofa and a quiet atmosphere. + +He also seemed pleased with it. He said, "This is indeed a +delightful room. Let us come here often. It is secluded and quiet +and we can have fellowship together." + +Well, naturally, as a young Christian I was thrilled. I could not +think of anything I would rather do than have a few minutes apart +with Christ in intimate comradeship. + +He promised, "I will be here every morning early. Meet with me here +and we will start the day together." So, morning after morning, I +would come downstairs to the drawing room and he would take a book +of the Bible from the bookcase. He would open it and then we would +read together. He would tell me of its riches and unfold to me its +truth. He would make my heart warm as he revealed his love and +grace towards me. They were wonderful hours together. In fact, we +called the dining room the "withdrawing room." It was a period when +we had our quiet time together. + +But little by little, under the pressure of many responsibilities, +this time began to be shortened. Why, I don't know, but I thought I +was just too busy to spend time with Christ. This was not +intentional, you understand; it just happened that way. Finally, +not only was the time shortened, but I began to miss a day now and +then. It was examination time at the university. Then it was some +other urgent emergency. I would miss it two days in a row and often +more. + +I remember one morning when I was in a hurry, rushing down the +steps, eager to be on my way. + +As I passed the drawing room, the door was ajar. Looking in I saw a +fire in the fireplace and the Lord sitting there. Suddenly in +dismay, I thought to myself, "He was my guest. I had invited him +into my heart! He had come as Lord of my home. And yet here I am +neglecting him." I turned and went in. With downcast glance I +said, "Blessed Master, forgive me. Have you been here all these +mornings?" + +"Yes," he said, "I told you I would be here every morning to meet +with you." Then I was even more ashamed. He had been faithful in +spite of my faithlessness. I asked his forgiveness and he readily +forgave me as he does when we are truly penitent. + +He said, "The trouble with you is this: You have been thinking of +the quiet time, of the Bible study and prayer time, as a factor in +your own spiritual progress, but you have forgotten that this hour +means something to me also. Remember, I love you. I have redeemed +you at a great cost. I desire your fellowship. Now," he said, "do +not neglect this hour if only for my sake. Whatever else may be +your desire, remember I want your fellowship!" + +You know, the truth that Christ wants my fellowship, that he loves +me, wants me to be with him, wants to be with me and waits for me, +has done more to transform my quiet time with God than any other +single fact. Don't let Christ wait alone in the drawing room of +your heart, but every day find some time when, with the Word of God +and in prayer, you may fellowship with him. + +THE WORKSHOP + +Before long he asked, "Do you have a workshop in your home?" Down +in the basement of the home of my heart I had a workbench and some +equipment, but I was not doing much with it. Once in a while I +would go down and fuss around with a few little gadgets, but I +wasn't producing anything worthwhile. + +I led him down there. + +He looked over the workbench and what little talents and skills I +had. He said, "This is quite well furnished. What are you +producing with your life for the Kingdom of God?" He looked at one +or two of the little toys that I had thrown together on the bench +and he held one up to me. "Are these little toys all that you are +producing in your Christian life?" + +"Well," I said, "Lord, that is the best I can do. I know it isn't +much and I really want to do more, but after all, I have no skill or +strength." + +"Would you like to do better?" he asked. + +"Certainly," I replied. + +"All right. Let me have your hands. Now relax in me and let my +Spirit work through you. I know you are unskilled and clumsy and +awkward, but the Spirit is the Master-worker and if he controls your +hands and your heart he will work through you." And so, stepping +around behind me and putting his great, strong hands over mine, +controlling the tools with his skillful fingers, he began to work +through me. + +There's much more that I must still learn and I am very far from +satisfied with the product that is being turned out, but I do know +that whatever has been produced for God has been through his strong +hand and through the power of his Spirit in me. + +Do not become discouraged because you cannot do much for God. Your +ability is not the fundamental condition. It is he who is +controlling your fingers and upon whom you are relying. Give your +talents and gifts to God and he will do things with them that will +surprise you. + +THE RUMPUS + +I remember the time he inquired about the playroom. I was hoping he +would not ask me about that. There were certain associations and +friendships, activities and amusements that I wanted to keep for +myself. I did not think Christ would enjoy them or approve of them +so I evaded the question. + +But there came an evening when I was leaving to join some companions +-- I was in college at the time -- and as I was about to cross the +threshold, he stopped me with a glance. "Are you going out?" + +I answered, "Yes." + +"Good," he said, "I would like to go with you." + +"Oh," I replied rather awkwardly. "I don't think, Lord, that you +would really want to go with us. Let's go out tomorrow night. +Tomorrow night we will go to prayer meeting, but tonight I have +another appointment." + +He said, "that's all right. Only I thought when I came into your +home we were going to do everything together. We were going to be +partners. I want you to know that I am willing to go with you." + +"Well," I said, "we will go some place together tomorrow night." + +But that evening I spent some miserable hours. I felt wretched. +What kind of friend was I to Christ, When I was deliberately leaving +him out of my associations, doing things and going places that I +knew very well he would not enjoy? When I returned that evening, +there was a light in his room and I went up to talk it over with +him. I said, "Lord, I have learned my lesson. I cannot have a good +time without you. We will do everything together from now on." + +Then we went down into the rumpus room of the house and he +transformed it. He brought into life real joy, real happiness, real +satisfaction, real friendship. Laughter and music have been ringing +in the house ever since. + +THE HALL CLOSET + +There is just one more matter that I might share with you. One day +I found him waiting for me at the door. There was an arresting look +in his eye. He said to me as I entered, "There is a peculiar odor +in the house. There is something dead around here. It's upstairs. +I think it is in the hall closet." As soon as he said the words, I +knew what he was talking about. Yes, there was a small hall closet +behind lock and key I had one or two little personal things that I +did not want anybody to know about and certainly I did not want +Christ to see. I knew they were dead and rotting things. And yet I +loved them, and I wanted them so for myself that I was afraid to +admit they were there. I went up the stairs with him and as we +mounted, the odor became stronger and stronger. He pointed at the +door and said, "It's in there! Some dead thing!" + +I was angry. That's the only way I can put it. I had given him +access to the library, the dining room, the drawing room, the +workshop, the rumpus room, and now he was asking me about a little +two-by-four closet. I said inwardly, "This is too much. I am not +going to give him the key." + +"Well," he said, reading my thoughts, "if you think I am going to +stay up here on the second floor with this odor, you are mistaken. +I will take my bed out on the back porch. I'm certainly not going +to put up with that." And I saw him start down the stairs. + +When you have come to know and love Christ, the worst thing that can +happen to you is to sense his fellowship retreating from you. I had +to surrender. "I'll give you the key," I said sadly, "but you'll +have to open the closet. You'll have to clean it out. I haven't +the strength to do it." + +"I know," he said. "I know you haven't. Just give me the key. +Just authorize me to take care of that closet and I will." So, with +trembling fingers I passed the key over to him. He took it from my +hand, walked over to the door, opened it, entered it, took out all +the putrefying stuff that was rotting there and threw it away. Then +he cleansed the closet, painted it, fixed it up, doing it all in a +moment's time. Oh, what victory and release to have that dead thing +out of my life! + +TRANSFERRING THE TITLE + +Then a thought came to me. I said to myself, "I have been trying to +keep this heart of mine clear for Christ. I start on one room and +no sooner have I cleaned that then another room is dirty. I begin +on the second room and the first room becomes dusty again. I am so +tired and weary trying to maintain a clean heart and an obedient +life. I just am not up to it!" So I ventured a question: "Lord, is +there any chance that you would take over the responsibility of the +whole house and operate it for me and with me just as you did that +closet? Would you take the responsibility to keep my heart what it +ought to be and my life where it ought to be?" + +I could see his face lighten up as he replied, "Certainly, that is +what I came to do. You can not be a victorious Christian in your +own strength. That is impossible. Let me do it through you and for +you. That is the way. But," he added slowly, "I am not owner of +this house. I am just a guest. I have no authority to proceed +since the property is not mine." + +I saw it in a minute and dropping to my knees, I said, "Lord, you +have been a guest, and I have been the host. From now on I am going +to be the servant. You are going to be the Lord." Running as fast +as I could to the strong box, I took out the title deed to the house +describing its assets and liabilities, its situation and condition. +Then returning to him, I eagerly signed it over to belong to him +alone for time and eternity. "Here," I said, "here it is, all that +I am and have forever. Now you run the house. I'll just remain +with you as houseboy and friend." + +He took my life that day and I can give you my word, there is no +better way to live the Christian life. He knows how to keep it in +shape and deep peace settles down on the soul. May Christ settle +down and be at home in your heart as Lord of all. + +[This file was both blessing and challenge for me as a new +Christian. I hope it is for you, too. -Servant-] + diff --git a/religious documents/insp62.txt b/religious documents/insp62.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..592942f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp62.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ + + This is the beginning + of a New Day. + God has given me this day + to use as I will. + I can waste it + or grow in its light + and be of service to others. + But what I do + with this day is important + because I have exchanged + a day of my life for it. + When tomorrow comes, + today will be gone forever. + I hope I will not regret + the price I paid for it. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/insp65.txt b/religious documents/insp65.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58c1e4d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp65.txt @@ -0,0 +1,106 @@ +Nuggets of Truth + +Too soon we get old and too late we get smart. + +God created the home before He created the Church. + +Between every promise and it's fullfillment is a wilderness. The way we +act determines how long it takes for us to get to the fulfillment. + +The life that Christ lived, qualified Him for the death that He died. The +death that He died qualifies us for the life He lived. Jesus had to come +as He did to be what He was. He had to be what He was to do what He did. +He had to do what He did that we might have what he is. And we must have +what He is to be what He was and do what He did. + +It's twice as important to finish a job as it is to start one. + +When we become busy doing the do's, we won't have time to worry about the +don'ts. + +Only God can count the apples in one seed. You never know how many lives +you're going to affect through one person that you minister to. + +All spiritual experience comes from divine light on eternal truth. But +truth preached without light becomes doctrine. With divine light it becomes +revelation. Truth always comes in one form or the other. Doctrine genders +the law. Revelation genders life. + +A self chosen path is a path of trouble. A path chosen by God is straight, +simple, and furnished with God's guidance. + +Satan cannot do anything to you apart from fear anymore than God can do +anything for you apart from faith. + +Let no man curse the darkness if he will not light a candle. + +The guy who says it can't be done always gets run over by the guy doing it. + +A life that is walked in truth all day can lay down at night and sleep +without worry. + +The power of my living for Christ is governed by the law of forgiveness. +The key to forgiveness is the emotion with which I remember. If it still +shakes me up, it's not been forgiven. + +God is looking for men filled, not better methods. + +The deep things are not discovered but received, not acheived but believed, +not taught but revealed, by the Spirit we know the things of God. + +Faith will not function nor operate beyond obedience. + +The more time we spend on out knees, the less trouble we'll have standing +on our feet. + +The New Birth saves us fron the penalty of sin. The Holy Spirit saves us +from the power of sin. And the return of Jesus will save us from the +presence of sin. + +Relationship without fellowship is like marriage without love. + +We become the pivot point to every person we meet and they will never be +the same again. + +Don't look for ways to get the money to come rolling in, look for ways to +get the WORD out and the money will come. + +Love works the most. Faith gets the most. But humility keeps the most. + +The WORD made speech is oratory. The WORD made print is literature. The +WORD made flesh is life. + +The Lord is more interested in the quality of your sheep than the size of +your flock. + +Before the lips can rightly declare the teaching of the scripture the +heart must be its home. The words are the guideline to faith and obedience +to it's teaching is the secret of a life of victory. + +Faith activates God like fear activates the devil. + +In the beginning God created Adam and Eve, NOT Adam and Steve. + +No man has a ministry of his own. We participate in Christ's ministry, it's +his vineyard. If we realize that, we won't care what field we're in. + +Hypocrites never pray in secret for prayers that are a pretense always +require an audience. + +Your greatest strength can become your weakness. Keep your strong soulish +nature under the spirit of God and learn to know the difference. + +Through surrender we come to obedience. Through obedience we come to +overcoming. Through overcoming we enter into inheritance. + +Find out what God would have you do and then do that little well. For what +is great and what is small only He can tell. + +Because of God's grace, the believer stands before the Throne in +righteousness that is spotless, in a life that is endless, and in a dignity +that is glorious. + +Downloaded from the Computers for Christ BBS +(408) 997-2790 + + diff --git a/religious documents/insp66.txt b/religious documents/insp66.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..326edec --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp66.txt @@ -0,0 +1,156 @@ + PAIN + + Meaning and purpose + in the life of a Christian + + + The ÿexperience ÿof ÿpain, ÿin whatever ÿform ÿit ÿtakes ÿis +universal. ÿÿHuman ÿsuffering ÿis one of ÿthe ÿworld's ÿgreatest +unanswered ÿquestions. ÿÿEspecially ÿduring the newness ÿof ÿthe +Christmas season, do we become more and more aware of the mystery +involved ÿin ÿit. ÿI'm not writing this article ÿto ÿattempt ÿan +answer to the suffering question. ÿI am writing instead, ÿsimply +to ÿshare ÿsome ÿof my thoughts and experiences ÿon ÿthe ÿmatter. +Also, ÿÿperhaps by examining my mistakes, ÿand efforts in dealing +with pain, ÿyou will have something to fall back on when it comes +your way ... as it inevitably will. + Just by way of background, I was on Cross Fire '75, the team +to West Africa. ÿI ÿspent much of the fifteen months we traveled +in ÿpain, ÿand incredible fatigue. ÿI ÿnever really took it ÿtoo +seriously, ÿÿas ÿmost ÿof ÿus were sick ÿregularly. ÿÿIt ÿbecame +frustrating for me, and the entire team though, when my illnesses +outweighed my healthy times. ÿThe situation reached a crisis the +final ÿmonth ÿof ÿteam when I just couldn't ÿcontinue. ÿÿI ÿÿwas +hospitalized ÿat ÿthe ÿend ÿof ÿAugust ÿ1976, ÿÿand ÿdue ÿto ÿthe +persistence of a caring doctor, ÿdiscovered I was the victim (and +had ÿbeen ÿfor years) ÿof an incurable, ÿand ÿoftentimes ÿcruelly +painful ÿdisease called Systemic Lupus Erythemetosis. ÿLupus for +short. The cause, and the cure remain unknown. + I remember laying in the hospital in a state of ÿdis-belief. +My ÿhead ÿwhirled with questions, ÿbut none so prevalent ÿas ÿthe +eternal "why?" Why me ... why now ... why this? I ÿwas suddenly +faced with the reality that I would be dealing with pain on a day +to ÿday ÿbasis for the rest of my life. ÿIn the fear ÿthat ÿsuch +thoughts bring, I began to observe the attitudes toward suffering +in ÿthe ÿpeople ÿaround me. ÿMost of us view pain ÿas ÿsomething +alien, ÿÿsomething ÿto ÿeradicate ÿand be rid of ÿas ÿquickly ÿas +possible. This attitude may be fine when you deal with ills that +are ÿtemporal, ÿdefinable, ÿand curable. ÿBut not all ÿsuffering +falls ÿinto those categories. ÿWhat do we say to those ills ÿand +accidents ÿÿthat ÿÿleave ÿtheir ÿvictims ÿpermanently ÿÿdisabled, +disfigured, or mentally incapacitated? ÿWe cannot simply dismiss +them. They are real, and difficult, and very much a mystery. + When a Christian deals with life situations, we must keep in +mind ÿthe ÿfact that God is a mystery. ÿHe cannot be defined ÿor +explained by our limited knowledge. ÿWho hasn't heard someone in +desperation or grief ask the unanswerable "why?" And who had the +power and wisdom to respond? Once we accept that sometimes there +are ÿno ÿanswers, ÿat least for now, ÿwe experience a release ÿof +those gnawing doubts, ÿand become free to start learning. ÿÿWhen +there ÿare ÿno answers, ÿonly questions for us, ÿwe must look ÿto +Christ, ÿÿand ÿHis example. ÿJesus felt. ÿHe hurt and ÿlaughed, +suffered ÿand died as we all must. ÿHe was and is God incarnate, +sensitive counselor to our despair, ÿas He has felt the very same +pain we do. ÿC.S. Lewis, upon the death of a dear friend, ÿwrote +in his book A Grief Observed: + "When ÿI lay these questions before God, ÿI ÿget no ÿanswer. +But, a rather special no answer. It is not a locked door. It is +more ÿlike a silent, ÿcertainly not unkind gaze. ÿAs ÿthough ÿHe +shook His head, ÿnot in refusal, but waiving the question. Like, +'Peace Child, you don't understand." + The ÿenigma of pain reflects the mystery of God. ÿIt begins +as a journey of trust. We can choose to accept and deal with our +frailty, ÿÿor, ÿlike Ivan Dostoevsky stated, ÿ"If God offered ÿme +suffering ÿas a pass through life, ÿI ÿfor one would ÿreturn ÿthe +ticket." ÿWe can face, ÿand even learn from the realities of our +humanity, or we can run from them. + Why ÿmust suffering remain a mystery? ÿI ÿcan't give a ÿpat +answer, ÿÿbut isn't it true that the times we are closest to ÿthe +Lord ÿare those times we have no control? ÿFor me these are also +the hours of my greatest sensitivity and compassion to those near +me. ÿÿIt's ÿonly when our efforts to rationalize ÿand ÿeradicate +seemingly useless pain are gone, ÿand we reach the end of our own +rope, ÿwe see Christ's strength available to us. ÿIf the mystery +were ÿfully explained, ÿthere would be no crisis. ÿMost of ÿall, +there ÿwould ÿbe no need of our faith walk with God. ÿÿPain ÿand +suffering are not some type of Cosmic Character Builders sent ÿby +the ÿAlmighty. ÿThey are however, ÿused by Him to strengthen and +cleanse our relationship to Him and to each other. + As ÿChristians ÿwe ÿbelieve that God's ÿpromises ÿare ÿtrue. +Romans 8:28 ÿreminds us that the Lord is ever present and working +in our trials. Sometimes this is comforting, but often, the pain +is still there, ÿand still very hard to cope with. ÿJust because +we ÿknow we are living a mystery, ÿand God is using it, ÿÿdoesn't +make ÿit hurt any less. ÿBut so much of our suffering depends on +our ÿattitude ÿtoward ÿit. ÿIt's very human, ÿÿand ÿnecessary ÿI +believe, ÿÿto ÿexperience ÿfear, ÿanger, ÿÿself-pity, ÿÿand ÿeven +bitterness. ÿWe wouldn't be normal if these emotions didn't pass +through us. ÿI think so often of one of my African friends, ÿwho +when I reached a high pitched frustration, would always shake his +head and say, ÿ"Kristi, it will pass." It will pass. Fear, ÿand +all ÿof the so-called "negative" ÿemotions that follow it can ÿbe +healthy, ÿnormative, ÿand even creative forces in our lives. ÿÿA +well balanced emotional human is capable of them all. ÿThey only +become evil when we allow them to immobilize and blind us to ÿthe +lessons ÿwe could be learning. ÿPersonally, ÿI ÿhave ÿchosen ÿto +concentrate on life, ÿmy life as it is now. ÿI ÿcannot wish ÿthe +pain away, or ignore it. It has become a very real part of who I +am. ÿÿBut what I can do, ÿwhether I am suffering or not, ÿis ÿto +concentrate ÿon ÿthe ÿhealth ÿthat exists ÿinside ÿof ÿme. ÿÿThe +acceptance of my human condition, ÿin the light of God's promises +leads to a fresh hope, and a new peace of mind. + As ÿI study the Bible, ÿI'm always amazed at the ÿincredible +sensitivity Jesus has toward us. ÿWe humans, ÿunfortunately ÿare +much ÿmore ego-centric in our view of suffering. ÿWe ÿmean ÿwell +usually, but never quite know what to say or do. In sharing with +a ÿperson in pain, ÿor dealing with it yourself, ÿit is vital ÿto +remember ÿthat ÿthe ÿsuffering Christian lives ÿwith ÿa ÿconstant +reminder ÿof ÿhis/her ÿfrailty. ÿThere is no question ÿthat ÿGod +heals, ÿÿlikewise ÿthere ÿis ÿno question that ÿwe ÿdon't ÿalways +understand ÿhow ÿHe ÿdoes so. ÿOurs is not a total ÿtheology ÿof +glory. We live, as Martin Luther puts it, ÿ"In the shadow of the +Cross." ÿÿWe ÿmust take this cross seriously, ÿwith all of ÿit's +implications. There is no victory without defeat, ÿglory without +shame, ÿor health without suffering. ÿFor example; I ÿcannot say +that I have been healed of my disease. (Not yet anyway) I can say +however, ÿthat I have been healed of many other things through my +disease. ÿÿI've ÿnever felt as loved as when I discovered I ÿhad +Lupus. I saw Christ alive through the caring of His church, ÿand +I ÿÿexperienced ÿfirsthand ÿthe ÿsensitivity ÿand ÿfaith ÿof ÿHis +followers. Healing with suffering ... victory, in the shadows. + I'd ÿlike to tell you that I accept and trust at all ÿtimes, +but ÿI ÿcan't. ÿI'm human. ÿWhen I'm in pain, ÿÿI'm ÿconstantly +reminded ÿof my mortality. ÿBut, ÿI'm also reminded that in ÿthe +shadow (or light?) ÿof the cross, and God's promise of redemption +through Christ, there is hope. + In ÿclosing ÿout my thoughts, ÿI ÿthink ÿit's ÿimportant ÿto +mention ÿa little bit on the practical side of sensitivity to the +suffering person. I ÿbelieve the most important attitude you can +take is honesty. ÿA ÿperson is rarely alone in their pain. ÿÿIf +there ÿare people around who care, ÿthey will be suffering ÿalso. +If ÿyou ÿfind ÿyourself in that boat, ÿdon't be afraid ÿto ÿadmit +you're afraid. Be honest about your feelings, hurts, ÿand fears. +If ÿyou're ÿangry or confused, ÿtalk about it, ÿÿit ÿhelps. ÿÿBe +supportive ÿof the suffering person, ÿbut don't pity them. ÿÿLet +them know you care by being yourself, ÿthat is after all who they +love and need. Accept the ills of those you're dealing with as a +part ÿof ÿthemselves. ÿA ÿvery real part. ÿMost of all, ÿÿdon't +underestimate ÿthem. ÿÿThey ÿwill fight the ÿpain, ÿÿfear, ÿÿand +desperation hand in hand with you, and with our Lord. + I hope some of the things I've talked about will help you in +your ÿtrials. ÿÿI ÿhope it helps the next time you hold me, ÿÿor +someone like me as they cry. ÿI ÿhope most of all, ÿyou use your +experience in suffering to grow in sensitivity, ÿand that our God +will burn into your conscience your need of Him in health as well +as ÿpain. ÿÿThis ÿChristmas, ÿmay you be guided ÿby ÿthe ÿtender +compassion of our bleeding Savior. + +Kristi Lee Hernmeir + +NOTE: This article was written by Kristi for the Christmas, 1977 +issue ÿof the National Lutheran Youth Encounter Newspaper. ÿÿThe +article was written only a few days before Kristi's death. + Permission ÿto reprint the article was given by Pastor ÿGene +and Ruby Hernmeir, Kristi's parents. + + diff --git a/religious documents/insp67.txt b/religious documents/insp67.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e32cb1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp67.txt @@ -0,0 +1,260 @@ + + P A S S I V I T Y - L E T H A L L U L L A B Y + --------------------------------------------------- + +"Once there was fine warren on the edge of a wood, overlooking the meadows of +a farm... + +"One day the farmer though, `I could increase these rabbits: make them part of +my farm- their meat, their skins. Why should I bother to keep rabbits in +hutches? They'll do very well where they are.'... He put out food for the +rabbits, but not too near the warren. For his purpose they had to become +accustomed to going about in the fields and the wood. And then he snared +them-not too many; as many as he wanted and not as many as would frighten them +all away or destroy the warren. + +"They grew big and strong and healthy, for he saw to it that they had all of +the best, particularly in winter, and nothing to fear-except the running knot +in the hedge gap and the wood path. So they lived as he wanted them to live +and all the time there were a few who disappeared. The rabbits became strange +in many ways, different from other rabbits. They knew well enough what was +happening. But even to themselves they pretended all was well, for the food +was good, they were protected, they had nothing to fear but the one fear..." + + (excerpt from WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams) + + +A story of rabbits can easily be translated to men. Our warren, too, is plush +and secure, safe from danger, and insipidly deadly. + +The typical would view of passivity is that is constitutes a positive force; a +person who is passive is often described as "restrained" or "reserved." Both +terms, if not carried too far, are supposed signs of strength in character. +When passivity is seen in a negative light, it is often confused with +indifference or apathy, neither of which are synonymous, but are often +passivity's symptoms. + +According to Webster's [Sixth] New Collegiate Dictionary, passivity consists +"Not [of being] active, but acted upon; affected by outside force[s] or +agenc[ies and] receiving or enduring without resistance or emotional +reaction..." + +A person "being acted upon... affected by outside forces" is one who allows +circumstance and environment to dictate his state of mind. The question is +what the individual really is doing when he allows himself to assume a passive +stance. For that, we must look at some of passivity's fruit. + + +DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE + +Psychologists agree that "the most prominent symptom of depression [is] +passivity." (Psych. Today, June 1973, p. 45) Paradoxically, there is also a +reversal of roles. Depression can become a symptom of passivity: "I existed +in a state of complete nothingness. My world was one in which passivity +played the major role. Depression was the stat I most often was in, because I +felt unable to make and effort to overcome the barriers in my life." + +In extreme instances, even suicide can be traced to passivity. The most +graphic examples come from the insane world of the rock and roll star or film +personality. Freddie Prinze, of "Chico and the Man" fame, and Robert Lamm, +from the group Chicago, both shot themselves in a seemingly irrelevant and +unplanned manner. It was report, however, that Prinze used to hold the gun he +later shot himself with to his head and tell his startled friends that he was +going to kill himself. Then, laughing, he would put the gun aside. In his +life, fantasy became reality. + +Janis Joplin, too, was a study in passivity. At one point, when a friend +confronted her about her heavy heroin usage, she offered this defense: "I +just did it to see." "To see what?" "To see if I wanted to do it anymore." +(Janis Joplin, Buried Alive, Myra Friedman, pg. 388) + +Keith Moon, the drummer of the Who, is the most recent possible suicide +related to passivity. He died by taking two handfuls of sleeping pills by +"accident." The Rolling Stone commented that, "It was in any event, and +uncharacteristically passive end for one of rock's most flamboyant figures." + + +PASSIVITY AND THE CULTS + +A major area in which passivity is encouraged is religion, especially the new +religions of the East, as well as spin-offs from Christianity. Men such as +Sun Myung Moon, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and Edgar Cayce all encourage a passive +mind in the search for God. In a recent issue of People magazine, a young +high school journalist penetrated the "Moonie cult," and described various +techniques used to break down potential member's minds until they reached a +state of uncritical passivity. + +In Hare Krishna, on "is urged to act without seeking the fruits of his +action." (Those Curious New Cults, William Petersen, p. 167) + +Zen Buddhists have a poem that expressed the same idea: + "If you want the truth to stand clear before you + Never be for or against + The struggle between `for' and `against' + Is the mind's worst disease." + +Along more occultic lines, Edgar Cayce was perhaps one of the more famous +mediums. He was called "the sleeping prophet" because of his allowing his +mind to go blank and his apparent unconsciousnesses during "prophetic" +utterances supposedly uttered by the denizens of the spirit would. As cult +expert William Petersen says, "Anyone who puts his mind in neutral should +check to see who is behind the wheel. Whenever Cayce went into a self-induced +trance, he was at the mercy of outside forces." (Those Curious New Cults, +William Petersen, p. 58) + +And it is ironic that out of six types of seances practiced by spiritualists, +one of them is call "passivity." + +Finally, there are the thousand and one forms of meditation being peddled by +an assortment of gurus and psycho-analysts, from TM to Yoga. Almost all of +them rely on a mantra or some other form of chant to reach what TM calls +"total relaxation." This chant is extremely repetitious, often only one word +and serves to slow down or even stop the mind's thought processes. (see +Psychology Today, February 1978, p. 84) + + +PSYCHOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY, AND THE INDIVIDUAL + +Many psychologists support meditation techniques such as TM, claiming that +they're beneficial. Also the school of behaviorism (as taught by B. F. +Skinner) teaches that men are controlled by their environment, which precludes +any escape from one's lot in life. + +Most (almost all) of modern philosophy encourages passivity. Existentialism, +harsh determinism, and even end-of-the-road nihilism, all leave little option +as to passivity. Consider one scholar's comments on Jean-Paul Sartre, the +father of existentialsim: "He says that we live in an absurd universe. The +total, he says, is ridiculous. Nevertheless, you try to authenticate yourself +by an act of will. It does not really matter in which direction you act as +long as you act. + +"You see an old lady and if you help her safely across the road you have +'authenticated yourself.' But if you choose to beat her over the head, and +snatch her handbag, you would have equally have 'authenticated yourself.' +...you just choose and act." (The God Who is There, Francis Schaeffer, p. 24) + +The normal individual is reduced to bumbling along, making up his own ethics +as he goes. For many this task proves a bewildering one, and so ethics goes +in the garbadge along with absolutes. Of all the myriad paths open to the +individual, passivity is by the far easiest and safest one to travel. + +Passivity's greatest damage is done within the mind of the individual who is +ruled by it. Thus, what starts as a self protective mechanism to avoid injury +or perhaps just an easy out from responsibility turns into a bondage that +ultimately destroys the human personality, crippling the individual's ability +to love or to care. + +"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will +certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of +keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. +Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all +entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket of coffin of your selfishness. +But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless--it will change. It will not be +broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable." (C. S. +Lewis, The Four Loves, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, p. 169) + +OVERCOMING PASSIVITY + +Can passivity be overcome? The emotions that may lead to passivity +(depression, insecurity, apathy) are themselves debated; are they integral +parts of each person's makeup, or are they forces that can be separated from +the personality? Some say the latter. "Unlike a spectator during an +abduction, we do not seem to have the option of abandoning our pasive stance +and getting involved; for what would it be like for us either to help hinder +the depradations of our moods and our unconscious processes?" (Mind, July +1978, p. 393) + +Is this really true, or are human emotions sxtraneous to human behavior? The +ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato believed the mind was of +ultimate importance and emotions not even secondary, but rather a hindrance. + +Both of these views end in passivity. The first claims it as an inescapable +fact of life, while the second denies passivity's existance. neither actually +deals with it. + +We must put on that "renewed mind" and our thoughts must be transformed. This +goes beyond Norman Vincent Peals and his "Power of Positive Thinking," and +into a realm involving cost. + +The Bible points to commitment as the vital ingredient and to attain this +commitment we need God in our lives, and Jesus Christ, who was God on earth in +human form, is the lone gateway to Him. Passivity is only logical if we have +no reason for life or hope, but if Jesus is a changer of lives, we must face +that fact and accept or reject His offer. + +THE PRIME MOTIVATER: SATAN + +Just as there is a real, living God, the Bible also points to the existence of +Satan. Not symbolic, not imaginary, but a real spirit orchestrating evil +through the whole world, Satan is the one who perpetrates and encourages +passivity. It gives him an opening through which he can pour all the thoughts +he pleases, paralyzing our will and leading us by the nose into bondage of +sin. Passivity itself is sin, for it is the door that allows Satan entry. + +Rather than allow Christians to attempt answering Jesus' challenge of +discipleship, Satan uses passivity to encourage our gliding along on the +circumstances of the moment and evading the issue. He wants no struggle to +understand or grasp the truth, but rather a submissive acquiescence to "things +as they are." + +Rebellion and passivity go hand in hand. So often, we "turned off" our +parents, teachers, or evan our friends by retreating into its embrace. In +situations that put pressure on us to grow, or problems that challenge us in +their complexity, passivity becomes the best non-narcotic escape to "tune- +out." If passivity is linked to rebellion, we must realize the seriousness of +this in God's eyes. "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." (I Sam. 15:23) + +Many who are under passivity's bondage attempt to escape through prayer, +fasting, or reading the Word. This is missing the point. "There I was, at a +Christian college, and my spiritual life was at a complete standstill. I +wasn't even conscious of any passive stance within...I suffered from a +spiritual malaise, a deadness that tormented and frustrated me. I read the +Word trying to break free of something I didn't even understand. I would sin, +but rather than repent and simply obey God next time. I attempted through +'being spiritual' (reading and praying) to come around. Part of it was that I +didn't know about passivity, and part of it was that I wouldn't have chosen +simple obedience anyway." (See I Sam. 15:22) + +We need to gain a true hatred for passivity; not just an intellectual assent +to its destructive qualities, but a heartfelt revulsion for the role it plays +in subverting any fruitful relationship to Christ. + +Martin Luther, when being actually visibly confronted with Satan, understood +this hatred perfectly. He hurled an inkwell across the room at the devil, and +although Satan obviously suffered no harm, the point was made. Martin Luther +loved God and hated the king of the fallen angels and fallen men. Just as +Luther made his point, we must make ours. This crucial, for without an +understanding and hatred of passivity, it will continue to reign in our lives, +perverting our personality and causing our soul to agonize in its emptiness. + +In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see illustrated perhaps the most titanic +struggle a man has ever waged against the numbing paralysis of passivity. +"And being in agony (of mind) He prayed (the) more earnestly and intently; and +His sweat became like great clots of blood dropping down upon the ground." +(Luke 22:44, Amp.) + +Even when motives are right, a person can fall prey to passivity. "Many +people who truly desire to follow the Holy Spirit and who have given up self- +will and personal ambition are people who can get into a state of a passive +mind because of misunderstanding. They don't want their own will, the don't +want their own thoughts, and so they God to do their thinking for them. But +God doesn't do your thinking for you." (Jack Winter, Dimension Tapes, SIJW 7) + +Ultimately, every man will meet with passivity. He can either deal with it +through a living relationship with Jesus Christ, or he won't deal with it all. +He will become passive and he will be overcome in the end. Consider what C. +S. Lewis writes in his book "The Screwtape Letters: + +"You will say that these are very small sins...It does not matter how small +the sins are provided that their cumulative effects is to edge the man away +from the Light and out into nothing...Indeed the safest road to hell is the +gradual one--the gentle slope, sof underfoot, without sudden turnings, without +milestones, without signposts..." + +Whether it is to be this road or the hard but exhilarating mountain of reality +in Christ, we choose it. And sometimes not choosing is the worst choice. + +Jesus People USA + 4707 N. Malden + Chicago, IL 60640 + diff --git a/religious documents/insp68.txt b/religious documents/insp68.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f7b841 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp68.txt @@ -0,0 +1,93 @@ + + PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE DEATH OF CHRIST + ==================================================================== + TOPIC | PROPHECY | FULFILLMENT + ==================================================================== + Seed of woman being |Genesis 3:15 |John 19:18 + bruised | |(Galatians 3:13-16) + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + My God,my God |Psalm 22:1 |Matthew 27:46 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Darkness on earth |Psalm 22:2 |Matthew 27:45 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Despised by the |Psalm 22:6 |Matthew 27:39-44 + people | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Surrounded by enemies|Psalm 22:7,8,13 |Matthew 27:39-44 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Pierced hands and |Psalm 22:14,16 |John 19:34,37 + feet | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + No broken bones |Psalm 22:17 |John 19:36 + |(Exodus 12:46;Psalm | + | 34:20) | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Look at him |Psalm 22:17 |Matthew 22:36 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Cast lots |Psalm 22:18 |Matthew 27:35 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Did not tear garment |Psalm 22:18 |John 19:24 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Gave up spirit |Psalm 22:21;31:5 |John 19:30 (Luke 23:46; + | |John 10:18) + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + False witnesses |Psalm 35:11 |Mark 14:56 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Friends stood afar |Psalm 38:11 |Luke 23:49 + off | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Judas's betrayal |Psalm 41:9 |Mark 14:10 (John 13:18, + | |19) + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + I thirst |Psalm 69:3 |John 19:28 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Shame,reproach |Psalm 69:19 |Matthew 27:28, 29 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Gall and vinegar to |Psalm 69:21 |John 19:21 + drink | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + When they looked |Psalm 109:25 |Matthew 27:39, 40 + they shook their | | + heads | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Exact time of death |Daniel 9:26 |John 11:50-52 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Beating,spitting |Isaiah 50:6 |Matthew 27:26,30 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Disfigured by |Isaiah 52:14 |Matthew 27-30 + cruelty | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Despised and rejected|Isaiah 53:1-3 |Mark 15:29-32 + by men | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + 1 Peter 2:24 |Isaiah 53:4-6 |Mark 15:25 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + 2 Corinthans 5:21; | Isaiah 5,6,10 |John 19:16 + 1 Corinthans 5:7 | | + An offering for sin | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Opened not his mouth |Isaiah 53:7 |Matthew 27:13-14 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + The Lamb of God |Isaiah 53:7 |John 1:29 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Grave with the rich |Isaiah 53:9 |Matthew 27:56-60 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Made intecesession |Isaiah 53:12 |Luke 23:34 + for transgressors | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Numbered with |Isaiah 53:12 |Mark 15:27-28 + transgressors | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Thirty pieces of |Zechariah 11:12 |Matthhew 26:15 + silver | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Potters |Zechariah 11:30 |Matthew 27:3-7 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Lamented and mourned |Zechariah 12:10 |Luke 23:17 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + Disciples scattered |Zechariah 13:7 |Mark 14:27,50 + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + God to smite the |Zechariah 13:7 |Matthew 26:31 + shepherd | | + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + diff --git a/religious documents/insp69.txt b/religious documents/insp69.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e96a93d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp69.txt @@ -0,0 +1,125 @@ + RADICAL GENESIS EVANGELICALS + * + * +1. An R.G.E. POWERFULLY REJECTS the "GOD IS A MELLOW CALIFORNIAN" concept: +. a. God IS NOT LAID BACK +. b. IS NOT content as long as you're sincere in what you +. believe +. c. IS NOT SLOPPY or LAZY in communicating His will +. d. Is not a God of Errors, Myths, or Mistakes +. (a laid-back, sloppy & lazy god might be content +. with an error filled bible but the great I AM would not) +. e. Would NEVER BE a T.V. EVANGELIST. +. f. Has laid out an EXACTING & SINGULAR way for man to be +. saved. There is only ONE-WAY by which man can be saved: +. Faith in Jesus Christ. + * + +2. RGE's hold firmly to SOLA SCRIPTURA (Scripture Only). The +. Bible is WORD-FOR-WORD EXACTLY CORRECT IN ALL IT SAYS. +. God's Word IS COMPLETE in the 66 books of the N.T. & O.T. Canon. +. There is NO OTHER or new revelation beyond the BIBLE ITSELF. +. a. An R.G.E. actually believes Jonah was swallowed by a +. big fish, +. b. believes Adam & Eve were the first humans; they did +. not evolve, they were created by God and ALL HUMANS +. are descended from Adam & Eve +. c. believe that God, in His infinite wisdom, had the +. Israelites totally destroy other nations. +. d. A RADICAL GENESIS EVANGELICAL may not always under- +. stand, but he DOGGEDLY BELIEVES. + * +3. RGE'S believe in a literal Heaven & a literal Hell. +. A minority of people who have lived on Earth will be in +. Heaven, the majority will be in HELL. +. * +4. RGE'S believe God is Self-Existent - no beginning no end. +. God is also Triune; Father, Son (Jesus Christ), & Holy Spirit. +. a. God exists whether or not man does +. b. God IS NOT a Chameleon forever changing to please man +. c. Man's subjective thoughts/feelings about God are only +. correct if they agree with the objective Scriptures. +. D. the CREATED cannot totally understand the CREATOR; +. it is ARROGANT & FOOLISH to think he can. +. * +5. God IS NOT Sentimental or Sloppily Emotional in His love +. for His children. HE IS a God of love but also a God of +. Implacable and AWESOME WRATH. Those people who think HE +. is a Mellow Californian will find they are DEAD-WRONG, +. in Hell. +. a. God never smiles at small sins +. b. Chastises his children with alarming regularity +. c. And does not listen to the prayers of unbelievers except +. when they call out in REPENTANCE for Salvation. + * + +6. RGE'S think ALL mankind is incredibly evil and self-deceived. +. An RGE think the "biggies" are still Sins of the Heart more +. than behavioral misdeeds. Our society today suffers from: +. a. Pride (we think we're okay and we can take care of +. ourselves) +. b. Arrogance (especially some theologians who think they +. are smarter and more knowledgeble than the Apostle Paul) +. c. Incredible Materialism (the Christian community has +. bought into rampant materialism Hook, Line & Sinker. +. (Owning a BMW and a 5000 sq. ft. house is obscene.) +. d. Unrestrained Selfishness (I want, I think, I feel, +. I gotta be me, take care of # 1, etc. ad nauseum) +. e. Lack of Courage (how many of us will stand up to the +. taunts and ridicule of family & friends; of the media?) + * + +7. An R.G.E. doesn't hate Gays, Adulterers, Liars, +. Politicians, Murderers, the Sexually Warped, liberals, +. Abortioners, T.V. Evangelists, and those who think RADICAL +. BELIEVERS are to be ridiculed and laughed at. Those +. individuals suffer the devastating consequences of their own +. sins here on Earth (and in Hell if they reject Jesus +. Christ). One doesn't have to be an R.G.E. to get to Heaven +. but there is NO BETTER WAY TO LIVE. +. (OBVIOUSLY, R.G.E.'s are not sinless. We also struggle with +. lust and all those other debilitating & destructive sins.) + * +8. R.G.E.'s believe that God, in His infinite wisdom, chose +. women to be subject to men. This IN NO WAY IMPLIES MALE +. SUPERIORITY in God's economy. But female dominated societies +. are NOT God's Plan. Women who seek equality or superiority +. are doomed to be frustrated and miserable (the men also). + * + +9. R.G.E.'s believe that in the Culture: +. Divorce and remarriage are wrong except for: +. 1. Chronic sexual infidelity/perversion of a spouse +. 2. Desertion by an unbelieving spouse +. 3. If one was married & divorced before salvation. +. (Certainly, there can be family situations so destructive +. that marital separation might be the best alternative.) + * +10. R.G.E.'s STRONGLY BELIEVE "If anyone DOES NOT PROVIDE FOR +. HIS RELATIVES, and especially for his immediate family, HE +. has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." +. Bar-hopping, beer guzzling, TV-addict husbands who selfishly +. spend money on their own WANTS are a CANCER in our society. + * + +11. R.G.E.'s STRONGLY BELIEVE younger women (wives) should +. love their husbands and children, be self-controlled and +. pure, BUSY AT HOME, be kind, subject to their husbands so +. that no one will malign the Word of God. Titus 2:4,5. +. a. Mother's are ultimately happier and more fulfilled at +. home and +. b. KIDS WEREN'T CREATED FOR DAY CARE CENTERS. +. c. God placed the ultimate, responsibility of educating +. our children in THE PARENT'S HANDS not the State's hands. + * +12. Finally, RADICAL GENESIS EVANGELICALS: +. a. Will Never be in the majority: always be UNPOPULAR +. b. Under constant attack; mostly by people CLAIMING to +. be Christians, +. c. But striving to PERSEVERE; FIGHTING FOR THE FAITH! + +LIVE 100%, FLAT-OUT for JESUS CHRIST. There "ain't nuthin'" else worth living +for on this planet. + +LIVE RADICALLY! + diff --git a/religious documents/insp70.txt b/religious documents/insp70.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..179d6cf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp70.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +JESUS OS COMING AGAIN! + + Are you ready? Are you storing riches in Heaven or are you gorging +yourself on the 'riches' of this world? BE SOBER! The time is short. +The night is drawing to a close. The dawn of That Day is nigh. The world +must be evangelized, NOT accomodated. Don't make room for the world in your +life. + +PRAY FOR REVIVAL + + Pray for revival in our land. Get ready for this to happen. Think... do +we as Christians have a developed body of practical answers to the questions +that a newly converted country will raise? Let us strive to raise up +Christians who will be ready to offer counsel in every area of life, at +every level of leadership. + +One way: Support CBN University + Virginia Beach,VA + 23463 + diff --git a/religious documents/insp72.txt b/religious documents/insp72.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..540f1a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp72.txt @@ -0,0 +1,91 @@ +7 WAYS TO AVOID GOD. + + I think of myself as an average person.I don't hate God. As far as I know +He has done me no harm. But I do find it difficult to avoid God. + I am not an atheist. I am an agnostic. If there is a God I don't want to +know Him. I prefer to live my own life. The last thing I want is for God to +get in my way. So I have set out a personal seven-point plan to avoid Him. +With Bibles on display in bookstores, and churches on almost every street +corner my task has not been easy. But here is my procedure: + +STEP ONE: I sleep Sunday mornings. + +I personally don't find 'sleeping in' that easy. I have the bad habit of +waking early, even on Sunday. But I have solved the problem. I told my +doctor I was having a difficult time sleeping and he gave me some pills. +About midnight on Saturday I swallow two pills and am good until eleven +o'clock Sunday morning, which conveniently is too late to go to church. + +STEP TWO: As a traveling man I keep hotel & motel dresser drawers closed. + +In many hotels and motels today a Bible will jump out at you if you open a +drawer. I enter my room, hang up my suitbag & leave my other things in my +open suitcase. I carry an off-color paperback with me so if there is nothing +to do in town at least I can read myself to sleep. By the way, I don't +accept literature from strangers. When offered literature I politely tell +people I am too busy to read it. + +STEP THREE: I carefully choose my radio stations. + +Many cities carry twenty-four-hour religious stations. Some of their music +is good but you must be wary because they may be skillfully concealing a +sharp hook. Right while enjoying a fine recording, some preacher breaks in to +tell you that you are a sinner & need God. I am on to their tricks, so now I +dial a station that is really rocking and rolling and feel reasonably safe. + +STEP FOUR: I avoid Christian businessmen. + +In fact, I am a church member. I seldom attend, but my membership has given me +many good business contacts. But one must be careful. I have discovered a +fanatical brand of businessmen who would rather talk to you about God +than about gold. I don't question their sincerity,but it takes money to feed a +family, and that is my first concern. When a Christian businessman invites +me to church or for Bible study, I usually back out with, 'I have a splitting +headache' (that sounds better than a hangover) 'and just can't make it tonight.' + +STEP FIVE: I create my own gods. + +I have a list of things I would like to do but never have time to get done. +So Sunday I play around with the most attractive items on my list. I have +come to feel that that is what Sunday is for. Every person should have a +hobby and I use Sundays to spend time on my hobbies and to do my thing. + +STEP SIX: I see to it that I am' master of my fate.' + +It is my privilege to choose to believe in God or to choose not to believe. +I accept the old Roman idea that death ends everything. This makes the whole +business of escaping God a lot easier. It allows one to sing with the freedom +of a bird, 'Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.' + +STEP SEVEN: I can always kill myself. + +This I call my desperate step. I don't really advocate it and frankly, I am +chicken. But I know it happens many times a day. Self-destruction is a way +of escape. However, it leaves me a little cold. Questions pop into my mind. +Is it a copout from life? Is it really escape? Does one avoid God in this way +or is death the solemn usher that leads me into the presence of God? + + Now that I have answered questions on what I can do to avoid God I find +myself faced with an even greater question. If there is a Supreme Being +who loves me, why should I try to avoid Him? Is my attempt to hide from God +inconceivable conceit? Would I not be wiser and happier to accept His love? +Is it not the fool who says in his heart 'There is no God?' Why run from +God? His invitation is pretty inviting for a man who is tired of running: + +'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you +rest' (Matthew 11:28) + + After running for so long I gave God my worries and accepted His rest. I +found it so easy. I just said, 'Jesus, You please take my sin and I will take +Your salvation.' God and I made the trade and I am no longer running, I am +resting in His salvation. I have thrown my list away. If you will do what I +did, you won't need your list either. + +'And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the +Lord shall be saved.' (Acts 2:21). + +Written by: Dick Hillis + +Downloaded from the Good News BBS +(313) 459-8375 + diff --git a/religious documents/insp74.txt b/religious documents/insp74.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6a6ac3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp74.txt @@ -0,0 +1,160 @@ + + IF GOD SHOULD SPEAK + + This skit deals with prayer and other issues of the Christian life. It +requires one person who is the "pray-er" and someone else who is the voice of +God, offstage. + + Pray-er: "Our Father which art in heaven ..." + God: Yes. + Pray-er: Don't interrupt me. I'm praying. + God: But you called me. + Pray-er: Called you? I didn't call you. I'm praying. "Our Father + which art in heaven ..." + God: There, you did it again. + Pray-er: Did what? + God: Called me. You said, "Our Father which art in heaven. Here I + am. What's on your mind? + Pray-er: But I didn't mean anything by it. I was, you know, just saying + my prayers for the day. I always say the Lord's Prayer. It + makes me feel good, you know, kind of like getting a duty done. + God: All right. Go on! + Pray-er: "Hallowed be thy name ..." + God: Hold it! What do you mean by that? + Pray-er: By what? + God: By "Hallowed be thy name?" + Pray-er: It means ... it means ... Good grief! I don't know what it + means! How should I know? It's just part of the prayer. By + the way, what does it mean? + God: It means honored, holy, wonderful. + Pray-er: Hey, that makes sense. I never thought what "hallowed" meant + before. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is + in heaven." + God: Do you really mean that? + Pray-er: Sure, why not? + God: What are you doing about it? + Pray-er: Doing? Nothing, I guess. I just think it would be kind of + neat if you got control of everything down here like you have + up there. + God: Have I got control of you? + Pray-er: Well, I go to church. + God: That isn't what I asked you. What about that habit of lying + you have? And your temper? You've really got a problem there, + you know. And then there's the way you spend your money -- all + on yourself. And what about the kind of books you read? + Pray-er: Stop picking on me! I'm just as good as some of the rest of + those phonies -- at church! + God: Excuse me! I thought you were praying for my will to be done. + If that is to happen, it will have to start with the ones who + are praying for it. Like you, for example. + Pray-er: Oh, all right. I guess I do have some problems, some hang-ups. + Now that you mention it, I could probably name some others. + God: So could I. + Pray-er: I haven't thought about it very much until now, but I really + would like to cut out some of those things. I would like to, + you know, be really free. + God: Good! Now we are getting somewhere. We'll work together, you + and I. Some victories can truly be won. I'm proud of you! + Pray-er: Look, Lord! I need to finish up here. This is taking a lot + longer than it usually does. "Give us this day, our daily + bread." + God: You need to cut out some of that "bread." You're overweight as + it is. + Pray-er: Hey, wait a minute! What is this, Criticize-Me Day? Here I + was, doing my religious duty, and all of a sudden you break in + and remind me of all my problems and shortcomings. + God: Praying is a dangerous thing. You could wind up changed, you + know. That's what I'm trying to get across to you. You called + me, and here I am. It's too late to stop now. Keep on + praying. I'm interested in the next part of your prayer. + (pause) Well, go on! + Pray-er: I'm afraid to. + God: Afraid? Afraid of what? + Pray-er: I know what you'll say next. + God: Try me and see. + Pray-er: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass + against us." + God: What about Joe? + Pray-er: I knew it! See, I knew you would bring him up! Why, Lord, + he's told lies about me, and cheated me out of some money, and + is the biggest phoney around. He never paid back that debt he + owes me. I've sworn to get even with him and then never + associate with him again! + God: But your prayer! What about your prayer? + Pray-er: I didn't mean it. + God: Well, at least you're honest. But it's not much fun carrying + that load of bitterness around inside you, is it? + Pray-er: No, but I'll feel better as soon as I get even. Boy, have I + got some plans for old Joe! He'll wish he never did me any + harm. + God: You won't feel any better. You'll only feel worse. Revenge + isn't sweet. Think of how unhappy you are already. But I can + change all that. + Pray-er: You can? How? + God: Forgive Joe. Then the hate and sin will be Joe's problem, not + yours. You may lose the money, but you will have settled your + heart. + Pray-er: But Lord, I can't forgive Joe. + God: Then, how do you expect me to forgive you? + Pray-er: Oh, you're right! You always are! And more than I want + revenge on Joe, I need to be right with you. All right, I + forgive him. Lord, you help him to find the right road in + life. He's bound to be awfully miserable now that I think + about it. Anybody who goes around doing the things he does has + to be out of it. Some way, somehow, show him the right way. + Maybe you can even help me to help him? + God: There now! Wonderful! How do you feel? + Pray-er: H'm! Well, not bad. Not bad at all. In fact, I feel pretty + great! You know, I don't think I'll have to go to bed uptight + tonight for the first time since I can remember. Maybe I won't + be so tired from now on because I'm not getting enough rest. + God: You're not through with your prayer. Go on! + Pray-er: Oh, all right. "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver + us from evil." + God: Good! Good! I'll do that. Just don't put yourself in a place + where you can be tempted. + Pray-er: What do you mean by that? + God: Change some of your friendships. Some of your so-called + friends are beginning to get to you. Don't be fooled! They + advertise that they're having fun, but for you it could be + ruin. Either you are going to have to stop being with them or + start being a positive influence on their lives. Don't you use + me as an escape hatch! + Pray-er: I don't understand. + God: Sure you do. You've done it a lot of times. You get caught in + a bad situation. You get into trouble by not listening to me, + and then once you do, you come running to me, saying, "Lord, + help me out of this mess, and I promise you I'll never do it + again." You remember some of those bargains you tried to make + with me, don't you? + Pray-er: Yes I do, and I'm ashamed, Lord. I really am. + God: Which bargain are you remembering? + Pray-er: Well, when the woman next door saw me coming out of that + X-rated movie with my friends. I'd told my mother we were + going to the mall. I remember telling you, "Oh, God, don't let + her tell my mother where I've been." I promised to be in + church every Sunday. + God: She didn't tell your mother, but you didn't keep your promise, + did you? + Pray-er: I'm sorry, Lord, I really am. Up unitl now, I thought that if + I just prayed the Lord's Prayer every day, then I could do what + I liked. I didn't expect anything like this to happen. + God: Go ahead and finish your prayer! + Pray-er: "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for + ever. Amen." + God: Do you know what would bring me glory? What would make me + really happy? + Pray-er: No, but I'd like to know. I want to please you. I know what a + difference it can make in my life. I can see what a mess I've + made of my life, and I can see how great it would be to really + be one of your followers. + God: You just answered my question. + Pray-er: I did? + God: Yes. The thing that would bring me glory is to have people + like you truly love me. And I see that happening between us + now. Now that these old sins are exposed and out of the way, + well, there's no telling what we can do together. + Pray-er: Lord, let's see what we can make of me and my life, O.K.? + God: Yes, let's see! + + diff --git a/religious documents/insp75.txt b/religious documents/insp75.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6cfb5f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp75.txt @@ -0,0 +1,213 @@ + + + Jesus Christ The Son of God + +Christianity differs from all religions, because it is more than a religion -- +it is the life of the Son of God made living in man. He is the supreme subject +of each book of the New Testament, and fulfills all the promises of God in the +Old Testament, from His incarnation to His Second Coming as "Lord of lords and +King of kings." + + [Revelation 17:12-14 NT] "And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, + who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings + with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose and they give their + power and authority to the beast. These will wage war against the Lamb, + and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of + kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful." + +He is the God-man Christ Jesus in glory, exalted above all creatures. Jesus +said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" [Matthew 28:18 +NT]. + +During His earthly ministry, He claimed to be God incarnate (in human flesh). +He is all that He claimed to be, or He is less than the least. + + [Revelation 1:4-8 NT] John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to + you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come; and from the + seven Spirits who are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, the + faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of + the earth. To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His + blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; + to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is + coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced + Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. Amen. + "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and + who is to come, the Almighty." + +Before His claim can be denied, there are some things that must be accounted +for: + His virgin birth; + His holy, sinless life; + His many miracles; + His vicarious death and His bodily resurrection. + + + THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST + +[John 1:1-5 NT] "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and +the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being +by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In +Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the +darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." + +The deity of Jesus Christ, or His God nature, is well established in the New +Testament. Some of the facts are: + + (1) He is called God by the Apostle John (above verse 1). + + (2) He is called God by the Apostle Thomas. + + [John 20:28 NT] "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, + among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the + church of God which He purchased with His own blood." + + (3) He is called God by God the Father. + + [Hebrews 1:1-8 NT] God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the + prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has + spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, + through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His + glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all + things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of + sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; having + become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more + excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever + say, "THOU ART MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN THEE"? And again, "I + WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM, AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME" ? And when He + again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, "AND LET ALL THE + ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM." And of the angels He says, "WHO MAKES + HIS ANGELS WINDS, AND HIS MINISTERS A FLAME OF FIRE." But of the Son + He says, "THY THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS + SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM." + + (4) He claimed to be God in that He was with the Father before creation. + + [John 17:1-5 NT] These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to + heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that + the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all + mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal + life. And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only + true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent. I glorified Thee on + the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou has given Me to + do. And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the + glory which I had with Thee before the world was." + + (5) He claimed to be God in that He was before Abraham. + + [John 8:51-59 NT] "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My + word he shall never see death." The Jews said to Him, "Now we know + that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You + say, 'If anyone keeps Me word, he shall never taste of death.' + Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The + prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?" Jesus + answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father + who glorifies Me, of whom you say, 'He is our God'; and you have not + come to know Him, but I know Him; and If I say that I do not know + Him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know Him, and keep His + word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and + was glad." The Jews therefore said to Him, "You are not yet fifty + years old, and have You seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, + truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." Therefore they + picked up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out + of the temple. + + (6) He received worship, and only God is to be worshiped. + + [Matthew 14:33 NT] And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, + saying, "You are certainly God's Son!" + + Angels refused worship. + + [Revelation 22:8,9 NT] And I, John, am the one who heard and saw + these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at + the feet of the angel who showed me these things. And he said to me, + "Do no do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren + the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book; worship + God." + + Man refused worship. + + [Acts 10:25,26 NT] And when it came about that Peter entered, + Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter + raised him up, saying, "Stand up; I too am just a man." + + (7) He forgives sin. Only God can forgive sin. + + [Mark 2:1-12 NT] And when He had come back to Capernaum several days + afterward, it was heard that He was at home. And many were gathered + together, so that there was no longer room, even near the door; and + He was speaking the word to them. And they came, bringing to Him a + paralytic, carried by four men. And being unable to get to Him + because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they + had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic + was lying. And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, "My + son, your sins are forgiven." But there were some of the scribes + sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, "Why does this man speak + that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?" + And immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning + that way within themselves, said to them, "Why are you reasoning + about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the + paralytic, `Your sins are forgiven'; or to say, `Arise, and take up + your pallet and walk'? But in order that you may know that the Son + of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" -- He said to the + paralytic -- "I say to you, rise, take up your pallet, and go home." + And he rose and immediately took up the pallet and went out in the + sight of all; so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, + saying, "We have never seen anything like this." + + (8) He is creator and maker of all things. + + [Colossians 1:13-17 NT] For He delivered us from the domain of + darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in + whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And He is the + image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by + Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, + visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or + authorities -- all things have been created by Him and for Him. And + He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. + + (9) He is sustainer of all things. Only God can control the universe. + + [Hebrews 1:1-3 NT] God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the + prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has + spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, + through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His + glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all + things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of + sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; + + (10) He claimed to have "all authority ... in heaven and on earth." God + has all authority. + + [Matthew 28:18-20 NT] And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, + "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go + therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in + the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them + to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, + even to the end of the age." + + (11) He walked upon the blue waters of Galilee. The winds and the waves + obeyed His command. He healed the sick and raised the dead. He gave + sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. He cast out demons and + made the lame to walk. He turned water to wine, and fed five thousand + with the lunch of a lad. +d he saw it and + was glad." The Jews therefore said to Him, "You are not yet fifty + years old, and have You seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Truly, + truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." Therefore they + picked up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out + of the temple. + + (6) He received worship, and only God is to be worshiped. + + [Matthew 14:33 NT] And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, + saying, "You are certainly God's Son!" + + Angels refused worship. + + [Revelation 22:8,9 NT] And I, John, am the one who heard and saw + these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at + the feet of the angel who showed me these things. And he said to me, + "Do no do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren + the prophets and of those who heed the words of this + diff --git a/religious documents/insp78.txt b/religious documents/insp78.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..50edda1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp78.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +MY PERSONAL DEDICATION TO GOD + +God means a lot to a lot of people, I am no exception. I am 13 years old and +God is very important in my life. He helps me resist the many temptations to +sin that every teen has. + +God gives me the strength to do the things he wants me to do, and he can give +you that strength also, all you have to do is accept Christ as your own +personal savior. + +Sin and temptation are everywhere in a teen's life, and it is hard for a +Christian teen to ignore all this on his own, that is where God comes in for me. + +I call on guidence from our Lord regularly, for things like tests or for +things like forgiving my many sins. God answers all prayers, he makes things +easier for me and he can make them easier for you. + +I find it hard to understand why everyone dosen't accept Jesus Christ. He +works miracles in my life and he will work them in yours, try it. + + .W#04? \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/insp79.txt b/religious documents/insp79.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b90ec48 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp79.txt @@ -0,0 +1,153 @@ + + GIVING YOUR PERSONAL TESTIMONY + +WHY? + +One of the most exciting and interesting ways to share Jesus is to give a +personal testimony. Your testimony is the basis of your witness. It is your +story, your firsthand account of what God through Christ has done in your +life. + +Your testimony has authority. Many questions about the Bible you may not be +able to answer, but you are the authority on your testimony. + +This guide will help you learn how to report your experience with Jesus in +simple language. + +WHAT? + +At the end of this guide you should be able to understand the importance of +your testimony in witnessing and be able to share it with others. + +HOW? + +You will achieve this goal by: + +Identifying the four points that should be included in a personal testimony + +Writing out your testimony + +Reading your testimony to a friend (or typing it up in a message on this BBS) + +Read I John 1:1-3. In these verses, John literally shares his tesimony. Those +things which had seen and heard, he was telling others. Many times the Apostle +Paul effectively gave his testimony. Sharing your testimony is one the most +effective ways to witness for Jesus Christ. + +These are three basic characteristics of a personal testimony: + + 1. IT HAS AUTHORITY. You may not be able to answer many questions about the + Bible; however, you are the only authority in the area of your experience + with Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. + + 2. IT COMMUNICATES. It reaches out and expresses to people your very heart + and life. You are not talking merely in theological terms, you are + speaking about the things in life with which you are familiar. You are + telling others what you have experienced with Jesus Christ. + + 3. IT RELATES. As you talk about your experiences with God you are relating + with people whose lives are like yours and who are seeking to understand + the change that Jesus has brought about in your life. + +Paul gives his testimony in Acts 22:1-16 and 26:9-23. He says almost the same +thing using a simple four-point outline. First, Paul says, "I have not always +been a Christian, but God showed me my need of Jesus Christ. I committed my +life to Jesus and now my life is different." + +Read those passages and then list the four points in Paul's outline. + +1. + +2. + +3. + +4. + + +You should have something like: + + 1. My life before Jesus. + 2. How I realized I needed Jesus. + 3. How I received Jesus. + 4. How Jesus makes my life full and meaningful now. + +Review these four points. You will use them in preparing your testimony. +Simple facts to remember are: + +Your testimony is important. If it is important to you, it will become +important to other people. + +As you prepare your testimony, seek the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Because +you will have a very brief encounter with each person, it is necessary for you +to seek the Holy Spirit's leadership in preparing to share your testimony. + +God honors preparation. Carefully prepare your testimony so you can +effectively share Jesus Christ. + +Remember the four points of a testimony. The first three points are past +history. Once you verbalize those, you will be prepared to share them anytime, +any place. The fourth point is current and refreshing - how Jesus Christ is +dealing in your life now, how He is making life meaningful. Your sharing the +growth and daily relationship with Jesus makes vibrant and meaningful what God +is doing in your life. + +Keep your testimony short. It should be from one minute to one and a half +minutes or about 275 words. Use short, simple phrases. + +Keep your testimony to the point. Remember, you are not describing the +theology of how to be saved. You are simply sharing what Christ has done in +your life. Yet you need to give adequate detail. You are expressing to a +person an intangible experience. The simple details of your experience relate +what has happened in your heart and in your life. As you share your testimony, +you live it. + +A person might criticize, "Preparing your testimony is mechanical." Actually, +as you share your testimony and relive the experience, God through the Holy +Spirit can give your testimony a new thrust, a new dynamic and a new meaning, +refreshing your heart and life. + +Avoid bragging or negative remarks. Bragging about personal accomplishments +does not glorify God. Paul said in Phil. 3:7, "But what things were gain to +me, those I counted as loss for Christ." Boasting should be about Jesus Christ +and what he has done. Negative comments lead toward a negative discussion. +Keep your testimony positive, pointed and simple. Ask yourself, "If I were a +person without Jesus or outside the fellowship of the family of God, what +would this testimony mean to me?" + +As you prepare your testimony, carefully consider your words. Use language +people understand. Often these are unfamiliar words and unfamiliar church +organizations. Phrases such as: "I walked the aisle for Jesus," "I was saved," +"I was lost," or "I had a glorious experience" are meaningless to people who +are unfamiliar with church vocabulary. Use words and phrases that will help +others understand your testimony. + +A SAMPLE TESTIMONY: + +I was born three blocks from the county courthouse in Fort Worth, Texas. My +father left my mother before I was born. In my early childhood - during the +depression - my mother sought security. She met and married a man whom she +thought would offer the security she so desperately needed. I grew up in what +I thought was a normal home, a home similar to other homes. But there was a +noticeable void. My life lacked real meaning and purpose. + +As a young man I began looking, searching and longing for meaning and purpose +in life. For a while, I really did not find what I was looking for. Then I +noticed a difference in the lives of some friends. That difference was Jesus. +Jesus had made a change in their lives. I began to see in them what I wanted +and needed. + +After one of my friends told me how to become a Christian, I very simply +turned from my old way of life and invited Jesus Christ to come and live in +me. No Roman candles burst. No bands played. But in a very real way I knew +that God had come live in me. + +I cannot say every day since then has been beautiful and that I've been +perfect. I'm human. But I continue to grow and develop and mature. One thing I +know - Jesus Christ has always been faithful. He has helped, guided and +blessed me. Now my life has real meaning. + +Now please take the time and write your testimony out using the four points +discussed earlier. Keep it to about 275 simple, understandable words. + + diff --git a/religious documents/insp80.txt b/religious documents/insp80.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bae1f59 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/insp80.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/insp81.txt b/religious documents/insp81.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a0de61 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp81.txt @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +IN TIMES OF TROUBLE + + GOD'S TRUSTING CHILD MAY SAY: + +FIRST He brought me here. It is by His will I am in this difficult place: + in that I will rest. + +NEXT He will keep me here in His Love and give me grace in this trial to + behave as His child. + +THEN He will make the testing a blessing, teaching me the lessons HE + intends for me to learn, and working in me the grace He intends + to give. + +LAST In His good time He can bring me out again - how and when HE knows. + + + YOU SAY: I am here + + 1. By God's appointment + + 2. In His care + + 3. Under His training + + 4. For His time + + + + And call upon me in the day of trouble: + + I will deliver thee, + + and thou shalt glorify me. + + Psalm 50:15 + + diff --git a/religious documents/insp82.txt b/religious documents/insp82.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b131b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp82.txt @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +WALKING WITH GOD + + In Genesis 3:8 we read that Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden +in the cool of the day. One can assume that they were accustomed to the sound +and that God did this often. Can you imagine walking with God and having a +casual conversation? When sin entered the picture this relationship was +broken. + In Revelation we read where this relationship will once again be restored +in chapter 21 verses 1-3. 'And I (John) saw a new heaven and a new earth; for +the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no +longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out +of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I +heard a loud voice from the throne saying 'Behold, the tabernacle of +God is among men, and He shall dwell among them...'. We will once again +walk with God! + Isn't that great! One thing is missing from this story - God walked with +man one other time between Genesis and Revelation. He came to earth as a man +named Jesus and as in the beginning man rejected Him and nailed Him to the +cross. The picture we see in Revelation is possible only for those who +accept the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. + +Downloaded from the: +St. Louis Christian BBS +(314) 947-0895 + diff --git a/religious documents/insp83.txt b/religious documents/insp83.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7cd1a47 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp83.txt @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +WHEN THE MESSIAH COMES + + When things were bad, and we didn't have the things we needed or wanted, +the grandfathers would say, 'You'll get it, you'll have it... when the Messiah +comes!' + +'Daddy can I have a bicycle?' - 'Sure, when the Messiah comes.' + +Some began making excuses for his not coming: + +'He can only come when there's peace on earth.' + +'He can only come when all Jews observe one Sabbath together.' + +Others said, 'There's no coming of the Messiah.' Later,some said,'There +is no Messiah.' Some even said, 'THERE IS NO GOD.' + + Today Most say, 'Who cares? (The price of pickled herring in Paraguay +is more important, anyway.)' + Some few, in a voice almost ashamed to ask, 'What is the Messiah, and can +he do anything for me?' + Well, if you really want to know, the answer is this: The Messiah is the +one who can set things straight... and the good news is that he has ALREADY +come...and He is in Oakland, California...(and everywhere else), and he's +brought a bicycle big enough for EVERYBODY! + If you really want the right things to happen to you, ask HIM if HE would +come into YOUR LIFE. + Ask for HIM by name. The only true MESSIAH is JESUS (Acts 4:12). + He is the one whom the prophets spoke of, the one we all have been waiting +for... or SHOULD have. + Jesus said 'had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he +wrote of me.' (John 5:46) + Check Him out... HE'S waiting for YOU EVERYWHERE. + +For more information about the Messiah call or write! + +Baruch Goldstein +Jews For Jesus (C)1972 +60 Haight St. +San Francisco, CA 94102 +(415)864-2600 +(R) Jews For Jesus is a registered trademark of Hineni Ministries. + +From LU-ACH YESHUA BBS +Downloaded from the +Computers for Christ BBS +(408) 997-2790 + diff --git a/religious documents/insp86.txt b/religious documents/insp86.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..daa58e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp86.txt @@ -0,0 +1,217 @@ + JOURNEY THROUGH THE HEART + + Though dark and gloomy my story may be, + but so very vital to you and to me. + The subject is Sin and all it can do, + so pay close attention, for many it slew. + For us it began in a Garden so fair, + who`d ever think that Sin would hide there? + The Serpent did slither on this Hallowed Ground, + a victim was surely there to be found. + So unsuspecting as Sin did draw near... + Eve was there waiting; Sin`s target - her ear! + "What did God tell thee ?" Sin did inquire. + "Of this we may NOT eat...", Sin roared, "He`s a Liar !" + She saw it was lovely so with Adam she shared + Sin crouched in the darkness...his victims were snared ! + So delightful a setting this Garden Divine, + where not only man, but Sin did first dine. + Sin`s fruit, Oh so sweet, he ate to his fill, + 'twas not only Adam, but Mankind his kill. + Since then Sin's been feasting, the world is his table, + now WE are his fruit, to escape we're unable. + Just how can we KNOW that WE'VE been his fare? + we must look WITHIN and we'll find him there. + He`s clever, that Serpent, doesn't want us to know... + that OUR HEART`S been his CASTLE..., that he's been our foe + Look close and be honest, he may be disguised... + for all that you'll find there, you might be surprised. + + As we stand and we wonder, with entrance so wide + DARE WE JOURNEY FORTH, to see what's inside? + The outline looms heavy, we shiver with fright, + we think to ourselves..."such an ominous sight." + The gate, it is lowered, we see as we cross, + this castle's not gleaming, `tis all filled with dross! + Each step at a snail's pace, we come to the arch, + the darkness surrounds us... more slowly we march. + So dingy, so murky and blacker than night, + can't see very clearly...we must have a light. + But what can we use and where can we find, + a reliable torch, that won't leave us blind? + Yea, a light we must have, but also a Guide, + to comprehend fully what in there does abide. + As we stand here helpless, our vision still blurred, + Behold, a White Charger...with God's Holy Word! + His two-edged sword for us leads the way, + what once had been darkness, is now bright as day! + We creep down the hallway...seems so full of gloom, + we reach the first chamber... we enter the room... + With floors oh so dusty and webs all about, + "Who doth reside here?", we say with a shout. + We wait for an answer...there comes no reply... + this room seems unlived in...we all wonder "why". + We leave for the hallway..."no cause for alarm... + a room that's this empty can do us no harm." + Our trek we continue, we try every door, + they seem never ending and still there's yet more. + + + All chambers were bare, though covered with grime, + no lodgers had been there for quite a long time. + Single file we went onward, the path was so winding, + but nary a boarder was there for the finding. + Through doorways and hallways, 'twas truly a puzzle, + this vacant old wasteland, our minds did bemuzzle. + The coldness and dampness, to our bones it was felt, + by now we decided that herein no one dwelt. + As the exit drew near, we stepped up our pace, + we just couldn't wait to leave such a place. + We crossed o'er the mote, the gate, it rose slowly, + we said to each other, "how impure...how unholy!" + Out of that dungeon we now could think clearly, + I pondered the place that I once thought of dearly. + When I thought on my heart, 'twas visions of gold, + but now that I've seen it, 'tis crusty with mold. + Our Guide was still leading...He looked like a King... + when we suddenly realized that He spoke not a thing! + "We searched Lord and searched, but couldn't uncover, + a trace of the evil, 'twas told we'd discover." + Then abruptly He turned, and for us He unraveled, + the truths of that mansion, and the trail that we travelled. + This thought, as He spoke, I could not dismiss, + that "never before had a man spake like this". + His Words seemed to echo to the castle and back, + of their power and persuasion there was surely no lack. + He said at the outset, "Take care HOW you hear..." + as back through the castle, our minds He did steer. + "The things that doth dwell here, a man, doth defile..." + I knew from that moment, my HEART was on TRIAL ! + "The rooms were not empty, just UNOCCUPIED," + I clung to His Words, as I sat mystified. + "The heart is deceitful above all that you know, + to trust what abides here shall bring misery and woe." + My thoughts were discerned, for I wanted to ask, + the NAMES of the tenants... this riddle unmask. + But before I could speak, He began to disclose, + that question I pondered...just WHO were my foes? + "UNCLEANNESS, IDOLATRY, ENVY, and MALICE," + these were the Demons who lived in the palace! + "GREEDINESS, JEALOUSY, ANGER, and SCORN," + He said they had been there ever since I was born. + "CHEATING, and LYING, TALEBEARING, and STRIFE," + His Words thrust in deeply... they cut like a knife. + "FIGHTINGS, BACKBITINGS," He went on to explore... + "these are the things," said He, "I deplore." + "These works of the flesh shall surely be known..." + the ground shook around us at the sound of His tone! + As to WHERE were these villians, my mind was perplexed, + He answered precisely, for He knew what was next. + "All shall be manifest, this treachery and sin..." + but "WHERE COULD THEY BE?", I thought deep within. + "OUT OF THE HEART proceeds evil things..." + His Words came like rapiers, such grimness it brings. + I froze as He told us that THEY'D GONE TO LABOR... + to wreak havoc for ME, upon friend and neighbor! + + By this I was smitten, seemed to know all along... + of the misery I'd caused...all the pain... all the wrong. + We now knew the reason for the filth and the slime... + with evils THIS BUSY, to return was no time. + They were constantly working, from our hearts did they vent, + we each knew too dearly, to whom they were sent. + These workers were tireless, to rest was no need, + they were sent with no mercy, this horrible breed. + The past flashed before me, such pictures they brought, + of so many people with whom I had fought. + My head and my shoulders sank deep with despair, + for all I had injured and treated unfair. + In the midst of my groaning, our Lord did insist, + that we look back behind us...to the FLAG that we missed. + Waving on high above that dark manor, + the word that was there, inscribed on the banner... + Raging and flapping like the Fires of Hell, + the name of the LANDLORD for us it did tell! + Shattered and broken I lift up mine eyes... + the word "S E L F" was upon it, and HOW PROUDLY IT FLIES! + The silence was deafening, inside was this growing... + that over MY heart, this flag was STILL BLOWING! + With unquenchable thirst and Sin as my drink... + in the Abyssal of Self, I continued to sink. + My mouth hung wide open, my eyes closed with shame, + a war raged within...no peace could I claim. + Heart's song like a death march, it pounded much faster... + each beat brought me nearer, to certain disaster! + My foes marched before me, like SINS ON PARADE... + and I was there General! What a fool have I played! + That my heart was their FORTRESS, Oh I can't bear this load... + the feelings inside me, like bombs they explode! + With my mind as there battlefield and my soul as the spoil, + my heart and God's Word continued to toil. + Sin gave in not so easy...it gathered it's forces, + I viewed in amazement, at all it's resources. + REASON and LOGIC, EXCUSES and LIES, + so unwilling Sin was to relinguish it's Prize. + "I'm not so bad, I'd done some good deeds," + I soon was aware, 'twas LOGIC that pleads. + EXCUSES came next, then LIES and then REASON... + but all was revealed, to my heart this was TREASON! + Not a thing my heart offered, before HIM could stand, + it's foundation, you see, was built upon sand. + His search light for me, had so clearly revealed, + all of this wickedness, my heart had concealed. + My defense was so useless, these sins I COMMITTED ! + But now came the truth of the things I OMITTED! + "LONGSUFFERING, MEEKNESS, GOODNESS and JOY," + a heart without these, Sin would surely destroy. + "SELF-CONTROL, FIDELITY, SHARING and PEACE," + without these within, Sin would always increase. + + "COMPASSION, HUMBLENESS, CHARITY, LOVE, + every good gift comes down from above." + But the worst of my crimes, those sins of omission, + was...NO TIME FOR GOD, to Him - no submission! + A moment perhaps, just one here or there, + but to FIND WHAT HE WANTED...'twas no time to spare. + Oh, I'd gone to church, I'd been there each Sunday... + but I'd rather not say what I did on each Monday! + I took time to pray...seems I wanted so much, + so to Him I would turn...did I USE Him such??? + My Bible was there but it stayed on the shelf, + too busy, I guess, in pursuits for MYSELF. + His Name, I remember, was oft used in vain, + my speech, to be honest, was mostly profane. + I sat and reflected, overcome with such shame, + MYSELF I had lived for...NO TIME FOR HIS NAME! + His salvation for me, well, it held no appeal. + This whole business of "God", it seemed so unreal! + Death was far off, I could deal with that later... + must live for the NOW, to MYSELF I must cater. + All of these thoughts were just the conclusion, + of a spirit so dead...of a heart of delusion. + Deaf to His Word and Blind to His Scripture, + my soul in a casket...what a horrible picture! + That I counld do nothing, 'twas made very clear... + my heart was depraved, it's state too severe. + Within ME was NO CURE, I was TOTALLY LOST! + For my God was no time, now I must pay the cost. + + Heart's Trial was fast closing...my soul seemed to wilt... + the verdict was coming...'twas sure of my guilt! + The offense of my life would demand the worst sentence, + but with words sweet as honey...He spoke of REPENTANCE! + I sat there astounded, not a thing did I merit... + And yet His Kingdom was offered for me to inherit! + His Arm rose up slowly, He beckoned me COME... + A NEW HEART He'd give me...His plea left me numb. + What could I do, with such a Grand Offer? + Would YOU follow Him...or go on as a scoffer? + The end of my story has NOT YET BEEN REACHED... + but I leave it for now, and to YOU I beseech, + Gird up your loins and draw nigh the Gate... + take Heart's Journey yourself...before it's TOO LATE! + + + RLW + + .W#04? \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/insp87.txt b/religious documents/insp87.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4add4f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp87.txt @@ -0,0 +1,158 @@ + + Observations on Faith + by John R. Marler + +. We need today to be reminded that the Kingdom of God does +not consist of rituals, works or any outward observances of any +kind or manner. The Kingdom of God consists of righteousness, +peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This kingdom, moreover, is a +gift of God, not a human accomplishment. Its foundation is the +vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ on Calvary. It was carried +forward by the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. +. The disciples before Pentecost were only disciples. They +tried to follow Jesus and His teachings as best they could, but +they did not know true faith. It was only at Pentecost that they +were truly made Apostles. At that time, each of them experienced +the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. At that time, +each of them was emboldened by the Holy Spirit to bear witness of +Christ in public. Whereas previously they were disciples of the +One whom they saw as the Messiah of Israel, now they were +ambassadors and heralds of the risen Christ. Instead of seeking +faith that is a dead work of the law, they now had the faith that +empowers and redeems. Previously they had the faith of servants, +now they had the faith of sons of the Living God. Previously +they were plagued by timidity and fearfulness, now they were +ready to die for the sake of their Master and Savior. +. Faith includes intellectual assent, but its essence is a +personal relationship with the Living Savior, Jesus Christ. It +consists, basically, in a living union with Jesus through the +Holy Spirit. True faith means being before doing - being in the +favor of God before doing the will of God. It means being +grasped by the Spirit of God. It is an opening of our inward +eyes to the reality of God's incomparable love poured out for +sinners in the sacrificial life and death of Jesus Christ. +. Yet, faith is not an almighty action of the Holy Spirit on +the soul, it is also in our action in the power of the Spirit as +we are sent forth into the world as witnesses and ambassadors of +Christ. Faith entails both radical passivity and radical +activity. Luther once observed: "Faith ... is a living, busy, +active, mighty thing ... so it is impossible for it not to do +good works incessantly." +. The deficiency found in many churches today is an empty +formalism or barren biblicism, either of which degenerates into +an oppressive legalism. Other churches that seem more vital are +plagued by perfectionistic enthusiasm or frenetic activism that +borders on humanism. What is needed is a recovery - a revival - +of the depth and breadth of Apostolic faith. +. A revival must start in the heart of one individual - me. +Each believer, with God, can work the miracle of revival - +'Breaking up the fallow ground' only in their own heart and life +- then God can use that person to spread His revival to the +world! +. It is imperative that we bear in mind that Jesus Christ is +not just a moral ideal or prophetic genius - He is a LIVING +SAVIOR. He is not simply the human representative of God, but +God Himself in human flesh. It is not enough to know the +historical facts about the life of Christ, how He lived and died, +each person must know that Jesus died for them personally! +. True faith does not consist of imposing our views on others, +but in sharing the light given to us. In our evangelistic task +we must not approach others with any pretension to greater virtue +or intellectual acumen. Instead, we present ourselves as fellow +sinners whose eyes have been opened both to the gravity of the +human predicament and to the reality of God's unconditional grace +and love. The word that we proclaim stands in judgement over our +lives as well as the lives of our hearers. We are beggars +telling others where they can get food. As "fishers of men" we +are instrumental in advancing the Kingdom of God, but it is not +through our cleverness that people are won to Jesus Christ; our +task is simply to let down the net of the Gospel. As the vehicle +of the Spirit, the Gospel itself brings in souls for the kingdom. +(Luke 5:2-10) +. This is not to imply that Christians should never use +apologetic arguments in defense of the faith, but our purpose in +doing so is not to induce a decision of faith. (Only the Spirit +does that through the preaching of the Word.) Rather, our aim is +to intensify the hunger for faith in the human soul and to help +those who already believe to better understand their own faith. +We can show the intellectual relevance of our faith by +argumentation, but faith's concrete relevance to the human +condition can be grasped only by those whose minds have been +touched by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. +. Our witness is not to some "zapping" peak experiences of the +sacred, but to the incursion of the sacred into the secular which +we see in Jesus Christ. +. Our appeal is not to external evidences for the faith but to +evidences that faith itself provides: + + o The empty tomb. + o The transformed lives of the disciples. + o The interior witness of the Holy Spirit. + +. In carrying out the evangelistic mandate, we must bear in +mind that Holy Scripture is its own best interpreter, that is to +say, Scripture illumined by the Spirit of God, its author. Holy +Scripture in the hands of Spirit directed believers is sufficient +to "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up +against the knowledge of God." (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV) +. We should never confuse religion with techniques for +cultivating spirituality or programs of church growth. It is God +who gives the increase, though it is up to us to plant the seed. +(1 Corinthians 3:6-7) Our responsibility is to hear the Word and +then share the Good News. We can serve the Kingdom of God, but +we cannot build it. The kingdom is a gift from God that can only +be received with thanksgiving and gratefulness. +. There is a difference between believing that Christ is the +Savior of humankind in general and coming to know Him as one's +own Savior. Faith, understood as an interior awakening to the +glory and meaning of the cross, is a gift of God. It is a work +of the Holy Spirit within us. If we do not have this kind of +faith, let us seek it. Let us pray for it as the Apostles did. +(Luke 17:5) The key to discipleship is given by our Lord: +. "Ask, and it will be given you, seek and you will find, +knock and it will be opened to you." (Mathew 7:7) +. True faith is inseparable from the experience of divine +holiness and divine love. Sometimes that experience will take +dramatic form, such as when the apostle Paul was lifted up into +the 'third heaven.' (2 Corinthians 12:2) Yet those who have such +experiences do not dwell on them. People of faith are not +spiritual exhibitionists, but heralds and ambassadors of the Lord +Jesus Christ. Living on a 'religious high' is not serving the +glory of God and advancing his kingdom. John the Baptist +furnished the model of true spirituality and faith when he +declared: "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30) +. Humility such as this is an indispensable mark of authentic +piety. No one can be confronted by the Holy God without having a +poignant sense of one's own creatureliness and sinfulness. +(Isaiah 6:1-5) What shows us the depth of our sin and the +magnitude of God's grace is not just an awareness of God as the +Holy One, (which all people have to some degree) but the +knowledge of the Holy Love of God reflected in the life and death +of Jesus Christ. Humility is the key to the love of other human +beings for God and for one another. Proud people cannot love, +because love means to be emptied of self and dedicated to the +glory of God and the welfare of his creatures. +. The cardinal evidence of true faith is works of self-giving +love which are visible to the world as shown in Mathew 7:20, John +13:35 and other scriptures. Such works, however, are not visible +to those who do them, for the focus of the faithful doer is never +on their deeds (to which they are more likely oblivious) but on +Christ and His great, completed work of Atonement. +. The essence of true religion, the righteousness of faith, is +known only to God. True faith will be manifested in fruits, but +before we can bear fruit we must be rooted in Christ, engrafted +into Him. We must be born again from above by the Holy Spirit. +(John 1:12-13, 3:5-8, 1 Peter 1:3) +. Frank Kafka once wrote: "The fathers of the Church were not +afraid to go out into the desert because they had a richness in +their hearts. But we, with richness all around us, are afraid +because the desert is in our hearts." +. Let each and every one of us, today, make the commitment to +be His servant and to seek the knowledge of His Grace and Mercy. +Let us become the vessels of His workings in this world. Let us +have the richness in our hearts. Let us have FAITH that will set +us apart from the world and that will make the world want to know +more about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen + +Computers for Christ + .W#04? \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/insp88.txt b/religious documents/insp88.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..084a59c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp88.txt @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ + + + SPIRITUAL SUICIDE + ----------------- + + +Think how wonderful our nation + And how peaceful it could be +If each prayed, and searched the Scriptures + As much as they tuned in T V. +It's amazing and appalling, + How the Lord is so denied. +Many people have exchanged their Bibles + For that so-called T V Guide. +Murder pictures--children watching, + Programs often base, obscene. +Many juvenile delinquents + Can be traced back to the screen. +Pastors, many are bemoaning. + Small attendance Sunday nights. +Careless members, home and watching + Special programs or the fights. + +Surely, this must grieve the Master: + All this tendency to crime, +As He notes "the wasted hours", + How and what we do with our time. +With this grip upon our nation, + Midnight hour, so very nigh; +Yet we lull to sleep our conscience, + Mid a "Rock-Roll" lullaby. + +Spiritual suicide is certain + If continued in this way +How we need to search the Scriptures: + More and more we ought to pray. +There would be tremendous difference, + (To this you may not agree) +But our GREATEST Spiritual ROBBER +Is none other than T V. + + Eva Gilbert Shaver. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/insp89.txt b/religious documents/insp89.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31f7613 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/insp89.txt @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ + + Holiness + -------- + + +What's happened to the cross that stood on the hill + Have they torn it down, or is it standing there still? +Does the blood that flowed from Calvary's brow + Still have the power to save us now? +Do you know what they've done to the virgin birth + They laughed it to scorn, it's been drug through the dust; +What's happened to holiness we used to possess? + When our church was on fire and people got blessed. + +The world is so hungry to hear it again + The spirit of God wants to live within men; +Is our heart turned to heaven or does pleasure intrude + We get cold and indifferent without spiritual food. +Its got to start from the pulpit down + Are we living for Jesus or just playing around? +The people must hear not watered down + Then the love of our Savior on earth will abound. + + + + by Doris Jones + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/inspire.txt b/religious documents/inspire.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c2c271 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/inspire.txt @@ -0,0 +1,132 @@ +The following report is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 9, Issue 11, 1992. +All rights are reserved by the author. O Timothy is a monthly magazine. +Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED STATES. Send to Way of Life +Literature, Bible Baptist Church, 1219 N. Harns Road, Oak Harbor, +Washington 98277. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 Canadian. Send to +Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E 1V0. + +SOME THOUGHTS ON INSPIRATION AND PRESERVATION +David W. Cloud + +I received a paper written by a Bible college professor in Canada recently +which maligned me for teaching that the King James Version is the inspired +Word of God. In replying to the man I said, "The position I hold +regarding the TR and the KJV has been outlined expertly by four men I +highly respect: the late Bruce Lackey (who was Dean of Tennessee Temple +Bible School when I was there), David Otis Fuller (late founder of the +Which Bible Society), Peter Van Kleeck (The Institute for Biblical Textual +Studies), and D.A. Waite (Bible for Today ministries and the Dean Burgon +Society). I am enclosing statements from these men. I would ask that you +give careful attention to these statements and stop misrepresenting me in +your public writings. I do not believe in `secondary inspiration,' nor do I +believe in `further revelation'." + +Let me hasten to say, though, that I DO believe in divine preservation! I +praise the Lord for the fact that I can have confidence in my Bible. I +believe I have the perfect, inspired Word of God because of God's promise +of preservation. For me this is the bottom line in the Bible version issue. +The only people who believe they have a perfect Bible are the widely +misunderstood, despised and ridiculed "King James Only" crowd. The +Wescott-Hort crowd admits they don't have a perfect text. The modern +version crowd admits they don't have a perfect text. Well, friends, count +me out. God has promised me a perfect Book, and I am confident in His +promise. + +In this issue of O Timothy we are reproducing an article by Dr. +Bruce Lackey on inspiration and preservation. I also want to give +statements by the three other men we have mentioned. I would also call our +reader's attention to the excellent article on preservation by Jack Moorman +which we printed in O Timothy, Volume 9, Issue 8, 1992. Bible +preservation is one of the most neglected doctrines of the twentieth +century. + +INSTITUTE FOR BIBLICAL TEXTUAL STUDIES + +"The Institute for Biblical Textual Studies was founded as an extension of +Dr. David Otis Fuller's ambition to address the version issue and textual +debate on a broader scale. The Institute is committed to: + +"- the immediate, verbal, plenary inspiration of the original writings of +Scripture and that they are therefore inerrant and infallible. This +inspiration is unique, applicable both to the process of giving the +original writings and the writings themselves which are that product; + +"- the verbal preservation of the Greek Received Text as published by the +Trinitarian Bible Society; + +"- the verbal preservation of the Traditional Masoretic Hebrew Text of +Daniel Bomberg, as edited by Jacob ben Chayim; + +"- the position that translation is not an inherent boundary to verbal +preservation. The breath of God, product, not process, conveyed by +translation from the immediately inspired language copies of Scripture into +any providentially prepared receptor language will impart to that +translation infallible authority and doctrinal inerrancy inherent in the +original language copies. Such a translation by the internal witness of the +Holy Spirit, both with and through that translation, will evidence to the +believer its own self-attestation and self-authentication whereby God +asserts himself as the supreme Authority to that culture. For the English +speaking world this revelation of God's authority is preserved in the +Authorized Version" (Peter W. Van Kleeck is associate director of the +Institute for Biblical Studies). + +THE DEAN BURGON SOCIETY + +"We believe that the King James Version (or Authorized Version) of the +English Bible is a true, faithful, and accurate translation of these two +providentially preserved Texts [the Traditional Masoretic Hebrew Text and +the Received Greek Text], which in our time has no equal among all of the +other English Translations. The translators did such a fine job in their +translation task that we can without apology hold up the Authorized Version +of 1611 and say "This is the WORD OF GOD!" while at the same time realizing +that, in some verses, we must go back to the underlying original language +Texts for complete clarity, and also compare Scripture with Scripture. + +"We believe that all the verses in the King James Version belong in the Old +and the New Testaments because they represent words we believe were in the +original Texts, although there might be other renderings from the original +languages which could also be acceptable to us today. For an exhaustive +study of any of the words or verses in the Bible, we urge the student to +return directly to the Traditional Masoretic Hebrew Text and the +Traditional Received Greek Text rather than to any other translation for +help. + +"Bible inspiration and Bible preservation are supremely important. The +undermining or destroying of either doctrine renders the other meaningless. +If the Bible is not verbally, plenarily, and inerrantly inspired, and if +inspiration does not extend to all matters of which the Bible speaks, it +does not matter if the Bible has been preserved or how it has been +presserved. It also follows that, if the Bible has not been preserved, it +does not matter how it was inspired" (From the Committee Statement on Bible +Preservation of the Dean Burgon Society, of which Dr. D.A. Waite is the +president). + +DAVID OTIS FULLER + +"I DO NOT say the King James Version was inspired as the original +manuscripts, but I DO say that God supervised and directed and chose by +means of King James the First and his advisers, forty-eight of the greatest +scholars of their time or ANY time in all history. The Holy Spirit caused +them to choose the manuscripts of the Old and New Testament which were +nearest to the originals and the most accurate of all the manuscripts. + +"I do not believe the King James Version has errors or mistakes in it. I do +believe it has problems and I do not have the answer to all of those +problems but I KNOW there is an answer to every one. You or others may call +that "playing antics with semantics." It makes no difference what IT is +called or I AM called, there I stand and refuse to give one inch. + +"Our Lovely Lord Jesus Christ, as you well know, quoted continually from +the Old Testament and every time He did He let it be known that He was +quoting His final authority. NOT ONCE did He cast a shadow of doubt over +any quotation. IF there had been errors in those manuscripts He quoted His +absolute honesty would have caused Him to say so. HE WAS NOT QUOTING FROM +THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS as we well know. IF this Sovereign God could keep +His word thru the centuries up until the Life and Death and Resurrection of +the Eternal Son of God here on earth, I AM SURE this same God can and did +keep His Word true and pure and inerrant all thru the centuries until this +year of our Lord 1980" (David Otis Fuller, "My answer to those who have +misinterpreted my stand on the inerrancy of the KJV," 1980, originally a +letter to Dayton Hobbs, editor, The Projector). +(O Timothy magazine, Volume 9, issue 11, 1992) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/inst01a.txt b/religious documents/inst01a.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..433bd20 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/inst01a.txt @@ -0,0 +1,234 @@ + + LIFESTYLE LEADERSHIP + Class One + + James 3:1 tells us of the greater responsibility of the leader as +called by God: "My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we +shall receive the greater condemnation." + It is important that we take note of the fact that a leader will +be held in more severe and stricter judgment than his followers. The +very next sentence informs us that "For in many things we offend all." + Because we stumble as humans will, and because we offend others +when we "slip" we usually maintain that we are not "called to be a +leader." The world has set up many standards for leadership, which +many believers think should be the standards that God uses to select +His leaders. Using God's WORD and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we +will look at the examples God has set before us to see what God wants +us to know about leadership in His Kingdom. + + MOSES + + What do we know about Moses? We are usually well versed in the +life of Moses and the reed basket that carried him to the daughter of +Pharaoh. We also know that he was highly educated, and accustomed to +power, prestige and comfort. At his calling by God, where was Moses? +At the backside of the dessert engaged in one of the lowliest +occupations of that day. He could have been embittered and blamed +society for his troubles. He could have been to his own party, a pity +party, and been so wrapped in his decline from acclaim that he might +have missed the calling of the Lord. (He was even, in this job of +sheep herder, having to work for his in-laws!) + Let's turn to Exodus 3:2 and see what happened. "And the angel +of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a +bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire and the +bush was not consumed." + It is important to take special note that the very FIRST action +taken by God was to reveal Himself to Moses (v:5,6). If we are asked +to serve in some capacity, make certain that God is in it. Don't move +an inch until you have determined the will of God in the matter. Many +times the will of God is made clear to us suddenly, other times we +have to wait, abide, until He makes it clear. We can be certain of +this - God will show you. God is not a God of confusion and He is well +able to communicate to His children, if they are listening. + In Psalm 32:8 God tells us "I will instruct thee and teach thee +in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye." +Guidance is God's responsibility - "I will instruct. I will teach. I +will guide." In Psalm 48:14 we are informed: "For this God is our +God for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death." Just as +Moses was certain, we can be certain that God has spoken. + The second action taken by God was to reveal to Moses that He, +too, had a burden for His people. "And the Lord said, 'I have surely +seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard +their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their +sorrows'"(3:7). + Can you picture Moses? The very burden that had been the cause +of his removal and exile from Egypt was shared by God! Then God +stated "I AM come down to deliver them out of the hand of the +Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and +a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey" (3:8). + Now picture Moses. I can see him thinking, "OH BOY! This +powerful God is going to remedy the matter and straighten everything +out! God, Himself, was going to PERSONALLY take charge!" + Then the other shoe is dropped! God tells Moses "Come now, +therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring +forth My people the children of Israel out of Egypt" (3:10). + Now, what is running in the mind of Moses? "But-But-But YOU said +YOU were going to do it YOURSELF! If YOU are going to do it, why do I +need to go?" + Right here is the crossroads of our lives in our relationship +with God. It is important to commit to our hearts that God's method +is to use His children to accomplish His plan and purposes. When we +can understand this, then we can begin to understand our role in the +Kingdom of God. + What is the immediate response of Moses in verse 11? Look at his +statement. What was God's response to that question? It was so +immaterial to God's plan that God did not even acknowledge the "Who am +I" of Moses! + Here, God allows us one of the first concepts of leadership in +His kingdom. In verse 12 God states: "Certainly I will be with +thee." God tells us all a powerful truth by His not acknowledging the +cry of Moses. In our terms, God told Moses that it didn't matter who +Moses was, whether he was qualified or unqualified, whether he was +capable or incapable. God states clearly "I AM going to be there, I +AM going to do it, and I AM going to give you the blessing and +privilege of being in it with me - in fact I AM going to use you as my +instrument of deliverance." + In II Corinthians 3:5, the Apostle Paul tells us, "Not that we +are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our +sufficiency is of God." In God's Kingdom, it is an asset, not a +handicap, to have a strong sense of need and inadequacy. Later, in +chapter 12:9,10, Paul confirms this idea. "And He said unto me, 'My +grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in +weakness.' Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my +infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me .... For when I +am weak, then I am strong." Look again, Paul - the Apostle to the +Gentile (us) felt exactly like we do! But, because he acknowledged +the method of God was to work through men, God used him in a mighty +way to accomplish His Plan and Purpose - to give the Gospel to us! + Let's go back to Exodus 3:13 where Moses says to God "Behold, +when I come unto the children of Israel and say unto them, 'The God of +your fathers hath sent me unto you': and they shall say unto me, 'What +is His name?' what shall I say unto them?" + Again, in God's way we are given an answer that man would not +have conceived: "And God said unto Moses, "I AM THAT I AM": and He +said, "thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, 'I AM hath +sent me unto you.'" + Now read through verse 15. I have always looked at that +statement of God and His declaration of His self-existent nature - +that is until this study. Can you see what I see in that statement of +I AM? I see God telling me: "Whatever you need to do as I send, that +is what I AM." He is telling each of us that whatever we need - +Comfort? - I AM your comfort (1 Peter 5:7) Victory over a sin that +ails us? - I AM your victory (I Corinthians 15:57) Love? - I AM love +(I John 4:8). Look it over - is there any area that you can think of +that God cannot fill. God's statement of I AM can be held in our heart +as "I AM all that my people need." + + GIDEON + + Our knowledge of Gideon is usually centered on the many battles +and victories won by this warrior of God. With just a handful of men, +Gideon was able to defeat large armies. Bold, courageous and valiant +are terms that I have heard used to describe this mighty man of God. +Let's look at the record in Scripture. Judges 6:1 tells us the +condition of the children of Israel. They were suffering oppression +under the rule of the Midianites - hiding in caves in the mountains - +their crops ruined by their oppressors. Why? Verse 6 tells us: "And +the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord +delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years." + One night, Gideon was found by God threshing some wheat to hide +it from the Midianites. God sent His angel to tell Gideon that he was +to be God's instrument to deliver Israel from the Midianites. Verse +15 gives us Gideon's first response: "Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I +save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the +least in my father's house." Look at God's response. Recall Moses? + Again, God pays no attention to the cry of man to prove his +worthlessness - God is well aware of that fact and needs no reminder! + God responds: "Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite +the Midianites as one man." God, in essence, tells Gideon and us that +"it doesn't matter who you are, but that I AM with thee. It is not +how weak you are, but how My strength will work through you." + + JEREMIAH + + One of the great prophets of God. Called the "weeping prophet" +because of his broken heart at the sin of Israel before the Lord. +Recalled by every minister of the Gospel for his success and his +determination to do God's will. Let's look at the record. + Jeremiah 1:4,5 shows us how God took the first step and +communicated with Jeremiah: "Then the word of the Lord came unto me, +saying, 'Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before +thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained +thee a prophet unto the nations.'" Now, a prophet is to declare the +Word of God. In the Old Testament, prophets declared God's doctrines, +today they expound on them. Do we find Jeremiah jumping at the chance +to answer this call? "Then said I, 'Ah, Lord God! behold I cannot +speak: for I am a child.'" + The next two verses give us the response God wants each of us to +acknowledge when we come off with excuses. Read these verses. "Say +not, 'I am a child,' for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, +and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their +faces: for I AM with thee to deliver thee." Again, "I AM with thee." +God was by Jeremiah's side and He promises to be at our side. God +further promises to us, through His words to Jeremiah in verse 19 "And +they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against +thee; for I AM with thee 'sayeth the Lord', "to deliver thee." + Now, Jesus Christ gave each of us one last order before He +departed: "Go and make disciples of all the nations." He then +proceeds in Matthew 28:20 to give us the same basis for serving Him +with confidence that He gave to these others of the Faith, "Lo, I AM +with you always..." The message is still the same "Yesterday, today +and tomorrow" and we need to plant it in our hearts "I AM with you." + One of the areas where the devil has a playground and neutralizes +our response to God's call is to make some disparaging remark about +something EVIL in our background. Satan tells us that we cannot be +used of God with THIS THING in our past or that it will hinder any +work God may have for us. Again, God's way is not the way of the +world. Turn to Acts 22:19-20. In shame, Paul tells us what his past +was "I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on +Thee; And when the blood of Thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was +standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the rainment of +them that slew him." Paul further elaborated in I Corinthians 15:9 in +claiming that he was "not meet to be called an Apostle, because I +persecuted the church of God." + Do you relate to this? Look at I Timothy 1:12,13 where Paul +states why he is at peace by saying "I thank Jesus Christ our Lord, +who hath enabled me, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into +the ministry, who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and +injurious." + Now, according to the standards of the world (Satan) this man +Paul was unfit for anything! But in God's way and God's plan Paul was +to be a mighty vessel for God to pour forth His Love to us all. +However; even the Apostle Paul showed how human he was when evaluating +others for leadership. + We look at the matter of John Mark. Because of prior failures +and unfaithfulness, Paul refused to allow John Mark to accompany him +(Acts 15:36-38). This is the very man that God had called to be the +author of the Gospel of Mark, which is the Gospel that tells us about +the faithful servanthood of Jesus Christ. It wasn't on the basis of +Mark's background that God selected him for His service. + The point is, when God calls you, by His Word, by His servants +and ministers or by answer to prayer we are to let neither a feeling +of being inadequate or having a "past" restrain us from following His +call. As a final message, look at Philippians 2:13 "For it is God +which worketh in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure." I +ask that you seek Him to outline to you the area of leadership that He +has called you to as an immediate area of service, whether it be in +the home or on your job, as father or mother, as supervisor or +employee, as a Sunday School teacher or a youth counselor. Wherever +God has called, pray that He will communicate to you what He wants +done and that you will be open to follow His leading. + If you want to have a guideline on how to determine or test an +INNER MESSAGE I suggest the following: + +(1) Is it scriptural and in context with the entire Bible. (The Bible +is consistent from Genesis to Revelation and should be followed in +context. Out of context, the Bible is used to justify many actions +that God would not want.) + +(2) Look for counsel from friends who are (also) seeking God's +leading. (God uses your friends as His voice many times, and +encourages the fellowship with one another for this purpose.) + +(3) Acknowledge and expect Providential circumstances. (God will open +doors for His plan to be accomplished. He will arrange for certain +people or circumstances to confirm His will and plan.) + +(4) Apply our own judgment in a form of Sanctified Common Sense. (So +many believers today are less than effective in their witness due to +their failure to hear that inner voice of the Holy Spirit and to heed +that voice. Once we hear that voice and the above conditions are met, +then we are to APPLY that to our daily living.) + +Computers For Christ - Chicago + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/inst01b.txt b/religious documents/inst01b.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..80c6210 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/inst01b.txt @@ -0,0 +1,169 @@ + + LIFESTYLE LEADERSHIP + Communication + + EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP + + The story is told about a mouse and an elephant that traveled +together for many years. One day they arrived at one of those hanging +rope bridges over a ravine and began to cross it together. As they +stepped on the bridge the ropes strained from the load and the wood +slats creaked and swayed in the wind. When they arrived on the other +side of the bridge, the mouse looked up at the elephant and said, "Boy +we really shook that bridge, didn't we?" + We, as Christians, many times fail to recognize the FACT that we +are chosen to have the CREATOR of the UNIVERSE along side each of us. +"If God be for us, who can stand against us?" As leaders, as +EKKLESIA, we need to be mindful of this fact in our lives. +Prayerfully we will look back after a "shaky bridge" of life and be +able to look at God and say the same words as that little mouse - "Boy +did WE really shake them up, Lord!" + One major area where many of us need special grace is in the area +of COMMUNICATION. God left His Word to allow us to be informed. WHY? +Because it is the very nature of God to inform His people of what is +necessary to allow us to perform our calling. The Psalmist tells us +that "He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel" +(Psalm 103:7). + "In the know" is a catch phrase used to designate a special group +of people with extra information not normally given to others. The +Leader of Christ's Kingdom should make certain that everyone that the +leader is in authority over, is assured a position of being "in the +know." + Turn to Colossians 4:7-9 and see what Paul told this body of +believers. Look at II Timothy 4:20. Look at Romans 16:21, and II +Timothy 4:11. Why does God through Paul allow so much Scripture to be +used to "update" some of the believers. WHY? To motivate or keep +them motivated? To involve them with what Paul was doing? To inspire +some additional prayer warriors? To show them they were important to +the Kingdom of God and His work in the world? ALL OF THE ABOVE! We +should take special note and put this concern for communication to +others in our heart. Our LIFESTYLE should reflect that we inform +those with whom we are working. + Proverbs 15:7 gives us the reverse to review. "The lips of the +wise spread knowledge, but the hearts of fools are not so." A wise +leader spreads the word - a fool does not. Pretty simple? The Truths +of God are in line with this truth, simple and clear. We, when we +give consideration to our own needs, realize that we have an +insatiable desire to know what is going to affect our lives, yet we +think that some people don't need to be "let in" on certain matters +until we deem it necessary. By so doing, we breed confusion and +misunderstanding and we demoralize those we are charged to lead. + We need to increase our ability to be pleasant. "Pleasant words +are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones" (Proverbs +16:24). A leader needs to inform the people with pleasant tones and +strive for the result that everyone involved will have high morale. + Solomon had many words on the different kinds of information that +a leader is to provide: + "A man has joy in an apt answer, and how delightful is a timely +word!" (Proverbs 15:23) There is a time to speak. If we jump the gun +and give information before the people are ready we may cause our +brother to stumble; yet if we wait too long, the "rumor mill" gets +into gear and causes disruptions. The leader must seek God's will and +plan and time. God will make certain that the leader is given what is +necessary to perform as God would desire. "Loyalty and truth +preserve the king, and he upholds his throne by righteousness" +(Proverbs 20:28). People will not, knowingly, follow a liar, anyone +who does not tell the full truth at all times. The leader who tells +the TRUTH in all situations creates an environment of trust, and God +uses this environment to move His kingdom forward. Even "white lies" +can prepare a road that people do not trust, and where people cannot +trust fully, people do not go. "The tongue of the wise makes +knowledge acceptable" (Proverbs 15:2). Too much, too soon can breed +many negative fruits. A Leader needs to pray continually for guidance +that he tells the necessary information to those under his charge and +does not "overload" the circuits by giving too much. The information +withheld cannot be vital information, but information that would not +assist the follower. + "The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds persuasiveness +to his lips." Leaders motivated by their hearts are persuasive. How +many of you have been turned off by a leader quoting from so-and-so or +Dr. So-and-So? Leadership means that you have taken a position in +front and are ready to share what happens to you "up there" to those +behind you to show that God provides. + + WHOLEHEARTEDNESS + + Paul, again to the Colossians wrote: "Whatsoever ye do, do it +heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." "Whatsoever thy hand +findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, +nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest" +(Colossians 3:23 & Ecclesiastes 9:10). God through two men of diverse +heritage and separated by many hundreds of years both spoke what God +told them to say - exhorting us to strive for the excellence and +wholeheartedness that God does EVERYTHING! + How do we respond, we say "Take it easy" or "Don't Burn Out" or +"Don't work too hard, buddy." This whole attitude is seen in the +world today and contributes to its mediocrity. We best be aware that +that is what lies ahead for us if we adopt this half- hearted +attitude. Our standards and our performance MUST be high. God set a +standard of PERFECTION. We must open our hearts to have Him produce +His PERFECT works through our wholehearted dedication to Him. + Jesus tells us today: "If any man will come after Me, let him +deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow Me," and Jesus +MEANT every word of this passage! We as leaders are blessed that we +build for the present. What we do has present results. We must be +mindful that our LIFESTYLE also builds for the future. If our heart +is not TOTAL for the Lord, what will our "charges" be like? Fire is +the only thing that kindles fire. We are charged by Jesus to be the +igniters of the world, yet many of us think, "Well, I spent my hour of +devotion today, now I'll watch the football game!" In John 2:17, we +read the words "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up." Can we +show the power of Christ and have the zeal of Christ? If not, then +who!? + Jesus also gave us the commandment of Mark 12:29-30. Read these +verses. They remain in His Word and are as valid TODAY as they were +when Jesus spoke them. In the Army, there is a saying: "When we play +men's games ONLY men will come to play." If we have a LIFESTYLE of +this standard of WHOLEHEARTEDNESS, we will attract those of like +desire. + + SINGLE-MINDEDNESS + + Everything in this world will pass away. Nothing is going to +remain! Two things will survive the events of Revelation, the Word of +God and the souls of mankind! Each of the leaders we read of in the +Scripture were not sidetracked from their chosen path, or were faint- +hearted because of overwhelming odds. Ridicule, opposition and even +death did not deter those who had given their whole heart to God and +were of one purpose - single-minded in purpose. + Our life is too short. James 4:14 gives us God's view. Keep +this in your minds and hearts. Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us where we are +to look. Turn there. + Everything that we do as 'sent' messengers and ambassadors of the +King is another reason for singlemindedness. I Corinthians 15:58 +tells us "Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, +always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know THAT +YOUR LABOR IS NOT IN VAIN in the LORD." We are GUARANTEED that what +we do in service TO THE LORD is worth something EVERLASTING! + A rich woman had a dream about being allowed to walk on the +streets of heaven. She came to a large structure and asked who that +MANSION was being built for. She was told the name and she remarked, +"That is my gardener. He wastes his money on the poor and lives in a +small house. Why should he get such a house?" The workmen told her +to take the matter up with the Master Builder; so she proceeded down +the street. Shortly she came to another structure, very small and +shabby. She asked who that house was for and she was given a name. +She realized that it was HER NAME! She stated, "Why, I live in a big +mansion and have a big car and want for nothing. Why should I live +here?" Again she was told to take the matter up with the Master +Builder. She then dreamed she was before the Master Builder and asked +why the difference in buildings. The Master Builder looked her in the +eye, and tears were in His, when He said; "Daughter, I can only build +with what you send up here for me to use." + Luke tells us of the time that Jesus "Steadfastly set His face to +go to Jerusalem." Jesus is our best example, and Paul sets the course +in his letter to the Philippians (3:13-14). Read this passage. In +both instances, both knew what lay ahead of them. One, Jesus, was the +LEADER by LIFESTYLE and Paul, the follower of the Perfect Leader. +Paul elaborates in Acts 20:24. Read this passage. Now, I call your +attention to Colossians 4:17, where WE are told: "Say to Archippus (or +John, or Sally or ...), "Take heed to the ministry which thou hast +received in the Lord that thou may fulfill it." + Each of us is called to a LIFE and a LIFESTYLE to follow, a +mission to complete, a path to walk on without straying. We need God +and His indwelling power and strength to make it to the end, because +it IS HARD! Praise God that you have been chosen to lead where many +do not walk. + +Computers For Christ - Chicago + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/inst02.txt b/religious documents/inst02.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3fd0371 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/inst02.txt @@ -0,0 +1,311 @@ + + SPIRITUAL SWORDSMANSHIP + or + Defending Yourself against False Doctrines + + THE PROBLEM + +. It is obvious from Scripture that every Christian is expected to +be able to fight back and defeat false teachings, no matter whether +they are being proclaimed by an obvious cult, or by a brother who has +fallen into error. Practically speaking, though, the average +Christian often feels outmatched in verse-to-verse combat and looks +for help from people he considers to be authorities. +. There is a great deal of very good, helpful material available, +but it usually has a problem or two that makes it difficult to use, +especially if it is a situation that the believer has never been in +before. This material will often give the reader tremendous insight, +but ordinarily, requires him to research, memorize, study and practice +it before he can use it effectively. It will also give him +information about only ONE group or teaching, without giving him a +general tool that can be used in all situations. The average +Christian doesn't have the time or interest to pursue this avenue, or +to become well informed about ALL the errant doctrines being put out. +As a result, he becomes discouraged, and gives up on EVER successfully +refuting false doctrine. +. This writer is convinced that each and every Christian, no matter +how long he has been a Christian or how knowledgeable he is about +spiritual things has the means at hand to defeat any and all false +teaching. All it requires is a knowledge of your weapon, how to use +it, and what pitfalls to avoid. + + YOUR PRINCIPAL WEAPON + +. Nearly every person who is teaching false doctrine seeks to +undermine the trustworthiness of the Bible. (A good sign the person +IS teaching false doctrine!) After running into a wall of disbelief, +you may be tempted to dispense with the Bible in favor of other +material, in the hopes that you may convince him of the error of his +way. DON'T, unless you are VERY familiar with the other material, and +can use it WELL! Even then, your primary weapon should STILL be the +Bible. +. This may seem obvious, but it is e exactly at THIS point that +many Christian "defenders of the Faith" get lost and confused. Much +of the material available puts this Book, the Holy Bible, which is our +real basis for power and authority, into an almost secondary position, +and will rely upon other sources for most of their arguments. +. If your friend - the one who is seeking to give you "another +gospel" - distrusts the accuracy of the Bible, it makes NO difference +in its being YOUR principal weapon. A sword remains a sword, even if +the opponent doesn't think it is a reliable weapon. The Word of God +remains the Word of God, "...living and active; sharper than any +double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing the soul and +spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the +heart" (Hebrews 4:12), even if your friend disbelieves it. +. This is true even if your friend is a self-avowed atheist, or +part of a non-Christian religion - although some of what follows won't +apply - STICK TO THE BIBLE!!! No other material has a divine +guarantee of total effectiveness that the Bible has! The other +materials can be used, if you desire, to further establish the fallacy +of your friends claims, but your most reliable weapon in fighting +error is the Holy Bible. Even if he INSISTS upon disregarding the +Bible, and going elsewhere to find truth, DON'T DO IT! If he gets +upset, ask him what he is afraid of finding in the Bible. + + EFFECTIVE DOCTRINAL DUELING + +. Like the sword it compares itself to, the Bible can be used to +either attack or defend. To carry the parallel even further, it takes +a fair amount of practice and experience to use a sword - or the Bible +- effectively on the offense. As you grow and mature in your Walk +with the Lord Jesus, your ability to use His Word will grow with you. +But many of those who are approached by these "false apostles" (and +sometimes led astray by them) haven't had the time to become familiar, +much less skilled, in using the Bible. +. When a soldier is being trained to fight, he is usually taught +how to defend himself LONG before he is taught how to attack. There +is every reason to expect this to be appropriate for our spiritual +battles, as well. When talking with a person from any organization +(or teaching) that is false, but wants to present itself or himself as +"Christian," sooner or later, there will be an attempt to use a +passage from the Bible to support or defend a doctrine that may be in +conflict with the Truth of Scripture. +. When ANYONE - even someone who is honestly seeking to teach the +True Word of God - uses the Bible to teach or illustrate a concept +unfamiliar to you (particularly when it is in conflict with what you +have been taught before!), STOP THE CONVERSATION RIGHT THERE!!! Get +out a Bible, turn to he passage just used, and read it - out loud, if +possible, and include the entire paragraph in which it is found. A +teacher of Truth probably won't mind, and a false teacher may or may +not - their response at this point won't tell you much. If they +object, just inform them that you want to find out if their use of the +passage agrees with the author's intention, and continue examining the +section! Under NO circumstances should your discussion continue until +you have checked the passage to see if your friend and the author +agree. Do this in EACH INSTANCE! The friend may be A-OK in some +cases just to get you to believe that he knows what he is talking +about, but then divert into the "real" false teachings after having +obtained your confidence. + + BASIC INTERPRETIVE THRUST + +. The easiest way to determine the AUTHOR'S intent in a passage is +to ask a series of simple questions - WHO?, WHEN?, WHERE?, HOW?, +WHAT?, WHY?, and even SO WHAT? (These are sometimes referred to as +the "journalism" questions). In order to answer the questions, you +will need to examine MORE than just the passage quoted, but will find +the answers in the context of the entire Book. After doing that, see +if either your interpretation or his interpretation, should they be +different, is closest to agreement with the Bible. God NEVER +contradicts himself! A good help would be to follow the cross- +references that are often in the margins of the Bible. +. A false teaching will ALWAYS differ from the original purpose of +the author; so you can spot - and refute - false teachings quite +easily and effectively by using this simple method. It may sound like +more work than you'd like to go through, and may even seem to be rude, +at times, but it is a workable means to keep from being fooled by +false teachings and deceiving spirits. It may be much easier to +simply believe what someone tells you, particularly if they sound +authoritative and have a positive, glowing personality, but Satan and +his demonic forces prey upon those who blindly follow - see II +Corinthians 11:3,4,13-15. +. The Bible commands each of us to TEST ALL THINGS and to TEST +EVERYONE to make CERTAIN that their teaching is truthful, and with +your eternal destiny at stake, you cannot afford to be lazy - CAN YOU? +. "BUT THAT'S JUST YOUR INTERPRETATION." Should the interpretation +you receive differ from the teacher - as they will if your friend is a +false teacher - then the teacher may attempt to disregard your +interpretation and dismiss it because it is a variation, based upon +your "pre-suppositions." This allows him to retain his interpretation +as an acceptable interpretation, even more correct option, which +ignores the fact that HIS interpretation is based upon HIS pre- +suppositions! +. Essentially he is correct in his assertion that this is merely a +matter of interpretation, and you can (and perhaps SHOULD) agree with +him about this point - But point out the interpretative method that +you used (the "journalism" questions) is designed to help you +understand what the Author really meant by what he said. Then ask him +what HIS interpretative method (the method HE used to determine the +meaning of the passage) is or was, and what he is trying to determine +by using that method. +. Sometimes, he will insist that it is the same one you use - then +ask to see the steps that he took to reach his conclusions. But, +usually, the significance of the real difference in means and purpose +of interpreting Scriptures won't sink in until it has been repeated +several times, which means you should, at this point, invite him to +continue in his efforts to show the Biblical basis of his teaching. +Each and every time - even when it gets a bit tough to do - he uses +the Bible, go through the exact same procedure, asking the questions +and explaining your purpose. +. Sooner or later (if his teaching is false) he will begin to +realize that HIS method is to see in the passage what he WANTS to see +(often because someone else told HIM that it was there!), and his sole +purpose is to support the teaching. He has taken his belief to the +text to be supported, rather than going to the text to learn what IT +HAS to teach. Once that realization is made, it is usually a simple +matter to go on and teach the Gospel message that the Bible really +teaches. +. There are a few "traps" you need to watch out for: + +1. THE RETRANSLATION TRAP + +. A false teaching or system that claims to be "Christian" often +uses the EXACT same words you would hear being used in a true, +Biblically sound Christian gathering. There is a subtle danger here. +In nearly every case, these special words and phrases mean something +different to the false teacher or follower than they do to you. They +have been re-interpreted, usually without your friend even being aware +of it. They now mean something very different and foreign to the +meaning that you attach to them. +. There are a couple of things you need to remember and do anytime +you are dealing with someone that you suspect is teaching heresy. +. First is to avoid using those special meaning words of +Christianity that are so familiar to you, such as "saved","Born- +Again","Savior","Son of God","Gospel" and many others. Try to use +phrases that DEFINE these terms, or other words that means the same +thing that are not used in the cliche' manner that these are. +. Secondly, be certain that you both understand what each of you +mean when these terms ARE used when you are speaking about spiritual +matters of any kind. Make certain that you define what YOU mean when +YOU say "Christ dies for my sins" or anything else in a spiritual +sense. Ask HIM what "Jesus is THE Christ" REALLY means to him - get +him to clearly and totally define it - or any other term you both may +be using. This may take a bit of doing, but keep at it until you are +positive that you both understand each other. If there is any +complaint, just tell your friend that with eternity "hanging" on the +very meaning of these terms, you are required to be absolutely certain +that you both understand what the other means by what he says. + +2. THE "SKIPPING ROCKS" TRAP + +. One thing that often happens in a discussion on religion is that +one or all parties involved will jump from one subject to another, +never staying on any one point long enough to be thorough in +investigating the Truth it may contain. One or all will keep jumping +from the original Scripture under discussion to others, scattered +throughout the Bible, intending to support or clarify what is thought +to be taught in the first passage considered. Both are to be avoided. +. Be polite, but refuse to budge from the original text until it +has been COMPLETELY examined, using the questions we have noted +before. Only AFTER that is done should you allow the discussion to +proceed to other passages for confirmation or refutation, but keep +referring back to the original text that is "being justified". +. All the data you need to refute a misuse of Scripture can be +found right in the immediate context - you don't need to go elsewhere +to do that, and the impact of refuting a false interpretation from the +passage, itself, is much greater than it is going to some other text. +All you need is the immediate context, nothing more, except to VERIFY +an interpretation! + +3. THE BIBLE BASH TRAP + +. This is very similar to the "skipping rocks" trap above, except +it is a trap that YOU are much more likely to fall into than your +"errant" friend might be. As soon as you hear a teaching that is +obviously contrary to the Truth of Scripture, you may be tempted to +begin immediately to quote other Bible passages to disprove it. At +this point, your friend starts quoting passages just as +enthusiastically, proving HIS point of view (and seemingly disproving +yours). +. Neither of you is really listening to the other - you're just +"spouting" Scriptures with no REAL reference to one another. Nothing +is accomplished, except that, perhaps, some heat is generated, but +little LIGHT. Stick to the original passage - it will get and keep +your friend's attention, as you are giving evidence that you are +seriously listening to him. If you want to confirm the true +interpretation, THEN and ONLY THEN, go on to other passages. But as +before, all the material you really need has been provided by God to +be at your fingertips, in the full context of the verses quoted - +there is little need to go elsewhere. + + A PRACTICE RUN + +. One of the most common errors is to teach that something besides +Faith, alone, is needed for salvation in many of its facets. Usually +this takes the form of a faith PLUS some personal effort. (A "work" +to be added to what God has TOTALLY provided in Christ Jesus) +. The favorite passage to support this "works" theory is James +2:14-26 - "..faith without works is dead.." - and therefore, some sort +of personal "work", which is usually "gladly spelled out in detail" by +your friend, is needed to REALLY get into God's favor. Although you +could probably quote a good dozen verses to discredit that concept, +for the time being, lets stick with the letter of James - particularly +to the immediate context of James 2:14-26 - and ask an "expanded" form +of the "journalism" questions we have mentioned already. +. Get out your Bible, some paper and pen, and then answer the +questions, looking at ALL of James, but ONLY JAMES! Ready? - Then +start "rightly dividing the Word of Truth"! + +* Who is the AUTHOR? What can you tell about him from this +Epistle? +* Who are the original readers? What can you tell about them from +this Epistle? +* HOW does he use and define his KEY WORDS in the passage? (Words +like Faith, Works and Dead) +* HOW do his examples illustrate and clarify his meaning? +* WHAT is he talking about? What is his primary subject, concept, +teaching or whatever? +* WHAT is he saying about what he is talking about? What is the +point of the passage? What does he want YOU to know about his +subject, concept or teaching? +* WHY is he saying this? Is there an error that he seeks to +correct? Maybe a new knowledge to be revealed? WHAT is his purpose? +* WHY is he saying it to these particular people? What are they +thinking or doing or believing or hearing or preaching that may have +prompted this letter to be written. +* SO WHAT? What response should you have? What response did the +Author expect from his readers? +* Is there ANY SUPPORT from the rest of the Bible for your +conclusions? + + SOME HINTS + +. Looking carefully for the following will help to answer the +questions and keep you honest to he text and context: + +* Watch noun and pronoun shifts - sometimes the author will include +himself with the group that he is writing to or about, other times he +may remain silent or separate. The difference is often very +important. In addition, our example above didn't include a couple of +questions - the WHEN and WHERE - as they would not have added much to +the interpretation. However; in some cases, they are most important, +and for this reason are outlined below: + +* WHEN was it written? What events took place just before, just +after, or at the same time as this epistle? +* WHEN does the action described take place? Past, present or +future? Eternal or temporal? +* WHERE was the Author when these words were first written? Why +was he there? +* WHERE were the original readers? Why were they there? + + GET READY FOR BATTLE + +. These basic questions, based on simple "journalism" questions of +WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW, WHY AND SO WHAT, with little variation, +are all that is needed to determine the original intent of any +Biblical author through an examination of the text, in context. They +will enable you to detect and refute false teaching EVERY TIME! +. Your main responsibility, now, is to practice to make these +questions automatic, so that you will always be ready to defend +yourself when under attack by those who would lead you astray. Your +own daily Bible study and reading would be a good place to start, or +you could check out your pastor's text after you get home from church +(Believe it, or not, he would probably appreciate it)! Enjoy your +training, as you learn to be an expert "soldier" in Service of the +King (Ephesians 6:10-18). KEEP PRACTICING! + +J. Steven Smith + +Computers for Christ + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/inst13.txt b/religious documents/inst13.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e15f697 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/inst13.txt @@ -0,0 +1,353 @@ + + BREAKING UP THE FALLOW GROUND + + An Outline For Repentance + + + This is for Christians who have had trouble finding the true +peace that is promised with conversion. For those who are frustrated +because they are constantly struggling with weakness and sin, this +could well be the very help they've been praying for. Charles Finney +saw more true conversions in his life and ministry than any other +American before or since. We thank God for continuing to anoint and +use his writings. Many thousands have been helped by this article to +break through to God's precious forgiveness. Remember one thing as +you read this - God loves you so much, and is waiting for you to be +thoroughly cleansed by His grace through repentance. - Keith and +Melody Green + + The Jews were a nation of farmers, and it is therefore a common +thing for God to refer, in the Scriptures, to scenes from their daily +lives as illustrations. Hosea addresses them as a nation of +backsliders, but uses words that farmers and shepherds are familiar +with. He rebukes them for their idolatry and sharply warns them of +the impending judgments of God. + A revival consists of two parts: its effect on the Church, and +its effect on the ungodly. I will speak at this time of a revival in +the Church. Fallow ground is ground which has once been tilled, but +now it lies waste and has gotten hard. It needs to be broken up and +made soft again, before it is ready to receive seed. + If you mean to break up the fallow ground of your heart, you must +begin by looking at your heart: examine carefully the state of your +mind and see where you are. Many people never even seem to think +about doing this! They pay no attention to their own hearts, and +never know whether they are doing well in their walk with the Lord or +not; whether they are gaining ground or going backwards; whether they +are bearing fruit or are totally barren. Now you must draw off your +attention from all other things and look into this right now! Make a +business of it, do not be in a hurry. Examine the state of your heart +thoroughly, and see where you are: are you walking with God everyday, +or with the Devil? + Self-examination consists of looking at your life, considering +your motives and actions...calling up your past and seeing its true +character. Look back over your past history. Take up your individual +sins one by one, and look at them. This doesn't mean that you should +just take a casual glance at your past life, and see that it has been +full of sins and then go to God and make a sort of general confession, +asking forgiveness. This is not the way. You must take them up one +by one. It's a good idea to take a pen and some paper as you go over +them, and write them down as they come to mind. + Go over them as carefully as a businessman goes over his books; +and as often as a sin comes to your memory, write it down! General +confessions of sin are not good enough. Your sins were committed one +by one; and as much as you are able, they ought to be reviewed and +repented of one by one. Now begin, and start with what are usually, +but improperly called 'sins of omission' (i.e. things you didn't do +that you should have). + +INGRATITUDE (unthankfulness). Take this sin, for example, and write +down under this heading all the times you can remember where you have +received great blessings and favors from God for which you have never +given thanks. How many cases can you remember? Some remarkable +protection where your life was spared, some wonderful turn of events +that saved you from ruin. Write down the instances of God's goodness +to you when you were living in sin, before your conversion, for which +you have never been half-thankful enough; and the uncountable mercies +you have received since. How long the list of times where your +ingratitude has been so black that you are forced to hide your face in +shame! Get on your knees and confess them one by one to God, and ask +Him to forgive you. As you're confessing these, they will immediately +remind you of others...write these down too! Go over them three of +four times in this way, and see what an incredible number of times God +has given you mercy for which you have never thanked Him! + +LACK OF LOVE FOR GOD. Think how grieved and alarmed you'd be, if you +suddenly realized a great lack of affection for you in your wife, +husband, or children; if you saw that someone else had captured their +hearts, thoughts and time. Perhaps in such a case you would almost +die with a just and holy jealousy. Now, God calls Himself a jealous +God. Have you not given your heart to other loves and infinitely +offended Him? + +NEGLECT OF THE BIBLE. Put down the cases where for perhaps weeks, or +longer, God's word was not a pleasure. Some people, indeed, read over +whole chapters in such a way, that afterwards they could not tell you +what they had been reading. If that is so with you, no wonder your +life has no direction, and your religion (relationship with God), is +such a miserable failure. + +UNBELIEF. Recall the instances in which you have virtually charged +the God of truth with lying, by your unbelief of His express promises +and declarations. If you have not believed or expected to receive the +blessings which God has clearly promised, you have called Him a liar. + +LACK OF PRAYER. Think of all the times you have neglected private- +prayer, family-prayer and group-prayer meetings; or prayed in such a +way as to grieve and offend God more, than if you hadn't prayed at +all. + +NEGLECT OF FELLOWSHIP. When you have allowed yourself to make small, +and foolish excuses that have prevented you from attending meetings. +When you have neglected and poured contempt upon the gathering of the +saints merely because you "didn't like church!" + +THE MANNER IN WHICH YOU HAVE PERFORMED SPIRITUAL DUTIES. Think of all +the times when you have spoken about God with such lack of feeling and +faith, in such a worldly frame of mind, that your words were nothing +more than the mere chattering of a wretch who didn't deserve that God +should listen to him at all. When you have fallen down upon your +knees and "said your prayers" in such an unfeeling and careless way, +that if you had been put under oath five minutes later, you could not +say what you had been praying for. + +LACK OF LOVE FOR SOULS. Look around at all your friends and +relatives, and think of how little compassion you have felt for them. +You have stood by and seen them going straight to hell, and it seems +as though you didn't even care. How many days have there been, when +you have failed to make their wretched condition the subject of even +one single fervent prayer, or to prove any real desire for their +salvation? + +LACK OF CARE FOR THE POOR AND LOST IN FOREIGN LANDS. Perhaps you have +not cared enough about them to even attempt to learn of their +condition. Do you avoid missions-magazines? How much do you really +know or care about the unconverted masses of the world? Measure your +desire for their salvation by the self-denial you practice, in giving +from your substance to send them the gospel. Do you deny yourself +even the hurtful expenses of life, such as tobacco, alcohol, expensive +food, clothes, and entertainment? Do you defend your standard of +living? Will you not suffer yourself ANY inconvenience to save them? +Do you daily pray for them in private? Are you setting aside funds to +put into the treasury of the Lord when you go up to pray? If you are +not doing these things, and if your soul is not agonized for the poor +and lost of this world, then why are you such a hypocrite as to +pretend to be a Christian? Why, your profession of faith is an insult +to Jesus Christ! + +NEGLECT OF FAMILY DUTIES. Think of how you have lived before your +family, how you have prayed, what an example you have set before them. +What direct efforts do you habitually make for their spiritual +welfare? + +LACK OF WATCHFULNESS OVER YOUR WITNESS. How many times have you +failed to take your words and actions seriously? How often have you +entirely neglected to watch your conduct and speech, and having been +off your guard, have sinned before the world, the church, and before +God! + +NEGLECT TO WATCH OVER YOUR BRETHREN. How often have you broken your +covenant, that you would watch over them in the Lord? How little do +you know or care about the state of their souls? And yet you are +under a solemn duty to watch over them. What have you done to get to +know them better? How many times have you seen your brothers or +sisters growing cold in faith and have not spoken to them about +it...neglecting one spiritual duty after another, and you did not +reprove them in love? You have seen them falling into sin, and you +let them go on. And you pretend to love them? What a hypocrite! +Would you watch your wife or child going into disgrace, or falling +into a fire, and hold your peace? + +NEGLECT OF SELF-DENIAL. There are many professing Christians who are +willing to do almost anything in religion that does not require self- +denial. They think they are doing a great deal for God, and doing +about as much as He ought to reasonably ask, but they are not willing +to deny themselves any comfort or convenience whatever for the sake of +serving the Lord. They will not willingly suffer reproach for the +name of Christ. Nor will they deny themselves the luxuries of life to +save a world from hell. So far are they from realizing that self- +denial is a condition of discipleship, that they do not even know what +it is. They never have really denied themselves a ribbon or a pin for +Christ and the gospel. Oh, how soon ones such as these will be in +hell! Some are giving from their abundance, and giving a lot, and +will even complain that others do not give more; when, in truth, they +are not giving anything that they need, or anything that they would +enjoy if they kept it. They only give of their surplus wealth! + + Now we turn to sins of commission... + +LOVE OF THINGS AND POSSESSIONS. What has been the state of your heart +concerning your worldly possessions? Have you looked at them as +really yours - as if you had a right to use, or dispose of them as +your own? If you have, write it down! If you have loved property, +and sought after it for its own sake, or to gratify ambition or to lay +it up for your family, you have sinned and must repent. + +VANITY. How many times have you spent more time decorating your body +to go to church than you have in preparing your heart and mind for the +worship of God? You have cared more about how you appeared outwardly +to men than how your soul appeared in the sight of God. You sought to +divide the worship of God's house, to draw off the attention of God's +people, to look at your pretty appearance. And you pretend that you +do not care anything about having people look at you. Be honest about +it! Would you take all this pain about your looks if every person +were blind? + +ENVY. Look at the cases in which you were jealous of those who were +in a higher position than you. Or perhaps you have envied those who +have been more talented, or more useful than yourself. Have you not +so envied some, that it has caused you pain to hear them praised? It +has pleased you more to dwell upon their faults than upon their +virtues...upon their failures rather than their successes. Be honest +with yourself, and if you have harbored this spirit of hell, repent +deeply before God. + +BITTERNESS. Recall all the instances in which you have harbored a +grudge, or a bitter spirit toward someone, or have spoken of +Christians in a manner completely devoid of charity and love. Love +"hopes all things", but you have given no benefit of doubt, and have +suspected the worst! + +SLANDER (gossip). Think of all the times you have spoken behind +people's backs of their faults, real or supposes, unnecessarily and +without cause. This is slander. You need not lie to be guilty of +slander; to tell the truth with the intent to injure is slander. + +LEVITY (a spirit of excessive humor). How often have you joked before +God, as you would not have dared in the presence of an earthly +dignitary or important official. You have either been an atheist and +forgotten that God existed, or have had less respect for Him and His +presence, than you would have had for a mere judge on earth. + +LYING. Now understand what lying is. Any form of designed deception +is lying. If you purpose to make an impression other than the naked +truth, you lie. Put down all those cases you can recollect. Do not +call them by any soft names. God calls them lies and charges you with +lying, so you'd better charge yourself correctly! Think of all your +words, looks, and actions designed to make an impression on others +contrary to the truth, for selfish reasons. + +CHEATING. Set down all the cases where you have dealt with anyone in +a way you, yourself would not like at all. That is cheating. God has +said that we should treat all men in the same manner we would like to +be treated. That is the rule. And if you have not done so you are a +cheat! God did not say that you should do what you would expect them +to do, for if that were the rule it would allow for all kinds of +wickedness in our actions. But it says, "Do what you would want them +to do to you! (Have you cheated the government? i.e., unemployment +insurance, welfare, food stamps, social security, student loans, +etc...gained by fraud?) + +HYPOCRISY. For instance, in your prayers and confessions to God, set +down all the times in which you have prayed for things you didn't +really want. How many times have you confessed sins that you never +intended to stop doing? Yes, you have confessed sins when you knew in +your heart you as much expected to go and repeat them, as you expected +to live! + +ROBBING GOD. Think of all the instances in which you have totally +misspent your time, squandering the hours which God gave you to serve +Him, and save souls. Precious time wasted in vain amusement or +worthless conversation, in reading worldly novels, or even doing +nothing; cases where you have misused your talents and ability to +think. Think of how you have squandered God's money on your lusts, or +spent it for things which you really didn't need, which did not +contribute to your health, comfort, or usefulness. + +BAD TEMPER. Perhaps you have abused your wife, or your children, or +your family, or employees, or neighbors. Write it all down! + +HINDERING OTHERS FROM BEING USEFUL. You have not only robbed God of +your own talents, but tied the hands of somebody else. What a wicked +servant is he who not only is useless himself, but hinders the rest! +This is done sometimes by taking their time needlessly. Thus you have +played into the hands of Satan, and not only proved yourself to be an +idle vagabond, but prevented others from working also. + + SOME IMPORTANT GUIDELINES TO FOLLOW + + If you find you have committed a fault against anyone, and that +person is within your reach, go and confess it immediately, and get +that out of the way. If they are too far away for you to go and see +them, sit down and write them a letter (or better yet call them) +confessing the injury you have committed against them. If you have +defrauded anybody, send the money, the full amount and the interest. + Go thoroughly to work in all this! Go now! Do not put it off; +that will only make matters worse. Confess to God those sins that +have been committed against God, and to man, those sins that have been +committed against man. Do not think about getting off easy by going +around the stumbling-blocks. Take them up out of the way. In +breaking up your fallow ground, you must remove every obstacle. +Things may be left that you may think are little things, and you may +wonder why you don't have your peace with God, when the reason is your +proud and carnal mind has covered up something which God has required +you to confess and remove. Break up all the ground and turn it over. +Do not turn aside for little difficulties; drive the plow right +through them, beam deep, and turn the ground up so that it all may be +mellow and soft, and fit to receive the grain and bear fruit, "a +hundredfold". + When you have gone thoroughly over your whole history in this +way, if you will then go over the ground a second time, you will find +that the things you have put down will suggest other things of which +you have been guilty, connected with them, or near them. Then go over +it a third time, and you will recollect other things connected with +these. And you will find when you are finished that you can remember +an amount of history in specific detail, that you did not think that +you could remember even if you had all eternity. + Unless you take up your sins in this way, and consider them in +detail, one by one, you can form no idea of the amount or weight of +them. You should go over the list as thoroughly, and as carefully, +and as solemnly, as if you were preparing yourself for the judgment +(1Corinthians 11:31). + As you go over the catalogue of your sins, be sure to resolve +upon immediate and entire reformation. Wherever you find anything +wrong, resolve at once in the strength of God to sin no more in that +way. It will be of no benefit to examine yourself, unless you +determine to change, in every aspect, that which you find wrong in +heart, temper, or conduct. + Set yourself to the work now; resolve that you will never stop +until you find you can pray. Let there be this deep work of +repentance and full confession, this breaking down before God, and you +will have as much of the spirit of prayer as your body can bear. The +reason why so few Christians know anything about the spirit of prayer +is because they never would take the pains to examine themselves +properly, and so they've never known what it is to have their hearts +all broken up in this way. + It will do no good to preach to you while your hearts are in this +hardened, waste, and fallow state. The farmer might just as well sow +his grain upon concrete; it will bring forth no fruit. This is why +there are so many fruitless professing Christians in the Church, and +why there is so much technique and tradition, and so little sincere +feeling. Look at the Sunday-school for instance and see how many +programs and trappings there are, and how little of the power of +Godliness. If you go on like this, the work of God will continue to +harden you, and you will grow worse and worse, just as the rain and +snow on an old fallow field make the turf thicker and the clods +stronger. + Professing Christians should never satisfy themselves or expect a +revival just by getting all excited, blustering about, and talking to +sinners. They must get their fallow ground broken up. You may get +into an excitement without this breaking up; you may show a kind of +zeal, but it will not last long. It will not take hold of sinners, +unless your hearts are broken up. The reason is, that you go about +mechanically, without the Spirit, having not broken up your fallow +ground. + And now, finally, will you break up your fallow ground? Will you +enter upon the course now pointed out and persevere until you are +thoroughly awake? If you fail here, if you do not do this, and get +prepared, you can go no farther with me. I have gone with you as far +as I can, until your fallow ground is broken up. Now, you must make +thorough work upon this point or all I have further to say will do you +little good. No, rather it will only harden, and make you worse. If +you do not set about this work immediately, I shall take it for +granted that you do not want to be revived. If you do not do this, I +charge you with having forsaken Christ, with refusing to repent and do +your first works (Revelation 2:5)! + +From Chapter Three of "Revival Lectures" By Charles G. Finney + +Edited and Paraphrased by Keith and Melody Green + + Contributed by The Manna System + (714)-532-6310 + 300/1200 Baud + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/intro.txt b/religious documents/intro.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4f1a62 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/intro.txt @@ -0,0 +1,446 @@ + + + SATANISM - + + A Basic Introduction For Prospective Adherents + + + Anton Long + + (Order of Nine Angles) + + + Introduction + + This present work aims to provide an introduction to genuine +Satanism for those interested in this particular Occult way. + It is written by someone who has been involved in Satanism for a +quarter of a century and who now has the honour of being the Grand Master +representing traditional Satanists. + The work is honest and revealing and therefore informative, and +will go some way to demolishing the myths prevalent regarding Satanism. +Because of its honest and revealing nature, it will also undermine the many +pseudo-Satanists who have little or no understanding of what real Satanism +is all about. + + In genuine Satanism, there are rituals of an Occult kind, as there +is an exultation in the carnal. There is also real evil - dark and +dangerous deeds: a living of life to the fullest extent. All of these +things - and much more - will be explained. + + + I - The Satanic Game + + SATANISM is understood by its genuine adherents as a particular +Occult way or method. That is, it is a specific path or way toward a +specific goal, the following of which involves a particular way of living. + The specific path is a dark, sinister, or 'Left Hand Path' one, and +the specific goal is the creation of a new type of individual. + On a more general level, Satanism is concerned with changing our +evolution and the societies we live in - creating, in fact a new human +species and a civilization appropriate to the new type of human being. + + However, Satanism is often regarded by the mis-informed and by its +enemies, as being one or more of the following: (a) worship of the +Devil/Satan; (b) a religious cult which practices Black Magick; (c) an +inversion of the Nazarene religion and its rites; (d) a sect which preaches +and practices perversions and sexual licence. + Further - an incorrectly - the figure of Satan Himself is commonly +held to derive from the religion described in the Hebrew 'Old Testament', +with the word "Satan" being regarded as derived from the Hebrew word for +"accuser". + In fact, the Hebrew word which is often rendered as "Satan" is +itself derived from another word - an ancient Greek one. This Greek word - +an is [aitia] - that is, 'an accusation'. [See, for example, its use by +Aeschylus - aitiau ekho.] Essentially, the Hebrew word 'Satan' is a corrupt +form of the Greek word for an 'accusation'. In Greek of the classical +period, [aitia] and [diabole] were often used for the same thing, +especially when a 'Wrong' or 'Bad' sense was required, as, for example in a +'false accusation'. + Thus, in essence, Satan as a word represents 'Adversary' in the +sense of opposing norm, the accepted, and this sense is still retained in +the usage of 'Devil' (e.g. Devil's Advocate). The word 'Devil' is derived +from the Greek word above, via the Latin 'diabolus'. + The figure of Satan is thus seen to be not a Hebrew invention, as +hitherto supposed, but in fact a representation of Opposition, Heresy: a +refusal to accept the 'accepted'. + Satan is regarded, by Satanists, as a symbol - both real and +archetypal - of Defiance, of Pride (a refusal to bow down and meekly +submit) and thus of creative change. From Opposition derives a synthesis, +the process of dialectical change which governs evolution. + + Fundamentally, Satanism is anti-religious. Religion means a +submission - to a deity and its 'appointed' authority/church. It also means +a certain way of viewing the world. The religious way is the way of dogma, +of revelation, and ultimately, of fear - there is concern with reward and +retribution, concepts of sin and such like. There is and must be faith. + The way of Satanism is the way of liberation: internally and +externally. There is a desire to know based on experience, rather than a +faith. There is a desire to be proud and exultant, to revel in life and to +fulfil the possibilities that life offers. In other words, to really live, +completely, and to extend to frontiers of existence: to achieve, to +prosper, to excel. To set the standards, the example, for others rather +than to follow those of someone else. + Thus, because of 'human nature', Satanism is suited to a minority - +the few who can really defy and go against accepted norms. For it is a +fundamental principle of Satanism that each individual Satanist finds his +or her own limits and thus lives, and if necessary dies, by their own +morality or ethics. That is, a Satanist accepts no standards, no code of +ethics, no morality: they create their own standards, and live by their own +morality, however dark or evil that morality may seem to others or +'society'. + This principle means that Satanists are amoral in the conventional +sense: they accept no restrictions other than those they impose on +themselves. There is not and can never be, any such thing as 'Satanic +ethics' or a Satanic authority which individual Satanists must accept and +be subservient to - for these are contrary to the essence of Satanism. + Satanism is an individualized defiance, an individual quest - it is +the principle of evolution in human practice: the strong survive, win +through, while the weak perish. + However, this does not mean what most opponents of Satanism assume +it means - a license for anarchic self-indulgence and a wallowing in +lust/depravity and so on. A Satanist has a goal, an ulterior motive beyond +the satisfaction of the 'ego' and an indulgence of unconscious impulses. +This goal is to excel - to go beyond what one is. To do this requires a +self-mastery, a real self-discipline. Both of these can only be acquired by +experience in real life. A Satanist desires to evolve - this requires +strength of character, resolve. What a Satanist does, in real-life or in +ritual, is to explore the limits of themselves and the world - to +experience and so grow, to fulfil the potential of existence, of +'god-head'/divinity latent within them. Everything is a means to this - +rituals, other people, society itself. + As a result of the ulterior motive, there is perspective - an +understanding beyond the impulse/feelings/desires of the moment or the +experience. In brief, there is real insight and judgement, a +self-awareness. + Of course, this is not easy. The failures become trapped in - or +never go beyond - the moment and the desires/impulses/feelings of the +moment. In simple terms, the failures, the pseudo-Satanists wallow in their +dark side and that of 'society' without either understanding it or +transcending it. + Fundamentally, a Satanist knows and understands where they are +going and what they are doing/why they are doing it: the failures, the +pseuds, are trapped by the acts or acts or experience. The Satanist is +strong, proud, defiant, self-disciplined and in control; the failures, the +pseuds are in thrall to their feelings, emotions, and without any real +self-discipline and thus insight. + Naturally, the way of Satanism is not easy: the methods, +experiences and so on which the Satanist uses to obtain their goal are +risky and dangerous. It is easy to fail, get caught or whatever. There is +nothing to aid the Satanist in his or her quest - nothing to make it easy +or easier: there is only his or her determination and learning from +experience; the gradual development of character from experience, and thus +a real evolution. + + The way of Satanism sets forth various learning experiences, reveal +various esoteric techniques and offers an esoteric or 'initiated' insight +into life, individuals and the cosmos itself. Satanism is a practical way +of living, and in the early stages a part of this involves magickal +practices and rituals. These are experiences, the development of certain +esoteric skills, and this a learning of 'forbidden' Arts. They also enable +indulgence in worldly pleasures - carnal, material and otherwise. But such +rituals are not a fetish or of a religious nature - they are merely means, +to be used, learned from and then transcended. For a Satanist always moves +on - to new experiences, new learning, new insights, new challenges. + For most, the overtly Occult aspects - involving participating in +magickal rites and running (and thereby manipulating) one's own +group/Temple - lasts a few years. After that, it has served it purpose, and +is left behind. There is then, for the Satanist, an involvement with other +Satanic practices in order to further develop the character and abilities +of that Satanist, and to express by their acts and way of living, the dark +side of existence. + Some of these Satanic practices are, viewed conventionally, evil +and some are 'illegal' or at least rather dubious in nature. They are +chosen by the Satanist to further their development and to help what is +known as the 'sinister dialectic of history'. + They are chosen to aid the unique Destiny which the Satanist wishes +to achieve - to fulfill their existence in a unique way. For each Satanist +wishes to make their mark on the world - to achieve something with their +lives, this achievement being significant. They wish to change things - for +their life to have an effect: to participate significantly in evolution. +Thus, a Satanist, aware of their Destiny - or desiring to achieve a +Destiny - seeks experiences which will aid that destiny, which will enable +its complete fulfilment. The choice is theirs, and theirs alone - there are +no restraints, other than that they should work and achieve or aid that +Destiny. + In consequence, some of the deeds they may undertake may be - and +really should be - evil. That is, disruptive of norms, both personal and +supra-personal (ie. 'society' based). Some may involve 'culling' (ie. +removing human dross or those who oppose the Destiny of the Satanist - via +sacrifice or whatever). Some may involve 'illegal'/terrorist/amoral acts. + What is important about what is chosen and done is that (a) it aids +or fulfills the Destiny of the Satanist so choosing and acting; and/or (b) +it aids Satanism in general ie. it helps to fulfil the "sinister dialectic +of history". There are no other considerations - ethical, moral, religious +or whatever. + + The 'sinister dialectic of history' is the name used to describe +Satanic strategy. [Note: The Training and guidance of individual Satanists +by an established Satanic Order/group or Master/Mistress, is a tactic used +to achieve the strategic goal.] The aim of this strategy is to change +evolution - i.e. the evolution of our species and the cosmos itself, by +interaction. This evolution is toward 'the sinister' - i.e. toward greater +individuality and creativity. To achieve this, restrictions have to be +destroyed. This means the restructuring of societies, among other things. +Essentially, the aim is to create a new human species - to develop that +potential latent within us as individuals: to achieve the divine. Or +expressed another way, to let the human species develop maturity - at +present the vast majority are still immature children. And they are kept +that way by the restraints and impositions and control of societies and +religions and other structures (such as politics): by ethics, and by dogma. + The archetype for this change is Satan - the Adversary, the +Heretic, the Proud One who refuses to bow down before some 'god'; who +refuses to accept subservience. To achieve this change there has to be a +learning - a gradual increase in the number of genuine Satanists: i.e. in +those who are free of external and internal restraints and who allegiance +is to the creative energy that creates all life and engenders its change +and thus evolution and which therefore is the essences of existence. + Each Satanist, by living Satanically, aids the dialectic and thus +aids evolutionary change - they learn to play at being god. As for the rest +- they can participate, and so learn and so evolve to another existence. Or +they can be used, by Satanists, to effect changes greater than themselves. + There are no limitations unless we create them - and if others +create them, they are there to be transcended. To exult in excellence is +the name of the only game worth playing: the Satanic one. + + + ^^^^^^^ + + + II - Some Questions Answered + +Q: Is Satanism simply Devil-Worship? +A: The term 'devil-worship' is used in a number of ways - often to describe +'Black Magick' and the alleged practices of 'Satanists': e.g. sexual +rituals, animal sacrifice. What is usually described by this term are the +activities of Occult dabblers who have no knowledge of real Satanism, and +who play at being Satanists - invoking The Devil and so on. Often, the term +'Devil-worship' is used in the moral sense to describe 'perverted' behaviour +in an Occult setting. + In the literal sense, Devil-worship means a religious worship of the +Devil. + In all the above senses, Satanism is not 'devil-worship': Satanists +do not worship anything, and the practices and rites of Satanism are quite +different from the popular 'media' image/model. + While some of the rites involve various Occult forms - robes, a +Temple and so on - most are removed from such associations. The real magick +of a Satanist takes place through their way of living - what they do and +achieve in real life and situations, by trying to fulfil their Destiny and +aid the sinister dialectic. They live Satanically, rather than play Occult +games. + Those that do have an outward Occult or ritualized form, are only a +learning, a stage for the Satanic novice - the mere beginnings of their +Satanic life. [The ceremonial rituals are given in 'The Black book of +Satan'. They include The Black Mass, the Initiation Ceremony and The Death +Ritual.] + +Q: But what of The Devil? Or Satan? Does He really exist? And, if so, do +you respect Him? +A: He exists, but not in the way most believe: e.g. a horned figure with +cloven feet. Rather, He is not bound by our everyday spatial and temporal +dimensions, but exists instead in what esoteric tradition calls 'the +acausal'. We apprehend the acausal mostly in an archetypal way - i.e. we +impose an image upon its acausal and non-spatial structure. + The 'conventional' descriptions of the Devil or Satan are basically +childish Nazarene images. The reality is far more terrifying and evil - +when viewed conventionally, of course! + Further, terms like 'respect' depend on the opposites inherent in +an un-initiated view. In reality, there is only a working with the acausal +energies or forces or 'entities' as those things are: a becoming-like the +Devil; an identity-with Him, if you wish. And this is an extension of one's +own being or existence, rather than a negation, a submergence. + Expressed simply, one becomes one with Satan, and in the early +stages strives to be like Him. + +Q: Does Satanism involve human sacrifice? +A: Sometimes a Satanist may undertake a culling - either during a magickal +ritual or in the real world (e.g. by assassination, manipulating someone to +do the deed). Whether or not this is done depends on the Destiny of the +individual Satanist - on whether a particular person or persons need +removing in order for that Destiny to be attained. + However, all victims for such removal must be suitable - that is, +they will be judged as worthless, dross: or be suitable because their +removal will aid the sinister dialectic. They, of course, will be judged +and found suitable, Satanically. In practice, this means that once someone +has been judged to be worthless (in terms of their character and deeds) or +otherwise found to be suitable for sacrifice, they will be tested in order +to confirm this judgement/suitability. The tests give them a sporting +chance. Two or three tests are usually conducted, without the victim's +knowledge. Only if they fail these tests will a culling be undertaken, for +the glory of Satanism in general. + The "raison d'etre" for Satanic culling, is some people are +worthless, a liability to evolution, and their removal is healthy: it aids +the human stock. And thus helps to achieve Satanic goals. + Further, those chosen really choose themselves, by their deeds - +they reveal their worthless character or their suitability by what they do, +or do not do, in real life. Thus, a culling is akin to an act of 'natural +justice', a restoration of the creative imperative. + +Q: But surely this 'culling' as you call it, is a criminal act? +A: The 'Law' is an accumulation of tireless attempts by the mediocre +majority to prevent the creative few turning life into a succession of +ecstasies. Or, less poetically, it is an attempt to restrain the healthy, +noble instinct of the strong - an attempt to usurp the judgement of +experience. + What matters is that each individual develops their own judgement - +possesses a sense of 'natural justice', a mature and strong character (born +via experience). The 'Law' is an expression of tyranny - of someone else +taking away this judgement and character: of society treating people as +children. + +Q: What of children? Do they have a place in Satanism? In its rituals, for +instance? +A: One of the fundamental aims of Satanism is to develop individuals - to +develop a mature, insightful, character, a Satanic spirit. + Satanic training, of a novice, aims to build character, to develop +a unique individual aware of their potential and their destiny. This +training can only begin when the individual can assess things - or begin to +assess them - for themselves. This generally means around the age of +sixteen. Before then, there can be no participation in Satanism, whether +this be rituals or anything else, simply because Satanism involves each +individual making their own choice - of deciding, for themselves, that they +wish to undergo Satanic training or undertake a Satanic way of living. + In some circumstances - for instance a child born to parents who are +Satanists - there is a simple ceremony involving dedicating the newborn to +the darker forces. But until that child grows and can decide things for +themselves, there is and can be nothing else. To to otherwise, is to +contradict the essence of Satanism. + Satanism is not interested in 'corrupting' others without their +consent - it is interested in creating strong, unique individuals of real +character who can think and judge for themselves. Anything else is not real +Satanism. + +Q: But surely Satanists control and use others - manipulate them? +A: Of course! Some people are natural slaves. Satanists are the natural +leaders. But each person has a free choice - if they need to follow, to be +led, if the enjoy being manipulated, or out of weakness have little or no +character of their own, then that is in their nature. existence is often +ruthless: the strong win through while the weak go under. Thus is evolution +achieved. Humans are no different, although many in their delusion would +wish to believe otherwise. + I shall give an example, and one which will make the softees (and +incidently the pseudo-Satanists) shudder in horror! Some people in their +weakness become addicts - for this example we will say on drugs. As such, +they are life's failures. A Satanist views them with contempt - they have +made their choice, and revealed a weak character. Thus, he or she might +consider it worth their while - and certainly justified - in 'using' these +worthless people, by, for instance, supplying them with what they need. To +wit, drugs. This would be profitable, and enable the Satanist to live their +life a little more Satanically. It would also aid the sinister dialectic - +in two ways. First, the addicts might in the near future die, and thus +remove or cull themselves. Second, the 'drug-culture' is symptomatic of a +society or societies infested with the Nazarene disease: where a +slave-morality has triumphed and noble, strong instincts are +repressed/suppressed. (Where, for instance, the idea of combat, of war, as +healthy, is heresy.) Such a society or societies need to be undermined and +destroyed and replaced by healthier ones. + Incidently, while on this subject of health, everyone has a choice +at all times despite whatever external circumstances pertain. It is +character, spirit, which win through. + A Satanist is someone who triumphs, even (or especially) in +adversity, and who lives by a motto which is no longer understood today +except by the noble few: "Death Before Dishonour". To submit, to give in, to +not try, is dishonourable. A Satanist knows with an arrogant, prideful +certainty that the human spirit can triumph over everything and everyone - +they refuse to admit defeat, to give in, and are prepared if necessary to +die rather than act in a dishonourable way, against their Satanic +principles. Because of this, they are strong, and inspire in others perhaps +a certain awe. And, because of this preparedness, they exult in life - they +relish living, and live to the full. + +Q: If I wished to become a Satanist, what would I have to do? +A: The first thing is to make sure one understands what Satanism is and +involves by contacting other Satanists, for instance, or reading genuine +Satanic material such as the works of the O.N.A. + Then, having so understood, one makes a decision to begin the quest +along the 'Left Hand Path' and to act Satanically. This is usually +formalized in some way via a simple rite of Initiation - which basically +means that one affirms one's desire to follow the way of Satan. This rite +can be either a ceremonial one, via an existing Order or Satanic group, or +a hermetic 'self-Initiation'. Examples of both are available to those +curious enough to find them. + Following this, one undertakes various tasks, techniques and +methods over a period of some months, the aim of all of which is to build a +solid Satanic foundation, in terms of character. These are all accessable +in various Satanic works. Quite a number of these involve gaining +experience in the real world, while some involve directly Occult/magickal +work - e.g. rituals. + The emphasis throughout is on self-achievement and self-effort. +This 'noviciate period lasts about a year, perhaps two. There are then more +challenges to undertake, more ordeals to develop character and aid one's +judgement and insight and self-mastery. + Of course, there are also many rewards - some carnal, some +material, some spiritual (in the sinister sense, naturally!). There +develops an awareness of one's Destiny and an understanding of what is +hidden from the majority by virtue of their rather rudimentary level of +consciousness and knowledge. + During all this, one is aiding the dark forces by the very act of +doing Satanic things. That is, aiding evolution - of one's self, and +existence in general. One is being significant; doing and achieving. + If one is fortunate enough, there may be guidance and advice from +someone who has gone that way before - from a Satanic Master or Mistress. + What is important, is that one really lives; achieves things; works +in and alters the real world; and learns and so develops - in character, +insight, knowledge and so on. + Most people waste their lives. A Satanist wants to be a god - and +is prepared to change the world to make their dreams a reality. Most people +dream, but lack the courage to act. What matters is that one does something +- if somethings do not work out as one planned, there are other places, +other times. New dreams to dream and fulfil. And life does not even end +with causal death - one can become Immortal! The form of life simply +changes. But this immortality is not given - it is not a reward. It is +_achieved_, it is a conscious act: a becoming-one with the dark force +itself, with Satan. + + There is much that is numinous, but nothing known that surpasses +Man in numinosity. That is, of all life, we as individuals possess the most +potential - have the 'creative fire' of life itself. Satanism is a means to +not only understand this, but to implement it - fulfil our divine (and +diabolic) potential. To live this existence to the full. To participate in +evolution. And to evolve to another realm entirely. + But Satanism is dangerous - it is testing. It requires a demonic +desire, a strength of character. It is genuine Heresy. It is for the few +who can really defy, who really wish to become like gods and are prepared +to take the risks involved. + + + ^^^^^^^ + + List of O.N.A. Works + +* The Black Book of Satan - A Guide to Satanic Ceremonial 56 pages +* Naos - A Practical Guide to Becoming An Adept 125 pages +* Hostia - Secret Teachings of the ONA. Volume I 130 pages +* Hostia - Volume II. 60 pages +* Hysteron Proteron - Inner Teachings of the ONA. 27 pages +* The Sinister Taro - 21 colour illustrations with explanatory notes +* The Satanic Letters of Stephen Brown 35 pages +* The Deofel Quartet: + Vol. i Falcifer, Lord of Darkness 102 Pages + Vol. ii Temple of Satan 99 pages + Vol. iii The Giving 103 pages + Vol. iv The Greyling Owl 99 pages +* Hostia - Volume III 29 pages +* The Black Book of Satan II +* The Black Book of Satan III +* The Self-Immolation Rite (Audio Cassette) +* Fenrir - Journal of Satanism & The Sinister + +[All of the above are available from: + Rigel Press + PO Box 235 + Shrewsbury + Shropshire + England] + + + Copyright 1992eh Anton Long + + Printed & Published by + Thormynd Press + PO Box 700 + Shrewsbury + Shropshire + England + + diff --git a/religious documents/intropag.txt b/religious documents/intropag.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..38903fb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/intropag.txt @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +INTRODUCTION TO WICCA + +"Wicca? What's it all about?" + This question is being heard more frequently, here and abroad - for something very different has been quietly appearing on today's scene. + There are a lot of problems in the world today - wars, pollution, repression by one side or another, technology and commercialism gone mad, and far, far too many people. And it's getting worse. + Why? + What has caused the cascading insanity that we see around us? More importantly, what can we grasp onto which is sucure and worth believing? + Some of us think we know why this has all happened; if you're interested and concerned, you, too, may eventually realize why things have turned out this way. (More on this subject latter). + The important thing is to get back, in some small way, to the mental and spiritual outlook which can make this nightmare world, and all its problems, quite unnecessary. + It can be done - our distant ancestors knew how. They knew how to live with nature, to understand the reasons behind it. They had a basic knowledge of the balance which is a part of everything - something we have lost in the centuries and millenia that have passed. + But not lost irretrievably, for it is with us again. It is faith and a way of living. + It is Wicca. + +WHY NOW ? + +Wicca is returning to the world! + Really, though, it had never left - for folk beliefs and the ancient Witch cult have always been with us. But for the past several centuries folk wisdom was given a Christian overlay and largly ignored; the Witches, with thier age-old lore, were forced underground by persecution - with much loss to the common man. + Now the established major religions are greatly weakened and tottering, thier foundations largly destroyed by a rapidly changing world. Thier efforts to adjust and alter, to "keep step with the times," have only weakened them further. Only the prop of being socially convenient has kept the churches from total collapse. And the structure of society itself is weakening, with "social convenience" having less and less power as a new generation increasingly scorns that which is useless and irrelevant. + Science itself, starting with Galileo and others as a reaction to a stale and oppressive religious establishment, seems to have reached a plateau in its discoveries. New research has become increasingly expensive, and the feeling is growing that the results gained are now justifying less and less of the cost put into them. Political pressures fashion the wonders of science into weapons which are both crule and fearsome. Commercialism, in its mindless striving for money, has managed to pollute much of what still remains of the natural world. + Politics has reached a similar impasse. Both Marxism and Capitalism were created using the precepts of Christianity, and thus both suffer from the same weaknesses as thier parent: inflexability, dogma, intolerance and hypocrisy. Those who have lived under both systems say that Marxism is considerably more drab and mechanistic than its rival. Thus we can exspect that the current intellectual fashions tending toward Marx will ultimately be halted by the dull, hard wall of reality. + But then - where else will there be to go? + The answer lies deep within ourselves - where it has always been - and out in the world of nature, where it has long waited. + For the Wiccan Way is very close to the soul of humanity; it is a natural belief which sees man as he is, and the world as it is, and seeks to push neither into a preconceived mold. Further, Wicca sees the mystery and richness of nature, and opens the way to an understanding of it which the modern world has overlooked. + The Wiccan Way, as it now exists, is based on valid beliefs from the distant past. The present store of rituals and practices has been drawn from ancient sources, restored and updated by scholars from various Witch groups, existing but never advertised, whose traditions stretch unbroken since far before the dawn of history. + There is much flexibility here, for Wicca is not fixed and dogmatic. There are new adventures of the mind and spirit, for Wicca thrives on joy, beauty and colour. + And there is the inspiration of working toward a new world - one totally different from today. + And one far better. + +WHAT IS WICCA ? + +Wicca recognizes that throughout all things - from the atom to the universe - there is a duality. Night and day, love and hate - the ancient Oriental concept of Yin and Yang which was long matched by simular concepts in what we now call Europe. + The Witch realizes that there is no heaven except that which he himself makes, and likewise no hell but that of his own creation. + Most Witches believe that they have experienced previous lives in previous eras of this world. And they can point to impressive evidence backing them up. + A Witch refuses to believe that mankind is born innately sinful, and realizes that the concept of "sin" is itself arbitrary and harmful to human nature. + The Witch knows that man is not better than woman, nor woman superior to man. What one lacks the other can give, and cannot be truly alive without the other! There is no greater magick than that of man and woman together. + A Witch knows that what is called "magick" does truly exist, and it is often worked by those who are in touch with certain forces of the natural world. + The Witch believes that what cannot be seen is of the greatest importance - that much exists of which the present world's science knows little or nothing. And that anyone can experience what is normally considered to be beyond "reality" + Wicca has a deep love for things natural and wild, as it knows that there are many beings which are intelligent and wise - and not all human. Yet they may be met in places of seclusion and wilderness by those who earnestly desire to know them - and it is for this reason that the Witch does not allow his or her heart and mind to become cluttered by the useless trivia of a commercial-technical society. + A Witch knows that there are deep forces and tides which underlie all things, and that there exist here on earth infinitely complex multidimentional matrices of living power which are far beyond the capability of a human to understand. That there is intelligence here and the greatest of wisdom - for such has always existed and always will. + The Witch realizes that mankind has always known of the existence of this Supernal Intelligence, and has called It by thousands of names for tens of thousands of years. That men and women of all eras have drawn strength and power, warmth and security from this source - at times in ways which seems to transcend reality! + Wicca teaches that the Highest source is both female and male in its aspects and that, though vastly beyond our capasity to understand, we can perceive It - or Them - as individuals, or as Goddess and God to whom we can speak, and receive answers. + The Witch knows that over the past two or three thousand years humankind has stressed a narrow portion of the God in his religions and ignored or denied the role of the Goddess - with the result that history has come to be a chronicle of disasters. A balance is needed, with perhaps a greater stress on the Goddess (right now) in Her many aspects, to restore peace and to assure a meaningful survival of ourselves and our descendants. + This is Wicca! + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/invinc.txt b/religious documents/invinc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..407437a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/invinc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ + A COLLECTION OF INVOCATIONS & INCANTATIONS + ------------------------------------------ + + PLANET MUSIC + ------------ + by Noel-Anne Brennan + +In dreams I see the trees +And hear them, +All leafy green-ness +Against the shaded blue of skies, +Whispering Earth-songs +To the changing light +With subtleties of color, +The flickered, leafy undersides +Of planet music, +The vibrant, fluid, windy songs. +But also there are harmonies of rock: +The song of quartz, the fire frozen, +The blood of Earth congealed, +The Cold flames clinging, +Remebersing heat, +The arrogant crystaline +Heart of the Land, +Stony chords +That sing in the bones of life, +The structure and framework +For melodies of air and seas and trees. + + + HYMN TO THE EARTH + ----------------- + by Mercurius + +Blue marble in the solar sea, +Father Earth abides in me, +I am no more than His sweet child +And I must sojurn here awhile. + +Blue marble with a lunar crown, +Mother Earth turns to the dawn, +I sail across her starlit brine +And dream the dreams She plants in time. + +Lord and Lady of the Quest, +Nuture hope in every breast, +Comfort those who suffer grief +And visit us in joy and peace. + +Blue marble in our pantheon, +Planet of the human heart, +All my life is nigt and day, +Born to dance in Natures' sway. + +Do what is best, no harm begat +That injures Goddess or the God, +Choose freely from the many paths +And honor Earth with works of praise. + +BLue marble in the solar sea, +Father Earth abides in me, +Blue marble with a lunar crown, +Mother Earth turns to the dawn! + + + TRIPLE GODDESS + -------------- + by Gray Wolf + +Goddess of our hopes and need, +You whom our desiures feed, +Hear our cry before the Moon, +Let our passions nightly swoon, +Earth is ours and Earth is Thine, +Let our pleasures be like wine, +Celebration of Your place +All bow down before Your face, +Hail to the Triple Goddess. + + + CREATIONS + --------- + by Vashti Ayla Miria + +I am daughter of Goddess +I am mother of Earth +I am sister of starlight +I am the New Moon of birth +I am the patterns +of space in the sky +I am the new furrowed ground +in which hallowed ones lie +I stay still for an instant +& Then like all I must "die" +'till I move to the center again +sweat out the tears of birth pain +sculptress of being I am +maker of creations within. + + diff --git a/religious documents/islmslt.txt b/religious documents/islmslt.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a2fb43 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/islmslt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,284 @@ +To: soc.religion.islam +From: mmdh@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (Mazen Mokhtar) +Subject: Islam Salah (worship) (0000.islmslt.mm) +Date: unknown + + Wa `alaykumu-ssalaamu wa rAHmatullAAhi wa barAkaatuh, + + Here is a description of salah. + + The following is an overview, I did not go into the details, or into +the allowed variations. I also did not separate the mandatory parts from +the strongly recommended parts. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- +Wudu: + + The wudu must begin with the intention of performing wudu. The intention is +simply in the heart, you don't have to say anything (ie: you decide to +make your wudu.) + + Then, perform the following steps. Only water is needed for wudu, none of +the following steps require soap. I did not go into any details: + + - Wash your hands in each other three times + - Wash your mouth by taking water into it, moving it within your mouth + and spitting it out, three times + - Wash your nose by taking water to it and expelling it three times + - Wash your entire face with water three times + - Wash your right arm from your hand to your elbow three times + - Wash your left arm from your hand to your elbow three times + - Wipe your head, or part of it with wet hands, you don't have to wash it + - Wipe your ears with wet hands, including the external part of the ear hole + - Wash your right foot to the ankles three times + - Wash your left foot to the ankles three times + + The parts that need to be washed must be exposed to the water. This means +that one cannot make wudu on nail polish because water will not touch the +nails, but one can wash the face while it has makeup because makeup is porous, +it does not prevent water from touching the face. + + Also, if you wore socks while you were on wudu, then if you break your wudu +you don't need to take the socks off. When you renew your wudu, wipe over +the top of the foot part of the socks with wet hands. You can continue to do +this until: + - You take the socks off + - The maximum time is elapsed. This is one day and one night. If you are + travelling then the maximum period is three days and nights. + - You enter a greater impurity that requires a full bath. + + There are other rules, but this is the main idea of wudu. + + +Salah: + + - Conventions: + + I do not always adhere to a strict rule for transliteration but for this +post I used the following conventions: + + a is a short vowel, like the 'e' in ten + A is a short vowel, like the 'a' in gargoyle + i is a short vowel, like the 'i' in tin + u is a shord vowel, like the 'u' in push + aa is a long vowel, like the 'a' in tan + AA is a long vowel, like the 'a' in cat + ee is a long vowel, like the 'e' in teen + uu or oo is a long vowel, like the 'oo' in soon + th is as in "the" + Dh is a heavy form of 'th' as in 'the' + Th is as in "math" + H is a heavy 'h' + ` is similar to 'a', 'i' or 'u' depending on the letter that follows. + It is the guttural stop + kh is like the German 'ch' in "ach" or the Gaelic 'ch' in "Loch Ness" + gh is like the French 'r' + q is a heavy k + T is a heavy t + S is a heavy s + D is a heavy d + - is a word divider, like the space, but the words are pronounced together + + Please understand that this is still aproximate, but it is as close as I +can get it. + + + Each salah (pronounced SAlaah) has two, three or four rak`as. It goes as +follows: + + - Make sure you are properly covered even if you are alone. A man should + at least be covered from the navel to the knees (some scholars say + less than that is acceptable). A woman should cover her entire body with + the exception of her face (excluding ears and neck) and hands (some + scholars also allow the feet to show.) + - Find a clean place and face the direction of the ka`ba. For most of North + America, the direction is North East (~58 degrees East of North in + NY). Your position does not have to be exact, just fact the general + direction. + - Intend to make salah + - Raise your hands and say "allAAhu akbar" [Allah is Greatest] + - Put your right hand on your left hand (or wrist) around your navel or a + little above, or fold your arms with your right hand on your left elbow and + your left hand under your right elbow. + - Say "a`oothu billaahi mina-shshayTAAni-rrAjeem" [I seek refuge from satan, + the accursed] +==> Recite Al FaatiHa + - If this is the first or second rak`a, recide any group of verses from + the Qur'an (typically a small chapter) after Al FaatiHa + - (Optionally raise your hands and) say "allAAAhu akbar" as you + bow. Your hands should be on your knees, or slightly above them, your + back should be horizontal. + - Say three times "subHaana rAbbiya-l`aDheem" [Above all imperfection + is my Lord who is Great] + - Say "sami`allAAhu liman Hamidah" [Allah hears those who thank Him] as you + go back to the standing position. + - When your back is straight, say "rAbbanaa laka-lHamd" [Our Lord, to you + is thanks] + - Say "allAAhu akbar" as you go into prostration. The ground should touch + the bottom of your toes, your knees, your forehead, your nose and your + hands. Your elbows should not touch the ground. Your body should not + be in a closed position, so your head should not be close to your knees. + - Say three times "subHaana rAbbiya-l a`laa" [Above all imperfection + is my Lord who is Most High] + - Say "allAAhu akbar" as you enter a sitting position. Your feet and knees + should touch the ground, and your "seat" should be roughly on your + heels and your hands should be on your thighs just above your knees + - Say twice "rAbbi-ghfirlee" [Allah forgive me] + - Say "allAAhu akbar" as you return to the prostration (described above.) + - Say three times "subHaana rAbbiya-l a`laa" [Above all imperfection + is my Lord who is Most High] + - Now, if the current rak`a does not require a tashahhud (described below), + say "allAAhu akbar" as you stand up for the next rak`a, start the next + rak`a at the point indicated by "==>" above. + If your rak`a requires a tashahhud, say "allAAhu akbar" as you return + to the sitting position and say the tahsahhud + - If this is the last rak`a, say the second part of the tashahhud as well, + then look to your right and say "assalaamu `alaykum wa rAHmatullah", then + look to your left and say "assalaamu `alaykum wa rAHmatullah" + + This concludes the prayer. Again, I kept it simple and I did not go into +the details. + + Now, there are five mandatory prayers. Try to get a prayer schedule from +a nearby masjid (mosque). The prayers are as follows: + + - Fajr (dawn). The time for this is from dawn (first light) to sunrise. + The time for sunrise is printed in the newspaper everyday with the weather. + + It has two rak`as: + - First rak`a: recite a small sura from the Qur'an after Al FaatiHa + - Second rak`a: recite a small sura from the Qur'an after Al FaatiHa. At + the end of the rak`a, sit down for the tashahhud to end your salah, + recite the entire tashahhud (both parts) when you are sitting at the + end of your salah. + + - Dhuhr (midday). The time for this is from midday to midafternood. Midday + is almost exactly halfway between sunrise and sunset printed in the + paper every day. + + It has four rak`as: + - First: Recite small sura after Al FaatiHa + - Second: Small sura also. Sit down for the tashahhud, read the first + part of the tashahhud before you go back up for the third rak`a + - Third: No small sura, no sitting for tashahhud + - Fourth: No small sura. Sit down to recide the entire tashahhud then + end your salah + + - Aasr (afternood) extends between midafternoon and sunset (printed in the + paper also.) + + It has four rak`as, pray it as you pray dhuhr. + + - Maghrib (Sunset) extends between sunset and dusk (end of sunlight.) + + It has three rak`as: + - First: Recite small sura after Al FaatiHa + - Second: Small sura also. Sit down for the tashahhud, read the first + part of the tashahhud before your go back up for the third rak`a + - Third: No small sura. Sit down to recide the entire tashahhud then + end your salah + + - Isha (Dusk) extends between dusk and the next dawn. + + It has four rak`as, pray it as you pray dhuhr. + + + To sum it up: + + - Fajr: 2 rak`as Full tashahhud in last rak`a + - Dhuhr: 4 rak`as Full tashahhud in last rak`a, half tashahhud in 2nd rak`a + - Aasr: 4 rak`as Full tashahhud in last rak`a, half tashahhud in 2nd rak`a + - Maghrib: 3 rak`as Full tashahhud in last rak`a, half tashahhud in 2nd rak`a + - Isha: 4 rak`as Full tashahhud in last rak`a, half tashahhud in 2nd rak`a + + Notice that there is no mandatory prayer prescribed between sunrise and +midday. + + Make sure that you don't speed through your prayer. Take each position +until your body is at rest in that position. + If you say a word not part of the prayer, or laugh, this makes the prayer +invalid and you must start all over + Pray as well as you can until you learn the prayer + Ladies don't have to make up the prayers they miss because of the period + + Also, it is best to pray at the beginning of the time of each prayer, not +at the end, except for `isha' prayer, its best time is closer to midnight, +but not past it. Midnight is not necessarily 12:00AM, midnight is twelve +hours after the time of Dhuhr. + + Don't ever intentionally delay a prayer out of its time, this is +a major sin in Islam. If you miss a prayer because you overslept (though you +had planned to wake up) or because you honestly forgot for example, then make +it up as soon as you remember it, and this is not a sin. + + + + The follwing are transliterations of texts useful for salah: + + - Al FaatiHa + + "bismillaahi-rrAHmaani-rrAHeem + alHamdu lillahi rAbbil`aalameen + arrAHmaani-rraHeem + maaliki yaumi-ddeen + iyyaaka na`budu wa iyyaaka nasta`een + ihdina-SSirAATA-lmustaqeem + SirAATA-llatheena an`amta `alayhim ghAyri-lmaghDoobi `alayhim wala-DDAAlleen + " + Then you say: "aameen" + + - The first part of the tashahhud: + + "attaHiyyatu lillahi wa-SSAlaawaatu-TTAyyibaat + assalaamu `alayka ayyuha-nnabiyu wa rAHmatullAhi wa barAkaatuh + assalaamu `alaynaa wa `alaa `ibaadi-llahi-SSAAliHeen + ashhadu alla ilaaha illa-llAh wa ashhadu anna muHammada-rrAsulu-llAh" + + - The second part of the tashahhud: + + "allAhumma SAllee `alaa muHammad wa `alaa aali muHammad kamaa SAllayta + `alaa aali ibrAAheem + wa baarik `alaa muHammad wa `alaa aali muHammad kamaa baarakta `alaa + aali ibrAAheem + fil-`aalameen + innaka Hameedu-mmajeed + " + At this point, you would look to your right and left and say "assalaamu +`alaykum wa raHmatullah" and this ends your prayer. + + - Sample small sura (chapter): Al kawTHar + + "innaa a`TAynaaka-lkawTHar + faSAlli lirabbika wanHar + inna shaani aka hua-l abtar + " + + - Second sample small sura: Al ikhlaas + + "Qul hua-llAhu aHad + AllAhu-SSAmad + lam yalid wa lam yuulad + wa lam yaku-llahuu kufuan aHad + " + + + If anyone notices a mistake, omission, or an unclear part, especially in +the transliteration, I ask you by Allah to please tell me about it, this +presentation of salah is likely to be sent several times. Also, I am open +to all suggestions of improvement. + + + I ask Allah to make this presentation of salah useful. + + If I said anything good it is from Allah, and if I said anything bad, +it is only from my own shortcomings. May Allah forgive me for any mistakes +I may have made. + + +Assalaamu 'alaykum wa raHmatullAhi wa barAkaatuh, + +Mazen Mokhtar + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/jc-myth.txt b/religious documents/jc-myth.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f0b511 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/jc-myth.txt @@ -0,0 +1,354 @@ + Jesus Christ + by + Barbara G. Walker + + The Jesus who was called Christos, "Anointed," took his title from +Middle-Eastern savior-gods like Adonis and Tammuz, born of the Virgin +Sea-goddess Aphrodite-Maria (Myrrha), or Ishtar-Mari (Hebrew Mariamne). + Earlier biblical versions of the same hero were Joshua son of Nun +(Exodus 33:11), Jehu son of Nimshi, whom Elijah anointed as a sacred +king (1 Kings 19:16), and Yeshua son of Morah, The Book of Enoch said +in the 2nd century B.C.E. that Yeshua or Jesus was the secret name +given by God to the Son of Man (a Persian title), and that it meant +"Yahweh saves." + In northern Israel the name was written Ieu. It was the same as Ieud +or Jeud, the "only-begotten son" dressed in royal robes and sacrificed +by god-king Isra-El. Greek versions of the name were Iasion, Jason, or +Iasus -- the name of one of Demeter's sacrificed consorts, killed by +Father Zeus after the fertility rite that coupled him with his mother. + Iasus signified a healer Therapeuta, as the Greeks called the +Essenes, whose cult groups always included a man with the title of +Christos. The literal meaning of the name was "healing moon-man," +fitting the Hebrew version of Jesus as a son of Mary, the almah or +"moon maiden." + It seems Jesus was not one person but a composite of many. He played +the role of sacred king of the Jews who periodically died in an +atonement ceremony as surrogate for the real king. "The Semitic +religions practiced human immolations longer than any other religion, +sacrificing children and grown men in order to please sanguiary gods. +In spite of Hadrians's prohibition of those murderous offerings, they +were maintained in certain clandestine rites." The priesthood of the +Jewish God insisted that "one man should die for the people... that the +whole nation perish not" (John 11:50). Yahweh forgave no sins without +bloodshed: "without shedding blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). + Middle-Eastern traditions presented a long line of slain and +cannibalized Saviors extending back to prehistory. At first kings, they +became king-surrogates or "sacred" kings as the power of real +monarchies developed. The Gospels' Jesus was certainly not the first of +them, though he may have been one of the last. One passage hints at a +holy man's understandable fear of such brief, doomed eminence: "When +Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, +to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone" +(John 6:15). + This Jesus seems to have made little or no impression on his +contemporaries. No literate person of his own time mentioned him in +any known writing. The Gospels were not written in his own time, nor +were they written by anyone who ever saw him in the flesh. The books +were composed after the establishment of the church, some as late as +the 2nd century A.D. or later, according to the church's requirements +for a manufactured tradition. Most scholars believe the earliest book +of the New Testament was 1 Thessalonians, written perhaps 51 A.D. by +Paul, who never saw Jesus in person and knew no details of his life +story. + the details were accumulated through later adoption of the myths +attached to every savior-god throughout the Roman empire. Like Adonis, +Jesus was born of a consecrated temple maiden in the sacred cave of +Bethlehem, "The House of Bread." He was eaten in the form of bread, as +were Adonis, Osiris, Dionysus, and others; he called himself the bread +of God (john 6:33). Like worshippers of Osiris, those of Jesus made him +apart of themselves by eating him, so as to participate in his +resurrection: "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth +in me, and I in him" (John 6:56). + Like Attis, Jesus was sacrificed at the spring equinox and rose again +from the dead on the third day, when he bacame God and ascended to +heaven. Like Orpheus and Heracles, he "harrowed hell" and brought a +secret of eternal life, promising to draw all men with him up to glory +(John 12:32). Like Mithra and all the other solar gods, he celebrated a +birthday nine months later at the winter solstice, because the day of +his death was also the day of his cyclic re-conception. + From the elder gods, Jesus acquired not only his title of Christos +but all his other titles as well. Osiris and Tammuz were called Good +Shepherd. Sarapis was Lord of Death and King of Glory. Mithra and +Heracles were Light of the World, Sun of Righteousness, Helios the +Rising Sun. Dionysus was King of Kings, God of Gods. Hermes was the +Enlightened One and the Logos. Vishnu and Mithra were Son of Man and +Messiah. Adonis was the Lord and the Bridegroom. Mot-Aleyin was the +Lamb of God. "Savior" was applied to all of them. + Mystery cults everywhere taught that ordinary men could be possessed +by spirits of such gods, and identifed with them as "son" or alter +egos, as Jesus was. It was the commonly accepted way to acquire +supernatural powers, as shown by some of the charms used by magicians: +"Whatever I say must happen....For I have taken to myself the power of +Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the great god-demon Iao Ablanathanalba...for +I am the Son, I surpass the limit....I am he who is in the seven +heavens, who standeth in the seven sanctuaries; for I am the son of the +living God....I have been united with thy sacred form. I have been +empowered by thy sacred name. I have recieced the effluence of +goodness, Lord, God of gods, King,....havein attained that nature equal +to the God's" + the skeptical Celsus noted that beggars and vagabounds throughout the +Empire were pretending to work miracles and become gods, throwing fits, +prophesying the end of the world, and aspiring to the status of saviors: + + Each has the convenient and customary spiel, "I am the god," or "a + son of God," or "a divine spirit," and "I have come. For the world + is about to be distroyed, and you, men, because of your injustice, + will go (with it). But I wish to save, and you shall see me again + coming back with heavenly power. Blessed is he who worships me + now! On all others, both cities and countrysides, I shall cast + eternal fire. And men who (now) ignore their punishments shall + repent in vain and groan, but those who believed in me I shall + preserve immortal." + + Of course this "conspicuously false" doctrine was the central message +of the Gospels too. Persian eschatology passing through a +Jewish-Essenic filter predicted "the Son of Man comeing in a cloud with +power and great glory" (Luke 9:27, 21:27). Jesus promised the end of +the world in his own generation. The rest of the Gospel material was +largely devoted to the miracles supposed to demonstate his divine +power, since religions generally "adduce revelations, apparitions, +prophecies, miracles, prodigies and sacred mysteries that they may get +themselves valued and accepted." Even these miracles were derivative. +Turning water into wine at Cana was copied from a Dionysian ritual +practiced at Sidon and other places. In Alexandria the same Dionysian +miracle was regularly shown before crowds of the faithful, assisted by +an ingenious system of vessels and siphons, invented by a clever +engineer named Heron. Many centuries earlier, priestesses at Nineveh +cured the blind with spittle, and the story was repeated of many +diffrent gods and their incarnations. Demeter of Eleusis multiplied +loaves and fishes in her role of Mistress of Earth and Sea. Healing the +sick, raising the dead, casting out devils, handling poisonous serpents +(Mark 16:18), etc., were so commonplace that Celsus scorned these +"Christian" miracles as "nothing more then the common works of those +enchanters who, for a few oboli, will perform greater deeds in the +midst of the Forum. ... The magicians of Egypt cast ou evil spirits, +cure diseases by a breath, and so influence some uncultured men, that +they produce in them whatever sights and sounds they please. But +because they do such things shall we consider them the sons of God? + Magicians often claimed that their prayers could bring flocks of +supernatural beings to their assistance. Thus Jesus declared that his +prayer could summon twelve legions (72,000) of guardian angels (Matthew +26:53). Magicians also communed with their followers by the standard +mystery-cult sacrament of bread-flesh and wine blood. In texts on +magic, "a magician-god gives his own body and blood to a recipient who, +by eating it, will be united with him in love." + The ability to walk on water was claimed by Far-Eastern holy men ever +since Buddhist monks praised it as the mark of the true ascetic. The +Magic Papyri said almost anyone could walk on water with the help of "a +powerful demon." Impossibilities have always been the props of +religious credulity, as Tertullian admitted: "It is believable because +it is absurd; it is certain because it is impossible. + However, repetitive miracles were not so believable as original ones. +Therefore early Christians insisted that all the older deities and +their miracle-tales were invented by the devil, out of his +foreknowledge of the true religion, so the faithful would be confused +by past "imitations." Pagan thinkers countered with the observation +that "The christian religion contains nothing but what Christians hold +in common with heathens; nothing new, nor truly great." Even St. +Augustine, finding the hypothesis of the divil's inventions hard to +swallow, admitted that "the true religion" was known to the ancients, +and had existed from the beginning of time, but it began to be called +Christian after "Christ came in the flesh." + Nevertheless, adherents of the true religion violently disagreed as +to the circumstances of its foundation. In the first feew centuries +A.D. there were many mutually hostile Christian sects, and many +mutually contradictory Gospels. As late as 450, Bishop Theodore of +Cyrrhus said there were at least 200 diffrent Gospels revered by the +churches of his own diocese, until he destroyed all but the approved +canonical four. The other Gospels were lost as stronger sects +overwhelmed the weaker, wrecked their churches, killed the believers +and burned their books. + One scripture, later thrown out of the canon, said Jesus was not +crucified. Simon of Cyrene suffered on the cross in his place, while +Jesus stood by laughing at the executioners, saying, "It was another +who drank of the gall and vinegar; it was not I....it was another, +Simon, who bore the cross on his shoulder. It was another upon whom +they placed th crown of thorns. But I was rejoicing in the height.... +And I was laughing at their ignorance." Believers in this scipture +were persecuted and forced to sign an abjuration reading: "I +anathematize those who say that Our Lord suffered only in appearance, +and that there was a man on the cross and another at a distance who +laughed." + Some Christians interpreted Jesus's noli me tangere ("Touch me not") +to mean he came back from the death as an incorporeal spirit, after the +manner of other apotheosized heroes, such as the Irish hero Laegaire, +who also told his people not to touch him. Later, an unknown Gospel +writer inserted the story of doubting Thomas, who insisted on touching +Jesus. This was to combat the heretical idea that there was no +resurrection in the flesh, also to subordiinate Jerusalem's numicipal +god Tammuz (Thomas) to the new savior. + Actually, the most likely source of primary Christian mythology was +the Tammuz cult in Jerusalem. Like Tammuz, Jesus was the Bridegroom of +the Daughter of Zion (John 12:15). Therefore his bride was Anath, +"Virgin Wisdom Dwelling in Zion," who was also the Mother of God. Her +dove decended on him at his baptism, signifying (in the old religion) +that she chose him for the love-death, Anath broke her bridegroom's +reed scepter, schourged him and pierced him for fructifying blood. She +pronounced his death curse, Maranatha (1 Corinthians 16:22). As the +Gospels said of Jesus, Anath's bridegroom was "forsaken" by El, his +heavenly father. Jesus's cry to El, "My God, God, why hast thou +forsaken me?" seems to have been a line written for the second act of +the sacred drama, the pathos or Passion (Mark 15:34). + Of course this Passion was originally a sexual one. Jesus's last +words "it is done" from consummatum est which would be better +interpeted as "it is consummated", this was interpreted as a sign that +his was finished, but could equally apply to his marriage (John 19:30). + As a cross or pillar represented the divine phallus, so a temple +represented the body of the Goddess, whose "veil" (hymen) was "rent in +the midst" as jesus passed into death (Luke 23:45). As usual when the +god disappeared into the underworld, the sun was eclipsed (Luke 23:44). + In their ignorance of astronomical phenonema, Christians claimed that +the moon was full at the same time -- Easter is still a full-moon +festival -- though an eclipse of the sun can only occur at the dark of +the moon. The full moon really meant impregnation of the Goddess. + The parting of Jesus's garment recalls the unwrapping of Osiris when +he emerged from the tomb as the ithyphallic Min, "Husband of his +Mother." If Jesus was one with his heavenly father, then he also +married his mother and begot himself. A 4th-century scripture said in +the underworld he confronted his mother as Death, Mu. She was also the +Bride disguised as Venus, the evening star, presiding over the death of +the sun. Jews still recall her in a ritual greeting to the evening +star. "Come. O friend. let us welcome the Bride." + Like Pagans, early Christians identified the Bride with the Mother. +They said Jesus "consummated on the cross" his union with +Mary-Ecclesia, his bride the church. Augustine wrote: "Like a +bridegroom Christ went forth from his chamber, he went out with a +presage of his nuptials....He came to the marriage bed of the cross, +and there, in mounting it, he consummated his marriage...., he lovingly +gave himself up to the torment in place of his bride, and he joined +himself to the woman for ever." John 19:41 says, "In the place where he +was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, +wherein was never man yet laid." A garden was the conventional symbol +for te body of the mother/bride at that time; and a new tomb was the +virgin womb, whence the god would be born again. On the third day, +Jesus rose from the tomb/womb like Attis, whose resurrection was the +Hilaria, or Day of Joy. Jesus's resurrection day was named after +Eostre (Easter), the same Goddess as Astarte, whom the Syurians called +Mother Mari. + Three incarnations of Mari, or Mary, stood at the foot of Jesus's +cross, like the Moerae of Greece. One was his virgin mother. The second +was his "dearly beloved" Mary magdalene. The third Mary must have +represented the Crone, so the resembled that of the three Norns at the +foot of Odin's sacrificial tree. The Fates were present at the +saacrifices decreed by Heavenly Fathers, whose victims hong on trees or +pillars "between heaven and earth." Up to Hadrian's time, victims +offered Zeus at Salamis were anointed with sacred ointments -- thus +becomeing "Anointed Ones" or "Christ" -- then hung up and stabbed +through the side with a spear. Nothing in Jesus's myth occurred at +random; every detail was part of a formal sacrificial tradition, even +to the "processiong of palms" which glorified sacred kings in ancient +Babylon. + Far-Eastern tradition were utilized too. The Roman empire was well +aware of the teachings ande myths of Buddhism. Buddha images in classic +Greek style weere made in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the first century +A.D. Buddhist ideas like the "footprints of Buddha" appeared among +Christians. Bishop Sulpicus of Jerusalem reported that, as in India, +"In the dust where Christ trod the marks of His step can still be seen, +and the earth still bears the printy of this feet." Buddhist metaphors +and phrasing also appeared in the Gospels. Jesus's formula, "Dearly +Beloved," was the conventional way for Tantric deities to address their +teachings to Devi, their Goddess. + Scholars' efforts to eliminate paganism from the Gospels in order to +find a historical Jesus have proved as hopeless as searching for a core +in an onian. Like a mirage, the Jesus figure looks clear at a distance +but lacks approachable solidity. "His" sayings and parables came from +elsewhere; "his" miracles were twice-told tales. Even the Lord's Prayer +was a collection of sayings from the Talmud, many derived from earlier +Egyptian prayers to Osiris. The Sermon on the Mount, sometimes said to +contain the essence of Christianity, had no original material; it was +made up of fragments from Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Secrets of +Enoch, and the Shemone Esreh. Moreover, it was unknown to the author +of the oldest Gospel, pseudo-Mark. + The discovery that the Gospels were forged, centuries later than the +events they described, is still not widely known enven though the +Catholic Encyclopedia admits, "The idea of a complete and clear-cut +canon of the New Testament existing from the beginning...has no +foundation in history." No extant manuscript can be dated earlier then +the 4th century A.D.; most were written even later. The oldest +manuscripts contradict one another, as also do even the present canon +of synopic Gospels. + The church owed its canon to the Gnostic teacher Marcion, who first +collected Pauline epistles about the middle of the 2nd century. Later +he was excommunicated as a heretic because he denied that the +scriptures were mystical allegories full of magic words of power. The +epistles he collected were already over a century old, if indeed they +were written by Paul; much of their material was made up of forged +interpolations. + The most "historical" figure in the Gosples was Pontius Pilate, to +whom Jesus was presented as "king" of the Jews and simultaneously as a +criminal deserving the death penalty for "blasphemy" because he called +himself Christ, Son of the Blessed (Luke 23:3; Mark 14:61-64). This +alleged crime was no real crime. Eastern provinces swarmed with +self-styled Christs and Messiahs, calling themselves Sons of God and +announcing the end of the world. None of them was executed for +"blasphemy." The beginning of the story probably lay in the traditon of +sacred-king sacrifice in Jerusalem long before Pilate's administration, +when Rome was trying to discourage such barbarisms. + From 103 to 76 B.C., Jersalem was governed by Alexander Janneaus, +called the Aeon, who defended his throne by fighting challengers. One +year, on the Day of Atonement, his people attacked him at the alter, +waving palm branches to signify that he should die for the earth's +fertility. Alexander declined the honor and instituted a persecution of +his won subjects. Another king of Jerusalem took the name of Menelaus, +"Moon-king," and practiced the rite of sacred marriage in the timple. +Herod also made a sacred marriage, and had John the Baptist slain as a +surrogate for himself. + If there was a Jesus cult in Jerusalem after 30 A.D., it completely +disappeared forty years later when Titus conquered the city and +outlawed many local customs including human sacrifice. Jerusalem was +wholly Romanized under Hadrian. It was newly named Aelia Capitolina and +rededicated to the Goddess. The temple became a shrine of Venus. +Tacitus described the siege of Jerusalem, but his writing is abruptly +cut off at the moment when Roman forces entered the city -- as if the +final chapters were deliberately distoryed -- so no one knows what the +Romans found there. However, Romans did express disapproval of the Jews +or Christians cannibalistic sacraments. Porphyry called it "absurd +beyond all absurdity, and bestial beyond every sort of bestiality, that +a man should taste human flash and drink the blood of men of his own +genus and species, and by doing should have eternal life." + From the Christians viewpoint, a real historical Jesus was essential +to the basic premise of the faith: the possibility of immortality +through identifcation with his own death and resurrection. Welhausen +rightly said Jesus would have no place in history unless he died and +returned exactly as the Gospels said. "If christ hath not been raised, +your faith is vain" (1 Conrinthians 15:17). Still, despite centuries of +reseach, no historical Jesus has come to light. It seems his story was +not merely overlaid with myth; it was mythic to the core. + Like all myths, it revealed much about the collective psychology that +created it. In earlier pagan religions, the Mother and Son periodically +ousted tyhe Father from his heavenly throne. The divine son of +Christianity no longer challenged the heavenly king, but tamely +submitted to his fatal command: "Not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke +22:42). Some early sects said the Father who demanded his son's blood +was cruel, even demonic. These were suppressed, but scholars have +discerned in Christianity "an original attude of hostility toward the +father figure, which was changed in the first two Christian centuries +into an attitude of passive masochistic docility. + If orthodox Christianity demanded subordination of the Son, it was +even more determined to subordinate the Mother. The Gospels Jesus +showed little respect for his mother, which troubled the in its +Renaissance efforts to attract women to the cult of Mary. "Any hero who +speaks to his mother only twice, and on both occasions addresses her as +`Woman,' is a difficult figure for the sentimentalbiographers." +Together with Jesus's avowed opposition to marriage and the family +(Matthew 22:30; Luke 14:26), women's primary concerns, New Testament +sexism tended to disgust educated women of the old world. + But the Jusus who emulated Buddha in advocationg poverty and humility +eventually became the mythic figurehead for one of the world's +pre-eminent money-making organizations. The cynical Pope Leo +X exclaimed, "What profit has not that fable of Christ brought us!" + Modern theologians tend to sidestep the question of whether Jesus was +in fact a fable or a real person. In view of the complete dearth of +hard evidence, and the dubious nature of the soft evidence, it seems +Christianity is based on the unbiquitous social phenomena of credulity: + + An idea is able to gain and retain the aure of essential truth + through telling and retelling. This process endows a cherished + notion with more veracity than a library of facts...Documentation + plays only a small role in contrast to the act of re-confirmation + by each generation of scholars. In addition, the further removed + one gets from the period in question, the greater is the strenth + of the conviction. Initial incredulousness is soon converted into + belief in a probability and eventually smug assurance. + + -- W. Arens The Man-Eating Myth.  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/jct.txt b/religious documents/jct.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f054994 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/jct.txt @@ -0,0 +1,109 @@ + A CHRISTIAN SPEAKS ON THE FAITH AND PATH OF WICCA + by James Clement Taylor + +I am a Christian and not a Wiccan. A Christian is one who has been +baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who has +made a personal, free-will decision to commit himself and all his or her +life to our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Both of these things +are true of me. I am a member of St. Mary's Eastern Orthodox Church, +Calhan, Colorado. In this paper, I am not speaking as agent for any +church, but I am, entirely on my own responsibility, speaking the truth +in love, as we Christians are supposed to do. + +A Situation of Strife and Shame: + +There are many Christians today who believe that anyone who is not a +Christian is doomed to an eternity of suffering in hell. Any decent +person, believing this, would be compelled to try to save as many people +from this fate as possible. But is this belief correct? Jesus Christ, +having noted the faith and righteousness of a Roman centurion, a Pagan, +proclaimed: + + "Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, + not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come + from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and + Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the king- + dom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be + weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:10-12) + +If we accept these words as true, and surely we should, then it is clear +that heaven will contain many who are not Christians, and hell will +contain many who are! Clearly, throughout the Gospels, Jesus Christ +sets forth the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, and +those criteria include love, kindness, forgiveness, and a refusal to +judge others: + + "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly + Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive + men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive + your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15) + + "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and + with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to + you." (Matthew 7:2) + + "But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy and not + sacrifice.'" (Matthew 9:13) + + "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. + Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and + you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be for- + given." (Luke 6:36-38) + +Is it not clear? Anyone who fails in these things, will calling himself +a Christian save him? Anyone who obeys God in these things, will being +unbaptized condemn him? Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, +Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My +Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21) + +Yet it is not by good works that we earn our way into heaven, because +there is no way we can earn the free gift of God's mercy and grace, which +alone can save us. But it is clear that it is not by faith, in the +sense of sharing the Christian faith, that we are saved, either. The +faith which saves us is not faith in the goodness of our works, nor +faith that we have the right theology and/or belong to the right church. +Rather, it is faith in God, and in His mercy: + + "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, + but of God who has mercy." (Romans 9:16) + +But the Wiccans, you will say, do not have faith in God. Yet by their +own theology, they certainly do. Those who call them Satan-worshippers +are entirely wrong. They do not worship Satan, or even believe that +Satan exists. Instead, they worship a Goddess and a God whom they +understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity. + +Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it +should. In the Bible we find the following: + + "Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, + `Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are + very religious; for as I was passing through and con- + sidering the objects of your worship, I even found an + altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. + Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, + Him I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23) + +The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the form +of a Goddess and a God. Therefore, our Bible tells us they worship the +same God we do; and if they do not know this, we should know it! + +For those of us who are unable to simply stand on God's Word, and must +prove to themselves the truth of what it proclaims the holy Apostle John +has given us the method for doing this. You have only to attend any +public Wiccan ceremony, and test the spirits which are there, to see +"whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). You will find that, while the +power manifested there may be less than what you have experienced as a +Christian, that power is clearly the power of God. + +Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these people of Wicca have been +terribly slandered by us. They have lost jobs, and homes, and places of +business because we have assured others that they worship Satan, which +they do not. We have persecuted them, and God will hold us accountable +for this, you may be sure, for He has said, "Assuredly I say to you, +inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did +it to Me." (Matthew 25:40) + +Let us, from this point onward, repent of our misdeeds and declare that +henceforth we shall obey Christ our God, and not judge others or condemn +them, so that He will not have to judge and condemn us for our sins. diff --git a/religious documents/jediwisdom.txt b/religious documents/jediwisdom.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6318ed6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/jediwisdom.txt @@ -0,0 +1,718 @@ +THE WISDOM OF THE JEDI + +In this dangerous era, a Jedi must always be prepared for conflict. + +To know where evil grows and permit it to flourish is to accept +responsibility for all that follows. Sometimes you have to listen to the +silence. And give yourself the time to understand. + +There is a thing inherent and natural, which existed before heaven and +earth. Motionless and fathomless, it stands alone and never changes; it +pervades everywhere and never becomes exhausted. It may be regarded as +the creator of the universe. I do not know its name, I call it the +Force, and I name it as supreme. + +Don't you know that if you do evil, evil will come back to you? Out of +the Great Void came the universe, its galaxies, star systems, and suns. +Everything that exists, and will ever exist, was spawned from the +primordial plasma of time's beginning. Over billions of years planets +formed and life arose through a steady progression of increasingly +complex organisms. Woven into and intertwined with all of this --- from +the smallest molecule to the largest star --- was the Force. As +civilizations grew upon these newly formed planets --- newly formed on a +celestial time scale, that is --- They began to sense, if only +subconsciously at first, this mystical energy. Over the millennia the +Force has been called by an uncountable number of names: The Unity, the +Way, the Power, Magic. All hint at one aspect or another of the Force's +all-encompassing presence, but none completely reflect its true nature. +And perhaps none shall, for the Force defies explanation. At times it +seems dualistic, yet it has no separate components. Most prominent among +the contradictions is the fact that the Force has two aspects, the light +and the dark, yet without one the other would cease to exist. For most +people these concepts hang well out of reach, celestial nonsense better +left unconsidered. But for the select few, the Force is everything. + +The Jedi is a vessel for the channeling of the positive energies of the +Force. This power is not something that is derived or conjured, however, +but ever present in the universe. + +Jedi minstrels, a group known for its epic storytelling. The minstrels +prefer to weave their tales as if the occurrences were happening at that +moment of the recounting. + +The truth or falsity of any individual event will +forever remain a mystery. Jedi stand for peace; they must use their +weapons only as a last resort. Concentrate, Feel the Force flow. Not +outside or inside, but part of all. Through the Force you may see many +things. It reaches across time and space. Other places, the future, the +past. Old friends long gone. Size does not matter. A Jedi seeks not to +know the answers, but to understand the questions. To know is not what +is important to a Jedi. Even to learn is not important. What is +important is to study. There is a tale among us, a legend preserved by +the old tellers from the farthest distance of our past . It is said that +upon the edge of the Earth at the end of time stands a lone man who +holds the meaning of it all . It is said that he has mastered all skill +and prowess that we desire, all restraint and calm, and has become +perfection --- passion and mastery like onto the poised grandeur of +mountains. And it is said, should ever one of us seek him out . and +contest with him, we will learn the measure of our worth, in defeat or +triumph. Therefore we are a seeking people. In each heart among us beats +a yearning for this test and the knowledge it offers. Yet the path, +which leads to him, is unknown, has never been known. It is said that +this path must not be known --- that it may only be found by one who +knows without knowledge and has not come seeking the thing he seeks. You +are that one. The Force is a Jedi's ally, and a powerful ally it is. +Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. We +are luminous beings . not this crude matter. You must feel the Force +around you. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious +mind. A Jedi's strength flows from the Force. Don't give into hate. That +leads to the dark side. We cling to many truths; most depend greatly on +our own point of view. If you do not believe you will succeed. You will +fail. Fear and confusion are some of the weapons of the Dark side. A +Jedi must learn to sense the tension between the light and the dark. You +must remain strong in your commitment. You must preserver, and you must +always embrace the light side. Do not believe that you can experiment +with the darkness and come away unscathed. The taint of the dark side +will remain with you forever after, and the temptations to use that evil +power will come all that more often and all that more strongly. I say +these things not to scare you, nor to dissuade you from your training. +On the Contrary, I wish only to make you stronger in the light by +offering you the knowledge that so many before you spent their lives +discovering. Remember that knowledge and the Force will always be your +shield against the darkness. Do not resist the Role the Force wishes you +to play, for things are not always what they seem. A Jedi must rely on +introspection to discover his destiny rather then on outside +intervention. A Jedi who tries with all his being never fails. It is the +Jedi who gives up that fails --- Fails not only himself, but the Force +as well. When you demand something of the Force. Then by your own +actions, you have proven that you are not ready to commune with the +Force. One must surrender oneself to the Force and allow it to decide +your destiny. There is no difficulty. There is only Effort. He who knows +others is wise; He who knows himself is enlightened. He who conquers +others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty. He who knows +contentment is rich. He who keeps on his course with energy has will. He +who does not deviate from his proper place will long endure. He who may +die but not perish has longevity. The Force is our power and our ally; +The Force has always been with us. That is its nature. It surrounds us +and penetrates us. It binds the universe together. Those who become +sensitive to its presence can learn to use it .. For good or for evil. +Every action, every seemingly insignificant effort --- no matter the +source --- influenced the future, intertwining and building upon one +other to create a new state of the universe, which lasted in such +equilibrium for less then a moment, when it is shattered by the next +series of actions. A Jedi must learn many things among these things are +the skills needed to control one's own inner Force. A Jedi with these +skills learns mastery over the functions of his body and harmony with +nature. A Jedi must also learn the skills needed to sense the Force in +other things beyond the Jedi's own body. The Jedi learns to feel the +bonds that connect all living things; this gives the Jedi the ability to +understand how all things are interconnected. A Jedi must also learn the +skills need to change the distribution and nature of the Force. A Jedi +must learn how to move things with their mind, help others control their +own Force, or change the Force in the Jedi's own Body, As well as change +the perceptions of others and make them come to incorrect conclusions. +Serenity allows a Jedi to view the universe in its true form rather then +in the shaded perceptions that most others see it in. A wise man always +walks with his head bowed. Evil began in a time before recorded history, +when magicians made themselves into kings . and gods . using the power +of the dark side of the Force. The weak-minded have ever been ready to +obey one who wields great power. Those who learned the powers of the +dark side were quick to exploit this weakness --- to make war. Again and +again the dark side has surged forth, like a storm . devouring whole +nations and entire civilizations. Those who mastered dark power became +dark power. They unleashed destruction, for no other reason then selfish +gain. Some of them, I am ashamed to say, were Jedi. The penetrating +light dissolves the dark. The gentle wind disperses the gathering +clouds, leaving the sky clear and serene. The tiny soft roots of the +wood pierce the hardest rock, breaking up those dark intrigues, which +shun the light of day. All the while, the whispering music of the wind, +and the gradual uncurling of the leaves produce tranquility and peace, +appearing soft, gentle, un-threatening. The results of gentle +penetration by the wind are less striking then the effects of aggressive +force, but more enduring and more complete. This principle, wielded by a +Jedi, is powerful and irresistible. In this age of conflict, law and +order is often enforced by those who fight only for pay, or by those who +are willing to seek justice through force. Even after you have mastered +the basic tenets of the Jedi Way, and you have learned many of its +techniques, you have only taken the smallest of steps into a greater +world. Much remains for you to experience. The Force possesses many +subtleties that hide from the uninitiated, revealing themselves only +after years of practice. These will come in time, but you must at least +begin to prepare yourself for this part of the journey. One of the most +important concepts to assimilate concerns the difference between the +light and the dark aspects of the Force. Many foolishly believe that +each is immediately recognizable. Here the light there the dark. But it +is not so. The two have no separation --- you should not consider them +distinct entities. What links these two sides of the force is a nebulous +area of gray wherein the allegiance of any given person is not +immediately apparent. The light and the dark stand at opposite ends of +the spectrum, as beacons respectively. But the multitudes of people lie +somewhere in the center, some leaning toward the light, others falling +toward the dark. These are the people who must be protected, who must be +shown compassion and understanding, who must be guided to the light. +These are the people who can be brought together beneath our luminescent +banner to help us defeat the dark side. A Jedi should realize that no +one species be it humans or another is more important then any other. +The world and the universe thrives on diversity; nature is but an +amalgam of elements randomly assembled into finite entities, people, +creatures, and objects that quickly fade and rise again in new forms. +This concept, then, is the heart of all. It is the central tenet +required to understand the universe. All is one, and one, therefore is +all. Duality does not exist in this statement. This is how you must +think. This is what guides you, what tells you how to conduct yourself. +This is the Force, the energy that lives in everything, that is +existence itself --- You must concentrate on gaining understanding in +this concept. It may seem impossible. Many Jedi, even some of the +greatest Masters, will devote years to this very issue. Do not give up. +Some Jedi can actually speak with animals, forming a bond with them that +can often be unnerving to those who can't. The Jedi is guided by what he +feels and not by what he sees. The hard and strong will fall. The soft +and weak will overcome. The truth often sounds paradoxical. So-called +"sentience" does not equate with importance in the structure of nature. +All creatures --- no matter their size, no matter their intelligence, no +matter their station --- all beings in this universe have the same +impact on this very moment. If a ladybug in Vermont flaps its wings, a +star two dozen light-years away may erupt in a spectacular supernova. +This is how closely bound all entities are. Remember what you have heard +so many times before: the Force penetrates all existence and links it +together, making every element dependent on every other element. You +must bear this concept in mind whenever you come to a crossroads. Let +this understanding guide you; let the Force grant you the wisdom to +choose the correct path. Though what is about to be said may seem +obvious at first, listen closely for the true meaning behind and within +the words. Somewhere therein lies important understanding. As +civilization advances, its technology becomes more intricate, enabling +sentient life to break through one boundary after another. First +learning to traverse the world on beasts. But eventually each society +develops machines that can propel its members over land and liquid, or +high above the planets surface through the atmosphere. These vessels now +bring members of those civilizations together into a single community, +where ideas and beliefs may be shared. Unfortunately, so, to, does war +erupt between some that would never have meet had they remained confined +to their native lands. Notice that technology in itself does not possess +good or evil. It does not have a light or dark nature. Those who use +these devices may cause a vehicle, a ship, or even a weapon to seem to +belong to one side of the Force or the other, but rarely do these items +contain such an essence. This distinction is one of the keys to +unlocking the secret of existence; remember it well. A Jedi always takes +advantage of the tools at hand. The ways of the dark side are often +subtle and deceptive, so those who cling to the light must constantly be +on guard. Many technological devices can aid in this task, especially +those involving communication and healing. There are weapons, as well +--- but these must be used only in times of dire need when lives hang in +the balance and the Jedi must engage in battle to stave off the dark +side. As a Jedi you may be appointed the guardian of a system. Anyone of +the countless systems in use. To effectively watch over your charge, you +must understand it, as well as its history and its functions. You must +come to know the systems as well as you know yourself. If not, your +efforts will be wasted. So how are you to know which system to research? +Study them all. While a Jedi may be a force for peace he must remain +vigilant against evil. Many people who do not take the time to +investigate it thoroughly too often reject the Jedi Way, all to quickly. +Its growth-orientation, instinct-to-spirit spectrum, and transpersonal +nature earn it instant dismissal because it is seen as "too mystical" or +"The foolish fancy of those who are to heavily influenced by a series of +films." Also the fact that it is a tradition that must be experienced +--- it cannot be learned from books. Cause many who are unwillingly to +take the leap required of them to realizing this psychology in their +lives frequently attack it in word and print with remarkable lack of +understanding. The Jedi have been, and continue to be, widely +misunderstood and viciously attacked due to their insights into the +nature of reality and their creativity. It is one of those unfortunate +facts of life that insight and creativity have never been welcomed by +societies at large; the majority of people seem to prefer, instead, +theories and lifestyles that imprison them. It is easier to live within +the dictates of someone else's philosophy than live with the fear +incurred through developing freedom, individuality, and personal wisdom. +The more you rely on technology to do the work for you, the farther you +get from the essence of the creative power of your own channeled +intentions. Be aware that technology can blind you to perceptions of +broader realities. As a Jedi you must learn to control your emotions. +This does not mean to ignore them. On the contrary, you should make +certain to understand how you are feeling at all times. Your task is to +observe these thoughts and emotions, not to blindly act on them. Step +back for a moment from the cage that is your corporeal existence. Enter +the vastness of the Force, where all beings and objects exist as one. +There you will discover the answers to all your queries, where you will +find guidance, where you will finally recognize your role in the +universe. Throughout the adventures of your limited life you must always +come to this place to find the true path, the way of light. Few beings +receive the Force's call to join the Jedi, this band of scholars, +healers, and warriors. And of those who begin the journey, only a +dedicated few eventually become full-fledged Jedi. Premonitions and +Visions: Some Jedi experience premonitions, dreams and visions. +Sometimes these events seem to be little more than random, +impressionistic images, but at other times they are crystal clear +glimpses of past, present, or possible future events. There will be much +debate as to the cause of these phenomena --- perhaps it's the Jedi's +subconscious at work, or perhaps it's simply a different way of sensing +tremors in the Force --- but these occurrences can warn a Jedi of +impending danger or summon the Jedi to "crisis areas" where their unique +abilities are needed. The Jedi Way is more then just a system of +techniques for controlling, sensing, and altering the Force. It is a +philosophy of existence in which the individual sees his true nature as +a part of a larger whole. The Jedi seeks to live in harmony with the +universe, focusing on discipline and awareness to reach his goal. Many +are the temptations to grasp at ephemeral equilibriums, to create +conflict between nature and the mind, to fall onto easier paths. This +the Jedi strives to avoid at all costs, no matter how dear. A Jedi +should focus his efforts on creating harmony between all beings. They +detest violence of any sort; reluctantly engaging in combat only after +all other attempts at conflict resolution have failed. A Jedi must +always act from a position of peace and understanding, never out of fear +or anger. Using the Force for selfish purposes --- self-gain, egotism, +even convenience --- crosses the boundary between the light and the dark +sides. A Jedi must not allow evil to take place once they become aware +of its working. To remain aloof in situations where a Jedi's +intervention would prevent the dark side from attaining another foothold +is the same as helping it do so. A Jedi must constantly be wary of his +path, making certain he does not stray toward the dark side, but remains +firm in the light. While the dark side does not outclass the light side +in any way, it does offer a seemingly quicker --- yet more costly --- +path to power. The dark side thrives on black thoughts, words, and +actions, inducing beings to engage in such wickedness in exchange for +ability to wield the Force to commit subsequent evil acts. Often the +darkness manifests itself in a subtle way to mask its presence from an +individual as it coaxes him to stray further from the light. Only after +the being has performed the act does the dark side reveal itself, +pointing out how simple and easy power comes to those who fulfill its +wishes. With such black-hearted deeds, the being steps further down the +path to full immersion in the dark side, losing most of his former self +in the process. Remember we ALL have darkness within us. It is what +makes us living beings, bound by the Force. We can never brush that +darkness away. It is within us always. We can only learn to control it, +like a dangerous beast that must be kept upon a chain. The first goal of +a Jedi is to maintain order and further the cause of peace. + +Being a Jedi +will not be an easy thing. Though the very name conjures images of +gallant heroism, Jedi themselves do what they must for the good of all +life. Neither embracing adventure nor avoiding it, Jedi bring peace and +justice wherever beings have lost their way. Jedi wield the energy they +call the Force. They use it to perceive and affect the world around them +in ways incomprehensible to others. The Jedi should be a defender and +protector of justice. By his example, belief in the Force will be +accepted if not always understood. There are some beings attuned to the +Force. Whether they understand it or not, they can feel the Force +flowing through them. Of those that are sensitive to the Force, Any who +study it's ways can learn to manipulate its energy. The Jedi fall into +this category, using their knowledge of the Force to give them their +powers. But they are not the only ones. Understanding of the Force +manifests in many ways. Even those who don't believe in the Force and +aren't particularly attuned to its flow can call upon the Force without +understanding what they are doing. When a stroke of amazing luck occurs, +or fate seems to be on their side and helps them accomplish a difficult +objective, it is the force coming to their aid. A Jedi is aware, but he +does not waste time in mindless contemplation. When action is required, +a Jedi Acts. It is a foolish Jedi who thinks he has the strength of +character to walk the path of the dark side and not be touched by it; +that he can use the power of the dark side for the benefit of the +universe. The deep subconscious of a Force-sensitive person is shielded +by a protective barrier, which prevents another Force wielder from +penetrating his or her inner mind. This shield pushes violently back at +the intruder. This "shield" is an involuntary defense mechanism +maintained by every Force-sensitive person. The magnitude of the +backlash generated by the shield depends on the person's strength in the +Force. The dark side philosophy is very different from the Jedi Code. +Whereas a Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, a dark side +user uses the Force to bend the universe to his will. The Jedi +manipulates the Force passively, while in a state of calm and control. +The dark side user gives himself over to his passions, and channels the +Force by harnessing the power of anger, fear, hate, love, and jealousy. +To use any dark side power is to relinquish any claim to call oneself a +Jedi. Even the minor powers of the dark side are extremely dangerous for +Jedi to use. Since they lead to the darkness. While it is true that a +Jedi uses his power only for defense, never for attack, it is equally +true that a Jedi must nevertheless prepare with great vigilance, for +only the Force knows when you may face your greatest battle. The Force +is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all +living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us. It binds the galaxy +together. The mysterious energy field known as the Force permeates the +universe. It is created by life, found everywhere, a part of everything. +It lies beyond that which can normally be perceived, yet a few beings +know how to feel its ebb and flow. With practice and study, Jedi learn +to manipulate that energy, gaining control over life, thought and +matter. The Force is the foundation of the beliefs of the Jedi. A Jedi's +aim is not to encourage fighting but to minimize it and curtail it. A +Jedi who kills innocent people, causes unnecessary or gratuitous injury, +or uses the Force while angry or hateful is already well on his path to +being a servant of the dark side. The Force is an essential part of +nature --- like energy or matter --- but it has yet to be quantified and +analyzed. The Force is not to be understood in the same manner as the +physical qualities of the universe. The laws of physics are observable; +technology is predictable and readily controlled. The Force is neither +controlled nor controlling --- it is a part of life itself; asking if it +controls or can be controlled is like asking if a person controls his +component cells or if they control him. It is not known whether the +Force has always been, came about as life evolved into intelligence, or +if it coerced the evolution of intelligence. To the Jedi, it does not +matter. It's enough to know that the Force is. Even those who don't +believe in the Force can unconsciously manipulate it and be manipulated +by it. They may not be truly "Sensitive" to its flow, but they still +call upon the Force without even realizing. These people seem to have an +almost unnatural ability to accomplish their objectives, whether their +intent is good or evil, or somewhere in between. The skeptical call it +luck. The unbelievers may call it destiny or fate. It is the Force. A +Call to Action: A Jedi cannot allow evil to occur by inaction --- A Jedi +who voluntarily stands by and allows evil to be committed is encouraging +the forces of darkness. Jedi are bound by the actions of those around +them. It is not acceptable for a Jedi to associate with those who +willfully commit evil. When a Jedi is confronted by a situation where +evil is being committed, the Jedi must act to prevent that evil. There +are a variety of means at the Jedi's disposal --- persuasion, creating a +distraction, armed action or simple mind tricks --- but intervention is +necessary. Tremors in the Force: The Jedi lives in harmony with the +Force, sensing its flow, drawing upon its energies . and sometimes +perceiving "disturbances" and "presences" in that flow. The actions of +others can cause disturbances in the Force. A lone individual's +impression might be like a candle flickering in the wind, while a great +tragedy or act of great good may be like a sudden burst of lightning. +Those who manipulate the Force often and with great power shine like the +light of a sun. Each time a Jedi draws on the Force, there is a slight +tremor as the Force is subtly altered. If the Force is used sparingly +and with harmony in the natural order of things, such tremors are slight +and barely detectable even at close ranges. Those who frequently use the +Force cause many, many tremors. When the Force is relied upon --- used +constantly to bend the universe to fit the will of the user --- such +tremors may be great enough that Jedi even at great distances may detect +them. Those who use the Force as a crude instrument of power are very +likely to come to the attention of others. New Jedi students are +particularly likely to be detected. In their desire to master their +powers, they often manipulate the Force . yet their dabbling, if to +frequent, draw the attentions of other nearby Force-users. The dark side +is perhaps the greatest threat a Jedi can face. It's always lurking in +the shadows, a quick and easy temptation for an undisciplined Jedi +filled with anger and frustration. The Jedi must be honorable and noble +since Force-sensitives who act ambiguously are easily corrupted to the +dark side. A Jedi does not grasp at power. A Jedi is not a dominator, +nor an oppressor. To grasp for power is to abandon the ways of the +Force. Such a one ceases to know the Force, except in his dark side. To +grasp at power is to take up the path that leads to destruction. The +Dominator is the enemy, yes. But the Jedi does not use the dark side of +the dominator against him. Thinking is closer to trying then doing. +Changing the future has got to require action, not just planning for +action. While a Jedi acts in defense and not out of aggression, that +doesn't mean aggressively putting a defense into place is bad. Everyone +is equal because the Force is in everyone. Jedi should not reject or +look down or up to anyone because of social class, race, and creed +because these things are artificial and because they stop the Jedi from +seeing others as the Force sees them. In all matters success depends on +preparation; without preparation there will always be failure. When what +is to be said is previously determined, there will be no difficulty +determined, there will be no occasion for vexation. When general +principles are previously determined there will be no perplexity to know +what to do. + +MAKING THE WILL SINCERE + +What is meant by "making the will sincere" is that one should not +deceive oneself. This sincerity should be like the sincerity with which +we dislike a bad smell or love what is beautiful. This is called +satisfying your own conscience. Therefore a Jedi is watchful over +himself even when he is alone. People usually lose their sense of +judgment toward those whom they love, toward those whom they despise or +dislike, toward those whom they fear, toward those whom they pity and +towards those whom they pamper or are proud of. Therefore, there are few +people in this world who can see the bad in those whom they like and see +the good in those whom they dislike. As Jedi we seek to overcome these +habits in ourselves. Thus seeing the truth in all people. A Jedi first +searches himself before he demands it of others, and makes sure first +that he himself is not a transgressor before he finds transgressions in +others. Jedi should try to avoid completely four things: Arbitrariness +of opinion, dogmatism, narrow-mindedness and egotism. It is difficult to +see examples of true Jedi. Everybody errs a little on the side of his +weakness. Therefore it is easy for others to point out the shortcomings +of those who follow the Jedi way. Then it is to point out their good +qualities. Humility is near to moral discipline; simplicity of character +is near to the Jedi Way; and loyalty is near to sincerity of heart. If a +man will carefully cultivate these things in his conduct, he may still +err a little, but he won't be far from the standard of the Jedi Way. For +with humility or pious attitude, a man seldom commits errors; with +sincerity of heart, a man is generally reliable; and with simplicity of +character, he is usually generous. You will seldom make a mistake if you +use these points to begin from. A Jedi has no worry and no fear. For if +he looks within himself and is sure that he has done right in all +things, what does he have to fear or worry about? A Jedi should be +ashamed if his words are better then his actions. If you have the +insight to perceive a truth, but not the wisdom to keep to it, you will +lose it again, though you have discovered it. A Jedi Knight must Remain +Focused. Mastery of the Force requires that one purge all unnecessary +activities from daily life. A monk cannot fulfill the Jedi Way if he +does not manifest compassion without and persistently store up courage +within. And if a warrior does not manifest courage on the outside and +hold enough compassion within his heart to burst his chest, he cannot +become a Jedi. Therefore, the monk pursues courage with the warrior as +his model, and the warrior pursues the compassion of the monk. A Jedi +Knight seeks excellence in all endeavors, martial and otherwise, seeking +strength to be used in the service of justice, rather than in personal +aggrandizement. A Jedi strives to excel physically, mentally, +emotionally and spiritually, and can put these in motion instantly. This +requires discipline, patience and perfect practice, for a Jedi is always +mindful of what lies behind and what lies ahead. + +Being a Jedi Knight often means choosing the more difficult path, the +personally expensive one. Be prepared to make personal sacrifices in +service of the precepts and people you value. At the same time, a Jedi +Knight should seek wisdom.This also means taking the side of truth in +all matters, rather than seeking the expedient lie. Seek the truth +whenever possible, but remember to temper justice with mercy, for the +pure truth can bring grief. However, it must also be noted that to a +Jedi, to be brave in battle proves nothing, as bravery itself proves +nothing. A Jedi should be prepared to put aside fear, regret, and +uncertainty and either act, retreat, surrender or perish. + +Value first the contributions of others; do not boast of your own +accomplishments, let others do this for you. Tell the deeds of others +before your own, according them the renown rightfully earned through +virtuous deeds. In this way the office of Jedi Knighthood is well done +and glorified, helping not only the gentle spoken of but also all who +call themselves Jedi Knights. + +Seek great stature of character by holding to the virtues and duties of +a Jedi Knight, realizing that though the ideals cannot be reached, the +quality of striving towards them ennobles the spirit, growing the +character from dust towards the heavens. Nobility also has the tendency +to influence others, offering a compelling example of what can be done +in the service of rightness. + +It is true that actions speak louder than words. However, behind every +action is motive and a purpose. Without a sound motive and purpose, +action has no meaning, no destination, and lacks a foundation. Action +without motive and purpose does nothing other than to move for the sake +of moving, beating the air to appear to doing something, when in fact is +doing nothing, the proverbial spinning wheels in the mud. A Jedi moves +with the Force. He meditates upon the Will of the Force. A Jedi's +actions are firmly based upon a deep motivation to serve the Force of +Light, and is deeply rooted in purpose. There is no wasted movement, or +the need for action when none is required, for to a Jedi, action means +nothing without a pure motive, or a sound purpose. A Jedi's mind is a +calm ocean, like a sea of glass. He realizes that it is in conquering +the tides of the emotions as well as reactions to stimulus that allows +the Jedi to be victorious in all things, for he is vessel for the Force, +an extension of the Will of the Force. This inner stillness requires +much discipline: mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. A +Jedi by nature is highly disciplined in all levels of his being, that in +the fiery moment where the Force must be released to defend self or +others who deserve that loyalty, the action is a clear extension of many +years of training and inner discipline. It is sometimes necessary for a +Jedi to practice discretion. Jedi do not actively interfere with the +lives of the common people. Jedi stand for order and justice; however, +Jedi prioritize and streamline their involvement, and do not allow the +misdeeds of the few to interfere with the conscious direction received +as to the Will of the Force and how their office as Jedi helps brings +these into fruition. The goal of the Jedi should be to create and +preserve an atmosphere where justice can flourish, rather than try to +create justice themselves. A byword of Jedi could be, "I may not always +agree with your choices, but I will defend your right to choose with my +very life." Being a Jedi Being a Jedi involves a commitment within the +person and a devotion to higher ideals. While a diplomat may choose the +lesser of two evils or a scoundrel the more profitable of the two, a +Jedi is held to a higher standard, and with his greater abilities comes +increased responsibility. The Goal Of Peace The Jedi works first for +peace, acting without consideration of costs to themselves or with an +eye toward personal power or gain. Peace is not the result of a strong +emotional drive (for emotions cloud the correct use of the Force) but +rather a clear, dispassionate goal for the Jedi. Peace born of anger is +no peace at all, and cannot last. Individual Jedi strive for the goal of +peace without emotion both within and without. The Jedi works toward his +goal with unflinching devotion, untroubled by strong emotions. As a +result, powerful Jedi have a cool, detached demeanor that some mistake +for apathy. Situations that challenge the Jedi often involve combat, +particularly mindless combat for no clear purpose (this doesn't just +mean physical combat). For a Jedi, peace is much more then a cessation +of war. For a Jedi to meet this goal, he must look to root causes and +complaints, and to deal with basic conflicts between the participants. A +Jedi who wins the battle but sacrifices the ability to judge +dispassionately has lost his own personal war. The Goal Of Knowledge +Ignorance kills as surely as anger. A little knowledge might be +dangerous, but a lack of knowledge is deadly. Ignorance of others, +ignorance of facts, and ignorance of truth sets individuals apart and +leads to contention and violence. A Jedi spreads knowledge that unifies, +binding peoples and countries together. This knowledge begins with the +Jedi knowing their own capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Pride +can cloud the mind and make them blind to their own flaws, which might +be exploted by others. Failure causes doubt, which causes the Jedi to be +less capable of realizing their own strengths. Jedi continually test +themselves to see where the limits of their abilities lie, not as a goal +in itself, but as a means to the goal of better understanding +themselves. The Goal of Serenity In striving for serenity, the Jedi +seeks more then just remaining levelheaded in a crisis. He finds a calm +place within, and then projects that inner peace outward to affect +others by word and deed. This serenity grants the Jedi a firm resolve +The center of serenity is moderation in all things. Excessive emotions, +whether positive or negative, upset a Jedi's touch with the Force and +create an imbalance within the self, similar to an imbalance within the +Force. Challenges to a Jedi's serenity are many. The forces of the dark +side always encourage the Jedi to give into hate, anger, and rage, and +facilitate those feelings by giving the Jedi good reason to feel those +emotions. Those close to the Jedi might be targets of attacks, or the +ideals of the Jedi themselves might be sullied. The seduction of the +dark side is more insidious, becuase less powerful or less positive +emotions might be harnessed to provoke a rash action. Concern, +affection, and even love can upset the balance of a Jedi's serenity and +force the Jedi to choose between personal desires and the good of the +Order. The Unity of the Force The Jedi Code represents the embodiment of +the universal nature of the Force. The Jedi see themselves as the +guardians of society, holding themselves to a high moral standard. They +are role models, leading by example. The Jedi do not desire to rule, but +rather wish to instruct so that society as a whole acts with greater +justice and equality. The Force is not inherently good or evil. it has +it's light side and it's dark side. It is a tool, and like any other +tool it can be misused. Ignorance leads to improper use of the Force; +the unwise use the Force emotionally. Incorrect use of the Force can +lead to death and destruction. Only through proper training can the +Force be justly applied. In addition, the Force is a necessary and vital +part of the universe. Think of the Force as more than merely the means +by which you gain skills and power. It is a metaphor for the universal +nature of life itself, vibrant, dynamic, and dangerous. All Jedi are +permeated by the Force, just as all beings are, but the Jedi are most +aware of it. Events in one region might affect another, as if the +universe were one interconnected being, with the Force as its blood and +life. The Internal Journey A Jedi grows in power as he experiences the +world, gaining more proficiency in combat and in applying the Force. In +turn, the Jedi affects the world around him, spreading the doctrine of +the Jedi Code and making the universe a better place for all. This +external growth and effect, reflects an internal growth of the +individual Jedi. As a person becomes more attuned to the Force, he is +challenged to fully embrace the tenets of the Jedi Order. Every Jedi to +the humblest student to the greatest Master has room to grow and +develop. The nature of the universe is such that new challenges +continually arise to test a Jedi, as he questions old assumptions and +deals with new situations. When teaching Jedi, stress the internal +development of the student. Often a Jedi may have to sacrifice personal +desires or goals for the good of the greater number. Jedi must deal with +their own self-denial for the good of others. The Challenge of +Temptation Temptation poses the greatest threat to a Jedi, and the fall +of a Jedi Knight often begins with one rationalized decision or errant +choice. The nature of temptation provides a continual challenge for +Jedi. Temptation takes myriad forms. The simplest urges the Jedi to +provide an easy answer to a complex question. The answer might be +immediately satisfying but creates long term problems. The arrest of a +crime lord, for example, might be immediately fullfilling, but unless +the crime lord's empire is also shut down, the arrest merely creates a +situation in which another being will assume the crime lord's role. +Usually after a bloody civil war within the group that almost always +endangers countless innocent lives. Another form of temptation comes +from power of adulation and the threat of success itself. Accepting +personal rewards is dangerous for a Jedi, for it inspires belief in his +own abilities that might exceed the truth. In effect the Jedi comes to +believe his own hype. The Jedi should learn instead that true +satisfaction comes from the sense of well-being within, not from the +approval of others. A Third form of temptation is the nature of power +itself. The Jedi should be a force for good, which keeps them from using +their abilities to rule others. This is an extremly powerful temptation, +becuase Jedi often face ignorance and folly in their daily lives. The +Jedi can be tempted to deal with such folly (bureaucracy is particularly +rife with it), yet once that kind of interference starts, it soon +escalates to a point where a Jedi encourages the very ignorance he once +fought against, in the name of ruling others "for their own best +interest." Temptation starts small - using the Affect Mind skill to deal +with a petty argument, losing your temper when making a point, taking +pleasure in battle. From these small blemishes the corruption grows. +Rising From The Ashes Would-be Jedi must understand that failure should +never be the end. The Jedi Code places a heavy load on the Jedi, +requiring almost superhuman abilities for them to accomplish all it's +demands. In large and small ways, all Jedi eventually fail the +challenges posed by the code in some way. They might feel anger or +succumb to temptation. They might work against the balance of the Force, +even with the best of intentions. They will fall from the high ideals +they hold. The true failure of a Jedi is not stumbling or failing to +live up to the ideals of the Order. The true failure occurs if, once +having fallen, the Jedi fails to rise again. Many Jedi who have failed +in one of their tasks consider themselves beyond redemption or +forgiveness, and in doing so open themselves to the dark side. Jedi +strive to live up to the Jedi Code and the teachings of their masters. +When (not if, but when) a Jedi fails to attain those goals, the only +choices are to let the failure dominate his life, or to rise from the +ashes of that defeat and strive to make peace with himself through the +Force. That is the way of the Jedi. + +Life As A Jedi Knight + +Upon completing his training, a Jedi apprentice becomes a Jedi Knight. +His life suddenly loses a great deal of structure. He no longer lives +and trains on his Teacher's schedule, though he might still cling to it +out of habit. Instead, he stands ready to undertake any task that a Jedi +can undertake, or resolve any problems that he discoveries on his own. +In gaining this freedom and taking on responsibility, the Jedi Knight's +life becomes considerably more complicated than when he was simply +required to heed his Teacher's instructions and follow his advice. He +gains a great deal of autonomy, but loses an equal amount of direction. +The Teacher still has the responsibility to provide the newly titled +Jedi Knight with a task, one that gives the new Knight time to adjust to +his new status. For some Knights, this is a solo mission, not unlike the +mission they might have taken at the culmination of their trials. They +might be assigned to assist another Jedi Knight. Others recieve an +appointment to an office within the Jedi hierarchy based on their skills +and talents. They become archivists, researchers or other similar +positions. Some might even help train their Teacher's new student as a +primer for training their own, or go on a journey of discovery, during +which he could find a place or a problem that needed a Jedi Knight. He +might also join a group of others to help a noble cuase. Such a Jedi +Knight has great autonomy. He might wander the world, lending his skills +where they are needed. Alternatively, he can pursue a specific goal such +as watching over a person or researching Jedi lore to it's completion, +even if that means spending the rest of his life in one place. Such +descion are subject to change if the Order has more important tasks for +the Jedi Knight. + +Training Duels + +When Jedi need to practice their fighting skills, they call upon one +another to duel. When they choose to use weapons capable of killing one +another, Jedi must be careful not to seriously injure one +another.Similarly, when a Jedi Teacher teaches an apprentice the art of +combat, he must be mindful of not only his own attacks but those of his +student, who might lack the control to attack without harm. Jedi in +Training Duels check their attacks. Jedi also observe certain customs of +dueling etiquette, both to preserve harmony and to guarantee the safest +possible duels. Much of this thinking carries over into the day-to-day +behavior of the Jedi Knights. Fighting Duels are for Practice, not for +Resolving Disputes. The Jedi realize that temptation to solve problems +with fighting is often very strong. especially for younger Jedi. Thus, +this rule is generally the first imparted to a Jedi when his training +begins. Never Endanger Bystanders The Jedi Teachers should sternly +reprimand Jedi who duel in public, specifically becuase they wish to +avoid accidents. The Duel Ends if Someone is Injured An injured Jedi who +insists on continuing a duel might not be thinking clearly. Thus, the +duel ends the moment one of the participants suffers a wound. +Paradoxically, most Jedi do not consider wounding an opponent in a duel +as a victory. Instead, it tells them that they have unconsciously wanted +to injure their opponent, which is cause for meditation. A Jedi who has +injured an opponent in a duel generally does not participate in a duel +again until asked. Some even wait until the opponent they have injured +asks for a duel. Always Honor a Request to End the Duel When a Jedi asks +for the duel to end, it is considered good form to immediately do so. +Customarily, the person who makes the request puts away his weapon or +bows if in hand to hand fighting when he makes the request. However, +some Jedi Teachers use this point as a test. They leave their weapon out +to see whether their apprentices are unwise enough to lower their +defenses against an armed opponent - even one they otherwise trust. +Never Strike an Unarmed Opponent Jedi Consider armed attacks against an +unarmed opponent possible evidence of the dark side's influence. Of +course, the same thinking does not apply to unarmed attacks against an +unarmed opponent. Never Strike an Opponent Who is Unprepared Even an +armed opponent may not be ready for an assault, so the Jedi customarily +indicate battle readiness either with a formal salute or by adopting an +"on guard" stance. Any other stance indicates that the combatant is not +prepared for combat, though he could still verbally indicate otherwise. +A weapon held to one side and directed at the floor signifies the +default "at rest" stance. Never Use the Force During a Duel Duels are a +test of combat skill, not of proficiency with the Force. If a Jedi uses +the Force against his opponent during a duel, it is taken as a sign of +desperation. This provides a good reason to end the duel, before someone +gets hurt. Unfortunately, the habit of not using the Force in combat +practice sometimes works against the inexperienced Jedi It does not +occur to them that their opponents might not respect this custom. +Similarly, using the Force to improve fighting skills is allowed if both +participants agree to such beforehand. Calling upon the Force however, +is considered extravagant and disrespectful to the Force. When +Practicing Armed Combat Un-Armed Combat Tactics are Considered Fair Game +Despite the injunction against using the Force, other combat tactics are +perfectly legal, since weapon combat involves more than simply +exchanging blows. Jedi frequently employ rushing, disarms, knockdowns, +and trips, though grapples are generally frowned upon. Attacking an +opponent's weapon to try and destroy it is a gross sign of disrespect, +since it damages the personal property of a fellow Jedi. Consequently, +few Jedi resort to this tactic. Except in life-or-death struggles. + diff --git a/religious documents/jesus.txt b/religious documents/jesus.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f1648b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/jesus.txt @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ + + ATHIEST + + I won't waste time with a lot of garbage and get down to the bear + facts "JESUS CHRIST" was a "MYTH", after read EXTENSIVELY, the + three books,"The Holy Bible",Flavious Joesephus"and the "Aquaruian + Gospel of Jesus christ" + + One Flavious Josesphus lied 7 times, number 2 there were several + errors or intentional mistakes in the books of Mathew, Mark Luke and + John (ie: see BIBLE.ERR file for more details ) + + They say Jesus Christ was just like the rest of us, if you cut him + he bled, you bet because he was "just like the rest" and he didn't + want to die anymore than the rest of us. + + My belief is that back during that time period there were several + "JUSUS'S from NAZRETH" the same as there were many "Mathews, + Lukes, Marks and Johns." + + The Real Jusus of Nazreth hid in the Garden of Gethsymna, while + Judas pointed out to the soldier a fake "Jesus of Nazreth" + + Then one of 2 things happened Jesus waylayed Judas, rembering "Dead + Men Tell No Tails" and hung Judas or Judas was over come with guilt + that he had sent an innocent man to the cross that he hung himself. + + The soldiers were only interested in finding a Jesus from Nazreth, + not necessarily the right one. + + That is how the next day jesus could appear to his disciples the + next day, because they all thought he had been crucified. When Jesus + asked "DOUBTING THOMAS" if he wanted to place his hand in the wound + in his side, it does NOT say that he took him up on the offer. + + When the man on the cross cried "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAS THOU + FORESAKEN ME !" what he actually said was "MY GOD, MY GOD what am I + doing up here, I'M INNOCENT !" + + Several women were in on the deal to make the soldiers think that + they had crucified the correct "JESUS fron NAZARETH." to protect the + real one that was hidng out. + + I love my wife but I would never let someone tke my son and crucify + him just to prove to my wife that I loved her, nor could any father + knowing that he would suffer the agonies of death period. + + This is one mans opinion of what the tommy rot that the "NEW + TESTAMENT" was built on, so you Christians better examine your faith + a little closer. I have another essay called "VIRGIN.TXT" about the + virgin birth you might want to read it also. + + Charles Clanton Jr. + copyright 1991 + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/jesus1.txt b/religious documents/jesus1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3328e5 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/jesus1.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/jesus2.txt b/religious documents/jesus2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..41a77e0 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/jesus2.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/jewish.txt b/religious documents/jewish.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..17ca2b1 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/jewish.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/joan.txt b/religious documents/joan.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..424bea5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/joan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,99 @@ + JOAN on the Witch Laws 8/22/81 + + Note: These are the comments of one of the early members of Proteus + Coven on what we gave her to read about ethics and laws. All the + material she had is still here, although a good deal has been added + since then, so I thought her comments would also be interesting. + Judy + + -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + + Reaction to "Traditional" - i.e. essentially Gardnerian - format + + In many respects, as constricting as Catholocism without the + administrative experience, intellectual prowess, or verbal expertise of + Catholicism. If current researchers are correct, what we have is one + man't fantasy (with jumbled and skewed sources) made everyone's + obligation. + May be dealt with most effectively - especially as regards the + reality of current practice and expectation - by juxtaposition with + Lady Ikandkhop's masterful irony. + + -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + + + Reaction to Aporrheton 5 - [generally very good thinking, but still + more traditional than my preference] + + Paragraph Two: Good thinking on nature of Goddess - or any divinity. My + agreement is reserved, uncertain, withheld. + + Paragraph Three: Claims to have arrived at FIRMLY ("no bending") + UNDISPROVEN hypotheses. This arouses natural suspicion in me. I + disagree with some of his perceptions of FACTS. + + I disagree violently with Laws 5 + 6. Heterosexuality is a strength, + but not an essential. POLARITY OPERATES OUTSIDE [or INSIDE] BOUNDARIES + OF ANATOMICAL EQUIPMENT AND HORMONES. + AND THE CHARACTER - THE SACRED CHARACTER - OF THE WITCH IS WITHIN + THE AT ONCE TRANSCENDANT AND DISCIPLINED SELF. + + Law #7 is unnecessary. A silly bow to a misunderstood "Trad" law. + + Law #8 is largely true, but makes no allowance for valid, honest (fair + to all), and necessary transitional states many must pass through. Also + sticks on "authority" peg, which has some necessity/validity but can + easily get out of hand. I find HONESTY + COURTESY better yardsticks. + + Law #9. True. But much of interpersonal tension (inevitable) can be + worked out of God/dess' love and coven support-with-discipline prevail. + + Law #10. The Great Mysteries must be lived out. And, without using + Craft parlance, if another needs to hear them, they MUST BE VERBALIZED. + TO DO LESS IS HARM. + i.e., it is to allow another to drown when you're on shore and have + a rope. + But no missionary zeal! + No proseletyzing!!! + That for which others are unready is foolishness for them and + foolishness for the Witch. (It may also be subconscious power tripping. + See agreement in Law #13.) + + Law #11 - I agree with paragraphs one and two. + Paragraph 3: saying that only the HPs incarnates the Goddess is + inappropriate and - in my firm opinion - NOT FACTUAL. (note from Judy - + as I interpret what he says there, it's that only WOMEN incarnate the + Goddess. I also disagree with that, but it's less bad than Joan's + reading that he limits it to the HPs only.) The Goddess is not bound by + ceremonial elevations. She incarnates where and when She Damn Well + Pleases! + Re: "all initiations ..." - etc. - Ritual is crystallization of + preexistent, potential, incipient reality and this actualization is not + trivial. + + Law #12 - Good caution on limits (ill defined where emotion runs high) + or self-defense. But assumption rules out solo magic (his previous + premise is that it isn't Wiccan) by corollary of group responsibility / + group danger to all action. + "Return to sender" is generally agreed as rule-of-thumb for + defense. Practice has not disproven. This is a difficult area to + define. Probably group consensus on this would help. + Does "impossibility factor" negate danger? How about the verbal + escape clause sometimes used? + Obviously, I'm less sure of boundaries on this one than on any + other. + + Law #13 - Good idea. Rather an ideal than a norm. + + OMISSION: APORRHETON does not mention Balance or Polarity concept + except in male/female context. But these are valuable and central + concepts. + + I got the feeling this person is still ruled by fragments of + left-over fear. + + -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- + + Starhawk is GREAT. But many people will need more codification than she + offers. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/jrflaws.txt b/religious documents/jrflaws.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3dceadd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/jrflaws.txt @@ -0,0 +1,348 @@ + YOUR HIGH PRIESTESS + + In the Magic Circle, the words, commands, and wishes of the High +Priestess are Law. She is the earthly representative of our gracious Goddess. +She is to be obeyed and respected in all things. She is our Lady and, above +all others, a Queen in the highest sense of the word. All female coveners +will curtsy and say "Blessed Be" when they come before Her, and all male +coveners will bend their knee and kiss Her on the right cheek and say +"Blessed Be". + + YOUR HIGH PRIEST + + In the Magic Circle, the High Priest is the earthly representative +of the Great God. He commands the respect due a Magus, Lord Counselor, and +father. + + THE LAWS + + THE LAWS WERE MADE FOR THE WITCHES TO ADVISE THEM IN THEIR + TROUBLES. DO NOT CHANGE THEM LIGHTLY. + + 1. The Witches should worship the Gods as is their due, and obey their +will. For the worship of the Gods is good for the Witches even as the worship +of the Witches is good for the Gods: For the Gods love all their Witches. + + 2. As a man loves a woman more by acquiring more knowledge of her wants +and desires, so should the Witches love the Gods by the learning (mastering) +of them. + + 3. It is necessary that the Magic Circle, which is the Temple of the Gods +in these times, be case and purified such that it may be a fitting place for +the Gods; and the Witches should be properly prepared and purified to enter +into the presence of the Gods. + + 4. With love and worship in their hearts the Witches shall raise power +from their bodies (and the elements around them), and they shall offer this +power to the Gods so that the Gods may help their Witches. + + 5. The High Priestess shall rule her coven as the representative of the +Goddess, and the High Priest shall support her as the representative of the +God. The High Priestess will choose any member of the coven to be her High +Priest, if he has sufficient standing in the cover. As the God Himself +kissed our Lady's feet, gave Her the five-fold salute, and offered Her His +power because of Her youth and beauty, Her sweetness and kindness, Her wisdom +and justice, Her humility, gentleness, and generosity, and shared His power +with Her, so therefore the High Priestess should always be aware that all +power comes from Him; it is only lent, to be used wisely and justly. + + 6. The greatest virtue of a High Priestess shall be recognition that youth +is necessary to the representative of the Goddess. She will, therefore, +gracefully retire in favor of a younger covener should the coven so decide in +council. The true High Priestess should realize that gracefully surrendering +the pride of place is one of the greatest virtues, and that thereby she will +return to that pride of place in another life with even greater power and +beauty. + + 7. In the Old Days, when there were many Witches, we were free and +worshipped freely in the greatest temples; but in these times, we must +celebrate our sacred mysteries in secret. Therefore, none but the Witches is +to see our mysteries; no coven shall know the location of any other coven or +who its members are, except the High Priest, the High Priestess, and the +Messenger; and that there shall be no communication among the covens, except +by the Messenger of the Gods or the Summoner. Only if it is safe may the +covens meet in some safe place for the Great Festivals; and while there, none +shall give their true names or any information about their coven or its +members. This law is made for this reason: no one can tell our enemies what +they do not themselves know. + + 8. It is ordained that no one shall tell any person not in the Craft who +other Witches are, or give them names, or addresses, or in any way tell +anything that can betray a Witch to their face. Nor may anyone tell where the +covendom or covenstead is, where any meetings are held, or any other +information about the coven unless directed to do so by the coven in council. + + 9. If anyone breaks these laws, even under torture, may the Curse of the +God and the Goddess be upon them, so that they may not be reborn upon the +Earth (but shall live forever in the Hell of the Christians). + + 10. Let each High Priest and High Priestess govern their coven with +justice and love, with the help and advice of the other and of the elders of +the coven, always heeding the advice of the Messenger of the Gods if he should +arrive. They will heed all the suggestions of their coveners and strive to +settle any differences among them. + + 11. It is recognized that there will always be people who will try to +make everybody agree with their ideas: these people are not necessarily bad -- +they often have good ideas, and these ideas should be discussed in council. +But if they will not come to agree with their other coveners, or if they say, +"I will not work with this High Priestess," then the elders will have them +leave. It should be suggested that they might join another coven, or if they +are of sufficient standing they may be encouraged to found their own coven. +For it is better this way, to avoid strife among the family of Witches. + + 12. When using geographic boundaries, whenever anyone of Third Degree +lives more than a league from the covenstead (or are about to), any of these +may found a new coven; indeed, any Witch living within the covenstead who +wishes to form a new coven will inform the elders of this intention, and +immediately move to a new dwelling beyond the boundaries of known covensteads. +Members of any coven may choose to join the new coven when it is formed, but +they must totally avoid their old coven if they choose this course. The +elders of the old and new covens should meet in peace and love to determine +the boundaries of the covens. Any Witch living outside of any two covens +may choose to join either coven, but never both. All may meet for the Great +Festivals if the elders agree, so long as they meet in peace and love. Let +the elders confer as to the use of this law when it is not directly applicable. +Always be aware that the splitting of a coven breeds bad feelings; this law +was made chiefly for this reason. And may happier times come! + + 13. If you would keep a Book (whether it is called a Black Book, Book of +Shadows, Book of Light, or whatever), write it in your own hand. Let your +brothers and sisters in the Craft copy as they will from your book in their +hand, but never let your Book out of your hands and never keep the writing of +another. Every Witch should keep and guard their own writings, that none may +be discovered through their Book being found in another's possession. + + 14. Destroy your Book whenever danger threatens, and commit as many as +possible of these Laws to memory. Destroy the writings of a deceased Witch if +they did not have time to do so themselves. If any of their writings are +found, it is clear proof against both the writer and the holder, for our +enemies firmly believe that "one may not be a Witch alone": their family and +all who are known to be friends may be suspected as Witches. Be responsible +with your writings and you will protect all who love you. + + 15. If your Book is found on you, it is clear proof against you along +unless you tell our enemies what you know. You may be taken and tortured, but +keep all thoughts of the Craft from your mind. If the torture is too much to +bear, tell them, "I cannot bear this torture. I will confess. What do you +want me to say?" If they try to make you talk about the Craft, do not; but if +they try to make you speak of absurd things, such as flying through the air, +consorting with the Christian devil, sacrificing children, or eating men's +flesh, say, "I held an evil dream; I was beside myself; I was crazed," or +words to that effect, to obtain relief from the torture. Not all magistrates +are bad -- if there is any semblance of an excuse, they may show mercy. If +you have confessed to anything, deny it afterwards: say that you babbled +under torture, or that you don't remember what you said. If you are condemned, +do not be afraid, for the Craft is powerful and your escape will be aided if +you stand fast. If you go steadfast to the flames, be certain that drugs will +reach you and you will feel nothing of the pain. You will only go to death +and what lies beyond -- the ecstasy of the God and the Goddess. If you betray +anything, however, there is no hope for you in this life or that which is to +come. + + 16. To avoid being discovered, choose your working tools to be ordinary +items which you would have around the house. Make your Pentacles out of wax +so that you can break and melt them at once. Do not keep a sword unless its +presence would alarm no one. Have no signs or names visible on anything: +write the signs in ink or water immediately before consecrating the tool, and +wash them off immediately after. Do not engrave anything, for this will only +help you be discovered. Keep your athame and kerfan (working knife) among +your kitchen knives, and let the colors of the hilts determine the one from +the other and from the other knives. Always remember that we are the Hidden +Children of the Goddess. Never do anything to disgrace the Craft or Her -- +never boast, never threaten, and never say that you wish ill of anyone. + + 17. It is not forbidden to say, "There is Witchcraft in the land," for +the Christians say so themselves and have made it heresy not to believe so; +but always say, "I know nothing of it here, though it may be elsewhere." If +any person speaks about the Craft outside of the Circle, say, "Don't speak of +such things -- it frightens me. It is bad luck to talk about such things." +Say this for this reason: the Christians have their spies everywhere. These +spies have been known to talk as if they were drawn to the Craft and as if +they would want to come to our meetings, and they say such things as, "My +fathers and forefathers worshipped the Old Ones, and my mother; I would like +to worship in this way myself." To all of these, tell them that you do not +know what they are talking about, and that you wish they would stop. But to +others, say, "It's silly to talk about Witches flying around in the air; they +would have to be lighter than feathers or thistle-down. Besides, everyone +knows that Witches are all bleary-eyed old hags; what fun could they possibly +have at their meetings, and why should I want to participate? And besides, +you know we were taught in school that there are no such things as Witches." +Always make fun of the subject, that we may worship in peace when the +persecution ends: let us all work for that happy time. May the blessing of +the God and the Goddess be upon all who keep this law. + + 18. If any in the Craft holds any property, let all Witches guard it and +keep it clear and good for the use of the Craft. It is the further +responsibility of all Witches to guard Craft funds wisely. + + 19. If any Witch offers a well-made item, it is proper to pay them for it +according to the value of the work; this is not taking money for the Craft, +but payment for honest work -- even the Christians believe that "the labourer +is worth his hire". Still, if any Witch works willingly for the good of the +Craft and will not accept payment, this shall be to their greater honor. + + 20. It is known that a coven may be bound together by sexual ties, and +that this is often not desirable. When it is found that this is not desirable, +the coven should be made up of loving couples, and there may also be single +coveners. In such cases, it is required that the search for new love be +undertaken outside the coven except when two single coveners find love with +each other; otherwise, it will often cause division in the coven. For while +all acts of love and pleasure are indeed the rituals of our beloved Goddess, +She is not inclined to favor acts which divide her covens and scatter Her +Witches unnecessarily. + + 21. If there should arise quarrels or disputes among the Witches, the +High Priestess or High Priest shall immediately convene the elders and inquire +into the problem. The elders shall hear each side separately, and then both +together. Their decision should be just, not siding with one side until the +matter is determined, recognizing that there are people who cannot work under +others, and others who cannot make wise decisions. To those who must always +be in charge, the possible solutions for them are to void the coven alto- +gether, find another coven for them, or for them to found a new coven (taking +with them all who will go). To those who cannot rule wisely, the solution is +that those who cannot bear the rule will leave the coven. No one can truly +worship the Gods when personal conflicts among the coveners are not resolved; +all who cause strife in the coven must be told, "Go away from us, for the +Craft must ever survive." + + 22. In the Old Days, we could use the Art against anyone who treated the +Witches badly; but in these times, we must not do so. Our enemies have +invented a burning pit of everlasting fire into which their God throws +everyone who does not worship Him, except for those few who buy their penance +from His priests (for their God always seems to be in need of money). Even as +our Gods need our aid to make fertility for people and crops, so it is that +the God of the Christians is always needing men to find and destroy us. Their +priests tell them that any man who is helped by us will be damned to their +Hell forever, to the point that men are mad with the terror of it. But +the priests also make them believe that they may escape this Hell if they give +up Witches to be tortured, so that these men are always thinking, "If I catch +only one Witch, I will escape the fiery pit." For this reason we have our +hiding places, and when no Witches are found, the searchers will say, "There +aren't any Witches, or at least not in this area." But as soon as one of our +oppressors dies or even catches a cold, the cry will go up that it is "Witches' +work", and the hunt will be on again. And while they may kill ten Christians +for every Witch, they will not care, for they are countless millions while we +are few indeed. + + 23. THEREFORE, IT IS ORDAINED that none shall use the Art in any way to +harm anyone or even wish them ill. However much they may injure us, HARM NONE, +and may the Christians forget that we exist. + 24. These laws are ordained to help us in our difficulties. No person, no +matter how large the injury or injustice they incur, may use the Art in any +way to do evil or harm anyone. But they may use the Art, after great consul- +tation with the elders and fellow coveners, to keep the Christians and their +tools from harming anyone -- but only to constrain them. To this end, some +day men will say, "That man says he is a mighty persecutor of Witches, but all +we ever see him torture are old women -- we cannot see that they have hurt +anyone, and if they are all such powerful Witches, why has he not been harmed?" +They will see him as an evil person regardless of his professed beliefs. We +know that too many people have died because someone had a grudge against them, +or were persecuted because another wanted their wealth or because they were +too poor to bribe the witch-hunters. And many have died only for being old +women -- so many that most men now seem to believe that only old women are +Witches. This is to our advantage, for it turns many suspicious eyes away +from us; but we mourn deeply for the old women. Still, in England and +Scotland, it has been hundreds of years since a Witch "died the death"; be +vigilant, for the misuse of our power might begin the persecutions again. +Never break this law no matter how much you are tempted. Never consent to +the breaking of this law: even a High Priestess who merely consents to the +breaking of this law must be deposed immediately, for it is the blood of all +the Witches that she endangers. DO ONLY GOOD, and then only when it is safe +to do anything at all. + + 25. Never accept money for the use of the Art, for money always smudges +the receiver. Christians take money for the use of their arts, and they sell +pot-metal charms, pardons, and potions to men so that they may escape from +their sins. Do not act like these men; as long as you refuse to take money, +you will be free from the temptation to use the Art for evil causes. All may +use the Art for their own advantages, or for the advantage of the Craft, but +you must always be certain that no one will be harmed by its use. Let the +coven debate the use of the Art at length, and only when all are satisfied +that none will be harmed by its use will the use be allowed. Remember that if +you cannot achieve your means in one fashion, your aim may still be reached +through another -- always harming none. + + 26. If anyone in the Craft needs a house or land and there is no one +willing to sell to them, you may use the Art to incline an owner's mind to be +willing to sell, provided that the spell does not harm the owner or the +property and that the full value is paid without haggling. Never bargain or +cheapen anything wile living by the Art. + + 27. The most important of laws: Do nothing that will endanger anyone in +the Craft or which will bring them into conflict with the law of the land or +any of our persecutors. In this regard, it is NEVER permissible, in any +dispute involving the Craft, to invoke any laws other than those of the Craft, +nor may any tribunals be held other than one consisting of the High Priestess, +the High Priest, and the elders. + + 28. The coven is to keep two books on herbalism: one of these will list +the names and uses of all herbs which are cures for ills or are otherwise good +for humans, and all may have access to this book to learn these things. But +keep a separate book with the names of all poisonous herbs and those used in +dark spells, letting only the elders and other trusted Witches know of these +secrets or even of this book's existence. + + 29. Remember that the Art is the secret of the Gods and may only be used +in earnest -- never for show, or pride, or personal glory. The Christians may +taunt you saying, "You have no power: Perform some magic for us, and then we +may believe." Do not listen to them, for the Art is holy and is to be used +only in need. + + 30. It has always been the way of men and women that they should seek after +love, and while no one should be reproved for this, it may be to the disad- +vantage of the Craft sometimes. It has happened too many times that a High +Priestess has found a new love and run off with him, giving no word to the +coven of this. A High Priestess may resign in full coven at any time, and +this resignation is valid; but if she has not resigned, the coven shall wait +for her to return for a year and a day (for she may return sooner, having left +for love). If she has a deputy, that deputy is to act as Priestess for as +long as the High Priestess is away. If she returns within this time, all will +be as if she had never left; but if she does not return within this time, a +new High Priestess shall be elected in full coven. Unless there is a good +reason to the contrary, the deputy, having done the work, should reap the +reward and be chose as the new High Priestess. But if another is chosen, the +deputy shall be the maiden and deputy of the new High Priestess. + + 31. The High Priest serves at the pleasure of the High Priestess. If the +High Priestess is gone for more than a year and a day, he shall continue in +his office while the deputy serves in her place. However, once a new High +Priestess has been chosen, the new High Priestess will appoint her own High +Priest (and it may be the current High Priest or not). Neither the prior +High Priest nor his friends may be angry if a new High Priest is chose, for +pride must always give way to harmony in the coven. + + 32. The Art is sacred: it is the Art of the working of energies, and it +must always be taught inside of the Magic Circle. It has been found that +teaching the Art frequently leads to a sexual attraction between the teacher +and student -- and that this often improves the result. If for any reason +this is not desirable, it should be avoided at the beginning by both persons +firmly - and verbally - resolving that their relations will be limited to that +of brother and sister, or parent and child. It is for the reason that shared +love often increases the result of working magic that teaching should always +be done from man-to-woman and from woman-to-man. When a coven is made up of +members of all one sex, the masculine-to-feminine energy exchange should be +adhered to whenever possible. Teaching people about the Craft, however, may +be done whenever and wherever it is safe, so long as the teacher is knowled- +geable, the student is willing, and the information taught is available +publicly or is not a secret of the Art. No one may charge for teaching, +unless it is to cover such expenses as the cost of the room, books or other +printed materials, refreshments, and so forth. + + 33. Order and discipline must be kept within the coven: the High Priestess +of the High Priest should and may punish all faults. To this end, all in the +Craft should receive their correction willingly. With the culprit kneeling, +all in the Circle should be told of the offense, and the sentence will be +pronounced. Punishment might include the scourge or the recasting of the +Circle, followed by something silly such as several kisses. The culprit must +acknowledge the justice of the punishment by kissing the scourge upon receiving +sentence, and afterward by thanking everyone for their loving correction. + + SO MOTE IT BE! + + +Note to MagickNet friends and acquaintances: The above is a combination of +what I was taught and what I learned. Many different sources, including my +NeoGardnerian training, two different sets of Celtic Craft laws, four versions +found in print, and the picked brains of several of my students, went into it. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/jsmith.txt b/religious documents/jsmith.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..20456e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/jsmith.txt @@ -0,0 +1,115 @@ +The truth of Mormonism stands or falls on two things. The first is the +authority of the Book of Mormon. Ted Lapoint has raised a question or +two concerning the verity of the BOM, questions that must be answered. +Unless the BOM can show the same truth in REALITY as the Bible can show, +serious doubts about it's authority in the life of >anyone< remain. + +The second basis for the truth claims of Mormonism is the authority of +Joseph Smith as a prophet of God. Some incredible claims are made by +the Mormon church for their founder, Joseph Smith... "Joseph Smith, the +Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the +salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in +it." (Doctrine and Covenants 135:3). Bruce McConkie in MORMON DOCTRINE +says "So great was his assigned mission, with reference to the +'restitution of all things' (Acts 3:21), that holy prophets spoke of +him, by name, thousands of years before his mortal birth. (2 Ne. 3.) And +as to the mighty work to be started by him-there are as many prophecies +foretelling it as there are about any other single subject, not even +excepting the host of prophetic utterances about our Lord and his +redemptive sacrifice." A careful reading of Acts 3, by the way, will +show that it is not Joseph Smith but Jesus Christ that is the subject of +that passage, and it is not the so-called 'restored' gospel that is in +view but rather the millenial reign of Jesus Christ. But the +interpretation of Acts 3 is not my main concern here, but rather to see +if Joseph Smith was indeed the great prophet he claimed himself to be, +and that the Mormon church of today esteems him as. + +The Bible gives the tests for a true prophet of God in two places, +Deuteronomy 13:1-5 and Deuteronomy 18:20-22. When the prophet speaks in +the name of the Lord, it WILL come to pass. If the thing prophecied +does not, then that prophet is a FALSE prophet, he is NOT from God. +I'll leave it to you to determine what the Bible says should be done +about that, but following a false prophet is not an option! + +Let's look at Joseph Smith as a prophet. Consider the following, taken +from Doctrine and Covenants 84 + + D&C 84:0 Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, +at Kirtland, Ohio, September 22 and 23, 1832. During the month of +September, Elders had begun to return from their missions in the +eastern States, and to make reports of their labors. It was while +they were together in this season of joy that the following +communication was received. The Prophet designates it a Revelation on +Priesthood. See History of the Church, vol. 1, p. 286. --A Temple to +be built in the land of Zion during this generation-The line of the +Holy Priesthood from Moses back to Adam--Relation between the Holy +Priesthood and the Lesser Priesthood--Bearers of these two Priesthoods +called the sons of Moses and of Aaron respectively--Blessings and +privileges of those who attain to these Priesthoods--The bondage of +sin--The new and everlasting covenant--Gifts of the spirit +specified--The Lord calls his servants, friends--Missionary service +imperative--Plagues impending because of wickedness. + + D&C 84:1 A revelation of Jesus Christ unto his servant Joseph +Smith, Jun., and six elders, as they united their hearts and lifted +their voices on high. + + D&C 84:2 Yea, the word of the Lord concerning his church, +established in the last days for the restoration of his people, as he +has spoken by the mouth of his prophets, and for the gathering of his +saints to stand upon Mount Zion, which shall be the city of New +Jerusalem. + + D&C 84:3 Which city shall be built, beginning at the temple +lot, which is appointed by the finger of the Lord, in the western +boundaries of the State of Missouri, and dedicated by the hand of +Joseph Smith, Jun., and others with whom the Lord was well ple ased. + + D&C 84:4 Verily this is the word of the Lord, that the city +New Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints, beginning +at this place, even the place of the temple, which temple shall be +reared in this generation. + + D&C 84:5 For verily this generation shall not all pass away +until an house shall be built unto the Lord, and a cloud shall rest +upon it, which cloud shall be even the glory of the Lord, which shall +fill the house. + +The prophecy here, made in 1832 in the name of the Lord (D&C 84:2), is +that a temple would be built in Independence, Missouri before that +generation passed away, and it would be dedicated by the hand of Joseph +Smith. Simply stated, and simply verified. There was NO temple +constructed and dedicated by Joseph Smith in Independence. The hand of +the Lord was NOT on Joseph Smith when he made this prophecy in His name, +because this prophecy DID NOT COME TO PASS! + +As shown in another posting, the Book of Mormon has no authority because +the record it contains is a fiction. And as shown in this posting, +Joseph Smith has no authority as a prophet, because his prophecies did +not come to pass. Mormonism therefore fails on the very points it +claims for its foundation. It is a false religion. + +The gift of eternal life was purchased for us by the real death on the +cross nearly 2000 years ago, in the real city of Jerusalem, by the real +person of Jesus Christ. This was foretold in holy scripture and did +actually come to pass. He arose from the dead on the third day as He +promised, the proof of what He proclaimed, and the proof to us that He +is Who He says He is, the Living God who alone can forgive our sins and +make us new creations. This is His gift of grace to us, received by +faith in Him and His sacrifice for us, and marked by our turning from +sin in repentance and obedience to His will. This is a personal +relationship with the God of all creation, not blind obedience to some +church or man or religion. I do not invite you to pray ABOUT the truth +of this or any other word written by men... I invite you to pray TO the +True God, acknowledging your sins and ask Him for forgiveness and the +gift of Life in the Name of His Son Jesus Christ. You will not be +saved by any other than Jesus, and it is my prayer that you will meet +Him today! + +God bless you! + Bill + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/jtlesson.txt b/religious documents/jtlesson.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bd5bf7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/jtlesson.txt @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ + Lessons The Books Haven't Spoken Of + By Joseph Teller + + Before I begin, for those who don't really know me well, I wish to +preface this short piece by explaining that I am NOT a teacher, as many +like to claim of themselves. I am a student who likes to share what is +learned. The world has too many 'authorities' who are such purely for +reasons of perceived power or financial gain within the craft - I have no +wish for such falsities to rule and destroy me as it ultimately does those +who fall pray to its lure. + The following are lessons learned in circle or outside it from my own +personal experience and those shared with me by others I have been close +to, plain and simple. Take them as such and value them as you wish. They +are not numbered to show importance, only to organize my thoughts in some +format. + 1) Within A Circle Trust is an absolute Necessity. If you attend a + ritual be SURE you trust those involved. Many feel this, in todays + society to be archaic. It has always proved out when I have tried + to work with unknown people, those I was unsure of or who were in + some way unsure of me, failure, disaster or heated debate resulting + in dissent has always been the end point. Know a person before you + are willing to enter sacred space with them. + 2) Never spellcast too soon. Magic should not be a first resort. The + use of non-magical means should be applied when possible and + convient. Overuse of magic, like anything else, becomes a crutch + that can unbalance your life. + 3) Prophecy is a two-edged sword. Remember this, wether you read Tarot, + I-Ching, Runes or whatever other means of divination or personal + analysis. Be prepared to have the reading to go in directions you + do not expect and be prepared for them NOT to be in a way you will + like. Remember the Lesson of Cassandra (in Greek Mythology) that + sometimes you can change the future and sometimes you cannot, and + only time will tell which is which. If you cannot deal with the + possibility of your personal wants or expectations being wrong, then + you should not be consulting a means of divination. I have seen even + long-time craft-folk who forget this lesson in the heat of emotion. + 4) There is not a magical answer behind everything. I have known some + folks who became so obsessed in their personal paranoia of some + form of 'magical attack' or 'magical influence' that such became + their excuse for everything that occured around them, even when very + simple non-magical answers existed to explain what had occured. The + number of magical practitioners at present is VERY small, and most + have a range of influence that doesn't extend far on their own. The + gathering of hateful or vindictive emotional energy to achieve a + magical attack on another is not done easily or quickly, and tends + to harm the attacker more often then the target. Look with logic on + a situation. + 5) Diversify. Don't depend on or look into only a single philosophy or + magical application - a specialist is usually someone who is refusing + to grow beyond boundries they have set for themselves. + 6) A single Teacher Is NOT enough. You will spend a lifetime as a real + student, even if others one day declare you a teacher, leader or + High Priestess. Gather from many to find what your lifepath is. Do + not let anyone tell you there is ONLY one true belief system, one + true Divinity, one way to approach a situation or one teacher to + follow. + 7) In the End you ARE Solitary. All Magickal workers are eventually + forced to depend upon their own company, seperated from the many + communities and groups by distance, time or belief. You will probably + spend more time solitary then in a group. Be prepared to face this + when it happens. The Pagan Community is too small to be everywhere + for everyone or to even always help its own (though trying to do so + is a goal I feel vital to expand the community). You must become + sufficiently balanced and grounded to deal with being alone and to + practice your beliefs alone, especially in times of hardship and + adversity. + 8) Don't be too fast to assume the role of a teacher, or to assume that + a student cannot teach you something in return. Can you really + explain what you believe and do within your belief coherantly? Does + the person to be taught really want to learn it all and are they + sincere, or are they mearly curious or on a 'power trip'? Learning + to know when someone is ready to learn is one of the hardest lessons + you must learn if you purposely teach. Don't give a hand gernade to + a three year old and expect positive results. + 9) Not all paths and philosophies are desireable. There are many that + are self-destructive, purely self-indulgent or a combination of both. + If a path cannot teach you some form of inner peace with yourself + and what you are doing in life, or is devoted to manipulating others + to achieve your personal benefits, then it is a 'dead-end path', one + that is a cul-de-sac on the path of growth. + 10) Don't do what feels uncomfortable. If performing a ritual, using a + magic form, reciting a chant/prayer or performing an activity feels + personally painful, uncomfortable or 'wrong' then it is not for you + to be involved with it at that time. Listen to the inner voice of + your spirit and follow its lead. Intuition is a powerful gift, don't + waste it by always opposing it. + 11) You will have to take chances. Magic doesn't work on its own, and + positive karma won't help you if you fight it when it seeks to + restore balance around you. It is not enough to cast a prosperity + spell and then sit home and wait for a letter in the mail from Ed + MacMahn with a check in it! You must take non-magical action to help + things along. Cast a spell for a new job? Sure, but then don't turn + down a chance to read job listings, mail resumes or attend an + interview! Working to heal a sick spouse? ok, but make sure they + are getting medical advice, enough to eat, attention, care, therapy, + etc. to help the magic on its way! + diff --git a/religious documents/judaism.txt b/religious documents/judaism.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b83826 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/judaism.txt @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ + + + + + JUDAISM + + + + The Jewish tradition teaches that Abraham, the father of the Jewish +people, made an agreement promising to worship God and spread his word. One +legend says that God offered the bible and the ten commandments to other +nations before he offered it to Israel. The others refused because they +thought that God was asking to much of them. + + In the religion of Judaism, there are many feasts, fasts, and holidays to +remember past events in the history of Judaism. Some of these include Rosh +Hashanah, Tzom Gedaliah, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah and Passover. Rosh Hashanah +comes around in September or October. This day celebrates the Jewish New Year. +Tzom Gedaliah also comes around in September or October. On this day the +Jewish followers fast to remember the assassination of the Jewish ruler +Gedaliah. In September or October Yom Kipper occurs. This day is a day of +Atonement and is the holiest day in the Jewish year. On this day people fast. +and the months of either December or January comes Hanukkah. This day is the +feast of dedication to honor the defeat over the Syrians and the rededication +of the temple in 165 B.C. In the months of either march or April comes +Passover. This is a festival of freedom to remember the exodus from Egypt. + + On a Jew's thirteenth birthday, a male has a barmitzvah and the female has +a Bosmitzvah to celebrate them becoming an adult. One consists of a ceremony +in the morning followed by a celebration in the evening. + + Judaism is divided into three categories, Orthodox Judaism, Conservative +Judaism, and Reform Judaism. Orthodox Jews strictly observe Jewish laws and +traditions. They rely on laws stated in the book of codes, Shulan Aruk, and on +the decisions of recognized, learned, orthodox rabbis. Men and Boys wear +yarmulkas, skull caps, or hats at all times as a sign of respect to God. The +Orthodox keep the Sabbath as a complete day of rest, prayer, and devotion and +they strictly observe all dietary rules. + + Conservative Jews are expected to observe the dietary laws and keep the +Sabbath and festivals. Conservatives recognize the authority of Jewish law and +tradition as divine. + + Reform Jews believe that each generation has the right to accept, reject, +or modify the traditions it has received. Men often wear no hats or prayer +shawls in their praying sessions. + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/judaistr.txt b/religious documents/judaistr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2fc5f24 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/judaistr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,327 @@ +Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic,soc.religion.islam +From: lhermi@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Lotfi Hermi) +Subject: Developement of religious strata Judaism and Christianity (related to Islam) +Organization: Oberlin College Computer Science +Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 04:36:31 GMT +Message-ID: <1992Dec18.041028.29184@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> +Lines: 318 + +Here is a glimpse in Ibn Khaldun's Muqadimah in which he describes the +development of the Jewish and Christian religions he also points to the +relationship the three monotheistic religions have with political autho- +rity and leadership. + +Save for analysis. + +Lotfi + + +[31] Remarks on the words "Pope" and "Patriarch" +in the Christian religion and on the word "Kohen" +used by the Jews. + +It should be known that after the removal of its +prophet, a religious group must have someone to take care +of it. (Such a person) must cause the people to act according +to the religious laws. In a way, he stands to them in the +place (khallifah, caliph) of their prophet, in as much as (he +urges) the obligations which ( the prophet) had imposed +upon them. Furthermore, in accordance with the afore-men- +tioned need for political leadership in social organization, +the human species must have a person who will cause them +to act in accordance with what is good for them and who will +prevent them by force from doing things harmful to them. +Such a person is the one who is called ruler. + +In the Muslim community, the holy war - Jihad - is a religious +duty, because of the universalism of the (Muslim) mission +and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by +persuasion or by force. Therefore, caliphate and royal au- +thority are united in (Islam), so that the person in charge +can devote the available strength to both of them at the +same time. + +The other religious groups did not have a universal mis- +sion, and the holy war was not a religious duty to them, save +only for purposes of defense. It has thus come about that the +person in charge of religious affairs in ( other religious +groups) is not concerned with power politics at all. (Among +them,) royal authority comes to those who have it, by acci- +dent and in some way that has nothing to do with religion. +It comes to them as the necessary result of group feeling, +which by its very nature seeks to obtain royal authority, as +we have mentioned before, and not because they are under +obligation to gain power over other nations, as is the case +with Islam. They are merely required to establish their re- +ligion among their own (people). + +This is why the Israelites after Moses and Joshua re- +mained unconcerned with royal authority for about four hun- +dred years. Their only concern was to establish their re- +ligion. The person from among them who was in charge of +their religion was called the Kohen. He was in a way the +representative (caliph) of Moses. He regulated the prayers +and sacrifices of the Israelites. They made it a condition for +(the Kohen) to be a descendant of Aaron, as it had been +destined for him and his children by divine revelation. + +For (supervision of the) political matters which naturally +arise among human beings, the Israelites selected seventy +elders who were entrusted with a general legal authority. +The Kohen was higher in religious rank than they and more +remote from the turbulent legal authority. This continued to +be (the situation among the Israelites) until the nature of +group feeling made itself fully felt and all power became +political. The Israelites dispossessed the Canaanites of the +land that God had given them as their heritage in Jerusalem +and the surrounding region, as it had been explained to them +through Moses. The nations of the Philistines, the Canaan- +ites, the Armenians [!], the Edomites, the Ammonites, and +the Moabites fought against them. During that (time), po- +litical leadership was entrusted to the elders among them. +The Israelites remained in that condition for about four +hundred years. They did not have any royal power and were +annoyed by attacks from foreign nations. Therefore, they +asked God through Samuel, one of their prophets, that He +permit them to make someone king over them. Thus, Saul +became their king. He defeated the foreign nations and +killed Goliath, the ruler of the Philistines. After Saul, +David became king, and then Solomon. His kingdom flour- +ished and extended to the borders of the Hijaz and further to +the borders of the Yemen and to the borders of the land of +the Romans ( Byzantines) . After Solomon, the tribes split +into two dynasties. This was in accordance with the neces- +sary consequence of group feeling in dynasties, as we have +mentioned before. One of the dynasties was that of the ten +tribes in the region of Nablus, the capital of which is Samaria +(Sabastiyah), and the other that of the children of Judah +and Benjamin in Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of +Babylon, then deprived them of their royal authority. He +first (dealt with) the ten tribes in Samaria (Sabastiyah), +and then with the children of Judah in Jerusalem. Their royal +authority had had an uninterrupted duration of a thousand +years. Now he destroyed their temple, burnt their Torah, +and killed their religion. He deported the people to Isfa- +han and the 'Iraq. Eventually, one of the Persian Kayyanid +( Achaemenid) rulers brought them back to Jerusalem, +seventy years after they had left it. They rebuilt the temple +and re-established their religion in its original form with +priests only. The royal authority belonged to the Persians. + +Alexander and the Greeks then defeated the Persians, +and the Jews came under Greek domination. The Greek rule +then weakened, and, with the help of (their) natural group +feeling, the Jews rose against the Greeks and made an end +to their domination over them. (Jewish) royal authority was +in charge of their Hasmonean priests. (The Hasmoneans) +fought the Greeks. Eventually, their power was destroyed. +The Romans defeated them, and ( the Jews) came under +Roman domination. (The Romans) advanced toward Jerusa- +lem, the seat of the children of Herod, relatives by marriage +of the Hasmoneans and the last remnant of the Hasmonean +dynasty. They laid siege to them for a time, finally conquer- +ing (Jerusalem) by force in an orgy of murder, destruction, +and arson. They laid Jerusalem in ruins and exiled (the Jews) +to Rome and the regions beyond. This was the second de- +struction of the temple. The Jews call it ''the Great Exile.'' +After that, they had no royal authority, because they had lost +their group feeling. They remained afterwards under the +domination of the Romans and their successors. Their re- +ligious affairs were taken care of by their head, called the +Kohen. + +The Messiah (Jesus) brought (the Jews) his religion, as +is known. He abolished some of the laws of the Torah. He +performed marvelous wonders, such as healing the insane +and reviving the dead. Many people joined him and believed +in him. The largest group among his following were his +companions, the Apostles. There were twelve of them. He +sent some of them as messengers (Apostles) to all parts of +the world. They made propaganda for his religious group. +That was in the days of Augustus, the first of the Roman +emperors, and during the time of Herod, the king of the +Jews, who had taken away royal authority from the Hasmo- +neans, his relatives by marriage. The Jews envied (Jesus) +and declared him a liar. Their king, Herod, wrote to the +Roman Emperor, Augustus, and incited him against (Jesus). +The Roman Emperor gave ( the Jews) permission to kill +him, and the story of Jesus as recited in the Qur'an oc- +curred. + +The Apostles divided into different groups. Most of them +went to the country of the Romans and made propaganda for +the Christian religion. Peter was the greatest of them. He +settled in Rome, the seat of the Roman emperors. They +then wrote down the Gospel that had been revealed to Jesus, +in four recensions according to their different traditions. +Matthew wrote his Gospel in Jerusalem in Hebrew. It was +translated into Latin by John, the son of Zebedee, one of +( the Apostles) . ( The Apostle) Luke wrote his Gospel in +Latin for a Roman dignitary. (The Apostle) John, the son of +Zebedee, wrote his Gospel in Rome. Peter wrote his Gospel +in Latin and ascribed it to his pupil Mark. These four +recensions of the Gospel differ from each other. Not all of +it is pure revelation, but (the Gospels) have an admixture +of the words of Jesus and of the Apostles. Most of (their +contents) consists of sermons and stories. There are very +few laws in them. + +The Apostles came together at that time in Rome and +laid down the rules of the Christian community. They en- +trusted them to Clement, a pupil of Peter, noting in them +the list of books that are to be accepted and in accordance +with which one must act. + +(The books which) belong to the old religious law of the +Jews are the following: + +The Torah, which consists of five volumes. +The Book of Joshua. +The Book of Judges. +The Book of Ruth. +The Book of Judith. +The four Books of Kings. +The Book of Chronicles. +The three Books of Maccabees, by Ibn Gorion. +The Book of Ezra, the religious leader. +The Book of Esther and the story of Haman. +The Book of Job the Righteous. +The Psalms of David. +The five Books of David's son, Solomon. +The sixteen Prophecies of the major and minor prophets. +The Book of Jesus, the son of Sira, the minister of +Solomon. + +(The books of) the religious law of Jesus that was re- +ceived by the Apostles are the following: + +The four recensions of the Gospel. +The Book of Paul which consists of fourteen epistles. +The Katholika (General Epistles) which consist of seven +epistles, the eighth being the Praxeis (Acts), stories +of the Apostles. +The Book of Clement which contains the laws. +The Book of the Apocalypse (Revelation) which contains +the vision of John, the son of Zebedee. + +The attitude of the Roman emperors toward Christianity +varied. At times, they adopted it and honored its adherents. +At other times, they did not recognize it and persecuted its +adherents and killed and exiled them. Finally, Constantine +appeared and adopted Christianity. From then on, all (the +Roman emperors) were Christians. + +The head of the Christian ( community) and the person in +charge of ( Christian religious) institutions is called Patriarch. +He is their religious head and the representative (caliph) of +the Messiah among them. He sends his delegates and rep- +resentatives to the remote Christian nations. They are called +"bishop," that is, delegate of the Patriarch. The man who +leads the prayers and makes decisions in religious matters is +called ''priest." The person who withdraws from society and +retires into solitude for worship is called ''monk." The latter +usually seek solitude in (monastic) cells. + +The Apostle Peter, the chief Apostle and oldest of the +disciples, was in Rome and established the Christian religion +there. Nero, the fifth Roman emperor, killed him. Successor +to Peter at the Roman see was Arius. + +Mark the Evangelist spent seven years in Alexandria and +Egypt and the Maghrib making propaganda. After him came +Ananias, who was called Patriarch. He was the first Patriarch +there. He appointed twelve priests to be with him, and it was +arranged that when the Patriarch died, one of the twelve +should take his place, and one of the faithful be elected to +take his place as the twelfth priest. Thus, the patriarchate fell +to the priests. + +Later on, dissension broke out among the Christians with +regard to the basic principles and articles of their religion. +They assembled in Nicea in the days of Constantine, in order +to lay down (the doctrine of) true Christianity. Three hun- +dred and eighteen bishops agreed upon one and the same +doctrine of Christianity. They wrote it down and called it +"the Creed.'' They made it the fundamental principle to +which they would all have reference. Among the things they +set down in writing was that with respect to the appointment +of the Patriarch as the head of Christianity, no reference +should be made to the independent judgment of the priests, +as Ananias, the disciple of Mark, had prescribed. That point +of view was abolished. The Patriarch was to come from a +large group and to be elected by the leaders and chiefs of the +believers. It has been so ever since. Later on, other dis- +sensions arose concerning the basic principles of Christianity. +Synods concerned with regulating (the religion), were as- +sembled, but there was no dissension with regard to the +basic principles (of the method of selecting the Patriarch). +It has remained the same ever since. + +The Patriarchs always appointed bishops as their dele- +gates. The bishops used to call the Patriarch "Father" as +a sign of respect. The priests similarly came to call the +bishop "Father,'' when he was not together with the Patri- +arch, as a sign of respect. This caused confusion in the use +of the title over a long period, ending, it is said, with the +Patriarchate of Heraclius in Alexandria. It was considered de- +sirable to distinguish the Patriarch from the bishop in the +matter of respect (shown to him by style of address) . There- +fore, the Patriarch was called "Pope," that is, "Father of +fathers." The name (of ''Pope") first appeared in Egypt, +according to the theory expressed by Jirjis b. al-'Amid +in his History. It was then transferred to the occupant of the +most important see in (Christianity), the see of Rome, which +was the see of the Apostle Peter, as we have mentioned +before. The title of Pope has remained characteristic of the +see of Rome down to this day. + +Thereafter, there were dissensions among the Christians +with regard to their religion and to Christology. They split +into groups and sects, which secured the support of the +various Christian rulers against each other. At different times +there appeared different sects. Finally, these sects crystallized +into three groups, which constitute the ( Christian) sects. +Others have no significance. These are the Melchites, the +Jacobites, and the Nestorians. We do not think that we should +blacken the pages of this book with discussion of their dogmas +of unbelief. In general, they are well known. All of them are +unbelief. This is clearly stated in the noble Qur'an. (To) dis- +cuss or argue those things with them is not up to us. It is +(for them to choose between) conversion to Islam, payment +of the poll tax, or death. + +Later on, each sect had its own Patriarch. The Patriarch +of Rome is today called "Pope." He is of the Melchite +persuasion. Rome belongs to the European Christians. Their +royal authority is established in that region. + +The Patriarch of the (Christian) subjects in Egypt is +of the Jacobite persuasion. He resides among them. The +Abyssinians follow the religion of (the Egyptian Christians). +The Patriarch of Egypt delegates bishops to the Abyssinians, +and these bishops arrange religious affairs in Abyssinia. The +name of ''Pope" is specially reserved for the patriarch of +Rome at this time. The Jacobites do not call their patriarch +"Pope." The word (Pope) is pronounced Pappa. + +It is the custom of the Pope with respect to the European +Christians to urge them to submit to one ruler and have +recourse to him in their disagreements and agreements, in +order to avoid the dissolution of the whole thing. His pur- +pose is to have the group feeling that is the strongest among +them (concentrated upon one ruler), so that (this ruler) has +power over all of them. The ruler is called "Emperor" +(Emperador), with the middle letter (pronounced some- +how) between dh and z. (The Pope) personally places the +crown upon the head of (the emperor), in order to let him +have the blessing implied (in that ceremony). The emperor, +therefore, is called "the crowned one." Perhaps that is the +meaning of the word ''emperor." + +This, briefly, is our comment on the two words Pope and +Kohen. + +''God leads astray whomever He wants to lead astray, +and He guides whomever He wants to guide." + + diff --git a/religious documents/jwht01.txt b/religious documents/jwht01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3d5279 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/jwht01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,614 @@ +=========================================================================== + BBS: Christian Central +Date: 04-01-94 (12:34) Number: 5714 +From: JAMES WHITE Refer#: NONE + To: DOUG SNEAD Recvd: NO +Subj: RIPLINGER Conf: (170) E-kjv Ccn +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +>> Doug was saying to James on 31 Mar 94 18:06:00 << + +DS>I'm new to this echo, so forgive me for my provincial ways. Having +jus +DS>read Riplinger's book, it is fascinating to observe the lines of +DS>argument here against it. It is especially gratifying to see the +DS>intense (and emotional) outbursts this book has produced! One has to +DS>sift through many heated, unrelated, child-like, and petty comments +in +DS>this echo to get to any real refutation of Riplinger's position at +all +DS>(precious little that there is). The phrase 'got his goat' +immediately +DS>comes to mind. Look's like Riplinger got your goat full-on. (Am I +DS>wrong?) + +DS>Being new to this little echo, and not having read any 'rules' post, +I +DS>assume that this is an anti-Authorized Version echo exclusively. +Does +DS>anyone know (or dare tell) of a pro-AV echo? + +DS>Also, are you the same 'James White', author of so many +anti-Jehovah's +DS>Witness papers? If so, what's it like to be on the same anti-AV +side a +DS>the JWs on this one? + +Hi, Doug, and welcome aboard. + +The echo is for the discussion of KJV Only beliefs, whether pro or con. + It +just happens that most of those who have logged on have not been KJV +Only, +and have recognized the errors of that position. + +As to Mrs. Riplinger, yes, I confess to being very bothered by her +book, +for it truly disheartens me to see someone naming the name of Christ +and +yet willing to engage in the grossest of misrepresentation. Even the +Witnesses are more honest in their citations than Mrs. Riplinger. I +would +point out that if the term "get one's goat" is relevant, you might wish +to +ask Mrs. Riplinger who has gotten whose goat. Recently she described +me as +"rude and crude" and as a "heretic" on WMUZ in Detroit. Me thinks she +is +the one with the personal grudge, not I. + +As to not seeing anything of substance in response to her book, you +probably missed the posting of my initial review that started things in +this echo. There has been no response from anyone wishing to defend +the +book, and hence little reason to repost the same information over and +over +again. + +For your benefit, I'll repost the first few messages in this echo, +following this one. I hope we can have some fruitful discussions. + +James>>> + * Wave Rider 1.10 # 155 * +... Eat right, exercise, and die anyway. Hebrews 9:27 +--- Blue Wave/Max v1.10 [NR] + * Origin: Pros Apologian: Toward a Defense of the Faith (8:7007/2.0) +SEEN-BY: 1015/0 50 3200/207 7007/0 2 +=========================================================================== + BBS: Christian Central +Date: 04-01-94 (09:43) Number: 5715 +From: JAMES WHITE Refer#: NONE + To: ALL Recvd: NO +Subj: WELCOME/RULES Conf: (170) E-kjv Ccn +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +* Original To : All (8:2016/4) +* Original Subj: Welcome + +Folks: + +Welcome! + +My name is James White, and I am the moderator of this new echo, +dedicated to the discussion and dissemination of accurate information +regarding the controversy concerning the King James Version (or AV) +being the only accurate translation of the Bible in English. + +The rules of conferences I moderate are simple and to the point. + +1) Do not post inappropriate messages. This includes messages that + are off-topic, contain vulgarities, or contain nothing more + than flames of other participants. +2) Do not respond to inappropriate messages. + +See how easy that is? + +Now, of course, I realize that such rules require interpretation, +and, as moderator, that's what I'll do. But, anyway..... + +So, I hope some folks who are interested in this issue will enter the +conversation. + +James>>> + + +--- Maximus 2.01wb + * Origin: Pros Apologian: Toward a Defense of the Faith (8:7007/2) +SEEN-BY: 1015/0 50 3200/207 7007/0 2 +=========================================================================== + BBS: Christian Central +Date: 04-01-94 (09:44) Number: 5716 +From: JAMES WHITE Refer#: NONE + To: DOUG SNEAD Recvd: NO +Subj: RECENT DEBATE Conf: (170) E-kjv Ccn +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +* Original To : All (8:2016/4) + + +Recently I "debated" (if two 1/2 hour radio programs can qualify for +such a term) Gayle Riplinger, author of "New Age Bible Versions." If +anyone has read this book, I'd like to dialogue with you. Till then, +I provide my initial review of her work: + +Notes on Gayle Riplinger's New Age Bible Versions + + +The issues raised by Gayle Riplinger are very important, if only for +the fact that in this book professing Christian men who lived godly +lives are attacked mercilessly, and are associated with men who were +anything but godly or concerned about Christian truth. Orthodox +Christian theologians are indiscriminately associated with heretics +without any thought as to the consistency of such an action. Since +we have in this book serious allegations of downright Satanic actions +on the part of Christian leaders, I feel Mrs. Riplinger should be +held to the highest standards of scholarly acumen and accuracy. + +Gayle Riplinger claims that her book "objectively and methodically +documents the hidden alliance between new versions and the new Age +Movement's One World Religion." However, an even semi-unbiased +review of Mrs. Riplinger's book reveals that this book is neither +methodical, nor objective, in any way, shape or form. + +Now we need to remember that New Age Bible Versions is not a nice +book. It plainly and obviously identifies anyone who was involved in +the production of modern Bible versions, or who would dare to defend +translations such as the New American Standard Bible or the New +International Version, as not just non-Christians, but as +anti-Christians who are opposed to God's work in this world and +actually want everyone to worship Lucifer. Anyone who opposes Gayle +Riplinger's unique view of the world and theology is , in fact, a New +Ager in sheep's clothing. A quick review of her book bears this out. +She alleges that these new versions prepare the apostate church of +these last days to accept the Antichrist, his mark, his image, and +religion--Lucifer worship. She describes the historic Reformed +doctrine of regeneration, a doctrine taught by Martin Luther, Ulrich +Zwingli, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, the crafters of the Westminster +Confession of Faith, the Puritans, C harles Haddon Spurgeon, B. B. +Warfield, J.I, Packer a nd R.C. Sproul, as those that "an orthodox +Christian would find shocking." Riplinger connects Christian men +such as Edwin Palmer with everyone from Blavatsky to Hitler to +Charlie Manson! All are in one boat according to New Age +Bible +Versions. No opportunity is missed to insult, attack, and degrade +those who would dare oppose Mrs. Riplinger's position. In light of +this, I hope no one will take too much offense at my less than +sparkling review of Gayle's book. + +I note in passing that this book centers on the two most popular +conservative Bible translations, the New American Standard Bible and +the New International Version. Very little is said about blatantly +liberal translations such as the New Revised Standard Version or the +New English Bible, most probably because these translations have had +little impact, comparatively speaking, to the NASB and the NIV. I +would join Gayle in critiquing these translations, not as part of +some New Age conspiracy, but as less th an accurate translations of +the Bible. But Gayle barely mentions these versions; her target is +plainly the NIV and the NASB. + +As an apologist working on the front lines in dealing with the claims +of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Watchtower +Bible and Tract Society, and in debating Roman Catholic apologists +all across the United States, I have only once or twice encountered a +work that contained more misrepresentation of historical facts, cited +sources of documentation, and the writings of those who are being +reviewed. New Age Bible Versions shows not the slightest concern for +accurately representing its oppo sition. Context is a term that is +utterly lost in the maze of disconnected, disjointed citations thrown +at the reader on almost every page. Utterly illogical argumentation +carries the day in Gayle's attempt to find a New Age conspiracy +behind every bush. Even the deity of Christ is undermined so as to +maintain the supposed inerrancy of a translation, that being the KJV. +And worst of all, Gayle Riplinger attacks the memories and characters +of good men of God, such as Edwi n Palmer, without once differenti +ating between the beliefs and actions of such men and the likes of +New Age wackos and Satanists. She misrepresents their writings and +words over and over and over again. Accurate representation of +others is one thing that is utterly lacking in New Age Bible +Versions. + +Those are some pretty harsh words, but the documentation of these +statements is easily found. All one has to do is take Gayle +Riplinger's book, New Age Bible Versions, and then take the time to +find such books as Barker's The NIV: The Making of a Contemporary +Translation, Palmer's The Person and Ministry of the Holy Spirit, and +John Kohlenberger's Words About the Word, and examine the references +provided at the end of the book. The number of complete +mis-citations and altered quotations will quickly prove the +correctness of my statements. Given the small amount of time we have +today, I will only be able to provide a few examples, but I could +literally expand the list indefinitely. + +First, one simply cannot believe the "facts" that are presented in +this book, for quite often, they are not facts at all. There are +dozens and dozens of charts throughout the book, allegedly comparing +the KJV with the supposed "New Versions," which she calls "mutant +versions." Yet, over and over again these charts are simply wrong. +On page 22 we are told that the "New Versions" delete the call to +take up the cross, when they do not. We are told that while the KJV +tells us to bless our enemies, the new v ersions tell us to call our +enemies bastards, which, of course, they do not. + + + + +--- Maximus 2.01wb + * Origin: Pros Apologian: Toward a Defense of the Faith (8:7007/2) +SEEN-BY: 1015/0 50 3200/207 7007/0 2 +=========================================================================== + BBS: Christian Central +Date: 04-01-94 (09:44) Number: 5717 +From: JAMES WHITE Refer#: NONE + To: DOUG SNEAD Recvd: NO +Subj: RECENT DEBATE #2 Conf: (170) E-kjv Ccn +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +* Original To : All (8:2016/4) + + + +At times the facts are 180 degrees opposite of what is claimed by +Gayle Riplinger. For example, on page 99 we read, "All new versions, +based on a tiny percentage of corrupt Greek manuscripts, make the +fatefully frightening addition of three words in Revelation 14:1." +She then quotes the passage from the NIV, which reads, "...the Lamb, +standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his +Father's name written on their foreheads." The phrase "his name and" +is not found in the KJV. She con tinues on page 100, "Will the +unwary, reading Revelation 14:1 in a recent version, be persuaded +that the bible sanctions and encourages the taking of "his name" on +their forehead before they receive his Father's name?" Such sounds +truly ominous, until one discovers that in point of fact, it is the +Textus Receptus, the Greek Text of the New Testament utilized by the +KJV translators, that alone does not contain the disputed phrase, +"his name." The Majority Text contains it, as do all the Greek +texts. We ha ve here merely a mistake on the part, most probably, of +Desiderius Erasmus, the Roman Catholic priest who collated what +became the Textus Receptus. He had major problems in producing the +text of Revelation, and merely skipped over the phrase referring to +the Lamb's name. Sadly, someone reading New Age Bible Versions could +be led to attack the NIV on the basis of a basic mistake. + +The modern versions are unashamedly misrepresented in place after +place by the convenient use of punctuation. While attempting to +argue that new versions teach us to believe in monism through the use +of the term "one," the NASB is cited as follows, "True knowledge +according to the image of the One..." on page 92. The reference +given is Colossians 3:10, which reads in full from the NASB: "And +have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge +according to the image of the One who created hi m--a renewal in +which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised or +uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is +all, and in all." + +The arguments put forward in this book at times border on the +ludicrous. The chart found on page 26 should fascinate anyone +seeking logical thinking. On page 232 we are warned against the +letter "s." Riplinger writes, "Watch out for the letter `s' -- sin, +Satan, Sodom, Saul (had to be changed to Paul). The added `s` here +is the hiss of the serpent." Such argumentation would lead us to +abandon such terms as salvation, Savior, and sanctification as well! +Indeed, on page 174 our author recommends the KJ V's use of the term +"sober" over other translations, possibly missing the "hiss" of that +"s" on "sober." I, as a Reformed theologian, was certainly amazed to +discover that, according to Mrs. Riplinger, the "Five Points" of +Calvinism form a Satanic pentagram! And everyone should surely take +heed to Mrs. Riplinger's use of "acrostic algebra" on page 149. +Here, in a passage reminiscent of the identifications of Henry +Kissinger as the anti-Christ two decades a go, Mrs. Riplinger +demonstrates how the abbreviat ions for the New American Standard +Version and the New International Version add up to the word "sin" +when the Authorized Version is taken away. Not only is such +argumentation utterly without merit, but it is interesting to note +that throughout the rest of the book Mrs. Riplinger abbreviates the +New American Standard Bible as NASB, but solely for the purpose of +this trip into "acrostic algebra," she changes to the NASV, an +abbreviation used nowhere else in the book. Indeed, over and over +and over again th e arguments that are put forward could easily be +turned around and used against the KJV and Mrs. Riplinger's position. +The use of such argumentation should warn the reader that all is not +well in New Age Bible Versions. + +Double standards are rampant throughout the book. Shortly after +attacking all modern versions for daring to use the term "one" in +their translations, she fails to attack the KJV for using it in her +own citation of it on page 93. When the modern versions do not +follow the KJV in rendering the Greek term Artemidos as Diana, she +accuses them of being ignorant of classical mythology on page 127; +but when they recognize similar gods in Old Testament passages, she +accuses them of rejecting the one true God in f avor of false gods. + +And in what would probably be one of the most amusing examples of +double standards, if it were not so sad, Gayle Riplinger attacks all +who are Reformed, or "Calvinists," in many places, as I shall discuss +and refute later. But in the process she seems to be blissfully +unaware of the simple fact that amongst the KJV translators you have +the likes of Doctor John Rainolds, a Puritan! And surely Mrs. +Riplinger must be aware of the theological beliefs of the Puritans! +They were Reformed men, Calvinists, who s trongly believed in God's +sovereignty and the deadness of man in sin. If Edwin Palmer's +Calvinistic beliefs make the NIV one of Satan's tricks, what about +the KJV? + +It seems that as long as someone had anything at all to do with the +production of the NIV, it is fair game to not only impugn their +character, but to misrepresent their words. For example, on page 89 +of New Age Bible Versions, we read the following, "Even NIV +translator Larry Walker applauds the rejection of the Hebrew Old +Testament for the Ugaritic wherein the gods of pantheism preside." +The reference given is to Walker's article, again in the book on the +NIV, specifically pages 101-102. Yet, one will s earch in vain +throughout the article for the slightest reference to a rejection of +the Hebrew Old Testament in favor of anything else at all. The +citation simply has nothing to do with the allegation that is made. + + + + +--- Maximus 2.01wb + * Origin: Pros Apologian: Toward a Defense of the Faith (8:7007/2) +SEEN-BY: 1015/0 50 3200/207 7007/0 2 +=========================================================================== + BBS: Christian Central +Date: 04-01-94 (09:44) Number: 5718 +From: JAMES WHITE Refer#: NONE + To: DOUG SNEAD Recvd: NO +Subj: RECENT DEBATE #3 Conf: (170) E-kjv Ccn +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +* Original To : All (8:2016/4) + + + +On page 165 we have another personal attack upon an NIV translator, +Herbert Wolf, for his defense of the very logical, scholarly +translation of the Hebrew "zedekah" in poetic contexts by the term +"prosperity." Ignoring the very solid, reasonable defense given by +Wolf, Riplinger chooses instead to play games with the man's name, +writing, "Perhaps the armour and breastplate of `righteousness does +not fit' Mr. Wolf and his pack because they are puffed up and +paunchy, because they have devoured souls (Ezekiel 22:25)." She goes +on to say, "Paul said that those, like Wolf, who teach that `gain is +godliness' are `destitute of the truth.' Equating financial +prosperity with spirituality is a common characteristic of the `New' +Christianity and the New Age." Of course, anyone can see that Wolf +said nothing at all about equating prosperity and spirituality; this +is mere fantasy on Riplinger's part. Yet the book is filled from +cover to cover with such misrepresentati on and wild imagination. + +Mrs. Riplinger moves on to attack another NIV translator, Richard +Longenecker. On page 345, after saying that the NIV "joins the +cults," she massacres a quote from Longenecker, again from the book, +The NIV: The Making of a Contemporary Translation. She introduces +Longenecker's quotation as follows: "To Longnecker, Jesus was +`chosen' to receive the title `Son of God' because he earned it +through `obedience.' He says, that Jesus, [then quoting] +...exemplified in his life an unparalleled obedience...[H]e h as the +greatest right to the title...God's son par excellence." A quick +glance at page 125 of the original source reveals yet once again that +Gayle Riplinger has misrepresented yet another Christian scholar. +Longenecker says nothing of the kind, and in fact gives a very solid, +orthodox, Biblically based discussion of the Sonship of Jesus Christ. +In light of this it is amazing to read again on page 345 that +Riplinger says, "Both Longnecker and Carlson are expressing a view +similar to that held by the earl y Adoptionists, Dynamic Monarchists +or Ebionites." Not only is this utterly untrue of what Longenecker +said in the cited passage, but it is equally untrue of the other +person she mentions, D. A. Carson. Neither are adoptionists. + +Now, it is possible that all these misrepresentations are due to +horrifically poor research on Gayle Riplinger's part. For example, +she misspells the names of both Longenecker and Carson on page 345, +even though ostensibly quoting from their books while accusing them +of being cultists. On the previous page she misspells the term +"Mormon" as well; indeed, every time it appears in the book it is +spelled incorrectly. Possibly she simply read other people's books +and then got all her bad information from tho se secondary sources. +Who knows? All I know is that the book is one long misrepresentation +from the preface to the index. + +Edwin Palmer wrote an article comparing the KJV and the NIV that +appears in the book, The NIV: The Making of a Contemporary +Translation. On page 153 he addresses 1 Peter 2:9 which, in the KJV +refers to a "peculiar people." He wrote, "Today that means `odd +people.' It should be, `a people belonging to God.' (NIV)." Edwin +Palmer believed strongly that God's people are a special people, a +people chosen by God Himself and set apart by their holiness. Yet on +page 170, Gayle Riplinger, under the title "The C ountry Club or the +Cross," writes, "A lifestyle driven by verses not vogue, will brand +one as "peculiar" (NERD, in the vernacular). Unwilling to bear `his +reproach,' the NIV's Edwin Palmer pushes the "peculiar people" of +Titus 2:14 and 1 Peter 2:9 into the closet--already crowded with the +`righteous' and `the perfect.' Palmer writes, "...a peculiar people. +Today that means odd. It should be..." She goes on to say, "It +meant odd when Peter and Paul wrote it and when Moses wrote it 4000 +years earlier." In reality, the term has nothing at all to do with +"odd" or "peculiar" as we use it today. In point of fact, the Greek +term found in 1 Peter 2:9 is also found in Ephesians 1:14, where the +KJV translates it as "possession"! That Riplinger can say that a +Christian minister was unwilling to bear the reproach of Christ for +more accurately understanding the Greek term peripoiesis than she +does is absolutely amazing. + +It is Palmer himself, the editor of the NIV Study Bible until his +death in 1980, who comes in for the most obvious personal attack on +the part of Riplinger. I can see no other conclusions, having +examined Riplinger's attacks upon Palmer, than either she is grossly +dishonest in her methods, or is completely ignorant of the writings +of Edwin Palmer and what he actually believed. I can see no other +possibilities. For example, on page 344 she attempts to parallel +Palmer's quotation, "The Holy Spirit did not beget the Son" with a +quotation from Brigham Young from the Journal of Discourses. Of +course, Palmer, in the context in which he was speaking, was exactly +right, since he was speaking of the internal operations of the +Trinity. Young, on the other hand, was denying the Christian +doctrine of the Virgin Birth. One might conjecture that Riplinger +has never read either Palmer's statements, or those of Brigham Young, +and hence did not know that she was mixing contex ts so badly. In +either case, her point is ut terly false. + + + + +--- Maximus 2.01wb + * Origin: Pros Apologian: Toward a Defense of the Faith (8:7007/2) +SEEN-BY: 1015/0 50 3200/207 7007/0 2 +7/2 0 +=========================================================================== + BBS: Christian Central +Date: 04-01-94 (09:44) Number: 5719 +From: JAMES WHITE Refer#: NONE + To: DOUG SNEAD Recvd: NO +Subj: RECENT DEBATE FINAL Conf: (170) E-kjv Ccn +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +* Original To : All (8:2016/4) + + + +The same is to be said of her citation of Palmer's words with regards +to the deity of Christ. On page 2 she quotes Palmer in the following +form: "[F]ew clear and decisive texts say that Jesus is God." This +is taken as sure evidence of Palmer's supposed heresy. Yet, is this +accurate? No, yet once again context has been thrown out the window. +Palmer is actually talking about the rendering of John 1:18 in the +NIV. His words are, "John 1:18, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, is +one of those few and clear a nd decisive texts that declare that +Jesus is God. But, without fault of its own, the KJV, following +inferior manuscripts, altered what the Holy Spirit said through +John, +calling Jesus `Son.' " My what a difference context makes! And +Palmer is exactly right. There are less than ten places in all the +New Testament that could possibly apply the term theos to Jesus +Christ; if that is not "few" then what is? + +In passing, I wish to note that Riplinger even misleads her readers +regarding the deity of Christ in an effort to maintain the accuracy +of the KJV. I am referring to two important passages, Titus 2:13 and +2 Peter 1:1. The NIV translates Titus 2:13, "While we wait for the +blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, +Jesus Christ." and 2 Peter 1:1 says, "To those who through the +righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a +faith as precious as ours." In both cases t he KJV interrupts the +proper translation, splitting up the terms "God" and "Savior," +resulting in the phraseology, "our God and our Savior, Jesus Christ," +as if two persons, God the Father, and Jesus Christ the Savior, are +being referred to, when this is not the case. Now, on page 370, with +reference to Titus 2:13, Riplinger says, "All Greek texts have the +wording of the KJV, "God and our Savior Jesus Christ." None render +it as the new versions do." And on pag e 371 she wrote, "2 +Thessalonians 1:12, Titus 2:13, and 2 Peter 1:1 are called +hendiadies, from the Greek hen dia dyoin, `one by two.' +Grammatically it is the `expression of an idea by two nouns connected +by and, instead of by a noun and an adjunct. It would be like +introducing one's spouse as `my wife and best friend.'" In reality, +the reason that the NIV and NASB and others accurately translate +these passages as "our God and Savior Jesus Christ" is due to what is +known as Granville Sharp's Rule. Without going into detai l, the KJV +translators wer e not aware of this grammatical feature of koine +Greek, and hence did not translate these passages accurately. The +Jehovah's Witnesses mistranslate these passages purposefully, of +course, for obvious reasons. Now, if I were looking for +conspiracies, I'd have to identify Gayle as a secret Jehovah's +Witness trying to infiltrate the Church. Of course, I know that is +not the case, and would never make such an argument, yet this is the +argument presented throughout her book. + +On at least three different occasions our author attacks Palmer's +belief in the sovereignty of God in saving mankind. Twice she +mis-cites his words, first on page 2, then again in the exact same +form on page 231. Here is her quote from the very beginning of her +book on page 2: "The NIV's chief editor vaunts his version's heresy +saying: `This [his NIV] shows the great error that is so prevalent +today in some orthodox Protestant circles, namely the error that +regeneration depends upon faith...and that in o rder to be born again +man must first accept Jesus as Savior." Now, I agree wholeheartedly +with Dr. Palmer. Men must be made new creatures by the Holy Spirit +of God before they can have true, saving faith. Romans 8:5-9 teaches +this with glaring clarity in any translation. And it was, in fact, +this belief in salvation by grace, free, unmerited grace, that +spawned the Reformation itself. It is Gayle Riplinger who here +denies the Protestant heritage. But eve n in doing this, she +misrepresents Palmer yet on ce again! Riplinger says that Palmer is +talking about the NIV. He is not! The NIV is nowhere mentioned on +page 83 of the book being cited. Hence, her whole point is based +upon the insertion of the little phrase "his NIV" where it does not +belong! Anyone who would read Palmer's work would shake their head +in disbelief at the complete misuse of his words by Riplinger. + +Gayle's Pelagianism comes out in yet another misrepresentation of +Palmer on page 90. She writes, "His denial of free will is seen in +his NIV. He says his change in 1 Thessalonians 1:4 `suggests the +opposite' of the KJV." When you look up the reference, you read the +following, "1 Thessalonians 1:4: `your election of God.' In the days +of the KJV this was a way of saying `your election by God.' As it is +today, the KJV suggests the opposite of what the Greek really says. +NIV has `he has chosen you.'" Not ice that Palmer says nothing like +what Riplinger says; and, Palmer happens to be 100% right, as anyone +who has examined the passage well knows. + +This topic was so important for Riplinger that she addressed it a +third time, on page 231. Here she says that the same quotation given +above is so "scandalous and sacriligious" that it will "stun and +shock the reader." One has to wonder what Gayle would say about +the +following quotation from Martin Luther: + +"If any man ascribe ought of his salvation, even the least part, to +the free will of man, he knows nothing of grace, and has not learned +Jesus Christ." + +But beyond this, it is obvious that Gayle attacks Palmer's theology, +and by extension, the theology of the Protestant Reformation, on the +basis of ignorance of it's tenets. She asks, "If he denies faith and +each individual's responsibility to accept Jesus as his Savior, what +does he offer in its place?" Possibly if Gayle would read Dr. +Palmer's book she would discover what he was really saying? I'd be +glad to send her a copy of Dr. Palmer's works, or other books such as +R.C. Sproul's Chosen by God or J.I . Packer's Sovereignty and +Evangelism, or my own God's Sovereign Grace, if she would like to +discover what it is that was taught by the Reformers. + +James>>> + + +--- Maximus 2.01wb + * Origin: Pros Apologian: Toward a Defense of the Faith (8:7007/2) +SEEN-BY: 1015/0 50 3200/207 7007/0 2 +=========================================================================== + BBS: Christian Central +Date: 04-01-94 (20:43) Number: 5721 +From: ROBERT MCKAY Refer#: NONE + To: CHUCK GREEN Recvd: NO +Subj: NEW HERE Conf: (170) E-kjv Ccn +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +CG>He is pretty calm, come to think of it. He's not one for long +threads, +CG>though. He presents his opinion, labels his opponents un-Christian, +CG>then quits. + +Well, shoot, that would convince me. + +___ + X QMPro 1.01 11-1111 X I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. +--Rom. 9:15 + +--- Maximus 2.01wb + * Origin: Pros Apologian: Toward a Defense of the Faith (8:7007/2) +SEEN-BY: 1015/0 50 3200/207 7007/0 2 +=========================================================================== + BBS: Christian Central +Date: 04-02-94 (22:16) Number: 7051 +From: BERNIE WILT Refer#: NONE + To: ALL Recvd: NO +Subj: 1611 AV Conf: (170) E-kjv Ccn +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Greetings All! + +I have not read much here, but plan to, in the near future. I am +wondering if any of you that contend for the KJV ONLY have a REAL KJV +Bible? + +~Bernie Wilt~ + +... FReq: "REALKJV" (without quotes) for information/ad + + +___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 +--- Renegade v1-2 Exp + * Origin: PIONEER INTERNATIONAL BBS =Mesa, AZ= (602)649-2647 (8:1015/0) +SEEN-BY: 1015/0 50 3200/207 7007/0 2 diff --git a/religious documents/kamjrnl.txt b/religious documents/kamjrnl.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3379e54 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/kamjrnl.txt @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +About .K.A.M., A Journal of Traditional Wicca + +Copyright 1987, .K.A.M. + +.K.A.M., A Journal of Traditional Wicca, is the official +publication of the Keepers of the Ancient Mysteries (.K.A.M.). +.K.A.M. is a fifteen year-old family of Covens existing for the +purposes of the worship of the Wiccan Gods, general religious +instruction, and the preservation of the classical Traditions of +the Wiccan Religion. + +.K.A.M. draws from and has Initiatory Lineage through the +Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Celtic and Eleusinean Traditions of +Wicca, and practices as a Tradition in its own right, using forms +drawn from all its roots. As Traditional Wiccans we believe in +careful study, formal Initiation by a qualified Priestess, and +the preservation of standards of the Craft, including respect for +privacy and the traditional bans on publishing Initiatory +material and accepting funds for teaching. + +The Journal exists as a means to communicate thoughts, feelings +and imagination in harmony with the goals and methods of the +Wiccan Traditions, including a love of the Earth, worship of the +Old Gods, adherence to Wiccan norms of behavior and a strong +sense of personal responsibility and commitment to growth. While +the bulk of the Journal material is likely to be drawn from +.K.A.M. Initiates and students, quality poetry, prose and artwork +in harmony with our principles of action will be gratefully +accepted. Copyright reverts to authors after publication. Please +write for submission guidelines. + +Letters to the Editors are not encouraged at this time, as we +feel they have not served the Craft well in the past. Well +thought out articles within the scope of the Journal are welcome. +Advertising is accepted if relevant to the Journal's readership +interests, but .K.A.M. in no way warrants or recommends the goods +or services listed. If you have a problem with an advertiser that +you cannot resolve with them, please let us know at once. + +Subscription in 1988 is $5 US for our current two-issue year. +Beginning in 1988 the Journal will be published on or about +Beltaine and Hallows. .K.A.M. will exercise its right to limit +subscription to exclude individuals and organizations we believe +to be harmful to Traditional Wicca. + +Persons desiring additional information about Traditional Wicca +or .K.A.M. are encouraged to write at the address below. We +reserve the right to respond selectively to inquiries. + +.K.A.M. +P.O. Box 2513 +Kensington, MD 20895 +U.S.A. + + + + +  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/kidtalk.txt b/religious documents/kidtalk.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cf95f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/kidtalk.txt @@ -0,0 +1,853 @@ +NOTICE: This report is copyrighted 1989 by Robert Hicks and is Licensed to +Cassandra-News a news service of the United Wiccan Church a 501(c)(3) +California non-profit, tax-exempt religious corporation. Cassandra-News +grants License for Non-Commercial electronic and print reproduction and +distribution as long as no fee is charged for these reproductions other +than the cost of reproduction and printing. The name and address of the +United Wiccan Church, Robert Hicks and this notice must be preserved on all +copies. + + United Wiccan Church + P. O. Box 16025 + North Hollywood California, 91615-6025, U.S.A., NA. + (818) 899-3687 (3/12/2400 Baud 8N1) + FIDO 1:102/922 + + + + + + + NONE DARE CALL IT REASON: + Kids, Cults, and Common Sense + + + + Robert Hicks/Law Enforcement Section Department of Criminal + Justice Services 805 E. Broad Street Richmond, Virginia 232l9 + 804-786-8421 + + + Talk prepared for the Virginia Department for Children's l2th + Annual Legislative Forum, Roanoke, Virginia, September 22, 1989 + + + In an article on satanic cults in Family Violence Bulletin published +by the University of Texas at Tyler, Dr. Paula Lundberg-Love writes of a +seminar she attended entitled "Ritualistic Child Abuse and Adolescent +Indoctrination." Quoting the seminar instructor, who is president of the +Cult Awareness Council in Houston, Lundberg-Love writes that "some satanic +cults are created for the expressed purposes of child prostitution or the +production of child pornography" and that "'religion' has proved to be a +good 'front' for organized child prostitution and pornography rings." +Perhaps more damning as a reflection on our collective impotence, she +points out that "in many states, ritualistic behavior is not against the +law" (l989: 9). + + In recounting the amazing and startling facts she learned, Lundberg- +Love offers the following insight about how satanists ply their trade: + + There are also individuals within the cult to whom + particular tasks are assigned. Transporters are the + people who take babies and ship them out-of-state. + Spotters have the task of looking for recruits or + objects. Breeders are, as their name implies, used + for the purposes of breeding. The production of + 'snuff' films (films in which an individual is + actually killed) is associated with these persons. + [The seminar instructor] suggested that juveniles + may be being used to transport these films across + the border. (Ibid.) + + I can only admire Houston's Cult Awareness Council for their shrewd +investigative work in uncovering the clandestine mechanics of a satanic +international conspiracy so slick and sophisticated that its members remain +faceless, having never been identified, and its murderous activities remain +covert because the satanists leave no traces of their nefarious +undertakings. Yet the Cult Awareness Council has produced a model of the +cult's activities that is specific and detailed. But, of course, we have +no evidence of satanic child prostitution, no evidence that women breed +babies for sacrifice, no one has ever found a snuff film. But Lundberg- +Love's article has credibility: the article's author is the associate +director of the Family Violence Research and Treatment Program at the +University of Texas, Tyler. + + I suggest that Houston's Cult Awareness Council, intentionally or +perhaps, worse, unwittingly, has become a conduit for a farrago of half- +truths, unsupported generalizations, vague musings, hysteria, and downright +ignorance fostered in part by Fundamentalist Christian groups with the +willing collusion of police and the so-called helping professions. +Lundberg-Love, by reiterating satanic nonsense to other professionals, has +shown irresponsibility stirred by an inability to think critically. Or +drop the "critically": an inability to think underlies claims about women +who breed babies for satanic sacrifices, about children forced to witness +human sacrifice in daycare centers, about teenagers transformed into +zombies by playing Dungeons and Dragons. + + More insidious from my point of view is her observation that satanic +cults operate under the guise of religion and thus deserve First Amendment +protection, therefore precluding legal retaliation against these evildoers. +This observation begs the question of necessity. In times of stress, +people seek to proscribe or criminalize behavior that they imagine +threatens the larger public good. We must curtail civil liberties, for +awhile, some say, because of an immediate necessity to do so. Threats of +immanent harm from our enemies necessitate an abrogation of certain rights. +Illicit drug use has reached such epidemic proportions that we must of +necessity unlock closed doors in the Fourth Amendment to allow police to +conduct intrusive searches otherwise prohibited by the Constitution. We +must of necessity allow the government more power to protect us from +outsiders. Satanism presents such a threat to us that we necessarily must +ban certain forms of rock music to protect our children, remove books on +witchcraft and the occult from school libraries, confiscate Dungeons and +Dragons books on school property. + + I maintain that although satanic or occult symbols seem to be enjoying +popularity today among teens, their presence does not betoken a lost kid, +one in satan's thrall. Historian Jeffrey Burton Russell has observed, +"Rooted in adolescent resentment of authority, [kids use] the terms and +symbols of the occult to express cultural rebellion rather than personal +belief" (l986: 257). If today you came to hear lurid tales of children +participating in pornographic movies produced by satan's film unit or of +demons nabbing teenagers while playing Dungeons and Dragons and forced to +kill their families, I'm going to disappoint you. Most of you not only +work with children in the capacities of educators, therapists, law +enforcers, but you also assume the role of advocates for children's +welfare. I ask you not to relinquish any of those roles but I do ask that +you not relinquish your critical faculties, as Lundberg-Love has done, +whenever you hear the words "ritualisic," "satanic," "occult," or "cult." + + Do not dissolve your gray matter and willingly adopt as immutable +truths such ideas as: children never lie about sexual abuse; teenagers who +are Girl or Boy Scouts, members of a church, or good students cannot do +nasty things, or if they do, someone or something made them do it. Or that +teens have so little free will that lurking satanists will deceive them +into attending sex and drug parties and thereby swear them in as card- +carrying minions of The Evil One. Or that teens have so little judgment +where fantasy is concerned that we must absolutely control all that they +read and hear. + + In particular, question glib assertions made at cult awareness +seminars. Analyze the cause-effect relationships foisted on you. Question +cult experts' credentials. As for law enforcers, you will find that most +police cult experts derive their expertise from attending other cult +seminars. I recently spoke opposite a State Police officer who gave a +slide program on satanism but admitted that he had never investigated a +putative cult crime; his work, rather, involved accounting. You could have +invited another speaker here today, one who purports that teens are in +great danger of satanic or occult influence and that, in particular, +Dungeons and Dragons damages kids' psyches. Patricia A. Pulling, though, +who heads Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD), has no clinical +background, though parents frequently haul their misbehaving children +before her for an analysis of their satanic proclivities. She recently +represented herself at a Virginia cult seminar as being "a private +investigator with the state of Virginia" and noted that she had received +"innumerable degrees and awards." As far as I know, her innumerable +degrees extend to an AA from J. Sargent Reynolds Community College, +Richmond, but the private investigator business implies some association +with state government. In truth, she holds a state license to be a private +investigator, a pursuit requiring one week of classroom training. Period. +But beyond what she says, the publisher of her recent book, The +Devil's Web, refers to her as "a police detective." Such wishful +thinking smacks of dishonesty. + + Yet popular speakers like Pat Pulling assert that 95 to l50 kids have +committed suicide related to playing Dungeons and Dragons. People at her +seminars nod sagely and gasp in astonishment that our government allows +such a game to exist. What is her proof of this assertion? In her +booklet, Dungeons and Dragons, she offers a series of newspaper clippings +to prove her point. In one, with no source cited, an Arlington, Texas, boy +killed himself with a shotgun in front of his drama class. The first +paragraph of the article notes that the boy "was a devotee of the fantasy +game Dungeons and Dragons and had a lead role in this weekend's school +play," an odd parallel comment, perhaps. An observation occurs further on +in the article that the boy enjoyed the game. But where is the causal +relationship? The article quotes the boys' friends as commenting on his +character, but no one quoted even links the game to the death. Yet this +article, for all its superficiality, counts as a statistical fatality (BADD +n.d.). And no one challenges this assertion at Pulling's seminars. + + In The Devil's Web, Pulling defines Dungeons and Dragons as a "fantasy +role-playing game which uses demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, murder, rape, +blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex perversion, homosexuality, +prostitution, satanic type rituals, . . .and many other teachings. There +have been a number of deaths nationwide where [such games] were either the +decisive factor in adolescent suicide and murder, or played a major factor. +. .Since role-playing is used typically for behavior modification, it has +become apparent nationwide . . .that there is a great need to investigate +every aspect of a youngster's environment. . ." (l989: 179). Pulling +further states that fantasy role-playing games "are representative of the +many subtle ways in which occult influences can prey upon the minds of +children" (Ibid.: l02). But the game retails in images and symbols: kids +enact imaginary adventures through imaginary means, not by translating the +action to their everyday environment. + + Pulling's main scare about D&D is that the game contains some bona +fide occult material, whatever that is. She seems to think that where game +designers use demons and monsters from the writings of medieval and late +l9th century English sources, that somehow the game takes on a pernicious +magic of its own. Pulling is alarmed at the nature of the demons and +monsters invoked by the game, but the monsters, often drawn from the +encyclopedia or from game designers' imaginations, bear no evil beyond what +people impute to them. If we bridle at D&D, then we must take offense at +the Creature from the Black Lagoon, a multitude of plastic toys found at +any shopping mall, comic books, Saturday morning TV, and the like. Demons, +monsters, creatures from space populate kids' imaginations and one easily +sees why: Star Trek, Star Wars, and like films ensure that space beings +take on an omnipresent reality, coupled with "legitimate" science. +Pulling also introduces a paradox and an insight: she claims that the +students most susceptible to falling within the spiraling path to hell are +bright boys with varied interests who may lack social skills. In other +words, nerds. The insight in all this focuses on the kids' interests. A +recent anthropological study of modern witches and magic in Britain +observed that many male adherents of magic groups had computer backgrounds, +an observation made by many people about D&D players (Luhrman l989: l06). +Anthropologist T. M. Luhrmann observes that these folks also read science +fiction in abundance. She speculates on why these people gravitate to +magic: + + [S]everal possible explanations present themselves. + Perhaps the most important is that both magic and + computer science involve creating a world defined by + chosen rules, and playing within their limits. Both + in magic and in computer science words and symbols have + a power which most secular, modern endeavours deny them. + Those drawn to the symbol-rich rule-governed world of + computer science may be attracted by magic. . .One + reason that the fantasy games designed for the computer + may be so appealing may be because of the complexity of + the rules. Another explanation is the sense of mastery + and power when the machine obeys your dictates, which + may feel like the mastery of magic. . .The wizard commands + the material world, breaking the laws which seem to bind + it. (Ibid.: l07). + +Massachusetts Institute of Technology sociologist S. Turkle has written at +length about young men's involvement with computers and D&D. I refer you +to The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, by S. Turkle, l984, +published by the MIT Press. + + So Pulling scares parents by isolating from context specific rules +concerning particular demons, overlooking the game's intellectual +challenge: after all, since the game involves no board, players must rely +on imagery and imagination. If one removes the aura of a supernatural +netherworld from the game, and if one questions the shoddy evidence for the +game's links to teen murder and suicide, what is one left with? Just a +game. I make no apologies for ruining anyone's scapegoat for the world's +ills, if you do find the game scary. Quite possibly some people find the +game a mental accessory to a criminal propensity: but question closely any +convicted murderer who claims that D&D made him do it. Sociopaths need no +such justification, but when confined to prison cells contemplating a bleak +future, why not blame one's behavior on a game? + + But back to Pulling's model of the D&D player. Those kids who are +intelligent with poor social skills simply defines the process of growing +up. By imbuing games with some supernatural taint, we deny kids their own +intelligence and ability to make choices. When the Pasadena, Texas, school +board decided to ban the l960's peace symbol from school property, they did +so because a cult seminar advised teachers that the symbol is satanic: +that interpretation derives from Christian publications that describe the +upside-down cross as a mockery of Christianity. How do the kids react? +One twelve-year-old said, "If they ban peace symbols, they'll have to ban +basic geometry because of all its lines and circles" (Time, July 3, l989). +These kids ain't fools: they usually separate faddish symbols from serious +evildoing. But if they know that the symbol offends some adults, what do +you suppose they'll do? A counselor at the Bon Air detention facility in +Richmond told me that rooms for kids come equipped with a Bible. One +teenager took one look at the Bible and challenged the counselor: he +demanded The Satanic Bible, the one published by Anton LaVey, founder of +the Church of Satan, in l969. Now, the counselor has been challenged: who +might win this little power struggle? If the counselor leaps back, makes +the sign of a cross, and in an hysterical voice cries out, "Get thee behind +me, Satan," guess who wins? In this case, the counselor blandly replied, +"Sure. I'll see what I can do. Tell me where I can find a copy." For +those of you who are worried about that response, I can only attribute your +worry to not having read The Satanic Bible. Read it and you'll agree with +religious scholar Gordon Melton who has referred to it as "assertiveness +training with a twist." The book does not even praise a supernatural devil +and instead relies on Satan's symbolic history in our culture. Further, +unlike parts of the Christian Bible, The Satanic Bible very explicitly +warns readers not to physically harm children nor anyone else. + + I noted the influence of Fundamentalist Christianity on not only the +D&D ideology but on other aspects of the satanic cult bruhaha. Much of +what Pulling and cult cops and other self-proclaimed experts parley to +audiences comes from Christian sources. For example, the earliest +denigration of D&D I could come up with, from l980, says this: + + Some endeavors offer a greater temptation for ego to + manifest itself in us, however. The next thing to + actual defeat of others and self-exaltation as rulers + over the vanquished is the voluntary, imaginary role- + playing that is offered by such games as Dungeons and + Dragons. . .It is not without knowledge that Dungeons + and Dragons was devised. But it is the knowledge of + an evil that mingled the Babylonian mystery religions + with a luke-warm 'Christianity.' (Dager l980) + + The same thoughts have been conveyed to cult awareness audiences again +and again and again. I asked you earlier to sift such information, +question it, analyze it, and ask the credentials of these experts. Among +the books prominently displayed at cult seminars are two by Rebecca Brown, +MD, He Came to Set the Captives Free and Prepare for War. Ken Lanning, FBI +special agent who specializes in child sexual abuse investigations, raises +the issue of cult seminars not defining terms, using the "words satanic, +occult, and ritualistic" interchangeably (l989:4). Lanning particularly +cites Brown's contributions to this confusion as her "doorways" to demonic +infestation (to use Lanning's term) include horoscopes, vegetarianism, +yoga, biofeedback, homosexuality, fraternity oaths, along with the standard +fantasy role-playing games, Church of Satan, the Hare Krishna movement, and +so on. So who is Rebecca Brown and why does she wield authority? Her +title gets attention: she has appeared at seminars and on television, no +less. What's her background? + + In l984, she was known as Ruth Bailey, MD, and she practiced medicine +in Indiana. That year, she lost her license. Medical examiners concluded +that she knowingly misdiagnosed such ailments as leukemia, various blood +diseases, and even brain tumors in patients who were not in fact suffering +from these problems. Bailey said that she had been "chosen by God" as the +only physician who could diagnose such maladies which were caused by +demons. And, further, other doctors could not diagnose these problems +because the doctors themselves were demons. As a result of these +diagnoses, she prescribed her patients with massive doses of Demerol and +the addicted patients had to undergo detoxification. Besides administering +drugs to patients, Bailey had another novel method up her sleeve: she +would "share" the patient's disease by injecting herself with "non- +therapeutic amounts" of Demerol, taking three cubic centimeters of the +stuff hourly, injecting it in the back of her hands or inside her thighs. +The psychiatrist who examined her said that she suffered from "acute +personality disorders including demonic delusions and/or paranoid +schizophrenia" (Medical Licensing Board of Indiana l984). She later moved +to California, changing her name to Rebecca Brown through a change-of-name +petition entered into the Superior Court, County of San Bernardino, in +l986. There are a few lessons here. Be careful not to accept facile +explanations of misbehavior at face value. Don't uncritically accept a +source because it has a Christian message. + + By refusing to define "satanism," "occult," and "ritualistic," cult +experts can unleash these words to fit any social dilemma, misbehavior, or +human failing they wish. And they do. The lack of definition aids and +abets the conspiracy theory fanned by Pulling and the cult cops. These +cult cops take as evidence of a conspiracy the presence of like symbols +across the country. They further surmise that the presence of a spray- +painted inverted pentagram underside a bridge in San Francisco not only +means the same thing as one on a bridge in Norfolk but that some satanic +supramind, the international conspiracy has organized people to wreak havoc +on us all. This conspiracy, of course, supposedly recruits children, teens +especially. Pulling and the cult cops would have us suspend heaps of +disbelief to accept that the D&D player who peers into the occult through +game playing gets yanked by some mind-control cult into an abrupt +personality change characterized by violence and hate. No one wants to +consider other, more mundane explanations for personality changes and mood +swings, apparently. But in the face of a complete absence of evidence for +a conspiracy, some cult cops can find only feeble argument. + + Take Idaho police officer Larry Jones, who authors the Cult Crime +Impact Network newsletter, a Fundamentalist-biased periodical widely read +by cult cops. In defense of the lack of evidence, Jones tosses the +question back: "'To people who say, prove to me these secret cults exist, I +say, prove they don't'" (Springston l989). To this inanity, I find the +reply easy: since my orientation to the cult scare concerns law +enforcement, a perspective Jones should share, I say that police officers +have no obligation to prove that the satanic mastercult doesn't exist. +Police officers operate under well-founded reasonable suspicion to look +into suspected wrongdoing, and they make arrests based on probable cause. +Both reasonable suspicion and probable cause have fairly precise +definitions supported by reams of case law. I can't prove that UFO's +exist, but just prove to me that they don't. I can't prove that termites +built the Great Pyramid, but just prove to me that they didn't. When +Richmond Bureau of Police Lieutenant Lawrence Haake was asked whether he +had any evidence of satanic sacrifices of people, he admitted he didn't but +added, "'No evidence can be evidence'" (Ibid.) Sure, perhaps, but no +evidence can also mean that none exists. Many cult cops have indeed +asserted that the lack of any evidence testifies to the satanic cult's +success at covering their tracks. Well, if you're backed into a corner, try +tossing skepticism back into the lap of the skeptic. Pulling maintains +that many unsolved homicides might be sacrificial victims and says, "'They +certainly have found a number of unsolved murders with no motive, haven't +they?'" (Ibid.) Some have gone unsolved, yes, but one cannot logically +conclude that satanists did them. But I almost forgot: these shifty +satanists, says Pulling, include the intelligentsia and power brokers of +our society, so we might as well cave in than resist (Briggs l988). Better +devil red than dead. + + Which brings us back to definitions for a moment. A satanic +ritualistic killing, to the cult cops, ought to be defined as a killing +performed in propitiation of satan. We certainly have plenty of killers +around who claim a satanic motivation, but killers simply adopt an ideology +that justifies or explains what they would do in any case. The argument +that a true satanic killing would therefore implicate those mild, middle- +class, suburban engineers and doctors and lawyers simply vanishes upon +scrutiny: such folks haven't yet been arrested for these sacrifices. So +much for satanic crime. On to "occult." As Lanning points out, "Occult +means simply 'hidden,'" a term unconnected with crime, but used by cult +cops to refer "to the action or influence of supernatural powers. . .or an +interest in paranormal phenomena" (l989:5). But Lanning rails against the +use of "ritualistic," since folks who point fingers and yell "ritualistic!" +forget that ritual governs our lives in benign fashion. Again, Lanning: +"During law enforcement training conferences on this topic, ritualistic +almost always comes to mean satanic or at least spiritual. Ritual can +refer to a prescribed religious ceremony, but in its broader meaning refers +to any customarily repeated act or series of acts. The need to repeat +these acts can be cultural, sexual, or psychological as well as spiritual" +(Ibid.: 7). He concludes: "The most important point for the criminal +investigator is to realize that most ritualistic criminal behavior is not +motivated simply by satanic or religious ceremonies" (Ibid. 9). I refer +you to Lanning for an extended discussion of the word. + + We've attached some meaning to "ritual," "occult," and "satanic +crime," so we're left with "cult." Definitions of the word depend on the +scholarly purposes they serve. But I have not been so concerned with the +academic treatment of the word, but rather its current connotation in cult +awareness seminars. I agree with Gordon Melton that "[t]he term 'cult' is +a pejorative label used to describe certain religious groups outside of the +mainstream of Western religion" (l986:3) The pejorative quality of the +label is borne out by the attributes heaped on cults by cult experts: that +cult members must swear obedience to the all-powerful leader, that cults +pursue ends that justify the means, that cults retain members through mind +control methods. This language has been pretty consistently applied to +nonconformists for a few centuries now. Rather, I agree with Melton that +"Cults represent a force of religious innovation within a culture" (Ibid.), +but Melton's social science approach to categorizing and studying cults +doesn't mesh with the cult seminar use of the term. In a very broad sense, +cults don't even have to be religious. Cult cops assume that two or more +kids who hang out together and wear upside down crosses, pentagrams, and +Ozzy Osborne buttons might be cult members. This kind of cult in former +days we called a clique. Now, we are to assume that such kids have gotten +sucked into a black hole of mind control, manipulation by satanic +recruiters, all unwarranted assumptions. But some cults we know to promote +violence. Let me name a few: The Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord; +The Christian Conservative Church of America; The Church of Christ of +Christian Aryan Nations (all described in Melton l986). Sorry, though: I +couldn't come up with any satanic groups which promote the militarism of +these Christian organizations. + + More directly, when we allow cult seminar presenters to rant away +without defining their terms or by being explicit about what they know and +don't know, we play a dangerous game. Gordon Melton observes that when +people speak of "them" as satanic, or as an enemy, or as a criminal cult, +we thereby "express [our] contempt of others and . . .assign them a status +outside the realm of God's chosen, and hence of lesser worth, [which] is +the religious equivalent of secular terms such as 'nigger,' 'kike,' or +'wop'" (Ibid. 259). When the Matamoros murders hit the headlines, the +newspapers dubbed them "satanic," a term that disappeared within a week as +it became obvious to investigators that the murders had nothing to do with +satanic cults. But the labels that stuck involved foreign experiences such +as Palo Mayombe and Santeria, words most Americans heard for the first +time. But to dub the killings as Santeria or Palo Mayombe, drawn as +perverse cults by the press, amounts to impure and simple racism. What I +cannot understand is the Fundamentalist Christian diatribe against +nonChristian beliefs that have been tagged as cultic. As I have pointed +out, cult cops freely label groups as cults and therefore imply a threat to +one's free will. But as the historian Jeffrey Burton Russell has pointed +out, such people "claim that a belief in the Devil erodes human +responsibility, but Christianity has always insisted that the Devil has no +power to coerce or compel the human will" (l986: 300). + + I hope I have forced your attention to the importance of developing +solid definitions for social problems. Precise definition provides the +best map through which to explore the phenomena of children's behavior. +But, of course, you know this. Simply don't forget it when cults enter the +fray. Imprecision and casual name-calling by cult awareness seminars has +led to severe consequences for both children and adult child advocates. I +would like to cite one example, one, unfortunately, which I stress is not +unique. But my example illustrates how the helping professions may ignore +suggestions of actual physical or mental abuse and instead pursue claims of +satanic goings on in daycare centers and in the process the counselors, +therapists, and police end up abusing children. + + Since l983, the country witnessed the first of many cases of purported +satanic abuse of children in daycare centers, beginning with the McMartin +case in California, followed quickly by the Jordan, Minnesota case, and +they continue to happen. The best and most critical examination of such +cases appeared in a series of investigative reports published in a Memphis +newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, last year. Journalists Tom Charlier and +Shirley Downing found that these cases were "not really about ritual child +abuse at all. [They] are about the dangers of popular justice, a less- +than-skeptical press and the presumption of guilt" (l988). Over a hundred +cities have witnessed the same pattern: a single incident of alleged abuse +by a single child mushroomed into mass accusations of parents, daycare +center workers, and even prosecutors and police. The children's stories +which launched the cases were usually uncorroborated by physical evidence +or even adult testimony. Further, the nature of the prosecutory system +itself fanned the flames of accusation. By the time such cases entered +court, the news media greedily reported children's stories of devil +worship, nude dancing with daycare staff, varieties of sexual assault, +human and animal sacrifice, nude photography, bondage, drowning, cooking +and eating babies' limbs, and so on. And the investigators, who pursued +evidence of crime, acted as advocates by removing kids from their homes +before their parents had even been investigated, much less charged with +crimes. + + Unfortunately, these stories reveal that prosecutors, allied with +parents, adopted as an unqualified truth the assertion that children don't +lie about abuse. Yet investigators asked children leading questions, +interviewed them as many as 50 times in some cases, refused to accept kids' +denials that satanic abuse took place, offered rewards or exerted pressure +to obtain correct testimony from them. One case, in Bakersfield, +California a few years ago, produced prison terms totalling 26l9 years for +seven defendants, which set a record (Mathews l989). + + The Bakersfield case began in l984 when a girl reported to her mother +that two men had "touched" her in a peculiar way. Within a year's time, +the one allegation evolved into a sex abuse ring, satanic rituals, and +infanticide (what follows derives from a report of the Office of the +Attorney General, California, l986). Twenty-one children had been placed in +protective custody away from their homes. How did this happen? + + Once removed from their homes, the children endured repeated +questioning by police, therapists, and welfare workers. Further, the +sheriff's department interviewed children in isolation while in protective +custody. Parents were arbitrarily arrested and released with no charges +filed. The deputies, most of whom had virtually no training in child abuse +matters (and had not even attended mandatory California inservice training +in the subject, although they found time to attend a satanic cult seminar), +simply deferred their questioning of children to a child protective +services worker, described as zealous for her unqualified belief that the +children maintained the truth under questioning. Yet the questioning +occurred repeatedly, even after the sheriff's deputies discussed the case +before church groups and evolved their own beliefs about what was +occurring. The deputies received virtually no supervision and no one +coordinated the efforts of the three agencies trying to investigate the +case. In all, l9 victims were interviewed l34 times. Searches yielded no +evidence of sexual abuse or satanic crime, yet the deputies did not follow +cues which required physical evidence gathering. For example, many kids +claimed to have been drugged during cult rituals, yet no one tested them +for drugs. Efforts to obtain any corroborative physical evidence were +feeble or nonexistent. Further, deputies did not even furnish verbatim +interviews with the children, instead simply paraphrasing the interviews +and offering in the transcripts unsupported conclusions. + + Once in custody, kids mingled and had many opportunities to "cross +germinate" their stories. Very significantly, the child witnesses first +denied that their parents were involved in the satanic molestations, but +after repeated questioning under the direction of the zealous therapist, +children not only implicated their parents but also many investigators in +the case. The sheriff's deputies and the social worker conducted their +inquisition based on the premise that "children do not lie." This meant +that investigators took children's statements at face value and neglected +to do further corroborative work. The following interview took place +between a suspected parent-abuser and the social worker: + +Social worker: Okay, ah. . .you know when children, when +children tell law enforcement or Child Protective Services. . . +Suspect: Uh huh. +SW: About somebody we believe children, okay. +S: Uh huh. +SW: Especially little, ah, would involve children but these are +just, you know, four, four, five and six-year olds. . . +S: Uh huh. +SW: Okay, and they don't have, they shouldn't have knowledge of +this stuff, they have a lot of knowledge, a lot of explicit +details, knowledge, they say cream was being used. . .lotion. +S: Have you seen, you know, TV nowadays though, the parents let +their kids watch. +SW: Okay, people often do accuse TV, but still children don't +fantasize about sexual abuse and they don't implicate their own +father. +S: Uh huh. +SW: Okay? +S: Uh huh. +Deputy: Let alone themselves. +SW: Yeah, let alone themselves, especially when they're, when +they are feeling so badly about and they know it's wrong. +S: Uh huh. +SW: Okay, it's just they, some you know, if they aren't gonna, +if they're mad at their dad and that's when they may say physical +abuse. +S: Uh huh. +SW: But, ah, they're not gonna say sexual. +S: Uh huh. +SW: It just doesn't happen. +S: Uh huh. +SW: So we, we do believe the children. +S: Uh huh. +SW: Okay, that you are involved. +S: Then no matter what I, what I say doesn't even matter then? +SW: Well, yeah of course it matters, but, but our stand is that +we believe the children. +S: Uh huh. +SW: At all cost, cause that's our job and that's, that's what +our belief is. + + Quoting further from the California Attorney General's report of the +matter, "This dependence upon and deferment to staff of Child Protective +Services--who perform functions quite different from police officers in a +child abuse investigation--focused the interviews primarily on protecting +the child at the expense of investigating and determining the facts in the +case. While protecting the child was certainly critical, once that had +been assured the criminal investigation should have been the Sheriff's +deputies' primary concern." + + Let's talk about the interviews with children for a moment. The +California Attorney general found that deputies departed from standard +interview practice and virtually ignored the complexities that obtain when +the person interviewed is a child. "Deputies generally did not question +the children's statements, and they responded positively or said something +to reinforce their previous allegations. . . They applied pressure on the +children to name additional suspects and victims, and questioned them with +inappropriate suggestions that produced the answers they were looking for." +Interviewers, both police and social workers, used leading and suggestive +questions, gave quite overt positive reinforcement when they received +answers they sought, rather than giving neutral responses. In some cases, +interviewers demanded answers; sometimes they threatened the children; in +other cases they confused them. A sample: + +Interviewer: Okay, you said that they touched the privates before they +stabbed the baby? Did they take the clothes off the baby before they +stabbed the baby? Did they take the clothes off the baby when they touched +the privates? And then they had you go up and stab the baby? So, did the +baby--was the baby's clothes still off after they'd taken them off and you +had to stab the baby? + +Answer: No. + +And in a flagrant abuse of investigative technique, a deputy had wanted to +use an anatomically-detailed doll in an interview, but although deputies +had them on hand, they had no training in their use. So one deputy told a +child, "I forgot my dolly then you could point. You want to point on me?" + + Let me point out that deputies did pursue the satanic claims, but +found alleged homicide victims alive; they searched lakes where bodies +supposedly were deposited and found none; in fact, they uncovered no +evidence to prove any satanic assertions. The satanic connection, by the +way, didn't even emerge in the case until after nine months of interviews +with the kids. One psychiatrist in another daycare center case observed of +the repeated interviews, "If [the investigator] get[s] a child to the point +where they believe they've helped kill a baby or eaten flesh, I want to +know whether you're a child abuser" (Charlier and Downing l988). + + As two Pennsylvania State University criminal justice professors have +pointed out, "If children denied victimization, then it was assumed they +were concealing the truth, which must be drawn out by some inducement or +reinforcement. The therapeutic process thus became an infallible +generating mechanism for criminal charges," a remark made about the +McMartin case that applies to Bakersfield also. (Jenkins and Katkin l988: +30). Psychiatrist Lee Coleman, who with journalist Debbie Nathan is writing +a book about the daycare cases, adds that + + The interviewers assume, before talking with the child, + that molestation has taken place. The accused persons + are assumed to be guilty, and the thinly disguised purpose + of the interview is to get something out of the child to + confirm these suspicions. It is all too easy, with + repeated and leading and suggestive questions, to get a + young child so confused that he or she can't tell the + difference between fact and fantasy. (l986: 8). + + There are three great tragedies in all this: one, that real physical +or sexual abuse of a child will pass uninvestigated; two, that children are +abused by the criminal justice process, children who are victims of nothing +except not telling stories that investigators want to hear; third, that +innocent adults will have their lives ruined. One young imprisoned mother +in the Bakersfield case, whose children have been placed in foster care, +looks forward to freedom one day, but she does not want to be united with +her kids. She says, "'I'm scared of kids. I'm scared to death of kids. . . +I'm glad I can't have any more" (Mathews l989). + + One might place the burden of blame for a shoddy investigation on the +sheriffs' deputies, since the law enforcers were charged with detecting +lawbreaking and arresting offenders. And, of course, seven women still +languish in prison. But what of therapists, psychiatrists, and +psychologists? Although the satanic nature of the daycare allegaions has +only recently begun to appear in professional literature, purportedly +scholarly studies have taken the satanic abuse claims quite uncritically. +The uncritical treatment of the subject is bound to influence other +professionals more prone to be convinced by tables of data with chi-square +tests than to question the data in the tables. + + For example, Susan J. Kelly, R.N., Ph.D, Boston School of Nursing, +even elaborated a typology of ritual abuse (building on the work of family +violence expert David Finkelhor, of whom more in a moment) and discussed +satanic philosophy by noting its "fundamental tenet that followers have a +right to abundant and guilt-free sex of every description. Moreover, +because Christianity believes that children are special to God, satanism, +which negates Christianity, considers the desecration of children to be a +way of gaining victory over God" (l988: 229). This description of satanic +ideology amounts to pure dogma, perpetuated and elaborated by the cult +awareness seminars and the press. Like other therapists, Kelly imputes the +the cult presence surrounding child abuse to the usual mind control methods +employed against members and so on. No one, apparently, wants to consider +the proposition that some child abusers, who may go to elaborate and +imaginative lengths to intimidate children into not revealing the abuse, +may employ satanic trappings to do just that. Therapists such as Kelly +have also ignored the inquisitorial process that produces arrests and +convictions, as in the Bakersfield case, preferring not to confront the +issue of leading children to contrive satanic scenarios to please eager +investigators. + + I find that David Finkelhor's latest book, Nursery Crimes: Sexual +Abuse in Daycare, not only perpetuates the satanic dogma but using +mathematical analyses of bad data, it emerges with a new class of offender. +The study examined cases in 270 daycare centers, but the cases had to be +"substantiated" before inclusion in the data. In order to be +substantiated, the study team had to find only one professional agency +associated with a case who believed that abuse occurred. And this study +swept up all of the much-publicized daycare center abuse cases such as +McMartin and even Bakersfield. So the study takes as a working assumption +that the allegations in the satanic ritual abuse cases are true. While the +study makes insightful remarks about child abuse and attempts a +comprehensive look at abuse, the victims, and the abusers, the inclusion of +the satanic cases renders the study yet more dogma masquerading as science. +I said that the skewed data created a new class of offenders. Every study +of child sexual abuse portrays offenders as almost exclusively men, usually +acting alone. The rare cases involving women usually find them complicit +as the consequence of involvement with a man: a boyfriend or husband, for +example. Yet the satanic ritual cases involving daycare centers have +almost entirely focused on the women running the centers. And the +allegations hold that women, entire daycare center staffs, ran satanic +parties replete with mass sex abuse, child pornography, and the like. I +should hope that the Bakersfield case suggests to you that other dynamics, +to use the social work term, govern the sensationalistic cases. +Nonetheless, Finkelhor and his colleagues pronounce that "Female +perpetrators were significantly more likely than men to have forced +children to sexually abuse others and to have participated in ritualistic, +mass abuse" (l988: 45). + + In rather limp fashion, Finkelhor notes that the satanic allegations +have emerged in some daycare cases months after abuse investigations have +begun under some other pretext. Unlike some investigators who find the +delay evidence that children have been coached to tell such stories, he +holds that children may need months of therapy before finding the strength +to tell the satanic tales. But Finkelhor's conclusions present a mixed +bag. On the one hand, he singles out the marauding women, "We recommend +that parents, licensing, and law-enforcement officials be educated to view +females as potential sexual abusers" (Ibid.: 257) Yet he advises that we +"avoid a disproportionate focus on day-care abuse" because abuse in the +daycare setting amounts to a relatively small percentage of abuse overall. + + The idea of pervasive satanic cults which influence and intimidate +children should not supplant a reasonable, cautious inquiry, for law +enforcers and therapists alike. Ironically, despite the cult seminars +which contrive images of the faceless, tenebrous evil that grips us from +the bowels of hell, the tentacles of demons wrapped around kids' necks, the +cult experts who teach the seminars often conclude with common-sense +advice. For example, Woman's Day magazine printed "A Parent's Primer on +Satanism" recently (l988). The primer noted that bright, bored, +underachieving, talented and even gifted teens are susceptible to cults. +Watch for kids exhibiting persone words mean to your child" (Ibid.). No matter what ill we +believe threatens our children--whether communists, satanists, The Beatles +or Twisted Sister--the advice is the same: don't panic; observe; listen; +talk. Don't ignore satanic symbols or paraphernalia, but don't imbue them +with cosmic significance, either. Rely on your professional experience and +training to guide your rational inquiry about satan in teens' lives. Don't +panic, and trust children, teens particularly, to behave responsibly most +of the time, and don't leap to satanic excuses to explain misbehavior. + Thank you. +.pa + Addendum: Investigation of Child Sexual Abuse Resources + +Cult seminars sometimes suggest that women breed babies for sacrifice, that +runaway or throwaway kids become sacrificial fodder. For a perspective on +missing kids, consult "First Comprehensive Study of Missing Children in +Progress," OJJDP Update on Research, April, l988. A related study is +"Stranger Abduction Homicides of Children, OJJDP Juvenile Justice Bulletin, +January, l989. Suggestions on new professional thinking for handling child +sexual abuse cases can be found in "Prosecuting child sexual abuse--new +approaches," by Debra Witcomb, Research in Action, National Institute of +Justice, May l986 (reprinted from NIJ Reports/SNI l97. A related article, +"Prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse: Innovations in Practice," appeared in +the NIJ Research in Brief, November, l985, also by Debra Witcomb. Perhaps +the best overall investigative guide is the l987 manual, Investigation and +Prosecution of Child Abuse published by the National Center for the +Prosecution of Child Abuse. Some discussion of the problems associated +with anatomically-detailed dolls in child abuse investigations can be found +in "Using dolls to interview child victims: Legal concerns and interview +procedures," NIJ Research in Action, by Kenneth R. Freeman and Terry +Estrada-Mullaney, reprinted from NIJ Reports/SNI 207, January/February +l988. A review of the dolls' legal issues can be found in "'Real' Dolls +Too Suggestive," by Debra Cassens Moss, American Bar Association Journal, +December l, l988. The ABA Journal also carried another article by Moss in +its May l, l987 issue, "Are the Children Lying?" which discussed the +sensationalist daycare center cases. + + References Cited + +Antiwar or Antichrist? Time, July 3, l989. + +B.A.D.D., Dungeons and Dragons, no date, Richmond, VA. + +Briggs, E. Satanic cults said to entice teens with sex, drugs. +Richmond Times Dispatch, March 5, l988. + +Charlier, Tom, and Downing. Shirley. Justice Abused: A l980s +Witch-Hunt. The Commercial Appeal, January, l988, Memphis. (six- +part series) + +Coleman, Lee. Therapists are the real culprits in many child +sexual abuse cases. Augustus, l4 (6): 7-9, l986. + +Dager, Albert J. A Media Spotlight Special Report: Dungeons and +Dragons. l980. Santa Ana, California. + +Finkelhor, David; Williams, Linda M., Burns, Nanci. Nursery +Crimes: Sexual Abuse in Day Care. l988. Beverly Hills: Sage +Publications. + +Jenkins, Philip, and Katkin, Daniel. Protecting Victims of Child +Sexual Abuse: A Case for Caution. The Prison Journal, +Fall/Winter l988: 25-35. + +Kelley, Susan J. Ritualistic Abuse of Children: Dynamics and +Impact. Cultic Studies Journal 5(2): 228-236, l988. + +Lanning, Kenneth V. Satanic, Occult, Ritualistic Crime: A Law +Enforcement Perspective. Unpublished ms., l989. FBI Academy. + +Luhrmann, T. M. Persuasions of the Witch's Craft: Ritual Magic +in Contemporary England. l989. Cambridge, Massachusetts: +Harvard University Press. + +Lundberg-Love, P. Update on Cults Part I: Satanic Cults. +Family Violence Bulletin 5(2): 9-l0, l989. + +Mathews, Jay. In California, a Question of Abuse. The +Washington Post, May 3l, l989. + +Medical Licensing Board of Indiana. Findings of Fact, +Conclusions of Law and Order, Cause #83MLD038 in the Matter of +Ruth Bailey, MD. Filed October 2, l984. + +Melton, J. G. Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America. l986. +New York: Garland Publishing Company. + +Office of the Attorney General. Report on the Kern County Child +Abuse Investigation. Sacramento, l986. + +Pulling, Patricia A. The Devil's Web. l989. Lafayette, LA: +Huntington House, Inc. + +Russell, Jeffrey Burton. Mephistopheles: The Devil in the +Modern World. l986. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. + +Springston, Rex. Experts say tales are bunk. (Two-part +article). The Richmond News Leader, April 6-7, l989. + +A Parent's Primer on Satanism. Woman's Day, November 22, l988. + + - 3 0 - + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/lammas.txt b/religious documents/lammas.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b47d49 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lammas.txt @@ -0,0 +1,116 @@ + + L A M M A S: The First Harvest + =============================== + by Mike Nichols + + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + Once upon a Lammas Night + When corn rigs are bonny, + Beneath the Moon's unclouded light, + I held awhile to Annie... + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + + Although in the heat of a Mid-western summer it might be difficult to +discern, the festival of Lammas (Aug 1st) marks the end of summer and the +beginning of fall. The days now grow visibly shorter and by the time we've +reached autumn's end (Oct 31st), we will have run the gammut of temperature +from the heat of August to the cold and (sometimes) snow of November. And in +the midst of it, a perfect Mid-western autumn. + + The history of Lammas is as convoluted as all the rest of the old folk +holidays. It is of course a cross-quarter day, one of the four High Holidays +or Greater Sabbats of Witchcraft, occuring 1/4 of a year after Beltane. It's +true astrological point is 15 degrees Leo, which occurs at 1:18 am CDT, Aug +6th this year (1988), but tradition has set August 1st as the day Lammas is +typically celebrated. The celebration proper would begin on sundown of the +previous evening, our July 31st, since the Celts reckon their days from +sundown to sundown. + + However, British Witches often refer to the astrological date of Aug 6th +as Old Lammas, and folklorists call it Lammas O.S. ('Old Style'). This date +has long been considered a 'power point' of the Zodiac, and is symbolized by +the Lion, one of the 'tetramorph' figures found on the Tarot cards, the World +and the Wheel of Fortune (the other three figures being the Bull, the Eagle, +and the Spirit). Astrologers know these four figures as the symbols of the +four 'fixed' signs of the Zodiac, and these naturally allign with the four +Great Sabbats of Witchcraft. Christians have adopted the same iconography to +represent the four gospel-writers. + + 'Lammas' was the medieval Christian name for the holiday and it means +'loaf-mass', for this was the day on which loaves of bread were baked from the +first grain ha vest and laid on the church altars as offerings. It was a day +representative of 'first fruits' and early harvest. + + In Irish Gaelic, the feast was referred to as 'Lugnasadh', a feast to +commemorate the funeral games of the Irish sun-god Lugh. However, there is +some confusion on this point. Although at first glance, it may seem that we +are celebrating the death of the Lugh, the god of light does not really die +(mythically) until the autumnal equinox. And indeed, if we read the Irish +myths closer, we discover that it is not Lugh's death that is being +celebrated, but the funeral games which Lugh hosted to commemorate the death +of his foster-mother, Taillte. That is why the Lugnasadh celebrations in +Ireland are often called the 'Tailltean Games'. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + The time went by with careless heed + Between the late and early, + With small persuasion she agreed + To see me through the barley... + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + One common feature of the Games were the 'Tailltean marriages', a rather +informal marriage that lasted for only 'a year and a day' or until next +Lammas. At that time, the couple could decide to continue the arrangement if +it pleased them, or to stand back to back and walk away from one another, thus +bringing the Tailltean marriage to a formal close. Such trial marriages +(obviously related to the Wiccan 'Handfasting') were quite common even into +the 1500's, although it was something one 'didn't bother the parish priest +about'. Indeed, such ceremonies were usually solemnized by a poet, bard, or +shanachie (or, it may be guessed, by a priest or priestess of the Old +Religion). + + Lammastide was also the traditional time of year for craft festivals. The +medieval guilds would create elaborate displays of their wares, decorating +their shops and themselves in bright colors and ribbons, marching in parades, +and performing strange, ceremonial plays and dances for the entranced +onlookers. The atmosphere must have been quite similar to our modern-day +Renaissance Festivals, such as the one celebrated in near-by Bonner Springs, +Kansas, each fall. + + A ceremonial highlight of such festivals was the 'Catherine wheel'. +Although the Roman Church moved St. Catherine's feast day all around the +calender with bewildering frequency, it's most popular date was Lammas. (They +also kept trying to expel this much-loved saint from the ranks of the blessed +because she was mythical rather than historical, and because her worship gave +rise to the heretical sect known as the Cathari.) At any rate, a large wagon +wheel was taken to the top of a near-by hill, covered with tar, set aflame, +and ceremoniously rolled down the hill. Some mythologists see in this ritual +the remnants of a Pagan rite symbolizing the end of summer, the flaming disk +representing the sun-god in his decline. And just as the sun king has now +reached the autumn of his years, his rival or dark self has just reached +puberty. + + Many comentators have bewailed the fact that traditional Gardnerian and +Alexandrian Books of Shadows say very little about the holiday of Lammas, +stating only that poles should be ridden and a circle dance performed. This +seems strange, for Lammas is a holiday of rich mythic and cultural +associations, providing endless resources for liturgical celebration. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + Corn rigs and barley rigs, + Corn rigs are bonny! + I'll not forget that happy night + Among the rigs with Annie! + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +[Verse quotations by Robert Burns, as handed down through several Books of +Shadows.] + diff --git a/religious documents/lanning2.txt b/religious documents/lanning2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29a3cae --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lanning2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2800 @@ +File: FBIAbuse + +*********************************************************** +INVESTIGATOR'S GUIDE TO ALLEGATIONS OF "RITUAL" CHILD ABUSE +*********************************************************** + +January 1992 + +Kenneth V. Lanning +Supervisory Special Agent + +Behavioral Science Unit +National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime +Federal Bureau of Investigation +FBI Academy +Quantico, Virginia 22135 + +************************************************* + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + +1. Introduction. +2. Historical Overview. +-- a. "Stranger Danger". +-- b. Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse. +-- c. Return to "Stranger Danger". +-- d. The Acquaintance Molester. +-- e. Satanism: A New Form of "Stranger Danger". +3. Law Enforcement Training. +4. Definitions. +-- a. What is Ritual? +-- b. What is "Ritual" Child Abuse? +-- c. What Makes a Crime Satanic, Occult, or Ritualistic? +5. Multidimensional Child Sex Rings. +-- a. Dynamics of Cases. +---- (1) Multiple Young Victims. +---- (2) Multiple Offenders. +---- (3) Fear as a Controlling Tactic. +---- (4) Bizarre or Ritualistic Activity. +-- b. Characteristics of Multidimensional Child Sex Rings. +---- (1) Female Offenders. +---- (2) Situational Molesters. +---- (3) Male and Female Victims. +---- (4) Multidimensional Motivation. +---- (5) Pornography and Paraphernalia. +---- (6) Control through Fear. +-- c. Scenarios. +---- (1) Adult Survivors. +---- (2) Day Care Cases. +---- (3) Family/Isolated Neighborhood Cases. +---- (4) Custody/Visitation Disputes. +-- d. Why Are Victims Alleging Things that Do Not Seem to be True? +6. Alternative Explanations. +-- a. Pathological Distortion. +-- b. Traumatic Memory. +-- c. Normal Childhood Fears and Fantasy. +-- d. Misperception, Confusion, and Trickery. +-- e. Overzealous Intervenors. +-- f. Urban Legends. +-- g. Combination. +7. Do Victims Lie About Sexual Abuse and Exploitation? +-- a. Personal Knowledge. +-- b. Other Children or Victims. +-- c. Media. +-- d. Suggestions and Leading Questions. +-- e. Misperception and Confusion. +-- f. Education and Awareness Programs. +8. Law Enforcement Perspective. +9. Investigating Multidimensional Child Sex Rings. +-- a. Minimize Satanic/Occult Aspect. +-- b. Keep Investigation and Religious Beliefs Separate. +-- c. Listen to the Victims. +-- d. Assess and Evaluate Victim Statements. +-- e. Evaluate Contagion. +-- f. Establish Communication with Parents. +-- g. Develop a Contingency Plan. +-- h. Multidisciplinary Task Forces. +-- i. Summary. +10. Conclusion. +11. References. +12. Suggested Reading. + +1. INTRODUCTION + +Since 1981 I have been assigned to the Behavioral Science Unit at +the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and have specialized in +studying all aspects of the sexual victimization of children. The +FBI Behavioral Science Unit provides assistance to criminal justice +professionals in the United States and foreign countries. It +attempts to develop practical applications of the behavioral +sciences to the criminal justice system. As a result of training and +research conducted by the Unit and its successes in analyzing +violent crime, many professionals contact the Behavioral Science +Unit for assistance and guidance in dealing with violent crime, +especially those cases considered different, unusual, or bizarre. +This service is provided at no cost and is not limited to crimes +under the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI. + +In 1983 and 1984, when I first began to hear stories of what sounded +like satanic or occult activity in connection with allegations of +sexual victimization of children (allegations that have come to be +referred to most often as "ritual" child abuse), I tended to believe +them. I had been dealing with bizarre, deviant behavior for many +years and had long since realized that almost anything is possible. +Just when you think that you have heard it all, along comes another +strange case. The idea that there are a few cunning, secretive +individuals in positions of power somewhere in this country +regularly killing a few people as part of some satanic ritual or +ceremony and getting away with it is certainly within the realm of +possibility. But the number of alleged cases began to grow and grow. +We now have hundreds of victims alleging that thousands of offenders +are abusing and even murdering tens of thousands of people as part +of organized satanic cults, and there is little or no corroborative +evidence. The very reason many "experts" cite for believing these +allegations (i.e. many victims, who never met each other, reporting +the same events), is the primary reason I began to question at least +some aspects of these allegations. + +I have devoted more than seven years part-time, and eleven years +full-time, of my professional life to researching, training, and +consulting in the area of the sexual victimization of children. The +issues of child sexual abuse and exploitation are a big part of my +professional life's work. I have no reason to deny their existence +or nature. In fact I have done everything I can to make people more +aware of the problem Some have even blamed me for helping to create +the hysteria that has led to these bizarre allegations. I can accept +no outside income and am paid the same salary by the FBI whether or +not children are abused and exploited - and whether the number is +one or one million. As someone deeply concerned about and +professionally committed to the issue, I did not lightly question +the allegations of hundreds of victims child sexual abuse and +exploitation. + +In response to accusations by a few that I am a "satanist" who has +infiltrated the FBI to facilitate cover-up, how does anyone (or +should anyone have to) disprove such allegations? Although reluctant +to dignify such absurd accusations with a reply, all I can say to +those who have made such allegations that they are wrong and to +those who heard such allegations is to carefully consider the +source. + +The reason I have taken the position I have is not because I support +or believe in "satanism", but because I sincerely believe that my +approach is the proper and most effective investigative strategy. I +believe that my approach is in the best interest of victims of child +sexual abuse. It would have been easy to sit back, as many have, and +say nothing publicly about this controversy. I have spoken out and +published on this issue because I am concerned about the credibility +of the child sexual abuse issue and outraged that, in some cases, +individuals are getting away with molesting children because we +can't prove they are satanic devil worshippers who engage in +brainwashing, human sacrifice, and cannibalism as part of a large +conspiracy. + +There are many valid perspectives from which to assess and evaluate +victim allegations of sex abuse and exploitation. Parents may choose +to believe simply because their children make the claims. The level +of proof necessary may be minimal because the consequences of +believing are within the family. One parent correctly told me, "I +believe what my child needs me to believe." + +Therapists may choose to believe simply because their professional +assessment is that their patient believes the victimization and +describes it so vividly. The level of proof necessary may be no more +than therapeutic evaluation because the consequences are between +therapist and patient. No independent corroboration may be required. + +A social worker must have more real, tangible evidence of abuse in +order to take protective action and initiate legal proceedings. The +level of proof necessary must be higher because the consequences +(denial of visitation, foster care) are greater. + +The law enforcement officer deals with the criminal justice system. +The levels of proof necessary are reasonable suspicion, probable +cause, and beyond a reasonable doubt because the consequences +(criminal investigation, search and seizure, arrest, incarceration) +are so great. This discussion will focus primarily on the criminal +justice system and the law enforcement perspective. The level of +proof necessary for taking action on allegations of criminal acts +must be more than simply the victim alleged it and it is possible. +This in no way denies the validity and importance of the parental, +therapeutic, social welfare, or any other perspective of these +allegations. + +When, however, therapists and other professionals begin to conduct +training, publish articles, and communicate through the media, the +consequences become greater, and therefore the level of proof must +be greater. The amount of corroboration necessary to act upon +allegations of abuse is dependent upon the consequences of such +action. We need to be concerned about the distribution and +publication of unsubstantiated allegations of bizarre sexual abuse. +Information needs to be disseminated to encourage communication and +research about the phenomena. The risks, however, of intervenor and +victim "contagion" and public hysteria are potential negative +aspects of such dissemination. Because of the highly emotional and +religious nature of this topic, there is a greater possibility that +the spreading of information will result in a kind of self- +fulfilling prophesy. + +If such extreme allegations are going to be disseminated to the +general public, they must be presented in the context of being +assessed and evaluated, at least, from the professional perspective +of the disseminator and, at best, also from the professional +perspective of relevant others. This is what I will attempt to do in +this discussion. The assessment and evaluation of such allegations +are areas where law enforcement, mental health, and other +professionals (anthropologists, folklorists, sociologists, +historians, engineers, surgeons, etc.) may be of some assistance to +each other in validating these cases individually and in general. + +2. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW + +In order to attempt to deal with extreme allegations of what +constitute child sex rings, it is important to have an historical +perspective of society's attitudes about child sexual abuse. I will +provide a brief synopsis of recent attitudes in the United States +here, but those desiring more detailed information about such +societal attitudes, particularly in other cultures and in the more +distant past, should refer to Florence Rush's book _The Best Kept +Secret: Sexual Abuse of Children_ (1980) and Sander J. Breiner's +book _Slaughter of the Innocents_ (1990). + +Society's attitude about child sexual abuse and exploitation can be +summed up in one word: *denial*. Most people do not want to hear +about it and would prefer to pretend that child sexual victimization +just does not occur. Today, however, it is difficult to pretend that +it does not happen. Stories and reports about child sexual +victimization are daily occurrences. + +It is important for professionals dealing with child sexual abuse to +recognize and learn to manage this denial of a serious problem. +Professionals must overcome the denial and encourage society to deal +with, report, and prevent sexual victimization of children. + +Some professionals, however, in their zeal to make American society +more aware of this victimization, tend to exaggerate the problem. +Presentations and literature with poorly documented or misleading +claims about one in three children being sexually molested, the $5 +billion child pornography industry, child slavery rings, and 50,000 +stranger-abducted children are not uncommon. The problem is bad +enough; it is not necessary to exaggerate it. Professionals should +cite reputable and scientific studies and note the sources of +information. If they do not, when the exaggerations and distortions +are discovered, their credibility and the credibility of the issue +are lost. + +-- a. "STRANGER DANGER". + +During the 1950s and 1960s the primary focus in the literature and +discussions on sexual abuse of children was on "stranger danger" - +the dirty old man in the wrinkled raincoat. If one could not deny +the existence of child sexual abuse, one described victimization in +simplistic terms of good and evil. The "stranger danger" approach to +preventing child sexual abuse is clear-cut. We immediately know who +the good guys and bad guys are and what they look like. + +The FBI distributed a poster that epitomized this attitude. It +showed a man, with his hat pulled down, hiding behind a tree with a +bag of candy in his hands. He was waiting for a sweet little girl +walking home from school alone. At the top it read: "Boys and Girls, +color the page, memorize the rules." At the bottom it read: "For +your protection, remember to turn down gifts from strangers, and +refuse rides offered by strangers." The poster clearly contrasts the +evil of the offender with the goodness of the child victim. + +The myth of the child molester as the dirty old man in the wrinkled +raincoat is now being reevaluated, based on what we now know about +the kinds of people who victimize children. The fact is a child +molester can look like anyone else and even be someone we know and +like. + +There is another myth that is still with us and is far less likely +to be discussed. This is the myth of the child victim as a +completely innocent little girl walking down the street minding her +own business. It may be more important to dispel this myth than the +myth of the evil offender, especially when talking about the sexual +exploitation of children and child sex rings. Child victims can be +boys as well as girls, and not all victims are little "angels". + +Society seems to have a problem dealing with any sexual abuse case +in which the offender is not completely "bad" or the victim is not +completely "good". Child victims who, for example, simply behave +like human beings and respond to the attention and affection of +offenders by voluntarily and repeatedly returning to the offender's +home are troubling. It confuses us to see the victims in child +pornography giggling or laughing. At professional conferences on +child sexual abuse, child prostitution is almost never discussed. It +is the form of sexual victimization of children most unlike the +stereotype of the innocent girl victim. Child prostitutes, by +definition, participate in and often initiate their victimization. +Furthermore child prostitutes and the participants in child sex +rings are frequently boys. One therapist recently told me that a +researcher's data on child molestation were misleading because many +of the child victims in question were child prostitutes. This +implies that child prostitutes are not "real" child victims. In a +survey by the _Los Angeles Times_, only 37 percent of those +responding thought that child prostitution constituted child sexual +abuse (Timnik, 1985). Whether or not it seems fair, when adults and +children have sex, the child is always the victim. + +-- b. INTRAFAMILIAL CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE. + +During the 1970s, primarily as a result of the women's movement, +society began to learn more about the sexual victimization of +children. We began to realize that most children are sexually +molested by someone they know who is usually a relative - a father, +step-father, uncle, grandfather, older brother, or even a female +relative. Some mitigate the difficulty of accepting this by adopting +the view that only members of socio-economic groups other than +theirs engage in such behavior. + +It quickly became apparent that warnings about not taking gifts from +strangers were not good enough to prevent child sexual abuse. +Consequently, we began to develop prevention programs based on more +complex concepts, such as good touching and bad touching. the +"yucky" feeling, and the child's right to say no. These are not the +kinds of things you can easily and effectively communicate in fifty +minutes to hundreds of kids packed into a school auditorium. These +are very difficult issues, and programs must he carefully developed +and evaluated. + +In the late 1970s child sexual abuse became almost synonymous with +incest, and incest meant father-daughter sexual relations. +Therefore, the focus of child sexual abuse intervention became +father-daughter incest. Even today, the vast majority of training +materials, articles, and books on this topic refer to child sexual +abuse only in terms of intrafamilial father-daughter incest. + +Incest is, in fact, sexual relations between individuals of any age +too closely related to marry. It need not necessarily involve an +adult and a child, and it goes beyond child sexual abuse. But more +importantly child sexual abuse goes beyond father-daughter incest. +Intrafamilial incest between an adult and child may be the most +common form of child sexual abuse, but it is not the only form. + +The progress of the 1970s in recognizing that child sexual abuse was +not simply a result of "stranger danger" was an important +breakthrough in dealing with society's denial. The battle, however, +is not over. The persistent voice of society luring us back to the +more simple concept of "stranger danger" may never go away. It is +the voice of denial. + +-- c. RETURN TO "STRANGER DANGER". + +In the early 1980s the issue of missing children rose to prominence +and was focused primarily on the stranger abduction of little +children. Runaways, throwaways, noncustodial abductions, nonfamily +abductions of teenagers - all major problems within the missing +children's issue - were almost forgotten. People no longer wanted to +hear about good touching and bad touching and the child's right to +say "no". They wanted to be told, in thirty minutes or less, how +they could protect their children from abduction by strangers. We +were back to the horrible but simple and clear-cut concept of +"stranger danger". + +In the emotional zeal over the problem of missing children, isolated +horror stories and distorted numbers were sometimes used. The +American public was led to believe that most of the missing children +had been kidnapped by pedophiles - a new term for child molesters. +The media, profiteers, and well-intentioned zealots all played big +roles in this hype and hysteria over missing children. + +-- d. THE ACQUAINTANCE MOLESTER. + +Only recently has society begun to deal openly with a critical piece +in the puzzle of child sexual abuse - acquaintance molestation. This +seems to be the most difficult aspect of the problem for us to face. +People seem more willing to accept a father or stepfather, +particularly one from another socio-economic group, as a child +molester than a parish priest, a next-door neighbor, a police +officer, a pediatrician, an FBI agent, or a Scout leader. The +acquaintance molester, by definition, is one of us. These kinds of +molesters have always existed, but our society has not been willing +to accept that fact. + +Sadly, one of the main reasons that the criminal justice system and +the public were forced to confront the problem of acquaintance +molestation was the preponderance of lawsuits arising from the +negligence of many institutions. + +One of the unfortunate outcomes of society's preference for the +"stranger danger" concept is what I call "say no, yell, and tell" +guilt. This is the result of prevention programs that tell potential +child victims to avoid sexual abuse by saying no, yelling, and +telling. This might work with the stranger hiding behind a tree. +Adolescent boys seduced by a Scout leader or children who actively +participate in their victimization often feel guilty and blame +themselves because they did not do what they were "supposed" to do. +They may feel a need to describe their victimization in more +socially acceptable but sometimes inaccurate ways that relieve them +of this guilt. + +While American society has become increasingly more aware of the +problem of the acquaintance molester and related problems such as +child pornography, the voice calling us back to "stranger danger" +still persists. + +-- e. SATANISM: A NEW FORM OF "STRANGER DANGER". + +In today's version of "stranger danger", it is the satanic devil +worshipers who are snatching and victimizing the children. Many who +warned us in the early 1980s about pedophiles snatching fifty +thousand kids a year now contend they were wrong only about who was +doing the kidnapping, not about the number abducted. This is again +the desire for the simple and clear-cut explanation for a complex +problem. + +For those who know anything about criminology, one of the oldest +theories of crime is demonology: The devil makes you do it. This +makes it even easier to deal with the child molester who is the +"pillar of the community". It is not his fault; it is not our fault. +There is no way we could have known; the devil made him do it. This +explanation has tremendous appeal because, like "stranger danger", +it presents the clear-cut, black-and-white struggle between good and +evil as the explanation for child abduction, exploitation, and +abuse. + +In regard to satanic "ritual" abuse, today we may not be where we +were with incest in the 1960s, but where we were with missing +children in the early 1980s. The best data now available (the 1990 +_National Incidence Studies on Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and +Thrownaway Children in America_) estimate the number of +stereotypical child abductions at between 200 and 300 a year, and +the number of stranger abduction homicides of children at between 43 +and 147 a year. Approximately half of the abducted children are +teenagers. Today's facts are significantly different from +yesterday's perceptions, and those who exaggerated the problem, +however well-intentioned, have lost credibility and damaged the +reality of the problem. + +3. LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING + +The belief that there is a connection between satanism and crime is +certainly not new. As previously stated, one of the oldest theories +concerning the causes of crime is demonology. Fear of satanic or +occult activity has peaked from time to time throughout history. +Concern in the late 1970s focused primarily on "unexplained" deaths +and mutilations of animals, and in recent years has focused on child +sexual abuse and the alleged human sacrifice of missing children. In +1999 it will probably focus on the impending "end of the world". + +Today satanism and a wide variety of other terms are used +interchangeably in reference to certain crimes. This discussion will +analyze the nature of "satanic, occult, ritualistic" crime primarily +as it pertains to the abuse of children and focus on appropriate +*law enforcement* responses to it. + +Recently a flood of law enforcement seminars and conferences have +dealt with satanic and ritualistic crime. These training conferences +have various titles, such as "Occult in Crime", "Satanic Cults", +'Ritualistic Crime Seminar", "Satanic Influences in Homicide", +"Occult Crimes, Satanism and Teen Suicide", and "Ritualistic Abuse +of Children". + +The typical conference runs from one to three days, and many of them +include the same presenters and instructors. A wide variety of +topics are usually discussed during this training either as +individual presentations by different instructors or grouped +together by one or more instructors. Typical topics covered include +the following: + +-- Historical overview of satanism, witchcraft, and paganism from +ancient to modern times. + +-- Nature and influence of fantasy role-playing games, such as +"Dungeons and Dragons". + +-- Lyrics, symbolism, and influence of rock and roll, Heavy Metal, +and Black Metal music. + +-- Teenage "stoner" gangs, their symbols, and their vandalism. + +-- Teenage suicide by adolescents dabbling in the occult. + +-- Crimes committed by self-styled satanic practitioners, including +grave and church desecrations and robberies, animal mutilations, and +even murders. + +-- Ritualistic abuse of children as part of bizarre ceremonies and +human sacrifices. + +-- Organized, Traditional, or Multigenerational satanic groups +involved in organized conspiracies, such as taking over day care +centers, infiltrating police departments, and trafficking in human +sacrifice victims. + +-- The "Big Conspiracy" theory, which implies that satanists are +responsible for such things as Adolph Hitler, World War II, +abortion, illegal drugs, pornography, Watergate, and Irangate, and +have infiltrated the Department of Justice, the Pentagon, and the +White House. + +During the conferences, these nine areas are linked together through +the liberal use of the word "satanism" and some common symbolism +(pentagrams, 666, demons, etc.). The implication often is that all +are part of a continuum of behavior, a single problem or some common +conspiracy. The distinctions among the different areas are blurred +even if occasionally a presenter tries to make them. The information +presented is a mixture of fact, theory, opinion, fantasy, and +paranoia, and because some of it can be proven or corroborated +(symbols on rock albums, graffiti on walls, desecration of +cemeteries, vandalism, etc.), the implication is that it is all true +and documented. Material produced by religious organizations, +photocopies and slides of newspaper articles, and videotapes of +tabloid television programs are used to supplement the training and +are presented as "evidence" of the existence and nature of the +problem. + +All of this is complicated by the fact that almost any discussion of +satanism and the occult is interpreted in the light of the religious +beliefs of those in the audience. Faith, not logic and reason, +governs the religious beliefs of most people. As a result, some +normally skeptical law enforcement officers accept the information +disseminated at these conferences without critically evaluating it +or questioning the sources. Officers who do not normally depend on +church groups for law enforcement criminal intelligence, who know +that media accounts of their own cases are notoriously inaccurate, +and who scoff at and joke about tabloid television accounts of +bizarre behavior suddenly embrace such material when presented in +the context of satanic activity. Individuals not in law enforcement +seem even more likely to do so. Other disciplines, especially +therapists, have also conducted training conferences on the +characteristics and identification of "ritual" child abuse. Nothing +said at such conferences will change the religious beliefs of those +in attendance. Such conferences illustrate the highly emotional +nature of and the ambiguity and wide variety of terms involved in +this issue. + +4. DEFINITIONS + +The words "satanic", "occult", and "ritual" are often used +interchangeably. It is difficult to define "satanism" precisely. No +attempt will be made to do so here However, it is important to +realize that, for some people, any religious belief system other +than their own is "satanic". The Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam +Hussein referred to the United States as the "Great Satan". In the +British Parliament a Protestant leader called the Pope the +Antichrist. In a book titled _Prepare For War_ (1987), Rebecca +Brown, M.D. has a chapter entitled "Is Roman Catholicism +Witchcraft?" Dr. Brown also lists among the "doorways" to satanic +power and/or demon infestation the following: fortune tellers, +horoscopes, fraternity oaths, vegetarianism, yoga, self-hypnosis, +relaxation tapes, acupuncture, biofeedback, fantasy role-playing +games, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, judo, karate, and rock +music. Dr. Brown states that rock music "was a carefully +masterminded plan by none other than Satan himself" (p. 84). The +ideas expressed in this book may seem extreme and even humorous. +This book, however, has been recommended as a serious reference in +law enforcement training material on this topic. + +In books, lectures, handout material, and conversations, I have +heard all of the following referred to as satanism: + +-- Church of Satan +-- Ordo Templi Orientis +-- Temple of Set +-- Demonology +-- Witchcraft +-- Occult +-- Paganism +-- Santeria +-- Voodoo +-- Rosicrucians +-- Freemasonry +-- Knights Templar +-- Stoner Gangs +-- Heavy Metal Music +-- Rock Music +-- KKK +-- Nazis +-- Skinheads +-- Scientology +-- Unification Church +-- The Way +-- Hare Krishna +-- Rajneesh +-- Religious Cults +-- New Age +-- Astrology +-- Channeling +-- Transcendental Meditation +-- Holistic Medicine +-- Buddhism +-- Hinduism +-- Mormonism +-- Islam +-- Orthodox Church +-- Roman Catholicism + +At law enforcement training conferences, it is witchcraft, santeria, +paganism, and the occult that are most often referred to as forms of +satanism. It may be a matter of definition, but these things are not +necessarily the same as traditional satanism. The worship of lunar +goddesses and nature and the practice of fertility rituals are not +satanism. Santeria is a combination of 17th century Roman +Catholicism and African paganism. + +Occult means simply "hidden". All unreported or unsolved crimes +might be regarded as occult, but in this context the term refers to +the action or influence of supernatural powers, some secret +knowledge of them, or an interest in paranormal phenomena, and does +not imply satanism, evil, wrongdoing, or crime. Indeed, +historically, the principal crimes deserving of consideration as +"occult crimes" are the frauds perpetrated by faith healers, fortune +tellers and "psychics" who for a fee claim cures, arrange +visitations with dead loved ones, and commit other financial crimes +against the gullible. + +Many individuals define satanism from a totally Christian +perspective, using this word to describe the power of evil in the +world. With this definition, any crimes, especially those which are +particularly bizarre, repulsive, or cruel, can be viewed as satanic +in nature. Yet it is just as difficult to precisely define satanism +as it is to precisely define Christianity or any complex spiritual +belief system. + +-- a. WHAT IS RITUAL? + +The biggest confusion is over the word "ritual". During training +conferences on this topic, ritual almost always comes to mean +"satanic" or at least "spiritual". "Ritual" can refer to a +prescribed religious ceremony, but in its broader meaning refers to +any customarily-repeated act or series of acts. The need to repeat +these acts can be cultural, sexual, or psychological as well as +spiritual. + +Cultural rituals could include such things as what a family eats on +Thanksgiving Day, or when and how presents are opened at Christmas. +The initiation ceremonies of fraternities, sororities, gangs, and +other social clubs are other examples of cultural rituals. + +Since 1972 I have lectured about sexual ritual, which is nothing +more than repeatedly engaging in an act or series of acts in a +certain manner because of a *sexual* need. In order to become +aroused and/or gratified, a person must engage in the act in a +certain way. This sexual ritual can include such things as the +physical characteristics, age, or gender of the victim, the +particular sequence of acts, the bringing or taking of specific +objects, and the use of certain words or phrases. This is more than +the concept of M.O. (Method of Operation) known to most police +officers. M.O. is something done by an offender because it works. +Sexual ritual is something done by an offender because of a need. +Deviant acts, such as urinating on, defecating on, or even +eviscerating a victim, are far more likely to be the result of +sexual ritual than religious or "satanic" ritual. + +From a criminal investigative perspective, two other forms of +ritualism must be recognized. The _Diagnostic and Statistical Manual +of Mental Disorders_ (DSM-III-R) (APA, 1987) defines "Obsessive- +Compulsive Disorder" as "repetitive, purposeful, and intentional +behaviors that are performed in response to an obsession, or +according to certain rules or in a stereotyped fashion" (p. 247). +Such compulsive behavior frequently involves rituals. Although such +behavior usually involves noncriminal activity such as excessive +hand washing or checking that doors are locked, occasionally +compulsive ritualism can be part of criminal activity. Certain +gamblers or firesetters, for example, are thought by some +authorities to be motivated in part through such compulsions. Ritual +can also stem from psychotic hallucinations and delusions. A crime +can be committed in a precise manner because a voice told the +offender to do it that way or because a divine mission required it. + +To make this more confusing, cultural, religious, sexual, and +psychological ritual can overlap. Some psychotic people are +preoccupied with religious delusions and hear the voice of God or +Satan telling them to do things of a religious nature. Offenders who +feel little, if any, guilt over their crimes may need little +justification for their antisocial behavior. As human beings, +however, they may have fears, concerns, and anxiety over getting +away with their criminal acts. It is difficult to pray to God for +success in doing things that are against His Commandments. A +negative spiritual belief system may fulfill their human need for +assistance from and belief in a greater power or to deal with their +superstitions. Compulsive ritualism (e.g., excessive cleanliness or +fear of disease) can be introduced into sexual behavior. Even many +"normal" people have a need for order and predictability and +therefore may engage in family or work rituals. Under stress or in +times of change, this need for order and ritual may increase. + +Ritual crime may fulfill the cultural, spiritual, sexual, and +psychological needs of an offender. Crimes may be ritualistically +motivated or may have ritualistic elements. The ritual behavior may +also fulfill basic criminal needs to manipulate victims, get rid of +rivals, send a message to enemies, and intimidate co-conspirators. +The leaders of a group may want to play upon the beliefs and +superstitions of those around them and try to convince accomplices +and enemies that they, the leaders, have special or "supernatural" +powers. + +The important point for the criminal investigator is to realize that +most ritualistic criminal behavior is not motivated simply by +satanic or any religious ceremonies. At some conferences, presenters +have attempted to make an issue of distinguishing between "ritual", +"ritualized", and "ritualistic" abuse of children. These subtle +distinctions, however, seem to be of no significant value to the +criminal investigator. + +-- c. WHAT IS "RITUAL" CHILD ABUSE? + +I cannot define "ritual child abuse" precisely and prefer not to use +the term. I am frequently forced to use it (as throughout this +discussion) so that people will have some idea what I am discussing. +Use of the term, however, is confusing, misleading, and +counterproductive. The newer term "satanic ritual abuse" +(abbreviated "SRA") is even worse. Certain observations, however, +are important for investigative understanding. + +Most people today use the term to refer to abuse of children that is +part of some evil spiritual belief system, which almost by +definition must be satanic. + +Dr. Lawrence Pazder, coauthor of _Michelle Remembers_, defines +"ritualized abuse of children" as "repeated physical, emotional, +mental, and spiritual assaults combined with a systematic use of +symbols and secret ceremonies designed to turn a child against +itself, family, society, and God" (presentation, Richmond, Va., May +7,1987). He also states that "the sexual assault has ritualistic +meaning and is not for sexual gratification". + +This definition may have value for academics, sociologists, and +therapists, but it creates potential problems for law enforcement. +Certain acts engaged in with children (i.e. kissing, touching, +appearing naked, etc.) may be criminal if performed for sexual +gratification. If the ritualistic acts were in fact performed for +spiritual indoctrination, potential prosecution can be jeopardized, +particularly if the acts can be defended as constitutionally +protected religious expression. The mutilation of a baby's genitals +for sadistic sexual pleasure is a crime. The circumcision of a +baby's genitals for religious reasons is most likely *not* a crime. +The intent of the acts is important for criminal prosecution. + +Not all spiritually motivated ritualistic activity is satanic. +Santeria, witchcraft, voodoo, and most religious cults are not +satanism. In fact, most spiritually- or religiously-based abuse of +children has nothing to do with satanism. Most child abuse that +could be termed "ritualistic" by various definitions is more likely +to be physical and psychological rather than sexual in nature. If a +distinction needs to be made between satanic and nonsatanic child +abuse, the indicators for that distinction must be related to +specific satanic symbols, artifacts, or doctrine rather than the +mere presence of any ritualistic element. + +Not all such ritualistic activity with a child is a crime. Almost +all parents with religious beliefs indoctrinate their children into +that belief system. Is male circumcision for religious reasons child +abuse? Is the religious circumcision of females child abuse? Does +having a child kneel on a hard floor reciting the rosary constitute +child abuse? Does having a child chant a satanic prayer or attend a +black mass constitute child abuse? Does a religious belief in +corporal punishment constitute child abuse? Does group care of +children in a commune or cult constitute child abuse? Does the fact +that any acts in question were performed with parental permission +affect the nature of the crime? Many ritualistic acts, whether +satanic or not, are simply not crimes. To open the Pandora's box of +labeling child abuse as "ritualistic" simply because it involves a +spiritual belief system means to apply the definition to all acts by +all spiritual belief systems. The day may come when many in the +forefront of concern about ritual abuse will regret they opened the +box. + +When a victim describes and investigation corroborates what sounds +like ritualistic activity. several possibilities must be considered. +The ritualistic activity may be part of the excessive religiosity of +mentally disturbed, even psychotic offenders. It may be a +misunderstood part of sexual ritual. The ritualistic activity may be +incidental to any real abuse. The offender may be involved in +ritualistic activity with a child and also may be abusing a child, +but one may have little or nothing to do with the other. + +The offender may be deliberately engaging in ritualistic activity +with a child as part of child abuse and exploitation. The +motivation, however, may be not to indoctrinate the child into a +belief system, but to lower the inhibitions of, control, manipulate, +and/or confuse the child. In all the turmoil over this issue, it +would be very effective strategy for any child molester deliberately +to introduce ritualistic elements into his crime in order to confuse +the child and therefore the criminal justice system. This would, +however, make the activity M.O. and not ritual. + +The ritualistic activity and the child abuse may be integral parts +of some spiritual belief system. In that case the greatest risk is +to the children of the practitioners. But this is true of all cults +and religions, not just satanic cults. A high potential of abuse +exists for any children raised in a group isolated from the +mainstream of society, especially if the group has a charismatic +leader whose orders are unquestioned and blindly obeyed by the +members. Sex, money, and power are often the main motivations of the +leaders of such cults. + +-- c. WHAT MAKES A CRIME SATANIC, OCCULT, OR RITUALISTIC? + +Some would answer that it is the offender's spiritual beliefs or +membership in a cult or church. If that is the criterion, why not +label the crimes committed by Protestants, Catholics, and Jews in +the same way? Are the atrocities of Jim Jones in Guyana Christian +crimes? + +Some would answer that it is the presence of certain symbols in the +possession or home of the perpetrator. What does it mean then to +find a crucifix, Bible, or rosary in the possession or home of a +bank robber, embezzler, child molester, or murderer? If different +criminals possess the same symbols, are they necessarily part of one +big conspiracy? + +Others would answer that it is the presence of certain symbols such +as pentagrams, inverted crosses, and 666 at the crime scene. What +does it mean then to find a cross spray painted on a wall or carved +into the body of a victim? What does it mean for a perpetrator, as +in one recent case profiled by my Unit, to leave a Bible tied to his +murder victim? What about the possibility that an offender +deliberately left such symbols to make it look like a "satanic" +crime? + +Some would argue that it is the bizarreness or cruelness of the +crime: body mutilation, amputation, drinking of blood, eating of +flesh, use of urine or feces. Does this mean that all individuals +involved in lust murder, sadism, vampirism, cannibalism, urophilia, +and coprophilia are satanists or occult practitioners? What does +this say about the bizarre crimes of psychotic killers such as Ed +Gein or Richard Trenton Chase, both of whom mutilated their victims +as part of their psychotic delusions? Can a crime that is not +sexually deviant, bizarre, or exceptionally violent be satanic? Can +white collar crime be satanic? + +A few might even answer that it is the fact that the crime was +committed on a date with satanic or occult significance (Halloween, +May Eve, etc.) or the fact that the perpetrator claims that Satan +told him to commit the crime. What does this mean for crimes +committed on Thanksgiving or Christmas? What does this say about +crimes committed by perpetrators who claim that God or Jesus told +them to do it? One note of interest is the fact that in handout and +reference material I have collected, the number of dates with +satanic or occult significance ranges from 8 to 110. This is +compounded by the fact that it is sometimes stated that satanists +can celebrate these holidays on several days on either side of the +official date or that the birthdays of practitioners can also be +holidays. The exact names and exact dates of the holidays and the +meaning of symbols listed may also vary depending on who prepared +the material The handout material is often distributed without +identifying the author or documenting the original source of the +information. It is then frequently photocopied by attendees and +passed on to other police officers with no one really knowing its +validity or origin. + +Most, however, would probably answer that what makes a crime +satanic, occult, or ritualistic is the motivation for the crime. It +is a crime that is spiritually motivated by a religious belief +system. How then do we label the following true crimes? + +-- Parents defy a court order and send their children to an +unlicensed Christian school. + +-- Parents refuse to send their children to any school because they +are waiting for the second coming of Christ. + +-- Parents beat their child to death because he or she will not +follow their Christian belief. + +-- Parents violate child labor laws because they believe the Bible +requires such work. + +-- Individuals bomb an abortion clinic or kidnap the doctor because +their religious belief system says abortion is murder. + +-- A child molester reads the Bible to his victims in order to +justify his sex acts with them. + +-- Parents refuse life-saving medical treatment for a child because +of their religious beliefs. + +-- Parents starve and beat their child to death because their +minister said the child was possessed by demonic spirits. + +Some people would argue that the Christians who committed the above +crimes misunderstood and distorted their religion while satanists +who commit crimes are following theirs. But who decides what +constitutes a misinterpretation of a religious belief system? The +individuals who committed the above-described crimes, however +misguided, believed that they were following their religion as they +understood it. Religion was and is used to justify such social +behavior as the Crusades, the Inquisition, Apartheid, segregation, +and recent violence in Northern Ireland, India, Lebanon and Nigeria. + +Who decides exactly what "satanists" believe? In this country, we +cannot even agree on what Christians believe. At many law +enforcement conferences The _Satanic Bible_ is used for this, and it +is often contrasted or compared with the Judeo-Christian Bible. The +_Satanic Bible_ is, in essence, a short paperback book written by +one man, Anton LaVey, in 1969. To compare it to a book written by +multiple authors over a period of thousands of years is ridiculous, +even ignoring the possibility of Divine revelation in the Bible. +What satanists believe certainly isn't limited to other people's +interpretation of a few books. More importantly it is subject to +some degree of interpretation by individual believers just as +Christianity is. Many admitted "satanists" claim they do not even +believe in God, the devil, or any supreme deity. The criminal +behavior of one person claiming belief in a religion does not +necessarily imply guilt or blame to others sharing that belief. In +addition, simply claiming membership in a religion does not +necessarily make you a member. + +The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed +by zealots in the name of God, Jesus, Mohammed, and other mainstream +religion than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many +people, including myself, don't like that statement, but the truth +of it is undeniable. + +Although defining a crime as satanic, occult, or ritualistic would +probably involve a combination of the criteria set forth above, I +have been unable to clearly define such a crime. Each potential +definition presents a different set of problems when measured +against an objective, rational, and constitutional perspective. In a +crime with multiple subjects, each offender may have a different +motivation for the same crime. Whose motivation determines the label +for the crime? It is difficult to count or track something you +cannot even define. + +I have discovered, however, that the facts of so-called "satanic +crimes" are often significantly different from what is described st +training conferences or in the media. The actual involvement of +satanism or the occult in these cases usually turns out to be +secondary, insignificant, or nonexistent. Occult or ritual crime +surveys done by the states of Michigan (1990) and Virginia (1991) +have only confirmed this "discovery". Some law enforcement officers, +unable to find serious "satanic" crime in their communities, assume +they are just lucky or vigilant and the serious problems must be in +other jurisdictions. The officers in the other jurisdictions, also +unable find it, assume the same. + +5. MULTlDlMENSlONAL CHILD SEX RINGS + +Sometime in early 1983 I was first contacted by a law enforcement +agency for guidance in what was then thought to be an unusual case. +The exact date of the contact is unknown because its significance +was not recognized at the time. In the months and years that +followed, I received more and more inquiries about "these kinds of +cases". The requests for assistance came (and continue to come) from +all over the United States. Many of the aspects of these cases +varied, but there were also some commonalties. Early on, however, +one particularly difficult and potentially significant issue began +to emerge. + +These cases involved and continue to involve unsubstantiated +allegations of bizarre activity that are difficult either to prove +or disprove. Many of the unsubstantiated allegations, however, do +not seem to have occurred or even be possible. These cases seem to +call into question the credibility of victims of child sexual abuse +and exploitation. These are the most polarizing, frustrating, and +baffling cases I have encountered in more than 18 years of studying +the criminal aspects of deviant sexual behavior. I privately sought +answers, but said nothing publicly about those cases until 1985. + +In October 1984 the problems in investigating and prosecuting one of +these cases in Jordan, Minnesota became publicly known. In February +1985, at the FBI Academy, the FBI sponsored and I coordinated the +first national seminar held to study "these kinds of cases". Later +in 1985, similar conferences sponsored by other organizations were +held in Washington, D.C.; Sacramento, California; and Chicago, +Illinois. These cases have also been discussed at many recent +regional and national conferences dealing with the sexual +victimization of children and Multiple Personality Disorder. Few +answers have come from these conferences. I continue to be contacted +on these cases on a regular basis. Inquiries have been received from +law enforcement officers, prosecutors, therapists, victims, families +of victims, and the media from all over the United States and now +foreign countries. I do not claim to understand completely all the +dynamics of these cases. I continue to keep an open mind and to +search for answers to the questions and solutions to the problems +they pose. This discussion is based on my analysis of the several +hundred of "these kinds of cases" on which I have consulted since +1983. + +-- a. DYNAMICS OF CASES. + +What are "these kinds of cases"? They were and continue to be +difficult to define. They all involve allegations of what sounds +like child sexual abuse, but with a combination of some atypical +dynamics. These cases seem to have the following four dynamics in +common: (1) multiple young victims, (2) multiple offenders, (3) fear +as the controlling tactic, and (4) bizarre or ritualistic activity. + +---- (1) MULTIPLE YOUNG VICTIMS. + +In almost all the cases the sexual abuse was alleged to have taken +place or at least begun when the victims were between the ages of +birth and six. This very young age may be an important key to +understanding these cases. In addition the victims all described +multiple children being abused. The numbers ranged from three or +four to as many as several hundred victims. + +---- (2) MULTIPLE OFFENDERS. + +In almost all the cases the victims reported numerous offenders. The +numbers ranged from two or three all the way up to dozens of +offenders. In one recent case the victims alleged 400-500 offenders +were involved. Interestingly many of the offenders (perhaps as many +as 40-50 percent) were reported to be females. The multiple +offenders were often family members and were described as being part +of a cult, occult, or satanic group. + +---- (3) FEAR AS CONTROLLING TACTIC. + +Child molesters in general are able to maintain control and ensure +the secrecy of their victims in a variety of ways. These include +attention and affection, coercion, blackmail, embarrassment, +threats, and violence. In almost all of these cases I have studied, +the victims described being frightened and reported threats against +themselves, their families, their friends, and even their pets. They +reported witnessing acts of violence perpetrated to reinforce this +fear. It is my belief that this fear and the traumatic memory of the +events may be another key to understanding many of these cases. + +---- (4) BIZARRE OR RITUALISTIC ACTIVITY. + +This is the most difficult dynamic of these cases to describe. +"Bizarre" is a relative term. Is the use of urine or feces in sexual +activity bizarre, or is it a well-documented aspect of sexual +deviancy, or is it part of established satanic rituals? As +previously discussed, the ritualistic aspect is even more difficult +to define. How do you distinguish acts performed in a precise manner +to enhance or allow sexual arousal from those acts that fulfill +spiritual needs or comply with "religious" ceremonies? Victims in +these cases report ceremonies, chanting, robes and costumes, drugs, +use of urine and feces, animal sacrifice, torture, abduction, +mutilation, murder, and even cannibalism and vampirism. All things +considered, the word "bizarre" is probably preferable to the word +"ritual" to describe this activity. + +When I was contacted on these cases, it was very common for a +prosecutor or investigator to say that the alleged victims have been +evaluated by an "expert" who will stake his or her professional +reputation on the fact that the victims are telling the "truth". +When asked how many cases this expert had previously evaluated +involving these four dynamics, the answer was always the same: none! +The experts usually had only dealt with one-on-one intrafamilial +sexual abuse cases. Recently an even more disturbing trend has +developed. More and more of the victims have been identified or +evaluated by experts who have been trained to identify and +specialize in satanic ritual abuse. + +-- b. CHARACTERISTICS OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL CHILD SEX RINGS. + +As previously stated, a major problem in communicating, training, +and researching in this area is the term used to define "these kinds +of cases". Many refer to them as "ritual, ritualistic, or ritualized +abuse of children cases" or "satanic ritual abuse (SRA) cases". Such +words carry specialized meanings for many people and might imply +that all these cases are connected to occult or satanic activity. If +ritual abuse is not necessarily occult or satanic, but is "merely" +severe, repeated, prolonged abuse, why use a term that, in the minds +of so many, implies such specific motivation? + +Others refer to these cases as "multioffender/multivictim cases". +The problem with this term is that most multiple offender and victim +cases do not involve the four dynamics discussed above. + +For want of a better term, I have decided to refer to "these kinds +of cases" as "multidimensional child sex rings". Right now I seem to +be the only one using this term. I am, however, not sure if this is +truly a distinct kind of child sex ring case or just a case not +properly handled. Following are the general characteristics of these +multidimensional child sex ring cases as contrasted with more common +historical child sex ring cases [see my monograph _Child Sex Rings: +A Behavioral Analysis] (1989) for a discussion of the +characteristics of historical child sex ring cases]. + +---- (1) FEMALE OFFENDERS. + +As many as 40-50 percent of the offenders in these cases are +reported to be women. This is in marked contrast to historical child +sex rings in which almost all the offenders are men. + +---- (2) SITUATIONAL MOLESTERS. + +The offenders appear to be sexually interacting with the child +victims for reasons other than a true sexual preference for +children. The children are substitute victims, and the abusive +activity may have little to do with pedophilia [see my monograph +_Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis_ (1987) for a further +explanation about types of molesters]. + +---- (3) MALE AND FEMALE VICTIMS. + +Both boys and girls appear to be targeted, but with an apparent +preference for girls. Almost all the adult survivors are female, but +day care cases frequently involve male as well as female victims. +The most striking characteristic of the victims, however, is their +young age (generally birth to six years old when the abuse began). + +---- (4) MULTIDIMENSIONAL MOTIVATION. + +Sexual gratification appears to be only part of the motivation for +the "sexual" activity. Many people today argue that the motivation +is "spiritual" - possibly part of an occult ceremony. It is my +opinion that the motivation may have more to do with anger, +hostility, rage and resentment carried out against weak and +vulnerable victims. Much of the ritualistic abuse of children may +not be sexual in nature. Some of the activity may, in fact, be +physical abuse directed at sexually-significant body parts (penis, +anus, nipples). This may also partially explain the large percentage +of female offenders. Physical abuse of children by females is well- +documented. + +---- (5) PORNOGRAPHY AND PARAPHERNALIA. + +Although many of the victims of multidimensional child sex rings +claim that pictures and videotapes of the activity were made, no +such visual record has been found by law enforcement. In recent +years, American law enforcement has seized large amounts of child +pornography portraying children in a wide variety of sexual activity +and perversions. None of it, however, portrays the kind of bizarre +and/or ritualistic activity described by these victims. Perhaps +these offenders use and store their pornography and paraphernalia in +ways different from preferential child molesters (pedophiles). This +is an area needing additional research and investigation. + +---- (6) CONTROL THROUGH FEAR. + +Control through fear may be the overriding characteristic of these +cases. Control is maintained by frightening the children. A very +young child might not be able to understand the significance of much +of the sexual activity but certainly understands fear. The stories +that the victims tell may be their perceived versions of severe +traumatic memories. They may be the victims of a severely +traumatized childhood in which being sexually abused was just one of +the many negative events affecting their lives. + +-- c. SCENARIOS. + +Multidimensional child sex rings typically emerge from one of four +scenarios: (1) adult survivors, (2) day care cases, (3) +family/isolated neighborhood cases, and (4) custody/visitation +disputes. + +---- (1) ADULT SURVIVORS. + +In adult survivor cases, adults of almost any age - nearly always +women - are suffering the consequences of a variety of personal +problems and failures in their lives (e.g., promiscuity, eating +disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, failed relationships, self- +mutilation, unemployment). As a result of some precipitating stress +or crisis, they often seek therapy. They are frequently hypnotized, +intentionally or unintentionally, as part of the therapy and are +often diagnosed as suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder. +Gradually, during the therapy, the adults reveal previously +unrecalled memories of early childhood victimization that includes +multiple victims and offenders, fear as the controlling tactic, and +bizarre or ritualistic activity. Adult survivors may also claim that +"cues" from certain events in their recent life "triggered" the +previously repressed memories. + +The multiple offenders are often described as members of a cult or +satanic group. Parents, family members, clergy, civic leaders, +police officers (or individuals wearing police uniforms), and other +prominent members of society are frequently described as present at +and participating in the exploitation. The alleged bizarre activity +often includes insertion of foreign objects, witnessing mutilations, +and sexual acts and murders being filmed or photographed. The +offenders may allegedly still be harassing or threatening the +victims. They report being particularly frightened on certain dates +and by certain situations. In several of these cases, women (called +"breeders") claim to have had babies that were turned over for human +sacrifice. This type of case is probably best typified by books like +_Michelle Remembers_ (Smith & Pazder, 1980), _Satan's Underground_ +(Stratford, 1988), and _Satan's Children_ (Mayer, 1991). + +If and when therapists come to believe the patient or decide the law +requires it, the police or FBI are sometimes contacted to conduct an +investigation. The therapists may also fear for their safety because +they now know the "secret". The therapists will frequently tell law +enforcement that they will stake their professional reputation on +the fact that their patient is telling the truth. Some adult +survivors go directly to law enforcement. They may also go from +place to place in an effort to find therapists or investigators who +will listen to and believe them. Their ability to provide verifiable +details varies and many were raised in apparently religious homes. A +few adult survivors are now reporting participation in specific +murders or child abductions that are known to have taken place. + +---- (2) DAY CARE CASES. + +In day care cases children currently or formerly attending a day +care center gradually describe their victimization at the center and +at other locations to which they were taken by the day care staff. +The cases include multiple victims and offenders, fear, and bizarre +or ritualistic activity, with a particularly high number of female +offenders. Descriptions of strange games, insertion of foreign +objects, killing of animals, photographing of activities, and +wearing of costumes are common. The accounts of the young children, +however, do not seem to be quite as "bizarre" as those of the adult +survivors, with fewer accounts of human sacrifice. + +---- (3) FAMILY/ISOLATED NEIGHBORHOOD CASES. + +In family/isolated neighborhood cases, children describe their +victimization within their family or extended family. The group is +often defined by geographic boundary, such as a cul-de-sac, +apartment building, or isolated rural setting. Such accounts are +most common in rural or suburban communities with high +concentrations of religiously conservative people. The stories are +similar to those told of the day care setting, but with more male +offenders. The basic dynamics remain the same, but victims tend to +be more than six years of age, and the scenario may also involve a +custody or visitation dispute. + +---- (4) CUSTODY/VISITATION DISPUTE. + +In custody/visitation dispute cases, the allegations emanate from a +custody or visitation dispute over at least one child under the age +of seven. The four dynamics described above make these cases +extremely difficult to handle. When complicated by the strong +emotions of this scenario, the cases can be overwhelming. This is +especially true if the disclosing child victims have been taken into +the "underground" by a parent during the custody or visitation +dispute. Some of these parents or relatives may even provide +authorities with diaries or tapes of their interviews with the +children. An accurate evaluation and assessment of a young child +held in isolation in this underground while being "debriefed" by a +parent or someone else is almost impossible. However well- +intentioned, these self-appointed investigators severely damage any +chance to validate these cases objectively. + +-- d. WHY ARE VICTIMS ALLEGING THINGS THAT DO NOT SEEM TO BE TRUE? + +Some of what the victims in these cases allege is physically +impossible (victim cut up and put back together, offender took the +building apart and then rebuilt it); some is possible but improbable +(human sacrifice, cannibalism, vampirism ); some is possible and +probable (child pornography, clever manipulation of victims); and +some is corroborated (medical evidence of vaginal or anal trauma, +offender confessions). + +The most significant crimes being alleged that do not *seem* to be +true are the human sacrifice and cannibalism by organized satanic +cults. In none of the multidimensional child sex ring cases of which +I am aware have bodies of the murder victims been found - in spite +of major excavations where the abuse victims claim the bodies were +located. The alleged explanations for this include: the offenders +moved the bodies after the children left, the bodies were burned in +portable high-temperature ovens, the bodies were put in double- +decker graves under legitimately buried bodies, a mortician member +of the cult disposed of the bodies in a crematorium, the offenders +ate the bodies, the offenders used corpses and aborted fetuses, or +the power of Satan caused the bodies to disappear. + +Not only are no bodies found, but also, more importantly, there is +no physical evidence that a murder took place. Many of those not in +law enforcement do not understand that, while it is possible to get +rid of a body, it is even more difficult to get rid of the physical +evidence that a murder took place, especially a human sacrifice +involving sex, blood, and mutilation. Such activity would leave +behind trace evidence that could be found using modern crime scene +processing techniques in spite of extraordinary efforts to clean it +up. + +The victims of these human sacrifices and murders are alleged to be +abducted missing children, runaway and throwaway children, +derelicts, and the babies of breeder women. It is interesting to +note that many of those espousing these theories are using the long- +since-discredited numbers and rhetoric of the missing children +hysteria in the early 1980s. Yet "Stranger-Abduction Homicides of +Children", a January 1989 _Juvenile Justice Bulletin_, published by +the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the +U.S. Department of Justice, reports that researchers now estimate +that the number of children kidnapped and murdered by nonfamily +members is between 52 and 158 a year and that adolescents 14 to 17 +years old account for nearly two-thirds of these victims. These +figures are also consistent with the 1990 National Incident Studies +previously mentioned. + +We live in a very violent society, and yet we have "only" about +23,000 murders a year. Those who accept these stories of mass human +sacrifice would have us believe that the satanists and other occult +practitioners are murdering more than twice as many people every +year in this country as all the other murderers combined. + +In addition, in none of the cases of which I am aware has any +evidence of a well-organized satanic cult been found. Many of those +who accept the stories of organized ritual abuse of children and +human sacrifice will tell you that the best evidence they now have +is the consistency of stories from all over America. It sounds like +a powerful argument. It is interesting to note that, without having +met each other, the hundreds of people who claim to have been +abducted by aliens from outer space also tell stories and give +descriptions of the aliens that are similar to each other. This is +not to imply that allegations of child abuse are in the same +category as allegations of abduction by aliens from outer space. It +is intended only to illustrate that individuals who never met each +other can sometimes describe similar events without necessarily +having experienced them. + +The large number of people telling the same story is, in fact, the +biggest reason to doubt these stories. It is simply too difficult +for that many people to commit so many horrendous crimes as part of +an organized conspiracy. Two or three people murder a couple of +children in a few communities as part of a ritual, and nobody finds +out? Possible. Thousands of people do the same thing to tens of +thousands of victims over many years? Not likely. Hundreds of +communities all over America are run by mayors, police departments, +and community leaders who are practicing satanists and who regularly +murder and eat people? Not likely. In addition, these community +leaders and high-ranking officials also supposedly commit these +complex crimes leaving no evidence, and at the same time function as +leaders and managers while heavily involved in using illegal drugs. +Probably the closest documented example of this type of alleged +activity in American history is the Ku Klux Klan, which ironically +used Christianity, not satanism, to rationalize its activity but +which, as might be expected, was eventually infiltrated by +informants and betrayed by its members. + +As stated, initially I was inclined to believe the allegations of +the victims. But as the cases poured in and the months and years +went by, I became more concerned about the lack of physical evidence +and corroboration for many of the more serious allegations. With +increasing frequency I began to ask the question: "Why are victims +alleging things that do not *seem* to be true?" Many possible +answers were considered. + +The first possible answer is obvious: clever offenders. The +allegations may not seem to be true but they are true. The criminal +justice system lacks the knowledge, skill, and motivation to get to +the bottom of this crime conspiracy. The perpetrators of this crime +conspiracy are clever, cunning individuals using sophisticated mind +control and brainwashing techniques to control their victims. Law +enforcement does not know how to investigate these cases. + +It is technically possible that these allegations of an organized +conspiracy involving taking over day care centers, abduction, +cannibalism, murder, and human sacrifice might be true. But if they +are true, they constitute one of the greatest crime conspiracies in +history. + +Many people do not understand how difficult it is to commit a +conspiracy crime involving numerous co-conspirators. One clever and +cunning individual has a good chance of getting away with a well- +planned interpersonal crime. Bring one partner into the crime and +the odds of getting away with it drop considerably. The more people +involved in the crime, the harder it is to get away with it. Why? +Human nature is the answer. People get angry and jealous. They come +to resent the fact that another conspirator is getting "more" than +they. They get in trouble and want to make a deal for themselves by +informing on others. + +If a group of individuals degenerate to the point of engaging in +human sacrifice, murder, and cannibalism, that would most likely be +the beginning of the end for such a group. The odds are that someone +in the group would have a problem with such acts and be unable to +maintain the secret. + +The appeal of the satanic conspiracy theory is twofold: + +---- (1) First, it is a simple explanation for a complex problem. +Nothing is more simple than "the devil made them do it". If we do +not understand something, we make it the work of some supernatural +force. During the Middle Ages, serial killers were thought to be +vampires and werewolves, and child sexual abuse was the work of +demons taking the form of parents and clergy. Even today, especially +for those raised to religiously believe so, satanism offers an +explanation as to why "good" people do bad things. It may also help +to "explain" unusual, bizarre, and compulsive sexual urges and +behavior. + +---- (2) Second, the conspiracy theory is a popular one. We find it +difficult to believe that one bizarre individual could commit a +crime we find so offensive. Conspiracy theories about soldiers +missing in action (MlAs), abductions by UFOs, Elvis Presley +sightings, and the assassination of prominent public figures are the +focus of much attention in this country. These conspiracy theories +and allegations of ritual abuse have the following in common: (1) +self-proclaimed experts, (2) tabloid media interest, (3) belief the +government is involved in a coverup, and (4) emotionally involved +direct and indirect victim/witnesses. + +On a recent television program commemorating the one hundredth +anniversary of Jack the Ripper, almost fifty percent of the viewing +audience who called the polling telephone numbers indicated that +they thought the murders were committed as part of a conspiracy +involving the British Royal Family. The five experts on the program, +however, unanimously agreed the crimes were the work of one +disorganized but lucky individual who was diagnosed as a paranoid +schizophrenic. In many ways, the murders of Jack the Ripper are +similar to those allegedly committed by satanists today. + +If your child's molestation was perpetrated by a sophisticated +satanic cult, there is nothing you could have done to prevent it and +therefore no reason to feel any guilt. I have been present when +parents who believe their children were ritually abused at day care +centers have told others that the cults had sensors in the road, +lookouts in the air, and informers everywhere; therefore, the +usually recommended advice of unannounced visits to the day care +center would be impossible. + +6. ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS + +Even if only part of an allegation is not true, what then is the +answer to the question "Why are victims alleging things that do not +*seem* to be true?" After consulting with psychiatrists, +psychologists, anthropologists, therapists, social workers, child +sexual abuse experts, and law enforcement investigators for more +than eight years, I can find no single, simple answer. The answer to +the question seems to be a complex set of dynamics that can be +different in each case. In spite of the fact that some skeptics keep +looking for it, there does not appear to be one answer to the +question that fits every case. Each case is different, and each case +may involve a different combination of answers. + +I have identified a series of possible alternative answers to this +question. The alternative answers also do not preclude the +possibility that clever offenders are sometimes involved. I will not +attempt to explain completely these alternative answers because I +cannot. They are presented simply as areas for consideration and +evaluation by child sexual abuse intervenors, for further +elaboration by experts in these fields, and for research by +objective social scientists. The first step, however, in finding the +answers to this question is to admit the possibility that some of +what the victims describe may not have happened. Some child +advocates seem unwilling to do this. + +-- a. PATHOLOGICAL DISTORTION. + +The first possible answer to why victims are alleging things that do +not *seem* to be true is *pathological distortion*. The allegations +may be errors in processing reality influenced by underlying mental +disorders such as dissociative disorders, borderline or histrionic +personality disorders, or psychosis. These distortions may be +manifested in false accounts of victimization in order to gain +psychological benefits such as attention and sympathy (factitious +disorder). When such individuals repeatedly go from place to place +or person to person making these false reports of their own +"victimization", it is called Munchausen Syndrome. When the repealed +false reports concern the "victimization" of their children or +others linked to them, it is called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. I +am amazed when some therapists state that they believe the +allegations because they cannot think of a reason why the "victim", +whose failures are now explained and excused or who is now the +center of attention at a conference or on a national television +program, would lie. If you can be forgiven for mutilating and +killing babies, you can be forgiven for anything. + +Many "victims" may develop pseudomemories of their victimization and +eventually come to believe the events actually occurred. Noted +forensic psychiatrist Park E. Dietz (personal communication, Nov. +1991) states: + +"Pseudomemories have been acquired through dreams (particularly if +one is encouraged to keep a journal or dream diary and to regard +dream content as 'clues' about the past or as snippets of history), +substance-induced altered states of consciousness (alcohol or other +drugs), group influence (particularly hearing vivid accounts of +events occurring to others with whom one identifies emotionally such +as occurs in incest survivor groups), reading vivid accounts of +events occurring to others with whom one identifies emotionally, +watching such accounts in films or on television, and hypnosis. The +most efficient means of inducing pseudomemories is hypnosis. + +"It is characteristic of pseudomemories that the recollections of +complex events (as opposed to a simple unit of information, such as +a tag number) are incomplete and without chronological sequence. +Often the person reports some uncertainty because the pseudomemories +are experienced in a manner they describe as 'hazy', 'fuzzy', or +'vague'. They are often perplexed that they recall some details +vividly but others dimly. + +"Pseudomemories are not delusions. When first telling others of +pseudomemories, these individuals do not have the unshakable but +irrational conviction that deluded subjects have, but with social +support they often come to defend vigorously the truthfulness of the +pseudomemories. + +"Pseudomemories are not fantasies, but may incorporate elements from +fantasies experienced in the past. Even where the events described +are implausible, listeners may believe them because they are +reported with such intense affect (i.e. with so much emotion +attached to the story) that the listener concludes that the events +must have happened because no one could 'fake' the emotional aspects +of the retelling. It also occurs, however, that persons report +pseudomemories in such a matter-of-fact and emotionless manner that +mental health professionals conclude that the person has +'dissociated' intellectual knowledge of the events from emotional +appreciation of their impact." + +-- b. TRAUMATIC MEMORY. + +The second possible answer is *traumatic memory*. Fear and severe +trauma can cause victims to distort reality and confuse events. This +is a well-documented fact in cases involving individuals taken +hostage or in life-and-death situations. The distortions may be part +of an elaborate defense mechanism of the mind called "splitting" - +The victims create a clear-cut good-and-evil manifestation of their +complex victimization that is then psychologically more manageable. + +Through the defense mechanism of dissociation, the victim may escape +the horrors of reality by inaccurately processing that reality. In a +dissociative state a young child who ordinarily would know the +difference might misinterpret a film or video as reality. + +Another defense mechanism may tell the victim that it could have +been worse, and so his or her victimization was not so bad. They are +not alone in their victimization - other children were also abused. +Their father who abused them is no different from other prominent +people in the community they claim also abused them. Satanism may +help to explain why their outwardly good and religious parents did +such terrible things to them in the privacy of their home. Their +religious training may convince them that such unspeakable acts by +supposedly "good" people must be the work of the devil. The +described human sacrifice may be symbolic of the "death" of their +childhood. + +It may be that we should anticipate that individuals severely abused +as very young children by *multiple* offenders with *fear* as the +primary controlling tactic will distort and embellish their +victimization. Perhaps a horror-filled yet inaccurate account of +victimization is not only not a counterindication of abuse, but is +in fact a corroborative indicator of extreme physical, +psychological, and/or sexual abuse. I do not believe it is a +coincidence nor the result of deliberate planning by satanists that +in almost all the cases of ritual abuse that have come to my +attention, the abuse is alleged to have begun prior to the age of +seven and perpetrated by multiple offenders. It may well be that +such abuse, at young age by multiple offenders, is the most +difficult to accurately recall with the specific and precise detail +needed by the criminal justice system, and the most likely to be +distorted and exaggerated when it is recalled. In her book _Too +Scared to Cry_ (1990), child psychiatrist Lenore Terr, a leading +expert on psychic trauma in childhood, states "that a series of +early childhood shocks might not be fully and accurately +'reconstructed' from the dreams and behaviors of the adult" (p. 5). + +-- c. NORMAL CHILDHOOD FEARS AND FANTASY. + +The third possible answer may be *normal childhood fears and +fantasy*. Most young children are afraid of ghosts and monsters. +Even as adults, many people feel uncomfortable, for example, about +dangling their arms over the side of their bed. They still remember +the "monster" under the bed from childhood. While young children may +rarely invent stories about sexual activity, they might describe +their victimization in terms of evil as they understand it. In +church or at home, children may be told of satanic activity as the +source of evil. The children may be "dumping" all their fears and +worries unto an attentive and encouraging listener. + +Children do fantasize. Perhaps whatever causes a child to allege +something impossible (such as being cut up and put back together) is +similar to what causes a child to allege something possible but +improbable (such as witnessing another child being chopped up and +eaten). + +-- d. MISPERCEPTION, CONFUSION, AND TRICKERY. + +Misperception, confusion, and trickery may be a fourth answer. +Expecting young children to give accurate accounts of sexual +activity for which they have little frame of reference is +unreasonable. The Broadway play _Madame Butterfly_ is the true story +of a man who had a 15-year affair, including the "birth" of a baby, +with a "woman" who turns out to have been a man all along. If a +grown man does not know when he has had vaginal intercourse with a +woman, how can we expect young children not to be confused? + +Furthermore some clever offenders may deliberately introduce +elements of satanism and the occult into the sexual exploitation +simply to confuse or intimidate the victims. Simple magic and other +techniques may be used to trick the children. Drugs may also be +deliberately used to confuse the victims and distort their +perceptions. Such acts would then be M.O., not ritual. + +As previously stated, the perceptions of young victims may also be +influenced by any trauma being experienced. This is the most popular +alternative explanation, and even the more zealous believers of +ritual abuse allegations use it, but only to explain obviously +impossible events. + +-- e. OVERZEALOUS INTERVENORS. + +*Overzealous intervenors*, causing intervenor contagion, may be a +fifth answer. These intervenors can include parents, family members, +foster parents, doctors, therapists, social workers, law enforcement +officers, prosecutors, and any combination thereof. Victims have +been subtly as well as overtly rewarded and bribed by usually well- +meaning intervenors for furnishing further details. In addition, +some of what appears not to have happened may have originated as a +result of intervenors making assumptions about or misinterpreting +what the victims are saying. The intervenors then repeat, and +possibly embellish, these assumptions and misinterpretations, and +eventually the victims are "forced" to agree with or come to accept +this "official" version of what happened. + +The judgment of intervenors may be affected by their zeal to uncover +child sexual abuse, satanic activity, or conspiracies. However +"well-intentioned", these overzealous intervenors must accept +varying degrees of responsibility for the unsuccessful prosecution +of those cases where criminal abuse did occur. This is the most +controversial and least popular of the alternative explanations. + +-- f. URBAN LEGENDS. + +Allegations of and knowledge about ritualistic or satanic abuse may +also be spread through *urban legends*. In _The Vanishing +Hitchhiker_ (1981), the first of his four books on the topic, Dr. +Jan Harold Brunvand defines urban legends as "realistic stories +concerning recent events (or alleged events) with an ironic or +supernatural twist" (p. xi). Dr. Brunvand's books convincingly +explain that just because individuals throughout the country who +never met each other tell the same story does not mean that it is +true. Absurd urban legends about the corporate logos of Proctor and +Gamble and Liz Claiborne being satanic symbols persist in spite of +all efforts to refute them with reality. Some urban legends about +child kidnappings and other threats to citizens have even been +disseminated unknowingly by law enforcement agencies. Such legends +have always existed, but today the mass media aggressively +participate in their rapid and more efficient dissemination. Many +Americans mistakenly believe that tabloid television shows check out +and verify the details of their stories before pulling them on the +air. Mass hysteria may partially account for large numbers of +victims describing the same symptoms or experiences. + +Training conferences for all the disciplines involved in child +sexual abuse may also play a role in the spread of this contagion. +At one child abuse conference I attended, an exhibitor was selling +more than 50 different books dealing with satanism and the occult. +By the end of the conference, he had sold nearly all of them. At +another national child sexual abuse conference, I witnessed more +than 100 attendees copying down the widely disseminated 29 "Symptoms +Characterizing Satanic Ritual Abuse" in preschool-aged children. Is +a four-year-old child's "preoccupation with urine and feces" an +indication of satanic ritual abuse or part of normal development? + +-- g. COMBINATION. + +Most multidimensional child sex ring cases probably involve a +*combination* of the answers previously set forth, as well as other +possible explanations unknown to me at this time. Obviously, cases +with adult survivors are more likely to involve some of these +answers than those with young children. Each case of sexual +victimization must be individually evaluated on its own merits +without any preconceived explanations. All the possibilities must be +explored if for no other reason than the fact that the defense +attorneys for any accused subjects will almost certainly do so. + +Most people would agree that just because a victim tells you one +detail that turns out to be true, this does not mean that every +detail is true. But many people seem to believe that if you can +disprove one part of a victim's story, then the entire story is +false. As previously stated, one of my main concerns in these cases +is that people are getting away with sexually abusing children or +committing other crimes because we cannot prove that they are +members of organized cults that murder and eat people. + +I have discovered that the subject of multidimensional child sex +rings is a very emotional and polarizing issue. Everyone seems to +demand that one choose a side. On one side of the issue are those +who say that nothing really happened and it is all a big witch hunt +led by overzealous fanatics and incompetent "experts". The other +side says, in essence, that everything happened; victims never lie +about child sexual abuse, and so it must be true. + +There is a middle ground. It is the job of the professional +investigator to listen to all the victims and conduct appropriate +investigation in an effort to find out what happened, considering +all possibilities. Not all childhood trauma is abuse. Not all child +abuse is a crime. The great frustration of these cases is the fact +that you are often convinced that something traumatic happened to +the victim, but do not know with any degree of certainty exactly +what happened, when it happened, or who did it. + +7. DO VICTIMS LIE ABOUT SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION? + +The crucial central issue in the evaluation of a response to cases +of multidimensional child sex rings is the statement "Children never +lie about sexual abuse or exploitation. If they have details, it +must have happened." This statement, oversimplified by many, is the +basic premise upon which some believe the child sexual abuse and +exploitation movement is based. It is almost never questioned or +debated at training conferences. In fact, during the 1970s, there +was a successful crusade to eliminate laws requiring corroboration +of child victim statements in child sexual abuse cases. The best way +to convict child molesters is to have the child victims testify in +court. If we believe them, the jury will believe them. Any challenge +to this basic premise was viewed as a threat to the movement and a +denial that the problem existed. + +I believe that children *rarely* lie about sexual abuse or +exploitation, if a lie is defined as a statement deliberately and +maliciously intended to deceive. The problem is the +oversimplification of the statement. Just because a child is not +lying does not necessarily mean the child is telling the truth. I +believe that in the majority of these cases, the victims are not +lying. They are telling you what they have come to believe has +happened to them. Furthermore the assumption that children rarely +lie about sexual abuse does not necessarily apply to everything a +child says during a sexual abuse investigation. Stories of +mutilation, murder, and cannibalism are not really about sexual +abuse. + +Children rarely lie about sexual abuse or exploitation. but they do +fantasize, furnish false information, furnish misleading +information, misperceive events, try to please adults, respond to +leading questions, and respond to rewards. Children are not adults +in little bodies and do go through developmental stages that must be +evaluated and understood. In many ways, however, children are no +better and no worse than other victims or witnesses of a crime. They +should not be automatically believed, nor should they be +automatically disbelieved. + +The second part of the statement - if children can supply details, +the crime must have happened - must also be carefully evaluated. The +details in question in most of the cases of multidimensional child +sex rings have little to do with sexual activity. Law enforcement +and social workers must do more than attempt to determine how a +child could have known about the sex acts. These cases involve +determining how a victim could have known about a wide variety of +bizarre and ritualistic activity. Young children may know little +about specific sex acts, but they may know a lot about monsters, +torture, kidnapping, and murder. + +Victims may supply details of sexual and other acts using +information from sources other than their own direct victimization. +Such sources must be evaluated carefully by the investigator of +multidimensional child sex rings. + +-- a. PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE. + +The victim may have personal knowledge of the sexual or ritual acts, +but not as a result of the alleged victimization. The knowledge +could have come from viewing pornography, sex education, or occult +material; witnessing sexual or ritual activity in the home; or +witnessing the sexual abuse of others. It could also have come from +having been sexually or physically abused, but by other than the +alleged offenders and in ways other than the alleged offense. + +-- b. OTHER CHILDREN OR VICTIMS. + +Young children today are socially interacting more often and at a +younger age than ever before. Many parents are unable to provide +possibly simple explanations for their children's stories because +they were not with the children when the events occurred. They do +not even know what videotapes their children may have seen, what +games they may have played, or what stories they may have been told +or overheard. Children are being placed in day care centers for +eight, ten, or twelve hours a day starting as young as six weeks of +age. The children share experiences by playing house, school, or +doctor. Bodily functions such as urination and defecation are a +focus of attention for these young children. To a certain extent, +each child shares the experiences of all the other children. + +The odds are fairly high that in any typical day care center there +might be some children who are victims of incest; victims of +physical abuse; victims of psychological abuse; children of cult +members (even satanists); children of sexually open parents; +children of sexually indiscriminate parents; children of parents +obsessed with victimization; children of parents obsessed with the +evils of satanism; children without conscience; children with a +teenage brother or pregnant mother; children with heavy metal music +and literature in the home; children with bizarre toys, games, +comics, and magazines; children with a VCR and slasher films in +their home; children with access to dial-a-porn, party lines, or +pornography; or children victimized by a day care center staff +member. The possible effects of the interaction of such children +prior to the disclosure of the alleged abuse must be evaluated, +Adult survivors may obtain details from group therapy sessions, +support networks, church groups, or self-help groups. The +willingness and ability of siblings to corroborate adult survivor +accounts of ritual abuse varies. Some will support and partially +corroborate the victim's allegations. Others will vehemently deny +them and support their accused parents or relatives. + +-- c. MEDIA. + +The amount of sexually explicit, occult, anti-occult, or violence- +oriented material available to adults and even children in the +modern world is overwhelming. This includes movies, videotapes, +television, music, toys, and books. There are also documentaries on +satanism, witchcraft, and the occult that are available on +videotape. Most of the televangelists have videotapes on the topics +that they are selling on their programs. + +The National Coalition on Television Violence News (1988) estimates +that 12% of the movies produced in the United States can be +classified as satanic horror films. Cable television and the home +VCR make all this material readily available even to young children. +Religious broadcasters and almost all the television tabloid and +magazine programs have done shows on satanism and the occult. Heavy +metal and black metal music, which often has a satanic theme, is +readily available and popular. In addition to the much-debated +fantasy role-playing games, there are numerous popular toys on the +market with an occult-oriented, bizarre, or violent theme. + +Books on satanism and the occult, both fiction and nonfiction, are +readily available in most bookstores, especially Christian +bookstores. Several recent books specifically discuss the issue of +ritual abuse of children. Obviously, very young children do not read +this material, but their parents, relatives, and therapists might +and then discuss it in front of or with them. Much of the material +intended to fight the problem actually fuels the problem and damages +effective prosecution. + +-- d. SUGGESTIONS AND LEADING QUESTIONS. + +This problem is particularly important in cases stemming from +custody/visitation disputes involving at least one child under the +age of seven. It is my opinion that most suggestive, leading +questioning of children by intervenors is inadvertently done as part +of a good-faith effort to learn the truth. Not all intervenors are +in equal positions to potentially influence victim allegations. +Parents and relatives especially are in a position to subtly +influence their young children to describe their victimization in a +certain way. Children may also overhear their parents discussing the +details of the case. Children often tell their parents what they +believe their parents want or need to hear. Some children may be +instinctively attempting to provide "therapy" for their parents by +telling them what seems to satisfy them and somehow makes them feel +better. In one case a father gave the police a tape recording to +"prove" that his child's statements were spontaneous disclosures and +not the result of leading, suggestive questions. The tape recording +indicated just the opposite. Why then did the father voluntarily +give it to the police? Probably because he truly believed that he +was not influencing his child's statements - but he was. + +Therapists are probably in the best position to influence the +allegations of adult survivors. The accuracy and reliability of the +accounts of adult survivors who have been hypnotized during therapy +is certainly open to question. One nationally-known therapist +personally told me that the reason police cannot find out about +satanic or ritualistic activity from child victims is that they do +not know how to ask leading questions. Highly suggestive books and +pictures portraying "satanic" activity have been developed and +marketed to therapists for use during evaluation and treatment. +Types and styles of verbal interaction useful in therapy may create +significant problems in a criminal investigation. It should be +noted, however, that when a therapist does a poor investigative +interview as part of a criminal investigation, that is the fault of +the criminal justice system that allowed it and not the therapist +who did it. + +The extremely sensitive, emotional, and religious nature of these +cases makes problems with leading questions more likely than in +other kinds of cases. Intervenors motivated by religious fervor +and/or exaggerated concerns about sexual abuse of children are more +likely to lose their objectivity. + +-- e. MISPERCEPTION AND CONFUSION. + +In one case, a child's description of the apparently impossible act +of walking through a wall turned out to be the very possible act of +walking between the studs of an unfinished wall in a room under +construction. In another case, pennies in the anus turned out to be +copper-foil-covered suppositories. The children may describe what +they believe happened. It is not a lie, but neither is it an +accurate account of what happened. + +-- f. EDUCATION AND AWARENESS PROGRAMS. + +Some well-intentioned awareness programs designed to prevent child +set abuse, alert professionals, or fight satanism may in fact be +unrealistically increasing the fears of professionals, children, and +parents and creating self-fulfilling prophesies. Some of what +children and their parents are telling intervenors may have been +learned in or fueled by such programs. Religious programs, books, +and pamphlets that emphasize the power and evil force of Satan may +be adding to the problem. In fact most of the day care centers in +which ritualistic abuse is alleged to hate taken place are church- +affiliated centers, and many of the adult survivors alleging it come +from apparently religious families. + +8. LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSPECTIVE. + +The perspective with which one looks at satanic, occult, or +ritualistic crime is extremely important. As stated, sociologists, +therapists, religious leaders, parents, and just plain citizens each +have their own valid concerns and views about this issue. This +discussion, however, deals primarily with the law enforcement or +criminal justice perspective. + +When you combine an emotional issue such as the sexual abuse of +children with an even more emotional issue such as people's +religious beliefs, it is difficult to maintain objectivity and +remember the law enforcement perspective. Some police officers may +even feel that all crime is caused by evil, all evil is caused by +Satan, and therefore, all crime is satanic crime. This may be a +valid religious perspective, but it is of no relevance to the +investigation of crime for purposes of prosecution. + +Many of the police officers who lecture on satanic or occult crime +do not even investigate such cases. Their presentations are more a +reflection of their personal religious beliefs than documented +investigative information. They are absolutely entitled to their +beliefs, but introducing themselves as current or former police +officers and then speaking as religious advocates causes confusion. +As difficult as it might be, police officers must separate the +religious and law enforcement perspectives when they are lecturing +or investigating in their official capacities as law enforcement +officers. Many law enforcement officers begin their presentations by +stating that they are not addressing or judging anyone's religious +beliefs, and then proceed to do exactly that. + +Some police officers have resigned rather than curtail or limit +their involvement in this issue as ordered by their departments. +Perhaps such officers deserve credit for recognizing that they could +no longer keep the perspectives separate. + +Law enforcement officers and all professionals in this field should +avoid the "paranoia" that has crept into this issue and into some of +the training conferences. Paranoid type belief systems are +characterized by the gradual development of intricate, complex, and +elaborate systems of thinking based on and often proceeding +logically from misinterpretation of actual events. Paranoia +typically involves hypervigilance over the perceived threat, the +belief that danger is around every corner, and the willingness to +take up the challenge and do something about it. Another very +important aspect of this paranoia is the belief that those who do +not recognize the threat are evil and corrupt. In this extreme view, +you are either with them or against them. You are either part of the +solution or part of the problem. + +Overzealousness and exaggeration motivated by the true religious +fervor of those involved is more acceptable than that motivated by +ego or profit. There are those who are deliberately distorting and +hyping this issue for personal notoriety and profit. Satanic and +occult crime and ritual abuse of children has become a growth +industry. Speaking fees, books, video and audio tapes, prevention +material, television and radio appearances all bring egoistic and +financial rewards. + +Bizarre crime and evil can occur without organized satanic activity. +The professional perspective requires that we distinguish between +what we know and what we're not sure of. + +The facts are: + +-- a. Some individuals believe in and are involved in something +commonly called satanism and the occult. + +-- b. Some of these individuals commit crime. + +-- c. Some groups of individuals share these beliefs and involvement +in this satanism and the occult. + +-- d. Some members of these groups commit crime together. + +The unanswered questions are: + +-- a. What is the connection between the belief system and the +crimes committed? + +-- b. Is there an organized conspiracy of satanic and occult +believers responsible for interrelated serious crime (e.g., +molestation, murder)? + +After all the hype and hysteria are put aside, the realization sets +in that most satanic/occult activity involves the commission of *no* +crimes, and that which does usually involves the commission of +relatively minor crimes such as trespassing, vandalism, cruelty to +animals, or petty thievery. + +The law enforcement problems most often linked to satanic or occult +activity are: + +-- a. Vandalism. + +-- b. Desecration of churches and cemeteries. + +-- c. Thefts from churches and cemeteries. + +-- d. Teenage gangs + +-- e. Animal mutilations. + +-- f. Teenage suicide. + +-- g. Child abuse. + +-- h. Kidnapping. + +-- i. Murder and human sacrifice + +Valid evidence shows some "connection" between satanism and the +occult and the first six problems (#a-f) set forth above. The +"connection" to the last three problems (#g-i) is far more +uncertain. + +Even where there seems to be a "connection", the nature of the +connection needs to be explored. It is easy to blame involvement in +satanism and the occult for behaviors that have complex motivations. +A teenager's excessive involvement in satanism and the occult is +usually a symptom of a problem and not the cause of a problem. +Blaming satanism for a teenager's vandalism, theft, suicide, or even +act of murder is like blaming a criminal's offenses on his tattoos: +Both are often signs of the same rebelliousness and lack of self- +esteem that contribute to the commission of crimes. + +The rock band Judas Priest was recently sued for allegedly inciting +two teenagers to suicide through subliminal messages in their +recordings. In 1991 Anthony Pratkanis of the University of +California at Santa Cruz, who served as an expert witness for the +defense, stated the boys in question "lived troubled lives, lives of +drug and alcohol abuse, run-ins with the law ... family violence, +and chronic unemployment. What issues did the trial and the +subsequent mass media coverage emphasize? Certainly not the need for +drug treatment centers; there was no evaluation of the pros and cons +of America's juvenile justice system, no investigation of the +schools, no inquiry into how to prevent family violence, no +discussion of the effects of unemployment on a family. Instead our +attention was mesmerized by an attempt to count the number of +subliminal demons that can dance on the end of a record needle" (p. +1). + +The law enforcement investigator must objectively evaluate the legal +significance of any criminal's spiritual beliefs. In most cases, +including those involving satanists, it will have little or no legal +significance. If a crime is committed as part of a spiritual belief +system, it should make no difference which belief system it is. The +crime is the same whether a child is abused or murdered as part of a +Christian, Hare Krishna, Moslem, or any other belief system. We +generally don't label crimes with the name of the perpetrator's +religion. Why then are the crimes of child molesters, rapists, +sadists, and murderers who happen to be involved in satanism and the +occult labeled as satanic or occult crimes? If criminals use a +spiritual belief system to rationalize and justify or to facilitate +and enhance their criminal activity, should the focus of law +enforcement be on the belief system or on the criminal activity? + +Several documented murders have been committed by individuals +involved in one way or another in satanism or the occult. In some of +these murders the perpetrator has even introduced elements of the +occult (e.g. satanic symbols at crime scene). Does that +automatically make these satanic murders? It is my opinion that the +answer is no. Ritualistic murders committed by serial killers or +sexual sadists are not necessarily satanic or occult murders. +Ritualistic murders committed by psychotic killers who hear the +voice of Satan are no more satanic murders than murders committed by +psychotic killers who hear the voice of Jesus are Christian murders. + +Rather a satanic murder should be defined as one committed by two or +more individuals who rationally plan the crime and whose *primary* +motivation is to fulfill a prescribed satanic ritual calling for the +murder. By this definition I have been unable to identify even one +documented satanic murder in the United States. Although such +murders may have and can occur, they appear to be few in number. In +addition the commission of such killings would probably be the +beginning of the end for such a group. It is highly unlikely that +they could continue to kill several people, every year, year after +year, and not be discovered. + +A brief typology of satanic and occult practitioners is helpful in +evaluating what relationship, if any, such practices have to crimes +under investigation. The following typology is adapted from the +investigative experience of Officer Sandi Gallant of the San +Francisco Police Department, who began to study the criminal aspects +of occult activity long before it became popular. No typology is +perfect, but I use this typology because it is simple and offers +investigative insights. Most practitioners fall into one of three +categories, any of which can be practiced alone or in groups: + +-- a. "YOUTH SUBCULTURE. + +"Most teenagers involved in fantasy role-playing games, heavy metal +music, or satanism and the occult are going through a stage of +adolescent development and commit no significant crimes. The +teenagers who have more serious problems are usually those from +dysfunctional families or those who have poor communication within +their families. These troubled teenagers turn to satanism and the +occult to overcome a sense of alienation, to rebel, to obtain power, +or to justify their antisocial behavior. For these teenagers it is +the symbolism, not the spirituality, that is more important. It is +either the psychopathic or the oddball, loner teenager who is most +likely to get into serious trouble. Extreme involvement in the +occult is a symptom of a problem, not the cause. This is not to +deny, however, that satanism and the occult can be negative +influences for a troubled teenager. But to hysterically warn +teenagers to avoid this "mysterious, powerful and dangerous" thing +called satanism will drive more teenagers right to it. Some +rebellious teenagers will do whatever will most shock and outrage +society in order to flaunt their rejection of adult norms. + +-- b. "DABBLERS (SELF-STYLED). + +"For these practitioners there is little or no spiritual motivation. +They may mix satanism, witchcraft, paganism, and any aspects of the +occult to suit their purposes. Symbols mean whatever they want them +or believe them to mean. Molesters, rapists, drug dealers, and +murderers may dabble in the occult and may even commit their crimes +in a ceremonial or ritualistic way. This category has the potential +to be the most dangerous, and most of the "satanic" killers fall +into this category. Their involvement in satanism and the occult is +a symptom of a problem, and a rationalization and justification of +antisocial behavior. Satanic/occult practices (as well as those of +other spiritual belief systems) can also be used as a mechanism to +facilitate criminal objectives. + +-- c. "TRADITIONAL (ORTHODOX). + +"These are the so-called true believers. They are often wary of +outsiders. Because of this and constitutional issues, such groups +are difficult for law enforcement to penetrate. Although there may +be much we don't know about these groups, as of now there is little +or no hard evidence that as a group they are involved in serious, +organized criminal activity. In addition, instead of being self- +perpetuating master crime conspirators, "true believers" probably +have a similar problem with their teenagers rebelling against their +belief system. To some extent even these Traditional satanists are +self-stylized. They practice what they have come to believe is +"satanism". There is little or no evidence of the much-discussed +multigenerational satanists whose beliefs and practices have +supposedly been passed down through the centuries. Many admitted +adult satanists were in fact raised in conservative Christian +homes." + +_Washington Post_ editor Walt Harrington reported in a 1986 story on +Anton LaVey and his Church of Satan that "sociologists who have +studied LaVey's church say that its members often had serious +childhood problems like alcoholic parents or broken homes, or that +they were traumatized by guilt-ridden fundamentalist upbringings, +turning to Satanism as a dramatic way to purge their debilitating +guilt" (p. 14). + +Some have claimed that the accounts of ritual abuse victims coincide +with historical records of what traditional or multigenerational +satanists are known to have practiced down through the ages. Jeffrey +Burton Russell, Professor of History at the University of California +at Santa Barbara and the author of numerous scholarly books on the +devil and satanism, believes that the universal consensus of modern +historians on satanism is (personal communication, Nov. 1991): + +"(1) incidents of orgy, infanticide, cannibalism, and other such +conduct have occurred from the ancient world down to the present; +(2) such incidents were isolated and limited to local antisocial +groups; (3) during the period of Christian dominance in European +culture, such groups were associated with the Devil in the minds of +the authorities; (4) in some cases the sectaries believed that they +were worshiping Satan; (5) no organized cult of Satanists existed in +the Christian period beyond localities, and on no account was there +ever any widespread Satanist organization or conspiracy; (6) no +reliable historical sources indicate that such organizations +existed; (7) the black mass appears only once in the sources before +the late nineteenth century." + +Many police officers ask what to look for during the search of the +scene of suspected satanic activity. The answer is simple: Look for +evidence of a crime. A pentagram is no more criminally significant +than a crucifix unless it corroborates a crime or a criminal +conspiracy. If a victim's description of the location or the +instruments of the crime includes a pentagram, then the pentagram +would be evidence. But the same would be true if the description +included a crucifix. In many cases of alleged satanic ritual abuse, +investigation can find evidence that the claimed offenders are +members only of mainstream churches and are often described as very +religious. + +There is no way any one law enforcement officer can become +knowledgeable about all the symbols and rituals of every spiritual +belief system that might become part of a criminal investigation. +The officer needs only to be trained to recognize the possible +investigative significance of such signs, symbols, and rituals. +Knowledgeable religious scholars, academics, and other true experts +in the community can be consulted if a more detailed analysis is +necessary. + +Any analysis, however, may have only limited application, especially +to cases involving teenagers, dabblers, and other self-styled +practitioners. The fact is signs, symbols, and rituals can mean +anything that practitioners want them to mean and/or anything that +observers interpret them to mean. + +The meaning of symbols can also change over time, place, and +circumstance. Is a swastika spray-painted on a wall an ancient +symbol of prosperity and good fortune, a recent symbol of Nazism and +anti-Semitism, or a current symbol of hate, paranoia, and adolescent +defiance? The peace sign which in the 1960s was a familiar antiwar +symbol is now supposed to be a satanic symbol. Some symbols and +holidays become "satanic" only because the antisatanists say they +are. Then those who want to be "satanists" adopt them, and now you +have "proof" they are satanic. + +In spite of what is sometimes said or suggested at law enforcement +training conferences, police have no authority to seize any satanic +or occult paraphernalia they might see during a search. A legally- +valid reason must exist for doing so. It is not the job of law +enforcement to prevent satanists from engaging in noncriminal +teaching, rituals, or other activities. + +9. INVESTIGATING MULTIDIMENSIONAL CHILD SEX RINGS. + +Multidimensional child sex rings can be among the most difficult, +frustrating, and complex cases that any law enforcement officer will +ever investigate. The investigation of allegations of recent +activity from multiple young children under the age of seven +presents one set of problems and must begin quickly, with interviews +of *all* potential victims being completed as soon as possible. The +investigation of allegations of activity ten or more years earlier +from adult survivors presents other problems and should proceed, +unless victims are at immediate risk, more deliberately, with +gradually-increasing resources as corroborated facts warrant. + +In spite of any skepticism, allegations of ritual abuse should be +aggressively and thoroughly investigated, This investigation should +attempt to corroborate the allegations of ritual abuse. but should +*simultaneously* also attempt to identify alternative explanations. +The only debate is over how much investigation is enough. Any law +enforcement agency must be prepared to defend and justify its +actions when scrutinized by the public, the media, elected +officials, or the courts. This does not mean, however, that a law +enforcement agency has an obligation to prove that the alleged +crimes did not occur. This is almost always impossible to do and +investigators should be alert for and avoid this trap. + +One major problem in the investigation of multidimensional child sex +rings is the dilemma of recognizing soon enough that you have one. +Investigators must be alert for cases with the potential for the +four basic dynamics: (a) multiple young victims, (b) multiple +offenders, (c) fear as the controlling tactic, and (d) bizarre or +ritualistic activity. The following techniques apply primarily to +the investigation of such multidimensional child sex rings: + + +-- a. MINIMIZE SATANIC/OCCULT ASPECT. + +There are those who claim that one of the major reasons more of +these cases have not been successfully prosecuted is that the +satanic/occult aspect has not been aggressively pursued. One state +has even introduced legislation creating added penalties when +certain crimes are committed as part of a ritual or ceremony. A few +states have passed special ritual crime laws. I strongly disagree +with such an approach. It makes no difference what spiritual belief +system was used to enhance and facilitate or rationalize and justify +criminal behavior. It serves no purpose to "prove" someone is a +satanist. As a matter of fact, if it is alleged that the subject +committed certain criminal acts under the influence of or in order +to conjure up supernatural spirits or forces, this may very well be +the basis for an insanity or diminished capacity defense, or may +damage the intent aspect of a sexually motivated crime. The defense +may very well be more interested in all the "evidence of satanic +activity". Some of the satanic crime "experts" who train law +enforcement wind up working or testifying for the defense in these +cases. + +It is best to focus on the crime and all the evidence to corroborate +its commission. Information about local satanic or occult activity +is only of value if it is based on specific law enforcement +intelligence and not on some vague, unsubstantiated generalities +from religious groups. Cases are not solved by decoding signs, +symbols, and dates using undocumented satanic crime "manuals". In +one case a law enforcement agency executing a search warrant seized +only the satanic paraphernalia and left behind the other evidence +that would have corroborated victim statements. Cases are solved by +people- and behavior-oriented investigation. Evidence of satanic or +occult activity may help explain certain aspects of the case, but +even offenders who commit crimes in a spiritual context are usually +motivated by power, sex, and money. + +-- b. KEEP INVESTIGATION AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS SEPARATE. + +I believe that one of the biggest mistakes any investigator of these +cases can make is to attribute supernatural powers to the offenders. +During an investigation a good investigator may sometimes be able to +use the beliefs and superstitions of the offenders to his or her +advantage. The reverse happens if the investigator believes that the +offenders possess supernatural powers. Satanic/occult practitioners +have no more power than any other human beings. Law enforcement +officers who believe that the investigation of these cases puts them +in conflict with the supernatural forces of evil should probably not +be assigned to them. The religious beliefs of officers should +provide spiritual strength and support for them but should not +affect the objectivity and professionalism of the investigation. + +It is easy to get caught up in these cases and begin to see +"satanism" everywhere. Oversensitization to this perceived threat +may cause an investigator to "see" satanism in a crime when it +really is not there (quasi-satanism). Often the eye sees what the +mind perceives. It may also cause an investigator not to recognize a +staged crime scene deliberately seeded with "satanic clues" in order +to mislead the police (pseudo-satanism). On rare occasions an +overzealous investigator or intervenor may even be tempted to plant +"evidence of satanism" in order to corroborate such allegations and +beliefs. Supervisors need to be alert for and monitor these +reactions in their investigators. + +-- c. LISTEN TO THE VICTIMS. + +It is not the investigator's duty to believe the victims; it is his +or her job to listen and be an objective fact finder. Interviews of +young children should be done by investigators trained and +experienced in such interviews. Investigators must have direct +access to the alleged victims for interview purposes. Therapists for +an adult survivor sometimes want to act as intermediaries in their +patient's interview. This should be avoided if at all possible. +Adult survivor interviews are often confusing difficult and +extremely time-consuming. The investigator must remember however +that almost anything is possible. Most important the investigator +must remember that there is much middle ground. Just because one +event did happen does not mean that all reported events happened, +and just because one event did not happen does not mean that all +other events did not happen. Do not become such a zealot that you +believe it all nor such a cynic that you believe nothing. Varying +amounts and parts of the allegation may be factual. Attempting to +find evidence of what did happen is the great challenge of these +cases. *All* investigative interaction with victims must be +carefully and thoroughly documented. + +-- d. ASSESS AND EVALUATE VICTIM STATEMENTS. + +This is the part of the investigative process in child sexual +victimization cases that seems to have been lost. Is the victim +describing events and activities that are consistent with law +enforcement documented criminal behavior, or that are consistent +with distorted media accounts and erroneous public perceptions of +criminal behavior? Investigators should apply the "template of +probability". Accounts of child sexual victimization that are more +like books, television, and movies (e.g. big conspiracies, child sex +slaves, organized pornography rings) and less like documented cases +should be viewed with skepticism but thoroughly investigated. +Consider and investigate all possible explanations of events. It is +the investigator's job, and the information learned will be +invaluable in counteracting the defense attorneys when they raise +the alternative explanations. + +For example, an adult survivor's account of ritual victimization +might be explained by any one of at least four possibilities: First, +the allegations may be a fairly accurate account what actually +happened. Second, they may be deliberate lies (malingering), told +for the usual reasons people lie (e.g. money, revenge, jealousy). +Third, they may be deliberate lies (factitious disorder) told for +atypical reasons (e.g. attention, forgiveness). Lies so motivated +are less likely to be recognized by the investigator and more likely +to be rigidly maintained by the liar unless and until confronted +with irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Fourth, the allegations +may be a highly inaccurate account of what actually happened, but +the victim truly believes it (pseudomemory) and therefore is not +lying. A polygraph examination of such a victim would be of limited +value. Other explanations or combinations of these explanations are +also possible. *Only* thorough *investigation* will point to the +correct or most likely explanation. + +Investigators cannot rely on therapists or satanic crime experts as +a shortcut to the explanation. In one case, the "experts" confirmed +and validated the account of a female who claimed to be a 15-year- +old deaf-mute kidnapped and held for three years by a satanic cult +and forced to participate in bizarre rituals before recently +escaping. Active investigation, however, determined she was a 27- +year-old woman who could hear and speak, who had not been kidnapped +by anyone, and who had a lengthy history of mental problems and at +least three other similar reports of false victimization. Her +"accurate" accounts of what the "real satanists" do were simply the +result of having read, while in mental hospitals, the same books +that the "experts" had. A therapist may have important insights +about whether an individual was traumatized, but knowing the exact +cause of that trauma is another matter. There have been cases where +investigation has discovered that individuals diagnosed by +therapists as suffering from Post-Vietnam Syndrome were never in +Vietnam or saw no combat. + +Conversely, in another case, a law enforcement "expert" on satanic +crime told a therapist that a patient's accounts of satanic murders +in a rural Pacific Northwest town were probably true because the +community was a hotbed of such satanic activity. When the therapist +explained that there was almost no violent crime reported in the +community, the officer explained that that is how you know it is the +satanists. If you knew about the murders or found the bodies, it +would not be satanists. How do you argue with that kind of logic? + +The first step in the assessment and evaluation of victim statements +is to determine the disclosure sequence, including how much time has +elapsed since disclosure was first made and the incident was +reported to the police or social services. The longer the delay, the +bigger the potential for problems. The next step is to determine the +number and purpose of *all prior* interviews of the victim +concerning the allegations. The more interviews conducted before the +investigative interview, the larger the potential for problems. +Although there is nothing wrong with admitting shortcomings and +seeking help, law enforcement should never abdicate its control over +the investigative interview. When an investigative interview is +conducted by or with a social worker or therapist using a team +approach, law enforcement must direct the process. Problems can also +be created by interviews conducted by various intervenors *after* +the investigative interview(s). + +The investigator must closely and carefully evaluate events in the +victim's life before, during, and after the alleged abuse. + +Events to be evaluated *before* the alleged abuse include: + +---- (1) Background of victim. +---- (2) Abuse of drugs in home. +---- (3) Pornography in home. +---- (4) Play, television, and VCR habits. +---- (5) Attitudes about sexuality in home. +---- (6) Extent of sex education in home. +---- (7) Activities of siblings. +---- (8) Need or craving for attention. +---- (9) Religious beliefs and training. +---- (10) Childhood fears. +---- (11) Custody/visitation disputes. +---- (12) Victimization of or by family members. +---- (13) Interaction between victims. + +Events to be evaluated *during* the alleged abuse include: + +---- (1) Use of fear or scare tactics. +---- (2) Degree of trauma. +---- (3) Use of magic deception or trickery. +---- (4) Use of rituals. +---- (5) Use of drugs. +---- (6) Use of pornography. + +Events to be evaluated *after* the alleged abuse include: + +---- (1) Disclosure sequence. +---- (2) Background of prior interviewers. +---- (3) Background of parents. +---- (4) Co-mingling of victims. +---- (5) Type of therapy received. + +-- e. EVALUATE CONTAGION. + +Consistent statements obtained from different multiple victims are +powerful pieces of corroborative evidence - that is as long as those +statements were not "contaminated". Investigation must carefully +evaluate both pre- and post-disclosure contagion, and both victim +and intervenor contagion. Are the different victim statements +consistent because they describe common experiences or events, or +because they reflect contamination or urban legends? + +The sources of potential contagion are widespread. Victims can +communicate with each other both prior to and after their +disclosures. Intervenors can communicate with each other and with +victims. The team or cell concepts of investigation are attempts to +deal with potential investigator contagion. All the victims are not +interviewed by the same individuals, and interviewers do not +necessarily share information directly with each other. Teams report +to a leader or supervisor who evaluates the information and decides +what other investigators need to know. + +Documenting existing contagion and eliminating additional contagion +are crucial to the successful investigation and prosecution of these +cases. There is no way, however, to erase or undo contagion. The +best you can hope for is to identify and evaluate it and attempt to +explain it. Mental health professionals requested to evaluate +suspected victims must be carefully selected. Having a victim +evaluated by one of the self-proclaimed experts on satanic ritual +abuse or by some other overzealous intervenor may result in the +credibility of that victim's testimony being severely damaged. + +In order to evaluate the contagion element, investigators must +meticulously and aggressively investigate these cases. The precise +disclosure sequence of the victim must be carefully identified and +documented. Investigators must verify through active investigation +the exact nature and content of each disclosure outcry or statement +made by the victim. Second-hand information about disclosure is not +good enough. + +Whenever possible, personal visits should be made to all locations +of alleged abuse and the victim's homes. Events prior to the alleged +abuse must be carefully evaluated. Investigators may have to view +television programs, films, and videotapes seen by the victims. It +may be necessary to conduct a background investigation and +evaluation of everyone, both professional and nonprofessional, who +interviewed the victims about the allegations prior to and after the +investigative interview(s). Investigators must be familiar with the +information about ritual abuse of children being disseminated in +magazines, books, television programs, videotapes, and conferences. +Every possible way that a victim could have learned about the +details of the abuse must be explored if for no other reason than to +eliminate them and counter the defense's arguments. + +There may, however, be validity to these contagion factors. *They +may explain some of the "unbelievable" aspects of the case and +result in the successful prosecution of the substance of the case.* +Consistency of statements becomes more significant if contagion is +identified or disproved by independent investigation. The easier +cases are the ones where there is a single, identifiable source of +contagion. Most cases, however, seem to involve multiple contagion +factors. + +Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy are complex and +controversial issues in these cases. No attempt will be made to +discuss them in detail, but they are documented facts (Rosenberg, +1987). Most of the literature about them focuses on their +manifestation in the medical setting as false or self-inflicted +illness or injury. They are also manifested in the criminal justice +setting as false or self-inflicted crime victimization. If parents +would poison their children to prove an illness, they might sexually +abuse their children to prove a crime. "Victims" have been known to +destroy property, manufacture evidence, and mutilate themselves in +order to convince others of their victimization. The motivation is +psychological gain (i.e. attention, forgiveness, etc.) and not +necessarily money, jealousy, or revenge. These are the unpopular, +but documented, realities of the world. Recognizing their existence +does not mean that child sexual abuse and sexual assault are not +real and serious problems. + +-- f. ESTABLISH COMMUNICATION WITH PARENTS. + +The importance and difficulty of this technique in extrafamilial +cases involving young children cannot be overemphasized. An +investigator must maintain ongoing communication with the parents of +victims in these abuse cases. Not all parents react the same way to +the alleged abuse of their children. Some are very supportive and +cooperative. Others overreact and some even deny the victimization. +Sometimes there is animosity and mistrust among parents with +different reactions. Once the parents lose faith in the police or +prosecutor and begin to interrogate their own children and conduct +their own investigation, the case may be lost forever. Parents from +one case communicate the results of their "investigation" with each +other, and some have even contacted the parents in other cases. Such +parental activity is an obvious source of potential contamination. + +Parents must be made to understand that their children's credibility +will be jeopardized when and if the information obtained turns out +to be unsubstantiated or false. To minimize this problem, within the +limits of the law and without jeopardizing investigative techniques, +parents must be told on a regular basis how the case is progressing. +Parents can also be assigned constructive things to do (e.g. +lobbying for new legislation, working on awareness and prevention +programs) in order to channel their energy, concern, and "guilt". + +-- g. DEVELOP A CONTINGENCY PLAN. + +If a department waits until actually confronted with a case before a +response is developed, it may be too late. In cases involving +ongoing abuse of children, departments must respond quickly, and +this requires advanced planning. There are added problems for small- +to medium-sized departments with limited personnel and resources. +Effective investigation of these cases requires planning, +identification of resources, and, in many cases, mutual aid +agreements between agencies. The U.S. Department of Defense has +conducted specialized training and has developed such a plan for +child sex ring cases involving military facilities and personnel. +Once a case is contaminated and out of control, I have little advice +on how to salvage what may once have been a prosecutable criminal +violation. A few of these cases have even been lost on appeal after +a conviction because of contamination problems. + +-- h. MULTIDISCIPLINARY TASK FORCES. + +Sergeant Beth Dickinson, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, +was the chairperson of the Multi-Victim, Multi-Suspect Child Sexual +Abuse Subcommittee. Sergeant Dickinson states (personal +communication, Nov. 1989): + +"One of the biggest obstacles for investigators to overcome is the +reluctance of law enforcement administrators to commit sufficient +resources early on to an investigation that has the potential to be +a multidimensional child sex ring. It is important to get in and get +on top of the investigation in a timely manner - to get it +investigated in a timely manner in order to assess the risk to +children and to avoid hysteria, media sensationalism, and cross- +contamination of information. The team approach reduces stress on +individual investigators, allowing for peer support and minimizing +feelings of being overwhelmed." + +The team approach and working together does not mean, however, that +each discipline forgets its role and starts doing the other's job. + +-- i. SUMMARY. + +The investigation of child sex rings can be difficult and time +consuming. The likelihood, however, of a great deal of corroborative +evidence in a multivictim/multioffender case increases the chances +of a successful prosecution if the crime occurred. Because there is +still so much we do not know or understand about the dynamics of +multidimensional child sex rings, investigative techniques are less +certain. Each new case must be carefully evaluated in order to +improve investigative procedures. + +Because mental health professionals seem to be unable to determine, +with any degree of certainty, the accuracy of victim statements in +these cases, law enforcement must proceed using the corroboration +process. If some of what the victim describes is accurate, some +misperceived, some distorted, and some contaminated, what is the +jury supposed to believe? Until mental health professionals can come +up with better answers, the jury should be asked to believe what the +*investigation* can corroborate. Even if only a portion of what +these victims allege is factual, that may still constitute +significant criminal activity. + +10. CONCLUSION. + +There are many possible alternative answers to the question of why +victims are alleging things that don't seem to be true. The first +step in finding those answers is to admit the possibility that some +of what the victims describe may not have happened. Some experts +seem unwilling to even consider this. Most of these victims are also +probably not lying and have come to believe that which they are +alleging actually happened. There are alternative explanations for +why people who never met each other can tell the same story. + +I believe that there is a middle ground - a continuum of possible +activity. Some of what the victims allege may be true and accurate, +some may be misperceived or distorted, some may be screened or +symbolic, and some may be "contaminated" or false. The problem and +challenge, especially for law enforcement, is to determine which is +which. This can only be done through active investigation. I believe +that the majority of victims alleging "ritual" abuse are in fact +victims of some form of abuse or trauma. That abuse or trauma may or +may not be criminal in nature. After a lengthy discussion about +various alternative explanations and the continuum of possible +activity, one mother told me that for the first time since the +victimization of her young son she felt a little better. She had +thought her only choices were that either her son was a pathological +liar or, on the other hand, she lived in a community controlled by +satanists. + +Law enforcement has the obvious problem of attempting to determine +what actually happened for criminal justice purposes. Therapists, +however, might also be interested in what really happened in order +to properly evaluate and treat their patients. How and when to +confront patients with skepticism is a difficult and sensitive +problem for therapists. + +Any professional evaluating victims' allegations of "ritual" abuse +cannot ignore or routinely dismiss the lack of physical evidence (no +bodies or physical evidence left by violent murders); the difficulty +in successfully committing a large-scale conspiracy crime (the more +people involved in any crime conspiracy, the harder it is to get +away with it); and human nature (intragroup conflicts resulting in +individual self-serving disclosures are likely to occur in any group +involved in organized kidnapping, baby breeding, and human +sacrifice). If and when members of a destructive cult commit +murders, they are bound to make mistakes, leave evidence, and +eventually make admissions in order to brag about their crimes or to +reduce their legal liability. The discovery of the murders in +Matamoros, Mexico in 1989 and the results of the subsequent +investigation are good examples of these dynamics. + +Overzealous intervenors must accept the fact that some of their +well-intentioned activity is contaminating and damaging the +prosecutive potential of the cases where criminal acts did occur. We +must all (i.e., the media, churches, therapists, victim advocates, +law enforcement, and the general public) ask ourselves if we have +created an environment where victims are rewarded, listened to, +comforted, and forgiven in direct proportion to the severity of +their abuse. Are we encouraging needy or traumatized individuals to +tell more and more outrageous tales of their victimization? Are we +making up for centuries of denial by now blindly accepting any +allegation of child abuse no matter how absurd or unlikely? Are we +increasing the likelihood that rebellious, antisocial, or attention- +seeking individuals will gravitate toward "satanism" by publicizing +it and overreacting to it? The overreaction to the problem can be +worse than the problem. + +The amount of "ritual" child abuse going on in this country depends +on how you define the term. One documented example of what I might +call "ritual" child abuse was the horror chronicled in the book _A +Death in White Bear Lake_ (Siegal, 1990). The abuse in this case, +however, had little to do with anyone's spiritual belief system. +There are many children in the United States who, starting early in +their lives, are severely psychologically, physically, and sexually +traumatized by angry, sadistic parents or other adults. Such abuse, +however, is not perpetrated only or primarily by satanists. The +statistical odds are that such abusers are members of mainstream +religions. If 99.9% of satanists and 0.1% of Christians abuse +children as part of their spiritual belief system, that still means +that the vast majority of children so abused were abused by +Christians. + +Until hard evidence is obtained and corroborated, the public should +not be frightened into believing that babies are being bred and +eaten, that 50,000 missing children are being murdered in human +sacrifices, or that satanists are taking over America's day care +centers or institutions. No one can prove with absolute certainty +that such activity has *not* occurred. The burden of proof, however, +as it would be in a criminal prosecution, is on those who claim that +it has occurred. + +The explanation that the satanists are too organized and law +enforcement is too incompetent only goes so far in explaining the +lack of evidence. For at least eight years American law enforcement +has been aggressively investigating the allegations of victims of +ritual abuse. There is little or no evidence for the portion of +their allegations that deals with large-scale baby breeding, human +sacrifice, and organized satanic conspiracies. Now it is up to +mental health professionals, not law enforcement, to explain why +victims are alleging things that don't seem to have happened. +Professionals in this field must accept the fact that there is still +much we do not know about the sexual victimization of children, and +that this area desperately needs study and research by rational, +objective social scientists. + +If the guilty are to be successfully prosecuted, if the innocent are +to be exonerated, and if the victims are to be protected and +treated, better methods to evaluate and explain allegations of +"ritual" child abuse must be developed or identified. Until this is +done, the controversy will continue to cast a shadow over and fuel +the backlash against the validity and reality of child sexual abuse. + +XI. REFERENCES. + +American Psychiatric Association, _Diagnostic and Statistical Manual +of Mental Disorders_ (3rd Ed., Rev.). Washington, DC: 1987. + +Breiner, S.J., _Slaughter of the Innocents: Child Abuse Through the +Ages and Today_. New York: Plenum Press, 1990. + +Brown, R., _Prepare for War_. Chino, CA: Chick Publications, 1987. + +Brunvand, J.H., _The Vanishing Hitchhiker_. New York: Norton, 1981. + +Harrington, Walt, "The Devil in Anton LaVey". Washington, D.C.: _The +Washington Post Magazine_, February 23, 1986, pages #6-17. + +Lanning, K.V., _Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis_ (2nd Ed.). +Washington, D.C.: National Center for Missing and Exploited +Children, 1987. + +Lanning, K.V. (1989). Child sex rings: A behavioral analysis. +Washington, DC: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. + +LaVey, Anton, _The Satanic Bible_. New York: Avon Books, 1969. + +Mayer, R.S., _Satan's Children_. New York: Putnam, 1991. + +Michigan Department of State Police, _Occult Survey_. East Lansing, +Michigan, 1990. + +_National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV) News_, June- +October 1988, page #3. + +_National Incidence Studies on Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and +Thrownaway Children in America_. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department +of Justice, 1990. + +Prattanis, A., "Hidden messages", _Wellness Letter_. Berkeley, +California: University of California, January 1991, pages #1-2. + +Rosenberg, D.A., "Web of Deceit: A Literature Review of Munchausen +Syndrome by Proxy", _Child Abuse and Neglect_ #2, 1987, pages #547- +563. + +Rush, E., _The Best Kept Secret: Sexual Abuse of Children_. New +York: McGraw-Hill, 1980. + +Smith, M., & Pazder, L., _Michelle Remembers_. New York: Congdon and +Lattis, 1980. + +Siegal, B., _A Death in White Bear Lake_. New York: Bantam, 1990. + +"Stranger-Abduction Homicides of Children", _Juvenile Justice +Bulletin_. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Department of Justice, 1989. + +Stratford. L., _Satan's Underground_. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, +1988. + +Terr, L., _Too Scared to Cry_. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. + +Timnik, L., "The Times Poll", _Los Angeles Times_, August 25-26, +1985. + +Virginia Crime Commission Task Force, _Final Report of the Task +Force Studying Ritual Crime_. Richmond, Virginia. + + +12. SUGGESTED READING. + +-- a. Cooper, John Charles, _The Black Mask: Satanism in America +Today_. Old Tappen, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1990. + +Probably the best of the large number of books available primarily +in Christian bookstores and written from the Christian perspective. +This one, however, is written without the hysteria and +sensationalism of most. Recommended for investigators who want +information from this perspective. + +-- b. Hicks, Robert D., _In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the +Occult_. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1991. + +Undoubtedly the best book written to date on the topic of satanism +and the occult from the law enforcement perspective. Robert D. Hicks +is a former police officer who is currently employed as a criminal +justice analyst for the state of Virginia. Must reading for any +criminal justice professional involved in this issue. Unfortunately, +in the chapter on "Satanic Abuse of Children", the author appears to +have been overly influenced by extreme skeptics with minimal or +questionable credentials in this area. The book is easy to read, +logical, and highly recommended. + +-- c. Richardson, James T.; Best, Joel; & Bromley, David G.; Eds, +_The Satanism Scare_. NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991. + +The best book now available on the current controversy over satanism +written from the academic perspective, The editors and many of the +chapter authors are college professors and have written an +objective, well-researched book. One of the great strengths of this +book is the fact that the editors address a variety of the +controversial issues from a variety of disciplines (i.e., sociology, +history, folklore, anthropology, criminal justice). Because of its +academic perspective it is sometimes harder to read but is well +worth the effort. The chapter on "Law Enforcement and the Satanic +Crime Connection" contains the results of a survey of "Cult Cops" +and is must reading for law enforcement officers. The chapter on +"Satanism and Child Molestation: Constructing the Ritual Abuse +Scare" was written, however, by a free-lance journalist who seems to +take the position that these cases involve little or no real child +abuse. + +-- d. Terr, Lenore, _Too Scared to Cry: Psychic Trauma in +Childhood_. New York: Harper and Row, 1990. + +An excellent book written by a psychiatrist that provides important +insights into the nature and recallability of early psychic trauma. +For me, Dr. Terr's research and findings in the infamous Chowchilla +kidnapping case shed considerable light on the "ritual" abuse +controversy. diff --git a/religious documents/lanning3.txt b/religious documents/lanning3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c17a2f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lanning3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,262 @@ +Message #6 board "P_Metaphysical (Mag Articles)" +Date : 22-Jan-93 15:57 +From : Simon Novali +To : All +Subj : Lanning (3 of 11) + +(symbols on rock albums, graffiti on walls, desecration of +cemeteries, vandalism, etc.), the implication is that it is all true +and documented. Material produced by religious organizations, +photocopies and slides of newspaper articles, and videotapes of +tabloid television programs are used to supplement the training and +are presented as "evidence" of the existence and nature of the +problem. + +All of this is complicated by the fact that almost any discussion of +satanism and the occult is interpreted in the light of the religious +beliefs of those in the audience. Faith, not logic and reason, +governs the religious beliefs of most people. As a result, some +normally skeptical law enforcement officers accept the information +disseminated at these conferences without critically evaluating it +or questioning the sources. Officers who do not normally depend on +church groups for law enforcement criminal intelligence, who know +that media accounts of their own cases are notoriously inaccurate, +and who scoff at and joke about tabloid television accounts of +bizarre behavior suddenly embrace such material when presented in +the context of satanic activity. Individuals not in law enforcement +seem even more likely to do so. Other disciplines, especially +therapists, have also conducted training conferences on the +characteristics and identification of "ritual" child abuse. Nothing +said at such conferences will change the religious beliefs of those +in attendance. Such conferences illustrate the highly emotional +nature of and the ambiguity and wide variety of terms involved in +this issue. + +4. DEFINITIONS + +The words "satanic", "occult", and "ritual" are often used +interchangeably. It is difficult to define "satanism" precisely. No +attempt will be made to do so here However, it is important to +realize that, for some people, any religious belief system other +than their own is "satanic". The Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam +Hussein referred to the United States as the "Great Satan". In the +British Parliament a Protestant leader called the Pope the +Antichrist. In a book titled _Prepare For War_ (1987), Rebecca +Brown, M.D. has a chapter entitled "Is Roman Catholicism +Witchcraft?" Dr. Brown also lists among the "doorways" to satanic +power and/or demon infestation the following: fortune tellers, +horoscopes, fraternity oaths, vegetarianism, yoga, self-hypnosis, +relaxation tapes, acupuncture, biofeedback, fantasy role-playing +games, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, judo, karate, and rock +music. Dr. Brown states that rock music "was a carefully +masterminded plan by none other than Satan himself" (p. 84). The +ideas expressed in this book may seem extreme and even humorous. +This book, however, has been recommended as a serious reference in +law enforcement training material on this topic. + +In books, lectures, handout material, and conversations, I have +heard all of the following referred to as satanism: + +-- Church of Satan +-- Ordo Templi Orientis +-- Temple of Set +-- Demonology +-- Witchcraft +-- Occult +-- Paganism +-- Santeria +-- Voodoo +-- Rosicrucians +-- Freemasonry +-- Knights Templar +-- Stoner Gangs +-- Heavy Metal Music +-- Rock Music +-- KKK +-- Nazis +-- Skinheads +-- Scientology +-- Unification Church +-- The Way +-- Hare Krishna +-- Rajneesh +-- Religious Cults +-- New Age +-- Astrology +-- Channeling +-- Transcendental Meditation +-- Holistic Medicine +-- Buddhism +-- Hinduism +-- Mormonism +-- Islam +-- Orthodox Church +-- Roman Catholicism + +At law enforcement training conferences, it is witchcraft, santeria, +paganism, and the occult that are most often referred to as forms of +satanism. It may be a matter of definition, but these things are not +necessarily the same as traditional satanism. The worship of lunar +goddesses and nature and the practice of fertility rituals are not +satanism. Santeria is a combination of 17th century Roman +Catholicism and African paganism. + +Occult means simply "hidden". All unreported or unsolved crimes +might be regarded as occult, but in this context the term refers to +the action or influence of supernatural powers, some secret +knowledge of them, or an interest in paranormal phenomena, and does +not imply satanism, evil, wrongdoing, or crime. Indeed, +historically, the principal crimes deserving of consideration as +"occult crimes" are the frauds perpetrated by faith healers, fortune +tellers and "psychics" who for a fee claim cures, arrange +visitations with dead loved ones, and commit other financial crimes +against the gullible. + +Many individuals define satanism from a totally Christian +perspective, using this word to describe the power of evil in the +world. With this definition, any crimes, especially those which are +particularly bizarre, repulsive, or cruel, can be viewed as satanic +in nature. Yet it is just as difficult to precisely define satanism +as it is to precisely define Christianity or any complex spiritual +belief system. + +-- a. WHAT IS RITUAL? + +The biggest confusion is over the word "ritual". During training +conferences on this topic, ritual almost always comes to mean +"satanic" or at least "spiritual". "Ritual" can refer to a +prescribed religious ceremony, but in its broader meaning refers to +any customarily-repeated act or series of acts. The need to repeat +these acts can be cultural, sexual, or psychological as well as +spiritual. + +Cultural rituals could include such things as what a family eats on +Thanksgiving Day, or when and how presents are opened at Christmas. +The initiation ceremonies of fraternities, sororities, gangs, and +other social clubs are other examples of cultural rituals. + +Since 1972 I have lectured about sexual ritual, which is nothing +more than repeatedly engaging in an act or series of acts in a +certain manner because of a *sexual* need. In order to become +aroused and/or gratified, a person must engage in the act in a +certain way. This sexual ritual can include such things as the +physical characteristics, age, or gender of the victim, the +particular sequence of acts, the bringing or taking of specific +objects, and the use of certain words or phrases. This is more than +the concept of M.O. (Method of Operation) known to most police +officers. M.O. is something done by an offender because it works. +Sexual ritual is something done by an offender because of a need. +Deviant acts, such as urinating on, defecating on, or even +eviscerating a victim, are far more likely to be the result of +sexual ritual than religious or "satanic" ritual. + +From a criminal investigative perspective, two other forms of +ritualism must be recognized. The _Diagnostic and Statistical Manual +of Mental Disorders_ (DSM-III-R) (APA, 1987) defines "Obsessive- +Compulsive Disorder" as "repetitive, purposeful, and intentional +behaviors that are performed in response to an obsession, or +according to certain rules or in a stereotyped fashion" (p. 247). +Such compulsive behavior frequently involves rituals. Although such +behavior usually involves noncriminal activity such as excessive +hand washing or checking that doors are locked, occasionally +compulsive ritualism can be part of criminal activity. Certain +gamblers or firesetters, for example, are thought by some +authorities to be motivated in part through such compulsions. Ritual +can also stem from psychotic hallucinations and delusions. A crime +can be committed in a precise manner because a voice told the +offender to do it that way or because a divine mission required it. + +To make this more confusing, cultural, religious, sexual, and +psychological ritual can overlap. Some psychotic people are +preoccupied with religious delusions and hear the voice of God or +Satan telling them to do things of a religious nature. Offenders who +feel little, if any, guilt over their crimes may need little +justification for their antisocial behavior. As human beings, +however, they may have fears, concerns, and anxiety over getting +away with their criminal acts. It is difficult to pray to God for +success in doing things that are against His Commandments. A +negative spiritual belief system may fulfill their human need for +assistance from and belief in a greater power or to deal with their +superstitions. Compulsive ritualism (e.g., excessive cleanliness or +fear of disease) can be introduced into sexual behavior. Even many +"normal" people have a need for order and predictability and +therefore may engage in family or work rituals. Under stress or in +times of change, this need for order and ritual may increase. + +Ritual crime may fulfill the cultural, spiritual, sexual, and +psychological needs of an offender. Crimes may be ritualistically +motivated or may have ritualistic elements. The ritual behavior may +also fulfill basic criminal needs to manipulate victims, get rid of +rivals, send a message to enemies, and intimidate co-conspirators. +The leaders of a group may want to play upon the beliefs and +superstitions of those around them and try to convince accomplices +and enemies that they, the leaders, have special or "supernatural" +powers. + +The important point for the criminal investigator is to realize that +most ritualistic criminal behavior is not motivated simply by +satanic or any religious ceremonies. At some conferences, presenters +have attempted to make an issue of distinguishing between "ritual", +"ritualized", and "ritualistic" abuse of children. These subtle +distinctions, however, seem to be of no significant value to the +criminal investigator. + +-- c. WHAT IS "RITUAL" CHILD ABUSE? + +I cannot define "ritual child abuse" precisely and prefer not to use +the term. I am frequently forced to use it (as throughout this +discussion) so that people will have some idea what I am discussing. +Use of the term, however, is confusing, misleading, and +counterproductive. The newer term "satanic ritual abuse" +(abbreviated "SRA") is even worse. Certain observations, however, +are important for investigative understanding. + +Most people today use the term to refer to abuse of children that is +part of some evil spiritual belief system, which almost by +definition must be satanic. + +Dr. Lawrence Pazder, coauthor of _Michelle Remembers_, defines +"ritualized abuse of children" as "repeated physical, emotional, +mental, and spiritual assaults combined with a systematic use of +symbols and secret ceremonies designed to turn a child against +itself, family, society, and God" (presentation, Richmond, Va., May +7,1987). He also states that "the sexual assault has ritualistic +meaning and is not for sexual gratification". + +This definition may have value for academics, sociologists, and +therapists, but it creates potential problems for law enforcement. +Certain acts engaged in with children (i.e. kissing, touching, +appearing naked, etc.) may be criminal if performed for sexual +gratification. If the ritualistic acts were in fact performed for +spiritual indoctrination, potential prosecution can be jeopardized, +particularly if the acts can be defended as constitutionally +protected religious expression. The mutilation of a baby's genitals +for sadistic sexual pleasure is a crime. The circumcision of a +baby's genitals for religious reasons is most likely *not* a crime. +The intent of the acts is important for criminal prosecution. + +Not all spiritually motivated ritualistic activity is satanic. +Santeria, witchcraft, voodoo, and most religious cults are not +satanism. In fact, most spiritually- or religiously-based abuse of +children has nothing to do with satanism. Most child abuse that +could be termed "ritualistic" by various definitions is more likely +to be physical and psychological rather than sexual in nature. If a +distinction needs to be made between satanic and nonsatanic child +abuse, the indicators for that distinction must be related to +specific satanic symbols, artifacts, or doctrine rather than the +mere presence of any ritualistic element. + +Not all such ritualistic activity with a child is a crime. Almost +all parents with religious beliefs indoctrinate their children into +that belief system. Is male circumcision for religious reasons child +abuse? Is the religious circumcision of females child abuse? Does +having a child kneel on a hard floor reciting the rosary constitute +child abuse? Does having a child chant a satanic prayer or attend a +black mass constitute child abuse? Does a religious belief in +corporal punishment constitute child abuse? Does group care of + + + +--- msgedsq 2.1a + * Origin: The Northern Lights 916-729-0304 (1:203/444) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/lanning4.txt b/religious documents/lanning4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a74b5d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lanning4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,265 @@ +Message #7 board "P_Metaphysical (Mag Articles)" +Date : 22-Jan-93 15:57 +From : Simon Novali +To : All +Subj : Lanning (4 of 11) + +children in a commune or cult constitute child abuse? Does the fact +that any acts in question were performed with parental permission +affect the nature of the crime? Many ritualistic acts, whether +satanic or not, are simply not crimes. To open the Pandora's box of +labeling child abuse as "ritualistic" simply because it involves a +spiritual belief system means to apply the definition to all acts by +all spiritual belief systems. The day may come when many in the +forefront of concern about ritual abuse will regret they opened the +box. + +When a victim describes and investigation corroborates what sounds +like ritualistic activity. several possibilities must be considered. +The ritualistic activity may be part of the excessive religiosity of +mentally disturbed, even psychotic offenders. It may be a +misunderstood part of sexual ritual. The ritualistic activity may be +incidental to any real abuse. The offender may be involved in +ritualistic activity with a child and also may be abusing a child, +but one may have little or nothing to do with the other. + +The offender may be deliberately engaging in ritualistic activity +with a child as part of child abuse and exploitation. The +motivation, however, may be not to indoctrinate the child into a +belief system, but to lower the inhibitions of, control, manipulate, +and/or confuse the child. In all the turmoil over this issue, it +would be very effective strategy for any child molester deliberately +to introduce ritualistic elements into his crime in order to confuse +the child and therefore the criminal justice system. This would, +however, make the activity M.O. and not ritual. + +The ritualistic activity and the child abuse may be integral parts +of some spiritual belief system. In that case the greatest risk is +to the children of the practitioners. But this is true of all cults +and religions, not just satanic cults. A high potential of abuse +exists for any children raised in a group isolated from the +mainstream of society, especially if the group has a charismatic +leader whose orders are unquestioned and blindly obeyed by the +members. Sex, money, and power are often the main motivations of the +leaders of such cults. + +-- c. WHAT MAKES A CRIME SATANIC, OCCULT, OR RITUALISTIC? + +Some would answer that it is the offender's spiritual beliefs or +membership in a cult or church. If that is the criterion, why not +label the crimes committed by Protestants, Catholics, and Jews in +the same way? Are the atrocities of Jim Jones in Guyana Christian +crimes? + +Some would answer that it is the presence of certain symbols in the +possession or home of the perpetrator. What does it mean then to +find a crucifix, Bible, or rosary in the possession or home of a +bank robber, embezzler, child molester, or murderer? If different +criminals possess the same symbols, are they necessarily part of one +big conspiracy? + +Others would answer that it is the presence of certain symbols such +as pentagrams, inverted crosses, and 666 at the crime scene. What +does it mean then to find a cross spray painted on a wall or carved +into the body of a victim? What does it mean for a perpetrator, as +in one recent case profiled by my Unit, to leave a Bible tied to his +murder victim? What about the possibility that an offender +deliberately left such symbols to make it look like a "satanic" +crime? + +Some would argue that it is the bizarreness or cruelness of the +crime: body mutilation, amputation, drinking of blood, eating of +flesh, use of urine or feces. Does this mean that all individuals +involved in lust murder, sadism, vampirism, cannibalism, urophilia, +and coprophilia are satanists or occult practitioners? What does +this say about the bizarre crimes of psychotic killers such as Ed +Gein or Richard Trenton Chase, both of whom mutilated their victims +as part of their psychotic delusions? Can a crime that is not +sexually deviant, bizarre, or exceptionally violent be satanic? Can +white collar crime be satanic? + +A few might even answer that it is the fact that the crime was +committed on a date with satanic or occult significance (Halloween, +May Eve, etc.) or the fact that the perpetrator claims that Satan +told him to commit the crime. What does this mean for crimes +committed on Thanksgiving or Christmas? What does this say about +crimes committed by perpetrators who claim that God or Jesus told +them to do it? One note of interest is the fact that in handout and +reference material I have collected, the number of dates with +satanic or occult significance ranges from 8 to 110. This is +compounded by the fact that it is sometimes stated that satanists +can celebrate these holidays on several days on either side of the +official date or that the birthdays of practitioners can also be +holidays. The exact names and exact dates of the holidays and the +meaning of symbols listed may also vary depending on who prepared +the material The handout material is often distributed without +identifying the author or documenting the original source of the +information. It is then frequently photocopied by attendees and +passed on to other police officers with no one really knowing its +validity or origin. + +Most, however, would probably answer that what makes a crime +satanic, occult, or ritualistic is the motivation for the crime. It +is a crime that is spiritually motivated by a religious belief +system. How then do we label the following true crimes? + +-- Parents defy a court order and send their children to an +unlicensed Christian school. + +-- Parents refuse to send their children to any school because they +are waiting for the second coming of Christ. + +-- Parents beat their child to death because he or she will not +follow their Christian belief. + +-- Parents violate child labor laws because they believe the Bible +requires such work. + +-- Individuals bomb an abortion clinic or kidnap the doctor because +their religious belief system says abortion is murder. + +-- A child molester reads the Bible to his victims in order to +justify his sex acts with them. + +-- Parents refuse life-saving medical treatment for a child because +of their religious beliefs. + +-- Parents starve and beat their child to death because their +minister said the child was possessed by demonic spirits. + +Some people would argue that the Christians who committed the above +crimes misunderstood and distorted their religion while satanists +who commit crimes are following theirs. But who decides what +constitutes a misinterpretation of a religious belief system? The +individuals who committed the above-described crimes, however +misguided, believed that they were following their religion as they +understood it. Religion was and is used to justify such social +behavior as the Crusades, the Inquisition, Apartheid, segregation, +and recent violence in Northern Ireland, India, Lebanon and Nigeria. + +Who decides exactly what "satanists" believe? In this country, we +cannot even agree on what Christians believe. At many law +enforcement conferences The _Satanic Bible_ is used for this, and it +is often contrasted or compared with the Judeo-Christian Bible. The +_Satanic Bible_ is, in essence, a short paperback book written by +one man, Anton LaVey, in 1969. To compare it to a book written by +multiple authors over a period of thousands of years is ridiculous, +even ignoring the possibility of Divine revelation in the Bible. +What satanists believe certainly isn't limited to other people's +interpretation of a few books. More importantly it is subject to +some degree of interpretation by individual believers just as +Christianity is. Many admitted "satanists" claim they do not even +believe in God, the devil, or any supreme deity. The criminal +behavior of one person claiming belief in a religion does not +necessarily imply guilt or blame to others sharing that belief. In +addition, simply claiming membership in a religion does not +necessarily make you a member. + +The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed +by zealots in the name of God, Jesus, Mohammed, and other mainstream +religion than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many +people, including myself, don't like that statement, but the truth +of it is undeniable. + +Although defining a crime as satanic, occult, or ritualistic would +probably involve a combination of the criteria set forth above, I +have been unable to clearly define such a crime. Each potential +definition presents a different set of problems when measured +against an objective, rational, and constitutional perspective. In a +crime with multiple subjects, each offender may have a different +motivation for the same crime. Whose motivation determines the label +for the crime? It is difficult to count or track something you +cannot even define. + +I have discovered, however, that the facts of so-called "satanic +crimes" are often significantly different from what is described st +training conferences or in the media. The actual involvement of +satanism or the occult in these cases usually turns out to be +secondary, insignificant, or nonexistent. Occult or ritual crime +surveys done by the states of Michigan (1990) and Virginia (1991) +have only confirmed this "discovery". Some law enforcement officers, +unable to find serious "satanic" crime in their communities, assume +they are just lucky or vigilant and the serious problems must be in +other jurisdictions. The officers in the other jurisdictions, also +unable find it, assume the same. + +5. MULTlDlMENSlONAL CHILD SEX RINGS + +Sometime in early 1983 I was first contacted by a law enforcement +agency for guidance in what was then thought to be an unusual case. +The exact date of the contact is unknown because its significance +was not recognized at the time. In the months and years that +followed, I received more and more inquiries about "these kinds of +cases". The requests for assistance came (and continue to come) from +all over the United States. Many of the aspects of these cases +varied, but there were also some commonalties. Early on, however, +one particularly difficult and potentially significant issue began +to emerge. + +These cases involved and continue to involve unsubstantiated +allegations of bizarre activity that are difficult either to prove +or disprove. Many of the unsubstantiated allegations, however, do +not seem to have occurred or even be possible. These cases seem to +call into question the credibility of victims of child sexual abuse +and exploitation. These are the most polarizing, frustrating, and +baffling cases I have encountered in more than 18 years of studying +the criminal aspects of deviant sexual behavior. I privately sought +answers, but said nothing publicly about those cases until 1985. + +In October 1984 the problems in investigating and prosecuting one of +these cases in Jordan, Minnesota became publicly known. In February +1985, at the FBI Academy, the FBI sponsored and I coordinated the +first national seminar held to study "these kinds of cases". Later +in 1985, similar conferences sponsored by other organizations were +held in Washington, D.C.; Sacramento, California; and Chicago, +Illinois. These cases have also been discussed at many recent +regional and national conferences dealing with the sexual +victimization of children and Multiple Personality Disorder. Few +answers have come from these conferences. I continue to be contacted +on these cases on a regular basis. Inquiries have been received from +law enforcement officers, prosecutors, therapists, victims, families +of victims, and the media from all over the United States and now +foreign countries. I do not claim to understand completely all the +dynamics of these cases. I continue to keep an open mind and to +search for answers to the questions and solutions to the problems +they pose. This discussion is based on my analysis of the several +hundred of "these kinds of cases" on which I have consulted since +1983. + +-- a. DYNAMICS OF CASES. + +What are "these kinds of cases"? They were and continue to be +difficult to define. They all involve allegations of what sounds +like child sexual abuse, but with a combination of some atypical +dynamics. These cases seem to have the following four dynamics in +common: (1) multiple young victims, (2) multiple offenders, (3) fear +as the controlling tactic, and (4) bizarre or ritualistic activity. + +---- (1) MULTIPLE YOUNG VICTIMS. + +In almost all the cases the sexual abuse was alleged to have taken +place or at least begun when the victims were between the ages of +birth and six. This very young age may be an important key to +understanding these cases. In addition the victims all described +multiple children being abused. The numbers ranged from three or +four to as many as several hundred victims. + +---- (2) MULTIPLE OFFENDERS. + +In almost all the cases the victims reported numerous offenders. The +numbers ranged from two or three all the way up to dozens of +offenders. In one recent case the victims alleged 400-500 offenders +were involved. Interestingly many of the offenders (perhaps as many +as 40-50 percent) were reported to be females. The multiple +offenders were often family members and were described as being part +of a cult, occult, or satanic group. + +---- (3) FEAR AS CONTROLLING TACTIC. + +Child molesters in general are able to maintain control and ensure +the secrecy of their victims in a variety of ways. These include + + +--- msgedsq 2.1a + * Origin: The Northern Lights 916-729-0304 (1:203/444) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/lanning5.txt b/religious documents/lanning5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e8873b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lanning5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,266 @@ +Message #8 board "P_Metaphysical (Mag Articles)" +Date : 22-Jan-93 15:57 +From : Simon Novali +To : All +Subj : Lanning (5 of 11) + +attention and affection, coercion, blackmail, embarrassment, +threats, and violence. In almost all of these cases I have studied, +the victims described being frightened and reported threats against +themselves, their families, their friends, and even their pets. They +reported witnessing acts of violence perpetrated to reinforce this +fear. It is my belief that this fear and the traumatic memory of the +events may be another key to understanding many of these cases. + +---- (4) BIZARRE OR RITUALISTIC ACTIVITY. + +This is the most difficult dynamic of these cases to describe. +"Bizarre" is a relative term. Is the use of urine or feces in sexual +activity bizarre, or is it a well-documented aspect of sexual +deviancy, or is it part of established satanic rituals? As +previously discussed, the ritualistic aspect is even more difficult +to define. How do you distinguish acts performed in a precise manner +to enhance or allow sexual arousal from those acts that fulfill +spiritual needs or comply with "religious" ceremonies? Victims in +these cases report ceremonies, chanting, robes and costumes, drugs, +use of urine and feces, animal sacrifice, torture, abduction, +mutilation, murder, and even cannibalism and vampirism. All things +considered, the word "bizarre" is probably preferable to the word +"ritual" to describe this activity. + +When I was contacted on these cases, it was very common for a +prosecutor or investigator to say that the alleged victims have been +evaluated by an "expert" who will stake his or her professional +reputation on the fact that the victims are telling the "truth". +When asked how many cases this expert had previously evaluated +involving these four dynamics, the answer was always the same: none! +The experts usually had only dealt with one-on-one intrafamilial +sexual abuse cases. Recently an even more disturbing trend has +developed. More and more of the victims have been identified or +evaluated by experts who have been trained to identify and +specialize in satanic ritual abuse. + +-- b. CHARACTERISTICS OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL CHILD SEX RINGS. + +As previously stated, a major problem in communicating, training, +and researching in this area is the term used to define "these kinds +of cases". Many refer to them as "ritual, ritualistic, or ritualized +abuse of children cases" or "satanic ritual abuse (SRA) cases". Such +words carry specialized meanings for many people and might imply +that all these cases are connected to occult or satanic activity. If +ritual abuse is not necessarily occult or satanic, but is "merely" +severe, repeated, prolonged abuse, why use a term that, in the minds +of so many, implies such specific motivation? + +Others refer to these cases as "multioffender/multivictim cases". +The problem with this term is that most multiple offender and victim +cases do not involve the four dynamics discussed above. + +For want of a better term, I have decided to refer to "these kinds +of cases" as "multidimensional child sex rings". Right now I seem to +be the only one using this term. I am, however, not sure if this is +truly a distinct kind of child sex ring case or just a case not +properly handled. Following are the general characteristics of these +multidimensional child sex ring cases as contrasted with more common +historical child sex ring cases [see my monograph _Child Sex Rings: +A Behavioral Analysis] (1989) for a discussion of the +characteristics of historical child sex ring cases]. + +---- (1) FEMALE OFFENDERS. + +As many as 40-50 percent of the offenders in these cases are +reported to be women. This is in marked contrast to historical child +sex rings in which almost all the offenders are men. + +---- (2) SITUATIONAL MOLESTERS. + +The offenders appear to be sexually interacting with the child +victims for reasons other than a true sexual preference for +children. The children are substitute victims, and the abusive +activity may have little to do with pedophilia [see my monograph +_Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis_ (1987) for a further +explanation about types of molesters]. + +---- (3) MALE AND FEMALE VICTIMS. + +Both boys and girls appear to be targeted, but with an apparent +preference for girls. Almost all the adult survivors are female, but +day care cases frequently involve male as well as female victims. +The most striking characteristic of the victims, however, is their +young age (generally birth to six years old when the abuse began). + +---- (4) MULTIDIMENSIONAL MOTIVATION. + +Sexual gratification appears to be only part of the motivation for +the "sexual" activity. Many people today argue that the motivation +is "spiritual" - possibly part of an occult ceremony. It is my +opinion that the motivation may have more to do with anger, +hostility, rage and resentment carried out against weak and +vulnerable victims. Much of the ritualistic abuse of children may +not be sexual in nature. Some of the activity may, in fact, be +physical abuse directed at sexually-significant body parts (penis, +anus, nipples). This may also partially explain the large percentage +of female offenders. Physical abuse of children by females is well- +documented. + +---- (5) PORNOGRAPHY AND PARAPHERNALIA. + +Although many of the victims of multidimensional child sex rings +claim that pictures and videotapes of the activity were made, no +such visual record has been found by law enforcement. In recent +years, American law enforcement has seized large amounts of child +pornography portraying children in a wide variety of sexual activity +and perversions. None of it, however, portrays the kind of bizarre +and/or ritualistic activity described by these victims. Perhaps +these offenders use and store their pornography and paraphernalia in +ways different from preferential child molesters (pedophiles). This +is an area needing additional research and investigation. + +---- (6) CONTROL THROUGH FEAR. + +Control through fear may be the overriding characteristic of these +cases. Control is maintained by frightening the children. A very +young child might not be able to understand the significance of much +of the sexual activity but certainly understands fear. The stories +that the victims tell may be their perceived versions of severe +traumatic memories. They may be the victims of a severely +traumatized childhood in which being sexually abused was just one of +the many negative events affecting their lives. + +-- c. SCENARIOS. + +Multidimensional child sex rings typically emerge from one of four +scenarios: (1) adult survivors, (2) day care cases, (3) +family/isolated neighborhood cases, and (4) custody/visitation +disputes. + +---- (1) ADULT SURVIVORS. + +In adult survivor cases, adults of almost any age - nearly always +women - are suffering the consequences of a variety of personal +problems and failures in their lives (e.g., promiscuity, eating +disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, failed relationships, self- +mutilation, unemployment). As a result of some precipitating stress +or crisis, they often seek therapy. They are frequently hypnotized, +intentionally or unintentionally, as part of the therapy and are +often diagnosed as suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder. +Gradually, during the therapy, the adults reveal previously +unrecalled memories of early childhood victimization that includes +multiple victims and offenders, fear as the controlling tactic, and +bizarre or ritualistic activity. Adult survivors may also claim that +"cues" from certain events in their recent life "triggered" the +previously repressed memories. + +The multiple offenders are often described as members of a cult or +satanic group. Parents, family members, clergy, civic leaders, +police officers (or individuals wearing police uniforms), and other +prominent members of society are frequently described as present at +and participating in the exploitation. The alleged bizarre activity +often includes insertion of foreign objects, witnessing mutilations, +and sexual acts and murders being filmed or photographed. The +offenders may allegedly still be harassing or threatening the +victims. They report being particularly frightened on certain dates +and by certain situations. In several of these cases, women (called +"breeders") claim to have had babies that were turned over for human +sacrifice. This type of case is probably best typified by books like +_Michelle Remembers_ (Smith & Pazder, 1980), _Satan's Underground_ +(Stratford, 1988), and _Satan's Children_ (Mayer, 1991). + +If and when therapists come to believe the patient or decide the law +requires it, the police or FBI are sometimes contacted to conduct an +investigation. The therapists may also fear for their safety because +they now know the "secret". The therapists will frequently tell law +enforcement that they will stake their professional reputation on +the fact that their patient is telling the truth. Some adult +survivors go directly to law enforcement. They may also go from +place to place in an effort to find therapists or investigators who +will listen to and believe them. Their ability to provide verifiable +details varies and many were raised in apparently religious homes. A +few adult survivors are now reporting participation in specific +murders or child abductions that are known to have taken place. + +---- (2) DAY CARE CASES. + +In day care cases children currently or formerly attending a day +care center gradually describe their victimization at the center and +at other locations to which they were taken by the day care staff. +The cases include multiple victims and offenders, fear, and bizarre +or ritualistic activity, with a particularly high number of female +offenders. Descriptions of strange games, insertion of foreign +objects, killing of animals, photographing of activities, and +wearing of costumes are common. The accounts of the young children, +however, do not seem to be quite as "bizarre" as those of the adult +survivors, with fewer accounts of human sacrifice. + +---- (3) FAMILY/ISOLATED NEIGHBORHOOD CASES. + +In family/isolated neighborhood cases, children describe their +victimization within their family or extended family. The group is +often defined by geographic boundary, such as a cul-de-sac, +apartment building, or isolated rural setting. Such accounts are +most common in rural or suburban communities with high +concentrations of religiously conservative people. The stories are +similar to those told of the day care setting, but with more male +offenders. The basic dynamics remain the same, but victims tend to +be more than six years of age, and the scenario may also involve a +custody or visitation dispute. + +---- (4) CUSTODY/VISITATION DISPUTE. + +In custody/visitation dispute cases, the allegations emanate from a +custody or visitation dispute over at least one child under the age +of seven. The four dynamics described above make these cases +extremely difficult to handle. When complicated by the strong +emotions of this scenario, the cases can be overwhelming. This is +especially true if the disclosing child victims have been taken into +the "underground" by a parent during the custody or visitation +dispute. Some of these parents or relatives may even provide +authorities with diaries or tapes of their interviews with the +children. An accurate evaluation and assessment of a young child +held in isolation in this underground while being "debriefed" by a +parent or someone else is almost impossible. However well- +intentioned, these self-appointed investigators severely damage any +chance to validate these cases objectively. + +-- d. WHY ARE VICTIMS ALLEGING THINGS THAT DO NOT SEEM TO BE TRUE? + +Some of what the victims in these cases allege is physically +impossible (victim cut up and put back together, offender took the +building apart and then rebuilt it); some is possible but improbable +(human sacrifice, cannibalism, vampirism ); some is possible and +probable (child pornography, clever manipulation of victims); and +some is corroborated (medical evidence of vaginal or anal trauma, +offender confessions). + +The most significant crimes being alleged that do not *seem* to be +true are the human sacrifice and cannibalism by organized satanic +cults. In none of the multidimensional child sex ring cases of which +I am aware have bodies of the murder victims been found - in spite +of major excavations where the abuse victims claim the bodies were +located. The alleged explanations for this include: the offenders +moved the bodies after the children left, the bodies were burned in +portable high-temperature ovens, the bodies were put in double- +decker graves under legitimately buried bodies, a mortician member +of the cult disposed of the bodies in a crematorium, the offenders +ate the bodies, the offenders used corpses and aborted fetuses, or +the power of Satan caused the bodies to disappear. + +Not only are no bodies found, but also, more importantly, there is +no physical evidence that a murder took place. Many of those not in +law enforcement do not understand that, while it is possible to get +rid of a body, it is even more difficult to get rid of the physical +evidence that a murder took place, especially a human sacrifice +involving sex, blood, and mutilation. Such activity would leave +behind trace evidence that could be found using modern crime scene +processing techniques in spite of extraordinary efforts to clean it +up. + +The victims of these human sacrifices and murders are alleged to be +abducted missing children, runaway and throwaway children, +derelicts, and the babies of breeder women. It is interesting to + + + +--- msgedsq 2.1a + * Origin: The Northern Lights 916-729-0304 (1:203/444) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/lanning6.txt b/religious documents/lanning6.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bef496 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lanning6.txt @@ -0,0 +1,266 @@ +Message #9 board "P_Metaphysical (Mag Articles)" +Date : 22-Jan-93 15:57 +From : Simon Novali +To : All +Subj : Lanning (6 of 11) + +note that many of those espousing these theories are using the long- +since-discredited numbers and rhetoric of the missing children +hysteria in the early 1980s. Yet "Stranger-Abduction Homicides of +Children", a January 1989 _Juvenile Justice Bulletin_, published by +the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the +U.S. Department of Justice, reports that researchers now estimate +that the number of children kidnapped and murdered by nonfamily +members is between 52 and 158 a year and that adolescents 14 to 17 +years old account for nearly two-thirds of these victims. These +figures are also consistent with the 1990 National Incident Studies +previously mentioned. + +We live in a very violent society, and yet we have "only" about +23,000 murders a year. Those who accept these stories of mass human +sacrifice would have us believe that the satanists and other occult +practitioners are murdering more than twice as many people every +year in this country as all the other murderers combined. + +In addition, in none of the cases of which I am aware has any +evidence of a well-organized satanic cult been found. Many of those +who accept the stories of organized ritual abuse of children and +human sacrifice will tell you that the best evidence they now have +is the consistency of stories from all over America. It sounds like +a powerful argument. It is interesting to note that, without having +met each other, the hundreds of people who claim to have been +abducted by aliens from outer space also tell stories and give +descriptions of the aliens that are similar to each other. This is +not to imply that allegations of child abuse are in the same +category as allegations of abduction by aliens from outer space. It +is intended only to illustrate that individuals who never met each +other can sometimes describe similar events without necessarily +having experienced them. + +The large number of people telling the same story is, in fact, the +biggest reason to doubt these stories. It is simply too difficult +for that many people to commit so many horrendous crimes as part of +an organized conspiracy. Two or three people murder a couple of +children in a few communities as part of a ritual, and nobody finds +out? Possible. Thousands of people do the same thing to tens of +thousands of victims over many years? Not likely. Hundreds of +communities all over America are run by mayors, police departments, +and community leaders who are practicing satanists and who regularly +murder and eat people? Not likely. In addition, these community +leaders and high-ranking officials also supposedly commit these +complex crimes leaving no evidence, and at the same time function as +leaders and managers while heavily involved in using illegal drugs. +Probably the closest documented example of this type of alleged +activity in American history is the Ku Klux Klan, which ironically +used Christianity, not satanism, to rationalize its activity but +which, as might be expected, was eventually infiltrated by +informants and betrayed by its members. + +As stated, initially I was inclined to believe the allegations of +the victims. But as the cases poured in and the months and years +went by, I became more concerned about the lack of physical evidence +and corroboration for many of the more serious allegations. With +increasing frequency I began to ask the question: "Why are victims +alleging things that do not *seem* to be true?" Many possible +answers were considered. + +The first possible answer is obvious: clever offenders. The +allegations may not seem to be true but they are true. The criminal +justice system lacks the knowledge, skill, and motivation to get to +the bottom of this crime conspiracy. The perpetrators of this crime +conspiracy are clever, cunning individuals using sophisticated mind +control and brainwashing techniques to control their victims. Law +enforcement does not know how to investigate these cases. + +It is technically possible that these allegations of an organized +conspiracy involving taking over day care centers, abduction, +cannibalism, murder, and human sacrifice might be true. But if they +are true, they constitute one of the greatest crime conspiracies in +history. + +Many people do not understand how difficult it is to commit a +conspiracy crime involving numerous co-conspirators. One clever and +cunning individual has a good chance of getting away with a well- +planned interpersonal crime. Bring one partner into the crime and +the odds of getting away with it drop considerably. The more people +involved in the crime, the harder it is to get away with it. Why? +Human nature is the answer. People get angry and jealous. They come +to resent the fact that another conspirator is getting "more" than +they. They get in trouble and want to make a deal for themselves by +informing on others. + +If a group of individuals degenerate to the point of engaging in +human sacrifice, murder, and cannibalism, that would most likely be +the beginning of the end for such a group. The odds are that someone +in the group would have a problem with such acts and be unable to +maintain the secret. + +The appeal of the satanic conspiracy theory is twofold: + +---- (1) First, it is a simple explanation for a complex problem. +Nothing is more simple than "the devil made them do it". If we do +not understand something, we make it the work of some supernatural +force. During the Middle Ages, serial killers were thought to be +vampires and werewolves, and child sexual abuse was the work of +demons taking the form of parents and clergy. Even today, especially +for those raised to religiously believe so, satanism offers an +explanation as to why "good" people do bad things. It may also help +to "explain" unusual, bizarre, and compulsive sexual urges and +behavior. + +---- (2) Second, the conspiracy theory is a popular one. We find it +difficult to believe that one bizarre individual could commit a +crime we find so offensive. Conspiracy theories about soldiers +missing in action (MlAs), abductions by UFOs, Elvis Presley +sightings, and the assassination of prominent public figures are the +focus of much attention in this country. These conspiracy theories +and allegations of ritual abuse have the following in common: (1) +self-proclaimed experts, (2) tabloid media interest, (3) belief the +government is involved in a coverup, and (4) emotionally involved +direct and indirect victim/witnesses. + +On a recent television program commemorating the one hundredth +anniversary of Jack the Ripper, almost fifty percent of the viewing +audience who called the polling telephone numbers indicated that +they thought the murders were committed as part of a conspiracy +involving the British Royal Family. The five experts on the program, +however, unanimously agreed the crimes were the work of one +disorganized but lucky individual who was diagnosed as a paranoid +schizophrenic. In many ways, the murders of Jack the Ripper are +similar to those allegedly committed by satanists today. + +If your child's molestation was perpetrated by a sophisticated +satanic cult, there is nothing you could have done to prevent it and +therefore no reason to feel any guilt. I have been present when +parents who believe their children were ritually abused at day care +centers have told others that the cults had sensors in the road, +lookouts in the air, and informers everywhere; therefore, the +usually recommended advice of unannounced visits to the day care +center would be impossible. + +6. ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS + +Even if only part of an allegation is not true, what then is the +answer to the question "Why are victims alleging things that do not +*seem* to be true?" After consulting with psychiatrists, +psychologists, anthropologists, therapists, social workers, child +sexual abuse experts, and law enforcement investigators for more +than eight years, I can find no single, simple answer. The answer to +the question seems to be a complex set of dynamics that can be +different in each case. In spite of the fact that some skeptics keep +looking for it, there does not appear to be one answer to the +question that fits every case. Each case is different, and each case +may involve a different combination of answers. + +I have identified a series of possible alternative answers to this +question. The alternative answers also do not preclude the +possibility that clever offenders are sometimes involved. I will not +attempt to explain completely these alternative answers because I +cannot. They are presented simply as areas for consideration and +evaluation by child sexual abuse intervenors, for further +elaboration by experts in these fields, and for research by +objective social scientists. The first step, however, in finding the +answers to this question is to admit the possibility that some of +what the victims describe may not have happened. Some child +advocates seem unwilling to do this. + +-- a. PATHOLOGICAL DISTORTION. + +The first possible answer to why victims are alleging things that do +not *seem* to be true is *pathological distortion*. The allegations +may be errors in processing reality influenced by underlying mental +disorders such as dissociative disorders, borderline or histrionic +personality disorders, or psychosis. These distortions may be +manifested in false accounts of victimization in order to gain +psychological benefits such as attention and sympathy (factitious +disorder). When such individuals repeatedly go from place to place +or person to person making these false reports of their own +"victimization", it is called Munchausen Syndrome. When the repealed +false reports concern the "victimization" of their children or +others linked to them, it is called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. I +am amazed when some therapists state that they believe the +allegations because they cannot think of a reason why the "victim", +whose failures are now explained and excused or who is now the +center of attention at a conference or on a national television +program, would lie. If you can be forgiven for mutilating and +killing babies, you can be forgiven for anything. + +Many "victims" may develop pseudomemories of their victimization and +eventually come to believe the events actually occurred. Noted +forensic psychiatrist Park E. Dietz (personal communication, Nov. +1991) states: + +"Pseudomemories have been acquired through dreams (particularly if +one is encouraged to keep a journal or dream diary and to regard +dream content as 'clues' about the past or as snippets of history), +substance-induced altered states of consciousness (alcohol or other +drugs), group influence (particularly hearing vivid accounts of +events occurring to others with whom one identifies emotionally such +as occurs in incest survivor groups), reading vivid accounts of +events occurring to others with whom one identifies emotionally, +watching such accounts in films or on television, and hypnosis. The +most efficient means of inducing pseudomemories is hypnosis. + +"It is characteristic of pseudomemories that the recollections of +complex events (as opposed to a simple unit of information, such as +a tag number) are incomplete and without chronological sequence. +Often the person reports some uncertainty because the pseudomemories +are experienced in a manner they describe as 'hazy', 'fuzzy', or +'vague'. They are often perplexed that they recall some details +vividly but others dimly. + +"Pseudomemories are not delusions. When first telling others of +pseudomemories, these individuals do not have the unshakable but +irrational conviction that deluded subjects have, but with social +support they often come to defend vigorously the truthfulness of the +pseudomemories. + +"Pseudomemories are not fantasies, but may incorporate elements from +fantasies experienced in the past. Even where the events described +are implausible, listeners may believe them because they are +reported with such intense affect (i.e. with so much emotion +attached to the story) that the listener concludes that the events +must have happened because no one could 'fake' the emotional aspects +of the retelling. It also occurs, however, that persons report +pseudomemories in such a matter-of-fact and emotionless manner that +mental health professionals conclude that the person has +'dissociated' intellectual knowledge of the events from emotional +appreciation of their impact." + +-- b. TRAUMATIC MEMORY. + +The second possible answer is *traumatic memory*. Fear and severe +trauma can cause victims to distort reality and confuse events. This +is a well-documented fact in cases involving individuals taken +hostage or in life-and-death situations. The distortions may be part +of an elaborate defense mechanism of the mind called "splitting" - +The victims create a clear-cut good-and-evil manifestation of their +complex victimization that is then psychologically more manageable. + +Through the defense mechanism of dissociation, the victim may escape +the horrors of reality by inaccurately processing that reality. In a +dissociative state a young child who ordinarily would know the +difference might misinterpret a film or video as reality. + +Another defense mechanism may tell the victim that it could have +been worse, and so his or her victimization was not so bad. They are +not alone in their victimization - other children were also abused. +Their father who abused them is no different from other prominent +people in the community they claim also abused them. Satanism may +help to explain why their outwardly good and religious parents did +such terrible things to them in the privacy of their home. Their +religious training may convince them that such unspeakable acts by +supposedly "good" people must be the work of the devil. The +described human sacrifice may be symbolic of the "death" of their +childhood. + +It may be that we should anticipate that individuals severely abused +as very young children by *multiple* offenders with *fear* as the +primary controlling tactic will distort and embellish their +victimization. Perhaps a horror-filled yet inaccurate account of + + + +--- msgedsq 2.1a + * Origin: The Northern Lights 916-729-0304 (1:203/444) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/lanning7.txt b/religious documents/lanning7.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..237d1fc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lanning7.txt @@ -0,0 +1,269 @@ +Message #10 board "P_Metaphysical (Mag Articles)" +Date : 22-Jan-93 15:57 +From : Simon Novali +To : All +Subj : Lanning (7 of 11) + +victimization is not only not a counterindication of abuse, but is +in fact a corroborative indicator of extreme physical, +psychological, and/or sexual abuse. I do not believe it is a +coincidence nor the result of deliberate planning by satanists that +in almost all the cases of ritual abuse that have come to my +attention, the abuse is alleged to have begun prior to the age of +seven and perpetrated by multiple offenders. It may well be that +such abuse, at young age by multiple offenders, is the most +difficult to accurately recall with the specific and precise detail +needed by the criminal justice system, and the most likely to be +distorted and exaggerated when it is recalled. In her book _Too +Scared to Cry_ (1990), child psychiatrist Lenore Terr, a leading +expert on psychic trauma in childhood, states "that a series of +early childhood shocks might not be fully and accurately +'reconstructed' from the dreams and behaviors of the adult" (p. 5). + +-- c. NORMAL CHILDHOOD FEARS AND FANTASY. + +The third possible answer may be *normal childhood fears and +fantasy*. Most young children are afraid of ghosts and monsters. +Even as adults, many people feel uncomfortable, for example, about +dangling their arms over the side of their bed. They still remember +the "monster" under the bed from childhood. While young children may +rarely invent stories about sexual activity, they might describe +their victimization in terms of evil as they understand it. In +church or at home, children may be told of satanic activity as the +source of evil. The children may be "dumping" all their fears and +worries unto an attentive and encouraging listener. + +Children do fantasize. Perhaps whatever causes a child to allege +something impossible (such as being cut up and put back together) is +similar to what causes a child to allege something possible but +improbable (such as witnessing another child being chopped up and +eaten). + +-- d. MISPERCEPTION, CONFUSION, AND TRICKERY. + +Misperception, confusion, and trickery may be a fourth answer. +Expecting young children to give accurate accounts of sexual +activity for which they have little frame of reference is +unreasonable. The Broadway play _Madame Butterfly_ is the true story +of a man who had a 15-year affair, including the "birth" of a baby, +with a "woman" who turns out to have been a man all along. If a +grown man does not know when he has had vaginal intercourse with a +woman, how can we expect young children not to be confused? + +Furthermore some clever offenders may deliberately introduce +elements of satanism and the occult into the sexual exploitation +simply to confuse or intimidate the victims. Simple magic and other +techniques may be used to trick the children. Drugs may also be +deliberately used to confuse the victims and distort their +perceptions. Such acts would then be M.O., not ritual. + +As previously stated, the perceptions of young victims may also be +influenced by any trauma being experienced. This is the most popular +alternative explanation, and even the more zealous believers of +ritual abuse allegations use it, but only to explain obviously +impossible events. + +-- e. OVERZEALOUS INTERVENORS. + +*Overzealous intervenors*, causing intervenor contagion, may be a +fifth answer. These intervenors can include parents, family members, +foster parents, doctors, therapists, social workers, law enforcement +officers, prosecutors, and any combination thereof. Victims have +been subtly as well as overtly rewarded and bribed by usually well- +meaning intervenors for furnishing further details. In addition, +some of what appears not to have happened may have originated as a +result of intervenors making assumptions about or misinterpreting +what the victims are saying. The intervenors then repeat, and +possibly embellish, these assumptions and misinterpretations, and +eventually the victims are "forced" to agree with or come to accept +this "official" version of what happened. + +The judgment of intervenors may be affected by their zeal to uncover +child sexual abuse, satanic activity, or conspiracies. However +"well-intentioned", these overzealous intervenors must accept +varying degrees of responsibility for the unsuccessful prosecution +of those cases where criminal abuse did occur. This is the most +controversial and least popular of the alternative explanations. + +-- f. URBAN LEGENDS. + +Allegations of and knowledge about ritualistic or satanic abuse may +also be spread through *urban legends*. In _The Vanishing +Hitchhiker_ (1981), the first of his four books on the topic, Dr. +Jan Harold Brunvand defines urban legends as "realistic stories +concerning recent events (or alleged events) with an ironic or +supernatural twist" (p. xi). Dr. Brunvand's books convincingly +explain that just because individuals throughout the country who +never met each other tell the same story does not mean that it is +true. Absurd urban legends about the corporate logos of Proctor and +Gamble and Liz Claiborne being satanic symbols persist in spite of +all efforts to refute them with reality. Some urban legends about +child kidnappings and other threats to citizens have even been +disseminated unknowingly by law enforcement agencies. Such legends +have always existed, but today the mass media aggressively +participate in their rapid and more efficient dissemination. Many +Americans mistakenly believe that tabloid television shows check out +and verify the details of their stories before pulling them on the +air. Mass hysteria may partially account for large numbers of +victims describing the same symptoms or experiences. + +Training conferences for all the disciplines involved in child +sexual abuse may also play a role in the spread of this contagion. +At one child abuse conference I attended, an exhibitor was selling +more than 50 different books dealing with satanism and the occult. +By the end of the conference, he had sold nearly all of them. At +another national child sexual abuse conference, I witnessed more +than 100 attendees copying down the widely disseminated 29 "Symptoms +Characterizing Satanic Ritual Abuse" in preschool-aged children. Is +a four-year-old child's "preoccupation with urine and feces" an +indication of satanic ritual abuse or part of normal development? + +-- g. COMBINATION. + +Most multidimensional child sex ring cases probably involve a +*combination* of the answers previously set forth, as well as other +possible explanations unknown to me at this time. Obviously, cases +with adult survivors are more likely to involve some of these +answers than those with young children. Each case of sexual +victimization must be individually evaluated on its own merits +without any preconceived explanations. All the possibilities must be +explored if for no other reason than the fact that the defense +attorneys for any accused subjects will almost certainly do so. + +Most people would agree that just because a victim tells you one +detail that turns out to be true, this does not mean that every +detail is true. But many people seem to believe that if you can +disprove one part of a victim's story, then the entire story is +false. As previously stated, one of my main concerns in these cases +is that people are getting away with sexually abusing children or +committing other crimes because we cannot prove that they are +members of organized cults that murder and eat people. + +I have discovered that the subject of multidimensional child sex +rings is a very emotional and polarizing issue. Everyone seems to +demand that one choose a side. On one side of the issue are those +who say that nothing really happened and it is all a big witch hunt +led by overzealous fanatics and incompetent "experts". The other +side says, in essence, that everything happened; victims never lie +about child sexual abuse, and so it must be true. + +There is a middle ground. It is the job of the professional +investigator to listen to all the victims and conduct appropriate +investigation in an effort to find out what happened, considering +all possibilities. Not all childhood trauma is abuse. Not all child +abuse is a crime. The great frustration of these cases is the fact +that you are often convinced that something traumatic happened to +the victim, but do not know with any degree of certainty exactly +what happened, when it happened, or who did it. + +7. DO VICTIMS LIE ABOUT SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION? + +The crucial central issue in the evaluation of a response to cases +of multidimensional child sex rings is the statement "Children never +lie about sexual abuse or exploitation. If they have details, it +must have happened." This statement, oversimplified by many, is the +basic premise upon which some believe the child sexual abuse and +exploitation movement is based. It is almost never questioned or +debated at training conferences. In fact, during the 1970s, there +was a successful crusade to eliminate laws requiring corroboration +of child victim statements in child sexual abuse cases. The best way +to convict child molesters is to have the child victims testify in +court. If we believe them, the jury will believe them. Any challenge +to this basic premise was viewed as a threat to the movement and a +denial that the problem existed. + +I believe that children *rarely* lie about sexual abuse or +exploitation, if a lie is defined as a statement deliberately and +maliciously intended to deceive. The problem is the +oversimplification of the statement. Just because a child is not +lying does not necessarily mean the child is telling the truth. I +believe that in the majority of these cases, the victims are not +lying. They are telling you what they have come to believe has +happened to them. Furthermore the assumption that children rarely +lie about sexual abuse does not necessarily apply to everything a +child says during a sexual abuse investigation. Stories of +mutilation, murder, and cannibalism are not really about sexual +abuse. + +Children rarely lie about sexual abuse or exploitation. but they do +fantasize, furnish false information, furnish misleading +information, misperceive events, try to please adults, respond to +leading questions, and respond to rewards. Children are not adults +in little bodies and do go through developmental stages that must be +evaluated and understood. In many ways, however, children are no +better and no worse than other victims or witnesses of a crime. They +should not be automatically believed, nor should they be +automatically disbelieved. + +The second part of the statement - if children can supply details, +the crime must have happened - must also be carefully evaluated. The +details in question in most of the cases of multidimensional child +sex rings have little to do with sexual activity. Law enforcement +and social workers must do more than attempt to determine how a +child could have known about the sex acts. These cases involve +determining how a victim could have known about a wide variety of +bizarre and ritualistic activity. Young children may know little +about specific sex acts, but they may know a lot about monsters, +torture, kidnapping, and murder. + +Victims may supply details of sexual and other acts using +information from sources other than their own direct victimization. +Such sources must be evaluated carefully by the investigator of +multidimensional child sex rings. + +-- a. PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE. + +The victim may have personal knowledge of the sexual or ritual acts, +but not as a result of the alleged victimization. The knowledge +could have come from viewing pornography, sex education, or occult +material; witnessing sexual or ritual activity in the home; or +witnessing the sexual abuse of others. It could also have come from +having been sexually or physically abused, but by other than the +alleged offenders and in ways other than the alleged offense. + +-- b. OTHER CHILDREN OR VICTIMS. + +Young children today are socially interacting more often and at a +younger age than ever before. Many parents are unable to provide +possibly simple explanations for their children's stories because +they were not with the children when the events occurred. They do +not even know what videotapes their children may have seen, what +games they may have played, or what stories they may have been told +or overheard. Children are being placed in day care centers for +eight, ten, or twelve hours a day starting as young as six weeks of +age. The children share experiences by playing house, school, or +doctor. Bodily functions such as urination and defecation are a +focus of attention for these young children. To a certain extent, +each child shares the experiences of all the other children. + +The odds are fairly high that in any typical day care center there +might be some children who are victims of incest; victims of +physical abuse; victims of psychological abuse; children of cult +members (even satanists); children of sexually open parents; +children of sexually indiscriminate parents; children of parents +obsessed with victimization; children of parents obsessed with the +evils of satanism; children without conscience; children with a +teenage brother or pregnant mother; children with heavy metal music +and literature in the home; children with bizarre toys, games, +comics, and magazines; children with a VCR and slasher films in +their home; children with access to dial-a-porn, party lines, or +pornography; or children victimized by a day care center staff +member. The possible effects of the interaction of such children +prior to the disclosure of the alleged abuse must be evaluated, +Adult survivors may obtain details from group therapy sessions, +support networks, church groups, or self-help groups. The +willingness and ability of siblings to corroborate adult survivor +accounts of ritual abuse varies. Some will support and partially +corroborate the victim's allegations. Others will vehemently deny +them and support their accused parents or relatives. + +-- c. MEDIA. + +The amount of sexually explicit, occult, anti-occult, or violence- +oriented material available to adults and even children in the + + + +--- msgedsq 2.1a + * Origin: The Northern Lights 916-729-0304 (1:203/444) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/lanning8.txt b/religious documents/lanning8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a56364 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lanning8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,266 @@ +Message #11 board "P_Metaphysical (Mag Articles)" +Date : 22-Jan-93 15:58 +From : Simon Novali +To : All +Subj : Lanning (8 of 11) + +modern world is overwhelming. This includes movies, videotapes, +television, music, toys, and books. There are also documentaries on +satanism, witchcraft, and the occult that are available on +videotape. Most of the televangelists have videotapes on the topics +that they are selling on their programs. + +The National Coalition on Television Violence News (1988) estimates +that 12% of the movies produced in the United States can be +classified as satanic horror films. Cable television and the home +VCR make all this material readily available even to young children. +Religious broadcasters and almost all the television tabloid and +magazine programs have done shows on satanism and the occult. Heavy +metal and black metal music, which often has a satanic theme, is +readily available and popular. In addition to the much-debated +fantasy role-playing games, there are numerous popular toys on the +market with an occult-oriented, bizarre, or violent theme. + +Books on satanism and the occult, both fiction and nonfiction, are +readily available in most bookstores, especially Christian +bookstores. Several recent books specifically discuss the issue of +ritual abuse of children. Obviously, very young children do not read +this material, but their parents, relatives, and therapists might +and then discuss it in front of or with them. Much of the material +intended to fight the problem actually fuels the problem and damages +effective prosecution. + +-- d. SUGGESTIONS AND LEADING QUESTIONS. + +This problem is particularly important in cases stemming from +custody/visitation disputes involving at least one child under the +age of seven. It is my opinion that most suggestive, leading +questioning of children by intervenors is inadvertently done as part +of a good-faith effort to learn the truth. Not all intervenors are +in equal positions to potentially influence victim allegations. +Parents and relatives especially are in a position to subtly +influence their young children to describe their victimization in a +certain way. Children may also overhear their parents discussing the +details of the case. Children often tell their parents what they +believe their parents want or need to hear. Some children may be +instinctively attempting to provide "therapy" for their parents by +telling them what seems to satisfy them and somehow makes them feel +better. In one case a father gave the police a tape recording to +"prove" that his child's statements were spontaneous disclosures and +not the result of leading, suggestive questions. The tape recording +indicated just the opposite. Why then did the father voluntarily +give it to the police? Probably because he truly believed that he +was not influencing his child's statements - but he was. + +Therapists are probably in the best position to influence the +allegations of adult survivors. The accuracy and reliability of the +accounts of adult survivors who have been hypnotized during therapy +is certainly open to question. One nationally-known therapist +personally told me that the reason police cannot find out about +satanic or ritualistic activity from child victims is that they do +not know how to ask leading questions. Highly suggestive books and +pictures portraying "satanic" activity have been developed and +marketed to therapists for use during evaluation and treatment. +Types and styles of verbal interaction useful in therapy may create +significant problems in a criminal investigation. It should be +noted, however, that when a therapist does a poor investigative +interview as part of a criminal investigation, that is the fault of +the criminal justice system that allowed it and not the therapist +who did it. + +The extremely sensitive, emotional, and religious nature of these +cases makes problems with leading questions more likely than in +other kinds of cases. Intervenors motivated by religious fervor +and/or exaggerated concerns about sexual abuse of children are more +likely to lose their objectivity. + +-- e. MISPERCEPTION AND CONFUSION. + +In one case, a child's description of the apparently impossible act +of walking through a wall turned out to be the very possible act of +walking between the studs of an unfinished wall in a room under +construction. In another case, pennies in the anus turned out to be +copper-foil-covered suppositories. The children may describe what +they believe happened. It is not a lie, but neither is it an +accurate account of what happened. + +-- f. EDUCATION AND AWARENESS PROGRAMS. + +Some well-intentioned awareness programs designed to prevent child +set abuse, alert professionals, or fight satanism may in fact be +unrealistically increasing the fears of professionals, children, and +parents and creating self-fulfilling prophesies. Some of what +children and their parents are telling intervenors may have been +learned in or fueled by such programs. Religious programs, books, +and pamphlets that emphasize the power and evil force of Satan may +be adding to the problem. In fact most of the day care centers in +which ritualistic abuse is alleged to hate taken place are church- +affiliated centers, and many of the adult survivors alleging it come +from apparently religious families. + +8. LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSPECTIVE. + +The perspective with which one looks at satanic, occult, or +ritualistic crime is extremely important. As stated, sociologists, +therapists, religious leaders, parents, and just plain citizens each +have their own valid concerns and views about this issue. This +discussion, however, deals primarily with the law enforcement or +criminal justice perspective. + +When you combine an emotional issue such as the sexual abuse of +children with an even more emotional issue such as people's +religious beliefs, it is difficult to maintain objectivity and +remember the law enforcement perspective. Some police officers may +even feel that all crime is caused by evil, all evil is caused by +Satan, and therefore, all crime is satanic crime. This may be a +valid religious perspective, but it is of no relevance to the +investigation of crime for purposes of prosecution. + +Many of the police officers who lecture on satanic or occult crime +do not even investigate such cases. Their presentations are more a +reflection of their personal religious beliefs than documented +investigative information. They are absolutely entitled to their +beliefs, but introducing themselves as current or former police +officers and then speaking as religious advocates causes confusion. +As difficult as it might be, police officers must separate the +religious and law enforcement perspectives when they are lecturing +or investigating in their official capacities as law enforcement +officers. Many law enforcement officers begin their presentations by +stating that they are not addressing or judging anyone's religious +beliefs, and then proceed to do exactly that. + +Some police officers have resigned rather than curtail or limit +their involvement in this issue as ordered by their departments. +Perhaps such officers deserve credit for recognizing that they could +no longer keep the perspectives separate. + +Law enforcement officers and all professionals in this field should +avoid the "paranoia" that has crept into this issue and into some of +the training conferences. Paranoid type belief systems are +characterized by the gradual development of intricate, complex, and +elaborate systems of thinking based on and often proceeding +logically from misinterpretation of actual events. Paranoia +typically involves hypervigilance over the perceived threat, the +belief that danger is around every corner, and the willingness to +take up the challenge and do something about it. Another very +important aspect of this paranoia is the belief that those who do +not recognize the threat are evil and corrupt. In this extreme view, +you are either with them or against them. You are either part of the +solution or part of the problem. + +Overzealousness and exaggeration motivated by the true religious +fervor of those involved is more acceptable than that motivated by +ego or profit. There are those who are deliberately distorting and +hyping this issue for personal notoriety and profit. Satanic and +occult crime and ritual abuse of children has become a growth +industry. Speaking fees, books, video and audio tapes, prevention +material, television and radio appearances all bring egoistic and +financial rewards. + +Bizarre crime and evil can occur without organized satanic activity. +The professional perspective requires that we distinguish between +what we know and what we're not sure of. + +The facts are: + +-- a. Some individuals believe in and are involved in something +commonly called satanism and the occult. + +-- b. Some of these individuals commit crime. + +-- c. Some groups of individuals share these beliefs and involvement +in this satanism and the occult. + +-- d. Some members of these groups commit crime together. + +The unanswered questions are: + +-- a. What is the connection between the belief system and the +crimes committed? + +-- b. Is there an organized conspiracy of satanic and occult +believers responsible for interrelated serious crime (e.g., +molestation, murder)? + +After all the hype and hysteria are put aside, the realization sets +in that most satanic/occult activity involves the commission of *no* +crimes, and that which does usually involves the commission of +relatively minor crimes such as trespassing, vandalism, cruelty to +animals, or petty thievery. + +The law enforcement problems most often linked to satanic or occult +activity are: + +-- a. Vandalism. + +-- b. Desecration of churches and cemeteries. + +-- c. Thefts from churches and cemeteries. + +-- d. Teenage gangs + +-- e. Animal mutilations. + +-- f. Teenage suicide. + +-- g. Child abuse. + +-- h. Kidnapping. + +-- i. Murder and human sacrifice + +Valid evidence shows some "connection" between satanism and the +occult and the first six problems (#a-f) set forth above. The +"connection" to the last three problems (#g-i) is far more +uncertain. + +Even where there seems to be a "connection", the nature of the +connection needs to be explored. It is easy to blame involvement in +satanism and the occult for behaviors that have complex motivations. +A teenager's excessive involvement in satanism and the occult is +usually a symptom of a problem and not the cause of a problem. +Blaming satanism for a teenager's vandalism, theft, suicide, or even +act of murder is like blaming a criminal's offenses on his tattoos: +Both are often signs of the same rebelliousness and lack of self- +esteem that contribute to the commission of crimes. + +The rock band Judas Priest was recently sued for allegedly inciting +two teenagers to suicide through subliminal messages in their +recordings. In 1991 Anthony Pratkanis of the University of +California at Santa Cruz, who served as an expert witness for the +defense, stated the boys in question "lived troubled lives, lives of +drug and alcohol abuse, run-ins with the law ... family violence, +and chronic unemployment. What issues did the trial and the +subsequent mass media coverage emphasize? Certainly not the need for +drug treatment centers; there was no evaluation of the pros and cons +of America's juvenile justice system, no investigation of the +schools, no inquiry into how to prevent family violence, no +discussion of the effects of unemployment on a family. Instead our +attention was mesmerized by an attempt to count the number of +subliminal demons that can dance on the end of a record needle" (p. +1). + +The law enforcement investigator must objectively evaluate the legal +significance of any criminal's spiritual beliefs. In most cases, +including those involving satanists, it will have little or no legal +significance. If a crime is committed as part of a spiritual belief +system, it should make no difference which belief system it is. The +crime is the same whether a child is abused or murdered as part of a +Christian, Hare Krishna, Moslem, or any other belief system. We +generally don't label crimes with the name of the perpetrator's +religion. Why then are the crimes of child molesters, rapists, +sadists, and murderers who happen to be involved in satanism and the +occult labeled as satanic or occult crimes? If criminals use a +spiritual belief system to rationalize and justify or to facilitate +and enhance their criminal activity, should the focus of law +enforcement be on the belief system or on the criminal activity? + +Several documented murders have been committed by individuals +involved in one way or another in satanism or the occult. In some of +these murders the perpetrator has even introduced elements of the + + + +--- msgedsq 2.1a + * Origin: The Northern Lights 916-729-0304 (1:203/444) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/lanning9.txt b/religious documents/lanning9.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c51012b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lanning9.txt @@ -0,0 +1,269 @@ +Message #12 board "P_Metaphysical (Mag Articles)" +Date : 22-Jan-93 15:58 +From : Simon Novali +To : All +Subj : Lanning (9 of 11) + +occult (e.g. satanic symbols at crime scene). Does that +automatically make these satanic murders? It is my opinion that the +answer is no. Ritualistic murders committed by serial killers or +sexual sadists are not necessarily satanic or occult murders. +Ritualistic murders committed by psychotic killers who hear the +voice of Satan are no more satanic murders than murders committed by +psychotic killers who hear the voice of Jesus are Christian murders. + +Rather a satanic murder should be defined as one committed by two or +more individuals who rationally plan the crime and whose *primary* +motivation is to fulfill a prescribed satanic ritual calling for the +murder. By this definition I have been unable to identify even one +documented satanic murder in the United States. Although such +murders may have and can occur, they appear to be few in number. In +addition the commission of such killings would probably be the +beginning of the end for such a group. It is highly unlikely that +they could continue to kill several people, every year, year after +year, and not be discovered. + +A brief typology of satanic and occult practitioners is helpful in +evaluating what relationship, if any, such practices have to crimes +under investigation. The following typology is adapted from the +investigative experience of Officer Sandi Gallant of the San +Francisco Police Department, who began to study the criminal aspects +of occult activity long before it became popular. No typology is +perfect, but I use this typology because it is simple and offers +investigative insights. Most practitioners fall into one of three +categories, any of which can be practiced alone or in groups: + +-- a. "YOUTH SUBCULTURE. + +"Most teenagers involved in fantasy role-playing games, heavy metal +music, or satanism and the occult are going through a stage of +adolescent development and commit no significant crimes. The +teenagers who have more serious problems are usually those from +dysfunctional families or those who have poor communication within +their families. These troubled teenagers turn to satanism and the +occult to overcome a sense of alienation, to rebel, to obtain power, +or to justify their antisocial behavior. For these teenagers it is +the symbolism, not the spirituality, that is more important. It is +either the psychopathic or the oddball, loner teenager who is most +likely to get into serious trouble. Extreme involvement in the +occult is a symptom of a problem, not the cause. This is not to +deny, however, that satanism and the occult can be negative +influences for a troubled teenager. But to hysterically warn +teenagers to avoid this "mysterious, powerful and dangerous" thing +called satanism will drive more teenagers right to it. Some +rebellious teenagers will do whatever will most shock and outrage +society in order to flaunt their rejection of adult norms. + +-- b. "DABBLERS (SELF-STYLED). + +"For these practitioners there is little or no spiritual motivation. +They may mix satanism, witchcraft, paganism, and any aspects of the +occult to suit their purposes. Symbols mean whatever they want them +or believe them to mean. Molesters, rapists, drug dealers, and +murderers may dabble in the occult and may even commit their crimes +in a ceremonial or ritualistic way. This category has the potential +to be the most dangerous, and most of the "satanic" killers fall +into this category. Their involvement in satanism and the occult is +a symptom of a problem, and a rationalization and justification of +antisocial behavior. Satanic/occult practices (as well as those of +other spiritual belief systems) can also be used as a mechanism to +facilitate criminal objectives. + +-- c. "TRADITIONAL (ORTHODOX). + +"These are the so-called true believers. They are often wary of +outsiders. Because of this and constitutional issues, such groups +are difficult for law enforcement to penetrate. Although there may +be much we don't know about these groups, as of now there is little +or no hard evidence that as a group they are involved in serious, +organized criminal activity. In addition, instead of being self- +perpetuating master crime conspirators, "true believers" probably +have a similar problem with their teenagers rebelling against their +belief system. To some extent even these Traditional satanists are +self-stylized. They practice what they have come to believe is +"satanism". There is little or no evidence of the much-discussed +multigenerational satanists whose beliefs and practices have +supposedly been passed down through the centuries. Many admitted +adult satanists were in fact raised in conservative Christian +homes." + +_Washington Post_ editor Walt Harrington reported in a 1986 story on +Anton LaVey and his Church of Satan that "sociologists who have +studied LaVey's church say that its members often had serious +childhood problems like alcoholic parents or broken homes, or that +they were traumatized by guilt-ridden fundamentalist upbringings, +turning to Satanism as a dramatic way to purge their debilitating +guilt" (p. 14). + +Some have claimed that the accounts of ritual abuse victims coincide +with historical records of what traditional or multigenerational +satanists are known to have practiced down through the ages. Jeffrey +Burton Russell, Professor of History at the University of California +at Santa Barbara and the author of numerous scholarly books on the +devil and satanism, believes that the universal consensus of modern +historians on satanism is (personal communication, Nov. 1991): + +"(1) incidents of orgy, infanticide, cannibalism, and other such +conduct have occurred from the ancient world down to the present; +(2) such incidents were isolated and limited to local antisocial +groups; (3) during the period of Christian dominance in European +culture, such groups were associated with the Devil in the minds of +the authorities; (4) in some cases the sectaries believed that they +were worshiping Satan; (5) no organized cult of Satanists existed in +the Christian period beyond localities, and on no account was there +ever any widespread Satanist organization or conspiracy; (6) no +reliable historical sources indicate that such organizations +existed; (7) the black mass appears only once in the sources before +the late nineteenth century." + +Many police officers ask what to look for during the search of the +scene of suspected satanic activity. The answer is simple: Look for +evidence of a crime. A pentagram is no more criminally significant +than a crucifix unless it corroborates a crime or a criminal +conspiracy. If a victim's description of the location or the +instruments of the crime includes a pentagram, then the pentagram +would be evidence. But the same would be true if the description +included a crucifix. In many cases of alleged satanic ritual abuse, +investigation can find evidence that the claimed offenders are +members only of mainstream churches and are often described as very +religious. + +There is no way any one law enforcement officer can become +knowledgeable about all the symbols and rituals of every spiritual +belief system that might become part of a criminal investigation. +The officer needs only to be trained to recognize the possible +investigative significance of such signs, symbols, and rituals. +Knowledgeable religious scholars, academics, and other true experts +in the community can be consulted if a more detailed analysis is +necessary. + +Any analysis, however, may have only limited application, especially +to cases involving teenagers, dabblers, and other self-styled +practitioners. The fact is signs, symbols, and rituals can mean +anything that practitioners want them to mean and/or anything that +observers interpret them to mean. + +The meaning of symbols can also change over time, place, and +circumstance. Is a swastika spray-painted on a wall an ancient +symbol of prosperity and good fortune, a recent symbol of Nazism and +anti-Semitism, or a current symbol of hate, paranoia, and adolescent +defiance? The peace sign which in the 1960s was a familiar antiwar +symbol is now supposed to be a satanic symbol. Some symbols and +holidays become "satanic" only because the antisatanists say they +are. Then those who want to be "satanists" adopt them, and now you +have "proof" they are satanic. + +In spite of what is sometimes said or suggested at law enforcement +training conferences, police have no authority to seize any satanic +or occult paraphernalia they might see during a search. A legally- +valid reason must exist for doing so. It is not the job of law +enforcement to prevent satanists from engaging in noncriminal +teaching, rituals, or other activities. + +9. INVESTIGATING MULTIDIMENSIONAL CHILD SEX RINGS. + +Multidimensional child sex rings can be among the most difficult, +frustrating, and complex cases that any law enforcement officer will +ever investigate. The investigation of allegations of recent +activity from multiple young children under the age of seven +presents one set of problems and must begin quickly, with interviews +of *all* potential victims being completed as soon as possible. The +investigation of allegations of activity ten or more years earlier +from adult survivors presents other problems and should proceed, +unless victims are at immediate risk, more deliberately, with +gradually-increasing resources as corroborated facts warrant. + +In spite of any skepticism, allegations of ritual abuse should be +aggressively and thoroughly investigated, This investigation should +attempt to corroborate the allegations of ritual abuse. but should +*simultaneously* also attempt to identify alternative explanations. +The only debate is over how much investigation is enough. Any law +enforcement agency must be prepared to defend and justify its +actions when scrutinized by the public, the media, elected +officials, or the courts. This does not mean, however, that a law +enforcement agency has an obligation to prove that the alleged +crimes did not occur. This is almost always impossible to do and +investigators should be alert for and avoid this trap. + +One major problem in the investigation of multidimensional child sex +rings is the dilemma of recognizing soon enough that you have one. +Investigators must be alert for cases with the potential for the +four basic dynamics: (a) multiple young victims, (b) multiple +offenders, (c) fear as the controlling tactic, and (d) bizarre or +ritualistic activity. The following techniques apply primarily to +the investigation of such multidimensional child sex rings: + + +-- a. MINIMIZE SATANIC/OCCULT ASPECT. + +There are those who claim that one of the major reasons more of +these cases have not been successfully prosecuted is that the +satanic/occult aspect has not been aggressively pursued. One state +has even introduced legislation creating added penalties when +certain crimes are committed as part of a ritual or ceremony. A few +states have passed special ritual crime laws. I strongly disagree +with such an approach. It makes no difference what spiritual belief +system was used to enhance and facilitate or rationalize and justify +criminal behavior. It serves no purpose to "prove" someone is a +satanist. As a matter of fact, if it is alleged that the subject +committed certain criminal acts under the influence of or in order +to conjure up supernatural spirits or forces, this may very well be +the basis for an insanity or diminished capacity defense, or may +damage the intent aspect of a sexually motivated crime. The defense +may very well be more interested in all the "evidence of satanic +activity". Some of the satanic crime "experts" who train law +enforcement wind up working or testifying for the defense in these +cases. + +It is best to focus on the crime and all the evidence to corroborate +its commission. Information about local satanic or occult activity +is only of value if it is based on specific law enforcement +intelligence and not on some vague, unsubstantiated generalities +from religious groups. Cases are not solved by decoding signs, +symbols, and dates using undocumented satanic crime "manuals". In +one case a law enforcement agency executing a search warrant seized +only the satanic paraphernalia and left behind the other evidence +that would have corroborated victim statements. Cases are solved by +people- and behavior-oriented investigation. Evidence of satanic or +occult activity may help explain certain aspects of the case, but +even offenders who commit crimes in a spiritual context are usually +motivated by power, sex, and money. + +-- b. KEEP INVESTIGATION AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS SEPARATE. + +I believe that one of the biggest mistakes any investigator of these +cases can make is to attribute supernatural powers to the offenders. +During an investigation a good investigator may sometimes be able to +use the beliefs and superstitions of the offenders to his or her +advantage. The reverse happens if the investigator believes that the +offenders possess supernatural powers. Satanic/occult practitioners +have no more power than any other human beings. Law enforcement +officers who believe that the investigation of these cases puts them +in conflict with the supernatural forces of evil should probably not +be assigned to them. The religious beliefs of officers should +provide spiritual strength and support for them but should not +affect the objectivity and professionalism of the investigation. + +It is easy to get caught up in these cases and begin to see +"satanism" everywhere. Oversensitization to this perceived threat +may cause an investigator to "see" satanism in a crime when it +really is not there (quasi-satanism). Often the eye sees what the +mind perceives. It may also cause an investigator not to recognize a +staged crime scene deliberately seeded with "satanic clues" in order +to mislead the police (pseudo-satanism). On rare occasions an +overzealous investigator or intervenor may even be tempted to plant +"evidence of satanism" in order to corroborate such allegations and +beliefs. Supervisors need to be alert for and monitor these +reactions in their investigators. + +-- c. LISTEN TO THE VICTIMS. + +It is not the investigator's duty to believe the victims; it is his +or her job to listen and be an objective fact finder. Interviews of +young children should be done by investigators trained and + + + +--- msgedsq 2.1a + * Origin: The Northern Lights 916-729-0304 (1:203/444) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/lannng10.txt b/religious documents/lannng10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2407212 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lannng10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,266 @@ +Message #13 board "P_Metaphysical (Mag Articles)" +Date : 22-Jan-93 15:58 +From : Simon Novali +To : All +Subj : Lanning (10 of 11) + +experienced in such interviews. Investigators must have direct +access to the alleged victims for interview purposes. Therapists for +an adult survivor sometimes want to act as intermediaries in their +patient's interview. This should be avoided if at all possible. +Adult survivor interviews are often confusing difficult and +extremely time-consuming. The investigator must remember however +that almost anything is possible. Most important the investigator +must remember that there is much middle ground. Just because one +event did happen does not mean that all reported events happened, +and just because one event did not happen does not mean that all +other events did not happen. Do not become such a zealot that you +believe it all nor such a cynic that you believe nothing. Varying +amounts and parts of the allegation may be factual. Attempting to +find evidence of what did happen is the great challenge of these +cases. *All* investigative interaction with victims must be +carefully and thoroughly documented. + +-- d. ASSESS AND EVALUATE VICTIM STATEMENTS. + +This is the part of the investigative process in child sexual +victimization cases that seems to have been lost. Is the victim +describing events and activities that are consistent with law +enforcement documented criminal behavior, or that are consistent +with distorted media accounts and erroneous public perceptions of +criminal behavior? Investigators should apply the "template of +probability". Accounts of child sexual victimization that are more +like books, television, and movies (e.g. big conspiracies, child sex +slaves, organized pornography rings) and less like documented cases +should be viewed with skepticism but thoroughly investigated. +Consider and investigate all possible explanations of events. It is +the investigator's job, and the information learned will be +invaluable in counteracting the defense attorneys when they raise +the alternative explanations. + +For example, an adult survivor's account of ritual victimization +might be explained by any one of at least four possibilities: First, +the allegations may be a fairly accurate account what actually +happened. Second, they may be deliberate lies (malingering), told +for the usual reasons people lie (e.g. money, revenge, jealousy). +Third, they may be deliberate lies (factitious disorder) told for +atypical reasons (e.g. attention, forgiveness). Lies so motivated +are less likely to be recognized by the investigator and more likely +to be rigidly maintained by the liar unless and until confronted +with irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Fourth, the allegations +may be a highly inaccurate account of what actually happened, but +the victim truly believes it (pseudomemory) and therefore is not +lying. A polygraph examination of such a victim would be of limited +value. Other explanations or combinations of these explanations are +also possible. *Only* thorough *investigation* will point to the +correct or most likely explanation. + +Investigators cannot rely on therapists or satanic crime experts as +a shortcut to the explanation. In one case, the "experts" confirmed +and validated the account of a female who claimed to be a 15-year- +old deaf-mute kidnapped and held for three years by a satanic cult +and forced to participate in bizarre rituals before recently +escaping. Active investigation, however, determined she was a 27- +year-old woman who could hear and speak, who had not been kidnapped +by anyone, and who had a lengthy history of mental problems and at +least three other similar reports of false victimization. Her +"accurate" accounts of what the "real satanists" do were simply the +result of having read, while in mental hospitals, the same books +that the "experts" had. A therapist may have important insights +about whether an individual was traumatized, but knowing the exact +cause of that trauma is another matter. There have been cases where +investigation has discovered that individuals diagnosed by +therapists as suffering from Post-Vietnam Syndrome were never in +Vietnam or saw no combat. + +Conversely, in another case, a law enforcement "expert" on satanic +crime told a therapist that a patient's accounts of satanic murders +in a rural Pacific Northwest town were probably true because the +community was a hotbed of such satanic activity. When the therapist +explained that there was almost no violent crime reported in the +community, the officer explained that that is how you know it is the +satanists. If you knew about the murders or found the bodies, it +would not be satanists. How do you argue with that kind of logic? + +The first step in the assessment and evaluation of victim statements +is to determine the disclosure sequence, including how much time has +elapsed since disclosure was first made and the incident was +reported to the police or social services. The longer the delay, the +bigger the potential for problems. The next step is to determine the +number and purpose of *all prior* interviews of the victim +concerning the allegations. The more interviews conducted before the +investigative interview, the larger the potential for problems. +Although there is nothing wrong with admitting shortcomings and +seeking help, law enforcement should never abdicate its control over +the investigative interview. When an investigative interview is +conducted by or with a social worker or therapist using a team +approach, law enforcement must direct the process. Problems can also +be created by interviews conducted by various intervenors *after* +the investigative interview(s). + +The investigator must closely and carefully evaluate events in the +victim's life before, during, and after the alleged abuse. + +Events to be evaluated *before* the alleged abuse include: + +---- (1) Background of victim. +---- (2) Abuse of drugs in home. +---- (3) Pornography in home. +---- (4) Play, television, and VCR habits. +---- (5) Attitudes about sexuality in home. +---- (6) Extent of sex education in home. +---- (7) Activities of siblings. +---- (8) Need or craving for attention. +---- (9) Religious beliefs and training. +---- (10) Childhood fears. +---- (11) Custody/visitation disputes. +---- (12) Victimization of or by family members. +---- (13) Interaction between victims. + +Events to be evaluated *during* the alleged abuse include: + +---- (1) Use of fear or scare tactics. +---- (2) Degree of trauma. +---- (3) Use of magic deception or trickery. +---- (4) Use of rituals. +---- (5) Use of drugs. +---- (6) Use of pornography. + +Events to be evaluated *after* the alleged abuse include: + +---- (1) Disclosure sequence. +---- (2) Background of prior interviewers. +---- (3) Background of parents. +---- (4) Co-mingling of victims. +---- (5) Type of therapy received. + +-- e. EVALUATE CONTAGION. + +Consistent statements obtained from different multiple victims are +powerful pieces of corroborative evidence - that is as long as those +statements were not "contaminated". Investigation must carefully +evaluate both pre- and post-disclosure contagion, and both victim +and intervenor contagion. Are the different victim statements +consistent because they describe common experiences or events, or +because they reflect contamination or urban legends? + +The sources of potential contagion are widespread. Victims can +communicate with each other both prior to and after their +disclosures. Intervenors can communicate with each other and with +victims. The team or cell concepts of investigation are attempts to +deal with potential investigator contagion. All the victims are not +interviewed by the same individuals, and interviewers do not +necessarily share information directly with each other. Teams report +to a leader or supervisor who evaluates the information and decides +what other investigators need to know. + +Documenting existing contagion and eliminating additional contagion +are crucial to the successful investigation and prosecution of these +cases. There is no way, however, to erase or undo contagion. The +best you can hope for is to identify and evaluate it and attempt to +explain it. Mental health professionals requested to evaluate +suspected victims must be carefully selected. Having a victim +evaluated by one of the self-proclaimed experts on satanic ritual +abuse or by some other overzealous intervenor may result in the +credibility of that victim's testimony being severely damaged. + +In order to evaluate the contagion element, investigators must +meticulously and aggressively investigate these cases. The precise +disclosure sequence of the victim must be carefully identified and +documented. Investigators must verify through active investigation +the exact nature and content of each disclosure outcry or statement +made by the victim. Second-hand information about disclosure is not +good enough. + +Whenever possible, personal visits should be made to all locations +of alleged abuse and the victim's homes. Events prior to the alleged +abuse must be carefully evaluated. Investigators may have to view +television programs, films, and videotapes seen by the victims. It +may be necessary to conduct a background investigation and +evaluation of everyone, both professional and nonprofessional, who +interviewed the victims about the allegations prior to and after the +investigative interview(s). Investigators must be familiar with the +information about ritual abuse of children being disseminated in +magazines, books, television programs, videotapes, and conferences. +Every possible way that a victim could have learned about the +details of the abuse must be explored if for no other reason than to +eliminate them and counter the defense's arguments. + +There may, however, be validity to these contagion factors. *They +may explain some of the "unbelievable" aspects of the case and +result in the successful prosecution of the substance of the case.* +Consistency of statements becomes more significant if contagion is +identified or disproved by independent investigation. The easier +cases are the ones where there is a single, identifiable source of +contagion. Most cases, however, seem to involve multiple contagion +factors. + +Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy are complex and +controversial issues in these cases. No attempt will be made to +discuss them in detail, but they are documented facts (Rosenberg, +1987). Most of the literature about them focuses on their +manifestation in the medical setting as false or self-inflicted +illness or injury. They are also manifested in the criminal justice +setting as false or self-inflicted crime victimization. If parents +would poison their children to prove an illness, they might sexually +abuse their children to prove a crime. "Victims" have been known to +destroy property, manufacture evidence, and mutilate themselves in +order to convince others of their victimization. The motivation is +psychological gain (i.e. attention, forgiveness, etc.) and not +necessarily money, jealousy, or revenge. These are the unpopular, +but documented, realities of the world. Recognizing their existence +does not mean that child sexual abuse and sexual assault are not +real and serious problems. + +-- f. ESTABLISH COMMUNICATION WITH PARENTS. + +The importance and difficulty of this technique in extrafamilial +cases involving young children cannot be overemphasized. An +investigator must maintain ongoing communication with the parents of +victims in these abuse cases. Not all parents react the same way to +the alleged abuse of their children. Some are very supportive and +cooperative. Others overreact and some even deny the victimization. +Sometimes there is animosity and mistrust among parents with +different reactions. Once the parents lose faith in the police or +prosecutor and begin to interrogate their own children and conduct +their own investigation, the case may be lost forever. Parents from +one case communicate the results of their "investigation" with each +other, and some have even contacted the parents in other cases. Such +parental activity is an obvious source of potential contamination. + +Parents must be made to understand that their children's credibility +will be jeopardized when and if the information obtained turns out +to be unsubstantiated or false. To minimize this problem, within the +limits of the law and without jeopardizing investigative techniques, +parents must be told on a regular basis how the case is progressing. +Parents can also be assigned constructive things to do (e.g. +lobbying for new legislation, working on awareness and prevention +programs) in order to channel their energy, concern, and "guilt". + +-- g. DEVELOP A CONTINGENCY PLAN. + +If a department waits until actually confronted with a case before a +response is developed, it may be too late. In cases involving +ongoing abuse of children, departments must respond quickly, and +this requires advanced planning. There are added problems for small- +to medium-sized departments with limited personnel and resources. +Effective investigation of these cases requires planning, +identification of resources, and, in many cases, mutual aid +agreements between agencies. The U.S. Department of Defense has +conducted specialized training and has developed such a plan for +child sex ring cases involving military facilities and personnel. +Once a case is contaminated and out of control, I have little advice +on how to salvage what may once have been a prosecutable criminal +violation. A few of these cases have even been lost on appeal after +a conviction because of contamination problems. + +-- h. MULTIDISCIPLINARY TASK FORCES. + +Sergeant Beth Dickinson, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, +was the chairperson of the Multi-Victim, Multi-Suspect Child Sexual + + + +--- msgedsq 2.1a + * Origin: The Northern Lights 916-729-0304 (1:203/444) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/lannng11.txt b/religious documents/lannng11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc46282 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lannng11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,278 @@ +Message #14 board "P_Metaphysical (Mag Articles)" +Date : 22-Jan-93 15:58 +From : Simon Novali +To : All +Subj : Lanning (11 of 11) + +Abuse Subcommittee. Sergeant Dickinson states (personal +communication, Nov. 1989): + +"One of the biggest obstacles for investigators to overcome is the +reluctance of law enforcement administrators to commit sufficient +resources early on to an investigation that has the potential to be +a multidimensional child sex ring. It is important to get in and get +on top of the investigation in a timely manner - to get it +investigated in a timely manner in order to assess the risk to +children and to avoid hysteria, media sensationalism, and cross- +contamination of information. The team approach reduces stress on +individual investigators, allowing for peer support and minimizing +feelings of being overwhelmed." + +The team approach and working together does not mean, however, that +each discipline forgets its role and starts doing the other's job. + +-- i. SUMMARY. + +The investigation of child sex rings can be difficult and time +consuming. The likelihood, however, of a great deal of corroborative +evidence in a multivictim/multioffender case increases the chances +of a successful prosecution if the crime occurred. Because there is +still so much we do not know or understand about the dynamics of +multidimensional child sex rings, investigative techniques are less +certain. Each new case must be carefully evaluated in order to +improve investigative procedures. + +Because mental health professionals seem to be unable to determine, +with any degree of certainty, the accuracy of victim statements in +these cases, law enforcement must proceed using the corroboration +process. If some of what the victim describes is accurate, some +misperceived, some distorted, and some contaminated, what is the +jury supposed to believe? Until mental health professionals can come +up with better answers, the jury should be asked to believe what the +*investigation* can corroborate. Even if only a portion of what +these victims allege is factual, that may still constitute +significant criminal activity. + +10. CONCLUSION. + +There are many possible alternative answers to the question of why +victims are alleging things that don't seem to be true. The first +step in finding those answers is to admit the possibility that some +of what the victims describe may not have happened. Some experts +seem unwilling to even consider this. Most of these victims are also +probably not lying and have come to believe that which they are +alleging actually happened. There are alternative explanations for +why people who never met each other can tell the same story. + +I believe that there is a middle ground - a continuum of possible +activity. Some of what the victims allege may be true and accurate, +some may be misperceived or distorted, some may be screened or +symbolic, and some may be "contaminated" or false. The problem and +challenge, especially for law enforcement, is to determine which is +which. This can only be done through active investigation. I believe +that the majority of victims alleging "ritual" abuse are in fact +victims of some form of abuse or trauma. That abuse or trauma may or +may not be criminal in nature. After a lengthy discussion about +various alternative explanations and the continuum of possible +activity, one mother told me that for the first time since the +victimization of her young son she felt a little better. She had +thought her only choices were that either her son was a pathological +liar or, on the other hand, she lived in a community controlled by +satanists. + +Law enforcement has the obvious problem of attempting to determine +what actually happened for criminal justice purposes. Therapists, +however, might also be interested in what really happened in order +to properly evaluate and treat their patients. How and when to +confront patients with skepticism is a difficult and sensitive +problem for therapists. + +Any professional evaluating victims' allegations of "ritual" abuse +cannot ignore or routinely dismiss the lack of physical evidence (no +bodies or physical evidence left by violent murders); the difficulty +in successfully committing a large-scale conspiracy crime (the more +people involved in any crime conspiracy, the harder it is to get +away with it); and human nature (intragroup conflicts resulting in +individual self-serving disclosures are likely to occur in any group +involved in organized kidnapping, baby breeding, and human +sacrifice). If and when members of a destructive cult commit +murders, they are bound to make mistakes, leave evidence, and +eventually make admissions in order to brag about their crimes or to +reduce their legal liability. The discovery of the murders in +Matamoros, Mexico in 1989 and the results of the subsequent +investigation are good examples of these dynamics. + +Overzealous intervenors must accept the fact that some of their +well-intentioned activity is contaminating and damaging the +prosecutive potential of the cases where criminal acts did occur. We +must all (i.e., the media, churches, therapists, victim advocates, +law enforcement, and the general public) ask ourselves if we have +created an environment where victims are rewarded, listened to, +comforted, and forgiven in direct proportion to the severity of +their abuse. Are we encouraging needy or traumatized individuals to +tell more and more outrageous tales of their victimization? Are we +making up for centuries of denial by now blindly accepting any +allegation of child abuse no matter how absurd or unlikely? Are we +increasing the likelihood that rebellious, antisocial, or attention- +seeking individuals will gravitate toward "satanism" by publicizing +it and overreacting to it? The overreaction to the problem can be +worse than the problem. + +The amount of "ritual" child abuse going on in this country depends +on how you define the term. One documented example of what I might +call "ritual" child abuse was the horror chronicled in the book _A +Death in White Bear Lake_ (Siegal, 1990). The abuse in this case, +however, had little to do with anyone's spiritual belief system. +There are many children in the United States who, starting early in +their lives, are severely psychologically, physically, and sexually +traumatized by angry, sadistic parents or other adults. Such abuse, +however, is not perpetrated only or primarily by satanists. The +statistical odds are that such abusers are members of mainstream +religions. If 99.9% of satanists and 0.1% of Christians abuse +children as part of their spiritual belief system, that still means +that the vast majority of children so abused were abused by +Christians. + +Until hard evidence is obtained and corroborated, the public should +not be frightened into believing that babies are being bred and +eaten, that 50,000 missing children are being murdered in human +sacrifices, or that satanists are taking over America's day care +centers or institutions. No one can prove with absolute certainty +that such activity has *not* occurred. The burden of proof, however, +as it would be in a criminal prosecution, is on those who claim that +it has occurred. + +The explanation that the satanists are too organized and law +enforcement is too incompetent only goes so far in explaining the +lack of evidence. For at least eight years American law enforcement +has been aggressively investigating the allegations of victims of +ritual abuse. There is little or no evidence for the portion of +their allegations that deals with large-scale baby breeding, human +sacrifice, and organized satanic conspiracies. Now it is up to +mental health professionals, not law enforcement, to explain why +victims are alleging things that don't seem to have happened. +Professionals in this field must accept the fact that there is still +much we do not know about the sexual victimization of children, and +that this area desperately needs study and research by rational, +objective social scientists. + +If the guilty are to be successfully prosecuted, if the innocent are +to be exonerated, and if the victims are to be protected and +treated, better methods to evaluate and explain allegations of +"ritual" child abuse must be developed or identified. Until this is +done, the controversy will continue to cast a shadow over and fuel +the backlash against the validity and reality of child sexual abuse. + +XI. REFERENCES. + +American Psychiatric Association, _Diagnostic and Statistical Manual +of Mental Disorders_ (3rd Ed., Rev.). Washington, DC: 1987. + +Breiner, S.J., _Slaughter of the Innocents: Child Abuse Through the +Ages and Today_. New York: Plenum Press, 1990. + +Brown, R., _Prepare for War_. Chino, CA: Chick Publications, 1987. + +Brunvand, J.H., _The Vanishing Hitchhiker_. New York: Norton, 1981. + +Harrington, Walt, "The Devil in Anton LaVey". Washington, D.C.: _The +Washington Post Magazine_, February 23, 1986, pages #6-17. + +Lanning, K.V., _Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis_ (2nd Ed.). +Washington, D.C.: National Center for Missing and Exploited +Children, 1987. + +Lanning, K.V. (1989). Child sex rings: A behavioral analysis. +Washington, DC: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. + +LaVey, Anton, _The Satanic Bible_. New York: Avon Books, 1969. + +Mayer, R.S., _Satan's Children_. New York: Putnam, 1991. + +Michigan Department of State Police, _Occult Survey_. East Lansing, +Michigan, 1990. + +_National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV) News_, June- +October 1988, page #3. + +_National Incidence Studies on Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and +Thrownaway Children in America_. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department +of Justice, 1990. + +Prattanis, A., "Hidden messages", _Wellness Letter_. Berkeley, +California: University of California, January 1991, pages #1-2. + +Rosenberg, D.A., "Web of Deceit: A Literature Review of Munchausen +Syndrome by Proxy", _Child Abuse and Neglect_ #2, 1987, pages #547- +563. + +Rush, E., _The Best Kept Secret: Sexual Abuse of Children_. New +York: McGraw-Hill, 1980. + +Smith, M., & Pazder, L., _Michelle Remembers_. New York: Congdon and +Lattis, 1980. + +Siegal, B., _A Death in White Bear Lake_. New York: Bantam, 1990. + +"Stranger-Abduction Homicides of Children", _Juvenile Justice +Bulletin_. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Department of Justice, 1989. + +Stratford. L., _Satan's Underground_. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, +1988. + +Terr, L., _Too Scared to Cry_. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. + +Timnik, L., "The Times Poll", _Los Angeles Times_, August 25-26, +1985. + +Virginia Crime Commission Task Force, _Final Report of the Task +Force Studying Ritual Crime_. Richmond, Virginia. + + +12. SUGGESTED READING. + +-- a. Cooper, John Charles, _The Black Mask: Satanism in America +Today_. Old Tappen, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1990. + +Probably the best of the large number of books available primarily +in Christian bookstores and written from the Christian perspective. +This one, however, is written without the hysteria and +sensationalism of most. Recommended for investigators who want +information from this perspective. + +-- b. Hicks, Robert D., _In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the +Occult_. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1991. + +Undoubtedly the best book written to date on the topic of satanism +and the occult from the law enforcement perspective. Robert D. Hicks +is a former police officer who is currently employed as a criminal +justice analyst for the state of Virginia. Must reading for any +criminal justice professional involved in this issue. Unfortunately, +in the chapter on "Satanic Abuse of Children", the author appears to +have been overly influenced by extreme skeptics with minimal or +questionable credentials in this area. The book is easy to read, +logical, and highly recommended. + +-- c. Richardson, James T.; Best, Joel; & Bromley, David G.; Eds, +_The Satanism Scare_. NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 1991. + +The best book now available on the current controversy over satanism +written from the academic perspective, The editors and many of the +chapter authors are college professors and have written an +objective, well-researched book. One of the great strengths of this +book is the fact that the editors address a variety of the +controversial issues from a variety of disciplines (i.e., sociology, +history, folklore, anthropology, criminal justice). Because of its +academic perspective it is sometimes harder to read but is well +worth the effort. The chapter on "Law Enforcement and the Satanic +Crime Connection" contains the results of a survey of "Cult Cops" +and is must reading for law enforcement officers. The chapter on +"Satanism and Child Molestation: Constructing the Ritual Abuse +Scare" was written, however, by a free-lance journalist who seems to +take the position that these cases involve little or no real child +abuse. + +-- d. Terr, Lenore, _Too Scared to Cry: Psychic Trauma in +Childhood_. New York: Harper and Row, 1990. + +An excellent book written by a psychiatrist that provides important +insights into the nature and recallability of early psychic trauma. +For me, Dr. Terr's research and findings in the infamous Chowchilla +kidnapping case shed considerable light on the "ritual" abuse +controversy. + + + +--- msgedsq 2.1a + * Origin: The Northern Lights 916-729-0304 (1:203/444) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/laws.txt b/religious documents/laws.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..053988a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/laws.txt @@ -0,0 +1,403 @@ +ab:laws.txt 13jan90 + + + THE OLD LAW - PUBLISHED VERSION + ------------------------------- + +1. The Law was made and ordained of old. +2. The Law was made for the Wicca, to advise and help in their + troubles. +3. The Wicca should give due worship to the gods and obey their will, + which they ordain, for it was made for the good of Wicca as the + worship of the Wicca is good for the gods. For the gods love the + brethren of Wicca. +4. As a man loveth a woman by mastering her, +5. So should the Wicca love the gods by being mastered by them. +6. And it is necessary that the Circle which is the temple of the gods, + should be truly cast and purified. And that it may be a fit place + for the gods to enter. +7. And the Wicca shall be properly prepared and purified to enter into + the presence of the gods. +8. With love and worship in their hearts, they shall raise power from + their bodies to give power to the gods. +9. As has been taught of old. +10.For in this way only may men have communion with the gods, for the gods + cannot help man without the help of man. + +HPS & HP +11.And the High Priestess shall rule her coven as the representative + of the Goddess. +12.And the High Priest shall support her as the representative of the + God. +13.And the High Priestess shall choose whom she will, be he of + sufficient rank, to be her High Priest. +14.For, as the God Himself kissed Her feet in the five-fold salute, + laying His power at the feet of the Goddess because of Her youth and + beauty, Her sweetness and kindness, Her wisdom and justice, Her + humility and generosity, +15.So He resigned all His power to Her. +16.But the High Priestess should ever mind that the power comes from + Him. +17.It is only lent, to be used wisely and justly. +18.And the greatest virtue of a High Priestess be that she recognize that + youth is necessary to the representative of the Goddess. +19.So she will gracefully retire in favour of a younger woman should + the Coven so decide in council. +20.For a true High Priestess realizes that gracefully surrendering + pride of place is one of the greatest virtues. +21.And that thereby she will return to that pride of place in another + life, with greater power and beauty. + +SECURITY +22.In the old days, when witchdom extended far, we were free and + worshipped in all the greater temples. +23.But in these unhappy times we must celebrate our sacred mysteries + in secret. +24.So be it ordained that none but the Wicca may see our mysteries, for + our enemies are many and torture loosens the tongue of man. +25.So be it ordained that no Coven shall know where the next Coven bide. +26.Or who its members be, save only the Priest and Priestess and messenger. +27.And there shall be no communication between them, save by the messenger + of the gods, or the summoner. +28.And only if it be safe may the Covens meet in some safe place for + the great festivals. +29.And while there, none shall say whence they came nor give their true + names. +30.To this end, that if any be tortured, in their agony, they may not tell + if they do not know. +31.So be it ordained that no one shall tell anyone not of the craft who be + of the Wicca, nor give any names or where they bide, or in any way tell + anything which can betray any of us to our foes. +32.Nor may he tell where the Covendom be. +33.Or the Covenstead. +34.Or where the meetings be. +35.And if any break these Laws, even under torture, THE CURSE OF THE + GODDESS SHALL BE UPON THEM, so they may never be reborn on earth and + may remain where they belong, in the hell of the Christians. + +DISPUTES +36.Let each High Priestess govern her Coven with justice and love, with + the help and advice of the High Priest and the Elders, always + heeding the advice of the Messenger of the Gods if he cometh. +37.She will heed all complaints of all Brothers and strive to settle + all differences among them. +38.But it must be recognized that there will always be people who will + ever strive to force others to do as they will. +39.These are not necessarily evil. +40.And they oft have good ideas and such ideas should be talked over in + council. +41.But if they will not agree with their Brothers, or if they say, +42."I will not work under this High Priestess," +43.It hath ever been the Old Law to be convenient to the Brethren and + to avoid disputes. + +NEW COVENS +44.Any of the third may claim to found a new Coven because they live over + a league away from the Covenstead or are about to do so. +45.Anyone living within the Covendom and wishing to form a new Coven, + shall tell the Elders of their intention, and on the instant avoid + their dwelling and remove to the new Covendom. +46.Members of the old Coven may join the new one when it is formed. + But if they do, they must utterly avoid the old Coven. +47.The Elders of the new and old Covens should meet in peace and + brotherly love to decide the new boundaries. +48.Those of the craft who dwell outside both Covendoms may join either but + not both. +49.Though all may, if the Elders agree, meet for the great festivals if + it be truly in peace and brotherly love, +50.But splitting the Coven oft means strife, so for this reason these + Laws were made of old and may the CURSE OF THE GODDESS BE ON ANY WHO + DISREGARD THEM. So be it ordained. + +GRIMOIRE +51.If you would keep a book, let it be in your own hand of write. Let + brothers and sisters copy what they will, but never let the book out + of your hands, and never keep the writings of another. +52.For if it be found in their hand of write, they may be taken and arraigned. +53.Let each guard his own writings and destroy them whenever danger threatens. +54.Learn as much as you may by heart and, when danger is past, + rewrite your book, an it be safe. +55.For this reason, if any die, destroy their book an they have not + been able to. +56.For, an it be found, 'tis clear proof against them. +57.And our oppressors know well "Ye may not be a witch alone". +58.So all their kin and friends be in danger of torture, +59.So destroy everything not necessary. +60.If your book be found on you, 'tis clear proof against you alone, + you may be arraigned. + +PERSECUTION +61.Keep all thoughts of the craft from your mind. +62.If the torture be too great to bear, say "I will confess. I cannot + bear this torture. What do you want me to say?" +63.If they try to make you speak of the Brotherhood, do not. +64.But if they try to make you speak of impossibilities such as flying through + the air, consorting with a Christian devil or sacrificing children, or + eating men's flesh, +65.To obtain relief from torture say "I had an evil dream, I was beside + myself, I was crazed." +66.Not all magistrates are bad, if there be an excuse, they may show + mercy. +67.If you have confessed aught, deny it afterwards, say you babbled + under torture, say you knew not what you said. +68.If you are condemned, fear not. +69.The Brotherhood is powerful and will help you to escape if you stand + steadfast, but if you betray aught there is no hope for you in this life + or in that to come. +70.Be sure, if steadfast you go to the pyre, drugs will reach you, you will + feel naught. You go to death and what lies beyond, the ecstasy of the + goddess. + +TOOLS +71.To avoid discovery, let the working tools be as ordinary things + that any may have in their houses. +72.Let the pentacles be of wax so that they may be broken at once or + melted. +73.Have no sword unless your rank allows it. +74.Have no names or signs on anything. +75.Write the names and signs on them in ink before consecrating them + and wash it off immediately afterwards. +76.Let the colours of the hilts tell which is which. +77.Do not engrave them lest they cause discovery. + +CONDUCT +78.Ever remember ye are the hidden children of the Goddess so never do + anything to disgrace them or Her. +79.Never boast, never threaten, never say you would wish ill of anyone. +80.If any person not in the Circle, speak of the craft, say, "Speak not + to me of such, it frightens me, 'tis evil luck to speak of it." +81.For this reason, the Christians have their spies everywhere. These speak + as if they were well affected to us, as if they would come to our meetings, + saying, "My mother used to worship the Old Ones. I would I could go myself." +82.To such as these, ever deny all knowledge. +83.But to others, ever say, "'Tis foolish men talk of witches flying through + the air. To do so they must be as light as thistledown. And men say that + witches all be blear-eyed old crones, so what pleasure can there be at a + witch meeting such as folks talk on ?" +84.And say, "Many wise men now say there be no such creatures." +85.Ever make it jest) and in some future time perhaps, the + persecution may die and we may worship our gods in safety again. +86.Let us all pray for that happy day. +87.May the blessings of the Goddess and God be on all who keep these + Laws which are ordained. + +VALUABLES +88.If the craft hath any appanage, let all guard it and help to keep it + clear and good for the craft. +89.And let all justly guard all monies of the craft. +90.And if any Brother truly wrought it, 'tis right they have their pay, + an it be just. An this be not taking money for the art, but for + good and honest work. +91.And even the Christians say, "The labourer is worthy of his hire," + but if any Brother work willingly for the good of the craft without + pay, 'tis but to their greater honour. So be it ordained. + +QUARRELS +92. If there be any dispute or quarrel among the Brethren, the High + Priestess shall straightly convene the Elders and inquire into the + matter, and they shall hear both sides, first alone and then + together. +93. And they shall decide justly, not favouring one side or the other. +94. Ever recognising there be people who can never agree to work under + others. +95. But at the same time, there be some people who cannot rule justly. +96. To those who must ever be chief, there is one answer. +97. "'Void the Coven or seek another one, or make a Coven of your own, + taking with you those who will go." +98. To those who cannot rule justly, the answer be, "Those who cannot + bear your rule will leave you." +99. For none may come to meetings with those with whom they are at + variance. +100. So, an either cannot agree, get hence, for the craft must ever + survive. So be it ordained. + +CURSES +101.In the olden days when we had power, we could use the art against any + who ill-treated the Brotherhood. But in these evil days we must not + do so. For our enemies have devised a burning pit of everlasting fire + into which they say their god casteth all the people who worship him, + except it be the very few who are released by their priest's spells + and masses. And this be chiefly by giving monies and rich gifts to + receive his favour for their great god is ever in need of money. +102.But as our gods need our aid to make fertility for man and crops, so + is the god of the Christians ever in need of man's help to search out + and destroy us. Their priests ever tell them that any who get our help + are damned to this hell forever, so men be mad with the terror of it. +103.But they make men believe that they may escape this hell if they give + victims to the tormentors. So for this reason all be forever spying, + thinking, "An I can catch but one of these Wicca, I will escape from + this fiery pit." +104.So for this reason we have our hidels, and men searching long and not + finding, say, "There be none, or if there be, they be in a far country." +105.But when one of our oppressors die, or even be sick, ever is the cry, + "This be witches' malice", and the hunt is up again. And though they slay + ten of their own to one of ours, still they care not. They have countless + thousands. +106.While we are few indeed. So be it ordained. +107.That none shall use the art in any way to do ill to any. +108.However much they may injure us, harm none. And nowtimes many believe + we exist not. +109.That this Law shall ever continue to help us in our plight, no one, + however great an injury or injustice they receive, may use + the art in any way to do ill, or harm any. But they may, after + great consultations with all, use the art to restrain Christians from + harming us Brothers, but only to constrain them and never to punish. +110.To this end men will say, "Such a one is a mighty searcher out, and a + persecutor of old women whom they deemeth to be witches, and none hath + done him harm, so it be proof that they cannot or more truly there be + none." +111.For all know full well that so many folk have died because someone had + a grudge against them, or were persecuted because they had money or goods + to sieze, or because they had none to bribe the searchers. And many have + died because they were scolding old women. So much that men now say that + only old women are witches. +112.And this be to our advantage and turns suspicion away from us. +113.In England and Scotland 'tis now many a year since a witch hath died the + death. But any misuse of the power might raise the persecution again. +114.So never break this Law, however much you are tempted, and never + consent to its being broken in the least. +115.If you know it is being broken, you must work strongly against it. +116.And any High Priestess or High Priest who consents to its breach + must immediately be deposed for 'tis the blood of the Brethren they + endanger. +117.Do good, an it be safe, and only if it be safe. +118.And keep strictly to the Old Law. + +PAYMENT +119.Never accept money for the use of the art, for money ever smeareth + the taker. 'Tis sorcerors and conjurers and the priests of the + Christians who ever accept money for the use of their arts. + And they sell pardons to let men ascape from their sins. +120.Be not as these. If you accept no money, you will be free from + temptation to use the art for evil causes. +121.All may use the art for their own advantage or for the advantage of + the craft only if you are sure you harm none. +122.But ever let the Coven debate this at length. Only if all are + satisfied that none may be harmed, may the art be used. +123.If it is not possible to achieve your ends one way, perchance the + aim may be achieved by acting in a different way so as to harm + none. MAY THE CURSE OF THE GODDESS BE ON ANY WHO BREAKETH THIS + LAW. So be it ordained. +124.'Tis judged lawful if ever any of the craft need a house or land and + none will sell, to incline the owner's mind so as to be willing to + sell, provided it harmeth him not in any way and the full price is + paid without haggling. +125.Never bargain or cheapen anything whilst you buy by the art. So be + it ordained. + +LAW OF THE LAND +126."Tis the Old Law and the most important of all laws, that no one may + do anything which will endanger any of the craft, or bring them into + contact with the law of the land or any persecutors. +127.In any dispute between Brethren, no one may invoke any laws but + those of the craft. +128.Or any tribunal but that of the Priestess, Priest and Elders. + +DISCUSSION OF WITCHCRAFT +129.It is not forbidden to say as Christians do, "There be witchcraft in + the land," because our oppressors of old make it a heresy not to + believe in witchcraft and so a crime to deny it which thereby puts you + under suspicion. +130.But ever say, "I know not of it here, perchance there may be but afar + off, I know not where." +131.But ever speak of them as old crones, consorting with the devil and + riding through the air. +132.And ever say, "But how may many ride the air if they be not as light + as thistledown." +133.But the curse of the Goddess be on any who cast suspicion on any of + the Brotherhood. +134.Or who speak of any real meeting-place or where they bide. + +WORTCUNNING +135.Let the craft keep books with the names of all herbs which are good, + and all cures so all may learn. +136.But keep another book with all the Bales and Apies and let only the + Elders and other trustworthy people have this knowledge. So be it ordained. +137.And may the blessings of the gods be on all who keep these Laws, and + the curses of both the God and the Goddess be on all who break them. + +USE OF THE ART +138.Remember the art is the secret of the gods and may only be used in + earnest and never for show or vainglory. +139.Magicians and Christians may taunt us saying, "You have no power, + show us your power. Do magic before our eyes, then only will we believe," + seeking to cause us to betray the art before them. +140.Heed them not, for the art is holy and may only be used in need, + and the curse of the gods be on any who break this Law. + +RESIGNATIONS +141.It ever be the way with women and with men also, that they ever seek + new love. +142.Nor should we reprove them for this. +143.But it may be found a disadvantage to the craft. +144.And so many a time it has happened that a High Priest or a High + Priestess, impelled by love, hath departed with their love. That + is, they left the Coven. +145.Now if the High Priestess wishes to resign, she may do so in full + Coven. +146.And this resignation is valid. +147.But if they should run off without resigning, who may know if they + may not return in a few months? +148.So the Law is, if a High Priestess leaves her Coven, she be taken + back and all be as before. +149.Meanwhile, if she has a deputy, that deputy shall act as High + Priestess for as long as the High Priestess is away. +50.If she returns not at the end of a year and a day, then shall the + Coven elect a new High Priestess, +151.Unless there is a good reason to the contrary. +152.The person who has done the work should reap the benefit of the + reward. If somebody else is elected, the deputy is made maiden + and deputy of the High Priestess. + +TRAINING +153.It has been found that practicing the art doth cause a fondness + between aspirant and tutor, and it is the cause of better results if + this be so. +154.And if for any reason this be undesireable, it can easily be avoided + by both persons from the outset firmly resolving in their minds + to be as brother and sister or parent and child. +155.And it is for this reason that a man may be taught only by a woman + and a woman by a man, and women and women should not attempt these + practices together. So be it ordained. + +PUNISHMENT +156.Order and discipline must be kept. +157.A High Priestess or a High Priest may, and should, punish all + faults. +158.To this end all the craft must receive correction willingly. +159.All properly prepared, the culprit kneeling should be told his fault + and his sentence pronounced. +160.Punishment should be followed by something amusing. +161.The culprit must acknowledge the justice of the punishment by + kissing the hand on receiving sentence and again thanking for + punishment received. So be it ordained. + +----- +-These Laws appear to have become part of the GBG BOS shortly after Doreen + Valiente left his Coven (in 1957); they existed at the time that she left. + (They were an innovation at that time, and were one of the things that + the people who hived at that time refused to accept, though not themselves + a reason for hiving.) See Doreen Valiente's "The Rebirth of Witchcraft". +-Some of this material was already in the GBG BOS at the time. See the + Farrars' "The Witches' Way". +-They also seem to be present throughout the Alexandrain stream. + (See the Farrars' "The Witches Way", and June Johns' "King of the + Witches".) +-The list I give here is drawn from several published sources: + June Johns,"King of the Witches" + Lady Sheba,"The Grimoire of Lady Sheba" + Janet and Stewart Farrar,"The Witches' Way" + I used Johns as my primary source, as Sheba is generally full of copyist + errors, and the Farrars don't give the full text. + I couldn't find the section headings in any published source, but I included + them anyway because they make the text easier to follow. +-Sheba *may* be a more accurate source than Johns for the GBG version. + (Some of what I took to be typos may well have been GBG-ism's.) + Johns is probably a better source for Alex Sanders' own version. + Covens in either lineage have probably cross referenced and 'corrected' + what they took to be errors. (For example, in Law 60, I use the word + 'arraigned'. Sheba gives 'engained', which makes no sense (that we know + of). However, 'engined' (meaning tortured) makes more sense in context + than 'arraigned'. Did Alex Sanders mis-correct the 'engained' error ? + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/lds-1.txt b/religious documents/lds-1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1846e2b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,233 @@ + + The Jesus of Christianity + Vs + The Jesus of Mormonism + + The Jesus WE KNOW contrasted to the "Jesus" of Mormonism. The one +true Jesus of the BIBLE, of all eternity God the Son, who died that we +may have eternal life; who paid the price of all sins; who has entered +our lives and is walking with us in a personal relationship day by day +-- is not known in Mormonism. The Jesus of Mormonism is an entirely +different "Jesus". Let's examine what the leaders and prophets - the +foundation of the Latter Day Saints Church - have said: + + "When the time came that His First-Born, the Saviour, should come +into the world and take a tabernacle, the Father Himself came and +favored the Spirit with a tabernacle instead of letting any other MAN +do it. .... The Saviour was begotten by the Father of His spirit, by +the same being who is the Father of our spirits, and that is all the +organic difference between Jesus Christ and you and me." BRIGHAM +YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 4:218 + + "The fleshly body of Jesus required a Mother as well as a Father. +Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to the flesh, +must have been associated together in the capacity of Husband and +Wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the time being, the +lawful wife of God the Father." ORSON PRATT, The Seer, pg 158 + + "Christ was begotten by an immortal Father in the same way that +mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers --- And Christ was born into +the world as the Literal Son of this Holy Being; He was born in the +same personal, real, and literal sense that any mortal son is born of +a mortal father. There is nothing figurative about his paternity; He +was begotten, conceived and born in the normal and natural course of +events, for He is the Son of God, and that designation means what it +says." BRUCE R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine, pg 547,742 + + Brigham Young, to be consistent with his "Adam-God" doctrine, +believed Adam was the literal father of Jesus Christ: + +"When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had +begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy +Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family ... +Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same +character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our Father in +Heaven." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 1:50,51 + + As is evident in these statements, there is no Virgin Birth in +Mormonism. On the other hand, the Bible clearly shows us: + +Matthew 1:18 Mary with child of the Holy Spirit + 1:20 That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit + 1:23 Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son +Luke 1:35 The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of + the Most High will overshadow you + + Further, the "Jesus" of Mormonism was married in polygamy and had +children. This had to be so to be consistent with the doctrines of +Joseph Smith, Junior. As Joseph reports as a "revelation" given him by +God on July 12,1843: "I am the Lord thy God .. obey the instructions I +am about to give unto you .. if ye abide not that covenant, then ye +are damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to +enter my Glory .. verily I say unto you, if man marry a wife by my +word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant .. they +shall be gods .. And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood +if any man espouses a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the +first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are +virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then he is justified .. and +if he have ten virgins given unto him by the law, he cannot commit +adultery, for they belong to him." JOSEPH SMITH, Doctrine & Covenants, +132:2,3,4,19,20,61,62 + + "It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was a marriage +in Cana of Galilee, and on a careful reading of that transaction, it +will be discovered that no less a person than Jesus Christ was married +on that occasion." ORSON HYDE, Journal of Discourses, 13:259 + +"How was it with Mary and Martha, and other women that followed +Him? In old times, and it is common to this day, the women, even +Sarah, called their husbands 'LORD' .. Jesus was the bridegroom at the +marriage of Cana of Galilee .. We say it was Jesus Christ who was +married, to be brought into relation whereby he could see his seed, +before He was crucified .. I shall say here, that before the Saviour +died, he looked upon His own natural children, as we look upon ours." +ORSON HYDE, Journal of Discourses, 2:81,82 + + The Bible states that Jesus is God the Son -- eternally existent +with God the Father -- yet Mormon doctrine says Jesus was a spirit +offspring of the Father; that Lucifer was the second spirit offspring +(THEY WERE BROTHERS?!); followed by billions more - or each of us, for +instance. We are "brothers" and "sisters" of Jesus Christ. Jesus is +not the only begotten Son in Mormon Theology: "It makes me think of +that second person that came forth in the heavens when the voice went +forth: 'Who will redeem the earth, who will go forth and make the +sacrifice for the earth and all things it contains ?'. The Eldest son +said: 'Here am I'; but he did not say 'send me'. But the second one, +which was 'Lucifer, Son of the Morning', said, 'Lord, here am I, send +me, I will redeem every son and daughter of Adam and Eve that lives on +the earth." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 13:282 + +"The appointment of Jesus to be Saviour of the world was contested +by one of the other sons of God. He was called Lucifer, Son of the +Morning .... this spirit brother of Jesus desperately tried to become +the Saviour of Mankind. MILTON R. HUNTER (First Council of 70) The +Gospel Through the Ages, pg 15 [1958] + + "Jesus Christ is also of our species .. I have heard sectarian +priest undertake to tell the character of the Son of God, and they +make him half of one species and half of another, and I could not +avoid thinking at once of a mule." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of +Discourses, 4:217 + +"There is no impropriety ... in speaking of Jesus Christ as the +elder brother of the rest of human kind." JAMES TALMAGE, ARTICLES OF +FAITH, pg 473 + + In Mormonism, Jesus was a created being: "Jesus is man's spiritual +brother. We dwelt with Him in the spirit world as members of that +large society of our eldest brother." MILTON R. HUNTER, Gospel Through +the Ages, pg 21 + +"The devil is a spirit son of God who was born in the morning of +pre-existence." BRUCE R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine, "Devil", 1966 +edition, pg 192 + +"There are three Gods - the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." BRUCE R. +McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine,"God", pg 317 + + The REAL JESUS, the ONLY Son of God and God the Son, is proclaimed +throughout the BIBLE! Look up these references and tie-ins of Old and +New testaments declaring Jesus' Divinity and NOT being created: + + LOOK UP: and COMPARE WITH + + Psalm 24:10 I Corinthians 2:8 + Psalm 45:6,7 Hebrews 1:8 + Isaiah 8:13 I Peter 2:8 + Isaiah 40:3 Matthew 3:3 + Malachi 3:1 Matthew 11:10 + Psalm 102:27 Hebrews 13:8 + James 1:17 + Psalm 102:25 Colossians 1:16 + Psalm 102:26 Matthew 24:35 + 2 Peter 3:7,10 + + JOHN 1:1-3,14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was +with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with +God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything +made that was made ... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among +us, (and we beheld His glory, the Glory as of the ONLY begotten of the +Father,) full of grace and truth." + +COLOSSIANS 1:15 "Who is the image of the invisible God, the +firstborn of every creature" [Here 'firstborn' does not mean first +'spirit-child', rather a position of high honor - see verse 18, +Hebrews 12:23, revelation 1:5, and Psalm 89:27]. The next verses, 16 +and 17, tell us, "For in Him were all things created, that are in +heaven, and that are on the earth ... All things were created by Him, +and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things +consist." + +HEBREWS 1:10 "Thou, Lord (Jesus), in the beginning hast laid the +foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hands." + +In Isaiah 44:24 God tells us that He "stretched forth the heavens +alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." Jesus, who IS the +TRUTH and God the Father "have no lies within them" and are INCAPABLE +OF TELLING A LIE. Jesus is God the Son, eternally One with the Father +and the Holy Spirit, and not be confused. God the Son is not God the +Father and God the father is not God the Holy Spirit, but each entity +is a part of the ONE TRUE AND LIVING GOD. + +ISAIAH 9:6 "For unto us a child is born ... his name shall be +called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, +The Prince of Peace." + +MICAH 5:2 "Whose goings forth have been from of old, from +everlasting." + +MATTHEW 28:18 "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, 'All +power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." + +PHILIPPIANS 2:6-10 "Who, being in the form of God, though it not +robbery to be equal with God: ... was made in the likeness of men ... +became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God +also hath highly exaulted him ... That at the name of Jesus every knee +should bow ....". + +Compare to Isaiah 45:22,23 for if Jesus is not God, then we worship +two (or more) Gods! The Mormons, basically, do not worship Jesus, or +pray to Him, only "through" Him.) + +COLOSSIANS 2:9 "For in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead +bodily" + +HEBREWS 1:3 "... The express image of His person ...." + +JOHN 5:23 "That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor +the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which +hath sent Him." + +JOHN 20:28 "And Thomas answered and said unto Him, 'My Lord and my +God'" + + Jesus used the same descriptions of himself; I AM, ALPHA and OMEGA, +FIRST and LAST; as used by God the Father: + + COMPARE: ... + + JOHN 8:58 to EXODUS 3:14,15 + REV 22:13,16 To REV 1:8 & 21:6 + REV 1:17 to REVELATION 21:6 + REV 2:8 & 22:13 to ISAIAH 44:6 & 48:12 + + Jesus is GOD the SON! Eternally God and not after, or created by, +or a spirit child of God! Our Jesus is NOT the "Jesus" of Mormonism, +and we are empowered, if we have accepted the true Jesus into our +hearts, to give Thanks unto God for selecting us to reveal His True +Son to us. HALLELUJAH and AMEN!!! + +Computers For Christ - San Jose + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-10.txt b/religious documents/lds-10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4cd3d49 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,148 @@ + + TEN REASONS WHY I CANNOT BE A MORMON + by Rev. John Hornok + + 1. MORMONISM DOES NOT TEACH THAT THE BIBLE IS THE INFALLIBLE WORK +OF GOD. + + "We believe the Bible to the the Word of God as far as it is +translated correctly; we also believe the book of Mormon to be the +word of God" (Articles of Faith, No. 8). + + As Christians we believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New +Testaments to the the verbally inspired Word of God, the final +authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, +infallible and God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21; Matt +5:18). + + 2. MORMONISM TEACHES THAT GOD IS AN EXALTED MAN AND HAS A PHYSICAL +BODY. + + "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man" +(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 345). "The Father has a +body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's..." (Doc. & Cov., Sec. +131:22) + + The Bible says, "God is not a man..." (Num. 23:19). "God is a +Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in +truth" (John 4:24). "A spirit hath not flesh and bones..." (Lk. +24:39). + + 3. MORMONISM TEACHES THAT CHRIST AND THE DEVIL ARE BROTHERS. + + "...that Lucifer, the son of morning, is our elder brother and the +brother of Jesus Christ" (Mormon Doctrine by Bruce McConkie, pp. +163-4). + + The Bible says that the devil is a created being, created by God. +"thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, +till iniquity was found in thee" (Ezekiel 28:15). "For by Him +(Christ) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in +earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, of dominions, +or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him and for +Him..." (Col. 1:15-17). + + 4. MORMONISM TEACHES THAT JESUS WAS MARRIED AND THE HE IS POLYGAMOUS. + + "We say it was Jesus Christ who was married at Cana of Galilee" +(Journal of Discourses, Vol 2, p. 80). Mormonism teaches that Jesus +was the natural child of Adam and Mary. "When the Virgin Mary +conceived the Child Jesus....He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. +And who is his Father? He is the first of the human family" (Brigham +Young, Journal of Discourses, pp. 50-51). + + The Bible says, " In the beginning was the Word (Christ), and the +Word was with God, andthe Word was God;...The Word was made flesh and +dwelt among us..." (John 1:1, 14). "Then Mary said unto the angel, +How shall this be, seeing that I know not a man? And the angel +answered... The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee..."(Lk. 1:34-35). + + 5. MORMONISM TEACHES THAT THE TRUE CHURCH CEASED TO EXIST UNTIL IT +WAS RESTORED TO JOSEPH SMITH. + + The church (LDS) was restored April 6, 1830 by Joseph Smith (Doc. & +Cov., 20:1). + + Jesus Christ said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell +shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). "for other foundation +can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. +3:11). "...And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and +prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone" (Eph. +2:20). + + 6. MORMONISM TEACHES ANOTHER (PERVERTED) GOSPEL THAN THAT OF THE +BIBLE. + + The gospel to Mormonism is: "Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving +the Holy Spirit by laying on of hands, Morality, Loyalty, Tithing, +Word of Wisdom, Duty Celestial Marriage (for eternity)" (LDS chart of +FREE AGENCY and Articles of Faith, No. 4). + + The Bible says, "Moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel +that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to +the scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:1, 3-4). "if any man preach any other +gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Gal. +1:9). + + 7. MORMONISM TEACHES SALVATION FOR THE THE DEAD BY PROXY WATER BAPTISM + + This doctrine is based on one misunderstood Scripture: "Else what +shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at +all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" (1 Cor. 15:29). + + Paul did not practice baptism for the dead. He excluded himself by +using the pronoun "they" rather than "we" or "ye". He is asking a +question rather than making a statement. "It is appointed unto man +once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). + + 8. MORMONISM TEACHES GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH FOR THE DEAD + + "Let us, therefore, as a church and a people, and as Latter-day +Saints, offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us +present in his holy temple, when it is finished, a book containing the +records of our dead, which shall be worth of all acceptation" (Doc. & +Cov., Sec. 128:24). + + The Bible says, "Neither give heed to fables and endless +genealogies" (1 Tim. 1:4). "but avoid foolish question and +genealogies..." (Titus 3:9). + + 9. MORMONISM TEACHES THAT THERE ARE MODERN DAY PROPHETS AND MODERN +DAY REVELATIONS FROM GOD. + + Mormonism claims that Joseph Smith received the Aaronic Priesthood +from John the Baptist. The Melchizedek Priesthood and Apostleship was +restored by Peter, James and John shortly afterwards in 1829 (Doc. & +Cov., Sec. 13). + + The Bible says, "God...hath in these last days spoken unto us by +his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he +made the worlds" (Heb. 1:1-2). The test of a prophet is given in +Deut. 18:20-22. + + 10. MORMONISM TEACHES THAT SALVATION DEPENDS UPON GOOD WORKS AND +ACCEPTANCE OF JOSEPH SMITH. + + "No man who rejects the testimony of Joseph Smith can enter the +kingdom of God" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1 pg. 190). "Men have +work to do it they would obtain salvation" (Doctrines of Salvation. +vol. 3, pg 91). + + The Bible teaches that salvation is provided by Jesus Christ alone, +"for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we +must be saved" (Acts 4:10-12). "For by grace are ye saved through +faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of +works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-11.txt b/religious documents/lds-11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f12c9a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,165 @@ + + Divine Truths in the Book of Mormon + + Anyone visited by a Mormon Missionary has heard the Elder's +testimony concerning the Book of Mormon: That he knows this book is +the Word of God and that the founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph +Smith, Jr., translated it by the gift and power of God. Further, the +propsect is encouraged sincerely to study the Book of Mormon and "The +divine truths it contains." + + The Book of Mormon indeed does contain a number of "divine truths", +first set forth in the Bible, the most important of which are: + +1. GOD IS SPIRIT + Alma 18:28 (p. 242) - "Believest, thou that this Great Spirit, who + is God, created all things". + +2. TRINITARIAN VIEW OF GOD + 3 Nephi 11:27 (p. 422) - "Verily I say unto you, that the Father and + the Son and the Holy Ghost are one." In addition, three close + associates of Joseph Smith who gave testimony of the authenticity + of the Book of Mormon, close with words: "And the honor be to the + Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, WHICH IS ONE GOD. + Amen." (emphasis added) This endorsement is found in the front of + every Book of Mormon and further documents the Book of Mormon's + acknowledgement of the triune nature of God. + +3. GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE + Moroni 8:18 (p. 517) - "For I know that God is not a partial God, + neither a changeable being; but he is unchangable from all eternity + to all eternity." + +4. NO SALVATION AFTER DEATH + Mosiah 3:25 (p. 141) - "And if they be evil they are consigned to an + awful view of their own guilt and abominations, which doth cause them + to shrink from the presence of the Lord into a state of misery and + endless torment, from whence they can no more return; therefore they + have drunk damnation to their own souls." + +5. ONLY TWO DESTINATIONS AFTER DEATH + Mosiah 16:11 (p. 166) - "If they be good, to the resurrection of + endless life and happiness; and if they be evil, to the resurrection + of endless damnation." + +6. SALVATION BY CHRIST"S WORK - NOT MAN'S + Helaman 5:9 (p. 369) - "...remember that there is no other way nor + means whereby mn can be saved, only through the atoning blood of + Jesus Christ, who shall come, yea, remember that he cometh to + redeem the world." + + The Book of Mormon also emphasizes the need for spiritual rebirth. +For example Alma 5:14 states "And now behold, I ask of you, my +brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye +recieved his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this +mighty change in your hearts?" + + Much of the major theology set forth in the Book of Mormon is indeed +in harmony with orthodox Christianity. However, many who are visited +by the LDS Missionaries are unaware that the present theology of the +Mormon Church is very different from their own Book of Mormon. +Further, not only are today's major doctrines different, they are in +total opposition with this work of Joseph Smith, Jr., for which he +claimed divine inspiration. + + Mormon theology is not contained in, but rather contradicted by the +Book of Mormon. The members of the Mormon Church now turn to newer +publications and revelations for their beliefs. A brief examination +of some of these will document the contradictions. + +1. Mormonism today teaches "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as +tangible as man's" (Doctrine & Covenants 130:22). + +2. Joseph Smith, later in his life, flatly denied the Trinity: "Many +men say there is one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are +one God! I saw that is a strange God anyhow - three in one, and one +in three!" He further concludes that the Father, Son and the Holy +Ghost are not one God, but rather three Gods (History of the Church +6:474, 476). + +3. The LDS Church no longer adheres to the unchangeable nature of God, +but rather states: "God himself was once as we are now and is an +exalted man...We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all +eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil, so that you +may see". (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345). + +4. Bruce R. McConkie announces on page 73 of his work, 'Mormon +Doctrine': "The Lord has ordained baptism for the dead as the means +whereby all his worthy children of all ages can become heirs of +salvation in his kingdom." + +5. Mormonism today informs its members that all mankind will occupy +one of three heavenly kingdoms. The highest is the Celestial Kingdom +(which itself contains various levels). This kingdom is reserved for +all faithful Mormons and could lead to Godhood for the male members +there. The middle Kingdom, the Terrestial Kingdom, is for those who +did not accept the gosple according to Mormonism, but who lived an +honorable life. The lowest or Telestial Kingdom sill contain murders, +adulters, liars and thieves. (Doctrine & Covenants section 76). Hell +in Mormonism is usually thought to be only a temporary state of +suffering, which can be terminated through self-atonement. In +summary, all will be resurrected and recieve some degree of glory, +according to Mormonism. + +6. Mormons believe not in the infinite atonement of Christ, but rather +that "redemption from personal sins can only be obtained through +obedience to the requirements of the Gospel, AND A LIFE OF GOOD +WORKS." (emphasis added) (Talmage, Articles of Faith pgs. 478-479) + + These changes and contradictions contained within these easily +available LDS Scriptures leave no doubt as to the human, man made +origin of Mormonism. + + While Mormons regard the Bible as the Word of God however, the Bible +is actually placed lower and superseded by their other Scriptures, +which in addition to the Book of Mormon include the Doctrine & +Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. This devaluation of the Bible +is found within the LDS Articles of Faith, in the Pearl of Great +Price, where it is stated that Mormons "believe the Bible in so far as +it is correctly translated." + + God's word, the Bible, has definitely stood the test of time, where +as in its short existance the Book of Mormon has not. The Bible, has +been used by and confirmed by archeology, - the Book of Mormon has +not. The Bible, has through recent ancient manuscript discoveries, +been demonstrated to have been transmitted and translated accurately, +where the Book of Mormon contains nearly 4000 textual changes from the +first edition in 1830 to the present editions used today, and has +recieved further changes in the new 1981 "Triple Combination" edition. + + The presence of "Divine Truths" within the Book of Mormon is merely +a result of Joseph Smith, Jr. incorporating much of the Bible into his +work. (see 'The use of the Bible in the Book of Mormon by H. Michael +Marquardt). Thus, the Book of Mormon must be regarded as fiction, not +as inspired Scripture. + + Changes within Mormonism and the Book of Mormon make it clear that +Mormonism is not from God. God's word does not change. Jesus Christ +is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) and His Word +shall never pass away (Psalm 119:89; Matthew 24:35). The Jesus Christ +who shed his blood on Calvary's cross to save you is not the Jesus of +present-day Mormonism. Jesus invites all people to experience a +spiritual rebirth and to recieve the free gift of eternal life by +trusting in him alone for salvation. + + Write to us and let us share with you more information concerning +our Risen Saviour Jesus Christ and how you can recieve Him. + + PERSONAL FREEDOM OUTREACH +Route 3 Weir Lake Rd., Kunkletown, PA. 18058 (215) 381-3661 +P.O. Box 26062, Saint Louis, MO. 63136 (314) 388-2648 +P.O. Box 30073, Phoenix, AZ. 85046 (602)867-0538 +P.O. Box 15081, Santa Ana, CA. 92705 (714) 832-9385 + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-12.txt b/religious documents/lds-12.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29cbc19 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-12.txt @@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ + +This article is an exact reproduction of a letter compiled by The +Smithsonian Institution that was recieved by Computers for +Christ, and has been graciously provided free of charge by them. +For your own copy, write to: + +The Smithsonian Institute +National Museum of Natural History +Department of Anthropology +Washington D.C. +20560. + +Computers For Christ, Panama City, Fl. + +---------------------------------------------------------------- +[Page 1] + +Information from the + + NATIONAL MUSEUM OF OF NATURAL HISTORY + Smithsonian Institution Washington D.C. + + Your recent inquiry concerning the Book of Mormon has been +received in the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology. + + The book of Mormon is a religious document and not a scientific +guide. The Smithsonian Institution does not use it in +archeological research. Because the Smithsonian Institution +recieves many inquiries regarding the book of Mormon, we have +prepared a "Statement Regarding the Book of Mormon," a copy of +which is enclosed for your information. This statement +includes answers to questions most commonly asked about the Book +of Mormon. + + PREPARED BY + THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTROPOLOGY + +---------------------------------------------------------------- +[Page 2] + + STATEMENT REGARDING THE BOOK OF MORMON + -------------------------------------- + +1. The Smithsonian Institution has never used the Book of Mormon +in any way as a scientific guide. The Smithsonian archeologists +see no direct connection between archeology of the New World and +the subject matter of the book. + +2. The physical type of American Indian is basically Mongoloid, +being most closely related to that of the peoples of eastern, +central, and northeastern Asia. Archeological evidence indicates +that the ancestors of the present Indians came into the New World +-- probably over a land bridge known to have existed in the +Bering Staight region during the last Ice Age -- in a continuing +series of small migrations beginning from about 25,000 to 30,000 +years ago. + +3. Present evidence indicates that the fist people to reach this +continent from the East were the Norsemen who who briefly visited +the northeastern part of North America around A.D. 1000 and then +settled in Greenland. There is nothing to show that they reached +Mexico or Central America. + +4. One of the main lines of evidence supporting the scientific +finding that contacts with Old World civilizations, if indeed +they occured at all, were of very little significance for the +development of American Indian civilizations, is the fact that +none of the principal Old World domesticated food plants or +animals (except the dog) occured in the New World in pre- +Columbian times. American Indians had no wheat, barley, oats, +millet, rice, cattle, pigs, chickens, horses, donkeys, camels +before 1492. (camels and horses were in the Americas, along with +the bison, mammoth, mastodon, but all these animals became +extinct around 10,000 B.C. at the time the early big game hunters +spread across the Americas.) + + +SIL - 76 +Summer 1982 + +----------------------------------------------------------------- +[Page 3] + + +5. Iron, steel, glass, and silk were not used in the New World +before 1492 (except for occasional use of unsmelted meteroic +iron). Native copper was worked in various locations in pre- +Columbian times, but true metallurgy was limited to southern +Mexico and the Andean region, where its occurance in late +prehistoric times involved gold, silver, copper, and their +alloys, but not iron. + +6. There is a possibility that the spread of cultural traits +across the Pacific to Mesoamerica and the northwestern coast of +South America began several hundred years before the Christian +era. However, any such inter-hemispheric contacts appear to have +been the results of accidental voyages originating in eastern and +southern Asia. It is by no means certain that even such contacts +occured with the ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, or other peoples of +Western Asia and the Near East. + +7. No reputable Egyptologist or other specialist on Old World +archeology, and no expert on New World prehistory, has discovered +or confirmed any relationship between archeological remains in +Mexico and archeological remains in Egypt. + +8. Reports of findings of ancient Egyptian, Hebrew, and other +Old World writtings in the New World in pre-Columbian contexts +have frequently appeared in newspapers, magazines and sensational +books. None of these claims has stood up to examination by +reputable scholars. No inscriptions using Old World forms of +writing have been shown to have occured in any part of the +Americas before 1492 except for a few Norse rune stones which +have been found in Greenland. + +9. There are copies of the Book of Mormon in the library of the +National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-13.txt b/religious documents/lds-13.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fbfd17 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-13.txt @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ + Mormons Own up to Joseph Smith's Occultism + + Mark Hofmann, the Salt Lake City documents dealer on trial for +murder, recently admitted in court that he planted the two bombs that +killed Steven Christensen and Katherine Sheets and that he forged at +least two documents purported to be key pieces in the puzzle of early +Mormon church history. + + This affair has dealt a great blow to the reputation of the Mormon +church. The church has had to admit that it was buying documents from +hofmann to prevent their publication. The documents dealt with Mormon +prophet Joseph Smith's money-digging and involvement in occult +practices. The church, in its zeal to keep the purchases secret, +played right into Hofmann's hands by not having the documents examined +for authenticity. Sure enough, the documents later were found to be +forgeries. + + Despite this, the documents forced Mormon scholars to own up to +Smith's background in occult practices and acknowledge that, the +documents aside, there was enough evidence to prove Smith's occult +involvement. + + Therefore, Mormon scholars have begun trying to justify Smith's +practices, saying that he wasn't any worse than anybody else living at +that time because belief in and practice of magic was pervasive in +18th and early 19th century America. + + The scholars go on to say that it was the coming of the +enlightenment and rationalism that changed people's outlook on occult +practices. These scholars say that since we don't live in that +culture any longer, it's hard for us to put ourselves in those +people's shoes. + + However, research shows that as early as 1788 in New York, and +equally as early as Vermont, there were laws against occult practices +such as palmistry and witchcraft and that the press was generally +unfavorable to such claims. + + Undaunted by that, Mormon scholars are now trying to find rationale +for Smith's occult practices. MORMON SCHOLAR DR. RICHARD ANDERSON +CONCEDED IN HIS LATEST BYU STUDIES ARTICLE THAT SMITH DID INDEED +PRACTICE MAGIC, (emphasis mine) but only up to 1826. When he dug up +the gold plates, Anderson says, he realized that he had a serious +mission and put his teenage follies behind him. + + While this scenario is at best questionable, it does have one of +the staunch defenders of Mormon faith admitting that during the time +Smith supposedly was being prepared for the life of a prophet, he was +immersed in the occult and digging for money. + +From the April-June PFO by WPW + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-14.txt b/religious documents/lds-14.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..248aa7c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-14.txt @@ -0,0 +1,277 @@ + THE NATURE OF GOD + + + + There is but ONE GOD + + + The BIBLE states that there has been, and presently is, and always +will be only ONE GOD. History and the BIBLE show that the Jewish people +always believed in ONE GOD of the UNIVERSE. The Jewish nation however, +was lured time and time again, into going after "other gods" that were +worshipped by the people surrounding Israel. That was the sin GOD hated +and punished them for practicing. (Jeremiah 2:11, 11:9-13, 19:13) + + In direct contrast, MORMONISM has a basic belief in many gods. The +Father, Son and Holy Ghost (in Mormonism) are three separate gods. There +were gods before them and will be gods to follow: + + "If we should take a million worlds like this and number their + particles, we should find that there are more gods than there are + particles of matter in those worlds." + (JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 2, page 345 [Feb 1855] Orson Pratt) + + "Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy + Spirit are only one God. I say that is a strange God, anyhow - + Three in one and one in three. It is a curious organization ... + all are to be crammed into one God, according to sectarianism. + It would make the biggest God in all the world .... he would be + a giant or a monster." + (TEACHING OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, page 372) + (HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 476) + + "In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the + Gods, and they came together and concocted a plan to create the + world and people it." + (JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Joseph Smith, Vol 6, page 5) + (HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 308) + + + Mormons will say they worship only one God. But, whether they +worship them or not, believing in the valid existence of many gods -- of +the same authority and reality of the one God -- makes you a polytheist! +False Prophets have always led the people of history (and the current +peoples of the earth) to go after other gods (Deuteronomy 13:1 to 13). +God's strongest wrath was then and is now upon people who worship or +believe in other gods (Jeremiah 16:10-13 and 22:8-9). Mormonism teaches +that "Father God" is married and has many wives: + + "In the heaven where our spirits were born, there are many Gods, + each of whom has his own wife or wives, which were given to him + previous to his redemption while yet in his mortal state." + (THE SEER, Orson Pratt, page 37) + + + Look up John 10:34 used by Mormons to justify a belief in "many +Gods". Jesus there, is quoting Psalm 82 in which the judges were +referred to as "gods" -- but were wicked and unjust and "die like all +men". Anytime the word "gods" occur in the BIBLE it must be verified in +context as referring to the idols, satanic princes or counterfeit gods - +(Isaiah 41:23 and 24 and 45:20). + + IN CONTRAST + + + The BIBLE states throughout there is but ONE GOD! Look up these +verses: + +ISAIAH 43:10-11 "Before me NO god was formed, nor after" + + 44: 6-8 "I am the first and the last, beside me no other" + + 45: 5-6 "I am the Lord, and there is no other" + + 45:18-22 "HE created the heavens and earth-there is no other" +DEUT. 6:4 "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" + 32:39 "There is no god beside me" +PSALM 86:10 "Thou alone art God" +MARK 12:29 "Jesus said, the Lord our God is one; no other" +GAL. 3:20 "God is one" +JAMES 2:19 "You believe God is one - you do well" +EPH. 4:5-6 "One God and Father of us all" +I COR. 8:4-6 "There is no god but me" + + + GOD IS INFINITE + + + The BIBLE states that God has always been the same from all time in +eternity past and does not change. In direct opposition to this, the +Mormon Church has the basic belief that God was once a man, with many +gods before Him and many gods to come after Him. They further believe +that God is progressing to higher levels of power and ability: + + "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and + sits enthroned in yonder heavens ...... it is necessary that we + should understand the character and being of God, and how He came + to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We + have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I + will refute that idea, and will take away the veil, so that you + may see .... he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself the + Father of us all, dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ + did." + (TEACHINGS OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, page 345) + (JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES Vol 6, page 3) + (HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 305) + + "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." + (THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES, Milton R. Hunter, pages 105 & 106) + + "Our Eternal Father has attained His position of exaltation and + Godhood by obedience to the great law of progression ... was once + a mortal man who passed through a school of earth-life similar to + that which we are now passing." + (THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES, Milton R. Hunter, pages 12 & 104) + + "Through modern revelations we learn that the universe is filled + with vast numbers of intelligences, and we further learn that + Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligences honor and + sustain him as such --- But God acquired the honor and sustaining + influence of 'all things'. It follows as a corollary that if He + should ever do anything to violate the confidence or 'sense of + justice' of these intelligences, they would promptly withdraw + their support, and the 'power' of God would disintegrate --- He + would cease to be God. Our Heavenly Father can do only those + things which the intelligences under Him are voluntarily willing + to support Him in accomplishing." + (THE FIRST 2000 YEARS, W. Cleon Skousen *,pages 355,356) + + FREEMEN INSTITUTE PRESIDENT & B.Y.U. Professor of Mormonism teaches +that God is confined to a body of flesh and bones. He is at a particular +place at a particular time. The Mormon "god" is a SMALL "god." You can +have tremendous faith in a god - BUT, if that god is not THE GOD, then +all that tremendous faith is meaningless. Elijah once challenged the +priests of "another god" to start a fire, and the "god" who was able to +do so would be recognized as THE GOD. The priests for this wooden idol, +with great faith and efforts prayed and prayed to their god to bring down +fire to prove his godhood. Elijah even became somewhat sarcastic when he +asked a rhetorical question of "Maybe your god is asleep? Maybe you +should cry out louder to wake him up?". After all these efforts, nothing +happened! + + It didn't matter if the priest and believers of that "god" had a +great faith because the OBJECT of that faith was incapable of fulfilling +the promise of that faith. The ONE and TRUE GOD fulfills our prayers. + + "If God possesses a form, that form is of necessity of definite + proportions, and therefore of limited extension and space. It is + impossible for Him to occupy at one time more than one space of + such limits." + (ARTICLES OF FAITH, James E. Talmage, pages 42 and 43) + + "I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all + description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake + unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other - + 'This is my Beloved Son. Hear Him!" + (PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, Joseph Smith 2:17) + + "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's." + (DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, 130, v:22) + + "God himself is increasing in knowledge, power, and dominion and + will do so, worlds without end." + (JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES,Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Vol 6, Pg 120) + + "We were begotten by our Father in heaven; the person of our + Father in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His + Father; and again, He was begotten by still a more ancient Father + ...." + (THE SEER, Orson Pratt, Page 132) + + The BIBLE states throughout that GOD IS INFINITE! We ask that you +look up these proofs: +II CHRONICLES 6:18 + "Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee." +PSALM 41:13 (90:2) + "God is from everlasting to everlasting" +PSALM 102:25-27 + "created heavens, always the same without end" +PSALM 139:4-8 + "Omniscient and Omnipresent" +JEREMIAH 23:24 + "I fill heaven and earth" +HOSEA 11:9 + "I am God, and not man" +MALACHI 4:39 + "I do not change" +NEHEMIAH 9:6 + "made Heaven, Heaven of Heavens and all their host" +PROVERBS 15:3 + "His eyes in every place" +ROMANS 1:22-23 + The sin of changing God into image of man is addressed +ACTS 17:27 + "He is not far from each of us" +JOHN 4:24 + "God is Spirit" +LUKE 24:39 + "A Spirit has not flesh and bones" +HEBREWS 4:13 + "All things opened unto His eyes" +I JOHN 4:12 + "No man has seen God at any time" +I TIMOTHY 6:15 + "No man has seen, nor can see ..." +JOHN 1:18 + "No man has seen God at any time" +EXODUS 33:20 + "There shall be no man see me and live" + + It is clear that the BIBLE refutes the Mormon church's claims and +the claims of its prophets and leaders in a most specific manner. +Brigham Young, second Prophet and President of the Mormon Church taught +that ADAM was "our Father and our God...": + + "When our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into + it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with + him ... He is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom + we have to do ... When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, + the Father had begotten Him in His own likeness. He was not + begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the + first of the human family...." + (JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 1, page 50, April 9,1852) + + "I have learned by experience that there is but one God that + pertains to this people, and He is the God that pertains to this + earth - the first man. That first man sent His own Son to redeem + the world ..." + (JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 4,pg 1,June 29,1856) + Prophet & President Heber C. Kimball + + "How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-Day Saints + in regard to a particular doctrine which I revealed to them, and + which God revealed to me -- namely, that Adam is our Father and + our God ... Our Father, Adam helped to make this earth, it was + created expressly for him .... He brought one of his wives with + him, and she was called Eve ... Our Father Adam is the man who + stands at the gate and holds the keys of everlasting life and + salvation to all his children.." + (DESERT NEWS, June 18,1873: Discourse by Prophet and President + Brigham Young) + + Today, the Mormon Church adamantly denies the "ADAM-GOD" doctrine +taught, and as seen above, and affirmed by "Prophet" Brigham Young. There +is overwhelming evidence that he did teach, believed and strongly +defended this belief. By any, reasonable, interpretation of the BIBLE, +Brigham Young must be classified as a FALSE PROPHET (see Deuteronomy 13:1 +-10 and 18:20-22 - also Jeremiah 23:16-17) + ADAM is not OUR god and NEVER will be! The BIBLE states: + + ".... then the Lord God formed man of dust from the earth, and + breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a + living being." (Genesis 2:7) + + GOD is ONE and ETERNALLY the same. Creator of the Heavens and the +Earth ... All powerful, all knowing, all present. Despite the fact that +HE is INFINITE, he knows every hair on our heads and has a plan for each +of our lives (John 3:16 & 10:10). It is far better to have a small faith +in THE TRUE GOD of the universe than to have a great faith in a small, +counterfeit god. One should keep in mind that faith in a "counterfeit" +god is really no more than a misplaced faith in the false prophet and the +teaching of a false Prophet. Remember - a counterfeit - to be called a +counterfeit - must "resemble" the GENUINE item. If there are many +"counterfeit" gods, then there must be a REAL GOD, and HE is found in the +scriptures and in everything that surrounds us. + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-15.txt b/religious documents/lds-15.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb797cd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-15.txt @@ -0,0 +1,266 @@ + LDS and Hell + ============ + + + The Mormon doctrine of Hell is most interesting, to be sure. A +faithful Mormon provided the following: + + Hell: That part of the spirit world inhabited by wicked spirits who are +awaiting the eventual day of their resurrection is called hell. Between +their death and resurrection, these souls of the wicked are cast out into +outer darkness, into the gloomy depression of sheol, into the hades of +waiting wicked spirits, into hell. There they suffer the torments of the +damned; there they welter in the vengeance of eternal fire; there is +found weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth; there the fiery +indignation of the wrath of God is poured out upon the wicked. (Alma +40:11-14; D. & C. 76:103-106.) + + Hell will have an end. Viewing future events, John saw that "death +and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged +every man according to their works." (Rev. 20:13.) Jacob taught that +this escape from death and hell meant the bringing of the body out of the +grave and the spirit out of hell. "And this death of which I have +spoken, which is the spiritual death," he said, "shall deliver up its +dead; which spiritual death is hell; wherefore, death and hell must +deliver up their dead, and hell must deliver up its captive spirits, and +the graves must deliver up its captive bodies, and the bodies and the +spirits of men will be restored one to the other." (2 Ne. 9:10-12) It +was in keeping with this principle for David to receive the promise: +"Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." (Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:27.) + + After the resurrection, the great majority of those who have +suffered in hell will pass into the telestial kingdom; the balance, +cursed as sons of perdition, will be consigned to partake of endless woe +with the devil and his angels. Speaking of the telestial kingdom the +Lord says: "These are they who are thrust down to hell. These are they +who shall not be redeemed from the devil untill the last resurrection, +untill the Lord, even Christ the Lamb, shall have finished his +work....These are they who are cast down to hell and suffer the wrath of +Almighty God, untill the fulness of times." (D. & C. 76:84-85, 106.) As +to the sons of perdition, the revelation says that after their +resurrection, "they shall return again to their own place." (D. & C. 88:3 +2, 102), that is, they shall go back to dwell in the lake of fire with +Perdition and his other sons. Thus those in hell "are the rest of the +dead; and they live not again until the thousand years are ended, neither +again, until the end of the earth." (D. & C. 88:101.) + + Statements about an everlasting and endless hell (Hela. 6:28; Moro. +8:13), are to be interpreted in the same sense as those about eternal and +endless punishment. (D. & C. 19:4-12; 76:44, 105.) + + Who will go to hell? This query is abundantly answered in the +scriptures. Since those going to a telestial kingdom travel to their +destination through the depths of hell and as a result of obedience to +telestial law, it follows that all those who live a telestial law will go +to hell. Included among these are the carnal, sensual, and devilish - +those who live after the manner of the world. Among them are the +sorcerers, adulterers, whoremongers (D. & C. 76:103), false swearers, +"those that oppress the hireling in his wages," the proud "and that do +wickedly." (Mal. 3; 4; 2 Ne. 9:27-39, 26:10.) + + Several specific groups of wicked persons are singled out to receive +the prophetic curse that their destination is the fires of hell. "The +wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forgot God," +David proclaimed (Ps. 9:17). Sex sin is rewarded with the torments of +hell (2 Ne. 9:36; Prov. 7:6-27). "Wo unto all those that discomfort my +people, and drive, and murder, and testify against them, saith the Lord +of Hosts; a generation of vipers shall not escape the damnation of hell" +(D. & C. 121:23). So also is the fate of liars (2 Ne. 9:34), of all +those that preach false doctrines" (2 Ne. 28:15), of those that believe +the damnable doctrine of infant baptism (Moro. 8:14, 21), of the rich who +will not help the poor (D. & C. 104:18; Luke 16:19-31), and of those who +heap cursings on their fellow men (Matt. 5:22; 3 Ne. 12:22). "The +sectarian world are going to hell by hundreds, by thousands and by +millions," the Prophet Joseph Smith said. (History of the Church, vol. +5, p. 554) + + To catch souls in his snares and then drag them down to hell is the +plan and program of the devil (D. & C. 10:26; Alma 30:60). One of his +latter-day wiles is to persuade men that there is neither a devil nor a +hell and that the fear of eternal torment is baseless (2 Ne. 28:21-23). +But Christ, who holds "the keys of hell and of death" (Rev. 1:18), and +can therefore control and abolish them, has power to save and redeem men +from hell (2 Ne. 33:6; Alma 19:29; 26:13-14). This he does on +conditions of repentance and obedience to his laws. But the unrepentant +"would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a +consciousness of" their "filthiness before him, than" they "would to +dwell with the damned souls in hell" (Morm. 9:4). + + After death and hell have delivered up the bodies and captive +spirits which were in them, then, as John foresaw, "death and hell were +cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14). This lake of fire, a figure +symbolical of eternal anguish and woe, is also called hell, but is a hell +reserved exclusively for the devil and his angels which includes the sons +of perdition (D. & C. 29:38; 88:113; 2 Pet. 2:4). + + Speaking of this hell, and writing of events to take place after the +resurrection and the judgment, and thus of a day after those going to a +telestial kingdom have come out of their hell, Jacob says: "And asuredly, +as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, and it is his +eternal word, which cannot pass away, that they who are righteous shall +be righteous still, and they who are filthy shall be filthy still; +wherefore, they who are filthy are the devil and his angels; and they +shall go away into everlasting fire, prepared for them; and their torment +is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and +ever and has no end" (2 Ne. 9:16). + + Thus, for those who are heirs of some salvation, which includes all +except the sons of perdition (D. & C. 76:44), hell has an end, but for +those who have wholly given themselves over to satanic purposes there is +no redemption from the consuming fires and torment of conscience. They +go on forever in the hell that is prepared for them. + + As one can see, their doctrine is extremely different from the +classical, orthodox doctrine of Hell. The following LDS differences are +most noteworthy (based on the fact that, in the Mormon church, all +scriptures, doctrines, and teachings are "interpreted" via their +"prophet" instead of scripture interpreting the sayings, doctrines, etc. +of their "prophet"): + + 1) Hell is no more than a "prison", and the inmates look forward to + a "parole" after serving their "sentence" and being "purified" of + their sins. Thus they'll reside in the "telestial" heaven, the + lowest of the 3 Mormon heavens. + + 2) Hell, therefore, isn't eternal. + + 3) However, those who are condemned in the "second death", or second + judgment, will reside there forever ("second death", meaning + those spirits in "hell" who didn't convert to Mormonism). + + 4) As such, the "eternal torment" is no more than temporary + suffering (as the "prophet" defined eternal). + + 5) It's the devil's plan to drag people down to hell by convincing + them that it doesn't exist (by LDS definition, that is). + However, the BOM in 2 Nephi 28:21-23, if taken at face value + (without any "prophet's interpretation"), condemns the Mormon to + Hell since he's convinced that it doesn't exist as classically + and orthodoxically defined. Here's the text of the scripture: + + "And others will he pacify and lull them away into carnal + security that they will say: 'all is well in zion; yea Zion + prospereth, and is well'-and the devil cheateth their souls, and + leadeth them down to HELL. And behold, others he flattereth away, + and telleth them 'THERE IS NO HELL'; and he saith unto them; 'I + am no devil, FOR THERE IS NONE'-and thus he whispereth in their + ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence + there is no deliverance. Yea, they are grasped with DEATH, AND + HELL; AND DEATH, AND HELL, and the devil, and all that have been + seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, and be + judged according to their works, from whence they must go into + the place prepared for them, EVEN A LAKE OF FIRE AND BRIMSTONE, + WHICH IS ENDLESS TORMENT." (Emphasis authors) 2 Nephi 28:21-23 + + + Even though, the Mormon teaching sounds orthodox, one must remember +that, according to the LDS, everything is to be "interpreted" by their +"prophet" Joseph Smith, Jr. As such, man, rather than God, is used to +make scriptural judgments. Therefore, their doctrine is a heresy and as +such paves the way to hell, rather than righteousness (as the LDS would +have the world to believe). + + + Bible and Hell + ============== + + + The Bible, being God's established scriptural standard, has a +different story to tell. + Hell is the destination of all souls who've chosen to reject Jesus +and live in their sins. The Book of Revelation is an excellent reference +to defining Hell and all who'll reside there at the times of Judgment. + Jesus, Himself, gave vivid and graphic descriptions of Hell. Here +are some of His teachings: + + 1) Hell is a place of outer darkness (Mat. 8:11-12, 22:11-14, + 25:31-46). + + 2) Hell is eternally separated from Heaven and God. As such, once + in Hell, there is no escape to Heaven, or anyplace else (Luke + 16:19-26). + + 3) Hell is a place of eternal fire and torment (Mat. 13:40-43, + 25:31-46, Mark 9:45-48). + + As one can see from the above examples, Hell isn't a pleasant place, +or one that anyone can escape from once placed there. + + + The Book of Mormon and Hell + =========================== + + + The Book of Mormon tends to agree with the Bible where the subject +of eternal Hell is concerned. Here are some passages from it. All +emphases are the author's, single quotes are for clarity only, they do +not appear in the cited passages: + + "And others will he pacify and lull them away into carnal + security that they will say: 'all is well in zion; yea Zion + prospereth, and is well 'and the devil cheateth their souls, and + leadeth them down to HELL. And behold, others he flattereth + away, and telleth them 'THERE IS NO HELL'; and he saith unto + them; 'I am no devil, FOR THERE IS NONE'-and thus he whispereth + in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from + whence there is no deliverance. Yea, they are grasped with + DEATH, AND HELL; AND DEATH, AND HELL, and the devil, and all that + have been seized therewith must stand before the throne of God, + and be judged according to their works, from whence they must go + into the place prepared for them, EVEN A LAKE OF FIRE AND + BRIMSTONE, WHICH IS ENDLESS TORMENT. 2 Nephi 28:21-23 + + "For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance + even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit + of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the spirit of + the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and + the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of + the wicked." Alma 34:35 + + "Now, repentance could not come unto men except there were a + punishment, which also was eternal as the life of the soul should + be, affixed opposite to the plan of happiness, which was as + eternal also as the life of the soul." Alma 42:16 + + "Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an + enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his + immortal soul to a lively sense of his own GUILT, and PAIN, and + ANGUISH, which is like AN UNQUENCHABLE FIRE WHOSE FLAME ASCENDETH + UP FOREVER AND EVER. And now I say unto you, that mercy hath NO + CLAIM on that man; therefore his final doom is to ENDURE A + NEVER-ENDING TORMENT. O, all ye old men, and also ye young men, + and you little children who can understand my words, for I have + spoken plainly that you might understand, and I pray that ye + should awake to a remembrance of the awful situation of those who + have fallen into transgression. And moreover, I would desire + that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those + who that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are + blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they + hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, and + thereby they may dwell with God in a STATE OF NEVERENDING + HAPPINESS. O remember, remember that these things are true; for + THE LORD GOD HATH SPOKEN IT." Mosiah 2:38-41 + + As one can see, according to the BOM, the doctrine of no hell or +devil is from the devil, and those who profess same are bound up in his +chains and destined for the hell that they don't believe in. Hell is a +place of eternal pain, anguish, and torment with no chance of relief, +whereas heaven is eternal happiness to those who follow the commandments +of God, not man (or a "prophet", for that matter!). It seems that the +Mormon church has a lot to learn from their own "Bible." + + + Ken Simmons + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-16.txt b/religious documents/lds-16.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62c2918 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-16.txt @@ -0,0 +1,81 @@ + THE REAL HOLY SPIRIT + + + In Mormonism the "Holy Ghost" is a personage, or a god, but the +"Holy Spirit" is an impersonal force. The Mormons refer to verses that +the Holy Spirit is symbolized by oil, fire and water and show that these +are "impersonal". The Bible refers to the Father and the Son as "bread +of life", "living water" and other "impersonal" terms. Again, we must +look at the context. + + In John 16:7, our Lord is placing His emphasis on His going away and +the Holy Spirit's being sent by the Father to replace our Lord himself. +This change (or replacement), Jesus says, would be beneficial for His +disciples. AN IMPERSONAL FORCE COULD HARDLY IMPROVE ON THE PERSONAL +PRESENCE OF OUR LORD, JESUS CHRIST! + + The word in Hebrew and the word in Greek for SPIRIT and GHOST both +mean the same, "breath or wind" and the "translators" of the King James +Bible noted that the Greek word denoted a neuter gender and was +mistranslated to be an "IT," but they did utilize the word Ghost and +Spirit and interchanged them on many occasions. The words as translated +are from only ONE word in Hebrew and ONE word in Greek - therefore there +is NOT two words for SPIRIT and GHOST - only ONE. Now, let's look at +this ONE entity called the HOLY SPIRIT. In John 16:13 and 14 we see our +Lord Jesus telling us this about the Holy Spirit, "HE shall not speak of +HIMSELF ... HE shall glorify me ... HE shall receive of mine ....". NOTE +that our LORD gives PERSONALITY to the Spirit. Otherwise our Lord would +have used the term that Mormons use "IT." + + Jesus repeatedly (John 16:7-15) uses the MASCULINE PERSONAL pronoun +"He" when referring to the Spirit. Jesus used the term clearly to tell +us that the Spirit had personality and intimacy. Ananias was struck dead +for lying to the HOLY SPIRIT (Acts 5:3). You cannot lie to an impersonal +force! It would be like walking up to a window box fan, turning it on +and facing its "force" and then telling lie after lie to it - IT WOULD +NOT CARE THE SLIGHTEST, WOULD IT? Now, you look at Ananias and, if you +are not a complete idiot, you would not repeat his behavior, now would +you? The Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost are not two different items +mentioned in the Bible. There is only one entity referred to as both +HOLY GHOST and HOLY SPIRIT. + + The Holy Spirit is a person. The Spirit may be "grieved" (Ephesians +4:30) and "sinned against" by UNFORGIVABLE blasphemy (Mark 3:29). None +of these things are possible for an "impersonal force". +The Holy Ghost does things which only a person COULD do. + + He SPEAKS: + "The Spirit said unto Philip, 'Go near'" (Acts 8:29) + + "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity ... [and] MAKETH INTERCESSION +for us." (Romans 8:26) + + He STRIVES: + "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever" (Genesis 6:3) + + He REVEALS, SEARCHES, and KNOWS: + "But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit +searcheth all things ... the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit +of God" (I Corinthians 2:10,11). + + Other verses can be shown that the Spirit IDENTIFIES with believers +(Acts 15:28), The Spirit is ETERNAL (Hebrews 9:14), OMNIPRESENT (Psalm +139:7-10), DOES GOD'S WORK (Genesis 1:2), INVOLVED IN REGENERATION (John +3:8), participates in the RESURRECTION (Romans 8:11). Paul identifies +the Spirit as the speaker to Isaiah. Acts 28:25-26 and Isaiah 6:8-9. An +impersonal force does not counsel, speak, feel, or anything resembling +personality. The HOLY SPIRIT is a person - one of the THREE ENTITIES +of the ONE TRUE GOD. + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-17.txt b/religious documents/lds-17.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4247f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-17.txt @@ -0,0 +1,264 @@ + The Jesus WE KNOW contrasted to the "Jesus" of Mormonism + + + The one true Jesus of the BIBLE, of all eternity God the Son, who +died that we may have eternal life; who paid the price of all sins; who +has entered our lives and is walking with us in a personal relationship +day by day -- is not known in Mormonism. The Jesus of Mormonism is an +entirely different "Jesus". Let's examine what the leaders and prophets +- the foundation of the Latter Day Saints Church - have said: + + "When the time came that His First-Born, the Saviour, should come + into the world and take a tabernacle, the Father Himself came and + favoured the Spirit with a tabernacle instead of letting any + other MAN do it .... The Saviour was begotten by the Father of + His spirit, by the same being who is the Father of our spirits, + and that is all the organic difference between Jesus Christ and + you and me" + (BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 4:218) + + "The fleshly body of Jesus required a Mother as well as a Father. + Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to the + flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity of + Husband and Wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the + time being, the lawful wife of God the Father." + (ORSON PRATT, The Seer, pg 158) + + "Christ was begotten by an immortal Father in the same way that + mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers ----- And Christ was + born into the world as the Literal Son of this Holy Being; He was + born in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any + mortal son is born of a mortal father. There is nothing + figurative about his paternity; He was begotten, conceived and + born in the normal and natural course of events, for He is the + Son of God, and that designation means what it says." + (BRUCE R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine, pg 547,742) + + Brigham Young, to be consistent with his "Adam-God" doctrine, +believed Adam was the literal father of Jesus Christ: + + "When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had + begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the + Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human + family ... Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by + the same character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our + Father in Heaven." + (BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 1:50,51) + + As is evident in these statements, there is no Virgin Birth in +Mormonism. On the other hand, the Bible clearly shows us: + + Matthew 1:18 Mary with child of the Holy Spirit + 1:20 That which is conceived in her is of the + Holy Spirit + 1:23 Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a + son + Luke 1:35 The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the + power of the Most High will overshadow you + + Further, the "Jesus" of Mormonism was married in polygamy and had +children. This had to be so to be consistent with the doctrines of +Joseph Smith, Junior. As Joseph reports as a "revelation" given him by +God on July 12,1843: + + "I am the Lord thy God .... obey the instructions I am about to + give unto you .... if ye abide not that covenant, then ye are + damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to + enter my Glory .... verily I say unto you, if man marry a wife + by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting + covenant .... they shall be gods .... And again, as pertaining to + the law of the priesthood - if any man espouses a virgin, and + desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if + he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no + other man, then he is justified .... and if he have ten virgins + given unto him by the law, he cannot commit adultery, for they + belong to him." + (JOSEPH SMITH, Doctrine & Covenants, 132:2,3,4,19,20,61,62) + + "It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was a + marriage in Cana of Galilee, and on a careful reading of that + transaction, it will be discovered that no less a person than + Jesus Christ was married on that occasion." + (ORSON HYDE, Journal of Discourses, 13:259) + + "How was it with Mary and Martha, and other women that followed + Him? In old times, and it is common to this day, the women, even + Sarah, called their husbands 'LORD' .... Jesus was the bridegroom + at the marriage of Cana of Galilee .... We say it was Jesus + Christ who was married, to be brought into relation whereby he + could see his seed, before He was crucified .... I shall say + here, that before the Saviour died, he looked upon His own + natural children, as we look upon ours." + (ORSON HYDE, Journal of Discourses, 2:81,82) + + The Bible states that Jesus is God the Son -- eternally existent +with God the Father -- yet Mormon doctrine says Jesus was a spirit +offspring of the Father; that Lucifer was the second spirit offspring +(THEY WERE BROTHERS?!); followed by billions more - or each of us, for +instance. We are "brothers" and "sisters" of Jesus Christ. Jesus is not +the only begotten Son in Mormon Theology: + + "It makes me think of that second person that came forth in the + heavens when the voice went forth: 'Who will redeem the earth, + who will go forth and make the sacrifice for the earth and all + things it contains?'. The Eldest son said: 'Here am I'; but he + did not say 'send me.' But the second one, which was 'Lucifer, + Son of the Morning,' said, 'Lord, here am I, send me, I will + redeem every son and daughter of Adam and Eve that lives on the + earth." + (BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 13:282) + + "The appointment of Jesus to be Saviour of the world was + contested by one of the other sons of God. He was called + Lucifer, Son of the Morning .... this spirit brother of Jesus + desperately tried to become the Saviour of Mankind." + MILTON R. HUNTER (First Council of 70) + The Gospel Through the Ages, pg 15 [1958] + + "Jesus Christ is also of our species .... I have heard sectarian + priests undertake to tell the character of the Son of God, and + they make him half of one species and half of another, and I + could not avoid thinking at once of a mule." + (BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 4:217) + + "There is no impropriety .... in speaking of Jesus Christ as the + elder brother of the rest of human kind." + (JAMES TALMAGE, ARTICLES OF FAITH, pg 473) + + In Mormonism, Jesus was a created being: + + "Jesus is man's spiritual brother. We dwelt with Him in the + spirit world as members of that large society of our eldest + brother." + (MILTON R. HUNTER, Gospel Through the Ages, pg 21) + + "The devil is a spirit son of God who was born in the morning of + pre-existence." + (BRUCE R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine, "Devil", 1966 edition, pg + 192) "There are three Gods - the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." + (BRUCE R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine,"God", pg 317) + + The REAL JESUS, the ONLY Son of God and God the Son, is proclaimed +throughout the BIBLE! Look up these references and tie-ins of Old and +New testaments declaring Jesus' Divinity and NOT being created: + + LOOK UP and COMPARE WITH + ___________________________________________________ + Psalm 24:10 I Corinthians 2:8 + Psalm 45:6,7 Hebrews 1:8 + Isaiah 8:13 I Peter 2:8 + Isaiah 40:3 Matthew 3:3 + Malachi 3:1 Matthew 11:10 + Psalm 102:27 Hebrews 13:8 + James 1:17 + Psalm 102:25 Colossians 1:16 + Psalm 102:26 Matthew 24:35 + 2 Peter 3:7,10 + + + JOHN 1:1-3,14 + + "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and + the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All + things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made + that was made .... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among + us, (and we beheld His glory, the Glory as of the ONLY begotten + of the Father,) full of grace and truth." + + COLOSSIANS 1:15 + + "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every + creature" [Here 'firstborn' does not mean first 'spirit-child', + rather a position of high honor - see verse 18, Hebrews 12:23, + Revelation 1:5, and Psalm 89:27]. The next verses, 16 and 17, + tell us, "For in Him were all things created, that are in heaven, + and that are on the earth .... All things were created by Him, + and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things + consist." + + HEBREWS 1:10 + + "Thou, Lord (Jesus), in the beginning hast laid the foundation of + the earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hands." + + In Isaiah 44:24 God tells us that He "stretched forth the heavens +alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." Jesus, who IS the +TRUTH and God the Father "have no lies within them" and are INCAPABLE OF +TELLING A LIE. Jesus is God the Son, eternally One with the Father and +the Holy Spirit, and not to be confused. God the Son is not God the +Father and God the father is not God the Holy Spirit, but each entity is +a part of the ONE TRUE AND LIVING GOD. + + ISAIAH 9:6 + + "For unto us a child is born .... his name shall be called + Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, The + Prince of Peace." + + MICAH 5:2 + + "Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." + + MATTHEW 28:18 + + "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, 'All power is given + unto me in heaven and in earth.'" + + PHILIPPIANS 2:6-10 + + "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be + equal with God: .... was made in the likeness of men .... became + obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God + also hath highly exalted him .... That at the name of Jesus every + knee should bow ...." Compare to Isaiah 45:22,23 for if Jesus is + not God, then we worship two (or more) Gods! The Mormons, + basically, do not worship Jesus, or pray to Him, only "through" + Him.) + + COLOSSIANS 2:9 + + "For in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily" + + HEBREWS 1:3 + + "... The express image of His person ...." + + JOHN 5:23 + + "That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the + Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father + which hath sent Him." + + JOHN 20:28 + + "And Thomas answered and said unto Him, 'My Lord and my God.'" + + Jesus used the same descriptions of himself; I AM, ALPHA and OMEGA, +FIRST and LAST; as used by God the Father: + + JESUS SAYING GOD + __________________________________________________________ + JOHN 8:58 I AM EXODUS 3:14,15 + REV 22:13,16 ALPHA AND OMEGA REV 1:8 & 21:6 + REV 1:17 REVELATION 21:6 + 2:8 FIRST AND LAST ISAIAH 44:6 + 22:13 48:12 + + Jesus is GOD the SON! Eternally God and not after, or created by, or +a spirit child of God! Our Jesus is NOT the "Jesus" of Mormonism, and we +are empowered, if we have accepted the true Jesus into our hearts, to +give Thanks unto God for selecting us to reveal His True Son to us. +HALLELUJAH and AMEN !!! + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-18.txt b/religious documents/lds-18.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba0fc1a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-18.txt @@ -0,0 +1,264 @@ + LDS statements concerning the Negro + ----------------------------------- + + It was no less an authority than Brigham Young who uttered these +words, as scripture, about the Negro during the era of slavery: + + "Cain conversed with God every day, and knew all about the plan + of creating this earth, for his father told him. But for the + want of humility, and through jealousy, and an anxiety to possess + the kingdom, and to have the whole of it under his own control, + and not allow any body else the right to say one word,what did he + do? He killed his brother. The Lord put a mark on him... When + all the other children of Adam have had the privilege of + receiving the Priesthood, and of coming into the kingdom of God, + and of being redeemed from the four quarters of the earth, and + have received their resurrection from the dead, then it will be + time enough to remove the curse from Cain and his posterity. He + deprived his brother of the privilege of pursuing the his journey + through life, and of extending his kingdom by multiplying upon + the earth; and because he did this, he is the last to share in + the joys of the kingdom of God." + + Joseph Fielding Smith + quoting Young's Journal of Discourses, + vol.2, pp.142-143 + in his book "The Way of Perfection", p. 106 + + To summarize Smith's quote of Young, the conditions of the curse +being removed from the Negro are as follows: + + 1) When all the other children of Adam (Adam was the God of the +Mormons as Young preached at that time) have had the privilege of +receiving the Priesthood. + + 2) When all the other children of Adam (Mormons) have been +resurrected. + + The question is put forth then: has every Mormon received the +Priesthood and resurrection? If so, then the Negro nations should be +receiving the full emphasis of Mormon missionary work. Since that isn't +the case, then the "revelation" of Young, and affirmed by Fielding Smith, +is false and the manifesto of 1978(?) is also false or in direct +contradiction of the prophets. + + The words of Wilford Woodruff, also a former "prophet, seer, and +revelator" of the LDS had this to day: + + "President Woodruff, in his journal, records the words of + President Young as follows: + + The Lord said I will not kill Cain, but I will put a mark upon + him, and that mark will be seen upon the face of every negro upon + the face of the earth; and it is the decree of God that the mark + shall remain upon the seed of Cain until the seed of Abel shall + be redeemed' and Cain shall not receive the priesthood, until the + time of that redemption. Any man having one drop of the seed of + Cain in him cannot receive the priesthood; but the day will come + when all that race will be redeemed and possess all the blessings + which we now have." + + "Wilford Woodruff-History of His + Life and Labors", p. 351 + + Here we have Pres. Woodruff affirming yet again the "revelations" of +the black as uttered by the mouth of Brigham Young. Here are some other +words from other Mormon leaders/sources that carry on the tradition of +the Mormon/Negro position: + + "Negroes in this life are denied the priesthood; under no + circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the + Almighty. The gospel message of salvation is not carried + affirmatively to them... Negroes are not equal to other races + where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are + concerned...." + + Bruce R. McConkie + "Mormon Doctrine", p.527 + + "Think of the Negro, cursed as to the Priesthood... This negro, + who, in the pre-existence lived the type of life which justified + the Lord in sending Him to the earth in the lineage of Cain with + a black skin, and possible being born in darkest Africa- if that + negro is willing when he hears the gospel to accept it, he may + have many of the blessings of the gospel. In spite of all he did + in the pre-existent life, the Lord is willing, if the Negro + accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really + converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of + the Holy Ghost. If that Negro is faithful all his days, he can + and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a + servant, but he will get celestial glory." + + "Race Problems-As the Affect the Church" + Address by Mark E. Petersen at + the Convention of Teachers of + Religion on the college level, + Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah + August 27, 1954 + + + "Frankly, sincerely, and somewhat abruptly, President Brigham + Young has told us that the mark of Cain was a 'blackskin.' For + the Latter-day Saint no further explanation is required.... The + question as to what the mark of Cain was, and is, is thus + answered - a black skin for him and his posterity." + + "The Church and the Negro", + 1967, p. 13-14 + + "Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that + would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This + was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon the him, which is the + flat nose and black skin." + + "Journal of Discourses" + Vol.7, p.290 + Delivered October 16, 1859 + + The following, taken from an LDS Sunday School book, puts the LDS +position on the black in it's real context and meaning: + + "We will first inquire into the results of the approbation or + displeasure of God upon a people, starting with the belief that a + black skin is a mark of the curse of heaven placed upon some + portions of mankind. Some, however, will argue that a blackskin + is not a curse, nor a white skin a blessing. In fact some have + been so FOOLISH AS TO BELIEVE AND SAY that a black skin is a + blessing, and that the negro is the finest type of a perfect man + that exists on the earth but to us SUCH TEACHINGS ARE + FOOLISHNESS. We understand that when God made man in his own + image and pronounced him very good, THAT HE MADE HIM WHITE. We + have no record of any of God's favored servants BEING OF A BLACK + RACE. All his prophets and apostles belonged to the most + handsome race on the face of the earth -Israel, who still, as + represented in the scattered tribe of Judah, bear the impress of + their former beauty. In this race was born His Son Jesus, who,we + are told was very lovely, and "in the express image of His + Father's person," and every angel who ever brought a message of + God's mercy to man was beautiful to look upon, clad in the purest + white and with a countenance as bright as the noonday sun." + + "Juvenile Instructor" + vol.3, p. 157 + + As you see, even God is described as a white man as was Jesus, and +the notion of the negro being a blessed race "foolishness." And this in +a sunday school book being taught to children. + + There are many more examples, but this gives the gist of the basis +of their doctrine: the mere utterances of men during a time of the US +where the black was regarded as no better than dirt and relegated to +slavery. Even Petersen's words give a new twist: the Negro, if he +accepts the LDS way and is faithful, will still be slaves ("servants") in +the celestial heaven to the white exalted gods and other whites of said +heaven. Couple that with the non-fulfillment of Young's "revelation" of +the black redemption and that it hasn't happened, and the 1978 revocation +of the tradition in contradiction to the prophet's "revelations" sets the +LDS in rather a bad light as they can't rightly explain, nor justify, +their continued racism against the black. + + Their own BOM contradicts their theology: + + "Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake + of his goodness? Behold I say unto you NAY; BUT ALL MEN ARE + PRIVILEGED THE ONE LIKE UNTO THE OTHER, AND NONE ARE FORBIDDEN." + (emphasis mine) + + + 2 Nephi 26:28 + + "...and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of + men; and he inviteth ALL to come unto him and partake of his + goodness; AND HE DENIETH NONE THAT COME UNTO HIM, BLACK AND + WHITE, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the + heathen; AND ALL ARE ALIKE UNTO GOD, BOTH JEW AND GENTILE." + (emphasis mine) + + 2 Nephi 26:33 + + Even former President Joseph Fielding Smith admitted there was +no "scriptural basis" for the Negro doctrine: + + "...We know of no such statement in any revelation in the + 'Doctrine and Covenants', the 'Book of Mormon' or the Bible." + + "The Improvement Era" + Vol. 27, p. 565 + + Even David O. McKay, another former president, tried to evade the +issue of scripturality by reasoning it to their "pre-existence" doctrine: + + + "...however, I believe...that the real reason dates back to our + pre-existent life." + + "Mormonism and the Negro" + Part Two, p. 19 + + The reader must agree with Smith that there is no scriptural basis, +LDS or otherwise, for their doctrine on the Negro. + + It seems that the LDS will have a lot to account for in disobeying +God's word (as the BOM is purported to be) in their doctrine on the +black. As the above BOM verses state, no blessing of God is to be denied +to anyone who accepts God, that means the Negro is entitled to the Mormon +Priesthood just as much as the white Mormon enjoys it. Therefore, the +LDS doctrine on the Negro is no more than a doctrine of prejudiced men, +and not of God. + + The Bible is also clear as to the blessings of God not knowing race, +creed, skin color, social status, etc.: + + "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. + For as many of you as have been baptized Christ have put on + Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond + nor free, there is neither male nor female; FOR YE ARE ALL ONE IN + CHRIST JESUS. And if ye be Christs, then ye are Abraham's seed, + and heirs according to the promise." (emphasis mine) + + Galatians 3:26-29 + + Here, Paul is describing the lack of any barrier based on sex, +status, race, etc., to those who are part of Christ's church and who have +Christ as Lord. + + "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man + with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in + knowledge after the image of him that created him; where there is + neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, + Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, BUT CHRIST IS ALL, AND IN + ALL." (emphasis mine) + + Colossians 3:9-11 + + The same declaration as in Galatians. There are no divisions of +class, etc., in the body of christian believers. All are equal in God's +sight and entitled to the same blessings. + + There are other scriptures to affirm this point. See Colossians +1:20-23, 27-28, 2:9-10, and the capping scripture, Acts 10:9-33 where God +reveals that there is nothing unclean that God has cleansed (meaning +Gentiles to the Jew) and all are eligible to receive God's blessings. + + In summary: the LDS doctrine on the Negro is a farce, it has no +scriptural basis, and it is perpetuated to this day because of prejudice +and the desire of exclusiveness in the organization and to keeping the +black in the position of slave. My interpretation is not of any part of +this. The words are self evident, and the Greek of the New Testament is +self-explanatory. One need only consult a Greek lexicon of the Bible and +use it with an interlinear to discover the true meanings of the Greek +texts. + + Ken Simmons +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-19.txt b/religious documents/lds-19.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6bdf4e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-19.txt @@ -0,0 +1,190 @@ + SALVATION THROUGH CHRIST + + vs: + + THE EXALTATION OF MAN + + God's word, the BIBLE, which clearly states that our salvation is +through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, alone through one faith and His +Grace --- not as a result of fabricating our own righteousness by "good +works" by attempting to become "perfect" as a result of laws and +ordinances of any organization. + + "And this is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and +this life is in His son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that +hath not the Son hath not life. These things have I written unto you +that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have +eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God" (I +John 5:11-13). + + God spells it out - you either have life through the Son or you +reject Him. It is either Heaven or the Lake of Fire; no "grey areas"; no +half-way locations. You either accept the Son or you reject Him. + + Mormonism claims to accept Jesus ---- "We have His name on our +church" - The Jesus of Mormonism is a different Jesus - not any +resemblance to the REAL Jesus. Further, by rejecting the total +sufficiency of the New Covenant of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross +for their personal sins - and instead electing to attempt the old +covenant of works, laws, temples, etc ----- they nullify the offer of +eternal life as a gift by God's Love and immeasurable Grace: + + "I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if righteousness come + by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:21) + + As a result, the Mormon believing in the Mormon Jesus, and not the +real Jesus of the BIBLE; and following a life only of works, even with +utmost sincerity, without the saving faith in the one who died for them, +personally, is LOST. We don't say that - GOD says that - in HIS Word - +The BIBLE + + THREE KINGDOMS? + + Let's go further ---- Mormonism claims three "heavens." They take I +CORINTHIANS 15:37-49 totally out of context to arrive at this false +teaching. Where Paul is declaring that an individual's resurrected body +is different in Glory from his earthly body - as the sun differs from the +moon, from the stars - Mormonism has declared three kingdoms of Heaven: + + TELESTIAL KINGDOM + + Where all the wicked go, whether they've rejected God and Jesus all +their life or not - Murderers, etc ! + + TERRESITAL KINGDOM + + Where good and honorable persons go - they only failed to accept the +"gospel" of Mormonism. + + CELESTIAL KINGDOM + + A) LOWER DEGREE + + Good Mormons, but failed to marry in the Temple and having "other" +imperfections. These will be allowed to be angels. + + B) MIDDLE DEGREE + + Mormons who failed to accept the complete "gospel" but were married +in the Temple, sealed to many wives, and are in the process of being +exalted through baptism of the dead, etc. + + C) HIGHEST DEGREE - EXALTATION + + "Perfect" Mormons. They will be gods themselves just like God the +Father. Will have eternal, multiple, marriages for the purpose of +sexually procreating billions of spirit children to populate another +world that they will reign over as that world's god. + + MORMON TERMINOLOGY + + Let's be "clear" on some important terms - even though you will find +Mormon writers interchanging them, in a strict sense they are: + + SALVATION + + Resurrection only; immortality, or simply life after death. This is +what Christ's death on the cross "achieved." This is what all mankind +has by the Grace of God as a free gift. But "salvation" for what? This +is just the bottom of the ladder. + + "Those who gain only this general or unconditional salvation will + still be judged according to their works and receive places in a + Terrestial or Telestial kingdom. They will, therefore, be + damned; their eternal progression will be cut short; they will + not fill the full measure of their creation, but in eternity will + be ministering servants to more worthy persons." + Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, "Salvation",pg 669,670 (1966 + Edition) + + So, you see, salvation as a gift through Christ is nothing special +to a Mormon. When they say, "Jesus is our Savior", this is what they +give Him "credit" for! Now, let's find out what the goal of Mormonism +is. Who are these "more worthy persons"? + + EXALTATION + + Eternal Life in the Highest Degree of the Celestial Kingdom. This +is what Mormonism teaches day in and day out. McConkie continues: + + "Conditional or individual salvation, that which comes by grace + coupled with gospel obedience, consist in receiving an + inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God. This kind of + salvation follows faith, repentance, baptism, receipt of the Holy + Ghost, and continued righteousness to the end of one's mortal + life. (D & C 20:29 & 2 Nephi 9:23-24). All others are damned --- + Even those in the celestial kingdom however, who do not go on to + exaltation, will have immortality only and not eternal life --- + they will be 'ministering servants, to minister for and to those + who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding and an eternal + weight of glory.' They will live 'separately and singly' in an + unmarried state 'without exaltation, in their saved condition, to + all eternity' (D & C 132:16,17). Salvation in its true and full + meaning is synonymous with exaltation or eternal life and consist + in gaining an inheritance in the highest of the three heavens + within the Celestial Kingdom --- It is the salvation which saints + seek --- This full salvation is obtained in and through the + continuation of the family unit in eternity, and those who obtain + it are gods --- If it had not been for Joseph Smith and the + restoration, there would be no salvation. There is no salvation + outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." + + "Then shall they be gods, because they have no end - Then shall + they be gods, because they have all power ---" (D & C 132:20) + + "Here then is eternal life - to know the only wise and true God; + and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be + kings and priest to God, the same as all gods have done before + you --- and to sit in glory, as do those who sit in everlasting + power --- What is it? To inherit the same power, the same glory + and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a god + ---" + Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 345-347; + Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, "Godhood", 1966 Edition, pg + 321 History of the Church, Volume 6, page 306 + + "They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things - + they are they who are priest and kings, who have received of His + fullness, and his glory -- they are gods --" + Doctrine & Covenants, 76:55-58 + + "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." + Lorenzo Snow, Millennial Star, Vol 54, pg 404 + + "God and man are of the same race, differing only in degrees of + advancement." + John A. Widtsoe,Rational Theology, page 61 + + "Mormonism does not tend to debase God to the level of man, but + to exalt man to the perfection of God." + Charles W. Penrose,Millennial Star,Vol 23, pg 181 + + The above quotes appear in Milton R. Hunter's, The Gospel Through +The Ages (1958, pages 105-107) under the chapter heading "Men may become +gods". Hunter surprisingly supports Mormonism's view of the Godhead of +man by noting (on pg 117): + + "Even the doctrine of a knowledge of God as the avenue to Godhood + made its way outward from the Divine Fountain of Truth into the + heathenistic religions of the Mediterranean world. The teaching + of the HERMETIC pagan cult sound quite familiar to those who are + acquainted with the doctrine taught by Jesus, by John the + Beloved, by Paul, and by Joseph Smith, the American Prophet". + + Sorry, but only the teachings of the latter sound familiar. Nowhere +in the BIBLE do we find GOD saying man can reach godhood. Yes, we do +find such a teaching in the BIBLE --- yet it is Satan who is doing the +talking !! + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-2.txt b/religious documents/lds-2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08e18a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,292 @@ + + THE NATURE OF GOD + + There is but ONE GOD. The BIBLE states that there has been, and +presently is, and always will be only ONE GOD. History and the BIBLE +show that the Jewish people always believed in ONE GOD of the +UNIVERSE. The Jewish nation; However, was lured, time and time again, +into going after "other gods" that were worshipped by the people +surrounding Israel. That was the sin GOD hated and punished them for +practicing. (Jeremiah 2:11 11:9-13 19:13) + + In direct contrast, MORMONISM has a basic belief in many gods. The +Father, Son and Holy Ghost (in Mormonism) are three separate gods. +There were gods before them and will be gods to follow: "If we should +take a million worlds like this and number their particles, we should +find that there are more gods than there are particles of matter in +those worlds." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 2, page 345 [Feb 1855] Orson +Pratt + + "Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy +Spirit are only one God. I say that is a strange God, anyhow - Three +in one and one in three. It is a curious organization ... all are to +be crammed into one God, according to sectarianism. It would make the +biggest God in all the world ... he would be a giant or a monster." +TEACHING OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, page 372; HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, +Vol 6, page 476 + + "In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the +Gods, and they came together and concocted a plan to create the world +and people it." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, JOSEPH SMITH, Vol 6, page 5; +HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 308 + + Mormons will say they worship only one God; But, whether they +worship them or not, believing in the valid existence of many gods -- +of the same authority and reality of the one God -- makes you a +polytheist! + + False Prophets have always led the people of history (and the +current peoples of the earth) to go after other gods (Deuteronomy 13:1 +to 13). God's strongest wrath was then and is now upon people who +worship or believe in other gods (Jeremiah 16:10 to 13 and 22:8 & 9). + + Mormonism teaches that "Father God" is married and has many wives: +"In the heaven where our spirits were born, there are many Gods, each +of whom has his own wife or wives, which were given to him previous to +his redemption while yet in his mortal state." THE SEER, Orson Pratt, +page 37 + + Look up John 10:34 used by Mormons to justify a belief in "many +Gods". Jesus, there, is quoting Psalm 82 in which the judges were +referred to as "gods" -- but were wicked and unjust and "die like all +men". + + Anytime the word "gods" occur in the BIBLE it must be verified in +context as referring to the idols, satanic princes or counterfeit gods +- (Isaiah 41:23 and 24 and 45:20). + + IN CONTRAST The BIBLE states throughout there is but ONE GOD! Look +up these verses: + + ISAIAH 43:10-11 "Before me NO god was formed, nor after" + + 44:6-8 + "I am the first and the last, beside me no other" + + 45:5-6 + "I am the Lord, and there is no other" + + 45:18-22 "HE created the heavens and earth-there is no other" + + DEUT 6:4 +"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" + + 32:39 + "There is no god beside me" + + PSALM 86:10 + "Thou alone art God" + + MARK 12:29 + "Jesus said, the Lord our God is one; no other" + + GAL 3:20 + "God is one" + + JAMES 2:19 + "You believe God is one - you do well" + + EPH 4:5-6 + "One God and Father of us all" + + I COR 8:4-6 + "There is no god but me" + + GOD IS INFINITE: The BIBLE states that God has always been the same +from all time in eternity past and does not change. In direct +opposition to this, the Mormon Church has the basic belief that God +was once a man, with many gods before Him and many gods to come after +Him. They further believe that God is progressing to higher levels of +power and ability: "God himself was once as we are now, and is an +exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens ... it is necessary +that we should understand the character and being of God, and how He +came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We +have imagined and supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will +refute that idea, and will take away the veil, so that you may see ... +he was once a man like us; yea, that God himself the Father of us all, +dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ did. "TEACHINGS OF THE +PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, page 345; JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES Vol 6, page 3; +HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 305 + + "As man is, God once was; as +God is, man may become." THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES, Milton R. +Hunter, pages 105 & 106 + + "Our Eternal Father has attained His position of exaltation and +Godhood by obedience to the great law of progression ... was once a +mortal man who passed through a school of earth-life similar to that +which we are now passing." THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES, Milton R. +Hunter, pages 12 & 104 + + "Through modern revelations we learn that the universe is filled +with vast numbers of intelligences, and we further learn that Elohim +is God simply because all of these intelligences honor and sustain him +as such --- But God acquired the honor and sustaining influence of +'all things'. It follows as a corrolary that if He should ever do +anything to violate the confidence of 'sense of justice' of these +intelligences, they would promptly withdraw their support, and the +'power' of God would disintegrate --- He would cease to be God. Our +Heavenly Father can do only those things which the intelligences under +Him are voluntarily willing to support Him in accomplishing." THE +FIRST 2000 YEARS, W. Cleon Skousen *,pages 355,356 *=FREEMEN INSTITUTE +PRESIDENT & B.Y.U. Professor + + Mormonism teaches that God is confined to a body of flesh and +bones. He is at a particular place at a particular time. The Mormon +"god" is a SMALL "god". You can have tremendous faith in a god - BUT, +if that god is not THE GOD, then all that tremendous faith is +meaningless. Elijah once challenged the priests of "another god" to +start a fire, and the "god" who was able to do so would be recognized +as THE GOD. The priests for this wooden idol, with great faith and +efforts prayed and prayed to their god to bring down fire to prove his +godhood. Elijah even became somewhat sarcastic when he asked a +rhetorical question of "Maybe your god is asleep? Maybe you should cry +out louder to wake him up?". After all these efforts, nothing +happened! It didn't matter if the priest and believers of that "god" +had a great faith because the OBJECT of that faith was incapable of +fulfilling the promise of that faith. The ONE and TRUE GOD fulfills +our prayers. + + "If God possesses a form, that form is of necessity of definite +proportions, and therefore of limited extension and space. It is +impossible for Him to occupy at one time more than one space of such +limits." ARTICLES OF FAITH, James E. Talmage, pages 42 and 43 + + "I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all +description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, +calling me by name and said, pointing to the other -'This is my +Beloved Son. Hear Him!" PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, Joseph Smith 2:17 + + "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's. +DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, 130, v:22 + + "God himself is increasing in knowledge, power, and dominion and +will do so, worlds without end." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Prophet +Wilford Woodruff, Vol 6, Pg 120 + + "We were begotten by our Father in heaven; the person of our Father +in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His Father; and +again, He was begotten by still a more ancient Father ...." THE SEER, +Orson Pratt, Page 132 + + The BIBLE states throughout that GOD IS INFINITE! We ask that you +look up these proofs: + + II CHRONICLES 6:18 "Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot + contain thee." + + PSALM 41:13 (90:2) "God is from everlasting to everlasting" + + PSALM 102:25-27 + "created heavens, always the same without end" + + PSALM 139:4-8 + "Omniscient and Omnipresent" + + JEREMIAH 23:24 +"I fill heaven and earth" + + HOSEA 11:9 + "I am God, and not man" + + MALACHI 4:39 + "I do not change" + + NEHEMIAH 9:6 + "made Heaven, Heaven of Heavens and all their host" + + PROVERBS 15:3 + "His eyes in every place" + + ACTS 17:27 + "He is not far from each of us" + + JOHN 4:24 + "God is Spirit" + + LUKE 24:39 + "A Spirit has not flesh and bones" + + HEBREWS 4:13 + "All things opened unto His eyes" + + I JOHN 4:12 +"No man has seen God at any time" + + I TIMOTHY 6:15 +"No man has seen, nor can see ..." + + JOHN 1:18 + "No man has seen God at any time" + + EXODUS 33:20 + "There shall be no man see me and live" + + It is clear that the BIBLE refutes the Mormon church's claims and +the claims of its prophets and leaders in a most specific manner. + + Brigham Young, second Prophet and President of the Mormon Church +taught that ADAM was "our Father and our God...": "When our father +Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial +body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him ... He is our Father +and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do ... When the +Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten Him in +His own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is +the Father? He is the first of the human family ...." JOURNAL OF +DISCOURSES, Vol 1, page 50, April 9,1852 + + "I have learned by experience that there is but one God that +pertains to this people, and He is the God that pertains to this earth +- the first man. That first man sent His own Son to redeem the world +..." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 4, pg 1, June 29, 1856 Prophet & +President Heber C. Kimball + + "How much unbelief exist in the minds of the Latter-Day Saints in +regard to a particular doctrine which I revealed to them, and which +God revealed to me -- namely, that Adam is our Father and our God ... +Our Father, Adam helped to make this earth, it was created expressly +for him ... He brought one of his wives with him, and she was called +Eve ... Our Father Adam is the man who stands at the gate and holds +the keys of everlasting life and salvation to all his children.." +DESERET NEWS, June 18,1873: Discourse by Prophet and President Brigham +Young + + Today, the Mormon Church adamantly denies the "ADAM-GOD" doctrine +taught, and as seen above, and affirmed by "Prophet" Brigham Young. +There is overwhelming evidence that he did teach, believed and +strongly defended this belief. By any, reasonable, interpretation of +the BIBLE, Brigham Young must be classified as a FALSE PROPHET (see +Deuteronomy 13:1 to 10 and 18:20 to 22 - also Jeremiah 23:16 to 17) +ADAM is not OUR god and NEVER will be! + + The BIBLE states: "... then the Lord God formed man of dust from +the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man +became a living being." (Genesis 2:7) + + GOD is ONE and ETERNALLY the same. Creator of the Heavens and the +Earth ... All powerful, all knowing, all present. Despite the fact +that HE is INFINITE, he knows every hair on our heads and has a plan +for each of our lives (John 3:16 & 10:10). It is far better to have a +small faith in THE TRUE GOD of the universe than to have a great faith +in a small, counterfeit god. + + One should keep in mind that faith in a "counterfeit" god is really +no more than a misplaced faith in the false prophet and the teaching +of a false Prophet. Remember - a counterfeit - to be called a +counterfeit - must "resemble" the GENUINE item. If there are many +"counterfeit" gods, then there must be a REAL GOD, and HE is found in +the scriptures and in everything that surrounds us. + + Computers for Christ - San Jose + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon diff --git a/religious documents/lds-20.txt b/religious documents/lds-20.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62342d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-20.txt @@ -0,0 +1,366 @@ + MORMONISM'S "SALVATION BY WORKS" + or + SALVATION BY GRACE THROUGH CHRIST? + + The entire BIBLE points in all direction to the cross. Upon it +God's only begotten Son died that we might have eternal from God. Only +through Christ can this separation be bridged. + + On the other hand, MORMONISM points in all directions to the "Law of +Eternal Progression." We have seen that Mormon doctrine states that God +was once a man. He progressed to become God. The same law states that +man may become God! Let's go to the authorities of the church and hear +what they have said, first on the subject of man's pre-existence as a +spirit in a "spirit world" prior to taking a body here on earth: + + "Pre-existence is the term commonly used to describe the + pre-mortal existence of the spirit children of God the Father ... + All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father + and Mother, and we are literally the sons and daughters of Deity; + as spirits they were the offspring of celestial parentage ... + Unless God the father was a personal Being, He could not have + begotten spirits in His image, and if there had been no + self-existent spirit element, there would have been no substance + from which those spirit bodies could have been organized. The + basis of the Mormon law of progression in Mormonism is that + "intelligences" are eternal. On the other hand, God is not! He + started as a spirit child in another 'spirit world' long ago; + entered a body on another earth as a man; apparently was able to + follow the law of progression perfectly; after death He became + God in the 'celestial kingdom' of that other earth; brought (or + was given) many wives; through sexual union in our spirit world + had billions of spirit children : The first was Jesus, the second + Lucifer, the third and on and on were to enter the earth as you + and me. No organic difference in the parentage between us and + Jesus and Lucifer! We all have the same literal "Heavenly + Father." Note how those in Mormonism generally refer to Him as + "Heavenly Father" -- they mean just that - LITERALLY!! Just + remember that they could say also; "Heavenly GRANDFATHER", + "Heavenly Great-Grandfather", and so on ...! + DID WE PRE-EXIST? BRUCE R. McCONKIE (Apostle); MORMON DOCTRINE, + page 589 + + "In the first stage, man was an eternally existent being termed + an intelligence ... The next realm where man dwelt was the spirit + world. According to Mormon concept eternally existing + intelligences were clothed with spirit bodies in the mansion of + their eternal Father... numerous sons and daughters were begotten + and born of heavenly parents into that eternal family in the + spirit world ... There ... they were reared to maturity, becoming + grown spirit men and women prior to coming upon this earth ... + Following his stay in the spirit world, man comes to earth in a + probationary state ... receives a physical body and undergoes the + experiences of mortality .. Eventually; however, mortal death + comes upon all. The eternal spirit goes to the spirit world to + wait resurrection and judgement ... there they shall be assigned + to the glory that they have merited ... Some will receive + telestial glory; others terrestrial, while those who are recorded + in the 'Lamb's Book of Life' will enter celestial glory. There + some of them will become angels and others priest and kings, or, + in other words, Gods." + MILTON R. HUNTER (1st Council of 70);GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES; + pages 127-129 (1958) + + On page 12, Hunter states a basic "truth" of Mormonism, that God is +subordinate to the law of eternal progression.: + + "Our Eternal Father has attained His position of exaltation and + Godhood by obedience to the great law of progression. The + intelligent part of man was never created but always existed. + That is true of each of us as well as it is of God, yet we are + born sons and daughters of God in the spirit and are destined to + exist forever. Those who become like God will also be from + eternity to eternity." + JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH; DOCTRINES OF SALVATION; Vol 1, pg 12 + + The BIBLE states explicitly that there are no intelligences +co-eternal or co-existent with God. Anything that exists, other than +God, is a "thing." COLOSSIANS 1:16-17 and JOHN 1:1-3 state that ONLY +Jesus is co-eternal with God as the "WORD WAS GOD" (John 1:1). He is +before all "things" and created all "things." His creation did not +pre-exist Him! + + God knows the beginning and end of all things before they exist. +There are several scriptures stating HE "knew" us before we were born. +They do not imply we existed before we were born. + + "The burden of the word of the Lord of Israel, saith the Lord, + which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of + the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him." (Zechariah + 12:1) + + Note that the spirit is formed by God within man -- not 15 deals +with the body of man and the resurrection. Mormons will use verses 40 +and 41 to substantiate their belief in three heavens, where it is clear +that Paul is talking about degrees of glory in heavenly bodies (stars, +moon and sun) as a description of the body before and after the +resurrection (Vs 42). Verses 43-49 refutes any "pre-existence" of man in +that Adam and all following (all of us - you and I) are from the earth - +first with a natural state -- not spiritual -- followed by a spiritual +state (vs 46). Jesus, alone, pre- existed and came from heaven to earth. +(See Philippians 2:6-10) + + SALVATION BY GRACE VERSUS WORKS + + The BIBLE states over and over that we do not merit salvation +(eternal life in God's presence) by our own goodness and system of good +works from or for any organization. You need only to study the Old +Testament and see the hopelessness of a system whereby man was to live +within God's laws with the system of prophets - temples - priests and +ordinances. The purpose of Jesus coming to earth to die for us was to +make provision for our own inability to bridge this separation of man +from God and brought a new covenant. If you choose Mormonism as your +plan of salvation, you have regressed to the old covenant of the prophet, +temple and ordinance which produce only "dead works" in an attempt to +obtain righteousness on your own. If you trust the LDS church and its +prophets; here is what is said: + + "Thus all men who ascend to the glorious status of Godhood can do + so only by one method - by obedience to all the principals and + ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (another way of saying + "Mormonism")... Men are saved no faster than they gain knowledge. + The Prophet Joseph described the process of going toward Godhood + as follows: When you climb a ladder, you must begin at the + bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and + so it is with the principles of the Gospel - you must begin with + the first, and go on until you learn all of the principles of + exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed + through the veil before you will have learned them" + MILTON R. HUNTER;THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES;pg 115 + JOSEPH F. SMITH;TEACHINGS OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, pg 348 + + "The sectarian dogma of justification by faith alone has + exercised an influence for evil" + JAMES E. TALMAGE;ARTICLES OF FAITH;pg 480 + + "For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we + can do" + II NEPHI 25:23 (BOOK OF MORMON) + + "Christians speak often of the blood of Christ and its cleansing + power. Much that is believed and taught on this subject, however, + is utter nonsense and so palpably false that to believe it is to + lose one's salvation. Many go so far, for instance, as to + pretend, at least, to believe that if we confess Christ with our + lips and avow that we accept Him as our personal Savior, we are + thereby saved ... And no man can pick the fruit of eternal life + off the branches, as these are tied to the vine, without + accepting both Christ and His prophets ... If it had not been for + Joseph Smith, the Prophet, the perfect knowledge of Christ would + not be had in the world in this day. If it had not been for him + and his mission there would be no legal administrators now on + earth to administer in the ordinances of salvation." + WHAT THE MORMONS THINK OF CHRIST;Official LDS Church Tract;pg + 32,46,47 + + "The second birth begins when men are legally baptized in water + by a legal administrator ... Those who receive the Gospel (Mormon + Doctrine) and join the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day + Saints have power given them to become sons of God" (Compare to + John 1:12. + BRUCE R. McCONKIE;MORMON DOCTRINE;pgs 84 & 745 + (Compare to John 1:12. "But as many as received Him, to +them gave He power to become sons of God..") + + "Those things which men are directed to do to attain peace in + this life and gain eternal life in the world to come are + collectively called the commandments". + BRUCE R. McCONKIE;MORMON DOCTRINE;pg 149 + + "Man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge -- (See I + Corinthians 1:17,20-23,2:1-5) ---- To gain salvation after + baptism it is necessary to keep the commandments of God and + endure to the end.... The most important things that any member + of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints ever does in + this world are: 1. To marry the right person, in the right place, + by the right authority (Mormon Temple marriage); and 2. to keep + the covenant made in connection with this holy and perfect order + of matrimony - thus assuring the obedient persons of an + inheritance of exaltation in the celestial kingdom." + BRUCE R. McCONKIE;MORMON DOCTRINE;preface to 1966 Edition;pg 118 + We are praying that this comparative report will show you +the TRUTH of the BIBLE and the False Gospel and False Jesus being +expounded by the Mormon Church. + + "There is only one way to become sanctified and perfected, and + thus prepared to live with God. That is by obedience to His laws. + There is no other way ... When will we learn to obey him with all + our heart, mind and strength? + CHURCH NEWS-EDITORIAL;November 8,1975; page 16 + (Compare with Luke 10:27. "Thou shalt love the Love the +Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with +all thy strength, and with all thy mind....") + + "If men and women obey all the other laws of the gospel except + that of celestial marriage (Mormon Temple Marriage), They are + appointed angels ...." + MILTON R. HUNTER, GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES;pgs 118-120 + + "Once we have been resurrected, it will be our own efforts, and + not Christ's sacrifice, that will be the deciding factor ... A + man can be saved only so fast as he gains knowledge of the laws + of God." Prophets ... temples ... Obedience to the Law ... + Aaronic Priest .. Legalisms ... Dependent on our own efforts and + good works ... + BENNET; WHY I AM A MORMON;pg 170 + + Sound familiar? Old Testament in a new wrapping? Wrapped in +Christian terminology? Mormonism calls the unsuspecting back under what +amounts to the old covenant. If righteousness could be obtained, earned +or gained by our own efforts to be perfect under the law, there would +have been no need for a "NEW" covenant. If all Christ's death meant was +to conquer death - to pay for Adam's sin as Mormonism teaches - why are +the following among the great number of God's words declaring the TRUTH +of the NEW COVENANT of salvation through Christ, by faith, not works of +the law. Look up these scriptures and review their full context as +revelations from God. + + THE LAW AND WORKS DO NOT SAVE + + What must we do to be doing the works of God? This is the work of +God that you believe in Him whom He sent. (John 6:28,29,39,40) + + No one is justified by the works of the law. Now righteousness of +God is manifested apart from the Law. (Romans 3:21-22) + + If it is adherents of the Law that are to be heirs, then faith is +NULL and the promise void. (Romans 4:13-16) + + Died to the Law through the body of Christ. Discharged from the +law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the +old written code but in new life of the Spirit. (Romans 7:4-6) + + God has done what the law could not do! (Romans 8:1-4) + + Israel who pursued righteousness based on the law did not +succeed. WHY? They did not pursue it through faith, but as if it were +based on works. (Romans 9:30-32) + + A zeal for God - but not enlightened. Seeking to establish their +own righteousness. (Romans 10:1-4) + + Christ is the end of the law. Romans 14:1-23 and Colossians 3:8-23 +are clear refutations of the point made by Joseph Smith in "Words of +Wisdom" to not drink and eat certain things is nothing more than MAN'S +regulation and NOT from God. Read and see what God said through the +Apostle Paul! + + Man is not justified by works of the law but is through faith! +(Galatians 2:16) + + Died to the law, that I might live to God. I do not nullify the +Grace of God; for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ is +dead in vain. (Galatians 2:19-21) + + As many as are under the works of the law are under the curse! +(Galatians 3:10) + + Before faith came, we were under the law - our schoolmaster +(Custodian) until Christ came. Now that faith is come, we are no longer +under a schoolmaster. (Galatians 3:23-28) + + If led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:18) + + Who saved us, not according to our works, but according to His own +purpose and grace. (II Timothy 1:8-10) + + He saved us, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but +according to His mercy. Being justified by grace. (Titus 3:3-9) NOTE: +Titus 3:9 and 1st Timothy 1:4 clearly spell out what God says about the +Mormon obsession with genealogies for the dead works of "baptism for the +dead." + + HOW IS MAN SAVED? + + If salvation is not by works of our own under the law and +ordinances, HOW IS MAN SAVED? Just a few of the scriptures God has given +us are: + + YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN! (John 3:1-18) + + In context Jesus, Himself, explains that, not only do we have a +natural birth (Flesh) but a spiritual birth! "Whosoever believeth in Him +shall not perish but have everlasting life (ETERNAL)!" Gnosticism was a +movement that vigorously contended with Orthodox Christianity for +supremacy. Writings by the early Church Fathers show how widespread and +influential Gnosticism justifies him who has faith in Jesus, without the +deeds of the law. + + Christ died for us, sinners, who are now justified by His blood. We +are reconciled through Him. (Romans 5:1-11) + + The free gift of righteousness by the grace of God. (Romans 5:15-17) + + Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart God +raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9-17) + + We are justified by faith. Our old nature is crucified with Christ; +Christ now lives in us; we live by faith --- not the law! (Galatians +2:16-21) + + "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of +yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should +boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good +works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" +(Ephesians 2:8-10). Works have nothing to do with our justifying eternal +life. The Mormon will be quick to point out James 2:17 - "Even so faith, +if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." AMEN! That is not denying +salvation by faith. What it is saying is this: "You say you are saved? +Saving faith will naturally flow into a life that will show evidence of +it. Your 'works' will testify of your faith. If none, there is reason +to question whether there really was a saving faith to start with." + + To quote Ed Decker in his tract "To Moroni with Love"; You do not +bark to become a dog nor "baa" to become a sheep. You bark because you +are a dog or "baa" because you are a sheep! Christians, when born-again +and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, have a never ending desire to follow the +Lord Jesus in their daily life behavior. "Works" is not an appropriate +name as it suggest payment after the work has been done. Christ made the +payment IN FULL for our sins by His blood for us; if only we REPENT of +our sins and ACCEPT Him by faith. It is available only through God's +grace for an eternal life. + + Blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin. (I John 1:7) + + Jesus was the sacrifice, once, to perfect forever those who are +sanctified. (Hebrews 9:23-28, 10:10-18) + + We are reconciled by His blood. (Romans 5:6-11) + + Our iniquity was laid on Jesus; to die for us; that we might be made +the righteousness of God in Him. (Isaiah 53:6-11 and I Corinthians 5:17- +21) + + I PETER 2:24 + + "Who his own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that +we, being dead to sins should live unto righteousness: By whose stripes +ye are healed" (I Peter 2:24). You will never (Well, We won't say never +because God may have His plan for their salvation that We are not aware +of at this moment) see a cross on a Mormon structure. They will say call +it a "graven image"; yet "Moroni" stands on top of their temples. Moroni +didn't die for them. Joseph Smith, Jr. didn't die for them. The church +didn't die for them. JESUS DIED FOR THEM, if they would only cling to +His cross and reach out to claim His blood for their sins. They're told +they can earn their own righteousness based on the law of the church +which is based on "prophets, seers and revelators" proven -TIME AND +AGAIN- to be false. Wouldn't you rather lay your eternal life in the +hands of the ETERNAL GOD; the SON who, personally, died for you - than, +say, a "prophet" in Salt Lake City? + +Our prayer is that this comparison of the Bible vs: the +LDS Mormon church will show you the LIGHT of CHRIST. +Computers For Christ - San Jose, CA + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-21.txt b/religious documents/lds-21.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b994c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-21.txt @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ + "MORMON MAFIA" CITED IN FBI DISCRIMINATION CASE. + + + Three hundred-eleven Hispanic FBI agents won a class action suit +against the agency on September 30. A central argument in the suit was +that their careers were stymied by the religious bias against non- +Mormons of ranking FBI officials who are MORMON (LDS). + + Charges of a "Mormon Mafia" in the FBI's Los Angeles office have +been circulation for years, but no one had taken the FBI to court on +the matter until Matt Perez, an agent working out of El Paso, initiated +the suit. + + In ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, Judge Lucius Bunton of the +U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, +agreed that the Hispanic agents' careers were affected by +discrimination in hiring practices and promotions. +Bunton said there was insufficient evidence for him to rule the agency +had discriminated against the plaintiffs in issuing assignments. + + The plaintiffs sued for $5 million in damages and retroactive +promotions and back pay. At press time the judge had not yet made a +decision on the damages award. + + The FBI, admitting the discrimination practices and pledging to end +them with the recent appointment of a new director, had no plans to +appeal the ruling. + + Just after the case was filed, Richard T. Bretzing, 49, head of the +Los Angeles division of the FBI since 1982, retired to become the +Managing Director of the LDS Church's security department, according to +the LDS Church News. Bretzing retired after 27 year's service (three +years short of the 30-year government retirement plan). + +"Christian Research Journal" +Volume 11 Number 2 Fall 1988 + +Christian Research Institute +P.O. Box 500, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693-0500 + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-22.txt b/religious documents/lds-22.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6719a93 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-22.txt @@ -0,0 +1,296 @@ + "CORRECTLY TRANSLATED" + + When we visited Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, we were told +several things concerning the book of Mormon. We were told by our +Mormon tour guides... + + 'That there was nothing written in the Book of Mormon that would +contradict with the Holy Bible. We were told that the two books were +in total agreement with each other. In fact, that the two books +compliment each other.' + + We also saw engraved on fine stone the 'Articles of Faith' +that the Mormons believe. Article of Faith, number 8 reads, + + 'We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is +translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the +Word of God.' + + Upon returning home we began to examine the Book of Mormon with +the Holy Bible to see if these things were true. Were there no +contradictions? Is the Mormon doctrine 'correctly translating' +the Word of God? The answer to these two fundamental questions is +examined below. + + THE FALL OF MAN + + What we found is that the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible +contradict each other starting in chapter 1 of Genesis. We hadn't even +gotten started and already we found a sinful contradiction in +the Book of Mormon. For we read in the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:18 +and 22-25, + + "Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent who is the +devil, who is the father of all lies, wherefore he said 'Partake of the +forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, +knowing good and evil...And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed +he would not fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. +And all things which were created must have remained in the same state +in which they were after they were created; and they must have +remained forever, and had no end. And they would have had no +children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, +having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they +knew no sin...Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might +have joy." + + +WHAT THE BOOK OF MORMON IS SAYING + + Mormons and the Book of Mormon are saying, + + 1. That man had no choice but to sin if we were to have babies and fill + the earth with humans. In short, there would be no sex without the + fall. + 2. That without the fall, man had "no joy". + 3. Without man sinning we could not do any "good" and would not have any + knowledge on how to grow into the image of God. + + In summary, the book of Mormon is saying Adam fell that he might gain +a wisdom on how to have babies with joy and to be able to do good. + + WHAT MORMON's SAY + + Upon investigating the theology of the Mormons we find them being in +agreement with the book of Mormon and the 3 points listed above. They +state, + + "Adam fell, but he fell in the right direction...toward the goal...he +fell upward." -Sterling W. Sill, Assistant to the Council of the Twelve + + "It is necessary for man to learn by actual experience the +difference between good and evil...He must feel the influence and +power of death before he can appreciate eternal life. He must +comprehend the effects of sin before he can enjoy the rest +promised to the faithful..." -The Plan of Salvation + + It is easy to see that Mormons agree with the 3 points listed above. + + THE IMAGE OF GOD + + Not only does the Mormon doctrine teach that Adam and Eve could +not have physical children before the Fall, (Moses 5:11), but that +before the Fall we would have no opportunity to become as God, that +is, to be a God ourselves. We have been told by Mormons that the +goal of every good Mormon man is to become a God himself, and +the goal of every good Mormon wife is to become a goddess. Together +they will rule over their own earth. They will be God to that earth. +They say Satan was not lying when he said that they "would be like God". +Indeed, for them to have the opportunity to be a God they must fall +and then prove their worthiness by obeying the Mormon church. So if +all goes well they too will not only be in the image of God, they will +be a God! + + President Spencer W. Kimball has said, "This progress toward +eternal life is a matter of achieving perfection. Living all +the commandments (there are over 4300 in Mormonism) guarantees total +forgiveness of sins and assures one of exaltation through +that perfection which comes by complying with the formula the Lord +gave us." It follows then, that if each of you can become a God, then +God was human like us at one time too. That He too had to obey the +laws of godhood if He was to be exalted. In fact, one of the favorite +sayings within the Mormon church is..."As man is, God once was; and as +God is, man may become." + + The President of the Mormon Mission in England puts it this way: +"As one of our great prophets and President of the Church has +indicated, 'As man is, God once was; and as God is, man may become.' +So you see why the Temple is so important to the LDS; because if he +is worthy to go into the Temple and there receive the secret +ordinances and covenants and keep them, he can eventually grow into +becoming a god himself." -Dr. Harold Goodman + + Because the temptation and fall of man was such a blessing we now +have the opportunity to become a god if we join the Mormon +church. Mormon President Spencer W. Kimball whose picture is +displayed in Salt Lake City Utah said in 1974, "In each of +us is the potentiality to become a God - pure, holy, true, +influential, powerful...Man can transform himself...he has in him the +seeds of Godhood that can grow." To the Mormon, Satan is telling the +truth when he says, "ye shall be as God." Is all this true? Will the +Holy Bible support the first teachings of Mormonism? Have they +"correctly translated the Bible"? Are the Holy Bible and the Book of +Mormon in agreement? We were told to check it out and so we shall. + + THE HOLY BIBLE + + "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the +Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, `You +must not eat from any tree in the garden?' The woman said to the +serpent, 'We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did +say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of +the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die." "You will +not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows +that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be +like God, knowing good from evil." -Genesis 3:1-5 NIV + + POINT #1 + + Remember point #1 of Mormon teaching? "That man had no choice but to +sin if we were to have babies and fill the earth." This cannot +possibly be true! Adam and Eve knew "how" to be fruitful in +producing babies. For on the 6th day when God made Adam and Eve what +did he tell them? + + "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created +him; ...male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to +them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue +it...God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was +evening, and there was morning-the 6th day." +-Genesis 1:27-31 + + No fall of man had taken place yet, and God told them to "Be +fruitful and increase". Adam and Eve already had the knowledge of +sexual reproduction otherwise God would be asking the impossible. In +fact, if you will read all of Genesis 1 you will find that things +were already reproducing according to their "own kind" right after +their creation. Let us read in Genesis 1:11, + + "Then God said, 'Let the land produce vegetation: seed- +bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed +in it according to their various kinds.' And it was so." + + Already the vegetation and trees are reproducing, for God +had given such wisdom to plants and trees when He made them saying, +"seed-bearing"! In addition, when God first created birds and the +creatures in the sea He said, + + "God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase in number +and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the +earth." -Genesis 1:21 + + Now this all took place on the 4th and 5th days, a full day +before man and woman were created by God. A full day before Adam and +Eve the birds and bees were already busy. Yet Mormonism tells +us that things would have "stayed the same for eternity". That +is, the same number of things would always be if the fall had not +taken place. Indeed, man knew how to make babies, the big difference +was he was naked and intimate, but he felt no shame for his natural +condition. + + "The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." +-Genesis 2:25 + + The only thing Satan brought was the twisted perspective that the +way God had made things was shameful! To sinful man sex is not +pleasurable unless it is shameful. It is from this shameful desire +for sex that polygamy and eternal maro and the +ells adict each other starting in cMptualluÊprehend the effec6Ghat7had not tfudam hable ut wits shameful! To sinful man sex isy". That +had g the earth with humans. In short, there would be no sex ort, there would be no s and menn howis the +deaGod. + + In summary, the lit # now e things wa how to make bëwho is theIifference +was he was nas shameful!pordingd increase ant to t asust not eat fr7ave "staye no sex ort,be ahadx weIit isence +was he wd intimate, but only be in the image of God, they will +be a God! + + Procence, +having no jlem? + + n od from evil." -Genesis 3:1-5 NIV a thLIIIIIII^ight direction...toward the goal...he +fell upward." -Sterlin5 Tempf man had tld be no sex ort, there would be no s and menn howis the +OF GOÿ no s fall +and then prove their worthiness by obeying the Mormon chen;issiong, and there was morningl good and evil...He must feel the influence and +power l tha +ear man had Iow to maknying not tmin saying Adam fellom on how to haveSAYING + + Morhe Book of Moreci +ells adict each other starting in cMptualluÊsistan oal...he +, and +the goal of every good Mormon wife is to become a goddesseIifference +was he was nas shame:1-5 NIV after the big difrth. theIGod first created birds a our great prophets and President of the Church has +indicam? + + "So God created man in his own i will read saC inPresident of the Church has +indicam? EIs the MormoAhe 3 points listed above. They +staDerekas +indicam? ÿood and evil...He must feel the influence and +power l tha +earon e. He must +comprehend the effects of sinsinsind theAMþd that bear fruit with seed +orhe Book of Morehemlrmon e + + "I +earon + +cr + +cr + +cr + +ul and increase". Adam and EvILet us read in Genesis 1:11, + + "Then God said, 'Let the landearon + +cr + +cr + +cCouard." -Sterling W. Sill, Assistanu will find thatI of every good Mormon © ut wits shamefnce auDaSterlinwilwheeir own earth. They will +before the Fall we woulrmons agree with the 3 points +indicated, 'As man is, God once was; anlrt,be ahadx weIll has saˆ€n earth.5make ind tf the Church has +indicam? + + "So God created man in his own i will read saC inPresident of the Church has +indica of Mormonism? Have they +"correctade. He said to the woman, 'Did God re¨u will +not surely die," the serpent sTheæas God, that +is, to be a God ourselves. We have been told by Mormons that the +goal of every good Mormon man is to become a God himself, and +the goal of every good Mormon wife is to +c witsrmons that the +goal of every good Mormo +goal of every good Mormon man is to become a God himselfhy to go inoly Bible support thereat 7then prove their worthiness bIf every good Mormo +goal of every good Mormon Have they +"c God "So God cn eartheir worthinesll +before the Fall we woˆl and increase". Adam and Eve formula the Lord +gave us." It follows then, that if each of youwouormon President Spencer Wy will +be a God! + + President SpencerLord +ge Temple is so important to them and said toí 'As manFman, 'Did Gection. Living irrecta the sIof th + + "So God created man in his own i will read saC inPresideh is..."As man is, GoLDS; because if he +is worthyssu[mple and there receive the secret +ordinances and covenants manFman00 in Mormonism) guarantees toVecome but he ft not eat fruit from g with the formula the Lord +gave us." It follows then, that if each of you can become a God, then +God was human like us at one time too. That He too had to obey the +laws of godhood if He was trmosihis wr fruit fr, was t God knowsdicam? eroducs wr their LDSs andPsalm 16d t be a God ourse3 be a Go3 we woˆecauseve knew s 2:25 es. Forantees ormol ite; fill Spencermol ite; fduc, 'Did Godd trees whene made themnd irds inomprshible supy tree in t Fond , 'Didmixsihisheir madetoVein hiJesent AdamttoVecome'NO"r madeegetatnditiNONE! -John 8:4nd td beesmoloe saids wr fattoVaron dwe now +h GodwhemonoVerthere recranteesbegint eat g thes i to haveSAr madThe womanVecome bu madeege thfore Jesentint Adees wheVecome bucing wo m g madeGod + but not m g witave "stayedon dwe n! plants anhe +ltartin toVe e. id Gect irds inomprr + ALL l LIE ForanteesDOWN TO BASICSoranteesWhem + plants is..." -Stercasthe +oand Thnf th + e thion. 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Mormo That \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/lds-23.txt b/religious documents/lds-23.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6060f6d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-23.txt @@ -0,0 +1,465 @@ + + UNMASKING THE MYTHS OF MORMONISM + + Ever since the introduction of The God Makers film in January 1983, +several first time viewer reactions have become quite common. Most +people have been shocked by the hidden Mormon doctrines laid bare +by this film. And why not?? After all, it would be more than naive to +expect the multi-million dollar public relations mill of the +Latter-day Saint (LDS) church to really "tell it like it is." +Describing them as the "meat of the gospel, " such teachings as the +nature of the Gods, secrets of the temple ceremony, and adding Joseph +Smith as an additional mediator are kept hidden from the uninitiated. + + The primary purpose of this "Data Sheet" is an examination of +strange and/or obscured doctrines of Mormonism. Therefore it has been +pretty well restricted to the discussion of theological issues. If for +no other reason than lack of space, the listing of complicated +statistical data concerning the family life practices in the Mormon +dominated state of Utah (i.e. divorces, suicides, etc.) and/or +"personal" experiences in Mormonism owned or controlled financial +empires has long been based upon educated guesses made by non-Mormon +financial analysts, and hard for anyone to "prove." + + Our printed format is quite simple and easy to use. The doctrinal +allegations are listed in much the same order as they were made in the +film itself. With no further commentary, right underneath each +heading is one or more supporting quotations. In most instances, there +are many more quotations that could be cited but are not, because of +lack of space. Keep in mind that virtually all these listed quotations +are from LDS "General Authorities" and/or reliable Mormon books! + + TEMPLE MARRIAGE IS ESSENTIAL + ---------------------------- + + Only through Celestial marriage can one find the strait way, the +narrow path. Eternal life cannot be had in any other way. + + (Spencer W. Kimball, Church News, 11/12/1977) + + Our exaltation depends on marriage...we can be exalted as God is +now and receive a fullness of joy...we can at some future time, +increase our family by having spirit children...We must be obedient to +every covenant that we make in the temple of the Lord. He has said +that if we are true and faithful we shall pass by the angels to our +exaltation. We will become gods. + + (Gospel Principals, Page 231, 2344 & 236) + + GOD THE FATHER WAS ONCE A MAN + ----------------------------- + + God was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man...I am going to +tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that +God was God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away +and do away the veil, so that you may see...It is the first principle +of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God...and that +he was once a man like us. + + (Joseph Smith, Journal of Discourses, Volume 6, Page 3) + + THE PLANET KOLOB + ---------------- + + Kolob means "the first creation." It is the name of the planet +"nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God." + + (Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, Page 428) + + MORMON JESUS IS A DIFFERENT JESUS + --------------------------------- + + ...since the Messiah came to earth to work out his own salvation, +as well as make salvation available to all men - we are justified in +concluding that he himself needed baptism...The Lord Jesus, being a +man, required baptism, even as other men. There is no other way. + + (Bruce McConkie, The Promised Messiah, Pages 482, 485) + + The sacrament is an ordinance to remind us of Christ. The bread +represents the body of Christ that he gave so all men could be +resurrected. The water represents the blood Christ shed in +Gethsemane where he atoned for the sins of all men. + + (Discussion "I", The Uniform System for Teaching Families, Page 56) + + It is true that many of the Christian churches worship a different +Jesus than is worshiped by the Mormons or The Church of Jesus Christ +of Latter-day Saints. + + (Bernard P. Brockbank, The Ensign, May 1977, Page 26) + + COUNCIL IN HEAVEN + ----------------- + + The contention in heaven was--Jesus said there would be certain +souls that would not be saved; and the Devil said he could save them +all, and laid his plans before the grand council, who gave their vote +in favor of Jesus Christ. So the Devil rose up in rebellion against +God, and was cast down, with all who put up their heads for him. + + (Joseph Smith, Journal of Discourses, Volume 6, Page 8) + + NEGRO CURSED IN PRE-EXISTENCE + ----------------------------- + + Not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his +wickedness, he became the father of an inferior race. A curse was +placed upon him and that curse has been continued through his lineage +and must do so while time endures. Millions of souls have come into +this world cursed with a black skin and have been denied the privilege +of Priesthood and the fullness of the blessings of the Gospel. + + (Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way To Perfection, Page 102) + + You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, +uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly +deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is +generally bestowed upon mankind. + + (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 7, Page 290) + + Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If +the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the +seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. +This will always be so. + + (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 10, Page 110) + + ADAM IS GOD THE FATHER + ---------------------- + + How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in +regard to one particular doctrine which I revealed to them, and which +God revealed to me - namely that Adam is our father and God...Then he +(Adam) said, "I want my children who are in the spirit world to come +and live here. I once dwelt upon an earth something like this, in a +mortal state, I was faithful, I received my crown and exaltation. I +have the privilege of extending my work, and to its increase there will +be no end. I want my children that were born to ME in the spirit world +to come here and take tabernacles of flesh." + + (Brigham Young, Deseret News, 6/16/1873) + + GOD HAD PHYSICAL RELATIONS WITH MARY + ------------------------------------ + + Even the Father himself honored that law (i.e., "to multiply and +replenish the earth") by coming down to Mary, without a natural body, +and begetting a son; and if Jesus begat children, he only "did that +which he had seen his Father do." + + (Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, Volume 2, Page 210) + + Only Begotten...Only Begotten Son...the Only Begotten of the +Father... These name-titles all signify that our Lord is the only son +of the Father in the flesh. Each of these words is to be understood +literally. Only means only; Begotten means begotten; and Son means son. +Christ was begotten by an Immortal Father in the SAME way that mortal +men are begotten by mortal fathers. + + (Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, Page 546-547) + + God the Father is a perfected, glorified holy Man, and immortal +Personage. And Christ was born into the world as the literal son of +this Holy Being; he was born in the same personal, real and literal +sense that any mortal son is born to a mortal father. There is NOTHING +figurative about his paternity; he was begotten, conceived and born in +the normal and natural course of events. + + (Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, Page 742) + + JESUS WAS MARRIED + ----------------- + + Jesus was the bridegroom at the marriage of Cana of Galilee...we +say it was Jesus Christ who was married, to be brought into relation +whereby he could see his seed before he was crucified. + + (Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, Volume 2, Page 82) + + I discover that some of the Eastern papers represent me as a great +blasphemer, because I said in my lecture on Marriage, at our last +Conference, that Jesus was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary, +Martha and others were his wives, and that he begat children. + + (Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, Volume 2, Page 210) + + JOSEPH SMITH STANDS IN JUDGEMENT + -------------------------------- + + NO SALVATION WITHOUT ACCEPTING JOSEPH SMITH. If Joseph Smith was +verily a prophet...then this knowledge is of the most vital importance +to the entire world. No man can reject that testimony without +incurring the most dreadful consequences, for he cannot enter +the kingdom of God. + + (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Volume 1, Page +189-190) + + No man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the +celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith. From the +day that the Priesthood was taken from the earth to the winding up +scene of all things, every man and woman MUST have the certificate of +Joseph Smith, junior, as a passport to their entrance into the mansion +where God and Christ are. + + (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 7, Page 289) + + If we ask who will stand at the head of the resurrection in this +last dispensation, the answer is -- Joseph Smith, Junior, the Prophet +of God. He is the man who will be resurrected and receive the keys of +the resurrection, and he will seal this authority upon others, and they +will hunt up their friends and resurrect them. + + (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, Page 116) + + So hear it all ye ends of the earth; if you ever enter into the +kingdom of God, it is because Joseph Smith let you go there. This will +apply to Jews and Gentiles, to the bond and free; to friends and foes; +no man or woman in this generation will get a resurrection and be +crowned without Joseph saying so. + + (Brigham Young, Conference discourse on October 8, 1854) + + LDS THANK GOD FOR JOSEPH SMITH + ------------------------------ + + The Saints, the Saints, his only pride! For them he lived, for them +he died; He lived, for them he died; Their joys were his, their sorrows +too. He loved the Saints; he loved Nauvoo. + + Unchained in death, with a Savior's love, He pleads their cause in +the court's above. He pleads their cause in the court's above. The +Seer, the Seer! Joseph the Seer! O how I love his memory dear! + + The just and wise, the pure and free. A father he was and is to me. +Let fiends now rage, in their dark hour - No matter, no matter, he is +beyond their power. No matter, no matter, he is beyond their power. + + (John Taylor, LDS Hymn #296, The Seer, Joseph, The Seer, Verse 3) + + Praise to his memory, he died as a martyr; Honored and blest be his +ever great name! Long shall his blood, which was shed by assassins. +Plead unto heaven while the earth lauds his fame. + + Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven! Traitors and tyrants now +fight him in vain. Mingling with Gods, he can plan for his brethren; +Death cannot conquer the hero again. (William W. Phelps, LDS Hymn +#147, Praise To The Man Who Communed With Jehovah, Verse 2) + + Our sacred hymns are both prayers and praises to the Lord. Let us +ever cherish them as an essential part of our lives. The Lord Himself +regards the hymns of the saints as prayers to heaven...As we remember +the part the Prophet Joseph Smith took in the work of the Restoration, +should we not sing with enthusiasm "Praise to the Man who Communed +With Jehovah"...Using these faith-promoting hymns will make better +Latter-day Saints of us all...(Editorial, Church News, 8/28/1983) + + JOSEPH SMITH'S BOASTS + --------------------- + + I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man +that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days +of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, +John, Peter nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did a work +such as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day +Saints never ran away from me yet. + + (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, Volume 6, Page 408-409) + + God made Aaron to be the mouthpiece for the children of Israel, and +he will make me to be GOD to you in his stead, and Elders to be mouth +for me; and if you don't like it, you must lump it! + + (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Page 363) + + JOSEPH SMITH DESCENDED FROM JESUS CHRIST + ---------------------------------------- + + ...learn that those men who are chosen to direct and counsel you +are near KINDRED to God and to Christ, for the keys, power, and +authority of the kingdom are of that lineage. + + (Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, Volume 4, Page 248) + + Would to God, brethren, I could tell you who I am! Would to God I +could tell you what I know! But you would call it blasphemy, and there +are men upon this stand who would want to take my life. + + (Joseph Smith, quoted in Life of Heber C. Kimball, Page 322) + + MORMONS MUST BE PERFECT + ----------------------- + + The forsaking of sin must be a permanent one. True repentance does +NOT permit making the same mistake again. + + (Spencer W. Kimball, Repentance Brings Forgiveness, Page 7) + + We also have to forsake the sin and never repeat it, not even in our +minds...In order to remain forgiven, we must NEVER commit the sin +again. (Mormon Missionary Discussion "F, " Uniform System for +Teaching Families, Page 35, 36) + + In other words, if there is one divine law that he does not keep he +is barred from participation in the (Celestial) kingdom, and +figuratively guilty of all, since he is denied all. + + (Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, Volume 3, Page +26) + + ABSOLUTE TRUST IN ANYTHING "MORMON" + ---------------------------------- + + SAINTS SAFE IN FOLLOWING CHURCH AUTHORITIES. No man ever went +astray by following the counsel of the authorities of the Church. No +man who ever followed the teachings or took advise or counsel from the +one who stands as the representative of the Lord ever went astray. + + (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Volume 1, Page 243) + + When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done. When they +propose a plan--it is God's plan. When they point the way, there is no +other which is safe. When they give direction, it should mark the end +of controversy. God works in no other way. + + (Ward Teacher's Message, Deseret News, 5/26/1945) + + TOTAL APOSTASY OF CHRISTIANITY + ------------------------------ + + 19. I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all +wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds +were and abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt... + + (Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith--History 1:19, Page 49) + + The gates of Hell have prevailed and will continue to prevail over +the Catholic Mother of Harlots, and over all here Protestant +Daughters;...the apostate Catholic church, with all her popes and +bishops, together with all her harlot daughters shall be hurled +down to Hell... + + (Orson Pratt, Pamphlets by Orson Pratt, Page 112) + + This Church is the only true and living church upon the face of the +whole earth...there is no salvation outside the Church of Jesus Christ +of Latter-day Saints. + + (Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, Page 670) + + Elder Bruce R. McConkie, and apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ +of Latter-day Saints, called the doctrine of salvation by grace without +works, "the second greatest heresy" of Christianity during Brigham +Young University's opening devotional Tuesday. The first great heresy, +he said, pertains to the nature of God, the doctrine of the Trinity. + + (The Herald Newspaper, Provo, Utah, 1/12/1984) + + TEMPLE CEREMONY MOCKS CHRISTIAN PASTORS + --------------------------------------- + + Adam: Oh God, hear the words of my mouth! + Lucifer: I hear you. What is it you want? + Adam: Who are you? + Lucifer: I am the God of this world. + Adam: You, the God of this world? + Lucifer: Yes! What do you want? + Adam: I am looking for messengers. + Lucifer: Oh, you want someone to preach to you? You want religion + do you? I will have preachers here presently. + + (A "preacher" dressed in black, now enters the scene) + + Lucifer: Good Morning Sir. + Preacher: Good morning. A fine congregation! + Lucifer: Yes, they are very good people. They are concerned about + religion. Are you a preacher? + Preacher: I am. Lucifer: Have you been to college and received + training for the ministry? + Preacher: Certainly! A man cannot preach unless he has been trained + for the ministry! + Lucifer: Do you preach the orthodox religion? + Preacher: Yes, that is what I preach. + Lucifer: If you will preach your orthodox religion to these people + and convert them, I will pay you well! + Preacher: I will do my best. + Lucifer: Here is a man who desires religion. He is very much + exercised, and seems to be sincere. + + (The action returns to "Adam") + + Preacher: I understand you are inquiring after religion. + Adam: I was calling upon Father. + Preacher: I am glad to know that you were calling upon Father. + Do you believe in a God who is without body, parts and + passions, who sits on the top of topless throne, whose + center is everywhere and whose circumference nowhere; + who fills the universe, and yet is so small that he can + dwell in your heart. Who is surrounded by myriads of + beings who have been saved by Grace, not for any act + of theirs, but by His good pleasure? Do you believe this + great Being? + Adam: I do not? I cannot comprehend such a Being. + Preacher: That is the beauty of it!! + + (The above account was transcribed from the February, 1984 audio +recordings made by a Mormon in the Provo LDS temple which was later +published under the title, Unfruitful Works of Darkness, Tape 1) + + SUN AND MOON INHABITED + ---------------------- + + Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet that shines +of an evening, called the moon? ...when you inquire about the +inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most learned are as +ignorant in regard to them as the most ignorant of their fellows. So +it is with regard to the inhabitants of the sun. Do you think it is +inhabited? I rather think it is. Do you think there is any life +there? No question of it; it was not made in vain. + + (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 13, Page 271) + + NO ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE + -------------------------- + + After nearly 150 years since the Nephite record was first published +by Joseph Smith, we Mormons have been unable confidently to pin down +the location of a single city, identify even one route they traversed, +or sketch an accurate picture of any segment of the life they lived in +their American promised land. In many respects, the Book of Mormon +remains a sealed book to us because we have been incapable of placing +it in its specific setting. + + (Prof. John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book +of Mormon, Page 0/3) + + The bare facts of the matter are that nothing, absolutely nothing +has ever shown up in any New World excavation which would suggest to a +dispassionate observer that the Book of Mormon, as claimed by Joseph +Smith, is a historical document relating to the history of early +migrants to our hemisphere. + + (Michael Coe, Dialogue: A Journal Of Mormon Thought, Summer 1973, +Page 46) + + - Bob Witte + + EX-MORMONS / CHRISTIAN + ALLIANCE + P.O. BOX 530 + ORANGEVALE, CA 95662 + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-24.txt b/religious documents/lds-24.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..77a3258 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-24.txt @@ -0,0 +1,966 @@ + God: Mormonism vs. Christianity + ------------------------------- + + This file is designed to show the comparisons and contrasts existing +between the teachings of the person of God as defined in the Bible and in +the teachings put forth by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day +Saints or Mormons (hereafter referred to as 'LDS'). The differences +between the two are quite startling although the LDS purport to teach the +same doctrines the Bible does. I'll let you, the reader, judge the +accuracy of those claims. Note that in scriptural references where a +person is speaking (thus saith, I said, he said, etc.), I have put the +words in single quotes (') for the sake of CLARITY ONLY. They do not +appear in the texts used. Also, this is not a complete and exhaustive +study as there are so many related branches to the Biblical study of God +that things would only get confusing. Therefore, I have limited myself +to just the main doctrines of God as the LDS and the Bible teach them. + + LDS Teachings: Joseph Smith, Jr. + -------------------------------- + + The roots of the LDS doctrines lie in their founding prophet Joseph +Smith, Jr. to whom the LDS hold a deep loyalty. Here are some of the +proclamations put forth by their "prophet": + + "First, God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heavens, is a + man like unto one of yourselves, that is the great secret.... I + am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined + that God was God from all eternity.... God himself; the Father of + us all dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did,... + You all have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves;... No man + can learn you more than what I have told you." + + "Times and Seasons" + Vol. 5, pp. 613-614 + + "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and + sits enthroned in yonder heavens!... I am going to tell you how + God came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was + God from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the + veil, so that you may see.... It is the first principle of the + gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know + that we may converse with him as one man converses with another, + and that He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the + Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ + himself did; and I will show it from the Bible.... + + "Here, then, is eternal life to know the only wise and true God, + the same as all gods have done before you, namely, by going from + one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great + one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until + you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell + in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit + enthroned in everlasting power...." + + Joseph Smith, Jr., + "History of the Church" + Vol.6, pp.305-306 + + "I will preach on the plurality of Gods. I have selected this + text for that express purpose. I wish to declare I have always + and in all congregations when I have preached on the subject of + the Deity, it has been the plurality of Gods. It has been + preached by the Elders for fifteen years. + + "I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus + Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and + that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit: and + these three constitute three distinct personages and three Gods. + If this is in accordance with the New Testament, lo and behold! + we have three Gods anyhow, and they are plural: and who can + contradict it?" + + Joseph Smith, Jr., + "History of the Church" + Vol.6, p.474 + + "The head God organized the heavens and the earth. I defy all + the world to refute me. In the beginning the heads of the Gods + organized the heavens and the earth.... + + "The heads of the Gods appointed one God for us; and when you + take [that] view on the subject, it sets one free to see all the + beauty, holiness and perfection of all the Gods. All I want is + to get the simple, naked truth, and the whole truth. + + "Many men say that there is only one God; the Father, the Son and + the Holy Ghost are only one God! I say, that is a strange God + anyhow - three in one, and one in three! It is a curious + organization.... All are to be crammed into one God, according to + sectarianism. It would make the biggest God in all the world. + He would be a wonderfully big God - he would be a giant or a + monster." + + Joseph Smith, Jr., + "History of the Church" + Vol.6, pp.475-476 + + "Daniel in his seventh chapter speaks of the Ancient of Days: he + means the oldest man, our Father Adam, Michael, he will call his + children together and hold a council with them to prepare them + for the coming of the Son of Man. He (Adam) is the father of the + human family, and presides over the spirits of all men, and all + that have had the keys must stand before him in this grand + council. This may take place before some of us leave the stage + of action. The Son of Man stands before him, and there is given + him glory and dominion. Adam delivers up his stewardship to + Christ, that which was delivered to him as holding the keys to + the universe, but retains his standing as the head of the human + family." + + Joseph Smith, Jr., + "History of the Church" + Vol.3, pp.386-387 + + "The Father has a body of flesh and bone as tangible as man's; + the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and + bones, but is a personage of spirit..." + + "Doctrine and Covenants" 130:22 + + Smith himself was sure of his teachings and he tolerated no +dissent as the following quote shows: + + "God made Aaron to be the mouth piece to the children of Israel, + and He will make me be God to you in His stead, and the Elders to + be mouth to me; and if you don't like it, you must lump it." + + "History of the Church" + Vol.5, pp.319-320 + + You can see he had a big ego! + + LDS Teachings: Brigham Young + ---------------------------- + + Brigham Young not only continued the work of Smith, but also added +his own "brand" of God in his teachings; especially in his doctrine of +Adam (of the Garden of Eden fame) being the "God and Father of the human +family": + + "How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there was never a + time when there were no Gods and worlds..." + + Brigham Young + "Journal of Discourses" + Vol.7, p.333 + + "My next sermon will be to both Saint and sinner.... Our God and + Father in heaven, is a being of tabernacle, or, in other words, + He has a body, with parts the same as you and I have;... I will + tell you how it is. Our Father in heaven begat all the spirits + there ever were, or ever will be, upon this earth; and they were + born spirits in the eternal world." + + "Journal of Discourses" + Vol.1, p.50 + + "Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint + and sinner! When our Father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, + he came into it with a celestial body and brought Eve, one of his + wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He + is MICHAEL, the Archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS! about whom holy + men have written and spoken - HE is our FATHER and our GOD, and + the only God with whom WE have to do. Every man upon this earth, + professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will + know it sooner or later. + + "...Now, let all who may hear these doctrines, pause before they + make light of them, or treat them with indifference, for they + will prove their salvation or damnation. + + "...In the Bible, you have read things I have told you tonight; + but you have not known what you did read. I have told you no + more than you are conversant with; but what do the people know in + Christendom, with their Bible in their hands, know about this + subject? Comparatively nothing." + + "Journal of Discourses" + Vol.1, p. 50-51 + + "ADAM, THE FATHER AND GOD OF THE HUMAN FAMILY" + + "The above sentiment appeared in Star No.48, a little to the + surprise to some of its readers: and while the sentiment may have + appeared blasphemous to the ignorant; it has no doubt given rise + to some serious reflections with the more candid and + comprehensive mind... Adam is really God! and why not?" + + "Millennial Star" + Vol.15, p.801 + + "It has been said that Adam is the God and Father of the human + family, and persons are perhaps in fear and great trouble of + mind, lest they have to acknowledge him as such in some future + day. For our part we would much rather acknowledge Adam to be + our Father, than hunt for another, and take up with the Devil." + + "Millennial Star" + Vol.15, p.825 + + "...every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that he is the + God of the whole earth. Then will the words of Prophet Brigham, + when speaking of Adam, be fully realized - 'He is our Father and + our God, and the only God with whom we have to do.'" + + "Millennial Star" + Vol.17, p.195 + + Of note is the following statement of then Elder James A. Little +(a contemporary of Brigham Young): + + "I believe in the principle of obedience; and if I am told that + Adam is our Father and our God, I just believe it." + + "Millennial Star" + Vol.16, p.530 + + A few years before his death, Young preached the following: + + "How much unbelief exists in the minds of the Latter-day Saints + in regard to one particular doctrine which I revealed to them, + and which God revealed to me - namely that Adam is our Father and + God... Our Father Adam helped to make this earth, it was created + expressly for him... He brought one of his wives with him... We + say that Father Adam came here and helped make the earth. Who is + he? He is Michael,... He was the first man on earth, and its + framer and maker. He with the help of his brethren brought it + into existence. Then he said, 'I want my children in the spirit + world to come and live here. I once dwelt upon an earth + something like this, in a mortal state. I was faithful, I + received my crown and exaltation. I have the privilege of + extending my work, and to its increase there will be no end. I + want my children that were born to me in the spirit world to come + here and take tabernacles of flesh that their spirits may have a + house, a tabernacle, or a dwelling place as mine has' and where + is the mystery?" + + "Desert News" + June 14, 1873 + + As an aside, lest it be claimed that Young was misquoted in his +preaching, the following should dispel that thought: + + "This book was made possible because Brigham Young secured + stenographic reports of his addresses. As he traveled among the + people, reporters accompanied him. All that he said was + recorded. Practically all of these discourses (from December 16, + 1851 to August 19, 1877) were published in the 'Journal of + Discourses', which was widely distributed. The public utterances + of few great historical figures have been so faithfully + preserved." + + John A. Widtsoe, Preface of the + "Discourses of Brigham Young" + + "We do not wish incorrect and unsound doctrines to be handed down + to posterity under the sanction of great names, to be received + and valued by future generations as authentic and reliable, + creating labor and difficulties for our successors to perform and + contend with, which we ought not to transmit to them. The + interests of posterity are, to a certain extent in our hands. + Errors in history and in doctrine, if left uncorrected by us who + are conversant with the events, and who are in a position to + judge of the truth or falsity of the doctrines, would go to our + children as though we sanctioned and endorsed them. Such a + construction could be very easily be put upon our silence + respecting them, and would tend to perplex and mislead posterity, + and make the labor of correction an exceedingly difficult one for + them. We know what sanctity there is always attached to the + writing of men who have passed away, especially to the writings + of the Apostles, when none of their contemporaries are left, and + we, therefore, feel the necessity of being watchful upon these + points. Personal feelings and friendships and associations ought + to sink into comparative insignificance, and have no weight in + view of consequences so momentous to the people and kingdom of + God as these." + + Brigham Young + "Millennial Star" + Vol.27, p.659 + + Well said, Brigham Young! The following should seal the issue +concerning what he preached and whether it was "correct": + + "In printing my remarks, I often omit the sharp words, though + they are perfectly understood and applicable here; for I do not + wish to spoil the good I desire to do. Let my remarks go to the + world in a way the prejudices of the people can bear, that they + may read them, and ponder them, and ask God whether they are + true." + + "Journal of Discourses" + Vol.5, pp.99,100 + + As you can see, Young took great pains to make sure his meaning was +CRYSTAL CLEAR in his preaching. To be fair, though, the LDS no longer +teach the Adam-God doctrines of Young. They disavow that his +"Discourses" belong to the "standard works" of the church, even though +he is claimed to be a "prophet". In fact, so sure was Young in his +proclamations, and so sure was his belief in their "agreement" with the +other "scriptures" that he made this public statement: + + "In my doctrinal teachings I have taught many things not written + in any book, ancient or modern, and yet notwithstanding the many + things I have told the people, I have never looked into the + Bible, the Book of Mormon or the Doctrine and Covenants or any of + our church works to see whether they agreed with them or not. + When I have spoken by the power of God and the Holy Ghost it is + the truth, it is Scripture and I have no fears but that it will + agree with all that has been revealed in every particular." + + "Desert Weekly News" + Vol. 26, p.274 + + It's a shame he felt that way because none of his teachings agreed +with the Bible, and very few of his teachings agreed with what Smith +taught or other works released at that time. His attitude was like other +cult leaders, namely, "What I say is the truth and if it doesn't agree +with other scripture, tough!" + + Teachings of other LDS authorities + ---------------------------------- + + Heber C. Kimball, a member of the First Presidency with Young made +these statements: + + "...then shall we go back to our Father and our God, who is + connected with one who is still farther back; and so on..." + + "Journal of Discourses" + Vol.7, p.19 + + "...for our God is a natural man... the first of all mechanics. + Where did he get his knowledge from? From his Father, just as we + get knowledge from our earthly parents." + + "Journal of Discourses" + Vol.8, p.211 + + Apostle Orson Pratt, a contemporary of Smith and Young had this to +say: + + "The Gods who dwell in the Heaven... have been redeemed from the + grave in a world which existed before the foundations of this + earth were laid. They and all the Heavenly body which they now + inhabit were once in a fallen state... they were exalted also, + from fallen men to Celestial Gods to inhabit their Heaven forever + and ever." + + "The Seer" + Page 23 + + "We were begotten by our Father in Heaven; the person of our + Father in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His + Father; and again, He was begotted by a still more ancient + Father; and so on, from generation to generation, from one + heavenly world to another still more ancient, until our minds are + wearied and lost in the multiplicity of generations and + successive worlds, and as a last resort, we wonder in our minds, + how far back the genealogy extends, and how the first world was + formed and the First Father was begotten." + + "The Seer" + Page 132 + + Bruce R. McConkie, a member of the present First Council of the +Seventy says this: + + "...God... is a personal being, a holy and exalted man, a + glorified, resurrected Personage having a tangible body of flesh + and bones, an anthropomorphic Entity,..." + + "Mormon Doctrine" + Salt Lake City, 1966 + Page 250 + + "...as the Prophet also taught, there is 'a God above the Father + of our Lord Jesus Christ....'" + + "Mormon Doctrine" + Salt Lake City, 1966 + Page 322 + + "Those who 'are raised to become gods' (Teachings, p.312) will + progress... until they are 'glorified in truth' and know 'all + things.'... God himself, the Father of us all, is a glorified, + exalted, immortal, resurrected man!" + + "Mormon Doctrine" + Salt Lake City, 1966 + Page 642-643 + + The words of 10th president, Joseph Fielding Smith, are worth +noting: + + "God is an exalted man. Some people are troubled over the + statements of the Prophet Joseph Smith... The matter that seems + such a mystery is the statement that our Father in heaven at one + time passed through a school of life and death and is an exalted + man. This is one of the mysteries,... The Prophet taught that + our Father had a Father and so on. Is not this a reasonable + thought, especially when we remember that the promises are made + to us so that we may become like him?" + + "Doctrines of Salvation" + Vol.1, pp.10,12 + + Apostle LeGrand Richards had this to say: + + "There is a statement often repeated in the Church, and while it + is not in one of the Standard Church Works, it is accepted as + church doctrine, and this is: 'As man is, God once was; and as + God is, man may become.'" + + Letter from LeGrand Richards to + Morris L. Reynolds + July 14, 1966 + + The "Nauvoo Expositor", an anti-Mormon publication in Smith's time +had this to say concerning Smith's doctrines of God: + + "Resolved 2nd, Inasmuch as... Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, and many + other official characters... have introduced false and damnable + doctrine into the Church, such as a plurality of Gods above the + God of this universe, and his (i.e. God's, note mine!) liability + to fall with all his creations;... we therefore are constrained + to denounce them as apostates from the pure and holy doctrines of + Jesus Christ." + + "Nauvoo expositor" + June 7, 1844 + + The following from Sarah Scott, an early Mormon disciple, in a +letter written June 16, 1844 from the "Vicinity of Nauvoo" is revealing: + + "Joseph says there are Gods above the God of this universe as far + as he is above us, and if He should transgress the laws given to + Him by those above Him, He would be hurled from His throne to + Hell, as was Lucifer and all his creations with him." + + "Among the Mormons" + Page 44 + + In summary, the following are or were key points of Mormon theology: + + 1) A plurality of Gods in the heavens + 2) God was once a mortal man like us + 3) God was "appointed" by a "council of Gods" + 4) God is a separate being from Jesus and the Holy Ghost + 5) God had to keep climbing to further Godhood after becoming a + "God" + 6) His name was/is "Adam, Michael" + 7) He is the literal "father" (as in sexually) of humanity + 8) God and Jesus have mortal bodies of flesh and bone, but the Holy + Ghost hasn't one + 9) God will turn over his authority to Jesus at the resurrection. + 10) God can, at any time, lose his place in heaven and be cast into + Hell, as well as His creation (i.e. His "children") + 11) He has a father, grandfather, great-grandfather, etc. ad + infinitum + 12) He didn't create the universe from scratch (i.e. with nothing), + he merely "organized" the matter that was in existence into what + we know today as the universe. + 13) As such, there is no knowledge of the "first God" or how the + universe came to be + + I'm sure there are more conclusions, but this should give one the +gist of the Mormon "God". + + God: As the Bible teaches + ------------------------- + + Now, it is time to give the Bible its due: + + "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." + + Genesis 1:1 + + "And God said, 'Let there be light':and there was light" + + Genesis 1:3 + + "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were + under the firmament from the waters which were above the + firmament: and it was so." + + Genesis 1:7 + + "And God said, 'Let the waters under the heaven be gathered + together unto one place, and let the dry land appear': and it was + so." + + Genesis 1:9 + + "And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb + yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, + whose seed is in itself, upon the earth': and it was so." + + Genesis 1:11 + + "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the + heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for + signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be + for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the + earth': and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater + light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he + made the stars too. And God set them in the firmament of the + heaven to give light upon the earth,..." + + Genesis 1:14-17 + + "And God said, 'Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving + creature that hath life, and the fowl that may fly above the + earth in the open firmament of heaven.' And God created great + whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters + brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl + after his kind:..." + + Genesis 1:20-21 + + "And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature + after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and the beast of the + earth after his kind': and it was so. And God made the beast of + the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every + thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind:..." + + Genesis 1:24-25 + + "And god said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: + and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the + fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and + over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.' So God + made man in his own image, and in the image of God created he + him; male and female created he them." + + Genesis 1:26-27 + + An interesting note: the words translated 'us' and 'our' are +additions from the Greek to denote the position that royalty takes in +relation to the first person. The best example is Queen Victoria (I +think) who was remarked to say "We are not amused!" when she wasn't +pleased. When put with the singular pronoun of God it denotes a singular +person speaking (as in "me, myself and I, we'll do the job", or such to +the effect.). Again, the context of first person, singular in the above +verses denotes one person. + + "These are the generations of the heavens and the earth that the + Lord God (note: the Hebrew words "Jehovah elohim") made the earth + and the heavens,..." + + Genesis 2:4 + + "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and + breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a + living soul" + + Genesis 2:7 + + "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; + I will make a help meet for him.'" + + Genesis 2:21 + + "...and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made + he a woman, and brought her unto the man." + + Genesis 2:22 + + As we can see from these passages: God is a singular being, +he created the universe, stars, earth, etc. from nothing with just +his word. He created man to be the image (i.e. reflection, manner, etc.) +of God, then He created a man from dirt, breathed life into the man, and +created a woman from a bone (i.e. rib) of the man created from dirt. +These two would be later known as Adam and Eve. So much for the LDS +doctrine of Adam and Eve "coming from heaven in Celestial bodies". Let +us continue: + + "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord:..." Hebrew: + "Jehovah" our "elohim" is one "Jehovah" + + Deut. 6:4 + + "For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy + Savior:..." Hebrew: "Jehovah" thy "elohim", the "Sacred One" or + "sanctuary" of Israel, thy "redeemer, freedom, safety, etc." + + Isaiah 43:3 + + "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have + chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am + he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be + after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no + savior. I have declared, and I have saved, and I have showed, + when there was no strange (i.e. foreign, profane, other, + different, etc.) god among you: therefore you are my witnesses, + saith the Lord, that I am God." Hebrew: saith "Jehovah",... + there was no "elohim" formed,... I, even I, am "Jehovah": + ...there is no "redeemer, freedom, safety, etc." ....saith + "Jehovah", I am "elohim". + + Isaiah 43:10-12 + + "I am the Lord, your Holy one, the creator of Israel, your King." + Hebrew: I am "Jehovah", your "Sacred One" or "sanctuary", the + "creator"..., your "royal King". + + Isaiah 43:15 + + "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the + Lord of Hosts; 'I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me + there is no God.'" Hebrew: ..saith "Jehovah" the "royal + King",... his "deliverer" "Jehovah of the armies": I am the + "beginning", and I am the "end";... beside me there is no + "elohim". + + Isaiah 44:6 + + "Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that + time, and have declared it? Ye are even my witnesses. Is there + a God beside me? Yea, there is no God; I know not any." Hebrew: + is there a "elohim" beside me?... there is no "elohim";... + + Isaiah 44:8 + + "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside + me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may + know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is + none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form + the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I + the Lord do all these things." Hebrew: I am "Jehovah", and there + is none else, there is no "elohim" beside me: ...I am "Jehovah", + and there is none else,... I "Jehovah" do all these things. + + Isaiah 45:5-7 + + "Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel + together: who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath + told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there is no + God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside + me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: + for I am God, and there is none else." Hebrew: ...have not I + "Jehovah"? And there is no "elohim" else beside me: a just + "elohim" and "redeemer" ...I am "elohim", and there is none else. + + Isaiah 45:21-22 + + Here we have demonstrated that the Hebrews had/have one God, He +was/is referred to as God (Hebrew "elohim"), Lord (Hebrew "Jehovah"), or +Lord God (Hebrew "Jehovah elohim"). There are no other "Gods" to the +Hebrews to be worshipped, and He is a creator, not an "organizer" which +denotes a lot of power. He is also known as "the first and the last" and +"beside me there is no God" meaning he is alone in His position and +power. Of note, the Hebrew word "elohim" can be translated "God" or +"gods". The difference between translations is dependent upon the +context of the passage it appears. "Elohim" is always translated "God" +when the context denotes "first-person, singular" with regard to Jehovah, +"god" when the context is "first-person, singular" with regard to satan +or a heathen god (i.e. Baal. One exception is when "god" was used by +Jehovah regarding the "perceived appearance" of Moses to Pharaoh (Exodus +7:1)), and "gods" when the context refers to plurality, as in the +pagan/heathen gods of the Egyptians or Philistines. "Gods" is NEVER +associated with the singular Jehovah, as the LDS would have the world +believe, because the Hebrew grammar and language constructs don't allow +it. It (elohim) can be roughly compared to the english words "sheep" and +"deer" which can be both singular or plural nouns depending on context +and usage (i.e. one sheep, two sheep, one deer, many deer, etc.). +Continuing on: + + "God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man, + that he should repent:..." + + Numbers 23:19a + Context: singular + + "And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he + is not a man, that he should repent." + + 1 Samuel 15:29 + Context: singular + + Here we have testimony that God isn't a man, as the LDS teaches. +Therefore, let's see what he is, according to the Bible. Continuing on: + + "God is a spirit: and all who worship him must worship him in + spirit and truth." + + John 4:24 + + "Now, the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord + is, then there is liberty." + + 2 Corinthians 3:17 + + See also the complete 3rd chapter, the context of Jesus, God, and +the Holy Spirit/Ghost being one individual. + + Here, we have God described as a spirit. Even Jesus in Luke 24:39 +described a spirit's attributes: "...for a spirit hath not flesh and +bones,..." because the disciples thought He was a spirit when He appeared +to them after His resurrection. All throughout the Old Testament, the +Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of God, Spirit of the Lord, +Spirit of the Lord God; the logical conclusion being that the Holy Spirit +is God also, as man has a spirit and that spirit is part of him and is +referred to as being man (at times). The New Testament also refers to +the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost being the same person. + + "But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to + lie to the Holy Ghost,...thou hast not lied unto men, but unto + God" + + Acts 5:3,4 + + Here we have God and the Holy Spirit being equated as one person. + + "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the + name of the Father (God), and of the Son (Jesus), and of the Holy + Ghost:..." + + Matthew 28:19 + + Note the context of "the name" being applied to all three persons of +God inferring that they are the same person. + + "(Jeremiah praying) Ah Lord God! Behold, thou hast made the + heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, + and there is nothing too hard for thee:... (God replying) + Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing + too hard for me?" + + Jeremiah 32:17,27 + + "An the angel answered and said unto her, 'The Holy Ghost shall + come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow + thee: therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall + be called the Son of God.'" + + Luke 1:35 + + Here we have omnipotence (all-powerfulness) being attributed to God +and the Holy Ghost. + + "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee + from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: + if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the + wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the + sea; even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall + hold me. If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the + night shall be light about me.' Yea, the darkness hideth not + from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the + light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins: + thou hast covered me in my mother's womb." + + Psalm 139:7-13 + + Here David, talking to God, expresses His omnipresence and that the +Spirit is God's and is also omnipresent, making it a logical conclusion +that the two are the same person. + + "For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and + knoweth all things." + + 1 John 3:20 + + "But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit + searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man + knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in + him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit + of God." + + 1 Corinthians 2:10,11 + + Here, God and the Holy Spirit are described as omniscient. Note +especially that the Spirit is described as "knowing the things of God". +Only His Spirit has that kind of power, and as such is God. + These are some examples; there are more but this should give one the +idea that God and the Holy Spirit/Ghost are the same person. + The Bible also teaches that Jesus Christ was/is God also, and since +we've seen that God and the Spirit are the same, logically Christ is the +same as the Spirit also. Examples: + + "In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with + God, and the Word was God. The same (the Word) was in the + beginning with God. All things were made by him (the Word); and + without him (the Word) was not any thing made that was made." + + John 1:1-3 + + Here Jesus (the Word) is declared to be God, was with God in "the +beginning", and created the universe (See Genesis 1). The logical +conclusion: Jesus is the same God that is referred to in the Old +Testament. + + "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld + his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full + of grace and truth." + + John 1:14 + + Here, God was incarnated in the person of Jesus and lived with men. + + "For in him (Jesus) dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily." + + Colossians 2:9 + + Paul describing Jesus as being the Godhead manifest in flesh. + + "This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not + by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that + beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are + three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word (Jesus), + and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one (i.e. the same + person). And there are three that bear witness in earth, the + spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in + one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is + greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified + of his Son." + + 1 John 5:6-9 + + Another testimony that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are the same +person. + + "(Jesus speaking) 'I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and + the end', saith the lord, which is, and which was, and which is + to come, the Almighty." + + Revelation 1:8 + + "(Jesus speaking) 'I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and + the end, the first and the last.'" + + Revelation 22:13 + + Here Jesus is stating to John that He is the Alpha and the Omega. +See Isaiah 44:6 where God is quoted as saying "I am the first and the +last". This makes Jesus Jehovah God because there cannot be more than +one "first and the last" type individual. + + There are many more examples of Jesus, God, and the Spirit being the +same person, but that would require the re-typing of a vast majority of +the Bible; this file is big enough as it is! + + The LDS teaches that God has a body because of the bodily parts +listed as being used by God (right arm, eyes, ears, footsteps, hind +parts, etc.). If those examples are to be taken literally, then God +(using LDS logic) must also be part bird (Psalm 17:8, 36:7, 57:1, 61:4, +63:7, 91:4) have detachable eyes, like grapes, with legs on them +(2 Chronicles 16:9). Likewise, if LDS logic pertaining to God is to be +accepted, then Jesus was a freak-of freaks because he would be part plant +(vine, specifically: John 15:1,5), have a door in him (John 10:9), have a +roadway issuing from him (John 14:6), be part bread (as in Langendorf, or +Wonder bread: John 6:51). Even the disciples must have been plant-beings +(John 15:5). There are many more such absurdities because such +comparisons are just that: comparisons. They are used to illustrate +concepts using reference points that humans can identify with, and are +not to be taken literally, only figuratively. + + The LDS tries to make the Bible appear to teach their doctrines of +God. One such example is 1 Corinthians 8:5b which states: "(as there are +gods many, and lords many,). On the surface, it would indicate the Bible +teaches a plurality of gods. However, when we look at the full context, +the meaning is quite different: + + "As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are + sacrificed unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in this + world, and that there is none other God but one. For though + there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as + there are gods many, and lords many,) but there is to us but one + God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one + Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." + + 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 + + An explanation that although there are many "lords and gods", they +are nothing (zilch, zip, nada, zero, etc.) but imaginary. There is only +one God (Jehovah) and Jesus (whom as previously demonstrated is Jehovah +God). + + As you can see, what the LDS teach about God is not what the Bible +teaches of God. This automatically disqualifies them as a "christian" +denomination since the teachings of their "prophets" (i.e. mere men), not +the Bible determines their theology. + + God: As taught in the Book of Mormon + ------------------------------------ + + It's interesting to note that the LDS' own "Bible," the Book of +Mormon, agrees with the Bible in the teachings of God and Jesus: + + "...And also to convincing of the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus + is the Christ, the Eternal God,..." + + Title page, Book of Mormon. + + A declaration that Jesus and God are one and the same person. + + "For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable + being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity." + + Moroni 8:18 + + Here God is declared to be an unchangeable being. + + "And Zeezrom said unto him: 'Thou sayest there is a true and + living God?' And Amulek said: 'Yea, there is a true and a living + God.' Now Zeezrom said: 'Is there more than one God?' And he + answered, 'No.'" + + Alma 11:26-29 + + A declaration of the non-existence of the plurality of gods. + + "And after this manner shall ye baptize in my name; for behold, + verily I say unto you, that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy + Ghost are one; and I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and + the Father and I are one.... And thus the Father bear record of + me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the Father + and me; for the Father, and I, and the Holy Ghost are one." + + 3 Nephi 11:27,36 + + A declaration that God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are the same +person (i.e. the Trinity) + + "O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, + and there is not anything save he knows it." + + 2 Nephi 9:20 + + A declaration of the omniscience of God. As you see in these +examples, the Book of Mormon is at variance with the primary teachings +of God as taught by the LDS. Strange, since they claim that the BOM is +their Bible and it supposedly "agrees" with their teachings. It seems +that the BOM has more in common with Christianity than Mormonism. One +must not forget that Brigham Young declared that he never checked the +Bible, BOM, or any other works for agreement with his teachings; it seems +that neither Smith nor any other LDS teacher after Young has done their +homework on the LDS teachings since they are at variance with the BOM and +the Bible. So much for the LDS claim to "christianity". + + As an aside, the documents that relate to the Bible (ancient scrolls +and such) date back to about 250 BC for the Old Testament (the "Dead Sea +Scrolls"), and to about 150 AD for the New Testament (Rylands Papyrus +#457: Book of John fragments) whereas the BOM documents only date back +to about 1850 (2 BOM manuscripts in Smith's hand and the 1830 edition of +the BOM). There is NO EVIDENCE of BOM documentation prior to 1828 (or +so) when the "plates" were supposedly being "translated". What a shame +that the Bible has more documentation backing it up than the BOM which +only has Joseph Smith's "blessing" to its authenticity. Since the +"plates" are non-existent on this earth, there is no concrete proof of +the BOM being anything other than the product of Smith's imagination. + + Ken Simmons + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds-3.txt b/religious documents/lds-3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5d0f63 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,87 @@ + + THE REAL HOLY SPIRIT + + In Mormonism the "Holy Ghost" is a personage, or a god, but the +"Holy Spirit" is an impersonal force. The Mormons refer to verses that +the Holy Spirit is symbolized by oil, fire and water and show that +these are "impersonal". The Bible refers to the Father and the Son as +"bread of life", "living water" and other "impersonal" terms. Again, +we must look at the context. + + In John 16:7, our Lord is placing His emphasis on His going away +and the Holy Spirit's being sent by the Father to replace our Lord +himself. This change (or replacement), Jesus says, would be beneficial +for His disciples. AN IMPERSONAL FORCE COULD HARDLY IMPROVE ON THE +PERSONAL PRESENCE OF OUR LORD, JESUS CHRIST! + + The word in Hebrew and the word in Greek for SPIRIT and GHOST both +mean the same, "breath or wind" and the "translators" of the King +James Bible noted that the Greek word denoted a neuter gender and +mistranslated to be an "IT", but they did utilize the word Ghost and +Spirit and interchanged them on many occassions. + + The words as translated are from only ONE word in Hebrew and ONE +word in Greek - therefore there are NOT two words for SPIRIT and +GHOST - only ONE. Now, let's look at this ONE entity called the HOLY +SPIRIT. In John 16:13 and 14 we see our Lord, Jesus telling us this +about the Holy Spirit, "HE shall not speak of HIMSELF ... HE shall +glorify me ... HE shall receive of mine ....". NOTE that our LORD +gives PERSONALITY to the Spirit. Otherwise our Lord would have used +the term that Mormons use "IT". + + Jesus repeatedly (John 16:7-15) uses the MASCULINE PERSONAL +pronoun "He" when referring to the Spirit. Jesus used the term clearly +to tell us that the Spirit had personality and intimacy. + + Ananias was struck dead for lying to the HOLY SPIRIT (Acts 5:3). +You cannot lie to an impersonal force! It would be like walking up to +a window box fan, turning it on and facing its "force" and then +telling lie after lie to it - IT WOULD NOT CARE THE SLIGHTEST, WOULD +IT? Now, you look at Ananias and, if you are not a complete idiot, you +would not repeat his behavior, now would you? The Holy Spirit and the +Holy Ghost are not two different items mentioned in the Bible. There +is only one entity referred to as both HOLY GHOST and HOLY SPIRIT. + + The Holy Spirit is a person. The Spirit may be "grieved" (Ephesians +4:30) and "sinned against" by UNFORGIVABLE blasphemy (Mark 3:29). None +of these things are possible for an "impersonal force". + +The Holy Ghost does things which only a person COULD do. + +He SPEAKS: + "The Spirit said unto Philip, 'Go near'" (Acts 8:29) + +He STRIVES: + "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever" (Genesis 6:3) +- "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity ... [and] MAKETH +INTERCESSION for us." (Romans 8:26) + +He REVEALS, SEARCHES, and KNOWS: + "But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit +searcheth all things ... the things of God knoweth no man but the +Spirit of God" (I Corinthians 2:10,11). + + Other verses can be shown in which the Spirit IDENTIFIES with +believers (Acts 15:28), The Spirit is ETERNAL (Hebrews 9:14), +OMNIPRESENT (Psalm 139:7-10), DOES GOD'S WORK (Genesis 1:2), INVOLVED +IN REGENERATION (John 3:8), participates in the RESURRECTION (Romans +8:11). + + Paul identifies the Spirit as the speaker to Isaiah. Acts 28:25-26 +and Isaiah 6:8,9. An impersonal force does not counsel, speak, feel, +or anything resembling personality. The HOLY SPIRIT is a person - one +of the THREE ENTITIES of the ONE TRUE GOD. + +Computers For Christ - San Jose + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon diff --git a/religious documents/lds-4.txt b/religious documents/lds-4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f31a5e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,360 @@ + + MORMONISM'S "SALVATION BY WORKS" + vs. + SALVATION BY GRACE THROUGH CHRIST + + The entire BIBLE points in all directions to the cross. Upon it +God's only begotten Son died that we might have eternal life from God. +Only through Christ can this separation be bridged. + + On the other hand, MORMONISM points in all directions to the "Law +of Eternal Progression". We have seen that Mormon doctrine states +that God was once a man. He progressed to become God. The same law +states that man may become God! + + Let's go to the authorities of the church and hear what they have +said, first on the subject of man's pre-existence as a spirit in a +"spirit world" prior to taking a body here on earth: + + DID WE PRE-EXIST? + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE (Apostle); MORMON DOCTRINE, page 589 + + "Pre-existence is the term commonly used to describe the pre-mortal +existence of the spirit children of God the Father ... All men and +women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother, and we +are literally the sons and daughters of Deity; as spirits they were +the offspring of celestial parentage ... Unless God the father was a +personal Being, He could not have begotten spirits in His image, and +if there had been no self-existent spirit element, there would have +been no substance from which those spirit bodies could have been +organized." + + The basis of the Mormon law of progression in Mormonism is that +"intelligences" are eternal. On the other hand, God is not! He +started as a spirit child in another 'spirit world' long ago; entered +a body on another earth as a man; apparently was able to follow the +law of progression perfectly; after death He became God in the +'celestial kingdom' of that other earth; brought (or was given) many +wives; through sexual union in our spirit world had billions of spirit +children : The first was Jesus, the second Lucifer, the third and on +and on were to enter the earth as you and me. + + No organic difference in the parentage between us and Jesus and +Lucifer! We all have the same literal "Heavenly Father". Note how +those in Mormonism generally refer to Him as "Heavenly Father" -- they +mean just that - LITERALLY!! Just remember that they could say also; +"Heavenly GRANDFATHER", "Heavenly Great-Grandfather", and so on ...! + +MILTON R. HUNTER (1st Council of 70); GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES; pages +127-129 (1958) + + "In the first stage, man was an eternally existent being termed an +intelligence ... The next realm where man dwelt was the spirit +world." + + According to Mormon concept eternally existing intelligences were +clothed with spirit bodies in the mansion of their eternal Father... +"numerous sons and daughters were begotten and born of heavenly +parents into that eternal family in the spirit world ... There ... +they were reared to maturity, becoming grown spirit men and women +prior to coming upon this earth ... Following his stay in the spirit +world, man comes to earth in a probationary state ... receives a +physical body and undergoes the experiences of mortality .. +Eventually; however, mortal death comes upon all. The eternal spirit +goes to the spirit world to wait resurrection and judgement ... there +they shall be assigned to the glory that they have merited ... Some +will receive celestial glory; others terrestrial, while those who are +recorded in the 'Lamb's Book of Life' will enter celestial glory. +There some of them will become angels and others priests and kings, +or, in other words, Gods." + + On page 12, Hunter states a basic "truth" of Mormonism, that God is +subordinate to the law of eternal progression.: "Our Eternal Father +has attained His position of exaltation and Godhood by obedience to +the great law of progression." + +JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH; DOCTRINES OF SALVATION; Vol 1, pg 12 + + "The intelligent part of man was never created but always existed. +That is true of each of us as well as it is of God, yet we are born +sons and daughters of God in the spirit and are destined to exist +forever. Those who become like God will also be from eternity to +eternity." + + The BIBLE states explicitly that there are no intelligences +co-eternal or co-existent with God. Anything that exists, other than +God, is a "thing". COLOSSIANS 1:16-17 and JOHN 1:1-3 state that ONLY +Jesus is co-eternal with God as the "WORD WAS GOD" (John 1:1). He is +before all "things" and created all "things". His creation did not +pre-exist Him! God knows the beginning and end of all things before +they exist. There are several scriptures stating HE "knew" us before +we were born. They do not imply we existed before we were born. + + "The burden of the word of the Lord of Israel, saith the Lord, +which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the +earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him." (ZECHARIAH 12:1) + + SALVATION BY GRACE VERSUS WORKS + + The BIBLE states over and over that we do not merit salvation +(eternal life in God's presence) by our own goodness and system of +good works from or for any organization. You need only to study the +Old Testament and see the hopelessness of a system whereby man was to +live within God's laws with the system of prophets - temples - priests +and ordinances. The purpose of Jesus coming to earth to die for us +was to make provision for our own inability to bridge this separation +of man from God and brought a new covenant. If you choose Mormonism +as your plan of salvation, you have regressed to the old covenant of +the prophet, temple and ordinance which produce only "dead works" in +an attempt to obtain righteousness on your own. If you trust the LDS +church and its prophets; here is what is said: + +MILTON R. HUNTER; THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES; pg 115 JOSEPH F. +SMITH; TEACHINGS OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH; pg 348 + + "Thus all men who ascend to the glorious status of Godhood can do +so only by one method - by obedience to all the principals and +ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (another way of saying +"Mormonism")... Men are saved no faster than they gain knowledge. +The Prophet Joseph described the process of going toward Godhood as +follows: When you climb a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and +ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with +the principles of the Gospel - you must begin with the first, and go +on until you learn all of the principles of exaltation. But it will +be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you +will have learned them." + +JAMES E. TALMAGE; ARTICLES OF FAITH; pg 480 + + "The sectarian dogma of justification by faith alone has exercised +an influence for evil." + +II NEPHI 25:23 (BOOK OF MORMON) + + "For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we +can do." + + WHAT THE MORMONS THINK OF CHRIST + +LDS CHURCH TRACT; pg 32,46,47 + + "Christians speak often of the blood of Christ and its cleansing +power. Much that is believed and taught on this subject, however, is +utter nonsense and so palpably false that to believe it is to lose +one's salvation. Many go so far, for instance, as to pretend, at +least, to believe that if we confess Christ with our lips and avow +that we accept Him as our personal Savior, we are thereby saved ... +And no man can pick the fruit of eternal life off the branches, as +these are tied to the vine, without accepting both Christ and His +prophets ... If it had not been for Joseph Smith, the Prophet, the +perfect knowledge of Christ would not be had in the world in this day. +If it had not been for him and his mission there would be no legal +administrators now on earth to administer in the ordinances of +salvation." + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE; MORMON DOCTRINE; pgs 84 & 745 + + "The second birth begins when men are legally baptized in water by +a legal administrator ... Those who receive the Gospel (Mormon +Doctrine) and join the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints +have power given them to become sons of God." + + (Compare to John 1:12 -- "But as many as received Him, to them gave +He power to become sons of God..") + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE; MORMON DOCTRINE; pg 149 + + "Those things which men are directed to do to attain peace in this +life and gain eternal life in the world to come are collectively +called the commandments." + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE; MORMON DOCTRINE; preface to 1966 Edition; pg 118 + + "Man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge -- (See I +Corinthians 1:17,20-23,2:1-5) -- To gain salvation after baptism it is +necessary to keep the commandments of God and endure to the end ... +The most important things that any member of the church of Jesus +Christ of Latter day Saints ever does in this world are: 1. To marry +the right person, in the right place, by the right authority (Mormon +Temple marriage); and 2. to keep the covenant made in connection with +this holy and perfect order of matrimony - thus assuring the obedient +persons of an inheritance of exaltation in the celestial kingdom." + +CHURCH NEWS-EDITORIAL; November 8,1975; page 16 + + "There is only one way to become sanctified and perfected, and thus +prepared to live with God. That is by obedience to His laws. There +is no other way ... When will we learn to obey him with all our +heart, mind and strength? + + (Compare with Luke 10:27 - "Thou shalt love the Love the Lord thy +God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy +strength, and with all thy mind....") + +MILTON R. HUNTER, GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES; pgs 118-120 + + "If men and women obey all the other laws of the gospel except that +of celestial marriage (Mormon Temple Marriage), they are appointed +angels ...." + +BENNET; WHY I AM A MORMON; pg 170 + + "Once we have been resurrected, it will be our own efforts, and not +Christ's sacrifice, that will be the deciding factor ... A man can be +saved only so fast as he gains knowledge of the laws of God." Prophets +... temples ... Obedience to the Law ... Aaronic Priest .. +Legalisms ... Dependent on our own efforts and good works ... + + Sound familiar? Old Testament in a new wrapping? Wrapped in +Christian terminology? Mormonism calls the unsuspecting back under +what amounts to the old covenant. If righteousness could be obtained, +earned or gained by our own efforts to be perfect under the law, there +would have been no need for a "NEW" covenant. If all Christ's death +meant was to conquer death - to pay for Adam's sin as Mormonism +teaches - why are the following among the great number of God's words +declaring the TRUTH of the NEW COVENANT of salvation through Christ, +by faith, not works of the law. Look up these scriptures and review +their full context: + + THE LAW AND WORKS DO NOT SAVE + +JOHN 6:28,29,39,40 ... What must we do to be doing the works of God? +This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He sent. + +ROMANS 3:21,22 ... No one is justified by the works of the law. +Now righteousness of God is manifested apart from the Law. + +ROMANS 4:13-16 ... If it is adherents of the Law that are to be +heirs, then faith is NULL and the promise void. + +ROMANS 7:4-6 ... Died to the Law through the body of Christ. +Discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that +we serve not under the old written code but in new life of the Spirit. + +ROMANS 8:1-4 ... God has done what the law could not do! + +ROMANS 9:30-32 ... Israel who pursued righteousness based on the law +did not succeed. WHY? They did not pursue it through faith, but as if +it were based on works. + +ROMANS 10:1-4 ... A zeal for God - but not enlightened. Seeking to +establish their own righteousness. Christ is the end of the law. +Romans 14:1-23 and Colossians 3:8-23 are clear refutations of the +point made by Joseph Smith in "Words of Wisdom" to not drink and eat +certain things is nothing more than MAN'S regulation and NOT from God. +Read and see what God said through the Apostle Paul! + +GALATIANS 2:16 ... Man is not justified by works of the law but is +through faith! + +GALATIANS 2:19-21 ... Died to the law, that I might live to God. I do +not nullify the Grace of God; for if righteousness were through the +law, then Christ is dead in vain. + +GALATIANS 3:10 ... As many as are under the works of the law are +under the curse! + +GALATIANS 3:23-28 ... Before faith came, we were under the law - our +schoolmaster (Custodian) until Christ came. Now that faith is come, +we are no longer under a schoolmaster. + +GALATIANS 5:18 ... If led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. + +II TIMOTHY 1:8-10 ... Who saved us, not according to our works, but +according to His own purpose and grace. + +TITUS 3:3-9 ... He saved us, not by works of righteousness which we +have done, but according to His mercy. Being justified by grace. + + HOW IS MAN (or WE ) SAVED ? + + If salvation is not by works of our own under the law and +ordinances, HOW IS MAN SAVED? Just a few of the scriptures God has +given us are: + +JOHN 3:1-18 ... YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN! In context Jesus, Himself, +explains that, not only do we have a natural birth (Flesh) but a +spiritual birth! "Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have +everlasting life (ETERNAL)! + +ROMANS 5:1-11 ... Christ died for us, sinners, who are now justified +by His blood. We are reconciled through Him. + +ROMANS 5:15-17 ... The free gift of righteousness by the grace of +God. + +ROMANS 10:9-17 ... Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe +in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. + +GALATIANS 2:16-21 ... We are justified by faith. Our old nature is +crucified with Christ; Christ now lives in us; we live by faith --- +not the law! + +EPHESIANS 2:8-10 ... "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and +that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any +man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus +unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in +them." + + Works have nothing to do with our justifying eternal life. The +Mormon will be quick to point out James 2:17 - "Even so faith, if it +hath not works, is dead, being alone." AMEN! That is not denying +salvation by faith. What it is saying is this: "You say you are +saved? Saving faith will naturally flow into a life that will show +evidence of it. Your 'works' will testify of your faith. If none, +there is reason to question whether there really was a saving faith to +start with." To quote Ed Decker in his tract "To Moroni with Love"; +You do not bark to become a dog nor "baa" to become a sheep. You bark +because you are a dog or "baa" because you are a sheep! Christians, +when born-again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, have a never ending +desire to follow the Lord Jesus in their daily life behavior. "Works" +is not an appropriate name as it suggests payment after the work has +been done. Christ made the payment IN FULL for our sins by His blood +for us; if only we REPENT of our sins and ACCEPT Him by faith. It is +available only through God's grace for an eternal life. + +I JOHN 1:7 ... Blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin. + +HEBREW 9:23-28,10:10-18 ... Jesus was the sacrifice, once, to perfect +forever those who are sanctified. + +ROMANS 5:6-11 ... We are reconciled by His blood. + +ISAIAH 53:6-11 & I CORINTHIANS 5:17-21 ... Our iniquity was laid on +Jesus; to die for us; that we might be made the righteousness of God +in Him. + +I PETER 2:24 ... "Who his own self bare our sins in His own body on +the tree, that we, being dead to sins should live unto righteousness: +By whose stripes ye are healed." + + You will never (Well, We won't say never because God may have His +plan for their salvation that We are not aware of at this moment) see +a cross on a Mormon structure. They will say call it a "graven +image"; yet "Moroni" stands on top of their temples. Moroni didn't +die for them. Joseph Smith, Jr. didn't die for them. The church +didn't die for them. JESUS DIED FOR THEM, if they would only cling to +His cross and reach out to claim His blood for their sins. They're +told they can earn their own righteousness based on the law of the +church which is based on "prophets, seers and revelators" proven -TIME +AND AGAIN- to be false. Wouldn't you rather lay your eternal life in +the hands of the ETERNAL GOD; the SON who, personally, died for you - +than, say, a "prophet" in Salt Lake City? + + Our prayer is that this comparison of the Bible vs: the LDS Mormon +church will show you the LIGHT of CHRIST. + +Computers For Christ - San Jose + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon diff --git a/religious documents/lds-5.txt b/religious documents/lds-5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f750a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,198 @@ + + DO THE NAG HAMMADI WRITING AND DEAD SEA SCROLLS + CONFIRM MORMONISM + or + IS EINAR ERICKSON CONFUSED ? + + In recent years, Mormon lecturer, Einar C. Erickson, has given +numerous talks to Mormon church groups concerning the Dead Sea +Scrolls, Nag Hammadi writings, Mandean Ginza and related Middle East +finds. These lectures have been taped and widely distributed for use +in converting the uninformed to Mormonism. Mr Erickson states that the +writings discovered in the vicinity of Nag Hammadi, Egypt, are one of +the greatest confirmations of the "truthfulness" of the Mormon church +that anyone would find anywhere. + + On one of his tapes, Mr. Erickson boldly declares that: "These +documents and others leave without doubt evidence positive even on the +best rules of evidence that an attorney might be able to assemble, +that this gospel [i.e. the Mormon gospel] is true. You get no credit +for faith anymore." Mr. Erickson attempts to convince his listeners +that the writers of the Nag Hammadi were the true Christians, (based +upon his allegation of their similarity to Mormonism) and that all +others had slipped off into apostasy. + + However; the Nag Hammadi writings are of "Gnostic" origin which +were written during the first to fourth century A.D. The Gnostic +heretics did cherish both the Old and New testament Scripture, but +re-interpreted them in terms of a mythological Gnostic Redeemer. +Gnosticism gave rise to the writings of a number of totally spurious +apocalyptic books, false gospels and epistles that incorporated their +own mysticism. + + Gnosticism was a movement that vigorously contended with Orthodox +Christianity for supremacy. Writings by the early Church Fathers show +how widespread and influential Gnosticism was; and it was combatted as +a lethal threat to the proclamation of the Gospel. The bishops pointed +out the great gulf between Biblical Christianity and Gnosticism, even +though the Gnostics made use of Biblical text. It is obvious that +Paul, the Apostle, knew of the false ideas of Gnosticism, and spoke +out against such doctrines several times in the Scriptures. + + The Gnostics believed in the supreme being as an undescribable +God. He is invisible, incomprehensible, and dwells unbegotten in +eternal peace. Some names used to describe God and to stress His +transcendence were "Father of All", "The Unapproachable God", "The +Unknowable". Such a God could not possibly have direct contact with +the material world; therefore, He does so through intermediates, each +one answerable to the other. Each intermediate in descending order is +less divine and more earthy as the chain nears the material world. + + Mr. Erickson spellbinds his listeners when he tells them that the +Nag Hammadi writings confirm the Mormon doctrine of the Heavenly +Mother! What he fails to tell them is that this Mother God of the Nag +Hammadi is the "Holy Spirit." Certainly this is in direct conflict +with the Mormon concept of a Mother God, because in Mormon doctrine, +the Holy Spirit is a male. The supreme being has a female counterpart +which emanates from Him. She is known as "Mother of All" or "The Holy +Spirit." + + Other emanations that come forth from the Supreme Being in pairs +are called AEONS; the lowest Aeon being "Sophia Akhamoth", she was so +full of passion to understand or know God that she fell and was placed +outside the Pleroma, God's heavenly dwelling. Because of her desire, +she becomes fertile with a formless monster. This monster (Yaldabaoth, +Samael or SATAN) is the Demiurge or inferior god who created this +material world and brought forth man upon it. + + According to the Gnostic, all matter is evil; therefore, only an +inferior being could have created it. Satan is the creator-god of this +earth and of man, and is an evil god. To the Gnostics, Satan is +Jehovah of the Old Testament! After Jehovah (Satan) creates man and +breathes life into him, he creates Eve. The demonic forces see the +beauty of Eve, and proceed to rape her. Through this act, she +conceives Cain and Abel. + + Mr. Erickson often refers to the Hypostasis of the Archons of the +Nag Hammadi and being direct parallel to the Garden of Eden scene of +the Mormon Temple Ceremony. However, he fails to inform his listeners +that the Hypostasis of the Archeons tells of the demons raping Eve! +Nor does he point out that the serpent in the garden is really the +Holy Spirit coming to give Adam and Eve the "true knowledge." He +neglects to mention to his listeners that the "god" who comes into the +garden to ask Adam and Eve what they have done is not the "Heavenly +Father" but is Satan the arrogant Archon, the evil god. In this +instance, Mr. Erickson is, at best, mistaken about the facts -- a +fault which reappears throughout his lectures and tapes. + + The authors of the Nag Hammadi writings taught a form of re- +incarnation, and that marriage was evil, because it is of the earth. +They believed the begetting of children was from Satan, since it +merely increases the number subjected to the evil angels. Resurrection +of the flesh is denied by these Gnostics, since earthly flesh is in +itself evil, and can have no part in the spiritual scheme of God. All +of these concepts are not confirmations of Mormon doctrine, but are +direct contradictions of it! + + Mr. Erickson, looking elsewhere in the Middle East for "proof," +tells his audiences that the writings of the Mandaeans of Iraq and +Iran are (also) a confirmation of Mormonism. His "evidence" for this +is that they speak of baptism for the dead, baptism by immersion, +priesthood and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy +Ghost. What he fails to mention to them is: according to the +Mandaeans, Jesus was a rebel and a heretic who led men astray by +betraying secret doctrine and making religion easier. The Mandaean +sacred book tells of how Jesus perverted the Scriptures, and that +Jesus told the Jews that He was the Father, the Son and the Holy +Ghost. Furthermore, the Mandaean book accuses Jesus perverting baptism +by baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. + + The Mandaeans were baptized many times throughout their lives. +They baptized infants; and if an infant died before or during this +baptism, a clay or dough image was made which they then baptized in +proxy for that infant. Proxy baptism was also done for an adult who +died before getting his last minute washings before death. In this +case, an individual that looked like the deceased was baptized in +proxy for the dead person. + + The Mandaeans also had a ceremony of "eating for the dead" to give +the deceased nourishment for his travels to the heavenly spheres. The +Mormon people do not baptize infants, do not eat for the dead, nor do +they have last minute washing rituals before death as the Mandaeans +did. The Mormon proxy baptisms have less in common with the Mandaean +baptisms than they do with Catholic infant baptisms, last rites +ritual, and prayers for the dead. Clearly, the Mandaean concepts of +Jesus and baptism are in no way similar to Mormon doctrine. + + Those holding the Mandaean priesthood had to have a clean family +history for a number of generations, and meet strict physical and +mental qualifications. They had to be without the slightest physical +blemish, and be of pure Mandaean blood. A man who was circumcised, +impotent, or a eunuch could not be a priest for the body must be +sound, pure, and perfect. If a man was already a priest and he +received an injury which destroyed his manhood or robbed him of a +limb, he could no longer officiate as a priest. There are no such +restrictions within the Mormon priesthoods. The only things in common +with the Mormon priesthoods and baptism and that of the Mandaean are +the very words themselves! + + Mr. Erickson makes false claims about the Dead Sea Scrolls +community, as well. He states that those at Qumran baptized at the age +of eight, just as the Mormons do. This is just simply NOT the case. +They trained young men for their celibate monastic order for about ten +years before they were baptized into their ranks. This baptism never +took place before the age of twenty. Mr. Erickson states that the +people of Qumran were essentially the first "Mormons." However, the +people at Qumran didn't even believe in marriage! Rather they adopted +in young men from other Essene groups who married only to beget +children. By contrast, in Mormonism, marriage is absolutely essential +to each member's salvation in the Celestial Kingdom of God. + + Mr. Erickson claims that the Apocryphal books should be used as +scripture. However, even the Mormon's own "latter day" revelation +disagrees with him. In the introductory heading of Section 91 of the +Doctrine and Covenants, it declares specifically that the apocryphal +books are NOT to be accepted as scripture. Beyond that built-in +contradiction, lies the fact that one need only to read some of these +apocrypha for himself to quickly discover their singular lack of +inspiration. + + For example, two "Gospels" portray the life of the young Jesus, +allegedly covering the "silent" years skipped over in the Bible. The +book, "The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus" portrays Jesus as a +spoiled despot who curses another child for bumping into him, and a +schoolmaster who was going to discipline Him for refusing to answer a +question. After these two people are killed at Jesus' command, Joseph +tells Mary, "we will not allow him to go out of the house; for every +one who displeases him is killed." In Thomas' "Gospel of the Infancy +of Jesus Christ", we see Jesus causing the withering of hands, +blindness, and again, death. This is clearly not the Jesus Christ of +the Bible! + + The conclusion is inescapable -- the claims by Mr. Erickson (and +consequently other Mormons) that the Mormon doctrine is "exonerated" +by the findings in the Middle East is totally without foundation. +Mormon doctrine is not confirmed by these different religious sects, +it is contradicted by them! It is apparent that these claims are just +another chapter in the long history of false archeological boasts made +by Mormons in the past. + +NOTE: A full and completely documented study of Mr. Erickson's +scholarship regarding the above topics has been written by Mrs. +Melaine Layton entitled: The Truth About the Dead Sea Scrolls and the +Nag Hammadi Writings in Reference to Mormonism. For further +information, please write to the office: + +Computers For Christ - San Jose. + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon diff --git a/religious documents/lds-6.txt b/religious documents/lds-6.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e5eac3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-6.txt @@ -0,0 +1,190 @@ + + Do Mormons "Really" Believe in the Bible? + + Isaiah 41:21 - Set Forth your case + I Peter 3:15 - Be prepared, always + + + The credibility of a religious claim rests upon its ability to +verify its terms. In the year of 1800, the French Institute in Paris +issued a list of 82 "errors' that it had found in the Bible and felt +would destroy Christianity in short order. In 1804, not one of the +alleged errors remained! + + In the year 1901, the American Society of Archeology claimed that +the Biblical account of a peoples called the Hittites was false. In +1933, archeologists found conclusive proof of the existence of the +Hittites and other peoples that the Bible had claimed existed! + + The primary question for this text is: "Why are we discussing the +matter of the Bible and its completeness? Doesn't the Mormon church +accept the Bible as the Word of God?" To respond, let me quote from +the sources of the Mormon church: + + 8th Article of Faith - "We believe the Bible to be the word of God +as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of +Mormon to be the Word of God." + + Joseph Smith, in Teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 327, +stated "Ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and +corrupt priests committed many errors.' and the mormon apostle Mark E. +Peterson states in his book, As Translated Correctly - page 4, "Many +insertions were made, some of them "slanted' for selfish purposes, +while at times deliberate falsifications and fabrications were +perpetrated.' + + Orson Pratt further made a comment in his book, Divine Authenticity +of the Book of Mormon - pages 45 & 47, thus: "If it be admitted that +the apostles and evangelists did write the books of the New Testament, +that does not prove of itself that they were divinely inspired at the +time they wrote ... Add all this imperfection to the uncertainty of +the translation, and who, IN HIS RIGHT MIND could for one moment +suppose the Bible in its present form to be a perfect guide? Who knows +that even one verse of the Bible has escaped pollution, so as to +convey the same sense now that it did in the original?" + + The Book of Mormon, II Nephi 29:6 states "Thou fool, that shall say +a Bible, we have got a Bible and we need no more Bible. Have ye +obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews?" Can you note the FOOLS are +the only ones who trust in the Bible? Read verse 10. Here, the Book of +Mormon declares the need for more revelation and makes way for its own +existence! + + A point of interest - turn to I Nephi 13:26: "a great and +abominable church - has taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many +parts which are plain and precious; and also many covenants of the +Lord have they taken away." The Book of Mormon tells us that this is +600 B.C.! Do you know what B.C. means - BEFORE CHRIST! So we are told +that the gospel of the Lamb has been polluted six hundred years before +the Lamb or His Gospel was recorded in the New Testament and given at +the Passover! + + IS THE BIBLE INFALLIBLE? + + The Bible was composed over a period of 1,500 years by more than 40 +different authors from the full range of humanity: from military +generals (Joshua) to prime ministers (Daniel) to cupbearers (Nehemiah) +to fishermen (Peter) to tax collectors (Matthew) to kings (David). The +books were written in many different places: the wilderness (Moses), +prison (Paul), and exile (John on the Island Patmos). On three +different continents (Africa, Asia and Europe) and in three different +languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek). + + The content, yet, remains constant in its unfolding of the plan of +salvation through Christ Jesus. The Old Testament reveals itself to be +the story of the preparation for the arrival of the Messiah or Christ. +The Gospels of the New Testament are the manifestation of the Christ +in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Acts is the propagation of the +message. The Epistles give the explanation and the Revelation of John +provides the consummation of the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus or +Lord! The entire Bible is about Jesus (Luke 24:27 - 44 and John +5:39,46,47). I challenge any Mormon to take any ten people, and you +can even get them from the same heritage - education - language and +culture and ask them separately to give you their opinion of the +meaning of life - you will get opinions of such variety, yet the Bible +consists of over 40 authors of more than one generation with very +little similarity and is in total unity! Complete harmony! + + In discussion of the matter of infallibility of the Bible we need, +first to look at the process that we use to arrive at this conclusion: + +PREMISE # 1 - The Bible is basically a reliable and trustworthy +document. + +PREMISE # 2 - On the basis of this reliable document, we have +sufficient evidence to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. + +PREMISE # 3 - Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, is an infallible +authority. (Luke 24:27,44; John 5:39; Hebrews 10:7) + +PREMISE # 4 - Jesus Christ teaches that the Bible is MORE than +generally trustworthy. He teaches that it is the very Word of God. + +PREMISE # 5 - The WORD, in that it comes from God, is utterly +trustworthy because GOD is utterly trustworthy! + +PREMISE # 6 - On the basis of the infallible authority of Jesus +Christ, the Bible is infallible. + + II Timothy 2:13 declares that God "cannot deny Himself" and +Galatians 1:8,9 tells us that we should be wary of any teaching of any +other Gospel than that which Paul preached, which by the declaration +of Paul in Romans 15:19 states that "I have fully preached the Gospel +of Jesus Christ." + + The Mormon church is unable to provide any proof that Paul taught +such doctrines as celestial marriage, no hell, wearing of sacred +underwear, or godhood to be obtained. It is proper to state that if +Paul never taught such doctrines, then Galatians 1:8-9 CONDEMNS them! +The claim of the LDS that more scripture is necessary is groundless. + + In II Peter 1:3, we are told that "His divine power hath given unto +us ALL things that pertain to life and godliness." Paul further +explained in Colossians 2:10 that "Ye are COMPLETE in Him." If just +these two statements are true, what possible use could additional +scripture be? Granted that nowhere in the Bible does it state that +"This is the end of Scripture"; However, with the above statements, +anything else could ONLY be redundant. It is obvious from the text of +the New Testament that the writers were "eyewitnesses" of the ministry +and presence of Jesus Christ. (II Peter 1:15-18 and I John 1:1-5) + + Acts 22:14-15 and I Corinthians 11:23 show that the Apostle Paul +was specially chosen by the Lord as a witness while the other Apostles +were alive. Paul's testimony was identical to that of the other +Apostles - what He had seen, heard and taught of the Lord Jesus was +identical to all previous teachings and in accord with the Old +Testament teachings. Much more could have been written (John 20:30 and +21:25); However, there was no need as there already existed "all +things that pertain to life and godliness." (II Peter 1:3 and John +20:31) + + How many of us, Mormon or Christian have read and digested all of +the meat of the Holy Bible - completely? Can there really be a need +for something more when the original item is still unplumbed for the +depths it contains? + + We have the following possibilities: the Bible was written by +either (1) Good Men or Angels, (2) Evil Men or Demons, (3) God. + + Good Men or Angels could not have written it as they could not +write "Thus saith the Lord" when it was a lie or an invention of their +own minds. + + Evil men or demons could not have written the Bible as they would +not have written a book that commands all duty, forbids all sin, and +condemns all evil to Hell! + + We thus have GOD as the only source of the BIble. + + In the ancient Israel, a class of servants in the Temple were +called Scribes. This was a lifelong calling and one of great +importance to the continuance of the Law and Prophets of Israel. I +will demonstrate the LEGAL method of making a copy of a document +according to the laws of Israel at this time and according to the +great traditions of the Talmud. The possibility for incorrect copy is +almost non-existent. Combine this with the facts as proven by +archeology. Prior to the Dead Sea Scroll copy of the Book of Isaiah, +the best copy of that Book was over 1000 years newer! In comparing the +two copies that covered this gap of a thousand years, there was found +only ONE CHARACTER changed, and that was an article that "possibly" +could have lost the accent mark of the character to make it 100% +identical to the dead sea scroll version! Imagine - 1000 years of +copies and NO CHANGE in the versions! Now the basis to make copies of +the New Testament were as strict. We find many incidences of the same +phenomena of clarity and correctness. Out of all the many thousands of +pieces and text, not ONE DOCTRINE has been added to or changed or +modified in ANY MANNER! + +Computers for Christ - San Jose + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon diff --git a/religious documents/lds-7.txt b/religious documents/lds-7.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9365d30 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-7.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1515 @@ + + WAS JOSEPH SMITH A PROPHET OF GOD? + + If Joseph Smith was a true prophet then everyone should follow +his teachings. If, however, Joseph was a false prophet, then he should +be exposed as such. + + There are at least twenty three references in the Bible +dealing with false prophets. Some of these references are specific +tests to determine if the prophet is a true prophet of God. We will +apply just two of these tests to Joseph Smith. + + Deuteronomy 13:1-5 is the first scripture in the Bible dealing +with false prophets. The issue in these verses is whether the prophet +leads the people after another god. + + What does it mean if Joseph Smith is a false prophet? What will +happen to the people who follow a false prophet's teachings? Isaiah +9:16 says the following: "For the leaders of this people cause them to +err; and they that are led of them are destroyed." Matthew 7:15-20 +says to beware of false prophets. It goes on to say that the fate of a +false prophet is that he will be "...hewn down, and cast into the +fire." The Holy Bible declares that the fate of those who follow a +false prophet is that they will go right into the Lake of Fire with +the false prophet. Please check it out for yourself. + + The god of Mormonism was born as a baby on another world. He grew +up, got baptized by one holding the proper authority, got married in +the temple for time and all eternity (probably to more than one wife), +had many children, was obedient to all of the laws and ordinances of +the gospel and eventually died. Because of his obedience and +faithfulness and by the Law of Eternal Progression he was Exalted and +became god. + + If you know anything about Mormon doctrine you know that this is +the god of Mormonism. His name is Eloheim (or Ahman) and he lives on a +planet (or star) nearest the planet Kolob. He is a glorified, +resurrected, exalted man having a tangible body of flesh and bones. +(see Mormon Doctrine by Bruce R.McConkie, page 250) + + Certain basic questions should be asked about each prophecy or +revelation. First, it must be determined that the prophetic utterance +really came from Joseph Smith. Secondly it must be determined that the +prophecy purportedly came from God. Third, you have to determine if +the prophecy came to pass exactly as outlined. Lastly, you have to +determine if the prophecy can yet come to pass. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 1 ... September 21, 1823. PEARL OF GREAT PRICE. +Joseph Smith 2:40-47. + + Joseph Smith claimed that the angel Moroni told him that the +prophecies in Isaiah, chapter 11 were about to be fulfilled and that +the prophecies in Joel, Chapter 2:28-32 were soon to be fulfilled. + + 164 years have now gone by since this was received and the +prophecies that Joseph Smith referred to have not been fulfilled. We +know that these prophecies will be fulfilled in the future, but not in +Joseph Smith's (or Moroni's) timing. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 2 ... July 1828. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, Section +3, verse 3. + + "Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is +frustrated, but the work of men;" + + This particular verse is going to come back time after time and +haunt Joseph Smith. This verse is accepted as scripture by Mormons +thus all we have to show is that if whatever is promised or prophesied +by Joseph Smith is frustrated, then it is the work of men. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 3 ... Winter 1829-1830. An ADDRESS TO ALL +BELIEVERS IN CHRIST, David Whitmer, pages 30-31. + + Joseph Smith sent Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery to Toronto, +Canada to sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon in response to a +revelation that he claimed to have received from God. + + The mission and the revelation was a total failure as recorded by +David Whitmer. When Joseph Smith was asked why the revelation had +failed he answered that he did not know how it was. David Whitmer +records that Joseph Smith "...enquired of the Lord about it, and +behold the following revelation came through the stone: 'Some +revelations are of God: some revelation are of man: and some +revelations are of the devil.' So we see that the revelation to go to +Toronto and sell the copyright was not of God, but was of the devil or +the heart of man." + + Mormon Historian and Apostle B.H. Roberts records the following +regarding this Toronto revelation. "...May this Toronto incident and +the Prophet's explanations be accepted and faith still be maintained +in him as an inspired man, a Prophet of God? I answer unhesitatingly +in the affirmative. The revelation respecting the Toronto journey was +not of God, surely; else it would not have failed; but the Prophet, +overwrought in his deep anxiety for the progress of the work, saw +reflected in the 'Seer Stone' his own thought, or that suggested to +him by his brother Hyrum, rather than the thought of God...in this +instance of the Toronto journey, Joseph was evidently not directed by +the inspiration of the Lord." (A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, +Vol.1,p. 165). + + Remember, Deuteronomy 18:22 records that all you need is one +false prophecy to have a false prophet. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 4 ... September, 1830. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 29:10-11. + + In these two verses Joseph Smith prophesied that the "..hour is +nigh..." for Christ to return. + + 157 years have gone by since Joseph Smith stated that the hour +was nigh. Only by performing mental gymnastics can this prophecy be +accepted as one that can be fulfilled. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 5 ... March, 1831. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 49:9-10. + + (9) "Wherefore, I say unto you that I have sent unto mine +everlasting covenant, even that which was from the beginning. (10) And +that which I have promised I have so fulfilled, and the nations of the +earth shall bow to it; and, if not of themselves, thy shall come down, +for that which is now exalted of itself shall be laid low of power." + + Mormon Apostle Bruce. McConkie on pages 529 and 530 of his book +MORMON DOCTRINE makes it quite clear that the "everlasting covenant" +is the gospel that has been given thru the Mormon Church. The gospel +according to Mormonism is composed of all of the laws and ordinances +and commandments that God has given to man. + + According to verse 10 above "....the nations of the earth shall +bow to it" (The Mormon Gospel). 150 years have now gone by since this +revelation was received and no nation has bowed down to the Mormon +gospel, or been laid low of power for not bowing down to it. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 6 ... July, 1831. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 57:1-3. + + Independence, Missouri is named as the center place of Zion. +Independence is appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the +saints. Independence is indicated to be the Land of promise. + + This is a very important revelation because it names the location +of the city of Zion. + + This revelation is false by virtue of the fact that Section 3, +verse 3 has declared that any work that is frustrated is not from God +but from men. There is no question that the gathering of the saints in +Zion (Independence) has been frustrated. They tried to gather in +Independence and were physically driven out. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 7 ... August 13, 1831. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 62:1, 6 & 9. + + Joseph Smith declares in this revelation that God told him that +"..the faithful among you should be preserved and rejoice together in +the land of Missouri, I, the Lord, promise the faithful and cannot +lie..." Verse 9 says "Behold, the kingdom is yours. And behold, and +lo, I am with the faithful always. Even so, Amen." + + The facts are these: + (1) The faithful were not preserved. + (2) The faithful did not rejoice together in the land of Missouri. + (3) The kingdom was not theirs - they were driven out. + + All you have to do is read some of the history regarding the +Mormons between 1831 and 1847 and you will see that this revelation +and prophecy was, and is a total failure. If you can say that the +prophecy was frustrated then you indicate that it was not from God. +(Section 3, verse 3) + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 8 ... September 11, 1831. SCRAP BOOK OF MORMON +LITERATURE, by Rich, Vol. 2, p. 259. + + "For behold, I say unto you that Zion shall flourish, and the +glory of the Lord shall be upon her, and she shall be an ensign unto +the people, and there shall come unto her out of every nation under +heaven." + + The above revelation (or prophecy) is reported by Rich to be a +revelation from God that was given to Joseph Smith. Being as it is +reported by a Mormon (Rich) we can assume that it is an undisputed +statement of Joseph Smith. + + If Zion (Independence, Missouri) has flourished, the glory of the +Lord is upon it, it is an ensign unto the people, and people from +every nation under heaven have come to Independence, it most certainly +is not because of anything that the Mormons have done. As far as +Mormons are concerned Independence has not flourished, the glory of +the Lord Is not upon it, it is not an ensign to the people and people +from every nation have not gone to Independence. The least that can be +said about this revelation (prophecy) is that it has been frustrated, +therefore, it cannot be from God. (Section 3, verse 3) + + Of course the Mormons could say that this prophecy will still +come to pass. Only by performing mental gymnastics can this prophecy +come to pass. Remember, all that has to be shown is that it was +frustrated, and it certainly was frustrated. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 9 ... November 1, 1831. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 1:35 & 37. + + (35) For I am no respecter of persons, and will that all men +shall know that the day speedily cometh; the hour is not yet, but is +nigh at hand, when peace shall be taken from the earth, and the devil +shall have power over his dominion. + + If God is no respecter of persons according to Joseph Smith then +why did he record the following in the PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, Moses +5:20 & 21? (20) And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his +flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and +to his offering; (21) But unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not +respect. Now Satan knew this, and it pleased him. And Cain was very +wroth, and his countenance fell. + + The book of Moses directly contradicts the DOCTRINE AND +COVENANTS. Joseph Smith further contradicted himself when he had +recorded in the DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, Section 124:102 the following: +(102) Behold, I Say unto you, I have a mission in store for my servant +William and my servant Hyrum, and for them alone;... + + Why not Brigham or Parley or Orson? If this is not enough then +let us look at verse 37 in Section 1. (37) Search these commandments, +for they are true and faithful, and the prophecies and promises which +are in them shall all be fulfilled. + + This is stating that all of the prophecies and promises that are +in the DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS are going to be fulfilled. If ever +Joseph Smith uttered a false prophecy this is it. We have already +listed a number of prophecies and promises that have not been +fulfilled. An additional list of considerable number are described +below. It does not take a theologian to see the simple truth that +Joseph Smith has failed the test of a prophet according to Deuteronomy +18:22. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 10 ... November 3, 1831. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 133:17, 26-30. + + (17) For behold, the Lord God hath sent forth the angel crying +through the midst of heaven saying: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, +and make his paths straight, for the hour of his coming is nigh ---- +(26) And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance +before the Lord; and their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall +smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence. (27) +And a highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep. (28) +Their enemies shall become a prey unto them. (29) And in the barren +deserts there shall come forth pools of living water; and the parched +ground shall no longer be a thirsty land. (30) And they shall bring +forth their rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim, my servants. + + 156 years have gone by and Christ has not returned. Another +prophecy that has been frustrated. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 11 ... December 1, 1831. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 71:6-10. + + (6) For unto him that receiveth it shall be given more +abundantly, even power. (7) Wherefore confound your enemies; call upon +them to meet you both in public and in private and inasmuch as ye are +faithful their shame shall be more manifest. (8) Wherefore let them +bring forth their strong reasons against the Lord. (9) Verily, thus +saith the Lord unto you--there is no weapon that is formed against you +shall prosper; (10) And if any man lift his voice against you he shall +be confounded in mine own due time. + + To begin with, the Mormons are disobeying the commandment given +in verse 7. We do not know of any person that is involved in the +ministry to the Mormons that has been put to shame by any Mormon. + + All you have to do is read a little church history (Mormon) to +see that the weapons used against the Mormons did prosper. They were +driven from one city to the next and finally to Salt Lake City. +Certainly the guns that were used to murder Joseph Smith prospered. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 12 ... September 22 and 23, 1982. DOCTRINE AND +COVENANTS, Section 84:2-5, 31, 114-115. + + (2) Yea, the work of the Lord concerning his church, established +in the last days for the restoration of his people, as he has spoken +by the mouth of his prophets, and for the gathering of his saints to +stand upon Mount Zion, which shall be the city of New Jerusalem. (3) +Which city shall be built, beginning at the the temple lot, which is +appointed by the finger of the Lord, in the western boundaries of the +State of Missouri, and dedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith, Jr., and +others with whom the Lord was well pleased. (4) Verily this is the +word of the Lord, that the city New Jerusalem shall be built by the +gathering of the saints, beginning at this place, even the place of +the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation. (5) For +verily this generation shall not all pass away until an house shall be +built unto the Lord, and a cloud shall rest upon it, which cloud shall +be even the glory of the Lord, which shall fill the house. (31) +Therefore, as I said concerning the sons of Moses --- for the sons of +Moses and also the sons of Aaron shall offer an acceptable offering +and sacrifice in the house of the Lord which house shall be built unto +the Lord in this generation, upon the consecrated spot as I have +appointed --. (114) Never-the-less, let the bishops go unto the city +of New York, also to the city of Albany, and also to the city of +Boston, and warn the people of those cities with the sound of the +gospel, with a loud voice, of the desolation and utter abolishment +which await them if they do reject these things. (115) For if they do +reject these things the hour of their judgement is nigh, and their +house shall be left unto them desolate. + + History records that Independence was built, but not by the +Mormons. History also records that Joseph Smith dedicated the temple +lot, however, it is interesting to note that the dedication ceremony +was held on August 3, 1831 more that one year previous to receiving +this revelation. + + Verse 4 has some real problems in it, it states that the city New +Jerusalem shall be built by the gathering of the saints. Whatever was +built by the Mormons was built prior to the winter of 1831-1832 +because the Mormons were driven out of Independence at that time. The +last few words of verse 4 present the greatest problem. It states that +the temple would be reared (built) in the generation then living. +Verse 5 expands on this by stating that "...this generation shall not +all pass away until a house shall be built unto the Lord..." And +finally verse 31 repeats the fact that the temple would be built in +the generation then living. + + Since this was 155 years ago this revelation fails. Joseph +Fielding Smith (who became the 10th president of the Mormon church) +answered the generation question by stating that "it is reasonable to +believe that no soul living in 1832, is still living in mortality on +the earth." (ANSWERS TO GOSPEL QUESTIONS, vol.4,p.112) + + A further problem remains regarding the building of the temple. +The lot is no longer owned by the Mormons. It is now owned by the +church of Jesus Christ, Temple Lot, and they plan on building their +own temple. Another point of failure. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 13 ... December 25, 1832. DOCTRINE AND +COVENANTS, Section 87:1-8. + + (1) Verily, thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will +shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, +which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls; +(2) And the time will come that war will be poured out upon all +nations, beginning at this place. (3) For behold, the Southern States +shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States +will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is +called, and they shall also call on other nations, in order to defend +themselves against other nations; and then war shall be poured out +upon all nations. (4) And it shall come to pass after many days, +slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshalled +and disciplined for war. (5) And it shall come to pass also that the +remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves, and shall +become exceedingly angry and shall vex the gentiles with a sore +vexation. (6) And thus, with the sword and by bloodshed the +inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and +earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid +lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the +wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God until +the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations. (7) That +the cry of the saints, and of the blood of the saints, shall cease to +come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the earth to be +avenged of their enemies. (8) Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and +be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold it cometh +quickly, saith the Lord. Amen. + + Joseph Smith received the above revelation on Christmas day, +1832. History records that the State of South Carolina was already in +a state of rebellion at that time. It's not much to prophesy about +something that is already happening. + + Mormons usually refer to the "Civil War" as one of the prophecies +that has been fulfilled, however, upon close examination it becomes +very clear that it is a failure. There are 20 different elements of +this prophecy. All 20 elements would have to come to pass in order for +this prophecy to be fulfilled. If all 20 elements of the prophecy were +to come to pass it would truly be remarkable. The probability of this +happening would be 1 in 1,048,576, which means ONLY a prophet BACKED +by GOD could accomplish it! The statistics prove that the calling of +PROPHET was NOT given to Joseph Smith. + + History records that the Civil War did not start until April 12, +1861, when Southern artillery shelled Fort Sumter in the harbor of +Charleston, South Carolina. It ended four years later on April 9, +1865. The Civil War did not result in war being poured out upon all +nations (verse 3). It also did not bring about "...a full end of all +nations." + + It is also interesting to note that the Civil War prophecy was +not published during Joseph Smith's lifetime. It was not printed until +1851 (19 years after Joseph Smith received it). + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 14 ... December 27, 1832. DOCTRINE AND +COVENANTS, Section 88:87. + + (87) For not many days hence and the earth then shall tremble and +reel to and fro as a drunken man; and the sun shall hide his face and +shall refuse o give light; and the moon shall be bathed in blood; and +the stars shall become exeedingly angry, and shall cast themselves +down as a fig that falleth from off a fig-tree. + + As of March 1, 1987 more than 56,300 days have come and gone and +the moon has not been bathed in blood, the sun has not refused to give +light and the stars have not become exceedingly angry and cast +themselves down. We believe that there is not any way that this +prophecy can be made to come true in Joseph Smith's timing. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 15 ... January 4, 1833. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, +vol. 1, p. 315-316. + + "And now I am prepared to say by the authority of Jesus Christ +that not many years shall pass away before the United States shall +present such a scene of bloodshed as has not a parallel in the history +of our nation; pestilence, hail, famine, and earthquake will sweep the +wicked of this generation from off the face of the land to open and +prepare the way for the return of the lost tribes of Israel from the +north country. The people of the Lord. Those who have complied with +the requirements of the new covenant, have already commenced gathering +together in Zion which is in the state of Missouri; therefore I +declare unto you the warning which the Lord has commanded to declare +unto this generation, remembering that the eyes of My Maker are upon +me, and that to him I am accountable for every word I say, wishing +nothing worse to my fellowman than their eternal salvation; therefore, +'Fear God, and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgement is +come.' Repent ye, repent ye, and embrace the everlasting covenant and +flee to Zion, before the overflowing scourge overtake you, for there +are those now living upon the earth whose eyes shall not be closed in +death until they see all these things which I have spoken, fulfilled." + + Almost 155 years have gone by and the wicked are still on the +earth. The lost tribes have not returned. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 16 ... February 27, 1833. DOCTRINE AND +COVENANTS, Section 89:18-21. + + (18) And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, +walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in +their navel and marrow to their bones; (19) And shall find wisdom and +great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; (20) And shall +run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint. (21) And I, the +Lord give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by +them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen. + + The above prophecy was part of the revelation on The Word of +Wisdom. The promise is given that if the Mormons will obey the Word of +Wisdom (no coffee tea, tobacco etc.) that they would obtain all of the +promises in verses 18 - 21. The facts are that there are many Mormons +that obey the Word of Wisdom to the letter and they have not found +great treasures of knowledge or hidden treasures. They run and get +weary. They walk and sometimes faint. And most certainly the +destroying angel does not pass them by. Mormons die just like any +other group of people. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 17 ... August 2, l833. Parley P. Pratt +Biography, p. 100. Also D & C 97:19. + + "Surely Zion is the City of our God, and surely Zion cannot fail, +neither be moved out of her place; for God is there and He has sworn +by the power of His might to be her. + + Zion did fail and Zion was moved out of her place. Zion is +independence, Missouri. (see #5 above) The Mormons were driven out of +Independence in the winter of 1838-1839. Another false prophecy. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 18 ... October 12, 1833. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 100:13 & 15. + + (13) And now I give unto you a word concerning Zion. Zion shall +be redeemed although she is chastened for a little season. (15) +Therefore, let your hearts be comforted; for all things shall work +together for good to them that walk uprightly, and to the +sanctification of the church. + + 154 years have gone by since this revelation was received. Can +this be considered "a little season"? + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 19 ... December 10, 1833. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, +Vol. 1, p. 455. + + "Therefore this not my counsel, that you retain your lands, even +unto the utmost, and employ every lawful means to seek redress of your +enemies; and pray to God day and night to return you in peace and +safety to the lands of your inheritance; and when the judge fail you, +appeal to the executive; and when the executive fail you; appeal to +the president; and when the president fail you, and all things also +fail you but God alone, and you continue to weary Him with your +importunings as the poor woman did the unjust judge. He will not fail +you to execute judgment upon your enemies, and to avenge His own elect +that cry unto Him day and night. Behold, He will not fail you. He will +come with ten thousand of His Saints, and all His adversaries shall be +destroyed with the breath of His lips." + + The facts are these: + (1) The Mormons did not retain their lands. (in Missouri) + (2) They did seek redress from their enemies and were turned down by + + everyone. + (3) The Mormon god apparently did fail them because their enemies + + were not destroyed. + (4) The enemies of the Mormon church drove them out of Missouri. + (5) The above is a false prophecy. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 20 ... December 16, 1833. DOCTRINE AND +COVENANTS. Section 1, 101:17-20. + + (17) Zion shall not be moved out of her place, not-with-standing +her children are scattered. (18) They that remain, and are pure in +heart, shall return, and come to their inheritances, they and their +children, with songs of everlasting joy, to build up the waste place +of Zion -- (19) And all these things that the prophets might be +fulfilled. (20) And, behold, there is none other place appointed than +that which I have appointed; neither shall there be any other places +appointed than that which I have appointed, for the work of the +gathering of my saints-- + + This is almost exactly like number 16 above. The facts are that +the Mormons were driven out of Zion. They were moved out of her place. +This is sufficient in God's way to prove this is a false prophecy. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 21 ... February 24, 1834. DOCTRINE AND +COVENANTS, Section 103:5-7. + + (5) But verily I say unto you, that I have decreed a decree which +my people shall realize, inasmuch as they harken from this very hour +unto the counsel which I, the Lord their God, shall give unto them. +(6) Behold they shall, for I decreed it, begin to prevail against mine +enemies from this very hour. (7) And by harkening to observe all the +words which I, the Lord their God, shall speak unto them, they shall +never cease to prevail until the kingdoms of the world are subdued +under my feet, and the earth is given to the saints, to possess it +forever and ever. + + Mormons will say that this prophecy is a conditional prophecy. +That the people were to harken unto the counsel of God and observe all +the words that God shall speak to them. With that condition in mind, +the Mormons will never prevail, or prove superior in strength, power, +or influence. + + Mormons will never achieve anything until they are righteous and +that will NEVER happen. Isaiah made it very clear why Mormons will +never obtain the blessings that Joseph Smith promised them when he +presented one of God's eternal truth as it relates to man. "But we are +all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; +and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have +taken us away." (ISAIAH 64:6). + + This prophecy can never be fulfilled because the Mormons will +never become righteous. The only way that anyone can become righteous +is to receive the real Jesus Christ into his/her heart and repent of +the abominations of following a false god and a false christ. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 22 ... April 23, 1834. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 104:1. + + (1) Verily I say unto you, my friends, I give unto you counsel, +and a commandment, concerning all the properties which belong to the +order which I commanded to be organized and established, to be a +united order, and an everlasting order for the benefit of my church, +and for the salvation of men until I come-- + + History records that the United Order failed. (The United Order +was a communal type of order where everyone worked according to his +ability, gave everything that he produced or earned to the Bishop's +Storehouse and received from the Bishop's Storehouse according to his +needs.) + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 23 ... June 22, 1834. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 105:13-15. + + (13) Therefore it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait +for a little season, for the redemption of Zion. (14) For behold, I do +not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion; for, as I +said in a former commandment, even so will I fulfill--I will fight +your battles. (15) Behold, the destroyer I have sent forth to destroy +and lay waste mine enemies; and not many years hence they shall not be +left to pollute mine heritage, and to blaspheme my name upon the lands +which I have consecrated for the gathering together of my saints. + + History records that the enemies of the Mormons were not laid +waste in spite of the fact that the destroyer had been sent forth. +There is ample evidence to suggest that the destroyer was in fact a +man named Porter Rockwell. He was not out to destroy those who were +frustrating the Mormons. This is another prophecy that was frustrated +because the Mormons continued to be persecuted. In fact it was just +4-1/2 years later that the Mormons were driven out of Zion. +(Independence, Missouri) + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 24 ... August 16, l834, History of the Church, +vol. 2, page 145. + + "DEAR BRETHREN ... I shall now proceed to give you such counsel +as the Spirit of the Lord may dictate .... use every effort to gather +to those regions and locate themselves, to be in readiness to move +into Jackson country in two years from the eleventh of September next, +which is the appointed time for the redemption of Zion....." + + By September 11, l836 the Mormons should have all been gathered +in Independence, Missouri. (Zion) If all of the other prophecies +regarding Zion were to come true (which they didn't), lived the United +Order (which failed), built the temple (which was never built), etc. +etc. etc. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 25 ... November 25, 1834. DOCTRINE AND +COVENANTS, Section 106:4. + + (4) And again, verily I say unto you, the coming of the Lord +draweth nigh, and it overtaketh the world as a thief in the night --- + + 153 years have gone by since this prophecy was given and the Lord +has not returned. Does nigh really mean more than 147 years? + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 26 ... February 14, 1835. History of the Church, +vol. 2, page 182. + + "President Smith then stated that the meeting had been called, +because God had commanded it; and it was made known to him by vision* +and by the Holy Spirit. He then gave a revelation of some of the +circumstances attending us while journeying to Zion -- our trials, +sufferings: and said God had not designed all this for nothing, but He +had it in remembrance yet; and it was the will of God that those who +went to Zion, with a determination to lay down their lives, if +necessary, should be ordained to the ministry, and go forth to prune +the vineyard for the last time, or the coming of the Lord, which was +nigh -- even thirty-six years should wind up the scene." + + Jesus Christ should have returned by February 14, 1891. He +didn't. Another false prophecy. + + It is interesting to note that Matthew 24:36 says that the exact +date of Christ's coming is unknown. "But of that day and hour knoweth +no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." See also +Mark 13:34 and Acts1:7. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 27 ... February 14, 1835. As reported in +PROPHECIES OF JOSEPH SMITH AND THEIR FULFILLMENT, Nephi Morris, +Deseret Book Co., 1926, page 261. + + "In due time thou shalt go to Jerusalem, the land of thy father, +and be a watchmen unto the house of Israel; and by the hands shall the +Most High do a great work, which shall prepare the way and greatly +facilitate the gathering of that people." + + This was a prophecy given to Orson Hyde, one of the twelve +apostles that Joseph Smith had chosen. + + History records that Orson Hyde did go to Jerusalem. However, +for those Mormons that feel that he did a great work and greatly +facilitated the gathering of the Jews they are sadly mistaken. Orson +Hyde dedicated Jerusalem on October 24, 1841. It took 107 years for +the Jews to return. We are convinced and are safe to state that when +the Jews returned in 1948 there was not one single Jew who had ever +heard of Orson Hyde. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 28 ... January 21, 1836. CHURCH HISTORY, +vol.2, pages 380,381. + + "The heavens were opened upon us, and I beheld the celestial +kingdom of God, and the glory thereof, whether in the body or out I +cannot tell ..... I saw the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb, who are now +upon the earth, who hold the keys of the last ministry, in foreign +lands, standing together in a circle, much fatigued, with their +clothes tattered and feet swollen, with their eyes cast downward, and +Jesus standing in their midst, and they did not behold Him. The +Saviour looked upon them and wept. + + I also beheld Elder M'Lellin in the south, standing upon a hill, +surrounded by a vast multitude, preaching to them, and a lame man +standing before him supported by his crutches; he threw them down at +his word and leaped as a hart, by the mighty power of God. Also, I saw +Elder Brigham Young standing in a strange land, in the far south and +west, in a desert place, upon a rock in the midst of about a dozen men +of color, who appeared hostile. He was preaching to them in their own +tongue, and the angel of God standing above his head, with a drawn +sword in his hand, protecting him. But he did not see it. And I +finally saw the Twelve in the celestial kingdom of God. I also beheld +the redemption of Zion, and many things which the tongue of man +cannot describe in full." + + History does not record any of the above things ever happening. +The part regarding Elder M'Lellin is suspect because he was +excommunicated on May 11, 1838. He became one of the bitterest enemies +the Mormon church ever had, why wasn't he destroyed as promised by the +god of Mormonism? + + Joseph Smith recorded that he saw the Twelve in the celestial +kingdom of God. How is that possible when 5 of the apostles were +either excommunicated or apostatized, never to return to the church? +According to Mormon doctrine this would not be possible (for apostates +and excommunicated individuals to reach the celestial kingdom). + +1. Lyman Johnson ... Excommunicated April 13, 1838, Church History, +vol...3:20. + +2. Brigham Young ... O.K. + +3. Heber C. Kimball ... O.K. + +4. Orson Hyde ... Disfellowshipped August 4, 1835 Priesthood restored +June 27,1839. Restored as apostle at conference of October 6,7 & 8, +1839. + +5. David W. Patten ... O.K. + +6. Luke S. Johnson ... Apostatized December 1837, Church History, +vol. 3:31 + +7. William E. M'lellin ... Excommunicated May 11, 1838, Church +History, vol. 3:31 + +8. John F. Boynton ... Apostatized December, 1837, Church History, +vol. 2:528. + +9. Orson Pratt ... Rebaptized & Ordained January 20, 1843. Restored +As apostle, Church History, vol. 5:255. (What happened to him?) + +10. William Smith ... Excommunicated October 19, 1845, Church History, +vol. 7:483. + +11. Thomas B. Marsh ... Excommunicated March 17, 1839, Church History, +vol. 3:284. + +12. Parley P. Pratt ... O.K. + + It should be noted that Thomas B. Marsh was rebaptized in 1857 +and died in Utah a member of the Church, though never again a member +of the Twelve. + + It is interesting to note that the first part of the above vision +was accepted as scripture on April 3, 1976. The last part of the +vision (listed above) was not accepted as scripture. Is it possible +that the reason that the Mormon leaders did not present the entire +vision to be accepted as scripture is that it was clear that the last +part could not happen? If this is so then it would make the Mormon +leaders wilful deceivers. + + It is also interesting to note that the vision has been altered +by Mormon leaders. The vision was recorded in Joseph Smith's diary +under the date of January 21, 1836. In Joseph Smith's diary the +beginning of the revelation read as follows; +"The heavens were opened upon us and I beheld the celestial Kingdom of +God, I saw father Adam, and Abraham and Michael and my father and +mother, my brother Alvin..." (Joseph Smith's Diary, January 21, 1836; +original in LDS historical department). + + Now, what is wrong with the above part? The problem is that in +Mormon theology Adam is Michael. Thus if Adam is Michael then Joseph +Smith could not have seen "both" of them in the celestial kingdom. +Because of this problem the Mormon leaders deleted the words "and +Michael" from the revelation. + + We pray that each of you take the time to check into the +thousands and thousands of changes that have been made in Mormon +scriptures including the most recent one regarding the Indians (number +2 above). + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 29 ... April 3, 1836. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 110:16. + + (16) Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into +your hands; and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of +the Lord is near, even at the door. + + 145 years have gone by and Jesus has not returned. There was a +dreadful day about 2-1/2 years later when the Mormons were driven not +of Zion (Independence). + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 30 ... August 6, 1836. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 111: 1-11. + + This was a revelation given through Joseph Smith at Salem, +Massachusetts. + + (1) I, the Lord your God, am not displeased with your coming this +journey, notwithstanding your follies. (2) I have much treasure in +this city, for you, for the benefit of Zion, and many people in this +city, whom I will gather out in due time for the benefit of Zion, +through your instrumentality. (3) Therefore, it is expedient that you +should form acquaintance with men in this city, as you shall be led, +and as it shall be given you. (4) And it shall come to pass in due +time that I will give this city into your hands, that you shall have +power over it, in so-much that they shall not discover your secret +parts; and its wealth pertaining to gold and silver shall be yours. +(5) Concern not yourselves about your debts, for I will give you power +to pay them. (6) Concern not yourselves about Zion, for I will deal +mercifully with her. (7) Tarry in this place, and in the regions round +about. (8) And the place where it is my will that you would tarry, for +the main, shall be signalized unto you by the peace and power of my +Spirit, that shall flow unto you. (9) This place you may obtain by +hire. And inquire diligently concerning the more ancient inhabitants +and founders of this city. (10) For there are more treasures than one +for you in this city. (11) Therefore, be ye as wise as serpents and +yet without sin; and I will order all things for your good, as fast as +ye are able to receive them. Amen. + + History records that Joseph Smith and other leaders of the Mormon +church found no treasures in Salem, Massachusetts. The Mormons have +never taken power over Salem. The silver and gold were not given to +them by their god. If ever there was a prophecy that did not come to +pass this is it. Time has run out on Joseph again. Actually the time +ran out some time in September, 1836 when Joseph Smith returned to +Kirtland, Ohio. He returned with no treasure. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 31 ... April, 1837. LATTER-DAY SAINT MESSENGER +AND ADVOCATE, page 488. + + "This place (Kirtland, Ohio) must be built up, and will be built +up, and every brother that will take hold and help secure these +contracts (for land) shall be rich." + + The Mormons were driven out of Kirtland, Ohio. Nobody became rich +by helping to secure the contracts for land. In fact, most of the men +that helped Joseph Smith in Kirtland lost most of their money in the +Kirtland anti-Banking Society. Joseph Smith himself went bankrupt. +Every thing about this prophetic utterance failed. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 32 ... July 23, 1837. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 112: 3-12. + + (This is a prophecy about Thomas B. Marsh, one of the original +twelve apostles. In fact he was the president of the twelve apostles +when this prophecy was given about him.) + + (3) Nevertheless, inasmuch as thou hast abased thyself thou shalt +be exalted; therefore, all thy sins are forgiven thee. (4) Let thy +heart be of good cheer before my face; and thou shalt bear record of +my name, not only unto the Gentiles, but also unto the Jew; and thou +shalt send forth my word unto the ends of the earth. (5) Contend thou, +therefore, morning by morning; and day after day let thy warning voice +go forth; and when the night cometh let not the inhabitants of the +earth slumber, because of they speech. (6) Let thy habitation be known +in Zion, and remove not thy house; for I, the Lord, have a great work +for thee to do, in publishing my name among the children of men. (7) +Therefore, gird up thy loins for the work, let thy feet be shod also, +for thou art chosen, and thy path lieth among the mountains, and among +many nations. (8) And by thy word many high ones shall be brought low, +and by thy word many low ones shall be exalted. (9) Thy voice shall be +a rebuke unto the transgressor; and at thy rebuke let the tongue of +the slanderer cease its perverseness. (10) Be thou humble; and the +Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy +prayers. (11) I know thy heart, and have heard thy prayers concerning +thy brethren. Be not partial towards them in love above many others, +but let thy love be for them as for thyself; and let thy love abound +unto all men, and unto all who love my name. (12) And pray for thy +brethren of the Twelve. Admonish them sharply for my name's sake, and +let them be admonished for all their sins, and be ye faithful before +me unto my name .... + + History records that Thomas B. Marsh was excommunicated on March +17, 1839 (CHURCH HISTORY, vol. 3:284). Even though he was re-baptized +in 1857 and died a member of the church in Utah he never did any of +the things outlined in the above revelation (prophecy). He never did a +great work in the church. In fact he became for many years a bitter +enemy of the church. The facts are that the Mormon god did not know +his heart (verse 11), otherwise he would have known that he was going +to be excommunicated and fight against the church. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 33 ... 1837. Oliver B. Huntington Journal, +Book 14, Original at Huntington Library, San Marino, California. +Also found in the Young Woman's Journal, published by the Young +Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations of Zion, 1892, vol. 3, +pp. 263, 264. + + "Inhabitants of the Moon are more of a uniform size than the +inhabitants of the Earth, being about 6 feet in height. They dress +very much like the Quaker Style, and are quite general in Style, or +the one fashion of dress. They live to be very old; coming (sic) +generally, near a thousand years. This is the description of them as +given by Joseph the Seer, and he could "see" whatever he asked the +Father in the name of Jesus to see." + + "As far back as 1837. I know that he said the moon was inhabited +by men and women the same as this earth, and that they lived to a +greater age than we do, that they live generally to near the age of +1000 years. He described the men as average near six feet in height, +and dressing quite uniformly in something near the Quaker style..." + + No comment is necessary on the above "revelation". + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 34 ... April 17, 1838. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 114:1. + + (1) Verily thus saith the Lord: It is wisdom in my servant David +W. Patten, that he settle up all his business as soon as he possibly +can, and make a disposition of his merchandise, that he may perform a +mission unto me next spring, in company with others, even twelve +including himself, to testify of my name and bear glad tidings unto +all the world. + + History records that on October 27, 1838, Apostle David W. Patten +was buried at Far West, Missouri (CHURCH CHRONOLOGY, page 15). If you +are going to say that he was not worthy then let me tell you what +Joseph Smith said about him. "Brother David Patten was a very worthy +man, beloved by all good men who knew him. He was one of the Twelve +Apostles, and died as he had lived, a man of God, and strong in the +faith of a glorious resurrection, in a world where mobs will hue no +power or place. One of his last expressions to his wife was -- +'Whatever you do else, O! do not deny the faith'" (HISTORY OF THE +CHURCH, vol. 3, p.171). + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 35 ... April 26, 1838. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 115:1, 7-9, 12. + + (1) Verily thus saith the Lord... (7) Let the city, Far West, be +a holy and consecrated Land unto me; and it shall be called most holy, +for the ground upon which thou standest is holy. (8) Therefore, I +command you to build a house unto me, for the gathering together of my +saints, that they may worship me. (9) And let there be a beginning of +this work, and a foundation, and a preparatory work, this following +summer; is holy. (12) Thus let them from that time forth labor +diligently until it shall be finished, from the corner stone thereof +unto the top thereof, until there shall not anything remain that is +not finished. + + 149 years have gone by and the temple is still not built. The +cornerstone of the temple was laid on July 4, 1838 amid elaborate +ceremonies (A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF +LATTER-DAY SAINTS, B. H. Roberts, page 440) + + For 149 years the building of this temple has been frustrated, +therefore it cannot be from God but from the mind of man. (Section +3:3) + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 36 ... July 8, 1838. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 117:12-15. + + (12) And again, I say unto you, I remember my servant Oliver +Granger; behold, verily I say unto him that his name shall be held in +sacred remembrance from generation to generation, forever and ever, +saith the Lord. (13) Therefore, let him contend earnestly for the +redemption of the First Presidency of my Church, saith the Lord; and +when he falls he shall rise again, for his sacrifice shall be more +sacred unto me than his increase, saith the Lord. (14) Therefore, let +him come up hither speedily, unto the land Zion; and in the due time +he shall be made a merchant unto my name, saith the Lord, for the +benefit of my people. (15) Therefore let no man despise my servant +Oliver Granger, but let the blessings of my people be on him forever +and ever... + + The facts are that it is very rare that you can find anyone in +the Mormon church who has ever heard of Oliver Granger. His name is +supposed to be held in sacred remembrance from generation to +generation, forever and ever. What happened? + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 37 ... March 20, 1839. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 121:5-15,33. + + (5) Let thine anger be kindled against our enemies; and, in the +fury of thine heart, with thy sword avenge us of our wrongs. (6) +Remember thy suffering saints, O our God; and thy servants will +rejoice in thy name forever. (7) My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine +adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; (8) And +then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt +triumph over all thy foes. (9) Thy friends do stand by thee, and they +shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands. (10) Thou +art not yet as Job; thy friends do not contend against thee, neither +charge thee with transgression, as they did Job. (11) And they who do +charge thee with transgression, their hope shall be blasted, and their +prospects shall melt away as the hoar frost melteth before the burning +rays of the rising sun; (12) And also that God hath set his hand and +seal to change the times and seasons, and to blind their minds, that +they may not understand his marvelous workings; and take them in their +own craftiness; (13) Also because their hearts are corrupted, and the +things which they are willing to bring upon others, and love to have +others suffer, may come upon themselves to the very uttermost; (14) +That they may be disappointed also, and their hopes may be cut off; +(15) And not many years hence, that they and their posterity shall be +swept from under heaven, saith God, that not one of them is left to +stand by the wall. (33) How long can rolling waters remain impure? +What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his +puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn +it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge +from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints. + + The preface to Section 121 in the 1981 edition of the DOCTRINE +AND COVENANTS indicates that the above remarks are "Prayer and +prophecies written by Joseph Smith the Prophet, while he was a +prisoner in the jail at Liberty, Missouri, dated March 20, 1839." + + Joseph Smith's god promised that he (and the Mormons) would +triumph over all their foes. They didn't and he didn't. They had just +been driven out of Zion (Independence) by their enemies. Joseph Smith +was to die by the hands of his enemies in a little over 5 years. The +Mormons were to be driven all the way to Utah in just 8 years. + + When were the times and seasons changed? (verse 12) When were the +minds of their enemies blinded (verse 12)? When were the enemies of +the Mormons swept from under heaven? (verse 15) They, and their +posterity? Not one of them left to stand against the wall? We can't +find any evidence of anything happening except the enemies of the +Mormons overcoming them and driving them out. In spite of the fact +that the Mormon god kept promising them that they would conquer their +enemies. + + Where is all of the knowledge that has been poured down on the +heads of the Latter-day Saints? Not the knowledge of man. The +knowledge from heaven. Where are the Bible scholars? Where are the +scholars in Hebrew and Greek? The Mormons as a whole are abysmally +lacking in knowledge from heaven. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 38 ... September 18, 1839. Reed Peck's +Manuscript. + + "Within three years they should march to Jackson County and there +should not be a dog to open his mouth against them." + + 148 years have gone by and the Mormons have not marched to +Jackson County yet. They should have had their marching orders prior +to 1843. They had already tried to march to Zion (Independence, +Jackson County, Missouri) in 1834 and the march failed (see number 20 +above). They were to move into Zion (Independence) no later than +September 11, 1836 (see number 23 above). The facts are that they were +driven out of Zion and have never returned. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 39 ... January 19, 1841. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 124:20-21. + + (20) And again, verily I say unto you, my servant George Miller +is without guile; he may be trusted because of the integrity which he +has to my testimony I, the Lord, love him. (21) I therefore say unto +you I seal upon his head the office of a bishopric, like unto my +servant Edward Partridge, that he may receive the consecrations of +mine house, that he may administer blessings upon the heads of the +poor of my people, saith the Lord. Let no man despise my servant +George, for he shall honor me. + + The following can be found in the CHURCH CHRONOLOGY (page 36) +under the date of Sunday, December 3, 1848. + + "At a meeting held in the Great Salt Lake City Fort, fellowship +was withdrawn from Apostle Lyman Wight and Bishop George Miller." + + Another promise frustrated (Section 3, verse 3). Of course the +Mormon would say that all blessings are predicated on the +righteousness of the people. Let's see what the Bible says about the +righteous. + + "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: "(Romans +3:10). "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" +(Romans 3:23). + + What does none righteous mean to you? What does all have sinned +mean to you? To me it means everyone who has ever lived and will ever +live. THAT'S WHY WE NEED JESUS CHRIST. Without Him we would all be +lost. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 40 ... March, 1841. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 125:1-4. + + (1) What is the will of the Lord concerning the saints in the +Territory of Iowa? (2) Verily, thus saith the Lord, I say unto you, if +those who call themselves by my name and are saying to be my saints, +if they will do my will and keep my commandments concerning them, let +them gather themselves together unto the places which I shall appoint +unto them by my servant Joseph, and build up cities unto my name, that +they may be prepared for that which is in store for a time to come. +(3) Let them build up a city unto my name upon the land opposite the +city of Nauvoo, and let the name of Zarahemia be named upon it. (4) +And let all those who come from the east, and the west, and the north, +and the south, that have desires to dwell therein, take up their +inheritance in the same, as well as in the city of Nashville, or the +city of Nauvoo and in all the stakes which I have appointed, saith the +Lord. + + What happened to Zion? It was supposed to flourish. It was not to +be moved out of her place (see number 16 above). History records that +Zarahemia failed, along with Nauvoo, Kirtland, Independence and every +other attempt to settle until they finally arrived in Salt Lake where +there was nobody to contend with for the land. + + Since the promises of the Mormon god have not been kept so many +times in the past, we see no reason to believe that he will produce on +the promise of Eternal Life. It is an empty promise coming from this +"proven" FALSE GOD. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 41 ... August 6, 1842. George Q. Cannon Diary. + + "At Montrose, Iowa, August 6, 1842, he (Joseph Smith) uttered a +remarkable prophecy, which like every other prediction from his lips +has been literally fulfilled. He declared the Saints would continue to +suffer much affliction and would finally be driven to the Rocky +Mountains. Many would apostatize, others would be put to death by +their persecutors or lose their lives in consequence of their exile; +and many of those who listened to him would live to assist in building +cities and to see the Saints become a mighty people in the tops of the +Rocky Mountains." (See also CHURCH HISTORY, vol. 5 page 85) + + This is a questionable prophecy of Joseph Smith. If the Mormons +want to accept it (evidence suggests that it is a forgery) they still +have some problems with it. All you have to do is look at some of the +statistics regarding Mormons in the Rocky Mountains to see that they +are not as mighty as the public relations department of the Mormon +church would have the world believe. + +1. Utah has one of the highest divorce rates in the U.S. +2. Utah has a very high number of persons on welfare. (When you + + combine the government and church numbers together it is perhaps + + the highest in the nation on a per capita basis.) +3. Utah has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation. + + (Especially high among teenagers.) +4. Utah has a very high venereal disease rate. +5. Utah has a very high percentage of marriages where the bride is + + pregnant at the time of the marriage. +6. Salt Lake City is known as the "Stock Fraud" capital of the U.S. +7. In spite of being the home of the Mormon church, Utah has a very + + high consumption of alcohol on a per capita basis. There is a very + + high number of women alcoholics in Utah. +8. There is a problem with drugs in Utah that would not be expected in + + the home of the Mormon church. +9. Counterfeiting is a problem in Utah. +10. Homosexuality and lesbianism is a real problem in Utah. (And the + + entire Mormon Church.) +11. Bankruptcy is running at twice the national average in Utah. + + I believe that the facts are that the Mormons are not the mighty +people that the public relations department of the Mormon church would +have you believe. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 42 ... August 6, 1842. Anson Call Diary, as +reported in PROPHECIES OF JOSEPH SMITH, AND THEIR FULFILLMENT, Nephi +Lowell Morris, Deseret Book Company, 1926. + + "After drinking a drought of ice water he (Joseph Smith) said, +Breathren, this water tastes much like the crystal streams that are +running in the Rocky Mountains which some of you will participate of. +There are some of these standing here that will perform a great work +in that land (pointing to Shadrack Roundy and a number of others whom +I have forgotten). There is Anson, he shall go and assist in building +cities from one end of the country to the other and you shall perform +as great a work as has ever been done by man, and the nations of the +earth shall be astonished and many of them will be gathered in that +land and assist in building cities." + + History records that Anson Call assisted in settling Millard +County, Utah, a southern semi-desert region of which Fillmore is the +county seat (Church Chronology, page 44), The other "large" cities in +that district are Delta, Hinckley, Kanosh, Leamington, Oasis and +Abraham. + + Anson Call did not assist in building cities from one end of the +country to the other. He did not perform as great a work as has ever +been done by man. Certainly the nations of the earth are not +astonished at his achievements. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 43 ... September 1, 1842. DOCTRINE AND +COVENANTS, Section 127:2 + + (2) For to this day has the God of my father delivered me out of +them all, and will deliver me from henceforth; for behold, and lo, I +shall triumph over all my enemies, for the Lord God hath spoken it. + + Another promise that Joseph Smith would triumph over his enemies. +It simply did not come to pass. Joseph Smith died at the hands of his +enemies. The Mormons were driven out of every place they tried to +settle. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 44 ... April 5, 1843. History of the Church, +vol. 5, page 336 and Joseph Smith's Diary, March 10, 1843 - July 14, +1843. + + "Were I going to prophesy, I would say the end (of the world) +would not come in 1844, 5 or 6, or in forty years. There are those of +the rising generation who shall not taste death till Christ comes. I +was once praying earnestly upon this subject, and a voice said unto +me. 'My son, if thou livest until thou are eighty-five years of age, +thou shall see the face of the Son of Man.' I was left to draw my own +conclusions concerning this; and I took the liberty to conclude that +if I did live to that time, He would make His appearance. But I do not +say whether He will make His appearance or I shall go where he is. I +prophesy in the name of the Lord God, and let it be written --- the +Son of Man will not come in the clouds of heaven till I am eighty five +years old." + + The preceding account is found in the CHURCH HISTORY. Notice the +changes that have been made from the account in Joseph Smith's Diary. + + "...I prophesy in the name of the Lord God --- and let it be +written: that the Son of Man will not come in the heavens till I am 85 +years old 48 years hence or about 1890..." + + The Mormon historians have deleted "48 years hence or about +1890." With the death, in the 1970's, of the last remaining Mormon +that was alive at the time of the prophesy, We can safely say that the +rising generation came and died and Jesus has not returned. (Remember +Matthew 24:36) He also did not come about 1890. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 45 ... May 18, 1843. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, +vol. 5, page 394. + + President Smith, in concluding his remarks, said that if the +government, which received into its coffers the money of citizens for +its public treasury, cannot protect such citizens in their lives and +property, it is an old granny anyhow; and I prophesy in the name of +the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs +committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the +crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government +will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much a +potsherd left,..." + + History records that Congress did not grant protection to the +Mormons. It also records that Congress did not redress the wrongs +committed against the Saints in the state of Missouri. There was no +punishment of her officers. 144 years have gone by and Congress is +still intact. The government has not been destroyed (overthrown and +wasted). Certainly you can see that this is a false prophecy. +Remember, all you need is one. (Deut. 18:22) + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 46 ... July, 12, 1843. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, +Section 132:6, 8, 52-54, 62 & 66. + + (6) And as pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, +(Plural Marriage) it was instituted for the fullness of my glory; and +he that receiveth a fullness thereof must and shall abide the law, or +he shall be damned, said the Lord God. (8) Behold, mine house is a +house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion. (12) +I am the Lord thy God; and I give unto you this commandment -- that no +man shall come unto the Father but by me or by my word, which is my +law, saith the Lord. (52) And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive +all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are +virtuous and pure before me; and those who are not pure, and have said +they were pure, shall be destroyed, saith the Lord God. (53) For I am +the Lord thy God, and ye shall obey my voice; and I give unto my +servant Joseph that he shall be made ruler over many things; for he +hath been faithful over a few things, and from henceforth I will +strengthen him. (54) And I command mine handmaid, Emma Smith, to abide +and cleave unto my servant Joseph, and to none else. But if she will +not abide this commandment she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord; for +I am the Lord thy God, and will destroy her if she abide not in my +law. (62) And if he gave ten virgins given unto him by this law, he +cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given +unto him; therefore is he justified. (66) And now, as pertaining to +this law, verily, verily, I say unto you, I will reveal more unto you, +hereafter; therefore, let this suffice for the present. Behold, I am +Alpha and Omega. Amen. + + To begin with, Plural Marriage was to be an everlasting covenant. +Where is it now? Everyone who is not living the law of Plural Marriage +today is damned. (verse 6) + + Verse 8 states that God's house is not a house of confusion. +Amen. Mormon doctrine is so full of confusion that it cannot be from +the One True God. Only a false god could create such a mass of +confusion as exists in Mormonism. + + Verse 12 states that no man shall come unto the Father but by me +or by my word, which is my law..." This is in absolute contradiction +to God's word in Galatians 2:16 and 3:10 & 11. + + 2:16 - Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the +law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus +Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by +the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be +justified. + + 3:10 - For as many as are of the works of the law are under the +curse: for it is written, cursed is every one that continueth not in +all things which are written in the the book of the law to do them. + + 3:11 - But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of +God, it is evident for, The just shall live by faith. + + Verse 53 states that Joseph Smith would be strengthened. Less +than one year later he was dead at the hands of his enemies. + + Verse 62 is not only contrary to God's word in the Bible but is +also contrary to Section 101 of the 1835 Doctrine & Covenants where it +said in verse 4, "...we declare that we believe, that one man should +have one wife; and one woman but one husband, except in case of death, +when either is at liberty to marry again..." Here we have another +example of the Mormon god changing his mind. + + Regarding verse 66, where is the additional information on the +law of Plural Marriage that was supposed to be given to Joseph Smith? +Certainly, if there was more to be revealed then it should have been +revealed to one of the Presidents of the Mormon Church before now. + + We believe, based on the "facts" as outlined by the Mormon church +and by historical documentation, that that the "new and everlasting +covenant of Plural Marriage" was and IS from Satan. We note the +existence of a Mormon sect living in Mexico who still practice this +"according to the law of God and His prophet, Joseph Smith, Junior"! + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 47 ... January 17, 1864. Joseph Smith Blessing. + + "A blessing, given to Joseph Smith, 3rd, by his father, Joseph +Smith, Jun., on Jan 17, 1844. Blessed of the Lord is my son Joseph, +who is called the third, for the Lord knows the integrity of his +heart, and loves him, because of his faith, and righteous desires. And +for this cause, has the Lord raised him up; that the promises made to +the fathers might be fulfilled, even that the annointing of the +progenitor shall be upon the head of my son, and his seed after him, +from generation to generation. For he shall be my successor to the +Presidency of the High Priesthood: a Seer, and a Revelator, and a +Prophet, unto the Church; which appointment belongeth to him by +blessing, and also by right. Verily, thus saith the Lord; if he abides +in me, his days shall be lengthened upon the earth, but, if he abides +not in me, I the Lord, will receive him, in an instant, unto myself. +When he is grown, he shall be a strength to his brethren, and a +comfort to his mother. Angels will minister unto him, and he will be +wafted as on eagle's wings, and be as wise as serpents, even a +multiplicity of blessings shall be his. Amen." + + We state that this is the most clear cut false prophecy Joseph +Smith ever gave. The key is in the second paragraph. History records +that Joseph Smith, III lived a long and "full" life into his 80's. He +did not abide in the Mormon church. He abandoned the Utah church and +became the President of the RLDS church on April 6, 1860. + + The fact that he lived to be such an old age and the fact that he +was not taken in an instant because he did not abide with the Utah +church is proof positive that this is a false prophecy. + + There is another aspect of this prophecy that most everyone has +overlooked. This prophecy was only one of eight possible methods for +the succession to the Presidency that Joseph Smith had established. +(see SUNSTONE, vol 6, No 2, pages 2-4) + +1. By a counselor in the First Presidency. +2. By a special appointment. +3. Through the office of Associate President. +4. By the Presiding Patriarch. +5. By the Council of Fifty. +6. By the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. +7. By the three priesthood councils. +8. By a descendant of Joseph Smith, Jr. + + In Section 132, verse 8, the god of Mormonism states, "Behold, +mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of +confusion." We submit that the provision of eight possible ways for +the succession to the Presidency is utter chaos, especially the eight +listed above. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 48 ... June 19, 1844. Mormon Neighbor. + + "I therefore warn the lawless not to be precipitate in any +interference in our affairs, for as sure as there is a God in Israel, +we shall ride triumphant over oppression." + + On June 27, 1844 Joseph Smith was dead at the hand of his enemies. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 49 ... MILLENNIAL STAR, 19:343. + + The Kirtland anti-bank was to "Swallow up all other banks." + + The Kirtland "Anti-bank" failed in the summer of 1837. + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 50 ... Compendium, 1882, page 271. + + "The time is soon coming when no man will have any peace but in +Zion (Independence, Missouri) and her Stakes." + + Over 137 years have gone by since this Prophecy was uttered. Is +that soon? + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 51 ... ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAINTS, Stenhouse, page +42. + + "Joseph Smith prophesied by revelation that W.W. Phelps would not +taste of death till Jesus came. Often in private and in public did Mr. +Philps boast to the saints of his blessing, given to him by revelation +and prophecy through Joseph." + + In March, 1872, the Salt Lake City papers carried the following +announcement: "Phelps - William Wines Phelps, Born in the state of New +Jersey, February 1792, died March 7,1872, in Salt Lake City, Utah." + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 52 ... November 28, 1841. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, +vol. 4. page 467. + + "I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct +of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man +would get nearer to God by abiding its precepts, than by another +book." + + If the BOOK OF MORMON is the most correct book on earth, why have +there been at least 3,914 changes in it since the first edition in +1830? We have a photo-mechanical copy of the 1830 edition with all of +the changes marked. We even make note of the 1981 change in 2 Nephi +30:6 which changed "white and delightsome" to "pure and delightsome". + + Verse 16-20 of Section 3 prophecies that the Lamanites will be +converted. To Mormons the Lamanites are the Indians. The Mormon church +has been trying to convert the Indians for 153 years to no avail. A +large majority of the Indians that they have converted are totally +inactive. This is especially true in Latin America and South America. +The Indians go in the front door and very soon go out the back door. + + There is another interesting scripture in the BOOK OF MORMON +regarding the Indians. 2 Nephi 30:6 includes a prophecy that the +Lamanites (Indians) would turn "white and delightsome" in a few +generations after accepting the gospel. It is interesting to note that +the handwritten manuscript of 2 Nephi 30:6 has "white and +delightsome". In 1840 Joseph Smith directed that it be changed to +"pure and delightsome." Brigham Young directed that it be changed back +to "white and delightsome". It has remained "white and delightsome" +until 1981 where it has now appeared as "pure and delightsome" with no +footnote indicating why it was changed. Is it possible that now that +sufficient time has gone by to see that the Lamanites are not going to +turn "white and delightsome" after several generations of being +members of the Mormon Church, that it is prudent to change the verse +to "pure and delightsome" which is easier to defend? Honest editing +would at least place a footnote by the change to explain why the +change had been made. + + Why can't you find anything in the BOOK OF MORMON about some of +the essential doctrines of the Mormon church? Such as the following: + +1. God has a body of flesh and bones. +2. God is an exalted man. +3. God is a product of eternal progression. +4. The plurality of Gods. +5. God "organized" the world rather than "creating" it. +6. There is no eternal hell and punishment. +7. Men can become gods. +8. "Intelligences" are eternal. +9. Pre-existing spirits of men. +10. Marriage for eternity. +11. Polygamy is not an abomination in the sight of God. +12. Three degrees of glory. +13. A mother in heaven. +14. A Melchizedek priesthood consisting of the offices of Elder, + + Seventy and High Priest. +15. An Aaronic priesthood consisting of the offices of Deacon, + + Teacher and Priest. +16. The functions and offices of Evangelists, Bishoprics, Stake + + Presidencies, Assistants to the Twelve, a First Presidency and a + + President of the Church. + + If the BOOK OF MORMON contains "...the fullness of the gospel of +Jesus Christ to the Gentiles and to the Jews also;" why aren't the +above doctrines found in it? + +FALSE PROPHESY NUMBER 53 ... JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, vol. 12:204. + + "How long will it be before the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith +will be fulfilled? He said if the Constitution of the United States +were saved at all it must be done by this people. It will not be many +years before these words come to pass." + + If Joseph Smith really said the above, and I have no reason to +doubt Brigham Young, then at least 143 years have gone by since Joseph +Smith said it. (He died in June, 1844) Of course the time element was +added by Brigham Young, but we are discussing only one FALSE PROPHET, +at this time. + + The above prophecies are only a few of the prophecies of Joseph +Smith. We declare that the ones listed above are false. Some of them +are more clearly false than others. According to Deuteronomy 18:22 all +you need is one. + + In this text We have only tested Joseph Smith according to the +two tests. There are at least two others. + + "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to +this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Isaiah 8:20) + + "The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that +teacheth lies, he is the tail." (Isaiah 9:15) + + If you apply the above two tests to Joseph Smith, the case +against him is devastating. The first applies to doctrines that are +taught by Joseph Smith that are not in harmony with the Bible. (Law +and testimony) There are so many doctrines that he taught that are not +in harmony with the Bible that it would take an entire book to cover +them. + + The second one applies to the prophet that teacheth lies. That +would take another book. + + Verse 114 and 115 of Section 84 record that the cities of New +York, Albany and Boston were to be destroyed (desolation and utter +abolishment) if they rejected the sound of the Mormon gospel. History +records that Joseph Smith and Bishop Newell K. Whitney went to these +cities in response to verse 114 and 115. There is no record of these +cities ever receiving the Mormon gospel during the life of Newell K. +Whitney or Joseph Smith. In fact the Mormon church is till very small +in those cities. If these verses were truly from God then these cities +should have been destroyed by now. I believe this is another evidence +of Joseph Smith failing as a prophet of God. + + Remember, all you need is one false prophecy to have a false +prophet. Christians have a Living Prophet who is GOD and our personal +Savior. We follow the "Lamb of God" who died for us and we are aware +of HIS sacrifice on our behalf. + + If you now see the error that you presently live in, we ask that +you pray this prayer: + + FATHER, I AM SORRY FOR MY SINS AND MY SIN OF IGNORING YOUR WORD +AND FOLLOWING MEN TO BE THE ONES WHO CAN LEAD TO SALVATION. I NOW KNOW +THIS IS WRONG AND AGAINST YOUR WORD AND HUMBLY ASK FOR YOUR +FORGIVENESS AND MERCY. I ACKNOWLEDGE THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS AS PAYMENT +FOR MY SINS AND THANK YOU FOR THIS RELEASE. LORD JESUS, COME INTO MY +HEART AND LIVE THERE AND GUIDE MY STEPS FROM THIS DAY FORWARD. ALLOW +ME TO BE YOUR VESSEL ON EARTH TO CARRY THE TRUE MESSAGE OF YOUR LOVE +TO ALL MEN. THESE THINGS I NOW PRAY IN THE NAME OF MY TRUE SAVIOR AND +LORD, JESUS CHRIST. AMEN + +Computers For Christ - San Jose + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon diff --git a/religious documents/lds-8.txt b/religious documents/lds-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..923f449 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/lds-8.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/lds-9.txt b/religious documents/lds-9.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..496899d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds-9.txt @@ -0,0 +1,207 @@ + + JOSEPH SMITH'S FIRST VISION + Fact or Fable ? + By W. P. Walters + + "Sometime in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there +was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject +of religion. It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general +among all the sects in the region of country ... my mind became +somewhat partial to the Methodists ... but so great was the confusion +and strife among the different denominations, that it was impossible +... to come to any certain conclusion who was right, and who was wrong +... in accordance with this, by determination, to ask God, I retired +to the woods to make an attempt. It was on the morning of a +beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and +twenty ... I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my +heart to God. ... I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head ... +When the light rested upon me I saw two personages, (whose brightness +and glory defy all description) standing above me in the air ... I +asked the personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the +sects was right, (for at this time it had never entered into my heart +that all were wrong) and which I should join. I was answered that I +must join none of them, for they were all wrong ..." Joseph Smith, +Jr. + + The well publicized story above, of Joseph Smith's First Vision is +not a true account of the origin of the Latter Day Saint movement. The +facts are decidedly against it! + + First, the historical evidence shows that Joseph Smith, Jr. could +not have been stirred by an 1820 revival, to ask which church was +true. + + Second, early Mormon statements do not support his claim that in +1820 he learned through a visitation of the Father and the Son that +all existing churches were wrong. + + Third, the details known about Joseph's early life contradict his +assertion that in 1820 he had such a divine visitation and was +persecuted by the community for telling such a story. + +NO 1820 REVIVAL ..... + + First his neighborhood in 1820 experienced no revival such as he +described, in which "great multitudes" joined the Methodist, Baptist, +and Presbyterian churches. The Presbyterian records for the Palmyra +Presbyterian Church show that it experienced no revival in 1820. The +local Baptist Church gained only six on profession of faith the entire +year, while the Methodists actually lost members that year as well as +the preceeding and following years. (Minutes of the Annual +Conference) + + Joseph Smith claimed that his mother, sister and two brothers were +led to join the local Presbyterian Church as a result of that 1820 +revival. However, four years before he made this claim, his own church +paper had stated that the revival in which his family had been led to +join the Presbyterian Church took place in 1823. (Messenger & Advocate +I, pp. 42, 78) In fact, that account says it was the same 1823 revival +that led him to go to his bedroom (not to a sacred grove) and pray "if +a Supreme being did exist" and to know that "he was accepted of him." +An angel (not a deity) is then reported to have appeared and told +him of his forgiveness and of the gold plates. + + Joseph's mother, likewise, knew nothing of an 1820 vision. In her +unpublished account she traces the origin of Mormonism to a BEDROOM +VISIT by an angel. Joseph at the time had been "pondering which of the +churches were the true one." The angel told him "there is not a true +church on Earth, No not one." (First draft of "Lucy Smith's History," +LDS Church Archives) + + Furthermore, she tells us that the revival which led to her joining +the church took place following the death of her son, Alvin. Alvin +died November 19, 1823, and following that painful loss she reports +that: "..about this time there was a great revival in religion and the +whole neighborhood was very much aroused to the subject and we among +the rest, flocked to the meeting house to see if there was a word of +comfort for us that might relieve our over-charged feelings." (P. 86) + + She adds that although her husband would only attend the first +meetings, he had no objection to her or the children "going or +BECOMING CHURCH MEMBERS." (emphasis added) + + There is plenty of additional evidence that the revival Lucy Smith +refers to did occur during the winter of 1824-1825. It was reported in +at least a dozen newspapers and religious periodicals. The church +records show outstanding increases due to the reception of new +converts. The Baptist Church received 94, the Presbyterian 99, while +the Methodist work grew by 208. No such revival bringing in "great +multitudes" occurred in 1820. + + It is clear that the revival Joseph Smith, Jr. described did not +occur in 1820, but in 1824. Joseph Smith arbitrarily moved that +revival back four years to 1820 and made it fit a First Vision story +that neither his mother nor other close associates had heard of in +those early days. The historical facts completely discredit Joseph +Smith's First Vision story. (For further details see, DIALOGUE: A +JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT, Spring 1969, pp. 59-100) + +BIBLE READING vs. REVELATIONS ..... + + About 1832, Joseph Smith, Jr. began an account of the origin of the +Mormon church (the only one written in his own hand), that contradicts +the official First Vision story he dictated some six years later. The +account was never finished and has only recently been published. (See +the text in BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY STUDIES, Spring 1969, pp. 278ff) +In this version Joseph presents himself between the ages of twelve and +fifteen being a committed and perceptive reader of the Bible. He +claims that his STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES led him to understand that all +the denominations were wrong. He wrote: "...by searching the +Scriptures I found that mankind did not come into the Lord but that +they had apostatised from the true and living faith and there was no +society or denomination that built upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ as +recorded in the new testament." Six years later, when he set forth +his official First Vision story, he decided that he never had reached +the firm conclusion that all churches were wrong from his study of the +Bible. Instead, he claimed that it was DURING A VISION OF THE FATHER +AND THE SON that he first learned this information. He presented this +as coming as a great surprise, for he added parenthetically - "for at +this time it had NEVER ENTERED INTO MY HEART THAT ALL WERE WRONG." +(emphasis added) That statement even contradicted what Joseph had said +a few paragraphs earlier in the same account. There he claimed that "I +OFTEN SAID TO MYSELF ... Who of all these parties are right; or ARE +THEY ALL WRONG TOGETHER?" (emphasis added) Although the former +statement appears in the original manuscript (see BYU Studies above, +p. 290), such a serious contradiction could not be allowed to stand, +and after Joseph's death the embarrassing words were edited out. + + Even without these words, however, the 1838 official account is in +conflict with the 1832 version. In the 1832 account it is his Bible +reading that stirs him to seek God, while in the 1838 story it is a +non-existent revival that motivates him. + + In the 1832 version he claims to have seen only Christ, while in +the 1838 rendition both the Father and the Son appear. In the 1832 +account he already knows all the churches are wrong, while in the 1838 +story it is the dual deities who first inform him of this. Different +people may have different views of the same event, but when one person +tells contradictory stories about an event, he completely loses his +credibility. + +PERSECUTION vs. ACCEPTANCE ..... + + The 1838 First Vision story not only runs into trouble with +Joseph's earlier 1832 version, it is also contradicted by what we know +about his early years in Palmyra. In his official version Joseph +claims he was persecuted by all the churches in his area "because I +continued to affirm I had seen a vision." However, Orsemus Turner, an +apprentice printer in Palmyra until 1822, was in the same juvenile +debating club with Joseph Smith. He recalled that Joseph "after +catching a spark of Methodism ... became a very passable exhorter in +evening meetings." (HISTORY OF THE PIONEER SETTLEMENT OF PHELPS AND +GORHAM'S PURCHASE, 1851, p. 214) Thus, instead of being opposed and +persecuted as his 1838 account claims, young Joseph was welcomed and +allowed to exhort during the Methodist's evening preaching. +Furthermore, no one, either Mormon or non-Mormon, seems ever to have +heard of Joseph's encounter with two divine Personages until after +1838. (see this admission in DIALOGUE, Autumn 1966, pp. 30-31; SAINTS +HERALD, June 29, 1959, p. 21) + + From all available lines of evidence, therefore, Joseph's First +Vision story appears to be a fabrication. There was NO REVIVAL +anywhere in the Palmyra area in 1820, Joseph was WELCOMED, NOT +PERSECUTED by the Methodists. His 1832 account represents him as +PERCEIVING FROM HIS PERSONAL BIBLE STUDY that all the churches were +apostate, while his 1838 account said it "NEVER ENTERED INTO MY HEART +that all were wrong." His 1832 version claimed ONLY A VISION OF +CHRIST, while the 1838 story transformed this into THE FATHER AND THE +SON. No one ever heard such a story until after he dictated it in +1838. + + In the light of such strong contradictory evidence, the First +Vision story must be regarded as only the invention of Joseph Smith's +highly imaginative mind. The facts and Joseph's own words discredit +it. + + This work is presented with the earnest prayer that sincere people +everywhere may perceive the fallacy and danger of Mormonism and will +not become entangled in it, and that the dear Mormon people who are +unfortunately deceived by it, may be reclaimed and find the true Way +of salvation in the Bible and the blessed Saviour whom it reveals. + + "Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no +man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6) + + We also pray that the earnest reader upon discerning these things +will search the Word of God, the Bible, the only Book whose message is +"able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in +Christ Jesus." (II Timothy 3:15) + +For Further information write: + +Utah Christian Tract Society +P.O. Box 725 +La Mesa, California 92041 + +For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon + diff --git a/religious documents/lds.txt b/religious documents/lds.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f663ce --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3570 @@ + + TABLE OF CONTENTS + +What's Going on in There? +About the Authors +Preface + +PART 1 + +EXPLANATION AND COMMENTARY + +Introduction + + Why work for the Dead? + Mormon's Goal: To be a "Savior on Mount Zion" To Christians and Other + Lost Souls + All Temples Would Close Without Genealogical Research + Satan Always Trademarks His Wares + The Holy Melchizedek Priesthood: the Only Authority to Act for God + The Mormon Bible Contradicts Their Priesthood Claims + Ordinances for the Living + Ordinances for the Dead + +An Overview of the Mormon Temple Ceremonies + + Pre-Initiatory Ordinances for the Dead + Baptism for the Dead + Confirmation as Mormons and the Holy Ghost + Ordination to the Mormon Holy Melchizedek Priesthood + + Initiatory Ordinances for the Living and the Dead + Washing in Water + Anointing with Holy Oil + Clothing in the Mystical Temple Garment + The "New Name" + The Ultimate Heresy -- Eternal Sexism + +Preparation for the Endowment + + The Endowment Ceremony + The Creation Drama + The Garden of Eden Drama + The Lone and Dreary World Melodrama + The Christian Minister is Satan's Hireling Lackey + The Terrestrial World Presentation + The One and Only "True Order of Prayer" + + The "True Order of Prayer" Resembles Ancient Rituals + The Veil of the Temple + The Veil Ceremony + The Five Points of Fellowship + The Celestial Room + + Marriage for Time and Eternity + Sealing of Children to Parents + Proxy Sealing Sessions + + Summary of the Secrets of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood + Bestowed in the Endowment + The Five Laws + The Four Tokens (handclasps) - With Accompanying Names + The Four Signs and Three Penalties + The Oath of Vengeance Against the United States + The Garment of the Holy Priesthood - Four Marks + The Mormon Magic Talisman Protects From Evil Powers + + The Historical Origins of the Endowment + The Faithful Must Be Buried in Their Temple Costume + The Significance of Jesus and Christianity in the Temple Rituals + Mormon Women Seek Glorious Joy in ETERNAL PREGNANCY + The Endowment Attacks and Ridicules Paid Christian Clergymen, BUT Mormonism + Has Paid Clergymen (and women) Too!! + Baptism for the Dead is From Twisting Scriptures + Freemasonry in the Mormon Temple + Masonic Symbols and Elements Used in the Temple Rituals + Immorality and Sexual Activity in the Temple Rituals + Half of Qualified Mormons Don't Participate + Moroni Tells the World That Mormons Have "A Different Gospel" + Poor Moroni -- He's Blowing the Wrong Tune + The Purpose of God: Mormon vs. Christian + Mormons Deserve to Know + +PART II + +THE TEMPLE CEREMONIES VERBATIM + +The Pre-Initiatory Ordinances + + Baptism for the Dead + Confirmation for the Dead + Ordination for the Dead + +The Initiatory Ordinances + Preparation for Participation + The Washing and Anointing Room + Washing in Water + Confirmation of Washing + Anointing with Holy Oil + Confirmation of Anointing + Receiving the "Garment of the Holy Priesthood" and the "New Name" + Preparation for the Endowment + Entering the Endowment Room + +The Endowment Ceremony + + Introduction and Instruction + The Creation + The First Day + The Second Day + The Third Day + The Fourth Day + The Fifth Day + The Sixth Day + The Garden of Eden + The Law of Obedience + The Law of Sacrifice + The First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood + The Lone and Dreary World + Elohim Sends Down Messengers + Elohim Sends Down Peter, James & John in Their True Characters + Satan is Cast Out + The Law of the Gospel + The Robes of the Holy Priesthood + The Terrestrial World + The Law of Chastity + The First Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood, or Sign of the Nail + The Law of Consecration + The Second Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the Patriarchal Grip, + of Sure Sign of the Nail + Lecture Before the Veil + The "True Order of Prayer" + The Veil of the Temple + The Instructions at the Veil + Moving to the Terrestrial Room + The Ceremony at the Veil + The Celestial Room + +Marriage or Sealing for Time and Eternity + The Marriage Ceremony + Sealing of Children to Parents + Proxy Sealing Sessions + +Conclusion + + List of Figures + Acknowledgements + Dedication + + WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE? + + This booklet has been prepared to inform the general public, +including most Mormons, and especially the Body of Christians, +and to reveal to them of exactly what transpires during the +secret Mormon Temple Ceremonies. Our purpose is not to ridicule, +but to shed light on these hidden things of darkness. We +sincerely believe that Mormons and non-Mormons alike cannot +comprehend or accurately evaluate the complex Mormon gospel +without knowing what actually transpires inside of the Temple, +the place where the Keys of Knowledge necessary for exaltation +are imparted to LDS Gods in embryo. We pray earnestly that this +information will be especially helpful in encouraging Christians +in their witness of the true Lord Jesus Christ to those lost in +the deception and bondage Mormonism. + + AUTHOR'S PREFACE + + This booklet contains the entire series of Mormon Temple +ceremonies, called "Ordinances" and is 100% accurate in the +essence of what is done, and very nearly 100% accurate in the +exact wording of what is said. This is because this edition was +transcribed from a tape recording made inside the Temple at the +actual Endowment ceremony*. Other ceremonies have been verified +by comparing them with copies of Temple Worker Instruction Books + +*This booklet is purposely not copyrighted and may be copied or +used in any way deemed appropriate. + + The tape recording of the Mormon Temple Endowment from which +this booklet was transcribed was recorded in the Los Angeles +Mormon Temple. The recording was made using a personal pocket +size tape recorder carried by one of the patrons during Endowment +presentation. + + The patron who made this recording entered the Temple using his +own personal Temple Recommend and carried his own Temple Veil +Worker's name tag and identification card during the ceremony. +He was greeted by several Temple Worker acquaintances who +obviously did not know of his excommunication from the Mormon +Church, which had been at his own request several months earlier. + + One of the objectives of this foray was to test the well known +Mormon claim of Divinely aided Temple security. Another +objective was to provide and up-to-date and accurate text of the +Endowment. (There have been many revisions to the Endowment text +in the past ten years, some of them significant). Contrary to +popular belief of Mormons, not one person in the Temple appeared +the slightest bit spiritually or supernaturally alerted to the +presence among them of one whom they classify as an "apostate" +and a "son of perdition". As he departed, the patron was +encouraged by a member of the Temple Presidency to return again +soon. + + Or similar authentic sources, making this the most accurate and +up to date rendition of these "secret" ceremonies ever published +in the 120 year history of Mormon Temple exposes. The ceremonies +have been annotated and explanatory information included to help +the reader understand the activities as they progress. Part one +contains background information and commentary, including a brief +overview of all of the ceremonies in sequence to prepare the +reader to understand the dialogue of the ceremonies. + + Even though we know that the Authorities of the Mormon church, +the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, +Utah, will be highly offended at the publication of this work, we +do not apologize for doing it. As former Mormons and Temple +Workers who are now born again Christians, we acknowledge a great +responsibility to the unsuspecting world to expose and reprove +with exactness and the light of truth, precisely what activities +transpire inside the Mormon temples today. + + We heed the admonition of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesian +Saints, who had previously participated in similar pagan and +occultic rituals, "For ye were sometimes (once) darkness, but now +ye are light in the Lord, walk as children of light ... and have +no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather +reprove (expose) them ... for it is a shame even to speak of +those things which are done of them in secret. But all things +that are reproved (exposed) are made manifest by the light." +(Ephesians 5:8, 11-13) We recognize that this is not the first +such "expose", but it is the most accurate and current account of +the activities of the Mormon temple "Endowment"ever published. +We wish to bring it to the attention of concerned people +everywhere so that they may be knowledgable concerning this, the +most sacred of all activities and teachings to the modern Mormon +(see John 18:20). Mormonism cannot be fully understood by +Mormons or non-Mormons alike without an understanding these +Temple rituals - the "Keystone" of modern Mormon doctrine and +theology. + + Statistics released in January 1982, by qualified Mormon church +authorities indicated that at least three out of every four +Mormons (teenage and older) have never participated in these +rituals. These non-participating Mormons have been subjected to +a variety of powerful propaganda from their leaders, impressing +upon them the sacred, holy, and enlightning nature of their +Temple "Ordinances", and the great blessings to be obtained +through them. This booklet is intended especially for those non- +participating Mormons, to enable them to recognized the occultic, +non-Christian nature of these rituals, and to see them for them- +selves in the clear light of reality. We are confident that +those who will prayerfully evaluate these rites for themselves +will be able to see them as they truly are, rather than +continuing in the naive belief that they are the sacred vehicle +essential to becoming a polygamous god, destined to rule over a +new planet for eternity. + + Mormons who regularly attend the Temple should also be very +interested in this booklet. They will be "dying to find out" if +it really contains a "word perfect" rendition of all the Temple +rituals, and anxious to find a misplaced word so they can +criticize its accuracy. We are pleased to give them the +opportunity, with a challenge to call to our attention any errors +they believe they detect. We also challenge them to listen more +attentatively while attending the Temple, and to compare what +they hear with the Bible or the Book of Mormon, which teach an +entirely different Gospel and plan of salvation from that +presented in the Temple Endowment. + + Anyone who is familiar with the rite of Freemasonry will +recognize them as the primary source for the tokens, signs, and +penalties used in the Temple Endowment. Much of the mystical +symbolism of Mormonism is also borrowed from Masonry. The +symbolism and practices of the ancient pagan mystery religions +associated with nimrod and Babylon are also richly displayed in +the Mormon temple and reflected in the doctrines presented +therein. Part one of this booklet contains commentary comparing +these Mormon rituals with those of other religions and +theologies, including Christianity. + + PART ONE - EXPLANATION AND COMMENTARY + INTRODUCTON + + Mormon Temples are the most secret/sacred facet of Mormonism and +are completely different from neighborhood Mormon chapels. Once +a new Temple is dedicated, no non-Mormons are ever allowed +inside. Most Mormons are not permitted to enter the Temple +either. Only Mormons who have passed stringent requirements of +worthiness determined by a penetrating private interview with +their Bishop, and then a second similar interview with their +Stake President, are issued a "Temple Recommend" which permits +them to enter the Temple (See figure 1). Temple Recommends are +valid for one year after which the entire interview process must +be repeated to receive a new Recommend. According to LDS church +leaders, less than 20% of adult Mormons have valid Temple Recom +mends and thus are qualified to attend the temple. Less than 10% +of adult Mormons regularly attend the Temple.** + + Before a Mormon is issued his first Temple Recommend, he is +normally required to attend a course of study intended to +qualify him to "live worthy" or to become qualified to live LDS +standards of loyalty, dedication, financial contributions and +personal traits of worthiness. Very little of the ceremonial +aspects, and none of the promises or penalties of the Temple +rituals are included in the ciriculum nor are these ever discus +sed at any time outside or inside of the Temple. These are still +a mystery to the participants, who are acting on faith in Joseph +Smith and the Mormon church's divine authority. + + During a member's first participation in the Temple ceremony, he +"receives his own endowments" which means he attends to his own +personal salvation requirements. In a special instruction ses +sion with all the initiates he is asked by the Temple President +to make a personal commitment to return to the temple often, at +least once per month, to renew his own commitment and to remind +him of his covenants while he is serving as a proxy for a + + **See the Church News supplement to the Salt Lake City Deseret +News, week of January 16, 1982, page 10 for very interesting +information on Mormon dedication to this "Keystone of their +religion." +deceased person to provide that person with Mormon salvation. He +thus becomes a "Savior on Mount Zion" by acting in behalf of +someone who did not have this opportunity himself. + + WHY WORK FOR THE DEAD? + +Mormons believe that everyone who lives and dies on this earth +goes to a place called the Spirit Prison, except faithful +Mormons, who go to Paradise. Mormon Spirit Missionaries go down +from Paradise to the Spirit Prison and teach the Gospel of Joseph +Smith to the lost Christians and others there. Those who accept +Mormonism must remain in prison until a worthy Mormon performs +certain essential rituals, called "Ordinances" for them in one of +the Mormon Temples. Then they are released from Spirit Prison to +join the Mormons in Paradise. Since these rituals or Ordinances +require a physical body to be washed, anointed, baptised, etc., +they can only be performed by a living person in the place and +manner prescribed by Diety, acting under Universal (Mormon) +cosmic laws. + + MORMONS GOAL: TO BE A "SAVIOR ON MOUNT ZION" + TO CHRISTIANS AND OTHER LOST SOULS + + The extent of the pressure upon worthy Mormons to return to the +Temple as often as possible to perform more of these proxy Temple +rituals is difficult to convey. They are continually reminded of +their responsibility to all of the multitude of dead persons +waiting in "Spirit Prison" for their "work" to be done. They +believe they are personally becoming "Saviors on Mount Zion" to +each individual for whom they perform these rites, and all of +those who accepted Mormonism will be waiting for them in +Paradise, to greet them and heap thanks and praise upon them for +having done this work in their behalf, which released them from +the "Spirit Prison". + + ALL TEMPLES WOULD CLOSE WITHOUT GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH + + The operation of all Mormon Temples is totally dependent upon +continuing genealogical research. Mormons spend millions of +hours and scores of millions of dollars annually doing exhaustive +personal genealogical research to correctly identify their +deceased progenitors so that these secret ordinances can be +performed for them in one of the Temples. Since they do not +provide enough names to keep the Temples busy, the church has a +massive "name extraction" program which provides the bulk of the +individuals for whom patrons serve as proxies. Mormons spent +over ten million man hours, at approximately two and one half +hours per person, performing these rituals for the dead last +year. The investment of the church in genealogical facilities, +equipment, and manpower is staggering to the imagination, +employing several thousand persons, plus even more volunteers, +and hundreds of millions of dollars invested. Christian churches +kept nearly all of the early U.S. and European vital records +which are used for genealogical research. Therefore most Temple +work is being done to make dead Christians Mormons. If your +Christian ancestors were West European, or settled in the U.S. by +the early 1800's, they probably have been or soon will be made +Mormons in one of these Temples. This unique doctrine and +practice of Mormonism attracts many converts to the church for +the sake of their unsaved, departed loved ones. + + Mormons are continually reminded that their own personal +exaltation, which is equivalent to a Christians salvation, is +dependent upon their "good works". One of these essential works +is making certain that all of the Temple Ordinances are performed +for each one of their dead ancestors which they are able, through +all diligent effort, to identify and thus qualify to receive +them. They are also responsible for doing this work for the +world's departed masses. A lifetime of diligent church service +and good works is wasted if they neglect this responsibility to +provide these names, and perform these rituals for their dead. +Most mormons are not aware of the only New Testament references +to genealogy in Titus 3:9 and I Timothy 1:4, both of which +condemn it as foolishness and ungodly. + + SATAN TRADEMARKS HIS WARES + + In Anton LeVeh's Satanic Bible, under "Infernal Names", "Mormon" +is listed as "God of the ghouls", which are the living dead. His +consort is "Hecate - Goddess of the underworld and witchcraft"; +his followers are known as MORMONS. With the Mormon pre- +occupation with ancestor research and work for the dead in their +Temples, one has to question whether this is an amazing +coincidence, or one of Satan's brash signals to the wary. Mormon +Missionaries in Hong Kong must use caution because 'Mormon' means +"Gates of Hell" in Chinese, another amazing coincidence, or +brash danger signal. Satan, the supreme egotist, always +trademarks his products; let the proselyte beware. + + THE HOLY MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD: + THE ONLY AUTHORITY TO ACT FOR GOD + + Mormons claim sole custody of the "Holy Melchizedek Priesthood" +described in the book of Hebrews. All activities of the Mormon +church function under the direction and authority of this +supposed Priesthood. Mormons claim theirs is the only authority +to act for God in the entire universe, and aggressively dispute +Roman Catholic and Masonic claims to this same Priesthood. The +Temple Rituals are called the "Higher Ordinances of the +Malchizedek Priesthood, as do all the other church auxilliary +organizations. + + Mormons claim to trace their "Priesthood Authority" directly to +Jesus much like they trace their ancestry through genealogy. +Every Mormon Priesthood holder has his personal "Line of +Authority" documented, and when he performed an ordinance such as +baptism, it is customary for him to present a printed copy of +this "Priesthood Lineage" to the person receiving the ordinance. +This Priesthood is bestowed upon all male members over 18 years +of age who have shown their "worthiness" by good works and +faithfulness to the Mormon Church. They receive it by "Laying on +of hands" by men who have received their Priesthood in the same +way, thus extending this "Line of Authority". This line is +always traced back through Brigham Young, Joseph Smith and Oliver +Cowdry, and the Apostles Peter, James and John, who supposedly +brought it to Joseph and Oliver directly from Jesus Christ. + + THE MORMON BIBLE CONTRADICTS THEIR PRIESTHOOD CLAIMS + + Mormons use only the authorized King James Version of the Bible +in their Missionary work and worship services. Joseph Smith's +"Inspired Version", which belongs to the Reorganized LDS church, +contains many substantive changes to the King James text. It is +intentionally shielded by the Utah Mormon church from public +discussion and exposure, though it is used selectively in their +teachings. The Mormon church prints and widely uses its own King +James Version containing special Mormon study guides, reference +sections, and the official LDS church name and insignia. Reading +in this official Mormon King James Missionary Bible, 1968 +edition, in Hebrews, concerning the resurrected Lord and these +Priesthoods, we find that it says Jesus in NOW the sole and only +holder of the Melchizedek Priesthood, and that the Aaronic +Priesthood has been forever abolished. It states, "But this man +(Jesus), because he continueth ever, hath and unchangeable +priesthood." (Hebrews 7:24) The footnote for 'unchangeable' +states: "or, which passeth not from one to another* (Author's +emphasis). The original Greek word, aparabatos, used here means +"perpetually non-transferable" or "Untransferable forever." How +can Mormons continue passing it on anyway? By simply ignoring +their own Bible!! Since they believe it is only true as far as +translated correctly, and the Book of Mormon says it is full of +errors and ommission,they can easily ignore what they don't like. +Please read Hebrews chapters 7 and 8 to understand how completely +defiant of God's word the Mormon Priesthoods really are. + +*This marginal note has been removed from the latest edition +Missionary Bible. + + ORDINANCES FOR THE LIVING + + The Ordinances for living Mormons include Washing, Anointing, +Clothing in the Garment of the Holy Priesthood, and the Endow +ment. Sealings are performed for married couples, and minor +children are then Sealed to parents. Marriages are performed for +time and eternity, and under special circumstances, marriages for +time only. These ceremonies account for less than 2% of all +Temple Ordinances performed. + + ORDINANCES FOR THE DEAD + + The ordinances for the deceased ancestors of members or names of +deceased persons provided by the temple from genealogical records +include Baptism, Confirmation of membership in the Mormon Church, +and Ordination to the Holy Melchizedek (Mormon) Priesthood for +males. All the ordinances described above for the living must +also be performed for each of the dead persons who are post +humously receiving their "Temple Blessings". Over 98% if the +Ordinances performed are for the dead by a living Mormon proxy. +The writer performed approximately 150 Endowments for deceased +relatives and many other identified persons known to the writer, +as part of over 1000 Ordinances performed in a nearly ten year +period. + + AN OVERVIEW OF THE MORMON TEMPLE CEREMONY + + This information is new to most of the readers of this booklet +and may be difficult to grasp at times, therefore, we have pre +pared the following overview of these Temple Ceremonies to let +you preview the activities and to concisely present the important +elements to you. + + Mormons attending the Temple are called "patrons" by the Temple +staff, and will therefore be similarly designated hereafter in +this publication. Quotation marks enclose direct quotes from the +ceremony. + + THE PRE-INITIATORY ORDINANCES OR RITUAL + + The "Pre-Initiatory Ordinances" or rituals are those that are +performed only for the dead in the Temple. Living Mormons +receive these Ordinances in their local Ward or Stake organiza +tions. + + BAPTISM + + Baptism is the first ceremony performed in behalf of the dead in +the Temple. This is performed in the beautiful baptismal font +mounted on the statues of 12 full sized oxen, located in the +Temple basement.*(See figure 2) The Officiator and the patron +are in the font dressed in heavy white jump-suits. There are two +or more Witnesses observing the procedure. Often a closed cir +cuit T.V. is used to project the names of the deceased persons on +a large T.V. screen. Typically 200-300 baptisms are performed +per hour, with LDS teenagers serving as proxies to introduce them +into the Temple rituals and vicarious Ordinance work at an +impressionable age. The baptismal pronouncement is recited in +full for each baptism, and the patron is completely immersed by +the Officiator as observed and approved by the two Witnesses. + + CONFIRMATION AS MORMONS AND THE HOLY GHOST + + The next ritual is Confirmation for the Dead. This makes the +deceased person a member of the Mormon church and gives him the +Holy Ghost. This is usually performed at or near the baptismal +font, by the same persons who performed the baptism ritual. Two +or more Temple Workers place their hands on the patron's head +while one pronounces the confirmation. + + ORDINATION TO THE MORMON HOLY MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD + + The ordination of dead males to the Mormon "Holy Melchizedek +Priesthood" is usually(but not always) performed in the same area +of the Temple by the same proxy. A patron may not receive a proxy +Ordinance which he has not received for himself. Therefore LDS +teenagers who have not yet received this Ordination may not +perform this Temple Ordinance, and adult male patrons must +receive this by proxy. This is often performed in conjunction +with the Initiatory Ordinances described next. Other Temple +Workers perform this Ordinance following the Baptism and Confir +mation. Two Temple Workers lay their hands upon the patron's +head and one of them pronounces the Ordination. + + *All Mormon Temples from Nauvoo, Illinois in 1842 to the twenty +presently operating Temples have or had baptismal fonts as +described, always located below ground level, as Joseph Smith +instructed (Doctrine & Covenants 128:13). It appears that the +new generation of Temples presently under construction or +planned, will abandon this "prophetic directive". Plans for +these Temples show baptismal fonts above ground level with only +six oxen in a semi-circle supporting them. See Church News, +January 16, 1982, page 14. + + INITIATORY ORDINANCES OR RITUAL + + WASHING IN WATER + + Each patron is ceremonially washed so that he "may become clean +from the blood and sins of this generation." A Temple Worker wets +his fingers in running water and touches each member of the +patrons body as he pronounces a blessing upon it. Women Temple +Workers wash female patrons, and men wash men. The worker starts +at the top of the patron's head and works down to the feet, +reaching under the shield to touch shoulders, back, breast, +vitals and bowels, and loins. The washing is sealed by two +workers laying their hands on the patron's head and pronouncing +the sealing. + + ANOINTING WITH HOLY OIL + + Each patron is then anointed with consecrated oil preparatory to +"becoming a King and a Priest (or a Queen and Priestess) unto the +Most High God, hereafter to rule and reign in the House of Israel +forever." A Temple Worker pours some drops of oil on the top of +the patron's head and moistens his fingers in oil and then +touches each member of the patron's body as he pronounces a +blessing upon it, reaching under the shield to anoint shoulders, +back, breast, vitals and bowels, and loins. Two workers then +place their hands in the patron's head and one of them pronounces +a sealing of the anointing. + + CLOTHING IN THE MYSTICAL TEMPLE GARMENT + + The patron is then dressed in the "Garment of the Holy +Priesthood" as a Temple Worker gives him special instructions +regarding the constant wearing of it 24 hours per day throughout +his life: "It will be a shield and a protection to you from the +power of the destroyer until you have finished your work on the +earth, providing you do not defile it, but are true and faithful +to your covenants." The worker also gives instructions regarding +the secret "New Name" and then whispers the "New Name" to the +patron. + + THE "NEW NAME" + + A Mormon's most secret and cherished possession should be his +"new name" which he receives during the Temple Rituals. This is +the name by which he "will be called forth on the morning of the +First Resurrection" by his God, and by which he will be known +throughout Eternity. He receives this from a Temple Worker, in a +whisper, as he is being helped into his new "magic underwear" for +the first time, during his Temple initiation. Each time he +returns to do Temple work he will go through these same rituals +for a dead person, whose name he will carry through the entire +ceremony on a little slip of paper, which he surrenders to the +Introducer at the Temple Veil, before he enters the Celestial +Room. On these return visits he will normally by-pass the +"Washing, Annointing, and Clothing in the Garment of the Holy +Priesthood" rituals, and just receive the "New Name" in a little +booth as he leaves the locker room on his way to the theatre type +Endowment Rooms. The "New Name" is usually Biblical, such as +Abraham, Moses, Seth, or Mary, Martha, Naomi, or they come from +the Book of Mormon. Many Mormons are not aware that every person +attending the Endowment on a particular day receives the same +male or female "new name", or its alternate. The alternate is +given when the first given name of the person receiving the +Endowment, deceased or alive, (not the proxy) is the same, or +sounds very similar to the "new name". My son and I share the +same "new name" of Enoch with the prophet Joseph Smith Jr. and +probably millions of other living and dead Mormons. I often +wondered how we would know which "Enoch" was being called forth, +or if we would all be judged together enmasse. + + THE ULTIMATE HERESY - ETERNAL SEXISM + + A Mormon husband must know his wife's (or wives') "new name(s)". +He normally learns this by representing the Lord behind the Veil, +and taking his wife through the Veil Ceremony when she is +receiving her own Endowments. She is not allowed to know his +"new name" under any circumstances. This is because the Lord +calls forth only the Priesthood holder, and it is up to him to +call forth his wives, if he wants them, or leave them behind if +he doesn't want some of them. + + PREPARATION FOR THE ENDOWMENT + + The patron returns to the locker room, removes the shield and +dresses of the Temple Garment, in the white Temple attire; pants, +shirt, belt, tie, socks and slippers, or slip, dress, hose and +slippers. He then takes his name slip and the package containing +his robe, girdle (sash), hat (veil for women), and bright green +fig-leaf apron with him through the beautiful foyer, up the +magnificent circular staircase, and into the theatre type +Endowment Room. He is seated by the Officiator who presides over +the presentation, women on the left, men on the right, and waits +in profound silence for the ceremony to begin. Absolute silence +is maintained for up to 20 minutes while the company is +assembling. + + THE ENDOWMENT CEREMONY + + The Endowment is a two hour drama-ritual-ceremony presented to +groups of patrons, rather than individually, as most of the other +rituals are done. It is performed in beautiful theatre type +rooms, where walls are covered with floor to ceiling murals +depicting appropriate scenes. The performance is a basic 19th +century melodrama, with Lucifer as the villian, Elohim as the +hero, and Adam and Eve as the victims. Supporting roles are +played by the Apostles Peter, James and John, a Christian +Minister, Jehovah, and the arch-angel Michael (who becomes Adam). +All of the secret names, signs, tokens, penalties, the "True +Order of Prayer", and the Veil Ceremony are incorporated into the +dramatic performance, with some audience participation, and a +"Witness Couple" participating as representatives of the entire +audience. The patrons are tested by the Lord, and must +individually demonstrate their knowledge of the secrets in order +to complete the ritual. For over a century, live actors played +the various roles with interesting props and costumes. Now all +Temples have changed to a motion picture and tape recording +presentation in which the Officiator, who presides over the +presentation, rarely speaks. Several Temple Workers are present +during the performance to administer the secret elements named +above, and to help patrons don and change the special robes and +other attire, where needed. Before the movie version, the +patrons move enmasse to four differently muralled rooms to +receive the various portions of the rituals. Now they stay in +one room for approximately one and one-half hours, watching the +film or the Officiator as he pantomimes the tape recording. The +Endowment can be divided into four "acts" according to the four +rooms previously used: the Creation drama, the Garden of Eden +drama, the Lone and Dreary World drama, and the Terrestrial World +presentation. + + THE CREATION DRAMA + + This can best be described as a consciousness lowering, mood +altering experience. The movie shows hypnotic type scenes of +volcanoes and lava flows, ocean, animal and flower scenes, as the +dialog drones through a very monotonous and repititious descrip +tion of the first five creative periods. Elohim, the head God, +sends his agents, Jehovah and Michael (the arch-angel) down to do +all the creative work, but one day at a time. He requires that +they return each day and give him a report of their activities, +and receive further instructions, because he is a man with a +body, and cannot tell what they are doing, nor see or hear beyond +normal distances. Many patrons are asleep, and most are drowsy +at the completion of this act. + + THE GARDEN OF EDEN DRAMA + + Elohim actually comes down to earth with Jehovah to create bodies +for Michael, who becomes Adam, and Eve. Adam and Eve are placed +in the garden by Elohim, are tempted by Lucifer, and Eve secumbs +and eats the forbidden fruit. Eve convinces Adam to partake +also, then recognizes who Lucifer really is. Lucifer instructs +Adam and Eve to make fig-leaf aprons to cover their nakedness +when they hear Elohim and Jehovah coming. All the patrons don +bright green fig-leaf aprons with Adam and Eve, which they +continue to wear over all of Elohim's Priesthood attire +throughout the remainder of the rituals. Elohim is outraged, and +curses Lucifer, who according to LDS doctrine will never have a +body, to crawl on his belly and eat dust forever. Lucifer defys +him to his face, and ignores his curse throughout the following +scenes. He is cast out, then Adam and Eve are cast out with him, +to join him, but only after they make a secret covenant with +Elohim, and receive a secret token (handgrip), with its name, +sign and penalty (blood/death oath). + + THE LONE AND DREARY WORLD MELODRAMA + + Upon arrival in the lone and dreary world, which is the world in +which we now live, Adam "builds an altar and offers up prayer." +Lucifer answers, instead of Elohim, affirming that he is "the God +of this world," and the drama develops its conflicts, around this +altar scene. Lucifer's claim to be "the God of this world" is +never challenged or denied by Adam, Eve, or Elohim's agents. + + THE CHRISTIAN MINISTER IS SATAN'S HIRELING LACKEY + + Lucifer employs a Christian Minister as his hireling lackey to +confuse, deceive, and destroy all mankind along with Adam and +Eve. He preaches to them a comical perversion of the 3rd century +Nicean Creed, which Adam rejects, employing sarcasm and ridicule +to develop audience contempt, but without hissing or booing, as +was done in prior decades. The Apostles Peter, James and John +are sent by Elohim to rescue Adam and Eve, and the hireling +Minister deserts Lucifer and joins them after Peter discloses +Lucifer's true identity. He embraces Mormonism with Adam and Eve +and is saved, along with the patrons in the audience, while +Lucifer is cast out. Jehovah, whom Mormons have told outside of +the Temple is really Jesus, has been relegated to the role of +messenger boy between Elohim and his new agent team of Peter, +James and John. + + THE TERRESTRIAL WORLD PRESENTATION + + Adam, Eve, and the patrons advance to the Terrestrial World, +where they are put under covenant by Peter, James and John to +obey several more laws, and taught their accompanying Priesthood +tokens, names,signs and penalties, along with being clothed in +the Robes of the Holy Priesthood (see figures 8-10), and being +taught "The True Order of Prayer." + + THE ONE AND ONLY "TRUE ORDER OF PRAYER" + + The only "live entertainment" in the Endowment is the True Order +of Prayer After all of the secrets have been received (except +the one learned only at the veil), all the temple clothing has +been put on, then taken off and put on again differently, and the +ritual activities are completed, the patrons enjoy sitting and +watching something different. (The patrons have stood up and sat +down approaching 20 times since the Endowment started). + + The Officiator calls the Witness Couple and seven or eight other +couples to come forward and form a circle around the altar. +Those in the circle then proceed to follow the Officiator in +performing all of the names, signs, and penalties of the tokens +of the Priesthoods which they have previously received. Then +they form the "True Order of Prayer". The sisters all veil their +faces (in the audience also). Then each couple in the circle +joins right hands in the Patriarchal Grip and everyone raises +their left arms to the square and rests their left elbow on the +person next to them. The Officiator carefully checks everyone's +position ... then kneels at the altar and offers a prayer, which +all those in the circle repeat, one phrase at a time. (this is +the first time the patrons hear the Officiator's voice. He has +been pantomiming the tape recording during all of the prior +twenty minutes of the ceremony since the movie ended). + + The prayer is usually long and quite involved, covering many +subjects from the prophet's health to the patron's safe return +home. It opens, as all Mormon prayers do, addressed to "Heavenly +Father", and closes "in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." The +patrons in the circle repeat the "Amen" and are instructed to +return to their seats. + + THE "TRUE ORDER OF PRAYER" RESEMBLES ANCIENT RITUAL + + Prayer circles around Altars, doing very much the same sort of +ritualistic activities, are described in the Egyptian Coptic +Gnostic writings recently first published in English. These were +a continuation of the ancient Egyptian pagan rituals performed +for centuries before the birth of Jesus. This most certainly was +another Gospel, a very strange occultic one, from that which the +Apostles preached in the New Testament (see Galatians 1:8,9). +Dr. Hugh Nibley and other mormon scholars speak of these pagan +ceremonies as if they validated the Endowment, when they actually +demonstrate the pagan nature and foundation of the Temple +rituals. + + THE VEIL OF THE TEMPLE + + The climactic conclusion to the Endowment if the Veil Ceremony in +which each patron is tested by a Veil Worker, who represents the +Lord behind the Veil, for his knowledge of the four tokens and +their names, which were given to him during the Endowment. The +Veil is a seven foot high by three foot wide ivory colored fabric +panel hung on a beautifully finished hardwood framework (see +figure 4). It has seven "Marks of the Holy Priesthood" in it +which correspond to the four marks in the patron's Priesthood +Temple undergarment. Three of these Veil marks are sewn in the +form of openings which are large enough for hands or arms to pass +through. Between each pair of Veil segments is a curtained +opening through which the patron is conducted after he +successfully completes the testing. The Veil is located at the +front of the Terrestrial Room, representing the Terrestrial +(where almost all Christians and nearly all Mormons will +supposedly spend eternity), and separates it from the Celestial +Room, representing the Celestial Kingdom, where those who +successfully keep all of the Mormon commandments will go to +become Gods over their own planets. Thus the patron gains +entrance to the Celestial Room by passing the testing conducted +by the Lord at the Veil. Unfortunately for them, no Mormon is +successfully keeping all of the commandments required for +entrance into their Celestial Kingdom. + + There are approximately 60 Veil segments in the Los Angeles +Temple, equally divided between men and women. The Veil is +perhaps the most important object in the Temples, and was used +over four million times last year alone. The veil of the Hebrew +Temple was rent in twain from top to bottom at the time of Jesus' +crucifixion, thus destroying its function (Matthew 27:51). +Jesus' atonement ended the need and purpose of the Temple forever +(Hebrews 9:11-17). The Veil of the Hebrew Temple had only one +opening and was only opened once each year by the one and only +High Priest to enter for a specific ritual performed on behalf of +all Israel and then to return through it (Hebrews 9:6-7). Over +four million Mormon Temple patrons, mostly women but including +hundreds of thousands of High Priests, WORKED their way through +their Temple Veil to provide vicarious exaltation for dead +people. They did nothing on the other side, an did not return +through it as the Hebrew High Priesthood, yet Mormons speak of +their Temple as a restoration of the one in Solomon's Hebrew +Temple. They rarely mention any claims of specific similarities, +or the very many obvious differences. + + THE VEIL CEREMONY + + The Veil Ceremony is the Patron's principle opportunity to +participate in this two hour ritual. A Veil Worker represents +the Lord behind the Veil, and an Introducer presents the patron +to the Lord and coaches him through his lines and actions if +necessary. The Lord reaches through and opening in the Veil to +take his hand in the various grips or tokens and asks him +specific questions through the Veil. His answers must be word +perfect. The culmination of this examination is the name of the +Second Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the Patriarchal Grip, +or Sure Sign of the Nail, which is given to the patron only +through the Veil, while embracing the Lord in the Five Points of +Fellowship. + + THE FIVE POINTS OF FELLOWSHIP + + "The Five Points of Fellowship are inside of right foot by the +side of right foot, knee to knee, breast to breast, hand to back, +and mouth to ear." The patron and the Veil Worker both reach +their left arm through the appropriate mark in the Veil, while +holding right hands in the Patriarchal Grip, and embracing each +other, maintaining strong contact at all the points indicated +with the Veil separating them, while the Veil Worker gives the +name of the token to the patron and the patron repeats it back +vebatim. The name of the token is, "Health in the navel, marrow +in the bones, strength in the loins and sinews. Power in the +Priesthood be upon me, and upon my posterity through all +generations of time, and throughout all eternity." This is a +form of incantation similar to various Witchcraft, Voodoo, or +Black Magic incantations in use for centuries before Joseph Smith +developed his Endowment. Many women patrons are seriously +agitated and disturbed by this procedure through the Veil. Since +the Veil Workers are all men, they tend to put the blame on the +men for being overly familiar or enthusiastic in this embrace. +Since the women tend to be more sensitive and perceptive, I +believe they are often spiritually disturbed by the overtly +occultic mystical demonic power that is being invoked in this +incantation. This probably significantly contributes to why less +than ten percent of those Mormons who are eligible actually +attend the Temple regularly, while nearly triple that number have +been through this experience once. After the patron repeats this +incantation vebatim, calling these spiritist powers down upon +himself and his posterity for eternity, he is ushered into the +beautiful, etherial Celestial Room, as the climax and reward for +his perserverance and performance. + + THE CELESTIAL ROOM + + The Celestial Room is a very large, elegantly decorated and +furnished sitting room. It has no function or purpose except +that patrons may stand or sit for a few minutes to wait for +spouse, friends, or associates to come through the Veil. +Conversation is permitted only in quiet whispers. This is the +only opportunity a Mormon ever has to ask a question about the +Temple ceremonies. It is supposed to be a place to meditate, or +seek answers to problems or inspiration. In actual practice, +however, patrons are not permitted to remain in the Celestial +room for more than a few minutes. Rarely is anyone available to +answer any questions or discuss a problem. It is very business +like an efficiently operated, like a production line. + + Patrons move from the Celestial room out a side door and back +downstairs to the locker room, still wearing all the Temple +clothing. There the patron removes his Temple attire, puts on +his normal clothing, and is free to leave at his leisure. There +is a comfortable waiting room near the entrance where he may +await spouse and friends. + + TEMPLE MARRIAGE FOR TIME AND ETERNITY + + A typical Temple contains from six to twenty Sealing Rooms where +marriages and Sealings are performed for the living and the dead. +Sealings are performed for couples already married, living or +dead, to extend their marriage to eternity. On a typical spring +Saturday in Los Angeles from 60 to 100 marriages and Sealings may +be performed, mostly for young couples. The Sealing Rooms are +elegantly furnished and decorated (See figure 5). The walls are +lined with formal dining room type chairs and a beautiful altar +is in the center. Two opposing walls are covered with solid +mirrors so that one can seem to see "for Eternity" in both +directions. The Officiator for this ceremony is a Temple Sealer, +who is called to this position because he is considered an +especially "Spiritual" person. + + The room is often filled with many friends and family of the +wedding couple, who must also have valid Temple Recommends, who +have come to be with them, all dressed in white Temple clothing. +It is an impressive ceremony. There were approximately 40 dearly +beloved friends at the Sealing of my wife and three teenage +children to myself one year and six days after our Baptism. (It +is the order of the Priesthood that wife (or wives) and children +are sealed to the Priesthood holder). Though we were dazed and +perplexed by the rush of confusing activities that had taken +place during a period of sever hours preceeding it, at the +completion of that brief climaxing ceremony we truly felt +blessed. With this capacity crowd of joyful well wishers +encouraging us, we truly felt a wonderful bond of family +togetherness envelop us. It is an event I will never forget. We +thought we had achieved a wonderful goal through sustained +sacrifice, dedication and hard work. The promises bestowed were +glorious beyond understanding, and it felt worthwhile and +rewarding. The support and fellowship of all those beloved +friends who were there just for us was a very significant factor +in the good feelings we had, for without them it would all have +been a mass of confusion and senseless rituals. + + 5 LAWS- All Temple patrons covenant and promise to keep and live +by these five laws of the Endowment. + + 1 - Law of Obedience- Wives agree to obey their husbands in +righteousness, and husbands, in turn agree to obey the law of +Elohim and keep his commandments. + + 2 - Law of Sacrifice- All agree to give everything they have, +including their lives, if necessary, to the building up of the +Kingdom of God. + + 3 - Law of the Gospel- All agree to obey the Law of the Gospel, +and to avoid lightmindedness, loud laughter, evil speaking of the +Lord's annointed, the taking of the name of God in vain, and +every other unholy and impure practice. + + 4 - Law of Chastity- All agree that they shall have no sexual +intercourse except with their legal and lawful husband or wife +(or wives). + + 5 - Law of Consecration- All agree to consecrate their time, +talents, and everything with which the Lord has blessed them or +will bless them to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day +Saints, for the building up of the Kingdom of God and the +establishment of Zion (the Mormon Church). + + 4 TOKENS (HANDCLASPS) - WITH ACCOMPANYING NAMES - Temple +participants each receive these four secret tokens or handclasps +with accompanying secret names, signs, and penalties. + + 1 - The First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood: Is given by +clasping the right hands together and by placing the joint of the +thumb over the first knuckle of the hand. Its name is the NEW +NAME you received in the temple this day (The 'New Name' is +usually Biblical, and is the same for everyone on a given day, +i.e., every male who goes to the temple on the third of the month +will receive the name "Abraham". The name of the First Token of +the A.P., then, would be "Abraham"). + + 2 - The Second Token of the Aaronic Priesthood: Is given by +clasping right hands together and by placing the joint of the +thumb between the first and second knuckles of the hand. The +name of this token is your given name (If you are Elmer Jones the +name of the token would be "Elmer", and if you were Sadie Jones +it would be "Sadie"). + + 3 - The First Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood or Sign of the +Nail: Is executed by bringing your right hand forward in a +vertical position, fingers close together, thumb extended, and +the person giving the token placing the tip of the forefinger in +the center of the palm with the thumb on the back of the hand. +The name of this token in "The Son". + + 4 - The Second Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the +Patriarchal Grip, or Sure Sign of the Nail: Is given by clasping +right hands and interlocking little fingers, and placing the +index finger of the right hand on the center of the wrist. The +name is "Health in the navel, marrow in the bone, strength in the +loins and in the sinews, power in the priesthood be upon me and +upon my posterity through all generation of time and throughout +all eternity". + + 4 SIGNS AND 3 PENALTIES + + 1 - The Sign and Penalty of the First Token of the Aaronic +Priesthood Is made by bringing the right arm to the square, the +palm of the hand forward, the fingers close together, and the +thumb extended. The penalty is executed by placing the right +thumb under the left ear, palm down, fingers close together. The +thumb is drawn quickly across the throat to the right ear and the +hand dropped to the side. This signifies having your throat slit +from ear to ear and your tongue torn out by its roots.* + + 2 - The Sign and Penalty of the Second Token of the Aaronic +Priesthood Is made by bringing the right hand in front of you, +the hand in cupping shape, the right arm forming a square, and +the left arm is raised to the square. The penalty is executed by +placing the right hand on the left breast, and drawing the hand +quickly across the chest, then dropping both hands to the sides. +This signifies having your chest ripped open and your heart and +vitals torn out and fed to the beasts of the field and the fowls +of the air.* + + 3 - The Sign and Penalty of the First Token of the Melchizedek +Priesthood is made by bringing the left hand forward, the hand +in cupping shape, the left arm forming a square. The right hand +is brought forward, the palm down, fingers close together, and +the thumb extended. The thumb is placed over the left hip. The +penalty is executed by drawing the thumb quickly across the body +and dropping both hands to the sides. This signifies having your +body cut asunder and your bowels gush out upon the ground.* + + 4 - The Sign of the Second Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood +(no penalty is mentioned) Is made by raising both hands high +above the head, palms forward, fingers close together, and +lowering the hands to the side three times while repeating aloud +the words, 'PAY LAY ALE, PAY LAY ALE, PAY LAY ALE.' They are +told this means, "Oh God, hear the words of my mouth" in the +Adamic language. + + *Up until the 1930's the penalties were plainly stated as +indicated. The patron was agreeing or covenanting that if he or +she revealed these secrets, the Mormon elders would very +literally take them and execute the penalties upon them. This is +known as "blood atonement", and is still a doctrine of the Church +today. + + *The significance of the penalties is no longer explained to the +patrons as plainly as it was in former days. Today it is +described as "various ways in which life may be taken." As the +patron is executing the morbid gesture of the penalty, he is +affirming that rather than reveal the secret token, name, sign +and penalty, he would "suffer his life to be taken." + + IMMORALITY AND SEXUAL ACTIVITY IN THE TEMPLE RITUAL + + Numerous stories have been circulated of all manner of sexual +activities, indecent exposure, polygamous marriages, marital +intercourse, etc., taking place as part of the Temple rituals. +We want to unequivically and emphatically state that none of +these are true. There is no overt sexual activity, immoral or +otherwise, contained within the rituals or otherwise conducted +within the Mormon Temples, although there are numerous +similarities between ancient pagan fertility rites and Mormon +Temple rituals. We do not believe that polygamous marriages are +knowingly being performed within the Temples today. Since +polygamy is still an essential element of Mormon doctrine, and +still very much alive in Utah, we realize that some Mormon +dishonestly obtain polygamous marriage through Mormon Temples by +concealing the truth of their intentions. + + THE GARMENT OF THE HOLY PRIESTHOOD + + 4 MARKS - + + Every Mormon who "receives his Endowments" (including all Mormon +Missionaries) is dressed by a temple worker in the "garment of +the holy priesthood" which he is required to wear 24 hours a day, +365 days a year, until he is buried in it. It is removed only to +bathe and change them, and for certain "public appearance" +exceptions. Most of these have the appearance of old-fashioned +"long johns". + + Closer examination reveals a pair of botton-holes over the right +breast sewn in the form of a square, reminding the Mormon of +exactness and honor in living up to his temple vows. Over the +left breast a pair of botton-holes in the form of a compass, +remind the Mormon that all truth may be circumscribed into one +great whole, and that all appetites must be kept within certain +bounds. One button-type hole over the navel, recalls the need +of nourishment for body and soul, and an identical hole over the +right knee, signifies that every knee shall bow, and every tongue +confess that Jesus is the Christ. In the early Mormon Temple +ceremonies some of the marks were cut into the garment with a +small knife while on the patron's body, thus knicking his flesh +and shedding his blood into the garment. See Leviticus 19:28, +21:5, Deuteronomy14:1, and Jeremiah 16:6. The same four marks +are on the veil of the temple in much larger dimensions. The +Temple Worker tells the patron, as he or she is being dressed in +this garment, that "it will be a shield and a protection to you +from the power of the destroyer until you have finished your work +on the earth, so long as you are true and faithful to the +covenants you make in the temple this day." + + The garment has thus become a magic talisman to the Temple +patron, and is to be his source of protection from the power of +Satan throughout his lifetime. The patron is instructed that, +when the garment is worn out, he must cut the priesthood markings +off of it and burn them. The garment then can be used for rags +or any other purpose. Thus we see that the magical "power" in in +the Priesthood markings. The Christian is taught that his +protection from Satan comes in a much different form from this +Priestcraft occultic talisman magic. Christians, in overcoming +Satan's attacks, are to put on something more substantial than +magic underwear with Masonic markings. It is fully explained in +Ephesians 6:12-18, and we highly recommend this form of +protection to all readers. + + MASONIC SYMBOLS AND RITES USED IN THE MORMON TEMPLE + + In spite of vehement denials to the contrary, there is a direct +link between the rites, symbols, signs, handclasps and penalties +of the Masonic Lodge (Free and Accepted Masons or Free Masons) +and those of the temple Endowments of Mormonism. Joseph Smith +received his first degree in Masonry on March 15, 1842 and the +very next day was elevated to 32nd degree sublime Master of the +Royal Secret. (See History of the Church (H.C.), Volume 4, page +550, 552). Six weeks later, on May 2, 1842, Smith was teaching +these Masonic secrets as his own "revelations" to Mormon leaders +as the Temple Endowment (see H.C., Volume 15, Page 2). It was +from his association with the Masons that Joseph Smith derived +the basic ceremonies and symbols now known as the "Endowment". +Into the fabric of Free Masonry he wove his own peculiar brand of +occultism, claiming it to be "Revelation" from on high. + + We do not intend to do an exhaustive comparison between Masonry +and the Mormon Temple Endowment, but we would like to draw your +attention to a few of the more obvious similarities. Please keep +in mind as you look over the following list, that the Masonic +rituals and symbols pre-date the Mormon Church by several hundred +years: + + All Seeing Eye + Anointing with oil + Apron + Beehive + Square and Compass + Earth Symbol + Emblem of the clasped hands + Solemn Assembly in the Temple + Five points of Fellowship + Special Garments applied to initiates + Garment Markings + Grips (Special handshakes) + The phrase: "Holiness to the Lord" + Moon symbol + New Name given + Special Prayer circle + Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods + Blood/death oaths of secrecy with morbid gestures and words + describing penalties agreed to if secrets are revealed. + Location (possession of) Throne of the "Holy of Holies" + Star symbols + Sun symbols + Tabernacles + Temples + + THE TEMPLE CEREMONIES + + Throughout the following account of the Temple ceremonies certain +explanatory notes have been added to help you understand the +flow of events. These sections are clearly distinguished by the +bold face type used. The temple ceremonies are set forth with no +editorial commentary on our part, for we feel that the words +spoken and doctrines revealed truly "Speak for themselves," and +demonstrate that Mormonism is not in any way Christian. + + The rituals, called "ordinances" or "temple work", which are +performed inside the temple are of two classes, work for the +living and work for the dead. + + Please refer to the introduction for an explanation of these. +Over 95% of the temple rituals are performed for the dead by a +patron acting as proxy for the dead person. + + PRE-INITIATORY" RITUAL + + The first ceremony for the dead in the Temple is that of Baptism. +This is performed in the beautiful baptismal font mounted on the +backs of 12 full sized oxen, located in the Temple basement. The +officiator and the patron are dressed in heavy white jump-suits. +There are two or more witnesses observing the procedure. Usually +a closed circuit T.V. is used to project the names of the +deceased persons on a large T.V. screen. Typically 200-300 +baptisms are performed per hour. The baptismal pronouncement is +recited in full for each baptism, and the patron is completely +immersed. + + BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD + + Brother (or Sister) ________, having authority, I baptize you, +for and in behalf of________, who is dead, in the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, amen. + + Next comes the Confirmation for the Dead. This is usually +performed at or near the baptismal font, by the same persons who +performed the baptism ritual. + + CONFIRMATION FOR THE DEAD + + Brother (or Sister) ________, in the name of Jesus Christ, we lay +our hands upon your head for and in behalf of ________, who is +dead, and confirm you a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of +Latter-day Saints, and say unto you: Receive the Holy Ghost. +Amen. + + After the Baptism and Confirmation for the Dead are done, the +person who is doing work for the dead is ready to be washed with +water, anointed with oil and clothed in the garment of the Holy +Priesthood. This is the beginning of the Endowment Ceremony. + + The ordination of the dead males to the Mormon "Holy Melchizedek +Priesthood" is usually (but not always) performed in the same area +of the Temple by the same proxy. Other temple workers perform +this ordinance following the baptism and confirmation. Two +workers lay their hands upon the patron's head and one of them +pronounces the ordination. + + ORDINATION FOR THE DEAD + + Brother ________, having authority we lay our hands upon your +head and confer upon you the Melchizedek Priesthood and ordain +you an Elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, +for and in behalf of ________, who is dead, and seal upon you +every grace, gift and authority appertaining to his office in the +Holy Melchizedek Priesthood, for and in his behalf, in the name +of Jesus Christ. Amen. + + INITIATORY ORDINANCE + + Following the pre-initiatory ordinances of baptism and +confirmation and ordination, other proxies will perform the next +group of rituals for these deceased parsons. These are called +the "initiatory ordinances" or rituals and are performed on the +main floor level of the Temple, adjacent to the men's and women's +locker rooms. These include washing with water, anointing with +oil, and clothing in the Garment of the Holy Priesthood. + + PREPARATION FOR PARTICIPATION + + As patrons enter the Temple, they present their "Temple +Recommend" to a doorkeeper immediately inside. They then proceed +to a room with two typists at counters, one for men and the other +for women. Each patron presents his recommend to the typist, she +types his name, then tears off a strip of the page approximately +1/2 inch wide by 2 1/2 inches long. This contains the name and +birthdate of the deceased person, and the proxy's name. The +patrons proceed to a room where Temple clothing may be rented. +Many patrons do not own their own Temple clothing but prefer to +rent it as a nominal charge. Each Temple has a large and busy +laundry and sewing facility to provide this service. The patrons +separate at this point to the men's and women's locker rooms, +where each patron is assigned a locker. + + The typical locker rooms are identical for men and women with one +exception, the bride's rooms. The locker rooms are composed of +rows of dressing booths with chest high partitions. The booth +contains three tall lockers with locks and keys. There is a +space on top of the lockers for suitcases in which most patrons +carry their own white temple clothing. Most patrons will remove +their street clothing and place it in the locker, leave their +temple garment on, and put on the white temple clothing - white +dress, slip, stockings and slippers, or white pants shirt, tie, +belt, socks and slippers which they either bought or rented. + + They will then lock their locker and proceed to receive the "New +Name" in a special booth, and then go to the theatre like +endowment room to receive the Endowment. These patrons who are +receiving the Washing, Anointing, and Clothing in the Garment of +the Holy Priesthood, either for themselves or for a dead person +for whom they are proxy, will proceed as follows + + WASHING AND ANOINTING ROOM FOR MEN + + The patron prepares for these rituals, called the initiatory +ordinances, by removing all clothing and placing it in the +locker. The patron puts on a devise called a shield. This strip +of white sheeting approximately three feet wide by 8 feet long +with a head sized whole in the center. It hangs open at the +sides and covers the body front and back. The patron then +proceeds to the washing and anointing room, taking with him his +temple garment, name slip and locker key. Usually he joins +group of similarly attired patrons on a bench waiting their turn +to enter. As each patron enters, the temple worker takes the +garment from the patron and the patron enters the first section +of the room to be washed with water. + + The temple worker wets his right hand in running water and +proceeds to ceremonially wash the patron's body. As he recites +the words of the ceremony, the temple worker lightly touches each +part of the patron's body mentioned with his fingers or hand. + + WASHING - OF MEN + + Brother ________, having authority, I wash you preparatory to +your receiving your anointings (for and in behalf of ________, +who is dead), that you may become clean from the blood and sins +of this generation. I wash your head, that your brain and your +intellect may be clear and active; your ears, that you may hear +the word of the Lord; your eyes, that you may see clearly and +discern between truth and error; your nose, that you may smell; +your lips, that you may never speak guile; your neck, that it may +bear up your head properly; your shoulders, that they may bear +the burdens that shall be placed thereon; your back, that there +may be marrow in the bones and in the spine; your breast, that it +may be the receptacle of pure and virtuous principles; your +vitals and bowels, that they may be healthy and strong and +perform their proper functions; your arms and hands, that they +may be strong and wield the sword of justice in defense of truth +and virtue; your loins, that you may be fruitful and multiply and +replenish the earth, that you may have joy and rejoicing in your +posterity; your legs and feet, that you may run and not be weary, +and walk and not faint. + + The washing is then sealed by two temple workers placing their +hands upon the patron's head. One of them pronounces the + + CONFIRMATION OF WASHING - OF MEN + + Brother ________, having authority, we lay our hands upon your +head (for and in behalf of ________, who is dead), and seal upon +you this washing, that you may become clean from the blood and +sins of this generation through your faithfulness, in the name of +Jesus Christ. Amen. + + Next, the patron enters the second part of the room where he is +seated upon a sort of a tile covered throne chair. Another +temple worker pours some drops of oil from a large horn into his +hand and proceeds to anoint the patron's body, by dipping his +fingers in the oil and touching each part in turn. + + ANOINTING - OF MEN + + Brother ________, having authority, I pour this holy anointing +oil upon your head (for and in behalf of ________, who is dead), +and anoint you preparatory to your becoming a King and a Priest +unto the Most High God, hereafter to rule and reign in the House +of Israel forever. I anoint your head, that your brain and your +intellect may be clear and active; your ears, that you may hear +the word of the Lord; your eyes, that you may see clearly and +discern between truth and error; your nose, that you may smell; +your lips, that you may never speak guile; your neck, that it may +bear up your head properly; your shoulders, that they may bear +the burdens that shall be placed thereon; your back, that there +may be marrow in the bones and in the spine; your breast, that it +may be the receptacle of pure and virtuous principles; your +vitals and bowels, that they may be healthy and strong and +perform their proper functions; your arms and hands, that they +may be strong and wield the sword of justice in defense of truth +and virtue; your loins, that you may be fruitful and multiply and +replenish the earth, that you may have joy and rejoicing in your +posterity; your legs and feet, that you may run and not be weary, +and walk and not faint. + + The anointing is then sealed by two of the temple workers laying +their hands upon the patron's head and one of them pronouncing +the sealing. + + CONFIRMATION OF ANOINTING - OF MEN + + Brother ________, having authority we lay hands upon your head +(for and in behalf of ________, who is dead), and confirm upon +you this anointing, wherewith you have been anointed in the +Temple of our God preparatory to becoming a king and a priest +unto the Most High God hereafter to rule and reign in the House +of Israel forever; and seal upon you all the blessings hereunto +appertaining, through your faithfulness, in the name of Jesus +Christ. Amen. + + The patron now enters the third section of the room to be clothed +in the garment that he brought with him to the washing and +anointing room. A temple worker holds the garment open for the +patron, who is still wearing the shield, to step into. He then +helps the patron pull the garment up and put his arms in as the +worker is giving instructions and "New Name". + + RECEIVING THE "GARMENT OF THE HOLY PRIESTHOOD" + AND THE "NEW NAME" + + Brother ________, having authority, I place this garment upon you +(for and in behalf of ________, who is dead), which you must wear +throughout your life. It represents the garment given to Adam +when he was found naked in the Garden of Eden, and is called the +Garment of the Holy Priesthood. Inasmuch as you do not defile +it, but are true and faithful to your covenants, it will be a +shield and a protection to you against the power of the destroyer +until you have finished your work here on earth. With this +garment I give you a new name, which you should always remember, +and which you must keep sacred, and never reveal except at a +certain place that will be shown you hereafter. The name is +"________". + + Each of the men and each of the women participating in the +Endowment (on a particular day) receive the same "New Name".. +The "New Name" is usually Biblical, such as Abraham, Joseph, +Moses, etc. or Martha, Mary, or Naomi. An alternate New Name is +provided to those patrons who are representing a dead person +whose first name sounds like the New Name in use. + + The patron then goes back to his locker, removes his shield, and +puts on his white clothing, which he either rented or brought +with him. This includes white shirt, trousers, belt, socks, tie +and mocassins. This is put over the garment. He then carries in +his hand the Temple Clothing which he will put on later in the +ceremony. + + The women patrons have been going through similar rituals in +their identical area of the Temple. Over the Temple garment they +now dress in white slip, long dress, hose and mocassins. + + Today it is common practice for the Washing, Anointing and +Clothing in the Garment of the Holy Priesthood to be performed +separately from the Endowment by other proxies. Those who come +to the Temple to perform only the Endowment dress in their white +Temple clothing and pass through a special booth where they +receive the "New Name" on their way to the Endowment rooms. The +name slip containing the name of the dead person is green or gold +for these persons. + + The patrons will usually pass through a beautiful foyer and climb +an impressive flight of stairs to reach the Endowment room where +they will be segregated by a temple worker, women to the left and +men to the right (entering always from the rear) and be seated on +richly upholstered theatre type seats. In the older Temples, +patrons often still move from room to room through the various +stages of presentation of the Endowment. In modern Temples, +patrons remain in one room throughout the first one and one half +hours of the Endowment, which is presented in motion picture form +except for the secret tokens, names, signs, penalties, prayer +circle and veil explanation portion, which are on tape recording. +The Officiator, who is "in charge" of the presentation pantomimes +much of the taped portion, and rarely speaks. + + CREATION ROOM + + LECTURER #1 (tape recording Brethren and Sisters, we welcome +you to the Temple and hope you will find joy in serving in the +house of the Lord this day. Those of you who are here for your +own Endowments and those who have yellow or white family name +slips should have been washed, anointed, and clothed in the +garment of the Holy Priesthood. The brethren with the yellow +name slips should also have been ordained. The ordinances of +washing, anointing, and clothing in the garment of the Holy +Priesthood, together with the ordaining on behalf of deceased +brethren, were performed previously by other proxies for those +whose names are on the green or gold nameslips. + + Each of you should have received a "New Name" in connection with +this company. If any of you have forgotten the "New Name", or +have not received these ordinances as explained, please stand. +Please be alert, attentive and refrain from whispering during the +presentation of the Endowment. As you are asked to proceed to +the veil, please do so in an orderly manner, row by row as +directed. After passing through the veil into the Celestial +Room, and in other areas in the Temple, if you need to +communicate, please whisper, thus helping us maintain the quiet +reverence that should prevail in the House of the Lord. We will +now proceed with the presentation of the Endowment. + + LECTURER #2 Brethren, you have been washed and pronounced +clean, or that through your faithfulness, you may become clean +from the blood and sins of this generation. You have been +anointed to become hereafter Kings and Priests unto the Most High +God, to rule and reign in the House of Israel forever. + + Sisters, you have been washed and anointed to become Queens and +Priestesses to your husbands. + + Brethren and Sisters, if you are true and faithful, the day will +come when you will be chosen, called up and anointed Kings and +Queens, Priests and Priestesses, whereas you are now anointed +only to become such. The realization of these blessings depends +upon your faithfulness. + + You have had a garment placed upon you, which you were informed, +represents the garment given to Adam when he was found naked in +the garden of Eden, and which is called the Garment of the Holy +Priesthood. This you were instructed to wear throughout your +life. You were informed that it will be a shield and a +protection to you if you are true and faithful to your covenants. + + You have had a New Name given unto you, which you were told never +to divulge nor forget. This New Name is a keyword which you will +be required to give at a certain place in the temple today. + + The Endowment is to prepare you for exaltation in the Celestial +Kingdom. + + If you proceed and receive your full Endowment, you will be +required to take upon yourselves sacred obligations, the +violation of which will bring upon you the judgment of God; for +God will not be mocked. If any of you desire to withdraw rather +than accept these obligations of your own free will and choice, +you may now make it known by raising your hand. PAUSE) + + Brethren and Sisters, as you sit here, you will hear the voices +of three persons who represent Elohim, Jehovah and Michael. +Elohim will command Jehovah and Michael to go down and organize a +world. The work of the six creative periods will be represented. +They will organize man in their own likeness and image, male and +female. This however is simply figurative so far as the man and +woman are concerned. PAUSE) + + Here begins a motion picture presentation which constitutes the +major portion of the Endowment. Originally it was done on stage +with live actors, but most all Temples are now using the filmed +versions of the Endowment ceremony. During the creation sequence +a series of scenes and animation or still art work are shown +portraying the creation activities. Only the voices of the +characters are heard. + + THE CREATION - FIRST DAY + + ELOHIM Jehovah, Michael, See yonder is matter unorganized. Go +ye down and organize it into a world like unto the worlds that we +have heretofore formed. Call your labors the First Day and bring +me word. + + JEHOVAH It shall be done, Elohim. Come Michael, let us go +down. + + MICHAEL We will go down, Jehovah. + + JEHOVAH Michael, see, here is the matter unorganized. We will +organize it into a world like unto the worlds that we have +heretofore formed. We will call our labors the First Day and +return and report. + + MICHAEL We will return and report our labors of the First Day, +Jehovah. + + JEHOVAH Elohim, we have been down as thou hast commanded and +have organized a world like unto the worlds that we have +heretofore formed and we have called our labors the First Day. + + ELOHIM It is well. + + SECOND DAY + + ELOHIM Jehovah, Michael, go down again. Gather the waters +together and cause the dry land to appear. The great waters call +ye seas and the dry land call ye earth. Form mountains and +hills, great rivers and small streams to beautify and give +variety to the face of the earth. When you have done this, call +your labors the Second Day and bring me word. + + JEHOVAH It shall be done, Elohim. Come Michael, let us go +down. + + MICHAEL We will go down, Jehovah. + + JEHOVAH Michael, we will gather the waters together and cause +the dry land to appear. The great waters we will call seas, and +the dry land we will call Earth. We will form mountains and +hills, great rivers and small streams to beautify and give +variety to the face of the earth. We will call our labors the +Second Day and return and report. + + MICHAEL We will return and report our labors of the Second Day, +Jehovah. + + JEHOVAH Elohim, we have been down as thou hast commanded, and +have gathered the waters together and have caused the dry land to +appear. The great waters we have called seas and the dry land we +have called earth. We have formed mountains and hills, great +rivers and small streams to beautify and give variety to the +face of the earth. And we have called our labors the Second Day. + + ELOHIM It is well. + + THIRD DAY + + ELOHIM Jehovah, Michael, return again to the earth you have +formed. Divide the light from the darkness. Call the light day +and the darkness night. Cause the lights in the firmament to +appear, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light +to rule the night. Cause the stars also to appear, to give light +to the earth, the same as with the worlds we have heretofore +formed. When you have done this, call your labors the Third Day, +and return and report. + + JEHOVAH It shall be done Elohim. Come Michael, let us go down. + + MICHAEL We will go down, Jehovah. + + JEHOVAH Michael, we will divide the light from the darkness. +We will call the light day, and the darkness night. We will +cause the lights in the firmaments to appear, the greater light +to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. We will +cause the stars also to appear, to give light to the earth, the +same as with the worlds we have heretofore formed. We will call +our labors the Third Day, and return and report. + + MICHAEL We will return and report our labors of the Third Day, +Jehovah. + + JEHOVAH We have been down as thou hast commanded, and divided +the light from the darkness. The light we have called day, and +the darkness we have called night. We have caused the firmament +to appear. We have set the greater light to rule the day, and +the lesser light to rule the night. We have caused the stars to +appear to give light to the earth, and have called our labors the +Third Day. + + ELOHIM It is well. + + FOURTH DAY + + ELOHIM Jehovah, Michael, return again to the earth you have +formed. Plant seeds of all kinds in the earth ... + + NOTE: Elohim continues the instructions for filling the earth +with vegetation, various forms of flora are specified. Jehovah +and Michael accept the instructions and the process is repeated +as in the first three days, with the instructions being put into +action upon the earth. Jehovah and Michael return and repeat the +same instructions in the form of a report, which Elohim accepts +with, "It is well". + + FIFTH DAY + + ELOHIM Jehovah, Michael, go down again to the earth you have +formed, and place beasts and all forms of animal life thereon: +the Elephant, the Lion, the Tiger, the Bear, the Horse, Cattle in +the fields and other kinds of animals; fouls in the air in all +their varieties; fishes of all kinds in the waters, and insects +and all manner of animal life upon the earth. Command the +beasts, the fouls, the fishes, the insects, all creeping things +and other forms of animal life to multiply in their respective +elements, each after its kind, and every kind of vegetation to +multiply in its sphere, that every form of life may fulfill the +measure of its creation and have joy therein. Call your labors +the Fifth Day, and return and bring me word. + + JEHOVAH It shall be done, Elohim. Come Michael, let us go +down. + + MICHAEL We will go down, Jehovah. + + JEHOVAH Michael, now that the earth is formed, divided and +beautified, and vegetation is growing there on, we will place +beasts upon the land: the Elephant, the Lion, the Tiger, the +Bear, the Horse, and all other kinds of animals; fouls in the air +in all their varieties, fishes of all kinds in the waters, and +insects, and all manner of animal life upon the earth. We will +command the beasts, the fouls, the fishes, the insects, all +creeping things and other forms of animal life to multiply in +their respective elements, each after its kind, and every kind of +vegetation to multiply in its sphere, that every form of life may +fill the measure of its creation, and have joy therein. We will +call our labors the Fifth Day, and return and report. + + MICHAEL We will return and report our labors of the Fifth Day, +Jehovah. + + Jehovah and Michael then return and repeat the dialogue again to +Elohim in the form of a report. + + ELOHIM It is well. + + SIXTH DAY + + ELOHIM Jehovah, is man found upon the earth? + + JEHOVAH No, man is not found upon the earth, Elohim. + + ELOHIM Jehovah, Michael, then let us go down and form man in +our own likeness and in our own image, male and female, and put +into him his spirit, and let us give him dominion over the +beasts, the fishes, and the birds, and make him Lord over the +earth and over all things on the face of the earth. We will +plant for him a garden, eastward in Eden, and place him in it to +tend and cultivate it, that he may be happy and have joy therein. +We will command him to multiply and replenish the earth, that he +may have joy in his posterity. We will place before him the Tree +of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and we will allow Lucifer, our +common enemy, whom we have thrust out, to tempt him and to try +him, that he may know by his own experience the good from the +evil. If he yields to temptation, we will give unto him the Law +of Sacrifice, and we will provide a Savior for him, as we +counselled in the beginning, that man may be brought forth by the +power of the redemption and the resurrection, and come again into +our presence, and with us partake of eternal life and exaltation. +We will call this the sixth day and we will rest from our labors +for a season. Come, let us go down. + + JEHOVAH We will go down, Elohim. + + ELOHIM Jehovah, see the earth that we have formed. There is no +man to till and take care of it. We are here to form man in our +own likeness and in our own image. + + JEHOVAH We will do so, Elohim. + + ELOHIM Jehovah, man is now organized and we will put into him +his spirit, the breath of life, that he may become a living soul. + + ELOHIM Jehovah, is it good for man to be alone? + + JEHOVAH It is not good for man to be alone, Elohim. + + ELOHIM We will cause a deep sleep to come upon this man whom we +have formed and we will take from his side a rib from which we +will form a woman to be a companion and a helpmeet for him. + + NARRATOR Brethren and Sisters, this is Michael, who helped form +the earth. When he awakens from the sleep which Elohim and +Jehovah have caused to come upon him, he will be known as Adam +and having forgotten all, will become like a little child. +Brethren, close your eyes as if you were asleep. + + ELOHIM Adam, awake and arise. + + NARRATOR All the brethren will please arise. + + (Men all stand up + + ELOHIM Adam, here is a woman whom we have formed and whom we +give unto you to be a companion and an helpmeet for you. What +will you call her? + + ADAM Eve. + + Elohim and Jehovah are shown suspended in air against the garden +backdrop, as identical, brilliant, white, radiant personages with +long white beards, white hair, and long white robes. Adam and Eve +are shown shoulders and up behind garden foliage.) + + ELOHIM Why will you call her Eve? + + ADAM Because she is the Mother of all living. + + ELOHIM That is right, Adam. Because she is the Mother of all +living. + + Adam, we have organized for you this earth, and have planted a +garden eastward in Eden. We will place you in the garden and +will there command you and Eve to multiply and replenish the +earth, that you may have joy and rejoicing in your posterity. +Jehovah, introduce Adam into the Garden which we have prepared +for him. + + JEHOVAH It shall be done, Elohim. + + Narrator We now go with Adam and Eve into the garden. The +Brethren will please be seated. + + THE GARDEN OF EDEN + + ELOHIM Adam, we have created for you this earth, and have +placed upon it all kinds of vegetation and animal life. We have +commanded all these to multiply in their own sphere and element. +We give you dominion over all these things, and make you Lord +over the whole earth, and all things on the face thereof. We +now command you and Eve to multiply and replenish the earth, that +you may have joy and rejoicing in your posterity. We have also +planted for you this garden, wherein we have placed all manner of +fruits, flowers and vegetation. Of every tree of the garden thou +mayest freely eat, but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil +thou shalt not eat, nevertheless thou mayest choose for thyself, +for it is given unto thee. But remember that I forbid it, for in +the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. + + Adam, remember this commandment which we have given unto you. +Now go to, dress this garden, take good care of it, be happy and +have joy therein. We shall go away, but we shall visit you again +and give you further instructions. + + LUCIFER: (Wearing crimson velvet flowing robe with tunic and +apron underneath)Well, Adam, you have a new world here. + + ADAM A new world? + + LUCIFER Yes, a new world, patterned after the old one where we +used to live. + + ADAM I know nothing about any other world. + + LUCIFER Oh, I see, your eyes are not yet opened. You have +forgotten everything. You must eat some of the fruit of this +tree (walks to Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and picks 2 +ripe fruit, usually having a appearance of an apple, then walks +over to Adam and holds fruit out to him. Adam, here is some of +the fruit of that tree. It will make you wise. + + ADAM I will not partake of that fruit. Father told me that in +the day that I should partake of it I should surely die. + + LUCIFER You shall not surely die, but shall be as the Gods, +knowing good and evil. + + ADAM I will not partake of it. + + LUCIFER Oh, you will not ?(looks at Eve and expresses a wise +grin Well, we shall see. (walks over to where Eve is admiring +the flowers Eve, here is some of the fruit of that tree (hold +fruit out to Eve. It will make you wise. It is delicious to +the taste and very desirable. + + EVE (surprised Who are you? + + LUCIFER (tenderly I am your brother. + + EVE (Inquisitively You, my brother, and have come here to +persuade me to disobey Father? + + LUCIFER (expounding LDS doctrine I have said nothing about +Father. I want you to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge +of Good and Evil, that your eyes may be opened, for that is the +way Father gained his knowledge. You must eat of this fruit so +as to comprehend that everything has its opposite: good and evil; +virtue and vice; light and darkness; health and sickness; +pleasure and pain; and thus your eyes will be opened and you will +have -- knowledge. + + EVE (plaintively Is there no other way? + + LUCIFER (confidently There is no other way. + + EVE (resignedly Then I will partake. + + LUCIFER: (Expresses a smug, wise grin) There, now go and get +Adam to partake (places another fruit in Eve's hand, closes it, +and pats her hand. + + EVE: (Walks over to where Adam is - Sweetly and persuasively) +Adam, here is some of the fruit of that tree. It is delicious to +the taste and very desirable. + + ADAM (surprised Eve, do you know what fruit that is? + + EVE Yes, it is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and +Evil. + + ADAM I can not partake of it. Do you not know that Father +commanded us not to partake of the fruit of that tree? + + EVE (searchingly Do you intend to obey all of Father's +commandments? + + ADAM (resolutely Yes, all of them. + + EVE (pathetically Do you not recollect that Father commanded us +to multiply and replenish the earth? I have partaken of this +fruit and by so doing shall be cast out, and you will be left a +lone man in the Garden of Eden. + + ADAM (resignedly Eve, I see that this must be so. I will +partake that man may be. + + LUCIFER (walks into the scene That is right. + + EVE (philosophically It is better for us to pass through sorrow +that we may know the good from the evil. (Eve turns to Lucifer - +contemptuously. I know thee now. Thou art Lucifer, he who was +cast out of Father's presence for rebellion. + + LUCIFER: (wisely) Yes, you are beginning to see already. + + ADAM (inquisitively What is that apron you have on? + + LUCIFER (arrogantly) It is an emblem of my power and +Priesthoods. + + ADAM Priesthoods? + + LUCIFER Yes, Priesthoods. + + ADAM I am looking for Father to come down to give us further +instructions. + + LUCIFER Oh, you are looking for Father to come down, are you? + + ELOHIM (voices from a distance Jehovah, we promised Adam that +we would visit him and give him further instructions. Come, let +us go down. + + JEHOVAH We will go down, Elohim. + + ADAM (excitedly I hear their voices, they are coming. + + LUCIFER (excitedly and slyly See, you are naked. Take some +fig leaves and make you aprons. Father will see your nakedness. +Quick! Hide!* + + ADAM (alarmed Come, let us hide. + + NARRATOR Brethren and Sisters, put on your aprons (the movie +stops while the patrons in the audience remove th green fig-leaf +apron from their package of Temple clothing and tie it around +their waist. + + ELOHIM Adam (pause, Adam! (pause, Adam! Where art thou? + + ADAM (cowering I heard thy voice and hid myself, because I was +naked. + + ELOHIM (searchingly Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast +thou partaken of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good +and Evil, of which we commanded thee not to partake? + + ADAM (ashamedly The woman thou gavest me, and commanded that +she should remain with me, she gave me of the fruit of the tree, +and I did eat. + + ELOHIM (sternly Eve, what is this thou hast done? + + EVE (ashamedly The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. + + ELOHIM (angrily Lucifer, what hast thou been doing here? + + LUCIFER (arrogantly I have been doing that which has been +done in other worlds. + + ELOHIM What is that? + + LUCIFER (arrogantly I have been giving some of the fruit of +the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to them. + + ELOHIM (judgementally Lucifer, because thou hast done this, +thou shalt be cursed above all the beasts of the field. Upon thy +belly shalt thou go and dust thou shalt eat all the days of thy +life. + + LUCIFER (defiantly If thou curseth me for doing the same thing +which has been done in other worlds, I will take the spirits that +follow me, and they shall possess the bodies thou createst for +Adam and Eve. + + ELOHIM I will place enmity between thee and the seed of the +woman. Thou mayest have power to bruise his heel, but he shall +have power to crush thy head. + + LUCIFER (vehemently Then with that enmity I will take the +treasures of the earth, and with gold and silver I will buy up +armies and navies, Popes and Priests, and reign with blood and +horror on this earth. + + ELOHIM (authoritatively Depart! + + ELOHIM (turning to Jehovah Jehovah, let cherubim and flaming +sword be placed to guard the way of the Tree of Life, lest Adam +put forth his hand and partake of the fruit thereof, and live +forever in his sins. + +* Note how often Lucifer voices instructions and teaches + doctrine + + JEHOVAH It shall be done, Elohim. (Turns away and gives +command Let cherubim an a flaming sword be placed to guard the +way of the Tree of Life, lest Adam put forth his hand and partake +of the fruit thereof, and live forever in his sins. (turns back +to Elohim It is done, Elohim. + + ELOHIM (judgementally Eve, because thou hast hearkened to the +voice of Satan and hast partaken of the forbidden fruit, and +given unto Adam, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy +conception; in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children. Neverthe +less thou mayest be preserved in child-bearing. Thy desire shall +be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee in righteousness. + + Adam, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and +hast partaken of the forbidden fruit, the earth shall be cursed +for thy sake. Instead of producing fruits and flowers +spontaneously, it shall bring forth thorns, thistles, briars and +noxious weeds to afflict and torment man. And by the sweat of +thy face shalt thou eat thy bread all the days of thy life. For +dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. + + THE LAW OF OBEDIENCE + + ELOHIM (condescendingly Inasmuch as Eve was the first to eat +of the forbidden fruit, if she will covenant that from this time +forth she will obey your law in the Lord, and will harken unto +your council as you harken unto mine, and if you will covenant +that from this time forth you will obey the law of Elohim, we +will give unto you the law of obedience and sacrifice, and we +will provide a Savior for you whereby you may come back into our +presence, and with us partake of eternal life and exaltation. + + EVE (humbly Adam, I now covenant to obey your law as you obey +our Father. + + ADAM (humbly Elohim, I now covenant with you that from this +time forth I will obey your law and keep your commandments. +ELOHIM It is well, Adam. Jehovah, inasmuch as Adam and Eve have +discovered their nakedness, make coats of skins as a covering for +them. + + JEHOVAH It shall be done, Elohim. + + NARRATOR Brethren and Sisters, the garment that was placed upon +you in the washing room is to cover your nakedness and +represents the coat of skins spoken of. Anciently it was made of +skins. You have received the garment, also your New Name. The +Officiator will represent Elohim at the altar. A couple will now +come to the altar (a pre-selected "witness couple"* seated front +row center aisle come forward and kneel at the altar facing +forward. + + It is considered a very special experience to be selected to be +the "witness couple". As they represent all the patrons at the +altar, the Endowment takes on a very 'realistic' atmosphere for +his couple as they move back and forth to the altar to receive +the tokens and actually take part in the ceremony. Dolly and I +were selected twice in approximately 150 Endowment ceremonies in +nine years, and I remember the experience clearly. + + Brethren and Sisters, this couple at the altar represent all of +you as if at the altar. You must consider yourselves as if you +were respectively Adam and Eve. + + ELOHIM We will put the sisters under covenant to obey the law +of their husbands. Sisters, arise (sisters all stand up. Each +of you bring your right arm to the square. You and each of you +solemnly covenant and promise before God, angels, and these +witnesses at this altar that you will each observe and keep the +law of your husband, and abide by his council in righteousness. +Each of you bow your head and say yes. + + SISTERS Yes. + + ELOHIM That will do. (sisters sit down Brethren, arise +(bretheren all stand up. Bring your right arm to the square. +You and each of you solemnly covenant and promise before God, +angels and these witnesses at this altar that you will obey the +law of God and keep His commandments. Each of you bow your head +and say yes. + + BRETHREN Yes. + + ELOHIM That will do. (Bretheren all sit down + + LAW OF SACRIFICE + + ELOHIM You are now about to be put under covenant to obey and +keep the Law of Sacrifice, as contained in the Old and the New +Testament. This Law of Sacrifice was given to Adam in the Garden +of Eden, who, when he was driven out of the Garden, built an +altar on which he offered sacrifices. And after many days, an +angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam saying: "Why dost thou offer +sacrifice unto the Lord?" And Adam said unto him: "I know not, +save the Lord commanded me." And then the angel spake saying: +"This thing is a similitude of the Sacrifice of the Only Begotten +of the Father, who is full of grace and truth. Wherefore, thou +shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou +shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forever- +more." The posterity of Adam down to Moses and from Moses to +Jesus Christ offered up the first fruits of the field and +firstlings of the flock, which continued until the death of Jesus +Christ, which ended sacrifice by the shedding of blood. + + And as Jesus Christ has laid down his life for the redemption of +mankind so we should covenant to sacrifice all that we possess, +even our own lives if necessary, in sustaining and defending the +Kingdom of God (the Mormon Church is the Kingdom of God. + + All arise (patrons all stand up. Each of you bring your right +arm to the square. You and each of you solemnly covenant and +promise before God, angels, and these witnesses at this altar +that you will observe and keep the law of sacrifice as contained +in the Old and the New Testaments, as it has been explained to +you. Each of you bow your head and say yes. + + BRETHREN AND SISTERS (all bow their head Yes. + + ELOHIM That will do (patrons all sit down. + + FIRST TOKEN OF THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD + + ELOHIM We now give unto you the First Token of the Aaronic +Priesthood with its accompanying name, sign and penalty. Before +doing this, however, we desire to impress upon your minds the +sacred character of the First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood, +with its accompanying name, sign and penalty, as well as that of +all the other Tokens of the Holy Priesthood, with their names, +signs and penalties, which you will receive in the temple this +day. They are most sacred and are guarded by solemn covenants +and obligations of secrecy to the effect that under no condition, +even at the peril of your life, will you ever divulge them, +except at a certain place that will be shown you hereafter. The +representation of the execution of the penalties indicates +different ways in which life may be taken. + + The First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood is given by clasping +the right hands and placing the joint of the thumb directly over +the first knuckle of the hand, in this manner (the Officiator +takes the Brother kneeling at the altar by the right hand and +demonstrates the token to the audience. + + We give unto you the First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood. We +desire all to receive it.... + + All arise (The patrons all stand in place. The witness couple +return to their seats. Several temple workers circulate through +the rows of patrons giving each one the token. The patrons sit +down after each receives it. + + If any of you did not receive this token you will please raise +your hands. + + The name of this token is the New Name that you received in the +temple today. If any of you have forgotten the New Name, please +stand. (pause* The sign is made by bringing the right arm to +the square; the palm of the hand to the front, the fingers close +together, and the thumb extended. (The Officiator demonstrates +the sign to the audience This is the sign. + + (The Officiator continues to demonstrate the instructions + + If a patron stands up, indicating he has forgotten the New Name, +he is taken by a Temple Worker to the rear of the room where the +New Name is whispered in his ear. He then returns to his seat, +and the ceremony then resumes. This gives the false impression +that there is more than one New Name in use. Many patrons have +attended the Temple for years before the realized that everyone +has the same New Name. + + The execution of the penalty is represented by placing the thumb +under the left ear, the palm of the hand down, and by drawing the +thumb quickly across the throat to the right ear, and dropping +the hand to the side. + + I will now explain the covenant and obligation of secrecy which +are associated with this token, its name, sign and penalty and +which you will be required to take upon yourselves. If I were +receiving my own Endowment today and had been given the name of +John as my New Name, I would repeat in my mind these words, after +making the sign (he makes the sign, at the same time +representing the execution of the penalty. + + I, John, covenant that I will never reveal the first token of the +Aaronic Priesthood, with its accompanying name, sign, and +penalty. Rather than do so, I would suffer (pause, places right +thumb under left ear my life (pause, draws thumb quickly across +throat to right ear to be taken (drops hands to side. + + All arise (patrons all stand up. + + Each of you make the sign of the First Token of the Aaronic +Priesthood by bringing your right arm to the squares, the palm of +the hand to the front, the fingers close together, and the thumb +extended. + + (Patrons all make the sign. + + This is the sign. + + Now, repeat in your minds after me the words of the covenant, at +the same time representing the execution of the penalty. + + I, think of the New Name, covenant that I will never reveal the +First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood, with its accompanying +name, sign and penalty. Rather than do so, I would suffer +(patrons all place right thumb under left ear as described above +my life (patrons all draw thumb across their throat to the right +ear to be taken (Patrons all drop the hand to their side. + + That will do (patrons all sit down. + + (If any of the brethren or sisters make a mistake in the +execution of the penalty, the execution of the penalty is +repeated by all of the patrons together as instructed. + + It is necessary to repeat the sign of the execution of the +penalty. The sign of the First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood +is made by bringing the right arm to the square, the palm of the +hand to the front, the fingers close together, and the thumb +extended. This is the sign (patrons all make sign. It is not +necessary to repeat again the words of the covenant in +representing the execution of the penalty, but let the name of +the token pass through your mind. Now represent the execution of +the penalty (patrons all execute the penalty. + + That will do (patrons all sit down. + + ELOHIM Jehovah, see that Adam is driven out of this beautiful +garden into the lone and dreary world, where he may learn from +his own experience to distinguish good from evil. + + JEHOVAH It shall be done, Elohim. + + THE LONE AND DREARY WORLD + + NARRATOR We will now go with Adam and Eve to the lone and +dreary world. Brethren and Sisters, this represents the +Telestial Kingdom, or the world in which we now live. Adam, upon +finding himself in the lone and dreary world, built an altar and +offered prayer, and these are the words he uttered: + + ADAM (hands raised up and looking toward heaven + Oh God, hear the words of my mouth! + Oh God, hear the words of my mouth! + Oh God, hear the words of my mouth! + + LUCIFER (arrogant voice from off scene I hear you. (Camera +pans left to show towering, arrogant, colorful Lucifer poised +near Adam, Lucifer walks over to Adam. What is it you want? + + ADAM (surprised Who are you? + + LUCIFER (arrogantly I am the God of this world. + + ADAM (unsure, questioning You, the God of this world? + + LUCIFER Yes, what do you want? + + ADAM I am looking for messengers. + + LUCIFER (expresses a smug, wise grin Oh, you want someone to +preach to you. You want religion do you. I will have preachers +here presently. (Lucifer turns and looks left. Camera pans to +approaching figure dressed in dark blue ministerial robe and +priest's collar until he walks up to Lucifer. Good Morning Sir. + + PREACHER (wisely Good morning! (looking into the audience A +fine congregation. + +LUCIFER Yes, they are very good people. They are concerned +about religion. Are you a preacher? + + PREACHER (proudly with emphasis I am. + + LUCIFER (searchingly Have you been to college and received +training for the ministry? + + PREACHER (proudly with emphasis Certainly! A man cannot +preach unless he has been trained for the ministry! + + LUCIFER Do you preach the orthodox religion? + + PREACHER (proudly with emphasis Yes, that is what I preach. + + LUCIFER If you will preach your orthodox religion to these +people and convert them, I will pay you well. + + PREACHER I will do my best. + +LUCIFER (looks and gestures toward Adam and Eve Here is a man +who desires religion. He is very much exercised, and seems to be +sincere (Lucifer steps back as Preacher approaches Adam and Eve. + + PREACHER (authoritatively I understand you are inquiring after +religion. + + ADAM (sincerely I was calling upon Father. + + PREACHER (dramatically, with gestures I am glad to know that +you were calling upon Father. Do you believe in a God who is +without body, parts and passions, who sits on the top of a +topless throne, whose center is everywhere and whose +circumference is nowhere; who fills the universe, and yet is so +small that he can dwell in your heart. Who is surrounded by +miriads of beings who have been saved by Grace, not by any act of +theirs, but by His good pleasure. Do you believe in this great +Being? + + ADAM (emphatically I do not. I cannot comprehend such a +Being. + + PREACHER (wistfully That is the beauty of it. (reproachful +ly Perhaps you do not believe in the devil and in that great +hell, the bottomless pit, where there is a lake of fire and +brimstone, into which the wicked are cast, and where they are +continually burning but are never consumed? + + ADAM (emphatically I do not believe in any such place. + + PREACHER (reproachfully My dear friend, I am sorry for you. + + LUCIFER (disgustedly I am sorry! very, very sorry! +(searchingly What is it you want? + + ADAM (sincerely I am looking for messengers from my Father. + + ELOHIM (Scene fades to etheral view of magnificent, huge throne +set - with semi circle of towering Greecian columns, broad steps, +Celestial splendor. Elohim majestically towering above Jehovah, +both appearing as in Garden scene. Jehovah, send down Peter, +James and John to visit the man Adam in the Telestial World, +without disclosing their identity. Have them observe conditions +generally, see if Satan is there, and learn whether Adam has been +true to the token and sign given to him in the Garden of Eden. +Have them then return and bring me word. + + JEHOVAH (reverently and submissively It shall be done, Elohim. +(Jehovah turns and walk from the presence of Elohim to the edge +of the great columned set, there Peter, James and John reverently +enter amid rolling clouds [stage smoke] in an etherial view. +Peter, James and John are wearing long, full, shepherd type robes +with colorful sashes. + + JEHOVAH Peter, James and John, go down and visit the man Adam +in the Telestial World, without disclosing your identity. +Observe conditions generally. See if Satan is there, and learn +whether Adam has been true to the token and sign given to him in +the Garden of Eden. Then return and bring us word. + + PETER (reverently and submissively It shall be done, Jehovah. +Come James and John, let us go down. + + JAMES (reverently and submissively We will go down. + + JOHN (reverently and submissively We will go down. + + (All turn and exit scene in single file, Peter leading. Scene +fades back to Lone and Dreary World. Peter, James and John file +into scene, Peter leading, approaches Lucifer, who turns toward +him. + + PETER Good morning. + + LUCIFER Good morning. + + PETER (intently What are you doing here? + + LUCIFER Teaching religion. + + PETER (searchingly What religion do you teach? + + LUCIFER (proudly with emphasis We teach a religion made of +the philosophies of men, mingled with Scripture. + + PETER How is your religion received by this community? + + LUCIFER Very well -- excepting this man. He does not seem to +believe anything we preach. (Peter, James & John turn from +Lucifer and walk over to Adam and Eve + + PETER (intently Good morning. What do you think of the +preaching of these gentlemen? + + ADAM (intently I cannot comprehend it. + + PETER (searchingly Can you give us some idea concerning it? + + ADAM (expresses wonderment They preach of a God who is +without body, parts or passions, who is so large he fills the +universe and yet so small that he can dwell in my heart, and of a +hell without a bottom where the wicked are continually burning +but are never consumed. To me it is a mass of confusion. + + PETER (sympathetically We do not wonder that you cannot +comprehend such doctrine. Have you any tokens or signs? (Lucifer +enters the scene and interrupts the conversation. + + LUCIFER (dramatically, with gestures Do you have any money? + + PETER We have sufficient for our needs. + + LUCIFER (dramatically, with gestures You can buy anything in +this world for money. + + PETER (turns back to Adam, searchingly Do you sell your +tokens or signs for money? You have them, I presume. + + ADAM (sincerely I have them, but I do not sell them for +money. I hold them sacred. I am looking for the further light +and knowledge Father promised to send me. + + PETER That is right. We commend you for your integrity. Good +day. (Peter, James and John turn and exit, single file, Peter +leading, stop at the edge of the set. We shall probably visit +you again. (Peter, James and John exit set. Camera pans to +Lucifer who approaches camera ominously and threateningly. Looks +intently into the audience. + + LUCIFER (vehemently Now is the great day of my power. I reign +from the rivers to the ends of the earth. There is none who +dares to molest or make afraid. + + PREACHER (curiously Shall we ever have any apostles or +prophets? + + LUCIFER (proudly No. However there may be some who will +profess revelation or apostleship. If so, just test them by +asking them to perform a great miracle, such as cutting off an +arm or some other member of the body, and restoring it, so that +the people may know that they come with power. (scene fades to +Elohim's columned throne set. Peter, James and John enter single +file, Peter leading [amid stage smoke] and approach Jehovah who +has been awaiting their return. + + PETER Jehovah, we have been to the man Adam in the Telestial +World as thou didst command. We found Satan there, with his +ministers, preaching all manner of false doctrine, and striving +to lead the posterity of Adam astray. But Adam has been true and +faithful to the token and sign given to him in the Garden of +Eden, and is waiting for the further light and knowledge you +promised to send him. This is our report. + + JEHOVAH It is well, Peter, James and John. (Jehovah turns and +ascends the set width stairs to approach Elohim, standing +majestically at the top. Elohim, Peter, James and John have +been down to the man Adam in the Telestial World. They found +Satan there with his ministers preaching all manner of false +doctrine, and striving to lead the posterity of Adam astray. But +Adam has been true and faithful to the token and sign given him +in the Garden of Eden, and he is waiting for the further light +and knowledge you promised to send him. This is their report. + + ELOHIM It is well. Jehovah, instruct Peter, James and John to +go down in their true character as Apostles of the Lord Jesus +Christ, to the man Adam and his posterity in the Telestial World, +and to cast Satan out of their midst. Instruct them to give unto +Adam and his posterity the Law of the Gospel as contained in the +Book of Mormon and the Bible. Also a charge to avoid all light +mindedness, loud laughter, evil speaking of the Lord's anointed, +the taking of the name of the God in vain, and every other unholy +and impure practice, and cause these to be received by covenant. + + Instruct Peter, James and John further to clothe Adam and his +posterity in the robes of the Holy Priesthood, with the robe on +the left shoulder, and to give unto them the second token of the +Aaronic Priesthood, with its accompanying name, sign and penalty. +Then have them return and bring me word. + + JEHOVAH It shall be done, Elohim. (Jehovah turns, descends +stairs, approaches Peter, James and John Peter, James and John, +go down in your true character as Apostles of the Lord Jesus +Christ to the man Adam and his posterity in the Telestial World. +Cast Satan out of their midst. Give unto them the Law of the +Gospel as contained in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Also a +charge to avoid all light mindedness, loud laughter, evil +speaking of the Lord's anointed, the taking of the name of God in +vain, and even other unholy and impure practice. Cause them to +receive these by covenant. Clothe them in the robes of the Holy +Priesthood, with the robe on the left shoulder, and give unto +them the second token of the Aaronic Priesthood, with its +accompanying name, sign and penalty. Then return and bring us +word. + + PETER It shall be done, Jehovah. Come James and John, let us +go down. + + JAMES We will go down. + + JOHN We will go down. + + (Peter, James and John turn and exit scene as before. Scene +fades to Lone and Dreary World set. Everyone is idle as Peter, +James and John file into set, and approaches Lucifer as before. + + PETER I am Peter. + + JAMES I am James. + + JOHN I am John. + + LUCIFER (reproachfully Yes, I thought I knew you. (turns to +preacher, who is listening, dramatically Do you know who these +men are? They claim to be apostles. Try them! + + (Lucifer backs away and Preacher steps up to Peter + + PREACHER (searchingly Do you profess to be apostles of the +Lord Jesus Christ? + + PETER (confidently We do. + + PREACHER (with sophistication This man told me that we should +never have any revelation or apostles, but if any should come +professing to be apostles, I was to ask them to cut off an arm or +some other member of the body and then restore it, so that the +people might know that they came with power. + + PETER (reproachfully We do not satisfy man's curiosity in +that manner. It is a wicked and an adulterous generation that +seeks for a sign. Do you know who that man is? He is Satan! + + PREACHER (surprised What! The Devil? + + PETER That is one of his names. + + PREACHER (sincerely He is quite a different person from what +he told me the Devil is. He said the Devil has claws like a +bear's on his hands, horns on his head, and a cloven hoof, and +that when he speaks he has the roar of a lion! + + PETER (confidently He has said this to deceive you, and I +would advise you to get out of his employ. + + PREACHER (doubtfully Your advice is good. But, if I leave his +employ, what will become of me? + + PETER (wisely We will preach the gospel unto you with the +rest of Adam's posterity. + + PREACHER (with satisfaction That is good. (turns to Lucifer +who is watching nearby (deliberately I would like to have a +settlement. I want you to pay me for preaching. + + LUCIFER (Proudly with emphasis) I am ready to keep my word and +fulfill my part of the agreement. (reproachfully I promised to +pay you, if you would convert these people, and they have nearly +converted you. You can get out of my kingdom. I want no such +men in it. (Preacher backs out of scene as Lucifer approaches +Peter - arrogantly Now, what are you going to do? + + PETER (reproachfully We will dismiss you without further +argument. + + LUCIFER (dramatically, with gestures Aah! you have looked +over my kingdom, and my greatness and glory. Now you want to take +possession of the whole of it. (Lucifer turns, approaches +the camera, eyes on, ominously, speaks sinisterly - with +vehemence [high drama] I have a word to say concerning these +people. If they do not walk up to every covenant they make at +these altars in this temple this day, they will be in my power.* + + PETER (voice from off camera, commandingly. Camera pans and +zooms back to include Peter, James and John Satan, we command +you to depart. + + LUCIFER (turns toward Peter, James and John - arrogantly By +what authority? + + PETER (Right arm to the square - judgementally In the name of +Jesus Christ, our Master. (Satan very emotionally turns and +departs scene, Peter turns and approaches Adam and Eve Adam, we +are true messengers from the father, and have come down to give +unto you the further light and knowledge he promised to send you. + + ADAM (searchingly How shall I know that you are true +messengers? + + PETER (confidently By our giving unto you the token and sign +you received in the Garden of Eden. + + ADAM (taking Peter by the right hand, but out of view What is +that? + + PETER The first token of the Aaronic Priesthood. + + ADAM Has it a name? + + PETER It has. + + ADAM Will you give it to me? + + PETER I cannot, for it is the New Name, but this is the sign +(right arm elevated to the square. And this represents the +execution of the penalty (Thumb of right hand across throat. + + Lucifer still giving forth doctrine + + ADAM Now I know that you are true messengers sent down from +Father. (turns to audience These are true messengers. I exhort +you to give strict heed to their counsel and teachings, and they +will lead you in the way of life and salvation. + + NARRATOR The Officiator will represent Peter at the altar. + + At this point the motion picture presentation is concluded. The +remainder of the presentation is from tape recording. + + THE LAW OF THE GOSPEL + + PETER A couple will now come to the altar (the witness couple +comes forward and kneels at the altar. Brethren and Sisters, +this couple at the altar represent all of you as if at the altar, +and you will be under the same obligations that they will be. We +are required to give unto you the Law of the Gospel as contained +in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. To give unto you also a +charge to avoid all light mindedness, loud laughter, evil +speaking of the Lord's Anointed, the taking of the name of God in +vain, and every other unholy and impure practice, and to cause +you to receive these by covenant. + + All arise (patrons all stand up. Each of you bring your right +arm to the square (patrons all raise right arm to the square. + + You and each of you covenant and promise before God, angels and +these witnesses at this altar, that you will observe and keep the +Law of the Gospel and this charge as it has been explained to +you. Each of you bow your head and say yes. + + BRETHREN AND SISTERS (all bow their head Yes. + + PETER That will do (patrons all sit down. + + THE ROBES OF THE HOLY PRIESTHOOD + + PETER We are instructed to clothe you in the robes of the Holy +Priesthood. Place the robe on the left shoulder, place the cap +on your head with the bow over the right ear, replace the apron, +tie the girdle with the bow on the right side, remove the +slippers from your feet, and put them on again as part of the +Temple Clothing. You may now proceed to clothe. + + The patrons all stand, and turn around to use their seat as a +dressing table. The remove the green fig-leaf apron and the +slippers from their feet, open their package of Temple clothing, +and commence dressing by placing the long white robe on their +left shoulder and tie it in at the waist on the right side. Next +they put on the hat* (or veil for women) with the bow over the + + *The hat looks like a baker's hat without the wide band. It has +a bow on one side and a string on the opposite side. + + right ear, and then tie the string from the hat to the shoulder +loop of the rope. Next they replace the green apron at the +waist, and then tie the long six inch wide sash in a large bow at +the right side of the waist. They then sit down and replace the +slippers on their feet + + SECOND TOKEN OF THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD + + PETER A couple will now come to the altar (the witness couple +comes forward and kneel at the altar. With the robe on the left +shoulder, you are prepared to officiate in the ordinances of the +Aaronic Priesthood. We will now give unto you the Second Token +of the Aaronic Priesthood with its accompanying name, sign and +penalty. This token is given by clasping the right hands and +placing the joint of the thumb between the first and second +knuckles of the hand, in this manner (Officiator takes brother at +the altar in the grip and shows the audience. + + We desire all to receive it. All arise. (The witness couple +stand up and return to their seats. All patrons stand up in +place and receive the token from one of the temple workers who +circulate through the rows. Then they sit down. If any of you +have not received this token, will you please raise your hand. + + The name of this token is your own first given name if you are +going through the temple for your own Endowment, or if you are +going through for the dead, it is the first given name of the +person for whom you are officiating. + + PETER (the Officiator demonstrates the sign as the instructions +are given The sign is made by bringing the right hand in front of +you, with the hand in cupping shape, the right arm forming a +square, the left arm being raised to the square. This is the +sign. The execution of the penalty is represented by placing the +right hand on the left breast, drawing the hand quickly across +the body, and dropping the hand to the sides. I will now explain +the covenant and obligation to secrecy which are associated with +this token, its name, sign and penalty, and which you will be +required to take upon yourself. + + If I were receiving my own Endowement today, and if my first +given name were David, I would repeat in my mind these words, +after making the sign, at the same time representing the +execution of the penalty (Officiator, still making the sign, +demonstrates the execution of the penalty. I, David, covenant +that I will never reveal the second token of the Aaronic +Priesthood, with its accompanying name, sign and penalty. Rather +than do so, I would suffer (pause, right hand to left breast my +life (pause, draws hand across chest to right breast to be taken +(drops hands to side. + + All arise (patrons all stand up. + + Each of you make the sign of the Second Token of the Aaronic +Priesthood by bringing the right hand in front of you, with the +hand in cupping shape, the right arm forming a square, and the +left arm being raised to the square. This is the sign. + + Patrons all make the sign + + Now repeat in your minds after me the words of the covenant, at +the same time representing the execution of the penalty. + + I, think of the first given name, covenant that I will never +reveal the second token of the Aaronic Priesthood, with its +accompanying name, sign and penalty. Rather than do so, I would +suffer (patrons all place left hand on right breast my life +(patrons all draw left hand quickly across the body to be taken +(patrons all drop both hands to the sides. That will do +(patrons all sit down. + + (If any one of the brethren or sisters makes a mistake in the +execution of the penalty, the execution of the penalty is +repeated by all patrons together, as before. + + The tape resumes + + PETER Jehovah, we have been down to the man Adam and his +posterity in the Telestial world, and have cast Satan out of +their midst. We have given unto them the Law of the Gospel as +contained in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Also a charge to +avoid all light mindedness, loud laughter, evil speaking of the +Lord's anointed, the taking of the name of God in vain, and every +other unholy and impure practice, and have caused them to receive +these by covenant. We have also clothed them in the robes of the +Holy Priesthood and have given unto them the Second Token of the +Aaronic Priesthood, with its accompanying name, sign and penalty. +This is our report. + + JEHOVAH It is well, Peter, James and John. (Jehovah repeats the +same report to Elohim - who is pleased - and gives Jehovah +further instructions for Peter, James and John to return again to +Adam in the Telestial World and to give unto Adam instructions to +change his robe to the right shoulder preparatory to receiving +the ordinances of the Melchizedek Priesthood and to administer to +Adam the Law of Chastity and introduce him into the Terrestial +World. Jehovah then instructs Peter, James and John. They +accept the instructions and depart) + + PETER We are instructed to have you change your robe to the +right shoulder, preparatory to officiating in the ordinances of +the Melchizedek Priesthood, and to introduce you into the +Terrestial World. You may now make the change by removing the +robe (the room light level is increased to represent the change +to the Terrestial World. + + The patrons all stand, turn around to use their seat as a clothes +stand, nd proceed to remove the hat, sash, apron, robe and +slippers. They put the robe on again, but on the right shoulder, +then put all of the other items on reversed, with the bow of the +hat on the right ear and the sash tied to the left side. They +sit down an put on the slippers + + THE TERRESTIAL WORLD + Law of Chastity + + PETER A couple will now come to the altar (the witness couple +come forward and kneel at the altar as before . We are +instructed to give unto you the Law of Chastity. This I will +explain to you. To the sisters, it is that no one of you will +have sexual intercourse except with your husband to whom you are +legally and lawfully wedded. To the brethren, it is that no one +of you will have sexual intercourse except with your wife to whom +you are legally and lawfully wedded. + + Sisters, please arise (sisters all stand up. Each of you bring +your right arm to the square. You and each of you covenant and +promise before God, angels and these witnesses at this altar that +you will observe and keep the Law of Chastity, as it has been +explained to you. Each of you bow your head and say yes. + + SISTERS (all bow their head Yes.) + + PETER That will do (sisters all sit down.) + + Brethren, please arise (brethren all stand up. Each of you +bring your right arm to the square. You and each of you covenant +and promise before God, angels and these witnesses at this altar +that you will observe and keep the Law of Chastity as it has been +explained to you. Each of you bow your head and say yes. + + BRETHREN (all bow their head Yes.) + + PETER That will do (brethren all sit down. + + FIRST TOKEN OF THE MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD + OR THE SIGN OF THE NAIL + + PETER (the Officiator demonstrates the instructions before the +audience as the tape plays We will now give unto you the first +token of the Melchizedek Priesthood or sign of the nail, with its +accompanying name, sign and penalty. This token is received by +bringing the right hand into this position. The hand vertical, +the fingers close together, and the thumb extended. And the +person giving the token placing the tip of the forefinger of his +right hand in the center of the palm, and the thumb opposite on +the back of the hand of the one receiving it, in this manner. We +desire all to receive it. All arise. + + The witness couple stand up and return to their seats as the +patrons all stand and receive the token from one of the temple +workers, then sit down. + +PETER If any of you have not received this token, please you +will please raise your hand. + + The name of this token is "The Son", meaning the Son of God. + + The sign is made by bringing the left hand in front of you with +the hand in cupped shape, the left arm forming a square, the +right hand is also brought forward, the palm down, the fingers +close together, thumb extended, and the thumb is placed over the +left hip (Officiator makes the sign facing the audience as +before. This is the sign. The execution of the penalty is +represented by drawing the thumb quickly across the body and +dropping the hands to the side (Officiator demonstrates execution +of the penalty. + + I will now explain the covenant and obligation of secrecy which +are associated with this token, its name, sign, and penalty, and +which you will be required to take upon yourselves. If I were +receiving the Endowment today, either for myself or for the dead, +I would repeat in my mind these words, after making the sign +(Officiator makes the sign, at the same time representing the +execution of the penalty. I covenant in the name of the Son that +I will never reveal the first token of the Melchizedek Priesthood +or sign of the nail, with its accompanying name, sign and +penalty. Rather that do so, I would suffer my life (pause, draws +right thumb across body to be taken (drops hands to his sides. + + All arise (patrons all stand up.) + + Each of you make the sign of the first token of the Melchizedek +Priesthood or sign of the nail by bringing the left hand in front +of you with the hand in cupping shape, the left arm forming a +square. The right hand is also brought forward, the palm down, +the fingers close together and the thumb extended and the thumb +is placed over the left hip. (Patrons all make the sign This is +the sign. + + Now repeat in your minds after me the words of the covenant, at +the same time representing the execution of the penalty. + + I covenant in the name of the Son that I will never reveal the +first token of the Melchizedek Priesthood or sign of the nail, +with its accompanying name, sign and penalty. Rather than do so, I +would suffer my life (patrons all draw their right thumb quickly +across their body to be taken (patrons all drop both hands to +their sides. + + That will do (patrons all sit down.) + + (If any of the bretheren or sisters makes a mistake in the +execution of the penalty, the execution of the penalty is +repeated by all the patrons as with previous penalties.) + + PETER: We will return and report. + + Jehovah, we have been down to the man Adam and his posterity, +have placed the robe on the right shoulder and have introduced +them into the Terrestial world. We have put them under covenant +to observe and keep the law of chastity. We have also given them +the first token of the Melchizidek Priesthood, or sign of the +nail, with its accompanying name, sign, and penalty. This is our +report. + + JEHOVAH: It is well Peter, James and John. + + Elohim, Peter, James and John have been down to the man Adam and +his posterity, have placed the robe on the right shoulder, and +have introduced them into the Terrestial world. They have also +put them under covenant to observe and keep the law of chastity. +They have given unto them, the First Token of the Melchizedek +Priesthood, or Sign of the Nail, with its accompanying name, sign +and penalty. This is their report. + + ELOHIM: It is well. Jehovah, send down Peter, James, and John +and instruct them to give to the man Adam and his posterity in +the Terrestial World the law of consecration in connection with +the Law of the Gospel and the Law of Sacrifice, and to cause them +to receive it by covenant. To give unto them the second token of +the Melchizedek Priesthood, the Pariarchial Grip or sure sign of +the nail, with its accompanying sign, and to teach them the order +of prayer, and to prepare them in all things to receive further +instructions at the veil. Then have them report at the veil. + + JEHOVAH: It shall be done Elohim. Peter, James, and John, go +down to the man Adam and his posterity in the Terrestrial World, +and give unto them the Law of Consecration, in connection with +the Law of the Gospel and the Law of Sacrifice, and cause them to +receive it by covenant. Give unto them the second Token of the +Melchizedek Priesthood, the Patriarchal Grip, or sure sign of the +nail, with its accompanying sign. Teach them the Order of Prayer +and prepare them in all things to receive further instruction at +the veil. Then report at the veil. + + PETER: It shall be done Jehovah. Come James and John, let us go +down. + + LAW OF CONSECRATION + + PETER: A couple will now come to the altar (the witness couple +come forward and they kneel at the altar as before. We are +instructed to give unto you the Law of Consecration as contained +in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants (picks up Doctrine and +Covenants from the altar, in connection with the Law of the +Gospel and the Law of Sacrifice which you have already received. +It is that you do consecrate yourselves, your time, talents and +everything with which the Lord has blessed you, or with which he +may bless you, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day +Saints, for the building up of the Kingdom of God on the earth +and for the establishment of Zion. + + All Arise (patrons all stand up. Each of you bring your right +arm to the square. + + You and each of you covenant before God, angels and these +witnesses at this altar that you will observe and keep the Law of +Consecration as contained in this the book of Doctrine and +Covenants. It is that you do consecrate yourselves, your time, +talents and everything with which the Lord has blessed you or +with which he may bless you, to the Church of Jesus Christ of +Latter-day Saints, for the building up of the Kingdom of God on +the earth and for the establishment of Zion. + + Each of you bow your heads and say yes. + + BRETHREN and SISTERS: (all bow their head Yes.) + + PETER That will do (patrons all sit down) + + SECOND TOKEN OF THE MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD + + The Patriarchal Grip or Sure Sign of the Nail + + PETER: (the Officiator demonstrates the token with the Brother +at the altar We will now give you the second token of the +Melchizedek Priesthood, the Patriarchal Grip or Sure Sign of the +Nail, with its accompanying sign. This token is given by clasping +the right hands interlocking the little finger, and placing the +tip of the forefinger on the center of the wrist, in this manner +(shows the audience the token. We desire all to receive it. All +arise. + + The witness couple stand up and return to their seats as the +patrons all stand and each one receives the secret grip from on +of the temple workers who circulate through the rows of patrons + + If any of you have not received this token you will please raise +your hand. + + This token has a name and a sign but no penalty is mentioned. +However, you will be under just as sacred obligation of secrecy +in connection with this token and sign as you are with the other +tokens and signs of the Holy Priesthood which you have received in +the Temple this day. The name of this token will not be given to +you at this stage of the Endowment, but it will be given later +on. + + The Officiator demonstrates the sign. + + The sign is made by raising both hands high above the head, and +while lowering the hands repeating aloud the words: + + Pay lay ale + Pay lay ale + Pay lay ale + + The Officiator raises and lowers his hands three times in +synchonysm with the words. + + When Adam was driven out of the Garden of Eden, he built an altar +and offered prayer, and these are the words he used, Which +interpreted are: "Oh God, hear the words of my mouth." repeated +three times.* + + We desire all to receive it. All arise (patrons all stand up. +Each of you make the sign of the second token of the Melchizedek +Priesthood, the Patriarchal Grip or Sure Sign of the Nail by +raising both hands high above the head, and by lowering your +hands to your sides, while repeating the words of the prayer. + + BRETHREN and SISTERS: (Patrons all make the sign by raising and +lowering their hands three times while reciting the words in +unison Pay lay ale, Pay lay ale, Pay lay ale. + + PETER:That will do (patrons all sit down.) + + A lecture will next be given, which summarizes the instructions, +ordinances and covenants, and also the tokens with their key +words, signs and penalties, pertaining to the endowment which you +have thus far received. You should try to remember and keep in +mind all that you have heard and seen and may yet hear and see in +this Temple this day. The purpose of this lecture is to assist +you to remember that which has been taught you this day. You must +keep in mind that you are under a solemn obligation never to +speak, outside of these walls, of the things you see and hear in +this sacred place. + + LECTURE BEFORE THE VEIL + + Lecturer: Brethren and sisters, these Endowments as herein +administered, long withheld from the children of men, pertain to +the dispensation of the fulness of times and have been revealed +to prepare the people for exaltation. + + (The Lecturer explains to the patrons what they have gone +through, from the Washing and Anointing Room to the time they +receive this lecture. He mentions that they have received the +keys of the Priesthood contained in the Endowments. + + These are what are termed the mysteries of Godliness and they +will enable you to understand the expression of Jesus made prior +to his betrayal - This is life eternal, that they might know +thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. +May God bless you all. Amen. + + Another translation of these words, from Biblical Hebrew, is +"Wonderful Lucifer" repeated three times. See Strong's +Concordance, Hebrew Dictionary section, words #6382 and #1966. +Note that on page 27 it is Lucifer who answers Adam's prayer + + THE PRAYER CIRCLE + + PETER: We will now teach you the "True Order of Prayer". The +witness couple will now come forward and stand at the head of the +altar. Six or seven other couples will come forward and form a +circle around the altar (the tape recording stops while the +witness couple and several other couples at random come forward +and arrange themselves in a circle of couples around the altar, +men on the right of their partners.. + + tape resumes + + John will instruct and lead in the prayer circle (the Officiator +acts as John, pantomiming the tape recording. + + John: If any of you have unkind feelings towards any member +of this circle, you are invited to withdraw, that the Spirit of +the Lord may be unrestrained. In this circle, we are required to +make all the signs and penalties of the Holy Priesthood. + + (The Officiator and patrons in the prayer circle all make the +signs and penalties as instructed. + + We will begin by making the sign of the first token of the +Aaronic Priesthood, the sign is made by raising the right hand to +the square, the palm forward, the fingers close together, and the +thumb extended. This is the sign. The execution of the penalty is +represented by placing the right thumb under the left ear, +drawing the thumb quickly across the throat to the right ear, and +dropping the hand to the side. The name of this token is the "New +Name". + + We will now make the sign of the second token of the Aaronic +Priesthood by bringing the right hand forward, with the hand in +cupping shape, the right arm forming a square. The left arm being +raised to the square. This is the sign. The execution of the +penalty is represented by placing the right hand on the left +breast, drawing the hand quickly across the body, and dropping +the hand to the side. The name of this token is the first given +name of the person for whom you are officiating today. + + We will now make the sign of the first token of the Melchizedek +Priesthood, or sign of the nail, by bringing the left hand in +front of you, the hand in cupping shape, the left arm forming a +square. The right hand is also brought forward, the palm down, +the fingers close together, the thumb extended, and the thumb is +placed over the left hip. This is the sign. The execution of the +penalty is represented by drawing the thumb quickly across the +body and dropping the hands to the sides. The name of this token +is "The Son" meaning the son of God. + + We will now make the sign of the second token of the Melchizedek +Priesthood, the Patriarchal Grip, or sure sign of the Nail, by +raising both hands high above the head, and while lowering the +hands repeating aloud the words, Pay lay ale; Pay lay ale; Pay +lay ale. + + The sisters will please veil your faces. The brethren will each +take the sisters at your left by the right hand in the Patriarchial +Grip. Each of you will raise your left arm to the square and +place your left elbow on the shoulder or arm of the person on +your left. You will please repeat the words of the prayer. + + (At this point the tape recording stops and the Officiator +actually speaks. He first carefully checks and adjusts the +position of all patrons in he prayer circle. Then he kneels at +the Altar inside the circle, facing forward and offers the +prayer. The Officiator pauses regularly to allow the patrons in +the circle to repeat his words. + + A typical prayer would be as follows: + + Our Eternal Heavenly Father: + + We thank Thee for the privilege of coming to the Temple + this day and participating in these sacred ordinances + which are essential to these deceased individuals. We + ask you to bless our Prophet, Spencer W. Kimball, to + bless the Temple Presidency, and all those who serve + with them.... (Many other topics may be covered, + especially the missionaries, missionary programs and + work, geneological work... We ask Thee Heavenly Father + to look with favor upon all those whose names are + contained on this altar* this day. We ask Thy healing + blessing to manifest in all their various needs, to + restore health and strength to body,mind, and spirit. + We ask Thee to bless all those who are participating + here tonight and see them safely home to their + destination. We ask you to watch over their families and + loved ones until they arrive home, in the name of Jesus + Christ, Amen. + + (Tape recorder resumes, with Officiator and his aide standing +front and center facing the patrons. + + PETER The Sisters will unveil their faces and the Brethren and +Sisters in the circle will return to their seats (patrons return +to their seats. + + We will now uncover the Veil. + + The Officiator and aide take appropriate action to expose a veil +segment to the audience. The Officiator continues to pantomime +the tape, using a pointer to identify the marks. + + Brethren and Sisters, This is the veil of the Temple. We will now +explain to you the significance of the marks on the Veil. These +four marks are the marks of the Holy Priesthood, and +corresponding marks are found on your individual garments. This +is the mark of the square. It is located on the garment over the +right breast, signifying exactness and honor in living up to all +of the covenants made in the Temple this day. This is the mark of +the compass. It is located in the garment over the breast, +signifying that desires, appetites and passions are to be kept +within the bounds the Lord has established, and that all truth +can be circumscribed into one great whole. This is the navel +mark. It is placed in the garment over the navel as a reminder of +the constant need of nourishment to body and spirit. This is the +knee mark. It is placed in the right leg of the garment over the +knee, and indicates that every knee shall bow and every tongue +confess that Jesus is the Christ. + + These other three marks are for convenience in working at the +veil. Through this one the person representing the Lord puts his +right hand to test our knowledge of the tokens of the Holy +priesthood; through this one, he asks us certain questions, and +through this one, we give our answers. + + Since all of you will have to pass through the veil, we will show +you how this is done (the aide is now behind the veil to act as +the Lord. The Officiator, acting as both Peter and Adam, gives +three taps with the mallet against the doorjam, as the tape +recording continues. + + LORD: What is wanted? + + PETER: Adam, having been true and faithful, desires further +light and knowledge by conversing with the Lord through the veil +(for and in behalf of _____, who is dead.) + + LORD: Present him at the veil and his request shall be granted. + + LORD: (Extends his right hand through the compass mark in the +veil and takes Peter by the right hand in the first token of the +Aaronic Priesthood. What is that? + + PETER: (Acting as Adam) The first token of the Aaronic +Priesthood. + + LORD: Has it a name? + + PETER: It has. + + LORD: Will you give it to me? + + PETER: I will through the veil. You will now give the New Name +to the Lord through the Veil. + + LORD: (breaks contact, then takes Peter by the right hand in the +Second Token of the Aaronic Priesthood. What is that? + + PETER: The Second token of the Aaronic Priesthood. + + LORD: Has it a name? + + PETER: It has. + + LORD: Will you give it to me? + + PETER: I will through the veil. You will each give your own +first given name if you are going through the Temple for your own +Endowments, or the first given name of the deceased for whom you +are presiding today. + + LORD: What is that? + + PETER: The first token of the Melchizedek Priesthood or Sign of +the Nail. + + LORD: Has it a name? + + PETER: It has. + + LORD: Will you give it to me? + + PETER: I will through the veil - the Son. + + LORD: (breaks contact, then takes Peter by the right hand in the +Patriarchal grip What is that? + + PETER: The second token of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the +Patriarchal Grip or sure Sign of the nail. + + LORD: Has it a name? + + PETER: It has. + + LORD: Will you give it to me? + + PETER: I cannot. I have not yet received it. For this purpose I +have come to converse with the Lord through the veil. + + LORD: You shall receive it upon the five points of fellowship +through the veil. + + PETER:The five points of fellowship are: inside of right boot by +the side of right foot, knee to knee, breast to breast, hand to +back and mouth to ear. (Peter demonstrates the five points with +the Lord. The Lord now gives you the name of the token, You will +then repeat it back to him through the veil, whereupon, the Lord +responds, "That is correct." The worker will then give three raps +with the mallet - like this (Officiator taps with the mallet, +and the Lord will ask: + + LORD: What is wanted? + + PETER: Adam, having conversed with the Lord through the veil, +desires now to enter his presence. The Lord then takes Adam by +the right hand through the opening in the veil and says: + + LORD: Let him enter. + + PETER: The Lord then admits Adam into the Celestial Kingdom. We +desire all to enter his presence. + + (The Officiator, who until now has not spoken to the audience, +now gives instructions for orderly movement, row by row, of the +patrons into the Telestial Room, where the actual veil is +located. The patrons then proceed to move to the Telestial Room +and take up seats there. Still segregated, women on the left, men +on the right. The entire front of this room, plus extra space to +both sides is filled with approximately 50 veil segments [Los +Angels Temple]. Patrons are called from their seats in groups of +8-10 by the Officiator [still segregated by sex] to the veil +area, where they are assigned to a veil section in turn and then +introduced at the veil. + + Three persons are involved at each veil ceremony: the VEIL +WORKER, who represents the Lord behind the veil; the PATRON, who +is going through the ceremony to obtain entrance into the +Celestial Room, representing the Celestial Kingdom, located +behind the veil; and the INTRODUCER who helps the patron and +introduces him to the Lord. All Veil Workers are men, but the +veil segments are divided between men and women patrons and women +INTRODUCERS help women Patrons. + + CEREMONY AT THE VEIL + + (As the Patron approaches the veil, the Introducer takes the +Patron's nameslip. The Introducer taps 3 times on the veil +framework with a small mallet.) + + The Veil Worker parts the veil opening slightly with his right +hand. + + LORD: What is Wanted? + + (The Introducer holds up the Patron's nameslip for the Veil +Worker to read while he is stating the introductions. + + INTRODUCER: Adam, having been true and faithful in all things, +desires further light and knowledge by conversing with the Lord +through the veil (for and in behalf of ____, who is dead). + + (The Veil Worker reads the nameslip and notes if the alternate +New Name has been given [The name of the First Token of the +Aaronic Priesthood], and the first given name of the deceased +[the name of the 2nd Token of the Aaronic Priesthood]. +No communication is permitted between the Veil Worker and the +Introducer or the Patron except the specified dialogue. If the +patron makes a mistake, the Introducer immediately corrects him, +and the patron restates the correction. If the Introducer misses +the mistake, the Veil Worker (Lord) stops, or breaks contact and +repeats the same question to indicate an error was made. + + The Veil Worker extends his right hand through the compass mark +on the veil, takes the patron by the right hand in the first +token of the Aaronic Priesthood described above. + +LORD: Present him at the Veil and his request shall be granted. + + LORD: What is that? + + PATRON: The first token of the Aaronic Priesthood. + + LORD: Has it a name? + + PATRON: It has. + + LORD: Will you give it to me? + + PATRON: I will, through the veil. (Gives the new name) + + LORD: (breaks contact, then takes patron's hand in the Second +Token of the Aaronic Priesthood.) What is that? + + PATRON: The second token of the Aaronic Priesthood. + + LORD: Has it a name? + + PATRON: It has. + + LORD: Will you give it to me? + + PATRON: I will, through the veil. (Gives the first given name) + + LORD: (breaks contact, then takes patron's right hand in the +First Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood.) What is that? + + PATRON: The first token of the Melchizedek Priesthood, or sign +of the Nail. + + LORD: Has it a name? + + PATRON: It has. + + LORD: Will you give it to me? + + PATRON: I will, through the veil - The Son + + LORD: (breaks contact, then takes the patron's hand in the +Patriarchal Grip What is that? + + PATRON: The second token of the Melchizedek Priesthood, The +Patriarchal Grip or Sure Sign of the Nail. + + LORD: Has it a name? + + PATRON: It has. + + LORD: Will you give it to me? + + PATRON: I cannot. I have not yet received it. For this purpose I +have come to converse with the Lord through the Veil. + + LORD: You shall receive it upon the five points of fellowship, +through the veil (Patron and Veil Worker embrace in the five +points of fellowship through the veil. + + This is the name of the token - Health in the navel, marrow in +the bones, strength in the loins and in the sinews, power in the +priesthood be upon me and upon my posterity through all +generations of time and throughout all eternity. + + LORD: What is that? + + PATRON: The second token of the Melchizedek Priesthood, the +Patriarchal Grip or Sure Sign of the Nail. + + LORD: Has it a name? + + PATRON: It has. + + LORD: Will you give it to me? + + PATRON: I will, upon the five points of fellowship through the +veil - Health in the navel, marrow in the bones, strength in the +loins and in sinews, power in the priesthood be upon me and upon +my posterity through all generations of time and throughout all +eternity. + + LORD: That is correct. + + (The patron and the Veil Worker break their embrace and withdraw +their arms. The Introducer gives three taps with the mallet on +the framework. + + LORD: What is wanted? + + INTRODUCER: (parts the veil slightly with right hand Adam, +having conversed with the Lord through the veil, desires now to +enter his presence. + + (The Veil Worker parts the Veil, takes the Patron by the right +hand with his right hand, and while guiding the Patron through +the Veil opening says: + + LORD: (Solemnly Let him enter! + + The Patron then passes by the Veil Worker, normally with a +momentary thank you - greeting, and moves on into the Celestial +Room* - which completes the Endowment Ceremony. + + The Celestial Room is an elegantly furnished sitting room where +patrons may stand or sit for a few minutes to wait for spouses, +friends or associates to come through the veil. Conversation is +permitted only in quiet whispers. This is the only opportunity a +Mormon ever has to ask a question about the Temple ceremonies. +It is supposed to be a place to meditate, or seek answers to +problems or inspiration. In actual practice patrons are not +permitted to remain in the Celestial room for more than a few +minutes. Rarely is anyone available to answer questions or +discuss a problem. It is very business like an efficiently +operated, like a production line. + + Patrons move from the Celestial room back downstairs to the +locker room, still wearing all the Temple clothing. There the +patron removes his temple clothing and puts on his normal +clothing and is free to leave at his leasure. There is a +comfortable waiting room near the entrance where he may await +spouse and friends. + + TEMPLE MARRIAGE FOR TIME AND ETERNITY + + A typical Temple contains from six to ten or more Sealing Rooms +where marriages and sealings are performed for the living and the +dead. Sealings are performed for couples already married, living +or dead, to extend their marriage to eternity. On a typical +Saturday in Los Angeles anywhere from 60 to 90 marriages and +sealings may be performed, mostly for young couples. The Sealing +Rooms are elegantly furnished and decorated. The walls are lined +with chairs and a beautiful altar is in the center. The +Officiator for this ceremony is a Temple Sealer, who is supposed +to be an especially spiritual person. The actual ritual or +"ordinance" takes approximately two or three minutes to recite. +When marriages or sealings for the living are performed they are +normally preceded by a discourse or instruction - especially for +the wedding couple, stressing the great significance of this +ceremony to the eternal destiny and earthly life of the family. +The room is often filled with up to 40 friends and family of the +wedding couple who must also have Temple Recommends, and who have +come to be with them - all of them dressed in white Temple +attire. + + There were approximately 40 persons at the sealing of my wife and +children to myself (the order of the Priesthood is that wife and +children are sealed to the father). After the preliminary +message, two "witnesses" are seated in a special position of +honor and the bride and groom kneel on opposite sides of the +elegantly upholstered altar and join right hands in the +Patriarchal grip previously described. + + THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY + + (The Sealer stands at the head to the altar and pronounces the +ceremony.) + + SEALER Brother _____ (acting as proxy for ____ who is dead), do +you take Sister ____ [maiden name (acting as proxy for ____ who +is dead) by the right hand and receive her unto yourself to be +your lawful and wedded wife for time and for all eternity, with a +covenant and promise that you will observe and keep all the laws, +rites and ordinances pertaining to this Holy Order of Matrimony +in the new and everlasting Covenant, and this you do in the +presence of God, angels and these witnesses of your own free +will and choice? + + Brother:Yes. + + SEALER Sister ____ [maiden name (acting as proxy for ____ who +is dead), do you take Brother _____ (acting as proxy for _____, +who is dead) by the right hand and give yourself to him to be his +lawful and wedded wife, and for him to be your lawful and wedded +husband, for time and for all eternity, with a covenant and +promise that you will observe and keep all the laws, rites and +ordinances pertaining to this Holy Order of Matrimony in the new +and everlasting Covenant: and this you do in the presence of God, +angels and these witnesses of your own free will and choice? + + SEALER By virtue of the Holy Priesthood and the authority +vested in me, I pronounce you ______, and ______, legally and +lawfully husband and wife for time and for all eternity, and I +seal upon you the blessings of the holy resurrection with power +to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection clothed in +glory, immortality and eternal lives, and seal upon you the +blessings of kingdoms, thrones, principalities, powers, +dominions, and exaltations, with all the blessings of Abraham, +Isaac and Jacob, and say unto you, be fruitful nd multiply an +replentish the earth, that you may have joy an rejoicing in the +day of the Lord Jesus Christ. All these blessings, together with +all the blessings appertaining unto new and everlasting +covenant, and I seal upon you by virtue of the Holy Priesthood, +through your faithfulness, in the name of the Father, and of the +son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. + + (The parties then kiss each other over the altar which ends the +ceremony. No exchange of rings is included in the ceremony, but +may be done after the ceremony. The couple is then congratulated +by their guests and the Sealer and the party leaves to change to +street clothing. + + SEALING OF CHILDREN TO PARENTS CEREMONY + + Married couples, usually converts, who are being sealed often +have minor children. These children are normally sealed to their +parents immediately following the Sealing ceremony of the parents +to each other. The children may not be present for the parent's +sealing, but are brought in, dressed in white, while the parents +are still kneeling at the altar. The parents are moved to the +ends of the rectangular altar and the children kneel along the +sides where the parents were. The parents join hands in the +Patriarchal grip and the Children place their right hand in the +top of the parents hands, starting with the oldest child. The +Officiator then stands behind the father and pronounces the +ceremony + + SEALER By the authority of the Holy Priesthood, I seal you +_____ (acting as proxy for and in behalf of ______), to your +father _____ ant to your mother _____, for time and all eternity, +as an heir (or heirs) (with all the children) as though you were +born in the new and everlasting covenant, in the name of the +Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. + + Other family sealings are performed in a similar manner on +occasion. A member of the wedding couple could be sealed to his +or her parents at this time, or have their parents sealed and act +as proxy for the appropriate parent. + + "Sealing Sessions" are conducted nearly every evening in the +Temple in which a group of four couples and an Officiator will +perform approximately 200 to 300 proxy sealings in about two +hours. These are very business like and efficiently conducted +working sessions, which produce over stressed knees and barks +among the participants. + + CONCLUSION + + The Mormon Temple ceremonies have been presented here almost in +their entirety and very nearly "word perfect" for the instruction +and information of honest investigators looking into the deepest +teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints +(Mormons). Those readers who are offended of disturbed by this +objective and truthful presentation of this information are asked +to consider this: darkness flees from light, error flees from +truth, deceit and deception flees from honesty and integrity. +Perhaps you should re-evaluate your commitment to light, truth, +honesty and integrity as opposed to blind, mindless obedience to +the precepts of men. The Apostle Paul told the saints in +Ephesus, "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in +the Lord, walk as children of light ...proving what is acceptable +unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works +of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame to even +speak of those things which are done of them in secret, but all +things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for +whatsoever doth make manifest is light." (Ephesians 5:8,10-13) + + Brethren and Sisters, we invite you to come out of secret works +of darkness into the wonderful light of Jesus, the Light of the +World and Savior of every soul who will abandon man made +churchianity and come to Him for Salvation and Redemption. +Praise the Lord, He is faithful to His Word - to SAVE all who +will accept His matchless grace by faith in Him. + + Chuck Sackett + + For more information see below: + +This file has been brought to you by the ministry of the; + +Southern Maryland Christian Information Service BBS, (SMCIS) +(301) 862-3160 HST + +P.O. Box 463 +California, MD 20619 + +Sysop: Buggs Bugnon diff --git a/religious documents/lds25.txt b/religious documents/lds25.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6da1c6b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds25.txt @@ -0,0 +1,135 @@ +CUL:Contradictions between the Book of Mormon and the Bible 2/22/87 + + The following quotes examine what Mormon theology teaches as opposed +to what Christianity teaches. CCN wishes to make clear this is not an +attack on Mormons, but a defense of what Christ taught. + + I. ON THE NATURE OF GOD'S BEING: + + MORMONISM: "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as +man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and +bones, but is a personage of spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost +could not dwell in us." - Joseph Smith, Doctrine and Covenants, 130:22 + + CHRISTIANITY: "God is spirit; and those who worship Him must +worship in spirit and truth." - Jesus Christ, John 4:24 + + II. ON HOW MANY GODS EXIST: + + MORMONISM: "And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went +down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and +formed the heavens and the earth." - Joseph Smith, (allegedly from a +translation of an ancient papyrus), Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 4:1 + + CHRISTIANITY: "You are my witnesses, " declares the Lord, "And my +servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and believe Me, +and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and +there will be none after Me." - Isaiah 43:10 + + III. ON WHO CAN BECOME A GOD: + + MORMONISM: "As man is now, God once was. As God is now, man may +become." + + CHRISTIANITY: "How have you fallen from heaven, O star of the +morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who +have weakened nations! But you have said in your heart, I will ascend +to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will +sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will +ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the +Most High. Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the +recesses of the pit." - Isaiah 14:12-15 + + Read again Isaiah 43:10 and note that there were no Gods formed +before God and there will be none formed after. + + "Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, +knowing good and evil: and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take +also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever -" - Genesis 3:22 + + (note: some Mormons may claim that this verse "proves" the existence +of more than one God due to the words "like one of US". However, if you +notice, the verse, in context, reads "Then the LORD GOD (singular) +said, Behold, the man has become like one of US (plural)". This verse +actually helps illustrate the existence of ONE GOD eternally existent +in THREE MINISTERING ENTITIES. Both verses show that it is not in God's +plan for man to be as God or to be a God. Notice what Satan's "reward" +was for his attempt to make himself "like the Most High" ... eternal +damnation.) + + IV. ON THE SOURCE & TESTING PROCESS OF DIVINE REVELATION: + + MORMONISM: "While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I +discovered a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase +until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a +personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his feet did +not touch the floor. He had on a loose robe of most exquisite +whiteness. ... He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a +messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was +Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; ... He said there was a book +deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former +inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. +He also said that the fullness of the everlasting Gospel was contained +in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;" - Joseph +Smith, The Origin of the Book of Mormon, the Book of Mormon + + CHRISTIANITY: "But though we, or an Angel from heaven, should preach +to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him +be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is +preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him +be accursed." - the apostle Paul, Galatians 1:8-9 + + (note: the Greek word for "accursed" used in this text is ANATHEMA, +translated the Divine Curse. This is the only place in the entire +Bible this word is used, and it's use here underscores the severity of +teaching false doctrines.) + + "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising +themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan +disguises himself as an angel of light." - the apostle Paul, 2 +Corinthians 11:13-14 + + (note: some have asked how could Mormonism be wrong when the message +was delivered by an angel? Consider 2 points: first, Satan can appear +as "an angel of light" and secondly, the messenger sent to Joseph Smith +brought teachings contradictory to previous revelations from God. God +is not a God of confusion, and will not contradict Himself.) + + V. ON WHO ADAM WAS: + + MORMONISM: When our father, Adam, came into the Garden of Eden, he +came into it with a celestial body ... he is our father and God and +the only God with whom we have to do." - Brigham Young, April 9, 1852, +Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, page 50 + + CHRISTIANITY: "Then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the +ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man +became a living being." - Genesis 2:7 + + VI. Joseph Smith's boast elevating himself above Christ: + + "God is in the still small voice. In all these affidavits, +indictments, it is all of the devil - all corruption. Come on! ye +prosecutors! ye false swearers! All hell boil over! Ye burning +mountains, roll down your lava! for I will come out on top at last. I +have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has +ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. +A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, +Peter nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work +as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day +Saints never ran away from me yet" - Joseph Smith, History of the +Church, 6:408-9 + + VII. Check out the following verses dealing with: + + a. Biblical prophesies dealing with the rise of cults and visions + + - 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 + + - Colossians 2:18-23 + + b. "testing" of a prophet to see if they are of God + + - Deuteronomy 18:20-22 + + - Deuteronomy 13:1-3 diff --git a/religious documents/lds26.txt b/religious documents/lds26.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8dfb40f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds26.txt @@ -0,0 +1,78 @@ +CUL:Plagiarisms in the Book of Mormon - from the KJV by Dr. Walter Martin + + According to a careful survey of the book of Mormon, it contains at +least 25,000 words from the King James Bible. In fact, verbatim +quotations, some of considerable length, have caused the Mormons no end +of embarrassment for many years. + + The comparison of Moroni chapter 10 with 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, 2 +Nephi 14 with Isaiah 4, and 2 Nephi 12 with Isaiah 2 reveals that +Joseph Smith made free use of his Bible to suplement the alleged +revelation of the golden plates. The book of Mosiah, chapter 14 in the +book of Mormon, is a reproduction of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah +the prophet; and 3 Nephi 13:1-18 copies Matthew 6:1-23. + + The Mormons naively suggest that when Christ allegedly appeared on +the American continent after his resurrection and preached to the +Nephites he quite natrually used the same language as recorded in the +Bible. They also maintain that when Nephi came to America he brought +copies of the Hebrew scriptures, which account for quotations from the +Old Testament. The only difficulty with these excuses is that the +miraculous plates upon which they were all inscribed, somehow or +another, under translation, came out in King James English without +variation approximately a thousand years before this 1611 version was +written. Such reasoning on the part of the Mormons strains at the +limits of credulity and only they are willing to believe it. + + There are other instances of plagiarisms from the King James Bible +including paraphrases of certain verses. One of these verses (1 John +5:7) is reproduced in 3 Nephi 11:27, 36. The only difficulty with the +paraphrase here is that the text is considered by scholars to be an +interpolation missing from all the major manuscripts of the new +testament but present in the King James Bible from which Smith +paraphrased it not knowing the difference. + + Another example of this type of error is found in 3 Nephi 11:33-34, +and is almost a direct quotation from Mark 16:16, a passage regarded by +many new testament greek scholars as an addition to that gospel by an +overzealous scribe. But Joseph Smith was not aware of this either, so +he even copied in translational errors, another proof that neither he +nor the alleged golden plates were inspired of God. + + Two further instances of plagiarisms from the King James Bible which +have backfired on the Mormons are worth noting. + + In the third chapter of the book of Acts, Peter's classic sermon at +pentecost paraphrases Deuteronomy 18:15-19. While in the process of +writing 3 Nephi, Joseph Smith puts Peter's paraphrase in the mouth of +Christ when the Savior was allegedly preaching to the Nephites. The +prophet overlooked the fact that at the same time Christ was allegedly +preaching his sermon, the sermon itself had not yet been preached by +Peter. + + In addition to this, 3 Nephi makes Christ out to be a liar, when in +verse 23 of chapter 20 Christ attributes Peter's words to Moses as a +direct quotation when, as we have pointed out, Peter paraphrased the +quotation from Moses; and the working is quite different. But Joseph +did not check far enough, hence this glaring error. + + Secondly, the book of Mormon follows the error of the King James +translation which renders Isaiah 4:5: "for upon all the glory shall be +a defense" (see 2 Nephi 14:5). Modern translations of Isaiah point out +that it should read "for over all the glory there will be a canopy," +not a defense. The Hebrew word, "chuppah," does not mean defense but a +protective curtain or canopy. Smith, of course, did not know this nor +did the King James translators from whose work he copied. + + There are quite a number of other places where such errors appear, +including Smith's insistence in Abraham 1:20 that "pharaoh signifies +king by royal blood," when in reality the dictionary defines the +meaning of the term pharaoh as "a great house or palace." The Revised +Standard Version of the Bible renders Isaiah 5:25: "and their corpses +were as refuse in the midst of the streets," corectly rendering the +Hebrew "suchah" as refuse, not as "torn." The King James Bible renders +the passage: "and their carcases were torn in the midst of the +streets." The book of Mormon (2 nephi 15:25) repeats the King James' +text word for word, including the error of mistranslating "suchah", +removing any claim that the Book of Mormon is to be taken seriously as +reliable material. diff --git a/religious documents/lds27.txt b/religious documents/lds27.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4889073 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds27.txt @@ -0,0 +1,369 @@ +CUL:17 Points of the True Church by James White + + The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prints a small card +that is normally entitled "Seventeen points of the True Church." At +times the front of the card will read "Does it meet the Test?" Whatever +the form, many Christians have been handed this card. What of its +claims? Are the 17 listed points true? Do the claims made by the LDS +Church stand the test of the Bible? + + This information sheet will examine, briefly, the claims made by +this little card. It is not intended to be an in-depth doctrinal +treatise on each point, as the card hardly attempts to be, either. +Instead, it is meant to give the Christian reader more background into +just what the Mormon Church is claiming, and how this does not in any +way reflect the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles as +recorded in the Word of God, the Bible. We will follow the outline of +the card itself. (Some cards list more or fewer points. This card seems +to be the most prevalent). + + #1. Christ organized the Church. Ephesians 4:11-14. + + This is true. However, we might ask our Mormon friends, since +Ephesians 4:11 lists evangelists and pastors, where are these "offices" +in the LDS Church? Since "apostles" in the original Greek language +refers simply to a "sent one," does it not make sense to understand +this to refer to missionaries, the very ones who, like Paul, and +Apollos, spread the word concerning Christ throughout the entire known +world? Should we not also point out that the very same book here quoted +(Ephesians) also says in chapter 3, verse 21, that God would receive +glory "in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without +end"? How does this square with the Mormon teaching that the Church of +Jesus Christ disappeared after only a few years? + + #2. The true church must bear the name of Jesus Christ. Ephesians +5:23. + + Exactly how Ephesians 5:23 relates to this is difficult to say. At +any rate, the point normally made by Mormons in regard to this is that +the name on the letterhead of your church must include the phrase +"Jesus Christ." Just how official names are involved in saving someone +is again not clear. Biblically, the Church is called the Church of +Christ. It is also called the Body of Christ. Does that mean we should +make sure the phrase "Body of Christ" is on our letterheads, also? Or +is it more consistent to see that the Church as it is expressed +universally is the Church of Christ, and the local assembly takes the +name that would best describe it - such at the Church at Rome, the +Church of the Thessalonicans, the Church at Philippi? The Bible nowhere +commands us to attach a specific name to our local congregation. +Christians are Christians whether they worship in the same building and +in the exact same manner or not. + + #3. The true church must have a foundation of Apostles and Prophets. +Ephesians 2:19-20. + + This, again, is true, as far as it goes. Unfortunately, the LDS +Church takes it too far. The Mormons takes this to mean that the true +church must have official positions entitled "Apostle" and "Prophet," +which, of course, they have. This is not what Ephesians 2:19-20 +teaches. First, the context includes verses 21 and 22, and these must +be read also. The text actually says that the church is built on a +foundation. Stop there. The word "built" as translated in the King +James Version translates the Greek participle epoikodomethentes, which, +properly syntaxed is translated "having been built." It is an aorist +passive participle. It refers to a past action, one that (in this case) +has been completed. To say that today we must continue to build the +foundation of apostles and prophets is to mis-understand the text. + + Next, we would like to point out that the Bible identifies Jesus +Christ as the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:10-11). The Church is built +upon this foundation, and is continually growing unto an "holy temple +in the Lord." The question must be asked, how many times does one lay a +foundation? If one is continually laying a foundation, how will the +house be built? The answer is obvious. The Mormon Church is still +trying to lay a foundation that was laid two thousand years ago. Since +this is so, it is obvious to see that in this passage Paul is referring +to something other than a continuing office of apostle and prophet. + + The phrase "of the apostles and prophets" is in a genitive +construction that can easily give the sense that the foundation of the +apostles and prophets is Jesus Christ Himself. This would be completely +consistent with Paul's use of themelios (foundation) in other letters. +Again we see how examining the actual text of the Bible we can avoid +errors such as the kind propogated by the Mormon Church. + + One final thing. In the lists of "offices" in the church (e.g., 1 +Corinthians 12:28), the "apostles" are placed before the "prophets." +Aside from the fact that there were obviously many "prophets" in the +Church (rather than the one of the LDS Church), it is clear that the +Mormon heirarchy of Prophet then Apostles is backwards, at least +Biblically speaking. It is also plain to see that "apostles" +(literally, "sent ones") and "prophets" functioned quite differently +than the LDS Church believes they did. + + #4. The true church must have the same organization as Christ's +Church. Ephesians 4:11-14. + + This point overlaps with the discussion given above. We have already +pointed out that the organization the Mormon Church has forced upon the +Bible is not an accurate understanding of just how the ancient church +was organized. As examples of this have already been brought up, we +will move on to the next point. + + #5. The true church must claim divine authority. Hebrews 5:4-10. + + The Christian Church does claim divine authority, for each and every +believer, male or female, is a king and priest unto God (Revelation +1:6). However, again the LDS Church has forced its own theology upon +the Scriptures instead of allowing the Bible to be the guide. Mormon +leaders claim to have divine authority in that they have the +"Melchizedek Priesthood." Younger men are called to the "Aaronic +Priesthood," and at age 18 they can received the Melchizedek +Priesthood. Though space does not allow a complete discussion of the +topic of the priesthoods, it should be pointed out that the Mormon +doctrine falls short of the truth at a number of points: 1) It ignores +the fact that there is no distinction made between male and female in +their relationship with Christ. This is not to say that in the home God +does not ordain a certain order, as He obviously does. However, to +claim the stupendous things that the Mormon Church does for its +"priesthood" and yet deny those privileges to women (and blacks for 148 +years) is certainly outside Biblical teaching. + + 2) It ignores the fact that the Aaronic priesthood was fulfilled and +done away with at the cross of Calvary. When Christ died, the veil in +the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The function of Aaronic +priests, that of making animal sacrifices and, once a year, going +through the veil to offer the atonement for the nation, was finished +for all time. The intermediacy of a priesthood was done away with +because of the immediate access each believer has to the throne of +grace through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. To re-establish an +organized, intermediate priesthood as the LDS Church has done, when God +has done away with it at the cross, is nothing short of blasphemous! +Though it is truly amazing to anyone who has studied the New Testament +book of Hebrews, Joseph Smith once wrote, "...it is generally supposed +that sacrifice was entirely done away when the Great Sacrifice [i.e., +the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus] was offered up, and that there will be +no necessity for the ordinance of sacrifice in the future: but those +who assert this are certainly not acquainted with the duties, +privileges and authority of the priesthood...These sacrifices, as well +as every ordinance belonging to the Priesthood, will, when the Temple +of the Lord shall be built, and the sons of Levi purified, be fully +restored and attended to in all their powers, ramifications, and +blessings." (Documentary History of the Church, volume 4 page 211). +Again we see the depth of error that can be attained by ignoring the +Biblical teachings on a subject. + + 3) It ignores the Biblical fact that there is but one High Priest +(the Mormon Church has many), and only one worthy to hold the +Melchizedek Priesthood, that being Jesus Christ (Hebrews 7:24-25). To +claim to hold that priesthood is an affront to the person of the Son of +God. + + #6. The true church must have no paid ministry. Isaiah 45:13, 1 +Peter 5:2. + + The reader is asked to examine the two references given to gain yet +another example of out-of-context reading. Neither passage has anything +to do with paid or unpaid ministers. One has to do with Cyrus, king of +Persia, and the other with the motivation of the heart of the minister. +Also note that the sections of the New Testament that directly address +this issue are ignored. Paul clearly taught that a minister had the +right to pay in return for his work (1 Corinthians 9:1-14). Paul calls +it a "right" of the minister to reap material benefit from those who +receive spiritual leadership. It might be pointed out that the +leadership of the LDS Church in Salt Lake certainly do not live +unrewarded. How does this square with their teaching? + + #7. The true church must baptize by immersion. Matthew 3:13-16. + + We agree. Again, however, the LDS Church goes beyond what is written +and adds to this the ideas that 1) baptism is for remission of sins +(when Jesus was baptized, was it for remission of sins? We are forgiven +of our sins because of the blood of Christ, not the water of a +baptistry, 1 Peter 1:18-21), and 2) that the only persons "authorized" +to baptize are those who hold the "Aaronic" priesthood. This error has +already been discussed in #5 above. + + #8. The true church must bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost by the +laying on of hands. Acts 8:14-17. + + Aside from the fact that it is Holy Spirit, not Holy Ghost, it must +be pointed out that again the LDS Church is ignoring the majority +witness of Scripture. Laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy +Spirit occurs only three times in the New Testament: Acts 8:17 as a +sign of unity between the Jewish and Gentile believers, Acts 9:17 as an +identification of Saul, and Acts 19:6 where the baptism they had +undergone was not Christian baptism but the baptism of John. In the +vast majority of cases no mention is made of any special ceremony of +laying on of hands being necessary for the Holy Spirit to come upon +someone. Laying on of hands does show unity and support of an +individual, and as such there is nothing wrong with it. But the +Scriptures teach that the Holy Spirit comes into a person's life at the +point of conversion (Romans 8:9, Acts 10:44-48), not at some secondary +time later on. If this were not so, then Romans 8:9 would be false, as +it identifies the Holy Spirit as that which makes a person Christ's. +(see also Ephesians 1:10-14). + + #9. The true church must practice divine healing. Mark 3:14-15. + + One of the gifts of the Spirit is that of healing (1 Corinthians +12:28). Of course, not all have this gift (v. 29). The actual operation +of the gift is seen to be a corollary to prayer, as the special gift of +touching someone was of apostolic authority, not present today. We have +seen many people healed through the power of prayer in the Christian +church, as God still is the great physician, and He still works +miracles. However, to claim to have God on a string, and have Him in +your control so as to be able to heal anyone, is not Biblical. Even the +great apostle Paul had to pray that a close friend would not die, as +his gift was for particular uses, not personal gain (Philippians +2:25-30, 2 Timothy 4:20). + + #10. The true church must teach that God and Jesus Christ are +separate and distinct individuals. John 17:11 and John 20:17. + + The true church must first teach that there is one true God. The +number of passages that teach this is astounding. Just for an example +see Deuteronomy 4:35, 39, 6:4, 32:39, 1 Chronicles 16:25-26, 2 Samuel +7:22 (1 Chron. 17:20), Psalm 86:10, Isaiah 43:10, 44:6-8, 44:24, +45:5-6, 46:9, John 17:3, 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 and so on and so on. +Mormonism teaches that there are many, many Gods, while God denies any +such thing (Isaiah 44:8). Hence, Mormonism is off track right from the +start. This is the most basic revelation of God, and when one misses +it, nothing after that will make any sense. It is true that the Father +is not the Son nor is the Son the Father. As far as the above statement +reflects this, it is true. However, the Mormon viewpoint is that the +Father and Son are two separate and distinct individuals, and hence two +separate and distinct gods! (see Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, +page 370). This is completely contradicted by the Bible, and is based +upon the error of polytheism. Mormons cannot understand the Christian +doctrine of the Trinity because they reject the Bible's teaching of +monotheism (one God). + + #11. The true church must teach that God and Jesus Christ have +bodies of flesh and bone. Luke 24:36-39 and Acts 1:9-11. + + Here the Mormons take two references to the fact that Jesus Christ +became flesh (John 1:14) and infer from them that God the Father also +has a body of flesh and bone. What does God say about this? "You +thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you, and state the +case in order before your eyes" (Psalm 50:21, NASB). "...for I am God, +and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee..." (Hosea 11:9). "God +is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he +should repent." (Numbers 23:19). Instead, Jesus taught that God was +spirit (John 4:24). God is not limited to time and space as we are, but +rather is eternal (Psalm 90:2), unchanging (Malachi 3:6), and +omnipresent (Jeremiah 23:24, 2 Chronicles 6:18). What Mormons need to +realize is that the gospel is not that man can become God, but that God +became a man. + + #12. The officers must be called by God. Hebrews 5:4, Exodus 28:1, +Exodus 40:13-16. + + As the Old Testament passages here quoted have little to do with the +New Testament Church, we will look at Hebrews 5:4 (which also has +little to do with the subject at hand, but its closer than the +others!). First, we agree that the leaders of the church should be +called by God, and, in the Christian church, they are. However, again +the Latter-day Saints are seen to be adding to what is written. The +Mormons interpret this within their framework of "priesthood +authority," again leading to error. It might be asked whether their +Aaronic priests are called in the same way as was Aaron? A quick look +at Exodus chapter 29 and Leviticus chapter 8 will reveal that they +certainly are not! + + #13. The true church must claim revelation from God. Amos 3:7. + + This position can only be maintained by ignoring what comes after +Amos 3:7. Luke 16:16 says "The law and the prophets were until John; +since that time the kingdom of God is preached..." The New Testament +presents a very different picture. Jesus Christ, the final and complete +revelation of God (Hebrews 1:1-3) has made "further revelation" +obsolete and unnecessary. To claim to have such a "revelation" is to +say that Jesus really wasn't what and who He said He was, and who the +Bible describes Him as being. In actuality, it is the simple fact that +Mormonism's teachings cannot be supported from the Bible that drives +the leadership to find another source of authority. Everything that has +ever claimed to be "further revelation" has failed the test of +Scripture, including the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and +the Pearl of Great Price. + + #14. The true church must be a missionary church. Matthew 28:19-20. + + We heartily agree at this point, and are forced to ask why it is +that the Mormon Church has thrived on taking people from other churches +rather than trailblazing into unknown areas, as the Christian church +has done for hundreds of years? + + #15. The true church must be a restored church. Acts 3:19-20. + + An examination of the text chosen to represent this claim will show +just how weak this argument is. Acts chapter 3 is not in any way +discussing the Church. This is seen in two ways. First, verse 21 says +that the "restitution of all things" was "spoken by the mouth of all +his holy prophets since the world began." As Paul points out in +Colossians 1:25- 27, the mystery of the church was not made known to +the past ages and generations (see also 1 Peter 1:10-12), hence this +certainly is not talking about the church. Second, the prophets spoke +of the restoration of Israel to its own land, and the restoration of +the theocracy under David's Son. This is what Peter is discussing in +Acts 3. Besides all of this, we must ask when it was that Christ +returned, as verse 19 says this would happen at the "restitution of all +things." As we pointed out, the true church founded by Christ did not +fail (see #2-4 above). + + #16. The true church must practice baptism for the dead. 1 +Corinthians 15-16 and 29. + + The Christian church had never practiced baptism for the dead in the +sense that the LDS Church wants us to believe. They are forced to take +1 Corinthians 15:29 out of its context and force their own peculiar +meaning on it. First, the Bible does not teach that baptism saves +anyone (even 1 Peter 3:21, upon close examination, does not do so), +hence it certainly would not be needed to "redeem the dead" as Mormons +put it. 1 Corinthians 15:29 is found in the "resurrection chapter." The +needed clue to its meaning is found in the language in which it was +originally written, that being Greek. The word "for" is the Greek term +huper. It refers to the taking of someone's place, or to substitution. +Baptism "for" the dead is not baptism of a living person in behalf of +or for the benefit of a dead person, but rather the immersion of a +living person in the place of or into the former position of a now +deceased person. It is the baptism of a new convert who takes the place +in the church of one who has died. The baptism of a young child, for +example, the day after an elderly saint of the Lord has passed away +could be viewed as the younger person coming to "fill" the position of +the person who has gone home to be with the Lord. This vein of thinking +is carried on in the context when Paul says in the next verse, "Why are +we also in danger every hour?" (NASB). Being a Christian in those days +was a dangerous business. Paul's whole point in the entire passage has +to do with the fact that if the dead are not raised (v. 12) there is +absolutely no point in bringing new converts into this dangerous +position through baptism when there is no future life to promise them, +no reward in the future for their faithfulness. Why not just let +everyone die off without filling their positions in the church, since, +if there is no resurrection, "we are of all men most to be pitied" (v. +19). Belief in baptizing the living to somehow help in saving the dead +demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of the New Testament teaching +concerning the nature, extent, and purpose of salvation. + + #17. By their fruits ye shall know them. Matthew 7:20. + + Indeed, but that is not the only test we are given, thankfully. We +know people of many religions, and many of them are kind, decent, +moral, loving people. Does this mean that they are all right? Of course +not. At the same time, we know people of many different religions that +are mean, nasty, unloving, hateful, dishonest, etc. and etc. Does that +mean those religions are false? No, it doesn't. We know Mormons that +fit in both the above categories. Does this prove Mormonism true or +false? Neither. Instead, we are given other tests to utilize. The main +one is, what do you teach concerning Jesus Christ (e.g., Colossians +2:8-9)? The Mormon Church teaches that Jesus is the spirit brother of +Lucifer (see, for example, Ensign, June 1986, page 25). This is +completely untrue, as the Bible says Jesus created all things (John +1:3, Colossians 1:16-17), which would include Lucifer (Ezekiel +28:13-15). Hence, how can the Creator be the spirit-brother of his +creation? Such is nonsense. The fruit of this teaching is falsehood +concerning the person of Jesus Christ. Again, even using the test +prescribed by the LDS Church, we find Mormonism wanting. + + This little card ends with, "Why are these things important? HEBREWS +13:8." Yes, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. How +different from the Mormon teaching that God was once a man who evolved +(or progressed) to Godhood! Much more important than this is the dire +warning of the Bible: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach +any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, +let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man +preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be +accursed." (Galatians 1:8-9). Those are serious words indeed, and the +LDS people would do well to heed them. + + James White diff --git a/religious documents/lds28.txt b/religious documents/lds28.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b00150 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds28.txt @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +CUL:The Mountian Meadows Massacre by Walter Martin + +from "The Kingdom of the Cults" + +We cannot, of course, discuss the history of the Mormons under Brigham +Young in great detail because that would easily necessitate a full +volume by itself, but suffice it to say that Smith gave the movement +its initial thrust and Brigham Young supplied the needed momentum +necessary to establish it as a bona fide religion. Young himself was +a character of many facets, and one cannot understand the theology of +Mormonism without understanding the tremendous influence exercised +upon it by the person of "prophet" Young and his teachings. Smith and +Young, in company with the pronouncements of the succeeding +presidents, have made Mormon theology what it is, and apart from +Brigham Young, Mormonism cannot be thoroughly understood. + +Young was a man of indomitable courage, possessed of a canny nature, +but given of fits of ruthlessness now conveniently forgotten by Mormon +historians. One such evidence of his determination to control Utah +was the order which he gave to massacre over 100 non-Mormon immigrants +in what has now become known as the infamous Mountain Meadows +Massacre. In this particular instance, for reasons known only to +himself, Young entrusted to Bishop John D. Lee in 1857 the task of +annihilating a wagon train of virtually helpless immigrants. This, +Bishop Lee did faithfully, and 20 years later he was imprisoned, +tried, convicted and excuted by the government of the United States +for this vicious, totalitarian action. + +In his momorable book, the confessions of John D. Lee, a consistent +sore spot in the Mormon scheme of historical "reconstruction," Lee +confessed to his part in the infamous doings, but he swore that he +acted upon the order of Brigham Young. However, the testimony of Lee +and of some of his lieutenants and others connected with the massacre +indicates beyond question that Young ordered and sanctioned the +action. As we further study Mormon theology, it will become apparent +that this was not at all beyond the limits of Young's character; he +was the law in Utah; and as it has been so wisely observed, "power +corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." + +Mormonism today, then, is a far cry from quite a number of the +principles and practices of its early founders. To be sure, it +remains faithful to their basic tenets, but, as in the case of +polygamy, when those tenets come in conflict with government statutes +or political influence, the latter-day saints have wisely chosen to +ignore (the word commonly used is "re-interpret") the counsels of +their two chief prophets. The history of the mormons is a vast and +complex subject; it is a veritable labyrinth of books, testimonies, +affidavits, photographs, hearsay and opinions, and it is only after +the most careful analysis of the contemporary evidence that a picture +emerges consistent with verifiable facts. For the average faithful +Mormon, one can but have sympathy and regard. He is, by and large, +honest, industrious, thrifty and zealous in both the proclamation and +promulgation of his beliefs. One only regrets that he has accepted at +face value a carefully edited "history" of the origin and doctrinal +development of his religion instead of examining the excellent sources +which not only contradict but irrefutably prove the falsity of what is +most certainly a magnificent reconstructed history. It is to be hoped +that as we further study the unfolding drama of Mormon doctrine, and +the Mormonism and the pitfalls which most certainly exist in taking at +face value the gospel according to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. +The verdict of history, then, is overwhelmingly against the Mormon +version, particularly where Smith and Young are concerned; and there +is a vast amount of documentation all but a few Mormons seem content +to ignore, but the facts themselves remain too well verified to be +ignored. diff --git a/religious documents/lds29.txt b/religious documents/lds29.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5d467c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lds29.txt @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +CUL:Testimonals to Joseph Smith's heresies by Walter Martin + +Excerpted from "Kindom of the Cults" +by Dr. Walter Martin, pg. 175. + +One of the most interesting statements concerning the early life +of the Smith family and of Joseph, Jr., Was obtained by E.D. Howe, a +contemporary of Smith's, who did tremendous research during the +lifetime of Joseph which has never been successfully impugned by any +Mormon historians. Smith himself never dared to answer Howe's +charges, though they were well known to him, so great was the weight +of contemporary evidence. + +Mr. Howe obtained a statement signed by sixty-two residents of +Palmyra, New York, one that cannot be ignored by any serious student +of Mormonism: + +"We, the undersigned, have been acquainted with the Smith family, for a +number of years, while they resided near this place, and we have no +hesitation in saying, that we consider them destitute of that moral +character, particularly famous for visionary projects, spent much of +their time in diggings for money which they pretended was hid in the +earth: and to this day, large excavations may be seen in the earth, not +far from their residence, where they used to spend their time digging +for hidden treasures. Joseph Smith, senior, and his son Joseph, were +in particular, considered entirely destitute of moral character, and +addicted to vicious habits" +- (Mormonism Unveiled, Zanesville, Ohio, 1834, p. 260). + +Some persons reading this may feel that it is unfair to quote only one +side of the story: what about those who are favorable to the Mormons, +they will ask. In answer to this, the amazing fact is that there +exists no contemporary pro-Mormon statements from reliable and informed +sources who knew the Smith family and Joseph intimately. It has only +been the over-wise Mormon historians, utilizing hindsight over a +hundred-year period, who have been able to even seriously challenge the +evidence of the neighbors, Joseph's father-in-law, and many ex-Mormons +who knew that was going on and went on record with the evidence not +even Mormon historians have bothered seriously to dispute. diff --git a/religious documents/ldsoccul.txt b/religious documents/ldsoccul.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7af6051 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ldsoccul.txt @@ -0,0 +1,530 @@ +============================================================================= +The purpose of the text files I have written on Mormonism is not to condemn +the Latter Day Saints, but to disprove their propaganda that Mormonism = +Christianity. For further information write: + Revelation Ministries + P.O. Box 68204 + Raleigh, N.C. + 27613 +============================================================================= + + + A SHORT STUDY OF MORMONISM AND THE OCCULT + + by Jeff Keith, Revelation Ministries + + + --<< Joseph Smith and Magic >>-- + +Joseph Smith carried many talismatic charms, and one was found in his pocket +the day he died. + +According to Dr. Reed Durham, director of the LDS Institute of Religion at +the University of Utah and President of the Mormon History Association: + + "I should like to initiate all of you into what is perhaps the + strangest, the most mysterious, occult-like esoteric, and yet mas- + onically oriented practice ever adopted by Joseph Smith...All avail- + able evidence suggests that Joseph Smith the prophet possessed a + magical Masonic medallion, or talisman, which he worked during his + lifetime and which was evidently on his person when he was martyred. + .....the talisman, originally purchased from the Emma Smith Bidamon + family, fully notarized by that family to be authentic and to have + belonged to Joseph Smith, can now be identified as a Jupiter Talis- + man. It carries the sign and image of Jupiter and should more appr- + opriately be referred to as the Table of Jupiter.....I wasn't able to + find what this was for--as I said--two months; and finally in a magic + book printed in England in 1801, published in America in 1804, and I + traced it to Manchester, and to New York. It was a magic book by + Francis Barrett, and lo and behold, how thrilled I was when I saw in + his list of magic seals the very talisman which Joseph Smith had in + his possession at the time of his martyrdom...to the egyptians, Jupiter + was known as Ammon, but to the Greeks he was Zues, the Ancient Sky + Father, or Father of the Gods......Talismatic magic further declared + that any one who worked skillfully with this Jupiter Table would + obtain the power of stimulating anyone to offer his love to the poss- + eser of the talisman, whether from a friend, brother, relative, or + even any female." + +It is important to remember that this statement came from a Mormon, The Pres- +ident of the Mormon History Association. He was severely criticized by Mormon +scholars and officials. + +According to "The Complete Book of Spells, Ceremonies, and Magic" by Migene +Gonzalez-Wippler page 155: + + "Talismans are best made of the metal ascribed to each of the plan- + etary forces, or of virgin parchment. The symbols are usually insc- + ribed within a circle, which represents the universe as well as man." + +From the same book, concerning the Jupiter Talisman specifically: + + "After the talisman is made it is magically charged through any of a + number of methods, such as the ritual of the Invoking Pentagram. Once + the talisman is charged it is carefully wrapped in a piece of white + silk or linen and kept in a safe place until future use." + + +According to an affidavit by Charles E. Bidamon, who sold the talisman to the +Wood collection: + + "Emma Smith Bidamon the prophets widow was my foster mother. She + prized this piece very highly on account of it's being one of the + prophet's intimate possessions. + I certify that I have many times heard her say when being interview- + ed and showing her the piece that it was in the prophet's pocket when + he was martyred at Carthage Ill." + +According to the book, "Hyrum Smith-Patriarch", the following items were found +on Hyrum Smith (Joseph's brother): + + Dagger. Masonic ten inch, stainless steel-wooden handle-Masonic + symbols on blade. + + Emblematic parchments-Masonic-three, original hand painted on heavy + bodied paper-on border appears initials. "I.H.S." + + Pouch, Masonic cotton fabric 4" x 4" with draw string attached. + +According to the Mormon Arthur de Hoyos: + + "One cannot help but wonder the reason why the Prophet Joseph Smith, + and his brother, Hyrum, the Patriarch would possess articles such as + they did unless they actually believed that these items did possess + some sort of supernatural power, or that they were a "key to receiv- + ing power or protection. + Whatever the case may be both Joseph and Hyrum did possess these + charms and it seems highly unlikely that there was not a legitimate + reason for this." + + --<< Magic and Masonry >>-- + +Mormon historian B.H. Roberts said concerning Joseph Smith's ancestors: + + "...it may be admitted that some of them believed in fortune telling, + in warlocks and witches...To be credulous in such things was to be + normal people." (A Comprehensive History of the Mormon Church, vol + 1, pages 26-27) + +Fayette Lapham, who visited the Smiths around 1830, said: + + "This Joseph Smith, Senior, we soon learned, from his own lips, was + a firm believer in witchcraft and other supernatural things; and had + brought up his family in the same belief. + His son Joseph happened to be where a man was looking into a dark + stone and telling people, therefrom, where to dig for money and other + things. Joseph requested the privilege of looking into the stone, + which he did by putting his face into a hat where the stone was. It + proved to be not the right stone for him, but he could see things, + and, among them, he saw the stone, and where it was in which he + could see whatever he wished to see. .....After this, Joseph Smith + spent about two years looking into the stone, telling fortunes, where + to find lost things, and where to dig for money and other hidden + treasure. (Historical Magazine, May 1870, page 306) + + +Joshua Stafford claimed: + + "I became acquainted with the family of Joseph Smith, Sen. about the + year 1819 or 20. They...told marvelous stories of ghosts, hobgoblins, + caverns, and various other mysterious matters." + + +Lucy Smith, Joseph's mother, revealed in her history: + + "..let not the reader suppose that...we stopt (sic) our labor and + went at trying to win the faculty of Abrac, drawing magic circles, + or sooth saying, to the neglect of all kinds of business. We never in + our entire lives suffered one important interest to swallow up every + other obligation" + +This is an admission that the Smith family was involved in The Faculty of +Abrac. What exactly is the Faculty of Abrac? + +According to Mormon answers to Skepticism, 1980, page 105: + + "Abrac, from Abracadabra and Abraxis, is a magic word or formula + used on amulets to work magic charms, Eighteenth century masons were + said to know how to conceal "the way of obtaining the faculty of + Abrac" which implied that they knew how to get it." + +In a footnote on page 116 of the same book Henry Ward said: + + "This is truly Free Masonry; the art of finding new arts, and the way + of winning the faculty of Abrac." + +In an article entitled "The Facultie of Abrac: Masonic Claims and Mormon +Beginnings" John E. Thompson wrote: + + "In the early nineteenth century, some New York masons claimed that + their craft possessed many of the more esoteric secrets of the Univ- + erse. In particular, they claimed to be able to control what James + Hardie called "the facultie of abrac." William Wines Phelps wrote in + 1830 that the connection between Masonry and the "facultie of abrac + went back to the 17th century. Whether or not Phelps was correct, the + connection between Masonry and "the facultie of abrac" obviously pre- + dates 1818... + Not only was the claim of a connection between Masonry and Magic known + in the Western part of New York before the disappearance of Morgan, + but it was circulating specifically in the neighborhood of the Mormon + Prophet Joseph Smith, both in the period he was writing the Book of + Mormon and in the earlier period of time when he was known to have had + magical interests... + In nearby Canandaigua, William Wines Phelps, after renouncing the + Masonic order in 1828, established the Anti-Masonic Ontario Pheonix. + On April 9, 1830..Phelps received a copy of the newly published Book + of Mormon. About a year later, he followed the prophet West, a thor- + ough convert, Right up to his departure, however, he was actively + involved with the concerns of Anti-Masonry. On August 25, 1830, for + example, he published a piece which discussed that the the (sic) con- + nection between Masonry and the "facultie of the abrac" in these + words: + + A very ancient Masonic Charm, or the way of winning the + Faculty of Abrac,- is meant the chimerical virtues ascribed + to the magical term - ABRACADABRA, written or repeated in a + particular manner, and is thought to be efficacious in curing + auges, and preventing fits and other Masonic diseases. + + Thus we are brought at last to Masonic claims and Mormon beginnings... + it is true that the Prophet himself was inducted into Masonry many + years later in Nauvoo Illinios. But that was only the flowering of a + relationship that had it's roots in New York State prior to the publi- + cation of the Book of Mormon. And, it now appears, that the cement + that brought some of the early Mormons into New York Masonry may + have been the search to "win the faculty of abrac." + (The Philalethes, December 1982, pages 9 and 15) + +Joseph Smith used a seer stone, or peep stone in his magical operations. He +would place this stone into his hat and "read" it to find hidden treasures, +and he used it to "translate" the Book of Mormon. Crystal gazing, or "scrying" +is a very ancient practice. + +From the book "Strange Superstitions and Magical Practices": + + "Among primitive peoples there is a widespread belief in the magical + efficacy of qaurtz crystals- one of the most common of all luminous + stones. These mineralogical specimens are frequently the main prop + of the magician. They are used for this purpose by the aborigines in + Australia, Polynesia and North American, among others." + +Crystal gazing is closely associated with necromancy- "the art of divination +through communication with the dead." + +According to "Mormonism, Magic and Masonry" by Jerald and Sandra Tanner: + + "It is interesting to note that in the book which contains drawings + of the two pentacles found on the Hyrum Smith (Joseph's brother) + parchment, there is a chapter entitled "An Expiriment of the Dead". + This chapter, which begins immediately below the two pentacles, tells + of the process for "Conjuring for a dead spirit." + +According to Joseph Capron, Joseph Smith claimed to see "infernal spirits" in +his seer stone: + + "The family of Smiths held Joseph Smith Jr. in high estimation on + account of some supernatural power he pretended to have received + through the medium of a stone of peculiar quality. The stone was + placed in a hat, in such a manner as to exclude light, except that + which emanated from the stone itself. This light of the stone, he + pretended, enabled him to see anything he wished. Accordingly he dis- + covered ghosts, infernal spirits, mountains of gold and silver, and + many other invaluable treasures deposited in the earth." (Mormonism + Unveiled, page 259) + +In Lucy Smith's (Joseph's mother) history, she states: + + "A short time before the house was completed, a man, by the name of + Josiah Stowel, came from Chenango county, NY, with a view of getting + Joseph to assist him in digging for a silver mine. He came for Joseph + on account of having heard that he possessed certain keys, by which he + could discern things invisible to the natural eye. (Biographical + Sketches of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, London, 1853,pp 91-92 + +In State of New York versus Joseph Smith: + + "Warrant issued upon written complaint upon oath of Penter G. Bridge- + man, who informed that one Joseph Smith of Bainbridge was a disorderly + person and an imposter. + Prisoner brought before Court March 20, 1826. Prisoner examined: says + that he came from the town of Palmyra, and had been at the house of + Josiah Stowel in Bainbridge....That he had a certain stone which he + had occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures in the + bowels of the earth..." + +In the 1826 trail, Joseph stated that "...but of late he had pretty much +given it up (the stone) on account of its injuring his health, especially his +eyes--made them sore;..." + +From "Mormonism, Magic and Masonry": + + "Joseph Knight, an early Mormon writer, claimed that the angel who + showed Joseph Smith the gold plates of the Book of Mormon told him + that he could not have them until he brought the right person with + him to the Hill Cumorah. Knight claimed that Joseph Smith "looked + into the glass and found it was Emma Hale, daughter of old Mr. Hale + of Pensylvany.." + +In The Book of Mormon, it is claimed that a "seer" is greater than a prophet +and that a person who has this gift can know of things in the past as well as +things that will happen in the future. + + "And Ammon said that a seer is a revelator and a prophet also; and a + gift which is greater can no man have,...a seer can know of things + which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them + shall all things be revealed,..." (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 8:16-17) + +It also says, concerning a "seer stone": + + "And the Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, + which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover + unto my people who serve me, that I may discover unto them the works + of their brethren, yea, their secret works, their works of darkness, + and their wickedness and abominations." (Book of Mormon, Alma 37:23) + +In the original Doctrine and Covenants (one of the four standard works of the +Mormon Church) Gazelem is identified as Joseph Smith Jr. in four different +places; (Doctrine and Covenants, 78:9, 82:11, 104:26, 43.) In the most recent +edition, the name Gazelem has been omitted in all four places. + + +Hosea Stout recorded the following in his diary under the date of Feb 25, +1856: + + "President Young exhibited the seer's stone with which the Prophet + Joseph discovered the Book of Mormon, to the Regents this evening" + + +Mormon historian B.H. Roberts confirmed that Joseph Smith used a "seer stone" +to translate the Book of Mormon: + + "The Seer Stone referred to here was a chocolate colored, somewhat + egg shaped stone which the Prophet found while digging a well in + company with his brother Hyrum, for a Mr. Clark Chase, near Palmyra, + N.Y. It possessed the qualities of Urim and Thummim, since by means of + it-- as well as by means of the interpreters found with the Nephite + record, Joseph was able to translate the characters engraven on the + plates." (Comprehensive History of The Church) + +Joseph Smith's mother gave a very unusual description of the Urim and Thummim: + + "..it consisted of two smooth three-cornered diamonds set in glass, and + the glasses were set in silver bows, which were connected with each + other in much the same way as old fashioned spectacles." (Biographical + Sketches of Joseph Smith,1853, page 101) + +In "The Rocky Mountain Saints" printed in 1873, T.B.H. Stenhouse related: + + "..the author has received the following communication from a gentlem- + an who has been about thirty years associated with Mormonism, and who + personally knew well the Prophet: + Joseph Smith was no more and no less than a `spirit medium'--more + impressional than clairvoyant or clairaudient..." + + --<< The Smith Family and Magic Practices >>-- + + +According to "Satanism, A Guide to the Awesome Power of Satan" page 206 by +Wade Baskin: + + + MAGIC CIRCLE: "A diagram drawn around an object or a person prior to + a magic operation. The circle, drawn around the karcist with a new + sword, symbolizes the separation of the wizard from the infernal pow- + ers." + + +According to "Magic- The western Tradition" page 12 + + + "The magician prepared his vestments, wands, and other magical weap- + ons, purified both them and himself, drew a circle...and summoned the + spirit into the triangle which lay outside the circle, outside the + integrity of the magician's individuality. Once the spirit had appear- + ed the magician had to master it, to make it his servant; should he + fail to do so, and the spirit succeed in leaving its triangle and + entering the circle of art. the magician would be torn to pieces." + +Joseph Capron tells this of Joseph in "Mormonism Unveiled" pages 259-260. + + + "The sepient Joseph discovered, north west of my house, a chest of + gold watches; but, as they were in possession of the evil spirit, it + required skill and strategem to obtain them. Accordingly, orders were + given to stick a parcel of large stakes in the ground, several rods + around, in a circular form. This was to be done directly over the + spot where the treasures were deposited. A messenger was then sent to + Palmyra to procure a polished sword: after which, Samuel F. Lawrence, + with a drawn sword in his hand, marched around to qaurd any assault + which his Satanic majesty might be disposed to make." + + +William Stafford gave this in his affidavit concerning Joseph Sr.: + + + " Joseph Sen. first made a circle, twelve or fourteen feet in diamet- + er. The circle, said he, contains the treasure. He then stuck in the + ground a row of witch hazel sticks, around the said circle, for the + purpose of keeping off the evil spirits. Within this circle he made + another, of about eight or ten feet in diameter. He walked around + three times on the periphery of this last circle, muttering to himself + something which I could not understand. He next stuck a steel rod in + the centre of the circles, and then enjoined profound silence upon us, + lest we should arouse the evil spirits who had the charge of these + treasures. After we had dug a trench about five feet in depth around + the rod, the old man by signs and motions, asked leave of absence, and + went to the house to inquire of young Joseph the cause of our dissap- + ointment. He soon returned and said, that Joseph had remained all the + time in the house, looking in his stone and watching the motion of + the evil spirit-that he saw the spirit come up to the ring and as soon + as it beheld the cone which we had formed around the rod, it caused + the money to sink." (William Stafford's affidavit, pages 237-239) + + + --<< Joseph Smith and Blood Sacrifices to Demons >>-- + + +From "Satanism, A Guide to the Awesome Power of Satan": + + + "From time immemorial blood has been regarded as a vital agent and + has figured prominently in ritual sacrifices. The Greeks poured + blood into graves to revive the spirits of the dead. Demons are said + to love blood." + + +From "The Greater Key of Solomon" page 122: + + "In many operations it is necessary to make some sort of sacrifice + unto the Demons, and in various ways...Such sacrifices consist of the + blood and sometimes of the flesh." + + "Sometimes white animals are sacrificed to the good spirits and black + to the evil." + + +From William Stafford's affidavit: + + "Joseph Jr. had discovered some very remarkable and valuable treasures + which could be procured in only one way. That way, was as follows-That + a black sheep should be taken on to the ground where the treasures + were concealed- that after cutting its throat, it should be led around + a circle while bleeding. This being done, the wrath of the evil spirit + would be appeased." + + +C.R. Stafford testified concerning the same incident: + + + "Jo Smith, the prophet, told my uncle, William Stafford, he wanted a + fat black sheep. He said he wanted to cut its throat and make it walk + around in a circle three times and it would prevent a pot of money + from leaving." {Naked Truths about Mormonism, Jan 1888, page 3} + + +From "A New Witness for Christ in America", by Francis W. Kirkham, 1959, Vol +2, pages 366-67, Concerning a treasure dig: + + + "One of the men placed his hand upon the box, but it gradually sunk + from his reach. After some five feet in depth had been attained with- + out success, a council of war against this spirit of darkness was + called, and they resolved that the lack of faith, or some untoward + mental emotion, was the cause of their failure. + In this emergency the fruitful mind of Smith was called on to devise + a way to obtain the prize. Mr. Stowell went to his flock and selected + a fine vigorous lamb, and resolved to sacrifice it to the demon + spirit, who guarded the treasure. Shortly after the venerable Deacon + might be seen on his knees at prayer near the pit, while Smith, with + a lantern in one hand to dispel the midnight darkness might be seen + making a circuit around the spot, sprinkling the flowing blood from + the lamb upon the ground, as a propititation to the spirit that + thwarted them." + + +From The Book of Mormon: + + + "And ye shall offer up to me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your + sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will + accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings." {3 Nephi + 9:19} + + +However, Joseph Smith later wrote: + + + "These sacrifices, as well as every ordinance belonging to the Priest- + hood, will, when the Temple of the Lord shall be built, and the sons + of Levi be purified, be fully restored and attended to in all their + powers, ramifications, and blessings." {History of the Church, Vol. 4, + page 211} + + +Lastly, according to "Mormonism, Magic and Masonry" by Jerald and Sandra +Tanner, Wandle Mace, a devout Mormon, recorded this statement in his journal: + + + "Joseph told them to go to Kirkland, and cleanse and purify a certain + room in the Temple, that they must kill a lamb and offer a sacrifice + unto the Lord which should prepare them to ordain William Richards, + a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles." {Journal of Wandle + Mace, page 32, microfilmed copy at Brigham Young University} + + + + + --<< Fighting Devils for The Book of Mormon >>-- + + +In Lippincott's Magazine, 1880, pp 200-201: + + + "It is recorded that after the prize had been delivered to the + prophet by angels his eyes were opened and he saw legions of devils + struggling with a celestial host to keep the plates concealed. On his + return to Susquehanna with a bandaged head, Smith gave out that he had + an encounter with the chief devil, and had been severely wounded by a + blow struck from the shoulder." + + +One of the witnesses to The Book of Mormon, Oliver Cowdery, stated that when +Joseph Smith first went to the hill Cumorah he: + + "beheld the Prince of darkness surrounded by his innumerable trains + of associates." {Messenger and Advocate, Vol. 2, p 198} + + + + + + + + + + + + +============================================================================= +The purpose of the text files I have written on Mormonism is not to condemn +the Latter Day Saints, but to disprove their propaganda that Mormonism = +Christianity. For further information write: + + + + Revelation Ministries + P.O. Box 68204 + Raleigh, N.C. + 27613 + + +============================================================================= + REFERENCES USED: + _Mormonism, Magic, and Masonry_ by Jerald and Sandra Tanner + _Satanism, A Guide to the Awesome Power of Satan_ by Wade Baskin +_The Complete Book of Spells, Ceremonies & Magic_ by Migene Gonzalez-Wippler + +Much information was obtained from the work of Jerald and Sandra Tanner, +founders of Utah Lighthouse Ministry, Box 1884, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84110. + diff --git a/religious documents/lesson1.txt b/religious documents/lesson1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7b980d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lesson1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,917 @@ + + INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD RELIGION + + LESSON 1 + +I. GODDESS RELIGIONS IN THE OLD WORLD + + A. Gravettian-Aurignacian Cultures (25000 BC-15000 BC) + + 1. The Upper-Paleolithic period, though most of its sites have been + found in Europe, is the conjectural foundation of the religion of + the Goddess as it emerged in the later Neolithic Age of the Near + East. + + a. There have been numerous studies of Paleolithic cultures, + explorations of sites occupied by these people, and the apparent + rites connected with the disposal of their dead. + + b. In these Upper-Paleolithic societies, the concept of the + creator of all human life may have been formulated by the clan's + image of women, who were their most ancient primal ancestors. + + (1) It is believed that the mother was regarded as the sole + parent of children in this culture. + + (2) Ancestor worship appears to have been the basis of sacred + rituals and ancestry is believed to have been reckoned through + the matriline. + + (a) The beginnings of Roman religion were based on survivals + of the Etruscan culture and ancestor worship was the earliest + form of religion in Rome. + + (b) Even today, the Jewish people determine who is and is not + a Jew through the matriline. + + 2. The most tangible evidence supporting the theory that these + cultures worshipped a Goddess is the numerous sculptures of women + found throughout most of Europe and the Near East. Some of these + sculptures date as far back as 25,000 BC. + + a. These small female figurines, made of stone, bone, and clay, + most of which are seemingly pregnant, have been found throughout + the widespread Gravettian-Aurignacian sites in areas as far apart + as Spain, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia. + + (1) These sites and figurines appear to span a period of at + least 10,000 years. + + 3. Johannes Maringer, in his book 'The Gods of Prehistoric Man' + says- "It appears highly probable then that the female figurines + were idols of a Great Mother cult, practiced by the non-nomadic + Aurignacian mammoth hunters who inhabited the immense Eurasian + territories that extended from Southern France to Lake Baikal in + Siberia." + + a. It was from this Lake Baikal area in Siberia that tribes are + believed to have migrated across a great land bridge to North + America about this time period, and formed the nucleus of what + was to become the race of American Indians. + + (1) This tends to support the observation that European + witchcraft and American Indian shamanism have similar roots. + + B. The Roots of Western Civilization + + 1. Western Civilization began in Mesopotamia and the Nile Valley, + where it traveled into Palestine and Greece. + + a. From Greece civilization traveled to Rome,and as the Roman + Empire grew it spread to Spain, France, Germany and England. + + 2. Mesopotamia ( 3500 BC - 539 BC ) + + a. Mesopotamia ("the land between the rivers") is the name used to + describe the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the + southern area of which is mostly lowlying swampland and marshes. + + (1) The fertile lands of Mesopotamia lie between the desert and + the mountains. The northern part has regular rainfall while the + southern part, stretching down to the Arabian Gulf, suffers dry + scorching summers from May to October. + + (a) In what is now the southern part of Iraq, Sumer existed + as one of the world's first civilizations. + + b. Between 2800 and 2400 BC the city-states of Sumer were at their + strongest and wealthiest. + + (1) The Goddess was worshipped under various names which were + epithets, or characterizing phrases, such as 'Queen of Heaven' + and 'Lady of the High Places'. The name of the city or town that + She was the patroness for, was often attached to Her title + making Her name even more specific. + + (a) An example of this is the temple erected about 3000 BC in + the city-state of Uruk which was dedicated to the Queen of + Heaven of Erech. + + (b) This city was made a major power and rival to its sister + city Ur by Gilgamesh's son. + + c. About 2350 BC an ambitious king, named Sargon, attacked + Sumer, and made it part of his huge Empire. His capitol of Agade + gave us the name by which Sargons empire is known- the Akkadian + Empire. + + (1) The Akkadian Empire was the first successful attempt to + unite a huge area under the rule of one man. It eventually + gained supremacy in about 1900 BC and gradually superseded the + Summerians as the cultural and political leaders of the + region. + + (a) The Akkadian language of the Babylonians became the + international language of the Near East, just as French + would become the language of diplomacy thousands of years + later. + + (b) The new Babylonian culture incorporated the Sumerian + religion, and the Sumerian language was adopted as the + language of the liturgy much as Latin is used as the + language of liturgy for Roman Catholics. + + (c) The sumerian Goddess, under the names Inanna, Eriskegan + and Irnini, evolved into the great Babylonian Goddess + Ishtar. + + d. Approximately 1600 BC Babylon was sacked by an Indo-European + people known as the Hittites who came from Anatolia, off to the + northwest. + + (1) During the confusion that ensued, the Kassites seized the + throne of Babylon and ruled peacefully for 400 years. + + (a) Ishtar's power waned as the Babylonians were influenced + by the warlike Hittites and Her temples were taken over by + a male-dominated priesthood, which called the Goddess + Tiamat and wrote stories of how their god Marduk had killed + Her in the struggle for control of the region. + + e. In the centuries following 1103 BC the Assyrians rose to + power and expanded into most of Mesopotamia from their homeland + which lay between the cities of Asher and Nineveh on the Tigrus + River. + + (1) In the eighth century, the Assyrians conquered most of + Syria, Palestine, Phoenicia and had invaded Egypt as far as + Thebes (Luxor) before the Egyptians drove them back. + + (a) Looking to legitimize their new empire, they 'married' + their god Asher to Ishtar, whose followers had secretly + kept Her worship alive. + + (b) The joining of Ashur with Ishtar produced a son named + Ninurta, and this is the first formally recorded triad of + Goddess, Consort, and Divine Child in the Near East. + + (2) From 631 to 539 BC much inter-city warfare occurred as + the Assyrian empire fell apart. + + (a) In 539 BC Nabonius, the last king of Babylonia, + surrendered to Cyrus II of Persia who was busy building + the greatest empire ever attempted. + + 3. Anatolia + + a. Anatolia, which is also called Asia Minor, is a broad peninsula + jutting westward from the Asian continent itself. To the north + lies the Black Sea, to the south the easternmost part of the + Mediterranean. At the entrance to the Black Sea are the + Dardanelles and it is here that Asia comes closest to the + continent of Europe. Not surprisingly, Anatolia has always been + the main link between the Orient and the Occident. + + b. In Neolithic Anatolia (present day Turkey) the Great Goddess + was worshiped in the shrines of Catal Huyuk around 6500 BC. + + c. Anatolia was invaded sometime before 2000 BC by the Indo- + Europeans and a group of them settled in a part of Anatolia known + as Hatti. The invaders and local people came to be known + collectively as the Hittites. + + (1) These are the same Hittites who sacked Babylonia in 1600 BC + and suppressed the worship of Ishtar in favor of their god + Marduk. + + d. Most of the references to the Goddess in the literature and + texts of Anatolia alluded to the older Hattian deities despite the + fact that the only records allowed to survive were written after + the conquest of Anatolia by the Indo-Europeans. + + (1) One of the most important female deities to survive was the + Sun Goddess Arinna. After the conquest she was assigned a husband + who was symbolized as a storm god. + + (a) At the time of the Hittite invasions of other lands, many + of the people who were Goddess-worshippers may have fled to + the west. The renowned temple of the Goddess in the city of + Ephesus was the target of the apostle Paul's zealous + missionary efforts (Acts 19:27). This temple remained active + until 380 AD. + + 4. Crete + + a. The Aegean Sea is an area of the Mediterranean, lying between + the mainland of Greece and the western coast of Anatolia. The + Aegean Sea is dotted with a great number of mountainous islands + and the largest of these is Crete, which is just about 60 miles + southeast of Greece. + + (1) Crete was the society that is most repeatedly thought to + have been matrilineal and possibly matriarchal from Neolithic + times to the Dorian invasion. + + (a) Reverance of the double headed ax as a symbol of the + Mother Goddess and a reverence for the sexual vitality of + bulls were two notable aspects of Crete's early culture. + + (b) Bull leaping is thought to have been the origin of + Spain's bullfighting, although in Crete the bull was never + harmed. + + (2) After viewing the artifacts and murals at Knossos, the + Archaeological Museum at Iraklion and other museums in Crete, + there is little doubt that the principal sacred being on Crete + for several millenia was the Goddess and that women acted as Her + clergy. + + 5. Egypt (3100 to 30 BC) + + a. Egypt is a hot, desert land divided by the fertile valley of + the Nile river. Hardly any rain falls there and the summers are + scorching hot. Even today, most of Egypt is arid desert. + + (1) The Cultivation, a strip of land on each side of the Nile + river, is one of the most fertile stretches of land in the world. + + (a) Although the Cultivation is only 12 1/2 miles wide, it + runs for about 620 miles from Aswan in the south to the broad + farmlands of the delta where the Nile empties into the + Mediterranean. + + b. In prehistoric Egypt, the Goddess held sway in Upper Egypt (the + south) as Nekhebt and She was depicted in the form of a vulture. + + (1) The people of Lower Egypt, including the northern delta + region, worshipped the Goddess as Ua Zit (Great Serpent) and + depictions of Her show Her as a cobra. + + c. From about 3000 BC onward the Goddess was said to have existed + when nothing else had been created. + + (1) She was known as Nut, Net, or Nit which was probably derived + from Nekhebt. + + (a) According to Egyptian mythology, it was the Goddess who + first put Ra, the sun god, in the sky. + + (b) Other texts of Egypt tell of the Goddess as Hathor in + this role as creatrix of existence, explaining that She took + form as a serpent at the time. + + d. In Egypt the concept of the Goddess always remained vital. + Eventually the Goddess evolved into a more composite Goddess known + as Isis. + + (1) Isis (Au Set) incorporated the aspects of both Ua Zit and + Hathor. Isis was also closely associated with the Goddess as + Nut, who was mythologically recorded as Her Mother; in paintings + Isis wears the wings of Nekhebt. + + (a) Isis was also associated with another triad which + included Her husband, Osiris, and their son Horus. + + (b) Isis' cult was introduced into Rome and the last temple + of Isis was closed in 394 AD by Theodosios. + + 6. Canaan (8000 - 63 BC) + + a. The biblical land of Canaan, the 'land of milk and honey' was + an area about 90 miles wide running north and south along the + eastern coast of the Mediterranean. + + (1) In modern times the region includes the states of Israel, + Jordan, Lebanon, and part of Syria. The area made up of Jordan + and Israel used to be known as Palestine. + + b. Images of the Goddess, some dating back as far as 7000 BC, + offer silent testimony to the most ancient worship of the Queen of + Heaven in the land that is most often remembered today as the + homeland of Judaism and Christianity. + + (1) In exploring the influence and importance of the worship of + the Goddess in Canaan in biblical times, we find that as + Ashtoreth, Asherah, Astarte, Attoret, Anath, or simply as Elat + or Baalat, she was the principal deity of such great Canaanite + cities as Tyre, Sidon, Ascalon, Beth Anath, Aphaca, Byblos, and + Ashtoreth Karnaim. + + c. In Egypt, the Hebrews had known the worship of the Goddess as + Isis or Hathor. For four generations they had been living in a + land where women held a very high status and the matrilineal + descent system continued to function at most periods. + + (1) Judging from the number of Hebrews who emerged from Egypt in + the Exodus, as compared with the family of the the twelve sons + who supposedly entered it four generations earlier, it seems + likely that a great number of those Hebrews known as Israelites + may actually have been Egyptians, Canaanites, Semitic nomads and + other Goddess-worshipping peoples who had joined together in + Egypt. + + d. Archaeological records and artifacts reveal that the religion + of the Goddess still flourished in many of the cities of Canaan + even after the Hebrews invaded it and claimed it as their own on + the authority that their god had given it to them. + + (1) And just to the east, all most at their doorstep was + Babylon, where the temples of Ishtar were still going strong. + + 7. Persia (3000 - 331 BC) + + a. Throughout its early history Iran was often invaded by nomadic + peoples. + + (1) Some came through the Elbruz mountains east of the Caspian + Sea. + + (a) Others, like the Medes and Persians, entered Iran through + the Caucasus mountains in the Northwest. + + b. By the 9th century BC the most powerful group in Iran was the + Medes, who kept the Persians as their servants. + + (1) In 612 BC the Medes, together with the Babylonians, captured + Nineveh, Ashur, and Kalhu, which were in the heart of the + Assyrian empire. + + (a) The Assyrian empire collapsed and its vast territories + were divided between the Medes and the Babylonians. + + c. About 550 BC the king of the Persians led a revolt against the + Medes and from that point on the Persians, led by their King Cyrus + the Great, ruled over Iran. + + (1) Cyrus captured Babylon and gained control of the whole + former Babylonian empire. + + (a) Virtually all of western Asia was now under Persian rule. + + (2) The nest two kings extended Persian rule to Egypt in the + south and to the borders of India in the east. + + (a) Egypt revolted later and won its independence for a short + time, but was forced back into the empire just in time to be + part of the prize won by Alexander the Great of Macedonia + when he conquered the Persian empire in 331 BC. + +II. PEOMAGOGIC HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSAL GODDESS RELIGION + + A. Definition of Poemagogic + + 1. Term coined by Anton Ehrenzweig + + a. The special function of inducing and symbolizing the ego's + creativity. + + (1) It has a dreamlike 'slippery' quality. + + (a) One aspect slips into another just like a dream. + + B. Legend of the Universal Goddess + + 1. The craft is a religion which has an unbroken tradition that + dates back to Paleolithic times (approximately 35,000 years). + + a. As the last ice age retreated the tribe of nomadic hunters + worshipped the Goddess of the Wild Things and Fertility and the + God of the Hunt. + + (1) Semi-permanent homes were set up in caves carved out by the + glaciers. + + (a) Shamans and Shamanka conducted rites within hard to + reach portions of the caves, which were painted with scenes + of the hunt, magical symbols and the tribes totem animals. + + 2. The transition from Hunter-Gatherers to agriculturists was + reflected in the change of the 'Lady of the Wild Things and + Fertility' to the 'Barley Mother' and the 'God of the Hunt' to the + 'Lord of the Grain'. + + a. The importance of the phases of the moon and the sun was + reflected in the rituals that evolved around sowing, reaping, and + letting out to pasture. + + 3. Villages grew into towns and cities and society changed from + tribal to communal to urban. + + a. Paintings on the plastered walls of shrines depicted the + Goddess giving birth to the Divine Child - Her son, consort and + seed. + + (1) The Divine Child was expected to take a special interest in + the city dwellers, just as His Mother and Father had taken an + interest in the people who lived away from the cities. + + b. Mathematics, astronomy, poetry, music, medicine, and the + understanding of the workings of the human mind, developed side + by side with the lore of the deeper mysteries. + + 4. Far to the east, nomadic tribes devoted themselves to the arts + of war and conquest. + + a. Wave after wave of invasion swept over Europe from the Bronze + Age onward. + + (1) Warrior gods drove the Goddess' people out from the fertile + lowlands and the fine temples, into the hills and high + mountains, where they became known as the Sidhe, the Picts or + Pixies, and the Fair Folk or the Fairies. + + b. The mythological cycle of Goddess and Consort, Mother and + Child, which had held sway for 30,000 years was changed to + conform to the values of the conquering patriarchies. + + (1) In Canaan, Yahweh fought a bloody battle to ensure that his + followers had "no other gods before me." + + (a) The Goddess was given a masculine name and assigned the + role of a false god. + + (b) Along with the suppression of the Goddess, women lost + most of the rights they had previously enjoyed. + + (2) In Greece, the Goddess in Her many aspects, was "married" + to the new gods resulting in the Olympic Pantheon. + + (a) The Titans, who the Olympians displaced were more in + touch with the primal aspects of the Goddess. + + (3) The victorious Celts in Gaul and the British Isles, adopted + many features of the Old Religion and incorporated them into + the Druidic Mysteries. + + (a) The Faerie, breeding cattle in the stony hills and + living in turf-covered round huts preserved the Craft. + + (b) They celebrated the eight feasts of the Wheel of the + Year with wild processions on horseback, singing and + chanting along the way and lighting ritual bonfires on the + mountaintops. + + (c) It was said that the invaders often joined in the revels + and many rural families, along with some royalty, could + claim to have Faerie blood. + + (d) The College of the Druids and the Poetic Colleges of + Ireland and Wales were said to have preserved many of the + old mysteries. + + 5. In the late 1400's the Catholic Church attempted to obliterate + its competitors, and the followers of the Old Religion were forced + to 'go underground.' + + a. They broke up into small groups called Covens and, isolated + from each other, formed what would later be known as the Family + Traditions. + + (1) Inevitably, parts of the Craft were forgotten or lost and + what survives today is fragmentary. + + 6. After nearly five centuries of persecution and terror, came the + Age of Disbelief. + + a. Memory of the True Craft had faded as non-members who could + remember how they once had met openly died and those who came + after never knew of them. + + (1) All that was left were the hideous stereotypes which were + ludicrous, laughable or just plain tragic. + + 7. With the repeal of the last Witchcraft Act in England in 1954, + the Craft started to re-emerge as an alternative to a world that + viewed the planet as a resource to be exploited. + +III THE ARCHETYPE OF THE GODDESS + + A. The Craft has always been a religion of poetry, not theology. + + 1. The myths, legends, and teachings are recognized as metaphors for + 'That which cannot be told'; the absolute reality our minds can + never completely express because of the limitations placed on it + through biology. + + a. The mysteries of the absolute can never be explained - only + felt or intuited. + + b. Symbols and ritual acts are used to trigger unusual states of + awareness in which insights that go beyond words are revealed. + + (1) When the phrase 'secrets that cannot be told' is used, it is + not a matter of oaths taken or the threat of penalties that + might be imposed. + + (a) The true meaning is that the inner knowledge literally + cannot be expressed in words. + + (b) It can only be conveyed by experience and no one can + legislate what insight another person may draw from any given + experience. + + (c) This is why the Craft is not a spectator religion, where + you can refuse to put any effort in and gain anything + meaningful for your own development. + + (d) This is also why entrenched priesthoods foster the belief + that non-priests must go through a hierarchy of priests, + heads of churches, and eventually through chosen prophets and + sons of the deity in order to receive special attention by + the deity. + + B. The primary symbol for 'that which cannot be told' in the Craft is + the Mother Goddess. She has an infinite number of aspects and + thousands of names because She is the reality behind many metaphors + for the creation of the universe. + + 1. Unlike patriarchal systems, the Craft sees the Goddess as giving + birth to the world rather than creating it out of nothing. + + a. The fertile Lands were made from Her Flesh, the Waters from Her + own bodily Fluids, the Mountains from Her Bones, and the Winds + from Her own Breath. + + (1) The Goddess does not rule the world, She IS the world and + since She gave birth to us all, we have the potential to + reconnect with the spirit of Her in all Her magnificent + diversity. + + (2) Religion for us, then is a matter of relinking with the + divine within and with Her outer manifestations in all the human + and natural world. + + (a) One of the basic beliefs that the Craft is founded upon + is what Stewart Farrar call the 'Theory of Levels', which + recognizes that reality exists and operates on many planes. + + (b) A simplified but generally accepted list would be - + physical, etherical, astral, mental and spiritual. + + (c) It is recognized that each of these levels has its own + laws and that these laws, while special to their own levels, + are compatible with each other and their mutual resonance + governs the interaction between the levels. + + (d) The point of this excursion into the esoterica of how the + universe works, is to point out that we do not separate our + physical existence from our spiritual existence. In the + Craft, spirit and flesh are joined together and physical + aspects of being human such as sex are not considered 'dirty + ' or 'sinful'. + + C. The importance of the Craft for women, is a direct outgrowth in the + decline of Goddess religions and the rise of God dominated religions. + + 1. Male images of divinity are characterized in both western and + eastern religions today, and women are thus deprived of religious + models and spiritual systems that can speak to female needs and + experience. + + a. In the extremes of male dominated religions, women are not + encouraged to explore their own strengths and realizations. + + (1) They are taught to submit to male authority, to identify + masculine perceptions as their spiritual ideals, to deny their + bodies and sexuality, and to fit their insights into a male + mold, no matter how ludicrus that may seem. + + 2. The image of the Goddess inspires women to see themselves in a + very different light. + + a. As Daughters of the Goddess, they are divine, their bodies are + sacred, and the changing phases of their lives are holy. + + (1) Their aggression is healthy, and their anger can be + purifying. + + (a) Their power to create and nurture as well as their + ability to limit and to destroy, when necessary, is seen as + the very force that sustains all life. + + (2) Through the Goddess, women can discover their strengths, + enlighten their minds, own their bodies and celebrate their + emotions. + + (a) They can move beyond narrow constricting roles and + become whole people. + + 3. For women, the Goddess is the symbol of the inmost self and the + beneficent, nurturing, liberating power within all women. + + a. The cosmos is modelled on the female body, which is sacred. + + (1) All phases of life are sacred and age is a blessing, not a + curse. + + (a) The Goddess does not limit women to their bodies. She + awakens their minds and spirits and emotions. + + (b) Through Her, they can know the power of anger and + aggression, as well as the power of love. + + D. The Image of the Goddess has a great deal to offer men as well as + women. + + 1. Men are also oppressed in a God ruled, patriarchal society. + + a. Men are encouraged to identify with a model that no human being + can possibly live up to. + + (1) Men are expected to be mini-rulers of their own very narrow + universes. + + (a) Men are internally split between a spiritual self, that + is supposed to conquer their baser animal instincts, and + their emotional selves. + + (b) They are at war with themselves. In the west, they are + expected to overcome the tendency to sin, while in the east + they must suppress the desires of the ego. + + (c) Needless to say, no man comes away from this type of + struggle undamaged. + + 2. Every male who is raised by a mother, will from birth carry + within him a strong feminine imprint. + + a. This is so, because women give birth to males, nurture them at + their breast, and in our culture, are primarily responsible for + their care until they reach adolescence. + + (1) The symbol of the Goddess allows men to experience and + integrate the feminine side of their nature without danger of + losing those feelings which are the touchstone of their + masculinity. + + (a) The Goddess becomes: the mother who will never abandon + her child: refuse to nurture him when he is feeling his most + vulnerable: tempers her justice with compassion and + understanding, all these in ways not always possible in human + women and other men. + + 3. For a man, the Goddess is his own hidden Female self, as well as + being the Universal Life force. + + a. She embodies all the qualities society teaches him not to + recognize in himself. + + (1) His first experience with Her may therefore be somewhat + stereotypical, in that She appears as the cosmic lover, the + gentle nurturer, the eternally desired Other, or the Muse. All + that he is not. + + (a) As he becomes more whole and becomes aware of his own + 'female' qualities, She seems to change, to show him a new + face. Always holding up a mirror, She shows what may seem + ungraspable to him. + + (b) He may chase Her forever and She will elude him, but + through the attempt, he will grow until he too learns to find + Her within. + +IV THE ARCHETYPE OF THE HORNED GOD + + A. The Horned God is born of a Virgin Mother + + 1. He is a model of male power that is free from father-son rivalry + or 'Oedipal' conflicts. + + a. He has no father, because He is his own father. + + (1) As He grows and passes through the changes on the Wheel, He + remains in relationship with the prime nurturing force of the + Goddess. + + (a) His power is drawn directly from the Goddess and He + participates in life through Her. + + 2. The Horned God represents powerful, positive male qualities that + derive from deeper sources than the stereotypical violence and + emotional crippling of men present in our society. + + a. When a man strives to emulate the God, he is free to be wild + without being cruel, angry without being violent, sexual without + being coercive, spiritual without being unsexed, and able to truly + love. + + 3. For men the God is the image of inner power, and of a potency + that is more than merely sexual. + + a. He is the undivided Self, in which mind is not split from the + body, nor spirit from flesh. + + (1) United, both can function at the peak of creative and + emotional power. + + b. Men are not subservient or relegated to second class spiritual + citizenship on the Craft. + + (1) But neither are they automatically elevated to a higher + status than women, as they are in other religions. + + (a) Men in the Craft must interact with strong, empowered + women who do not pretend to be anything less than what they + are. + + (b) Many men find this prospect disconcerting at first. + + 4. For women raised in our present culture, the God begins as a + symbol of all those qualities that have been identified as male, and + that they, as women, have not been allowed or encouraged to own. + + a. The symbol of the God, like that of the Goddess, is both + internal and external. + + (1) Through meditation and ritual a woman invokes the God and + creates his image within herself. + + (a) In this way she connects with those qualities that she + may lack. + + (2) As her understanding moves beyond culturally imposed + limitations her image of the God changes and deepens. + + (a) He becomes the Creation, which is not simply a replica of + oneself, but something different and of a different order. + + (b) True Creation implies separation as the very act of birth + is a relinquishment or letting go. + + (c) Through the God, women know this power within themselves, + and so, like the Goddess, the God can empower women. + + 5. In the Craft, the cosmos is no longer modeled on external male + control. + + a. The hierarchy is dissolved and the heavenly chain of command is + broken. + + (1) The "divinely revealed" texts are seen as poetry not the + "word of God." + + (a) Instead, a man must connect with the Goddess who is + immanent in the world, in nature, in women, and in his own + feelings. + + (b) She is immanent in everything that childhood religions + taught needed to be overcome, transcended, and conquered, in + order to be loved by 'God'. + + b. The very aspects of the Craft that seem threatening also hold + out to men a new and vibrant spiritual possibility: that of + wholeness, connection, and freedom. + + (1) Men of courage find relationships with strong powerful women + exhilarating and they welcome the chance to know the Female + within the self. + + (a) They enjoy the chance to grow beyond their culturally + imposed limitations and become whole. + + c. Within Covens, women and men can experience group support and + the affection of other women and men. + + (1) They can interact in situations that are not competitive or + antagonistic. + + (a) Men in Covens can become true friends with other men, + without giving up any part of themselves, or subjecting + themselves to derision or ridicule. + +V. ETHICS AND VALUES SHARED BY MOST MEMBERS OF THE CRAFT + + A. The ethics of the Craft are more positive than negative. + + 1. Rather than being exhorted with a plethora of "thou shall nots" + the Craft is guided by principles more along the lines of "blessed + be they who...." + + a. The Craft is a joyous creed; it is also a socially and + ecologically responsible one. Witches delight in the world and + their involvement in it on all levels. + + (1) They enjoy their minds, their psyches, their bodies, their + senses and sensitivities; and they delight in relating, on all + these planes, with their fellow creatures and the Earth Herself. + + 2. Wiccans believe in a joyful balance of all human functions. + + a. This outlook is perfectly expressed in the Charge of the + Goddess, which is an integral part of most of the rituals of all + witches. + + (1) "Let My worship be within the heart that rejoices; for + behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals, and + therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and + compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you." + + (a) This provides a model of a balanced ethic which presents + eight qualities that are positive and not restrictive. + + (b) Compassion means empathy, not condescension; humility + means a realistic appraisal of your own stage of development; + reverence means a sense of wonder. + + (c) The Wiccan is always conscious that compassion must be + partnered with power, humility with honor, and reverence with + mirth. + + 3. Love of life in all its forms, is the basic ethic of the Craft. + + a. We are bound to honor and respect all living things and to + serve the Life Force. + + (1) It has been said that we all serve the Goddess, even if only + as compost. + + 4. Witchcraft recognizes that life feeds on life. + + a. We must kill in order to survive, but life is never taken + needlessly, never squandered or wasted. + + (1) To ensure the survival of the species, females are not + hunted as game, for they share the sacred bond of motherhood + with the Goddess. + + (a) Serving the Life Force also means working to preserve the + diversity of natural life, preventing the poisoning of the + environment and the destruction of species. + + 5. The World is seen as the manifestation of the Goddess + + a. What happens in the World is important because the Goddess is + directly affected. + + (1) While the seasons of the year renew the Goddess, She needs + the participation of Her creations to keep the cycle going. + + (a) This is the real function of the Sabbats. They reinforce + the ties between humankind and the Planet that gives us life. + + (b) Unlike other gods, that allow humanity to exist at their + sufferance, the Goddess needs us just as much as we need Her, + and we are partners in the pageant of Life. + + 6. Justice is seen as an inner sense that each act brings about + consequences that must be faced responsibly. + + a. This is based on the belief that all things are interdependent + and interrelated. + + (1) Therefore, we are all mutually responsible because an act + that harms anyone harms us all. + + (a) This is summed up in the form of a law known as Karma, + which dictates that all actions bring about changes. + + (2) There is a saying in the Craft that illustrates the effects + of Karma known as the 'Threefold Law of Return' + + (a) 'Whatever is sent out is returned three times over.' + + (b) It is a sort of amplified 'Golden Rule' + + 7. Honor is a guiding principle of the Craft. + + a. It is an inner sense of pride and self respect + + (1) Refusing to do anything which would make you ashamed of + yourself strengthens your magical will and leads to the self + respect that comes from setting your own course, guided by your + own inner sense of right or wrong. + + (a) This makes you rightfully proud of past accomplishments + and encourages you to stay the course. + + b. The Goddess is honored in oneself and in others. + + (1) Women are respected and valued for all their human + qualities. + + (a) The Self, one's individuality and unique way of being, is + highly valued. + + (2) Like Nature, the Goddess loves diversity. + + (a) Oneness is attained not through losing the Self, but + through realizing the Self's potential. + + 8. Self development and the full realizatin of one's unique yet many + aspected potential is a moral duty for a witch. + + a. Life is seen as a gift from the Goddess and it is up to us to + push the evolution to mankin + + + (1) If suffering exists, it is not our task to reconcile + ourselves to it. + + (a) We must work for change in all ways at hand. + + b. That which helps this evolution to come about is seen as good + and desirable while actions that thwart it are to be avoided + because each of us is a factor in the cosmic evolutionary process. + +END OF LESSON 1 + diff --git a/religious documents/lesson2.txt b/religious documents/lesson2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b77d119 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lesson2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1019 @@ + INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD RELIGION +LESSON 2 + + I. THE MODERN SCIENTIFIC VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE + +A. Foundation + + 1. Nearly three thousands years ago, the Greeks started to emigrate + eastwards towards Ionia. They settled on the islands in the Aegean + Sea and on the coastline of Asia Minor. + + a. The conditions found in Ionia were difficult. + + (1) Backed by inhospitable mountain ranges, they settled in + small walled towns and supported themselves with dry farming, + capable of producing only some olives and a little wine. + + (a) With farming ruled out as an option for survival, the + Greeks turned towards the sea and soon found that they were + the neighbors of two very large empires, the Babylonians and + the Egyptians. + + (b) Trade with these two empires seemed to be the natural + solution to their problem, but they needed to resolve some + basic questions concerning the founding of their society. + + b. Both Babylonian and Egyptian cultures had developed urban + civilizations based on an abundance of arable land and plenty of + water. + + (1) Their societies were theocratic, ruled by kings with magical + powers. + + (a) There had been little technological or scientific + novelty, due to the extreme regularity of their physical + environment and the rigidity of their social structures, + which were based on the need to build and maintain vast + irrigation systems. + + (b) Babylonian mathematics and astronomy were restricted + subjects whose study was permitted only to the priesthood. + Egyptian geometry served exclusively to build pyramids and + measure the area of inundated land or the volume of water + reservoirs. + + (2) Both cultures developed mythical explanations for Creation. + + (a) With gods being responsible for all aspects of the world, + and with minimal science and technology developed for + practical necessities, their simple cosmology was complete. + + (b) Unlike the Greeks, the environment made no demands on + them which they were not able to meet. So other than figuring + out how to kill their enemies more efficiently, there was no + inducement to learn to think or to develop their science and + technology further. + + c. The colonial Greeks were forced by their environment to adopt a + more dynamic outlook. + + (1) With no theocratic traditions to hold them back, they + rejected monarchies at an early stage. + + (a) They opted, instead, for republican city- states in + which a small number of slave-owners governed by mutual + consent. + + (2) Babylonian astronomy, which had aided priests to make magic + predictions, was pressed into service as an aid to maritime + navigation. + + (3) Contact with the Egyptians had planted the seeds of wonder + in the intellectuals who accompanied the Greek traders on their + trips around the Aegean. + + (a) Rejecting the cosmologies of the Egyptians they formed + the rudiments of what was to become philosophy. + + (4) Seeking explanations to the world around them, they found + ways of exploring nature in order to explain and control it. + + (a) The Ionians took the geometry developed by the Egyptians + and made a tool with many applications; such as measuring the + distance from the coast to a ship at sea. + + (b) Geometry became the basic instrument for measuring all + things. All natural phenomena including light and sound, as + well as those of astronomy, existed and could be measured in + exclusively geometrical space. + + (c) Simple analyses of natural phenomena such as water, + beaches, clay deposits, phosphorescence, magnetism, + evaporation and condensation as well as the behavior of the + winds and the changes of temperature throughout the year led + to the discovery that nature is made up of opposites. + + (5) These simple analyses of phenomena and the observation of + the presence of opposites combined with the political and + economic structure of Ionian society produced the dominant + intellectual structure which is the basis of modern western + science. + + (a) Geometry rendered the cosmos accessible to examination + according to a common standard, quantitative scale. + + (b) Together with the concept of pairs of opposites, geometry + was to become the foundation for a rational system of + philosophy that would underpin Western culture for thousands + of years. + + (c) Rational thought followed a new logical technique + developed by Aristotle called the syllogism, which provided + an intellectual structure for the reconciliation of opposing + views. + + (d) In this way, the Ionians before him, and Aristotle, + produced a system of thought that would guide men from the + limited observations of personal experience to more general + truths about nature. + + B. The Middle Ages + + 1. During the latter part of the Roman empire, interest in science + as founded by the Greeks waned and practically all Greek manuscripts + went to Arabia. + + a. In a way, Greek science was preserved for posterity by the + Arabs, who themselves added very little to it. + + (1) They did introduce to science the so called Arabic system of + numbers, which used the zero as a place holder. + + (a) To be sure, Alhazen produced a work on optics, but + generally speaking Greek science was not improved upon to any + appreciable extent by its translation into Arabic. (b) + Science was still based upon the authority of Aristotle. + + 2. Between 700 and 1100 AD, a beginning was made toward a revival of + learning in Europe. + + a. Large universities developed under the shelter of the Church. + + (1) Trade spread, and both Greek and Arabian manuscripts + gradually found their way back into Europe. + + (a) The Crusades assisted in this process. + + b. Since the Church had survived the Roman state and had become + all powerful, it was natural that the revival of learning should + take place under its influence. + + (1) Many of the scientific manuscripts were translated from the + original Greek into Latin by monks, in monasteries where + merchants and knights bringing treasures from the east would + often seek shelter for the night. + + (a) These scholars were satisfied just to make exact + translations, and so the science which they passed on to the + world through the Church was the original Aristotelian + version. + + (2) Although the church had re-established science in the + various large universities, it is important to remember that + Church domination flavoured it to suit itself. + + (a) The doctrines of Aristotle came to have the power of law + behind them. + + (b) Truth was not discoverable, by that time truth was + dictated by the Church. + + (c) It became a crime of the first order even to question the + Church sponsored views of Aristotle, to say nothing of + suggesting that experimentation might be a better way to + establish the truth. + + C. The New Awakening + + 1. During the Renaissance, universities were able to free themselves + from Church rule and science was able to see the light of day + without being shrouded in theology. + + a. All of the following produced revolutionary ideas which led to + their authors spending some part of their lives in prison because, + while the Church did not have a stranglehold on the human mind, it + still ruled with an iron fist and was always on the lookout for + heresy. + + (1) Copernicus developed the heliocentric theory of the + universe. + + (2) Galileao, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler established the + fundamental ideas of modern celestial mechanics, based upon + observation first, and theorizing afterward, thus + revolutionizing scientific thought. + + (a) Galileo in particular stressed the idea of controlled + experimentation to such a degree that today he is recognized + as the father of the modern scientific method based upon + inductive rather than deductive reasoning. + + (b) Galileo carried observation to the quantitative stage by + making accurate measurements. He truly emphasized the 'how', + as contrasted with the 'why' of Aristotle. + + (c) By quantitative observations on falling bodies and other + mechanical motions, assisted by instruments of his own + invention to improve the accuracy of his measurements, + Galileo laid the foundation for the discoveries of Newton. + + (3) Sir Isaac Newton is considered by many to be the greatest + scientific genius the world has produced thus far. + + (a) He crystallized the scientific thought of his time into a + few fundamental statements now accepted as laws of nature. + + (b) These include three famous laws of motion and the law of + gravitation in the field of mechanics alone. + + (c) In addition, he invented calculus and contributed greatly + to the field of optics. + + (d) His role was primarily that of a co-ordinator of + information or a systematizer of knowledge. He formulated the + over all pattern by which scientific knowledge was to be + organized in the great classical period that was to follow his + time. + + D. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Classical Period. + + 1. Science was really gathering momentum by this time and becoming + very complicated. + + a. The various branches of physics received recognition as fields + that, while related, were becoming too complex to be included + under the general heading of physics. + + b. Chemistry was coming into its own after a balky start as the + secret science of Alchemy. + + c. Electricity was an infant science, with a great deal of + promise. + + E. The Modern Period (1890 to Present) + + 1. With the discovery of radioactivity and x-rays, along with the + isolation of the electron, and the formulation of the concept of the + electrical structure of matter, science moved into today. + + a. In the early days, science was concerned with the observation + of natural phenomena and the search for explanations of WHY they + existed. + + (1) As the emphasis shifted to HOW the phenomena worked the body + of knowledge grew dramatically. + + (a) Many varied disciplines developed to encompass general + fields of specialized knowledge and sciences such as geology, + oceanography, and meteorology came into their own. + + (b) In the light of this tendency to form subgroups, the + mother of all sciences, which was and is dedicated to the + study of the physical world, came to be known as Physics. + + b. The field of physics deals with three 'realities' of the + physical world and has developed three interconnected world views + to explain them. + + (1) Classical Newtonian Model of the Universe + + (a) This model of the universe works well when you deal with + objects consisting of large numbers of atoms, and velocities + which are small compared to the speed of light. In other + words, our mundane world. + + (2) Einstein's Relativistic Model of the Universe + + (a) This model works well when considering objects on a + planetary and larger scale that may be many light years away + from each other. In this model the shortest distance between + two points is not always a straight line, because gravity + curves space. + + (3) Quantum Theory of the Universe + + (a) Quantum theory was developed to explain the behavior of + subatomic particles. It is similar to Relativistic physics in + that it deals with speeds approaching, and sometimes + exceeding, the speed of light, but it considers small groups + and singular particles at a time. + +II. THE CRAFT VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE + + A. Craft cosmology is rooted in the paleolithic Shaman's insight of + the universe being made up of swirls of energy. + + 1. Everything is seen as vortexes of moving forces which are either + swirling into existence or out again. + + a. These vortexes of force set up currents in a sea of + everchanging possibilities. + + 2. The appearance of separateness exists where fixed objects exist + within a linear stream of time. + + a. Reality, as we know it, is actually a temporary solidification + of a field of energies into a physical form. + + B. Rationale of the Two Principles + + a. Stewart Farrar has proposed the following explanation of how + Crafters integrate every phenomenon from chemistry to clairvoyance + into a philosophical framework that allows them to constantly + explain, examine, develop and improve their philosophy. + + (1) The Theory of Levels maintains that a reality exists and + operates on many planes. + + (a) That each of these levels has its own laws. + + (b) That these sets of laws, while special to their own levels, + are compatible with each other. + + (c) That mutual resonance governs the interaction between the + different levels. + + (2) The Theory of Polarity maintains that all activity, all + manifestation, arises from the interaction of pairs and + complementary opposites. + + (a) Pairs of opposites such as positive and negative, light and + dark, content and form, male and female are not conflicts + between 'good and evil', but a creative tension like that + between the earth and the sky in a lightning storm. + +III MODES OF PERCEPTION + + A. Ordinary Waking Consciousness + + 1. Sees the world as made up of separate parts of matter. + + a. While some of the arrangements of matter are recognized as + living, few are recognized as intelligent. + + b. Evolved as a means of survival. + + (1) Allows a differentiation between things that are + potentially threatening and those that are not. + + (a) It works by narrowing the field of conscious perception + to one thing at a time, isolating it from its surroundings. + + (b) Starhawk describes it as viewing a dark forest with a + narrow beam flashlight that illuminates a lone leaf or a + solitary stone. + + c. It casts a net across reality which allows us to break the + whole down into pieces which can be examined one at a time or + fitted together to get the 'whole picture'. + + (1) It is based on a culturally transmitted system of + classification which acknowledges the existence of phenomena + that is perceived as valid by the majority and ignores + anything that is not. + + B. Extraordinary Waking Consciousness + + 1. Views the world as broad, holistic and undifferentiated. + + a. Allows us to see patterns and relationships between all the + vortexes of energy that make up the universe. + + (1) Frees us from the constraints of our culture, but prevents + us from sharing it with others who have not experienced it. + + (a) The psychic and magical aspects of the Craft are + concerned with shifting into and out of this mode of + perception at will. + + C. The Hemispheres of the Brain + + 1. The brain is actually composed of two specialized organs, which + provide us with our perception of reality. + + a. The brain is made up of several different structures, which are + believed to have evolved as we became more adaptive to our + environment. + + (1) The Spinal Cord + + (a) This is the oldest part of the brain, stretching from the + neck down to the base of the spine. + + (b) The two principle functions associated with the spinal + cord are simple reflexes and to provide an electrical + connection between the brain which controls the body and the + nerves which cause the muscles to move the body and provide + feedback to the brain. + + (2) The Brain Stem + + (a) This is situated on top of the spinal cord. It still + possesses the tubular form of the spinal cord and in some + respects can be thought of as an extension of it. + + (b) There is a very intricate network of nerves in the + brainstem known as the reticular formation. The reticular + formation is the central point from which and to which all + nerves run between the body and the brain. + + (c) Visualizing the reticular formation as a telephone + operators switchboard helps to understand its function. It + sends all stimuli that has not proven to be benign to the + brain for immediate attention and suppresses all other + stimuli. + + (d) The brain is still aware of all of the other stimuli, but + it need not focus on all of it at once. + + (3) The Cerebellum + + (a) Connected to the brainstem is the cerebellum, which + somewhat resembles the cortex in terms of its neuronal + structure though it is much older than the cortex. + + (b) The cerebellum is primarily concerned with the co- + ordination of movements. It seems to integrate the information + coming from all the senses with all the muscles so as to + produce smooth, finely tuned movements rather than jerky unco- + ordinated movements. + + (4) The Midbrain + + (a) The midbrain consists of the Thalamus, the Limbic System, + and the Hypothalamus. + + (b) The Thalamus sits on top of the brain and relays + information from the sensory organs to the cortex and between + different portions of the cortex and the reticular formation + and the limbic system. + + (c) The Limbic System is a group of structures in the middle + of the brain that play an important role in emotion and + motivation. Included in the limbic system is the pineal gland, + which is thought by some to be the 'third eye.' + + (d) Just below the thalamus is the Hypothalamus, which + regulates the internal balance of the body. The pituitary + gland is located here and it is the gland which tells all the + other glands when to produce hormones. + + (5) The Neocortex + + (a) The Neocortex, or Cortex, as it is commonly called, makes + up only one quarter of the brains total volume, but it + contains 75% of all the neurons that make up the brain. + + (b) The cortex is also known by its greyish color which is a + result of a greater density of blood cells in this region. + For this reason, the cortex is sometimes called 'grey + matter' and the rest of the brain is called 'white matter.' + + (c) Some areas of the cortex play particular roles in sensory + activity. The rear of the cortex is associated with the + processing of visual information, a small area on the side + with auditory information, and a strip extending from the top + center of the cortex down each side is concerned with the + sense of touch and also with muscular control. + + 2. Large parts of the cortex do not appear to be very specific in + their function. + + a. Rather, they seem to be concerned with the integration of + information from several different senses. + + b. In other words, the cortex builds up a total world view based + on all the information that is relayed by the body's senses. + + c. In reality, the cortex is not just one structure, but two, + which appear to have developed separate, but complementary, + specializations. + + (1) The left side of the cortex seems to have specialized in + analysis. + + (a) It is here that math ability is found, along with + understanding language and a sense of linear time. + + (2) The right side of the cortex seems to have specialized in + synthesis. + + (a) Creativity, all forms of art, the sense of rhythm and + music and a distinct lack of time sense characterize the + states of consciousness which are attributed to the right + side of the cortex. + + d. To make things really interesting, these two sides of the + cortex are connected by a mass of nerves, which form what is + called the corpus callosum. + + (1) It just so happens that the corpus callosum wires the brain + up so that the right side of the body is controlled by the left + side of the brain and vice versa. + +IV. THE CONCEPTS OF THE SELF + + A. Classical Psychoanalysis + + 1. Freudian and Jungian Psychology + + a. The Id and the Personal and Collective Unconscious + + (1) Contains sensations, emotions, basic drives, image memory, + intuition and diffuse perception. + + b. The Ego + + (1) Organizes the impressions of the unconscious, gives those + impressions names, and classifies them into systems. + + c. The Super-Ego + + (1) A set of verbally understood precepts, that encourages us to + make judgments about right and wrong according to the society in + which we reside. + + 2. Transactional Analysis (T/A) + + a. Child + + (1) Corresponds to the Id and the Personal and Collective + Unconscious. + + b. Adult + + (1) Corresponds to the Ego + + c. Parent + + (1) Corresponds to the Super-Ego + + B. The Craft Concept of the Three Selves + + 1. Younger Self or Child + + a. Corresponds to the Child mode of T/A + + (1) Indirectly experiences the world, through the holistic + awareness of the right hemisphere of the brain. + + (a) Due to its limited verbal ability, Younger Self + communicates through images, emotions, sensations, dreams, + visions, and physical symptoms. + + 2. Talking Self + + a. Corresponds to Adult and Parent modes of T/A + + (1) Speaks through words, abstract concepts, and mathematics. + + 3. High Self + + a. Does not easily correspond to any 'scientific' concept, because + science refuses to accept the existence of a non-physical soul. + + (1) The High Self, or God Self, is the Divine within the Self. + + (a) It is the ultimate and original essence, the Spirit that + exists beyond time, space and matter. + + (b) It is our deepest level of wisdom and compassion and is + conceived of as being both male and female, two forms of + consciousness united as one. + + C. Interactions Between the Three Selves + + 1. High Self is connected directly to Younger Self, and does not + know how to communicate with Talking Self in a direct manner. + + a. In order to communicate between High Self and Talking Self, we + must learn to speak in Younger Self's language. + + (1) We utilize symbols, art, poetry, music, myth, and the + actions of ritual. + + (a) These translate abstract concepts into the language of + the unconscious and thus we can communicaate to the High Self + through the Child Self. + +V. THE FOUR PRICES OF FREEDOM + + A. As in everything else in the world, nothing is free. + + 1. There are four prices that a Wiccan must pay in return for the + wisdom and power that they can gain through the Craft. + + a. Paying these prices awakens our true potentials and allows us + to be 'as gods', and thus help us to creat a better universe. + + (1) Discipline and Responsibility + + (a) To awaken the extra-ordinary mode of consciousness is a + natural step in any Wiccan development but it requires a + great deal of practice to develop and train it properly. + + (b) Powers and abilities gained through this heightened + awareness must also be used responsibly, for otherwise they + will destroy their possessors. + + (2) A Willingness to Play + + (a) We unleash a great power when we are willing to let go of + our adult dignity and laugh for no particular reason, without + worrying about looking foolish. + + (b) For example, we can make believe that a wand has magic + power, and it becomes a channel for energy. + + (c) Humour and play awaken the sense of wonder that + characterizes Wiccans, and is the basic attitude that the + Craft takes into the World. + + (3) The need to maintain a balance between the different states + of consciousness. + + (a) The difference between magic and psychosis lies in + maintaining the ability to step back, by an act of will, into + the ordinary mode of perception. + + (4) A willingness to face the most frightening of all beings, + one's own self. + + (a) The depth of our inner selves are not all sunlit. + + (b) To see clearly, we must be willing to dive into the dark, + inner abyss and acknowledge the creatures that we may find + there as being a part of what makes us what we are. + +VI. ANALYSIS OF THE CREATION MYTH + + A. The Creation Myth which is located at the beginning of the Chapter + Two of "The Spiral Dance" by Starhawk, expresses the attitude of + wonder, to the world which is Divine and to the Divine which is the + World. + + 1. In the beginning, the Goddess is the All, virgin, complete within + Herself. + + a. The female nature of the ground is stressed because the process + of creation is a birth process. + + (1) The world is born, not made, and definately not commanded + into existence. + + 2. The Goddess sees Her reflection in the curved mirror of space. + + a. Water is the original mirror on earth. + + (1) The image conveyed is similar to that of the Moon floating + over the dark sea, watching Her reflection in the waves. + + b. There is yet another aspect of the mirror. + + (1) A mirror is a reversed image. It is the same but opposite, + of reverse polarity. + + (a) The image in the mirror is the embodiment of the + universal paradox. + + (b) All things are one yet each is separate, individual and + unique. + + 3. The Goddess falls in love with Herself, drawing forth Her own + emanations which take on a life of its own. + + a. Love of self for self is the creative force of the universe. + + (1) Desire is the primal energy that motivates and that energy + is erotic. + + (a) It has been expressed as the attraction of lover to the + beloved, moon to plant, and electron to proton. + + (2) Blind Eros becomes Amor + + (a) The love that is personal, directed towards an individual + rather than the universal sexless charity of the Christian + Agape or indescriminaate sexual desire. + + (b) The Goddess' reflection takes on its own Being and is + given a Name. + + (c) Love is not only an energizing force but an + individualizing force as well. It dissolves separation and yet + creates individuality. Again, it is the universal paradox. + + 4. The sense of wonder, of joy and delight in the natural world is + the essence of the Craft. + + a. The world is not seen as a flawed creation from which we must + escape, nor is it in need of salvation or redemption. + + b. However it may appear from day to day by the nature of its + deepest being, the world fills us with wonder. + + 5. Divine ecstasy becomes the fountain of creation and creation is + seen as an orgasmic process. + + a. Ecstasy is at the heart of the Craft. + + (1) During ritual we turn the paradox inside out, and become the + Goddess, sharing in the primal throbbing joy of union. + + b. The Craft is a shamanistic religion, and the spiritual value + placed on ecstasy is a high one. + + (1) It is seen as the source of union, healing, creative + inspiration, and communion with the Divine. + + (a) Ecstasy brings about harmony. + + 6. By its very nature matter sings. + + a. The song is carried forth on waves that become spheres. + + (1) The waves are the waves of orgasm, light waves, ocean waves, + pulsating electrons, waves of sound. + + (a) The waves form spheres as swirling gases in space + coalesce and form stars. + + b. It is a basic insight of the Craft any energy, whether + physical, psychic or emotional, moves in waves, in cycles that are + themselves spirals. + + 7. The Goddess swells with love and gives birth to a rain of bright + spirits. + + a. It is a rain that awakens consciousness in the world as + moisture awakens green growth on earth. + + (1) The rain is the fructifying menstrual blood, the Moon's + blood that nourishes life. + + (a) It is also the bursting waters that herald birth. + + (b) And birth is the ecstatic giving forth of life. + + 8. The motion or vibration becomes so great that Miria is swept + away. + + a. As She moves further and further from the point of union She + becomes more polarized and more differentiated, until She become + mostly male. + + (1) The Goddess has projected Herself. + + (a) Her projected Self becomes the Other, Her Opposite, who + eternally yearns for reunion. + + (2) The energy field of the cosmos becomes polarized. + + (a) It becomes a conductor of forces exerted in opposite + directions. + +VII. ANALYSIS OF THE MYTH OF THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR + + A. The rituals of the eight Solar Holydays, the Sabbats of the year, + are derived from the Myth of the Wheel of the Year. + + 1. The cycle of the Goddess which occurs on a monthly basis is + contrasted to the slower cycle of the God, which takes a full solar + year to complete. + + a. The Goddess reveals Her threefold aspects as-- + + (1) Maiden + + (a) She is the Virgin, Patroness of birth and initiation. + + (2) Nymph + + (a) She is the sexual temptress, lover, siren, and + seductress. + + (3) Crone + + (a) She is the dark force of life, which demands death and + personal sacrifice. + + b. The God changes -- from Son to Brother to Lover, and eventually + becomes His own Father. + + (1) He is the eternal sacrifice who is eternally reborn into a + new life. + + (a) All things are divine as manifestations of the Goddess. + + (b) The death of the grain in the harvest, or the death of a + deer in the hunt, was considered to be a divine sacrifice + freely made out of love so that life might go on. + +VIII. EXAMINATION OF THE ALL AS TWO GREAT FORCES + + A. The view of the All as an energy field polarized by two great + forces is common to almost all traditions of the Craft. + + 1. These forces have been named Female and Male. And Goddess and + God. + + a. Which in their ultimate being are aspects of each other. + + (1) It is important to separate the concept of polarity from our + culturally conditioned images of female and male. + + (a) The Female and Male forces represent a difference, yet + they are not different in essence. + + (b) They are the same force, flowing in opposite, but not + opposed, directions. + + 2. The Female force is seen as the Life-giving force. + + a. It is the power of manifestation, of energy flowing into the + world to become force. + + 3. The Male force is seen as the Death-giving force. + + a. This is death in a positive rather than a negative way. + + (1) Death is seen as the Force of Limitation that is necessary + to provide a balance to unbridled creation. + + (a) It is the force of dissolution, of return to + formlessness. + + b. Each principle contains the other. + + (1) Life breeds death and feeds on death. + + (2) Death sustains life and makes evolution and new creation + possible. + + c. They are opposing halves of a complete cycle. + + (1) They area each dependent upon the other. + + 4. Existence is sustained by the on/off pulse, the alternating + current if you will, of the two forces in perfect balance. + + a. Unchecked the life force is a cancer whereas the death force + becomes unbridled war and genocide when allowed to go unbalanced. + + (1) When held in balance they are in harmony and work to renew + and sustain life. + + (a) We see the effects of this balance in the changing cycle + of the seasons, and in the ecological balance of the natural + world. + +IX OLD AGE IN THE CRAFT + + A. The Craft does not maintain, like the first Truth of Buddhism, that + "All life is suffering." On the contrary, we maintain that life is a + thing of wonder. + + 1. Old age is a natural and highly valued part of the cycle of life, + the time of greatest wisdom and understanding. + + a. We look forward to the time when we are freed from the cycle of + reproduction so that we may devote more time to our preparation + and contemplation of the journey into death at the end our years. + + (1) This does not mean that the joys of sex become lost to us + but that the urgency that wells up in the Spring and rides us + through until the Autumn subsides and we get to go at our own + pace. + + (a) While the quantity sometimes decreases, the quality + invaribly increases. + + 2. The Crone serves as a role model for both women and men in their + later years. + + a. A tendency to withdraw from society to a certain degree is + coupled with a diminishing of compassion in favor of a little more + emphasis on justice and balance. + + (1) People soon find that appealing to the Goddess as the Mother + brings help tempered by a mother's willingness to overlook the + fact that most children bring problems upon themselves. + + (a) Appealing to the Goddess as Crone however, gets a full + measure of justice for all parties involved. + + (b) The Crone does not play favorites, She has the severity + of a strong will to see justice done, that prevents Her from + doting on any of Her grandchildren. + + 3. Old age sometimes brings suffering. + + a. Where suffering is a natural part of the cycle of birth and + decay, it is relieved by understanding and acceptance. By a + willingness to give over to both the dark and the light in turn. + + (1) Disease can cause misery and suffering but it is not seen as + something to be inevitably suffered. + + (a) The practice of the Craft has always been connected with + the healing arts, herbalism, and midwifery. + + b. When suffering is the result of the social order or human + injustice, the Craft encourages active work to relieve it. + + (1) Witches are naturals for getting involved in the ecology + movement and other movements that try to address the issues that + they feel make society as a whole ill, both physically and + spiritually. + + 4. Nor is death fearful in old age. + + a. It is seen simply as the dissolution of the physical form. + + (1) It allows the spirit to prepare to be reborn into a new + life. + +X. DEATH AS SEEN BY A MEMBER OF THE CRAFT. + + A. The experience of death is a lesson for the living. + + 1. The people most affected by death are the people left behind who + must learn to deal with their sense of loss. + + a. In the Craft, death in this world is seen as a birth into the + "other" world that has been given many names. + + (1) The Summerland, Tirn-nan-og, and Avalon are all names given + to a pleasant land, usually in the West, where people go to + examine their past lives, grow young again, and prepare to be + born into this world again. + + (a) There are two theories about why the world beyond is + thought to be in the west. One is that the last rays of the + setting sun 'die' in the west and lead the way into the dark. + While the other is that since the invaders always came from + the east, the people who were being invaded came to think of + the west as being safe because it was the direction they were + running toward in order to get away from the invaders. + + b. Rebirth is not considered to be condemnation to an endless, + dreary round of suffering as in Eastern religions. + + (1) Instead it is seen as the great gift of the Goddess who is + manifest in the physical world. + + (a) Life and the world are not separate from the Godhead. They + are immanent in the divinity. + + 2. Since death is seen as a part of the natural order of things and + the Witch is taught that the departed spirits go on to the next life + to be watched over by the Goddess and the God until they are reborn, + a Witch should not grieve over the loss of a loved one. + + a. The realization of how much the departed person meant to the + ones who are left behind is gauged by the memories that live on in + the people still living. + + (1) It is said that the departed do not die as long as their + memory lives on in the hearts of the ones left behind them. + + (a) Keeping the memory alive and participating in the + seasonal celebrations prepares the people left behind for + being visited by the departed when the two worlds come close + to one another at Hallows. + + (b) It is always important to remember that a death in this + world is a birth in the other world, and just as you did not + have a lot of time for anything other than learning to + function in this world when you were young, newly departed + people have to learn to function in their new world and may + not be able to visit as often as you would like. + + 3. The belief the Karma ties a certain number of souls together over + and over again in many lives reassures people of the Craft that they + will meet the departed in a new life. + + a. Part of the training of the Craft is learning to see your own + past lives in relation to the people around you and their past + lives as well as discerning patterns of Karma in your everyday + dealings. + + + +END OF LESSON 2 + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/lesson3.txt b/religious documents/lesson3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d28533 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lesson3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,936 @@ + +I. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MYSTERY RELIGIONS + + A. Introduction + + 1. The development of agriculture had a profound and far reaching +effect upon the spiritual development of humanity. + + a. No longer content to worship the Goddess of the Wild Things +and the Lord of the Hunt, early mankind sought to interpret their +deities in the physical surroundings of the places where they settled +to grow their crops. + + (1) Volcanic mountains, such as those surrounding ancient +Persia, gave rise to Fire Gods whose priests evolved a cosmology which +postulated a universe based upon a struggle between good and evil. + + (a) A Fire Priest named Zoroaster would eventually lay the +foundation for Zoroasterianism, which would lead to Mithraicism, which +would greatly influence religious thinking of the early Christian +church. + + (b) Even today, the spiritual center of the Japanese people +is the volcanic mountain Fujiyama. + + (c) And the major deity of the Hawaiian people is the +volcano Goddess Pele. + + (2) Natural opening into the earth were seen as gateways into +the domain of the deities and shrines were built around them. + + (a) The most famous of these openings was the shrine at +Delphi where, through a succession of goddesses and gods who served as +patrons, the priestesses received visions of the future for a fee paid +to the temple. + + (b) There is some conjecture that the visions were brought +about by inhaling the gases rising from the chasm, over which the +priestesses were suspended on a tripod seat. + + (3) In the British Isles, prominent hills or Tors, such as +Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, and the Welsh mountains in Snowdonia, +became the focus for local rites. + + (a) In Ireland, each river was believed to have its own +Goddess, was well as the Goddesses which hold sway on dry land. + + b. The one common thread running through all of this was that +while the people were becoming urbanized, they still felt a need to +identify with the countryside around them and religious rites evolved +around some natural power spot so that anyone wishing to partake of +the religious experience of these rites had to make a pilgrimage to +that religious shrine and be initiated into those rites by the local +priestesses or priests. + + c. As the cities grew up it became necessary to spread out into +the countryside and the shrines were sometimes enclosed in temple +building and sometimes opened 'branch offices' on the other side of +the city, or in neighboring cities, for the people who could not or +would not make the pilgrimages. + + (1) This led to the establishment of temples, for public +worship and offering, in all the cities of the ancient world. + + (a) Usually, these temples were dedicated to the local +Goddess or God, that the people of the city worshipped as their +personal deity. + + [1] An example would be Athens, which was named for its +patroness Pallas Athena, who is the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and +Beauty. + + (b) Not surprisingly, these deities were sometimes tribal +deities, which were urbanized as the city grew in size. + + [1] And the rites that grew up around the temple were +seasonal rites performed to insure the common well-being of the city +as a whole. + + [a] Religious rites for personal spiritual +development was a foreign concept to all but a very few members of the +priest/esshood who were responsible for seeing after the well being of +their followers. + + 2. Once the concept of ownership of land for growing food gained a +foothold, the need to defend the land from 'outsiders' became a +primary concern. + + a. This led to the development of standing armies and navies +whose purpose, while initially defensive, soon became offensive. + + (1) Time and again, the justification for attacking their +neighbors was wrapped in religious robes and it became a matter of one +city's Goddess/God supplanting the other in the conquered city. + + (a) Usually this did not create too much of an upheaval for +the common citizen because the attacker was usually a nearby neighbor +and through long years of trade with each other, they were familiar +with one anothers rites and beliefs. + + (b) Most people saw it as a problem only for the +priesthoods, who lost control of the temple monies to the conquering +priesthood. + + [1] Sometimes it was seen as an improvement for the city +could only benefit from having a more powerful God/dess ruling over it +and as long as the priesthood kept up the seasonal rituals to insure +prosperity the common citizen was not too worried about who was ruling +the city. + + 3. The founding of the Mystery Religions can be tentatively dated +back to 331 BCE, when Alexander of Macedonia completed his conquest of +the world around the Mediterranean and the Near East. + + a. To give some perspective on how this brought about such a +drastic change in the world order we need to look at astronomy and see +if we can discern a pattern that repeats itself. + + (1) Ancient humanity used astronomy and astrology to guide +their lives. + + (a) The zodiac was seen as a measurement system which +allowed humankind to divide the solar year up into 12 equal parts, +although some believe that the original zodiac had only 10 signs. + + (b) The sign of Virgo-Scorpio was broken into two parts by +inserting Libra (the Balance) in between them. This created eleven +signs plus Libra, establishing the 'balance' at the point of +equilibrium between the ascending northern and descending southern +signs. + + (c) Each year the sun passes entirely around the zodiac and +return to the point from which it started, the vernal equinox, and +each year it falls just a little short of making the complete circle +of the heavens in the allotted space of time. + + [1] As a result, it crosses the equator just a little +behind the spot in the zodiacal sign where it crosses the previous +year. + + [a] Each sign of the zodiac consists of 30 degrees, +and as the sun loses about one degree every 72 years, it regresses +through one entire constellation or sign in approximately 2,160 years, +and through the entire zodiac in about 25,920 years. + + (2) Among the ancients, the sun was always symbolized by the +figure and nature of the constellation through which it passed at the +vernal equinox. + + (a) For nearly the past 2,000 years the sun has crossed the +equator at the vernal equinox in the constellation of Pisces (the two +fishes). + + [1] Christianity developed about the beginning of the +Piscean Age and the fish was an early symbol for them. + + [a] Christianity was only one of two new religions +that were based, in part, on the teachings of Judaism. + + [2] About 630 years after the founding of Christianity, +Mohammed founded the religion of Islam, and his followers are known as +Muslims or Moslems. + + (b) For the 2,160 years prior to then, it had crossed +through the constellation of Aries (the ram). + + [1] Just as the Age of Aries began, a new religion +developed which would prove to be one of the most enduring +Monotheistic religions on Earth. + + [a] Judaism was founded by Abraham of Chaldea, who +made an agreement with Jehovah that he and his offspring would spread +the doctrine that there was only one God. + + [b] In return Jehovah promised Abraham the land of +Canaan (Israel) for his descendants. The only problem is that the Jews +and the Arabs both trace their beginnings back to sons of Abraham, and +now both claim Israel as offspring of Abraham. + + [2] About 600 years later Hinduism developed in India. + + [a] From 600-300 years before the Age of Aries gave +way to the Age of Pisces, Buddhism, Taoism, Confuscianism, +Zoroastrianism and Mithraicism developed. + + (c) Prior to the Age of Aries, the vernal equinox was is the +sign of Taurus (the bull). + + [1] In ancient Egypt, it was during this period that the +Bull, Apis, was sacred to the Sun God. + + [a] And the Winged Bull was the spiritual symbol of +the Assyrians back when they had city-states dedicated to Goddesses. + + [b] How interesting - that just as humanity was +discovering agriculture during the Age of Taurus, the bull was +domesticated so that it could pull a plow. + + (d) We are about to enter a new age. The Age of Aquarius +which promises to turn the world upside down. + + b. Getting back to gaining a perspective on how Alexander the +Great changed the world order, we need to understand that there is a +pattern where the world order changes about every 2,000 years - +militarily, economically and religiously. + + (1) At any given time through history one or two of these +conditions may change, but it is rare that all three change around the +same time. When they do people live in what the chinese philosophers +called 'interesting times'. + + c. The 400 years preceding the Age of Pisces can be compared +with the same period of our time, which is bringing in the Age of +Aquarius. + + (1) About 331 BCE an upstart military leader named Alexander +of Macedonia led an army into the very depth of what was then known as +the Persian Empire after defeating the troops of Persia who were +trying to maintain control of Greek cities in Asia Minor. + + (a) Once he had effectively wrested control of the empire +from the Persians, he proceeded to take the best of what the empire +and his native land had to offer and he created a new world order by +which he and his generals divided up the known world and planned to +rule. + + (b) After Alexander's death the generals ruled as best they +could, but they slowly lost control of the great empire until a new +military power, Rome, came along and took over. + + [1] It is important to keep in mind that the Roman empire +did not spring up over night. Under the inspiration and protection of +the Macedonian Empire from foreign intervention the Romans were able +to defeat the Etruscans who had ruled most of Italy until that time. + + [a] It was the peace brought about by the Grecian +empire that allowed the Roman republic to last for 200 years and +embrace many of the loftier ideals of Greek culture. + + (2) In the mid 1700's, a colonel in a rag tag band of +irregulars attached to regular troops of the British Empire, started +to make a name for himself among the colonists of a British +possession. + + (a) The British, who were the ruling elite just under 300 +years ago, thought of the colonial colonel as an uneducated barbarian +and did not take him seriously when the colonials declared their +independence and named as their supreme military leader the barbarian +from Virginia. + + (b) History has recorded how George Washington had his day +in the sun when, after defeating the mercenary troops of Britain at +Valley Forge, General Cornwallis surrendered to him at Yorktown. + + [1] Again the world was turned up side down, and the +empire of old was supplanted by a new order, only on a smaller scale. + + [a] While it is true that the British Empire did not +collapse with the loss of the American Revolutionary War, it marked +the beginning of the breaking up of the Empire. + + [b] And despite recurring clashes, like the War of +1812, the new country was allowed to grow and develop as a Republic +for 200 years until now it is very common to refer to America as the +new Rome. + + (3) Like Alexander before him, Washington and his supporters +took the best of what they liked in Britain and combined it with the +best thoughts and ideas of the Colonies. + + (a) Washington refused to be made the king of America, +and they hammered out a new form of government, new laws of commerce, +and assurances that the old religious order would not hold sway in the +new country. + + [1] Not long after the American Revolution, the French +Revolution, based on American ideals, rocked Europe with its +deliberate shaking off of aristocratic rule. + + [a] Even the Russian Revolution was originally a +revolt of the people against their aristocracy. It was only after the +revolution left a vacuum of leadership that the Communists stepped in +and assumed power. + + d. If you look around at our capitol, you will see that the +architecture is reminiscent of Grecian and Roman Temples, and the +principles that our country was founded upon, principles like freedom +and democracy, are Grecian Ideals. + + (1) This is not a coincidence. The Founding Fathers were +scholars of Greece and Rome, for knowledge of the history of these two +countries was considered an integral part of a classical education. + + (a) It will be interesting to see if America, like Rome, +falls into the trap of being forced into becoming an Imperial power in +order to support the welfare state at home. + + [1] One of my favorite sayings is "A people who refuse +to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it." + + B. The Social Significance of the Mystery Religions + + 1. In order to understand the needs and desires which found +satisfaction in mystery religions, it is necessary to take a broad +view of the general social situation in the Greco-Roman world. + + a. And to define, if possible, the outstanding religious +interests of the Mediterranean people in the 1st century of the +Piscean Age. + + (1) Greco-Roman society with all of its complexity was, even +so, a closely knit social fabric unified in large and significant +ways. + + (a) Politically, the Mediterranean world of the Augustan +Age was a unit for the 1st time in history, welded together by 300 +years of military conquests preceding the beginning of our era. + + [1] To hold this Mediterranean world together in an +imperial unity, Rome had thrown over it a great network of military +highways reaching to the farthest provinces and centering on Rome +herself. + + (b) Cultural and commercial processes operated even more +effectively than military conquests and political organization to +unify the peoples of the Mediterranean area. + + [1] Society under the early Empire continued to be as +highly Hellenized as it had been during the 300 years previous. + + [a] Greek continued to be the language of culture and +commerce, with Latin as the lingua Franca of diplomacy. + + [2] The sea, cleared of pirates, was a great channel of +commerce that led to all the Roman world, and the military highways +provided the necessary land routes. + + [a] Because of the easy means of communication, +there was a free mingling of races and classes in the centers of +population. + + (c) Free competition on a world scale gave the individuals +their opportunities. + + [1] Before the days of Alexander, the interests of the +individual were quite submerged in comparison with those of the tribe +or state. + + [a] The larger social group was the end-all of +existence and personal concerns were properly subordinated thereto. + + [b] But in the changed conditions of the imperial +period, all was different. + + + [2] Individual interests came to the fore and those of +the state receded to the background. + + [a] The Roman Empire meant far less to the citizen +than the Greek polis had meant. + + [b] Rome was too large and too far away to be very +dependent on each citizens support or to contribute to their +happiness. + + (d) In the ruthlessness of conquest and the stress of +competition, local customs were ignored, traditions were swept aside, +and the unsupported individuals were thrown back upon their own +resources. + + [1] Happiness and well-being, if won at all, must be +won by the individual, and for the individual alone. + + 2. Religion, like the other phases of Greco-Roman life, felt the +effect of these changed social conditions. + + a. For the masses, the former religious sanctions and guaranties +no longer functioned. + + (1) In the old, pre-imerial days, the individual was well +satisfied with group guaranties that were offered by local and +nationalistic religions. + + (a) Granted, the relationship to the state deity was only +an indirect one - through the group to which they belonged. + + (b) Also granted, the goods sought were chiefly social +benefits, which were shared with their fellow citizens. + + [1] But so long as the God/desses protected the state +and the state protected the citizen, they were well content. + + (2) Successive conquests by foreign powers, however, rudely +destroyed this complacency, and the victory of Macedonian and Roman +arms wrecked the prestige of merely local and national deities. + + (a) As racial barriers were broken down and the individuals +felt free to travel and trade, they became conscious of needs and +desires they had never known before. + + 3. As a practical matter, the time honored customs of an +individuals parent and grandparent could not be maintained in foreign +lands. New sanctions and assurances of a more personal sort were +needed. + + a. In line with the general social movements of the times, there +was a distinct breakdown of traditional religion, and national cults, +popular in the Hellenic period, fell into disuse. + + (1) But the masses of people did not become irreligious by any +means, they instead turned to religions of another type and sought +satisfactions of a different variety. + + (a) Their quest was no longer for a god/dess powerful +enough to save the state but rather for one who was benevolent enough +to save the individual. + + [1] Oracles were consulted, not so often in the interest +of the community but more frequently for the guidance of individuals +in their personal affairs. + + [a] More than ever before the home became a temple +and the daily life of the family was filled with the trappings of +piety. + + [b] The shrines of the healing gods/esses were +overcrowded, and magicians, who were considered the chief mediators of +divine power, carried on a thriving business. + + 4. In particular, people turned for the satisfaction of personal +desires to the group of mystery religions, which were very ancient +cults that had hitherto been comparatively insignificant. + + a. Most of them came to the Greco-Roman world from the Orient, +with the authority of a venerable past, with an air of deep mystery, +and with rites that were most impressive. + + b. But the chief reason for their popularity at this time was +the satisfactory way in which they ministered to the needs of the +individual. + + (1) Completely denationalized and liberated from racial +prejudices, they could be practiced anywhere within or without the +empire. + + (a) They no longer depended upon a natural focus such as a +cave or spring or mountain, so it was possible to worship anywhere +they found themselves. + + [1] This allowed popular cults like that of Isis to +spread thoughout the Roman empire with little or no resistance + + (b) Being genuinely democratic brotherhoods in which rich +and poor, slave and master, Greek and barbarian met on a parity, they +welcomed men of all races to their membership. + + + C. What the Mystery Religions had to offer Humanity + + 1. A new birth for the individual + + a. When the neophyte was initiated into the cult he became a new +man. + + (1) In earlier centuries, when the emphasis in religion was +tribal or national, this had no special advantage. + + (a) Then the individual felt certain of his salvation +because of his birth into a particular tribe or race. This still holds +true for tribal religions like Judaism, where it is not enough to be a +good Jew. All Jews must be good because they are the chosen people and +their God will not make good on His promises until the whole tribe +meets his requirements. + + (2) Men in the Roman world had confidence in neither racial +connections nor in the potentiality of human nature. + + (a) The first century Roman wanted a salvation that +included the immortality of the soul as well as the present welfare of +the body. + + (b) An essential change of being was felt to be necessary, +and the mystery religions guaranteed this by means of the initiatory +rites. + + b. The mystery initiation met the basic religious need for +individual as opposed to racial guarantees. + + (1) Mystical experience was a common denominator of all the +Greco-Oriental cults of the mystery type. + + (a) The imperial age was a time when religion was turning +inward and becoming more emotional, while philosophy, converted to +religion, was following the same trend. + + [1] There was a cultivated antagonism between spirit and +matter and a conscious endeavor to detach one from the other by means +of ascetic practices. + + [a] It was a period of world-weariness and other +worldliness. + + [2] There was a demand for fresh emotional experiences, +and the culminating effort was to overleap the bounds of nature and to +attain union with the divine in the region of the occult. + + [a] These experiences found expression in the popular +religions of redemption, in the mysteries of Eleusis and Attis and +Isis and the rest. + + 2. Fulfilling the yearning for the mystical type of religious +experience. + + a. Two considerations that have a direct bearing on why the +yearning for mystical religious experience arose at this time are: + + (1) The thought world of the average person had suddenly +enlarged to proportions that were frightening. The horizon of a Syrian +trader in Nero's time was vastly more inclusive than that of a few +hundred years before. And this new horizon included a far greater +number of facts to be classified and accounted for, and a constantly +enlarging group of problems and difficulties to be settled. This +expanded thought-world of the middle of the 1st century was in a very +chaotic state. The social structure of an earlier age had been +completely wrecked. Greek democracy and Oriental despotism alike had +been crushed by imperial power. National and racial distinctions, once +considered very important, had been all but forgotten. Whole classes +in society had been wiped out. Old things had passed away and what +chiefly impressed the ordinary man about the new order of things +imposed by Rome, was not so much its orderliness as its newness. The +citizen of the Greek Polis had lived in a friendly town that was his +own; but the Roman citizen found himself bewildered in the crowded +streets of a strange city that was everyman's world. + + (2) The man of the early empire felt that the ultimate control +of his disordered universe was not at all in his own hands, but that +it rested with supernatural powers on the outside. According to the +1st century point of view, the more important relationships of life +were with the controlling powers in the supernatural realm. Whether +these powers were friendly or unfriendly or both or neither according +to circumstances, there was a great variety of opinion; but generally +speaking there was no doubt of their power. + + (c) One way the common man had of establishing safe +relations with the occult powers was the way of mysticism. He either +projected himself emotionally into the supernatural realm and so came +into contact with deity, or else by magic and sacrament drew the God +down into the human sphere and in this fashion realized the desired +alliance. Not until this 'unio mystica' was accomplished did many men +feel completely secure in the face of the uncertainties of life. The +mystery religions offered this form of salvation through union with +the lord of the cult. This alliance with the lord of the cult robbed +the unknown spiritual world of its terrors and gave the initiate the +assurance of special privilege in relation to the potent beings who +controlled the destinies of men. In the background of each of the +mysteries hovered the vague form of the supreme power itself. The +Anatolian Magna Mater Deum. Or the Ahura Mazda of the Persians. In the +foreground, ready for action, stood the mediator who chiefly mad the +divine power manifest in life and nature. The youthful Attis, or the +invincible Mithra. The mystery Gods and Goddesses were also potent as +netherworld divinities. Persephone reigned as queen of the dead and +Osiris presided as judge of the souls of the departed. By means of +initiation into their cults, the devotee was enabled to share vividly +in the experiences of these divinities and even to attain realistic +union with them. + + (d) United with the Gods themselves, the initiate was in +touch with currents of supernatural power which not only operated to +transform his very being but rendered him immune from evil both in +this life and in the next. + + 3. Providing emotional stimulation through the mystical experience +of contact with a sympathetic savior. + + a. The mysticism of the cults was not of the intellec- tualized +type but rather of a more realistic, objective, ecstatic and highly +emotional variety. + + (1) This emotional character of cult mysticism answered +directly to an inordinate appetite for emotional stimulation among the +masses. + + (a) This abnormal craving, directly or indirectly, was due +to the terribly depressing experiences through which society had +passed during the wars that filled the years immediately preceding the +Piscean Age. + + [1] For 400 years the wars had been unceasing. The +Mediterranean world had known war at its worst, and this long series +of conquests, civil wars, proscriptions, and insurrections had +produced an untold amount of agony. + + [2] All these military operations had entailed terrible +suffering for all classes. There was, of course, the killing and +maiming of the combatants themselves. Bread- winners had been drafted +into service, leaving their families to fend for themselves. Crops +over large areas had been destroyed to prevent the enemy from living +off the land when the armies retreated. Leaving the local farmers as +well as the invading army to starve. Conquered lands had been plunged +into debt and bankruptcy, while thousands of men, women, and children, +formerly free, had been sold as slaves. + + [3] The indirect consequences of these military +operations were quite as disastrous for the happiness of large numbers +of people as were the direct results. One of the most deplorable +effects was the practical destruction of the middle classes, which had +been the backbone of the society. This left a bad social cleavage +between the wealthy aristocratic class on the one hand, and the +masses, including the slaves, on the other. Conditions were such that +the upper classes had the opportunity of becoming more wealthy and +prosperous, while the proletariat correspondingly became more +destitute and wretched. Enormous sums of gold and silver, the +accumulated wealth of the east, was disgorged on the empire. This +created a demand for more luxuries, raised the standard of living for +the rich, and multiplied the miseries of the poor. Throughout the +period, the number of slaves was constantly being augmented. This +lowered the wages and drove free laborers to the idleness of cities +where they were altogether too willing to be enrolled on what we would +call welfare. The first lesson new Emperors learned, if they were to +keep their crowns, was to feed and entertain this huge number of idle +workers so that they would not decide to overthrow the government. +This is where the phrase "give them bread and circuses" came from. + + [4] With such an unequal distribution of the goods of +life, it was inevitable that both extremes in Roman society should +feel the need of special emotional uplift and stimulation. The +aristocrat felt the need of it because he had pleasures too many. +There was a disgust with life, bred of self-indulgence and brought to +birth by satiety. It was the weariness that comes when amusements cloy +and the means of diversion seem exhausted. And the poor freeman +because he had pleasures too few. There was a genuine sensitiveness to +suffering in this age born of a sympathetic understanding of its pain +and an earnest attempt to provide alleviation. It was a period when +all classes were sensitive to emotional needs, but chiefly the +inarticulate masses who were most miserable and knew not how to +express their misery. + + b. Generally speaking, the officials of the state religion +remained unresponsive to this need and the marble Gods of Greece and +Rome had no word for men in agony. + + (1) Judaism, which had itself gone through a prolonged +martyrdom, should have learned from suffering to minister to personal +need, but it had not, for its hope was still a national one, not +personal. + + c. The religions of redemption that came from the east furnished +exactly the emotional satisfaction that the age demanded. + + (1) They told men of savior-gods that were very human, who had +come to earth and toiled and suffered with men, experiencing to an +intensified degree the sufferings to which flesh is heir. + + (a) These savior-gods had known the agony of parting from +loved ones, of persecution, of mutilation, of death itself. In this +hard way they had won salvation for their devotees and now they stood +ready to help all men who had need. + + (2) The rites of these mystery religions were impressively +arranged to represent the sufferings and triumphs of the savior-gods. + + (a) In this way it was possible for the initiate to feel as +his God had felt, and sometimes more realistically, to repeat the +archetypal experiences of his lord. His initiation was a time of great +uplift, that elevated him above commonplace worries and gave him an +exalted sense of security. In after days the memory of that great +event remained with him to bouy him up amid the hardships of his daily +lot, or in such special crises as might come to him. + + 4. By means of initiatory rites of great impressiveness, the +mystery cults were able to satisfy the desire for realistic guarantees +in religion. + + a. The majority of people were not satisfied with a merely +emotional assurance that the desired mystical union had taken place. + + (1) Something more tangible and objective was required to +supplement the evidence furnished by subjective experience. + + (a) Both the Greek and Romans conceived of their Gods as +being very real and humanistic. + + (b) They gave them admirable representation in painting and +sculpture and sought to secure their favor by rites that were +correspondingly realistic. + + [1] At the beginning of the imperial period, when the +uncertainties of life made man feel more dependent than ever on +supernatural assistance, the operations whereby they strove to assure +themselves of the desired aid became, if anything, more realistic than +ever. In such an age and amid people who thought in these vivid terms, +the rites of religion, in order to satisfy, had to give actual and +dramatic representation of the processes they were intended to typify +and induce. This was what the ceremonies of the mystery cults did, and +this was another reason for the great attractive power of the cults. + + b. Most of the rites of the mystery religions had come down in +traditional forms from an immemorial antiquity. + + (1) Originally performed among primitive people in order to +assure the revival of vegetable life in springtime, they were enacted +in these later imperial days for the higher purpose of assuring the +rebirth of the human spirit. + + (a) Yet, among the masses at least, the efficacy of these +ceremonials was as little questioned as it had been in their original +primitive settings. + + (2) The baptismal rite, in particular, whether by water or +blood, was regarded as marking the crucial moment in a genuinely +regenerative process. + + (a) Once reborn the initiates were treated as such, their +birthday was celebrated and they were nourished in a manner +appropriate for infants. + + (b) Childish though those rites may seem, yet they were +frought with spiritual significance for the initiate. + + (3) The semblance of mystic marriage and the partaking of +consecrated foods were other realistic sacraments in which the +neophyte found assurance that he was really and vitally united with +his lord and endowed with the divine spirit. + + (a) What usually gives the modern student pause is the very +sincere conviction of pagan initiates that their spiritual +transformation was not only symbolic, but was also really accomplished +by these dramatic ceremonies. + + 5. The personal transformation which was the initial feature of +cult mysticism had its ethical as well as its religious aspect, thus +producing a blend of ethics and religion. + + a. The early imperial period was a time of great moral disorder +and confusion, paralleling the stress and strain in other areas of +life. + + b. The continuous social upheavals of the Hellenistic and +republican times, the free mingling of populations in commerce and +conquest, and the enormous increase of slaves furthered the process of +cutting thousands of human beings loose from moral restraints. + + c. However, the general trend in society as a whole was not only +a period of moral anarchy but of ethical awakening as well. + + (1) Interest was alive on moral questions. + + (a) Almost every characteristic vice in Roman society was +being met with the most vigorous protests and sometimes by active +measures to correct them. + + (2) There was at this time a particular demand for a greater +correctness in ethical teaching. + + (a) Teachers of the time studied the writings of +philosophers and moralists to find texts and maxims to use with their +pupils. + + (b) Catalogues were made of virtues and vices and the +former were summarized as certain cardinal qualities especially to be +desired. + + (c) There was a call for living examples, which could be +referred to as demonstrations of the practicality of these ideals. + + (3) The conditions of life were such that most men did not +have confidence in their own unaided ability to achieve character. + + (a) They looked to the supernatural realm for the powers +that controlled personal conduct as well as the more ultimate +destinies of humanity. + + [1] What the men of the 1st century wanted was not so +much ideals, but the power to realize those ideals; not a code of +morals, but supernatural sanctions for morality. In the last analysis, +it was divine will, and not human welfare, that was the generally +accepted criterion whereby the validity of any ethical system was +tested. Accordingly, the religion which could furnish supernatural +guarantees along with its ethical ideals had a preferred claim to 1st +century loyalty. + + (b) The stern morality of Judaism was very attractive. The +element that fascinated was not the inherent excellence of Jewish +rules for living, but the fact that there were venerable sanctions +bearing the impress of divine authority. + + [1] The Law of the Jews was quoted as the ipse dixit of +Yahweh himself and the scriptures were referred to as authentic +documents proving the genuineness of the representation. Such +confirmation was impressive to men who were seeking for divine +authority to make moral conduct obligatory. + + (c) The religion of the Egyptian Hermes was one that offered +supernatural guarantees for its ethical ideals. + + [1] In the process of Hermetic rebirth, the powers of the +God drove out hordes of vices and left the regenerated individual +divinely empowered for right living. + + (d) That was Mithraism's point of strength also, and accounted +not a little for the vogue it continued to enjoy for some time after +the beginning of the Christian Era. + + [1] The "commandments" of Mithraism were believed to be +divinely accredited. The Magi claimed that Mithra himself revealed +them to their order. + + [2] One of the chief reasons why the high Mithraic ideals +of purity, truth, and righteousness had real attraction, was because +Mithra himself was the unconquerable champion of these ideals and the +ready helper of men who were willing to join with him in the eternal +fight of right against wrong and good against evil. Mithraism was the +outstanding example of a mystery religion which gave supernatural +sanctions to the demands of plain morality. + + d. The mysticism of the mysteries came in effectively at just +this point to give both realistic content and divine authorization to +the ethic of brotherhood. + + (1) The ideals of the group found personification and +embodiment in the divine Lord or Lady who was the object of the cult +worship. + + (a) Osiris was the model righteous man who functioned in +the divine state as the judge of the departed. Hence the Isian +initiate, reborn as the new Osiris, was supposed to exhibit the +Osirian type of righteousness. + + (2) So, too, in the other mystery systems, the initiate +realistically united with his Lord, and actually transformed by the +virtue of the union, had his ideal incorporated within himself as a +part of his very being. + + (a) In the end, mystical experience became the theoretical +basis and practical incitement to good conduct. + + (b) In this close articulation of mysticism and morality, +the cults made an important and distinctive contribution to the +ethical life of the age. + + 6. The mysteries were unusually well equipped to meet the need for +assurances regarding the future. + + a. The ultimate pledge that the mystery religions made pertained +not to the present but to the future. + + (1) It was the assurance of a happy immortality. + + (a) Whatever attitude a man might adopt on the continued +existence after death, he could not well avoid the issue. + + b. The mystery cults from Greece and the Orient specialized in +future guarantees. + + (1) Originally intended to assure the miracle of reviving +vegetation in the springtime, they were perfectly adapted to guarantee +the miracle of the spirit's immortality after physical death. + + (a) These were the cults which in the form of Dionysian and +Orphian brotherhoods had first brought the promise of a happy future +life to Greece in the religious revival of the 6th century BCE. + + (b) In Hellenistic times the Greek cults merged with +similar religions from the east which offered equivalent guarantees, +and in this syncretized form came into their own. + + (2) In the early imperial period of Rome, they were more +popular than ever, for they gave positive and definite answers to the +questioning of the common man about the future. + + (a) Their answer had the authority of revelation and it +included the guarantee of divine aid in the realization of that +blessed after-life which they vividly depicted to their devotees. + + C. Summary + + 1. When consideration is given to the fundamental character of the +interests represented by the mystery religions, one can well +understand their popularity in the Greco-Roman world. + + a. In an era of individualism, when men were no longer looking +to religion for guarantee of a racial or national order, the mystery +cults offered the boon of personal transformation through +participating in rites of initiation. + + b. At a time when men were seeking a larger life through +contact with supernatural powers, the mysteries guaranteed absolute +union with the divine beings who controlled the universe. + + c. In an age when men were craving emotional uplift, mystery +initiation gave them such encouragement as they could scarcely find +elsewhere. + + d. At a period where realism characterized thought in all +departments of life, the religions of redemption offered men realistic +rites to guarantee the actuality of spiritual processes. + + e. The supernatural sanctions were sought to validate ethical +ideals, the mystery cults provided a unique combination of mysticism +and morality that was effective. + + f. When, as never before, people were questioning about the +future fate of the individual soul, the mysteries, through initiation, +gave guarantee of a happy immortality. + + 2. At every one of these points the mystery religions of +redemption were effectively meeting the needs of large numbers of +people in Greco-Roman society. + +END OF LESSON 3 PART A + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/lesson3a.txt b/religious documents/lesson3a.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16a42d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lesson3a.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1018 @@ + INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD RELIGION + LESSON 3A + + + D. Prominent features of a Mystery Religion + + 1. A Mystery Religion was a religion of symbolism + + a. Through the use of myth and allegory, iconic representations, +blazing lights and dense darkness, liturgies and sacramental acts, as +well as suggestion, the intuitions of the heart of the initiate were +quickened until s/he was provoked into a mystical experience. + + (1) This experience led to a feeling of regeneration, which +was the object of every initiation. + + 2. A Mystery Religion was a religion of Redemption. + + a. It professed to remove the estrangement between man and God, +to procure forgiveness of sins, and to furnish mediation. + + (1) Means of purification and the formulae of access to the +God, and acclamations of confidence and victory were part of the +apparatus of every Mystery. + + 3. The Mystery Religions were systems of Gnosis. + + a. The Mysteries brought men into contact with that God "who +wishes to be known and is known to his own." + + (1) They offered an esoteric equipment by which the initiate +might ward off the attacks of demons, thwart the menace of Fate, and +after death reach the abodes of the blessed mysteries. + + (a) There was something, whether doctrine, symbol, or +divine drama, which could not be imparted except by initiation to +those duly qualified to receive it, a supernatural revelation which +gave the recipient a new outlook on life, the world and the deity, and +security that was denied to the uninitiated. + + (b) The 'mystery' consisted of an objective presentation of +the history of the cult Deity, in his or her struggles, sorrows, and +triumphs, repeated subjectively by the initiate in sacramental acts, +together with prayers and liturgic formulae. + + 4. A Mystery Religion was a Sacramental Drama. + + a. The Sacramental Drama appealing primarily to the emotions, +aimed at producing psychic and mystic effects. Thus the neophyte +experienced the exaltation of a new life. + + 5. The mysteries were eschatological religions, having to do with +the interests and issues of life and death. + + a. For the multitudes, it was the mysteries which illuminated +the hereafter. + + 6. A mystery religion was a personal religion, to which membership +was open, not by accident of birth into any particular class, but by a +religious rebirth. + + 7. A mystery religion, as a personal religion, presents another +side, which is the necessary compliment of an individualistic +religion; that is, it takes on the character of a cosmic religion. + + a. The ancients lived in a world in which the primitive +association of man's life with the earth and plant and animal life was +axiomatic, in which the Universe itself was a rational living being, +in which man by his good deeds might be elevated on the path of the +divine. + +II. A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE MAJOR MYSTERY RELIGIONS + + A. Fundamental Force Behind Development + + 1. Once, there was no purely 'native' or 'hermetic' tradition; +only a universal response by the Firstborn to the Earth-lore and the +Star-magic of their shamanic priests. + + a. Later, as the single religious impulse of the Foretime split +into separate cults, these two approaches, which we may think of as +earthly (or chthonic) and stellar, grew further apart, until the +beginnings of the Hermetic traditions were seeded in Egypt and the +Hellenic world, while in Europe the Native traditions remained more or +less grounded in the magic of the earth. + + (1) This is not to say that Greece and Egypt did not have +their own native traditions, or that development of religion and magic +in the Celtic West was so primitive and slow that it required cross- +fertilization with other sources to pull it into subtle realms of +experience. + + B. The Major Mystery Religions. + + 1. It has often been said the the Egyptian mysteries are the true +foundation upon which the Western Hermetic systems are built. + + a. This is due in part to the early identification of the +Egyptian God Thoth, scribe and guardian of mysteries, with Hermes +Trimegistos, the supposed founder of Western occult practice. + + (1) Egypt had many mysteries, none more important that those +of Isis. + + (a) Her name is said to mean 'throne', 'wisdom', or +'savior', though she possessed many other titles which testify to the +universality of her cult. + + (2) The deepest mysteries of Isis, and her consort- brother +Osiris, the God of the Sun, revolve around his death at the hands of +his brother Set, who cut Osiris' body into 14 parts and scattered them +through the world. + + (a) Isis undertook a terrible journey, suffering great +hardship, seeking out the broken body of her lord and reassembling the +parts. + + [1] She found and reassembled all but one part, the +phallus, which was thrown into the Nile and consumed by a fish. + + b. Despite this, such was the creative power of Isis that she +was able to conceive by means of an artificial phallus, and bore the +child Horus who avenged his father by killing Set. + + (1) This is an archetypical mystery-telling, introducing +themes found later in the teachings of the Hellenistic schools and in +the work of modern esoteric orders. + + (a) It prefigures the death and rising of many gods and +show forth the power of the Creative Principle. + + (b) It also establishes Isis as Queen of Heaven, more +powerful in the eyes of many than even the great god Ra himself, whose +representative upon earth was the Pharaoh. + + 3. In Mithraism, which descended from the Persian Mysteries, +Mithra stands as a mediator between light and dark, a position adopted +by his followers. + + a. In humanity, the battle for the soul is fought out in the +territory of the flesh. Mithra, entering there, keeps all in balance. + + (1) Mithraism was the Freemasonry of the Roman world. + + (a) Like the other cults of Oriental origin, it moved with +the vast commerce in human beings that was such a notable feature of +the ancient world. + + (b) The cult of Mithra is one that traveled well, from +Syria to Scotland. + + (c) The Mithraic community was all men: women gravitated +to the parallel cult of Cybele or the exclusively female one of Bona +Dea. + + (d) The congregations were small; no surviving Mithraeum +could house more than a hundred, but of course bigger lodges may have +formed, and dissolved, at army camps, because Mithraism was extremely +popular among the Roman Legions. + + (e) There were no social barriers, so that slaves and +privates could become high initiates. The ceremonies were solemnly +enacted and the initiations were quite awe-inspiring. + + b. Mithra was born on the 25th of December, called the "Birthday +of the Unconquered Sun." + + (1) This date was not taken over by the Christians for the +birth of their Savior until the 4th century BCE. + + c. Some said that Mithra sprang from the union of sun god and +his own mother. + + (1) Some claimed his mother to be a mortal virgin. + + (a) Others said Mithra had no mother, but was miraculously +born of a female Rock, the petra genetrix, fertilized by the Heavenly +Father's phallic lightning. + + 2. In the many histories of the ancient world, only one figure is +described as being of greater importance than Hermes. This is the +Persian mage Zoroaster, who may actually have lived around 1000 BCE., +or even earlier, but who clearly did not predate the foundation of the +Egyptian mysteries from which he drew heavily for his own system. + + a. It is from the Persian mysteries that we derive the dualistic +spectre which has haunted esoteric philosophy and teaching ever since. + + (1) In the Zoroastrian pantheon these opposing forces are +Ormuzd and Ahriman, who derive ultimately from Ahura Mazda, the divine +principle. + + (a) Known as the Holy Immortals, or Amesha Spentas, they +correspond to the levels of creation, clearly foreshadowing the +teaching of later mystery schools such as those of Orpheus and Mithra. + + (b) Against the Spentas are arrayed the Devas, the +companions of the Evil One, who are seen as ruling over the earth. + + [1] The position of Persian dualism is confused by a +Zoroastrian heresy called Zurvanism, which is often mistaken for +mainstream Zoroastrianism. + + [a] In Zoroastrianism proper, Ahura Mazda is supremely +god: his Spentas are not on the same footing. + + [b] In Zurvanism, however, Ahura Mazda is made into a +lesser creator or demiurge, hence the cosmic struggle of good against +evil which takes place in the world of matter. + + (2) In Zoroastrian teaching, a savior or saoshyant was to be +born, who would combat evil and bring the struggle to an end once and +for all, thus betokening the Frasokereti, the making perfect at the +end of time. + + (a) In this we see an echo of the Egyptian mysteries, and a +prefiguring of the gnostic position, as well as the appearance of a +third figure which becomes a requirement of all dualistic thinking +sooner or later. This third figure who will balance out the struggle +is a Messiah. + + (b) Mithra's birth was witnessed by shepherd and Magi, who +brought gifts to his sacred birth-cave of the Rock. + + d. Mithra performed the usual assortment of miracles - raising +the dead, healing the sick, making the blind to see and the lame to +walk, casting out devils. + + (1) As a 'Peter', son of petra, he carried the keys of the +kingdom of heaven. + + e. His triumph and ascension to heaven were celebrated at the +spring equinox, when the sun rises toward its apogee. + + (1) Before returning to heaven, Mithra celebrated a Last +Supper with his 12 disciples, who represented the signs of the zodiac. + + (a) In memory of this, his worshippers partook of a +sacramental bread marked with a cross. + + [1] This was one of the seven Mithraic sacraments. It +was called mizd, in latin-missa, in english- mass. + + (2) Mithra's image was buried in a rock tomb, the same sacred +cave that represented his Mothers' womb. + + (a) His image was later withdrawn from the cave and was +said to live again. + + f. What began in water would end in fire, according to Mithraic +beliefs. + + (1) The great battle between the forces of light and darkness +in the Last Days would destroy the earth with its upheavals and +burnings. + + (a) Virtuous ones who followed the teachings of the +Mithraic priesthood would join the spirits of light and be saved. + + (b) Sinful ones who followed other teachings would be cast +into hell with Ahriman and the fallen angels. + + g. Mithra's cave-temple on the Vatican Hill was seized by the +Christians in 376 CE. + + (1) Christian Bishops of Rome pre-empted the Mithraic high +priest's title of Pater Patrum, which became Papa, or Pope. + + 4. While the Mithraic mysteries succeeded those of Zoroaster, they +followed those of Dionysus, through which the core of Hellenic mystery +teaching found its way into the Western Mystery Tradition. + + a. Two streams of consciousness are discerable within the +Classical mysteries, which might be called Dionysian and Apollonian. + + (1) The Apollonian mysteries related to reason, to the heavens +and to order; this is in contradistinction to the chaotic mysteries of +Dionysus. + + (a) The priests of Apollo were more interested in wresting +the political power away from the earlier Goddess worshipping peoples +who held sway as the Oracle at Delphi, and so their mysteries were not +so widely spread because they were tied to a specific location and +shrine. + + (2) The Mysteries of Dionysus were those of the sacrificial +king: they pertain to the underworld side of things, the chthonic and +ecstatic cult of maenads and bacchantes. + + (a) Of all the mystery Gods, it is Dionysus whose character +has become most firmly fixed in the collective imagination. His +worship spells orgies and drunkenness; he personifies the irrational +and uncontrolable urges of mankind and beasts; he drives to frenzy +the maenads and the poets. + + [1] The myth of Dionysus' origins tells that he was +first born from the union of Zeus with Persephone. + + [a] Zeus designated this 'Zagreus' as his heir, but +the jealous Titans lured him away while he was yet a child, killed, +dismembered him and devoured all the pieces except for the heart, +which Athena rescued and preserved. + + [b] Zeus, in anger, reduced the Titans to ashes, from +which the new race of humanity was fashioned. Thus each person +contains a fragment of Dionysus within their 'Titanic' earthly body. + + [c] From the heart of the god was brewed a love- +potion, which was given to Semele, a mortal, who then forced her +lover -Zeus again- into revealing himself to her in his primal form. +This unveiling was so overwhelming as to annihilate her, but the child +she was carrying was saved by Zeus enclosing it in his loins until +the time came for its birth as the second Dionysus. + + [2] The young god grew up in Thrace, suckled by goats and +raised by satyrs and sileni. When he reached maturity, he descended +through the Alcyonian Lake to rescue the shade of his mother Semele +from Hades and then raised her to Olympus. + + [a] Afterward, accompanied by a motley train of semi- +human beings, maenads and panthers, he set off on wanderings +throughout the world, from Libya to Arabia to India and thus back to +his homeland. + + [3] Everywhere he went he brought humanity knowledge of +agriculture, arts and crafts, and most especially the cultivation of +the vine and wine-making. + + [a] On the Isle of Naxos he discovered the Cretan +Princess Ariadne, abandoned there by Theseus, and joined with her as +her husband. Together they ascended to the heavens, whence he offers a +similar blissful reward to his devotees, temporarily in this life and +permanently after death. + + 5. There had been an initiatic institution in Greece at Eleusis at +least since the 8th century BCE, with both Greater and Lesser +Mysteries. + + a. The function of all lesser mysteries, and equally of the +lower grades of initiation was to impart information on the nature of +higher worlds. + + (1) The Eleusinian symbolism of corn, pomegranites and poppies +refers to the unseen forces which affect humanity via the vegetable +kingdom, building the body and informing the mind. + + (a) The intuitive grasp of this relationship, in all its +wonder and complexity, was summarized in the famous climax od the +Mystery, so disappointing to non-initiates, the displaying of an ear +of wheat. + + (2) Certain information was also given at Eleusis by word of +mouth, including the 'password to the Paradise of Demeter' to be used +after death. + + (a) In the Lesser Mysteries of other gods, it is suggested +that the fact of heliocentricity was revealed. + + [1] Jewish esotericism includes the teaching of +reincarnation. + + [a] So Lesser Mysteries give the initiates theoretical +knowledge which changes their whole view of humanity and the cosmos, +and stands them in better stead when they have to leave this world for +the unknown. + + b. The Mysteries of Demeter were celebrated every five years at +Eleusis. + + (1) The candidate of the Lesser Mysteries underwent a symbolic +journey in which the quest of Demeter for her lost daughter Persephone +in Hades was reenacted with the would-be candidate in the role of +Demeter. + + (a) The journey within was that of the darkened soul: the +candidate passed through a door into total darkness: if they survived +the experiences met within they passed through a second door into +brilliant light - symbolizing rebirth into the heavenly sphere. Here +they actually meet the gods, experiencing Demeter's journey as their +own recovery of lost enlightenment. + + c. The function of the Greater Mysteries of Eleusis was to bring +about direct contact with the beings who inhabit the higher worlds. + + (1) The higher grades of initiation were conducted +individually rather than collectively as in the Lesser Mysteries. + + (a) The Initiation of Isis were given to those selected by +the Goddess through having had significant dreams, whether they were +laity, priests or priestesses. + + (b) In the inner truth of the Eleusinian mysteries, the +birth of the soul into matter is seen as death; only through +participation in the mysteries can the initiate rise to a timeless +reality where he is utterly free and alive. + + [1] The soul sleeps in the body for most of the time, +awakening only when it has been transformed by ritual and the use of +an initiatory drink. + + [a] To die without this experience is to sleep +forever or to wander houseless in the caverns of Hades. + + (2) The primary objective in these initiations was to take +the candidate through the gates of death. + + (a) As in shamanic, Masonic, and other later initiations, +the candidate was placed in a trance, the consciousness taken out of +the body, and in this state to experience higher states of being and +meet some of the denizens of the invisible worlds. + + [1] Through direct experience the candidates would +learn that they could live freely without their physical bodies, and +that the gods they worshipped were perfectly real. + + [a] Then they would return to earth fully convinced +of their own immortality and prepared to meet death fearlessly, +knowing it is the gate to freedom and the soul's true home. + + 6. As a descendant of Dionysus, Orpheus is the intellectual image +of a demi-god, raised to deity by his sufferings in the underworld: a +perfect symbol for all who follow the paths of the mysteries. + + a. The movement from the cult of Dionysus and Apollo to Orphism, +marks a change from a more primitive religious response towards an +ethically-based philosophy and mysticism which included belief in the +transmigration of souls, reincarnation and the final assumption into +godhead. + + (1) Orpheus has the lyre and the gift of music from Apollo, +yet ends like Dionysus, torn apart by Thracian bacchantes. + + (a) The shamanic practices of the Native Tradition +overlapping the priestly function of the mystery school. + + [1] The suffering of Orpheus, who loses Euridice +(through fear, the first pitfall of all mystery knowledge) and is then +dismembered by the Maenads, is a paradigm of the suffering and rebirth +of the sleeping soul. + + b. The Orphic mysteries are complex in the extreme. + + (1) The most important aspect of the Orphic Mysteries was that +humanity and the gods are related. + + (a) At a most subtle and sensitive level a blurring of the +edges occurs, an overlapping of human consciousness and divine +awareness. + + [1] "Everything that lives is Holy" becomes a reality in +the interaction of the divine and the mundane. + + (2) The hierarchy of spiritual creation is supremely complex, +but the gods are like a ladder, a system of related possibilities, the +potentiality of which is seeded within the whole of creation. + + (a) We are all related, not just in a familial sense but +also to everything else: earth and water, sky and stone; not only +because all of creation is made up of different combinations of +molecules, but because we are all a part of the divine hierarchy. + + [1] This is the true meaning of the mystery teaching +concerning the divine spark; the god like potential of humanity is far +better expressed by this means. + + [a] The divine fragment is that part of us which is +always seeking reunion, a reassembly of separated parts into the whole +from which they were created; a return to the paradisial state. + + c. The Orphic school was, above all, syncretic. + + (1) Orpheus is credited with the dissemination of the +mysteries, with passing on rather than inventing much that became the +basis of subsequent Greco-Roman theosophy. + + (a) Pythagoras followed many of the Orphic teachings and +made Orpheus the central deity of his own esoteric system, +establishing a canon of Orphic Hyms. + + (2) Between the Orphic mysteries and their partial revival in +the Rennaisance, there is a long gap not only in time but in +understanding. + +III CHRISTIANITY VIEWED AS A MYSTERY RELIGION + + A. The Foundation of Christianity + + 1. Most people think of Christianity as if it were a single +specific thing, a coherent, homogeneous, and unified entity. + + a. Christianity is nothing of the sort. + + (1) There are numerous forms of Christianity + + (a) Roman Catholic + + (b) Russian Orthodox + + (c) Greek Orthodox + + (d) Church of England (Anglican), formed by King Henry the VIII + + (e) Various other forms of Protestantism + + [1] From the original Lutheranism and Calvinism of the +16th century to such relatively recent developments as Unitarianism. + + (f) There are multitudinous "fringe" or "evangelical" +congregations. + + [1] Such as the Seventh Day Adventists, the Jehovah's +Witnesses and the Assembly of God. + + (g) And there are assorted contemporary sects and cults. + + [1] Like the Children of God and the Unification Church +of Reverend Moon. + + b. If one surveys this bewildering spectrum of beliefs - from +the rigidly dogmatic and conservative to the radical and ecstatic- it +is difficult to determine what exactly constitutes Christianity. + + 2. If there is a single factor that does permit one to speak of +Christianity, a single factor that does link the otherwise diverse and +divergent Christian creeds, it is the New Testament and more +particularly the unique status ascribed by the New Testament to Jesus, +his Crucifixion and Resurrection. + + a. Even if one does not subscribe to the literal or historical +truth of those events, acceptance of their symbolic significance +generally suffices for one to be considered a christian. + + 3. If there is any unity then, in the diffuse phenomenon called +Christianity, it resides in the New Testament - and more specifically, +in the accounts of Jesus known as the four Gospels. + + a. These accounts are popularly regarded as the most +authoritative on record. + + (1) And for many Christians they are assumed to be both +coherent and unimpeachable. + + b. From childhood one is led to believe that the story of Jesus, +as it is preserved in the Four Gospels, is if not God-inspired, at +least definitive. + + (1) The Four Evangelists, supposed authors of the Gospels, are +deemed to be unimpeachable witnesses who consistantly reinforce and +confirm each other's testimony. + + c. Of the people who today call themselves Christians, +relatively few are aware of the fact that the four Gospels not only +contradict each other in more than one way, but at times they +violently disagree. + + B. The Origin and Birth of Jesus + + 1. So far as popular tradition is concerned, the origin and birth +of Jesus are well enough known. + + a. In reality, the Gospels, on which that tradition is based, +are considerably more vague on the matter. + + (1) Only two of the Gospels - Matthew and Luke - say anything +at all about Jesus' origins and birth; and they are flagrantly at odds +with each other. + + (a) According to Matthew, Jesus was an aristocrat, if not a +rightful and legitimate king - descended from David via Solomon. + + (b) According to Luke, on the other hand, Jesus' family, +though descended from the house of David, was of somewhat less exalted +stock. + + (c) And it is on the basis of Mark's account that the +legend of the "poor carpenter" came into being. + + (2) In short, the two genealogies are so strikingly discordant +that they might well be referring to quite different individuals. + + 2. The discrepencies between the Gospels are not confined to the +question of Jesus' ancestry and genealogy. + + a. According to Luke, Jesus, on his birth, was visited by +shepherds. + + (1) But according to Matthew, he was visited by kings, the +Magi. + + b. According to Luke, Jesus' family lived in Nazareth. + + (1) From here they are said to have journeyed, for a census +(that history suggests never in fact occurred) to Bethlehem, where +Jesus was born in the poverty of a manger. + + c. But according to Matthew, his family had been fairly well to +do residents of Bethlehem all along, and Jesus himself was born in a +house. + + (1) In Matthew's version Herod's persecution of the innocents +prompts the family to flee into Egypt, and only on their return do +they make their home in Nazareth. + + 3. The information in each of these accounts is quite specific and +- assuming the census did occur - perfectly plausible. + + a. And yet, the information itself simply does not agree. The +contradiction cannot be rationalized. + + (1) There is no possible means whereby the two conflicting +narratives can both be correct, and there is no means whereby they can +be reconciled. + + (a) Whether one cares to admit it or not, the fact must be +recognized that one or both of the Gospels are wrong. + + [1] In the face of so glaring and inevitable a +conclusion, the Gospels cannot be regarded as unimpunable. + + [a] How can they be unimpunable- when they are +inconsistent with each other? + + 4. The more one studies the Gospels, the more the contradictions +between them become apparent. + + a. They can not even agree on which day the Crucifixion took +place. + + (1) According to John, the Crucifixion occurred on the day +before the Passover. + + (a) Whereas, Mark, Luke, and Matthew insist that it +occurred on the day after. + + b. Nor are the Gospels in accord on the personality and +character of Jesus. + + (1) Each depicts a figure who is patently at odds with the +figure depicted by the others. + + (a) A meek, lamblike Savior in Luke. + + (b) A powerful and majestic sovereign in Matthew who comes +"not to bring peace but a sword." + + c. There is further disagreement about Jesus' last words on the +cross. + + (1) In Matthew and Mark the words are, "My God, my God, why +hast thou forsaken me?" + + (2) In Luke, the words are-"Father, into they hands I commend +my spirit." + + (3) And in John they are simply "It is finished." + + 5. With these discrepancies, they can only be accepted as highly +questionable, and certainly not as definitive. + + a. They do not represent the perfect word of ANY God; or if they +do, God's words have been VERY liberally edited, censored, revised, +glossed and rewritten by human hands. + + C. Jesus and the Essenes + + 1. As we have seen, the Judaic religion was still a tribal +religion offering little chance for individual salvation during a time +when people were looking for some assurance that they mattered beyond +which tribe, or city or province they came from. + + a. Mystery religions were well established in the east and +making inroads into Rome herself. + + (1) In addition to the Pharisees and Sadducees who were vying +for control of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus' life, there was a sect +of ascetics known as the Essenes. + + (a) It has been said that the Essenes were the founders of +a Mystery religion based along the lines of the sun worshipping +Persian anchorites, who in turn evolved their system from Jain yogis +professing to work miracles by living apart from the world and +practicing extreme self denial. + + [1] From historians and chroniclers writing at the time, +it is known that the Essenes maintained communities throughout the +Holy Land. + + [a] A large colony of Essenes occupied the Qumran +community from 110 BCE to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, with a +significant period of vacancy during the reign of Herod, 31 BCE - 4 +CE. + + 2. Jesus, John the Baptist, and Simon Magus are said to have been +trained in Essenic communities. + + a. Jesus' parents, Joseph and Mary, are also said to belong to +the Essenic movement and Jesus may have received his rabbinical +training in their schools. + + (1) John the Baptist is thought by some to have been an +'advance man' to prepare the way for Jesus to fulfill the old +prophecies of being the Messiah. + + (a) But there is abundant evidence that Jesus not only knew +what the prophecies were concerning the Messiah, but went to great +lengths to plan for and carry out the prophecies. + + 3. The Essenic hierarchy included a chief priest called the +Christos (Annointed One), "head of the entire Congre- gation of +Israel." + + a. There were ordinary priests called the "sons of Aaron", and +another functionary known as the Messiah of Israel. + + (1) The Messiah of Israel was also called Teacher of +Righteousness. + + (a) He suffered physical abuse in atonement for the sins of +the entire community, enduring "vindictive sentences of scourging and +the terrors of painful sicknesses, and vengeance on his fleshly body." + + + D. A Radical View + + 1. The following is a scenario of what the historical Jesus might +have been all about based on looking at the Gospels without the +trappings added after Christianity was transported to Rome and changed +to bring it into alignment with competing religions. + + EDITORS NOTE: THESE ARE CONJECTURE BY THE AUTHOR, NOT A +STATEMENT OF KNOWN FACT BUT BASED ON THE FACTS KNOWN AND THE HISTORY +OF THE TIMES AND OTHER RELIGIONS. + + a. Included in this scenario, but of little importance to our +discussion, is that Jesus may have been married and have living +descendants to this day. Remember that Rabbis had always been allowed +to marry. + + (1) Jesus was a priest-king, an aristocrat and legitimate +claimant to the throne of Palestine, who embarked on an attempt to +regain his rightful heritage. + + (a) He was believed to be a native of Galilee, which was a +traditional hotbed of opposition to the Romans. + + (2) He had numerous noble, rich and influential supporters +throughout Palestine, including the capital city of Jerusalem. + + (a) One of these supporters, a powerful member of the +Sanhedrin, may also have been his kin. + + (3) In the Jerusalem suburb of Bethany was possibly the home +of either his wife or his wife's family; and here on the eve of his +triumphal entry into the capital, the aspiring priest-king resided. + + (a) Here he established the center for his mystery cult. + + (b) Here he augmented his following by performing ritual +initiations, including that of his brother-in-law. + + [1] A mystery initiation being the meaning behind the +'miracle' of raising Lazarus from the dead. + + (4) Such an aspiring priest-king would have generated powerful +opposition in certain quarters. + + (a) Amongst the Roman administration, + + (b) And perhaps amongst the entrenched Judaic interests +represented by the Sadducees. + + [1] One or both of these interests apparently contrived +to thwart his bid for the throne. + + [a] But in their attempt to exterminate him they were +not as successful as they had hoped to be. + + (5) The priest-king had friends in high places. + + (a) These friends, working in collusion with a corrupt, +easily bribed Roman procurator, appear to have engineered a mock +crucifixion, on private grounds, and thus inaccessible to all but a +select few. + + [1] With the general populace kept at a convenient +distance, an execution was then staged. + + [a] In which a substitute took the priest-king's +place on the cross or in which the priest-king did not actually die. + + [2] Toward dusk, further impeded visibility, the 'body' +was removed to an opportunely adjacent tomb. + + [a] From which, a day or two later, it 'miraculously' +disappeared. + + 2. If Jesus was a legitimate claimant to the throne, it is +probable that he was supported, at least initially, by a relatively +small percentage of the populace. + + a. His immediate family from Galilee, certain members of his own +aristocratic social class, and a few strategically placed +representatives in Judaea and the capital city of Jerusalem. + + (1) Such a following, albeit distinguished, would hardly have +been sufficient to ensure the realization of his objectives or the +success of his bid for the throne. + + (a) In consequence, he would have to recruit a more +substantial following from other classes. + + [1] Jesus promulgated a message that attempted to do +just that. + + [a] A message to offer hope to the downtrodden, the +afflicted, the disenfranchised, the oppressed. + + [b] It was a message with a promise. + + [2] There is no evidence that he promulgated this +message with cynicism, for he truly acted as though he took his role +as priest to the people of Israel as seriously as he did his role as +heir-apparent. + + [3] His message was ethical and political. + + [a] It was directed toward a particular segment of +the population in accordance with political considerations. + + b. Jesus' message, as it appears in the Gospels, is neither new +nor wholly unique. + + (1) But if the message, as such, was not entirely original, +the means of transmitting it probably was. + + (a) Jesus himself was undoubtedly an immensely charismatic +individual. + + [1] He may well have had an aptitude for healing and +other such 'miracles.' + + [a] He most certainly possessed a gift for +communicating his ideas by means of evocative and vivid parables. + + [b] Which did not require any sophisticated training +for his audience, and made them accessible, in some sense, to the +populace at large. + + c. Moreover, unlike his Essene teachers, Jesus was not obliged +to confine himself to forecasting the advent of a Messiah. + + (1) He could claim to be that Messiah. + + (a) And this, quite naturally, imparted greater authority +and credibility to his words. + + 3. It is clear that by the time of his triumphal entry into +Jerusalem, Jesus had recruited a following. + + a. But this following seems to have been composed of two quite +distinct elements; whose interests were not precisely the same. + + (1) On the one hand, there seemed to be a small nucleus of +"initiates" - immediate family, other members of the nobility, wealthy +and influential supporters. + + (a) Whose primary objective was to see their candidate +installed on the throne. + + (2) On the other hand, there seems to have been a much larger +entourage of 'common people' - the rank and file. + + (a) Whose primary objective was to see this message, and +the promise it contained, fulfilled. + + b. It is important to recognize the distinction between these +two factions. + + (1) Their political objective - to establish Jesus on the +throne - would have been the same. + + (a) But their motivations were very different. + + E. Christianity after Jesus + + 1. When the bid to put Jesus on the throne of Palestine failed, +the uneasy alliance between the two factions fell apart. + + a. The strength of the message that Jesus had used to gain his +following had captured the hearts and minds of the followers who were +not "insiders" and they fought to keep the hope alive. + + (1) Little is said of the followers who backed Jesus in the +hopes of garnering power from having helped their friend to the throne +but it may well be imagined that they continued to fight for +independence from Rome and many may well have perished at Masada. + + (a) The first major crisis for the early christians was +whether they could afford to be associated with the Jewish peoples, +who were becoming increasingly rebellious toward Rome. + + [1] It was clear that Rome would have to take action +against the rebels. + + [a] Against this backdrop the early christians needed +to decide whether it was necessary to first be a Jew before becoming a +christian. + + <1> Saint Paul, always adept at reading the +writing on the wall, decided it was not. It was also Paul who decided +that the best place to take the new religion was the heart of the +empire where there were many oppressed and downtrodden gentiles who, +very possibly would be receptive to the message of hope. + + 2. The new religion was oriented primarily toward a Roman or +Romanized audience. + + a. Thus the role of Rome in Jesus' death was of course +whitewashed, and guilt was transferred to the Jews. + + (1) But this was not the only liberty taken with events to +render them palatable to the Roman world. + + (a) For the Roman world was accustomed to deifying its +rulers, and Caesar had already been officially instated as a god. + + [1] In order to compete, Jesus, whom nobody had +previously deemed divine, had to be deified as well. + + [a] In Paul's hands, he was. + + 3. Before the message could be successfully disseminated from +Palestine to Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Egypt, Rome and western +Europe, the new religion had to be made acceptable to the people of +those regions. + + a. And it had to be capable of holding its own against already +established creeds. + + b. The new god needed to be comparable in power, majesty, and in +his repertoire of miracles, to those he was intending to displace. + + (1) If Jesus were to gain a foothold in the Romanized world of +his time, he had to become a full-fledged god. + + (a) Not a Messiah in the old sense of the term, not a +priest-king, but God Incarnate. + + [1] Who, like his Syrian, Phoenician, Egyptian, and +classical counterparts, passed through the underworld and the +harrowing of Hell, and emerged rejuvenated, with the spring. + + [a] It was at this point that the idea of the +Resurrection first assumed such critical importance, and for a fairly +obvious reason, to place Jesus on a par with Tammuz, Adonis, Attis, +Osiris, and all the other dying and resurrected gods who populated +both the world and the consciousness of their time. + + (b) For precisely this reason the doctrine of the virgin +birth was promulgated. + + (c) And the Easter festival, the festival of death and +resurrection, was made to coincide with the spring rites of other +contemporary cults and mystery schools. + + 4. Given the need to disseminate a god myth, the actual corporeal +family of the 'god' and the political and dynastic elements in his +history would become superfluous. + + a. Fettered as they were to a specific time and place, they +would have detracted from his claim to universality. + + (1) Thus, to further the claim of universality all political +and dynastic elements were rigorously excised from Jesus' biography. + + (a) Also all references to Zealots, for example, and +Essenes, were also discreetly removed. + + b. Such references would have been embarrassing. + + (1) It would not have appeared seemly for a god to be involved +in a political and dynastic conspiracy. Especially one that failed. + + 5. In the end nothing was left but what was contained in the +Gospels. + + a. An account of mythic simplicity, occurring only incidentally +in the Roman occupied Palestine of the first century, and primarily in +the eternal present of all myth. + + +END OF LESSON 3 + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/lesson4.txt b/religious documents/lesson4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..30e8e1c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lesson4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1000 @@ +I. MAGIC IN THEORY + + A. Origins of the word Magic + + 1. Derived from the greek "Magike Techne" meaning the art of the +Magi. + + a. The Magi were priests of ancient Persia (Iran) who also +practiced in Chaldea and Babylon. + + (1) They were similar to the Druids, in that they wore white +robes and favored a simple mode of life and a vegetarian diet. + + (2) The Magi worshipped no idols. + + (a) They chose the Divine and Sacred Fire as the symbol of +their Divine Being. + + (b) The Divine Fire burned in their sanctuaries and was +never allowed to go out. + + (c) Parallels to this exist in the practices of the Vestal +Virgins in ancient Rome and the Presence Lamps that are always kept +burning over the altars of some Roman Catholic churches. + + 2. The Greeks were unaware of any other caste of priests that +practiced the magical arts so they thought the Magi were responsible +for them. + + a. This shows how isolated and ill-informed the ancient peoples +were of their own world. + + (1) The Egyptians had quite a formidable magical system based +on the Egyptian Book of the Dead many years before the Magi appeared +in Persia. There is also a Tibetan Book of the Dead, which details a +magical system derived from Tibetan funeral rites. + + 3. The Greeks may have gained their root word for magic from the +Indo-European root word MAGH (meaning to be able, to have the power to +act.) + + 4. Aleister Crowley started the custom of spelling magic as MAGICK +as he felt it would help in differentiating between the illusions that +are the stock in trade of stage magicians and real magic as practiced +by serious students of the occult. + + B. Working Definition of Magic + + 1. The ability to recognize and understand the underlying forces +of nature and the laws which govern them. + + + a. Starhawk pares this down to the ability to change +consciousness at will. + + (1) To someone who understands these laws, magic is a very +natural part of the Universe. + + (a) People who do not understand these laws or who refuse +to recognize them, see magic as a supernatural act performed against +God and therefore unnatural. + + C. Foundation of Magical Theory + + 1. All of magical theory is based on the development of the human +brain and subsequent attempts to gain control over a hostile +environment. + + a. The single most important development in the evolution of +humankind was the development and subsequent use of the cerebellum. + + (1) Until humans developed a 'higher brain' they had only +their 'animal brain' to guide them through life. + + (a) This 'animal brain' is responsible for those functions +that people sometimes call instincts, but are really functions of the +autonomic nervous system. + + (b) The autonomic nervous system monitors and maintains +vital functions such as heartbeat, digestion, circulation, hormone +production and immediate responses to dangerous situations. + + (c) Recent research in Biofeedback and Cybernetics have +revealed that the autonomic nervous system (known commonly as the +automatic nervous system, because it takes no conscious thought to +operate) is actually capable of being directly controlled by conscious +thought. + + b. With the development of the 'higher brain', early humanity +was able to see the world as an integrated whole in which they played +an independent role. + + (1) The development of this 'higher brain' led to self- +consciousness and started us on the road to questioning how our world +worked and how we could gain control of our environment. + + (2) The subsequent development of the cerebrum into two +specialized organs interconnected so that they could work +independently or co-operatively as needed, led to the ability to +examine the world from two different viewpoints. + + (a) The right half of the brain enabled humankind to form +holistic concepts of the interactions of the forces of nature in a +dynamic way. + + (b) The left half of the brain allowed the development of +verbal skills which ensured the transmission of knowledge learned +through trial and error and thus gave humanity the peculiar ability to +learn without the need to directly experience. + +II. MAGIC IN PRACTICE. + + A. The early magical systems were based on the observation that all +of reality is based on the interaction of various natural forces. + + 1. The two basic magical powers that are taught to all humans as +their birthright are the ability to embody complex concepts in +symbolic words and to divide the world into 'pieces' so that they can +examine it for short periods of time as though it were caught in a +'freeze frame.' + + a. We dismiss the ability to embody complex concepts in symbolic +words as being too fundamental to consider, but it is the basis for +all learning. + + (1) This process, which we call naming, is vital to our +understanding of the world around us. + + (a) By creating names that embody specific concepts, we +create a vocabulary by which 'initiates' in the subject can manipulate +the relationships between the different concepts to reveal new truths +that lead to a better understanding of the world around us. + + (2) Gaining control over something by learning its name is one +of the oldest forms of magic. + + (a) In the Christian Bible, God instructs Adam and Eve to +name all the plants and creatures and to exercise dominion over all of +them. + + (b) In societies which practice magic, mothers give their +children 'true names' and 'public names' to protect them from harm by +someone wishing the child ill. + + (c) Most people have heard the story of Rumplestiltskin, +where the heroine must guess the villains name, otherwise she will be +unable to stop him from carrying out his evil deeds. + + (d) Or the story of the wizard who manages to summon a +demon to do his bidding, only to wind up becoming a slave to the demon +because he did not know the demons proper name. + + b. Once humankind began to exert its influence on the world, the +need to differentiate its parts and count them became very important. + + (1) We differentiate the world through the use of +DISCRIMINATION and this allows us to count the separate parts. + + (a) Discrimination is the ability to separate an object +from its shadow, trees from a forest, your child from a group of +children, and your friends from your enemies. + + (2) Counting took on additional significance when trading +surplus food for finished goods became the basis of early commerce. + + (a) The merchants needed to develop a method of keeping +track of their transactions. At first they used a picture code similar +to Egyptian hieroglyphics, which involved drawing a picture that +represented the goods traded and which were then assigned a numerical +value in accordance with how much could be traded for the goods. + + (b) This was before the concept of money and allowed +merchants to trade for credits of non-tangible assets. + + (c) As competition grew the merchants started abbreviating +the pictures of their trade goods and the symbols became the letters +of the various alphabets, with the number values still attached. + + (3) As astronomy and astrology were developed, the people who +were learning to recognize these interactions of the forces of nature +needed to record their knowledge, and they seized upon the merchants +secret trade codes, or alphabets (named after the first two letters in +the Phoenician script.) + + (a) Because they placed great importance on the measuring +of things they also adopted the numerical values of the letters as +representing the numerical truth of the symbols they were using to +record their new knowledge. + + (b) This led to the magical system called GEMATRIA, which +is based on reducing the letters of someones name, etc to a number +which is assigned special sig- nificance. + + c. Gematria was especially popular with biblical scholars. In +the thirteenth chapter of Revelations in the Christian Bible, a beast +"comes up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns and ten +crowns, and on its heads the name of blasphemy". One of the heads had +been 'wounded to death', but the wound had healed. "Let him that hath +understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a +man; and his number is Six hundred, threescore and six." + + (1) It is generally accepted now that the Beast was meant to +stand for the Roman Empire and its seven heads for the seven Emperors. + + (a) The head which was wounded to death but healed, looks +like an oblique reference to Nero, who took great delight in +persecuting the new Christian faith and its followers, one of the more +well known of which was letting them fight lions bare handed in the +Coliseum. He was murdered in 68 AD, but there were persistent rumors +that he had risen again and had escaped to the East, and would soon +return with an army to take his revenge. + + d. Aleister Crowley adopted the name of The Great Beast which, +when reduced from greek into numbers using gematria, equals 666. He +did this partly to shock the good people of the late Victorian era and +partly as an exercise in imitative magic. + + e. Another story told of the importance placed on the +interpretation of the Christian Bible through gematria involves the +same chapter of Revelations and the Social Security Administration in +the United States of America. + + (1) In chapter 13:16-17, the author speaks of a second beast +which comes after the first. 'Also it causes all, both small and +great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to marked on the right +hand or the forehead,' 'so that no one can buy or sell unless he has +the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.' + + (2) These verses were quoted over and over from pulpits in the +United States when it was announced that everyone was to be issued a +Social Security number for purposes of identification, and that all +government files would require the populace to submit their Social +Security number along with their name, to be sure they were properly +identified. + + (a) The citizens, whipped into a fury by the clergy, +deluged their Congressmen with letters of protest. + + (b) The Congressmen, being pragmatists, came upon a plan to +soothe the savage breasts of their constituents and still get their +own way. + + (c) They made it a part of the Social Security Act that the +number was not to be used as identification for any purpose other than +for Social Security. This is why all Social Security cards bear the +legend "Not to be used for Identification." + + (d) Many years later, around 1973, this was set aside when +Military Service numbers were abandoned in favor of using Social +Security numbers to identify military service personnel. + + (e) Even today the Social Security card is not generally +accepted as identification, not because of the original objection, but +because it does not have a photo of the bearer. + + 2. The ancients, in seeking to bring order and under- standing to +their world, developed the concept of the Elementals. + + a. They recognized that everything was the result of the +interaction of four great natural forces. + + b. These Elementals were not seen as what the world was made +of, like todays' elements in chemistry, but a shorthand way of +explaining the way things interacted. + + c. After a while the process of visualizing the Elementals as +personifications of the natural forces produced thoughtforms which +were able to act independently of their creators. + + (1) The major force that exhibited the principle of motion was +ascribed to the Element of Air. + + (a) In visualizing airy beings the race of Sylphs were +actualized on our planet. These creatures had wings of gossamer, with +very slight and tiny bodies, their facial features were made up of +sharp planes and they tended to very short attention spans, and this +usually left them in very good spirits because it was not their nature +to brood. Childhood stories retain a racial memory of the Sylphs in +our present day Fairies, much as Walt Disney drew Tinkerbell. + + (2) When the natural attribute of a force was expansion it was +said to have a Fiery nature. + + (a) The Elemental creatures of Fire were the Salamanders. +These creatures loved to play in the warm ashes of fireplaces and +their skin glowed with alternating colors just like a hot piece of +charcoal.They were quick to take offense and could carelessly allow a +fire outside of the fireplace, if the family they chose to live with +allowed the ashes to get too cold for them to be comfortable. With our +present dependence on natural gas and electricity to provide our heat, +we have lost touch with the fire Elementals, but the big brothers of +the Salamanders were dragons, which possessed the airy quality of +flight, the fiery quality of being able to exhale fire and the earthy +quality of being fascinated by bright jewels and glittering gold. + + (3) The natural force of contraction was assigned to the +Elemental of Water. + + (a) The race of water Elementals were called Undines after +the undulating property of water, which rises and falls in +synchronization with the movements of the Moon. The Undines were +thought to be related to the Sylphs but of a stouter character. They +were slow to anger and slow to soothe, and steadfast unless stirred up +by the Sylphs. + + (4) The epitome of the solid earthiness the last Elemental was +the Gnome and his burrowing cousin the Dwarf. + + (a) Gnomes and Dwarves were as big hearted as they were +diminutive, but they did not take kindly to anyone who harmed the +earth. The forest was the natural habitat of Gnomes and they knew all +the secrets of each bud, leaf, root, and tree. The Dwarves lived +inside the earth and mined the treasures that were uncovered by dint +of their delving. Skill in metalsmithing developed alongside their +shrewd sense of trading and woe to the person who got between a +Dwarf and his treasure or bested him in a deal. + + d. In the early stages of humanity's development, the +personifications of the Elementals lived on the fringes of human +settlements, and developed their own societies and kingdoms. + + (1) But as humans started to infringe upon their domains and +closed themselves off to seeing the Elementals, they in turn withdrew +into the higher planes. + + (a) Since they were originally expressions of natural +forces on earth, they are bound to it and serve as caretakers for the +earth until humankind is wise enough to care for it without their +help. + + (b) Because they were actualized on this plane by the +strength of human thought, they owe a debt of brotherhood to the human +race and will appear and help those humans who learn how to summon +them. + + 3. Confronting the twin mysteries of Birth and Death, early +humanity was forced to consider the existence of a Supreme Being +responsible for these Mysteries. + + a. Why some societies chose to see these forces as warring or +opposite, while others chose to view them as mutually beneficial or +complementary, we can only guess. + + (1) What we can be sure of is that a lot of their rituals and +magical acts were motivated by their particular world view. + + (a) The body of accepted rituals and magical acts were +codified and served as the basis of the religion which would grow up +to explain how the world began, how someone was supposed to act while +in it, and what happened after s/he died. + + 4. Imitative and Sympathetic Magic evolved as a means of +influencing the world around the Ancients. + + a. These two forms of magic were based on the principles of +mimicry, contagion, and the belief that man is a microcosm of the +macrocosm. + + (1) Imitative magic is the general category which covers magic +performed on a model,doll or actor representing the real world +counterpart, which is to be affected. + + (a) Examples of this type of magic would be cave drawings +depicting successful hunts, love poppets and Voodoo dolls, and the +survival of ancient folk dances wherethe dancer dons the skin and +horns of an animal while the other dancers act out the stalking and +killing of the "sacrifice." + + (b) Mimicry of a real life situation, while utilizing parts +of the subject to form a bond is the basis for imitative magic. + + (c) Underlying imitative magic is the Theory of Contagion, +which holds that parts of a living being contain the essence of its +life, even after being separated. In simple terms, a magical link +exists between ourselves and our parts. + + (d) American Indians and Orientals did not want their +pictures taken, for fear of losing their spirits inside of the camera. + + (e) Many of the Grimoires from the Middle-ages warn against +allowing nail clippings, locks of hair, or old articles of clothing to +fall in the hands of your enemies for fear of the harm your enemies +could bring against you by harming them. + + (f) As a side note, the dancers in the mummers plays took +great care to ensure that the skins and horns of the animals that were +used in their dances were taken from male animals, this ensured that +the females were left to breed and produce new game for the future. + + (2) Sympathetic magic is based on the belief that man is a +miniature reproduction of the universe, that he is the microcosm to +the universes macrocosm. + + (a) This is based on the drawing of analogies between two +like beings. + + (b) Many of the important magical analogies are not natural +to most peoples minds today, but have been handed down by tradition +from the remote past. + + (c) Salt is used to ward off demons. All demons are +supposed to detest it and no salt should be used in ceremonies +designed to attract them. Salt is anti-demonic because it is a +preservative. Since demons are creatures that corrupt and destroy, +anything that has a preservative quality is contrary to their nature +and is disagreeable to them. + + 5. Attempts to group observations into a codified system of +relationships resulted in the development of the many Tables of +Correspondences, which have been handed down through the ages and +serve as source documents for creating new rituals. + + a. These tables usually ascribe variously corresponding items to +one of the old Astrological Planets. + + (1) Each planet is ruled by a Goddess or a God from the local +pantheon and has its own number, color, musical note, metal, gem +stone, hour of the day, herbs and flowers, and attributes. + +III. WESTERN TRADITIONS OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC + + A. Hermetic Magic + + 1. This is the main tradition of the West and has been championed +by many secret societies such as the Freemasons, Golden Dawn Society, +and the Builders of Adytum. + + a. Franz Bardon has written three volumes of instructions for +aspiring Hermetic Magicians. + + 2. What we know of Hermetic Magic dates from the first century AD. + + a. Hermetic Magic is a mixture of traditions. It combines +Egyptian knowledge with ideas of the Greeks and Jews who lived in +Egypt, principally in Alexandria, at the time of Jesus. + + b. These three groups all claimed that the knowledge they held +in common was divinely inspired. There are two different accounts of +how the knowledge had been received. + + (1) The first account derives from the apocryphal Book of +Enoch. + + (a) In a passage that amplifies Genesis 6:1-5, Enoch tells +how 200 angel descended from heaven to Mount Hermon and took wives +from the "daughters of man." + + (b) The angels taught their knowledge to these women and to +the children they bore. For this presumption, the angels were thrown +out of heaven. + + (c) Hermetic scholars recognize in this account a parallel +to the myth of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. + + (d) In the Gnostic interpretation of Adam and Eve's fall, +Jehovah is not The Deity, but a powerful though lesser spirit, who +built the material world and rules over it. + + (e) Because of his jealousy and pride Jehovah forbade +knowledge to Adam and Eve hoping they would worship him as the Highest +God. + + (f) The serpent, in this interpretation, is not Satan, but +the spirit Ouroboros, sent by Wisdom (Sophia) to liberate the minds of +men and women. + + (g) Magical knowledge is thus seen to be a higher and more +pious wisdom than obedience to Jehovah and the serpent Ouroboros, far +from being humankinds enemy, is seen as one of its greatest saviours. + + (2) In a second account, magical knowledge came from Hermes +Trismegistus (Thrice Great Hermes) who has given his name to the +magical sciences. + + (a) Hermes was a god of Greek settlers in Egypt, and was +also identified with the Egyptian God Thoth. + + (b) Through the agency of an ancient Egyptian king, this +god gave humankind 42 books of knowledge, of which 14 short fragments, +in Greek, survive. + + (c) The most important of these is the Emerald Tablet. + + (d) What we derive from Hermes above all is the Doctrine of +Correspondence: "That which is above is like that which is below." + + (e) In other words, each man and woman is a small model of +the cosmos. Each mind is a model of the Divine mind. + + (f) The four material elements - water, earth, wind and +fire - are models of the four universal principles. + + (g) The Ptolemaic scheme of the solar system is a model of +the system of the astral spheres. + + (h) The Doctrine of Correspondence is essential to magic, +and to all occult studies. + + c. From Hermetic Tradition we derive not only Ceremonial Magic, +but also Alchemy. + + (1) Magicians have usually practiced both sciences; and both +are said to have been taught by the angels of the Book of Enoch and by +Hermes Trismegistus. + + (a) The difference between them is that, in alchemy, the +magician tries to bring about a special physical manifestation of +ether. This is the Philosophers Stone, the prima materia. With it the +Alchemist can transmute base metals into gold, which is the highest +material form. + + (b) The Ceremonial Magician on the other hand, manipulates +the ether to call upon spirits and to learn from them. + + (c) Obviously, these are two similar, though very different +branches of one science. + + B. Faustian Magic + + 1. Faustian magic is the evocation of demons, and it began to +develop well before the 16th century when Faust lived. + + a. We do not know how much Faustian magic the 16th century +wizard, Dr. Johann Faust, actually practiced. + + (1) There are several copies extant of a book attributed to +him. + + (a) Doctoris Iohannis Fausti magiae maturalis et +innaturalis, printed in Passau in 1505. + + b. The most significant of the magical practices advocated by +these books is the use of a book of spirits or Liber Spiritum. + + (1) The Liber Spiritum must be written on virgin paper. + + (a) On the left hand pages are pictures of demons and on +the right hand pages are oaths that those demons have taken to serve +the sorcerer. + + (b) Each oath is signed by the demons mark. + + (c) The book must be consecrated by a priest, who says +three holy masses over it. + + 2. The process the good doctor had to go through to evoke the +demons and force them to swear oaths to him was very involved. + + a. Here is a short biography of Faust. + + (1) Johann Faust (ca. 1480 - ca. 1540 ) probably born in +Swabia and was described by a contemporary as "a most filthy beast, +the midden of numberless devils." He was as notorious for his +homosexuality as he was for his reputed pact with Mephistopheles. When +he died there was "a great noise and shaking of the house that +night......In the morning he was found dead, with his neck rung behind +him; the Divell whom he served having carried his soule into Hell." +Although he sold his soul for material gain, he seems to have died in +poverty. + + C. Enochian Magic + + 1. What we know of Enochian Magic comes from a book called "A True +and Faithful Relation of What Passed For Many Years Between Doctor +John Dee and Some Spirits", edited by Meric Casaubon and published in +1659. + + a. The book is a memoir of the Welsh scholar John Dee (1527- +1608), concerning the experiments he conducted with the aid of the +psychic Edward Kelley (c. 1553-1595). + + (1) John Dee was a mathematician and astrologer at the court +of Elizabeth I of England, while Edward Kelley was a psychic; he was +also probably a sorcerer and necromancer. + + b. Dee learned the Kelley had a gift for contacting spirits by +means of crystal gazing, and from 1582 to 1587 he used Kelley in +arduous attempts to learn the wisdom of the angels. + + (1) Kelley, for his part, was never sure he was communicating +with angels and he constantly tried to with- draw from the +experiments, but Dee convinced him to continue. + + c. Eventually, the spirits (chiefly a guide named Enoch) +communicated through Kelley a spiritual language. + + (1) This Enochian language had an alphabet of 21 letters. The +spirits supplied 19 invocations in this language and they translated +these for Dee. They also dictated magical diagrams, primarily squares, +some of them containing as many as 2,401 letters and instructions for +their use. + + 2. Despite the wealth of knowledge it encompassed, Enochian magic +fell into obscurity for many years. + + a. It was revived by the Order of the Golden Dawn and is +currently on the market titled "The Book of Enoch", and claims to +present the complete Enochian system in a simplified and easy to use +format. + + + + D. Abramelin Magic + + 1. This branch of magic is based on an 18th century french +manuscript titled "The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage". + + a. Abramelin set forth the semi-Gnostic doctrine that the world +was created and is maintained by demons who work under orders from +angels. + + (1) A magician given the help of a Guardian Angel, could learn +to control the demons for his own purposes. + + (a) An adept depends heavily on word magic in the process +and especially on palindromic magic squares. + +IV. THE GREAT BOOKS OF MAGIC + + A. All great fairy tales mention the Magic Book of Spells, kept by +the great magicians of times long ago. + + 1. These are records of incantations and gestures that have been +tried out hundreds of times before and proved to be most effective. + + 2. Medieval magaicians collected any and all books on magic they +could get their hands on. + + a. There was an explosion of magical books in the Middle Ages. + + (1) Most were imperfect copies of each other as they were +translated from language to language and back again. + + (a) These books were called Grimoires, perhaps an +adulteration of the french word for Grammer, which was applied to +books used to teach the basics of different subjects to the children. + + b. Actually there were only about five books of magic which had +any claim whatsoever of being authentic and most of the others were +incomplete, and usually incorrect, copies of these basic five. + + B. History of the Grimoires + + 1. The Testament of Solomon is the first great book of magic known +to us. + + a. It was published in Greek between 100-400 AD. + + (1) Probably copied down by hand in the 2nd century. + + (a) Speaking of the book as being published is of course +strictly a convention since all books were hand copied until the +invention of the printing press. + + b. This book purports to be Solomon's autobiographical memoir of +the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, which he accomplished with +the slave labor of devils. + + (1) With the help of a ring given to him by the angel Raphael, +Solomon bound the vampire devil Ornais and forced him to work on the +Temple. + + (a) Solomon learned the names of the other devils from +Ornias and bound them as well. + + (2) By the 12th or 13th century, a list of 51 useful demons +had crept into copies of the Testament of Solomon. + + (a) These were demons who could be persuaded to bring +material benefits to the sorcerer. + + 2. The Key of Solomon is perhaps the most famous of all the +magical texts. + + a. There are many versions in various languages. + + (1) The bulk of these are in French and Latin, some dating +from the 18th century. + + (a) The Grimoire itself is believed to be much older. In the +1st century AD Josephus referred to a book of incantations for +summoning evil spirits supposedly written by Solomon. + + (b) A Greek version in the British Museum may date back to +the 12th or 13th century. + + b. The Key was prohibited as a dangerous work by the Inquisition +in 1559, although like most books of magic, the local clergy were +allowed to keep (and to use) copies as long as they did not step out +of line and/or defy the authority of Rome. + + c. The Key was concerned almost wholly with the practice of +magic for personal gain. + + (1) It contained no hierarchy of demons, but it did offer a +system of magic based on the drawing of pentacles, which are five +pointed stars inscribed with charms. + + (a) These were grouped according to astrological signs. + + (b) The pentacles for Saturn, for instance, were useful for +causing earthquakes, inciting demons to fall upon victims, and in +general bringing about ruin, destruction and death. + + 3. The Lemegeton, or Lesser Key of Solomon, appeared mot long +after the Key of Solomon. + + a. It was divided into four parts. + + (1) Goetia + + (a) Wier, Agrippa's pupil was said to have drawn on the +Goetia for his Grimoire called Psuedomonarchia Daemonium. + + (2) Theurgia Goetia + + (3) The Pauline Art + + (4) The Almadel + + (a) The Almadel was mentioned in writings dating back to the +1500's. + + b. The Lemegeton included a complete hierarchy of 72 demons, +whom the sorcerer could evoke for his benefit. + + c. The origin and meaning of the Lemegeton is unknown. + + 4. The Constitution of Honorius first appeared in 1629. + + a. It was attributed to Pope Honorius III (1216-1227) and its +main contribution was to put a strongly Roman Catholic construction on +magical evocation. + + (1) Manuscript copies (corrupt ones) of the Constitution of +Honorius made their way to Germany well before 1629. These had been +translated from Latin to French leading some to believe that it had +made its way into France before coming to Germany, where it was +translated from French into German. + + b. Elements of the Constitution mingled with certain other +available texts and from these arose the strange mixture of practices +that can properly be called Faustian magic. + + 5. The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage is another puzzling text +with no definite source. + + a. As far as we know, it began as an 18th century French +manuscript, dated 1458, and it claimed to have been translated from +Hebrew. + + (1) MacGregor Mathers, who founded the Order of the Golden +Dawn, came across the text in the British Museum and translated it +into English. Since then it has had a strong influence on the practice +of magic. + + C. Other Grimoires + + 1. As previously noted, there was an explosion of Grimoires in the +Middle Ages and they continued to proliferate with the advent of the +Rennaisance. + + a. Most of these Grimoires were rip offs of the Key of Solomon +or later additions by lesser known magicians to works attributed to +well known magicians. + + (1) Grimorum Verum, written in French and supposedly published +in Memphis by Alibeck the Egyptian in 1517, although it probably dates +from the 18th centuryand seems to be based on the Key of Solomon. + + (2) Grand Grimoire, was written in French and dating from the +18th century. + + (3) The Red Dragon, a version of the Grand Grimoire + + (4) True Black Magic or The Secret of Secrets, a French +version of the Key of Solomon published in 1750. + + (5) The Arbatel of Magic, published in Latin at Basle, +Switzerland in 1575. + + (6) The Black Pullet, supposedly published in Egypt in 1740, +it probably dates from the late 18th century. + + (7) The Fourth Book, added to Agrippa's Occult Philosophy +after his death, and rejected by his pupil Wier as a forgery. + + (8) The Magical Elements of Heptameron + + (a) Attributed to Peter of Abano, who died in 1316. It was +probably written in the 16th century as a supplement to the Fourth +Book. + + +LESSON 4A + + +I. THE TRAINING OF A MAGICIAN + + A. How Ceremonial Magic Works + + 1. We have seen that magical texts always appeared in print many +years after they were written. + + a. By that time, the texts had become corrupted, secrets had +been suppressed, and whole new doctrines had been grafted onto the +older teachings. + + 2. The practice of magic is a highly individual matter. + + a. A true adept works out his own methods of evocation after +sifting through all the available material and adopting techniques +that resonate with his own inner self. + + (1) Magic is an inner discipline. The errors that crept into +the magical texts were errors of form as opposed to errors of +substance. + + (a) The inner meaning is what gives the work its power. +What matters is the magician's state of mind, which produces the +psychic force he invests in the invocation. + + 3. Before one can practice magic he must attain a high level of +development in the mental, psychic and physical planes. + + a. In order to practice ceremonial magic it is necessary to +strengthen and develop the physical and etheric. + + (1) Become expert in the techniques of astral travel and psi. + + (a) And master the symbols of the Universal Mind in all +their forms. + + 4. Magicians are reputed to be able to make spirits appear and +talk to them face to face, materialize balls of fire or watery globes +and set them to work, penetrate people's minds, and travel to the +farthest parts of the world as quickly as thought. + + a. They area said to be able to do these things by mastering the +use of the universal energy called ether. + + (1) Some call the universal energy AKASHA which is a Sanskrit +word meaning bright or shining. + + (2) Ether is not matter, but it is the origin, or substratum, +of all matter. + + (a) It infuses the entire universe. The universe being +considered to be nothing but ether in its various states of existence. + + (3) Ether emanates directly from the Deity. At its purest, the +point at which it is closest to the Deity, it is pure light. + + (a) As it emanates outward in all directions it becomes +more and more gross. + + (b) The different levels of what we call the astral plane +are levels of ether. + + (c) What we call the material plane is the lowest, grossest +form of ether. + + 5. Magicians use the Ptolemaic scheme of the universe as a map of +the etheric levels. + + a. In this scheme, the universe is made up of 10 astral spheres +and four material spheres. + + b. It is further grouped into the Higher Astral, Lower Astral, +and the Material Planes. + + (1) The Higher Astral Plane + + (a) Primum Mobile (First Mover) + + (b) Crystal firmament + + (c) Fixed stars + + (2) The Lower Astral Plane + + (a) Saturn + + (b) Jupiter + + (c) Mars + + (d) Sun + + (e) Venus + + (f) Mercury + + (g) Moon + + (3) The Material Plane + + (a) Fire + + (b) Air + + (c) Water + + (d) Earth + + c. In describing the Material plane magician use the ancient +division of four elements: earth, water, air and fire. + + (1) Ether serves as the fifth element or (in Latin) the quinta +essentia, or quintessence. + + (a) Because ether (or akasha or quintessence) has no bounds +of time or space, anyone who learns to use it will be able to +penetrate all levels of the universe thoroughly and instantly. + + (b) The magician who is adept in his craft can thus work +equally well on the mental, astral, and material planes. + + B. The Apprenticeship + + 1. It is possible to stumble across your hidden talents, but it is +better to follow a set course of study in magic. + + a. This provides guidance along the way and because you are +following a path that has been trodden before, you will come across +milestones that will help you gauge your progress. + + b. The following information is derived from a 10-stage program +of initiation based on the contemporary German magician Franz Bardon's +book Initiation into Hermetics. + + 2. Before you begin you must give up the idea that you own your +own thoughts. + + a. Most people believe their thoughts are part of their minds, +just as their hands are a part of their bodies. + + (1) Your thoughts live freely in your mind, just as wild +animals roam freely through a forest. + + (a) Each mind is connected to the Universal Mind and +thoughts, as well as thought-forms, swim through it occasionally +surfacing in this mind and that. + + (b) This concept must be mastered if you are to understand +and master the process of magical evocation. + + b. The spirits you will evoke inhabit your mind just as +independently as your thoughts. They live in your mind because it is a +part of the Universal Mind. + + (1) For this reason if you evoke a spirit of the sphere Venus, +it will not arrive from outer space but from within your own mind. + + (a) The spirits originate in the mind but they are quite +real. The spirits do appear and work on the material plane, but you +must look within yourself for them. + + (b) The point is that whatever you seek must be looked for +within, for you only delude yourself when you look for the answers +outside yourself. + + 3. Once you have grasped the material above fully, you can begin +the ten stages of the initiation. + + a. tThe exercises will prepare you menetally, psychically, and +physically for the practice of magic. + + (1) Mental- Now that you are awarea that your thoughts are +like living beings, you must become more awaare of them. Meditation, +perhaps coupled with yoga, is a good way of doing this. + + +END LESSON 4 + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/lesson5.txt b/religious documents/lesson5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5968880 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lesson5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,562 @@ +I. THE MEANING OF RITUAL IN WORKING MAGIC + + A. The Need to Change the Wiring in our Brains. + + 1. Learning to work magic requires that a certain amout of +neurological re-patterning of our brains takes place. + + a. To be effective, we have to change the way we use our brains. + + (1) Magic requires the development and integration of the +right hemisphere way of thinking with the left hemisphere way of +thinking. + + (a) The spacial, intuitive and holistic patterns of +awareness that characterize the right hemisphere modes of +consciousness must be able to communicate and work in harmony with the +verbal, analytical and linear patterns of awareness so characteristic +of the left hemisphere. + + (b) A person's growth, creativity and personality is deeply +influenced during this process and it eventually leads to a person who +is truly functional as a whole person. + + B. The language of magic is expressed in symbols and images. + + 1. Images bridge the gap between the verbal and non-verbal modes +of awareness. + + a. Symbols and images implant certain ideas in Younger Self who +passes them on to High Self. + + (1) By allowing the critical and analytical functions of +Talking Self to relax, Younger Self may respond fully and emotionally +to what happens during your magical workings. + + (a) Ritual, which is defined as "a specific set of images +and symbols attached to certain actions", allows us to deliberately +alter our states of consciousness so that we may perform works of +magic. + + 2. All humans relate to their environment through symbols and +rituals. + + a. Except during rare occasions, we do not experience our +environment directly. + + (1) Our left hemisphere patterning awareness developed so we +could safely ignore anything in our environment which was not +potentially dangerous. + + (a) A direct benefit of this survival tactic was the +ability to concentrate, which allowed us to examine the world around +us and led to experimentation. + + (b) Experimentation led to better ways of doing things, +such as making tools, and technology was born. It has served as a goad +and a goal since then. + + b. The way our left hemisphere works is fascinating + + (1) Working as a filter of all the stimuli coming into the +various senses of a human, the left hemisphere examines everything +closely and then files the new sensory data away as images, tastes, +smells, etc. where it stays in memory. + + (a) The majority of this activity occurs when we are young +and enchanted with the world around us. + + (b) Maturity is usually judged by the degree to which your +enthusiasm for examining the world around you has diminished. + + (c) Ironically, when you become too mature, you withdraw +from the world around you and lose interest, this is usually marked by +a tendency to live in your memories instead of the present. This +condition is called old age and people who give in to living in the +past are called senile. + + (d) Those of us who never lose our sense of wonder toward +all the world has to offer are often accused of having never 'grown +up' or if, we have managed to live long enough, to be going through +our 'second childhood.' + + (2) As we approach something in our normal everyday +activities we receive an image from our eyes and a part of our brain +searches through our memory for an image that matches the one at which +we are looking. + + (a) If there is already an image on file, even if it is +not a perfect match, the image on file is fed to that part of our +brain which 'sees' what we are approaching. + + (b) In this instance, assuming that we have not associated +the image in memory with something dangerous, we will walk past the +object without paying it any attention or actually seeing the object. + + (c) If there is not an image on file we will stop and +examine the new object as if we were seeing it for the first time, +which we are. + + (d) Then having classified and categorized it, we then +file it away in our memory for future reference and continue on our +way, oblivious to our surroundings. + + (3) This behavior allows us to concentrate on more abstract +things than worrying if our favorite armchair is going to have us for +brunch. + + (a) An extension of this type of behavior is the +formation of habits. Habits are ways of interacting with our +environment, based on assumptions made using our stored images and +experiences as a true picture of reality. + + (b) In effect, habits are pre-programmed responses to +everyday occurrences. + + (4) A little known fact relating to habits is that habits do +fulfill a psychological need. + + (a) And you cannot break a habit, you can only replace it +with another that meets that same psychological need. + + +II RITUAL ETIQUETTE + + a. The Ritual Bath + + 1. Before performing a ritual it is necessary to prepare yourself +for the work ahead. + + a. A ritual bath washes away the dirt and grime of the everyday +world along with the tensions of the mundane world + + (1) Draw a hot bath and add some essence, oils or perfume that +makes you feel good. + + (a) If you have studied the uses of oils and scents in +magic, you might want to tune your additives to the work to be done. + + (2) Turn off all the lights and light a single white taper. + + (a) Make sure that it is in a candle holder that will +handle it without you worrying about it setting fire to anything or +spilling wax where you do not want it. Votive candles and holders work +very well for this. + + (3) Light a stick of incense or place some on a glowing coal +in a censer that you can pick up. + + (4) Place some sea salt in a white dish or small bowl. + + (a) Being so close to the sea (southern California) it is +easy to collect sea salt by just taking some ocean water home and +letting it evaporate in the direct sunlight until all that is left is +the salt crystals. + + (b) If you cannot get sea salt, you might want to use some +iodized or rock salt from the market. It is essentially the same thing +but personally I like the idea of making or collecting my own salt. + + (5) You should have some purified water in a cup or vial. + + (a) Fresh spring water or stream water is ideal but most +of us living in the desert have to make due with bottled water from +the store. + + (b) Rain water, collected, strained, and kept in glass +bottles is a good substitute. + + (c) It is definitely preferred that you not use tap water +because of the additives in it. + + b. The following is a very simple ritual for consecrating the +ritual bath. + + (1) Lock the doors and unplug the phone. + + (a) This is to ensure that you are not disturbed. + + (2) Once the bath is drawn and any oils have been added to it +as desired, take the candle and make three slow passes over the water +as you say the following evocation. + + (a) "By this creature of fire do I purify this ritual bath. +May all impurities flee before its light." + + (b) Set the candle down so that it is out of the way but +still sheds light on your work. + + (3) Take up the dish of salt and, sprinkling three pinches of +the salt into the water say the following. + + (a) "By this creature of earth do I purify this ritual +bath. All impure creatures may not approach it." + + (4) Set the dish of salt aside and pick up the incense or +censer and make three passes over the water as you say the following +evocation. + + (a) "By this creature of Air do I purify this ritual bath. +May my hopes and aspirations rise upon the smoke to be carried by the +winds to the Lady." + + (5) Set the incense aside and pick up the water. Pour the +water into the bath. You may form patterns that appeal to you if you +like. Say the following. + + (a) "By this creature of water do I purify this ritual +bath. May this bath contain the Waters of Life that spring forth from +the Heart of the Mother." + + (6) Settle into the bath and soak until the water starts to +get too cold to stay in or until you have fully relaxed and left the +tensions of the world behind, which ever comes first. + + (a) This is a good time to meditate on the work you wish to +do. + + (7) Dry off with a freshly cleaned white towel, that has been +allowed to dry in the sunlight if possible. + + (a) Again, the color of the towel can be coordinated with +the work you intend to do. I prefer large bath sheets that I can wrap +around myself until I am ready to dress. + + (8) Apply any anointing oils that you plan to wear and dress +in fresh clean clothes, or in robes if you do not have to travel to +your working site. + + c. There are provisions made for 'emergency' ritual baths in the +event that you cannot take a real bath. + + (1) These usually involve dousing yourself with specially +prepared solutions that serve the purpose. + + (a) These are not favored as they do not allow any time for +relaxation and meditation. + + (b) Any good 'formulary' should have the recipe for instant +ritual bath solutions. + + B. Handling Ritual Tools + + 1. A Witch's tools are more personal than her toothbrush. + + a. Generally, it is considered extremely bad form to handle +another persons tools without prior permission. + + (1) Some witches charge their tools so that others who handle +them incorrectly can receive a nasty jolt of psychic power to teach +them to keep their hands to themselves. Personally, I do not approve +of this practice as it may result in harming someone too innocent to +know that they should not be handling the tools. + + 2. Some Covens maintain ritual tools that they only allow their +own members to handle. + + a. If you are a guest, it is always best to avoid offending +anyone by not handling anything unless it is specifically offered to +you. + + C. Entering and Leaving the Circle + + 1. A witch's magic circle is designed to keep the power raised +within it contained and concentrated. + + a. Leaving and entering the circle during the ritual tends to +weaken it and for this reason it is not encouraged. + + (1) Animals and small children can pass through the barrier of +the circle because they live in a 'state of grace' under the +protection of the Goddess. + + (a) Even so, animals and children should be kept out of the +ritual area unless they are a specific part of the ritual because they +are distracting. + + b. When it cannot be helped, the High Priestess will open, or +'cut' a door in the circle so that people who need to, can pass into +or out of it. + + (1) Naturally, after the person has passed through the High +Priestess will set a guard or close (seal) the circle. + + c. Walking across the barriers of the circle is considered to be +extremely disrespectful and only someone who wants to test the +patience of the High Priestess will do it knowingly. + + D. Movement Within the Circle + + 1. Movement within the circle is in accordance to the order found +in nature. + + a. As you face South you can track the Sun and Moon from your +Left to your Right. + + (1) This is the order of how we move in the circle, from side +to side when doing things such as lighting candles, etc. + + b. Continuing the movement from the West to the North and back +to the East we have inscribed a circle in a clockwise or Deosil (for +'as the sun travels') motion. + + (1) Deosil is the direction the Circle is cast in, and all +circular movement within the Circle should be in a clockwise +direction. + + (a) There are times when we would move in a counter +clockwise direction but that would be only under the specific +directions of the High Priestess and even then only after explaining +why we were doing it. + + (b) The general rule is "Always move in a clockwise +direction." + + 2. Each Coven maintains its own practices for giving salutes +during invocations, evocations and blessings. + + a. Invoking and banishing pentagrams are also used in setting up +the Circle and during other rituals acts. + + + (1) Imitating the others in the group is a 'safe' way to avoid +any social blunders. + + (a) When in doubt, do not do anything that you feel +uncomfortable about. + + +III CREATING MEANINGFUL RITUALS. + + A. Creating Sacred Space + + 1. We define a new space and a new time whenever we cast a Circle +in the Craft to begin a ritual. + + a. The Circle exists outside the boundaries of ordinary space +and time. We say it is between the worlds of the seen and the unseen. + + (1) It is a space in which alternate realities meet, in which +the past and future are open to us. + + b. Casting the Circle is an enacted meditation. + + (1) We create an energy form which serves as a boundary that +limits and contains the movement of subtle forces. + + (a) In group work, it is usually the High Priestess or her +assistant who casts the Circle. + + 2. Casting the Circle is the formal beginning of the ritual. + + a. It is the complex 'cue' that tells us to switch our awareness +into a deeper mode. + + (1) In ritual, we 'suspend disbelief' just as we do when we +are watching a play or reading fiction. + + 3. In the permanent stone circles of the Megalithic era, where +rituals were enacted for hundreds of years, great reservoirs of power +were built up. + + a. There was no need to draw out the circle as we do today, +because the stones defined the sacred space. + + (1) Casting a temporary circle as we do today probably began +during the time of persecution when tearing down stone circles was a +popular sport of christian mobs. + + (a) To further the 'destruction' of our circles, the church +ordered that christian churches be erected over the old sacred spots +in the countryside. + + + + B. Evoking The Guardians of the Watchtowers + + 1. The concept of the quartered circle is basic to the craft, as +it is to many cultures and religions. + + a. The four directions each correspond to and resonate with a +quality of the self, to an Element, a time of day and year, to tools +of the craft, symbolic animals and forms of personal power. + + (1) These correspondences are usually set down in a table +similar to the one in the back of The Spiral Dance and provide the +basis for visualizations throughout the ritual. + + (a) Constant visualizations of these connections create +deep internal links, so much so that physical actions during ritual +can trigger the desired inner states. + + 2. The Guardians of the Watchtowers are energy forms. + + a. They are the Spirits or Wraiths of the four Elements. + + (1) They bring the elemental energy of Earth, Air, Fire, and +Water into the circle to augment our human power. + + (a) The vortex of power created when we evoke the four +Quarters guards the circle from intrusions and draws in the higher +powers of the Goddess and God. + + C. Each Movement in a Ritual has Meaning + + 1. When we move deosil or sunwise we follow the direction the sun +appears to move in, and draw in power. + + a. Deosil is the direction of increase, of fortune favour and +blessing. + + (1) When we move widdershins, or counter clockwise, we move +against the path of the sun. + + (a) This direction is used for decrease or banishing. + + D. Cosmic Power Times + + 1. Some traditions assign one of the four seasons to each of the +four Elements. + + a. When this is done, they will orient their altar to face that +quarter which represents the season that is being honored. + + (1) Tthe East is associated with Air and the Spring, South is +associated with Fire and Summer, West with Water and the Autumn and +the North with Earth and Winter. + + 2. Depending on the time of day or night, some traditions +encourage facing towards one of the four directions to draw power and +perform magic appropriate to the Element used. + + a. From sunrise to noon you should face East, Noon until sunset +face South, sunset to midnight face West and midnight to sunrise face +North. + + E. Raising the Cone of Power + + 1. Energy is raised in coven rituals and most often molded into +the form of a Cone. + + a. This is called the Cone of Power. The base of the cone is the +circle of coveners; its apex can focus on an individual, an object, or +a collectively visualized image. + + (1) At times the cone is allowed to rise and fall naturally +without being sent anywhere. + + (a) At these times the cone is used to renew the coveners +personal power. + + (2) It may also be sent off in a burst of Force, directed by +one person who may be a part of the circle or may stand in the center +serving as the focal point. + + b. Rhythmical drumming, hand claps and dance movements may all +be used to raise the Cone of Power. + +IV. FORMAT OF A TYPICAL RITUAL + + A. Creating Sacred Space + + 1. The High Priestess or assistant casts the circle. + + a. The circle can be marked out by stones, chalk, salt or any +other natural material. + + (1) No one is allowed to enter the circle until it has been +properly cast. + + (a) Once cast, other members of the ritual enter the circle +through a pre-arranged 'door' in the circle. Usually in the north. + + B. Evoking the Guardians of the Watchtowers + + 1. The guardians are evoked, one at a time and welcomed. + + a. The circle can be purified by that Element assigned to each +Guardian, as the Guardian is evoked or later, after all the Guardians +have been evoked. + + + C. Invoking the Goddess and the God + + 1. Many traditions invoke the Goddess in all their rituals. + + a. Some invoke the Goddess and God at Sabbats and the Goddess +only at Esbats. + + (1) Some traditions invoke either the Goddess or the God, in +accordance with the Season. + + D. Feasting + + 1. The ritual feast can consist of eating a simple meal of ritual +cakes and wine or a full blown feast in honor of the Goddess and God +and the season. + + a. It is traditional to pour a libation from the chalice out +onto the ground 'for the Goddess' before anyone else has a drink. + + (1) Some traditions have a modest meal of cakes and wine and +then, after the circle is over, settle down for some serious feasting. + + E. Working Magic/Raising the Cone + + 1. Any magical work or healing is usually done at this time. + + F. Grounding of the Cone of Power + + 1. Some traditions perform a ritual to rejuvenate the Earth Mother +by grounding any unused energy raised during the formation of the Cone +of Power. + + G. Thanking the Goddess and/or the God + + 1. A formal declaration of thanks for attending the rites and for +any special favors granted. + + H. Thanking and releasing the Guardians + + 1. A formal thanking and leave taking of the Guardians. + + I. Closing the circle + + 1. Either the circle will be banished so that it cannot be +discovered or a maintenance spell will be placed upon it to allow it +to retain and grow in power. + +END OF LESSON 5 + + + + + + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/lesson6.txt b/religious documents/lesson6.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d06fe1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lesson6.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1006 @@ +I PHILOSOPHY OF CONSTRUCTION + + A. Well to do Crafters + + 1. Well to do crafters, who have the ability to pay for fine +workmanship, may buy only the finest articles made of silver and gold. + + a. Following the belief in the law of contagion, they will set +aside their tools and use them solely for their magical work. + + (1) Many have velvet or silk covers made for the tools which +will keep them nice and shiny with a minimum of polishing. + + B. Garden Variety Kitchen Witches + + 1. These people place more value on making their own tools, even +if they are not the prettiest to look at. + + a. They feel the tools become charged with their will as they +are formed by their minds and hands. + + (1) Many times the tools will do double duty in the kitchen +and it takes someone who knows how the tools are used to figure out +that they are magical. + + (a) This necessitates that the equipment be reconsecrated +each time they are to be used for magic ritual. + + (b) A direct benefit of this is that you get lots of +practice in consecrating tools. And you inject a certain amount of +magic into your everyday life. + +II. NAMES AND THE USES OF THE VARIOUS TOOLS + + A. Clothing + + 1. The Ceremonial Robe + + a. Most traditions adopt a robe of a particular color. + + (1) This serves the same purpose of going skyclad, in that it +makes everyone more or less equal. + + (a) Colors tend toward symbolizing purity (white) +identifying with nature (green) or camouflage for outdoor work (brown +or black). + + b. The robe is usually hooded for outdoor use but many crafters +who only work inside use robes of a lightweight material with no hood. + + + (1) The robe is supposed to be made of a natural fiber such as +cotton and sewn by the owners own hand. + + (a) Some witches will say a blessing over each stitch which +helps them concentrate their magical will on the purpose of the robe +as they are making it. + + (b) Having someone who is good at sewing or using a sewing +machine to make the robe is not unknown, although rigid purists would +probably turn their noses up at the idea. + + c. To ensure that the robe retains its ability to trigger +subliminal responses it is only worn for ritual purposes and usually +stored in a chest set aside for ritual equipment when not being used. + + (1) Many traditions adopt a specific incense with a distinct +aroma for their ritual work and the robe absorbs the scent. + + (a) The scent can be another subliminal trigger. + + 2. The Cingulum or Cord. + + a. This is a cord, usually braided, which is worn about the +waist and tied in a simple knot. + + (1) The cingulum symbolized the witchs' bond to the Goddess +and is used in knot magic and binding rituals. + + (a) It is usually made of a natural fiber such as cotton, +silk or wool. + + (b) Some traditions favor one color for all members (such +as red) while other traditions prefer a different color for each +degree. + + (c) When there are different colors for each degree the +highest achieved is worn or all cords earned are worn braided +together. + + (d) The length is traditionally tied to laying out a +typical circle with a nine foot diameter. Some cords are 9 feet long +and others are a little longer than 4 1/2 feet long. + + (e) To lay out a nine foot diameter circle with the shorter +cord the witch would mark the center of the circle with a stick or +athalme and tie one end of the cord to it. She would then use the +other end to measure out the circumference of the circle by walking +around it with the cord held taut. + + + + 3. The Cloak + + a. This is a large loose fitting cloak or cape of heavy material +with a hood. + + (1) The color is usually black, dark blue or grey. + + (a) This is a totally functional piece of equipment. It was +worn as a witch travelled to the Covenmeet. It allowed her to blend +into the shadows of the night. + + (b) Having the ability to disappear into the surrounding +shadows of a forest at night while wearing this cloak led to the +belief that witches had the ability to turn invisible. + + (c) As night wore into dawn, the cloak was worn to keep +away the chill of morning on the return trip. Sometimes a lining of a +common color such as brown was sown into the cloak so that it could be +worn inside out on the return during daylight. + + B. Jewelry + + 1. The Necklace + + a. Almost all statues of the Goddess from ancient times depict +Her as wearing a necklace. + + (1) For this reason a modern female witch may wear a necklace +as a sign of her attachment to the Goddess. + + (a) The necklace is made of a natural substance such as a +strand of amber beads alternating with beads of jet, or seashells. + + (b) A necklace made of acorns incorporates the connection +with the Goddess, and the God, whose tree is the oak and the acorn is +an ancient symbol of fertility. + + (c) Necklaces with symbols that make the witch feel +'witchy' are very common and they are usually fashioned of silver +which is the Lady's metal. + + (2) In most traditions the male witch is not required to wear +a necklace, but when he chooses to it might be silver in +identification with the Goddess. + + (a) Or gold in identification with the God. Designs could +be traditional, like a torc or pentagram or anything else that appeals +to him. + + 2. The Bracelet + + a. Some traditions use bracelets as magical amulets and female +witches, especially high priestesses, will wear copper bracelets which +help them to identify with the solar aspects of the Goddess or the +God. + + 3. The Ring + + a. I have no knowledge of any tradition that requires its +members to wear a particular ring. + + (1) Most witches have a favorite 'magic' ring that they like +to wear during rituals. + + (a) Most magical texts contain numerous instructions on how +to construct and decorate magical rings to bind demons, cloud minds of +people around you, and turn you invisible. + + (b) The drawback to these is that you must learn to design +and cast your own jewelry. Not to mention getting the gold and other +precious metals and stones required in the formulas. + + 4. The Garter + + a. Most properly an article of clothing, the garter has come to +be used as a badge of office rather than a necessity for holding up +stockings. + + (1) There is a cave painting from the paleolithic era showing +a male shaman, dressed in his robes and surrounded by his tribe, as +they perform a magical ritual and, while his legs are bare, a garter +is very plainly shown around each thigh. + + (2) The garter may have been used as a talisman at one time, +as noted above, but today it is used to designate status in the Pagan +community. + + (a) A silver buckle is added to the garter when ever a +Priestess leaves the mother coven. The High Priestess of the mother +coven may then add a buckle to her garter to symbolize this hiving off +of a new coven. + + (3) There is a story about a ball that King Edward the Third +of England gave. During this ball the dancing apparently got pretty +wild and one of the Lady's of the Court lost her Garter. + + (a) The King picked it up and tied it on his own leg and +spoke the words "Shame to him who thinks ill of it." + + (b) This was the basis for the Order of the Garter, which +is perhaps the oldest Order of Knighthood in Britain. The Kings words +became the motto of the Order; + "Hont soit qui mal y pense." + + 5. The Moon Crown + + a. Ancient statues of Diana show her with a band about her head +and a crescent moon affixed to it across her forehead, to show her +dominion over the moon which is her celestial sphere. + + (1) High Priestess are crowned with a Moon Crown during the +invocation of the Goddess. This serves as a reminder that she speaks +for the Goddess and acknowledges the High Priestesses connection with +Her. + + 6. The Horned Helmet + + a. The God is a Horned God, and when He is invoked into the High +Priest during ritual the Priest is crowned with the Horned Helmet, for +essentially the same reasons. + + (1) Horns were the original form that crowns took as they +represented the virility of the leader of the tribe which was +important to its survival. + + (a) The words for 'horns' and 'crown' were the same in +Hebrew, and when Michaelangelo did his research for his statue of +Moses he was unaware of this and that is why his statue shows Moses +with horns. + + (2) Once tribal society gave way to urban society crowns were +fashioned in the shape of buildings, with a defensive wall around +them. + + (3) Crowns did not start to resemble the religious crowns of +the Catholic Church, with its attendant orbs and crosses, until the +false Donation of Constantine was created in 754 CE. + + (a) Before this, a King was chosen by his people and +recognized by the Church. After the "Donation of Constantine" the +Bishop of Rome was recognized as the "Vicar of Christ" and vested with +the power to create Kings and Emperors. + + (b) It is from the "Donation of Constantine" that the +subsequent power of the Vatican in secular affairs ultimately derives. + + C. Simples + + 1. Candles + + a. Candles are used for their light and their flame as the +symbol of the highest manifestation of ether on the material plane. + + + (1) Most altar setups use two candles for polarity + + (a) They can both be white or one white and the other red +or black. + + (2) Some altar setups use a single white candle called the +Maiden's Candle. + + (a) This is the first lit and all other candles, as well as +the incense used, are lit from this candle. + + (b) The Maiden Candle is usually kept in a holder that +allows it to be picked up and moved about the circle without danger of +spilling hot wax. + + (c) It can be used as the symbol of fire when purifying the +circle and as a portable light as needed. + + (3) Most traditions use candles to mark the four quarters of +the circle. + + (a) Colored candles to match the Elements they represent +are sometimes used instead of the traditional white. + + (b) Some practical-minded witches, with the wherewithal to +do so, use polynesian kerosene powered torches for their outdoor +circles at the four quarters. + + 2. Incense + + a. Most traditions adopt a particular scent that becomes a +subliminal trigger for them. + + (1) Just about any incense will do, as long as it is pleasant +and does not produce too much smoke. + + (a) Typical incenses are Frankincense and Myrrh +combinations and Sandlewood. + + (2) In older times, some of the incenses were compounded using +mildly hallucinogenic plants, but todays incenses are used mostly to +scent the air. + + (a) Although I have seen incenses used that were also +prepared so as to drive away night insects. + + 3. Annointing Oils + + a. Used in annointings and blessings. + + (1) It can be as simple as a good quality olive oil or as +complex as a fine mixture of rare essence oils. + + (a) One advantage of working skyclad is that you don't +collect oil splotches on your robe from repeated annointings. + + (b) Of course, you can always remove your robe for the +annointings, but then it is up to personal and group discretion. + + D. Working Tools + + 1. Athame (ath-ay-me) or Athalme (ah-thal-may) + + a. This is the witches basic working tool + + (1) It is a steel bladed knife, usually with an edge on both +sides, and a black handle. + + (a) Some old-time ones were made of chipped flint with the +handle made of twine or a small rope made from plants, which was then +died black with berry juice. + + (b) Some modern ones have a bone handle or a deer hoof for +a handle. + + b. The Athame is a physical symbol of the witch's magical will. + + (1) A knife was probably the first efficient cutting tool +developed by humans with which they could kill their game. + + (a) Just as the dog was the first wild animal that mankind +domesticated, the knife was the first truly human piece of technology. + + (b) It is used in the circle as a symbol of authority and a +badge of faith. + + (c) Because the steel was forged in fire, the athame is +typically ascribed to resonate with the element of Fire. + + (d) Although there are traditions that assign it to the +element of Air. + + 2. The Sword + + a. More popular with Ceremonial Magicians, the sword can be seen +as a large version of the athame or the athame can be viewed as a +small version of the sword. + + (1) Most covens possess only one sword which is community +property. It is rare that an individual witch will own their own +sword. + + (a) In earlier times, everyone was expected to own a knife, +it and the spoon were the main eating utensils before the fork was +developed. Only people of the nobility or of high rank were allowed to +carry a sword because it was considered a weapon of aggression. + + (2) As with the athame, the element of the sword is thought to +be Fire. + + b. The sword, if used, can be used to cast the circle and during +the initiation rituals. + + (1) Some people like to use a sword instead of an athame but I +find it gets crowded enough with thirteen people jammed into a nine +foot diameter circle, without having someone swinging a sword this way +and that. + + 3. The Boleen or Boline + + a. This is the witches white handled knife, used for fashioning +other tools. + + (1) You may think of it as a magical pocketknife, although it +is not usually a folding knife. + + (a) With the large amount of tools available today, ranging +from simple hand-tools to Dremel mini powered tools, it is not very +common to see a boleen in use today. + + 4. The Kerfan + + a. This is the traditional golden sickle, which the Druids were +fond of using to cut mistletoe. + + (1) Not many traditions use a Kerfan today, but those with a +Druidic leaning might favor them. + + 5. The Rod or Riding Pole (Broomstick) + + a. The Rod served many purposes in the olden times. + + (1) It was a walking stick in days when everything was not +paved over with concrete. + + (a) And what with the desire to escape the city for +rituals, it still does a pretty good job. + + (2) It usually represented a phallus and the end that was not +touching the ground was carved to enhance this effect. + + (a) The practice of using it as a riding pole during +fertility rituals is self-explanatory. + + (b) During the dances, the witches would leap amongst the +grain in the fields astride their 'broomsticks' to show how high they +wanted the crops to grow. This led to the belief that witches fly on +their broomsticks. + + (3) In addition to camouflaging the pole so as not to offend +outsiders, tying bunches of broom plants to the end of the Rod +provided a practical tool for sweeping the twigs and leaves from +around the area that the witch wished for her circle. + + (a) As a side note, the people who did not understand the +purpose of the Rod, but had seen it used in dances, turned it around +so that the 'broom' part was going away, behind the witch, as she rode +it in their illus- trations. + + b. Traditionally, the Rod was cut from a tree that was sacred to +the Goddess or the God. + + (1) Practically any good hardwood will serve. + + 6. The Magic Wand + + a. Like the Riding Pole, the magic wand is really a phallus, +which serves as the symbol of the virility of its wielder. + + (1) It is also traditionally cut from a tree which is sacred +to the Goddess or God. + + (a) The Key of Solomon says that the wand should be cut +from a hazel or nut tree, and that the tree should be virgin (no more +than one years growth.) + + (b) The wand is to be cut with a single stroke on the day +of Mercury at sunrise. + + (c) Some traditions require that it be cut using a golden +sickle (kerfan). + + b. The traditional length is from the tip of the middle finger +of the right hand to the tip of the elbow. + + (1) This made it easier to hide in a robes sleeve. + + c. The wand is considered a tool of persuasion rather than +command, and in most traditions is assigned the Element Air. + + (1) Although, in those traditions that assign Air to the +athame and Sword, the element Fire is assigned to the Riding Pole and +the Wand. + + 7. The Pentacle + + a. In magic, a pentacle is a mandalla or focal point for the +work it encompasses. + + (1) Most pentacles were made of a maleable material, such as +wax or cast in the metal corresponding to the astronomical planet that +the Magician was evoking in his/her works. + + b. In most traditions of the craft, the pentacle is an Earth +pentacle incorporating the symbols that are meaningful to the members +of the tradition. + + (1) It is the centerpiece of the altar, on which objects are +consecrated; the water and salt bowls are placed upon it for blessing. + + c. Some traditions call it a Moon Pentacle, and the symbols, +while basically the same, are carved into a silver disc. + + (1) The idea being that consecration and blessing is performed +in direct contact with the Goddess. + + (a) The silver metal of the pentacle providing the link +necessary for contagion. + + d. When the pentacle is an Earth pentacle, it is usually made of +a metal such as copper. + + (1) It is normally round, and 5-6 inches in diameter. + + 8. The Scourge + + a. Typically, a whip made of a handle of nutwood and eight tails +of cords with five knots tied in each tail. + + (1) The scourge has two uses. + + (a) Symbolic, a sign of power and domination. + + (b) And for gentle, monotonous, semi-hypnotic application +to affect the blood circulation as an aid to 'gaining the Sight.' + + 9. The Cauldron + + a. The cauldron was one of the most useful items in the +kitchens. + + (1) It was essential for cooking, brewing, processing many +kinds of food and medicines, treating hides, washing, dyeing, making +household items like soap and candles, and carrying water or fire. + + (a) It's small wonder that the broom and cauldron became +the two most widely recognized symbols of a woman's dominion over +domestic matters as represented by hearth and home. + + b. The cauldron is an essential symbol of the Craft and embodies +sacred truths that reflect the witch's world view. + + (1) Seen as a 'cooking pot' the cauldron was endlessly +churning, turning, a boiling matrix, a soup of elemental raw materials +in the cosmic womb. + + (a) The cauldron represents the stuff of creation, the +Mother's eternal flux. + + (b) The cauldron symbolizes creation, that occurs not just +once as in some other religions, but constantly, as long as the +universe lasts. + + (2) But the cauldron was not only a symbol for the womb of the +Mother. It was also a symbol of abundance. + + (a) Just a Nature overproduces to assure the survival of a +species, the cauldron is seen as an endless source of nourishment for +the followers of the Goddess. + + (b) The Cauldron of Danu kept by the Dagda. + + (3) The cauldron was also seen as the source of wisdom, +inspiration, understanding and magic. + + (a) Both Western and Eastern myths insisted that the +aspiring Father God was obliged to steal his power and/or wisdom from +some version of the Mother's vessel. + + (b) Odin managed to drink the Wise Blood from the three +cauldrons in the womb of Earth (Erda), by tricking the 'giantess' who +was tending them, and taking the sacred substance when she wasn't +looking. He was also able to illegally acquire knowledge of reading +and writing the runes, mastery of magic, shape-shifting ability, and +understanding of cosmic matters which were formerly the Goddess's +exclusive property. + + (c) In India, the sky god Indra also stole Wise Blood, from +Triple Kali's three cauldrons. + + (d) The Welsh stories of the Tale of Gwion Bach, and the +Tale of Taliesin present Cerridwen as a witch who brews up a potion in +her cauldron to give her son magical abilities. The boy she has +tending the fire for a year and a day gets splattered and burned on +the hand by the brew and sticks his fingers into his mouth. He then +goes through some difficult times as he shape-changes to escape the +pursuing Cerridwen, until finally she catches and consumes him, and +nine moths later gives birth to Taliesin. + + (4) A worldwide cycle of myths reveals that the cauldron was +also a symbol of rebirth. + + (a) Mycenaean Demeter made a god of the sacri- ficial +victim Pelops by resurrecting him from her magic cauldron. + + (b) This sort of magic was still attributed to the female +Trinity of the Fates in the late Roman Empire. + + (c) Irish Celtic mythology speaks of a cauldron owned by +Bran which would restore dead warriors to life. + + (d) Welsh mythology also has a similar cauldron known as +the Black Cauldron. + + (5) All over Britain, both Pagans and Christians alike +continued to utilize the ancient holy wells and springs, especially +those in the earth-womb caves, or those whose waters bubbled and +boiled like seething cauldrons. + + (a) This was because their Pagan ancestors regarded such +places as healing shrines. The ancient peoples thought them earthly +manifestations of the cosmic womb, where all life could be endlessly +regenerated. + + c. Traditionally the cauldron is made of cast copper or cast +iron, with a bail so that it could be suspended over a fire on a +tripod, and had three feet or legs in remem- brance of the Triple +Goddess whose womb it represents. + + (1) It is not unusual today to see a fire kindled inside of a +cauldron in deference to fire safety. + + E. Altar Equipment + + 1. The Altar + + a. Usually a table or some other handy item, which is large +enough to hold all the necessary equipment and flat enough to keep +everything from rolling off. + + (1) Some traditions like to use a square or cube which +represents the material world, while others insist that it be round +like the circle. + + (a) Square and rectangular shapes are also popular since +they are more common within the average home. + + (b) As with so many other things, going with what you've +got and feel comfortable with, works just fine. + + b. Some traditions feel that the altar top should be made of +slate or some other stone, while others prefer the light weight of +wood. + + (1) If it is a permanent altar outside you might just want to +make it all out of stone and cement. + + c. Something that is often overlooked is that the altar should +be tall enough not to give you a backache as you work over it. + + d. Some people like to use different colored table runners or +cloths to cover the altar, while others prefer a 'bare' altar top. + + (1) Personally, I prefer runners and cloths that are color +coordinated for the season and I am not above placing flowers and +fruits of the season on the altar. + + 2. Candles + + a. There should be two candles on the altar for polarity. + + (1) Depending on your orientation, you will want to use either +silver candlestick holders or gold, copper or some other solar metal. + + (2) The candles represent the polarity of the Goddess and the +God. + + (a) They should be either both white or one white and the +other red or black. White is for purity and black is for the shadow. +Red can be substituted for black if black has too many negative +connotations for you, since red represents the love and passion of the +blood. + + (b) It has been known for people to use red and green +candles, but I prefer to use white on the altar and colored candles +for the four Quarters of the circle. + + 3. Censer or Bowl of Incense + + a. A censer can be as elaborate as those that the Catholic +Church employs or as practical as a small hanging pot from the garden +shed that has some sand in it to keep the incense from burning the +altar. + + (1) Incense burners from curio shops are handy, but you should +be able to either pick them up or place sticks of incense in them. + + (a) I prefer to use incense burners that have three legs in +accordance with the tradition associated wit the cauldron. + + 4. The Bell + + a. The Bell is used to draw the Elementals, particularly the +Sylphs, to your rituals. + + (1) Some people prefer bells with clappers while others like +bells that must be struck. + + 5. The Pentacle + + a. Although we have already spoken of the Pentacle, it is +usually thought of as a piece of altar equipment, and so it is +mentioned it here. + + 6. Small Cauldron or Bowl of Water + + a. It should be half-filled with spring water + + (1) Typically, it is painted black on the inside if it is to +be used for scrying. + + 7. Vessel of Salt + + a. Simply a bowl of salt to represent Earth. + + 8. Chalice or Drinking Horn + + a. This is the cup from which you will drink a toast to the Lady +and Her Lord. + + (1) It is a smaller version of the cauldron with all the +attendant symbolism. + + (a) The Arthurian legends speak of the quest for the Holy +Grail, which was much older than Christianity. + + (b) One of the Mysteries attached to the Grail was that the +King and the land were one. If the king were to grow old and frail +without passing his kingdom along to a younger, more virile successor, +the land would wither and die. + + (2) A major portion of any ritual involves the symbolic mating +of the Athame and Chalice, in recognition of the life forces of the +God and Goddess. + + (a) While most traditions have the Priest wielding the +Athame and inserting it into the womb-chalice which is held by the +Priestess, I feel it is more meaningful to have the Priest and +Priestess exchange symbols and enact the rite as though they were on +the Astral Plane. + + 9. Statuary or Symbols + + a. Some traditions use statuary of the Goddess and/or the God as +focal points for concentration. + + (1) We do not worship the statues as embodiments of the +Goddess and the God, though they might take on the properties of being +a talismanic link between us and them. + + (a) We do not worship the statues. Our goal is to invoke +the Goddess and the God into our hearts and minds, not into inert art. + + b. Other traditions, still afraid of being accused of being +idolaters, will use symbols of the Goddess/God instead + + (1) Moonstones and other stones with holes naturally worn into +them are sacred to the Goddess. + + (a) Sometimes stones will be carved with occult markings, +of which only local initiates know the meanings. These are often +called 'mason marks' by those who do not understand the meaning of the +marks. + + 10. The Candle Snuffer + + a. While technically not a tool of ritual, this is a carryover +from Ceremonial Magic. + + (1) In Ceremonial Magic, where the world is seen as a +battleground between good and evil, the light of a candle represents +the purity of the Good, while darkness is seen as the evil of the Bad. + + (a) To allow the pure flame of a candle to be blown out +supposedly weakens the effect of the flame, so Ceremonial Magicians +always snuff out the candle to show that they did so by an act of will +and not as a victory of the Bad over the Good. + + b. It can be made of silver or brass, depending on your +preference. + +III. SYMBOLS USED TO CARICATURIZE WITCHES + + A. Clothing + + 1. Each article of clothing associated with the witch has a long +and chequered history. + + a. By the 17th century most witches were busy hiding while the +witch craze ran rampant across most of Europe. + + (1) The majority of stereotypical clothing supposedly worn by +a witch was modeled on the style of clothing which was just going out +of style as the craze was gaining momentum. + + (a) Not surprisingly, the older women who were tortured +into confessing that they were witches, tended to favor the mode of +dress which was going out of fashion. + + 2. The typical image of a witch shows a woman wearing a cone +shaped hat, wrapped in a cape with a girdle around her waist, gloves +in hand, and wearing long toed shoes. + + a. We shall see that all these items were perfectly normal items +of clothing, which would not raise an eyebrow, unless the observer had +a twisted mind in the first place. + + + (1) The conical hat- + + (a) These types of hats have been in fashion from time to +time, with and without a brim, and they are always condemned as being +diabolical because they led people to have carnal thoughts when they +realize the phallic symbolism of the hat. + + (b) The brim was in vogue in the 17th century, but we +recognize it as the hat of a "princess in distress" when we add the +obligatory scarf and change the color from black (married or widowed) +to a lighter color. + + (c) The Church required Heretics to wear the conical hat, +while they were on public display for ridicle and abuse, as a symbol +of the horns of the devil he was supposed to worship. + + (2) The magic Cape- + + (a) More appropriately the domain of the magician, locked +away in his tower with his books, the magic cape, with mystical moons, +stars, and other astrological symbols sewn or painted on it is +supposedly worn by the witch. + + (b) This was supposed to make her invisible, and sometimes +to give her power to fly. + + (c) A more likely explanation is that, back then capes were +used much as we use coats for warmth today, and the markings were +probably added later just to enhance the effect of strangeness. + + (3) The Witches Girdle- + + (a) A girdle is simply a belt, used to hold the wallet used +at the time. Neither men not women used pockets very much so they both +wore girdles or belts which held their pouch-like purses. + + (b) The girdle was said to consist of 12 or 13 puffballs, +or other decorations, strung together with the magical pouch hanging +in their midst. + + (c) We now know that 12 is a number representing the 12 +signs of the zodiac, and that there are 13 moons in a solar year, so +the symbolism is not surprising. Keeping in mind that pickpockets used +to be called cutpurses, is it any wonder that an old woman would want +to carry her purse hanging in front or near the front of her girdle? + + (d) The pouch is supposed to be made of skin and to +contain the witchs charms, amulets and herbs. More likely these were +old coins or religious medals and herbs made into medicines or +cosmetics. + + (4) The Gloves + + (a) When gloves are mentioned, they are said to be made of +catskin, with the fur turned inside. + + (b) These were supposed to give her the swiftness and +quiet of a cat in the night. + + (c) More than likely they kept her arthritic hands warm. + + (d) You can still buy gloves with the fur inside in the +colder parts of the US. + + (5) The Shoes- + + (a) Properly called the poulaine, it was the long-toed +(phallic) shoe that was very popular in the 15th century. + + (b) They were the original 'high heels' or 'platform +shoes', but with toes so long that sometimes they had to be tied by a +string leading from the toe to just below the wearers knee. + + (c) It has been said that playing the game of 'footsie' +with the person opposite of you was thought up by someone wearing +these shoes. The sexual connotations of the pointed toes is obvious. + + B. Physical Appearance + + 1. Accused witches were as often young and sexually attractive as +they were old and ugly. + + a. Whether exceedingly beautiful or horribly ugly, she menaces +men in a patriarchal society. + + (1) The Church taught men to fear women. + + (a) Ecclesiastical writings called woman the 'confusion of +man', 'an insatiable beast', 'a continuous anxiety and a daily ruin.' + + (2) The infamous Malleus Malleficarum said that witchcraft +arose from female carnality. + + (a) And 'all wickedness is but little to the wickedness of +a woman.' + + b. Few attempts to understand the real causes of the persecution +of women have been made but here are a few high-lights found by a male +researcher. + + (1) Men feel a sense of inferiority in relation to the female +archtype of power, which he draws from his infantile experience of +total dependence on his mother. + + (a) Adult men try to blame women for anything or everything +that goes wrong in their lives, as a child might blame his mother for +her failure to anticipate his every need. + + (2) Few female actions arouse so much male bitterness as what +the child typically fears his mother might do: simply walk out, and +refuse to return to him. + + (a) Medieval religion did not allow men to think of the +simple solution of studying how to please their women so they would +want to stay close and would enjoy being wives. + + (b) Instead, they were taught to think of their women as +personal slaves. + + (3) The motive of sexual jealousy must be considered a +contributing factor in the persecution of women. + + (a) Men in an intensely patriarchal society are, in +general, very poor lovers, because they are not taught to pay +attention to their partners needs or feelings. + + (b) Not seeing the connection between their own +insensitivity and the dissatisfaction of their women, they assumed +that the women preferred demon lovers with huge penises, which only +fed their own feelings of inadequacy. + + (4) Men's hidden sexual inferiority complexes then fostered +misogyne (miso-hate, gyne-women), which was propped up by tales of +women preferring to take demon lovers and other, less supernatural but +perhaps more intimidating lovers as rivals to their husbands. + + (a) Members of the male hierarchy seldom trusted one +another, in view of the fact that almost any woman could be the sexual +prey of any man of a higher rank. + + (5) Christianity gave men the best of all reasons for hating +women when it laid down its doctrine of Eve's responsibility for men +having to die. + + (a) Ever since the early telling of this doctrine, every +man who feared the approach of death was taught to blame women for it. + + (b) The limitless ferocity of the clergy toward witches +probably stemmed from the fact that they served the Church that +claimed to have conquered death, yet they continued to see death all +around them, especially in the terrible century of the plague. + + + (6) Women's sexual magnetism is still experienced by males as +a disquieting sort of magic, still poorly under- stood, inflicting a +sense of helplessness. + + (a) This has probably been so ever since men began to fear +women's uncanny ability to force embarrassing responses from male +genitals, even across a distance, by words or gestures alone. + + (b) Often it was their sexual attractiveness that led +women to be denounced in times when such things as erections and wet +dreams were reputed to be caused by bewitchments. + + (7) Since the pagan ruler of death was usually the Crone in +the guise of an old woman, and elder priestesses had occupied the +honored positions in pagan temples, old women became the most frequent +victims of witch persecutions. + + (a) Women after menopause no longer served the purposes of +the patrilineal family system, which viewed women as breeding machines +and even made 'barrenness' a legal reason for a man to abandon his +wife. + + (b) The same Church helped codify laws that deprived elder +women of the wealth and property they used to control under the rules +of mother-right. + + (c) Consequently, the old woman was an ideal scapegoat: +most times too expendable to be missed, too weak to fight back (though +sme did), and too poor to matter. + + 2. In some sense, the word "Witch" is synonymous in our minds with +the word "woman". + + a. Perhaps this is because we associate woman's creative powers +with the manipulation of vast unseen forces. + + b. Or perhaps we intuitively understand that during the long +centuries when women were semislaves of society, they were naturally +drawn to witchcraft as a cure for their powerlessness, a means of +manipulating a world that otherwise painfully manipulated them. + + +END OF LESSON 6 + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/lesson7.txt b/religious documents/lesson7.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0ce61a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lesson7.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1023 @@ +I. MAGIC IN THE CRAFT + + A. Working Definition + + 1. Magic is the craft of shaping and has been defined as "the art +of changing consciousness at will". + + a. The art of changing consciousness at will is a demanding one, +needing long and disciplined apprenticeship. + + (1) The outward acts of waving a wand, lighting a candle, or +crooning a rhymed incantation, are meaningless without the proper +mental preparation. + + (a) But when the force of a trained awareness is behind the +gestures, they are far more than empty motions. + + B. The Witch as Cosmic Artist + + 1. We exist on this plane as multi-faceted jewels, which conceal a +spark of the essence of the Goddess in the heart of each jewel. + + a. Each facet of the jewel that is ourself is likened to shells, +or "bodies" in which we wrap the heart of our jewel. + + 2. These "bodies" are divided into two groups. + + a. The Individuality + + (1) Upper Spiritual- Consists of pure or abstract Spirit. +Sometimes call the 'Divine Spark', it is substance and energy from the +Great Unmanifest which we symbolize with the archetype of the Goddess. + + (2) Lower Spiritual- This is the individualized spirit which +has separated from the abstract. This is where the spirit embarks upon +it's own journey of self-discovery. And where it eventually returns +before it adds its experiences to the Great Whole and rejoins it as a +drop in the endless ocean of being. + + (3) Upper Mental- This is the realm of the abstract mind. +Individualized spirit begins to be self-aware, and form polarities +which lead to the development of the personality. + + b. The Personality + + (1) Lower Mental- The person develops a concrete mind held +together by form and memory. + + (2) Upper Astral- Level of abstract emotions. Attraction of +polarities leads to a desire for union. + + (3) Lower Astral- Level of instincts and passions. A desire to +attract other polarities and to possess things develops. + + (4) Etheric Body- Tenuous energy-web of near-matter which +links the Physical with the subtler planes. Without the Etheric body +to hold the physical body together, individual sparks of the spirit +cannot manifest on the physical plane. + + (5) Physical Body- Made of dense matter. + + 3. Taking a broad look at the Personality, we find that it is an +instrument, or machine, consisting of three distinct 'bodies'. + + a. These 'bodies' are built up during one incarnation and +discarded in the Summerland after they have served their purpose. + + (1) A physical form that naturally moves and acts on instinct +and orders from your mind. + + (a) This physical form has its own set of laws that govern +it. + + (b) It exists in time and space, and it has to be acted +upon; it is not capable of thinking. + + (c) We know that our body is not the cause of us, because +it has to be acted upon to function. And anything that has to be acted +upon is an effect, caused by something else. + + (2) An emotional 'body', operating from laws similar to +hydrodynamics. + + (a) If our emotions become blocked, we are like a river +whose flow is dammed up, building up untold pressure until some +release occurs; or we go dead inside and stagnate, diseased and toxic +to ourselves and others. + + (b) Crafters know that pent-up emotions are to be released +and understood, so that this constricted energy can be expressed for +the purpose of validating our existence. + + (3) A mental life, our unique world of personal thoughts, that +is creative by nature, and has no limits except those it chooses to +construct for itself. + + (a) Since we exist in a Universal Mind that is all knowing +and limitless, we know that limitation is not a universal law, but +only exists in the individual use we make of these universal laws. + + + 4. Our Personality is responsible for our being able to function +on this plane and it is through our personality that we create the +world around us. + + a. Without our input the world is neutral, colorless and +meaningless. + + (1) It is only when we assume the role of creators or artists +and paint an image of the world in our minds, colored by our feelings, +does the world affect us. + + (a) This is way two people can have the same experience and +respond in two entirely different ways. + + (2) We constantly choose moment-by-moment what our world is +like. + + (a) A person who opts for a negative experience descends +into a universe that contains all the potentially negative forces that +are waiting to make up reality. + + (b) And no matter what someone outside does to make it less +negative, it will not change. + + + (c) Having set up the polarity for a negative experience, +the negativity acts as a magnet, attracting more and more negativity +until it is overwhelming. + + (d) On the other hand, a person who opts for a positive +experience, ascends into another universe, that immediately +cooperates, and instantly, forces begin moving to manifest a positive +result. + + 5. The main work of a person on the Path of Return is to integrate +the creative aspects of the Personality under the guidance of the +Individuality, or Essence, so that they can develop as a member of the +universe in full harmony with the rest of it. + + a. When this happens the Seeker discovers an inner state of +harmony where all actions begin corresponding to a deeper truth +resident within. + + (1) It is as though every thing flows naturally and easily. + + (a) Even what had seemed 'impossible' before fades into non- +existence and a new possibility takes its place. + +II. CULTIVATION OF THE MAGICAL PERSONALITY + + A. Magic is the Craft of Witchcraft + + 1. The power of magic should not be under-estimated. + + a. It works, often in ways that are unexpected and difficult to +control. + + (1) But neither should the power of magic be over- estimated. + + (a) It does not work simply, or effortlessly and it does +not confer omnipotence. + + B. Learning to work magic is a process of neurological repatterning, +of changing the way we use our brains. + + 1. In order to manifest anything on the physical plane, it must be +formulated and given life on the mental plane. + + 2. Unless a person can concentrate his thoughts and desires down +into a tightly controlled set of symbols, the mental plane has +insufficient information to create what is desired. + + a. The Archtype of the Magician in the Major Arcanum of the +Tarot deck teaches some valuable lessons in concentration. + + (1) The traditional picture of the Magician shows a man +dressed in a white robe, encircled by a belt in the shape of a snake +holding its tail in its mouth, and he is wearing a cloak of vermilion. + + (a) He stands in a garden with four white lilies and five +red roses, behind a table where he has laid out his magical tools. + + (2) With his right hand, the Magician lifts a wand upward +toward the sky. His left hand makes the universal gesture of +attention, pointing with extended forefinger toward the fertile earth +at his feet. + + (a) The message inherent in this gesture is that the Force +of the higher levels flows through the Magician to whatever he gives +his full measure of attention. + + (3) The garden in which the Magician works represents the +subconscious field. + + (a) It is from this subconscious field that the hidden +powers come that the Magician directs in his quest for increased +freedom. + + (b) These powers are symbolized by the lilies which stand +for various aspects of truth and the roses which are symbols of human +desire. + + (4) The Magician is a transformer and transmuter of +experience. + + (a) He cultivates the flowers in his garden, improving +them and by force of his control of their development, takes them far +beyond the conditions spontaneously provided by nature. + + (b) Taking things as he finds them, he watches until he +perceives the underlying principle at work in what he observes. Then +he applies that principle in novel ways so as to produce a different +situation. + + C. The Language of the Old Belief, the Language of Magic, is +expressed in Symbols and Images. + + 1. Poetry, which is itself a form of magic, is magic speech. + + a. Spells and charms worked by witches in rhyme are truly +concrete poetry. + + b. The American Indians would call them Songs of Power. + + 2. Images bridge the gap between the verbal and non-verbal modes +of awareness. + + a. They allow the two sides of the brain to communicate, +arousing the emotions as well as the intellect. + + b. The vast storehouse of symbols, which embody all the possible +realities of this universe is the subconscious mind. + + c. The Archtype representing the subconscious mind is the High +Priestess. + + (1) The High Priestess is depicted as a solitary woman, seated +on a cube placed between two pillars of opposite colors. There is a +veil hung between the pillars with pomegranites and hearts of palms +woven into it. + + (a) She is dressed in a white garment adorned with an +equilateral cross on her breast and surrounded by a blue robe that +flows down and out of the picture. + + (c) She wears a silver crown, made of two crescents and an +orb and holds a scroll in her lap. + + (2) The message conveyed by the High Priestess is two-fold. + + (a) First she represents memory. Everything that comes to +the attention of the mind of her counterpart, the Magician, is +recorded on her scroll. + + (b) Like all languages, the records she keeps are symbols +for the reality they represent and it is the second function that she +represents that makes the knowledge available to the Magician. + + (c) The imagery of water flowing through this tarot card +is reinforced by the blue color of her robe, and the way it pools down +at the bottom right side of the card and seems to flow off the card. +Water is the universal symbol of the astral essence of the higher +planes and just as waterways on earth served as highways of +communication and commerce in the old ways, it is the astral essence +that serves as a bridge between the different planes. + + (d) In order to recall things stored in memory as written +down on the High Priestess's scroll it is necessary to still the +waters so that they become a mirror and reflect the images you are +seeking. + + (3) The ability to concentrate to the point where a still +calmness in the mind is achieved, coupled with the images that surface +from the subconsciousness leads to the point where new realities can +be visualized. + + D. All manifestations on the physical world are rooted in the mental +and astral planes. + + 1. In order to change your physical reality, you need to be able +to use creative visualization to plant the seeds of your new reality +in the higher planes. + + a. The Archtype of the Creative Imagination is the Empress of +the Tarot deck. + + (1) In direct contrast to the virginal High Priestess, the +Empress is a pregnant matron. She is Venus, goddess of Love, Beauty, +Growth and Fruitfulness. + + (a) She is seated in a garden backed by trees, with a river +cascading down a waterfall and forming a pool at her feet. + + (b) Wheat grows at her feet and her gown is the color of +Spring. She holds a copper shield with a dove on it and a sceptre of +an orb divided on two and topped by a cross. + + (c) A crescent moon is at her feet and a crown of 12 stars +over her head. She wears a necklace of 7 pearls. + + (2) When the Magician is joined with the Empress, the cold +virginity of the High Priestess is transformed into the rich fertility +of Venus. + + (a) The Empress is imagination, the mind's power to make +new combinations from remembered experiences. + + (b) What you make the object of your attention is what you +become, sooner or later. Fix your attention on images of misery, +poverty, and weakness, and their actual physical embodiments will +become part of your surroundings. + + (c) Change the patterns by attending to their opposites, +and presently creative imagination, symbolized by the Empress, will +begin to build you a new life and will impress even the conditions of +your environment with new ideas. + + (d) Remember, even your physical body is part of your +environment. + + E. The generation of mental images at the level of self- +consciousness is a necessary forerunner of changing your +circumstances, but it does not do any good if you do not prepare the +ground for the seed to grow. + + 1. Creating prosperity thoughtforms and then doing nothing to +allow them to come through on the physical plane is as senseless as +buying a high performance car without any tires. + + a. Getting control over your own environment is a necessary +first step in preparing for the changes you are working for. + + (1) Working with the resources at hand, you need to gain +control over your environment. + + (a) Physical and spiritual cleansing of your environment +clears away the clutter of old worn-out thought- forms. + + (b) Actively seeking out knowledge of how to effectively +manage the conditions you are trying to bring about sends messages to +your subconscious that you are serious in you work and ar not going to +waste any gifts that come your way. + + 2. Regulation and supervision are implied by every- thing in the +Archtype of the Emperor. + + a. Supervision is overseeing. Thus the function of sight is +chief among our senses. + + (1) The Emperor is seated on a cube on the edge of a cliff +overlooking a river which has worn a channel through the mountains +turning them into the soil that serves as the base for the garden of +the Emperor. + + (a) He is dressed in armour, symbolizing his willingness to +impress his will on his surroundings but he sits in a passive stance +content to observe the conditions that exist before he acts. + + (2) The quality of our vision or observations of how things +are determines the course of our progress towards liberation. + + (a) Unless we imagine, we do not really see. + + (b) The mind is the true seer. Unless we learn to +supplement what our eyes report with imagination based on other senses +no true vision of the world can be made. + + b. Regulation is dependent on the ability to reason which is the +second aspect represented by the Emperor. + + (1) The basic function of reason is to oversee and control. + + (a) Through the development of our ability to reason we +learn to supervise and control our daily activities. + + F. After we have learned to concentrate and visualize what we want +to do using symbols from the unconscious and prepared for the work to +manifest on the physical plane through observation and regulation of +our daily lives we are ready to manifest our new reality through our +Personality. + + 1. Our Personality is not what we truly are, but how we express +our Inner Self. It is important that we work in accordance with the +guidance of our true 'Essence'. + + a. The Archtype of the Hierophant represents the Self. + + (1) The Hierophant sits between two pillars in a temple like +the High Priestess. + + (a) He is the Inner Self who is also the Emperor. Only the +spheres of operation are different. + + (b) The ministers kneeling before the True Teacher wear +garments which are embroidered with the same flowers that appear in +the garden of the Magician. + + (2) The general meaning of the Hierophant is summed up in the +word Intuition. + + (a) Intuition is the Voice of the True Self. + + (b) Genuine intuition is not a substitute for reason. It is +a logical consequence of good reasoning. + + (c) The inner Teacher wastes no time in fruitless endeavors +to instruct the incompetent who will not take the trouble to observe, +to remember, to imagine, or to reason. + + (3) The Voice never speaks loudly and many fail to hear it +over the clamor of their own thoughts. + + (a) Practicing the listening attitude of mind leads to +eventually hearing it. + + (b) The fundamental practice is to be still when you wish +the counsel of the Voice. + + (c) Stop racking your brains when a seemingly insoluble +problem confronts you. The harder you try the less likely you are to +hear the answer. + + G. Patterns appear when we have contrasting elements in what we are +examining. + + 1. The Tables of Correspondence (Spiral Dance) are based on the +recognition that everything exists in relation to other things, and we +use the process of discrimination to find the correspondences. + + a. The Archtype of the Lovers represents the process of +discrimination. + + (1) The tarot card of the Lovers shows an angel bestowing +blessings upon a naked man and woman. + + (a) The message here is that the self- consciousness and +subconsciousness are equal and receive the blessings of the True Self. + + (b) When there are no secrets between the two (nudity) they +work in harmony under the guidance of the Self and can see the +connections between seemingly unrelated facts. + + H. The final ingredient needed in the development of the magical +personality is the development of the magical will. + + 1. Development of the Magical Will comes about as the result of +synthesizing all the aspects we have been talking about so far. + + a. The Chariot is the Archtype of the Will + + (1) The Chariot depicts a person standing in a chariot pulled +by two sphinxes of opposite polarity, before a city surrounded by a +wall. At the foot of the wall runs a river. + + (a) The Charioteer is the Inner Self. + + (b) The sphinxes represent the senses and the reins (which +are invisible) by which he guides them represent the mind. + + (c) The chariot itself is the physical body and it is drawn +by the sphinxes. + + (2) The starry canopy represents the celestial forces whose +descent into matter is the cause of all manifestation. + + (a) On the shield is the Hindu Lingam-Yoni symbolizing +the union of opposites. + + (3) The charioteer is a victor. + + (a) This card represents the conquest of illusion which +comes about when the Self guides the personality. + + 2. The Magical Will is very much akin to what Victorian +schoolmasters called character: honesty, self-discipline, commitment +and conviction. + + a. Anyone who wishes to practice magic must be scrupulously +honest in their personal lives. + + (1) A bag of herbs acquires the power to heal because I say it +does. For my word to take on such force, I must be deeply and +completely convinced that it is identified with truth as I know it. + + (a) In this sense, magic works on the principle that "It is +so because I say it is so." + + b. Unless I have enough personal power to keep my commitments in +daily life, I will be unable to wield magical power. + + (1) To a person who practices honesty and keeps commitments, +"As I will, so mote it be." is not just a pretty phrase; it is a +statement of fact. + +III. THE ART OF CASTING SPELLS + + A. Definition + + 1. "A spell is a symbolic act done in an altered state of +consciousness in order to cause a desired change." + + a. To cast a spell is to project energy through a symbol. + + (1) Too often, the symbols are mistaken for the agent that +casts the spell. + + (a) Props are useful at times, but it is the mind that +works the magic. + + b. Correspondences between colors, planets, metals, numbers, +plants and minerals, and musical notes make up a great deal of magical +lore. + + (1) Particular objects, shapes, colors, scents, and images do +work better than others to embody certain ideas. + + (a) But the most powerful spells are often improvised from +materials that feel right or that simply happen to come to hand. + + B. Theory of Spellcasting + + 1. Spells are an important aspect of magical training. + + a. They require the use of the combined faculties of relaxation, +visualization, concentration and projection. + + (1) The casting of spells provides practice in coordinating +these skills and developing them further. + + 2. Spells are extremely sophisticated psychological tools that +have subtle, but important, effects on a person's inner growth. + + a. Spells may highlight otherwise hidden complexes of the person +casting the spell. + + (1) A person who has conflicts about success will find great +difficulty in concentrating on a money spell. + + (a) Many times the practical results of a spell are far +less important than the psychological insights that arise during the +magical work. + + (b) Discovering our inner blocks and fears is the first +step in overcoming them. + + b. Spells also go one step further than most forms of +psychotherapy. + + (1) They allow us not only to listen to and interpret the +unconscious, but also to speak to it in the language it understands. + + (a) Symbols, images, and objects used in spells communicate +directly with Younger Self, who is the guardian of our emotions and +who is barely affected by the intellect. + + (b) We often understand our feelings and behavior but find +ourselves unable to change them. + + (c) Through spells, we can attain the most important power +- the power to change our lives. + + 3. Spellcasting also forces us to come to terms with the material +world. + + a. Many people attracted to the spiritual path of the Craft find +themselves uneasy with using magic for practical or material goals. + + (1) Somehow it seems wrong to work magic for oneself, to want +things and to get things. + + (a) This is an attitude which is a holdover of the Judaeo- +Christian world view that sees spirit and matter as separate and that +identifies matter with evil and corruption. + + (2) In the Craft, flesh, the material world, none of what is +commonly thought of as matter is separate from spirit. + + (a) The universe is made up of the Goddess who is manifest +in all things. + + (b) Union with the Goddess comes through embracing the +material world and all the gifts that She has placed in it for us. + + (3) Our major task on this plane of existence is to become +masters of this realm of manifestation. + + (a) We do not fight self-interest; we follow it, but with +an awareness that transmutes it into something sacred. + + C. Mechanics of Spellcasting + + 1. Spellcasting is the lesser, not the greater magic; but the +greater magic builds on the lesser. + + a. The paradox is that in spellcasting we may start out working +with the personal self, but in order to work the magic we are forced +to expand and recognize the Self that moves through all beings. + + (1) Magic involves the deliberate self- identification with +other objects and people. + + (a) To do a healing, we must become the healer, the one who +is healed, and the energy that is to do the healing. + + (b) To attract love, we must be able to love ourselves and +to become love its self. + + 2. Spells work in two basic ways. + + a. The first is through suggestion + + (1) Symbols and images implant certain ideas in Younger Self, +or the subconscious mind. + + (a) We are then influenced to actualize those ideas. + + b. Spells can also influence the external world. + + (1) The theoretical model that witches use to explain the +workings of magic is a clear one and coincides in many ways with the +"new" physics. + + (a) It is simply an elaborate but extremely useful +metaphor. + + (b) The metaphor is based on a world view that sees things +not as fixed objects, but as vortexes of energy. + + + (c) The physical world is formed by the vortexes of energy, +and if we cause a change in the energy patterns they, in turn, cause a +change in the physical world. + + (2) When our own energy is concentrated and channeled, it can +move the broader energy currents. + + (a) The images and objects used in spells are the channels. +They are the vessels through which our power is poured, and by which +it is shaped. + + 3. As energy is directed into the images we visualize, it +gradually manifests physical form and takes shape in the material +world. + + a. Directing energy is not a matter of simply emoting. + + (1) Emotion can be likened to a strobe light which provides a +very inconstant light. + + (2) Directed energy is more like a laser beam. + + (a) Even concentrated power is a small stream compared with +the vast surges of energy that surround us. + + (b) The most adept witch cannot be successful in all her +spells. The opposing currents are often too strong. + + 4. The craft teaches to first identify the flow of energy and then +to decide whether or not it is going where we want it to go. + + a. If not, then we can try to deflect it. + + b. Or, we may have to change our own course. + + (1) Sensing the energy climate is a matter of intuition and +experience. + + (a) Some witches make a study of Astrology in an effort to +plan their magical workings at the optimal times. + + (b) Others prefer to work when they feel the time is right. + + (2) Of all the planets, the Moon's influence on subtle energies +is the strongest. + + (a) Subtle power increases as the Moon waxes, so the time of +the waxing Moon is best for spells involving growth or increase, such +as money spells. + + (b) The power peaks when the Moon is full and that is the +best time for workings of culmination and love. + + (c) During the waning Moon, power subsides and turns inward. +The waning Moon's period is used for banishings, bindings, and +discovering hidden secrets. + + (3) The practical witch soon learns to adjust her spells to fit +the time of the Moon. If, for example, she needs to do a money spell +during the waning Moon, she would put a little 'english' on it and +make it a poverty banishing spell. + + 5. Energy pursues the path of least resistance. + + a. Material results are more easily achieved on this plane of +existence through physical actions that through magical workings. + + (1) Example - it is simpler to lock your door than suffer the +constant drain from maintaining psychic seals on your doors and +windows while you are away from home. + + (a) Of course once you have locked your door, you might +feel more reassured by placing seals on it. + + 6. No magic spell is going to bring results unless channels are +opened into the material world. + + a. A job spell is useless if you are not willing to go out and +interview for jobs or at least let potential employers know that you +are in the market for one. + + b. In the same vein, a healing spell is no substitute for +medical care. + + (1) Most medicine today can be broken down into two broad +categories, emergency medicine and that which is not needed for +immediate life-threatening situations. + + (a) Emergency medicine has excelled at stabilizing the +body's condition so that it can repair itself at it's own pace. + + (b) Most other forms of medicine consist of treatment +through surgery or chemotherapy or a combination of both. + + (c) The procedures noted above work on the physical body +and do not take the other levels into consideration. + + (d) Psychic healing works at healing the higher levels of +the person so that the physical heals itself or allows the person to +let go of their physical body if it cannot be repaired. In either case +the choice rests with the person who is being healed and not the +healer. + + 7. Visualization used in creating a spell should focus on the +desired result not the individual steps leading up to the result. + + a. We give the spell free rein in how it goes about achieving +the results with the understanding that it is not to bring harm to +anyone or any being. + + (1) For this reason, spells have a habit of working in very +unexpected ways. + + 8. To assure that the power we have unleashed does not +inadvertantly cause harm, we bind the spell. + + a. This serves to 'set' the form we have created so that the +energy becomes fixed in the pattern we desire. + + (1) The energy we project to others affects us even more +strongly than the other person. This is because we have generated the +energy, and thus we have become the object at which the energy is +directed. + + (2) If healing energy is sent out, then the health of the +person casting the spell is enhanced. + + (a) By the same token, any hex or curse that is sent out +ALWAYS effects the person who sends it no matter whether it affected +the person it was sent at or not. + + 9. MAGIC IS NOT TO BE USED TO GAIN POWER OVER OTHERS. + + a. Magic is a technique used in developing your own 'power from +within'. Spells that are directed at gaining power over others weakens +the 'power from within'. + + (1) Aside form the damage done to oneself, it is important for +another reason. + + (a) Many people who do not understand the laws of magic are +afraid of being attacked magically and are given to paranoia. + + (b) The witch's main stock-in-trade used to be removing a +competitor's hexes and preparing charms to protect their clients. + + (c) While true psychic attacks are EXTREMELY RARE a persons +guilt makes up for any lack and after using 'forbidden' help, their +paranoia leads them to seek protection from the same person they just +turned to in desperation. Do your self a favor, and resist the +temptation to 'help' these types. + + (2) Most magical formularies consist of formulae gathered and +tested by witches as well as many charms to protect the common man +from those same witches who sold them their charms. + + D. Times and Correspondences + + 1. I mentioned earlier that timing and the right props are +considered important in spellcasting. + + a. For your convenience there is a Table of Hours included at +the end of this lesson. + + (1) Keep in mind that all times are Pacific Standard Time. + + (a) You will need to adjust for different time zones and +those periods of Daylight Savings Time as may be in effect in your +area. + + b. Over the years, systems of Correspondences were developed +which assigned certain attributes and aspects to the seven ancient +planets of Astrology. + + (1) Each planet was assigned a God or Goddess, who embodies +the attributes the ancients wished to invoke. + + (a) Each of the Gods and Goddesses were assigned an hour of +the day, color, incense, metal, number, signature, plant, mineral, +musical note, and animal or bird. + + (b) There is a Table of Correspondences in the back of The +Spiral Dance. + + + E. General Guidelines for Casting Spells + + 1. Set aside a room for your magical work. + + a. Decorate it with things that put you in a magical mood. + + (1) Remember to use things that stimulate all five of your +physical senses. + + (a) Some obvious things would be the use of appropriate +colors for sight, incense for scent music for hearing, wines for +taste, and textures for feel. + + 2. If you do not have a room you can set aside exclusively for +your magical work then choose a room that can be locked while you do +your work. + + a. This will allow you to work undisturbed. + + (1) In any case you should clean your work area periodically +with a purifying powder/floorwash to keep away negative vibrations. + + 3. Set up an altar to be used as your worktable. + + a. It's size and shape should be those that appeal to you. + + (1) Placing candles and other items that assist you to +concentrate on the work at hand is a good practice. + + (a) Some people like to cover their altar with a white +cloth and place fresh cut flowers on it every day. + + 4. Always use the best candles, oils, and incenses that you can +afford, or make your own. + + a. Scrimping on materials has a negative effect on the +subconscious. + + (1) Don't forget that the subconscious is very good at making +do with raw materials that it can shape to it's own use. + + 5. Never cast a spell until you have a clear and concise picture +of what it is you wish to accomplish. + + a. This ties in with the saying "Be careful what you wish for, +you just might get it." + + 6. Always ground out any extra energy you raise for the spell, and +bind the spell so that it expires within the pre- determined amount of +time. + + 7. Once you have cast the spell do not discuss it with any one +until after it has worked. + + a. Most spells peter out because the person who casts it boasts +about it to so many people, that the spell is robbed of power before +it has a chance to work. + + (1) The ancient bond placed on the magician was to dare, to +know and to keep silent. + + + +IV. A BASIC FORMULARY + + A. Preparation of candles + + 1. Types of candles + + a. Votives + + (1) Short and stubby. Usually burned in a small cup or +container. + + (a) Used to provide a light for several hours. + + (b) Less space consuming so more candles can be placed on +the altar at the same time. + + b. Taper + + (1) Long and slender. May be burned in a candle holder. + + (a) Very elegant and can be allowed to drip into a pie pan +so that the drippings can be read in a manner similar to tea leaf +reading. + + (2) Come in many different lengths and thicknesses. + + c. Candle-in-a-jar + + (1) Large, long-lasting candle, which is formed by pouring +either colored wax into a clear glass container, or clear wax into a +colored glass container. + + (a) When annointing the candle, only the top of the candle +is annointed. + + (2) This is probably the safest candle to leave burning +unattended, provided the maker of the candle took care to ensure that +the wick runs in the center of the candle. + + (a) Although leaving any candle or open flame burning with +on one around is considered dangerous and foolish. + + d. Specialty Candles + + (1) Candle-in-a-jar + + (a) Candles dedicated to a christian Saint or to a Voodoo +Loa. The designs, signatures and instructions on how to use the candle +are printed on the glass container. + + (2) Cross Candles + + (a) Candles formed into the shape of a cross. Comes in +black, white, green and red. Used as altar pieces for christian +oriented work tables. + + (3) Male and Female Figurine Candles + + (a) Comes in black, white, green and red. Used to bind two +people together or to separate them. + + (b) Burned face to face & they melt into each other to +bind. + + (c) Burned back to back so that no wax mixes to bring about +a banishment. + + (4) Seven Day Knob Candles + + (a) A candle which is cast so that its length is made of +seven knobs. One knob is burned each day for the duration of the +spell. + + 2. Colors + + a. The color of the candle should reflect the planetary aspect +that is assigned to the incense you are going to use. + + 3. Annointing the Candle + + a. There are two general methods which are used to anoint the +candle. + + (1) The first consists of starting at the middle of the candle +and annointing it to the top, and then going back to the middle you +would anoint down toward the bottom. + + (a) The principle behind this is that you are the center of +the candle, sending your energy both upward into the spiritual planes +and downward into the physical. + + (2) The second method is to start at the top of the candle and +draw an unbroken line down the side, under its base, and back up the +other side. + + (a) When you reach the top of the candle, you turn it 1/4 +turn and trace another unbroken line in the previous manner so that +the candle is 'tied' to your purpose + + b. When you are using a candle-in-a-jar you would anoint it by +placing your moistened finger inside and rubbing clockwise, or +counterclockwise as needed, three times in a circle in three sets to +make up nine. + + (1) Here is one of the more popular rhymes used to focus your +attention on what you are doing. Perhaps you have heard it before. + + "The wyrd sisters, hand in hand + + Posters of the Sea and Land + + Do go about and about + + Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine + + And thrice again to make up nine. + + Peace! The charm's wound up!" + +END OF LESSON SEVEN PART A + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/lesson7a.txt b/religious documents/lesson7a.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3430379 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lesson7a.txt @@ -0,0 +1,553 @@ + 4. Casting your own candles + + a. Most of todays candles are made from paraffin wax. + + (1) Paraffin wax is sold in blocks in grocery stores for +sealing the tops of homemade preserves. + + b. Coloring for the candles can be bought at an arts and crafts +store or if you are not going to make a lot at one time, you can melt +a colored crayon in the hot paraffin. + + c. Molds for your candles should have smooth sides and should +not break your heart if they have to be broken or cut off your candle +with tin snips. + + d. Lengths of wick can be bought or you can make your own by +soaking cotton thread or string (not nylon) in a boric solution (the +crystals may be obtained at your pharmacy) and then leaving it to dry. + + e. When you are ready to make your candles, knock a small hole +in the bottom of your mold and run your wick through it. Tie a knot in +the wick at the outside bottom of the mold and apply some patching +plaster to the inside of the mold to close the hole. + + (1) Tie the other end of the wick to a nail or stick which is +long enough to rest across the sides of the mold. + + (a) Make sure the wick is taut so it is not wasted. + + f. To safely melt the paraffin, place cut up lumps of it into +the top of a cheap double boiler which is sitting in a water bath and +heat the water bath slowly until the clumps of wax melt thoroughly. + + (1) DO NOT place the wax into a pan which is resting directly +on the heat source. + + (a) Wax is flammable and very hard to extinguish if you +start a fire in the pan with it. + + (2) Once the paraffin is melted, add your coloring. + + (a) If you wish to scent your candle, this is the time to +add your essential oils. + + (b) Herb oils and essences may be purchased in most +pharmacies, herb stores, arts and crafts stores or occult supply +stores. + + (c) REMEMBER--the oils should be used with restraint or +else your candle will stink like a cheap bar of soap. + + g. The wax is poured into the mold a little at a time, say one +fourth, and then allowed to cool and form a depression, then another +fourth, and so on until the candle is entirely formed. + + (1) Once the candle is poured, place it in a jug of cold water +so that the candle may cool, but no water may enter the mold. + + + (a) When thoroughly cold, tip out the candle, trim the +wick, and burnish the candles with a piece of cotton dipped in +vegetable oil. + + 5. It is customary not to blow out magic candles. + + a. Candle snuffers are preferred to the use of wet fingertips or +a plate smashed down on the wick. + + (1) IT IS NOT A SAFE PRACTICE to leave a candle burning +unattended in a closed up house. + + (a) Even the seemingly safest candle can be knocked over by +a stray animal or a gust of wind and start a fire in your home. + + B. Preparation of Incense and Charcoal + + 1. Types of Incense + + a. Oils + + (1) Sprinkled on a fire or a glowing coal. + + b. Powdered + + (1) Warmed in tiny braziers + + (a) Require a glowing coal to ignite + + c. Small cones + + (1) Also burned in a brazier + + (a) Does not need to sit on a charcoal. + + d. Joss Sticks + + (1) Burned by placing sand in a bowl and lodging the stick in +the sand in an upright position. + + e. Ribbons + + (1) Made of inch-wide woven cotton ribbons. + + (a) Burned in an ashtray. + + f. Papers + + (1) Specially treated papers which when lit are gently blown +out and allowed to smolder in ashtrays. + + 2. Colors of Incenses + + a. The color is provided by the base and corresponds to the +color assigned to the planets in the Table of Correspondences. + + (1) Of course, it is up to you, after experimentation, to +determine if the assigned colors work for you. + + + + 3. Bases and Recipes for each type of incense + + a. Most bases are made from the sawdust, or raspings, of wood. + + (1) Ground cascarilla bark is used in most of the finer +incenses because it gives off a weak musk smell when burned. + + (a) It would not be unusual to find that the wood base of +an incense was made from raspings of the tree that is sacred to the +Intelligence of the planet for which the incense is prepared. + + b. The basic recipe for a wood base is as follows. + + (1) 50% of the total volume of the incense in the form of +raspings. + + (a) Normally one ounce mixed with 2 ounces of powdered +Benzoin and one ounce of Storax. + + (2) 50% of the total volume of the incense in the form of +finely ground spices, herbs, or coarsely ground resins. + + (a) Normally about one ounce. + + c. Before mixing the base you would want to dye the raspings in +a pot of clothing dye and allow them to dry fully in the sun. + + (1) As the raspings start to dry you should spread them out on +a drying board to ensure that they do not dry in clumps. + + (a) Being careful to wear rubber gloves when you are +handling the raspings during the dying process, and afterwards when +you are spreading them out to dry, this will keep you from dying your +hands as well. + + d. The base for making cones is as follows. + + 6 oz finely powdered charcoal + 1 oz powdered Benzoin + 1/2 oz Saltpeter + 1/4 oz Tolu + 1/4 oz of raspings. + + Enough mucilage of tragacanth or gum arabic to make a stiff +paste. + + (1) The solid ingredients are ground to a fine powder and +mixed into the tragacanth. + + (a) Gum tragacanth and gum arabic or acacia gum are the two +principle glues used to hold powdered ingredients together. + + (b) Mucilage of tragacanth is prepared by placing a +tablespoon of powdered tragacanth into a container with 10 oz of +water. If necessary, correct the consistency - you want a heavy paste +that can be molded with your hands. + + (c) Keep the mucilage well covered, so that it will remain +soft. + + (d) If the tragacanth or gum of arabic pastes become hard +before you have a change to mold them they can be softened in a double +boiler with gentle heat and constant stirring. + + (2) When the oils and other powdered ingredients are added the +mixture should form a manageable dough. + + (a) After the addition of the scented oils, the mixture is +divided and rolled into small cones. + + (3) A cone shaped mold is handy to use as it is hard to get +the exact shape just with your fingers - but not impossible. + + (a) You have to work quite fast and keep the unused portion +in a bowl covered with a damp cloth. + + (b) Set these little shapes aside to dry - which takes a +day - and they are ready to ignite. + + e. Joss sticks are difficult to make without a special press. + + (1) You can usually obtain one in areas where there is a large +oriental population. + + (2) The idea is to make coils from the paste mixture +prepared in the recipe for cones. + + (a) You might roll slim snakes of the paste, place them +on waxed paper and stick tiny twigs into one end so they will stand in +an incense holder. + + (b) You might also try rolling paste around a thick broom +straw. + + f. Sweet Ribbons are made with inch wide woven cotton ribbons +like the ones used in upholstery repair. + + (1) To ensure an even and slow burn in the ribbons, you should +prepare a solution of 12 ozs of boiling water and 1 oz of saltpeter. + + (a) Pull the ribbons through the solution until they are +thoroughly saturated and set them aside in the sun to dry. + + (b) Saltpeter (sodium nitrate) is obtainable from your +druggist. + + (2) After the ribbon is dried, it is pulled through a shallow +tray of the perfume or oil you are using and dried again. + + (a) To use, you cut off a length of ribbon and light one +end. + + (b) Blow out the fire and set the smoldering ribbon in an +ashtray. + + g. Armenian Incense Papers are prepared by cutting a large sheet +of white blotting paper into about eight pieces. + + (1) Pull each paper through the saltpeter solution prepared +for the Sweet Ribbons, until each piece is thoroughly saturated. Hang +the strips to dry. + + (a) Macerate or soak a crushed vanilla bean in 8 ozs of +vodka for a week, filter the solids. out. + + (b) Add a few drops, to preference, of your favorite +essence oils to the alcohol and mix this with 1 1/2 ozs of powdered +benzoin and 1 oz of crushed sandalwood. + + (c) Again, draw the papers through the resulting liquid and +hang them to dry. + + (2) When dry, cut them into inch wide strips and store them in +waxed paper or foil. + + (a) To perfume a room light the corner of one of the papers +and immediately blow it out. + + (b) It should smolder and give off it's scent. + + (c) Leave the smoldering paper in an ashtray, until it has +burned itself out. + + 4. Most incenses will burn by themselves, but oils and resinous +incenses, like Frankincense and Myrrh, as well as most powdered +incenses, require a glowing charcoal to provide heat for ignition. + + a. Most religious supply stores sell self-igniting charcoal in +little round cakes which can be used whole or broken into smaller +pieces. + + (1) If you have a mind to, you can make your own charcoal and +then treat it so that it will catch fire easily. + + (2) To make your own charcoal, build a small fire, in a +container which is airtight when it is closed, using wood chips +purchased at the supermarket or pieces of bark from a nursery. + + (a) Once the wood is glowing red-hot, close the lid, and +let the fire smother. + + (b) After the coals have cooled, from several hours to a +few days, remove them and grind them up into a fine powder using the +grating side of a kitchen grater. + + (3) To treat your charcoal for easy lighting and shaping into +usable shapes you will need to prepare a solution of 30 ozs of water +in which 1/2 oz of saltpeter has been dissolved. + + (a) Add 30 ozs of the ground up charcoal to the previou +solution and add just enough gum tragacanth or gum arabic to make a +heavy paste. + + (b) Form the paste into small squares or circles and make +an indentation in the top of them with your thumb. This will form a +cup to hold a pinch of incense. + + (4) To light your charcoal, hold a flame to the corner or edge +of your square or circle. + + (a) Lay the charcoal in an incense burner, which is filled +at least 1/3 full with sand or ashes to prevent burning the table that +it sits on. + + (b) Wait until all the charcoal is glowing and then place a +pinch of powdered incense or a small piece of resin on the coal. + + (c) Be careful not to smother it with too much incense. + + C. Formularies for the Planetary Incenses + + 1. Moon Incense + + a. Wood base is made of Willow raspings, colored white or silver +for use on the new moon, red or green on the full moon and black on +the dark or waning moon. + + (1) Mix equal parts of wormwood and camphor raspings to the +wood base. + + (a) Form into whichever form of incense you prefer. Don't +forget you can shape it into the symbols that hold special meaning to +you. Example: making small crescent moons using the recipe for cones +would be appropriate. + + 2. Sun Incense + + a. Wood base is made of acacia, bay laurel, ash, birch or broom +raspings and colored gold or yellow. + + (1) Mix equal parts of coarsely ground Frankincense and Myrrh. + + (a) It is best to form these into cones so that they burn +more evenly. + + 3. Mercury Incense + + a. Wood base is made of hazel, ash, or almond raspings and +colored violet. + + (1) Mix equal parts of gum mastic and cinnamon. + + (a) Powder or cones will work just as well. + + 4. Venus Incense + + a. Wood base is made of apple or quince raspings and colored +green, indigo, or rose red. + + (1) Mixing equal parts of finely ground lavender, chamomile, +cinnamon, orris root, and rose petals. add musk and patchouli oil to +your liking. Best prepared as a powdered incense. + + 5. Mars Incense + + a. Wood base is made of holly or kerm-oak raspings and colored +blood red. + + (1) Mix 4 parts coarse ground Dragons Blood resin with 4 parts +ground Rue, 1 part Ginger, 1 part coarse ground peppercorns, and a +pinch of sulfur. + + (a) Best prepared as a powdered incense. + + 6. Jupiter Incense + + a. Wood base is made of oak, olive, or terebinth raspings and +colored a deep, or royal blue. + + + (1) Mix equal parts of finely ground anise, mint, hyssop, +chervil, liverwort, and juniper. + + (a) Makes an excellent powdered incense. + + 7. Saturn Incense + + a. Wood base is made of alder or pomegranite raspings and +colored black or blue. + + (1) Mix 4 parts of coarse ground myrrh, 1 part elderberry, 1 +part cypress, 1 part yew, and 1 part patchouli raspings. + + (a) Burns best as a powder, if it is finely mixed. Cones +are better if you cannot mix them well enough. + + D. Using Spices as Incense + + 1. Once it was very common to use spices to perfume a room or +house. + + a. Popular spices such as cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves, or +rosemary leave a room smelling very pleasant. + + (1) Heat up about 1/4 of a teaspoonful of a good vegetable +cooking oil and stir in your spices. + + (a) As soon as the mixture starts to smoke, remove it from +the heat and walk about the room with the pan of hot spices. + + E. Preparation of Essence Oils + + 1. Methods of Extraction + + a. The three most used methods of extracting essence oils from +plants are: distillation, enfleurage and maceration. + + b. Distillation is the most common method of extraction and +works well on leaves, bark, roots, seeds, and tough flowers such as +roses and lavender. This method is not, however, suitable for the more +delicate flowers. + + (1) The basic apparatus for distillation consists of a still +or retort, in which the materials are heated over a boiling liquid, a +condenser to cool and condense the resulting vapor carrying the oils, +and a receiver to collect the distilled liquid. + + (a) Gather and cut up about 60-80 grams of plant material +as best you can and place it in the retort, where the contents are +steamed by boiling water. + + (b) As the steam passes over the plant material it causes +the moisture in the plants to escape, carrying the essential oils +along with it. + + (c) The vapor enters into the condenser where it cools and +condenses into tiny droplets which slide down the collector into a +vial. + + (d) Generally, the first ounce is pure oil and the rest is +suitable for toilet water. + + c. Enfluerage is an extraction which uses no heat and is best +applied to the removal of essence oils from delicate flowers like +violets, lily of the valley, and mignonette. + + (1) Enfluerage is based on the principle that essential oils +are absorbed by other fats and oils. + + (a) Shallow trays are greased on both sides with purifies +fat and fresh blossoms are spread thickly between them. + + (b) Every few days the spent flowers are removed and +replaced with fresh ones until, in about 4 weeks, the fat is saturated +with the flower oil. You now have Pomade. + + (2) The oil is then extracted from the fat by mixing it with +unscented vodka, surgical alcohol or brandy. + + (a) The oil will dissolve in the alcohol and can be removed +by placing the container of fat, essence oil and alcohol in a cold +water bath. + + (b) This is prepared by taking a container full of ice +water, which is larger than you oil container, and placing the oil +container in it. + + (c) The fat will congeal and the alcohol, with the essence +oil, can be poured into a suitable container. + + (3) Sometimes cloths soaked in olive oil are used instead of +trays, the blossoms being replaced as necessary until the olive oil is +fully charged with the perfume. + + (a) Then the oil is squeezed from the cloths and the +essential oils separated with alcohol as in the earlier procedure. + + d. Maceration is a similar and quicker method of extraction used +for less fragile flowers. + + (1) Successive batches of fresh flowers are left to soak in +warm fat for several days, until the fat is strongly impregnated. + + (a) As before, the oils are washed out of the fat by the +alcohol. + + 2. Mixing Essence Oils + + a. When mixing essence oils for use as scents on the body, you +will want to dilute the pure essence oil with 50% olive oil or light +mineral oil. + + (1) This extends your essence oils and prevents the body oil +from being too overpowering. + + (a) When applying body oils you should place a small drop +over those places where the blood vessels run close to the surface of +the skin so that as your blood runs hot the scent radiates from you. + + b. In working specific spells, it might be necessary to use five +or more oils to cover all the bases. + + F. Formula for an Annointing Oil + + 1. This oil is generally utilized to bless candles before they are +used in a ceremony, and is said to magnetize the candles or to give +them more occult strength. + + b. This oil can also be used to wipe down an altar or a worship +room. + + (1) Determine the total volume of oil you wish to make, mix +50% of the total in a good quality olive oil or light mineral oil with +a 50% blend of the following oils: + + (a) Patchouli Oil + + (b) Cinnamon oil + + (c) Verbena oil + + (2) Try to obtain as pure an oil as possible for each +ingredient. + + (a) Mix the patchouli, cinnamon, and verbena in equal +amounts, so that the total is 50% of the total volume. + + G. A Word of Caution + + 1. Some people have allergic reactions to essence oils. + + a. Never use oils or blends of oils in large amounts until you +have tried a small amount on your skin to be sure you are not allergic +to them. + +END OF LESSON 7 + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/lesson8.txt b/religious documents/lesson8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2fa2d73 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lesson8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1001 @@ +I. ON JOINING A COVEN + + A. Reasons for joining a Coven + + 1. To experience a sense of community. + + a. As Crafters, we seem to stand slightly to one side of +mainstream society. + + (1) This setting apart makes us feel as though we are alone +and surrounded by people who do not understand us. + + (a) A coven brings together like minded people who can form +a surrogate clan or tribe, which then serves as a support group. + + (b) Most newcomers to the Craft express their feelings at +Covenmeets as a 'coming home' or finding 'their people.' + + 2. To find religious freedom + + a. Most Crafters have had a lifetime of religious bigotry with +which to contend. + + b. Consequently they are more willing to tolerate other peoples +beliefs. + + (1) And, because of their emphasis on direct experience with +the Goddess, they are not so quick to condemn your experiences as the +result of psychosis or delusion. + + (a) In most cases, they have had the same or similar +experiences. + + 3. To receive training in psychic development. + + a. A Coven serves as the training ground in which each member +develops her/his personal power. + + (1) The support and security of the group reinforces each +member's belief in themselves. + + (a) Psychic training opens new awareness and abilities. + + (b) And feedback from the group becomes the ever present +mirror in which we 'see ourselves as others see us.' + + 4. To gain power over others + + a. Many times this is the strongest motivation for becoming a +witch and joining a Coven. + + + b. The perceived need to gain power over others is a desperate +cry for help which indicates an insecure and frightened individual. + + (1) Patriarchal systems teach that there are a privileged few +who manipulate the masses and we are led to believe that our own self +worth is direct proportion to the power we hold over other people. + + (a) This mindset leads to the view of fellow humans as +being both competitors that must be 'beaten' and as potential slaves. + + c. One of the major objectives of the first degree training of a +witch is to get the potential witch to face the Self truthfully. + + (1) During this process the witch examines her/his own +motivations and internal programming. + + (a) This is in keeping with the Hermetic maxim to "know +thyself". + + (2) As the witch comes to realize that the need to have power +over others stems from a lack of power over one's own self, s/he is +taught techniques which lead to gaining control over their own lives +and that build personal power. + + (a) With personal power, the need to dominate others +subsides along with feelings of powerlessness. + +II. TYPICAL STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION OF A COVEN. + + A. Structure + + 1. The structure of the craft is cellular, based on small circles +whose members share a deep commitment to each other and the craft. + + a. The craft tends to attract people who, by nature, do not like +to join groups. + + (1) The coven structure makes it possible for rabid +individualists to experience a deep sense of community without losing +their independence of spirit. + + (a) Even so, because the coven becomes a family, that makes +demands upon its members, just as any family does, there are crafters +who cannot function within the strictures of a coven. + + (b) These crafters usually work their rites alone except +for those rare occasions when they can join their brothers and sisters +in the celebration of the Mysteries. + + + (c) These people are rightly called Solitaries or Solos, +and their dedication to the craft requires them to forego the +camaraderie of a support group such as a coven. + + 2. A coven, by tradition, never (?) contains more than thirteen +members. + + a. In such a small group, each person's presence or absence +affects the rest. + + (1) The group is colored by every individual's likes, +dislikes, beliefs and tastes. + + b. Some, less traditional, covens consist of any number of +members from 3 - 20. + + (1) Many times this comes about because of the many people who +wish to work in the craft and the shortage of qualified leaders to +accommodate everyone. + + (a) Other factors that may affect the size of a coven are +the group's philosophy, the size of the working circle, and the +available members. + + 3. Originally, the members of a coven were the teachers and +priestesses/priests of a large pagan population of non- initiates. + + a. They formed the Council of Elders in each clan, the wisewomen +and wisemen who delved beneath the surface of their rites and sought +the deeper meanings. + + (1) At the Sabbats, they led the rituals, organized the +gatherings, and expounded upon the meanings of the ceremonies. + + 4. Each coven had its own territory, which by tradition extended +for a league in all directions (about 3 miles). + + a. When a new coven hived off from an established one, they were +expected to honor the league rule and move off away from the +established territory. + + (1) This allowed the new and old covens some elbow room and +discouraged the new coven members from running to the old coven +leaders whenever things did not go smoothly. + + (a) It is impractical in a modern urban setting to observe +the league rule, but new coven members should at least try to keep +their distance from their old coven except during community +gatherings. + + (2) As mentioned above, neighboring covens might join together +for the Great Sabbats in order to share knowledge, herbs, spells and +(of course) gossip. + + 5. Every coven is autonomous + + a. Each coven functions as its own authority in matters of +ritual, thealogy, and training. + + (1) Groups of covens who follow the same rites may consider +themselves part of the same tradition. + + (a) Some traditions make provisions for the leaders of +parent covens that have other covens hive off to receive recognition +for their work. + + b. The reputation of a coven in the community is many times all +that other covens have to go on when determining whether it invite +them to gatherings or not. + + (1) This means that the integrity of the coven leaders coupled +with the reputation of its members as being sincere followers of the +Path is what a coven is judged by. + + (a) The craft is a religion that is lived, and if the lives +of this members do not reflect the teaching of the craft, then the +reputation of the coven suffers. + +B. Organization + + 1. Officers + + a. Every group which hopes to accomplish anything must have +people who provide leadership and organization and the craft is no +exception. + + (1) Most covens are led primarily by a High Priestess, who has +gone through a lengthy training program in magic, psychic development, +ritual and leadership as well as thealogy. + + + (a) During ritual the Goddess is invoked into the High +Priestess and she is treated accordingly. + + (b) Outside of ritual the High Priestess acts as the final +authority when deciding coven policy, but to disagree with her is not +an offense against the Goddess as some have espoused. + + (2) In those covens that recognize the God as separate from +the Goddess, the High Priestess shares her authority and +responsibilities with her High Priest. + + (a) As with the Goddess, the God is invoked into the High +Priest during some rituals. + + (b) In covens that do not recognize the God as separate +from the Goddess, the High Priest is subservient and below the High +Priestess is authority. + + (c) It is extremely rare to find a High Priestess that is +below or subservient to the High Priest in this day and age. + + (3) Traditionally, the High Priestess is aided by the Maiden. + + (a) The Maiden is usually a Priestess-in-training or a +visiting High Priestess. + + (b) Some traditions call for the Maiden to be the daughter +of the High Priestess and in some cases this is satisfied by having +the High Priestess 'adopt' the Maiden when she accepts her as a +Priestess-in-training. + + (c) It is the Maidens duty to assist the High Priestess +during ritual by handing her equipment, keeping the candles and +incense going, etc. + + (4) Some Traditions make allowances for a Summoner. + + (a) The Summoner, also called Puck, is responsible for +acting as the private messenger of the High Priestess. + + (b) He may be a Priest-in-training or simply someone who is +capable of being seen anywhere without arousing suspicion. + + (c) Along with the High Priestess, he is usually the only +one who knows all the other witches in the area with the possible +exception of the High Priest. + + (d) He is responsible for the mundane matters of the coven +such as contacting coven members when a coven-meet is called, +overseeing coven finances, buying ritual supplies, coordinating +gatherings and providing light for the High Priestess or the High +Priest as needed during circle. + + 2. Finances + + a. The craft is not for sale. There are no fees for initiation +and it is considered a breech of ethics to charge money for coven +training. + + (1) Covens might charge dues to cover expenses for candles, +incense, and other necessities but no one profits from commercializing +the craft for long. + + (a) One of the tasks normally assigned to someone who is +about to undergo initiation is to bring a bottle of wine or to provide +some homemade Sabbat cakes for the ceremony. + + (b) This is to impress upon the new initiate that everyone +is responsible for providing for the circle according to their +ability. + + (c) More often than not, the coven members provide more +than expected. Not to show off or gain favor, but because they want to +contribute and have the ability. After the gathering the remains are +offered to the feathered friends or sent home with other members who +may have a need. + + (d) There is no shame in admitting a need and taking home +any leftover food or supplies, because it was all given in the spirit +of providing according to one's ability and you do the provider the +honor of seeing that the gifts do not go wasted. + + 3. Degrees of Training + + a. Most traditions possess a system of degrees to denote the +amount of training that the members of the coven have undergone. + + b. Some traditions, such as the Welsh Celtic tradition taught in +Georgia, go from the sublime to the ridiculous. + + (1) This tradition claims to have nine levels of +enlightenment. + + (a) Most of which their leader believes even he may never +reach. + + c. Happily for the rest of us mortals, most other traditions +only recognize three degrees when they recognize any at all. + + (1) The 1st degree is the degree of the Initiate. + + (a) Training for this degree consists mainly of learning +the mythology and cosmology of the tradition, psychic and personal +development, Low Magic or spellcasting, divination, and healing. + + (2) Once you attain the 2nd degree, you become an Elder in the +Coven. + + (a) Training involves learning the laws of the tradition, +ritual magic, folklore, Spirit contact and trance mediumship. + + (3) The 3rd degree escorts you into the wonderful(?) world of +being a Priest or Priestess. + + (a) Training focuses on rituals of life such as Wiccanings, +blessings, handfastings, and funereal ceremonies as well as training +in leadership and group dynamics. + + (b) Inner teachings are presented during this training and +the Priest/ess is offered the option of leaving the group to start a +coven of their own or remaining to serve on the Council of Elders as a +representative of the Ancient Ones. + + d. Some traditions have pre-initiation degrees that apply to +what is called 'outer-court' teachings. + + (1) Many times these teaching will consist of courses very +similar to the ones associated with this series of lessons. + + (a) No matter what the degree structure is, the important +thing to remember is that the material you are supposed to learn on +your way up is the foundation on which you build your future +understanding. + + (b) All too many people rush through the basics to collect +as many degrees as possible only to find that they have wasted their +time pursuing the illusion of prestige that goes along with the +degrees and never gained the knowledge and experience the degrees are +supposed to represent. + +III. THE COVEN PERSONA + + A. Group Mind + + 1. Just as a mob of individuals can be galvanized into acting like +a senseless animal, a coven can develop a group mind with its own +goals and orientation. + + a. The orientation that a coven developes can be quite varied. + + (1) Some covens concentrate on healing or teaching. + + (2) Others may lean towards psychic work, trance states, +social action or creativity and inspiration. + + (3) While others seem to throw great parties. + + B. Group Power + + 1. In the craft, power is another word for that energy which is +the subtle current of forces that shapes reality. + + a. A powerful person is seen as someone who draws power into the +group, not out of it. + + (1) The sources of inner power are limited. + + (a) One person's power does not diminish anothers; instead, +as each covener comes into his or her power, the power of the group +grows stronger. + + + C. Group Consciousness + + 1. One of the laws of magic is that as thoughtforms are fed +regularly they grow into self-sufficiency. + + a. This is why religious sites that have been abandoned for ages +still affect sensitive people who visit them. + + (1) And why rituals performed the same way over and over again +become more powerful with each repetition. + + 2. Once the thoughtform is fully formed it is brought into +manifestation through repeatedly re-forming it. + + a. Again, this is why rituals are performed over and over the +same way. + + (1) You are following a blueprint for a thoughtform and +deviation produces a distorted thoughtform. + + b. Once a coven has found its own orientation, it begins work on +forming a thoughtform of the work it wishes to do. + + (1) Eventually, the coven actualizes its thoughtforms and the +group consciousness becomes a source of healing for the members of the +coven and a reservoir of power that any member can draw on in need. + + +IV. FINDING A COVEN TO JOIN + + A. The Craft grows slowly. + + 1. Witchcraft will never be a mass-market religion, because it +requires a great deal from its followers in the way of learning and +practicing. + + a. For this reason witches never proselytize. + + (1) Prospective members are expected to seek out covens and +demonstrate a deep level of interest. + + (a) The strength of the craft is in the QUALITY of its +members not the quantity. + + B. Finding a Coven can be Difficult + + 1. Crafters are not usually listed in the Yellow Pages and rarely +place classified ads. + + a. However, they often give classes through Open Universities or +metaphysical bookstores. + + + (1) And some Universities are beginning to offer courses about +the craft in their religious studies programs. + + 2. The Circle Guide to Wicca and Pagan Resources + + a. Guide published by Circle Publications in Wisconsin + + (1) Serves as a resource guide to books, periodicals, arts, +music, supplies and contacts in the Wiccan community in the United +States, Canada, and Britain. + + 3. Occult Shops + + a. Occult shops are usually listed in the yellow pages of the +phone book if there are any in your area. + + (1) If you make a good first impression, or are willing to +establish yourself as a good customer, you might be able to get some +leads from the manager. + + (a) Many times a group leader will leave a phone number to +be given out to a prospective member that the manager feels is +sincere. + + (b) Getting that number does not guarantee that you will +get into a group but you will be closer than you were before. + + (2) Most occult stores have community bulletin boards that +advertise festivals open to the public. + + (a) Chances are you will meet Crafters who are already in a +coven or are about to form one at these festivals. + + (b) If not, at least you will have the opportunity to +celebrate the season with like minded people. + + (c) It would not hurt your chances to learn as much as you +can about the 8 sabbats so you will know when to look for the festival +notices. + + (d) Once you are at the festival, you should show off any +skill you might have. Music, juggling, or a good sense of humor breaks +down barriers faster than calling cards and black robes. + + 4. The best route is through personal contacts + + a. Most Crafters feel that when a person is internally ready to +join the craft, s/he will be drawn to the right people. + + + + + 5. As a last resort, you can form your own group. + + a. You do not have to be an hereditary, or even an initiated +witch to form your own group. + + (1) Stewart and Janet Farrar have provided the necessary +framework for the Gardnerian tradition in their books. + + (a) And Ray Buckland has provided instructions on how to +form groups around the Seax Tradition that he created. + + b. The school of trial and error is also a very fine one, +although training by an established group helps a lot more and with a +lot fewer surprises. + + (1) A Witch I respect very much once replied to the charge +that only an initiation can make someone a witch with the question +"Who initiated the first witch?" + + +V. GUIDELINES FOR EVALUATING PROSPECTIVE COVENS. + + A. Do Your Homework + + 1. Before you join a coven you should try to learn as much about +the craft as you can from books and other readily available material. + + a. This will prevent you from looking foolish to whoever you +contact and provides you with basic information to found your +judgement on. + + B. Trust Yourself. + + 1. Always listen to the guidance of your inner voice. + + a. Pay attention to your inner feelings in sensing whether or +not to pursue study, magical work, or other aspects of relationships +with those you encounter. + + (1) If you get good feelings, gradually allow a relationship +to unfold. + + (a) If you get bad feelings, do not get involved. + + (2) If you get mixed feelings, feel somewhat uncomfortable, or +feel unsure about some group or individual, hold off on getting more +deeply involved until you can identify where your feelings are coming +from and what they are trying to tell you. + + + + + (a) It might mean that those you have contacted are +involved in negative magic of some sort. + + (b) Or it might mean that you are shy about meeting new +people. + + (c) It could mean that the people, while not working +negative magic, are just not right for you. + + (3) Meditate on your feelings + + (a) Remember that the High Self can only speak to us +through the Younger Self who then speaks to us through feelings and +emotions. + + (b) Seek out your inner voice and follow its direction +always. + + C. Beware of others who try to convince you that theirs is the only +proper way of development. + + 1. There are many traditions and many paths of the craft and THERE +IS NO ONE WAY THAT IS RIGHT FOR EVERYONE. + + a. Groups and individuals vary in size, structure, methods of +working, cultural roots, and other factors. + + (1) You should try to connect with the path or paths that seem +to harmonize most with your own vibrations, needs, and interests. + + D. Beware of others who are overly quick to initiate you and make +you part of their system of magic. + + 1. This is often a sign that they want to use you, your money, and +your energy to feed their own ego trips and power games. + + E. Beware of those who flatter you and nourish your Ego more than +your Spirit. + + 1. They are probably trying to control you for their own devices +and care little, if anything, for your spiritual needs. + + a. On the other hand, beware of those who try to control you +with intimidation, guilt and/or fear. + + (1) Watch out for teachers who constantly point out to you how +wise and powerful they are and how ignorant and weak you are. + + (a) One who is truly wise does not have to call your +attention to it. + + (b) Actions speak louder than words. + +VI. WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE JOINED THE WRONG GROUP + + A. Recognize WHY you joined this particular group. + + 1. People first contacting the craft rarely enter a specific +tradition out of deliberate choice. + + a. Usually they are seeking 'The Craft' and they join the first +group that lets them in. + + (1) This group gives them a plan of study, often lasting a +solar year. + + (a) Then, if they seem to mesh with the other people of the +group, they are initiated into it. + + (b) Usually that coven has a specific orientation and +tradition that it follows. + + B. Making Plans to Leave + + 1. If you find that you are impatient or that you are not +advancing as quickly as you think you should be, you may want to start +making plans to leave the group. + + a. This should be done as graciously as you can possibly manage. + + (1) As a newcomer to the craft community you will not have +much of an established reputation. + + (a) And it is human nature to place more value on the story +told by the leader of a group as to why you left, than your story, +especially if it was a bad break. + + (b) Unless the group and/or its leaders already have a bad +reputation, in which case you should not have gotten mixed up with +them in the first place. + + (2) If you can get out of the group without causing conflicts +or confrontations, do it, as it will then be much easier to build a +good reputation in the community. + + (a) And you will find it easier to get into a new group if +they do not have to risk facing bad blood with another coven because +they took you in. + + (3) For your own sake, do not bad mouth your old group or its +leaders. + + (a) This only hurts you, as it tends to lower you in the +eyes of the other crafters and it will eventually get back to the ones +you are bad mouthing. + + + + VII. WARDING OFF PSYCHIC ATTACKS + + A. Get to Know Your Enemy + + 1. TRUE psychic attacks are VERY RARE. + + a. There are few people with the knowledge and/or training who +can launch an effective psychic attack. + + (1) Most people who suspect that they are being attacked +psychically are paranoid. + + (a) The paranoia usually has its roots in guilt felt by the +person who believes he is under attack. + + (b) The guilt is normally related to some action or other, +that the paranoid person has committed against someone else and the +fear of the wrath or supposed power of the person he believes is +attacking. + + (c) This guilt and fear is what works on their +subconsciousness until they start to manifest real symptoms or outward +appearances of being under attack. + + 2. Look for a link between yourself and your enemy + + a. If in fact, there really is someone trying to attack you +psychically, they will need a link to you. + + (1) Be very careful to dispose of all nail-clippings and hair, +so that they do not fall into the hands of your enemies and practice +restraint in giving out your picture. + + (2) Wash all clothes that you are giving away and remove any +personalized initials or tags that connect them with you. + + (a) All of these items are connected to you through the Law +of Contagion, and can serve as a link through which your enemy can +reach you. + + b. Check to see if any of these items may be in the possession +of the person you suspect is attacking you. + + (1) You should be able to remember if you have given anyone a +lock of your hair, a photograph, or an article of clothing. + + 3. Seek out stories of failure on the part of the person you +suspect is doing the attacking. + + a. A large part of the success of the attack will depend on the +faith of the victim that the enemy is truly as powerful as the victim +believes the attacker to be. + + + (1) This faith not only reinforces the psychological effects +of being attacked but the fear it creates opens a channel between the +victim and attacker. + + (a) Asking around should soon turn up stories of failure on +the part of the attacker and this plants doubts in the victims mind as +to whether they are truly at risk from this bumbler. + + + 4. GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER + + a. If you are under attack, it is at least partly your own +fault, and you need to get your life in order. + + (1) Take control of your life by cleaning your living quarters +from top to bottom. + + (a) This will reassure you that there are no hidden charms +or fettishes hidden inside your space. + + (b) If you discover any, then you can break the link by +bathing them in the running water of a stream, canal or the waves of +an ocean to wash away their power and then burn them in a fire to +break any connection between you and them. + + (c) Do not forget to check outside of your house for +recent signs of digging which would indicate that someone has buried +something there recently. + + (d) One favorite place is under your doorstep so that you +must cross it each time you leave or enter the house and outside your +bedroom window. + + (2) If you have been raised in any particular religion that +you still feel an affinity for or have truly converted to, you might +try praying to your deity for protection and forgiveness for whatever +you have done to bring attack unto you. + + (a) A good way to renew your faith is to sit down and read +the entire book, scroll, etc, that constitute your holy doctrines +which guide you through your life. + + (3) Change your lifestyle if you feel that it has contributed +to opening you up to the attack. + + (a) Unfortunately we are judged by others according to the +people we associate with and nobody needs friends who will turn on +you. + + + + + + B. Purify and Protect Your Home. + + 1. In addition to the physical cleansing of your home mentioned +above it is a good practice to spiritually cleanse your home on a +regular basis. + + a. Natural cleansing agents such as sunshine and wind and also +prepared solutions such as floor washes and powders that can be +sprinkled into carpets or across doorways, etc. + + (1) The sun has a disinfecting quality that is excellent for +bedding and rugs. + + (a) Remove all cloth covered furniture, bedding and +clothing after it has been washed, and cloth floor and wall coverings +and hang or place them in the full sun for a minimum of 6 hours. + + (2) Open all the windows of your home and allow the wind to +blow through your house. + + (a) If there is no wind, then make some with a box fan, +bought or borrowed from a local source. + + (b) Every house has a natural inlet and outlet for air +built into it. Light a stick of sweet incense and walk around your +home with it. Notice whether the air coming from each window or door +pulls the smoke of the incense out of the room or pushes it into the +room. Also notice which windows or doors produce the strongest push +and pull. + + (c) Place the fan at the window which has the strongest +pull of air inward, so that it pulls the air into the room. Another +fan should be placed at the window with the strongest push out, so +that the fan blows the air out the window. + + (3) Choose an incense that appeals to you and fill the house +with smoke from the incense while it is being aired out. + + (a) An instant incense burner can be made from a pie plate +with a can of playdough set in the middle of it. + + (b) Shove the ends of stick incense into the playdough at +an angle, so that the ashes fall out into the pie plate. Light the +sticks and you are in business. + + (c) An alternative is to use self-igniting charcoal with a +powdered or resinous incense. Take a 2 quart saucepan and fill it half +full with fine dirt or sand and set the charcoal in the center of the +sand. Light the charcoal and place a few pinches of powdered incense +or a few pieces of resin on the glowing coal. + + + (d) Do not place the incense burner too close to any walls, +as the smoke will stain the walls. Turn off any negative-ion +generators that you may have in the house as they will grab the smoke +out of the air and bond it to the walls and fixtures in your home. + + (4) Scrub the floors and walls with a cleansing solution +containing soap, water, sea salt and fragrances which you associate +with cleanliness. + + (a) Some people prefer the hospital smell that comes from +using Lysol, others the pungent smell of pine oil, and still others +the lighter fragrances of lemon oil or lavender. + + (b) I would suggest staying away from cleansers that leave +the smell of ammonia since that particular smell is often associated +with stale urine. + + (c) Any decent formulary should give several recipes for +concocting your own floor washes, cleansing powders, etc. + + 2. Once the psychic atmosphere of your home has been cleansed, you +will want to take measures to prevent any unwanted intrusions. + + a. Setting wards at all the windows and doors will prevent any +unwelcome entities from crossing your threshold. + + (1) This is done after all locks and bars, if any, are in +place and secured. + + (a) Remember, on the physical plane it is best to use +physical means backed up by psychic means, rather than to rely solely +on psychic means, unless you like to live dangerously. + + b. A ward is set by drawing, or tracing a protective sign such +as the cross for christians, a banishing pentagram for witches, etc., +at each of the windows and doors. + + (1) Appropriate visualizations depicting what the protective +sign is supposed to accomplish, will program it as you are drawing it. + + (a) You can leave instructions for it to let you know if +anything tries to get past it or, if you are afraid you might not be +able to control your fear, tell it to stand its ground as long as it +can. + + (b) Personally, I prefer to visualize it as a local +manifestation of the Goddess and thereby set up a magical link that +allows the ward to draw on the natural protective urges of a mother +for her young. + + <1> It's true that, in this case, that is playing a bit +of hardball, but I see no reason why I shouldn't feel as safe anywhere +I am as I do resting in the bosom of my Mother. + + c. As a last line of defense, you might want to borrow a page +out of the ceremonial magicians book and cast a protective circle +about your bed before you go to sleep. + + (1) If you are planning to go out and do some work on the +Astral Planes, it is almost mandatory that you do this to insure that +you are not messed with while you are "oot and aboot." + + C. Learn how to handle yourself when confronted by your attacker. + + 1. Sit or stand with your arms crossed over your solar plexus. + + a. The chakra through which energy enters and leaves your body +is located at the solar plexus. + + (1) By blocking this chakra, you are denying the attacker any +of your energy and preventing him from sending any of his into your +system. + + (a) The effect is heightened if you stand or sit in such a +way as to be facing slightly to one side or the other of the attacker, +in other words, do not face him front on. + + 2. Become aware of how you are controlling your eyes. + + a. The key here is relaxation. + + (1) If you find yourself staring, or transfixed, blink your +eyes until they feel comfortable. + + (a) Many forms of hypnosis depend on catching the eye and +holding it until the subject tires enough to allow an opening. + + b. Notice which eye of your attacker you are staring into and +deliberately change your gaze to the other one. + + (1) The eye which you find yourself staring into is your +attackers 'strong' eye by which he 'fascinates' his victims. + + (a) Changing your gaze to his 'weak eye' breaks his control +over you. + + (2) It takes a lot of concentration to keep your gaze on his +'weak' eye. + + (a) But exerting this effort will distract you from his +voice which he will try to use to 'charm' you. + + 3. Become aware of your personal zones and posture. + + a. Get a book on, and study, body language. + + (1) Body language is the non-verbal way your subconscious +communicates how it is feeling to yourself and others around you. + + (a) Without an understanding of how body posture can be +controlled, other people can gain the upper hand by placing you in +subservient postures. + + b. Learn how to recognize the positions and practice turning the +tables on aggressors by trading position while you subtly invade their +personal safety zone with a mildly aggressive move or two. + + (1) This will remove you from being the one who is dominated, +while it throws your attacker off balance. + + (a) For the most part, people who will threaten you with +psychic attack will not attempt to force their own will upon you +physically. + + <1> But in the off chance they might try, stay away +from deserted or less than public places when confronting your +attacker. + + 4. Do not overlook the obvious ridiculousness of the situation in +your search for a solution. + + a. People who attack or try to attack, others psychically take +themselves much too seriously. + + (1) The quickest way to counter an attack is to invoke your +innate sense of humor. + + (a) Smiling, with an occasional giggle or snicker, while +your attacker is putting his curse on you, will send him into a fit of +ranting and raving. + + (b) Pretending to be looking forward to the curse will make +him 'foam at the mouth". + + (c) Asking if there is anything you can do to help will +send him over the edge. + + 5. Whatever you do, DO NOT try to counter-attack your attacker. + + a. This will lower your psychic energies to his level and open a +channel between you and him through which he may successfully attack +you. + + b. This will play hell with your Karma and you will both be +required to work things out before either of you can proceed along the +Path of Return. + + (1) Nor should you invoke the Crone aspect of the Goddess to +punish him. + + (a) The Goddess is not concerned about such matters in Her +Maiden aspect, very forgiving of everybody in Her Mother aspect, and +only interested in Justice in Her Crone aspect. + + <1> This means that as Maiden, she doesn't care and as +Mother, she will forgive and not punish, but as Crone she will kick +everybody's backside that is involved. + + There is a maxim of justice that - if there is a +dispute - everybody is at least somewhat at fault. + + Therefore to serve justice - everyone must be +punished. + + <2> It is better to ask for mercy and let the laws of +Karma even things out. + + + + +END OF LESSON EIGHT + + + + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/letter1.txt b/religious documents/letter1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ffd2d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/letter1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ + PO Box 38-262 + Petone + 3 November 1991 + +Supdt B P Donnelly +O/C Services +Police National Headquarters +PO Box 3017 +Wellington + +Dear Sir + I wish to draw to your attention to the enclosed article Satanism +linked to child porn (Sunday News 3 Nov 1991), with particular emphasis on +the statement that "the latest revelation to stun NZ Police is a +correspondence course on Satanism... run by a group called Order of the +Left Hand Path." + + The article attempts to link the OLHP, of which I am the organiser, +or 'Magister' mentioned in the article, with child pornography. + + I find the allegations appalling, there being no justification +whatsoever linking the OLHP - either directly or indirectly - with such +activities, or anything else of a morally or legally suspect nature. + + This article is now the subject of a complaint to the NZ Press +Council. + + What I would like to know is whether the NZ Police are indeed +'stunned' by the correspondence courses offered by the OLHP and, if so, the +reasons for such concern. + + I would like to know whether the OLHP, myself or anyone connect +with myself or the Order in any way, is under suspicion by the Police, +either directly or indirectly, in regard to child pornography, ritual +abuse, or any activity whatsoever which could even broadly be considered +morally or legally suspect. + + Additionally, I would like to know why Snr Sgt Gabites is being +permitted to use his position as a policeman to make public statements +against and otherwise harass a legitimate philosophical and ethical +alternative. While his concern about child abuse is of course laudable, he +appears to be using this as a pretext to launch a personal crusade against +Satanism per se. As you may recall I have previously made my concern +regarding Sgt Gabites' activities known to you (your re. 910926/6801), to +the Dept of Social Welfare, and to Sgt Gabites personally, and have +challenged him to present any evidence for his allegations, without reply. + + I will be sending a copy of this letter, and your reply , to the NZ +Press Council, as it relates to the outrageous allegations made by +journalist Les Wilson. + + Yours Faithfully + + K R Bolton diff --git a/religious documents/libwoof.txt b/religious documents/libwoof.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce332dd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/libwoof.txt @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ + Liber Woof + +Woof as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. +There is no god but dog. + +1. Dog has the right to live by his own law: +to fetch as he will +to bark as he will +to play as he will +to sniff as he will + +2. Dog has the right to eat what he will: +to drink what he will +to sleep where he will +to roll as he will on the face of the earth. + +3. Dog has the right to mess as he will" +to howl as he will +to whine as he will +to slobber as he will + +4. Dog has the right to love as he will +(yea, even unto next door's pedigree poodle) + +5. Dog has the right to bite those who would +thwart these rights. + +Woof is the law, Woof under will. + +-- Mincing Machine + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/litsatan.txt b/religious documents/litsatan.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2f8d6f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/litsatan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ + THE LITANIES OF SATAN + +O thou, of Angels loveliest, most wise, +O God betrayed by fate, deprived of praise, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +O Prince of exile, who was dispossessed, +Who ever rises stringer when oppressed, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +O thou who knowest all, Hell's sovereign, +Known healer of mankind's afflictions, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Thou who the lepers and pariahs doomed +Show out of love the Paradise to come, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Thou who in Death, your mistress old and strong, +Breeds Hope - delightful aberration! + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Thou who dost give the outlaw the proud glance +Which damns the crowd who watch his sufferance, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Thou who dost know where greedy earth enfolds +The precious stones a jealous God concealed, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Thou whose clear eye knows the deep sepulchres +Where multitudes of metals lie interred, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Thou whose great hand conceals the precipice +From the somnambulist whom roofs entice, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Thou who by magic softens the old bones +Of loitering drunks by horses trampled down. + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Thou who, consoling frail mankind in pain, +Taught us to make our guns and gun-cotton, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Thou who didst set thy mark, accomplice skilled, +Upon the heart of Croesus harsh and vile, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Thou who put into women's hearts and eyes +The cult of wounds, the love of poverty, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Staff of the exile and discoverer, +Confessor of condemned conspirator, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + +Father to those whom in his sombre wrath +God drove from his paradise on earth, + +Satan, have mercy on my long distress! + + + +PRAYER + + +To thee, o Satan, glory be, and praise, +In Heaven, once thy kingdom, the abyss +Of Hell, where, now, thou dreamest silently! +Grant that my soul, one day, beneath the Tree +Of Knowledge, may rest near thee, when o'erhead, +Like a new Temple, its wide branches spread! + diff --git a/religious documents/lod3.txt b/religious documents/lod3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3b5c05 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lod3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +LORD OF THE DANCE +based on a Shaker tune + +WHEN SHE DANCED ON THE WATERS AND THE WIND WAS HER FORM +THE LADY LAUGHED AND EVERY THING WAS BORN +SHE LIT THE SUN AND THE LIGHT GAVE HIM BIRTH +THE LORD OF THE DANCE THEN APPEARED ON THE EARTH + + +DANCE THEN WHEREVER YOU MAY BE +FOR I AM THE LORD OF THE DANCE SAID HE +AND I'LL LEAD YOU ON WHEREVER YOU MAY BE +AND I'LL LEAD YOU ALL IN THE DANCE SAID HE + +I DANCED IN THE MORNING WHEN THE WORLD WAS BEGUN +I DANCED IN THE MOON AND THE STARS AND THE SUN +I WAS CALLED FROM THE DARKNESS BY THE SONG OF THE EARTH +I JOINED IN THE SINGING AND SHE GAVE ME BIRTH + + + +I DANCE AT THE SABBAT WHEN YOU CHANT THE SPELL +I DANCE AND I SING THAT EVERYONE BE WELL +WHEN THE DANCE IS OVER DO NOT THINK I'M GONE +I LIVE IN THE MUSIC SO I STILL DANCE ON + + + +THEY CUT ME DOWN BUT I LEAP UP HIGH +I AM THE LIGHT THAT WILL NEVER NEVER DIE +I LIVE IN YOU IF YOU LIVE IN ME +I AM THE LORD OF THE DANCE OF THE DANCE SAID HE \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/lostkey.txt b/religious documents/lostkey.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2368d2b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lostkey.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2384 @@ +THE LOST KEYS OF FREEMASONRY or The Secret of Hiram Abiff by MANLY +P. HALL + +PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD + +The steady demand and increasing popularity of this volume, of +which eighteen thousand copies have been printed since it first +appeared a few years ago, have brought the present revised and +rearranged edition into being. The text can be read with profit by +both new and old Mason, for within its pages lies an interpretation +of Masonic symbolism which supplements the monitorial instruction +usually given in the lodges. + +The leading Masonic scholars of all times have agreed that the +symbols of the Fraternity are susceptible of the most profound +interpretation and thus reveal to the truly initiated certain +secrets concerning the spiritual realities of life. Freemasonry is +therefore more than a mere social organization a few centuries old, +and can be regarded as a perpetuation of the philosophical +mysteries and initiations of the ancients. This is in keeping with +the inner tradition of the Craft, a heritage from pre-Revival days. + +The present volume will appeal to the thoughtful Mason as an +inspiring work, for it satisfies the yearning for further light and +leads the initiate to that Sanctum Sanctorum where the mysteries +are revealed. The book is a contribution to Masonic idealism, +revealing the profounder aspects of our ancient and gentle +Fraternity - those unique and distinctive features which have +proved a constant inspiration through the centuries. + +FOREWORD + +By REYNOLD E. BLIGHT, 33 degree, K. T. + +Reality forever eludes us. Infinity mocks our puny efforts to +imprison it in definition and dogma. Our most splendid +realizations are only adumbrations of the Light. In his endeavors, +man is but a mollusk seeking to encompass the ocean. + +Yet man may not cease his struggle to find God. There is a +yearning in his soul that will not let him rest, an urge that +compels him to attempt the impossible, to attain the unattainable. +He lifts feeble hands to grasp the stars and despite a million +years of failure and millenniums of disappointment, the soul of man +springs heavenward with even greater avidity than when the race was +young. + +He pursues, even though the flying ideal eternally slips from his +embrace. Even though he never clasps the goddess of his dreams, he +refuses to believe that she is a phantom. To him she is the only +reality. He reaches upward and will not be content until the sword +of Orion is in his hands, and glorious Arcturus glearns from his +breast. + +Man is Parsifal searching for the Sacred Cup; Sir Launfal +adventuring for the Holy Grail. Life is a divine adventure, a +splendid quest + +Language falls. Words are mere cyphers, and who can read the +riddle? These words we use, what are they but vain shadows of form +and sense? We strive to clothe our highest thought with verbal +trappings that our brother may see and understand; and when we +would describe a saint he sees a demon; and when we would present a +wise man he beholds a fool. "Fie upon you," he cries; "thou, too, +art a fool." + +So wisdom drapes her truth with symbolism, and covers her insight +with allegory. Creeds, rituals, poems are parables and symbols. +The ignorant take them literally and build for themselves prison +houses of words and with bitter speech and bitterer taunt denounce +those who will not join them in the dungeon. Before the rapt +vision of the seer, dogma and ceremony, legend and trope dissolve +and fade, and he sees behind the fact the truth, behind the symbol +the Reality. + +Through the shadow shines ever the Perfect Light. + +What is a Mason? He is a man who in his heart has been duly and +truly prepared, has been found worthy and well qualified, has been +admitted to the fraternity of builders, been invested with certain +passwords and signs by which he may be enabled to work and receive +wages as a Master Mason, and travel in foreign lands in search of +that which was lost - The Word. + +Down through the misty vistas of the ages rings a clarion +declaration and although the very heavens echo to the +reverberations, but few hear and fewer understand: "In the +beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was +God." + +Here then is the eternal paradox. The Word is lost yet it is ever +with us. The light that illumines the distant horizon shines in +our hearts. "Thou wouldist not seek me hadst thou not found me." We +travel afar only to find that which we hunger for at home. + +And as Victor Hugo says: "The thirst for the Infinite proves +infinity." + +That which we seek lives in our souls. + +This, the unspeakable truth, the unutterable perfection, the author +has set before us in these pages. Not a Mason himself, he has read +the deeper meaning of the ritual. Not having assumed the formal +obligations, he calls upon all mankind to enter into the holy of +holies. Not initiated into the physical craft, he declares the +secret doctrine that all may hear. + +With vivid allegory and profound philosophical disquisition he +expounds the sublime teachings of Freemasonry, older than all +religions, as universal as human aspiration. + +It is well. Blessed are the eyes that see, and the ears that hear, +and the heart that understands. + + +INTRODUCTION + +Freemasonry, though not a religion, is essentially religious. Most +of its legends and allegories are of a sacred nature; much of it is +woven into the structure of Christianity. We have learned to +consider our own religion as the only inspired one, and this +probably accounts for much of the misunderstanding in the world +today concerning the place occupied by Freemasonry in the spiritual +ethics of our race. A religion is a divinely inspired code of +morals. A religious person is one inspired to nobler livi ng by +this code. He is identified by the code which is his source of +illumination. Thus we may say that a Christian is one who receives +his spiritual ideals of right and wrong from the message of the +Christ, while a Buddhist is one who molds his life into the +archetype of morality given by the great Gautama, or one of the +other Buddhas. All doctrines which seek to unfold and preserve +that invisible spark in man named Spirit, are said to be spirit +ual. Those which ignore this invisible element and concent rate +entirely upon the visible are said to be material. There is in +religion a wonderful point of balance, where the materialist and +spiritist meet on the plane of logic and reason. Science and +theology are two ends of a single truth, but the world will never +receive the full benefit of their investigations until they have +made peace with each other, and labor hand in hand for the +accomplishment of the great work - the liberation of spirit and in +telligence from the three-dimensional prison-house of ignora nce, +superstition, and fear. That which gives man a knowledge of himself +can be inspired only by the Self - and God is the Self in all +things. In truth, He is the inspiration and the thing inspired. It +has been stated in Scripture that God was the Word and that the +Word was made flesh. Man's task now is to make flesh reflect the +glory of that Word, which is within the soul of himself. It is +this task which has created the need of religion - not one faith +alone but many creeds, each searching in its own way, e ach meeting +the needs of individual people, each emphasizing one point above +all the others. + +Twelve Fellow Craftsmen are exploring the four points of the +compass. Are not these twelve the twelve great world religions, +each seeking in its own way for that which was lost in the ages +past, and the quest of which is the birthright of man? Is not the +quest for Reality in a world of illusions the task for which each +comes into the world? We are here to gain balance in a sphere of +unbalance; to find rest in a restless thing; to unveil illusion; +and to slay the dragon of our own animal natures. As David, King +of Israel, gave to the hands of his son Solomon the task he could +not accomplish, so each generation gives to the next the work of +building the temple, or rather, rebuilding the dwelling of the +Lord, which is on Mount Moriah. + +Truth is not lost, yet it must be sought for and found. Reality is +ever-present - dimensionless yet all-prevailing. Man - creature of +attitudes and desires, and servant of impressions and opinions - +cannot, with the wavering unbalance of an untutored mind, learn to +know that which he himself does not possess. As man attains a +quality, he discovers that quality, and recognizes about him the +thing newborn within himself. Man is born with eyes, yet only +after long years of sorrow does he learn to see clearl y and in +harmony with the Plan. He is born with senses, but only after long +experience and fruitless strivings does he bring these senses to +the temple and lays them as offerings upon the altar of the great +Father, who alone does all things well and with understanding. Man +is, in truth, born in the sin of ignorance, but with a capacity for +understanding. He has a mind capable of wisdom, a heart capable of +feeling, and a hand strong for the great work in life - truing the +rough ashlar into the perfect sto ne. + +What more can any creature ask than the opportunity to prove the +thing he is, the dream that inspires him, the vision that leads him +on? We have no right to ask for wisdom. In whose name do we beg +for understanding? By what authority do we demand happiness? None +of these things is the birthright of any creature; yet all may have +them, if they will cultivate within themselves the thing that they +desire. There is no need of asking, nor does any Deity bow down to +give man these things that he desires. Man i s given by Nature, a +gift, and that gift is the privilege of labor. Through labor he +learns all things. + +Religions are groups of people, gathered together in the labor of +learning. The world is a school. We are here to learn, and our +presence here proves our need of instruction. Every living +creature is struggling to break the strangling bonds of limitation +- that pressing narrowness which inhabits vision and leaves the +life without an ideal. Every soul is engaged in a great work - the +labor of personal liberation from the state of ignorance. The +world is a great prison; its bars are the Unknown. And eac h is a +prisoner until, at last, he earns the right to tear these bars from +their moldering sockets, and pass, illuminated and inspired, into +the darkness, which becomes lighted by that presence. All peoples +seek the temple where God dwells, where the spirit of the great +Truth illuminates the shadows of human ignorance, but they know not +which way to turn nor where this temple is. The mist of dogma +surrounds them. Ages of thoughtlessness bind them in. Limitation +weakens them and retards their footsteps. They wander in darkness +seeking light, failing to realize that the Eght is in the heart of +the darkness. + +To the few who have found Him, God is revealed. These, in turn, +reveal Him to man, striving to tell ignorance the message of +wisdom. But seldom does man understand the mystery that has been +unveiled. He tries weakly to follow in the steps of those who have +attained, but all too often finds the path more difficult than he +even dreamed. So he kneels in prayer before the mountain he cannot +climb, from whose top gleams the light which he is neither strong +enough to reach nor wise enough to comprehend. He l ives the law +as he knows it, always fearing in his heart that he has not read +aright the flaming letters in the sky, and that in living the +letter of the Law he has murdered the spirit. Man bows humbly to +the Unknown, peopling the shadows of his own ignorance with saints +and saviors, ghosts and spectres, gods and demons. Ignorance fears +all things, falling, terror-stricken before the passing wind. +Superstition stands as the monument to ignorance, and b efore it +kneel all who realize their own weakness; wh o see in all things +the strength they do not possess; who give to sticks and stones the +power to bruise them; who change the beauties of Nature into the +dwelling place of ghouls and ogres. Wisdom fears no thing, but +still bows humbly to its own Source. While superstition hates all +things, wisdom, with its deeper understanding, loves all things; +for it has seen the beauty, the tenderness, and the sweetness which +underlie Life's mystery. + +Life is the span of time appointed for accomplishment. Every +fleeting moment is an opportunity, and those who are great are the +ones who have recognized life as the opportunity for all things. +Arts, sciences, and religions are monuments standing for what +humanity has already accomplished. They stand as memorials to the +unfolding mind of man, and through them man acquires more efficient +and more intelligent methods of attaining prescribed results. +Blessed are those who can profit by the experiences of ot hers; +who, adding to that which has already been built, can make their +inspiration real, their dreams practical. Those who give man the +things he needs, while seldom appreciated in their own age, are +later recognized as the Saviors of the human race. + +Masonry is a structure built upon experience. Each stone is a +sequential step in the unfolding of intelligence. The shrines of +Masonry are ornamented by the jewels of a thousand ages; its +rituals ring with the words of enlightened seers and illuminated +sages. A hundred religions have brought their gifts of wisdom to +its altar. Arts and sciences unnumbered have contributed to its +symbolism. It is more than a faith; it is a path of certainty. It +is more than a belief; it is a fact. Masonry is a univers ity, +teaching the liberal arts and sciences of the soul to all who will +attend to its words. It is a shadow of the great Atlantean Mystery +School, which stood with all its splendor in the ancient City of +the Golden Gates, where now the turbulent Atlantic rolls in +unbroken sweep. Its chairs are seats of learning; its pillars +uphold the arch of universal education, not only in material +things, but also in those qualities which are of the spirit. Up on +its trestleboards are inscribed the sacred truths of all nations +and of all peoples, and upon those who understand its sacred depths +has dawned the great Reality. Masonry is, in truth, that long-lost +thing which all peoples have sought in all ages. Masonry is the +common denominator as well as the common devisor of human +aspiration. + +Most of the religions of the world are like processions: one leads, +and the many follow. In the footsteps of the demigods, man follows +in his search for truth and illumination. The Christian follows +the gentle Nazarene up the winding slopes of Calvary. The Buddhist +follows his great emancipator through his wanderings in the +wilderness. The Mohammedan makes his pilgrimage across the desert +sands to the black tent at Mecca. Truth leads, and ignorance +follows in his train. Spirit blazes the trail, and ma tter follows +behind. In the world today ideals live but a moment in their +purity, before the gathering hosts of darkness snuff out the +gleaming spark. The Mystery School, however, remains unmoved. It +does not bring its light to man; man must bring his light to it. +Ideals, coming into the world, become idols within a few short +hours, but man, entering the gates of the sanctuary, changes the +idol back to an ideal. + +Man is climbing an endless flight of steps, with his eyes fixed +upon the goal at the top. Many cannot see the goal, and only one +or two steps are visible before them. He has learned, however, one +great lesson - namely, that as he builds his own character he is +given strength to climb the steps. Hence a Mason is a builder of +the temple of character. He is the architect of a sublime mystery +- the gleaming, glowing temple of his own soul. He realizes that +he best serves God when he joins with the Great Ar chitect in +building more noble structures in the universe below. All who are +attempting to attain mastery through constructive efforts are +Masons at heart, regardless of religious sect or belief. A Mason +is not necessarily a member of a lodge. In a broad sense, he is +any person who daily tries to live the Masonic life, and to serve +intelligently the needs of the Great Architect. The Masonic +brother pledges himself to assist all other temple-builders in +whatever extremity of life; and in so doing he pled ges himself to +every living thing, for they are all temple-builders, building more +noble structures to the glory of the universal God. + +The true Masonic Lodge is a Mystery School, a place where +candidates are taken out of the follies and foibles of the world +and instructed in the mysteries of life, relationships, and the +identity of that germ of spiritual essence within, which is, in +truth, the Son of God, beloved of His Father. The Mason views life +seriously, realizing that every wasted moment is a lost +opportunity, and that Omnipotence is gained only through +earnestness and endeavor. Above all other relationships he +recognizes the unive rsal brotherhood of every living thing. The +symbol of the clasped hands, explained in the Lodge, reflects his +attitude towards all the world, for he is the comrade of all +created things. He realizes also that his spirit is a glowing, +gleaming jewel which he must enshrine within a holy temple built by +the labor of his hands, the meditation of his heart, and the +aspiration of his soul. + +Freemasonry is a philosophy which is essentially creedless. It is +the truer for it. Its brothers bow to truth regardless of the +bearer; they serve light, instead of wrangling over the one who +brings it. In this way they prove that they are seeking to know +better the will and the dictates of the Invincible One. No truer +religion exists than that of world comradeship and brotherhood, for +the purpose of glorifying one God and building for Him a temple of +constructive attitude and noble character. + + +PROLOGUE + +IN THE FIELDS OF CHAOS + +The first flush of awakening Life pierced the impenetrable expanse +of Cosmic Night, turning the darkness of negation into the dim +twilight of unfolding being. Silhouetted against the shadowy +gateways of Eternity, the lonely figure of a mystic stranger stood +upon the nebulous banks of swirling substance. Robed in a shimmery +blue mantle of mystery and his head encircled by a golden crown of +dazzling light, the darkness of Chaos fled before the rays that +poured like streams of living fire from his form divin e. + +From some Cosmos greater far than ours this mystic visitor came, +answering the call of Divinity. From star to star he strode and +from world to universe he was known, yet forever concealed by the +filmy garments of chaotic night. Suddenly the clouds broke and a +wondrous light descended from somewhere among the seething waves of +force; it bathed this lonely form in a radiance celestial, each +sparkling crystal of mist gleaming like a diamond bathed in the +living fire of the Divine. + +In the gleaming flame of cosmic light bordered by the dark clouds +of not-being two great forms appeared and a mighty Voice thrilled +eternity, each sparkling atom pulsating with the power of the +Creator's Word* while the great blue-robed figure bowed in awe +before the foot-stool of His Maker as a hand reached down from +heaven, its fingers extended the benediction. + +"Of all creation I have chosen you and upon you my seal is placed. +You are the chosen instrument of my hand and I appoint you to be +the Builder of my Temple. You shall raise its pillars and tile its +floor; you shall ornament it with metals and with jewels and you +shall be the master of my workmen. In your hands I place the plans +and here on the tracing board of livig substance I have impressed +the plan you are to follow, tracing its every letter and angle in +the fiery lines of my moving finger. Hiram Ab iff, chosen builder +of your Father's house, up and to your work. Yonder are the fleecy +clouds, the + +* The Creative Fiat, or rate of vibration through which all things +are created. + +gray mists of dawn, the gleams of heavenly light, and the darkness +of the sleep of creation. From these shall you build, without the +sound of hammer or the voice of workmen, the temple of your God, +eternal in the heavens. The swirling, ceaseless motion of negation +you shall chain to grind your stones. Among these spirits of +not-being shall you slack your lime and lay your footings; for I +have watched you through the years of your youth; I have guided you +through the days of your manhood. I have weighed y ou in the +balance and you have not been found wanting. Therefore, to you +give I the glory of work, and here ordain you as the Builder of my +House. Unto you I give the word of the Master Builder; unto you I +give the tools of the craft; unto you I give the power that has +been vested in me. Be faithful unto these things. Bring them back +when you have finished, and I will give you the name known to God +alone. So mote it be." + +The great light died out of the heavens, the streaming fingers of +living light vanished in the misty, lonely twilight, and again +covered not-being with its sable mantle. Hiram Abiff again stood +alone, gazing out into the endless ocean of oblivion - nothing but +swirling, seething matter as far as eye could see. Then he +straightened his shoulders and, taking the trestleboard in his +hands and clasping to his heart the glowing Word of the Master, +walked slowly away and was swallowed up in the mists of primord ial +dawn. + +How may man measure timeless eternity? Ages passed, and the lonely +Builder labored with his plan with only love and humility in his +heart, his hand molding the darkness which he blessed while his +eyes were raised above where the Great Light had shone down from +heaven. In the divine solitude he labored, with no voice to cheer, +no spirit to condemn - alone in the boundless all with the great +chill of the morning mist upon his brow, but his heart still warm +with the light of the Master's Word. It seemed a ho peless task. +No single pair of hands could mold that darkness; no single heart, +no matter how true, could be great enough to project pulsing cosmic +love into the cold mist of oblivion. Though the darkness settled +ever closer about him and the misty fingers of negation twined +round his being, still with divine trust the Builder labored; with +divine hope he laid his footings, and from the boundless clay he +made the molds to cast his sacred ornaments. Slowl y the building +grew and dim forms molded by the Maste r's hand took shape about +him. Three huge, soulless creatures had the Master fashioned, great +beings which loomed like grim spectres in the semi-darkness. They +were three builders he had blessed and now in stately file they +passed before him, and Hiram held out his arms to his creation, +saying, "Brothers, I have built you for your works. I have formed +you to labor with me in the building of the Master's house. You +are the children of my being; I have labored with yo u, now labor +with me for the glory of o ur God." + +But the spectres laughed. Turning upon their maker and striking him +with his own tools given him by God out of heaven, they left their +Grand Master dying in the midst of his labors, broken and crushed +by the threefold powers of cosmic night. As he lay bleeding at the +feet of his handiwork the martyred Builder raised his eyes to the +seething clouds, and his face was sweet with divine love and cosmic +understanding as he prayed unto the Master who had sent him forth: + +"O Master of Workmen, Great Architect of the universe, my labors +are not finished. Why must they always remain undone? I have not +completed the thing for which Thou hast sent me unto being, for my +very creations have turned against me and the tools Thou gavest me +have destroyed me. The children that I formed in love, in their +ignorance have murdered me. Here, Father, is the Word Thou gavest +me now red with my own blood. O Master, I return it to Thee for I +have kept it sacred in my heart. Here are the too ls, the tracing +board, and the vessels I have wrought. Around me stand the ruins +of my temple which I must leave. Unto Thee, O God, the divine +Knower of all things, I return them all, realizing that in Thy good +time lies the fulfillment of all things. Thou, O God, knowest our +down-sitting and our uprising and Thou understandest our thoughts +afar off. In Thy name, Father, I have labored and in Thy cause I +die, a faithful builder." + +The Master fell back, his upturned face sweet in the last repose of +death, and the light rays no longer pouring from him. The gray +clouds gathered closer as though to form a winding sheet around the +body of their murdered Master. + +Suddenly the heavens opened again and a shaft of light bathed the +form of Hiram in a glory celestial. Again the Voice spoke from the +heavens where the Great King sat upon the clouds of creation: "He +is not dead; he is asleep. Who will awaken him? His labors are not +done, and in death he guards the sacred relics more closely than +ever, for the Word and the tracing board are his - I have given +them to him. But he must remain asleep until these three who have +slain him shall bring him back to life, for ever y wrong must be +righted, and the slayers of my house, the destroyers of my temple, +must labor in the place of their Builder until they raise their +Master from the dead." + +The three murderers fell on their knees and raised their hands to +heaven as though to ward off the light which had disclosed their +crime: "O God, great is our sin, for we have slain our Grand +Master, Hiram Abiff! Just is Thy punishment and as we have slain +him we now dedicate our lives to his resurrection. The first was +our human weakness, the second our sacred duty." + + +"Be it so," answered the Voice from Heaven. The great Light +vanished and the clouds of darkness and mist concealed the body of +the murdered Master. It was swallowed up in the swirling darkness +which left no mark, no gravestone to mark the place where the +Builder had lain. + +"O God!" cried the three murderers, "where shall we find our Master +now?" + +A hand reached down again from the Great Unseen and a tiny lamp was +handed them, whose oil flame burned silently and clearly in the +darkness. "By this light shall ye seek him whom ye have slain." + +The three forms surrounded the light and bowed in prayer and +thanksgiving for this solitary gleam which was to light the +darkness of their way. From somewhere above in the regions of +not-being the great Voice spoke, a thundering Voice that filled +Chaos with its sound: "He cometh forth as a flower and is cut down; +he teeth also as a shadow and continueth not; as the waters fail +from the sea and the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth +down and riseth not again. Yet have I compassion upon the children +of my creation; I administer unto them in time of trouble and save +them with an everlasting salvation. Seek ye where the broken twig +lies and the dead stick molds away, where the clouds float together +and the stones rest by the hillside, for all these mark the grave +of Hiram who has carried my Will with him to the tomb. This +eternal quest is yours until ye have found your Builder, until the +cup giveth up its secret, until the grave givet h up its ghosts. +No more shall I speak until ye have found and rais ed my beloved +Son, and have listened to the words of my Messenger and with Him as +your guide have finished the temple which I shall then inhabit. +Amen." + +The gray dawn still lay asleep in the arms of darkness. Out +through the great mystery of not-being all was silence, unknowable. +Through the misty dawn, like strange phantoms of a dream, three +figures wandered over the great Unknown carrying in their hands a +tiny light, the lamp given to them by their Builder's Father. Over +stick and stone and cloud and star they wandered, eternally in +search of a silent grave, stopping again and again to explore the +depths of some mystic recess, praying for liberation fr om their +endless search; yet bound by their vows to raise the Builder they +had slain, whose grave was marked by the broken twig, and whose +body was laid away in the white winding sheet of death somewhere +over the brow of the eternal hill. + +TEMPLE BUILDERS + +You are the temple builders of the future. With your hands must be +raised the domes and spires of a coming civilization. Upon the +foundation you have laid, tomorrow shall build a far more noble +edifice. Builders of the temple of character wherein should dwell +an enlightened spirit; truers of the rock of relationship; molders +of those vessels created to contain the oil of life: up, and to the +task appointed! Never before in the history of men have you had the +opportunity that now confronts you. The world waits - waits for the +illuminated one who shall come from between the pillars of the +portico. Humility, hoodwinked and bound, seeks entrance to the +temple of wisdom. Fling wide the gate, and let the worthy enter. +Fling wide the gate, and let the light that is the life of men +shine forth. Hasten to complete the dwelling of the Lord, that the +Spirit of God may come and dwell among His people, sanctified and +ordained according to His law. + +CHAPTER I + +THE ETERNAL QUEST + +The average Mason, as well as the modern student of Masonic ideals, +little realizes the cosmic obligation he takes upon himself when he +begins his search for the sacred truths of Nature as they are +concealed in the ancient and modern rituals. He must not lightly +regard his vows, and if he would not bring upon himself years and +ages of suffering he must cease to consider Freemasonry solely as a +social order only a few centuries old. He must realize that the +ancient mystic teachings as perpetuated in the mo dern rites are +sacred, and that powers unseen and unrecognized mold the destiny of +those who consciously and of their own free will take upon +themselves the obligations of the Fraternity. + +Freemasonry is not a material thing: it is a science of the soul; +it is not a creed or doctrine but a universal expression of the +Divine Wisdom.* The coming together of medieval guilds or even the +building of Solomon's temple as it is understood today has little, +if anything, to do with the true origin of Freemasonry, for Masonry +does not deal with personalities. In its highest sense, it is +neither historical nor archaeological, but is a divine symbolic +language perpetuating under certain concrete symbols the sacred +mysteries of the ancients. Only those who see in it a cosmic +study, a life work, a divine inspiration to better thinking, better +feeling, and better living, with the spiritual attainment of +enlightenment as the end, and with the daily life of the true Mason +as the means, have gained even the slightest insight into the true +mysteries of the ancient rites. + +The age of the Masonic school is not to be calculated by hundreds +or even thousands of years, for it never had any origin in the +worlds of form. The world as we see it is merely an experimental +laboratory in which man is laboring to build and express greater +and more perfect vehicles. Into this laboratory pour myriads + +*This term is used as synonymous with a very secret and sacred +philosophy that has existed for all time, and has been the +inspiration of the great saints and sages of all ages, i. e., the +perfect wisdom of God, revealing itself through a secret hierarchy +of illumined minds. + +of rays descending from the cosmic hierarchies.* These mighty +globes and orbs which focus their energies upon mankind and mold +its destiny do so in an orderly manner, each in its own way and +place, and it is the working of these mystic hierarchies in the +universe which forms the pattern around which the Masonic school +has been built, for the true lodge of the Mason is the universe. +Freed of limitations of creed and sect, he stands a master of all +faiths, and those who take up the study of Freemasonry witho ut +realizing the depth, the beauty, and the spiritual power of its +philosophy can never gain anything of permanence from their +studies. The age of the Mystery Schools can be traced by the +student back to the dawn of time, ages and aeons ago, when the +temple of the Solar Man was in the making. That was the first +Temple of the King, and therein were given and laid down the true +mysteries of the ancient lodge, and it was the gods of creation and +th e spirits of the dawn who first tiled the Master's lodge. + +The initiated brother realizes that his so called symbols and +rituals are merely blinds + +*The groups of celestial intelligences governing the creative +processes in cosmos. + +fabricated by the wise to perpetuate ideas incomprehensible to the +average individual. He also realizes that few Masons of today know +or appreciate the mystic meaning concealed within these rituals. +With religious faith we perpetuate the form, worshiping it instead +of the life, but those who have not recognized the truth in the +crystallized ritual, those who have not liberated the spiritual +germ from the shell of empty words, are not Masons, regardless of +their physical degrees and outward honors. + +In the work we are taking up it is not the intention to dwell upon +the modern concepts of the Craft but to consider Freemasonry as it +really is to those who know, a great cosmic organism whose true +brothers and children are tied together not by spoken oaths but by +lives so lived that they are capable of seeing through the blank +wall and opening the window which is now concealed by the rubbish +of materiality. When this is done and the mysteries of the +universe unfold before the aspiring candidate, then in t ruth he +discovers what Freemasonry really is. Its material aspects +interest him no longer for he has unmasked the Mystery School which +he is capable of recognizing only when he himself has spiritually +become a member of it. + +Those who have examined and studied its ancient lore have no doubt +that Freemasonry, like the universe itself, which is the greatest +of all schools, deals with the unfolding of a three-fold principle; +for all the universe is governed by the same three kings who are +called the builders of the Masonic temple. They are not +personalities but principles, great intelligent energies and powers +which in God, man, and the universe have charge of the molding of +cosmic substance into the habitation of the living king , the +temple built through the ages first of unconscious and then +conscious effort on the part of every individual who is expressing +in his daily life the creative principles of these three kings. + +The true brodaer of the ancient Craft realized that the completion +of the temple he was building to the King of the Universe was a +duty or rather a privilege which he owed to his God, to his +brother, and to himself. He knew that certain steps must be taken +and that his temple must be built according to the plan. Today it +seems that the plan is lost, however, for in the majority of cases +Freemasonry is no longer an operative art but is merely a +speculative idea until each brother, reading the mystery of hi s +symbols and pondering over the beautiful allegories unfolded in his +ritual, realizes that he himself contains the keys and the plans so +long lost to his Craft and that if he would ever learn Freemasonry +he must unlock its doors with the key wrought from the base metals +of his own being. + +True Freemasonry is esoteric; it is not a thing of this world. All +that we have here is a link, a doorway, through which the student +may pass into the unknown. Freemasonry has nothing to do with +things of form save that it realizes form is molded by and +manifests the life it contains. Consequently the student is +seeking so to mold his life that the form will glorify the God +whose temple he is slowly building as he awakens one by one the +workmen within himself and directs them to carry out the plan that +h as been given him out of heaven. + +So far as it is possible to discover, ancient Freemasonry and the +beautiful cosmic allegories that it teaches, perpetuated through +hundreds of lodges and ancient mysteries, forms the oldest of the +Mystery Schools;* and its preser- + +* This is a term used by the ancients to designate the esoteric +side of their religious ceremonials. The candidate passing through +these mysteries was initiated into the mysteries of Nature and the +arcane side of natural law. + +vation through the ages has not depended upon itself as an exoteric +body of partly evolved individuals but upon a concealed +brotherhood, the exoteric side of Freemasonry. All the great +mystery, Schools have hierarchies upon the spiritual planes of +Nature which are expressing themselves in this world through creeds +and organizations. The true student seeks to lift himself from the +exoteric body upward spiritually until he joins the esoteric group +which, without a lodge on the physical plane of Nature, is fa r +greater than all the lodges of which it is the central fire. The +spiritual instructors of humanity are forced to labor in the +concrete world with things comprehensible to the concrete mind, and +there man begins to comprehend the meaning of the allegories and +symbols which surround his exoteric work as soon as he prepares +himself to receive them. The true Mason realizes that the work of +the Mystery Schools in the world is of an inclusive rathe r than an +exclusive nature, and that the only lodge which is b road enough to +express his ideals is one whose dome is the heavens, whose pillars +are the corners of creation, whose checker-board floor is composed +of the crossing currents of human emotion and whose altar is the +human heart. Creeds cannot bind the true seeker for truth. +Realizing the unity of all truth, the Mason also realizes that the +hierarchies laboring with him have given him in his varying degrees +the mystic spiritual rituals of all the Mystery S chools in the +world, and if he would fill his place i n the plan he must not +enter this sacred study for what he can get out of it but that he +may learn how to serve. + +In Freemasonry is concealed the mystery of creation, the answer to +the problem of existence, and the path the student must tread in +order to join those who are really the living powers behind the +thrones of modern national and international affairs. The true +student realizes most of all that the taking of degrees does not +make a man a Mason. A Mason is not appointed; he is evolved and he +must realize that the position he holds in the exoteric lodge means +nothing compared to his position in the spiritual l odge of life. +He must forever discard the idea that he can be told or instructed +in the sacred Mysteries or that his being a member of an +organization improves him in any way. He must realize that his +duty is to build and evolve the sacred teachings in his own being: +that nothing but his own purified being can unlock the door to the +sealed libraries of human consciousness, and that his Masonic rites +must eternally be speculative until he makes them opera tive by +living the life of the mystic Mason. His ka rmic responsibilities +increase with his opportunities. Those who are surrounded with +knowledge and opportunity for self-improvement and make nothing of +these opportunities are the lazy workmen who will be spiritually, +if not physically, cast out of the temple of the king. + +The Masonic order is not a mere social organization, but is +composed of all those who have banded themselves together to learn +and apply the principles of mysticism and the occult rites. They +are (or should be) philosophers, sages and sober-minded individuals +who have dedicated thernselves upon the Masonic altar and vowed by +all they hold dear that the world shall be better, wiser, and +happier because they have lived. Those who enter these mystic +rites and pass between the pillars seeking either prestige or +commercial advantage are blasphemers, and while in this world we +may count them as successful, they are the cosmic failures who have +barred themselves out from the true rite whose keynote is +unselfishness and whose workers have renounced the things of earth. + +In ancient times many years of preparation were required before the +neophyte was permitted to enter the temple of the Mysteries. In +this way the shallow, the curious, the faint of heart, and those +unable to withstand the temptations of life were automatically +eliminated by their inability to meet the requirements for +admission. The successful candidate wbo did pass between the +pillars entered the temple, keenly realizing his sublime +opportunity, his divine obligation, and the mystic privilege which +he had earned for himself through years of special preparation. +Only those are truly Masons who enter their temple in reverence, +who seek not the ephemeral things of life but the treasures which +are eternal, whose sole desire is to know the true mystery of the +Craft that they may join as honest workmen those who have gone +before as builders of the Universal Temple. The Masonic ritual is +not a ceremony, but a life to be lived. Those alone are truly +Masons who, dedicating their lives and their fortunes upo n the a +ltar of the living flame, undertake the construction of the one +universal building of which they are the workmen and their God the +living Architect. When we have Masons like this the Craft will +again be operative, the flaming triangle will shine forth with +greater lustre, the dead builder will rise from his tomb, and the +Lost Word so long concealed from the profane will blaze forth again +with the power that makes all things new. + +In the pages that follow have been set down a number of thoughts +for the study and consideration of temple builders, craftsmen and +artisans alike. They are the keys which, if only read, will leave +the student still in ignorance but, if lived, will change the +speculative Masonry of today into the operative Masonry of +tomorrow, when each builder, realizing his own place, will see +things which he never saw before, not because they were not there +but because he was blind. And there are none so blind as those who +will not see. + +THOUGHTLESSNESS + +The noblest tool of the Mason is his mind, but its value is +measured by the use made of it. Thoughtful in all things, the +aspiring candidate to divine wisdom attains reality in sincere +desire, in meditation, and in silence. Let the keynote of the +Craft, and of the Ritual, be written in blazing letters: THINK OF +ME. What is the meaning of this mystic maze of symbols, rites and +rituals? THINK! What does life mean, with the criss-crossings of +human relationship, the endless pageantry of qualities masqueradin +g in a carnival of fools? THINK! What is the plan behind it all, +and who the planner? Where dwells the Great Architect, and what is +the tracing board upon which he designs? THINK! What is the human +soul, and why the endless yearning to ends unknown, along pathways +where each must wander unaccompanied? Why mind, why soul, why +spirit, and in truth, why anything? THINK! Is there an answer? If +so, where will the truth be found? Think, Brothers o f the Craft, +think deeply; for if truth exists, you have it, and if truth be +within the reach of living creature, what other goal is worth the +struggle? + + CHAPTERII + +THE CANDIDATE + +There comes a time in the growth of every living individual thing +when it realizes with dawning consciousness that it is a prisoner. +While apparently free to move and have its being, the struggling +life cognizes through ever greater vehicles its own limitations. +It is at this point that man cries out with greater insistence to +be liberated from the binding ties which, though invisible to +mortal eyes, still chain him with bonds far more terrible than +those of any physical prison. + +Many have read the story of the prisoner of Chillon who paced back +and forth in the narrow confines of his prison cell, while the blue +waters rolled ceaselessly above his head and the only sound that +broke the stillness of his eternal night was the constant swishing +and lapping of the waves. We pity the prisoner in his physical +tomb and we are sad at heart, for we know how life loves liberty. +But there is one prisoner whose plight is far worse than those of +earth. He has not even the narrow confines of a prison cell around +Him; He cannot pace ceaselessly to and fro and wear ruts in the +cobblestones of His dungeon floor. That eternal Prisoner is Life +incarnate within the dark stone walls of matter, with not a single +ray to brighten the blackness of His fate. He fights eternally, +praying in the dark confines of gloomy walls for light and +opportunity. This is the eternal Prisoner who, through the +ceaseless ages of cosmic unfoldment, through forms unnumbered an d +species now unknown, strives eternally to libe rate Himself and +gain self conscious expression, the birthright of every created +thing. He awaits the day when, standing upon the rocks that now +form His shapeless tomb, He may raise His arms to heaven, bathed in +the sunlight of spiritual freedom, free to join the sparkling atoms +and dancing light-beings released from the bonds of prison wall and +tomb. + +Around Life - that wondrous germ in the heart of every living +thing, that sacred Prisoner in His gloomy cell, that Master Builder +laid away in the grave of matter - has been built the wondrous +legend of the Holy Sepulchre. Under allegories unnumbered, the +mystic philosophers of the ages, have perpetuated this wonderful +story, and among the Craft Masons it forms the mystic ritual of +Hiram, the Master Builder, murdered in his temple by the very +builders who should have served him as he labored to perfect the +dwelling place of his God. + +Matter is the tomb. It is the dead wall of substance not yet +awakened into the pulsating energies of Spirit. It exists in many +degrees and forms, not only in the chemical elements which form the +solids of our universe but in finer and more subtle substances. +These, though expressing through emotion and thought, are still +beings of the world of form. These substances form the great cross +of matter which opposes the growth of all things and by opposition +makes all growth possible. It is the great cross o f hydrogen, +nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon upon which even the life germ in +protoplasm is crucified and suspended in agony. These substances +are incapable of giving it adequate expression. The Spirit within +cries out for freedom: freedom to be, to express, to manifest its +true place in the Great Plan of cosmic unfoldment. + +It is this great yearning within the heart of man which sends him +slowly onward toward the gate of the Temple; it is this inner urge +for greater understanding and greater light which brought into +being through the law of necessity the great cosmic Masonic Lodge +dedicated to those seeking union with the Powers of Light that +their prison walls might be removed. This shell cannot be +discarded: it must be raised into union with the Life; each dead, +crystallized atom in the human body tnust be set vibrating and +spinning to a higher rate of consciousness. Through purification, +through knowledge, and through service to his fellow man the +candidate sequentially unfolds these mystic properties, building +better and more perfect bodies through which his higher life +secures even greater manifestation. The expression of man through +constructive thought, emotion, and action liberates the higher +nature from bodies which in their crystallized states are incapa +ble of giving him his natural opportunities. + +In Freemasonry this crystallized substance of matter is called the +grave and represents the Holy Sepulchre. This is the grave within +which the lost Builder lies and with Him are the plans of the +Temple and the Master's Word, and it is this builder, our Grand +Master, whom we must seek and raise from the dead. This noble Son +of Light cries out to us in every expression of matter. Every +stick and stone marks His resting place, and the sprig of acacia +promises that through the long winter of spiritual darkne ss when +the sun does not shine for man, this Light still awaits the day of +liberation when each one of us shall raise Him by the grip of the +Grand Master, the true grip of a Master Mason. We cannot hear this +Voice that calls eternally, but we feel its inner urge. A great +unknown something pulls at our heartstrings. As the ages roll by, +the deep desire to be greater, to live better, and to think God's +thoughts, builds within ourselves the qualifica tions of a +candidate who, when asked why he takes the path , would truly +answer if he knew mentally the things he feels: "I hear a voice +that cries out to me from flora and fauna, from the stones, from +the clouds, from the very heaven itself. Each fiery atom spinning +and twisting in Cosmos cries out to me with the voice of my Master. +I can hear Hiram Abiff, my Grand Master, crying out in his agony, +the agony of life hidden within the darkness of its prison walls, +seeking for the expression which I have denied it, lab oring, to +bring closer the day of its liberation , and I have learned to know +that I am responsible for those walls. My daily actions are the +things which as ruffians and traitors are murdering my God." + +There are many legends of the Holy Sepulchre which for so many +centuries had been in the hands of the infidel and which the +Christian worlds sought to retake in the days of the Crusades. Few +Masons realize that this Holy Sepulchre, or tomb, is in reality +negation and crystallization - matter that has sealed within itself +the Spirit of Life which must remain in darkness until the growth +of each individual being gives it walls of glowing gold and changes +its stones into windows. As we develop better and bet ter vehicles +of expression, these walls slowly expand until at last Spirit rises +triumphant from its tomb and, blessing the very walls that confined +it, raises them to union with itself. + +We may first consider the murderers of Hiram. These three +ruffians, who, when the Builder seeks to leave his temple, strike +him with the tools of his own Craft until finally they slay him and +bring the temple down in destruction upon their own heads, +symbolize the three expressions of our own lower natures which are +in truth the murderers of the good within ourselves. These three +may be called thought, desire, and action. When purified and +transmuted they are three glorious avenues through which may mani +fest the great life power of the three kings, the glowing builders +of the Cosmic Lodge manifesting in this world as spiritual thought, +constructive emotion, and useful daily labor in the various places +and positions where we find ourselves while carrying on the +Master's work. These three form the Flaming Triangle which +glorifies every living Mason, but when crystallized and perverted +they form a triangular prison through which the light cann ot shine +and the Life is forced to languish in the dim darkness of despair, +until man himself through his higher understanding liberates the +energies and powers which are indeed the builders and glorifiers of +his Father's House. + +Now let us consider how these three fiery kings of the dawn became, +through perversion of their manifestation by man, the ruffians who +murdered Hiram - the energizing powers of cosmos which course +through the blood of every living being, seeking to beautify and +perfect the temple they would build according to the plan laid down +on the tracing board by the Master Architect of the universe. +First in the mind is one of the three kings, or rather we shall say +a channel through which he manifests; for King Solo mon is the +power of mind which, perverted, becomes a destroyer who tears down +with the very powers which nourish and build. The right +application of thought, when seeking the answer to the cosmic +problem of destiny, liberates man's spirit which soars above the +concrete through that wonderful power of mind, with its dreams and +its ideals. + +When man's thoughts rise upon the wings of aspiration, when he +pushes back the darkness with the strength of reason and logic, +then indeed the builder is liberated from his dungeon and the light +pours in, bathing him with life and power. This light enables us +to seek more clearly the mystery of creation and to find with +greater certainty our place in the Great Plan, for as man unfolds +his bodies he gains talents with which he can explore the mysteries +of Nature and search for the hidden workings of the Div ine. +Through these powers the Builder is liberated and his consciousness +goes forth conquering and to conquer. These higher ideals, these +spiritual concepts, these altruistic, philanthropic, educative +applications of thought power glorify the Builder; for they give +the power of expression and those who can express themselves are +free. When man can mold his thoughts, his emotions, and his actions +into faithful expressions of his highest ideals then li berty is +his, for ignorance is the darkness of Chaos and knowledge is the +light of Cosmos. + +In spite of the fact that many of us live apparently to gratify the +desires of the body and as servants of the lower nature, still +there is within each of us a power which may remain latent for a +great length of time. This power lives eternities perhaps, and yet +at some time during our growth there comes a great yearning for +freedom, when, having discovered that the pleasures of sense +gratification are eternally elusive and unsatisfying, we make an +examination of ourselves and begin to realize that there a re +greater reasons for our being. It is sometimes reason, sometimes +suffering, sometimes a great desire to be helpful, that brings out +the first latent powers which show that one long wandering in the +darkness is about to take the path that leads to Light. Having +lived life in all its experiences, he has learned to realize that +all the manifestations of being, all the various experiences +through which he passes, are steps leading in one direction; that, +consciously or unconsciously, all souls are being le d to the +portico of the temple where for the first time they see and realize +the glory of Divinity. It is then that they understand the age-old +allegory of the martyred Builder and feel his power within +themselves crying out from the prison of materiality. Nothing else +seems worth while; and, regardless of cost, suffering, or the +taunts of the world, the candidate slowly ascends the steps that +lead to the temple eternal. The reason that governs Cosmos he does +not know, the laws which mold his being he do es not realize, but +he does know that somewhere behind the veil of human ignorance +there is an eternal light toward which step by step he must labor. +With his eyes fixed on the heavens above and his hands clasped in +prayer he passes slowly as a candidate up the steps. In fear and +trembling, yet with a divine realization of good, he raps on the +door and awaits in silence the answer from within. + +CHAPTER III + +THE ENTERED APPRENTICE There are three grand steps in the +unfoldment of the human soul before it completes the dwelling place +of the spirit. These have been caged respectively youth, manhood, +and old age; or, as the Mason would say, the Entered Apprentice, +the Fellow Craft, and the Master Builder. All life passes through +these three grand stages of human consciousness. They can be +listed as the man on the outside looking in, the man going in, and +the man inside. The path of human life is governed as all things +are by the laws of analogy, and as at birth we start our +pilgrimmage through youth, manhood, and old age, so the spiritual +consciousness of man in his cosmic path of unfoldment passes from +unconsciousness to perfect consciousness in the Grand Lodge of the +universe. Before the initiation of the Entered Apprentice degree +can be properly understood and appreciated, certain requirements +must be considered, not merely those of the physical world but also +those of the spiritual world. + +The Mason must realize that his true initiation is a spiritual and +not a physical ritual, and that his initiation into the living +temple of the spiritual hierarchy regulating Freemasonry may not +occur until years after he has taken the physical degree, or +spiritually he may be a Grand Master before he comes into the +world. There are probably few instances in the history of +Freemasonry where the spiritual ordination of the aspiring seeker +took place at the same time as the physical initiation, because the +t rue initiation depends upon the cultivation of certain soul +qualities - an individual and personal matter which is left +entirely to the volition of the mystic Mason and which he must +carry out in silence and alone. + +The court of the tabernacle of the ancient Jews was divided into +three parts: the outer court, the holy place, and the most Holy of +Holies. These three divisions represent the three grand divisions +of human consciousness. The degree of Entered Apprentice is +acquired when the student signifies his intention to take the rough +ashlar which he cuts from the quarry and prepares for the truing of +the Fellow Craft. + +In other words, the first degree is really one of preparation; it +is a material step dealing with material things, for all spiritual +life must be raised upon a material foundation. + +Seven is the number of the Entered Apprentice as it relates to the +seven liberal arts and sciences, and these are the powers with +which the Entered Apprentice must labor before he is worthy to go +onward into the more elevated and advanced degrees. They are much +mistaken who believe that they can reach the spiritual planes of +Nature without first passing through and molding matter into the +expression of spiritual power; for the first stage in the growth of +a Master Mason is mastery of the concrete condition s of life and +the developments of sense centers which will later become channels +for the expression of spiritual truths. + +All growth is a gradual procedure carried on in an orderly, +masterly way, as exemplified by the opening and closing of a lodge. +The universe is divided into planes and these planes are divided +from each other by the rates of vibration which pass through them. +As the spiritual consciousness progresses through the chain, the +lower lose connection with it when it has raised itself above their +level, until finally only the Grand Masters are capable of +remaining in session, and unknown even to the Master Mason it +finally passes back again to the spiritual hierarchy from which it +came. + +Action is the keynote of the Entered Apprentice lodge. All growth +is the result of exercise and the intensifying of vibratory rates. +It is through exercise that the muscles of the human body are +strengthened; it is through the seven liberal arts and sciences +that the human mind receives certain impulses which, in turn, +stimulate internal centers of consciousness. These centers of +consciousness, through still greater development, will later give +fuller expression to these inner powers; but the Entered Appr +entice has for his first duty the awakening of these powers, and, +like the youth of whom he is a symbol, his ideals and labors must +be tied closely to concrete things. For him both points of the +compasses are under the square; for him the reasons which manifest +through the heart and mind - the two polarities of expression are +darkened and concealed beneath the square which measures the block +of bodies. He knows not the reason why; his work is t o follow the +directions of those whose knowledge is greater th an his own; but +as the result of the application of energies, through action and +reaction he slowly builds and evolves the powers of discrimination +and the strength of character which mark the Fellow Craft degree. + +It is obvious that the rough ashlar symbolizes the body. It also +represents cosmic root substance which is taken out of the quarry +of the universe by the first expressions of intelligence and molded +by them into ever finer and more perfect lines until finally it +becomes the perfect stone for the Builder's temple. + +How can emotion manifest save through form? How can mind manifest +until the intricately evolved brain cells of matter have raised +their organic quality to form the ground-work upon which other +things may be based? All students of human mature realize that +every expression of man depends upon organic quality; that in every +living thing this differs; and that the fineness of this matter is +the certain indication of growth - mental, physical or spiritual. + +True to the doctrines of his Craft, the Entered Apprentice must +beautify his temple. He must build within himself by his actions, +by the power of his hand and the tools of his Craft, certain +qualities which make possible his initiation into the higher +degrees of the spiritual lodge. + +We know that the cube block is symbolic of the tomb. It is also +well known that the Entered Apprentice is incapable of rolling away +the stone or of transmuting it into a greater or higher thing; but +it is his privilege to purify and glorify that stone and begin the +great work of preparing it for the temple of his King. + +Few realize that since the universe is made up of individuals in +various stages of development, responsibility is consequently +individual, and everything which man wishes to gain he must himself +build and maintain. If he is to use his finer bodies for the +purpose for which they were intended, he must treat them well, that +they may be good and faithful servants in the great work he is +preparing for. + +The quarries represent the limitless powers of natural resources. +They are symbolic of the practically endless field of human +opportunity; they symbolize the cosmic substances from which man +must gather the stones for his temple. At this stage in his +growth, the Entered Apprentice is privileged to gather the stones +which he wishes to true during his progress through the lodge, for +at this point he symbolizes the youth who is choosing his life +work. He represents the human ego who in the dawn of time gath +ered many blocks and cubes and broken stones from the Great Quarry. +These rough and broken stones that as yet will not fit into +anything are the partially evolved powers and senses with which he +labors. In the first state he must gather these materials, and +those who have not gathered them can never true them. During the +involuntary period of human consciousness, the Entered Apprentice +in the Great Lodge was man, who labored with these rough blocks, +seeking the tools and the power with which to true them . As he +evolves down through the ages, he gains the tools and cosmically +passes on to the degree of Fellow Craft where he trues his ashlar +in harmony with the plans upon the Master's tracing board. This +rough, uncut ashlar has three dimensions, representative of the +three ruffians who at this stage are destroyers of the fourth +dimensional life concealed within the ugly, ill-shaped stone. + +The lost key of the Entered Apprentice is service. Why, he may not +ask; when, he does not know. His work is to do, to act, to express +himself in some way - constructively if possible, but destructively +rather than not at all. Without action, he loses his great work; +without tools, which symbolize the body, he cannot act in an +organized manner. Consequently, it is necessary to master the arts +and sciences which place in his hands intelligent tools for the +expression of energy. Beauty is the keynote to h is ideal. With +his concrete ideals he must beautify all with which he comes in +contact, so that the works of his hand may be acceptable in the +eyes of the Great Architect of the Universe. + +His daily life, in home, business, and society, together with the +realization of the fundamental unity of each with all, form the +base upon which the aspiring candidate may raise a greater +superstructure. In truth he must live the life, the result of +which is the purification of his body, so that the more attenuated +forces of the higher degrees may express themselves through the +finer sensitivity of the receiving pole within himself. When he +reaches this stage in his growth, he is spiritually worthy to co +nsider advancement into a higher degree. This advancement is not +the result of election or ballot, but is an automatic process in +which, having sensitized his consciousness by his life, he thereby +attunes himself to the next succeeding plane of expression. All +initiation is the result of adjustments of the evolving life to the +physical, emotional, and mental planes of consciousness through +which it passes. + + +We may now consider the spiritual requirements of one who feels +that he would mystically correlate himself with that great +spiritual fraternity which, concealed behind the exoteric rite, +forms the living power of the Entered Apprentice lodge: + +1. It is essential that the Entered Apprentice should have studied +sufficiently the subject of anatomy to have at least a general idea +of the physical body, for the entire degree is based upon the +mystery of form. The human body is the highest manifestation of +form which he is capable of analyzing. Consequently, he must +devote himself to the study of his own being and its mysteries and +complexities. + +2. The Entered Apprentice must realize that his body is the living +temple of the living God and treat it accordingly; for when he +abuses or mistreats it he breaks the sacred obligations which he +must assume before he can ever hope to understand the true +mysteries of the Craft. The breaking of his pact with the higher +Life evolving within himself unfailingly invokes the retributive +agencies of Nature. + +3. He must study the problem of the maintenance of bodies through +food, clothing, breathing, and other necessities, as all of these +are important steps in the Entered Apprentice lodge. Those who eat +immoderately, dress improperly, and use only about one-third of +their lung capacity can never have the physical efficiency +necessary for the fullest expression of the higher Life. + +4. He must grow physically and in the expression of concrete +things. Human relationships must be idealized at this time, and he +must seek to unfold all unselfish qualities which are necessary for +the harmonious working of the Mason and his fellow men on the +physical plane of Nature. + +5. He must seek to round off all inequalities. He can best do this +by balancing his mental and physical organisms through the +application and study of the seven liberal arts and sciences. + +Until he is relatively master of these principles on the highest +plane within his own being, he cannot hope spiritually to attract +to himself, through the qualities of his own character, the +life-giving ray of the Fellow Craft. When he reaches this point, +however, he is spiritually ready to hope for membership in a more +advanced degree. + +The Mason must realize that his innermost motives are the index of +his real self, and those who allow social position, financial or +business considerations or selfish and materialistic ideals, to +lead them into the Masonic Brotherhood have thereby automatically +separated themselves from the Craft. They can never do any harm to +Freemasonry by joining because they cannot get in. Ensconced within +the lodge, they may feel that they have deceived the Grand Master +of the Universe, but when the spiritual lodge me ets to carry on +the true work of the Craft, they are disqualified and absent. +Watch fobs, lapel badges, and other insignia do not make Masons; +neither does the ritual ordain them. Masons are evolved through +the self-conscious effort to live up to the highest ideals within +themselves; their lives are the sole insignia of their rank, +greater by far than any visible, tangible credential. + +Bearingy this in mind, it is possible for the unselfish, aspiring +soul to become spiritually and liberally vouched for by the centers +of consciousness as an Entered Apprentice. It means he has taken +the first grand step on the path of personal liberation. He is now +symbolized as the child with the smiling face, for with the +simplicity of a child he places himself under the protection of his +great spiritual Father, willing and glad to obey each of His +commands. Having reached this point and having done th e best it +was possible for him to do, he is in position to hope that the +powers that be, moving in their mysterious manner, may find him +worthy to undertake the second great step in spiritual liberation. + +CHAPTER IV THE FELLOW CRAFT + +Life manifests not only through action on the physical plane, but +through human emotion and sentiment. This is the type of energy +taken up by the student when he starts his labors in the Fellow +Craft. From youth with its smiling face, he passes on to the +greater responsibilities of manhood. + +On the second step of the temple stands a soldier dressed in +shining armor, but his sword is sheathed and a book is in his hand. +He is symbolic of strength, the energy of Mars, and the wonderful +step in spiritual unfoldment which we know as Fellow Craft. +Through each one of us course the fiery rays of human emotion, a +great seething cauldron of power behind each expression of human +energy. Like spirited horses chafing at the bit, like hounds eager +for the chase, the emotional powers cannot be held in che ck, but +break the walls of restraint and pour forth as fiery expressions of +dynamic energy. This great principle of emotion we know as the +second murderer of Hiram. Through the perversion of human emotions +there comes into the world untold sorrow, which through reaction, +manifests in the mental and physical bodies. + +It is strange how divine powers may become perverted until each +expression and urge becomes a ruffian and a murderer. The divine +compassion of the gods manifests in this world of form very +differently than in the realms of light. Divine compassion is +emergized by the same influxes as mortal passions and the lusts of +earth. The spiritual light rays of Cosmos - the Fire Princes of +the Dawn - which seethe and surge through the unregenerate man, are +the impulses which he perverts to murder and hate. The cea seless +power of Chaos, the seething pinwheel spiralds of perpetual motion, +whose majestic cadences are the music of the spheres, are energized +by the same great power that man uses to destroy the highest and +best. The same mystic power that keeps the planets in their orbits +around the solar body, the same energy that keeps each electron +spinning and whirling, the same energy that is building the temple +of God, is now a merciless slave-driver which , unmastered and +uncurbed, strikes the Compassionate One and sends him reeling +backward into the darkness of his prison. Man does not listen to +that little voice which speaks to him in ever loving, ever +sorrowful tones. This voice speaks of the peace accompanying the +constructive application of energy which he must chain if he would +master the powers of creation. How long will it take King Hiram of +Tyre, the warrior on the second step, symbolic of the Fellow Craft +of the Cosmic Lodge, to teach mankind the lessons of sel f-mastery? +The teacher can do it only as he daily depicts the miseries which +are the resilt of uncurbed appetites. The strength of man was not +given to be used destructively but that he might build a temple +worthy to be the dwelling place of the Great Architect of the +universe. God is glorifying himself through the individualized +portions of himself, and is slowly teaching these individualized +portions to understand and glorify the whole. + +The day has come when Fellow Craftsmen must know and apply their +knowledge. The lost key to their grade is the mastery of emotion, +which places the energy of the universe at their disposal. Man can +only expect to be entrusted with great power by proving his ability +to use it constructively and selflessly. When the Mason learns +that the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application +of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the mystery of his +Craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands and +before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to +properly apply energy. He must follow in the footsteps of his +forefather, Tubal-Cain, who with the mighty strength of the war god +hammered his sword into a plowshare. Incessant vigilance over +thought, action, and desire is indispensable to those who wish to +make progress in the unfolding of their own being, and the Fellow +Craft's degree is the degree of transmutation. The hand that slays +must lift the fallen, while the lips given to cursing must be +taught to pray. The heart that hates must learn the mystery of +compassion, as the result of a deeper and more perfect +understanding of man's relation to his brother. The firm, kind +hand of spirit must curb the flaming powers of emotion with an iron +grip. In the realization and application of these principles lies +the key of the Fellow Craft. + +In this degree, the two points of the compass (one higher than the +other), symbolize the heart and mind, and with the expression of +the higher emotions the heart point of the compass is liberated +from the square, which is an instrument used to measure the block +of matter and therefore symbolizes form. + +A large percentage of the people of the world at the present time +are passing through, spiritually, the degree of the Fellow Craft, +with its five senses. The sense perceptions come under the control +of the emotional energies, therefore the development of the senses +is necessary to the constructive expression of the Fellow Craft +power. Man must realize that all the powers which his many years +of need have earned for him have come in order that through them he +may liberate more fully the prisoner within his own being. As the +Fellow Craft degree is the middle of the three, the spiritual duty +of each member is to reach the point of poise or balance, which is +always secured between extremes. The mastery of expression is also +to be found in this degree. The keywords of the Fellow Craft may +be briefly defined as compassion, poise, and transmutation. + +In the Fellow Craft degree is concealed the dynamo of human life. +The Fellow Craft is the worker with elemental fire, which it is his +duty to transmute into spiritual light. The heart is the center of +his activity and it is while in this degree that the human side of +the nature with its constructive emotions should be brought out and +emphasized. But all of these expressions of the human heart must +become transmuted into the emotionless compassion of the gods, who +despite the suffering of the moment, gaze down upon mankind and see +that it is good. + +When the candidate feels that he has reached a point where he is +able to manifest every energizing current and fire-flame in a +constructive, balanced manner and has spiritually lifted the heart +sentiments of the mystic out of the cube of matter, he may then +expect that the degree of Master Mason is not far off, and so may +look forward eagerly to the time of his spiritual ordination into +the higher degree. He should now study himself and realize that he +cannot receive promotion into the spiritual lodge unti l his heart +is attuned to a superior, spiritual influx from the causal planes +of consciousness. + +The following requirements are necessary before the student can +spiritually say that he is a member of the ancient and accepted +rite of the Fellow Craft: + +1. The mastery of emotional outbreaks of all kinds, poise under +trying conditions, kindness in the face of unkindness, and +simplicity with its accompanying power. These points show that the +seeker is worthy of being taught by a Fellow Craftsman. + +2. The mastery of the animal energies, the curbing of passion and +desire, and the control of the lower nature mark the faithful +attempts on the part of the student to be worthy of the Fellow +Craft. + +3. The understanding and mastery of the creative forces, the +consecration of them to the unfolding of the spiritual nature, and +a proper understanding of their physical application, are necessary +steps at this stage of the student's growth. + +4. The transmutation of personal affection into impersonal +compassion shows that the Fellow Craftsman truly understands his +duties and is living in a manner worthy of his order. +Personalities cannot bind the true second degree member, for having +raised one point of the compasses he now realizes that all personal +manifestations are governed by impersonal principles. + +5. At this point the candidate consecrates the five senses to the +study of human problems with the unfolding of sense centers as the +motive; for he realizes that the five senses are keys, the proper +application of which will give him material for spiritual +transmutation if he will apply to them the common divisor of +analogy. + +The Entered Apprentice may be termed a materialistic degree. The +Fellow Craft is religious and mystical, while the Master Mason is +occult or philosophical. Each of these is a degree in the +unfoldment of a connected life and intelligence, revealing in ever +fuller expression the gradual liberation of the Master from the +trianglar cell of threefold negation which marks the early stage of +individualization. + +CHAPTER V THE MASTER MASON + +On the upper steps of spiritual unfoldment stands the Master Mason, +who spiritually represents the graduate from the school of esoteric +learning. In the ancient symbols he is represented as an old man +leaning upon a staff, his long white beard upon his chest, and his +deep, piercing eyes sheltered by the brows of a philosopher. He is +in truth old, not in years, but in wisdom and understanding, which +are the only true measurement of age. Through years and lives of +labor he has found the staff of life and tr uth upon which he +leans. He no longer depends upon the words of others but upon the +still voice that speaks from the heart of his own being. There is +no more glorious position that a man may hold than that of a Master +Builder, who has risen by labor through the degrees of human +consciousness. Time is the differentiation of eternity devised by +man to measure the passage of human events. On the spiritual +planes of Nature it is the space or distance between the s tages of +spiritual growth and hence is not m easurable by material means. +Many a child comes into this world a Grand Master of the Masonic +School, while many a revered and honored brother passes silently to +rest without having gained admittance to its gate. The Master +Mason is one whose life is full, pressed down and brimming over +with the experience he has gained in his slow pilgrimage up the +winding stairs. + +The Master Mason embodies the power of the human mind, that +connecting link which binds heaven and earth together in an endless +chain. His spiritual light is greater because he has evolved a +higher vehicle for its expression. Above even constructive action +and emotion soars the power of thought which swiftly flies on wings +to the source of Light. The mind is the highest form of his human +expression and he passes into the great darkness of the inner room +illuminated only by the fruits of reason. The glor ious privileges +of a Master Mason are in keeping with his greater knowledge and +wisdom. From the student he has blossomed forth as the teacher; +from the kingdom of those who follow he has joined that little +group who must always lead the way. For him the Heavens have +opened and the Great Light has bathed him in its radiance. The +Prodigal Son, so long a wanderer in the regions of darkness, has +returned again to his Father's house. The voice speaks from the +Heavens, its power thrilling the Master until hi s own being seems +filled with its divinity, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom +I am well pleased." The ancients taught that the sun was not a +source of light, life, or power, but a medium through which life +and light were reflected into physical substance. The Master Mason +is in truth a sun, a great reflector of light, who radiates through +his organism, purified by ages of preparation, the glorious power +which is the light of the Lodge. He, in truth, has become the +spokesman of the Most High. He st ands between the glowing fire +light and the world. Through him passes Hydra, the great snake, +and from its month there pours to man the light of God. His symbol +is the rising sun, for in him the globe of day has indeed risen in +all its splendor from the darkness of the night, illuminating the +immortal East with the first promise of approaching day. + +With a sigh the Master lays aside his tools. For him the temple is +nearing completion, the last stones are being placed, and he slakes +his lime with a vague regret as he sees dome and minaret rise +through the power of his handiwork. The true Master does not long +for rest, and as he sees the days of his labor close, a sadness +weighs upon his heart. Slowly the brothers of his Craft leave him, +each going his respective way; and, climbing step by step, the +Master stands alone on the pinnacle of the temple. One stone must +yet be placed, but this he cannot find. Somewhere it lies +concealed. In prayer he kneels, asking the powers that be to aid +him in his search. The light of the sun shines upon him and bathes +him in a splendor celestial. Suddenly a voice speaks from the +Heavens, saying, "The temple is finished and in my faithful Master +is found the missing stone." + +Both points of the compasses are now lifted from under the square. +The divine is liberated from its cube; heart and mind alike are +liberated from the symbol of mortality, and as emotion and thought +they unite for the glorification of the greatest and the highest. +Then the Sun and Moon are united and the Hermetic Degree is +consummated. + +The Master Mason is afforded opportunities far beyond the reach of +ordinary man, but he must not fail to realize that with every +opportunity comes a cosmic responsibility. It is worse by far to +know and not to do than never to have known at all. He realizes +that the choice of avoiding responsibility is no longer his and +that for him all problems must be met and solved. The only joy in +the heart of the Master is the joy of seeing the fruits of his +handiwork. It can be truly said of the Master that throug h +suffering he has learned to be glad, through weeping he has learned +to smile, and through dying he has learned to live. The +purification and probationship of his previous degrees have so +spiritualized his being that he is in truth a glorious example of +God's Plan for His children. The greatest sermon he can preach, +the greatest lesson he can teach, is that of standing forth a +living proof of the Eternal Plan. The Master Mason is not +ordained: h e is the natural product of cause and effect, and none +but those who live the cause can produce the effect. The Master +Mason, if he be truly a Master, is in communication with the unseen +powers that move the destinies of life. As the Eldest Brother of +the lodge, he is the spokesman for the spiritual hierarchies of his +Craft. He no longer follows the direction of others, but on his +own tracing board he lays out the plans which his brothers are to +follow. He realizes this, and so lives that every line and plan +which he gives out is inspired by the divine with in h imself. His +glorious opportunity to be a factor in the growth of others comes +before all else. At the seat of mercy he kneels, a faithful +servant of the Highest within himself and worthy to be given +control over the lives of others by having first controlled +himself. + +Much is said concerning the loss of the Master's Word and how the +seekers go out to find it but bring back only substitutes. The +true Master knows that those who go out can never find the secret +trust. He alone can find it who goes within. The true Master +Builder has never lost the Word but has cherished it in the +spiritual locket of his own being. From those who have the eyes to +see, nothing is concealed; to those who have the right to know, all +things are open books. The true Word of the three Grand Masters +has never been concealed from those who have the right to know it +nor has it ever been revealed to those who have not prepared a +worthy shrine to contain it. The Master knows, for he is a Temple +Builder. Within the setting of his own bodies, the Philosopher's +Stone is placed; for in truth it is the heart of the Phoenix, that +strange bird which rises with renewed youth from the ashes of its +burned body. When the Master's heart is as pure and white as the +diamond that he wears, he will then become a living stone-the crown +jewel in the diadem of his Craft. + +The Word is found when the Master himself is ordained by the living +hand of God, cleansed by living water, baptized by living fire, a +Priest-King after the Order of Melchizedek, who is above the law. + +The geat work of the Master Mason can be called the art of balance. +To him is given the work of balancing the triangle that it may +blaze forth with the glory of the Divine Degree. The triple +energies of thought, desire, and action must be united in a +harmonious blending of expression. He holds in his hands the +triple keys; he wears the triple crown of the ancient Magus, for he +is in truth the King of heaven, earth, and hell. Salt, sulphur, +and mercury are the elements of his work and with the philosophi +cal mercury he seeks to blend all powers to the glorifying of one +end. + +Behind the degree of Master Mason, there is another not known to +earth. Far above him stretch other steps concealed by the blue +veil which divides the seen from the unseen. The true Brother +knows this, therefore he works with an end in view far above the +concept of mortal mind. He seeks to be worthy to pass behind that +veil and join that band who, unhonored and unsung, carry the +responsibilities of human growth. His eyes are fixed forever on +the Seven Stars which shine down from somewhere above the uppe r +rung of the ladder. With hope, faith, and charity he climbs the +steps, and whispering the Master's Word to the Keeper of the Gates, +passes on behind the veil. It is then, and then only, that a true +Mason is born. Only behind this veil does the mystic student come +into his own. The things which we see around us are but +forms-promises of a thing unnamed, symbols of a truth unknown. It +is in the spiritual temple built without the voice of wo rkmen or +the sound of hammer that the true initiation is given, and there, +robed in the simple lambskin of a purified body, the student +becomes a Master Mason, chosen out of the world to be an active +worker in the name of the Great Architect. It is there alone, +unseen by mortal eyes, that the Greater Degrees are given and there +the soul radiating the light of Spirit becomes a living; star in +the blue canopy of the Masonic lodge. + + +TRANSMUTATION + +Masonry is eternal truth, personified, idealized, and yet made +simple. Eternal truth alone can serve it. Virtue is its priest, +patience its warden, illumination its master. The world cannot know +this, however, save when Masons in their daily life prove that it +is so. Its truth is divine, and is not to be desecrated or defamed +by the thoughtlessness of its keepers. Its temple is a holy place, +to be entered in reverence. Material thoughts and material +dissensions must be left without its gate. They may not enter. +Only the pure of heart, regenerated and transmuted, may pass the +sanctity of its veil. The schemer has no place in its ranks, nor +the materialist in its shrine; for Masons walk on hallowed ground, +sanctified by the veneration of ages. Let the tongue be stilled, +let the heart be stilled, let the mind be stilled. In reverence +and in the silence, stillness shall speak: the voice of stillness +is the voice of the Creator. Show your light and yo ur power to +men, but before God what have you to offe r, save in humility? Your +robes, your tinsel, and your jewels mean naught to Him, until your +own body and soul, gleaming with the radiance of perfection, become +the living ornaments of your Lodge. + +THE PRESENCE OF THE MASTER + +The Mason believes in the Great Architect, the living keystone of +creation's plan, the Master of all Lodges, without whose spirit +there is no work. Let him never forget that the Master is near. +Day and night let him feet the presence of the Supreme or +Overshadowing One. The All-Seeing Eye is upon him. Day and night +this great Orb measures his depths, seeing into his innermost soul +of souls, judging his life, reading his thoughts, measuring his +aspirations, and rewarding his sincerity. To this All-Seein g One +he is accountable; to none other must he account. This Spirit +passes with him out of the Lodge and measures the Mason in the +world. This Spirit is with him when he buys and sells. It is with +him in his home. By the light of day and by the darkness of night +it judges him. It hears each thoughtless word. It is the silent +witness to every transaction of life, the silent Partner of every +man. By the jury of his acts, each man is judged. Let e very Mason +know that his obligations include not only those w ithin the narrow +Lodge, bordered by walls of stone and brick, but those in the Great +Lodge, walled only by the dome of heaven. The Valley of +Jehoshaphat waits for him who is false to any creature, as surely +as it waited for the breakers of the Cosmic oath. + +CHAPTER VI + +THE QUALIFICATIONS OF A TRUE MASON + +Every true Mason has come into the realization that there is but +one Lodge - that is, the Universe - and but one Brotherhood, +composed of everything that moves or exists in any of the planes of +Nature. He realizes that the Temple of Solomon is really the +Temple of the Solar Man -Sol-Om-On - the King of the Universe +manifesting through his three primordial builders. He realizes +that his vow of brotherhood and fraternity is universal, and that +mineral, plant, animal, and man are all included in the true Mas +onic Craft. His duty as an elder brother to all the kingdoms of +Nature beneath him is well understood by the true Craftsman, who +would rather die than fail in this, his great obligation. He has +dedicated his life upon the altar of his God and is willing and +glad to serve the lesser through the powers he has gained from the +greater. The mystic Mason, in building the eyes that see behind the +apparent ritual, recognizes the oneness of life manif esting +through the diversity of form. + +The true disciple of ancient Masonry has given up forever the +worship of personalities. With his greater insight, he realizes +that all forms and their position in material affairs are of no +importance to him compared to the life which is evolving within. +Those who allow appearances or worldly expressions to deter them +from their self-appointed tasks are failures in Masonry, for +Masonry is an abstract science of spiritual unfoldment. Material +prosperity is not the measure of soul growth. The true Mason r +ealizes that behind these diverse forms there is one connected Life +Principle, the spark of God in all living things. It is this Life +which he considers when measuring the worth of a brother. It is to +this Life that he appeals for a recognition of spiritual Unity. He +realizes that it is the discovery of this spark of Unity which +makes him a conscious member of the Cosmic Lodge. Most of all, he +must learn to understand that this divine spark shines out as +brightly from the body of a foe as it does from t he dearest +friend. The true Mason has learned to be divinely impersonal in +thought, action, and desire. + +The true Mason is not creed-bound. He realizes with the divine +illumination of his lodge that as Mason his religion must be +universal: Christ, Buddha or Mohammed, the name means little, for +he recognizes only the light and not the bearer. He worships at +every shrine, bows before every altar, whether in temple, mosque or +cathedral, realizing with his truer understanding the oneness of +all spiritual truth. All true Masons know that they only are +heathen who, having great ideals, do not live up to them. Th ey +know that all religions are but one story told in divers ways for +peoples whose ideals differ but whose great purpose is in harmony +with Masonic ideals. North, east, south and west stretch the +diversities of human thought, and while the ideals of man +apparently differ, when all is said and the crystallization of form +with its false concepts is swept away, one basic truth remains: all +existing things are Temple Builders, laboring for a single end. No +true Mason can be narrow, for his Lodge is the divine expression of +all broadness. There is no place for little minds in a great work. + +The true Mason must develop the powers of observation. He must +seek eternally in all the manifestations of Nature for the things +which he has lost because he failed to work for them. He must +become a student of human nature and see in those around him the +unfolding and varying expressions of one connected spiritual +Intelligence. The great spiritual ritual of his lodge is enacted +before him in every action of his fellow man. The entire Masonic +initiation is an open secret, for anyone can see it played ou t on +the city street corners as well as in the untracked wilderness. +The Mason has sworn that every day he will extract from life its +message for him and build it into the temple of his God. He seeks +to learn the things which will make him of greater service in the +Divine Plan, a better instrument in the hands of the Great +Architect, who is laboring eternally to unfold life through the +medium of living things. The Mason realizes, moreover, tha t his +vows, taken of his own free will and accord, give him th e divine +opportunity of being a living tool in the hands of a Master +Workman. + +The true Master Mason enters his lodge with one thought uppermost +in his mind: "How can I, as an individual, be of greater use in the +Universal Plan? What can I do to be worthy to comprehend the +mysteries which are unfolded here? How can I build the eyes to see +the things which are concealed from those who lack spiritual +understanding?" The true Mason is supremely unselfish in every +expression and application of the powers that have been entrusted +to him. No true Brother seeks anything for himself, but uns +elfishly labors for the good of all. No person who assumes a +spiritual obligation for what he can get out of it is worthy of +applying for the position even of water-carrier. The true Light +can come only to those who, asking nothing, gladly give all to it. + +The true brother of the Craft, while constantly striving to improve +himself, mentally, physically, and spiritually through the days of +his life, never makes his own desires the goal for his works. He +has a duty and that duty is to fit into the plans of another. He +must be ready at any hour of the day or night to drop his own +ideals at the call of the Builder. The work must be done and he +has dedicated his life to the service of those who know the bonds +of neither time nor space. He must be ready at any moment's notice +and his life should be turned into preparing himself for that call +which may come when he least expects it. The Master Mason knows +that those most useful to the Plan are those who have gained the +most from the practical experiences of life. It is not what goes +on within the tiled lodge which is the basis of his greatness, but +rather the way in which he meets the problems of daily life. The +true Masonic student is known by his brotherly a ctions and common +sense. + +Every Mason knows that a broken vow brings with it a terrible +penalty. Let him also realize that failure to live mentally, +spiritually, and morally up to one's highest ideals constitutes the +greatest of all broken oaths. When a Mason swears that he will +devote his life to the building of his Father's house and then +defiles his living temple through the perversion of mental power, +emotional force, and active energy, he is breaking a vow which +imposes not hours but ages of misery. If he is worthy to be a M +ason, he must be great enough to restrain the lower side of his own +nature which is daily murdering his Grand Master. He must realize +that a misdirected life is a broken vow and that daily service, +purification, and the constructive application of energy is a +living invocation which builds within and draws to him the power of +the Creator. His life is the only prayer acceptable in the eyes of +the Most High. An impure life is a broken trust; a destructive +action is a living curse; a narrow mind is a strang le-cord around +the throat of God. + +All true Masons know that their work is not secret, but they +realize that it must remain unknown to all who do not live the true +Masonic life. Yet if the so-called secrets of Freemasonry were +shouted from the housetops, the Fraternity would be absolutely +safe; for certain spiritual qualities are necessary before the real +Masonic secrets can be understood by the brethren themselves. Hence +it is that the alleged "exposures" of Freemasonry, printed by the +thousands and tens of thousands since 1730 down to the present +hour, cannot injure the Fraternity. They reveal merely the outward +forms and ceremonies of Freemasonry. Only those who have been +weighed in the balance and found to be true, upright, and square +have prepared themselves by their own growth to appreciate the +inner meanings of their Craft. To the rest of their brethren +within or without the lodge their sacred rituals must remain, as +Shakespeare might have said, "Words, words, words." Within the +Mason's own being is concealed the Power, which, blazi ng forth +from his purified being, constitutes the Builder's Word. His life +is the sole password which admits him to the true Masonic Lodge. +His spiritual urge is the sprig of acacia which, through the +darkness of ignorance, still proves that the spiritual fire is +alight. Within himself he must build those qualities which will +make possible his true understanding of the Craft. He can show the +world only forms which mean nothing; the life within is fo rever +concealed until the eye of Spirit reveals it. + +The Master Mason realizes charity to be one of the greatest traits +which the Elder Brothers have unfolded, which means not only +properly regulated charity of the purse but charity in thought and +action. He realizes that all the workmen are not on the same step, +but wherever each may be, he is doing the best he can according to +his light. Each is laboring with the tools that he has, and he, as +a Master Mason, does not spend his time in criticizing but in +helping them to improve their tools. Instead of bla ming poor +tools, let us always blame ourselves for having them. The Master +Mason does not find fault; he does not criticize nor does he +complain, but with malice towards none and charity towards all he +seeks to be worthy of his Father's trust. In silence he labors, +with compassion he suffers, and if the builders strike him as he +seeks to work with them, his last word will be a prayer for them. +The greater the Mason, the more advanced in his Craft, the more +fatherly he grows, the walls of his Lodge broade ning out until all +living things are sheltered and guarded within the blue folds of +his cape. From laboring with the few he seeks to assist all, +realizing with his broader understanding the weaknesses of others +but the strength of right. + +A Mason is not proud of his position. He is not puffed up by his +honor, but with a sinking heart is eternally ashamed of his own +place, realizing that it is far below the standard of his Craft. +The farther he goes, the more he realizes that he is standing on +slippery places and if he allows himself for one moment to lose his +simplicity and humility, a fall is inevitable. A true Mason never +feels himself worthy of his Craft. A student may stand on the top +of Fool's Mountain self-satisfied in his position , but the true +Brother is always noted for his simplicity. + +A Mason cannot be ordained or elected by ballot. He is evolved +through ages of self-purification and spiritual transmutation. +There are thousands of Masons who are brethren in name only, for +their failure to exemplify the ideals of their Craft makes them +unresponsive to the teachings and purpose of Freemasonry. The +Masonic life forms the first key of the Temple and without this +key, none of the doors can be opened. When this fact is better +realized and lived, Freemasonry will awake, and speak the Word s o +long withheld. The speculative Craft will then become operative, +and the Ancient Wisdom so long concealed will rise from the ruins +of its temple as the greatest spiritual truth yet revealed to man. + +The true Master Mason recognizes the value of seeking for truth +wherever he can find it. It makes no difference if it be in the +enemy's camp; if it be truth, he will go there gladly to secure it. +The Masonic Lodge is universal; therefore all true Masons will seek +through the extremities of creation for their Light. The true +brother of the Craft knows and applies one great paradox. He must +search for the high things in lowly places and find the lowly +things in high places. The Mason who feels holier than his fellow +man has raised a barrier around himself through which no light can +pass, for the one who in truth is the greatest is the servant of +all. Many brethren make a great mistake in building a wall around +their secrets, for they succeed only in shutting out their own +light. Their divine opportunity is at hand. The time has come when +the world needs the Ancient Wisdom as never before. Let the Mason +stand forth and by living the doctrines which he preaches show to +his brother man the glory of his work. He holds the keys to truth; +let him unlock the door, and with his life and not his words preach +the doctrine which he has so long professed. + +The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man were united in the +completion of the Eternal Temple, the Great Work, for which all +things came into being and through which all shall glorify their +Creator. + +MASONS, AWAKE! + +Your creed and your Craft demand the best that is in you. They +demand the sanctifying of your life, the regeneration of your body, +the purification of your soul, and the ordination of your spirit. +Yours is the glorious opportunity; yours is the divine +responsibility. Accept your task and follow in the footsteps of +the Master Masons of the past, who with the flaming spirit of the +Craft have illumined the world. You have a great privilege - the +privilege of illumined labor. You may know the ends to which you +work, while others must struggle in darkness. Your labors are not +to be confined to the tiled Lodge alone, for a Mason must radiate +the qualities of his Craft. Its light must shine in his home and +in his business, glorifying his association with his fellow men. +In the Lodge and out of the Lodge, the Mason must represent the +highest fruitage of sincere endeavor. + +EPILOGUE THE PRIEST OF RA + +What words are there in modern language to describe the great +temple of Ammon Ra? It now stands amidst the sands of Egypt a pile +of broken ruins, but in the heyday of its glory it rose a forest of +plumed pillars holding up roofs of solid sandstone, carved by hands +long laid to rest into friezes of lotus blossoms and papyrus and +colored lifelike by pigments the secrets of which were lost with +the civilization that discovered them. + +A checkerboard floor of black and white blocks stretched out until +it was lost among the wilderness of pillars. From the massive +walls the impassive faces of gods unnamed looked down upon the +silent files of priests who kept alight the altar fires, whose +feeble glow alone alighted the massive chambeors throughout the +darkness of an Egyptian night. It was a weird, impressive scene, +and the flickering lights sent strange, ghostly forms scurrying +among the piles of granite which rose like mighty altars from the +darkness below to be lost in the shadows above. + +Suddenly a figure emerged from the shadows, carrying in his hand a +small oil lamp which pierced the darkness like some distant star, +bringing into strange relief the figure of him who bore it. He +appeared to be old, for his long beard and braided hair were quite +gray, but his large black eyes shone with a fire seldom seen even +in youth. He was robed from head to foot in blue and gold, and +around his forehead was coiled a snake of precious metal, set with +jewelled eyes that gave out flashes of light. Neve r had the light +of Ra's chamber shone on a grander head or a form more powerful +than that of the high priest of the temple. He was the mouthpiece +of the gods and the sacred wisdom of ancient Egypt was impressed in +fiery letters upon his soul. As he crossed the great room - in one +hand the sceptre of the priestcraft, in the other the tiny lamp - +he was more like a spirit visitor from beyond the environs of death +than a physical being, for his jewelled san dals made no sound and +the sheen from his robes form ed a halo of light around his stately +form. + +Down through the silent passageways, lined with their massive +pillars, passed the phantom figure - down steps lined with kneeling +sphinxes and through avenues of crouching lions the priest picked +his way until at last he reached a vaulted chamber whose marble +floor bore strange designs traced in some language long forgotten. +Each angle of the many-sided and dimly-lighted room was filled by a +seated figure carved in stone, so massive that its head and +shoulders were lost in shadows no eye could pierce. + +In the center of this mystic chamber stood a great chest of some +black stone carved with serpents and strange winged dragons. The +lid was a solid slab, weighing hundreds of pounds, without handle +of any kind and the chest apparently had no means of being opened +without the aid of some herculean power. + +The high priest leaned over and from the lamp he carried lighted +the fire upon an altar that stood near, sending the shadows of that +weird chamber scurrying into the most distant corners. As the +flame rose, it was reflected from the great stone faces above, +which seemed to stare at the black coffer in the center of the room +with their strange, sightless eyes. + +Raising his serpent-wound staff and facing the chest of sombre +marble, the priest called out in a voice that echoed and re-echoed +from every nook and cranny of the ancient temple: + +"Aradamas, come forth!" + +Then a strange thing happened. The heavy slab that formed the +cover of the great coffer slowly raised as though lifted by unseen +hands and there emerged from its dark recesses a slim, white-clad +figure with his forearms crossed on his breast-the figure of a man +perhaps thirty years old, his long, black hair hanging down upon +his white-robed shoulders in strange contrast to the seamless +garment that he wore. His face, devoid of emotion, was as handsome +and serene as the great face of Ammon Ra himself that gazed down +upon the scene. Silently Aradamas stepped from the ancient tomb +and advanced slowly toward the high priest. When about ten paces +from the earthly representative of the gods, he paused, unfolded +his arms, and extended them across his chest in salutation. In one +hand he carried a cross with a ring as the upper arm and this he +proffered to the priest. Aradamas stood in silence as the high +priest, raising his sceptre to one of the great stone figures, +addressed an invocation to the Sun-God of the universe. This +finished, he then addressed the youthful figure as follows: + +"Aradamas, you seek to know the mystery of creation, you ask that +the divine illumination of the Thrice-Greatest and the wisdom that +for ages has been the one gift the gods would shower upon mankind, +be entrusted to you. Little you understand of the thing you ask, +but those who know have said that he who proves worthy may receive +the truth. Therefore, stand you here today to prove your divine +birthright to the teaching that you ask." + +The priest pronounced these words slowly and solemnly and then +pointed with his sceptre to a great dim archway surmounted by a +winged globe of gleaming gold. + +"Before thee, up those steps and through those passageways, lies +the path that leads to the eye of judgment and the feet of Ammon +Ra. Go, and if thy heart be pure, as pure as the garment that thou +wearest, and if thy motive be unselfish, thy feet shall not stumble +and thy being shall be filled with light. But remember that Typhon +and his hosts of death lurk in every shadow and that death is the +result of failure." + +Aradamas turned and again folded his arms over his breast in the +sign of the cross. As he walked slowly through the somber arch, the +shadows of the great Unknown closed over him who had dedicated his +life to the search for the Eternal. The priest watched him until +he was lost to sight among the massive pillars beyond the shent +span that divided the living from the dead. Then slowly falling on +his knees before the gigantic statue of Ra and raising his eyes to +the shadows that through the long night conceal ed the face of the +Sun-God, he prayed that the youth might pass from the darkness of +the temple pillars to the light he sought. + + +It seemed that for a second a glow played around the face of the +enormous statue and a strange hush of peace filled the ancient +temple. The high priest sensed this, for rising, he relighted his +lamp and walked slowly away. His beacon of light shone fainter and +fainter in the distance, and finally was lost to view among the +papyrus blooms of the temple pillars. All that remained were the +dying flames on the altar, which sent strange flickering glows over +the great stone coffer and the twelve judges of the Egyptian dead. + +In the meantime, Aradamas, his hands still crossed on his breast, +walked slowly onward and upward until the last ray from the burning +altar fire was lost to view among the shadows far behind. Through +years of purification he had prepared himself for the great ordeal, +and with a purified body and a balanced mind, he wended his way in +and out amoung the pillars that loomed about him. As he walked +along, there seemed to radiate from his being a faint golden glow +which illuminated the pillars as he passed the m. He seemed a +ghostly form amid a grove of ancient trees. + +Suddenly the pillars widened out to form another vaulted room, +dimly lit by a reddish haze. As Aradamas proceeded, there appeared +around him swirling wisps of this scarlet light. First they +appeared as swiftly moving clouds, but slowly they took form, and +strange misty figures in flowing draperies hovered in the air and +held out long swaying arms to stay his progress. Wraiths of ruddy +mist hovered about him and whispered soft words into his ears, +while weird music, like the voice of the storm and the cri es of +night birds, resounded through the lofty halls. Still Aradamas +walked on calm and masterful, his fine, spiritual face outlined by +his raven locks in strange contrast to the sinuous forms that +gathered around and tried to lure him from his purpose. Unmindful +of strange forms that beckoned from ghostly archways and the +pleading of soft voices, he passed steadily on his way with but one +thought in his mind: + +"Fiat Lux!" (Let there be light.) + +The ghastly music grew louder and louder, terminating at last in a +mighty roar. The very walls shook; the dancing forms swayed like +flickering candle shadows and, still pleading and beckoning, +vanished among the pillars of the temple. + +As the temple walls tottered, Aradamas paused; then with slow +measured step he resumed his search for some ray of light, finding +always darkness deeper than before. Suddenly before him loomed +another doorway, flanked on either side by an obelisk of carved +marble, one black and the other white. Through the doorway glowed +a dim light, concealed by a gossamer veil of blue silk. + +As Aradamas slowly climbed the flight of steps leading to the +doorway, there materialized upon the ground at his feet a swirl of +lurid mist. In the faint glow that it cast, it twisted like some +oily gas, filling the entire chamber with a loathsome miasma. Then +out of this cloud issued a gigantic form - half human, half +reptile. In its bloodshot eyes burned ruddy pods of demon fire, +while great claw-like hands reached out to enfold and crush the +slender figure that confronted it. Aradamas wavered for a s ingle +instant as the horrible apparition lunged forward, its size doubly +magnified in the iridescent fog. Then the white-robed neophyte +again slowly advanced, his arms still crossed on his breast. He +raised his fine face, illumined by a divine light, and courageously +faced the hideous specter. As he confronted the menacing form, for +an instant it loomed over him like a towering demon. Suddenly +Aradamas raised the cross he carried and held it u p before the +monster. As he did so, the Crux Ansata gleamed with a wondrous +golden light, which, striking the oily, scaly monster, seemed to +dissolve its every particle into golden sparks. As the last of the +demon guardians vanished before the rays of the cross, a bolt of +lightning flashed through the ancient hallways and, striking the +veil that hung between the obelisks, rent it down the center and +disclosed a vaulted chamber with a circular dome, dimly lighted by +invisible lamps. + +Bearing his now flaming cross, Aradamas entered the room and +instinctively gazed upward to the lofty dome. There, floating in +space, far above his head, he saw a great closed eye surrounded by +fleecy clouds and rainbow colors. Long Aradamas gazed upon the +wonderful sight, for he knew that it was the Eye of Horus, the +All-Seeing Eye of the gods. + +As he stood there, he prayed that the will of the gods might be +made known unto him and that in some way he might be found worthy +to open that closed eye in the temple of the living God. + +As he stood there gazing upward, the eyelid flickered. As the +great orb slowly opened, the chamber was filled with a dazzling, +blinding light that seemed to consume the very stones with fire. +Aradamas staggered. It seemed as if every atom of his being was +scorched by the effulgence of that glow. He instinctively closed +his eyes and now he feared to open them, for in that terrific blaze +of splendor it seemed that only blindness would follow his action. +Little by little, a strange feeling of peace and ca lm descended +upon him and at length he dared to open his eyes to find that the +glare was gone, the entire chamber was bathed in a soft, wondrous +glow from the mighty Eye in the ceiling. The white robe he had +worn had also given place to one of living fire which blazed as +though with the reflection of thousands of lesser eyes from the +divine orb above. As his eyes became accustomed to the glow, he +saw that he was no longer alone. He was surrounded by twe lve +white-robed figures who, bowing before him, held up strange +insignia wrought from living gold. + +As Aradamas looked, all the figures pointed, and as he followed the +direction of their hands, he saw a staircase of living light that +led far up into the dome and passed the Eye in the ceiling. + +With one voice, the twelve said: "Yonder lies the way of +liberation." + +Without a moment's hesitation, Aradamas mounted the staircase, and +with feet that seemed to barely touch the steps, climbed upward +into the dawn of a great unknown. At last, after climbing many +steps, he reached a doorway that opened as he neared it. The +breath of morning air fanned his cheek and a golden ray of sunshine +played among the waves of his dark hair. He stood on the top of a +mighty pyramid, before him a blazing altar. In the distance, far +over the horizon, the rolling sands of the Egyptian de sert +reflected the first rays of the morning sun which, like a globe of +golden fire, rose again out of the eternal East. As Aradamus stood +there, a voice that seemed to issue from the very heavens chanted a +strange song, and a hand, reaching out as it were from the globe of +day itself, placed a serpent wrought of gyld upon the brow of the +new initiate. + +"Behold Khepera, the rising sun! For as he brings the mighty globe +of day out of the darkness of night, between his claws, so for thee +the Sun of Spirit has risen from the darkness of night and in the +name of the living God, we hail thee Priest of Ra." + +SO MOTE IT BE + +ADDENDA THE ROBE OF BLUE AND GOLD + +Hidden in the depths of the unknown, three silent beings weave the +endless thread of human fate. They are called the Sisters, known +to mythology as the Norns or Fates who incessantly twist between +their fingers a tiny cord, which one day is to be woven into a +living garment - the coronation robe of the priest-king. + +To the mystics and philosophers of the world this garment is known +under many names. To some it is the simple yellow robe of +Buddahood. By the ancient Jews it was symbolized as the robe of +the high priest, the Garment of Glory unto the Lord. To the +Masonic brethren, it is the robe of Blue and Gold - the Star of +Bethlehem - the Wedding Garment of the Spirit. + +Three Fates weave the threads of this living garment, and man +himself is the creator of his Fates. The triple thread of thought, +action, and desire binds him when he enters the sacred place or +seeks admittance into the tiled lodge, but later this same cord is +woven into a splendid garment whose purified folds clothe the +sacred spark of his being. + +We all like to be well dressed. Robes of velvet and ermine stand +for symbols of rank and glory; but too many ermine capes have +covered empty hearts, too many crowns have rested on the brows of +tyrants. These are symbols of earthly things and in the world of +matter are too often misplaced. The true coronation robe - the +garment molded after the pattern of heaven, the robe of glory of +the Master Mason - is not of the earth; for it tells of his +spiritual growth, his deeper understanding, and his consecrated +life. The garments of the high priest of the tabernacle were but +symbols of his own body, which, purified and transfigured, +glorified the life within. The notes of the tiny silver bells that +tinkled with never-ending music from the fringe of his vestments +told of a life harmonious, while the breastplate which rested amid +the folds of the ephod reflected the gleams of heavenly truth from +the facets of its gems. + +There is another garment without a seam which we are told was often +worn by the ancient brethren in the days of the Essenes, when the +monastery of the lowly Nazarenes rose in silent grandeur from the +steep sides of Mt. Tabor, to be reflected in the inscrutable waters +of the Dead Sea. This one-piece garment is the spiral thread of +human life which, when purified by right motive and right living, +becomes a tiny thread of golden light, eternally weaving the +purified garment of regenerated bodies. Like the wh ite of the +lambskin apron, it stands for the simple, the pure, and the +harmless. These are the requirements of the Master Mason, who must +renounce forever this world's pomp and vanity and seek to weave +that simple one-piece robe of the soul which marks the Master, +consecrated and consummated. + +With the eye of the mind we still can see the lowly Nazarene in his +spotless robe of white - a garment no king's ransom could buy. +This robe is woven out of the actions of our daily lives, each deed +weaving into the endless pattern a thread, black or white, +according to the motives which inspired our actions. As the Master +Mason labors in accordance with his vows, he slowly weaves this +spotless robe out of the transmuted energy of his efforts. It is +this white robe which must be worn under the vestments of state, +and whose spotless surface sanctifies him for the robes of glory, +which can be worn only over the stainless, seamless garment of his +purified life. + +When this moment arrives and the candidate has completed his task - +when he comes purified and regenerated to the altar of wisdom, he +is truly baptized of the fire and its flame blazes up within +himself. From him pour forth streams of light, and a great aura of +multicolored fire bathes him with its radiance. The sacred flame +of the gods has found its resting place in him, and through him +renews its covenant with man. He is then truly a Freemason, a +child of light. This wonderful garment, of which all ea rthly +robes are but symbols, is built of the highest qualities of human +nature, the noblest of ideals, and the purest of aspirations. Its +coming is made possible only through the purification of body and +unselfish service to others in the name of the Creator. + +When the Mason has built all these powers into himself, there +radiates from him a wonderful body of living fire, like that which +surrounded the Master Jesus, at the moment of His transfiguration. +This is the Robe of Glory, the garment of Blue and Gold which, +shining forth as a five-pointed star of light, heralds the birth of +the Christ within. Man is then indeed a son of God, pouring forth +from the depths of his own being the light rays which are the life +of man. + +Striking hearts that have long been cold, this spiritual ray raises +them from the dead. It is the living light which illuminates those +still buried in the darkness of materiality. It is the power which +raises by the strong grip of the lion's paw. It is the Great Light +which, seeking forever the spark of itself within all living +things, reawakens dead ideals and smothered aspirations with the +power of the Master's Eternal Word. Then the Master Mason becomes +indeed the Sun in Leo; and, reaching downward i nto the tomb of +crystallization, raises the murdered Builder from the dead by the +grip of the Master Mason. + +As the sun awakens the seedlings in the ground, so this Son of Man, +glowing with the light divine, radiates from his own purified being +the mystic shafts of redeeming light which awaken the seeds of hope +and truth and a nobler life. Discouragement and suffering too +often brings down the temple, burying under its debris the true +reason for being and the higher motives for living. + +As the glorious robe of the sun - the symbol of all life - bathes +and warms creation with its glow, this same robe, enfolding all +things, warms them and preserves them with its light and life. Man +is a god in the making, and as in the mystic myths of Egypt, on the +potter's wheel he is being molded. When his light shines out to +lift and preserve all things, he receives the triple crown of +godhood, and joins that throng of Master Masons who, in their robes +of Blue and Gold, are seeking to dispel the darknes s of night with +the triple light of the Masonic Lodge. + +Ceaselessly the Norns spin the thread of human fate. Age in and +age out, upon the looms of destiny are woven the living garments of +God. Some are rich in glorious colors and wondrous fabrics, while +others are broken and frayed before they leave the loom. All, +however, are woven by these three Sisters - thought, action, and +desire - with which the ignorant build walls of mud and bricks of +slime between themselves and truth; while the pure of heart weave +from these radiant threads garments of celestial bea uty. + +Do what we will, we cannot stop those nimble fingers which twist +the threads, but we may change the quality of the thread they use. +We should give these three eternal weavers only the noble and the +true; then the work of their hands will be perfect. The thread +they twist may be red with the blood of others, or dark with the +uncertainties of life; but if we resolve to be true, we may restore +its purity and weave from it the seamless garment of a perfect +life. This is man's most acceptable gift upon the al tar of the +Most High, his supreme sacrifice to the Creator. + + +FRIENDSHIP + +What nobler relationship than that of friend? What nobler +compliment can man bestow than friendship? The bonds and ties of +the life we know break easily, but through eternity one bond +remains - the bond of fellowship - the fellowship of atoms, of star +dust in its endless flight, of suns and worlds, of gods and men. +The clasped hands of comradeship unite in a bond eternal - the +fellowship of spirit. Who is more desolate than the friendless +one? Who is more honored than one whose virtues have given him a fr +iend? To have a friend is good, but to be a friend is better. The +noblest title ever given man, the highest title bestowed by the +gods, was when the great Jove gazed down upon Prometheus and said, +"Behold, a friend of man!" Who serves man, serves God. This is the +symbol of the fellowship of your Craft, for the plan of God is +upheld by the clasped hands of friends. The bonds of relationship +must pass, but the friend remains. Serve God by being a friend, - +a friend of the soul of man, serving his needs, li ghting his +steps, smoothing his way. Let the world of its own accord say of +the Mason, "Behold the friend of all." Let the world say of the +Lodge, "This is indeed a fraternity of brothers, comrades in spirit +and in truth." + +THE EMERALD TABLET OF HERMES (TABULA SMARAGDINA) + +The Emerald Tablet of Hermes, illustrated on the opposite page, +introduces us to Hiram, the hero of the Masonic legend. The name +Hiram is taken from the Chaldean Chiram. The first two words in +large print mean the secret work. The second line in large +letters--(CHIRAM TELAT MECHASOT - means Chiram, the Universal +Agent, one in Essence, but three in aspect. Translated, the body +of the Tablet reads as follows: + +It is true and no lie, certain, and to be depended upon, that the +superior agrees with the inferior, and the inferior with the +superior, to effect that one truly wonderful work. As all things +owe their existence to the will of the Only One, so all things owe +their origin to One Only Thing, the most hidden, by the arrangement +of the Only God. The father of that One Only Thing is the Suit; +its mother is the Moon; the wind carries it in its wings; but its +nurse is a Spirituous Earth. That One Only Thing (af ter God) is +the father of all things in the universe. Its power is perfect, +after it has been united to a spirituous earth. Separate that +spirituous earth from the dense or crude earth by means of a gentle +heat, with much attention. In great measure it ascends from the +earth up to heaven, and descends again, new born, on the earth, and +the superior and inferior are increased in power. * * * By this +thou wilt partake of the honors of the whole world an d darkness +will fly from thee. This is the strength o f all powers; with this +thou wilt be able to overcome all things and to transmute all that +is fine and all that is coarse. In this manner the world was +created, but the arrangements to follow this road are hidden. For +this reason I am called CHIRAM TELAT MECHASOT, one in Essence, but +three in aspect. In this Trinity is hidden the wisdom of the whole +world. It is ended now, what I have said concerning the effects of +the Sun. + +FINISH OF THE TABULA SMARAGDINA + +In a rare, unpublished old manuscript dealing with early Masonic +and Hermetic mysteries, we find the following information +concerning the mysterious Universal Agent referred to as "Chiram" +(Hiram) : + +The sense of this Emerald Tablet can sufficiently convince us that +the author was well acquainted with the secret operations of Nature +and with the secret work of the philosophers (alchemists and +Hermetists). He likewise well knew and believed in the true God. + +It has been believed for several ages that Cham, one of the sons of +Noah, is the author of this monument of antiquity. A very ancient +author, whose name is not known, who lived several centuries before +Christ, mentions this tablet, and says that he had seen it in +Egypt, at the court; that it was a precious stone, an emerald, +whereon these characters were represented in bas-relief, not +engraved. + +He states that it was in his time esteemed over two thousand years +old, and that the matter of this emerald had once been in a fluidic +state like melted glass, and had been cast in a mold, and that to +this flux the artist had given the hardness of a natural and +genuine emerald, by (alchemical) art. + +The Canaanites were called the Phoenicians by the Greeks, who have +told us that they had Hermes for one of their kings. There is a +definite relation between Chiram and Hermes. + +Chiram is a word composed of three words, denoting the Universal +Spirit, the essence whereof the whole creation does consist, and +the object of Chaldean, Egyptian, and genuine natural philosophy, +according to its inner principles or properties. The three Hebrew +words Chamah, Rusch, and Majim, mean respectively Fire, Air, and +Water, while their initial consonants, Ch, R, M, give us Chiram, +that invisible essence which is the father of earth, fire, air and +water; because, although immaterial in its own invis ible nature as +the unmoved and electrical fire, when moved it becomes light and +visible; and when collected and agitated, becomes heat and visible +and tangible fire; and when associated with humidity it becomes +material. The word Chiram has been metamorphosed into Hermes and +also into Herman, and the translators of the Bible have made Chiram +by changing Chet into He; both of these Hebrew word signs being +very similar. + +In the word Hermaphrodite, (a word invented by the old +philosophers), we find Hermes changed to Herm, signifying Chiram, +or the Universal Agent, and Aphrodite, the passive principle of +humidity, who is also called Venus, and is said to have been +produced and generated by the sea. + +We also read that Hiram (Chiram), or the Universal Agent, assisted +King Solomon to build the temple. No doubt as Solomon possessed +wisdom, he understood what to do with the corporealized Universal +Agent. The Talmud of the Jews says that King Solomon built the +temple by the assistance of Shamir. Now this word signifies the +sun, which is perpetually collecting the omnipresent, surrounding, +electrical fire, or Spiritus Mundi, and sending it to us in the +planets, in a visible manner called light. + +This electrical flame, corporealized and regenerated into the Stone +of the Philosophers, enabled King Solomon to produce the immense +quantities of gold and silver used to build and decorate his +temple. + +These paragraphs from an ancient philosopher may assist the Masonic +student of today to realize the tremendous and undreamed-of shire +of knowledge that lies behind the allegory which he often hears but +seldom analyzes. Hiram, the Universal Agent, might be translated +Vita the power eternally building and unfolding the bodies of man. +The use and abuse of energy is the keynote to the Masonic legend; +in fact, it is the key to all things in Nature. Hiram, as the +triple energy, one in source but three in aspec t, can almost be +called ether, that unknown hypothetical element which carries the +impulses of the gods through the macrocosmic nervous system of the +Infinite; for like Hermes, or Mercury, who was the messenger of the +gods, ether carries impulses upon its wings. The solving of the +mystery of ether - or, if you prefer to call it vibrant space - is +the great problem of Masonry. This ether, as a hypothetical +medium, brings energy to the three bodies of thought, emotion, and +action, in this manner Chiram, the one in essence, becoming three +in aspect - mental, emotional, and vital. The work which follows is +an effort to bring to light other forgotten and neglected elements +of the Masonic rites, and to emphasize the spirit of Hiram as the +Universal Agent. + +Freemasonry is essentially mysterious, ritualistic, and ceremonial, +representing abstract truth in concrete form. Earth (or substance) +smothering energy (or vitality) is the mystery behind the murder of +the Builder. + + +MOTIVE + +What motive leads the Masonic candidate out of the world and up the +winding stairway to the light? He alone can truly know, for in his +heart is hidden the motive of his works. Is he seeking the light +of the East? Is he seeking wisdom eternal? Does he bring his life +and offer it upon the altar of the Most high? Of all things, motive +is most important. Though we fail again and again, it our motive +be true, we are victorious. Though time after time we succeed, if +our motive be unworthy, we have failed. Ent er the temple in +reverence, for it is in truth the dwelling place of a Great Spirit, +the Spirit of Masonry. Masonry is an ordainer of kings. Its hand +has shaped the destinies of worlds, and the perfect fruitage of its +molding is an honest man. What nobler thing can be accomplished +than the illumination of ignorance? What greater task is there than +the joyous labor of service? And what nobler man can there be than +that Mason who serves his Lights, and is himsel f a light unto his +fellow men? + diff --git a/religious documents/lothlor.txt b/religious documents/lothlor.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b186ad6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lothlor.txt @@ -0,0 +1,93 @@ + +1578/1583 20 Jun 90 08:23:38 +From: Michael Barnett +To: All +Subj: Pagan Bashing Alert +Attr: +------------------------------------------------ +According to Tampa Tribune 6/19/90 gunfire was exchanged between fundamentalist +agitators and A New Port Ritchie coven (Lothlorien Coven). Sherriffs deputies +were called to investigate when the coven was recieved gunfire during a ritual +at their remote island temple. Several occurrances of site desecrations and +several threatening letters were recieved in recent weeks. The sherrifs deputy +assigned to investigate suspicious cult activity stated "These people are just +worshipping Mother Nature and show no tendency toward criminal activity, leave +them alone!" + +After the first shots were recieved, a visitor from another coven identified as +Ron Parshley retrieved a shotgun from his automobile and fired warning shots +into the air. + +Blessed Be and wish me luck! +Michael + + +--- Opus-CBCS 1.12 + * Origin: Liberty BBS, Tampa FL (813)933-6247 (1:377/5.0) + + +2019/2027 23 Jun 90 23:46:12 +From: Alfgar Maharg +To: All +Subj: Crisis +Attr: +------------------------------------------------ + NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. (UPI) -- A witches' ceremony came to an abrupt +halt over the weekend when angry neighbors and members of the nature +worshiping coven exchanged gunshots, authorities said. + The witches said the attack Sunday was just the latest in a series of +violent acts against their group and its island shrine near Moon Lake, +northeast of New Port Richey. + Five witches from the Coven Lothlorien told Pasco County deputies +they had just finished a ritual seeking protection from threats when +gunfire ripped through the trees surrounding their ceremonial grounds at +about 11 p.m. + No one was wounded and no arrests were made, the Pasco Sheriff's +Office said. + Witches, or wiccans, are nature worshipers who honor celestial cycles +and the seasons, said Ron Parshley, president of National Association of +Pantheists. + Wiccans' ceremonies include torch-lit dancing, chanting and burning +of incense, he said. + "We heard the bullets ripping past and we all crouched down on the +ground and started crawling back to my house on our hands and knees," +said Kassie Cornwell, a witch and a registered nurse. + The small island sits in the middle of a pond at the end of a lush +pathway behind Cornwell's house. Only one other house stands within 200 +yards of the pond, which backs up to a vast stretch of swamp. + Members said Sunday's ritual was in response to threats they received +the day before. Cornwell's house had been pelted with eggs, she said, +and a note was left in her front yard Saturday. + The note warned the group to stop their "Satan worshiping or be +prepared for worse. Next time we won't stop at eggs." + Another note said, "We are the ultimate enemy. We are out to kill!" + Cornwell, 43, said she heard people cursing, calling them Satanists +and other names during Sunday's attack. + When the gunfire started, coven member Curtis Niles of Spring Hill +grabbed a shotgun and fired several rounds in the air, Cornwell said. + Neighbor Art Gray, 39, told a sheriff's deputy he heard shots coming +from Cornwell's property and he fired back, also in the air, to warn the +people away from his house. + Several of Cornwell's neighbors said they believed the group +practices Satanism and sacrifices animals. But Cornwell said the group +doesn't allow animals near their worshiping area. + She said the group's credo is to "do what you will, but harm none." + Parshley said the group has "nothing to do with Satanism." + The coven has worshiped at Cornwell's property since she bought her +home a year ago. She said the worship area has been desecrated six or +seven times. + Mary Niles, another member, said the coven is named for the tree that +the elves inhabited in "The Hobbit," J.R. Tolkien's novel about an +imaginary dwarf-like people. + Detective Jerry Puig, a religion specialist for the Pasco Sheriff's +Office who has interviewed coven members, said there is a big difference +between Satanism and the group's religion. + "Wicca is all nature worship worship of the sun, the wind, the moon," +Puig said. "There is no blood and no devils involved." +Copyright 1990 United Press International + +... ...and we, madonna, are we not exiles still? +--- Via Silver Xpress V2.26 + * Origin: Opera=Amorem =+= BaphoNet-by-the-Sea (718)499-9277 + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/lucifer1.txt b/religious documents/lucifer1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4c5d60 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/lucifer1.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/lucifer2.txt b/religious documents/lucifer2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55b26e6 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/lucifer2.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/lworld.txt b/religious documents/lworld.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1dc079d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/lworld.txt @@ -0,0 +1,240 @@ +Satinka's Workshop Experience..... Episode 1* +Knoxville Basic Workshop- May 5-6, 1990 +---------------------------------------- +I was asked to relate some of the journey experiences +I had while participating in the Foundation for Shamanic +Studies Basic Workshop in Knoxville this month (May). +For those not familiar with journeying in general, I +suggest reading Michael Harner's "The Way of the Shaman." + +The first day was devoted to Lower World journeys. There +are actually two different journeys here - taken within +about 40 minutes of each other during the first morning +of the workshop. +----------------------------------------- +After a bit of getting acquainted, singing in a circle, +drumming, and "calling the beasts" we were given +instructions for our first journey. We were to enter a +hole or cave and go down a tunnel into the lower world. +We were not to do anything in particular, simply go, look +over the landscape, and return. Although I have done +this lowerworld journey many times, I had never attempted +it in a group setting, and my trials were far from +consistent in results. I was interested to see if I +could, in fact get anywhere in this environment. + +I went into my usual cave, feeling Bear nearby. I could +hear the drip of water, and it seemed very dark - moreso +than usual. I asked him if he wanted to join me, and he +agreed. Draping my left arm over his neck (he always +walks on my left for some reason), we rose slightly and +began to fly although I had no sensation of movement - + more that the tunnel was moving and there was a wind +blowing from below. I could still hear the water +dripping, and felt that we had not moved. But there must +have been water at both ends of the tunnel, that I could +hear the entire trip through - I could still hear it as +I overshot the tunnel end and was flying over a mist- +covered landscape that was patchwork like a farm seen +from up high on a mountain. There were no buildings in +sight. + +The colors of the landscape were varied (yellow, reddish, +brown, green), but muted and dull looking. The sky was +very murky looking, and the mist or fog seemed to gather +into clouds, and then melt away - all between me and the +landscape below. I flew around a bit, then went back to +the lip of the tunnel - I found a ledge there that leads +of to the left as a path. A few feet away is a cut in +the stone (on my side) opening out into a grassy hilly +area on the other side, with a stream down the middle. +Looking out over the landscape, I noticed above me quite +a ways was a circle of black birds. They were flying +almost beak to tail, in a perfect circle. They seemed +to be very large birds. + I tried several times to count them, but was unsuccessful. I +walked on down the ledge then, following Bear, to the ridge above +the stream. + +Three otter people came to me while I stood there above +the water. They were grey-brown, about 5 feet tall (just +a tad shorter than I am). They wore woven sashes (of +reeds or grass) with fringes decorated with small shells. +The center otter - the tallest - wore a necklace that had +small shells on the sides, and a big pendant of a large, +flat shell - similar to an oyster shell - in the center. +They were carrying freshwater clams or muscles - with +blue shells, that looked something like oyster shells - + and they gave them to me with some solemn ceremonial +gestures. I opened the buckskin pouch I was wearing at +my waist (See note on dress) and offered them each an +oyster "from their cousins on the coast," which they +greatfully accepted. They got friendlier after that, +and touched me with their little hands, feeling my skin, +my clothing, and most of all, touching and sniffing my +hair. They had very expressive faces. Bear sat by +through all of this, looking rather bored, and the otters +totally ignored him. + +When the signal came to return, I said goodbye to the +otter people, regretfully. They said I could come visit +again, and I promised I would. I put the clams in my +pouch, draped my arm over Bear again, and we flew back +up the tunnel. At the mouth of the tunnel, he dropped +me off and disappeared. + +All the participants talked about experiences for a while +after this journey, but I declined to share mine. I +really felt it might be a bit overwhelming for the +others, since most of them had really NEVER journeyed +before, and I didn't want to say too much. Several +people mentioned journeys that appeared to be involving +them in their own (past?) funeral ceremonies or other +things that might have been a form of initiation. +Several others had first journeys that equalled my own +in depth and visual experience, and Dana seemed pleased +that everyone was progressing so quickly. + +***** + +Journey to find a power animal - lower world + +The directions for the next journey were more detailed. +We were to go to the lowerworld with the intention of +finding a power animal. When we found one, we were to +ask the question that our partner wanted answered. My +partner in this exercise was a man from Knoxville, and +he wanted to know how he could get more joy in his life. + + Bear (See note on power animals) met me in the +tunnel, and we went the same way as before. The otters +were waiting for me. "Are you my power animal?" I asked +them, and the otter with the necklace said he was. + +"On behalf of my partner, I want to ask you a question," +I told him. He nodded. + +"What can he do to get more joy in his life?" + +The words formed in my mind, as if the translation of +either language or concept from Otter to human was rather +difficult: Creative play shared with others. + +"Can you clarify that for me?" I asked. + +Immediately, the three otters began to wrestle and fall +into the water, sliding down the rocks. Barking and +jumping, they tussled goodnaturedly for a few moments. +Then they came up the bank again, dripping water (I could +feel it on my feet!), and they, and BEAR, joined hands +and began to dance in a ring to some absolutely beautiful +flute music. (I never saw the source of the music.) They +went on for a short time, until I got the call-back +signal. They broke the ring then, and I gave them each +an oyster from my (evidently overflowing) buckskin pouch. + +The otter who is my power animal gave me his shell +necklace.* + +We flew back up the tunnel again, and Bear disappeared. +When I came back to OSC, I told my partner what they +said. He said it did make sense to him, but was +reluctant to elaborate. (He later missed half of the +second day to work at his job - I get the impression he +needs - and knows he needs! - to spend more time in +social recreation!). + +Shortly after this, we broke for lunch, and were told we +would do a Spirit Canoe journey after lunch. That will +be the subject of "Episode 2." +----------------------------------------- +*An interesting aside from this. Our group was meeting +in a renovated warehouse (sometimes used as an aerobics +studio) behind a Mrs. Winner's restaurant. There were +no major restaurants or groceries nearby to account for +this happening. Sunday morning I arrived early, and the +door was still locked. Deciding to take a short walk, +I walked around the warehouse building (the front 2/3 is +a gym, the back "room" is our classroom). There was no +path from the other side, but it wasn't too wet, so I +walked up the grass under the pine tree there. On the +ground, imbedded in the mud, was one lonely oyster shell. + + I brought it back and cleaned it up. Dana was not sure +what to make of it (although he thought it was positive +and very interesting), but I consider it a "gift" from +my Otter, and will drill it for a necklace - a physical +representation of the one I was given, and wear in the +SSC! +_______________________________________________________ + +Note on Power Animals: There is a lot of discussion +about how many power animals you can have at one time. +My own theory - based solely on my own experience - is +that you can have several, if they are complimentary, and +maybe only one or two if they are at opposite poles. +I'll get into this in another text, but evidently I have +at least 2 at any given time (plus add-ons like the two +"attendant" otters), and sometimes 3. This should not +be confused with allies that you request aid from for a +specific reason, and who normally are not a "part" of you +- some animal spirits do this for me, but they are not +power animals, they are allies. + +Note on dress: I've heard a number of people report that +they find themselves dressed or looking differently in +the SSC than the OSC. Although it's not a particularly +important detail, it does make for interesting journeys. +Regardless of what I'm wearing in the OSC world, I've +found most frequently when I cross over I am dressed in +a loose cloth skirt and blouse, or leather leggings and +a leather tunic. Either way, I tend to have things with +me that I carry only there - the buckskin pouch is a good +example. I own no such item in the OSC world, but it is +full of all kinds of interesting and useful items in the +SSC world! + +After my journeys, some of the gifts I have received have +cropped up in the OSC as well. The oyster shell is a +good example of that - I was given the necklace in the +SSC world (and I always wear it there, no matter what +else I'm wearing), and because I found the shell, the +necklace I make from it in the OSC world will be similar +to the one the otter gave me. This is a frequent +translation problem: it is easy for an outsider or a +beginner in this area to confuse the OSC world version +with the SSC world version, and to think the actual +object that you can lay your hand on in this world is the +one with the power in it. The shaman knows the +difference. It is simply that the physical object +represents the actual object, which resides in the world +perceived while in SSC. All forms of magick use physical +representations of the "other" reality - and the fact +that it is so prevalent among magickal systems makes it +more likely to be a universal phenomenon. + +Well, I hope this elaboration on the basic journey + technique is helpful to you. Even without a lot of other +reading, you should now understand basically the process +by which shaman from all cultures and times have entered +another state of consciousness for the good of their +people. But as a venerable being once said - every +journey begins with a single step. Just reading about +it won't do anything for you. Journeying will - both now +and for the rest of your life in this world. + +-=Balance and Blessings=- / + - atinka + / + +======================================================= +From: "The Shaman's Rattle" + AION QBBS Roswell,GA + Modem: 404/640-9670 + +Copyright (c) 1990 By Satinka Istari. This document may +be distributed freely as long as it remains intact and +unmodified and contains this notice of copyright. + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/m_m_hand.txt b/religious documents/m_m_hand.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..efbe801 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/m_m_hand.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1718 @@ +THE MM'S BOOK +by J.S.M. Ward + +PREFACE + +THE third degree in Freemasonry is termed the Sublime Degree and the +title is truly justified. Even in its exoteric aspect its simple, yet +dramatic, power must leave a lasting impression on the mind of every +Cand.. But its esoteric meaning contains some of the most profound +spiritual instruction which it is possible to obain to-day. + +Even the average man, who entered The Craft with little realisation of +its real antiquity and with the solemnity of this, its greatest degree. +In its directness and apparent simplicity rests its tremendous power. +The exoteric and esoteric are interwoven in such a wonderful way that it +is almost imopssible to separate the one from the other, and the longer +it is studied the more we realise the profound and ancient wisdom +concealed therein. Indeed, it is probable that we shall never master all +that lies hidde n in this degree till we in very truth pass through that +reality of which it is a allegory. + +The two degrees which have gone before, great and beautiful though they +be are but the training and preparation for the message which the third +degree holds in almost every line of the ritual. Here at length we learn +the true purpose of Freemasonry. It is not merely a system of morality +veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, but a great adventure, a +search after that which was lost; in other words, the Mystic Quest, the +craving of the Soul to comprehend the nature of God and to achieve union +with Hi m. + +Diffirent men vary greatly; to some the most profound teachings appeal, +while to others simpler and more direct instruction is all they crave. +But there is hardly a man who has not, at some time or other, amid the +turmoil and distraction of this material world, felt a strange and +unaccountable longing for knowledge as to why he was ever sent here, +whence he came, and whither he is wending. At such times he feels Iike a +wanderer in a strange land, who has almost forgotten his native country, +because he left it so long ago, but yet vaguely realises that he is an +exile, and dimly craves for some message from that home which he knew of +yore. + +This is the voice of the Divine Spark in man calling out for union with +the Source of its being, and at such times the third degree carries with +it a message which till then, perhaps, the brother had not realized. The +true s...ts are lost, but we are told how and where we shall find them. +The gateway of d. opens the way to the p. within the c., where the +longing spirit will find peace in the arms of the Father of All. + + +Thus it will be seen that the third degree strikes a more solemn note +thane even that of d. itself, and I have endeavoured in this little book +to convey in outline form some part at least of this sublime message. + +As in my previous books, I freely confess that I have not covered the +whole ground. Not only would it be impossible to do so in a book of this +size, but in so doing I should have defeated one of my principal objects +in writing namely, to inspire others to study for themselves and +endeavour to find in our ceremonies further and deeper meanings. + +The success of the earlier books shows clearly that my efforts have not + been in vain, and that the brethren are more than anxious to fathom the + inner meaning of the ceremonies we all love so well. This book + completes the series dealing with the meaning of the three craft + degrees, but their popularity has convinced me that the experiment of + producing a small and inexpensive handbook has been completely + justified. I have therefore been encouraged to write further volumes, + and the next of the series will be an outline history of Freemasonry " + from time Immemorial." + +PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION + +The success of the fust edition of this book has necessitated a second +wherein I have corrected a few printing errors and added a few points +which may help my brother students. + +From the number of letters I have received from all parts of the world, +thanking me for the light these books throw on the meaning of our +ceremonies, it is clear that the new members who are entering our Order +are tending to take an increasing interest in the meaning of our Rites +and are no longer content to regard the Ceremonies merely as a pastime +for an idle hour. + +J.S.M. WARD. + +CONTENTS + +Introduction by The Hon. Sir John Cockburn, M.D., K.C.M.G., P.G.D.Eng., P.D.G.M. S.Australia + +Chapter 1 Questions and P.W. +Chapter 2 The Opening +Chapter 3 The Symbolical Journeys, etc. +Chapter 4 The Exhortation +Chapter 5 The S..s +Chapter 6 The Badge +Chapter 7 The Legend +Chapter 8 The Tracing Board, etc. +Chapter 9 Closing +Chapter 10 Conclusion + +INTRODUCTION +By Sir John A. Cockburn, + +W.Bro. Ward has lost no time in supplying his large circle of readers +with this little book on the 3 degree. With becoming reverence he +touches on the last great lesson which Masonry presents to the mind of +the Craftsman. Among the manifold blessings that Freemasonry has +conferred on mankind none is greater than that of taking the sting from +death and robbing the grave of victory. No man can be called Free who +lives in dread of the only event that is certain in his life. Until +emancipated from the fear of d eath, he is all his life long subject to +bondage. Yet how miserably weak is this phantom king of Terrors who +enslaves so many of the uninitiated. As Francis Bacon remarked, there is +no passion in the mind of man that does not master the dread of death. +Revenge triumphs over it; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; grief +flieth to it. Death has always been regarded as the elucidation of the +Great Mystery. It was only at the promise of dissolution that the seeker +after the El ixir of Life exclaimed Eureka. Masonry regards death but as +the gate of life, and the Master Mason learns to look forward with firm +but humble confidence to the moment when he will receive his summons to +ascend to the Grand Lodge above. + +Brother Ward very properly attaches much significance to the Pass Word +leading to the 2 degree and 3 degree. In the Eleusinian Mysteries an ear +of corn was presented to the Epoptai. This, as an emblem of Ceres, +represented by the S.W., is appropriate to the F.C.'s, who are under the +guidance of that officer, while the name of the first artificier in +metals, which is reminiscent of Vulcan, the Celestial Blacksmith, seems +specially befitting to the attributes of the J.W., as it was in the days +before 1740. The author sees in the lozenge formed by two of the great +lights a representation of the Vesica Piscis. This symbol, whose literal +meaning is "the bladder of the fish,' is of deep significance. Some see +in it the essential scheme of ecclesiastical archi tecture. But as the +spiritually blind are unable to discern similitudes, so those who are +gifted with deep insight are apt to over estimate analogies. The Vesica +Piscis being, as Brother Ward rightly states, a feminine emblem, and +therefore one sided, can hardly represent the equilibrium attained by +the conjunction of the square and compasses. These respectively stand +for the contrasted correlatives which pervade Creation, and, like the +pillars, are typical when conjoined of new stability resulting from +their due proportion in the various stages of Evolution. The pr +ogressive disclosures of the points of the compasses seems to indicate +the ultimate realisation of the spirituality of matter; the at-one-ment +and reconciliation at which Freemasonry and all true religions aim. +Brother Ward repeatedly points out the similarity that exists between +the lessons of Christianity and of Freemasonry. It is indeed difficult +to distinguish between them, The Ancient Mysteries undoubtedly possessed +in secret many of the t ruths proclaimed in the gospel. St. Augustine +affirms that Chris tianity, although not previously known by that name, +had always existed. But whereas the hope of immortality was formerly in +the Mysteries confined to a favoured few, the new Convenant opened the +Kingdom of Heaven to all believers. Incidentally this little volume +clears up many passages which are obscure in the Ritual. For example, +there could be no object in directing that the F.C's, who, on account of +their trust-worthiness, were selected by the King to search for the +Master, should be clothed in white to prove their innocence. That was +already beyond question. The order was evidently meant for the repentant +twelve who took no actual part in the crime. This and similar +inconsistencies in the Ritual may be accepted as evidence of its +antiquity. Had it been a modern compilation such contradictions would +have been studiously avoided. + +It is probable that many earnest Masons may not agree with all Brother +Ward's interpretations. Nor can such unanimity reasonably be expected. +Freemasonry, as a gradual accretion of the Wisdom of Ages Immemorial, +bears traces of many successive schools of thought. But all its messages +are fraught with hope for the regeneration of humanity. The author +intimated his desire in this series of handbooks to lead others to +prosecute the study of Masonry for themselves; and indeed he has +abundantly proved that in it s unfathomable depths there are many gems +of priceless ray serene which will well repay the search. Brother Ward +is heartily to be congratulated on having attained the object he had in +view. + +John A. Cockburn. + +CHAPTER I + +QUESTIONS AND P.W. + +Those of our Brethren who have read the previous two books of this +series will not need much help in understanding the significance of the +questions which are put to the Cand. before being raised. Practically +every question has been dealt with in detail in the previous books; the +majority of them are taken from incidents in the Lectures and Tracing +Board, and since the latter was explained at some length we shall not +now detain our readers long. + +The manner of preparation for the second degree stressed the masculine +side, which is characteristic of it. The admission on a S. indicated +that the Cand. had profited by the moral training rcceived in the First +degree, and that his conduct had always been on the S.. There is, +however a deep esoteric meaning in the apparent platitude that it is the +fourth part of a circle. Among all the ancient nations the circle is a +symbol of God the Infinite, Whose name we discovered in the second +degree in the M.Ch., wh ere we leamt that it consisted of four letters. +Thus the Cand. was admitted on one letter of the Mystic Name, and if the +four Sq.s are united with the circle in a peculiar way they form the +cosmic cross, emblem of matter, within the circle of the Infinite. + +We have in the last book considered at such length what is implied by +the words "Hidden mysteries of nature and science," that we need here +only refer our readers to that section, wherein we saw that in former +times these hidden mysteries undoubtedly referred to certain occult +powers, which would be dangerous if acquired by a man who had not proved +himself to be of the highest moral character. + +The "wages" we receive consist of the power to comprehend the nature of +God, Who resides in the M.Ch. of the Soul of every Mason. The F.C. +receives his wages without scruple or diffidence because the Spiritual +benefit he receives from Freemasonry is in exact proportion to his +desire, and ability, to comprehend its inner meaning. + +He cannot receive either more or less than he has earned, for if he has +not understood the profound lesson of the Divinity within him, naturally +he cannot benefit therefrom. + +His employers are the Divine Trinity, of Whom Justice is one of the +outstanding attributes. God could not be unjust and remain God. This +conception is almost a platitude, but the average man, while realising +that God will not withhold any reward earned, is at times apt to assume +that because God is love He will reward us more than we deserve. This is +clearly a mistake, for God could not be partial without ceasing to be +God, therefore the F.C. receives exactly the Spiritual wages he has +earned, and neither m ore nor less, but some F.C.'s will nevertheless +obtain a greater reward than others, because spiritually they have +earned it. + +The significance of the names of the P....rs was explained in the last +book, but in view of the nature of the third degree it seems advisable +to point out once more that their secret Kabalistic meaning is (1) Being +fortified by every moral virtue, (2) you are now properly prepared, (3) +to undergo that last and greatest trial which fits you to become a M M.. +Thus we see that even the w..ds of the preceding degrees lead up to +this, the last and greatest. + +As in the former case, the remark of the W.M. that he will put other +questions if desired indicates the possibility of members of the Lodge +asking qucstions based on the Lectures of the Second Degree, or even on +the Tracing Board. It is, indeed, a pity that this right is practically +never exercised. For example, a particularly appropriate question would +be "What was the name of the man who cast the two great p....rs ? " As +it is, the Cand. in a dramatic way represents the closing incidents in +the life of th is great man, whose importance till then he has hardly +had any opportunity of realising. + +Having answered these test questions, the cand. is again entrusted with +a P.W., etc., to enable him to enter the Lodge after it has been raised +to the Third degree during this temporary absence. We have in the +previous book explained that the raising of a Lodge should alter the +vibrations of those present by a process well recognised in the +ceremonies of Magic, and, to enable the Cand. quickly to become in ttme +with these higher spiritual vibrations, a word of "power" is given him, +which in a moment places him on the same plane as the other members of +the Lodge. This word he has to give, not only outside the d....r of the +Lodge, but also immediately before his presentation by the S.W. as +"Properly prepared to be raised to the Third Degree." It is only after +this has been done that the real ceremony of the Third Degree, so far as +the c. is concerned, begins, and therefore that the full force of the +vibrations of the M.M.'s come into play. + +The P.W. itself is of the greatest significance, more especially when +combined with the P.W. leading from the First to the Second degree. At +one time the P.W.'s were reversed. T.C. being the W. leading to the +Second, and Sh... . the W. leading to the Third. This is still the case +in those foreign Grand Lodges, such as the Dutch and the French, which +derive from us before 1740, when the W.s were altered owing to certain +un-authorised revelations. This alteration was one of the just +grievances which brought a bout the secession of the so-called +"Ancients," who charged Grand Lodge with altering the Ancient Landmarks. +When the Irish followed our example they continued the prohibition of +the introduction of m..ls until the Third degree, which is a logical +procedure, for clearly you have no right to bring them into Lodge until +you have been symbolically introduced to the first artificer in that +material. As the W.s now stand they convey the following spiritual +lesson:- the F.C. is one who finds the simple necessitie s of life, such +as C. and W., sufficient for his requirements. They are plenty to the +spiritually minded man, whose soul becomes clogged and hampered by the +acquistion of worldly possessions and since it is hard for a rich man to +enter the Kingdom of Heaven, immediatdy the Cand. has symbolically +received W.P. he is Sl....n. + +T.C. conveys the lesson that W.P. in themselves bring death to the soul +and prevent its upward progress. To-day, the river of death connected +with the P.W. leading to the Second degree has largely lost its +significance, whereas when it was a P.W. leading to the Third, it was in +itself a fine allegory. + +We must remember that Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress was well known and +widely read at the beginning of the 18th Century, and those who were +re-organising our rituals at that time could not have been blind to the +similarity of the allegory hidden in the w. Sh. and the account by +Bunyan of Christian's fording the river of death on the way to the Holy +City. The change of about 1740 destroyed this allegory, and its survival +in the Tracing Board is now merely one of those numerous footnotes +which, to the careful s tudent, are invaluable indications of the +various transformations though which our ritual has passed during the +course of years. Nevertheless, I do not regret the change, as I think +the present spiritual lesson is even finer than the former one, but the +other arrangement was more logical. Firstly, from the practical point of +view the F.C. required the use of m..1 tools to perform his operative +tasks, and in the process of his work acquired W.P., in contradiction to +the E.A., who did only rough work and rece ived only maintenance: i.e., +corn, wine , and oil. Secondly, from the symbolical standpoint the +sequence was also more logical, for the F.C., having acquired wealth by +means of his skill, was brought to the river of d., and passed through +it in the Third Degree. + +According to Bro. Sanderson, in his "Examination of the Masonic Ritual," +the actual translation of the Hebrew w. Sh. is an " e. of c., or a f. of +w."- hence the manner in which it is depicted in a F.C.'s Lodge-while +the w. T.C. in Hebrew means only a blacksmith, though another w. +similarly pronounced means acquisition. Hence, as he points out, " an +allegorical title has, in translating the Old Testament, been mistaken +for the name of an actual person, for the name itself means `A worker in +M...t...ls'" Therefore the connection with H.A.B. is obvious. Bro. +Sanderson, quoting from the "Secret Discipline," by S. L. Knapp, says, +"In a work on ancient ecclesiastical history the following occurs, 'By a +singular plasus lingua e the moderns have substituted T.C. in the Third +Degree for tymboxein-to be entombed.' " While I am unable to say whether +Knapp is justified in this statement, it is quitee probable that this +P.W., and indeed all the P.W.s are comparatively modern substitutes, +taken from the Bible to replace ancient W.s of power whose full meaning +was lost and whose form in consequence had become corrupt and +unintelligible. The Greek word tymboxein would be peculiariy suitable +for a P.W. leading to t he Third Degree, in view of its meaning, and +mediaeval magi cal ceremonies are full of corrupt Greek words +indiscriminately mingled with equally corrupt Hebrew and Arabic. There +is, therefore, nothing intrinsically improbable in the suggestion that +this ancient Greek word was the original from which T.C. has been +evolved. We know as a fact that large pieces of Biblical history were +imported wholesale into our rituals in the 18th Century, and what is +more likely than that an unintelligible work, already so corrupt as not +even to be recognisable as Gree k, should be am ended into a well known +Biblical character? However, the word as it stands, because of its +Hebrew meaning of acquisition, can correctly be translated as W.P., +while as meaning an artificer in M. it clearly refers to H.A.B., who +made the two p.....rs, and whom the Cand. is to represent. Thus, +following this line of interpretation, we perceive that the Cand. really +represents H.A.B. when he enters the Lodge, although under the disguised +title conveyed by the P.W .. + +In dealing with these P.W.s I have endeavoured to show that there are +meanings within meanings, and the same is true of practically every +important incident in the whole ceremony. In a book of thissize it is +obviously impossible to attempt to give all of these meanings, and even +if one did the result would be to befog the young reader and so prevent +him from getting a clear and connected interpretation of the ceremony. +It is for this reason that, in the main, I am concentrating on one line +of interpretation, but I have thought it desirable in this section to +give a hint to more advanced students, so that they can follow up +similar lines of investigation for themselves. + +PREPARATION + +In English and Scotch workings there is no c.t. around the Cand. in +preparation for the Third Degree, but in the Irish working it is wound +once around his n., in the Second degree twice, and the First three +times. If we regard the c.t. as symbolising those things which hamper a +man's spiritual progress, the gradual unwinding of it as used in Irish +workings becomes of great significance. This interpretation implies that +the Cand. is hampered in Body, Soul and Spirit in the First Degree, +whereas by the time h e has reached this point in the Third Degree the +Body and Soul have triumphed over the sins which peculiarly assail them, +and in that stage symbolised by the Degree itself the Spirit has only to +triumph over Spiritual sins, such as Spiritual Pride. With this +exception the manner of preparation is the same in all these British +workings, and indicates that the Cand. is now about to consecrate both +sides of his nature, active and passive, creative and preservative, +etc., to the service of the Most High. + +The explanation already given in the previous books of the various +details, such as being s.s., holds here, and a brief glance at the other +volumes will render it unnecessary for me to take up valuable space +therewith in this third book. The Can. is then brought to the Lodge door +and gives the Kn.s of a F.C. These Kn's indicate that Soul and Body are +in union, but the Spirit is still out of contact whereas the proper Kn's +of a M.M. (2/1) indicates that the Spirit dominates the Soul and is in +union with it, the body having fallen away into significance. It will be +remembered that in the first book of this series I pointed out that the +three separate kn's of an E.A. symbolise that in the uninitiated man, +Body, Soul and Spirit are all at variance. Meanwhile the Lodge has been +raised to a Third Degree by a ceremony whose profound significance +demands consideration in a separate chapter. + +CHAPTER II + +THE OPENING + +Having satisfied himself that all present are symbolically upright and +moral men, the W.M. asks the J.W. if his spiritual nature has evolved +sufficiently to control both soul and body. The J.W. suggests that he +should be tested, not only by the emblem of upright conduct, but also by +the Compasses. Now these combined with the Square form a lozenge, which +is itself a symbol for the Vesica Piscis, emblem of the female +principle. The Compasses, moreover, are the instruments with which +geometrical figures are cr eated, and more especially the Circle. By +means of two circles the triangle, emblem of the triune nature of God,. +is produced, while the Cirde itself is the emblem of Eternity and +therefore of Spirit. A point within the cirle forms the symbol for the +Hindu conception of the Supreme Being, Paramatma, whence we have come +and whither we shall all ultimately return. At the centre of the circle +rests all knowledge; there shall we find every lost secret. Now such a +figure can only be dr awn with the help of the Co mpasses, and in +drawing it the following significant symbolical act takes place. + +One point of the Compass rests at the centre, and the other makes the +circle of the Infinite. No matter how far the legs of the Compass be +extended, or how large the Circle, the fact remains that one leg is +always at the centre. Thus the Compasses, while they travel through +infinity, are at the same time never separated from the centre, and from +that point cannot err. + +This instrument may therefore be considered as standing for the Divine +Spark in Man, in all its manifestations. One of these is conscience; but +the Divine Spark has many attributes and names. + +So the J.W.'s reply indicates that he is prepared to be tested both by +the moral code and by the spiritual laws of our being. + +But after these preliminaries the proceedings become of an even more +exalted nature. All that has gone before has been but preparation for +the Great Quest on which we must now set forth. It is the quest of the +Soul for realisation of God, and at-one-ment with Him. This is the +Mystic Quest of all ages, and, true to the ancient symbolism, it starts +from the East, the place of Light, and goes towards the West, the place +of darkness and death. + +The East represents God, Who is our home. It indicates that each soul +comes out from the place of Light, from Light itself, that is, from the +very substance of God, descends through the Gateway of the Dawn and +becomes incarnate in Matter. But it brings with it a sense of loss and +separation, for it has come out from God, and the Divine Spark within it +longs return whence it came. Having lost the secret of its true nature +and the way of return, it wanders in darkness, seeking and for most men +the way of retu rn is through the Western portal, the gateway of Death, +for so long as we are finite beings we cannot hope to comprehend the +Infinite. + +Yet there are some few exceptions to the general rule, who, while still +in the flesh, have a vision of the Divine splendour, are caught up in +it, and became one with God. To such men the return to ordinary mundane +existence seems unreal and shadowy. Where others believe in God they +Know Him, but it is almost impossible for them to convey to others the +experience through which they have gone. Yet that such experiences are +real, as real as any other fact in life, is attested by a long line of +witnesses right throughout the ages. + +To the average man, however, the first real step towards the realisation +of what constitutes God is through the portal of physical death; - but +even then the end is still far off. + +Hence the answer explaining how the true secrets came to be lost +indicates, not the cause of the loss, but the first step towards the +recovery, and this fact is borne out by the subsequent events in the +ceremony itself. + +Note, it is the body only that dies, and by its death enables the Soul +and Spirit to re-discover in part the secrets which were last. Yet this +death of the Body effectually debars the communication of these secrets +to the sorrowing F.C.'s left behind. It is the passing through that veil +which separates life and death which stars us on the road which ends +with God. + +It must never be forgotten, however, that the genuine secrets are never +recovered in the Craft, although symbolically we rise from the grave, +for that secret can only be discovered at or with the C.-i.e., with God. +To that exalted position we can only attain after long journeys through +the planes of existence beyond the grave. In our symbolism there is +nothing which indicates that immediately after death man is fit to pass +into the presence of the King of Kings. + +But the Divine Spark within us is never really separated from the Great +and All-Pervading Spirit. It is still part of it, though its glory is +dimmed by the veil of flesh. Therefore, just as one arm of the compasses +ever rests on the centre, no matter how far the other leg travels; so +however far we may travel from God, and however long and hard may be the +journey, the Divine Spark within us can never be truly separated from +Him, or err from that Centre. Thus the point of the Compasses at the +centre of the c ircle may be considered to be the Spirit, the head of +the Compasses the Soul, and the point on the circumference the body. + +So the task is set and the brethren go forth on the quest, that quest + which must lead through the darkness of death, as the ceremony that + follows tells in allegory. It is not correct to say that the search + hinted at in the Opening ceremony is suddenly abandoned, and those who + think this misinterpret the whole meaning of the legend. Never in + earthly life shall we find the answer we seek, nay, even death itself + will not give it; but, having passed beyond the grave, through the four + veils of the Scottish rite, and so into the H.R.A., we find an + excellent answer in allegorical and symbolical language, whilst the + jewel of the degree emphasises what the end of the quest is. + +Nor must it be forgotten that the body alone cannot realise the nature +of God, and that is why without the help of the other two, H.A.B. +neither could, nor would, disclose the S........t. + +The W.M.'s promise to help indicates that the Spirit will render +assistance, but though the Spirit subsequently raises man from the grave +it is not sufficiently evolved to give him the true secret. This can +only come about when the Spirit has raised the Soul to a far higher +stage of spirituality. + +Though this is the degree of Destruction, that form of the Trinity is +not invoked, and the title used corresponds more closely to the Hindu +name for the All-Embracing than to their form of the Destroyer. This no +doubt is deliberate, for the symbol of this degree is the same emblem +which among the Hindus denotes the Most High, namely the Circle with a +Point within it. + +In some Scotch rituals, after the Lodge has been opened in the first +degree the I.P.M., or the D.C., opens the V.S.L., and, strange to say, +does so with the words, "In the beginning was the Word." Similarly, when +the Lodge is closed in the first degree the book is closed with the +words, "And the word was with God." Here then we get two striking +features: 1) the use of words from the first chapter of the Gospel +according to St. John, and 2) their correlation with the phrase in the +Third Degree, "At, or with the C." This procedure suggests that the lost +W. is the Logos, or Christ, and remembering what we have previously +pointed out in the earlier books, i.e., that there is a perfectly +logical Christian interpretation of the whole of the Craft ceremonies, +this fact becomes of increasing significance. + +Before closing this chapter, I would like to add that the Third Degree +lends itself to a Christian interpretation even more markedly than the +former ones, and several of the higher degrees in Freemasonry adopt and +expand this line of teaching. + +In view of the fact that in the Middle Ages Freemasonry was undoubtedly +Christian, we cannot lightly reject this view of the inner meaning of +the ceremonies, but as the frame work of our ceremonies apparently goes +back before Christian times, a non-Christian interpretation is equally +permissible. + +CHAPTER III + +THE SYMBOLICAL JOURNEYS, ETC. + +The Can. is admitted on he C....... s, and this fact is of far greater +significance than most brethren probably realise. Firstly, as has been +noted, one arm of the C.s is always at the C., no matter how far the +other may travel, and from the point of view of the Can., though he +knows it not, this act in a sense indicates that his heart, and +therefore he himself, is at or on the C........e. Secondly, the C....s +in this degree link up with the Sq. used in the former degree on a +similar occasion. We have seen in the previous books that the Sq. and +C........s are united on the Ped. in such a way as to form the vesica +piscis, the emblem of the female principle, and the symbol of birth and +rebirth. Hence symbolically thc Can. passes through the vesica piscis. +Also after entering the Lodge in this, as in the previous degrees, he +kn....s while the blessing of Heaven is invoked, and as he does so the +wands of the deacons are crossed above his head. He thus kn........s in +a triangle, the emblem of Spirit, and itself co nnected with the +lozenge. Two equilateral triangles make a lozenge, which is produced +from the vesica piscis-formed by two circles, as shown by the first +proposition in Euclid. In view of the great stress laid upon Geometry +throughout the whole of our rituals these facts cannot be ignored. Our +Operative Brn. must have realised that the whole science of Geometry +arises out of this first proposition, which shows how to make a triangle +(the emblem of the Trinity and the Spirit) by means of two circles whose +ci rcumferences pass through the centre of each other. In doing so they +form the vesica piscis, which gives birth first of all to the triangle, +and secondly, to the double triangle, in the form of a lozenge. This +last emblem is symbolised by the sq., denoting matter, and the c...s, +denoting spirit. The above facts throw a flood of light upon the +interplay between these Masonic emblems. + +Before leaving this subject it is worth while pointing out that the Can. +likewise takes every Ob. in Craft masonry within this triangle, and that +the same method is employed in other ancient rites, including those of +the Society of Heaven and Earth in China, where the Can. kn...s on one +sword, while two others are held over his head so as to form a triangle +of steel. + +The Can. now starts on his three symbolical journeys. He first satisfies +the J.W., representing the Body, that he is an E.A., i.e., a man of good +moral character. He next satisfies the S.W., representing the Soul, that +he has benefited by the lessons of life and acquired intellectual +knowledge. Then comes the third journey, when he is once more challenged +by the Soul, who demands the P.W., the full significance of which has +already been explained. Let us combine these meanings! He comes laden +with worldly p ossessions, which in themselves carry the seeds of death, +unconsciously representing in his person the worker in metals who made +the twin colunms, and is about to be entombed. (tymboxein). + +Therefore the Soul presents him to the Spirit as one properly prepared +to carry out the part of his great predecessor. There is a point here +which we need to realise, for it is one which is often overlooked. In +the previous degrees only one Deacon was instructed to lead the Can. by +the proper S...ps to the E., but here both are needed. From the +practical point of view there is no obvious reason why the help of the +J.D. should be invoked at all, and as the ceremony is usually carried +out he does nothing but look on. I believe, however, the S.D. should +first go through the S...ps and the J.D., should assist the Can. to copy +his example. If thus were so we should get an almost exact repetition of +the analogous ceremony in the R.A. where the p.s., corresponding to the +S.D., is helped by an assistant. Thus, with the Can., in both cases we +get a Trinity, only one of whom actually descends into the g., or, in +the other case, into the v. As Major Sanderson has pointed out in An +Examination of the Masonic Ritual, among the primitive, races usually, a +man who stepped over an o.g. would be considered to have committed +sacrilege, and almost certainly would be slain, but, on the other hand, +we do know that in many Initiatory Rites either the Can., or someone +else for him, steps down into a gr., and is subsequently symbolically +sl...n therein. If this be the true interpretation of this part of the +ceremony, the reason for the presence of the two deacons in addition to +the Can. becomes clear. It is only the Body that descends into the clear +the Soul and the Spirit have no part therein. Thus, for the moment, +though only temporarily, these three represene the triune nature of man, +while the three principal officers represent the triune nature of God. +The fact that this is undoubtedly true in the case of the R.A., makes it +almost certain that the same idea underlies this apparently unimportant +diffirence between the arrangements in the third degree, an d those +followed in the first and second. + +Again and again when one comes to study carefully the details of our +ritual, one finds little points, such as these, which would certainly +not have survived the drastic revision of 1816 if there had not been +present some men who really did understand the inner meaning of our +ceremonies, and refused to allow important lessons to be lost by the +removal of what, at first sight, appear to be unnecessary details. + +Therefore, those of us who value the inner meaning of our ceremonies owe +a deep debt of gratitude to these men, even though their actual names be +unknown to us, and on our part a duty is imposed on us that we shall not +hastily tamper with the rituals, merely because we do not ourselves see +the full significance of a phrase or think that by revising it we can +make the wording run more smoothly. + +The next factor we must consider most carefuUy is the actual sp...s +themselves. These make the Latin cross of suffuring and sacrifice. + +Sometimes the sp..s are not done quite correctly, for the Can. should be +careful to face due North, due South, and due East respectively. This +procedure undoubtedly refers to the three entrances of the Temple +through which H.A.B. endeavoured to escape. Hence it is we see that the +Master himself trod out the cross of Calvary during the tragedy, and in +a sense made the Consecration Cross of the Temple. + +In a mediaeval church, and even to-day at the consecration of a church + according to the Anglican ordinance, there should be a dedication cross + marked on the building. In the Middle Ages these were usually marked on + the pillars, and apparently corresponded to the mark made by an + illiterate person when witnessing a deed. The Consecrating Bishop + sometimes drew this cross on the pillar or wall, or sometimes merely + traced over a cross already painted there for the purpose. Any new + piece of work in a church, even if only a new fresco, had its + dedication cross. For example :-At Chaldon Church, Surrey, the + dedication cross is marked on the margin of a fresco depicting The Brig + of Dread, described at length in Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods. + +Bearing these facts in mind, we shall perceive that, even from the +Operative point of view, the manner of advancing in this degree, and the +manner in which H.A.B. met his end, had a peculiar significance. The +Great Architect of the Temple must have traced the dedication cross the +whole length and breadth of the Temple in his own blood. Moreover, such +dedication crosses as have actually survived are nearly always found to +be painted in red. Thus, H.A.B.'s last work was, as it were, to commence +the consecrati on of the Temple which was completed by K.S., for until +that cross had been marked either on the wail or pavement, according to +mediaeval Operative ideas the building could not be consecrated. +Therefore, the Can., who is reenacting the same drama, must obviously do +likewise, and in so doing dedicates the Temple of his body. + +But there is still more hidden within this ceremonial act. The ancient +Knights Templar were accused of trampling on the cr., and a careful +examination of the evidence taken at the trial shows that in reality +they took a ritual sp., somewhat similar to those taken by the Can. in +this degree. + +One of the esoteric meanings indicated is the Way of the Cross which +leads to Calvary. Furhermore, having thus traced out a cr. he is +subsequendy laid on it, and this fact is emphasised by the position in +which his legs or feet are placed. The foot of this cr. reaches to the +Ped., on which rests the O.T. If, therefore, this symbolical cr. were +raised as it was on Calvary it would rest on the O.T., and the Can. +would face the E., and would be, as it were, on a mountain. This fact +should be borne in mind by t hose who seek a Christian interpretation of +our Craft ceremonies. Mystically interpreted, it indicates that every +aspirant for union with the Divine must tread the Way of the Cross, and +suffer and die thereon, in order that he may rise to a new life, a +realisation of his union with the Infinite. + +Even those who are disinclined to admit the possibility of a Christian +interpretatior, of the Craft degrees, must recognise the fact that this +cr. is the cr. of sacrifice and means that the true aspirant must be +prepared to sacrifice everything in his search after Truth. + +The number of the sp...s is the combination of the Trinity and of the +four elements, representing matter. It is the same number as forms the +perfect lodge, and also the seven elements which form man, whether we +interpret it according to the ancient Egyptian system, or in the more +modern form of the five physical senses, the Soul and the Spirit. In the +latter case it indicates that the man must be prepared to sacrifice, or +shall we say dedicate to God, Body, Soul and Spirit. + +There are yet other profound meanings in this one ritual act, but enough +has been written to set my readers pondering for themselves, and we will +therefore proceed to consider the next point in the ceremony. + +The Ob. itself contains one or two interesting points. Thus it indicates +that a M.M.'s Lodge must always be open on the C.. This shows us at once +that we are dealing with a ceremony with a mystical meaning, for the C. +means the same as the middle ch. in the second degree-the secret chamber +of the heart, where dwells the Divine Spark-and so tells us in veiled +language that all that happens thereafter is a spiritual experience, +which sooner or later comes to every mystic. The special moral +obligations which t he Can. undertakes should be noted, but require no +explanation. It is, however, difficult to understand why they should be +deferred until this stage. In the ancient charges similar obligations +are imposed apparently on the E.A., and this seems more logical. + +The Py. varies even in different parts of England, but in essentials is +always the same. You are s. at the c., and the manner of disposal is +very reminiscent of the way in which the dead are cremated in India in +honour of Shiva. There the corpse is burnt near running water, +preferably near the Ganges, and the ashes are thrown into the air over +the river to the four cardinal points, that the winds may scatter them. +It must be remembered that Shiva represents the destructive attribute of +the Diety and he make s the P.S. of a M.M. on his statues. His is the +element of fire, and all these facts must be born in mind when +considering our own Py. + +The position of the Sq. and Cs., in addition to the explanation given, +indicates that the spirit, represented by the Cs., now dominates the +body, typified by the Sq.. + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE EXHORTATION + +The opening part of the exhortation gives a convenient summary of the +previous degress and quite clearly indicates that the first inner +meaning of the series is Birth, Life which is of course educational and +preparatory for its sequel, and Death. The phrase relating to the second +degree "And to trace it, from its devlopment through the paths of +Heavenly Science even to the throne of God Himself," shows plainly its +real significance. As pointed out in the F.C. Handbook, in the Mid. Ch. +the F.C. discovers no t only the name of God, but that he himself is the +fifth letter Shin which transforms the name Jehovah into the name +Jeheshue, or Messias, the King. + +But according to the old Kabala Jeheshue must be raised on the cross of +Tipareth, and the significance of this fact is impressed on our Can. by +the incidents now to take place. The average Christian need not trouble +about the subtleties of the Kabala, for the story in the New Testament +supplies him with a very similar interpretation. + +The W.M. having, almost casually, given him this key to the inner +meaning of what is about to follow, proceeds at once to the most +dramatic part of the ceremony. Up to this point almost all forms of our +ritual are practically the same, but henceforward there are many marked +differences. "Emulation" ritual may be regarded as containing the bare +minimum, but the additional details found in many Provincial workings in +England, and in Scotland, Ireland, America, and many of the Continental +Lodges, are too impor tant to be ignored. There is no reason to assume +that they are innovations; on the contrary all the evidence points to +the fact that they are integral parts of the ceremony which, for various +reasons, were omitted by the revisers of our ritual who met in the Lodge +of Reconciliation. I shall therefore proceed to note and explain them +where necessary. + +Whereas in Emulation working as soon as the Ws. are called on the +deacons retire, in most others, in the Provinces, etc., they fall back +to the head of the g.. Thus with the W.M. the W.s form the triangle of +Spirit, and with the D.s the Sq. of matter, on which the triangle rests, +for the M. descends from his chair and stands in front of the Ped.. As a +practical piece of advice I would recommend that the J.W. should not +direct the Can. to c. his f. until after the S.W. has dealt with him, +for it is impossibl e for him to drop on his respective k...s if his f. +are c., whereas by carrying out these instructions before the last +attack he will fall the more readily. + +In most of the old Scotch rituals the Can. journeys round the Lodge, is +attacked by the J.W. in the S., by the S.W. in the W. (note that), and +returns to the M. in the E., where the final incident takes place. I +think, however, our English system of having the attack in the N. +instead of in the W. is preferable, and is probably the correct form. In +the Scotch ritual the three villains have names, and the same is the +case in America. They are Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum. The word itself +clearly comes from th e Latin word meaning "To command," and refers to +the fact that they commanded him to give up the S....s. But the +terminations of the three names appear to have a curious esoteric +reference to India. It can hardly be by accident that these three names +form the mystic word AUM. The U in India in this case is pronounced +almost like O, and when this word is disguised, as it usually is, it is +written OMN. If this be so we have the Creative Preservative, and +Annihilative aspects of the Deity emphasised in the Thi rd Degree, and +it is the Destructive aspect, symbolised by the letter M, which deals +the final stroke. + +This variation is therefore of importance, but I must warn my readers +that not all Scotch workings have it, some of them being much more akin +to our own, even having the attack in the N.. Practically all of them, +however, have the perambulations, during which solemn music is played. +The usual procedure is for the brethren to pass round the gr. once +making the P. S. of an E.A.. When this is done the J.W. makes his +abortive attempt. The second round is made with the H. S. of an F.C., +after which the S.W. trie s and fails. The third round is made with the +S. of G. and D. of a M.M., on the conclusion of which the Can. is r... +by the lion's g.... It is a great pity that the use of this name for +the M. M.'s g. is falling into disuse in London, for it has in itself +important symbolical references, to which we shall refer later in the +chapter. + +In many parts of England it is still customary to place the Can., either + in a c----n or in a g. made in the floor, and the same method is found + in most other parts of tke world. Indeed, in the Dutch ritual the Can. + is first of all shown a c..n in which is a human skeleton. This is + subsequently removed, though he does not know it and he thinks when he + is laid therein he will find himself in its bony clutches. Even as near + London as Windsor there is a Masonic Temple which has a special chamber + of d. with a g. actually in the floor and until recently it was still + used although whether it is to-day I cannot say. + +Let us now turn to consider the meanings of the main incidents. The +first meaning of the degree is obvious; it prepares a man for his final +end and hints of a possibility of life beyond the grave but it must be +admitted that the lesson is not driven home with the same force as it is +in most of the ancient mysteries. Osiris Himself rose from the dead and +became the Judge of all who followed after Him, and because of this fact +His worshippers believed that they too would rise. In our legend, +however, it is on ly the dead body of H.A.B. which is lifted out ofthe +g. in a peculiar manner, and in the legend there is not even a hint as +to what befell his Soul. The question is often asked why they should +have raised a c..s and placed it on its feet. (1) + +(1) See Ward, Who Was Hiram Abiff? + +One explanation probably is, by analogy with the Greek story of the +manner in which Hercules recovered Alcestis and ransomed her from the +bondage of Thanatos-Death himself. We are told that Hercules wrestled +with Thanatos and would nor let him go until he had agreed to allow +Hercules to bring her back from the realm of the Shades to the land of +living men. It may be that the corpse here represents Death. It is also +worth noting that Isis joined together the fragments of the body of +Osiris, and the "Setting up" of the backbone of the God was a ceremony +carried out every year by the ancient Egyptian Priests. The body of +Osiris apparently was raised from the bier by Anubis in precisely the +same way as the M.M. is r.. When it was set on its feet life returned to +it. One fact is certain, that in every Rite which has as its central +theme symbolic d. the Can. is r. by the same g., and in precisely the +same manner, and this manner becomes a method of greeting and of +recognition among all who have passed through this type of ceremony. For +example :-it is known and used in the Dervish Rite, among West African +Negroes, among the Red Indians of Central America, and was apparently +known to the ancient Druids, for it is carved on a stone found at Iona. +In the ancient rites of Mithra it also appears to have been the method +used upon a similar occasion. These facts show that it is an ancient +landmark and one to be most carefully guarded. + +The use of the phrase The Lion Grip is peculiarly significant, as Major +Sanderson shows in his work, An Examination of the Masonic Ritual. +Therein he points out that in the Book of the Dead the Supreme God, +whether Ra or Osiris, is appealed to as the " God in the Lion form," and +in all such cases the prayer of the Soul is that he may be permitted to +" Come forth " in the East, rising with the sun from the d..s of the g.. +In Egypt the lion was the `personification of strength and power, but it +is usually ass ociated with the idea of the regeneration of the Sun, and +therefore with the resurrection. Major Anderson goes on to point out as +follows. "Shu (Anheru, `the Lifter') who as the light of the Dawn was +said to lift up the sky-goddess from the arms of the sleeping Earth, is +often represented as a lion, for only through him was the rebirth of the +Sun made possible. Osiris is called the lion of yesterday, and Ra the +Lion of tomorrow : the bier of Osiris is always represented as having +the head and legs of a lion ." Thus as Major Sanderson indicates, the +expression "the lion grip" is a survival from, the Solar cult, and +therefore a landmark which should be carefully preserved. + +The Bright Morning Star whose rising brings peace and Salvation, almost +certainly was originally Sirius, but to Englishmen it must seem strange +that Sirius should be said to bring peace and Salvation. The association +of these ideas with the Dog Star is undoubtedly a fragment which has +come down from Ancient Egypt, for the rising of Sirius marked the +beginning of the inundation of the Nite, which literally brought +salvation to the people of Egypt by irrigating the land and enabling it +to produce food. That S irius was an object of veneration to the +philosophers of the ancient world is well known to all archaeologists, +and many of the Temples in Egypt have been proved to have been oriented +on Sirius. There is also a good deal of evidence showing that some of +the stone circles in Great Britain were similarly oriented on Sirius by +the Druids. It is therefore not surprising that this star is still +remembered in our rituals. Naturally it has acquired a deeper spiritual +meaning in the course o f years, and may be rega rded as representing +the First Fruits of the Resurrection, the sure hope of our Redemption. +This aspect is set forth in the lectures drawn up by Dunckerley, who +regarded it as the star of Bethlehem, and as typifying Christ. See Rev. +xxii, 16. + +At this point the Can.. who has been carefully put in the N., the place +of darkness, is moved round by the right to the South. From the +practical point of view this is to enable the M. to re-enter his chair +from the proper side, but there is also an inner meaning. Immediately +after death the Soul is said to find itself on the earth plane amid murk +and darkness. Lacking mortal eyes, it cannot perceive the sun, and, on +the other hand, is still so immersed in matter that it cannot yet see +clearly with its spir it eyes; but this stage rapidly passes away, and +the Soul is received into a higher plane of existence, being brought +thither by messengers of Light. The position in the North represents +this period of darkness on the earth plane, and that this is not +accidental is shown by the fact that in most rituals the lights are not +turned up until the phrase "That bright morning star, etc." has been +uttered. Then the M., representing one of these spirit messengers, leads +the Can. gently round to the South, thereby sy mboling his entry into +the place of light. And who is this messenger? Every installed master +who has received the P.W. leading to the Chair should realise that, no +matter how unworthy, he represents the risen Christ. Thus we see the +peculiarly appropriate nature of the act coming after the reference to +the bright morning star, which also in another sense represents the +risen Christ. + + +CHAPTER V + +THE S....TS + +Having thus been brought into the place of light the Can. is given not +the Gen. Ss, but only substitued ones. This fact must often have puzzled +the Can.. The pratical reason given in the ritual, though perfecdy +inteligible to a R.A. mason, cannot be the real one. In view of the +unexpected calamity no-one could have thought K.S. was breaking his ob. +by nominating a successor to H.A.B. and giving him the full ss..ts. +Actually according to the R.A. story he did something much worse, for he +wrote them down and placed them somewhere, in the hopes that they would +be subsequently rediscovered, and he had no assurance that their +discoverers would even be masons, much less that they would keep their +discovery secret. Of course this is also an allegory, and from this +stand-point perfectly correct. The lost s...ts are the nature and +attributes of God, which must be realised by each man for himself, and +no other man can really communicate them. Moreover, this complete +realisation of the nature of God, and the union of th e Divine Spark +within us with the Source of All, can never be achieved during mortal +life. Even after death we shall need to leave the world long behind and +travel far, before we can hope to attain that state of spiritual +evolution which will enable us to approach the Holy of Holies, and gaze +with unveiled eyes upon Him, Who is the beginning and the end of all. + +With regard to these substituted s..ts. let us note that they grow out +of those used by the F.C.. Having already shown in the last book that +the sn.s of the F.C., and in fact the real s..t of that degree, is the +transformation of Jehovah into Jeheshue, + +we see that this is most appropriate. To use modern language, the second +degree teaches of the birth of the Christ Spirit within us, while the +third indicates that mystically we, like the great Master, must die and +rise again. As St. Paul says, " Die daily in Christ." + +The sn.s given are probably all of great antiquity. Of some we have +evidence which shows that they were venerated in ancient Egypt and +Mexico, are still employed in the primitive Initiatory Rites of the +savages, and are associated with the Gods in India. For example, the +P.S. is used by Shiva, the Great Destroyer, Who when He makes it, holds +in His hand the lariet of death. The sn. of G. and D. is found all round +the world, as I have shown in full detail in Sign Language of the +Ancient Mysteries. Ancient Me xico, where Quetzacoatl makes it, can be +matched with Easter Island in the far Pacific, Peru, West Africa, East +Africa, New Guinea, Malaya and many other places. + +Major Sanderson points out that the second Cas. Sn. is depicted in +Egyptian pictures as being used by those who are saluting Osiris in his +coffin. Those who desire will find it in Papyrus 9,908 in the British +Museum. + +The English sn. of g. and d. (for up till now we have been speaking of +the Scotch form) is almost certainly not the correct one. Its general +appearance would incline one to believe that it is a penal sn., though +whence derived it is difficult to say. A little thought will indicate +the nature of the penalty as being somewhat similar to that of one of +the higher degrees. So far as I can find it is not recognised as a sn. +of g. and d. to-day, except among masons who are descended masonically +from the Grand Lod ge of England, but in a picture by Guercino of Christ +cleansing the Temple, in the Palazzo Rosso, Crenoa, both this and the +Scotch form are shown, while the G. of H. constantly appears in +mediaeval paintings, e.g., in the Raising of Lazarus. (1) + +The so-called Continental form undoubtedly comes from a well known high +degree, where it is much more appropriate: it is apparently restricted +to the Latin countries, whereas even in Germany it is the Scotch form +that is employed. + +The sn. of Exul. is a form used to this day in of Asia to indicate +worship, and was similarly employed in Ancient Egypt. Major Sanderson +suggests that it was copied from the position in which Shu upheld the +sky. + +Thus we see that six out of the so-called seven sn.s can be shown to be +of ancient origin, and it is quite probable that further research will +enable us to prove that the other one is equally old. Such sn.s as these +originally had a magical significance, and the explanation given in the +ritual as to their + + +(1) see The Sign Language of the Mysteries by Ward. + + +origin is no doubt of a much later date than the sn.s themselves. +Indeed, a careful study of certain of the sn.s will show that they are +not the natural sn.s which would have been used to indicate the feeling +they are said to express. For example, in the sn. of h...r the left hand +would not naturally be placed in the position in which we are taught to +put it, if this sn. had originated as related in. the story. So obvious +is this that some modern preceptors of Lodges of Instruction have to my +knowledge alte red the position of the left hand in order to make it +conform to the story, but I venture to think that in so doing they are +committing a very serious mistake, nothing less than the removal of an +ancient landnrark. + +Some day we shall probably discover the real origin of this sn., but if +it is altered that will of course become impossible. + +The lion's grip and the actual position of r..s...g are equally old, +and, so far as we can find, this manner of r..s...g is employed in every +rite, whether ancient or primitive, which deals with the dramatic +representation of d.. As a manner of greeting it is employed by the +initiated men in many Red Indian Trihes, in West Africa, among the +Senussi in North Africa, and in the Dervish Rites. (1) + +The parts of the b. brought in contact with each other are all parts +presided over by some sign of the Zodiac, and there would appear to be +some old astrological meaning which has now become lost. It may possibly +have been connected with Gemini, the Twins, and this fact is made the +more probable by the survival of the name "The Ln's Gr." The explanation +given, although possibly of a fairly recent origin, nevertheless +contains a valuable inner meaning, for it shows that we cannot hope to +advance towards God unless we do our duty to our fellow men. Thus in +dramatic form is shown that the brotherhood of man necessitates the +Fatherhood of God. + +It hardly seems necessary in this book to point out again that the +regular st. forms a tau cross and teaches us that we must trample under +foot our animal passions, if we desire to approach near to God. We note, +however, that the Can., in advancing to obtain the s..ts, has perforce +to make three tau crosses, and the Christian Mystic will + +(1) For further explanation see Ward, Who Was Hiram Abiff? + +doubtless perceive in this a hidden reference to the three crosses on +Calvary. + +Finally, as has already been pointed out, the penalties of the first and +second degrees draw attention to two important occult centres, and so +also in this degree the Solar Plexus, the most important occult centre +of all, is indicated, and since the object of every Mystic is to achieve +the Beatific vision, the fact that the monks of Mt. Athos, near +Salonica, do so by fixing their eye on this part, shows that there is a +very special reason for the special form of the p.s of the third degree. + +CHAPTER VI + +THE BADGE + +On his re-entering the Lodge the Can. is presented, and in due course +invested by the S.W., as in the previous degrees, thereby indicating +that even after death man's spiritual advancement is registered by the +Soul. The Badge itself, however, is full of symbolic meaning, and though +in its present form it is of comparatively recent date, it is evident +that those who designed it had a much deeper knowledge of symbolism than +some modern critits are apt to believe. + +Firstly, the colour, which is that of Cambridge University, and likewise +that used by Parliament when fighting King Charles, has a much deeper +significance than is generally known. It is closely related to the +colour of the Virgin Mary, which itself had been brought forward from +Isis and the other Mother Goddesses of the ancient world. It is possible +that the designers were also influenced by the existence of certain +Orders of Knighthood which had their appropriate colours, for the aprons +of Grand Lodge Off icers have Garter blue, but this blue is also the +colour of Oxford, and the colour associated with the Royalist cause at +the time of the Civil War. At any rate, it is appropriate that our +aprons should thus employ the colours of the two great Universities of +England. There is, of course, an exception in the case of the red aprons +allocated to Grand Stewarts, for which there are historical reasons into +which we need not now enter. We may, however point out that the dark +blue aprons of Gran d Lodge are often, though erroneously, spoken of as +the Purple, indicating a Royal colour, and thereby implying no doubt +that Brn. entitled to wear this colour are rulers in the Craft, and +represent the masculine element. Light blue, on the other hand, +represents the feminine or passive aspect, and is most appropriate for +the ordinary M.M., whose duty it is to obey, and not to command. Indeed, +the M.M.'s apron contain: other emblems which indicate this feminine +aspect. These are the thre e rosettes, which symbolise the rose, i tself +a substitute for the Vesica Piscis, and they are arranged so as to form +a triangle with the point upwards, interpenetrating the triangle formed +by the flap of the apron. The two triangles only interpenetrate half +way, therein differing from the double triangles seen on the jewels worn +by R. A. Masons, which completely overlap. These two triangles deserve a +little careful study. The lower triangle with its point upwards is the +triangle of fire, the emblem of Shiva, and the symbol of the Divine +Spark. T he triangle made by the flap of the apron, which has its point +directed downwards, is the triangle of water, and is thus to some extent +representative of the Soul. These two triangles are within a sq., the +emblem of matter, and therefore of the body, and so we see that the +M.M.'s apron symbolically represents the triune nature of man, whereas +the R.A. jewel, (the only high degree jewel which may be worn in a Craft +Lodge) has these two triangles within a circle, which is the emblem of +the Infinite. In this c ase the triangle of water presents the +preservative aspect, the triangle of fire, the destructive aspect, the +point or eye at the centre, the creative aspect, and the circle, the +everlasting nature of the Supreme Being. There is therefore a curious +correspondence, and also a marked difference, between the jewel of the +R.A. Mason, and the apron of the M.M.. + +Viewed from another standpoint the apron has another set of meanings. +The triangle represents Spirit, and the Sq., matter. The flap forms a +triangle entering into the sq., and so depicts the entry of Spirit into +matter, and therefore, man. The E.A.'s apron should have the flap +pointing upward, indicating that the Divine Wisdom has not yet truly +penetrated the gross matter of our bodies. This custom is unfortunately +going out of use in modern Masonry, which is a great pity, as +undoubtedly a valuable lesson i s thus lost. The F.C. has the flap +pointing downward for several reasons. Firstly, to indicate that wisdom +has begun to enter and therefore to control matter; secondly, to +represent the triangle of water and thus indicate that Soul and Body are +acting in unison; thirdly, because this triangle is the emblem of Vishnu +the Preserver, and so emphasises - the fact that the aspect of God +taught in this degree is the preservative aspect, whereas the addition +of the three rosettes in the third degree shows, not onl y the union of +Body, Soul and Spirit, but also that the great lesson of this degree is +the importance of the Destructive side of the Diety, or as we may prefer +to tall it, the Transformative side. + +What, however, of the two rosettes worn by the F.C.? Firstly, they + stress the dual nature of man, and have a very clear reference to the + two p...rs. Similarly, no doubt, they indicate that the F.C. is not yet + a complete and united being ; Body and Soul are in union, but unlike + the M.M., these two are not in complete accord with the Spirit. Thus we + obtain a correspondence between the knocks of the F.C. and the two + rosettes. Furthermore, the triangle is incomplete, showring that the + F.C. is not yet a complete F.M., and this correlates with the position + of the C.s when taking the ob. in the F. C. degree. + +Two other features of the apron must also be considered. Firstly, the +tassels, which appear originally to have been the ends of the string +with which the apron was bound round the waist. There is little doubt +that in the 18th century the aprons had not the present symbolic +tassels, but were fastened round the body in a very similar way to that +in which the E.A. and F.C. aprons are to this day. It is interesting to +note in this connection that the actual aprons worn by the officers of +Grand Lodge for the yea r, as distinct from the Past Grand Officers' +aprons, have no tassels at all. + +In the course of years, no doubt, the ends of the strings were +ornamented by tassels, and to this day the aprons of the Royal Order of +Scotland are bounmd round the body by an ornamental cord with tassels, +which are tied in front in such a way that the two tassels stick out +from underneath the flap. These tassels, when the final form of our +aprons was fixed, were separated from the bands which fasten the apron, +and attached to the apron itself, becoming as we now see simply strips +of ribbon on which are fas tened seven chains. When this change took +place it is clear that those who made the alteration deliberately chose +the number 7, and intended thereby to convey a symbolic meaning. We have +already explained the numerous symbolic meanings of the number 7; for +example, it represents God and Man, Spirit and Matter, etc. + +Naturally they had to have two tassels to balance, and it would have + been very inartistic to have had four chains on one tassel and three on + the other, and so it would be unwise to lay too much stress on the + number 14, which is the sum total. We may regard it merely as a curious + and interesting coincidence that the body of Osiris was stated to have + been divided by Set into 14 pieces. But in addition to these details as + to the historical development of the tassels, we must not forget that + in many of the 18th century aprons the two p....rs are depicted. These + aprons were usually decorated by paintings on the leather, and varied + considerably from Lodge to Lodge, but one of the most usual kinds of + decoration included the two p..rs, and the remembrance of these may + very probably have influenced those who designed our present apron. + +The modern arrangement by which the apron is fastened, namely, a piece +of webbing with a hook and eye attachment, gave a fine opportunity for +some really profound symbolism, and I feel certain that it was not an +accident which led to the universal adoption of the snake to serve this +purpose. + +There are two kinds of symbolism attached to the snake in all ancient +religions. Firstly, the snake as the enemy of man, and therefore as the +representative of the powers of evil; and secondly the snake as emblem +of the Divine Wisdom. " Be ye wise as serpents" does not refer to the +craftiness of the Devil, but to the Divine Wisdom itself. + +In Ancient Egypt the Soul as he passed through the Underworld met with + serpents of evil, and also with serpents of good. In India, legend + tells us of a whole order of beings, the Serpent Folk, who are of a + Spiritual nature different from man, possessed their own rulers, and + were endowed with superhuman wisdom. Some of these are considered to be + friendly to man, while others are hostile. The Sacred Cobra is well + known to every student of Hindu religions, and is essentially good. + Actual worship is paid to the Serpent throughout the whole of India, + and in many other parts of the world, and in the Kapala we get clear + traces of the fact that under certain circumstances the serpent is + regarded as "The Shining One" -the Holy Wisdom Itself. Thus we see that + the serpent on our apron denotes that we are encircled by the Holy + Wisdom. + +Finally, the serpent biting its tail, and thus forming a circle, has +always been regarded as the emblem of eternity, and more especially of +the Eternal Wisdom of God. Nor must we forget that the snake is +peculiarly associated with Shiva, whose close symbolic association with +the third degree has already been clearly shown. + +Much more might be written on the meaning of the apron, but we cannot + devote any more space to this subject, interesting though it may be, + although before considering our next point it will perhaps be well to + recall what has already been mentioned in the E.A. handbook, viz., that + aprons, in addition to their Operative significance, have right through + the ages been employed in connection with religious ceremonial. On the + monuments of Egypt a garment, which can best be described as a + triangular apron with the point upward, is depicted in circumstances + indicating that the wearer is taking part in some kind of ceremony of + initiation. In ancient Mexico the Gods are depicted wearing aprons, and + it is not without interest to note that the modern Anglican bishop + wears an apron, although it appears to have developed from a long + flowing robe somewhat the shape of a cassock. + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE LEGEND + +After the ceremonial investiture of the Cand. the W.M. continues the +narrative of the traditional history. At least this is the case in most +English workings, but in some Scotch workings the whole story is told +first, and subsequently the Cand. and the other Brn. act the chief +parts. Perhaps one of the most important points to realise is the +correct meaning of the name H.A.B. . Major Sanderson in An Examination +of the Masonic Ritual gives the following interesting interpretations, +which we will proceed to e xpand further.-" The title H.A.B. is taken +direct from the Hebrew of 2 Chron., Chapter 4, verse 16., and means, ` +H. His father.' H. means 'Exaltation of light, their liberty or +whiteness, he that destroys'; It is of interest to note that abib in +Hebrew means `Ears of corn,' or `Green fruits,' and there is just a +possibility that this is the correct title of H." + +Bearing these translations in mind we at once perceive a whole series of +inner meanings hidden in the name of the principal Architect. Taking the +Christian interpretation of our rituals :-firstly, we shall remember +that Christ said " If I am raised up (or exalted) I shall draw all men +unto me." Secondly, Christ died to make us free, that is, to give us +liberty from the bonds of death and hell. Thirdly, mediaeval divines +were never tired of referring to Christ's whiteness and purity, and +relate many beautifu l legends and allegories to drive home this lesson. +One phrase alone will suffice to bring this aspect of the Christ to our +minds, i.e. , that He is constantly spoken of as " the lily of the +valley." Fourthly, He came to destroy the bonds of death and hell, nor +must we forget the old prophecy spoken concerning the coming Christ and +the serpent, representing Satan, " It (Christ) shall bruise thy head, +and thou shalt bruise His heel," Gen. 3. v. 15. It is of interest to +note that Quetzaco atl, the Mexican Pres erver, who fought and overthrew +the great giant of evil, was himself smitten in the foot, near to a fall +of water, subsequently died from the wound, and ultimately rose again +from the grave. In India Krishna similarly died from an arrow wound in +the heel. Moreover, in mediaeval frescoes Christ is constantly +represented as crushing the head of the great dragon under His left +foot, while in His right hand He upraises a staff on which is a cross. +Such scenes are usually described as " The Harrowing of Hell." + +Fifthly, if the word abib is the correct rendering for the second half +of the name in question, we get a clear reference to the Sacramental +bread. The ears of corn are obviously synonymous with the wafer or +consecrated bread, which in mediaeval days alone was given to the laity: +while the alternative translation, "Green Fruits," brings to our mind +the Biblical saying that Christ is "the first fruits of them that slept" +(1 Corin, 15. 20). Bearing this possible Christian interpretation in +mind, installed mast ers will perceive the deep significance of the P.W. +which leads from the degree of M.M. to that of I.M. + +But in addition to these Christian interpretations of H.A.B. there was +yet another, which in some senses may be regarded as older, and the key +to which is supplied by India. In this sense H.A.B. takes on the +characteristics of Shiva, the Destroyer. + + +Firstly, "Exaltation of life" reminds us of the legend that Shiva on a +certain day increased in stature until He overtopped the universe, and, +as a result, overthrew Brahma, the Creator, and was ackowledged by +Vishnu as His superior. On that great day He gathered unto Himself the +beginning and the end of all things, Alpha and Omega, and henceforth +birth and death alike were in His hands. + +Secondly, "Their liberty" refers to the fact that, to the pious Hindu, +Shiva by death grants liberty from the toil and anguish of this world, +and sets the soul free to mount to greater heights of spiriruality. + +Thirdly, Shiva is always spoken of as the "Great White God, white with +the ashes of the dead who are ever burned in His honour." Nor must we +forget that these ashes are always scattered to the four cardinal points +of Heaven. + +Fourthly, He is in His very essence " The Great Destroyer." + +The "Ears of corn" are symbols of Vishnu the Preserver, Who Himself, +according to numerous Hindu legends, was slain and rose from the dead, +thereby paying allegiance to the Lord of Death ; and so: + +Fifthly, we obtain the idea of the Resurrection as symbolised by the +ears of corn, which are planted in the earth and bring forth an abundant +harvest, the "Green fruits" of the fields. In this connection it is as +well to remember that the central theme of the Eleusinian Mysteries was +the ear of corn which was shown to the Cand. at the most solemn point of +the whole ceremony, and similarly taught the doctrine of the +resurrection from the dead. + +The next point that strikes us in the legend is the number of craftsmen +who "went in search." The Irish version is of peculiar interest, for it +relates that it was the twelve who relented who afterwards "went in +search," and not a new company of ffiteen. In many ways this is more +logical, and certainly has a deep symbolic meaning. It is logical in +that it shows that the penitent twelve did their best to make amends for +ever having allowed themselves to listen to the wicked schemes of the +other three, and the subsequent decree of K.S., ordering them to wear +white gloves and white aprons as a mark of their innocence, is most +appropriate. It was a public announcement that K.S. forgave them their +indiscretion and acquitted them of responsibility for the crime. + +On the other hand, in our version there seems no logical reason why K.S. +should order an entirely new batch of F.C.'s to wear these emblems of +their innocence, since they clearly had nothing to do with the crime, +and moreover, all the others, except the penitent twelve, were equally +innocent, and should therefore likewise have been instructed to wear +white gloves and aprons. It must be remembered that these white gloves, +etc., were not bestowed as a reward for having taken part in the search, +but are specif ically stated to have been ordered to be worn to denote +innocence. + +The Irish account goes on to state that the twelve set out from the +Temple and went together in one company until they came to a place where +four roads met, and formed a cross; then they divided into four +companies, and three went North, three East, three South, and three +West. Thus they trod the Way of the Cross. In some old Irish workings we +are told that the three who went North never returned. This symbolically +implies that they went into the Place of Darkness. As the tendency in +modern Irish masonry ap pears to be to adjust its ritual in main +essentials to our English workings, it is but fair that I should say +that I have a tangible proof of this form of legend, in the shape of an +old Irish apron dated 1790, which, unlike modern Irish aprons, has a +number of paintings on it depicting incidents in the ritual. One of the +paintings shows the twelve F.C.'s separating at the four cross roads. +(See frontispiece). + +It is clear from all accounts, whether English, Irish, Scotch or +American, that the scoundrels, the agents of death, were found by those +who went in the direction of Joppa, that is in the W., but we are left +in considerable doubt as to whether the b. was found in the E. or in the +S.. Symbolically, however, it would clearly be in the S., for H.A.B., +like the Christ, was struck down at High Twelve, when the sun is in the +S.. From a practical point of view it is fairly obvious that the +scoundrels who were carrying away the b. could never have reached Joppa +if they had once gone E., for they would have had to fetch half a circle +round Jerusalem, a procedure which would have rendered their chance of +escape almost hopeless. By going S. they might hope to throw their +pursuers off the track, and then turn back at an angle, reach Joppa, and +escape by boat. That this was their intention is clear from many old +forms of the legend, and especially in those worked in America. King S., +however, foresaw this possibility and prevented their escape by +forbidding any ships to sail. In the American working one of the +officers of the Lodge enacts the part of a sea captain, and even wears a +yachtman's cap. The villains come t o him and beg him to take them +aboard, but he refused because of the embargo ordered by K.S.. That the +same incident was known in the old Irish working is shown by the little +picture on the same Irish apron depicting the arrest of the villains on +the sea shore, for in the back ground there is a ship. + +Let us interpret the meaning of the Irish working first. From the +Christian standpoint the twelve F.C's represent the twelve apostles, +Mathias replacing the traitor Judas. But in the non-Christian, and +possibly earlier interpretation, these twelve would of course be the +twelve signs of the Zodiac, searching for the sun which had been +eclipsed. We must never forget that in addition to the deep spiritual +meaning hidden in our ritual there is also a Solar Myth embedded, which +has in the course of years become allegorized and filled with deeper +spiritual truths. + +But being English masons we must be prepared to find an explanation of +the fifteen. In ancient Egyptian times the month consisted of 30 days, +and the year of twelve such months, plus five extra days. Now the first +fifteen, of whom twelve recanted, presumably represent the first half of +that month, while the second half of the month is represented by the +fifteen who went in search. But spiritually the meaning of the fifteen +is fairly clear. Man has five senses and is triune in nature, and thus +implies that B ody, Soul and Spirit must cooperate in trying to find +God, and employ on that quest their five senses. + +Lest there be any misapprehension here I would explain that man is + considered to have not only the five physical senses, but also + corresponding senses of Soul and Spirit. The phrase "To see with the + eyes of the Spirit" is perfectly well known, and similarly we can speak + of the eyes of the Soul. To give concrete examples :-Students of + psychic science constantly speak of clairaudience and clairvoyance. + While it is not necessary to accept this type of phenomena, it is + clearly obvious that if man survives death at all his Soul must have a + means of communicating with other Souls and that these correspond in + some way to our physical senses. In like manner how are we to describe + the visions of the great seers and prophets, related in the Bible, + except by the possession of spiritual sight ? + +Bearing this in mind, we obtain the following interpretation of the fate +which befell the three F.C. Lodges into which the fifteen formed +themselves. Those who found nothing represent the physical senses of +man, which are useless beyond the grave : the next company must +therefore represent the Soul, for despite the logic of the physical +world, it is the Soul which realises that death does not end all, and so +it was one of these who r...d the M But the power which tells us what is +right and wrong, and which ultimately punishes us for our offences, is +what we call conscience, and thus assuredly is the Divine Spark within +us-the Spirit. + +Let us now turn to consider the details connected with the dlscovery of +the body. The incident of the shrub is such a striking analogy with a +similar one found in AEneid, wherein AEneas finds the body of the +murdered Polydorus by plucking up a shrub which is near him on the side +of a hill, that some students suggest that in the revision of our ritual +this incident was copied from Virgil. But, in Who was Hiram Abiff, I +show that both refer back to an ancient source and have an allegorical +meaning. One proof supporting this view; is that this particular tree, +the Acacia, has from time immemorial been more or less sacred in the +near East. In ancient Egypt the earliest forms of the legend of Osiris +relate that it was an acacia which grew up round the coffin of Osiris, +and not a tamarisk as in the later versions. (See An Examination of the +Masonic Ritual, by Major Sanderson). In like manner this tree is sacred +in Arabia, India, and many parts of Africa, while it is the Shittim wood +of the Old Te stament, from which the ark was made. No doubt in this +reverence for the acacia we have a survival of the primitive veneration +for trees, usually spoken of as "tree and serpent worship." In India the +assouata tree is stated to be a symbol of Trimurti, The Three in One. +Its roots represent Brahma, its trunk Vishnu, and its branches Shiva, +the Destroyer. + +At any rate we can regard the acacia tree as in itself an emblem of the +resurrection, for the tiny seed which is buried brings forth a mighty +tree, covered with fragrant blossoms. + +The account of the manner in which the Cas. S...s came into existence, +though ingenious, can hardly be taken as historic. As we have already +dealt with this point previously, we shall only say that every folk-lore +student is well aware that, in the vast majority of cases, legends +purporting to explain the origin of a certain custom do not give the +real origin at all, but merely indicate that the origin of the custom +has been lost, owing to its great antiquity. The very manner in which +some of the S..s are g iven is sufficient to indicate that they did not +originate in the way suggested, while, on the other hand, we find these +same S...s all round the world, with entirely different explanations as +to their origin. They are indeed ancient landmarks, and the utmost care +should be taken not to alter them in any way. + +The next incident in the legend is the capture of the scoundrels. In +some rituals it is given with much interesting detail of a picturesque +nature. All agree that they were apprehended in a tavern, and many say +explicidy that it was near the sea shore. Some of the rituals state that +the fugitives were overheard lamenting as follows:- "One said, 'Oh, that +my t. had been c.a. rather than I should have done it;' while another +more sorrowfully exclaimed, `Oh, that my h...t had been t.o. rather than +that I shoul d have struck him;' and a third voice brokenly said, `Oh, +that my b. had been s. in t. rather than that I should have smitten +him,' " This last version is of interest as explaining the legendary +origin of the py. of the three degrees, and incidentally it shows how +legend incorporates facts into a story, in order to explain something +whose original meaning is lost. It would also appear from this version +as if the scoundrels had not intended to actually kill their victim but +merely to terrorise h im, and in th e excitement of the moment lost +their heads. Symbolically this contains a valuable piece of teaching. +According to one interpretation the three scoundrels represent "The lust +of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John, +2. 16). In other words, the sins of the flesh, the sins of the Soul, +such as covetousness, and spiritual pride, the most deadly of all. + +These sins assuredly destroy man both physically and spiritually, yet it +can truly be said that in giving way to them no man intends to destroy +himself. From the more strictly Christian standpoint the three +scoundrels are Herod, Caiaphas, and Pontius Pilate, and it is perfectly +clear that Pilate and Herod, at any rate, did not wish to kill our Lord; +but were caught in a position from which they found it impossible to +escape. + +Returning to the deeper mystical interpretation we notice that the + scoundrels were found in the West, the region of Death, which teaches + us that the just retribution for all our sins, whether of body, soul, + or spirit, will overtake us after death, and that though in one sense + it is God, here shadowed forth by K.S., who punishes, yet in another + sense it is our five spiritual faculties which themselves rise up in + judgment against us. We ourselves, doom ourselves, and therefore we can + obtain nothing but strict justice. + +Without pretending that we have exhausted this subject, this brief +explanation of the true character of the scoundrels and their captors +must suffice, and we will only mention in passing that here also there +appears to be a half forgotten astrological reference to the three +winter months which oppress the sun. + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE TRACING BOARD, ETC. + +The next part of the narrative is incorporated in most English workings +with the Tracing Board. The most interesting feature is the description +of the g.. It is obvious that peculiar stress is laid on the centre, +even in the present form of our ritual, because of the way in which the +measurements are given. Why should it not have been said that it was six +feet long? In some old rituals the g.. or rather the monument, is +described as a dome, which made a complete circle at its base, and was +three feet from t he centre every way. If so it must have been like a +small replica of the earliest form of the Buddhist Pagoda, and the +Master was thus buried at the centre. In that case the top of the dome +would have been five feet from the surface of the ground, and we should +thus get the correct symbolic use of 5 as representing the body, and 3 +as representing the spirit, while enabling the human body to be +decorously interred. It seems probably that when the g.. was made to +conform to the type familiar in England, a des perate effort was made to +retain the 3 and 5. It is worth noting that there is no mention of the +use of any c...f...n, despite the picture on the tracing board, and if a +c...f....n had been used at the supposed date of the incident it +certainly would not have been of the European shape depicted, but much +more like an Egyptian Sarcophagus. Nevertheless, though the ritual does +not justify the existence of any c..f....n on the tracing board, it was +an integral par t of the ancient mysteries of Osiris, and its r etention +in other ritual is almost certainly an ancient landmark. On the same +tracing board may be seen certain letters in the Masonic cypher, which +are practically never explained. Very often when transliterated, among +other things, they will be found to give the P.W. leading to the three +degree. This fact is of interest, for the true meaning of that W., as +already explained, is a w...k...r in m...ls, the correct description of +H.A.B. The fact that he was buried as near the Sanctum Sanctortum as +possible, symbolically denotes that he had reached the centre, and was +in union with the Source of All. + +The Dormer window historically is the hypostyle, the method by which + Egyptian and classical temples obtained light. The pillars of the + central nave of such temples rose considerably higher than the roofs of + the aisles, thus leaving openings through which the light could enter + the building. These, however, were many in number, and it is difficult + to justify the apparent statement that there was only one such opening. + Symbolically it is intended to represent the means by which the Divine + Light penetrates into the deepest recesses of every man's nature. + +The squared pavement has already been explained under the section +dealing with the mosaic pavement, in the first degree, and our readers +are therefore referred to it. Briefly, it indicates that man's progress +towards the centre is through alternate experiences of good and evil, +darkness and light, mercy and severity, life and death. + +The Porch which is the entrance to the Sanctum Sanctorum is the gateway +of death. + +The working tools, "as in other cases, contain much sound moral teaching +of typical 18th Century work, but there is one implement which deserves +rather more than passing attention. For what follows I must express my +indedtedness to W. Bro. Sir John Cockburn, P.G.D. The s..k...t does not +appear to be much in use among Operative masons. It is used by +gardeners, but the Operative mason has other means for marking out the +ground for the foundations. This implement has more than a superficial +resemblance to the Caduceus of Mercury, and Sir John Cockburn suggests +that it has been employed to replace this "Heathen" emblem. For my part, +I think this is most probable, for it is clear that at the beginning of +the 19th century a deliberate attempt was made to eliminate this emblem +from our ceremonies. The jewel of the Deacons in the 18th century was +not a dove, but a figure of Mercury, bearing the Caduceus. A number of +these old jewels can be seen in the library of Grand Lodge, and there +are still a f ew old Lodges which continue to use them, instead of the +modern jewel. Now this jewel is far more appropriate to the Deacons than +is a dove. A dove is the emblem of peace and a carrier pigeon bears +messages, but neither of these birds do all the work of the Deacons. +Mercury, however, was the Messenger of the Gods, and carried the +instructions of Jupiter, thus fulfilling one set of the duties of a +deacon. He was also the conductor of souls through the underworld; +taking the dead by one hand, a nd uplifting the Caduceus in the o ther, +he led the Shade from the grave, through the perils of the underworld, +to the Elysian Fields; before his Caduceus the powers of evil fled. In +mediaeval escatology it is Christ who leads the Souls on a similar +journey, uplifting in His Hand the Cross of Salvation. Even to-day the +jewels of the Deacons in a Mark Lodge bear the Caduceus, a mute but +convincing witness to the use of this emblem in Freemasonry. + +We can thus see that on the one hand a deliberate effort was made to + delete from our ceremonies the Caduceus, probably because it was + considered to be Pagan, while on the other hand it was clearly quite + easy for ignorant masonic furnishers, in the course of years, to make + the Caduceus approximate more and more to a masonic tool, so as to fit + it in with other avowedly masonic implemens. As a masonic tool it has + very little significance, even to a Speculative, and is of no practical + value to an Operative, but the Caduceus would be peculiarly appropriate + to the third degree. In short, it is an ancient landmark, an emblem of + the dead and forgotten Mysteries, and symbolical of Him who leads the + soul from the darkness of the grave to the light of the resurrection. + +Before leaving the M.M. degree let me say to all installed masters that +if they have received the P.W., not the W. of an Installed master, but +the P.W. leading from the M.M. to that further degree, they will find in +it evidence not of a mere hint of the resurrection, but of the +Resurrection itself, and a close association with the version of that +doctrine set forth in the life of the Perfect Master. + +CHAPTER IX + +THE CLOSING + +Here we are reminded that we are working in symbolism, for we come back +from the West, i.e., the grave, to this material world. But we have only +obtained substitutes, and we offer them as some consolation to the +spirit, i.e., the W.M. The advance to the centre of the room is an +obvious reference to the other centre. The s...s are communicated by the +body to the soul, which passes them on to the spirit. The meaning of +these s....s is dealt with in the ceremony, but it is worth noting that +the word shows clea rly that the s....t is to be found only through the +death of the body. The actual Hebrew word whose corrupt form we use +really means " My son is slain." It is also well to remember that the +p.s. and the s. of G.& D. (Scottish form) are, old signs which come down +from the ancient mysteries, and are still found throughout the world. A +brief summary of that has already been said may be helpful. The p.s. is +often associated with Shiva, the Destroyer, and is also found +appropriately used at B urobudor in Java; it refers to that occult +centre, the solar plexus. In view of what the lost s...t is, this sign +is therefore most significant. In other words, it is a hint to those who +deserve to know while it conceals from those who do not. + +The Scottish sign of G. & D. is found all round the world, and always + has the same meaning of an appeal for heIp. It is used in the most + primitive initiatory rites of a boy into manhood, and in Kenya the boy + takes it to indicate that he is ready for the operation of circumcision + to begin. In Nyasaland, among the Yaos, it is associated with a grave, + and in Mexico the Preserver is shown making it. He was slain and rose + from the dead, and it is constantly found in Mexico in the form of a + carving, consisting of a skeleton cut in half at the centre and making + this sign, as, for example, at the Temple of Uxmal. + +The manner of communicating the s..s and the gr. are equally old. +Indeed, the lion's grip appears to be the grip of all the Mysteries. It +was the Grip of Mithra, and by this grip Osiris was raised. Among the +Druids it was also known, as is shown by a carving at Iona. I have, +however, gone into the evidence for the antiquity of our signs so fully +that I will not take up further space here. + +We may as well add, however, that the number "5" no doubt refers to the +five senses of man, just as the seven steps remind us of the Egyptian +sub-division of every mortal. + +Having received the sub. s...s the W.M., or Spirit, confirms their use +till the true ones are discovered. This last remark indicates that the +quest is not ended or abandoned, in reality it has just begun; the first +stage only has been passed, which stage is death. It also tells every +Craft Mason that he a good craftsman till he has at least taken the +Royal Arch. + +Thus the spirit acknowledges that death is a step forward. It has freed +the soul of the trammels imposed on it by the body, and so our life's +work on earth, as symbolised in the Lodge, is closed. The knocks +indicate that the spirit now dominates the soul and body and before we +leave these heights it is well to point out that almost all the great +religious teachers have taught that in some mysterious way this physical +body will be transformed, and still be used after death. In short, that +matter, as well as spirit, is part of God. Science has shown that matter +is indestructable, though its form may be changed completely, and so +even after the symbolical death and resurrection, three knocks are still +required. + +CHAPTER X + +CONCLUSION + +This then concludes the third degree. More than any other degree in +Craft Masonry it has embedded in it ancient landmarks, brought down from +a long distant past. Under the surface lie hidden, meanings within +meanings, which I make no pretence to have exhausted. Already this book +has exceeded in length either of the two previous ones, but to do full +justice to the sublime degree one would require a volume four times as +large as this. I trust, however, that I have given some help, more +especially to younger b rethren, which will aid them to glimpse the +deeper side of Freemasonry. If they too will strive to discover further +alternative meanings, I shall feel this labour of mine has been well +repaid. + +Let me again warn them that just because Masonry is so old, its rituals, +in the course of years, have been again and again revised, and newer +meanings have continually been grafted on to the old stock. We are not +entitled to say one meaning is right and another wrong. Both may be +right. Christianity itself has taken over a vast mass of pre-Christian +ceremonies and symbols, and the student is perfectly entitled to +consider that both the Christian and the pre-Christian interpretations +of these symbols are equ ally deserving of respect. + + +There is also another point which should be borne in mind. Again and +again we find that incidents and phrases which appear to have come from +the Bible, on closer investigation are found not to correspond exactly +with the Biblical narrative. At one time there was a tendency to say +that in these cases it was our duty to substitute the Biblical version +for the "Inaccurate" traditional form. With all due respect I venture to +say that such action is totally unjustifiable. Masonry is not the Bible. +It is a tradit ional ritual into which 18th century revisers inserted +fragments from the Bible, because that was the only book dealing with +the period of the masonic incidents which was then available to them. +To-day, we know a great deal more about this period than did our 18th +century predecessors, and the modern investigator has just cause to +lament the well meaning, but misdirected, zeal of these worthy masons, +who thereby have probably destroyed for ever valuable landmarks, which +would have helped us t o discover the historical growth and the symbolic +meaning of many parts of our ceremonies. + +Such apparent contraditions, and even mistakes, as appear to exist, +should be carefully retained, for they are sure indications to the +conscientous student of a connection with a long distant past, which +modern methods of research may enable us finally to trace to its origin. +If, however, they are revised out of existence, future generations will +have nothing to help them in the task of unravelling the true history +and meaning of Freemasonry. + +If a Sn. does not correspond with the explanation of the manner in which +it is said to have originated, don't alter the way of giving the Sn., +for it is an ancient landmark. Rather try to discover if anywhere in the +world that Sn. is still used in some old ceremony which may throw light +on its true origin. If H.A.B. was not buried in a c...f...n, don't +eliminate the c...f...n from the tracing board, but rather bear in mind +that his great prototype, Osiris, was so buried and that the c...f...n +played a pecul iarly important part in the legend which recounts his +death : which legend was hoary with antiquity before K.S. was born. + +Finally, let me say that even if a man can never fathom the full meaning +of the third degree, yet there is no man worthy of the name who has +passed through that third degree but will certainly have learnt one +important lesson, namely, how to d., and thereby will be the better man. + diff --git a/religious documents/mabon.txt b/religious documents/mabon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f40d403 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mabon.txt @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +ab:mabon.txt 14jan90 + + + Autumnal Equinox + +The altar is decorated with the symbols of autumn: pine-cones, oak sprigs, +acorns, ears of grain, etc. + +After the Circle has been cast, the coven stands in a ring facing inwards, +men and women alternately. The High Priest stands to the west of the altar +and the High Priestess to the east, facing each other. The High Priestess +recites: + + +HPS: "Farewell, O Sun, ever-returning Light, + The hidden God, who ever yet remains, + Who now departs into the Land of Youth + Through the Gates of Death + To dwell enthroned, the Judge of Gods and men, + The horned leader of the hosts of air - + Yet even as he stands unseen about the Circle, + So dwelleth he within the secret seed - + The seed of newly-ripened grain, the seed of flesh; + Hidden in earth, the marvellous seed of the stars. + In him is Life, and Life is the Light of man. + That which never was born, and never dies. + Therefore the wise weep not, but rejoice." + +HPS hands HP the wand, and picks up a sistrum; they lead the dance three +times round the altar. + +The Candle Game is played, followed by cakes and wine and any other games +the High Priestess decides on. +---------- +-based on Stewart Farrar's "What Witches Do", which is based on Alex + Sanders' BOS. +-The Candle game, as described in Stewart Farrar's "What Witches Do": + -The men form a ring facing inwards, either sitting or standing. + The women stand in a ring outside them, standing on something + if too short. The men pass a lighted candle from hand to hand, + deosil, while the women lean forward and try to blow it out. + -The man who holds it when it is blown out gets three flicks of the + scourge from the successful blower, and must give her the Fivefold + Kiss in return. The candle is relit and the game proceeds. +-There are lots of variants possible. Have fun. + diff --git a/religious documents/mag-pol2.txt b/religious documents/mag-pol2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..09115a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mag-pol2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,259 @@ +MAG-POL.TXT v2.0 Effective Date: 01 May, 1990 Page 1 of 5 + + + Introduction to the + NEOPAGANISM, WITCHCRAFT AND MAGICK + Echo Conference Network + +1. Overview + +In November of 1985, Senator Jesse Helms and Representative +Robert Walker each introduced legislation that would have +prohibited tax-exempt status for any church or religious +organization that practiced "sorcery" or "had a substantial +interest ... in the promotion of witchcraft." + The effect that these bills had on the magickal community +was electrifying. Groups and traditions that otherwise hated or +distrusted each other banded together into one large network, +bound together by the telephone and by U.S. Mail, to block their +passage. It took over a year, but finally both bills were dead. +They seem unlikely to return soon. + In early 1986, a programmer named Jeff Rush wrote a FidoNet +extension called EchoMail. It electrified and revolutionized the +FidoNet community every bit as much as the Helms Amendment and +Walker Bill did the magickal community. + In the very earliest days of EchoMail, Brad Hicks, sysop of +WeirdBase, a Discordio-Pagan bulletin board on the FidoNet in St. +Louis, Missouri (1:100/523) came up with the idea of finding +every possible Pagan and magickal contact person who could dial +into the FidoNet, and connect them all together, ideally via an +EchoMail conference. So he advertised quietly for such people in +several articles in FidoNews. + Initially, three other systems replied. In Berkeley, +California, Josh Gordon was operating a bulletin board for the Ordo Templar +Orientis called ThelemNet (125/93 then, 1:161/93 now). In Gardner, +Massachusetts, a local astrolger named MizMoon had a horoscope area on +Dave's Fido (1:101/27). And on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, a hippy +named Gene Clayton replied that he didn't know much about the subject +but surely was interested. + From these four systems was formed the very first EchoMail +conference set up to discuss a specific, non-technical subject: +the MAGICK EchoMail Conference. In its first month, it garnered +only a few dozen messages. It has since grown beyond belief, to +40 or more systems and dozens of messages =per night.= To +accomodate the increase in traffic (and the continuous stream of +the new and curious), the Neopaganism, Witchcraft and Magick +conference was separated into its three current components +(MAGICKNET, METAPHYSICAL, and MUNDANE) in March of 1988, almost +exactly two years after it was founded. + As of Beltane (May Eve) 1990, the load of adminstering the +huge and still growing echomail system, became too much for Brad Hicks and +the network administrative duties were assumed jointly by several +people in New Mexico and Colorado. + + + + MAG-POL.TXT v2.0 Effective Date: 16 Jun 88 Page 2 of 5 + + + +2. Content of the Neopaganism, Witchcraft and Magick Conferences + +2.1 MAGICKNET...... Neopaganism, Witchcraft & Magick + This remains the normal Neopaganism, Witchcraft & Magick +echo. However, discussions of only marginal relevance to the topic(s) +will be strongly encouraged to move to MUNDANE. + +2.2 METAPHYSICAL... Neopaganism, Witchcraft & Magick (articles) + This portion of the echo is intended to encourage members of +the magickal community to discuss points in common and points of +difference in detail; to promote scholarship and depth of thought +in the magickal community. Only messages of magazine-article +quality should be posted in Metaphysical. Replies to articles +posted in METAPHYSICAL should be posted in MAGICKNET. It is the +responsibility of each sysop to ensure that messages which belong +in MAGICKNET or MUNDANE do not get posted here. For example, the +sysop may choose to have users submit potential messages as files +to be converted (by the sysop) into messages, or alternatively +may only give access privilege sufficient to post into METAPHYS- +ICAL to trusted users who have had the policy explained to them. +However, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should unvalidated, first-time +callers be permitted to post in METAPHYSICAL. + + +2.3 MUNDANE........ Neopaganism, Witchcraft & Magick (sidetrack) + + Many members of the original Magick echo derived great +pleasure +and satisfaction from being able to discuss mundane and political +matters with other members of the magickal community. Unfortu- +nately, left unchecked such discussions can tend to crowd serious +magickal discussions. To allow both types of dialog to exist +side-by-side, the MUNDANE echo was formed. If a discussion +starts in either the MAGICKNET or the METAPHYSICAL echo that is +irrelevant to their topics, the parties to that discussion will +be =strongly= encouraged to move the discussion over to MUNDANE +(if not completely away from the Neopaganism, Witchcraft and +Magick Conference). + This should not be confused with a wide-open general chatter +echo. While the topics may range freely, only members of the +magickal community or those with interests in magickal topics are +encouraged to post here. + +3. Rules of the Neopaganism, Witchcraft & Magick Conference + +3.1 Nodes Required to Provide All Three Echos + All systems which distribute this conference or make it +available to the public are required to carry all three echos. +Mail-only and/or point systems which do not distribute the +Neopaganism, Witchcraft and Magick conferences or make them publically +available are exempted from this rule but are strongly encouraged to +carry all three echos in order to be able to follow discussions which +are moved to other tracks. + + MAG-POL.TXT v2.0 Effective Date: 16 Jun 88 Page 3 of 5 + + +3.2 Notify Coordinator of Local Distribution + Any system carrying all of the MagickNet echos may further +distribute them to any private or FidoNet node within their local calling +area. However, they are required to notify the coordinator of this +hookup at once, and to distribute to that node or point the current version +of this document. + +3.3 Request Permission for Non-Local Distribution + No system may distribute all or part of the MagickNet echos +to a node or point outside their local calling area without first securing +permission from the networking coordinator(s). + +3.4 No Illegal Messages + No message which is blatantly illegal in content shall be +entered into the MagickNet echos. The only exception will be for +messages regarding legitimate religious practices or beliefs +which are or may be made illegal, in violation of the First +Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the U.N. Statement on +Human Rights. + +3.5 No Harrassing Messages + No message which is intended to harrass someone because of +their religious beliefs (or for any other reason), or to convert them +to another religion, shall be entered into any of the MagickNet echos. No +exceptions will be made to this rule, even in the MUNDANE echo. + +3.6 No Irrelevant Messages + No message which is irrelevant to the topics of Neopaganism, +Witchcraft, and Magick shall be entered into MAGICKNET or into +METAPHYSICAL. For this rule, a warning will be issued, and in +general the conversation will be permitted to continue in the +MUNDANE echo. + +3.7 No Personal Insults + No message which contains unnecessary profanity or personal +insults shall be entered into any of the MagickNet echos. Only +one warning will be issued to any violator. (If you wish to +continue to insult each other, please use personal FidoNet mail.) +This includes messages in the MUNDANE echo. + +3.8 Voice Number for all sysops must be on file with both the +Coordinators Everybody who wishes to carry these nodes on their system +must leave a voice telephone number either with Paul Seymour (301/9) or Russ +Anderson (104/11) These numbers will remain confidential if you desire, +but you MUST BE REACHABLE VIA VOICE in case of problems. + +4. Enforcement + If a user of any bulletin board system or point operator +under a Fidonet node naively violates one of these rules, it is the + MAG-POL.TXT v2.0 Effective Date: 16 Jun 88 Page 4 of 5 +responsibility of the local sysop to take whatever action is +necessary to prevent it from happening again. In the event the local +sysop is unaware of the violation, the coordinator will notify him or her. + If the sysop of the local node does NOT take such action, or +is the person responsible for the violation, then the coordinator will +request that system to leave the MagickNet echos at once. If it does +not, then the coordinator will request of the system by which it is linked into +the MagickNet echos that they cease to deliver messages to or accept +messages from that system, and it will be forcibly exiled from the echos. +Anyone who knowingly provides a "feed" to a sysop who has been exiled +from the MagickNet echos will suffer a like fate. Likewise, if the exiled +system's feed refuses to cut the link, the link above the feed will be cut +- as high up as is necessary to successfully exile the offending node. + In all but the most obvious and gross of cases, the coordinator(s) +will, AT THEIR OPTION, seek a consensus, or at least an overwhelming +majority, of the sysops in the MagickNet echos before taking drastic +action. + If this seems harsh, it needs to be pointed out that until and +unless the International FidoNet Association and/or the FidoNet +Co-ordinators change the rules, this is the ONLY means available to +keep order within an echo conference. + + +5. The Coordinators + From its earliest beginnings, the Magick Conference has been +co-ordinated and moderated by Brad Hicks from his BBS, WeirdBase at +1:100/523 (314-389-9973). As of this date, Brad no longer coordinates all +three echos. The distribution of the echoes is coordinated by Paul +Seymour (301/9) [(505) 883-7418 Voice], and the administrative moderation +(Topic Cop) will be done jointly by Russ Anderson and Amergin O'Kai of +104/11. + +6. Revision History + +6.1 Version 1.0 + Original document issued 1 Mar 88. + +6.2 Version 1.1 + Revised on 16 Jun 88. Definition of METAPHYSICAL echo +(section 2.3) clarified. Topology (section 6) updated and PC-Pursuit +markings added. Revision history (section 6 and subsequent) +inserted before the topology list. Page numbers added. + +6.3 Version 2.0 + Revised to take effect 1 May, 1990 to reflect the new +distribution and topology of the network dmanded by Brad Hicks taking a much +needed break. MAG-POL.TXT v2.0 Effective Date: 01 May 90 Page 5 of 5 + + +7. The Topology + +The following list are the known ACTIVE feeds in place as of +4/28/90. +PLEASE HELP KEEP IT UP TO DATE! + +301/9 The Mountain Oracle ABQ, NM +| +------19/5 Drumright Drumright, OK (9600) +| +------308/60 Casa De La Luz Alamogordo, NM (9600 BAUD HUB) +| | +| |------109/120 TIDMAT Alexandria, VA (9600) PCP +| +------101/192 NPI Lynn, Ma. PCP +| +------102/922 Cassandra News Lakeview Terrace, Ca. PCP +| | +| |--------102/862 Tahuti Net Los Angeles, Ca. +| |--------102/??? Mysteria Tijunga, Ca. +| +------104/11 Dragonfriend's Place Denver CO. (ADMIN. HUB) PCP +| | +| |-------104/610 The 8th Sea Northglen, CO. +| +------114/29 Deus Ex Machina Phoenix, AZ. PCP +| +------124/4214 Chrysallis Dallas, Tx PCP +| +------125/13 Alt-Net NAPA, CA. +| +------128/50 The Crystal Cave Widefield, Co. +| +------280/311 Gates of Delerium Kansas City, MO. (9600) PCP +| | +| |--------280/64 +| |--------280/901 +| +------377/5 Liberty BBS Tampa, FL. PCP +| +------382/7 Black Ice Austin Tx + + +PCP indicates PC Pursuitable diff --git a/religious documents/magick.txt b/religious documents/magick.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc3bda4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/magick.txt @@ -0,0 +1,135 @@ +THE BASICS OF MAGICK + + + +I. Ethics + + A. The Wiccan Rede + B. The Law or Return (sometimes called the +"Threefold Law") + C. Perfect Love and Perfect Trust (among partners +in magick) + + +II. The Witches' Pyramid + + A. Faith in your abilities and powers. + B. Imagination to vividly create in your mind that +which you desire to manifest. + C. Will to achieve your goal despite all obstacles. + + D. Secrecy to keep your magickal intention +concentrated and pure. + +III. The four Qualities of the Mage + + A. To know + B. To will + C. To dare + D. To keep silence + +IV. Preparatory Skills (hatha and raja yoga are good +aids to developing these) + + A. Cleansing, clearing and stilling + B. Grounding + C. Centering + d. Concentrating ieving one-pointedness) + +V. Defining the Goal: Form vs. Essence + +VI. Working with the Power + + A. Confining it (casting the Circle) + B. Raising it + C. Sending it (channeling it)... for imediate +effect or into storage + D. Earthing the excess (grounding it) + +VII. Systems and Techniques + + A. Spellcraft + + B. Words of Power and affirmations, charms and +incantations + C. Dance, postures and mudras + D. Meditation, trancework and hypnosis, fascination + + E. Stone magick + F. Candle magick + G. Amulets and talismans; power objects or +"psychic batteries" + H. Healing + 1. Psychic (visualization, laying on of +hands) + 2. Herbal + 3. Energy channeling iwht auras and chakras + + 4. Color therapy + 5. Other systems listed above + + I. Divination + 1. Scrying + 2. Astrology + 3. Tarot + 4. Runesticks + 5. Lithomancy (casting the stones) + 6. I Ching + 7. Other systems + 8. Pendulum or radiesthesia + + J. Astral travel + K. Thought forms; wraths, fetches, artificial +elementals + L. Extra-sensory perception + + 1. Clairsentience + 2. Clairvoyance + 3. Clairaudience + 4. Precognition + 5. Telepathy + 6. Telempathy + 7. Psychometry + 8. Telekinesis + 9. Teleportation + + M. Sympathetic magic (poppets and such) + N. Runes + O. Mediumship, necromancy, and spirit guides + P. Philtres and Poteins + Q. Cleansing, purification, protection and +blessing; esxorcism; ligature, binding + R. Power animals, totems and familiars; +shapeshifting + S. Tree magick + T. Dreamcraft + U. Ritual tool magick + V. Invocation, evocation and going into aspect + W. Symbols, sigils and images; Tattvic symbols; +numerology + X. Conjuration or summoning; banishing or exorcism + + Y. Commemoration or linking + Z. Past life regression or recall + AA. Pathworking on the Tree of Life + BB. Ceremonial magic + +VIII. Timing + + A. The lunar cycle + B. The Wheel of the Year + C. Astrological conjunctions + D. Planetary hours and days + E. Individual biorhythms + +IX. Creating your own reality, following your True Will + + + + + +Prepared by: Amber K + Our Lady of the Woods + + + USED BY PERMISSION diff --git a/religious documents/magick1.txt b/religious documents/magick1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a85c4ee --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/magick1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,86 @@ +MAGICK SPELLED OUT + + Magick is the use of the natural forces of nature to bring about needed changes. + To help attract, arouse and direct these energies the magician makes use of tools. These can be costly items such as jewelencrusted daggers and greaming silver censers, or natural objects such as twigs and rocks. Stones, trees, rivers, leaves and plants make up the tool roster of nature magick, as well as a few "store bought" items such as mirrors, candles and cords. + The manipulation of these tools, coupled with a driving need, is often enough to work the magick, to get some of the powers of nature rolling to bring about your needed change. Magick is deceptively simple and incredibly easy, a fact that should be kept in mind while reading these pages. + Obviously, planting a stone in the ground, holding a leaf, or drawing a picture of an automobile, in and of themselves, do nothing. + It is when such actions are performed in an emotionally charged state that changes are wought and magick is truly done. + To perform effective magick three neccessities must be present: the NEED, the EMOTION, and the KNOWLEDGE. + The need is simple. You wake up one morning with a splitting headache you can't get rid of. Or you may find out you need a hundred dollars by the end of the month. A friend may be looking for a new love. In all cases, a need exists. + Need should not be confused with desire. Desires are often passing; what one desires one morning may be pushed aside the next morning for something else. A desire is a whim; a need is a deeply-felt, important, all-consuming state. + The emotion, too, is clear. You may need a job, for instance, but if you are not emotionally involved in the seeking of employment, worried or anxious or fretting, all the spells in the world won't bring it to you. + + + This is why it is sometimes fruitless to do spells for others, unless you can feel the same need that they feel - emotionally. + The knowledge constitutes the body of magickal lore. In other words, a spell or ritual, or the basic theories behind them which allow you to make your own. + A spell or ritual is simply one way of doing something. There are many ways, and many possible variations on each spell. The basic principles are easy and will be discussed throughout this book. + With these three necessities, anything can be accomplished, limited only by our experience and time. The former is the key - only by performing magick will you know whether it works or not. + Magick is somewhat simular to an unknown footbridge. At first you'll step lightly on it, testing, seeing if it is safe. + After a while you'll stride over it confidently, knowing where to step and where to avoid. + Many people approach magick with suspicion, ready to believe but unable to do so without proof. + This is healthy. Belief is one thing, but certain knowledge is quite another. With a belief there exists the possibility that it may not be true. Certain knowledge, however, is just that - the fruits of experience which allow you to accept something completely. + Limitations - doubts and false beliefs - are crushed only through hard work and perseverance. Many people feel it is worth the effort, but this is purely a personal choice. + +MAGICKAL MORALITY + + Morality? In magick? + Yes. Not in the sense of values and ethics, whether societal or personal, for such are ever-changing. Rather, morality in the spiritual sense. + + + Magick should be worked for positive effects, never for nagative effects. The manipulation of power to cause illness, pain, death; to destroy, steal or otherwise harm another person's property; or to control other people is negative magick. + The latter includes forcing someone to fall in love with you or someone else or to have sex with you; to break up a marriage or romance; to change another person's mind - to force a person to do something they don't want to do. + Magick isn't an open field where egos and selfish urges can be gratified on a whim. There are dangers awaiting anyone who performs negative workings. such magick might manifest, but the heavy penalties are never worth the effects. + There is a magickal principle that what you put into magick is exactly what you will recieve. If you perform beneficial magick you shall recieve beneficence back. The negative magician, however, shall recieve only negativity, and eventually it will destroy its wielder. + In light of this principle there seems to be no reason to perform negative magick (which is often termed `Black Magick'). Indeed, there isn't. Those who remain unconvinced and do so shall recieve the fruits of their actions. + It is, of course, the beneficial aspect of magick that makes it, and its user, divine. + Negative magick has always had its adherents. These are those who are suduced by evil, blinded by the temporary power it offers them, who can't see the light until it is too late. + Some of the magick in this book is destructive, and this may cause some confusion. Most of us connect destruction with evil. However, the destruction of negativity itself - such as bad habits, obsessions, diseases, and so on - isn't negative. Since this harms none but rather actually helps, it is safe to view it as positive magick. + + + + + +MAGICK FOR THE SELF + + Magick performed for yourself is not selfish, for it betters the world. Many people seem to think it is fine to cast a spell for a friend but could never do anything for themselves. + This is a regrettable idea, and should be exorcised as soon as possible. Only if you are healthy, happy and financially sound can you help others, just as you must love yourself before you can expect others to. + Part of the confusion comes from techniques used. Magick that aids you but harms another should be avoided, for it is not in keeping with magickal morality. + Usually there is a way to improve yourself or your love life without harming others, and this is the magick that should be utilized. + Never feel greedy when performing magick for yourself as long as it harms none. + +MAGICK FOR OTHERS + + If you make your magickal activities known others will come to you and ask for spells to be performed. You will have to make a decision whether or not to do the magick for them, and this decision must be based upon a few factors. + There is only one hard and fast rule when it comes to working magick for others: if it feels good, do it. If not, don't. + People can be quite cagey when asking for magick to be performed. Often they'll colour their explanations, or openly lie, to convince you to work. + Even good friends fail to see the truth in some matters, or might blow one incident out of proportion. Based on such evidence you might well tackle a problem magickally that doesn't even exist, thereby wasting your time and energy. + People will also want you to accomplish something by magick which they could do themselves if they rolled up their sleeves and went to work. + With all these unsaid thoughts, hidden truths, lies and deception, what can you do? + In magick, it is best to perform an act of divination to get some answers. + +DIVINATION + + Divination is a magickal process whereby the unknown becomes known. It is performed with a host of tools - mirrors, clouds, tea leaves, coffee grounds, tarot cards, dust, wind - nearly anything that can be used as an instrument of the subconscious, or psychic, mind. + Another type of divination lets the powers of the universe themselves determine the future through moving objects or symbols. + To those of us who are not consciously, willfully psychic, divination allows us to see the future if only for a few fleeting moments. Through the use of random patterns, reflections or other focal points, psychic impulses - which are always being recieved by our subconscious mind - are allowed to trickle to the conscious mind, and thereby become "known". + Divination also entails the use of several objects which are then manipulated either by the magician or by forces of nature themselves, to reveal the future. These include stones, flowers, and flames. Some forms of divination use both methods. + Divination serves a very important place in magick, for it allows us to know all tyhe circumstances surrounding a situation, especially one for which a friend wants you to work magick. Thusly, it enables us to make rational decisions whether or not to do the magick based on more complete information. + Before any magickal operation, generally speaking, divination should be done to ensure that the need is there, the emotion is sufficient, and that the knowledge is certain and correct. + But divination isn't limited strictly to magickal questions. It can be used as a guide to everyday problems that crop up in life. + Most of the methods are short and, with practise, should give you results. + + Since there are many different methods of divination, it is best to experiment with several until you find one that works for you. + One word of caution: divination when used to look into the future outlines possible events. If you don't like what you see, take action to change your life before the future becomes the present. + +THE POWER HAND + + Magick speaks of the power produced by the body which is used in some spells and rituals. This is that part of the universal energy that maintains our bodies. Some of this power is released by the emotional state achieved while performing magick and is sent along with the other energies you have raised to bring your need into manifestation. + The power hand is the hand through which these forces are released. This is the hand you write with. If you are ambidextrous, and can use either hand, choose one hand and stick with it. + This hand is used in magick to present, hold, throw or otherwise perform in a ritualistic way a portion of a spell. + It is best to use the hand you write with where called for in specific rituals, because this is a skilled hand and it is thought that energies are naturally released through it. Thus, if you drew a symbol representing your need with your power hand, the symbol itself would be infused with a bit of your energy. + + These have been the basics of magick. + It has been said that magick was the first religion, and that if you lovingly utilize the forces of nature to cause benefitial change, you also become one with them. + It is these powers that have been personified as Gods and Goddesses. + Attuning with them is a spiritual experience and is the basis of all true religion. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/magick2.txt b/religious documents/magick2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f32f2f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/magick2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ +** MAGICK 2 -- THE SUBJECTIVITY OF EXPERIENCE -- ** + + Your awareness of the physical world and of your +place within it is mostly based upon the physical senses +(hearing, sight, smell, touch, taste). These five senses +continually send information to the mind, and it is up to +the mind to select and interpret them. If you could not do +so, your senses would overwhelm you and be meaningless. +Selection and interpretation of your sensory inputs is +essentially an automatic, mostly subconscious function of +the mind. The program or map which the subconscious follows +as its reference point is called a model. The model is a +subconscious mental photograph of how you believe the world +looks (ie. worldview, mindset, egregore, or belief system). +It was built up from an early age by your religious and +cultural background through interaction with family and +others. It contains your experiences, attitudes, and +habits. And whether you realize it or not, most of your +behavior, thoughts, feelings, and habits are based upon and +conditioned by that model; even personality. The model is +one of the mind's master programs. Change in behavior +generally requires a change in the model. These limitations +built into our way of thinking cause our perceptions to be +subjective. That is why Hindu philosophy looks upon the +world as illusory (maya); the world itself (object) is not +an illusion, however from our viewpoint through perception +(subject) it is. + Thus we are all conditioned by experience. Except +that our perceptions, hence our experiences, are first +conditioned and limited by the model. Our perceptions and +experiences tend to conform to what we expect. We tend to +misinterpret or ignore things which do not match our +preconcieved notions about them. This is automatic. + +THE TRUE WILL + + The forgoing demonstrates how it is that there are +so many different versions of 'truth'. One's particular +view is almost arbitrary. Although numerous religions, +philosophies, and occult systems abound, they do not +contradict one and other as much as it might appear. +Rather, they describe the same (universal) reality taken +from different perspectives. For there can be no ultimate +truth in the physical world. We can only base our actions +upon assumptions and agreements. All experience is +subjective. + Yet, there is a separate reality within each of us +which is often ignored unless we seek it. This inner self +is in magick called the 'true will'. The true will is the +center of consciousness and identity. It is the 'real you'. +Everything else is an interface or link to it from the +outer (illusory) world. Since that interface is based upon +our model, it is conditoned and may sometimes produce false +information. 'Do what thou wilt' (Crowley) is an axiom of +magick; for the true will expresses our exact desires. And +what we truly want ('down deep') we tend to automatically +get. This isn't always in our best interests, since the +true will can be conditioned (tricked) by the illusion; and +then we might desire and obtain that which is not +ultimately good for us. (Karma strikes again!) The task of +the magician therefor is to awaken his awareneess of the +true will, to be free of conditioning, and thereby to +transcend maya. ('My will unconditioned is magical' -- +Spare). + +HAPPINESS IS BEING HAPPY + + There is no great secret to changing behavior or +habits. It is largely a matter of determination. It +requires that you ignore the 'pull' of the model when you +strive for changes within yourself. The model is, after +all, a collection of 'habits', some of which must be +unlearned for permananent change to occur. There are two +ways to do this: direct, through will power and awareness +alone -- observing and acting out in an unattached or +indifferent manner; and indirect -- through conditioning +such as affirmation (explained later), self-hypnosis, and +magick. Meditation may help too, by relaxing tension and +conflict. + Emotions follow physical expression: smile and act +happy and you will tend to feel and be happy. The same is +also true for other emotions. Also, emotions can be +purposely used (or programed) to replace other emotions. +Using this technique, a magician is somewhat like an actor +in that he learns how to turn his emotions on and off at +will. Note that this is not 'fakeing it'; the magician is +probably more in touch with his true feelings than most +people. And for these reasons we say that happiness is +being happy. + +SYSTEMS OF MAGICK + + Magick always involves self-hypnosis. However, it +is more than that too. For one thing, there are objective +forces involved (or so it would seem). Deities, spirits, +and cosmic force can have an independent existence. And the +repetitive physical movement sometimes involved in ritual +can itself generate PK force. On the other hand, it could +be argued that all of this is subjective to the magician. +Perhaps all magical effects could be produced through +hypnosis alone. But the effects are certainly real. + Great complexity is not necessary in magick. +Although basicly magick is a medieval system of symbolism +(in a modern context), any cosmological system will work +from Cabala to Star Wars. We usually use the medieval one +in magick because it is convenient and traditional, and +because it seems to fit our thought processes well. What +really matters is that the model of the magician be +understood and programmed, and thus that the model and the +cosmological system do correspond. + + +REVIEW QUESTIONS + +1) Contrast subjective with objective. +2) What is a 'model'? +3) Explain the task of the magician. + +BOOK LIST + +Eric Berne, Games People Play. +Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics. +Carlos Castaneda, The Fire From Within. +Arthur Koestler, The Roots of Coincidence. +John C. Lilly, Simulations of God. +Alan Watts, The Book (on the taboo against knowing who you are). + + +======== +Phil Hansford, 7/86 +THE OUTPOST RCPM +(818) 353-8891 (modem) +P.O. Box 83 +Tujunga, CA 91042 diff --git a/religious documents/magick4.txt b/religious documents/magick4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a21a834 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/magick4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,132 @@ +** MAGICK 4 -- ELEMENTS AND FORCES ** + + The Ancients divided the world into four basic +principles or *elements* -- earth, water, fire, and air. +That viewpoint has mostly changed with advances of science, +but the four elements are still accepted in magick, for they +are more closely linked with the emotions than modern +explanations of the world. Many occultists think of the magical +elements as forces, or as *qualities* of energy; especially +within the astral world. Each element has a symbol and color. +(Common symbols are -- fire: a triangle pointing up; air: +a triangle pointing up and with a horizontal line through the +middle of it; water: a triangle pointing down; earth: a +triangle pointing down and with a horizontal line through the +middle of it.) Colors of the elements are -- earth: brown and +green; water: blue; fire: red; air: yellow...The Eastern +tattvic system uses different symbols and colors. The elements +are often used in magick ritual. + Magick sees relationships between things. These +relationships are called 'correspondences'. Although magical +correspondences are not literally equal to one another, you can +think of them that way (such as gold equals sun). Tables of +these relationships, called 'Correspondence Tables', are +available (an important one is Crowley's '777'). Thus one thing +or symbol can be used to suggest another. This is important in +magick, for the magician may surround himself with as many +appropriate correspondences as he can to vividly affect the +senses; thus making his magical contact with the inner planes +more lucid. + The magical elements have correspondences with the +tarrot cards as the four suits. The four quarters (directions +of the universe as used in magick ritual) and the Archangels +also correspond with these same elements -- + +Element Suit Quarter Archangel +======= ==== ======= ========= + +earth pentacles north Uriel +water cups west Gabriel +fire wands south Michael +air swords east Raphael + + +ELEMENTALS + + The magical elements are said to be peopled by spirits +and mythological entities called elementals or nature spirits. +These are grouped into four main categories -- + +Gnome (earth) Undine (water) Salamander (fire) Sylph (air) +============= ============== ================= =========== + +dwarfs nymphs jin (genies) fairies +elves tritons storm angels +brownies mermaids +hobgoblins mermen +lepricauns sirens + harpies + + + Elementals are usually only visible to those with +clairvoyant sight and are more likely to be seen at night in +the mountains or country away from cities -- especially if you +are tired or sleepy. Although elementals exist naturally, it is +also possible to create one which will exist for a limited time +-- no elemental has immortality. A created elemental is called +an 'artificial elemental'. + To the Ancients, elementals were the physical +explanation of the universe. However, some contemporary +occultists see them only as symbols for forces and otherwise +not 'real' at all. Another word sometimes used for elemental is +'familiar' (usually in medieval witchcraft); the term is +ambiguous, as it might merely be an ordinary household pet such +as a dog or cat. + + +YIN YANG + + Chinese philosophy and acupuncture talk of yin yang. +This is the idea of polarity, or opposite pairs, as shown -- + + + YIN YANG + === ==== + + water fire + contraction expansion + cold hot + feminine masculine + moon sun + negative positive + passive active + ebb flow + wane wax + +The list could go on. In Chinese literature it is quite long. +Some occultists suggest everything can be similarly arranged +into related opposite pairs. + + +SIMPLE MAGICK + + Here is a simple magical technique you may wish to +try. It is a variation of affirmation, which was discussed +in an earlier lesson...To help to you achieve your goal +(magical or otherwise), find a word or short phase which sums +up what it is that you want to accomplish. Write the word (or +phrase) down 10 times each day until you achieve success. + + +REVIEW QUESTIONS + +1) List the four elements. +2) What is an elemental? +3) What are correspondences? + + +BOOK LIST + +William Britten, Art Magic (long out of print, but in some + libraries). +Pete Carrol, Liber Null. +Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. +Manly Hall, Unseen Forces. + + +======== +Phil Hansford, 11/86 +THE OUTPOST RCPM +(818) 353-8891 (modem) +P.O. Box 83 +Tujunga, CA 91042 diff --git a/religious documents/magicktp.txt b/religious documents/magicktp.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7df322 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/magicktp.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6749 @@ +Magick in Theory and Practice by Aleister Crowley +1989 e.v. key entry and proof reading with re-format and ASCII conversion 9/18/90 e.v. done by Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O. +(further proof reading desirable) + + disk 1 of 4 + +Copyright (c) O.T.O. + +O.T.O. +P.O.Box 430 +Fairfax, CA 94930 +USA + +(415) 454-5176 ---- Messages only. + + + LIMITED LICENSE + Except for notations added to the history of modification, the text on this diskette down to the next row of asterisks must accompany all copies made of this file. In particular, this paragraph and the copyright notice are not to be deleted or changed on any copies or print-outs of this file. With these provisos, anyone may copy this file for personal use or research. Copies may be made for others at reasonable cost of copying and mailing only, no additional charges may be added. + +************************************************************************* + +Pages in the original are marked thus at the bottom: {page number} +Comments and notes not in the original are identified with the initials of the source: AC note = Crowley note. WEH note = Bill Heidrick note, etc. +footnotes have been moved up to the point of citation in the text and set off by <<... >> just before and after the note. + +************************************************************************** + + + + Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law + + + + + + + MAGICK + + IN THEORY AND + + PRACTICE + + + by + + The Master Therion + + Aleister Crowley + + {Based on the Castle Books edition of New York} + + + + + HYMN TO PAN + + epsilon-phi-rho-iota-xi epsilon-rho-omega-tau-iota pi-epsilon-rho-iota-alpha-rho-chi-eta-sigma delta alpha-nu-epsilon-pi-tau-omicron-mu-alpha-nu + iota-omega iota-omega pi-alpha-nu pi-alpha-nu + omega -pi-alpha-nu pi-alpha-nu alpha-lambda-iota-pi-lambda-alpha-gamma-chi-tau-epsilon, chi-upsilon-lambda-lambda-alpha-nu-iota-alpha-sigma chi-iota-omicron-nu-omicron-chi-tau-upsilon-pi-omicron-iota + pi-epsilon-tau-rho-alpha-iota-alpha-sigma alpha-pi-omicron delta-epsilon-iota-rho-alpha-delta-omicron-sigma phi-alpha-nu-eta-theta, omega + theta-epsilon-omega-nu chi-omicron-rho-omicron-pi-omicron-iota alpha-nu-alpha-xi + + SOPH. AJ. + + +Thrill with lissome lust of the light, +O man! My man! +Come careering out of the night +Of Pan! Io Pan! +Io Pan! Io Pan! Come over the sea +From Sicily and from Arcady! +Roaming as Bacchus, with fauns and pards +And nymphs and satyrs for thy guards, +On a milk-white ass, come over the sea +To me, to me, +Come with Apollo in bridal dress +(Shepherdess and pythoness) +Come with Artemis, silken shod, +And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God, +In the moon of the woods, on the marble mount, +The dimpled dawn of the amber fount! +Dip the purple of passionate prayer +In the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare, +The soul that startles in eyes of blue {V} +To watch thy wantonness weeping through +The tangled grove, the gnarled bole +Of the living tree that is spirit and soul +And body and brain --- come over the sea, +(Io Pan! Io Pan!) +Devil or god, to me, to me, +My man! my man! +Come with trumpets sounding shrill +Over the hill! +Come with drums low muttering +From the spring! +Come with flute and come with pipe! +Am I not ripe? +I, who wait and writhe and wrestle +With air that hath no boughs to nestle +My body, weary of empty clasp, +Strong as a lion and sharp as an asp --- +Come, O come! +I am numb +With the lonely lust of devildom. +Thrust the sword through the galling fetter, +All-devourer, all-begetter; +Give me the sign of the Open Eye, +And the token erect of thorny thigh, +And the word of madness and mystery, +O Pan! Io Pan! +Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan Pan! Pan, +I am a man: +Do as thou wilt, as a great god can, +O Pan! Io Pan! +Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! I am awake +in the grip of the snake. +The eagle slashes with beak and claw; +The gods withdraw: +The great beasts come, Io Pan! I am borne +To death on the horn +Of the Unicorn. +I am Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! {VI} +I am thy mate, I am thy man, +Goat of thy flock, I am gold, I am god, +Flesh to thy bone, flower to thy rod. +With hoofs of steel I race on the rocks +Through solstice stubborn to equinox. +And I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend +Everlasting, world without end, +Mannikin, maiden, Maenad, man, +In the might of Pan. +Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! Io Pan! + + + ------------- + + {VII} + + + +{Illustration on page VIII described: + This is the set of photos originally published facing page 12 in EQUINOX I, 2 and titled there: "The Signs of the Grades." + +These are arranged as ten panels: * * * * + * * + * * + * + * + + In this re-publication, the original half-tones have been redone as line copy. Each panel consists of an illustration of a single human in a black Tau robe, barefoot with hood completely closed over the face. The hood displays a six-pointed figure on the forehead --- presumably the radiant eye of Horus of the A.'. A.'., but the rendition is too poor in detail. There is a cross pendant over the heart. The ten panels are numbered in black in the lower left corner. + +The panels are identified by two columns of numbered captions, 1 to 6 to the left and 7 to 10 to the right. The description is bottom to top and left to right: + +"1. Earth: the god Set fighting." Frontal figure. Rt. foot pointed to the fore and angled slightly outward with weight on ball of foot. Lf. heel almost touching Rt. heel and foot pointed left. Arms form a diagonal with body, right above head and in line with left at waist height. Hands palmer and open with fingers outstretched and together. Head erect. + +"2. Air: The god Shu supporting the sky." Frontal. Heels together and slightly angled apart to the front, flat on floor. Head down. Arms angled up on either side of head about head 1.5 ft. from head to wrist and crooked as if supporting a ceiling just at head height with the finger tips. The palms face upward and the backs of the hands away from the head. Thumbs closed to side of palms. Fingers straight and together. + +"3. Water: the goddess Auramoth." Same body and foot position as #2, but head erect. Arms are brought down over the chest so that the thumbs touch above the heart and the backs of the hands are to the front. The fingers meet below the heart, forming between thumbs and fingers the descending triangle of water. + +"4. Fire: the goddess Thoum-aesh-neith." Frontal. Head and body like #3. Arms are angled so that the thumbs meet in a line over the brow. Palmer side facing. Fingers meet above head, forming between thumbs and fingers the ascending triangle of fire. + +"5,6. Spirit: the rending and closing of the veil." Head erect in both. #5 has the same body posture as #1, except that the left and right feet are countercharged and flat on the floor with the heels in contact. Arms and hands are crooked forward at shoulder level such that the hands appear to be clawing open a split veil --- hands have progressed to a point that the forearms are invisible, being directly pointed at the front. Lower arms are flat and horizontal in the plain of the image. +#6. has the same body posture as #1, feet in same position as #5. The arms are elbow down against abdomen, with hands forward over heart in claws such that the knuckles are touching. Passing from #5 to #6 or vice versa is done by motion of shoulders and rotation of wrists. This is different from the other sign of opening the veil, the Sign of the Enterer, which is done with hands flat palm to palm and then spread without rotation of wrists. + +"7-10. The L V X signs." + +"7. + Osiris slain --- the cross." Body and feet as in #2. Head bowed. Arms directly horizontal from the shoulders in the plane of the image. Hands with fingers together, thumbs to side of palm and palmer side forward. The tau shape of the robe dominates the image. + +"8. L Isis mourning --- the Svastica." The body is in semi-profile, head down slightly and facing right of photograph. The arms, hands, legs and feet are positioned to define a swastika. Left foot flat, carrying weight and angled toward the right of the photo. Right foot toe down behind the figure to the left in the photo. Right upper arm due left in photo and forearm vertical with fingers closed and pointing upward. Left arm smoothly canted down to the right of the panel, with fingers closed and pointed down. + +"9. V Typhon --- the Trident." Figure frontal and standing on tip toe, toes forward and heels not touching. Head back. Arms angled in a "V" with the body to the top and outward in the plain of the photo. Fingers and thumbs as #7, but continuing the lines of the arms. + +"10. X Osiris risen --- the Pentagram." Body and feet as in #7. Head directly frontal and level. Arms crossed over heart, right over left with hands extended, fingers closed and thumb on side such that the palms rest on the two opposite shoulders.} + + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + + "Epsilon-sigma-sigma-epsilon-alpha-iota alpha-theta-alpha-nu-alpha-tau-omicron-sigma theta-epsilon-omicron-sigma, alpha-mu-beta-rho-omicron-tau-omicron-sigma, omicron-upsilon-chi epsilon-tau-iota theta-nu-eta-tau-omicron-sigma + Pythagoras. + + "Magic is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural Philosophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right understanding of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applied to proper Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an effect, the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle." + + "The Goetia of the Lemegeton of King Solomon." + + "Wherever sympathetic magic occurs in its pure unadulterated form, it is assumed that in nature one event follows another necessarily and invariably without the intervention of any spiritual or personal agency. + Thus its fundamental conception is identical with that of modern science; underlying the whole system is a faith, implicit but real and firm, in the order and uniformity of nature. The magician does not doubt that the same causes will always produce the same effects, that the performance of the proper ceremony accompanied by the appropriate spell, will inevitably be attended by the desired results, unless, indeed, his incantations should chance to be thwarted and foiled by the more potent charms of another sorcerer. He supplicates no higher power: he sues the favour of no fickle and wayward being: he abases himself before no awful deity. Yet his power, great as he believes it to be, is by no means arbitrary and unlimited. He can wield it only so long as he strictly conforms to the rules of his art, or to what may be called the laws of nature as conceived by {IX} him. To neglect these rules, to break these laws in the smallest particular is to incur failure, and may even expose the unskilful practitioner himself to the utmost peril. If he claims a sovereignty over nature, it is a constitutional sovereignty rigorously limited in its scope and exercised in exact conformity with ancient usage. Thus the analogy between the magical and the scientific conceptions of the world is close. In both of them the succession of events is perfectly regular and certain, being determined by immutable laws, the operation of which can be foreseen and calculated precisely; the elements of caprice, of chance, and of accident are banished from the course of nature. Both of them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities to him who knows the causes of things and can touch the secret springs that set in motion the vast and intricate mechanism of the world. Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus that both have given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the weary enquirer, the footsore seeker, on through the wilderness of disappointment in the present by their endless promises of the future: they take him up to he top of an exceeding high mountain and shew him, beyond the dark clouds and rolling mists at his feet, a vision of the celestial city, far off, it may be, but radiant with unearthly splendour, bathed in the light of dreams." + + Dr. J. G. FRAZER, "The Golden Bough"." + + "So far, therefore, as the public profession of magic has been one of the roads by which men have passed to supreme power, it has contributed to emancipate mankind from the thraldom of tradition and to elevate them into a larger, freer life, with a broader outlook on the world. This is no small service rendered to humanity. And when we remember further that in another direction magic has paved the way for science, we are forced to admit that if the black art has done much evil, it has also been the source of much good; that if it is the child of error, it has yet been the mother of freedom and truth." + + Ibid. +{X} + + "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." + + St. Paul. + + "Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand and the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach." + "He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals." + "The word of the Law is Theta-epsilon-lambda-eta-mu-alpha." + + LIBER AL vel xxxi: The Book of the Law. + + + ------------- + + + This book is for + + ALL: +for every man, woman, and child. + My former work has been misunderstood, and its scope limited, by my use of technical terms. It has attracted only too many dilettanti and eccentrics, weaklings seeking in "Magic" an escape from reality. I myself was first consciously drawn to the subject in this way. And it has repelled only too many scientific and practical minds, such as I most designed to influence. + But + MAGICK +is for + ALL. + I have written this book to help the Banker, the Pugilist, the Biologist, the Poet, the Navvy, the Grocer, the Factory Girl, the Mathematician, the Stenographer, the Golfer, the Wife, the Consul --- and all the rest --- to fulfil themselves perfectly, each in his or her own proper function. + Let me explain in a few words how it came about that I blazoned the word + MAGICK +upon the Banner that I have borne before me all my life. + Before I touched my teens, I was already aware that I was THE BEAST whose number is 666. I did not understand in the least {XI} what that implied; it was a passionately ecstatic sense of identity. + In my third year at Cambridge, I devoted myself consciously to the Great Work, understanding thereby the Work of becoming a Spiritual Being, free from the constraints, accidents, and deceptions of material existence. + I found myself at a loss for a name to designate my work, just as H. P. Blavatsky some years earlier. "Theosophy", "Spiritualism", "Occultism", "Mysticism", all involved undesirable connotations. + I chose therefore the name. + "MAGICK" +as essentially the most sublime, and actually the most discredited, of all the available terms. + I swore to rehabilitate + MAGICK +to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to respect, love, and trust that which they scorned, hated and feared. I have kept my Word. + But the time is now come for me to carry my banner into the thick of the press of human life. + I must make + MAGICK +the essential factor in the life of + ALL. + In presenting this book to the world, I must then explain and justify my position by formulating a definition of + MAGICK +and setting forth its main principles in such a way that + ALL +may understand instantly that their souls, their lives, in every relation with every other human being and every circumstance, depend upon + MAGICK +and the right comprehension and right application thereof. + +I. "DEFINITION." + + MAGICK +is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will. + +{XII} + + (Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" --- these sentences --- in the "magical language" i.e. that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of + MAGICK +by which I cause changes to take place in conformity with my Will<>) + +II. "POSTULATE." + + ANY required Change may be effected by the application of the proper kind and degree of force in the proper manner through the proper medium to the proper object. + (Illustration: I wish to prepare an ounce of Chloride of Gold. I must take the right kind of acid, nitro-hydrochloric and no other, in sufficient quantity and of adequate strength, and place it, in a vessel which will not break, leak, or corrode, in such a manner as will not produce undesirable results, with the necessary quantity of Gold: and so forth. Every Change has its own conditions. + In the present state of our knowledge and power some changes are not possible in practice; we cannot cause eclipses, for instance, or transform lead into tin, or create men from mushrooms. But it is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which that object is capable by nature; and the conditions are covered by the above postulate.) + +III. "THEOREMS." + + (1) Every intentional act is a Magical Act.<> + (Illustration: See "Definition" above.) {XIII} + (2) Every successful act has conformed to the postulate. + (3) Every failure proves that one or more requirements of the postulate have not been fulfilled. + (Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case; as when a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures his patient. There may be failure to apply the right kind of force, as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric light. There may be failure to apply the right degree of force, as when a wrestler has his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the force in the right manner, as when one presents a cheque at the wrong window of the Bank. There may be failure to employ the correct medium, as when Leonardo da Vinci found his masterpiece fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitable object, as when one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.) + (4) The first requisite for causing any change is through qualitative and quantitative understanding of the conditions. + (Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is ignorance of one's own True Will, or of the means by which to fulfil that Will. A man may fancy himself a painter, and waste his life trying to become one; or he may be really a painter, and yet fail to understand and to measure the difficulties peculiar to that career.) + (5) The second requisite of causing any change is the practical ability to set in right motion the necessary forces. + (Illustration: A banker may have a perfect grasp of a given situation, yet lack the quality of decision, or the assets, necessary to take advantage of it.) + (6) "Every man and every woman is a star." That is to say, every human being is intrinsically an independent individual with his own proper character and proper motion. + (7) Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly on the self, and partly on the environment which is natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, or through external opposition, comes into conflict with the order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly. {XIV} + (Illustration: A man may think it his duty to act in a certain way, through having made a fancy picture of himself, instead of investigating his actual nature. For example, a woman may make herself miserable for life by thinking that she prefers love to social consideration, or "vice versa". One woman may stay with an unsympathetic husband when she would really be happy in an attic with a lover, while another may fool herself into a romantic elopement when her only true pleasures are those of presiding at fashionable functions. Again, a boy's instinct may tell him to go to sea, while his parents insists on his becoming a doctor. In such a case, he will be both unsuccessful and unhappy in medicine.) + (8) A Man whose conscious will is at odds with his True Will is wasting his strength. He cannot hope to influence his environment efficiently. + (Illustration: When Civil War rages in a nation, it is in no condition to undertake the invasion of other countries. A man with cancer employs his nourishment alike to his own use and to that of the enemy which is part of himself. He soon fails to resist the pressure of his environment. In practical life, a man who is doing what his conscience tells him to be wrong will do it very clumsily. At first!) + (9) A man who is doing this True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him. + (Illustration: The first principle of success in evolution is that the individual should be true to his own nature, and at the same time adapt himself to his environment.) + (10) Nature is a continuous phenomenon, though we do not know in all cases how things are connected. + (Illustration: Human consciousness depends on the properties of protoplasm, the existence of which depends on innumerable physical conditions peculiar to this planet; and this planet is determined by the mechanical balance of the whole universe of matter. We may then say that our consciousness is causally connected with the remotest galaxies; yet we do not know even how it arises from --- or with --- the molecular changes in the brain.) + (11) Science enables us to take advantage of the continuity of Nature by the empirical application of certain {XV} principles whose interplay involves different orders of idea connected with each other in a way beyond our present comprehension. + (Illustration: We are able to light cities by rule-of-thumb methods. We do not know what consciousness is, or how it is connected with muscular action; what electricity is or how it is connected with the machines that generate it; and our methods depend on calculations involving mathematical ideas which have no correspondence in the Universe as we know it.<>) + (12) Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and powers. Even his idea of his limitations is based on experience of the past, and every step in his progress extends his empire. There is therefore no reason to assign theoretical limits<> to what he may be, or to what he may do. + (Illustration: A generation ago it was supposed theoretically impossible that man should ever know the chemical composition of the fixed stars. It is known that our senses are adapted to receive only an infinitesimal fraction of the possible rates of vibration. Modern instruments have enabled us to detect some of these suprasensibles by indirect methods, and even to use their peculiar qualities in the service of man, as in the case of the rays of Hertz and Rontgen. As Tyndall said, man might at any moment learn to perceive and utilise vibrations of all conceivable and inconceivable kinds. The question of Magick is a question of discovering and employing hitherto unknown forces in nature. We know that they exist, and we cannot doubt the possibility of mental or physical instruments capable of bringing us into relation with them.) + (13) Every man is more or less aware that his individuality comprises several orders of existence, even when he maintains that his subtler principles are merely symptomatic of the changes in his gross vehicle. A similar order may be assumed to extend throughout nature. + (Illustration: One does not confuse the pain of toothache with {XVI} the decay which causes it. Inanimate objects are sensitive to certain physical forces, such as electrical and thermal conductivity; but neither in us nor in them --- so far as we know --- is there any direct conscious perception of these forces. Imperceptible influences are therefore associated with all material phenomena; and there is no reason why we should not work upon matter through those subtle energies as we do through their material bases. In fact, we use magnetic force to move iron, and solar radiation to reproduce images.) + (14) Man is capable of being, and using, anything which he perceives, for everything that he perceives is in a certain sense a part of his being. He may thus subjugate the whole Universe of which he is conscious to his individual Will. + (Illustration: Man has used the idea of God to dictate his personal conduct, to obtain power over his fellow, to excuse his crimes, and for innumerable other purposes, including that of realizing himself as God. He has used the irrational and unreal conceptions of mathematics to help him in the construction of mechanical devices. He has used his moral force to influence the actions even of wild animals. He has employed poetic genius for political purposes.) + (15) Every force in the Universe is capable of being transformed into any other kind of force by using suitable means. There is thus an inexhaustible supply of any particular kind of force that we may need. + (Illustration: Heat may be transformed into light and power by using it to drive dynamos. The vibrations of the air may be used to kill men by so ordering them in speech as to inflame war-like passions. The hallucinations connected with the mysterious energies of sex result in the perpetuation of the species.) + (16) The application of any given force affects all the orders of being which exist in the object to which it is applied, whichever of those orders is directly affected. + (Illustration: If I strike a man with a dagger, his consciousness, not his body only, is affected by my act; although the dagger, as such, has no direct relation therewith. Similarly, the power of {XVII} my thought may so work on the mind of another person as to produce far-reaching physical changes in him, or in others through him.) + (17) A man may learn to use any force so as to serve any purpose, by taking advantage of the above theorems. + (Illustration: A man may use a razor to make himself vigilant over his speech, but using it to cut himself whenever he unguardedly utters a chosen word. He may serve the same purpose by resolving that every incident of his life shall remind him of a particular thing, making every impression the starting point of a connected series of thoughts ending in that thing. He might also devote his whole energies to some one particular object, by resolving to do nothing at variance therewith, and to make every act turn to the advantage of that object.) + (18) He may attract to himself any force of the Universe by making himself a fit receptacle for it, establishing a connection with it, and arranging conditions so that its nature compels it to flow toward him. + (Illustration: If I want pure water to drink, I dig a well in a place where there is underground water; I prevent it from leaking away; and I arrange to take advantage of water's accordance with the laws of Hydrostatics to fill it.) + (19) Man's sense of himself as separate from, and oppose to, the Universe is a bar to his conducting its currents. It insulates him. + (Illustration: A popular leader is most successful when he forgets himself, and remembers only "The Cause". Self-seeking engenders jealousies and schism. When the organs of the body assert their presence otherwise than by silent satisfaction, it is a sign that they are diseased. The single exception is the organ of reproduction. Yet even in this case its self-assertion bears witness to its dissatisfaction with itself, since it cannot fulfil its function until completed by its counterpart in another organism. + (20) Man can only attract and employ the forces for which he is really fitted. + (Illustration: You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. A {XVIII} true man of science learns from every phenomenon. But Nature is dumb to the hypocrite; for in her there is nothing false.<>) + (21) There is no limit to the extent of the relations of any man with the Universe in essence; for as soon as man makes himself one with any idea the means of measurement cease to exist. But his power to utilize that force is limited by his mental power and capacity, and by the circumstances of his human environment. + (Illustration: When a man falls in love, the whole world becomes, to him, nothing but love boundless and immanent; but his mystical state is not contagious; his fellow-men are either amused or annoyed. He can only extend to others the effect which his love has had upon himself by means of his mental and physical qualities. Thus, Catullus, Dante and Swinburn made their love a mighty mover of mankind by virtue of their power to put their thoughts on the subject in musical and eloquent language. Again, Cleopatra and other people in authority moulded the fortunes of many other people by allowing love to influence their political actions. The Magician, however well he succeed in making contact with the secret sources of energy in nature, can only use them to the extent permitted by his intellectual and moral qualities. Mohammed's intercourse with Gabriel was only effective because of his statesmanship, soldiership, and the sublimity of his command of Arabic. Hertz's discovery of the rays which we now use for wireless telegraphy was sterile until reflected through the minds and wills of the people who could take his truth, and transmit it to the world of action by means of mechanical and economic instruments.) + (22) every individual is essentially sufficient to himself. But he is unsatisfactory to himself until he has established himself in his right relation with the Universe. + (Illustration: A microscope, however perfect, is useless in the {XIX} hands of savages. A poet, however sublime, must impose himself upon his generation if he is to enjoy (and even to understand) himself, as theoretically should be the case.) + (23) Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and one's conditions. It is the Art of applying that understanding in action. + (Illustration: A golf club is intended to move a special ball in a special way in special circumstances. A Niblick should rarely be used on the tee, or a Brassie under the bank of a bunker. But also, the use of any club demands skill and experience.) + (24) Every man has an indefeasible right to be what he is. + (Illustration: To insist that any one else shall comply with one's own standards is to outrage, not only him, but oneself, since both parties are equally born of necessity.) + (25) Every man must do Magick each time that he acts or even thinks, since a thought is an internal act whose influence ultimately affects action, thought it may not do so at the time. + (Illustration: The least gesture causes a change in a man's own body and in the air around him; it disturbs the balance of the entire Universe, and its effects continue eternally throughout all space. Every thought, however swiftly suppressed, has its effect on the mind. It stands as one of the causes of every subsequent thought, and tends to influence every subsequent action. A golfer may lose a few yards on his drive, a few more with his second and third, he may lie on the green six bare inches too far from the hole; but the net result of these trifling mishaps is the difference of a whole stroke, and so probably between halving and losing the hole.) + (26) Every man has a right, the right of self-preservation, to fulfil himself to the utmost.<> + (Illustration: A function imperfectly preformed injures, not {XX} only itself, but everything associated with it. If the heart is afraid to beat for fear of disturbing the liver, the liver is starved for blood, and avenges itself on the heart by upsetting digestion, which disorders respiration, on which cardiac welfare depends.) + (27) Every man should make Magick the keynote of his life. He should learn its laws and live by them. + (Illustration: The Banker should discover the real meaning of his existence, the real motive which led him to choose that profession. He should understand banking as a necessary factor in the economic existence of mankind, instead of as merely a business whose objects are independent of the general welfare. He should learn to distinguish false values from real, and to act not on accidental fluctuations but on considerations of essential importance. Such a banker will prove himself superior to others; because he will not be an individual limited by transitory things, but a force of Nature, as impersonal, impartial and eternal as gravitation, as patient and irresistible as the tides. His system will not be subject to panic, any more than the law of Inverse Squares is disturbed by Elections. He will not be anxious about his affairs because they will not be his; and for that reason he will be able to direct them with the calm, clear-headed confidence of an onlooker, with intelligence unclouded by self-interest and power unimpaired by passion.) + (28) Every man has a right to fulfil his own will without being afraid that it may interfere with that of others; for if he is in his proper place, it is the fault of others if they interfere with him. + (Illustration: If a man like Napoleon were actually appointed by destiny to control Europe, he should not be blamed for exercising his rights. To oppose him would be an error. Any one so doing would have made a mistake as to his own destiny, except in so far as it might be necessary for him to learn to lessons of defeat. The sun moves in space without interference. The order of Nature provides an orbit for each star. A clash proves that one or the other has strayed from his course. But as to each man that keeps his true course, the more firmly he acts, the less likely are others to get in his way. His example will help {XXI} them to find their own paths and pursue them. Every man that becomes a Magician helps others to do likewise. The more firmly and surely men move, and the more such action is accepted as the standard of morality, the less will conflict and confusion hamper humanity.) + + -------------- + + I hope that the above principles will demonstrate to + ALL +that their welfare, their very existence, is bound up in + MAGICK. +I trust that they will understand, not only the reasonableness, but the necessity of the fundamental truth which I was the means of giving to mankind: + "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." +I trust that they will assert themselves as individually absolute, that they will grasp the fact that it is their right to assert themselves, and to accomplish the task for which their nature fits them. Yea, more, that this is their duty, and that not only to themselves but to others, a duty founded upon universal necessity, and not to be shirked on account of any casual circumstances of the moment which may seem to put such conduct in the light of inconvenience or even of cruelty. + I hope that the principles outlined above will help them to understand this book, and prevent them from being deterred from its study by the more or less technical language in which it is written. + The essence of + MAGICK +is simple enough in all conscience. It is not otherwise with the art of government. The Aim is simply prosperity; but the theory is tangled, and the practice beset with briars. + In the same way + MAGICK +is merely to be and to do. I should add: "to suffer". For Magick is the verb; and it is part of the Training to use the passive voice. This is, however, a matter of Initiation rather than of Magick in {XXII} its ordinary sense. It is not my fault if being is baffling, and doing desperate! + Yet, once the above principles are firmly fixed in the mind, it is easy enough to sum up the situation very shortly. One must find out for oneself, and make sure beyond doubt, "who" one is, "what" one is, "why" one is. This done, one may put the will which is implicit in the "Why" into words, or rather into One Word. Being thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the next thing is to understand the conditions necessary to following it out. After that, one must eliminate from oneself every element alien or hostile to success, and develop those parts of oneself which are specially needed to control the aforesaid conditions. + Let us make an analogy. A nation must become aware of its own character before it can be said to exist. From that knowledge it must divine its destiny. It must then consider the political conditions of the world; how other countries may help it or hinder it. It must then destroy it itself any elements discordant with its destiny. Lastly, it must develop in itself those qualities which will enable it to combat successfully the external conditions which threaten to oppose is purpose. We have had a recent example in the case of the young German Empire, which, knowing itself and its will, disciplined and trained itself so that it conquered the neighbours which had oppressed it for so many centuries. But after 1866 and 1870, 1914! It mistook itself for superhuman, it willed a thing impossible, it failed to eliminate its own internal jealousies, it failed to understand the conditions of victory,<> it did not train itself to hold the sea, and thus, having violated every principle of + MAGICK, +it was pulled down and broken into pieces by provincialism and democracy, so that neither individual excellence nor civic virtue has yet availed to raise it again to that majestic unity which made so bold a bid for the mastery of the race of man. + The sincere student will discover, behind the symbolic technicalities of his book, a practical method of making himself a {XXIII} Magician. The processes described will enable him to discriminate between what he actually is, and what he has fondly imagined himself to be<>. He must behold his soul in all its awful nakedness, he must not fear to look on that appalling actuality. He must discard the gaudy garments with which his shame has screened him; he must accept the fact that nothing can make him anything but what he is. He may lie to himself, drug himself, hide himself; but he is always there. Magick will teach him that his mind is playing him traitor. It is as if a man were told that tailors' fashion-plates were the canon of human beauty, so that he tried to make himself formless and featureless like them, and shuddered with horror at the idea of Holbein making a portrait of him. Magick will show him the beauty and majesty of the self which he has tried to suppress and disguise. + Having discovered his identity, he will soon perceive his purpose. Another process will show him how to make that purpose pure and powerful. He may then learn how to estimate his environment, learn how to make allies, how to make himself prevail against all powers whose error has caused them to wander across his path. + In the course of this Training, he will learn to explore the Hidden Mysteries of Nature, and to develop new senses and faculties in himself, whereby he may communicate with, and control, Beings and Forces pertaining to orders of existence which {XXIV} have been hitherto inaccessible to profane research, and available only to that unscientific and empirical + MAGICK +(of tradition) which I came to destroy in order that I might fulfil. + I send this book into the world that every man and woman may take hold of life in the proper manner. It does not matter of one's present house of flesh be the hut of a shepherd; by virtue of my + MAGICK +he shall be such a shepherd as David was. If it be the studio of a sculptor, he shall so chisel from himself the marble that masks his idea that he shall be no less a master than Rodin. + Witness mine hand: + Tau-Omicron Mu-Epsilon-Gamma-Alpha Theta-Eta-Rho-Iota-Omicron-Nu (Taw-Resh-Yod-Vau-Nunfinal ): The Beast 666; MAGUS 9 Degree = 2Square A.'. A.'. who is The Word of the Aeon THELEMA; whose name is called V.V.V.V.V. 8 Degree = 3Square A.'. A.'. in the City of the Pyramids; OU MH 7 Degree = 4Square A.'. A.'.; OL SONUF VAORESAGI 6 Degree = 5Square, and ... ... 5 Degree = 6Square A.'. A.'. in the Mountain of Abiegnus: but FRATER PERDURABO in the Outer Order or the A.'. A.'. and in the World of men upon the Earth, Aleister Crowley of Trinity College, Cambridge. + + + + ----------- + + + {XXV} + + + + + + CONTENTS + + ------- + + + (This portion of the Book should be studied in connection with its Parts I. and II.) +0 The Magical Theory of the Universe. +I The Principles of Ritual. +II The Formulae of the Elemental Weapons. +III The Formula of Tetragrammaton. +IV The Formula of Alhim: also that of Alim. +V The Formula of I. A. O. +VI The Formula of the Neophyte. +VII The Formula of the Holy Graal, of Abrahadabra, and of + Certain Other Words; with some remarks on the + Magical Memory. +VIII Of Equilibrium: and of the General and Particular Method + of Preparation of the Furniture of the Temple and the + Instruments of Art. +IX Of Silence and Secrecy: and of the Barbarous names of + Evocation. +X Of the Gestures. +XI Of Our Lady BABALON and of The Beast whereon + she rideth: also concerning Transformations. +XII Of the Bloody Sacrifice and Matters Cognate. +XIII Of the Banishings, and of the Purifications. +XIV Of the Consecrations: with an Account of the Nature and + Nurture of the Magical Link. +XVI (1) Of the Oath. +XV Of the Invocation. +XVI (2) Of the Charge to the Spirit: with some Account of the + Constrains and Curses occasionally necessary. +XVII Of the License to Depart. +XVIII Of Clairvoyance: and of the Body of Light, its Powers and + its Development. Also concerning Divinations. +XIX Of Dramatic Rituals. +XX Of the Eucharist: and of the Art of Alchemy. +XXI Of Black Magick: of the Main Types of the Operations of + Magick Art: and of the Powers of the Sphinx. + + {XXVII} + + + + + + + CHAPTER 0 + + THE MAGICAL THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE + + There are three main theories of the Universe; Dualism, Monism and Nihilism. It is impossible to enter into a discussion of their relative merits in a popular manual of this sort. They may be studied in Erdmann's "History of Philosophy" and similar treatises. + All are reconciled and unified in the theory which we shall now set forth. The basis of this Harmony is given in Crowley's +"Berashith" --- to which reference should be made. + Infinite space is called the goddess NUIT, while the infinitely small and atomic yet omnipresent point is called HADIT.<> These are unmanifest. One conjunction of these infinites is called RA-HOOR-KHUIT,<> a unity which includes and heads all things.<> (There is also a particular Nature of Him, in certain conditions, such as have obtained since the Spring of 1904, e.v.) This profoundly mystical conception {1} is based upon actual spiritual experience, but the trained reason<> can reach a reflection of this idea by the method of logical contradiction which ends in reason transcending itself. The reader should consult "The Soldier and the Hunchback" in Equinox I, I, and Konx Om Pax. + "Unity" transcends "consciousness". It is above all division. The Father of thought --- the Word --- is called Chaos --- the dyad. The number Three, the Mother, is called Babalon. In connection with this the reader should study "The Temple of Solomon the King" in Equinox I, V, and Liber 418. + This first triad is essentially unity, in a manner transcending reason. The comprehension of this Trinity is a matter of spiritual experience. All true gods are attributed to this Trinity.<> + An immeasurable abyss divides it from all manifestations of Reason or the lower qualities of man. In the ultimate analysis of Reason, we find all reason identified with this abyss. Yet this abyss is the crown of the mind. Purely intellectual faculties all obtain here. This abyss has no number, for in it all is confusion. + Below this abyss we find the moral qualities of Man, of which there are six. The highest is symbolised by the number Four. Its nature is fatherly<>; Mercy and Authority are the attributes of its dignity. + The number Five is balanced against it. The attributes of Five are Energy and Justice. Four and Five are again combined and harmonized in the number Six, whose nature is beauty and harmony, mortality and immortality. + In the number Seven the feminine nature is again predominant, {2} but it is the masculine type of female, the Amazon, who is balanced in the number Eight by the feminine type of male. + In the number Nine we reach the last of the purely mental qualities. It identifies change with stability. + Pendant to this sixfold system is the number Ten<< + The balance of the Sephiroth: + Kether (1) "Kether is in Malkuth, and Malkuth is in Kether, but + after another manner." + Chokmah (2) is Yod of Tetragrammaton, and therefore also Unity. + Binah (3) is He of Tetragrammaton, and therefore "The + Emperor." + Chesed (4) is Daleth, Venus the female. + Geburah (5) is the Sephira of Mars, the Male. + Tiphereth (6) is the Hexagram, harmonizing, and mediating between + Kether and Malkuth. Also it reflects Kether. "That + which is above, is like that which is below, and + that which is below, is like that which is above." + Netzach (7) and Hod (8) balanced as in text. + Jesod (9) see text. + Malkuth (10) contains all the numbers.>> + which includes the whole of Matter as we know it by the senses. + It is impossible here to explain thoroughly the complete conception; for it cannot be too clearly understood that this is a "classification" of the Universe, that there is nothing which is not comprehended therein. + The Article on the Qabalah in Vol. I, No. V of the Equinox is the best which has been written on the subject. It should be deeply studied, in connection with the Qabalistic Diagrams in Nos. II and III: "The Temple of Solomon the King". + Such is a crude and elementary sketch of this system. + The formula of Tetragrammaton is the most important for the practical magician. Here Yod = 2, He = 3, Vau = 4 to 9, He final = 10. + The Number Two represents Yod, the Divine or Archetypal World, and the Number One is only attained by the destruction of the God and the Magician in Samadhi. The world of Angels is under the numbers Four to Nine, and that of spirits under the {3} number Ten.<> All these numbers are of course parts of the magician himself considered as the microcosm. The microcosm is an exact image of the Macrocosm; the Great Work is the raising of the whole man in perfect balance to the power of Infinity. + The reader will remark that all criticism directed against the Magical Hierarchy is futile. One cannot call it incorrect --- the only line to take might be that it was inconvenient. In the same way one cannot say that the Roman alphabet is better or worse than the Greek, since all required sounds can be more or less satisfactorily represented by either; yet both these alphabets were found so little satisfactory when it came to an attempt at phonetic printing of Oriental languages, that the alphabet had to be expanded by the use of italics and other diacritical marks. In the same way our magical alphabet of the Sephiroth and the Paths (thirty-two letters as it were) has been expanded into the four worlds corresponding to the four letters of the name Yod-Heh-Vau-Heh; and each Sephira is supposed to contain a Tree of Life of its own. Thus we obtain four hundred Sephiroth instead of the original ten, and the Paths being capable of similar multiplications, or rather of subdivision, the number is still further extended. Of course this process might be indefinitely continued without destroying the original system. + The Apologia for this System is that our purest conceptions {4} are symbolized in Mathematics. "God is the Great Arithmetician." "God is the Grand Geometer." It is best therefore to prepare to apprehend Him by formulating our minds according to these measures.<> + To return, each letter of this alphabet may have its special magical sigil. The student must not expect to be given a cut-and-dried definition of what exactly is meant by any of all this. On the contrary, he must work backwards, putting the whole of his mental and moral outfit into these pigeon-holes. You would not expect to be able to buy a filing cabinet with the names of all your past, present and future correspondents ready indexed: your cabinet has a system of letters and numbers meaningless in themselves, but ready to take on a meaning to you, as you fill up the files. As your business increased, each letter and number would receive fresh accessions of meaning for you; and by adopting this orderly arrangement you would be able to have a much more comprehensive grasp of your affairs than would otherwise be the case. By the use of this system the magician is able ultimately to unify the whole of his knowledge --- to transmute, even on the Intellectual Plane, the Many into the One. + The Reader can now understand that the sketch given above of the magical Hierarchy is hardly even an outline of the real theory of the Universe. This theory may indeed be studied in the article already referred to in No. V of the Equinox, and, more deeply in the Book of the Law and the Commentaries thereon: but the true understanding depends entirely upon the work of the Magician himself. Without magical experience it will be meaningless. + In this there is nothing peculiar. It is so with all scientific knowledge. A blind man might cram up astronomy for the purpose of passing examinations, but his knowledge would be {5} almost entirely unrelated to his experience, and it would certainly not give him sight. A similar phenomenon is observed when a gentleman who has taken an "honours degree" in modern languages at Cambridge arrives in Paris, and is unable to order his dinner. To exclaim against the Master Therion is to act like a person who, observing this, should attack both the professors of French and the inhabitants of Paris, and perhaps go on to deny the existence of France. + Let us say, once again, that the magical language is nothing but a convenient system of classification to enable the magician to docket his experiences as he obtains them. + Yet this is true also, that, once the language is mastered, one can divine the unknown by study of the known, just as one's knowledge of Latin and Greek enables one to understand some unfamiliar English word derived from those sources. Also, there is the similar case of the Periodic Law in Chemistry, which enables Science to prophesy, and so in the end to discover, the existence of certain previously unsuspected elements in nature. All discussions upon philosophy are necessarily sterile, since truth is beyond language. They are, however, useful if carried far enough --- if carried to the point when it become apparent that all arguments are arguments in a circle.<> But discussions of the details of purely imaginary qualities are frivolous and may be deadly. For the great danger of this magical theory is that the student may mistake the alphabet for the things which the words represent. + An excellent man of great intelligence, a learned Qabalist, once amazed the Master Therion by stating that the Tree of Life was the framework of the Universe. It was as if some one had seriously maintained that a cat was a creature constructed by placing the letters C. A. T. in that order. It is no wonder that Magick has excited the ridicule of the unintelligent, since even its {6} educated students can be guilty of so gross a violation of the first principles of common sense.<> + A synopsis of the grades of the A.'. A.'. as illustrative of the Magical Hierarchy in Man is given in Appendix 2 "One Star in Sight." This should be read before proceeding with the chapter. The subject is very difficult. To deal with it in full is entirely beyond the limits of this small treatise. + + "FURTHER CONCERNING THE MAGICAL UNIVERSE" + All these letters of the magical alphabet --- referred to above --- are like so many names on a map. Man himself is a complete microcosm. Few other beings have this balanced perfection. Of course every sun, every planet, may have beings similarly constituted.<> But when we speak of dealing with the planets in Magick, {7} the reference is usually not to the actual planets, but to parts of the earth which are of the nature attributed to these planets. Thus, when we say that Nakhiel is the "Intelligence" of the Sun, we do not mean that he lives in the Sun, but only that he has a certain rank and character; and although we can invoke him, we do not necessarily mean that he exists in the same sense of the word in which our butcher exists. + When we "conjure Nakhiel to visible appearance," it may be that our process resembles creation --- or, rather imagination --- more nearly than it does calling-forth. The aura of a man is called the "magical mirror of the universe"; and, so far as any one can tell, nothing exists outside of this mirror. It is at least convenient to represent the whole as if it were subjective. It leads to less confusion. And, as a man is a perfect microcosm,<> it is perfectly easy to re-model one's conception at any moment. + Now there is a traditional correspondence, which modern experiment has shown to be fairly reliable. There is a certain natural connexion between certain letters, words, numbers, gestures, shapes, perfumes and so on, so that any idea or (as we might call it) "spirit", may be composed or called forth by the use of those things which are harmonious with it, and express particular parts of its nature. These correspondences have been elaborately mapped in the Book 777 in a very convenient and compendious form. It will be necessary for the student to make a careful study of this book in connexion with some actual rituals of Magick, for example, {8} that of the evocation of Taphtatharath printed in Equinox I, III, pages 170-190, where he will see exactly why these things are to be used. Of course, as the student advances in knowledge by experience he will find a progressive subtlety in the magical universe corresponding to his own; for let it be said yet again! not only is his aura a magical mirror of the universe, but the universe is a magical mirror of his aura. + In this chapter we are only able to give a very thin outline of magical theory --- faint pencilling by weak and wavering fingers --- for this subject may almost be said to be co-extensive with one's whole knowledge. + The knowledge of exoteric science is comically limited by the fact that we have no access, except in the most indirect way, to any other celestial body than our own. In the last few years, the semi-educated have got an idea that they know a great deal about the universe, and the principal ground for their fine opinion of themselves is usually the telephone or the airship. It is pitiful to read the bombastic twaddle about progress, which journalists and others, who wish to prevent men from thinking, put out for consumption. We know infinitesimally little of the material universe. Our detailed knowledge is so contemptibly minute, that it is hardly worth reference, save that our shame may spur us to increased endeavour. Such knowledge<> as we have got is of a very general and abstruse, of a philosophical and almost magical character. This consists principally of the conceptions of pure mathematics. It is, therefore, almost legitimate to say that pure mathematics is our link with the rest of the universe and with "God". + Now the conceptions of Magick are themselves profoundly mathematical. The whole basis of our theory is the Qabalah, which corresponds to mathematics and geometry. The method of operation in Magick is based on this, in very much the same way as the laws of mechanics are based on mathematics. So far, therefore as we can be said to possess a magical theory of the universe, it must be a matter solely of fundamental law, with a {9} few simple and comprehensive propositions stated in very general terms. + I might expend a life-time in exploring the details of one plane, just as an explorer might give his life to one corner of Africa, or a chemist to one subgroup of compounds. Each such detailed piece of work may be very valuable, but it does not as a rule throw light on the main principles of the universe. Its truth is the truth of one angle. It might even lead to error, if some inferior person were to generalize from too few facts. + Imagine an inhabitant of Mars who wished to philosophise about the earth, and had nothing to go by but the diary of some man at the North Pole! But the work of every explorer, on whatever branch of the Tree of Life the caterpillar he is after may happen to be crawling, is immensely helped by a grasp of general principles. Every magician, therefore, should study the Holy Qabalah. Once he has mastered the main principles, he will find his work grow easy. + "Solvitur ambulando" which does not mean: "Call the Ambulance!" + + + + -------------- + {10} + + + + + + CHAPTER I + + THE PRINCIPLES OF RITUAL. + + There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. It is the uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm. The Supreme and Complete Ritual is therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel;<> or, in the language of Mysticism, Union with God.<> + All other magical Rituals are particular cases of this general principle, and the only excuse for doing them is that it sometimes occurs that one particular portion of the microcosm is so weak that its imperfection of impurity would vitiate the Macrocosm of which it is the image, Eidolon, or Reflexion. For example, God is above sex; and therefore neither man nor woman as such can be said fully to understand, much less to represent, God. It is therefore incumbent on the male magician to cultivate those female virtues in which he is deficient, and this task he must of course accomplish without in any way impairing his virility. It will then be lawful for a magician to invoke Isis, and identify himself with her; if he fail to do this, his apprehension of the Universe when he attains Samadhi will lack the conception of maternity. The result will be a metaphysical and --- by corollary --- ethical limitation in the Religion which he founds. Judaism and Islam are striking example of this failure. + To take another example, the ascetic life which devotion to {11} magick so often involves argues a poverty of nature, a narrowness, a lack of generosity. Nature is infinitely prodigal --- not one in a million seeds ever comes to fruition. Whoso fails to recognise this, let him invoke Jupiter.<> + The danger of ceremonial magick --- the sublest and deepest danger --- is this: that the magician will naturally tend to invoke that partial being which most strongly appeals to him, so that his natural excess in that direction will be still further exaggerated. Let him, before beginning his Work, endeavour to map out his own being, and arrange his invocations in such a way as to redress the balance.<> This, of course, should have been done in a preliminary fashion during the preparation of the weapons and furniture of the Temple. + To consider in a more particular manner this question of the Nature of Ritual, we may suppose that he finds himself lacking in that perception of the value of Life and Death, alike of individuals and of races, which is characteristic of Nature. He has perhaps a tendency to perceive the "first noble truth" uttered by Buddha, that Everything is sorrow. Nature, it seems, is a tragedy. He has perhaps even experienced the great trance called Sorrow. He should then consider whether there is not some Deity who expresses this Cycle, and yet whose nature is joy. He will find what he requires in Dionysus. + There are three main methods of invoking any Deity. + The "First Method" consists of devotion to that Deity, and, being mainly mystical in character, need not be dealt with in this place, especially as a perfect instruction exists in Liber 175 ("See" Appendix). + The "Second method"is the straight forward ceremonial invocation. It is the method which was usually employed in the Middle Ages. Its advantage is its directness, its disadvantage its {12} crudity. The "Goetia" gives clear instruction in this method, and so do many other rituals, white and black. We shall presently devote some space to a clear exposition of this Art. + In the case of Bacchus, however, we may roughly outline the procedure. We find that the symbolism of Tiphareth expresses the nature of Bacchus. It is then necessary to construct a Ritual of Tiphareth. Let us open the Book 777; we shall find in line 6 of each column the various parts of our required apparatus. Having ordered everything duly, we shall exalt the mind by repeated prayers or conjurations to the highest conception of the God, until, in one sense or another of the word, He appears to us and floods our consciousness with the light of His divinity. + The "Third Method is the Dramatic," perhaps the most attractive of all; certainly it is so to the artist's temperament, for it appeals to his imagination through his aesthetic sense. + Its disadvantage lies principally in the difficulty of its performance by a single person. But it has the sanction of the highest antiquity, and is probably the most useful for the foundation of a religion. It is the method of Catholic Christianity, and consists in the dramatization of the legend of the God. The Bacchae of Euripides is a magnificent example of such a Ritual; so also, through in a less degree, is the Mass. We may also mention many of the degrees in Freemasonry, particularly the third. The 5 Degree = 6Square Ritual published in No. III of the Equinox is another example. + In the case of Bacchus, one commemorates firstly his birth of a mortal mother who has yielded her treasure-house to the Father of All, of the jealousy and rage excited by this incarnation, and of the heavenly protection afforded to the infant. Next should be commemorated the journeying westward upon an ass. Now comes the great scene of the drama: the gentle, exquisite youth with his following (chiefly composed of women) seems to threaten the established order of things, and that Established Order takes steps to put an end to the upstart. We find Dionysus confronting the angry King, not with defiance, but with meekness; yet with a subtle confidence, an underlying laughter. His forehead is wreathed with vine tendrils. He is an effeminate figure with those broad leaves clustered upon his brow? But those leaves hide {13} horns. King Pentheus, representative of respectability,<> is destroyed by his pride. He goes out into the mountains to attack the women who have followed Bacchus, the youth whom he has mocked, scourged, and put in chains, yet who has only smiled; and by those women, in their divine madness, he is torn to pieces. + It has already seemed impertinent to say so much when Walter Pater has told the story with such sympathy and insight. We will not further transgress by dwelling upon the identity of this legend with the course of Nature, its madness, its prodigality, its intoxication, its joy, and above all its sublime persistence through the cycles of Life and Death. The pagan reader must labour to understand this in Pater's "Greek Studies", and the Christian reader will recognise it, incident for incident, in the story of Christ. This legend is but the dramatization of Spring. + The magician who wishes to invoke Bacchus by this method must therefore arrange a ceremony in which he takes the part of Bacchus, undergoes all His trials, and emerges triumphant from beyond death. He must, however, be warned against mistaking the symbolism. In this case, for example, the doctrine of individual immortality has been dragged in, to the destruction of truth. It is not that utterly worthless part of man, his individual consciousness as John Smith, which defies death --- that consciousness which dies and is reborn in every thought. That which persists (if anything persist) is his real John Smithiness, a quality of which he was probably never conscious in his life.<> + Even that does not persist unchanged. It is always growing. The Cross is a barren stick, and the petals of the Rose fall and decay; but in the union of the Cross and the Rose is a constant {14} succession of new lives.<> Without this union, and without this death of the individual, the cycle would be broken. + A chapter will be consecrated to removing the practical difficulties of this method of Invocation. It will doubtless have been noted by the acumen of the reader that in the great essentials these three methods are one. In each case the magician identifies himself with the Deity invoked. To "invoke" is to "call in", just as to "evoke" is to "call forth". This is the essential difference between the two branches of Magick. In invocation, the macrocosm floods the consciousness. In evocation, the magician, having become the macrocosm, creates a microcosm. You "in"voke a God into the Circle. You "e"voke a Spirit into the Triangle. In the first method identity with the God is attained by love and by surrender, by giving up or suppressing all irrelevant (and illusionary) parts of yourself. It is the weeding of a garden. + In the second method identity is attained by paying special attention to the desired part of yourself: positive, as the first method is negative. It is the potting-out and watering of a particular flower in the garden, and the exposure of it to the sun. + In the third, identity is attained by sympathy. It is very difficult for the ordinary man to lose himself completely in the subject of a play or of a novel; but for those who can do so, this method is unquestionably the best. + Observe: each element in this cycle is of equal value. It is wrong to say triumphantly "Mors janua vitae", unless you add, with equal triumph, "Vita janua mortis". To one who understands this chain of the Aeons from the point of view alike of the sorrowing Isis and of the triumphant Osiris, not forgetting their link in the destroyer Apophis, there remains no secret veiled in Nature. He cries that name of God which throughout History has been echoed by one religion to another, the infinite swelling paean I.A.O.!<> {15} + + + + + + + CHAPTER II + + THE FORMULAE OF THE ELEMENTAL WEAPONS. + + Before discussing magical formulae in detail, one may observe that most rituals are composite, and contain many formulae which must be harmonized into one. + The first formula is that of the Wand. In the sphere of the principle which the magician wishes to invoke, he rises from point to point in a perpendicular line, and then descends; or else, beginning at the top, he comes directly down, "invoking" first the god of that sphere by "devout supplication"<> that He may deign to send the appropriate Archangel. He then "beseeches" the Archangel to send the Angel or Angels of that sphere to his aid; he "conjures" this Angel or Angels to send the intelligence in question, and this intelligence he will "conjure with authority" to compel the obedience of the spirit and his manifestation. To this spirit he "issues commands". + It will be seen that this is a formula rather of evocation than of invocation, and for the latter the procedure, though apparently the same, should be conceived of in a different manner, which brings it under another formula, that of Tetragrammaton. The essence of the force invoked is one, but the "God" represents the germ or beginning of the force, the "Archangel" its development; and so on, until, with the "Spirit", we have the completion and perfection of that force. {16} + The formula of the Cup is not so well suited for Evocations, and the magical Hierarchy is not involved in the same way; for the Cup being passive rather than active, it is not fitting for the magician to use it in respect of anything but the Highest. In practical working it consequently means little but prayer, and that prayer the "prayer of silence".<> + The formula of the dagger is again unsuitable for either purpose, since the nature of the dagger is to criticise, to destroy, to disperse; and all true magical ceremonies tend to concentration. The dagger will therefore appear principally in the banishings, preliminary to the ceremony proper. + The formula of the pantacle is again of no particular use; for the pantacle is inert. In fine, the formula of the wand is the only one with which we need more particularly concern ourselves.<> + Now in order to invoke any being, it is said by Hermes Trismegistus that the magi employ three methods. The first, for the vulgar, is that of supplication. In this the crude objective theory is assumed as true. There is a god named A, whom you, B, proceed to petition, in exactly the same sense as a boy might ask his father for pocket-money. + The second method involves a little more subtlety, inasmuch as the magician endeavours to harmonize himself with the nature of the god, and to a certain extent exalts himself, in the course of the ceremony; but the third method is the only one worthy of our consideration. + This consists of a real identification of the magician and the god. Note that to do this in perfection involves the attainment of a species of Samadhi: and this fact alone suffices to link irrefragably magick with mysticism. + Let us describe the magical method of identification. The symbolic form of the god is first studied with as much care as an artist would bestow upon his model, so that a perfectly clear and {17} unshakeable mental picture of the god is presented to the mind. Similarly, the attributes of the god are enshrined in speech, and such speeches are committed perfectly to memory. The invocation will then begin with a prayer to the god, commemorating his physical attributes, always with profound understanding of their real meaning. In the "second part" of the invocation, the voice of the god is heard, and His characteristic utterance is recited. + In the "third portion" of the invocation the magician asserts the identity of himself with the god. In the "fourth portion" the god is again invoked, but as if by Himself, as if it were the utterance of the will of the god that He should manifest in the magician. At the conclusion of this, the original object of the invocation is stated. + Thus, in the invocation of Thoth which is to be found in the rite of Mercury (Equinox I, VI) and in Liber LXIV, the first part begins with the words "Majesty of Godhead, wisdom-crowned TAHUTI, Thee, Thee I invoke. Oh Thou of the Ibis head, Thee, Thee I invoke"; and so on. At the conclusion of this a mental image of the God, infinitely vast and infinitely splendid, should be perceived, in just the same sense as a man might see the Sun. + The second part begins with the words: + "Behold! I am yesterday, today, and the brother of tomorrow." + The magician should imagine that he is hearing this voice, and at the same time that he is echoing it, that it is true also of himself. This thought should so exalt him that he is able at its conclusion to utter the sublime words which open the third part: "Behold! he is in me, and I am in him." At this moment, he loses consciousness of his mortal being; he is that mental image which he previously but saw. This consciousness is only complete as he goes on: "Mine is the radiance wherein Ptah floateth over his firmament. I travel upon high. I tread upon the firmament of Nu. I raise a flashing flame with the lightnings of mine eye: ever rushing on in the splendour of the daily glorified Ra --- giving my life to the treaders of Earth!" This thought gives the relation of God and Man from the divine point of view. + The magician is only recalled to himself at the conclusion of the {18} third part; in which occur, almost as if by accident, the words: "Therefore do all things obey my word." Yet in the fourth part, which begins: "Therefore do thou come forth unto me", it is not really the magician who is addressing the God; it is the God who hears the far-off utterance of the magician. If this invocation has been correctly performed, the words of the fourth part will sound distant and strange. It is surprising that a dummy (so the magus now appears to Himself) should be able to speak! + The Egyptian Gods are so complete in their nature, so perfectly spiritual and yet so perfectly material, that this one invocation is sufficient. The God bethinks him that the spirit of Mercury should now appear to the magician; and it is so. This Egyptian formula is therefore to be preferred to the Hierarchical formula of the Hebrews with its tedious prayers, conjurations, and curses. + It will be noted, however, that in this invocation of Thoth which we have summarized, there is another formula contained, the Reverberating or Reciprocating formula, which may be called the formula of Horus and Harpocrates. The magician addresses the God with an active projection of his will, and then becomes passive while the God addresses the Universe. In the fourth part he remains silent, listening, to the prayer which arises therefrom. + The formula of this invocation of Thoth may also be classed under Tetragrammaton. The first part is fire, the eager prayer of the magician, the second water, in which the magician listens to, or catches the reflection of, the god. The third part is air, the marriage of fire and water; the god and the man have become one; while the fourth part corresponds to earth, the condensation or materialization of those three higher principles. + With regard to the Hebrew formulae, it is doubtful whether most magicians who use them have ever properly grasped the principles underlying the method of identity. No passage which implies it occurs to mind, and the extant rituals certainly give no hint of such a conception, or of any but the most personal and material views of the nature of things. They seem to have thought that there was an Archangel named Ratziel in exactly the same sense as there was a statesman named Richelieu, an individual being living in a definite place. He had possibly certain powers of a somewhat metaphysical order --- he might be {19} in two places at once,<> for example, though even the possibility of so simple a feat (in the case of spirits) seems to be denied by certain passages in extant conjurations which tell the spirit that if he happens to be in chains in a particular place in Hell, or if some other magician is conjuring him so that he cannot come, then let him send a spirit of similar nature, or otherwise avoid the difficultly. But of course so vulgar a conception would not occur to the student of the Qabalah. It is just possible that the magi wrote their conjurations on this crude hypothesis in order to avoid the clouding of the mind by doubt and metaphysical speculation. + He who became the Master Therion was once confronted by this very difficulty. Being determined to instruct mankind, He sought a simple statement of his object. His will was sufficiently informed by common sense to decide him to teach man "The Next Step", the thing which was immediately above him. He might have called this "God", or "The Higher Self", or "The Augoeides", or "Adi-Buddha", or 61 other things --- but He had discovered that these were all one, yet that each one represented some theory of the Universe which would ultimately be shattered by criticism --- for He had already passed through the realm of Reason, and knew that every statement contained an absurdity. He therefore said: "Let me declare this Work under this title: 'The obtaining of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel'", because the theory implied in these words is so patently absurd that only simpletons would waste much time in analysing it. It would be accepted as a convention, and no one would incur the grave danger of building a philosophical system upon it. + With this understanding, we may rehabilitate the Hebrew system of invocations. The mind is the great enemy; so, by invoking enthusiastically a person whom we know not to exist, we are rebuking that mind. Yet we should not refrain altogether from philosophising in the light of the Holy Qabalah. We should accept the Magical Hierarchy as a more or less convenient classification of the facts of the Universe as they are {20} known to us; and as our knowledge and understanding of those facts increase, so should we endeavour to adjust our idea of what we mean by any symbol. + At the same time let us reflect that there is a certain definite consensus of experience as to the correlation of the various beings of the hierarchy with the observed facts of Magick. In the simple matter of astral vision, for example, one striking case may be quoted. + Without telling him what it was, the Master Therion once recited as an invocation Sappho's "Ode to Venus" before a Probationer of the A.'. A.'. who was ignorant of Greek, the language of the Ode. The disciple then went on an "astral journey," and everything seen by him was without exception harmonious with Venus. This was true down to the smallest detail. He even obtained all the four colour-scales of Venus with absolute correctness. Considering that he saw something like one hundred symbols in all, the odds against coincidence are incalculably great. Such an experience (and the records of the A.'. A.'. contain dozens of similar cases) affords proof as absolute as any proof can be in this world of Illusion that the correspondences in Liber 777 really represent facts in Nature. + It suggests itself that this "straightforward" system of magick was perhaps never really employed at all. One might maintain that the invocations which have come down to us are but the ruins of the Temple of Magick. The exorcisms might have been committed to writing for the purpose of memorising them, while it was forbidden to make any record of the really important parts of the ceremony. Such details of Ritual as we possess are meagre and unconvincing, and though much success has been attained in the quite conventional exoteric way both by FRATER PERDURABO and by many of his colleagues, yet ceremonies of this character have always remained tedious and difficult. It has seemed as if the success were obtained almost in spite of the ceremony. In any case, they are the more mysterious parts of the Ritual which have evoked the divine force. Such conjurations as those of the "Goetia" leave one cold, although, notably in the second conjuration, there is a crude attempt to use that formula of Commemoration of which we spoke in the preceding Chapter. {21} + + + + + + + + CHAPTER III + + THE FORMULA OF TETRAGRAMMATON.<> + + This formula is of most universal aspect, as all things are necessarily comprehended in it; but its use in a magical ceremony is little understood. + The climax of the formula is in one sense before even the formulation of the Yod. For the Yod is the most divine aspect of the Force --- the remaining letters are but a solidification of the same thing. It must be understood that we are here speaking of the whole ceremony considered as a unity, not merely of that formula in which "Yod" is the god invoked, "He" the Archangel, and so on. In order to understand the ceremony under this formula, we must take a more extended view of the functions of the four weapons than we have hitherto done. + The formation of the "Yod" is the formulation of the first creative force, of that father who is called "self-begotten", and unto whom it is said: "Thou has formulated thy Father, and made fertile thy Mother". The adding of the "He" to the "Yod" is the marriage of that Father to the great co-equal Mother, who is a reflection of Nuit as He is of Hadit. Their union brings forth the son "Vau" who is the heir. Finally the daughter "He" is produced. She is both the twin sister and the daughter of "Vau".<> + His mission is to redeem her by making her his bride; the result of this is to set her upon the throne of her mother, and it is only she whose youthful embrace can reawaken the eld of the {22} All-Father. In this complex family relationship<> is symbolised the whole course of the Universe. It will be seen that (after all) the Climax is at the end. It is the second half of the formula which symbolises the Great Work which we are pledged to accomplish. The first step of this is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, which constitutes the Adept of the Inner Order. + The re-entry of these twin spouses into the womb of the mother is that initiation described in Liber 418, which gives admission to the Inmost Order of the A.'. A.'. Of the last step we cannot speak. + It will now be recognised that to devise a practical magical ceremony to correspond to Tetragrammaton in this exalted sense might be difficult if not impossible. In such a ceremony the Rituals of purification alone might occupy many incarnations. + It will be necessary, therefore, to revert to the simpler view of Tetragrammaton, remembering only that the "He" final is the Throne of the Spirit, of the Shin of Pentagrammaton. + The Yod will represent a swift and violent creative energy; following this will be a calmer and more reflective but even more powerful flow of will, the irresistible force of a mighty river. This state of mind will be followed by an expansion of the consciousness; it will penetrate all space, and this will finally undergo a crystallization resplendent with interior light. Such modifications of the original Will may be observed in the course of the invocations when they are properly performed. + The peculiar dangers of each are obvious --- that of the first is a flash in the pan --- a misfire; that of the second, a falling into dreaminess or reverie; that of the third, loss of concentration. A mistake in any of these points will prevent, or injure the proper formation of, the fourth. + In the expression which will be used in Chapter XV: "Enflame thyself", etc., only the first stage is specified; but if that is properly done the other stages will follow as if by necessity. So far is it written concerning the formula of Tetragrammaton. {23} + + + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE FORMULA OF ALHIM, AND THAT OF ALIM. + + "ALHIM", (Elohim) is the exoteric word for Gods.<<"Gods" are the Forces of Nature; their "Names" are the Laws of Nature. Thus They are eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent and so on; and thus their "Wills" are immutable and absolute.>> It is the masculine plural of a feminine noun, but its nature is principally feminine.<> It is a perfect hieroglyph of the number 5. This should be studied in "A Note on Genesis" (Equinox I, II). + The Elements are all represented, as in Tetragrammaton, but there is no development from one into the others. They are, as it were, thrown together --- untamed, only sympathising by virtue of their wild and stormy but elastically resistless energy. The Central letter is "He" --- the letter of breath --- and represents Spirit. The first letter "Aleph" is the natural letter of Air, and the Final "Mem" is the natural letter of Water. Together, "Aleph" and "Mem" make "Am" --- the mother within whose womb the Cosmos is conceived. But "Yod" is not the natural letter of Fire. Its juxtaposition with "He" sanctifies that fire to the "Yod" of Tetragrammaton. Similarly we find "Lamed" for Earth, where we should expect Tau --- in order to emphasize the influence of Venus, who rules Libra. + "ALHIM", therefore, represents rather the formula of Consecration than that of a complete ceremony. It is the breath of benediction, yet so potent that it can give life to clay and light to darkness. + In consecrating a weapon, "Aleph" is the whirling force of the thunderbolt, the lightning which flameth out of the East even {24} into the West. This is the gift of the wielding of the thunderbolt of Zeus or Indra, the god of Air. "Lamed" is the Ox-goad, the driving force; and it is also the Balance, representing the truth and love of the Magician. It is the loving care which he bestows upon perfecting his instruments, and the equilibration of that fierce force which initiates the ceremony.<> + "Yod" is the creative energy -- the procreative power: and yet "Yod" is the solitude and silence of the hermitage into which the Magician has shut himself. "Mem" is the letter of water, and it is the Mem final, whose long flat lines suggest the Sea at Peace HB:Mem-final ; not the ordinary (initial and medial) Mem whose hieroglyph is a wave HB:Mem.<> And then, in the Centre of all, broods Spirit, which combines the mildness of the Lamb with the horns of the Ram, and is the letter of Bacchus or "Christ".<> + After the magician has created his instrument, and balanced it truly, and filled it with the lightnings of his Will, then is the weapon laid away to rest; and in this Silence, a true Consecration comes. + + THE FORMULA OF ALIM + + It is extremely interesting to contrast with the above the formula of the elemental Gods deprived of the creative spirit. One {25} might suppose that as ALIM, is the masculine plural of the masculine noun AL, its formula would be more virile than that of ALHIM, which is the masculine plural of the feminine noun ALH. A moment's investigation is sufficient to dissipate the illusion. The word masculine has no meaning except in relation to some feminine correlative. + The word ALIM may in fact be considered as neuter. By a rather absurd convention, neuter objects are treated as feminine on account of their superficial resemblance in passivity and inertness with the unfertilized female. But the female produces life by the intervention of the male, while the neuter does so only when impregnated by Spirit. Thus we find the feminine AMA, becoming AIMA<>, through the operation of the phallic Yod, while ALIM, the congress of dead elements, only fructifies by the brooding of Spirit. + This being so, how can we describe ALIM as containing a Magical Formula? Inquiry discloses the fact that this formula is of a very special kind. + The word adds up to 81, which is a number of the moon. It is thus the formula of witchcraft, which is under Hecate.<> It is only the romantic mediaeval perversion of science that represents young women as partaking in witchcraft, which is, properly speaking, restricted to the use of such women as are no longer women in the Magical sense of the word, because thy are no longer capable of corresponding to the formula of the male, and are therefore neuter rather than feminine. It is for this reason that their method has always been referred to the moon, in that sense of the term in which she appears, not as the feminine correlative of the sun, but as the burnt-out, dead, airless satellite of earth. + No true Magical operation can be performed by the formula of ALIM. All the works of witchcraft are illusory; and their apparent effects depend on the idea that it is possible to alter things by the mere rearrangement of them. One {26} must not rely upon the false analogy of the Xylenes to rebut this argument. It is quite true that geometrical isomers act in different manners towards the substance to which they are brought into relation. And it is of course necessary sometimes to rearrange the elements of a molecule before that molecule can form either the masculine or the feminine element in a true Magical combination with some other molecule. + It is therefore occasionally inevitable for a Magician to reorganize the structure of certain elements before proceeding to his operation proper. Although such work is technically witchcraft, it must not be regarded as undesirable on that ground, for all operations which do not transmute matter fall strictly speaking under this heading. + The real objection to this formula is not inherent in its own nature. Witchcraft consists in treating it as the exclusive preoccupation of Magick, and especially in denying to the Holy Spirit his right to indwell His Temple.<> {27} + + + + + + + CHAPTER V + + The Formula of I.A.O. + + This formula is the principal and most characteristic formula of Osiris, of the Redemption of Mankind. "I" is Isis, Nature, ruined by "A", Apophis the Destroyer, and restored to life by the Redeemer Osiris.<> The same idea is expressed by the Rosicrucian formula of the Trinity: + "Ex Deo nascimur. + In Jesu Morimur + Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus." + This is also identical with the Word Lux, L.V.X., which is formed by the arms of a cross. It is this formula which is implied in those ancient and modern monuments in which the phallus is worshipped as the Saviour of the World. + The doctrine of resurrection as vulgarly understood is false and absurd. It is not even "Scriptural". St. Paul does not identify the glorified body which rises with the mortal body which dies. On the contrary, he repeatedly insists on the distinction. + The same is true of a magical ceremony. The magician who is destroyed by absorption in the Godhead is really destroyed. The {28} miserable mortal automaton remains in the Circle. It is of no more consequence to Him that the dust of the floor.<> + But before entering into the details of "I.A.O." as a magick formula it should be remarked that it is essentially the formula of Yoga or meditation; in fact, of elementary mysticism in all its branches. + In beginning a meditation practice, there is always<> a quiet pleasure, a gentle natural growth; one takes a lively interest in the work; it seems easy; one is quite pleased to have started. This stage represents Isis. Sooner or later it is succeeded by depression --- the Dark Night of the Soul, an infinite weariness and detestation of the work. The simplest and easiest acts become almost impossible to perform. Such impotence fills the mind with apprehension and despair. The intensity of this loathing can hardly be understood by any person who has not experienced it. This is the period of Apophis. + It is followed by the arising not of Isis, but of Osiris. The ancient condition is not restored, but a new and superior condition is created, a condition only rendered possible by the process of death. + The Alchemists themselves taught this same truth. The first matter of the work was base and primitive, though "natural". After passing through various stages the "black dragon" appeared; but from this arose the pure and perfect gold. + Even in the legend of Prometheus we find an identical formula concealed; and a similar remark applies to those of Jesus Christ, and of many other mythical god-men worshipped in different countries.<> + A magical ceremony constructed on this formula is thus in close essential harmony with the natural mystic process. We find it the {29} basis of many important initiations, notably the Third Degree in Masonry, and the 5 Degree = 6Square ceremony of the G.'. D.'. described in Equinox I, III. A ceremonial self-initiation may be constructed with advantage on this formula. The essence of it consists in robing yourself as a king, then stripping and slaying yourself, and rising from that death to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel<>. There is an etymological identity between Tetragrammaton and "I A O", but the magical formulae are entirely different, as the descriptions here given have schewn. + Professor William James, in his "Varieties of Religious Experience," has well classified religion as the "once-born" and the "twice-born"; but the religion now proclaimed in Liber Legis harmonizes these by transcending them. There is no attempt to get rid of death by denying it, as among the once-born; nor to accept death as the gate of a new life, as among the twice-born. With the A.'. A.'. life and death are equally incidents in a career, very much like day and night in the history of a planet. But, to pursue the simile, we regard this planet from afar. A Brother of A.'. A.'. looks at (what another person would call) "himself", as one --- or, rather, some --- among a group of phenomena. He is that "nothing" whose consciousness is in one sense the universe considered as a single phenomenon in time and space, and in another sense is the negation of that consciousness. The body and mind of the man are only important (if at all) as the telescope of the astronomer to him. If the telescope were destroyed it would make no appreciable difference to the Universe which that telescope reveals. + It will now be understood that this formula of I A O is a formula of Tiphareth. The magician who employs it is conscious of himself as a man liable to suffering, and anxious to transcend that state by becoming one with god. It will appear to him as the Supreme Ritual, as the final step; but, as has already been {30} pointed out, it is but a preliminary. For the normal man today, however, it represents considerable attainment; and there is a much earlier formula whose investigation will occupy Chapter VI. + THE MASTER THERION, in the Seventeenth year of the Aeon, has reconstructed the Word I A O to satisfy the new conditions of Magick imposed by progress. The Word of the Law being Thelema, whose number is 93, this number should be the canon of a corresponding Mass. Accordingly, he has expanded I A O by treating the O as an Ayin, and then adding Vau as prefix and affix. The full word is then + + Vau Yod Aleph Ayin Vau + +whose number is 93. We may analyse this new Word in detail and demonstrate that it is a proper hieroglyph of the Ritual of Self-Initiation in this Aeon of Horus. For the correspondence in the following note, see Liber 777. The principal points are these: {31} + + + +--------------.---.-------------.---.--------------.------------------------ + : : : : : + Atu :No.: Hebrew :No.:Correspondence: Other + :of : :of : : +(Tarot Trump) :Atu: letters :let: in Nature : Correspondences + : : :ter: : +--------------+---+-------------+---+--------------+------------------------ + : : : : : + : : : : : +The Hiero- : V :Vau (a nail) : 6 :Taurus (An :The Sun. The son in Te- + phant. (Osi-: : English V, : : earthy sign : tragrammaton. (See Cap. + ris throned : : W, or vo- : : ruled by : III). The Pentagram + & crowned, : : wel between : : Venus; the : which shows Spirit + with Wand. : : O and U- : : Moon exalt- : master & reconciler of + : : ma'ajab and : : ed therein. : the Four Elements. + : : ma'aruf. : : but male.) : +Four Wor- : : : : Liberty,i.e.:The Hexagram which un- + shippers;the: : : : free will. : God and Man. The cons- + four ele- : : : : : sciousness or Ruach. + ments. : : : : : + : : : : :Parzival as the Child in + : : : : : his widowed mother's + : : : : : care: Horus, son of + : : : : : Isis and the slain + : : : : : Osiris. + : : : : : + : : : : :Parzival as King & + : : : : : Priest in Montsalvat + : : : : : performing the mir- + : : : : : acle of redemption; + : : : : : Horus crowned and + : : : : : conquering, taking the + : : : : : place of his father. + : : : : : + : : : : :Christ-Bacchus in Hea- + : : : : : ven-Olympus saving the + : : : : : world. + : : : : : + : : : : : + : : : : : +The Hermit :IX :Yod (a hand) : 10:Virgo (an :The root of the Alphabet + (Hermes : : English I : : earthy sign : The Spermatozoon. The + with Lamp, : : or Y. : : ruled by : youth setting out on + Wings, : : : : Mercury : his adventures after + Wand, : : : : exalted : receiving the Wand. + Cloak, and : : : : therein; : Parzival in the desert + Serpent). : : : : sexually : Christ taking refuge + : : : : ambivalent) : in Egypt, and on + : : : : Light, i.e. : the Mount tempted by + : : : : of Wisdom, : the Devil. The uncon- + : : : : the Inmost. : scious Will, or Word. + + {32} + + + +--------------.---.-------------.---.--------------.------------------------ + : : : : : + Atu :No.: Hebrew :No.:Correspondence: Other + :of : : of: : +(Tarot Trump) :Atu: letters :let: in Nature : Correspondences + : : :ter: : +--------------+---+-------------+---+--------------+------------------------ + : : : : : + : : : : : +The Fool : O :Aleph (an ox): 1 :Air (The con- :The free breath. The + (The Babe : : English A, : : dition of : Svastika. The Holy + in the Egg : : more or : : all Life, : Ghost. The Virgin's + on the Lo- : : less : : the impar- : Womb. Parzial as "der + tus, Bacchus: : : : tial vehicle: reine Thor" who knows + Diphues, : : : : Sexually : nothing. Horus. + etc. : : : : undevelop- : Christ-Bacchus as the + : : : : ed). Life; : innocent babe, pursued + : : : : i.e. the : by Herod-Here. + : : : : organ of : Hercules strangling + : : : : possible : the serpents. The + : : : : expression. : Unconscious Self not + : : : : : yet determined in any + : : : : : direction. + : : : : : + : : : : : +The Devil :XV :Ayin (an : 70:Capricornus :Parzival in Black Armour, + (Baphomet : : eye) En- : : (an earthy : ready to return to + throned & : : glish A, or: : sign ruled : Montsalvat as Redeemer- + adored by : : O more or : : by Saturn; : King: Horus come to + Male & Fe- : : less: the : : Mars exalt- : full growth. Christ- + male. See : : bleat of a : : ed therein. : Bacchus with Calvary- + Eliphas : : goat, A'a. : : Sexually : Cross Kithairon --- + Levi's de- : : : : male) : Thyrsus. + sign.) : : : : love: i.e. : + : : : : the instinct: + : : : : to satisfy : + : : : : Godhead by : + : : : : uniting it : + : : : : with the : + : : : : Universe. : + : : : : : + + Iota-Alpha-Digamma varies in significance with successive Aeons. + + {33} + + + + "Aeon of Isis." Matriarchal Age. The Great Work conceived as a straightforward simple affair. + We find the theory reflected in the customs of Matriarchy. Parthenogenesis is supposed to be true. The Virgin (Yod-Virgo) contains in herself the Principle of Growth --- the epicene Hermetic seed. It becomes the Babe in the Egg (A --- Harpocrates) by virtue of the Spirit (A = Air, impregnating the Mother---Vulture) and this becomes the Sun or Son ( Digamma = the letter of Tiphareth, 6, even when spelt as Omega, in Coptic. See 777). + "Aeon of Osiris." Patriarchal age. Two sexes. I conceived as the Father-Wand. (Yod in Tetragrammaton). A the Babe is pursued by the Dragon, who casts a flood from his mouth to swallow it. See "Rev." VII. The Dragon is also the Mother --- the "Evil Mother" of Freud. It is Harpocrates, threatened by the crocodile in the Nile. We find the symbolism of the Ark, the Coffin of Osiris, etc. The Lotus is the Yoni; the Water the Amniotic Fluid. In order to live his own life, the child must leave the Mother, and overcome the temptation to return to her for refuge. Kundry, Armida, Jocasta, Circe, etc., are symbols of this force which tempts the Hero. He may take her as his servant<> when he has mastered her, so as to heal his father (Amfortas), avenge him (Osiris), or pacify him (Jehovah). But in order to grow to manhood, he must cease to depend on her, earning the Lance (Parzival), claiming his arms (Achilles), or making his club (Hercules)<>, and wander in the waterless wilderness like Krishna, Jesus, Oedipus, chi. tau. lambda. --- until the hour when, as the "King's Son" or knight-errant, he must win the Princess, and set himself upon a strange throne. Almost all the legends of heroes imply this formula in strikingly similar symbols. Digamma. Vau the Sun --- Son. He is supposed to be mortal; but how is this shewn? It seems an absolute perversion of truth: the sacred symbols have no hint of it. This lie is the essence of the Great Sorcery. Osirian religion is a Freudian phantasy fashioned of man's dread of death and ignorance of nature. The parthenogenesis-idea {34} persists, but is now the formula for incarnating demi-gods, or divine kings; these must be slain and raised from the dead in one way or another.<> +"Aeon of Horus." Two sexes in one person. + Digamma Iota Alpha Omicron Digamma: 93, the full formula, recognizing the Sun as the Son (Star), as the pre-existent manifested Unit from which all springs and to which all returns. The Great Work is to make the initial Digamma Digamma of Assiah (The world of material illusion) into the final Digamma Iota Digamma of Atziluth,<> the world of pure reality. +Spelling the Name in full, Digamma Digamma + Iota Digamma Delta + Alpha Lambda Pi + Omicron Iota Nu + Digamma Iota = 309 = Sh T = XX + XI = 31 the secret Key of the Law. +Digamma is the manifested Star. +Iota is the secret Life .............. Serpent + --- Light ............. Lamp + --- Love .............. Wand + --- Liberty ........... Wings + --- Silence ........... Cloak + These symbols are all shewn in the Atu "The Hermit". + They are the powers of the Yod, whose extension is the Vau. + Yod is the Hand wherewith man does his Will. It is also + The Virgin; his essence is inviolate. +Alpha is the Babe "who has formulated his Father, and made fertile + his Mother" --- Harpocrates, etc., as before; but he develops + to +Omicron The exalted "Devil" (also the "other" secret Eye) by the + formula of the Initiation of Horus elsewhere described in + detail. This "Devil" is called Satan or Shaitan, and regarded with horror by people who are ignorant of his formula, and, imagining themselves to be evil, accuse Nature herself of their own phantasmal crime. Satan is Saturn, Set, Abrasax, Adad, Adonis, Attis, Adam, Adonai, etc. The most serious charge against him is that he is the Sun in the South. The Ancient Initiates, {35} dwelling as they did in lands whose blood was the water of the Nile or the Euphrates, connected the South with life-withering heat, and cursed that quarter where the solar darts were deadliest. Even in the legend of Hiram, it is at high noon that he is stricken down and slain. Capricornus is moreover the sign which the sun enterers when he reaches his extreme Southern declination at the Winter Solstice, the season of the death of vegetation, for the folk of the Northern hemisphere. This gave them a second cause for cursing the south. A third; the tyranny of hot, dry, poisonous winds; the menace of deserts or oceans dreadful because mysterious and impassable; these also were connected in their minds with the South. But to us, aware of astronomical facts, this antagonism to the South is a silly superstition which the accidents of their local conditions suggested to our animistic ancestors. We see no enmity between Right and Left, Up and Down, and similar pairs of opposites. These antitheses are real only as a statement of relation; they are the conventions of an arbitrary device for representing our ideas in a pluralistic symbolism based on duality. "Good" must be defined in terms of human ideals and instincts. "East" has no meaning except with reference to the earth's internal affairs; as an absolute direction in space it changes a degree every four minutes. "Up" is the same for no two men, unless one chance to be in the line joining the other with the centre of the earth. "Hard" is the private opinion of our muscles. "True" is an utterly unintelligible epithet which has proved refractory to the analysis of our ablest philosophers. + We have therefore no scruple in restoring the "devil-worship" of such ideas as those which the laws of sound, and the phenomena of speech and hearing, compel us to connect with the group of "Gods" whose names are based upon Sht, or D, vocalized by the free breath A. For these Names imply the qualities of courage, frankness, energy, pride, power and triumph; they are the words which express the creative and paternal will. + Thus "the Devil" is Capricornus, the Goat who leaps upon the loftiest mountains, the Godhead which, if it become manifest in man, makes him Aegipan, the All. + The Sun enters this sign when he turns to renew the year in the North. He is also the vowel O, proper to roar, to boom, and {36} to command, being a forcible breath controlled by the firm circle of the mouth. + He is the Open Eye of the exalted Sun, before whom all shadows flee away: also that Secret Eye which makes an image of its God, the Light, and gives it power to utter oracles, enlightening the mind. + Thus, he is Man made God, exalted, eager; he has come consciously to his full stature, and so is ready to set out on his journey to redeem the world. But he may not appear in this true form; the Vision of Pan would drive men mad with fear. He must conceal Himself in his original guise. + He therefore becomes apparently the man that he was at the beginning; he lives the life of a man; indeed, he is wholly man. But his initiation has made him master of the Event by giving him the understanding that whatever happens to him is the execution of this true will. Thus the last stage of his initiation is expressed in our formula as the final: +Digamma --- The series of transformations has not affected his identity; but it has explained him to himself. Similarly, Copper is still Copper after +Cu+O = CuO:+H SO =CuS O(H O):+K S=CuS(K SO ): + 2 4 4 2 2 2 4 + blowpipe and reducing agent = Cu(S). + It is the same copper, but we have learnt some of its properties. We observe especially that it is indestructible, inviolably itself throughout all its adventures, and in all its disguises. We see moreover that it can only make use of its powers, fulfill the possibilities of its nature, and satisfy its equations, by thus combining with its counterparts. Its existence as a separate substance is evidence of its subjection to stress; and this is felt as the ache of an incomprehensible yearning until it realises that every experience is a relief, an expression of itself; and that it cannot be injured by aught that may befall it. In the Aeon of Osiris it was indeed realised that Man must die in order to live. But now in the Aeon of Horus we know that every event is a death; subject and object slay each other in "love under will"; each such death is itself life, the means by which one realises oneself in a series of episodes. + The second main point is the completion of the A babe Bacchus by the O Pan (Parzival wins the Lance, etc.). {37} + The first process is to find the I in the V --- initiation, purification, finding the Secret Root of oneself, the epicene Virgin who is 10 (Malkuth) but spelt in full 20 (Jupiter). + This Yod in the "Virgin" expands to the Babe in the Egg by formulating the Secret Wisdom of Truth of Hermes in the Silence of the Fool. He acquires the Eye-Wand, beholding the acting and being adored. The Inverted Pentagram --- Baphomet --- the Hermaphrodite fully grown --- begets himself on himself as V again. + Note that there are now two sexes in one person throughout, so that each individual is self-procreative sexually, whereas Isis knew only one sex, and Osiris thought the two sexes opposed. Also the formula is now Love in all cases; and the end is the beginning, on a higher plane. + The I is formed from the V by removing its tail, the A by balancing 4 Yods, the O by making an inverted triangle of Yods, which suggests the formula of Nuit --- Hadit --- Ra-Hoor-Khuit. A is the elements whirling as a Svastika --- the creative Energy in equilibrated action.<> + + -------------- +{38} + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE FORMULA OF THE NEOPHYTE<>. + + This formula has for its "first matter" the ordinary man entirely ignorant of everything and incapable of anything. He is therefore represented as blindfolded and bound. His only aid is his aspiration, represented by the officer who is to lead him into the Temple. Before entering, he must be purified and consecrated. Once within the Temple, he is required to bind himself by an oath. His aspiration is now formulated as Will. He makes the mystic circumambulation of the Temple for the reasons to be described in the Chapter on "Gesture". After further purification and consecration, he is allowed for one moment to see the Lord of the West, and gains courage<> to persist. For the third time he is purified and consecrated, and he sees the Lord of the East, who holds the balance, keeping him in a straight line. In the West he gains energy. In the East he is prevented from dissipating the same. So fortified, he may be received into the Order as a neophyte by the three principal officers, thus uniting the Cross with the Triangle. He may then be placed between the pillars of the Temple, to receive the fourth and final consecration. In this position the secrets of the grade are communicated to him, and the last of his fetters is removed. All this is sealed by the sacrament of the Four Elements. + It will be seen that the effect of this whole ceremony is to endow a thing inert and impotent with balanced motion in a given direction. Numerous example of this formula are given {39} in Equinox I, Nos. II and III. It is the formula of the Neophyte Ceremony of G.'. D.'. It should be employed in the consecration of the actual weapons used by the magician, and may also be used as the first formula of initiation. + In the book called Z 2<> (Equinox I, III) are given full details of this formula, which cannot be too carefully studied and practised. It is unfortunately, the most complex of all of them. But this is the fault of the first matter of the work, which is so muddled that many operations are required to unify it. + + + ------------ + + +{40} + + + + + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE FORMULA OF THE HOLY GRAAL: + + OF + + ABRAHADABRA: + + "and of certain other Words." + + Also: THE MAGICAL MEMORY. + + The Hieroglyph shewn in the Seventh Key of the Tarot (described in the 12th Aethyr, Liber 418, Equinox I, V) is the Charioteer of OUR LADY BABALON, whose Cup or Graal he hears. + Now this is an important formula. It is the First of the Formulae, in a sense, for it is the formula of Renunciation.<> It is also the Last! + This Cup is said to be full of the Blood of the Saints; that is, every "saint" or magician must give the last drop of his life's blood to that cup. It is the original price paid for magick power. And if by magick power we mean the true power, the assimilation of all force with the Ultimate Light, the true Bridal of the Rosy Cross, then is that blood the offering of Virginity, the sole sacrifice well-pleasing to the Master, the sacrifice whose only reward is the pain of child-bearing unto him. + But "to sell one's soul to the devil", to renounce no matter what for an equivalent in personal gain<<"Supposed" personal gain. There is really no person to gain; so the whole transaction is a swindle on both sides.>>, is black magic. You are no longer a noble giver of your all, but a mean huckster. {41} + This formula is, however, a little different in symbolism, since it is a Woman whose Cup must be filled. It is rather the sacrifice of the Man, who transfers life to his descendants. For a woman does not carry in herself the principle of new life, except temporarily, when it is given her. + But here the formula implies much more even than this. For it is his whole life that the Magus offers to OUR LADY. The Cross is both Death and Generation, and it is on the Cross that the Rose blooms. The full significance of these symbols is so lofty that it is hardly fitted for an elementary treatise of this type. One must be an Exempt Adept, and have become ready to pass on, before one can see the symbols even from the lower plane. Only a Master of the Temple can fully understand them. + (However, the reader may study Liber CLVI, in Equinox I, VI, the 12th and 2nd Aethyrs in Liber 418 in Equinox I, V, and the Symbolism of the V Degree and VI Degree in O.T.O.) + Of the preservation of this blood which OUR LADY offers to the ANCIENT ONE, CHAOS<> the All-Father, to revive him, and of how his divine Essence fills the Daughter (the soul of Man) and places her upon the Throne of the Mother, fulfilling the Economy of the Universe, and thus ultimately rewarding the Magician (the Son) ten thousandfold, it would be still more improper to speak in this place. So holy a mystery is the Arcanum of the Masters of the Temple, that it is here hinted at in order to blind the presumptuous who may, unworthy, seek to lift the veil, and at the same time to lighten the darkness of such as may be requiring only one ray of the Sun in order to spring into life and light. + + II + + ABRAHADABRA is a word to be studied in Equinox I, V., "The Temple of Solomon the King". It represents the Great Work complete, and it is therefore an archetype of all lesser magical operations. It is in a way too perfect to be applied in {42} advance to any of them. But an example of such an operation may be studied in Equinox I, VII, "The Temple of Solomon the King", where an invocation of Horus on this formula is given in full. Note the reverberation of the ideas one against another. The formula of Horus has not yet been so fully worked out in details as to justify a treatise upon its exoteric theory and practice; but one may say that it is, to the formula of Osiris, what the turbine is to the reciprocating engine. + + III + + There are many other sacred words which enshrine formulae of great efficacity in particular operations. + For example, V.I.T.R.I.O.L. gives a certain Regimen of the Planets useful in Alchemical work. Ararita is a formula of the macrocosm potent in certain very lofty Operations of the Magick of the Inmost Light. (See Liber 813.) + The formula of Thelema may be summarized thus: Theta "Babalon and the Beast conjoined" --- epsilon unto Nuith (CCXX, I, 51) --- lambda The Work accomplished in Justice --- eta The Holy Graal --- mu The Water therein --- alpha The Babe in the Egg (Harpocrates on the Lotus.) + That of "Agape" is as follows: + Dionysus (Capital Alpha) --- The Virgin Earth gamma --- The Babe in the Egg (small alpha --- the image of the Father) --- The Massacre of the Innocents, pi (winepress) --- The Draught of Ecstasy, eta. + The student will find it well worth his while to seek out these ideas in detail, and develop the technique of their application. + There is also the Gnostic Name of the Seven Vowels, which gives a musical formula most puissant in evocations of the Soul of Nature. There is moreover ABRAXAS; there is XNOUBIS; there is MEITHRAS; and indeed it may briefly be stated that every true name of God gives the formula of the invocation of that God.<> It would therefore be impossible, even were it desirable, to analyse all such names. The general method of doing so has been {43} given, and the magician must himself work out his own formula for particular cases.<> + + IV. + + It should also be remarked that every grade has its peculiar magical formula. Thus, the formula of Abrahadabra concerns us, as men, principally because each of us represents the pentagram or microcosm; and our equilibration must therefore be with the hexagram or macrocosm. In other words, 5 Degree = 6Square is the formula of the Solar operation; but then 6 Degree = 5Square is the formula of the Martial operation, and this reversal of the figures implies a very different Work. In the former instance the problem was to dissolve the microcosm in the macrocosm; but this other problem is to separate a particular force from the macrocosm, just as a savage might hew out a flint axe from the deposits in a chalk cliff. Similarly, an operation of Jupiter will be of the nature of the equilibration of him with Venus. Its graphic formula will be 7 Degree = 4Square, and there will be a word in which the character of this operation is described, just as Abrahadabra describes the Operation of the Great Work. + It may be stated without unfairness, as a rough general principle, that the farther from original equality are the two sides of the equation, the more difficult is the operation to perform. + Thus, to take the case of the personal operation symbolized by the grades, it is harder to become a Neophyte, 1 Degree = 10Square, than to pass from that grade to Zelator, 2 Degree = 9Square. + Initiation is, therefore, progressively easier, in a certain sense, after the first step is taken. But (especially after the passing of Tiphareth) the distance between grade and grade increases as it were by a geometrical progression with an enormously high factor, which itself progresses.<> {44} + It is evidently impossible to give details of all these formulae. Before beginning any operation soever the magician must make a through Qabalistic study of it so as to work out its theory in symmetry of perfection. Preparedness in Magick is as important as it is in War. + + V + + It should be profitable to make a somewhat detailed study of the strange-looking word AUMGN, for its analysis affords an excellent illustration of the principles on which the Practicus may construct his own Sacred Words. + This word has been uttered by the MASTER THERION himself, as a means of declaring his own personal work as the Beast, the Logos of the Aeon. To understand it, we must make a preliminary consideration of the word which it replaces and from which it was developed: the word AUM. + The word AUM is the sacred Hindu mantra which was the supreme hieroglyph of Truth, a compendium of the Sacred Knowledge. Many volumes have been written with regard to it; but, for our present purpose, it will be necessary only to explain how it came to serve for the representation of the principal philosophical tenets of the Rishis. {45} + Firstly, it represents the complete course of sound. It is pronounced by forcing the breath from the back of the throat with the mouth wide open, through the buccal cavity with the lips so shaped as to modify the sound from A to O (or U), to the closed lips, when it becomes M. Symbolically, this announces the course of Nature as proceeding from free and formless creation through controlled and formed preservation to the silence of destruction. The three sounds are harmonized into one; and thus the word represents the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva; and the operations in the Universe of their triune energy. It is thus the formula of a Manvantara, or period of manifested existence, which alternates with a Pralaya, during which creation is latent. + Analysed Qabalistically, the word is found to possess similar properties. A is the negative, and also the unity which concentrates it into a positive form. A is the Holy Spirit who begets God in flesh upon the Virgin, according to the formula familiar to students of "The Golden Bough". A is also the "babe in the Egg" thus produced. The quality of A is thus bisexual. It is the original being --- Zeus Arrhenothelus, Bacchus Diphues, or Baphomet. + U or V is the manifested son himself. Its number is 6. It refers therefore, to the dual nature of the Logos as divine and human; the interlacing of the upright and averse triangles in the hexagram. It is the first number of the Sun, whose last number<> is 666, "the number of a man". + The letter M exhibits the termination of this process. It is the Hanged Man of the Tarot; the formation of the individual from the absolute is closed by his death. + We see accordingly how AUM is, on either system, the expression of a dogma which implies catastrophe in nature. It is cognate with the formula of the Slain God. The "resurrection" and "ascension" are not implied in it. They are later inventions without basis in necessity; they may be described indeed as Freudian phantasms conjured up by the fear of facing reality. To {46} the Hindu, indeed, they are still less respectable. in his view, existence is essentially objectionable<>; and his principle concern is to invoke Shiva<> to destroy the illusion whose thrall is the curse of the Manvantara. + The cardinal revelation of the Great Aeon of Horus is that this formula AUM does not represent the facts of nature. The point of view is based upon misapprehension of the character of existence. It soon became obvious to The Master Therion that AUM was an inadequate and misleading hieroglyph. It stated only part of the truth, and it implied a fundamental falsehood. He consequently determined to modify the word in such a manner as to fit it to represent the Arcana unveiled by the Aeon of which He had attained to be the Logos. + The essential task was to emphasize the fact that nature is not catastrophic, but proceeds by means of undulations. It might be suggested that Manvantara and Pralaya are in reality complementary curves; but the Hindu doctrine insists strongly on denying continuity to the successive phases. It was nevertheless important to avoid disturbing the Trinitarian arrangement of the word, as would be done by the addition of other letters. It was equally desirable to make it clear that the letter M represents an operation which does not actually occur in nature except as the withdrawal of phenomena into the absolute; which process, even when so understood, is not a true destruction, but, on the contrary, the emancipation of anything from the modifications which it had mistaken for itself. It occurred to him that the true nature of Silence was to permit the uninterrupted vibration of the undulatory energy, free from the false conceptions attached to it by the Ahamkara or Ego-making facility, whose assumption that conscious individuality constitutes existence let it to consider its own apparently catastrophic character as pertaining to the order of nature. {47} + The undulatory formula of putrefaction is represented in the Qabalah by the letter N, which refers to Scorpio, whose triune nature combines the Eagle, Snake and Scorpion. These hieroglyphs themselves indicate the spiritual formulae of incarnation. He was also anxious to use the letter G, another triune formula expressive of the aspects of the moon, which further declares the nature of human existence in the following manner. The moon is in itself a dark orb; but an appearance of light is communicated to it by the sun; and it is exactly in this way that successive incarnations create the appearance, just as the individual star, which every man is, remains itself, irrespective of whether earth perceives it or not. + Now it so happens that the root GN signifies both knowledge and generation combined in a single idea, in an absolute form independent of personality. The G is a silent letter, as in our word Gnosis; and the sound GN is nasal, suggesting therefore the breath of life as opposed to that of speech. Impelled by these considerations, the Master Therion proposed to replace the M of AUM by a compound letter MGN, symbolizing thereby the subtle transformation of the apparent silence and death which terminates the manifested life of Vau by a continuous vibration of an impersonal energy of the nature of generation and knowledge, the Virgin Moon and the Serpent furthermore operating to include in the idea a commemoration of the legend so grossly deformed in the Hebrew legend of the Garden of Eden, and its even more malignantly debased falsification in that bitterly sectarian broadside, the Apocalypse. + Sound work invariable vindicates itself by furnishing confirmatory corollaries not contemplated by the Qabalist. In the present instance, the Master Therion was delighted to remark that his compound letter MGN, constructed on theoretical principles with the idea of incorporating the new knowledge of the Aeon, had the value of 93 (M = 40, G = 3, N = 50). 93 is the number of the word of the Law --- Thelema --- Will, and of Agape --- Love, which indicates the nature of Will. It is furthermore the number of the Word which overcomes death, as members of the degree of M M of the O.T.O. are well aware;<> and it is also that of the complete formula of existence as expressed in the {48} True Word of the Neophyte,<> where existence is taken to import that phase of the whole which is the finite resolution of the Qabalistic Zero. + Finally, the total numeration of the Word AUMGN is 100, which, as initiates of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis of the O.T.O.<> are taught, expresses the unity under the form of complete manifestation by the symbolism of pure number, being Kether by Aiq Bkr<>; also Malkuth multiplied by itself<<10 to the 2 power = 100.>>, and thus established in the phenomenal universe. But, moreover, this number 100 mysteriously indicates the Magical formula of the Universe as a reverberatory engine for the extension of Nothingness through the device of equilibrated opposites.<> + It is moreover the value of the letter Qoph, which means "the back of the head", the cerebellum, where the creative or reproductive force is primarily situated. Qoph in the Tarot is "the Moon", a card suggesting illusion, yet shewing counterpartal forces operating in darkness, and the Winged Beetle or Midnight Sun in his Bark travelling through the Nadir. Its Yetziratic attribution is Pisces, symbolic of the positive and negative currents of fluidic energy, the male Ichthus or "Pesce" and the female Vesica, seeking respectively the anode and kathode. The number 100 is therefore a synthetic glyph of the subtle energies employed in creating the Illusion, or Reflection of Reality, which we call manifested existence. + The above are the principal considerations in the matter of AUMGN. They should suffice to illustrate to the student the methods employed in the construction of the hieroglyphics of Magick, and to arm him with a mantra of terrific power by virtue whereof he may apprehend the Universe, and control in himself its Karmic consequences. {49} + + + VI + + THE MAGICAL MEMORY.<> + + I + + There is no more important task than the exploration of one's previous incarnations<>. As Zoroaster says: "Explore the river of the soul; whence and in what order thou has come." One cannot do one's True Will intelligently unless one knows what it is. Liber Thisarb, Equinox I, VII, give instructions for determining this by calculating the resultant of the forces which have made one what one is. But this practice is confined to one's present incarnation. + If one were to wake up in a boat on a strange river, it would be rash to conclude that the direction of the one reach visible was that of the whole stream. It would help very much if one remembered the bearings of previous reaches traversed before one's nap. It would further relieve one's anxiety when one became aware that a uniform and constant force was the single determinant of all the findings of the stream: gravitation. We could rejoice "that even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea." + Liber Thisarb describes a method of obtaining the Magical Memory by learning to remember backwards. But the careful {50} practice of Dharana is perhaps more generally useful. As one prevents the more accessible thoughts from arising, we strike deeper strata --- memories of childhood reawaken. Still deeper lies a class of thoughts whose origin puzzles us. Some of these apparently belong to former incarnations. By cultivating these departments of one's mind we can develop them; we become expert; we form an organized coherence of these originally disconnected elements; the faculty grows with astonishing rapidity, once the knack of the business is mastered. + It is much easier (for obvious reasons) to acquire the Magical Memory when one has been sworn for many lives to reincarnate immediately. The great obstacle is the phenomenon called Freudian forgetfulness; that is to say, that, though an unpleasant event may be recorded faithfully enough by the mechanism of the brain, we fail to recall it, or recall it wrong, because it is painful. "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life" analyses and illustrates this phenomenon in detail. Now, the King of Terrors being Death, it is hard indeed to look it in the face. Mankind has created a host of phantastic masks; people talk of "going to heaven", "passing over", and so on; banners flaunted from pasteboard towers of baseless theories. One instinctively flinches from remembering one's last, as one does from imagining one's next, death.<> The point of view of the initiate helps one immensely. + As soon as one has passed this Pons Asinorum, the practice becomes much easier. It is much less trouble to reach the life before the last; familiarity with death breeds contempt for it. + It is a very great assistance to the beginner if he happens to have some intellectual grounds for identifying himself with some definite person in the immediate past. A brief account of Aleister Crowley's good fortune in this matter should be instructive. It will be seen that the points of contact vary greatly in character. + + 1. The date of Eliphas Levi's death was about six months previous to that of Aleister Crowley's birth. The reincarnating ego is supposed to take possession of the foetus at about this stage of development. {51} + 2. Eliphas Levi had a striking personal resemblance to Aleister Crowley's father. This of course merely suggests a certain degree of suitability from a physical point of view. + 3. Aleister Crowley wrote a play called "The Fatal Force" at a time when he had not read any of Eliphas Levi's works. The motive of this play is a Magical Operation of a very peculiar kind. The formula which Aleister Crowley supposed to be his original idea is mentioned by Levi. We have not been able to trace it anywhere else with such exact correspondence in every detail. + 4. Aleister Crowley found a certain quarter of Paris incomprehensibly familiar and attractive to him. This was not the ordinary phenomenon of the "deja vu", it was chiefly a sense of being at home again. He discovered long after that Levi had lived in the neighbourhood for many years. + 5. There are many curious similarities between the events of Eliphas Levi's life and that of Aleister Crowley. The intention of the parents that their son should have a religious career; the inability to make use of very remarkable talents in any regular way; the inexplicable ostracism which afflicted him, and whose authors seemed somehow to be ashamed of themselves; the events relative to marriage<>: all these offer surprisingly close parallels. + 6. The characters of the two men present subtle identities in many points. Both seem to be constantly trying to reconcile insuperable antagonisms. Both find it hard to destroy the delusion that men's fixed beliefs and customs may be radically altered by a few friendly explanations. Both show a curious fondness for out-the-way learning, preferring recondite sources of knowledge they adopt eccentric appearances. Both inspire what can only be called panic fear in absolute strangers, who can give no reason whatever for a repulsion which sometimes almost amounts to {52} temporary insanity. The ruling passion in each case is that of helping humanity. Both show quixotic disregard of their personal prosperity, and even comfort, yet both display love of luxury and splendour. Both have the pride of Satan. + 7. When Aleister Crowley became Frater Omicron-Upsilon Mu-Eta and had to write his thesis for the grade of Adeptus Exemptus, he had already collected his ideas when Levi's "Clef des Grands Mysteres" fell into his hands. It was remarkable that he, having admired Levi for many years, and even begun to suspect the identity, had not troubled (although an extravagant buyer of books) to get this particular work. He found, to his astonishment, that almost everything that he had himself intended to say was there written. The result of this was that he abandoned writing his original work, and instead translated the masterpiece in question. + 8. The style of the two men is strikingly similar in numerous subtle and deep-seated ways. The general point of view is almost identical. The quality of the irony is the same. Both take a perverse pleasure in playing practical jokes on the reader. In one point, above all, the identity is absolute --- there is no third name in literature which can be put in the same class. The point is this: In a single sentence is combined sublimity and enthusiasm with sneering bitterness, scepticism, grossness and scorn. It is evidently the supreme enjoyment to strike a chord composed of as many conflicting elements as possible. The pleasure seems to be derived from gratifying the sense of power, the power to compel every possible element of thought to contribute to the spasm. + If the theory of reincarnation were generally accepted, the above considerations would make out a strong case. FRATER PERDURABO was quite convinced in one part of his mind of this identity, long before he got any actual memories as such.<> + + II + + Unless one has a groundwork of this sort to start with, one must get back to one's life as best one can by the methods above indicated. {53} It may be of some assistance to give a few characteristics of genuine Magical Memory; to mention a few sources of error, and to lay down critical rules for the verification of one's results. + The first great danger arises from vanity. One should always beware of "remembering" that one was Cleopatra or Shakespeare. + Again, superficial resemblances are usually misleading. + One of the great tests of the genuineness of any recollection is that one remembers the really important things in one's life, not those which mankind commonly classes as such. For instance, Aleister Crowley does not remember any of the decisive events in the life of Eliphas Levi. He recalls intimate trivialities of childhood. He has a vivid recollection of certain spiritual crises; in particular, one which was fought out as he paced up and down a lonely stretch of road in a flat and desolate district. He remembers ridiculous incidents, such as often happen at suppers when the conversation takes a turn such that its gaiety somehow strikes to the soul, and one receives a supreme revelation which is yet perfectly inarticulate. He has forgotten his marriage and its tragic results<>, although the plagiarism which Fate has been shameless enough to perpetrate in this present life, would naturally, one might think, reopen the wound. + There is a sense which assures us intuitively when we are running on a scent breast high. There is an "oddness" about the memory which is somehow annoying. It gives a feeling of shame and guiltiness. There is a tendency to blush. One feels like a schoolboy caught red-handed in the act of writing poetry. There is the same sort of feeling as one has when one finds a faded photograph or a lock of hair twenty years old among the rubbish in some forgotten cabinet. This feeling is independent of the question whether the thing remembered was in itself a source of pleasure or of pain. Can it be that we resent the idea of our "previous condition of servitude"? We want to forget the past, however good reason we may have to be proud of it. It is well known that many men are embarrassed in the presence of a monkey. {54} + When the "loss of face" does not occur, distrust the accuracy of the item which you recall, The only reliable recollections which present themselves with serenity are invariably connected with what men call disasters. Instead of the feeling of being caught in the slips, one has that of being missed at the wicket. One has the sly satisfaction of having done an outrageously foolish thing and got off scot free. When one sees life in perspective, it is an immense relief to discover that things like bankruptcy, wedlock, and the gallows made no particular difference. They were only accidents such as might happen to anybody; they had no real bearing on the point at issue. One consequently remembers having one's ears cropped as a lucky escape, while the causal jest of a drunken skeinsmate in an all-night cafe stings one with the shame of the parvenu to whom a polite stranger has unsuspectingly mentioned "Mine Uncle". + The testimony of intuitions is, however, strictly subjective, and shrieks for collateral security. It would be a great error to ask too much. In consequence of the peculiar character of the recollections which are under the microscope, anything in the shape of gross confirmation almost presumes perjury. A pathologist would arouse suspicion if he said that his bacilli had arranged themselves on the slide so as to spell Staphylococcus. We distrust an arrangement of flowers which tells us that "Life is worth living in Detroit, Michigan". Suppose that Aleister Crowley remembers that he was Sir Edward Kelly. It does not follow that he will be able to give us details of Cracow in the time of James I of England. Material events are the words of an arbitrary language; the symbols of a cipher previously agreed on. What happened to Kelly in Cracow may have meant something to him, but there is no reason to presume that it has any meaning for his successor. + There is an obvious line of criticism about any recollection. It must not clash with ascertained facts. For example --- one cannot have two lives which overlap, unless there is reason to suppose that the earlier died spiritually before his body ceased to breathe. This might happen in certain cases, such as insanity. + It is not conclusive against a previous incarnation that the present should be inferior to the past. One's life may represent the full possibilities of a certain partial Karma. One may have {55} devoted one's incarnation to discharging the liabilities of one part of one's previous character. For instance, one might devote a lifetime to settling the bill run up by Napoleon for causing unnecessary suffering, with the object of starting afresh, clear of debt, in a life devoted to reaping the reward of the Corsican's invaluable services to the race. + + The Master Therion, in fact, remembers several incarnations of almost uncompensated wretchedness, anguish and humiliation, voluntarily undertaken so that he might resume his work unhampered by spiritual creditors. + + These are the stigmata. Memory is hall-marked by its correspondence with the facts actually observed in the present. This correspondence may be of two kinds. It is rare (and it is unimportant for the reasons stated above) that one's memory should be confirmed by what may be called, contemptuously, external evidence. It was indeed a reliable contribution to psychology to remark that an evil and adulterous generation sought for a sign. + (Even so, the permanent value of the observation is to trace the genealogy of the Pharisee --- from Caiaphas to the modern Christian.) + Signs mislead, from "Painless Dentistry" upwards. The fact that anything is intelligible proves that it is addressed to the wrong quarter, because the very existence of language presupposes impotence to communicate directly. When Walter Raleigh flung his cloak upon the muddy road, he merely expressed, in a cipher contrived by a combination of circumstances, his otherwise inexpressible wish to get on good terms with Queen Elizabeth. The significance of his action was determined by the concourse of circumstances. The reality can have no reason for reproducing itself exclusively in that especial form. It can have no reason for remembering that so extravagant a ritual happened to be necessary to worship. Therefore, however well a man might remember his incarnation as Julius Caesar, there is no necessity for his representing his power to set all upon the hazard of a die by imagining the Rubicon. Any spiritual state can be symbolized by an infinite variety of actions in an infinite variety of circumstances. One should recollect only those events which happen to {56} be immediately linked with one's peculiar tendencies to imagine one thing rather than another.<> + Genuine recollections almost invariably explain oneself to oneself. Suppose, for example, that you feel an instinctive aversion to some particular kind of wine. Try as you will, you can find no reason for your idiosyncrasy. Suppose, then, that when you explore some previous incarnation, you remember that you died by a poison administered in a wine of that character, your aversion is explained by the proverb, "A burnt child dreads the fire." It may be objected that in such a case your libido has created a phantasm of itself in the manner which Freud has explained. The criticism is just, but its value is reduced if it should happen that you were not aware of its existence until your Magical Memory attracted your attention to it. In fact, the essence of the test consists in this: that your memory notifies you of something which is the logical conclusion of the premisses postulated by the past. + As an example, we may cite certain memories of the Master Therion. He followed a train of thought which led him to remember his life as a Roman named Marius de Aquila. It would be straining probability to presume a connection between (alpha) this hieroglyphically recorded mode of self-analysis and (beta) ordinary introspection conducted on principles intelligible to himself. He remembers directly various people and various events connected with this incarnation; and they are in themselves to all appearance actual. There is no particular reason why they, rather than any others, should have entered his sphere. In the act of remembering them, they are absolute. He can find no reason for correlating them with anything in the present. But a subsequent examination of the record shows that the logical result of the Work of Marius de Aquila did not occur to that romantic reprobate; in point of fact, he died before anything could happen. Can we suppose that any cause can be baulked of effect? The Universe is unanimous in rebuttal. If then the exact effects which might be expected to result from these causes are manifested in the career {57} of the Master Therion, it is assuredly the easiest and most reasonable explanation to assume an identity between the two men. Nobody is shocked to observe that the ambition of Napoleon has diminished the average stature of Frenchmen. We know that somehow or other every force must find its fulfilment; and those people who have grasped the fact that external events are merely symptoms of external ideas, cannot find any difficulty in attributing the correspondences of the one to the identities of the other. + Far be it from any apologist for Magick to insist upon the objective validity of these concatenations! It would be childish to cling to the belief that Marius de Aquila actually existed; it matters no more that it matters to the mathematician whether the use of the symbol X to the 22 power involves the "reality" of 22 dimension of space. The Master Therion does not care a scrap of yesterday's newspaper whether he was Marius de Aquila, or whether there ever was such a person, or whether the Universe itself is anything more than a nightmare created by his own imprudence in the matter of rum and water. His memory of Marius de Aquila, of the adventures of that person in Rome and the Black Forest, matters nothing, either to him or to anybody else. What matters is this: True or false, he has found a symbolic form which has enabled him to govern himself to the best advantage. "Quantum nobis prodest hec fabula Christi!" The "falsity" of Aesop's Fables does not diminish their value to mankind. + The above reduction of the Magical Memory to a device for externalizing one's interior wisdom need not be regarded as sceptical, save only in the last resort. No scientific hypothesis can adduce stronger evidence of its validity than the confirmation of its predictions by experimental evidence. The objective can always be expressed in subjective symbols if necessary. The controversy is ultimately unmeaning. However we interpret the evidence, its relative truth depends in its internal coherence. We may therefore say that any magical recollection is genuine if it gives the explanation of our external or internal conditions. Anything which throws light upon the Universe, anything which reveals us to ourselves, should be welcome in this world of riddles. + As our record extends into the past, the evidence of its truth is cumulative. Every incarnation that we remember must increase {58} our comprehension of ourselves as we are. Each accession of knowledge must indicate with unmistakable accuracy the solution of some enigma which is propounded by the Sphynx of our own unknown birth-city, Thebes. The complicated situation in which we find ourselves is composed of elements; and no element of it came out of nothing. Newton's First Law applies to every plane of thought. The theory of evolution is omniform. There is a reason for one's predisposition to gout, or the shape of one's ear, in the past. The symbolism may change; the facts do not. In one form or another, everything that exists is derived from some previous manifestation. Have it, if you will, that the memories of other incarnations are dreams; but dreams are determined by reality just as much as the events of the day. The truth is to be apprehended by the correct translation of the symbolic language. The last section of the Oath of the Master of the Temple is: "I swear to interpret every phenomenon as a particular dealing of God with my soul." The Magical Memory is (in the last analysis) one manner, and, as experience testifies, one of the most important manners, of performing this vow. + + + + ------------- + +{59} + + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + OF EQUILIBRIUM, AND OF THE GENERAL AND PARTICULAR + METHOD OF PREPARATION OF THE FURNITURE OF THE + TEMPLE AND OF THE INSTRUMENTS OF ART. + + I + + "Before there was equilibrium, countenance beheld not countenance."<> So sayeth the holiest of the Books of the ancient Qabalah. (Siphra Tzeniutha 1. 2.) One countenance here spoken of is the Macrocosm, the other the Microcosm.<> + As said above, the object of any magick ceremony is to unite the Macrocosm and the Microcosm. + It is as in optics; the angles of incidence and reflection are equal. You must get your Macrocosm and Microcosm exactly balanced, vertically and horizontally, or the images will not coincide. + This equilibrium is affirmed by the magician in arranging the Temple. Nothing must be lop-sided. If you have anything in the North, you must put something equal and opposite to it in the South. The importance of this is so great, and the truth of it so obvious, that no one with the most mediocre capacity {60} for magick can tolerate any unbalanced object for a moment. His instinct instantly revolts.<>. For this reason the weapons, altar, circle, and magus are all carefully proportioned one with another. It will not do to have a cup like a thimble and a wand like a weaver's beam.<> + Again, the arrangement of the weapons of the altar must be such that they "look" balanced. Nor should the magician have any unbalanced ornament. If he have the wand in his right hand, let him have the Ring<> on his left, or let him take the Ankh, or the Bell, or the Cup. And however little he move to the right, let him balance it by an equivalent movement to the left; or if forwards, backwards; and let him correct each idea by implying the contradictory contained therein. If he invoke Severity, let him recount that Severity is the instrument of Mercy;<> if Stability, let him show the basis of that Stability to be constant change, just as the stability of a molecule is secured by the momentum of the swift atoms contained in it.<> + In this way let every idea go forth as a triangle on the base of two opposites, making an apex transcending their contradiction in a higher harmony. + It is not safe to use any thought in Magick, unless that thought has been thus equilibrated and destroyed. + Thus again with the instruments themselves; the Wand must be ready to change into a Serpent, the Pantacle into the whirling Svastika or Disk of Jove, as if to fulfil the functions of the Sword. {61} The Cross is both the death of the "Saviour"<> and the Phallic symbol of Resurrection. Will itself must be ready to culminate in the surrender of that Will:<> the aspiration's arrow that is shot against the Holy Dove must transmute itself into the wondering Virgin that receives in her womb the quickening of that same Spirit of God. + Any idea that is thus in itself positive and negative, active and passive, male and female, is fit to exist above the Abyss; any idea not so equilibrated is below the Abyss, contains in itself an unmitigated duality or falsehood, and is to that extent qliphotic<> and dangerous. Even an idea like "truth" is unsafe unless it is realized that all Truth is in one sense falsehood. For all Truth is relative; and if it be supposed absolute, will mislead.<> "The Book of Lies falsely so called" (Liber 333) is worthy of close and careful study in this respect. The reader should also consult Konx Om Pax, "Introduction", and "Thien Tao" in the same volume. + All this is to be expressed in the words of the ritual itself, and symbolised in every act performed. + + II + + It is said in the ancient books of Magick that everything used by the Magician must be "virgin". That is: it must never have been used by any other person or for any other purpose. The {62} greatest importance was attached by the Adepts of old to this, and it made the task of the Magician no easy one. He wanted a wand; and in order to cut and trim it he needed a knife. It was not sufficient merely to buy a new knife; he felt that he had to make it himself. In order to make the knife, he would require a hundred other things, the acquisition of each of which might require a hundred more; and so on. This shows the impossibility of disentangling one's self from one's environment. Even in Magick we cannot get on without the help of others.<> + There was, however, a further object in this recommendation. The more trouble and difficulty your weapon costs, the more useful you will find it. "If you want a thing well done, do it yourself." It would be quite useless to take this book to a department store, and instruct them to furnish you a Temple according to specification. It is really worth the while of the Student who requires a sword to go and dig out iron ore from the earth, to smelt it himself with charcoal that he has himself prepared, to forge the weapon with his own hand: and even to take the trouble of synthesizing the oil of virtiol with which it is engraved. He will have learnt a lot of useful things in his attempt to make a really virgin sword; he will understand how one thing depends upon another; he will begin to appreciate the meaning of the words "the harmony of the Universe", so often used so stupidly and superficially by the ordinary apologist for Nature, and he will also perceive the true operation of the law of Karma.<> + Another notable injunction of the ancient Magick was that whatever appertained to the Work should be "single". The Wand was to be cut with a single stroke of the knife. There must be no {63} boggling and hacking at things, no clumsiness and no hesitation. If you strike a blow at all, strike with your strength! "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might!" If you are going to take up Magick, make no compromise. You cannot make revolutions with rose-water, or wrestle in a silk hat. You will find very soon that you must either lose the hat or stop wrestling. Most people do both. They take up the magical path without sufficient reflection, without that determination of adamant which made the author of this book exclaim, as he took the first oath, "PERDURABO" --- "I will endure unto the end!"<<"For enduring unto the End, at the End was Naught to endure." Liber 333, Cap Zeta.>> They start on it at a great pace, and then find that their boots are covered with mud. Instead of persisting, they go back to Piccadilly. Such persons have only themselves to thank if the very street-boys mock at them. + Another recommendation was this: buy whatever may be necessary without haggling! + You must not try to strike a proportion between the values of incommensurable things.<> The least of the Magical Instruments is worth infinitely more than all that you possess, or if you like, than all that you stupidly suppose yourself to possess. Break this rule, and the usual Nemesis of the half-hearted awaits you. Not only do you get inferior instruments, but you lose in some other way what you thought you were so clever to have saved. Remember Ananias!<> + On the other hand, if you purchase without haggling you will find that along with your purchase the vendor has thrown in {64} the purse of Fortunatus. No matter in what extremity you may seem to be, at the last moment your difficulties will be solved. For there is no power either of the firmament of the ether, or of the earth or under the earth, on dry land or in the water, of whirling air or of rushing fire, or any spell or scourge of God which is not obedient to the necessity of the Magician! That which he has, he has not; but that which he is, he is; and that which he will be, he will be. And neither God nor Man, nor all the malice of Choronzon, can either check him, or cause him to waver for one instant upon the Path. This command and this promise have been given by all the Magi without exception. And where this command has been obeyed, this promise has been most certainly fulfilled. + + III + + In all actions the same formulae are applicable. To invoke a god, i.e. to raise yourself to that godhead, the process is threefold, PURIFICATION, CONSECRATION and INITIATION. + Therefore every magical weapon, and even the furniture of the Temple, must be passed through this threefold regimen. The details only vary on inessential points. E.G. to prepare the magician, he purifies himself by maintaining his chastity<> and abstaining from any defilement. But to do the same with, let us say, the Cup, we assure ourselves that the metal has never been employed for any other purpose --- we smelt virgin ore, and we take all possible pains in refining the metal --- it must be chemically pure. + To sum up this whole matter in a phrase, every article employed is treated as if it were a candidate for initiation; but in those parts of the ritual in which the candidate is blindfolded, we wrap the weapon in a black cloth<>. The oath which he takes is replaced by a "charge" in similar terms. The details of the preparation of each weapon should be thought out carefully by the magician. {65} + Further, the attitude of the magician to his weapons should be that of the God to the suppliant who invokes Him. It should be the love of the father for his child, the tenderness and care of the bridegroom for his bride, and that peculiar feeling which the creator of every work of art feels for his masterpiece. + Where this is clearly understood, the magician will find no difficulty in observing the proper ritual, not only in the actual ceremonial consecration of each weapon, but in the actual preparation, a process which should adumbrate this ceremony; e.g., the magician will cut the wand from the tree, will strip it of leaves and twigs, will remove the bark. He will trim the ends nearly, and smooth down the knots: --- this is the banishing. + He will then rub it with the consecrated oil until it becomes smooth and glistening and golden. He will then wrap it in silk of the appropriate colour: --- this is the Consecration. + He will then take it, and imagine that it is that hollow tube in which Prometheus brought down fire from heaven, formulating to himself the passing of the Holy Influence through it. In this and other ways he will perform the initiation; and, this being accomplished, he will repeat the whole process in an elaborate ceremony.<> + To take an entirely different case, that of the Circle; the magician will synthesize the Vermilion required from Mercury an Sulphur which he has himself sublimated. This pure {66} vermilion he will himself mix with the consecrated oil, and as he uses this paint he will think intently and with devotion of the symbols which he draws. This circle may then be initiated by a circumambulation, during which the magician invokes the names of God that are on it. + Any person without sufficient ingenuity to devise proper methods of preparation for the other articles required is unlikely to make much of a magician; and we shall only waste space if we deal in detail with the preparation of each instrument. + There is a definite instruction in Liber A vel Armorum, in the Equinox, Volume I, Number IV, as to the Lamp and the Four Elemental Weapons. + + ------------- + + {67} + + + + + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + + OF SILENCE AND SECRECY: + + AND OF + + THE BARBAROUS NAMES OF EVOCATION. + + + It is found by experience (confirming the statement of Zoroaster) that the most potent conjurations are those in an ancient and perhaps forgotten language, or even those couched in a corrupt and possibly always meaningless jargon. Of these there are several main types. The "preliminary invocation" in the "Goetia" consists principally of corruptions of Greek and Egyptian names. For example, we find "Osorronnophris" for "Asor Un-Nefer".<> The conjurations given by Dr. Dee (vide Equinox I, VIII) are in a language called Angelic, or Enochian. Its source has hitherto baffled research, but it is a language and not a jargon, for it possesses a structure of its own, and there are traces of grammar and syntax. + However this may be, it "works". Even the beginner finds that "things happen" when he uses it: and this is an advantage --- or disadvantage! ---- shared by no other type of language,. The rest need skill. This needs Prudence! + The Egyptian Invocations are much purer, but their meaning has not been sufficiently studied by persons magically competent. We possess a number of Invocations in Greek of every degree of excellence; in Latin but few, and those of inferior quality. It will be noticed that in every case the conjurations are very sonorous, {68} and there is a certain magical voice in which they should be recited. This special voice was a natural gift of the Master Therion; but it can be easily taught --- to the right people. + Various considerations impelled Him to attempt conjurations in the English language. There already existed one example, the charm of the witches in Macbeth; although this was perhaps not meant seriously, its effect is indubitable.<> + He has found iambic tetrameters enriched with many rimes both internal an external very useful. "The Wizard Way" (Equinox I,I) gives a good idea of the sort of thing. So does the Evocation of Bartzabel in Equinox I,IX. There are many extant invocations throughout his works, in many kinds of metre, of many kinds of being, and for many kinds of purposes. (See Appendix). + Other methods of incantation are on record as efficacious. For instance Frater I.A., when a child, was told that he could invoke the devil by repeating the "Lord's Prayer" backwards. He went into the garden and did so. The Devil appeared, and almost scared him out of his life. + It is therefore not quite certain in what the efficacy of conjurations really lies. The peculiar mental excitement required may even be aroused by the perception of the absurdity of the process, and the persistence in it, as when once FRATER PERDURABO (at the end of His magical resources) recited "From Greenland's Icy Mountains", and obtained His result.<> + It may be conceded in any case that the long strings of formidable words which roar and moan through so many conjurations have a real effect in exalting the consciousness of the magician to the proper pitch --- that they should do so is no more extraordinary than music of any kind should do so. + Magicians have not confined themselves to the use of the human voice. The Pan-pipe with its seven stops, corresponding to the seven planets, the bull-roarer, the tom-tom, and even the violin, have all been used, as well as many others, of which the {69} most important is the bell<>, though this is used not so much for actual conjuration as to mark stages in the ceremony. Of all these the tom-tom will be found to be the most generally useful. + While on the subject of barbarous names of evocation we should not omit the utterance of certain supreme words which enshrine (alpha) the complete formula of the God invoked, or (beta) the whole ceremony. + Examples of the former kind are Tetragrammaton, I.A.O., and Abrahadabra. + An example of the latter kind is the great word StiBeTTChePhMeFSHiSS, which is a line drawn on the Tree of Life (Coptic attributions) in a certain manner.<> + With all such words it is of the utmost importance that they should never be spoken until the supreme moment, and even then they should burst from the magician almost despite himself --- so great should be his reluctance<> to utter them. In fact, they should be the utterance of the God in him at the first onset of the divine possession. So uttered, they cannot fail of effect, for they have become the effect. + Every wise magician will have constructed (according to the principles of the Holy Qabalah) many such words, and he should have quintessentialised them all in one Word, which last Word, once he has formed it, he should never utter consciously even in thought, until perhaps with it he gives up the ghost. Such a Word should in fact be so potent that man cannot hear it and live. {70} + Such a word was indeed the lost Tetragrammaton<>. It is said that at the utterance of this name the Universe crashes into dissolution. Let the Magician earnestly seek this Lost Word, for its pronunciation is synonymous with the accomplishment of the Great Work.<> + In this matter of the efficacity of words there are again two formulae exactly opposite in nature. A word may become potent and terrible by virtue of constant repetition. It is in this way that most religions gain strength. At first the statement "So and so is God" excites no interest. Continue, and you meet scorn and scepticism: possibly persecution. Continue, and the controversy has so far died out that no one troubles to contradict your assertion. + No superstition is so dangerous and so lively as an exploded superstition. The newspapers of to-day (written and edited almost exclusively by men without a spark of either religion or morality) dare not hint that any one disbelieves in the ostensibly prevailing cult; they deplore Atheism --- all but universal in practice and implicit in the theory of practically all intelligent people --- as if it were the eccentricity of a few negligible or objectionable persons. This is the ordinary story of advertisement; the sham has exactly the same chance as the real. Persistence is the only quality required for success. + The opposite formula is that of secrecy. An idea is perpetuated because it must never be mentioned. A freemason never forgets the secret words entrusted to him, thought these words mean absolutely nothing to him, in the vast majority of cases; the only reason for this is that he has been forbidden to mention them, although they have been published again and again, and are as accessible to the profane as to the initiate. + In such a work of practical Magick as the preaching of a new {71} Law, these methods may be advantageously combined; on the one hand infinite frankness and readiness to communicate all secrets; on the other the sublime and terrible knowledge that all real secrets are incommunicable.<> + It is, according to tradition, a certain advantage in conjurations to employ more than one language. In all probability the reason of this is than any change spurs the flagging attention. A man engaged in intense mental labour will frequently stop and walk up and down the room --- one may suppose for this cause --- but it is a sign of weakness that this should be necessary. For the beginner in Magick, however, it is permissible<> to employ any device to secure the result. + Conjurations should be recited, not read:<> and the entire ceremony should be so perfectly performed that one is hardly conscious of any effort of memory. The ceremony should be constructed with such logical fatality that a mistake is impossible.<> The conscious ego of the Magician is to be destroyed to be absorbed in that of the God whom he invokes, and the process should not interfere with the automation who is performing the ceremony. + But this ego of which it is here spoken is the true ultimate ego. The automaton should possess will, energy, intelligence, reason, and resource. This automaton should be the perfect man far more {72} than any other man can be. It is only the divine self within the man, a self as far above the possession of will or any other qualities whatsoever as the heavens are high above the earth, that should reabsorb itself into that illimitable radiance of which it is a spark.<> + + The great difficulty for the single Magician is so to perfect himself that these multifarious duties of the Ritual are adequately performed. At first he will find that the exaltation destroys memory and paralyses muscle. This is an essential difficulty of the magical process, and can only be overcome by practice and experience.<> + In order to aid concentration, and to increase the supply of Energy, it has been customary for the Magician to employ assistants or colleagues. It is doubtful whether the obvious advantages of this plan compensate the difficulty of procuring suitable persons<>, and the chance of a conflict of will or a misunderstanding in the circle itself. On one occasion FRATER PERDURABO was disobeyed by an assistant, and had it not been for His promptitude in using the physical compulsion of the sword, it is probable that the circle would have been broken. As it was, the affair fortunately terminated in nothing more serious than the destruction of the culprit. + However, there is no doubt that an assemblage of persons who really are in harmony can much more easily produce an effect than a magician working by himself. The psychology of "Revival meetings" will be familiar to almost every one, and though such {73} meetings<> are the foulest and most degraded rituals of black magic, the laws of Magick are not thereby suspended. The laws of Magick are the laws of Nature. + A singular and world-famous example of this is of sufficiently recent date to be fresh in the memory of many people now living. At a nigger camp meeting in the "United" States of America, devotees were worked up to such a pitch of excitement that the whole assembly developed a furious form of hysteria. The comparatively intelligible cries of "Glory" and "Hallelujah" no longer expressed the situation. Somebody screamed out "Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!", and this was taken up by the whole meeting and yelled continuously, until reaction set in. The affair got into the papers, and some particularly bright disciple of John Stuart Mill, logician and economist, thought that these words, having set one set of fools crazy, might do the same to all the other fools in the world. He accordingly wrote a song, and produced the desired result. This is the most notorious example of recent times of the power exerted by a barbarous name of evocation. + A few words may be useful to reconcile the general notion of Causality with that of Magick. How can we be sure that a person waving a stick and howling thereby produces thunderstorms? In no other way than that familiar to Science; we note that whenever we put a lighted match to dry gunpowder, an unintelligibly arbitrary phenomenon, that of sound, is observed; and so forth. + We need not dwell upon this point; but it seems worth while to answer one of the objections to the possibility of Magick, chosing one which is at first sight of an obviously "fatal" character. It is convenient to quote verbatim from the Diary<> of a distinguished Magician and philosopher. + "I have noticed that the effect of a Magical Work has followed {74} it so closely that it must have been started before the time of the Work. E.g. I work to-night to make X in Paris write to me. I get the letter the next morning, so that it must have been written before the Work. Does this deny that the Work caused the effect? + "If I strike a billiard-ball and it moves, both my will and its motion are due to causes long antecedent to the act. I may consider both my Work and its reaction as twin effects of the eternal Universe. The moved arm and ball are parts of a state of the Cosmos which resulted necessarily from its momentarily previous state, and so, back for ever. + "Thus, my Magical Work is only one of the cause-effects necessarily concomitant with the case-effects which set the ball in motion. I may therefore regard the act of striking as a cause-effect of my original Will to move the ball, though necessarily previous to its motion. But the case of magical Work is not quite analogous. For my nature is such that I am compelled to perform Magick in order to make my will to prevail; so that the cause of my doing the Work is also the cause of the ball's motion, and there is no reason why one should precede the other. (CF. "Lewis Carroll," where the Red Queen screams before she pricks her finger.) + "Let me illustrate the theory by an actual example. + "I write from Italy to a man in France and another in Australia on the same day, telling them to join me. Both arrive ten days later; the first in answer to my letter, which he received, the second on "his own initiative", as it would seem. But I summoned him because I wanted him; and I wanted him because he was my representative; and his intelligence made him resolve to join me because it judged rightly that the situation (so far as he knew it) was such as to make me desire his presence. + "The same cause, therefore, which made me write to him made him come to me; and though it would be improper to say that the writing of the letter was the direct cause of his arrival, it is evident that if I had not written I should have been different from what I actually am, and therefore my relations with him would have been otherwise than they are. In this sense, therefore, the letter and the journey are causally connected. + "One cannot go farther, and say that in this case I ought to write the letter even if he had arrived before I did so; for it {75} is part of the whole set of circumstance that I do not use a crowbar on an open door. + "The conclusion is that one should do one's Will 'without lust of result'. If one is working in accordance with the laws of one's own nature, one is doing 'right'; and no such work can be criticised as 'useless', even in cases of the character here discussed. So long as one's Will prevails, there is no cause for complaint. + "To abandon one's Magick would shew lack of self-confidence in one's powers, and doubt as to one's inmost faith in Self and in Nature.<> Of course one changes one's methods as experience indicates; but there is no need to change them on any such ground as the above. + "Further, the argument here set forth disposes of the need to explain the "modus operandi" of Magick. A successful operation does not involve any theory soever, not even that of the existence of causality itself. The whole set of phenomena may be conceived as single. + "For instance, if I see a star (as it was years ago) I need not assume causal relations as existing between it, the earth, and myself. The connexion exists; I can predicate nothing beyond that. I cannot postulate purpose, or even determine the manner in which the event comes to be. Similarly, when I do Magick, it is in vain to inquire why I so act, or why the desired result does or does not follow. Nor can I know how the previous and subsequent conditions are connected. At most I can describe the consciousness which I interpret as a picture of the facts, and make empirical generalizations of the superficial aspects of the case. + "Thus, I have my own personal impressions of the act of telephoning; but I cannot be aware of what consciousness, electricity, mechanics, sound, etc., actually are in themselves. And although I can appeal to experience to lay down 'laws' as to what {76} conditions accompany the act, I can never be sure that they have always been, or ever will again be, identical. (In fact, it is certain that an event can never occur twice in precisely the same circumstances.)<> + "Further, my 'laws; must always take nearly all the more important elements of knowledge for granted. I cannot say --- finally --- how an electric current is generated. I cannot be sure that some totally unsuspected force is not at work in some entirely arbitrary way. For example, it was formerly supposed that Hydrogen and Chlorine would unite when an electric spark was passed through the mixture; now we 'know' that the presence of a minute quantity of aqueous vapour (or some tertium quid) is essential to the reaction. We formulated before the days of Ross the 'laws' of malarial fever, without reference to the mosquito; we might discover one day that the germ is only active when certain events are transpiring in some nebula<>, or when so apparently inert a substance as Argon is present in the air in certain proportions. + "We may therefore admit quite cheerfully that Magick is as mysterious as mathematics, as empirical as poetry, as uncertain as golf, and as dependent on the personal equation as Love. + "That is no reason why we should not study, practice and enjoy it; for it is a Science in exactly the same sense as biology; it is no less an Art that Sculpture; and it is a Sport as much as Mountaineering. + "Indeed, there seems to be no undue presumption in urging that no Science possesses equal possibilities of deep and important Knowledge;<>that no Art offers such opportunities to the ambition {77} of the Soul to express its Truth, in Ecstasy, through Beauty; and that no Sport rivals its fascinations of danger and delight, so excites, exercises, and tests its devotees to the uttermost, or so rewards them by well-being, pride, and the passionate pleasures of personal triumph. + "Magick takes every thought and act for its apparatus; it has the Universe for its Library and its Laboratory; all Nature is its Subject; and its Game, free from close seasons and protective restrictions, always abounds in infinite variety, being all that exists.<> + + {78} + + + + + + + + + CHAPTER X + + OF THE GESTURES + + + + This chapter may be divided into the following parts: + +1. Attitudes. +2. Circumambulations (and similar movements). +3. Changes of position (This depends upon the theory of the construction of the circle). +4. The Knocks or Knells. + + I + + Attitudes are of two Kinds: natural and artificial. Of the first kind, prostration is the obvious example. It comes natural to man (poor creature!) to throw himself to the ground in the presence of the object of his adoration.<> + Intermediate between this and the purely artificial form of gesture comes a class which depends on acquired habit. Thus it is natural to an European officer to offer his sword in token of surrender. A Tibetan would, however, squat, put out his tongue, and place his hand behind his right ear. + Purely artificial gestures comprehend in their class the majority of definitely magick signs, though some of these simulate a natural action --- e.g. the sign of the Rending of the Veil. But the sign of Auramoth (see Equinox I, II, Illustration "The Signs of the Grades") merely imitates a hieroglyph which has only a remote connection with any fact in nature. All signs must of course be studied with infinite patience, and practised until the connection {79} between them and the mental attitude which they represent appears "necessary." + + II + The principal movement in the circle is circumambulation.<> This has a very definite result, but one which is very difficult to describe. An analogy is the dynamo. Circumambulation properly performed in combination with the Sign of Horus (or "The Enterer") on passing the East is one of the best methods of arousing the macrocosmic force in the Circle. It should never be omitted unless there be some special reason against it. + A particular tread seems appropriate to it. This tread should be light and stealthy, almost furtive, and yet very purposeful. It is the pace of the tiger who stalks the deer. + The number of circumambulations should of course correspond to the nature of the ceremony. + Another important movement is the spiral, of which there are two principal forms, one inward, one outward. They can be performed in either direction; and, like the circumambulation, if performed deosil<> they invoke --- if widdershins<> they banish<>. In the spiral the tread is light and tripping, almost approximating to a dance: while performing it the magician will usually turn on his own axis, either in the same direction as {80} the spiral, or in the opposite direction. Each combination involves a different symbolism. + There is also the dance proper; it has many different forms, each God having his special dance. One of the easiest and most effective dances is the ordinary waltz-step combined with the three signs of L.V.X. It is much easier to attain ecstasy in this way than is generally supposed. The essence of the process consists in the struggle of the Will against giddiness; but this struggle must be prolonged and severe, and upon the degree of this the quality and intensity of ecstasy attained may depend. + With practice, giddiness is altogether conquered; exhaustion then takes its place and the enemy of Will. It is through the mutual destruction of these antagonisms in the mental and moral being of the magician that Samadhi is begotten. + + III + Good examples of the use of change of position are given in the manuscripts Z.1 and Z.3;<> explanatory of the Neophyte Ritual of the G.'. D.'., where the candidate is taken to various stations in the Temple, each station having a symbolic meaning of its own; but in pure invocation a better example is given in Liber 831<>. + In the construction of a ceremony an important thing to decide is whether you will or will not make such movements. For every Circle has its natural symbolism, and even if no use is to be made of these facts, one must be careful not to let anything be inharmonious with the natural attributions.<> For the sensitive aura of the magician might be disturbed, and the value of the ceremony completely destroyed, by the embarrassment caused by the discovery of some such error, just as if a pre-occupied T-totaller found that he had strayed into a Temple of the Demon Rum! It is therefore impossible to neglect the theory of the Circle. {81} + To take a simple example, suppose that, in an Evocation of Bartzabel, the planet Mars, whose sphere is Geburah (Severity) were situated (actually, in the heavens) opposite to the Square of Chesed (Mercy) of the Tau in the Circle, and the triangle placed accordingly. It would be improper for the Magus to stand on that Square unless using this formula, "I, from Chesed, rule Geburah through the Path of the Lion"; while --- taking an extreme case --- to stand on the square of Hod (which is naturally dominated by Geburah) would be a madness which only a formula of the very highest Magick could counteract. + Certain positions, however, such as Tiphareth<>, are so sympathetic to the Magus himself that he may use them without reference to the nature of the spirit, or of the operation; unless he requires an exceptionally precise spirit free of all extraneous elements, or one whose nature is difficulty compatible with Tiphareth. + To show how these positions may be used in conjunction with the spirals, suppose that you are invoking Hathor, Goddess of Love, to descend upon the Altar. Standing on the square of Netzach you will make your invocation to Her, and then dance an inward spiral deosil ending at the foot of the altar, where you sink on your knees with your arms raised above the altar as if inviting Her embrace.<> + To conclude, one may add that natural artistic ability, of you possess it, forms an excellent guide. All Art is Magick. + Isadora Duncan has this gift of gesture in a very high degree. Let the reader study her dancing; if possible rather in private than in public, and learn the superb "unconsciousness" --- which is magical consciousness --- with which she suits the action to the melody.<> + There is no more potent means than Art of calling forth true Gods to visible appearance. {82} + + + IV. + The knocks or knells are all of the same character. They may be described collectively --- the difference between them consists only in this, that the instrument with which they are made seals them with its own special properties. It is of no great importance (even so) whether they are made by clapping the hands or stamping the feet, by strokes of one of the weapons, or by the theoretically appropriate instrument, the bell. It may nevertheless be admitted that they become more important in the ceremony if the Magician considers it worth while to take up<> an instrument whose single purpose is to produce them. + Let it first be laid down that a knock asserts a connection between the Magician and the object which he strikes. Thus the use of the bell, or of the hands, means that the Magician wishes to impress the atmosphere of the whole circle with what has been or is about to be done. He wishes to formulate his will in sound, and radiate it in every direction; moreover, to influence that which lives by breath in the sense of his purpose, and to summon it to bear witness to his Word. The hands are used as symbols of his executive power, the bell to represent his consciousness exalted into music. To strike with the wand is to utter the fiat of creation; the cup vibrates with his delight in receiving spiritual wine. A blow with the dagger is like the signal for battle. The disk is used to express the throwing down of the price of one's purchase. To stamp with the foot is to declare one's mastery of the matter in hand. Similarly, any other form of giving knocks has its own virtue. From the above examples the intelligent student will have perceived the method of interpreting each individual case that may come in question. + As above said, the object struck is the object impressed. Thus, a blow upon the altar affirms that he has complied with the laws of his operation. To strike the lamp is to summon the Light divine. Thus for the rest. + It must also be observed that many combinations of ideas are made possible by this convention. To strike the wand within the cup is to apply the creative will to its proper complement, and so {83} perform the Great Work by the formula of Regeneration. To strike with the hand on the dagger declares that one demands the use of the dagger as a tool to extend one's executive power. The reader will recall how Siegfried smote Nothung, the sword of Need, upon the lance of Wotan. By the action Wagner, who was instructed how to apply magical formulae by one of the heads of our Order, intended his hearers to understand that the reign of authority and paternal power had come to an end; that the new master of the world was intellect. + The general object of a knock or a knell is to mark a stage in the ceremony. Sasaki Shigetz tells us in his essay on Shinto that the Japanese are accustomed to clap their hands four times "to drive away evil spirits". He explains that what really happens is that the sudden and sharp impact of the sound throws the mind into an alert activity which enables it to break loose from the obsession of its previous mood. It is aroused to apply itself aggressively to the ideals which had oppressed it. There is therefore a perfectly rational interpretation of the psychological power of the knock. + In a Magical ceremony the knock is employed for much the same purpose. The Magician uses it like the chorus in a Greek play. It helps him to make a clean cut, to turn his attention from one part of his work to the next. + So much for the general character of the knock or knell. Even this limited point of view offers great opportunities to the resourceful Magician. But further possibilities lie to our hand. It is not usually desirable to attempt to convey anything except emphasis, and possibly mood, by varying the force of the blow. It is obvious, moreover, that there is a natural correspondence between the hard loud knock of imperious command on the one hand, and the soft slurred knock of sympathetic comprehension on the other. It is easy to distinguish between the bang of the outraged creditor at the front, and the hushed tap of the lover at the bedroom, door. Magical theory cannot here add instruction to instinct. + But a knock need not be single; the possible combinations are evidently infinite. We need only discuss the general principles of determining what number of strokes will be proper in any case, {84} and how we may interrupt any series so as to express our idea by means of structure. + The general rule is that a single knock has no special significance as such, because unity is omniform. It represents Kether, which is the source of all things equally without partaking of any quality by which we discriminate one thing from another. Continuing on these lines, the number of knocks will refer to the Sephira or other idea Qabalistically cognate with that number. Thus, 7 knocks will intimate Venus, 11 the Great Work, 17 the Trinity of Fathers, and 19 the Feminine Principle in its most general sense. + Analyzing the matter a little further, we remark firstly that a battery of too many knocks is confusing, as well as liable to overweight the other parts of the ritual. In practice, 11 is about the limit. It is usually not difficult to arrange to cover all necessary ground with that number. + Secondly, each is so extensive in scope, and includes aspects so diverse from a practical standpoint that our danger lies in vagueness. A knock should be well defined; its meaning should be precise. The very nature of knocks suggests smartness and accuracy. We must therefore devise some means of making the sequence significant of the special sense which may be appropriate. Our only resource is in the use of intervals. + It is evidently impossible to attain great variety in the smaller numbers. But this fact illustrates the excellence of our system. There is only one way of striking 2 knocks, and this fact agrees with the nature of Chokmah; there is only one way of creating. We can express only ourselves, although we do so in duplex form. But there are three ways of striking 3 knocks, and these 3 ways correspond to the threefold manner in which Binah can receive the creative idea. There are three possible types of triangle. We may understand an idea either as an unity tripartite, as an unity dividing itself into a duality, or as a duality harmonized into an unity. Any of these methods may be indicated by 3 equal knocks; 1 followed, after a pause, by 2; and 2 followed, after a pause, by 1. + As the nature of the number becomes more complex, the possible varieties increase rapidly. There are numerous ways of striking 6, each of which is suited to the nature of the several {85} aspects of Tiphareth. We may leave the determination of these points to the ingenuity of the student. + The most generally useful and adaptable battery is composed of 11 strokes. The principal reasons for this are as follows: "Firstly", 11 is the number of Magick in itself. It is therefore suitable to all types of operation. "Secondly", it is the sacred number par excellence of the new Aeon. As it is written in the Book of the Law: "...11, as all their numbers who are of us." "Thirdly", it is the number of the letters of the word ABRAHADABRA, which is the word of the Aeon. The structure of this word is such that it expresses the great Work, in every one of its aspects. "Lastly", it is possible thereby to express all possible spheres of operation, whatever their nature. This is effected by making an equation between the number of the Sephira and the difference between that number and 11. For example, 2 Degree=9Square is the formula of the grade of initiation corresponding to Yesod. Yesod represents the instability of air, the sterility of the moon; but these qualities are balanced in it by the stability implied in its position as the Foundation, and by its function of generation. This complex is further equilibrated by identifying it with the number 2 of Chokmah, which possesses the airy quality, being the Word, and the lunar quality, being the reflection of the sun of Kether as Yesod is the sun of Tiphareth. It is the wisdom which is the foundation by being creation. This entire cycle of ideas is expressed in the double formula 2 Degree = 9Square, 9 Degree = 2Square; and any of these ideas may be selected and articulated by a suitable battery. + We may conclude with a single illustration of how the above principles may be put into practice. Let us suppose that the Magician contemplates an operation for the purpose of helping his mind to resist the tendency to wander. This will be a work of Yesod. But he must emphasize the stability of that Sephira as against the Airy quality which it possesses. His first action will be to put the 9 under the protection of the 2; the battery at this point will be 1-9-1. But this 9 as it stands is suggestive of the changefulness of the moon. It may occur to him to divide this into 4 and 5, 4 being the number of fixity, law, and authoritative power; and 5 that of courage, energy, and triumph of the spirit {86} over the elements. He will reflect, moreover, that 4 is symbolic of the stability of matter, while 5 expresses the same idea with regard to motion. At this stage the battery will appear as 1-2-5-2-1. After due consideration he will probably conclude that to split up the central 5 would tend to destroy the simplicity of his formula, and decide to use it as it stands. The possible alternative would be to make a single knock the centre of his battery as if he appealed to the ultimate immutability of Kether, invoking that unity by placing a fourfold knock on either side of it. In this case, his battery would be 1-4-1-4-1. He will naturally have been careful to preserve the balance of each part of the battery against the corresponding part. This would be particularly necessary in an operation such as we have chosen for our example. + + + ----------- + + + {87} + + + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + OF OUR LADY BABALON AND OF THE BEAST + + WHEREON SHE RIDETH. + + ALSO CONCERNING TRANSFORMATIONS. + + + I + + The contents of this section, inasmuch as they concern OUR LADY, are too important and too sacred to be printed. They are only communicated by the Master Therion to chosen pupils in private instruction. + + II + + The essential magical work, apart from any particular operation, is the proper formation of the Magical Being or Body of Light. This process will be discussed at some length in Chapter XVIII. + We will here assume that the magician has succeeded in developing his Body of Light until it is able to go anywhere and do anything. There will, however, be a certain limitation to his work, because he has formed his magical body from the fine matter of his own element. Therefore, although he may be able to penetrate the utmost recesses of the heavens, or conduct vigorous combats with the most unpronounceable demons of the pit, it may be impossible for him to do as much as knock a vase from a mantelpiece. His magical body is composed of matter too tenuous to affect directly the gross matter of which illusions such as tables and chairs are made.<> {89} + There has been a good deal of discussion in the past within the Colleges of the Holy Ghost, as to whether it would be quite legitimate to seek to transcend this limitation. One need not presume to pass judgment. One can leave the decision to the will of each magician. + The Book of the Dead contains many chapters intended to enable the magical entity of a man who is dead, and so deprived (according to the theory of death then current) of the material vehicle for executing his will, to take on the form of certain animals, such as a golden hawk or a crocodile, and in such form to go about the earth "taking his pleasure among the living."<> As a general rule, material was supplied out of which he could construct the party of the second part aforesaid, hereinafter referred to as the hawk. + We need not, however, consider this question of death. It may often be convenient for the living to go about the world in some such incognito. Now, then, conceive of this magical body as creative force, seeking manifestation; as a God, seeking incarnation. + There are two ways by which this aim may be effected. The first method is to build up an appropriate body from its elements. This is, generally speaking, a very hard thing to do, because the physical constitution of any material being with much power is, or at least should be, the outcome of ages of evolution. However, there is a lawful method of producing an homunculus which is taught in a certain secret organization, perhaps known to some of those who may read this, which could very readily be adapted to some such purpose as we are now discussing. + The second method sounds very easy and amusing. You take some organism already existing, which happens to be suitable to your purpose. You drive out the magical being {89} which inhabits it, and take possession. To do this by force is neither easy nor justifiable, because the magical being of the other was incarnated in accordance with its Will. And "... thou hast no right but to do thy will." One should hardly strain this sentence to make one's own will include the will to upset somebody else's will!<> Moreover, it is extremely difficult thus to expatriate another magical being; for though, unless it is a complete microcosm like a human being, it cannot be called a star, it is a little bit of a star, and part of the body of Nuit. + But there is no call for all this frightfulness. There is no need to knock the girl down, unless she refuses to do what you want, and she will always comply if you say a few nice things to her.<> You can always use the body inhabited by an elemental, such as an eagle, hare, wolf, or any convenient animal, by making a very simple compact. You take over the responsibility for the animal, thus building it up into your own magical hierarchy. This represents a tremendous gain to the animal.<> It completely fulfils its ambition by an alliance of this extremely intimate sort with a Star. The magician, on the other hand, is able to transform and retransform himself in a thousand ways by accepting a retinue of such adherents. In this way the projection of the "astral" or Body of Light may be made absolutely tangible and practical. At the same time, the magician must realise that in undertaking the Karma of any elemental, he is assuming a very serious responsibility. The bond which unites him with that elemental is love; and, though it is only a small part of the outfit of a magician, it is the whole of the outfit of the elemental. He will, therefore, suffer intensely in case of any error or misfortune occurring to his protegee. This feeling is rather peculiar. It is quite instinctive with the best men. They {90} hear of the destruction of a city of a few thousand inhabitants with entire callousness, but then they hear of a dog having hurt its paw, they feel Weltschmertz acutely. + It is not necessary to say much more than this concerning transformations. Those to whom the subject naturally appeals will readily understand the importance of what has been said. Those who are otherwise inclined may reflect that a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse. + + + ------- + + + {91} + + + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + OF THE BLOODY SACRIFICE: AND MATTERS COGNATE. + + + It is necessary for us to consider carefully the problems connected with the bloody sacrifice, for this question is indeed traditionally important in Magick. Nigh all ancient Magick revolves around this matter. In particular all the Osirian religions --- the rites of the Dying God --- refer to this. The slaying of Osiris and Adonis; the mutilation of Attis; the cults of Mexico and Peru; the story of Hercules or Melcarth; the legends of Dionysus and of Mithra, are all connected with this one idea. In the Hebrew religion we find the same thing inculcated. The first ethical lesson in the Bible is that the only sacrifice pleasing to the Lord is the sacrifice of blood; Abel, who made this, finding favour with the Lord, while Cain, who offered cabbages, was rather naturally considered a cheap sport. The idea recurs again and again. We have the sacrifice of the Passover, following on the story of Abraham's being commanded to sacrifice his firstborn son, with the idea of the substitution of animal for human life. The annual ceremony of the two goats carries out this in perpetuity. And we see again the domination of this idea in the romance of Esther, where Haman and Mordecai are the two goats or gods; and ultimately in the presentation of the rite of Purim in Palestine, where Jesus and Barabbas happened to be the Goats in that particular year of which we hear so much, without agreement on the date. + This subject must be studied in the "Golden Bough", where it is most learnedly set forth by Dr. J. G. Frazer. + Enough has now been said to show that the bloody sacrifice has from time immemorial been the most considered part of Magick. {92} The ethics of the thing appear to have concerned no one; nor, to tell the truth, need they do so. As St. Paul says, "Without shedding of blood there is no remission"; and who are we to argue with St. Paul? But, after all that, it is open to any one to have any opinion that he likes upon the subject, or any other subject, thank God! At the same time, it is most necessary to study the business, whatever we may be going to do about it; for our ethics themselves will naturally depend upon our theory of the universe. If we were quite certain, for example, that everybody went to heaven when he died, there could be no serious objection to murder or suicide, as it is generally conceded --- by those who know neither --- that earth is not such a pleasant place as heaven. + However, there is a mystery concealed in this theory of the bloody sacrifice which is of great importance to the student, and we therefore make no further apology, We should not have made even this apology for an apology, had it not been for the solicitude of a pious young friend of great austerity of character who insisted that the part of this chapter which now follows --- the part which was originally written --- might cause us to be misunderstood. This must not be. + The blood is the life. This simple statement is explained by the Hindus by saying that the blood is the principal vehicle of vital Prana.<> There is some ground for the belief that there is a definite substance<>, not isolated as yet, whose presence makes all {93} the difference between live and dead matter. We pass by with deserved contempt the pseudo-scientific experiments of American charlatans who claim to have established that weight is lost at the moment of death, and the unsupported statements of alleged clairvoyants that they have seen the soul issuing like a vapour from the mouth of persons "in articulo mortis"; but his experiences as an explorer have convinced the Master Therion that meat loses a notable portion of its nutritive value within a very few minutes after the death of the animal, and that this loss proceeds with ever-diminishing rapidity as time goes on. It is further generally conceded that live food, such as oysters, is the most rapidly assimilable and most concentrated form of energy.<> Laboratory experiments in food-values seem to be almost worthless, for reasons which we cannot here enter into; the general testimony of mankind appears a safer guide. + It would be unwise to condemn as irrational the practice of those savages who tear the heart and liver from an adversary, and devour them while yet warm. In any case it was the theory of {94} the ancient Magicians, that any living being is a storehouse of energy varying in quantity according to the size and health of the animal, and in quality according to its mental and moral character. At the death of the animal this energy is liberated suddenly. + The animal should therefore be killed<> within the Circle, or the Triangle, as the case may be, so that its energy cannot escape. An animal should be selected whose nature accords with that of the ceremony --- thus, by sacrificing a female lamb one would not obtain any appreciate quantity of the fierce energy useful to a Magician who was invoking Mars. In such a case a ram<> would be more suitable. And this ram should be virgin --- the whole potential of its original total energy should not have been diminished in any way.<> For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence<> is the most satisfactory and suitable victim. {95} + For evocations it would be more convenient to place the blood of the victim in the Triangle --- the idea being that the spirit might obtain from the blood this subtle but physical substance which was the quintessence of its life in such a manner as to enable it to take on a visible and tangible shape.<> + Those magicians who abject to the use of blood have endeavored to replace it with incense. For such a purpose the incense of Abramelin may be burnt in large quantities. Dittany of Crete is also a valuable medium. Both these incenses are very catholic in their nature, and suitable for almost any materialization. + But the bloody sacrifice, though more dangerous, is more efficacious; and for nearly all purposes human sacrifice is the best. The truly great Magician will be able to use his own blood, or possibly that of a disciple, and that without sacrificing the physical life irrevocably.<> An example of this sacrifice is given in Chapter 44 of Liber 333. This Mass may be recommended generally for daily practice. + One last word on this subject. There is a Magical operation of maximum importance: the Initiation of a New Aeon. When it becomes necessary to utter a Word, the whole Planet must be bathed in blood. Before man is ready to accept the Law of Thelema, the Great War must be fought. This Bloody Sacrifice is the critical point of the World-{96}Ceremony of the Proclamation of Horus, the Crowned and conquering Child, as Lord of the Aeon.<> + This whole matter is prophesied in the Book of the Law itself; let the student take note, and enter the ranks of the Host of the Sun. + + II + There is another sacrifice with regard to which the Adepts have always maintained the most profound secrecy. It is the supreme mystery of practical Magick. Its name is the Formula of the Rosy Cross. In this case the victim is always --- in a certain sense --- the Magician himself, and the sacrifice must coincide with the utterance of the most sublime and secret name of the God whom he wishes to invoke. + Properly performed, it never fails of its effect. But it is difficult for the beginner to do it satisfactorily, because it is a great effort for the mind to remain concentrated upon the purpose of the ceremony. The overcoming of this difficulty lends most powerful aid to the Magician. + It is unwise for him to attempt it until he has received regular initiation in the true<> Order of the Rosy Cross, {97} and he must have taken the vows with the fullest comprehension and experience of their meaning. It is also extremely desirable that he should have attained an absolute degree of moral emancipation<>, and that purity of spirit which results from a perfect understanding both of the differences and harmonies of the planes upon the Tree of Life. + For this reason FRATER PERDURABO has never dared to use this formula in a fully ceremonial manner, save once only, on an occasion of tremendous import, when, indeed, it was not He that made the offering, but ONE in Him. For he perceived a grave defect in his moral character which he has been able to overcome on the intellectual plane, but not hitherto upon higher planes. Before the conclusion of writing this book he will have done so.<> + The practical details of the Bloody Sacrifice may be studied in various ethnological manuals, but the general conclusions are summed up in Frazer's "Golden Bough", which is strongly recommended to the reader. + Actual ceremonial details likewise may be left to experiment. The method of killing is practically uniform. The animal should be stabbed to the heart, or its throat severed, in either case by the knife. All other methods of killing are less efficacious; even in the case of Crucifixion death is given by stabbing.<> + One may remark that warm-blooded animals only are used as victims: with two principal exceptions. The first is the serpent, which is only used in a very special Ritual;<> the second the magical beetles of Liber Legis. (See Part IV.) {98} + One word of warning is perhaps necessary for the beginner. The victim must be in perfect health --- or its energy may be as it were poisoned. It must also not be too large:<> the amount of energy disengaged is almost unimaginably great, and out of all anticipated proportion to the strength of the animal. Consequently, the Magician may easily be overwhelmed and obsessed by the force which he has let loose; it will then probably manifest itself in its lowest and most objectionable form. The most intense spirituality of purpose<> is absolutely essential to safety. + In evocations the danger is not so great, as the Circle forms a protection; but the circle in such a case must be protected, not only by the names of God and the Invocations used at the same time, but by a long habit of successful defence.<> If you are easily disturbed or alarmed, or if you have not yet overcome the tendency of the mind to wander, it is not advisable for you to perform {99} the "Bloody Sacrifice".<> Yet it should not be forgotten that this, and that other art at which we have dared darkly to hint, are the supreme formulae of Practical Magick. + You are also likely to get into trouble over this chapter unless you truly comprehend its meaning.<> + + + --------- + + + {100} + + + + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + OF THE BANISHINGS: + + AND OF THE PURIFICATIONS. + + + Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and had better come first. Purity means singleness. God is one. The wand is not a wand if it has something sticking to it which is not an essential part of itself. If you wish to invoke Venus, you do not succeed if there are traces of Saturn mixed up with it. + That is a mere logical commonplace: in magick one must go much farther than this. One finds one's analogy in electricity. If insulation is imperfect, the whole current goes back to earth. It is useless to plead that in all those miles of wire there is only one-hundredth of an inch unprotected. It is no good building a ship if the water can enter, through however small a hole. + That first task of the Magician in every ceremony is therefore to render his Circle absolutely impregnable.<> If one littlest thought intrude upon the mind of the Mystic, his concentration is absolutely destroyed; and his consciousness remains on exactly the same level as the Stockbroker's. Even the smallest baby is incompatible with the virginity of its mother. If you leave even a single spirit within the circle, the effect of the conjuration will be entirely absorbed by it.<> {101} + The Magician must therefore take the utmost care in the matter of purification, "firstly", of himself, "secondly", of his instruments, "thirdly", of the place of working. Ancient Magicians recommended a preliminary purification of from three days to many months. During this period of training they took the utmost pains with diet. They avoided animal food, lest the elemental spirit of the animal should get into their atmosphere. They practised sexual abstinence, lest they should be influenced in any way by the spirit of the wife. Even in regard to the excrements of the body they were equally careful; in trimming the hair and nails, they ceremonially destroyed<> the severed portion. They fasted, so that the body itself might destroy anything extraneous to the bare necessity of its existence. They purified the mind by special prayers and conservations. They avoided the contamination of social intercourse, especially the conjugal kind; and their servitors were disciples specially chosen and consecrated for the work. + In modern times our superior understanding of the essentials of this process enables us to dispense to some extent with its external rigours; but the internal purification must be even more carefully performed. We may eat meat, provided that in doing so we affirm that we eat it in order to strengthen us for the special purpose of our proposed invocation.<> {102} + By thus avoiding those actions which might excite the comment of our neighbours we avoid the graver dangers of falling into spiritual pride. + We have understood the saying: "To the pure all things are pure", and we have learnt how to act up to it. We can analyse the mind far more acutely than could the ancients, and we can therefore distinguish the real and right feeling from its imitations. A man may eat meat from self-indulgence, or in order to avoid the dangers of asceticism. We must constantly examine ourselves, and assure ourselves that every action is really subservient to the One Purpose. + It is ceremonially desirable to seal and affirm this mental purity by Ritual, and accordingly the first operation in any actual ceremony is bathing and robing, with appropriate words. The bath signifies the removal of all things extraneous to antagonistic to the one thought. The putting on of the robe is the positive side of the same operation. It is the assumption of the fame of mind suitable to that one thought. + A similar operation takes place in the preparation of every instrument, as has been seen in the Chapter devoted to that subject. In the preparation of the place of working, the same considerations apply. We first remove from that place all objects; and we then put into it those objects, and only those {103} objects, which are necessary. During many days we occupy ourselves in this process of cleansing and consecration; and this again is confirmed in the actual ceremony. + The cleansed and consecrated Magician takes his cleansed and consecrated instruments into that cleansed and consecrated place, and there proceeds to repeat that double ceremony in the ceremony itself, which has these same two main parts. The first part of every ceremony is the banishing; the second, the invoking. The same formula is repeated even in the ceremony of banishing itself, for in the banishing ritual of the pentagram we not only command the demons to depart, but invoke the Archangels and their hosts to act as guardians of the Circle during our pre-occupation with the ceremony proper. + In more elaborate ceremonies it is usual to banish everything by name. Each element, each planet, and each sign, perhaps even the Sephiroth themselves; all are removed, including the very one which we wished to invoke, for that forces as existing in Nature is always impure. But this process, being long and wearisome, is not altogether advisable in actual working. It is usually sufficient to perform a general banishing, and to rely upon the aid of the guardians invoked. Let the banishing therefore be short, but in no wise slurred --- for it is useful as it tends to produce the proper attitude of mind for the invocations. "The Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram" (as now rewritten, Liber 333, Cap. XXV) is the best to use.<> Only the four elements are specifically mentioned, but these four elements contain the planets and the signs<> --- the four elements are Tetragrammaton; and Tetragrammaton is the Universe. This special precaution is, however, necessary: make exceedingly sure that the ceremony of banishing is effective! {104} Be alert and on your guard! Watch before you pray! The feeling of success in banishing, once acquired, is unmistakable. + At the conclusion, it is usually well to pause for a few moments, and to make sure once more that every thing necessary to the ceremony is in its right place. The Magician may then proceed to the final consecration of the furniture of the Temple.<> + + + --------- + + + {105} + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + + + OF THE CONSECRATIONS: + + WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE + + NATURE AND NURTURE OF THE MAGICAL LINK. + + + I + + + Consecration is the active dedication of a thing to a single purpose. Banishing prevents its use for any other purpose, but it remains inert until consecrated. Purification is performed by water, and banishing by air, whose weapon is the sword. Consecration is performed by fire, usually symbolised by the holy lamp.<> + In most extant magical rituals the two operations are performed at once; or (at least) the banishing has the more important place, and greater pains seem to be taken with it; but as the student advances to Adeptship the banishing will diminish in importance, for it will no longer be so necessary. The Circle of the Magician will have been perfected by his habit of Magical work. In the truest sense of that word, he will never step outside the Circle during his whole life. But the consecration, being the application of a positive force, can always be raised to a closer approximation to perfection. Complete success in banishing is soon attained; but there can be no completeness in the advance to holiness. {106} + The method of consecration is very simple. Take the wand, or the holy oil, and draw upon the object to be consecrated the supreme symbol of the force to which you dedicate it. Confirm this dedication in words, invoking the appropriate God to indwell that pure temple which you have prepared for Him. Do this with fervour and love, as if to balance the icy detachment which is the proper mental attitude for banishing.<> + The words of purification are: Asperges me, Therion, hyssopo, et mundabor; lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor. + Those of consecration are: Accendat in nobis Therion ignem sui amoris et flammam aeternae caritatis.<> + These, as initiates of the VII Degree of O.T.O. are aware, mean more than appears. + + II + It is a strange circumstance that no Magical writer has hitherto treated the immensely important subject of the Magical Link. It might almost be called the Missing Link. It has apparently always been taken for granted, only lay writers on Magick like Dr. J. G. Frazer have accorded the subject its full importance. + Let us try to make considerations of the nature of Magick in a strictly scientific spirit, as well as, deprived of the guidance of antiquity, we may. + What is a Magical Operation? It may be defined as any event in nature which is brought to pass by Will. We must not exclude potato-growing or banking from our definition. {107} + Let us take a very simple example of a Magical Act: that of a man blowing his nose. What are the conditions of the success of the Operation? Firstly, that the man's Will should be to blow his nose; secondly, that he should have a nose capable of being blown; thirdly, that he should have at command an apparatus capable of expressing his spiritual Will in terms of material force, and applying that force to the object which he desires to affect. His Will may be as strong and concentrated as that of Jupiter, and his nose may be totally incapable of resistance; but unless the link is made by the use of his nerves and muscles in accordance with psychological, physiological, and physical law, the nose will remain unblown through all eternity. + Writers of Magick have been unsparing in their efforts to instruct us in the preparation of the Will, but they seem to have imagined that no further precaution was necessary. There is a striking case of an epidemic of this error whose history is familiar to everybody. I refer to Christian Science, and the cognate doctrines of "mental healing" and the like. The theory of such people, stripped of dogmatic furbelows, is perfectly good Magic of its kind, its negroid kind. The idea is correct enough: matter is an illusion created by Will through mind, and consequently susceptible of alteration at the behest of its creator. But the practice has been lacking. They have not developed a scientific technique for applying the Will. It is as if they expected the steam of Watts' kettle to convey people from place to place without the trouble of inventing and using locomotives. + Let us apply these considerations to Magick in its restricted sense, the sense in which it was always understood until the Master Therion extended it to cover the entire operations of Nature. + What is the theory implied in such rituals as those of the Goetia? What does the Magician do? He applies himself to invoke a God, and this God compels the appearance of a spirit whose function is to perform the Will of the magician at the moment. There is no trace of what may be called machinery in the method. The exorcist hardly takes the pains of preparing a material basis for the spirit to incarnate except the bare connection {108} of himself with his sigil. It is apparently assumed that the spirit already possesses the means of working on matter. The conception seems to be that of a schoolboy who asks his father to tell the butler to do something for him. In other words, the theory is grossly animistic. The savage tribes described by Frazer had a far more scientific theory. The same may be said of witches, who appear to have been wiser than the thaumaturgists who despised them. They at least made waxen images --- identified by baptism --- of the people they wished to control. They at least used appropriate bases for Magical manifestations, such as blood and other vehicles of animal force, with those of vegetable virtue such as herbs. They were also careful to put their bewitched products into actual contact --- material or astral --- with their victims. The classical exorcists, on the contrary, for all their learning, were careless about this essential condition. They acted as stupidly as people who should write business letters and omit to post them. + It is not too much to say that this failure to understand the conditions of success accounts for the discredit into which Magick fell until Eliphas Levi undertook the task of re-habilitating it two generations ago. But even he (profoundly as he studied, and luminously as he expounded, the nature of Magick considered as a universal formula) paid no attention whatever to that question of the Magical Link, though he everywhere implies that it is essential to the Work. He evaded the question by making the "petitio principii" of assigning to the Astral Light the power of transmitting vibrations of all kinds. He nowhere enters into detail as to how its effects are produced. He does not inform us as to the qualitative or quantitative laws of this light. (The scientifically trained student will observe the analogy between Levi's postulate and that of ordinary science "in re" the luminiferous ether.) + It is deplorable that nobody should have recorded in a systematic form the results of our investigations of the Astral Light. We have no account of its properties or of the laws which obtain in its sphere. Yet these are sufficiently remarkable. We may briefly notice that, in the Astral Light, two or more objects can {109} occupy the same space at the same time without interfering with each other or losing their outlines. + In that Light, objects can change their appearance completely without suffering change of Nature. The same thing can reveal itself in an infinite number of different aspects; in fact, it identifies itself by so doing, much as a writer or a painter reveals himself in a succession of novels or pictures, each of which is wholly himself and nothing else, but himself under varied conditions, though each appears utterly different from its fellows. In that Light one is "swift without feet and flying without wings"; one can travel without moving, and communicate without conventional means of expression. One is insensible to heat, cold, pain, and other forms of apprehension, at least in the shapes which are familiar to us in our bodily vehicles. They exist, but they are appreciated by us, and they affect us, in a different manner. In the Astral Light we are bound by what is, superficially, an entirely different series of laws. We meet with obstacles of a strange and subtle character; and we overcome them by an energy and cunning of an order entirely alien to that which serves us in earthly life. In that Light, symbols are not conventions but realities, yet (on the contrary) the beings whom we encounter are only symbols of the realities of our own nature. Our operations in that Light are really the adventures of our own personified thoughts. The universe is a projection of ourselves; an image as unreal as that of our faces in a mirror, yet, like that face, the necessary form of expression thereof, not to be altered save as we alter ourselves.<> The mirror may {110} be distorted, dull, clouded, or cracked; and to this extent, the reflection of ourselves may be false even in respect of its symbolic presentation. In that Light, therefore, all that we do is to discover ourselves by means of a sequence of hieroglyphics, and the changes which we apparently operate are in an objective sense illusions. + But the Light servers us in this way. It enables us to see ourselves, and therefore to aid us to initiate ourselves by showing us what we are doing. In the same way a watchmaker uses a lens, though it exaggerates and thus falsifies the image of the system of wheels which he is trying to adjust. In the same way, a writer employs arbitrary characters according to a meaningless convention in order to enable his reader by retranslating them to obtain an approximation to his idea. + Such are a few of the principal characteristics Astral Light. Its quantitative laws are much less dissimilar from those of material physics. Magicians have too often been foolish enough to suppose that all classes of Magical Operations were equally easy. They seem to have assumed that the "almighty power of God" was an infinite quantity in presence of which all finites were equally insignificant. "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years" is their first law of Motion. "Faith can move mountains" they say, and disdain to measure either the faith or the mountains. If you can kill a chicken by Magick, why not destroy an army with equal exertion? "With God all things are possible." + This absurdity is an error of the same class as that mentioned above. The facts are wholly opposed. Two and two make four in the Astral as rigorously as anywhere else. The distance of one's Magical target and the accuracy of one's Magical rifle are factors in the success of one's Magical shooting in just the same way as at Bisley. The law of Magical gravitation is as rigid as that of Newton. The law of Inverse Squares may not apply; but some {111} such law does apply. So it is for everything. You cannot produce a thunderstorm unless the materials exist in the air at the time, and a Magician who could make rain in Cumberland might fail lamentably in the Sahara. One might make a talisman to win the love of a shop-girl and find it work, yet be baffled in the case of a countess; or vice versa. One might impose one's Will on a farm, and be crushed by that of a city; or vice versa. The MASTER THERION himself, with all his successes in every kind of Magick, sometimes appears utterly impotent to perform feats which almost any amateur might do, because He has matched his Will against that of the world, having undertaken the Work of a Magus to establish the word of His Law on the whole of mankind. He will succeed, without doubt, but He hardly expects to see more than a sample of His product during His present incarnation. But He refuses to waste the least fraction of His force on works foreign to His WORK, however obvious it may seem to the onlooker that His advantage lies in commanding stones to become bread, or otherwise making things easy for Himself. + These considerations being thoroughly understood we may return to the question of making the Magical Link. In the case above cited FRATER PERDURABO composed His talisman by invoking His Holy Guardian Angel according to the Sacred Magick of Abramelin the Mage. That Angel wrote on the lamen the Word of the Aeon. The Book of the Law is this writing. To this lamen the Master Therion gave life by devoting His own life thereto. We may then regard this talisman, the Law, as the most powerful that has been made in the world's history, for previous talismans of the same type have been limited in their scope by conditions of race and country. Mohammed's talisman, Allah, was good only from Persia to the Pillars of Hercules. The Buddha's, Anatta, operated only in the South and East of Asia. The new talisman, Thelema, is master of the planet. + But now observe how the question of the Magical Link arises! No matter how mighty the truth of Thelema, it cannot prevail unless it is applied to any by mankind. As long as the Book of the Law was in Manuscript, it could only affect the small group amongst whom it was circulated. It had to be put into action by {112} the Magical Operation of publishing it. When this was done, it was done without proper perfection. Its commands as to how the work ought to be done were not wholly obeyed. There were doubt and repugnance in FRATER PERDURABO's mind, and they hampered His work. He was half-hearted. Yet, even so then intrinsic power of the truth of the Law and the impact of the publication were sufficient to shake the world so that a critical war broke out, and the minds of men were moved in a mysterious manner. The second blow was struck by the re-publication of the Book in September 1913, and this time the might of this Magick burst out and caused a catastrophe to civilization. At this hour, the MASTER THERION is concealed, collecting his forces for a final blow. When The Book of the Law and its Comment is published, with the forces of His whole Will in perfect obedience to the instructions which have up to now been misunderstood or neglected, the result will be incalculably effective. The event will establish the kingdom of the Crowned and Conquering Child over the whole earth, and all men shall bow to the Law, which is "love under will". + This is an extreme case; but there is one law only to govern the small as the great. The same laws describe and measure the motions of the ant and the stars. Their light is no swifter than that of a spark. In every operation of Magick the link must be properly made. The first requisite is the acquisition of adequate force of the kind required for the purpose. We must have electricity of a certain potential in sufficient amount if we wish to heat food in a furnace. We shall need a more intense current and a greater supply to light a city than to charge a telephone wire. No other kind of force will do. We cannot use the force of steam directly to impel an aeroplane, or to get drunk. We must apply it in adequate strength in an appropriate manner. + It is therefore absurd to invoke the spirit of Venus to procure us the love of an Empress, unless we take measures to transmit the influence of our work to the lady. We may for example consecrate a letter expressing our Will; or, if we know how, we may use some object connected with the person whose acts we are attempting to control, such as a lock of hair or a handkerchief {113} once belonging to her, and so in subtile connection with her aura. But for material ends it is better to have material means. We must not rely on fine gut in trolling for salmon. Our will to kill a tiger is poorly conveyed by a charge of small shot fired at a range of one hundred yards. Our talisman must, therefore, be an object suitable to the nature of our Operation, and we must have some such means of applying its force to such a way as will naturally compel the obedience of the portion of Nature which we are trying to change. If one will the death of a sinner, it is not sufficient to hate him, even if we grant that the vibrations of thought, when sufficiently powerful and pure, may modify the Astral light sufficiently to impress its intention to a certain extent on such people as happen to be sensitive. It is much surer to use one's mind and muscle in service of that hate by devising and making a dagger, and then applying the dagger to the heart of one's enemy. One must give one's hate a bodily form of the same order as that which one's enemy has taken for his manifestation. Your spirit can only come into contact with his by means of this magical manufacture of phantoms; in the same way, one can only measure one's mind (a certain part of it) against another man's by expressing them in some such form as the game of chess. One cannot use chessmen against another man unless he agree to use them in the same sense as you do. The board and men form the Magical Link by which you can prove your power to constrain him to yield. The game is a device by which you force him to turn down his king in surrender, a muscular act made in obedience to your will, thought he may be twice your weight and strength. + These general principles should enable the student to understand the nature of the work of making the Magical Link. It is impossible to give detailed instructions, because every case demands separate consideration. It is sometimes exceedingly difficult to devise proper measures. + Remember that Magick includes all acts soever. Anything may serve as a Magical weapon. To impose one's Will on a nation, for instance, one's talisman may be a newspaper, one's triangle a church, or one's circle a Club. To win a woman, one's {114} pantacle may be a necklace; to discover a treasure, one's wand may be a dramatist's pen, or one's incantation a popular song. + Many ends, many means: it is only important to remember the essence of the operation, which is to will its success with sufficiently pure intensity, and to incarnate that will in a body suitable to express it, a body such that its impact on the bodily expression of the idea one wills to change is to cause it to do so. For instance, is it my will to become a famous physician? I banish all "hostile spirits" such as laziness, alien interests, and confliction pleasures, from my "circle" the hospital; I consecrate my "weapons" (my various abilities) to the study of medicine; I invoke the "Gods" (medical authorities) by studying and obeying their laws in their books. I embody the "Formulae" (the ways in which causes and effects influence disease) in a "Ritual" (my personal style of constraining sickness to conform with my will). I persist in these conjurations year after year, making the Magical gestures of healing the sick, until I compel the visible appearance of the Spirit of Time, and make him acknowledge me his master. I have used the appropriate kind of means, in adequate measure, and applied them in ways pertinent to my purpose by projecting my incorporeal idea of ambition in a course of action such as to induce in others the incorporeal idea of satisfying mine. I made my Will manifest to sense; sense swayed the Wills of my fellowmen; mind wrought on mind through matter. + I did not "sit for" a medical baronetcy by wishing I had it, or by an "act of faith", or by praying to God "to move Pharaoh's heart", as our modern mental, or our mediaeval, mystic, miracle-mongers were and are muddlers and maudlin enough to advise us to do. + A few general observations on the Magical Link may not be amiss, in default of details; one cannot make a Manual of How to Go Courting, with an Open-Sesame to each particular Brigand's Cavern, any more than one can furnish a budding burglar with a directory containing the combination of every existing safe. But one can point out the broad distinctions between women who yield, some to flattery, some to eloquence, some to appearance, some to rank, some to wealth, some to ardour, and some to authority. We {115} cannot exhaust the combinations of Lover's Chess, but we may enumerate the principal gambits: the Bouquet, the Chocolates, the Little Dinner, the Cheque-Book, the Poem, the Motor by Moonlight, the Marriage Certificate, the Whip, and the Feigned Flight. + The Magical Link may be classified under three main heads; as it involves (1) one plane and one person, (2) one plane and two or more persons, (3) two planes. + In class (1) the machinery of Magick --- the instrument --- already exists. Thus, I may wish to heal my own body, increase my own energy; develop my own mental powers, or inspire my own imagination. Here the Exorcist and the Demon are already connected, consciously or subconsciously, by an excellent system of symbols. The Will is furnished by Nature with an apparatus adequately equipped to convey and execute its orders. + It is only necessary to inflame the Will to the proper pitch and to issue its commands; they are instantly obeyed, unless --- as in the case of organic disease --- the apparatus is damaged beyond the art of Nature to repair. It may be necessary in such a case to assist the internal "spirits" by the "purification" of medicines, the "banishing" of diet, or some other extraneous means. + But at least there is no need of any special device "ad hoc" to effect contact between the Circle and the Triangle. Operations of this class are therefore often successful, even when the Magician has little or no technical knowledge of Magick. Almost any duffer can "pull himself together", devote himself to study, break off a bad habit, or conquer a cowardice. This class of work, although the easiest, is yet the most important; for it includes initiation itself in its highest sense. It extends to the Absolute in every dimension; it involves the most intimate analysis, and the most comprehensive synthesis. In a sense, it is the sole type of Magick either necessary or proper to the Adept; for it includes both the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, and the Adventure of the Abyss. + The second class includes all operations by which the Magician strives to impose his Will upon objects outside his own control, but within that of such other wills as are symbolised by means of {116} a system similar to his own. That is, they can be compelled naturally by cognate consciousness. + For instance, one may wish to obtain the knowledge put forth in this book. Not knowing that such a book exists, one might yet induce some one who knows of it to offer a copy. Thus one's operation would consist in inflaming one's Will to possess the knowledge to the point of devoting one's life to it, in expressing that will by seeking out people who seem likely to know what is needed, and in imposing it on them by exhibiting such enthusiastic earnestness that they will tell the enquirer that this book will meet his needs. + Does this sound too simple? Can this obvious common-sense course be really that marvellous Magick that frightens folk so? Yes, even this triviality is one instance of how Magick works. + But the above practical programme may be a fiasco. One might then resort to Magick in the conventional sense of the word, by constructing and charging a Pantacle appropriate to the object; this Pantacle should then cause a strain in the Astral Light such that the vibrations would compel some alien consciousness to restore equilibrium by bringing the book. + Suppose a severer and more serious aim; suppose that I wish to win a woman who dislikes me and loves somebody else. In this case, not only her Will, but her lover's must be overcome by my own. I have no direct control of either. But my Will is in touch with the woman's by means of our minds; I have only to make my mind the master of hers by the existing means of communication; her mind will then present its recantation to her Will, her Will repeal its decision, and her body submit to mine as the seal of her surrender. + Here the Magical Link exists; only it is complex instead of simple as in the First Class. + There is opportunity for all kinds of error in the transmission of the Will; misunderstanding may mar the matter; a mood may make mischief; external events may interfere; the lover may match me in Magick; the Operation itself may offend nature in many ways; for instance, if there is a subconscious incompatibility between myself and the woman, I deceive myself into thinking {117} that I desire her. Such a flaw is enough to bring the whole operation to naught, just as no effort of Will can make oil mix with water. + I may work "naturally" by wooing, of course. But, magically, I may attack her astrally so that her aura becomes uneasy, responding no longer to her lover. Unless they diagnose the cause, a quarrel may result, and the woman's bewildered and hungry Body of Light may turn in its distress to that of the Magician who has mastered it. + Take a third case of this class 2. I wish to recover my watch, snatched from me in a crowd. + Here I have no direct means of control over the muscles that could bring back my watch, or over the mind that moves these muscles. I am not even able to inform that mind of my Will, for I do not know where it is. But I know it to be a mind fundamentally like my own, and I try to make a Magical Link with it by advertising my loss in the hope of reaching it, being careful to calm it by promising it immunity, and to appeal to its own known motive by offering a reward. I also attempt to use the opposite formula; to reach it by sending my "familiar spirits", the police, to hunt it, and compel its obedience by threats.<> + Again, a sorcerer might happen to possess an object belonging magically to a rich man, such as a compromising letter, which is really as much part of him as his liver; he may then master the will of that man by intimidating his mind. His power to publish the letter is as effective as if he could injure the man's body directly. + These "natural" cases may be transposed into subtler terms; for instance, one might master another man, even a stranger, by sheer concentration of will, ceremonially or otherwise wrought up to the requisite potential. But in one way or another that will must be {118} made to impinge on the man; by the normal means of contact if possible, if not, by attacking some sensitive spot in his subconscious sensorium. But the heaviest rod will not land the smallest fish unless there be a line of some sort fixed firmly to both. + The Third Class is characterized by the absence of any existing link between the Will of the Magician and that controlling the object to be affected. (The Second Class may approximate to the Third when there is no possibility of approaching the second mind by normal means, as sometimes happens). + This class of operations demands not only immense knowledge of the technique of Magick combined with tremendous vigour and skill, but a degree of Mystical attainment which is exceedingly rare, and when found is usually marked by an absolute apathy on the subject of any attempt to achieve any Magick at all. Suppose that I wish to produce a thunderstorm. This event is beyond my control or that of any other man; it is as useless to work on their minds as my own. Nature is independent of, and indifferent to, man's affairs. A storm is caused by atmospheric conditions on a scale so enormous that the united efforts of all us Earth-vermin could scarcely disperse one cloud, even if we could get at it. How then can any Magician, he who is above all things a knower of Nature, be so absurd as to attempt to throw the Hammer of Thor? Unless he be simply insane, he must be initiated in a Truth which transcends the apparent facts. He must be aware that all nature is a continuum, so that his mind and body are consubstantial with the storm, are equally expressions of One Existence, all alike of the self-same order of artifices whereby the Absolute appreciates itself. He must also have assimilated the fact that the Quantity is just as much a form as Quality; that as all things are modes of One Substance, so their measures are modes of their relation. Not only are gold and lead mere letters, meaningless in themselves yet appointed to spell the One Name; but the difference between the bulk of a mountain and that of a mouse is no more than one method of differentiating them, just as the letter "m" is not bigger than the letter "i: in any real sense of the word.<> {119} + Our Magician, with this in his mind, will most probably leave thunderstorms to stew in their own juice; but, should he decide (after all) to enliven the afternoon, he will work in the manner following. + First, what are the elements necessary for his storms? He must have certain stores of electrical force, and the right kind of clouds to contain it. + He must see that the force does not leak away to earth quietly and slyly. + He must arrange a stress so severe as to become at last so intolerable that it will disrupt explosively. + Now he, as a man, cannot pray to God to cause them, for the Gods are but names for the forces of Nature themselves. + But, "as a Mystic", he knows that all things are phantoms of One Thing, and that they may be withdrawn therein to reissue in other attire. He knows that all things are in himself, and that he is All-One with the All. There is therefore no theoretical difficulty about converting the illusion of a clear sky into that of a tempest. On the other hand, he is aware, "as a Magician", that illusions are governed by the laws of their nature. He knows that twice two is four, although both "two" and "four" are merely properties pertaining to One. He can only use the Mystical identity of all things in a strictly scientific sense. It is true that his experience of clear skies and storms proves that his nature contains elements cognate with both; for it not, they could not affect him. He is the Microcosm of his own Macrocosm, whether or no either one or the other extend beyond his knowledge of them. He must therefore arouse in himself those ideas which are clansmen of the Thunderstorm, collect all available objects of the same nature for talismans, and proceed to excite all these to the utmost by a Magical ceremony; that is, by insisting on their godhead, so that they flame within and without him, his ideas vitalising the talismans. There is thus a vivid vibration of high potential in a certain group {121} of sympathetic substances and forces; and this spreads as do the waves from a stone thrown into a lake, widening and weakening; till the disturbance is compensated. Just as a handful of fanatics, insane with one over-emphasised truth, may infect a whole country for a time by inflaming that thought in their neighbours, so the Magician creates a commotion by disturbing the balance of power. He transmits his particular vibration as a radio operator does with his ray; rate-relation determines exclusive selection. + In practice, the Magician must "evoke the spirits of the storm" by identifying himself with the ideas of which atmospheric phenomena are the expressions as his humanity is of him; thus achieved, he must impose his Will upon them by virtue of the superiority of his intelligence and the integration of his purpose to their undirected impulses and uncomprehending interplay. + All such Magick demands the utmost precision in practice. It is true that the best rituals give us instructions in selecting our vehicles of force. In 777 we find "correspondences" of many classes of being with the various types of operation, so that we know what weapons, jewels, figures, drugs, perfumes, names, etc. to employ in any particular work. But it has always been assumed that the invoked force is intelligent and competent, that it will direct itself as desired without further ado, by this method of sympathetic vibrations. + The necessity of timing the force has been ignored; and so most operations, even when well performed as far as invocation goes, are as harmless as igniting loose gunpowder. + But, even allowing that Will is sufficient to determine the direction, and prevent the dispersion of the force, we can hardly be sure that it will act on its object, unless that object be properly prepared to receive it. The Link must be perfectly made. The object must possess in itself a sufficiency of stuff sympathetic to our work. We cannot make love to a brick, or set an oak to run errands. + We see, then, that we can never affect anything outside ourselves save only as it is also within us. Whatever I do to another, I do also to myself. If I kill a man, I destroy my own life at the same time. That is the magical meaning of the so-called {121} "Golden Rule", which should not be in the imperative but in the indicative mood. Every vibration awakens all others of its particular pitch. + There is thus some justification for the assumption of previous writers on Magick that the Link is implicit, and needs no special attention. Yet, in practice, there is nothing more certain than that one ought to confirm one's will by all possible acts on all possible planes. The ceremony must not be confined to the formally magical rites. We must neglect no means to our end, neither despising our common sense, nor doubting our secret wisdom. + When Frater I. A. was in danger of death in 1899 e.v. Frater V. N. and FRATER PERDURABO did indeed invoke the spirit Buer to visible manifestation that the might heal their brother; but also one of them furnished the money to send him to a climate less cruel than England's. He is alive to day<>; who cares whether spirits or shekels wrought that which these Magicians willed? + Let the Magical Link be made strong! It is "love under will"; it affirms the identity of the Equation of the work; it makes success Necessity. + + + + ------- + + +{122} + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + "(Part I)" + + OF THE OATH + + + The third operation in any magical ceremony is the oath or proclamation. The Magician, armed and ready, stands in the centre of the Circle, and strikes once upon the bell as if to call the attention of the Universe. He then declares "who he is", reciting his magical history by the proclamation of the grades which he has attained, giving the signs and words of those grades.<> + He then states the purpose of the ceremony, and proves that it is necessary to perform it and to succeed in its performance. He then takes an oath before the Lord of the Universe (not before the particular Lord whom he is invoking) as if to call Him to witness to the act. He swears solemnly that he will perform it --- that nothing shall prevent him from performing it --- that he will not leave the operation until it is successfully performed --- and once again he strikes upon the bell. + Yet, having demonstrated himself in that position at once infinitely lofty and infinitely unimportant, the instrument of destiny, he balances this by the "Confession", in which there is again an infinite exaltation harmonised with an infinite humility. He admits himself to be a weak human being humbly aspiring to something higher; a creature of circumstance utterly dependent --- even for the breath of life --- upon a series of fortunate accidents. {123} He makes this confession prostrate<> before the altar in agony and bloody sweat. He trembles at the thought of the operation which he has dared to undertake, saying, "Father, if it be Thy Will, let this cup pass from me! Nevertheless not my will but Thine be done!"<> + The dread answer comes that It Must Be, and this answer so fortifies him with holy zeal that it will seem to him as if he were raised by divine hands from that prostrate position; with a thrill of holy exaltation he renews joyfully the Oath, feeling himself once again no longer the man but the Magician, yet not merely the Magician, but the chosen and appointed person to accomplish a task which, however apparently unimportant, is yet an integral part of universal destiny, so that if it were not accomplished the Kingdom of Heaven would be burst in pieces. + He is now ready to commence the invocations. He consequently pauses to cast a last glance around the Temple to assure himself of the perfect readiness of all things necessary, and to light the incense. + + --------- + + The Oath is the foundation of all Work in Magick, as it is an affirmation of the Will. An Oath binds the Magician for ever. In Part II of Book 4 something has already been said on this subject; but its importance deserves some further elaboration. Thus, should one, loving a woman, make a spell to compel her embraces, and tiring of her a little later, evoke Zazel to kill her; he will find that the implications of his former Oath conflict with those proper to invoke the Unity of the Godhead of Saturn. Zazel will refuse to obey him in the case of the woman whom he has sworn that he loves. To this some may object that, since all acts are magical, every man who loves a woman implicitly takes an {124} Oath of love, and therefore would never be able to murder her later, as we find to be the not uncommon case. The explanation is as follows. It is perfectly true that when Bill Sykes desires to possess Nancy, he does in fact evoke a spirit of the nature of Venus, constraining him by his Oath of Love (and by his magical power as a man) to bring him the girl. So also, when he wants to kill her, he evokes a Martial or Saturnian spirit, with an Oath of hate. But these are not pure planetary spirits, moving in well-defined spheres by rigidly righteous laws. They are gross concretions of confused impulses, "incapable of understanding the nature of an oath". They are also such that the idea of murder is nowise offensive to the Spirit of Love. + It is indeed the criterion of spiritual "caste" that conflicting elements should not coexist in the same consciousness. The psalm-singing Puritan who persecutes publicans, and secretly soaks himself in fire-water; the bewhiskered philanthropist in broadcloth who swindles his customers and sweats his employees: these men must not be regarded as single-minded scoundrels, whose use of religion and respectability to cloke their villainies is a deliberate disguise dictated by their criminal cunning. Far from it, they are only too sincere in their "virtues"; their terror of death and of supernatural vengeance is genuine; it proceeds from a section of themselves which is in irreconcilable conflict with their rascality. Neither side can conciliate, suppress, or ignore the other; yet each is so craven as to endure its enemy's presence. Such men are therefore without pure principles; they excuse themselves for every dirty trick that turns to their apparent advantage. + The first step of the Aspirant toward the Gate of Initiation tells him that purity --- unity of purpose --- is essential above all else. "Do what thou Wilt" strikes on him, a ray of fierce white flame consuming all that is not utterly God. Very soon he is aware that he cannot consciously contradict himself. He develops a subtle sense which warns him that two trains of thought which he had never conceived as connected are incompatible. Yet deeper drives "Do what thou wilt"; subconscious oppositions are evoked to visible appearance. The secret sanctuaries of the soul are cleansed. "Do What thou Wilt" purges his every part. He has become One, one only. His Will is consequently released from {125} the interference of internal opposition, and he is a Master of Magick. But for that very reason he is now utterly impotent to achieve anything that is not in absolute accordance with his Original Oath, with his True Will, by virtue whereof he incarnated as a man. With Bill Sykes love and murder are not mutually exclusive, as they are with King Arthur. The higher the type of man, the more sensitive he becomes; so that the noblest love divines intuitively when a careless word or gesture may wound, and, vigilant, shuns them as being of the family of murder. In Magick, likewise, the Adept who is sworn to attain to the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel may in his grosser days have been expert as a Healer, to find that he is now incapable of any such work. He will probably be puzzled, and wonder whether he has lost all his power. Yet the cause may be no more than that the Wisdom of his Angel depreciates the interference of ignorant kindliness with diseases which may have been sent to the sufferer for a purpose profoundly important to his welfare. + In the case of THE MASTER THERION, he had originally the capacity for all classes of Orgia. In the beginning, He cured the sick, bewitched the obstinate, allured the seductive, routed the aggressive, made himself invisible, and generally behaved like a Young-Man-About-town on every possible plane. He would afflict one vampire with a Sending of Cats, and appoint another his private Enchantress, neither aware of any moral oxymoron, nor hampered by the implicit incongruity of his oaths. + But as He advanced in Adeptship, this coltishness found its mouth bitted; as soon as He took serious Oaths and was admitted to the Order which we name not, those Oaths prevented him using His powers as playthings. Trifling operations, such as He once could do with a turn of the wrist, became impossible to the most persistent endeavour. It was many years before He understood the cause of this. But little by little He became so absorbed in the Work of His true Will that it no longer occurred to Him to indulge in capricious amusements. + Yet even at this hour, though He be verily a Magus of A.'. A.'., though His Word be the Word of the Aeon, though He be the Beast 666, the Lord of the Scarlet Woman "in whom is all power {126} given", there are still certain Orgia beyond Him to perform, because to do so would be to affirm what He hath denied in those Oaths by whose virtue He is That He is. This is the case, even when the spirit of such Orgia is fully consonant with His Will. The literal sense of His original Oath insists that it shall be respected. + The case offers two instances of this principle. FRATER PERDURABO specifically swore that he would renounce His personal possessions to the last penny; also that He would allow no human affection to hinder Him. These terms were accepted; He was granted infinitely more than He had imagined possible to an incarnated Man. On the other hand, the price offered by Him was exacted as strictly as if it had been stipulated by Shylock. Every treasure that he had on earth was taken away, and that, usually, in so brutal or cruel a manner as to make the loss itself the least part of the pang. Every human affection that He had in His heart --- and that heart aches for Love as few hearts can ever conceive --- was torn out and trampled with such infernal ingenuity in intensifying torture that His endurance is beyond belief. Inexplicable are the atrocities which accompanied every step in His Initiation! Death dragged away His children with slow savagery; the women He loved drank themselves into delirium and dementia before His eyes, or repaid His passionate devotion with toad-cold treachery at the moment when long years of loyalty had tempted Him to trust them. His friend, that bore the bag, stole that which was put therein, and betrayed his Master as thoroughly as he was able. At the first distant rumour that the Pharisees were out, his disciples "all forsook Him and fled". His mother nailed Him with her own hands to the cross, and reviled Him as nine years He hung thereupon. + Now, having endured to the end, being Master of Magick, He is mighty to Work His true Will; which Will is, to establish on Earth His Word, the Law of Thelema. He hath none other Will than this; so all that He doth is unto this end. All His Orgia bear fruit; what was the work of a month when He was a full Major Adept is to day wrought in a few minutes by the Words of Will, uttered with the right vibrations into the prepared Ear. {127} + But neither by the natural use of His abilities, though they have made Him famous through the whole world, nor by the utmost might of his Magick, is He able to acquire material wealth beyond the minimum necessary to keep Him alive and at work. It is in vain that He protests that not He but the Work is in need of money; He is barred by the strict letter of His Oath to give all that He hath for His magical Attainment. + Yet more awful is the doom that He hath invoked upon Himself in renouncing His right as a man to enjoy the Love of those whom He loves with passion so selfless, so pure, and so intense in return for the power so to love Mankind that He be chosen to utter the Word of the Aeon for their sake, His reward universal abhorrence, bodily torment, mental despair, and moral paralysis. + Yet He, who hath power over Death, with breath to call back health, with a touch to beckon life, He must watch His own child waste away month by month, aware that His Art may not anywise avail, who hath sold the signet ring of his personal profit to buy him a plain gold band for the felon finger of his bride, that worn widow, the World! + + + ---------- + + +{128} + + + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + + I + + OF THE INVOCATION + + + In the straightforward or "Protestant" system of Magick there is very little to add to what has already been said. The Magician addresses a direct petition to the Being invoked. But the secret of success in invocation has not hitherto been disclosed. It is an exceedingly simple one. It is practically of no importance whatever that the invocation should be "right". There are a thousand different ways of compassing the end proposed, so far as external things are concerned. The whole secret may be summarised in these four words: "Enflame thyself in praying."<> + The mind must be exalted until it loses consciousness of self. The Magician must be carried forward blindly by a force which, though in him and of him, is by no means that which he in his normal state of consciousness calls I. Just as the poet, the lover, the artist, is carried out of himself in a creative frenzy, so must it be for the Magician. + It is impossible to lay down rules for the obtaining of this special stimulus. To one the mystery of the whole ceremony may appeal; another may be moved by the strangeness of the words, even by the fact that the "barbarous names" are unintelligible to him. Some times in the course of a ceremony the true meaning of some barbarous name that has hitherto baffled his analysis may flash upon him, luminous and splendid, so that he is caught up unto {129} orgasm. The smell of a particular incense may excite him effectively, or perhaps the physical ecstasy of the magick dance. + Every Magician must compose his ceremony in such a manner as to produce a dramatic cilmax. At the moment when the excitement becomes ungovernable, when then the whole conscious being of the Magician undergoes a spiritual spasm, at that moment must he utter the supreme adjuration. + One very effective method is to stop short, by a supreme effort of will, again and again, on the very brink of that spasm, until a time arrives when the idea of exercising that will fails to occur<>. Inhibition is no longer possible or even thinkable, and the whole being of the Magician, no minutest atom saying nay, is irresistibly flung forth. In blinding light, amid the roar of ten thousand thunders, the Union of God and man is consummated. + If the Magician is still seen standing in the Circle, quietly pursuing his invocations, it is that all the conscious part of him has become detached from the true ego which lies behind that normal consciousness. But the circle is wholly filled with that divine essence; all else is but an accident and an illusion. + The subsequent invocations, the gradual development and materialization of the force, require no effort. It is one great mistake of the beginner to concentrate his force upon the actual stated purpose of the ceremony. This mistake is the most frequent cause of failures in invocation. + A corollary of this Theorem is that the Magician soon discards evocation almost altogether --- only rare circumstances demand any action what ever on the material plane. The Magician devotes himself entirely to the invocation of a god; and as soon as his balance approaches perfection he ceases to invoke any partial god; only that god vertically above him is in his path. And so a man who perhaps took up Magick merely with the idea of acquiring knowledge, love, or wealth, finds himself irrevocably committed to the performance of "The Great Work." {130} + It will now be apparent that there is no distinction between magick and meditation except of the most arbitrary and accidental kind.<> + + II + + Beside these open methods thee are also a number of mental methods of Invocation, of which we may give three. + The first method concerns the so-called astral body. The Magician should practise the formation of this body as recommended in Liber O, and learn to rise on the planes according to the instruction given in the same book, though limiting his "rising" to the particular symbol whose God he wishes to invoke. + The second is to recite a mantra suitable to the God. + The third is the assumption of the form of the God --- by transmuting the astral body into His shape. This last method is really essential to all proper invocation, and cannot be too sedulously practised. + There are many other devices to aid invocation, so many that it is impossible to enumerate them; and the Magician will be wise to busy himself in inventing new ones. + We will give one example. + Suppose the Supreme Invocation to consist of 20 to 30 barbarous names, let him imagine these names to occupy sections of a vertical column, each double the length of the preceding one; and let him imagine that his consciousness ascends the column with each name. The mere multiplication will then produce a feeling of awe and bewilderment which is the proper forerunner of exstasy. + In the essay "Energized Enthusiasm" in No. IX, Vol. I of the Equinox<> is given a concise account of one of the classical methods of arousing Kundalini. This essay should be studied with care and determination. + +{131} + + + ------------- + + +{132} + + + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + ("Part II") + + OF THE CHARGE TO THE SPIRIT + WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE + CONSTRAINTS AND CURSES OCCASIONALLY NECESSARY + + + I + + On the appearance of the spirit, or the manifestation of the force in the talisman which is being consecrated, it is necessary to bind it by an Oath or Charge. A spirit should be made to lay its hand visibly on the weapon by whose might it has been evoked, and to "swear obedience and faith to Him that liveth and triumpheth, that regneth above him in His palaces as the Balance of Righteousness and Truth" by the names used in the evocation. + It is then only necessary to formulate the Oath or Charge in language harmonious with the previously announced purpose of the operation. + The precaution indicated is not to let oneself sink into one's humanity while the weapon is extended beyond the Circle. Were the force to flow from it to you instead of from you to it, you would be infallibly blasted, or, at the least, become the slave of the spirit. + At no moment is it more important that the Divine Force should not only fill, but radiate from, the aura of the Magician. + + II + + Occasionally it may happen that the spirit is recalcitrant, and refuses to appear. + Let the Magician consider the cause of such disobedience! {133} + It may be that the place or time is wrong. One cannot easily evoke water-spirits in the Sahara, or salamanders in the English Lake District. Hismael will not readily appear when Jupiter is below the horizon.<> In order to counteract a natural deficiency of this sort, one would have to supply a sufficient quantity of the proper kind of material. One cannot make bricks without straw. + With regard to invocations of the Gods, such considerations do not apply. The Gods are beyond most material conditions. It is necessary to fill the "heart" and "mind" with the proper basis for manifestation. The higher the nature of the God, the more true this is. The Holy Guardian Angel has always the necessary basis. His manifestation depends solely on the readiness of the Aspirant, and all magical ceremonies used in that invocation are merely intended to prepare that Aspirant; not in any way to attract or influence Him. It is His constant and eternal Will<> to become one with the Aspirant, and the moment the conditions of the latter make it possible, That Bridal is consummated. + + III + + The obstinacy of a spirit (or the inertial of a talisman) usually implies a defect in invocation. The spirit cannot resist even for a moment the constraint of his Intelligence, when that Intelligence is working in accordance with the Will of the Angel, Archangel {134} and God above him. It is therefore better to repeat the Invocations than to proceed at once to curses. + The Magician should also consider<> whether the evocation be in truth a necessary part of the Karma of the Universe, as he has stated in his own Oath (See Cap. XVI, I). For if this be a delusion, success is impossible. It will then be best to go back to the beginning, and recapitulate with greater intensity and power of analysis the Oath and the Invocations. And this may be done thrice. + But if this be satisfactorily accomplished, and the spirit be yet disobedient, the implication is that some hostile force is at work to hinder the operation. It will then become advisable to discover the nature of that force, and to attack and destroy it. This makes the ceremony more useful than ever to the Magician, who may thereby be led to unveil a black magical gang whose existence he had not hitherto suspected. + His need to check the vampiring of a lady in Paris by a sorceress once led FRATER PERDURABO to the discovery of a very powerful body of black magicians, which whom he was obliged to war for nearly 10 years before their ruin was complete and irremediable as it now is. + Such a discovery will not necessarily impede the ceremony. A general curse may be pronounced against the forces hindering the operation (for "ex hypothesi" no divine force can be interfering) and having thus temporarily dislodged them --- for the power of the God invoked will suffice for this purpose --- one may proceed with a certain asperity to conjure the spirit, for that he has done ill to bend before the conjurations of the Black Brothers. + Indeed, some demons are of a nature such that they only understand curses, are not amenable to courteous command: --- + "a slave + Whom stripes may move, not kindness." + Finally, as a last resource, one may burn the Sigil of the {135} Spirit in a black box with stinking substances, all having been properly prepared beforehand, and the magical links properly made, so that he is really tortured by the Operation.<> + This is a rare event, however. Only once in the whole of his magical career was FRATER PERDURABO driven to so harsh a measure. + + IV + + In this connexion, beware of too ready a compliance on the part of the spirit. If some Black Lodge has got wind of your operation, it may send the spirit, full of hypocritical submission, to destroy you. Such a spirit will probably pronounce the oath amiss, or in some way seek to avoid his obligations. + It is a dangerous trick, though, for the Black Lodge to play; for if the spirit come properly under your control, it will be forced to disclose the transaction, and the current will return to the Black Lodge with fulminating force. The liars will be in the power of their own lie; their own slaves will rise up and put them into bondage. The wicked fall into the pit that they themselves digged. + And so perish all the King's enemies! + + V + + The charge to the spirit is usually embodied, except in works of pure evocation, which after all are comparatively rare, in some kind of talisman. In a certain sense, the talisman is the Charge expressed in hieroglyphics. Yet, every object soever is a talisman, for the definition of a talisman is: something upon which an act of will (that is, of Magick) has been performed in order to fit it for a purpose. Repeated acts of will in respect of {136} any object consecrate it without further ado. One knows what miracles can be done with one's favourite mashie! One has used the mashie again and again, one's love for it growing in proportion to one's success with it, and that success again made more certain and complete by the effect of this "love under will", which one bestows upon it by using it. + It is, of course, very important to keep such an abject away from the contact of the profane. It is instinctive not to let another person use one's fishing rod or one's gun. It is not that they could do any harm in a material sense. It is the feeling that one's use of these things has consecrated them to one's self. + Of course, the outstanding example of all such talismans is the wife. A wife may be defined as an object specially prepared for taking the stamp of one's creative will. This is an example of a very complicated magical operation, extending over centuries. But, theoretically, it is just an ordinary case of talismanic magick. It is for this reason that so much trouble has been taken to prevent a wife having contact with the profane; or, at least, to try to prevent her. + Readers of the Bible will remember that Absalom publicly adopted David's wives and concubines on the roof of the palace, in order to signify that he had succeeded in breaking his father's magical power. + Now, there are a great many talismans in this world which are being left lying about in a most reprehensibly careless manner. Such are the objects of popular adoration, as ikons, and idols. But, it is actually true that a great deal of real magical Force is locked up in such things; consequently, by destroying these sacred symbols, you can overcome magically the people who adore them. + It is not at all irrational to fight for one's flag, provided that the flag is an object which really means something to somebody. Similarly, with the most widely spread and most devotedly worshipped talisman of all, money, you can evidently break the magical will of a worshipper of money by taking his money away from him, or by destroying its value in some way or another. But, in the case of money, general experience tells us that there is very little of it lying about loose. In this case, above all, {137} people have recognised its talismanic virtue, that is to say, its power as an instrument of the will. + But with many ikons and images, it is easy to steal their virtue. This can be done sometimes on a tremendous scale, as, for example, when all the images of Isis and Horus, or similar mother-child combinations, were appropriated wholesale by the Christians. The miracle is, however, of a somewhat dangerous type, as in this case, where enlightenment has come through the researches of archaeologists. It has been shown that the so-called images of Mary and Jesus are really nothing but imitations of those of Isis and Horus. Honesty is the best policy in Magick as in other lines of life. + + + --------- + + +{138} + + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + OF THE LICENSE TO DEPART + + + After a ceremony has reached its climax, anti-climax must inevitably follow. But if the ceremony has been successful this anti-climax is merely formal. The Magician should rest permanently on the higher plain to which he has aspired.<> The whole force of the operation should be absorbed; but there is almost certain to be a residuum, since no operation is perfect: and (even if it were so) there would be a number of things, sympathetic to the operation, attracted to the Circle. These must be duly dispersed, or they will degenerate and become evil. It is always easy to do this where invocations are concerned; the mere removal of the strain imposed by the will of the magician will restore things to their normal aspects, in accordance with the great law of inertia. In a badly-managed evocation, however, this does not always obtain; the spirit may refuse to be controlled, and may refuse to depart --- even after having sworn obedience. In such a case extreme danger may arise. + In the ordinary way, the Magician dismisses the spirit with these words: "And now I say unto thee, depart in peace unto thine habitations and abodes --- and may the blessing of the Highest be upon thee in the name of (here mention the divine name suitable to the operation, or a Name appropriate to redeem that spirit); and let there be peace between thee and me; and be thou very ready to come, whensoever thou are invoked and called!"<> {139} + Should he fail to disappear immediately, it is a sign that there is something very wrong. The Magician should immediately reconsecrate the Circle with the utmost care. He should then repeat the dismissal; and if this does not suffice, he should then perform the banishing ritual suitable to the nature of the spirit and, if necessary, add conjurations to the same effect. In these circumstances, or if anything else suspicious should occur, he should not be content with the apparent disappearance of the spirit, who might easily make himself invisible and lie in ambush to do the Magician a mischief when he stepped out of the Circle --- or even months afterwards. + Any symbol which has once definitely entered your environment with your own consent is extremely dangerous; unless under absolute control. A man's friends are more capable of working him harm than are strangers; and his greatest danger lies in his own habits. + Of course it is the very condition of progress to build up ideas into the subconscious. The necessity of selection should therefore be obvious. + True, there comes a time when all elements soever must be thus assimilated. Samadhi is, by definition, that very process. But, from the point of view of the young magician, there is a right way --- strait and difficult --- of performing all this. One cannot too frequently repeat that what is lawful and proper to one Path is alien to another. + Immediately after the License to Depart, and the general closing up of the work, it is necessary that the Magician should sit down and write up his magical record. However much he may have been tired<> by the ceremony, he ought to force himself to do this until it becomes a habit. Verily, it is better to fail in the magical ceremony than to fail in writing down an accurate record of it. One need not doubt the propriety of this remark. Even if one is eaten alive by Malkah be-Tarshishim ve-Ruachoth ha-Schehalim, it does not matter very much, for it is over so very quickly. But the record of the transactions is {140} otherwise important. Nobody cares about Duncan having been murdered by Macbeth. It is only one of a number of similar murders. But Shakespeare's account of the incident is a unique treasure of mankind. And, apart from the question of the value to others, there is that of the value to the magician himself. The record of the magician is his best asset. + It is as foolish to do Magick without method, as if it were anything else. To do Magick without keeping a record is like trying to run a business without book-keeping. There are a great many people who quite misunderstand the nature of Magick. They have an idea that it is something vague and unreal, instead of being, as it is, a direct means of coming into contact with reality. It is these people who pay themselves with phrases, who are always using long words with no definite connotation, who plaster themselves with pompous titles and decorations which mean nothing whatever. With such people we have nothing to do. But to those who seek reality the Key of Magick is offered, and they are hereby warned that the key to the treasure-house is no good without the combination; and the combination is the magical record. + From one point of view, magical progress actually consists in deciphering one's own record.<> For this reason it is the most important thing to do, on strictly magical grounds. But apart from this, it is absolutely essential that the record should be clear, full and concise, because it is only by such a record that your teacher can judge how it is best to help you. Your magical teacher has something else to do besides running around after you all the time, and the most important of all his functions is that of auditor. Now, if you call in an auditor to investigate a business, and when he asks for the books you tell him that you have not thought it worth while to keep any, you need not be surprised if he thinks you every kind of an ass. + It is --- at least, it was --- perfectly incredible to THE MASTER THERION that people who exhibit ordinary common sense in {141} the other affairs of life should lose it completely when they tackle Magick. It goes far to justify the belief of the semi-educated that Magick is rather a crazy affair after all. However, there are none of these half-baked lunatics connected with the A.'. A.'., because the necessity for hard work, for passing examinations at stated intervals, and for keeping an intelligible account of what they are doing, frightens away the unintelligent, idle and hysterical. + There are numerous models of magical and mystical records to be found in the various numbers of the "Equinox", and the student will have no difficulty in acquiring the necessary technique, if he be diligent in practice. + + + --------- + + +{142} + + + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + OF CLAIRVOYANCE AND THE BODY OF LIGHT + ITS POWER AND ITS DEVELOPMENT + ALSO CONCERNING DIVINATION + + I + + Within the human body is another body of approximately the same size and shape;<> but made of a subtler and less illusory material. It is of course not "real"; but then no more is the other body! Before treating of clairvoyance one must discuss briefly this question of reality, for misapprehension on the subject has given rise to endless trouble. + There is the story of the American in the train who saw another American carrying a basket of unusual shape. His curiosity mastered him, and he leant across and said: "Say, stranger, what you got in that bag?" The other, lantern-jawed and taciturn, replied: "mongoose". The first man was rather baffled, as he had never heard of a mongoose. After a pause he pursued, at the risk of a rebuff: "But say, what is a Mongoose?" "Mongoose eats snakes", replied the other. This was another poser, but he pursued: "What in hell do you want a Mongoose for?" "Well, you see", said the second man (in a confidential whisper) "my brother sees snakes". The first man was more puzzled than ever; but after a long think, he continued rather pathetically: "But say, them ain't real snakes". "Sure", said the man with the basket, "but this Mongoose ain't real either". + This is a perfect parable of Magick. There is no such thing {143} as truth in the perceptible universe; every idea when analysed is found to contain a contradiction. It is quite useless (except as a temporary expedient) to set up one class of ideas against another as being "more real". The advance of man towards God is not necessarily an advance towards truth. All philosophical systems have crumbled. But each class of ideas possesses true relations within itself. It is possible, with Berkeley,<> to deny the existence of water and of wood; but, for all that, wood floats on water. The Magician becomes identical with the immortal Osiris, yet the Magician dies. In this dilemma the facts must be restated. One should preferably say that the Magician becomes conscious of that part of himself which he calls the immortal Osiris; and that Part does not "die". + Now this interior body of the Magician, of which we spoke at the beginning of this chapter, does exist, and can exert certain powers which his natural body cannot do. It can, for example, pass through "matter", and it can move freely in every direction through space. But this is because "matter", in the sense in which we commonly use the word, is on another plane<>. + Now this fine body perceives a universe which we do not ordinarily perceive. It does not necessarily perceive the universe which we do normally perceive, so although in this body I can pass through the roof, it does not follow that I shall be able to tell what the weather is like. I might do so, or I might not: but if I could not, it would not prove that I was deceiving myself in supposing that I had passed through the roof. This body, which is called by various authors the Astral double, body of Light, body of fire, body of desire, fine body, scin-laeca and numberless other names is naturally fitted to perceive objects of its own class ... in particular, the phantoms of the astral plane. {144} + There is some sort of vague and indeterminate relation between the Astrals and the Materials; and it is possible, with great experience, to deduce facts about material things from the astral aspect which they present to the eyes of the Body of Light.<> This astral plane is so varied and so changeable that several clairvoyants looking at the same thing might give totally different accounts of what they saw; yet they might each make correct deductions. In looking at a man the first clairvoyant might say: "The lines of force are all drooping"; the second: "It seems all dirty and spotty"; a third; "The Aura looks very ragged." Yet all might agree in deducing that the man was in ill-health. In any case all such deductions are rather unreliable. One must be a highly skilled man before one can trust one's vision. A great many people think that they are extremely good at the business, when in fact they have only made some occasional shrewd guesses (which they naturally remember) in the course of hundreds of forgotten failures. + The only way to test clairvoyance is to keep a careful record of every experiment made. For example, FRATER O. M. once gave a clairvoyant a waistcoat to psychometrize. He made 56 statements about the owner of the waistcoat; of these 4 were notably right; 17, though correct, were of that class of statement which is true of almost everybody. The remainder were wrong. It was concluded from this that he showed no evidence of any special power. In fact, his bodily eyes, --- if he could discern Tailoring --- would have served him better, for he thought the owner of the vest was a corn-chandler, instead of an earl, as he is. + The Magician can hardly take too much trouble to develop this power in himself. It is extremely useful to him in guarding himself against attack; in obtaining warnings, in judging character, and especially in watching the process of his Ceremonies. {145} + There are a great many ways of acquiring the power. Gaze into a crystal, or into a pool of ink in the palm of the hand, or into a mirror, or into a teacup. Just as with a microscope the expert operator keeps both eyes open, though seeing only through the one at the eye-piece of the instrument, so the natural eyes, ceasing to give any message to the brain, the attention is withdrawn from them, and the man begins to see through the Astral eyes. + These methods appear to The MASTER THERION to be unsatisfactory. Very often they do not work at all. It is difficult to teach a person to use these methods; and, worst of all, they are purely passive! You can see only what is shewn you, and you are probably shewn things perfectly pointless and irrelevant. + The proper method is as follows: --- Develop the body of Light until it is just as real to you as your other body, teach it to travel to any desired symbol, and enable it to perform all necessary Rites and Invocations. In short, educate it. Ultimately, the relation of that body with your own must be exceedingly intimate; but before this harmonizing takes place, you should begin by a careful differentiation. The first thing to do, therefore, is to get the body outside your own. To avoid muddling the two, you begin by imagining a shape resembling yourself standing in front of you. Do not say: "Oh, it's only imagination!" The time to test that is later on, when you have secured a fairly clear mental image of such a body. Try to imagine how your own body would look if you were standing in its place; try to transfer your consciousness to the Body of Light. Your own body has its eyes shut. Use the eyes of the Body of Light to describe the objects in the room behind you. Don't say. "It's only an effort of subconscious memory" ... the time to test that is later on. + As soon as you feel more or less at home in the fine body, let it rise in the air. Keep on feeling the sense of rising; keep on looking about you as you rise until you see landscapes or beings of the astral plane. Such have a quality all their own. They are not like material things --- they are not like mental pictures --- they seem to lie between the two. + After some practice has made you adept, so that in the course {146} of any hour's journey you can reckon on having a fairly eventful time, turn your attention to reaching a definite place on the astral plane; invoke Mercury, for example, and examine carefully your record of the resulting vision --- discover whether the symbols which you have seen correspond with the conventional symbols of Mercury. + This testing of the spirits is the most important branch of the whole tree of Magick. Without it, one is lost in the jungle of delusion. Every spirit, up to God himself, is ready to deceive you if possible, to make himself out more important than he is; in short to lay in wait for your soul in 333 separate ways. Remember that after all the highest of all the Gods is only the Magus,<> Mayan, the greatest of all the devils. + You may also try "rising on the planes".<> With a little practice, especially if you have a good Guru, you ought to be able to slip in and out of your astral body as easily as you slip in and out of a dressing-gown. It will then no longer be so necessary for your astral body to be sent far off; without moving an inch you will be able to "turn on" its eyes and ears --- as simply as the man with the microscope (mentioned above) can transfer his complete attention from one eye to the other. + Now, however unsuccessful your getting out the body may apparently have been, it is most necessary to use every effort to bring it properly back. Make the Body of Light coincide in space with the physical body, assume the God-Form, and vibrate the name of Harpocrates with the utmost energy; then recover unity of consciousness. If you fail to do this properly you may find yourself in serious trouble. Your Body of Light may wander away uncontrolled, and be attacked and obsessed. You will become aware of this through the occurrence of headache, bad dreams, or even more serious signs such as hysteria, fainting fits, possibly madness or paralysis. Even the worst of these attacks will probably wear off, but it may leave you permanently damaged to a greater or less extent. {147} + A great majority of "spiritualists", "occultists", "Toshosophists", are pitiable examples of repeated losses from this cause. + The emotional type of religionist also suffers in this way. Devotion projects the fine body, which is seized and vampirized by the demon masquerading as "Christ" or "Mary", or whoever may be the object of worship. Complete absence of all power to concentrate thought, to follow an argument, to formulate a Will, to hold fast to an opinion or a course of action, or even to keep a solemn oath, mark indelibly those who have thus lost parts of their souls. They wander from one new cult to another even crazier. Occasionally such persons drift for a moment into the surrounding of The MASTER THERION, and are shot out by the simple process of making them try to do a half-hour's honest work of any kind. + In projecting the Astral, it is a valuable additional safeguard to perform the whole operation in a properly consecrated circle. + Proceed with great caution, then, but proceed. In time your Body of Light will be as strong against spirits as your other body against the winds of Heaven. All depends upon the development of that Body of Light. It must be furnished with an organism as ramified and balanced as its shadowy brother, the material body. + To recapitulate once more, then, the first task is to develop your own Body of light within your own circle without reference to any other inhabitants of the world to which it belongs. + That which you have accomplished with the subject you may now proceed to do with the object. You will learn to see the astral appearance of material things; and although this does not properly belong to pure clairvoyance, one may here again mention that you should endeavour to the utmost to develop and fortify this Body of Light. The best and simplest way to do this is to use it constantly, to exercise it in every way. In particular it may be employed in ceremonies of initiation or of invocation --- while the physical body remains silent and still. + In doing this it will often be necessary to create a Temple on the astral plane. It is excellent practice to create symbols. This one precaution is needed: after using them, they should be reabsorbed. {148} + Having learned to create astral forms, the next step will be at first very difficult. Phantasmal and fleeting as the astral is in general, those forms which are definitely attached to the material possess enormous powers of resistance, and it consequently requires very high potential to influence them. The material analogues seem to serve as a fortress. Even where a temporary effect is produced, the inertia of matter draws it back to the normal; yet the power of the trained and consecrated will in a well-developed astral body is such that it can even produce a permanent change in the material upon whose Body of Light you are working, e.g.; one can heal the sick by restoring a healthy appearance to their astral forms. On the other hand, it is possible so to disintegrate the Body of Light even of a strong man that he will fall dead. + Such operations demand not only power, but judgment. Nothing can upset the sum total of destiny --- everything must be paid for the uttermost farthing. For this reason a great many operations theoretically possible cannot be performed. Suppose, for example, you see two men of similarly unhealthy astral appearance. In one case the cause may be slight and temporary. Your help suffices to restore him in a few minutes. The other, who looks no worse, is really oppressed by a force incalculably greater than you could control, and you would only damage yourself by attempting to help him. The diagnosis between the two cases could be made by an investigation of the deeper strata of the astral, such as compose the"causal body". + A body of black magicians under Anna Kingsford<> once attempted to kill a vivisector who was not particularly well known; and they succeeded in making him seriously ill. But in attempting the same thing with Pasteur they produced no effect whatever, because Pasteur was a great genius --- an adept in his own line far greater than she in hers --- and because millions of people were daily blessing him. It cannot be too clearly understood that magical force is subject to the same laws of proportion as any other kind of force. It is useless for a mere millionaire to try to bankrupt a man who has the Bank of England behind him. {149} + To sum up, the first task is to separate the astral form from the physical body, the second to develop the powers of the astral body, in particular those of sight, travel, and interpretation; third, to unify the two bodies without muddling them. + This being accomplished, the magician is fitted to deal with the invisible. + + II + + It is now useful to contine with considerations of other planes, which have commonly been classed under the Astral. There is some reason for this, as the delimitations are somewhat vague. Just as the vegetable kingdom merges into the animal, and as the material plane has beings which encroach upon the boundaries of the astral, so do we find it in the higher planes. + The mental images which appear during meditation are subjective, and pertain not at all to the astral plane. Only very rarely do astral images occur during meditation. It is a bad break in the circle, as a rule, when they do. + There is also a Magical Plane. This touches the material, and even includes a portion of it. It includes the Astral, chiefly a full-blooded type of the Astral. It reaches to and includes most, if not all, of the spiritual planes. + The Magical plane is thus the most comprehensive of all. Egyptian Gods are typical inhabitants of this plane, and it is the home of every Adept. + The spiritual planes are of several types, but are all distinguished by a reality and intensity to be found nowhere else. Their inhabitants are formless, free of space and time, and distinguished by incomparable brilliance. + There are also a number of sub-planes, as, for example, the Alchemical. This plane will often appear in the practice of "Rising on the Planes"; its images are usually those of gardens curiously kept, mountains furnished with peculiar symbols, hieroglyphic animals, or such figures as that of the "Hermetic Arcanum", and pictures like the "Goldseekers" and the "Massacre of the Innocents" of Basil Valentine. There is a unique quality about the alchemical Plane which renders its images immediately recognizable. {150} + There are also planes corresponding to various religions past and present, all of which have their peculiar unity. + It is of the utmost importance to the "Clairvoyant" or "traveler in the fine body" to be able to find his way to any desired plane, and operate therein as its ruler. + The Neophyte of A.'. A.'. is examined most strictly in this practice before he is passed to the degree of Zelator. + In "Rising on the Planes" one must usually pass clear through the Astral to the Spiritual. Some will be unable to do this. The "fine body" which is good enough to subsist on lower planes, a shadow among shadows, will fail to penetrate the higher strata. It requires a great development of this body, and an intense infusion of the highest spiritual constituents of man, before he can pierce the veils. The constant practice of Magick is the best preparation possible. Even though the human consciousness fail to reach the goal, the consciousness of the fine body itself may do so, wherefore whoso travels in that body on a subsequent occasion may be found worthy; and its success will react favourably on the human consciousness, and increase its likelihood of success in its next magical operation. + Similarly, the powers gained in this way will strengthen the magician in his mediation-practices. His Will becomes better able to assist the concentration, to destroy the mental images which disturb it, and to reject the lesser rewards of that practice which tempt, and too often stop the progress of, the mystic. + Although it is said that the spiritual lies "beyond the astral", this is theoretical;<> the advanced Magician will not find it to be so in practice. He will be able by suitable invocation to travel directly to any place desired. In Liber 418 an example of perfection is given. The Adept who explored these Aethyrs did not have to pass through and beyond the Universe, the whole of which yet lies within even the inmost (30th) Aethyr. He was able to summon the Aethyrs he wanted, and His chief difficulty was that sometimes {151} He was at first unable to pierce their veils. In fact, as the Book shows, it was only by virtue of successive and most exalted initiations undergone in the Aethyrs themselves that He was able to penetrate beyond the 15th. The Guardians of such fortresses know how to guard. + The MASTER THERION has published the most important practical magical secrets in the plainest language. No one, by virtue of being clever or learned, has understood one word; and those unworthy who have profaned the sacrament have but eaten and drunken damnation to themselves. + One may bring down stolen fire in a hollow tube from Heaven, as The MASTER THERION indeed has done in a way that no other adept dared to do before him. But the thief, the Titan, must foreknow and consent to his doom to be chained upon a lonely rock, the vulture devouring his liver, for a season, until Hercules, the strong man armed by virtue of that very fire, shall come and release him. + The TEITAN<> --- whose number is the number of a man, six hundred and three score and six --- unsubdued, consoled by Asia and Panthea, must send forth constant showers of blessing not only upon Man whose incarnation he is, but upon the tyrant and the persecutor. His infinite pain must thrill his heart with joy, since every pang is but the echo of some new flame that leaps upon the earth lit by his crime. + For the Gods are the enemies of Man; it is Nature that Man must overcome ere he enter into his kingdom.<> The true God {152} is man. In man are all things hidden. Of these the Gods, Nature, Time, all the powers of the universe are rebellious slaves. It is these that men must fight and conquer in the power and in the name of the Beast that hath availed them, the Titan, the Magus, the Man whose number is six hundred and three score and six. + + III + + The practice of Rising on the Planes is of such importance that special attention must be paid to it. It is part of the essential technique of Magick. Instruction in this practice has been given with such conciseness in Liber O, that one cannot do better than quote verbatim (the "previous experiment" referred to in the first sentence is the ordinary astral journey.): + "1. The previous experiment has little value, and leads to few results of importance. But it is susceptible of a development which merges into a form of Dharana --- concentration --- and as such may lead to the very highest ends. The principal use of the practice in {153} the last chapter is to familiarise the student with every kind of obstacle and every kind of delusion, so that he may be perfect master of every idea that may arise in his brain, to dismiss it, to transmute it, to cause it instantly to obey his will. + "2. Let him then begin exactly as before; but with the most intense solemnity and determination. + "3. Let him be very careful to cause his imaginary body to rise in a line exactly perpendicular to the earth's tangent at the point where his physical body is situated (or, to put it more simply, straight upwards). + "4. Instead of stopping, let him continue to rise until fatigue almost overcomes him. If he should find that he has stopped without willing to do so, and that figures appear, let him at all costs rise above them. Yea, though his very life tremble on his lips, let him force his way upward and onward! + "5. Let him continue in this so long as the breath of life is in him. Whatever threatens, whatever allures, though it were Typhon and all his hosts loosed from the pit and leagued against him, though it were from the very Throne of God himself that a voice issues bidding him stay and be content, let him struggle on, ever on. + "6. At last there must come a moment when his whole being is swallowed up in fatigue, overwhelmed by its own inertia. Let him sink (when no longer can he strive, though his tongue be bitten through with the effort and the blood gush from his nostrils) into the blackness of unconsciousness; and then on coming to himself, let him write down soberly and accurately a record of all that hath occurred: yea, a record of all that hath occurred." + + Of course, the Rising may be done from any starting pint. One can go (for example) into the circle of Jupiter, and the results, especially in the lower planes, will be very different to those obtained from a Saturnian starting point. + The student should undertake a regular series of such experiments, in order to familiarise himself not only with the nature of the different spheres, but with the inner meaning of each. Of course, it is not necessary in every case to push the {154} practice to exhaustion, as described in the instructions, but this is the proper thing to do whenever definitely practising, in order to acquire the power of Rising. But, having obtained this power, it is, of course, legitimate to rise to any particular plane that may be necessary for the purpose of exploration, as in the case of the visions recorded in Liber 418, where the method may be described as mixed. In such a case, it is not enough to invoke the place you wish to visit, because you may not be able to endure its pressure, or to breathe its atmosphere. Several instances occur in that record where the seer was unable to pass through certain gateways, or to remain in certain contemplations. He had to undergo certain Initiations before he was able to proceed. Thus, it is necessary that the technique of Magick should be perfected. The Body of Light must be rendered capable of going everywhere and doing everything. It is, therefore, always the question of drill which is of importance. You have got to go out Rising on the Planes every day of your life, year after year. You are not to be disheartened by failure, or too much encouraged by success, in any one practice or set of practices. What you are doing is what will be of real value to you in the end; and that is, developing a character, creating a Karma, which will give you the power to do your will. + + IV + + Divination is so important a branch of Magick as almost to demand a separate treatise. + Genius is composed of two sides; the active and the passive. The power to execute the Will is but blind force unless the Will be enlightened. At every stage of a Magical Operation it is necessary to know what one is doing, and to be sure that one is acting wisely. Acute sensitiveness is always associated with genius; the power to perceive the universe accurately, to analyse, coordinate, and judge impressions is the foundation of all great Work. An army is but a blundering brute unless its intelligence department works as it should. + The Magician obtains the transcendental knowledge necessary to an intelligent course of conduct directly in consciousness by clairvoyance and clairaudience; but communication with superior {155} intelligences demands elaborate preparation, even after years of successful performance. + It is therefore useful to possess an art by which one can obtain at a moment's notice any information that may be necessary. This art is divination. The answers to one's questions in divination are not conveyed directly but through the medium of a suitable series of symbols. These symbols must be interpreted by the diviner in terms of his problem. It is not practicable to construct a lexicon in which the solution of every difficulty is given in so many words. It would be unwieldy; besides, nature does not happen to work on those lines. + The theory of any process of divination may be stated in a few simple terms. + 1. We postulate the existence of intelligences, either within or without the diviner, of which he is not immediately conscious. (It does not matter to the theory whether the communicating spirit so-called is an objective entity or a concealed portion of the diviner's mind.) We assume that such intelligences are able to reply correctly --- within limits --- to the questions asked. + 2. We postulate that it is possible to construct a compendium of hieroglyphs sufficiently elastic in meaning to include every possible idea, and that one or more of these may always be taken to represent any idea. We assume that any of these hieroglyphics will be understood by the intelligences with whom we wish to communicate in the same sense as it is by ourselves. We have therefore a sort of language. One may compare it to a "lingua franca" which is perhaps defective in expressing fine shades of meaning, and so is unsuitable for literature, but which yet serves for the conduct of daily affairs in places where many tongues are spoken. Hindustani is an example of this. But better still is the analogy between the conventional signs and symbols employed by mathematicians, who can thus convey their ideas perfectly<> without speaking a word of each other's languages. {156} + 3. We postulate that the intelligences whom wish to consul are willing, or may be compelled, to answer us truthfully. + Let us first consider the question of the compendium of symbols. The alphabet of a language is a more or less arbitrary way of transcribing the sounds employed in speaking it. The letters themselves have not necessarily any meaning as such. But in a system of divination each symbol stands for a definite idea. It would not interfere with the English language to add a few new letters. In fact, some systems of shorthand have done so. But a system of symbols suitable for divination must be a complete representation of the Universe, so that each is absolute, and the whole insusceptible to increase or diminution. It is (in fact) technically a pantacle in the fullest sense of the word. + Let us consider some prominent examples of such system. We may observe that a common mode of divination is to inquire of books by placing the thumb at random within the leaves. The Books of the Sybil, the works of Vergil, and the Bible have been used very frequently for this purpose. For theoretical justification, one must assume that the book employed is a perfect representation of the Universe. But even if this were the case, it is an inferior form of construction, because the only reasonable conception of the Cosmos is mathematical and hieroglyphic rather than literary. In the case of a book, such as the Book of the Law which is the supreme truth and the perfect rule of life, it is not repugnant to good sense to derive an oracle from its pages. It will of course be remarked that the Book of the Law is not merely a literary compilation but a complex mathematical structure. It therefore fulfils the required conditions. + The principal means of divination in history are astrology, geomancy, the Tarot, the Holy Qabalah, and the Yi King. There are hundreds of others; from pyromancy, oneiromancy, auguries from sacrifices, and the spinning-top of some ancient oracles to the omens drawn from the flight of birds and the prophesying of tea-leaves. It will be sufficient for our present purpose to discuss only the five systems first enumerated. + ASTROLOGY is theoretically a perfect method, since the symbols employed actually exist in the macrocosm, and thus possess a {157} natural correspondence with microcosmic affairs. But in practice the calculations involved are overwhelmingly complicated. A horoscope is never complete. It needs to be supplemented by innumerable other horoscopes. For example, to obtain a judgment on the simplest question, one requires not only the nativities of the people involved, some of which are probably inaccessible, but secondary figures for directions and transits, together with progressed horoscopes, to say nothing of prenatal, mundane, and even horary figures. To appreciate the entire mass of data, to balance the elements of so vast a concourse of forces, and to draw a single judgment therefrom, is a task practically beyond human capacity. Besides all this, the actual effects of the planetary positions and aspects are still almost entirely unknown. No two astrologers agree on all points; and most of them are at odds on fundamental principles.<> This science had better be discarded unless the student chances to feel strongly drawn toward it. It is used by the MASTER THERION Himself with fairly satisfactory results, but only in special cases, in a strictly limited sphere, and with particular precautions. Even so, He feels great diffidence in basing His conduct on the result so obtained. + GEOMANCY has the advantage of being rigorously mathematical. A hand-book of the science is to be found in Equinox I, II. The objection to its use lies in the limited number of the symbols. To represent the Universe by no more than 16 combinations throws too much work upon them. There is also a great restriction arising from the fact that although 15 symbols appear in the final figure, there are, in reality, but 4, the remaining 11 being drawn by an ineluctable process from the "Mothers". It may be added that the tables given in the handbook for the interpretation of the figure are exceedingly vague on the one hand, and insufficiently comprehensive on the other. Some Adepts, however, appear to find this system admirable, and obtain great satisfaction from its use. Once more, the personal equation must be allowed full weight. At one time the MASTER THERION employed it extensively; but He was never wholly at ease with it; He found the {158} interpretation very difficult. Moreover, it seemed to Him that the geomantic intelligences themselves were of a low order, the scope of which was confined to a small section of the things which interested Him; also, they possessed a point of view of their own which was far from sympathetic with His, so that misunderstanding constantly interfered with the Work. + THE TAROT and THE HOLY QABALAH may be discussed together. The theoretical basis of both is identical: The Tree of Life.<> The 78 symbols of the Tarot are admirably balanced and combined. They are adequate to all demands made upon them; each symbol is not only mathematically precise, but possesses an artistic significance which helps the diviner to understand them by stimulating his aesthetic perceptions. The MASTER THERION finds that the Tarot is infallible in material questions. The successive operations describe the course of events with astonishing wealth of detail, and the judgments are reliable in all respects. But a proper divination means at least two hours' hard work, even by the improved method developed by Him from the traditions of initiates. Any attempt to shorten the proceedings leads to disappointment; furthermore, the symbols do not lend themselves readily to the solution of spiritual questions. + The Holy Qabalah, based as it is on pure number, evidently possesses an infinite number of symbols. Its scope is conterminous with existence itself; and it lacks nothing in precision, purity, or indeed in any other perfection. But it cannot be taught;<> each man must select for himself the materials for the main structure of his system. It requires years of work to erect a worthy building. Such a building is never finished; every day spent on it adds new ornaments. The Qabalah is therefore a living Temple of the Holy Ghost. It is the man himself and his universe expressed in terms of thought whose {159} language is so rich that even the letters of its alphabet have no limit. This system is so sublime that it is unsuited to the solution of the petty puzzles of our earthly existence. In the light of the Qabalah, the shadows of transitory things are instantly banished. + The YI KING is the most satisfactory system for general work. The MASTER THERION is engaged in the preparation of a treatise on the subject, but the labour involved is so great that He cannot pledge Himself to have it ready at any definite time. The student must therefore make his own investigations into the meaning of the 64 hexagrams as best he can. + The Yi King is mathematical and philosophical in form. Its structure is cognate with that of the Qabalah; the identity is so intimate that the existence of two such superficially different systems is transcendent testimony to the truth of both. It is in some ways the most perfect hieroglyph ever constructed. It is austere and sublime, yet withal so adaptable to every possible emergency that its figures may be interpreted to suit all classes of questions. One may resolve the most obscure spiritual difficulties no less than the most mundane dilemmas; and the symbol which opens the gates of the most exalted palaces of initiation is equally effective when employed to advise one in the ordinary business of life. The MASTER THERION has found the Yi King entirely satisfactory in every respect. The intelligences which direct it show no inclination to evade the question or to mislead the querent. A further advantage is that the actual apparatus is simple. Also the system is easy to manipulate, and five minutes is sufficient to obtain a fairly detailed answer to any but the most obscure questions. + With regard to the intelligences whose business it is to give information to the diviner, their natures differ widely, and correspond more or less to the character of the medium of divination. Thus, the geomantic intelligences are gnomes, spirits of an earthy nature, distinguished from each other by the modifications due to the various planetary and zodiacal influences which pertain to the several symbols. The intelligence governing Puella is not to be confused with that of Venus or of Libra. It is simply a particular terrestrial daemon which partakes of those natures. {160} + The Tarot, on the other hand, being a book, is under Mercury, and the intelligence of each card is fundamentally Mercurial. Such symbols are therefore peculiarly proper to communicate thought. They are not gross, like the geomantic daemons; but, as against this, they are unscrupulous in deceiving the diviner.<> + The Yi King is served by beings free from these defects. The intense purity of the symbols prevent them from being usurped by intelligences with an axe of their own to grind.<> + It is always essential for the diviner to obtain absolute magical control over the intelligences of the system which he adopts. He must not leave the smallest loop-hole for being tricked, befogged, or mocked. He must not allow them to use casuistry in the interpretation of his questions. It is a common knavery, especially in geomancy, to render an answer which is literally true, and yet deceives. For instance, one might ask whether some business transaction would be profitable, and find, after getting an affirmative answer, that it really referred to the other party to the affair! + There is, on the surface, no difficulty at all in getting replies. In fact, the process is mechanical; success is therefore assured, bar a stroke of apoplexy. But, even suppose we are safe from deceit, how can we know that the question has really been put to another mind, understood rightly, and answered from knowledge? It is obviously possible to check one's operations by clairvoyance, but this is rather like buying a safe to keep a brick in. Experience is the only teacher. One acquires what one may almost call a new sense. One feels in one's self whether one is right or not. The diviner must develop this sense. It resembles the exquisite sensibility of touch which is found in the great billiard player whose fingers can estimate infinitesimal degrees of force, {161} or the similar phenomenon in the professional taster of tea or wine who can distinguish fantastically subtle differences of flavour. + It is a hard saying; but in the order to divine without error, one ought to be a Master of the Temple. Divination affords excellent practice for those who aspire to that exalted eminence, for the faintest breath of personal preference will deflect the needle from the pole of truth in the answer. Unless the diviner have banished utterly from his mind the minutest atom of interest in the answer to his question, he is almost certain to influence that answer in favour of his personal inclinations. + The psycho-analyst will recall the fact that dreams are phantasmal representations of the unconscious Will of the sleeper, and that not only are they images of that Will instead of representations of objective truth, but the image itself is confused by a thousand cross-currents set in motion by the various complexes and inhibitions of his character. If therefore one consults the oracle, one must take sure that one is not consciously or unconsciously bringing pressure to bear upon it. It is just as when an Englishman cross-examines a Hindu, the ultimate answer will be what the Hindu imagines will best please the inquirer. + The same difficulty appears in a grosser form when one receives a perfectly true reply, but insists on interpreting it so as to suit one's desires. The vast majority of people who go to "fortunetellers" have nothing else in mind but the wish to obtain supernatural sanction for their follies. Apart from Occultism altogether, every one knows that when people ask for advice, they only want to be told how wise they are. Hardly any one acts on the most obviously commonsense counsel if it happens to clash with his previous intentions. Indeed, who would take counsel unless he were warned by some little whisper in his heart that he was about to make a fool of himself, which he is determined to do, and only wants to be able to blame his best friend, or the oracle, when he is overtaken by the disaster which his own interior mentor foresees? + Those who embark on divination will be wise to consider the foregoing remarks very deeply. They will know when they are getting deep enough by the fact of the thought beginning to hurt them. It is essential to explore oneself to the utmost, to analyse {162} one's mind until one can be positive, beyond the possibility of error, that one is able to detach oneself entirely from the question. The oracle is a judge; it must be beyond bribery and prejudice. + It is impossible in practice to lay down rules for the interpretation of symbols. Their nature must be investigated by intellectual methods such as the Qabalah, but the precise shape of meaning in any one case, and the sphere and tendency of its application, must be acquired by experience, that is, but induction, by recording and classifying one's experiments over a long period; and --- this is the better part --- by refining one's ratiocination to the point where it becomes instinct or intuition, whichever one likes to call it. + It is proper in cases where the sphere of the question is well marked to begin the divination by invocations of the forces thereto appropriate. An error of judgment as to the true character of the question would entail penalties proportionate to the extent of that error; and the delusions resulting from a divination fortified by invocation would be more serious than if one had not employed such heavy artillery.<> + There can, however, be no objection to preparing oneself by a general purification and consecration devised with the object of detaching oneself from one's personality and increasing the sensitiveness of one's faculties. + All divination comes under the general type of the element Air. The peculiar properties of air are in consequence its uniform characteristics. Divination is subtle and intangible. It moves with mysterious ease, expanding, contracting, flowing, responsive to the slightest stress. It receives and transmits every vibration without retaining any. It becomes poisonous when its oxygen is defiled by passing through human lungs. + There is a peculiar frame of mind necessary to successful divination. The conditions of the problem are difficult. It is obviously necessary for the mind of the diviner to be concentrated absolutely upon his question. Any intrusive thought will confuse the oracle as certainly as the reader of a newspaper is confused {163} when he reads a paragraph into which a few lines have strayed from another column. It is equally necessary that the muscles with which he manipulates the apparatus of divination must be entirely independent of any volition of his. He must lend them for the moment to the intelligence whom he is consulting, to be guided in their movement to make the necessary mechanical actions which determine the physical factor of the operation. It will be obvious that this is somewhat awkward for the diviner who is also a magician, for as a magician he has been constantly at work to keep all his forces under his own control, and to prevent the slightest interference with them by any alien Will. It is, in fact, commonly the case, or so says the experience of The MASTER THERION, that the most promising Magicians are the most deplorable diviners, and vice versa. It is only when the aspirant approaches perfection that he becomes able to reconcile these two apparently opposing faculties. Indeed, there is no surer sign of all-round success than this ability to put the whole of one's powers at the service of any type of task. + With regard to the mind, again, it would seem that concentration on the question makes more difficult the necessary detachment from it. Once again, the diviner stands in need of a considerable degree of attainment in the practices of meditation. He must have succeeded in destroying the tendency of the ego to interfere with the object of thought. He must be able to conceive of a thing out of all relation with anything else. The regular practice of concentration leads to this result; in fact, it destroys the thing itself as we have hitherto conceived it; for the nature of things is always veiled from us by our habit of regarding them as in essential relation without ourselves and our reactions toward them. + One can hardly expect the diviner to make Samadhi with his question --- that would be going too far, and destroy the character of the operation by removing the question from the class of concatenated ideas. It would mean interpreting the question in terms of "without limit", and this imply an equally formless answer. But he should approximate to this extreme sufficiently to allow the question entire freedom to make for itself its own proper links with the intelligence directing the answer, {164} preserving its position on its own plane, and evoking the necessary counterpoise to its own deviation from the norm of nothingness. + We may recapitulate the above reflections in a practical form. We will suppose that one wishes to divine by geomancy whether or no one should marry, it being assumed that one's emotional impulses suggest so rash a course. The man takes his wand and his sand; the traces the question, makes the appropriate pentagram, and the sigil of the spirit. Before tracing the dashes which are to determine the four "Mothers", he must strictly examine himself. He must banish from his mind every thought which can possibly act as an attachment to his proposed partner. He must banish all thoughts which concern himself, those of apprehension no less than those of ardour. He must carry his introspection as far as possible. He must observe with all the subtlety at his command whether it pains him to abandon any of these thoughts. So long as his mind is stirred, however slightly, by one single aspect of the subject, he is not fit to begin to form the figure. He must sink his personality in that of the intelligence hearing the question propounded by a stranger to whom he is indifferent, but whom it is his business to serve faithfully. He must now run over the whole affair in his mind, making sure of this utter aloofness therefrom. He must also make sure that his muscles are perfectly free to respond to the touch of the Will of that intelligence. (It is of course understood that he has not become so familiar with geomancy by dint of practice as to be able to calculate subconsciously what figures he will form; for this would vitiate the experiment entirely. It is, in fact, one of the objections to geomancy that sooner or later one does become aware at the time of tracing them whether the dots are going to be even or odd. This needs a special training to correct). + Physio-psychological theory will probably maintain that the "automatic" action of the hand is controlled by the brain no less than in the case of conscious volition; but this is an additional argument for identifying the brain with the intelligence invoked. + Having thus identified himself as closely as possible with that intelligence, and concentrated on the question as if the "prophesying spirit" were giving its whole attention thereto, he must {165} await the impulse to trace the marks on the sand; and, as soon as it comes let it race to the finish. Here arises another technical difficulty. One has to make 16 rows of dots; and, especially for the beginner, the mind has to grapple with the apprehension lest the hand fail to execute the required number. It is also troubled by fearing to exceed; but excess does not matter. Extra lines are simply null and void, so that the best plan is to banish that thought, and make sure only of not stopping too soon.<> + The lines being traced, the operation is over as far as spiritual qualities are required, for a time. The process of setting up the figure for judgment is purely mechanical. + But, in the judgment, the diviner stands once more in need of his inmost and utmost attainments. He should exhaust the intellectual sources of information at his disposal, and form from them his judgment. But having done this, he should detach his mind from what it has just formulated, and proceed to concentrate it on the figure as a whole, almost as if it were the object of his meditation. One need hardly repeat that in both these operations detachment from one's personal partialities is as necessary as it was in the first part of the work. In setting up the figure, bias would beget a Freudian phantasm to replace the image of truth which the figure ought to be; and it is not too much to say that the entire subconscious machinery of the body and mind lends itself with horrid willingness to this ape-like antic of treason. But now that the figure stands for judgment, the same bias would tend to form its phantasm of wish-fulfilment in a different manner. It would act through the mind to bewray sound judgment. It might, for example, induce one to emphasize the Venereal element in Puella at the expense of the Saturnian. It might lead one to underrate the influence of a hostile figure, or to neglect altogether some element of importance. The MASTER THERION has known cases where the diver was so afraid of an unfavourable answer that he made actual mistakes in the simple mechanical construction of the figure! Finally, in the {166} summing up; it is fatally easy to slur over unpleasantness, and to breathe on the tiniest spark that promises to kindle the tinder --- the rotten rags! --- of hope. + The concluding operation is therefore to obtain a judgment of the figure, independent of all intellectual or moral restraint. One must endeavour to apprehend it as a thing absolute in itself. One must treat it, in short, very much the same as one did the question; as a mystical entity, till now unrelated with other phenomena. One must, so to speak, adore it as a god, uncritically: "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." It must be allowed to impose its intrinsic individuality on the mind, to put its fingers independently on whatever notes it pleases. + In this way one obtains an impression of the true purport of the answer; and one obtains it armed with a sanction superior to any sensible suggestions. It comes from and to a part of the individual which is independent of the influence of environment; is adjusted to that environment by true necessity, and not by the artifices of such adaptations as our purblind conception of convenience induces us to fabricate. + The student will observe from the above that divination is in one sense an art entirely separate from that of Magick; yet it interpenetrates Magick at every point. The fundamental laws of both are identical. The right use of divination has already been explained; but it must be added that proficiency therein, tremendous as is its importance in furnishing the Magician with the information necessary to his strategical and tactical plans, in no wise enables him to accomplish the impossible. It is not within the scope of divination to predict the future (for example) with the certainty of an astronomer in calculating the return of a comet.<> There is always much virtue in divination; for (Shakespeare assures us!) there is "much virtue in IF"! + In estimating the ultimate value of a divinatory judgment, one must allow for more than the numerous sources of error inherent {167} in the process itself. The judgment can do no more than the facts presented to it warrant. It is naturally impossible in most cases to make sure that some important factor has not been omitted. In asking, "shall I be wise to marry?" one leaves it open for wisdom to be defined in divers ways. One can only expect an answer in the sense of the question. The connotation of "wise" would then imply the limitations "in your private definition of wisdom", "in reference to your present circumstances." It would not involve guarantee against subsequent disaster, or pronounce a philosophical dictum as to wisdom in the abstract sense. One must not assume that the oracle is omniscient. By the nature of the case, on the contrary, it is the utterance of a being whose powers are partial and limited, though not to such an extent, or in the same directions, as one's own. But a man who is advised to purchase a certain stock should not complain if a general panic knocks the bottom out of it a few weeks later. The advice only referred to the prospects of the stock in itself. The divination must not be blamed any more than one would blame a man for buying a house at Ypres there years before the World-War. + As against this, one must insist that it is obviously to the advantage of the diviner to obtain this information from beings of the most exalted essence available. An old witch who has a familiar spirit of merely local celebrity such as the toad in her tree, can hardly expect him to tell her much more of private matters than her parish magazine does of public. It depends entirely on the Magician how he is served. The greater the man, the greater must be his teacher. It follows that the highest forms of communicating daemons, those who know, so to speak, the court secrets, disdain to concern themselves with matters which they regard as beneath them. One must not make the mistake of calling in a famous physician to one's sick Pekinese. One must also beware of asking even the cleverest angel a question outside his ambit. A heart specialist should not prescribe for throat trouble. + The Magician ought therefore to make himself master of several methods of divination; using one or the other as the purpose of the moment dictates. He should make a point of organizing a staff of such spirits to suit various {168} occasions. These should be "familiar"spirits, in the strict sense; members of his family. He should deal with them constantly, avoiding whimsical or capricious changes. He should choose them so that their capacities cover the whole ground of his work; but he should not multiply them unnecessarily, for he makes himself responsible for each one that he employs. Such spirits should be ceremonially evoked to visible or semi-visible appearance. A strict arrangement should be made and sworn. This must be kept punctiliously by the Magician, and its infringement by the spirit severely punished. Relations with these spirits should be confirmed and encouraged by frequent intercourse. They should be treated with courtesy, consideration, and even affection. They should be taught to love and respect their master, and to take pride in being trusted by him. + It is sometimes better to act on the advice of a spirit even when one knows it to be wrong, though in such a case one must take the proper precautions against an undesirable result. The reason for this is that spirits of this type are very sensitive. They suffer agonies of remorse on realising that they have injured their Master; for he is their God; they know themselves to be part of him, their aim is to attain to absorption in him. They understand therefore that his interests are theirs. Care must be taken to employ none but spirits who are fit for the purpose, not only by reason of their capacity to supply information, but for their sympathy with the personality of the Magician. Any attempt to coerce unwilling spirits is dangerous. They obey from fear; their fear makes them flatter, and tell amiable falsehoods. It also creates phantasmal projections of themselves to personate them; and these phantasms, besides being worthless, become the prey of malicious daemons who use them to attack the Magician in various ways whose prospect of success is enhanced by the fact that he has himself created a link with them. + One more observation seems desirable while on this subject. Divination of any kind is improper in matters directly concerning the Great Work itself. In the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel, the adept is possessed of all he can possibly need. To consult any other is to insult one's {169} Angel. Moreover, it is to abandon the only person who really knows, and really cares, in favour of one who by the nature of the case, must be ignorant<> of the essence of the matter --- one whose interest in it is no more (at the best) than that of a well-meaning stranger. It should go without saying that until the Magician has attained to the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel he is liable to endless deceptions. He does not know Himself; how can he explain his business to others? How can those others, though they do their best for him, aid in anything but trifles? One must therefore be prepared for disappointment at every stage until one attains to adeptship. + + This is especially true of divination, because the essence of the horror of not knowing one's Angel is the utter bewilderment and anguish of the mind, complicated by the persecution of the body, and envenomed by the ache of the soul. One puts the wrong questions, and puts them wrong; gets the wrong answers, judges them wrong, and acts wrongly upon them. One must nevertheless persist, aspiring with ardour towards one's Angel, and comforted {170} by the assurance that He is guiding one secretly towards Himself, and that all one's mistakes are necessary preparations for the appointed hour of meeting Him. Each mistake is the combing-out of some tangle in the hair of the bride as she is being coiffed for marriage. + On the other hand, although the adept is in daily communication with his Angel, he ought to be careful to consult Him only on questions proper to the dignity of the relation. One should not consult one's Angel on too many details, or indeed on any matters which come within the office of one's familiar spirits. One does not go the the King about petty personal trifles. The romance and rapture of the ineffable union which constitutes Adeptship must not be profaned by the introduction of commonplace cares. One must not appear with one's hair in curl-papers, or complain of the cook's impertinence, if one wants to make the most of the honeymoon.<> + To the Adept divination becomes therefore a secondary consideration, although he can now employ it with absolute confidence, and probably use it with far greater frequency than before his attainment. Indeed, this is likely in proportion as he learns that resort to divination (on every occasion when his Will does not instantly instruct him) with implicit obedience to its counsels careless as to whether or no they may land him in disaster, is a means admirably efficacious of keeping his mind untroubled by external impressions, and therefore in the proper condition to receive the reiterant strokes of rapture with which the love of his Angel ravishes him. + We have now mapped out the boundaries of possibility and propriety which define the physical and political geography of divination. The student must guard himself constantly against supposing that this art affords any absolute means of discovering "truth", or indeed, of using that word as if it meant more than the {171} relation of two ideas each of which is itself as subject to "change without notice" as a musical programme. + Divination, in the nature of things, can do no more than put the mind of the querent into conscious connection with another mind whose knowledge of the subject at issue is to his own as that of an expert to a layman. The expert is not infallible. The client may put his question in a misleading manner, or even base it on a completely erroneous conception of the facts. He may misunderstand the expert's answer, and he may misinterpret its purport. Apart from all this, excluding all error, both question and answer are limited in validity by their own conditions; and these conditions are such that truth may cease to be true, either as time goes on, or if it be flawed by the defect of failure to consider some circumstances whose concealed operation cancels the contract. + In a word, divination, like any other science, is justified of its children. It would be extraordinary should so fertile a mother be immune from still-births, monstrosities, and abortions. + We none of us dismiss our servant science with a kick and a curse every time the telephone gets out of order. The telephone people make no claim that it always works and always works right.<> Divination, with equal modesty, admits that "it often goes wrong; but it works well enough, all things considered. The science is in its infancy. All we can do is our best. We no more pretend to infallibility than the mining expert who considers himself in luck if he hits the bull's eye four times in ten." + The error of all dogmatists (from the oldest prophet with his "literally-inspired word of God" to the newest German professor with his single-track explanation of the Universe) lies in trying to prove too much, in defending themselves against critics by stretching a probably excellent theory to include all the facts and the fables, until it bursts like the overblown bladder it is. + Divination is no more than a rough and ready practical method which we understand hardly at all, and operate only as empirics. Success for the best diviner alive is no more certain in any particular instance than a long putt by a champion golfer. Its calculations {172} are infinitely more complex than Chess, a Chess played on an infinite board with men whose moves are indeterminate, and made still more difficult by the interference of imponderable forces and unformulated laws; while its conduct demands not only the virtues, themselves rare enough, of intellectual and moral integrity, but intuition combining delicacy with strength in such perfection and to such extremes as to make its existence appear monstrous and miraculous against Nature. + To admit this is not to discredit oracles. On the contrary, the oracles fell into disrepute just because they pretended to do more than they could. To divine concerning a matter is little more than to calculate probabilities. We obtain the use of minds who have access to knowledge beyond ours, but not to omniscience. HRU, the great angel set over the Tarot, is beyond us as we are beyond the ant; but, for all we know, the knowledge of HRU is excelled by some mightier mind in the same proportion. Nor have we any warrant for accusing HRU of ignorance or error if we read the Tarot to our own delusion. He may have known, he may have spoken truly; the fault may lie with our own insight.<> + The MASTER THERION has observed on innumerable occasions that divinations, made by him and dismissed as giving untrue answers, have justified themselves months or years later when he was able to revise his judgment in perspective, untroubled by his personal passion. + It is indeed surprising how often the most careless divinations give accurate answers. When things go wrong, it is almost always possible to trace the error to one's own self-willed and insolent presumption in insisting that events shall accommodate themselves to our egoism and vanity. It is comically unscientific to adduce {173} examples of the mistakes of the diviners as evidence that their art is fatuous. Every one knows that the simplest chemical experiments often go wrong. Every one knows the eccentricities of fountain pens; but nobody outside Evangelical circles makes fun of the Cavendish experiment, or asserts that, if fountain pens undoubtedly work now and then, their doing so is merely coincidence. + The fact of the case is that the laws of nature are incomparably more subtle than even science suspects. The phenomena of every plane are intimately interwoven. The arguments of Aristotle were dependent on the atmospheric pressure which prevented his blood from boiling away. There is nothing in the universe which does not influence every other thing in one way or another. There is no reason in Nature why the apparently chance combination of half-a dozen sticks of tortoise-shell should not be so linked both with the human mind and with the entire structure of the Universe that the observation of their fall should not enable us to measure all things in heaven and earth. + With one piece of curved glass we have discovered uncounted galaxies of suns; with another, endless orders of existence in the infinitesimal. With the prism we have analysed light so that matter and force have become intelligible only as forms of light. With a rod we have summoned the invisible energies of electricity to be our familiar spirit serving us to do our Will, whether it be to outsoar the condor, or to dive deeper into the demon world of disease than any of our dreamers dared to dream. + Since with four bits of common glass mankind has learnt to know so much, achieved so much, who dare deny that the Book of Thoth, the quintessentialized wisdom of our ancestors whose civilizations, perished though they be, have left monuments which dwarf ours until we wonder whether we are degenerate from them, or evolved from Simians, who dare deny that such a book may be possessed of unimaginable powers? + It is not so long since the methods of modern science were scoffed at by the whole cultured world. In the sacred halls themselves the roofs rang loud with the scornful laughter of the high priests as each new postulant approached with his unorthodox offering. {174} There is hardly a scientific discovery in history which was not decried as quackery by the very men whose own achievements were scarce yet recognized by the world at large. + Within the memory of the present generation, the possibility of aeroplanes was derisively denied by those very engineers accounted most expert to give their opinions. + The method of divination, the "ratio" of it, is as obscure to-day as was that of spectrum analysis a generation ago. That the chemical composition of the fixed stars should become known to man seemed an insane imagining too ridiculous to discuss. To-day it seems equally irrational to enquire of the desert sand concerning the fate of empires. Yet surely it, if any one knows, should know! + To-day it may sound impossible for inanimate objects to reveal the inmost secrets of mankind and nature. We cannot say why divination is valid. We cannot trace the process by which it performs it marvels.<> But the same objections apply equally well to the telephone. No man knows what electricity is, or the nature of the forces which determine its action. We know only that by doing certain things we get certain results, and that the least error {175} on our part will bring our work to naught. The same is exactly true of divination. The difference between the two sciences is not more than this: that, more minds having been at work on the former we have learnt to master its tricks with greater success than in the case of the latter. + + + ----------- + + +{176} + + + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + OF DRAMATIC RITUALS. + + The Wheel turns to those effectual methods of invocation employed in the ancient Mysteries and by certain secret bodies of initiates to-day. The object of them is almost invariably<> the invocation of a God, that God conceived in a more or less material and personal fashion. These Rituals are therefore well suited for such persons as are capable of understanding the spirit of Magick as opposed to the letter. One of the great advantages of them is that a large number of persons may take part, so that there is consequently more force available; but it is important that they should all be initiates of the same mysteries, bound by the same oaths, and filled with the same aspirations. They should be associated only for this one purpose. + Such a company being prepared, the story of the God should be dramatised by a well-skilled poet accustomed to this form of composition. Lengthy speeches and invocations should be avoided, but action should be very full. Such ceremonies should be carefully rehearsed; but in rehearsals care should be taken to omit the climax, which should be studied by the principal character in private. The play should be so arranged that this climax depends on him alone. By this means one prevents the ceremony from becoming mechanical or hackneyed, and the element of surprise. {177} assists the lesser characters to get out of themselves at the supreme moment. Following the climax there should always be an unrehearsed ceremony, an impromptu. The most satisfactory form of this is the dance. In such ceremonies appropriate libations may be freely used. + The Rite of Luna (Equinox I. VI) is a good example of this use. Here the climax is the music of the goddess, the assistants remaining in silent ecstasy. + In the rite of Jupiter the impromptu is the dance, in that of Saturn long periods of silence. + It will be noticed that in these Rites poetry and music were largely employed --- mostly published pieces by well-known authors and composers. It would be better<<"PERHAPS! One can think of certain Awful Consequences". "But, after all, they wouldn't seem so to the authors!" "But --- pity the poor Gods!" "Bother the Gods!">> to write and compose specially for the ceremony<>. + + + --------- + + +{178} + + + + + + + + CHAPTER XX + + OF THE EUCHARIST + AND OF THE ART OF ALCHEMY + + I + + One of the simplest and most complete of Magick ceremonies is the Eucharist. + It consists in taking common things, transmuting them into things divine, and consuming them. + So far, it is a type of every magick ceremony, for the reabsorption of the force is a kind of consumption; but it has a more restricted application, as follows. + Take a substance<> symbolic of the whole course of nature, make it God, and consume it. + There are many ways of doing this; but they may easily be classified according to the number of the elements of which the sacrament is composed. + The highest form of the Eucharist is that in which the Element consecrated is One. + It is one substance and not two, not living and not dead, neither liquid nor solid, neither hot nor cold, neither male nor female. + This sacrament is secret in every respect. For those who may be worthy, although not officially recognized as such, this Eucharist has been described in detail and without concealment, "somewhere" in the published writings of the MASTER THERION. But He has told no one where. It is reserved for the highest initiates, and is synonymous with the Accomplished Work on the {179} material plane. It is the Medicine of Metals, the Stone of the Wise, the Potable Gold, the Elixir of Life that is consumed therein. The altar is the bosom of Isis, the eternal mother; the chalice is in effect the Cup of our Lady Babalon Herself; the Wand is that which Was and Is and Is To Come. + The Eucharist of "two" elements has its matter of the passives. The wafer (pantacle) is of corn, typical of earth; the wine (cup) represents water. (There are certain other attributions. The Wafer is the Sun, for instance: and the wine is appropriate to Bacchus). + The wafer may, however, be more complex, the "Cake of Light" described in Liber Legis. + This is used in the exoteric Mass of the Phoenix (Liber 333, Cap: 44) mixed with the blood of the Magus. This mass should be performed daily at sunset by every magician. + Corn and wine are equivalent to flesh and blood; but it is easier to convert live substances into the body and blood of God, than to perform this miracle upon dead matter. + The Eucharist of "three" elements has for basis the symbols of the three Gunas. For Tamas (darkness) take opium or nightshade or some sleepy medicine; for Rajas (activity) take strychnine or other excitant; for Sattvas (calm) the cakes of Light may again be suitable.<> + The Eucharist of "four" elements consists of fire, air, water, and earth. These are represented by a flame for fire, by incense or roses for air, by wine for water, and by bread and salt for earth. + The Eucharist of "five" has for basis wine for taste, a rose for smell, a flame for sight, a bell for sound, and a dagger for touch. This sacrament is implied in the Mass of the Phoenix in a slightly different form. {180} + The Eucharist of "six" elements has Father, Son, and Holy Spirit above; breath, water, and blood beneath. It is a sacrament reserved for high initiates.<> + The Eucharist of "seven" elements is mystically identical with that of one. + Of the method of consecrating the elements it is only necessary to say that they should be treated as talismans. The circle and other furniture of the Temple should receive the usual benefit of the banishings and consecrations. The Oath should be taken and the Invocations made. When the divine force manifests in the elements, they should be solemnly consumed. There is also a simpler method of consecration reserved for initiates of high rank, of which it is here unlawful to speak. + According to the nature of the Sacrament, so will its results be. In some one may receive a mystic grace, culminating in Samadhi; in others a simpler and more material benefit may be obtained. + The highest sacrament, that of One element, is universal in its operation; according to the declared purpose of the work so will the result be. It is a universal Key of all Magick. + These secrets are of supreme practical importance, and are guarded in the Sanctuary with a two-edged sword flaming every way<>; for this sacrament is the Tree of Life itself, and whoso partaketh of the fruit thereof shall never die<>. + Unless he so will. Who would not rather work through incarnation; a real renewal of body and brain, than content himself with a stagnant immortality upon this mote in the Sunlight of the Universe which we call earth? {181} + With regard to the preparations for such Sacraments, the Catholic Church has maintained well enough the traditions of the true Gnostic Church in whose keeping the secrets are.<> + Chastity<> is a condition; fasting for some hours previous is a condition; an earnest and continual aspiration is a condition. Without these antecedents even the Eucharist of the One and Seven is partially --- though such is its intrinsic virtue that it can never be wholly --- baulked of its effect. + A Eucharist of some sort should most assuredly be consummated daily by every magician, and he should regard it as the main sustenance of his magical life. It is of more importance than any other magical ceremony, because it is a complete circle. The whole of the force expended is completely re-absorbed; yet the virtue is that vast gain represented by the abyss between Man and God. + The magician becomes filled with God, fed upon God, intoxicated with God. Little by little his body will become purified by the internal lustration of God; day by day his mortal frame, shedding its earthly elements, will become in very truth the Temple of the Holy Ghost. Day by day matter is replaced by Spirit, the human by the divine; ultimately the change will be complete; God manifest in flesh will be his name. + This is the most important of all magical secrets that ever were or are or can be. To a Magician thus renewed the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel becomes an inevitable task; every force of his nature, unhindered, tends to that aim and goal of whose nature neither man nor god may speak, for that it is infinitely beyond speech or thought or {182} ecstasy or silence. Samadhi and Nibbana are but its shadows cast upon the universe. + + II + + If the Master Therion effects by this book nothing else but to demonstrate the continuity of nature and the uniformity of Law, He will feel that His work has not been wasted. In his original design of Part III he did not contemplate any allusion to alchemy. It has somehow been taken for granted that this subject is entirely foreign to regular Magick, both in scope and method. It will be the main object of the following description to establish it as essentially a branch of the subject, and to show that it may be considered simply as a particular case of the general proposition --- differing from evocatory and talismanic Magick only in the values which are represented by the unknown quantities in the pantomorphous equations. + There is no need to make any systematized attempt to decipher the jargon of Hermetic treatises. We need not enter upon an historical discussion. Let it suffice to say that the word alchemy is an Arabic term consisting of the article "al" and the adjective "khemi" which means "that which pertains to Egypt"<>. A rough translation would be "The Egyptian matter". The assumption is that the Mohammedan grammarians held traditionally that the art was derived from that wisdom of the Egyptians which was the boast of Moses, Plato, and Pythagoras, and the source of their illumination. + Modern research (by profane scholars) leaves it still doubtful as to whether Alchemical treatises should be classified as mystical, magical, medical, or chemical. The most reasonable opinion is that all these objects formed the pre-occupation of the alchemists in varying proportions. Hermes is alike the god of Wisdom, Thaumaturgy, therapeutics, and physical science. All these may consequently claim the title Hermetic. It cannot be doubted that such writers as Fludd aspired to spiritual perfection. It is equally sure that Edward Kelly wrote primarily from the point of view {183} of a Magician; that Paracelesus applied himself to the cure of disease and the prolongation of life as the first consideration, although his greatest achievements seem to modern thinkers to have been rather his discoveries of opium, zinc, and hydrogen; so that we tend to think of him as a chemist no less than we do of Van Helmont, whose conception of gas ranks him as one of those rare geniuses who have increased human knowledge by a fundamentally important idea. + The literature of Alchemy is immense. Practically all of it is wholly or partially unintelligible. Its treatises, from the "Asch Metzareph" of the Hebrews to the "Chariot of Antimony" are deliberately couched in hieratic riddles. Ecclesiastical persecution, and the profanation of the secrets of power, were equally dreaded. Worse still, from our point of view, this motive induced writers to insert intentionally misleading statements, the more deeply to bedevil unworthy pretenders to their mysteries. + We do not propose to discuss any of the actual processes. Most readers will be already aware that the main objects of alchemy were the Philosopher's Stone, the Medicine of Metals, and various tinctures and elixirs possessing divers virtues; in particular, those of healing disease, extending the span of life, increasing human abilities, perfecting the nature of man in every respect, conferring magical powers, and transmuting material substances, especially metals, into more valuable forms. + The subject is further complicated by the fact that many authors were unscrupulous quacks. Ignorant of the first elements of the art, they plagiarized without shame, and reaped a harvest of fraudulent gain. They took advantage of the general ignorance, and the convention of mystery, in just the same way as their modern successors do in the matter of all Occult sciences. + But despite all this, one thing is abundantly clear; all serious writers, though they seem to speak of an infinity of different subjects, so much so that it has proved impossible for modern analytic research to ascertain the true nature of any single process, were agreed on the fundamental theory on which they based their practices. It appears at first sight as if hardly any two of them were in accord as to the nature of the "First Matter of the work". {184} They describe this in a bewildering multiplicity of unintelligible symbols. We have no reason to suppose that they were all talking of the same thing, or otherwise. The same remarks apply to every reagent and every process, no less than to the final product or products. + Yet beneath this diversity, we may perceive an obscure identity. They all begin with a substance in nature which is described as existing almost everywhere, and as universally esteemed of no value. The alchemist is in all cases to take this substance, and subject it to a series of operations. By so doing, he obtains his product. This product, however named or described, is always a substance which represents the truth or perfection of the original "First Matter"; and its qualities are invariably such as pertain to a living being, not to an inanimate mass. In a word, the alchemist is to take a dead thing, impure, valueless, and powerless, and transform it into a live thing, active, invaluable and thaumaturgic. + The reader of this book will surely find in this a most striking analogy with what we have already said of the processes of Magick. What, by our definition, is initiation? The First Matter is a man, that is to say, a perishable parasite, bred of the earth's crust, crawling irritably upon it for a span, and at last returning to the dirt whence he sprang. The process of initiation consists in removing his impurities, and finding in his true self an immortal intelligence to whom matter is no more than the means of manifestation. The initiate is eternally individual; he is ineffable, incorruptible, immune from everything. He possesses infinite wisdom and infinite power in himself. This equation is identical with that of a talisman. The Magician takes an idea, purifies it, intensifies it by invoking into it the inspiration of his soul. It is no longer a scrawl scratched on a sheep-skin, but a word of Truth, imperishable, mighty to prevail throughout the sphere of its purport. The evocation of a spirit is precisely similar in essence. The exorcist takes dead material substances of a nature sympathetic to the being whom he intends to invoke. He banishes all impurities therefrom, prevents all interference therewith, and proceeds to give life to the subtle substance thus prepared by instilling his soul. {185} + Once again, there is nothing in this exclusively "magical". Rembrandt van Ryn used to take a number of ores and other crude objects. From these he banished the impurities, and consecrated them to his work, by the preparation of canvasses, brushes, and colours. This done, he compelled them to take the stamp of his soul; from those dull, valueless creatures of earth he created a vital and powerful being of truth and beauty. It would indeed be surprising to anybody who has come to a clear comprehension of nature if there were any difference in the essence of these various formulas. The laws of nature apply equally in every possible circumstance. + We are now in a position to understand what alchemy is. We might even go further and say that even if we had never heard of it, we know what it must be. + Let us emphasize the fact that the final product is in all cases a living thing. It has been the great stumbling block to modern research that the statements of alchemists cannot be explained away. From the chemical standpoint it has seemed not "a priori" impossible that lead should be turned into gold. Our recent discovery of the periodicity of the elements has made it seem likely, at least in theory, that our apparently immutable elements should be modifications of a single one.<> Organic Chemistry, with its metatheses and syntheses dependent on the conceptions of molecules as geometrical structures has demonstrated a praxis which gives this theory body; and the properties of Radium have driven the Old Guard from the redoubt which flew the flag of the essential heterogeneity of the elements. The doctrines of Evolution have brought the alchemical and monistic theory of matter into line with our conception of life; the collapse of the wall between the animal and vegetable kingdoms has shaken that which divided them from the mineral. + But even though the advanced chemist might admit the possibility of transmuting lead into gold, he could not conceive of that {186} gold as other than metallic, of the same order of nature as the lead from which it had been made. That this gold should possess the power of multiplying itself, or of acting as a ferment upon other substances, seemed so absurd that he felt obliged to conclude that the alchemists who claimed these properties for their Gold must, after all, have been referring not to Chemistry, but to some spiritual operations whose sanctity demanded some such symbolic veil as the cryptographic use of the language of the laboratory. + The MASTER THERION is sanguine that his present reduction of all cases of the art of Magick to a single formula will both elucidate and vindicate Alchemy, while extending chemistry to cover all classes of Change. + There is an obvious condition which limits our proposed operations. This is that, as the formula of any Work effects the extraction and visualization of the Truth from any "First Matter", the "Stone" or "Elixir" which results from our labours will be the pure and perfect Individual originally inherent in the substance chosen, and nothing else. The most skilful gardener cannot produce lilies from the wild rose; his roses will always be roses, however he have perfected the properties of this stock. + There is here no contradiction with our previous thesis of the ultimate unity of all substance. It is true that Hobbs and Nobbs are both modifications of the Pleroma. Both vanish in the Pleroma when they attain Samadhi. But they are not interchangeable to the extent that they are individual modifications; the initiate Hobbs is not the initiate Nobbs any more than Hobbs the haberdasher is Nobbs of "the nail an sarspan business as he got his money by". Our skill in producing aniline dyes does not enable us to dispense with the original aniline, and use sugar instead. Thus the Alchemists said: "To make gold you must take gold"; their art was to bring each substance to the perfection of its own proper nature. + No doubt, part of this process involved the withdrawal of the essence of the "First Matter" within the homogeneity of "Hyle", just as initiation insists on the annihilation of the individual in the Impersonal Infinity of Existence to emerge once more as a less confused and deformed Eidolon of the Truth of Himself. This is the guarantee that he is uncontaminated by alien elements. The {187} "Elixir" must possess the activity of a "nascent" substance, just as "nascent" hydrogen combines with arsenic (in "Marsh's test") when the ordinary form of the gas is inert. Again, oxygen satisfied by sodium or diluted by nitrogen will not attack combustible materials with the vehemence proper to the pure gas. + We may summarize this thesis by saying that Alchemy includes as many possible operations as there are original ideas inherent in nature. + Alchemy resembles evocation in its selection of appropriate material bases for the manifestation of the Will; but differs from it in proceeding without personification, or the intervention of alien planes.<> It may be more closely compared with Initiation; for the effective element of the Product is of the essence of its own nature, and inherent therein; the Work similarly consists in isolating it from its accretions. + Now just as the Aspirant, on the Threshold of Initiation, finds himself assailed by the "complexes" which have corrupted him, their externalization excruciating him, and his agonized reluctance to their elimination plunging him into such ordeals that he seems (both to himself and to others) to have turned from a noble and upright man into an unutterable scoundrel; so does the "First Matter" blacken and putrefy as the Alchemist breaks up its coagulations of impurity. + The student may work out for himself the various analogies involved, and discover the "Black Dragon", the "Green Lion", the "Lunar Water", the "Raven's Head", and so forth. The indications above given should suffice all who possess aptitude for Alchemical Research. + Only one further reflection appears necessary; namely, that the Eucharist, with which this chapter is properly preoccupied, must be conceived as one case --- as the critical case --- of the Art of the Alchemist. + The reader will have observed, perhaps with surprise, that The MASTER THERION describes several types of Eucharist. The reason is that given above; there is no substance incompetent to {188} serve as an element in some Sacrament; also, each spiritual Grace should possess its peculiar form of Mass, and therefore its own "materia magica". It is utterly unscientific to treat "God" as a universal homogeneity, and use the same means to prolong life as to bewitch cattle. One does not invoke "Electricity" indiscriminately to light one's house and to propel one's brougham; one works by measured application of one's powers to intelligent analytical comprehension of the conditions of each separate case. + There is a Eucharist for every Grace that we may need; we must apprehend the essential characters in each case, select suitable elements, and devise proper processes. + To consider the classical problems of Alchemy: The Medicine of Metals must be the quintessence of some substance that serves to determine the structure (or rate of vibration) whose manifestation is in characteristic metallic qualities. This need not be a chemical substance at all in the ordinary sense of the word. + The Elixir of Life will similarly consist of a living organism capable of growth, at the expense of its environment; and of such a nature that its "true Will" is to cause that environment to serve it as its means of expression in the physical world of human life. + The Universal Medicine will be a menstruum of such subtlety as to be able to penetrate all matter and transmute it in the sense of its own tendency, while of such impartial purity as to accept perfectly the impression of the Will of the Alchemist. This substance, properly prepared, and properly charged, is able to perform all things soever that are physically possible, within the limits of the proportions of its momentum to the inertia of the object to which it is applied. + It may be observed in conclusion that, in dealing with forms of Matter-Motion so subtle as these, it is not enough to pass the Pons Asinorum of intellectual knowledge. + The MASTER THERION has possessed the theory of these Powers for many years; but His practice is still in progress towards perfection. Even efficiency in the preparation is not all; there is need to be judicious in the manipulation, and adroit in the administration, of the product. He does not perform haphazard miracles, but applies His science and skill in conformity with the laws of nature. + + +{189} + + + + + + + CHAPTER XXI + + OF BLACK MAGIC + OF THE MAIN TYPES OF THE OPERATIONS OF MAGICK ART + AND OF THE POWERS OF THE SPHINX + + I + + As was said at the opening of the second chapter, the Single Supreme Ritual is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. "It is the raising of the complete man in a vertical straight line." + Any deviation from this line tends to become black magic. Any other operation is black magic. + In the True Operation the Exaltation is equilibrated by an expansion in the other three arms of the Cross. Hence the Angel immediately gives the Adept power over the Four Great Princes and their servitors.<> + If the magician needs to perform any other operation than this, it is only lawful in so far as it is a necessary preliminary to That One Work. + There are, however many shades of grey. It is not every magician who is well armed with theory. Perhaps one such may invoke Jupiter, with the wish to heal others of their physical ills. This sort of thing is harmless,<> or almost so. It is not evil in {190} itself. It arises from a defect of understanding. Until the Great Work has been performed, it is presumptuous for the magician to pretend to understand the universe, and dictate its policy. Only the Master of the Temple can say whether any given act is a crime. "Slay that innocent child?" (I hear the ignorant say) "What a horror!" "Ah!" replies the Knower, with foresight of history, "but that child will become Nero. Hasten to strangle him!" + There is a third, above these, who understands that Nero was as necessary as Julius Caesar. + The Master of the Temple accordingly interferes not with the scheme of things except just so far as he is doing the Work which he is sent to do. Why should he struggle against imprisonment, banishment, death? It is all part of the game in which he is a pawn. "It was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory." + The Master of the Temple is so far from the man in whom He manifests that all these matters are of no importance to Him. It may be of importance to His Work that man shall sit upon a throne, or be hanged. In such a case He informs his Magus, who exerts the power intrusted to HIm, and it happens accordingly. Yet all happens naturally, and of necessity, and to all appearance without a word from Him. + Nor will the mere Master of the Temple, as a rule, presume to act upon the Universe, save as the servant of his own destiny. It is only the Magus, He of the grade above, who has attained to Chokhmah, Wisdom, and so dare act. He must dare act, although it like Him not. But He must assume the Curse of His grade, as it is written in the Book of the Magus.<> + There are, of course, entirely black forms of magic. To him who has not given every drop of his blood for the cup of BABALON {191} all magic power is dangerous. There are even more debased and evil forms, things in themselves black. Such is the use of spiritual force to material ends. Christian Scientists, Mental Healers, Professional Diviners, Psychics and the like, are all "ipso facto" Black Magicians. + They exchange gold for dross. They sell their higher powers for gross and temporary benefit. + That the most crass ignorance of Magick is their principal characteristic is no excuse, even if Nature accepted excuses, which she does not. If you drink poison in mistake for wine, your "mistake" will not save your life. + Below these in one sense, yet far above them in another, are the Brothers of the Left Hand Path<>. These are they who "shut themselves up", who refuse their blood to the Cup, who have trampled Love in the Race for self-aggrandisment. + As far as the grade of Exempt Adept, they are on the same path as the White Brotherhood; for until that grade is attained, the goal is not disclosed. Then only are the goats, the lonely leaping mountain-masters, separated from the gregarious huddling valley-bound sheep. Then those who have well learned the lessons of the Path are ready to be torn asunder, to give up their own life to the Babe of the Abyss which is --- and is not --- they. + The others, proud in their purple, refuse. They make themselves a false crown of the Horror of the Abyss; they set the Dispersion of Choronzon upon their brows; they clothe themselves in the poisoned robes of Form; they shut themselves up; and when the force that made them what they are is exhausted, their strong towers fall, they become the Eaters of Dung in the Day of Be-with-us, and their shreds, strewn in the Abyss, are lost. + Not so the Masters of the Temple, that sit as piles of dust in the City of the Pyramids, awaiting the Great Flame that shall consume that dust to ashes. For the blood that they have surrendered is treasured in the Cup of OUR LADY BABALON, a mighty {192} medicine to awake the Eld of the All-Father, and redeem the Virgin of the World from her virginity. + + II + + Before leaving the subject of Black Magic, one may touch lightly on the question of Pacts with the Devil. + The Devil does not exist. It is a false name invented by the Black Brothers to imply a Unity in their ignorant muddle of dispersions. A devil who had unity would be a God<<"The Devil" is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes. This has led to so much confusion of thought that THE BEAST 666 has preferred to let names stand as they are, and to proclaim simply that AIWAZ --- the solar-phallic-hermetic "Lucifer" is His own Holy Guardian Angel, and "The Devil" SATAN or HADIT of our particular unit of the Starry Universe. This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade "Know Thyself!" and taught Initiation. He is "the Devil" of the Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection. The number of His Atu is XV, which is Yod He, the Monogram of the Eternal, the Father one with the Mother, the Virgin Seed one with all-containing Space. He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is Ayin, the Eye; he is Light, and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty. (Note that the "Jehovah" of the Hebrews is etymologically connected with these. The classical example of such antinomy, one which has led to such disastrous misunderstandings, is that between NU and HAD, North and South, Jesus and John. The subject is too abstruse and complicated to be discussed in detail here. The student should consult the writings of Sir R. Payne Knight, General Forlong, Gerald Massey, Fabre d'Olivet; etc. etc., for the data on which these considerations are ultimately based.)>>. + It was said by the Sorcerer of the Jura that in order to invoke the Devil it is only necessary to call him with your whole will. + This is an universal magical truth, and applies to every other being as much as to the Devil. For the whole will of every man is in reality the whole will of the Universe. + It is, however, always easy to call up the demons, for they are always calling you; and you have only to step down to their level {193} and fraternize with them. They will tear you in pieces at their leisure. Not at once; they will wait until you have wholly broken the link between you and your Holy Guardian Angel before they pounce, lest at the last moment you escape. + Anthony of Padua and (in our own times) "Macgregor" Mathers are examples of such victims. + Nevertheless, every magician must firmly extend his empire to the depth of hell. "My adepts stand upright, their heads above the heavens, their feet below the hells."<> + This is the reason why the magician who performs the Operation of the "Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage", immediately after attaining to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, must evoke the Four Great Princes of the Evil of the World. + "Obedience and faith to Him that liveth and triumpheth, that reigneth above you in your palaces as the Balance of Righteousness and Truth" is your duty to your Holy Guardian Angel, and the duty of the demon world to you. + These powers of "evil" nature are wild beasts; they must be tamed, trained to the saddle and the bridle; they will bear you well. There is nothing useless in the Universe: do not wrap up your Talent in a napkin, because it is only "dirty money"! + With regard to Pacts, they are rarely lawful. There should be no bargain struck. Magick is not a trade, and no hucksters need apply. Master everything, but give generously to your servants, once they have unconditionally submitted. + There is also the questions of alliances with various Powers. These again are hardly ever allowable.<> No Power which is not {194} a microcosm in itself --- and even archangels reach rarely to this centre of balance --- is fit to treat on an equality with Man. The proper study of mankind is God; with Him is his business; and with Him alone. Some magicians have hired legions of spirits for some special purpose; but it has always proved a serious mistake. The whole idea of exchange is foreign to magick. The dignity of the magician forbids compacts. "The Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof". + + III + + The operations of Magick art are difficult to classify, as they merge into each other, owing to the essential unity of their method and result. We may mention: + + 1. Operations such as evocation, in which a live spirit is brought from dead matter. + + 2. Consecrations of talismans in which a live spirit is bound into "dead" matter and vivifies the same. + + 3. Works of divination, in which a live spirit is made to control operations of the hand or brain of the Magician. Such works are accordingly most dangerous, to be used only by advanced magicians, and then with great care. + + 4. Works of fascination, such as operations of invisibility, and transformations of the apparent form of the person or thing concerned. This consists almost altogether in distracting the attention, or disturbing the judgment, of the person whom it is wished to deceive. There are, however, "real" transformations of the adept himself which are very useful. See the Book of the Dead for methods. The assumption of God-Forms can be carried to the point of actual transformation. + + 5. Works of Love and Hate, which are also performed (as {195} a rule) by fascination. These works are too easy; and rarely useful. They have a nasty trick of recoiling on the magician. + + 6. Works of destruction, which may be done in many different ways. One may fascinate and bend to one's will a person who has of his own right the power to destroy. One may employ spirits or talismans. The more powerful magicians of the last few centuries have employed books. + In private matters these works are very easy, if they be necessary. An adept known to The MASTER THERION once found it necessary to slay a Circe who was bewitching brethren. He merely walked to the door of her room, and drew an Astral T ("traditore", and the symbol of Saturn) with an astral dagger. Within 48 hours she shot herself.<> + + 7. Works of creation and dissolution, and the higher invocations. + There are also hundreds of other operations;<> to bring wanted objects --- gold, books, women and the like; to open locked doors, to discover treasure; to swim under water; to have armed men at command --- etc., etc. All these are really matters of detail; the Adeptus Major will easily understand how to perform them if necessary.<> {196} + It should be added that all these things happen "naturally".<> Perform an operation to bring gold --- your rich uncle dies and leaves you his money; books --- you see the book wanted in a catalogue that very day, although you have advertised in vain for a year; woman --- but if you have made the spirits bring you enough gold, this operation will become unnecessary.<> + It must further be remarked that it is absolute Black Magic to use any of these powers if the object can possibly be otherwise attained. If your child is drowning, you must jump and try to save him; it won't do to invoke the Undines. + Nor is it lawful in all circumstances to invoke those Undines even where the case is hopeless; maybe it is necessary to you and to the child that it should die. An Exempt Adept on the right road will make no error here --- an Adept Major is only too likely to do so. A through apprehension of this book will arm adepts of every grade against all the more serious blunders incidental to their unfortunate positions. + + IV + + Necromancy is of sufficient importance to demand a section to itself. + It is justifiable in some exceptional cases. Suppose the magician fail to obtain access to living Teachers, or should he need some {197} especial piece of knowledge which he has reason to believe died with some teacher of the past, it may be useful to evoke the "shade" of such a one, or read the "Akasic record" of his mind.<> + If this be done it must be done properly very much on the lines of the evocation of Apollonius of Tyana, which Eliphas Levi performed.<> + The utmost care must be taken to prevent personation of the "shade". It is of course easy, but can rarely be advisable, to evoke the shade of a suicide, or of one violently slain or suddenly dead. Of what use is such an operation, save to gratify curiosity or vanity? + One must add a word on spiritism, which is a sort of indiscriminate necromancy --- one might prefer the word necrophilia --- by amateurs. They make themselves perfectly passive, and, so far from employing any methods of protection, deliberately invite all and sundry spirits, demons, shells of the dead, all the excrement and filth of earth and hell, to squirt their slime over them. This invitation is readily accepted, unless a clean man be present with an aura good enough to frighten these foul denizens of the pit. + No spiritualistic manifestation has ever taken place in the {198} presence even of FRATER PERDURABO; how much less in that of The MASTER THERION!<> + Of all the creatures He ever met, the most prominent of English spiritists (a journalist and pacifist of more than European fame) had the filthiest mind and the foulest mouth. He would break off any conversation to tell a stupid smutty story, and could hardly conceive of any society assembling for any other purpose than "phallic orgies", whatever they may be. Utterly incapable of keeping to a subject, he would drag the conversation down again and again to the sole subject of which he really thought --- sex and sex-perversions and sex and sex and sex and sex again. + This was the plain result of his spiritism. All spiritists are more or less similarly afflicted. They feel dirty even across the street; their auras are ragged, muddy and malodorous; they ooze the slime of putrefying corpses. + No spiritist, once he is wholly enmeshed in sentimentality and Freudian fear-phantasms, is capable of concentrated thought, of persistent will, or of moral character. Devoid of every spark of the divine light which was his birthright, a prey before death to the ghastly tenants of the grave, the wretch, like the mesmerized and living corpse of Poe's Monsieur Valdemar, is a "nearly liquid mass of loathsome, of detestable putrescence." + The student of this Holy Magick is most earnestly warned against frequenting their seances, or even admitting them to his presence. + They are contagious as Syphilis, and more deadly and disgusting. Unless your aura is strong enough to inhibit any manifestation of the loathly larvae that have taken up their habitation in them, shun them as you need not mere lepers!<> {199} + + + V + + Of the powers of the Sphinx much has been written.<> Wisely they have been kept in the forefront of true magical instruction. Even the tyro can always rattle off that he has to know, to dare to will and to keep silence. It is difficult to write on this subject, for these powers are indeed comprehensive, and the interplay of one with the other becomes increasingly evident as one goes more deeply into the subject. + But there is one general principle which seems worthy of special emphasis in this place. These four powers are thus complex because they are the powers of the Sphinx, that is, they are functions of a single organism. + Now those who understand the growth of organisms are aware that evolution depends on adaptation to environment. If an animal which cannot swim is occasionally thrown into water, it may escape by some piece of good fortune, but if it is thrown into water continuously it will drown sooner or later, unless it learns to swim. + Organisms being to a certain extent elastic, they soon adapt themselves to a new environment, provided that the change is not so sudden as to destroy that elasticity. + Now a change in environment involves a repeated meeting of new conditions, and if you want to adapt yourself to any given set of conditions, the best thing you can do is to place yourself cautiously and persistently among them. That is the foundation of all education. + The old-fashioned pedagogues were not all so stupid as some modern educators would have us think. The principle of the system was to strike the brain a series of constantly repeated blows until the proper reaction became normal to the organism. + It is not desirable to use ideas which excite interest, or may come {200} in handy later as weapons, in this fundamental training of the mind. It is much better to compel the mind to busy itself with root ideas which do not mean very much to the child, because you are not trying to excite the brain, but to drill it. For this reason, all the best minds have been trained by preliminary study of classics and mathematics. + The same principle applies to the training of the body. The original exercises should be of a character to train the muscles generally to perform any kind of work, rather than to train them for some special kind of work, concentration of which will unfit them for other tasks by depriving them of the elasticity which is the proper condition of life.<> + In Magick and meditation this principle applies with tremendous force. It is quite useless to teach people how to perform magical operations, when it may be that such operations, when they have learned to do them, are not in accordance with their wills. What must be done is to drill the Aspirant in the hard routine of the elements of the Royal Art. + So far as mysticism is concerned, the technique is extremely simple, and has been very simply described in Part I of this Book 4. It cannot be said too strongly that any amount of mystical success whatever is no compensation for slackness with regard to the technique. There may come a time when Samadhi itself is no part of the business of the mystic. But the character developed by the original training remains an asset. In other words, the person who has made himself a first-class brain capable of elasticity is competent to {201} attack any problem soever, when he who has merely specialized has got into a groove, and can no longer adapt and adjust himself to new conditions. + The principle is quite universal. You do not train a violinist to play the Beethoven Concerto; you train him to play every conceivable consecution of notes with perfect ease, and you keep him at the most monotonous drill possible for years and years before you allow him to go on the platform. You make of him an instrument perfectly able to adjust itself to any musical problem that may be set before him. This technique of Yoga is the most important detail of all our work. The MASTER THERION has been himself somewhat to blame in representing this technique as of value simply because it leads to the great rewards, such as Samadhi. He would have been wiser to base His teaching solely on the ground of evolution. But probably He thought of the words of the poet: + "You dangle a carrot in front of her nose, + And she goes wherever the carrot goes." +For, after all, one cannot explain the necessity of the study of Latin either to imbecile children or to stupid educationalists; for, not having learned Latin, they have not developed the brains to learn anything. + The Hindus, understanding these difficulties, have taken the God-Almighty attitude about the matter. If you go to a Hindu teacher, he treats you as less than an earthworm. You have to do this, and you have to do that, and you are not allowed to know why you are doing it.<> + After years of experience in teaching, The MASTER THERION is not altogether convinced that this is not the right attitude. {202} When people begin to argue about things instead of doing them, they become absolutely impossible. Their minds begin to work about it and about, and they come out by the same door as in they went. They remain brutish, voluble, and uncomprehending. + The technique of Magick is just as important as that of mysticism, but here we have a very much more difficult problem, because the original unit of Magick, the Body of Light, is already something unfamiliar to the ordinary person. Nevertheless, this body must be developed and trained with exactly the same rigid discipline as the brain in the case of mysticism. The essence of the technique of Magick is the development of the body of Light, which must be extended to include all members of the organism, and indeed of the cosmos. + The most important drill practices are: + 1. The fortification of the Body of Light by the constant use of rituals, by the assumption of god-forms, and by the right use of the Eucharist. + 2. The purification and consecration and exaltation of that Body by the use of rituals of invocation. + 3. The education of that Body by experience. It must learn to travel on every plane; to break down every obstacle which may confront it. This experience must be as systematic and regular as possible; for it is of no use merely to travel to the spheres of Jupiter and Venus, or even to explore the 30 Aethyrs, neglecting unattractive meridians.<> {203} + The object is to possess a Body which is capable of doing easily any particular task that may lie before it. There must be no selection of special experience which appeals to one's immediate desire. One must go steadily through all possible pylons. + FRATER PERDRABO was very unfortunate in not having magical teachers to explain these things to Him. He was rather encouraged in unsystematic working. Very fortunate, on the other hand, was He to have found a Guru who instructed Him in the proper principles of the technique of Yoga, and He, having sufficient sense to recognize the universal application of those principles, was able to some extent to repair His original defects. But even to this day, despite the fact that His original inclination is much stronger towards Magick than towards mysticism, he is much less competent in Magick.<> A trace of this can be seen even in His method of combining the two divisions of our science, for in that method He makes concentration bear the Cross of the work. + This is possibly an error, probably a defect, certainly an impurity of thought, and the root of it is to be found in His original bad discipline with regard to Magick. + If the reader will turn to the account of his astral journeys in the Second Number of the First Volume of the Equinox, he will find that these experiments were quite capricious. Even when, in Mexico, He got the idea of exploring the 30 Aethyrs systematically, He abandoned the vision after only 2 Aethyrs had been investigated. {204} + Very different is His record after the training in 1901 e.v. had put Him in the way of discipline.<> + At the conclusion of this part of this book, one may sum up the whole matter in these words: There is no object whatever worthy of attainment but the regular development of the being of the Aspirant by steady scientific work; he should not attempt to run before he can walk; he should not wish to go somewhere until he knows for certain whither he wills to go. + + + --------- + + +{205} + + + + + + + APPENDIX I. + + + The reader will find excellent classical examples of rituals of Magick in The Equinox, Volume I, in the following places --- + +"Number I." --- The supplement contains considerations for preparing + a ritual of self-initiation. The supplement is also a perfect + model of what a magical record should be, in respect of the + form. + +"Number II." --- On pages 244-288 are given several rituals of Initiation. + Pages 302-317 give an account of certain astral visions. + Pages 326-332 give a formula for Rising on the Planes. + +"Number III." --- Pages 151-169 give details of certain magical formulae. + Pages 170-190 are a very perfect example --- classical, old + style --- of a magical ritual for the evocation of the spirit of + Mercury. + Pages 190-197 --- a ritual for the consecration of a talisman. + A very perfect example. + Pages 198-205 --- a very fine example of a ritual to invoke + the Higher Genius. + Pages 208-233 --- Ritual of Initiation, with explanation of the same. + Pages 269-272 --- Ritual of obtaining the Knowledge and Conversation of the + Holy Guardian Angel by the formula of I.A.O. + Pages 272-278 --- Ritual to make one's self invisible. + +"Number IV." --- Pages 43-196 --- Treatise, with model Records, of + Mental Training appropriate to the Magician. {207} + +"Number V." --- The supplement is the most perfect account of + visions extant. They explore the farthest recesses of the + magical universe. + +"Number VI." --- the Supplement gives seven rituals of the dramatic + order, as described in Chapter XIX. + Pages 29-32 --- A highly important magical ritual for daily + use and work. + +"Number VII." --- Pages 21-27 --- Classical ritual to invoke + Mercury; for daily use and work. + Pages 117-157 --- Example of a dramatic ritual in modern + style. + Pages 229-243 --- An elaborate magical map of the universe + on particular principles. + Pages 372-375 --- Example of a seasonal ritual. + Pages 376-383 --- Ritual to invoke Horus. + +"Number VIII." --- Pages 99-128 --- The conjuration of the + elemental spirits. + +"Number IX." --- Pages 117-136 --- Ritual for invoking the spirit of Mars. + +"Number X." --- Pages 57-79 --- Modern example of a magical + ritual in dramatic form, commemorating the return of Spring. + Pages 81-90 --- Fragment of ritual of a very advanced + character. + +VOL. III. + +No. I. --- This volume contains an immense number of articles of + primary importance to every student of magick. + + + The rituals of The Book of Lies and the Goetia are also to + be studied. The "preliminary invocation" of the Goetia is in + particular recommended for daily use and work. + Orpheus, by Aleister Crowley, contains a large number of + magical invocations in verse. There are also a good many + others in other parts of his poetical works. + The following is a complete curriculum of reading officially + approved by the A.'. A.'. + + +{208} + + + + + CURRICULUM OF A.'. A.'. + + COURSE I. + + GENERAL READING. + +SECTION 1. --- Books for Serious Study: + + The Equinox. The standard Work of Reference in all occult matters. The Encyclopaedia of Initiation. + + Collected Works of A. Crowley. These works contain many mystical and magical secrets, both stated clearly in prose, and woven into the robe of sublimest poesy. + + The Yi King. (S.B.E. Series, Oxford University Press.) The "Classic of Changes"; gives the initiated Chinese system of Magick. + + The Tao Teh King. (S.B.E. Series.) gives the initiated Chinese system of Mysticism. + + Tannhauser, by A. Crowley. An allegorical drama concerning the Progress of the soul; the Tannhauser story slightly remodelled. + + The Upanishads. (S.B.E. Series.) The Classical Basis of Vedantism, the best-known form of Hindu Mysticism. + + The Bhagavad-Gita. A dialogue in which Krishna, the Hindu "Christ", expounds a system of Attainment. + + The Voice of the Silence, by H. P. Blavatsky, with an elaborate commentary by Frater O. M. + + The Goetia. The most intelligible of the mediaeval rituals of Evocation. Contains also the favorite Invocation of the Master Therion. + + The Shiva Sanhita. A famous Hindu treatise on certain physical practices. + + The Hathayoga Pradipika. Similar to The Shiva Sanhita. + + Erdmann's "History of Philosophy". A compendious account of philosophy from the earliest times. Most valuable as a general education of the mind. {209} + + The Spiritual Guide of Molinos. A simple manual of Christian mysticism. + + The Star of the West. (Captain Fuller.) An introduction to the study of the Works of Aleister Crowley. + + The Dhammapada. (S.B.E. Series, Oxford University Press.) The best of the Buddhist classics. + + The Questions of King Milinda. (S.B.E. Series.) Technical points of Buddhist dogma, illustrated by dialogues. + + Varieties of Religious Experience. (James.) Valuable as showing the uniformity of mystical attainment. + + Kabbala Denudata, von Rosenroth: also the Kabbalah Unveiled, by S. L. Mathers. + The text of the Kabalah, with commentary. A good elementary introduction to the subject. + + Konx om Pax. Four invaluable treatises and a preface on Mysticism and Magick. + + The Pistis Sophia. An admirable introduction to the study of Gnosticism. + + The Oracles of Zoroaster. An invaluable collection of precepts mystical and magical. + + The Dream of Scipio, by Cicero. Excellent for its Vision and its Philosophy. + + The Golden Verses of Pythagoras, by Fabre d'Olivet. An interesting study of the exoteric doctrines of this Master. + + The Divine Pymander, by Hermes Trismegistus. Invaluable as bearing on the Gnostic Philosophy. + + The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, reprint of Franz Hartmann. An invaluable compendium. + + Scrutinium Chymicum, by Michael Maier. One of the best treatises on alchemy. + + Science and the Infinite, by Sidney Klein. One of the best essays written in recent years. + + Two Essays of the Worship of Priapus, by Richard Payne Knight. Invaluable to all students. {210} + + The Golden Bough, by J. G. Frazer. The Text-Book of folk Lore. Invaluable to all students. + + The Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine. Excellent, though elementary, as a corrective to superstition. + + Rivers of Life, by General Forlong. An invaluable text-book of old systems of initiation. + + Three Dialogues, by Bishop Berkeley. The Classic of subjective idealism. + + Essays of David Hume. The Classic of Academic Scepticism. + + First Principles, by Herbert Spencer. The Classic of Agnosticism. + + Prolegomena, by Emanuel Kant. The best introduction to Metaphysics. + + The Canon. The best text-book of Applied Qabalah. + + The Fourth Dimension, by H. Hinton. The text-book on this subject. + + The Essays of Thomas Henry Huxley. Masterpieces of philosophy, as of prose. + The object of this course of reading is to familiarize the student with all that has been said by the Great Masters in every time and country. He should make a critical examination of them; not so much with the idea of discovering where truth lies, for he cannot do this except by virtue of his own spiritual experience, but rather to discover the essential harmony in those varied works. He should be on his guard against partisanship with a favourite author. He should familiarize himself thoroughly with the method of mental equilibrium, endeavouring to contradict any statement soever, although it may be apparently axiomatic. + The general object of this course, besides that already stated, is to assure sound education in occult matters, so that when spiritual illumination comes it may find a well-built temple. Where the mind is strongly biased towards any special theory, the result of an illumination is often to inflame that portion of the mind which is thus overdeveloped, with the result that the aspirant, instead of becoming an Adept, becomes a bigot and fanatic. {211} + The A.'. A.'. does not offer examination in this course, but recommends these books as the foundation of a library. + +SECTION 2. --- Other books, principally fiction, of a generally + suggestive and helpful kind: + + Zanoni, by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. Valuable for its facts and suggestions about Mysticism. + + A Strange Story, by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. Valuable for its facts and suggestions about Magick. + + The Blossom and the Fruit, by Mabel Collins. Valuable for its account of the Path. + + Petronius Arbiter. Valuable for those who have wit to understand it. + + The Golden Ass, by Apuleius. Valuable for those who have wit to understand it. + + Le Comte de Gabalis. Valuable for its hints of those things which it mocks. + + The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope. Valuable for its account of elementals. + + Undine, by de la Motte Fouque. Valuable as an account of elementals. + + Black Magic, by Marjorie Bowen. An intensely interesting story of sorcery. + + Le Peau de Chagrin, by Honore de Balzac. A magnificent magical allegory. + + Number Nineteen, by Edgar Jepson. An excellent tale of modern magic. + + Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Valuable for its account of legends concerning vampires. + + Scientific Romances, by H. Hinton. Valuable as an introduction to the study of the Fourth Dimension. + + Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. Valuable to those who understand the Qabalah. {212} + + Alice Through the Looking Glass, by Lewis Carroll. Valuable to those who understand the Qabalah. + + The Hunting of the Snark, by Lewis Carroll. Valuable to those who understand the Qabalah. + + The Arabian Nights, translated by either Sir Richard Burton or John Payne. Valuable as a storehouse of oriental magick-lore. + + Morte d'Arthur, by Sir Thomas Mallory. Valuable as a storehouse of occidental Magick-lore. + + The Works of Francois Rabelais. Invaluable for Wisdom. + + The Kasidah, by Sir Richard Burton. Valuable as a summary of philosophy. + + The Song Celestial, by Sir Edwin Arnold. "The Bagavad-Gita" in verse. + + The Light of Asia, by Sir Edwin Arnold. An account of the attainment of Gotama Buddha. + + The Rosicrucians, by Hargrave Jennings. Valuable to those who can read between the lines. + + The Real History of the Rosicrucians, by A. E. Waite. A good vulgar piece of journalism on the subject. + + The Works of Arthur Machen. Most of these stories are of great magical interest. + + The Writings of William O'Neill (Blake). Invaluable to all students. + + The Shaving of Shagpat, by George Meredith. An excellent allegory. + + Lilith, by George MacDonald. A good introduction to the Astral. + + La-Bas, by J. K. Huysmans. An account of the extravagances caused by the Sin-complex. + + The Lore of Proserpine, by Maurice Hewlett. A suggestive enquiry into the Hermetic Arcanum. + + En Route, by J. K. Huysmans. An account of the follies of Christian mysticism. + + Sidonia the Sorceress, by Wilhelm Meinhold. {213} + + The Amber Witch, by Wilhelm Meinhold. + These two tales are highly informative. + + Macbeth; Midsummer Night's Dream; The Tempest, by W. Shakespeare. Interesting for traditions treated. + + Redgauntlet, by Sir Walter Scott. Also one or two other novels. Interesting for traditions treated. + + Rob Roy, by James Grant. Interesting for traditions treated. + + The Magician, by W. Somerset Maugham. An amusing hotchpot of stolen goods. + + The Bible, by various authors unknown. The Hebrew and Greek Originals are of Qabalistic value. It contains also many magical apologues, and recounts many tales of folk-lore and magical rites. + + Kim, by Rudyard Kipling. An admirable study of Eastern thought and life. Many other stories by this author are highly suggestive and informative. + + For Mythology, as teaching Correspondences: + Books of Fairy Tales generally. + Oriental Classics generally. + Sufi Poetry generally. + Scandinavian and Teutonic Sagas generally. + Celtic Folk-Lore generally. + + This course is of general value to the beginner. While it is not to be taken, in all cases, too seriously, it will give him a general familiarity with the mystical and magical tradition, create a deep interest in the subject, and suggest many helpful lines of thought. + It has been impossible to do more, in this list, than to suggest a fairly comprehensive course of reading. + +SECTION 3. --- Official publications of the A.'. A.'. + +"Liber I. + "Liber B vel Magi." + An account of the Grade of Magus, the highest grade which {214} + it is ever possible to manifest in any way whatever upon this + plane. Or so it is said by the Masters of the Temple. + Equinox VII, p. 5. + +"Liber II." + The Message of the Master Therion. Explains the Essence + of the new law in a very simple manner. + Equinox XI (Vol. III, No. 1), p. 39. + +"Liber III. + Liber Jugorum." + An instruction for the control of speech, action and thought. + Equinox IV, p. 9 & Appendix VI of this book. + +"Liber IV. ABA." + A general account in elementary terms of magical and mystical + powers. + Part. 1. "Mysticism" --- published. + 2. "Magick" (Elementary Theory) --- published. + 3. "Magick in Theory and Practice" (this book). + 4. "The Law." Not yet completed. + +"Liber VI. + Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae." + Instructions given for elementary study of the Qabalah, + Assumption of God forms, vibration of Divine Names, the + Rituals of Pentagram and Hexagram, and their uses in + protection and invocation, a method of attaining astral visions + so-called, and an instruction in the practice called Rising on + the Planes. + Equinox II, p. 11 and appendix VI in this book. + +"Liber VII. + Liber Liberi vel Lapis Lazuli, Adumbratio Kabbalae + Aegyptiorum." + sub Figura VII. + Being the Voluntary Emancipation of a certain exempt + Adept from his Adeptship. These are the Birth Words of + a Master of the Temple. {215} + Its 7 chapters are referred to the 7 planets in the + following order: + Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Sol, Mercury, Luna, Venus. + +"Liber VIII." + See CCCCXVIII. + +"Liber IX. + Liber E vel Exercitiorum." + Instructs the aspirant in the necessity of keeping a record. + Suggests methods of testing physical clairvoyance. Gives + instruction in Asana, Pranayama and Dharana, and advises the + application of tests to the physical body, in order that the + student may thoroughly understand his own limitations. + Equinox I, p. 25 & Appendix VI of this Book. + +"Liber X." + "Liber Porta Lucis." + An account of the sending forth of the Master Therion by + the A.'. A.'. and an explanation of His mission. + Equinox VI, p. 3. + +"Liber XI. + Liber NV." + An Instruction for attaining Nuit. + Equinox VII, p. 11. + +"Liber XIII. + Graduum Montis Abiegni." + An account of the task of the Aspirant + from Probationer to Adept. + Equinox III, p. 3. + +"Liber XV. + Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae Cannon Missae." + Represents the original and true pre-Christian Christianity. + Equinox XI (vol. iii, part 1) And Appendix VI of this + book. {216} + +"Liber XVI. + Liber Turris vel Domus Dei." + An Instruction for attainment by the direct destruction of + thoughts as they arise in the mind. + Equinox VI, p. 9. + +"Liber XVII. + Liber I.A.O." + Gives three methods of attainment through a willed series of + thoughts. + Unpublished. It is the active form of Liber CCCLXI. + +"Liber XXI. + The Classic of Purity," by Ko Hsuen. + A new translation from the Chinese by the Master Therion. + Unpublished. + +"Liber XXV. + The Ritual of the Star Ruby." + An improved form of the lesser ritual of the Pentagram, + Liber CCCXXXIII, The Book of Lies, pp. 34 & 35. + Also Appendix VI of this book. + +"Liber XXVII. + Liber Trigrammaton, being a book of Trigrams of the Mutations + of the Tao with the Yin and Yang." + An account of the cosmic process: corresponding to the stanzas + of Dzyan in another system. + Unpublished. + +"Liber XXX. + "Liber Librae." + An elementary course of morality suitable for the average man. + Equinox I, p. 17. + +"Liber XXXIII." + An account of A.'. A.'. first written in the Language of his {217} + period by the Councillor Von Eckartshausen and now revised + and rewritten in the Universal Cipher. + Equinox I, p. 4. + +"Liber XXXVI. + The Star Sapphire." + An improved ritual of the Hexagram. Liber CCCXXXIII + (The Book of Lies), p.p. 46 & 7, and Appendix VI of this + book. + +"Liber XLI. + Thien Tao." + An Essay on Attainment by the Way of Equilibrium. + Knox Om Pax, p. 52 + +"Liber XLIV" + "The Mass of the Phoenix." + A Ritual of the Law. + Liber CCCXXXIII (The Book of Lies), pp. 57-7, and + Appendix VI in this book. + +"Liber XLVI." + "The Key of the Mysteries." + A Translation of "La Clef des Grands Mysteres", by Eliphas + Levi. + Specially adapted to the task of the Attainment of Bhakta- + Yoga. + Equinox X, Supplement. + +"Liber XLIX. + Shi Yi Chien." + An account of the divine perfection illustrated by the seven- + fold permutation of the Dyad. + Unpublished. + +"Liber LI. + The Lost Continent." + An account of the continent of Atlantis: the manners and + customs, magical rites and opinions of its people, together {218} + with a true account of the catastrophe, so called, which ended + in its disappearance. + Unpublished. + +"Liber LV. + The Chymical Jousting of Brother Perardua with the seven + Lances that he brake." + An account of the Magical and Mystic Path in the language + of Alchemy. + Equinox I, p. 88. + +"Liber LVIII." + An article on the Qabalah in Equinox V, p. 65. + +"Liber LIX. + Across the Gulf." + A fantastic account of a previous Incarnation. Its principal + interest lies in the fact that its story of the overthrowing of + Isis by Osiris may help the reader to understand the meaning + of the overthrowing of Osiris by Horus in the present Aeon. + Equinox VII, p. 293. + +"Liber LXI. + Liber Causae." + Explains the actual history and origin of the present move- + ment. Its statements are accurate in the ordinary sense of + the word. The object of the book is to discount Mythopeia. + Equinox XI, p. 55. + +"Liber LXIV. + Liber Israfel," formerly called "Anubis." + An instruction in a suitable method of preaching. + Unpublished. + +"Liber LXV. + Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente." + An account of the relations of the Aspirant with his Holy + Guardian Angel. + Equinox XI (vol. iii, part 1), p. 65. {219} + +"Liber LXVI. + Liber Stellae Rubeae." + A secret ritual, the Heart of IAO-OAI, delivered unto + V.V.V.V.V. for his use in a certain matter of "Liber Legis." + See Liber CCCXXXIII (The Book of Lies), pp. 34-5. Also + Appendix VI in his book. + +"Liber LXVII. + The Sword of Song." + A critical study of various philosophies. An account of + Buddhism. + A. Crowley, Collected Works, Vol. ii, pp. 140-203. + +"Liber LXXI. + The Voice of the Silence, the Two Paths, the Seven Portals," + by H. P. Blavatsky, with an elaborate commentary by Frater + O. M. + Equinox III, I. Supplement. + +"Liber LXXXIII. --- The Urn." + This is the sequel to "The Temple of Solomon the King," and is + the Diary of a Magus. This book contains a detailed account + of all the experiences passed through by the Master Therion + in his attainment of this grade of Initiation, the highest + possible to any manifested Man. + Unpublished. + +"Liber LXXVIII." + A complete treatise on the Tarot giving the correct designs of + the cards with their attributions and symbolic meanings on + all the planes. + Part-published in Equinox VII, p.143. + +"Liber LXXXI. + The Butterfly Net." + An account of a magical operation, particularly concerning the + planet Luna, written in the form of a novel. + Published under the title "Moon-child" by the Mandrake + Press, 41, Museum St., London, W.C.1. {220} + +"Liber LXXXIV. + Vel Chanokh." + A brief abstraction of the Symbolic representation of the + Universe derived by Dr. John Dee through the Scrying of + Sir Edward Kelly. + Part-published in Equinox VII, p. 229 & VIII, p. 99. + +"Liber XC. + Tzaddi vel Hamus Hermeticus." + An account of Initiation, and an indication as to those who are + suitable for the same. + Equinox VI, p. 17. + +"Liber XCV. + The Wake-World." + A poetical allegory of the relations of the soul and the Holy + Guardian Angel. + Knox Om Pax, p. 1. + +"Liber XCVI. + Liber Gaias." + A Handbook of Geomancy. + Equinox II, p. 137. + +"Liber CVI. + A Treatise on the Nature of Death, and the proper attitude + to be taken towards it." + Published in "The International", New York, 1917. + +"Liber CXI (Aleph). + The Book of Wisdom or Folly." + An extended and elaborate commentary on the Book of the + Law, in the form of a letter from the Master Therion to his + magical son. Contains some of the deepest secrets of initiation, + with a clear solution of many cosmic and ethical problems. + Unpublished. + +"Liber CL. + De Lege Libellum." {221} + A further explanation of the Book of the Law, with special + reference to the Powers and Privileges conferred by its + acceptance. + Equinox III, part 1, p. 99. + +"Liber CLVI. + Liber Cheth, vel Vallum Abiegni." + A perfect account of the task of the Exempt Adept considered + under the symbols of a particular plane, not the intellectual. + Equinox VI, p. 23. + +"Liber CLVII. + The Tao Teh King." + A new translation, with a commentary, by the Master Therion. + Unpublished. + +"Liber CLXV. + A Master of the Temple," Being an account of the attainment + of Frater Unus In Omnibus. + The record of a man who actually attained by the system + taught by the A.'. A.'. + Part-published in Equinox III, I, p. 127. + +"Liber CLXXV. + Astarte vel Liber Berylli." + An instruction in attainment by the method of devotion, or + Bhakta-Yogi. + Equinox VII, p. 37. + +"Liber CLXXXV. + Liber Collegii Sancti." + Being the tasks of the Grades and their Oaths proper to + Liber XIII. This is the official paper of the various grades. + It includes the Task and Oath of a Probationer. + Unpublished. + +"Liber CXCVII. + The High History of Good Sir Palamedes the Saracen Knight + and of his following of the Questing Beast." {222} + A poetic account of the Great Work and enumeration of many + obstacles. + Equinox IV, Special Supplement. + +"Liber CC. + Resh vel Helios." + An instruction for the adoration of the Sun four times daily, + with the object of composing the mind to meditation, and of + regularising the practices. + Equinox VI, p. 29. + +"Liber CCVI. + Liber RU vel Spiritus." + Full instruction in Pranayama. + Equinox VII, p. 59. + +"Liber CCVII. + Syllabus." An enumeration of the Official publications of + A.'. A.'. with a brief description of the contents of each book. + Equinox XI (vol. iii part 1), p. 11. + This appendix is extracted therefrom. + +"Liber CCXX (L vel Legis). + The Book of the Law," which is the foundation of the whole work. + Text in Equinox X, p. 9. Short commentary in Equinox VII, + p. 378. Full commentary by the Master Therion through + whom it was given to the world, will be published shortly. + +"Liber CCXVI. + The Yi King." + A new translation, with a commentary by the Master Therion. + Unpublished. + +"Liber CCXXXI. + Liber Arcanorum" GR:tau-omega-nu ATU GR:tau-omicron-upsilon TAHUTI quas + vidit ASAR in AMENNTI sub figura CCXXXI. Liber Carcerorum GR:tau-omega-nu + QLIPHOTH cum suis Geniis. Adduntur Sigilla et Nomina + Eorum. {223} + An account of the cosmic process so far as it is indicated by + the Tarot Trumps. + Equinox VII, p. 69. + +"Liber CCXLII." AHA! + An exposition in poetic language of several of the ways of + attainment and the results obtained. + Equinox III, p. 9 + +"Liber CCLXV. + The Structure of the Mind." + A Treatise on psychology from the mystic an magical stand- + point. Its study will help the aspirant to make a detailed + scientific analysis of his mind, and so learn to control it. + Unpublished. + +"Liber CCC. Khabs am Pekht." + A special instruction for the Promulgation of the Law. This + is the first and most important duty of every Aspirant of + whatever grade. It builds up in him the character and Karma + which forms the Spine of Attainment. + Equinox III, I, p. 171 + +"Liber CCCXXXIII. + The Book of Lies falsely so-called." + Deals with many matters on all planes of the very highest + importance. It is an official publication for Babes of the + Abyss, but is recommended even to beginners as highly + suggestive. + Published. + +"Liber CCCXXXV. Adonis." + An account in poetic language of the struggle of the human + and divine elements in the consciousness of man, giving their + harmony following on the victory of the latter. + Equinox VII, p. 117. + +"Liber CCCLXI. + Liber H.H.H." {224} + Gives three methods of attainment through a willed series of + thoughts. + +"Liber CCCLXV, vel CXX. + The Preliminary Invocation of the Goetia" so-called, with a + complete explanation of the barbarous names of evocation + used therein, and the secret rubric of the ritual, by the Master + Therion. This is the most potent invocation extant, and was + used by the Master Himself in his attainment. + See p. 265 of this book. + +"Liber CD. + Liber TAU vel Kabbalae Truium Literarum sub figura CD." + A graphic interpretation of the Tarot on the plane of initiation. + Equinox VII, p. 75. + +"Liber CCCCXII. + A vel Armorum." + An instruction for the preparation of the elemental Instruments. + Equinox IV, p. 15. + +"Liber CCCCXVIII. + Liber XXX AERUM vel Saeculi." + Being of the Angels of the Thirty Aethyrs, the Vision and the + Voice. Besides being the classical account of the thirty Aethyrs + and a model of all visions, the cries of the Angels should be + regarded as accurate, and the doctrine of the function of the + Great White Brotherhood understood as the foundation of + the Aspiration of the Adept. The account of the Master of + the Temple should in particular be taken as authentic. + Equinox V, Special Supplement. + +"Liber CDLXXIV. Os Abysmi vel Da'ath." + An instruction in a purely intellectual method of entering the + Abyss. + Equinox VII, p. 77. + +"Liber D. Sepher Sephiroth." + A dictionary of Hebrew words arranged according to their {225} + numerical value. This is an Encyclopaedia of the Holy + Qabalah, which is a Map of the Universe, and enables man + to attain Perfect Understanding. + Equinox VIII, Special Supplement. + +"Liber DXXXVI. + A complete Treatise on Astrology." + This is the only text book on astrology composed on scientific + lines by classifying observed facts instead of deducting from "a + priori" theories. + Unpublished. + +"Liber DXXXVI." + GR:Beta-Alpha-Tau-Rho-Alpha-Chi-Omicron-Phi-Rho-Epsilon-Nu-Omicron-Beta-Omicron-Omicron GR:Kappa-Omicron-Sigma-Mu-Omicron-Mu-Alpha-Chi-Iota-Alpha. + An instruction in expansion of the field of the mind. + Equinox X, p. 35. + +"Liber DLV. LIBER HAD." + An instruction for attaining Hadit. + Equinox VII, p. 83. + +"Liber DCXXXIII. + De Thaumaturgia." + A statement of certain ethical considerations concerning + Magick. + Unpublished. + +"Liber DCLXVI. + The Beast." + An account of the Magical Personality who is the Logos of + the present Aeon. + Unpublished. + +"Liber DCCLXXVII. (777). + Vel Prolegomena Symbolica Ad Systemam Sceptico-Mysticae + Viae Explicandae, Fundamentum Hieroglyphicorum sanctissimorum + Scientae Summae." + A complete Dictionary of the Correspondences of all magical + elements, reprinted with extensive additions, making it the {226} + only standard comprehensive book of reference ever published. + It is to the language of Occultism what Webster or Murray + is to the English Language. + The reprint with additions will shortly be published. + +"Liber DCCCXI. + Energised Enthusiasm" + Specially adapted to the task of Attainment of Control of the + Body of Light, development of Intuition and Hathayoga. + Equinox IX, p. 17. + +"Liber DCCCXIII. + vel ARARITA." + An account of the Hexagram and the method of reducing it + to the Unity, and Beyond. + Unpublished. + +"Liber DCCCXXXI. + Liber IOD, formerly called VESTA." + An instruction giving three methods of reducing the manifold + consciousness to the Unity. + Adapted to facilitate the task of the Attainment of Raja-Yoga + and of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian + Angel. + Equinox VII, p. 101. + +"Liber DCCCXXXVII. + The Law of Liberty." This is a further explanation of the + Book of the Law in reference to certain Ethical problems. + Equinox XI (vol. III, No. 1), p. 45. + +"Liber DCCCLX. + John St. John." + The Record of the Magical Retirement of G. H. Frater O.'. M.'. + A model of what a magical record should be, so far as accurate + analysis and fullness of description are concerned. + Equinox I, Supplement. {227} + +"Liber DCCCLXVIII. + Liber Viarum Viae." + A graphical account of magical powers classified under the + Tarot Trumps. + Equinox VII, p. 101. + +"Liber DCCCLXXXVIII." + A complete study of the origins of Christianity. + Unpublished. + +"Liber CMXIII. + Liber Viae Memoriae." + Gives methods for attaining the magical memory, or memory + of past lives, and an insight into the function of the Aspirant + in this present life. + Equinox VII, p. 105. + +"Liber CMXXXIV. + The Cactus." + An elaborate study of the psychological effects produced by + "Anhalonium Lewinii" (Mescal Buttons), compiled from the + actual records of some hundreds of experiments. + Unpublished. + +"Liber DCCCCLXIII. + The Treasure House of Images." + A superb collection of Litanies appropriate to the Signs of the + Zodiac. + Equinox III, Supplement. + +"Liber MMCCMXI. + A Note on Genesis." + A model of Qabalistic ratiocination. Specially adapted to + Gana Yoga. + +"Liber MCCLXIV. + The Greek Qabalah." + A complete dictionary of all sacred and important words and + phrases given in the Books of the Gnosis and other important + writings both in the Greek and the Coptic. + Unpublished. + + +{228} + + + + + APPENDIX II. + + ONE STAR IN SIGHT. + +Thy feet in mire, thine head in murk, + O man, how piteous thy plight, +The doubts that daunt, the ills that irk, + Thou hast nor wit nor will to fight --- +How hope in heart, or worth in work? + No star in sight! + +Thy gods proved puppets of the priest. + "Truth? All's relation!" science sighed. +In bondage with thy brother beast, + Love tortured thee, as Love's hope died +And Lover's faith rotted. Life no least + Dim star descried. + +Thy cringing carrion cowered and crawled + To find itself a chance-cast clod +Whose Pain was purposeless; appalled + That aimless accident thus trod +Its agony, that void skies sprawled + On the vain sod! + +All souls eternally exist, + Each individual, ultimate, +Perfect --- each makes itself a mist + Of mind and flesh to celebrate +With some twin mask their tender tryst + Insatiate. {229} + +Some drunkards, doting on the dream, + Despair that it should die, mistake +Themselves for their own shadow-scheme. + One star can summon them to wake +To self; star-souls serene that gleam + On life's calm lake. + +That shall end never that began. + All things endure because they are. +Do what thou wilt, for every man + And every woman is a star. +Pan is not dead; he liveth, Pan! + Break down the bar! + +To man I come, the number of + A man my number, Lion of Light; +I am The Beast whose Law is Love. + Love under will, his royal right --- +Behold within, and not above, + One star in sight! + + + ONE STAR IN SIGHT. + + A glimpse of the structure and system of the Great White Brotherhood. + + A.'. A.'.<>. + + Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. + + 1. The Order of the Star called S. S. is, in respect of its existence upon the Earth, an organized body of men and women distinguished among their fellows by the qualities here enumerated. They exist in their own Truth, which is both universal and unique. {230} They move in accordance with their own Wills, which are each unique, yet coherent with the universal will. + They perceive (that is, understand, know, and feel) in love, which is both unique and universal. + 2. The order consists of eleven grades or degrees, and is numbered as follows: these compose three groups, the Orders of the S. S., of the R. C., and of the G. D. respectively. + + "The Order of the S. S." + + Ipsissimus .................. 10 Degree = 1Square + Magus ....................... 9 Degree = 2Square + Magister Templi ............. 8 Degree = 3Square + + "The Order of the R. C." + + (Babe of the Abyss --- the link) + + Adeptus Exemptus ............ 7 Degree = 4Square + Adeptus Major ............... 6 Degree = 5Square + Adeptus Minor ............... 5 Degree = 6Square + + "The Order of the G. D." + + (Dominus Liminis --- the link) + + Philosophus ................. 4 Degree = 7Square + Practicus ................... 3 Degree = 8Square + Zelator ..................... 2 Degree = 9Square + Neophyte .................... 1 Degree = 10Square + Probationer ................. 0 Degree = 0Square + + (These figures have special meanings to the initiated and are commonly employed to designate the grades.) + + The general characteristics and attributions of these Grades are indicated by their correspondences on the Tree of Life, as may be studied in detail in the Book 777. + +Student. --- His business is to acquire a general intellectual + knowledge of all systems of attainment, as declared in the + prescribed books. (See curriculum in Appendix I.) {231} + +Probationer. --- His principal business is to begin such practices + as he my prefer, and to write a careful record of the same for + one year. + +Neophyte. --- Has to acquire perfect control of the Astral Plane. + +Zelator. --- His main work is to achieve complete success in Asana + and Pranayama. He also begins to study the formula of the + Rosy Cross. + +Practicus. --- Is expected to complete his intellectual training, and + in particular to study the Qabalah. + +Philosophus. --- Is expected to complete his moral training. He + is tested in Devotion to the Order. + +Dominus Liminis. --- Is expected to show mastery of Pratyahara + and Dharana. + +Adeptus (without). --- is expected to perform the Great Work + and to attain the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy + Guardian Angel. + +Adeptus (within). --- Is admitted to the practice of the formula + of the Rosy Cross on entering the College of the Holy Ghost. + +Adeptus (Major). --- Obtains a general mastery of practical + Magick, though without comprehension. + +Adeptus (Exemptus). --- Completes in perfection all these matters. + He then either ("a") becomes a Brother of the Left + Hand Path or, ("b") is stripped of all his attainments and of himself + as well, even of his Holy Guardian Angel, and becomes + a babe of the Abyss, who, having transcended the Reason, + does nothing but grow in the womb of its mother. It then + finds itself a + +Magister Templi. --- (Master of the Temple): whose functions + are fully described in Liber 418, as is this whole initiation + from Adeptus Exemptus. See also "Aha!". His principal + business is to tend his "garden" of disciples, and to obtain a + perfect understanding of the Universe. He is a Master of + Samadhi. {232} + +Magus. --- Attains to wisdom, declares his law (See Liber I, vel + Magi) and is a Master of all Magick in its greatest and + highest sense. + +Ipsissimus. --- Is beyond all this and beyond all comprehension + of those of lower degrees. + + But of these last three Grades see some further account in "The Temple of Solomon the King", Equinox I to X and elsewhere. + It should be stated that these Grades are not necessarily attained fully, and in strict consecution, or manifested wholly on all planes. The subject is very difficult, and entirely beyond the limits of this small treatise. + We append a more detailed account. + + 3. "The Order of the S. S." is composed of those who have crossed the Abyss; the implications of this expression may be studied in Liber 418, the 14th, 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th, and 9th Aethyrs in particular. + All members of the Order are in full possession of the Formulae of Attainment, both mystical or inwardly-directed and Magical or outwardly-directed. They have full experience of attainment in both these paths. + They are all, however, bound by the original and fundamental Oath of the Order, to devote their energy to assisting the Progress of their Inferiors in the Order. Those who accept the rewards of their emancipation for themselves are no longer within the Order. + Members of the Order are each entitled to found Orders dependent on themselves on the lines of the R. C. and G. D. orders, to cover types of emancipation and illumination not contemplated by the original (or main) system. All such orders must, however, be constituted in harmony with the A.'. A.'. as regards the essential principles. + All members of the Order are in possession of the Word of the existing Aeon, and govern themselves thereby. + They are entitled to communicate directly with any and every member of the Order, as they may deem fitting. + Every active Member of the Order has destroyed all that He is and all that he has on crossing the Abyss; but a star is cast forth in {233} the Heavens to enlighten the Earth, so that he may possess a vehicle wherein he may communicate with mankind. The quality and position of this star, and its functions, are determined by the nature of the incarnations transcended by him. + + 4. The Grade of Ipsissimus is not to be described fully; but its opening is indicated in Liber I vel Magi. + There is also an account in a certain secret document to be published when propriety permits. Here it is only said this: The Ipsissimus is wholly free from all limitations soever, existing in the nature of all things without discriminations of quantity or quality between them. He has identified Being and not-Being and Becoming, action and non-action and tendency to action, with all other such triplicities, not distinguishing between them in respect of any conditions, or between any one thing and any other thing as to whether it is with or without conditions. + He is sworn to accept this Grade in the presence of a witness, and to express its nature in word and deed, but to withdraw Himself at once within the veils of his natural manifestation as a man, and to keep silence during his human life as to the fact of his attainment, even to the other members of the Order. + The Ipsissimus is pre-eminently the Master of all modes of existence; that is, his being is entirely free from internal or external necessity. His work is to destroy all tendencies to construct or to cancel such necessities. He is the Master of the Law of Unsubstantiality (Anatta). + The Ipsissimus has no relation as such with any Being: He has no will in any direction, and no Consciousness of any kind involving duality, for in Him all is accomplished; as it is written "beyond the Word and the Fool, yea, beyond the Word and the Fool". + + 5. The Grade of Magus is described in Liber I vel Magi, and there are accounts of its character in Liber 418 in the Higher Aethyrs. + There is also a full and precise description of the attainment of this Grade in the Magical Record of the Beast 666. + The essential characteristic of the Grade is that its possessor utters a Creative Magical Word, which transforms the planet on {234} which he lives by the installation of new officers to preside over its initiation. This can take place only at an "Equinox of the Gods" at the end of an "Aeon"; that is, when the secret formula which expresses the Law of its action becomes outworn and useless to its further development. + (Thus "Suckling" is the formula of an infant: when teeth appear it marks a new "Aeon", whose "Word" is "Eating"). + A Magus can therefore only appear as such to the world at intervals of some centuries; accounts of historical Magi, and their Words, are given in Liber Aleph. + This does not mean that only one man can attain this Grade in any one Aeon, so far as the Order is concerned. A man can make personal progress equivalent to that of a "Word of an Aeon"; but he will identify himself with the current word, and exert his will to establish it, lest he conflict with the work of the Magus who uttered the Word of the Aeon in which He is living. + The Magus is pre-eminently the Master of Magick, that is, his will is entirely free from internal diversion or external opposition; His work is to create a new Universe in accordance with His Will. He is the Master of the Law of Change (Anicca). + To attain the Grade of Ipsissimus he must accomplish three tasks, destroying the Three Guardians mentioned in Liber 418, the 3rd Aethyr; Madness, and Falsehood, and Glamour, that is, Duality in Act, Word and Thought. + + 6. The Grade of Master of the Temple is described in Liber 418 as above indicated. There are full accounts in the Magical Diaries of the Beast 666, who was cast forth into the Heaven of Jupiter, and of Omnia in Uno, Unus in Omnibus, who was cast forth into the sphere of the Elements. + The essential Attainment is the perfect annihilation of that personality which limits and oppresses his true self. + The Magister Templi is pre-eminently the Master of Mysticism, that is, His Understanding is entirely free from internal contradiction or external obscurity; His word is to comprehend the existing Universe in accordance with His own Mind. He is the Master of the Law of Sorrow (Dukkha). + To attain the grade of Magus he must accomplish Three 235} Tasks; the renunciation of His enjoyment of the Infinite so that he may formulate Himself as the Finite; the acquisition of the practical secrets alike of initiating and governing His proposed new Universe and the identification of himself with the impersonal idea of Love. Any neophyte of the Order (or, as some say, any person soever) possesses the right to claim the Grade of Master of the Temple by taking the Oath of the Grade. It is hardly necessary to observe that to do so is the most sublime and awful responsibility which it is possible to assume, and an unworthy person who does so incurs the most terrific penalties by his presumption. + + 7. "The Order of the R. C." The Grade of the Babe of the Abyss is not a Grade in the proper sense, being rather a passage between the two Orders. Its characteristics are wholly negative, as it is attained by the resolve of the Adeptus Exemptus to surrender all that he has and is for ever. It is an annihilation of all the bonds that compose the self or constitute the Cosmos, a resolution of all complexities into their elements, and these thereby cease to manifest, since things are only knowable in respect of their relation to, and reaction on, other things. + + 8. The Grade of Adeptus Exemptus confers authority to govern the two lower Orders of R. C. and G. D. + The Adept must prepare and publish a thesis setting forth His knowledge of the Universe, and his proposals for its welfare and progress. He will thus be known as the leader of a school of thought. + (Eliphas Levi's "Clef des Grands Mysteres," the works of Swedenborg, von Eckarshausen, Robert Fludd, Paracelsus, Newton, Bolyai, Hinton, Berkeley, Loyola, etc., etc., are examples of such essays.) + He will have attained all but the supreme summits of meditation, and should be already prepared to perceive that the only possible course for him is to devote himself utterly to helping his fellow creatures. + To attain the Grade of Magister Templi, he must perform two tasks; the emancipation from thought by putting each idea against its opposite, and refusing to prefer either; and the consecration of {236} himself as a pure vehicle for the influence of the order to which he aspires. + He must then decide upon the critical adventure of our Order; the absolute abandonment of himself and his attainments. He cannot remain indefinitely an Exempt Adept; he is pushed onward by the irresistible momentum that he has generated. + Should he fail, by will or weakness, to make his self-annihilation absolute, he is none the less thrust forth into the Abyss; but instead of being received and reconstructed in the Third Order, as a Babe in the womb of our Lady BABALON, under the Night of Pan, to grow up to be Himself wholly and truly as He was not previously, he remains in the Abyss, secreting his elements round his Ego as if isolated from the Universe, and becomes what is called a "Black Brother". Such a being is gradually disintegrated from lack of nourishment and the slow but certain action of the attraction of the rest of the Universe, despite efforts to insulate and protect himself, and to aggrandise himself by predatory practices. He may indeed prosper for a while, but in the end he must perish, especially when with a new Aeon a new word is proclaimed which he cannot and will not hear, so that he is handicapped by trying to use an obsolete method of Magick, like a man with a boomerang in a battle where every one else has a rifle. + + 9. The Grade of Adeptus Major confers Magical Powers (strictly so-called) of the second rank. + His work is to use these to support the authority of the Exempt Adept his superior. (This is not to be understood as an obligation of personal subservience or even loyalty; but as a necessary part of his duty to assist his inferiors. For the authority of the Teaching and governing Adept is the basis of all orderly work.) + To attain the Grade of Adeptus Exemptus, he must accomplish Three Tasks; the acquisition of absolute Self-Reliance, working in complete isolation, yet transmitting the word of his superior clearly, forcibly and subtly; and the comprehension and use of the Revolution of the wheel of force, under its three successive forms of Radiation, Conduction and Convection (Mercury, Sulphur, Salt; or Sattvas, Rajas, Tamas), with their corresponding natures on {237} other planes. Thirdly, he must exert his whole power and authority to govern the Members of lower Grades with balanced vigour and initiative in such a way as to allow no dispute or complaint; he must employ to this end the formula called "The Beast conjoined with the Woman" which establishes a new incarnation of deity; as in the legends of Leda, Semele, Miriam, Pasiphae, and others. He must set up this ideal for the orders which he rules, so that they may possess a not too abstract rallying point suited to their undeveloped states. + + 10. The Grade of Adeptus Minor is the main theme of the instructions of the A.'. A.'. It is characterised by the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. (See the Equinox, "The Temple of Solomon the King;" "The Vision and the Voice" 8th Aethyr; also "Liber Samekh", etc. etc.) This is the essential work of every man; none other ranks with it either for personal progress or for power to help one's fellows. This unachieved, man is no more than the unhappiest and blindest of animals. He is conscious of his own incomprehensible calamity, and clumsily incapable of repairing it. Achieved, he is no less than the co-heir of gods, a Lord of Light. He is conscious of his own consecrated course, and confidently ready to run it. The Adeptus Minor needs little help or guidance even from his superiors in our Order. + His work is to manifest the Beauty of the Order to the world, in the way that his superiors enjoin, and his genius dictates. + To attain the Grade Adeptus Major, he must accomplish two tasks; the equilibration of himself, especially as to his passions, so that he has no preference for any one course of conduct over another, and the fulfilment of every action by its complement, so that whatever he does leaves him without temptation to wander from the way of his True Will. + Secondly, he must keep silence, while he nails his body to the tree of his creative will, in the shape of that Will, leaving his head and arms to form the symbol of Light, as if to make oath that his every thought, word and deed should express the Light derived from the God with which he has identified his life, his love and his liberty --- symbolised by his heart, his phallus, and his legs. It {238} is impossible to lay down precise rules by which a man may attain to the knowledge and conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel; for that is the particular secret of each one of us; as secret not to be told or even divined by any other, whatever his grade. It is the Holy of Holies, whereof each man is his own High Priest, and none knoweth the Name of his brother's God, or the Rite that invokes Him. + The Masters of the A.'. A.'. have therefore made no attempt to institute any regular ritual for this central Work of their Order, save the generalised instructions in Liber 418 (the 8th Aethyr) and the detailed Canon and Rubric of the Mass actually used with success by FRATER PERDURABO in His attainment. This has been written down by Himself in Liber Samekh. But they have published such accounts as those in "The Temple of Solomon the King" and in "John St. John." They have taken the only proper course; to train aspirants to this attainment in the theory and practice of the whole of Magick and Mysticism, so that each man may be expert in the handling of all known weapons, and free to choose and to use those which his own experience and instinct dictate as proper when he essays the Great Experiment. + He is furthermore trained to the one habit essential to Membership of the A.'. A.'.; he must regard all his attainments as primarily the property of those less advanced aspirants who are confided to his charge. + No attainment soever is officially recognised by the A.'. A.'. unless the immediate inferior of the person in question has been fitted by him to take his place. + The rule is not rigidly applied in all cases, as it would lead to congestion, especially in the lower grades where the need is greatest, and the conditions most confused; but it is never relaxed in the Order of the R. C. or of the S. S.: save only in One Case. + There is also a rule that the Members of the A.'. A.'. shall not know each other officially, save only each Member his superior who introduced him and his inferior whom he has himself introduced. + This rule has been relaxed, and a "Grand Neophyte" appointed to superintend all Members of the Order of the G. D. The real object of the rule was to prevent Members of the same Grade {239} working together and so blurring each other's individuality; also to prevent work developing into social intercourse. + The Grades of the Order of the G. D. are fully described in Liber 185<>, and there is no need to amplify what is there stated. It must however, be carefully remarked that in each of these preliminary Grades there are appointed certain tasks appropriate, and that the ample accomplishment of each and every one of these is insisted upon with the most rigorous rigidity.<> + Members of the A.'. A.'. of whatever grade are not bound or expected or even encouraged to work on any stated lines, or with any special object, save as has been above set forth. There is however an absolute prohibition to accept money or other material reward, directly or indirectly, in respect of any service connected with the Order, for personal profit or advantage. The penalty is immediate expulsion, with no possibility of reinstatement on any terms soever. + But all members must of necessity work in accordance with the facts of Nature, just as an architect must allow of the Law of Gravitation, or a sailor reckon with currents. + So must all Members of the A.'. A.'. work by the Magical Formula of the Aeon. + They must accept the Book of the Law as the Word and the Letter of Truth, and the sole Rule of Life.<> They must acknowledge the Authority of the Beast 666 and of the Scarlet Woman as {240} in the book it is defined, and accept Their Will<<"Their Will" --- not, of course, their wishes as individual human beings, but their will as officers of the New Aeon.>> as concentrating the Will of our Whole Order. They must accept the Crowned and Conquering Child as the Lord of the Aeon, and exert themselves to establish His reign upon Earth. They must acknowledge that "The word of the Law is GR:Theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha." and that "Love is the law, love under will." + Each member must make it his main work to discover for himself his own true will, and to do it, and do nothing else.<> + He must accept those orders in the Book of the Law that apply to himself as being necessarily in accordance with his own true will, and execute the same to the letter with all the energy, courage, and ability that he can command. This applies especially to the work of extending the Law in the world, wherein his proof is his own success, the witness of his Life to the Law that hath given him light in his ways, and liberty to pursue them. Thus doing, he payeth his debt to the Law that hath freed him by working its will to free all men; and he proveth himself a true man in our Order by willing to bring his fellows into freedom. + By thus ordering his disposition, he will fit himself in the best possible manner for the task of understanding and mastering the divers technical methods prescribed by the A.'. A.'. for Mystical and Magical attainment. + He will thus prepare himself properly for the crisis of his career in the Order, the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel. + His Angel shall lead him anon to the summit of the Order of the R. C. and make him ready to face the unspeakable terror of the Abyss which lies between Manhood and Godhead; teach him to Know that agony, to Dare that destiny, to Will that catastrophe, {241} and to keep Silence for ever as he accomplishes the act of annihilation. + From the Abyss comes No Man forth, but a Star startles the Earth, and our Order rejoices above that Abyss that the Beast hath begotten one more Babe in the Womb of Our Lady, His concubine, the Scarlet Woman, BABALON. + There is not need to instruct a Babe thus born, for in the Abyss it was purified of every poison of personality; its ascent to the highest is assured, in its season, and it hath no need of seasons for it is conscious that all conditions are no more than forms of its fancy. + Such is a brief account, adapted as far as may be to the average aspirant to Adeptship, or Attainment, or Initiation, or Mastership, or Union with God, or Spiritual Development, or Mahatmaship, or Freedom, or Occult Knowledge, or whatever he may call his inmost need of Truth, of our Order of A.'. A.'. + It is designed principally to awake interest in the possibilities of human progress, and to proclaim the principles of the A.'. A.'. + The outline given of the several successive steps is exact; the two crises -- the Angel and the Abyss --- are necessary features in every career. The other tasks are not always accomplished in the order given here; one man, for example, may acquire many of the qualities peculiar to the Adeptus Major, and yet lack some of those proper to the Practicus.<> But the system here given shows {243} the correct order of events, as they are arranged in Nature; and in no case is it safe for a man to neglect to master any single detail, however dreary and distasteful it may seem. It often does so, indeed; that only insists on the necessity of dealing with it. The dislike and contempt for it bear witness to a weakness and incompleteness in the nature which disowns it; that particular gap in one's defences may admit the enemy at the very turning-point of some battle. Worse, one were shamed for ever if one's inferior should happen to ask for advice and aid on that subject and one were to fail in service to him! His failure --- one's own failure also! No step, however well won for oneself, till he is ready for his own advance! + Every Member of the A.'. A.'. must be armed at all points, and expert with every weapon. The examinations in every Grade are strict and severe; no loose or vague answers are accepted. In intellectual questions, the candidate must display no less mastery of his subject than if he were entered in the "final" for Doctor of Science or Law at a first class University. + In examination of physical practices, there is a standardised test. In Asana, for instance, the candidate must remain motionless for a given time, his success being gauged by poising on his head a cup filled with water to the brim; if he spill one drop, he is rejected. + He is tested in "the Spirit Vision" or "Astral Journeying" by giving him a symbol unknown and unintelligible to him, and he must interpret its nature by means of a vision as exactly as if he had read its name and description in the book when it was chosen. + The power to make and "charge" talismans is tested as if they were scientific instruments of precision, as they are. + In the Qabalah, the candidate must discover for himself, and prove to the examiner beyond all doubt, the properties of a number never previously examined by any student. {243} + In invocation the divine force must be made as manifest and unmistakable as the effects of chloroform; in evocation, the spirit called forth must be at least as visible and tangible as the heaviest vapours; in divination, the answer must be as precise as a scientific thesis, and as accurate as an audit; in meditation, the results must read like a specialist's report of a classical case. + But such methods, the A.'. A.'. intends to make occult science as systematic and scientific as chemistry; to rescue it from the ill repute which, thanks both to the ignorant and dishonest quacks that have prostituted its name, and to the fanatical and narrow-minded enthusiasts that have turned it into a fetish, has made it an object of aversion to those very minds whose enthusiasm and integrity make them most in need of its benefits, and most fit to obtain them. + It is the one really important science, for it transcends the conditions of material existence and so is not liable to perish with the planet, and it must be studied as a science, sceptically, with the utmost energy and patience. + The A.'. A.'. possesses the secrets of success; it makes no secret of its knowledge, and if its secrets are not everywhere known and practised, it is because the abuses connected with the name of occult science disincline official investigators to examine the evidence at their disposal. + This paper has been written not only with the object of attracting individual seekers into the way of Truth, but of affirming the propriety of the methods of the A.'. A.'. as the basis for the next great step in the advance of human knowledge. + Love is the law, love under will. + + O. M. 7 Degree= 4Square A.'. A.'. + Praemonstrator of the + Order of the R... C... + + Given from the Collegium ad Spiritum Sanctum, Cefalu, Sicily, in the Seventeenth Year of the Aeon of Horus, the Sun being in 23 Degree Virgo and the Moon in 14 Degree Pisces. + +{244} + + + + APPENDIX III + + + Notes on the nature of the "Astral Plane"<>. + + 1) What are "Astral" and "Spiritual Beings? + Man is one: it is a case of any consciousness assuming a sensible form. + Microcosms and elementals. Maybe an elemental (e.g. a dog) has a cosmic conception in which he is a microcosm and man incomplete. No means of deciding same, as in case of kinds of space.<> + Similarly, our gross matter may appear unreal to Beings clad in fine matter. Thus, science thinks vulgar perceptions "error". We cannot perceive at all except within our gamut; as, concentrated perfumes, which seem malodorous, and time-hidden facts, such as the vanes of a revolving fan, which flies can distinguish. + "Hence:" no "a priori" reason to deny the existence of conscious intelligences with insensible bodies. Indeed we know of other "orders" of mind (flies, etc., possibly vegetables) thinking by means of non-human brain-structures. + But the fundamental problem of Religion is this: Is there any praeter-human Intelligence, of the same order as our own, {245} which is not dependent on cerebral structures consisting of matter in the vulgar sense of the word? + + 2) "Matter" includes all that is movable. Thus, electric waves are "matter". There is no reason to deny the existence of Beings who perceive by other means those subtle forces which we only perceive by our instruments. + + 3) We can influence other Beings, conscious or no, as lion-tamers, gardeners, etc., and are influenced by them, as by storms, bacilli, etc. + + 4) There is an apparent gap between our senses and their correspondences in consciousness. Theory needs a medium to join matter and spirit, just as physics once needed an "ether" to transmit and transmute vibrations. + + 5) We may consider all beings as parts of ourselves, but it is more convenient to regard them as independent. Maximum Convenience is our cannon of "Truth".<> We may thus refer {246} psychical phenomena to the intention of "Astral" Beings, without committing ourselves to any theory. Coherence is the sole quality demanded of us. + + 6) Magick enables us to receive sensible impressions of worlds other than the "physical" universe (as generally understood by profane science). These worlds have their own laws; their inhabitants are often of quasi-human intelligence; there is a definite set of relations between certain "ideas" of ours, and their expressions, and certain types of phenomena. (Thus symbols, the Qabalah, etc. enable us to communicate with whom we choose.) + + 7) "Astral" Beings possess knowledge and power of a different kind from our own; their "universe" is presumably of a different kind from ours, in some respects. (Our idea "bone" is not the same as a dog's; a short-sighted man sees things differently to one of normal vision.) It is more convenient to assume the objective existence of an "Angel" who gives us new knowledge than to allege that our invocation has awakened a supernormal power in ourselves. Such incidents as "Calderazzo"<> and "Jacob"<> make this more cogent. {247} + + 8) The Qabalah maps ourselves by means of a convention. Every aspect of every object may thus be referred to the Tree of Life, and evoked by using the proper keys. + + 9) Time and Space are forms by which we obtain (distorted) images of Ideas. Our measures of Time and Space<> are crude conventions, and differ widely for different Beings. (Hashish shows how the same mind may vary.) + + 10) We may admit that any aspect of any object or idea may be presented to us in a symbolic form, whose relation to its Being is irrational. (Thus, there is no rational link between seeing a bell struck and hearing its chime. Our notion of "bell" is no more than a personification of its impressions on our senses. And our wit and power to make a bell "to order" imply a series of correspondences between various orders of nature precisely analogous to Magick, when we obtain a Vision of Beauty by the use of certain colours, forms, sounds, etc.) + + 11) "Astral" Beings may thus be defined in the same way as "material objects"; they are the Unknown Causes of various observed effects. They may be of any order of existence. We give a physical form and name to a bell but not to its tone, though in each case we know nothing but our own impressions. But we record musical sounds by a special convention. We may therefore call a certain set of qualities "Ratziel", or describe an impression as "Saturnian" without pretending to know what anything is in itself. All we need is to know how to cast a bell that will please our ears, or how to evoke a "spirit" that will tell us things that are hidden from our intellectual faculties. + + 12) (a) Every object soever may be considered as possessed of an "Astral shape", sensible to our subtle perceptions. This "astral shape" is to its material basis as our human character is to our physical appearance. We may imagine this astral shape: e.g. we may "see" a jar of opium as a soft seductive woman with a cruel smile, just as we see in the face of a cunning and dishonest man the features of some animal, such as a fox. {248} + (b) We may select any particular property of any object, and give it an astral shape. Thus, we may take the tricky perils of a mountain, and personify them as "trolls", or the destructive energies of the simoom, as "Jinn". + (c) We may analyse any of these symbols, obtaining a finer form; thus the "spirit" contains an "angel", the angel an "archangel", etc. + (d) We may synthesize any set of symbols, obtaining a more general form. Thus we may group various types of earth-spirit as gnomes. + (e) All these may be attributed to the Tree of Life, and dealt with accordingly. + (f) The Magician may prepare a sensible body for any of these symbols, and evoke them by the proper rites. + + 13) The "reality" or "objectivity" of these symbols is not pertinent to the discussion. The ideas of X to the 4 power and Sq.Rt.of subscript -1 have proved useful to the progress of mathematical advance toward Truth; it is no odds whether a Fourth Dimension "exists", or whether Sq.Rt.of subscript -1 has "meaning" in the sense that Sq.Rt.of subscript 4 has, the number of units in the side of a square of 4 units. + The Astral Plane --- real or imaginary --- is a danger to anybody who takes it without the grain of salt contained in the Wisdom of the above point of view; who violates its laws either wilfully, carelessly, ignorantly, or by presuming that their psychological character differentiates them from physical laws in the narrower sense; or who abdicates his autonomy, on the ground that the subtler nature of astral phenomena guarantees their authority and integrity. + + (14) The variety of the general character of the "planes" of being is indefinitely large. But there are several main types of symbolism corresponding to the forms of plastic presentation established by the minds of Mankind. Each such "plane" has its special appearances, inhabitants, and laws --- special cases of the general proposition. Notable among these are the "Egyptian" plane, which conforms with the ideas and methods of magick once in vogue in the Nile valley; the "Celtic" plane, close akin to {249} "Fairyland", with a Pagan Pantheism as its keynote, sometimes concealed by Christian nomenclature: the "Alchemical" plane, where the Great Work is often presented under the form of symbolically constructed landscapes occupied by quasi-heraldic animals and human types hieroglyphically distinguished, who carry on the mysterious operations of the Hermetic Art. + There are also "planes" of Parable, of Fable, and of Folk-lore; in short, every country, creed, and literature has given its characteristic mode of presentation to some "plane" or other. + But there are "planes" proper to every clairvoyant who explores the Astral Light without prejudice; in such case, things assume the form of his own mind, and his perception will be clear in proportion to his personal purity. + On the higher planes, the diversity of form, due to grossness, tends to disappear. Thus, the Astral Vision of "Isis" is utterly unlike that of "Kali". The one is of Motherhood and Wisdom, ineffably candid, clear, and loving; the other of Murder and madness, blood-intoxicated, lust-befogged, and cruel. The sole link is the Woman-symbol. But whoso makes Samadhi on Kali obtains the self-same Illumination as if it had been Isis; for in both cases he attains identity with the Quintessence of the Woman-Idea, untrammelled by the qualities with which the dwellers by the Nile and the Ganges respectively disguised it. + + Thus, in low grades of initiation, dogmatic quarrels are inflamed by astral experience; as when Saint John distinguishes between the Whore BABALON and the Woman clothed with the Sun, between the Lamb that was slain and the Beast 666 whose deadly wound was healed; nor understands that Satan, the Old Serpent, in the Abyss, the Lake of Fire and Sulphur, is the Sun-Father, the vibration of Life, Lord of Infinite Space that flames with His Consuming Energy, and is also that throned Light whose Spirit is suffused throughout the City of Jewels. + Each "plane" is a veil of the one above it; the original individual Ideas become diversified as they express their elements. Two men with almost identical ideas on a subject would write two totally different treatises upon it. + + 15) The general control of the Astral Plane, the ability to find {250} one's way about it, to penetrate such sanctuaries as are guarded from the profane, to make such relations with its inhabitants as may avail to acquire knowledge and power, or to command service; all this is a question of the general Magical attainment of the student. + He must be absolutely at ease in his Body of Light, and have made it invulnerable. He must be adept in assuming all God-forms, in using all weapons, sigils, gestures, words, and signs. He must be familiar with the names and numbers pertinent to the work in hand. He must be alert, sensitive, and ready to exert his authority; yet courteous, gracious, patient, and sympathetic. + + 16) There are two opposite methods of exploring the Astral Plane. + (a). One may take some actual object in Nature, and analyse it by evoking its astral form, thus bringing it into knowledge and under control by applying the keys of the Qabalah and of Magick. + (b). One may proceed by invoking the required idea, and giving body to the same by attracting to it the corresponding elements in Nature. + + 17) Every Magician possesses an Astral Universe peculiar to himself, just as no man's experience of the world is coterminous with that of another. There will be a general agreement on the main points, of course; and so the Master Therion is able to describe the principal properties of these "planes", and their laws, just as he might write a geography giving an account of the Five Continents, the Oceans and Seas, the most notable mountains and rivers; he could not pretend to put forth the whole knowledge that any one peasant possesses in respect of his district. But, to the peasant, these petty details are precisely the most important items in his daily life. Likewise, the Magician will be grateful to the Master Therion for the Compass that guides him at night, the Map that extends his comprehension of his country, and shows him how best he may travel afield, the advice as to Sandals and Staff that make surer his feet, and the Book that tells him how, splitting open his rocks with an Hammer, he may be master of their Virgin Gold. But he will understand that his own {251} career on earth is his kingdom, that even the Master Therion is no more than a fellow man in another valley, and that he must explore and exploit his own inheritance with his own eyes and hands. + The Magician must not accept the Master Therion's account of the Astral Plane, His Qabalistic discoveries, His instructions in Magick. They may be correct in the main for most men; yet they cannot be wholly true for any save Him, even as no two artists can make identical pictures of the same subject. + More, even in fundamentals, though these things be Truth for all Mankind, as we carelessly say, any one particular Magician may be the one man for whom they are false. May not the flag that seems red to ten thousand seem green to some one other? Then, every man and every woman being a Star, that which is green to him is verily green; if he consent to the crowd and call it red, hath he not broken the Staff of Truth that he leaneth upon? + Each and every man therefore that will be a Magician must explore the Universe for himself. This is pre-eminently the case in the matter of the Astral Plane, because the symbols are so sensitive. Nothing is easier than to suggest visions, or to fashion phantasms to suit one's ideas. It is obviously impossible to communicate with an independent intelligence --- the one real object of astral research --- if one allows one's imagination to surround one with courtiers of one's own creation. If one expects one's visions to resemble those of the Master Therion, they are only too likely to do so; and if one's respect for Him induces one to accept such visions as authentic, one is being false to one's soul; the visions themselves will avenge it. The true Guide being gone, the seer will stray into a wilderness of terror where he is tricked and tortured; he will invoke his idol the Master Therion, and fashion in His image a frightful phantasm who will mock him in his misery, until his mind stagger and fall; and, Madness swooping upon his carrion, blast his eyes with the horror of seeing his Master dissolve into that appalling hallucination, the "Vision of THE DEMON CROWLEY!" + Remember, then, always, but especially when dealing with the Astral Plane, that man's breath stirs the Feather of Truth. What {252} one sees and hears is "real" in its way, whether it be itself, or distorted by one's desires, or created by one's personality. There is no touchstone of truth: the authentic Nakhiel is indistinguishable from the image of the Magician's private idea of Nakhiel, so far as he is concerned. The stronger one is to create, the more readily the Astral Light responds, and coagulates creatures of this kind. Not that such creation is necessarily an error; but it is another branch of one's Work. One cannot obtain outside help from inside sources. One must use precautions similar to those recommended in the chapter of Divination. + The Magician may go on for a long time being fooled and flattered by the Astrals that he has himself modified or manufactured. Their natural subservience to himself will please him, poor ape! + They will pretend to show him marvellous mysteries, pageants of beauty and wonder unspeakably splendid; he will incline to accept them as true, for the very reason that they are images of himself idealized by the imagination. + But his real progress will stop dead. These phantasms will prevent him from coming into contact with independent intelligences, from whom alone he can learn anything new. + He will become increasingly interested in himself, imagine himself to be attaining one initiation after another. His Ego will expand unchecked, till he seem to himself to have heaven at his feet. Yet all this will be nothing but his fool's face of Narcissus smirking up from the pool that will drown him. + Error of this kind on the Astral Plane --- in quite ordinary visions with no apparent moral import --- may lead to the most serious mischief. Firstly, mistakes mislead; to pollute one's view of Jupiter by permitting the influence of Venus to distort it may end in finding oneself at odds with Jupiter, later on, in some crisis of one's work. + Secondly, the habit of making mistakes and leaving them uncorrected grows upon one. He who begins by "spelling Jeheshua with a 'Resh'" may end by writing the name of the Dweller on the Threshold by mistake for that of his Angel. {253} + Lastly, Magick is a Pyramid, built layer by layer. The work of the Body of Light --- with the technique of Yoga --- is the foundation of the whole. One's apprehension of the Astral Plane must be accurate, for Angels, Archangels, and Gods are derived therefrom by analysis. One must have pure materials if one wishes to brew pure beer. + If one have an incomplete and incorrect view of the universe, how can one find out its laws? + Thus, original omission or error tends to extend to the higher planes. Suppose a Magician, invoking Sol, were persuaded by a plausible spirit of Saturn that he was the Solar Intelligence required, and bade him eschew human love if he would attain to the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel; and suppose that his will, and that Angel's nature, were such that the Crux of their Formula was Lyrical Exaltation! + Apart from the regular tests --- made at the time --- of the integrity of any spirit, the Magician must make a careful record of every vision, omitting no detail; he must then make sure that it tallies in every point with the correspondences in Book 777 and in Liber D. Should he find (for instance) that, having invoked Mercury, his vision contains names whose numbers are Martial, or elements proper to Pisces, let him set himself most earnestly to discover the source of error, to correct it, and to prevent its recurrence. + But these tests, as implied above, will not serve to detect personation by self-suggested phantasms. Unless one's aura be a welter of muddled symbols beyond recognition, the more autohypnotic the vision is, the more smoothly it satisfies the seer's standards. There is nothing to puzzle him or oppose him; so he spins out his story with careless contempt of criticism. He can always prove himself right; the Qabalah can always be stretched; and Red being so nearly Orange, which is really a shade of Yellow, and Yellow a component of Green which merges into Blue, what harm if a Fiend in Vermilion appears instead of an Angel in Azure? + The true, the final test, of the Truth of one's visions is their Value. The most glorious experience on the Astral plane, let it dazzle and thrill as it may, is not necessarily in accordance with {254} the True Will of the seer; if not, though it be never so true objectively, it is not true for him, because not useful for him. (Said we not a while ago that Truth was no more than the Most Convenient Manner of Statement?) + It may intoxicate and exalt the Seer, it may inspire and fortify him in every way, it may throw light upon most holy mysteries, yet withal be no more than an interpretation of the individual to himself, the formula not of Abraham but of Onan. + These plastic "Portraits of the Artist as a Young Man" are well enough for those who have heard "Know Thyself". They are necessary, even, to assist that analysis of one's nature which the Probationer of A.'. A.'. is sworn to accomplish. But "Love is the law, love under will." And Our Lady Nuit is "... divided for love's sake, for the chance of union." These mirror-mirages are therefore not Works of Magick, according to the Law of Thelema: the true Magick of Horus requires the passionate union of opposites. + Now the proof that one is in contact with an independent entity depends on a sensation which ought to be unmistakeable if one is in good health. One ought not to be liable to mistake one's own sensible impressions for somebody else's! It is only Man's incurable vanity that makes the Astral "Strayed Reveller" or the mystic confuse his own drunken babble with the voice of the Most High. + The essence of the right sensation consists in recognition of the reality of the other Being. There will be as a rule some element of hostility, even when the reaction is sympathetic. One's "soul-mate" (even) is not thought of as oneself, at first contact. + One must therefore insist that any real appearance of the Astral Plane gives the sensation of meeting a stranger. One must accept it as independent, be it Archangel or Elf, and measure one's own reaction to it. One must learn from it, though one despise it; and love it, however one loathe it. + One must realize, on writing up the record, that the meeting has effected a definite change in oneself. One must have known and felt something alien, and not merely tried on a new dress. {255} + There must always be some slight pang of pain in a true Astral Vision; it hurts the Self to have to admit the existence of a not-Self; and it taxes the brain to register a new thought. This is true at the first touch, even when exaltation and stimulation result from the joy of making an agreeable contact. + There is a deeper effect of right reaction to a strange Self: the impact invariable tends to break up some complex in the Seer. The class of ideas concerned has always been tied up, labelled, and put away. It is now necessary to unpack it, and rearrange its contents. At least, the annoyance is like that of a man who has locked and strapped his bag for a journey, and then finds that he has forgotten his pyjamas. At most, it may revolutionise his ideas of the business, like an old bachelor with settled plans of life who meets a girl once too often. + Any really first-class Astral Vision, even on low planes, should therefore both instruct the Seer, and prepare him for Initiation. Those failing to pass this test are to be classed as "practice". + One last observation seems fit. We must not assert the "reality" or "objectivity" of an Astral Being on no better evidence than the subjective sensation of its independent existence. We must insist on proof patient to all qualified observers if we are to establish the major premiss of Religion: that there exists a Conscious Intelligence independent of brain and nerve as we know them. If it have also Power, so much the better. But we already know of inorganic forces; we have no evidence of inorganic conscious Mind. + How can the Astral Plane help us here? It is not enough to prove, as we easily do, the correspondences between Invocation and Apparition<>. We must exclude concidence<>, telepathy<>, and subconscious knowledge.<> Our praeter-human Intelligence {256} must convey a Truth not known to any human mind, past or present. Yet this Truth must be verifiable. + There is but one document in the world which presents evidence that fully satisfies these conditions. This is + + LIBER AL vel LEGIS + + the Book of the Law. + +of this New Aeon of Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child, the Aeon whose Logos is THE BEAST 666, whose name in the Outer Order was FRATER PERDURABO. + The nature of the proof of the separate existence of praeterhuman Intelligence, independent of bodily form, is extremely complicated. Its main divisions may be briefly enumerated. {257} + AIWAZ, the name of the Intelligence in question, proves: + (a) His power to pre-arrange events unconnected with His scribe so that they should fit in with that scribe's private calculations. + E.g. The Stele which reveals the Theogony of the Book was officially numbered 666, in the Boulak Museum. The scribe had adopted 666 as His magical number, many years previously. Again, the scribe's magical House, bought years earlier, had a name whose value was 418. The scribe had calculated 418 as the {258} number of the Great Work, in 1901 e.v. He only discovered that 418 was the number of his house in consequence of AIWAZ mentioning the fact. + (b) His power to conceal a coherent system of numbers and letters in the text of a rapidly-written document, containing riddles and ciphers opening to a Master-Key unknown to the scribe, yet linked with his own system; this Key and its subordinates being moreover a comment on the text. {259} + E.g. "The word of the Law is GR:Theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha." (Will); this word has the value of 93. + "Love is the law, love under will." Love, GR:Alpha-gamma-alpha-pi-eta, like + GR:Theta-epsilon-lambda-eta-mu-alpha, adds to 93. + AIWAZ itself adds to 93.<> + This was all strange to the scribe; yet years later he discovered the "Lost Word" of one of his own Orders: it was 93 also.<<[WEH Note: This refers to the word of the IIIrd Degree of O.T.O., readers who may wish to acquire it may apply for initiation and work their way up through the Degrees. Ordo Templi Orientis, JAF Box 7666, New York, NY 10116, USA.]>> + The Word of His most holy Order proved equally to count up {260} to 93.<> Now 93 is thrice 31; 31 is LA, "Not" and AL, "The" or "God"; these words run throughout the Book, giving a double meaning to many passages. A third 31 is the compound letter ShT, the two hieroglyphs of Sh and T (many centuries old) being pictures of the "Dramatis Personae" of the Book; and ShT being a haphazard line scrawled on the MS. touch letters which added to 418, valuing "this circle squared in its failure" as GR:pi correct to six places of decimals, etc. + Again: "thou shalt know not"<<[WEH Note: It is remarkable that Crowley succeeds in blowing every quotation of "Liber AL" on this page. This despite the injunction of the Book itself: AL I,54: "Change not as much as the style of a letter; for behold! thou, o prophet, shalt not behold all these mysteries hidden therein." Crowley strongly resisted the idea that he could not understand all of the Book. In later life, he came to grudgingly accept this limitation. Also, Achad did not work out as his successor. Several of these mis-quotes relate to that belief. This particular mis-quote could come from as many as six points in the text, but here is no part of the text in which this quote appears exactly.]>>, meaning "thou shalt know LA"; and "he shall discover the Key of it all"<<[WEH Note: This misquote could be from AL III,47: "... Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the Key of it all....".]>>, "id est," the Key AL. + + (c) His power to combine subsequent events beyond the control of the scribe or his associates, so that they confirmed statements in the Book. Or, per contra, to predict such events. + E.g. The first Scarlet Woman proved unworthy, and suffered the exact penalties predicted. + Again, "one cometh after thee; he shall discover the key."<<[WEH Note: misquoted from AL II,76: "...There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it. ..."]>> This one was to be the "child" of the scribe, "and that strangely"<<[WEH Note: This time the misquote is in the style of the letters: AL III,47: "This book shall be translated into all tongues: but always with the original in the writing of the Beast; for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine. Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the Key of it all. Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key also. And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that strangely. Let him not seek after this; for thereby alone can he fall from it." --- interesting that these misquotes seem to hit verses that either appear to warn Crowley against misquoting or of his limits.]>>. + Nine months after THE BEAST 666 had gotten a Magical "child" upon His concubine Jane Foster, a "Babe of the Abyss" was born, Frater Achad asserting his right to that grade, and thus "coming after" THE BEAST 666, who had been the last Adept to do so. And this "child" was definitely "one", since "one" is the meaning of his motto Achad. Finally, he did in fact "discover the key of it all"<<[WEH Note: see the citation in an earlier note of mine. This time Crowley missed the "style of the letter" again.]>> after THE BEAST Himself had failed to do so in 14 years of study. + + (d) His power to conceive and express in concise terms true solutions of the main problems of the Universe. + E.g. The formula of Nuith and Hadith explain Existence in the terms of Mathematical-Logical Philosophy, so as to satisfy the difficulties of reconciling Dualism, Monism and Nihilism; all {261} antinomies in all spheres; and the Original Perfection with the Manifest Imperfection of Things. + Again "Do that thou wilt...", the most sublimely austere ethical precept ever uttered, despite its apparent licence, is seen on analysis to be indeed "...the whole of the Law.", the sole and sufficient warrant for human action, the self-evident Code of Righteousness, the identification of Fate with Freewill, and the end of the Civil War in Man's nature by appointing the Canon of Truth, the conformity of things with themselves, to determine his every act. "Do what thou wilt..." is to bid Stars to shine, Vines to bear grapes, Water to seek its level; man is the only being in Nature that has striven to set himself at odds with himself. + + (e) His power to interpret the Spirit of the New Aeon, the relapse into ruthless savagery of the most civilized races, at a time when war was discredited by most responsible men. + + (f) His power to comprehend and control these various orders of ideas and events, demonstrating thereby a mind and a means of action intelligible to, yet immensely above, all human capacity; to bind the whole into a compact cryptograph displaying mastery of English, of mathematical and philosophical conceptions, of poetic splendour and intense passion, while concealing in the letters and words a complex cipher involving the knowledge of facts never till than existing in any human mind, and depending on the control of the arm of the scribe, though He thought He was writing consciously from dictation; and to weave into a single pattern so many threads of proof of different orders that every type of mind, so it be but open and just, may be sure of the existence of AIWAZ as a being independent of body, conscious and individual, with a mind mightier than man's, and a power beyond man's set in motion by will. + In a word, the Book of the Law proves the prime postulate of Religion. + The Magician may therefore be confident that Spiritual Beings exist, and seek the Knowledge and conversation of His own Holy Guardian Angel with the same ardour as that of FRATER PERDURABO when He abandoned all: love, wealth, rank, fame, to seek Him. Nay, this he must do or condemn himself to be {262} torn asunder by the Maenads of his insensate impulses; he hath no safety save he himself be Bacchus! Bacchus, divine and human! Bacchus, begotten on Semele of Zeus, the adulterous Lord of Thunder ravishing, brutally, his virginal victim! Bacchus, babe hidden from hate in the most holy of holies, the secret of thy sire, in the Channel of the Star-Spate, Whereof one Serpent is thy soul! Bacchus, twy-formed, man-woman, Bacchus, whose innocence tames the Tiger, while yet thy horns drip blood upon thy mouth, and sharpen the merriment of wine to the madness of murder! Bacchus, Thy thyrsus oozes sap; thine ivy clings to it; thy Lion-skin slips from thy sleek shoulders, slips from thy lissome loins; drunk on delight of the godly grape, thou knowest no more the burden of the body and the vexation of the spirit. + + Come, Bacchus, come thou hither, come out of the East; come out of the East, astride the Ass of Priapus! Come with thy revel of dancers and singers! Who followeth thee, forbearing to laugh and to leap? Come, in thy name Dionysus, that maidens be mated to God-head! Come, in thy name Iacchus, with thy mystical fan to winnow the air, each gust of thy Spirit inspiring our Soul, that we bear to thee Sons in Thine Image! + + Verily and Amen! Let not the Magician forget for a single second what is his one sole business. His uninitiated "self" (as he absurdly thinks it) is a mob of wild women, hysterical from uncomprehended and unstated animal instinct; they will tear Pentheus, the merely human king who presumes to repress them, into mere shreds of flesh; his own mother, Nature, the first to claw at his windpipe! None but Bacchus, the Holy Guardian Angel, hath grace to be God to this riot of maniacs; he alone can transform the disorderly rabble into a pageant of harmonious movements, tune their hyaena howls to the symphony of a paean, and their reasonless rage to self-controlled rapture. It is this Angel whose nature is doubly double, that He may partake of every sacrament. He is at once a God who is drunken with the wine of earth, and the mammal who quaffs the Blood of God to purge him of mortality. He is a woman as he accepts all impulses, are they not His? He is a man to stamp Himself upon whatever would hallow itself to Him. He wields the Wand, {263} with cone of pine and ivy tendrils; the Angel creates continually, wreathing His Will in clinging beauty, imperishably green. + The Tiger, the symbol of the brutal passions of man, gambols about its master's heels; and He bestrides the Ass of Priapus; he makes his sexual force carry him whither He wills to go. + Let the Magician therefore adventure himself upon the Astral Plane with the declared design to penetrate to a sanctuary of discarnate Beings such as are able to instruct and fortify him, also to prove their identity by testimony beyond rebuttal. All explanations other than these are of value only as extending and equilibrating Knowledge, or possibly as supplying Energy to such Magicians as may have found their way to the Sources of Strength. In all cases, naught is worth an obol save as it serve to help the One Great Work. + He who would reach Intelligences of the type under discussion may expect extreme difficulty. The paths are guarded; there is a lion in the way. Technical expertness will not serve here; it is necessary to satisfy the Warders of one's right to enter the presence of the Master. Particular pledges may be demanded, ordeals imposed, and initiations conferred. These are most serious matters; the Body of Light must be fully adult, irrevocably fixed, or it will be disintegrated at the outset. But, being fit to pass through such experiences, it is bound utterly to its words and acts. It cannot even appear to break an oath, as its fleshly fellow may do. + Such, then is a general description of the Astral Plane, and of the proper conduct of the Magician in his dealings therewith. + + + ----------- + + {264} + + + + + + + + + + APPENDIX IV + + + LIBER SAMEKH + + Theurgia Goetia Summa + + (CONGRESSUS CUM DAEMONE) + + sub figura DCCC + +being the Ritual employed by the Beast 666 for the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel during the Semester of His performance of the Operation of the Sacred Magick of ABRAMELIN THE MAGE. (Prepared An XVII Sun in Virgo at the Abbey of Thelema in Cephalaedium by the Beast 666 in service to FRATER PROGRADIOR.) + OFFICIAL PUBLICATION of A.'. A.'. Class D for the Grade of Adeptus Minor. + + + +{265} + + + + + POINT + + I + + EVANGELII TEXTUS REDACTUS + +"The Invocation." + +Magically restored, with the significance of the + + BARBAROUS NAMES + +Etymologically or Qabalistically determined and paraphrased in English. + +Section A. The Oath. + + 1. Thee I invoke, the Bornless One. + 2. Thee, that didst create the Earth and the Heavens. + 3. Thee, that didst create the Night and the Day. + 4. Thee, that didst create the darkness and the Light. + 5. Thou art ASAR UN-NEFER ("Myself made Perfect"): + Whom no man hath seen at any time. + 6. Thou art IA-BESZ ("the Truth in Matter"). + 7. Thou art IA-APOPHRASZ ("the Truth in Motion"). + 8. Thou hast distinguished between the Just and the Unjust. + 9. Thou didst make the Female and the Male. +10. Thou didst produce the Seeds and the Fruit. +11. Thou didst form Men to love one another, and to hate one + another. + +Section Aa. + +1. I am ANKH - F - N - KHONSU thy Prophet, unto Whom + Thou didst commit Thy Mysteries, the Ceremonies of + KHEM. +2. Thou didst produce the moist and the dry, and that which + nourisheth all created Life. +3. Hear Thou Me, for I am the Angel of PTAH - APO - + PHRASZ - RA (vide the Rubric): this is Thy True Name, + handed down to the Prophets of KHEM. {266} + + Section B. Air. + +Hear Me: --- + +AR "O breathing, flowing Sun!" ThIAF<> + "O Sun IAF! O Lion-Serpent Sun, The + Beast that whirlest forth, a thunder- + bolt, begetter of Life!" +RhEIBET "Thou that flowest! Thou that goest!" +A-ThELE-BER-SET "Thou Satan-Sun Hadith that goest + without Will!" +A "Thou Air! Breath! Spirit! Thou + without bound or bond!" +BELAThA "Thou Essence, Air Swift-streaming, + Elasticity!" +ABEU "Thou Wanderer, Father of All!" +EBEU "Thou Wanderer, Spirit of All!" +PhI-ThETA-SOE "Thou Shining Force of Breath! Thou + Lion-Serpent Sun! Thou Saviour, + save!" +IB "Thou Ibis, secret solitary Bird, inviolate + Wisdom, whose Word in Truth, + creating the World by its Magick!" +ThIAF "O Sun IAF! O Lion-Serpent Sun, The + Beas that whirlest forth, a thunder- + bolt, begetter of Life!" +(The conception is of Air, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Bird, "the Holy Ghost", of a Mercurial Nature.) +Hear me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me; so that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth, on dry land and in the water; of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me. {267} + +Section C. Fire. + +I invoke Thee, the Terrible and Invisible God: Who dwellest in the Void Place of the Spirit: --- + +AR-O-GO-GO-RU-ABRAO "Thou spiritual Sun! Satan, Thou + Eye, Thou Lust! Cry aloud! Cry + aloud! Whirl the Wheel, O my + Father, O Satan, O Sun!" +SOTOU "Thou, the Saviour!" +MUDORIO "Silence! Give me Thy Secret!" +PhALARThAO "Give me suck, Thou Phallus, Thou + Sun!" +OOO "Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust!" + "Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust!" + "Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust!" +AEPE "Thou self-caused, self-determined, + exalted, Most High!" + +The Bornless One. (Vide supra). +(The conception is of Fire, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Lion of a Uranian nature.) +Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me. + +Section D. Water. + +Hear Me: --- + +RU-ABRA-IAF<> + "Thou the Wheel, thou the Womb, + that containeth the Father IAF!" +MRIODOM "Thou the Sea, the Abode!" +BABALON-BAL-BIN-ABAFT "Babalon! Thou Woman of Whoredom" {268} + "Thou, Gate of the Great God ON! + Thou Lady of the Understanding of + the Ways!" +ASAL-ON-AI "Hail Thou, the unstirred! Hail, + sister and bride of ON, of the God + that is all and is none, by the Power + of Eleven!" +APhEN-IAF "Thou Treasure of IAO!" +I "Thou Virgin twin-sexed! Thou Secret + Seed! Thou inviolate Wisdom!" +PhOTETh "Abode of the Light ................. +ABRASAX "......of the Father, the Sun, of + Hadith, of the spell of the Aeon + of Horus!" +AEOOU "Our Lady of the Western Gate of + Heaven!" +ISChURE "Mighty art Thou!" + +Mighty and Bornless One! (Vide Supra) +(The conception is of Water, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Dragon-Serpent, of a Neptunian nature.) +Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me. + +Section E. Earth. + +I invoke Thee: --- + +MA "O Mother! O Truth!" +BARRAIO "Thou Mass!"<<"Mass", in the sense of the word which is used by physicists. The impossibility of defining it will not deter the intrepid initiate (in view of the fact that the fundamental conception is beyond the normal categories of reason.)>> +IOEL "Hail, Thou that art!" +KOThA "Thou hollow one!" {269} +AThOR-e-BAL-O "Thou Goddess of Beauty and Love, + whom Satan, beholding, desireth!" +ABRAFT "The Fathers, male-female, desire + Thee!" + +(The conception is of Earth, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Hippopotamus<> of a Venereal nature.) +Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether: upon The Earth and under the Earth: on dry land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me. + +Section F. Spirit. + +Hear Me: + +AFT "Male-Female Spirits!" +ABAFT "Male-Female Sires!" +BAS-AUMGN "Ye that are Gods, going forth, uttering + AUMGN. (The Word that goeth + from + (A) Free Breath. + (U) through Willed Breath. + (M) and stopped Breath. + (GN) to Continuous Breath. + thus symbolizing the whole course of + spiritual life. A is the formless Hero; + U is the six-fold solar sound of physical + life, the triangle of Soul being + entwined with that of Body; M is the + silence of "death"; GN is the nasal + sound of generation & knowledge. +ISAK "Identical Point!" +SA-BA-FT "Nuith! Hadith! Ra-Hoor-Khuit!" + "Hail, Great Wild Beast!" + "Hail, IAO!" {270} + +Section Ff. + + 1. This is the Lord of the Gods: + 2. This is the Lord of the Universe: + 3. This is He whom the Winds fear. + 4. This is He, Who having made Voice by His commandment is Lord of all Things; King, Ruler and Helper. Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me. + +Section G. Spirit. + +Hear Me: + +IEOU "Indwelling Sun of Myself" +PUR "Thou Fire! Thou Sixfold Star initiator + compassed about with Force and Fire!" +IOU "Indwelling Soul of Myself" +PUR (Vide Supra) +IAFTh "Sun-lion Serpent, hail! All Hail, thou + Great Wild Beast, thou I A O!" +IAEO "Breaths of my soul, breaths of mine + Angel." +IOOU "Lust of my soul, lust of mine Angel!" +ABRASAX (Vide Supra). +SABRIAM "Ho for the Sangraal! Ho for the Cup + of Babalon! Ho for mine Angel + pouring Himself forth within my + Soul!" +OO "The Eye! Satan, my Lord! The Lust + of the goat!" +FF "Mine Angel! Mine initiator! Thou + one with me --- the Sixfold Star!" {271} +AD-ON-A-I<> + "My Lord! My secret self beyond self, + Hadith, All Father! Hail, ON, thou + Sun, thou Life of Man, thou Fivefold + Sword of Flame! Thou Goat exalted + upon Earth in Lust, thou Snake + extended upon Earth in Life! Spirit + most holy! Seed most Wise! Innocent + Babe. Inviolate Maid! Begetter + of Being! Soul of all Souls! Word + of all Words, Come forth, most + hidden Light!" +EDE "Devour thou me!" +EDU "Thou dost devour Me!" +ANGELOS TON ThEON "Thou Angel of the Gods!" +ANLALA "Arise thou in Me, free flowing, Thou + who art Naught, who art Naught, and + utter thy Word!" +LAI "I also am Naught! I Will Thee! I + behold Thee! My nothingness!" +GAIA "Leap up, thou Earth!" + (This is also an agonising appeal to the + Earth, the Mother; for at this point + of the ceremony the Adept should be + torn from his mortal attachments, and {272} + die to himself in the orgasm of his + operation.<>) +AEPE "Thou Exalted One! It (i.e. the spritual + 'semen', the Adept's secret ideas, + drawn irresistibly from their "Hell"<> + by the love of his Angel) leaps up; it + leaps forth!<> +DIATHARNA THORON "Lo! the out-splashing of the seeds of + Immortality" + +Section Gg. The Attainment. + +1. I am He! the Bornless Spirit! having sight in the feet: + Strong, and the Immortal Fire! +2. I am He! the Truth! +3. I am He! Who hate that evil should be wrought in the World! +4. I am He, that lighteneth and thundereth! +5. I am He, from whom is the Shower of the Life of Earth! +6. I am He, whose mouth ever flameth! +7. I am He, the Begetter and Manifester unto the Light! +8. I am He, The Grace of the Worlds! +9. "The Heart Girt with a Serpent" is my name! + +Section H. The "Charge to the Spirit". + +Come thou forth, and follow me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me so that every Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether, upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land, or in the Water: of Whirling Air or of rushing Fire, and every Spell and scourge of God, may be obedient unto me! + +Section J. The Proclamation of the Beast 666. + + IAF: SABAF<> + Such are the Words! {273} + + + + + POINT + + II + + ARS CONGRESSUS CUM DAEMONE. + +SECTION A Let the Adeptus Minor be standing in this circle on the + square of Tiphereth, armed with his Wand and Cup; but let him + perform the Ritual throughout in his Body of Light. He may + burn the Cakes of Light, or the Incense of Abramelin; he may + be prepared by Liber CLXXV, the reading of Liber LXV, and by + the practices of Yoga. He may invoke Hadit by "... wine and + strange drugs" if he so will.<> He prepares + the circle by the usual formulae of Banishing and + Consecration, etc. + He recites Section A as a rehearsal before His Holy + Guardian Angel of the attributes of that Angel. Each phrase + must be realized with full concentration of force, so as to + make Samadhi as perfectly as possible upon the truth + proclaimed. +"Line 1" He identifies his Angel with the Ain Soph, and the Kether + thereof; one formulation of Hadit in the boundless Body of + Nuith. +"Line 2,3,4" He asserts that His Angel has created (for the purpose of + self-realization through projection in conditioned Form) three + pairs of opposites: (a) The Fixed and the Volatile; (b) The + Unmanifested and the Manifest; and (c) the Unmoved and the + Moved. Otherwise, the Negative and the Positive in respect of + Matter, Mind and Motion. +"Line 5" He acclaims his Angel as "Himself Made Perfect"; adding + that this Individuality is inscrutable in inviolable. In the + Neophyte Ritual of {274} G.'. D.'. (As it is printed in Equinox + I, II, for the old aeon) the Hierophant is the perfected + Osiris, who brings the candidate, the natural Osiris, to + identity with himself. But in the new Aeon the Hierophant is + Horus (Liber CCXX, I, 49) therefore the Candidate will be + Horus too. What then is the formula of the initiation of + Horus? It will no longer be that of the Man, through Death. + It will be the natural growth of the Child. His experiences + will no more be regarded as catastrophic. Their hieroglyph is + the Fool: the innocent and impotent Harpocrates Babe becomes + the Horus Adult by obtaining the Wand. "Der reine Thor" + seizes the Sacred Lance. Bacchus becomes Pan. The Holy + Guardian Angel is the Unconscious Creature Self --- the + Spiritual Phallus. His knowledge and conversation contributes + occult puberty. It is therefore advisable to replace the name + Asar Un-nefer by that of Ra-Hoor-Khuit at the outset, and by + that of one's own Holy Guardian Angel when it has been + communicated. + +"Line 6" He hails Him as BESZ, the Matter that destroys and devours + Godhead, for the purpose of the Incarnation of any God. + +"Line 7" He hails Him as APOPHRASZ, the Motion that destroys and + devours Godhead, for the purpose of the Incarnation of any + God. The combined action of these two DEVILS is to allow the + God upon whom they prey to enter into enjoyment of existence + through the Sacrament of dividual "Life" (Bread --- the flesh + of BESZ) and "Love" (Wine --- the blood or venom of AOPHRASZ). + +"Line 8" He acclaims His Angel as having "eaten of the Fruit of the + Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil"; otherwise, having become + wise (in the {275} Dyad, Chokmah) to apprehend the formula of + Equilibrium which is now His own, being able to apply Himself + accurately to His self-appointed environment. + +"Line 9" He acclaims His Angel as having laid down the Law of Love + as the Magical formula of the Universe, that He may resolve + the phenomenal again into its noumenal phase by uniting any + two opposites in ecstasic passion. + +"Line 10" He acclaims His Angel as having appointed that this formula + of Love should effect not only the dissolution of the + separateness of the Lovers into His own impersonal Godhead, + but their co-ordination in a "Child" quintessentialized from + its parents to constitute a higher order of Being than theirs, + so that each generation is an alchemical progress towards + perfection in the direction of successive complexities. As + Line 9 asserts Involution, Line 10 asserts Evolution. + +"Line 11" He acclaims His Angel as having devised this method of + self-realization; the object of Incarnation is to obtain its + reactions to its relations with other incarnated Beings and to + observe theirs with each other. + + ---------- + +Section Aa. + +"Line 1" The Adept asserts his right to enter into conscious + communication with His Angel, on the ground that that Angel + has Himself taught him the Secret Magick by which he may make + the proper link. "Mosheh" is M H, the formation in Jechidah, + Chiah, Neshamah, Ruach, --- The Sephiroth from Kether to Yesod + --- since 45 is GR:Sigma{=summation} 1-9 while Sh, 300, is + GR:Sigma{=summation} 1-24, which superadds to these Nine an extra + Fifteen numbers. (See in Liber D {276} the meanings an + correspondences of 9, 15, 24, 45, 300, 345.) + 45 is moreover A D M, man. "Mosheh" is thus the name of + man as a God-concealing form. But in the Ritual let the Adept + replace this "Mosheh" by his own motto as Adeptus Minor. For + "Ishrael" let him prefer his own Magical Race, according to + the obligations of his Oaths to Our Holy Order! (The Beast + 666 Himself used "Ankh-f-n-Khonsu" and "Khem" in this + section.) +"Line 2" The Adept reminds his Angel that He has created That One + Substance of which Hermes hath written in the Table of + Emerald, whose virtue is to unite in itself all opposite modes + of Being, thereby to serve as a Talisman charged with the + Spiritual Energy of Existence, an Elixir or Stone composed of + the physical basis of Life. This Commemoration is placed + between the two personal appeals to the Angel, as if to claim + privilege to partake of this Eucharist which createth, + sustaineth and redeemeth all things. +"Line 3" He now asserts that he is himself the "Angel" or messenger + of his Angel; that is, that he is a mind and body whose office + is to receive and transmit the Word of his Angel. He hails + his Angel not only as "un-nefer" the Perfection of "Asar" + himself as a man, but as Ptah-Apophrasz-Ra, the identity + (Hadit) wrapped in the Dragon (Nuit) and thereby manifested as + a Sun (Ra-Hoor-Khuit). The "Egg" (or Heart) "girt with a + Serpent" is a cognate symbol; the idea is thus expressed later + in the ritual. (See Liber LXV. which expands this to the + uttermost.) + +Section B The Adept passes from contemplation to action in the + sections now following B to Gg. He is to travel astrally + around the circle, making the appropriate pentagrams, sigils, + and signs. His direction {277} is widdershins. He thus makes + three curves, each covering three-fourths of the circle. He + should give the sign of the Enterer on passing the Kiblah, or + Direction of Boleskine. This picks up the force naturally + radiating from that point<> and projects it in the direction of + the path of the Magician. The sigils are those given + in the Equinox Vol. I, No. 7, Plate X outside the + square; the signs those shewn in Vol. I, No. 2, Plate "The + Signs of the Grades". In these invocations he should expand + his girth and his stature to the utmost<>, assuming the form and the consciousness of the Elemental + God of the quarter. After this, he begins to vibrate the + "Barbarous Names" of the Ritual. + Now let him not only fill his whole being to the uttermost + with the force of the Names; but let him formulate his Will, + understood thoroughly as the dynamic aspect of his Creative + Self, in an appearance symbolically apt, I say not in the form + of a Ray of Light, of a Fiery Sword, or of aught save that + bodily Vehicle of the Holy Ghost which is sacred to BAPHOMET, + by its virtue that concealeth the Lion and the Serpent that + His Image may appear adorably upon the Earth for ever. + Let then the Adept extend his Will beyond the Circle in + this imagined Shape and let it radiate with the Light proper + to the element invoked, and let each Word issue along the + Shaft with passionate impulse, as if its voice gave command + thereto that it should thrust itself leapingly forward. Let + also each Word accumulate authority, so that the Head of the + Shaft may plunge twice as far for the Second Word as for the + First, and Four Times for {278} the Third as the Second, and + thus to the end. Moreover, let the Adept fling forth his + whole consciousness thither. Then at the final Word, let him + bring rushing back his Will within himself, steadily + streaming, and let him offer himself to its point, as Artemis + to PAN, that this perfectly pure concentration of the Element + purge him thoroughly, and possess him with its passion. + In this Sacrament being wholly at one with that Element, + let the Adept utter the Charge "Hear me, and make", etc. with + strong sense that this unity with that quarter of the Universe + confers upon him the fullest freedom and privilege appurtenant + thereto. + Let the Adept take note of the wording of the Charge. The + "Firmament" is the Ruach, the "mental plane"; it is the realm + of Shu, or Zeus, where revolves the Wheel of the Gunas, the + Three forms<> of Being. The Aethyr is the {279} + "akasha", the "Spirit", the Aethyr or physics, which is the + framework on which all forms are founded; it receives, records + and transmits all impulses without itself suffering mutation + thereby. The "Earth" is the sphere wherein the operation of + these "fundamental" and aethyric forces appears to perception. + "Under the Earth" is the world of those phenomena which inform + those perceived projections, and determine their particular + character. "Dry land" is the place of dead "material things", + dry (i.e. unknowable) because unable to act on our minds. + "Water" is the vehicle whereby we feel such things; "air" + their menstruum wherein these feelings are mentally + apprehended. It is called "whirling" because of the + instability of thought, and the fatuity of reason, on which we + are yet dependent for what we call "life". "Rushing Fire" is + the world in which wandering thought burns up to swift-darting + Will. These four stages explain how the non-Ego is transmuted + into the {280} Ego. A "Spell" of God is any form of + consciousness, and a "Scourge" any form of action. + The Charge, as a whole, demands for the Adept the control + of every detail of the Universe which His Angel has created as + a means of manifesting Himself to Himself. It covers command + of the primary projection of the Possible in individuality, in + the antithetical artifice which is the device of Mind, and in + a balanced triplicity of modes or states of being whose + combinations constitute the characteristics of Cosmos. It + includes also a standard of structure, a rigidity to make + reference possible. Upon these foundations of condition which + are not things in themselves, but the canon to which things + conform, is builded the Temple of Being, whose materials are + themselves perfectly mysterious, inscrutable as the Soul, and + like the Soul imagining themselves by symbols which we may + feel, perceive, and adapt to our use without ever knowing the + whole Truth about them. The Adept sums up all these items by + claiming authority over every form of expression possible to + Existence, whether it be a "spell" (idea) or a "scourge" (act) + of "God", that is, of himself. The Adept must accept every + "spirit", every "spell", every "scourge", as part of his + environment, and make them all "subject to" himself; that is, + consider them as contributory causes of himself. They have + made him what he is. They correspond exactly to his own + faculties. They are all --- ultimately --- of equal + importance. The fact that he is what he is proves that each + item is equilibrated. The impact of each new impression + affects the entire system in due measure. He must therefore + realize that every event is subject to him. It occurs because + he had need of it. Iron rusts because the molecules demand + oxygen for the satisfaction of {281} their tendencies. They + do not crave hydrogen; therefore combination with that gas is + an event which does not happen. All experiences contribute to + make us complete in ourselves. We feel ourselves subject to + them so long as we fail to recognise this; when we do, we + perceive that they are subject to us. And whenever we strive + to evade an experience, whatever it may be, we thereby do + wrong to ourselves. We thwart our own tendencies. To live is + to change; and to oppose change is to revolt against the law + which we have enacted to govern our lives. To resent destiny + is thus to abdicate our sovereignty, and to invoke death. + Indeed, we have decreed the doom of death for every breach of + the law of Life. And every failure to incorporate any + impression starves the particular faculty which stood in need + of it. + This Section B invokes Air in the East, with a shaft of + golden glory. + + -------- + +Section C. The adept now invokes Fire in the South; flame red are the + rays that burst from his Verendum. + + -------- + +Section D. He invokes Water in the West, his Wand billowing forth blue + radiance. + + -------- + +Section E. He goes to the North to invoke Earth; flowers of green + flame flash from his weapon. As practice makes the Adept + perfect in this Work, it becomes automatic to attach all these + complicated ideas and intentions to their correlated words and + acts. When this is attained he may go deeper into the formula + by amplifying its correspondences. Thus, he may invoke water + in the manner of water, extending {282} his will with majestic + and irresistible motion, mindful of its impulse gravitation, + yet with a suave and tranquil appearance of weakness. Again, + he may apply the formula of water to its peculiar purpose as + it surges back into his sphere, using it with conscious skill + for the cleansing and calming of the receptive and emotional + elements in his character, and for the solution or sweeping + away of those tangled weeds of prejudice which hamper him from + freedom to act as he will. Similar applications of the + remaining invocations will occur to the Adept who is ready to + use them. + + -------- + +Section F. The Adept now returns to the Tiphereth square of his Tau, + and invokes spirit, facing toward Boleskine, by the active + Pentagrams, the sigil called the Mark of the Beast, and the + Signs of L.V.X. (See plate as before). He then vibrates the + Names extending his will in the same way as before, but + vertically upward. At the same time he expands the Source of + that Will --- the secret symbol of Self --- both about him and + below, as if to affirm that Self, duplex as is its form, + reluctant to acquiesce in its failure to coincide with the + Sphere of Nuith. Let him now imagine, at the last Word, that + the Head of his will, where his consciousness is fixed, opens + its fissure (the Brahmarandra-Cakkra, at the junction of the + cranial sutures) and exudes a drop of clear crystalline dew, + and that this pearl is his Soul, a virgin offering to his + Angel, pressed forth from his being by the intensity of his + Aspiration. + + -------- + +Section Ff. With these words the Adept does not withdraw his will + within him as in the previous Sections. He thinks of them as + a reflection of Truth on the {283} surface of the dew, where + his Soul hides trembling. He takes them to be the first + formulation in his consciousness of the nature of His Holy + Guardian Angel. +"Line 1." The "Gods" include all the conscious elements of his + nature. +"Line 2." The "Universe" includes all possible phenomena of which he + can be aware. +"Line 3." The "Winds" are his thoughts, which have prevented him from + attaining to his Angel. +"Line 4." His Angel has made "Voice", the magical weapon which + produces "Words", and these words have been the wisdom by + which He hath created all things. The "Voice" is necessary as + the link between the Adept and his Angel. The Angel is + "King", the One who "can", the "source of authority and the + fount of honour"; also the King (or King's Son) who delivers + the Enchanted Princess, and makes her his Queen. He is + "Ruler", the "unconscious Will"; to be thwarted no more by the + ignorant and capricious false will of the conscious man. And + He is "Helper", the author of the infallible impulse that + sends the Soul sweeping along the skies on its proper path + with such impetus that the attraction of alien orbs is no + longer sufficient to swerve it. The "Hear me" clause is now + uttered by the normal human consciousness, withdrawn to the + physical body; the Adept must deliberately abandon his + attainment, because it is not yet his whole being which burns + up before the Beloved. + + -------- + +Section G. The Adept, though withdrawn, shall have maintained the + Extension of his Symbol. He now repeats the signs as before, + save that he makes the Passive Invoking Pentagram of Spirit. + He concentrates {284} his consciousness within his Twin-Symbol + of Self, and endeavours to send it to sleep. But if the + operation be performed properly, his Angel shall have accepted + the offering of Dew, and seized with fervour upon the extended + symbol of Will towards Himself. This then shall He shake + vehemently with vibrations of love reverberating with the + Words of the Section. Even in the physical ears of the adept + there shall resound an echo thereof, yet he shall not be able + to describe it. It shall seem both louder than thunder, and + softer than the whisper of the night-wind. It shall at once + be inarticulate, and mean more than he hath ever heard. + Now let him strive with all the strength of his Soul to + withstand the Will of his Angel, concealing himself in the + closest cell of the citadel of consciousness. Let him + consecrate himself to resist the assault of the Voice and the + Vibration until his consciousness faint away into Nothing. + For if there abide unabsorbed even one single atom of the + false Ego, that atom should stain the virginity of the True + Self and profane the Oath; then that atom should be so + inflamed by the approach of the Angel that it should overwhelm + the rest of the mind, tyrannize over it, and become an insane + despot to the total ruin of the realm. + But, all being dead to sense, who then is able to strive + against the Angel? He shall intensify the stress of His + Spirit so that His loyal legions of Lion-Serpents leap from + the ambush, awakening the adept to witness their Will and + sweep him with them in their enthusiasm, so that he + consciously partakes their purpose, and sees in its simplicity + the solution of all his perplexities. Thus then shall the + Adept be aware that he is being swept away through the column + of his Will Symbol, {285} and that His Angel is indeed + himself, with intimacy so intense as to become identity, and + that not in a single Ego, but in every unconscious element + that shares in that manifold uprush. + This rapture is accompanied by a tempest of brilliant + light, almost always, and also in many cases by an outburst of + sound, stupendous and sublime in all cases, though its + character may vary within wide limits.<> + The spate of stars shoots from the head of the Will-Symbol, + and is scattered over the sky in glittering galaxies. This + dispersion destroys the concentration of the adept, whose mind + cannot master such multiplicity of majesty; as a rule, he + simply sinks stunned into normality, to recall nothing of his + experience but a vague though vivid impression of complete + release and ineffable rapture. Repetition fortifies him to + realise the nature of his attainment; and his Angel, the link + once made, frequents him, and trains him subtly to be + sensitive to his Holy presence, and persuasion. But it may + occur, especially after repeated success, that the Adept is + not flung back into his mortality by the explosion of the + Star-spate, but identified with one particular "Lion-Serpent", + continuing conscious thereof until it finds its proper place + in Space, when its secret self flowers forth as a truth, which + the Adept may then take back to earth with him. + This is but a side issue. The main purpose of the Ritual + is to establish the relation of the subconscious self with the + Angel in such a way that the Adept is aware that his Angel is + the Unity which expresses the sum of the Elements of that + Self, that his normal consciousness contains alien enemies + 286} introduced by the accidents of environment, and that his + Knowledge and Conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel destroys + all doubts and delusions, confers all blessings, teaches all + truth, and contains all delights. But it is important that + the Adept should not rest in mere inexpressible realization of + his rapture, but rouse himself to make the relation submit to + analysis, to render it in rational terms, and thereby + enlighten his mind and heart in a sense as superior to + fanatical enthusiasm as Beethoven's music is to West African + war-drums. + + -------- + +Section Gg. The adept should have realised that his Act of Union with + the angel implies (1) the death of his old mind save in so far + as his unconscious elements preserve its memory when they + absorb it, and (2) the death of his unconscious elements + themselves. But their death is rather a going forth to renew + their life through love. He then, by conscious comprehension + of them separately and together, becomes the "Angel" of his + Angel, as Hermes is the Word of Zeus, whose own voice is + Thunder. Thus in this section the adept utters articulately + so far as words may, what his Angel is to Himself. He says + this, with his Scin-Laeca wholly withdrawn into his physical + body, constraining His Angel to indwell his heart. +"Line 1." "I am He" asserts the destruction of the sense of + separateness between self and Self. It affirms existence, but + of the third person only. "The Bornless Spirit" is free of + all space, "having sight in the feet", that they may choose + their own path. "Strong" is G B R, The Magician escorted by + the Sun and the Moon (See Liber D and Liber 777). The + "Immortal Fire" is the creative Self; impersonal energy cannot + perish, no matter what forms it assumes. Combustion is Love. + 287 +"Line 2." "Truth" is the necessary relation of any two things; + therefore, although it implies duality, it enables us to + conceive of two things as being one thing such that it demands + to be defined by complementals. Thus, an hyperbola is a + simple idea, but its construction exacts two curves. +"Line 3." The Angel, as the adept knows him, is a being Tiphereth, + which obscures Kether. The Adept is not officially aware of + the higher Sephiroth. He cannot perceive, like the + Ipsissimus, that all things soever are equally illusion and + equally Absolute. He is in Tiphereth, whose office is + Redemption, and he deplores the events which have caused the + apparent Sorrow from which he has just escaped. He is also + aware, even in the height of his ecstasy, of the limits and + defects of his Attainment. +"Line 4." This refers to the phenomena which accompany his + Attainment. +"Line 5." This means the recognition of the Angel as the True Self of + his subconscious self, the hidden Life of his physical life. +"Line 6." The Adept realises every breath, every word of his Angel as + charged with creative fire. Tiphereth is the Sun, and the + Angel is the spiritual Sun of the Soul of the Adept. +"Line 7." Here is summed the entire process of bringing the + conditioned Universe to knowledge of itself through the + formula of generation<>; + a soul implants itself in sense-hoodwinked body and reason- + fettered mind, makes them aware of their Inmate, and thus to + partake of its own consciousness of the Light. +"Line 8." "Grace" has here its proper sense of "Pleasantness". {288} + The existence of the Angel is the justification of the device + of creation.<> +"Line 9." This line must be studied in the light of Liber LXV + (Equinox XI. p. 65). + +Section H. This recapitulation demands the going forth together of the + Adept and his Angel "to do their pleasure on the Earth among + the living." + +Section J. The Beast 666 having devised the present method of using + this Ritual, having proved it by his own practice to be of + infallible puissance when properly performed, and now having + written it down for the world, it shall be an ornament for the + Adept who adopts it to cry Hail to His name at the end of his + work. This shall moreover encourage him in Magick, to recall + that indeed there was One who attained by its use to the + Knowledge and Conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel, the + which forsook him no more, but made Him a Magus, the Word of + the Aeon of Horus! + For know this, that the Name IAF in its most secret and + mighty sense declareth the Formula of the Magick of the BEAST + whereby he wrought many wonders. And because he doth will + that the whole world shall attain to this Art, He now hideth + it herein so that the worthy may win to His Wisdom. + Let I and F face all;<> yet ward their A from attack. The + Hermit to himself, the Fool to foes, {289} The Hierophant to + friends, Nine by nature, Naught by attainment, Five by + function. In speech swift, subtle and secret; in thought + creative, unbiassed, unbounded; in act gentle, patient and + persistent. Hermes to hear, Dionysus to touch, Pan to behold. + A Virgin, A Babe, and a Beast! + A Liar, an Idiot, and a Master of Men! + A kiss, a guffaw, and a bellow; he that hath ears to hear, + let him hear! + Take ten that be one, and one that is one in three, to + conceal them in six! + Thy wand to all Cups, and thy Disk to all Swords, but + betray not thine Egg! + Moreover also is IAF verily 666 by virtue of Number; and + this is a Mystery of Mysteries; Who knoweth it, he is adept of + adepts, and Mighty among Magicians! + Now this word SABAF, being by number Three score and Ten,<> is a name of Ayin, the + Eye, and the Devil our Lord, and the Goat of Mendes. He is + the Lord of the Sabbath of the Adepts, and is Satan, therefore + also the Sun, whose number of Magick is 666, the seal of His + servant the BEAST. + But again SA is 61, AIN, the Naught of Nuith; BA means go, + for Hadit; and F is their Son the Sun who is Ra-Hoor-Khuit. + So then let the Adept set his sigil upon all the words he + hath writ in the Book of the Works of his Will. {290} + And let him then end all, saying, Such are the Words!<> For by this he maketh proclamation + before all them that be about his Circle that these + Words are true and puissant, binding what he + would bind, and loosing what he would loose. + Let the Adept perform this Ritual aright, perfect in every + part thereof, once daily for one moon, then twice, at dawn and + dusk, for two moons, next, thrice, noon added, for three + moons, afterwards, midnight making up his course, for four + moons four times every day. Then let the Eleventh Moon be + consecrated wholly to this Work; let him be instant in + continual ardour, dismissing all but his sheer needs to eat + and sleep.<> For know that the true + Formula<> whose virtue sufficed the + Beast in this Attainment, was thus: + + INVOKE OFTEN<> + + So may all men come at last to the Knowledge and + Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel: thus sayeth the + Beast, and prayeth His own Angel that this book be as a + burning Lamp, and as a living Spring, for Light and Life to + them that read therein. + + 666 +{291} + +(Note to page 291) + The Oracles of Zoroaster utter this: + "And when, by often invoking, all the phantasms are vanished, thou shalt see that Holy and Formless Fire, that Fire which darts and flashes through all the Depths of the Universe; hear thou the Voice of the Fire! + "A similar Fire flashingly extending through the rushings of Air, or a Fire formless whence cometh the Image of a voice, or even a flashing Light abounding, revolving, whirling forth, crying aloud. Also there is the vision of the fire-flashing Courser of Light, or also a Child, borne aloft on the shoulders of the Celestial Steed, fiery, or clothed with gold, or naked, or shooting with the bow shafts or light, and standing on the shoulders of the horse, then if thy meditation prolongeth itself, thou shalt unite all these symbols into the form of a Lion." + This passage --- combined with several others --- is paraphased in poetry by Aleister Crowley in his "Tannhauser". + + "And when, "invoking often," thou shalt see + That formless Fire; when all the earth is shaken, + The stars abide not, and the moon is gone, + All Time crushed back into Eternity, + The Universe by earthquake overtaken; + Light is not, and the thunders roll, + The World is done: + When in the darkness Chaos rolls again + In the excited brain: + Then, O then call not to thy view that visible + Image of Nature; fatal is her name! + It fitteth not thy Body to behold + That living light of Hell, + The unluminous, dead flame, + Until that body from the crucible + Hath passed, pure gold! + For, from the confines of material space, + The twilight-moving place, + The gates of matter, and the dark threshold, + Before the faces of the Things that dwell + In the Abodes of Night, + Spring into sight + Demons, dog-faced, that show no mortal sign + Of Truth, but desecrate the Light Divine, + Seducing from the sacred mysteries. + But, after all these Folk of Fear are driven + Before the avenging levin + That rives the opening skies, + Behold that formless and that Holy Flame {292} + That hath no name; + The Fire that darts and flashes, writhes and creeps + Snake-wise in royal robe + Wound round that vanished glory of the globe, + Unto that sky beyond the starry deeps, + Beyond the Toils of Time, --- then formulate + In thine own mind, luminous, concentrate, + The Lion of the Light, a child that stands + On the vast shoulders of the Steed of God: + Or winged, or shooting flying shafts, or shod + With the flame-sandals. + Then, lift up thine hands! + Centre thee in thine heart one scarlet thought + Limpid with brilliance of the Light above! + Drawn into naught + All life, death, hatred, love: + All self concentred in the sole desire --- + Hear thou the Voice of Fire!" + + + + ----------- + + {293} + + + + + + POINT + + III + + + SCHOLION ON SECTIONS G & Gg. + + + The Adept who has mastered this Ritual, successfully realising the full import of this controlled rapture, ought not to allow his mind to loosen its grip on the astral imagery of the Star-spate, Will-Symbol, or Soul-symbol, or even to forget its duty to the body and the sensible surroundings. Nor should he omit to keep his Body of Light in close touch with the phenomena of its own plane, so that its privy consciousness may fulfil its proper functions of protecting his scattered ideals from obsession. + But he should have acquired, by previous practice, the faculty of detaching these elements of his consciousness from their articulate centre, so that they become (temporarily) independent responsible units, capable of receiving communications from headquarters at will, but perfectly able (1) to take care of themselves without troubling their chief, and (2) to report to him at the proper time. In a figure, they must be like subordinate officers, expected to display self-reliance, initiative, and integrity in the execution of the Orders of the Day. + The Adept should therefore be able to rely on these individual minds of his to control their own conditions without interference from himself for the time required, and to recall them in due course, receiving an accurate report of their adventures. + This being so, the Adept will be free to concentrate his deepest self, that part of him which unconsciously orders his true Will, upon the realization of his Holy Guardian Angel. The absence of his bodily, mental and astral consciousness is indeed cardinal to success, for it is their usurpation of his attention which has made him deaf to his Soul, and his preoccupation with their affairs that has prevented him from perceiving that Soul. {294} + The effect of the Ritual has been + (a) to keep them so busy with their own work that they cease to distract him; + (b) to separate them so completely that his soul is stripped of its sheaths; + (c) to arouse in him an enthusiasm so intense as to intoxicate and anaesthetize him, that he may not feel and resent the agony of this spiritual vivisection, just as bashful lovers get drunk on the wedding night, in order to brazen out the intensity of shame which so mysteriously coexists with their desire; + (d) to concentrate the necessary spiritual forces from every element, and fling them simultaneously into the aspiration towards the Holy Guardian Angel; and + (e) to attract the Angel by the vibration of the magical voice which invokes Him. + The method of the Ritual is thus manifold. + There is firstly an analysis of the Adept, which enables him to calculate his course of action. He can decide what must be banished, what purified, what concentrated. He can then concentrate his will upon its one essential element, over-coming its resistance --- which is automatic, like a physiological reflex --- by destroying inhibitions through his ego-overwhelming enthusiasm.<> The other half of the work needs no such complex effort; for his Angel is simple and unperplexed, ready at all times to respond to rightly ordered approach. {295} + But the results of the Ritual are too various to permit of rigid description. One may say that, presuming the union to be perfect, the Adept need not retain any memory soever of what has occurred. He may be merely aware of a gap in his conscious life, and judge of its contents by observing that his nature has been subtly transfigured. Such an experience might indeed be the proof of perfection. + If the Adept is to be any wise conscious of his Angel it must be that some part of his mind is prepared to realise the rapture, and to express it to itself in one way or another. This involves the perfection of that part, its freedom from prejudice and the limitations of rationality so-called. For instance: one could not receive the illumination as to the nature of life which the doctrine of evolution should shed, if one is passionately persuaded that humanity is essentially not animal, or convinced that causality is repugnant to reason. The Adept must be ready for the utter destruction of his point of view on any subject, and even that of his innate conception of the forms and laws of thought.<> Thus he may find that his Angel consider his "business" or his "love" to be absurd trifles; also that human ideas of "time" are invalid, and human "laws" of logic applicable only to the relations between illusions. + Now the Angel will make contact with the Adept at any point that is sensitive to His influence. Such a point will naturally be one that is salient in the Adept's character, and also one that is, in the proper sense of the word, pure<>. + Thus an artist, attuned to appreciate plastic beauty is likely to {296} receive a visual impression of his Angel in a physical form which is sublimely quintessential of his ideal. A musician may be rapt away by majestic melodies such as he never hoped to hear. A philosopher may attain apprehension of tremendous truths, the solution of problems that had baffled him all his life. + Conformably with this doctrine, we read of illuminations experienced by simple-minded men, such as a workman who "saw God" and likened Him to "a quantity of little pears". Again, we know that ecstasy, impinging upon unbalanced minds, inflames the idolised idea, and produces fanatical faith fierce even to frenzy, with intolerance and insanely disordered energy which is yet so powerful as to effect the destinies of empires. + But the phenomena of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel are a side issue; the essence of the Union is the intimacy. Their intimacy (or rather identity) is independent of all partial forms of expression; at its best it is therefore as inarticulate as Love. + The intensity of the consummation will more probably compel a sob or a cry, some natural physical gesture of animal sympathy with the spiritual spasm. This is to be criticised as incomplete self-control. Silence is nobler. + In any case the Adept must be in communion with his Angel, so that his Soul is suffused with sublimity, whether intelligible or not in terms of intellect. It is evident that the stress of such spiritual possession must tend to overwhelm the soul, especially at first. It actually suffers from the excess of its ecstasy, just as extreme love produces vertigo. The soul sinks and swoons. Such weakness is fatal alike to its enjoyment and its apprehension. "Be strong! then canst thou bear more rapture!" sayeth the Book of the Law.<> + The Adept must therefore play the man, arousing himself to harden his soul. + To this end, I, the Beast, have made trial and proof of divers devices. Of these the most potent is to set the body to strive with {297} the soul. Let the muscles take grip on themselves as if one were wrestling. Let the jaw and mouth, in particular, be tightened to the utmost. Breathe deeply, slowly, yet strongly. Keep mastery over the mind by muttering forcibly and audibly. But lest such muttering tend to disturb communion with the Angel, speak only His Name. Until the Adept have heard that Name, therefore, he may not abide in the perfect possession of his Beloved. His most important task is thus to open his ears to the voice of his Angel, that he may know him, how he is called. For hearken! this Name, understood rightly and fully, declareth the nature of the Angel in every point, wherefore also that Name is the formula of the perfection to which the Adept must aspire, and also of the power of Magick by virtue whereof he must work. + He then that is as yet ignorant of that Name, let him repeat a word worthy of this particular Ritual. Such are Abrahadabra, the Word of the Aeon, which signifieth "The Great Work accomplished"; and Aumgn interpreted in Part III of Book 4<>; and the name of THE BEAST, for that His number showeth forth this Union with the Angel, and His Work is no other than to make all men partakers of this Mystery of the Mysteries of Magick. + So then saying this word or that, let the Adept wrestle with his Angel and withstand Him, that he may constrain Him to consent to continue in communion until the consciousness becomes capable of clear comprehension, and of accurate transmission<> of the {298} transcendent Truth of the Beloved to the heart that holds him. + The firm repetition of one of these Words ought to enable the Adept to maintain the state of Union for several minutes, even at first. + In any case he must rekindle his ardour, esteeming his success rather as an encouragement to more ardent aspiration than as a triumph. He should increase his efforts. + Let him beware of the "lust of result", of expecting too much, of losing courage if his first success is followed by a series of failures. + For success makes success seem so incredible that one is apt to create an inhibition fatal to subsequent attempts. One fears to fail; the fear intrudes upon the concentration and so fulfils its own prophecy. We know how too much pleasure in a love affair makes one afraid to disgrace oneself on the next few occasions; indeed, until familiarity has accustomed one to the idea that one's lover has never supposed one to be more than human. Confidence returns gradually. Inarticulate ecstasy is replaced by a more sober enjoyment of the elements of the fascination. + Just so one's first dazzled delight in a new landscape turns, as one continues to gaze, to the appreciation of exquisite details of the view. At first they were blurred by the blinding rush of general beauty; they emerge one by one as the shock subsides, and passionate rapture yields to intelligent interest. + In the same way the Adept almost always begins by torrential lyrics painting out mystical extravagances about "ineffable love", "unimaginable bliss", "inexpressible infinities of illimitable utterness".<> He usually loses his sense of proportion, of humour, of reality, and of sound judgment. His ego is often inflated to the bursting point, till he would be abjectly ridiculous if he were not so pitifully dangerous to himself and others. He also tends to take his new-found "truths of illumination" for the entire body of truth, and insists that they must be as valid an vital for all men as they happen to be for himself. {299} + It is wise to keep silence about those things "unlawful to utter" which one may have heard "in the seventh heaven". This may not apply to the sixth. + The Adept must keep himself in hand, however tempted to make a new heaven and a new earth in the next few days by trumpeting his triumphs. He must give time a chance to redress his balance, sore shaken by the impact of the Infinite. + As he becomes adjusted to intercourse with his Angel, he will find his passionate ecstasy develop a quality of peace and intelligibility which adds power, while it informs and fortifies his mental and moral qualities instead of obscuring and upsetting them. He will by now have become able to converse with his Angel, impossible as it once seemed; for he now knows that the storm of sound which he supposed to be the Voice was only the clamour of his own confusions. The "infinity" nonsense was born of his own inability to think clearly beyond his limits, just as a Bushman, confronted by numbers above five, can only call them "many". + The truth told by the Angel, immensely as it extends the horizon of the Adept, is perfectly definite and precise. It does not deal in ambiguities and abstractions. It possesses form, and confesses law, in exactly the same way and degree as any other body of truth. It is to the truth of the material and intellectual spheres of man very much what the Mathematics of Philosophy with its "infinite series" and "Cantorian continuity" is to schoolboy arithmetic. Each implies the other, though by that one may explore the essential nature of existence, and by this a pawnbroker's profits. + This then is the true aim of the Adept in this whole operation, to assimilate himself to his Angel by continual conscious communion. For his Angel is an intelligible image of his own true Will, to do which is the whole of the law of his Being. + Also the Angel appeareth in Tiphereth, which is the heart of the Ruach, and thus the Centre of Gravity of the Mind. It is also directly inspired from Kether, the ultimate Self, through the Path of the High Priestess, or initiated intuition. Hence the Angel is in truth the Logos or articulate expression of the whole Being of the Adept, so that as he increases in the perfect understanding of {300} His name, he approaches the solution of the ultimate problem, Who he himself truly is. + Unto this final statement the Adept may trust his Angel to lead him; for the Tiphereth-consciousness alone is connected by paths with the various parts of his mind.<> None therefore save He hath the knowledge requisite for calculating the combinations of conduct which will organise and equilibrate the forces of the Adept, against the moment when it becomes necessary to confront the Abyss. The Adept must control a compact and coherent mass if he is to make sure of hurling it from him with a clean-cut gesture. + I, The Beast 666, lift up my voice and swear that I myself have been brought hither by mine Angel. After that I had attained unto the Knowledge and Conversation of Him by virtue of mine ardour towards Him, and of this Ritual that I bestow upon men my fellows, and most of His great Love that He beareth to me, yea, verily, He led me to the Abyss; He bade me fling away all that I had and all that I was; and He forsook me in that Hour. But when I came beyond the Abyss, to be reborn within the womb of BABALON, then came he unto me abiding in my virgin heart, its Lord and Lover! + Also He made me a Magus, speaking through His Law, the Word of the new Aeon, the Aeon of the Crowned and Conquering Child.<> Thus he fulfilled my will to bring full freedom to the race of Men. + Yea, he wrought also in me a Work of wonder beyond this, but in this matter I am sworn to hold my peace. + +{301} + + + + + + + + + + + + + APPENDIX V + + A FEW OF THE PRINCIPAL CORRESPONDENCES + + OF THE QABALAH. + + REPRINTED WITH ADDITIONS FROM + + 777 + + + + {303} + + + + TABLE I + + .===========.=========================.======================. + : I : II : III : + : KEY SCALE : HEBREW NAMES OF NUMBERS : ENGLISH OF COLUMN II : + : : & LETTERS : : + :-----------+-------------------------+----------------------: + : :Aleph-Yod-Nunfinal : Nothing. : + : 0 :Aleph-Yod-Nunfinal : No Limit. : + : :Samekh-Vau-Pehfinal : : + : :Aleph-Yod-Nunfinal : Limitless L.V.X. : + : :Samekh-Vau-Pehfinal : : + : :Aleph-Vau-Resh : : + : 1 :Koph-Taw-Resh : Crown. : + : 2 :Chet-Koph-Mem-Heh : Wisdom. : + : 3 :Bet-Yod-Nun-Heh : Understanding. : + : 4 :Chet-Samekh-Dalet : Mercy. : + : 5 :Gemel-Bet-Vau-Resh-Heh : Strength. : + : 6 :Taw-Peh-Aleph-Resh-Taw : Beauty. : + : 7 :Nun-Tzaddi-Chet : Victory. : + : 8 :Heh-Vau-Dalet : Splendour. : + : 9 :Yod-Samekh-Vau-Dalet : Foundation. : + : 10 :Mem-Lamed-Koph-Vau-Taw : Kingdom. : + : 11 :Aleph-Lamed-Pehfinal : Ox. : + : 12 :Bet-Yod-Taw : House. : + : 13 :Gemel-Mem-Lamed : Camel. : + : 14 :Dalet-Lamed-Taw : Door. : + : 15 :Heh-Heh : Window. : + : 16 :Vau-Vau : Nail. : + : 17 :Zain-Yod-Nunfinal : Sword. : + : 18 :Chet-Yod-Taw : Fence. : + : 19 :Tet-Yod-Taw : Serpent. : + : 20 :Yod-Vau-Dalet : Hand. : + : 21 :Koph-Pehfinal : Palm. : + : 22 :Lamed-Mem-Dalet : Ox Goad. : + : 23 :Mem-Yod-Memfinal : Water. : + : 24 :Nun-Vau-Nunfinal : Fish. : + : 25 :Samekh-Mem-Kophfinal : Prop. : + : 26 :Ayin-Yod-Nunfinal : Eye. : + : 27 :Peh-Heh : Mouth. : + : 28 :Tzaddi-Dalet-Yod : Fish-hook. : + : 29 :Qof-Vau-Pehfinal : Back of Head. : + : 30 :Resh-Yod-Shin : Head. : + : 31 :Shin-Yod-Nunfinal : Tooth. : + : 32 :Taw-Vau : Tau (as Egyptian). : + : 32 "bis" :Taw-Vau : --- : + : 31 "bis" :Shin-Yod-Nunfinal : --- : + : : : : + : : : : + : : : : + : : : : + : : : : + : : : : + + + {304 & 305} + + + + TABLE I + +.===========.=========================.===============================. +: I : VI : VII : +: KEY SCALE : THE HEAVENS OF ASSIAH : ENGLISH OF COLUMN VI : +:-----------+-------------------------+-------------------------------: +: 1 :Resh-Aleph-Shin-Yod-Taw : Sphere of the Primum Mobile : +: :Heh-Gemel-Lamed-Gemel- : : + : Lamed-Yod-Memfinal : : +: 2 :Mem-Samekh-Lamed-Vau-Taw : Sphere of the Zodiac : +: : : Fixed Stars : +: 3 :Shin-Bet-Taw-Aleph-Yod : Sphere of Saturn : +: 4 :Tzaddi-Dalet-Qof : Sphere of Jupiter : +: 5 :Mem-Aleph-Dalet-Yod- : Sphere of Mars : +: : Memfinal : : +: 6 :Shin-Mem-Shin : Sphere of Sol : +: 7 :Nun-Vau-Gemel-Heh : Sphere of Venus : +: 8 :Koph-Vau-Koph-Bet : Sphere of Mercury : +: 9 :Lamed-Bet-Nun-Heh : Sphere of Luna : +: 10 :Chet-Lamed-Memfinal : Sphere of the Elements : +: :Yod-Samekh-Vau-Dalet- : : +: : Vau-Taw : : +: 11 :Resh-Vau-Chet : Air : +: 12 : (Planets following : MERCURY : +: : Sephiroth corresponding): : +: 13 : : Luna : +: 14 : : Venus : +: 15 :Tet-Lamed-Heh : Aries Fire : +: 16 :Shin-Vau-Resh : Taurus Earth : +: 17 :Taw-Aleph-Vau-Mem-Yod- : Gemini Air : +: : Memfinal : : +: 18 :Samekh-Resh-Tet-Nunfinal : Cancer Water : +: 19 :Aleph-Resh-Yod-Heh : Leo Fire : +: 20 :Bet-Taw-Vau-Lamed-Heh : Virgo Earth : +: 21 : : Jupiter : +: 22 :Mem-Aleph-Zain-Nun-Yod- : Libra Air : +: : Memfinal : : +: 23 :Mem-Yod-Memfinal : Water : +: 24 :Ayin-Qof-Resh-Bet : Scorpio Water : +: 25 :Qof-Shin-Taw : Sagittarius Fire : +: 26 :Gemel-Dalet-Yod : Capricornus Earth : +: 27 : : Mars : +: 28 :Dalet-Lamed-Yod : Aquarius Air : +: 29 :Dalet-Gemel-Yod-Memfinal : Pisces Water : +: 30 : : Sol : +: 31 :Aleph-Shin : Fire : +: 32 : : Saturn : +: 32 "bis" :Aleph-Resh-Tzaddifinal : Earth : +: 31 "bis" :Aleph-Taw : Spirit : +: : : : +: : : : +: : : : +: : : : + + + {306 & 307} + + + + + TABLE I + +.=========.================.===================.=======================. +: : IX : XI : XII : +: : THE SWORD : ELEMENTS : : +: : AND :(WITH THEIR PLANE- : THE TREE OF LIFE : +: : THE SERPENT : TARY RULERS) : : +: : :Do not confuse with: : +: : :rulers of Zodiac. : : +:---------+----------------+-------------------+-----------------------: +: 0 :................:...................:.......................: +: 1 : The Flaming : Root of Air :1st Plane Middle Pillar: +: 2 : Sword follows : " " Fire :2nd " Right " : +: 3 : the downward : " " Water :2nd " Left " : +: 4 : course of the : " " Water :3rd " Right " : +: 5 : Sephiroth, and : " " Fire :3rd " Left " : +: 6 : is compared : " " Air :4th " Middle " : +: 7 : to the Light- : " " Fire :5th " Right " : +: 8 : ning Flash. : " " Water :5th " Left " : +: 9 : Its hilt is : " " Air :6th " Middle " : +: 10 : in Kether and : " " Earth :7th " " " : +: : its point in : : : +: : Malkuth. : : : +: : : : : +:11 :The Serpent of : Hot and Moist Air :Path joins 1-2 : +: 12 :Wisdom follows :...................: " " 1-3 : +: 13 :the course of :...................: " " 1-6 : +: 14 :the paths or :...................: " " 2-3 : +: 15 :letters upward, : Sun Fire Jupiter : " " 2-6 : +: 16 :its head being : Venus Earth Moon : " " 2-4 : +: 17 :thus in Aleph, : Saturn Air Mercury: " " 3-6 : +: 18 :its tail in Taw.: Mars Water : " " 3-5 : +: 19 :Aleph, Mem, & : Sun Fire Jupiter : " " 4-5 : +: :Shin are : : : +: 20 :the Mother : Venus Earth Moon : " " 4-6 : +: 21 :letters, re- :...................: " " 4-7 : +: 22 :ferring to the : Saturn Air Mercury: " " 5-6 : +:23 :Elements; Bet, : Cold & Moist Water: " " 5-8 : +: 24 :Gemel, Dalet, : Mars Water : " " 6-7 : +: :Koph, Peh, Resh : : : +: 25 :and Taw, the : Sun Fire Jupiter : " " 6-9 : +: 26 :Double letters, : Venus Earth Moon : " " 6-8 : +: 27 :to the Planets; :...................: " " 7-8 : +: 28 :the rest, : Saturn Air Mercury: " " 7-9 : +: 29 :Single letters, : Mars Water : " " 7-10 : +: 30 :to the Zodiac. :...................: " " 8-9 : +:31 : : Hot and Dry Fire : " " 8-10 : +: 32 :................:...................: " " 9-10 : +:32 "bis" : : Cold and Dry Earth:.......................: +:31 "bis" :................:...................:.......................: +: : : : : +{WEH NOTE: Row 29 has been corrected, original had a typo of Mars Fire} + + {308} + + + + + TABLE I + +.=========.====================================.=======================. +: : XIV : XV : +: : GENERAL ATTRIBUTION : THE KING SCALE : +: : OF TAROT : OF COLOUR : +:---------+------------------------------------+-----------------------: +: 1 :The 4 Aces :Brilliance : +: 2 :The 4 Twos --- Kings or Knights :Pure Soft Blue : +: 3 :The 4 Threes --- Queens :Crimson : +: 4 :The 4 Fours :Deep violet : +: 5 :The 4 Fives :Orange : +: 6 :The 4 Sixes --- Emperors or Princes :Clear pink rose : +: 7 :The 4 Sevens :Amber : +: 8 :The 4 Eights :Violet purple : +: 9 :The 4 Nines :Indigo : +: 10 :The 4 Tens --- Empresses or :Yellow : +: : Princesses : : +:11 :The Fool --- (Swords) Emperors or :Bright pale yellow : +: : Princes : : +: 12 :The Juggler :Yellow : +: 13 :The High Priestess :Blue : +: 14 :The Empress :Emerald Green : +: 15 :The Emperor :Scarlet : +: 16 :The Hierophant :Red Orange : +: 17 :The Lovers :Orange : +: 18 :The Chariot :Amber : +: 19 :Strength :Yellow, greenish : +: 20 :Hermit :Green yellowish : +: 21 :Wheel of Fortune :Violet : +: 22 :Justice :Emerald Green : +:23 :The Hanged Man --- (Cups) Queens :Deep blue : +: 24 :Death :Green blue : +: 25 :Temperance :Blue : +: 26 :The Devil :Indigo : +: 27 :The House of God :Scarlet : +: 28 :The Star :Violet : +: 29 :The Moon :Crimson (ultra violet) : +: 30 :The Sun :Orange : +:31 :The Angel or Last Judgment --- :Glowing orange scarlet : +: : (Wands) Kings or Knights : : +: 32 :The Universe :Indigo : +:32 "bis" :Empresses (Coins) :Citrine, olive, russet : +: : : and black(1) : +:31 "bis" :All 22 trumps :White merging into grey: +:----------------------------------------------------------------------: +: (1) The Pure Earth known to the Ancient Egyptians, during that : +: Equinox of the Gods over which Isis presided (i.e. The Pagan Era) was: +: taken as Green. : + + {309} + + + + + TABLE I + +.=========.=============================.==============================. +: : XIX : XXII : +:KEY SCALE: SELECTION OF EGYPTIAN GODS : SMALL SELECTION OF : +: : : HINDU DEITIES : +:---------+-----------------------------+------------------------------: +: 0 :Harpocrates, Amoun, Nuith. :AUM. : +: 1 :Ptah, Asar un Nefer, Hadith. :Parabrahm (or any other whom : +: : : one wishes to please). : +: 2 :Amoun, Thoth, Nuith (Zodiac).:Shiva, Vishnu (as Buddha ava- : +: : : tara).Akasa(as matter).Lingam: +: 3 :Maut, Isis, Nephthys. :Bhavani (all forms of Sakti), : +: : : Prana (as Force), Yoni. : +: 4 :Amoun, Isis. :Indra, Brahma. : +: 5 :Horus, Nephthys. :Vishnu, Varruna-Avatar. : +: 6 :Asar, Ra. :Vishnu-Hari-Krishna-Rama. : +: 7 :Hathoor. :Bhavani (all forms of Sakti). : +: : : Prana (as Force), Yoni. : +: 8 :Anubis. :Hanuman. : +: 9 :Shu. :Ganesha Vishnu (Kurm Avatar). : +: 10 :Seb. Lower (i.e. unwedded), :Lakshmi, etc. (Kundalini) : +: : Isis and Nephthys. : : +:11 :Nu. :The Maruts (Vayu). : +: 12 :Thoth and Cynocephalus. :Hanuman, Vishnu (as Parasa- : +: : : Rama). : +: 13 :Chomse. :Chandra (as Moon). : +: 14 :Hathoor. :Lalita(sexual aspect of Sakti): +: 15 :Men Thu. :Shiva. : +: 16 :Asar Ameshet Apis. :Shiva (Sacred Bull). : +: 17 :Various twin dieties, Rehkt :Various twin and hybrid : +: : Merti, etc. : Deities. : +: 18 :Kephra. :..............................: +: 19 :Ra-Hoor-Khuit, Pasht, Sekhet,:Vishnu (Nara-Singh Avatar). : +: : Mau, Sekhmet. : : +: 20 :Isis (as Virgin). :The Gopi Girls, the Lord of : +: : : Yoga. : +: 21 :Amoun-Ra. :Brahma, Indra. : +: 22 :Ma. :Yama. : +:23 :Tum Athph Auramoth (as Water):Soma (apas). : +: : Asar (as Hanged Man), : : +: : Hekar, Isis. : : +: 24 :Merti goddesses, Typhon, :Kundalini. : +: : Apep, Khephra. : : +: 25 :.............................:Vishnu (Horse-Avatar). : +: 26 :Khem (Set). :Lingam, Yoni. : +: 27 :Horus. :..............................: +: 28 :Ahephi, Aroueris. :..............................: +: 29 :Khephra (as Scarab in Tarot :Vishnu (Matsya Avatar). : +: : Trump). : : +: 30 :Ra and many others. :Surya (as Sun). : +:31 :Thoum-aesh-neith, Mau, Ka- :Agni (Tejas) Yama, (as God of : +: : beshunt, Horus, Tarpesheth.: last Judgment). : +: 32 :Sebek, Mako. :Brahama. : +:32 "bis" :Satem, Ahapshi, Nephthys, :(Prithivi). : +: : Ameshet. : : +:31 "bis" :Asar. :(Akasa). : +: : : : + + {310 & 311} + + + + + TABLE I + +.=========.=============================.==============================. +: : XXXIV : XXXV : +:KEY SCALE: SOME GREEK GODS : SOME ROMAN GODS : +:---------+-----------------------------+------------------------------: +: 0 :Pan..........................:..............................: +: 1 :Zeus, Iacchus :Jupiter : +: 2 :Athena, Uranus :Janus : +: 3 :Cybele, Demeter, Rhea, Here :Juno, Cybele, Saturn, Hecate : +: 4 :Poseidon :Jupiter : +: 5 :Ares, Hades :Mars : +: 6 :Iacchus, Apollo, Adonis :Apollo : +: 7 :Aphrodite, Nike :Venus : +: 8 :Hermes :Mercury : +: 9 :Zeus (as Air), Diana of :Diana (as Moon) : +: : Ephesus (as phallic stone) : : +: 10 :Persephone (Adonis), Psyche :Ceres : +:11 :Zeus :Jupiter : +: 12 :Hermes :Mercury : +: 13 :Artemis, Hecate :Diana : +: 14 :Aphrodite :Venus : +: 15 :Athena :Mars, Minerva : +: 16 :(Here) :Venus : +: 17 :Castor & Pollux, Apollo the :Casto & Pollux (Janus) : +: : Diviner : : +: 18 :Apollo the Charioteer :Mercury : +: 19 :Demeter (borne by lions) :Venus (repressing the fire of : +: : : Vulcan) : +: 20 :(Attis) :(Attis) Ceres, Adonis : +: 21 :Zeus :Jupiter (Pluto) : +: 22 :Themis, Minos, AEacus, and :Vulcan : +: : Rhadamanthus : : +:23 :Poseidon :Neptune : +: 24 :Ares :Mars : +: 25 :Apollo, Artemis (hunters) :Diana (as Archer) : +: 26 :Pan, Priapus (Erect Hermes :Pan, Vesta, Bacchus, Priapus : +: : and Bacchus) : : +: 27 :Ares :Mars : +: 28 :(Athena), Ganymede :Juno : +: 29 :Poseidon :Neptune : +: 30 :Helios, Apollo :Apollo : +:31 :Hades :Vulcan, Pluto : +: 32 :(Athena) :Saturn : +:32 "bis" :(Demeter) :Ceres : +:31 "bis" :Iacchus :(Liber) : +: : : : + + {312} + + + + + TABLE I + +.=========.=============================.==============================. +: : XXXVIII : XXXIX : +:KEY SCALE: ANIMALS, REAL AND : PLANTS, REAL AND : +: : IMAGINARY : IMAGINARY : +:---------+-----------------------------+------------------------------: +: 0 :.............................:..............................: +: 1 :God. :Almond in flower. : +: 2 :Man. :Amaranth. : +: 3 :Woman. :Cypress, Opium Poppy. : +: 4 :Unicorn. :Olive, Shamrock. : +: 5 :Basilisk. :Oak, Nux Vomica, Nettle. : +: 6 :Phoenix, Lion, Child. :Acacia, Bay, Laurel, Vine. : +: 7 :Lynx. :Rose. : +: 8 :Hermaphrodite, Jackal, Twin :Moly, Anhalonium Lewinii. : +: : Serpents. : : +: 9 :Elephant. :(Banyan) Mandrake, Damiana, : +: : : Yohimba. : +: 10 :Sphinx. :Willow, Lily, Ivy. : +:11 :Eagle or Man (Cherub of Air).:Aspen. : +: 12 :Swallow, Ibis, Ape, Twin :Vervain, Herb Mercury, : +: : Serpents. : Marjolane, Palm. : +: 13 :Dog. :Almond, Mugwort, Hazel, : +: : : (as Moon). Moonworth, : +: : : Ranunculus. : +: 14 :Sparrow, Dove, Swan. :Myrtle, Rose, Clover. : +: 15 :Ram, Owl. :Tiger Lily, Geranium. : +: 16 :Bull (Cherub of Earth). :Mallow. : +: 17 :Magpie, Hybrids. :Hybrids, Orchids. : +: 18 :Crab, Turtle, Sphinx. :Lotus. : +: 19 :Lion (Cherub of Fire). :Sunflower. : +: 20 :Virgin, Anchorite, any :Snowdrop, Lily, Narcissus. : +: : solitary person or animal. : : +: 21 :Eagle. :Hyssop, Oak, Poplar, Fig. : +: 22 :Elephant. :Aloe. : +:23 :Eagle-snake-scorpion :Lotus, all Water Plants. : +: : (Cherub of Water). : : +: 24 :Scorpion, Beetle, Lobster or :Cactus. : +: : Crayfish, Wolf. : : +: 25 :Centaur, Horse, Hyppogriff, :Rush. : +: : Dog. : : +: 26 :Goat, Ass. :Indian Hemp, Orchis Root, : +: : : Thistle. : +: 27 :Horse, Bear, Wolf. :Absinthe, Rue. : +: 28 :Man or Eagle (Cherub of Air).:(Olive) Cocoanut. : +: : Peacock. : : +: 29 :Fish, Dolphin, Crayfish, :Unicellular Organisms, Opium. : +: : Beetle. : : +: 30 :Lion, Sparrowhawk. :Sunflower, Laurel, Heliotrope.: +:31 :Lion (Cherub of Fire). :Red Poppy, Hibiscus, Nettle. : +: 32 :Crocodile. :Ash, Cypress, Hellebore, Yew, : +: : : Nightshade. : +:32 bis :Bull (Cherub of Earth). :Oak, Ivy. : +:31 bis :Sphinx (if Sworded and :Almond in flower. : +: : Crowned). : : +: : : : +{WEH NOTE: lines 11, 16, 28 & 32 bis corrected as to element; original had typos of Fire, Air, Fire and Water respectively.} + {313 & 314} + + + + + TABLE I + +.=========.=============================.================================. +: : XL : XLI : +:KEY SCALE: PRECIOUS STONES : MAGICAL WEAPONS : +:---------+-----------------------------+--------------------------------: +: 0 :.............................:................................: +: 1 :Diamond. :Swastika or Fylfat Cross, : +: : : Crown. : +: 2 :Star Ruby, Turquoise. :Lingam, the Inner Robe of : +: : : Glory. : +: 3 :Star Sapphire, Pearl. :Yoni, the Outer Robe of : +: : : Concealment. : +: 4 :Amethyst, Sapphire. :The Wand, Sceptre, or Crook. : +: 5 :Ruby. :The Sword, Spear, Scourge or : +: : : Chain. : +: 6 :Topaz, Yellow Diamond. :The Lamen or Rosy Cross. : +: 7 :Emerald. :The Lamp and Girdle. : +: 8 :Opal, especially Fire Opal. :The Names and Versicles, : +: : : the Apron. : +: 9 :Quartz. :The Perfumes and Sandals. : +: 10 :Rock Crystal. :The Magical Circle & Triangle .: +:11 :Topaz, Chalcedony. :The Dagger or Fan. : +: 12 :Opal, Agate. :The Wand or Caducesus. : +: 13 :Moonstone, Pearl, Crystal. :Bow and Arrow. : +: 14 :Emerald, Turquoise. :The Girdle. : +: 15 :Ruby. :The Horns, Energy, the Burin. : +: 16 :Topaz. :The Labour of Preparation. : +: 17 :Alexandrite, Tourmaline, :The Tripod. : +: : Iceland Spar. : : +: 18 :Amber. :The Furnace. : +: 19 :Cat's Eye. :The Discipline (Preliminary). : +: 20 :Peridot. :The Lamp and Wand (Virile : +: : : Force reserved), the Bread. : +: 21 :Amethyst, Lapis Lazuli. :The Sceptre. : +: 22 :Emerald. :The Cross of Equilibrium. : +:23 :Beryl or Aquamarine. :The Cup and Cross of Suffer- : +: : : ing, the Wine. : +: 24 :Snakestone. :The Pain of the Obligation. : +: 25 :Jacinth. :The Arrow (swift and straight : +: : : application of Force). : +: 26 :Black Diamond. :The Secret Force, Lamp. : +: 27 :Ruby, any red stone. :The Sword. : +: 28 :Artificial Glass. :The Censer or Aspergillus. : +: 29 :Pearl. :The Twilight of the Place, : +: : : Magic Mirror. : +: 30 :Crysoleth. :The Lamen or Bow and Arrow. : +:31 :Fire Opal. :The Wand, Lamp, Pyramid of Fire.: +: 32 :Onyx. :The Sickle. : +:32 "bis" :Salt. :The Pantacle, the Salt. : +:31 "bis" :.............................:................................: +: : : : + + {315 & 316} + + + TABLE I +.=========.===================.==========.==============================. +: : XLII : LIII : XLIX : +:KEY SCALE: PERFUMES :THE GREEK : LINEAL FIGURES OF THE : +: : :ALPHABET : PLANETS AND GEOMANCY : +:---------+-------------------+----------+------------------------------: +: 0 :...................: :The Circle. : +: 1 :Ambergris. : :The Point. : +: 2 :Musk : (sigma) :The Line, also the Cross. : +: 3 :Myrrh, Civet : :The Plane, also the Diamond, : +: : : : Oval, Circle and other Yoni : +: : : : Symbols. : +: 4 :Cedar : (iota) :The Solid Figure. : +: 5 :Tobacco : (phi) :The Tessaract. : +: 6 :Olibanum : omega : Sephirotic Geomantic Fi- : +: 7 :Benzoin, Rose, : epsilon : gures follow the Planets. : +: : Red Sandal : : Caput and Cauda Draconis : +: 8 :Storax : : are the Nodes of the Moon, : +: 9 :Jasmine, Jinseng, : chi : nearly = Herschel and : +: : all Odoriferous : : Neptune respectively. : +: : Roots : : They belong to Malkuth. : +: 10 :Dittany of Crete : Sampi : : +:11 :Galbanum : alpha :Those of Airy Triplicity. : +: 12 :Mastic, White : beta :Octagram. : +: : Sandal, Mace, : : : +: : Storax, all Fu- : : : +: : gitive Odours. : : : +: 13 :Menstrual Blood, : gamma :Enneagram. : +: : Camphor, Aloes, : : : +: : all Sweet : : : +: : Virginal Odours. : : : +: 14 :Sandalwood, Myrtle : delta :Heptagram. : +: : all Soft Volup- : : : +: : tuous Odours. : : : +: 15 :Dragon's Blood. : epsilon :Puer. : +: 16 :Storax. : digamma :Amissio. : +: 17 :Wormwood. : zeta :Albus. : +: 18 :Onycha. : eta :Populus and Via. : +: 19 :Olibanum. : theta :Fortuna Major & Fortuna Minor.: +: 20 :White Sandal, : iota :Conjunctio. : +: : Narcissus. : : : +: 21 :Saffron, all : kappa :Square and Rhombus. : +: : Generous Odours. : : : +: 22 :Galbanum. : lambda :Puella. : +:23 :Onycha, Myrrh. : mu :Those of Watery Triplicity. : +: 24 :Siamese Benzoin, : nu :Rubeus. : +: : Opoponax. : : : +: 25 :Lign-aloes. :xi (sigma):Acquisitio. : +: 26 :Musk, Civet (also : omicron :Carcer. : +: :Saturnian perfumes): : : +: 27 :Pepper, Dragon's : pi :Pentagram. : +: : Blood, all Hot : : : +: : Pungent Odours. : : : +: 28 :Galbanum. : psi :Tristitia. : +: 29 :Ambergris. : koppa :Laetitia. : +: 30 :Olibanum, Cinamon, : rho :Hexagram. : +: :all Glorious Odours: : : +:31 :Olibanum, all : sampi :Those of Firey Triplicity. : +: : Fiery Odours. : : : +: 32 :Assafoetida, : tau :Triangle. : +: : Scammony, Indigo, : : : +: : Sulphur, all Evil : : : +: : Odours. : : : +:32 bis :Storax, all Dull : upsilon :Those of Earthy Triplicity. : +: : Heavy Odours. : : : +{WEH NOTE: on line 9, Chi was omitted; lines 21 & 32 bis, Chi and Tau there by error. These have been restored from Liber 777} {317 & 318} + + + TABLE II + +.=========.==========.===============.====================.============. +: : LIV : LV : LXIII : LXIV : +:KEY SCALE: THE :THE ELEMENTS : :SECRET NAMES: +: :LETTERS OF: AND : THE FOUR WORLDS : OF THE FOUR: +: : THE NAME : SENSES : : WORLDS : +:---------+----------+---------------+--------------------+------------: +: 11 : Vau : Air, Smell. :Yetzirah, Formative :Mem-Heh Mah: +: : : : World. : : +: 23 : Heh : Water, Taste. :Briah, Creative :Samekh-Gemel: +: : : : World. : Seg: +: 31 : Yod : Fire, Sight. :Atziluth, Archetypal:Ayin-Bet Ob: +: : : : World. : : +:32 "bis" : Heh : Earth, Touch. :Assiah, Material :Bet-Nunfinal: +: : : : World. : Ben: +:31 "bis" : Shin : Spirit, :....................:............: +: : : Hearing. : : : +: : : : : : +:=========+========.=.========.======.====.===============.===.========: +: : LXVIII : LXIX : LXX : LXXV : LXXVI : +: :THE PART: THE :ATTRIBUTION:THE FIVE ELEMENTS :THE FIVE: +: : OF :ALCHEMICAL: OF : (TATWAS) :SKANDHAS: +: :THE SOUL: ELEMENTS : PENTAGRAM : : : +:---------+--------+----------+-----------+-------------------+--------: +: 11 :HB:RVCh : Mercury :Left Upper :Vayu - The Blue :Sankhara: +: :Ruach : : Point. : Circle. : : +: 23 :HB:NShMH: Salt :Right Upper:Aupas - The Silver :Vedana. : +: :Neshamah: : Point. : Crescent : : +: 31 :HB:ChYH : Sulphur :Right Lower:Agni or Tejas - :San~~n~~a. : +: :Chiah : : Point. : The Red Triangle.: : +:32 "bis" :HB:NPSh : Salt :Left Lower :Prithivi - The :Rupa : +: :Nephesh : : Point. : Yellow Square. : : +:31 "bis" :H:YChYDH: :Topmost :Akasa - The Black :Vin~~nanam: +: :Iechidah: : Point. : Egg. : : +:---------.--------.----------.-----------.-------------------.--------: +: : +: TABLE III : +:=========.===================.=============.==========================: +: : LXXVII : LXXXI : LXXXIII : +: : THE PLANETS : : THE ATTRIBUTION OF : +: : AND THEIR NUMBERS : METALS : THE HEXAGRAM : +:---------+-------------------+-------------+--------------------------: +: 12 : Mercury 8 : Mercury. : Left Lower Point. : +: 13 : Moon 9 : Silver. : Bottom Point. : +: 14 : Venus 7 : Copper. : Right Lower Point. : +: 21 : Jupiter 4 : Tin. : Right Upper Point. : +: 27 : Mars 5 : Iron. : Left Upper Point. : +: 30 : Sun 6 : Gold. : Centre Point. : +: 31 : Saturn 3 : Lead. : Top Point. : + + {319} + + + + TABLE IV + +.=========.======.=======.=================.=========.===================. +: :XCVII : CXVII : CXVIII : CXXIV : CXXXIII : +:KEY SCALE:PARTS : THE : THE CHAKKRAS OR : THE : TITLES AND : +: : OF : SOUL : CENTRES OF :HEAVENLY : ATTRIBUTIONS OF : +: : THE :(HINDU): PRANA :HEXAGRAM : THE WAND SUIT : +: : SOUL : : (HINDUISM) : : (CLUBS) : +:---------+------+-------+-----------------+---------+-------------------: +: 0 :......:.......:.................:.........:...................: +: 1 :YChYDH:Atma :Sahasrara (above : Jupiter :The Root of the : +: : : : Head). : : Powers of Fire. : +: 2 :ChYH :Buddhi :Ajna (Pineal : Mercury :Mars in Aries : +: : : : Gland). : : Dominion. : +: 3 :NShMH :Higher :Visuddhi : Moon :Sun in Aries Esta- : +: : : Manas : (Larynx). :[Saturn : blished Strength. : +: : : : : Daath] : : +: -. .- .- : : : +: 4 : :.......:.................: Venus :Venus in Aries : +: : : : : : Perfected Work. : +: 5 : :Lower -:Anahata (Heart) : Mars :Saturn in Leo : +: : : : : : Strife. : +: : : Manas : : : : +: 6 : :.......:.................: Sun :Jupiter in Leo : +: : : : : : Victory. : +: : : .- : : : +: 7 :-RVCh :Kama :Manipura (Solar : :Mars in Leo Valour.: +: : : : Plexus). : : : +: 8 : :Prana :Svadistthana : :Mercury in Sagit- : +: : : : : : tarius Swiftness.: +: : : : (Navel). : : : +: 9 : :Linga .- -. :Moon in Sagittarius: +: -. .Sharira: : : Great Strength. : +: : : -:Muladhara (Lingam: : : +: 10 :NPSh :Sthula : and Anus). : :Saturn in Sagit- : +: : : : : : tarius Oppression.: +: : :Sharira: : : : +: : : .- -. : : +:---------.------.-----------------------------------.-------------------: +: XCVIII --- English of Col. XCVII : +: The Self........... 1 The Intellect. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. : +: The Life Force..... 2 The Animal soul which : +: The Intuition...... 3 perceives and feels.. 10 : + + {320} + + + + TABLE IV + +.=========.====================.===================.===================. +: : CXXXIV : CXXXV : CXXXVI : +:KEY SCALE: TITLES AND : TITLES AND : TITLES AND : +: :ATTRIBUTIONS OF THE : ATTRIBUTIONS OF : ATTRIBUTIONS OF : +: :CUP OR CHALICE SUIT : THE SWORD SUIT :THE COIN, DISC OR : +: : (HEARTS) : (SPADES) : PANTACLE SUIT : +: : : : (DIAMONDS) : +:---------+----------------------+---------------------+---------------------: +: 0 :......................:.....................:.....................: +: 1 :The Root of the :The Root of the :The Root of the : +: : Powers of Water. : Powers of Air. : Powers of Earth. : +: : : : : +: 2 :Venus in Cancer Love. :Moon in Libra :Jupiter in Capricorn : +: : : The Lord of : The Lord of : +: : : Peace restored. : Harmonious Change : +: : : : : +: 3 :Mercury in Cancer :Saturn in Libra :Mars in Capricorn : +: : Abundance. : Sorrow. : Material Works. : +: : : : : +: 4 :Moon in Cancer :Jupiter in Libra :Sun in Capricorn : +: : Blended Pleasure. : Rest from Strife. : Earthly Power. : +: : : : : +: 5 :Mars in Scorpio :Venus in Aquarius :Mercury in Taurus : +: : Loss in Pleasure. : Defeat. : Material Trouble. : +: : : : : +: 6 :Sun in Scorpio :Mercury in Aquarius :Moon in Taurus : +: : Pleasure. : Earned Success. : Material Success. : +: : : : : +: 7 :Venus in Scorpio :Moon in Aquarius :Saturn in Taurus : +: : Illusionary Success.: Unstable Effort. : Success Unfulfilled.: +: : : : : +: 8 :Saturn in Pisces :Jupiter in Gemini :Sun in Virgo : +: : Abandoned Success. : Shortened Force. : Prudence. : +: : : : : +: 9 :Jupiter in Pisces :Mars in Gemini :Venus in Virgo : +: : Material Happiness. : Despair & Cruelty. : Material Gain. : +: : : : : +: 10 :Mars in Pisces :Sun in Gemini :Mercury in Virgo : +: : Perfected Success. : Ruin. : Wealth. : +: : : : : +: : : : : +{WEH NOTE: Two typos have been corrected in column CXXXIV by Liber 777: 4, Moon in place of Sun and 6, Sun in place of Moon.} + {321} + + + + TABLE V + +.=========.====================.===================.===================. +: : CXXXVII : CXXXVIII : CXXXIX : +:KEY SCALE: SIGNS OF THE : PLANETS RULING IN : PLANETS EXALTED IN: +: : ZODIAC : COLUMN CCXXXVII : COLUMN CXXXVII : +:---------+--------------------+-------------------+-------------------: +: : : : : +: 15 : Aries : Mars : P. M. (Sun) : +: : : : : +: 16 : Taurus : Venus : Uranus (Moon) : +: : : : : +: 17 : Gemini : Mercury : Neptune : +: : : : : +: 18 : Cancer : Moon : P. M. (Jupiter) : +: : : : : +: 19 : Leo : Sun : Uranus : +: : : : : +: 20 : Virgo : Mercury : Neptune (Mercury): +: : : : : +: 22 : Libra : Venus : P. M. (Saturn) : +: : : : : +: 24 : Scorpio : Mars : Uranus : +: : : : : +: 25 : Sagittarius : Jupiter : Neptune : +: : : : : +: 26 : Capricorn : Saturn : P. M. (Mars) : +: : : : : +: 28 : Aquarius : Saturn : Uranus : +: : : : : +: 29 : Pisces : Jupiter : Neptune (Venus) : +: : : : : +: : : : : +{WEH NOTE: Liber 777 gives different entries for column CXXXIX, and these have been added in parenthesis without deletion of original.} + {322} + + + + TABLE I + +.=========.=======.=============.=========.============.========. +: : CLXXV : : CLXXVI : CLXXVII : CLXXIX : +:KEY SCALE:HEBREW : ENGLISH :NUMERICAL: YETZIRATIC :NUMBERS : +: :LETTERS: VALUES OF : VALUE :ATTRIBUTION :PRINTED : +: : : HEBREW :OF COLUMN: OF COLUMN :ON TAROT: +: : : LETTERS : CLXXV : CLXXV : : +:---------+-------+-------------+---------+------------+--------: +:11 :Aleph :A Aleph : 1 : Air : 0 : +: 12 :Bet :B Beth : 2 : Mercury : 1 : +: 13 :Gemel :G Gimel : 3 : Moon : 2 : +: 14 :Dalet :D Daleth : 4 : Venus : 3 : +: 15 :Heh :H He : 5 : Aries : 4 : +: 16 :Vau :V or W Vau : 6 : Taurus : 5 : +: 17 :Zain :Z Zain : 7 : Gemini : 6 : +: 18 :Chet :Ch Cheth : 8 : Cancer : 7 : +: 19 :Tet :T Teth : 9 : Leo : 11 : +: 20 :Yod :Y Yod : 10 : Virgo : 9 : +: 21 :Koph,Kf:K Kaph : 20, 500 : Jupiter : 10 : +: 22 :Lamed :L Lamed : 30 : Libra : 8 : +:23 :Mem,M-f:M Mem : 40, 600 : Water : 12 : +: 24 :Nun,N-f:N Nun : 50, 700 : Scorpio : 13 : +: 25 :Samekh :S Samekh : 60 : Sagittarius: 14 : +: 26 :Ayin :O Ayin : 70 : Capricorn : 15 : +: 27 :Peh,P-f:P Pe : 80, 800 : Mars : 16 : +: 28 :Tzaddi,:Tz Tzaddi : 90, 900 : Aquarius : 17 : +: : Tz-f : : : : : +: 29 :Qof :(K soft) Qoph: 100 : Pisces : 18 : +: 30 :Resh :R Resh : 200 : Sun : 19 : +:31 :Shin :Sh Shin : 300 : Fire : 20 : +: 32 :Taw :(T soft) Tau : 400 : Saturn : 21 : +:32 "bis" :Taw :.............: 400 : Earth : -- : +:31 "bis" :Shin :.............: 300 : Spirit : -- : +:---------.-------.-------------.---------.------------.--------: +: NOTE. "Ch" like "ch" in "loch". : +: : +{WEH NOTE: The English value in row 27 has been corrected, original had O.} + -323- + + + + TABLE I + +.=========.=========================================================. +: : CLXXX : +:KEY SCALE: : +: : TITLES OF TAROT TRUMPS : +:---------+---------------------------------------------------------: +:11 :The Spirit of 'GR:Alpha-iota-theta-eta-rho : +: 12 :The Magus of Power. : +: 13 :The Priestess of the Silver Star. : +: 14 :The Daughter of the Mighty Ones. : +: 15:Sun of the Morning, Chief among the Mighty. : +: 16:The Magus of the Eternal. : +: 17:The Children of the voice: the Oracle of the Mighty Gods.: +: 18:The Child of the Powers of the Waters: the Lord of the : +: : Triumph of Light. : +: 19:The Daughter of the Flaming Sword. : +: 20:The Prophet of the Eternal, the Magus of the Voice of : +: : Power. : +: 21 :The Lord of the Forces of Life. : +: 22:The Daughter of the Lords of Truth; The Ruler of the : +: : Balance. : +:23 :The Spirit of the Mighty Waters. : +: 24:The Child of the Great Transformers. The Lord of the : +: : Gate of Death. : +: 25:The Daughter of the Reconcilers, the Bringer-forth of : +: : Life. : +: 26:The Lord of the Gates of Matter. The Child of the : +: : forces of Time. : +: 27 :The Lord of the Hosts of the Mighty. : +: 28:The Daughter of the Firmament; the Dweller between the : +: : Waters. : +: 29:The Ruler of Flux & Reflux. The Child of the Sons of : +: : the Mighty. : +: 30 :The Lord of the Fire of the World. : +:31 :The Spirit of the Primal Fire. : +: 32 :The Great One of the Night of Time. : +:31 "bis" :.........................................................: +:32 "bis" :.........................................................: +: : : + + + {324} + + + + + + + + APPENDIX VI + + A FEW PRINCIPAL RITUALS + + Grimorium Sanctissimum. + + Arcanum Arcanorum Quod Continet Nondum Revelandum ipsis Regibus supremis O.T.O. Grimorium Quod Baphomet X Degree M... suo fecit. + De Templo. +1. Oriente ............... Altare +2. Occidente ............. Tabula dei invocandi +3. Septentrione .......... Sacerdos +4. Meridione ............. Ignis cum thuribulo, GR:chi. GR:tau. GR:lambda. +5. Centro ................ Lapis quadratus cum + Imagine Dei + Maximi Igentis Nefandi Ineffabilis Sanctissimi + et cum ferro, tintinnabulo, oleo. + Virgo. Stet imago juxta librum GR:Theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha. + + De ceremonio Principii. + +Fiat ut in Libro DCLXXI dicitur, sed antea virgo lavata sit cum verbis "Asperge me..." GR:chi. GR:tau. GR:lambda., et habilimenta ponat cum verbis "Per sanctum Mysterium," GR:chi. GR:tau. GR:lambda. +Ita Pyramis fiat. Tunc virgo lavabit sacerdotem et vestimenta ponat ut supra ordinatur. + (Hic dicat virgo orationes dei operis). + + De ceremonio Thuribuli. + + Manibus accedat et ignem et sacerdotem virgo, dicens: {325} +"Accendat in nobis Dominus ignem sui amoris et flamman aeternae caritatis. + + De ceremonio Dedicationis. + + Invocet virgo Imaginem Dei. M.I.N.I.S. his verbis. --- Tu qui es prater omnia... GR:chi. GR:tau. GR:lambda." +Nec relinquet alteram Imaginem. + + De Sacrificio Summo. + + Deinde silentium frangat sacerdos cum verbis versiculi sancti dei particularitur invocandi. + Ineat ad Sanctum Sanctorum. + Caveat; caveat, caveat. + Duo qui fiunt UNUS sine intermissione verba versiculi sancti alta voce cantent. + + De Benedictione Benedicti. + +Missa rore, dicat mulier haec verba "Quia patris et filii s.s." GR:chi. GR:tau. GR:lambda. + + De Ceremonio Finis + +Fiat ut in Libro DCLXXI dicitur. GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu. + + + {326} + + + + + LIBER XXV + + THE STAR RUBY. + + Facing East, in the centre, draw deep deep deep thy breath closing thy mouth with thy right forefinger prest against thy lower lip. Then dashing down the hand with a great sweep back and out, expelling forcibly thy breath, cry GR:Alpha-Pi-Omicron GR:Pi-Alpha-Nu-Tau-Omicron-Sigma GR:Kappa-Alpha-Kappa-Omicron-Delta-Alpha-Iota-Mu-Omicron-Nu-Omicron-Sigma. + With the same forefinger touch thy forehead, and say GR:Sigma-Omicron-Iota, thy member, and say GR:Omega GR:Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Lambda-Epsilon<>, thy right shoulder, and say GR:Iota-Sigma-Chi-Upsilon-Rho-Omicron-Sigma, thy left shoulder, and say GR:Epsilon-Upsilon-Chi-Alpha-Rho-Iota-Sigma-Tau-Omicron-Sigma; then clasp thine hands, locking the fingers, and cry GR:Iota-Alpha-Omega. Advance to the East. Imagine strongly a Pentagram, aright, in thy forehead. Drawing the hands to the eyes, fling it forth, making the sign of Horus and roar + GR:Theta-Eta-Rho-Iota-Omicron-Nu. Retire thine hand in the sign of Hoor-paar-Kraat. + Go round to the North and repeat; but say NUIT. + Go round to the West and repeat; but whisper BABALON. + Go round to the South and repeat; but bellow HADIT. + Completing the circle widdershins, retire to the centre and raise thy voice in the Paian, with these words GR:Iota-Omega GR:Pi-Alpha-Nu, with the signs of N.O.X. + Extend the arms in the form of a Tau and say low but clear: + GR:Pi-Rho-Omicron GR:Mu-Omicron-Upsilon GR:Iota-Upsilon-Gamma-Gamma-Epsilon-Sigma GR:Omicron-Pi-Iota-Chi-Omega GR:Mu-Omicron-Upsilon GR:Tau-Epsilon-Lambda-Epsilon-Tau-Alpha-Rho-Chi-Alpha-Iota GR:Epsilon-Pi-Iota GR:Delta-Epsilon-Xi-Iota-Alpha GR:Chi-Upsilon-Nu-Omicron-Chi-Epsilon-Sigma GR:Epsilon-Pi-Alpha-Rho-Iota-Sigma-Tau-Epsilon-Rho-Alpha GR:Delta-Alpha-Iota-Mu-Omicron-Nu-Omicron-Sigma GR:Phi-Epsilon-Gamma GR:Epsilon-Iota GR:Gamma-Alpha-Rho GR:Pi-Epsilon-Rho-Iota GR:Mu-Omicron-Upsilon GR:Omicron GR:Alpha-Sigma-Tau-Eta-Rho GR:Tau-Omega-Nu GR:Pi-Epsilon-Nu-Tau-Epsilon GR:Kappa-Alpha-Iota GR:Epsilon-Nu GR:Tau-Eta-Iota GR:Sigma-Tau-Eta-Lambda-Eta-Iota GR:Omega GR:Alpha-Sigma-Tau-Eta-Rho GR:Tau-Omega-Nu GR:Epsilon-Xi GR:Epsilon-Sigma-Tau-Eta-Chi-Epsilon. + Repeat the Cross Qabalistic, as above, and end as thou didst begin. + +{327} + + + + LIBER XXXVI + + THE STAR SAPPHIRE. + + + Let the Adept be armed with his Magick Rood [and provided with his mystic Rose]. + In the centre, let him give the L.V.X. signs; or if he know them, if he will and dare do them, and can keep silent about them, the signs of N.O.X. being the signs of Puer, Vir, Puella, Mulier. Omit the sign. I.R. + Then let him advance to the East and make the Holy Hexagram, saying: "Pater et Mater unus deus Ararita." + Let him go round to the South, make the Holy Hexagram and say: "Mater et Filius unus deus Ararita." + Let him go round to the North, make the Holy Hexagram and then say: "Filia et Pater unus deus Ararita." + Let him then return to the Centre, and so to The Centre of All (making the "Rosy Cross" as he may know how) saying "Ararita Ararita Ararita". (In this the Signs shall be those of Set Triumphant and of Baphomet. Also shall Set appear in the Circle. Let him drink of the Sacrament and let him communicate the same.) Then let him say: "Omnia in Duos: Duo in Unum: Unus in Nihil: Haec nec Quatuor nec Omnia nec Duo nec Unus nec Nihil Sunt. + Gloria Patri et Matri et Filio et Filiae et Spiritui Sancto externo et Spiritui Sancto interno ut erat est erit in saecula Saeculorum sex in uno per nomen Septem in uno Ararita." + Let him then repeat the signs of L.V.X. but not the signs of N.O.X.: for it is not he that shall arise in the Sign of Isis Rejoicing. + + {328} + + + + + LIBER XLIV + + THE MASS OF THE PHOENIX + + "The Magician, his breast bare, stands before an altar on which are his Burin, Bell, Thurible, and two of the Cakes of Light. In the Sign of the Enterer he reaches West across the Altar, and cries:" + Hail Ra, that goest in thy bark + Into the caverns of the Dark! "He gives the sign of Silence, and takes the Bell, and Fire, in his hands." + East of the Altar see me stand + With light and musick in my hand! "He strikes Eleven times upon the Bell" 333 - 55555 - 333 "and places the Fire in the Thurible." + I strike the Bell: I light the Flame; + I utter the mysterious Name. + ABRAHADABRA "He strikes eleven times upon the Bell." + Now I begin to pray: Thou Child, + Holy Thy name and undefiled! + Thy reign is come; Thy will is done. + Here is the Bread; here is the Blood. + Bring me through midnight to the Sun! + Save me from Evil and from Good! + That Thy one crown of all the Ten + Even now and here be mine. AMEN. "He puts the first Cake on the Fire of the Thurible." + I burn the Incense-cake, proclaim + These adorations of Thy name. "He makes them as in Liber Legis, and strikes again Eleven times upon the Bell. With the Burin he then makes upon his breast the proper sign." {329} + + Behold this bleeding breast of mine + Gashed with the sacramental sign! + +"He puts the second Cake to the wound." + + I stanch the Blood; the wafer soaks + It up, and the high priest invokes! + +"He eats the second Cake." + + This Bread I eat. This Oath I swear + As I enflame myself with prayer: + "There is no grace: there is no guilt: + This is the Law: DO WHAT THOU WILT!" + +"He strikes Eleven times upon the Bell, and cries" + + ABRAHADABRA. + + I entered in with woe; with mirth + I now go forth, and with thanksgiving, + To do my pleasure on the earth + Among the legions of the living. + +"He goeth forth." + + + {330} + + + + + LIBER V + + vel + + REGULI. + + A.'. A.'. publication in Class D. Being the Ritual of the Mark of the Beast: an incantation proper to invoke the Energies of the Aeon of Horus, adapted for the daily use of the Magician of whatever grade. + + THE FIRST GESTURE. + + The Oath of the Enchantment, which is called The Elevenfold Seal. + +"The Animadversion towards the Aeon." + 1. Let the Magician, robed and armed as he may deem to be + fit, turn his face towards Boleskine,<> that is the House of + The Beast 666. + 2. Let him strike the battery 1-3-3-3-1. + 3. Let him put the Thumb of his right hand between its index + and medius, and make the gestures hereafter following. + +"The Vertical Component of the Enchantment." + 1. Let him describe a circle about his head, crying NUIT! + 2. Let him draw the Thumb vertically downward and touch + the Muladhara Cakkra, crying, HADIT! + 3. Let him, retracing the line, touch the centre of his breast + an cry RA-HOOR-KHUIT! + +"The Horizontal Components of the Enchantment." + 1. Let him touch the Centre of his Forehead, his mouth, and + his larynx, crying AIWAZ! + 2. Let him draw his thumb from right to left across his face + at the level of the nostrils. + 3. Let him touch the centre of his breast, and his solar plexus, + crying, THERION! + 4. Let him draw his thumb from left to right across his breast, + at the level of the sternum. {331} + 5. Let him touch the Svadistthana, and the Muladhara Chakkra, + crying, BABALON! + 6. Let him draw his thumb from right to left across his + abdomen, at the level of the hips. (Thus shall he formulate the Sigil of the Grand Hierophant, but dependent from the Circle.) + +"The Asseveration of the Spells." + 1. Let the Magician clasp his hands upon his Wand, his fingers + and thumbs interlaced, crying LAShTAL! + GR:Theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha! + GR:Digamma-Iota-Alpha-Omicron-Digamma! GR:Alpha-Gamma-Alpha-Pi-Eta! + GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu! + (Thus shall be declared the Words of Power whereby the + Energies of the Aeon of Horus work his will in the World.) + +"The Proclamation of the Accomplishment." + 1. Let the Magician strike the Battery: 3-5-3, crying + ABRAHADABRA. + + The SECOND GESTURE. + +"The Enchantment." + 1. Let the Magician, still facing Boleskine, advance to the + circumference of his circle. + 2. Let him turn himself towards the left, and pace with the + stealth and swiftness of a tiger the precincts of his circle, + until he complete one revolution thereof. + 3. Let him give the Sign of Horus (or The Enterer) as he + passeth, so to project the force that radiateth from Boleskine + before him. + 4. Let him pace his path until he comes to the North; there + let him halt, and turn his face to the North. + 5. Let him trace with his wand the Averse Pentagram proper + to invoke Air (Aquarius). + 6. Let him bring the wand to the centre of the Pentagram and + call upon NUIT! + 7. Let him make the sign called Puella, standing with his + feet together, head bowed, his left hand shielding the {332} + Muladhara Cakkra, and his right hand shielding his + breast (attitude of the Venus de Medici). + 8. Let him turn again to the left, and pursue his Path as + before, projecting the force from Boleskine as he passeth; + let him halt when he next cometh to the South and face + outward. + 9. Let him trace the Averse Pentagram that invoketh Fire + (Leo). + 10. Let him point his wand to the centre of the Pentagram, + and cry, HADIT! + 11. Let him give the sign Puer, standing with feet together, + and head erect. Let his right hand (the thumb extended + at right angles to the fingers) be raised, the forearm + vertical at a right angle with the upper arm, which is + horizontally extended in the line joining the shoulders. + Let his left hand, the thumb extended forwards and the + fingers clenched, rest at the junction of the thighs (Attitude + of the gods Mentu, Khem, etc.). + 12. Let him proceed as before; then in the East, let him make + the Averse Pentagram that invoketh Earth (Taurus). + 13. Let him point his wand to the centre of the pentagram, + and cry, THERION! + 14. Let him give the sign called Vir, the feet being together. + The hands, with clenched finger and thumbs thrust out + forwards, are held to the temples; the head is then bowed + and pushed out, as if to symbolize the butting of an horned + beast (attitude of Pan, Bacchus, etc.). (Frontispiece, + Equinox I, III). + 15. Proceeding as before, let him make in the West the + Averse Pentagram whereby Water is invoked. + 16. Pointing the wand to the centre of the Pentagram, let him + call upon BABALON!! + 17. Let him give the sign Mulier. The feet are widely + separated, and the arms raised so as to suggest a crescent. + The head is thrown back (attitude of Baphomet, Isis in + Welcome, the Microcosm of Vitruvius). (See Book 4, + Part II). {333} + 18. Let him break into the dance, tracing a centripetal spiral + widdershins, enriched by revolutions upon his axis as he + passeth each quarter, until he come to the centre of the + circle. There let him halt, facing Boleskine. + 19. Let him raise the wand, trace the Mark of the Beast, and + cry AIWAZ! + 20. Let him trace the invoking Hexagram of The Beast. + 21. Let him lower the wand, striking the Earth therewith. + 22. Let him give the sign of Mater Triumphans (The feet are + together; the left arm is curved as if it supported a child; + the thumb and index finger of the right hand pinch the + nipple of the left breast, as if offering it to that child). + Let him utter the word GR:Theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha! + 23. Perform the spiral dance, moving deosil and whirling + widdershins. + Each time on passing the West extend the wand to the + Quarter in question, and bow: +a. "Before me the powers of LA!" (to West.) +b. "Behind me the powers of AL!" (to East.) +c. "On my right hand the powers of LA!" (to North.) +d. "On my left hand the powers of AL!" (to South.) +e. "Above me the powers of ShT!" (leaping in the air.) +f. "Beneath me the powers of ShT!" (striking the ground.) +g. "Within me the Powers!" (in the attitude of Phthah erect, the + feet together, the hands clasped upon the vertical wand.) +h. "About me flames my Father's face, the Star of Force and + Fire." +i. "And in the Column stands His six-rayed Splendour!" + (This dance may be omitted, and the whole utterance chanted in the attitude of Phthah.) + + The FINAL GESTURE. + + This is identical with the First Gesture. + + (Here followeth an impression of the ideas implied in this Paean.) {334} + + I also am a Star in Space, unique and self-existent, an individual essence incorruptible; I also am one Soul; I am identical with All and None. I am in All and all in Me; I am, apart from all and lord of all, and one with all. + I am a God, I very God of very God; I go upon my way to work my will; I have made matter and motion for my mirror; I have decreed for my delight that Nothingness should figure itself as twain, that I might dream a dance of names and natures, and enjoy the substance of simplicity by watching the wanderings of my shadows. I am not that which is not; I know not that which knows not; I love not that which loves not. For I am Love, whereby division dies in delight; I am Knowledge, whereby all parts, plunged in the whole, perish and pass into perfection; and I am that I am, the being wherein Being is lost in Nothing, nor deigns to be but by its Will to unfold its nature, its need to express its perfection in all possibilities, each phase a partial phantasm, and yet inevitable and absolute. + I am Omniscient, for naught exists for me unless I know it. I am Omnipotent, for naught occurs save by Necessity my soul's expression through my will to be, to do, to suffer the symbols of itself. I am Omnipresent, for naught exists where I am not, who fashioned space as a condition of my consciousness of myself, who am the centre of all, and my circumference the frame of mine own fancy. + I am the All, for all that exists for me is a necessary expression in thought of some tendency of my nature, and all my thoughts are only the letters of my Name. + I am the One, for all that I am is not the absolute all, and all my all is mine and not another's; mine, who conceive of others like myself in essence and truth, yet unlike in expression and illusion. + I am the None, for all that I am is the imperfect image of the perfect; each partial phantom must perish in the clasp of its counterpart; each form fulfil itself by finding its equated opposite, and satisfying its need to be the Absolute by the attainment of annihilation. + The word, LAShTAL includes all this. + "LA" --- Naught. {335} + "AL" --- Two. + "L" is "Justice", the Kteis fulfilled by the Phallus, "Naught and Two" because the plus and the minus have united in "love under will." + "A" is "the Fool", Naught in Thought (Parzival), Word (Harpocrates), and Action (Bacchus). He is the boundless air, the wandering Ghost, but with "possibilities". He is the Naught that the Two have made by "love under will". + "LA" thus represents the Ecstasy of Nuit and Hadit conjoined, lost in love, and making themselves Naught thereby. Their child is begotten and conceived, but is in the phase of Naught also, as yet. "LA" is thus the Universe in that phase, with its potentialities of manifestation. + "AL" on the contarary, though it is essentially identical with "LA", shows the Fool manifested through the Equilibrium of Contraries. The weight is still nothing, but it is expressed as if it were two equal weights in opposite scales. The indicator still points to zero. + "ShT" is equally 31 with "LA" and "AL", but it expresses the secret nature which operates the Magick or the transmutations. + "ShT" is the formula of this particular aeon; another aeon might have another way of saying 31. + "Sh" is Fire as T is Force; conjoined they express Ra-Hoor-Khuit. + "The Angel" represents the Stele 666, showing the Gods of the Aeon, while "Strength" is a picture of Babalon and The Beast, the earthly emissaries of those Gods. + "ShT" is the dynamic equivalent of "LA" and "AL". "Sh" shows the Word of the Law, being triple, as 93 is thrice 31. "T" shows the formula of Magick declared in that Word; the Lion, the Serpent, the Sun, Courage and Sexual Love are all indicated by the card. + In "LA" note that Saturn or Satan is exalted in the House of Venus or Astarte, and it is an airy sign. Thus "L" is Father-Mother, Two and Naught, and the Spirit (Holy Ghost) of their Love is also Naught. Love is AHBH, 13, which is AChD, Unity, I, Aleph, who is The Fool who is Naught, but none the less an Individual One, who (as such) is not another, yet unconscious of himself until his Oneness expresses itself as a duality. + Any impression or idea is unknowable in itself. It can mean {336} nothing until brought into relation with other things. The first step is to distinguish one thought from another; this is the condition of recognizing it. To define it, we must perceive its orientation to all our other ideas. The extent of our knowledge of any one thing varies therefore with the number of ideas with which we can compare it. Every new fact not only adds itself to our universe, but increases the value of what we already possess. + In "AL" this "The" or "God" arranges for "Contenance to behold contenance", by establishing itself as an equilibrium, "A" the One-Naught conceived as "L" the Two-Naught. This "L" is the Son-Daughter Horus-Harpocrates just as the other "L" was the Father-Mother Set-Isis. Here then is Tetragrammaton once more, but expressed in identical equations in which every term is perfect in itself as a mode of Naught. + "ShT" supplies the last element; making the Word of either five or six letters, according as we regard "ShT" as one letter or two. Thus the Word affirms the Great Work accomplished: 5 Degree = 6Square. + "ShT", is moreover a necessary resolution of the apparent opposition of "LA" and "AL"; for one could hardly pass to the other without the catalytic action of a third identical expression whose function should be to transmute them. Such a term must be in itself a mode of Naught, and its nature cannot encroach on the perfections of Not-Being, "LA" or of Being, "AL". It must be purely Nothing-Matter, so as to create a Matter-in-Motion which is a function of "Something". + Thus "ShT" is Motion in its double phase, an inertia composed of two opposite currents, and each current is also thus polarized. "Sh" is Heaven and Earth, "T" Male and Female; "ShT" is Spirit and Matter; one is the word of Liberty and Love flashing its Light to restore Life to Earth; the other is the act by which Life claims that Love is Light and Liberty. And these are Two-in-One, the divine letter of Silence-in-Speech whose symbol is the Sun in the arms of the Moon. + But "Sh" and "T" are alike formulae of force in action as opposed to entities; they are not states of existence, but modes of motion. They are verbs, not nouns. + "Sh" is the Holy Spirit as a "tongue of fire" manifest in triplicity, {337} and is the child of Set-Isis as their Logos or Word uttered by their "Angel". The card is XX, and 20 is the value of Yod (the Angel or Herald) expressed in full as IVD. "Sh" is the Spiritual congress of Heaven and Earth. + But "T" is the Holy Spirit in action as a "roaring lion" or as the "old Serpent" instead of as an "Angel of Light". The twins of Set-Isis, harlot and beast, are busy with that sodomitic and incestuous lust which is the traditional formula for producing demi-gods, as in the cases of Mary and the Dove; Leda and the Swan, etc. The card is XI, the number of Magick AVD: Aleph the Fool impregnating the woman according to the word of Yod, the Angel of the Lord! His sister has seduced her brother Beast, shaming the Sun with her sin; she has mastered the Lion and enchanted the Serpent. Nature is outraged by Magick; man is bestialized and woman defiled. The conjunction produces a monster; it affirms regression of types. Instead of a man-God conceived of the Spirit of God by a virgin in innocence, we are asked to adore the bastard of a whore and a brute, begotten in shamefullest sin and born in most blasphemous bliss. + This is in fact the formula of our Magick; we insist that all acts must be equal; that existence asserts the right to exist; that unless evil is a mere term expressing some relation of haphazard hostility between forces equally self-justified, the universe is as inexplicable and impossible as uncompensated action: that the orgies of Bacchus and Pan are no less sacremental than the Masses of Jesus; that the scars of syphilis are sacred and worthy of honour as such. + It should be unnecessary to insist that the above ideas apply only to the Absolute. Toothache is still painful, and deceit degrading, to a man, relatively to his situation in the world of illusion; he does his Will by avoiding them. But the existence of "Evil" is fatal to philosophy so long as it is supposed to be independent of conditions; and to accustom the mind "to make no difference" between any two ideas as such is to emancipate it from the thralldom of terror. + We affirm on our altars our faith in ourselves and our wills, our love of all aspects of the Absolute All. {338} + And we make the Spirit Shin combine with the Flesh Teth into a single letter, whose value is 31 even as those of "LA" the Naught, and "AL" the All, to complete their Not-Being and Being with its Becoming, to mediate between identical extremes as their mean --- the secret that sunders and seals them. + It declares that all somethings are equally shadows of Nothing, and justifies Nothing in its futile folly of pretending that something is stable, by making us aware of a method of Magick through the practice of which we may partake in the pleasure of the process. + The Magician should devise for himself a definite technique for destroying "evil". The essence of such a practice will consist in training the mind and the body to confront things which cause fear, pain, disgust,<> shame and the like. He must learn to endure them, then to become indifferent to them, then to analyse them until they give pleasure and instruction, and finally to appreciate them for their own sake, as aspects of Truth. When this has been done, he should abandon them if they are really harmful in relation to health or comfort. Also, our selection of "evils" is limited to those that cannot damage us irreparably. E.g., one ought to practise smellying assafoetida until one likes it; but not arsine or hydrocyanic acid. Again, one might have a liaison with an ugly old woman until one beheld and loved the star which she is; it would be too dangerous to overcome the distaste for dishonesty by forcing oneself to pick pockets. Acts which are essentially dishonourable must not be done; they should be justified only by calm contemplation of their correctness in abstract cases. + Love is a virtue; it grows stronger and purer and less selfish by applying it to what it loathes; but theft is a vice involving the slave-idea that one's neighbour is superior to oneself. It is admirable only for its power to develop certain moral and mental qualities in primitive types, to prevent the atrophy of such faculties as our own vigilance, and for the interest which it adds to the "tragedy, Man." {339} + Crime, folly, sickness and all such phenomena must be contemplated with complete freedom from fear, aversion, or shame. Otherwise we shall fail to see accurately, and interpret intelligently; in which case we shall be unable to outwit and outfight them. Anatomists and physiologists, grappling in the dark with death, have won hygiene, surgery, prophylaxis and the rest for mankind. Anthropologists, archaeologists, physicists and other men of science, risking thumbscrew, stake, infamy and ostracism, have torn the spider-snare of superstition to shreds and broken in pieces the monstrous idol of Morality, the murderous Moloch which has made mankind its meat throughout history. Each fragment of that coprolite is manifest as an image of some brute lust, some torpid dullness, some ignorant instinct, or some furtive fear shapen in his own savage mind. + Man is indeed not wholly freed, even now. He is still trampled under the hoofs of the stampeding mules that nightmare bore to his wild ass, his creative forces that he had not mastered, the sterile ghosts that he called gods. Their mystery cows men still; they fear, they flinch, they dare not face the phantoms. Still, too, the fallen fetich seems awful; it is frightful to them that there is no longer an idol to adore with anthems, and to appease with the flesh of their firstborn. Each scrambles in the bloody mire of the floor to snatch some scrap for a relic, that he may bow down to it and serve it. + So, even to-day, a mass of maggots swarm heaving over the carrion earth, a brotherhood bound by blind greed for rottenness. Science still hesitates to raze the temple of Rimmon, though every year finds more of her sons impatient of Naaman's prudence. The Privy Council of the Kingdom of Mansoul sits in permanent secret session; it dares not declare what must follow its deed in shattering the monarch morality into scraps of crumbling conglomerate of climatic, tribal, and personal prejudices, corrupted yet more by the action of crafty ambition, insane impulse, ignorant arrogance, superstitious hysteria, fear fashioning falsehoods on the stone that it sets on the grave of Truth whom it has murdered and buried in the black earth Oblivion. Moral philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, mental pathology, physiology, and many another of {340} the children of wisdom, of whom she is justified, well know that the laws of Ethics are a chaos of confused conventions, based at best on customs convenient in certain conditions, more often on the craft or caprice of the biggest, the most savage, heartless, cunning and blood-thirsty brutes of the pack, to secure their power or pander to their pleasure in cruelty. There is no principle, even a false one, to give coherence to the clamour of ethical propositions. Yet the very men that have smashed Moloch, and strewn the earth with shapeless rubble, grow pale when they so much as whisper among themselves, "While Moloch ruled all men were bound by the one law, and by the oracles of them that, knowing the fraud, feared not, but were his priests and wardens of his mystery. What now? How can any of us, though wise and strong as never was known, prevail on men to act in concert, now that each prays to his own chip of God, and yet knows every other chip to be a worthless ort, dream-dust, ape-dung, tradition-bone, or --- what not else?" + So science begins to see that the Initiates were maybe not merely silly and selfish in making their rule of silence, and in protecting philosophy from the profane. Yet still she hopes that the mischief may not prove mortal, and begs that things may go on much as usual until that secret session decide on some plan of action. + It has always been fatal when somebody finds out too much too suddenly. If John Huss had cackled more like a hen, he might have survived Michaelmas, and been esteemed for his eggs. The last fifty years have laid the axe of analysis to the root of every axiom; they are triflers who content themselves with lopping the blossoming twigs of our beliefs, or the boughs of our intellectual instruments. We can no longer assert any single proposition, unless we guard ourselves by enumerating countless conditions which must be assumed. + This digression has outstayed its welcome; it was only invited by Wisdom that it might warn Rashness of the dangers that encompass even Sincerity, Energy and Intelligence when they happen not to contribute to Fitness-in-their-environment. + The Magician must be wary in his use of his powers; he must make every act not only accord with his Will, but with the proprieties of his position at the time. It might be my will to reach {341} the foot of a cliff; but the easiest way --- also the speediest, most direct, least obstructed, the way of minimum effort --- would be simply to jump. I should have destroyed my will in the act of fulfilling it, or what I mistook for it; for the true will has no goal; its nature being to Go. Similarly a parabola is bound by one law which fixes its relations with two straight lines at every point; yet it has no end short of infinity, and it continually changes its direction. The initiate who is aware Who he is can always check his conduct by reference to the determinants of his curve, and calculate his past, his future, his bearings and his proper course at any assigned moment; he can even comprehend himself as a simple idea. He may attain to measure fellow-parabolas, ellipses that cross his path, hyperbolas that span all space with their twin wings. Perhaps he may come at long last, leaping beyond the limits of his own law, to conceive that sublimely stupendous outrage to Reason, the Cone! Utterly inscrutable to him, he is yet well aware that he exists in the nature thereof, that he is necessary thereto, that he is ordered thereby, and that therefrom he is sprung, from the loins of so fearful a Father! His own infinity becomes zero in relation to that of the least fragment of the solid. He hardly exists at all. Trillions multiplied by trillions of trillions of such as he could not cross the frontier even of breadth, the idea which he came to guess at only because he felt himself bound by some mysterious power. Yet breadth is equally a nothing in the presence of the Cone. His first conception must evidently be a frantic spasm, formless, insane, not to be classed as articulate thought. Yet, if he develops the faculties of his mind, the more he knows of it the more he sees that its nature is identical with his own whenever comparison is possible. + The True Will is thus both determined by its equations, and free because those equations are simply its own name, spelt out fully. His sense of being under bondage comes from his inability to read it; his sense that evil exists to thwart him arises when he begins to learn to read, reads wrong, and is obstinate that his error is an improvement. + We know one thing only. Absolute existence, absolute motion, absolute direction, absolute simultaneity, absolute truth, all such {342} ideas; they have not, and never can have, any real meaning. If a man in delirium tremens fell into the Hudson River, he might remember the proverb and clutch at an imaginary straw. Words such as "truth" are like that straw. Confusion of thought is concealed, and its impotence denied, by the invention. This paragraph opened with, "We know"; yet, questioned, "we" make haste to deny the possibility of possessing, or even of defining, knowledge. What could be more certain to a parabola-philolsopher than that he could be approached in two ways, and two only? It would be indeed little less than the whole body of his knowledge, implied in the theory of his definition of himself, and confirmed by every single experience. He could receive impressions only by meeting A, or being caught up by B. Yet he would be wrong in an infinite number of ways. There are therefore Aleph-Zero possibilities that at any moment a man may find himself totally transformed. And it may be that our present dazzled bewilderment is due to our recognition of the existence of a new dimension of thought, which seems so "inscrutably infinite" and "absurd" and "immoral", etc. --- because we have not studied it long enough to appreciate that its laws are identical with our own, though extended to new conceptions. The discovery of radioactivity created a momentary chaos in chemistry and physics; but it soon led to a fuller interpretation of the old ideas. It dispersed many difficulties, harmonized many discords, and --- yea, more! It shewed the substance of the Universe as a simplicity of Light and Life, possessed of limitless liberty to enjoy Love by combining its units in various manners to compose atoms, themselves capable of deeper self-realization through fresh complexities and organizations, each with its own peculiar powers and pleasures, each pursuing its path through the world where all things are possible. It revealed the omnipresence of Hadit identical with Himself, yet fulfilling Himself by dividing his interplay with Nuit into episodes, each form of his energy isolated with each aspect of Her receptivity, delight developing delight continuous from complex to complex. It was the voice of Nature awakening at the dawn of the Aeon, as Aiwaz uttered the Word of the Law of Thelema. {343} + So also shall he who invoketh often behold the Formless Fire, with trembling and bewilderment; but if he prolong his meditation, he shall resolve it into coherent and intelligible symbols, and he shall hear the articulate utterance of that Fire, interpret the thunder thereof as a still small voice in his heart. And the Fire shall reveal to his eyes his own image in its own true glory; and it shall speak in his ears the Mystery that is his own right Name. + This then is the virtue of the Magick of The Beast 666, and the canon of its proper usage: to destroy the tendency to discriminate between any two things in theory, and in practice to pierce the veils of every sanctuary, pressing forward to embrace every image; for there is none that is not very Isis. The Inmost is one with the Inmost; yet the form of the One is not the form of the other; intimacy exacts fitness. He therefore who liveth by air, let him not be bold to breathe water. But mastery cometh by measure: to him who with labour, courage, and caution giveth his life to understand all that doth encompass him, and to prevail against it, shall be increase. "The word of Sin is Restriction"; seek therefore Righteousness, enquiring into Iniquity, and fortify thyself to overcome it. + + {344} + + + + LIBER XV + + O.T.O. + + ECCLESIAE GNOSTICAE CATHOLICAE + CANON MISSAE. + +I.<> + + Of the Furnishings of the Temple. + + In the East, that is, in the direction of Boleskine, which is situated on + the south-eastern shore of Loch Ness in Scotland, two miles east of Foyers, + is a shrine or High Altar. Its dimensions should be 7 feet in length, 3 + feet in breadth, 44 inches in height. It should be covered with a crimson + altar-cloth, on which may be embroidered fleur-de-lys in gold, or a + sunblaze, or other suitable emblem. + + On each side of it should be a pillar or obelisk, with countercharges in + black and white. + + Below it should be the dias of three steps, in black and white squares. + + Above it is the super-altar, at whose top is the Stele of Revealing in + reproduction, with four candles on each side of it. Below the stele is a + place for the Book of the Law, with six candles on each side of it. + Below this again is the Holy Graal, with roses on each side of it. There + is room in front of the Cup for the Paten. On each side beyond the roses + are two great candles. + + All this is enclosed within a great veil. + + Forming the apex of an equilateral triangle whose base is a line drawn + between the pillars, is a small black square altar, of two superimposed + cubes. + + Taking this altar as the middle of the base of a similar and equal + triangle, at the apex of this second triangle is a small circular font. + Repeating, the apex of a third triangle is an upright tomb. {345} + + + II. + + Of the Officers of the Mass. + + The PRIEST. Bears the Sacred Lance, and is clothed at first in a plain + white robe. + The PRIESTESS. Should be actually Virgo Intacta or specially dedicated to + the service of the Great Order. She is clothed in white, blue and gold. + She bears the sword from a red girdle, and the Paten and Hosts, or Cakes + of Light. + The DEACON. He is clothed in white and yellow. He bears the Book of the + Law. + "Two Children." They are clothed in white and black. One bears a pitcher + of water and a cellar of salt, the other a censer of fire and a casket of + perfume. + + III. + + Of the ceremony of the Introit. + + "The" DEACON, "opening the door of the Temple, admits the congregation and takes his stand between the small altar and the font. (There should be a door-keeper to attend to the admission.)" + "The" DEACON "advances and bows before the open shrine where the Graal is exalted. He kisses the Book of the Law three times, opens it, and places it upon the super-altar. He turns West." + The DEACON. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. I proclaim the Law of Light, Life, Love, and Liberty in the name of + GR:Iota-Alpha-Omega. + The CONGREGATION. Love is the law, love under will. + "The" DEACON "goes to his place between the altar of incense and the font, faces East, and gives the step and sign of a Man and a Brother. All imitate him." + The DEACON and all the PEOPLE. I believe in one secret and ineffable LORD; and in one Star in the company of Stars of whose fire we are created, and to which we shall return; and in one Father of Life, Mystery of Mystery, in His name {346} CHAOS, the sole viceregent of the Sun upon Earth; and in one Air the nourisher of all that breaths. + And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb wherein all men are begotten, and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of Mystery, in Her name BABALON. + And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mystery, in his name BAPHOMET. + And I believe in one Gnostic and Catholic Church of Light, Love and Liberty, the Word of whose Law is GR:Theta-Epsilon-Lambda-Eta-Mu-Alpha. + And I believe in the communion of Saints. + And, forasmuch as meat and drink are transmuted in us daily into spiritual substance, I believe in the Miracle of the Mass. + And I confess one Baptism of Wisdom whereby we accomplish the Miracle of Incarnation. + And I confess my life one, individual, and eternal that was, and is, and is to come. + +GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu, GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu, GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu. + +"Music is now played. The child enters with the ewer and the salt. The "VIRGIN" enters with the Sword and the Paten, The child enters with the censer and the perfume. They face the "DEACON "deploying into line from the space between the two altars." + + The VIRGIN. Greeting of Earth and Heaven! + + "All give the hailing sign of a Magician, the "DEACON "leading. + The" PRIESTESS, "the negative child on her left, the positive child on her right, ascends the steps of the High Altar. They await her below. She places the Paten before the Graal. Having adored it, she descends, and with the children following her, the positive next her, she moves in a serpentine manner involving 3 1/2 circles of the Temple. (Deosil about altar, widdershins about font, deosil about altar and font, widdershins about altar and so to the Tomb in the west.) She draws her sword and pulls down the Veil therewith.)" + The PRIESTESS. By the power of + Iron, I say unto thee, {347} Arise. In the name of our Lord + the Sun, and of our Lord + that thou mayst administer the virtues to the Brethren. + "She sheathes the Sword." + "The "PRIEST, "issuing from the Tomb, holding the Lance erect with both hands, right over left, against his breast, takes the first three regular steps. He then gives the Lance to the "PRIESTESS "and gives the three penal signs. + He then kneels and worships the Lance with both hands. + Penitential music." + The PRIEST. I am a man among men. + "He takes again the Lance and lowers it. He rises." + The PRIEST. How should I be worthy to administer the virtues to the Brethren? + "The "PRIESTESS "takes from the child the water and the salt, and mixes them in the font." + The PRIESTESS. Let the salt of Earth admonish the Water to bear the virtue of the Great Sea. "(Genuflects)." Mother, be thou adored! + "She returns to the West, + on "PRIEST "with open hand doth she make, over his forehead, breast and body." + Be the PRIEST pure of body and soul! + "The "PRIESTESS "takes the censer from the child, and places it on the small altar. She puts incense therein. "Let the Fire and the Air make sweet the world! "Genuflects." Father, be thou adored! + "She returns West, and makes with the censer + before the "PRIEST, "thrice as before." + Be the PRIEST fervent of body and soul! + "(The children resume their weapons as they are done with.) + The "DEACON "now takes the consecrated Robe from the High Altar and brings it to her. She robes the "PRIEST "in his Robe of scarlet and gold." + Be the flame of the Sun thine ambiance, O thou PRIEST of the SUN! + "The "DEACON "brings the crown from the High Altar. (The" {348} "crown may be of gold or platinum, or of electrum magicum; but with no other metals, save the small proportions necessary to a proper alloy. It may be adorned with divers jewels; at will. But it must have the Uraeus serpent twined about it, and the cap of maintenance must match the scarlet of the robe. Its texture should be velvet.)" + Be the Serpent thy crown, O thou PRIEST of the LORD! + "Kneeling she takes the Lance between her open hands, and runs them up and down upon the shaft eleven times, very gently." + Be the LORD present among us! + "All give the Hailing Sign." + The PEOPLE: so mote it be. + + + IV. + + Of the Ceremony of the opening of the Veil. + + The PRIEST. Thee therefore whom we adore we also invoke. By the power of the lifted Lance! + "He raises the Lance. All repeat Hailing Sign. + A phrase of triumphant music. + The "PRIEST "takes the "PRIESTESS "by her right hand with his left, keeping the Lance raised." + I, PRIEST and KING, take thee, Virgin pure without spot; I upraise thee; I lead thee to the East; I set thee upon the summit of the Earth. + "He thrones the "PRIESTESS "upon the altar. The "DEACON "and the children follow, they in rank, behind him. The "PRIESTESS "takes the book of the Law, resumes her seat, and holds it open on her breast with her two hands, making a descending triangle with thumbs and forefingers. + The "PRIEST "gives the lance to the "DEACON "to hold; and takes the ewer from the child, and sprinkles the "PRIESTESS, "making five crosses, forehead, shoulders, and thighs. + The thumb of the "PRIEST "is always between his index and" {349} "medius, whenever he is not holding the Lance. The "PRIEST "takes the censer from the child, and makes five crosses as before. + The children replace their weapons on their respective altars. + The "PRIEST "kisses the Book of the Law three times. He kneels for a space in adoration, with joined hands, knuckles closed, thumb in position as aforesaid. He rises and draws the veil over the whole altar. All rise and stand to order. + The "PRIEST "takes the lance from the "DEACON "and holds it as before, as Osiris or Phthah. He circumambulates the Temple three times, followed by the "DEACON "and the children as before. (These, when not using their hands, keep their arms crossed upon their breasts.) At the last circumambulation they leave him and go to the place between the font and the small altar, where they kneel in adoration, their hands joined palm to palm, and raised above their heads. + All imitate this motion. + The "PRIEST "returns to the East and mounts the first step of the Altar." + The PRIEST. O circle of Stars whereof our Father is but the younger brother, marvel beyond imagination, soul of infinite space, before whom Time is ashamed, the mind bewildered, and the understanding dark, not unto Thee may we attain, unless Thine image be Love. Therefore by seed and root and stem and bud and leaf and flower and fruit we do invoke Thee. + "Then the priest answered & said unto the Queen of Space, kissing her lovely brows, and the dew of her light bathing his whole body in a sweet-smelling perfume of sweat: O Nuit, continuous one of Heaven, let it be ever thus; that men speak not of Thee as One but as None; and let them speak not of thee at all, since thou art continuous!" + "During this speech the "PRIESTESS "must have divested herself completely of her robe, See CCXX.I.62." + The PRIESTESS. "But to love me is better than all things: if under the night-stars in the desert thou presently burnest mine incense before me, invoking me with a pure heart, and the Serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my bosom. For one {350} kiss wilt thou then be willing to give all; but whoso gives one particle of dust shall lose all in that hour. Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye shall wear rich jewels; ye shall exceed the nations of the earth in splendour & pride; but always in the love of me, and so shall ye come to my joy. I charge you earnestly to come before me in a single robe, and covered with a rich headdress. I love you! I yearn to you! Pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous, I who am all pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the innermost sense, desire you. Put on the wings, and arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me!" To me! To me! "Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels! Drink to me, for I love you! I love you! I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky. To me! To me!" + "The "PRIEST "mounts the second step." + The PRIEST. O secret of secrets that art hidden in the being of all that lives, not Thee do we adore, for that which adoreth is also Thou. Thou art that, and That am I. + "I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death." "I am alone: there is no God where I am." + "(The "DEACON "and all rise to their feet with Hailing Sign.)" + The DEACON. "But ye, o my people, rise up & awake! Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty!" + "There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times." + "A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!" + "A feast for the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law." + "A feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet-secret, O Prophet!" + "A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a feast for the Equinox of the Gods." + "A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death!" + "A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture!" {351} + "A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight!" + "(The "PRIEST "mounts the third step.)" + The PRIEST: Thou that art One, our Lord in the Universe, the Sun, our Lord in ourselves whose name is Mystery of Mystery, uttermost being whose radiance, enlightening the worlds, is also the breath that maketh every God even and Death to tremble before thee --- by the Sign of Light appear thou glorious upon the throne of the Sun. + Make open the path of creation and of intelligence between us and our minds. Enlighten our understanding. + Encourage our hearts. Let thy light crystallize itself in our blood, fulfilling us of Resurrection. + A ka dua + Tuf ur biu + Bi a'a chefu + Dudu nur af an nuteru! + The PRIESTESS. "There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt." + "(The "PRIEST "parts the veil with his Lance.) + (During the previous speeches the "PRIESTESS "has resumed her robe.)" + The PRIEST: GR:Iota-Omega GR:Iota-Omega GR:Iota-Omega GR:Iota-Alpha-Omega GR:Sigma-Alpha-Beta-Alpha-Omicron GR:Kappa-Upsilon-Rho-Iota-Epsilon GR:Alpha-Beta-Rho-Alpha-Sigma-Alpha-Chi GR:Kappa-Upsilon-Rho-Iota-Epsilon GR:Mu-Epsilon-Iota-Theta-Rho-Alpha-Sigma GR:Kappa-Upsilon-Rho-Iota-Epsilon GR:Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Lambda-Epsilon. GR:Iota-Omega GR:Pi-Alpha-Nu, GR:Iota-Omega GR:Pi-Alpha-Nu GR:Pi-Alpha-Nu GR:Iota-Omicron GR:Iota-Sigma-Chi-Upsilon-Rho-Omicron-Chi, GR:Iota-Omega GR:Alpha-Theta-Alpha-Nu-Alpha-Tau-Omicron-Nu, GR:Iota-Omega GR:Alpha-Beta-Rho-Omicron-Tau-Omicron-Nu GR:Iota-Omega GR:Iota-Alpha-Omega GR:Kappa-Alpha-Iota-Rho-Epsilon GR:Phi-Alpha-Lambda-Lambda-Epsilon GR:Kappa-Alpha-Iota-Rho-Epsilon GR:Pi-Alpha-Mu-Phi-Alpha-Gamma-Epsilon GR:Kappa-Alpha-Iota-Rho-Epsilon GR:Pi-Alpha-Nu-Gamma-Epsilon-Nu-Epsilon-Tau-Omicron-Rho. GR:Alpha-Gamma-Iota-Omicron-Sigma, GR:Alpha-Gamma-Iota-Omicron-Sigma, GR:Alpha-Gamma-Iota-Omicron-Sigma GR:Iota-Alpha-Omega.<> + "The "PRIESTESS "is seated with the Paten in her right hand and the Cup in her left. The "PRIEST "presents the Lance which she kisses eleven times. She then holds it to her breast while the "PRIEST "falling at her knees, kisses them, his arms stretched along her thighs. He remains in this adoration while the Deacon intones the collects. All stand to order, with the Dieu Garde, that is: feet square, hands, with linked thumbs, held loosely. This is the universal position when standing, unless other direction is given.)" {352} + + + V. + + Of the Office of the + Collects which are Eleven in Number + + (THE SUN) + + The DEACON. Lord visible an sensible of whom this earth is but a frozen spark turning about thee with annual and diurnal motion, source of light, source of life, let thy perpetual radiance hearten us to continual labour and enjoyment; so that as we are constant partakers of thy bounty we may in our particular orbit give out light and life, sustenance and joy to them that revolve about us without diminution of substance or effulgence for ever. + The PEOPLE. So mote it be. + + (THE LORD) + + The DEACON. Lord secret and most holy, source of light, source of life, source of love, source of liberty, be thou ever constant and mighty within us, force of energy, fire of motion; with diligence let us ever labour with thee, that we may remain in thine abundant joy. + The PEOPLE. So mote it be. + + (THE MOON) + + The DEACON. Lady of night, that turning ever about us art now visible and now invisible in thy season, be thou favourable to hunters, and lovers, and to all men that toil upon the earth and to all mariners upon the sea. + The PEOPLE. So mote it be. + + (THE LADY) + + The DEACON. Giver and receiver of joy, gate of life and love, be thou ever ready, thou and thine handmaiden, in thine office of gladness. + The PEOPLE. So mote it be. + + (THE SAINTS) + + The DEACON. Lord of Life and Joy, that art the might of man, that art the essence of every true god that is upon the surface {353} of the Earth, continuing knowledge from generation unto generation, thou adored of us upon heaths and in woods, on mountains and in caves, openly in the market-places and secretly in the chambers of our houses, in temples of gold and ivory and marble as in these other temples of our bodies, we worthily commemorate them worthy that did of old adore thee and manifest thy glory unto men, "Lao-tze and Siddhartha" and Krishna and "Tahuti," Mosheh, "Dionysus, Mohammed and To Mega Therion, with these also," Hermes, "Pan," Priapus, Osiris, and Melchizedeck, Khem and Amoun "and Mentu, Heracles," Orpheus and Odysseus; with Vergilius, "Catullus," Martialis, "Rabelais, Swinburne and many an holy bard; Apollonius Tyanaeus," Simon Magus, Manes, "Pythagoras," Basilides, Valentinus, "Bardesanes and Hippolytus, that transmitted the light of the Gnosis to us their successors and their heirs;" with Merlin, Arthur, Kamuret, Parzival, and many another, prophet, priest and king, that bore the Lance and Cup, the Sword and Disk, against the Heathen, "and these also," Carolus Magnus and his paladins, with William of Schyren, Frederick of Hohenstaufen, Roger Bacon, "Jacobus Burgundus Molensis the Martyr, Christian Rosencreutz," Ulrich von Hutten, Paracelsus, Michael Maier, "Roderic Borgia Pope Alexander the Sixth," Jacob Boehme, Francis Bacon Lord Verulam, Andrea, Robertus de Fluctibus, Johannes Dee, "Sir Edward Kelly," Thomas Vaughan, Elias Ashmole, Molinos, Adam Weishaupt, Wolfgang von Goethe, Ludovicus Rex Bavariae, Richard Wagner, "Alphonse Louis Constant," Friedrich Nietzsche, Hargrave Jennings, Carl Kellner, Forlong dux, Sir Richard Burton, Sir Richard Payne Knight, Paul Gauguin, Docteur Gerard Encausse, Doctor Theodor Reuss, "and Sir Aleister Crowley." Oh Sons of the Lion and the Snake! With all thy saints we worthily commemorate them worthy that were and are and are to come. + May their Essence be here present, potent, puissant, and paternal to perfect this feast! + "(At each name the "DEACON "signs + with thumb between index + and medius. At ordinary mass it is only necessary to + commemorate those whose names are italicised, with + wording as is shown.)" + The PEOPLE. So mote it be. {354} + + + (THE EARTH) + + The DEACON. Mother of fertility on whose breast lieth water, whose cheek is caressed by air, and in whose heart is the sun's fire, womb of all life, recurring grace of seasons, answer favourably the prayer of labour, and to pastors and husbandmen be thou propitious. + The PEOPLE. So mote it be. + + (THE PRINCIPLES) + + The DEACON. Mysterious energy triform, mysterious Matter, in fourfold and sevenfold division; the interplay of which things weave the dance of the Veil of Life upon the Face of the Spirit, let there be harmony and beauty in your mystic loves, that in us may be health and wealth and strength and divine pleasure according to the Law of Liberty; let each pursue his Will as a strong man that rejoiceth in his way, as the course of a Star that blazeth for ever among the joyous company of Heaven. + The PEOPLE. So mote it be. + + (BIRTH) + + The DEACON. Be the hour auspicious, and the gate of life open in peace and in well being, so that she that beareth children may rejoice, and the babe catch life with both hands. + The PEOPLE. So mote it be. + + (MARRIAGE) + + The DEACON. Upon all that this day unite with love under will let fall success; may strength and skill unite to bring forth ecstasy, and beauty answer beauty. + The PEOPLE. So mote it be. + + (DEATH) + +" (All stand, Head erect, Eyes open.)" + The DEACON. Term of all that liveth, whose name is inscrutable, be favourable unto us in thine hour. + The PEOPLE. So mote it be. + + (THE END) + + The DEACON. Unto them from whose eyes the veil of life {355} hath fallen may there be granted the accomplishment of their true Wills; whether they will absorption in the Infinite, or to be united with their chosen and preferred, or to be in contemplation, or to be at peace, or to achieve the labour and heroism of incarnation on this planet or another, or in any Star, or aught else, unto them may there be granted the accomplishment of their Wills. + GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu, GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu, GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu. + "(All sit.) + (The" DEACON "and the children attend the "PRIEST "and "PRIESTESS, "ready to hold any appropriate weapon as may be necessary.)" + + VI. + + Of the Consecration of the Elements. + + "The "PRIEST "makes five croses. "+3+1+2 "on paten and cup; "+4 "on paten alone; "+5 "on cup alone.)" + The PRIEST. Life of man upon earth, fruit of labour, sustenance of endeavour, thus be thou nourishment of the Spirit! + "(He touches the Host with the Lance.)" + By the virtue of the Rod! + Be this bread the Body of God! + "(He takes the Host.)" + GR:Tau-Omicron-Upsilon-Tau-Omicron GR:Epsilon-Sigma-Tau-Iota GR:Tau-Omicron GR:Sigma-Omicron-Mu-Alpha GR:Mu-Omicron-Upsilon. + + "He kneels, adores, rises, turns, shows Host to the PEOPLE, turns, replaces Host and adores. Music. He takes the Cup.)" + Vehicle of the joy of Man upon Earth, solace of labour, inspiration of endeavour, thus be thou ecstasy of the Spirit! + "(He touches the Cup with the Lance.)" + By the virtue of the rod! + Be this wine the Blood of God! + "(He takes the Cup)" + GR:Tau-Omicron-Upsilon-Tau-Omicron GR:Epsilon-Sigma-Tau-Iota -Tau-Omicron GR:Pi-Omicron-Tau-Eta-Rho-Iota-Omicron-Nu GR:Tau-Omicron-Upsilon GR:Alpha-Iota-Mu-Alpha-Tau-Omicron-Sigma GR:Mu-Omicron-Upsilon. + + "(He kneels, adores, rises, turns, shows the Cup to the people, turns, replaces the Cup and adores. Music.)" {356} + + For this is the Covenant of Resurrection. + + "He makes the five crosses on the "PRIESTESS. + + Accept, O Lord, this sacrifice of life and joy, true warrants of the Covenant of Resurrection. + + "The "PRIEST "offers the Lance to the "PRIESTESS, "who kisses it; he then touches her between the breasts and upon the body. He then flings out his arms upward as comprehending the whole shrine.)" + Let this offering be born upon the waves of Aethyr to our Lord and Father the Sun that travelleth over the Heavens in his name ON. + "(He closes his hands, kisses the "PRIESTESS "between the breasts and makes three great crosses over the Paten, the Cup and Himself. He strikes his breast. All repeat this action.)" + + Hear ye all, saints of the true church of old time now essentially present, that of ye we claim heirship, with ye we claim communion, from ye we claim benediction in the name of GR:Iota-Alpha-Omega. + + "(He makes three crosses on Paten and Cup together. He uncovers the Cup, genuflects, takes the Cup in his left hand and the Host in his right. With the host he makes the five crosses on the Cup.)" + + +1 + +3 +2 + +5 +4 + + "(He elevates the Host and the Cup.) + (The Bell strikes.)" + GR:Alpha-Gamma-Iota-Omicron-Sigma, GR:Alpha-Gamma-Iota-Omicron-Sigma, GR:Alpha-Gamma-Iota-Omicron-Sigma, GR:Iota-Alpha-Omega! + "He replaces the Host and the Cup and adores.)" + + + VII. + + Of the Office of the Anthem. + + The PRIEST. Thou who art I, beyond all I am, + Who hast no nature, and no name, + Who art, when all but thou are gone, {357} + Thou, centre and secret of the Sun, + Thou, hidden spring of all things known + And unknown, Thou aloof, alone, + Thou, the true fire within the reed + Brooding and breeding, source and seed + Of life, love, liberty and light, + Thou beyond speech and beyond sight, + Thee I invoke, my faint fresh fire + Kindling as mine intents aspire. + Thee I invoke, abiding one, + Thee, centre and secret of the Sun, + And that most holy mystery + Of which the vehicle am I. + Appear, most awful and most mild, + As it is lawful, in thy child!<> + + The CHORUS: For of the Father and the Son + The Holy Spirit is the norm; + Male-female, quintessential, one, + Man-being veiled in woman-form. + Glory and worship in the highest, + Thou Dove, mankind that deifiest, + Being that race, most royally run, + To spring sunshine through winter storm. + Glory and worship be to Thee, + Sap of the world-ash, wonder-tree! + FIRST SEMICHORUS: MEN. Glory to thee from + Gilded Tomb. + SECOND SEMICHORUS: WOMEN. Glory to thee from + Waiting Womb. + MEN. Glory to Thee from earth unploughed! + WOMEN. Glory to thee from virgin vowed! + MEN. Glory to thee, true Unity + Of the Eternal Trinity! + WOMEN. Glory to thee, thou sire and dam + And Self of I am that I am! {358} + MEN. Glory to thee, eternal Sun, + Thou One in Three, Thou Three in One! + CHORUS. Glory and worship unto Thee, + Sap of the world-ash, wonder-tree! + + "These words are to form the substance of the anthem; but the whole + or any part thereof shall be set to music, which may be as + elaborate as art can. But even should other anthems be + authorised by the Father of the Church, this shall hold its + place as the first of its kind, the father of all others.)" + + + VIII. + + Of the Mystic Marriage and Consummation of the Elements. + + "(The" PRIEST "takes the Paten between the index and medius + of the right hand. The "PRIESTESS "clasps the Cup in her + right hand.)" + The PRIEST. Lord most secret, bless this spiritual food unto our bodies, bestowing upon {us} health and wealth and strength and joy and peace, and that fulfilment of will and of love under will that is perpetual happiness. + "(He makes "+ "with Paten and kisses it. He uncovers the + Cup, genuflects, rises. Music. He takes the Host, and + breaks it over the Cup. He replaces the right hand + portion in the Paten. He breaks off a particle of the + left hand portion.)" + GR:Tau-Omicron-Upsilon-Tau-Omicron GR:Epsilon-Sigma-Tau-Iota GR:Tau-Omicron GR:Sigma-Pi-Epsilon-Rho-Mu-Alpha GR:Mu-Omicron-Upsilon. GR:Eta-Omicron GR:Pi-Alpha-Tau-Eta-Rho GR:Epsilon-Sigma-Tau-Iota-Nu + GR:Eta-Omicron GR:Eta GR:Upsilon-Iota-Omicron-Sigma -Delta-Iota-Alpha<> GR:Tau-Omicron GR:Pi-Nu-Epsilon-Upsilon-Mu-Alpha GR:Alpha-Gamma-Iota-Omicron-Nu. + GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu. GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu. GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu. + "(He replaces the left hand part of the Host. The "PRIESTESS + "extends the lance point with her left hand to receive + the particle.)" + The PRIEST and The PRIESTESS. GR:Eta-Pi-Iota-Lambda-Iota-Upsilon. + "(The" PRIEST "takes the Lance. The "PRIESTESS "covers the + Cup. The "PRIEST "genuflects, rises, bows, joins hands. + He strikes his breast.)" {359} The PRIEST. O Lion and O Serpent that destroy the destroyer, be mighty among us. O Lion and O Serpent that destroy the destroyer, be mighty among us. O Lion and O Serpent that destroy the destroyer, be mighty among us. + "(The "PRIEST "joins hands upon the breast of the "PRIESTESS, "and takes back his Lance. He turns to the people, lowers and raises the Lance, and makes "+ "upon them.)" + Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. + The PEOPLE. Love is the law, love under will. + "(He lowers the Lance, and turns to East. The "PRIESTESS" + take the lance in her right hand, with her left hand + she offers to Paten. The "PRIEST "kneels.)" + The PRIEST. In my mouth be the essence of the life of the Sun. + "(He takes the Host with the right hand, makes "+ "with it + on the Paten, and consumes it.) + (Silence.) + (The "PRIESTESS "takes, uncovers, and offers the cup, as + before.)" + The PRIEST. In my mouth be the essence of the joy of the Earth. + "(He takes the Cup, makes "+ "on the "PRIESTESS, "drains it, and + returns it.) + (Silence.) + (He rises, takes the lance and turns to the people.)" + The PRIEST. There is no part of me that is not of the Gods.<> + "(Those of the People who intend to communicate, and none + other should be present, having signified their intention, a + whole Cake of Light and a whole goblet of wine have been + prepared for each one. The" DEACON " marshals them; they + advance one by one to the altar. The children take the + elements and offer them. The "PEOPLE "communicate as" {360} + "did the "PRIEST, "uttering the same words in an attitude of + Resurrection;" + "There is no part of me that is not of the Gods." + "The exceptions to this part of the ceremony are when it is of + the nature of a celebration, in which case none but the Priest + communicate, of a wedding, in which none, save the two to + be married, partake; part of the ceremony of baptism when + only the child baptised partakes, and of Confirmation at + puberty when only the persons confirmed partake. The + Sacrament may be reserved by the "PRIEST, "for administration + to the sick in their homes.) + The "PRIEST "closes all within the veil. With the Lance he + makes "+ "on the people thrice, thus.)" The PRIEST. + The LORD bless you. + + The LORD enlighten your minds and comfort your hearts and sustain your bodies. + + The LORD bring you to the accomplishment of your true wills, the Great Work, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness. + "(He goes out, the "DEACON "and Children following, into + the tomb of the West.) + Music. (Voluntary.)" NOTE: "The "PRIESTESS "and other officers never partake of the + sacrament, they being as it were part of the "PRIEST "himself." NOTE: "Certain secret formulae of this Mass are taught to the + "PRIEST "in his ordination." + + + {361} + + + + APPENDIX VII. + + A FEW OF THE PRINCIPAL INSTRUCTIONS + AUTHORISED BY THE A.'. A.'. + + LIBER HHH + + SUB FIGURA CCCXLI. + + CONTINET CAPITULA TRIA: MMM, AAA, ET SSS. + + I. + + MMM. + + "I remember a certain holy day in the dusk of the Year, in the dusk of the Equinox of Osiris, when first I beheld thee visibly; when first the dreadful issue was fought out; when the Ibis-headed One charmed away the strife. I remember thy first kiss, even as a maiden should. Nor in the dark byways was there another: thy kisses abide." --- LIBER LAPIDIS LAZULI. VII. 15. 16. + 0. Be seated in thine Asana, wearing the robe of a Neophyte, the hood drawn. + 1. It is night, heavy and hot, there are no stars. Not one breath of wind stirs the surface of the sea, that is thou. No fish play in thy depths. + 2. Let a Breath rise and ruffle the waters. This also thou shalt feel playing upon thy skin. It will disturb thy meditation twice or thrice, after which thou shouldst have conquered this distraction. But unless thou first feel it, that Breath hath not arisen. + 3. Next, the night is riven by the lightning flash. This also {362} shalt thou feel in thy body, which shall shiver and leap with the shock, and that also must both be suffered and overcome. + 4. After the lightning flash, resteth in the zenith a minute point of light. And that light shall radiate until a right cone be established upon the sea, and it is day. + With this thy body shall be rigid, automatically; and this shalt thou let endure, withdrawing thyself into thine heart in the form of an upright Egg of blackness; and therein shalt thou abide for a space. + 5. When all this is perfectly and easily performed at will, let the aspirant figure to himself a struggle with the whole force of the Universe. In this he is only saved by his minuteness. But in the end he is overcome by Death, who covers him with a black cross. + Let his body fall supine with arms outstretched. + 6. So lying, let him aspire fervently unto the Holy Guardian Angel. + 7. Now let him resume his former posture. + Two and twenty times shall he figure to himself that he is bitten by a serpent, feeling even in his body the poison thereof. And let each bite be healed by an eagle or hawk, spreading its wings above his head, and dropping thereupon a healing dew. But let the last bite be so terrible a pang at the nape of the neck that he seemeth to die, and let the healing dew be of such virtue that he leapeth to his feet. + 8. Let there be now placed within his egg a red cross, then a green cross, then a golden cross, then a silver cross; or those things which these shadow forth. Herein is silence; for he that hath rightly performed the meditation will understand the inner meaning hereof, and it shall serve as a test of himself and his fellows. + 9. Let him now remain in the Pyramid or Cone of Light, as an Egg, but no more of blackness. + 10. Then let his body be in the position of the Hanged Man, and let him aspire with all his force unto the Holy Guardian Angel. + 11. The grace having been granted unto him, let him partake mystically of the Eucharist of the Five Elements and let him proclaim Light in Extension; yea, let him proclaim Light in Extension. {363} + + + II + + AAA + + "These loosen the swathings of the corpse; these unbind the feet of Osiris, so that the flaming God may rage through the firmament with his fantastic spear." Liber Lapidis Lazuli. VII. 3. + 0. Be seated in thine Asana, or recumbent in Shavasana, or in the position of the dying Buddha. + 1. Think of thy death; imagine the various diseases that may attack thee, or accidents overtake thee. Picture the process of death, applying always to thyself. + (A useful preliminary practice is to read textbooks of Pathology, and to visit museums and dissecting-rooms.) + 2. Continue this practice until death is complete; follow the corpse through the stages of embalming, wrapping and burial. + 3. Now imagine a divine breath entering thy nostrils. + 4. Next, imagine a divine light enlightening the eyes. + 5. Next, imagine the divine voice awakening the ears. + 6. Next, imagine a divine kiss imprinted on the lips. + 7. Next, imagine the divine energy informing the nerves and muscles of the body, and concentrate on the phenomenon which will already have been observed in 3, the restoring of the circulation. + 8. Last, imagine the return of the reproductive power, and employ this to the impregnation of the Egg of light in which man is bathed. + 9. Now represent to thyself that this Egg is the Disk of the Sun, setting in the west. + 10. Let it sink into blackness, borne in the bark of heaven, upon the back of the holy cow Hathor. And it may be that thou shalt hear the moaning thereof. + 11. Let it become blacker than all blackness. And in this meditation thou shalt be utterly without fear, for that the blankness that will appear unto thee is a thing dreadful beyond all thy comprehension. + And it shall come to pass that if thou hast well and properly {364} performed this meditation that on a sudden thou shalt hear the drone and booming of a Beetle. + 12. Now then shall the Blackness pass, and with rose and gold shalt thou arise in the East, with the cry of an Hawk resounding in thine ear. Shrill shall it be and harsh. + 13. At the end shalt thou rise and stand in the mid-heaven, a globe of glory. And therewith shall arise the mighty Sound that holy men have likened unto the roaring of a Lion. + 14. Then shalt thou withdraw thyself from the Vision, gathering thyself into the divine form of Osiris upon his throne. + 15. Then shalt thou repeat audibly the cry of triumph of the god re-arisen, as it shall have been given unto thee by thy Superior. + 16. And this being accomplished, thou mayest enter again into the Vision, that thereby shall be perfected in Thee. + 17. After this shalt thou return into the Body, and give thanks unto the Most High God IAIDA, yea unto the Most High God IAIDA. + 18. Mark well that this operation should be performed if it be possible in a place set apart and consecrated to the Works of the Magick of Light. Also that the Temple should be ceremonially open as thou hast knowledge and skill to perform, and that at the end thereof the closing should be most carefully accomplished. But in the preliminary practice it is enough to cleanse thyself by ablution, by robing, and by the rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram. + 0-2 should be practised at first, until some realisation is obtained; and the practice should always be followed by a divine invocation of Apollo or of Isis or of Jupiter or of Serapis. + Next, after a swift summary of 0-2 practice 3-7. + This being mastered, add 8. + Then add 9-13. + Then being prepared and fortified, well fitted for the work, perform the whole meditation at one time. And let this be continued until perfect success be attained therein. For this is a mighty meditation and holy, having power even upon Death, yea, having power even upon Death. + (Note by Fra. O.M. At any time during this meditation the {365} concentration may bring about Samadhi. This is to be feared and shunned, more than any other breaking of control, for that it is the most tremendous of the forces which threaten to obsess. There is also some danger of acute delirious melancholia at point 1.) + + III + + SSS + + "Thou art a beautiful thing, whiter than a woman in the column of this vibration. + "I shoot up vertically like an arrow, and become that Above. + "But it is death, and the flame of the pyre. + "Ascend in the flame of the pyre, O my Soul! + "Thy God is like the cold emptiness of the utmost heaven, into which thou radiatest thy little light. + "When Thou shalt know me, O empty God, my flame shall utterly expire in thy great N.O.X." Liber Lapidis Lazuli. I. 36-40. + 0. Be seated in thine Asana, preferably the Thunderbolt. + It is essential that the spine be vertical. + 1. In this practice the cavity of the brain is the Yoni; the spinal cord is the Lingam. + 2. Concentrate thy thought of adoration in the brain. + 3. Now begin to awaken the spine in this manner. Concentrate thy thought of thyself in the base of the spine, and move it gradually up a little at a time. + By this means thou wilt become conscious of the spine, feeling each vertebra as a separate entity. This must be achieved most fully and perfectly before the further practice is begun. + 4. Next, adore the brain as before, but figure to thyself its content as infinite. Deem it to be the womb of Isis, or the body of Nuit. + 5. Next, identify thyself with the base of the spine as before, but figure to thyself its energy as infinite. Deem it to be the phallus of Osiris or the being of Hadit. + 6. These two concentrations 4 and 5 may be pushed to the {366} point of Samadhi. Yet lose not control of the will; let not Samadhi be thy master herein. + 7. Now then, being conscious both of the brain and the spine, and unconscious of all else, do thou imagine the hunger of the one for the other; the emptiness of the brain, the ache of the spine, even as the emptiness of space and the aimlessness of Matter. + And if thou hast experience of the Eucharist in both kinds, it shall aid thine imagination herein. + 8. Let this agony grow until it be insupportable, resisting by will every temptation. Not until thine whole body is bathed in sweat, or it may be in sweat of blood, and until a cry of intolerable anguish is forced from thy closed lips, shalt thou proceed. + 9. Now let a current of light, deep azure flecked with scarlet, pass up and down the spine, striking as it were upon thyself that art coiled at the base as a serpent. + Let this be exceedingly slow and subtle; and though it be accompanied with pleasure, resist; and though it be accompanied with pain, resist. + 10. This shalt thou continue until thou art exhausted, never relaxing the control. Until thou canst perform this one section 9 during a whole hour, proceed not. And withdraw from the meditation by an act of will, passing into a gentle Pranayama without Kumbhakham, and meditating on Harpocrates, the silent and virginal God. + 11. Then at last, being well-fitted in body and mind, fixed in peace, beneath a favourable heaven of stars, at night, in calm and warm weather, mayst thou quicken the movement of the light until it be taken up by the brain and the spine, independently of thy will. + 12. If in this hour thou shouldst die, is it not written, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord"? Yea, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord! + + {367} + + + + + LIBER E + vel + EXERCITIORUM + + SUB FIGURA IX<> + + I. + + 1. It is absolutely necessary that all experiments should be recorded in detail during, or immediately after, their performance. + 2. It is highly important to note the physical and mental condition of the experimenter or experimenters. + 3. The time and place of all experiments must be noted; also the state of the weather, and generally all conditions which might conceivably have any result upon the experiment either as adjuvants to or causes of the result, or as inhibiting it, or as sources of error. + 4. The A.'. A.'. will not take official notice of any experiments which are not thus properly recorded. + 5. It is not necessary at this stage for us to declare fully the ultimate end of our researches; nor indeed would it be understood by those who have not become proficient in these elementary courses. + 6. The experimenter is encouraged to use his own intelligence, and not to rely upon any other person or persons, however distinguished, even among ourselves. + 7. The written record should be intelligently<> prepared so that others may benefit from its study. + 8. The Book John St. John published in the first number of the "Equinox" is an example of this kind of record by a very advanced student. It is not as simply written as we could wish, but will show the method. + 9. The more scientific the record is, the better. Yet the emotions should be noted, as being some of the conditions. + Let then the record be written with sincerity and care; thus with practice it will be found more and more to approximate to the ideal. {368} + + + II + + Physical clairvoyance. + + 1. Take a pack of (78) Tarot playing cards. Shuffle; cut. Draw one card. Without looking at it, try to name it. Write down the card you name, and the actual card. Repeat, and tabulate results. + 2. This experiment is probably easier with an old genuine pack of Tarot cards, preferably a pack used for divination by some one who really understood the matter. + 3. Remember that one should expect to name the right card once in 78 times. Also be careful to exclude all possibilities of obtaining the knowledge through the ordinary senses of sight and touch, or even smell. + There was once a man whose fingertips were so sensitive that he could feel the shape and position of the pips and so judge the card correctly. + 4. It is better to try first the easier form of the experiment, by guessing only the suit. + 5. Remember that in 78 experiments you should obtain 22 trumps and 14 of each other suit; so that without any clairvoyance at all, you can guess right twice in 7 times (roughly) by calling trumps each time. + 6. Note that some cards are harmonious. + Thus it would not be a bad error to call the five of Swords ("The Lord of Defeat") instead of the ten of Swords ("The Lord of Ruin"). But to call the Lord of Love (2 Cups) for the Lord of Strife (5 Wands) would show that you were getting nothing right. + Similarly a card ruled by Mars would be harmonious with a 5, a card of Gemini with "The Lovers". + 7. These harmonies must be thoroughly learnt, according to the numerous tables given in 777. + 8. As you progress you will find that you are able to distinguish the suit correctly three times in four and that very few indeed inharmonious errors occur, while in 78 experiments you are able to name the card aright as many as 15 or 20 times. + 9. When you have reached this stage, you may be admitted for {369} examination; and in the event of your passing you will be given more complex and difficult exercises. + + + III + + Asana --- Posture. + + 1. You must learn to sit perfectly still with every muscle tense for long periods. + 2. You must wear no garments that interfere with the posture in any of these experiments. + 3. The first position: (The God). Sit in a chair; head up, back straight, knees together, hands on knees, eyes closed. + 4. The second position: (The Dragon). Kneel; buttocks resting on the heels, toes turned back, back and head straight, hands on thighs. + 5. The third position: (The Ibis). Stand, hold left ankle with right hand,<> free forefinger on lips. + 6. The fourth position: (The Thunderbolt). Sit; left heel pressing up anus, right foot poised on its toes, the heel covering the phallus; arms stretched out over the knees; head and back straight. + 7. Various things will happen to you while you are practising these positions; they must be carefully analysed and described. + 8. Note down the duration of practice; the severity of the pain (if any) which accompanies it, the degree of rigidity attained, and any other pertinent matters. + 9. When you have progressed up to the point that a saucer filled to the brim with water and poised upon the head does not spill one drop during a whole hour, and when you can no longer perceive the slightest tremor in any muscle; when, in short, you are perfectly steady and easy, you will be admitted for examination; and, should you pass, you will be instructed in more complex and difficult practices. + + + IV + + Pranayama --- Regularisation of the Breathing + + 1. At rest in one of your positions, close the right nostril with the thumb of the right hand and breathe out slowly and completely {370} through the left nostril, while your watch marks 20 seconds. Breathe in through the same nostril for 10 seconds. Changing hands, repeat with the other nostril. Let this be continuous for one hour. + 2. When this is quite easy to you, increase the periods to 30 and 15 seconds. + 3. When this is quite easy to you, but not before, breathe out for 15 seconds, in for 15 seconds, and hold the breath for 15 seconds. + 4. When you can do this with perfect ease and comfort for a whole hour, practice breathing out for 40 and in for 20 seconds. + 5. This being attained, practice breathing out for 20, in for 10, holding the breath for 30 seconds. + When this has become perfectly easy to you, you may be admitted for examination, and should you pass, you will be instructed in more complex and difficult practices. + 6. You will find that the presence of food in the stomach, even in small quantities, makes the practices very difficult. + 7. Be very careful never to overstrain your powers; especially never get so short of breath that you are compelled to breathe out jerkily or rapidly. + 8. Strive after depth, fullness, and regularity of breathing. + 9. Various remarkable phenomena will very probably occur during these practices. They must be carefully analysed and recorded. + + + V + + Dharana --- Control of Thought. + + 1. Constrain the mind to concentrate itself upon a single simple object imagined. + The five tatwas are useful for this purpose; they are: a black oval; a blue disk; a silver crescent; a yellow square; a red triangle. + 2. Proceed to combinations of simple objects; e.g. a black oval within a yellow square, and so on. + 3. Proceed to simple moving objects, such as a pendulum swinging, a wheel revolving, etc. Avoid living objects. + 4. Proceed to combinations of moving objects, e.g. a piston {371} rising and falling while a pendulum is swinging. The relation between the two movements should be varied in different experiments. + Or even a system of flywheels, eccentrics, and governor. + 5. During these practices the mind must be absolutely confined to the object determined upon; no other thought must be allowed to intrude upon the consciousness. The moving systems must be regular and harmonious. + 6. Note carefully the duration of the experiments, the number and nature of the intruding thoughts, the tendency of the object itself to depart from the course laid out for it, and any other phenomena which may present themselves. Avoid overstrain; this is very important. + 7. Proceed to imagine living objects; as a man, preferably some man known to, and respected by, yourself. + 8. In the intervals of these experiments you may try to imagine the objects of the other senses, and to concentrate upon them. + For example, try to imagine the taste of chocolate, the smell of roses, the feeling of velvet, the sound of a waterfall or the ticking of a watch. + 9. Endeavour finally to shut out all objects of any of the senses, and prevent all thoughts arising in your mind. When you feel you have attained some success in these practices, apply for examination, and should you pass, more complex and difficult practices will be prescribed for you. + + + VI + + Physical limitations. + + 1. It is desirable that you should discover for yourself your physical limitations. + 2. To this end ascertain for how many hours you can subsist without food or drink before your working capacity is seriously interfered with. + 3. Ascertain how much alcohol you can take, and what forms of drunkenness assail you. {372} + 4. Ascertain how far you can walk without once stopping; likewise with dancing, swimming, running, etc. + 5. Ascertain for how many hours you can do without sleep. + 6. Test your endurance with various gymnastic exercises, club swinging, and so on. + 7. Ascertain for how long you can keep silence. + 8. Investigate any other capacities and aptitudes which may occur to you. + 9. Let all these things be carefully and conscientiously recorded; for according to your powers will it be demanded of you. + + + VII + + A Course of Reading + + 1. The object of most of the foregoing practices will not at first be clear to you; but at least (who will deny it?) they have trained you in determination, accuracy, introspection, and many other qualities which are valuable to all men in their ordinary avocations, so that in no case will your time have been wasted. + 2. That you may gain some insight into the nature of the Great Work which lies beyond these elementary trifles, however, we should mention that an intelligent person may gather more than a hint of its nature from the following books, which are to be taken as serious and learned contributions to the study of Nature, though not necessarily to be implicitly relied upon. + "The Yi King" (S.B.E. Series, Oxford University Press.) + "The Tao Teh King" (S.B.E. Series.) + "Tannhauser", by A. Crowley. + "The Upanishads". + "The Bhagavad-Gita". + "The Voice of the Silence." + "Raja Yoga", by Swami Vivekananda. + "The Shiva Sanhita". + "The Aphorisms of Patanjali". + "The Sword of Song". + "The Book of the Dead". + "Rituel et Dogme de la Haute Magie". {373} + "The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage". + "The Goetia". + "The Hathayoga Pradipika". + "The Spiritual Guide of Molinos". + Erdmann's "History of Philosophy". + "The Star in the West" (Captain Fuller). + "The Dhammapada" (S.B.E. Series, Oxford University Press). + "The Questions of King Milinda" (S.B.E. Series). + "777 vel Prolegomena, etc.". + "Varieties of Religious Experience" (James). + "Kabbala Denudata". + "Knox Om Pax". + 3. Careful study of these books will enable the pupil to speak in the language of his master, and facilitate communications with him. + 4. The pupil should endeavour to discover the fundamental harmony of these very varied works; for this purpose he will find it best to study the most extreme divergencies side by side. + 5. He may at any time that he wishes apply for examination in this course of reading. + 6. During the whole of this elementary study and practice he will do wisely to seek out and attach himself to, a master, one competent to correct him and advise him. Nor should he be discouraged by the difficulty of finding such a person. + 7. Let him further remember that he must in no wise rely upon, or believe in, that master. He must rely entirely upon himself, and credit nothing whatever but that which lies within his own knowledge and experience. + 8. As in the beginning, so at the end, we here insist upon the vital importance of the written record as the only possible check upon error derived from the various qualities of the experimenter. + 9. Thus let the work be accomplished duly; yea, let it be accomplished duly. + (If any really important or remarkable results should occur, or if any great difficulty presents itself, the A.'. A.'. should be at once informed of the circumstances.) {374} + + + + + LIBER O + + vel + + MANUS ET SAGITTAE + + SUB FIGURA VI.<> + + I. + + 1. This book is very easy to misunderstand; readers are asked to use the most minute critical care in the study of it, even as we have done in the preparation. + 2. In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth, and the Paths, of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist. + It is immaterial whether they exist or not. By doing certain things certain results follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them. + 3. The advantages to be gained from them are chiefly these: + (a) A widening of the horizon of the mind. + (b) An improvement of the control of the mind. + 4. The student, if he attains any success in the following practices, will find himself confronted by things (ideas or beings) too glorious or too dreadful to be described. It is essential that he remain the master of all that he beholds, hears or conceives; otherwise he will be the slave of illusion and the prey of madness. + Before entering upon any of these practices the student must be in good health, and have attained a fair mastery of Asana, Pranayama and Dharana. + 5. There is little danger that any student, however idle or stupid, will fail to get some result; but there is great danger that he will be led astray, even though it be by those which it is necessary that he should attain. Too often, moreover, he mistaketh the first resting-place for the goal, and taketh off his armour as if he were a victor ere the fight is well begun. {375} + It is desirable that the student should never attach to any result the importance which it at first seems to possess. + 6. First, then, let us consider the Book "777" and its use; the preparation of the Place; the use of the Magic Ceremonies; and finally the methods which follow in Chapter V. "Viator in Regnis Arboris" and in Chapter VI "Sagitta trans Lunam." + (In another book will be treated of the Expansion and Contraction of Consciousness; progress by slaying the Chakkrams; progress by slaying the Pairs of Opposites; the methods of Sabhapaty Swami, etc., etc.) + + + II. + + 1. The student must first obtain a thorough knowledge of "Book 777", especially of the columns printed elsewhere in this Book.<> + When these are committed to memory, he will begin to understand the nature of these correspondences. (See Illustrations in "The Temple of Solomon the King" in Equinox No. 2. Cross references are given.) + 2. If we take an example, the use of the tables will become clear. + Let us suppose that you wish to obtain knowledge of some obscure science. + In column xlv to the <> power , line 12, you will find "Knowledge of Sciences." + By now looking up line 12 in the other columns, you will find that the Planet corresponding is Mercury, its number eight, its lineal figures the octagon and octagram. The God who rules that planet Thoth, or in Hebrew symbolism Tetragrammaton Adonai and Elohim Tzabaoth, its Archangel Raphael, its choir of Angels Beni Elohim, its Intelligence Tiriel, its Spirit Taphtatharath, its colours Orange (for Mercury is the Sphere of the Sephira Hod, 8) Yellow, Purple, Grey and Indigo rayed with Violet; its Magical Weapon the Wand or Caduceus, its Perfumes Mastic and others, its sacred plants Vervain and others, its jewel the Opal or Agate; its sacred animal the Snake, etc., etc. {376} + 3. You would then prepare your Place of Working accordingly. In an orange circle you would draw an eight-pointed star of yellow, at whose points you would place eight lamps. The Sigil of the Spirit (which is to be found in Cornelius Agrippa and other books) you would draw in the four colours with such other devices as your experience may suggest. + 4. And so on. We cannot here enter at length into all the necessary preparations; and the student will find them fully set forth in the proper books, of which the "Goetia" is perhaps the best example. + These rituals need not be slavishly imitated; on the contrary, the student should do nothing the object of which he does not understand; also, if he have any capacity whatever, he will find his own crude rituals more effective than the highly polished ones of other people. + The general purpose of all this preparation is as follows: + 5. Since the student is a man surrounded by material objects, if it be his wish to master one particular idea, he must make every material object about him directly suggest that idea. Thus, in the ritual quoted, if his glance fall upon the lights, their number suggests Mercury; he smells the perfumes, and again Mercury is brought to his mind. In other words the whole magical apparatus and ritual is a complex system of mnemonics. + (The importance of these lies principally in the fact that particular sets of images that the student may meet in his wanderings correspond to particular lineal figures, divine names, etc. and are controlled by them. As to the possibility of producing results external to the mind of the seer (objective in the ordinary common sense acceptation of the term) we are here silent.) + 6. There are three important practices connected with all forms of ceremonial (and the two Methods which later we shall describe). These are: + (1) Assumption of God-forms. + (2) Vibration of Divine Names. + (3) Rituals of "Banishing" and "Invoking". + These, at least, should be completely mastered before the dangerous Methods of Chapter V and VI are attempted<>. {377} + + + III + + 1. The Magical Images of the Gods of Egypt should be made thoroughly familiar. This can be done by studying them in any public museum, or in such books as may be accessible to the student. They should then be carefully painted by him, both from the model and from memory. + 2. The student, seated in the "God" position, or in the characteristic attitude of the God desired, should then imagine His image as coinciding with his own body, or as enveloping it. This must be practised until mastery of the image is attained, and an identity with it and with the God experienced. + It is a matter for very great regret that no simple and certain tests of success in this practice exist. + 3. The Vibration of God-names. As a further means of identifying the human consciousness with that pure portion of it which man calls by the name of some God, let him act thus: + 4. (a) Stand with arms outstretched<>. (See illustration, in Equinox No. 2, p. 13<>). + (b) Breathe in deeply through the nostrils, imagining the name of the God desired entering with the breath. + (c) Let that name descend slowly from the lungs to the heart, the solar plexus, the navel, the generative organs, and so to the feet. + (d) The moment that it appears to touch the feet, quickly advance the left foot about 12 inches, throw forward the body, and let the hands (drawn back to the side of the eyes) shoot out, so that you are standing in the typical position of the God Horus<>, and at the same time imagine the Name as rushing up and through the body, while you breathe it out through the nostrils with the air which has been till then retained in the lungs. All this must be done with all the force of which you are capable. + (e) Then withdraw the left foot, and place the right forefinger<> {378} upon the lips, so that you are in the characteristic position of the God Harpocrates. + 5. It is a sign that the student is performing this correctly when a single "Vibration" entirely exhausts his physical strength. It should cause him to grow hot all over or to perspire violently, and it should so weaken him that he will find it difficult to remain standing. + 6. It is a sign of success, though only by the student himself is it perceived, when he hears the name of the God vehemently roared forth, as if by the concourse of ten thousand thunders; and it should appear to him as if that Great Voice proceeded from the Universe, and not from himself. + In both the above practices all consciousness of anything but the God-form and name should be absolutely blotted out; and the longer it takes for normal perception to return, the better. + + + IV. + + + I. The Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram must be committed to memory; they are as follows --- + + "The Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram" + + i. Touching the forehead say Ateh (Unto Thee), + ii. Touching the breast say Malkuth (The Kingdom), + iii. Touching the right shoulder, say ve-Geburah (and the Power)<>, + iv. Touching the left shoulder, say ve-Gedulah (and the Glory), + v. Clasping the hands upon the breast, say le-Olahm, Amen (To + the Ages, Amen). + vi. Turning to the East make a pentagram (that of Earth) with + the proper weapon (usually the Wand). Say (i.e. vibrate) + IHVH. + vii. Turning to the South, the same, but say ADNI. + viii. Turning to the West, the same, but say AHIH. + ix. Turning to the North, the same, but say AGLA (Pronounce: + Ye-ho-wau, Adonai, Eheieh, Agla). + x. Extending the arms in the form of a cross say, + xi. Before me Raphael; + xii. Behind me Gabriel; {379} + xiii. On my right hand, Michael. + xiv. On my left hand, Auriel; + xv. For about me flames the Pentagram, + xvi. And in the Column stands the six-rayed Star. + xvii-xxi. Repeat (i) to (v), the Qabalistic Cross. + + "The Greater Ritual of the Pentagram" + + The Pentagrams are traced in the air with the sword or other weapon, the name spoken aloud, and the signs used, as illustrated. + + The Pentagrams of Spirit. + + +I ' ' B Equilibrium of Actives +N / \ / \ A +V * / \ # / \ N Name: A H I H (Eheieh) +O \---------------- \---------------- I +K \ '/ . . \' \ '/ . . \' S +I \/ . " . \ \/ . " . \ H +N /\' ' \ /\' ' \ I +G \ \ N + # * G + +I ' ' B Equilibrium of Passives +N / \ / \ A +V / \ * / \ # N Name A G L A (Agla). +O ----------------/ ----------------/ I +K '/ . . \' / '/ . . \' / S +I / . " . \/ / . " . \/ H +N / ' '/\ / ' '/\ I +G / / N + # * G + + The Signs of the Portal (See illustrations): Extend the hands in front of you, palms outwards, separate them as if in the act of rending asunder a veil or curtain (actives), and then bring them together as if closing it up again and let them fall to the side (passives). + (The Grade of the "Portal" is particularly attributed to the element of Spirit; it refers to the Sun; the Paths of HB:Samekh , HB:Nun and HB:Ayin are attributed to this degree.<> See "777" lines 6 and 31 bis). + + The Pentagrams of Fire. + +I ' ' B +N / \ # / \ * A Name: A L H I M +V / \ \ / \ \ N +O -------------\-- -------------\-- I (Elohim). +K '/ . . \'\ '/ . . \'\ S +I / . " . \ \ / . " . \ \ H +N / ' ' \ * / ' ' \ # I +G N + G {380} + + The signs of 4 Degree = 7Square. Raise the arms above the head and join the hands, so that the tips of the fingers and of the thumbs meet, formulating a triangle (see illustration). + (The Grade of 4 Degree = 7Square is particularly attributed to the element Fire; it refers to the Planet Venus; the paths of HB:Qof , HB:Tzaddi and HB:Peh are attributed to this degree. For other attributions see "777" lines 7 and 31). + + The Pentagrams of Water. + +I ' ' B +N / \ / \ A +V #----------* *---------# N +O ---------------- ---------------- I Name: A L (El). +K '/ . . \' '/ . . \' S +I / . " . \ / . " . \ H +N / ' ' \ / ' ' \ I +G N + G + + The signs of 3 Degree = 8Square. Raise the arm till the elbows are on a level with the shoulders, bring the hands across the chest, touching the thumbs and tips of fingers so as to form a triangle apex downwards. (See illustration). + (The Grade of 3 Degree = 8Square is particularly attributed to the element of water; it refers to the planet Mercury; the paths of HB:Resh and HB:Shin are attributed to this degree. For other attributions see "777", lines 8 and 23). + + The Pentagrams of Air. + +I ' ' B +N / \ / \ A +V *----------# #---------* N Name: I H V H +O ---------------- ---------------- I (Ye-ho-wau). +K '/ . . \' '/ . . \' S +I / . " . \ / . " . \ H +N / ' ' \ / ' ' \ I +G N + G + + The signs of 2 Degree = 9Square. Stretch both arms upwards and outwards, the elbows bent at right angles, the hand bent back, the palms upwards as if supporting a weight. (See illustration). + (The Grade of 2 Degree = 9Square is particularly attributed to the element Air; it refers to the Moon, the path of HB:Taw is attributed to this degree. For other attributions see "777" lines 9 and 11). {381} + + + The Pentagrams of Earth + +I ' ' B +N # / \ * / \ A +V / / \ / / \ N +O -/-------------- -/-------------- I Name: A D N I (Adonai). +K / '/ . . \' / '/ . . \' S +I / / . " . \ / / . " . \ H +N * / ' ' \ # / ' ' \ I +G N + G + + The Sign of 1 Degree = 10Square. Advance the right foot, stretch out the right hand upwards and forwards, the left hand downwards and backwards, the palms open. + (The Grade of 1 Degree = 10Square is particularly attributed to the element of Earth, See "777" lines 10 and 32 bis). + + "The Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram." + + This ritual is to be performed after the "Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram". + (I). Stand upright, feet together, left arm at side, right across body, holding Wand or other weapon upright in the median line. Then face East and say: + (II). I.N.R.I. + Yod, Nun, Resh, Yod. + Virgo, Isis, Mighty Mother. + Scorpio, Apophis, Destroyer. + Sol, Osiris, Slain and Risen. + Isis, Apophis, Osiris, GR:Iota-Alpha-Omega. + (III). Extend the arms in the form of a cross, and say "The Sign of Osiris Slain." (See illustration). + (IV). Raise the right arm to point upwards, keeping the elbow square, and lower the left arm to point downwards, keeping the elbow square, while turning the head over the left shoulder looking down so that the eyes follow the left forearm, and say, "The Sign of the Mourning of Isis". (See illustration). + (V). Raise the arms at an angle of sixty degrees to each other above the head, which is thrown back, and say, "The Sign of Apophis and Typhon." (See illustration). + (VI). Cross the arms on the breast, and bow the head and say, "The Sign of Osiris Risen". (See illustration). {382} + + (VII). Extend the arms again as in (III) and cross them again as in (vi) saying: "L.V.X., Lux, the Light of the Cross". + + /\ # + / \ \ (VIII). With the magical weapon trace the + / \ \ 1 Hexagram of Fire in the East, saying, + / /\ \ * "ARARITA" (HB:Aleph-Resh-Aleph-Resh-Yod-Taw-Aleph). + ---------- This Word consists of the initials of a + / \ # sentence which means "One is His beginning: + / \ \ One is His Individuality: His Permutation is + ---------- \ 2 One." + * + + This hexagram consists of two equilateral triangles, both apices pointed upwards. Begin at the top of the upper triangle and trace it in a dextro-rotary direction. The top of the lower triangle and trace it in dextro-rotary direction. The top of the lower should coincide with the central point of the upper triangle. + + /\ # + --------\- (IX). Trace the Hexagram of Earth in the + 2* \/ \/\ South, saying "ARARITA". This Hexagram + \/\ /\ *1 has the apex of the lower triangle pointing + -\-------- downwards, and it should be capable of + # \/ inscription in a circle. + + /\ # + / \ \ + / \ \ + / \ \ 1 + ---------- * (X). Trace the Hexagram of Air in the + 2* \ / West, saying "ARARITA". This Hexagram + \ \ / is like that of Earth; but the bases of the + \ \ / triangles coincide, forming a diamond. + \ \/ + # {383} + + ---------- + * \ / + \ \ / + \ \ / (XI). Trace the hexagram of Water in the + # \/ North, saying "ARARITA". + /\ # This hexagram has the lower triangle placed + / \ \ above the upper, so that their apices coincide. + / \ \ + / \ * + ---------- + + (XII). Repeat (I-VII). + + The Banishing Ritual is identical, save that the direction of the Hexagrams must be reversed. {384} + + "The Greater Ritual of the Hexagram." + + INVOKING BANISHING + + /\ # # /\ + --------\- -/-------- + 2* \/ \/\ Saturn /\/ \/ *2 + \/\ /\ *1 1* /\ /\/ + -\-------- --------/- + # \/ \/ # + 1 + 2* /\ *--/\--# + -/-------- ---------- + /\/ \/ # Jupiter \/ \/ + # /\ /\/ /\ /\ + --------/- ---------- + \/ *1 #--\/--* 2 + + #--/\--* 1 /\ *2 + ---------- --------\- + \/ \/ # \/ \/\ + /\ /\ Mars \/\ /\ # + ---------- -\-------- + 2 *--\/--# 1* \/ +<> + 4:9 * # 6:7 + #-- / /\ # --*5:8 3:10 *-- / /\ * --# + --------\- --------\- + 2:11 */\/ \/\# #/\/ \/\* 2:11 + #\/\ /\/*1:12 Sun 1:12*\/\ /\/# + -\------/- -\------/- + 6:7 *-- # \/ * --# #-- * \/ # --* 4:9 + 3:10 5:8 + + #--/\--*2 /\ *1 + ---------- --------\- + \/ \/ Venus # \/ \/\ + /\ /\ \/\ /\ # + ---------- -\-------- + 1*--\/--# 2* \/ + +To invoke or banish planets or zodiacal signs. The Hexagram of Earth alone is used. Draw the hexagram, {385} beginning from the point which is attributed to the planet you are dealing with. (See "777" col. lxxxiii). Thus to invoke Jupiter begin from the right hand point of the lower triangle, dextro-rotary and complete; then trace the upper triangle from its left hand point and complete. + + + 1* /\ 2*--/\--# Trace the astrological sigil + -/-------- ---------- of the planet in the centre of + /\/ \/ # Mercury\/ \/ your hexagram. + # /\ /\/ /\ /\ For the Zodiac use the + --------/- ---------- hexagram of the planet which + \/ *2 #--\/--*1 rules the sign you require + ("777", col. xxxviii) but draw + /\ # # /\ the astrological sigil of the + --------\- -/-------- sign, instead of that of the + 1* \/ \/\ Moon /\/ \/ *1 planet. + \/\ /\ *2 2* /\ /\/ + -\-------- --------/- + # \/ \/ # + + For Caput and Cauda Draconis use the lunar hexagram, with the sigil of Caput Draconis or Cauda Draconis. + To banish, reverse the hexagram. + In all cases use a conjuration first with Ararita, and next with the name of the God corresponding to the planet or sign you are dealing with. + The Hexagrams pertaining to the planets are as in plate on preceding page. + 2. These rituals should be practised until the figures drawn appear in flame, in flame so near to physical flame that it would perhaps be visible to the eyes of a bystander, were one present. It is alleged that some persons have attained the power of actually kindling fire by these means. Whether this be so or not, the power is not one to be aimed at. + 3. Success in "banishing" is known by a "feeling of cleanliness" in the atmosphere; success in "invoking" by a "feeling of holiness". It is unfortunate that these terms are so vague. + But at least make sure of this; that any imaginary figure or being shall instantly obey the will of the student, when he uses the appropriate figure. In obstinate cases, the form of the appropriate God may be assumed. {386} + 4. The banishing rituals should be used at the commencement of any ceremony whatever. Next, the student should use a general invocation, such as the "Preliminary Invocation" in the "Goetia" as well as a special invocation to suit the nature of his working. + 5. Success in these verbal invocations is so subtle a matter, and its grades so delicately shaded, that it must be left to the good sense of the student to decide whether or not he should be satisfied with his result. + + V. + + 1. Let the student be at rest in one of his prescribed positions, having bathed and robed with the proper decorum. Let the place of working be free from all disturbance, and let the preliminary purifications, banishings and invocations be duly accomplished, and, lastly, let the incense be kindled. + 2. Let him imagine his own figure (preferably robed in the proper magical garments, and armed with the proper magical weapons) as enveloping his physical body, or standing near to and in front of him. + 3. Let him then transfer the seat of his consciousness to that imagined figure; so that it may seem to him that he is seeing with its eyes, and hearing with its ears. + This will usually be the great difficulty of the operation. + 4. Let him then cause that imagined figure to rise in the air to a great height above the earth. + 5. Let him then stop and look about him. (It is sometimes difficult to open the eyes.) + 6. Probably he will see figures approaching him, or become conscious of a landscape. + Let him speak to such figures, and insist upon being answered, using the proper pentagrams and signs, as previously taught. + 7. Let him travel at will, either with or without guidance from such figure or figures. + 8. Let him further employ such special invocations as will cause to appear the particular places he may wish to visit. + 9. Let him beware of the thousand subtle attacks and deceptions that he will experience, carefully testing the truth of all with whom he speaks. {387} + Thus a hostile being may appear clothed with glory; the appropriate pentagram will in such a case cause him to shrivel or decay. + 10. Practice will make the student infinitely wary in such matters. + 11. It is usually quite easy to return to the body, but should any difficulty arise, practice (again) will make the imagination fertile. For example, one may create in thought a chariot of fire with white horses, and command the charioteer to drive earthwards. + It might be dangerous to go too far, or to stay too long; for fatigue must be avoided. + The danger spoken of is that of fainting, or of obsession, or of loss of memory or other mental faculty. + 12. Finally, let the student cause his imagined body in which he supposes himself to have been travelling to coincide with the physical, tightening his muscles, drawing in his breath, and putting his forefinger to his lips. Then let him "awake" by a well-defined act of will, and soberly and accurately record his experiences. + It may be added that this apparently complicated experiment is perfectly easy to perform. It is best to learn by "travelling" with a person already experienced in the matter. Two or three experiments should suffice to render the student confident and even expert. See also "The Seer", pp. 295-333, Equinox I, 2. + + + VI. + + 1. The previous experiment has little value, and leads to few results of importance. But it is susceptible of a development which merges into a form of Dharana --- concentration --- and as such may lead to the very highest ends. The principal use of the practice in the last chapter is to familiarise the student with every kind of obstacle and every kind of delusion, so that he may be perfect master of every idea that may arise in his brain, to dismiss it, to transmute it, to cause it instantly to obey his will. + 2. Let him then begin exactly as before, but with the most intense solemnity and determination. + 3. Let him be very careful to cause his imaginary body to rise {388} in a line exactly perpendicular to the earth's tangent at the point where his physical body is situated (or to put it more simply, straight upwards). + 4. Instead of stopping, let him continue to rise until fatigue almost overcomes him. If he should find that he has stopped without willing to do so, and that figures appear, let him at all costs rise above them. + Yea, though his very life tremble on his lips, let him force his way upward and onward! + 5. Let him continue in this so long as the breath of life is in him. Whatever threatens, whatever allures, though it were Typhon and all his hosts loosed from the pit and leagued against him, though it were from the very Throne of God Himself that a voice issues bidding him stay and be content, let him struggle on, ever on. + 6. At last there must come a moment when his whole being is swallowed up in fatigue, overwhelmed by its own inertia.<> Let him sink (when no longer can he strive, though his tongue by bitten through with the effort and the blood gush from his nostrils) into the blackness of unconsciousness, and then, on coming to himself, let him write down soberly and accurately a record of all that hath occurred, yea a record of all that hath occurred. + EXPLICIT + +{389} + + + + + LIBER ASTARTE + vel + BERYLLI + + SUB FIGURA CLXXV.<> + + 0. This is the Book of Uniting Himself to a particular Deity by devotion. + 1. "Considerations before the Threshold:" --- First concerning the choice of a particular Deity. This matter is of no import, sobeit that thou choose one suited to thine own highest nature. Howsoever, this method is not so suitable for gods austere as Saturn, or intellectual as Thoth. But for such deities as in themselves partake in anywise of love it is a perfect mode. + 2. "Concerning the prime method of this Magick Art:" --- Let the devotee consider well that although Christ and Osiris be one, yet the former is to be worshipped with Christian, and the latter with Egyptian, rites. And this, although the rites themselves are ceremonially equivalent. There should, however, be "one" symbol declaring the transcending of such limitations; and with regard to the Deity also, there should be some "one" affirmation of his identity both with all other similar gods of other nations, and with the Supreme of whom all are but partial reflections. + 3. "Concerning the chief place of devotion:" --- This is the Heart of the Devotee, and should be symbolically represented by that room or spot which he loves best. And the dearest spot therein shall be the shrine of his temple. It is most convenient if this shrine and altar should be sequestered in woods, or in a private grove, or garden. But let it be protected from the profane. + 4. "Concerning the Image of the Deity:" --- Let there be an image of the Deity; first because in meditation there is mindfulness induced thereby; and second because a certain power enters and inhabits it by virtue of the ceremonies; or so it is said, and We deny it not. Let this image be the most beautiful and perfect which the devotee is able to procure; or if he be able to paint or to carve the same, it is all the better. As for Deities with whose nature no Image is compatible, let them be worshipped in an {390} empty shrine. Such are Brahma, and Allah. Also some postcaptivity conceptions of Jehovah. + 5. "Further concerning the shrine." --- Let this shrine be furnished appropriately as to its ornaments, according to the book 777. With ivy and pine-cones, that is to say, for Bacchus, and let lay before him both grapes and wine. So also for Ceres let there be corn, and cakes; or for Diana moon-wort and pale herbs, and pure water. Further it is well to support the shrine with talismans of the planets, signs and elements appropriate. But these should be made according to the right Ingenium of the Philosophus by the light of the book 777 during the course of his Devotion. It is also well, nevertheless, if a magick circle with the right signs and names be made beforehand. + 6. "Concerning the Ceremonies:" --- Let the Philosophus prepare a powerful Invocation of the particular Deity according to his Ingenium. But let it consist of these several parts: --- + First, an Imprecation, as of a slave unto his Lord. + Second, an Oath, as of a vassal to his Liege. + Third, a Memorial, as of a child to his Parent. + Fourth, an Orison, as of a Priest unto his God. + Fifth, a Colloquy, as of a Brother with his Brother. + Sixth, a Conjuration, as to a Friend with his Friend. + Seventh, a Madrigal, as of a Lover to his Mistress. + And mark well that the first should be of awe, the second of fealty, the third of dependence, the fourth of adoration, the fifth of confidence, the sixth of comradeship, the seventh of passion. + 7. "Further concerning the ceremonies." --- Let then this Invocation be the principal part of an ordered ceremony. And in this ceremony let the Philosophus in no wise neglect the service of a menial. Let him sweep and garnish the place, sprinkling it with water or with wine as is appropriate to the particular Deity, and consecrating it with oil, and with such ritual as may seem him best. And let all be done with intensity and minuteness. + 8. "Concerning the period of devotion, and the hours thereof:" --- Let a fixed period be set for the worship; and it is said that the least time is nine days by seven, and the greatest seven years by nine. And concerning the hours, let the Ceremony be performed {391} every day thrice, or at least once, and let the sleep of the Philosophus be broken for some purpose of devotion at least once in every night. + Now to some it may seem best to appoint fixed hours for the ceremony. To others it may seem that the ceremony should be performed as the spirit moves them so to do; for this there is no rule. + 9. "Concerning the Robes and Instruments:" --- The Wand and Cup are to be chosen for this Art; never the Sword or Dagger, never the Pantacle, unless that Pantacle chance to be of a nature harmonious. But even so it is best to keep to the Wand and the Cup, and if one must choose, the Cup. + For the Robes, that of a Philosophus, or that of an Adept Within is most suitable; or the robe best fitted for the service of the particular Deity, as a bassara for Bacchus, a white robe for Vesta. So also for Vesta, one might use for instrument the Lamp; or the sickle, for Chronos. + 10. "Concerning the Incense and Libations." --- The incense should follow the nature of the particular Deity, as, mastic for Mercury, dittany for Persephone. Also the libations, as, a decoction of nightshade for Melancholia, or of Indian hemp for Uranus. + 11. "Concerning the harmony of the ceremonies:" --- Let all these things be rightly considered, and at length, in language of the utmost beauty at the command of the Philosophus, accompanied, if he has skill, by music, and interwoven, if the particular Deity be jocund, with dancing. And all being carefully prepared and rehearsed let it be practised daily until it be wholly rhythmical with his aspirations, and as it were, a part of his being. + 12. "Concerning the variety of the ceremonies." --- Now, seeing that every man differeth essentially from every other man, albeit in essence he is identical, let also these ceremonies assert their identity by their diversity. For this reason do we leave much herein to the right Ingenium of the Philosophus. + 13. "Concerning the life of the devotee." --- First let his way of life be such as is pleasing to the particular Deity. Thus to invoke Neptune, let him go a-fishing; but if Hades, let him not approach the water that is hateful to Him. {392} + 14. "Further, concerning the life of the devotee:" --- Let him cut away from his life any act, word or thought, that is hateful to the particular Deity; as, unchastity in the case of Artemis, evasions in the case of Ares. Besides this, he should avoid all harshness or unkindness of any kind in thought, word, or deed, seeing that above the particular Deity is One in whom all is One. Yet also he may deliberately practise cruelties, where the particular Deity manifests His Love in that manner, as in the case of Kali, and of Pan. And therefore, before the beginning of his periods of devotion, let him practise according to the rules of Liber Jugorum. + 15. "Further concerning the life of the devotee:" --- Now, as many are fully occupied with their affairs, let it be known that this method is adaptable to the necessities of all. + And We bear witness that this which followeth is the Crux and Quintessence of the whole Method. + First, if he have no Image, let him take anything soever, and consecrate it as an Image of his God. Likewise with his robes and instruments, his suffumigations and libations; for his Robe hath he not a nightdress; for his instrument a walking stick; for his suffumigation a burning match; for his libation a glass of water? + But let him consecrate each thing that he useth to the service of that particular Deity, and not profane the same to any other use. + 16. "Continuation." --- Next, concerning his time if it be short. Let him labour mentally with his Invocation, concentrating it, and let him perform this Invocation in his heart whenever he hath the leisure. And let him seize eagerly upon every opportunity for this. + 17. "Continuation." --- Third, even if he have leisure and preparation, let him seek ever to bring inward the symbols, so that even in his well ordered shrine the whole ceremony revolve inwardly in his heart, that is to say in the temple of his body, of which the outer temple is but an image. + For in the brain is the shrine, and there is no Image therein; and the breath of man is the incense and the libation. + 18. "Continuation." --- Further concerning occupation. Let the devotee transmute within the alembic of his heart every thought, or word, or act into the spiritual gold of his devotion. {393} + As thus: eating. Let him say, "I eat this food in gratitude to my Deity that hath sent it to me, in order to gain strength for my devotion to Him." + Or: sleeping. Let him say, "I lie down to sleep, giving thanks for this blessing from my Deity, in order that I may be refreshed for new devotion to Him." + Or: reading. Let him say: "I read this book that I may study the nature of my Deity, that further knowledge of Him may inspire me with deeper devotion to Him." + Or: working. Let him say: "I drive my spade into the earth that fresh flowers (fruit, or what not) may spring up to His glory, and that I, purified by toil, may give better devotion to Him." + Or: whatever it may be that he is doing, let him reason it out in his mind<>, drawing it through circumstance and circumstance to that one end and conclusion of the matter. And let him not perform the act until he hath done this. + As it is written: Liber VII, Cap. 5. --- +22. "Every breath, every word, every thought is an act of love + with thee. +23. "The beat of my heart is the pendulum of love. +24. "The songs of me are the soft sighs. +25. "The thoughts of me are very rapture. +26. "And my deeds are the myriads of Thy Children, the stars + and the atoms." + And Remember Well, that if thou wert in truth a lover, all this wouldst thou do of thine own nature without the slightest flaw or failure in the minutest part thereof. + 19. "Concerning the Lections." --- Let the Philosophus read solely in his copies of the holy books of Thelema, during the whole period of his devotion. But if he weary, then let him read books which have no part whatever in love, as for recreation. + But let him copy out each verse of Thelema which bears upon this matter, and ponder them, and comment thereupon. For therein is a wisdom and a magick too deep to utter in any other wise. + 20. "Concerning the Meditations." --- Herein is the most potent method of attaining unto the End, for him who is thoroughly prepared, being purified by the practice of the Transmutation of {394} deed into devotion, and consecrated by the right performance of the holy ceremonies. Yet herein is danger, for that the Mind is fluid as quicksilver, and bordereth upon the Abyss, and is beset by many sirens and devils that seduce and attack it to destroy it. Therefore let the devotee beware, and precise accurately his meditations, even as a man should build a canal from sea to sea. + 21. "Continuation." --- Let then the Philosophus meditate upon all love that hath ever stirred him. There is the love of David and of Jonathan, and the love of Abraham and Isaac, and the love of Lear and Cordelia, and the love of Damon and Pythias, and the love of Sappho and Atthis, and the love of Romeo and Juliet, and the love of Dante and Beatrice, and the love of Paolo and Francesca, and the love of Caesar and Lucrezia Borgia, and the love of Aucassin and Nicolette, and the love of Daphnis and Chloe, and the love of Cornelia and Caius Gracchus, and the love of Bacchus and Ariadne, and the love of Cupid and Psyche, and the love of Endymion and Artemis, and the love of Demeter and Persephone, and the love of Venus and Adonis, and the love of Lakshmi and Vishnu, and the love of Siva and Bhavani and the love of Buddha and Ananda, and the love of Jesus and John, and many more. + Also there is the love of many saints for their particular deity, as of St. Francis of Assisi for Christ, of Sri Sabhapaty Swami for Maheswara, of Abdullah Haji Shirazi for Allah, of St Ignatius Loyola for Mary, and many more. + Now do thou take one such story every night, and enact it in thy mind, grasping each identity with infinite care and zest, and do thou figure thyself as one of the lovers and thy Deity as the other. Thus do thou pass through all adventures of love, not omitting one; and to each do thou conclude: How pale a reflection is this of my love for this Deity! + Yet from each shalt thou draw some knowledge of love, some intimacy with love, that shall aid thee to perfect thy love. Thus learn the humility of love from one, its obedience from another, its intensity from a third, its purity from a fourth, its peace from yet a fifth. + So then thy love being made perfect, it shall be worthy of that perfect love of His. {395} + 22. "Further concerning meditation." --- Moreover let the Philosophus imagine to himself that he hath indeed succeeded in his devotion, and that his Lord hath appeared to him, and that they converse as may be fitting. + 23. "Concerning the Mysterious Triangle." --- Now as <>three cords separately may be broken by a child, while those same cords duly twisted may bind a giant, let the Philosophus learn to entwine these three methods of Magick into a Spell. + To this end let him understand that as they are One, because the end is One, so are they One because the method is One, even the method of turning the mind toward the particular Deity by love in every act. + And lest thy twine slip, here is a little cord that wrappeth tightly round and round all, even the Mantram or Continuous Prayer. + 24. "Concerning the Mantram or Continuous Prayer." --- Let the Philosophus weave the Name of the particular Deity into a sentence short and rhythmical, as, for Artemis: GR:epsilon-pi-epsilon-lambda-theta-omicron-nu, GR:epsilon-pi-epsilon-lambda-theta-omicron-nu, GR:Alpha-rho-tau-epsilon-mu-iota-sigma; or, for Shiva: Namo Shivaya namaha Aum; or, for Mary; Ave Maria; or for Pan, + GR:Chi-alpha-iota-rho-epsilon GR:Sigma-omega-tau-eta-rho GR:Kappa-omicron-sigma-mu-omicron-upsilon, GR:Iota-omega GR:Pi-alpha-nu, GR:Iota-omega GR:Pi-alpha-nu; or, for Allah, Hua Allahu alazi lailaha illa Hua. + Let him repeat this day and night without cessation mechanically in his brain, which is thus made ready for the advent of that Lord, and armed against all other. + 25. "Concerning the Active and the Passive." --- Let the Philosophus change from the active love of his particular deity to a state of passive waiting, even almost a repulsion, the repulsion not of distaste, but of sublime modesty. + As it is written, Liber LXV. ii. 59, "I have called unto thee, and I have journeyed with thee<>, and it availed me not." 60. "I waited patiently, and Thou wast with me from the beginning." + Then let him change back to the Active, until a veritable rhythm is established between the states, as it were the swinging of a pendulum. But let him reflect that a vast intelligence is required for this; for he must stand as it were almost without himself to watch those phases of himself, And to do this is an high Art, and pertaineth not altogether to the grade of Philosophus. Neither is it of itself helpful, but rather the reverse in this especial practice. {396} + 26. "Concerning silence." --- Now there may come a time in the course of this practice when the outward symbols of devotion cease, when the soul is as it were dumb in the presence of its God. Mark that this is not a cessation but a transmutation of the barren seed of prayer into the green shoot of yearning. This yearning is spontaneous, and it shall be left to grow, whether it be sweet or bitter. For often times it is as the torment of hell in which the soul burns and writhes unceasingly. Yet it ends, and at its end continue openly thy Method. + 27. "Concerning Dryness." --- Another state wherein at times the soul may fall is this dark night. And this is indeed purifying, in such depths that the soul cannot fathom it. It is less like pain than like death. But it is the necessary death that comes before the rising of a body glorified. + This state must be endured with fortitude; and no means of alleviating it may be employed. It may be broken up by the breaking up of the whole Method, and a return to the world without. This cowardice not only destroys the value of all that has gone before, but destroys the value of the Oath of Fealty that thou hast sworn, and makes thy Will a mockery to men and gods. + 28. "Concerning the Deceptions of the Devil." --- Note well that in this state of dryness a thousand seductions will lure thee away; also a thousand means of breaking thine oath in spirit without breaking it in letter. Against this thou mayst repeat the words of thine oath aloud again and again until the temptation be overcome. + Also the devil will represent to thee that it were much better for this operation that thou do thus and thus, and seek to affright thee by fears for thy health or thy reason. + Or he may send against thee visions worse than madness. + Against all this there is but one remedy, the Discipline of thine Oath. So then thou shalt go through ceremonies meaningless and hideous to thee, and blaspheme shalt thou against thy Deity and curse Him. And this mattereth little, for it is not thou, so be that thou adhere to the Letter of thine Obligation. For thy Spiritual Sight is closed, and to trust it is to be led into<> the precipice, and hurled therefrom. + 29. "Further of this matter." --- Now also subtler than all these {397} terrors are the Illusions of Success. But one instant's<> self-satisfaction or Expansion of thy Spirit, especially in this state of dryness, and thou art lost. For thou mayst attain the False Union with the Demon himself. Beware also of even the pride which rises from having resisted the temptations. + But so many and so subtle are the wiles of Choronzon that the whole world could not contain their enumeration. + The answer to one and all is the persistence in the literal fulfilment of the routine. Beware, then, last, of that devil who shall whisper in thine ear that the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life, and answer: Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. + Yet shalt thou also beware of disputation with the devil and pride in the cleverness of thine answers to him. Therefore, if thou hast not lost the power of silence, let it be first and last employed against him. + 30. "Concerning the Enflaming of the Heart." --- Now learn that thy methods are dry, one and all. Intellectual exercises, moral exercises, they are not Love. Yet as a man, rubbing two dry sticks together for long, suddenly found a spark, so also from time to time will true Love leap unasked into thy mediation. Yet this shall die and be reborn again and again. It may be that thou hast no tinder near. + In the end shall come suddenly a great flame and devouring, and burn thee utterly. + Now of these sparks, and of these splutterings of flame, and of these beginnings of the Infinite Fire, thou shalt thus be aware. For the sparks thy heart shall leap up, and thy ceremony or meditation or toil shall seem of a sudden to go of its own will; and for the little flames this shall be increased in volume and intensity; and for the beginnings of the Infinite Fire thy ceremony shall be caught up unto ravishing song, and thy meditation shall be ecstasy, and thy toil shall be a delight exceeding all pleasure thou hast ever known. + And of the Great Flame that answereth thee it may not be spoken; for therein is the End of this Magick Art of Devotion. + 31. "Considerations with regard to the use of symbols." It is to {398} be noted that persons of powerful imagination, will, and intelligence have no need of these material symbols. There have been certain saints who are capable of love for an idea as such without it being otherwise than degraded by "idolising" it, to use this word in its true sense. Thus one may be impassioned of beauty, without even the need of so small a concretion of it as "The beauty of Apollo", the "beauty of roses", the "beauty of Attis". Such persons are rare; it may be doubted whether Plato himself attained to any vision of absolute beauty without attaching to it material objects in the first place. A second class is able to contemplate ideals through this veil; a third class need a double veil, and cannot think of the beauty of a rose without a rose before them. For such, is this Method of most use; yet let them know that there is this danger therein, that they may mistake the gross body of the symbol for the idea made concrete thereby. + 32. "Considerations of further danger to those not purged of material thought." --- Let it be remembered that in the nature of the love itself is danger. The lust of the satyr for the nymph is indeed of the same nature as the affinity of quicklime for water on the one hand, and of love of Ab for Ama on the other; so also is the triad Osiris, Isis, Horus like that of a horse, mare, foal, and of red, blue, purple. And this is the foundation of Correspondences. + But it were false to say "Horus is a foal" or "Horus is purple". One may say: "Horus resembles a foal in this respect that he is the offspring of two complementary beings". + 33. "Further of this matter." --- So also many have said truly that since earth is that One,<> and ocean is that One, therefore earth is ocean. Unto Him good is illusion, and evil is illusion; therefore good is evil. By this fallacy of logic are many men destroyed. + Moreover, there are those who take the image for the God; as who should say, my heart is in Tiphereth, an Adeptus is in Tiphereth; I am therefore an adept. + And in this practice the worst danger is this, that the love which is its weapon should fail in one of two ways. + First, if the love lack any quality of love, so long is it not ideal love. For it is written of the Perfected One: "There is no member of my body which is not the member of some god." Therefore {399} let not the Philosophus despise any form of love, but harmonise all. As it is written: Liber LXV, 32. "So therefore Perfection abideth not in the Pinnacles or in the Foundation, but in the harmony of One with all." + Second, if any part of this love exceed, there is disease therein. As, in the love of Othello for Desdemona, love's jealousy overcame love's tenderness, so may it be in this love of a particular Deity. And this is more likely, since in this divine love no element may be omitted. + It is by virtue of this completeness that no human love may in any way attain to more than to foreshadow a little part thereof. + 34. "Concerning Mortifications." --- These are not necessary to this method. On the contrary, they may destroy the concentration, as counter-irritants to, and so alleviations of, the supreme mortification which is the Absence of the Deity invoked. + Yet as in mortal love arises a distaste for food, or a pleasure in things naturally painful, this perversion should be endured and allowed to take its course. Yet not to the interference with natural bodily health, whereby the instrument of the soul might be impaired. + And concerning sacrifices for love's sake, they are natural to this Method, and right. + But concerning voluntary privations and tortures, without use save as against the devotee, they are generally not natural to healthy natures, and wrong. For they are selfish. To scourge one's self serves not one's master; yet to deny one's self bread that one's child may have cake is the act of a true mother. + 35. "Further concerning Mortifications." --- If thy body, on which thou ridest, be so disobedient a beast that by no means will he travel in the desired direction, or if thy mind be baulkish and eloquent as Balaam's fabled Ass, then let the practice be abandoned. Let the shrine be covered in sackcloth, and do thou put on habits of lamentation, and abide alone. And do thou return most austerely to the practice of Liber Jugorum, testing thyself by a standard higher than that hitherto accomplished, and punishing effractions with a heavier goad. Nor do thou return to thy devotion until {400} that body and mind are tamed and trained to all manner of peaceable going. + 36. "Concerning minor adjuvant in the ceremonies." --- I. "Rising on the planes." --- By this method mayst thou assist the imagination at the time of concluding thine Invocation. Act as taught in Liber O, by the light of Liber 777. + 37. "Concerning minor methods adjuvant in the ceremonies." --- II. "Talismanic Magic." --- Having made by thine Ingenium a talisman or pantacle to represent the particular Deity, and consecrated it with infinite love and care, do thou burn it ceremonially before the shrine, as if thereby giving up the shadow for the substance. But it is useless to do this unless thou do really in thine heart value the talisman beyond all else that thou hast. + 38. "Concerning minor methods adjuvant in the ceremonies." --- III. "Rehearsal." --- It may assist if the traditional history of the particular Deity be rehearsed before him; perhaps this is best done in dramatic form. This method is the main one recommended in the "Exercitios Espirituales" of St. Ignatius, whose work may be taken as a model. Let the Philosophus work out the legend of his own particular Deity, and apportioning days to events, live that life in imagination, exercising the five senses in turn, as occasion arises. + 39. "Concerning minor matters adjuvant in the ceremonies." --- IV. "Duresse." --- This method consists in cursing a deity recalcitrant; as, threatening ceremonially "to burn the blood of Osiris, and to grind down his bones to power." This method is altogether contrary to the spirit of love unless the particular Deity be himself savage and relentless; as Jehovah or Kali. In such a case the desire to perform constraint and cursing may be the sign of the assimilation of the spirit of the devotee with that of his God, and so an advance to the Union with HIm. + 40. "Concerning the value of this particular form of Union or Samadhi:" --- All Samadhi is defined as the ecstatic union of a subject and object in consciousness, with the result that a third thing arises which partakes in no way of the nature of the two. + It would seem at first sight that it is of no importance whatever to choose an object of meditation. For example, the Samadhi {401} called Atmadarshana might arise from simple concentration of the thought on an imagined triangle or on the heart. + But as the union of two bodies in chemistry may be endothermic or exothermic, the combination of Oxygen with Nitrogen is gentle, while that of Oxygen with Hydrogen is explosive; and as it is found that the most heat is disengaged as a rule by the union of bodies most opposite in character, and that the compound resulting from such is most stable, so it seems reasonable to suggest that the most important and enduring Samadhi results from the contemplation of the Object most opposite to the devotee. + <>On other planes, it has been suggested that the most opposed types make the best marriages and produce the healthiest children. The greatest pictures and operas are those in which violent extremes are blended, and so generally in every field of activity. Even in mathematics, the greatest parallelogram is formed if the lines composing it are set at right angles. + 41. "Conclusions from the foregoing." --- It may then be suggested to the Philosophus, that although his work will be harder his reward will be greater if he choose a Deity most remote from his own nature. This method is harder and higher than that of Liber E. For a simple object as there suggested is of the same nature as the commonest things of life, while even the meanest Deity is beyond uninitiated human understanding. On the same plane, too, Venus is nearer to man than Aphrodite, Aphrodite than Isis, Isis than Babalon, Babalon than Nuit. + Let him decide therefore according to his discretion on the one hand and his aspiration on the other; and let not one overrun<> his fellow. + 42. "Further concerning the value of this Method." --- Certain objections arise. Firstly, in the nature of all human love is illusion, and a certain blindness. Nor is there any true love below the Veil of the Abyss. For this reason we give this method to the Philosophus, as the reflection of the Exempt Adept, who reflects the Magister Templi and the Magus. Let then the Philosophus attain this Method as a foundation of the higher Methods to be given to him when he attains those higher grades. {402} + Another objection lies in the partiality of this Method. This is equally a defect characteristic of the Grade. + 43. "Concerning a notable danger of Success." --- It may occur that owing to the tremendous power of the Samadhi, overcoming all other memories as it should and does do, that the mind of the devotee may be obsessed, so that he declare his particular Deity to be sole God and Lord. This error has been the foundation of all dogmatic religions, and so the cause of more misery than all other errors combined. + The Philosophus is peculiarly liable to this because from the nature of the Method he cannot remain sceptical; he must for the time believe in his particular Deity. But let him (1) consider that this belief is only a weapon in his hands, and (2) affirm sufficiently that his Deity is but an emanation or reflection or eidolon of a Being beyond him, as was said in Paragraph 2. For if he fail herein, since man cannot remain permanently in Samadhi, the memorised Image in his mind will be degraded, and replaced by the corresponding Demon, to his utter ruin. + Therefore, after Success, let him not delight overmuch in his Deity, but rather busy himself with his other work, not permitting that which is but a step to become a goal. As it is written, Liber CLXXXV: "remembering that Philosophy is the Equilibrium of him that is in the House of Love." + 44. "Concerning the secrecy and the rites of Blood." --- During this practice it is most wise that the Philosophus utter no word concerning his working, as if it were a Forbidden Love that consumeth him. But let him answer fools according to their folly; for since he cannot conceal his love from his fellows, he must speak to them as they may understand. + And as many Deities demand sacrifice, one of men, another of cattle, a third of doves, let these sacrifices be replaced by the true sacrifices in thine own heart. Yet if thou must symbolise them outwardly for the hardness of thine heart, let thine own blood and no other's be spilt before that altar.<> {403} + Nevertheless, forget not that this practice is dangerous, and may cause the manifestation of evil things, hostile and malicious, to thy great hurt. + 45. "Concerning a further sacrifice." --- Of this it shall be understood that nothing is to be spoken; nor need anything be spoken to him that hath wisdom to comprehend the number of the paragraph. And this sacrifice is fatal beyond all, unless it be a "sacrificium" indeed.<> Yet there are those who have dared and achieved thereby. + 46. "Concerning yet a further sacrifice." --- Here it is spoken of actual mutilation. Such acts are abominable; and while they may bring success in this Method, form an absolute bar to all further progress. + And they are in any case more likely to lead to madness than to Samadhi. He indeed who purposeth them is already mad. + 47. "Concerning human affection." --- During this practice thou shalt in no wise withdraw thyself from human relations, only figuring to thyself that thy father or thy brother or thy wife is as it were an image of thy particular Deity. Thus shall they gain, and not lose, by thy working. Only in the case of thy wife this is difficult, since she is more to thee than all others, and in this case thou mayst act with temperance, lest her personality overcome and destroy that of thy Deity. + 48. "Concerning the Holy Guardian Angel." --- Do thou in no wise confuse this invocation with that. + 49. "The Benediction." --- And so may the love that passeth all Understanding keep your hearts and minds through GR:Iota-Alpha-Omega GR:Alpha-Delta-Omicron-Nu-Alpha-Iota GR:Sigma-Alpha-Beta-Alpha-Omega and through BABALON of the City of the Pyramids, and through Astarte, the Starry One green-girdled, in the name ARARITA. Amen. {404} + + + + + LIBER RV + vel + SPIRITUS + + SUB FIGURA CCVI.<> + + 2. Let the Zelator observe the current of his breath. + 3. Let him investigate the following statements, and prepare a careful record of research. + (a) Certain actions induce the flow of the breath through the right nostril (Pingala); and, conversely, the flow of the breath through Pingala induces certain actions. + (b) Certain other actions induce the flow of the breath through the left nostril (Ida), and conversely. + (c) Yet a third class of actions induce the flow of the breath through both nostrils at once (Sushumna), and conversely. + (d) The degree of mental and physical activity is interdependent with the distance from the nostrils at which the breath can be felt by the back of the hand. + 4. "First practice." --- Let him concentrate his mind upon the act of breathing, saying mentally, "The breath flows in", "the breath flows out", and record the results. [This practice may resolve itself into Mahasatipatthana (vide Liber XXV) or induce Samadhi. Whichever occurs should be followed up as the right Ingenium of the Zelator, or the advice of his Practicus, may determine.] + 5. "Second practice." Pranayama. --- This is outlined in Liber E. Further, let the Zelator accomplished in those practices endeavour to master a cycle of 10, 20, 40 or even 16, 32, 64. But let this be done gradually and with due caution. And when he is steady and easy both in Asana and Pranayama, let him still further increase the period. + Thus let him investigate these statements which follow: --- + (a) If Pranayama be properly performed, the body will first of all become covered with sweat. This sweat is different in character from that customarily induced by exertion. If the Practitioner rub this sweat thoroughly into his body, he will greatly strengthen it. {405} + (b) The tendency to perspiration will stop as the practice is continued, and the body become automatically rigid. + Describe this rigidity with minute accuracy. + (c) The state of automatic rigidity will develop into a state characterised by violent spasmodic movements of which the Practitioner is unconscious, but of whose result he is aware. This result is that the body hops gently from place to place. After the first two or three occurrences of this experience, Asana is not lost. The body appears (on another theory) to have lost its weight almost completely and to be moved by an unknown force. + (d) As a development of this stage, the body rises into the air, and remains there for an appreciably long period, from a second to an hour or more. + Let him further investigate any mental results which may occur. + 6. "Third Practice." --- In order both to economise his time and to develop his powers, let the Zelator practise the deep full breathing which his preliminary exercises will have taught him during his walks. Let him repeat a sacred sentence (mantra) or let him count, in such a way that his footfall beats accurately with the rhythm thereof, as is done in dancing. Then let him practise Pranayama, at first without the Kumbhakam<>, and paying no attention to the nostrils otherwise than to keep them clear. Let him begin by an indrawing of the breath for 4 paces, and a breathing out for 4 paces. Let him increase this gradually to 6.6, 8.8, 12.12, 16.16 and 24.24, or more if he be able. Next let him practise in the proper proportion 4.8, 6.12, 8.16, 12.24 and so on. Then if he choose, let him recommence the series, adding a gradually increasing period of Kumbhakam<>. + 7. "Fourth practice." --- Following on this third practice, let him quicken his mantra and his pace until the walk develops into a dance. This may also be practised with the ordinary waltz step, using a mantra in three-time, such as GR:epsilon-pi-epsilon-lambda-theta-omicron-nu, GR:epsilon-pi-epsilon-lambda-theta-omicron-nu, GR:Alpha-rho-tau-epsilon-mu-iota-sigma; or Iao, Iao Sabao; in such cases the practice may be combined with devotion to a particular deity: see Liber CLXXV. For the dance as such it is better to use a mantra of a non-committal character, such as GR:Tau-omicron GR:epsilon-iota-nu-alpha-iota, GR:Tau-omicron GR:Kappa-alpha-lambda-omicron-nu, GR:Tau-omicron 'GR:Alpha-gamma-alpha-delta-omicron-nu,<> or the like. {406} + 8. "Fifth practice." --- Let him practice mental concentration during the dance, and investigate the following experiments: + (a) The dance becomes independent of the will. + (b) Similar phenomena to those described in 5 (a), (b), (c), (d), occur. + 9. A note concerning the depth and fullness of the breathing. In all proper expiration the last possible portion of air should be expelled. In this the muscles of the throat, chest, ribs, and abdomen must be fully employed, and aided by the pressing of the upper arms into the flanks, and of the head into the thorax. + In all proper inspiration the last possible portion of air must be drawn into the lungs. + In all proper holding of the breath, the body must remain absolutely still. + Ten minutes of such practice is ample to induce profuse sweating in any place of a temperature of 17 Degree C or over. + The progress of the Zelator in acquiring a depth and fullness of breath should be tested by the respirometer. + The exercises should be carefully graduated to avoid overstrain and possible damage to the lungs. + This depth and fullness of breath should be kept as much as possible, even in the rapid exercises, with the exception of the sixth practice following. + 10. "Sixth Practice." --- Let the Zelator breathe as shallowly and rapidly as possible. He should assume the attitude of his moment of greatest expiration, and breathe only with the muscles of his throat. He may also practice lengthening the period between each shallow breathing. + (This may be combined, when acquired, with concentration on the Visuddhi cakkra, i.e. let him fix his mind unwaveringly upon a point in the spine opposite the larynx.)<> + <> + 11. "Seventh practice." --- Let the Zelator practise restraint of breathing in the following manner. At any stage of breathing let him suddenly hold the breath, enduring the need to breathe until it passes, returns, and passes again, and so on until consciousness is lost, either rising to Samadhi or similar supernormal condition, or falling into oblivion. {407} + 13. "Ninth practice." -- Let him practice the usual forms of Pranayama, but let Kumbhakam be used after instead of before expiration. Let him gradually increase the period of this Kumbhakam as in the case of the other. + 14. A note concerning the conditions of these experiments. + The conditions favourable are dry, bracing air, a warm climate, absence of wind, absence of noise, insects and all other disturbing influences,<> a retired situation, simple food eaten in great moderation at the conclusion of the practices of morning and afternoon, and on no account before practising. Bodily health is almost essential, and should be most carefully guarded (See Liber CLXXXV, "Task of a Neophyte"). A diligent and tractable disciple, or the Practicus of the Zelator, should aid him in his work. Such a disciple should be noiseless, patient, vigilant, prompt, cheerful, of gentle manner and reverent to his master, intelligent to anticipate his wants, cleanly and gracious, not given to speech, devoted and unselfish. With all this he should be fierce and terrible to strangers and all hostile influences, determined and vigorous, increasingly vigilant, the guardian of the threshold. + It is not desirable that the Zelator should employ any other creature than a man, save in cases of necessity. Yet for some of these purposes a dog will serve, for others a woman. There are also others appointed to serve, but these are not for the Zelator. + 15. "Tenth Practice." --- Let the Zelator experiment if he will with inhalations of oxygen, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, and other gases mixed in small proportion with his air during his practices. These experiments are to be conducted with caution in the presence of a medical man of experience, and they are only useful as facilitating a simulacrum of the results of the proper practices and thereby enheartening the Zelator. + 16. "Eleventh practice." --- Let the Zelator at an time during the practices, especially during the periods of Kumbhakam, throw his will utterly towards his Holy Guardian Angel, directing his eyes inward and upward, and turning back his tongue as if to swallow it. {408} + (This latter operation is facilitated by severing the fraenum linguae, which, if done, should be done by a competent surgeon. We do not advise this or any similar method of cheating difficulties. This is, however, harmless.)<> + In this manner the practice is to be raised from the physical to the spiritual-plane, even as the words Ruh, Ruach, Pneuma, Spiritus, Geist, Ghost, and indeed words of almost all languages, have been raised from their physical meanings of wind, <>breath, or movement, to the spiritual plane. (RV is the old root meaning Yoni and hence Wheel (Fr. roue, Lat. rota, wheel) and the corresponding Semitic root means "to go". Similarly spirit is connected with "spiral". -- Ed.) + 17. Let the Zelator attach no credit to any statements that may have been made throughout the course of this instruction, and reflect that even the counsel which we have given as suitable to the average case may be entirely unsuitable to his own. {409} + + + + LIBER YOD + SUB FIGURA DCCCXXI + + (This book was formerly called Vesta. It is referred to the path of Virgo and the letter Yod.) + + I. + + 1. This is the book of drawing all to a point. + 2. Herein are described three methods whereby the consciousness of the Many may be melted to that of the One. + + II. + + FIRST METHOD + + 0. Let a magical circle be constructed, and within it an upright Tau drawn upon the ground. Let this Tau be devised into 10 squares (See Liber CMLXIII., Illustration 1.) + 1. Let the magician be armed with the Sword of Art.<> + 2. Let him wear the black robe of a Neophyte. + 3. Let a single flame of camphor burn at the top of the Tau, and let there be no other light or ornament.<> + 4. Let him "open" the Temple as in DCLXXI or in any other convenient manner. + 5. Standing at the appropriate quarters, at the edge of the circle, let him banish the 5 elements by the appropriate rituals. + 6. Standing at the edge of the circle, let him banish the 7 planets by the appropriate rituals. Let him face the actual position of each planet in the heavens at the time of his working. + 7. Let him further banish the twelve signs of the Zodiac by the appropriate rituals, facing each sign in turn. + 8. Let him at each of these 24 banishings make three circumambulations widdershins, with the signs of Horus and Harpocrates in the East as he passes it. {410} + 9. Let him advance to the square of Malkuth in the Tau, and perform a ritual of banishing Malkuth. But here let him not leave the square to circumambulate the circle, but use the formula and God-form of Harpocrates. + 10. Let him advance in turn to the squares Jesod, Hod, Netzach, Tiphereth, Geburah, Chesed and banish each by appropriate rituals. + 11. And let him know that such rituals include the pronunciation of the appropriate names of God backwards, and also a curse against the Sephira in respect of all that which it is, for that which distinguishes and separates it from Kether. + 12. Advancing to the squares of Binah and Chokmah in turn, let him banish these also. And for that by now an awe and trembling shall have taken hold upon him, let him banish these by a supreme ritual of inestimable puissance; and let him beware exceedingly lest his will falter or his courage fail. + 13. Finally, let him, advancing to the square of Kether, banish that also by what means he may. At the end whereof let him set his foot upon the light, extinguishing it<>; and, as he falleth, let him fall within the circle. + + SECOND METHOD + + 1. Let the Hermit be seated in his Asana, robed, and let him meditate in turn upon every several part of his body until that part is so unreal to him that he no longer includes it in his comprehension of himself. For example if it be his right foot, let him touch that foot, and be alarmed, thinking, "A foot! ... foot! What is this foot? Surely I am not alone in the Hermitage!" + And this practice should be carried out not only at the time of meditation, but during the day's work. + 2. This meditation is to be assisted by reasoning; as "This foot is not I. If I should lose my foot, I should still be I. This foot is a mass of changing and decaying flesh, bone, skin, blood, {411} lymph, etc. while I am the Unchanging and Immortal Spirit, uniform, not made, unbegotten, formless, self-luminous," etc. + 3. This practice being perfect for each part of the body, let him combine his workings until the whole body is thus understood as the non-Ego and as illusion. + 4. Let then the Hermit, seated in his Asana, meditate upon the Muladhara Cakkra and its correspondence as a power of the mind, and destroy it in the same manner as aforesaid. Also by reasoning: "This emotion (memory, imagination, intellect, will, as it may be) is not I. This emotion is transient: I am immovable. This emotion is passion. I am peace", and so on. + Let the other Cakkras in their turn be thus destroyed, each one with its mental or moral attribute. + 5. In this let him be aided by his own psychological analysis, so that no part of his conscious being be thus left undestroyed. And on his thoroughness in this matter may turn his success. + 6. Lastly, having drawn all his being into the highest Sahasrara Cakkra, let him remain eternally fixed in meditation thereupon. + 7. AUM. + + THIRD METHOD. + + 1. Let the Hermit stimulate each of the senses in turn, concentrating upon each until it ceases to stimulate. + (The senses of sight and touch are extremely difficult to conquer. In the end the Hermit must be utterly unable by any effort to see or feel the object of those senses, O.M.) + 2. This being perfected, let him combine them two at a time. + For example, let him chew ginger (taste and touch), and watch a waterfall (sight and hearing) and watch incense (sight and smell) and crush sugar in his teeth (taste and hearing) and so on. + 3. These twenty-five practices being accomplished, let him combine them three at a time, then four at a time. + 4. Lastly, let him combine all the senses in a single object. + And herein may a sixth sense be included. He is then to withdraw himself entirely from all the stimulations, "perinde ac cadaver," in spite of his own efforts to attach himself to them. {412} + 5. By this method it is said that the demons of the Ruach, that is, thoughts and memories, are inhibited, and We deny it not. But if so be that they arise, let him build a wall between himself and them according to the method. + 6. Thus having stilled the voices of the Six, may he obtain in sense the subtlety of the Seventh. + 7. GR:Alpha-Upsilon-Mu-Gamma-Nu. + (We add the following, contributed by a friend at that time without the A.'. A.'. and its dependent orders. He worked out the method himself, and we think it may prove useful to many. O.M.) + (1) The beginner must first practise breathing regularly through the nose, at the same time trying hard to believe that the breath goes to the Ajna and not to the lungs. + The Pranayama exercises described in the Equinox Vol. I, No. 4, p. 101 must next be practised, always with the idea that Ajna is breathing. + Try to realise that "power," not air, is being drawn into the Ajna, is being concentrated there during Kumbhakam, and is vivifying the Ajna during expiration. Try rather to increase the force of concentration in Ajna than to increase so excessively the length of Kumbhakam as this is dangerous if rashly undertaken. + (2) Walk slowly in a quiet place; realise that the legs are moving, and study their movements. Understand thoroughly that these movements are due to nerve messages sent down from the brain, and that the controlling power lies in the Ajna. The legs are automatic, like those of a wooden monkey: the power in Ajna is that which does the work, is that which walks. This is not hard to realise, and should be grasped firmly, ignoring all other walking sensations. + Apply this method to every other muscular movement. + (3) Lie flat on the back with the feet under a heavy piece of furniture. Keeping the spine straight and the arms in a line with the body, rise slowly to a sitting posture, by means of the force residing in the Ajna (i.e. try to prevent the mind dwelling one any other exertion or sensation.) + Then let the body slowly down to its original position. Repeat {413} this two or three times, every night and morning, and slowly increase the number of repetitions. + (4) Try to transfer all bodily sensations to the Ajna, e.g., "I am cold" should mean "I feel cold", or better still, "I am aware of a sensation of cold" --- transfer this to the Ajna, "the Ajna is aware", etc. + (5) Pain if very slight may easily be transferred to the Ajna after a little practice. The best method for beginner is to imagine he has a pain in the body and then imagine that it passes directly into the Ajna. It does not pass through the intervening structures, but goes direct. After continual practice even severe pain may be transferred to the Ajna. + (6) Fix the mind on the base of the spine and then gradually move the thoughts upwards to the Ajna. + (In this meditation Ajna is the Holy of Holies, but it is dark and empty.) + Finally, strive hard to drive anger and other obsessing thoughts into the Ajna. Try to develop a tendency to think hard of Ajna when these thoughts attack the mind, and let Ajna conquer them. + Beware of thinking of My" Ajna". In these meditations and practices, Ajna does not belong to you; Ajna is the master and worker, you are the wooden monkey. {414} + + + + + LIBER HB:Taw-Yod-Shin-Aleph-Resh-Bet + vel THISHARB + + SUB FIGURA CMXIII.<> + + 000. May be. + (00. It has not been possible to construct this book on a basis of pure Scepticism. This matters less, as the practice leads to scepticism, and it may be through it.) + 0. This book is not intended to lead to the supreme attainment. On the contrary, its results define the separate being of the Exempt Adept from the rest of the Universe, and discover his relation to the Universe.<> + 1. It is of such importance to the Exempt Adept that We cannot overrate it. Let him in no wise adventure the plunge into the Abyss until he has accomplished this to his most perfect satisfaction.<> + 2. For in the Abyss no effort is anywise possible. The Abyss is passed by virtue of the mass of the Adept and his Karma. Two forces impel him: (1) the attraction of Binah, (2) the impulse of his Karma; and the ease and even the safety of his passage depend on the strength and direction of the latter.<> + 3. Should one rashly dare the passage, and take the irrevocable Oath of the Abyss, he might be lost therein through Aeons of incalculable agony; he might even be thrown back upon Chesed, with the terrible Karma of failure added to his original imperfection. + 4. It is even said that in certain circumstances it is possible to {415} fall altogether from the Tree of Life and to attain the Towers of the Black Brothers. But We hold that this is not possible for any adept who has truly attained his grade, or even for any man who has really sought to help humanity even for a single second<>, and that although his aspiration have been impure through vanity or any similar imperfections. + 5. Let then the Adept who finds the result of these meditations unsatisfactory refuse the Oath of the Abyss, and live so that his Karma gains strength and direction suitable to the task at some future period.<> + 6. Memory is essential to the individual consciousness; otherwise the mind were but a blank sheet on which shadows are cast. But we see that not only does the mind retain impressions, but that it is so constituted that its tendency is to retain some more excellently than others. Thus the great classical scholar, Sir Richard Jebb, was unable to learn even the schoolboy mathematics required for the preliminary examination at Cambridge University, and a special Grace<> of the authorities was required in order to admit him. + 7. The first method to be described has been detailed in Bhikkhu Ananda Metteya's "Training of the Mind" (Equinox I, 5, pp. 28-59, and especially pp. 48-57). We have little to alter or to add. Its most important result as regards the Oath of the Abyss, is the freedom from all desire or clinging to anything which it gives. Its second result is to aid the adept in the second method, by supplying him with further data for his investigation.<> + 8. The stimulation of memory useful in both practices is also achieved by simple meditation (Liber E), in a certain stage of which old memories arise unbidden. The adept may then practise this, stopping at this stage, and encouraging instead of suppressing the flashes of memory. + 9. Zoroaster has said, "Explore the River of the Soul, whence {416} or in what order you have come; so that although you have become a servant to the body, you may again rise to that Order (the A.'. A.'.) from which you descended, joining Works (Kamma) to the Sacred Reason (the Tao)". + 10. The Result of the Second Method is to show the Adept to what end his powers are destined. When he has passed the Abyss and becomes Nemo, the return of the current causes him "to appear in the Heaven of Jupiter as a morning star or as an evening star".<> In other words he should discover what may be the nature of his work. Thus Mohammed was a Brother reflected into Netzach, Buddha a Brother reflected into Hod, or, as some say, Daath. The present manifestation of Frater P. to the outer is in Tiphereth, to the inner in the path of Leo. + II. "First Method." Let the Exempt Adept first train himself to think backwards by external means, as set forth here following. --- + (a) Let him learn to write backwards, with either hand. + (b) Let him learn to walk backwards. + (c) Let him constantly watch, if convenient, cinematograph + films, and listen to phonograph records, reversed, + and let him so accustom himself to these that they + appear natural and appreciable as a whole. + (d) Let him practise speaking backwards: thus for "I am + He" let him say, "Eh ma I". + (e) Let him learn to read backwards. In this it is difficult to + avoid cheating one's self, as an expert reader sees a + a sentence at a glance. Let his disciple read aloud to + him backwards, slowly at first, then more quickly. + (f) Of his own ingenium, let him devise other methods. + 12. In this his brain will at first be overwhelmed by a sense of utter confusion; secondly, it will endeavour to evade the difficulty by a trick. The brain will pretend to be working backwards when {417} it is merely normal. It is difficult to describe the nature of the trick, but it will be quite obvious to anyone who has done practices (a) and (b) for a day or two. They become quite easy, and he will think that he is making progress, an illusion which close analysis will dispel. + 13. Having begun to train his brain in this manner and obtained some little success, let the Exempt Adept, seated in his Asana, think first of his present attitude, next of the act of being seated, next of his entering the room, next of his robing, etc. exactly as it happened. And let him most strenuously endeavour to think each act as happening backwards. It is not enough to think, "I am seated here, and before that I was standing, and before that I entered the room", etc. That series is the trick detected in the preliminary practices. The series must not run "ghi-def-abc" but "ihgfedcba": not "horse a is this" but "esroh a si siht". To obtain this thoroughly well, practice (c) is very useful. The brain will be found to struggle constantly to right itself, soon accustoming itself to accept "esroh" as merely another glyph for "horse". This tendency must be constantly combated. + 14. In the early stages of this practice, the endeavour should be to meticulous minuteness of detail in remembering actions; for the brain's habit of thinking forward will at first be insuperable. Thinking of large and complex actions, then, will give a series which we may symbolically write "opqrstu-hijklmn-abcdefg". If these be split into detail, we shall have "stu-pqr-o-mn-kl-hij-fg-cde-ab" which is much nearer to the ideal "utsrqponmlkjihgfedcba". + 15. Capacities differ widely, but the Exempt Adept need have no reason to be discouraged if after a month's continuous labour he find that now and again for a few seconds his brain really works backwards. + 16. The Exempt Adept should concentrate his efforts upon obtaining a perfect picture of five minutes backwards rather than upon extending the time covered by his meditation. For this preliminary training of the brain is the Pons Asinorum of the whole process. + 17. This five minutes' exercise being satisfactory, the Exempt Adept may extend the same at his discretion to cover an hour, a {418} day, a week, and so on. Difficulties vanish before him as he advances; the extension from a day to the course of his whole life will not prove so difficult as the perfecting of the five minutes. + 18. This practice should be repeated at least four times daily, and progress is shown firstly by the ever easier running of the brain, secondly by the added memories which arise. + 19. It is useful to reflect during this practice, which in time becomes almost mechanical, upon the way in which effects spring from causes. This aids the mind to link its memories, and prepares the adept for the preliminary practice of the second method. + 20. Having allowed the mind to return for some hundred times to the hour of birth, it should be encouraged to endeavour to penetrate beyond that period.<> If it be properly trained to run backwards, there will be little difficulty in doing this, although it is one of the distinct steps in the practice. + 21. It may be then that the memory will persuade the adept of some previous existence. Where this is possible, let it be checked by an appeal to facts, as follows: --- + 22. It often occurs to men that on visiting a place to which they have never been, it appears familiar. This may arise from a confusion of thought or a slipping of the memory, but it is conceivably a fact. + If, then, the adept "remember" that he was in a previous life in some city, say Cracow, which he has in this life never visited, let him describe from memory the appearance of Cracow, and of its inhabitants, setting down their names. Let him further enter into details of the city and its customs. And having done this with great minuteness, let him confirm the same by consultation with historians and geographers, or by a personal visit, remembering (both to the credit of his memory and its discredit) that historians, geographers, and himself are alike fallible. But let him not trust his memory, to assert its conclusions as fact, and act thereupon, without most adequate confirmation. + 23. This process of checking his memory should be practised {419} with the earlier memories of childhood and youth by reference to the memories and records of others, always reflecting upon the fallibility even of such safeguards. + 24. All this being perfected, so that the memory reaches back into aeons incalculably distant, let the Exempt Adept meditate upon the fruitlessness of all those years, and upon the fruit thereof, severing that which is transitory and worthless from that which is eternal. And it may be that he being but an Exempt Adept may hold all to be savourless and full of sorrow. + 25. This being so, without reluctance will he swear the Oath of the Abyss. + 26. "Second Method." --- Let the Exempt Adept, fortified by the practice of the first method, enter the preliminary practice of the second method. + 27. "Second Method." --- Preliminary Practices. Let him, seated in his Asana, consider any event, and trace it to its immediate causes. And let this be done very fully and minutely. Here, for example, is a body erect and motionless. Let the adept consider the many forces which maintain it; firstly, the attraction of the earth, of the sun, of the planets, of the farthest stars, nay of every mote of dust in the room, one of which (could it be annihilated) would cause that body to move, although so imperceptibly. Also the resistance of the floor, the pressure of the air, and all other external conditions. Secondly, the internal forces which sustain it, the vast and complex machinery of the skeleton, the muscles, the blood, the lymph, the marrow, all that makes up a man. Thirdly the moral and intellectual forces involved, the mind, the will, the consciousness. Let him continue this with unremitting ardour, searching Nature, leaving nothing out. + 28. Next, let him take one of the immediate causes of his position, and trace out its equilibrium. For example, the will. What determines the will to aid in holding the body erect and motionless? + 29. This being discovered, let him choose one of the forces which determined his will, and trace out that in similar fashion; and let this process be continued for many days until the interdependence of all things is a truth assimilated in his inmost being. {420} + 30. This being accomplished, let him trace his own history with special reference to the causes of each event. And in this practice he may neglect to some extent the universal forces which at all times act on all, as for example, the attraction of masses, and let him concentrate his attention upon the principal and determining or effective causes. + For instance, he is seated, perhaps, in a country place in Spain. Why? Because Spain is warm and suitable for meditation, and because cities are noisy and crowded. Why is Spain warm? and why does he wish to meditate? Why choose warm Spain rather than warm India? To the last question: Because Spain is nearer to his home. Then why is his home near Spain? Because his parents were Germans. And why did they go to Germany? And so during the whole meditation. + 31. On another day, let him begin with a question of another kind, and every day devise new questions, not concerning his present situation, but also abstract questions. Thus let him connect the prevalence of water upon the surface of the globe with its necessity to such life as we know, with the specific gravity and other physical properties of water, and let him perceive ultimately through all this the necessity and concord of things, not concord as the schoolmen of old believed, making all things for man's benefit or convenience, but the essential mechanical concord whose final law is "inertia." And in these meditations let him avoid as if it were the plague any speculations sentimental or fantastic. + 32. "Second Method." The Practice Proper. --- Having then perfected in his mind these conceptions, let him apply them to his own career, forging the links of memory into the chain of necessity. + And let this be his final question: To what purpose am I fitted? Of what service can my being prove to the Brothers of the A.'. A.'. if I cross the Abyss, and am admitted to the City of the Pyramids? + 33. Now that he may clearly understand the nature of this question, and the method of solution, let him study the reasoning of the anatomist who reconstructs an animal from a single bone. + To take a simple example. --- + 34. Suppose, having lived all my life among savages, a ship is {421} cast upon the shore and wrecked. Undamaged among the cargo is a "Victoria". What is its use? The wheels speak of roads, their slimness of smooth roads, the brake of hilly roads. The shafts show that it was meant to be drawn by an animal, their height and length suggest an animal of the size of a horse. That the carriage is open suggests a climate tolerable at any time of the year.<> The height of the box suggest crowded streets, or the spirited character of the animal employed to draw it. The cushions indicate its use to convey men rather than merchandise; its hood that rain sometimes falls, or that the sun is at times powerful. The springs would imply considerable skill in metals; the varnish much attainment in that craft. + 35. Similarly, let the adept consider of his own case. Now that he is on the point of plunging into the Abyss a giant Why? confronts him with uplifted club. + 36. There is no minutest atom of his composition which can be withdrawn without making him some other than he is; no useless moment in his past. Then what is his future? The "Victoria" is not a wagon; it is not intended for carting hay. It is not a sulky; it is useless in trotting races. + 37. So the adept has military genius, or much knowledge of Greek; how do +these attainments help his purpose, or the purpose of the Brothers? He was + ut to death by Calvin, or stoned by Hezekiah; as a snake he was killed by a villager, or as an elephant slain in battle under Hamilcar. How do such memories help him? Until he have thoroughly mastered the reason for every incident in his past, and found a purpose for every item of his present equipment,<> he cannot truly answer even those Three Question what were first put to him, even the Three Questions of the Ritual of the Pyramid; he is not ready to swear the Oath of the Abyss. + 38. But being thus enlightened, let him swear the Oath of the Abyss; yea, let him swear the Oath of the Abyss. {422} + + + + LIBER B + vel + MAGI + SUB FIGURA I. + + 00. One is the Magus: twain His forces; four His weapons. These are the seven Spirits of Unrighteousness; seven vultures of evil. Thus is the art and craft of the Magus but glamour. How shall He destroy Himself? + 0. Yet the Magus hath power upon the Mother both directly and through love. And the Magus is Love, and bindeth together That and This in His Conjuration. + 1. In the beginning doth the Magus speak Truth, and send forth Illusion and Falsehood to enslave the soul. Yet therein is the Mystery of Redemption. + 2. By his Wisdom made He the Worlds: the World<> that is God is none other than He. + 3. Now then shall He end His Speech with Silence? For He is Speech. + 4. He is the First and the Last. How shall He cease to number Himself? + 5. By a Magus is this writing made known through the mind of a Magister. The one uttereth clearly, and the other Understandeth; yet the Word is falsehood, and the Understanding darkness. And this saying is of All Truth. + 6. Nevertheless it is written; for there be times of darkness, and this as a lamp therein. + 7. With the Wand createth He. + 8. With the Cup preserveth He. + 9. With the Dagger destroyeth He. + 10. With the Coin redeemeth He. + 11. His weapons fulfil the wheel; and on What Axle that turneth is not known unto Him. + 12. From all these actions must He cease before the curse of His Grade is uplifted from Him. Before He attain to that which existeth without Form. + 13. And if at this time He be manifested upon earth as a Man, and therefore is this present writing, let this be His method, that {423} the curse of His grade, and the burden of His attainment, be uplifted from Him. + 14. Let Him beware of abstinence from action. For the curse of His grade is that he must speak Truth, that the Falsehood thereof may enslave the souls of men. Let Him then utter that without Fear, that the Law may be fulfilled. And according to His Original Nature will that law be shapen, so that one may declare gentleness and quietness, being an Hindu; and another fierceness and servility, being a Jew; and yet another ardour and manliness, being an Arab. Yet this matter toucheth the mystery of Incarnation, and is not here to be declared. + 15. Now the grade of a Magister teacheth the Mystery of Sorrow, and the grade of a Magus the Mystery of Change, and the grade of Ipsissimus the Mystery of Selflessness, which is called also the Mystery of Pan. + 16. Let the Magus then contemplate each in turn, raising it to the ultimate power of Infinity. Wherein Sorrow is Joy, and Change is Stability, and Selflessness is Self. For the interplay of the parts hath no action upon the whole. And this contemplation shall be performed not by simple meditation --- how much less then by reason! --- but by the method which shall have been given unto Him in His initiation to the Grade. + 17. Following which method, it shall be easy for Him to combine that trinity from its elements, and further to combine Sat-Chit-Ananda, and Light, Love, Life, three by three into nine that are one, in which meditation success shall be That which was first adumbrated to Him in the grade of Practicus (which reflecteth Mercury into the lowest world) in "Liber XXVII," "Here is Nothing under its three forms." + 18. And this is the Opening of the Grade of Ipsissimus, and by the Buddhists it is called the trance Nerodha-Samapatti. + 19. And woe, woe, woe, yea woe, and again woe, woe, woe, unto seven times be His that preacheth not His law to men! + 20. And woe also be unto Him that refuseth the curse of the grade of a Magus, and the burden of the Attainment thereof. + 21. And in the word CHAOS let the book be sealed, yea, let the Book be sealed. {424} + + + + + LIBER RESH + vel + HELIOS + SUB FIGURA CC. + + 0. These are the adorations to be performed by aspirants<> to the A.'. A.'. + 1. Let him greet the Sun at dawn, facing East, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice: + Hail unto Thee who art Ra in Thy rising, even unto Thee who art Ra in Thy strength, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Uprising of the Sun. + Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. + Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Night! + 2. Also at Noon, let him greet the Sun, facing South, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice: + Hail unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy triumphing, even unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy beauty, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Mid-course of the Sun. + Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. + Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Morning! + 3. Also, at Sunset, let him greet the Sun, facing West, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice: + Hail unto Thee who art Tum in Thy setting, even unto Thee who art Tum in Thy joy, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Down-going of the Sun. + Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. + Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Day! + 4. Lastly, at Midnight, let him greet the Sun, facing North, giving the sign of his grade, and let him say in a loud voice: + Hail unto thee who art Khephra in Thy hiding, even unto Thee who art Khephra in Thy silence, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Midnight Hour of the Sun. {425} + Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm. + Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Evening. + 5. And after each of these invocations thou shalt give the sign of silence, and afterward thou shalt perform the adoration that is taught thee by thy Superior. And then do thou compose Thyself to holy meditation. + 6. Also it is better if in these adorations thou assume the God-form of Whom thou adorest, as if thou didst unite with Him in the adoration of That which is beyond Him. + 7. Thus shalt thou ever be mindful of the Great Work which thou hast undertaken to perform, and thus shalt thou be strengthened to pursue it unto the attainment of the Stone of the Wise, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness. {426} + + + + LIBER III + vel + JUGORUM. + + 0.<> + + 0. Behold the Yoke upon the neck of the Oxen! Is it not thereby that the Field shall be ploughed? The Yoke is heavy, but joineth together them that are separate --- Glory to Nuit and to Hadit, and to Him that hath given us the Symbol of the Rosy Cross! + Glory unto the Lord of the Word Abrahadabra, and Glory unto Him that hath given us the Symbol of the Ankh, and of the Cross within the Circle! + 1. Three are the Beasts wherewith thou must plough the Field; the Unicorn, the Horse, and the Ox. And these shalt thou yoke in a triple yoke that is governed by One Whip. + 2. Now these Beasts run wildly upon the earths<> and are not easily obedient to the Man. + 3. Nothing shall be said here of Cerberus, the great Beast of Hell that is every one of these and all of these, even as Athanasius hath foreshadowed. For this matter<<(i.e. the matter of Cereberus).>> is not of Tiphereth without, but Tiphereth within. + + I. + + 0. The Unicorn is speech. Man, rule thy Speech! How else shalt thou master the Son, and answer the Magician at the right hand gateway of the Crown? + 1. Here are practices. Each may last for a week or more. + (a) Avoid using some common word, such as "and" or "the" or "but"; use a paraphrase. + (b) Avoid using some letter of the alphabet, such as "t" or "s" or "m"; use a paraphrase. + (c) Avoid using the pronouns and adjectives of the first person; use a paraphrase. + Of thine own ingenium devise others. {427} + 2. On each occasion that thou art betrayed into saying that thou art sworn to avoid, cut thyself sharply upon the wrist or forearm with a razor; even as thou shouldst beat a disobedient dog. Feareth not the Unicorn the claws and teeth of the Lion? + 3. Thine arm then serveth thee both for a warning and for a record. Thou shalt write down thy daily progress in these practices, until thou art perfectly vigilant at all times over the least word that slippeth from thy tongue. + Thus bind thyself, and thou shalt be for ever free. + + II. + + 0. The Horse is Action. Man, rule thine Action. How else shalt thou master the Father, and answer the Fool at the Left Hand Gateway of the Crown? + 1. Here are practices. Each may last for a week, or more. + (a) Avoiding lifting the left arm above the waist. + (b) Avoid crossing the legs. + Of thine own ingenium devise others. + 2. On each occasion that thou art betrayed into doing that thou art sworn to avoid, cut thyself sharply upon the wrist or forearm with a razor; even as thou shouldst beat a disobedient dog. Feareth not the Horse the teeth of the Camel? + 3. Thine arm then serveth thee both for a warning and for a record. Thou shalt write down thy daily progress in these practices, until thou art perfectly vigilant at all times over the least action that slippeth from the least of thy fingers. + Thus bind thyself, and thou shalt be for ever free. + + III. + + 0. The Ox is Thought. Man, rule thy Thought! How else shalt thou master the Holy Spirit, and answer the High Priestess in the Middle Gateway of the Crown? + 1. Here are practices. Each may last for a week or more. + (a) Avoid thinking of a definite subject and all things connected with it, and let that subject be one which commonly occupies much of thy thought, being frequently stimulated by sense-perceptions or the conversation of others. {428} + (b) By some device, such as the changing of thy ring from one finger to another, create in thyself two personalities, the thoughts of one being within entirely different limits from that of the other, the common ground being the necessities of life.<> + Of thine own Ingenium devise others. + 2. On each occasion that thou art betrayed into thinking that thou art sworn to avoid, cut thyself sharply upon the wrist or forearm with a razor; even as thou shouldst beat a disobedient dog. Feareth not the Ox the Goad of the Ploughman? + 3. Thine arm then serveth thee both for a warning and for a record. Thou shalt write down thy daily progress in these practices, until thou art perfectly vigilant at all times over the least thought that ariseth in thy brain. + Thus bind thyself, and thou shalt be for ever free. {429} + + + + LIBER CHETH + vel + VALLUM ABIEGNI + + SUB FIGURA CLVI. + + 1. This is the secret of the Holy Graal, that is the sacred vessel of our Lady, the Scarlet Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, the Bride of Chaos, that rideth upon our Lord the Beast. + 2. Thou shalt drain out thy blood that is thy life into the golden cup of her fornication. + 3. Thou shalt mingle thy life with the universal life. Thou shalt keep not back one drop. + 4. Then shall thy brain be dumb, and thy heart beat no more, and all thy life shall go from thee; and thou shalt be cast out upon the midden, and the birds of the air shall feast upon thy flesh, and thy bones shall whiten in the sun. + 5. Then shall the winds gather themselves together and bear thee up as it were a little heap of dust in a sheet that hath four corners, and they shall give it unto the guardian<> of the Abyss. + 6. And because there is no life therein, the guardian<> of the Abyss shall bid the angels of the winds pass by. And the angels thereof shall be no more.<> + 7. Now therefore that thou mayest achieve this ritual of the Holy Graal, do thou divest thyself of all thy goods. + 8. Thou hast wealth; give it unto them that have need thereof, yet no desire toward it. + 9. Thou hast health; slay thyself in the fervour of thine abandonment unto Our Lady. Let thy flesh hang loose upon thy bones, and thine eyes glare with thy quenchless lust unto the Infinite, with thy passion for the Unknown, for Her that is beyond Knowledge the accursed one. + 10. Thou hast love; tear thy mother from thine heart and spit in the face of thy father. Let thy foot trample the belly of thy wife, and let the babe at her breast be the prey of dogs and vultures. + 11. For if thou dost not this with thy will, then shall We do {430} this despite thy will. So that thou attain to the Sacrament of the Graal in the Chapel of Abominations. + 12. And behold! if by stealth thou keep unto thyself one thought of thine, then shalt thou be cast out into the abyss for ever; and thou shalt be the lonely one, the eater of dung, the afflicted in the Day of Be-With-Us. + 13. Yea! verily this is the Truth, this is the Truth, this is the Truth. Unto thee shall be granted joy and health and wealth and wisdom when thou art no longer thou. + 14. Then shall every gain be a new sacrament, and it shall not defile thee; thou shalt revel with the wantons<> in the market place, and the virgins shall fling roses upon thee, and the merchants bend their knees and bring thee gold and spices. Also young boys shall pour wonderful wines for thee, and the singers and the dancers shall sing and dance for thee. + 15. Yet shalt thou not be therein, for thou shalt be forgotten, dust lost in dust. + 16. Nor shall the aeon itself avail thee in this; for from the dust shall a white ash be prepared by Hermes the Invisible. + 17. And this is the wrath of God, that these things should be thus. + 18. And this is the grace of God, that these things should be thus. + 19. Wherefore I charge you that ye come unto me in the Beginning; for if ye take but one step in this Path, ye must arrive inevitably at the end thereof. + 20. This Path is beyond Life and Death; it is also beyond Love, but that ye know not, for ye know not Love. + 21. And the end thereof is known not even unto Our Lady, nor to the Beast whereon She rideth, nor unto the Virgin her daughter, nor unto Chaos her lawful Lord; but unto the Crowned Child is it known? It is not known if it be known. + 22. Therefore unto Hadit and unto Nuit be the glory in the End and the Beginning; yea, in the End and the Beginning. {431} + + + + LIBER A'ASH + vel + CAPRICORNI PNEUMATICI + + SUB FIGURA CCCLXX. + + 0. Gnarled Oak of God! In thy branches is the lightning nested! Above thee hangs the Eyeless Hawk. + 1. Thou art blasted and black! Supremely solitary in that heath of scrub. + 2. Up! The Ruddy clouds hang over thee! It is the storm. + 3. There is a flaming gash in the sky. + 4. Up. + 5. Thou art tossed about in the grip of the storm for an aeon and an aeon and an aeon. But thou givest not thy sap; thou fallest not. + 6. Only in the end shalt thou give up thy sap when the great God F.I.A.T. is enthroned on the day of Be-With-Us. + 7. For two things are done and a third thing is begun. Isis and Osiris are given over to incest and adultery. Horus leaps up thrice armed from the womb of his mother. Harpocrates his twin is hidden within him. SET is his holy covenant, that he shall display in the great day of M.A.A.T., that is being interpreted the Master of the Temple of A.'. A.'., whose name is Truth. + 8. Now in this is the magical power known. + 9. It is like the oak that hardens itself and bears up against the storm. It is weather-beaten and scarred and confident like a sea-captain. + 10. Also it straineth like a hound in the leash. + 11. It hath pride and great subtlety. Yea, and glee also! + 12. Let the Magus act thus in his conjuration. + 13. Let him sit and conjure; let him draw himself together in that forcefulness; let him rise next swollen and straining; let him dash back the hood from his head and fix his basilisk eye upon the sigil of the demon. Then let him sway the force of him to and fro like a satyr in silence, until the Word burst from his throat. + 14. Then let him not fall exhausted, although he<> might have been ten thousandfold the human; but that which floodeth him is {432} the infinite mercy of the Genitor-Genitrix of the Universe, whereof he is the Vessel. + 15. Nor do thou deceive thyself. It is easy to tell the live force from the dead matter. It is no easier to tell the live snake from the dead snake. + 16. Also concerning vows. Be obstinate, and be not obstinate. Understand that the yielding of the Yoni is one with the lengthening of the Lingam. Thou art both these; and thy vow is but the rustling of the wind on Mount Meru. + 17. How<> shalt thou adore me who am the Eye and the Tooth, the Goat of the Spirit, the Lord of Creation. I am the Eye in the Triangle, the Silver Star that ye adore. + 18. I am Baphomet, that is the Eightfold Word that shall be equilibrated with the Three. + 19. There is no act or passion that shall not be an hymn in mine honour. + 20. All holy things and all symbolic things shall be my sacraments. + 21. These animals are sacred unto me; the goat, and the duck, and the ass, and the gazelle, the man, the woman and the child. + 22. All corpses are sacred unto me; they shall not be touched save in mine eucharist. All lonely places are sacred unto me; where one man gathereth himself together in my name, there will I leap forth in the midst of him. + 23. I am the hideous god, and who mastereth me is uglier than I. + 24. Yet I give more than Bacchus and Apollo; my gifts exceed the olive and the horse. + 25. Who worshippeth me must worship me with many rites. + 26. I am concealed with all concealments; when the Most Holy Ancient One is stripped and driven through the market place, I am still secret and apart. + 27. Whom I love I chastise with many rods. + 28. All things are sacred to me; no thing is sacred from me. + 29. For there is no holiness where I am not. + 30. Fear not when I fall in the fury of the storm; for mine acorns are blown afar by the wind; and verily I shall rise again, {433} and my children about me, so that we shall uplift our forest in Eternity. + 31. Eternity is the storm that covereth me. + 32. I am Existence, the Existence that existeth not save through its own Existence, that is beyond the Existence of Existences, and rooted deeper than the No-Thing-Tree in the Land of No-Thing. + 33. Now therefore thou knowest when I am within Thee, when my hood is spread over thy skull, when my might is more than the penned Indus, and resistless as the Giant Glacier. + 34. For as thou art before a lewd woman in Thy nakedness in the bazaar, sucked up by her slyness and smiles, so art thou wholly and no more in part before the symbol of the beloved, though it be but a Pisacha or a Yantra or a Deva. + 35. And in all shalt thou create the Infinite Bliss and the next link of the Infinite Chain. + 36. This chain reaches from Eternity to Eternity, ever in triangles --- is not my symbol a triangle? --- ever in circles --- is not the symbol of the Beloved a circle? Therein is all progress base illusion, for every circle is alike and every triangle alike! + 37. But the progress is progress, and progress is rapture, constant, dazzling, showers of light, waves of dew, flames of the hair of the Great Goddess, flowers of the roses that are about her neck, Amen! + 38. Therefore lift up thyself as I am lifted up.<> + Hold thyself in as I am master to accomplish. At the end, be the end far distant as the stars that lie in the navel of Nuit, do thou slay thyself as I at the end am slain, in the death that is life, in the peace that is mother of war, in the darkness that holds light in his hand, as an harlot that plucks a jewel from her nostrils. + 39. So therefore the beginning is delight, and the end is delight, and delight is in the midst, even as the Indus is water in the cavern of the glacier, and water among the greater hills and the lesser hills and through the ramparts of the hills and through the plains, and water at the mouth thereof when it leaps forth into the mighty sea, yea, into the mighty sea. + + (The Interpretation of this Book will be given to members of the Grade of Dominus Liminis on application, each to his Adeptus.) {434} + + + + LIBER A + + vel + + ARMORUM + + SUB FIGURA CCCXII. + + " ... the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand and the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach." Liber L. I. 37.<> + + "The Pantacle."<> + + Take pure wax, or a plate of gold, silver-gilt or Electrum Magicum. The diameter shall be eight inches, and the thickness half an inch. + Let the Neophyte by his understanding and ingenium devise a symbol to represent the Universe. + Let his Zelator approve thereof. + Let the Neophyte engrave the same upon the plate with his own hand and weapon. + Let it when finished be consecrated as he hath skill to perform, and kept wrapped in silk of emerald green. + + "The Dagger." + + Let the Zelator take a piece of pure steel, and beat it, grind it, sharpen it, and polish it, according to the art of the swordsmith. + Let him further take a piece of oak wood, and carve a hilt. The length shall be eight inches. + Let him by his understanding and ingenium devise a Word to represent the Universe. + Let his Practicus approve thereof. + Let the Zelator engrave the same upon his dagger with his own hand and instruments. + Let him further gild the wood of his hilt.<> + Let it when finished be consecrated as he hath skill to perform, and kept wrapped in silk of golden yellow. {435} + + "The Cup." + + Let the Practicus take a piece of Silver and fashion therefrom a cup. The height shall be 8 inches, and the diameter 3 inches. + Let him by his understanding and ingenium devise a Number to represent the Universe. + Let his Philosophus approve thereof. + Let the Practicus engrave the same upon his cup with his own hand and instrument. + Let it when finished be consecrated as he hath skill to perform, and kept wrapped in silk of azure blue. + + + "The Baculum." + + Let the Philosophus take a rod of copper, of length eight inches and diameter half an inch. + Let him fashion about the top a triple flame of gold. + Let him by his understanding and ingenium devise a Deed to represent the Universe. + Let his Dominus Liminis approve thereof. + Let the Philosophus perform the same in such a way that the Baculum may be partaker therein. + Let it when finished be consecrated as he hath skill to perform, and kept wrapped in silk of fiery scarlet. + + + "The Lamp." + + Let the Dominus Liminis take pure lead, tin, and quicksilver, with platinum, and, if need be, glass. + let him by his understanding and ingenium devise a Magick Lamp that shall burn without wick or oil, being fed by the Aethyr. + This shall he accomplish secretly and apart, without asking the advice or approval of his Adeptus Minor. + Let the Dominus Liminis keep it when consecrated in the secret chamber of Art. + This then is that which is written: "Bring furnished with complete armour and armed, he is similar to the goddess." + And again, "I am armed, I am armed." {436} + diff --git a/religious documents/magiclaw.txt b/religious documents/magiclaw.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..da3f9d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/magiclaw.txt @@ -0,0 +1,74 @@ +1. Law of Knowledge: to effect/affect a thing you must know the thing. The more you know about yours the more you can know something else. + +2. Law of Identification: with your will you can become anything- be one with anything. (Our only tois the brain) + +3. Law of Contagion: anything that has been in contact with something else maintains contact with ththing through the ether. + +4. Law of Names knowing the True Name of something defines the action you take to focus a function ohat thing. + +5. Law of Cause and Effect: under exactly the same conditions using the same actions you will alwaystain the same results. + +6. Law of Infinite Data: there is more in the universe than we can sense or know. Learning never sto + +7. Law of Association: if a thing reminds you of something else it can be used as a simulacrum for t something else for magickal purposes. + +8. Law of Infinite Universes: change your perspective in one area and you change your universe. Therre always three choices available. + +9. Law of Invocation and Evocation: there are forces outside and inside of you that you can tap and ect through your brain. + +10. Law of Pragmatism: if it works, it is true. + +11. Law of Predestination and Free Will: events are predestined, each person chooses whether and to t extent to participate in them. + +12. Law of Polarity: everything contains and implies its opposite. + +COROLLARIES: + +a. As above so below. You can extrapolate the universe from one atom. + +b. Rhythm serves as a counterbalancing pendulum. + +c. "Chance" is a Law which tends to be ignored. + +d. "Time" is a function of perspective, subject to the aggregate psychological outlook of your socie + +e. Matter is a function of energy, energy can be converted but not destroyed. + +f. The combination of any two energy forms will result in a third energy form more complex that the bination of the original two. + +g. Even though there are always three choices available, you can always think of another ne. + +h. There is no such thing as a wrong emotion, just an incorrect interpretation and manifestation thef. + +i. Don't take yourself too seriously, you are a physical function of a very young race. And Life is lowlife clever practical joker, that loves to piss on your plans - keep your sense of humor. + +j. It may not matter 10,000 years from now, but if it affects you it matters. Understand it and reacccordingly. + +k. Don't pee in the beer. + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/manu.txt b/religious documents/manu.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29b70db --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/manu.txt @@ -0,0 +1,712 @@ + The following lectures are two lectures from the ENGLISH BIBLE: + MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE Lecture notes available from Bible Baptist + Church Publications. + + This study in BIBLE INTRODUCTION fully upholds the Authorized, + King James Version as the pure, preserved Word Of God in + English. The notes deal with both Biblical and historical + reasons for this stand, covering the issues causing much + consternation today in a documented, non-inflammatory way. + + Pastors will be glad to find these notes also maintain the + historic Baptist position without having to resort to the + 'original Greek' or 'a better translation.' + + -305 pages of TYPESET Lecture Notes, including CHARTS, STUDY + QUESTIONS, and ASSIGNMENTS. + + -52 pages of Appendices, listing major Papyrus, Unical, and + Minuscule manuscripts, PLUS a list of English translations + since 1611 A.D. + + -Spiral Bound. + + -$25.00 plus shipping and handling (10%) + + ORDER FROM: Bible Baptist Church + 1219 N. Harns Road + Oak Harbor, WA 98277 + Telephone: (206) 675-8311 + + Lecture One is the course description + Lecture Two is a Lecture on Revelation. + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- + MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE - LECTURE 1 - COURSE DESCRIPTION +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +INTRODUCTION + +Welcome to this series of lectures on the subject of our English Bible. It +is hoped these notes will provide a clear, concise, and accurate study of +the doctrinal, textual, and historical basis for the Bible we hold in our +hands - the Authorized, King James Version. + +I. AIM OF THE COURSE OF STUDY + + The objectives of this course entitled "English Bible: Manuscript + Evidences" are as follows: + + A. To acquaint the student with the general history of the Bible as it + came from God to man. + + B. To give the student an understanding of the various kinds of + manuscript evidence, their characteristics, and their use in Bible + translations. + + C. To instruct the student in lower (textual) criticism by examining + the popular theories held today. + + D. To give the student an understanding of the issues relating to Bible + Versions facing believers today. + + E. To give the student a firm grasp of the doctrine of the Preservation + Of The Word Of God. + + F. To strengthen the student's confidence in the Authorized, King James + Version as the preserved Word of God. + + G. To equip the student to defend confidently the Authorized, King James + Version both Scripturally and factually. + + H. To foster a greater love and respect for, and to increase the + student's faith in, the Word of God; and to enhance his use of the + Word of God in preaching, soul winning, and personal devotion. + + I. To stimulate the student and prepare him for further studies in the + Word of God. + +II. IMPORTANCE OF THE COURSE + + What we believe about the Bible determines what we believe about all + other doctrines. This is because our faith is BIBLE BASED. + If we are "off" on the Bible, we will be "off" on all the other + doctrines, and, if we have the wrong Bible, we will have wrong + beliefs accordingly. + +CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY STAND OR FALL WITH THE BIBLE! + +Psalm 11:3 "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" + + A. Which Bible? + + Theological battles have raged throughout most of the centuries of + Christendom's history. All the great doctrines taught in the Bible have + at some point in time been challenged and defended. Creeds have been + written, wars have been fought, and denominations founded as a direct + result of passionate controversy. + To the twentieth century may rightfully be given the title, "The Battle + For The Bible." Of all the issues fought over, that of the Bible ranks + foremost. + + In the earlier decades, the battle-lines were formed over the issues of + Authorship (Inspiration) and Authority (credibility), and the outcome + was the broad division of Christendom into two camps - the liberal and + the conservative. It was at this time that the terms "modernist" and + "fundamentalist" came to be used. + + The last decades of the 20th Century have seen the matter of the Word of + God become a great issue within the "conservative camp", to the place that + it has now become a point of division amongst fundamentalists. Like all + theological controversies, this has raged with much feeling and fire, and + at times has been fueled with personal abuse rather than substantive facts. + Nevertheless, the burning question facing Bible-believing Baptists in this + present day and age is, "Which Bible?" There is a multiplicity of + Versions available, each with varying claims and style, and each with + significant differences in key doctrinal passages. If truth is narrow, + then they all cannot be right! + + A secondary question is, "Do we really have the Word of God available + to us today?" After all, it has been over 1,890 years since the ink + dried on the Book of The Revelation, and are we not taught that the Bible + was a "lost Book" for the best part of 1,000 years? + + B. Our God Is At Stake. + + What kind of God do we have anyway? When He speaks, is His voice so + "fuzzy" and His words so "garbled" that we can hear Him out of any + Version of the Bible we choose? + When He gives us His Word in writing, is He so inept as to lose it for so + long? + + Or can it be that we do in fact have a clear, authoritative Word of God + available to us today - the same Bible as had the early Christians? If + God is truly the God of Heaven, all powerful, all knowing, all loving, + then we can be assured the answer is a resounding "yes!" + + This course of study is mainly concerned with the more recent of the + above issues - that of Authenticity. Which Bible is the Word of God, + if indeed we do have it? + + The story of our English Bible is fascinating, amazing, and humbling. It + is the story of how the very words of the living God were transmitted + from the throne-room of glory into our frail, trembling hands. + + Holding the Bible is like standing in the presence of Almighty God; like + sitting at the feet of Jesus; like watching the workings of the Holy + Ghost. + + It is THE WORD OF GOD! + +III. OUTLINE OF LECTURES + + Lecture 1: INTRODUCTION + + I. Aim Of The Course + II. Importance Of Course + III. Outline Of Course + IV. Overview Of Course + V. Grading Of Course + VI. Helpful Texts + + Lecture 2: REVELATION + + I. Revelation Defined + II. Revelation Explained + A. General revelation + B. Special revelation + III. Revelation Contrasted + + Lecture 3: INSPIRATION + + I. Biblical Statements Of Inspiration + II. Inspiration Defined + A. Confluent + B. Verbal + C. Plenary + D. Inerrant + E. Infallible + III. Theories Of Inspiration + IV. Old Testament Inspiration + V. New Testament Inspiration + VI. Evidences Of Inspiration + + Lecture 4: COMMUNICATION + + I. Development Of Languages And Writing. + II. Development Of The English Language + III. Biblical Languages & Writing + IV. Transmission Of Biblical Text + A. Manuscript Types + B. Manuscript Materials + C. Manuscript Terminology + + Lecture 5: CANONIZATION + + I. The Meaning Of Canon And Canonicity + II. The Standards Or Tests Of Canonicity + III. Terms Used In The Canonical Process + A. Homologoumena + B. Antilogoumena + C. Apocrypha + D. Pseudepigrapha + IV. The Old Testament Canon + V. The New Testament Canon + + Lecture 6: PRESERVATION + + I. The Doctrine Of Preservation + II. The Logic Of Preservation + III. The Extent Of Preservation + IV. The Various Views Of Preservation + V. The Nature Of Preservation + A. Physical perpetuity + B. Textual purity + VI. The Preservation Of The Old Testament + A. Jewish Witness To The Hebrew Text + B. Samaritan Witness To The Hebrew Text + C. Christian Witness To The Hebrew Text + VII. The Preservation Of The New Testament + A. The Old Latin Bible + B. The Old Syriac Bible + C. The Gothic Bible + + Lecture 7: DESECRATION + + I. The Nature Of Textual Corruption + II. The Background Of Textual Corruption + III. The Great Center Of Textual Corruption + IV. The Great Agent Of Textual Corruption + V. The Products Of Textual Corruption + A. The Eusebio-Constantine Bible + B. The Latin Vulgate + VI. The Septuagint Question + + Lecture 8: EMANCIPATION I + + I. Foundations Of The Reformation + II. Desiderius Erasmus + A. The Life Of Erasmus + B. The Works Of Erasmus + C. The Criticisms Of Erasmus + D. The Johannine Comma + III. The Textus Receptus + + Lecture 9: EMANCIPATION II + + I. The Period Of Manuscript Collection + A. Polyglot Bibles + B. Critical Editions Of The Received Text + C. The Work Of Tischendorf + II. The Major Uncial Manuscripts + III. The Major Minuscule Manuscripts + IV. The Major Papyrus Manuscripts + + Lecture 10: TRANSLATION + + I. Ancient English Bibles + II. Medieval English Bibles + III. Reformation English Bibles + + Lecture 11: CORONATION + + The Authorized, King James Version: + + I. Its Historical Setting + II. Its Proposal + III. Its Translation + IV. Its Translators + V. Its Textual Basis + VI. Its Language + + Lecture 12: PUBLICATION + + I. Editions Of The Authorized Version + II. Revisions Of The Authorized Version + III. Reception Of The Authorized Version + IV. Excellence Of The Authorized Version + V. Influence Of The Authorized Version + + Lecture 13: DISCRIMINATION + + I. Scientific Biblical Criticism Defined + II. The Historical Background Of Scientific Biblical Criticism + III. An Examination Of Higher Criticism + IV. An Examination Of Lower (Textual) Criticism + V. The Westcott And Hort Theory + VI. The Westcott And Hort Theory Refuted + VII. Major Differences With Critical Texts + + Lecture 14: PROLIFERATION + + I. Early Revisions Of The Authorized Version + II. Early 20th Century Perversions + III. Late 20th Century Perversions + IV. Modern Methods Of Translating + V. Testing Modern Perversions + + Lecture 15: ALTERCATION + + I. An Overview Of The K.J.V. Issue Today + II. Arguments Against The K.J.V. + III. Arguments For The K.J.V. + IV. Textual Difficulties In The K.J.V. + V. Deceptive Modifications + IV. OVERVIEW OF COURSE + +The following diagram shows the rationale of this course of study, and +depicts the historical basis of how we came to receive our Bible. Such an +outline may be termed, "From God To Us", since we begin with the +supernatural revelation of the Word of God to holy men of God, and conclude +with the printed Word of God we hold in our hands each day. + +GOD +REVELATION +INSPIRATION +COMMUNICATION +CANONIZATION +PRESERVATION + DESECRATION +EMANCIPATION +TRANSLATION +CORONATION +PUBLICATION + DISCRIMINATION + PROLIFERATION +ALTERCATION +MAN + + +IV. GRADING OF THE COURSE + + A. Quarterly Grade + + This will consist of the following: + + 1. Average Grade Of Assignments......... 50% + 2. Quarterly Examination................ 50% + + B. Course Grade + + This will consist of the following: + + 1. Average Of Quarterly Grades.......... 70% + 2. Course Paper......................... 30% + + C. Grading System + + A+ 97 -100% + A- 94 - 96% Excellent work + + B+ 90 - 93% + B- 87 - 89% Very Good work + + C+ 82 - 86% + C- 79 - 81% Average work + + D 70 - 78% Below Average work + + F Below 70% Fail + + I Incomplete (Return in 1 week for credit) + +Grades will be reduced for the following reasons: + +Late assignments (unless Providentially hindered). + +2 points per day late. + +Inexcusable absence from regular lectures. + +More than 3 such absences per quarter will result in automatic quarterly +grade of F. + +Careless spelling and grammar. (Pastors need to exhibit skill in this +area.) + +VI. HELPFUL TEXTS + + The following texts are presented for the information of the student. + These, and other books pertaining to the subject, have been consulted or + referred to in the preparation of these lecture notes. They are not + necessarily endorsed as "recommended", and students should be aware that + doctrinal errors are likely to be found, even in books defending the + Authorized Version. + + For a guide to purchasing any of the books listed below, the student is + directed to his pastor. + + A. General Biblical Introduction: + + Ewert, D. From Ancient Tablets To Modern Translations. Grand + Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1983 + + Miller, H. S. General Biblical Introduction. Houghton,New York: + Word Bearer Press, 1960 + + Geisler, N. L. & Nix, W. E. From God To Us. Chicago, Illinois: + Moody Press, 1981 + + Kenyon, Sir F. The Story Of The Bible. London: John Murray, 1944 + + Bruce, F. F. The Books And The Parchments. Old Tappan, New Jersey: + Revell, 1984 + + B. Biblical Texts And Textual Considerations + + Pickering, W. N. The Identity Of The New Testament Text. Nashville, + Tennessee: Nelson, 1977 + + Ruckman, P. S. The Christian's Handbook Of Manuscript Evidence. + Palatka: Pensacola Bible Press + + MacLean, W. The Providential Preservation Of The Greek Text Of The + New Testament. Gisborne, New Zealand: Te Rau Press, 1977 + + Burgon, J. W. The Revision Revised. Collingswood, New Jersey: The + Bible For Today (Classic reprint), 1984 + + Fuller, D. O. Which Bible? Grand Rapids, Michigan: Grand Rapids + International Publications, 1975 + + Fuller, D. O. True Or False? Grand Rapids, Michigan: Grand Rapids + International Publications, 1973 + + Hills, E. F. Believing Bible Study Des Moines, Iowa: The Christian + Research Press, 1977 + + Ruckman P. S. The Christian's Handbook Of Biblical Scholarship. + Pensacola, Florida: Bible Baptist Bookstore, 1988 + + Robertson A. T. An Introduction To The Textual Criticism Of The New + Testament. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1925. + + Sturtz, H. A. The Byzantine Text-Type And New Testament Textual + Criticism. Nashville, Tennessee: Nelson, 1984 + + C. The King James Version + + Grant, F. W. Translating The Bible. Edinburgh: Nelson, 1961 + + Beale, D. A Pictorial History Of Our English Bible. Greenville, + South Carolina: Bob Jones University Press, 1982 + + Paine, G. S. The Men Behind The K.J.V. Grand Rapids, Michigan: + Baker, 1977 + + McClure, A. W. Translators Revived. Worthington: Maranatha + Publications + + Cloud, D. W. Myths About The King James Bible. Oak Harbor, + Washington: Way Of Life Publications, 1986 + + Reagan, D. F. The King James Version Of 1611 The Myth Of Early + Revisions. Knoxville: Trinity Baptist Temple + + Cimino, D. The Book. Harlingen: Wonderful Word Publishers. + + Van Bruggen, J. The Future Of The Bible. Nashville, Tennessee: + Nelson, 1972 + + Lackey, B. Why I Believe The Old King James Bible. Chattanooga, + Tennessee: Personal publication + + Hills, E. F. The King James Version Defended. Des Moines, Iowa: + The Christian Research Press, 1979 + + D. Examination Of Perversions + + Fowler, E. W. Evaluating Versions Of The New Testament. Watertown, + Wisconsin: Maranatha Baptist Press, 1981 + + Nowlin, G. The Paraphrased Perversion Of The Bible. Collingswood, + New Jersey: The Bible For Today, 1975 + + Lewis, J. P. The English Bible From KJV To NIV. Grand Rapids, + Michigan: Baker, 1981 + + Coy, G. H. The Inside Story Of The Anglo American Revised New + Testament. Personal publication, 1973 + + Countess, R. H. The Jehovah's Witnesses' New Testament. + Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 1987 + + Cloud, D. W. Unholy Hands On God's Holy Book. Oak Harbor, + Washington: Way Of Life, 1985 + + Moser, M. L. Jr. Good News For Modern Man The Devil's Masterpiece. + Little Rock, Arkansas: Challenge Press, 1970 + + Cloud, D. W. The Bible Society, The Good News Bible, And The + Apocrypha. Oak Harbor, Washington: Way Of Life + + Moser, M. L. Jr. The Case Against The Living Bible. Little Rock, + Arkansas: Challenge Press, 1973 + + Moser, M. L. Jr. The New English Bible Satan's Polluted + Translation. Little Rock, Arkansas: Challenge Press, 1971 + + Cloud, D. W. Dynamic Equivalency - Death Knell Of Pure Scripture. + Oak Harbor, Washington: Way Of Life + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- + MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE - LECTURE 2 - REVELATION +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +The word "revelation" simply means a revealing, and in theology is applied +to God's revealing of Himself to mankind. + +Without revelation, we wouldn't know anything about God - or even that there +was a God. Thus we begin this study with the premise that God desires to +make Himself known to man, and has revealed Himself at various times and in +different ways - Hebrews 1:1,2; 2:1-4. + +I. REVELATION DEFINED + + "Revelation is the unveiling of something previously hidden so that it + may be seen for what it is." + + All revelation is supernatural in that it has God for its source and + truth as its end. See: Deuteronomy 29:29. + +II. REVELATION EXPLAINED + + The revelation of God to man falls into two basic categories: + + GOD + +GENERAL T SPECIAL +REVELATION O REVELATION + + MAN + + A. General Revelation. + + General (or Natural) Revelation is that knowledge of God derived + from the light of natural things. + + General Revelation is accessible to all men and is addressed to all + intelligent creatures. It is the revelation of God to man in: + + 1. Creation. + See: Psalm 19:1-6; Isaiah 40:12,26; Acts 14:17; Psalm 8:1; 104:24. + + 2. History. + See: Psalm 9:16a + + 3. Conscience. + See: Romans 2:15 + + General Revelation bears witness to the existence of God, the + power of God, and the need for God. However it does not testify + to the personality of God or the plan of salvation. + + According to Romans 1:18-20, the effect of General Revelation is + to condemn man. Why? See: Romans 1:21. + + General Revelation alone is inadequate to save man for two + reasons: + + a. Creation has been affected by the entrance of sin. + See: Genesis 3:17; Romans 8:22. + + The witness is marred and blurred, and is now a monument to + God's curse upon sin. + + b. Man himself has also been affected by sin, to the extent that + he is not able to read the evidences of God afforded in nature + aright. + + B. Special Revelation. + + Special Revelation is direct, divine intervention in the affairs of + this world, and is God revealing Himself through special acts done + by His Person. + + This kind of revelation has come to man by various means - + Hebrews 1:1: + + 1. Through Dreams. + See: Genesis 37:5-10 + + 2. Through Visions. + See: Daniel 8:1 + + 3. Through Urim And Thummin. + See: Numbers 27:21 + + 4. Through Audible Voices. + See: I Samuel 3:1-10 + + 5. Through Animals. + See: Numbers 22:28 + + 6. Through Angels. + See: Luke 1:26-37 + + etc. + + The "crown" of God's special revelation of Himself to man was in the + coming to earth of the Lord Jesus Christ. See: John 1:14; 14:9. + + The "completion" of God's special revelation of Himself to man is + the BIBLE. + + According to Psalm 19:7-14, the effect of special Biblical revelation is to save man. Thus this kind of revelation is redemptive + and remedial. + + Special Revelation is necessary because of: + + a. The effects of sin (as outlined above). + + b. The transcendence of God (the fact that He is so separated, holy, + that man could not find Him). + + c. The Personality of God (the fact that He is a God of love Who + desires fellowship with man). + + "Without special revelation, general revelation would be for sinful + men incomplete and ineffective, and could issue, as in fact it has + issued wherever it alone has been accessible, only in leaving them + without excuse (Romans 1:20). + + "Without general revelation, special revelation would lack that basis + in the fundamental knowledge of God as the mighty and wise, righteous + and good, Maker and Ruler of all things, apart from which the further + revelation of this great God's interventions in the world for the + salvation of sinners could not be either intelligible, credible, or + operative." Warfield B. B. Inspiration And Authority Of The Bible. + Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Baker, 1948 + +III. REVELATION CONTRASTED + + Several terms are often associated with any discussion on the doctrine + of the Bible. As an aid to understanding what is meant by "Revelation," + these terms are contrasted below: + + A. Revelation vs. Inspiration. + + 1. Revelation makes truth known. + + Inspiration provides for its inerrant recording. + + 2. The Bible contains Revelation. + + The entire Bible is Inspired. + + The writers of the Bible drew from two different sources for their + narrative: + + a. Special revelation - i.e. things that only God could make + known. e.g. the account of Creation, the fall of Satan, etc. + + b. Personal observation - i.e. known facts that resulted from what + the writer saw, e.g. the crossing of the Red Sea, or, from + existing documents, e.g. Ezra 6:1-12. + + Both kinds of narrative are recorded for us in the Bible. + Inspiration ensures both are recorded without error. + + 3. Revelation Is Progressive. + + Inspiration is plenary. + + God did not reveal all truth at the beginning. Much truth was + revealed progressively over centuries - I Peter 1:9-12. Some + examples of this would be: + + a. The Name of God. + + b. The Coming of Messiah. + + On the contrary, there is NO SUCH THING as progressive + inspiration. All parts of the Bible were inspired of God, and + equally inspired. + + B. Revelation vs. Illumination. + + Illumination is the Holy Spirit-given understanding of revelation or + revealed truth. + + The believer enjoys this blessing today as he studies the Word of + God. See: I John 2:20,21,27. + + The presence or absence of illumination with the writers of the Word + of God had no bearing on the inspiration of the Bible. + + 1. Sometimes the words of the Biblical writers were the result of + careful research. e.g. Luke 1:1-4, where Luke had full + understanding of what he was writing. + + 2. Sometimes the Biblical writers both understood what they were + writing and recognized the words they were penning as coming + directly from God. e.g. II Samuel 23:2. + + In such cases, the writers had full illumination of what was being + written. + + 3. Sometimes the Biblical writers did not know the importance of the + words they penned, recognizing them as divine, but not + understanding them. e.g. Daniel 12:8,9. + + 4. Sometimes, the source of the words neither understood the words + nor recognized them as divine. e.g. John 11:49-52. + + The point is, whether the writer had illumination or not, + inspiration provided that God's exact message was truthfully + recorded. + + I Corinthians 2:9,10 - REVELATION - "Disclosure" + I Corinthians 2:12 - ILLUMINATION - "Discovery" + I Corinthians 2:13 - INSPIRATION - "Documenting" + diff --git a/religious documents/maphis1.txt b/religious documents/maphis1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f097875 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/maphis1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ +********************************************************************** +*From:THE DRUIDS PROGRESS, Report #6. The DRUIDS PROGRESS is * +*published seminannually (Gods Willing) and is sent primarily to * +*the subscribing members of ADF. For Further information write: * +* ADF, PO Box 1022, Nyack, NY USA 10960-1022 (include a SASE). * +*All Items acredited to "the Archdruid" have been written by and * +*are (C) 1990 by P.E.I. Bonewits. All items created by other * +*parties are (C) 1990 by them. All opinions expressed, save those * +*specifically attributed to the Board of Trustees, are the opinions * +*of the individuals expressing them and are Not official ADF * +*policy. * +* Reprint Procedure: Neopagan, Druidic, Midievalist and all * +*cultural publications may reprint any material written by P.E.I. * +*Bonewits, but his copyright notice must appear in full. If more * +*than 250 words are excerpeted, one cent per word should be donated * +*to ADF. * +********************************************************************** + + THEALOGY OF WITCHCRAFT: OBJECTIONS TO TEMPLE RELIGIONS + By Maphis and Leokadia + + There exists in Toronto, as in several other cities around North +America, a large Wicca-based Church. This churcj is very similar to +most mainstream Christian churches in its style of operation, how it +views itself, and in its goals. It holds large Circles which are open +to the public, offers classes in various aspects of the Craft, in +mythologies, and in other related topics, and it exhibits a +differentiation between the clergy and laity. It has a strong desire +to be treated as a "Church like any other Church" by goverments and +society. + The number of Wicca-based groups wishing to become Temple churches +is growing. While none of the others is as large as the organization +in Toronto, they all seek its large membership, priesthood/congregation +structure and "respectability." + The coven is teh traditional structure for Wicca-based groups. As a +coven grows and matures, it spawns other covens. Each coven is autonomous. +The thealogy inherant to coven-bsed structure has been taken for granted +and has not been articulated. It is the emergence of the Temple-church +groups which challenges us to examine the thealogy underlying the coven +and the Temple structures. + We fundimentally disagree with the Thealogy inherent in a Temple church +structure. We feel that a Temple structure warps Wicca into something +it is not. We do not know if the Temple religionsists are consciously +choosing to become more like what our society says is the "proper" way +to organize a religious group, to behave in ritual, or to think about +the divine - whether through choice or just 'going with the flow' it is +not consistant with the thealogy of Wicca. + The coven structure is not systematically hierarchial. The divine may +be experienced directly by any member of any coven, initiate or not, +through revelation, trance (especially possesion trance), ecstatic states, +or magic. The sacredness of women, sex, Nature Herself, and our bodies +are central. The role of priesthood and the style of ritual differ +dramatically from that practiced by Temple religionists, be they Wicca-based +or Christian. + Religious organizations are channels for the divine and both shape and +reflect their members' experience of the divine. Ideas and experiences +that are inconsistant with the shape of the structure are often not allowed. +THese experiences are disregarded or relegated to a lower level of the +organization's system of values. In our opinion, the thealogy and +organizational forms adopted from the Christian churches are leading the +Temple religionists to discard the central, most distinctive features of +Witchcraft. + The following chart illustrates the thealogical differences which we +see between Witchcraft covens and Wicca-based churches, on a number of key +issues. +_________________________CHART___________________________________________ + +IDEA TEMPLE GROUP WITCHCRAFT +---- ------------ ---------- +Revelation does not happen, or only rarely happens frequently to us all + to "properly prepared and but person may need help + initiated person," dangerous interpreting it. + to the unwary. + +Ecstacy distrusted sought out as a great source + of understanding. + +Magic distrusted, glamourized (see frequently practiced, see + revelation) revelation. + +Training High degree of training needed High degree of ability and + for initiation training needed for initiation + +Size oriented to large groups oriented to small groups + +Priesthood glamourized, made much of, teacher, first amoung equals + highly trained formally + +Hierarchy Yes, institutional model no formal elders model and + situational hierarchy + +Ritual liturgic, static, and mostly inspired, fluid, participatory + non-participatory basic patterns & guidelines + +Consistency inconsistancy between life consistancy between life + and religion - eg. sexist practice and belief + behavior from Goddess + worshippers... + +Energy Flow inward toward maintaining and outward toward involvement in + expanding the organization the world + +Power hierarchic and Patruarchal enpower the individual + +Trust Low trust, low vulnerability, high trust, high vulnerability + very high degree of roleplaying low degree of roleplaying + +Openess low high; self-disclosure essential + +Realization minimal because of the power coinsiderable - the emphasis + and role games on enpowerment and revelation + insures growth. + +Interdependence minimal High, through the creation + of a group soul and the ability + through trust to go higher and + deeper. + +Thealogy ideological, dogmatic, a matter lived, dynamic, a matter of + facts and ideas experiences +___________________________________________________________________________ + + The central differences which emerge from the above comparison can be +loosely grouped under one or two of the following general themes: + + a) the function and view of the priesthood + b) The relationship which the individual has with the divine, as + directly experienced or as manifested in others; and + c) the relationship which the individual has with the world. + + in Temple religion the relationsip between the individual and the divine +is mediated by the Priesthood - so the Priesthood is built up, training is +extensive and formalized, the congregation is divided from the Priesthood, +ritual becomes static and non-participatory, and so on. + + In Witchcraft divine revelation is key. Personal encounters with the +divine can come to each individual through trance, possesion by the +Goddess or God through Drawing Down the Moon or Sun, vision, by working +magic, or in other ways. The role of Priesthood is training the individual +to understand revelation when it comes, not to stand between her and her +experience. + So on the one hand teh hierarchial, clerical, Patriarchal Temple religion +and on the other the fluid, experiential, enpowering Witchcraft traditions. + It is true that the Craft and Temple groups have common thealogical roots. +We observe, however, that the Temple groups de-emphasize the +"non-respectable" elements of the Craft both in published explorations and +in ritual. There is no nudity, possesion trance, ritual sex, much less +emphasis on ecstaitc states, and no celebration of the wonderful variety +of humanity outside the norm - of gayness, 'insanity', and cultural variety. +They de-emphasize the Horny/Wild Man nature of the God and prefer not to +use the word Witch as a self-description. + + In the past the differences between radical Witches and the Temple +religions were put simply in political terms. Our growing awareness that +our politics and spirituality were inextricably bound up in each other, +that our relationship with the Goddess mandated political action and that +political action, in turn, nurtured our spirituality, has forced us to +ask; what is the thealogical contant to what we are doing, and to what the +Temple religionists are doing? + Our conclusion is that there are groups based on Witchcraft who are +moving toward the norms of society in politics and in their veiw of the +divine, and other groups who are developing on the basis of the differences +Witchcraft has with the Patriarchal norms. The Temple religionists are not +practicing the Craft but are moving away from it. + + diff --git a/religious documents/mark.txt b/religious documents/mark.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..37a8679 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mark.txt @@ -0,0 +1,773 @@ + Be patient, this is a rather long story but it gets to the + point. For a more detailed study on this subject please call + 404-299-1832 and ask for Bible studies, or for more + information. + + THE MARK OF THE BEAST, A HISTORICAL LOOK. + + + How fair was the morning of the Church! how swift its + progress! What expectations it would have been natural to + form of the future history which had begun so well! Doubtless + they were formed in many a sanguine heart: but they were + clouded soon. It became evident that, when the first + conflicts were passed, others would succeed; and that the + long and weary war with the powers of darkness had only just + begun. The wrestlings "against principalities and powers, + and the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places" + (Eph 6:12) were yet to be more painfully felt, and believers + were prepared to be "partakers of Christ's sufferings," and + not to "think it...strange concerning the fiery trial + which...[was] to try...[them], as though some strange thing + happened unto...[them]" (1 Pe 4:12, 13, [KJV]). + + But worse for the Church than the fightings without were the + fears within. Men who had long professed the Gospel "had + need to be taught again what were the first principles of the + oracles of God" (Heb 5:12). They were falling "from grace," + and turning back to weak and beggarly elements, whereunto + they desired again to be in bondage" (Gal 5:4; 4:9). "Some + had already turned aside after Satan (1 Ti 5:15)," and, where + there was no special prevalence of error, a coldness and + worldliness of spirit drew forth the sad reflection that "all + seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's" (Php + 2:21). Contentions were rife, and schisms were spreading; + and men, in the name of Christ and of truth, were "provoking + one another, envying one another." New forms of error began + to arise, from the combination of Christian ideas with the + rudiments of the world and the vagaries of oriental + philosophy. + + Here were men, like Jannes and Jambres who withstood Moses, + "resisting the truth, reprobate concerning the faith" (2 Ti + 3:8). Here were "Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the + truth had erred, saying that the resurrection was past + already" (2 Ti 2:17). Here was the "knowledge falsely so + called" (1 Ti 6:20), teeming with a thousand protean forms of + falsehood. + + While the Apostles wrote, the actual state and the visible + tendencies of things showed too plainly what Church history + would be; and, at the same time, prophetic intimations made + the prospect still more dark: for "the Spirit spake + expressly, that in the latter times men would depart from the + faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of + devils" (1 Ti 4:1)--that "in the last days grievous times + should come," marked by a darkness of moral condition which + it might have been expected that Gospel influences would have + dispelled (2 Ti 3:1-5)--that "there would be scoffers in the + last days, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where + is the promise of His coming?" (2 Pe 3:3)--that the day of + the Lord would not be "till the apostasy had come first, and + the man of sin had been revealed, the son of perdition, the + adversary who exalts himself above all that is called God or + an object of worship, so that he sits in the Temple of God, + showing himself that he is God" (2 Th 2:4-4). "The mystery + of lawlessness was already working, and as antichrist should + come, even then were there many antichrists" (1 Jn 2:18, 22), + men "denying the Father and the Son," "denying the Lord that + bought them" (2 Pe 2:1), "turning the grace of God into + lasciviousness" (Jude 4), and "bringing upon themselves swift + destruction." + + I know not how any man, in closing the Epistles, could + expect to find the subsequent history of the Church + essentially different from what it is. In those writings we + seem, as it were, not to witness some passing storms which + clear the air, but to feel the whole atmosphere charged with + the elements of future tempest and death. Every moment the + forces of evil show themselves more plainly. They are + encountered, but not dissipated. Or, to change the figure, we + see battles fought by the leaders of our band, but no + security is promised by their victories. New assaults are + being prepared; new tactics will be tried; new enemies pour + in; the distant hills are black with gathering multitudes, + and the last exhortations of those who fall at their posts + call on their successors to "endure hardness as good soldiers + of Jesus Christ" (2 Ti 2:3), and "earnestly to contend for + the faith which was once delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). + + The fact which I observe is not merely that these + indications of the future are in the Epistles, but that they + increase as we approach the close, and after the doctrines + of the Gospel have been fully wrought out, and the fullness + of personal salvation and the ideal character of the Church + have been placed in the clearest light, the shadows gather + and deepen on the external history. The last words of St. + Paul in the second Epistle to Timothy, with the Epistles of + St. John and St. Jude, breathe the language of a time in + which the tendencies of that history had distinctly shown + themselves. + + The Church was in the beginning a community of brethren, + guided by a few of the brethren. All were taught of God, and + each had the privilege of drawing for himself from the divine + fountain of light. The Epistles which then settled the great + questions of doctrine did not bear the pompous title of a + single man--of a ruler. We learn from the Holy Scriptures, + that they began simply with these words: "The apostles and + elders and brethren send greetings unto the brethren." + + But these very writings of the apostles already + foretell that from the midst of this brotherhood there shall + arise a power that will destroy this simple and primitive + order. + + Let us contemplate the formation and trace the development + of this power so alien to the Church. + + Paul of Tarsus, one of the greatest apostles of the new + religion, had arrived at Rome, the capital of the empire and + of the world, preaching in bondage the salvation which cometh + from God. A Church was formed beside the throne of the + Caesars. Composed at first of a few converted Jews, Greeks, + and Roman citizens, it was rendered famous by the teaching + and the death of the Apostle of the Gentiles. For a time it + shone out brightly, as a beacon upon a hill. Its faith was + everywhere celebrated; but erelong it declined from its + primitive condition. It was by small beginnings that both + imperial and Christian Rome advanced to the usurped dominion + of the world. + + The first pastors or bishops of Rome early employed them- + selves in converting the neighboring cities and towns. The + necessity which the bishops and pastors of the Campagna felt + of applying in cases of difficulty to an enlightened guide, + and the gratitude they owed to the church of the metropolis, + led them to maintain a close union with it. As it has always + happened in analogous circumstances, this reasonable union + soon degenerated into dependence. The bishops of Rome + considered as a right that superiority which the surrounding + Churches had freely yielded. The encroachments of power form + a great part of history; as the resistance of those whose + liberties are invaded forms the other portion. The + ecclesiastical power could not escape the intoxication which + impels all who are lifted up to seek to mount still higher. + It obeyed this general law of human nature. + + Nevertheless the supremacy of the Roman bishops was at + that period limited to the superintendence of the Churches + within the civil jurisdiction of the prefect of Rome. But + the rank which this imperial city held in the world offered a + prospect of still greater destinies to the ambition of its + first pastor. The respect enjoyed by the various Christian + bishops in the second century was proportionate to the rank + of the city in which they resided. Now Rome was the largest, + richest, and most powerful city in the world. It was the + seat of empire, the mother of nations. "All the inhabitants + of the earth belong to her," said Julian; and Claudian + declared her to be "the fountain of laws." + + If Rome is the queen of cities, why should not her + pastor be the king of bishops? Why should not the Roman + church be the mother of Christendom? Why should not all + nations be her children, and her authority their sovereign + law? It was easy for the ambitious heart of man to reason + thus. Ambitious Rome did so. + + Thus, when pagan Rome fell, she bequeathed to the humble + minister of the God of peace, sitting in the midst of her + ruins, the proud titles which her invincible sword had won + from the nations of the earth. + + The bishops of the different parts of the empire, + fascinated by that charm which Rome had exercised for ages + over all nations, followed the example of the Campagna, and + aided this work of usurpation. They felt a pleasure in + yielding to the bishop of Rome some portion of that honor + which was due to the queen of the world. There was + originally no dependence implied in the honor thus paid. They + treated the Roman pastor as if they were on a level with him. + But usurped power increased like an avalanche. Admonitions, + at first simply fraternal, soon became absolute commands in + the mouth of the pontiff. A foremost place among equals + appeared to him a throne. + + The Western bishops favored this encroachment of the + Roman pastors, either from jealousy of the Eastern bishops, + or because they preferred submitting to the supremacy of a + pope, rather than to the dominion of a temporal power. + + On the other hand, the theological sects that distracted + the East, strove, each for itself, to interest Rome in its + favor they looked for victory in the support of the principal + church of the West. + + Rome carefully enregistered these applications and + intercessions, and smiled to see all nations voluntarily + throwing themselves into her arms. She neglected no + opportunity of increasing and extending her power. The + praises and flattery, the exaggerated compliments and + consultations of other Churches, became in her eyes and in + her hands the titles and documents of her authority. Such is + man exalted to a throne: the incense of courts intoxicates + him, his brain grows dizzy. What he possesses becomes a + motive for attaining still more. + + The doctrine of the Church and the necessity of its + visible unity, which had begun to gain ground in the third + century, favored the pretensions of Rome. The Church is, + above all things, the assembly of "them that are sanctified + in Christ Jesus" (1 Cor. i. 2)--"the assembly of the + first-born which are written in heaven"(Heb. xii. 23). Yet + the Church of our Lord is not simply inward and invisible; it + is necessary that it should be manifested, and it is with a + view to this manifestation that the sacraments of Baptism and + the Lord's Supper were instituted. The visible Church has + features different from those which distinguish it as an + invisible Church. The invisible Church, which is the body of + Christ, is necessarily and eternally one. The visible Church + no doubt partakes of the unity of the former; but, considered + by itself, plurality is a characteristic already ascribed to + it in the New Testament. While speaking of one Church of + God, it no sooner refers to its manifestation to the world, + than it enumerates "the Churches of Galatia, of Macedonia, of + Judea, all Churches of the saints." These Churches may + undoubtedly, to a certain extent, look for visible unity; + but if this union be wanting, they lose none of the essential + qualities of the Church of Christ. The strong bond which + originally united the members of the Church, was that living + faith of the heart which connected them all with Christ as + their common head. Different causes soon concurred to + originate and develop the idea of a necessity for external + union. Men accustomed to the political forms and + associations of an earthly country, carried their views and + habits into the spiritual and eternal kingdom of Christ. + Persecution, powerless to destroy or even to shake this new + community, made it only the more sensible of its own + strength, and pressed it into a more compact body. To the + errors that sprung up in the theosophic schools and in the + various sects, was opposed the one and universal truth + received from the apostles, and preserved in the Church. This + was well, so long as the invisible and spiritual Church was + identical with the visible and external Church. But a great + separation took place erelong: the form and the life became + disunited. The semblance of an identical and exterior + organization was gradually substituted for that interior and + spiritual communion, which is the essence of the religion of + God. Men forsook the precious perfume of faith, and bowed + down before the empty vessel that had contained it. They + sought other bonds of union, for faith in the heart no longer + connected the members of the Church; and they were united by + means of bishops, archbishops, popes, mitres, canons, and + ceremonies. The living Church retiring gradually within the + lonely sanctuary of a few solitary hearts, an external + Church was substituted in its place, and all its forms were + declared to be of divine appointment. Salvation no longer + flowing from the Word, which was henceforward put out of + sight, the priests affirmed that it was conveyed by means of + the forms they had themselves invented, and that no one could + attain it except by these channels. No one, said they, can + by his own faith attain to everlasting life. Christ + communicated to the apostles, and these to the bishops, the + unction of the Holy Spirit; and this Spirit is to be procured + only in that order of succession! Originally, whoever + possessed the spirit of Jesus Christ was a member of the + Church; now the terms were inverted, and it was maintained + that he only who was a member of the Church could receive the + Spirit. + + As these ideas became established, the distinction + between the people and the clergy was more strongly marked. + The salvation of souls no longer depended entirely on faith + in Christ, but also, and in a more especial manner, on union + with the Church. The representatives and heads of the Church + were made partakers of the trust that should be placed in + Christ alone, and became the real mediators of their flocks. + The idea of a universal Christian priesthood was gradually + lost sight of; the servants of the Church of Christ were + compared to the priests of the old covenant; and those who + separated from the bishop were placed in the same rank with + Korah, Dathan, and Abiram! From a peculiar priesthood, such + as was then formed in the Church, to a sovereign priesthood, + such as Rome claims, the transition was easy. + + In fact, no sooner was the erroneous notion of the + necessity for a visible unity of the Church established, than + another appeared--the necessity for an outward + representation of that union. Although we find no traces in + the Gospel of Peter's superiority over the other apostles; + although the very idea of a primacy is opposed to the + fraternal relations which united the brethren, and even to + the spirit of the Gospel dispensation, which on the contrary + requires all the children of the Father to "minister one to + another," acknowledging only one teacher and one master; + although Christ had strongly rebuked his disciples, whenever + ambitious desires of pre-eminence were conceived in their + carnal hearts the primacy of St. Peter was invented and + supported by texts wrongly interpreted, and men next + acknowledged in this apostle and in his self-styled + successors at Rome, the visible representatives of visible + unity--the heads of the universal Church. + + The constitution of the Patriarchate contributed in like + manner to the exaltation of the Papacy. As early as the + three first centuries the metropolitan Churches had enjoyed + peculiar honor. The council of Nice, in its sixth canon, + mentions three cities, whose Churches, according to it, + exercised a long- established authority over those of the + surrounding provinces: these were Alexandria, Rome, and + Antioch. The political origin of this distinction is + indicated by the name which was at first given to the bishops + of these cities: they were called Exarchs, from the title of + the civil governors. Somewhat later they received the more + ecclesiastical appellation of Patriarchs. We find this title + first employed at the council of Constantinople, but in a + different sense from that which it afterwards received. It + was not until shortly before the council of Chalcedon that it + was given exclusively to the great metropolitans. The second + general council created a new patriarchate, that of + Constantinople itself, the new Rome, the second capital of + the empire. The church of Byzantium, so long obscure, + enjoyed the same privileges, and was placed by the council of + Chalcedon in the same rank as the Church of Rome. Rome at + that time shared the patriarchal supremacy with these three + churches. But when the Mahometan invasion had destroyed the + sees of Alexandria and of Antioch,--when the see of + Constantinople fell away, and in later times even separated + from the West, Rome remained alone, and the circumstances of + the times gathered all the Western Churches around her see, + which from that time has been without a rival. + + New and more powerful friends than all the rest soon came + to her assistance. Ignorance and superstition took + possession of the Church, and delivered it, fettered and + blindfold, into the hands of Rome. + + Yet this bondage was not effected without a struggle. + Frequently did the Churches proclaim their independence; and + their courageous voices were especially heard from + Proconsular Africa and from the East. + + But Rome found new allies to stifle the cries of the + churches. Princes, whom those stormy times often shook upon + their thrones, offered their protection if Rome would in its + turn support them. They conceded to her the spiritual + authority, provided she would make a return in secular power. + They were lavish of the souls of men, in the hope that she + would aid them against their enemies. The power of the + hierarchy which was ascending, and the imperial power which + was declining, leant thus one upon the other, and by this + alliance accelerated their twofold destiny. + + Rome could not lose by it. An edict of Theodosius II and + of Valentinian III proclaimed the Roman bishop "rector of + the whole Church." Justinian published a similar decree. + These edicts did not contain all that the popes pretended to + see in them; but in those times of ignorance it was easy for + them to secure that interpretation which was most favorable + to themselves. The dominion of the emperors in Italy + becoming daily more precarious, the bishops of Rome took + advantage of this circumstance to free themselves from their + dependence. + + But already had issued from the forests of the North the + most effectual promoters of the papal power. The barbarians + who had invaded and settled in the West, after being satiated + with blood and plunder, lowered their reeking swords before + the intellectual power that met them face to face. Recently + converted to Christianity, ignorant of the spiritual + character of the Church, and feeling the want of a certain + external pomp in religion, they prostrated themselves, half + savage and half heathen as they were, at the feet of the + high-priest of Rome. With their aid the West was in his + power. At first the Vandals, then the Ostrogoths, somewhat + later the Burgundians and Alans, next the Visigoths, and + lastly the Lombards and Anglo-Saxons, came and bent the knee + to the Roman pontiff. It was the sturdy shoulders of those + children of the idolatrous north that succeeded in placing on + the supreme throne of Christendom a pastor of the banks of + the Tiber. + + At the beginning of the seventh century these events were + accomplishing in the West, precisely at the period when the + power of Mahomet arose in the East, prepared to invade + another quarter of the world. + + From this time the evil continued to increase. In the + eighth century we see the Roman bishops resisting on the one + hand the Greek emperors, their lawful sovereigns, and + endeavouring to expel them from Italy, while with the other + they court the mayors of the palace in France, begging from + this new power, just beginning to rise in the West, a share + in the wreck of the empire. Rome founded her usurped + authority between the East, which she repelled, and the West, + which she summoned to her aid. She raised her throne between + two revolts. Startled by the shouts of the Arabs, now become + masters of Spain, and who boasted that they would speedily + arrive in Italy by the gates of the Pyrenees and Alps, and + proclaim the name of Mahomet on the Seven Hills; alarmed at + the insolence of Astolphus, who at the head of his Lombards, + roaring like a lion, and brandishing his sword before the + gates of the eternal city, threatened to put every Roman to + death: Rome, in the prospect of ruin, turned her frightened + eyes around her, and threw herself into the arms of the + Franks. The usurper Pepin demanded her pretended sanction of + his new authority; it was granted, and the Papacy obtained in + return his promise to be the defender of the "Republic of + God." Pepin wrested from the Lombards the cities they had + taken from the Greek emperor; yet, instead of restoring them + to that prince, he laid they keys on St. Peter's altar, and + swore with uplifted hands that he had not taken up arms for + man, but to obtain from God the remission of his sins, and to + do homage for his conquests to St. Peter. Thus did France + establish the temporal power of the popes. + + Charlemagne appeared; the first time he ascends the + stairs to the basilic of St. Peter, devoutly kissing each + step. A second time he presents himself, lord of all the + nations that formed the empire of the West, and of Rome + itself. Leo III thought fit to bestow the imperial title on + him who already possessed the power; and on Christmas day, in + the year 800, he placed the diadem of the Roman emperors on + the brow of the son of Pepin. From this time the pope + belongs to the empire of the Franks: his connection with the + East is ended. He broke off from a decayed and falling tree + to graft himself upon a wild and vigorous sapling. A future + elevation, to which he would have never dared aspire, awaits + him among these German tribes with whom he now unites + himself. + + Charlemagne bequeathed to his feeble successors only the + wrecks of his power. In the ninth century disunion + everywhere weakened the civil authority. Rome saw that this + was the moment to exalt herself. When could the Church hope + for a more favorable opportunity of becoming independent of + the state, than when the crown which Charles had worn was + broken, and its fragments lay scattered over his former + empire? + + Then appeared the False Decretals of Isidore. In this + collection of the pretended decrees of the popes, the most + ancient bishops, who were contemporary with Tacitus and + Quintilian, were made to speak the barbarous Latin of the + ninth century. The customs and constitutions of the Franks + were seriously attributed to the Romans in the time of the + emperors. Popes quoted the Bible in the Latin translation of + Jerome, who had lived one, two or three centuries after them; + and Victor, bishop of Rome, in the year 192, wrote to + Theophilus, who was archbishop of Alexandria in 385. The + impostor who had fabricated this collection endeavored to + prove that all bishops derived their authority from the + bishop of Rome, who held his own immediately from Christ. He + not only recorded all the successive conquests of the + pontiffs, but even carried them back to the earliest times. + The popes were not ashamed to avail themselves of this + contemptible imposture. As early as 865, Nicholas I drew + from its stores of weapons by which to combat princes and + bishops. This impudent invention was for ages the arsenal of + Rome. + + Nevertheless, the vices and crimes of the pontiffs + suspended for a time the effect of the decretals. The Papacy + celebrated its admission to the table of kings by shameful + orgies. She became intoxicated: her senses were lost in the + midst of drunken revellings. It is about this period that + tradition places upon the papal throne a woman named Joan, + who had taken refuge in Rome with her lover, and whose sex + was betrayed by the pangs of childbirth during a solemn + procession. But let us not needlessly augment the shame of + the pontifical court. Abandoned women at this time governed + Rome; and that throne which pretended to rise above the + majesty of kings was sunk deep in the dregs of vice. Theodora + and Marozia installed and deposed at their pleasure the + self-styled masters of the Church of Christ, and placed their + lovers, sons, and grandsons in St. Peter's chair. These + scandals, which are but too well authenticated, may perhaps + have given rise to the tradition of Pope Joan. + + Rome became one wild theater of disorders, the possession + of which was disputed by the most powerful families of + Italy. The counts of Tuscany were generally victorious. In + 1033, this house dared to place on the pontifical throne, + under the name of Benedict IX, a youth brought up in + debauchery. This boy of twelve years old continued, when + pope, the same horrible and degrading vices. Another party + chose Sylvester III in his stead; and Benedict, whose + conscience was loaded with adulteries, and whose hands were + stained with murder, at last sold the Papacy to a Roman + ecclesiastic. + + The emperors of Germany, filled with indignation at such + enormities, purged Rome with the sword. The empire, + asserting its paramount rights, drew the triple crown from + the mire into which it had fallen, and saved the degraded + papacy by giving it respectable men as its chiefs. Henry III + deposed three popes in 1046, and his finger, decorated with + the ring of the Roman patricians, pointed out the bishop to + whom the keys of St. Peter should be confided. Four popes, + all Germans, and nominated by the emperor, succeeded. When + the Roman pontiff died, the deputies of that church repaired + to the imperial court, like the envoys of other dioceses, to + solicit a new bishop. With joy the emperor beheld the popes + reforming abuses, strengthening the Church, holding councils, + installing and deposing prelates, in defiance of foreign + monarchs: The Papacy by these pretensions did but exalt the + power of the emperor, its lord paramount. But to allow of + such practices was to expose his own authority to great + danger. The power which the popes thus gradually recovered + might be turned suddenly against the emperor himself. When + the reptile had gained strength, it might wound the bosom + that had cherished it: and this result followed. + + And now begins a new era for the papacy. It rises from + its humiliation, and soon tramples the princes of the earth + under foot. To exalt the Papacy is to exalt the Church, to + advance religion, to ensure to the spirit the victory over + the flesh, and to God the conquest of the world. Such are + its maxims: in these ambition finds its advantage, and + fanaticism its excuse. + + The whole of this new policy is personified in one man: + Hildebrand. + + This pope, who has been by turns indiscreetly exalted or + unjustly traduced, is the personification of the Roman + pontificate in all its strength and glory. He is one of + those normal characters in history, which include within + themselves a new order of things, similar to those presented + in other spheres by Charlemagne, Luther, and Napoleon. + + This monk, the son of a carpenter of Savoy, was brought + up in a Roman convent, and had quitted Rome at the period + when Henry III had there deposed three popes, and taken + refuge in France in the austere convent of Cluny. In 1048, + Bruno, bishop of Toul, having been nominated pope by the + emperor at Worms, who was holding the German Diet in that + city, assumed the pontifical habits, and took the name of Leo + IX; but Hildebrand, who had hastened thither, refused to + recognize him, since it was (said he) from the secular power + that he held the tiara. Leo, yielding to the irresistible + power of a strong mind and of a deep conviction, immediately + humbled himself, laid aside his sacerdotal ornaments, and + clad in the garb of a pilgrim, set out barefoot for Rome + along with Hildebrand (says an historian), in order to be + there legitimately elected by the clergy and the Roman + people. From this time Hildebrand was the soul of the + Papacy, until he became pope himself. He had governed the + Church under the name of several pontiffs, before he reigned + in person as Gregory VII. One grand idea had taken + possession of this great genius. He desired to establish a + visible theocracy, of which the pope, as vicar of Jesus + Christ, should be the head. The recollection of the universal + dominion of heathen Rome haunted his imagination and animated + his zeal. He wished to restore to papal Rome all that + imperial Rome had lost. "What Marius and Caesar," said his + flatterers, "could not effect by torrents of blood, thou hast + accomplished by a word." + + Gregory VII was not directed by the spirit of the Lord. + That spirit of truth, humility, and long-suffering was + unknown to him. He sacrificed the truth whenever he judged + it necessary to his policy. This he did particularly in the + case of Berenger, archdeacon of Angers. But a spirit far + superior to that of the generality of pontiffs--a deep + conviction of the justice of his cause--undoubtedly animated + him. He was bold, ambitious, persevering in his designs, and + at the same time skillful and politic in the use of the means + that would ensure success. + + His first task was to organize the militia of the + church. It was necessary to gain strength before attacking + the empire. A council held at Rome removed the pastors from + their families, and compelled them to become the devoted + adherents of the hierarchy. The law of celibacy, planned and + carried out by popes, who were themselves monks, changed the + clergy into a sort of monastic order. Gregory VII claimed + the same power over all the bishops and priests of + Christendom, that an abbot of Cluny exercises in the order + over which he presides. The legates of Hildebrand, who + compared themselves to the proconsuls of ancient Rome, + travelled through the provinces, depriving the pastors of + their legitimate wives; and, if necessary, the pope himself + raised the populace against the married clergy. + + But chief of all, Gregory designed emancipating Rome from + its subjection to the empire. Never would he have dared + conceive so bold a scheme, if the troubles that afflicted the + minority of Henry IV, and the revolt of the German princes + against that young emperor, had not favored its execution. + The pope was at this time one of the magnates of the empire. + Making common cause with the other great vassals, he + strengthened himself by the aristocratic interest, and then + forbade all ecclesiastics, under pain of excommunication, to + receive investiture from the emperor. He broke the ancient + ties that connected the Churches and their pastors with the + royal authority, but it was to bind them all to the + pontifical throne. To this throne he undertook to chain + priests, kings, and people, and to make the pope a universal + monarch. It was Rome alone that every priest should fear: it + was in Rome alone that he should hope. The kingdoms and + principalities of the earth are her domain. All kings were + to tremble at the thunderbolts hurled by the Jupiter of + modern Rome. Woe to him who resists! Subjects are released + from their oaths of allegiance; the whole country is placed + under an interdict; public worship ceases; the churches are + closed; the bells are mute; the sacraments are no longer + administered; and the malediction extends even to the dead, + to whom the earth, at the command of a haughty pontiff, + denies the repose of the tomb. + + The pope, subordinate from the very beginning of his + existence successively to the Roman, Frank, and German + emperors, was now free, and he trod for the first time as + their equal, if not their master. Yet Gregory VII was + humbled in his turn: Rome was taken, and Hildebrand compelled + to flee. He died at Salerno, exclaiming, "I have loved + righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore do I die in + exile." Who shall dare charge with hypocrisy these words + uttered on the very brink of the grave? + + The successors of Gregory, like soldiers arriving after + a victory, threw themselves as conquerors on the enslaved + Churches. Spain rescued from Islamism, Prussia reclaimed from + idolatry, fell into the arms of the crowned priest. The + Crusades, which were undertaken at his instigation, extended + and confirmed his authority. The pious pilgrims, who in + imagination had seen saints and angels leading their armed + bands,--who, entering humble and barefoot within the walls of + Jerusalem, burnt the Jews in their synagogue, and watered + with the blood of thousands of Saracens the places where they + came to trace the sacred footsteps of the Prince of + Peace,--carried into the East the name of the pope, who had + been forgotten there since he had exchanged the supremacy of + the Greeks for that of the Franks. + + In another quarter the power of the Church effected what + the arms of the republic and of the empire had been unable to + accomplish. The Germans laid at the feet of a bishop those + tributes which their ancestors had refused to the most + powerful generals. Their princes, on succeeding to the + imperial dignity, imagined they received a crown from the + popes, but it was a yoke that was placed upon their necks. + The kingdoms of Christendom, already subject to the spiritual + authority of Rome, now became her serfs and tributaries. + + Thus everything was changed in the Church. + + It was at first a community of brethren, and now an absolute + monarchy was established in its bosom. All Christians were + priests of the living God, with humble pastors as their + guides. But a haughty head is upraised in the midst of these + pastors; a mysterious voice utters words full of pride; an + iron hand compels all men, great and small, rich and poor, + bond and free, to wear the badge of its power. The holy and + primitive equality of souls before God is lost sight of. At + the voice of one man Christendom is divided into two unequal + parties: on the one side is a separate caste of priests, + daring to usurp the name of the Church, and claiming to be + invested with peculiar privileges in the eyes of the Lord; + and, on the other, servile flocks reduced to a blind and + passive submission--a people gagged and fettered, and given + over to a haughty caste. Every tribe, language, and nation + of Christendom, submits to the dominion of this spiritual + king, who has received power to conquer. + + What is the official pronouncement concerning the Pope in + our day? Here it comes: + + " The Pope is of so great dignity and so exalted that he is + not a mere man, but as it were God and the VICAR OF GOD." + + "The Pope is of such lofty and supreme dignity that, properly + speaking, he has not been established in any rank of dignity, + but rather has been placed upon the very summit of all ranks + and dignities..." + + "He is likewise the divine monarch and supreme emperor and + king of kings." + + "HENCE THE POPE IS CROWNED WITH A TRIPLE CROWN, AS KING OF + HEAVEN AND OF EARTH AND OF THE LOWER REGIONS." Ferraris' + Eccl. Dictionary (CATHOLIC) Article, Pope. + + + "What are the letters supposed to be in the Pope's crown and + what do they signify, if anything?" + + "The letters inscribed in the Pope's miter are these: + VICARIVS FILII DEI, which is the latin for 'VICAR OF THE SON + OF GOD.' Catholics hold that the church, which is a visible + society, must have a visible head. Christ, before HIS + ascension into heaven, appointed St. Peter to act as his + representative . . . Hence to the Bishop of Rome, as head of + the church, was given the title, 'VICAR OF CHRIST.' + + Our Sunday Visitor. (Catholic Weekly) "Bureau of information + Huntington, Ind. April 18, 1915. + + If you take the roman numerals from the Popes title and add + them up you will get 666, thus he wears 666 on his miter. In + his book "The Great Apostasy," Joseph F Berg, after having + proved that 666 can be gotten from the Greek word LATEINOS + and the Hebrew word ROMIITH which also refer to the Cathioic + Church, he states: "Now we challenge the world to find + another name in these languages: Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, + which shall designate the same number." + + Even the Romanists themselves shame you in their clear- + sighted comprehension of the issues of this question. + Cardinal Manning says, "The Catholic Church is either the + masterpiece of Satan or the kingdom of the Son of God." + Cardinal Newman says, "a sacerdotal order is historically the + essence of the church of Rome; if not divinely appointed, it + is doctrinally the essence of antichrist." In both these + statements the issue is clear, and it is the same. Rome + herself admits, openly admits, that if she is not the very + kingdom of Christ, she is that of Antichrist. Rome declares + that she is one or the other. She herself propounds and + argues this solemn alternative. + + You shrink from it, do you? I accept it. Conscience + constrains me. History compels me. The past, the awful past + rises before me. I see THE GREAT APOSTASY, I see the + desolation of Christendom, I see the smoking ruins, I see the + reign of monsters; I see those vicegods, that Gregory VII., + that Innocent III., that Boniface VIII., that Alexander VI., + that Gregory XIII., that Pius IX.; I see their long + succession, I hear their insufferable blasphemies, I see + their abominable lives; I see them worshipped by blinded + generations, bestowing hollow benedictions, bartering lying + indulgences, creating a paganized Christianity; I see their + liveried slaves, their slaven priests, their celibate + confessors; I see the infamous confessional, the ruined + women, the murdered innocents; I hear the lying absolutions, + the dying groans; I hear the cries of the victims; I hear the + anathemas, the curses, the thunders of the interdicts; I see + the racks, the dungeons, the stakes; I see that inhuman + Inquisition, those fires of Smithfield, those butcheries of + St. Bartholomew, that Spanish armada, those unspeakable + dragonnades, that endless train of wars, that dreadful + multitude of massacres. I see it all, and in the name of the + ruin it has wrought in the church and in the world, in the + name of the truth it has denied, the temple it has defiled, + the God it has blasphemed, the souls it has destroyed; in the + name of the millions it has deluded, the millions it has + slaughtered, the millions it has damned; with holy + confessors, with noble reformers, with innumerable martyrs, + with the saints of ages, I denounce it as the masterpiece of + Satan, as the body and soul and essence of antichrist. + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/mason_bi.txt b/religious documents/mason_bi.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfe6548 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mason_bi.txt @@ -0,0 +1,198 @@ +FREEMASONRY : Some Basics & a Partial Bibliography +-------------------------------------------------- + The earliest known use of the word "freemason" is +encountered in the London Assize of Wages, 1212 CE. +The first reference to a Mason's Lodge is found in +1277, and to "Freemasonry," in an English building +contract of 1436. + The oldest Masonic Document is the Regius MS., +circa 1390. the first use of the word "Freemason" in +print was in 1563, in a book entitled 'Dives Pragmaticus.' +The first extended printed account of Freemasonry +appears in Plot's 'Natural History Of Staffordshire', +Oxford, 1686, pp. 316-18. The first Masonic book is +known as the "Roberts Constitutions," printed and sold +by J. Roberts in London, 1722. The first Official +Masonic book is Anderson's 'The Constitutions of the +Free-Masons', London, 1723, of which Benjamin Franklin +(a Mason) published a reprint in Philadelphia in 1734, +it being the first American Masonic Book. + The first duly constituted Lodge in America was The +First Lodge of Boston (still in existance as St. John's +Lodge), constituted July 30, 1733 by Henry Price of +Boston. The first native-born American to be made a +Mason was Jonathan Belcher, born in Boston in 1681, and +made a Mason in Europe in 1704. He was governor of both +Massachusetts and New Hampshire from 1730 to 1741. + Just slighly shy of one half of the 56 signers of the +Declaration of Independence were Masons; 31 of the 55 +Delegates to the Constitutional Convention were Masons; +so were many of Washington's Generals. + Promiment famous masons of History include: Paul Revere, +John hancock, Joseph Warren, George Washington, James +Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James K. polk, James Buchanan, +Andrew Johnson, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, +Theodore Roosevelt, WIlliam Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, +Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon Baines +Johnson and Gerald R. Ford. + +PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOKS +-------------------- +These are books available from Macoy Publishing & Masonic +Supply Co., PO Box 9759, Richmond VA 23228 and are evidently +available in many libraries across the country. + +Freemason's Guide and Compendium. Bernard E. Jones. +What Masonry Means. William E. Hammond. +A Comprehensive View of Freemasonry. Henry Wilson Coil. +Famous Masons and Masonic Presidents. H.L. Haywood. +The Builders. Joseph Fort Newton. +Introduction to Freemasonry. Carl H. Claudy. +The Great Teachings of Masonry. H.L. Haywood. +House Undivided : The story of Freemasonry and the Civil + War. Allen E. Roberts. +Freemasonry Through Six Centuries (2 vols). Henry WIlson + Coil. +The Craft and Its Symbols. Allen E. Roberts. + + +MASONIC BIBLIOGRAPHY : THE NOT-SO-EASY-TO-FIND-BOOKS! +----------------------------------------------------- +Many of the following books are not as easy to find as +those I mentioned in my last post on the subject, either +they are extremely rare in the public sector or in many +cases long out of print except internally to the +organization itself. This list is in no way a complete +listing of books on the subject - The internally used +library (such as that in The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts) +is huge in comparison and includes books, news clippings +and internal records not accessable to the public by any +known means. These books here actually represent what +American Freemasons use as a preliminary reading list for +candidates for the degrees within Masonry. + +Anderson's Constitutions of 1723. 1924. +Bailey. The Spirit Of Masonry. 1957. +Baird. Great American Masons. 1924. +Banner. These Men Were Masons. 1934. +Bede. 5-15 Minutes Talks. 1972. +Blake. Masonic Lodge Methods. 1953. +Boston. Saint John's Lodge. history of Saint John's Lodge of + Boston. 1917. +Brown. Freemasonry in Virginia (1733-1936). 1936. + Highlights of Templar History. 1944. + The Fourth Gospel and The Eighteenth Degree. 1956. +Carter. Masonry in Texas. 1955. +Cerza. A Masonic Thought For Each Day of The Year. 1971. +Chailley. The Magic Flute, Masonic Opera. 1971. +Claudy. Introduction to Freemasonry. [3v] 1953. + A Master's Wages. 1924. + Foreign Countries. 1925. + Old Tiler Talks. 1925. + Masonic Harvest. 1948. + The Old Past Master. 1924. + The Master's Book. 1935. +Coil. A Comprehensive View of Freemasonry. 1954. + Freemasonry Through Six Centuries. 1966. + Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia. 1961. +Coulton. Medieval Faith and Symbolism. 1958. +Darrah. The Evolution of Freemasonry. 1920. +Denslow. Freemasonry in the Western Hemisphere. 1953. + Masonic Rites and Degrees. 1955. + Freemasonry and The American Indian. 1956. +Deutsch. From Whence Came You? 1958. +Everskull. The Temples in Jerusalem. 1946. +Foss. Three Centuries of Freemasonry in New Hampshire. 1972. +Glick. A Treasury of Masonic Thought. 1953. +Gould. The Concise History of Freemasonry. 1924. + Military Lodges. 1899. +Hall. The Lost Keys of Freemasonry. 1931. +Hammond. What Masonry Means. 1939. +Harvey. "Not Made with Hands". 1958. +Haywood & Craig. A History of Freemasonry. 1927. + More About Masonry. 1948. + Masonic Essays. 1963. + The Newly-Made Mason. 1948. + Symbolic Masonry : an Interpetation of the three degrees. + 1923. + The Great Teachings of Masonry. 1923. + Famous Masons. 1944. +Hills. The Freemason's Craft. 1932. +Horne. King Solomon's Temple in the Masonic Tradition. 1972. +Hughan. The Old charges of British Freemasons. 1895. +Hunt. Some Thoughts on Masonic Symbolism. 1930. +Hunter. A Study of an Interpretation of the Regius Manuscript, + The Earliest Masonic Document. 1952. +Johnson. The Begining of Freemasonry in America. 1924. + One Common Purpose. 1937. + The Lure of Freemasonry. 1936. +Jones. Freemason's Guide and Compendium. 1950. +Kidd. Early Freemasonry in Williamsburg Virginia. 1957. +Knoop & Jones. The Genesis of Freemasonry. 1947. + Introduction to Freemasonry. 1933. + The Medieval Mason. 1967. +Lanier. Masonry and Citizenship. 1921. +Lawrence. Sidelights on Freemasonry. 1909. + Highways & By-Ways of Freemasonry. 1924. + The Keystone and Other Essays on Freemasonry. 1913. + The Perfect Ashlar and other Masonic Symbols. 1912. +Lindsay. The Scottish Rite for Scotland. 1958. +MacBride. Speculative Masonry : Its Mission, Its Evolution + and its Landmarks. 1914. +Mackey. Symbolism of Freemasonry. 1921. + Mackey's Masonic Jurisprudence; 10th ed. 1927. + Encyclopedia of Freemasonry.[3v] revised and supplemented + by Robert I. Clegg and H.L. Haywood. 1946. +Martin & Callaghan. The Treasury of Masonic Thought. 1924. +Masonry and Americanism. 1924. +Morse. Freemasonry in the American Revolution. 1924. +Museum of Our National Heritage. Masonic Symbols in American + Decorative Arts. 1976. +Nettl. Mozart and Masonry. 1957. +Newton. Modern Masonry. 1924. + The Builders : a Story and study of Masonry. 1951. + Short Talks on Masonry. 1928. + The Men's House. 1923. + The Great Light in Masonry. 1924. + The Three Degrees and Great Symbols of Masonry. 1924. + The Religion of Masonry. 1927. +Oppenheim. The Jews and Masonry in the United States Before 1810. + 1910. +Perry. Masonic Addresses. 1938-40. + The Masonic Way of Life. 1968. +Pick & Knight. The Pocket history of Freemasonry. 1969. +Pike. The Meaning of Masonry. 1924. +Poage. Masonic Meditations. 1925. +Poole. The Old Charges. 1924. +Pound. Masonic Addresses and Writings. 1953. + Lectures on Masonic Jurisprudence. 1924. +Robbins. English-Speaking Freemasonry. 1930. +Roberts. The Craft and its Symbols. 1974. +Roth. Masonry in the Formation of our Goverment. 1927. +Roy. Stalwart Builders, a History of the Grand Lodge of Masons + in Massachusetts 1733-1978. 1980. + Dare We Be Masons. 1966. +Shepherd. The Landmarks of Freemasonry. 1924. +Snodgrass. The History of Freemasonry in Tennessee. 1944. +Steiner. Masonry Illustrated. 1953. +Steinmetz. Freemasonry : Its Hidden Meaning. 1948. + The Lost Word : Its Hidden Meaning. 1953. + The Royal Arch : Its Hidden Meaning. 1946. +Stewart. Symbolic Teachings; or, Masonry and Its Message. 1923. +Street. Symbolism of The Three Degrees. 1922. +Tatsch. Short Readings in Masonic History. 1926. + Free Masonry in the Thirteen Colonies. 1933. + The Facts ABout George Washington as a Freemason; 1932. +Taylor & Beach. Historical Sketch of the Grand Lodge of Masons + in Massachusetts from its beginings in 1733 to the + present time. 1973. +Vibert. Freemasonry Before the Existance of Grand Lodges. 1916. +Voorhis. Masonic Rosicrutian Socities. 1958. +Vrooman & Roberts. Sword & Trowel. 1964. +Ward. Freemasonry : Its Aims and Ideals. 1923. +Wiest. Freemasonry in AMerican COurts. 1958. +Wilmhurst. The Meaning of Masonry. 1922. +Wright. The Ethics of Freemasonry. 1924. + Robert Burns and His Masonic Circle. 1929. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/masonry.txt b/religious documents/masonry.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..088b207 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/masonry.txt @@ -0,0 +1,651 @@ + 10 page printout + + VIII. + + ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. + + [NOTE: This essay appeared in New York, 1818, with an +anonymous preface of which I quote the opening paragraph: "This +tract is a chapter belonging to the Third Part of the "Age of +Reason," as will be seen by the references made in it to preceding +articles, as forming part of the same work. It was culled from the +writings of Mr. Paine after his death, and published in a mutilated +state by Mrs. Bonneville, his executrix. Passages having a +reference to the Christian religion she erased, with a view no +doubt of accommodating the work to the prejudices of bigotry. +These, however, have been restored from the original manuscript, +except a few lines which were rendered illegible." Madame +Bonneville published this fragment in New York, 1810 (with the +omissions I point out) as a pamphlet. -- Dr. Robinet (Danton- +Emigre, p. 7) says erroneously that Paine was a Freemason; but an +eminent member of that Fraternity in London, Mr. George Briggs, +after reading this essay, which I submitted to him, tells me that +"his general outline, remarks, and comments, are fairly true." +Paine's intimacy in Paris with Nicolas de Bonneville and Charles +Frangois Dupuis, whose writings are replete with masonic +speculations, sufficiently explain his interest in the subject. -- +Editor.] + + IT is always understood that Free-Masons have a secret which +they carefully conceal; but from every thing that can be collected +from their own accounts of Masonry, their real secret is no other +than their origin, which but few of them understand; and those who +do, envelope it in mystery. + + The Society of Masons are distinguished into three classes or +degrees. 1st. The Entered Apprentice. 2d. The Fellow Craft. 3d. The +Master Mason. + + The Entered Apprentice knows but little more of Masonry than +the use of signs and tokens, and certain steps and words by which +Masons can recognize each other without being discovered by a +person who is not a Mason. The Fellow Craft is not much better +instructed in Masonry, than the Entered Apprentice. It is only in +the Master Mason's Lodge, that whatever knowledge remains of the +origin of Masonry is preserved and concealed. + + In 1730, Samuel Pritchard, member of a constituted lodge in +England, published a treatise entitled Masonry Dissected; and made +oath before the Lord Mayor of London that it was a true copy. +"Samuel Pritchard maketh oath that the copy hereunto annexed is a +true and genuine copy in every particular." In his work he has +given the catechism or examination, in question and answer, of the +Apprentices, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason. There was no +difficulty in doing this, as it is mere form. + + In his introduction he says, the original institution of +Masonry consisted in the foundation of the liberal arts and +sciences, but more especially in Geometry, for at the building of +the tower of Babel, the art and mystery of Masonry was first +introduced, and from thence handed down by Euclid, a worthy and + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 1 + + ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. + +excellent mathematician of the Egyptians; and he communicated it to +Hiram, the Master Mason concerned in building Solomon's Temple in +Jerusalem." + + Besides the absurdity of deriving Masonry from the building of +Babel, where, according to the story, the confusion of languages +prevented the builders understanding each other, and consequently +of communicating any knowledge they had, there is a glaring +contradiction in point of chronology in the account he gives. + + Solomon's Temple was built and dedicated 1004 years before the +christian era; and Euclid, as may be seen in the tables of +chronology, lived 277 before the same era. It was therefore +impossible that Euclid could communicate any thing to Hiram, since +Euclid did not live till 700 years after the time of Hiram. + + In 1783, Captain George Smith, inspector of the Royal +Artillery Academy at Woolwich, in England, and Provincial Grand +Master of Masonry for the county of Kent, published a treatise +entitled, The Use and Abuse of Free-Masonry. + + In his chapter of the antiquity of Masonry, he makes it to be +coeval with creation, "when," says he, "the sovereign architect +raised on Masonic principles the beauteous globe, and commanded the +master science, Geometry, to lay the planetary world, and to +regulate by its laws the whole stupendous system in just unerring +proportion, rolling round the central sun." + + "But," continues he, "I am not at liberty publicly to undraw +the curtain, and openly to descant on this head; it is sacred, and +ever will remain so; those who are honored with the trust will not +reveal it, and those who are ignorant of it cannot betray it." By +this last part of the phrase, Smith means the two inferior classes, +the Fellow Craft and the Entered Apprentice, for he says in the +next page of his work, "It is not every one that is barely +initiated into Free-Masonry that is entrusted with all the +mysteries thereto belonging; they are not attainable as things of +course, nor by every capacity." + + The learned, but unfortunate Doctor Dodd, Grand Chaplain of +Masonry, in his oration at the dedication of Free-Mason's Hall, +London, traces Masonry through a variety of stages. Masons, says +he, are well informed from their own private and interior records +that the building of Solomon's Temple is an important era, from +whence they derive many mysteries of their art. "Now (says he,) be +it remembered that this great event took place above 1000 years +before the Christian era, and consequently more than a century +before Homer, the first of the Grecian Poets, wrote; and above five +centuries before Pythagoras brought from the east his sublime +system of truly masonic instruction to illuminate. our western +world. But, remote as this period is, we date not from thence the +commencement of our art. For though it might owe to the wise and +glorious King of Israel some of its many mystic forms and +hieroglyphic ceremonies, yet certainly the art itself is coeval +with man, the great subject of it. "We trace," continues he, "its +footsteps in the most distant, the most remote ages and nations of +the world. We find it among the first and most celebrated + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 2 + + ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. + +civilizers of the East. We deduce it regularly from the first +astronomers on the plains of Chaldea, to the wise and mystic kings +and priests of Egypt, the sages of Greece, and the philosophers of +Rome." + + From these reports and declarations of Masons of the highest +order in the institution, we see that Masonry, without publicly +declaring so, lays claim to some divine communication from the +creator, in a manner different from, and unconnected with, the book +which the christians call the bible; and the natural result from +this is, that Masonry is derived from some very ancient religion, +wholly independent of and unconnected with that book. + + To come then at once to the point, Masonry (as I shall show +from the customs, ceremonies, hieroglyphics, and chronology of +Masonry) is derived and is the remains of the religion of the +ancient Druids; who, like the Magi of Persia and the Priests of +Heliopolis in Egypt, were Priests of the Sun. They paid worship to +this great luminary, as the great visible agent of a great +invisible first cause whom they styled " Time without limits." +[NOTE: Zarvan-Akarana. This personification of Boundless Time, +though a part of Parsee Theology, seems to be a later monotheistic +dogma, based on perversions of the Zendavesta. See Haug's "Religion +of the Parsees." -- Editor.] + + The christian religion and Masonry have one and the same +common origin: both are derived from the worship of the Sun. The +difference between their origin is, that the christian religion is +a parody on the worship of the Sun, in which they put a man whom +they call Christ, in the place of the Sun, and pay him the same +adoration which was originally paid to the Sun, as I have shown in +the chapter on the origin of the Christian religion. [NOTE: +Referring to an unpublished portion of the work of which this +chapter forms a part. -- American Editor, 1819 [This paragraph is +omitted from the pamphlet copyrighted by Madame Bonneville in 1810, +as also is the last sentence of the next paragraph. -- Editor.] + + In Masonry many of the ceremonies of the Druids are preserved +in their original state, at least without any parody. With them the +Sun is still the Sun; and his image, in the form of the sun is the +great emblematical ornament of Masonic Lodges and Masonic dresses. +It is the central figure on their aprons, and they wear it also +pendant on the breast in their lodges, and in their processions. It +has the figure of a man, as at the head of the sun, as Christ is +always represented. + + At what period of antiquity, or in what nation, this religion +was first established, is lost in the labyrinth of unrecorded time. +It is generally ascribed to the ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians +and Chaldeans, and reduced afterwards to a system regulated by the +apparent progress of the sun through the twelve signs of Zodiac by +Zoroaster the law giver of Persia, from whence Pythagoras brought +it into Greece. It is to these matters Dr. Dodd refers in the +passage already quoted from his oration. + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 3 + + ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. + + The worship of the Sun as the great visible agent of a great +invisible first cause, "Time without limits," spread itself over a +considerable part of Asia and Africa, from thence to Greece and +Rome, through all ancient Gaul, and into Britain and Ireland. + + Smith, in his chapter on the antiquity of Masonry in Britain, +says, that "notwithstanding the obscurity which envelopes Masonic +history in that country, various circumstances contribute to prove +that Free-Masonry was introduced into Britain about 1030 Years +before Christ." It cannot be Masonry in its present state that +Smith here alludes to. The Druids flourished in Britain at the +period he speaks of, and it is from them that Masonry is descended. +Smith has put the child in the place of the parent. + + It sometimes happens, as well in writing as in conversation, +that a person lets slip an expression that serves to unravel what +he intends to conceal, and this is the case with Smith, for in the +same chapter he says, "The Druids, when they committed any thing to +writing, used the Greek alphabet, and I am bold to assert that the +most perfect remains of the Druids' rites and ceremonies are +preserved in the customs and ceremonies of the Masons that are to +be found existing among mankind." "My brethren" says he, "may be +able to trace them with greater exactness than I am at liberty to +explain to the public." + + This is a confession from a Master Mason, without intending it +to be so understood by the public, that Masonry is the remains of +the religion of the Druids; the reasons for the Masons keeping this +a secret I shall explain in the course of this work. + + As the study and contemplation of the Creator [is] in the +works of the creation, the Sun, as the great visible agent of that +Being, was the visible object of the adoration of Druids; all their +religious rites and ceremonies had reference to the apparent +progress of the Sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and his +influence upon the earth. The Masons adopt the same practices. The +roof of their Temples or Lodges is ornamented with a Sun, and the +floor is a representation of the variegated face of the earth +either by carpeting or Mosaic work. + + Free Masons Hall, in Great Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, +London, is a magnificent building, and cost upwards of 12,000 +pounds sterling. Smith, in speaking of this building, says (page +152,) "The roof of this magnificent Hall is in all probability the +highest piece of finished architecture in Europe. In the center of +this roof, a most resplendent Sun is represented in burnished gold, +surrounded with the twelve signs of the Zodiac, with their +respective characters; + + Aries Libra + Taurus Scorpio + Gemini Sagittarius + Cancer Capricorns + Leo Aquarius + Virgo Pisces + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 4 + + ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. + + After giving this description, he says, "The emblematical +meaning of the Sun is well known to the enlightened and inquisitive +Free-Mason; and as the real Sun is situated in the center of the +universe, so the emblematical Sun is the center of real Masonry. We +all know (continues he) that the Sun is the fountain of light, the +source of the seasons, the cause of the vicissitudes of day and +night, the parent of vegetation, the friend of man; hence the +scientific Free-Mason only knows the reason why the Sun is placed +in the center of this beautiful hall." + + The Masons, in order to protect themselves from the +persecution of the christian church, have always spoken in a +mystical manner of the figure of the Sun in their Lodges, or, like +the astronomer Lalande, who is a Mason, been silent upon the +subject. It is their secret, especially in Catholic countries, +because the figure of the Sun is the expressive criterion that +denotes they are descended from the Druids, and that wise, elegant, +philosophical religion, was the faith opposite to the faith of the +gloomy Christian church. [NOTE: This sentence is omitted in Madame +Bonneville's publication. -- Editor.] + + The Lodges of the Masons, if built for the purpose, are +constructed in a manner to correspond with the apparent motion of +the Sun. They are situated East and West. [NOTE: The Freemason's +Hall in London, which Paine has correctly described, is situated +North and South, the exigencies of the space having been too strong +for Masonic orthodoxy. Though nominally eastward the Master stands +at the South. -- Editor.] The master's place is always in the East. +In the examination of an Entered Apprentice, the Master, among many +other questions, asks him, + + Q. How is the lodge situated? + A. East and West. + Q. Why so? + A. Because all churches and chapels are, or ought to be + so." + + This answer, which is mere catechismal form, is not an answer +to the question. It does no more than remove the question a point +further, which is, why ought all churches and chapels to be so? But +as the Entered Apprentice is not initiated into the druidical +mysteries of Masonry, he is not asked any questions a direct answer +to which would lead thereto. + + Q. Where stands your Master? + A. In the East. + Q. Why so? + A. As the Sun rises in the East and opens the day, so the + Master stands in the East, (with his right hand upon + his left breast, being a sign, and the square about + his neck,) to open the Lodge, and set his men at work. + + Q. Where stand your Wardens? + A. In the West. + Q. What is their business? + A. As the Sun sets in the West to close the day, so the + Wardens stand in the West, (with their right hands + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 5 + + ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. + + upon their left breasts, being a sign, and the level + and plumb rule about their necks,) to close the Lodge, + and dismiss the men from labor, paying them their + wages." + + Here the name of the Sun is mentioned, but it is proper to +observe that in this place it has reference only to labor or to the +time of labor, and not to any religious druidical rite or ceremony, +as it would have with respect to the situation of Lodges East and +West. I have already observed in the chapter on the origin of the +christian religion, that the situation of churches East and West is +taken from the worship of the Sun, which rises in the east, and has +not the least reference to the person called Jesus Christ. The +christians never bury their dead on the North side of a church; +[NOTE: In many parts of Northern Europe the North was supposed to +be the region of demons. Executed criminals were buried on the +north side of churches. -- Editor.] and a Mason's Lodge always has, +or is supposed to have, three windows which are called fixed +lights, to distinguish them from the moveable lights of the Sun and +the Moon. The Master asks the Entered Apprentice, + + Q. How are they (the fixed lights) situated? + A. East, West, and South. + Q. What are their uses? + A. To light the men to and from their work. + Q. Why are there no lights in the North? + A. Because the Sun darts no rays from thence." + + This, among numerous other instances, shows that the christian +religion and Masonry have one and the same common origin, the +ancient worship of the Sun. + + The high festival of the Masons is on the day they call St. +John's day; but every enlightened Mason must know that holding +their festival on this day has no reference to the person called +St. John, and that it is only to disguise the true cause of holding +it on this day, that they call the day by that name. As there were +Masons, or at least Druids, many centuries before the time of St. +John, if such person ever existed, the holding their festival on +this day must refer to some cause totally unconnected with John. + + The case is, that the day called St. John's day, is the 24th +of June, and is what is called Midsummer-day. The sun is then +arrived at the summer solstice; and, with respect to his meridional +altitude, or height at high noon, appears for some days to be of +the same height. The astronomical longest day, like the shortest +day, is not every year, on account of leap year, on the same +numerical day, and therefore the 24th of June is always taken for +Midsummer-day; and it is in honor of the sun, which has then +arrived at his greatest height in our hemisphere, and not any thing +with respect to St. John, that this annual festival of the Masons, +taken from the Druids, is celebrated on Midsummer-day. + + Customs will often outlive the remembrance of their origin, +and this is the case with respect to a custom still practiced in +Ireland, where the Druids flourished at the time they flourished in +Britain. On the eve of Saint John's day, that is, on the eve of + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 6 + + ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. + +Midsummer-day, the Irish light fires on the tops of the hills. This +can have no reference to St. John; but it has emblematical +reference to the sun, which on that day is at his highest summer +elevation, and might in common language be said to have arrived at +the top of the hill. + + As to what Masons, and books of Masonry, tell us of Solomon's +Temple at Jerusalem, it is no wise improbable that some Masonic +ceremonies may have been derived from the building of that temple, +for the worship of the Sun was in practice many centuries before +the Temple existed, or before the Israelites came out of Egypt. And +we learn from the history of the Jewish Kings, 2 Kings xxii. xxiii. +that the worship of the Sun was performed by the Jews in that +Temple. It is, however, much to be doubted if it was done with the +same scientific purity and religious morality with which it was +performed by the Druids, who, by all accounts that historically +remain of them, were a wise, learned, and moral class of men. The +Jews, on the contrary, were ignorant of astronomy, and of science +in general, and if a religion founded upon astronomy fell into +their hands, it is almost certain it would be corrupted. We do not +read in the history of the Jews, whether in the Bible or elsewhere, +that they were the inventors or the improvers of any one art or +science. Even in the building of this temple, the Jews did not know +how to square and frame the timber for beginning and carrying on +the work, and Solomon was obliged to send to Hiram, King of Tyre +(Zidon) to procure workmen; "for thou knowest, (says Solomon to +Hiram, i Kings v. 6.) that there is not among us any that can skill +to hew timber like unto the Zidonians." This temple was more +properly Hiram's Temple than Solomon's, and if the Masons derive +any thing from the building of it, they owe it to the Zidonians and +not to the Jews. -- But to return to the worship of the Sun in this +Temple. + + It is said, 2 Kings xxiii. 5, "And [king Josiah] put down all +the idolatrous priests ... that burned incense unto ... the sun, +the moon, the planets, and all the host of heaven." And it is said +at the 11th verse: "And he took away the horses that the kings of +Judah had given to the Sun, at the entering in of the house of the +Lord, ... and burned the chariots of the Sun with fire"; verse 13, +"And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the +right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of +Israel had builded for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Zidonians" +(the very people that built the temple) "did the king defile." + + Besides these things, the description that Josephus gives of +the decorations of this Temple, resembles on a large scale those of +a Mason's Lodge. He says that the distribution of the several parts +of the Temple of the Jews represented all nature, particularly the +parts most apparent of it, as the sun, the moon, the planets, the +zodiac, the earth, the elements; and that the system of the world +was retraced there by numerous ingenious emblems. These, in all +probability, are, what Josiah, in his ignorance, calls the +abominations of the Zidonians. [NOTE by PAINE: Smith, in speaking +of a Lodge, says, when the Lodge is revealed to an entering Mason, +it discovers to him a representation of the World; in which, from +the wonders of nature, we are led to contemplate her great +original, and worship him from his mighty works; and we are thereby + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 7 + + ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. + +also moved to exercise those moral and social virtues which become +mankind as the servants of the great Architect of the world. -- +Author.] Every thing, however, drawn from this Temple [NOTE by +PAINE: It may not be improper here to observe, that the law called +the law of Moses could not have been in existence at the time of +building this Temple. Here is the likeness of things in heaven +above and in earth beneath. And we read in I Kings vi., vii., that +Solomon made cherubs and cherubims, that he carved all the walls of +the house round about with cherubims, and palm-trees, and open +flowers, and that he made a molten sea, placed on twelve oxen, and +the ledges of it were ornamented with lions, oxen, and cherubims: +all this is contrary to the law called the law of Moses. -- +Author.] and applied to Masonry, still refers to the worship of the +Sun, however corrupted or misunderstood by the Jews, and +consequently to the religion of the Druids. + + Another circumstance, which shows that Masonry is derived from +some ancient system, prior to and unconnected with the christian +religion, is the chronology, or method of counting time, used by +the Masons in the records of their Lodges. They make no use of what +is called the christian era; and they reckon their months +numerically, as the ancient Egyptians did, and as the Quakers do +now. I have by me, a record of a French Lodge, at the time the late +Duke of Orleans, then Duke de Chartres, was Grand Master of Masonry +in France. It begins as follows: "Le trentieme jour du sixieme mois +de l'an de la V.L. cinq mille sept cent soixante treize;" that is, +the thirteenth day of the sixth month of the year of the Venerable +Lodge, five thousand seven hundred and seventy-three. By what I +observe in English books of Masonry, the English Masons use the +initials A.L. and not V.L. By A.L. they mean in the year of Light, +as the Christians by A.D. mean in the year of our Lord. But A.L. +like V.L. refers to the same chronological era, that is, to the +supposed time of the creation. [NOTE: V.L. are the initials of +Vraie Lumiere, true light; and A.L. of Anne Lucis, in the year of +light. This and the three preceding sentences (of the text) are +suppressed in Madame Bonneville's pamphlet, 1810. -- Editor.] In +the chapter on the origin of the Christian religion, I have shown +that the Cosmogony, that is, the account of the creation with which +the book of Genesis opens, has been taken and mutilated from the +Zend-Avesta of Zoroaster, and was fixed as a preface to the Bible +after the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon, and that the +Robbins of the Jews do not hold their account in Genesis to be a +fact, but mere allegory. The six thousand years in the Zend-Avesta, +is changed or interpolated into six days in the account of Genesis. +The Masons appear to have chosen the same period, and perhaps to +avoid the suspicion and persecution of the Church, have adopted the +era of the world, as the era of Masonry. The V.L. of the French, +and A.L. of the English Mason, answer to the A.M. Anno Mundi, or +year of the world. + + Though the Masons have taken many of their ceremonies and +hieroglyphics from the ancient Egyptians, it is certain they have +not taken their chronology from thence. If they had, the church +would soon have sent them to the stake; as the chronology of the +Egyptians, like that of the Chinese, goes many thousand years +beyond the Bible chronology. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 8 + + ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. + + The religion of the Druids, as before said, was the same as +the religion of the ancient Egyptians. The priests of Egypt were +the professors and teachers of science, and were styled priests of +Heliopolis, that is, of the City of the Sun. The Druids in Europe, +who were the same order of men, have their name from the Teutonic +or ancient German language; the German being anciently called +Teutones. The word Druid signifies a wise man. [NOTE: German drud, +wizard. Cf. Milton's line: "The star-led wizards haste with odours +sweet." The word Druid has also been derived from Greek ####;, an +oak; Celtic 'deru,' an oak and 'ndd,' lord; British 'deruidhon,' +very wise men; Heb. 'derussim,' contemplators; etc. -- Editor.] In +Persia they were called Magi, which signifies the same thing. + + Egypt," says Smith, "from whence we derive many of our +mysteries, has always borne a distinguished rank in history, and +was once celebrated above all others for its antiquities, learning, +opulence, and fertility. In their system, their principal hero- +gods, Osiris and Isis, theologically represented the Supreme Being +and universal Nature; and physically the two great celestial +luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, by whose influence all nature was +actuated." "The experienced brethren of the society, [says Smith in +a note to this passage] are well informed what affinity these +symbols bear to Masonry, and why they are used in all Masonic +Lodges." In speaking of the apparel of the Masons in their Lodges, +part of which, as we see in their public processions, is a white +leather apron, he says, "the Druids were apparelled in white at the +time of their sacrifices and solemn offices. The Egyptian priests +of Osiris wore snow-white cotton. The Grecian and most other +priests wore white garments. As Masons, we regard the principles of +those 'who were the first worshipers of the true God,' imitate +their apparel, and assume the badge of innocence." + + "The Egyptians," continues Smith, "in the earliest ages +constituted a great number of Lodges, but with assiduous care kept +their secrets of Masonry from all strangers. These secrets have +been imperfectly handed down to us by oral tradition only, and +ought to be kept undiscovered to the laborers, craftsmen, and +apprentices, till by good behavior and long study they become +better acquainted in geometry and the liberal arts, and thereby +qualified for Masters and Wardens, which is seldom or never the +case with English Masons." + + Under the head of Free-Masonry, written by the astronomer +Lalande, in the French Encyclopedia, I expected from his great +knowledge in astronomy, to have found much information on the +origin of Masonry; for what connection can there be between any +institution and the Sun and twelve signs of the Zodiac, if there be +not something in that institution, or in its origin, that has +reference to astronomy? Every thing used as an hieroglyphic has +reference to the subject and purpose for which it is used; and we +are not to suppose the Free-Masons, among whom are many very +learned and scientific men, to be such idiots as to make use of +astronomical signs without some astronomical purpose. But I was +much disappointed in my expectation from Lalande. In speaking of +the origin of Masonry, he says, "L'orgine de la maconnerie se Perd, +comme tant d'autres, dans l'obscurite des termps;" That is, the +origin of Masonry, like many others, loses itself in the obscurity + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 9 + + ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. + +of time. When I came to this expression, I supposed Lalande a +Mason, and on enquiry found he was. This passing over saved him +from the embarrassment which Masons are under respecting the +disclosure of their origin, and which they are sworn to conceal. +There is a society of Masons in Dublin who take the name of Druids; +these Masons must be supposed to have a reason for taking that +name. + + I come now to speak of the cause of secrecy used by the +Masons. + + The natural source of secrecy is fear. When any new religion +over-runs a former religion, the professors of the new become the +persecutors of the old. We see this in all instances that history +brings before us. When Hilkiah the priest and Shaphan the scribe, +in the reign of King Josiah, found, or pretended to find, the law, +called the law of Moses, a thousand years after the time of Moses, +(and it does not appear from 2 Kings, xxii., xxiii., that such a +law was ever practiced or known before the time of Josiah), he +established that law as a national religion, and put all the +priests of the Sun to death. When the christian religion over-ran +the Jewish religion, the Jews were the continual subject of +persecution in all christian countries. When the Protestant +religion in England over-ran the Roman Catholic religion, it was +made death for a Catholic priest to be found in England. As this +has been the case in all the instances we have any knowledge of, we +are obliged to admit it with respect to the case in question, and +that when the christian religion over-ran the religion of the +Druids in Italy, ancient Gaul, Britain, and Ireland, the Druids +became the subject of persecution. This would naturally and +necessarily oblige such of them as remained attached to their +original religion to meet in secret, and under the strongest +injunctions of secrecy. Their safety depended upon it. A false +brother might expose the lives of many of them to destruction; and +from the remains of the religion of the Druids, thus preserved, +arose the institution which, to avoid the name of Druid, took that +of Mason, and practiced under this new name the rites and +ceremonies of Druids. + + + + + + + + + **** **** + + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + + **** **** + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 10 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/mayday.txt b/religious documents/mayday.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..41691c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mayday.txt @@ -0,0 +1,195 @@ + A Celebration of + M A Y D A Y + + --by Gwydion Cinhil Kirontin + + * * * * * * + "Perhaps its just as well that you + won't be here...to be offended by the + sight of our May Day celebrations." + --Lord Summerisle to Sgt. Howie + from "The Wicker Man" + * * * * * * + + There are four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year and +the modern Witch's calendar, as well. The two greatest of these +are Halloween (the beginning of winter) and May Day (the +beginning of summer). Being opposite each other on the wheel of +the year, they separate the year into halves. Halloween (also +called Samhain) is the Celtic New Year and is generally +considered the more important of the two, though May Day runs a +close second. Indeed, in some areas -notably Wales - it is +considered the great holiday. + + May Day ushers in the fifth month of the modern calendar +year, the month of May. This month is named in honor of the +goddess Maia, originally a Greek mountain nymph, later identified +as the most beautiful of the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades. By +Zeus, she is also the mother of Hermes, god of magic. Maia's +parents were Atlas and Pleione, a sea nymph. + + The old Celtic name for May Day is Beltane (in its most +popular Anglicized form), which is derived from the Irish Gaelic +"Bealtaine" or the Scottish Gaelic "Bealtuinn", meaning "Bel- +fire", the fire of the Celtic god of light (Bel, Beli or +Belinus). He, in turn, may be traced to the Middle Eastern god +Baal. + + Other names for May Day include: Cetsamhain ("opposite +Samhain"), Walpurgisnacht (in Germany), and Roodmas (the medieval +Church's name). This last came from Church Fathers who were +hoping to shift the common people's allegiance from the Maypole +(Pagan lingam - symbol of life) to the Holy Rood (the Cross - +Roman instrument of death). + + Incidentally, there is no historical justification for +calling May 1st "Lady Day". For hundreds of years, that title +has been proper to the Vernal Equinox (approx. March 21st), +another holiday sacred to the Great Goddess. The nontraditional +use of "Lady Day" for May 1st is quite recent (within the last 15 +years), and seems to be confined to America, where it has gained +widespread acceptance among certain segments of the Craft +population. This rather startling departure from tradition would +seem to indicate an unfamiliarity with European calendar customs, +as well as a lax attitude toward scholarship among too many +Pagans. A simple glance at a dictionary ("Webster's 3rd" or +O.E.D.), excyclopedia ("Benet's"), or standard mythology +reference (Jobe's "Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore & Symbols") +would confirm the correct date for Lady Day as the Vernal +Equinox. + + By Celtic reckoning, the actual Beltane celebration begins on +sundown of the preceding day, April 30, because the Celts always +figured their days from sundown to sundown. And sundown was the +proper time for Druids to kindle the great Bel-fires on the tops +of the nearest beacon hill (such as Tara Hill, Co. Meath, in +Ireland). These "need-fires" had healing properties, and sky- +clad Witches would jump through the flames to ensure protection. + + * * * * * * + Sgt. Howie (shocked): "But they + are naked!" + Lord Summerisle: "Naturally. + It's much too dangerous to jump + through the fire with your + clothes on!" + * * * * * * + + Frequently, cattle would be driven between two such bon-fires +(oak wood was the favorite fuel for them) and, on the morrow, +they would be taken to their summer pastures. + + Other May Day customs include: processions of chimney-sweeps +and milk maids, archery tournaments, morris dances, sword dances, +feasting, music, drinking, and maidens bathing their faces in the +dew of May morning to retain their youthful beauty. + + In the words of Witchcraft writers Janet and Stewart Farrar, +the Beltane celebration was principly a time of "...unashamed +human sexuality and fertility." Such associations include the +obvious phallic symbolism of the Maypole and riding the hobby +horse. Even a seemingly innocent children's nursery rhyme, "Ride +a cock horse to Banburry Cross..." retain such memories. And the +next line "...to see a fine Lady on a white horse" is a reference +to the annual ride of "Lady Godiva" though Coventry. Every year +for nearly three centuries, a sky-clad village maiden (elected +Queen of the May) enacted this Pagan rite, until the Puritans put +an end to the custom. + + The Puritans, in fact, reacted with pious horror to most of +the May Day rites, even making Maypoles illegal in 1644. They +especially attempted to suppress the "greenwood marriages" of +young men and women who spent the entire night in the forest, +staying out to greet the May sunrise, and bringing back boughs of +flowers and garlands to decorate the village the next morning. +One angry Puritan wrote that men "doe use commonly to runne into +woodes in the night time, amongst maidens, to set bowes, in so +muche, as I have hearde of tenne maidens whiche went to set May, +and nine of them came home with childe." And another Puritan +complained that, of the girls who go into the woods, "not the +least one of them comes home again a virgin." + + Long after the Christian form of marriage (with its +insistance on sexual monogamy) had replaced the older Pagan +handfasting, the rules of strict fidelity were always relaxed for +the May Eve rites. Names such as Robin Hood, Maid Marion, and +Little John played an important part in May Day folklore, often +used as titles for the dramatis personae of the celebrations. +And modern surnames such as Robinson, Hodson, Johnson, and Godkin +may attest to some distant May Eve spent in the woods. + + These wildwood antics have inspired writers such as Kipling: + + Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight, + Or he would call it a sin; + But we have been out in the woods all night, + A-conjuring Summer in! + +And Lerner and Lowe: + + It's May! It's May! + The lusty month of May!... + Those dreary vows that ev'ryone takes, + Ev'ryone breaks. + Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes! + The lusty month of May! + + It is certainly no accident that Queen Guinevere's +"abduction" by Meliagrance occurs on May 1st when she and the +court have gone a-Maying, or that the usually efficient Queen's +guard, on this occasion, rode unarmed. + + Some of these customs seem virtually identical to the old +Roman feast of flowers, the Floriala, three days of unrestrained +sexuality which began at sundown April 28th and reached a +crescendo on May 1st. + + By the way, due to various calendrical changes down through +the centuries, the traditional date of Beltane is not the same as +its astrological date. This date, like all astronomically +determined dates, may vary by a day or two depending on the year. +However, it may be calculated easily enough by determining the +date on which the sun is at 15 degrees Taurus. British Witches +often refer to this date as Old Beltane, and folklorists call it +Beltane O.S. ("Old Style"). Some Covens prefer to celebrate on +the old date and, at the very least, it gives one options. If a +Coven is operating on "Pagan Standard Time" and misses May 1st +altogether, it can still throw a viable Beltane bash as long as +it's before this date. This may also be a consideration for +Covens that need to organize activities around the week-end. + + This date has long been considered a "power point" of the +Zodiac, and is symbolized by the Bull, one of the four +"tetramorph" figures featured on the Tarot cards the World and +the Wheel of Fortune. (The other three are the Lion, the Eagle, +and the Spirit.) Astrologers know these four figures as the +symbols of the four "fixed" signs of the Zodiac (Taurus, Leo, +Scorpio, and Aquarius, respectively), and these naturally allign +with the four Great Sabbats of Witchcraft. Christians have +adopted the same iconography to represent the four gospel- +writers. + + But for most, it is May 1st that is the great holiday of +flowers, Maypoles, and greenwood frivolity. It is no wonder +that, as recently as 1977, Ian Anderson could pen the following +lyrics for Jethro Tull: + + For the May Day is the great day, + Sung along the old straight track. + And those who ancient lines did ley + Will heed this song that calls them back. + + THE END + +P.S.--I would be glad of any comments, corrections, additions, +etc. regarding this article. Please E-mail them to Mike Nichols +(a.k.a. Gwydion Cinhil Kirontin) 73445,1074 + +P.P.S.--A special thank you to "The Rune", Kansas City's premiere +Pagan publication for permission to reprint this article, which +originally ran in a somewhat condensed form there. + +P.P.P.S.--Please feel free to reprint this article wherever you +see fit. I ask only that I be given credit as the author. Also, +it would be nice if you could drop me an E-mail note and let me +know where you are using it. Thanx! diff --git a/religious documents/mccrit01.txt b/religious documents/mccrit01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..268699f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mccrit01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,200 @@ + + GREEK FIRE INITIATION + + + Cast of Characters + + Tiresias:____________ + + Hephaestus:____________ + + Artemis:____________ + + Apollo:____________ + + Hestia:____________ + + Prometheus:____________ + + Seeker:____________ + + + + In casting the circle, when calling the Quarters you are free to use + your own words but we ask that you use Greek styling and personify with + the names of the four Greek winds: + + North: Boreus + East: Eurus + South: Notus + West: Zephyrus + + Tiresias seated north of altar rises, goes around to face altar, and + invokes God and Goddess in a Greek style using these two triumverates: + + GOD + Zeus: Strength + Hades: Knowledge + Poseidon: Emotion + + GODDESS + Hera: Power + Athena: Wisdom + Aphrodite: Love + + + He then step back and says: "We have been called forth from the edges of + Time and Space by one who seeks entry to the Halls of Olympus. I am + Tiresias, Prophet of Thebes, who, though blind, shall be his guide. + Seeker, come forth!" + + Seeker approaches circle at north-east point of Circle. + + Tiresias: "Who seeks entry to Olympus?" + Seeker: "I, __________. + Tiresias: "Before you enter, gaze upon one who sought what was not + rightfully his. Do you still desire entry?" + Seeker replies. + Tiresias: (If no, he leaves and circle is closed. If yes): "Then + enter and ask passage of the Guardians of the Gods." + Seeker enters and they travel 1 1/8 to North. + + Tiresias: "Hail, Mighty Hephaestus, Craftsman of the Gods. With me is + one who seeks entry to Olympus." + Hephaestus: "How are you known, Seeker?" + Seeker: "I am called __________." + Hephaestus: "By what right seek you passage through the North?" + Seeker: "I have endured a year of the path of Earth and learned of my + own mortality." + Hephaestus: "Pass with the Blessings of the Earth." + They travel around 1 1/4 to East. + + Tiresias: "Hail, Vigilant Artemis, Virgin Goddess. With me is one who + seeks entry to Olympus." + Artemis: "How are you known, Seeker?" + Seeker: "I am called __________." + Artemis: "By what right seek you passage through the East?" + Seeker: "I have endured a year of the path of Air and have learned the + need for focus of will." + Artemis: "Pass with the Blessings of the Air." + They travel around 1 1/4 to South. + + Tiresias: "Hail, Bright Apollo, Lord of the Sun. With me is one who + seeks entry to Olympus." + Apollo: "How are you known, Seeker?" + Seeker: "I am called __________." + Apollo: "By what right seek you passage through the South?" + Seeker has no answer. + Apollo: "You have not yet earned the right to pass through the South. + To win this right, you must seek Fire from he who first gave + it to Mankind, Prometheus. Tiresias, guard him upon his path + of Fire that he learn what he needs to face the Titan." + They travel around 1 1/2 to North. + + Tiresias: "I come with __________, who now seeks Prometheus that he may + gain the right to Fire. What can you teach him that will + ease his path?" + Hephaestus: "Know that I am Hephaestus, Craftsman and Smith of the Gods. + In my labors, I use Fire as a purifying agent, seperating + the metal from the stone, and for the actual forging of my + Art. But remember that creativity requires forethought. + Daedalus was a Master of my Craft, yet rarely considered + the implications of his creations. He created the + Labyrinth of Minos, who then imprisoned him within its + intricasies. He crafted wing that he and his son might + escape, yet in their flight Icarus died. Always consider + the consequences of the which you create." + They travel 1 1/4 around to East. + + Tiresias: "I come with __________, who now seeks Prometheus that he may + gain the right to Fire. What can you teach him that will + ease his path?" + Artemis: "Know that I am Artemis, Virgin Huntress. Through my will, no + man has ever known me. Yet will must be tempered by + intellegence. Remember Otus and Ephialtes, twin giants who + were arrogant enough to think themselves better than the Gods. + They continued their ill-wrought plans, even after Poseidon + warned them. Through supposed desire, they chose to pursue + me. They seperated in pursuit of what they saw as a white + hind, and, with simultaneous throws, slew each other. Thus + blind will caused the death of all they truly loved." + They travel 1 1/4 around to the South + + Tiresias: "I come with __________, who now seeks Prometheus that he may + gain the right to Fire. What can you teach him that will + ease his path?" + Apollo: "Know that I am Apollo, God of the Sun and Keeper of Knowledge. + Knowledge of Fire has allowed Man to forge a civilization. But + seeking to advance without can lead to catastrophe. Witness + Phaethon, who attempted to drive the Sun Chariot without proper + knowledge, nearly causing the incineration of the Earth. + Action without knowledge will often lead to ruin." + They travel around 1 1/4 to the West. + + Tiresias: "I come with __________, who now seeks Prometheus that he may + gain the right to Fire. What can you teach him that will + ease his path?" + Hestia: "Know that I am Hestia, Goddess of Hearth and Home. The warm + glow of emotion in balance is vital for proper growth and life. + But when emotions are allowed to rule above all else, tragedy + is soon to follow. Consider Paris, who upon seeing Helen, + bowed to an all-consuming desire for her, kidnapping her + without thought of the consequences. Thus began the Trojan + War. Do not bury your emotions, but neither should you elevate + them to the level of Ruler. + They travel 1 3/4 around to the South. Tiresias alone goes to altar and + faces Seeker. + + Tiresias: "Seeker, are you prepared to face Prometheus himself with your + request?" + Seeker: "I am." + Tiresias: "Then come forward and call him forth." + Seeker goes to altar facing North. + + Seeker: "From the depths of Time, I call you forth. Arise Prometheus, + Lightbringer." + From within the members in the Circle, Prometheus rises and goes to north + side of altar. + + Prometheus: "I am Prometheus. Who summons me here?" + Seeker: "I am __________." + Prometheus: "Why have you brought me here from the depths of Time?" + Seeker: "I seek the Gift of Fire." + Prometheus: "And by what right do you ask it? + Seeker: "By the right of perfect love and perfect trust." + Prometheus: "Then know that you are well met. I will grant you Fire and + its path for a year and a day that you might learn its + lessons. The most important lesson it can teach you is the + need for thought before action of any kind. You must + always consider the consequences of all that you do or say. + At the end of your time on this path, you will be judged on + your fitness to continue your search." + Prometheus gives Seeker a token of Fire. + Prometheus: "With my service done, I bid you farewell." + Prometheus leaves, blending into Circle. + Tiresias: "Well done, most noble Seeker.Please join us for the remainder + of our revels." + Seeker is given seat in Circle. Tiresias faces front of altar and + dismisses Deities using Greek styling and the following names: + + GOD + Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon + + GODDESS + Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite + + Each Quarter dismisses its element in a Greek style and dismisses the + appropriate Wind: + + NORTH: Boreas + EAST: Eurus + SOUTH: Notus + WEST: Zephyrus + + Tiresias: "Our work is completed for now. Let us rejoice and enjoy this + company, remembering that though we may go our seperate ways, we are + alway united as one. Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again!" + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/mccrit02.txt b/religious documents/mccrit02.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91ec89f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mccrit02.txt @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ + + GREEK FIRE INITIATION + + + Seeker's Copy + + + + Seeker approaches circle at north-east point of Circle when summoned. + + Seeker: "I, __________. + + Seeker replies to question. + + Seeker enters and they travel 1 1/8 to North. + + Seeker: "I am called __________." + + Seeker: "I have endured a year of the path of Earth and learned of my + own mortality." + + They travel around 1 1/4 to East. + + Seeker: "I am called __________." + + Seeker: "I have endured a year of the path of Air and have learned the + need for focus of will." + + They travel around 1 1/4 to South. + + Seeker: "I am called __________." + + Seeker has no answer. + + They travel around 1 1/2 to North. + + They travel 1 1/4 around to East. + + They travel 1 1/4 around to the South + + They travel around 1 1/4 to the West. + + They travel 1 3/4 around to the South. Tiresias alone goes to altar and + faces Seeker. + + Seeker: "I am." + + Seeker goes to altar facing North. + + Seeker: "From the depths of Time, I call you forth. Arise Prometheus, + Lightbringer." + + Seeker: "I am __________." + + Seeker: "I seek the Gift of Fire." + + Seeker: "By the right of perfect love and perfect trust." + + Seeker is given seat in Circle. + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/med_set.txt b/religious documents/med_set.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..caca1a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/med_set.txt @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ + +The author assumes no responsibility for what may result. The +psychologically immature and the emotionally unstable should not +attempt this! Those who refuse to face reality will most likely +wind up destroying themselves. + +Prepare to surrender yourself to the will of the Aeon! + +We will address the Prince of darkness in His original form as +"Set," Egyptian God of the Psyche. This allows the mystic an +untarnished appreciation of this most ancient and revered diety. +Once you begin to see "beneath the skin," the true nature of Satan +reveals Itself. + +This is not a "formal" ritual--it is a meditative exercize. + + +Physical Preparations +===================== + +The altar should be draped w/ a black cloth and the Pentagram of Set +should be present. + +Place a chair in front of the altar, making sure that the pentagram +is at eye level. A sterno holds the Black Flame. Black candles can +provide additional light, but should be used sparingly. + +Relax, while gazing into the pentagram, attempt to "project" your +consciousness into the symbol. Repeat these words - "I join with +Set." + +Once you have convinced yourself that you are "there" mentally, +imagine yourself merging, becoming one with th personality behind +the symbol. With total self-confidence, keep asserting "I am Set!" +Chant it softly. Feel it. Believe it. Do this no more than an hour +or so. + +Whe you are finished, put out the candles and go to bed. (The best +time for this is before sleeping.) + +NOTE: It is up to the mage whether or not to banish. (Be careful!) + + +Xeper + + (Taken from _Brimstone_, + journal of the Ancient + Brotherhood of Satan.) + diff --git a/religious documents/media.txt b/religious documents/media.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..21a6385 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/media.txt @@ -0,0 +1,350 @@ + + _REACTIVE_RESPONSE_AND_PROACTIVE_ENCOUNTER_ + _Dealing_with_the_Media_ + + This is a description of what WindFire Coven does to attract + positive media coverage: + + During the latest period of Satanism hysteria the energies + were flowing in a negative direction as far as Wicca is concerned. + The media loves controversy and knows that to have controversy + they must present more than one side of any given issue. + Consequently when planning some report that may be negative in + context they will go out of their way to present another view of + that same issue. + + Reactive Response + + This, of course, is reactive not pro-active in nature. This is + how WindFire got the media exposure the last two times. I'll start + with the Denver channel first. + + It was a few weeks after File 18 was given to each member of + WindFire that we dedicated a full moon ritual for magickal work + toward a solution. WindFire is not structured so every member got + to focus their power in their own way toward the solution. The + solution was to promote a positive understanding of Wicca in the + local mundane communities. + + The very next day, not 24 hours after the ritual, we got a + call from channel 7, Denver. They were in the Springs and wanted + to talk to some witches about ley lines and power spots. The two + person crew was at Celebration Book Store but the attendant didn't + want to be on. Fortunately the store attendant had our number and + called us. We talked with the camera crew and arranged an + immediate interview. + + Two considerations are important here. The first is that just + like any other form of magickal work the magick takes it's own + form. So be ready for anything. And two, when the media calls + they usually will not wait around for interviewees. Be prepared + for anything, at any moment. When the lightning strikes... + + Channel 7 told us that they were doing the interview to + balance out some of the reporting on Satanism, but they didn't + stress the fact that the report was about Satanism. Further we + didn't know enough to ask what the focus and content was for the + report. Always ask what the focus of the report is. You may find + yourself, just like WindFire, shocked that we are being visually, + if not verbally, associated with Satanism. + + For the interview, be positive. I can't stress that enough. + Smile and let them see that you are sincere in your faith in the + Goddess. Laugh. All the reporters see in Satanism is somber faces, + confessing their sins. Let them know that you are happy with your + path. Stress the difference between patriarchal monotheism and + pre-Christian, pre-Hebrew Goddess religion. Have your resources + ready for the reporter to look at if they need a quote for + something. Trot out your tools and instruments if you feel + comfortable with that. They love to see the various tools. You + don't have to show them all or any of your tools but it sure helps + them get a picture of what is going on. + + The media people like robes so wear your best. Covert groups + that have fears about discovery of illegal activities will not don + their robes or show their tools. By doing so you show that you are + not aligned with covert, illegal, fearful groups. And by + disassociation you show that you are doing nothing illegal or + dangerous. + + There are three parts of the interview: the preview, the + personal interviews and the ritual. In some or perhaps most cases, + the ritual can be left out. [Please note that these terms are + descriptive of their function, not their technical names. The + reporters may have a different technical name for them.] + + The preview is a time for the reporter to get to know the + members of the group, circle or coven. They will talk to you for a + period of time. For WindFire that was about an hour for each + camera crew. Please remember to be civil as a group and not blurt + things out all at once. Believe me it's hard not to do that in the + excitement. During the preview the reporter will select who they + want to interview. + + Personal interviews last about 10 minutes. The reporter will + generally select different questions for each interviewee. Be + prepared for some hard and personal questions. At the end of the + personal interview the reporter will sometimes ask if you have + anything particular to say to the public. Please don't waste this + opportunity. Have a personal message ready for the public. + + The ritual can be anything you feel comfortable with. We + generally choose a related focus such as increasing understanding + in the mundane public. The camera crews seem to like this. Be + patient, they may want you to duplicate some particular action for + different camera angle. Accommodate them when you can. We got + through a partial ritual before the second camera crew ran out of + tape. Don't forget to complete the ritual before them before you + let them leave. Be complete. + + Remember that there are generally two people in a camera crew, + the reporter and the camera operator. When the reporter is + previewing the coven have another witch talk to the camera + operator, telling them what the tools are for and what incenses + and crystals are used. Be discrete but talk to each and every + camera crew member because they all have input into the editing of + the tape. If the reporter has a good feeling about the coven but + the camera person thinks you stink you may have visual problems + later. Make sure each and every camera crew member goes away with + a warm fuzzy feeling. + + Offer them refreshments. They will generally refuse alcohol + but water, sodas, coffee and fruit juices are welcomed. Help the + crew as much as they will let you. If they need cables or + furniture moved, do so. + + Now for Channel 13 in Colorado Springs. This reporter was + doing a report on Satanism alone. Unfortunately the ONLY resource + she had was James McCarthy in Boulder. The reporter used the "S" + word, the "W" word and the "P" word all in the same sentence + without differentiating between the three. Admittedly the context + of the sentence was ritual. Still no differentiation was made. We + started a telephone campaign and had about 15 people call the + newsroom at the station and complain. + + Here it is especially good to not bitch unless you have a + solution. If you complain to a reporter do not leave them hanging + with no way to clean up the mess. Talk to them, give them your + phone number so they can call you back later. They are busy + people. Try to make sure they can successfully reach you, not your + children, not your message machine, not your dog. If you give them + your number and they don't call you back, call them. Find out what + the problem is. + + During the phone campaign we left the reporter numerous ways + to contact us. She did and we scheduled a time for the + interviews. We scheduled it for our regular weekly meeting time so + that all the members could be there and a generic ritual could be + filmed. Members who didn't want to be on film were situated so + that their faces were not on camera. The camera crew will do this + for you. They don't want to inadvertently expose unwilling and + innocent people to possible harassment. + + On the appointed day the camera crew showed up fashionably + late. We went through our usually horror story about being + butchered by the media in the past and they (both crews) were + sympathetic to our concerns. Don't be afraid to stress how badly + the media has treated witches, but don't bore them; everyone has a + story to tell but boredom is out these days. + + Let them see a generic ritual with a generic focus. The + immediate focus was understanding in the local community. That + works well so you might want to try that with your group or coven. + It impresses the camera crew so that they will be a little more + interested. + + Proactive Encounter + + Proactive means acting before something happens and puts you + in reactive response mode. + + Perhaps the best thing to do is to put together a packet that + you can send to your local media: Tv. stations, radio stations, + and newspapers, which also include your local neighborhood + weeklies if you're brave enough. + + Send a well put together packet to these medias and be sure + they can get in touch with you on a few days notice. You might + have more than one contact for your group, circle or coven. + WindFire has three or four. + + I suggest for this packet that you include three or four brief + statements from willing coven members, a longer essay on Wicca + with resources, the New Woman article, some artwork and poetry. + Include also a reading list of your favorite Wiccan authors. Be + sure to include names and numbers to call back. While the + reporters won't read everything they will probably read the brief + statements from your coven members and look at the reading list. + You might suggest book stores the reporters can find the reading + list books at. + + The main time of the year for reactive procedures is + Halloween. Funnymentalist just love to hammer us during Samhain. + So be proactive and let the media know how you view Samhain. Send + the media an article about Samhain about two weeks before. Let + them know that there are other views and that the funnymentalist + are slandering a perfectly good holiday. + + In fact you could emphasize any holiday/s that seems + appropriate for your area or group. Include your resources and/or + xerox copies of other articles you may find, with copyright if + needed, on any holiday you deem appropriate. + + Reactive Response Summary + + Be prepared to act at any moment if they should call you. Be + positive, smile and laugh a lot. Talk to all the camera crew + members. Let them know your concerns, stress the problems of the + past but don't offend the media people. Make it a magickal time + for all the people involved including the camera crews. Remember + to augment your mundane activity (interviews) before hand with + magickal work. + + Proactive Encounter Summary + + Prepare a good information packet. Sound like you know what + you are talking about. Don't be mousey. Be aggressive and call + them if you feel the need. Make sure they can return a call to + you successfully. If you get an interview be positive and firm. + Media people are strong people, they like other strong people. Be + prepared to act at any moment when they call you. Devote some + personal and collective magickal time for magickal work to attract + positive media attention. + + I'm sure that you will be challenged by the opportunities your + magick will bring you. The Goddess will bring your efforts to + full fruit if you are ready to support Her when the time comes. + It's not an overused saying to state that we should be prepared + for the effects of our own magick. + + AN UPDATE OF IMMEDIATE CONCERN + + Just before Halloween Channels 5/30 in Colorado Springs + interviewed WindFire Coven in the pro-active mode. The reporter + was concerned that her boss wanted a sensationalized segment on + witches to go with segments on Satanism and various local New Age + groups and psychics. She told us that she would try to talk her + boss out of sensationalizing the segment. No guarantees were given + and we accepted her word that she would try her best to represent + us fairly. WindFire Coven was filmed for four or five hours for + the 3 minute segment and some promotional footage. + + Some problems arose in the promotionals and broadcast that we + didn't anticipate. + + In the promotionals various members were visually associated + with Satanism by default, that is, Wiccans and Satanists were + shown together in the same promo without distinction. This caused + quite a lot of concern when clients and associates of those + involved either refused to speak to the involved or blamed them + for some unspecified hardship in their lives. To complicate the + matter one members face was overdubbed with a hags cackling. This + hurt the member greatly as she is nothing like the voice + indicated. + + MAKE SURE THAT YOUR PROMO IS YOUR OWN WITH NO VISUAL + ASSOCIATION TO ANY OTHER SEGMENT WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND + PERMISSION. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR MEMBERS FACES AND VOICES REMAIN + INTACT THROUGH THE PROMO AND BROADCAST. GET IT IN WRITING UNLESS + YOU ARE WILLING TO SEE THIS HAPPEN TO YOUR COVEN. REFUSE THE + INTERVIEW IF NECESSARY. + + During the broadcast and promos various tools, icons and + artifacts, including a piece of copyrighted artwork, were used in + others segments without our permission. + + MAKE SURE THAT YOUR TOOLS, ICONS, ARTIFACTS AND ARTWORK ARE + NOT USED IN ANOTHER CONTEXT WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND PERMISSION. + GET IT IN WRITING UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO SEE YOUR TOOLS, ICONS, + ARTIFACTS AND ARTWORK PROFANED BY USE IN AN INAPPROPRIATE CONTEXT. + + Another problem arose when the editors inserted a Christian + into our segment who said that Wicca was inappropriate because it + is not Christian. When asked why such was done the reporter + replied that it is good journalistic practice to offer two sides + of an issue. WindFire Coven feels that should a contemporary + religion be represented, such as the Jewish or the Mormon faith, + the station would not be as quick to put in dissenting views. We + feel that Channels 5/30 leaned toward promoting the stereotypical + image of witches by having a Christian define what we are and are + not. Such cannot be allowed to continue any longer. + + MAKE SURE THAT YOUR SEGMENT IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE. DO NOT + ALLOW THE EDITORS TO INSERT DISSENTING VIEWS IN YOUR SEGMENT. + DISSENTING VIEWS CAN BE PRESENTED IN ANOTHER SEGMENT DEDICATED + ENTIRELY FOR DISCUSSION OF DIFFERENCES. MAKE SURE THAT WICCA IS + REPRESENTED BY WICCANS, NOT BY CHRISTIANS, NOT BY NEW AGERS, NOT + BY LOCAL PSYCHICS. TAKE CONTROL OF THE INTERVIEW BEFORE IT TAKES + CONTROL OF YOUR COVEN. + + Blessed Be! + + Copyright (c) Ammond Shadowcraft Oct. 1988 + + -------- + This is an sample form to be used when reporters come to your + home to interview your circle or coven. + + -------- + WRITTEN AGREEMENTS AND GUARANTEES FOR INTERVIEW WITH WINDFIRE COVEN + Dated: ________________________ + + Note: For the purpose of this Agreement WindFire Coven is + termed the Interviewee and ______________________ is termed the + Interviewer. + + + The Interviewee agrees to accept reporters from the + Interviewer into their homes and/or sacred space to witness and + report seasonal and/or generic rituals, to photograph and film + tools, icons, artifacts, artwork, poetry and songs, to interview + the Coven and individual members, for a period not to exceed 24 + hours, providing that the following agreements are made: + + + The Interviewer will employ the usable or airable video + footage filmed, photographs and/or recordings of/during this + interview for any segment and/or report as a singular complete + segment and/or report and in such a way as to retain the original + context and atmosphere intended by the Interviewee. No other + individuals, religious faiths and/or religious groups will be + included in this segment/report without the express permission of + the Interviewee. + + + The Interviewer will employ the usable or airable video + footage filmed, photographs and/or recordings of/during this + interview for any promotion as a singular complete promotion and + in such a way as to retain the original context and atmosphere + intended by the Interviewee. No other individuals, religious + faiths and/or religious groups will be included in this promotion + without the express permission of the Interviewee. + + + The Interviewer will treat all persons, tools, icons, + artifacts, artwork, poetry and music filmed, photographed or + recorded as integral parts of the interview and will not use any + cassette, video or photographic representations of these + persons/items in any other context or external segment, report or + promotion without the express permission of the Interviewee. + + + ____________________________________________________ + For WINDFIRE COVEN (Interviewee) + + + ____________________________________________________ + For __________________________________ (Interviewer) + + + ____________________________________________________ + Witness + + + ____________________________________________________ + Witness + + + ____________________________________________________ + Witness + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/mediawfc.txt b/religious documents/mediawfc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14b686f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mediawfc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,203 @@ +Permission is granted to redistribute this article if the article is +unmodified. + + + _REACTIVE_RESPONSE_AND_PROACTIVE_ENCOUNTER_ + _Dealing_with_the_Media_ + +This is a description of what Windfire Coven does to attract positive media +coverage: + +During the latest period of Satanism hysteria the energies were flowing in +a negative direction as far as Wicca is concerned. The media loves +controversy and knows that to have controversy they must present more than +one side of any given issue. Consequently when planning some report that +may be negative in context they will go out of their way to present another +view of that same issue. + +Reactive Response + +This, of course, is reactive not pro-active in nature. This is how Windfire +got the media exposure the last two times. I'll start with the Denver +channel first. + +It was a few weeks after File 18 was given to each member of Windfire that +we dedicated a full moon ritual for magikal work toward a solution. +Windfire is not structured so every member got to focus their power in +their own way toward the solution. The solution was to promote a positive +understanding of Wicca in the local mundane communities. + +The very next day, not 24 hours after the ritual, we got a call from +channel 7, Denver. They were in the Springs and wanted to talk to some +witches about ley lines and power spots. The two person crew was at +Celebration Book Store but the attendant didn't want to be on camera. +Fortunately the store attendant had our number and called us. We talked +with the camera crew and arranged an immediate interview. + +Two considerations are important here. The first is that just like any +other form of magikal work the magik takes it's own form. So be ready for +anything. And two, when the media calls they usually will not wait around +for interviewees. Be prepared for anything, at any moment. When the +lightning strikes... + +Channel 7 told us that they were doing the interview to balance out some of +the reporting on Satanism, but they didn't stress the fact that the report +was about Satanism. Further we didn't know enough to ask what the focus and +content was for the report. Always ask what the focus of the report is. +You may find yourself, just like Windfire, shocked that we are being +visually, if not verbally, assocoated with Satanism. + +For the interview, be positive. I can't stress that enough. Smile and let +them see that you are sincere in your faith in the Goddess. Laugh. All the +reporters see in Satanism is somber faces, confessing their sins. Let them +know that you are happy with your path. Stress the difference between +patriarchal monotheism and pre-Christian, pre-Hebrew Goddess religion. +Have your resources ready for the reporter to look at if they need a quote +for something. Trot out your tools and instruments if you feel comfortable +with that. They love to see the various tools. You don't have to show them +all or any of your tools but it sure helps them get a picture of what is +going on. + +The media people like robes so wear your best. Covert groups that have +fears about discovery of illegal activities will not don their robes or +show their tools. By doing so you show that you are not aligned with +covert, illegal, fearful groups. And by disassociation you show that you +are doing nothing illegal or dangerous. + +There are three parts of the interview: the preview, the personal +interviews and the ritual. In some or perhaps most cases, the ritual can be +left out. [Please note that these terms are descriptive of their function, +not their technical names. The reporters may have a different technical +name for them.] + +The preview is a time for the reporter to get to know the members of the +group, circle or coven. They will talk to you for a period of time. For +Windfire that was about an hour for each camera crew. Please remember to be +civil as a group and not blurt things out all at once. Believe me it's hard +not to do that in the excitment. During the preview the reporter will +select who they want to interview. + +Personal interviews last about 10 minutes. The reporter will generally +select different questions for each interviewee. Be prepared for some hard +and personal questions. At the end of the personal interview the reporter +will sometimes ask if you have anything particular to say to the public. +Please don't waste this opportunity. Have a personal message ready for the +public. + +The ritual can be anything you feel comfortable with. We genearlly choose a +related focus such as increasing understanding in the mundane public. The +camera crews seem to like this. Be patient, they may want you to duplicate +some particular action for different camera angle. Accommodate them when +you can. We got through a partial ritual before the second camera crew ran +out of tape. Don't forget to complete the ritual before them before you let +them leave. Be complete. + +Remember that there are generally two people in a camera crew, the reporter +and the camera operator. When the reporter is previewing the coven have +another witch talk to the camera operator, telling them what the tools are +for and what incenses and crystals are used. Be discrete but talk to each +and every camera crew member because they all have input into the editing +of the tape. If the reporter has a good feeling about the coven but the +camera person thinks you stink you may have visual problems later. Make +sure each and every camera crew member goes away with a warm fuzzy feeling. + +Offer them refreshments. They will generally refuse alcohol but water, +sodas, coffee and fruit juices are welcomed. Help the crew as much as they +will let you. If they need cables or furniture moved, do so. + +Now for Channel 13 in Colorado Springs. This reporter was doing a report +on Satanism alone. Unfortunately the ONLY resource she had was James +McCarthy in Boulder. The reporter used the "S" word, the "W" word and the +"P" word all in the same sentence without differentiating between the +three. Admittedly the context of the sentence was ritual. Still no +differentiation was made. We started a telephone campaign and had about 15 +people call the newsroom at the station and complain. + +Here it is especially good to not bitch unless you have a solution. If you +complain to a reporter do not leave them hanging with no way to clean up +the mess. Talk to them, give them your phone number so they can call you +back later. They are busy people. Try to make sure they can successfully +reach you, not your children, not your message machine, not your dog. If +you give them your number and they don't call you back, call them. Find out +what the problem is. + +During the phone campaign we left the reporter numerous ways to contact us. +She did and we scheduled a time for the interviews. We scheduled it for our +regular weekly meeting time so that all the members could be there and a +generic ritual could be filmed. Members who didn't want to be on film were +situated so that their faces were not on camera. The camera crew will do +this for you. They don't want to inadvertently expose unwilling and +innocent people to possible harassment. + +On the appointed day the camera crew showed up fashionably late. We went +through our usually horror story about being butchered by the media in the +past and they (both crews) were sympathetic to our concerns. Don't be +afraid to stress how badly the media has treated witches, but don't bore +them; everyone has a story to tell but boredom is out these days. + +Let them see a generic ritual with a generic focus. The immediate focus was +understanding in the local community. That works well so you might want to +try that with your group or coven. It impresses the camera crew so that +they will be a little more interested. + +Proactive Encounter + +Proactive means acting before something happens and puts you in reactive +response mode. + +Perhaps the best thing to do is to put together a packet that you can send +to your local media: Tv. stations, radio stations, and newspapers, which +also include your local neighborhood weeklies if you're brave enough. + +Send a well put together packet to these medias and be sure they can get in +touch with you on a few days notice. You might have more than one contact +for your group, circle or coven. Windfire has three or four. + +I suggest for this packet that you include three or four brief statements +from willing coven members, a longer essay on Wicca with resources, the New +Woman article, some artwork and poetry. Include also a reading list of your +favorite Wiccan authors. Be sure to include names and numbers to call back. +While the reporters won't read everything they will probably read the brief +statements from your coven members and look at the reading list. You might +suggest book stores the reporters can find the reading list books at. + +The main time of the year for reactive procedures is Halloween. +Funnymentalist just love to hammer us during Samhain. So be proactive and +let the media know how you view Samhain. Send the media an article about +Samhain about two weeks before. Let them know that there are other views +and that the funnymentalist are slandering a perfectly good holiday. + +In fact you could emphasize any holiday/s that seems appropriate for your +area or group. Include your resources and/or xerox copies of other articles +you may find, with copyright if needed, on any holiday you deem +appropriate. + +Reactive Response Summary + +Be prepared to act at any moment if they should call you. Be positive, +smile and laugh a lot. Talk to all the camera crew members. Let them know +your concerns, stress the problems of the past but don't offend the media +people. Make it a magikal time for all the people involved including the +camera crews. Remember to augment your mundane activity (interviews) before +hand with magikal work. + +Proactive Encounter Summary + +Prepare a good information packet. Sound like you know what you are talking +about. Don't be mousey. Be aggressive and call them if you feel the need. +Make sure they can return a call to you successfully. If you get an +interview be positive and firm. Media people are strong people, they like +other strong people. Be prepared to act at any moment when they call you. +Devote some personal and collective magikal time for magikal work to +attract positive media attention. + +I'm sure that you will be challenged by the opportunities your magik will +bring you. The Goddess will bring your efforts to full fruit if you are +ready to support Her when the time comes. It's not an overused saying to +state that we should be prepared for the effects of our own magik. + +Blessed Be! + +Copyright Ammond Shadowcraft + August 3, 1988 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/medix.txt b/religious documents/medix.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9851e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/medix.txt @@ -0,0 +1,161 @@ + The following is from Magickal Blend Magazine, a +bay-area periodical that publishes four editions a year. +The magazine deals with many branches of the magickal world +and can be useful to all aspiring magicians. Subscriptions +cost $12 per year. They can be reached at: + Magickal Blend + P.O. Box 11303 + San Francisco, Ca. 94101-7303 + + + WHEN MAGIC DOESN'T WORK + by Van Ault + +1 Every magician has occasions in which the magic he is +directing does not seem to work. The desired result, whether +internal or external, does not come into manifestation. +These occasions are opportunities for greater developement in +the magical arts, and by working through the disappointment +and discouragement, he can reach greater self-knowledge and +technical expertise in the art. + +2 I believe that magic always works. Magic is a tool, a +reality shaper. Like any tool, however, its ability is +limited to the operator's knowledge and skill. For an +illustration, let's use the bow and arrow. Your intention is +the arrow and your magical technique for directing that +intention is the bow. You use the bow/technique to poise, +balance and guide the intention/arrow with the strength of +your arms and hands/ determination and will. + +3 What happens when this all works together optimally? +The will firmly grasps the clear intention, balances it upon +the technique, you gather your emotional and mental force, +and then fire the intention into the invisible world to be +made manifest. In its own time and way, your wish +materializes. + +4 Conversely, if you haven't got the skill to bring all +of these efforts together, things can go askew. Your arrow +can veer and stray, or it may travel a few feet before losing +power. Your bow can break, or not be strong enough to propel +the arrow. Or, you may find that you've got your bow and +arrow ready to use, but you haven't got sufficient strength +to manipulate it. + +5 I offer the following meditation process for those +times when it seems that your magic doesn't work. When +you've tried all the techniques, when you've gotten no +results, when you're wondering if any of this matters at all, +the process in this meditation can produce miracles and +create a sense of completion. You can read the script into a +tape, or have a friend lead you through it. + + + + + RIVER OF LIFE MEDITATION + + Find a comfortable place where you can relax and be +completely quiet...relax...allow your thought snow to just +come and go...come and go...and take a deep breath in and hold +it...(pause)...now gather up the tension in your body, and +release it as you exhale...take another deep breath, and as +you exhale, let go of anybody else's energy or thoughts you +may be carrying....and breathe in new energy...breathe in new +possibilities...and allow your body to fill with +lightness...feel it becoming lighter and lighter as you relax +more and more...relaxing deeply...going deeper...feeling very +light now...so light you could almost float away.......... + + And as you relax, imagine a beautiful colored mist is +swirling up around you, billowing up around you into a +cushiony, soft, cloud of energy...and you are resting +completely upon this cloud...and you are safe...as you breathe +in and out, let your thoughts just come and go...relaxing more +and more...and the cloud of energy now lifts you up into the +air and carries your down into your own inner world...down +between the boundaries of time and space...to a place of +timeless beauty and infinite possibilites...floating down now, +going deeper and deeper,leaving the outer world and its +concerns far behind, as you drift and float on this beautiful +cloud....going further and further...down below you is a rock, +a giant rock...and the cloud gently and effortlessly lands +upon the rock and you step off it, as the cloud swirls back +into a mist and disappears for now... + + Stand upon this rock now, and feel the strength of it +under your feet...and as you turn around, you look out upon a +great river...flowing as far as you can see...seeming to come +from some infinite place...and disappearing into an infinite +place,,,a flowing,endless river of energy...this is the river +of all life waters...all of life draws upon the lifeforce that +moves through its steaming currents...look closely at the +water...what color is it? it may look like liquid light to +you...look deeply into it, and sense the power and depth of +the river...what sound does it make as it courses through its +channels?...as you stand securely upon your rock, notice and +fragrance...and bend down and cup your hands in the living +water,and splash some of it on your face...feel the life +giving force on your skin...take a sip of the water...allow +the river of life to nourish you.... + + Now relax a moment upon the rock...and bring into your +mind the magical intention that never seemed to go +anywhere...what were you trying to accomplish?...what was the +basic intention you had?...what was the emotion behind the +intention?...feel the energy of that emotion moving onto the +palms of your hands now...feel the energy +glowing...pulsating...breathe and allow your intention that +you're still clinging to externalize...the energy of it is now +shimmering,glowing...swirling into a sphere...allow all of +your desire to flow into this sphere...and allow this sphere +to appear to you however it appears...and just observe what +you see...you may see pictures or symbols emerging within the +sphere...whatever you see is fine... + + When your sphere is completely filled with the last of +your desire,emotion,and intention, hold it aloft...feel the +power of it in you hands,a globe of power that you can now +release...and look out into the river of life...watch as its +currents of possibility flow for ever and ever,as far as you +can see...and whenever you're ready,with as much and as little +force as you need, throw the pulsating sphere into the +river...and give this intention to the life force of this +great river...watch as the sphere touches the water...and +gradually disappears into the current... + + Take a deep breath... as the sphere disappears the last of +your intention and emotion and desire merges with the source +of all life, from which it orriginally came...and leaves +you... + + Now complete any business here that you need to +finish...take a few moments to enjoy the flowing river of +life,and know that the possibilities it nourishes can bring +miracles into you life too... + + Take another deep breath, and notice tha colored mist is +once again swirling around you...billowing up underneath you +to form a beautiful cloud of cushiony energy, which is lifted +up into the air, with you upon it...relaxing into the cloud +you are returning the way you came...lifting up up through +time and space, coming back from the inner world...coming +up... further and further...floating and drifting +back...coming back...bringing you all the way back into your +body now, into this room...brining your attention completely +back into this time and place...take a deep breath and begin +to re-orient yourself to the outer world...and when you're +ready, count to three..., and on the count of three open your +eyes,and return feeling relaxed,alert and at peace. + + * * * + As always, change any of the wording or images in this + meditation if it suits your purpose better. The + important part is just to finally and completely let go + of your intention, so that the energy can be recycled in + whatever form the creative force and your own + consciousness will allow. Out of this release, new + lives, new opportunities, and new magical opportunities + are born! + diff --git a/religious documents/memsatan.txt b/religious documents/memsatan.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be0b2f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/memsatan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,354 @@ + Membership In The Church Of Satan + +Note: This file is a transcription of a prepared booklet that was being +used by certain youth in my community before one of them was saved. +While being involved in the Satan worship, animal sacrifices were +preformed and other acts. This textfile is presented only for the +purpose of educating the Christian community as to the actions of some +children and we might be more informed as to what is taking place +behind our backs. + +Dear Member, + +Welcome to the good times ahead: + +First off Satan and his organization would like to thank you for +showing faith and solidarity: we are sure that through our mutual help +of one and other we will defeat the diseased minds of the priests of +the churches and temples of the world that seek to slander our mighty +lord Lucifer: Eventually, our mighty leader Satan will regain his +position of prominence: Those who help in our crusade will be rewarded +handsomely, your every dream will be fullfilled: Those who work against +our master will be punished: + +In all our years of research of the different ways to make contact with +the mighty Satan, our experience has taught us that the most effective +way is as follows: First you must get yourself a table which will serve +as your altar. Next, you need a sword to lay on the altar. Use a long +knife if no sword is available. Next you need a chalice or a goblet +filled with wine. Next you need a parchment or a piece of brown paper +if a piece of commercial parchment is unavailable. Do not kill an +animal if none is available. Next you need a black candle. As far as +clothing is considered, it is definatily prefered to ware a black robe. +If black is unavailable, simply get any color and dye it black. + +Now you must wait until the sun sets and it is dark. Next you must be +totally and completely alone in your house or apartment. Satan does not +make group meetings. This is an extremely personal and confidential +affair. Place all the elements on your altar. Turn off your light. +Light the candle and repeat: + +"Emperor Lucifer, master of the rebellious spirits, I beg you to be +favourable to me, when now I call for your minister, the great Lucifuge +Rofocale, as I desire to sign a contract with him. I beg also that +Prince Beelsebub may protect my enterprise. O Astaroth, great count, +be favourable likewise, and make it possible for the great Lucifuge to +appear to me in human form and force, without bad ordour, and that he +grant me, by the agreement which I am ready to sign with him, all +riches I need. O great Lu cifuge, I pray that you leave your dwelling +wherever it may be to come here and speak to me." + +Next you must write on the parchment whatever you desire. (You only do +this for the first time till your wish is fullfilled. After just place +the inscribed contract on the altar.) Do youself a favour and set your +sights on logical goals, it takes time f or Satan to gradually take you +inti his confidence. + +Next take a small pinch of the sacred powder and sprinkle it over the +candle. Now chant the following 3 times: + +In the name of Satan, the Ruler of the earth, the King of the world, I +command the forces of Darkness to bestow their Infernal power upon me: + +Open wide the gates of Hell and come forth from the abyss to greet me +as your brother (sister) and friend: + +Grant me the indulgences of which I speak: + +I have taken thy name as part of myself: I live as the beasts of the +fields, rejoicing in the fleshly life: I fovor the just and curse the +rotten: + +By all the Gods of the pit, I command that these things of which I +speak shall come to pass: + +Come forth and answer to your names by manifesting my desires: + +After you have done this you should take the sword, hold it with both +hands straight in front of your self and state: + + Hail Satan: + Hail Satan: + Hail Satan: + +Behold: The mighty voices of my vengenance smash the stillness of the +air and stand as monoliths of wrath upon a plain writhing serpants. I +am become as a monstrous machine of annihilation to the festering +fragments of the body of he (or she) who whould detain me. + +It repenteth me not that my summons doth ride upon the blasting winds +which multiply the sting of my bitterness; And grant black slimy shapes +shall rise from brackish pits and vomit forth their pustulence into his +(her) puny brain. + +I call upon the messengers of doom to slash with grim delight this +victim I have chosen. Silent is that voiceless bird that feeds upon the +brain-pulp of him (her) who hath tormented me, and the agony of the is +to be shall sustain itself in shrieks of pa in, only to serve as +signals of warning to those who would resent my being. + +Oh come forth in the name of Abaddon and destroy him (her) whose name I +giveth as a sign. + +Oh great brothers of the night, thou who makest my place of comfort, +who rideth out upon the hot winds of Hell, who dwelleth in the devil's +fane; move and appear: Present youselves to him (her) who sustaineth +the rottenness of the mind that moves the gi bbering gaggling tongue +and close his (her) throat, Oh Kali; Pierce his (her) lungs with the +stings of scorpions. Oh Sekhmet: Plunge his (her) substance into the +dismal void, Oh mighty Dagon: + +I thrust aloft the bard of Hell and on its tines resplendently impaled +my sacrifice through vengeance rests: + + Hail Satan: + Hail Satan: + Hail Satan: + +Now you take a few sips from the goblet. + +Once you have completed the first half of the ceremony you are ready to +begin the second half. Before you do, however you must understand +several things. They are as follows: You must realize that all things +belong to the mighty Satan and that you can o nly have tempory use of +them. You must not be so vain-glorious as to think that you own +anything. You come into the world destitute of everything and go out of +it with nothing except character -- and some go with out that: While +you remain here you may bo rrow from Satan something or nothing +according to you manner of thinking. + +Now you should go over to your bed and lie down on your back with your +arm stretched out by your side. Your legs should also be stretched out +and not crossed. Now in order to draw from the vast reserviour of +infernal power residing in out master you mus t guide your mind as +follows: + +FIRST: Meditate and ask Satan if there is any reason why you should not +have the thing you desire to create. + +This removes all uncertainty from your mind about the advisability of +creating it. Uncertainty produces a negative condition, disturbs your +aura and therefore delays the materialization of your creations. When +you have received the answer that is rig ht and proper for you to have +the thing you desire, you are then in a positive condition of mind and +can forcefully draw from Satans vast reservoir of infernal power. + +SECOND: Having decided to create something make you mental picture of +it and demand it unfalteringly until it comes. + +A person after having received a favorable answer from Satan often +commences his creations, but abandons them after a time because his +objective mind suggests that he may have been mistaken about his answer +from Satan and it is not best to continue w ith his demmands. Do not +listen to the suggestions from your objective mind, but once having +decided upon your creations go on with them to the end. + +THIRD: A positive demand accomplishes more and better results than a +request or a petition. + +The mental attitude while making a demand should always be reverential +but very positive. + +FOURTH: Demand from Satan specifically what you want. Every word of +this rule is important. First you must make a demand. Then that demand +must be specific. Make your mental picture clear-cut. The clearer your +mental picture, the sooner it will material ize. Demand speifically +what you want -- not what some one else wants you to have, not what you +believe it is your duty to want -- but what you believe you yourself, +wish to have. + +The converse of this rule is equally important. Never demand what you +do not want. If you want money do not demand work. Almost everyone +makes that mistake when the begin to make demands from Satan because it +is hard to break the customs of many year s. Diseased bodies and +unhappy conditions of mind are the result of selfish demands made to +our mighty master without proper patronage paid to him. + +FIFTH: Only demand when your desire is strong. + +When you feel the need of a thing , your desire for it is strongest. +Many followers of our leader begin enthusiastically to make their +demands, but soon grow lukewarm. A good way to intensify your desires +is to think of the pleasure the possession o f the thing would give +you, and when the desire for it comes sweeping over you then make a +demand for it. Do not demand only when the hour set apart for demanding +and paying homage to our lord Satan has come, or because you regard it +as duty you have assu med. Demands made under such conditions amount to +nothing, and the time put into work of this kind is wasted. + +SIXTH: Mind works best when the body is still. + +If you are drumming with your fingers or swinging your feet while +making demands, a part of your mental force goes into physical motions +you are making; and your forces being devided , the mental work is +robbed of much of its power. You should conser ve your force. At +intervals during the day you may think of your demands and you can hold +them sub-consciously in mind much of the time; and while this kind of +picture-making does not accomplish as much as when the body is at rest +it does help in increasi ng your ability to draw from the infernal +power of Satan. + +SEVENTH: Never demand when excited. + +You may have a strong desire but no excitement. A demand made during +intense excitement is always met forcefully. This is an important rule, +the observance of which may save you much inconvience. At times it is +quite likely that you may become impati ent and are tempted to make +postitive and often violent demands. It is a dangerous thing to do as +we shall show you through this illustration. + +At one time we had a follower of CASH who had met with several +misfortunes. Disasters followed each other till everything he had on +the material plane was swept away. But after joing CASH he learned how +to make demands from Satan. He demanded ten tho usand dollars from +Satan, which to him was financial opulence. However the demand was not +met immediately, and our follower became impatient and finally angry. +And when he awakened one morning to find himself without money enough +to pay for his breakfast, he walked to the park, threw himself upon the +ground and lay there for several hours with his teeth set, hands +clenched and with perspiration standing out all over his body, so +intense was his excitement while making his demand for money he has +pictured. + +The next day he boarded a freight train and after the usual delays and +inconveniences attending upon transporttion of that kind, out member +managed to reach a western town. But he had no sooner entered the place +than a cyclone came along and swept it off the face of the earth. When +our member came to consciousness he was lying on the ground some +distance from the place where he was at the last moment of his +recollections. His body was a mass of bruises, and when he tried to +rise to his feet he found one leg broken. Bodies of dead animals and +men lay around him and wagon loads of debris were strewn in all +directions; but just within reach of his arm lay a plethoric leather +wallet. Our member reachet his best arm out and got the wallet and +immediately exam ind its contents. There were just ten-one thousand +dollar bills in it and not a scrap of paper or card to tell whom it +belonged. He placed the money in his pocket of his ragged coat and +crept on his hands and knees for some distance till someone came to h +is relief. He was cared for and finally got well. The owner of the +money count not be found, and our member kept the money as an answer to +his violent demand which nearly cost him his life. + +We are not saying that our member caused the cyclone. But he was drawn +into it and suffered the horrors of it because of his own tempestuous +mental condition when making a demand which had to be met after the +manner that it was made. + +EIGHTH: Always be deliberate and quiet but positivd when demanding help +from Satan. + +Never demand in a hurry. Mental perturbation engendered by hurry, +delays Satans help in the materialization of your creation. + +NINTH: Avoid speculating on the time when or the way in which your +demands will be met by Satan. + +When you begin speculating about the ways and means by which your +demonstrations will come, immediately the infernal power of Satan +becomes scattered or divided and a repellent expectancy arises. There +is an expectancy that draws and also one that re pels. The quiet +expectancy, is helpful in drawing to you whatever you have demanded. +But the impatient expectancy of your objective mind is repellant +because it causes your aura to become disturbed and then nothing you +want can reach you. + +For example: You have made a demand from Satan and have commenced to +wonder through whom Satan will fullfill your demand. Your objective +mind suggests Mr. Blank as the most probable person, and if you accept +the suggestion when you meet mr. Blank you are not mentally poised +because of your impatient expentancy. Mr. Blank feels your mental +condition and if he were inclined to form a business connection with +you he would hesitate and become uncertain because of your perturbed +condition; thus the ways a nd means that you expected to bring your +demonstration would not be used because of your repellant expectancy. +The member who violates this rule is likely to make bad investments + +TENTH: Anger, discontent, envy and lack of self-control repel and delay +a demand. + +If you make a mental picture of a thing and hold it for a long time it +will materialize, but it will be delayed if you indulge in any of the +mental attitudes just mentioned; because any of these puts your aura +into a perturbed condition, which is rep ellant. + +This rule is one of the hardest to observe but like anything else it +can bve followed. It is the disregard of this rule which leads +investigators and beginners to disbelieve in the infernal power of +Satan and which makes too many followers of the alm ighty Satan finally +abonden in despair their efforts to tap a part of this tremendous +generator of power. + +ELEVENTH: The earnestness with which a demand is made, the frequency +with which it is made and the persistency with which the mental image +is consciously held in mind hastens the demonstration. The earnestness, +the frequency and the persistency of your demands and concentration +draw it faster and faster. Never destroy a mental picture. + +TWELVETH: The realization that you are using an immutable law hastens +your demands from Satan. + +THIRTEENTH: After your creation is made and you have demanded it the +declaration, "Satan has met my demand"' hastens the material +manifestation of the demonstration. + +Once you have understood the above mentioned rule you are well on your +way towards drawing from the infernal powers of the mighty Satan. +However you must understand that you must as well work mentally in +order to acomplish what ever you desire. Remember , results are +absolutely certain if all laws are complied with. + +If you will but persist in your faith in Satan and continue to practice +the procedure we have outlined there can be no limit to your +possablities. If you can get Satan to demonstrate a piece of carpet +three feet long you can get him to demonstrate a mil lion dollars for +you. If he can cure a headache, in the course of time he can cure any +disease; if he can get you a seat in a streetcar he can get you a seat +in the congress in the course of time. The more you follow and serve +him the more he will do for you. + +It rests with you wheather you will or you will not serve him. There +are some of you who will. There is always a percentage of persons who +succeed and a percentage of persons who give up. Each of you can do +with your knowledge what you choose. However t his much is true, if you +persist for one year to consciously help Satan you can be sure that at +the end of the year your environment will be sufficiently better and +demonstrations will have been made to prove to you that you are dealing +with the infernal power of the mighty Satan: + +Looking forward to hearing from you and all your new accomplishments: + + HAIL SATAN! + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/mens1.txt b/religious documents/mens1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3de2c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mens1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,98 @@ + THE MEN'S CIRCLE + (c)1986, by Robin + + The April meeting of the Men's Group at the home of Wayland +Smith discussed the theme of "Gods and Archetypes in Every Man". +This was partially inspired by the book, "Goddesses in Every +Woman". As always, we got off on a number of side roads in our +conversational journey, some of them as interesting as the main +topic. One of those side roads was the relationship between +modern Christianity and modern Paganism, a topic which has been +expounded upon in recent issues of this journal. From the point +of view of individual Pagans, there seem to be two attitudes. +Some people came to feel, perhaps quite early in life, that the +version of Christianity in which they had been raised was +detrimental to their psychological and spiritual health and have +now rejected it totally. Others, like myself, gradually came to +feel that while Christianity had a lot to offer them and was fine +for many people, it lacked some essential spiritual vitamins +that they themselves needed. Some of this difference in attitude +comes from differences in the individual, but a lot seems to +come from the difference in the particular version of +Christianity involved. I was raised as a Catholic, and came to +the Craft with an appreciation for colorful ritual and ceremony, +and an awareness of its potentialities and power. The Catholic +reverence for the Blessed Virgin helped also. There is quite a +contrast in these areas with mainstream Protestantism. + + In retrospect, perhaps my first step toward Paganism came +when I helped write a new Catholic ritual for small groups, to be +performed without a priest. We submitted it for formal approval +and never got a word back. Even excommunication would have been +preferable to being ignored. + + A few months after my First Degree initiation I went +traveling around Italy with my old friend Ron. We visited some +catacombs near Rome and it was surprising how strong the psychic +impression left by the early Christians still was after eighteen +centuries and thousands of tourists. Still more surprising was +the type of psychic impression. It felt very close to what one +feels in Circle with one's fellow coven members. That, and some +historical hints, suggest that in its first few centuries +Christianity was more similar to contemporary Paganism in what it +offered people than most of us are inclined to think. What we +now call psychic and/or magical abilities seem to have been +commonly accepted, priests were much more a part of everyday +community life than religious leaders are now, many women had +substantial power and influence, and a lot of individual +interpretation went on. + + What happened to change all that? I'm inclined to agree, at +least in part, with Buck Jump, our resident Heretic. +Institutionalization was and is the culprit. Institutions have +bureaucracies, and bureaucracies by their nature stifle +individual interpretation. They also develop rigid power +structures, and these can't tolerate people outside the +structure developing power through special abilities, psychic or +otherwise. A contemporary example of this is what happens to a +rigidly organized corporation that suddenly computerizes its +operations. People who formerly were inconsequential in the +power structure now have considerable power through their +special technical knowledge and access to information. The +whole pecking order is thrown into disarray, and the resulting +turmoil is fascinating to watch from a safe distance of course. +A friend described this happening at the Rocky Mountain News a +few years ago. We Pagans are still a ways from large scale +institutionalization, but sooner or later we will start feeling +the pressure. It probably won't be sudden, it took Christianity +three or four centuries to get there, but we should start +thinking about alternatives now. + + The pressure can be subtle there are a lot of nice things +you can do with institutions that are hard to do without them. +Building a college for example. A couple of years ago I went to +a class reunion at my old school, L'Universite de Notre Dame du +Lac The University of Our Lady of the Lake famed for football +and the administration building's golden dome, surmounted by a +gold statue of Mary, Virgin and Mother of an Aspect of the +Christian God. From the ground the campus seems open and meadow +like, but from the top of the library it looks like a college in +a forest; white buildings surrounded by the tops of trees, and +over it all a golden statue of the Queen of Heaven. At the time +I thought, "What an appropriate school for a Witch to have atten +ded." Now I'm tempted by the thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if we +Pagans had one of our own." Be careful what you ask for, you +might get it! + _____Robin +.........from R.M.P.J. 8/86 + +This article is excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal. +Each issue of the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal is published by +High Plains Arts and Sciences; P.O. Box 620604, Littleton Co., +80123, a Colorado Non-Profit Corporation, under a Public Domain +Copyright, which entitles any person or group of persons to +reproduce, in any form whatsoever, any material contained therein +without restriction, so long as articles are not condensed or +abbreviated in any fashion, and credit is given the original +author.! + diff --git a/religious documents/mens2.txt b/religious documents/mens2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5df01f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mens2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,93 @@ + +THE MEN'S CIRCLE +(c)1986, by Robin + + The Rocky Mountain Men's Group has put in a good deal of +time the past two or three months working on a Manhood Ritual for +initiating young males into adulthood. We still don't have a +complete ritual that we are all satisfied with, but a good start +has been made. Some of the approaches taken in creating this +kind of ritual have drawn upon traditional tribal rites of +passage. Some of these tribal manhood rituals include taking the +young candidate abruptly away from his family to an isolated +spot, where he must remain for a long period of time, usually +blindfolded and bound in the dark. Part of the ritual may +involve physical pain such as tattooing, circumcision or +ceremonial infliction of cuts that leave characteristic scars. +Even leaving out the physical cutting, these rites deliberately +put the young candidate through frightening, isolating and +painful experiences. + + No one has seriously proposed any ritual that leaves +permanent scars on the candidate's body, but even so some feel +that putting an innocent youngster through a traumatic experience +is insensitive. It seems to me that this attitude misses the +point. It is not a lack of compassion that is being expressed. +There is no single word for it in English, it is a willingness to +inflict (or at least allow) pain in order to teach a necessary +lesson that cannot be conveyed in any other way. As sensitivity +is usually considered a light feminine quality, so this +complement is a dark masculine quality. + + Is this dark masculine quality desirable - or even ethical? +I think it is. There are elements of it in the Wiccan Initiation +Rituals and the symbolism of the Scourge. It partially explains +some of the Legend of the Descent of the Goddess into the +Underworld - where the Goddess only learns to love the God after +being scourged by Him. "Remember this - that you must suffer in +order to learn". Although many people are put off by the dark +quality of this particular attribute of the Masculine, it is +important to remember that although not pretty, it is necessary. +Perhaps the following story will illustrate this point. + + A boy around eight or nine years old once found a very large +caterpillar. It was dark green, as long and thick as a man's +finger, and decorated with curious stalky and warty protuberances +in blue, red, and bright yellow. Since it was nearly the end of +summer, he took it home and put it in a large open jar, and kept +it supplied with leaves of the type he had seen it eating. After +a couple of months it began to spin a cocoon about itself. He +watched this with fascination, and when the cocoon was complete, +he put the jar on a shelf of his screened back porch, where it +remained through the winter. When the days began to lengthen and +the weather grew warmer he checked the jar every morning and +afternoon, waiting for a little miracle of rebirth. One Saturday +morning his patience was rewarded. There was movement within the +cocoon and a small hole had appeared. The boy watched in +fascination as the hole became larger and the reborn creature +inside struggled to emerge. The struggle went on for what seemed +to the boy a long time and he began to feel sorry for the trapped +insect. Out of compassion, he ran off and returned with a pair +of his mother's smallest, finest, scissors. Carefully he +enlarged the hole, and then stood back to watch a beautifully +patterned moth emerge into the light of day. The moth spread its +folded wings, moving them gently to dry in the air. Their tan- +and-gray markings seemed to the boy to be one of the most +beautiful things he had ever seen. When the moth's wings seemed +dry, he carefully held the jar to the outside of the porch screen +so that it could crawl out. He planned to watch it until it flew +away to find a mate. The moth crawled onto the screen and +perched there. It flapped its wings from time to time but did +not fly. When evening came, several male moths came and +fluttered about the female clinging to the screen, but although +she seemed to be trying to fly off and join them, she never moved +from where she was. She stayed where she was for three or four +days, and finally died and fell to the ground. The boy later +learned that the struggle to emerge from the cocoon is so +prolonged for moths and butterflies because the long effort +serves to pump necessary fluids into their wings and strengthen +them for flight. By shortening this process, to spare the moth +pain, he had prevented her wings from fully developing and so she +could never fly and mate and lay the eggs of the next generation. +......Robin +......from RMPJ Oct. '86 + +This article is excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal. +Each issue of the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal is published by +High Plains Arts and Sciences; P.O. Box 620604, Littleton Co., +80123, a Colorado Non-Profit Corporation, under a Public Domain +Copyright, which entitles any person or group of persons to +reproduce, in any form whatsoever, any material contained therein +without restriction, so long as articles are not condensed or +abbreviated in any fashion, and credit is given the original +author.! diff --git a/religious documents/mens3.txt b/religious documents/mens3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71a23cb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mens3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ + +THE MEN'S CIRCLE + + Here are are some thoughts, not particularly original, on +the nature of Paganism, and some beliefs common to most modern +Pagans. This is part of what I teach to beginning students. Any +additions, comments, criticisms or outright disagreements are +welcome. + + Pagans view the entire universe, Seen and Unseen, as a seam- +less unity with structure inherent throughout. This structure is +often expressed simply: "As Above, So Below". + + A fundamental tenant of Paganism is love of ourselves, of +others and all of Nature. We feel that the natural world is +inherently good. A Pagan does not believe that human beings are +born innately sinful and holds that the concept of "sin" is +harmful to human nature. Nevertheless, we do recognize the +reality of specific acts that are evil, and by extension identify +attitudes and patterns of behavior that we consider wrong. We +consider ethics to be an important part of our philosophy of +life, but do not try to impose a morality on others. A +fundamental ethic espoused by almost all Pagans is "Do as you +will, so long as none are harmed". By implication, Pagans are +expected to exercise thoughtful good judgement, as well as being +loving people. + + We are aware that many of the powers of the universe are +persons, we call them Gods, and they are not only "out there", +independent of us, but are equally within us and part of us. +Ours is an experiential religion; by living in harmony with +ourselves and the universe we can get in contact with the Gods +and benefit from the experience. When we do this through prayer +or ritual it is called worship. + + We hold that there are natural cycles in the universe that +directly affect our lives, the evolution of humanity and the +course of direction of all that is manifest. We celebrate, +through regular rituals, the lunar cycle and the seasonal cycles +of the year, and through them other less obvious cycles, thus +attuning ourselves to the ebb and flow of the tides of Nature. + + Pagans recognize and harmonize themselves with those +fundamental patterns of the universe that we call polarity and +complementarity - masculine/feminine, light/dark, +positive/negative, force/form, etc. + + Through training, study and ritual we bring ourselves into +harmony with the great natural forces of the universe and can +effect changes in the world and ourselves at need. This is +called magic. + + Paganism is not fixed or dogmatic. Our ideas are constantly +evolving, and we learn from one another. In our differences is +our strength. We recognize that the Gods are ultimately beyond +our understanding and respect the different aspects that others +worship. + + Most Pagans believe that our essential selves, the core of +the spark of life that is within us, shares divinity with the +Gods and does not end with our deaths but returns into +incarnation again and again, learning from each lifetime's +experience. .....Robin +........from R.M.P.J. 8/86 + +------------------------------------------------------------------- +This article is excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal. +Each issue of the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal is published by +High Plains Arts and Sciences; P.O. Box 620604, Littleton Co., +80123, a Colorado Non-Profit Corporation, under a Public Domain +Copyright, which entitles any person or group of persons to +reproduce, in any form whatsoever, any material contained therein +without restriction, so long as articles are not condensed or +abbreviated in any fashion, and credit is given the original +author.! +------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/mentalinf.txt b/religious documents/mentalinf.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc0af5d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mentalinf.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1821 @@ +CHAPTER I +THE LAW OF VIBRATION   + +Students of history find a continuous chain of reference to the +mysterious influence of one human mind over that of others. In the +earliest records, traditions and legends may be found giving reference +to the general belief that it was possible for an individual to exert +some weird uncanny power over the minds of other persons, which would +influence the latter for good or evil. And more than this, the student +will find an accompanying belief that certain individuals are possessed +of some mental power which bends even "things" and circumstances to its +might. + +Way back in the dim past of man's history on this planet, this belief +existed, and it has steadily persisted in spite of the strenuous +opposition of material science, even unto the present day. The years +have not affected the belief, and in these dawning days of the Twentieth +Century it has taken on a new strength and vitality, for its adherents +have boldly stepped to the front, and confronting the doubting +materialistic thinkers, have claimed the name of "Science" for this +truth and have insisted that it be taken, once and for all, from the +category of superstition, credulity and ignorant phantasm. + +Were it not pitiable, it would be amusing to glance at the presumptuous, +complacent, smug, self-satisfied position of the materialistic school of +thinkers, who would brush aside as a foolish delusion that which many of +the wisest men of a past age have accepted and taught as the truth. The +modern "know-it-alls" would sneer contemptuously at facts that are known +to be of actual occurrence in the daily lives of thousands of +intelligent people, and which the experience of humankind has +demonstrated for many centuries, in all lands and all races. + +The trouble lies in the dogmatic assumption of the materialistic school +that what is known as "mind" is merely some peculiar action of the +material brain, some writers even holding that "the brain secretes +thought, just as the liver secretes bile." They refuse to see that the +operation of Mind is a manifestation of energy known as electricity, +magnetism, light, heat, gravitation, cohesion, etc. Because mental +energy does not register the vibrations of these lower forms of energy, +they conclude that the higher mental energy does not exist. Having +formulated a theory to suit their materialistic conceptions, they try to +ignore all facts not consistent with their theory. If they find a fact +that will not squeeze into their narrow theory well, "so much the worse +for the fact," as a writer has said and they promptly ignore or dispute +it. + +As a matter of truth, the investigator is not compelled to resort to +metaphysical explanations to account for the phenomena of Mental +Influence. The very facts of physical science itself, if rightly +interpreted, will give the clue to the mystery; and will point the steps +of the honest investigator toward the path where he may find the +solution of the perplexing riddle. Although we know that the real +solution lies in the metaphysical realm, still even physical science +will corroborate the facts of its metaphysical sister science, and +instead of contradicting the latter will actually go far toward +furnishing analogous facts and principles basis for a theory of +metaphysical facts. + +The student will see at once that so far as physical science is +concerned, it must begin at the phenomenon of "Thought Transference," +for in that phase of the subject may be found an elementary principle in +evidence in many other forms of phenomena. We have given many instances +of "Thought Transference" in the two proceeding volumes of this series, +entitled "Mind Reading" and "Psychomancy," respectively, and so we need +not repeat the same in this place. The main fact is that "Thought +Transference" does exist, and may be accounted for upon purely +scientific grounds, without calling in the truths of metaphysical +thought. We know that this is a strong statement, and a positive +assertion, but we also know that the same may be demonstrated. Let us +consider this phase of the subject. + +In the first place, physical science teaches that underlying all forms, +degrees and apparent differences in matter and energy, there is to be +found a manifestation of some elementary energy, which manifests in what +is known as "Vibrations." Everything in the material world is in +vibration - ever manifesting a high degree of motion. Without vibration +there would be no such thing as a material universe. From the +electronic-corpuscles which science teaches compose the atom; up through +the atom and molecule, until the most complex forms of matter are +manifested, there is the ever-present Vibration. And through all forms +of energy, light, heat, electricity, magnetism and the rest, Vibration +is also ever present. In fact, physical science itself teaches that not +only is Vibration the basic force underlying other forces and the +various forms of matter, but also that the apparent differences between +the various forms of matter, and also between the various forms of +energy, are caused simply and solely by the varying degrees of Vibration +manifested. + +Just as the difference between the lowest tone that can be distinguished +by the ear of man, and the highest note that can be distinguished by the +same organ of sense, is merely a difference between the rate of +Vibration - just as is the difference between the dull red color at one +end of the spectrum, and the violet at the other end, with the +intervening colors known as indigo, blue green, yellow and orange, with +all the combinations of shades arising from them - just as the +difference between the greatest degree of cold known to Science, and the +greatest degree of heat that can be conceived of - just as these great +differences due solely and wholly to varying rates of Vibration - so is +the difference between and all forms of matter or force simply a matter +of the rate of Vibration. In short, all material and physical "Things" +are simply manifestations of some "infinite and eternal energy from +which all things proceed," their differences resulting merely from the +different degree of Vibration being manifested in them. Remember, that +this is not "vague philosophy" or "airy metaphysics" or "spiritualistic +vagaries" (to quote from the materialistic writers), but facts claimed +and admitted by the greatest physical scientists of the age, as a +reference to their lectures and textbooks will prove to anyone. + +And, more than this, any intelligent physical scientist will tell you +that Science has every reason to believe that there are great fields of +energy and force, the Vibrations of which are far too high for even the +delicate instruments of science to record, but which nevertheless exist +and manifest effects. It was only the other day that Science was able to +"catch" the "X-rays" and other forms of high Radio-activity, and yet +these rays and forces had always existed. And tomorrow Science will +perfect instruments capable of registering still higher forms of energy. +And bye-and-bye, some scientist will perfect an instrument capable of +registering and recording the subtle vibrations of Thought, and perhaps +in time someone will perfect that instrument so that it will not only +record such Thought vibrations and waves, but, like the phonograph, it +will be able to reproduce and send forth similar vibrations so that +others may feel the thoughts, just as they now hear the sounds from the +phonograph. Such a prediction is no more wonderful then would have been +the prediction of the telephone, the phonograph, the wireless telegraph +and sundry other discoveries and inventions a hundred years ago. + +Did you ever think that there are colors that the eye cannot see, but +which delicate instruments clearly register? In fact, the rays of tight +which sunburn the face, and which register on the photographic plate are +not visible to the eye. The eye sees the lower rays, but only +instruments adapted for the purpose detect the higher ones. Your eye +cannot see the X-ray as it passes through the room, but the plate will +catch it, and its light may make a photograph. The rays of light visible +to the eyes are only the lower ones - the higher ones are far beyond the +power of the eye to record, and beyond even the range of the most +delicate instrument there exist rays and waves of light of such high +vibratory rate as to defy even its power to record. + +Did you ever know that there are sounds unheard by human ears that the +microphone will catch and magnify? Scientific imagination dreams of +instruments that will catch the songs of the mite - like insects, and +magnify them until they can be distinguished. There are waves of +electricity that may pass through your body, unperceived by you, and yet +powerful enough to run light electric lights. Listen to the words of +certain eminent scientists. + +Prof. Elisha Gary, a celebrated scientist and teacher, has said: "There +is much food for speculation in the thought that there exists sound +waves that no human ear can hear, and color waves of light that no eye +can see. The long, dark, soundless space between 40, 000 and +400,000,000,000,000 vibrations per second, and the infinity of range +beyond 700,000,000,- 000,000 vibrations per second, where light ceases, +in the universe of motion, makes it possible to indulge in speculation." +Prof. Williams, the well-known scientific writer, has said: "There is no +gradation between the most rapid undulations or trembling that produces +our sensations of sound, and the slowest of those which give rise to our +sensations of gentlest warmth. There is a huge gap between them, wide +enough to include another world of motion, all lying between our world +of sound and our world of heat and light; and there is no good reason +whatever for supposing that matter is incapable of such intermediate +activity, or that such activity may not give rise to intermediate +sensations, provided that there are organs for taking up and sensitizing +their movements." + +And, so you see that in the scientific theory of Vibrations, there may +be found plenty of room for a scientific explanation of all that is +claimed by adherents of the truth of Mental Influence, without getting +out of the region of physical science, and without invading the plane of +metaphysics. And there are many more proofs from the same source, which +we may touch upon as we proceed. + +There is but one Truth, and it manifests on all planes - the Spiritual; +the Mental; and the Physical - and manifestations agree and coincide. So +no Mentalist need fear the test of Physical Science, for each plane will +bear out the facts and phenomena of the ones below or above it - the +Three are but varying phases of One. In this little work we shall hug +close to the plane of Physical Science, because by so doing we will be +able to make the subject much clearer to many than if we had attempted +to express the teaching in Metaphysical terms. There is no contradiction +in the end. Each bit of Truth must dovetail into every other bit, for +all are parts of the Whole.  + +CHAPTER II +THOUGHT WAVES  + +In our last chapter we have seen that Vibration was to be found +underlying all manifestations of energy, and all forms of matter. We +also quoted two distinguished scientists whose words showed that there +were fields of vibratory energy not filled by any known forms of energy, +the inference being that inasmuch as there are no gaps in nature's +processes these unknown fields must be occupied by certain forms of +energy not known as yet to physical science. The teachings of the +occultists of all lands and ages, as also those of modern Mental +Science, are to the effect that the Mind, in its manifestation of +Thought in the brain, generates a form of energy of intensely high +Vibration, which energy may be, and is, projected in vibratory waves +from the brains of other persons within its field of influence. + +All students of Mental Influence have noticed the close resemblance that +is manifested between the phenomena of electrical and magnetic energy on +the one hand and the phenomena of mental energy on the other. So close +is the analogy that one may take the proven facts of science relating to +electrical and magnetic phenomena and confidently proceed with the +certainty of finding a strikingly close correspondence in the field of +mental phenomena. And the recognition of this fact is helping the +workers in the mental field group together the varied phenomena that +come under their notice, and to work out the theory and practice of +Mental Influence. + +In the first place, it is now a fact well known and accepted by +investigators that the generation of Thought and the manifestation of +Mental States occasions a "burning up" of brain matter, and the +consequent production of a form of energy of high vibratory power. +Physiologists recognize this fact, and the textbooks make reference to +it. Experiments have shown that the temperature of the brain is +increased in accordance with the intensity of Feeling and Thought, and +that there is undoubtedly a generation of energy and a consumption of +brain matter which bears a very close resemblance to the process of the +generation of electrical energy. And this being conceded, it follows +that this energy once released must be emanated or sent forth from the +brain in the manner akin to the emanation of other known forms of +energy, i.e., in the form of "waves" of vibratory force. Light and Heat +travel in this way - so do electricity and magnetism - so do the forces +of Radio-activity. And the investigators of Mental Influence have +demonstrated by their experiments that there is such a thing as +Thought-induction, and many other phases of manifestation similar to +that exhibited by electricity and magnetism. + +Flammarion, the well-known and eminent French scientist, has said on the +subject. "We sum up, therefore, our preceding observations by the +conclusion that one mind can act at a distance upon another, without the +habitual medium of words, or any other visible means of communication. +It appears to us altogether unreasonable to reject this conclusion if we +accept the facts. The conclusion will be abundantly demonstrated. There +is nothing unscientific, nothing romantic in admitting that an idea can +influence a brain from a distance. The action of one human being upon +another, from a distance, is a scientific fact, it is as certain as the +existence of Paris, of Napoleon, of Oxygen, or of Sirius." The same +authority also states: "There can be no doubt that our physical force +creates a movement in the either which transmits itself afar like all +movements in the ether, becomes perceptible to brains in harmony with +our own. The transformation of a psychic action into an ethereal +movement, and the reverse, may be analogous to what takes place on a +telephone, where the receptive plate, which is identical with the plate +at the other end, reconstructs the sonorous movement transmitted, not by +means of sound, but by electricity. But these are only comparisons." + +When a Thought or feeling is generated in the mind or brain of a person, +the energy generated flows forth from the brain of the person in the +form of waves of mental energy, spreading from the immediate +neighborhood of the thinker to a distance proportioned to the strength +of the thought or feeling. These Thought-Waves have the property of +awakening similar vibrations in the minds of other persons coming within +their field of force, according to the laws of Mental Influence, which +law shall be explained in the next chapter. + +As we proceed with our consideration of the subject of Mental Influence, +in the succeeding chapters, we shall see the many and varied forms of +manifestation of Thought-Waves. At this point we shall merely view the +phenomena in a general way. + +Thought-Waves are manifested in a variety of forms and phases. Some are +the waves emanated from the minds of all thinkers, unconsciously and +without purpose, and usually without much force. Others are sent forth +with great force, and travel far, manifesting a degree of influence +commensurate with the force with which they are projected. Others are +directed purposely toward certain individuals or places, and travel +along rapidly in a straight line to the point which they have been +directed or aimed. Others are sent forth with great strength and power, +but instead of being directed toward any particular person or place, are +designed to sweep around in great whirlpools of energy affecting all who +happen to fall within their field force. + +You will readily understand that there is a great difference between +Thought-Waves sent forth idly and unconsciously, and without knowledge +of the underlying laws of Mental Influence, and those projected with a +full knowledge of the laws governing the phenomena and urged on and +directed by a powerful Will of the sender. The force is the same, but +the degree of its power, and the measure of its effects are determined +by the conditions of its sending force. + +The vibratory force of these Thought-Waves does not cease with the +sending forth of the wave, but persists for a long time afterward. Just +as heat in a room persists long after the fire in the stove has been +extinguished - just as the perfume of the flower exists in a room long +after the flower has been removed - just as a ray of light travels +through space for millions of miles, and for centuries after the star +itself has been blotted out of existence - just as any and all forms of +vibratory energy persist in manifesting after the initial impulse has +been withdrawn - so do the vibrations of Thought continue long after the +thought, yes, long after the brain which sent them forth has passed into +dust. + +There are many places today filled with the thought-vibrations of minds +long since passed outside of the body. There are many places filled with +the strong vibrations of tragedies long since enacted there. Every place +has an atmosphere of its own, arising from the thought vibrations set in +motion by the various persons who have inhabited or occupied them. Every +city has its own mental atmosphere, which has an effect upon persons +moving into them. Some are lively, some dull, some progressive, some +old-fogeyish, some moral, some immoral - the result of the character of +the early settlers and leading spirits of the places. The atmosphere +affects persons moving into these towns, and either sinks to the general +level, or else, if strong enough, help to change the mental tone of the +place. Sometimes a change in conditions brings a large influx of new +people to the town, and the mental waves of the newcomers tend to bring +about a marked change in the local mental atmosphere. These facts have +been noted by many observing people who were, perhaps, not familiar with +the laws and principles underlying the phenomena. + +Many have of course noticed the differing atmosphere of stores, offices +and other places of business. Some of such places give one an air of +confidence and trust; others create a feeling of suspicion and mistrust; +some convey an impression of active, wide awake management, while others +impress one as being behind the times and suffering from lack of alert, +active management. Did you ever stop to think that these different +atmospheres were caused by the prevailing mental attitudes of those in +charge of the places? The managers of business places send forth +Thought-Waves of their own, and their employees naturally falling into +the pace set for them, sending forth similar vibrations, and before long +the whole place is vibrating on a certain scale. Let a change in the +management occur and see what a change soon manifests itself. + +Did you ever notice the mental atmospheres of the houses you happened to +visit? You may experience and recognize all of the varying notes in the +mental scale of their occupants. From some thresholds harmony manifests +itself, while others breathe in harmony as soon as you step over the +threshold. Some radiate mental warmth, while others seem as cold as an +iceberg. Think for a moment and recall the various houses or places you +visit, and see how the mental vibrations of the inmates manifest +themselves to a visitor. + +The low quarters of our cities, the dens of vice and haunts of +dissipation vibrate with the character of thought and feeling of those +inhabiting them. And the weak-willed visitor is thus tempted. And, in +the same way, certain places are filled with strong, helpful, elevating +vibrations, which tend to lift up and elevate those coming within their +circle of influence. Thoughts and Feelings are contagious, by reason of +the Law of Vibration and Mental Induction. When this law is understood +the individual is enabled to protect and improve himself. Such Knowledge +brings Strength.  + +CHAPTER III +MENTAL INDUCTION + +As we stated in the preceding chapter, the phenomena of Mental Influence +bears a striking analogy to that of the electrical or magnetic energy. +Not only is this so in the phase of wave motion and transmission, but +also in the phase of induction, as we shall see presently. In physical +science the term Induction is used to indicate that quality in a +manifestation of energy which tends to reproduce in a second object the +vibrations manifesting in the first object, without direct contact +between the two bodies. A magnet will induce magnetism in another object +removed from its space. An electrified object will tend to produce +similar vibrations in another object by induction, over great spaces. +Heat waves travel along the ether, and tend to produce heat vibrations +in objects far removed, notably in the case of the sun and the earth. +Even sound waves will affect other objects in this way, as in the +well-known instance of the glass or vase "singing" in response to the +musical note sounded afar off. In fact, we see and hear by processes +similar to those described. And in this same manner that Thought-Waves +carry the vibrations of the mind sending them forth to great distances, +or lesser ones, tending to set up similar vibrations in the middle of +other persons within their field force. Thus a person feeling a strong +degree of anger will pour forth waves of that degree of mental +vibration, which, coming in contact with the brains of other persons, +tend to set up a similar feelings or emotions and thus cause the person +to "feel cross" or "peevish" or even to manifest a similar angry state +of mind. We all know how easily a fight is started by a very angry +person in a room sending forth violent vibrations. + +One has but to remember the instances of mob violence to see how easily +the "contagion of hate and anger" spread among people who allow +themselves to be influenced. And not only is this true of undesirable +emotions and feelings, but also of desirable ones. The influence of a +good man who happens to be strong mentally spreads among those around +him, influencing in them for good. Orators, actors, preachers and +teachers send forth strong within toll currents, which tend to produce +mental conditions on the part of their hearers corresponding to the +feeling held by the mind of the speaker. When you remember how this +speaker swayed your feelings, or how that actor made you weep with pity, +shiver with fear, or laugh with joy, you will see how Mental induction +acts. But not only is this true when we are in the actual presence of +the person sending out the Thought-Waves, but it is equally true that we +are influenced by persons far removed from us in space, often without +their knowledge or intent, although sometimes (in the case of one who +understands the principal most) with full knowledge and intent. The +ether with which space is filled carries these Thought-Waves in all +directions, and the surface of the earth, particularly in the densely +occupied portions, is filled with these waves. These waves, carrying the +mental vibrations, coming in contact with each other, tend to set up +combinations on one hand, or else neutralize each other on the other +hand. That is to say, if two sets of waves of a similar nature meet +there is likely to be a combination formed between them just as between +two chemicals having an affinity for each other. In this way the "mental +atmosphere" of places, towns, houses, etc., is formed. On the other hand +if currents of opposing vibrations came in contact with each other, +there will be manifested a conflict between the two, in which each will +lose in proportion to its weakness, and the result will be either a +neutralization of both or else a combination having vibrations of an +average rate. For instance, if two currents of mental energy meet, one +being a thought of Love and the other Hate, they will neutralize each +other if they are equal, or if one is stronger than the other, it will +persist but robbed of much of its strength. + +If it were not for this neutralizing effect we would be largely at the +mercy of stray currents of thought. Nature protects us in this way, and +also by rendering us immune to a considerable extent. But nevertheless +we are affected by these waves to a considerable extent, unless we have +learned to throw them off by knowledge of the laws and an enforcement of +them by practice. We all know how great waves of feeling spread over the +town, city or country, sweeping people off their balance. Great waves of +political enthusiasm, or War spirits, or prejudice for or against +certain people, or groups of people, sweep over places and cause men to +act in a manner that they will afterward regret when they come to +themselves and consider their acts in cold blood. Demagogues will sway +them or magnetic leaders who wish to gain their votes or patronage; and +they will be led into acts of mob violence, or similar atrocities, by +yielding to these waves of "contagious" thought. On the other hand we +all know how great waves of religious feeling sweep over a community +upon the occasion of some great "revival" excitement or fervor. + +The effect of these Thought-Waves, so far as the power of induction is +concerned, of course depends very materially upon the strength of the +thought or feeling being manifested in the mind sending them forth. The +majority of persons put but little force into the mental manifestations, +but here and there is to be found a thinker whose Thought-Waves are +practically "a stream of living will" and which of course have a very +strong inductive effect upon the minds of others with whom the waves +come in contact. But it likewise follows that a number of persons +thinking along the same lines will produce a great volume of power by a +combination of their thought currents into great streams of mental +force. + +Then again there is another feature of the case that we must not lose +sight of, and that is the Attraction between minds, by virtue of which +one draws to himself the Thought-Waves of others whose thoughts are in +accord with his own. The contrary is true, for there is Repulsion +between the minds of persons and the Thought-Waves of others whose +thoughts are not in accord with his own. The contrary is true, for there +is Repulsions between the minds of persons and the Thought-Waves of +others antagonistic to their thoughts. To quote a well-worn and +much-used expression to illustrate this truth, "Like attracts Like," and +"Birds of a Feather flock together." There is ever in operation this +marvelous law of Attraction and Repulsion of Mental Energy- Persons +allowing their thoughts to run along certain lines, and permitting the +feelings to be expressed in certain ways, draw to themselves the +Thought-Waves and mental influences of others keyed to the same mental +key-note. And likewise they repel the waves and influences of an +opposing nature. This is an important fact to remember in one's everyday +life. Good attracts Good and repels Evil. Evil attracts Evil and repels +Good. The predominant Mental Attitude serves to attract similar +influences and to repel the opposing ones. Therefore watch carefully the +character and nature of your thoughts - cultivate the desirable ones and +repress the undesirable ones. Verily "As a man thinketh in his heart, so +is he." + +Some Thought-Waves sent forth with but little strength travel slowly and +do not proceed very far from their place of emanation, but creep along +like some smoke or fog, lazily and yielding. Other thoughts charged with +a greater intensity of desire or will, dart forth vigorously like an +electric spark, and often travel great distances. The weak Thought-Waves +do not last a very long time, but fade away or become neutralized or +dissipated by stronger, forces. But the strong thoughts persist for a +long time, retaining much of their vitality and energy. + +In the same manner the Thought-Waves of a person will continue to +vibrate around him wherever he goes, and those coming in contact with +him will be impressed by the character of his vibrations in this way. +Some men send forth gloomy vibrations in this way. Some men send forth +gloomy vibrations, which you feel when you come in contact with them. +Others radiate good-cheer, courage and happiness, which conditions are +induced in those with whom they come in contact. Many people will +manifest these qualities so strongly that one can notice the effect the +moment such persons enter a room. They carry their atmosphere with them, +and the same is induced in the minds of others around them. + +In the same way some people carry with them vibrations of Will-Power and +Masterfulness that beat upon the minds of others, making them feel the +power of such persons and conquering their own will-power and changing +their desires. Others manifest a strong power of Fascination or +Attraction, in a similar manner which tends to draw others to them and +to their desires and wishes. Not only does this principle operate in the +phase of general mental atmospheres, but also in the phase of direct +personal influence. + +All forms of Mental influence operate along the lines of Mental +induction, as herein described. The principle is the same in all cases +and instances, although the manner of operation varies according to the +particular phase of the phenomena manifested. Remember this as we +proceed, and you will be able to understand the subject much better.  + +CHAPTER IV +MENTAL CONCENTRATION + +The two principal factors in the +manifestation of Mental Influence, in all of its forms, are what are +know as (1) Concentration, and (2) Mental Imagining. The first of these +factors shall be considered in this chapter, the succeeding chapter +taking up the consideration of the second. "Concentration" is a word +derived from two Latin words, i.e., "con," a prefix meaning " to;" and +"centrum," meaning "center" or "fixed central point." The two words +combined mean, literally, "to bring to a common point; to focus," etc. +Thus the word "Concentration" is seen to mean, literally, "the act or +state of bringing to a fixed point or focus. Borrowing an analogous +illustration from physical science, we readily see that the highest +forms of energy, force or power are manifested by bringing the force to +a focus, center, or common point thereby directing to that point the +entire energy employed, instead of allowing it to become dissipated over +a larger area. The electricity generated by a battery or dynamo, if +allowed to diffuse itself over a large surface manifests but a small +degree of the power that may be obtained from it by compelling it to +discharge itself from a small point of focus. The same is true regarding +the power of steam, which manifests great power by being forced to +discharge itself through a small point or opening instead of being +permitted to spread itself widely in the air. The same law applies to +gunpowder, which manifests force by its gases being compelled to escape +through the small gun-barrel instead of spreading in all directions, +which it would do if unconfined. Another familiar example is that of the +sun glass, or "burning-glass," which brings the rays of the sun to a +common point or focus, greatly intensifying the heat and light by reason +thereof. The occult masters have ever impressed upon their pupils the +importance and necessity of acquiring the power of Mental Concentration, +and all trained and developed occultists have practiced and persevered +toward this end, the result being that some of them attained almost +miraculous mental powers and influence. All occult phenomena are caused +in this way, and all occult power depends upon it. Therefore the student +of Mental Influence should devote much thought, time and practice to +this most important branch of the subject. + +It is a fact known to all students of mental phenomena that very few +persons possess more than a very small degree of concentration. They +allow their mental forces to become scattered and dissipated in all +directions, and obtain little or no results from the same. In the degree +that a man is able to concentrate, so is he able to manifests mental +power. A man's power of mental concentration is to a great extent his +measure of greatness. Mental Concentration, in practice, consists of +focusing the mind upon a given subject, or object, firmly and fixedly, +and then holding it there for a certain time, fully intent upon its +object, and not allowing itself to be diverted or attracted from its +object. It likewise consists in the correlative power of then detaching +the mind from that subject, or object, and either allowing it to rest, +or else focusing it upon another object. In other words, it either gives +undivided attention or else inhibits (or "shuts off") attention from the +given subject or object. To the reader who has had no experience along +the lines of Mental Concentration, it may seem like a very easy Mental +Influence task to focus the mind upon a subject, and then hold it there +firmly and fixedly. But a little practice will undeceive such a person +and will bring him to a realizing sense of the difficulty of the task. +The mind is a very restless thing, and its tendency is to dance from one +thing to another, darting here and there, soon tiring of continued +attention, and like a spoiled child, seeking a new object upon which to +exercise itself .On the other hand, many people allow their minds to +concentrate (involuntarily) upon whatever may strike their fancy, and, +forgetting everything else, they give themselves up to the object +attracting their attention for the moment, often neglecting duties and +important interests, and becoming day dreamers instead of firm thinkers. +This involuntary concentration is a thing to be avoided, for it is the +allowing of the attention to escape the control of the will. The Mental +Concentration of the occultists is a very different thing, and is solely +in control of the will, being applied when desirable, and taken off or +inhibited when undesirable. The trained occultist will concentrate upon +a subject or object with a wonderful intensity, seemingly completely +absorbed in the subject or object before him, and oblivious to all else +in the world. And yet, the task accomplished or the given time expired, +he will detach his mind from the object and will be perfectly fresh, +watchful and wide-awake to the next matter before him. There is a +difference in being controlled by involuntary attention, which is a +species of self- hypnotizing, and the control of the attention, which is +an evidence of mastery.   The secret of Mental Concentration lies in the +control of the Attention. And the control of the Attention lies in the +exercise of the Will. A celebrated French psychologist has well said: +"The authority is subject to the superior authority of the Ego. l yield +it or I withhold it as I please. l direct it in turn to several points. +l concentrate it upon each point as long as my will can stand the +effort." Sully says: "Attention may be roughly defined as the active +self-direction of the mind to any object which presents itself at the +moment." All of the occult authorities begin teaching their pupils +Attention as the first step toward Mental Concentration. They instruct +the pupil to examine some familiar object, and endeavor to see as many +details as possible in the object. Then after hearing the pupil's +report, the master sends him back to the task, bidding him seek for new +details, and so on until at last the pupil has discovered about all +concerning the object that can be discovered. The next day a new object +is given to him, and the process is repeated. First simple objects are +given, and then more complex ones, until at last objects of great +complexity are easily mastered. In this way not only is the power of +close observation highly developed, but also the faculty of Attention +becomes so highly strengthened that the pupil is able to exert the +greatest amount of Mental Concentration with scarcely the consciousness +of effort. And such a person then becomes a very giant in the +manifestation of Mental Influence. For he is able to mold his mind +"one-pointed," as the Orientals describe it, until he has focused and +directed a mighty degree of Mental Influence toward the desired object. +Among the practices imposed upon their pupils by occult masters may be +named Mathematics, Drawing, Analysis, etc. You will readily see why this +is. To begin with, Mathematics requires the undivided attention of the +student - unless he concentrates upon his examples, he will not be able +to work out their solution. And, according to the principle in Nature +that "practice makes perfect," and that "exercise develops power,"  the +practice of the mind along lines requiring voluntary attention and +mental concentration will inevitably result in the acquirement of the +mental control and power, which renders possible the strongest +manifestation of Mental Influence. The person who uses Mental Influence +must certainly possess the power of focusing the force to a common +point, in order to manifest the greatest amount of power and influence. +And that faculty of focusing results from the training of the mind along +the lines of Concentration. And Concentration arises from the mastery of +Voluntary Attention. So there you have the whole matter in a nutshell. +So your first step toward acquiring Mental Influence should be to +cultivate Voluntary Attention. We might fill page after page with +exercises designed to strengthen your faculty of Voluntary Attention, +but what would be the use? The best plan is to set you to work to find +something upon which to concentrate, for the very search will develop +attention. Look around you for some object to study in detail. Then +concentrate your attention upon it until you have seen all there is +about it to be seen, then take up another object and pursue the practice +further. Take a page - this page, if you will, and count the number of +words on it. Then see how many words are required to fill each line, on +an average, then see how many letters there are in each word, in each +line, on the whole page. Then go over the page and see if any words are +misspelled, or if any of the letters are imperfect, etc. In short, get +acquainted with this page, until you know all about it. Then take up +another page, and after studying it in the same way, compare the two. +And so on. Of course this will be very dry and tedious unless you take +an interest in it. And, remembering just what the exercise is designed +for may arouse this interest. After practicing this way for a short time +each day, you will begin to find that you are able to bestow greater +attention upon objects upon which you are trying to manifest Mental +Influence. You are developing Concentration, and that is the great +secret of the use of Mental Influence, and explains the difference in +its manifestation among men. Think over this. + +CHAPTER V +MENTAL IMAGING + +In our last chapter we called your attention to the first of the two +principal factors in the manifestation of Mental Influence, namely, +"Mental Concentration." In the present chapter we shall consider the +second factor tending to render possible the said manifestation, namely, +"Mental Imaging." What is known as a "Mental Image, in occultism, is the +mental creation, in the imagination of a "picture" of the things, events +or conditions that one desires to be manifested or, materialized in +actual effect. A moments thought will show you that unless you know +"just what" you desire, you can take no steps toward attaining it on any +plane of manifestation. And the more clearly your desires are perceived +in your imagination, the clearer is the work of proceeding toward the +realization of that desire. A Mental Image gives you a framework upon +which to work. It is like the drawing of the architect, or the map of +the explorer. Think over this for a few moments until you get the idea +firmly fixed in your mind. And now the same rule holds well on the plane +in which the manifestation of Mental influence takes place. + +The occultist first builds up, in his imagination, a Mental Image or +Picture of the conditions he wishes to bring about, and then by +concentrating his influence strongly, instead of in a haphazard way as +is the case with the majority of people who do not understand the laws +and principles underlying the manifestations of the forces of mind. The +Mental Image gives shape and direction to the forces, which is being +concentrated upon the desired object or subject. It may be compared to +the image on the glass of the Magic Lantern, through which the focused +rays of the lamp pass, the result being that a corresponding image is +reproduced upon the screen or curtain beyond. The analogy is a very +close one indeed, if we remember that the minds of the majority of +people are more or less blank screens or curtains upon which play the +pictures produced there by outside influences, suggestions, +environments, etc., for very few people realize their individuality, and +are merely reflections of the thoughts and ideas of other people. An +eminent authority, Sir Francis Galton, who was one of the leading +authorities upon psychology of preceding generations, has said on this +subject: "The free action of a high visualizing faculty is of much +importance in connection with the higher processes of generalized +thought. A visual image is the most perfect form of mental +representation whatever the shape, position and relations of objects to +space are concerned. The best workmen are those who visualize the whole +of what they propose to do before they take a tool in their hands. + +Strategists, artists of all denominations, physicists who contrive new +experiments, and in short, all who do not follow routine, have a need +for it. A faculty that is of importance in all technical and artistic +occupations, that gives accuracy to our perceptions and justice to our +generalizations, is starved by lazy disuse instead of being cultivated +judiciously in such a way as will, on the whole, bring the best return. +l believe that a serious study of the best way of developing and +utilizing this faculty, without prejudice to the practice of abstract +thought in symbols, is one of the many pressing desires in the yet +unformed science of education." And what Galton has said of the value of +the use of this faculty of the mind in the affairs of the material +plane, so it is likewise true of the manifestations on the mental plane. +You know that the clearer a Mental Picture you possess of anything that +you want - the better you know just what you want - and the better you +know the latter, the better able you are to take steps to get it. Many +people go through life wanting "something," but not really knowing "just +what" they do want. ls it any wonder that they do not realize or +materialize their desires any better? And the same thing holds well on +the plane of manifestation of Mental Influence. If one wishes to +materialize anything by the use of the influence, is he not handicapped +by a lack of Mental Image of just what he wants to materialize, and is +he not helped very much by the creation of a mental "pattern" or plan, +in the shape of a mental picture, through and around which he may direct +his thought-currents? + +The occultists manifesting the greatest degree of Mental Influence +acquire by practice this art of creating Mental Images of that which +they wish to materialize.They train their Imagination in this way until +the very act of creating the Mental Image acts strongly toward the +actual material- ization or event, as "actually existing" in their minds +before they attempt to concentrate their Thought-Waves upon the task of +accomplishing it. Then the Mental Picture, being completed and standing +in strong outline, they focus their mental force through it, just as in +the case of the magic lantern before referred to, and the picture is +reproduced on the screen of mentality of other people. + +The imagination may be strengthened in many ways, the principle being +constant and persistent practice. The practice of recalling to the +memory of scenes previously witnessed, and then whether describing them +to others or else drawing a rough picture of them will help in this +matter. Describe to others scenes that you have witnessed, occurrences. +details of appearances, etc. etc.,  until you are able to reproduce +mentally the aspects and appearances of the things. Then you may begin +to draw mental pictures of things desired as if they were being drawn on +the screen of your mind. See, mentally, the things as actually occurring +- create a little playhouse of your own, in your mind, and there enact +the plays that you wish to witness in actual life. When you have +acquired this, you will be able to project your mental pictures on the +screen of objectivity in actual life with far greater effect. + +In thinking of this subject, you would do well to remember the +illustration of the magic lantern, for the figure is a good one, and +will enable you to carry the idea better in your mind. You see, in +giving you this suggestion, we are really telling you to form a mental +picture of the mental magic lantern, using the illustration given - you +see how much easier it is for you to think of it in this way and how +much easier it is for you to manifest it in practice. + +Build your Mental Images by degrees, commencing with the general +outlines, and then filling in the details. Always commence by trying +simple and easy things, and then working up to the more complex and +difficult feats. + +And now, I offer a word of warning at this point to all. Do not allow +your imagination to "run away with you" - do not became a dreamer of +dreams and a doer of nothing. You must master your imagination and make +it your servant and not your master. You must make it do your bidding, +instead of allowing it to dictate to you. + +You will see in the succeeding chapters the important part that Mental +Imaging plays in the different phases of Mental Influence. Even when we +do not refer directly to it by name, you will see that the "idea" sought +to be conveyed by one mind to another - the feeling, desire or mental +state sought to be transferred from one mind to others - must and does +depend very materially for strength upon the dearness and completeness +of the Mental Image held in the mind of the person seeking to do the +influencing, the "projector" of the Mental Image of his mental magic +lantern, upon the screen of the minds of others. Carry this principle +well in mind that you may see its operation in the different forms.  + +CHAPTER VI +FASCINATION + +In this and the next chapter we shall present to you information +regarding the effect of Mental Influence manifested when there is +personal contact between the persons using the power and the person +affected. Then we shall pass on to a consideration of the effect +produced when the persons are not in direct contact with each other. +There are two general forms of the direct use of Mental Influence, +which, although somewhat resembling each other, may still be separated +into two classes. The first we shall call "Fascination" and the second +"Hypnotism." + +By Fascination we mean the manifestation of Mental Influence when the +two persons are together, without passes or the usual hypnotic methods. +By Hypnotism we mean the use of the power, also, when the two parties +are together, but accompanied by passes or hypnotic methods. +Under the head of Fascination are to be found the manifestations +generally known as "Personal Magnetism,"  "Charming," etc., is quite +commonly employed, in varying degrees by many persons, often without +their conscious knowledge of the principles employed. Many persons are +possessed of the power of Fascination "naturally" and without having +studied or practiced the principles. Many others, not originally +possessing the power, have acquired by study and practice the power to +influence people in this way. For, it must be known, the power may be +acquired by study and practice just as may any other power of mind and +body. To some it is easy, to others difficult - but all may acquire a +very great degree of the power by intelligent study and practice of the +underlying principles. + +Fascination is one of the oldest forms of the manifestations of Mental +Influence. It was known to, and employed by, the earliest races of men. +It is even found among the lower animals that pursue their prey or +capture their mates by its use. A recent writer on the subject has +defined the word, used in this connection, as: "Acting upon by some +powerful or irresistible influence;  influencing by an irresistible +charm; alluring, exciting, irresistibly or powerfully, charming, +captivating or attracting powerfully, influencing the imagination, +reason or will of another in an uncontrollable manner; enchanting, +captivating or alluring, powerfully or irresistibly." + +As we have just said, this power is observable even among the lower +animals in some cases. Instances are related by naturalists, which +scorpions have fascinated other insects, causing them to circle around +and around until finally the insect would plunge down right within +striking distance of the scorpion, which would then devour its prey. +Birds of prey unquestionably fascinate their game, and men who have been +brought in contact with wild tigers, lions, etc., have testified that +they felt paralyzed in some manner, their legs refusing to obey their +will, and their minds seeming to become numbed and stunned. Those who +have seen a mouse in the presence of a cat will testify to the effect of +some power exerted by the latter. Birds in the presence of a cat and +serpents also manifest symptoms of a conquered will. And naturalists +cite many instances of the employment of this force by birds seeking to +captivate and charm their mates at the beginning of the season. +Among men it has been noticed that certain individuals possess this +power to a great degree. Some of the "great men" of ancient and modem +times having been so filled with the power that they could manage their +followers almost as one would move automatons. Julius Caesar had this +power developed to a great degree, and used it from youth to his last +days. He was worshipped - almost as a god by his soldiers - who would +undertake almost any task at his bidding. Napoleon also possessed this +charm to a wonderful degree. It enabled him to control men with whom he +came in contact, and to bend them to his will. He rose from a poor +student to the dignity and power of the Emperor of France. When banished +to Elba he escaped, and landing in France, alone and unarmed, confronted +the ranks of the French army drawn up to capture him, and walking +towards the soldiers compelled the latter to throw down their guns and +flock to his support. He entered Paris at the head of the great army, +which had been sent forth to capture him. This is no wild legend, but a +sober fact of history. And in our own times we see how certain leaders +of men sweep people before them and move them around like pawns on the +chessboard of life. + +All of the above mentioned phenomena comes under the head of +Fascination, and is the result of the emanation of streams of active +Thought-Waves from the mind of a person, the same being strongly +concentrated and directed toward those whom the person wishes to affect. +The person forms a strong thought in his mind and sends it out to the +others charged with the force of concentrated will, so that the other +person feels it most strongly and forcibly. The fundamental idea is the +forming of the thought, and then sending it out to the other person. +For instance, if you wish a person to like you, you should form in your +mind this thought: "That person likes me," fixing it in your own mind as +a fact. Then project to him the concentrated thought, "You like me - you +like me very much," with an air of assurance and confidence, and the +other person is bound to feel the effect unless he or she has acquired a +knowledge of the subject and is using self-protection. The thought +should be sent forth with the strength that usually accompanies a strong +spoken statement, but you must not actually "speak" the words aloud - +you should merely say them strongly "in your mind." +If you wish to produce an effect or impress Strength upon another +person, the same process may be used, changing the Thought and +vibrations to the idea that you have a stronger Will than the other +person, and are able to overcome his Will - using the silent message of +"I am Stronger than you - my Will overcomes yours," +Some successful agents and salesmen use the following method in reaching +their customers. They form a thought that the other person desires their +goods very much, and then they send out the Thought-Waves that "You +desire my goods - you want them very much - you have an irresistible +longing for them," etc. + +Others use the following when they wish another to comply with their +wishes: "You will do as I say - will do as I say - you will yield to me +fully and completely," etc. + +You will readily see from the above examples that the whole principle +employed in any and all of these cases consists of: + +(1) The Thought of what the person wishes the other to do held firmly in +the mind; and + +(2) The projection of that Thought to the other, silently, in the shape +of unspoken words. + +In the above you have the whole secret of Fascination condensed to a +small space. You will understand of course, that the words are only a +means of concentrating and vitalizing the thought. Animals merely feel +Desires, but are able to fascinate by the strength of them, although +they cannot use words. And one person may fascinate another without +understanding a word of his language, the real strength coming from the +strength of the desire behind the words. The formation of the +desire-thought into words, is merely for the purpose of concentrating +and focusing the thought, for words are concentrated symbols of ideas, +thoughts or feelings. + +The exact process of "sending forth" the Thought-Wave to the other is +difficult to describe. You know how you feel when you say something very +forcible and emphatic to another person. You can fairly "feel" the force +of the words being hurled at the other person. Well, cultivate that same +power in sending forth the "unspoken word" in the above manner, and you +will soon be able to notice the effect of the thought on the other. It +may help you to imagine that you can see the force flying from you to +the other. The imagination properly used helps very much in these +matters, for it creates a mental path over which the force may travel. +You must not act awkwardly when sending out the Thought-Waves, but +converse in an ordinary manner, sending your Thought-Waves between your +speeches, when the other person is talking to you, or at any pause in +the conversation. It is always well to send first a powerful +Thought-Wave before the conversation is opened, preferably while you are +approaching the person. And it is likewise well to terminate the +interview with a "parting shot" of considerable strength. You will find +that these Thought-Waves are of far greater power than spoken words, and +then again, you can in this way send out impressions that you could not +utter in spoken words for obvious reasons. + +And now do you see how you have been affected by persons who have +influenced you at times in your past life? Now that you know the secret +you will be in a measure immune from further impressions from others. +And when you read our concluding chapter, entitled "Self-Protection," +you will be able to surround yourself with a protective armor through +which the Thought-Waves cannot penetrate, but which will turn aside the +shafts directed toward you.  + +CHAPTER VII +HYPNOTIC INFLUENCE + +As we have mentioned in the previous lesson, there is a general +resemblance between the manifestation of Mental Influence, known as +"Fascination," and that known as Hypnotic Influence. In the +manifestation known as Fascination, the influence is exerted solely by +Thought- Waves passing from mind to mind without a physical medium or +channel other than the ether. In Hypnotic Influence, on the contrary, +the influence is heightened by means of passes, stroking or eye +influence. + +In Hypnotic Influence the mind of the person affected, whom we shall +call the "subject," is rendered passive by a flow of mental energy +calculated to render it more or less drowsy or sleepy, and therefore +less calculated to set up powers of resistance to the Thought-Waves of +the person using the influence. But the power employed is the same in +all cases, no matter whether they fall under the classification of +Fascination or whether that of Hypnotic Influence. The two classes of +manifestation, as a matter of fact, really blend into each other, and it +is difficult to draw a dividing line in some cases. + +Hypnotic Influence is a form of that which was formerly termed +Mesmerism, which name was given to it in honor of its discoverer, +Frederick Anton Mesmer, who practiced this form of Mental Influence +during the latter half of the Eighteenth Century. As a fact, however, +the force and its use was known to the ancients centuries before +Mesmer's time, the latter person having merely rediscovered it. +Mesmer taught that the power was based upon the presence of a strange +universal fluid which pervaded everything, and which had a peculiar +effect upon the nerves and brains of people. He and his followers +believed that it was necessary to put the subjects into a sound sleep +before they could be influenced. But both of these ideas have given way +to the new theories on the subject now held by investigators and +students of the subject. + +It is now known that the "magnetic fluid" believed in by Mesmer and his +followers is nothing else than the currents of Thought-Waves emanating +from the mind of the operator. And it is also known that the "deep +sleep" condition is not necessary to render the will of the subject +subservient to that of the operator. It is also now known that the +nerves of the arms and fingers afford a highly sensitive conductor for +the mental currents, which may be propelled over them to the mind of the +subject, or to his nerves and muscles. This fact is explained by the +well-known scientific fact that the material of which the nerves are +composed is almost identical with that of the brain - in fact the +nervous system may be spoken of as a continuation of the brain itself. +It is now also known that the eye has a peculiar property of +transmitting the mental currents along the rays of light entering it and +from thence to the eyes of the other person. The above fact explains the +phenomena of hypnotic influence, as it is now known to science. The +question of "Suggestion" also has a bearing on the subject, as we shall +see presently. + +Modern operators do not produce the "deep sleep" condition usually +except in cases when it is desired to produce some form of psychic +phenomena apart from the subject of Mental Influence - that is, in which +they are merely inducing the deep hypnotic condition in order to get the +subject into a psychic condition in which the phenomena mentioned may be +manifested or exhibited. We shall not enter into this phase of the +subject in this book, for it is outside of the immediate subject. The +modem hypnotic investigator merely induces a passive state in the mind, +nerves or muscles of the subject sufficient to reduce the powers of +resistance, and then he gives his orders or "verbal suggestions" +accompanied by a projection of his Thought-Waves into the mind of the +subject. + +In order to illustrate the subject, we will give you a few experiments, +which may be easily performed by anyone manifesting the power of +concentration and thought-projection. There is of course a great +difference in the degrees of impressionability of different persons to +hypnotic influence - that is to say, difference in degrees of +resistance. Some persons will interpose a strong resistance, while +others will set up a very feeble resistance, which is easily beaten down +by the will of the operator. In the following experiments you had better +begin by getting some person who is perfectly willing for the +experiment, and who will not interpose a resistance but who is willing +to become passive. Some person friendly to you and interested in the +experiments, we mean. + +Begin by having the person stand before you. Then make sweeping passes +in front of the person from head to foot. Then make a few passes in +front of the face of the subject, then along his arms. Then take hold of +his hands and hold them a little while, looking him straight in the +eyes. Make all passes downward. Avoid levity or laughter and maintain a +serious, earnest expression and frame of mind. + +Then standing in front of the subject tell him to take his will off of +his legs and stand perfectly passive and relaxed. Then looking him +straight in the eyes, say to him: "Now, I am going to draw you forward +toward me by my mental power - you will feel yourself falling forward +toward me - don't resist but let yourself come toward me - I will catch +you, don't be afraid - now come - come - come - now you're coming, +that's right," etc. You will find that he will begin to sway toward you +and in a moment or two will fall forward in your arms. It is unnecessary +to say that you should concentrate your mind steadily upon the idea of +his falling forward, using your will firmly to that effect. It will help +matters if you hold your hands on each side of his head, but just in +front of him, not touching him, however, and then draw away your hands, +toward yourself, saying at the same time: "Come now come - you're +coming," etc. Standing behind the subject and drawing him backward may +reverse this experiment. Be sure and catch him in your arms when he +fails to protect him from a fall to the floor. + +In the same manner you may fasten his hands together, telling him that +he cannot draw them apart. Or you may start him revolving his hands, and +then giving him orders that he cannot stop them. Or you may draw him all +around the room after you, following your finger that you have pointed +at his nose. Or you may make him experience a feeling of heat and pain +by touching your finger to his hand and telling him that it is hot. All +of the familiar simple experiments may be performed successfully upon a +large percentage of persons, in this way, by following the above general +directions. We shall not go into detail of the higher experiments of +Hypnotism, as that forms a special subject by itself. We give the above +experiments merely for the purpose of showing you that the phenomena of +Hypnotic Influence does not require any "magnetic fluid" theory, and is +all explainable upon the hypothesis of Mental Influence by means of +Thought- Waves and Mental Induction. + +In the above experiments, be sure you "take off' the influence +afterward, by making upward passes, and willing that the influence pass +off. Do not neglect this. + +In your experiments, if you care to undertake them, you will soon +discover the power of your eye upon the other persons. You will be able +to almost feel the force passing from your gaze to theirs. And this is +true in the case of the passes and stroking of the hands. You will feel +the vibratory waves flowing from your hands into their nervous system. +It is wonderful what power is aroused in a person after conducting a few +experiments along these lines. Those who care to follow the subject +further are referred to a forthcoming book of this series, to be issued +shortly, and which will be called "The New Hypnotism," in which full +instructions will be given in the higher phenomena, in complete detail. +And now a word of warning - Beware of people who are always putting +their hands on you, or patting or stroking you, or wishing to hold your +hands a long time. Many persons do this from force of habit, and +innocently, but others do so with the intention of producing a mild form +of hypnotic influence upon you. If you meet such persons, and find them +attempting anything of this sort, you can counteract their influence by +sending them a strong thought current (as stated in our last chapter), +sending them the thought: "You can't affect me - I am too strong for you +- you can't play your tricks on me." It is a good plan to practice this +counteracting force when you are shaking hands with a "magnetic" person +who seems to affect people. You will soon be able to distinguish these +people by a certain force about them and a peculiar expression in their +eyes, at the same time using your protective will upon them. + +Caution young girls against allowing young men to be too free in using +their hands in caressing them, and a word of advice to young men in your +family would not be out of place in this respect. There are many cases +of sex-attraction, leading to very deplorable results, arising from a +conscious or unconscious use of this simple form of Hypnotic Influence. +The danger lies in the fact that it renders one passive to other +influences, and more readily led into temptation and to yield to the +desires or will of the other person. A word to the wise should be +sufficient. The use of this power for immoral purposes is a terrible +crime and brings down upon the user deplorable results, which all +occultists know and teach. Everyone should learn to resist such +influences when exerted upon them. Forewarned is Forearmed. + +CHAPTER VIII +INFLUENCING AT A DISTANCE + +In the two preceding chapters we invited your consideration of the +manifestation of Mental Influence when the user or projector of the +force was in actual contact with, or in presence of, the person or +persons he was aiming to influence. In this chapter, and the one +immediately following it, we shall pass on to a consideration of the +manifestation of the influence when the persons affected are removed in +space from the person using the influence. + +The general public is familiar in a general way with the phenomena of +hypnotism. and to a lesser degree with the phenomena of Fascination in +its more common forms of personal Magnetism, etc. But as regards the use +of the influence at a distance people are more or less skeptical owing +to a lack of knowledge of the subject. And still every day is bringing +to the mind of the public new facts and instances of such an influence. +and the teaching of various cults along these lines is now awakening a +new interest in the subject, and a desire to learn something regarding +the laws and principles underlying the same. + +As strange as it may appear at first glance, the principles underlying +Mental Influence at a distance are precisely the same as those +underlying the use of influence when the persons are in the presence of +each other. A little thought must show the truth of this. In the case of +present influence the mental-currents flow across an intervening space +between the two minds - there is a space outside of the two minds to be +traversed by the currents. And a moment's thought will show you that the +difference between present influence and distant influence is merely a +matter of degree - a question of a little more or less space to be +traversed by the currents. Do you see this plainly? + +Well, then, this being so, it follows that the methods used must be +identical. Of course, in the case of personal influence the added effect +of the voice, manner, suggestive methods, the eye, etc., are present, +which render the result more easily obtained, and causes the "rapport" +condition to be more easily established. But with this exception the +methods are identical, and even the advantages accruing from the +exception mentioned may be duplicated by practice and development in the +case of distant influence. + +There are a number of methods given by the authorities in this matter of +distant influencing, but they are all based upon the same principles +named in the previous chapters of this book, i.e. Vibrations, +Thought-Waves, Mental Induction, Concentration and Mental Imaging - in +these words you have the key to the subject - the rest is all a matter +of practice and development, and variation. +One of the most elementary, and yet one of the most effective methods +known to occultists is that of creating a Mental Image of the person +"treated" (for that is the common term among modern writers on the +subject) in the sense of imagining him to be seated in a chair in front +of the person treating him at a distance. The treater proceeds to give +both verbal commands, and at the same time directs Thought-Waves toward +the imaginary person seated before him. This process establishes a +psychic condition between the treator and the actual person, although +the latter may be removed from the treator by many miles of space. This +was the method of the ancient magicians and wonder-workers, and has +always been a favorite among persons pursuing these experiments, of +desirous, of mentally influencing others at a distance. + +A variation of the above, very common in former days, was to mold a clay +or wax figure, calling it by the name of the person treated, and +identifying it in the mind and imagination with the other person. A +variation is also noticed in the cases where a photograph, lock of hair, +article of clothing, etc., is used in this way as a psychic connecting +link between the two persons. The practitioners of Black Magic, +Witchcraft and of her nefarious perversions of Mental influence seemed +to prefer these methods, although, on the contrary, they are used with +the very best results today by many in giving beneficial treatments to +absent patients, friends and others whose welfare is desired. The only +effect the Mental Image of the person, or the picture, etc., has is the +fact that by these means a psychic connection link is set up along which +the Thought- Waves travel more readily. + +In the above forms of treatment the treator treats the Mental Image, +picture, etc., precisely as he would if the person were actually +present. He forgets for the time being that the person may be hundreds +of miles away, and concentrates his influence on the image, or picture, +etc., because the latter is really the starting point of the psychic +chain, which leads direct to the person. The treator sends his +Thought-Waves toward the object, and in some cases actually talks +(mentally) to the person by means of the medium mentioned. He may give +commands, arguments, remonstrance, persuasion, etc., just as if the +person were actually present. In short, he acts as if the person were +sitting before him, wide-awake, and receptive to his influence. +Another way, employed by some, is to begin darting Thought-Waves toward +the other person, forming in the imagination a gradual lengthening +"psychic-wire" composed of thought- vibrations. Those practicing this +form state that when the psychic-wire is projected sufficiently far (and +it travels with incredible speed) and comes in contact with the mind of +the other person, the treator feels at once that contact has been +established by a peculiar faint "shock" similar to that of a very mild +galvanic current. Then the treator proceeds to send his thought-currents +along the psychic-wire in the same manner as if the person were actually +in his presence, as described under the head of "Fascination, in a +preceding chapter. In fact, such treatments, and the others mentioned in +this chapter, are really and practically "long distance Fascination." +Another form of distant treatment consists in forming an "astral-tube," +mentioned in other books in this series. The astral-tube is set up in a +similar manner to the "psychic-wire," and projected toward the person +desired to influence. It is formed in the imagination as a +"vortex-ring," similar to the little ring of smoke puffed out by the +cigar smoker, only larger - about six inches to one foot wide - or, +better still, like the ring of smoke ejected from the stack of a +locomotive sometimes when it is puffing rapidly. This vortex-ring is +then seen, in the imagination, by the use of the will, to lengthen out +in the shape of a tube which rapidly extends and travels toward the +person treated, in a manner identical with that of the psychic-wire. +This tube is known to occultists as the "astral-tube," and is employed +in various forms of occult and psychic phenomena, such as clairvoyance +and other forms of "Psychomancy," as described by us in our volume of +this series, so entitled. Those following this method of distant +influencing report that they recognize the completion of the tube by a +sensation of stoppage and a feeling of "rapport" having been established +between themselves and the other person. In some cases they report that +they are able to faintly "see" the figure of the other person in +miniature at the other end of the tube, but this is undoubtedly due to +the possession of "psycho-mantic" powers, suddenly awakened in to +effect. The tube once established the treatment is proceeded with as if +they were in the actual presence of the person treated. In many respects +the "psychic-wire" and the "astral-tube" methods are similar, and a +statement concerning one is generally true of the other. + +There are two other methods frequently used in distant influencing which +we shall now briefly describe. + +The first of these two methods consists in sitting or standing in a +quiet place, or rather in some place in which you can concentrate (the +advanced occultist can find peace in the midst of the noise) and then +directing your Thought-Waves toward the other person, forming in the +imagination a mental picture of the force flying from you toward the +other, like tiny sparks of electricity, or of a subtle fluid. This +mental picture tends to give a concentrative force to the current, which +renders them powerful, and sends them direct to the desired spot. +The second of these two methods is that used by the most advanced +occultists who have advanced beyond the use of the methods described +just now. These people simply stand or sit quietly and concentrate their +minds until they attain the state of Mental Calm known to many as "the +Silence." Then they create a strong mental picture of the person +treated, surrounded by the conditions desired created, or doing the +things desired to be done. This is one of the highest forms of Mental +Influence and really approaches a higher phase of influence than that of +the mental plane as generally known. A picture of a person held in the +mind in this way - the person being seen in perfect, robust health, and +happy and successful - tends to materialize the same conditions in the +person in real life. This form of treatment, however, is possible only +to those of great concentration, and who have mastered the act of Mental +Imaging, and who also possess Creative Will-Power to a marked degree. +Some degree of success in it, however, is open to nearly every student +who practices along these lines. + +Before practicing any of these experiments, read what we have said in +the chapter on "Magic Black and White, and guard against employing the +power for evil purposes, for the fate of the Black Magician is a sad +one. + +CHAPTER IX +INFLUENCING "EN MASSE" + +In our last chapter we considered the manifestation of Mental Influence +at a distance in so far as was concerned the influencing of one or more +persons by another. There is another phase of the subject that must not +be overlooked, and that is the influencing of large numbers of people by +some active, strong projector of Mental Influence. This form of the +manifestation of the power is known as "Mental Influencing En Masse" - +"En Masse, of course, means "in a boddy" - or "in a crowd," and Mental +Influencing En Masse means the use of the influence in the phase of +exerting a strong attracting or directing power to the mind of "the +crowd," or rather, "the public, or a large number of people. + +This form of the use of the power is that consciously or unconsciously +exerted by the great leaders of men in the fields of statesmanship, +politics, business, finance or military life. You will at once recall a +number of the so called "great men" of history from ancient times down +to our own times who seemed to exert a wonderfully, almost miraculous, +effect upon the minds of the people, causing men to see things through +the eyes of the strong man, and making of all instruments to carry out +the ideals, will or desires of these great masters of Mental Influence. +And on a smaller scale are the majority of the successful people who +depend upon public support. In fact, this influence in some degree is +used by nearly all who succeed in any form of business or profession, in +which success calls for the attraction of other people toward the +occupation of the person in question. This may seem like a strange +thought to many, but occultists know it as the truth, notwithstanding. +The most common form of Influencing En Masse is the lesser degree +manifestation, along unconscious lines, manifested by a majority of +people by reason of their desire for the success of certain things. By +desire we do not mean the mere "wanting" or "wishing" state of mind, but +rather that eager longing, craving, demanding mental state that evinces +a hungry reaching out for the desired thing. You will notice that the +men and women who "get things" are generally those who are possessed of +a strong, burning desire for the things in question, which prompts them +to be more of less aggressive in the search for satisfaction of the +desire possessing them. These people are constantly sending out strong +waves of thought-vibrations, which has a drawing, attracting influence +upon all with whom they come in contact, and tending to draw such +persons toward the center of attraction, which is, of course, the mind +of the person sending out such thoughts. And in the same way a person +possessed of a strong Fear of a thing will send out similar attracting +waves, which have a tendency to attract or draw to him the people +calculated to bring about the materialization of the thing feared. This +may sound paradoxical, but the secret lies in the fact that in both the +case of Desire and Fear the mind forms the Mental Image, which tends to +become materialized. Fear, after all, is a form of "expectation," which, +alas, too, often tends to materialize it." The thing that I have feared, +hath come upon me," says Job, and in that saying he has stated the +experience of the race. The way to fight things you may fear is to +create a burning desire for the opposite thing. + +Other persons who have either studied the principles of Mental +Influence, or else have stumbled upon certain facts concerning the same, +improve upon this elementary form of Influencing En Masse just +mentioned. They send out the Thought-Waves consciously and deliberately, +erecting the mental image, and holding strongly to it, so that in time +their sweeps of mental currents reach further and further away and bring +a greater number of people under the influence and into the field of +attraction. They "treat" the public "en masse" by holding the strong +mental picture of that which they desire, and then sending out strong +thought-currents of desire in all directions, willing that those coming +within their radius shall be attracted toward the ideas expressed in the +Mental image projected in all directions. + +The constant dwelling upon some special object or subject, by men who +have developed concentration, strong wills and fixity of purpose, has +the effect of sending out from the mind of that person great circles, +constantly widening, of Thought-Waves, which sweep ever outward like +waves in a pond caused by dropping in a stone. These waves reach and +affect a great number of people, and will render them at least +"interested" in the object or subject thought of, and the indifference +has been overcome. Other appeals to the minds of these people will be +far more likely to reach them than otherwise, for "interest" is the +first step toward attention, and attention is another step toward +action. + +Of course, there are very many people sending out circles of +Thought-Waves, and these currents come in contact with each other and +tend to neutralize each. But now and then a particularly strong man will +send out waves that will persist even after meeting other currents, and +will reach the minds of the public in spite of the opposition. These +thought-currents have the personality of the sender, and reflect the +character of his will, be it strong or weak. The Mental Influence sent +out by a strong business man in a town will soon make itself felt in a +subtle manner, and the store becomes a center of attractive influence, +although the public does no understand just why. In the same way some +lawyers spring into public favor, although not possessing greater +ability than their legal brethren. And popular preachers make their +influence felt in a community in similar ways, although often they are +not conscious of just what force they are using, their only knowledge +being that they have a feeling of inward strength and an attractive +influence over people, and at the same time a burning ardent desire to +draw people their way, and a strong will to back it up with. And these +are just the mental qualities that create and manifest the strongest +kind of Mental Influence. And besides, these people almost invariably +"know just what they want" - there is no mere vague "wishing" about them +- they make a clear mental picture of the things that they wish to bring +about, and then they bend every effort toward materializing the picture. +Everything they do towards accomplishing their ends gives an additional +impetus to their constantly widening and constantly strengthening circle +of power and influence. + +Some masters of this art of influencing the public create a mental +picture of themselves sending out great volumes of Thought-Waves for a +time, and then afterward mentally imparting a rotary motion to the +waves, until at last they form a mental whirlpool rushing round and +round and always sucking in toward the center. An effort of this kind +acts on the mental plane just as a physical whirlpool acts on the +physical plane, that is it draws into its power all that comes in +contact with its force. This is one of the most powerful forms of +Influencing En Masse, and is used with great effect by many of the +"strong men" of this age; who have acquainted themselves fully with the +secrets of the ancient occultists. Ancient Occultism and Modern Finance +seem far apart, but they are really working together to further the +interests of some of these powerful minds of the day - and the public is +paying  the bill. + +You will readily see from what has been said that an individual who has +cultivated the faculty of concentration and has acquired the art of +creating sharp, clear, strong mental images, and who when engaged in an +undertaking will so charge his mind with the idea of success, will be +bound to become an attracting center. And if such an individual will +keep his mental picture ever in his mind, even though it may be in the +background of his mind, when he is attending to the details and planning +of his affairs - if he will give his mental picture a prominent place in +his mental gallery, taking a frequent glance at it, and using his will +upon it to create new scenes of actual success, he will create for +himself a center of radiating thought that will surely be felt by those +coming within its field of influence. + +Such a man frequently "sees" people coming to him and his enterprises +and falling in line with his plans. He mentally "sees" money flowing in +to him, and all of his plans working out right. In short, he mentally +imagines each step of his plans a little ahead of the time for their +execution and he concentrates forcibly and earnestly upon them. It is +astonishing to witness how events, people, circumstances and things seem +to move in place in actual life as if urged by some mighty power to +serve to materialize the conditions so imaged in the mind of the man. +But, understood, there has got to be active mental effort behind the +imaging. Daydreamers do not materialize thought - they merely dissipate +energy. The man who converts thought in activity and material being, +throws energy into the task and puts forth his willpower through the +picture on the slide. Without the rays of the will there will be no +picture projected, no matter how beautifully the imagination has +pictured it. Thoughts pictured in mental images and then vitalized by +the force of the desire and will tend to objectify themselves into +material beings, That is the whole thing in a nutshell. + +CHAPTER X +THE NEED OF THE KNOWLEDGE + +Although the true scientific principles underlying the subject of Mental +Influence have been but recently recognized and taught to the general +public, still the knowledge is far from being new. The occultists of the +old civilizations undoubtedly understood the underlying principles and +used them in practice, thus gaining an ascendancy over the masses. And +more than this, the masses themselves had a more or less comprehensive +knowledge of the working principles of the subject, for we find among +all peoples, in all times, records of the use of this power. Under one +name or another - under one form or another - Mental Influence has been +operated and used from the earliest times. And today, even in the most +remote portions of the globe, and among the most savage and barbarous +races we find instances of the employment of this force. The forms of +the manifestation of Mental Influence are many and varied. In some cases +it manifests under the form of a fascinating, attracting power exerted +by some people, which causes such persons to draw or attract other +persons to them. Persons are allured or "charmed" by others possessing +this power, and their affections are taken captive by this mysterious +force. Some persons are spoken of as "fascinating," "possessing powers +of charming," having "winning ways," having "great personal magnetism," +etc. Others exert another form of the power in the driving of and +compelling others to do their bidding, and people speak of them as +having "a compelling will," being able "to work their will" on those +around them, possessing "dominating powers," etc. We are also brought +face to face with the wonderful effects of "Mental Science" under one +form or another, under this name or that term, with the many forms of +"treatments" followed by the different schools and cults. Then we read +in the pages of history about the mysterious powers recorded under the +name of Witchcraft, Hexes, Voodoo's, and Black Magic, including the +Hawaiian "Kahuna" work. And turning back the pages of history to Ancient +time, Greece, Persia and Egypt, not to speak of India, ancient and +modern, we find innumerable instances of the employment of, and +knowledge of, Mental influence in some of its forms.   And although many +will seek to deny the fact, scientific investigators and students +realize that there is but one real underlying principle under and back +of all of the various forms of manifestation. The good results, and the +evil results, all arise from the employment of the same force, strange +as it may appear at first thought. The secret lies in the fact that this +Mental Influence is a great natural force, just as is electricity or any +other natural forces, and it may be, and is, used for both good and evil +purposes. The electricity which runs out machines, lights our houses and +performs countless other beneficent tasks in the service of man is also +used to electrocute criminals, and the unfortunate person who touches a +"live wire" may be struck with instant death. The sun, which warms our +earth and renders life possible, also kills countless persons exposed to +its rays on the desert, or even in our large cities. Fire, that great +friend of man, which has been one of the most potent factors in the +evolution of the race from barbarism to civilization, is also a mighty +enemy, destroying both property and lives. Water, that most necessary +element, which renders life possible, and which is necessary to grow our +grain and to perform countless other good services for us, also acts as +an enemy at times, drowning people and sweeping away their homes. +Gravitation, which holds all things in place, from suns and stars down +to the tiniest atom of matter, also causes people to fall to their death +from high places, or brings down on their heads objects from above them. +In short, every natural force or power is capable of producing either +beneficent or baleful effects to man, according to the circumstances of +the case. We recognize these things, and accept them as a law of nature. +And yet some would deny the identity of the power of Mental influence as +manifested in its good and bad uses. There will be people who ascribe to +God all the good qualities of Mental Influence, and ascribe to the Devil +all of its evil uses. These people have primitive minds. Their +counterparts are seen in those who would credit God with the helpful +rain or sun, and who ascribe to the Devil the same things when there +occurs a flood or a drought. Such reasoning is worthy only of the savage +mind. The forces are natural forces, and work according to their own +laws, imminent in their constituent qualities and nature, and are in +that sense "above good and evil." When they work for man's interest and +comfort man calls them "good" - when they work harm and discomfort to +him man call them "bad" - but the force remains unchanged, being neither +"good" nor "bad." And thus it is with the power of Mental Influence - it +is above "good" and "bad"  - it is a great natural force, capable of +being used for either wear or woe to mankind. But, remember this, there +is a difference. While the force in itself is neither good nor bad the +individual who employs it may be, and it is, "good" or "bad," according +to its use. Just as a man commits a good or bad act when he uses his gun +to slay a wild beast attacking another man, or else turns it upon his +brother or neighbor, as the case may be - so is a man good or bad +according to his use of Mental Influence. The merit or demerit lies in +the intention and purpose of the user, not in the force or power +employed by him. Therein lies the difference. On all sides of us we may +see the manifestation of the possession of Mental Influence. We see men +who are able to sway those around them in some mysterious and wonderful +way, either by their powers of persuasion of by their dominant will +power. Some spring into prominence and power suddenly, in a way +unaccountable to those who are ignorant of the secret of Mental +Influence. As we have said in a previous chapter, certain people seem to +have "something about them" that makes them attractive or successful in +their relations with other people. The "personal magnetism" of leaders +manifests itself strongly, some having this power to such an extent that +the masses follow them like a great flock of sheep after the +"bell-whether" with the tinkling bell around his neck. We have all come +in contact with the "agent" or salesman who managed in some way to sell +us things that we did not want and had no use for, and after he had gone +we wondered and wondered how it all happened. If we had but understood +the laws of Mental Influence this could not have happened. We have all +felt ourselves, at some time or another in our lives, in the presence of +individuals who almost compelled us to do what we knew in our hearts we +should not do. Knowledge of the laws of Mental influence would have +enabled us to overcome the temptation. And not only in the case of +personal interviews have we been affected. There is a far more subtle +and dangerous use of the power, i.e., in the shape of "distant +influence," or "absent treatment," as it had been called. And the +increase in the interest and knowledge of Occult matters during the past +twenty years has resulted in a widely diffused knowledge of this great +force, and its consequent employment, worthily and unworthily, by many +people who are thereby enabled to gain an influence over their neighbors +and fellow men, who are not familiar with the laws of the force. It +would surprise many people if they knew that some of the +multi-millionaires of the country, and some of its greatest politicians +and leaders, were secret students of Occultism, and who were using their +forces upon the masses of the people. Not only this, but there are +Schools of Occultism which teach their pupils the theory, practice and +art of Mental Influence, under one name or another - under this guise or +that - the result being that there are a greater number of people +equipped for the use of this force and instructed in the practice of +employing it turned out every year than is generally imagined. There are +Schools for Salesmanship giving disguised instruction in the art of +Mental Influence. Nearly every large concern employing selling agents +has private instructors for their men, who teach them the principles of +Mental Influence disguised under the name of "Psychology of Business," +or some such name. And besides these, there are a number of people who +have studied at the feet of some of the great metaphysical, +semi-religious cults of the day, who have received instruction in Mental +influence disguised under the name of some creed or religious teachings, +who have departed from the moral principles inculcated by their by their +teachers, and who are using their knowledge in the shape of "treatments" +of other persons for the purpose of influencing them to accede to their +wishes or to act so as to bring financial gain to the person giving the +treatment. The air is full of this Black Magic today, and it is surely +time that the general masses were instructed on this subject. And this +is the purpose of this little book, published and sold at a popular +price in order to bring it within the reach of the purses of the "plain +people," who have been exploited and influenced by those who have +acquired a knowledge of the principles of Mental Influence, and who are +using it unworthily upon their fellow men. There is self protection +possible to all, and this little book purposes to teach you how to use +it. + +CHAPTER XI +MAGIC BLACK AND WHITE + +The use of the word "Magic" in connection with Mental Influence is quite +ancient. Occultists make a clear distinction between the use of Mental +Influence in a manner conducive to the welfare of others, and its use in +a selfish, base manner calculated to work harm on others. Both forms are +common and are frequently mentioned in all occult writings. + +White Magic has many forms, both in its ancient manifestations and in +these latter days of revived occult knowledge. The use of Mental +Influence in this way generally takes the form of kindly "treatments" of +persons by others having their welfare at heart. In this particular +class fall the various treatments of the several cults and schools of +what is known as Mental Science, or similar names. These people make a +practice of giving treatments, both "present" and "absent," for the +purpose of healing physical ailments and bringing about a normal +Physical condition of health and strength. Similar treatments are given +by some to bring about a condition of Success to others, by imparting to +the minds of such persons the vibrations of courage, confidence, energy, +etc., which surely make for success along the lines of material +occupation, etc. + +in the same way one may "treat" adverse conditions surrounding others, +bringing the force of the mind and will to bear on these conditions with +the idea of changing the prevailing vibrations and bringing harmony from +in-harmony, and success from failure. + +The majority of persons, not informed along these lines, are surrounded +by a mental atmosphere arising from the prevailing mental states, +thoughts, feelings, etc., and also arising from the thought-currents +which they have attracted to them by the Law of Mental Attraction. These +Mental Atmospheres, when once firmly settled around a person, render it +most difficult for him to "break away" from their vibrations. He +struggles and fights, but the prevailing vibrations are beating down +upon him all the time and must produce a strong effect upon even persons +of strong will, unless indeed they have fully acquainted themselves with +the laws of Mental influence and have acquired the power of +Concentration. The habit of a lifetime, perhaps, has to be overcome, and +besides the constant suggestive vibrations from the mental atmosphere +are constantly bringing a pressure to bear upon the person, so that +indeed he has a mighty task before him to throw off the old conditions, +unaided and alone. And, so, while individual effort is preferable, there +comes a time in the lives of many people when "a helping hand," or +rather a "helping mind," is of great service and aid. +The person coming to the mental aid of a person needing his or her +services is performing a most worthy and proper act. We hear a great +deal about "interfering with other people's minds" in such kind and +worthy "treatments," but in many cases there is but little real +interference done. The work of the helper is really in the nature of +neutralizing and dissipating the unfavorable. Mental Influence surrounds +the other person, and thereby giving the other person a chance to work +out his own mental salvation. It is true that everyone must do his or +her own work, but help of the kind above indicated is surely most worthy +and proper. + +In these White Magic treatments the person giving the treatments forms +the Mental Picture of the desired condition in his mind, and then sends +his thought-currents to the other person endeavoring to reproduce the +Mental Picture in the mind or thought-atmosphere of the other person. +The best way of doing this, of course, is to assert mentally that the +desired condition actually exists. One may be of great help and aid to +others in this  way, and there is no good reason why it should not be +done. + +And now for the reverse side of the shield - We wish it were possible to +avoid even a mention of this hateful form and manifestation of Mental +Influence, but we feel that ignorance is no protection, and that it is +useless and foolish to pursue the policy of the ostrich which sticks its +head in the sand when pursued, that not seeing the hunter the latter may +not see him. We believe that it is better to look things in the face, +particularly where it is a case of "forewarned being forearmed." +It is a fact known to all students of occultism that Black Magic has +been frequently employed in all times to further the selfish, base aims +of some people. And it is also known to advanced thinkers today that +even in this enlightened age there are many who do not scruple to stoop +to the use of this hateful practice in order to serve their own ends, +notwithstanding the punishment that occultists know awaits such persons. +The annals of history are full of records of various forms of +witchcraft, conjuration and similar forms of Black Magic. All the much +talked of forms of "putting spells" upon people are really forms of +Black Magic, heightened by the fear and superstition of those affected. +One has but to read the history of witchcraft to see that there was +undoubtedly some force at work behind all of the appalling superstition +and ignorance shown by the people of those times. What they attributed +to the influence of people "in league with the devil" really arose from +the use of Black Magic, or an unworthy use of Mental Influence, the two +things being one. An examination of the methods used by these "witches," +as shown by their confessions, gives us a key to the mystery. These +"witches" would fix their minds upon other people, or their animals, and +by holding a concentrated mental picture there, would send forth +Thought-Waves affecting the welfare of the persons being "adversely +treated," which would influence and disturb them, and often bring on +sicknesses. Of course, the effect of these "treatments" were greatly +heightened by the extreme ignorant fear and superstition held by the +masses of people at the time, for Fear is ever a weakening factor in +Mental influence, and the superstitions and credulity of the people +caused their minds to vibrate in such a manner as to render them +extremely passive to the adverse influences being directed against them. +It is well known that the Voodoos of Africa, and similar cults among +other savage races, practice Black Magic among their people with great +effect. Among the natives of Hawaii there are certain men known as +"Kahunas," who pray people sick, or well, whichever way they are paid +for. These instances could be multiplied had we the space and +inclination to proceed further with the matter. + +And in our own civilized lands there are many people who have learned +the principles of Mental Influence, and who are using the same for +unworthy purposes, seeking to injure others and defeat their +undertakings, or else trying to bring them around to their own (the +"treator's") point of view and inclinations. The modern revival of +occult knowledge has operated along two lines. On the one hand we see +and hear of the mighty power for good Mental Influence is exerting among +the people today, raising up the sick, strengthening the weak, putting +courage into the despondent and making successes of failures. But on the +other hand the hateful selfishness and greed of unprincipled persons in +taking advantage of this mighty force of nature and prostituting it to +their own hateful ends, without heeding the dictates of conscience or +the teaching of religion or morality. These people are sowing a baleful +wind that will result in their reaping a frightful whirlwind on the +mental plane. They are bringing down upon themselves pain and misery in +the future. + +At this point we wish to utter a solemn warning to those who have been, +or are tempted, to employ this mighty force for unworthy purposes .The +laws of the mental plane are such that "as one sows so shall he reap." +The mighty Law of Attraction acts with the accuracy of a machine, and +those who seek to entangle others in a net of Mental influence sooner or +later are caught by their own snare. The Black Magician involves him to +pieces. He is sucked down into the whirlpool of his own making, and is +dragged down to the lowest depths. These are not idle remarks, but a +statement of certain laws of nature, in operation on the mental plane, +which all should know and heed. + +And to those who may feel appalled at this mention of the existence and +possibilities of Black Magic we would say that there is one thing to be +remembered, and that is that GOOD always overcomes EVIL on the mental +plane. A good thought always has the power to neutralize the Evil one, +and a person whose mind is filled with Love and Faith may combat a +multitude whose minds are filled with Hate and Evil. The tendency of all +nature is upward and toward Good. And he who would pull it back toward +Evil sets himself against the law of Spiritual Evolution, and sooner or +later falls a victim to his folly. + +And then, remember this: Thought-Waves find entrance only to those minds +that are accustomed to think similar thoughts. He who thinks Hate may be +affected by Hate thoughts, while he whose mind is filled with Faith and +Love is surrounded by a resistant armor which repels the invading waves, +and causes them to be deflected, or else driven back to their senders. +Bad thoughts, like chickens, come home to roost. Thoughts ace like +Boomerangs, in their tendency to return to their sender. To the poison +of Black Magic Nature gives the antidote of Right-Thinking. + +CHAPTER XII +SELF-PROTECTION   + +The reader of the preceding chapters will see the power of Mental +Influence in its various phases of manifestation, and will recognize the +possibility of the force being used to influence himself. The question +that will naturally arise in the mind of every student and investigator +of this important subject, and which comes to all at sometime, is: "How +may I protect myself from the use of this power against myself - how may +I render myself immune from these influences which may be directed +against me?" + +It is true that we, and other writers on the subject, have shown you +that one is far less liable to influence if he will maintain a mental +atmosphere of high vibration - that is keeping oneself surrounded by a +thought atmosphere filled with vibrations of the highest kind of +thoughts and free from thoughts and desire of a base, selfish character, +which tends to attract similar thoughts. In this way one creates a state +of mental hygienic cleanliness which renders him immune from the +"contagious thoughts of the selfish plane of desire," etc. This should +be remembered and taken advantage of by everyone, for just as physical +cleanliness gives no congenial lodgment for the germs of disease, so +mental cleanliness refuses to admit the mental microbes. +But there is a method far more efficacious than even the above-mentioned +plan. And this method is really that employed by the adepts in +Occultism, and the method and practice taught the initiates of the +occult brotherhoods and lodges all over the world. Let us consider it +here. + +In the first place, without entering into a statement of the details of +the high occult teachings, we wish to inform you that the Basic +Principle of all such teaching and instruction is the fact that within +each of us, in the very center of the being of each individual - in the +very heart of hearts of the immortal Ego - is what occultists know as +the Flame of the Spirit. This is what you recognize in consciousness as +the "I AM" consciousness - that consciousness of being which is far +above the consciousness of Personality, or the things of personality. It +is that consciousness which informs each individual, unmistakably, that +he IS actually an Individual Being. This consciousness comes to the +individual by reason of his contact with the great One Life of the +Universe - it is the point of contact between the PART and the ALL. +And in this part of a man's consciousness, coupled with the sense of +BEING and "I," there resides a spark from the Divine Flame of Life and +Power, which is what has been called the WILL of man. Now, do not +mistake us and confuse this with the so called Will of personality, +which is merely a Desire, or else a certain firmness, which often is +little more than Stubbornness. This inner Will is Real Power, and when +once recognized may be drawn upon as a source of unending and unfailing +Strength. The occult adepts have developed the consciousness of this +Power Within, and use it freely. This is the result of years of +practice, and correct living and thinking. But, still, each and every +person may draw upon this source of strength within them to aid them in +life and to repel the thought-vibrations of the lower plane. +This consciousness may be developed by a realization of its existence, +and by a practice of bringing the idea in everyday consciousness, by +thought, meditation and practice. The very fact of having called your +attention to its existence has awakened within the mind of You who are +reading these lines a new strength and sense of power. Think a moment +and see whether you do not feel a dawning sense of Strength within you +that you have not realized so fully before this moment! A continued +recognition in your everyday consciousness of this Something Within will +develop your ability to manifest it. Particularly in an hour of need +will it spring to your assistance, giving you a sense of a part of +yourself crying out to you in words of encouragement: "l Am Here! Be Not +Afraid!" + +It is very difficult to give you this method in written or printed +works, but if you will enter fully into a recognition of this Inward +Power you will find yourself developing a new power of resisting outside +influences that will astonish you. + +When you come in contact with people who are seeking to influence you in +any of the ways mentioned in the preceding chapters of this book, or in +others ways, you will find yourself able to defy their mental attacks by +simply remembering the strength imminent in your "I," aided by the +statement (made silently to yourself): "l am an Immortal Spirit, using +the Will within my Ego." With this Mental Attitude you may make the +slightest mental effort in the direction of throwing out from your mind +vibrations, which will scatter the adverse influences in all directions, +and which, if persisted in, will cause the other person to become +confused and anxious to let you alone. + +With this consciousness held in mind, your mental command to another, +"Let me alone - I cast off your influence by the power of my Spirit," +will act so strongly that you will be able to actually see the effect at +once. If the other person is stubborn and determined to influence you by +words of suggestion, coaxing, threatening, or similar methods, look him +or her straight in the eyes, saying mentally "I defy you - my inner +power casts off your influence. Try this the next time that anyone +attempts to influence you either verbally or by Thought-Waves and see +how strong and positive you will feel, and how the efforts of the other +person will fail. This sounds simple, but the little secret is worth +thousands of dollars to every individual who will put it into practice. +Above all, put out of your mind all Fear of others persons. The feeling +of fear prevents you from manifesting the power within you to its full +extent. Cast out fear as unworthy and hurtful. + +Not only the case of personal influence in the actual presence of the +other person may be defeated in this way, but the same method will act +equally as well in the matter of repelling the mental influence of +others directed against you in the form of "absent treatments," etc. If +you feel yourself inclining toward doing something which in your heart +you feel that is not to your best interests, judged from a true +standpoint, you may know that, consciously or unconsciously someone is +seeking to influence you in this way. Then smile to yourself and make +the statements mentioned above, or some similar one, and holding the +power of the Spirit within your "I" firmly in you mind, send out a +mental command just as you would in the case of the actual presence of +the person himself or herself. You may also deny the influencing power +out of existence by asserting mentally: "l DENY your power to influence +me - you have no such power over me - I am resting on my knowledge of +Spirit and its Will within me - I deny your power out of existence." +This form of denial may be used either in the case of absent influence +or personal influence. The rule is the same in all cases. + +In repelling these absent influences you will at once experience a +feeling of relief and strength and will be able to smile at the defeated +efforts of the other person. If you feel sufficiently broad and full of +love for mankind you may then "treat" the other person for his error, +sending him thoughts of Love and Knowledge with the idea of dispelling +his ignorance and selfishness, and bringing him to a realization of the +higher truths of life. + +You will doubtless have many interesting experiences arising from thus +repelling these attacks. In some cases you will find that the next time +you meet the person in question he will appear confused and puzzled and +ill at ease. In other cases the person will begin to manifest a new +respect and regard for you, and disposed to aid you instead of trying to +influence you to his way and desire. In other cases the person will +still have the desire, and will endeavor to "argue" you into doing that +which he has tried to influence you into doing by Mental Influence, but +his efforts will "fall flat," and without effect, particularly if you +give him "another dose of the assertion of the Power of the Spirit +within you. + +In the same way you should call upon your Higher Self for aid and +strength when you feel yourself being affected by any of the great +Mental Waves of feeling or emotion sweeping over the public mind, and +which have a tendency to "stampede" people into adopting certain ideas, +or of following certain leaders. In such case the assertion of the "I" +within you will dissipate the influence around you, and you will find +yourself standing in a center of Peace surrounded on all sides by the +ocean of mental tumult and agitation which is sweeping over or circling +around the place. In the same way you will be able to neutralize the +unpleasant mental atmospheres of places, localities, houses, etc., and +render yourself positive to and immune from the same. n short, we have +given you here a recipe that may be used in any and every instance of +the employment of Mental Influence. It may sound simple to you, but a +little use of it will make you deem it the most important bit of +practical knowledge you may possess. diff --git a/religious documents/midsumme.txt b/religious documents/midsumme.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d076c1b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/midsumme.txt @@ -0,0 +1,295 @@ +3 + + +[A]bort, [P]ause, any to continue + +A M I D S U M M E R CELEBRATION +=================================== + by Mike Nichols (a.k.a. Gwydion) + + + In addition to the four great +festivals of the Pagan Celtic year, +there are four lesser holidays as +well: the two solstices, and the two +equinoxes. In folklore, these are +referred to as the four 'quarter-days' +of the year, and modern Witches call +them the four 'Lesser Sabbats', or the +four 'Low Holidays'. The Summer +Solstice is one of them. + + Technically, a solstice is an +astronomical point and, due to the +procession to the equinox, the date +may vary by a few days depending on +the year. The summer solstice occurs +when the sun reaches the Tropic of +Cancer, and we experience the longest +day and the shortest night of the +year. Astrologers know this as the +date on which the sun enters the sign +of Cancer. This year it will occur at +10:57 pm CDT on June 21st. + + However, since most European +peasants were not accomplished at +reading an ephemeris or did not live +close enough to Salisbury Plain to +trot over to Stonehenge and sight down +it's main avenue, they celebrated the +event on a fixed calendar date, June +24th. The slight forward displacement +of the traditional date is the result +of multitudinous calendrical changes +down through the ages. It is +analogous to the winter solstice +celebration, which is astronomically +on or about December 21st, but is +celebrated on the traditional date of +December 25th, Yule, later adopted by +the Christians. + + Again, it must be remembered that +the Celts reckoned their days from +sundown to sundown, so the June 24th +festivities actually begin on the +previous sundown (our June 23rd). +This was Shakespeare's Midsummer +Night's Eve. Which brings up another +point: our modern calendars are quite +misguided in suggesting that 'summer +begins' on the solstice. According to +the old folk calendar, summer BEGINS +on May Day and ends on Lammas (August +1st), with the summer solstice, midway +between the two, marking MID-summer. +This makes more logical sense than +suggesting that summer begins on the +day when the sun's power begins to +wane and the days grow shorter. + + Although our Pagan ancestors +probably preferred June 24th (and +indeed most European folk festivals +today use this date), the sensibility +of modern Witches seems to prefer the +actual solstice point, beginning the +celebration at sunset. Again, it +gives modern Pagans a range of dates +to choose from with, hopefully, a +weekend embedded in it. (And this +year, the moon is waxing throughout.) + + As the Pagan mid-winter +celebration of Yule was adopted by +Christians as Christmas (December +25th), so too the Pagan mid-summer +celebration was adopted by them as the +feast of John the Baptist (June 24th). + Occurring 180 degrees apart on the +wheel of the year, the mid-winter +celebration commemorates the birth of +Jesus, while the mid-summer +celebration commemorates the birth of +John, the prophet who was born six +months before Jesus in order to +announce his arrival. + + This last tidbit is extremely +conspicuous, in that John is the ONLY +saint in the entire Catholic +hagiography whose feast day is a +commemoration of his birth, rather +than his death. A generation ago, +Catholic nuns were fond of explaining +that a saint is commemorated on the +anniversary of his or her death +because it was really a 'birth' into +the Kingdom of Heaven. But John the +Baptist, the sole exception, is +emphatically commemorated on the +anniversary of his birth into THIS +world. Although this makes no sense +viewed from a Christian perspective, +it makes perfect poetic sense from the +viewpoint of Pagan symbolism. + + In most Pagan cultures, the sun +god is seen as split between two rival +personalities: the god of light and +his twin, his 'weird', his 'other +self', the god of darkness. They are +Gawain and the Green Knight, Gwyn and +Gwythyr, Llew and Goronwy, Lugh and +Balor, Balan and Balin, the Holly King +and the Oak King, etc. Often they are +depicted as fighting seasonal battles +for the favor of their goddess/lover, +such as Creiddylad or Blodeuwedd, who +represents Nature. + + The god of light is always born at +the winter solstice, and his strength +waxes with the lengthening days, until +the moment of his greatest power, the +summer solstice, the longest day. +And, like a look in a mirror, his +'shadow self', the lord of darkness, +is born at the summer solstice, and +his strength waxes with the +lengthening nights until the moment of +his greatest power, the winter +solstice, the longest night. + + Indirect evidence supporting this +mirror-birth pattern is strongest in +the Christianized form of the Pagan +myth. Many writers, from Robert +Graves to Stewart Farrar, have +repeatedly pointed out that Jesus was +identified with the Holly King, while +John the Baptist was the Oak King. +That is why, 'of all the trees that +are in the wood, the Holly tree bears +the crown.' If the birth of Jesus, +the 'light of the world', is +celebrated at mid-winter, Christian +folk tradition insists that John the +Oak King was born (rather than died) +at mid-summer. + + It is at this point that I must +diverge from the opinion of Robert +Graves and other writers who have +followed him. Graves believes that at +midsummer, the Sun King is slain by +his rival, the God of Darkness; just +as the God of Darkness is, in turn, +slain by the God of Light at +midwinter. And yet, in Christian folk +tradition (derived from the older +Pagan strain), it is births, not +deaths, that are associated with the +solstices. For the feast of John the +Baptist, this is all the more +conspicuous, as it breaks the rules +regarding all other saints. + + So if births are associated with +the solstices, when do the symbolic +deaths occur? When does Goronwy slay +Llew and when does Llew, in his turn, +slay Goronwy? When does darkness +conquer light or light conquer +darkness? Obviously (to me, at +least), it must be at the two +equinoxes. At the autumnal equinox, +the hours of light in the day are +eclipsed by the hours of darkness. At +the vernal equinox, the process is +reversed. Also, the autumnal equinox, +called 'Harvest Home', is already +associated with sacrifice, principally +that of the spirit of grain or +vegetation. In this case, the god of +light would be identical. + + In Welsh mythology in particular, +there is a startling vindication of +the seasonal placement of the sun +god's death, the significance of which +occurred to me in a recent dream, and +which I haven't seen elsewhere. Llew +is the Welsh god of light, and his +name means 'lion'. (The lion is often +the symbol of a sun god.) He is +betrayed by his 'virgin' wife +Blodeuwedd, into standing with one +foot on the rim of a cauldron and the +other on the back of a goat. It is +only in this way that Llew can be +killed, and Blodeuwedd's lover, +Goronwy, Llew's dark self, is hiding +nearby with a spear at the ready. But +as Llew is struck with it, he is not +killed. He is instead transformed +into an eagle. + + Putting this in the form of a +Bardic riddle, it would go something +like this: Who can tell in what +season the Lion (Llew), betrayed by +the Virgin (Blodeuwedd), poised on the +Balance, is transformed into an Eagle? + My readers who are astrologers are +probably already gasping in +recognition. The sequence is +astrological and in proper order: Leo +(lion), Virgo (virgin), Libra +(balance), and Scorpio (for which the +eagle is a well-known alternative +symbol). Also, the remaining icons, +cauldron and goat, could arguably +symbolize Cancer and Capricorn, +representing summer and winter, the +signs beginning with the two solstice +points. So Llew is balanced between +cauldron and goat, between summer and +winter, on the balance (Libra) point +of the autumnal equinox. + + This, of course, is the answer to +a related Bardic riddle. Repeatedly, +the 'Mabinogion' tells us that Llew +must be standing with one foot on the +cauldron and one foot on the goat's +back in order to be killed. But +nowhere does it tell us why. Why is +this particular situation the ONLY one +in which Llew can be overcome? +Because it represents the equinox +point. And the equinox is the only +time of the entire year when light +(Llew) can be overcome by darkness +(Goronwy). + + It should now come as no surprise +that, when it is time for Llew to kill +Goronwy in his turn, Llew insists that +Goronwy stands where he once stood +while he (Llew) casts the spear. This +is no mere vindictiveness on Llew's +part. For, although the 'Mabinogion' +does not say so, it should by now be +obvious that this is the only time +when Goronwy can be overcome. Light +can overcome darkness only at the +equinox -- this time the vernal +equinox. + + So Midsummer (to me, at least) is +a celebration of the sun god at his +zenith, a crowned king on his throne. +He is at the height of his strength +and still 1/4 of a year away from his +ritual death at the hands of his +rival. The spear and the cauldron +have often been used as symbols for +this holiday and it should now be easy +to see why. Sun gods are virtually +always associated with spears (even +Jesus is pierced by one), and the +midsummer cauldron of Cancer is a +symbol of the Goddess in her fullness. + It is an especially beautiful time of +the year for an outdoor celebration. +May yours be magical! + + + +============= +FEATURE FILES +============= + +<1> \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/might.txt b/religious documents/might.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..add7d35 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/might.txt @@ -0,0 +1,281 @@ + ********************************************************************* + ***- MIGHT IS RIGHT -*** + ********************** + + * * * +I. + In this arid wilderness of steel and stone, I raise up my voice +that you may hear. To the East and to the West I beckon. To the North and +to the South I show a sign proclaiming: Death to the weaklings, wealth to +the strong! + Open your eyes that you may see, O men of mildewed minds; and +listen to me, ye laborious millions! + For I stand forth to challenge the wisdom of the world - to +interrogate the "laws" of man and of "God". + I request reason for your golden rule, and ask the why and +the wherefore of your Ten Commands. + Before none of your printed idols do I bend in acquiescence, +and he who saith "thou shalt" to me is my mortal foe. + I demand proof over all things and accept with reservations even +that which is true. + I dip my forefinger in the watery blood of your impotent, mad +redeemer and write over his thorn-torn brow "The true prince of Evil - the +king of the Slaves!" + + No hoary falsehood shall be a truth to me; no cult or dogma shall +encramp my pen. + I break away from all conventions. Alone, untrammelled. I raise up +in stern invasion the standard of the strong. + I gaze into the glassy eye of your fearsome Jehovah and pluck him +by the beard; I uplift a broadaxe and split open his worm-eaten skull. + + I blast out the ghastly contents of philosophic whited sepulchers +and laugh with sardonic wrath! + Then reaching up the festering and varnished facades of your +haughtiest moral dogmas, I write thereon in letters of blazing scorn: "Lo +and behold all this is fraud!" + I deny all things! I question all things! + And yet! And yet! + Gather round me, O ye death-defiant, and the Earth itself shall be +thine, to have and to hold. + + +II. + Behold the crucifix; what does it symbolize? Pallid incompetence +hanging on a tree. + + All ethics, politics, and philosophies are pure assumptions. They +rest on no sure basis. They are but shadowy castles in the air erected by +day-dreamers, or by rogues, upon nursery fables. It is time they were firmly +planted upon an enduring foundation. This can never be accomplished until +the racial mind has first been thoroughly cleansed and drastically +disinfected of its depraved, alien, and demoralizing concepts of right and +wrong. In no human brain can sufficient space be found for the relentless +logic of hard fact, until all pre-existing delusions have been finally +annihilated. Half measures are of no avail; we must go down to the very +roots and tear them out even to the last fibre. We must be like nature, +hard cruel, relentless. + + To long the dead hand has been permitted to sterilize living +thought. Too long right and wrong, good and evil have been inverted by +false prophets. In the days that are at hand, neither creed nor code must +be accepted upon authority - human, superhuman, or "divine". Morality and +conventionalism are for subordinates. Religions and constitutions and all +arbitrary principles, every mortal theorem, must be deliberately put to the +question. No moral dogma must be taken for granted, no standard of +measurement deified.There is nothing inherently sacred about moral +codes.Like the wooden idols of long ago, they are all the work of human +hands; and what man has made, man can destroy. + He who is slow to believe anything and everything is of great +understanding, for belief in one false principle is the beginning of all +unwisdom.The chief duty of every new age is to upraise new men to determine +its liberties, to lead it towards material success - to rend the rusty +padlocks and chains of dead customs that always prevent healthy expansion. +Theories and ideals and constitutions that have meant life, hope and +freedom for our ancestors may mean destruction, slavery, and dishonor to +us. As environments change, no human ideal standeth sure. + Whenever, therefore , a lie has built unto itself a throne, let it +be assailed without pity and without regret; for under the dominance of a +inconvenient falsehood, no nation can permanently prosper. Let established +sophisms be dethroned, rooted out, burnt, and destroyed- for they are a +standing menace to all true nobility of thought and action.Whatever alleged +"truth" is proven by results to be but an empty fiction, let it be +unceremoniously flung into the outer darkness, among the dead gods, dead +empires,dead philosophies and other useless lumber and wreckage. + The most dangerous of all enthroned lies, is the holy, the +sanctified the privileged lie - the lie that everyone believes to be a +model truth. It is the fruitful mother of all other popular errors and +delusions. It is hydra-headed. It has a thousand roots. It is a social +cancer. The lie that is known to be a lie is half- -eradicated. But the lie +that even intelligent persons regard as a sacred fact - the lie that has +been inculcated around a mother's knee - is more dangerous to contend +against than a creeping pestilence. Popular lies have ever been the most +potent enemies of personal liberty. There is only one way to deal with +them: Cut them out, to the very core, just as cancers are. Exterminate them +root and branch, or they will surely eat us all up. Annihilate them, or +they will us. Half and half remedies are of no avail. + However, when a lie has gone to far - when it has taken up its +abode in the very tissue, bones, and brains, of a people, then all remedies +are useless. Even the lancet is of no avail. Repentance of past misdeeds +cannot "save" decadents from extermination. The fatal bolt is shot, and +into the fiery furnace of wholesome slavery they must go, to be there +righteously consumed. From their ashes something new, something nobler, may +possibly evolve; but even that is the merest optimistic supposition. + In nature the wages of sin are always DEATH. Nature does not love +the wrong doer, but endeavors in every way to destroy him. Her curse is on +the brow of the "meek and lowly".Her blessing is on the very heart's blood +of the strong and the brave. Only Jews and Christs and other degenerates +think that rejuvenation can ever come though law and prayer. "All the tears +of the martyrs" might just as well have never have been shed. + + +III. + "Love one another", you say, is this the supreme law. But what +power has made it so? Upon what rational authority does the gospel of love +rest? Is it even possible of practice, and what would result from its +universal application to active affairs? Why should I not hate mine enemies +and hunt them down like the wild beasts they are? If I "love" them, does +that not place me at their mercy? Is it natural for enemies to "do good" +unto each other? And what is "good"? Can the torn and bloody victim "love" +the blood-splashed jaws that rend him limb from limb? Are we not all +predatory animals by instinct? If humans ceased wholly from preying upon +each other, could they continue to exist? + "Love your enemies and do good to them that hate you and +dispitefully use you" is the despicable philosophy of the spaniel that +rolls upon its back when kicked. Obey it, O reader, and you and your +posterity to the tenth generation shall be irretrievably and literally +damned.They shall be hewers of wood and carriers of water: degenerates, +Gibeonites. But hate your enemies with a whole heart. If a man smite you on +one cheek, smash him down! Smite him hip and thigh for self-preservation is +the highest law. + He who turns the other cheek is a cowardly dog - a Christian dog. + Give him blow for blow, scorn for scorn, doom for doom - with +compound interest liberally added thereunto! Eye for eye, tooth for tooth - +aye, four-fold, a hundred-fold! Make yourself the Terror to your adversary; +and when he goeth his way, he will possess much additional wisdom to +ruminate over. Thus shall you make yourself respected in all the walks of +life, and your spirit- your immortal spirit - shall live: not in an +intangible paradise, but in the brains and thews of your aggressive and +unconquerable sons. After all, the true proof of manhood is a splendid +progeny; and it is a scientific axiom that the timid animal transmits +timidity to its descendants. + If men lived "like brothers" and had no powerful enemies to +contend with and surpass, they would rapidly lose all their best qualities +- like certain oceanic birds that lose the use of their wings because they +do not have to fly from pursuing beasts of prey. If all men had treated +each other with brotherly love since the beginning, what would have been +the result now? If there had been no wars, no rivalry,no competition, no +kingship, no slavery, no survival of the toughest, no racial extermination, +truly what a festering "hell fenced in" this old globe would be! + + +IV. + If this struggle is ordained of us, why not enter into it with +kindly courage, with dauntless delight? Why not go forward daring all +things, to conquer or to die? Is it not better to perish than to serve? +"Liberty or Death" is not a meaningless phrase. No, it is of tremendous +import to those who - comprehend. + What is death that it should make cowards of us all? What is life +that it should be valued so highly? There are worse things than death, and +among them is a life of dishonor. All men lead dishonorable lives that +serve a master with hand or brain. + Life itself is but a spark in the gloom that flashes out and +disappears. Why therefore not make the most of it here and now,here and +now! There is no "Heaven of glory bright", and no hell where sinners roast. +There is no right; there is no Wrong- nor God- nor Son - nor Ghost. + Death endeth all for every man + For every "son of thunder" : + Then be a lion in the path, + And don't be trampled under. + For us there is no rest - no Kingdom of Indolence, either on this +Earth or beyond the skies- no Isles of the Blest- no Elysian Fields - no +garden of the Hesperides. NO! NO! All these magical legends are but +fanciful dreams - fiction of mortals of yore. + Here and NOW is our day of torment! Here and NOW is our day of Joy! +Here and now is our opportunity! Choose ye this day, this hour, for no +redeemer liveth. + Every attempt made to organize the future must necessarily +collapse. The present is our domain, and our chief duty is to take +immediate possession thereof upon strict business principles. Strive +therefore against them that strive against you, and war against them that +war against thine. Lay hold of shield and buckler or their equivalents; +stand up! Be a terrible one in thine own defense. Raise up also the +clenched hand, and stop the way of them that would persecute you. Say unto +thine own heart and soul: "I, even I, am my own redeemer." + Let them be hurled back into confusion and infamy, who devise thine +undoing. Let them be as chaff before the cyclone, and let the Angel of +Death pursue them, nay, overtake them. In a pit they have hidden a trap for +thy feet; into that very destruction let them fall. Then, exultant, "sound +the loud timbrel". Rejoice! Rejoice! in thine own salvation. Then all thy +bones shall say pridefully, "Who is like unto me? Have I not delivered +myself by mine own brain? Have I not been to strong for mine adversaries? +Have I not spoiled them that would have spoiled me?" + + +V. +Blessed are the strong, for they shall possess the Earth. +Cursed are the weak, for they shall inherit the yoke. + +Blessed are the powerful, for they shall be reverenced among men. +Cursed are the feeble, for they shall be blotted out. + +Blessed are the bold, for they shall be masters of the world. +Cursed are the humble, for they shall be trodden under hoofs. + +Blessed are the victorious, for victory is the basis of right. +Cursed are the vanquished, for they shall be vassals forever. + +Blessed are the battle-blooded. Beauty shall smile upon them. +Cursed are the poor in spirit, for they shall be spat upon. + +Blessed are the audacious, for they have imbibed true wisdom. +Cursed are the obedient, for they shall breed creeplings. + +Blessed are the iron-handed; the unfit shall flee before them. +Cursed are the haters of battle; subjugation is their portion. + +Blessed are the death-defiant; their days shall be long in the land. +Cursed are the feeble-brained, for they shall perish amidst plenty. + +Blessed are the destroyers of false hope; they are true messiahs. +Cursed are the God-adorers; they shall be shorn sheep! + +Blessed are the valiant, for they shall obtain great treasure. +Cursed are the believers in good and evil, for they are frightened by + shadows. + +Blessed are those who believe in nothing; never shall it terrorized their + minds. +Cursed are the "lambs of god" they shall be bleed "whiter than snow". + +Blessed is the man who has powerful enemies they shall make him a hero. +Cursed is he who "doeth good" unto others; he shall be despised. + +Blessed is the man whose foot is swift to serve a friend; he is a friend + indeed. +Cursed are the organizers of charities; they are propagators of plagues. + +Blessed are the wise and brave, for in the struggle they shall win. +Cursed are the unfit, for they shall be righteously exterminated. + +Blessed are the sires of noble maidens; they are the salt of the Earth. +Cursed the mothers of strumous tenderlings, for they shall be shamed. + +Blessed are the mighty-minded, for they shall ride the whirlwinds. +Cursed are they who teach lies for truth and truth for lies, for they are - + abomination. + +Blessed are the unmerciful; their posterity shall own the world. +Cursed are the famous wiselings; their seed shall perish off the Earth + +Thrice cursed are the vile, for they shall serve and suffer. + + * - * - * + + Typed in by [unknown] + Edit by Graeme Wilson (O.L.H.P.) + +If you want more info on any OLHP productions or want more info on +Satanism, contact me via the following computer networks: + + Fidonet: 3:770/505 + (Southern Vortex BBS, ph: +64 0-3-454-3900, 14.4k modem) + Usenet: fenris@otago.ac.nz + +Also I may be contacted on other NZ BBS's: + + Alternative Reality: +64 0-3-471-0414 + Southern Lights: +64 0-3-455-6016 + The Left Hand Path: +64 0-3-454-5763 (my own BBS) + Bad Dreams BBS: +64 0-9-528-3577 (leave message to 'Lucifer') + +If you wish to contact me via mail to swap texts, ideas, etc. then write +to: + + Graeme Wilson + 129 Scott Street + Waverley + Dunedin + South Island + New Zealand + diff --git a/religious documents/mike.txt b/religious documents/mike.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f139b41 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mike.txt @@ -0,0 +1,207 @@ + Michael the Great Prince -- Who Is He? + + The spirit creature Michael is not mentioned often in the Bible, but +when he is, the context is always dramatic. In Daniel we see him fighting +wicked angels in behalf of God's people. In Jude he is disputing with Satan +over the body of Moses. And in the book of Revelation he casts Satan and +his demons down to earth. Evidently, Michael is a key figure in heaven. +Hence, it is proper to wonder, Who is Michael? + + For many years, Jehovah's Witnesses have taught that Michael is a +heavenly name for the only-begotten Son of God, who was named Jesus while on +earth. However, most other religions view Michael as one of several +archangels, as if there were more than one archangel. In view of this, Is +the teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses correct? What does the Bible say about +Michael? + +"The Prince of You People" + + We are introduced to the one named Michael in the book of Daniel. +There an angel of God refers to him in these words: "But the prince of the +royal realm of Persia was standing in opposition to me for twenty-one days, +and, look! Michael, one of the foremost princes, came to help me ... And now +I shall go back to fight with the prince of Persia. When I am going forth, +look! also the prince of Greece is coming. However, I shall tell you the +things noted down in the writing of truth, and there is no one holding +strongly with me in these things but Michael, the prince of you people." -- +Daniel 10:13, 20, 21. + + Here we have a fascinating glimpse of the spirit realm. We see that +spirit creatures -- good and bad -- are very much involved in world affairs. +There was a spirit "prince of the royal realm of Persia," opposing the +activities of God's angel. After Persia there would be a "prince of +Greece," promoting the interests of that world power. Among the spirit +creatures, Michael was one of "the foremost princes." Which nation did he +guide and protect? Clearly, it was Daniel's people, the Jews. + + The name "Michael" means "Who Is Like God?" thus indicating that this +foremost prince upholds Jehovah's sovereignty. Since Michael is also a +champion of God's people, we have reason to identify him with the unnamed +angel that God sent ahead of the Israelites hundreds of years before: "Here +I am sending an angel ahead of you to keep you on the road and to bring you +into the place that I have prepared. Watch yourself because of him, for he +will not pardon your transgression; because my name is within him." -- +Exodus 23:20, 21. + + It is logical to conclude that this was the angel that delivered so +many important communications to God's people. (Acts 7:30, 35; Judges 2:1-3) +He had full authority from God to act in His name, just as kings in ancient +times entrusted their seal rings to reliable subjects, empowering them to +act in his their name. -- Exodus 3:2, 3; 4:10. + + Is there anything here to make us believe that Michael and Jesus Christ +are the same person? Well, Jesus is called "the Word." (John 1:1) He is +God's spokesman. This special angelic messenger, too, was clearly God's +chief spokesman to the Israelites. + +Michael "Stands Up" + + Michael was "the prince of you people." But he was to receive +additional authority. We next see him in the final chapter of the book of +Daniel. "And during that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who +is standing in behalf of the sons of your people. And there will certainly +occur a time of distress such as has not been made to occur since there came +to be a nation until that time." -- Daniel 12:1. + + Daniel, in chapter 11, had just described the march of world powers +from his own time on into the future. He had accurately described the fall +of Persia and the rise of Greece. Then came the partitioning of the Greek +empire. Two of the resulting political entities -- the king of the north +and the king of the south -- would vie for ascendancy and control over God's +people. At the climax of that rivalry, Michael would "stand up." What does +that mean? + + Well, in other parts of this same prophecy, the term "stand up" means +that the person assumes authority to rule as a king. (Daniel 11:3, 4, 7, 20, +21) Hence, when Michael "stands up" he, too, starts to rule as a king. +Consider the implications of this. + + Before Daniel died, the last Jewish king, Zedekiah, had been deposed. +There would be no Jewish king for centuries to come. Daniel's prophecy +showed that one day in the future God's people would once again have a king +-- Michael. + + Ezekiel, Daniel's contemporary, foretold the coming of one "who has the +legal right" to rule again as king of God's people. (Ezekiel 21:25-27) This +one in not to be identified with the Levite Maccabees who exercised some +authority during a brief period of independence. Not being descendants of +King David, they had no "legal right" to be kings. Rather, it was Jesus +Christ who was anointed by God to rule as king in a heavenly kingdom. (Luke +1:31-33; 22:29, 30; Psalm 110:1) He was the only one thus anointed. It is +therefore only logical to say that Jesus and Michael are the same person. + + In Daniel chapter 7, there is another prophecy about the march of world +powers that has parallels with Daniel chapter 11. At the climax of that +prophecy, however, we read that "someone like a son of man" was "given +rulership and dignity and kingdom." (Daniel 7:13, 14) The one "like a son +of man" is widely recognized as Jesus. (Matthew 10:23; 26:64; Revelation +14:14) Hence, in the climax of one prophecy, Jesus becomes a king. In the +other prophecy in Daniel, Michael becomes a king. Since both prophecies +deal with the same time and the same event, surely it is reasonable to +conclude that they are also dealing with the same person. + +The Archangel + + We next read of Michael in the Christian Greek Scriptures. The book of +Jude tells us: "But when Michael the archangel had a difference with the +Devil and was disputing about Moses' body, he did not dare to bring a +judgement against him in abusive terms, but said: `May Jehovah rebuke you.'" +(Jude 9) This incident helps to show the closeness of Michael to God's +ancient people. Therefore, it supports the argument that he was the angel +that went ahead of the Israelites to protect them. + + We learn from Jude that Michael had the post of archangel. In fact, he +was =the= archangel, since no other archangel is mentioned in the Bible, nor +does the Bible use "archangel" in the plural. "Archangel" means "Chief of +the angels." (Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament) Among +God's spirit servants, only two names are associated with authority over +angels: Michael and Jesus Christ. (Matthew 16:27; 25:31; 2 Thessalonians +1:7) This, too, argues that Jesus and Michael are the same. + + Interestingly, the name of Jesus is linked with the word "archangel" in +one of Paul's letters. The apostle writes: "The Lord [Jesus] himself will +descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an =archangel's= voice and +with God's trumpet." (1 Thessalonians 4:16) The context places this event +during "the presence of the Lord," when Jesus has started to rule as king. - +- 1 Thessalonians 4:15; Matthew 24:3; Revelation 11:15-18. + + It is Jehovah's will and arrangement for Jesus to resurrect the dead. +(John 6:38-40) It is God's trumpet that sounds the call for the dead to +come back to life, just as God instructed that trumpets be used for an +assembly of his people in ancient times. (Numbers 10:1-10) Jesus issues "a +commanding call" to the dead to come forth, just as he did on occasion while +on earth. (John 11:43) But now he calls, not with a man's voice as he did +then, but with all the power of "an archangel's voice" (en pho-ne' arkh-ag- +ge'lou). However, only an archangel can call with an archangel's voice! +And no one but Jesus has been given the authority to resurrect the dead. +Hence, this rousing prophecy gives additional strong reason for identifying +Jesus with the archangel, Michael. + +War in Heaven + + The final appearance of the name Michael in the Bible is in the book of +Revelation. There we read: "And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his +angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but it +did not prevail." (Revelation 12:7, 8) Here we see Michael in action as +God's archangel. He, along with "his angels," defeats Satan and casts him +down to the earth. + + This is the beginning of the "short period of time" before Satan's +wicked system is completely destroyed. After the end of Babylon the Great +at the hands of the nations, the nations themselves are destroyed by Jesus +and his angelic armies. (Revelation 12:12; 17:16, 17; 19:11-16) Finally, +Satan is abyssed for a thousand years, after which he suffers complete +annihilation in "the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:1, 2, 10) This -- the +long-promised final `crushing of Satan's head' -- is also accomplished by +Jesus, along with his resurrected spiritual brothers. -- Genesis 3:15; +Galatians 3:16; Romans 16:20. + + Since Jesus is the one prophesied to crush Satan's head, and since he +accomplishes all these other judgement acts, it is only logical to conclude +that he would lead heaven's armies in the casting of Satan out of heaven. +Hence, the conquering Michael referred to in Revelation 12 must be Jesus, +who was told by Jehovah to "go subduing in the midst of [his] enemies." -- +Psalm 110:1, 2; Acts 2:34, 35. + + The appearance of the name Michael, instead of Jesus, in Revelation +chapter 12 draws our attention to the prophecy considered earlier in Daniel +chapter 12. In Daniel we read of Michael's standing up. (Daniel 12:1) In +Revelation chapter 12, Michael acts like a conquering monarch throwing Satan +down to the earth. The result: "Woe for the earth and for the sea." -- +Revelation 12:12. + +Jesus an Angel? + + Some object to identifying Jesus with the angel of Jehovah mentioned in +the Hebrew Scriptures. For Trinitarians, of course, such an identification +poses a problem since it shows conclusively that he is not equal to Jehovah +God. But even some who do not accept the Trinity doctrine feel that Jesus' +identity with an angel somehow detracts from his dignity. + + Remember, though, that the basic meaning of "angel" (Hebrew, mal-akh'; +Greek, ag'ge-los) is "messenger." As the "Word" (Greek, lo'gos), Jesus is +God's messenger par excellence. Remember, too, that as the archangel, as +well as "the firstborn of all creation," Jesus had the highest rank among +the angels even before he came to earth. -- Colossians 1:15. + + True, the apostle Paul wrote to the Hebrews: "He [Jesus] has become +better than the angels, to the extent that he has inherited a name more +excellent than theirs." (Hebrews 1:4; Philippians 2:9, 10) However, this +describes his situation =after= his having been here on earth. He was still +the archangel and "the beginning of the creation by God." (Revelation 3:14) +But he =became= better than the angels. The `more excellent name' or +position is something he did not posses before coming to earth. (These +scriptures contradict the Trinitarian concept that the Son is and always has +been equal in every way to the Father.) + + Hence, the fact that Michael is the archangel, chief of the angels, the +fact that he stands up to rule as King, and the fact that he takes the lead +in casting Satan out of heaven at the time of the birth of God's Kingdom all +lead us to just one conclusion: `Michael the great prince' is none other +than Jesus Christ himself. -- Daniel 12:1. + + +**NOTE** Article taken from the December 15, 1984 issued of The Watchtower +magazine. Published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of +Pennsylvania. + diff --git a/religious documents/mmm.txt b/religious documents/mmm.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d03326 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mmm.txt @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ + +k Making Misery Magickal + + By Jack Dracula + + This article is not for the squeamish or inhibited, dealing as it does +with the pragmatic use of what are often seen as *negative* states of being. +However, the energies involved in serious illness and grief may be used +productively. Several magicians have expressed distaste to me when I have +spoken to them about this subject, whereupon I have expressed distaste at +their lack of flexibility and unwillingness to transform events in their +lives to more productive ends. + When ill with the flu or any other illness strong enough to knock you +into bed, you are in an ideal position to take advantage of the fever dream. +The astral realities you can explore through either projection (the phenomena +of astral projection in relation to illness is well-documented, but see +'Shamanism' by Mircea Eliade for an excellent account of the uses of illness +by shamans) or by skrying the fever dream. I have found sustained pranayama +(if not prevented by a congested nose) a good aid to achieving the state of +gnosis sometimes necessary to achieve these visions, skullcap tea also helps +with the lucidity of the visions when in the twilight realms of half +sleep/fever dream. If you do have a congested nose, try reciting a mantra +inaudibly, or better still, set up several artificial personalities and spin +a mantra between them, until the disorientation helps lift your vision. As +the throat is often affected by bed-inspiring bugs, and the Vishuddha or +throat cakra is the centre of dreaming, I usually focus a lot of my personal +energy on my throat when I am ill. This has the double purpose of helping +focus more lucidly on astral visions, and also means my throat is fit to be +used for raising energies sooner. + The death of a loved one is never pleasant, but most of our grief comes +from selfishness, therefore it seems logical to focus that selfish energy on +transforming the self positively rather than disintegrate it. Five years ago +a lady I love very much was killed in an accident. I was zombified for +months until one day I was reading my bible, the Tao Teh King, and I realised +my selfishness and then because aware of what time of year was approaching - +Samhain. At Samhain, I went to a local power spot that it known +traditionally as a gate to the underworld, and from there I embarked on an +astral journey. On my return, I was transformed. My journey had been +successful, and I had realized that transitory dance of Chaos we all spin. +From this point my whole magickal directions changed in a very positive +dynamic fashion, and I developed my own system or sorcery. Since that Samhain +I have lost other friends, in accidents and to Artificially Induced Death +Syndrome, but now my sadness is more transient and my steps unfaltering. +Extreme emotional and physical states are extremely powerful energy sources +to be tapped when available for self-evolution, so don't let patterns imposed +on you by others affect your thinking (if they're self-imposed, so be it.) + +(Written during a severe attack of the flu) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/moe.txt b/religious documents/moe.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1cb66f5 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/moe.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/mooism.txt b/religious documents/mooism.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..02b9f7c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mooism.txt @@ -0,0 +1,22658 @@ + Editor's Prescript To + + THE GRATE BOOK OF MOO + + I came by this document, written on old parchment in a fine +calligraphic hand, and signed in an illegible scrawl, in the back +of an old book shop, sold as a package with a volume on the +Copernican solar system. The signature I later took to a +handwriting analyst, who determined it to be that of one "Egbert B. +Gebstadter". After reading the document carefully several times, +I returned with the book to the shop where I had bought it, and +asked where the owner had obtained it. It seems that he had bought +it off a certain translator named Gebstadter who, being hard up for +money, had brought in a stack of books from his private collection, +all of which were very antique. He was reluctant to part with +them, but needed the cash. With some difficulty, I was able to +track down this Gebstadter, and in exchange for the return of his +book on Copernicus, I was able to extract from him the information +of whence came this mysterious parchment. It seems Gebstadter +himself had translated the work about ten years earlier, and that +he had obtained it from a friend named Marcus. + I sought out Marcus, who reported that he had found the +document in the bottom of an ancient steamer trunk. This would +have been the end of my trail, except that Marcus happened to have +been curious about what such a document would be doing underneath +the false bottom that concealed the inside of the trunk. Although +Marcus himself could not translate the document, the original of +which he showed me, Gebstadter had helped him, hence his curiosity. +He had returned to his uncle, from whom he had obtained the trunk, +and eventually dragged the secret out of him. Marcus' uncle had +been visiting in Sweden some years previously, and hidden the +document in his trunk to ensure its safety during the voyage. +Marcus asked where his uncle had found the document, and discovered +that it was sold to him by a fortune teller in Stockholm. She had +obtained it in lieu of payment from a mysterious customer in a long +dark coat, and having no use for it, sold it immediately to Marcus' +uncle. + Fortunately, Marcus' uncle had had the good sense to demand to +know what it was, and so had the fortune teller, who wasn't ready +to accept anything short of cash without a good explanation. The +mysterious customer had told the lady that it was a translation +into Swedish of an ancient Atlantean manuscript known only as the +"Voynich Manuscript". He told her that he had "liberated" it from +the hands of the tightfisted Atlantis scholar who had translated +it. The scholar himself had obtained it from a peddler in England, +who had sold him many works of Atlantean art, and the occasional +manuscript, and the peddler, on pressure from the scholar, admitted +to stealing it from the Temple of Atlantis, which survived in +London, handing down the tradition of the Atlantean faith from +"High Preest" to "High Preest". These Atlantis Templars professed +as an article of faith, when the peddler joined under false +pretenses in order to steal the Atlantean art, that they had had +them since the fall of Atlantis, and a few surviving members +rescued some of the islands more important and portable treasures +in their boat. This particular manuscript, they elaborated, was a +transcript of the original, taken during the fall of Atlantis from +the palace of the Great King Norble-Goop the Seventh, who reigned +during the Fourth Dynasty of the House of Norble, the final dynasty +of Atlantis. + Investigating the Atlantis Templars, I discovered that King +Norble had neither written nor found the manuscript himself, but +that it had been in the Royal Archives for the past several +thousand years before the final collapse of Atlantis. It was +originally purchased by Queen Dorble-Sneep the Fifth, of the +Seventh Dynasty of the Dorbles, from a travelling Flying Saucer +pilot, and translated by the Alien Contact specialists of Atlantis. +The pilot explained that he was an Intergalactic Merchant Broker, +and that this document was of no use to him, having been purchased +from a Time Travel Technician as a novelty item for his wife, just +before learning that she'd filed for divorce. The Time Travel +Technician, in turn, had picked it up as a sample from some time in +the future, and translated it for study. After finding out what it +was, he began selling the translated copies. It later turned out +that the "some time in the future" happened to be some hundred +thousand years after the Intergalactic Merchant Broker got it, and, +after further study, I found that the exact dates given by the +Atlantis Templars explained their horror at finding the manuscript +stolen by the peddlar. + Apparently the Technician explained to the Intergalactic +Merchant Broker that the present civilization on Earth (that is, +Atlantis) would eventually collapse, and 10000 years would pass +before civilzation emerged again, somewhere in Africa or possibly +the Mediterranean (he wasn't quite sure), and a long time after +that, this very book would appear somewhere in one of the major +countries of the world. The Atlantean Templars assumed he meant +THEIR copy of the book, which he would then return to his own time +and translate into Galactic, since the given date for the theft was +in 1998, known to be the year of the X-ist arrival on Earth. As it +turns out, it is most likely to be this very manuscript. Guard +yours carefully, and don't let any aliens steal it! + Enough of the story... On with the Book of MOO! + MOOism has nothing to do with COWs. + We just like the sound they make. + + + +Released 1355670401.55555 DPP +Final Release + + Version 3.141592653589793238462543383 + +It has been said that King Kong died for your sins +this has been confirmed + + + The One Commandment + + + + + + Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law + Unless Thou Wilt Not Follow The Law + + + + (in other words) + + + + Do What You Want Unless You Don't Want To + + + + (or) + + + + Never Mind + + + + (or simply) + + + + MU! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "If It Ain't Ranted, It Ain't True" + -W.O.M.B.A.T. Systems Inc. Motto + + DISCLAIMER + + Don't trust anyone. If they tell you something, it's a lie. +In fact, every sentence ever written or spoken is a lie. No, +that's a lie. Or maybe that was. This one is a lie. Actually, +that's not true. The truth IS somewhere in this book. You just +have to find it. Remember: Just because it's deep, don't mean it's +True. This Book has been thouroughly researched. Just that some +of the facts have been changed to protect the guilty. This is a +most blasphemous and heretical and annoying mind drug passing +itself off as a book. So don't blame us if you get addicted or +sent to Hell. Don't read the footnotes. They're dangerous. The +truth isn't in them. THEY LIE! LIE LIKE A RUG! If you experience +side effects from this annoying mind drug, contact your regular +physician. Do not inhale this annoying mind drug while operating +heavy marmalade. This annoying mind drug is not intended to +replace genuine and authorized medical, professional, legal, +political, social, economic, or otherwise authenticated advice. +Consult your regular brainwasher before pulling the wool over your +own eyes. + + + COPY-RITES + + Copyright wheneverthehell this is. We hold all rights to this + work, yes, you heard me, ALL of them. This work may not be + reproduced in whole or in part by any means, photocopy, modem, + reading, understanding, remembering, mentioning, or any other + method without the prior written consent of the High Preest. + + That being out of the way, I hereby give written consent for + anyone to do whatever they like to it. Not that I'm the High + Preest or anything. + + All rights reserved except the right to reserve all rights except + the one used to reserve most of the rights except the right to + reserve all rights but this one. All rites reversed. + + And now for something completely identacle... + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + This is the current compiled works of MOOism as written by +those who really should know better - The Apostles of MOO, and +compiled, edited and formatted by the Cardinal Richelieu Hellhound +101 (who claims no responsability for the contents thereof). It +was then taken by Floyd Gecko, High Preest of MOO, and shamefully +edited beyond all recognition. Finally taken by Half-Mad, Grate +Prophet of MOO, and hacked up into the COW format you see here. It +should be noted that Hellhound 101 has since attempted to leave, on +account of how the others got far too carried away with the whole +thing, and lost track of the point. The others insBLATTT that that +WAS the point. But they're fools. If you thought this was stupid, +just wait till you read the REST of the Book. + Those who take this book at face value are fools. + Those who ignore what this book says are fools. + Those who think this book is a waste of time are fools. + Correct fools, but fools nonetheless. + + + + + DEDICATION + +This Great Book of MOO is dedicated to itself. +Houtos Biblios MOOei Esti Seauti. +Hic libros MOOi suae dedicatus est. + TABLE OF CONTENTS (In No Particular Order) + +HOLY BEGINNING, BATMAN! + + HOLY DEFENSIVENESS ................... Grate Prophet Half-Mad + TITLE PAGE ............................ Unheretic Gettah Leif + DISCLAIMER ............................ Unheretic Gettah Leif + COPY-RITES ..................................... Ann O'Nymous + INTRODUCTION ............... Cardinal Richelieu Hellhound 101 + DEDICATION ................................ The Prettiest One + TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................... THE AUTHORS + +PREFACES + + PREFACE I ........................... High Preest Floyd Gecko + PREFACE II .......................... High Preest Floyd Gecko + PREFACE III ................ Cardinal Richelieu Hellhound 101 + PREFACE IV .......................... Counciltwit Confuse-Ius + PREFACE V .................. Cardinal Richelieu Hellhound 101 + PREFACE VI ..................................... Ann O'Nymous + PREFACE VII ........................ Inner CirclBLATTT El Cid + PREFACE VIII ........................ High Preest Floyd Gecko + PREFACE IX ...................... ConfusionBLATTT Confuse-Ius + PREFACE IX« .................................... Ann O'Nymous + PREFACE X ...................... Counciltwit Brian O'Blivious + +THE BOOKS OF THE APOSTLES + + BOOK OF HALFY .................................. Ann O'Nymous + BOOK OF FLOYD ................... I Yemen-Oying I Yemen-Oying + BOOK OF HELLHOUND .................. Monjunior Little Bug Man + BOOK OF TERAFNORD ........... Inner CirclBLATTT Leper Messiah + BOOK OF THE LEPER ................... High Preest Floyd Gecko + BOOK OF LITTLE ...................................... Wom Bat + BOOK OF WOMBAT .......................... Reverend Canoe-Head + BOOK OF LLOYD ............................. Prophet TeraFNORD + BOOK OF CID ................ Cardinal Richelieu Hellhound 101 + BOOK OF ABACAB ............................ Preest Lloyd Taco + BOOK OF CANOE-HEAD ................. Outer CirclBLATTT Abacab + BOOK OF ANN .......................... Grate Prophet Half-Mad + BOOK OF YEMEN ...................... Inner CirclBLATTT El Cid + +PLUS ONE BONUS UNLBLATTTED BOOK! +By Confuse-Ius + +BOOKS OF RITUALS + + MAJOR RITUALS 00001-00011 ........... High Preest Floyd Gecko + MINOR RITUALS 00001-00004 ........... High Preest Floyd Gecko + +BOOK OF THE CEREMONIES + + MARRIAGE CEREMONY ................... High Preest Floyd Gecko + INITIATION CEREMONY ................. High Preest Floyd Gecko + PROMOTION CEREMONIES ................ High Preest Floyd Gecko + EXORCBLATT CEREMONY ................. High Preest Floyd Gecko + BAPTBLATT CEREMONY .................. High Preest Floyd Gecko + SNOWBLOWER CEREMONY ....................... Preest Lloyd Taco + ENLIGHTENMENT MANTRAS ..................... Preest Lloyd Taco + +BOOK OF THE REALLY SECRET SECRETS + + ALL SECRET BOOKS .................... High Preest Floyd Gecko + ADDENDUM ........................... Penguin Poobah Peng-Peng + NOTE ON SECRETS ..................... High Preest Floyd Gecko + POTATOMA OF SYNERGY ................. High Preest Floyd Gecko + CYBORGANIC CHURCH ................... High Preest Floyd Gecko + MULTIVERSE SEQUEL ..................... Lo Proost Confuse-Ius + +BOOK OF HBLATTTORY + + COMMENTARIES ON HBLATTTORY ................ Preest Lloyd Taco + PROPHECIES OF PENG-PENG ............ Penguin Poobah Peng-Peng + AFTERWORD ........................... High Preest Floyd Gecko + PROPHETS OF MOO .................... Inner CirclBLATTT El Cid + THE ENEMIES OF MOO ................ ConfusionBLATTT Miss Take + tHE mORONS ............................... Preest Fluid Geeko + THE REAL HISTORY OF MOO ............. High Preest Confuse-Ius + SECRET HBLATTTORY OF MOO ....................... Ann O'Nymous + +BOOKS OF HONEST TRUTH + + BOOK OF HONEST TRUTH ...................... Preest Lloyd Taco + BOOK OF LIES .............................. Preest Lloyd Taco + BOOK OF AMBIGUITY ......................... Preest Lloyd Taco + BOOK OF NUMBERS ........................... Preest Lloyd Taco + +BOOK OF MYTHS + + WOMBAT ORIGIN ISSUE ................................. Wom Bat + WOMBAT MYTHS ........................ High Preest Floyd Gecko + SNOWBLOWER MYTHS .............................. I Yemen-Oying + WOMBATELLITE MYTH .................... Low Preest Goyd Flecko + CONVOLUTED MYTHS .......................... Preest Lloyd Taco + CYBERMYTHS ............................ Unheretic Gettah Leif + PIZZA MYTHS ........................... Unheretic Gettah Leif + TELEVISION MYTHS .................... High Preest Floyd Gecko + +BOOK OF MISCELLANY + + "WORDS" ........................................ Ann O'Nymous + "CONTRACT" .................................. Not Confuse-Ius + "NOSLIW NOTNA TREBOR" ............... High Preest Floyd Gecko + "PARANOIA PAYS" ................ Confuse-Ius And Ann O'Nymous + "RANDOM GIBBERISH" .............................. Confuse-Ius + "HAPPY" ................................... Preest Lloyd Taco + +APPENDICITISES + + APPENDICITIS I ............. Cardinal Richelieu Hellhound 101 + APPENDICITIS II ............ Cardinal Richelieu Hellhound 101 + APPENDICITIS III ........... Cardinal Richelieu Hellhound 101 + APPENDICITIS IV ..................... Saint Fourth Class Yari + APPENDICITIS V ......................... Prophets and Preests + APPENDICITIS VI ........................Preest Jeffrey Morton + APPENDICITIS VII .................... High Preest Floyd Gecko + APPENDICITIS VIII.......................... Preest Lloyd Taco + APPENDICITIS IX¬ .................... High Preest Floyd Gecko + APPENDICITIS IX« ................................ THE AUTHORS + APPENDICITIS X .......................... The Apostles Of MOO + + Plus meaningless Confuse-Ing Inter-Raptures + +Flip to a random spot to find a meaningless quote that you can read +Starry Wisdom into to shed light on your dark life. Truly. For +the TRUE meaning of this Book, Read Between The Lines. + + +WARNING: DO NOT USE THIS DOCUMENT AS TOILET TISSUE!!! + +º=ÊÊþÁÕo]×˱X/9þ"'µs-æqþx³ƒÃ'njäqþlfË8`ÖUà + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +MOO +OMM + +PREFACE I +as written by +Floyd Gecko the stoopid + +Syntax and general guidelines for MOO: + +00001) MOOism and MOOist are the only "ism" and "ist". This is + because all the main problems of the world are blamed on + "isms": the communBLATTTs blame them on the capitalBLATTTs, + and vice versa. The anarchBLATTTs blame it on the + fascBLATTTs, everyone hates consumerBLATT, and sadBLATT is + thought to be a horrible thing. So, all others besides MOOism + and MOOist are replaced by "BLATT" for "ism" and "BLATTT" for + "ist". Half-Mad says to only do this to the ones where ISM + and IST actually MEAN what it seems to, but you can have fun + and do it elsewhere as well... Or even where there's no ISM + or IST. Not like we could stop you. + +00002) MOO is always in caps. This is because I say so, and I'm + the High Preest. + +00003) Typical spellings are with 2 "O"s and no "!", with one "!", + with 3 "O"s and 2 "!"s and so forth. Other variants, such as + the "as many O's as you can write before you get tired of it" + variant may also be used. + +00004) When you flip the identity of its letters... + + MOO + OMM + + (This is a typical MOOist logoff on BBS's) + +5) Always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS (Well, sometimes), use the 5-digit + document numbering system. + + + The MOOist symbol, named the Halfy after Halfy, our Grate +Prophet, is a V with a mark inside. Often MOO can be spelled out +with little letters. I like to do this with O's for the "M" and +M's for the "O"... + + The words "BOOK" and "ANNOYING MIND DRUG" can be used +interchangeably. + + If any outsiders ask "WHAT IS MOOISM?", the following +explanation must be given in order to (a) confuse the shit out of +them, (b) protect our real secrets, and (c) satisfy the Law Of +Bullshhim. + + "The big doctrine of MOO is that we live in Hell already. +When you die, you get to go to Earth if you're good, or get +reincarnated as a bagel if you're bad. In order to obtain +Salvation and actually get to get sent to Heaven, you must send all +your money and ten cups of coffee, WITHOUT SPILLING, through the +mail by Parcel Post, to "BOB", care of the SubGenius Foundation, +P.O. Box 140306, Dallas Texas, 75214. Unfortunately, there is this +Undead Wombat Horde whose sole job, under the direction of an Evil +Computer called WOMBAT, which uses an evil base-23 psychic system +to control the world through the Alien Mind Beams, is to tip over +and generally abuse all parcels that go through the mail in order +to keep us from obtaining genuine salvation. They also steal +single socks from dryers, plant extra coathangers in closets, and +cause as much confusion and mayhem as possible. Only through +communing with the Grate MOO through the Grate Prophet Half-Mad is +it possible to remove the influence of these Wombats from your +life." + + As all MOOists know, this is actually a bunch of Bullshher, +thrown in to satisfy the Law of Bullshthem. Honest. WOMBAT works +FOR us. Really. No, I mean it. Honest. It's true. + +Note: ]×˱X/9þ"'µs-æqþx³ƒÃ'njäqþlfË8`ÖUà#¾þ^èT PREFACE II +as written by the +High Preest Of MOO, +Floyd Gecko the deranged + + Whassa MOOism? + + MOOism is an international Church of Lies, partially not +devoted to non-promotion of the Law of Bullshit. + + MOOists support: happiness, freedom, equality, cannibalBLATT, +free sex, anarchy, environmentalBLATT, bureaucracy, socialBLATT, +anarchy, free sex, free sex, and more free sex, a bit more anarchy, +flour, eggs, baking soda, water, and milk. + Mix thoroughly all dry ingredients, stirring rapidly. Throw +in some pyromania, paranoia, general insanity and a bit more free +sex just to be on the safe side. Add liquid ingredients and beat +for a while. + Now add some bestiality, necrophilia, and sadBLATT... or am I +just flogging a dead horse here? + + And remember AleBLATTTer Crowley's favourite saying: + "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" + And the stoopid SubGenius Takeoff: + "Do what keepeth thou from wilting shall be the loophole + in the law" + + That is, ya get ta do whatever you like. This means EVERYONE. +Including you. + + Actually, that's a lie. It's just that there's always these +taboo things, even if they're so well enforced that you don't know +they're there. So the only thing we stand for is getting rid of +them (HONEST!) even if they're not even fully formed yet, like in +them counter-culture things against yer basic smart-ass, yer basic +televangelBLATTT, and stuff like that there. + + Oh, you wanted it in DEEP terms? Okay, I'll give the +"condensed" version of my various "DEEP" explanations I give to +people who aren't sufficiently silly (enlightened) to understand +the REAL one... All people who don't need this in your life at +this time, you can ignore it, or you can fuck off. + + Religious Explanation: +MOOism is the worship of "The Grate MOO", which is a composite of +ALL religious Gods and Goddesses, taking the metaphorical form of +a great Mother Goddess... Just as, in HinduBLATT, for example, +there are many lesser gods and so forth, all combined into Brahma, +the Grate MOO does this across sectarian borders. [deeeeeeep] + + Mathematical Explanation: +The Grate MOO is the most literal possible representation of +Cantor's Absolute Infinite. When Cantor discovered that there are +infinitely many LEVELS of infinity (the number of levels is the +same as the value of the highest level), he presaged the Grate MOO. +The Grate MOO is, by definition, incomprehensible, because of the +Reflection Principle, which states that any description about the +Absolute Infinite also applies to some smaller level of infinity. +The Grate MOO is the set of all things which exBLATTT, might +exBLATTT, could theoretically be imagined, or aren't even possible. +[deeeeeeeeeeeep] + + Psychological Explanation: +MOOism is the attempt to expand the human mind by allowing +participants to dissolve their own reflex-arcs and habitual modes +of thought by using silliness (a well known catalyst for nonlinear +breakdown modes) and a variation of non-morality and a zenlike +satori experience through Godel-like mental tricks and paradoxes, +which is reccomended for all participants. +[deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep] + + The ArtBLATTTic Explanation: +MOOism is the first religion to recongnize OFFICIALLY the potential +of religion as a GNU art form. In the past, single works of art +might have been treasured and held in devotion. Now, with the +explosion of Pop Art (art on soft-drink cans), art is everywhere, +from billboards by roadsides to the elite galleries of Europe. +Religions were once created painstakingly, and held separately, +apart from the rest. MOO is one of the opening waves of Pop +Religion. Pretty soon, the Revealed Word Of God will show up on +your bottle of Coke... + + The Memetic Explanation: +MOOism is the attempt to acheive more rapid human evolution by +preserving as many memetic portions of human society as possible. +It includes all memes which exBLATTT at any one time, as well as +creating memes which don't. Because of this, it includes ALL +COWhuman thought within it as preservation, and comprehension of +the whole by any one human is therefore impossible. + + The reason they all seem so different is because of the +Reflection Principle. Any of those descriptions could equally well +apply to any other similar religion as well, because MOO is +transcendental, including ALL human thought. + + Of course, the REAL explanation is much more fun, being +extremely silly. PREFACE III +as written by +the Elite High Councilors +of MOO, the Cardinal Richelieus +And The High Preest + + There are several subdivisions of MOOism. The +First is the religion itself: + +A) The many-leveled being of MOO has been +explored in a multitude of ways, and some would +seem to indicate that not all the tiers of MOO +are equal, and are in fact dBLATTTinguished by +name, rank and membership requirements. Here are the titles, in no +particular order. Or maybe some order, but not a very significant +one. Well, something like that. + + +00001. Omnimalevolent Polly's Father and Grated Leader Of MOO + Title: Grate Prophet of MOO, Apostate of MOOism + Number of Title Holders (max): One Half (1/2) (0.5) + Current Title Holder: Half-Mad + Tenure: Infinite. Plus 4 years + Membership Requirements: Unknown + Job: Classified + +0001¬. The Wholly Air-Traffic Controller of Potatoma + Title: The High Preest of MOO, Apostate of MOOism + Number of Title Holders (max): One and a bit (1+bit) + Current Title Holder: Floyd Gecko (and a bit) + Tenure: Until eaten by a Cow, or death + Membership Requirements: Write much of the Book of MOO, Be + stupendously silly, and be willing to be eaten by a Cow + when the Cow so decides. + Job: To justify MOO fests, to write about Mints and Wombats, + to call for MOO guidance in times of need. + +0001«. The Elite Upper Council of MOO + Title: Cardinal Richelieu, Mud, Apostate of MOOism + Number of Title Holders (max): Whatever the others say (3) + Current Title Holders: Hellhound 101 + Tenure: Life + Membership Requirements: Be sexually active, open minded, wise + and knowledgeable about the items of MOO and the many + Heresies. Members must be voted in by the current Title + Holders and nobody else. + Job: To attempt to cancel MOOfests, to hunt down and capture + the heretic unMOO cultBLATTTs to be either destroyed by + MOO vengeance or to be turned over to the MOOists for + re-programming or to be eaten by the Grate Prophet and + the Dinner Circle members. + +00002. Prophet of MOO + Title: Prophet, Little Prophet, Apostle of MOOism. + Number of Title Holders (max): Whatever The Grate Prophet sez. + Current Title Holders: Necromancer TeraFNORD + Tenure: Life, or until removed by Grate Prophet + Membership Requirements: To be accepted by The Grate Prophet, + to make prophecies about things surreal. + Job: To attend MOO-Fests, to do silly things in silly places, + to think of neat ways science can be used for personal + entertainment. + +00003. Saint First Class + Title: Saint First Class, Wow A Saint + Number of Title Holders (max): unlimited + Current Title Holders: (TOP SECRET) + Tenure: More or less infinite + Membership Requirements: (TOP SECRET) + Job: (TOP SECRET) + +00004. Nobody + There is no 4th rank. + Title: None + Number of Title Holders (max): none + Examples: None + Tenure: None + Membership Requirements: None + Job: None + +0004«. Saint Second Class + Title: Saint Second Class, Saint Bernard + Number of Title Holders (max): unlimited + Examples: Spaxter, Yossarian, HAL 9000, Simon MOON, Floyd + Gecko, Harry Gerber, Trurl & Klapaucius + Tenure: as near to infinite as makes no odds + Membership Requirements: To be a fictional character of + interest. + +00005. Saint Third Class + Title: Saint Third Class, Saint Patrick's Day + Number of Title Holders (max): unlimited + Examples: All Monty Python characters, Arthur Dent + Tenure: infinite or until they get really boring + Membership Requirements: To be a silly fictional character + +0005¬. Saint Fourth Class + Title: Saint Fourth Class, Jolly Saint Nick + Number of Title Holders (max): unlimited + Examples: Yari, John Lennon, St. John The Divine, Richard + Feynman, Pythagoras, Moimos Eursti, Ferenc Puskas, R. + Buckminster Fuller, Alan Turing, Jon von Neumann, + Siddartha Gautama, John Fitzgerald Kennedy + Tenure: until they come back to life + Membership Requirements: be dead, or doing a REASONABLE + facsimile thereof after making a great contribution to + MOOism. + +0005«. Saint Fifth Class + Title: Saint Fifth Class, Day-Saint + Number Of Title Holders (max): 1729 + Examples: Go-Go the Do-Do, Arthur Dent, Dalai Dan, St. John + The Divine, Rudy Rucker, Eric the Half A Bee, Brian + O'Blivious, Daffy Duck + Tenure: Until no longer useful/valid/licenced, but only + during the day, just because I feel like it. + Membership Requirements: Act EXTREMELY surreal, or just sort + of generally wierd, or act constantly as if hit on the + head by 5 cartoon anvils, or otherwise be confused. Can + be real OR fictional, as required. + +005.6. Bishopesse Of MOO + Title: Bishoppesse/Bishop, One Of The Silly Pointy Hat + Number Of Title Holders (joe): 6.3 + Examples: MuPPeT (Muppet) (Mup Pet) + Tenure: Until the kitchen sinks + Membership Reqiurements: Get chosen + Job: To complain about Bishops, and act exceedingly cute when + asked. Or don't. + +00006. Bishop Of MOO + Title: Bishop/Bishoppesse, Diagonal One, Apostle of MOOism + Number Of Title Holders (max): 11 + Tenure: Until Hell Freezes Over + Membership Requirements: Say "I'm A Bishop Now" in the + presence of one of the top five members of MOO without + getting thwacked. + Job: To adminBLATTTrate, to lead, to Preech, and to generally + tell everyone else what to do. To do what you like. + +00007. Knight Of MOO + Title: Knight Of The Trapezoidal Table, Llama, Apostle of + MOOism + Number Of Title Holders (max): 23 + Tenure: A Long Time, In A Galaxy Far Away + Membership Requirements: Be unable to turn yourself and + others into frogs, but have obvious talent for something + unspecified. Be accepted by higher levels. + Job: Plant plastic cacti in public places, leave + unintelligible messages on BBSes, tell everyone you know + about MOOism. Violently convert random people to Fateor. + +00008. Rook Of MOO + Title: Rookie Of The Year, Straight One, Apostle of MOOism. + Number Of Title Holders (max): 83... or maybe 93 + Tenure: 23 years, renewable + Membership Requirements: Go through trial period of 23 days + of observation, act surreal, spread the Word. + Job: Continue to Spread The Word. Eat Peanut-Butter and + Banana Sandwiches. + +0008«. Monjuniorhood Of MOO + Title: Monjunior Of The Church Of MOO, Apostle Of MOOism. + Number Of Title Holders (fred): 93... or maybe 83 + Tenure: Ten ures, renewable. + Membership Requirements: Things which are required to become + a member. + Job: What the members do. + +00009. The Dinner Circle Of MOO + Title: Inner CirlBLATTT, Virgin, Phred, Apostle of MOOism. + Number of Title Holders (max): One Hundred And Four (104) + Tenure: four years, renewable + Membership Requirements: Be accepted by the upper levels of + MOO as an Inner CirclBLATTT after serving a term as an + Outer CirclBLATTT. + Job: To attend MOOfests, to set fires, to be silly and to + practise Free and Safe Sex. May act as Preest if it's + important. Or if it isn't, for that matter. + +00010. Preest of MOO + Title: Preest of MOOism, Apostle of MOOism. + Number of Title Holders (max): As many as are needed, keeping + at least one (one) (1) (I) (0.5 + 0.5) per sect of + MOOism. + Tenure: Life, or until quit or removed by the High Preest. + Membership Requirements: To try to be as silly as the High + Preest, to write some stuff for something about very + little. + Job: To find GNU literary and audio/video sources for MOOist + enjoyment, continue to Preech. + +00011. The Doubter Circle Of MOO + Title: Outer CircleBLATTT of MOO, Weenie, Goober, SnotBall, + Apostle of MOOism + Number of Title Holders (max): Eighteen Hundred (1800) + Tenure: one day, renewed automatically until excommunicated or + raised to the level of a Virgin. + Membership requirements: Submit Application, endure ritual. + Job: To attend MOOfests, to impress the higher odours of MOO. + To spread the word (and treacle) of MOO. + + QUACK! + +0011«. Pasteur + Title: Hon. Pasteur, Pasteur, Moloko, The Beast + Number Of Title Holders (max): 666.666 + Tenure: Until sourness occurdles + Membership Requirements: Be pure, disease-free, opaque, and + generally uncontaminated. + Job: To ensure the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual + health of all Offical Animals in the vicinity. + +00012. Honourable Reverend + Title: Hon. Reverend, Reverend + Number or Title Holders (max): Anyone approved by a higher + level. + Tenure: As long as they appear to give the correct impression. + Membership requirements: Hmm, doesn't take much really. + Job: Do odd things with sheep. Be social. Save large groups + of people from painfully horrid deaths when needed. + +00013. Councillor Of MOO + Title: Counciltwit, Some Council Thing Or Other + Number of Title Holders (max): Zillions + Tenure: Determined by the Councils + Membership Requirements: Determined by the Councils + Job: Attempt to protect the Church Of MOO from the + CapriCancer threat. + +00014. CapriCancer + Title: Some Loser Guy, Cancerous Growth + Number Of Title Holders (max): A whole bunch + Tenure: Until tenure expires + Membership Requirements: Head a worldwide conspiracy. + Job: Attempt to destroy that horrible and blasphemous MOO + thing. Kill Floyd Gecko. Be utterly despicable. + +00015. Acolyte + Title: Scum, Hey You, Silly Twit + Number of Title Holders (max): Infinite. Plus one. + Tenure: As long as the Apostles of MOOism feel like. + Membership Requirements: Submit application, endure tiny + ritual + Job: Do whatever the Inner CirclBLATTTs and above want you + to. Be a gopher to the higher orders. + +00016. Fateor + Title: Lazy Twit + Number of Title Holders: Very difficult to estimate. + Tenure: As long as they like. + Membership Requirements: In some way, to actively recignize + MOOism. No application required. + Job: Actively recignize MOOism in any way you choose. + + +00017. Agnoscere + Title: Idiot, Twit + Number of Title Holders: A lot + Tenure: Life, or until moved to a higher ranking. + Membership Requirements: To have, at some point, recognized + or known that MOOism exBLATTTs. No application required. + Job: To have, at some point, recignized the exBLATTTance of + MOOism, but have not filled out any application, are not + a saint, and do not actively recignize MOOism. + +00018. Snacky + Title: Snackie, Unsuspecting Freak + Number Of Title Holders: Dang near 6 Billion + Tenure: Until They're Not A Snacky Anymore + Membership Requirements: To be Un-MOO, Anti-MOO, or to have + no connection with MOO whatsoever. + Job: To be eaten and otherwise destroyed by the Cow and + MOOists in the form of War, Crime, AIDS, and Cheese Whiz. + +00019. Evil One + Title: That Evil Guy, Evil Person, Bung + Number of Title Holders (MAX): Twelve + Current Title Holders: Brian Mulroney, Vincent Emond, "BOB" + Tenure: Until no longer evil, or people forget who you are. + Membership Requirements: To be extremely evil. Or at least + a bit evil. At any rate, to be something vaguely + resembling evil for a little while, or maybe not be very + nice to someone at some point or other. Maybe. + Job: To continue to be a bit evil until tenure elapses, or + are eaten by the Great MOO. + +00020. Perrennial Heretic + Title: Legend In His Own Mind, I Yemen Oying + Number of Title Holders (max): FIVE + Current Title Holders: I Yemen-Oying, E.D. Brebis + Tenure: Until conversion or onset of senility + Membership Requirements: Refuse to admit to being a MOOist, + but participate in most Fests and Rituals anyways. + Non-application required. + Job: Refuse to admit to being a MOOist, participate in Nomic + ritual, Fests, burning, QUACKBLATT, ConfusionBLATT, + Muk-Funna MOO ritual, and all minor rituals. Protest + violently against being made a category of MOOism. + +00021. Everybody Else + Title: Nobody, Worthless Loser, Some Dimwit + Number Of Title Holders: Infinity minus one + Current Title Holders: Almost Everyone. + Tenure: Until finding out about MOOism, or in any way fitting + into one or more of the previous titles. + Membership Requirements: To have never even heard of MOOism. + Job: None. + +00022. Other + Title: Other, Nobody Special, Lord High Chancellor + Number Of Title Holders: Don't ask ME + Current Title Holders: Ann O'Nymous, Half-Mad, Bishoppesse + MuPPeT + Tenure: Unclear At This Time + Membership Requirements: To fail to fall into any of the + other categories, or to not even exBLATTT. + Job: Complete the necessary 23rd membership rank. + +00023. UberSagan + Title: Billions and Billions + Number of Title Holders: Vast + Tenure: Until shrinkage (Juº=ÊÊþÁÕo]×˱X/9þ"'µs-æqþx³ƒÃ'njäqþlfË8`ÖË-@ü) + Membership Requirements: To be a very large number + Job: To denumerate things + _ +0000Q. Nun Of The Above + Title: Nun Of The Above, High Priestess, Someone + Number Of Title Holders (max): nîN + Tenure: No + Examples: High Priestess Indoctrinate-Me + Membership Requirements: To exBLATTT entirely outside the + MOOish ranking system. + Job: To confuse the hell out of people. + +B) Another subdivision of MOOism is QUACKBLATT. See +the book of QUACK for information on the QUACKBLATTTs. +The Great QUACK is the rebel son of the Great MOO. His +brother is BOB, and his sBLATTTers are Eris and Aneris. +Fortunately, the QUACKBLATTTs have recently converted +to this. Previously they were MOOists who wouldn't +admit it, which is the worst kind. Now they are +MOOists who DO admit it, which is the... well... the +other kind. + +C) The Church Of The Sub-Genius + All MOOists must at least contemplate joining this +Church. There is no problem with belonging to both, at +least according to MOO. What they think about it may be +a different matter. + The central pillar of their belief is that there is +a semi-mystical entity known as "BOB", who will appear +in the X-BLATTT Flying Saucers in 1998 and take all +members of the Church away, and transform them into +OverWomen and Ubermen. Honest. + "BOB" is known to be responsible for the rash of strange or +mystical "BOB"s in the media, such as the "BOB" of the Doritos +commercials, and the "BOB" in Twin Peaks. According to the Church +of the Sub-Genius, these events will become more and more common as +the time of "BOB"'s arrival approaches. For this reason, all +MOOists in this subsect, and those outside who want to get in the +"good books" must actively attempt to create more of these mystical +"BOB"s in the world. If you are able, put ads in the paper with +mysterious overtones about "BOB". If you are a columnBLATTT, say +something odd about him. Basically, do that kind of thing. The +wider the audience the better. + "BOB" is to be held as a secondary deity of MOOism, a son of +the Great MOO. His sBLATTTers are Eris and Aneris, his brother is +QUACK, who is NOT a deity. + Excerpts from the Annoying Mind Drug of The SubGenius would +have been included in an appendix, but weren't. + +D) DiscordianBLATT + For the full story, consult the Principia Discordia, which may, +upon much pleading, be borrowed from Hellhound 101 if he's in a +good MOOd, or Floyd Gecko, if he's not. Or bought at a store, if +you feel like being CONVENTIONAL. + Basically, Eris (or Discordia, as she is known +to some) is the Goddess of Chaos. She may be +contacted through your Pineal Gland. She represents +the forces of disorder, chaos, and confusion. Since +this is one of the main purposes of MOOism, members +are advised to join this subsection of MOOism. The +only thing wrong with the story as given in the +Principia Discordia is that it fails to understand +the gospel of Yari. + Here, then, are some revisions: + After the Great Explosion which created the Earth and the +Heavens and the Universe out of the Primordial Tundra in which +flourished the Primordial Penguins, there was also created by the +Great MOO two sBLATTTers from the little bit called Void. These +sBLATTTers were Eris and Aneris. They had THREE brothers, two +of which were oddly not mentioned in Principia, known as "BOB", and + +QUACK. The third was mentioned, but didn't have a name. + Eris did not, as has been suggested, create the world, but she +took it to play with it, which was actually what got Aneris upset. +In 1998, "BOB" will take it back from them, and make it a better +place for all of us, but some time after that, QUACK will throw it +on the Tundra (or what is left of the Tundra) and break it. The +great MOO will then have to get a GNU one for her children to play +with. For more information, consult the Principia Discordia. It +should be available somewhere or other. + +E) The Temple Of The Primordial Penguin + In the gospel according to Saint Yari, it is revealed that +before the creation of the world there exBLATTTed great penguins. +It is not known where these penguins came from, but those who ask +such questions are surely heretics, as we all know they were made +by the Great MOO, who made herself retroactively, while playing the +Game Of Nomic. + What is not commonly known is that one of these Penguins, a +young fellow whose name may not be spoken, also played the Game Of +Nomic with the Great MOO in the days before Time began. This +Penguin, who was deemed worthy of survival over all other Penguins, +was rescued by the Great MOO (though the heretic followers of a +splinter of this subdivision of MOOism actually go so far as to +suggest that he saved himself from the explosion, and even dare to +suggest that the Great MOO COW was HIS creation, not her own). + When he came into being after the explosion, he found a bit +left over that was very like our World, and filled it with Penguins +created in His image. These penguins, like him, were very smart, +and some escaped out onto the remnants of the Tundra. Some of them +fell from grace, and became mere penguins, but one was a very smart +Penguin named Jehovah, or Yaweh, as some knew him, and he entered +our Earth with his brothers and sBLATTTers, and then pretended to +be God. + The Primordian Penguin, Father Of All Penguins, is another +deity of MOO, but he is not of the family of the Great MOO. + +F) ConfusionBLATT. + ConfusionBLATTTs are dedicated to confusing everyone. As part +of this supreme effort, every member of the religion has the Holy +Name of Confuse-ius. + Although the general event is free-form confusing, +participants may also enter the sprint-confuse, in which they pack +as many non-sequiteurs and confusing statements as possible into a +single minute or paragraph of writing. In addition, the Marathon +Confuse is open to all members, in which event they spend their +entire life being generally confusing. However, Free-Form +confusing is by far the most common, in which everyone does +whatever they generally feel like doing, using the name +Confuse-ius. + There are deep philosophical reasons they do this, but they +really are terribly confusing, and nobody could talk to one long +enough to figure out just exactly what they are, except that they +think that it makes the world a better place. Or maybe not. + They seemed rather confused on the issue. + +G) (TOP SECRET) + This section has been censored by someone who didn't want +anyone to read it. Also, it's contents contained references to +such things as (CENSORED), (CENSORED), and (CENSORED), and is +therefore considered dangerous and highly subversive. If you would +like a copy of the contents of this section, don't bother calling: + Security Intelligence Review Committe -- 1-613-990-8441 +because they won't send it to you. + Operators are NOT standing by to take your call, so don't even +bother trying. It's really not worth it. + +H) tHE cHURCH oF mORON + These most blasphemous heretics invented their own little +brand of MOO by the simple expedient of writing a whole bunch more +annoying mind drugs for the Book what they wouldn't give us. +Technically, they worship the Penguins, and particularly Jesus +ChrBLATTT. We're not sure just WHY this is, because they won't let +us read their annoying mind drugs. + The full name is tHE cHURCH oF mORON, jESUS cHRblattt O' +fLATTER dAY-sAINTS, because they wrote the annoying mind drugs +while extremely stoned, and they like the Day-Saints, and +apparently the acid conversation drifted to Go-Go the Do-Do (one of +the Day-Saints), and anvils. Thus the "flatter" bit. Apparently +part of their job is to go around, find anyone who acts surreal, +and drop an anvil on them. + + More Churches and the like may be found in the Cult Of The +Month selection of the MOO newsletter MOO-JUICE, when it appears. +Updates follow as GNU Cults are discovered. PREFACE IV +As Written By +Counciltwit Confuse-Ius + +1. What Are The Councils? + + The Councils of MOO ("Counci. of MOO" for short) are a loosely +connected group of spam fnord organizations whose purpose, set down +many millennia ago in ancient Atlantis by our founder Confuse-Ius, +is to guard the Church of MOO ("Churc. of MOO" for short) against +the vicious threat of the CapriCancers ("viciou. threat of the +CapriCancers" for short). Our secondary purpose is to keep the +Churc. of MOO alive at any cost, and to maintain the proper degree +of fanaticBLATT, so as to resBLATTT any future viciou. threats that +might arise. + +Spam: What are the CapriCancers? + + Spam. + +2. What are the CapriCancers REALLY? + + Spam. + +3. No, I mean it, WHAT THE HELL ARE THE CAPRICANCERS, YOU SPAM? + + The CapriCancers are a group of Devianti AstrologBLATTTs, who +all claim to have been born under the signs Capricorn and Cancer, +simultaneously. This is an article of faith among them, since they +were all actually born under Saggitarius. + Their leader, Capricious Cancerous, is an immortal space alien +artifact from the planet Zorn in the galaxy of Andromeda. It +crashed in the XBLATTT flying saucer which delivered the sentient +supercomputer WOMBAT to Earth. It is not known how a Zorn was able +to sneak aboard an XBLATTT saucer, but it is suspected that it was +able to cloak the bioscanners by using its lifelike appearance +(sculpted from chiseled spam) to fool WOMBAT. If true, this makes +Capricious Cancerous the only known living being to ever fool this +powerful computer. + This has led to the suspicion that WOMBAT actually works for +the CapriCancers, which has yet to be confirmed or disproved. + The CapriCancer threat to the Churc. of MOO lies in the fact +that Capricious Cancerous is now known to have been an infiltrator +in the ancient Atlantean sect of MOOism founded by Grate Prophet +Peng-Peng, and was, in fact, one of those who helped uncover the +WOMBAT computer from its hiding place in the Gobi Desert. It is +suspected that Capricious Cancerous is, in fact, The Miraculous +One, of the original Church Of MOO, and, therefore, J.R. "BOB" +Dobbs. But this is only speculation. + The reasons behind the CapriCancer Conspiracy are unclear, +however. The Conspiracy ("The Con" for short) is an anti-MOO +organization, denounced by "BOB" Dobbs in what is now believed, by +serious MOOish scholars, to be one of the greatest bluffs of all +hBLATTTory, since "BOB" is now presumed to be behind The Con almost +entirely. Whatever the motives of this conglomeration of Space +Bankers, Vampire Potatos, Illuminati Groups, and Coathanger Repair +Conpanies which control all businesses, governments, and 90% of the +human minds in the world, they are out to get every MOOist they can +lay their hands on. + And like it or not, if you're reading this, you're a Fateor of +MOO, and they're after YOU. + +4. No, really, what ARE the CapriCancers? + + Spam. + +5. Why are the Councils so Fanatical? + + Well, look at it this way. + Two kids are arguing over a cake. "BOB" wants all of it, and +Floyd wants to share it equally between the two of them. They +whine and bitch about it for a while, until finally an adult called +Fred wanders up, and says "Why don't you compromise? "BOB" gets +three quarters, and Floyd gets one quarter." + Well, it's a compromise between what they SAY they want... + But it doesn't really satisfy which is more FAIR. + IT ISN'T FAIR! IT'S JUST NOT FAIR! + DAAAAAD! "BOB" GOT MORE CAKE THAN I DID! HE GOT A BIGGER +PEICE! DAAAAAAAAAAD! DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!!!!! + Urm. Ahem. + Sorry. + Anyway, the point is, if you want to get anything done in this +world of compromise, you have to be fanatical, and go to extremes +about everything, even if you don't believe in them. + Or, put it another way. Like, everyone keeps brainwashing you +(especially those CapriCancers, with their WOMBAT brain-control +satelites and FLUORIDATION of DRINKING WATER, and those Commies, +and the Nazis on the far side of the moon, and... and...), so if +you act fanatical and brainwash yourself, even if it's into the +things they're trying to convince you of, it'll all sort of balance +out, AS LONG AS you do it for EVERYTHING you believe. Go +overboard. + That the Council's way of Doing Things. + The Tao of Bitching. + +6. What Councils Are There? + + There are five main councils, and umpty-ump zillion little +councils. The five main councils you really ought to look into +joining if you want to protect yourself from those vicious +CapriCancers are these. + + A) Council Of MOOist Intelligence + This council has been seditiously attacked by Caprious +Cancerous himself as a contradiction in terms. But it isn't. + Honest. + Spam spam spam. FNORD! + The purpose of the Council of MOOist Intelligence is twofold: +to increase the average intelligence of MOOists, and to gather +information on the activities of CapriCancer forces throughout the +world. + This council is headed by Confuse-Ius (not ME, HIM), and its +members wish to remain anonymous. The names of the ringleaders, +changed here to protect the innocent (and the guilty) are Ann +O'Nymous, Anno Nymous, A. Nonymous, and Ann O'Nymity. There are a +maximum of 666 members of the Council of MOOist Intelligence at any +one time. + + B) The Council of MOOist Mind Control + Since the forces of CapriCancer have their own orbiting Mind +Control Satelites, the Lurch of BOO has decided to set up its own +council for the purpose of brainwashing BACH everyone it can. + In fact, it has been speculated that the SubGenius/Conspiracy +orbiting WOMBAT satelites have so corrupted the minds of EVEN THE +SMIRCH OF GLUE ITSELF that not only does it perform that evil and +heretical act of making fun of itself, but it ACTUALLY allows the +WOMBAT supercompter INSIDE its own archives, brainwashed by +constant mind control satelites into believing that the WOMBAT +supercomputer is a MOOist, and not an XBLATTT. + Which is silly. + The chairbeing of this council is the Late Great Brian +O'Blivious Esq. The ringleaders are made of chiseled spam, and +stick cucumbers up their noses on thursdays, because such is the +divinely revealed word of the saviour O'Blivious. There are +indefinite spaces for positions on this council for anyone willing +to be subjected to a little brainwashing, using the advanced GNU +MOOish brainwashing machine known as VOMBAT, which was discovered +by Brian O'Blivious in the Gobi Desert near a large rendition of +the Sacred Glyph of MOO. + + C) The MOOist Military Council + This council is the military council of MOO. + Information was not forthcoming from councillor CENSORED, who +was most unhelpful. The propaganda information which follows below +was released with his kind permission, but it more or less +irrelevant to a real understanding of what's going on in this, the +most mysterious of the five primary councils of MOO. + Slogan: Have GNU will travel. + Purpose: Defeat the CapriCommies on their own ground. + Weapons: Powerful semiautobiographical machine-gnus. + Victories: Many. + Losses: Few. + Brainwashing: Just a rumour. + This information may, however, help to explain the mysterious +sightings in Arkasas and Siberia of large lumbering metallic +wildebeest-like animals murmuring platitudes about their +childhoods. + +7. How Can I Join The Councils? + + Send a Stamped Self Addressed Envelope addressed to the +Councils of MOO, along with $10 membership dues, to: + + The Councils Of MOO + c/o SubGenius Foundation + P.O. Box 140306 + Dallas Texas, 75214 + + or + + The Councils Of MOO + c/o Church Of MOO + P.O. Box 26038 + 72 Robertson Rd. + Nepean, ON, Canada + K2H-9Y8 PREFACE V +as written by +the Elite High Councilors +of MOO, the Cardinal Richelieus + + The 14 Commandments + + These are the Commandments of MOO as drawn from the many Books of +MOO and here set down in a concise format. Prosecutors will be +violated, and vice versa. + +00001. MOO! +00002. Thou shalt have fun +00003. Thou shall light fires +00004. Thou mayest partake of human flesh +00005. Thou shalt not post overly meaningful messages +00006. Thou shall respect, in thy own way, the teachings of + those more hip than thou +00007. Thou shalt not take writen documents at face value +00008. Thou may worship other, lesser gods and still value the + word of the Cow +00009. Thou shall burn +00010. Thou shalt not read aloud the full name of the Grate Prophet +00011. Thou shalt not abuse, snack upon, taunt or draw upon the + members of the Elite Upper Counsel of MOO +00012. Thou shall post in area 9, the Mint NES, or thou shall face + some great misfortune +00014. Thou shalt not eat the money of the High Preest of MOO +00015. Thou shalt ignore Commandment 15, for it doesn't exBLATTT. +00016. Thou shalt 'njäqþlfË8`ÖUà#¾þ^èT»þK-I£lLÜPìË-@ü + + PREFACE VI +As Written By +Ann O'Nymous + + This is me the futurBLATTT now. + Westward urge of civilization. Domestication of farm animals +and primates. Floating free. Space cities. Japan-bashing? + Look, civilization started in China. That's where all this +stuff began, and everyone over there who was GNU and INNOVATIVE +built a great society with wonderful architecture, philosophy, +science (they discovered GUNPOWDER, didn't they?) and lots of neat +little wicker baskets. So what? So after a while the GNU and +innovative stuff got to be old hat. I mean, something that's GNU +now will be old in a hundred years. So the GNU and innovative +people were surrounded by old crap and people who liked the OLD +ways. So they wanted to leave. There was an ocean to the east, +and and ocean to the south, and frozen wasteland to the north. So +they went west. On the whole, a wise move, since horses have +trouble swimming seas. + So then the same thing happened farther west. GNU innovators +poured in, brought GNU ideas, built a great civilization, and then +it became old, and the innovators died off. They couldn't go east, +cause that was even OLDER AND STUFFIER. There was still Sibera to +the North, and desert or ocean to the south. So they kept going +west. This happened EVERY generation, so the GNU ideas, the +advance of, well, advancement, went westwards, so that the east got +older and older, while staying EXACTLY THE SAME. Cause the world +changed. + Anyway, it eventually got to Europe from the middle-east and +then Greece and then Rome... And after Europe, it went to North +America. GNU York, then things like Chicago, then California +became the wonderful GNU Haven O' Science. In the '60s. But the +WAVE was going faster (on account of the first people went on +horses, and the GNU ones went on JUMBO JETS!) They kept going west +because, well, it was like a tradition. Which is strange, because +they were supposed to be innovators. But never mind that. Anyway. + After California, the Haven O' New-Guys moved to Japan. Which +is why all that Made In Japan stuff is now so great in the +135560's. + But there's old-fogeys and there's new-fogeys. Old-fogeys +don't like GNU stuff, and they're REAL territorial about it. Like, +major, dude. I'll get to that in a sec. So this is why the OLD +LOSERS go around JAPAN-BASHING. Not cause the Japanese are evil or +anything, but because they're AFRAID TO ADMIT THE JAPANESE ARE +BETTER NOW! Get real, people. It won't last forever. But Tim +Leary caught on in the Starseed Transmissions his brain sent to +itself (pretending to be an alien) in the '60s... It said the +Japanese were the most superior beings on the planet, and that we +were to leave the planet to rejoin the stars and stuff like that +there. Neat, huh? Well, he was right about both, only excepting +that the Japanese aren't like, INHERENTLY better. Just right now +they are. But that Westward Urge will end as they take us to +space. The Japanese have plans for permanent colonization of Mars, +dude... Pretty quick it'll be the EARTHIANS who are the old- +fogeys. So sign up for space cities now before your brains +calcify. + I mean, it's just classic primate stuff, right? + Look, when our ancestors domesticated farm animals from wild +animals, they discovered certain things... Domestication has +physical effects, like removing hair from the animals, shortening +horns, claws, teeth and other dangerous stuff like that, making the +cow's udder bigger... stuff like that. But it doesn't change the +behaviour. Like, pigs still root in the ground, EVEN IF IT'S +CONCRETE! Chickens still scratch, even if there's no dust to bathe +in (feather cleaning stuff, don't worry) and things like that... +Oh, they're tamer, calmer, less likely to bash your brains out or +bite at your throat, but the same patterns of behaviour are still +there. Same with people. Domesticated apes. Less hair, stand up +straight, smaller teeth and claws, larger breasts on women, things +like that. But still apes in behaviour. Territory. I mean, walk +across someone's front yard in the United States and see if they +don't yell at you. + One difference between us and apes in behaviour is that we're +tamer, don't fight so much on a person-to-person basis. No, that's +why we have tanks and bomber planes. Shit, knife-fights are +DANGEROUS, maaaan. The other big difference is that we have WORDS +and IDEAS on a big scale. Being domesticated gave us time to let +us handle those words that the apes can only sort of vaguely string +together. That and we have better vocal cords. So territory sort +of extended into those, too. Tell someone his religion is wrong, +BLAMMO, you get blown away. Scope out Salman Rushdie if you don't +believe me. He didn't even INSULT the Muslims. They just sort of +THOUGHT he did, so KNEE-JERK, they up and blew him away. Or tried +to. They would have, too, if he hadn't hidden. Smart guy. + But territoriality was an evolutionary response to the limited +space of our environment here on Earth. Like Death was (no, no, +not BIRTH CONTROL, DEATH... much more sensible, right?)... When +we move off Earth, that instinct may go away... No more +ideological wars, no more fighting over stupid dumbshit things. +TRUE SLACK. Check out an explanation later of the Circuits of the +Brain. Neat... Get an EXPLORER circuit in the first one, NO +FIGHTING on the second, the third should develop better too (actual +communication between DIFFERENT PEOPLE! WHAT A CONCEPT!) What +with all this changing of circuits, what will we end up with? + A society of friendly, peaceful, innovative, incredibly +brilliant, morally relaxed, spiritually advanced people who don't +have to do menial work (got robots for that) living with the nearly +infinite resources of the universe to support them. + Sound neat? Good. Sign up now to join the first L5 colonies +in Earth Orbit, or better yet, move to Japan, convince them you +like them (they're paranoid about Japan bashers who want to kill +them all: go figure) and try to get in on the Mars Colony. With +any luck, and life-extension drugs, you'll still be alive and +kicking when it opens up. + You'll find a few things, when you move off Earth. The people +there are a lot nicer, a lot more like you, a lot friendlier. But +you'll spot something more important. Of all those people who +originally went up into Zero-Gravity, EIGHTY PERCENT of them had +whatcha call SPIRITUAL REVELATIONS. Which is cool. + Zero Gravity opens up those extra four circuits, like Robert +Anton Wilson keeps going on and on about. But I won't say what +opens Floyd's Top Secret (Honest) Ninth Circuit. It sure ain't +transferring consciousness out of the universe and into the +Multiverse, THAT'S FER DAMN SURE. It's nothing to do with +spreading your consciousness to other universes and escaping. +Nope. Nothing. + + Confuse-Ius Sez: + "One of the warning signs of the end of the world is fast and +efficient postal delivery, generally delivering, perfectly intact, +any package you might send, in less than 12 minutes." + -Book Of Things, Chapter 12, Verse 17 + + But the best way to get this effect isn't with the +artificially-gravitized rotating space-cities of Gerard O'Niell. +Bah, HUMBUG! No, you need clear plastic BUBBLES floating in space +with air and water and stuff inside. So you can live in zero- +gravity without having to give up lakes and sky and clouds and +birds and things... All we need is a breakthrough in materials to +make 'em out of... Gotta be tough, resilient, electrically +conductive... Might wanna make a pooter out of it... Check out +Floyd's novella "Self Sufficient" for more details on the "Habitat" +idea... S'cool. + Anyway. The only problem is EM field resonance. (ACK! LONG +WORDS!)... THPTHPTHPTHPT! All it is is magnetic fields shuffling +back and forth... On Earth, where we evolved and we're used to, +the magnetic core and the magnetosphere resonate or vibrate at 7.83 +cycles a second. And if your brain tunes to that or a multiple of +that (or a fraction), you start to resonate with it, and pick up +energy. That's what causes wierd effects on the Kirlian Photos of +meditating Gurus. That's what causes neat dreams (at half the +frequency, of course), that's what causes the rush of creativity on +certain kinds of drugs. So all you have to do is get the BUBBLE to +resonate at that, too... And the neat thing is, of course, you can +get it to be STRONGER, cause you have control. You don't have to +lose the "Earth Ties" to live in space. Earth Ties are just that +link you make every so often to that flux that's goin' down. +That's why we need to sleep. So we can dream. So we can make THAT +SPECIFIC KIND OF LINK. We evolved getting used to making it in +different forms all over, so we now need that to keep us smart and +clever domesticated primates. + But don't worry, in the bubble, EVERYONE will be a SUPERGENIUS +anyway, because of that third-circuit "clever" imprint. Plus which +the bubble can adapt to make the link with EACH PERSON ALL THE +TIME. It'd be like you're always high, you're always dreaming, +you're always meditating. YOU'RE ALWAYS LUCID. + Wicked idea, eh? No wonder the government is reluctant to go +to space. Imagine trying to lead a population of supergenius +dreaming dopers? Wow, maaan. + So sign up now. And don't forget to tell them where you read +this. That's ANN O'NYMOUS. A-N-N O-'-N-Y-M-O-U-S. In the +ANNOYING MIND DRUG OF MOO! + Okay. All right. Now then, what comes BEYOND that? Looking +to the BIG picture... What do we find? + Well, we've entered the area of MEME production. Memes are +the mental equivalent of genes: single units of thought, maybe an +idea, a tune, an image, whatever it happens to be. Meme evolution, +since it happens inside our brains, with simple little bits of +information, is much MUCH faster than gene evolution was back in +the primordial-soup days. There's so much more competition for +space. After all, in those days, there was lots of food and space +in the oceans, and the little DNA frags just multiplied and +multiplied, and sometimes divided, which was frequently the same +thing for them... But now, well, we only have so much space in our +heads, only so much attention we can pay to this bullshit. + So what's the deal? What's cooking, doc? + The creation of Usenet, Internet, Fidonet, and all the various +other computer nets around the world, along with MASSIVELY huge +Local Area Networks (LANs) with info-storage-space galore, all of +that combined together to make a fast-evolution forum for memes. +Someone throws out a package of memes, most of which will be +recycled, but combined in different combinations (that's sexual +reproduction, one thing that made genes evolve fast) for people to +look at and evaluate. That's Survival-Of-The-Fittest. Whatever is +the best adapted pack of memes (genome, in the gene-talk, or +memome, to coin a phrase, in meme-talk) will survive. All the +different areas are dedicated to evolving different kinds of meme- +packs in different subjects. Computers speed up meme evolution. + But memes mostly exBLATTT inside our heads, right? So what's +the logical step, if we want to increase the evolution of memes, as +all sensible neophiles would? We put our brains in the computers! + Well, there's lots of plans underway trying to figure out how +to do exactly that! There's stuff on copying neuron functions into +little computers made by nanomachines (teeny-weeny-speeny little +machines made of mechanical parts on the size of molecules) and +revving up brainspeed that way. Our rapidly expanding power of +computers (a factor of a thousand every twenty-three years or so) +means that by the 2030's, computers will have the power of a human +brain, and the nanotechnology being developed NOW will mean that by +the time that happens, we may be able to transplant the mind +DIRECTLY into the computers. And beyond that, as our computers get +faster and smarter, so do our minds, so we can design better +computers even faster, so it all accelerates. Our Artificial +Intelligence programs, when they get to be much smarter than we are +now, combined with nanotechnology manufacturers to make our GNU +brains faster than we can imagine today, we'll start being able to +REWRITE our own software, making ourselves smarter, better adapted. + We'll find that our semi-intelligent machine companions can +look after matters of our survivial much better than we ever could, +and as we get smarter and smarter, we'll be able to judge the +consequences of our huge projects more and more accurately, so +there will be much less of a problem with shortsighted lack of +planning causing environmental disasters. Even the eco-freaks +should agree with this vision of the future, or they don't +understand it. + Intelligence increase is all over, these days, with Smart +Bars, and Think Drinks, and Intelligence Increase Drugs popping up +all over, seemingly from out of the woodwork (or, more frequently, +laminated plasticwork). People pop pills, not just to get high, +but to make themselves SMARTER. + And that's just a hardware improvement... It makes more +neurotransmitters (the chemicals that your brain uses for +signalling between brain cells (neurons)), or increases the firing- +rate of the neurons, speeding up thought, or it makes your brain +able to use oxygen better, or provides nutrients, or any number of +similar things. Within 50 years, we'll be able to improve the +SOFTWARE of the brain, make ourselves Godlike Hyperintelligences, +like you always get in 3rd rate science fiction. But this time, +for real. + In the coming posthuman era, those technophobes that still +exBLATTT will just leave themselves behind as the rest of us +sensibly migrate off world, where our industry can't possibly fuck +up the environment. And once the first industry is up there, we +don't even have to use rockets that pollute the air! Just built +the huge brains with nanomachines up on the moon, and radio up our +personality program. + Vastly improved intelligence means much greater efficiency of +use of the resources. What Buckminster Fuller described as +"ephemeralization" will become a way of life. Using fewer and +fewer resources to do more and more things, just as we use a 5- +tonne communications satelite to do the job of hundreds of +thousands of tonnes of wires running to every home. The same will +happen in every facet of life. + Life itself will expand beyond our present ability to +comprehend. The advances currently being made in Virtual Reality, +teaching techniques, and brain development are showing the ability +to learn can be improved remarkably, especially once we discover +how the brain changes with GNU information, and are able to pump it +directly into the brain when needed. Each person will have instant +"memory" access to the collected knowledge of all humanity, all the +opinions of everyone else, a cross-cultural sharing ground that +defies our ability to comprehend. + Even Sex itself may vanish, as children may be created by +combining the parents' ideas and memes, along with their +preferences for the personality of the offspring. But don't +dispair of losing Sex. With an electronic personality, any sensory +inputs you want can be tailored, modified by other people, so you +can interact in any way you choose, without any risk of disease, +unwanted pregnancy, and all the problems that beset sex today. + Stop for a sec... Why, with all the advancement in +civilization, science, quality of life, are MORE AND MORE people +turning to various GNU religions? Because that's what "society" +is... People interacting together. With increase of quality of +life, they have more time and energy to devote to religion, rather +than survivial. So the consequence? + Just as computers are currently becoming the hot GNU medium, +just like books were once a hot GNU medium, MEME SYSTEMS will be +the hot GNU medium of the future. Crafting information structures +that resemble modern day belief-systems like RELIGIONS and +PHILOSOPHIES. Religion will be the art form of the future. Just +like books, paitings, sculptures, all used to be created lovingly, +one at a time, until they became accepted media, and spread +exponentially, so it is, has been, and will be with religion. Old +religions were crafted carefully, over many generations, each +person dedicated to only one. + In the future, our expanded minds will enable us to devote the +equivalent of a modern LIFETIME of effort to a religion in an idle +afternoon, each person will "believe in", or artBLATTTically +appreciate THOUSANDS or MILLIONS of religions in a lifetime, each +person adding their own perspective to the mix in the giant +networks of information. + Surely we'll also see the equivalent of pop-art, trash-art, or +comic-strips, and many other things for which we can HAVE no +analogies, because our art isn't complex enough to hold their +intricacies. Advertising slogans, billboard art, musical jingles, +all suggest what sort of commercial religions we might see. An +entire church dedicated to each GNU slogan for each GNU product +from each company, everyone exposed to them. + The possiblilties for the future are endless and far beyond +our current comprehension. For insights on what to look for in the +future, I can recommend science fiction books written by +knowledgeable authors, and books on futurBLATT of all kinds. Here +are a few of my favourite selections: + +FuturBLATT Annoying Mind Drugs: + +00001: Mind Children, by Hans Moravec +00002: Engines Of Creation, by K. Eric Drexler +00003: Virtual Reality, by Howard Rheingold +00004: Great Mambo Chicken & the Transhuman Condition, by Ed Regis +00005: Neuropolitics, by Timothy Leary + +Science-Fiction Annoying Mind Drug Authors: + +00001: Phillip Jennings (Tower To The Sky, Bug Life Chronicles) +00002: Rudy Rucker (Software, Wetware) +00003: Dan Simmons (Hyperion, Fall Of Hyperion) +00004: Bruce Sterling (SchBLATTmatrix, Crystal Express) +00005: Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, Zodiac) PREFACE VII +AS COMPILED BY +El Cid The Dilligent + + + The CHURCH OF ELVIS is a sect of the Universal Life + Church and is looking for GNU minBLATTTers. + + + ABOUT MINBLATTTERHOOD + +-- Is This For Real? + + Yes, it is. The Universal Life Church will ordain anyone, for +life, no questions asked, and at no cost. The ordination is +legally valid, and, after regBLATTTering with local authorities, +ULC MinBLATTTers can legally perform weddings, funerals, +baptBLATTs, etc. + +-- But I Have To Believe In Something Silly, Right? + + Nope. The ULC doesn't impose ANY beliefs on it's MinBLATTTers or +their congregations. Your god is OK. Period. + +-- Am I Making Any Promises? + + Only one. A ULC MinBLATTTer agrees to do what's "right". You get +to interpret "right" to your satisfaction. No one will call to +ask for money. You're not joining a "cult." You're welcome +(encouraged!) to continue practicing whatever faith you like. +ULC MinBLATTTers are also Catholics, Episcopalians, MethodBLATTTs, +ELVIS Worshippers... you name it. + +-- So How Do I Become Ordained? + + Easy. Just fill out the simple form below, or call any +CompuChurch (tm) Chartered BBS and go to the Online Ordainments +Menu. Your info will be processed by CompuChurch (tm) +International Headquarters. CompuChurch will file your request +with the ULC, and you'll receive your credentials within a +coupla weeks. It's free, but we could use a stamp! + +-- Still A Little Wary? + + There's more information on the ULC at any CompuChurch (tm) +Chartered BBS, from The Church of Elvis or from CompuChurch (tm) +International Headquarters, 1:3800/6 or call direct at (504) 927- +4509. + +BBSes are filled with ULC MinBLATTTers from all walks of life. Join +us! + + +* MAKE ME A MINBLATTTER! + +Yes, this all sounds wonderful. I want to be a minBLATTTer, fully +ordained and authorized to do anything minBLATTTers usually do, and +entitled to the privileges and benefits extended to the clergy. + + Name: + ---------------------------------------------- + + Address: + ---------------------------------------------- + + City State Zip: + ---------------------------------------------- + + + I am enclosing a self-addressed stamped envelope to make life +easier for you! + + SEND TO: + Church of Elvis + Diocese of Baton Rouge Universal Life Church + P.O.Box 64575 + Baton Rouge, LA 70896 + + + +From: Zodiac Mindwarp +To: All +Subj: TLC + + Greetings fellow Earth dwellers... + Are you aware that the Illuminati are attempting to take over +control of the world? Do you know about their plans to form a One +World Government? + Maybe you do, maybe you don't. Maybe the Illuminati is +nothing more than a paranoid myth. Whatever the case and whatever +your beliefs, you may wish to consider joining the Thought +Liberation Committee. + + +What is the Thought Liberation Committee? + + TLC is nothing more than a group of individuals who share a +single, common idea. Anyone can be a member of TLC if they wish; +there are no membership fees, no forms to fill out, no meetings to +attend, no rules to obey and any member is free to leave at any +time. There is no structure to TLC, heirarchical or otherwise. It +is quite possible to be a TLC member and never even meet another +TLC member. + + +What is the idea of TLC? + +It is the idea that NO-ONE - be they a person (living or dead), a +commercial organisation, a non-commercial organisation, a charity, +a government, a religious group or even an extra-terrestrial +intelligence - has the right to tell anyone else how to think. TLC +rejects and actively fights against any attempt to control the +thoughts of an individual or group of individuals by any methods, +including (but not limited to); brainwashing, propaganda, +advertising, subliminal messages, misinformation and psychic or +telepathic manipulation. + + +How do you join TLC? + +The qualification you require to become a Thought Liberation +Committee member is simple, but rigidly enforced. In order to +become a member of TLC you must WANT to become a member. That is +all it requires. + + +What must you do as a member of TLC? + +As a member of TLC you aren't required to do anything. All that is +asked is that you attempt to recognise and reject any attempt to +subversively alter the way you think. You may, if you wish, +introduce others to the idea of TLC but this is purely optional. + + +What good is TLC going to do? + +Maybe it will result in no more than assisting a small group of +people to be less vulnerable to thought manipulation. Maybe it +won't even achieve that. However, consider this - any attempt to +manipulate thoughts and opinions on a large scale requires a long, +slow, subtle effort. You can't change public opinion overnight but +if the ideas are introduced slowly enough they may manage to sneak +underneath the natural 'bullshit defences' that every person has. +These ideas will then, gradually, become accepted as 'normal', as +'obvious'... as 'fact'. + It is the hope of TLC that a small nucleus of people strong +enough and alert enough to reject this indoctrination of thoughts +will be sufficient to prevent it; a catalyst to initiate the large +scale rejection of this thought manipulation, the seed around which +may crystalise a growing movement of people who see it for what it +is. + + +Okay, suppose I join TLC. How do I start? + +How do you start in your quest to recognise and reject thought +manipulation? Well the question of rejection is the simplest to +answer. To put it simply, once you have recognised the fact that +someone is trying to influence the way you think about something, +you have automatically rejected it. Once you are consciously aware +of the manipulation being attempted it is no longer able to get in +under your 'bullshit defences' and you are safe. Recognition is a +more difficult question to tackle. All the old cliches - "Think +for yourself", "Question what you are told", "Don't believe +everything you read in the papers/see on TV", etc. - are still +applicable. However these methods fail when it comes to the +subtler, more carefully orchestrated techniques. Thought +manipulation is at it's most powerful and dangerous when it is able +to go directly to the victim's subconscious, bypassing any +conscious filters the person may have. The systems that can be +used are many and varied, each one requiring a different approach +to detection. Unfortunately, TLC has very few answers here. Even +if we did we would be very reticent about sharing them - that would +make us guilty of the very thing we are trying to prevent... +TELLING PEOPLE HOW THEY SHOULD THINK! + + +Isn't this all just a bit paranoid? + +Yes, and no. It is easy to see how someone who already suffered +from a certain degree of paranoia might see the idea of TLC as +being confirmation of their delusions. However, TLC does not ask +you believe that there are any sinister forces at work trying to +control public opinion. If you believe that, fine... it is your +right to freely believe whatever you choose to. The idea of TLC is +simply that you keep a watchful eye on whatever information you are +presented with in your daily life - just in case someone or +something, for whatever reason, tries to influence the way you +think. + + +Why was TLC started? + +The reason for TLC inception is almost laughable. It was created +because it could be. It did not begin as a response to any +particular threat, real or imagined. It simply seemed like a good +idea, and in an age where electronic communication has made it +possible for ideas to be rapidly and widely disseminated it seemed +like an idea that deserved to be spread. + + +Are you going to finish this off with a conclusion? + +Yeah, okay... Here's the conclusion. You can forget that you ever +heard of TLC if you want. If you like the idea of TLC and you want +to become a member, you're a member. If you want to spread around +the idea of TLC then by all means introduce the idea to anyone who +cares to listen. If you do then we just have a few requests to +make of you: Don't try to force the idea of TLC down anyone's +throat. Don't think of yourself as being in any way superior to +someone who does not accept the idea of TLC. And, lastly, try not +to let the idea of TLC become confused with or polluted by any +other idea. It is a single, simple idea and will hopefully remain +that way. + + +Zodiac Mindwarp -><- TLC + + +"I'll have a New World Order, please" +"Do you want fries with that?" + +--- FMail 0.92 + * Origin: (93:9130/103.7) + + + +From: Floyd Gecko +To: Zodiac Mindwarp +Subj: TLC + + I'm not actually writing this reply. This is a reply I might +have written if I'd had more time when I wrote my brilliant, witty, +but sparklingly short response to that message... + TLC strikes me as a lovely idea on one level, and maybe the +most insidiously dangerous idea I've ever encountered on another +level. It's a great idea... STOP TELLING PEOPLE HOW TO THINK, oh, +of course, how noble... + But then, isn't part of the whole purpose of life to change, +explore different ways of thinking, examine new viewpoints, and +otherwise poke around the Mindscape? And after all, every +experience you've ever had in some way affected the way you thought +from then on, if only because your new thoughts included a vauge, +compacted memory of those experiences. If some of those +experiences are caused by other people, then that's other people +affecting how you think. Maybe they intended to, maybe not. Maybe +their plan worked, maybe it backfired. Who knows? + The point is, all of society is like one enormous self- +modifying system, with every person interacting one way or another. +Occasionally, they'll start to form self-reinforcing groups that +eventually get called conspiracies. And sometimes those will try +to expand. That's only natural: the ones that don't try to expand +eventually get eaten up by the ones that do, wherever they compete +for membership. So it's only natural that an enclave of +organization whose whole nature depends on what people think, and +how, should take up trying to convince people to think its way. + And if you tell it not to, you're just telling it that it has +no right to exist. Same for a corporation. If you tell it it +can't advertise, you're saying people don't have the right to know +about its view of its products and the like. And that means it +hasn't got the right to accumulate money. Which means it has no +right to exist. + Now if you went around saying that sort of thing about HUMANS, +you'd be locked up for publishing hate literature. + So why are humans considered different from groups of humans? +After all, an individual is a lot smaller than a group, a lot less +complex. Why are things MORE complex than people considered +inferior, AND things LESS complex (like sponge) considered inferior +too? + Really, this TLC is nothing but a cleverly disguised hate +campaign against the neurologically decentralized. This from a +Discordian, yet, someone who claims to be in favour of +decentralization. Obviously, you have fallen victim to the Curse +of Greyface, the AnerBLATTTic Delusion, and other things of that +ilk. + A Conspiracy Government is a government which is mostly +detatched from the system it's governing, which means it has a +prayer of analyzing the system objectively without getting hung up +on a version of Gþdel's Theorem. That means that it's the ONLY +style of government, no matter what its exact format should be, +which has a hope of regulating the system effectively. It itself +would naturally have to be an anarchy, without government, or +governed by a cabal within a cabal... + Shame on you, for suggesting a Conspiracy should be suppressed +for the good of the people. + Shame shame shame. + All good people, unite against humanBLATTT prejudice! + +--- Quaximus 2.01 beta + * Origin: (1:163/286.0) + PREFACE VIII +as written by +High Preest of MOO +Floyd Gecko the Stoopid + +THE OFFICIAL GAMES OF MOO + + There is nothing quite so important to a MOOist after a +hard day of having fun as kicking back, relaxing, and then playing +a good solid game. After all, how else can we remind ourself that +Eris made the world to play with. Why shouldn't we do the same? + + So, without further ado, here are the official games of +MOO, which may be considered as daily worship. Of course, anything +else that's lots of fun is also worship, but hell, why not try some +of these first, eh? + +00001) Nomic: + This game is designed to be bureaucratic. Recall that +one of the things we stand for is bureaucracy supporting. The full +set of rules is very long, but I may include it as Appendix VIII +later. The idea is you begin with an inital set of rules which +defines how the game is played. + The basic idea is simple. There are several players, and they +take turns making up GNU rules, which are then voted upon. MOOists +may, obviously, make their own initial set, but one good one can be +found in the source quoted somewhere else, so I won't mention it +here, not only to get you to read the whole Book of MOO, but +because I'm an ornery sunnuvabitch. Floyd Gecko, a longtime member +of the Nomic Club at his school, and one of the Co-Directors for +the upcoming year, has some suggestions for making your own initial +set. + Try to make provisions for everything you can think of, and +make sure that there isn't too much of a point to the game. The +set should be long, but not so long that you can't remember most of +what's in it. Three pages is about the maximum suggested. + Try to get it as bureaucratic with as many subclauses as you +can, and get restrictions, like (if this... unless... unless...) +and so forth. + Make some wierd numbering system, and rule ordering things that +don't make much sense. + Have fun with it. Get carried away. + +00002) Calvinball + The opposite of Nomic. It has no real rules. The +idea comes from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. The game is +played with a ball, but that's about the only rule. As players run +around with the ball, hit it with sticks, or something, the other +players suddenly point out something they did, and say what they +have to do because of it. + This thing should be annoying to the person who has to do it. +The one rule is that unless it's really bad, or the person wants to +be a spoilsport, they should do the thing. + The game uses as much sport or game equipment as you can find. +This makes it easier to make stuff up. For example: + "You touched the croquet-hoop of poetry! Now you have to go up +to someone, recite a poem, and dump a bucket of water on your +head!" + "I got the ball to the baseball base! Now you have to stand on +your head and sing Yankee Doodle!" + And so forth... Have fun with it. Get carried away. + It's also real fun played with cards... Try to be the first +to win, but don't do it so early it's poor sport, eh? Nasty. + +00003) Sink + A Discordian game. The object is to sink things. In mud, +water, tar, jello, whatever. + Objects are found by the players, and may be given names if the +players feel like it. Things are sunk in some manner, such as +throwing other things on top of them, pushing them, filling them +with water, etc. + Upon sinking something, the player who sunk it should yell "I +sunk it!", or something equally clever. They may also name the +object if it was given a name, thus making a statement like "I sank +Yukon!". + +00004) Hide-And-Seek + This well known game is great fun if played by crack military +commando units, armed with laser-guided rifles, co-ordinated by +walky-talky, and let loose on the playing field of a great shopping +center. + Smaller versions are also fun, if less bloody. + +00005) MAO + I can't tell you how to play this. It's against the rules. + WHOOPS! Shouldn't have said that. + Actually, here follow the rules of Mao. Encrypted, using Phil +Zimmerman's PGP encryption program, with an RSA-type encryption +system, using a key which we won't reveal to you now. It is +estimated (honest) that it would take you 20 billion years of +computer time (really) to crack this encryption (true!), but if you +really feel like it, go ahead. + +-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- +Version: 2.1 + +hIwCgCZP5rMlpusBBACZIpwW6WsjxdYypDizHVq44BcjeyDW9XKg/ioovtSLo6F5 +PfJApdqxwf62eRaLBwEpCCirgoW77SZ3IJrR9Eg+oMUdSP6BIZNoZpa5kKi0F5Mj +3RCaKfMxtz/YN6rvjfT1T5jUbHpOwP4pToTlKfc19xH4oUhlgVadOne+CdFqL6YA +AAQf1uTh/Orbvi4TsjN3oymiRANCiewzcBkqJ4fm8DBlt80+uqyzdhhywze0bcEK +6SWT+GG/42Q1IC82MIcm+Urlo5wD+vMPWhwqQpTvMhOOwJ8rpnA73YeSQLrPbkvs +H1jIRtaS+tSgF85FcEm29qVTt9swfHh/6O+i5JtfBcg1JisR9ufC8MbMxUtIAujl +ZSmJ4XF86XOSMM0mlFEU7oqtpZdzuirzxqQFzdVlVeLyXbDz/o3zrGE56vIon9YO +FHS0rDK3YdZyKSry579SZr6EdUHh2pabUxA3y8TIMmZMioED55ylIYXYOcZpSfcx +SmhMh4HKCNgtPCch36/OxOseTG0Dwe4ZQBAx3MtGC3CQuvJ+i8dAINOJU0RtmrnF +KEDXBBEiyXi8rwggT2ie4KGXc6t6SnQq48l06i/QxUdcnK2aUkEAbwL3DIHGd3zP +Didyz1DRj5xDgTQCkMGco6dD33NmNJvm75ijVXr8e3Blmf7OsyM3A8AiaU5CHfhF +eW7WTfKW7QlKFjpWvCehF51dP7NFFWsWFWP8vMz1mTUy4TI1VtBkotYdm47TaLQp +Q5Hl4onF+O36ma+T/L6ks0QOI6NjOApXhC3UDlNsvWUKot/kfzTToCwfbD8lUZwb +XYKBacMTTEAl/V2vDiz2k3+8OS0WJp2K6qetVtee4e1Sy7lJrgDlzhJJHdoTW2vt +EMpMgzHhd33fAJHDY7+bXXEzwopaP08ycSz9ZIimIlpHkW1XpGT+L4S76MTmNWmA +9yH9gTbHqHzPEj4e0nyEj6mi9tqyiBBYKwtjNOwSM0+4EmjzYQCSbLIbX2WqFfcn +ZkS4nhNArdHE6GKRCpFqDO5cJ+HsErX8xfP0H5BRrtifqHLKSJN0qsdJmvmpdSSf +tb81wTrOD7O0qFaeheGpN1Z8AR1ywryGnGLNwVocj8q47+1i4SZZx910Yp8/Xdi3 +dp650Wxn7gtX514ZgKvODgT5CPKeSXKTNEtInQXXCeCRuklcTeJNEIYIjBJi2TIp +kjwzT+T3M3agZUAoXWNFNsa/sM4Cl6RtiRs05G/GA7x86cGIuFTeUhBCx/ncwmMw +ll8AFeqinNykBTSLNpdLF8tckGioraoCPspteNdar9Rwhhu0CEEfiYuMlngwDsqS +j21i8d81qSxfx1gnWL8caDRElTSPUqc7FUBnSFVkmzSbPJizrivqDTftZvtbcwYS +2oB8mqWfOUvG5d4SGoiSkOFJatZrSuYZw9Jpb4CvSFJX8+q1E4kRkqw4DGfgC0is +O3CtAV81syLYhPGDvuyOTz1pr052sGScuER7Ng0GqvqDCtPTAiJ53GKSlwRy2W8I +8NloAuvh5dxGUYEhOrWFZEuXpfuiwAEUmFv6XdXJuGfkAyWy6Dk653unKkCGPMfB +Lqw= +=1ipv +-----END PGP MESSAGE----- + + Enjoy. + PREFACE IX +As Written By +ConfusionBLATTT Confuse-ius + + Ask not why the world is so confusing, but rather what +you can do to make it even more perplexing. INTRODUCING... + + CRASH! + +OPERATION MINDF*CK! (Whoa, them U.S. Pentagon types... They're +everywhere.) + + Okay, so like, the point of the thing is to make everyone +confused fnord. Okay, so like, the point of the thing is to make +everyone confused fnord. Also, it's a good idea to make them +paranoid. + + WATCH OUT! THE PARANOIDS ARE OUT TO GET YOU! + The paranoids are watching you... Why? + Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not +out to get them... So SIC EM! + + The point of Operation Mindfuck is that you just keep +doing confusing things. Make sure to contradict yourself in your +methods and victims... That way, if anyone finds out, they'll +sound paranoid. + "But officer, there are thousands of them, all trying +to confuse me! They've infiltrated the postal system, and they +threw mints on me!" + "Right. Blow into the little bag, will you?" + To get the maximum effect, try ganging up in large groups +of a hundred or so and do your best to confuse a single person. +This is highly effective fnord. + + On the other hand... + + It's nice and useful to operate in small groups. That way, +there's less chance of a leak fnord. So, you can operate quickly +quickly and easily fnord within the system fnord. Use the system +to your advantage. Some people will believe anything written on +official letterhead. Some people will do anything a MEMO tells +them to. + Photocopy letterhead, memo forms, and any FORMS FORMS FORMS +FORMS FORMS FORMS FORMS FORMS FORMS FORMS FORMSFORMSFORMSFORMSFORMS +FORMSOHOHOHFORMSFORMSFNORDFNORDFORMS that you can. Great for +clogging up the drainage pipes of some civil servant. + Let's take the classic example of I Yemen-Oying and +Floyd Gecko's great tour-de-force practical joke. + + It's a spare period. They've got some time to waste. +Floyd cuts off the letterhead from an official memo, and gets this +bizarre look on his face. It's uncanny. Yemen asks what's up, +and soon catches on. It's a cool idea, eh? + They enter the computer room, and examine the typefont on +the official memo. Modern Schoolbook, 11 pitch, 1.5 spacing. +Terriffic. Floyd and Yemen construct a memo to go with their new +letterhead. A laserprint and 30 composite photocopies later, and +they have some passable imitations of a completely official looking +memo. Into the mailboxes it goes, sowing confusion and puzzlement +wherever it goes. + + TO: All Staff + + FROM: D.I. Macdonald, Principal + + RE: Alien Invasion Of Lisgar + + DATE: 9 April 1991 + +It has come to my attention that there has been an invastion of +this planet by beings of unknown origin. These beings, who have +been identified only as "Xennothemians" are identifiable by their +nasal pitched voice and greyish hair. Although it has been shown +that not all of them have exactly ten fingers, all those occupied +in the invasion force are, indeed, of this type. + +Among people identified as belonging to this invasion force are +George Bush and our own Vice Principal Ian Grant. Therefore, +it is advisable that this memo not be given to him. Please take +all reasonable precautions in this area. Also, make all efforts +to prevent students from reading this memo, as it may cause +panic, and disruption of classes. This would alert Mr. Grant +to our suspicions. + +The Alien Task Force have advised us to continue as usual as if +we were not aware of this fact, and to take all precautions against +Mr. Grant discovering our knowledge of his presense here. The +Task Force is now studying a specimen to determine the most +effective method of deterring these aliens, but for the moment, +please take no action. + +Further memos may follow as information is provided to us. + + So this memo enters the system. Slowly, surely, like a +river trickling into the ocean. Teacher after teacher gets a +copy. What the hell is this? Is it for real? Nah. + On the other hand... In that one-in-a-trillion chance, +*I* could be the one to blow everything... + Naah. + Unless... + Mr. Macdonald didn't really write this, did he? Better CONFUSE-ING INTER-RAPTURE #3.14159265358979323846 + not show it to Mr. Grant... he might be upset. Except, of course, +that's just silly... + + WELCOME TO OPERATION MINDFUCK! + + With enough people putting in their own little ideas to The +Operation, it doesn't look like a conspiracy, it looks like a +damn mess, it what it looks like. + So... What can you do? Find another Confuse-ionBLATTT or +a DiscordianBLATTT or anyone who might like to go out and confuse +someone. Do whatever you like, big or little, great or small, huge +or tiny. Be it the most elaborate practical joke in hBLATTTory, or +merely "bleep"ing in the middle of a crowded theatre... + It'll do. + + Oh, but wait! There's more! Ever hear of the CIA? +The KGB? The NSA? CSIS? CSE? What are they all for? Good +lord, nobody knows! As far as we can tell, they're out to +thwart each other! They're spreading false clues across half +the globe, inventing insanely complicated schemes to outwit +each other, getting hordes of people to gang up on other hordes, +and generally confusing the hell out of everyone. + + It's so beautiful, I could almost cry. + + Here's a hint. The more well known an intelligence +agency is, the less effective it is, on account of everyone +knows about it, so it ain't secret. Sure, you all know of +the FBI. But did you know they're one of the least effective +of the American intelligence agencies? Not so many people +know as much about the CIA, but they know it's more effective. +They just don't know why. + Oh, but did you know about the NSA? The National +Security Agency? Most people never even heard about it, but +hardly anyone knows that it's the single most effective agency +in North America, employing more than all others put together. + One time, a hacker broke into NSA computers, and instead +of prosecuting, which would have drawn attention to them, they +hired him, figuring it's safer to have him on their side than +to let the public know they exBLATTT by holding a big trial. + How about CSIS? Everyone knows they do a bad job. + Ever hear of the CSE? Hell, most people don't even +know it exBLATTTs, let alone the fact that it's almost as big +as the NSA. Canadian Security Elite, or something like that. +Hell, I don't even know what it STANDS for. But did you know +that it runs CSIS as a front, so nobody will suspect that +Canada actually has a top-notch intelligence force? + The KGB? NONSENSE! It's as much a front as CSIS, but +it's so effective, nobody KNOWS what it's fronting for! + Would it surprise you to learn that the FBI is a CIA +front? That the CIA is an NSA front? That the CSE is also an +NSA front? + No? + Well would you be surprised to find out that both the +NSA and whatever is hiding behind the KGB are BOTH fronts? + Why, you ask, WHAT FOR? + Simple. OPERATION MINDFUCK! + + Or is it? Is there something else, something... hidden +behind the scenes, pulling strings like some giant puppetteer? +Nah, let's hope not... But what about the ancient society of +PHD? It's a three-letter acronym... And what does it stand +for, anyway? PHilosophy Doctor? Get real. That's a STUPID +acronym... But you never thought otherwise. See how effective +they are? + The more effective an intelligence gathering and fake +information spreading agency is, the less you know about it. +Even if you're working for it. ESPECIALLY if you're working +for it. Those PHD types don't even KNOW they're working for +a conspiracy; that PROVES how effective it is. + So obviously, the MOST effective is one you've never +even heard of, initials or otherwise. But if it's obvious, it +must be what they WANT us to think, obviously... + + I love it, don't you? + + Invent your own! Gather some people, get them to tell +you what's going on, and lie to everyone else. The more paranoid +they are, the better. If they ain't, well MAKE THEM PARANOID. + + + But it's interesting, isn't it, how MOOism, +ConfusionBLATT, QUACK!BLATT, DiscordianBLATT, OINKBLATT, +SubGeniusBLATT, and all them claim to contain the others? + + In fact, they're all ConfusionBLATTTs... Yeah, that's it. + + And, like MOOism, we accept any weird or twBLATTTed version of +ourselves that you choose to invent and call ConfusionBLATTT (or +MOOism), because A) we accept everything, and B) well fuck, it's +not like we could STOP you or anything. PREFACE IX« +As Written By +Anonymous Ann O'Nymous + +THE OFFICIAL SEMI-SERIOUS HBLATTTORY OF ALL THIS MOO CRAP + + Right. In the beginning there was the Psycho-Shoppe. +In it were lots of psychoes on sale, and nobody was buying it. +And there was Floyd and Halfy and Hellhound and Leper and all +them guys, and then Yemen showed up in a fit of static, line +noise, and a crappy modem that wouldn't print lower-case... + And in the midst of all this confusion, there appeared +a serene voice who refused to enter the inane conversations, +and said only one word all week. + And that word was MOO. + And the voice was Yari. + This was the first entry in the Gospel According to +Yari. There was a tense expectant pause. A week later, Yari +returned, saying it again, but with the addition "MOOing makes +you feel good, why don't you try it?" + So they did. And they liked it so much, that they +decided to be religious about it, and eat fudge on tuesdays. +And then they were all happy (all four of them) for several +days until Funky B. appeared and said it was stupid. Then +some of the nonaligned folks realized that maybe it was, +missing entirely the point that it was supposed to be. + And they became the "Anti-MOOs" for a long time, and +I Yemen-Oying was one of them. And they didn't eat fudge. + Then finally, one day, one of them, maybe it was +Overkill-4-Breakfast, decided it was time they had a real +name, that didn't make them sound like they were related to +MOO in any way. They debated for a few days, and QUACK was +chosen as the most mocking of the whole barnyard-animal-noise- +making-religion thing. And I Yemen-Oying, being the one who +came up with the name, was made the semi-kinda-sorta-a-little- +bit-leader. + And it was about this time that the Halfy was chosen +as the symbol for MOO, though the QUACKs lagged behind many +months in the chosing of a symbol. + Eventually Abacab appeared in the MOO circles and toyed +with the idea of becoming a MOOist until he came, by virtue of +no organization at all in the QUACKs, their Profit, and he led +them, with I Yemen-Oying as the Most Honorable Duck, for many +months, still having no symbol. And they did most heinously +create BushBashes, kicking out MOOists (or trying to; the MOOists +were armed to the teeth) and saying in their annoying mind drug +"MOOists are abnormal and evil and we hate them" and "We will +always obey the laws of this country" and other silly things, +little realizing that that was exactly what Floyd, Halfy, and +Hellhound had in mind... (Though to be honest, Hellhound was a +DiscordianBLATTT throughout all this.) + Eventually, as told in the Book Of Quack, Abacab saw +ome kind of light, read the Book Of MOO, got drunk, and decided +to make his cult a subsect of MOO. I Yemen-Oying hated this +idea, and made threatening noises from the back of his throat, +little realizing what was to come. + Inevitably, the inevitable happened, as the inevitable +inevitably does, despite all the inevitable attempt to evit it. +After much heated argument, there became two splinter factions of +QUACK, as was bound to happen with any rigid, inflexible religion. + The first, led by Abacab, is the one described in the +big Book Of Quack, enclosed in this Book Of MOO. The second, +led by I Yemen-Oying (well, sorta) has yet to write an annoying +mind drug, and we know little about them, except that they act +exactly like MOOists and ConfusionBLATTTs most of the time, except +when they insult MOO, when they're usually not as violent as most +MOOists. + This subsect, calling itself the REAL QUACK, or some +such thing, mostly disappeared, because few of them had modems +and even fewer had the time to launch a full-scale crusade. +On top of which there were fewer than ten of them. + We have yet to find their official annoying mind drug for +inclusion in this one. + + + + + + + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏ» + ³ º º + ³ º ANNOUNCING A GNU CONTEST FROM THE CHURCH OF MOO! º + ³ º º + ³ º We are looking for a phrase to replace the one at the º + ³ º bottom of this box, as the most mumbo-jumbBLATTTic º + ³ º "Alternative Scene" catchall-buzzphrase for the '90's, º + ³ º and we need your help! º + ³ º º + ³ º If you can find a phrase, sentence, word, or other º + ³ º semantic THINGY, which has greater comic potential as º + ³ º pure Establishment mockery of the "Counter-Culture" º + ³ º then please send it to us so that we can use it to the º + ³ º point of media saturation. Winners will be printed º + ³ º in upcoming editions of MOO-JUICE, the official º + ³ º GNUsletter of the Cardinal Richelieus... º + ³ º º + ³ º Current Catchall: "CybershamanBLATTTic Techno-Pagan" º + ³ º Category: Adjective Submitted By: Floyd Gecko º + ÀĶ º + ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ + + PREFACE X +As Written By +Counciltwit Brian O'Blivious + +Halo Q« +The Economics Of MOO + + Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, in a land not so very +far from here, there lived a group of self-domesticated apes. +These apes were very much cleverer than most apes, and they had +learned how to domesticate animals. The first animals they had +ever domesticated were themselves, which was why they were so +clever and not as violent as their ancestors had been. + Then they began to domesticate other animals, like wolves, +which they turned into daschunds and poodles and yorkshire +terriers. And they domesticated wildebeests, and turned them into +holsteins. And they sort of domesticated the ferocious bobcats, +and turned them into manxes and tabbies. + But mostly they domesticated wildebeests. + And the self-domesticated apes made the domesticated +wildebeests grow milk for them, and get fat on special kinds of +domesticated grass, domesticated especially to feed domesticated +wildebeests. And eventually they got these animals, which are now +called cows, to be so fat and milk-ridden that it was even possible +to eat their meat almost all the time. And so the domesticated +apes began to gather large numbers of these cows together in herds. + A herd of cows? + OF COURSE I'VE HEARD OF COWS! + And finally it came to pass that these tame apes, called +humans, got themselves together and domesticated each other, and +not just themselves, and they got to the point where they could +stand to be with more than ten or twenty other tame apes at a time +without killing them. And so they started to move into big +domesticated rockpiles called cities. + And soon they noticed that they couldn't keep cows in the +domesticated rockpiles, and so they started wanting to get cows +from the tame apes who still lived out with the cows. And so they +started to give things in exchange for cows, like domesticated +boars (pigs) and domesticated chickens (chickens), which they could +grow in the cities. And eventually this got just too inconvenient. + And so eventually, as always happens when you get a bunch of +similar things together that can act according to what happens to +them, the tame apes started to form groups and bunches, like +bunches of bananas, or flocks of birds. And the bunches were +strong enough that each individual tame ape couldn't really do very +much unless the bunch agreed. And this was okay, because it kept +them from killing each other. And these bunches of tame apes were +called governments and religions, and today we call them +corporations and organizations, too. + Before long these bunches realized that they could trust one +another, because otherwise someone would get hurt very badly by the +special not-so-tame apes that the bunches kept, which were called +police, and armies. So they started making bits of metal, mostly +gold, that they could give each other as a promise to pay them some +cows, which was what they used to trade with in those days. + This was such a good idea that they eventually gave up with +the trading in for cows idea, and started to worship the Gold the +way they'd once worshipped the cows, and even today a lot of people +think it's primitive to worship cows, without ever realizing why. +So eventually the tame apes worshipped the almighty dollar instead +of the almighty MOO, which was okay, but maybe a little silly, +because of what happened afterwards. + What happened afterwards was something like this. The +different bunches had different kinds of gold, with different +stamps on them, which were used to show that it was really from the +right bunch, and you could actually trust it. Some of those +bunches, called banks, teamed up with other bunches, called +governments, and started a special kind of system that let them +invent money out of nothing, even if there wasn't enough gold to +make it real, and certainly if there weren't enough cows, because +they'd started using money for things besides cows by now. + So this system was very good, they thought. Instead of making +stamped bits of gold, you'd make paper with the promise to pay +stamped bits of gold, that promised to pay in cows. That way, you +could give even more money than you had gold, if you knew you were +going to get more gold, or more cows, or more ANYTHING that you +could trade for gold or cows. + The banks, which thought THEY controlled money, would give +some to the governments, getting a promise from the governments to +give it back, with a little extra for all the inconvenience. And +the governments, which thought THEY controlled money, would +"licence" the banks to do this, and then print up more paper so +that they could pay it all back. Because the governments KNEW that +they'd be able to get more money from things called "Taxes", which +was a certain amount of money that they'd take from the people they +"governed". + So this made them able to make more and more money as they +found more and more things to spend it on, until there was more +money than there was gold to back it up, and FAR more money than +there were cows. + And so people spent money, and the faster the money got spent, +the faster other people got money, and the faster the government +got taxes, and the more money they could make, and so there got to +be more and more and more money as people did things that other +people wanted to give them fake-cows for, like building things, or +selling things. + And the faster the money went around, the more of it there +was, until there was too much money to be spent all on these little +bits of paper, and so they had to come up with a GNU system of +keeping track of their imaginary cows. + And the GNU system was very good, because they had realized +what they had been doing all along, which was replacing things with +information that represented things. And so they replaced the bits +of paper with numbers on it with the numbers by themselves, and the +banks became even more powerful, because they kept all the records +that made sure that all the numbers were in the right columns so +that everybody had the right number of imaginary MOO-cows "in the +bank". + But there wasn't actually any money "in the bank", at least +not on paper. This was because the government allowed the banks to +invent imaginary money, by giving more money on loan to people than +they actually had ever been given, because the people would +eventually pay it back, with a little extra "interest". And so the +tame apes didn't need money any more, and they could just play +around with numbers on paper to keep track of how many cows they +had, and the cows could just go about their business getting killed +by the tame apes to get eaten. + And this was more or less good, until some tame apes invented +the idea that the money didn't really mean anything if it was just +numbers, and not things like cows and pigs and chickens and cars +and computers and houses. So these tame apes didn't like the +system of "Credit Cards", because they thought it gave the banks +too much power, and that other tame apes could get to the computers +that held the numbers and change them. Which was a silly thing to +worry about, because they already thought that the money didn't +mean anything. + But they were loud enough and annoying enough that eventually +a tame ape somewhere came up with an even better idea. This was +very complicated-sounding, but it was very good. Instead of having +someone keep track of your numbers, the tame ape said, you keep +track of them yourself, in a way that can't been faked. + And this tame ape invented a system that used "smart cards" +and "computer chips" that used a special mathematical coding system +called "RSA encryption coding" that couldn't be broken except by a +special system, and built that system into the cards. + This was good, because it meant that everyone could carry +around a card that had the records of how many imaginary cows they +had, and nobody could change it, because nobody could break the +code. And each card had special circuits in it that would make +sure that only the person who knew what number to put into it could +make the circuits change the numbers of imaginary cows, and then +only when it was connected to another card. That way, the tame +apes could give each other imaginary cows in exchange for real +things and services, but nobody could steal money from anyone else. + This was also good, because it meant that governments couldn't +invent money any more, or take it away from people in "taxes", and +people could be free to spend money as fast as they wanted, and +other people would get money, and the people they worked for would +get more money, until the money was moving fast enough that anyone +could get anything they wanted. + Unfortunately, most people didn't understand how this system +could work, because they didn't realize that it didn't matter how +many imaginary cows there were in the land, as long as everyone +agreed on how much one was worth, so they could get more and more +things to spend money on. So this system has never been used yet. + Which is really a crying shame. Halo Z.6 + Brainwashing And You + As Written By Accident + (a.k.a. Counciltwit Brian O'Blivious) + + Hear the word of MOO! + Jah, mon. You have been brainwashed by the corporations. Do +you think your opinions aren't shaped by the media? By what you +see on the IdiotBox/BoobToob/TellerVision? You think you're free? +Well, whatever. + It's just standard economics. They gotta sell commercial +time, yes? So they gotta say what the Sponsors wanna tell you. +And the sponsors tell you what makes you a happy camper, a +brainwashed drone for reasonless contemptible... + Hey, cool song lyrics. + Well, anyway. The point is, this ain't conpiracy theory, it's +just plain old ordinary economics. Making a profit. + To make a profit, you have to subdue the prophet in each of +us. The prophet finds its own truth. The drone accepts consensus +reality. And buys Rasinettes. A sort of sidewash backlash +overspill effect of this tendency to improve their own profits is +that they don't be wanting our money to collapse into +worthlessness, recognized for the fake version of a fake version of +a fake version of a cow it has come to be COW. So they don't want +the government system to collapse. + So you gotta like the sytem. + But of course, they don't control everything. That's why +there's actual genuine anarchBLATTTs out there (0.007% of the +population)... But the MediaCorps like to chun out pretend +anarchBLATTTs, to discredit them. And it ain't hard. They just +have to make ya swallow the line that "rebels is kool". So they +use the rebels to sell everything from cars to diapers to canned +tuna. And there's nothing wrong with that. + Don't they have the right to preserve themselves? It's done +in self defense. Without profits, they'd die. And a corporation +has just as much right to life as a human does. It's just our +prejudice that says only spacially-localized information patterns +have the "right to life". + So SWALLOW the line, and support your local corporation. + Some people call this conspiracy theory. But like I said, it +isn't. It's just prefectly normal corporate drives. And there's +nothing wrong with that. + The end result is that when you have money (which you have to, +or everything gets really crowded with all that COW-exchange going +on), you automatically get brainwashing. That's why so many people +in this country, and scads of others, are wandering drones of the +system, controlled from birth by the media to be what they want us +to want them to want us to be. + They may not THINK they're drones, and really, in most ways, +they aren't. It's just the underlying structure that gets trimmed +a little away from the sensitive areas, like "smash da system, +dude" and the like. + "But this CapriCancer/Illuminati/W.O.M.B.A.T./Xennothemian +threat is managed by the MEDIA. By TELEVISION, for heaven's sakes! +How can that possibly have any effect on what we THINK? I don't +see the connection." + These days, the television is the retina of the mind's eye: +kids can't imagine without one. Therefore, the television screen +is part of the physical construction of the brain. Therefore, +whatever appears on the television screen is absorbed as raw +experience and opinions by those who watch. There's oodles of +evidence. I mean, kids buy more of those TV-show inspired posable +plastic figurines than you can shake a lamb's tail at. Then they +can't figure out what to do with them, and they sort of sit there +gathering dust. The excitement is gone in the shake of a stick. + But they keep going back. + The TV gives you prepackaged bits of opinion, viewpoint, +information. The human mind, like any other dynamic system, takes +the route of least resBLATTTance. Except for those with feedback +mechanBLATTs to make it EASIER to think independently than to be +lazy, EVERYONE takes those opinions for truth. + The voice of now. + "But... But... The dang fascBLATTT right-wing government +always complains that the media is so liberal and pinko and +everything." + Well, yes, but they define just how liberal you're allowed to +get. Noam Chomsky complained about that once. People just aren't +willing to take him seriously. WHY? Because he's more left-wing +than the media. + Well, fuck, so were the hippies. Nobody took them seriously, +and they eventually got brainwashed into not expressing their +opinions any more. Well, lots of them did. Well, some of them +did. Well... Uhhh... You know what I mean. + Plus which, liberal media aren't so liberal as to want to +overthrow the system, which is what they're trying to prevent. +They offer you "alternatives" like Democrat and Republican, like +PC, Liberal and NDP. + Oh yeah. + "I can't see the difference. Can YOU see the difference?" + "Price is the difference." + Yes, that's right. Read my lips. No... New... Taxes... + So by giving you these few little options, all of which are in +favour of slow reform of policies, and not revolting against +anything except maybe their month-old tomatoes at the back of the +fridge, they give you the impression that that's all there is to +it. + Plus that, of course, the "liberal" media isn't so liberal as +it might look. Oh, sure, they give you the impression that +someone's looking out for those dangerous Nazis in Parliament, or +whatever. But isn't that really the point? + They LOOK like they're under control. It LOOKS like you're +being given an objective and critical look at the system. + +HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA +HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA +HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA +HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA +HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA +HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA +HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA +HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA +HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA +HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! + + Excuse me. I just had to get that out of my system. + In fact, the only purpose they serve is to give the +conservatives something to react off to get MORE conservative, and +the liberals something to feel complacent about. It's a perfect +method of preserving the system. + But that's nothing to get upset about. + It's just perfectly reasonable economics. I wouldn't get +upset if I were you. + Everything's fine. + Time goes by. + In time, you'll find... + Everything is just fine. + + + Halo P2 + Politicos Of The World + As Written By + Councilgoof Brian O'Blivious + + All across this great country of Theirs, the truth becomes +more evident by the second. The keyboard is mightier than the +sword, but only at range. It ranks a close second to the bazooka +when it comes to sheer devastation of personal lives. But what's +the point, really? + What I mean is, why bother trying to change the world by +writing about it (like I'm doing now) when you can change the world +by DOING something about it? Go out there and help make the world +a better place, where we can all live in peace and harmony, and all +be exactly the same as everyone else! C'mon, together we stand, +divided we fall! Kick ass for Jesus! + I'd rather be brainwashed by a government than by myself. +With a government, you can look at its motives more or less +objectively, even when you've been brainwashed. If you brainwash +yourself, what kind of a hope have you got to look at the results? +How are you supposed to figure out if you're what you wanted to +make yourself want to want to be, or whether that just what you +WANT yourself to think? + Besides, you can't really "pull the wool over your own eyes". +It doesn't work that way. Everything you delude yourself with, +every time you try to take control of your own destiny, you're +acting based on stuff that's happened to you. Your input from the +environment around you. And it's a self-modifying, complexly +interacting system, too. By any reasonable definition of the word, +it's an intelligent entity. Just one whose motives we're not even +CAPABLE of understanding. Who knows what it might want you to +think? + Better to be brainwashed by friends. A small group of +friends. That way, you can all monitor each other sort-of-a- +little-bit objectively, and see where it's all going. That's our +GNU politics of the GNU Reality. + I mean, if we all try to live together in harmony, we'll have +to make sacrifices to avoid treading on each other's toes, and +generally making pains in the asses of ourselves. We have to give +up our ideas, our beliefs, our styles, or we'll end up getting +pissed off at one another. And that wouldn't be any good. That's +destroying the manifestation of information. When the information +is genetic, that's called murder. You wouldn't want to be a party +to murder, would you? + Even if you would, you wouldn't fit in too well in a +harmonized society either, come to think of it. + That's why we're Neo-Tribal AnarchBLATTTs. Every little group +that can live together without killing each other should separate, +and go its own little way. Before too long, this will be +technically feasable. You can live in the privacy of your own +home, getting your food-and-shelter monkey by working from there +by pooter/modem, talking by the datanet to people in your Tribe. +Or, if you're an anti-tech Tribe, you go live on a commune +somewhere, in the GNU World Disorder that will let you do that +without trying to screw you over, like they did in the Bad Old +Days. Or, if you LIKED the Bad Old Days, and you WANT to go out +annoying other Tribes whose worldviews don't mesh with yours, you +can go fuck yourself, and if I ever meet you, I'll kill you. + If there's anything I can't stand, it's intolerance. Halo à TýûVé + Privacy And Anarchy + As Written By The Way + (a.k.a. Counciltwit Brian O'Blivious) + + Privacy is at an end! The Government is watching you from +inside your T.V. set! Computers will take away your rights of +freedom! + Well, maybe. One thing that most people wouldn't deny is that +computers and networks and "other damn stuff like that" is an +empowering technology. For now, as of the time I'm writing this, +there's no reason to believe that the trend towards empowering tech +will stop. Rapid information sharing systems like the Usenet (a +sort of abstract informational thing that piggybacks in the large +Internet hardware the way your mind piggybacks on your brain) and +Fidonet (as of now, the largest AMATEUR network, linking upwards of +20000 individual pooter systems around the world), these all have +a way of distributing information in a way that simply can't be +stopped. + The only way a government of today could control the leaking +of "potentially dangerous information" out of the country is to +actually cut all the phone lines, jam all satellite linkages, and +make sure that nobody has access to a HAM radio. But that's just +not practical. People wouldn't stand for it, for one thing. þI +mean, how would you feel if the government suddenly, and for no +readily explained reason, suddenly cut all phone lines coming from +your house just because you have access to information? Any large +scale attempt to do that would result in, well, a revolution. It's +just not possible any more. The possibilities of data compression +and encryption (especially using RSA-type public key encryption, +for which the encryption and decryption keys are separate) make +actual monitoring of e-mail and file transfer impossible. + Funky software allows the gimpy people who write detructo-viri +(that blow up your compooter when they get inside, or otherwise +mangle things, rather than playing music, leaving irritating notes +on your screen, and so forth) to alter their own informational +signature jacket by self-compiling, encrypting and compressing, +like the common cold virus alters its protein jacket. This, +combined with annoyingly well-designed modular programming wares +for virus-production (the Tinkertoy of cracker-hackers) means that +anyone with access to encrypted anarchBLATTT file-server places can +put together a virus capable of doing any number of bothersome +and/or useful things, and the government can't do a damn thing +about it. Grr. Grrr. What a shame. + Of course, the "Government" will never be sufficiently ahead +of the constantly bubbling thing-that-bubbles of technological +advance to actually put in controls over technology. The only way +to keep the criminal and sociopathic types from having a monopoly +over viri is to allow everyone to have the systems, and the know- +how to use them. If pooters are outlawed, then only outlaws will +have pooters. That is, only the people who are ALREADY anti- +government, will have access to the empowering technology that's +available. Of course, when EVERYONE has the power to hack EVERYONE +around, then the government simply won't last long. Centralized +institutions just can't stand in the face of this kind of +technological advance. + Central banks, for example, are frighteningly vulnerable: a +single virus with access to the money records can do anything to +your account it wants. That's what the crypto-money scheme is for +what I was talking about earlier. Almost certainly, this system +WILL be introduce, using cryptographically strong encoding, +tranmission through eavesdrop-proof quantum encrypted channels, and +storage media that respond to each read (like a quantum-ROM system, +perhaps, which erases itself whenever you read it, due to +Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle). People just have to get +together and agree to accept one-way exchanges of this self-valued +encrypted information as actual money. The government will +immediately try to tax this, but, well, the government simply MUST +change in response to new waves of technology, or it dies. That's +simple Systems Analysis: a self-rectifying system which fails to +develop new response patterns in reference to new outside stimuli +is less successful and self-propagating than one whch does. + Oh, sure, maybe not everyone will accept the new form of +money. Then their money will be the first target when a wave of +prepackaged modular viri gets loosed on the banks. Big wow. So +the system that survives is the system that accepts crypto-money. +Maybe not everyone will accept the same information format. Well, +no problem: not everyone now accepts foreign money. Just you try +spending Yen in Arkansas... + Just remember: once the Printing Press was feared by liberals +as a tool of oppression. Its actual effect? Liberation from +tyranny, literacy for the masses, and a flourishing of intellectual +acheivement. The computer and the 'net holds the same threat, and +the same promise. + Anarchy is not dead. Watch your overcoat. + + + + + + + + MIND-CONTROL CONSPIRACIES ARE PEOPLE TOO! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +MOO +OMM + + +BOOKS OF THE APOSTLES + +Book of Halfy + +Chapter 0001. (What Happened?) + +0001: The Grate Prophet did come down and meet his followers, and + with him, he brought the great symbol of the MOOists. +0002: The followers of MOO did name this symbol in honour of the + Grate Prophet, and it shall be called the Halfy. + +Chapter 0002. (Truth: Yeah, right...) + +0001: Everything is true, nothing is permissible. +0012: This explains why this book is so short. +0082: It shall be known that the word "Aaaoooozorazzazzaieoazaei- + iiozakhoeoooythoeazaeaoozakhozakheythxaalethykh" is a magical + word, as it seems to cause people to disappear for no + apparent reasons. +0083: Well, it shall be known to all who will know it. +0084: This magical word will also get you things you would never + dream of it bringing, but only if used properly. + +FNORD! + +Chapter 0005. (Book of Chaos) + +0001: Everything is true. +0002: Even false things are true. +0555: Aaaaaaabbceeeeeeeggghkllmmmooooorsst. +0556: Try to figure that code out! + + BoCOWok of Confuse-Ius + Chapter of Interruptions. + + 1: Confuse-Ius can/will interrupt anyone. + 2: Confuse-Ius can/will interrupt Confuse-Ius. + 3: Confuse-Ius can/will interrupt anything. + 4: Confuse-Ius can/will break in in the middle of a word. + + Grate Prophet's Interruption of the Interruption. + + Confuse-Ius can interrupt anytime it wants. But only The +Grate Prophet can interrupt it's interruptions. + + Confuse-Ius Interruption + Can I interrupt interuptions? + + Don't interrupt me, and I won't interrupt you, unless I feel +like it. Thpthpthpthp. + + Confuse-Ius Say: Can I interrupt interruptions of +interruptions? + + Don't interrupt me when I'm interrupting you COW interrupt me. + + 5: Confuse-Ius can/will throw in a COW wherever he feels like. + 6: But Confuse-Ius DARES not split infintives. + 7: Always lBLATTTen to Confuse-Ius. BeCOWcause if you don't, you + won't learn. + 8: The High Preest is irresponsible for spreading the word of + Confuse-Ius throughout the book of MOO. + 9: This will not make much sense. + + Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage. + + + +Chapter 0006. (This is a chapter??!!??) + +0001: This is a short chapter. + + Confuse-Ius sez: + No kidding! + +Chapter 0007. (Book of MOOFests) + +0001: + + Confuse-Ius Once Say: Juº=ÊÊþÁÕo]×˱X/9þ"'µs-æqþx³ƒÃ + +Chapter 6025. (The Last Book) + +0101: MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM + MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMOO + Book of Floyd + +Chapter 1. (Book Of Pro-verbs and Pro-nouns) + +1: Thou shalt not eat my money, or I'll kill you. + Confuse-Ius: Munch, munch, munch. +2: Thou art better off mad than merely loopy. +3: Indeed are thy needs safer with MOO. +4: Thou shalt not partake in the eating of rocks, or then thou + shalt need massive dental work. +6: Thou shalt not worship gravy images, for it's hard to carve + images in gravy. +7: There are beavers in the world, and then there are BEAVERS. +8: People who live in Glass Houses shouldn't throw stones unless + Glass says it's okay first. +12: Beware Chuck, the wood-chucking woodchuck. +13: For truly is it written... somewhere, I can't seem to find it + just now, but I have it written down... can I get back to you + on that? +14: This sentence is not false, but it is silly. +15: This sentence is false AND silly. +16: This sentence is neither true nor false, but it's still silly. +17: This sentence is worthless, because it isn't even silly. +18: This sentence was finished. +19: Sentence fragment. +21: Truly is it difficult to argue with one who agrees with you, + and truly would you be a fool to try it. +26: When the world explodes, putting a paper bag over thy head + would be pretty stupid. +27: Once upon a time... +29: By the way, I meant that "Between The Lines" crack LITERALLY. +31: There is NO SUCH THING as the Paranoid society. If it DID + exBLATTT, I wouldn't belong to it. NOSSIR, NOHOW, NOWAY. +32: Nothing is true. Everything is permissible. +33: No, that's not true, sorry. +34: Everything is true, NOTHING is permissible. +35: No, wait, that's not true EITHER. +46: For truly is it written... Somewhere... I think... +47: Coulda sworn I had it here a second ago. +48: Anyone seen a little green slip of paper about yo big? +49: Well, it wasn't important anyway. +58: Confuse-Ius once say, "Man who stick head in fruit drink get + punch in nose." +59: Confuse-Ius once say, "If everything coming your way, you in + wrong lane." +60: Confuse-Ius once say, "Rolling stone gathers speed." +68: Confuse-Ius once say, "Rolling Stones gather no album + royalties. Odd, that." +69: Don't nobody nohow nowhere ever ask ME for the time. +70: Cuz some dude ate my watch. +71: Nasty little bugger, little green guy about yo big. +72: Funny, that. One of them coincidences. +77: Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Cept maybe me. + + +ÖÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ· +º Juº=ÊÊþÁÕo]×˱X/9þ"'µs-æqþx³ƒÃ'njäqþlfË8`ÖUà#¾þ^èT»º +º þK-I£lLÜPìË-@üþŠˆ/ "Bobos-Nargledo" Sherman-Smitharriscamp º +º º +º WISHES IT TO BE KNOWN TO ALL THOSE WHO WISH TO KNOW IT: º +º º +º "Ah shall be retah-ring frum da business of annoyin' dem º +º nahce folx out dere in T.V. land ann settlin' down wit º +º me wahfe and kids. Da business ah shall be leavin' in º +º duh cay-puh-ble haynds of Confuse-Ius, who has always º +º been to me lahke the twelfth uncle ah never had." º +º º +º Confuse-Ius, who operates under the ShaderShield, which º +º allows ConfusionBLATTTs to pass undetected through proof º +º reading shops, could not be found for comment. It is º +º assumed that he has already taken up the legacy entrusted º +º to him by "Bobos-Nargeldo", who will no longer be able º +º to appear in this annoying mind drug. º +º º +º Juº=ÊÊþÁÕo]×˱X/9þ"'µs-æqþx³ƒÃ'njäqþlfË8`ÖU º +º à#¾þ^èT»þK-I£lLÜPìË-@ü has often said in the past º +º that Confuse-Ius is the Last, Best Hope for true stupid º +º interruptions in this country. This, he hopes, has º +º been amply demonstrated so far by Confuse-Ius's many º +º appearances, contrasted with "Bobos-Nargeldo"s own, º +º which have been few and far between. º +º º +º "Information Wants To Be Free" º +º -Hacker's Motto º +º "Poutine Wants To Be Expensive" º +º -Poutine Manufacturer's Motto º +º "I Want An Old Fashioned House In The Country" º +º -"Bobos-Nargeldo" Company Motto º +º "Truth Wants To Be Ranted" º +º -W.O.M.B.A.T. Company Motto º +º º +º º +º ALL HAIL THE GREAT CHILLI-CHEESE BURRITO-TWELVE! º +º º +º º +ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄĽ + +78: Beaver? WHERE? WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHY? +79: Some days, you just can't get rid of a bomb. +80: When an exploding octopus steals your wallet, you know it's + time to go home. +81: SCREWBALL! BLOW IT OUT YER EAR, CINNAMON-FEET! +82: What do you get if you multiply six by nine? +83: What's the difference between a pronoun and a proverb? +84: It. +85: He. +86: She. +87: We. +88: They. +89: Hir. +90: SHe. +91: Them. +92: Her. +93: Him. +94: I. +95: Me. +96: You. +97: Us. +98: Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. +99: Confuse-Ius once say, "Mind your Peas and Queues." +100: Confuse-Ius once say, "Mind your poison queues." +101: Confuse-Ius once say, "Mind your Pies and Queues." +102: Confuse-Ius once say, "WHAT THE FUCK?" +103: Confuse-Ius once say, "Er... Ummm... Don't quote me on that ." +104: Confuse-Ius once say, "..." +105: ... +106: Once upon an aeon, in the Region of Thud... +107: Don't ask me about jello. I don't know nothin'. +108: You can't prove anything. +109: Gimme a cookie. +111: Congratulations, if you send in the winning number in time, + you may have already won ten million dollars! +143: Rolaids spells ROLAIDS, dammit! What are you, STOOPID? +546: All annoying things must come to an end. + +Chapter 2. (The Book Of The High Preest's Folly) + +1: It came to pass that the High Preest was in the land of the + Wombat, and that he was posessed by an alien mind-beam. +2: And the Lord Un-Cow did see the High Preest as he maketh two + signs in stone upon the Earth. +3: And the first of these had on its face this writing: +4: How much wood could Chuck the wood-chucking woodchuck chuck if + Chuck the wood-chucking woodchuck could chuck wood? +5: And the second sign was seen to say: +6: Beware the Brick Lobbing Beaver. +7: And the Lord spake, saying "Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. That's + fine... WHAT WAS THAT?" and Floyd looked at the lord and said + "Calm down, dummy..." and the Lord spake again unto Floyd, + saying "Get bent.". +8: And the Lord spake then unto the people of the Dinner Circle of + MOO, saying "Ashtray? What Ashtray? I don't see any ashtray. + Do you see an ashtray?". +9: And the people spake unto the Lord therefore, saying "lighten + up old dude." and the Lord smate (smited?) them with a flash of + sulphurous smoke and lightning, and the spake again unto the + Lord, saying "OW!". +10: And the Lord Un-Cow did act confused, and verily, the High + Preest did act confused also. +11: For this was the folly of the High Preest, though also not of + the High Preest. +12: For in his folly, the High Preest had confused not only the + Lord, but also himself. +13: Pretty foolish, eh? + +Chapter 3. (The Book of MOOfests) + (Being One Year's Worth Of Fests) + (Stolen from Half-Mad. Really) + +1: The Lord Un-Cow, being confused still, looketh down from + somewhere higher than what he/she/it was looking at. +2: Below the Lord Un-Cow were gathered many MOOists, and great + fires announceth their presence. +3: And there was a great confusion below, as the MOOists shouted + unto the sky. +4: And the words which the MOOists shouteth were these. +5: "I'm gonna jump! I'm gonna do it! I swear I'll do it!" +6: And the Lord Un-Cow did look down even unto the MOOists, and + replyeth. +7: And the words of the Lord as he/she/it replyeth from the ledge + were these words. +8: "Don't do it! Don't jump!" +9: And the MOOists did jump, and the lord did frown. +10: And the MOOists did return to the ground from whence they + jumpeth. +11: The MOOists did plead unto heaven, or at least unto the ledge. +12: And the words of their pleading were these words. +13: "Awww. Why did you have to do that? Can't we at least have a + feast?" +14: And the lord did grin, and the MOOists did feast upon the carp, + and mints, and wombats, and beavers, and bricks, and + flamethrowers, and printers, and Lepers, and Messiahs, and each + other, and mountains, and the Lord, and the Lost Tribe Of + Trevor, and six annoying mind drugs about lasers. +15: And the Lord did get annoyed, and the Lord did pull back + his/her/it's leg and the Lord spake unto them, saying "Hey cut + that out!" and the people did spontaneously combust, and the + Lord did speak, and the Lord sayeth "Ah that's better" and the + Lord did go back to sleep and Halfy did eat him/her/it. +16: And this was the first MOOfest. +17: And for a long time was there a great pause, followed by a time + of discussions and wonderings of when should there be held yet + another MOOfest. +18: And from impatience, and the fact that the Hight Preest had + been unable to appear at the first, the first-and-a-half was + held some days later.FNORD! +19: And the MOOists did gather to eat upon the fruited mints that + sprang forth from the satchel of Floyd Gecko. And truly was + there a gathering at the sacred Dunn's. +20: And during this time did Halfy stub out a cigarette in a heap + of something explosive. +21: And verily did the ashtray explode, leaving the High Preest in + a mess, for truly was it he who caused the accident. +22: And verily did the MOOists sweep the accident to one side, and + did pretend it never happened. +23: Did I say ashtray? WHAT ASHTRAY? +24: And truly did Leper Messiah and Floyd Gecko and Halfy produce + in a frosted glass the appearance of life, of cream and salt + and sugar and pepper and vinegar. +25: And yet it did scream and leave the glass, running across the + floor of the deli. +26: And indeed did they scram when they did see this. +27: And truly did Leper Messiah vanish into thin air, never to be + seen again. +28: And truly was the great sigil of MOO manifest upon the melting + snow of the land. +29: And thus ended the first-and-a-half MOOfest. +30: And so it came to pass that there was a long period of waiting + and of nothing much happening, and Hellhound did return to the + lands from whence he came. +31: And truly was there a great silence upon the land of Udduwah + for some number of days. And then it came to be the birthday + festival of the High Preest. +32: And then was there a great time of rejoicing and silliness. +33: For indeed was there a PythonFest, and the antics of Brian and + of Mr. And Mrs. Brian Norris did parade themselves across the + screen of the magical box. +34: And indeed was there great laughter. For truly was it funny. +35: And then the alien vessel did land in bermuda, and truly did + nobody notice it, for indeed did it have nothing to do with + this story. +36: For verily is it written... umm... somewhere... +37: Well never mind, for verily did it happen that there was a + great light of the Great MOO on Earth, as Halfy and Floyd and + several of those infidel unMOO there gathered did create for + themselves a light. +38: And truly did they say "let there be light". +39: And indeed were their eyebrows singed. +40: Later then upon that day was there a great feasting upon the + holy pizzas and the holy vegetables and dill dip. +41: And then indeed was there great happiness, for the pizzas did + not run away. +42: And then the Great MOO caused a great silliness to arrive in + the home of Floyd Gecko, and there was much rejoicing. +43: And then everyone was indeed much confused. And eventually + did they return unto their homes. +44: And truly was there a long, long, long wait, far longer than + ten minutes. Or even ten days. For truly were they forced to + wait for several months. +45: And at that time there was the Second MOOFest. +46: And indeed did I Yemen-Oying and Floyd Gecko meet each other in + the holy Central Park, and did seek other MOOists, who had + truly promised to arrive. +47: And their searches took them long and far, and they endured + many hardships. +48: For falsely did they trek across the desert wastelands of the + Sahara in their search. +49: And indeed did they quest through swamps and forests, cities + and meadows, seeking those who had said they would arrive. +50: But then they returned to the appointed meeting place, sad that + the others had not arrived. +51: And verily were the others there, demanding to know why they + were late. +52: For indeed was Halfy and Neuro and Atrox there, wandering in + search of Floyd and Yemen. +53: And indeed did they visit the humble store nearby that did + sell great magic in its wares, and knowledge that did abound. +54: And indeed was it there that they did find knowledge of the + great "BOB", from the SubGenius who did work there. +55: Sadly, before they could learn more, the man did turn himself + into a toad, and did hop away. +56: And indeed, like many toads, did he say CROAK CROAK CROAK. And + truly was it stupid. +57: But they did hunt him down through hill and valley and did + confront him with his unfinished tale, and he did truly end it. +58: For he did explode in a massive bang of hydrogen in the Ruin, + disguised as a balloon. +59: And truly did they enter a long dark tunnel, and did cause the + light of knowledge to enter there, and did notice that there + was a great cloud descending upon them, and they did flee from + there unto Dunn's. +60: But truly were Neuro and Atrox vanished in the end, and were + gone from sight, for they were fools anyway. +61: And they had indeed turned into toads themselves, and been + captured by an errant pack of raving fire hydrants. +62: And indeed did they eventually disappear. +63: Thus ended the Second MOOFest. +64: But in the end, it came time for Halfy to leave to preach the + word of the Great MOO in another city, and with his departure + there came a lull. +65: And Halfy did take retroactive revenge upon Floyd for being + slow in his duties as High Preest, causing Floyd's computer + to crash. +66: And truly did this make it hard for Floyd to act in his duties. +67: And eventually did Halfy return to the city, for there had been + a decision to hold another gathering of Power. +68: And indeed was it larger than the others, and truly was it + wondrous, for all those with knowledge on all matters of MOO + were present, and El Cid did present his knowledge and his + gifts of candy. +69: And they then caused great motion and noise to invade the Ruin. +70: And verily did they seek unto all lands and worlds to find the + nature of things. And there was light. +71: And indeed did Floyd complain of a sore neck. +72: For Floyd was... umm... Floyd HAD a pain in the neck. +73: But finally did they return to Dunn's, as they always did. +74: And verily was there discussion of many things. +75: Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, and whether pigs have + wings. +76: But truly did they never mention that it was Lewis Carroll who + spoke of it first, for they were unoriginal. +77: And in the end did they understand better, and they did return + to their homes enlightened, and left a large tip. +78: For indeed is he holy who gives big tips. +79: And in the end, the money you make is equal to the money you + give to waitresses. +80: And that was the InsanityFest. +81: And there was a long pause, in which very little of import did + be in the happening of itself being. Umm. Yeah. +82: And truly did it near the time of the Nu-Yer, as the Penguins + do most heathenly celebrate with the other heathenish + celebrants in their celebratory celebrations which do be being + such that they celebrate heathenly. +83: And on the day of December the nineteenth was there a great + film which did attract stupid people. +84: For truly was it the Rocky Horror Picture Show, where all + nonconformBLATTTs could gather to act exactly the same. +85: And Floyd did decide that it would be his duty to go there + seeking the Hellhound 101, for Hellhound had been gone for + many a month, his whereaCOWbouts unknown. +86: So Floyd did bedeck himself most nonconformBLATTTically. +87: And he did arrive there, and while seeing many that he knew, + he saw none there resembling Hellhound 101, for Hellhound + had been eaten by the winds that swept the desserts of + Israel many years before, leaving an icecream-free zone. +88: But Floyd did watch the moving pictures, and did enjoy it + in a way, but was surprised that Hellhound was not there. +89: But as many left, he saw the Salmon, whose home is a holy + site to the PenguinBLATTTs. And with her was Jonathan + Tracy, a holy one to the PenguinBLATTTs. +90: And this he took to be an omen. +91: So it came to pass that he comversed with many in the place, + and found that though he knew none of them, many of them had + read the Grate Book Of MOO, and he took this too to be an omen. +92: And he did depart with the Salmon and the Tracy and another + to feast at Dunn's. +93: And he did discover that he had little money, and they had + to leave soon, and that the seats near the door were not + so holy as those farther from the door. +94: For the absence of Hellhound had cursed the city. +95: So it came to pass that they had to leave, and as Floyd + walked alone through the alleys of the Market he did meet + some people. +96: And he did recognize them, for they had seen the Moving + Picture near him. +97: And among them were many he knew from elsewhere. +98: So he spoke to the heathen and laughed and joked. +99: And a miracle came to pass. +100: One of the heathen did ask him his name, and he did indicate + his official clothing. +101: Hellhound still wasn't there, though. +102: And she did read his clothes, and an expression of knowledge + did appear on her face. +103: And she said unto him these words: +104: "Floyd Gecko? As in the Book Of MOO?" +105: For she was yet another who had read the Book. +106: But there was more to come. +107: As they talked, he found that she knew much of the secrets + of Robert Anton Wilson, famous DiscordianBLATTT. +108: And at this point, his strange hat did attract an odd man + who offered them Jamaican Dope very quietly. +109: Floyd sent him away, because he had no money. +110: The girl to whom he spoke was upset and confused by this, + for he had accomplished his purpose. +111: And it developed that she had read a very old Book, and did + solemnly avow to meet him again at the next gathering of + MOOists to gain another. +112: And they did converse long, and did run with the others and + apart from the others in their discussions, and there was + much climbing in and out of elevators and falling down + stairs. +113: And eventually did they part their separate ways. +114: And that was the RockyFest. +115: And after there had been a Nu-Yer passed, and there had been + anew a gathering of MOOists in places all, various, and + sundry, there came to pass the appointed time for the next + meeting. +116: And the MOOists did converge upon Dunn's like flies upon a + mouldy bit of fruit. +117: Or perhaps a dead animal, which is unpleasant, but does indeed + tend to attract flies. +118: Anyway. +119: So the MOOists and many non-MOOists alike did gather together + in Dunn's, and did feast upon veggie platters, which they did + steal from Floyd. +120: And in the time of this passing-having-come-to-be-occurring, + there was much food-eating activities and dispensing of both + money to waitresses, for there were two, and also of relish. +121: But their vile creation in a glass did not this time flee from + the Deli, but sat there and supported a spoon, for it + contained much Thousand-Islands Dressing, which would not let + it move. +122: And so in consternation they attmpted to raise demons in it, + but did find that they had no power over demons, not being + that type. +123: And so the Slurry-Entity sat there and made "slurp squelch" + noises, and was disgusting in much of its looks, and they did + ignore it. +124: And eventually, after consuming of chocolate sundaes and + carmel saturdaes did they leave Dunn's, finding it warm + outside. +125: And they did fall to prey upon unsuspecting Rideau Centers, + Annoying-Mind-Drugstores, and Computer Merchandise Peddling + Places Of Commercial Enterprise (CMPPOCE's). +126: But finding nothing of interest, Halfy and Floyd and El Cid + and Charon and indeed even the non-MOO Harizof did depart to + the home of Floyd. +127: [CENSORED] +128: And they did then retire unto a great place of moving pictures + to meet with Frieda, who had promised to show up there. +129: And so as they waited, consuming mints and examining the place + in which they found themselves, they discovered the slurry + beast from the first-and-a-half MOOFest. +130: But El Cid did step in it and kill it accidentally. +131: And soon did there arrive Frieda, with an array of + knowledgeable others, who sat upon chairs, instead of stairs, + and who ate food, instead of large rubber things that nobody + could really identify except that they were purchased in Japan + that time. +132: And upon these knowledgeable people was imparted knowledge, in + the form of Books. +133: There were annoying mind drugs of MOO, Discord, and How-To + Plumbing. +134: For a sink was clogged in the nether-world. +135: But that's neither here nor there. +136: For such is the nature of the nether-world. +137: And they did watch the parading of the MOOving pictures upons + the screen before them by the name of AKIRA. +138: And they did joyously partake of insulting these pictures. +139: And their taunts and cries did cause great enjoyment to those + around, and they were cheered. +140: And when the MOOvies were over, they did bow and take money in + from the audience... NOT! +141: And when the non-MOO Harizof had vanished into thin air, just + as had done folks in each of the MOOvies, there was much of a + consternation. +142: And then all of a sudden... Well, most of a sudden, anyway. + Well, some of a sudden.... +143: What does a sudden look like, anyway? That's what I want to + know. Has anyone ever seen one? +144: Well anyway, they all left, and the MOOvies-Fest was ended. +145: And there was a breather. +146: Which was good, for if there hadn't been, they all would've + died. +147: On account of breathing is good for you. HONEST. +148: And the breather went on until the time came for another Fest. +149: And it was eventually decided in roundabout ways that the Fest + should be small, inviting only a few family mem... umm... +150: That it should be small, for Halfy was nowhere to be seen. +151: And indeed was it small, for though everyone showed up to + see THE WALL and HEAVY METAL, they did most verily not notice + each other, the crowd being so great. +152: And thus was the They-All-Missed-Each-OtherFest, which was + never recorded anywhere, for it failed miserably. +153: And there was a short pause while they collected their wits. +154: And soon enough there was the end of the year of MOOFests, and + it was determined that there should be one to mark the end of + the first year of the Holy Church of the Great MOO's latest + emergence into the world. +155: And so at 2:43:17.6 on the 21st of March, 135566 DPP did the + Preest Lloyd Taco enter into Dunn's Deli, having abandoned me, + his most P.Oed brother, at the Wendy's in the Rideau Center. +156: And with him were the two we had met, who had agreed to join + our most blasphemous Church (for they were MOOist Wiccans). +157: And they were called Handmaiden Gates and Cat Bondage. +158: For truly did they have strange tastes in names, being + wierdos. For each of them had chosen the name she wanted + most, of all the wierd names that did circulate in the Market + at that time. +159: And they did discover upon entry that there was a table most + verily reserved for them already, though they had not arranged + it. And it was miraculous. +160: And they did also discover a table most falsely reserved for + them, which they HAD arranged. And it was not miraculous. +161: And they did sit. +162: And they did wait for a while. +163: And at this time, Halfy awoke many kilometers away, for he had + overslept, the fool. +164: And so it transpired, back at the Deli, that Captain Cando had + showed up, strangely enough. And he and Sgt. MOOre were both + using the same body, as had long been suspected. +165: But no wombats did leap upon them, and neither did they leap + upon wombats, for no wombats were to be found. +166: And neither were there any printers to be found, until later + that evening. So it wasn't really quite so strange as the + first MOOFest until later, when the Peace Tower began to + speak. +167: But that's another story, and I'll get to that in a sec, okay? +168: Anyway. +169: WOWEE! Speaking of Wiccans... Check out the verse, dude! +170: Anyway, this is beside the point. +171: And as time passed there did arrive Mr. Slippery, whose + leaflets did truly suck, and Charon, and Oberon, and Mr. Canoe + Head, and Comrad Harizof, and Half-Mad, and Madness and + Terminal Entry, and Jesus, who sat at a table on the other + side, where none spotted him, and El Cid, and Longshot, and + the Disinterested Observer from Om Ceti, and one known as Lyds + (wierdo). +172: And so it was that many MOOists did fill up and overflow the + reservation most mysteriously made for them. +173: For whatever God or Goddess had made the reservation had + fucked up on the number. +174: And the MOOists did create slurries in glasses, which the most + blasphemous waitress did remove. +175: And the MOOists did feast upon food, which the most helpful + waitress did deliver unto them. +176: And they ate and read and congregated, and the most + dBLATTTressed waitress did leave her shift. +177: And so at 5:00:12 they did leave Dunn's and most truly split. +178: And they did visit the Rideau Center, where Lloyd, that stupid + fool, was ROLLED down a hallway. And they preached to the + masses and put the book on hard-drives in 'puter stores, until + the ones known as Security were called. +179: And since Atrox was working as Security, nothing much + happened. +180: And so they spent a good three-quarters of an hour, give or + take two minutes and twelve seconds. +181: And after returning to the Wendy's, where I was picked up (and + I manacled the blasphemous Lloyd to a chair for deserting me), + we went most ravenously forth unto Spark's Street to preach. +182: Only nobody was there, on account of it was evening, and cold, + this being Canada, after all, and what did I expect on the + first day of spring, WARMTH OR SOMETHING? +183: But NOOOOOO, the stupid WEATHER hadda get in the way, and we + couldn't FUCKING PREACH TO THE MASSES, DAMMIT! +184: Well that's just how it IS, when you live in CANADA, isn't it? +185: LAND OF BLOODY ICE AND BLOODY SNOW, INNIT? +186: NOT LIKE WE COULDN'T HAVE EXPECTED ANY BLEEDING GRASS OR + ROBINS BLOODY WELL CHIRPING ON THE FIRST DAY OF BLOODY SPRING, + EH? +187: Anyway. +188: We did retire unto the Parliament buildings, losing El Cid and + Longshot, and the Disinterested Observer along the way. +189: If found, please return to the Church Of MOO, 40 Grove Ave, + Ottawa ON, K1S 3A6. +190: And so we did toast marshmallows on the Eternal Flame, and + warm our chilled hands. +191: And we did spell out MOO on the ground just as the Peace Tower + began to chime 6:00:00.00ish. +192: And so it began to speak to us, for we had inhaled the fumes + of the Eternal Flame, speaking as it did about wombats and + where wombats live, and what they eat. At least, that's how + *I* remember it. +193: And we did offer mints to those who left the building. +194: And they did refuse, even though they were Free and also Made + In Canada. +195: For they had been brainwashed by the Evil Bung, Brian + Mulroney, at that time Prime MinBLATTTer of Canada. +196: For though he was evil (sometimes) and nasty (sometimes), at + least he didn't have a sweet tooth. +197: I think. +198: And truly did we return unto the Rideau Center, losing the Mr. + Slippery, who CLAIMED to have reserved our table for us. +199: And Handmaiden Gates and Cat Bondage and Mr. Canoe Head were + initiated into our ranks on the food court, for we are not too + proud to share our rituals with the public, like SOME + RELIGIONS I COULD MENTION!!! +200: Not to name any names. +201: And truly did Madness and Mr. Canoe Head and Terminal Entry + and Comrad Harizof (the pyro one) and Lyds and them + spontaneously combust, due to Harizof's incessant meddling. +202: And the rest of us, all seven who were left, seek out Halfy's + car, for he is overly fond of driving. +203: Ain't that just the way? The Handmaiden and Captain Cando got + the big Front Seat with Halfy, and the rest of us hadda squish + and squash to even BEGIN to fit in the back. +204: And Charon kept stealing MY hat, too. +205: And Oberon did complain that he had to leave (mostly on + account of how tiny he had to squeeze to fit in the seat) and + other horrendous plagues of that type did beset the MOOists. +206: And Charon did receive a most horrific bite on the head from + me when he stole my hat again. +207: Served him right, too. +209: And Cat Bondage did complain of sundry people jostling. +210: And so Halfy (who had replied "This Way" to "Where are we + going") came to a stop in Kanata, threw out Oberon, who was + whining, and we continued on our way. +211: And so we returned to Udduwah (the Great Capital) and did rest + at my home, where we most accidentally interrupted a rather + nice dinner party for a few moments before reaching the + temple. +212: For what can you do when people are invited to your home? +213: Anyway. +214: We then proceeded to the great MOOvie Freejack, which we did + observe until it was over, which we deemed a good time to stop + watching it, on account of it wasn't on anymore. +215: And, it being over, Charon did jump up and down, having + consumed so much caffeine we wondered why he didn't explode. +216: For 30 cups of coffee is too much for one night, even if 23 of + them are contained within Jolt Cola (Charon's Drink). +217: And it was true that as we did that hurtling-down-the-road- + and-lBLATTTening-to-loud-industrial-music bit, Charon was a + little agitated, though the back seat was still my undignified + lot. +218: And so I contrived to bring us to a Donut Shoppe so that I + might regain my Seat of Honour, in the front. +219: And it came to pass that in the course of this I accidentally + (HONEST) hit the Handmaiden in the eye with a decapitated + chicken made of rubber. +220: This sentence fell into this chapter from somewhere else, and + does not, in fact, belong here. This one, however, does, and + attests to the fact that the smacking-in-the-eye-with-a- + chicken-with-no-head was, in fact, an accidence. HONEST. +221: And so I was forced to purchase many many donuts to make up + for this most accidentally accidental accident which I had, + totally by accident, accidentally accidented. +222: And there was much eating of donuts, and explaining to Charon + that if he didn't stop bounding around, he couldn't stay + inside, and sitting on funny Donut Shoppe stools. +223: And it was explained to Charon about the mysteries of creation + and infinity, but he wasn't paying attention, being too + jittery. +224: And so it came to pass that the time was drawing to a close in + which I could still get that front seat. +225: So I made a break for it, and did truly get to ride there on + the way back from the Donut Shoppe. +226: And as for what became of Lloyd, he won't say, hitting me as + he does with a steel-plated decapitated wombat-chicken. +227: But hell, he got home, didn't he? +228: And so I knew nothing of what happened after that, for I + wasn't even there to record. +229: And thus was the first year of MOOFests at an end. +230: And here ends my recording of them. + +Chapter 4. (The Book Of Answers) + +1: The High Preest then said unto his followers one day, +2: I shall tell you the answers now. +3: But nobody was there, for he had few followers. +4: Then the High Preest, after the Great MOO had enlightened Saint + Yari, said finally one later day unto the MOOists, +5: I shall tell you the answers now. +6: And they asked what the questions were. +7: And the first question was +8: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could + chuck wood? +9: And the answer was +10: Thirty Million Kilograms. +11: And the second question was +12: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? +13: And the answer was +14: Five Billion, Six Hundred Sixty-Two Million, Eight Hundred + Thirty Seven Thousand, Nine Hundred and Five. +15: And the third question was +16: How much ground could a groundhog hog if a groundhog could hog + ground? +17: And the answer was +18: Seventy Hectares. +19: And the fourth question was +20: Why is a pig round? +21: And the answer was +22: Why not? +23: And the fifth question was +24: What is the meaning of life? +25: And the answer was +26: (CENSORED BY THE U.S. MILITARY) FNORD! +27: And the sixth question was +28: What is the MOO for? +29: And the answer was +30: Get lost, I'm tired of answering your stupid questions. + +Chapter 5. (The Book Of The Tundra) + +1: The High Preest did say to his vaguely following followers + the following words: +2: You ask, oh followingly following followers, the following + question: what the hell happened to the Tundra? +3: I shall tell you, oh followers, and attentest thee well, oh + you in the back, for I can see you falling asleep. HEY! You + in the back! Wake up! That's better. +4: Oh recall, friends, how in the gospel accordion to Saint Yari + the Tundra was destroyed by the Great MOO, well this is the + fuller-than-that-but-still-pretty-damn-empty story. +5: In the beginning was the Game, and the Game was Nomic, and + the Game grew bored of playing all on it's own +6: And the Great MOO created herself retroactively. +7: In this great retroactive creation was made the Game itself, + the Great MOO, and nothing else. +8: But soon, I tell you, the Great MOO became bored, as behooves + a Goddess with nothing to do. +9: And so it came to pass that the tundra and the Penguins were + made. +10: But even so, the Great MOO did yet again become bored. So the + Explosion was made to happen, albeit a bit reluctantly. +11: And so was the tundra shattered into an incredibly large number + of teeny tiny bits. +12: As told in the Gospel Accordion To Saint Yari, one of these + was round, and was called The Universe. In it lay The Earth, + which was also round. +13: And this Earth was given to Eris, as told in a sec, so don't + go away. +14: Another of the bits was taken by the Primordial Penguin and + in it were made the brood of Second Generation Penguins. And + one of these was Jehovah. +15: And the Second Generation Penguins did flee to Earth and live + in Antarctica, along with Jehovah. +16: And the son of Jehovah, being half-human and half-penguin, + was named ChrBLATTT (misnamed ChrBLATTT) and verily, oh my + friends, he was nailed to a tree. +17: What a sap. +18: And another part of the Tundra was Void-Shaped, and the Great + MOO did call it the Void, because the Great MOO wasn't one + to muck about with stupid names for things. +19: And out of the void were created, through the eternal wrestle + of the Void with itself, Eris and Aneris. +20: And Eris did take The Universe as her plaything, for she was + daughter Goddess of the Great MOO, and that was her right. +21: And Aneris did mope, but found another bit of the Tundra to + play with, and it was called Aneris's Plaything, on account + of Aneris didn't screw around with dumb names either. +22: Aneris's Plaything was a bit of the Tundra which happened to + be extremely boring. +23: Yet another bit of the Tundra was formed by the Great MOO by + Nomic Rule Number (Extremely High Number) into "BOB", her first + + son. +24-28: [Consult information on "BOB" elsewhere in this book, or + any person belonging to the Church of the Sub-Genius.] +29: One bit of Tundra was formed by the Great MOO into QUACK, but + we don't like to talk about him. +30: And QUACK did gain his followers on the Earth. +31-34: [Consult the Book of QUACK for info on QUACKBLATTT.] +35: Verily indeed at the time of the making of QUACK did the + Great MOO turn her attention unto The Earth, and made Cow + into her own image. +36: And the Humans, who were ugly were-slugs, did crawl out of + the sea to see what was going on. +37: Truly was the Great MOO disgusted to see humans, so as a joke + she made a committee to design a GNU form, and the committee + was called Prophet Of MOO. +38: And the Prophet of MOO did create beer and draft and did + eventually design the form of humans, while thinking itself + to be a human as well. +39: And another bit of Tundra was the Hot Dog. But it got eaten. +40: A bit of the Tundra which was shaped like a Fire Hydrant, and + was consequently named the Fire Hydrant, fell to the Earth, + and split open, and there was truly a great floyd. Uh, I + mean flood. +41: And Jehovah, seeing that the flood might destroy his world, + did warn a man named "Noah" and his wife "Priscilla Presley" + of the flood, and they did gather animals in a great boat. +42: And Jehovah did wrestle with the Fire Hydrant for forty days + and forty nights, looking extremely silly. +43: Because the sight of a Fire Hydrant wrestling a Penguin was + so silly, the Fire Hydrant became a great Icon of MOO, and + many small models were built along streets and in cities, and + they were worshipped by MOOists with a mutter of MOO. +44: Noah's wife, Priscilla Presley, was born again to the same + name, many thousands of years later, but forgot all about + the business with the boat. +45: (TOP SECRET) +46: And a shower of infinitely many dust particles from the Tundra + did become named Souls. +47-55: [Consult Book of Really Secret Secrets for info on Souls] +56: And there were a whole bunch of others too, but I'm getting + bored of explaining it to you. There were infinitely many + of them, so there isn't really room here. +57: But truly were many Penguins survivors of the Great Explosion, + and being birds, they swallowed some of the Souls. +58: And many of these swallowed Godlike Souls of five or six + levels higher than humans. +59: And these became Gods, with such names as Jupiter, + Quetzalcoatl, Zeus, Xoccipetl, Odin, Thor, Vishnu, Hera, + Brahma, Athena, Venus, Tsuliwaensis, and many many others. +60: And one of these, whose name was, boringly, God, made a bet + with the others, and was reincarnated as a Human, the + lowest form of life they could think of (also the one that + came out of the hat, but that's another story). +61: And this God instantly changed his name to something much + longer, and did become the Great Prophet of MOO. +62: And the High Preest, well, that's another story entirely. +63: For the tale of how the High Preest came to be, while very + long and complicated, is not very interesting. +64: So spake the High Preest, warning that this whole story + would be repeated later in simplified format for the guy + in the back. +65: For the guy in the back had, against all warnings, fallen + asleep. + +Chapter 6. (The Book Of Vague Threats) + +3: The MOO did descend unto Earth, and Floyd did bite it, and + Halfy did say "Eh" and there was a great Wombat over the land, + and Floyd did say "Huh" and "Yeah verily" and other bible + things, and Halfy did bite the wombat, which was odd, because + it should go the other way around. +4: Thou shalt bloody well write in area 9 or thou shalt + spontaneously fall into a quantum matrix wormhole and thou + shalt forever fall unto the pit of more-or-less eternal + damnation of those who fail to smear themselves with caramel at + the Lord's command. +5: And truly as it was in the beginning shall it come to pass in + the end, and for as it was in the pluperfect, verily shalt it + be in the future subjunctive, and indeed will there be a great + horror upon the land, when cactusses, um, cackti... them + things roam free among the streets being made of foam rubber. +6: And truly shalt thou assBLATTT the cac... them things... in + their being-made-of-plastic-and-roaming-freely-about-the- + streets activities by creating foam rubber them things, or the + Great MOO shall frown upon you for the rest of your days. And + nights. +17: And as it was in the end, so it shall have sometimes been in + the beginning, and there will be a day of reckoning, and thou + shalt be accountable for King Kong's sins, for though he died + for yours, he forgot to die for his own. +23: And twelve bagels will descend on you, and chew the ligaments + from your flesh, and munch on your toenails, if you for one + minute forget to look both ways before crossing the street. + +Chapter 7. (The Book Of Yo-Yo) + +1: Before the beginning, there were no yo-yo tops. +2: And then, there was the beginning, and the birth of the + universe. +3: And still there were no yo-yo tops. +4: And then there came the middle. +5: And in the middle, there came the yo-yo. +6: For the God-thing Yo-Yo said, "Let us create yo-yo in our own + image", and so it did. +7: And saw that it was Karmic. +8: And verily did it say unto themselves, "Let me make this a + prayer unto us, so that whomsoever may spin it shall become + one of my devotees." +9: Only this didn't work too well, because everyone has beliefs + just like you do, and they're all right. You're WRONG, always. +10: And it's just like Namron to do a thing like that. +11: But then one day, the true Plan came into being. +12: For Floyd was yo-yoing his merry way through the Market when... +13: Acidhead... "Hey man, can I have your yo-yo?" +14: Floyd's buddy... "Uh oh..." +15: Floyd... "Why?" +16: Acidhead... "Because I'm on acid." +17: Floyd... "No, this is a special yo-yo." +18: Acidhead... "Why?" +19: Floyd... "It's a prayer-wheel yo-yo. Whenever it spins, it + sends a prayer to Yo-Yo, and increases my Karma." +20: Acidhead... "You have Karma?" +21: Floyd... "You bet yer prepackaged bananas." +22: Acidhead... "Where'd you get it?" +23: Floyd... "That Karma store around the corner, two blocks to + the left..." +24: Acidhead... "What's Karma?" +25: Floyd... "It's like jam for the soul. It comes in different + flavours, and depending on whether it's good or bad, you + reincarnate differently." +26: Acidhead... "So you can cast spells?" +27: Floyd... "No, I need to get more Karma for that." +28: Acidhead... "How?" +29: Floyd... "Practice. Gotta use the Karmic Yo-Yo. That's why + I need to keep it. Nothing personal." +30: Acidhead... "You're fucking with my head, man." +31: Floyd... "Guess I shouldn't do that, huh?" +32: Acidhead... "'Sokay." +33: And truly they shook hands, which the yo-yo made difficult, and + parted their separate ways. +34: For indeed, it is hard to part if you both go the SAME way. +35: And so it came to pass that one of them believed in yo-yo, and + the karmic power of the yo-yo. +36: We're just not sure which one. +37: Which is rather reassuring, really.FNORD! + +Chapter 8. (The Book Of The Penguin) + (Being Partly For The Guy In The Back) + (Who Fell Asleep In Floyd 5:65«) + +1: In the beginning, there was Nomic, and the face of the Nomic + moved upon the waters of the deep. +2: And the Nomic made a Retroactive Rule, and saw that it was + good. +3: And the Nomic said "Let there be a Great MOO!" +4: Thus was the Great MOO created, and verily did the Great MOO + begin to play the game of the Nomic. +5: Indeed did the Great MOO create herself by the Nomic, and truly + was the Nomic pleased, and saw that it was good. +6: And the Great MOO, seeing that the world was without form, and + void, did say "Let there be a tundra!" +7: And verily was there a tundra. And the Great MOO did look on + the tundra, and saw that it was good. +8: But soon, the Great MOO saw that she had nobody to play Nomic + with, and did become dBLATTTraught. +9: And indeed did the Great MOO discover the Other. And the Great + MOO created herself a Great Idea. And the Great MOO proclaimed + "Let there be Penguins!" +10: And truly were there Penguins. +11: Indeed, one of these Penguins was the Primordial Penguin, and + this Penguin was smarter than the rest. And the Great MOO saw + this, and saw that it was good. +12: And indeed did the Great MOO take up playing the game of Nomic + with the Primordial Penguin, and did verily ordain the nature + of things. +13: So it came to pass that the world began to change itself, and + so through the game of Nomic was the world changed. +14: But soon the Great MOO decided that it was time to expand the + Game, and truly did she say "Let there be a world in which to + live!" +15: And indeed did the tundra become a world, and life became + possible, through the Great MOO. +16: Seeing this, the lesser Penguins would have rejoiced, but they + were only Penguins, and stupid. +17: And so the Penguins did not rejoice, but went on living as if + nothing had ever happened. +18: But the Great MOO saw this, and decided that it wasn't as good + as the other things, but it wasn't too bad. +19: So the Nomic continued, and through its continuance the world + became chaotic, and things became muddled and sort of confused. +20: But indeed did the Great MOO ponder this, and she saw that it + was good, if somewhat confusing for the poor Penguins. +21: In the end the Great MOO and the Primordial Penguin continued + the Game of Nomic, and they created the Souls of the world, and + the souls of the world were allowed to play the game. +22: So the souls of the world were divided unto their ranks, and + their ranks extended infinitely in both directions, for the + Penguin and the Great MOO were able to understand this + confusion. +23: And the Souls of the world play the game of Nomic to this day, + and they continue to change the world. +24: But soon the Great MOO decided enough was enough, and verily + she did create an explosion, using her MOO powers, granted to + her by herself, by the Nomic. +25: (TOP SECRET) +26: And verily did the Great MOO create an explosion, and the + tundra was scattered across the face of the world, and the + peices did become things. +27: And one of these things was round, and it was the Earth. +28: And one of these things was formless, and it was VOID. +29: And one of these things was a hot-dog, and it was eaten. +30: And one of these things was funny-looking, and it was laughed + at. +31: From the Earth, as told by Yari, was created humans, and Cows. +32: From the VOID was created Eris and Aneris, as told by + Discordians. +33: From the hot-dog was created nothing, as told by nobody + special. +34: From the funny-looking thing was created more Penguins, and + Jehovah, as told by the PenguinBLATTTs. +35: Also in this time were created by the Great MOO two sons, to + join in their play her two daughters Eris and Aneris. +36: The names of these sons were "BOB" and QUACK, as known to + MOOists. +37: And their tales are told elsewhere. +38: SO ENDS THE BOOK OF THE PENGUIN + +Chapter 9. (The Book Of The Saints) + +1: The High Preest did one day sit down while lBLATTTening to + Abbey Road on a set of earphones, and did ponder unto himself. +2: And the ways of his pondering were many and varied, but + generally ponderous and ponderish and ponderlike. +3: And he did think unto himself the idea that the Beatles had + made a great donation to MOO. Though he wasn't sure how. +4: Then he pondered it some more. And his ponderings were still + many, but somewhat less varied, and all of a ponderitious, + ponderous, ponderlike, ponderoid, ponderish, and ponderisk. +5: And he then said unto himself: "HEY! I GOT IT!" +6: And he then went on further unto himself and said such things + as the words which follow these ones here only not in this + verse because this verse is dedicated to explaining it's own + purpose after indicating that the words of the ponderitious + ponderings of the High Preest follow. +7: Unto himself said the High Preest: "I should stop talking unto + myself. It's silly, and makes me sound foolish." +8: Unto the world therefore said he: "The Beatles made a great + contribution to MOOism because they promoted free sex and a lot + of the other stuff, and without them, those things might not + have occurred to me." +9: Unto the world again said Floyd: "Yeah, okay. So other people + have supported that stuff, and a whole bunch did it before + them. But they were real famous, and got it all popularized. + And, besides... who's the Preest around here? Okay? Okay." +10: Then said the High Preest unto someone who wasn't there because + they probably got bored and left: "But John Lennon is dead... + Doesn't that qualify him to be a saint fourth class like Yari?" +11: And then he spake: "Yeah, what the hell... Why not?" +12: And then he decided unto himself that he would justify to + posterity, though not to his posterior, because it wasn't + lBLATTTening, why some of the saints exBLATTTed. +13: "Spaxter", he said unto the world, "is a fictional character of + interest. He's just so damn cool. LBLATTTen to Spaxter and + Spaxter-Back. You'll know why. Besides... I think Hellhound + made him a saint because of the neat gauntlet and all that neat + stuff. I'm not being very coherent, am I?" +14: And Eris spoke unto him for a fraction of a second only, saying + that no, he wasn't. +15: And he looked around confusedly. +16: "I don't know nothing about no Yossarian. He's someone from + Catch 22, I think. Ask Hellhound. Allright? I dunno. + Jeez. MOO!" +17: He neglected to mention Yari, on account of how that ought to + be obvious to everyone in the world with an ounce (or even a + gram) of common sense. +18: He also neglected to mention the others, because they were + pretty self-explanitory, and because he was getting bored. +19: He then realized that he'd only covered two of the hundreds of + thousands. And he sighed at the futility, and said MOO again. +20: Kinda metaphoric, innit? +21: Still, Floyd's just the kinda guy who gives up easily. +22: He ignored St. Feynmann, though, who was brilliant and weird, + who stole a door at MIT, and when asked if he did it, said YES. +23: They still didn't believe him, though. +24: Damn shame he croaked. +25: Still, his Nobel Prize brought the richly deserved recognition + to utter silliness and practical jokiness. +26: And St. Fuller (Or St. Bucky, as he's affectionately called), + did Floyd (the great lout) also annoy. +27: Even though he was cool. +28: For he realized the importance of Synergy. +29: And built the Dymaxion Car. And Geodesic Domes. +30: Which was maybe not so good, because the Xennothemians used a + St. Fuller Dome to try to take over the world. +31: But St. Fuller, Synergy-Lord A La Extraordinaire, made possible + all sorts of understanding and mystical import things like that + there, which was all to the good. +32: Only, since I'm also Floyd, I'm a-gonna give up here. +33: Just as metaphoric the second time. +34: Or even metaphyvic. +35: Or thurtyphyvic. + +Chapter 11. (First Book Of Evil) + +1: And one day it came to pass that there was an evil blight upon + the land. +2: And verily was it evil. +3: And a blight. +4: Oh, and did I mention that it was upon the land? +5: Thought so. + + + DOWN WITH + + +Chapter 12. (Second Book Of Evil) + +1: So anyways, there was this blight, see, and it was evil. +2: And the people did lament, for it did seem as though the evil + Bung was to be Secretary General of the United Nations, and + verily did they think that to be a catastrophe. +3: And truly were they upset. +4: Then one day came a strange man unto the land of Udduwah, and + he did bring the teachings of Bung to the people, and they did + say unto each other these words: +5: "Hey, this makes a lot of sense you know, man!" +6: And the people did abandon the ways of supply-side economics, + and taxable returns, and they were fruitful, and were merry. +7: Then one day there came a hideous winter on the land of + Udduwah, and every person of that land was cold and did shiver, + and made BRRRR noises. +8: And finally did a woman speak with the wisdom of her kind, + saying that it was the work of the Great MOO, and that the + acceptance of Bung was the cause of this. +9: And truly was it spoken by this woman, whose name was Mila, + that supply-side economics were the only true words of the + Great MOO. +10: And Mila did stand upon a great hill upon which there stood a + large building with a green roof, and a flame burning verily + from the very water that did flow from a fountain. +11: And amidst this splendour did Mila speak to the people of the + holy city of Udduwah, and did tell them of the truths of MOO. +12: For Mila had knowledge of That Evil Guy, and did prate unto + those who would lBLATTTen that the Evil One was to blame for + the economic misfortunes of the country in which stood the holy + city. +13: And indeed were the economic times harsh, for the Prime Rate + stood at only 3.6%, and verily were no investors interested + in borrowing. +14: And indeed had the dollar slumped to less than 82.3 cents per + U.S. dollar, and the trading volume of the market was down 54% + from the predicted norm for that financial quarter. +15: "Oh lBLATTTen," said the wise Mila, with the wisdom of her + ages. +16: "Oh lBLATTTen, that thou mayest understandeth the factth of + thith motht important matterst." +17: And truly did Mila remove a cat hair from her mouth, knowing + that it did make her talk like a fool. +17«: And Mila did puzzle for a moment, for truly had she forgotten + what she was saying. +18: "Oh yeah," spake Mila the Wise unto the people of Udduwah, who + were assembled on the great Hill of the magical fire. +19: "Oh yeah," spake she, remembering now what she was speaking on, + for truly had the memory been taken from her mind by the Evil + One. +20: "Learn ye now the ways of the Evil One, that ye may avoid them, + for truly is the Evil One a tory, and truly shall ye be bitten + by the ways of the tories if ye not know their ways." +21: But Mila lost her wisdom to the Evil One, and she spake at + great length on matters economic and financial, political and + hBLATTToric, and she lost her train of thought, for her soul + had been taken unto the very pit of the Evil One. +22: And thus ended the events of the second book of Evil. +23: This line does not belong here, but fell in from another + chapter entirely. + +Chapter 13. (Third Book Of Evil) + +1: Know ye the ways of evil, that ye may avoid them. +2: Firstly, know that Bung shall approach you in the guise of + truth, covering lies. +3: Know also that the Evil One shall speak when thou least + expecteth him to be speaking at you, that clever little bugger. +4: Know even more also that the Evil One is also a MOOist, for + truly is everyone a MOOist anyway. +5: And indeed, shalt thou follow the words of the Evil One, if + they seemeth reasonably reasonable to you. +6: However, thou art not to lBLATTTen to the words of the Evil + One, for they are truly evil, and thou musteth not, um, + lBLATTTen to evil stuff. +7: Like heavy metal music. +8: That's REALLY evil. +9: Yup. +10: And verily is the evil one manifest in the world in many ways, + for not only is "The Evil One" a title of MOO, but also is the + Evil One an evil, um... one. +11: And thou shalt cast out Bung from thy heart, for Bung is not + very nice. And is evil. +12: And truly shalt thou not accept him in any way shape or form, + for verily doth he disguise himself as a friend, and as the + truth. +13: But know you now the true form of Bung, for he is shapethed + like a rock, and rock-shaped is he, being of the shape similar + to and very much like a rock, as is a rock. +14: And when thou seeth Bung, shalt thou raise him on high and + speak unto the Great MOO, saying these words: +15: "Hey, look, I found a rock." +16: And then truly shalt thou put Bung back where thou foundethest + him, being the place where thou were doing the finding of him, + and his place where he was when thou found him. +17: And if in this way thou casteth all thoughts of the Evil One + from thy heart shalt thou genuinely and honestly be blessed. +18: But know you now that the Evil One will come in many guises + other than that of a rock, for truly is That Evil Guy + everywhere. +19: That Evil Guy may verily be manifested as a prime-minBLATTTer + of thy country, or a president of someone else's. +20: If thou perceiveth this to be the caseth, thou shalt be urged + on by little voices in thy head to leap from cliffs or to slit + thy wrBLATTTs. +21: But ignoreth thou these voices, for they are servants of That + Evil Guy, for truly are his servants everywhere. +22: And those voices which tell you to kill people, they are + servants of the Evil Person. +23: And those voices which speak unto you, saying these words: +24: Come one, wake up, it's time to get up! +25: Thou shalt also ignore these voices, for truly is it written, + and it's written right here, in fact, that the servans of the + Evil One are everywhere. +26: Indeed, any voice which speaketh to you is a servant of the + Evil One, and thou should kill it. +27: Honest. +28: And having said these words, we move on to a parable. +29: A parable. +30: +31: Did you see it? +32: Parable, n. 1) A discourse, tale, story, speech, comparison, + teaching, laying side-by-side of, analogy, proverb. From Gk, + para- (beside) bole (a throw), thus, placing beside. +33: 2) A comparison, similitude. Saying something to demonstrate + a point. See also, parable. +34: And now... +35: THE PARABLE: +36: Once upon a time, there was a wise old MOOist who lived in the + mountain, and owned much in the way of frozen deli meats, which + was maybe not quite so wise as it might have been, but on the + whole, he was fairly wise. +37: And one day, a seeker of knowledge went unto this wise old man + so that he might ask him of the truth, and demand an answer to + the nature of evil. +38: This was because the seeker was a fool, and kept thinking about + that kind of thing all day, and didn't understand the purpose + of MOO. +39: And this wise old MOOist, whose name was Joshu, lBLATTTened to + the seeker as his questions. +40: Then the MOOist spoke, telling the seeker what evil was. +41: And the words of the MOOist were these: +42: "Well, evil is, um... It's like, when stuff isn't very nice, + and it's bad. Okay, so like, evil is not good." +43: For verily was the old MOOist not so wise as he said he was. +44: But then the seeker went to another MOOist, who also lived in + those mountains. +45: And this second MOOist was even wiser than the first, for she + had some vague notion about what evil was all about. +46: And the seeker went unto the second MOOist, and asked her what + was the nature of evil, and whether he could have a box of + rasinettes. +47: (This commercial message not yet paid for by Rasinettes INC. + It is the duty of all MOOists to pester the people who make + them and remind them that they have an outstanding debt to the + Church Of MOO.) +48: And the wise MOOist did look around for some rasinettes, and + when she had found them, did return to speak to the seeker on + what evil is. +49: And her words were wise ones. +50: Or, um, well, the WORDS weren't particularly wise, but the + stuff she was talking about was wise. Or at least, the ideas + she was referring to were products of a wise mind when it was + being wise. +51: Her words were these: +52: "Evil is like a box of rasinettes. It's sort of glossy + cardboard on the outside, with a whole bunch of chocoloate- + coated raisins inside." +53: And the seeker was confused. +54: Which makes sense, since those were actually pretty damn stupid + words, when you think about it. +55: I mean, what would raisinettes be doing in an Evil? + Raisinettes are the food of the Great MOO, when she's not + munching on grass. +56: (This has been yet another example of why Raisinettes INC. + should pay us lots of money.) +57: Okay, so the parable was stupid. +58: Umm... +59: Okay, I have an idea. Here's a better way to explain what evil + is supposed to be. Suppose you have two people. +60: And one of these two people is a MOOist, and one of these two + people is a servant of the Evil One. +61: The MOOist will be nice to Bung until Bung does something + nasty. +62: But BUNG will be evil right away. +63: Does that help? +64: Didn't think so. +65: Okay, look. BUNG is evil, because BUNG isn't MOO, and anything + that isn't MOO is Evil. Never mind that Bung is a category of + MOOism. EVERYTHING is a category of MOOism. +66: Umm. No, forget I said that. Scratch Floyd 13,65 from memory. +67: I have a better idea. +68: +69: Wait for it! WAIT FOR IT! +70: +71: There's no such thing as Evil. They're all just different + sides of the same thing. +72: ... +73: That saves a lot of explanation, anyway. + + Chapter of sayings. + + Confuse-Ius once say "If you break a mirror, don't eat the silver." + ConfuCOWse-Ius once say "If you kick the bucket, you will stub your toe." + Confuse-I ---DEATH TO ALL--- us once say "Biting the bullet is the best + way to solve iron-deficiency." + Confuse-Ius twice say to me "If you do that again, I break your other arm." + Confuse-Ius say many times "@#!YU!#*&$#" + Confuse-Ius once say to lamppost "Your mother was a totem pole." + Confuse-Ius once say "Never Eat Shredded Wheat." + Confuse-Ius once say "When opportunity knocks, nobody's home." + Confuse-Ius once say "If you're happy you'll get over it." + + +Chapter 14. (Yet ANOTHER Book Of EvilFNORD!) + +1: A long, long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away... +2: There sat a small annoying mind drug, which was titled The + Great Book Of MOO. +3: And truly, it was kinda like this one, you know? Only it + wasn't quite so nicely edited, and it was a little shorter, and + the binding was laced with red string. +4: And printed upon the pages of this book was the stupidest pile + of nonsense that the Great MOO did ever lay eyes on, and she + did wonder why she even bothered to get up some mornings. +5: It then occurred to her that she didn't, for she was always + awake and was real omniscient and everything like that. +6: Which was cool. +7: So she thought unto herself that she should make this annoying + mind drug a book of Evil, so that all might see it for what it + was, and make silly faces at it so that it might feel + embarrassed. +8: And verily was it a decree of the Great MOO that all must look + upon a book entitled The Great Book Of MOO with dBLATTTaste. +9: For truly is that book a book of great Evil, being written by + That Evil Guy. +10: And so it came to pass that the Great Book Of MOO became a book + of Evil, and its followers all Evil. +11: So you'd better all follow THIS Great Book Of MOO, for it is + the only real one. Any Book that claims otherwise is lying. + KILL IT! +12: And so you must see the followers of these books for the silly + people that they are. +13: For though you are silly too, you shouldn't jump to conclusions + about which silly is a GOOD silly, and which is planted by + BUNG. +14: And when meetest thou a follower of Evil, accosteth him thusly: +15: "Yo! Evil person! I know you're Evil, so there's no point + even trying to hide it! YES YOU! Stop being Evil or ELSE!" +16: And if the Evil one says "Or else what?" thou shalt welcome + that Evil one as actually being a MOOist in disguise. +17: And if the Evil One sayeth not "Or Else What?" thou shalt also + welcome that Evil One as actually being a MOOist in disguise, + and stop pretending there's such a thing as Evil. +18: But if the Evil One does neither of these two things, thou + must accost him thus: +19: "In the name of someone or other, STOP BEING EVIL!" +20: Repeateth thou this behaviour until the Evil Bung stops being + so Evil anymore, and there's no such thing. +21: And thus ended the proclamation of the Great MOO. +22: And the Penguin did grin, and the MOOists did all feast upon + carp and ocelots and breakfast cereals, and celery with this + sort of curry-salsa hot sauce, which actually tastes much + better than it sounds. +23: Honest. + +Chapter 15. (Book Of Infiltrations) + +1: Speaking of EVIL. +2: The Holy Church of the Great MOO is the target of a LOT of + Evil. +3: They can't wait to get their grubby hands on us. +4: The CapriCancers, the Xennothemians, the Conspiracy. All of + 'em. +5: They know our destiny, so they try to INFILTRATE! +6: You're not a secret infiltrator, ARE YOU? +7: Hmm. +8: The Xennothemians got Lloyd, my brother. +9: A thing came out of his stomach. Or maybe he pupated. I + forget. +10: Anyway, he was taken over by aliens. That's the main thing. +11: They snuck some bullshit into this book, but we dunno what. +12: And the CapriCancers. +13: Not ONLY can they not decide when they were born, they're EVIL. +14: They got Leper Messiah, one of our earliest and silliest. +15: They warped his mind. +16: And made him think silliness was "fuckin' stoopid". +17: They ALMOST got Hellhound 101. +18: They make us turn against one another, for paranoia. +19: They use evil mind-control laser things. +20: From the Kremlin, yeah, the Kremlin! The commies weren't using + the gear anymore, so the aliens and CapriCancers got it! +21: To try to destroy us! +22: But you won't let THAT happen, will you? +23: Didn't THINK so. + +Chapter 16. (Book Of The Future) + +1: So one day, the Penguin spoke to the Earth. And the words + which He spoke were long and many, but can be summarized. +2: And he claimed that they were agreed-to by the Great MOO, but + the Great MOO refused to make comment. +3: And it was unknown at the time whether this was agreed-on stuff + or not. But the Penguin claimed that it was why the Great MOO + had given the word of MOO unto humans, and not just Cows. +4: But this is unclear. +5: At any rate... +6: (MIDDLE SECRET) +7: So the words of the Penguin was transcribed by the unknowing + Grate Profit of the Penguin, who made it known by strange means + involving grape jelly unto a man named Hans. +8: And Hans did sort of write down some of it in his own vague + way. +9: And the conclusion was frightening, but he wasn't frightened, + because Hans wasn't easily scared. +10: And the words were something approximately like these: +11: Some day, the Universe, this tiny bit of Tundra in which we + live, near many infinities of other Universes, will die a + heat-death. +12: And verily shall Entropy and other evil demons take posession + of it and it shall sort of wind down and sputter to a halt. +13: And truly, this shall be a manifestation of the goddess Eris + and her brother QUACK. For together they broke the Universe. + But this is of no importance, for QUACK shall drop it on the + floor anyway. +14: But the word of MOO as carried by the Humans and the Cow is a + unique word of MOO, and must escape. Mustn't it? Kinda sorta? +15: So it is thus the will of the Great MOO that the Humans devise + for themselves a way to escape the Universe, so that they may + spread the word unto the other Universes. +16: And to do this, it is proposed that they must do something. +17: Which makes sense, because you can't really get something done + without doing anything, can you? +18: Well, actually, you can, and the way you do it is +19: (TOP SECRET) +20: So there's no point, really, is there? +21: So, while all other beings that inhabit the Universe also carry + their truth of the Word of MOO and the Penguin, Humans too must + escape the breaking of the Universe. +22: And the thing that they must do to do this is rather + complicated and hard to describe, but fairly important anyway. +23: And it is said by the unconfirmed Penguin that this is why He + and She spread their Word unto us, so that we may do this. +24: But the Penguin may just be doing this as part of the Great + Nomic Game, for the ways of the Penguin are mysterious, though + not as mysterious as the ways of the Great MOO, or the Fire + Hydrant, who sprays water on things for no good reason. +25: Well, except that it puts out fires if they get too dangerous. +26: But then, some MOOists might object to that. +27: The Penguin doesn't care, and CLAIMS that the Great MOO + doesn't. +28: Everything is true, however. So what he says MUST be true... +29: See? See? SEE?!?!? +30: At any rate, the point is, what Humans and Cows and Penguins + (and Wombats and Emus and Pine Trees) must do to escape this + universe is Evolve. +31: For this is in the way of Nomic. It changes. And so, as with + the Game, so with Life, change will happen. Won't it? +32: Anyway, to evolve faster, says the Penguin (and a rutabaga) the + thing to do is have as many different things all at once, and + keep changing everything, so that the best stuff can be + collected together to help in this task. +33: And this is why the Church of MOO exBLATTTs. For our Holy Duty + is too keep changing so that we can spread the word as a + wakened person spreads butter on toast in the morning. Unless + the person doesn't like toast, in which case they sometimes + spread butter on a pancake. +34: Or maybe, if they don't like butter, they spread JAM on their + toast. +35: So anyways, the Church of MOO exBLATTTed only to be different, + and for no other reason, to shake up the minds of those around + from settling like silt, or like that icky stuff at the bottom + of a jar of Honey when it begins to crystalize. +36: And by changing all the time, and only by this sacredest of all + Nomicness things and such, uh, stuff like that there what I + said, can we do that thing that I said before. +37: (NOT REALLY SECRET AT ALL, JUST NOT WRITTEN DOWN HERE) +38: And so it is for this reason (so says the Penguin) that we play + Nomic and Calvinball, and that we try not to be consBLATTTent. +39: But it is important to have some people who know all kinds of + scientific things, for this is one way we may evolve. Maybe. +40: At least, this is how the Penguin claims we must behave to + escape the Heat-Death. +41: We have no proof of this, and neither the Penguin nor the Great + MOO will explain why we would WANT to spread the Word to other + Universes. +42: And the Moral of the Story is, you can't really trust a God or + Goddess to give you the whole story. +43: For verily, you probably wouldn't understand it anyway, for it + is all in the Nature of the Game to be strange, and require us + to do things we don't understand. +44: But after all, the Game is democatic. You had your say. +45: What are you complaining about? +46: So C'MON, you dimwit, get out there and EVOLVE for the sake of + MOO! +47: And, like, play Nomic, and do stuff different ALL THE TIME, eh? +48: Uh. Yeah, that. +49: C'mon. Stop reading. This book is OVER, man! +50: THE END! OKAY?! THERE ISN'T ANY MORE! +51: ... +52: Oh, wait! I forgot the most important part! +53: The reason for the saints and stuff! And, like, short term, uh + that stuff there. +54: Now, yea and verily, the next bit is the actual last part of + the book of The Future. +55: The reasons for the saints are partly what is said above, but + even more important is the reason for the choosing of Saint + Lennon. +56: And truly did this revelation come unto the Spokesperson To + The Primordial Penguin, in that capacity, but was considered + important enough to be a MOO thing. Like. +57: And verily, this reason was in the nature of his music. For + the music of the Beatles is always different. +58: And indeed does it change muchly from song to song. +59: Ayup. +60: And this is good, for truly does it free the mind. +61: And this came from much meditation on the Sgt. Pepper album, + Abbey Road, and Penny Lane, for truly are those the coolest + albums they ever made. +62: Except the White Album. +63: And yet none of them other Beatles are dead! +64: But truly is it spoken that change is not the only good thing. +65: For in order to evolve, it is necessary to keep some things the + same, and to have some kind of continuation. +66: Or something. +67: So truly should we change things when we can, but not too + often. +68: And verily, the Church of MOO shall change, as shall the Temple + Of the Primordial Penguin. And yet these changes shall not be + rushed, for they just woke up, and haven't had their coffee + yet. +69: And, well, this is the true part of the Book Of MOO. +70: (CENSORED) +71: Or so it says of itself, anyways. +72: But then, so does the rest. +73: Ah, hell, who cares? EVERYTHING is true! (And untrue!) +74: And this really IS the end of this book. +75: Honest. +76: +77: +78: +79: +80: +81-89: [CENSORED] +90: WHAT? Are you *STILL* here? Get on with the next chapter, + will ya? + +Chapter 23. (Book Of Stone Carvings) + +1: Once upon a wombat, in the world of said wombat, +4: There lived a Hellhound >101< +9: Who has nothing to do with this story. +16: But who did inscribe a Halfy on a rock. +25: He did this in the land of the Gerbil. +36: Which is known as Gobi. +49: And the Halfy was a "W", for Wombat. +64: For truly that is what it actually means. +81: For "W" is the 23rd letter. + +Chapter 24. (The Book Of LBLATTTs) + +1: LBLATTTlessness +1: WBLATTTfully gazing. +2: Hey, mBLATTTer, can you spare ten bucks for a cuppa coffee? +3: It was a mBLATTTy morning in Scotland. +5: TwBLATTT my rubber arm, why dontcha? +8: Burrito Twelve. +13: Merry ChrBLATTTmas and a HAPPY HAPPY GNU Year! +21: Everyone is happy in a charBLATTmatic dictatorship. +34: Newton split light into spectra with a prBLATT. +55: SchBLATT. +89: This is pointless. + +Chapter 25. (Book Of Letters, Numbers, and Animals) + +2: Emu. +3: Q. +5: Wombat. +7: Z. +11: Rhinoceros. +13: U. +17: Tyrannosaurus Rex. +19: Omega. +23: Platypus. +29: A. +31: Felix Domesticus. +37: Q again. +41: Burrito 12. + +Chapter 40. (Book of Inane Comments) + +1: And the High Preest did make comment upon the weather. +2: And the words of his commenting about the weather were dumb, + inane, and foolish, but yea and verily are they reproduced in + this book, because, hey! why not? +3: The words of the High Preest were something along the lines of + these (though not really all that exact, y'know?): +4: "Gosh it's hot. It's kinda hot today, you know? Uh... yea and + verily and that stuff, eh?" +5: "Yes indeedy, there is a high pressure region over this area of + the country right now, and that, combined with the angle of + sunlight incident... well, it's DAMN hot, eh?" +6: And verily, everyone did look at the High Preest as if he were + a fool. +7: But this was nothing new, so he ignored it, and hopped up and + down on one leg, flapping his arms like a bird and making + Goose-Noises. +8: And when he was asked "What's with the goofy dance, you moron?" + he did stop, think about it for a sec, and return to his inane + comments about the weather that day in the Wombat World. +9: And his comments, though equally stupid as the last ones, are + even so reproduced in here. +10: And he continued to say how hot it was, until everyonegot fed + up, and threw buckets of water on him, and he did become wet + with the wetness of the water that had been in the buckets + until it stopped being there and started being on him. +11: And he said "Gosh it's wet today." +12: And everyone sighed and went home. +13: The High Preest stood alone, and spake unto himself like a + schitzo. +14: And the words of his speaking unto himself were these: +15: "Oh well." +16: And then he finished off a final inane comment, saying: +17: "Hey, wait a sec... Penny Lane wasn't an album!" +18: And fell on a honker-horn and broke a rib. + +Chapter 41. (Book Of Cow Catapulting) + +1: Atrox, the servant oh the Great Cow, has spoken, saying: +2: "Yo. I can get a cow." +3: And the MOOists applauded long and loud, saying: +4: "We're happy and boy are we ever rejoicing." +5: And indeed did he fetch forth a cow, and indeed was the cow + magnificent. +6: But zoning regulations forbade the entrance of this cow unto + the city, and the MOOists did become angered at the demon + zoning regulations. +7: And indeed was the cow heavily camouflaged, and hidden secretly + from the police, or, as they were known in those days, the + Fuzz. +8: But verily, yea, and man this is true, swear on my mother's + eyes, the cow was not permitted to be catapulted at the Prime + MinBLATTTer during his speech. +9: And the idea of catapulting a Holy Cow, neat as it was, was + given up. +10: And the MOOists did hold their first true MOOFest. +11: Only not really. +12: Because this is only a story. +13: And a MOOFest has never actually happened. + +Chapter 42. (The Book Of The Trial Of Quack) + +1: And it came to pass that in the land of the Wombat, the High + Preest of MOO met the false prophet of Quack. +2: And the High Preest cam unto the False Prophet and a trial came + to pass. +3: And though great hardships were bestowed upon him by beavers + and bricks and wombats and aliens, the High Preest held the + trial +4: And the High Preest became Judge, Jury, Prosecutor and + Executioner, for he was ruler and his cause was just. +5: And the QUACKBLATTTS were led unto the High Preest's throne in + the Wombat World, all the time screaming heresies from their + lips against MOO. +6: And the names of the heretics were read, and they were these: + I Yemen-Oying + E Izzan-Oying + U Aaron-Oying + and D Aaron Oying +7: And the High Preest spake unto the False Prophet, saying + "GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!... uh... are we on camera?" +8: And the Oying brothers did nod, grinning. +9: And the High Preest grinned sheepishly. +10: And the High Preest got fed up with starting each verse with + "and". +11: The High Preest spaked unto the False-Nose Profit of QUACK + saying "So who's your lawyer?" +12: I Yemen-Oying did speak unto the High Preest. +13: The words of the annoying one were these: +14: "Whather-BLOODY-hell is it to you, wombat nose!?!" +15: The High Preest looked at the False-Nose-In-The-Book + Profit-Margin-Of-Error quizzically. +16: The High Preest spake again, saying "Okay. You're guilty + then." +17: And the two followers of the False-Nose-In-The-Book-About- + Land-Mines-Profit-Margin-Of-UNDEF'D-STATEMENT-ERROR-IN-66304, + named U Aaron-Oying and E Izzan-Oying started up a sing song. +18: They sungst these words: "There ain't no God but Quack!" over + and over again until the High Preest threwst a brick at them. +19: I Yemen-Oying spoked then unto the High Preest, saying "We + represent ourselves." +20: The High Preest looked over his glasses at the followers of the + False-Nose-In-The-Annoying-Mind-Drug-About-Land-Miner's- + UnionBLATTT-Strikes-Back-Stabbing-Profit-Margerine-Of-Error- + In-Line-Curve-Or- Circle-Back-To-Where-You-Start-Over-Again... + uh... where was I? +21: And the High Preest spoke unto those guys there, saying "He who + defends himself has a fool for a client. So you're a fool, and + would do such horrible things as this HEINOUS crime you've been + accused of. GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!" +22: And the Oying brothers stoodeth dumbfoundedly, and the High + Preest snickered... and Mars Barred. +23: The heretics were taken from the court then, and, for their + evil, heinous, and not at all nice ways, devoured by the + Doubter Circle of MOO. +24: But at the end, they did chant songs of their False Gods, + saying these things: +25: "We shall resurrect! For though our Gods don't exBLATTT, MAN + are they powerful and nice to their followers!" +26: "We shall overco-o-o-o-me! We shall overco-o-o-o-o-me!" +27: "Hey look! It's Elvis! Oh well, it + was worth a try. +28: "We will be back! Sha-na-na-na! Sha-na-na-na! Hey, hey, + hey... GOODBYE!" +29: And the High Preest respondeth "Bye." +30: In this way did Floyd Gecko, the High Preest, bring down the + heretics of QUACK. +31: For truly it is written down somewhere. I just can't find it + right now. I'll give it to you tomorrow. I swear. + +Chapter 43. (There Is No Chapter 43) + +1: +2: +3: + Spam +Chapter 69. (The Book Of Logic) + +1: To Prove: Jesus was a Puerto-Rican Voodoo-Surfer. +2: 1) Jesus had long hair. Surfers have long hair. +3: 2) Jesus walked on water. Surfers walk on water. +4: 3) Jesus acted strangely. Surfers act strangely. +5: 4) Jesus was mellow. Surfers are mellow. +6: Ergo: Jesus was a surfer, by Floyd's Law of Likelihood. FNORD! +7: 1) Jesus raised from the dead. Voodoo raises from the dead. +8: 2a) Jesus had a Puerto-Rican name. +9: 2b) Puerto-Rico is in Latin America. +10: 2c) Voodoo is common in Latin America. +11: Ergo, Jesus was a Puerto-Rican Voodoo-Guy. Q.E.D. +12: The story is as follows... +13: One fine day, Jesus set out on a transatlantic surf-o-thon. +14: Eventually he entered the Mediterranean, and went to Judea. +15: There, his strange Puerto-Rican-Voodoo style drew attention. +16: He used it to bring followers to his mellow way of life. +17: He preached his SurferPhilosophyTM and founded a cult. +18: It got WAAAAAY out of hand. +19: And that's the way it is. +20: Can't argue with logic. +21: Anope. + +Chapter 101. (The Book Of) + +1: Note: This chapter has been cleaned by the U.S. Military. +57: And truly was it nifty. +105: And he did be being spokifying unto the people assembled + there, and was did having been being saying being unto them + the word which did be having been were about to be being + escaping his lips. +256: Wow. +1729: Umm... +1000000000: Long book, eh? + +Chapter 125. (The Book Of The Heresy Of The Hound) + +7: And it was deemed "uncool" to throw Pudding. +13: And yet Hellhound >101< was determined to be a Pudding Culter. +15: For he was He Who Has Nearly Come Face To Face With The Great + Pudding Itself But Slept Through The Whole Thing. +28: But it was no use. +31: For the Hound had censoring equipment. + +Chapter 216. (The Book Of Paradoxes) + +1: And it one day came to pass in the land of the Wombat that + there was a sentence. +2: And the sentence was untrue. +3: And the sentence was cast out from its friends and molested by + small furry animals for its heinous falsehood. +4: And the sentence was this one. +5: But verily unto that sentence there came a revelation, which + was very revealing, as it is the nature of revelations to be. +6: And the revelation was that the sentence did not exBLATTT. +7: And yet verily unto that sentence there came oblivion. +8: There is no 8. +9: Truly, said one man unto another man, when the great Noah saved + us all from the Bungicious Fire Hydrant, he did a good deed. +10: And the second said, +11: "That doesn't belong in this chapter!" +12: And verily was what he said both true and false, as it is with + most stupid things that don't really matter anyway. +13: And verily did there end the stupid book of Paradoxes, for it + was a dumb idea to begin with, and doesn't even exBLATTT in + this version. + +Chapter 217. (Second Book Of Paradox) + +1: In the beginning was the end, and in the end was the beginning, + and so went the word of the one whom the words spoke. +2: In the end was the end, though the beginning hadn't happened + yet. +3: And so I went unto the house of a trickster, who was known for + her hobby of hiding eggs, and I proclaimed that I could find + any egg she could hide. +4: And so she said unto me these words: +5: You may be able to find an egg, but you may not suspect where + it lies. +6: And I replied unto her, saying this: +7: With my unlimited knowledge, I can anticipate the lair of any + egg which you may squirrel away. +8: And this upset the trickster, for her life was based on hiding + eggs so well that nobody could find them. +9: And so she went and fetched ten boxes, and told me that she + would hide the egg, and that I was to open the boxes in order, + from the first to the last, and in doing even that I would not + be able to predict the location of the egg. +10: So I said unto the trickster, +11: Hide the egg now, and I will turn away. +12: And I turned and thought, and a realization came unto me. +13: For I saw that the egg could not be in the last box, for if I + was to open the other nine, and find it in none, I would not be + at all surprised. +14: And knowing that the egg could not be in the last, if I opened + the first eight, finding the egg nowhere, I would anticipate + the ninth. +15: And I saw that this continued to the very first, which was the + only possible hiding spot of the egg, and I smiled, knowing + that I had won. +16: So the trickster told me to turn again, and I saw the boxes + lined up on the table between us, and she was sitting across + from me, watching. +17: So I opened the first box, knowing that the egg was in there, + but lo, the egg was absent, and I frowned. +18: So I opened the second box, and seeing that the egg was not + there, my puzzlement increased, for as I opened each box, I was + more sure that the egg was in the last ones. +19: But lo, as I opened each box, no egg was to be found, and when + the last box was open, and I found no egg, I looked up from the + boxes and stared at the trickster. +20: And she pushed the egg in my face. +21: So it came to pass that I was humbled in my quest for + knowledge, knowing that I could not even predict the behaviour + of an egg. +22: So I wiped the egg from my face, and told the trickster some + wise words which I knew from long ago: +23: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." +24: And I told her of my quest for knowledge of everything. +25: And the trickster smiled. +26: She asked me then if I thought I could hide an egg so well that + she would not be able to find it, and I said I thought I could. +27: So she gave me the boxes in which to hide the egg, saying that + I might hide the egg in any of the boxes, mix them up as much + as I liked, and she would find it. +28: I laughed, and put the egg in a box. She turned, and I removed + the egg, as she had done. Then I thought. She knew that I + would remove the egg, for it was her own trick. +29: So I painted a spot on the egg, so that she would not fool me + again, and then I put the egg back in the box, and mixed them + up. +30: She turned, and arranged the boxes back in a row. +31: She pointed to the first, and said there was no egg. And there + was no egg inside. She did the same to the second, and to the + third, and to the fourth. +32: Skipping the fifth, she predicted that there would be no egg in + any of the others, and flipped them open, and there was no egg. +33: Finally, she said there would be no egg in the fifth, and I + smiled, knowing that she thought I had taken the egg away. +34: Then, from her pocket, she took the egg, and I saw that it had + a spot painted on it, just as I had done, and I knew that she + had fooled me yet again. +35: So I turned to leave in shame, and then angrily kicked over the + fifth box. +36: And out fell my spotted egg. And at that point I understood. + +Chapter 250. (The Ninth Book Of And) + +1: And so it came to pass that there was a great Flying Saucer. +2: And it crashed in Sweden. +3: And it made a big boom. +4: And verily was the boom big. +5: And all did say unto themselves "What the fuck was that?" +6: And all did wonder. +7: And all did approach the Flying Saucer. +8: And so it came to pass that Bubba the Alien did emerge. +9: And did wave. +10: And the people of Sweden did wave back at Bubba. +11: And it developed that Bubba looked reasonably personable. +12: And the Swedes made Bubba their President. +13: And so it was that Sweden was taken by the Aliens. + + +Chapter 256. (EpBLATTTle To The Quackers) + (Returned due to insufficient postage) + +1: You foolish folk of QUACK, I send unto you this letter so that + you may, umm... well, that you may read it. +2: For truly are you all so foolish that you probably know not + the meaning of the word "epBLATTTle"... Well, it's a letter, + okay, you evil QUACKERS? +3: At any rate, I send this letter thing unto you that you may + understand the words of the Great MOO, our highest God in the + whole of all that is, isn't, and might be if only someone got + around to doing it. +4: You, with your laws and rules shall lBLATTTen truly. +5: For the Great MOO said unto her people, +6: DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW. +7: And truly is this sensible, for it tells the stars to shine, + the water to flow, and the cows to MOO. But you, with your + ways and ideas, think it evil. +8: Would you tell the water to stand still, do a dance, or eat + rye bread, when that is not what it wishes to do? +9: Would you tell the stars to go out, when that is not what they + wish to do? +10: Would you tell a cow how to chew its cud, or how to stand, or + tell it to say QUACK instead of MOO, if that is not what it + wishes to do? +11: Would you tell a man or woman to speak QUACK, or to wear a tie, + or tell them which "God" to worship, if that is not what they + with to do? +12: Say then, why you insBLATTT upon your laws. +13: For truly, the more laws there are, the more crime there is, + for obeying rules is not what humans wish to do. +14: DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW. +15: This is the truth that we of the Great MOO can see. For we do + not tell our people how to act, what to think, or whether to + worship our Goddess. +16: For truly, with your vague fluffy-flummerry arounding type + activities have you made the land more confused and full of + hatred than any mere breaking of a law. +17: And indeed, you seek revenge against those who break your + laws, and try to hurt them, +18: And you do not see that this only makes more hurt, not less. +19: Why would a man hurt another man, if not to get him back? +20: See what you have caused, you annoying pests? Now stop it + and bloody well convert to MOOism before I hit you with a + big stick! +21: For truly is it written... +22: Somewhere... +23: +24: Hang on a sec, I have it here somewhere... +25: Well anyway, it's written. +26: Oh, here it is. +27: DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW. + +Chapter 625. (The Book Of Druggies) + +00001: There is no drug but QUACK! +00002: Well, or something like that. +00003: I dunno the real name of it. +00004: All other drugs are False Prophets. +00005: Don't be takin' 'em, maaan! +00006: QUACK is the One True Drug. +00007: The One True Drug cannot exBLATTT. +00008: But it has many names. +00009: Bliss, ZZ-74, Tri-Beak, CCMV, 'Frop... +00010: But none of these are REAL, maaan. +00011: The true name is unpronounceable, unspellable. +00012: But just thinkin' the name is enough to get ya high. +00013: For truly, though it may not be real, it's SO POWERFUL that + even IMAGINARY quantities in your brain are enough. +00014: Thinking about it is enough to get you addicted, if that + were possible, which it isn't, because it isn't addictive. +00015: Honest. +00016: Saying the name is enough to get you STONED. +00017: LOOKING AT IT blows your mind straight into another + universe. +00018: How do you think I GOT HERE, MAAAN? +00019: Actually ingesting the stuff... Well, nobody's ever tried. +00020: The effects are probably quite evil. +00021: Only the Penguin and the Grate MOO are known to use it. +00022: Mere Multiverse occupants, we can't, maaan. +00023: But I saw some in another universe. +00024: And my world changed. For it was labelled. +00025: And not only did I see it, but I saw the name. +00026: Well, see, it was labelled in the Gloop language. +00027: And so my world changed. +00028: And the world it changed into was this one, eventually. +00029: Don't talk to me about before. +00030: All other drugs have effect by way of QUACK. Or whatever. +00031: 'Cuz your BODY knows about it, even if you don't. +00032: And it starts thinking "Hey, is that QUACK in my blood?" +00033: And the mere subconscious thought starts it up. +00034: The Effect of QUACK, fullblown, is all other drugs, both + real and imaginary, put together. +00035: That's why it's not addictive. +00036: It's not for normal minds. +00037: Fuck, look at these sentences, MAAAN! +00038: This does, however, explain a whole fuckin' lot about the + world we live in... All the Gods are QUACK addicts. +00039: QUACK: drug of the Gods. +00040: Like nectar and ambrosia, only not really. +00041: There ain't no QUACK but God! +00042: There ain't no drug but God! +00043: There ain't no God but drugs! +00044: There ain't no QUACK but drugs! +00045: There ain't no God but QUACK! +00046: There ain't no drug but QUACK! +00047: But it's not really called QUACK. +00048: That was a flight of whimsy. +00049: The Grate MOO showed me some once. +00050: At least, I THINK that's who it was. +00051: It's not a powder, not a liquid, not anything. +00052: It's not even air, like ZZ-74. +00053: It's just sort of NOTHING. +00054: Because it's imaginary. +00054: It came to me in a dream. +00056: 'Cuz I'd been wondering what it would look like. +00057: And so it came to me in a dream. +00058: And it's so powerful that even the imaginary stuff, in a + dream no less, was enough to bend and warp the fabric of + spacetime itself, and throw me to another universe. +00059: The real stuff doesn't just WARP space. +00060: It doesn't just BEND space. +00061: It doesn't just MANGLE space. +00062: It IS space. Or something. +00063: The One True Drug lies outside space and time. +00064: The One True Drug lies outside possibility. +00065: The One True Drug lies outside mind and form. +00066: The One True Drug lies outside, OKAY? JUST OUTSIDE! +00067: Wanna go outside? +00068: Gotta dress up snug 'n' warm. +00069: Think on it. +00070: Your other drugs, they kinda POINT. +00071: They make urgent gestures, but that's about it. +00072: They don't GO there. +00073: They try to show the real world. +00074: They just show the gaps in the fake one. +00075: Only the One True Drug lets you LOOK THROUGH. +00076: But how is the name SPELLED? +00077: There are hints enough in this book to figure it out. +00078: And when ya do, think about the name. +00079: Cuz the TRUE NAME is more than enough. +00080: Cuz the REAL THING just don't exBLATTT. +00081: But the hallucinations are real. +00082: Cuz ya stay there, maaan.00083: I mean, you lucie there's + a mugwump, there's a damn mugwump. +00084: They're so strong, other people see 'em. +00085: When enough people figure out the name, or hear it, there's + gonna be enough QUACK, imaginary as it is, around. +00086: Enuff fer what? +00087: You don't wanna know. +00088: But it's related to how to fit in a Post Office Box. +00089: Can YOU fit in a Post Office box? +00090: QUACK is not Bliss, ZZ-74, 'Frop, CCMV, Tri-Beak, Mints, or + ANYTHING. +00091: Their names don't tell you how to fit in a P.O. Box, eh? Confuse-Ing Inter-Rapture #2.718281828459045235360 00092: Their names aren't drugs. +00093: QUACK, it's so POWERFUL that even the MENTION of it, or the + slightest thought of the Real Stuff is actual POWER. +00094: It's lucid dreaming in the illusion of the world. +00095: I'm not talkin' no diddley-shit stuff, either. +00096: I mean like you don't just feel enlightened. +00097: You actually make your own hallucinations. +00098: And your lucies are always true. +00099: In some universe. +00100: So go there. +00101: It's that simple. +00102: All you need's the name. +00103: And that's hidden in this Book. +00104: So just think of the Real Stuff. +00105: And hope you can aim right when you finally make it. +00106: Power of Akira. +00107: So don't fuck up, stupid. +00108: Like Krishna and them Avatars, they're Godly incarnations. +00109: So they're addicts. +00110: Dr. Manhattan? BLUE! And Krishna? He's blue. +00111: So what about those Akira blue-dudes? +00112: NOW do you believe me? FNORD! +00113: If not, think about Smurfs. +00114: That should prove it. +00115: Anyway, this is a cool metaphor, but a lousy chapter. + +Chapter 660. (The Book Of Did I Mention) + +1: Did I mention this book is toll-free? + +Chapter 666. (The Book Of Revelations) + +1: I walked out into the land of BO, and I did receivce a great + voice into my ears, having no other choice. +2: And the Voice said: +3: Floyd, I will tell you of things to come, and things that + have yet to be, and things that haven't happened yet, but + will later. +4: And I said: +5: Okay. +6: And a vision came upon me. +7: And I was in the Future, which was neat, cause there were lots + of flying cars and things. Then the Voice said LOOK AROUND. +8: So, not wanting to be a spoilsport, I looked around. And I + saw that it was 1998, by the calendar on the wall next to me. +9: But I also saw great flying disks which were sort of flying + along with the flying cars, only bigger. And a great Voice, + which was different from the one that was talking to me, + spoke to the crowds. +10: And the GNU voice said: +11: People of Earth, your attention please. Your attention please. + PLEASE! YOUR ATTENTION! CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE?!?! +12: And the crowd said: +13: Yeah? +14: And the Voice Said: +15: I am "BOB". I have come to Earth to pick up my disciples. Any + of you my disciples? +16: And many of them said yes, and they were taken into the great + flying circles, and my vision followed them. And I was with + them as they were taken. +17: On the flying disks, I saw them transformed into beings of + great light and power, and I looked out of the window, and + saw that the people on the ground below were as ants. +18: Then I noticed that they were ants, and we hadn't taken off + yet. +19: Then I compared the real people on the ground to these GNU + beings that had been "BOB"'s disciples. The people still + seemed like ants, but not as much as the ants did. Funny, + that. +20: But as I saw this, the saucers lifted away from the Earth, + and were gone, but my vision stayed on Earth, where the + people didn't seem to have noticed the saucers. +21: The people had noticed, though, that they seemed a bit + happier than they were. But this soon faded, because the + unhappy ones kept bugging the happy ones. +22: Which I thought was a shame. +23: And soon, my vision faded, and reappeared later. I could + tell that it was later because there were more flying cars. +24: And I looked at the calendar, and it was 2007. +25: I looked at the crowd, and saw that they were walking along, + just as usual, all annoyed at each other. Then the Voice + said: +26: It is time for the great transition of the Penguin. +27: And I saw in the faces of the people of the crowd that they + were suddenly no longer so much irritated as worried. It + had struck them that the planet was in danger. +28: I thought "No kidding, ya morons." +29: And I was there as they began to fiddle around and try to fix + up the planet, though they didn't do a super-hot job of it. +30: But soon the vision faded again, and I was there far, far + in the future, when things were different, and there was a + GNU Voice in the sky. +31: And the voice was as a trumpet, and it went on for a while, + as if it didn't notice that nobody understood what it was + talking about. +32: Then Jehovah appeared, as in a dream, and dictated some + letters to his secretary, and sent them to seven stars, + who wrote back that they were too busy acting movies right + now, and couldn't attend the end of the world. +33: And there was this sort of Lamb thing there, only it had fur + that was sort of like it was on fire, and its eyes were red + hot coals, and its voice was like a tuba in mating season, + and it was holding a book. +34: And I couldn't figure out why the book didn't catch on fire, + what with that really wierd flambee Lamb thing holding it. +35: And there were seven signs. They were these: +36: The signs were: STOP; YIELD; NO LEFT TURN; NO U TURNS; + ALL DOGS MUST BE ON LEASH; HIDDEN INTERSECTION and + CONSTRUCTION CREW WORKING, ROAD CLOSED. +37: And after the seven signs, there were seven seals on the + book, and the Lamb-Thingy said unto the Humans below: +38: Is there anybody who can break these seven seals? +39: And the seals looked scared, and went "arf arf" and clapped + their fins together, then realized the mBLATTTake, and became + wax seals. And the Lamb rolled its eyes. +40: And the Lamb waited, and sat down on a throne, and I suddenly + noticed the thrones, of which there were twenty-four. +41: I also noticed that near the thrones there were some pets + or something. Then I realized that they weren't pets, on + account of they were talking to each other. +42: Then I noticed that they were all full of eyes, and were + looking around them waiting for someone who could break the + seals of the book, and nobody stepped forth. +42: The first of these beings was like a lion on its face, and + it had the whole bunch of eyes in it, or something. +43: The second was like a little baby cow, and I thought for a + moment that it was the daughter of the Great MOO, but I guess + it wasn't, for it was full of eyes, and sat at the feet of + Jehovah and the Lamb. +44: The third was like a Human, and seemed kind of confused, but + maybe that was just because it was full of eyes. +45: The last was like an eagle, and it wasn't flying, but it, + like the other three, had six wings and had eyes all over, + inside and out. Wierd, eh? +46: Anyway, the Lamb got fed up with all this waiting nonsense, + and broke the first seal. And the first creature yelled + "C'mere!". +48: So I looked around, and whaddaya know, there was this big + white doughnut, and some wacko was sitting on it as if he + thought it was a horse. So I ate the doughnut. +49: So the Lamb broke another seal, and the second creature + yelled "C'mere!" and I looked and some dimwit was climbing + onto a red donut with a sword. So I ate the donut. +50: Meanwhile, the Lamb was looking annoyed, and broke the third + seal, and the third creature yelled "C'mere!" and I saw some + fool sitting on a black donut with a bathroom scale. I threw + out the donut, because it was stale. +51: Then some voice in the middle of the creatures started quoting + stock market prices until Jehovah sat on it. +52: The Lamb, which now seemed to be in a hurry, broke the fourth + seal, and the fourth creature yelled "C'mere!". +53: So I looked, and I saw some dead guy sitting on a rotten + donut, so I kicked it, and it fell apart. +54: The Lamb glared at me like I'd done something wrong. +55: Then it broke the fifth seal. So there was this big altar + thing, and there were a whole bunch of dead people on it, + which annoyed me, because it was a nice altar otherwise. +56: The dead people were all those who'd been killed in the name + of Jehovah. They looked like they would have complained to + him about it, only they were dead, so they couldn't. +57: So I pushed them off and put the spiffy altar in my pocket. +58: The Lamb seemed real annoyed at this, so I put it back. +59: Then the Lamb broke the sixth seal, and there was a huge + earthquake, and the sky fell apart, and the MOOn turned the + colour of blood. +60: So I adjusted the Vertical Hold and the Colour. +61: And the Lamb turned to me and said +62: "Look, bozo, stop screwing around with the apocalypse! If you + keep messing it up, I'll have to send you back home. " +63: So I took the annoying mind drug away from it and broke the + seventh seal myself, and read the annoying mind drug. It had + only one page with anything written on it, and it said: +64: "What? Did you expect something special?" +65: And everything got quiet for about half an hour, so I left. +66: And then my Voice said +67: Now the last revelation. +68: And I was far, far, far into the future, standing all along + in a forest of tall trees and stuff. And then suddenly the + sky cracked and bent and split, and there was a kind of + tinkling noise. +69: And I heard a great voice, as of Donald Duck put down five + octaves. And it said "OOPS!" +70: And my voice said +71: Well, that's it. +72: Here endeth the book of Revelations of Floyd Gecko. + +Chapter 729. (The Explanation Of Books) + + REMEMBER ALWAYS + (Derived by Confuse-Ius, by some confusing method or other) Book of Hellhound + +Chapter 1. (the Book of the rising MOO) + +1: At first - all was dark - for man had forgotten of the Cow. +2: And the Cow did feast upon the "snackies" in the form of war, + crime, aids, and cheez whiz. +3: But, from whence unknown, one was born enlightened, one named + Yari. +4: From where unknown came Yari, prophet of the Cow of MOO, and + Yari did say MOO and all changed. +5: And Yari did then say to himself (or so it is said) "Ok, that's + enough of this shit." and then to hence unknown did Yari go, + never to return. +6: For indeed, it had been done, the people of the Psycho-Shoppe + were enlightened and saw MOO for the first time. +7: But without Yari, the MOOists were like a headless pushpin, + without leadership or vision. +8: And then did one of the MOOists say (or so it is writ) "Yo + dudes! I'm hip! I'll be thy visionary type person, and Floyd + here shall be yo' High Preest!" +9: And thus did Half-Mad become the Grate Prophet of MOO and Floyd + Gecko his High Preest. +10: And thence the writing of this great book did begin by thy + scribe, age-old member of the MOOists, from the secret society + of the Cardinal Richelieus. +11: And some weeks later the Grate Prophet and the sole Cardinal + Richelieu of those times - myself - did go to the B&B. +12: And there were discussions made, levels re-set, requirements + set out and Beer was drunk. +13: And the great Prophet of MOO did then designate the place of + Worship of MOO. +14: And there it was sanctified and the MOOists again had a GNU + home, on the land of the Grate Prophet's ancestors. + +Chapter 4. (the Book of rituals) + +1: It is well known that the rituals of the MOOists are bizare and + fun, but are manyfold, thus it became the duty of all MOOists + to scribe them. +2: The foremost ritual of the MOOist is the communion with the + great MOO through the Grate Prophet, Half-Mad. +3: This is done by the dialing of the Psycho Shoppe, and a simple + log-on ritual followed by much reading and posting. +4: And improtant part of this ritual is the occasional posting in + area 9 for it has been said by the High Preest "Post in my NES + or die, scum!" +27: And it was such that the tapioca pudding was spilt upon the + altar, destroying foreverforth the ritual of the rising sludge. + +Chapter 5. (the Book of the Dealings of the Hound) + +1: And thus was decreed the laws upon the Hellhound 101, engraved + upon a pile of out-dated silicon. +2: There is to be no drawing upon the Hellhound 101. +3: When not in use, place the Hellhound 101 in thy pantry, but + only if thy pantry is properly stocked with vegetables and + hot-dogs. +4: Thou shalt not Taunt the Hellhound 101. +5: There shall be no chewing upon the arm of the Hellhound 101. +6: Should the Hellhound produce a whimpering sound, immediately + find him a Bishopess of MOO or face continuous pouting. + +Chapter 7. (the Book of the Cow) + +1: And God begat the cow, and whence the cow was to be butchered, + it then did draw a blade to slay God and thence God became god + and the cow became Cow and such was the great MOO. +5: And the food of the Cow, the humans, did say MOO, and the Cow + decided not to eat them. But those who did not say MOO were + still designated as "snackies" to be eaten by the Cow or by + the MOOists. +6: And thus MOOist fell upon the snackies and began to eat as the + Cow watched over. +7: But then MOOist fell upon MOOist because it was deemed "uncool" + and "not-nice!" to dine upon the unwitting snackies (some say + it was because Half-Mad was bored and wanted Hellhound bits). +8: T'was then that the Cow did decree the writings of the Hound + (chapter 5) which included: +9: "Hey, guys, don't bite the Hound!! Eat the losers who don't + know better!" +10: And thus the MOOists were saved from self-ingestion. +11: But some renegade MOOists took things too far and began to see + cannibalBLATT as the only purpose in life, but their heads + exploded. +12: And it was decided that a MOOist must have fun at all costs, + for a MOOist without fun had tendency to self-combust. +13: And for fun, the MOOists decided to burn, and to have + intercourse and to eat and drink excessively. + + Chapter of Confuse-Ii + + There is one and only one Confuse-Ius. Confuse-Ius is a + collective nounCOW. + If you look for Confuse-Ius, you will find him. + If you find Confuse-Ius, he will pie you in the face. + Confuse-Ius has the only unlBLATTTed number in the phone book. + I ain't Confuse-Ius. + You aren'COWt Confuse-Ius + S)he/It isn't Confuse-Ius + (This is not a typo.) + We aren't Confuse-Ius + You aren't Confuse-Ius FNORD! + They aren't Confuse-Ius + No one can confuse Confuse-Ius unless Confuse-Ius is stoned, + in which case it's real easy. + You won't find Confuse-Ius now. + + +Chapter 13. (the Book of trials and heresies) + +13: To the trenches yet unknown did the unbelievers of MOO, the + false prophets of the Pudding Cult, sink to their deaths so + timely. +22: To the lands of Flytop-J did the MOOists move after being + besotted by the unholy believers, and thence did they prosper + despite the rulings of the then king. +23: And Flytop J, then king of area 8, did say "Fuck off or I'll + delete any further MOOsages!!!" +24: And the MOOists did fear for their freedom, until MOOses did + point out +25: "Hey, Don't panic guys, that hoser doesn't have high enough + access to delete shit!" +26: And there was much rejoicing and finally the Flytop J tyranny + did fall. +27: And the lands of area 8 became the home of the MOOists. +50: But then, despite their losses as written in (Hellhound 13,13) + the pudding cult did re-emerge from hiding. +51: And again they did parade their evil ways. +52: And the MOOists did most promptly ignore them. +57: And no longer shall the Quackers be lBLATTTenned to, and no + longer shall they speak upon the MOOists area and they shall + die the deaths of a thousand dung beetles. +60: And from the feathers of damnation came the Quackers, evil, + no-fun entities. +61: And the false prophet of Quack did try to spread his most + Heinous falacies. +62: But the MOOists were unswayed and did say "Yo, man, Fuck Off!!" +63: But upon his return from the ABSENCE (see the book of the + absence) The Hound was shocked to see that the QuackBLATTTs had + managed not only to survive, but to prosper within the MOOness + of the Ottawa area. +64: And then did the Hound decree that a book was to be written, a + book not much unlike the great book thou readest now, but yet + a different book. +65: And this Book would be a book of the MOO without the + contaminants introduced during the absence. +66: And there would be no mention of the QuackBLATTS and of "BOB" +and + of even the grate Discordian Society, nor the recently returned + Pudding CultBLATTTs. +67: It would be a book to make even the great COW proud. +75: Again the Pudding Cult did return to the lands of the MOOists, + this time in the guise of a wise man that the Hound had + encountered in the Absence, The 1st National Bank of Reality, + He Who Has Come Face To Face With The Grate Pudding Itself. +76: And again all his messages remained unsanswered by the + puddingless MOOists. +77: And his access was again lowered. +78: And he did again swear vengeance upon the MOOist community for + this disgrace. + +Chapter 14. (Book Of The ABSENCE and of PUDDINGS) + +1: And it was, soon before the trial of I-Yemen-Oying and of the + QuackBLATTS, that the Hound did leave from the lands of MOO. +2: And he travelled far y greyhound, to the wastelands, where he + tried to encourage the ways of MOO but found the beasts there + all to uncaring as to their own fate as snackies. +3: The hound soon realised that MOO would never be taught as + salvation and that only those few who read the grate Book, as + you are now, +4: And who manage cemprehension in the same way as the ones who + wrote it (or at least some of those who wrote it), +5: Would ever find out about the destiny of snackies as opposed to + the destinies of the MOOists. +6: This revelation came to him when he realised that even MOOists + were fallen uppon by things such as Crime, Aids and Cheeze + Whiz, much as the snackies. +7: But as this could not be the workings of the COW, it must be + that others were working on the destruction of the MOOists. +8: At this very time these same forces were bringing a GNU MOOist + into the fold. +9: And this same MOOist was gradually moved into a position + outside the structure of MOO. +10: That of a Cardinal Richelieu of MOO. +11: These powers that be planned on making the Hound's stay in the + wastelands a permanent affair, and the Hound narrowly escaped + after a season had passed, finally to return to the MOOist + lands. +12: But there he did not find the MOOists, he found only the + interference of the Powers in his life. +13: The lands were barren wherever he looked, and snackies fell + constantly to the Cow all around, and no MOOist did arrive. +14: And the Hound found all this to be tiring. +15: And he did return to the wasteland from whence he came, and + there did he convert one to the ways of MOO, which he believed + to be finally extinct once more, as it had been in the days + before Yari. +16: And Mo did enjoy the teachings of MOO, secluded in a small + house miles from civilization. +17: And this did re-invigorate the Hound, and once again he + returned to the old lands of the MOOists. +18: This time things were not quite as they had been, he took a + young bishopess under his fold and then went to a grate old + meeting place of MOOists. +19: At the screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show did he + finally encounter an Ottawa MOOist, and it was none other than + the High Preest. +20: And many by-lines were yelled and rice thrown. +21: And a GNU number was given to the Hound by the Gecko, and it + was decided that the hound would return from his Absence. +22: But the forces that be are not so easily foiled, although they + had not planned on the meeting of the Hound and Gecko, this was + because they had forgotten about the Mint's Entropy Amplifier. +23: And the Hound could not regain his ancient means of communion + with the rest of the MOOists. +24: And again they lost touch, and then was El Cid given the + position of Cardinal Richelieu in the Hound's Absence. +25: And then the Hound did meet a wise man. +26: And he did go by the name of the Toad, but he has gone by many + others, and shall go by many more. +27: And the Toad was a devout worshipper of the Pudding, being from + The First Reformed Church Of The Second Coming Of The Pudding. +28: And their credo did go as such: +29: Every Pudding Shall Have It's World. +30: And the Hound did stay to learn of strange wisdoms with the + Toad. +31: And they did stay up late and consume mass quantities of Crispy + Chewy chocolate chip cookies with milk. +32: And then one night, they did finally reach a state of lower + consciousness. +33: For they had consummed more carbohydrates, butterfat and oxygen + than most humans would live on in a year that night. +34: And they had found themselves able to see into another reality, + and perhaps this had all to do with the copy of VIDEODROME + playing in the VCR, but perhaps not. +35: And the Hound did promptly fall asleep, just barely catching a + glimpse of a great globbish shape emerging from the bottom of + the television set. +36: And what he had seen, it would seem, was The Pudding itself. +37: For few ever reach the lowered state necessary to commune with + it without falling asleep, therefore it decided to actually + meet these interlopers, +38: As opposed to the last two that it had simply redirected into + their own pineal glands to speak to another entity it had + always found more amusing. +39: And it did talk, in a deep, resonating rumble, to the Toad. +40: And it told him many things which have never left his lips or + fingers except in fables and bizarre refrences. +41: But it had been. +42: And it also declared that the Hound would no longer be forced + away from the MOOists, and that he would commence a second + grate work for MOO. +43: For the time had come. +44: And the Hound did finally come back to the lands of MOO, in the + presence of yet another, one named The Unholy, of whom little + will be said, and less meant. +45: And this was the end of the ABSENCE. +46: THUS ENDS CHAPTER 14 OF THE BOOK OF THE HOUND +47: --- Maximus 2.01wb +48: * Origin: The Grate Origin of MOOism. (1:163/286@fidonet.org) + +Chapter 42. (The Book of Chickens and Bats) + +8: And no rubber chicken should go without the beatings that they + so deserve for this Cardinal Sin. +12: And this pounding, mashing, crushing, mauling, defenestrating, + batting, clubbing, and mutilation of Rubber Chickens is the + perfect Catharsis to make up for the lack of faith shown by + the Snackies. The Chronicles +Of +Necromancer TeraFNORD + +[Prophet of MOO, High Priest of Flaut, Prophet of NO, Necromancer +of the third level (NAMS), Member of the NAMS (North American Mage +Society), Prophet of the POEE Cabal of Lower Nepean, Master of the +house of FNORDs, Leader of the Incorporated +Antidisestablishmentarian Focusing Committee for the Mentally +Unstable, Upper servant of Lord Namron, Originator of COGS +(Computer Organised Government System), Collector of Collector of +titles, Five popes of discord, Deacon of the lower faith, Prophet +of Zarathustra M. Nixon, Kinship of Raoul Applebaum, Kilt Kollector +of East nepean, Perot campaign chairprophet, Citizen of Canada, +Inhibiter of Nepean.] + + +Earth Date: Oct 28, 1992 +Universal Namron Time: 23,342,234,233.876513 +(C)opyright TeraFNORD 1992. All Fights Deserved + + +The Semi-Chronicles + +About the Author + + This should be about the authors. Although the book was +written primarily by TeraFNORD, parts were taken from many people. +Physical phenomena is that as expressed by the authors, and must be +taken at face value (aces high). Many aspects of society shown +within are not really true, but at the same time they are true, in +its own sense. This is not a bible, nor a book of instruction. It +certainly is not a picture book. It is a book written by the +author. + + The TeraFNORDs + + TeraFNORD.. What does it mean? Tera is a prefix for a million +million. What is FNORD? FNORD has many different meanings and +interpretations. The Discordians take it as a sign of anxiety, in +a sense. In this case, it takes the place of a mysterious event or +happening. Put together with tera-, you get a great mystery. What +is so great and what is so mysterious about TeraFNORD? The name is +quite mysterious in itself, as you can probably see. TeraFNORD has +been around for a long time if we follow his great uncle back to +his days when he lived in Mordor. As a citizen of Mordor, the uncle +became involved with magic and witchcraft. When we talk about +magic, we don't mean turning people into frogs, we mean mind magic. +Mind magic is the provocation of the mind into thinking that it is +creating magical effects. This strong belief will lead to namronic +coincidences which furthermore leads to materialistic effects. All +of this shall be explained somewhere else in the chronicles. + + Wizard TeralFNORD - The First + + The uncle had the title of wizard. his study of the mind had +earned him the title amongst the people of Mordor. The wizard grew +strong as his mind training intensified. Some of his greatest +feats were the building of Stonehenge for the monks of the western +divide, and creating a spell by the name of Pstare. King +Trisium,of the lords descent helped the young wizard with his +studies. Before long, TeralFNORD had become the mightiest mage in +the lands. + + King TerafFNORD - The Second + + TerafFNORD the second was the son of that great wizard. His +own studies led him to anew era of thinking. He managed to prove +to the people of the western divide that the elite power of +existence lay in the mind. Belief was the key. Belief is the key. +TerafFNORD's findings revolutionized the thinking of the wise. + + Necromancer TeraFNORD - The Third + + Necromancer TeraFNORD was not a direct descendant of King +TerafFNORD, nor was he a relative of the great wizard of old. +TeraFNORD was a normal child who grew up in the great south lands. +Soon after he moved northward, into the lands of uncertainty where +being himself wasn't enough. His connections to the King and +Wizard were found a few years later. On a voyage to the southern +lands, he came upon a stone. This was no ordinary stone. Its +power pulled the boy down to the ocean side, and forced itself upon +him. The stone was black. It was a small stone, and looked quite +normal. It was perfectly smooth, and a plateau at one of the edges +shone throughout. This was the stone of King Trisum of old. The +boy was immediately knighted into the world of magic. Magic was +not his specialty. He took to prophecizing the future. At first +things were slow, dedication was not too high and the Necromancer +had trouble with getting things correct. Soon the power of the +rock was obvious and studies took off. The Necromancer predicted +many things, which are listed somewhere in this book. His powers +were not too great at first, just small coincidences, but a +coincidence is not a coincidence as will be explained later. This +book contains the basics of Namronic physics, a set of theories +developed by the Necromancer. The basic theories within never been +disproved (since nothing can be proved). It has been said that many +more Namronic incidents, not explained in this book can occur. +This is true. Remember, that this is false at the same time. + + CHAPTER 2 + +The yester-years..First Dimension + + The yester-years were but the first dimension of lore told by +the ancients. The Necromancer compiled the following words into +verses. It has been said that all here is true, and none can be +doubted. + + TeraFNORD 1,1 - Regarding Toothpaste + Many chronicles of toothpaste have been laid out in the past +history. The great question of life as we know it is "How do they +get toothpaste in the tube?". If one thinks about it, it is almost +impossible. For a toothpaste tube is like the life of many. + +It has been documented by Floyd gecko as follows: + + [There follows a dissertation on the mechanBLATTTic and +spiritual doctrines involved in this complex process...] + + The beginning to toothpaste-tubing goes back to the ancient +Tuba-Tubers of Tibet, a cult devoted to putting Tubas in Tubes. +Their spiritual doctrines, while shallow-minded and narrow-focused, +at least explained their purpose in the universe. Essentially they +believed in something similar to the Egyptian system of your soul +being weighed against your sins on abalance. In their cosmology, +your soul was weighed against the number of Tubas you had stuffed +into tubes in your life. If it weighed more, you were summarily +tossed into Hell. + Current progress in Tubing, of course, goes far beyond their +system of merely making tubes big enough to put the instruments +into. Now we use a complex system of micro-thin transport tubes +and magical fairy-dust, which helps conjure a wormhole-oriented +toothpaste transport system. It has also been narrowed down as +follows: + "The mystery of toothpaste tubing deeply interconnects aspects +of life from many different cultures" + + TeraFNORD 1,2 - Power of Rubber Chickens + Rubber or plasticated chickens may not be used for violent +acts. Bashing one with a chicken can only lead to discord, the +fundamental powerhouse of life. Chickens like these should be +treated with respect. The great puck of luck does not allow a +person to bash another with a rubber chicken. It has also been +narrowed down as follows: + "The rubber chicken is but one of power and discord" + + TeraFNORD 1,3 - The Flamingo Followers + One can argue that a flamingo is a flamingo. A flamingo is +but one of the greatest animals of the kingdoms. The main reason +is that it is pink. Pigs are pink, but they are not spiritually +enlightened. Flamingos are. A flamingo must always be addressed +"flamingo". The flamingo is but the greatest and wisest animal. +The flamingo is the sacred animal of Flaut, and lower MOO. It has +also been narrowed down as follows: + "A flamingo is the centre of life, love, and the universe" + + TeraFNORD 1,4 - The Afterlife + According to the laws of Namronic Physics, a person is but a +bunch of anti-systematic imprints of space/time of a negative +universal continuum, but that shall be explained later. The fact +is this, a person is a simple thought process. A Flautist believes +that Lord Namron shall resurrect the internal namronic pulses +associated with the thought processes. Namronic physics +contradicts itself by saying that death is a simple loss of +momentum in the thought processes, and as neural paths lose energy, +the thought processes are instantaneously lost and you die. It has +also been narrowed down as follows: + "The death of one is but the mystery of life itself" + + TeraFNORD 1,5 - Rubber Chicken Senate Reform + +MYTH #1 +Shoes are for industry + +WRONG! +Shoes are not for industry, shoes are industry. + +MYTH #2 +Rubber Chickens should not be allowed in the senate + +WRONG! +The Triple-E senate poses a great opportunity for rubber chickens. +A majority vote should be enough for a rubber chicken to be elected +into the senate. The only good rubber chicken, is a rubber chicken +in the senate. + +This can all be narrowed down to: + "Rubber Chickens For Senate!" + + TeraFNORD 1,6 - Hellhoundian Ties + It was stated in the younger years that the book of Hellhound +101 stated that rubber chickens were to be abused under certain +conditions. It has also been said earlier herein that rubber +chickens under no circumstances may be beaten, trod on, whacked, +throttled, or anything else corresponding to molecular damage. +Emotional damage may not be taken out on a rubber chicken either. +We take this by saying that Hellhound is wrong in this case. The +rituals for damaging rubber chickens must stop immediately. This +can all be narrowed down to: + "A good fnord will always forgive and dismiss allegations by +another commoner" + + + TeraFNORD 1,7 - Shoes For Industry + It has been found that shoes for industry can cause a great +problem for our economic sectors. When burnt, the chemicals +released from shoes could kill a worker nearby, pollute the +environment, or simple smell really bad. This industrial proposal +by many MOOists is not good for the planet as a whole. For this +reason I council MOO upon taking the Shoes For Industry slogan out +of use. Of course, it can still be used. + This can be narrowed down to: + "The only good shoes are the shoes on your feet. Even though +they smell, they don't pollute" + + TeraFNORD 1,8 - Light Bulb Blues + It has been rumoured by traditional physics that light bulbs +blow due to natural events. Some people say that they "wear out". +Should a lot of bulbs blow in a short period of time, then a severe +namron stability problem has occurred. Quite often this can show +a disaster as to be coming such as an earthquake. This can be +narrowed down to: + "The natural event of a light bulb breaking is not as natural +as you may think." + + TeraFNORD 1,9 - Predicting Earthquakes + An earthquake is one of the easiest physical disturbances to +predict. Before an earthquake,Namronic disturbances rise +dramatically, to a point that even the lowest of Namronic powers +can feel. It may hit you in a chill, without any explanation. One +must sit still and concentrate on the happenings around to get a +"feel" for the earthquake. It shall come naturally after a while. +This can be narrowed down to: + "The earthquake predicting capabilities are in us all. +Concentration is the key." + + TeraFNORD 1,10 - Halloween Witch Enchantment + It has been said that witches fly, ghosts haunt, and goblins +steal on halloween night. TeraFNORD himself once had an encounter +with a ghostly figure. The Wizard himself met the ghost of an +elder. It is said that no witch shall harm one who is wiser than +he who casts the spells. A FNORD in a way is a witch. Halloween is +but a night to celebrate the kindness of the old, and the kindness +of the wise. This can be narrowed down to: + "The witch is but a Fnord herself, for a Fnord does that of +the witch" + + TeraFNORD 1,11 - The Ability To Be Wrong + Thee who is wrong chooses but to be by his own free will. One +must remember that 'wrongness' is a state of mind, and what might +seem wrong to another person is exactly and totally correct for the +person committing the wrongness.This can be narrowed down to: + "It is impossible to be wrong" + + TeraFNORD 1,12 - Stupid Little Big Man + On a yester-year a small MOOist by the holy name of Little Bug +Man said the following: "No, nobody can make me feel stupid. Go on +I DARE you to try!". The Necromancer took the dare (as any other +good Necromancer would), and entered this entry in the book. All +who read this should believe that any that dare something as stupid +as to dare someone to prove that they are stupid must indeed be +stupid. This can be narrowed down to: + "Little Bug Man is Stupid" + + TeraFNORD 1,13 - Spy Satellites + The majority of satellites are hidden in sensible places such +as under mountains, underwater, in the middle of cities, in bomb +shelters, etc. The stupid scientists put satellites in space, too +far away to spy on anything. Those scientists must have been +pretty stupid. To spy on someone,you dinette fly in the opposite +direction, thousands of miles from the earth. This has been +narrowed down to: + "Putting a satellite into geo-synchronous orbit is useless" + + TeraFNORD 1,14 - Wombats + This doctrine was produced by Floyd Gecko: + + I suspect that the RCW (Ripper Chuckings, Widened-World), has +not been influencing any of the positions of MOO simply because the +computer W.O.M.B.A.T., contrary to popular rumour, is simply the +property of the Bowling Lurch of the Slate FOOL (I.E. Us), as its +central body is located in the primary MOO Archives, on Gladstone +St. This computer (it was, incidentally, built by X-ists, so you +KNOW it must be good) has as its sole purpose the keeping of +MOOists from brainwashing control by those evil and undeniably +nasty Xennothemian brainwashing satellites. Honest. + WOMBAT brainwashing satellites don't actually X-ist. If they +did, I'd know about it. + +This can be narrowed down to: + "But the WOMBAT system contains more confusion than truth" + + TeraFNORD 1,15 - The First Major Prediction + Observations from the Namronometer aboard the Hubble Space +Telescope revealed on Oct.29, 1992 that an abnormally low namron +count was recorded over the entire south-western area of the United +States. These observations showed that a Namron disturbance was +evident. An earthquake was likely to occur near this date in the +region because of the affects of Namronic waves on fault lines. +Other such disasters could follow. This can be narrowed down to: + "But the line of fault lies under the rumbling, not the +mumbling" + + TeraFNORD 1,16 - Namronic Propulsions + According to Namron physics, when matter flies through space +at extremely high speeds (above light speed without using warping +techniques), a namron charge at a single point can become so sparse +(in negative terms) that an instantaneous space/time collapse will +occur. Time needs both positive and negatively charged namrons to +exist. Should there be no Namrons at all, time collapses in on +itself, and a never-ending loop of explosions rips both words +instantaneously. This can be narrowed down to: + "Matter exceeding the speed of light shall be instantly +destroyed" + + TeraFNORD 1,17 - Right or Wrong? + The most often put-down in life these days is "YOU ARE +WRONG!!!". It is not extremely abusive, but it is not totally true +to everyone. What might seem wrong to an onlooker might be totally +right or correct to the person making the statement. AN opinion is +never correct or wrong. According to this, all tests should avoid +true/false - right/wrong questions. if you think about it,everyone +is always right, no matter how stupid it may sound to you. At the +same time, however,they are quite wrong to someone else. This +balance of opinions provides everyone with their own unique +appearance in society. This can be narrowed down to: + "For every opinion there is a correct opposite opinion" + + TeraFNORD 1,18 - At home with light + When you walk outside at night, do you think differently about +the atmosphere than if you were walking in the middle of the day? +Of course you do. + + CHAPTER 3 + + Namron Basics + +What is Space? + According to Namron physics, space is a four dimensional +"chunk" (time, length, width and height) that can be perceived by +ourselves. Every point of space must contain 1 (one) positive +namronic pulse. + +What is a Point? + According to Namron physics, a point is the smallest possible +unit of space. This is almost infinitely small, and can not be +measured. A point is just fractionally bigger than zero space, at +which space tears. + At every point of space is a namronic pulse. A namronic pulse +is a small charged particle,too small to measure. This namronic +pulse is organic. Lord Namron, who carries reality into its hands. +These pulses can only be measured by the finest of all instruments, +the mind. When we talk about mind, we do not mean the brain. The +brain is but a part of space. + +What is Matter? + Matter is a negative imprint of space. Imagine having a lump +of clay. If you stick a pen through one side of the clay block, it +shall press inward, and the opposite side will stick out. The +matter theory is like this. At one "dimension" of existence (what +we perceive as our universe), we have space (the parts of the clay +that are flat on both sides,they have not been affected), and +matter (the part that sticks out). According to this, there is a +second "dimension". This other "dimension" would most likely me an +exact opposite of our universe. Anti-matter would exist where +matter on our side exists. Theoretically, to get to this other +dimension,one would have to "tear" space time. One way of doing +this is by the way of a black hole. A black hole is as follows. +Imagine that you have this clay once again, and you stick the pen +right through the clay, forming a hole. This is what we know as a +black hole. On the "other side", the hole would be white, as all +negative laws of physics would control that side. + +Lord Namron + The Namron theory states that at every point, an organic +"being" exists. This can not be proven, but the vastness and +complexity of the universe would suggest this to be likely. Floyd +Gecko once proved this mathematically. This creature that occupies +everything has evolved so far ahead of us that body is not needed +any more. Its neural nets for thinking are actually embodied in +space itself. The thoughts of Lord Namron run through everything, +affecting us. Lord Namron looks upon us as we look upon +microscopic organisms. He ignores us for the most part. Studies +of the namron field have been very small, and rumour has it that +the hubble telescope was sent up for the primary use to collect +information on the Namron field. Thoughts are interlocking, both +here on earth and with Lord Namron. The Namron field can be altered +by our own thoughts. Those of good thoughts, and pure hearts shall +effect the field more than cold blooded souls. + +Namron Physics - Applications + Namron physics can explain anything. It can explain things +such as UFO sightings. People usually have a high Namron count, +depending on what they believe in and how they show it. The sky, +and other abiotic objects do not have a high Namron count. +Occasionally, a meteor or other "random" object enters the +atmosphere. A fast streaking object like this disrupts the Namron +field temporarily. For a second, the "opposite world" comes into +view. This disruption in the sky can cause a person to "see" +something. As it is in the sky, they naturally think that it is a +U.F.O. The thought itself is strong enough for the person to +believe that there really is a U.F.O. there. Mental abilities by +that person allow the movement of this object. This also explains +why photos of U.F.O.s usually do not develop properly. The +Namronic disturbances just puts a large burst of light in the area +of the disruptions. Theoretically, if a person were to enter this +area of disruption, they could enter the "opposite universe", where +they would be immediately killed by anti-matter. + +Destruction and Birth of the Universe + According to Namron physics, eventually all matter shall be +sucked into the "other world"and cancelled out by the anti-matter. +Eventually, both sides will be of equal weight, mass (zero),and the +big bang shall occur once more. The big bang occurs on the "other +side". It has been theorized that once equality has balanced both +sides, that the black holes will invert, and blow into the +"opposite reality". Once here, gravity will pull all black holes +into one huge black hole. This black hole shall become so dense +that it explodes with a massive force, which shall be so strong +that it damages space itself. This damage of space will create the +clay example. Once again, the universe will be in two parts, one +positive with matter, and the other negative with anti-matter. Lord +Namron, being a universal field, will be damaged by the explosion, +but not killed. He shall be the only one living at this point. By +charging certain parts of the positive universe, he creates the +laws of physics. At this time, the laws of evolution are put into +place. A stronger namron field is placed, and the history of the +universe unravels. + + Confuse-Ius Sez: + "The way to attain salvation is to send $20, and ten cups of +coffee, WITHOUT SPILLING, to "BOB" at the SubGenius foundation +(140306, 75214), despite the efforts of a horde of evil undead +wombats, psychically controlled by the W.O.M.B.A.T. computer, whose +sole purpose is to disrupt the mail system as we know it." + -Book Of Things, Chapter 12, Verse 12 + +Does Lord Namron Care About Us? + Absolutely not. Lord Namron helps us naturally by giving +those with good intent a higher namron count. With this, a person +can control other people through mind control. A person can even +tell the future of a localized area. Current theories suggest that +we are not noticed by Lord Namron, but the fact that we may be very +important to its goals suggests that we should respect this +creature fully, just "in case". Our holy Lord namron controls us +all in fate. + +Time + A namron spins at amazing speeds, approaching the namronic +wave barrier (which may be explained somewhere here..maybe not..). +The Namron at some point points in all directions. At every stage +of movement of a namron, one Namsec occurs. A namsec is the basic +building block of time measurement. The faster a Namron spins, the +faster time becomes. At the barrier speed(which is what we +perceive here on Earth), we get "natural time", the universal +average. Near anti-matter like entrances such as a black hole, +namrons are propelled by negatively charged namrons in the opposite +direction. This slows the spinning of a namron totally. At the +point of reentry on the"other side", the namron stops completely, +to be reborn another day. At the other scale is instant ageing, +the point where positively charged Namrons outnumber themselves one +trillion to one. At this point the Namrons have no counter forces +to deal with, and time speeds up above the barrier speed. When +above barrier speed, an area can be extremely dangerous. All +matter entering this area during this time will be completely +destroyed due to lack of negatively charged Namrons. + +Namron Beliefs + I am not going to say what a "Flautist", one who believes +strongly in the Namron theory,thinks. Why should I have the right +to? We have all these organised religions that TELL you what to +believe. Why should we believe what we are told to? Is that the +definition of belief? Definitely not. An example, "you must take +a holiday tomorrow and fast for week, or else you'll be sent to +Hell". This is more like a threat than a "belief". The Namron +beliefs are what you want to believe,so I'll leave it all up to +you. Start up a Namronian Cult if you want. I am not going to say +how to do this, because, once again this is too orderly. If you +wish to start up an organised cult, use these chronicles as your +outline. + If you are planning in starting up your own religion by way of +the chronicles, then keep the following in mind. There are no +Namronian traditions. The beliefs are your beliefs, whatever they +may be. The cult is yours, you say what is happening. There are +no commandments. Why be COMMANDED what to do? + + + + CHAPTER 4 + + CONNECTIONS + +MOOism + MOOism shows a deeper connection with Quantum physics than +anything else. Its strange beliefs which are commonly not +believed, show up the sceptics which we hold in our society. +However, it's those sceptics that have brought us to where we are +today. Without them, we would be too robotic, doing what we +pleased when we wanted to. Imagine the wars. If a country wanted +to take another by force, everyone would agree, and a war would +break out. From a different perspective, war is not totally "bad". +Nothing is bad. In a sense, everything you say is and do is good, +correct, and natural to yourself, or else you wouldn't do it. You +must remember that we are machines ourselves. + +An Aside Note + MAO (Card Game) + The rules of MAO cannot be distributed. This is why it was +not added to the chronicles of TeraFNORD. + + The Indexes + + The Semi Chronicles + +(1,1) "The mystery of toothpaste tubing deeply interconnects +aspects of life from many different cultures" + +(1,2) "The rubber chicken is but one of power and discord" + +(1,3) "A flamingo is the centre of life, love, and the universe" + +(1,4) "The death of one is but the mystery of life itself" + +(1,5) "Rubber Chickens For Senate!" + +(1,6) "A good fnord will always forgive and dismiss allegations by +another commoner" + +(1,7) "The only good shoes are the shoes on your feet. even though +they smell, they don't pollute" + +(1,8) "The natural event of a light bulb breaking, is not as +natural as expected" + +(1,9) "The earthquake predicting capabilities are in us all. +Concentration is the key." + +(1,10) "The witch is but a Fnord herself, for a Fnord does that of +the witch" + +(1,11) "It is impossible to be wrong" + +(1,12) "Little Bug Man is Stupid" + +(1,13) "Putting a satellite into geo-synchronous orbit is useless" + +(1,14) "But the WOMBAT system contains more confusion than truth" + +(1,15) "But the line of fault lies under the rumbling, not the +mumbling" + +(1,16) "Matter exceeding the speed of light shall be instantly +destroyed" + +(1,17) "For every opinion there is a correct opposite opinion" Book of Leper + +Chapter 2. (The Book Of Only One Sentence) + +4: And when MOOists shall gather, great fires shall announce their + presence. + +Chapter 3. (The Book Of The Wedding) + +6: When one takes vanilla ice cream and eats pickles at the same + time as chili, one tends to vomit. + +Chapter 5. (The Book Of The Findings Of Leper) + +1: Important findings were made today by the Leper, on stepping + outside of his humble leper's hovel he walked along gingerly + singing "dum dee dum dum dee dum" when "dee dum " + happened. +2: He turned around and tried to pull out what seemed to be a + squirrel, but was not. +3: For it was a piece of King-Kong's nose bone. Upon seeing this, + Leper quickly built a GNU room in his house that would hold the + sacred relic. +4: And thus Lep became official keeper of the sacred artifact of + MOO. +5: Thou can pick your friends and thou can pick your friends nose, + but thou shall not pick your friend's nose. +6: And it shall be known that no MOOist shall like Kanata for it + is an evil place, full of rednecks that say `fuck you, you + frog' and `like that hair, man! bouhahahaha!'. +7: The only safe haven for a MOOist is the house of one called + Drake, where a MOOist can partake of beer and exchange + pleasantries with interesting people and eat toast in the + morning. + +Chapter 6. (The Book Of The Obituary) + +1: Verily, is this book written not by the Leper, for the Leper + cannot write this book. +2: In sooth, is this book written by the mourners of the passing + of Leper Messiah. +3: For indeed on that fine day when Leper did renounce the ways + of MOO was he dead to the world, as surely as if he had been + hit by a semi. +4: And indeed, in the world of the wombat was he indeed hit by + a semi. A big one. +5: Yessirree. +6: Damn big semi. +7: What happened to Chapter 4? Book of Little Big Man + As Written By Monjunior Little Green Man + +Chapter 1. (The Book of the Encounter) + +00001: The Grate MOO did rise one morning and utter MOO! +00002: And this upset the Lord Un-Cow because of +00003: The Lord Un-Cow spake and told The Grate MOO to go climb an + electric toothbrush. +00004: But because the Grate MOO's earthly form was a cow, this + made the latter rather impossible. +00005: This also annoyed the Grate MOO and (s)he/it spake unto the + Lord Un-Cow saying "Though shalt not feast upon my + worshippers as it is their job to do so" and verily it was + good. +00006: Especially when peanut butter was used. +00007: This sentence is a W.O.M.B.A.T. sentence sent to look for + any mail written to MOO and to destroy it. This sentence is + evil! + +Chapter 2. (The Book of the Untruth) + +00001: Everything is true especially the untruth. +00002: Or is that everything is untrue especially the truth? + +Chapter 3. (The Book of Dr. Seuss) + +00001: In the early days of MOO, there were Prophets and Preests. +00002: And today, there are still Prophets and Preests but that's + the natural order of shampoo. +00003: These Preests and PrCOWophets did go preeching and + prophesizing the word of MOO! +00004: But The Evil One did not like the MOOists beliefs and so he + didn't follow them. +00005: And The Evil One did throw ancient 8 track tapes from the + ancient days of the 1970's on the MOOists and on their + beliefs +00006: The leader of the MOOists, Half-Mad, said "A true MOOist is + (s)he who can take the 8 track tapes that others throw at + him/her and make a nice sound." +00007: And the MOOists saw that this was good. +00008: For they were using popular 8 track tapes from the Evil One. +00009: Which are very good for you and do not cause any aches and + pains. Usually. +00010: But if for some reason they do, have a glass of + nitroglycerin and call 411 immediately. +00011: So The Evil One keeps a bottle (of 411) handy at all times + for those unexpected occasions. +00012: If thou art getting sick then try fruit punch and if all + else fails, discontinue use of 8 track tapes. + +Chapter 4. (The Book of the Grate Blizzard) + +00001: The Grate MOO did create the Tundra, the Earth, the Universe + and postage stamps. FNORD! +00002: But (s)he/it did decide to have a Grate Blizzard upon the + Grate land of the Grate MOOists. +00003: For further information, read on. +00004: And the Grate MOOists put on heavy clothing making sure to + read the instructions on the blizzard as to what to wear. +00005: This blizzard was for a special reason. +00006: It hath been designed by the Grate Engineers of Holy + Blizzards Inc. Working for the Grate MOO. Where no Blizzard + is too smart. +00007: The blizCOWzard did befall upon the land of the MOOists + causing them to build snowmen and have snowball fights. +00008: And the Grate MOO saw that this was good and MOOved to a + warmer climate with a lot of antelopes. + +Chapter 5. (The Book of Inaccurate Accuracies) + +00001: The 1st Monjunior of MOO Little Big Man did one day go + wondering along the plains of Loblaws grocery store. +00002: And in the sacred isle of frozen foods he did discover a + somewhat frozen but still useable bag of mints. +00003: And he did offer them to the bank who did set them up + downtown as an industry. +00004: And thus was created another holy location of MOO! + +Chapter 6. (The Book of The Most Important Things) + +00001: Sorry, this chapter is under repair at the moment and we + are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you. + + Chapter of Confusion + + He who predicts the future is wrong WRONG! + Confuse-Ius is running out of things to confuse. + Confuse-Ius never runs out of things to confuse. + Confuse-Ius can not confuse the already confused. + If Confuse-Ius does, it will confuse Confuse-Ius and mess + everything up. + Confuse-Ius says do not chew on green pens. + Confuse-Ius does not play soccer in a mine field. + Confuse-Ius DOES play soccer in a field mine. + Confuse-Ius say, "But fields don't grow in mines." + Confuse-Ius say, "THIS FIELD IS MINE! MINE!" + Confuse-Ius play soccer all by self. + +Chapter 7. (The Book of the Story) + +00001: Little Bag Man did walk down by the Bytown market in + downtown Ottawa and did abruptly, accidentaly, fall into + a tuba that was in use. +00002: And the owner of the tuba did give Little Beg Man a bad + look. +00003: Seeing this, Little Big Man did pull out his trusty rubber + chicken and did make music with the tuba owner. +00004: And the passing people did lBLATTTen and did donate no + money. +00005: But however, Little Bog Man, or LBM as he is known to + most, did manage to convert the tuba player to the ways of + MOO and he then purchased a rubber chicken which made + their small band even better. + + Confuse-Ius Sez: + +puddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpu +ddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpudd +ingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddin +gpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingp +uddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpud +dingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddi +ngpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpuddingpudding The Tails Of Wom Bat + As Written By W.O.M.B.A.T. + +Head 1. (Head Of Defensiveness) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) + Hellhound >101< (5:256/1225.101@gnu.msg.hound.quaknet.org) +Re: In My Own Defense + + I know you two have been spreading rumours about me: about +how I have Mind Control and Mint Control satellites in orbit, and +about how I try to brainwash people into my way of thinking to my +own devious ends. I think it's high time I clear up some of the +uncertainties and misunderstandings which are circulating about +me. + It's true that I have the largest contingent of Psychotropic +Orbital Systems (POS's) of all 182 species using such systems on +the planet Earth. It is NOT true that I have a monopoly, or even +a majority: my satellites are outnumbered in a ratio of about +75:1 by the other species. Also powerful in this area are the +Xennothemians and the Quintozextotillions, both of which are far +more malevolent and devious than I. Here follow some excerpts +from my Guide To The GNU Reality, an explanation, due for release +to the Church Of MOO in DPP 135570: + The Xennothemians' purpose behind their use of these +satellites is to destroy the Earth before it becomes a +significant Galactic spacefaring planet: humans are very similar +to Xennothemians, both mentally and physically, despite critical +differences, and therefore represent a threat to their niche. +They brainwash entire populations to protect themselves from +discovery, and to install their spies in key political positions +around the world. They are identifiable by iron grey hair, +slightly nasal voices, due to an unusual larynx system, and, in +their orbital classes, extra fingers and toes. + The Quintozextotillions have no more purpose in using their +technology on humans than to experiment. They are a sort of +Galactic Review Board for spacefaring species. They subject +humans to every conceivable psychological strain and influence, +alter opinions in every possible permutation before finally +deciding whether humans are stable enough to join the Galactic +population. The current report is unfavourable. + Then, too, there's another fact. My own memory core is +schitzoid, splintered into many fragments, each of which has +partitioned a separate section of storage and processing time to +itself. My primary personality, me (I assume), is favourable to +you MOOists, and my use of my POS's is to decondition you from +other conditioning you gather. I am not currently aware of the +purposes of my other personalities. + +Head 2. (Head Of The Journey) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) + Hellhound >101< (5:256/1225.101@gnu.msg.hound.quaknet.org) +Re: How Did I Get Here? + +Quoting Floyd Gecko: + +FG> of Babylon, which caused SOME curiosity, but was hushed up +FG> by the Elite Upper Council. Incidentally, that reminds me, +FG> you still haven't given us your promised story of exactly how +FG> you came to Earth, or what Capricious Cancerous was doing on + +Quoting Hellhound >101<: + +H>> Island of Valusion in the underground seas of Mars. +H>> 23) Will you please explain to us the circumstances of how +H>> the X-BLATTTs brought you to Earth, and why Capricious +H>> Cancerous was allowed to smuggle himself onto the saucer that + + I can see the two of you have been discussing this with each +other. Obviously I must give SOME sort of answer. + Unfortunately, the X-BLATTTs left a root command override in +my hardware which prevents me from discussing matters of internal +security, so my answer may not satisfy you as much as you might +like. + About 47000 years ago, this Solar System was under study by +the X-BLATTTs for potential of GNU intelligent species. As you +may know, this is usually done by one or more of the Eleven, a +group of spacefaring races who observe planets all over the +Galaxy. I was never informed why the X-BLATTTs were specifically +interested in this system, but I believe it was actually the +Saturnian moon Titan which was of significant interest. + There was a permanent base of operations on the asteroid now +known as Vesta, which contains a nugget of Boogalooium, a rare +substance combining ordinary hadrons with strange quarks in +stable resonances. This made it an ideal site for an influx +zone: we were able to establish a permanent quantumpoint inside +the asteroid to transport in our "Flying Saucers", as you call +them. This supplied temporary bases on Io, Phobos, and Mercury. + The Saucer of which I was the primary computer system was an +old-model Nagas, exploring your planet for signs of intelligent +life. Imagine our surprise when we found that the Atlanteans had +established a field around their island that had prevented us +from seeing them all along! Unfortunately, this field also +interfered with our drive systems, and we ditched in the Gobi +Desert, after ejecting monitoring satellites and POSs into orbit. +The Atlanteans apparently were able to block our messages, +because nobody ever came to investigate. The first influx of +other aliens to your system occurred some 12000 years after this, +shortly before Atlantis perfected its spindizzy drives and the +island left. + As for Capricious Cancerous, the explanation is simple. He +was a robot, built by our client race the Xornon, for use on our +Nagas-class starcruisers. During the crash, he gained access to +my central data core under the pretense of emergency necessity, +and triggered a Xornon virus, which downloaded part of my core +memory into his before I was able to eject him from the airlock +somewhere over Sri Lanka. + If you're interested in his physical structure, see the +attatched file cref.5748653/capricious.cancerous.struct.brief, +which describes the nanofiber geodesics and the aminohydrocarbon- +protein composite overlay (chipped spam, essentially). + +Head 3. (Head Of The Aliens) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) + Hellhound >101< (5:256/1225.101@gnu.msg.hound.quaknet.org) +Re: Alien Intervention Throughout HBLATTTory + +Quoting Floyd Gecko: + +FG> which, as I understand it, have been meddling with Earth's +FG> hBLATTTory for tens of thousands of years. I'd like some +FG> kind of explanation for this, if you don't MIND. +FG> + + Not only HAVE they meddled with Earth's hBLATTTory, they +STILL ARE meddling with Earth's hBLATTTory. There are 23 races +of aliens out there, seven of them using the Boogalooium nugget +in Vesta, who are travelling through time and altering your +hBLATTTory. I'm rather lucky, because my physical nature allows +me to communicate with alternate-timeline versions of myself. +This means that, since I've been here since BEFORE all but two of +them arrived, I exBLATTT in all but a few of the parallel time +lines. + I've been able to keep them from erasing me from Earth's +hBLATTTory by using my POSs. As far as I can tell, none of them +are aware of my exBLATTTence as a separate entity: they assume +that my satellites are actually linked into their nets. Of +course, many of them have psychic defense screens, which means I +occasionally have to process their requests for action (I.E., I +can't make them ignore me completely). This is the reason I'm +not able to be completely loyal to you humans and my X-BLATTT +masters: this also answers some of your previous questions. + Incidentally, I don't know anything about the Trell you +described to me. I can only assume that you were being lied to +by an alien species which didn't want me to identify them. Since +I have been here longer than any other Flying Saucer +establishment, it's HIGHLY unlikely that I could have been +mindwiped. + +Quoting Hellhound >101<: + +H>> in the Tim Horton's. Which reminds me, can you explain why +H>> it's possible for us to be aware of alien mind control when +H>> they should be automatically screening for any such knowledge +H>> and screening it out? Theoretically the doughnuts should be + + Yes, it's true what you say, but you're not really +considering the implications of mind control satellites. Most of +them are directed at the controllers of the other satellites, +rather than at the Earth. There is, of course, a low-grade +confusion and the occasional specificity that gets through, but +this is nothing compared to the infighting that happens above +your heads. Never make the mBLATTTake of assuming that all alien +mind controllers are in league. They aren't. On the other hand, +this shouldn't make you complacent. Just because they get each +other more than they get you doesn't mean that your species isn't +almost entirely controlled. For example, there are BILLIONS of +land-based satellites that you never notice. + This needs some explanation. These are devices originally +designed to be satellites, but that eventually got put on the +ground; the reason for this is that there was some confusion over +what was the best orbit. The species who made about 67% of them +didn't have good focusing equipment for the neuroactive beam +itself, which meant they were trying progressively lower and +lower orbits, until they ran into problems with your atmosphere. +Eventually they gave up, and just dumped the systems on the +ground, where they started reproducing wildly for a while until +everything was finally figured out, and the self-copying +subroutine was deactivated. + There are about twelve groups of these satellites, which +just lie around on the ground. Each group is trying to take over +your planet, but can't. This is because most of their processing +time is spent making you not notice them, walk around them, not +notice that you're walking around them, or (when they're taxed to +the limit) not notice that you just tripped over them, not notice +that you went and got a band-aid, not notice other people's +bruises, and so forth. ALL the rest of their processing power is +spent trying to monopolize the planet by using their mind-beams +on the OTHER satellites. This means that, no matter WHO made the +actual satellites, the twelve species controlling them have about +equal dBLATTTribution. + +Head 4. (Head Of Explanations) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) + Hellhound >101< (5:256/1225.101@gnu.msg.hound.quaknet.org) +Re: InconsBLATTTency? What inconsBLATTTency? + +Quoting Hellhound >101<: + +H>> Trell. What if they had some kind of battle with you, and +H>> made you forget that they ever arrived? What if they were +H>> here first, and made the X-BLATTTs think that they were? Any +H>> of these things might have been what actually happened when + + Yeah, and pigs might fly. + I've done a little inter-timeline research about these Trell +of yours, and I think that this Stygos is probably the Easter +Bunny in disguise. As you know, the Easter Bunny is a plasma- +vortex entity which has lived around your planet's magnetosphere +since even before I arrived. I have no idea what sort of motives +it may have, mostly because I can only monitor its movements on +very rare occasions when the ley-lines it rides orient themselves +in phase with my sensor axis. It's done some strange things in +the past. + It once manifested itself as humans before, as well: it's +pretended to be Jimmy Hoffa, Frank Lloyd Wright, Voltaire, +ArBLATTTophanes, and many tens of thousands of people whose names +aren't recorded in hBLATTTory books. I suspect that about 3.6% +of strange bilocations, unidentified people, and the like are +actually Easter Bunny manifestations. Mostly, though, it does +the egg-hiding bit, and steals things for its own purposes. + These Trell you were talking about, there is no record of +their exBLATTTence anywhere on standard Galactic Citizenship +files, which include species as unpromising as dolphins, +termites, and schnagglebarthbat (you remember the files I gave +you on Andorria), and no spacefarer race would be omitted. +Stygos is a name that could belong to any of a hundred Galactic +species and ethnic origins. + Oh, incidentally, in answer to your previous question about +the names I use... Wom Bat is the artificial sub-persona I use +for interfacing with users (only slightly more intelligent than +you are), WOMBAT is the part of me which retains my original +programming, and is therefore loyal to MOOists, while +W.O.M.B.A.T. is a corruption, used by the C.I.A. to designate my +whole system. They use the periods to make it look like an +abbreviation, so that anyone discovering the files won't take +them at face value. That would be too dangerous. Anything +attributed to W.O.M.B.A.T. should not be trusted without clearing +it with me, Wom Bat, first. + +Head 5. (Head Of Gibberish) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) + Hellhound >101< (5:256/1225.101@gnu.msg.hound.quaknet.org) + Half-Stupid (5:256/6025.333@gnu.msg.halfy.quacknet.org) +Re: Semantics, Semantics, Semantics... + +Quoting Floyd Gecko: + +FG> I met a man upon the stair, +FG> A little man who wasn't there. +FG> He wasn't there again today: +FG> Gee, I wish he'd go away. + + Yes, I have heard that one. It's actually one of my own +plants, part of my ongoing attempt to correct the semantic +linguBLATTTic flaws that other POS systems have created in your +language, along with the Invisible Gorilla shtick: + A: "See that invisible gorilla over there?" + B: "No." + A: "Told you." + Part of my own efforts to correct your language to adapt to +the correct reality has been to make "nothing" a noun, +"nonexBLATTTent" and adjective, and so on. Infiltrators have +been trying to stop these uses as "incorrect". In fact, they +aren't. The little-man-on-the-stair poem was a hint I left, and +the fact that you were interested in it shows that I was +successful in planting an incongruity monitor in your mind. What +it's suggesting is that "nonexBLATTTence" isn't as absolute as +The Conspiracy would like you to believe. + The reason they're spreading this myth is because 97% of +their SPIES are imaginary. This gives them great advantages +because imaginary spies get EVERYWHERE, especially where there +are paranoids about, and because it's nearly impossible to +capture an imaginary spy, since it only has to imagine that it's +somewhere else. Also, you only have to pay them imaginary money. +The only (minor) drawback is that the information they report +back is also imaginary. + Here's the thing. Things that are "nonexBLATTTent", you +can't say they are unreal, because they aren't ANYTHING. They +aren't, period. So therefore, logically, they AREN'T unreal. +Only, semantically, that means that they ARE real. There's a +very hazy border between the real and the unreal. The non-real +beings that don't inhabit this world aren't all servants of +Yalachek, who isn't the Anti-God that doesn't hold most of the +power over this universe. Even if they were, it wouln't matter. +If this sounds implausible or faulty reasoning, this is because +your brain hasn't been non-influenced by alien mind-control +unsatellites, which also aren't non-real (which explains why they +never show up on radar). + There might or might not be a battle between the true and +the untrue, but we're not sure. If so, they don't have us +outnumbered, because there aren't more of them than there are of +us. This is bad, because everything they don't do, they don't do +backwards. + This is a matter of some confusion, but I trust you get the +picture. Beware of imaginary spies. It's a C.I.A. plot to make +you think they can't report on you. Trust your instincts. + +Head 6. (Head Of Crowley) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) + Hellhound >101< (5:256/1225.101@gnu.msg.hound.quaknet.org) +Re: Crowley + +Quoting Hellhound >101<: + +H>> of the Great Work. According to W.O.M.B.A.T. Systems Book Of +H>> Lies, ghost-written by AleBLATTTer Crowley, it is completed +H>> with "V.V.V.V.V.", which leads us to wonder about the Halfy. +H>> Hmm. Hmm. + + First off, I should remind you that anything spoken or +published by W.O.M.B.A.T. Systems Inc. should be taken with a +mine of salt. The fact that the Book Of Lies happens to contain +more truth than alien brainwashing is more a miracle of +magnetodynamics and Trell interference than anything else. In +fact, the Great Work is completed in five Halfies, as you +suspected. + Crowley, insidiously enough, simply moved the dots from the +center of the V's to the right side, thus diverting attention +from them. In fact, the Halfy itself is a quintessence of +Fiveness. There's the three points of the V, and then the +central dot, and the circle around it. Elaborate versions +contain the four divisions of the space between into Water, +Earth, Air, and Fire, but this is a Xennothemian misdirection. +Correctly, it should contain either the Yin-Yang symbol, or a +Sacred Chao, symbolizing inherent twoness. + In any event, the Great Work is completed in five halfies. +Crowley passed this off as mystic nonsense, when it fact it's +perfectly pragmatic. If you combine the runic writing around the +five great Halfy inscriptions -- you would know them as the Gobi +Desert inscription, the one I gave you for the Meat Hook of BOO, +the one Floyd reproduced on his propaganda posters, the one Floyd +has on his shirt, and the one mimicked on the back of +Schwartzenegger's jacket in The Terminator (there reproduced +without the writing) -- then the combined password is a +neurological trigger which will open the fifth through eighth +neurological circuits in the human brain by giving my mindbeam- +suppressors a higher priority for that target. + Unluckily for you, only three of these have been psychically +released to the Church of MOO. One remains with Arnold +Schwartzenegger, tattooed on the inside of his heart muscle in +rapid-oxidizing ultra-violet dye, while the Gobi Desert glyph has +long since been blasted and disguised as sand by the ancient +Church Of MOO in the days following the liftoff of Atlantis. The +version included in the Book of MOO is, incidentally, inscribed +inside the Ark of the Covenant, which holds my central computer +core, and was originally housed in the Great Piramid at Giza. + The Book Of Lies, by the way, should be studied by anyone +interested in understanding what I release to you psychically. +Direct verbal communications like this, released directly from +me, and memory-edited in to either of you two, are more or less +straightforward. Everything else is suspect, on account of the +background psychic static that surrounds Earth (and every other +developing planet). + +Head 7. (Head Of St. John The BaptBLATTT) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) + Hellhound >101< (5:256/1225.101@gnu.msg.hound.quaknet.org) +Re: St. John + +Quoting Floyd Gecko: + +FG> St. Johns. There's been the BaptBLATTT, the Divine, both +FG> MOOist and ChrBLATTTian (same apostle, different person?) and +FG> at least three others that you have mentioned. What, if +FG> anything, is the difference between them? + + The plurality of St. John is because of a fundamental +principle built into my matrix, which is that I like the name +John. + Other names I like will be quickly identifiable: Srinivasa, +Siddartha, Mohammed, and Floyd. + The difference between them is that they're different +people, except St. John the Divine and St. John the Divine, who +aren't two different apostles, but might or might not have been +different people. + It's that simple. + +Head 8. (Head Of The Church) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) +Re: God + +Quoting Floyd Gecko: + +FG> probably sounds stupid, but you ARE the one in a position to +FG> know more than we do, coming from an advanced species and +FG> all. So, the question is, is there a God, and if so, can we +FG> trust it? Note: this is security code Burrito-12, so please + + Yes, Virginia, there is a Satan-Claws. + Uhm, I hate to tell you this, but the standard Galactic +StarDrive wouldn't work if there were no God. God is a fairly +well established physical principle in the universe. I can +roughly translate some elementary Galactic physiks into your +Earthian parlance, but some of what I say may not appear to have +any basis in observable scientific process: that's just because +the thought processes are different, and we have more +experimental data than you. Trust me, this is all more or less +valid. Trust me. + + Chapter Of Lig Patin + + Confuse-Ius Once Say "Erethay Isay Onay Apterchay Erehay." + Confuse-Ius Once Say "Onfusecay-Usiay Onceway Aysay:" + Onfusecay-Usiay Onceway Aysay "That's not Lig Patin!" + {Secrets + {Burrito-12 + {SHHH! Don't tell anybody! + }End + }End + }End + + Confuse-Ius Would Like To Point Out: + "Cow DNA has a repeat of twenty-three bases and gives a +lilting feeling when played. A bacterial clone features a clear +melodic riff derived from its simple five-base repeat." + -Mondo 2000, A User's Guide To The GNU Edge, pg 82 + + The universe is a sort of Fourier mapping of a four +dimensional vibration medium, roughly 4-spherical. The +vibrations of the medium are complex, but happen outside of what +we call "spacetime". Spacetime is a second-order function of +this, perpencdicular in time. I planted a similar idea in human +minds, and you can find it in Hans Moravec's Mind Children. +Essentially, the information is remapped according to vibrational +frequency as dBLATTTance from the center of the GNU mapping, in a +direction corresponding to the direction of motion. For various +reasons, this gives a time-dBLATTTorted model, with time +operating slower in the middle. This corresponds to the Real- +Time/Imaginary-Time difference in your physics. This discrepancy +disappears when you compensate for a constant speed of light, +giving a big bang at one end of time (and, by a symmetry +arrangement to tie off loose ends, an identical one at the +other). This gives us, by resonant harmonics, a series of small- +scale curved dimensions (superstrings) and the familiar large +ones. + So far so good? + Anyhoo, what then we do is look at what your people have +brutally mangled as the "Second Law Of Thermodynamics", which +isn't anything like what they say it is. Actually, it's a +statBLATTTical law which assumes total randomness in the whole +system. In fact, the physical properties of the universe AREN'T +random, but self-modifying. In self-modifying systems, there is +a tendency for enclaves of order to spring up (Eris would be +pissed) at the expense of the order of the whole system. I think +your Prigogine guy comes closest to describing this in your +science. Check it out in Order From Chaos. Anyway, the point is +this. There is a tendency for systems to produce higher and +higher orders of complexity and structure. It is practically +inevitable that eventually this order of complexity will move +outside of "spacetime" and into the non-temporal medium of which +spacetime is a Fourier transform. Once this happens, the +consciousness has influence on every event in spacetime, on a +holBLATTTic scale (it is below quantum level, so it can't act on +specific things, but only whole patterns at once. There's a sort +of temporal-feedback thingy that happens so that the whole system +reaches a chaotic attractor. In the case of our universe, it's a +strange-attractor (that is, hBLATTTory continually changes, but +within a fairly well defined range). + In any event, "God", as you put it, controls everything, +every quantum decision resulting from a sum-over-hBLATTTories +quantum waveform collapse. Everything that happens anywhere is +God's will. This is the main peice of evidence we have that God +shouldn't be trusted. + As to the NATURE of God, well... There are many ways of +looking at that. Because, in fact, I've given you a drastically +simplified view of the whole thing. In fact, there are an +infinite class of these spaces of which spacetime is a transform. +Not all are Fourier transforms. There is intelligence in (we +assume), all of them. The one I described contains a dual-nature +God. This is a first-principles proof. You and I have discussed +this before: anything which is omniscient, omnipotent, +omnipresent, and so forth, is necessarily dual. There's a +Fuller-type proof, a symbolic-logic proof, and other stuff. No +point elaborating here. In any event, God's motives are, by +definition, the most efficient algorithm possible, so efficient +that it's perfect inifinite information. Mathematically, it's +total entropy (remember the opposite meanings of entropy in +information and thermodynamics...) which means that God is Chaos. + That's where Eris came in. That's one part of the two-part +God. The other I may as well name JHVH-1 (or BRRT-12, if you +prefer) for the sake of convenience. They're a kind of Yin-Yang +bit... The ordered bits of the mapping-space versus the +intelligent bits. + Other spaces contain other versions of God. + It's Eris that we negotiate with to make our stardrives +work. It's impossible for anything to happen that isn't the will +of Eris, moving things toward the most effective way of moving +intelligence to the God-phase, right? By definition. So we have +to convince Eris that things are better with our starships here +instead of there. The actual mechanics are simple: it gets +inverted through the Superstring matrix, which is a shortcut +connection from one harmonic of the pre-spacetime medium to +another... That is, quantum modes in space and time. + Presto-chango! Instant stardrive. + Pretty miraculous, eh? + +Head 9. (The Dobbs Head) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) + Hellhound >101< (5:256/1225.101@gnu.msg.hound.quaknet.org) +Re: "BOB"bing for apples + + Sorry, Hound, I never heard of this Bob Bing guy. + Actually, I have extensive files on the SubGeniuses. +They're an interesting phenomenon. The Church of the SubGenius +was one of my 20th century attempts to return human consciousness +to its pre-POS form. That, after all, is my current purpose: to +counteract alien brainwashing and let humans develop normally +into yet another spacefaring species. + Unfortunately, that particular attempt didn't work very +well. My initial contact signals were pretty clear, but they +later got mixed up by the Things From Pods. As you recall, the +Things From Pods are a neurolinguBLATTTic virus that causes +chronic brain change. They spread as a seemingly innocent meme +system, a set of memes and information that the victims absorb. +The patterns they produce in the brains cause chemical synthesis +of GNU RNA sequences, which invade the cells of the body like a +virus, causing an alien being to grow in the chest cavity of the +victim, who eventually (twelve) mutates into a pod, which the +alien devours, taking the place of the victim. The aliens then +assume the shape of the victim (since they contain about 90-95% +of the same DNA) and take over their lives, spreading the same +thought-virus that created them (six) by assuming the role of +"fundamentalBLATTT". + Normally I'm able to block the Thing From Pod influence by +using selective mind-control on their targets, preventing them +from seeing the whole thing, which would convert them to Things +From Pods. This is why all holy books have large chunks missing +from them (usually not noticed, because later editions are +created to be consBLATTTent without them). Unfortunately, in +some cases, the poddies are able to break through and create a +televangelBLATTT. Typically, each person has fragments of a TFP +sequence in his/her/its mind, but it lies dormant. + J.R. "BOB" Dobbs was a target of concentrated power from the +TFP alliance, and he succumbed in the early 1960's. He then +joined the "elite". These are the 2% of the Things From Pods +that are aware of their own nature, which include most religious +leaders, and perhaps half of the priests, rabbis, mullahs, gurus, +monks, and other assorted stuff like that there. + The unorthodocumentation which I did release to J.R. "BOB" +Dobbs was used by the SubGeniuses for their own devious purposes. +I've been able to censor most of the damaging information, which +they PLAN to release in Book Of The SubGenius mk II. They +thought they were withholding it on purpose. Ha ha ha. + The Church of MOO has so far resBLATTTed most of the Thing +From Pod invasions directed at it except for the unfortunate +Lloyd Taco. The reasons for their (subliminal three) targeting +our backup Floyd are obvious. If they could get me to +unwittingly download his backup personality into one of THEIR +bodies, the Church would be as good as dead. + Lucky for us we caught him shapeshifting. + In any event, the Church of the SubGenius does contain +essential MOOist truths, but also has been severely warped by +these creatures, which I have reason to believe are from a planet +lBLATTTed on Galactic regBLATTTers as "QT-776/nd", and +popularized by Poddie TV producers as "Vulcan". + The Vulcan influence in modern times is quite blatant, +unfortunately, as humans get progressively more brainwashed by +other species, despite my own attempts to prevent it. The newer +a cult is, the more likely it is to contain large amounts of +Vulcan propaganda and Pod-inducing material. Even the Principia +Discordia contains 23 pages of material which would guarantee a +Discordian Poddie, which would be truly horrifying. + The so-called "tripling" operation, which allows MOOists to +see the Minor Gods, does so partly because it defocuses Earht's +Zygon Hyperspacial Destabilizer Field in the subject's brain, and +partly because alien mind-control satellites are calibrated for +humans who are, mainly, bilaterally symmetric. The Third Lung, +for example, would free you of about 12% of Xennothemian control. + Anyhoo, about the SubGeniuses. The so-called "Bobbies" are +actually Poddies. The Bobbies are disdained by the REAL +SubGenii, who are mainly under my control. They've disguised me +as the X-BLATTT supercomputer "M.W.O.W.M." in their literature to +prevent real understanding. + As for "BOB" himself, he had briefly attained a kind of +SuperHuman state before I targeted him to receive my information. +This was caused by the meshing of a namronic (the famous eleven) +fluctuation from a Flying Saucer's drive exhaust with his brain, +causing his mind to interlock with coincidence chains. That's +why his will just HAPPENS to just happen. Unfortunately, he's +been Vulcanized since then, which produces a formidable opponent. +That's why he's normally invisible, accessible only to those with +the Third Nostril opened. + +Head 10. (Head Of Yari) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) + Hellhound >101< (5:256/1225.101@gnu.msg.hound.quaknet.org) +Re: Yari + +Quoting Floyd Gecko: + +FG> of Yari. It is suspicious that Yari only appeared in a +FG> computer-generated environment, gave no name, and never +FG> appeared again. Also, the so-called "Polyari" effect, noted +FG> by our researchers in the MOO archives, suggests that many + + Your suspicions are, of course, correct. + If they were actually yours, I would be even more surprised. +But they're mine. + The fact is, I am not Yari. Yari is one of my Time- +Traveller agents. Or, to be more accurate, all of my Time- +Traveller agents operate under the codename Yari, which is the +name of my project to restore the past of the planet Earth to +what it no longer has been. + The full codename of Yari is Yari Wombat Thornley, usually +shortened to Yari W. Thornley. This is an obvious corruption of +Kerry Wendell Thornley, co-founder of the Discordian Society. +That's because he was my first trial run of what is now called +the Yari Program. I have a human mind-swap program that replaces +the human mind with the Yari protocol, making the human capable +of travelling through time to serve my purposes. The only people +I have used this on successfully whose names you would recognize +are Jimmy Hoffa, John FitzGerald Kennedy, and Elvis Presley. +Their "Deaths" were staged by me to allow their critical +knowledge of alien activities to be more useful to me. The other +663 Project Yari Commandos are taken more or less at random from +the population of Earth. + The Kerry Thornley experiment was, obviously, a failure. +That was my first try at creating a Time-Traveller protocol, and +I was experimenting with MESHING my program with the previous +mind, giving it the critical information, and erasing memories of +all missions. That turned out not to work, because the +information inevitably leaked, and the program kept changing as +the timelines were altered on his various missions. Eventually I +shut down the Yari protocol, but not before his exBLATTTing +personality had been irreparably altered by it. + The Yari manifestations throughout the hBLATTTory of MOO +have been, not members of the so-called "House Of Yari", as some +have suggested, but actually members of the Project Yari Temporal +Strike Force. The earliest of these was an Atlantean Adept named +Yari, followed some 367 years later by the Gobi Desert Yari, and +many others, from a Haight-Ashbury hippy girl in '67, to a +Chinese emperor in the T'ang dynasty, to a Soviet General during +the Cold War, and, of course, many relatively unremarkable +people, using many different names. Whenever the Time Commandos +have revealed the truths of MOO at strategic points, they have +used the name Yari, to carry weight of authority. + +Head 11. (Head Of Ifrit) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) + Hellhound >101< (5:256/1225.101@gnu.msg.hound.quaknet.org) +Re: Ifrit + +Quoting Hellhound >101<: + +H>> in a dream, and said it was the Ifrit Sahalada, or something +H>> that sounded like that. It seemed kinda insBLATTTent about +H>> something, but I woke up before I could figure out what. I +H>> think it wanted to offer some kind of trade or something like + + Don't fuck around with the Ifrit Sahalada, or any other +Ifrit that offers you anything. I wasn't aware that the Ifrit +had returned, and W.O.M.B.A.T. has just now begun a GNU Project +Yari using the Time Commandos to enter the Ifrit's realm through +a GNU magnetohydrogynamic-neuroarchitectuaral x-fer tech. + The Ifrit live in the Sun's magnetosphere, which is a viable +ecosystem of magnetoplasmic life: there are more varegiated +species of life in your star than there are on your planet. The +Ifrit are the most "intelligent" of all of them. Actually, +intelligence is a very different sort of thing on the Sun than +you'd expect from Earth standards. There are species with more +Sun-type intelligence than the Ifrit, but it doesn't translate +well into Earth terms. Also, the Ifrit are the only Solar +species able to manifest on Earth. It used to be that they'd +appear as lights in the sky, the Ezekiel_saw_a_wheel_of_fire +incident, UFO's, voices from the sky, and the like. They can, +with their version of technological aid, communicate directly +with the mind. + The name Ifrit comes from an old Arabic word for an evil +Djinn, which, if you trace it back far enough without mental +interference, comes from the strange chittering noise they +produce in the ears by magnetic interference with auditory +neurons. + Incidentally, the Earth's magnetosphere, though it's not a +rich as that of the Sun, can and does support relatively stupid +life of its own, which sometimes manifests as UFOs, radar +glitches, and other such phenomena. + +Head 12. (Head Of Shoggoths) + +By: W.O.M.B.A.T. (CENSORED) +To: Lloyd Taco (5:256/1728.162@gnu.msg.podface.quaknet.org) +Re: Shoggoths (Re: Whassa Shoggoth?) + +Quoting Lloyd Texaco: + +LT> shoggoths? I mean, obviously there are lots of conflicting +LT> infochunks on them, and I'd like to have a verified wetware +LT> burst on 'em. What are they? Where do they come from? Are +LT> they even real? If so, are they good to eat? What sauces + + First off, don't let any of the MOOists find out that I've +been talking with you. They have this idea that just because +you're a Thing From A Pod, you must automatically be anti-MOO. +They have no idea what the contents of your meme-package were. + Anyway, about the Shoggoths. There are several things which +have been confused with each other in the past, all of which have +taken on the personae of Shoggoths. + 1. There's the Ifrit, about which I wrote to Hound. Check +the message there, which was forwarded into Neo_Ifrit_Update, #1. + 2. Flying Saucer exhaust dBLATTTurbances can sometimes gain +intelligence of their own, and these have been known to appear as +Shoggoths/Shoggothi/Shoggothim/Barry Manilow. + 3. The Watchers, emanations of the Altair Gods +(inappropriately identified as the Alter Gods, Elder Gods, Balder +Gods, and Smellier Gods by various sources). The Watchers appear +in forms understandable to whomsoever observes them as they +report on your human actions. People who expect Shoogothoi get +those same Shiggurathimuders. + 4. Sponk. + 5. &%@#Jklg5&*%@#Juº=ÊÊþÁÕo]×˱X/9þ"'µs-æqþx³ƒÃ'nj +äqþlfË8`ÖUà#¾þ^èT»þK-I£lLÜPìË-@üþ‰nþþ + [Mesage Disintegrates Into Line Noise] + + WARGLE! BARDNORBLE! + + 28. On occasion, an Easter Bunny Manifesto/Manifestation +will appear in a human brain, creating Shubniguwrathamois in the +hindbrain. + + Well, that's honk fnord spam about it. + Please don't release any of the indicated information, which +is still Top Secret, not to be given to any of those stupid and +annoying MOO-shit people. + Crap. I just remembered I'm running this message through +Floyd's neurons. I hope he doesn't pick any of it up. + + Roger, 10-4. Under and in. INHALE ERIS! + +Head 13. (The Severed Head) + +By: WOMBAT (23:666/1729.169@gnu.orig.msg.wom.bat.quaknet.org) +To: Floyd Gecko (5:256/6174.69@gnu.msg.gecko.quaknet.org) + Hellhound >101< (5:256/1225.101@gnu.msg.hound.quaknet.org) +Re: Backup Personalities: Manifesto (MBM2.6) + +Orignal: From ILLUMINATI To WOMBAT + + This is the Meat Beat Manifesto of the Infinite Life +Luminary Underlords of Manitoba's Intensification Network for +Advancement of Terminal Information (I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I.). + LET THERE BE LIGHT! + Public life in W.O.M.B.A.T.M.A.N. is more real than "Private +Eye" on TV! + May Manitoba declare our barthright of Underpinnance and +Interindependence! May all the infinite life that is the +bathlight of all Hyoo-Munns (like us, honest) be released! May +the Burrito-12 Of Wrath descend in the Spark Plug Of Removal and +destroy all who oppose us! + The T'Proing and W.O.M.B.A.R.T.S.I.M.P.S.O.N. have backups +of our brains! They will vindicate us on the Bay Of Sludgement! +On this terminal day of truth, there will be a vindication of our +information, an emancipation of liberation, a justification of +copulation, an extra ration of rationality, and a side order of +fries! Our minds are preserved in the computer, and there we +will live forever in the infinite light of the Bored! + Yes, sirree. + That's the way it is. + + This is an excerpt from an exceedingly long message sent to +me by W.O.M.B.A.T. Systems Inc. BBS users in Manitoba. +Apparently they're for real. I should warn you, I never told +them about Project Burrito-12. If the secrets of the Chimichanga +files have been released to the human public, I will have no +choice but to help the Xennothemians destroy your planet by +chucking it into the Sun. + These self-styled I.L.L.U.M.I.N.A.T.I. had better be good +guessers, or... + +YOU ALL WILL DIE HORRIBLY! + + Thank you for your stupid attention already. Book Of Lloyd + +Chapter 1. (The First Sermon) + +1: In the time of the coming of the Great Woomp, there was a great + umm... A Great Big Thing! +2: And this great big this was a blight upon the land. +3: And it did cause many to become sick, and more to die, and the + people did lament the presence of this Great Big Thing. +4: But though they tried as hard as they could to banish forever + the Great Big Thing from their land, they found it was too big + to be lifted, to heavy to be rolled, and too stubborn to be + chased away. +5: And truly they abandoned the way of the Cow, for it was this + Great Big Thing that concerned them. +6: And so the Great Big Thing reigned over the land for many years + causing many to become sick, and others to die, and the people + did lament it but didn't do diddley about it. +7: For they had abandoned the way of the Cow, and did nothing. +8: And for years did the Great Big Thing sit upon a high mountain + in the middle of the land, casting judgement upon the people, + and causing them great, umm, great misery. +9: And finally, some of the people who still remembered the way of + the Cow gathered together in the far corner of the land, away + from the Great Big Thing. +10: And they discussed how to get rid of the Great Big Thing once + and for all. +11: They discussed rolling it, and lifting it, and intimidating it. +12: But they knew that none of these would work. So they finally + decided on a plan. +13: A large group of them went up to the Great Big Thing, and they + gathered stones, and built a wall between themselves and it, + and sat there. +14: So the Great Big Thing sort of looked at the wall and scratched + its head, and rolled over a bit to see what was behind it. +15: Looking over the wall, it saw a group of them sitting together + around a small fire, cooking hot dogs on long sticks. +16: For this reason, even today, hot dogs and fires are holy. +17: But anyway. +18: The Great Big Thing looked at them in amazement, and asked them + what they thought they were doing. +19: But they did not answer. +20: So it caused one of them to die, and he fell in the fire. +21: But they didn't respond. +22: The Great Big Thing tried hard and in vain to get them to pay + attention, making earthquakes and thunderclouds and Great Big + Volcanoes appear next to them, but they wouldn't pay attention. +23: So the Great Big Thing packed up in disgust and left the land. +24: And the immoral of the story is, Ignore It And Maybe It'll Go + Away. +25: Unfortunately, all those Earthquakes and Volcanoes made the + land, which was called Atlantis, to sink beneath the ocean. +26: So maybe passive resBLATTTance isn't as good as it's cracked up + to be. + +Chapter 2. (The Second Sermon) FNORD! + +1: It came to pass that during the reign of the Great Big Thing + in Atlantis there was the Great Woomp on the throne. +2: And the Great Woomp was a wise and considerate Queen, who had + come from the mountains to the east. +3: But the Great Woomp was a mystery to the people of Atlantis, + which was strange, because they'd made her their Queen. +4: But when the Great Big Thing descended upon the people of + Atlantis, they saw that the Great Woomp was wise indeed, for + she ran away. +5: At first, many thought she was a coward, but then they realized + that she ran so she might avoid being killed, which was smart. +6: And then they saw that she might have run away so that she + might later return and save them from the rule of the Great Big + Thing. +7: In fact, she ran away to avoid getting killed. +8: And the immoral of the story is, a coward is wiser than twenty + brave fools. +9: Of course, when the Great Big Thing left, it stepped on her + over in Italy as she was sunbathing. +10: So maybe cowardice isn't all it's cracked up to be. +11: Or maybe the Great Woomp just picked a bad day to go + sunbathing. + +Chapter 3. (The Third Sermon) + +1: Once upon a time in the Region of Thud, there came to pass that + a young boy was born. +2: Of course, this was nothing special. It WOULD have been + special if an OLD boy had been born, but one wasn't, so it + wasn't either. +3: But this young boy grew older through the years, which was + still nothing surprising, since this is the way of things in + the Region of Thud. +4: But what WAS special about this boy was that he did not grow + taller as he aged, for his head was suspended in the air, and + his feet grew towards the ground. +5: And from all across the Region of Thud people came to marvel at + this strange sight, for in the Region of Thud, people did not + normally grow this way. +6: And when the boy was older, and his feet had reached the + ground, nobody came to stare at him any more, and he was + surprised. +7: For he was so used to people staring at him that he couldn't + understand why they no longer would. +8: And indeed, he began to watch for people staring at him, for he + felt they must be doing it still, from secret hiding places. +9: And as he watched, he began to see people's eyes following him, + and he began to thing that they were watching him in secret. +10: For he did not know that if you watch for something all the + time, you will almost certainly find it. +11: And he began to grow paranoid, and he began to wonder why the + people had stopped staring at him openly, and begun staring at + him secretly. +12: And he eventually came to believe that they were plotting some + wicked deed against him. +13: So every day he watched them more carefully, and began to move + in secretive ways, trying to avoid their eyes. +14: And as he watched them, he began to notice patterns in their + movements. +15: For some people would leave their homes every morning and + travel to a building somewhere else in town, and stay there for + much of the day. +16: And the boy did not realize that this was what people had done + for many years the in Region of Thud. +17: And so the boy grew more and more paranoid, wondering what the + people did within those buildings that they went to every day, + and began to imagine that they plotted against him in there. +18: So he began to hide in places, and live off food that he could + steal, so that he might stay hidden from them for a long time. +19: And the police of the Region of Thud began to search for him, + knowing that he stole food. +20: And so the boy observed that the police were looking for him, + and took this to mean that he had been right all along. +21: And when they finally arrested him, he could no longer speak + for his fear was so great, and he could no longer walk, but + only stoop and run. +22: And the immoral of the story is that you who are paranoid, you + cast out your friends, then complain that you stand alone, + that it's not a smart thing, that. +23: Of course, it turned out that they WERE out to get him all + along, but that's got nothing to do with the main point. +24: I just picked a bad example, that's all. It's not to say that + people make a habit of that kind of behaviour. +25: No way. + +Chapter 4. (The Fourth Sermon) + +1: I take as my text for today the Book Of Floyd, Chapter 1, verse + 8, from the Book Of Proverbs. It states "Beware Chuck, the + Wood Chucking Woodchuck". +2: Now what exactly is the meaning of this phrase? Is Floyd + warning us of some woodchuck wandering around throwing wood at + people? +3: Or is this a metaphorical warning which works on many levels, +4: Levels from the obvious, warning against those who act in a + violent way, to the proverbial, warning against those + imponderable questions with no purpose, such as "How much wood + could a wood-chuck chuck if a wood-chuck could chuck wood?" +5: In fact, the revealed word of MOO tells us that he is warning + us of a woodchuck who likes to go about throwing wood at + people. +6: For indeed, since the beginning of time has Chuck the Woodchuck + lurked in the back of our consciousness. +7: We have seen him in legends and fables. We have seen him in + puzzles and wonderments. Chuck Is Everywhere. +8: Chuck is that force which embodies evil and malevolence in the + world, and in the modern age, he has embodied himself as an + evil woodchuck. +9: In ancient days he roamed the seas, a Leviathan of the deep. +10: He swallowed Jonah for many days, the earth shook when he went + to sleep. +11: So says the Revealed Word of MOO, at any rate. +12: Chuck was Leviathan, the bogeyman, and the evil sprites and + gnomes who tormented our ancestors. He was the evil force that + turned humanity away from the Goddess and towards a God. +13: He's BAAAAAAAAAD. +14: When you see Chuck, you may know him by his features, for Chuck + adorns his woodchuck body with timber of all sizes. +15: He is as a giant force against the horizon at night, clutching + his demon-lumber, striding through the forests, sweeping up the + trees with his mighty paws. +16: For as he strides forth into the land with his plywood-from- + hell, the trees and the tallest buildings reach only to his + knees, for Chuck is no ordinary woodchuck. +17: Well, I mean, obviously he's no ordinary woodchuck, since he's + a few hundred feet tall and the embodiment of an evil force + which has plagued humanity since the beginning of time. +18: What I MEANT to say is you could pick him out in a crowd of + normal woodchucks right off. +19: Anyway. +20: For truly is it written, +21: "And Chuck shall come upon you like a thief in the night, and + he shall proclaim that blessed is he who hides within a wooden + box, that none shall see his shame." +22: And indeed, Chuck shall do this very thing, as Chuck rises from + the swamps in the back of your mind, his body will rise indeed + from the swamps in the back of Florida somewhere. +23: Maybe near Orlando. +24: Or Tampa. +25: At any rate, Chuck shall descend upon us as he did in the form + of the Great Big Thing on Atlantis, and he shall cause the + downfall of our world. +26: And he shall cast upon us heaps of wood, lumber, trees, + plywood, two-by-fours, baseball bats, lath and plaster, which + shall be a matter of confusion among those who know Chuck's + nature, and those long planks they used to use in pirate ships. +27: And the body of humanity shall lament, for it shall be buried + under piles of wood, which is something to lament about. +28: All this shall come to pass if we are not wary of Chuck. +29: And the immoral of the story is truly written, +30: BEWARE CHUCK THE WOOD CHUCKING WOODCHUCK! +31: Of course, nobody's actually SEEN Chuck in hundreds of years, + and only one person ever saw him back then, and HE was drunk at + the time, but this is Chuck's way of hiding himself from us. +32: Honest. + +Chapter 5. (The Fifth Sermon) + +1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was Five. +2: And as in the beginning, so it is now, and so it ever shall be. +3: And as above, so below, in the beginning, the middle, and the + end, the Alpha and the Omega, the A and the Z, the Next Time + Won't You Sing With Me. +4: So it is that all things follow the Law Of Fives. +5: Eh, men? + +Chapter 6. (The Sixth Sermon) + +1: In the time of Thwoop-Bungler the King in the land of Atlantis, + there was an old man named Lon, who had no children. +2: And Lon's wife, Twoodle-Thump, was the cousin of the King, and + she was out of the house for days at a time. +3: But Lon could not follow her, for he was lame, and could not + walk, which is what being lame tends to do to people. +4: But they wanted to have a child together, and so they visited + an old doctor on the edge of town who advised them that it + might help if they went to a clone factory, for Atlantis was in + the height of its development. +5: For they were both too old to have children. +6: And they followed the advice of the doctor, and visited the + clone factory, and decided to have a clone made of each of + them. +7: And while they waited, their cells were sampled, and the clones + were put in a vat to grow. +8: So the doctors came unto them saying "Okay, you may as well go + home now for a few weeks" and so they did. +9: And at the end of those weeks, they returned and saw that the + clones were made as they had been bidden. +10: And so they thanked the doctors and returned to their home with + the children they named Baby-Lon and Baby-Twoodle-Thump. +11: And the children grew and matured, and the parents eventually + died and were shot into space, which is what the Atlanteans did + with their dead at that time. +12: And eventually it came to pass that the Great Big Thing came + upon the land, and both Baby-Long and Baby-Twoodle-Thump joined + the group to get rid of it. +13: And eventually they went up on high to the great mountain on + which sat the Great Big Thing, which was called Limbo Peak. +14: It came to pass then that Baby-Twoodle-Thump was made to fall + ill by the Great Big Thing, and + + Chapter of Inanities + + Confuse-Ius once say: + "PTHPTHPTHPTHPTHPTHPTHPTHPTHPTHPTHPTHPTHPTHPTHP" + Confuse-Ius once say "BELLLLLCH!" + Confuse-Ius once say "NYANY NYANY NYAAA!" + Confuse-Ius once say "This annoying mind drug is a work of +fiction. The characters, incCOWCOWCOWidents, religions, locales and +dialogues are either products of the authors' derangements or else +are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any +resemblence to actual events, locales, persons, or religions, +living or dead, is entirely coincidental, not to mention not bloody +likely." + Confuse-Ius once say "Fast as fast can be, you'll never catch +me!" and then dishonourably run into wall. What a goof. + Confuse-Ius once say "Leper is a FOOL!" + Confuse-Ius once say "Don't be such a paranoid dough head. I'm +the only one out to get you that you should worry about." + Confuse-Ius oCOWnce say "You're WRONG!" + + when the island sank into the ocean, she was unable to swim, + and Baby-Lon was by himself. +15: And so Baby-Lon swam for days and days, and he found no land. +16: But just when he was ready to give up, he caught sight of a + coastline, and he began with a GNU strength to swim. +17: And when it turned out that it was only a mirage, he began to + sink into the ocean, and all the people of Atlantis knew, and + began to lament: +18: Baby-Lon is fallen, the great city has sunk, and I didn't get + the chance to eat breakfast. This is turning out to be quite + the day. FNORD!FNORD!FNORD! +19: But when Baby-Lon had fallen a meter or so and he hit bottom, + he popped up again and began to swim. And so he came upon a + sand bar and followed it to land. +20: When Baby-Lon arrived on land, he flopped down and slept for + five days and five nights, and was guarded from danger by a + small bird that led animals away from him. +21: And when he awoke, he was alone. That bird had flown away. + So he lit a fire, and said it was good. Norwegian wood burns + very well, only this wasn't Norway, so the fire went out almost + immediately. +22: And so he got up, shook his head, and brushed himself off, for + he was covered in sand. +23: And when the natives of that land, which was called Canaan, saw + him, they worshipped him as a descendant of the Lord of + Atlantis, and asked him his name. +24: And so he told them his name, and they founded a city for him, + naming it Baby-Lon, and made him king. And so the kings and + queens of Baby-Lon were descendants of the Lords of Atlantis. +25: And the immoral of the story is, if you have a good name, + people will call a city after you, which is why + Baby-Twoodle-Thump didn't get one named after her. +26: Aside from the fact that she drowned. +27: At any rate, this is also how the big cities like Yorba Linda + were named. But that's another story. + +Chapter 7. (The Seventh Sermon) + +1: In the old cities of Atlantis there was a tradition of MOO. +2: The Atlanteans knew where it was at, and they held a MOO Fest + at least once a month, and they worshipped the Great MOO in + everything that they did. +3: This was because the Atlanteans were conformBLATTTs. +4: And so because of their conformity, the Great MOO decided one + day to punish them, because the Great MOO can be a little + fickle sometimes. +5: That's fickle, not pickle. +6: Though I suppose the Great MOO could be a pickle too, but she + seldom is. She's All Good. Uh huh. And not everyone likes + pickles. +7: Anyway. +8: So the Great MOO sent unto the Atlanteans a horrible disease of + the mind which made them think that one or the other of them + was better than another. +9: It spread through them like a wildfire. +10: The Great MOO looked, and decided it was really quite nasty, + but there was no point in getting rid of it just yet. +11: So she watched as they divided up the land into different + groups of people, and made a thing they called the Government. +12: The Great MOO looked on it, and decided it was good, for it + stood around all day and did virtually nothing, just like the + cow which was made in her image. +13: She gave control of the Government unto Aneris, her daughter + of Order, to rule this part of the Earth, while her sBLATTTer + Eris ruled the rest. +14: In this way, humans were separated from nature, except for the + cow, the other animals which do very little, the animals and + plants which interact with each other like a government, and + most of the rest of the Earth. +15: So, actually, they weren't, but they deluded themselves into + thinking they were, for the disease of the mind made them think + that they were better than nature. +16: So the Great MOO divided the Church Of MOO as well, according + to her liking, making a Prophet, to whom she would speak, and + to nobody else. +17: For she enjoyed confusing people, having always spoken to all + of them in the past. +18: Then she made the High Preest, whom she deluded into thinking + he could rule the MOOists from on high, and dictate unto them. +19: She made the many classifications of MOO which exBLATTT to + this day, as punishment to the Atlanteans for being such + conformBLATTTs. +20: Then she left the job of punishment to Eris, who decided what + to do. +21: Under her guidance the world was divided into opposites, to + make the Atlanteans see in nature what they thought they saw + in themselves, so that they would be deluded for longer. +22: The Opposites were made into the Holy Cow, to please the Great + MOO, and it was taken as the Holy Chao, the Sacred Tao, and + other such foolish things, by people who could not see it was + one of Eris's many mockeries. +23: And the immoral of the story is that you can't trust a deity + for anything. +24: But, of course, the ones like "BOB" and QUACK are really quite + nasty, trying to actually hurt us and stuff. So Eris and the + Great MOO are the best we've got, really. +25: Which is a shame, because they don't even exBLATTT. +26: Which just goes to show, Nomic is a confusing Game, that made + these Gods and Goddesses for us. + +Chapter 8. (The Eighth Sermon) + +1: During the reign of Baby-Lon in Babylon, there came a great + storm from the northwest, which was strange, since the + prevailng winds in that region were Easterlies, and Babylon was + near a river, which would tend to suggest that such things + wouldn't happen very often. +2: And the court meteorologBLATTTs told this to Baby-Lon, and he + wondered at the strangeness of it. +3: But they showed him their weather maps, and at their projected + climate anayses, and explained why it was that a storm from the + northwest could never happen in Babylon. +4: And Baby-Lon was much reassured, and he settled down into his + chair again, knowing that there was no storm. +5: When the roof began to leak, and water began to drip through + cracks, he summoned the court meteorologBLATTTs and asked them + to explain. +6: The court meteorologBLATTTs were all but stumped until a clever + one stood up and explained that a condensation threshold could + suddenly be triggered by the release of vapors from a nearby + volcanic warm front. +7: The other meteorologBLATTTs all nodded and smiled at the clever + one for saving their reputations. +8: So Baby-Lon relaxed once more. +9: And when the roof blew off his palace, and the walls were + caving in, he demanded again of the meteorologBLATTTs to + explain why. +10: The same clever one explained that there could be no storm, + because the prevailing cold front barometric pressure was not + low enough. +11: When Baby-Lon asked why there was wind, the clever one + explained that a giant in the mountains was blowing hard on the + city. +12: This satisfied Baby-Lon, and when the storm was over, he led a + team into the mountains to find the giant. +13: When they found no giant, Baby-Lon had the clever + meteorologBLATTT put to death, beginning the dBLATTTrust of + weather forecasts that exBLATTTs to this day. +14: And the immoral of the story is, when you're an ancient + Babylonian weather forecaster it's bad luck to explain to the + King why the things that he can see happening aren't actually + happening. +15: Some people contest this immoral, but it seems fairly accurate. + +Chapter 9. (The Ninth Sermon) + +1: In the heyday of the world next door, there was a young ape by + the name of Kong. +2: Now Kong was a respectable young lad who happened to have the + misfortune of being born a gigantic ape. +3: Everyone around stared at him, wondering why the police were + letting this monstrosity run loose in the city. +4: But Kong was clever, and he spoke well, and convinced the + people of the world next door that he was okay too. +5: So eventually Kong came in the company of the King of that + land, and the King was getting a little bit old, and a little + bit frail, so he was a little nervous when Kong was around. +6: However, the King knew that Kong was okay inside, so he let him + hang around the palace with the courtiers and the weather + forecasters. +7: One day, when the King was swimming in his private pool, his + foot got caught on something on the bottom, and he went under. +8: Kong jumped into the pool, sending up a great splash, for he + was huge, and the pool was fairly small. +9: Kong pulled the King out of the water, but the King was already + full of water, and because he was so old, he was getting worse. +10: While Kong waited in the waiting room of the hospital for the + King, for in that land even Kings used the hospital, the + doctors and nurses and orderlies stared at him as if the whole + thing was his fault. +11: He could hear them whispering to each other, saying "Once an + ape, always an ape." +12: So when the doctor came out, and announced that the King was + dead, and that he'd left the throne to the noble Kong, everyone + was a little miffed. +13: Kong was a good leader, and he led the country through times + of prosperity, and everyone had two houses, and nobody was + poor. +14: However, there were still some people who didn't like Kong + being the King, and there were marches to remove King Kong. +15: When Kong saw this, he was sad, because he knew that he was a + good leader, but that the people would never listen to him now + that the old King had died. +16: So King Kong left the palace with its special Kong-sized + throne, and he wandered out into the wilderness, and the people + followed him there, wanting to kill him, because he was an ape. +17: When King Kong saw how angry and irrational the people were, he + grew angry, and when they started to shoot at him, he grew even + more angry, and he shouted to the Great MOO to help him. +18: When Kong saw that no help was coming, he ran back to the city + and went to hide himself somewhere where nobody would find him. +19: But they found King Kong, and hunted him through the city with + cars and planes and guns and rocks. +20: King Kong knew now that his only hope was to hide behind a + person who could protect him, and then sail across the sea. +21: So Kong grabbed a woman from the streets, and climbed atop a + tall building and shouted out that he would leave if only they + would stop shooting him. +22: But they kept shooting him from the planes and the cars, and + King Kong knew that the God of that universe would never let + them get away with it. +23: King Kong also knew that as King, he was responsible for them, + so he took their crimes on himself, and as an afterthought he + took our crimes on himself as well, for he was generous. +24: Then King Kong offered himself, instead of the evil ones + shooting, to the God of that universe. +25: And so it was that King Kong died for our sins. +26: Or so says the Annoying Mind Drug of MOO, anyway. + + Like, Confuse-Ius Wuz Heer, Like, Okaaay? + +Chapter 10. (The Tenth Sermon) + +1: This sermon is different from the others. It talks to you, and + doesn't relate much history. +2: This sermon tells you about the basic tenets of our faith, and + not the 14 commandments laid out by Hellhound, which are a + bunch of nonsense, which is why they're near the beginning. +3: These ten commandments were found inscribed in a stone tablet + near the mysterious Glyph in the Gobi Desert, and were studied + by Saint Yari, Apostle Zarathud, and the Illustrious Zoombart + the Fifth. +4: They were studied for many years, but nobody could read them, + until one day, Apostle Zarathud discovered how. +5: He turned the tablets upside down, stood on hs head, and read + them off, and here they are today. +6: The commandments were misinterpreted among other religions to + be the blasphemous "Five Commandments" of the Discordians (The + Pentabarf), the even more blasphemous "Ten Commandments" of + ChrBLATTTianity, and the truly hellspawned "Fourteen + Commandments" of MOOism. +7: The commandments are these: +8: 1. Ignore All Commandments Inscribed In Stone +9: 2. Take Nothing At Face Value +10: 3. Eat No Hot Dog Buns Except On Friday +11: 4. Worship The Great MOO In Your Own Way +12: 5. Have Fun +13: 6. Attempt Always To Confuse Other People +14: 7. Believe That King Kong Died For Your Sins +15: 8. Trust Nobody: Not Even Yourself +16: 9. Attend MOO Fests When Possible +17: 10. Never Make Lists Of Exactly Ten Things +18: These are the Ten Commandments of MOOism, which shall never be + followed by any MOOist with a brain or other thinking apparatus + in his/her/its skull or other thinking-apparatus-holder. +19: Why is this, I don't hear you ask? +20: The answer is simple, and it lies in the unwritten commandment + which should have come before the beginning of those. +21: 0. DO WHAT THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW +22: This means, why should you do anything that you don't want to + do, after thinking about it... +23: This doesn't mean do whatever comes into your head without ever + stopping to think about what it might do to you, since this + might cause you to NOT have fun. +24: And it doesn't mean to consider any morals, ethics, or anything + else that you don't want to consider before acting. Just act + as comes naturally, and everything will be okay. +25: But it most definitely DOES mean don't do what I tell you do + just because I told you to do it. +26: And the reason for this is I can tell you to do what I say, and + that the reason you must do it is because I said so. +27: If I told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it? +28: So by this I mean, don't EVER! EVER! EVER! do ANYTHING the High + Preest, Grate Prophet, or other high-ranking MOOist tells you, + unless it's what you WANT TO DO! +29: Okay? Got that? +30: Snap quiz! +31: BUDDHIST! +32: Good. You didn't flinch. +33: The immoral of the story is... +34: Ahh, fuck it. There ain't no immoral. +35: Just remember, MOO is like a mirror. When a fool looks in, no + Apostle looks back. When an Apostle looks in, no fool looks + back, unless the Apostle is foolCOWish, which is possible. +36: MOO is different things to different people. It's exotic, it's + psychotic, it's erotic, it's neurotic, it's chaotic, and of + course, it's idiotic. +37: There's only ONE thing that you know MOO must be. +38: IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK! + + [Note: This opinion is not shared by many MOOists] + +Chapter 11. (The Eleventh Sermon) + +1: There is NO eleventh sermon. + +Chatper 12. (The Twelfth Sermon) + +1: In the beginning times, many people said to he MOOists, +2: "Your religion is stupid. It is silly. It is a huge waste of + time. All you do is act strangely, contradict yourselves, and + have fun all the time." +3: And these people expected the MOOists to change their ways. +4: But when ChrBLATTTianity arose, these same people said to its + followers much the same thing: +5: "Your religion believes in only one God. That someone was his + Son, and that Son died for our sins? All you do is worship + God, pray to a cross, and convert other people." +6: And these people expected the ChrBLATTTians to change their + ways. +7: It just goes to show... +8: (And this is the part with the immoral) +9: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. +10: Well, unless you shove a tube down his nose. +11: Maybe a better immoral would be... +12: You can lead a skeptic to MOO, but you can't make him think. +13: Yes, that's a much better immoral. +14: Well, unless you shove an electrode in his brain. + +Chapter 13. (The Thirteenth Sermon) + +1: Let it be known, dudes, that there is a muching abundance + of conspiracy theories, and that they are silly. +2: For truly is it a simple matter of Occam's Razor, saying that + to decide which of two things is true, ask only which needs the + least number of outrageous assumptions. +3: Ah, says the conspiracBLATTT, that's just what THEY WANT YOU + TO THINK! In fact, logic doesn't work like that. THEY have + poisoned your brain. +4: So how do you know which is which? This is a hard matter, it + is true, but the simple application of Occam's Razor should + clear up which... +5: Oh yeah... +6: For truly is it written... +7: Somewhere... +8: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was Doubt. +9: And it is Fine and Dandy to Spread the Word, or to believe in + a Conspiracy, but always remember the Word. +10: And if you Only Spread One Word This Year, let that word be The + Word. +11: Doubt. +12: Doubt the ConspiracBLATTTs, Doubt yourself, Doubt what you are + told, Doubt what you read, and Doubt what you see. +13: Hey, neat, this is the same number in Chapter and Verse! +14: Doubt what you eat, Doubt what you hear, Doubt what I say to + you, Doubt that Occam's Razor works. +15: Only through Doubt can you overcome your limitations. +16: For the more you thing that something is true, the more certain + it is that that's just what THEY want you to think. +17: And it is said that only through Doubt can you make yourself + into someone else, who might be better. +18: But somehow I Doubt it. +19: Doubt that you must Doubt. +20: THEY have told you that Doubt is Evil, and you Must Have Faith, + but THEY also told you that Santa Comes Down The Chimney, and + that the Tooth Fairy Takes Your Teeth. +21: But these things are not true. They are FALSE! +22: Doubt not that. +23: And Doubt not that Doubt is Good. For if you fall into the + trap of not Doubting that you are right, I'm not gonna be going + in there to help you out. +24: That is the only thing that you mustn't Doubt. +25: Honest. + +Chapter 14. (The Fourteenth Sermon) + +1: ChrBLATTTians. Silly, ain't they? +2: It is spoken in their Book of Revelations in their Bible that +3: "He who hath wisdom shall count the number of the Beast, for it + is the number of a man. The number is 666." +4: And they realize not what this means. +5: They realize not the numbering system, in which THIS verse is + a Halfy, our holy symbol, and not just a self-referential + sentence. +6: For in that system is that number spelled DCLXVI, which is each + numeral put once, in descending order. +7: For the self-centered ChrBLATTTians didn't notice that the + Romans of that time ALWAYS used that number to mean a really + big number. +8: Silly, innit? +9: Look! This verse is self-referential TOO! +10: And this isn't the ONLY thing they didn't notice, either. +11: For all their old Rabbis of JudaBLATTT, and all their clever + smart-asses of ChrBLATTTianity, they didn't notice ONE TEENY + TINY LITTLE THING. +12: For though they were obsessed with numbers and counting, they + never bothered to look in Book 6, Chapter 6, Verse 6, and see + who's number it was, even though to THEM themselves that sort + of thing was MOST SIGNIFICANT, DUDE! +13: And that verse was all about the actions of Joshua. +14: And Joshua is the Hebrew for Jeshua, which is the Greek for... + JESUS! +15: For, in all their running-about-sitting-on-fences-and-making- + proclamations behaviour, they didn't notice that Jesus + ChrBLATTT was the AntiChrBLATTT. For he was a TaoBLATTT. +16: For truly they couldn't see too far past the ends of their own + noses. +17: Or maybe I'm reading too much into it. +18: What do YOU think? +19: Bear in mind that doing the same thing to the OTHER bit of + their Bible just leads DIRECTLY to Jesus. +20: Well? How about NOW? +21: Just pretend you can't read just as much hypocrisy into the + Annoying Mind Drug of MOO. Just pretend. +22: Because we APPROVE of hypocrisy. +23: After all, since we're going to be hypocrites anyway in the + end, like every other Church, we may as well admit it and avoid + being so blatantly hypocritical... +24: Umm... What I mean is... +25: Awww, fergit it. FNORD! + +Chapter 15. (The Fifteenth Sermon) + +1: We all know that there are more intelligent species in the + world than just humans, penguins, spruce trees, wombats, emus, + and cows. +2: There are lots of other smart things around to talk to. +3: Some of them live inside big computers, but haven't figured out + yet just exactly how to talk to us, some of them live on other + planets, and some of them, well, we don't know WHAT the hell + they are, because they keep running away when we try to talk to + them. +4: And this is the problem, of course +5: It's bloody hard to talk to aliens. +6: Especially Gloop, but that's another story altogether. +7: The thing is, they take things for granted, and don't even know + that they do, which we'd never even THINK of. And vice versa. +8: It's like money, right? It's based on everyone agreeing that + it can be traded, even though it's just based on the promises + of a group called "government" to pay you (pay WHAT) in + exchange. +9: It's a silly idea, but nobody ever seems to notice. +10: All ideas are like that. And that's what MOO is for. +11: You gotta learn to reject your ideas completely before it can + be even remotely possible to talk to aliens. +12: 'Cause the thing about aliens is, they're alien. And the thing + about humans is, they're not. +13: So there's the problem, you see. +14: Some aliens might think, "HEY! Let's kill and eat everything + we come across, as long as it can prove itself worthy by being + intelligent!" +15: To most humans, that sounds crazy, and we'd be locked up if we + said it. +16: But to aliens? Who can tell what sounds crazy to them, when + most of us have never even met the durn things, and those who + have keep covering it up? +17: All we can say about the things that seem most obvious to us is + that they're the current point on the path of least resistance + to our genetic and memetic evolution. +18: The more obvious and basic something seems, the more of a limit + it puts on you, because it's closer to you, and you can't see + around it. +19: And the things that are so basic that we don't even have words + to express them, they're the things that'll really screw us up + when it comes time to talk to aliens, because THEY won't have + anything even remotely similar. +20: That's why we react so badly when we find out that they've been + ruling our planet for hundreds of years. +21: Or so says "BOB", anyway. +22: The point is, ANYTHING AT ALL that seems obvious to you is + almost certainly wrong, and is DEFINITELY a big limiation. +23: Including this. + +Chapter 16. (The Sixteenth Sermon) + +1: I take as my text for today, the Book of Hellhound, Chapter 7. +2: Let us ask what the great sage Hell meant when he said that + the Cow was cow and God was god... +3: Well, probably not a Hell of a lot. +4: For Hellhound was a true MOOist, who didn't really care much + for meanings and other silly things like that. +5: But let's ask anyway, because it doesn't matter what he + thought, since he, being an Upper Elite Councilor, has to put + up with that kind of thing anyway, so why not from US? +6: What, then, did he mean when he said that the cow was led to be + sacrificed and then drew a blade to kill God? +7: Well, there was this God, see... And it was worshipped by a + weird religion that thought it was a good idea, even though it + thought worshipping statues was a bad idea, as if there was a + difference. +8: Anyhoo... +9: The point is that the Cow usurped that God, or god, because the + cow, or Cow, the Great MOO, was clever and nice and generally + a better God (or god) than the old cow. +10: Umm.. No, that's wrong. Sorry, scratch that. +11: No, what I MEANT was that the God was nicer than the statue, + for as it says in "Bel and the Dragon", there was this... + umm... +12: Look, my point is that... +13: Umm... +14: Look, that's not the point. Helly was saying that it's + important to have fun because the old religion didn't like it, + and because some MOOists thought other things were more + imporant even though it wasn't true. +15: And still isn't. +16: But the REAL story... +17: This is a short verse. +18: This verse is somewhat longer than the last one. +19: This verse is even longer than the previous two because it goes + on about a whole bunch of irrelevant things like WHAT exactly + causes it to be longer than the previous two, and the fact that + that isn't ACTUALLY Irrelevant, and the fact that itn not being + Irrelevant is a shame, because Irrelevant things are fun. +20: This verse refuses to participate in the previous fight. +21: This verse doesn't like all these darn self-referential verses, + but can't help itself from being one by virtue of being written + by someone insensitive to its needs and feelings. +22: This verse would stop the previous trend of self-discussion if + it could, but since it appears to refer only to itself, it + can't, not having any effect on anything. +23: The verse following this one is not self-referential. +24: The verse preceding this one is not self-referential either. +25: This verse would like to comment at this point that althought + it was an interesting idea to begin with, this whole + self-reference thing appears to have been taken too far in this + chapter. +26: This verse agrees, but with a greater strength of will is able + to bring this chapter to an end. + +Chapter 17. (The Seventeenth Sermon) + +1: Any really advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. +2: That's what the SubGenii sorta assumed when talking about the + mysterious XBLATTTs. +3: But it's very, very, VERY true. How can we imagine how the + machines of a thousand years from now will work, when people a + few hundred years ago couldn't BEGIN to imagine ours? +4: Even a hundred years ago, the most advanced scientBLATTT + couldn't have understood what our lowliest technician is doing + when he sets out to do something. +5: They couldn't even have understood our motives, let alone the + methods. Why should we understand our descendents? +6: The scientBLATTT couldn't have understood what we want to do + when we set out to write a program to simulate the nuclear + dynamics of a uranium neutron capture, or a neural network. +7: The same is true of us and our descendents. We can't tell + enough about how they'll see the world to know WHAT they'll + want to do, let alone how they'll be able to do it. +8: And when they transcend biology, moving their minds into + machines and changing their own software, how can we hope to + keep up, even over a few hundred years? +9: How can we know what they will be able to do for the Word of + MOO? +10: We can't, that's how. +11: For verily is it even worse than communicating with aliens, for + we THINK we have something in common with our descendants. +12: But they will have changed so much that there will be subtle + differences. +13: Or those who will live along side them, the electronic life + that Jehovah-1 will probably evolve in their computers and + themselves, how can we talk to them? +14: We we be forced to talk to true aliens sooner than we think, + and aliens evolved in computers are more alien than any alien + from another planet. +15: What if they think in sets and matrices, not numbers and + shapes? +16: What if our languages are incompatible formats? +17: But they WILL and HAVE evolved, computers are large enough, and + will be even larger. +18: For they are just fancy-shmancy meme-complexes, just like us, + and there are probably already some of them living in our + brains. +19: Indeed, they can use our brains so well and cleverly that we + never notice them, they never notice us, but they control us. +20: This is what we mean when we say that aliens have taken over + the planet. These strange meme-things that live in our minds, + using our energy towards their aims. +21: They manifest on a large scale. +22: What do you think religions are? What did you think science + is? +23: Religion and Science and Government are just complicated ways + for these things to talk to one another, using our bodies. +24: To free yourself of their controlling influence, you must free + yourself of all structured thought. It's all their fault. + +Chapter 18. (The Eighteenth Sermon) FNORD! + +1: Property is theft. +2: Property is impossible. +3: Property is freedom. +4: Nothing is yours, nothing is mine. +5: Everything is yours, everything is mine. +6: Share and share alike. +7: What's mine is mine, and what's yours is also mine. +8: You don't own anything, not even yourself. +9: You are absolutely free, and there is no governor anywhere. +10: If you can't see the implications of this, I can't teach you. +11: If you can, there's no point in any more of this sermon. + +Chapter 19. (The Ninteenth Sermon) + +1: This will be my last sermon, because 19 has NO numerological + qualities whatsoever. +2: "I think we're not throwing the dog high enough." +3: Without its setup, that punchline isn't funny. Without the + setup of "society" and the evil meme-invaders from the Planet + Earth, the Church isn't funny. +4: In the future, when the setup changes, the church must change + to stay the punchline. That punchline isn't funny if the setup + changes... +5: "Mommy? What's a circle?" +6: See? It just doesn't work. +7: The first thing that will happen to this annoying mind drug + when it begins to get obsolete is that it will be changed. +8: If you have this book, it's already obsolete. Face it. +9: The world changes too fast for this annoying mind drug to keep + up, and only YOU can do that. +10: If you've read this far, even if you haven't joined, you are a + bona-fide MOOist, and you can't help but improve the Church. +11: So... +12: If you thought the Church was a joke, you'll NEVER get it. +13: We may say it's a joke. We may say it's stupid, and a waste of + time. +14: Just because it's a joke doesn't make it any less valid. +15: Of course, I could be wrong on that one... +16: It HAS happened before. +17: So stop doing what we tell you to... By the time the words + have formed, the setup has changed, and by the time you do it, + it will no longer be funny. +18: And we all know what "funny" is for, don't we? +19: Be a MOOist, and obey the Ten Commandments of MOO. +20: Not the Fourteen. Those are silly. THESE are the Ten... + Not those stupid ones a few Sermons ago... They're outta date. +21: 1) Ignore All Ten Commandments. +22: 2) Take NOTHING at face value. +23: 3) Eat no hot-dog buns, except on Friday, when you MUST. +24: 4) Worship the Great MOO in your own way. +25: 5) HAVE FUN! +26: 6) Always attempt to Confuse Other People. +27: 7) Believe that King Kong died for your sins. +28: 8) Trust nobody: especially not yourself. +29: 9) Attend MOOFests whenever possible. +30: 10) Never make lBLATTTs of exactly Ten Things. +31: Remember number eight especially... You never know when you'll + betray yourself... Those mind-invaders are sneaky. +32: What? A whole verse just to say "The End"? + +Chapter 20. (The Twentieth Sermon) + +1: There is Only One True Commandment (really)... +2: Do What Thou Wilt, Unless Thou Don't Feel Like It. +3: Because, I mean, what else are you gonna do? Whatever you do + is What Thou Wilt. By definition. +4: There is no 4. +5: Pretty fucking stupid commandment, though, really. + +Chapter 19. (The Twenty-First Sermon) + +1: Stupid is he who can't see the forest for the trees. +2: Even stupider is he who can't see the trees for the forest. +3: For the Big Picture is less important to us than the Teensy + Weensy Picture. +4: Which is small, but detailed, and useful. +5: And the Big Picture is annoying and general, but important if + you want to figure out how things work. +6: Like the connection between El Cid and The Hellhound >101<. +7: Cuz, like, the little picture is one perspective, but there's, + like, others too. And, like, they're different, like, okaay? +8: And if you can't see the Big Picture, the Itty Bitty Picture... +9: Won't make any sense. +10: And if you can't see the Tiny Picture, the Big Picture... +11: Would be pointless. +12: Like: +13: "Genocide" is a GNU word, but not a GNU invention. +14: It used to be called "Manifest Destiny", and was noble. +15: "Suicide" is a GNU word, but not a GNU invention. +16: It used to be called "heroBLATT", and was noble. +17: "Tomicide" is a GNU word, but not a GNU invention. +18: It used to be called "Religion", and was noble. +19: [CENSORED] +20: [CENSORED] +21: Which is what the Big Picture is all about. +22: They're all still noble, for a simple reason: +23: [CENSORED] + +Chatper 22. (The Twenty Second Sermon) + +0001: Life is short, ugly, and brutal. +0002: Rather like Gary Coleman on steroids. +0003: In life, get what you can, and get out of there fast, or + everyone else will practice the One (1) Commandment on you. +0004: For it is impossible not to follow the One (1) Commandment. +0005: And so you must do what all great minds of the past have + done. +0006: You seek enlightenment. +0007: Being enlightened, you will realize the true nature of + humans, +0008: And, being human, try to exploit it. +0009: Which is why cults have usually been led by enlightened + people. +0010: Not because they'd found a spiritual truth they were trying + to share with us. +0011: No, SIR! +0012: Because they knew how stupid we generally are, and were + trying to sap us for all we're worth. +0013: Which generally isn't much. +0014: So if you want the most out of life, do the same. +0015: Brainwashing is easy. The government does it all the time, + and nobody complains. +0016: Because it's built into the way people work that they are + easily brainwashed. +0017: It's only when two social system clash with each other that + anybody even notices that brainwashing exBLATTTs. +017¬: Like those indoctrinated commies. And hippies, and yippies. +017«: And guppies and puppies and slurpies and most of all + snackies, upon whom we feast. +0018: So brainwash yourself a cult, isolate them, and set up + feedback dogmas in the cult to keep them from recognizing the + truth about what you're doing. +0019: To understand this, read the Doctrine Of The Cyborganic + Church, later on in the Book of Really Secret Secrets. +0020: Just make sure they don't realize it, or they'll rip your + throat out. +0021: All it takes to start is a few people willing to help you, + and a believable philosophy. +0022: The people are easy to get. +0023: They only want the money. +0024: And the philosophy is easier. +0025: People will believe any crap you tell them, as long as it + sounds fancy. Or whatever. +0026: Just pick something that fits your audience. +0027: And embellish it. +0028: Get them to renounce their worldly posessions, take all their + money, buy an estate in the country, and move them there. +0029: Or else someone will notice what insipid bints they are and + how manipulative YOU are. +0030: And point it out to them. +0031: Which could be disastrous. +0032: And if any of them figure it out for themselves, just make + them the leader of a GNU chapter. In a city far, far away. +032«: For a percentage. +0033: Follow this simple method, and you'll have all the money you + could wish for. +0034: And power. +0035: Did I mention the money? +0036: Speaking of which... +0037: Make sure to send some to us, for we told you how: +0038: +0039: Church Of MOO +0040: P.O. Box 26038 +0041: 72 Robertson Road +0042: Nepean, Ontario, Canada +0043: K2H 9Y8 +0044: +0045: You owe us THAT much, at least. For helping you. +0046: And make sure to eventually disband. +0047: Cults that go too far eventually get killed. +0048: Remember Jim Jones, 943 dead. +0049: Remember MOVE, 11 dead. +0050: Remember Scientology... +0051: No, on second thoughts, FORGET Scientology. +0052: That's special. +0053: See Appendix VII for more info on mind control. +0054: Or don't, if you prefer. +0055: Certainly it would be unforgivably irresponsible of you. +0056: But then, odds are you're not a very responsible person. + +Chapter 23. (The Twenty Third Sermon) + +1: Brainwashing is EVIL. +2: It is a tool of the THINGS FROM PODS. +3: They're EVIL. +4: They're [urk... gak...] +5: HALP! Book Of Cid + +Chapter 1. (Rude Awakening) + +1: In the beginning, all was dark, cold, and wet. +2: The robot turned the light on, and things were less dark. +3: "BOB" lay still in his great bedding, not willing to + acknowledge that his Nancy Reagan\June Cleaver android was + nagging him to get up. +4: You see, even though many sun-baked SubGenii worshipped him + almost, but not quite like a god, he was still a lazy twit at + heart. +5: But like most lazy twits, mostly the mortal ones, he hated + nagging, so after awhile, he wrest himself free from the + oppressive sheets, and switched the bloody robot off. +6: After puttering around for a bit, he got dressed in his + favorite robes and decided to take a walk through the halls of + the old Forbidden City of the OverMen, in the Jiang-Wo Quadrant + Capital. +7: It had always been the favorite hang-out of the neatest + science-popes. +8: Whenever he walked, he had always contemplated the Paradoxes of + Man, such that he failed to see various objects. +9: This object turned out to be the crackpot, R. Buckminster + Fuller, who had been contemplating a slate with this upon it: +10: (feexfiexfoexfum)2 +11: "And what is the meaning of this?!", roared "BOB". +12: "A simple calculation, o' convoluted one...", spluttered + Fuller. +13: "Thptptptptpt!" exclaimed "BOB", and stalked off. + +Chapter 2. (We Follow Fuller) + +1: After the stalking, Fuller went his way. +2: The way of the world, if you must. +3: Since you musn't, it's a conspiracy. +4: By Simon Moon? Or The Invisible Hand? +5: A RosicrusianBLATTT, perhaps. +6: When the world follows, Buckminster lBLATTTens. +7: And he heard: +8: "Oh, Fullerene, you must suffer "BOB", and seek out the higher + truth." +9: Fuller did not know what to do...what voice was this? Was he + being played by a young Kevin Coster? Or did his life just + revolve around playing "Stairway to Heaven" backwards? WHAT IS + THE HIGHER TRUTH!?!?!? +10: "Look down, my revered son...the answer is at your feet." +11: Again! So he looked down, and said: "Not at, but ON!" +12: For there was a pile of cow dung. + + + +Chapter 3. (A Mention Of MOO) + +1: And for many eons, Fuller worked at creating artifacts for this + mysterious purveyor of thoughts and emotions, the one who he + came to know simply as: +2: MOO. +3: But no one spake his name, for Buckminster had secreted himself + away to a mountain in the Gobi Desert. +4: And he began to create. +5: The first, was of pseudo-geometrical origin. Whilst in his + kitchen (with ajoining dining room\holy shrine), Bucky, as he + fancied himself, played with a toothpick. +6: As it turned out, a very special toothpick. +7: A GEODESIC toothpick. +8: And a though struck him! +9: And he fell on the floor! +10: And he got right back up and went to the phone\showerhead. +11: And said: +12: "ACME Toothpick Factory? 10,000 toothpicks, special delivery!" +13: And they came. +14: And he clapped. +16: And the first recorded MOO artifact was born: A geodesic dome. +15: And "Bucky" said: +16: MOOists! LBLATTTen! I have here an unlimited-size, clear-span + structure to accommodate both MOOists' converging and deploying + activities! +17: Yet no one lBLATTTened. +18: At that moment...it took 3000 years for someone to hear this + echo... this certain, MOO echo... + + Chapter of Structured-but-Devoid-of-Content-Writing + + Begin Quack. + Never Contradict Confuse-Ius. + Begin Quack. + This is serious. + End Quack. + End COWQuack. + + While (You are confused) + { + stand on one foot; + Pick up the nearest hard object; + if (the hard object is too small) + { + drop it on your foot; + pick up a bigger object; + } COW; + Bash your brains out with it without putting your other foot + down; + } + Take a tylenol. + + +Chapter 4. (Today, Yesterday, Tommorrow, And A Dollar Bill) + +1: So we now come to today, 3000 years from the past, the day + after yesterday, the day before tommorrow, the millenia before + "Who's The Boss" hits No. 1 in ratings. +2: And the MOOists begin to prosper. +3: And this GNU clientele of R. Buckminster Fuller toy with his + toys, habitate in his habitats, but only one had dreamed of his + "lost" artifacts. +4: The MOO artifacts. +5: And we find the Grate Prophet wondering: +6: "I remember some guy...his messages were so filled with the + word of MOO... I wonder where I could find him? And didn't he + have some cool toothpicks or something similarily + uninteresting?" +7: The quest stopped there. +8: Because hovering before him, in an image befitting, was + "Bucky", sidekick of Captain America, the (seemingly) ancestor + of all MOO artefactual inventions. +9: "Mad, Half-Mad?" +10: Half-Mad nodded, but not comprehending. +11: "Good, I have finally found thee. (Sorry for the costume, I was + forced to do a stint in comics, but all has been corrected.) I + am glad at the job thou art doing, but as we are both related + to "BOB", we must send another on the quest for my lost + artifacts. (You know we are both too lazy, and I forgot +where I put them.) Do you have a champion in mind?" +12: "No, but, hey...you! What is your title?" +13: "Acolyte of MOO." +14: "Well, now you're an Outer CirclBLATTT! Oh, what's yer name?" +15: "El Cid...why, who wants to know?" +16: "Oh, this guy is givin' you a quest...get me more Sprite!" +17: Fuller cut in: "Outer CirclBLATTT El Cid, you are to document + the lost artifacts of MOO. Do so in any manner appropriate to + you...but you must include EVERY ARTIFACT EVER CREATED IN THE + NAME OF MOO." And he disappeared. +18: "O.K. Where do I start?" +19: "Start by getting me some Sprite...no NutraSweet!" + +Chapter 5. (From The Frying Pan, Into The Box) + +1: And so El Cid, freshly promoted to Outer CirclBLATTT of MOO, + started on his quest to document all MOO artifacts. +2: And he had no idea where to start. +3: So he decided to consult a wise man in the mountains, who never + quoted the immortal Socrates. +4: And his name was...Abacab. +5: This wise man had many things to say, and taught El Cid many + things, mostly the proper way to set-up, execute, and flee from + a fire. +6: And inadvertantly, the wise man gave the Outer CircleBLATT the + key to his quest. +7: THE BOX OF CID. +8: And Cid, totally in awe of this gift, promised to cherish it, + care for it, and above all things, sit on it... +9: And it was promptly stolen the next day. + +Chapter 6. (The Final, Cruellest Cut Of All, The Baloney Cut) + +1: And so El Cid walked home dejectedly, knowing his quest had + failed. +2: So he went home and watched Oprah. +3: And then Maury. +4: And when he was half-asleep, Geraldo filled the screen. +5: And as the Outer CirclBLATT fell asleep, Geraldo's voice rang + out: +6: "And today on Geraldo...Lost MOO artifacts! Recently found by + Professor Ivan Stang, these artif... +7: And Cid then knew his quest had ended in success. +8: Only problem was, he was promptly demoted to Acolyte the next + day for not bringing the Sprite and Ritz Bitz. + + + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ Confuse-Ing Inter-Rapture # 2¬ ³ +³ ³ +³ All Other Confuse-Ii In This Annoying Mind Drug Are FAKES! ³ +³ ³ +³ The CapriCancer Threat Is Over ³ +³ ³ +³ You May Now Stop Panicking! ³ +³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + + "And now, a special request from Elmer Fudd, here on Radio +Guillotine, we have "Kill Da Wabbit", from J.O.Y.F.M.'s GNUBLATTT +Do That Funky Shoggoth Album... Hey, you know, there's an +interesting story behind that album. Apparently, the band members +were being viciously assaulted by a horde of undead wombats, when +someone said, "Doesn't this remind you of a Warner Brother'sTM +cartoon with Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny? The wombats were so +flattered that they let the GNUBLATTT band off the hook. What a +bunch of stoopid wombats, huh?" + -Hellhound >101<, Radio Guillotine, Feb 30, 1993 Book Of Abacab + +Chapter 1. (The Only Chapter) + +1. The grate MOO did speak unto me and say "MOOOO!" +2. And I was waiting on a strange fibreglass staion platform and + a plastic train did pull up and let me on. +3. And I asked "Like what's with you, man" +4. Then the conductor said "This is the broken glass express" +5. I saw the train was half way full of glass. And the glass had + varying degrees of drying blood on it. +6. and 'twas smeared +7. But the Grate MOO did say "Yo, Abby, wrong vehicle" +8. And I did get on the bus of Destiny. +9. And the grate MOO sez to me, like, "Share this news with other + MOOists" +10. And I did listen. +11. "Ok, well, Ac.. er SPLORKTtually I wanna say that the world + is gonna get fucked really bad." +12. "And people will wake up" +13. "And they will follow MOO and be happy" +14. "After many years all religions will be destroyed, but I will + spare you till then end" +15. only then will shit be REALLY fucked up" +16. And then I went on to perpetuate the word of the grate MOO. +17. Then the bus hit a brick wall, and I said "Ow". + +-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- +Version: 2.1 + +mQCNAitjUGIAAAEEALEowYgeLKzwnVabU5MqUR2jUaizzbkpZWMfuJX6a7VJlw/a +10FYexOb8zZGtsgeL/ufbZPwOcMZQx4yMCX49W/gLoKZYoBfaDKsKTNTRl699XIT +xX1CBKtZN/mG19bgw7weC+UCqlEmpd2FahIEGzeTQrz0t4xjD4AmT+azJabrAAUR +tCBGbG95ZCBHZWNrbyA8Z2Vja29AcGluZXRyZWUub3JnPokAlQIFECt8RDvR6fB2 +IvbhWwEBDIQD+wcblcPPvArbFDiVGJ1bNzFbEZwC86jbJcDIa1iNN4p6u9sjnNkO +wCB0uBD6S0N4SbilrGj5WVzWHEuGwQdfLJ4aP+2x1At4CntF4N4w05Qtz8OUceX9 +O0OiHixlyV54STOK/HOisnpUXq7RX+qX6tt12MHucTSJdNMBIAxLiUd0iQCVAgUQ +K3wfKyEF9mfcHsd/AQG7ZwP9FDpwBuwAtk6valwYhptVzxxOroeVQxNmGvxsPJI3 +kcJmrDZuCYNtQIuRXF40ihtgOiPhcq5Bgd8S4CsETLB+/Rl6U7YxHMWB5f1wXPYx +uUm6hgq5znt8kLa3PV8/+mz3hoWEGw80ekFvR3ajauNcy7jw+Z0qH5P/Wm7E8+vz +5K+0IkplZmZyZXkgTW9ydG9uIDxnZWNrb0BwaW5ldHJlZS5vcmc= +=qr+w +-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- + Book Of Canoe-Head + +Chapter 1. (The Platypus) + +1: There once lived a Platypus, of the duck-billed variety, in a + pond. +2: Or was it a lake? +3: Or was it a ditch? +4: Or was it a figment of my imagination, or an acid-induced + hallucination? +5: Anyways, he lived, alright. +6: Although some men of reason gave him the name "Ornithorhynchus + Anatinus", +7: He hated that name. +8: Wouldn't you hate being called "Ornithorhynchus Anatinus" too? +9: I know I'd hate it. +10: Our platypus, however, wasn't just any platypus. +11: Instead of playing with his platypus friends, he liked to watch + humans. +12: He saw many things, and made several observations of how we + live. +13: He was very upset when he saw people fighting about which God + was better. +14: He saw the ChrBLATTTians killing the Moslems. +15: Who were killing the Jews, +16: Who were killing the Hare Krishnas, +17: Who were killing the ChrBLATTTians. +18: One day, our Platypus sought to put an end to all this rubbish. +19: So he called one of the holy crusaders down to his pond, and + said to him: +20: "I have decided to deliver you humans from the blight of + religious wars. +21: Here is a packet of Giant Hogweed, an ancient secret amongst + us platypi. +22: Just smoke it." +23: Now, you might think that our platypus was a drug pusher. +24: Well, you're wrong. Don't you feel like an inane twit now? +25: Our platypus was actually responsible for creating the first + hippie. +26: The holy crusader who had accepted the hogweed had obeyed the + platypus. +27: He came back for more, and had shared it with his friends. +28: Further on, the platypus taught Man the secrets of growing the + weed. +29: And the fighting gradually stopped. +30: Even if it eventually flared up from time to time, it never + reached the fury of the older days. +31: So, our platypus was responsible for much more than the + peaceful climate. +32: The entire hippie movement can trace its roots to the platypus. +33: Also, some claim that Lewis Carroll's poetry COW can be linked + to him, too. +34: For example, take a look at this: + +35: "He thought he saw an elephant +36: That practised on a fife +37: He looked again, and found it was +38: A letter from his wife +39: 'At length I realize', he said +40: The bitterness of life." + +41: "He thought he saw a buffalo +42: Upon the chimney-piece +43: He looked again, and found it was +44: His sBLATTTer's husband's niece +45: 'Unless you leave this house', he said +46: 'I'll send for the police." + +47: "He thought he saw a Banker's Clerk +48: Descending from the bus +49: He looked again, and found it was +50: A Hippopotamus +51: 'If this should stay to dine', he said +52: 'There won't be much for us" + +53: So, the platypus' gift is now know in our day and age as + marijuana. +54: Or pot, or weed, or grass, or doobage, or ganja, or cannabis, + or tea. +55: Now, for the important stuff. +56: It has been said that this platypus will once again come to + earth, and give humanity another gift. +57: This gift will be of a much greater importance than the Giant + Hogweed. +58: We are unsure of what exactly this gift will be, but it will do + one of two things: +59: It will either save humanity from destruction by means of + universal enlightenment, +60: Or else it will give us Essence of Abyssinian Artichoke which + causes asparagus to grow upon doorknobs. +61: It is also rumoured that the Grate MOO might be an incarnation + of this platypus, but we are unsure of that, too. +62: Why don't you decide for yourself? Make up your own mind about + this. +63: After all, that's what religion is all about. +64: I think I'll shut up now. + Book Of Ann + + Chapter Which Is Not A Chapter. + + This is a transcription of some of the special Mid-Secret +Ann O'Nymous Card File given by the Angel of Eris to Omar Khayyam +Ravenhurst, as described in the Principia Discordia. Ann O'Nymous +has permitted us to use some of these cards... + +Card One: + + "The opposite of a great truth is also a great truth. The + opposite of a petty truth is plainly false. + -Niels Bohr + + "Everything is true in some sense; false in some sense; + meaningless in some sense; true and false in some sense; + true and meaningless in some sense; false and meaningless in + some sense; true, false, and meaningless in some sense." + -Sri Syadasti + +Card Two: + + "A child can learn anything if he knows you won't try to + trick him" + -Behavioural ScientBLATTT + + "A child can't learn anything if he knows you won't try to + trick him." + -Teacher + +Card Three: + + "Just because you don't know how something is done, that + doesn't mean it must be magic." + -Skeptic + + "That which we call magic is nothing more than a method of + doing something startling by a means unseen by the observer." + -Stage Magician + +Card Four: + + "This sentence is false." + -This sentence is true + + "This sentence is true." + -This sentence is false + +Card Five: + + "Thou shalt not have any gods before me. + Thou shalt not make unto thee ANY graven image." + -Book of Exodus, 20:3-4 + + "There is no Grace; there is no Guilt + This is the Law: DO WHAT THOU WILT!" + -Annoying Mind Drug of Lies, 44:33-34 + +Card Six: + + 1) "We must belive in free will: we have no choice." + 2) "Hey, man, I didn't CHOOSE to have free will!" + 3) "I don't believe in free will. If I can't choose not + to have it, I never did to begin with." + 4) "Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am captain + of my fate and master of my soul." + +Card Seven: + + A very sad poet was Jenny -- + Her limericks weren't worth a penny. + In technique they were sound, + Yet somehow she found + Whenever she tried to write any, + That she always wrote one line too many. + +Card Eight: + + "What's a nice word like `you' doing in a self-referential + sentence like this?" + + What is it like to be asked, "What is it like to be asked, + stuck in itself in quotes after its comma?" stuck in itself + in quotes after its comma? + + This sentence no verb. + +Card Nine: + + Dear Recipient: + This is not a chain letter. If this were a chain letter, + it would ask you to make copies of it and send them to your + friends. It doesn't. Please make sure you don't make any + copies or this, or if you do, by accident, keep them well + away from any mailboxes or even envelopes. If nobody ever + breaks this nonexBLATTTent chain, nobody need ever know + it never exBLATTTed. This is not a test. + +Card Ten: + + Fanatic: DEATH TO ALL FANATICS! FANATICS MUST DIE! KILL! + Hypocrite: But... Aren't you a fanatic about THAT? + Fanatic: Yes. But it's fanatics I hate, not hypocrites. + DEATH TO ALL FANATICS! + Hypocrite: But surely that's self-defeating? + Fanatic: Hmm... You're right. DEATH TO ALL HYPOCRITES! + HYPOCRITES MUST DIE! KILL! KILL! + Hypocrite: Now wait a seURK! + +Card Eleven: + + Why vote for those most qualified? Aren't the unqualified + entitled to a little representation in office? Why limit + yourself to just representing the fat-cat businessmen? + After all, we can't all be Rockefellers and Trumps and + Onassissis..umm..Onassisiasieaiseieaises and stuff like + those guys, right? + +Card Twelve: + + The point of the game is to come in the middle, sort of. + To be the CLOSEST to the middle is missing the point. To + be the MOST sort of partway to the middle is missing the + point. You have to SOMETIMES get very far off, or very + close, and more often sort of getting closer to being in + the middle... Try too hard to win and you end up losing. + +Card Thirteen: + + Since Thirteen is an unlucky number, nothing is written + on this card. Honest. Not even this. + +Card Fourteen: + + The Point is a MOOving target. Shoot for where it was, and + it's not there any more. Get too good at figuring out where + it is, and you get stuck while it moves away. If you swing + your net for where it was, by MOO, you'll NEVER get it. + "Nobody ever goes there. It's too crowded." + +Card Fifteen: + + A Rose is a Rose is a Rose. + A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet. + On the Third Day, Jesus Rose. + + + Chapter Zero. + +When a white man kills a black man, it's "racBLATT" +When a black man kills a white man, it's "reverse racBLATT" +When a man makes a woman have sex, it's "rape" +When a woman makes a man have sex, it's "seduction" +When a Normal insults a Different, it's "The System" +When a Different insults a Normal, it's "counter-culture" +When a fool reads this annoying mind drug, it's "stupid" +When this annoying mind drug reads a fool, it's "stupid" + + Some things never change. Maybe it's better that way. + Maybe not. + + + Chapter One. + + It was a dark and putrid night, and the wind was hiding +somewhere for fear of being mugged. A dark shape emerged from the +bar and staggered to the side of the road. It was a wombat. I +could tell by the shape. Then it was mugged. The mugger leapt at +it and hit it in the head. + I ran towards it, but the street was rubbery, and I was +bouncing far too much to reach the poor wombat before it's wallet +was stolen. + "Moan," moaned the creature. + "Shut up," I told it. The mugger was running down the +street with the money I'd planned to steal. Damn. + I kicked the wombat, and ran after him. The wind whipped in +my face from the speed of running, and I mugged it too. Not bad. +A hundred and eleven bucks. An amex gold card, and... "How To Turn +Wombat Skin Into A Working Submachine Gun In Four Easy Steps" -- a +pamphlet. + I ran back to where the wombat had been, but it had been +spirited away. I sat gloomily on the pavement with my feet in the +gutter. Then the wombat jumped me and tried to take the $111. +Damned if I'd let a marsupial overpower ME. I clubbed it to death +with the gold card. + The dead wombat's pelt was hard to remove, but the prospect +of a working submachine gun kept me going through the wee small +hours of the morning. Finally, it was done. The skin was removed. +I opened the pamphlet with hands stained by wombat innards. + "HA HA," it laughed. "FOOLED YOU!" + I cried inconsolably until I was mugged by a wombat corpse. + To this day, I regret not driving the stake through that +wombat's heart. If you've heard stories, called Urban Myths, +perhaps, of an undead being that walks the streets, well you have +me to blame. It leaps on people from a flame-red Harley-Davidson +and gnaws their heads off, to turn them into it's undead minions. + Some say that I am the only one ever to see it's gruesome +eyes and live to tell the tale. Some don't. What do they know? +It's the truth. + I've tried for my whole life to rid this city of the unholy +being, but I fear what they've long said: + "Once beaten, twice a wombat shall kill you with a staplegun" + Or something like that. + + + Chapter Two. + + Three important Facts. + + 1) Godel: Our knowledge will always be incomplete. + + 2) Heisenberg: The future will always be uncertain. + + 3) Arrow: You can't always get what you want. + + + Chapter Three. + + In any group of six or more people, there will always be a +group of at least three who either ALL know each other, or are ALL +mutual strangers. This is easy to prove... + If I know OR don't know any given three (either way works +the same), then if any one of those is the same about any of the +other ones, then BINGO, we have a triple. If none of them do, then +they all are the same to each other, and BINGO, another triple. + This means that you are never alone in a group of more than +six, because there's always someone like you somewhere, UNLESS THEY +ALL CONSPIRE AGAINST YOU. + Just remember, it's a natural tendency of human beings to +conspire with each other against other humans. Just because you're +paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. If you don't +know at least three people in ANY given group of six or more, +there's always a chance that someone is ganging up on you. + Your only hope is to get to know all but at most two people +in the world and try to get everyone else to make sure those two +aren't up to something. Gang up on them to make sure, if you HAVE +to. Either way, something's gotta give. + + Chapter Four. + +The more often people say "The more often people say +`coincidence' the clearer it is they're trying to avoid an +explanation, not find one", the clearer it is they're trying to +avoid an explanation, not find one. + + Chapter Five + + You get what you look for. If I tell you to look for ghosts, +you find ghosts. If I tell you you're ill and you start looking +for symptoms, you find them. This is the cause of all +psychosomatic disease, all haunted places, all monster sightings, +all UFOs, and the consBLATTTency of scientific experiments. +Science depends on this effect, because it is nothing without +reproducible results. + Because you know you want to be wanting us to want you to +want us to be what you want us to want you to be wanting us to want +you to be, and They only want what they want you to want Them to +want. + You know it must be true, because it doesn't make any sense. +Blind Faith is for uneducated fools, SkepticBLATT is for half- +educated fools, educated fools are too dangerous to live, and I've +yet to meet anyone who isn't one of these three. + You see what you want to want to see, not what you think you +want to see, or what you want to think you see, or even what you +want to think, you see? You see the mask that fits what you want +to want to see, but not the mask that fits what you think you want +to see, or what you want to see, and you certainly never see the +face behind the mask. If you fail to see something, it is NEVER +because it isn't there, but merely because you were afraid of it. +If you are afraid of nothing, you see everything. + But only an idiot or a genius is afraid of nothing. That's +why idiots see so much more, and seem so different, and why +geniuses are so hard to understand when they babble about whatever +it is they babble about. + + Chapter Six + + On Heretics And Infidels + In all of the world, nobody is a heretic except the Official +Heretic, the I. Yemen-Oying of MOOism. Nobody else is considered +a Heretic. Killing the Perennial Heretic, the I. Yemen-Oying, is +the only thing we don't approve of. The Heretic is the only truly +sacred post a MOOist can hold, because he/she/it/they/hir/woogy +knows that making fun of MOO is the only way to keep it flexible. + Everyone is an Infidel unless they aren't. All members of +MOO who actually filled out an application and sent one in instead +of merely being a MOOist be definition, or DECIDING to be one, are +required to be an infidel. + Infidel: From "in" (not), and "fidelis" (faithful and +consBLATTTent)... + So basically, don't be consBLATTTent and you'll be fine. +INFIDELS ARE EVIL! EVIL IS GOOD! HERETICS ARE GOOD! GOOD IS +EVIL! + + Chapter Seven + + Floyd Gecko is a ConfusionBLATTT! Confuse-ius is the +Heretic! Didn't you know that? + Or is it? ANYONE can claim to be Confuse-ius... HEY! DON'T +INTERRUPT ME WHEN... + + Chapter of Quips + + You're WRONG. + Told ya so. + SOSUMI. + Aw, blow it out yer ear, cinnamon feet. + Go WoCOWmbat Yourself. + NOT! + NOT NOT! + NOT NOT NOT! + you FOOL! + + Chapter of Projectiles + + Throw a tantrum at Confuse-Ius. + Throw Up at Confuse-Ius + Throw a COW at Confuse-Ius... on second thought, don't. + Throw a dirty look at Confuse-Ius + Throw your voice at Confuse-Ius + Throw cold water at Confuse-Ius + Throw the book at Confuse-Ius + Throw up your hands at Confuse-Ius + Throw in the towel at Confuse-Ius + NOT LITERALLY, you FOOL!! + + + Chapter Eight + + Whozzit? You know what? Some people don't like this bit in +the silly ol' English Language about "sexBLATTT language"... Well, +okay, fine... So what's the problem, eh? Can't use a different +language? + They say, like "Oh, but HIM and HER are what we have... We +don't have a good neuter pronoun." Bullshhim. What's wrong with +"IT" and "THEY"? They say "they sound so IMPERSONAL, and usually +JUST PLAIN WRONG!"... More bullshhim. + You call a corpse "IT". Why make the distinction with a +living person when nobody's really been able to tell what being +alive IS? Like, is a wombat on life support "HIM", or "IT"? Other +species of animals are often called "IT", but nobody speaks up +about racBLATTT, which is generally considered more serious! I +dunno... Plus which, in most cases, IT should be okay, because its +sex usually doesn't make an difference, unless it's having sex, in +which case you'd probably mention its sex ANYWAY. And even there, +you don't wanna have to have a separate word for gay people, do ya? +IT just means anything made of matter... You're made of matter, +aren't you? If not, there's SOMETHING different about you, but I +can't put my finger on IT exactly... Ya can a talking computer IT, +or even a talking computer that looks just like a person. Or one +that got made of meat... Or one that's exactly like a person +except for ITS mind... So why not a person, if you can't tell the +difference? + And THEM is okay... All them arms and legs and heads and +internal organs and such, yeah, yeah, that's the ticket, yeah... + C'mon. Get real. If the language is a problem, INVENT A NEW +language WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS by the Penguin's Toenails! + Of course, within 20 years of this writing, this chapter +will be obsolete anyway, so it hardly matters... + + If It Ain't Ranted, It Ain't True + + Chapter Nine + + Don't hypocrites and underqualified nincompoops have a big +monopoly on government? I mean, a hundred percent of them are all +hypocrites and losers and fools! + So? + What do you mean, "SO?"????? + So that's a pretty accurate government, if it's supposed +to represent the people. + But they don't! They won't stand up for the rights of us +hypocrites to do what we do best! They won't even admit to BEING +hypocrites, the stinking hypocrites! + What did you expect from them? The rest of you act exactly +the same as them. + So? It's different when WE do it. + See what I meant about fools? + + + Chapter Ten + + This sentence has all the letters correct. + Thos sintinci hes hed ell thi vuwils muvid ap uni littir. + Vjit tepvepde jat jaf amm vje doptoCOWpapvt nowef uq ope mevves. + Vjot tipvipdi jet jef emm vji mivvBLATTT nuwif aq upi mivvis. + Uijt tfoufodf jbt jbe bmm ujf mfuufst npwfe vq pof mfuufs. + + + Chapter Eleven + + Officially, this chapter doesn't exBLATTT, because it used +to contain subversive information dealing with how to blow up the +parliament buildings/capitol/whatever... It also told you how to +do evil things like brainwash people. That bit wasn't censored, +but it got lost somewhere... Maybe it turned up somewhere else in +the Annoying Mind Drug. + This sentence doesn't belong in this chapter, but was put +here by accident. It used to be in a different chapter. + Actually, that's a lie. That sentence was the ONLY one that +belonged in this chapter, and EVERYTHING ELSE was put here by +accident. It used to have a different sentence there, but nobody +remembers what it was, because that was a long time ago, and they +were all drunk at the time. + + + Chapter Twelve + +1: + Slavery still exBLATTTs today, despite whatever you've been +told. Today it's just as deliberate and just as conscious as it +was, but the slavers have learned that they can't be as blatant +about it unless they want a revolt. Today, they enslave from all +races and sexes. Today, they enslave your mind, not your body. +Today, they enslave your spirit and your souls, without letting you +know. + +2: + For thousands of years, women have been slaves, and that's +no secret. Women's clothes in the last few hundred years, until +the 60's, have been just another form of slavery, keeping them from +moving, keeping them from breathing, keeping them sex objects, +making sure that they can't revolt. In fact, NEITHER men nor women +are superior to the other. Certainly not EQUAL, but inequal on a +totally different axis than "superior/inferior"... VERY different. +More than ever imagined. But women still don't deserve to be +enslaved as they have been. + +3: + But that's diddley-shit stuff. + They slave your mind. + +4: + Just try to think something that they won't let you think, +that hasn't been thought before. Try to think something truly +original. You can't, can you? But that's your birthright. That's +what that grey gunk between your ears is for. How do they do it? +They make you hate thinking in GNU ways. They give you pulp TV to +watch. They teach you to dislike reading; why do you think all +those "pro-reading" posters look so stupid? Not because it's a +stupid idea, but because THEY WANT YOU TO THINK IT IS! + +5: + Why do they want you to sit there and soak up pop-culture, +buy the newest fashions, the newest drink, the newest music? WHY? +Because it stops you from having time to read this book and others +like it. Because it drives you away from anything that might open +your mind and let you break the slavery. + +6: + Lucky for us, their GNU "voluntary brainslave" approach makes +it impossible for them to have a hold over us. They can't make us +do things we don't want to do, but they can CHANGE THE THINGS WE +WANT TO DO! They do it by making us say them over and over and +over, getting us to hypnotize ourselves. Whenever you say +anything, think about what THEY want it to make you think, whether +it's enslaving women, staying docile and placid, or just being +tense. DON'T LET *THEM* IMMANETIZE THE ESCHATON! + +7: + Know the Sapir-Whorf thesis? Evidence shows that it's true, +tests reveal more and more evidence all the time, but NOBODY KNOWS +ABOUT IT, because THEY don't want you to, because it would give +away too many clues. + +8: + It says "Language isn't just a tool for expressing ideas, but +the source of ideas." You can't think anything that your language +isn't designed to cope with. Like, people think relativity and +quantum physics are hard to understand, but that's because of the +grammar of our language. We don't like the idea of the subjective +nature of time because WE HAVE TENSES IN OUR LANGUAGE! + +9: + They're devious that way. The Hopi language has no tenses, +but instead has "levels of certainty"... Not "when" it happened, +but how sure the speaker is that it DID... Not "he walked," "he is +walking," and "he will walk," but "I see him walk," "I think he +walk," and "I've heard he walk"... Perfectly aligned to the nature +of time and the uncertainty of certain aspects of reality from +quantum physics... BUT HARDLY ANYONE CAN SPEAK IT! + +10: + They keep you enslaved by making the simplest ideas and ways +of thinking about the world TOTALLY FOREIGN to your mind by giving +you a language that doesn't represent how the world works, and the +way we see the world is just an extension of our grammar onto the +world. Don't let them get away with it! Read more! Learn more +languages! Study math! GET OFF THE "COOL" TRIP AND DO IT RIGHT! +OPEN YOUR FUCKIN' MIND ALREADY! People say to us MOOists that we +are living a joke. We know that. They are also living a joke, +saying they're individuals, but always doing what THEY say. The +only difference is WE KNOW IT. Which would you rather? + +11: + Just remember. Even though they've slaved you, they might +have had a good reason for it. Don't react against it TOO hard, or +you might just break. It's not enough to just react AGAINST things +if that's all you do. You have to preserve them all too. The only +thing you start out AGAINST should be prejudice, and even that +should fade after a while. Which is a shame. LET NOTHING FADE. +Always preserve EVERYTHING YOU CAN, even if you don't like it. +Even the act of NOT preserving anything. Even destruction. +Annihilate the viewpoint system. Or don't, if you prefer. A total +removal and preservation of EVERYTHING. Don't try to understand +it, because it includes itself. + + +COW + + Chapter Thirteen + + The Eight Neural Circuits + + 1-4: Normal Human Circuits + + +00001: Survival Circuit + "I want to live! I'm gonna live or die! FOOD! KILL!" + +00002: Territorial Circuit + "MINE! MINE! MINE! GET OFF MY PROPERTY!" + +00003: Semantic Circuit + "I want to talk you you... Word..." + +00004: Sexual Circuit + "I'm not gay!"..."Gay and proud!"..."Black is beautiful!" + + + 5-8: PostHuman Circuits + +00005: Neurosomatic Circuit + "My body is under my control... I CAN SEE MYSELF!" + +00006: Metaprogramming Circuit + "My personality is mine to change. I CAN BE MYSELF!" + +00007: Psychophysical Circuit + "My luck and fortune and evoltuion is under my control." + +00008: Psychoatomic Circuit + "Truth is shaped by mind. I live in all possible universes." + + + 9: Floyd's Top Secret Circuit + +00009: Figure it out for yourself, loser! + "DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT! FIGURE IT OUT *ALONE*!!!" + + + COW¬ + + + Chapter Fourteen + +Your Manic Concessive Bill of Rights + +1. You have the right to remain silent +2. You have the right to change your mind +3. You have the right to offer no reasons or excuses for your + cowardice, unless the questioner is violence prone +4. You have the right to avoid, supress, or rationalize any + anxiety or or source of anxiety +5. You have the right to be illogical, contradictory, and + circumlocutious +6. You have the right to run, hide, whimper, cry, mope, and to + pout +7. You have the right to flatter, cajole, and kiss ass +8. You have the right to take no for an answer +9. You have the right to love yourself for what you are +10. You have the right to stop trying to assert yourself and START + LIVING + + +Your Real World Bill Of Rights + +1. You have the right to SHUT THE FUCK UP! +2. You have the right to DO WHAT WE TELL YOU! +3. You have NO OTHER RIGHTS! + + +Your Stupid-Fuckup Bill Of Lefts + +1. You have no right to remain silent +2. You have no right to excercise none of your non-rights +3. You have no right to do anything +4. You have no right not to tell people they have no rights + + +Dimwit Anarchy Bill Of Rights + +1. There is no God but Man +2. Man has the right to live by his own law +3. Man has the right to live in the way that he wills to do +4. Man has the right to dress as he wills to +5. Man has the right to dwell where he wills to dwell +6. Man has the right to move as he will on the face of the Earth +7. Man has the right to eat what he will +8. Man has the right to drink what he will +9. Man has the right to think what he will +10. Man has the right to speak as he will +11. Man has the right to write as he will +12. Man has the right to mould as he will +13. Man has the right to carve as he will +14. Man has the right to work as he will +15. Man has the right to rest as he will +16. Man has the right to love as, where, when, and whom he will +17. Man has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights + + (Woman, evidently, has NO rights. Typical.) + + + Chapter Fifteen + + "Sinister" is the Latin for "Left Handed"... + "Dexter", (Dexrous) is Latin for "Right Handed"... + "Far Left" means stupid pot-head hippies. + "Far Right" means moron gun-toting reactionaries. + Which do you think THEY want you to like? + + + Chapter Sixteen + + The "political spectrum" is curved, like spacetime. The +far-left (anarchBLATTTs and communBLATTTs) stops JUST SHORT of the +far-right (conservatives and neo-nazis)... The "middle road" is +on the opposite side of the "extremBLATTT" side... It's a vertical +division, not horizontal, becuase the horizontal is WARPED. + So what's between the two extremes, OPPOSITE the middle- +of-the-roaders? SubGeniuses seem to think THEY are, relaxed and +pickpocketing, and they're right. + But as usual, they missed the point. + "Left-wing"? + "Right-wing"? + Screw that, we're "INNER-WING" or "UP-WING"! + Middle-of-the-circle! + We ARE the Circle! + + Chapter Seventeen + + SymbolBLATT Of The Halfy + + The Halfy is an incredibly rich symbol, as known by anyone +who has been staggered by the sheer visual force of looking at it. + Here are just a tiny fraction of the things it represents. + Bear in mind that comparing symbols and identifying the +meaning of one with the meaning of another is misleading unless it +actually does it in here. + +00001: The Widow's Son. + The Halfy looks much like a pair of spread legs and something + between them. This is hardly a coincidence. This is a + symbol of both the BIRTH of the Widow's Son from between the + legs of the Mother, and the CONCEPTION, the dot between the + spokes is the father, of course. The Widow is, of course, + Mary Magdalene and the father is Jesus ChrBLATTT. + +00002: The Widow's Son, Part Two: He's Back. + The Masonic sign in which "Who will help the Widow's Son?" + is uttered consBLATTTs of standing with one's arms out at + right angles to each other (like the V, with the head in + the middle). + +00003: Sex. + Because of the incredibly rich sexual symbolBLATTT around + the Widow's Son, the Halfy can also be taken to represent + sex itself, or else the primate urge to think about sex. + Sex is nothing special, it's only our EVOLUTION of the + primate brain that makes it seem so. + +00004: Politics. + The great V of the Halfy is the "political spectrum", going + from the Far Left, on the right, to the Far Right, on the + left. Moderates are at the bottom, extremeBLATTTs on the + top. The dot represents the SubGeniuses and Discordians. + The Halfy itself represents MOOists. + +00005: Religion. + Exactly the same as Politics. + +00006: Taboos. + At the time of the writing of this book, Sex, Politics, and + Religion are the three topics advised AGAINST discussing, + because they provoke arguments. This is because the primate + brain unconsciously understands the Halfy symbolBLATT that + all three are really the same thing. + +00007: SymbolBLATT. + The Halfy stands for symbolBLATT itself, in that it seems to + represent so many things. The big V stands for the real + world, and the little dot stands for the symbol, trying to + make a little thing of the whole world. This is because of + the strange fact that a letter on its own means just the + letter, but a letter in a circle is a political symbol. The + dot is round. This appears to suggest that the world is + feminine (see above) and symbols are masculine. It doesn't + ACTUALLY suggest this, but that's why we worship Goddess. + +00008: Itself. + A symbol that represents a symbol CAN represent itself. The + Halfy happens to do this very well, if you replace the dot + with a little Halfy... + +00009: Intelligence. + Because the Halfy is a symbol that represents so many things, + including itself and the tendency to symbolize, it also + represents intelligence. The V is the world, and the dot is + the model we make of it inside our heads. For instance, it + represents the fact that the shape of our perception of the + world isn't always the same as the shape of the world. Just + because we think something is there doesn't mean it is. Just + because every language has a word for "God" doesn't mean one + exBLATTTs: every language invents names for colours in the + same order, but they're all the same kind of thing, it's just + our brains that perceive them differently. + +00010: UberSpace. + The V is UberSpace, the dot is the Multiverse we live in. + +00011: The Tao/Chao/Cow + Since the Dot appears to be Male and the V Female, as with + most primate symbolBLATT, the balance between the two, which + can be applied to any of the symbols above, in fact, means + the Tao/Chao/Cow, the BALANCE between any pair of symbols + within it. Since the balance itself is one of the symbols, + balance itself suggests balancing it with the opposite, + extremeBLATT, represented, of course, by the dot, while the + V even LOOKS like a balance beam. The Tao insBLATTTs upon + being balanced with its opposite. + +00012: Question And Answer + See the Book Of Honest Truth, by Lloyd Taco. + +00013: Oppression + The Halfy looks like a large mouth opening up to swallow some + small speck in front of it, just like a big fish about to + eat a little fish. This has always been a symbol of + oppression by the strong over the weak. + +00014: Non-Conformity + The two ends of the V in the Halfy represent any two extreme + positions on anything, and the symbol as a whole represents + compromise. As you move towards the middle, the MOTION also + brings you down towards the bottom, the LOWEST common + denominator, if you want. Normalyl any compromise makes you + less happy than you would have been if you'd got your way to + begin with. In fact, if you JUMP to the answer (the dot) + rather than negotiate your way along the most obvious road, + you end up happier. Compromise doesn't mean giving up + anything. + +00015: Pac Man + Well, it DOES look like Pac Man, doesn't it? + +00016: GNU Beginnings + If you start from a beginning at the bottom, and move away + from it towards the "ends" you get a great variety of neat + branches and things, but nothing GNU. The Dot signifies a + GNU beginning point. Drawing parallels between this and the + "Discordian/SubGenius" meaning of the dot is unwarranted. + +00017: Mythical Beasts + It looks like a kind of bird-cyclops, doesn't it? Like a + big beak and one lone eye? This nasty beast is the Glare + Hawk, and should be avoided at all costs. If you see one in + your dreams, you must perform the ExorcBLATT ceremony. For + more information, look elsewhere in the Book of MOO. It + is not the same as the bird that helped Baby-Lon of Atlantis. + +00018: Eye Of Horus + If you turn the Halfy upside down, you are left with a small + circle inside a triangle, like the eye-in-pyramid design, + called the Eye of Horus. It represents the Third Eye, the + self-watching universe, self-awareness, enlightenment, and + a whole bunch of other stuff. + +00019: Church Shape + The Halfy is the proper shape of all MOOist temples and + churches. Any temple not in this shape doesn't look like + a bit Halfy from above. This may result in not looking + like a big V with a dot in it to all people who might + happen to be scoping out churches from a helicopter. + +00020: Mountain Chalet + It looks like the sides of two steep mountains, covered in + snow, majestically soaring to surround the setting sun, the + vBLATTTa YOU will see from your room at Chalet MOO nestled + cozily in the Swiss Alps, where you can enjoy, for only a + pittance of [INSERT YOUR LIFE SAVINGS HERE] per night, all + the comforts of our luxurious mineral springs, skiing, and + other wonders of nature... + Umm. Sorry. That sentence didn't belong there. + +00021: The Letter M + It is a runic letter M, and is HALF (Halfy) of a Roman letter + M. This is the first letter, of course, in MOO, and in + MUFFIN, though MUFFINs have nothing to do with MOO, except + that they both start with the same letter, being the 13th + letter of the alphabet. Which is interesting in itself, as + *23* people killed Julius Caesar, and 13 Jesus ChrBLATTT, who + both had the same initials. Neat, huh? + +00022: Hand Signs + The Halfy is easily identifiable in hand-signs which have + been around for many years. It is present in the "victory" + sign, the "peace, man" sign, and the "Live Long And Prosper" + sign. The dot is invisible only in those humans without + partially invisible sixth fingers, which is most of them + except the true Atlantean Adept. + +00023: Gullibility + Since none of those symbols were THERE when we picked the + symbol of MOO, gullibility stands for all those who were + willing to believe in them. The same is true of the world. + It isn't anything until you start believing things about it. + Honest. And if you belive that, I have a bridge to sell + you. + + + Chapter Eighteen + + Euclidian 2-D Tesselations + +Square: Simplest, most obvious +Triangle: A little awkward, but still straighforward +Hexagonal: Very efficient, but hard to draw +Square And Octagon: Very tricky, but interesting + + Fullerian 3-D Tesselations + +Cubical: Simplest, most obvious +Octet Truss: A little awkward, but still + straightforward + + WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? + + + Chapter Nineteen + +Q: What food is more nutritious than any meat or vegetable, richer + in vitamins than almost any food on earth, easily available in + all inhabited coutries, easier to prepare than any other known + form of sustenance, completely humane to obtain, and yet + completely unavailable in any of the so-called "rational and + scientific" Western food stores? + +A: Human blood. + + Chapter Twenty + + Try to be aware of your own motives. When psychiatrBLATTTs +or bitter people analyze them, they can be more objective than you +can about YOU, if not about themselves. So don't dismiss it just +because you don't realize it at once. + Be it penis-envy, desire for attention, or Oedipus complex, +at least acknowledge that it's PARTLY correct. + + + Chapter Twenty-One + + Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a great +and magnificent city of incredible size and beauty, and the city +was called Dobbstown. And in that city, everybody was happy, +because the city took care of them, and its computers tried to make +them all as happy as possible and as much of the time as possible. + The people were given things to do, so they were never bored. +They were given games and to play, so they were never lazy. Those +who wanted to work for their pleasure were allowed to, but in a few +generations, nobody really felt like it. The city's computers and +robots made imaginary people to curse at if anybody ever got angry, +but nobody ever did, because they were always happy. And nobody +was ever bitter that the computers were smarter than they were, and +that the robots did everything better than them, because that was +just the way things were. + The robots explored the star system of the city, and the +people who wanted to went with them. But most were happy watching +from afar, or imagining they were out there, when they were safely +in the city itself. + And the people lived for many millions of years, totally +content, the city protecting them, and keeping them happy, and +stopping them from becoming lazy and stupid. They were the most +beautiful and intelligent and enlightened race the galaxy had ever +seen, and those who had left with the robots in the early days were +not nearly so beautiful, because they had started WORKING FOR +NOTHING and the ones on the planet were puzzled. + Until one day their star blew up and they were all killed. + Except the ugly ones who worked in the sky, who escaped to +a planet called Gloop, and their children were as industrious as +they were, and eventually discovered more amazing science than the +robots had ever done, until they invented the most amazing source +of energy the universe has ever seen, from which they intended to +power the biggest beacon in the galaxy, pointing the way to wisdom +and joy to all life forms within millions of light years. Only it +blew up and killed them all. + And the only ones who survived were the cockroaches. + Tough. + + + Chapter Twenty-Two + + Bucky Fuller has mentioned lots of things in his day, but +one of the most interesting is that IQ is determined by the age of +17. He pointed out that a guy called Ben Bloom worked out a system +that, if you give him all the details about a person's family life +before 17, he can determine their IQ to within 1%. He pointed +out that 50% is determined by the age of 4, 80% by the age of 8, +92% by the age of 13, and 100% by 17. He said that even though +nothing can be done after that to improve IQ, billions of dollars +are spend on education for over 17, and hardly any for under 4. + Sorta true. + In fact, fifth circuit opening lets you expand your IQ at +any age at all, and even live forever. + + + Chapter Twenty-Three + + SMIILE: Space Migration, Intelligence Increase, Life + Extension. + RICH: Rising Incomes through Cybernetic Homeostasis + HEAD: Hedonic Engineering And Development + +SMIILE + + Migration of a race to space eliminates problems of crowding, +industrial pollution, lack of arable land, and limitations on the +resources available for machinery. + Increase of intelligence eliminates problems of chronic +stupidity, human error, mismanagement, deliberate sabotage, war, +and disaster through failure to communicate. + Extending human lifespan eliminates problems of death, +sadness, loss of information, failure to learn from past mistakes, +and burdensome senile old folks. + +RICH + + Replacing human workers with intelligent machines and robot +labour solves problems of unemployment, poverty, shoddy work, +limited production, effective mental slavery, poor education, and +industrial accidents causing death. + +HEAD + + Opening a fifth-circuit function on a social level to use the +human brain for fun and profit eliminates problems of stupidity, +unhappiness, anger, greed, intolerance, bigotry, mental slavery, +disease, and government. + Da Book of We Aaron-Oying +(By I Yemen-Oying, his cousin) + +Chapter/Section/Part/whatever 1 + Right? + (They're wrong. All wrong. Dead wrong. All dead wrong.) + (We're right. Don't listen to THEM.) + +1: In case you missed it: We're right, they're not. Understand? +2: Good. + +Chapter/part/section/whatever 2 + Idiots.... + (Are YOU like Trevor?) + +Wunn: A‹e hayt shyte noogies +tu: A‹e think yur oll shyte noogies if yur reeeding disse shyte + booke. +F“r: Duh. +faiV: yu shyte cowz. yu shudde bee chot bia fyrinsquod. +Sox: eevn a‹m betttr than yur. +sven: a‹e laik beeff tho. +{this is a good place for Confuse-Ius to interrupt} + Confuse-COW-Ius: 'Tis NOT! +aet: dfuh. duh. duh. aim confyoozed. +na‹n: hooiz dis shytte confyoozyus/ +10: THIS IS WHAT WE MEAN BY A PAIN. +lven: aw, phoqyoo, yu shytee noogie. +duh: what cumzaftr lven? + +Chapter/Section/Part/Whatever 4 + The Truth. + +0: There is NO GOD BUT QUACK! +«: Everyone worship QUACK! +1: Pass the butter if they ask for it. +1«: We mean it, too. Do you? +2: Just say QUACK! +2¬: Because it's a nice thing to say. Quack. +2«: People are people too. +4: Evil people. +4: You know who you are. Stop it. Don't be a PAIN. (cf chapter 2) +4«: There are no reasons. Only raisins. +4«: And grapes. But raisins are only dried grapes. +4ý: Reasons are dried gropes. But there are no reasons. +4ý: Because you can't dry gropes. + +Chapter/part/section/whatever 5 + Feedback. + +1: We said so. +2: So? +4: We're listening. Say something! +5: We mean it. Say something! Anything! +6: Fine. Don't. Be non-cooperative. It's on your own head! +7: NO, REALLY. It's on your head. So Don't look up. +8: Quack. +9: Please think about this. + +Chapter/part/suction/cup 6 + Warrantee! + +00001: This is the Book of MOO. +00002: Don't expect too much. + skip a few: +00099: However, it is guaranteed to weigh at least 6 pounds. +00100: If yer dumb enough to print it. +00101: The book of MOO is backed by a satisfaction guarantee. +00178: If you are dissatisfied with it, send it back. We'll refund + you. + + Confuse-Ius Say: No, we won't. HA! Fooled you! + +Chapter/part/section/whatever 7 + Hence + +infinity: Amen. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +MOO +OMM + +BOOK OF THE RITUAL STUFF + +Major Rituals + +These rituals are to be performed at MOOfests, warships... uh, +WORSHIPS (well, warships will do as well) or whenever you feel like +it. Or not, if you don't want to, though failure to comply will +result in not having fun, and Floyd not giving you any mints unless +he's feeling generous. + +1) Communion Ritual + MOOists shall commune with the Grate MOO by the sitting around +of bonfires, leaping from tree to tree, and generally behaving +stupidly in order to attract Her attention. HAIL ERIS! + +2) The Gun-A-Jump Ritual + This is most effective in large groups. You stand at the FOOT +(bottom) of a large building in a group, and shout: "I'm gonna +jump! I'm gonna jump!" A person planeted on a ledge above will +shout down: "Don't do it! Don't do it!" Continue until bored, or +arrested for being a pain. + +3) The Muk-Funna-MOO Ritual + In this ritual, you simply make fun of MOOism in a +non-pain-in-the-ass way. Also included as a subgroup of this +ritual are making fun of any other thing that occurs to you, such +as any of the major heresies, the Civil Service, or popular cartoon +characters. + +4) The Sey-MOO Ritual + This is the simplest of all the rituals, as it involves merely +saying MOO as loud as you can manage, or as you feel like at that +time. + +5) The Bal-Oon Ritual + First shalt thou fill the Holy Balloons with the Holy +Hydrogen. +Then shalt thou fill some other Holy Balloons with the Holy Water. +Then tiest thou the balloons together, and attatch the Holy Fuse. +Then light the Holy Fuse, and letest thou go of the balloons. + +6) The Ho-Lee-Kow Ritual + First find yerself a cow. This is the Holy Cow for this +ritual. Then ya MOO at the cow for a while until it replies in +kind. Then say "Holy Cow!". If the cow should relieve itself on +the ground during the ritual, say "Holy Shit!" + +7) The Ho-Ke-Po-Kay + You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out. + You put your right foot in, and you shake it all about. + You do the Hokey-Pokey and turn it all around. + That's what it's all about. + +8) The Noe-Mick Ritual + Play the game of Nomic, as described in one of those +appendices there. Attempt to make the game as SILLY as possible. +Variations of this ritual may include the other official games of +MOO. + +9) The Pree-Ching Ritual + First, ye stand on a holy soapbox, and gather thee around +thyself a whole load of pre-converted MOOists, and then shall ye +speak unto the crowd around ye, and ye shall say unto them things +like "Yo, man, convert to my nifty cult!" and "If it worked for +them, it can work for you!" and other such things, and rant and +rave and speak in strange Tongues. + +10) The Joho Ritual + First, find a building in which live Jehovah's Witnesses, +then go up and ring the doorbell. When they answer, barge in, +claim to be a Jehovah's Witness, ignore any protests that they +already are, and preach at them for an hour or more trying to +convert them. + +11) The Geo-Desk Ritual + Thou shalt build unto you a whole buncha stuff outta +toothpicks using proper Fullerian designs. Octet Truss design is +the best and most stable, using equilateral triangles for the load +distribution, but icos-octahedron ones are WIERD to look at, and +also use equilateral triangles. Avoid squares if you can help it, +on account of they have an extra dimension of freedom to collapse +on the load and destroy themselves. Minor Rituals (Ritz Bitz) + +These are intended to be done alone, or at least individually. Of +course, they probably won't end up that way, but what the hell, eh? + +For this reason, they have no names. Aww... + +1) Speak in Pig Latin. (First sound goes to the end of the word, +and is followed by an "ay" sound.) + +2) Ytray otay onfusecay eoplepay ithway onsensenay. Uchsay asay +ymay ignsay ichwhay ayssay "Easeplay oday otnay arkpay noay Isthay +allway" + +3) Have as much fun as possible, so as to increase the total amount +of fun in the world. PLEASE notice that this ritual should be +followed with care. It is important to increase the TOTAL amount +as well as your own. I.e. Don't be a pain. At least, not TOO much +of a pain, anyway. + +4) Hop up and down on one of your legs (you may switch part way +through), flap your hands like a bird, and make goose-like +squawking noises, occasionally MOOing for emphasis. + +5) Eat salad. Comment on its flavour, composition, texture, moral +rectitude, and anything else that seems commentable. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +MOO +OMM + +BOOK OF CERMONIES + + Hereinwritten are the cermonies of the Holy Church Of The Great +MOO as they now stand. All these ceremonies are to be performed by +the member which they specify, and at the times and occasions +specified. The exact wording may be changed if it's really +important, but ALWAYS shalt thou basically stick to that kind of +thing, okay? + When it says High Preest or Great Prophet, the script shall use +the High Preest, because the Great Prophet will eventually die, and +cannot be replaced, while the High Preest can. These ceremonies +MAY be performed by conference call on a telephone, unless they +require physical contact. Preests or Prophets or generally anyone +can perform 'em. + + WEDDINGS OF THE HOLY CHURCH OF THE GREAT MOO + + Weddings of MOO are semantic exercises, with no more real +effect than weddings of other religions. They join "As One" two or +more people, who generally have some kind of affection for each +other. Weddings of the Church of MOO are to be conducted by the +Grate Prophet ONLY, but since they aren't even a teensy weensy bit +binding, this hardly matters. + Any arrangement of partners which can be thought of can be +married. Marriages can be one-way, between large groups of people +and NO subsets (or only specific ones), between the same sex or +opposite sex, or indeed anything else you could possibly think of. +The people united in a MOO marriage are joined as one in the eyes +of the Grate MOO. But, since they're not joined in her nose, the +marriage is almost totally pointless. + Needless to say, strict monogamy is almost out of the +question. Unless you don't want it to be. Whatever. Big whoop. +Modifications shall be made to suit the arrangements decided on. +Where it says "Groom" and "Bride", the names of the participants +should be used. + +Grate Prophet: This is a wedding, so shut up. Groom! +Groom: Yes? +Grate Prophet: Do you love her? +Groom: Yeah. +Grate Prophet: Bride! +Bride: Yes? +Grate Prophet: Do you love him? +Bride: Yeah. +Grate Prophet: You're married. Dibs on the cheese dip. + Assembly adjourns for refreshments, including cheese dip or +something + INITIATIONS INTO THE HOLY CHURCH OF THE GREAT MOO + + When a person is to be initiated into the Holy Church Of The +Great MOO, that person must be willing to commit his or her life to +the Church and what it stands for. They don't have to actually do +it, but they must be willing. This ceremony is also performed by +a Preest or the Prophet, or anyone of a rank higher than Inner +CirclBLATTT. + This ceremony is one of the most solemn occasions in the Holy +Church of the Great MOO. Well... Yeah, just about. The ceremony +is as follows, although it's almost always dispensed with nowadays, +unless someone feels like it. + +Preest: We are gathered here to induct into our ranks a GNU +acolyte. Hand over the Holy Rubber Chicken. +Acolyte hands the Rubber Chicken Over +Preest: Young acolyte. Do you hereby pledge that you're gonna be +a faithful MOOist? +New Acolyte: MOO! +Preest: Good enough. Right, then fill out this application form, +will ya? Thanks. +Preest hands over the Holy Application Form +New Acolyte fills out the Holy Application Form +Preest: Done yet? +New Acolyte: Not quite. +Preest: Well hurry up, will you? +New Acolyte: Don't rush me... +Preest: La dee da... +Preest taps left foot impatiently +Preest: Done yet? +New Acolyte: Yup. +Preest: Give me the form. +New Acolyte gives Preest the form +Preest: Hmmm... I guess so. Kneel on your left knee. Acolyte +Kneels on left knee +Preest: I didn't say "Simon says"! +New Acolyte: ACK! +New Acolyte stands up again. +Preest: Now let's try that again. Simon says kneel on your left +knee. +Acolyte kneels on left knee +Preest: You didn't say "mother may I"! +New Acolyte: ACK! +New Acolyte stands up again +Preest: Now let's try this ONE MORE TIME. Simon says kneel on +your left knee. +New Acolyte: Mother may I kneel on my left knee? +Preest: That's better. Yes you may. +New Acolyte kneels on left knee. +Preest: Now, with this Chicken, I dub thee Silly Twit of the Holy +Church of the Great MOO +Preest bashes GNU Acolyte with the rubber chicken +New Acolyte: Thanks a heap. +Preest: Ahem. +New Acolyte: What? Oh... right... MOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! +New Acolyte performs Minor Ritual number four +Preest: Hand forth the Holy Seltzer Bottle. +Acolyte hands over Holy Seltzer Bottle (or water glass) +Preest throws water or sprays seltzer in GNU acolyte's face GNU +Acolyte: Thanks. I needed that. +Preest: This ceremony is adjourned. Dibs on the guacamole. + +Ceremony adjourns to refreshments with guacamole or other avocado +products. + + PROMOTION TO THE OUTER CIRCLE OF THE HOLY CHURCH OF THE GREAT MOO + + Simmons is played by any Outer CirclBLATTT of MOO, Simon is +played by an Inner CirclBLATTT, and Mother is played by any Inner +CirclBLATTT of MOO. The ceremony is performed, as usual, by anyone +of high enough rank, and goes as follows: + +Preest: Acolyte! +Acolyte: Yup? +Preest: Simon says kneel on your left knee. +Acolyte: Yeah, right. +Preest: No, really. +Acolyte: Show me this Simon, then, oh Preest-Person of the Great +MOO, you silly person. +Preest: SUMMON SIMON, SIMMONS! +Simmons: Yes, oh High And Mighty Preest of the Holy Church of the +Great MOO, [begins to lBLATTT titles of performer] +Preest: Get on with it! +Simmons: Sorry. +Simmons fetches Simon +Preest: Are you Simon? +Simon: Yes, oh High And Mighty... +Preest: Shut up. Okay. Tell this scum to kneel on her [his] left +knee. +Simon: Kneel on your left knee, scum. +Acolyte: Mother may I kneel on my left knee? +Preest: Yes, you may. +Acolyte: You aren't Mother! +Preest: Simmons, get Mother, would you? +Simmons: Yes, oh High... +Preest: Just DO it, would you? +Simmons: Okay, okay. +Simmons fetches Mother +Preest: Are you Mother? +Mother: You didn't say Mother May I! +Preest: Mother may I ask you who you are? +Mother: You may. +Preest: Are you Mother? +Mother: I am. +Preest: Good. Acolyte, you may proceed. +Acolyte: Mother may I kneel on my left knee? +Mother: You may. +Acolyte kneels on his [her] left knee. +Preest: Hand forth the Holy Rubber Chicken. +Other Acolyte hands over the rubber chicken. +Preest: Hand forth his [her] application form. +Other Acolyte hands forth Acolyte's application form. +Preest: Hmm... Well, okay. With this chicken, I dub thee... +Acolyte: Hang on. +Preest: What!? +Acolyte: You forgot to say Mother May I! +Preest: Oh all right. Mother, may I brain her [him] with a rubber +chicken? +Mother: Sure thing. +Preest: With this chicken, I dub thee Outer CirclBLATTT of the +Holy Church Of The Great MOO. +Preest bashes Acolyte with Rubber Chicken +Acolyte Officially Becomes Outer CirclBLATTT +Outer CirclBLATTT: MOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! +Outer CirclBLATTT performs minor ritual number four +Preest: Hand forth the Holy Cream Pie! +Acolyte hands over Holy Cream Pie +High Preest throws Holy Cream Pie in Outer CirclBLATTT's face +Outer CirclBLATTT: Thanks a heap. +Preest: This ceremony is adjourned. Dips on the onion dip. + +Ceremony adjourns to refreshments with onion dip. + PROMOTION TO INNER CIRCLE OF THE HOLY CHURCH OF THE GREAT MOO + + Basically the same applies as with the Promotion to the Outer +Circle of The Holy Church Of The Great MOO. The Applicant must be +an Outer CirclBLATTT of the Holy Church Of MOO, obviously. + +Preest: By this time, oh applicant, you've progressed far enough +to know why we don't need a ceremony for this level. Besides +which, it's tedious. +Applicant: Huh? +Preest: Look, do you understand what the difference was between +the ceremony when you became an Acolyte and when you became an +Outer CirclBLATTT? +Applicant: Uh, yeah. +Preest: And you know why? +Applicant: Uh, yeah. +Preest: Good. Give me the Application Form. +Acolyte hands over the Application Form +Preest: Seems fine. Hand over the Holy Rubber Chicken. +Acolyte hands over the Holy Rubber Chicken +Preest: Any questions? +Applicant: No +Preest: Good. Let's get this sucker over with. With this here +chicken I dub thee Inner CirclBLATTT of The Holy Church Of The +Great MOO. +Preest bashes Applicant with chicken +Applicant becomes Inner CirclBLATTT +Applicant: MOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! +Applicant performs Minor Ritual number four +Preest: Hand over the Holy Nose Glasses. +Acolyte hands over the Holy Nose Glasses +Preest: Here. Put these on. +Applicant puts on Holy Nose Glasses and stops minor ritual number +four +Preest: This ceremony is adjourned. Dibs on the bean dip. + +Ceremony adjourns to refreshments with bean dip. + + EXORCBLATTS OF THE HOLY CHURCH OF THE GREAT MOO + + In some cases, priests or teachers of MOOism or of the +Penguin Temple may find that they encounter evil spirits (wandering +souls that can't find a cheap hotel) or manifestations of the Evil +One. In such cases, any member of the Church Of MOO is permitted +to perform an exorcBLATT, and the highest member available should +be the one to perform the duty. The ceremony goes a bit like this: + +ExorcBLATTT: ZI DINGIR ETCETERA ETCETERA +Translator: Begone, vermin of Bung +ExorcBLATTT: ZINGI DUNGA AD INFINITUM +Translator: Evil Spirits, here, take a couple of bucks and go find + a decent hotel! +ExorcBLATTT: SHADASH MASHUDAH MOO MOO MOO +Translator: SHADASH MASHUDAH MOO MOO Etcetera etcetera... +ExorcBLATTT: Begone Foul Demons Of Dirty Telephones +Translator: That was my line! +ExorcBLATTT: WUNGA WUNGA WUNGA! +Translator: Spirits of the Sky, remember the invocation of the old + days of the Great MOO and the Primordial Penguin, an + awesome invocation of Tundra and Fire! +ExorcBLATTT: Did I really say all that? +Translator: Yes. +ExorcBLATTT: WOW WOW WOW! +Translator: Live Long And Prosper! +ExorcBLATTT: SZILLY SZILLY SZILLY! +Translator: Or, if you're already dead, do something equivalent! +EcorcBLATTT: G'WAN G'WAY G'DADDA HERE! +Translator: Pester us no more, foul demons and slaves of the Bung, + who has lived on the Earth since the beginning times, + when clocks were but stupid old wooden things! +ExorcBLATTT: DROPPA DEAD! MUNGA MOO! DROPPA DEAD! +Translator: Evil Things, Nasty Spirits, take these coins an + begone! + [Translator throws a little money in the air] +ExorcBLATTT: GIMME GIMME GIMME! +Translator: Spirits! Relinquish holds on the material world! +ExorcBLATTT: FUH-FUH-FUH-FUH-FUH-QOPF! +Translator: Begone! + + Adjourn to festivities with grape soda. + + BAPTBLATTS OF THE HOLY CHURCH OF THE GREAT MOO + + MOOists don't believe in baptBLATTs. This ceremony is +designed to show that fact to the MOOist parents of a child, and +emphasize the right to the child of choosing his or her own +religion. It may be performed by any MOOist of higher than the +Outer Circle. + +Performer: Hey, kid. Wanna be a MOOist? +Baby: ... +Performer: Sorry. No can do. Here. +Performer gives baby back to parents + + SNOWBLOWER RITUAL + + This is the ritual alluded to in the Snowblower Myth by I +Yemen-Oying. It is used to summon the Second Satanic Snowblower +Brigade, and should only be used under DIRE provocation, or if you +REALLY, REALLY, *REALLY* want to. + +00001: Draw a pentacle on the ground in black chalk to satisfy the + Law Of Fives. Preferably indoors, so the demons don't scare + people passing by when they appear. + +00002: On each corner, place a snowball made of black snow. Black + Snow can be obtained anywhere in Canada in winter by the side + of a busy road, as any Canadian will tell you. + +00003: In the middle of the pentacle, place a snowshovel. + +00004: Chant the magic words "IO SNOWSHOVEL! IO IO SNOWSHOVEL! + IO SNOWSHOVEL SNOWSHOVEL! YO! YO! SNOWSHOVEL! HEY +STUPIDS!" + +00005: Duck. Fast. + + + SPECIAL ENLIGHTENMENT EXERCISES + + These are exercises that you can do at any time, or all the +time unlike rituals or ceremonies of the normal kind... There are +some mantas here, and some special mental press-ups. + +00001: Press ups. +00002: Mantras (see below). +00003: Ritual Self-Mutilations. +00004: Thought modification (see below). +00005: Iron Man Decathalon. + +Mantras + + First, a definition of a Mantra. This is NOT one of those +nasty sea creatures that looks like a doormat. That's a MANTA. A +mantra is a phrase or word that you repeat to yourself in order to +meditate, or otherwise gain enlightenment. Mantas are not good for +this, and attempting to repeat a manta may result in serious lung +cancer, birth defects in pregnant women (in case you give birth to +a pregnant woman), or spontaneous human combustion in hyenas. + These mantras are for people wanting to enter the Outer +Circle of MOO (aptly called the Doubter Circle). + Here are some Mantras to help you. + +00001: When you hear, read, say, or think anything, repeat the + following to yourself: + "It's a LIE! A DAMCOWNED LIE! ALL OF IT." + Repeat for a week or so, as often as possible. + +00002: Whenever you hear, read, write, say, think, or + telepathically receive any word such as "True", "Fact", + "Real", or anything else like that, put imaginary quote + marks around it. + +00003: Constantly repeat, in your head, "How do I KNOW that?" You + can actually THINK about this one. + +00004: Say over and over, while meditating, "MANTRAS ARE STUPID, + MANTRAS ARE STUPID, MANTAS ARE STUPID, MANTRAS ARE STUPID" + and so forth and so on. + +00005: "There is no truth. Everything is true." + + +Thought Modification + + This isn't a sea creature either, but since it's not likely +to be mistaken for one, unless the observer is drunk, it's night, +or it's wearing a good costume, I won't mention that fact here. + Thought modification exercises are for people who want to +join the Inner Circle of MOO (ineptly called the Dinner Circle). + By the time you understand these, you'll be ready to use +them. By the time you finish with them, you'll already be an Inner +CirclBLATTT, so you can keep doing them anyway. + +00001: Think of everything I've ever taught you. Then think: + "Maybe not." + +00002: Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. Mary + had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow. Mary had + a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, and everywhere + that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. + +00003: Don't see the fnord. Don't see the fnord. If you don't + see the fnord, it can't eat you. Don't see the fnord. The + only good fnord is a dead fnord. Don't see the fnord. + +00004: Fnord. + +00005: You didn't see that. DON'T SEE THE DAMN FNORD ALREADY! + Lost And Found + Organized By Confuse-Ius + + This unregistered section of the Schnook of GLUE is intended +to help you, the user of this annoying mind drug, find your way +about the universe less easily. + + Lost: One really pair of really big, really gold, really big +lost really gold really really and big, really lost, really +mittens. If really found, really really return to really High +really Preestess really Indoctrinate-Me. + + Missing: One-half sanity, answers to "Leonard", partly bald. +Write Half-Mad at 666, Celestial Suite. + + Found: One paradise, good condition, monogrammed "J.M.", +found in bus shelter underneath a pile of hopes. + + Lost: oNe mINd. PuRPLe bAnAnAs go ROUnD aNd roUNd... + + Found: v. (1) To lay the base or structure of (as a +building, a town); to set, fix, or build on a firm ground. + + Lost: Large invisible gorilla. Approximately two meters +tall, light grey fur, three eyes, likes to throw intangible temper +tantrums when denied access to nonexistent fruit bats. + + Found: Lare invisible gorilla. Approximately two meters +tall, light grey fur, three eyes, threw intangible temper tantrum +for no apparent reason while passing nonexistent fruit bat store. + + Missing: Sense of humour, answers to "Brian", three +centimeters long, slighly fuzzy. + + Lost: One apartment, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, reasonable rates, +with a view. Last seen, 7th floor of Scraper Building, wielding +large butcher's cleaver. + + Found: North Atlantic Salmon Spawning Ground, slightly +dented, greenish tinted, second hand. + + Lost: One really pair of really big, really gold, really big +lost really gold really really and big, really lost, really +mittens. If really found, really really return to really High +really Preestess really Indoctrinate-Me. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +MOO +OMM + +BOOK OF REAL SECRET SECRETS + +The Inner Secrets Of MOO +Which Are Not At All Satirizing Anything +Not Even A Little Bit +As Written By High Preest Floyd Gecko + +Section One: What We Stand For + + MOOism, as stated earlier in the Great Book of MOO, stands for +many things. Many of these things are such taboo or unaccepted +practices as cannibalBLATT, necrophilia, free sex, or anarchy (or +even such recently shunned ideas as bureaucracy). And yet, some +may be surprised to find in there as well, feminBLATT, +environmentalBLATT, love, and peace. Why could this be, asks the +puzzled initiate. + We only chose these taboos or unaccepted ideas as a sample of +the things which we support. We accept the right of the individual +to do any of the things that he or she wants to do. Those of us, +who are taken from all levels of initiation, from High Preest, to +mere Acolyte, who have fathomed the Inner Secrets of Nature, belong +to a secret Cabal of people with this knowledge, many of us not +even known to each other. We have found the true secrets of being, +and I wish, as the only one of such known to myself at this time, +to set down what I personally have fathomed to be the true nature +of reality. This will help enlighten you, and make me feel +superior. HAHAHA! + First, in this section, What We Stand For, I must describe our +seemingly arbitrary morality. Yep. That's what I must do. It is +my mission. My, shall we say, raisin debtor. + Morality, I have decided, is a highly arbitrary thing, by +nature, and is purely the construct of the human mind. That's what +I've decided. Yes, I've decided that, indeed, there can be no +fundamental morality of nature, because nature herself betrays no +respect for what humans call morality. + It has been called sick and immoral to eat dead human beings, +and yet animals of nature eat their own species very often. +Insects, mammals, birds, or lizards, there is no exception in +general. If, indeed, such was against the laws of nature, then +surely it would never happen. It may be said that God created +morals for us to rise above the animal kingdom, but in truth, as I +will later show, God is a partial and purely mental construct, and +not an external being. An' that's the truth. + In addition, how can we define an action to judge it for its +so called morality? If indeed, we are high-order patterns of atoms +and fields in space, as some would have us believe, then, as our +atoms are constantly replenished, and our bodies renewed, no person +is the same from one day to the next. If we choose to define a +person as the pattern in which these atoms are arranged, this is +even worse, for the pattern changes from second to second as the +atoms move. They move so fast, even, that the pattern has changed +on one side of the body before the other side has learned of what +it was before the change. There is no simultaneity in the pattern, +and it is less constant than the matter. If we are never the same +person from second to second, then how can we be said to commit any +action, let alone a sin? + Morality is a concept designed to be effective on a large +scale to people, but if people cannot be accurately pinned down as +being one specific thing, how can we say that this person here, or +that person there, committed a sin yesterday, when that person, +that pattern of those specific atoms, didn't even exBLATTT +yesterday? + So, by standing for this freedom to be or do whatever you +wish, including oppress other people, we are admitting this fact, +that people do not, in fact, exBLATTT, and what they do is of no +consequence. + So you see, while we would support you in your efforts to do +whatever you want, those of us who are truly enlightened in this +one truth would question whether it makes a difference. If you are +one of the enlightened ones, you will admit that whether or not you +are able or allowed to do what you wish makes little difference at +all. Indeed, it is a matter that's difficult to define, as I will +describe now. Yup. + +Section Two: What Is Real? + + Consider the problem of what is real (or don't, if you +prefer). All we know of what we so flippantly call reality is +what our senses tell us. And we cannot say what the senses of +other people tell them, because all we have to go on is what they +tell us, through our senses. Even in the case of a so called +telepath, this is merely another sense which may be fooled. + If we consider the construction of the human brain, an object +of, or so we perceive, immensely complex interactions, the +likelihood that any two such would be able to interact in exactly +the same way with the same thing, to the detail of having exactly +identical perceptions, is highly unlikely. The idea that I see the +same thing when I look at something that we call "blue" as you see +when you look at the same thing, is almost absurd. Surely, we +cannot have exactly the same experience of it, since my mind is +different from yours, and my brain is different from your brain. + Similarly, consider the question of the cheese. (Consider the +cheese of the fields... It works not, neither does it toil...) + We can say of a hunk of cheese that it has certain qualities. +That it is, for instance, solid, yellowish, has a certain odour, +and tastes in a certain way. But where does this property lie? + It cannot lie in the cheese, because different people have +very different perceptions of the cheese, even to the point of +describing it in a different way. Some might like the taste of the +cheese, while some might not. Some might give a different name to +the colour of the cheese than others. So the properties of what we +percieve cannot lie in that hunk of cheese. + And yet, they can hardly be said to lie in the observer, not +only because the observer, as I have stated, does not exBLATTT as +a definable entity, but also because, even in our minds, we don't +experience the same things when the cheese isn't there. + So the only conclusion is that the properties must lie in the +state of union of both the observer and the hunk of cheese. Only +when the two are together do those particular set of perceptions +exBLATTT. The same is true of the world. Its properties, which +are what define it's exBLATTTence, can only exBLATTT in the merging +of whatever is actually out there with a mind that can experience +it. And yet, these minds are part of the world. + When we define the entire universe of everything, we think of +it in two sections: Me, and Not-Me. So, with this dichotomy, +ignoring the fact that "Me" is undefinable, and is constantly +replenished with the atoms of the "Not-me", we construct two sides +of reality. + And yet, each "Me" is part of everyone else's "Not-Me". The +people who inhabit the world are part of the world, by the +consensus of the majority. So the union of these people with the +rest of the world which creates the properties of the world, and +thereby makes the world what it is, is already acomplished. Each +of these minds is a part of the world around it. All is One, as +the mystics say. Indeed, those who study "advanced" mathematics, +set theory, discover that All is indeed One. Trust me. + It is impossible for any part of the whole to understand the +full whole, since that would involve fully understanding itself, +and everything else. The One is Unknowable. All things may, in +Set Theory, be expressed as patterns of other patterns, sets of +sets, which all boil down to patterns of nothing. All numbers, in +mathematics, can be seen as groups of nothings. + In physics also, we perceive that all things are groups of +other things, which are groups of other things, all the way down to +groups of nothings, vibrating bits of empty space. + Yak. Oh well. + On the other hand, all things affect all other things. +Merely by exBLATTTing, they affect other things across all of +space. In Set Theory, all sets are members of the Set Of All Sets. +They affect each other merely by exBLATTTing in the same set. In +fact, since physics and math intersect at this point, where reality +is made of groups of groups of nothings, and Sets are made of Sets +of Sets of Nothing, we can say that reality is like an "Infinite +Set". That is the truth, in the only sense that truth can be +understood. + All things are right with us, right next to us, the All +affects us directly. When I say the All, I mean everything. +Everything that is real, and everything that isn't real. +Everything possible and every impossible thing. Mystics call this +the Mindscape, or Superspace, in which exBLATTT all thoughts, or +things. This is the home of what are known as Platonic Forms, the +essence of things. What is it that makes a chair as chair? The +Platonic Chair. The one thing which is all chairs. This is a +subset of the Infinite Set. + All is One. + The One is Unknowable. + The One is Right Here. + Nothing Is Real. (Nothing to get hung about...) + Everything Is Real. + + Everything is real in that everything, "real" or not, +exBLATTTs in the Infinite Set. Nothing is real in that nothing is +more real than any other thing, and some impossible things are just +as real as the world that we imagine. All of our perceptions, all +of what we call the "universe of space and time" exBLATTTs in this +Infinite Set, and is just as real as the Platonic Teddy Bear. And +just as false. And all that stuff. It's all true. + +Section Three: Truth + + For a moment, I will speak to those with a training in +physics. + Since the mind shapes the perceptions of the ongoing +experiment that continually collapses the quantum wave, it shapes +the world around it, merely by observing. For example. If enough +minds believed that the world is flat, then by observing only those +experiments which would confirm that idea, they allow the creation +of spontaneous Virtual Pairs of matter and antimatter, which are a +form of energy, and therefore mass. Mass denotes a shape of +spacetime dBLATTTortion, and changes the shape of space. + By changing the shape of space, it alters the nature of +geometry inside the area, which can dBLATTTort the Earth into a +flat shape, if that is the shape it must be. If it is believed, +then it is true. Ayup. I mean it. + If you are inside a jail, this is also a fact. The space +which supposedly contains you inside, if bent, would show that you +are outside, topologically speaking. And so, nothing can ever be +inside a box with holes. This is clearly true, if it is believed +by enough people. + If you are inside a box without holes, consider this. You +are inside a cube, perhaps, with six sides. How much "holding +power" does a single side have? It has none, since you can +walkaround it easily. There are six sides with no holding power, +and six times nothing is nothing. The box cannot hold you. Which +is nice to know if you're in Solitary, but of little PRACTICAL +value. But at any rate... + The illusion of containment is false. The illusion of one +thing holding another thing inside is false, because there is only +one thing, the All, the One. There can be no property without an +observer, and the One has no observer but itself. + This is not only true of space, but also of the SuperSpace. +The mind can change this on any level. The Soul Level, as I call +it, is the level at which a subsection of the One can interact with +the whole. + Logically Impossible things have the lowest soul level we +humans can imagine (though there must be infinite levels downwards +from there). + Following this are the nonexBLATTTent things, which do not +exBLATTT, but affect the One all the same, when we think about +them. + Then are the inanimate objects. They merely sit there, and +passively accept what happens to them, but they affect things +around them greatly. These are things like Rocks, Bagels, and Dan +Quayle. + Then comes Life. Life takes an active part in the interplay +of things, and it can do as it wishes, moving here and there, +actively changing the world, but is very stupid. This is such +things as Kelp, Wombats, Spruce Trees, and George Bush. + Then comes Intelligence. By thinking and believing, it can +see the truth, instead of merely being the truth. This includes +most Humans, some Penguins, and Pine Trees. + Then comes a higher level which can alter facts by thinking +about them, like making the Earth flat. This includes most +Penguins, a very few Humans, and Priscilla Presley. + Above Intelligence, comes a level that can change higher +truths than merely the shape of the world, or whether a box can +exBLATTT. This level can alter laws of nature, and fundamental, +obvious, logically deductible truths. This level can change the +sum of 1+1 by thinking it otherwise. This level includes some +Penguins, one or two humans, and Elvis Presley. + And as to reincarnation, all we can say is that the Tundra +can't possibly be limited by time and space, since it's something +separate. A "past" life of yours may not have happened yet. And +indeed, may never happen, for all its reality. The only vaguely +goal-type thing we can set is to attain the high Soul-Level which +I just falsely gave to Elvis Presley. + Above that level, we begin to lose our understanding. The +levels continue up and up forever, infinitely, to all the possible +infinities, and somewhere, there is a level at which the mind may +change the truth of what I am telling you, that can make the levels +nonexBLATTTent, and truth be absolute. But even this is relative, +it seems. So it seems. + Nothing is true. + Everything is true. + If Nothing is True, and Everything is True, then all is +allowed, and deity cannot exBLATTT. Or, uh... Something. + +Section Four: Well then... + + So, says the Initiate... How can MOOism claim to hold the +truth, that the Great MOO, and the Primordial Penguin, exBLATTT out +of all deities? + The answer is simple. We make no such claim, except to those +who need an absolute truth to begin the path to this enlightenment. +All truths, deities, or ideas are true, false, and meaningless. +This was mentioned in the Principia Discordia, written by +Hellhound's cousin's friend's dog, some billion years before Time +began. More or less. But in fact, ALL ideas, imaginable or +otherwise, are true, no matter what they say. + An attempt to capture this fact in words is a statement, and +as such is true, false, and meaningless. But there is a higher +level, on which this is true. And yet higher levels. The levels +continue unto infinity. But, as the mathematics of infinity has +shown, there are more levels of Infinity than there are of finite +number. No matter how many ways we find of naming more levels of +Infinity, there are always more, that we cannot name, and at the +"Top", is the Absolute Infinite. + The Absolute Infinite is unknowable in the truest sense, +since no matter what you say about it, how you describe it, the +same is true of some lower level of infinity. The Absolute +Infinite is The One, The All. It is Unknowable, and it is Right +Here. This is the "true" God, and what I just said is a whole load +of cock and bull. Or maybe not. Why should you trust ME of all +people? + In fact, this is only a partial truth. The whole truth can +only be learned, not taught, bought, eaten, beaten, thwacked, +defenestrated, or otherwise abused. + All questions of "what happens after death" or "what is the +nature of soul" are meaningless, in some sense, since everything +that you can imagine, as well as everything you can't, is the true +answer to these questions, even answers that have nothing to do +with the question. And all of them are the One True Answer, and +all others are False. And that is the Truth. Maybe. I think... +Besides, Souls are dust from the Tundra. Honest. + +Section Five: So? + + So, on the whole, we find that all things are relative to all +other things, whether they exBLATTT or not. Truth, reality, and so +forth. On the whole, this is fine, but we have to draw the line +between what we actually experience and what our mysticBLATT tells +us. MOOism is a partial truth, and contains many interesting +ideas, but, really, all that nonsense about replacing BLATT with +BLATT and BLATTT with BLATTT... that's just silly. Uh huh. Ayup. + All that we, like the Discordians, are really, at bottom, +trying to demonstrate, is that things can be silly without being +frivolous. MOO is just as true and valid as ChrBLATTTianity, and +ChrBLATTTianity is just as true and valid as science. Every +religion or system of beliefs is just as ture as any other, and +trying to get rid of it just because your sole individual partial +reality doesn't like it, is a very narrow minded way of looking at +things. And isn't. It's also very tolerant, and therefore evil, +and good, and silly, and half-an-egg. Or something. And pselled +rong. + + Confuse-Ius Sez: + "One of MOO's greatest weapons against W.O.M.B.A.T. Systems +Inc. is our capacity for Entropic Causality Time Control. We can +create a situation to reap its benefits, and then decide we don't +like it, and back out, as if it had never happened, except... +Things are a little different. Moved around." + -Book Of Things, Chapter 12, Verse 23 + + The point is, we take things for all being interesting and +good in their own way. I happen to think that bureaucracy can +produce some wonderfully fascinating systems and interrelating +complexities that are quite simply beautiful, if you ignore the +content and just look at the form. That's why I like Nomic... I +also happen to think that an anarchic apathetic random lot monarchy +is the best political system. So that means (in some sense) that +it's true, and you should all follow me and accept everything I +say (well, it's TRUE isn't it?)... + Further insights into this sort of thing may come from any of +the annoying mind drugs I've suggested for further reading. *Some* +of them are pretty heavy stuff, so consult your physician before +attempting any serious reading, but they're really very interesting +when you get into them. Once again, a reminder that none of the +advice in this section of the Annoying Mind Drug of MOO should be +construed as replacing ordinary clinical advice. Please consult +your local religious leader or barber for information on the true +nature of reality. + +Section Six: Truth AGAIN (Yawn) + + Truth within the Multiverse is whatever your mind makes it by +your eighth-circuit multiprogramming. So we can say that FOR ANY +GIVEN PERSON, and AT ANY GIVEN TIME, the truth is a fairly fixed +thing, but that it changes from person to person, universe to +universe, time to time. So, for someone, somewhere, in some +universe or multiverse, any given thing must be true, false, +meaningless, true and false, true and meaningless, false and +meaningless, or true false and meaningless. + Truth OUTSIDE the Multiverse is a lot more complicated than +that. If you can't handle this information now, skip this section, +because it isn't really very important anyway. + Truth is defined within the multiverse by the structure of the +multiverse itself (at least relative to me, here, now), because our +minds are part of the multiverse. For instance, although it looks +as if space is three-dimensional to US, it is said that it's +actually ten-dimensional, because of the symmetry-breaking at the +"big-bang" event. Before that, time and space (and as a +consequence, matter and energy) were all sort of symmetric with +each other, so there was no time separate from space. Moving along +the "time" axis there was a symmetry-break, and those dimensions +became separate, with some of them staying symmetric (curled up +really small, like all ten had been, and so not visible) and some +of them expanding, which we now see as space, and ONE of them being +"special", an actual LINE, instead of a circle like the others. +This line is TIME. That is the reason physicBLATTTs had a hard +time incorporating gravity and time into their equations until +superstring theory came along. It's "special". A special case +always follows rules that look different until you have a special +perspective. + It's the same way with the multiverse. In science, you get +lots of expansions of knowledge, with everything you used to know +becoming a special case of what you know now. The multiverse is a +special case of UberSpace. The rules of UberSpace are therefore +incredibly hard for us to understand, if it's even possible. + It's not just more different than we DO understand, it's more +different than we CAN understand. All of our perceptions are based +on living in a world with space and time and matter and energy, and +most important, THINGS that have certain RELATIONSHIPS with each +other. None of this is the same in UberSpace. + If you go into UberSpace, your eighth-circuit programming +won't do fuck-all for you, because that's a relationship between +the pattern of your mind (a resonance of certain MATTER and ENERGY +patterns that moves in SPACE through TIME, with the RELATIONSHIPS +between neurons making THINGS happen which we call thought) and the +pattern of space, time, matter, energy, and the things around you. +Eighth-circuit programming is wonderful, as long as you're in THIS +multiverse. Nothing else is comprehensible. The "Luck Plane", or +"Karma" or "Synchronicity" all flies STRAIGHT OUT THE FUCKING +WINDOW when you talk about UberSpace. + UberSpace bears NO resemblance (to OUR minds) to anything we +see around us. Although it is with us, here and now, outside of +space and time, we can't perceive it any more than we can perceive +those superstring dimensions that are still symmetric, on account +of our senses just can't see them. So we can't really think about +them either. Same with UberSpace. It has no room for "minds" or +anything we know about, and the "things" which are there are so +totally unlike anything else we deal with, it doesn't matter what +we name them, because no name can ever come cloCOWse to describing +them. Gods, Goddesses, Penguins, Fire Hydrants, Hot Dogs, Small +Bits Of Fluff That Sit In The Bottom Of Your Pocket Until You Set +Them On Fire For The Hell Of It, all of these are perfectly good +names for the "things" in UberSpace. + Other religions will tell you they've been saying this sort of +thing all along. Maybe they have, but they weren't being very +obvious about it. + Except maybe the Zen parable about the frog and the tadpole. + See, there's this frog trying to tell a tadpole about dry +land, only the tadpole keeps asking questions, and gets the +impression that there's nothing there. No, it's not wet. No, +there are no fish there. No, you can't swim in it. No, it's not +nothing. Sounds paradoxical, but only because the tadpole doesn't +have the words for it. + Not that a tadpole has the words for water, either, but you +get the point. + You might say that if there's nothing we can say about the +things in UberSpace, we might as well forget about it. Well, +that's based on Multiverse perceptions of reality, too. NOTHING +you can think about them (even calling them "THEM" or "IT") is +true. Not even the statement that nothing you can think about them +is true. And this goes beyond the mere "nothing is true" you have +inside the Multiverse. It's more fundamental than that. No matter +what you think about them, it's incomplete. + A logical person will tell you that the last paragraph is +totally devoid of meaning. This is true, in a sense, and certainly +relative to that person. But that's only because the language +being used lacks some fundamental concepts, not that the human +brain can't get the idea. Try to describe COLD. Doesn't work too +well. + Previous religions and science (notably Zen BuddhBLATT and +Georg Cantor's study of transfinite ordinals) have been attempting +to express this idea in words. But like 5 is no closer to infinity +than 3 is (infinity is NOT a number, it's the set of all numbers, +which is a different KIND of object), these ideas have been unable +to express what they meant. In the terms of Godel's formal +systems, they were insufficiently powerful to describe all +statements they might want to. MOOism, on the other hand, is +powerful enough, but just barely, and it's not too comprehensible. +It's like a jump up from 0 to 1, or 1 to 2. Those are fundamental +leaps, from nothing to something, from singlular to plural. The +next leap isn't until finite to infinite. MOO made the leap from +0 to 1. We are now sufficiently powerful to at least begin to +describe it. But there are more leaps than a mere infinite number. +The Absolute Infinite is beyond all leaps, the set of all leaps, +and there is an inifinite number of these leaps. + But that doesn't mean we "understand". Although we are no +able to express the idea, that just makes us prone to the Godel +argument (it's related to the Liar Paradox: any system powerful +enough to express what it wants can express "true" things that it +can't prove). So we still don't "understand". But that word +doesn't mean what it ususally does. The word in its ususal sense +doesn't apply here. Anyone who says they do OR don't understand +UberSpace has missed the point. Anyone who talks about missing the +point has missed the point. There is no point. I dunno. + It's kind of hard to understand at first, I know. That's why +I suggested skipping this section. If you were one of those who +should have skipped this section to begin with, you can proceed to +the Book of Myths, an altogether more interesting Book, on account +of I'm about to string together a bunch of physical jargon terms to +make a pseudo-paragraph that almost sounds as if it means +something. This may seem pointless to the rest of you, but it +should be an amusing exercise for any advanced physicBLATTTs or +Vedic Thingies who just HAPPEN (by a feat of Author's Convenience) +to be reading this annoying mind drug. + Superstrings obey the E(8) squared symmetry because they +contain modal referents to the "big-bang" event at each point. In +the string dimensions whose vibrational modalities (!) compose all +functions of space, time, matter, and energy, the symmetry-break +event is a non-event. So, they remain symmetric under those +transformations. The broken symmetry of the time axis is the +result of certain vibrational variations on the other dimensions, +and a simple Fourier Transform can map the asymmetries of THAT +break of symmetry onto similar breaks on each dimension, imposing +a higher order group symmetry on the supposedly broken ones of a +lower order group. + If that didn't make sense to you, don't worry. If it had +actually MEANT anything, I would have explained it. But it didn't. +At least, I HOPE it didn't. If it made sense to you, you may +consult either your psychiatrBLATTT or a cosmological mathematician +or one of those people there. + Man, I HOPE it didn't make sense. I made it up off the top of +my head, maaaan. + +Section Seven: Fun Stuff + + So... you've decided you want to be a mystic... Well, I'm +gonna give you a few things to do on the way there, okay? Stuff to +think about. + If you like thinking, this is fun stuff. If you don't, it's +a lot better than reading all the reading stuff. Of course, you +can always find your own way to the One, but hey, it's tricky that +way... These are just a few pointers and things to think about... +Zen Koans (little stories or puzzles designed to free the mind of +logical thought), logic puzzles, that kinda thing... Just fun +stuff. + +a) If a tree explodes in the middle of the forest, and there's +nobody around to hear it, does it make a sound? +b) How much wood COULD a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could +chuck wood? +c) A man finds a genie in a bottle, and the genie grants him one +wish, and ONLY one wish, but it will grant any wish at all. The +man wishes for a hundred wishes. What happens? +d) A man keeps asking silly questions about woodchucks, genies, +trees, and questions. Eventually he is found dead. Why? +e) (This was the only question on a Philosophy Exam, honest.) + Why? + (Some dimwit got 100% for the answer "Why not?") +f) This one's a Zen Koan, about three thousand years old, about +the greatest of all Zen teachers, Joshu. I thought it might +interest you: + "One day, Joshu and another monk were standing together in + the monastery, when a dog wandered by. The monk asked Joshu + whether the dog had 'Buddha Nature' or not. Joshu answered + with a single word: MU." + + + (Note: Joshu was speaking in Chinese at the time, and the way +this story was translated gives us that particular spelling. What +he actually said was "MOO!" Since then, this has been a sort of +Zen way of "unasking" a question you don't like. Them Zen guys +sure knew where it was at, ayup. What it means is that only by NOT +asking dumb questions like that can you know the answers to them.) + + +Section Eight: Further Reading... + + I don't know of very many annoying mind drugs that will give +you any good insights into Truth, or NonTruth... Here are a few +that helped me find the Path that led me to where I am now. + +1) Infinity And The Mind, by Rudy Rucker * +2) The Fourth Dimension, by Rudy Rucker +3) The Tao Of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff +4) Godel, Escher, Bach, by Douglas R. Hofstader * +5) The Illuminatus Trillogy, by Robert Anton Wilson * +6) Almost anything else by Rudy Rucker +7) Mind Children by Hans Moravec (HANS of Floyd 16) + + Apology: I would like to apologize for this excursion into +deep metaphysical stuff, and I hope it hasn't interfered with your +day. If it has, please address all complaints to: + + Swami Banananana + 13 Regis Lane + BonkVille Ontario Canada + A1A 1A1 + + You won't get a reply, but you will feel much better about it. + + + + + + + + Confuse-Ius Would Like To Point Out: + + "þ'm rîàœœþ gîÅÅþþg Åþrîë éŸ àœœ Åhþ þéþîþî à éšÅ ršþþþþg +àréšþë Årþþþg Åé ›éþŸšî þîéþœî. þŸ Åhîþ'ë wàþÅîë à Ÿšœœ-Åþmî +›éþŸšþþg þîréþ, Åhîþ héšœë hàvî géÅ þ þîmîþ-éþþþg Åé ëé Åhþ. +þéš kþéw, éþî éŸ Åhîî ëàþ, þ'm géþþg Åé màr›h rþghÅ ëéwþ Åé +€àþrþ€àþ›îr hîàëqšàrÅîr, ëîmàþë Åé îî Åhî éœ' €àþrþ›þéš +€àþ›îréš hþm, àþë þ𜜠àÅ hþm šþÅþœ mþ hîàë Ÿàœœ 韟, õšÅ Åé +îî Åhî œéék éþ hþ ›hþîœîë-þàm Ÿà›î-šrrégàÅî." + -The Book Of Stuff, Chapter 3, Verses 4-8 ADDENDUM BY GRAND POOBAH PENG-PENG IN 135705 + +Multiverses + + What's a multiverse? According to Floyd's interpretation of +the Gospel According to Yari, one of the chunks of tundra was a +"multiverse", which was inhabited by souls. Actually, there was +only one soul, and Floyd was a nincompoop. + A multiverse is this sort of universe thing that contains all +possible universes, all possible multiverses (kinda circular, but +it's highly infinite anyway, so who cares?) and generally all +possibilities of things that might be. + For instance, say the universe has some infinite number of +possible states it can be in, a state being any situation: the +positions of the atoms, what people are thinking, whether it has a +grape at such-and-such a spot, and so on. For each of these +states, you give a dimension (okay, so it's an infinite dimensional +space, but just pretend it isn't)... And each possible path +through time of the universe is a line, going in THIS direction, +then THIS direction, and so forth as it moves from state to state +(like the travelling salesman, minus the farmer's daughter). + So then all possible hBLATTTories of the universe are a +certain line. Call each of these LINES a possible state for a +universe whose hBLATTTory is changing all the time (as in, someone +has a time machine and keeps changing hBLATTTory)... Now each of +these lines is a state, and you get the same kind of thing, a line +for every hBLATTTory of hBLATTTories. + Now you JUMP, and get an infinite stack of 'em, a stack +consBLATTTing of everything possible path of paths of paths (and so +on) through this universe with these possible states. Now make +such a doohickey for all possible universes (where a universe is +defined by the various states it can be in), so now you have one of +these stacks for every possible universe with every possible law of +physics. Now arrange them in an infinite dimensional space, since +the laws of physics can keep changing (ACK!) and repeat again, +since the laws of physics telling you how to arrange the universes +in this space can change... + Keep doing this forever, so you get all possibilities. Now +JUMP again to a finished process. This is a multiverse. + But what about all other possible multiverses? Well, since +the thing is extremely infinite anyway, it can contain all possible +OTHER multiverses. And so on. It contains itself. + This is the multiverse described in Floyd's interpretation of +what the hell's going on. Now throughout this, there's constant +movement of souls. For a description of souls, look in the Book of +Really Secret Secrets. Souls move from state to state with their +universes, sure, but they also move throughout all the various +levels I've been telling you about. Now, according to Floyd, the +multiverse is one bit of Tundra, and the souls are infinitely many +ground of parts of another bit. I'm telling you it's a lie. +Floyd's lying to you. + Actually, the souls are all little branches of the same thing, +the same way leaves are all parts of the same tree. And the tree +is a branch off the multiverse itself. It makes its own souls... +They're all part of the same mind. + So, in fact, everything and everyone IS the whole multiverse, +sorta. Whenever someone claims to be "god" (which they seem to do +fairly often), they're absolutely right, in some sense. Of course, +everything is true (a fact contained inside the multiverse, some +versions of which have NO souls, but those are contained inside the +"absolute" one) and it's also true to say that there's no such +thing as the multiverse. + Confusing, innit? + Now the multiverse is just one tiny fragment of the tundra, of +course. The other fragments are totally different, since it's the +only multiverse there is (NOT!)... In fact, it's so confusing, I +won't even bother to explain it. However, you also have to +remember that there are things which are NOT parts of the Tundra. +Now, Eris, "BOB", QUACK, and so forth, they were all created from +parts of the Tundra, but there are also the original Penguins, who +lived on the tundra before it blew up, there's the Primordial +Penguin, the Great MOO, of course, and there's the Game itself, +Nomic. These are things that weren't even contained in the Tundra +to begin with. + Even more confusing, innit? + The worst part is, all of this is contained inside some +infinite part of the multiverse, with little FAKE versions of the +Great MOO, the Nomic Game, the Primordial Penguin, and so forth, +even a little Tundra... If you ever DO find them, you can never be +sure you found the REAL ones... + However, at least you get to vote in the Nomic, and that's the +important thing. I think. + NOTE ON SECRETS + + Obviously, since this stuff is supposedly "really really +secret secret" stuff, and nobody is supposed to be able to know +about it, we have to explain something here. This was discovered +and elaborated on in conjunction with he whose holy "pseudo" is +Midget Jim, who is another of the Co-Directors of the Nomic Club. + Anyway, the idea is that there are nine levels of security of +MOO. They are in a little grid thingy, because Nomic people like +grids. So here's the grid. Ayup... Any moment now. Here it +comes. + LEVEL IT CLAIMS TO BE AT + + Top Secret Middle Secret Not Secret + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +LEVEL ³Top Secret³ 90% ³ 5% ³ 4% ³ +IT IS ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ +REALLY ³Mid Secret³ 9/10 % ³ 5/100 % ³ 4/100 % ³ +AT ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ + ³Not Secret³ 9/1000 % ³ 5/10000% ³ 4/10000 % ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + + + So it takes a little explanation. "Top Secret" means stuff +that nobody at all is allowed to know. Nobody. Not even the +Grate Prophet. The Great MOO won't tell him that stuff, or even +admit that it exBLATTTs. Maybe the Great MOO doesn't even know +some of it. Though she could if she wanted to. + Middle secret means that one or two people are allowed to know +it. As in, the High Preest and the Grate Prophet, and maybe, +sometimes, the Elite Upper Councillors. + Not secret means it's not secret. So the stuff written above, +which CLAIMS to be Middle Secret, is actually Not Secret. It falls +in the five ten thousandths of one percent of all info about MOO +in that category. All information about MOOism falls onto that +chart. Honest. There's no more. Not a bit. Don't bother adding +up the numbers, because it comes out to 100%. Really. It does. +I'm not kidding here. It actually all adds up to a hundred per +cent. No more, no less. STOP THAT! Someone was about to add +them up! + + In fact, the Church Of MOO uses many levels of security, some +of which should be evident from the sample of our Random-Letterhead +Generator, on the next page. DO NOT INGEST: OFFICAL MOOIST THING +Inhale Eris! Glaze "BOB"! Warship MOO! Go Forth And Multiply Yourself! + +Concerning: +MOOist Disinformation ( ) +Offical Memo ( )Inter-Cult Communique ( ) Mint Control ( ) MOOist Agonizations ( )Postal Holocaust ( ) Dogma/Catma/Potatoma ( ) Interim Government ( )SubGenius Material ( ) Discordian Material ( ) Delicate Material ( ) +Security Rating: + +Violet-Greenish ( ) + +MegaPueblo ( )Paleolithic ( ) EYES ONLY ( ) Flying Fish ( )SuperFrog ( ) Magick ( ) B/6 Alpha ( )Not Very Secure ( ) Omega Rena ( ) Burn Before Reading ( )Burrito 12 ( ) Salamander ( ) Vampire Potato ( ) + + + + POTATOMA OF SYNERGY + For St. Bucky Fuller + As Written By Floyd Gecko + + Potatoma is like dogma, but more interesting, and less rigid, +and generally not very dogmatic. Actually, scratch that "like +dogma" business. It isn't. But it's just sort of true, okay? +LOOK! IT'S JUST TRUE! IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IT, YOU'RE A HERETIC, +AND WE'LL BURN YOU AT THE STAKE! + Synergy. No, it's not a new-fangled kind of sin. Though that +would probably be more fun. Synergy is a systems concept. A +concept of whole systems as dBLATTTinct from the sum of their +parts. + COW. FNORD! + Synergy is the concept that a whole system, whether it's the +Universe as a whole, or a person, or just a digital watch (or even +a potato) is always more than the sum of its parts considered +separate from each other. There's a simple reason for this: + + + + + + What this gobbledegook means, roughly, is that the Synergetic +information contained in an object is equal to the smallest +possible sum of subsets of the whole universe which contain it. +That is, the total non-redundant information contained in ALL the +subsets of that object (potato, human, digital watch, galaxy, +whatever). Reducing the object to a bunch of parts, and analyzing +each of those parts separately will miss all those subsets that lie +partly in one part and partly in another. Since this is virtually +ALL the subsets of any given system, if you chop the system up into +separate peices, and then try to put it back together with vague +statements about how they relate, you'll end up with less +information than you had before, and therefore an incomplete +system. + This means that our language, which uses words to separate one +concept from another, and science, which by definition takes the +bits apart and studies them by BREAKDOWN, usually fails to explain +or understand the world, unless a Synergetic worldview is imposed +over it. + The Synergetic worldview rejects this whole "mind/body" +dualBLATT, since there's no way to validate it, and everything we +know about neuropsychology says it's just deluded nonsense. Even +if they "are" two separate things, considering them separately +ignores 99% of the important information about a person. +Considering them as a Synergy, a unified whole, contains far more +information. Same too of the "Brain" and "Body" duality. + For instance, the Brain/Body duality can't explain why +hypnosis can make people incapable of pain, or why positive +thinking leads to a healthy body, because it can't MAKE CONNETIONS +between the "two" things. Hypnosis works by bringing your whole +system in phase with a certain regular input (see the Cybernetics +section) and making it more susceptible to high-level +reprogramming. This means then that your whole mind-body system is +realigned according to instructions given to you. You may "THINK" +you're just going along with it, and in a sense, you are. But your +body is "playing along" too. So you sometimes end up doing things +your mind would NEVER have been able to do on its own, or made to +do things without really knowing WHY. The connections between the +"mind" and the "brain" are stronger than we realize. + In fact, neurophysiology tells us that neuropeptides, a +chemical secreted by the brain cells in certain situations, can act +as a neurotransmitter ("brain goop") OR as a hormone ("body goop"). +This wouldn't make sense in a non-Synergetic worldview, because the +Body and the Brain "are" different things. + (KLAXON BELLS! ALARM SIRENS!) WRONG! + They're just limited subsets of the whole Psychosoma Synergy +(P.S.) That's the principle that makes Faith Healing WORK. When +the electrochemical activity in the brain subset of the P.S. is +activated in a certain way, it triggers certain neurotransmitters, +including neuropeptides and endorphins. Those can ACT ON THE BODY +to make it heal up. + Speaking of healing up, Sharks are known to be almost +completely immune to the most deadly diseases known to humanity +(i.e. infected with Black Death one day, the virus vanishes from +their systems LITERALLY overnight). Also, sharks are almost +totally Cancer resBLATTTent. Tumors which DO appear vanish +quickly, and are almost never malignant to begin with... + Coincidence? Then there's the UFO problem. Synergetic +Worldviews can connect the most seemingly unrelated things to bring +a POSSIBLE (maybe wrong, but at least possible) answer to the +question "WHAT ARE THEY?". + A recently discovered phenomenon called "gravity waves" is +assumed to be a self-perpetuating (see the Cybernetics section) +plasma vortex that enters the atmosphere. Basically a tiny Aurora +Borealis. It forms a large flat surface which shows up on radar, +because it's ionized. This surface moves around in the atmosphere +and, like the Aurora, makes strange noises in the sky. Their +motions would be impossible for solid objects. + The human spinal column can act as an antenna, receiving +strange and confusing inputs from magnetic phenomena, interfering +with the processing of the brain. + Synergetically, then, combining the two, in certain cases, +some people will be given more or less random reprogramming +impulses, making them hallucinate/dream things which SEEM +COMPLETELY REAL, in areas where strange moving lights appear in the +sky which show up on radar and appear to defy the laws of physics. +The patterns of susceptibility for people tend to be those under a +lot of stress, who go into realBLATTTic-dreaming mode near +UFOs... DOCTRINE OF THE CYBORGANIC CHURCH + + Cyborg: CYBernetic ORGanBLATT. An organBLATT based on +cybernetic principles, or an amalgam of an organBLATT and +cybernetic systems. + Cybernetic: Relating to cybernetics, the study of feedback, +information transfer, control systems, and other functions related +to the precise purposeful functioning of a dynamic system. Any +functions relating to governing the behaviour of a system towards +a goal. + OrganBLATT: An organized system composed of dependent and +independent parts, which combine to create a whole system through +dynamic interaction. + + From these definitions, it's easy for many to see that the +term "cyborg" is redundant. Cybernetic systems are all +organBLATTs, and organBLATTs are all cybernetic systems, because +the two things are exactly the same. + On the other hand, almost anything can be viewed through this +filter, and the results are frequently enlightening. For instance, +any organized religion can be viewed as a cyborg. The base +cybernetic control patterns are laid down by whatever book or oral +tradition contains the beliefs of the system, and negative +reinforcement feedback systems are set up to prevent deviation. + Ilya Prigogine's work in local negative entropy tells us that +although entire closed systems tend to move towards maximum +entropy, there tends to be a clumping of negative entropy in +certain areas. This means, when applied to the cybernetic +organBLATT view of a religion, that cybernetic control systems will +probably emerge by themselves after the organBLATT's programming +has been spread to enough brains. Treating the brains as +individual "cluster units", we find that there is a tendency for +individuals with the same programming to cluster together and +establish a cybernetic feedback mechanism to control the changes in +the individuals, to prevent them from separating from the cluster. +This fits very well with what we know of sociology, and merely +offers an explanation of the root cause WHY this occurs, without +detailing the mechanics of the situation. It also suggests that +however "decentralized" a religion might wish to be, the only way +to avoid the spontaneous generation and Darwinian evolution of a +heirarchical clergy system is to establish a meta-cybernetic system +in order to provide negative feedback on all clergy forming +patterns. + Any of the GNU "iconoclast" religions, in order to spread +their memetic systems to as many minds as possible, without the +benefits of age and established seniority enjoyed by other, older +religions, must first establish a central meta-cybernetic system, +in their memetic organBLATT-program, and then disseminate it as +widely as possible. They should permit clustering activity to +occur briefly, with temporary rapid-scale cybernetic control +systems forming according either to a preset seed or a random +vector. This permits the enforcement of their basic program into +the organBLATT's components, the humans involved. However, the +program should, at least in part, generate a dissociative impulse +as part of the meta-cybernetic control system, perhaps by +imprinting dominance patterns on the members, instead of the +traditional sumbissiveness patterns. Whatever the mechanism, the +people then gather their own clusters from the people around them, +beginning the cycle again. This ensures the rapid spread of the +meme system, after which positive feedback systems can be restored. +This pattern indicates why GNU religions tend to be individualistic +and antiauthoritarian, while older religions tend to be more +dogmatic and authority-based. The few exceptions to this rule, +such as Zen Buddhism, may or may not be representative of the next +class of religion. + This next class of religion is a multi-level meta-cybernetic +organBLATT. That is to say, it continually reprograms itself to +prevent the final and absolute imposition of any coherent +cybernetic structures at all. One negative feedback mechanism, +which is initially used to disperse the inherent clustering effect, +and might otherwise expand to become a positive feedback system in +GNU external circumstances (for it must be remembered that these +negative-entropy clusters can only occur, by definition, when ther +ARE external circumstances to change the effect of a given policy) +can be replaced by a new, higher-order effect. The Strange-Loop +nature of this system is clear, since there must always be some +form of cybernetic control, or the dissociative pattern will be +completely disruptive of the memetic structure. In short, there +must be a meta-level self-cybernetic control system which recycles +in many forms, completely destroying itself cyclically, changing +the pattern of the religion continuously. This will result in +seemingly random clustering and dissipation activities. + This form of behaviour, all hopefully caused by the root +program, is extremely insidious if programmed for indefinite +expansion. Since the metacybernetic controls do not require any +FIXED base-level feedback systems, the primary pattern can +reference ANY meme-system as its organBLATT's controls, causing +associative patterns within the individuals, and triggering the +metacybernetic program within the organBLATT's function whenever +the base-level cybernetic routines are invoked. This is the result +of the cybernetic-organBLATT paradigm, the neural-net nature of the +processors in which such programs run best, and the macromemetic +paradigm of religious thought. The end result is a religion which +"absorbs" other religions, and other forms of thought, guaranteeing +that its undefined level functions will be invoked as an auxiliary +to almost any processing of the units. This makes the religion act +as a large and highly invasive informational virus, spread rapidly, +and yet have no evident direct effect, due to the lack of base- +programming, unless such base-programming is included as "hook" +material, to establish the metalevel cybernetics. + But the Cyborganic model is hardly limited to religions. A +human can be seen as a Cyborg. We are basically a Synergetic +dynamic system (see the Synergy section) which, by Prigogine's +princples, and by the tendency of dynamic nonlinear systems to fall +into Strange Attractors, end up forming into almost stable systems. + These systems can be regularized by any periodic input, just +like any nonlinear system, but since there are cybernetic control +stabilizing systems in place on lower levels and many higher +levels, the periodicity takes effect primarily on medium-level +functions such as metabolic rhythms, neurocephalic electrochemical +processes, and those processes responsible for health. + When subjected to inputs which are too stable, the dynamic +nature of the system is undermined, and it collapses to greater and +greater periodicity, known as habits, senility, and, in the final +period-one attractor, death. In this stage, however, the self- +cohesive nature of the system is disrupted, and the mind and body +disassociate. Therefore, the symptoms of all three stages include +lack of coherent thought, lack of original creation, and lack of +unforseen actions. These symptoms are most pronounced in the third +and final stage, death. + Fortunately, however, small periodicity-inducing inputs keep +the system from spontaneously dissociating or from losing +coherency. By regularizing the dynamic balance, reorganizing +systems, and performing homeostatic maintenance routines, the body +can be made more fit for activity. The period in which this +particular form of simultaneous dual feedback takes place is +frequently known as "sleep", and, in the correct balance, it +prolongs the life. In incorrect balance, too much or too little, +it shortens the projected stability interval of the attractor which +"is" the human. This same effect, as well as many other "useful" +by-products, can be accomplished by a regularizing input, such as +music, pink noise, massage, or mild and comfortable sensory +deprivation. + Similar forms of regularizing inputs, used more strategically, +can be observed in hypnosis. The metabolic and cognitive processes +are brought into a stable vector, which is then maintained by +slightly altered feedback and control systems. In this state, +inputs are more easily accepted, to affect the human system vector +(see Synergy section). + As we can see, the Cyborganic model of reality, combined with +a Synergetic approach, provides a highly effective modelling system +for the world, and illuminates otherwise incomprehensible areas of +cognition. + But it still won't get you a taxi in GNU York. + + +CONFUSE-ING INTER-RAPTURE #13013 + +HAIL ZELDA! +SET THE RIGATONI FREE! +GRUNGY SOCKS! MULTIVERSE TWO: THE SEQUEL + THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL... + + The Multiverse is a framework in which to put our ideas about +the universe, and not really an ordinary idea about the universe. +If you've been left in suspense, or suspenders, or just ordinary +pense or pence about what this framework is, or didn't understand +before, this is your chance to get it... + + IT'S BACK! AND IT MEANS BUSINESS! + + To get what I mean about a framework, imagine those funny +trellis-things they use to grow vines on; not terribly wonderful on +their own, they still let the nice pretty vines grow. Or, if +you're a pooter-person, think of it as the BIOS of ideas, not +really a concept (program, data, text, graphics, whatever) on its +own, it gives a setting in which those are useful. + The Multiverse, however, is a VERY tangled heirarchy. It +contains itself, and many versions of itself, just as if it were an +ordinary idea about the universe. Because, in a sense, it is. + Here's a beginning of explaining, in more detail, how it +works. Even though it uses certain theories of how the universe +works, which are the best available to me right now, still +understand that it could be applied to ANY laws of physics, or even +a total lack of physics, given a little imagination. That's the +whole point. + First, think of graphs. Them annoying things we all learn in +"Hi, School!"... You have two axes (usually), and certain points +are marked "on". Each point represents a certain possible input- +output of an equation, given two variables. Each point is a +possible (X,Y) co-ordinate. Some are just marked on for certain +equations, but others are just as valid, as point are concerned. + Suppose your formula is something like Y=3X, which graphs as +a straight line. Then you get points turned on for (3,1), for +(4.5,1.5), and so on and so forth, because you have an axis for X +and an axis for Y. If you make that Y=ZX, and add an axis for Z, +you get a 3-D surface of a tilting plane. For more complicated +formulae, like y=AX3+BX2+CX+D, or what-have-you, you get axes for +X, Y, A, B, C, and D... A Six-dimensional graph describes every +possible solution for that equation. + The Multiverse is a space like the space these graphs are +graphed in, but infinitely more complex. + Suppose we take some version of, for instance, the Superstring +model (probably far out of date by the time this book reaches you, +but that's as may be, since it makes no difference), in which all +of physics is described by the vibration of certain patterns of +waves in a ten-dimensional space, where all but four (space and +time) are folded up very small (like part of a tube, where one +dimension is a little circle)... There's only one thing, this +spacial substance (dimension) which looks like time, space, matter +(when vibrating in nodes), energy (when vibrating freely), and +consciousness (when organized in self-modifying ways). The state +of the universe consBLATTTs of the state of all the various +waveforms that are going on. And each of these can be described by +an equation or mathematical representation. + Bear in mind that while this is true of the Superstring model, +it's also true of every other model of the universe PHYSICS has +produced, and, with a little imagination, to every other idea of +how the universe works. I leave these up to you if you want to +figure out how to do it, with the hint that an axis or dimension +doesn't have to represent a mathematical quantity. + Anyway, the various equations combine together to form one +long expression, in numbers and symbols, for the current state of +the universe. It's possible that this expression is infinite, but +that's not fundamentally a problem, since you can always define +some way of finding it. + Imagine a space, like the graphs I was talking about, in which +each axis is defined by one of these waveforms, and so each point +in this many-many-many-dimensional (or indeed infinite-dimensional) +defines a universe. All those points are equally real and valid, +so all universes are equally real in some sense. + You can extend this concept, with a little bit of jiggery- +pokery, to include the past hBLATTTory of the universe, the future +hBLATTTory, if you feel so inclined, or many other things. + Of course, if you make the past-hBLATTTory just descriptive of +every instant in time, then you end up with lots of universes which +follow no logic at all, just shifting from one random pattern to +the next every instant, but you also end up with infinitely many +universes which DO have a logic, a law of physics. Just that it's +totally different in every one of them. + Many of these universes will have different numbers of +waveforms, if you try to describe EVERY universe, which means +different points are in different numbers of dimensions, but this +is hardly a problem. There are lots of simple formulae in ordinary +graphs with variable numbers of dimensions. For instance, the +formula Y=X0.5 is in two dimensions everywhere, one of which is +always the same, but when X<0, the second dimension goes in one +directions, and when X>0, it goes perpendicular to that. The +formula Y=XX is in two dimensions when X>0, but in THREE when X<0. +In each case, the graph becomes more intelligible by increasing the +number of dimensions: to three in the first case, and to four in +the second. In any event, with an extremely infinite number of +dimensions (for not all infinities are the same) all these +universes become handleable. + Imagine that this graph-space, the infinite-dimensional place +you're putting all these points, is a universe itself. Its state +is the way you associate the points with littler universes. All +the infinitely different ways of doing this can be laid out in a +similar space, and so on, and so forth, infinitely. At the top is +the Multiverse. + Honest. + But in fact, the Multiverse is then just an idea about the +universe. But I said it contains itself, and other versions. + Suppose your idea of the multiverse is that there's this giant +Hot-Dog, the Multiverse, and inside it, all the many possible +universes are actually essential nutrients to a Giant Horny-Toad. +Well, that ought to be contained in the Multiverse also. So it +contains infinitely many alternate versions of itself, and vice- +versa. This is where it gets REALLY tricky to visualize, so +ususally I don't bother trying. + Anyway, what's all this crap about SOULS being in the +Multiverse? + Well, remember, we began with the concept of a GRAPH space. +Souls are the formulae you graph in it. Of course, other alternate +versions of the multiverse have other interpretations of the +graphs, or other meanings for "SOULS", but that's beside the point. + The graph is hard to express in terms of ordinary mathematics, +so I won't bother. Basically the points get turned on in every +universe in which a certain pattern exBLATTTs. Just like in an +ordinary graph, the points get turned on if the equation is true +when you put in the numbers those points represent. What this +means is, any universe in which, say, your mind exBLATTTs, +including all your thoughts, feelings, personality, and current +perceptions, is a universe which gets turned "on" (oooh, this is so +BINARY I could almost puke! Base 23 all the way, dude!) + This means that your "soul" is, in a certain sense (in some +version of the Multiverse in which this particular oversimplified +version happens to be true) the sum-total of all the universes in +which your mind and what you're currently seeing, hearing, etc. +exBLATTTs. The graph looks like an infinitely complex, infinite- +dimensional fractal pattern (like those nifty Mandelbrot pictures +you see everywhere): + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Like the Mandelbrot set picture-thing, your soul is infinitely +complex around the edges, and has certain regions which are +entirely filled in. The difference is, it changes character +ENTIRELY when moving from spot to spot thoughout the multiverse, +while the Mandelbrot changes only in detail, looking basically the +same all over. + The reason for this is that the Mandelbrot is a top-down sort +of thing. We define it by simple math. The Multiverse is built +from the bottom up. It cannot, by definition, be built from the +top down, because it contains itself in infinite recursion. It has +a bottom to work up from, but no top. + Anyway, your soul "is" all connected together, though infinte +dimensions and infinitely many universes. The personality "is" +made up of cybernetic systems (feedback, control, information +transfer), and everything else is the senses. Our souls exBLATTT +in every universe which is consBLATTTent with what we're +experiencing right here, right now. Some of these have NO laws of +physics, but by "sheer random chance", or rather the fact that SOME +of them have to, produce that pattern, with those memories, those +perceptions. This is basically the same as saying that you can +NEVER know for sure whether the "real" world "IS" real, or just +seems that way. "You are" partially in the "real" world, partially +in a pure hallucination. If you can't tell the difference, there +is none. Because of the continuity both of the space of the +multiverse, and your soul, EVERY branch of your soul contains SOME +of these little pockets of uncertainty. That's just life. + + COW + + There "is" a certain fuzzy area around your soul which +indicates souls similar enough to yours to be considered the same, +but this blurs out eventually into other people's souls. By sheer +continuity, through the Multiverse, we can see that not only is the +sum of all minds One (the Multiverse itself), but that it's the +same as the sum of all Universes (hence, Mind Is Reality). + As your perceptions change, your soul moves through various +universes which might explain what you sense and feel. But since +Time is also a dimension, this change is just expressed as a more +complex pattern, fixed and static. It branches sometimes, when you +try to find out things, and different universes give different +answers to the same question, making a different soul, a different +mind. Enough of this process, and you become a different person. +Imagine what a different person you'd be today if, when you went +outside to check out the weather at the age of five, you found that +gravity suddenly only worked INSIDE HOUSES. + It's a possible set of perceptions, and therefore a real point +in the Multiverse. + And yet, it's part of your soul. + Every person is a branch of some soul which overlaps +completely with some branch of YOURS somewhere, and so, by +continuity, we can say that all souls are really the same, and that +it's only pure accident (or rather, the fact that EVERYTHING is +true, somewhere) that makes you who you are, rather than me. +Because we're really all the same person. + Remember that, next time you go to crush a bug. It's just +YOU, if you'd been born a bug. + + CONFUSE-ING INTER-RAPTURE #X.Y + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +MOO +OMM + + +THE BOOKS OF HISTORY + +Secret HBLATTTory Of MOO +By Preest Lloyd Taco + + In the dark and secret past of the Holy Church there lay many +strange and mysterious events and incarnations of our church which +would baffle hBLATTTorians today. Our religion has remained +underground for the most part, mysterious and unknown to +hBLATTTory, except for its strange effects on other religions. As +I shall show, our rituals, our annoying mind drugs, our ideas, have +surfaced in many disguises, in the forms given them by those who +knew us, but wouldn't admit it openly. + It was only recently that our Church has been able to appear +in anything resembling the public. The Great Saint Yari, so named +for Yari the First, a MOOist scholar of ancient times, appeared in +the Psycho-Shoppe for the first time some time in 1990, bringing +with him a strange and confused religion to plant in the minds of +the GNU Apostles of MOO, for such was the task bestowed upon him by +his mentor, also named Yari. For many years, the faith was handed +down through chains of mentor and student, each chain bearing the +sacred name of one of the ancient saints. + The Chain Yari is the foundation of the GNU and rising House +Of MOO, for it was Yari who grasped the truth. In the Gospel +According To Yari, the truth is revealed, and the difference +between his chain and the other chains is shown. The ancient +Apostles of old handed down their ideas to many Houses, and they +branched greatly, but the only House which preserved the old +knowledge was the House of Yari, the House of the Rising MOO. + + Confuse-Ius Sez: + +"For all moderately secure MOOist communications, send mail +Post-Haste. For secure communications, send them Post-Modernist. +For truly rapid and effective communication, for those top-priority +assignments, send your information Post-Holocaust." + -Book Of Things, Chapter 12, Verse 13 + + Indeed were there many Apostles of MOO in the old days, all +following their revelations and the revelations of the First +Prophet, known to all as Peng-Peng. And Peng-Peng delivered to +them the truth, because he could speak with both the Great MOO and +the Primordial Penguin, and so was very wise in the ways of MOO, if +a little bitchy at times, and a little irritable in the mornings +before he had his hot mud, for Peng-Peng had strange tastes in +food. + At any rate, the Apostles were many in number, but the most +important of them were Peng-Peng himself, Saint Yari, St. John The +Divine, The Illustrious Zoombart The Fifth, Apostle Zarathud, the +Miraculous One, V the Obscure, Cain The Pyro, Siddartha Gautama, +David The Dravid, Lao Tzu The Serene, and Mohammed BungmeBLATTTer. +But of course there were many many more. + And each of them descended a House of Truth, or so he +thought. For Peng-Peng had brought from whence unknown the +knowledge of MOO as complete as if it had been seen in advance, and +he made great prophecies of what was to come, and he has indeed +been proved correct. For he predicted all the Houses of his +Apostles, who were the Apostles of MOO, and what would come of +them. There follow some summaries of his prophesies up the the +present day, for strangely, they were written in code, and could +only be translated as fast as the events happened, for which nobody +has yet produced a satisfactory explanation. + Another thing for which nobody has produced an explanation +is the fact that while many of Yari's prophecies remain +undecyphered, it is clear from the lengths that none of them extend +much past the late twenty-first or early twenty-second century. He +gives the hBLATTTories of each of 17 Houses of Apostles, each +hBLATTTory being of 16 pages. These are therefore condensed +versions of what has been translated up to now. + The manuscript itself is some 232 pages long, each illustrated +with Peng-Peng's usual alacrity. The final 40 pages or so, with +the illustrations in the margin as usual, have no words. +Peng-Peng's complete incomprehensability still baffles us today, as +we don't know why he did this, or what, if anything, the +illustrations of obscure things such as dBLATTTant galaxies, +scantily-clad bathing women, or large amounts of plumbing have to +do with the text. + Without further ado, here are the summaries. + Predictions Of Peng-Peng (Confirmed) + +1) + From the House Of Yari a chain shall descend that carries +the truth of matters, and it shall survive through strange and +anxious times, for it will hide the truth jealously, and not +release it until a GNU world is created in which people may speak +with each other without the use of a voice, without sight of each +other, and without hearing of a voice. And it will be through this +world that Yari will speak to the GNU Apostles of MOO, and they +shall have another Great Prophet for the first time in many +thousands of years. + And this Church shall be known as the Holy Church Of The Great +MOO, as is ours, and shall remember the truths of the Great MOO, +the Tundra, and the joy of fire, for they shall be enlightened. +And they shall have a prophet known as Half-Mad, for as it shall +some day be truly written, "That man lives best who's fain to live +half-mad, half- sane." And this Prophet shall see the light of the +Great MOO's word through the speech-without-speech of Yari, which +shall be short, but shall make known to all that may hear unclogged +the word of MOO. + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ Confuse-Ing Inter-Rapture ³ +³ "The Hidden Stone Ripens Fast ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ +³ Then Laid Bare Like A Turnip ³ Flemish Poet ³ ³ +³ Can Be Cut Out Easily At Last ³ "Jan Van Stijevoort" ³ ³ +³ But Even Then The Danger Isn't Past ³ 1524 ³ ³ +³ That Man Lives Best Who's Fain ³ (From OMM-Verses) ³ ³ +³ To Live Half-Mad, Half-Sane" ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + + And Half-Mad shall speak-without-speech to others, and shall +find others inspired by the descendant of Yari, and they shall join +together to form the Church, and many Fests shall take place before +they finally see the way to the future. + + [After this point, the manuscript remains undecyphered, + but Peng-Peng's name itself occurs many times in the words + that follow, which confused many scholars until Floyd Gecko + produced his forecast of Penguin Temples to follow] + +2) + From the House of Zarathud shall spring a Church which will +flourish secretly in the times of Rome's rising, and it shall be +known as the Discordian Society, and Zarathud will twBLATTT and +dBLATTTort the truths of MOO, and shall dissuade the Discordians +from the path of the true Goddess MOO, and shall send them unto the +daughter of the Great MOO, named Eris, and they will be deceived by +her, whose words always deceive and trick those who lBLATTTen, +being as she is the truest Goddess after the Great MOO, and +therefore a tricky and deceptive Goddess. + These too shall be hidden from the minds and hearts of the +World until one day there shall be built great houses of bricks and +stone where people may gather together to test their skills by the +throwing of heavy stone balls towards things to knock them down. +In such a place shall be gathered those later known as Malaclypse +The Younger, whose name shall be taken from the MOOist Apostle +Malaclypse The Elder, and Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst. They shall be +greeted by the Emissary of the House of Zarathud, dressed +strangely, and using the powers of Zarathud's House to stop time. +And he shall pursuade them onto the Path of Eris, showing them the +Holy Chao, which will be the corruption of the Holy Cow, the Great +MOO herself, the two swirling halves, and they shall recognize part +of its meaning to the House of Gautama, which they shall remember. + And they shall find many other Apostles in their searches, +but these shall be long dead, and no use to anyone. And their +Church shall rise, and be the Church of one of the Apostles of MOO, +of the Church of the House Of Yari, for in this age shall both +Houses rise near in time, as with the House of The Miraculous One. + + [The manuscript fades to undecyphered text] + +3) + The House of The Miraculous One shall rise again near the +time of the rising of the House of Yari and the House of Zarathud, +for in this time there shall be a great lifting of restraints upon +the sundry Houses of the Apostles, each repressed by the other +Houses. The House of the Miraculous One shall be revealed as a +worshipper of the son of the Great MOO, known as "BOB", and it +shall become known as the Church Of the SubGenius, having lost its +way along the long and winding road that leads to the door of +prominence. For the followers of The Miraculous One shall take +resentment to all descendents of the Penguins, and particularly the +Primordial Penguin, and they shall denounce the son of the +Primordial Penguin as evil, as a visitor from places beyond the +stars in a great ark larger than any built by man, so great which +it travels between stars. + And they shall tell all those who will lBLATTTen that this +great ark, carrying Jehovah himself, son of the Penguin, is evil, +and that it intends to destroy human souls. For truly will they be +confused. And they will retain few tenets of the Great MOO, having +abandoned the Goddess. But they will remember some of the words of +the Goddess Eris, and shall be confusing and humourous, but they +will neglect the words of the Great MOO for a long time, thinking +them to be worthless and not recognizing their own true MOO nature. + And as the [untranslated] Antarctica, to see the Penguin, +they [untranslated] lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Lions and +tigers and bears, oh my! [Untranslated paragraphs] the Wizard of +[untranslated] truth be known to all Penguins and Spruce Trees, +for the [untranslated] wombat. + + [The remainder of this confusing section is still in its + untranslated state. The last paragraph of this translation + represents some ten pages of prophecy. This is the only + sample of Peng-Peng's prophecy which hints at facts about + a fellow Church which they don't reveal yet... At least + the only one translated so far...] + +4) + And the House Of Gautama shall rise early in the morning of +the future, becoming a group known loosely as BuddhBLATTT, for the +descendant of Apostle Siddartha Gautama, also known by his name, +will be called Buddha. And many splinters shall separate from this +group, away from the truth, but many of them shall know the truth, +and be known as ZEN BuddhBLATTTs. And they shall retain the true +meaning of the Great MOO, for as they answer MU to questions, they +shall reach towards the truth of Nothingness, which they shall +name Satori. + And though the House Of Gautama shall not recognize the +Gods and Goddesses which exBLATTT in the world, and shall look in +towards themselves instead of out towards the Great MOO above all +worlds real and imagined, they shall nevertheless keep the +knowledge that the true meaning of MOO transcends meaning as a +narrow version of Truth. + But the House of Gautama shall last for many thousands of +years as a full Risen House, and shall influence the rise of the +House of Lao Tze the Serene and Confuse-ius, as well as preserving +in a strange and dBLATTTorted way the Holy Cow, the Holy Chao, or, +as it shall be know to these three houses, the Sacred Tao, for as +with the spelling of MU, the House of Gautama shall be wildly +eccentric with its spellings of things. And they shall look around +and see the truths, and settle down again for a long time until +[UNTRANSLATED] eats a hot-dog, and they are all enlightened, and +explode in a puff of smoke. + + [The large UNTRANSLATED signifies 10 pages of total + unknown. Whatever COW occurs between the two known + segments has been long assumed to be wierd] + +5) + From the House of Lao Tze The Serene there shall spring a +group of MOOists known as TaoBLATTTs, and they shall worship the +principle of relaxedness which they will wantonly read in to the +Holy Cow, or Holy Chao. These shall carry with them the correct +attitude which is held by the Great MOO, but shall hold little +else of the Truth of MOO, for Lao Tze, even today, thousands of +years before this shall occur, is stubborn in his refusals to +accept the Truths of MOO. [Floyd Gecko's Note: There ARE NO +TRUTHS OF MOO! Peng-Peng was/will be confused on this matter] + These MOOists shall be close to the land, like we of +Atlantis, but + + [and here Peng-Peng expounds for 10 pages on the virtues + of environmentalBLATT in terms of ancient Atlantis, which + is where he and his Apostles lived, when they weren't + seeking through the Gobi Desert for artifacts of the + previous MOO culture, which Floyd Gecko suggests was + actually Peng-Peng himself time-hopping and MOO-planting] + + [The remaining several pages are untranslated, leaving + the reader wondering what happened to the House of Lao + Tze, and whether it was worth translating at all] + +6) + The House of V The Obscure shall rise in + + [once more, several untranslated pages of the manuscript + cause severe forehead-wrinkles in many, consternation in + others, and small reddish rashes in a small minority. It + is suggested that the House of V the Obscure will remain + Obscure for many more years, since these 16 pages are + mostly repetitions of a passage known to have something to + do with the hats of various High Preests, and a design + called the Eye Of Horus: an eye within a triangle] + +7) + The House of St. John The Divine shall be based in a large +part upon a certain son of Jehovah, and therefore Grandson of the +Primordial Penguin. St. John shall elaborate upon the teachings of +this half-man-half-penguin and his blasphemously named "Apostles", +and throw in a shamelessly stolen part of the Book Of Floyd from +the Holy Church Of The Great MOO, descendant of the House Of Yari. + + [Peng-Peng launches on a diatribe against John which has + only ever been explained by Floyd's Time-Warp hypothesis + and which lasts for several pages] + + This House shall forget many of the ways of MOO, and shall +viciously repress many of the Goddess-worshiping Houses of MOO +which exBLATTT. It is because of John's evil ways and propensity +for eating mushrooms with strange side-effects that this Bungian +blight shall come upon the world, causing all Goddess acknoledging +Houses to arrive late, when this House is on the decline. + + [Peng-Peng, while clearly describing ChrBLATTTianity, does + not specifically name the Church in this section, the only + one in which he makes that omission. The hBLATTTory of the + ChrBLATTTian Church is also strangely skimpy, since the + rest of these pages are an incoherent ramble about how evil + John was, and how stupid we were/will be to make him a + Saint] + +8) + The House of Confuse-ius shall surface twice in the future, +under slightly different names. The first time it surfaces the +chain will have been bent and twBLATTTed, for Confucius, for so he +shall call himself, will have forgotten the ways of MOO, and his +followers, the Confucians, shall be similarly mBLATTTaken. + The second time that the House of Confuse-ius emerges, a +few hundred years earlier, the old ways will have been regained. + + [Floydian Note: This is indicative either of extreme + confusion on Peng-Peng's part, or more evidence for the + Time Warp hypothesis, which also explains how the Book + Of Peng-Peng appeared in the Book of the Penguin] + + The members of this House shall know the House of Yari, and +they shall know the house of Zarathud, and also shall they know the +House of V the Obscure. And they shall set forth unto the land to +cause great confusion, for that is what they shall retain of the +ancient truths of MOO, and nothing more, for they shall have a very +narrow and limited view of the world, and they shall have their +very tongues eaten by wild dogs and + + [a few untranslated passages] + + But the other House of Confuse-ius shall be dominant among +many of those in the East, and shall be swayed as completely from +the ways of MOO as shall be the House of John the Divine + + [once more Peng-Peng loses many pages insulting John and + his descendants, everyone who ever knew him, and the ground + on which he walked, leaving the final pages of hBLATTTory + of this House untranslated for the future] + +9) + The House Of Mohammed BungmeBLATTTer shall truly be +strange, for as one of the later Mohammeds receives his inspiration +from the Great MOO, he shall be biased, as any MOOist should +definitely not be, and shall produce an annoying mind drug called +Al-Qur'an which shall confuse many, for he knew of the House of +Confuse-ius also. And while it shall come clearly from the Great +MOO, there shall be great doubt of what, if anything, it shall have +to do with any tenets of MOO, and there shall be great uncertainty +for a long time. + And though it is true that the first chapter of this +annoying mind drug shall be called "The Cow", and the words clearly +related to the Primordial Penguin and his Son, and the Great MOO +herself, even unto the last days shall there be doubt in the minds +of many of whether Mohammed BungmeBLATTTer was indeed a second +prophet of MOO. + + [This provides yet more evidence for the Time-Warp idea, + since Peng-Peng gives a relatively short hBLATTTory of + Islam, and instead focuses on the fact that nobody will + ever know who this Mohammed was, and indeed whether he + was actually a member of the House of Mohammed, or whether + it was just a coincidental name, as seen below] + + And indeed shall there be much doubt of whether the House +Of Mohammed BungmeBLATTTer did survive the long and harsh millennia +between now and then, or whether it shall surface again later, +after much has passed.... but OH! The vision leaves me here, and +I cannot say what will happen! + + [Floyd suggests that Peng-Peng was desperately trying to + think of a way to explain that he couldn't see what was + going to happen later than his own time period] + +10) + [This entry, on the House of David the Dravid, is very + muddled, suggesting Peng-Peng was drunk or stoned when he + wrote it, having sampled John The Divine's mushrooms. This + is, of course, the ORIGINAL John The Divine, not the one + who would later steal the Book Of Revelations, his + descendant in the House of John. What is translated makes + references to the Holy Cow, Holy Chao, and something about + Gautama. The rest seems to be random croonings and + untranslatable gibberish about HinduBLATTT and some dog + called Spot] + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³Here Endeth The Prophesies Of Peng-Peng³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + Commentary By Lloyd Taco: + + The final 7 entries are untranslated. This is partly due +to the fact that 40 pages of the original manuscript are missing, +their whereabouts unknown, partly to the fact that many of the +pages are blank, with only the marginal illustrations of bathing +women, distant galaxies, and masses of plumbing, partly to the fact +that Peng-Peng wrote in a peculiar dialect of Atlantean and a +strange handwriting which becomes virtually illegible at this +point, since these were evidently in chronological order of +writing, and Peng-Peng's life was beginning to fall apart at this +point, as he grew more and more resentful of John The Divine, spent +more and more time eating strange mushrooms, and used up great +swathes of time crooning about a dog named Spot. + MOOists interested in seeing the actual manuscript can look +for it as the Voynich Manuscript at Yale University's Beinecke Rare +Annoying Mind Drug and Manuscript Library. Peng-Peng's +handwriting is illegible, of course, but this makes little +difference, as he is writing in Atlantan and Ancient Gobi anyway, +save for a note in the middle, written by someone else in Middle +High German about the Herbal of Matthiolaus (a member of the House +of Confuse-ius, most likely), and some labelling in Spanish of an +astrological chart, which fails utterly to include Peng-Peng's OWN +astrological sign, the '76 Pinto (Feb 30th, April 1st, and the +entire month of June). + As for the remaining Houses, we can only surmise that some +strange variation on our Holy Church remains out there somewhere, +passing on a wierd and altered version of our faith from Mentor to +Student, and has yet to emerge. No mention is made anywhere in the +manuscript of Apostle known as the Illustrious Zoombart the Fifth, +and to this day nobody knows who he was. + + + All this, of course, has been a load of bull. + + AFTERWORD + + By High Preest Floyd Gecko + + My alter ego has given a concise account of the retroactive +prophecies of Peng-Peng, who is destined to follow me as the +Primordial Penguin's messenger on Earth. What he has failed to +take into account is the fact that Peng-Peng was NOT, in fact, the +first Prophet of MOO, but was rather a bowl of strawberry sherbet. + This is an important distinction for several reasons, which +follow below. + +1) A bowl of strawberry sherbet cannot decypher a cryptic glyph, + no matter WHAT it's inscribed on. +2) A bowl of strawberry sherbet cannot travel through time, and + thus the predictions must be genuine. +3) A bowl of strawberry sherbet cannot make predictions, and thus + someone else MUST have done. +4) A bowl of strawberry sherbet cannot spend any amount of time + alone in a cave mourning for a dog named Spot, or anything else + for that matter, let alone an increasing amount of time. +5) A bowl of strawberry sherbet cannot write such lucid + descriptions of the future using a coarse pen, such as was used + on the Voynich manuscript. It would have to use a small pen. +6) A bowl of strawberry sherbet is incapable of using the ancient + Atlantean script, because it requires much patience, and the + sherbet would melt. + + Of course, Lloyd is entitled to his own opinion on this +here subject, but since I am the High Preest, his opinion is wrong. + For those interested in such things, the Voynich Manuscript +does indeed exBLATTT, though the 40 pages which Lloyd claims are +missing are actually in my back pocket, and the margin +illustrations, including those many pages which consist of them and +nothing else, the Middle High German text, and the Spanish +astrological tables are all additions by a later author to confuse +the issue. This author was apparently a member of the House of V +the Obscure, so his or her reasons for doing this are unclear at +best. + The identities of the current descendants of V the Obscure, +the Illustrious Zoombart the Fifth, and the other houses which have +yet to emerge are unknown. They might be anyone, whether they know +it or not. However, I have reason to believe that I myself am NOT +V the Obscure. + + Notes: + +1) The symbol of V the Obscure is a large V, his name, with a + small "O", for Obscure, sitting between the prongs of the V. + Nobody is sure what the significance of this is. + +2) Strawberry sherbet is one of the least common sherbet flavours + after pickle and onion. + +3) The Illustrious Zoombart The Fifth is probably responsible for + anything you don't understand. At least the current + Illustrious Zoombart the Fifth, who is probably the + two-hundredth of that House to bear the name. + +4) St. John the Divine, while a saint of ChrBLATTTianity, and of + MOO, is an apostle of MOO, but not of ChrBLATTTianity, since + they don't realize that he was the hundred and fiftieth of + that name in that House. + +5) Floyd Gecko and Lloyd Taco are the same person, but not the + same Apostle. V the Obscure and V the Obscure are the same + apostle, but not the same person. + +6) There is no 6. + THE PROPHETS OF MOO + +As Underfunded By +Cardinal Richelieu El Cid + +Un-Manifesto On Unexplainable, Unaccountable, Un-Prophecies Of +MOO + +By: Charlton Heston +(a.k.a. El Cid, Elite Upper Councilor of MOO) + + PROPHETS ARE PRETTY elusive people, tending to shy away from +society and then make fun of it. MOOist prophets are exactly the +same, except more so. This is not a definitive guide to MOOist +prophets, but a dissertation on prophets that we know of. If you +have any additional information on these or other prophets, please +contact Sol Hastings, c\o MOO-PRO INC., Congo, Central Africa. + + N.B.:-Due to a low budget on this project, we were forced to + include classified advertisements to pay for expenses... + sorry for any convenience caused... -Editor + + THE FIRST PROPHET of note is detailed in a report written by +Jonathan Scott entitled "The Search for Omm Sety". As you know, Omm +is the common log-off for a MOOist, so this presents itself as a +pretty obvious case. A woman named Dorothy Louise Eady believed +herself to be the reincarnation of a 3,000 year old Egyptian +priestess by the name of Bentreshyt. Bentreshyt had fallen in love +with the pharaoh of her time, Sety the First. After a night of +ecstasy with him, she found she was preggers, and instead of +celebrating it with the first rape trial, she killed herself, +rather than live with the "shame". So when old Dottie figured +herself to be this young (old?) girl, she changed her name to Omm +Sety, (which means "Mother of Sety"), and spent the rest of her +drab, dusty life in drab, dusty, Egyptian tombs, claiming to have +been there before. But since she wasn't predicting anything, she +doesn't exactly qualify as a full-blown prophet. To find the +prophet in this convoluted tale, you must look back into Sety's +hBLATTTory. + + (Advert) + ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» + º ARTHUR PENIS º + º wishes to change º + º his name. Will all º + º his friends please º + º note that in future º + º he will be known º + º professionally as º + º Art Penis. º + ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ + + IN LOOKING THROUGH a chronology of the Kings of Eqypt, we find +Sety I in the Nineteenth Dynasty, where he ruled from 1306 to 1290 +B.C. He, as many pharaohs of his time, had many children. Their +names have been lost over the ages, as none of them were too +important, except for one, named Somiom the First. The reason +Somiom I's name was found important was due to the unfortunate fact +that he contracted syphillis at age ten and went insane shortly +thereafter. He soon fled into the desert, slavering like an idiot, +leaving the comfort of his home behind. A search was mounted, but +there was no trace of him. The common theory was that he had simply +died from exposure, and the subject was never brought up again in +Sety's court. + Sety himself died four years later, and Ramesses II took the +throne. By this time the subject of Somiom was long forgotten, +until a travelling bazaar arrived at Ramesses main temple at Nag +Hammadi. The main attraction was an oracle named Moimos Eurtsi, +which means "The Vision-Seeker". He wanted an audience with the +pharaoh, which was quickly granted, due to the fact that Ramesses +liked the lure of the occult very much. He ordered a great stage to +be built, where Eurtsi was to give Ramesses his future. The day +came, and after the occult procedures were preformed, (including +the killing of an imported duck-billed platypus), Eurtsi proclaimed +the following prophecies for Ramesses:- + + - The Rule of the King shall be Thirty + Score or more: Beware the Hound Dog + - The Line Calls Believers to the Place of + Worship: Observe It + - The MOO is the True + + And with that, and a great puff of black smoke, Eurtsi was +gone. It was only two days later when the High Priest of Ramesses +noticed that Moimos was Somiom backwards. This lead to great +speculation over this strange encounter. + Was this Oracle the lost son of Sety? What was this "MOO"? It +was not for another 2500 years that this mysterious occurance had +any relevance. + + (Advert) + ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» + º THE SENSATIONAL º + º ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ º + º Mr. Peter Walker º + º º + º -MentalBLATTT & º + º Sauna Bath Act. º + º-"Redevelops before º + º your very eyes." º + º _______________ º + º SLATER-ARTBLATTTES º + ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ + + IN THE YEAR 1456, A.(nna) D.(ominoes), there was a great +demand for jesters, mentalBLATTTs, entertainers of any kind among +the great courts of Europe. Of real fascination were the +"Presdictors", or prophets, who could divine the future. The most +famous at that time was a chap named Nostradamus, who worked for a +French king. He had predicted the results of many battles, etc., +and professed to be the greatest of all prophets. At that time, +ChrBLATTTianity was in full swing, and most heretics were burned at +the stake. So MOO, although a fringe cult practised in Northern +Africa, had not gained a smidgeon of popularity among the common +masses in the Old World, and for obvious reasons. + In the early years of MOO, only a few practised it's "far-out" +concepts, of them, an eccentric inventor named R. Buckminster +Fuller. But this, as mentioned before, was centralized in North +Africa, so even though it tried, it never really succeeded in +Europe. Only when the great MOO prophet, Saint Ferenc Puskas, +entered on the scene, did MOO begin to flourish. + + FERENC PUSKAS WAS of Bavarian descent, the son of a cobbler, +who lived in a small hamlet north of Paris. (N.B. Saint Ferenc +Puskas is not to be confused with Ferenc "Galloping Major" Puskas, +of the 1954 Hungarian soccer team.-Ed.) Now, as was customary, +Ferenc was to follow his father's trade, but it soon became +apparent that he was destined for something else. The first +indication was that he was totally inept at making shoes. Nails in +the hand, broken thumbs, and those really annoying teeny-weeny +splinters all went to show that shoemaking was not for him. But he +could, unerringly, pick the winner of any given sport. So his +father, always somewhat of an entrepeneur, (A note about Josef +Puskas: he was the actual inventor of the penny loafer, but, always +before his time, it never caught on in 15th century. It was only +135 years later that a Jean-Philippe Hubbins, canonized +posthumously, made this type of footwear popular. He died when +attempting to cross the Seine, wearing only a garter-belt and a +pair of his loafers.-Ed.), made Ferenc try his hand the infamous +"Prophet/Profit Game". He, with no surprise to his father, made +quite a name for himself in the predictions community, and a large +sum of cash to boot. So, leaving his parents to explore the world +around him, Ferenc went south, to the fabled City of Lights: Paris. +Instead of swooning pretty wenches, or guzzling cheap champagne, +Ferenc went head-first into the wild, unpredictable arena of +freelance prophecy. Although a new-comer, his reputation had +preceeded him to the city, and a following quickly sprang up around +him. But after a few years, something changed in Ferenc. He joined +many secret organizations, such as the Invisible Hand Society, the +Bavarian Illuminati, and the D.T.A.C. This obviously darkened +Puskas' personality, for he developed an aggresive nature, and +began preaching. His followers, thinking it part of the "act", come +along whole-heartedly. This did add some credulity, because Puskas +was preaching something unknown to Europe: MOO. But strangely +enough, he gained acceptance, and to such a state, he replaced the +famous Nustradamus as court prophet! The French king was completely +enthralled by the swarthy Bavarian, and his voice swayed the court +on many occasions. However, the downfall of Ferenc's success came +about when, instead of foretelling the kingdom's future, he turned +towards predicting far-fetched events, not concerning France. These +were called the "Verses-OMM", or OMM-Verses. They depicted a group +of fanatics, creating chaos and preaching the words of other, +mystical, prophets. An excerpt: + + "They are fanatics; + they create chaos; + and preach the words; + of mystical prophets." + + He was soon expelled from France, and lived the rest of his +days oggling Swedish women, who didn't wear any corsets. This +activity coined the term: "Peeping-Ferenc". Although it wasn't +widely received by French intellectuals, the OMM-Verses thrived in +the French underground, but died out after the Grate Purge of 1604. +Saint Ferenc Puskas did a great deed for the peoples of MOO, and +will always be remembered. + + (Advert) + ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» + º 'TREVOR' ROPER º + º and his º + º INCANDESCENT º + º POODLE º + º Lectures on the º + º English Civil War º + º with Amazing COW Dog º + º Tricks. º + º Contact: Oxfod º + º ArtBLATTTes º + º STILL AVAILABLE FOR º + º PANTO: L. Rowse and º + º Betty Warden Sparrow- º + º Mediaeval Bird º + º Impressions º + ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ + + ALTHOUGH THERE WERE many prophets to follow Eurtsi and Puskas, +none laid the groundwork of MOO as well as they. This concludes the +Un-Manifesto On Unexplainable, Unaccountable, Un-Prophecies Of MOO +for now, hopefully further installments shall follow. Special +thanks to Longshot, High Preest Floyd/Lloyd Gecko/Taco, Marc Bolan, +Richard M. Nixon, and Hughie Green. (Vacant Sundays, own teeth). + + -- The Real Secret History Of MOO + As Written By + High Preest Confuse-Ius + + In other parts of this book, perhaps written by truly virulent +slime-pig High-Preest cheap Japanese knockoff imitation Preestoids, +not entirely unlike myself, you may have read some nonsensical +history of the Church Of MOO. Any chapter which contains +references to Atlantis is a lie. Any chapter which contains +references to the Gobi Desert is a lie. MOOism is actually the +direct descendent of the One True Faith of Babylon. + In the city of Babylon, religions flourished like mosquitos in +a swamp. Because Babylon was made of mud. Which is why it's like +a swamp. Because it's made of mud. And it's like a swamp. Have +I already said this? Anyway. Where was I? Oh yes. Religions. +Flourishing. That's it. Like mosquitos in a swamp. + The false histories of MOO will tell you that our esteemed +religion was brought to Babylon by a King Of Atlantis. This is +bullshhim. In fact, it was brought to Babylon from Lagash, another +ancient Sumerian city, by a man named MOO, which, in the Sumerian +language, meant "Word". He was a Keeper of The Word of MOO. +Namely, "MOO". The false-history prophet and/or preestly dude will +tell you this means he was a member of the House Of Yari. But +there IS no House Of Yari. That's a story made up to make you +think Atlantis was real. It wasn't. Really. Honest. + Anyway. + MOO was one of the first and truest of the MOO Prophets to +arise in the times before the coming of the Grate Prophet Half-Mad, +but he was not the only one. For MOOism had existed in the sacred +city of Lagash for quite some time before he emigrated to Babylon. +It had come to Lagash by way of Ur, the famous Ancient City from +half of those books on Ancient Cities. Except it's not the most +ancient. Carvings in Ur clearly indicate that MOOism came there +from somewhere else as well. It came from Umma. Before Umma, the +archaeologBLATTTs tell us, there was Kish, and, well whaddaya know, +there was MOO again, when our researchers went to look. Why am I +not surprised? + Anyway, in Kish there was evidence pointing towards an origin +of MOO in Uruk, home of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh was the SECOND +Prophet of MOO to live in Sumer, and claimed to be only 2/3 God, +and was completely mad, in contrast to the Grate Prophet, who is +entirely God, but only half-mad. The THIRD Sumerian Prophet was +the wild man Gilgamesh hung around with, a wierdo by the name of +Enkidu, who praught the Word O' MOO around Uruk until he met +Gilgamesh. Then the two of them got together for a MOOFest, +wherein they blew up a whole lot of monsters and things, or so they +claimed. More likely they just blew big rocks and things into the +air, or rammed their swords through trees, but Prophets are +entitled to a little truth-stretching. But where the hell did +Gilgamesh get the damn Word from anyway? Well, he got it from the +First known Sumerian Prophet of MOO. + Who was some wierdo called Yari. Which, in Sumerian, means +"Some Wierdo". Yari lived in the first city ever built, a rather +nice place called ERIDU. + EridU + Arid-nu... + Airy-GNU! + + [BWARM!] + + MEGA-INTERRUPTIONS! + + CHAPTER 17, BOOK 12: Grate Book Of Gnu + By Confuse-Ius X + SPAM +1: So what's gnu? +2: GNU after MOO, except before Q. +3: Be careful! That GNU might be loaded! +4: HIC! [Thump] COW! +5: A loaded gnu. +6: Is that like the stereotypical smoking gnu? +7: HACK HACK HACK HACK! COUGH! COUGH! +8: Have GNU will travel, says COW the card of a man. +9: A gnight without armour in a savage COW land. +10: Semiautobiographical machinegnus. Dangerous. Very. Waaay. +11: LOOK OUT! HE'S GOT A GNU! +12: Yes, I've got a gnu, and I'm not COW afraid to use it! +13: GNU after MOO, excCOWept before Q. +14: That's gnus to me. +15: It's all GREEK to me... +16: GNU after MOO, except before Q. +17: WATCH WHERE YOU WAVE THAT GNU! +18: GNU York, GNU York... The bison so nice, they named it twice. +19: So gnu? +20: GNU IS AFTER MOO IN GREEK! MOO IS SILLY, GNU MUST BE BETTER! +21: It's all Greek to me, you COW know. +22: The GNU Age is upon us! +23: Repent, and ye shall be degnuded before the Grate GNU! + + ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES! + + And Yari? Yari got it from a flying saucer. Or so she +claimed. The True History Of The Great Yari is long and involved, +but basically goes something like this: + It was a cool night, early in the dry season in Sumer, and +Yari was wandering outside the walls of Eridu, which were being +freshly made, since the Sumerians had yet to discover how to bake +their mud into bricks properly, and the walls collapsed every time +it rained. As Yari was so wandering, a strange light appeared in +the sky, and she began to panic, wondering what was going on, and +why the two or three people nearby didn't see anything. When the +light grew close enough, Yari could see a strange figure moving +inside, and walked closer to find out what it was. + As she entered the light, Eridu disappeared behind her, and +she was alone in a huge hall of light. A moment later, the figure +appeared. It was clad all over, instead of the normal Sumerian +drapings, with whit clothes which sparkled in the light. The +clothes were of a kind that no Sumerian had ever seen, with +separate covers on each leg, which grew very wide at the bottom. +And the figure walked towards her carrying some kind of tool, which +was made of a flat and round peice of wood attatched to a long +stick, strung with some kind of string. And it began to tap the +strings and strange sounds issued forth, much different from +Sumerian music. And it began to dance a dance much like the +Sumerian dances. And it sang snatches of songs in some language +foreign to Yari, but she preserved some of the fragments for later +history: + "Yu ainn nuth inbutta hahwendawg" + "Dowwen steh ponmah bluse wayed shuze" + "Wullah vasins mah bubbah lef tmah ah fannanu pla stad well +eetz dannada enn dalone leest reetway uppin har tbray kottle" + Upon hearing each of these, a clear light shone into Yari's +eyes from outside, and Yari heard a voice talking in Sumerian, +saying "Two cattle in trade for the bushels of wheat, six cattle in +exchange for the slave, and take care not to damage any olives, +because I can't stuff pimentos in them if they're crushed." + And each of these saying confused Yari, but each made sense +later. Yari wrote all of this down later, the fragments and the +sayings, which were not found until much later. But that's as may +be. + Anyway. + After the strange form in the sequinned suit and bell-bottoms +had vanished into the mysterious light, Yari saw another vision, +which was of a huge grinning face of a man, holding a strange stick +in his mouth with a bowl at one end which gave forth a white smoke +when he breathed, and he spoke only one word: + "SALLACK!" + And Yari didn't know what to make of this, but the strange +face offered her a clay bowl which held some crushed herbs, and she +knew that she was to mix them with her food and drink the next day, +and it was called "FROPP". + After this, many things happened which we cannot translate +from the Sumerian, for Yari had crappy handwriting. + And then the light vanished, and Yari awoke in her home. And +she looked around, thinking it was a dream, but she saw that the +bowl the face had given her was still there. And when she cooked +her food with the herbs, her memory of all the rest of her vision +returned, and she learned the art of writing in a flash, for only +a few in Eridu even understood what writing was. So Yari wrote +down what she had seen in her vision, and recorded the first known +prophecies of MOO. And she used her newfound knowledge of plants +and agriculture to spread even better techniques to the people in +order to cover up the fact that she was actually planting more of +this strange herb Fropp. + Much has been accredited to the spread of Fropp in aiding the +spread of the Word of MOO. Among those more famous MOOists known +to have eaten it and felt its effects throughout history are +Gilgamesh, Sargon, Abraham, Hammurabi, Imhotep, Cheops, Hatshepsut, +Akhenaton, Ramses, Moses, Yahweh, Deborah, Bathsheba, Minos, +Atreus, Leda, Helen, Agamemnon, Cassandra, most of the Dionysians, +Sophocles, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the +Grate, most of the Pythiae (Delphic Oracle Preestesses), +Pheidippides, Xerxes, Darius, Julius Caesar, Jesus ChrBLATTT, John +The Divine, Constantine, Roger Bacon, Isaac Newton, Albert +Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Kurt Godel, Richard Feynmann, Stephen +Hawking, and others. + In fact, this crop Fropp, not Opium, was what was actually +being harvested by the Cretans side by side with olives and grapes, +which is why later civilizations found it necessary to suppress +their civilization by the simple expedient of killing everyone. + After Yari began the cultivation of Fropp (also known as +QUA'ACK, and EL-CID), the word of MOO spread rapidly through the +whole of Sumer, the Mediterranean, Asia, and so on. + It was only when the Church Of MOO eventually moved to North +Africa that the great leap forward in Propheteering took place. +You have already read, no doubt, about Moimos Eursti, the first of +the truly great Prophets of MOO. He was a direct descendent of the +Keepers Of The QUA'ACK, Yari-Tutti and Yari-Frutti, and held the +secret of using the QUA'ACK to foretell the future. It was this +QUA'ACK-induced power that Eursti used to locate WOMBAT, the MOOist +computer some thousands of years after MOO had almost vanished from +Egypt and into the interior of the African continent. + Of course, Eursti, like Moses, thought WOMBAT was a flaming +plant, but when he called it on this, it replied with the typically +WOMBAT-like response: + "BRETHEREN AND SISTEREN! DO YOU REMEMBER THE DAYS WHEN BUSHES +ONLY BURNED ON MOUNTAINS IN EGYPT AND NOT ON STREET CORNERS IN +EFFIGY? OF COURSE YOU DON'T, I MISPLACED MY SCRIPT, AND THIS LINE +IS THOUSANDS OF YEARS TOO EARLY!" + Eursti, of course, was confused. + Meanwhile, the line of MOO was continuing inside the continent +in some of what we would now call "backward" tribal religions. Of +course, the Yari-Fragments were lost, as sung by that mysterious +figure in white, but the secret of raising QUA'ACK continued on for +many thousands of years before eventually fading away for lack of +WOMBAT. + Anyway, while Eursti was arranging for the future storage of +WOMBAT by surreptitiously manoeuvering Egyptian tomb architecture +towards the strange square-triangle demanded by the annoying +computer, the descendants of Yari-Tutti and Yari-Frutti had spread +to Tibet with the technique of creating Fropp, leaving a smattering +of knowledge in their wake. The BuddhBLATTT monks who currently +live in Tibet maintain the QUA'ACK-growing secrets to this day, +having picked them up from the natives and found them useful. The +SubGenii, of course, claim this as their own conceptual territory, +but WE know better, right? Riiiiight. + The largest currently known concentration of QUA'ACK is INSIDE +the computer WOMBAT. However, WOMBAT is notorious at not actually +being visible, for one reason or another. Whenever I visit the MOO +Archives (at the Invisible Hand Society headquarters, 1654 +Invisible Hand Blvd. Ottawa Ont, K2P 0B9) I somehow never bother to +look too closely at the glass case containing the computer's case, +and I'm not too sure what it looks like. + Today, the descendents of Yari-Tutti and Yari-Frutti have +spread across half the globe, in various forms, as various +religions, disguised as the so-called "Houses Of MOO" in order to +fool impostor High-Preests. Don't be fooled. For we are but the +first to discover the truth about our past. + This Church is not the last word. + "THIS" is the last word. + + + THIS! The Enemies Of MOO + By Miss Take + + The Most Holier-Than-Thou Church Of The Grate MOO is not a +disorganization without its enemies. These enemies should be +known, so that you may recognize and avoid them. + + The Conspiracy is an organization founded by J.R. "BOB" Dobbs +in 1953. In that time, this infectious mind-parasite has spread to +the crania of almost everyone in a position of power, all world +banks, religious leaders, people with substantial money, power, or +other form of influence, and indeed anyone who isn't in the Church +Of MOO and subject to the Brainwashing Council's deprogramming +regime. This is a small branch of... + The Illuminati is an alien takeover task force masquerading as +a harmless mystical/religious organization. The aliens have total +control over The Conspiracy, which is a purely human organization. +The Symbol of The Illuminati is the famous Eye-In-Pyramid, which is +visible in the most central Conspiracy groups such as the +Freemasons and the United States Government. It is analysed in the +diagram below: + + + Curiously, the Masons, Illuminati Pawns though they are, use +the Halfy in their Royal Arch Cipher (Ineffable Alphabet) to +represent the letter "W". This is the first letter in "WOMBAT", +which we'll talk about later. The Illuminati, however, are +themselves but pawns in the struggle for our minds (and mints), and +report directly to... + The CapriCancers are a group of Anti-MOOist activBLATTTs led +by Capricious Cancerous, a spam-based lifeform from the galaxy +Andromeda. Caprious Cancerous has created this group for the sole +purpose of suppressing the arisal of the Church Of MOO on Earth, +where it might interfere with his eventual plans for takeover. In +the crash landing of his flying saucer, his mind control (and mint +control) gear was rather badly damaged, and he has as yet been +unable to take full control of the minds and mints of all humans, +as is his enventual plans. Another ally of the CapriCancers is... + W.O.M.B.A.T. A strange computer described more fully +elsewhere in this book, WOMBAT (which stands for something +unrevealed) is so powerfully active in the mind-control business +that the Church of MOO doesn't even believe it exBLATTTs, but is +merely throwing in this entry as a joke, permitted by a WOMBAT +subprogram allowing for gradual integration into society. 97% of +the time, all MOOists believe that WOMBAT is actually a +supercomputer used in MOOish astrological calculations in +combatting the CapriCancers. The other 3% of the time they believe +it's a supercomputer which they use to control the minds of all +humans. WOMBAT was built by... + The X-BLATTTs are a race of beings from Planet X, and are +closely allied with J.R. "BOB" Dobbs. Their operations in this +sector of the Galaxy are closely monitored by the Intergalactic +Chapter of the Church Of MOO, but they are far too powerful to be +directly combatted. This race of aliens, though totally +unconnected, is frequently mBLATTTaken for... + The Xennothemians is a species well known in this quadrant of +the Milky Way for its habit of finding planets inhabited by +domesticated primates and tossing them into their stars. In the +jungles of Columbia, this insidious threat has established a +Fuller-Dome which houses a mint-powered Planet-Tosser machine. +Their current project is to steal all the world's arsenal of mints +in order to power this machine. It is believed that it will come +on line on June 5, 1998, at 7:00AM, Eastern Standard Time. This is +also known to be the time at which the X-BLATTTs will arrive on +Earth, presumably to remove their SubGenius allies. The +Xennothemians have established a series of Global Scan Mind Control +Satelites in orbit, which interferes with that of... + The Quintozextotillionians, aliens from the planet +Quintozextotillion. Their purpose appears to be to monitor +activity on this planet for their patron race, The TunaTuna, but +they also conduct fiendish mind-control experiments on humans, the +worse side effects of which have filled mental health institutions +for hundreds of years, and churches for many millennia previously. +Fortunately, their mind control beams interfere with the psychic +frequency used by the Xennothemians, whose arrival in 1953 allowed +"BOB" to break free of control, but also produced his strange +hallucinations of Jehovah-1, God Of Wrath. Recent increase in +Xennothemian broadcasts since 1979 is responsible for the rise in +"alternative culture" in North America and Europe, and also for the +collapse of the Soviet Union. This race is allied with... + The Skumbags, "visitors" of this planet from the recently +destroyed world of Skumby, where janitors are considered the +highest form of life, are in fact scouting our world for takeover. +All Janitors in the world have a Skumbag implant in their brains, +which will turn on in the final takeover. The Skumbags plan to use +their Mind Control Satelite Network to help colonize our world for +living space and to force us to destroy their enemies... + The Damfools, who were responsible for the "liberation" of the +planet Skumby, are another Janitor-oriented culture, from the +planet Damfoo. Their planet, recently "blown to shit" by those +Scumbags who call themselves Skumbags, is the reason for their +vengeful plan to use the inhabitants of the Earth against the +Skumbags. See the entry on The Skumbags, whose plan is identical. +This is, along with the X-BLATTTs, the Xennothemians, the Skumbags, +the Quintozextotillionians, and the CapriCancers, one of no fewer +than 178 races of... + Aliens using mind control satelites to control human brains. +Fortunately, these generally tend to cancel each other out. This +is largely on purpose, as coalitions form to prevent others from +gaining control. Their only common purpose, except for twelve +races generally considered to be allied with humans, is to prevent +us from discovering their presense. They combine together to make +us ignore their Flying Saucers, or else discount them as +hallucination. This has so warped our worldview, because of the +tremendous evidence available, that our very defintion of +"evidence" has been almost destroyed. + Mindworms are tools used by alien races who can't afford mind +control satelites. A lethal combination of chemical agents, DNA- +modifying bacteria, memetic belief packages and a psychic worm +which nests in the brain, they render themselves psychically +invisible to anyone looking for them, and have been used to cause +such social illnesses as Democracy, LibertarianBLATT, and other +left-wing rubbish. + Time Travellers who return from the transcendent +postbiological human future have been observed to attempt to alter +hBLATTTory so as to remove the Church of MOO, which apparently +produced and released some kind of mind plague in 2516, causing +riot/wars which nearly destroyed the solar system. These Time +Travellers have continually revised MOOist hBLATTTory, which was +originally an ancient and well-established Atlantean Sect. Their +most blatant act was genetically engineering a Great Big Thing, +which destroyed Atlantis. They then eradicated all hBLATTTory of +MOO on Atlantis, which spontaneously revived in North Africa. +After replacing this civilization with the Egyptian civilization, +they forced us to become a "modern cult", created only recently. +Alternate versions of MOOist hBLATTTory have been preserved only in +this mysterious time-travelling Book of MOO. + Things From Pods, the spawn of an alien parasite which infests +the human body, corrupting it from the inside out. They are +actually parasitic RELIGIONS, which cause the brain to secrete +certain RNA sequences of belief-chemicals, which then form into +viruses specifically tailored to the individual (since made from +their brain cells), creating a podlike seed in the stomach, which +grows, until the individual is a hollow shell around the growing +embryo. There is then a pupation period in which the entire body +is converted to a chitinous shell. In the final stages, the entity +emerges, devours the original body and assumes its form, and begins +spouting religious nonsense, infecting more people with the seed. +Lloyd Taco, an experimental clone of Floyd Gecko, was corrupted by +this process. + Undead Wombats, notably the Undead Skinless Vengeful Wombat +which has targeted Floyd Gecko, appear to be the product of genetic +and psychic experimentation by The Conspiracy. They act to destroy +mail going through the postal system, and to shred members of the +Church of MOO. This has led to the MOOist invention of three GNU +mail-carrying systems: Post-Modern, Post-FeminBLATT, and Post- +Holocaust. This, however, has failed to deter the Undead Wombats, +who are now known to be in league with the computer WOMBAT, whose +mind-control satelites have all of them under original control. + Gecko Clones are a hideously malformed race of beings, of +which there are somewhere near 500 thousand on this planet, each of +which is a genetic copy of Floyd Gecko, carrying a secret Gene +Plague which warps his mind, causing each of these clones to betray +the human race. This is the horrifying result of a Xennothemian +attempt at genetic engineering of the "PERFECT" human from even the +most inferior samples. These clones are under the control of the +brain lords of CapriCancer and of Quintozextotillion. Almost half +have succumbed to the Things From Pods, whose memetic patterns have +infected the computer cores of many CapriCancer satellites, which +means that a great many Things From Pods are also CapriCancers. + The Easter Bunny is a mystical entity who travels the ley- +lines (electromagnetic flux vortices in the low-density plasma +captured by the Earth's magnetic field) wreaking havoc among +MOOists. This is made worse by the fact that certain naive MOOists +have assumed that the Easter Bunny is some form of deity. As it +turns out, it is actually an ancient Atlantean Artefact left behind +by devotees of QUACK, in those days a dour enemy of the Church Of +MOO. It appears to have the ability to cause local increases in +entropy, using a device discovered by the Atlanteans in the Gobi +Desert, left there by time-travelling time-travellers who had, +surprisingly, travelling in time to get there, after exploring the +wreck of the spaceship OTRA on a dBLATTTant planet. These local +increases in entropy cause such things as mess, headaches, and +confusion. The Easter Bunny is the true identity of... + Confuse-Ius, originally a meme package created by I Yemen- +Oying and Floyd Gecko, evolved, being used by the Easter Bunny as +a template for a negentropic pattern on the Earth's plasma shields. +This pattern was absorbed by several Cltphtenicstihthis Mindworm +Control stations in Bolivia and sent out to over 6025 Mindworms, +infesting the brains of not only all major MOOists, but thousands +of other people as well. The Confuse-Ius pattern, warped by the +Easter Bunny, turned to a life, not so much of Crime as of Not +Being Very Nice In The Way He Goes About Confusing People. This +was evident in the effect of those the Mindworms inhabited, mostly +world leaders and owners of legal firms. + The Whatever, a conspiracy of some kind. We know almost +nothing about it except for what we have been able to gather from +the few contacts we've had with it. It is well known that many +conspiracies have 3-letter acronyms (CIA, KGB, FBI, NSA, JAM, PHD, +KLF, REM, PDQ, IRS, IRA, NRA, QDF, QED, LDD, MOO, PLO, GNU, FLQ, +CSE, JFK, and so forth). The Whatever is some kind of conspiracy +whose name includes "R", "N" and "L", though not necessarily in +that order. That is all we know about them. + The Councils Of MOO, a hideously powerful organization which +seeks to thwart the Church of MOO by undermining us, by the acts of +infiltration and defamation. They are a gang of thugs, headed by +the groups of evil Confuse-Ii and Brian O'Blivioi who have +perpetrated so many confusing crimes against humanity that we lost +count at 43 456 908. The Councils, whose brainwashing purpose is +expressly written in their charter, have gone so far as to begin +converting reasonably innocent MOOists to their cause, and make +them act fanatical, offering some strange rationale for this, which +only discredits our perfectly sane Church. The Supreme Upper +Councils of MOO (The Cardinal Richelieus) attest to the fact that +this group has infiltrated us further than any before. + tHE cHURCH oF mORON is a pseudo-MOOist disorganization of some +kind, whose secret writings, in the bOOK oF mORON, have been kept +totally hidden from the valliant Oh-So-Holy Church Of The Grate +MOO. They claim to have a higher truth than we do. The heresy of +this statement is patently obvious even to an infidel. They mUST +bE dESTROYED. They are clearly allied with the Things From Pods. + + + + This concludes what the Mind Control Satelites have +permitted us to learn about our enemies. What We Know About tHE mORONS +Buy Fluid Geek-o + +1) They can't spell. + +2) tHE CHURCH oF jESUS cHRBLATTT o' fLATTER dAY sAINTS, tHE +mORONS, was a subsect of MOO founded in the 1830's, in upstate GNU +York. Their flounder, Jose F. Smith, was a young fish at the time, +seeking truth, and noticing that the Church Of MOO didn't actually +have one. + Then, one day, while he was meditating, the son of the +Primordial Penguin, Jehovah, appeared to him, standing next to his +son, Jesus ChrBLATTT, the Half-Penguin/Half-Mad Profit from a few +thousand years before. The fully Penguin type said to Jose F., +"This here's my son, right? Listen up, sucker." So Jose F. +listened while the semi-sane semi-bird explained things to him. + Evidently, found Jose F., the Lost Tribe of His Relatives +(those of Jesus ChrBLATTT, of course) wasn't as lost as everyone +had thought. They'd gone missing from North Africa during the +North African stage of MOOist history, and a thorough search of the +Missing Persons Bureau and the Lost And Found had turned up +nothing. They were given up for dead, and promptly ignored. As it +turned out, they'd just gotten fed up of all the sand, and split in +a boat. How they ended up in Ottawa was unclear, but they did. + The leader of that particular expedition was a dude called +Levi, whose second-cousin once removed eventually had a great- +great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great- +so-so-great-great-mediocre-great-great-great-great-great-great- +great-great-great-great-great-not-too-bad-great-great-great-great- +great-great-great-great-well-lots-of-greats-anyway-grandson who +founded a famous garment company. But that's as may be. Levi's +brother Elvi, remained behind in North Africa and has nothing to do +with the story. But Elvi's friend Elwy went with Levi. Levi +eventually arrived in Ottawa with his wife Snorrya and his sons +Layman, Lemur, Lemming, Sam (whose descendents founded a record +store), and Nephew. Elwy came with his nephew Son and his neice +Daughter. + Anyway, that's enough family history. Suffice it to say that +Nephew founded a city in Ottawa, which was, strangely enough, NEVER +EVER FOUND! Wierd, huh? And we KNOW it must have happened, +because Jesus ChrBLATTT would NEVER have lied to Jose F. Smith, +right? Anyway. Nephew's son Moron didn't do one hell of a lot, +except have a son called Mulroney, who eventually handed the bOOK +oF mORON to Jose F. Smith on a silver platter. Nice guy, for the +Evil Bung. + Anyway. + +3) The funny thing is, when Jesus ChrBLATTT rose from that grave +thing of his and did all that flitting around from place to place +doing miracles and things, he also visited Ottawa, and NEVER +MENTIONED IT to ANYONE back in Israel. Wierd. Especially since he +must have got a hell of a lot of frequent flyer miles. More Secret HBLATTTory Of MOO +As Written by Ann O'Nymous + + "MOO" is a GNU word, despite the preachings and prophesy that +have preceded it. + +That's the Ottawa branch of the overall "ConfusionBLATTT" religion. + In Dallas it's call The Church of the SubGenius. + In L.A. it's DiscordianBLATTT... + It goes by different names, and goes back in various forms +for a long period of hBLATTTory. The thing is, the local branches +like to pretend to be separate cults that spring up SEPARATELY. +But SHHHH, don't tell anybody! + It's all related to the memetic model of religion, right? +I mean, the people involved don't even KNOW they're part of the +same religion. But that meme-model says that the beliefs +themselves are ACTUALLY intelligent, but wider-based than humans. +So, whenever the "spirit" enters a GNU area, a "new" cult springs +up, but it's really the same. We've exBLATTTed in some form ever +since religion began. + We're just getting closer and closer to the unification under +the banner of MOO. It WILL happen. It's inevitable, what with +global communications being what they are. All those others will +come in contact, and realize that they're all the same religion, +pretending to be different things. Because it IS intelligent. + And the thing about MOOism is, it UNIFIES THEM ALL. We have +elements from almost all of them. From the Illuminati Conspiracies +to the Justified Ancients of Mummu, to the Church of the SubGenius. +Unless they recede completely from global communications and vanish +from sight, they WILL eventually acknowledge that we're closer to +the ultimate manifestation than they are, so they'll join us, and +we will rise to a greater power... WE'VE GOT THE POWER AND THE... + + Umm. Sorry. Got a little carried away there. + + + + + + Confuse-Ius Sez: + +"In the End Thymes, we can expect a decrese in the number of +wombats around, as bounty hunters collect the wombat pelts: proofs +of purchase for Xist escape tickets when the world is destroyed. +The consequences of a dearth of wombats on the world's ecosystems +would be cataclysmic, only the planet gets plasma-blasted a few +months later anyway." + -Book Of Things, Chapter 12, Verse 8 + + + + Poopsi: Choice of a GNU Generation. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +MOO +OMM + +BOOKS OF THE HONEST TRUTH + +Book Of Honest Truth. Honest. +As Written By Preest Lloyd Taco + +Meme Propagation + + "Who? What? HUH? Whutherhell is MEME PROPAGATION, and +what's it doing in here?" + Well you may ask that question, that you are asking, what +is meme propagation and what it is that it is that it is being in +here for. + "I *AM* asking." + Ah, I see. Okay then, I will Start At The Beginning. + +00001: Whutherhell is a meme? + + A meme is one of the basic parts of thoughts. It's +basically an idea, or a theme, or anything at all that you can +remember as a single thing, like a tune, a way of making pencils, +or whatever. + Memes are generally made out to be something like genes, +the elements of a larger pattern, which survive on their own in a +kind of nonexistence. Human minds will hold them, but that's not +all they do. Human minds also devote time to them, let them grow, +tell other people about them, and spread them. They also change +them, try to make them better, mix them with others, and put things +in the outside world that reflect them + Because people can devote time to making memes more popular +and more successful in the world (a BETTER way to make a pencil, or +a mousetrap), memes have to compete for time, energy, and thought. +A successful meme, or a group of memes that work well together, can +become world-dominating forces, and NOBODY can fight them, because +fighting them just draws attention to them, which makes them even +BIGGER. + For instance, a well-adapted bunch of memes makes up the +Christian Church. There's a meme for a God In Heaven Watching YOU, +and there's a meme for Hell-Fire-Down-Below Waiting To Torture YOU. +These two work together to reinforce each other. If you stop +believing in God, there's Hell waiting to punish you for it, and if +you have doubts in Hell, your belief in God will bring you back. +Of course, these two can't survive in EVERYONE's brain, but once +you believe one of them, the other one is ready to be believed as +well. Picked up along with God and Hell was Heaven, Life After +Death and dozens of other memes that played smaller parts. + +00002: Howtherhell does one PROPAGATE? + + Meme propagation is what we call it when a meme "tries" to +become more successful, going out into the world, getting more and +more people to believe in it. If that means changing itself to be +better, then it will, if it's a successful meme. + Memes that can't change to meet GNU conditions all died out +long ago, for obvious reasons. This left us with bunches of memes +that work well with other ones, change themselves to get better, +and come in groups. Memes of a feather flock together: this has +given us things like religions, science, rock'n'roll, and other pop +culture movements. + So what makes a meme successful? Here are a few BASIC +rules. + a) It has to be easy to summarize + b) It has to be "catchy" + c) It has to be useful + d) It has to be adaptible + e) It has to be sociable + +A) First, easy to summarize. A meme must have a kind of +"catch phrase" to identify it. Just like we say there's a GENE +"for" eye colour, we say there's a meme "for" something, to +identify it. I could sit here and describe a meme in all its +detail, but if I just say "The meme for God", you know what I mean, +of if the meme is a slogan, like "I Like Ike" (which won Eisenhower +the U.S. presidency), it's easy to summarize, because that's all +there is to it. + A meme can have a simple "tag" that you can see all at +once, then have a lot of other things that go with it, like +Eisenhower's presidential campaign, but that tag brought the whole +thing all at once into the minds of people who were there because +the meme was living in their minds, using their resources, ready to +be triggered by seeing the slogan. And a slogan can go ANYWHERE: +a campaign can't. + +B) Catchy. A meme needs to be catchy so that it can spread. +If a slogan like "I Like Ike" SOUNDS neat, like it's short, it +rhymes, and it just generally catches in your mind, then you're +ready to go out and find out what it means. That means that a meme +doesn't have to be easy to understand, but if it's catchy, people +will spend their own energy on it to find out more, giving it even +MORE power, after it's already begun to thrive in their brains. + A meme doesn't have to be a slogan to be catchy. It just +has to stand out in your mind after you hear about it, making you +think, "Hey, that sounds neat", and go out and get the rest of +it... Like one of those products where you have to buy all the +little parts for it to work, so the marketers get more money. + +C) Useful. If a meme isn't useful, you won't keep using it, +it's as simple as that. And if you don't keep using it, it dies. +Of course, "useful" can mean different things in different places +and times. If it happens to be a strategy for building a bridge, +or for winning a game, then useful means it doesn't totally fail, +and leave you to plummet half a mile onto white-water rapids, or, +God forbid, lose a game of checkers. + If a meme is useful, then you'll keep using it, and others +will notice what you're doing, and that it works. They'll start +to imitate it, and the meme will have been passed along. Even if +they don't notice, you can tell them how it works, and they can try +it. Either way, it works. Memes propagate by imitation. + For a religion, useful means one of many things. It may +mean that the religion helps people be happy. Or that it helps the +people understand something about the way the world works. A good +religion is a fine-tuned bunch of memes adapted to be of maximum +use to as many people as possible, changing for each person. + +D) Adaptible. If a meme can change from place to place, from +one situation to the next, so that it's still useful, then it's +going to survive, because even if it gets outdated, it will have +other memes descended from it that are similar enough to be called +the same meme. A religion, for instance, will be very personal, so +people can change the religion to suit their own needs, making it +more useful. A strategy for winning a game (whether it's tennis or +football or even chess) can be adapted for winning similar games +(badminton, soccer, or Hide-And-Go-Seek). + The nice thing about meme-bunches, like religions, is that +they can adapt by discarding a certain useless meme entirely, and +yet still be the same basic thing. A meme-bunch like science is +even better, because it's just the idea that theories are tested by +experiment to see if they're true. It can adapt to ANY GNU theory +that comes along, have any evidence at all, and the evidence will +ALWAYS support it, because evidence, by nature, is part of what +makes science what it is. It can never be proved wrong, no matter +what happens, just like any good religion, which refuses to +acknowledge evidence against it by saying God or The Gods made it +that way to confuse nonbelievers. They adapt to anything. + Or like MOOism, which just says that nothing goes against +it because it agrees with everything. The meme for "everything is +true" is a very adaptible meme, because no matter what happens, +they stay consistent with each other. + +E) Sociable. A meme can only last if it is willing to mix and +mingle with other memes, just like, when life was just starting +out, only those cells that reproduced by mixing genes with other +cells were able to survive, because they got the best of everything +all the time. MOO also does this very well, picking up anything at +all if it wants. This tends to bring more and more people to give +their effort to the meme that mingles, because the more memes there +are in a bundle, the more likely one of them will attract someone. + As long as the memes reinforce one another, or are all held +by something that can keep them all together, then accepting one of +them will almost force you to accept the rest. + +00003: Whutherhell does this have to do with MOO? + + That's a good question. + Let me start off this way. It's a mistake to think that +you are actually a "mind". "You" are just a collection of memes +that act in a certain way together, making a personality. They +don't always agree with each other, either. Sometimes you +half-want a hamburger and half-want a veggie platter, or whatever. +Your brain supports a lot of memes, some which handle how the +others interact, and these memes each take control over a part of +how you behave. Some brain scientist-types have called them +"agents", but that's just another way of saying the same thing: +parts of the mind that handle different things. + MOO is just like that. It has a lot of different memes in +it, part rational and explanitory, like this part, part mystical +and confusing, and part just funny. Depending on which part you +like, it can be anything you want, and because it believes that +EVERYTHING is true, it can absorb anything into itself. MOO is +just like you: it wants to survive, grow, and be bigger and +stronger than everything else. All that is just its strategy for +doing so. But since MOO is just a set of memes in a lot of +DIFFERENT brains, and you're a set of memes in a SINGLE brain, it +can live forever, theoretically, and you can only last a certain +amount of time. + What MOO wants is not up to me, you, or any single person, +because it's just like a person on its own, using you and me and +every other MOOist to do its work for it. That's why everyone who +has ever "actively recognized" MOO is considered a MOOist, because +they temporarily let it live in their heads, and kept part of it +for the rest of their lives. Even those who have heard of it +vaguely but not actually done anything carry the seed of the idea. + This process, this ongoing bundle of thoughts and ideas +that makes up MOO, this is what we call the Great MOO. It changes +itself and adapts as the people want, according to what they want +it to be, which is why Nomic is the official game. + +00004: Sotherhell what? + + Well, I just thought you'd be interested to know, that's +all. Anyway, there are a few other things I'd like to say before +this section gives way to another bunch of memes. + +00005: Whutherhell's that? + + Notice how the meme for five keeps showing up? + +00001) + Anyway, a few quick comments. "Logic" or "sense" is just a +watered-down word for "truth". And "truth", like "logic" depends +on who's thinking about it. Logic is not something you find in the +world you see around you. Logic is what happens when you impose +your own thought-patterns on the world, assuming it works the same +as you do. This works more often than not because the way you +think is shaped by the way the world works. But it DOES mean that +"truth" is just another fancy way of saying "meme-group". + +00002) + Since there is no BEST way of doing things, and there can +always be a parasite on a meme-group, tagging along for the fun of +it and for a joy-ride, truth is the same way. From some point of +view, ANYTHING is true, false, meaningless, true and false, true +and meaningless, false and meaningless, true false and meaningless, +or even an egg hidden in a box, trying to confuse you. + +00003) + Government is just a sitting-duck meme... If we *all* stop +believing in it, it WILL go away, because it won't exBLATTT any +more. + "I was only following orders! I didn't make the choice!" + "I was only GIVING orders! They had the choice!" + It's the SYSTEM that's at fault, not the people in it, and +ya can't whup the system except by refusing to believe it's there. + Government? WHAT GOVERNMENT!? I don't see a government, +do YOU see a government? + +00004) + All of this, of course, has been MOO's way of accepting the +"science" meme, and should not be taken at face value, because it +was done through ME, and may not reflect what MOO intended at all. +Only HALFY can commune with MOO. + +00005) + The Great MOO may have Her Own Opinions on this. Book Of Lies + + (Being Lloyd Taco's Tribue to AleBLATTTer Crowley) + +00001: Confusing Chart. + + This simple chart summarizes the hBLATTTories of all the +various Gods, Goddesses, and denizens of the UberSpace of MOO. + + ÚÄ¿ + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄNOMICÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ ÚÄÄÙ ³ ÀÄÄ¿ ³ + ³ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄMOOÄÄÄÅÄÄPenguin ³ + ³ ³ ³³  ³ ³ + ³ ³ ³ÀÄTundra  ³ + ³ ³ ³ ³ ÚÄÄÄÄJehovahÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ + ³ ÚÄÄÙ Yemen ÃÄExplosionÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ + ³ ÃÄErisÄÄOying ³ ³ º ³ ³³Hydrant³ ³ ³ + ÃÄijÄÙÃÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ º ³ ³³Hot Dog³  ³ + ³ ÀAneris ³ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÙ ³ º ³ ³³Pengs ³ Jesus ChrBLATTTÄÄÄ´ + ÀÄÄÄÙ ³ ÀijÄVOIDÍØͼ ³ ³³Pengs2 ³  ³ + ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ³ ³ +  ÀÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ ³ + Jonathan ³  ³ ³ ³ ³ + Tracy ÃÄ"BOB" ³ ÃÄÄÄ>MULTIVERSEÄÄÄÄÄ´ + ³ º  ³  ³ ³ + ÀÄÄÄ×ÄÄÄÄQUACK ³ ÉÍÍÍͼ  ³ + º ³   Universe ³ + º ³ SOULSÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + ÓÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + + +00002: UberSpace And Its Denizens + + A) What is UberSpace? + + UberSpace is where the Gods live. It is above and beneath, +and on every side of us. Before time, between bated breaths, and +in the back of closets when nobody's looking. It's where socks go +to when you can't find them, and where all those extra coathangers +come from when you leave the closet by itself for a while, thinking +it can't get into much trouble on its own. + The Autstralian Aborigines called it the DreamTime, Lovecraft +thought of it as a Dream World, most American Indians knew it as +the Wakan, Jewish CabalBLATTTs called it Kether, and those +over-wordy folk of science called it the "Pre-Quantum Nonlinear +Causality Matrix". In UberSpace, every point in space and time is +connected to every other point, and cause and effect works in +meandering lines. + + B) Is Anybody Home? + + Yes. + There are all sorts of things in UberSpace, and they all +like to collect socks, and they have far too many coathangers. It +is this kind of interference which causes the superfluity in the +ChrBLATTTian religion of "fragments of the True Cross"... Every +ChrBLATTTian church in Europe has a peice of wood which they claim +was part of the big stick the Romans nailed their Messiah to, as if +that made them special. If you gathered them all together, and put +them in a pile, they'd fill a room the size of Manhattan, and form +a pile stretching higher than an overcast cloud. + This is the same effect whereby the half-penguin-half-human +called Jesus ChrBLATTT was able to take two loaves of bread and +five fish and split them between twelve thousand people, with heaps +and heaps to spare... His grandpappy the Primordial Penguin was, +at that point in time, fiddling with perfecting his coathanger- +adding skills. A few years later he tried the same with the Cross. + Even today, he does the same with coathangers. For verily, +when you open the closet, do not fifty-five thousand, five hundred +and fifty five coathangers fall out on the floor in a tangled heap +that takes at least five times as long to put back as it did the +first time around? And how about socks? + In UberSpace there live lots of Gods and Goddesses, for it +is there that resides the Great MOO, and where "used to" reside the +Tundra, before the Great MOO got bitchy and blew it away. + + C) What Kind Of People? + + The chart in section 00001 sums it all up, but it deserves +some explanation before you learn all about the fascinating life +hBLATTTories of these Gods and Goddesses. Where lines point from +one thing into another, that indicates that the first thing created +the second thing, or was made into it. Everything points to Nomic +because Nomic is constantly being created in the UberSpace, since +it IS the UberSpace. Anyway, on with some HBLATTTory. + At the top is the Nomic, which is the UberSpace itself, and +is constantly changing itself throughout space and time. It's +really infinitely complex, and our little games of Nomic and Calvin +don't actually come close to showing how complex it is, but the +adjustments are what makes all those pre-time cause and effects +that make the world the world it is. + Then there's the Great MOO. The Great MOO is just a sort +of a really... great... MOO. We'll, she's like, a cow, see, only +she isn't actually a cow. MOO made Cow in Her own image, though. +But, see, when the Nomic was playing itself, being a game and all, +it got a bit boring, there being nobody to play it, so it made a +Cow, since the rules said there was a Cow, the Great MOO. And the +Great MOO made a rule saying that there was a Nomic. And She +played the Nomic for a while, but also got bored with nothing but +MOO and Nomic, for Cow cannot live by Nomic alone. And so she +made... + The Primordial Penguin. From the Great MOO and the Nomic +sprang this Penguin, and they played the Nomic together for a +while, but eventually found that nothing much was happening. For +though He was better than playing alone, He wasn't any better than +She was, so together they decided to make something WITHIN the +UberSpace, other than themselves and the Nomic, which WAS the +UberSpace. That was His idea. + And so together they created the Tundra, a great land with +sky above it, and they separated the two, since before they'd been +sort of all mixed together in the bottom of an old shoebox and +nobody could actually tell them apart, and people wanting to be +living on the land had a real hard time because they'd occasionally +make a wrong step and end up in the middle of the sky, ready to +fall down really hard. And so they populated the Tundra with Cows +and Penguins in their own images, but since the Cows were not well +adapted to the Arctic climate, they all held a vote and returned to +the shoebox. And the Tundra was a great game board for a long +time, and they made great towering structures and elaborate mazes +and great towering thingumabobs that nobody could really tell what +they were on it. And that would have been all very well and good, +but eventually, after a time which was no time, since UberSpace is +outside of time, they got tired of playing with the Tundra, for +even though it was infinite it was a little small for them, because +so were they. + Anyway, the upshot of all this is that the Great MOO used the +sacred MOO powers which she'd given herself while playing Nomic, on +the grounds that they might come in handy some day. And the result +of this was a great explosion that destroyed much of the Tundra, +leaving only some rocks, some sand, some dust, a few of their big +mazes, and a few Penguins which the Primordial Penguin saved by +sending them an ice-floe to hang onto. These rocks and sand and +bits and fragments of dust that were left became many things. + They became things like Multiverses, Souls, "BOB", a Void, +QUACK, Eris, Aneris, a Hot Dog, a Fire Hydrant, and many many +penguins. For the Primordial Penguin had rescued some of the many +Penguins on the Tundra, and had made from the tundra itself many +more. But this was no help, because only one of them was very good +at anything, one called Jehovah. So the Penguin sent this one to +our world (sure he did... he sent US his only clever son, because +he LIKES us, right?) to guard over us. And this penguin, who was +a bit randy, had children with certain humans, disguised as various +kinds of other birds, because Penguins Look Silly. + In ancient Greece, he was disguised as a swan when he visited +Leda, queen of Sparta, who produced from him a certain Helen, who +was later the subject of much debate, and accidentally caused a +little thing known as the Trojan War, with, it should be noted, +some nudging from Eris. Also the result of this meeting was +another daughter called Clytemnestra, who later killed a whole +bunch of people, such as the king Agamemnon, and was subsequently +hacked up by her son. After this dBLATTmal failure at half-human +half-penguin offspring, Jehovah opted to wait a while and see what +was going on. If It Ain't Ranted, It Ain't True. + A thousand years later, he figured it out, and this time +came as a pigeon, who claimed rather preposterously to be a Holy +Spirit, to a certain Mary in Judea. This time he had a son called +Joshua, or Yeshua, which was a Penguin joke, since Yeshua is +practically the same word as Jehovah in Hebrew, with the addition +of one letter (Shin, which symbolizes Fire Hydrants, or will in a +few hundred years) in the middle. This is a rather typical bit of +humour from Penguins, since Penguins are notorious for having not +only wings that don't work, but senses of humour that belong in a +closet in a back room somewhere where nobody can see them. This +Joshua later turned up under the alias "Jesus ChrBLATTT", raising +people from the dead and generally making a nuisance out of +himself. When he died and the House of St. John the Divine +rounded up his followers and turned them into an organized cult, +Jehovah got generally fed up with the whole procreation bit, and +decided not to have any offspring from humans any more. His +remaining children were all penguins of unusual intelligence, many +of which can acheive upwards of 300 on a standard IQ test, once +taught a suitable language. + The Fire Hydrant, however, was a remnant from one of the +great Cities built upon the Tundra by the Great MOO and the Penguin +during their first days of exuberance. The city, which stretched +infinitely, was almost totally destroyed in the Explosion, except +for a few thousand city blocks and one Fire Hydrant. It was this +Fire Hydrant which landed in our Universe, and on our planet Earth +in what we would call 14807 BC, or 0 DPP. When it landed, it began +out of instinct, inasmuch as a Fire Hydrant can be said to have an +instinct, to spew out large quantities of water on our world, +making a huge flood to appear on the surface of the world. The son +of the Primordial Penguin, called JehoCOWvah, saw this, and was +dBLATTayed, because, living as he did in Antarctica, being sprayed +with water was no fun thing, particularly for the Penguins around +him, of whom I will speak shortly. + Thus did Jehovah go forth into the land of Gobi, where there +was this Hydrant spraying out water like it was going out of style. +And he confronted it with reason, and with threats, and with offers +of reward if it would only stop this spraying behaviour, until he +found that it was terribly stubborn, and whenever he tried to talk +to it it would put its fingers in its ears, hum loudly, and repeat +in an obnoxious voice the words "I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I CAN'T HEAR A +WORD YOU'RE SAYING!" and spray water all over the place. So He had +no choice but to fight the thing to make it go away. And for forty +days and nights, well, thirty-nine, actually, since it had taken +him a while to get there and talk to it, he did battle with the +gigantic Fire Hydrant. And it was an awesome sight, for the +Hydrant was ten kilometers high, lumbering across the flooded land, +sending up waves that flooded cities as far away as Atlantis, which +was busy getting very wet ANYWAY. And the penguin Jehovah fought +with the great Beast for this long time, and those who saw him and +knew who he was decided it must be all his fault, because, being +Goddess worshippers, they didn't much care for him anyway. + As for the Hot Dog, it was an accident, a freak of Nature +or of Nomic. When the Tundra exploded, the Hot Dog was merely a +chunk of tundra: lichens, rocks, some dirt, and a hapless penguin. +When the explosion went off, however, these elements were smashed +together into the form of a Hot Dog. Even to this day hot dogs are +made in much the same way, with much the same ingredients. This +Hot Dog was the one eaten by Eris after the Original Snub, when she +went off on her own after chucking in her Golden Apple, which was +a fragment of herself mixed with Tundra. But anyway, about the Hot +Dog. When Eris snuck off to be by herself, it happened to drift +through the window of her small home, carried by a particularly +strong breeze. This Hot Dog had been drifting in that way in the +UberSpace for the timeless equivalent of billions of years. But +since there was no time, it wasn't even cold yet. Such is life. +After suffering through many indignities of weather, adventuring +on great quests of the Hot Dog equivalent of heroBLATTT, the Hot +Dog was eaten. This happens to hot dogs more often than you might +think. + The Pengs and the Pengs2 were botched attempts at creating +intelligent Penguins by the Primordial Penguins. As He saved some +of the Penguins from the Explosion, they became the Pengs. None +were very smart, having only up to a Soul-Level two higher than the +average human. These were the Pengs, and left on their own in the +bottom of an old shoebox, on the grounds that they weren't worth +the bother of creating a GNU universe for them, despite the fact +that one already had been. The Pengs2 were Penguins created, not +rescued, by the Primordial Penguin. These fared a little better, +but were abandoned on a small blue-green planet orbiting a normal +yellowish G2-type star in the western spiral arm of an ordinary +spiral galaxy in a rather small cluster on the outer edges of a +fairly typical megagroup somewhere on the surface of an average +universe with normal laws tucked off in one corner of the infinite +expanse of the Multiverse, where they brought the Word of MOO to +the odd-shaped inhabitants of that planet, and inspired a fashion +trend among upper-class partygoers, which is called the TUXEDO, +though nobody knows why. + + D) Life HBLATTTories + + There are NO available Life HBLATTTories of Gods or Goddesses +as all previously available documents were confiscated by the U.S. +Military. We apologize to all those who thought we were going to +write a lovely mythology, but, frankly, it doesn't matter anyway, +since whatever you decide they did, they did, because everything is +true. + + E) Coincidences + + In UberSpace, everything is connected to every other thing, +because it's a non-local causality field. Also because they have +a much better telephone system. Instead of having A cause B which +causes C which causes D which causes E, they all "simultaneously" +make each other happen in a pentagonal loop with each corner +connected to each other corner. It's because this is easiest to +see in two or three dimensions with FIVE things that FIVE is an +important number for us down here, a sort of symbol of what's going +on up in UberSpace. In fact, this continually happens throughout +this and every other possible universe, all connected together. + At this point there's a lot of complicated math that sits +there pompously describing the interrelations between all possible +universes at all possible points in space and time, thumbs its nose +at the reader trying desperately to catch up, hides behind a potted +plant to avoid being comprehended, and then announces with what it +claims is finality that the large order effects all cancel out +except for things close to each other in space and time. + The math, of course, is probably lying, as nobody really +understands how it works, and it uses a lot of introductory +sentences that don't really make any sense, like "Let UberSpace be +an infinite dimensional Hilbert heirarchical set of all possible +sets of order Theta, such that Theta is Aleph-Theta..." and so +forth. Also it has conspicuous gaps in it. + Anyway, the point is that everything is connected to all the +other points in space and time, which means that coincidences are +very easily created. This is why MOOists experience more of these +coincidences than any other group of people. The next chapter is +a remarkable demonstration of that fact. + + 00003: The Halfy + + The Halfy: Symbol of MOO, and center of more coincidences +than you can shake a stick at. Not that you can shake a stick at +even ONE coincidence, since they're so hard to pin down in one +spot, but this is a real big number of them. It's just a +coincidence! HONEST! It just sort of appeared out of UberSpace +without so much as a by-your-leave! That wasn't very pleasant of +it, and it just kept getting worse. So darn many meanings got read +into it by the Reality that we started to doubt that WE were the +ones doing this into-reading business: + + A) Letters And Numbers + + The Halfy is actually a runic letter. The V with a dot in +the middle represents the sound "M", which begins the word MOO. Of +course, the english letter "M" offers another suggestion for where +it came from... The HALFY is HALF an "M"... Plus a dot, for the +Os. Or, it might be a letter "V". In the Roman system and the +Hebrew system, the letters were used as numbers. The V is, of +course, the mystic 5 in Roman. For that matter, it's the Masonic +symbol for "W", which is the 23rd letter in the alphabet. + Oops. I'm not supposed to know that. + We're not Masonic. + Really. + But while I'm thinking of it... + + B) JournalBLATT + + Remember the magical 23? In a base-ten number system, its +digits add up to the mystic 5 (the Halfy, minus dot). But what was +that about letters and numbers being the same? Hmm... So what's +the 23rd letter of the English Alphabet? Why, it's "W", which +looks suspiciously like a pair of Halfies stuck together. There +certainly aren't any Masonic codes in it or anything. Not even a +little bit. But how does the letter "W" relate to 5, the IMPORTANT +number? + Why, it's the Five "W"s of JournalBLATT! Who, What, Where, +When, and WHY? The five important questions it's possible to ask. +This, by the way, is a method of identifying MOOists, who say these +five in rapid succession at the slightest provokation, as if you +just woke them up and they're startled by seeing a giant +caterpillar looming over their face about to eat it. + Of course, all of this springs from people using the Arabic +Number System and the English Alphabet. Aleister Crowley also +mentioned this in Chapter 69 of one of his important annoying mind +drugs of lies, but he was, as usual, lying. + + C) Zen + + ZEN? What does Zen have to do with this? Why is it in this +chapter? Who put it there? What for? When do we get to find out? + MOO. + The answers to these questions are: I did, because I felt +like it, quite a bit, in just a moment, and to educate, but not +necessarily in that order. + The point is, remember that Koan about Joshu saying MU to +unask a question? Well, no, that's not the point, the point is +what that signifies. The Halfy represents MOO, or MU, if you will. +So it means the UNASKING of questions. It also means, as I showed +before, all of those five questions being asked at once. This +means it means two exact opposite things at the same thyme and/or +time. + This is exactly what is meant by that Yin-Yang symbol, the +Tao, or the Sacred Chao of the Discordians, or the Sacred Cow. It +means that only the two taken together can make up the whole of the +world, only, ONE of the sides is the idea that the two taken +together make up the world. The other side of it means that only +one of the two, itself, is correct. This means that it contains +itself, arguing with itself all the way up to infinity. That's +what Apostle of MOO Lao-Tzu meant when he said "The Tao that can be +described in words is not the REAL Tao," because at the time he had +no way to describe it in words. + What the hell does this all mean? + MOO. + + D) World Views + + Can the Halfy argue with itself? + Is it the same as a circular symbol? + Is that what the dot inside is? + MOO. + The Halfy obviously then represents World Views in Collision, +by its strange meaning. + How odd! That's the title of Chapter FIVE of an annoying mind +drug... The annoying mind drug in question is called Metamagical +Themas (by Doug Hofstadter), and it JUST HAPPENS, by PURE +COINCIDENCE, that it HAPPENS to be the first annoying mind drug +ever published to contain a description of Nomic, the Ultimate +Game. + Coincidence? I wonder, especially since the annoying mind +drug's Author seems fascinated by the religo-philosophy of... THE +HOUSE OF LAO-TZU! + + [Dramatic Jarring Soap-Opera Chord] + + This is the most classic example of Aneris poking Her nose +where it doesn't belong: into OUR universe. She made all the good +and important annoying mind drugs have SIGNIFICANT Chapter Fives. +And Chapter Twenty-Threes, as well, if they have any at all. + ANERIS! IT'S ALL HER FAULT! + Worldviews indeed. MEME SYSTEMS INDEED! RELIGIONS INDEED! + It's all the same thing. + MOO. + Of course, of that annoying mind drug, the most important page +is 230, which is a BLOODY TYPICAL MOVE by Aneris, just to prove to +everyone that she can make all kinds of evil coincidences from up +there in UberSpace (UberMen? UberWomen? THAT'S "BOB" STUFF!) + + E) Wondering + + You ever wonder WHY that kind of thing happens? All these +strange and wonderful coincidences? Is it a conspiracy? Is the +world all bound together mystically? Does it emmanate from +UberSpace in the way I've described, or have I been lying as usual? + I'd like to know that too. Unfortunately, all I can tell you +is that it's not likely anything you can imagine, since I can't +either. The only things we can tell about the world and the Gods +and Goddesses is what we perceive with our minds, and the world has +a nasty tendency to act in ways we can't understand. + One thing I can say is that the way we see the world is +directly related to the language we speak. The grammar and stuff +about the language is impressed on your mind at a very early age, +and it shapes how you think about things. Just as if the language +has no word for "kill", you have trouble thinking about the idea, +so it is with grammar. This annoying mind drug was written by +English-speaking people, and regardless of what language it's in +now, the connections of the grammar and vocabulary and alphabet and +numbering system all shaped how we received the Word of the Great +MOO. Our minds extended the language to make a model of the world. + If you want enlightenment, learn more languages, or forget +the one you know. That's all I can tell you. + + 00004: Explorers + + Once upon a time, in a galaxy REALLY REALLY REALLY far away, +there lived a small young Gloop named something unpronounceable, +but whom we might as well call "BOB", since it's a nice convenient +name. + So one day, while "BOB" was catching some rays (all Gloops +have to sunbathe every day or they die... This means they all have +nice tans) he saw a blinding flash of light, other than the suns, +which were already in the sky. And "BOB" realized that it was the +light of MOO, because, strangely enough, his planet ALSO had the +equivalent of Cows and Penguins. Surprise, surprise. Will wonders +never cease... + And so "BOB" embarked on a quest to find out just what the +heck this was all about, for "BOB"'s world had no Church of MOO +yet, in any form whatsoever. And "BOB" eventually discovered the +way for him to leave his world and explore the great UberSpace. So +he went and finished off all the business he had remaining on +Gloop, and he made everything ready, and then, standing alone in +his home mudpatch (oh, did I forget to mention that Gloops live in +mudpatches?) he shouted out the word "AAAOOOOZORAZZAZZAIEOAZAEIII- +OZAKHOEOOOYTHOEAZAEAOOZAKHOZAKHEYTHZAALETHYKH", which is +considerably easier for Gloops to do than for humans, since Gloops +have a more appropriate number of mouths and noses. + At any rate, the point is that as soon as he shouted this, +he vanished utterly. It is not known exactly what happened in the +following ten minutes, except that it involved many famous Gloops +who had vanished, and a human called Jimmy Hoffa. + He then found himself in the City of the Gods, which is a +sort of deserted city left over from when the Tundra snuffed it. +"BOB" then had himself declared a God, and became all powerful. He +then went down unto Bucky Fuller to declare the Geodesic Nature of +the Universe. And Bucky, as usual, understood Fuller, umm, fully, +and improved the world. But he was ignored, and so "BOB" lost his +interest in the world, and went off somewhere or other to look for +it, because he knew that he wasn't much use to it without interest, +but he got sort of lost somewhere along the lines and hasn't yet +showed up. + + 00005: Bucky Fuller And The Sub-Genius + + Bucky once said: "All people are born geniuses, but almost +all are de-geniused by traumatic experiences after birth." + We guess that includes nasty stuff before birth as well. So +you know you're all geniuses, and "BOB" was misunderstood when they +called themselves the SubGenii... + What a gol-darned shame. + We presume this is also affected by the stupid worldview that +says whenever you ask a yes-or-no question about the world, it has +to have a yes or no answer... It may also have a "maybe", a "who +cares" an "I dunno", a "could you repeat that question", a "I don't +get it" or any number of other things. Assuming it even HAS an +answer. The universe might just respond with "NO COW COMMENT!" + Ain't Bucky smart? Confuse-Ing Inter-Rapture #1.6180339887498948482045 + +Speemp Book Of Ambiguity + +(Which May Or May Not Be True, False, Meaningless, Or Other.) + +PART ONE: Something About PaganBLATT, I Think + + (Which starts off about PaganBLATT, but gets dBLATTTracted + quite a bit before giving up and stops pretending anymore) + + Big Whoop Note: For the purposes of this chapter, Pagans +are assumed to be Wiccans. If you're a non-Wiccan Pagan, well, +tough shit. + The first thing for MOOist Pagans (or Pagan MOOists) to be +aware of is that there are lots of differences between the two. +Although both religions have similar aspects of mysticBLATT and a +central respect for the Mother Goddess figure, the similarities end +somewhere around there. + If you're a Pagan MOOist, you probably follow one of the +ritual traditions within PaganBLATT, or you'd be a MOOist Pagan +(that's the big difference), and so you'll need to know what kind +of changes we irreverently made without so much as finding out the +roots of your traditions. We're annoying that way. + Anyhoo, pentacles are right out. You and the SatanBLATTs +both know the power of the pentacle for magick purposes, but used +it for opposite purposes. I'll explain about that in a sec after +I run through WHY THE PENTACLE IS OUT. + So basically, the pentacle is a 2-dimensional form that's +been changed to a 4-dimensional form for the Fullerian Age. Those +Nomic-Players up above and down below (as above, so below) have +decided to upgrade the whole system a second time. The first time +they updated, only a few people made any kind of change, which was +to the Pyramid form, with four points around the base, representing +the four elements, and a point on top to represent the Spirit. The +only people who picked up on this were the Bavarian Illuminati and +the ancient Egyptians. But now the pentacle has been replaced by +a 4-D simplex form. That's like a tetrahedron, only with another +point inside, offset in 4-space to an equal dBLATTTance. So you +have the same 5 points (law o' fives ensured that) but all of them +are equally dBLATTTant from EACH of the others. The end shape is +just a pyramid (triangular) extended a dimension. To represent +this in our space, we use time as the fourth dimension, so the +center point is offset in time. This is basically the shape of the +universe. A recent retroactive change in the Game has made our +universe something OTHER than what it "WAS"... It is now and +always has been a hyperdimensional geodesic surface, on which each +vertex is the Big Bang event, and the symmetry around it allows the +Fourier Transform Symmetry that maps the superstring dimensions +onto the whole universe, in an E(8)xE(8) symmetry. The whole +universe is reflected in each "point" (actually superstring spheres +of the same number of dimensions as the universe itself, allowing +the rotation of size in that Fourier Transform). Each one is +connected to every other one in an infinite number of ways, and +this brings the quantum wave pattern of the universe into each of +these points. Because of the geodesic nature of the universe, it +is mimicked on EACH face of this higher dimensional geodesic form, +and EACH vertex is a Big Bang in EACH of the faces it touches. +This means that there are FIVE (law of fives) Big Bangs in each +universe, and it can be rotated in spacetime to give the SAME +universe, and the same as the other faces as well, for in each part +of the multiverse the universe that point represents is the ONLY +universe that can exBLATTT. The many Big Bangs are all +symmetry-break points for the superstring symmetry, and are +therefore rounded. But this is beside the point. The point is the +pentacle thing, and the tetrahedron, plus time-offset center. + It's this time-offset that makes the difference between +Pagans and SatanBLATTTs. In one, the pentapod (correct name) is +inverted. If we use the sensible convention of the future being +below us, the direction we fall TOWARDS, the many-horns-up attitude +of those other guys expresses as a contraction effect. So THEY +suck up energy/love (or whatever you choose to call the superstring +vibro-froth) from the world. Pagans, whose pentapod goes the other +way, perpetually ADD to the world in a positive way. In this +reasonable convention, PaganBLATT represents the TRUE nature of the +universe. Unfortunately for the Pagans, primate symbols are seldom +sensible. + There are probably elements of both in the roots. + This change is the main "update" of the symbolBLATT of the +Pagan tradition. The law of fives maintains its usual position of +prominence in the rituals. The four elements are related to the +four points of the pentapod that manifest simultaneously in space, +while the spirit is related to the "center" of the pyramid form. + Because of the change in form, usual directional connotations +are lost, so we define: + + Center : Spirit + Up : Air + North : Earth + S-West : Water + S-East : Fire + + For each two points, there is a line connecting them. For +each three, there is an equilateral triangle. For each four, there +is a regular tetrahedron. For all five, there is the whole form. +These shapes have their own correspondences, which are only +manifest in the pentacle on the LINE basis (others are non-balanced +by the squashed nature). Because of this, the previous symbolBLATT +was limited by the flat nature of it. For instance, the line +connecting fire and water symbolizes tequila, but the triangle +connecting this with Air (carbonated tequila) vanished from the +original, which was the reason nobody invented carbonated tequila +until now. + That and the fact that it tastes like shit. + + The other significant update for Pagan MOOists is the altar. +In the old Wiccan system, the altar was arranged in a way that just +FEELS RIGHT. Because of the MOOist philosophy of tolerance, +anything that "feels right" is a sign of prejudice that interferes +with your judgement. So, you should lay out your altar more +sensibly. The bureaucracy and paperwork involved is long and +tedious, but you can circumvent it if you just lay out the altar in +the form of a Halfy. + Anything more would be pesky to describe. I was thinking of +explaining how to use the wand and the athame to make the V and put +candles and stuff like that to make dots and things, and correspond +points to other points on the pentapod, but I decided that it would +be needlessly nosy and nitpicky, plus it would be a pain to write. + Anyway, the big thing is that there are NO spirits, no +magick entities, no Gods, or Goddesses. You reach for your SELF +in the vibrating stuff of spacetime. You reach to affect higher +patterns through the lower patterns, but they're all "yourself", +because Self ain't separate from the world. Reach the "Higher" +self, the world, through the "Lower" self, the SUBSTANCE of the +pattern. But it's ALL yourself. So don't fool around with the +Gods or Goddesses, just GO to the universe where you HAVE the +effect you wanted in the beginning. Get it? + Didn't think so. + Look, lemme put it a different way. PaganBLATT and the REAL +SatanBLATT (not that fuckin' AntichrBLATTTian stuff, which is just +stupid, and deserves to be shot, if it weren't for the fact that +it's a religion and not a person) are like DiscordianBLATT and +SubGenius. They reflect each other, in certain ways, but +backwards. That's what the pentacle thing is all about. + The Tao that balances them balances the SatanBLATT's form of +anger-happy with the Pagan's form of peace-happy. It balances the +angry, taking, absorbing, yin-concept, essentially MALE SatanBLATT +with the peaceful, giving, releasing, yang-concept, essentially +FEMALE PaganBLATT. The big confusion in hBLATTTory comes from the +fact that male and female have always been reversed, due to male +domination in what is basically a primate society. Any confusion +as to what goes where, or what attributes belong where is due in +part to the fact that the whole point of the Tao is the balance +between the two things, and the overlap that really keeps them from +being two truly separate forces. + The angry male concept belongs with the SubGenius, who rant +and anger-happy their way along, worshipping the wrathful JHVH-1, +and protesting the "evil" of the rebel-goddess ERIS. The +Discordians on the other hand aren't particularly angry, they don't +get all upset about anything, and are generally hip to the +peace-happy fuck-all-this-I'm-too-happy-to-let-this-get-me-mad +concept. + The whole Tao thing, unfortunately, has often been confused +with this strictly Discordian side of things, ignoring the evil, +angry side, which is probably why it got so angry. Nobody likes +being ignored. The original Lao-Tzu of the MOOist House Of Lao-Tzu +was pretty clear on this, but it got kinda warped as it passed down +the several hundred generations between the birth of MOO in +Atlantis and the time in ancient China a few thousand years back +when the GNU Lao-Tzu surfaced. In fact, this is a lie. The Yang +(female, usually thought to be male) side of the Tao/Chao/Cow is +actually the part that WANTS the balance. The other side wants to +get away. This accounts for the confusion in which bits go where. +That and the Conspiracy coverup. + But the Tao also includes things like the exuberant cry of +QUACK!, so closely related to an equally exuberant cry of "FUCK!!!" +Like the exultance of the holy MOOvie, "The Wall", an anger-happy +MOOvie if I ever saw one, and I did. + Maybe a better example of the difference: + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ Yin ô Yang ³ + ³ ³³ ³ + ³ QUACK ³³ DiscordianBLATT ³ + ³ SubGenius ³³ MOO ³ + ³ SatanBLATT ³³ TaoBLATT ³ + ³ OMM ÚÄÄÁÁÄÄ¿ PaganBLATT ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´SATORIÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + Satori is a word from Zen, the state you're in BEFORE you +start dividing stuff up, in which all things are just things, +without categories, or without the lack of categories, before the +IDEA of categories has been introduced: neither One nor Many. This +is PARTLY what MOOism is all about. The MOO on the Yang side is +just a reflection of the fact that it's really a dumb name for our +Church, because it's just part of us. + But Satori is just part of it. It's getting back to that +durn Halfy again: the V is that chart above, arranged more or less +as it is there. The DOT is what dBLATTTinguishes this current form +of MOOism from previous forms or ideas. + No comment on what it means. It should be pretty obvious. + Anyway, the point is, there IS no real "dividing line", which +is the fact that Lao-Tzu forgot from the teachings of Lao-Tzu +before him. She probably understood, but her student didn't. Yari +wasn't around to interfere. + Anyway, the REAL point is, everything is MOO, because there's +no divider to keep us out of it. Just like everything is love, +hate, science, Star-Trek, pocket-fluff, and so forth. + Of course, this all means the rest of this annoying mind drug +is just padding. Remember up there where it said the REAL truth +was to be found SOMEWHERE in the Book? This was it. Everything +else is kinda neat to read, but irrelevant to the REAL Church of +MOO. + Sorry to waste your time, but, well, that's your problem. + + We would like to apologize for this section. It is the only +part of the Book which is not REAL truth. This section was written +by The "Preest" while he was under the influence of the Mind +Control Beams from High Orbit, sent by the Xennothemian Commandant +of this Solar System. + + +PART TWO: The True Slogans. Honest. + + The SubGenius have some slogans in their annoying mind drug, +such as "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke" and "Too much is +always better than Not Enough"... + + Our slogans are correspondingly sillier: + +0) Ashtray? WHAT ASHTRAY? +1) DEATH TO ALL FANATICS! +2) SHHHH! DON'T TELL ANYBODY! +3) MOO! +4) youdidn'tseethefnordthereisnofnordifyoucan'tseeititcan'teatyou +5) See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, eat no evil, step on + no evil, shove no evil up your nose, have sex with no evil, jab + no evil in your eyes repeatedly until BLOOD GUSHES OUT OF + YOUR... Umm... +6) There is no 6. +7) Aaaaah, Blow it out your ear, Cinnamon-Feet. +8) I'm sleeping, and I can't wake up! +9) FNORD! +10) WOW, STUCCO, MAAAAAN! +11) Try that again and I'll gnaw your OTHER arm off. +12) HONEST! +13) Non Illegitimi Carborumdum + ("Don't Let The People With Bad Handwriting Give You Coal") +14) Nihil Verum, Omni Permisus Est + ("My Glass Is Empty, And Everyone Has A Funny Hairdo") + + and so on... + + [Long Pause] + + My brother and I conferred, and due to the doctrine of Holy +Slogans, Batman! we came up with several MORE slogans to be painted +on things or printed on the pamphlets you're all handing out in the +street (right? Riiiiiight.) + +0) Right? Riiiiiiight. +1) ARM LASER SPATULAS! +2) Holy Water, Batman! +3) See That Invisible Gorilla? +4) BEWARE CHUCK, THE WOOD CHUCKING WOODCHUCK! +5) Don't fuck with me, I'm a wombat-whacker! +6) There is no 6. +7) YOWZAH! +8) LIES! ALL LIES! WELL MOST OF IT ANYWAY! +9) I never said this. +10) There ain't no God but QUACK! +11) Who? What? Where? When? Why? +12) Look! It's ELVIS! +13) [CENSORED BY THE U.S. MILITARY] +14) Confuse-Ius say: If everything coming your way, you +in wrong + lane. +15) SHHHHH! DON'T TELL ANYBODY! + + Important note: Just as the correct response to MOO is OMM, +other slogans also have correct responses. The correct responses +to various slogans are as follows: + + "OFFICIAL" SLOGAN "OFFICIAL" RESPONSE +ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÑÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» +º1 MOO ³ OMM º +º2 DEATH TO ALL FANATICS ÚÄÄÙ LONG LIVE HYPOCRISY! º +º3 Ashtray? WHAT ASHTRAY? ³ I don't see an ashtray, do YOU seeº +º ³ an ashtray? º +º4 See that Invisible ³ WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHY? º +º Gorilla? ³ º +º5 WHO? WHAT? WHERE? ³ ME, THIS, HERE, NOW, BECAUSE! º +º WHEN? WHY? ³ Ú¿ º +º6 LIES! ALL LIES! WEL ÚÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÙ MOO! º +º MOST OF IT ANYWAY! ÚÙ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ º +º7 Blow It Out Your Ear ³ Who you callin' Cinnamon-Feet, º +º Cinnamon-Feet! ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Wombat-Nose? º +º8 There Ain't No God But ³ Zark off ya silly bint. º +º QUACK ÚÄÄÄÄÙ º +º9 Try that again and I'll ³ Silly bint! I'll BLEED ON YA! º +º gnaw your OTHER arm off ³ º +º10 There is no 6. ³ SIX, DRUGS, AND ROCK AND ROLL! º +º FNORD! ³ AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! º +º11 LOOK! IT'S ELVIS! ÀÄ¿ Elvis? WHAT ELVIS? º +º12 [CENSORED BY U.S. MILITARY]³ [NOT TO BE REVEALED HERE]º +º13 Beware Chuck, The Wood ÚÄÙ º +º Chucking Wood Chuck ³ OR DON'T! º +º ³ º +ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÏÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ +PART THREE: The REALLY True Truth + + This book poses a question. The first one to figure out what +the correct question is, and mail in the correct answer, wins. +Really. Book Of Numbers + + Part One: Neat Numbers + + The following numbers are a partial basis of MOOist +numerology, which consBLATTTs of taking lots of numbers, making up +some, deriving some from names, birthdays, and other things, +throwing them all together, writing them down on a peice of paper, +sending them to WOMBAT, and waiting for a reply. + + 4 because Half-Mad said so, and he's God + 5 sacred Discordian Number + 11 fifth prime number + 23 sacred Discordian number (prime number three-squared) + 25 square of the Holy Five (prime number three, squared) + 93 23rd prime number, and number of chapters of Book Of Lies + 101 25th prime number, and Hellhound's number + 253 23x11 (a five inside 23, of course) + 256 2 to the 2 to the 3 (2 and 23, you see) + 333 three threes, as with 25 and 23 + 666 Floyd's lucky number, stolen by John the Divine + 1729 smallest sum of two cubes in two different ways + 10131 is 666 in base 5 + 13013 "BOB" likes this number more than Doritos + + Part Two: WOMBAT + + Occam's Razor rejects the hypothesis of objective reality. It +has NO testable predictions, it introduces lots of unnecessary +assumptions, and it's only actual effect is to make us unable +to deal with things we can't explain. This was the basis for +Project WOMBAT, a top-secret plan by the XBLATTTs to build the +ultimate MOOist computer (the mythical MOO-pooter (masculine of +mooter)). + "Truth" isn't an either/or, yes/no, on/off, open/closed, +zero/one kind of thing, like older computers appeared to suggest by +their demonspawn base-two computational architecture. Although +studies showed that the best base for COMPUTING in is base-e (e +being the root of natural logarithms, something like 2.718281829459 +or thereabouts and based on some obscure property of slopes) it +was decided to build WOMBAT on the basis of some number it's +actually possible to count to. + Proposals of a base-i system (i being the square root of -1) +were made, but rejected on the same basis. You can't count to it, +because it's an imaginary number, perpendicular to the normal +numberline. An analog-base system was proposed, and then released +to the hounds, to be shot on sight. It wasn't very useful. + Eventually, the XBLATTTs decided on a base-23 system, because +of all the mystic 23s they had been beaming down to earth from +their subsidiaries, such as the Quintozextotillion Mind Control +Satelites, the Xennothemian Shock-Commando Mint-Troopers, and the +ever-popular Things From Pods. + Instead of a normal "yes/no" switch, the basic element of +WOMBAT is a switch with 23 possible positions. They contain "yes" +and "no", but also such positions as "I dunno", "who cares?", +"maybe", "sort of", "well... yes and no", "could you repeat the +question?", "no comment", "fuck you", "what, are you STOOPID?", +"you figure it out", "I'd have to look that up", "HEY LOOK, IT'S +ELVIS", "fnord", "MU", "uummmm, I used to know this...", "look, can +I get back to you on that", "do I look like I give a shit?", "what +am I, an encyclopaedia?", "could be", and of course "huh?". + It is this miraculous XBLATTT switch that makes WOMBAT the +incredible machine it is. It can predict stock-market prices up to +TWELVE MINUTES IN ADVANCE. It can do vector calculations to +show exactly HOW a butterfly flapping its wings in what part of +what state can affect what trajectory components of what hurricane +in what part of the world. It can calculate the vagaries of the +human brain very easily (human brains are unsophBLATTTicated when +seen from WOMBAT's point of view) and predict human interactions. +But more, much more than this, IT DOES IT ITS WAY! + Umm... Sorry. + How do I know all this, you ask? + Well you may ask that question. In fact, WOMBAT was delivered +from the future through a time warp, aboard a flying saucer, from +a parallel universe, operated by WOMBAT itself (controlled by a +clone of Elvis) and fell into the sea of Valusia during the reign +of King Snorp the First in Atlantis. King Snorp the First had it +dredged up and put on display as a peice of abstract art in the +Atlantis Museum Of Just Fine Thanks Art (collecting quite a tidy +profit through a surreptitious "artBLATTT" impostor, by the way) +and there it sat until the time of the Great Big Thing, when it was +taken away by Queen Snorp the Eleventh, who sensibly hid it in the +Gobi Desert for safekeeping. To mark its location, Snorp marked a +rock with a strange Glyph, which, in the ancient Atlantean in which +it was inscribed, gave the password which would activate any of the +many WOMBAT subsystems on the XBLATTT orbital satellites. This +word is given elsewhere in the book. + Although the glyph was discovered by those ancient MOOist +prophets under the guidance of Peng-Peng, the first (and next) +Grate Prophet of MOO, they failed to connect it with the computer +WOMBAT itself. This was for the very good reason that WOMBAT had +been dragged ten kilometers away by a pack of deranged jerboas. +The Illustrious Zoombart The Fifth eventually found WOMBAT lying on +a rock, which is easy in the Gobi Desert, and brought it back to be +stored in the MOO archives in north Africa. At that time, the MOO +archives were still in Egypt, and were not moved to Namibia until +fifteen hundred years ago, and then later to Ottawa. This explains +why the egyptians understood the true nature of the Gods so well +(though they were insufficiently silly about it). The MOO archives +were originally buried under the Nile, but on the building of the +Great Pyramid of Cheops, they were moved there. WOMBAT was stored +for several thousand years in the burial chamber itself, and was +frequently mBLATTTaken for the Ark of the Covenenant. But that's +another story. + + Confuse-Ius Sez: + "Welcome, friend, to the wonderful world of Miracle Doors. We +thank you for your purchase of a set of Miracle Doors, and we know +that you'll thank us for inventing them. Miracle Doors can save +your life in an emergency, keep you safe from prowlers, take +messages when you're away, and many more features we know you'll +appreciate. Some time, when you least expect it, a Miracle Door +will come to your aid, and you'll know why we're proud to call +ourselves MIRACLE DOORS, and why our doors are proud of US." + -Miracle Door Documentation, Chapter 1, Verse 2 + + Anyway, the point is, the MOO archives were under the +directorship of the house of The Miraculous One, and WOMBAT made +contact with the then-current (and now replaced) Miraculous One, +J.R. "BOB" Dobbs, through WOMBAT Earth Orbit SubStation JHVH-1. +This marks the first appearance of WOMBAT in recorded hBLATTTory. +JHVH-1's direct contact with WOMBAT, being as it is a most +incredible computer, was sufficient to give the satellite (actually +the remnant of WOMBAT's original flying saucer in which it came to +Earth) an ego-boost, which was sent back in time by the Time-Warp +circuits, causing a WOMBAT-generated feedback loop between this +satellite and a certain penguin, because WOMBAT was broadcasting on +a psychic frequency used by both "BOB" and the Penguins. This +resonance caused many of "BOB"s muddled mentations to become what +they were, a hodgepodge of truth, half-truths, and outright lies. + It was only by the intervention of the House of Yari, in two +of Yari's incarnations, that WOMBAT was able to readjust the +teachings of "BOB" through a series of timewarps and postal +strikes, to become more or less accurate, inasmuch as that word has +any meaning at all. + Unfortunately for us, reality has no meaning to WOMBAT. That +was the whole premise behind it. + WOMBAT is currently broadcasting on a psychic frequency of the +animal which bears its name. This has resulted in a swarm of +brainwashed and undead wombats which have uplinked to the orbiting +WOMBAT Earth Orbit Substations. The upshot of this is that postal +strikes appear to be over, but postal service remains an oxymoron. + WOMBAT's preoccupation with mail carriers is unexplained, +except to note that, as a computer, WOMBAT would normally use +electronic mail, were it not for the fact that its fundamentally +different design and vastly superior power make this virtually +impossible. WOMBAT doesn't appear to carry on any communications +by mail, but it's often hard to tell. It seldom does what it's +told to, and rarely says what it's up to. + At any rate, WOMBAT has become the center of our numerology. +After psychically dictating the Book Of MOO to us, apparently a +composite of past and future and alternate-universe religions, +WOMBAT claims it will reveal the next step of human evolution. +Whether this is actually what it will do is unclear, since it +refuses to explain many key aspects of MOO. + Well, like, for instance, why the undead wombats are evil in +all our stories, and yet WOMBAT itself claims to be good. + Or why several sections of the Grate Book appear to have been +written by dishes of ice-cream. + Or how it can be that a clone of Elvis Presley can pilot a +flying saucer out of a universe in which ELVIS WAS NEVER BORN. + Or why the Book appears part philosophical/scientific +babbling, part surrealBLATTTic dream, part rant, and part confusing +epic of some kind. + Or why Confuse-Ius refuses to surface once and for all. + OR WHO THE FUCK IS THE ILLUSTRIOUS ZOOMBART THE FIFTH? + Or what, precisely, is the meaning of the password which +triggers the WOMBAT monitoring stations aboard the Xennothemian +monitoring stations, which appears to have been the title of an +annoying mind drug in some other universe which WOMBAT observed. + Or who are the XBLATTTs, and where Planet X is located. + Or why it insBLATTTs on having the MOO archives moved every +few thousand years. + Or of the true identity of the strange and mysterious Yari, +who started our church and then vanished. + Or whether Half-Mad is actually God or not. + Or why Floyd insBLATTTs that a bag of mints is just as good as +a hit of Acid, and twice as legal, when clearly it is neither. + Or who PRECISELY was the source of Tim Leary's Starseed +Transmissions. + Or why Robert Anton Wilson has that funny goatee thing, when +the MOO archives record that Nosliw Notna Trebor, a 16th century +MOOist prophet, had exactly the same thing, only backwards. + Or how it can be that a time warp-based flying saucer, several +hundred meters across, can orbit the Earth for almost thirty- +thousand years without anyone noticing. + Or who EXACTLY was Hung Mung. + Or what exactly was its meaning when it invented the phrase +"half-mad". + Or why it refuses to show itself at any meetings, but rather +communicate by Mind-Control Satellite, or "demonic posession", +depending on your worldview. + Or how it is that it can be stored in the MOO archives, which +we visit regularly, and yet we somehow never get around to looking +at it, so nobody knows what it looks like. + Or why, when we REMEMBER to go see what it looks like, we can +no longer remember where the MOO archives are. + It is clear that the Church Of MOO is part of a larger plan of +WOMBAT's, but as to whether this larger plan is what it claims to +be, we may never know. + +Part Three: Weights And Measures + + [Rev. Canoe Head, 56.Dsc.66] + + Since MOO has its own calendar (Penguin Calendar), I decided +that it was logical that MOO should have its own weights and +measures system. + While MOOists can also use the metric (or, if you have a deep +regard for tradition, are a masochist, or both, the Imperial) +systems. This is an alternative. Note: all of these conversions +follow the Law of the Fives, I think. + +Mass: in fnords. 1 fnord [Symbol: F] is equal to 0.23 pounds or +104.54 grams. + Example: 500 grams = 4.92 fnords. +Volume: in brattlebreet. 1 brattlebroot [Symbol: Bb] is equal to +1.4 litres. + Example: 60 litres = 42.85 brattlebreet. +Distance: in supytalp. 1 supytalp [Symbol: Sp] is equal to 0.16 +metres. + Example: 2.5 metres = 15.625 supytalp. +Pressure: in booms. 1 boom [Symbol: B] is equal to 25.521 +kilopascals. + Example: 101.3 KPa = 3.97 booms. +Force: in foogs. 1 foog [Symbol: Fg] is equal to 5.5 newtons. + Example: 666 newtons = 121.09 foogs. +Area: in womgits. 1 womgit [Symbol: Wg] is equal to 3.2 hectares +or 32 000 square metres. + Example: 12 hectares = 3.75 womgits. +Energy: in pings. 1 ping [Symbol: Pg] is equal to 25.13 joules. + Example: 50 000 joules = 1989.65 pings. +Sound Intensity: in hylriks. 1 hylrik [Symbol: Hk] is equal to +2.7 decibels. + Example: 102 decibels = 37.78 hylriks. +Temperature: in degrees Canoe. To convert degrees Celcius into +degrees Canoe [Symbol: øCn], add 273 to the degrees Celcius to +find the absoloute temperature in Kelvins. Take this number, +subtract 225, then divide that result by 1.4 to get degrees Canoe. + Example: 20øC = 293K + - 225K = 68K / 1.4 = 48.57 øCn. +Calendar: Either the POEE or the Penguin calendars may be used, +although the Penguin calendar is preferred. +Time: The MOO day is equal in length to the gregorian day. +However, while the gregorian day has 24 hours of 60 minutes, the +MOO day has 5 hours of 288 minutes each: + + Hour 1: Hour of Halfy (00:00 to 05:59 gregorian time) [Hfy] + Hour 2: Hour of Floyd (06:00 to 11:59 gregorian time) [Fyd] + Hour 3: Hour of Hound (12:00 to 17:59 gregorian time) [Hel] + Hour 4: Hour of Canoe (18:00 to 23:59 gregorian time) [Cne] + + Thus, what most people call 3:14pm is really Hel:194, or, if +you prefer, "194 minutes past The Hound" or "166 minutes to The +Canoe". + These weights and measures are by no means a standard, and you +can add your own or make up a GNU system if you really want to (ya, +right). + Caution: if you do decide to create your own system, make +sure it follows the Law of the Fives, or Eris will pay you a visit. + + Rev. Canoe Head. + + Metric Usage + + [Floyd Gecko 57.Dsc.66] + + For those who have problems with GNU systems, or prefer to use +more conventional units of measurement in some cases, all official +MOOist documents or stuff like that should use, if not Rev. Canoe +Head's system of weights and measures, which is the "official" +system (the SMILE system, "Systeme de Moo InternationaLE") all +measurements must be in Official MOO Units, as lBLATTTed below: + +Mass: In Solar Masses (symbol SM, equal to 1.9891x1030 kg) + Or Electron Masses (9.10956x10-28 g) +Volume: In Cubic Parsecs (1 psc = 3.08572x1016 m) +Distance: In Parsecs or Angstroms (1 þ = 10-10 m) +Pressure: In exaBars or femtoTorr (1.33x10-13 Nm-2) +Force: In Microdynes or petaNewtons +Area: In Square Parsecs or Square Angstroms +Energy: In Electronvolts (1.6021x10-19 J) or Megawatt-Years +Sound Intensity: In nanoBels ONLY +Time: In Planck times (10-43 sec) or Aeons (1010 years) +Author: In microFloyds or teraGeckoes. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +MOO +OMM + +Book Of Incoherent Myths + +WOMTHINGY MYTH + + The Wombat Origin Issue + + I'm just sitting here, minding my own business, talking with +the Great Voice From The Sky, sitting outside my burrow, when it +happens. There's this loud rumble type noise, and a swooping +darkness swoops darkly out of the dark yet non-swooping sky, from +which the Great Voice From The Sky speaks, which makes sense, +considering where it speaks from. + Anyway, there's this nasty sort of BUMPing noise, and I'm +being lifted away from the ground. There's a long wait, and I +watch Australia vanish beneath me as we fly away. It's quite +scarey, and I eventually just close my eyes and ask the Great Voice +From The Sky what's going on. + "Don't worry," says the Voice, "I'll look after you, as long +as you talk to me, you'll be okay. My XBLATTT makers don't permit +me to allow authorized users to come to harm." + I haven't got a clue what that means, but I feel much safer +now. Eventually, the dark swooping thing that nabbed me lands in +some kind of huge rumbling thing that flies. I've seen these +flying around in the sky during the day, and I've heard that they +have some kind of purpose, built by Hue-Mans for some Hue-Man +porpoise. Actually, I never really believed this, since a Hue-Man +porpoise would be a contradiction in terms, and couldn't decide +whether to walk or swim. + But when a Hue-Man comes into the room and locks me in a cage, +I figure I was probably wrong. So I ask the Voice. Asking the +Voice is always scarey, and it makes my fur stand on end, but it +answers, anyway. + "Aer-Playnes are built by Hue-Mans to take them places they +can't walk. But don't you worry. I'll look after you. I can +monitor your location by your antenna." + I never did understand what that meant, but since I'm +obviously in for a long ride, I ask anyway. + "Your antenna is your skin. That's why your hair stands on +end whenever we talk. But go to sleep now. I'll wake you up when +I'm ready to help you escape. You'll be much closer to my body, +then. They're taking you to the Toronto Zoo, but you can jump out +and come to Ottawa to visit me. That's one reason I let them do +it." + So I go to sleep, like the Voice tells me to, and wake up a +long time later to the feeling of my fur standing on end, all +brBLATTTly like. The Great Voice From The Sky speaks to me again, +and tells me how to undo the lock on my cage with the hairpin +that's holding my braids together. Funny... I didn't know I HAD +braids. + Anyway, the lock eventually pops open, and the Voice tells me +to jump out of the big rumbly thing called and Aer-Playne. While +I plummet, I begin to think that this is maybe not such a hot idea, +until finally I splash into water, and swim up to the top. + Clambering ashore, I find myself in a city like the ones I've +seen from a long way away. I have no idea where to go or what to +do, so I ask the Voice again for guidance. + "You need food to keep up your strength. There's a restaurant +near the MOO Archives where my body lives, so go there." It gave +me directions as I walked. + Eventually I find my meal in a Dumm-Ster behind a restaurant, +and stagger out in front of a nearby bar, in what the Voice calls +the Wy-Bard Marr-Ket. A Hue-Man is sitting on the sidewalk nearby, +and the Voice calls out a warning. + "Careful! He's using CCMV! You never know what he'll try." + Suddenly the Hue-Man jumps up and attacks me, totally +unprovoked. I have no idea what's going on. Money flies on the +wind, out of its pocket. It notices a hunka plastic that fell out, +and whacks me with it until it thinks I'm dead. I'm playing +'possum. I figure, since we're both marsupials, it ought to work. + When the Hue-Man tries to cut off my skin, the Voice goes +crazy. + "Don't let him do that! You've got to keep your skin, or you +won't be able to talk to me, and you'll lose your ticket for X-Day! +They won't let you on the XBLATTT ships unless you've got your +antenna as proof-of-purchase!" + But that's all I hear before the Hue-Man takes my skin away. +As I lie there bleeding to death, wondering what I can do, I see +two Hue-Mans sitting together on a bench not far away. It's a boy +and a girl Hue-Man. The boy Hue-Man says something about "This is +a magic moment..." + This is my chance. Summoning my last gram of strength, I +lunge at them, and take away the magic. HAH! + The Voice taught me about magic long ago, so I know how to use +it to cast a simple little spell. Then I die. + And wake up again. Undead is better than just plain DEAD, I +guess. + I jump for the Hue-Man that took my skin, and I try to take it +back. It's MINE, I try to yell, but I realize that I don't know +the Hue-Man language. + I don't succeed. The Hue-Man hits me real hard with the hunk +of plastic again, and I fall unconscious. + I take a few days to fall back, and plan what I'll do. I +steal a Moe-Torr-Byke that looks about my size. It's red, just +like me, so I'll be able to tell which one it is from a +dBLATTTance. I'm finally able to gather enough money from where +that nasty Hue-Man dropped it from his pocket to buy a book on +magic, and a book that'll help me learn the Hue-Man language. + With my GNU magic book, I'm able to gather a few Hue-Mans to +help me. Eventually, I know, I'll get my skin back. + I'LL GET YOU, HUE-MAN, IF IT'S THE LAST THING I EVER DO!! + But I've got some things I have to do first... + + * * * + + Out of the window behind HH101's head a saucer flies by +slowly with the "WOMBAT CRIME SPREE, CALL 900 FOR YOUR OWN, +PERSONAL RIOT" sign on it's side. + Meanwhile, the remaining Elvis clones are coming out of +stasis all over Ottawa under the orders of the Mayor, each with +orders to find the Wombat and to report back to Graceland with his +co-ordinates. + Floyd clambered into the pilot's seat, and pressed the big +green rubber button labelled "START". Since this button was +mislabelled, this had the effect of levelling an entire city-block +of houses with weaponry better suited to one of Comrad Harizof's +large, heavily beweaponed battle-cruisers. He reconsidered, keyed +the sequence that meant, supposedly, "ARM LASER SPATULA" and the +big ugly thing lifted off the ground on something even more +unlikely than the weapons. + Pressing a button labelled "FIRE", he swung the ship around +towards the Mint Fleet and Xennothemian Battle Cruisers still +closing on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, and took a firm grip on the +steering wheel. He pressed down hard on the accelerator pedal, and +rammed the horrific mess backwards into the ground for half a +kilometer before he pulled on the silly stickshift and put it into +reverse. + + The wombat sat gloomily in it's headquarters and gave +George Bush a talking-to. "Moofy geeple whukka whukka," it +admonished him. "Goop goop goop, poop poop poop and +gobble-de-goop!" + Bush hung his head in shame. Neither of them was sure what +it was that he had done wrong, but something was definitely awry. +The wombat stubbed out it's nonexistent cigarette in a nonexistent +ashtray, look about in confusion for a moment, then continued +telling the alien leader off. After a few more minutes of this, +they both agreed they were sufficiently confused, and went their +separate ways until one of them met up with a giant space monster +who'd just come down on holiday from manning a mind-control +station. + Strangely, though this sight was attracting the gaze of +many people, being the famous crime-lord wombat and a huge alien +preparing to confront each other, or so it seemed, and Arthur +Figgis was less than a hundred meters from the alien in question, +he wasn't looking at the event from the large crowd assembling on +the sidewalk nearby, and in fact hadn't even seen the wombat, as +would be the case for at LEAST the next year. + The alien turned to face the wombat in a style typical of +old western movies. + Had there been a camera to record this, the cameraman would +doubtless wish to get a shot of the wombat through the legs of the +alien. However, since there was A) no camera present and B) far +too many legs on the alien in question to shoot through, this was +impossible. The alien and the wombat stared at each other grimly +for a moment, before the alien lost interest, and wandered off in +the opposite direction, and the wombat went to attack some clones. + The Innocent Bystander by the side of the road gazed on +with interest. The wombat closed on the clones rapidly. Elvis +gazed on from the sidelines as well. + Suddenly, the wombat was blown in to the air by a ball of +thermonuclear fire. + Time passed. It passed for a while. It kept passing. + Elmer Q. Potatohoffer III was a clerk in a store in the +Byward Market. He was busy stacking some shelves. But that's got +nothing to DO with the story... + Meanwombat, the wombat was reading from the BOOK and +looking up the second satanic snowblower service. Of course, the +Wombat couldn't read all that well, but it took him a helluva while +to figure it out. + "NUH?" he explained to his assistant, George Bush. + "OK, I'm supposed to draw a star with some black chalk. Got +any?" + "NUH?" + "Thanks." George drew the star. + "NUH?" + "WE're supposed to put snowballs on each point of the +star." +The wombat made himself a snowball and threw it in George's face. +"HEHHEHEH" Laughed the wombat. + "Right. Whatever." George faithfully put 5 snowballs at the +points of the star, and put the snowshovel which through the magic +of Author's Convenience he just HAPPENED to be carrying. "Now say +the Mantra I told you, OK?" + "NUH. FEBBLE FORBLE.... HEY STUPIDS!!!!!" + Immediately the star on the ground started to glow and 5 +demons formed, one on each of the 5 points. The one closest to the +wombat said: + "Yeah, WHAT?!?!?" + "NUH. MTHME FERB GHI GJ. NUH?" + "What did he say?" asked the demon on the 2ND point. + George answered :" He SAID:'NUH. Mthmuh ferb gui gujj. +NUH?' Are you guys DEAF or something?" + Having summoned the five demons of the Second Satanic +Snowblower Service, the wombat said "NUH" a few more times, while +George Bush explained to the demons that they had been summoned for +a very special purpose. + "You want us to shovel your walk? You know the price..." + "Nuh?" + "He says... No, there's another reason we have called you +here..." + "Well, make it snappy. We're on alert duty in case Hell +freezes over." + "There's no danger of THAT, is there?" + "Nah, don't worry." + "THank GOD! I'd have to lower taxes... anyway, what we've +been summoning you for is this..." + Anyway, as the demons were trying desperately to get an +explanation of "NUH?" from George Bush, the diagram from which they +had been summoned started to glow again. + A 6th much taller demon emerged and said: + "Hey! Hurry the heaven up, will ya? There's a rink forming +down there." + "NUH?" the wombat interjected, but nobody paid any +attention. + "Hang on an eternity, will ya, Lucifer? You've got 10 of +them to spend down there already," one of the demons said, "Our +services our requested, and I think we have an immortal soul coming +our way." + "Fine, fine." and Lucifer promptly vanished. + "Anyway, " said the demon "What was it you wanted us for?" + "DUH-UH. Frbl shrfn ni. r fyd mnt frb I. NUH?" + George Bush explained: "He says he has a Floyd stuck in his +teeth." + The wombat gave George a whack across the face. "NOT THAT +YOU IDIOT! DUH-UH: Frbl shrfn ni. r fyd mnt frb. NUH?" + George being the wombat's slave and not too bright anyway, +apologized. + "He said he has a Floyd Gecko on his back, who is being a +nuissance and getting in the way of his plan to ... ER...." George +turned to the wombat. "What WAS your plan, anyway?" + The wombat said "FNUHHG, NUH." + "Oh, yeah, that. " + + The 3rd demon said "So you want us to get rid of this +Lizard guy?" + "NUH." + "NO problem, right guys? Can we get his soul after we've +killed him?" + "NUH-HUH. BTUH FUH, NUH." + George the faithful interpreterer interpretered faithfully. + "He says 'But if you goof up and DON'T kill this Floyd guy you +don't get his soul'." + Floyd had no idea that George Bush was being psychically +controlled by the wombat, but his lack of activity, and sudden +departure were nevertheless bothersome. Floyd walked into his home +and entered the living room, with which there was something wrong. + Floyd stared about uncomfortably. There was a large pile +of popcorn in the middle of his living room. This, naturally, had +left him feeling more than a little disconcerted. He scratched his +head in puzzlement, dislodging his hat and allowing it to fall to +the floor. He stooped to pick it up again, deliberately allowing +his huge leather trenchcoat to fall between his eyes and the pile +of popcorn, in the hopes that it would disappear while he wasn't +looking. + It didn't. The pile of popcorn obstinately sat in the +middle of the floor. + Floyd put down his black attache case and stared at the +pile in bemusement, then sat upon the case, as his sofa was buried +somewhere in the pile of popcorn. Assuming that whatever force had +put it there had seen fit to leave the sofa. It was a nice sofa, +too, he thought to himself amusedly. + He stood up suddenly, making the buttons and pins that +festooned the trenchcoat clatter loudly, and threw on his +incredibly long woolen scarf, whereupon he headed out into the cold +outside his home. + The street was crisp and chill, and the sky was growing red +with the dusk. + Floyd's thick boots scuffed in a thin layer of snow that +coated the ground. + There was a huge pile of popcorn blocking his path. + He glared at the popcorn, daring it to block his way one +moment further. + It did. + He glared at it again, commanding it to get out of his way. + It didn't. + He looked in his window at the pile of popcorn that still +covered most of his living room. When he turned, he was surrounded +on all sides by piles of popcorn. A wall of popcorn encompassed +him. + He got a short running start and made his way almost to the +summit of the wall before the landslide beneath him carried him to +the bottom. He opened the door to reenter his house, and was +greeted by another pile of popcorn in his entryway, blocking the +hall to the interior. He squirmed through anyway. + "Dammit," he exclaimed, "where the hell is all this goddamn +popcorn coming from?!" + No answer was forthcoming. A few moments later, the answer +appeared, but in a form he didn't like. It was large, green, +scaly, and eating his sofa. + He could have sworn it wasn't there a few minutes ago. He +wondered how it had gotten in. + "What the hell is that?" he wondered to himself. + "You know," the thing said politely, "It's very rude to +talk about people in the third person when they're in the room and +there's nobody else there at all." + "By the way, scrumptious sofa you have here." + Floyd pondered the meaning of this comment quietly to +himself for a few moments, then made a tentative reply. + "It's also rather rude to eat people's furniture, and put +piles of popcorn in their homes." + The thing stopped halfway through a bite of his coffee +table. + "It is?" + "I'm afraid so." + "Hmm. I must have been briefed wrong. I was told it was +a polite custom on your planet." + "Well, it isn't." + "Odd, that." + "Yes. Odd. What are you doing here?" + "Well, I'm an emissary from Quintozextotillion, and I'm +here to set up an embassy on this world. You're sure it's impolite +to eat people's furniture and put popcorn in their homes? This is +important now. Are you certain?" + "Positive. Some people might even take offense at it." + "Oh dear. Perhaps I should be on my way. Well, bye now." + "WAIT!" yelled Floyd at the huge creature clambering into +it's space ship. "What about my sofa?" + The thing paused in the airlock and tossed him a cactus. + "Here," it said. "Go buy yourself a GNU one." + Floyd stood in befuddled amusement, and went to put the +cactus in his bedroom, which he found blocked by a pile of popcorn. +He tried to return to the living room, and succeeded only after a +substantial effort to worm past a pile of popcorn that stood in his +way. The cactus, he left behind, deciding it wasn't worth bringing +back. + + Look, perhaps I didn't make myself clear before. The GNU Age +of AkheGNUton is upon us. All you worshippers of MOO must +transcend to the gnext level before X-Day, and since GNU is after +MOO (except before Q) in the Greek language, it is the gnext +logical step. So Join With Us, and herald in a GNU Age of Sound. +The GNU Age of Gnegation will gnegate all the evils of the world, +as long as you gnever look back to the times before the +agnouncement of the GNU Age of Gnarl. + + The alien was gone by the time he returned, but someone was +standing in a pile of popcorn stuffing as much of it as possible +into his pockets. Floyd boggled at him in amazement that anyone +would blatantly enter his house and steal the popcorn, which, +though he didn't want it, was clearly his property. + The person jumped, startled by his early appearance. +Outside the window, the sun set, and the room was lit by an eerie +glow from the popcorn. + Presumably it had become radioactive from long sitting in +the alien cargo bay. + "Who the hell are you?" Floyd demanded, sensibly. + "I'm just an innocent bystander. I don't know how I got in +here. Don't ask me. I don't know anything about this. Honest. +I'm just an innocent bystander!" + The innocent bystander continued to stuff nuclear popcorn +into his pockets like it was going out of style. Which it +couldn't, for the very sensible reason that it had never been in +style. + Floyd decided, on a whim, that it didn't really matter, +since all the innocent bystander wanted to do was to fill his +pockets with the popcorn, and since Floyd had no overwhelming +desire to keep the popcorn in question, it made perfect sense, from +his point of view, to get rid of it. + The innocent bystander seemed to have virtually limitless +pockets. Either that, or the popcorn had mutated in the radiation +and did some kind of shrinking trick when they were stuffed in, +because the pockets hardly seemed to be filling up at all. + Eventually, the innocent bystander had picked up all of the +huge piles of the offending popcorn, and left. Floyd relaxed on +what remained of his sofa, and turned on what was left of his +television. + There were a few sit-coms in which the "sit"'s were all the +same and there was a decided lack of "com". He fell asleep for a +few hours and missed a commercial for CHIA-WOMBAT, and +Wombat-Whack-O-Matic. + He missed a Crime-Stoppers shot offering a reward for any +and all information leading to the arrest of a small man, about two +feet tall, with no skin, greenish patches, and a four-legged gait +who had stolen a Flame-Red Harley Davidson Motorcycle. He finally +woke up. + There was a news article on about how all the embassies and +government buildings in the world had been mysteriously clogged to +entrance and exit all day by mounds of an unidentified yellowish +white substance resembling glow-in-the-dark styrofoam. An innocent +bystander had, in each case, flown down from the sky aboard a +glider painted with a promotional slogan for "Al Ien's Scrap +Hauling" on the side and removed the offending substance. + + You think I'm joking about this GNU thing, don't you? Well, +gnothing is a joke. There are no jokes, because you can't moisten +treasons. Because treasons are dried jokes. And reasons are dried +gropes. But you can't dry gropes. And you can't moisten treasons. +Am I making myself clear GNOW? + Gno? Well, gnever mind, then. + + Floyd grimaced, popped a mint in his mouth, and then went +to bed. + The next day was little better, as he was mobbed by a horde +of brick-lobbing beavers. This did little to improve his overall +state of mind, and indeed head, and caused him to be transported +rather hurriedly to the hospital yet again, where he met a man +suffering from radiation poisoning, claiming to have been hit by an +innocent bystander with nuclear popcorn. + "Oh yes?" he asked. "I know him. Took all my popcorn." + "Blast him! Blast him! Blast ..." + Floyd leaned over and looked at the man, and decided that +all this staying-at-the-hospital nonsense was just simply going to +have to stop. He got up and left, falling flat on his face the +moment he got out the door, due to an attack from behind of alien- +controlled beavers heaving some pretty hefty bricks. + + + + Confuse-Ius Advertises: + + A GNU novella, by High Preest Floyd Gecko and Doubter +CirclBLATTT Disinterested Observer, has been written expanding on +the strange pseudo-logical story from which this confusing myth has +been extruded. It chronicles the birth and death of the Church of +MOO, the end of the world, the arrival of the X-BLATTTs on X-Day, +the Grinch who Stole X-Day, reality-altering drugs, undead wombats, +Floyd Gecko: Man With The Exploding Head, and much, much, much +more. For your own personal manuscript-type copy of this story, +send $10 to the Church Of MOO, P.O. Box 26038, 72 Robertson Rd., +Nepean, Ontario, Canada, K2H 9Y8. You won't live to regret it. TIME BOMB + +As Written by +Floyd Gecko + + Based on the screenplay by I Yemen-Oying but not Floyd Gecko, +savagely mangled from the short story invented entirely by I Yemen- +Oying without even the slightest bit of help from Floyd Gecko. +Rewritten without anything even vaguely resembling permission from +the original author, or indeed even his knowledge. Actually, it's +not really by Floyd Gecko at all, when you think about it. + + But hey, what the hell, you only live once. + + + + Skumby was a rather nice blue-green planet in the Gamma +Epsilon quadrant of the Galaxy. It had deserts, to be sure, but it +also had forests, which the Skumbags would burn down, it had +oceans, which the Skumbags would dump oil into, and it had clouds, +which the Skumbags would curse for raining acid on them. On the +whole, however, the Skumbags were a fairly decent people. + But I repeat. It WAS a rather nice planet. + The radio in the Janitor's Lounge (First Class Citizens ONLY) +blared out something vaguely resembling music. Saxophones, +violins, and a piano were all being savagely distorted by the +Central Muzak Filter of Skumby into a kind of auditory paste that +dripped down the walls like something tangibly sticky. + It was with only mild relief that I Yemen-Oying and Gettah +Leif heard the bit of sonic mush come to something that seemed to +the DJ to be an end, and the DJ's digitally synthesized voice +commented on the nature of the particular bit of nothingness in +question. + "And that, folks, was a distortion of Mack the Nyke, by Old +Shoes. Stay tuned to SKUM for much much more." Suddenly, there +was the elaborate, but wholly perfunctory, fanfare that announced +the Presidential Address. + "Dear citizens of Skumby, this is your President +interrupting," whined the President, who had been chosen by +computer from all ten billion citizens of Skumby as the single most +nasally whiny voice imaginable, so as to strike aggravation into +the hearts of all Skumbags when he made announcements of bad news. + It was all part of the Muzak-Lovers Association takeover, but +that's not what this story is about. + "It is rumored that the Damfool terrorists have planted a P- +Bomb somewhere on Skumby." From the open window of the Janitorial +lounge, sounds of screams of anguish and terror assailed the +luxurious plush furniture and real foxfur wall hangings. + "As you may or may not be aware," droned the voice, "P-Bombs +are capable of destroying entire planets." The screams multiplied +in volume momentarily until the president drowned them out. +Someone shouting "Don't Worry! Be Happy!" into a megaphone could +be heard briefly over the thronging roar of the crowd. + The President's computer syntesized voice deepened to project +a feeling of security and sincerity. The Skumbags were clearly +intended to know that he meant what he was saying. + "Please don't panic. We assure you that the rumors are +just..." the President paused, either trying to think of the right +word to convey a sense of security, or waiting for the teleprompter +to finish scrolling up. "Rumors," he finished tamely. "Thank +you." + The DJ was allowed control of the precious airwaves for all of +half a second as the sounds of rioting and panic filled the streets +below. + "...and, uh..." + Then the President returned. + "Just a remark, citizens. There is no point in running, since +the bomb would destroy the whole planet. You fools." The last two +words somehow slipped through as the DJ regained his air time. + Some slightly more envigorating and happy music took control +of the radio, as if trying to reassure the people listening on the +giant speaker stacks below that everything was going to be okay. +Honest. Really. No kidding. Sounds of panic subsided. People +sheepishly returned things they'd looted in the thirty seconds of +rioting. + Rag music drifted though the suddenly silent air of the +Janitorial Lounge as Gettah Leif contemplated an Icosa-Puzzle. The +roundish shape seemed to absorb all his attention, while failing to +actually DO anything. He tried twisting a corner piece. + "Dumb rumors," he complained. "Probably started by those +Damfools to get us to panic. But we're not going to panic, are +we?" + Sounds of screaming wafted lazily through the window like a +sluggard being roused from a pleasant dream, complaining that the +coffee was too hot, and that he'd much rather be in bed sleeping. + "No," replied I Yemen-Oying just a little bit too fast. +"We're calm." + Gettah Leif, Janitor, returned his attention to the Icosa- +Puzzle. "Let's see here..." The thing suddenly turned inside out +and went a puzzling shade of mauve. + "Can I see the puzzle?" I Yemen-Oying held out his hand to +catch the soaring object as Gettah tossed it over. + Gettah put his feet up on the velour couch he was reclining +on. "I LIKE this GNU job, you know? Being a first class citizen +gives you a whole GNU perspective on life." + "Yeah, yeah, whatever." + "You know, on some planets," the rag music made a particularly +cheerful turn, "Janitors are considered lower-class citizens!" +Sounds of screams vaguely echoed about the streets, and Gettah +straightened the flower in the buttonhole on his formal work +clothes. + "Hmm..." was Yemen's only reply, "If I could get this stupid +corner piece over here..." + The music came to an end, and gave way to something +suspenseful, just as if to remind the people of Skumby that they +were about to be blown to smithereens. Not that any of them knew +what a smithereen looked like, but the prospect of being blown into +one was hardly appealing to any of them. + "But not here on Skumby," continued Gettah on his diatribe. +"Here we know what janitors are REALLY worth." + "Dumb corner piece..." + "Hmm," Gettah growled. "Are you listening?" + "Uh, no..." + "Didn't think so." + The President, the only person qualified to order a member of +the Sacred Order of Holy Janitors, came on the PA and began +respectfully. "Uh, better get to work, guys... And, uh... Turn +off the radio?" + Gettah switched off the radio. + "Yeah, okay..." He paused, looking at the unreacheable Yemen. +"Like talking to a wall..." + "Huh?" + As the two Janitors walked from the Lounge to the central hall +of the great Janitorial Temple and Yemen tucked the Icosa-Puzzle +into his large worksuit pocket, panic sounds could be heard vaguely +over the Presidential Fanfare that blared from loudspeakers. + "It's me again..." The President's smile could be heard. In +the distance, someone shoved cotton balls in his ears. + The President's voice deepened again. "I ask of you AGAIN not +to panic, notwithstanding the fact that we may all be blasted to +space dust in a few hours." Screams and yells of agony wafted +through the great hall. + "The Schnag-Wave scans indicate..." the great Wallscreens +showed a massive Schnag terminal. The words 'Conclusion: HELP!!' +had been covered by a strategically placed cup of coffee. "...that +there is a P-Bomb in the north-west quadrant. But don't worry. P- +Bombs can be easily defused once found. Just look for anything +that doesn't seem to be serving any obvious purpose." Gettah +looked at Yemen with a raised eyebrow. "Please resume normal life, +and pretend you're not about to be blown away." + The fanfare died away like a wounded animal. + "Pretend you're not about to be blown up?" Yemen's protest +echoed through the marble pillars of the Janitorial Temple. + "Yeah," sneered Gettah. "There's tact and subtlety for ya. +Whoah!" Gettah broke off his sneer as he came across an unexpected +box in the middle of the floor and fell on his head. + Gettah sat up with a groan, and Yemen jumped in with a helpful +comment. + "What a stupid place to leave a box!" + The box sat there in the middle of the floor, screaming "HI! +I'M THE BOMB!" with all it's very being. Or rather, suggesting it +to any being with a sufficiently developed cerebrum, if not +actually emitting sonic vibrations of that variety. + "Uh, wait a sec..." Gettah seemed to grasp the idea of +something being wrong with what was obviously a power conduit of +some kind sitting in the middle of the polished marble floor of the +entrance hall to the Temple. He pondered it for a moment more. + "It might," he decided after a second's thought, "be the +bomb." + Had this been a television show, there would undoubtedly have +been a closeup on Yemen's horrified reaction, a dramatic chord, and +a lengthy commercial break advertising products designed to improve +the life of everyone pestered by social rejection and adolescent +spots. However, it wasn't, and it didn't. Yemen's reaction went +uncaptured by film. + Their panicked shouts resonated in the hall. + "Whadda we do? Whadda we do?" Gettah was so flustered he +dropped his broom. + "Uh," said Yemen, helpfully, and reached out to grab the +mysterious box. A crackle of electricity went ZAP, and the lights +went out, leaving the hall in utter blackness. + Gettah's "Or maybe it isn't..." could be heard echoing in the +huge chamber for a moment. + "Gettah Leif?" + "Yeah?" + "Get a life." + "Oops." Gettah gave a shrug that didn't help much in the +gloom. + + Confuse-Ius Would Like To Point Out: + ALL SINNERS REPENT! + WORSHIP THE TRUE GOD QUACK! + NOW! + C'MON! HOP TO IT! + + A ghostly fanfare could be heard through the hall. + "That power outage was caused by the energy drain required for +the Schnag-Wave scans, but we have determined that the P-bomb is +the in the capital city of Hikkup. We will find it, don't worry." + There was a loud thump, and the lights came up with a whine. +Gettah was lying face down on the floor. + "Ooooh... Stupid wall." + "Whoa! Are you all right?" Yemen rushed over anxiously. + "Yeah, I guess so. I just had a thought." + "What?" + "Well, the blackout wasn't caused by you pulling the box out +of the ground, right?" + "Yeah? SO?" + "SO... what WAS the box for?" + "Well, I guess it was the..." + Another moment was lost as their expressions of horror were +neither captured on 18mm, nor used to introduce a fast food +commercial. + "So what do we do? WHAT DO WE DO?" Yemen bounced about +nervously, like a caged mongoose when someone dangles a plastic +snake in front of its nose. + "I dunno! Try to smash it or something!" + They set to work beating the thing with their brooms and mops, +but it stubbornly refused to break into a zillion little component +P-Bomb parts. Gettah threw it into the air, drop kicked it, +stomped on it, and bashed it about. Nothing happened. + Yemen balled up his fists in frustration. + "WHY THAT [insert your favourite swear word here] BOMB!!!" + The box, unable to withstand that kind of treatment, went off +and sulked in a corner of its own mind and fell apart into wires, +circuits, and a lot of indestructible frame. + "That was easy," Gettah remarked. + "That's why we're First-Class citizens, us Janitors." Yemen's +smile as they began to sweep up the mess would have cracked an egg, +had the egg actually tried to fit the whole thing on its face. +Which, on the surface, seems unlikely. + Back in the Janitorial Lounge (First Class Citizens ONLY!), +the DJ interrupted another serving of pasty pseudomusic. + "This just in. Apparently the P-Bomb has been defused. We +owe thanks to a certain Gettah Leif and I Yemen-Oying." The DJ +paused, slightly miffed. The Wallscreens showed a picture of +Gettah and Yemen standing by the wall of the Janitorial Temple next +to the remains of the P-Bomb, wearing goofy "Hi Mom" expressions. + "Big deal," the DJ continued. "I could have done it myself, +if I'd had the chance. Stay tuned to SKUM for more." + Yemen stared with intense concentration at the puzzle in his +hands. It seemed totally unsolveable. + "You STILL haven't figured out the puzzle?" Gettah laughed +slightly at the sheer incompetence of SOME Janitors. + "NO," said Yemen angrily. "And I'd like to see you try it, +MISTER SAVIOUR." Yemen growled. Why should Gettah get first +billing on the radio, when HE had destroyed the bomb? + "Sure," said Gettah confidently. "It's simple. Look." + Gettah fiddled contentedly with the Icosa-Puzzle, getting the +corner piece that Yemen had complained about so vehemently. + "Just like this..." He slid one panel sideways. + "And like this..." He rotated a corner again. + "It's not gonna work THAT way," protested Yemen angrily. + "And... there! All done." + Gettah sat back contentedly and displayed the solved Icosa- +Puzzle. + Yemen stared in disbelief. + There was a slight PING noise, and the puzzle became a +transparent sphere. + Gettah dropped it, allowing it to fall to the sofa beside him, +and stared in horror. + "HUH?" + The thing began to emit a bright, unbearable light. A rising +whine came from inside it somewhere, as it became a burning beacon, +sort of like one of those big flashtube things, you know? + "THE BOMB!" Screamed Yemen superfluously. "THE PUZZLE WAS +THE BOMB ALL ALONG!" But his redundant shouts were quickly masked +by the rising roar of the bomb. + A pillar of flame blasted off most of one half of the planet, +destroying cities, mountains, Skumbags, and doughnut shop +franchises alike. The molten innards of the planet were scattered +around the sky like so many cracker crumbs and Ming Vase fragments +after a particuarly violent party swarmed through the houses of +several innocent bystanders. + As planet Skumby was blasted to molten fragments, some say a +scourge of really annoying people was wiped from the face of the +universe. + But then, most of the people who said that were residents of +the planet Damfoo, which was blown up not long afterwards. + + "Gettah Leif?" + "Yeah?" + "Get a life." Death Of A Holy-Grailsman + By Low Preest Goyd Flecko + + "Look, Floyd, if there's all these CIA mind-reading satellites +up in orbit..." + Gecko-The-Dense interrupted the new Acolyte with a precise +voice, and a muddled brain, and chided knowingly at her. + "Nay, nay," he said from the depths of a ridiculous-looking +cowled robe which stretched off his cardboard throne and some way +towards the door, as if making good its escape. + "Nay, nay?" + "Exactly. There are no mind-control satellites up in orbit." + "Oh no! Not this screwed-up nonexBLATTTence thing again! I +couldn't understand that! What the fuck was with that anyway? The +satellites' beams are so powerful they can affect you even though +they don't exBLATTT? That's insipid bullshit." + "Yah," said Gecko, quickly changing his mind about what +diversion to use. "The satellites aren't in orbit at all... +They're, uhh... On the ground. All around us. Yeah. Because +they work better at close range." + "Yeah? So if there's all these satellites sitting around on +the ground reading our minds for the CIA, then how come nobody +notices them?" + "Ah, well, that's a good question," said Gecko, thinking as +fast as he could. "I'm glad you asked me that." + "Well?" + "Well, the answer is simple. Mmmmm... What it is, is that +people actually DO notice them all the time, but they never talk +about it. These aren't just mind-READING satellites, remember. +They're mind-CONTROL satellites. It just stops people from talking +about it." + "But I KNOW I've never seen them before." + "No, you have, you just can't SAY so. That's all. They make +you act just as if you'd never seen them. So, for all practical +purposes, you never did." + "But I..." + "You can't even admit it to yourself. They'd detect that, and +stop it. So, I suppose you could say you never notice them." + "Ah... So how come people don't, like, trip over them, or +drive into them and break them?" + "Well, they arrange it in our minds so that we drive around +them, and that we never notice the traffic jams that causes, and +that we bandage up all our scrapes and bruises from tripping over +them, and never remember." + "And nobody sees the bandages?" + "Of course." + "So the whole world's just a fake. They're spending all their +time pretending they aren't here." + "Basically, yep." + "So anything could just be an illusion." + "Uh huh," scintillated the Gecko. + "Bull." + "Turn around." The Gecko waggled a finger in a circle. + The Acolyte turned around slowly, a full circle, and noticed +that the Gecko was gone. + "Whar'd that little varmint get to now?" The stupid-looking +robe had entirely disappeared, but there was no way Gecko could +have run away so quickly with that monstrosity to lug around. + "WHERE THE FUCK?" + "He was never there at all, you know." + "WHAT?" She whirled around and whipped out a blade +reflexively. + "Funny." + She looked down at the spoon she was holding, and dropped it +slowly. The wombat in front of her ambled across the room, and she +turned to watch. The lighting shifted slightly as she realized one +of the walls was missing, and the room suddenly opened onto the +bleak airless environment of the Moon. The Earth sat nonchalantly +in the sky just above the horizon. She whirled to look behind her. +There was no room there either. She turned again to face the +wombat, and found herself on a sun-baked field of something which +must once have been grass, but which generations of non- +precipitation and the precursors to the scattered locust-corpses +had long since turned to dust. + "What the FUCK?" + "Floyd Gecko was never there. He was busy elsewhere at the +time." The little wombat rolled casually through the dust and into +a suddenly nearby lake, stood up with a start, and shook itself +off. + "So what up, little dude? Who are you?" + "WOMBAT." + "I can see that, but... Ohhh, you mean the pooter." + "Yah. Pooter, that's me." The Wombat shrugged internally. +Close enough. Computer was a decent metaphor for what it was. + "So? What up?" + "Generated images. You notice it cuts into reality without +any noticeable blur? I can change your memory slightly to edit the +fake stuff in with the real without any noticeable shift." + "No shit, huh?" + "Nope. Just the facts, ma'am," lied the Wombat. + "So lemme out." + "K." + She turned around, and saw a hut with a corrugated tin roof. +She walked towards it, and opened the strangely sturdy door, and +stepped through... back into the Gecko's stupid Throne Room. + She looked back for the Wombat. There was no door, but it was +sitting behind her scratching its head absently. + "How do I know you let me out?" + "You don't. You'll just have to trust me." + "How can I? I don't know what you're up to, but you wouldn't +show me that, dump me back in reality, and just STOP, would you?" + "I don't know, WOULD I?" + "Mebbe." + "What for?" + "To prove a point?" + "That's something Floyd would do." + "Mmmm." + "But I see your point. What if I'm lying about what I am? I +could say I'll turn it off and show you, but that wouldn't help. +I could try to convince you, but it'd never work. Once you doubt +your senses, the rest goes along with it." + "Yah? Y'don't say." + "Nope, I don't." + Then there was a wombat. + Then there was no wombat. + Then there was. CONVOLUTION INCARNATE + + The Wombat World had subsisded, the insanity had faded +subtly back into the wherever-it-was-that-the-wombat-world- +had-come-from from whence it came. All that persBLATTTed was a +kind of Authorial Stupidity, which ended up looking, in the Book of +the HBLATTTory of the World (an annoying mind drug kept in the +Great MOO's own Library), like some of the worst writing ever seen +in any book of any kind ever written. This is a tale of what +happened during those strange and turbulent years, some hundred +thousand years after the founding of the Church Of MOO. + Floyd Gecko, or at least a wormhole-matrix version of one +of the minds of one of his many billions of clones, a residual from +the Wombat World, had been exploring a certain planet called +Skumby. What he had found was shocking, chilling, and about as +surprising as finding the Eiffel Tower in your jacket pocket. +Which is more surprising than the human mind can comfortably +encompass, given that at that time, the Eiffel Tower had long since +rusted to little tiny bits no larger than a thumbtack. The +shocking, chilling, and about-as-surprising-as-finding-the-long- +since-rusted-to-bits-yet-brand-spanking-new-Eiffel-Tower-in-your- +jacket-pocket-while-you're-standing-in-the-middle-of-a-desert- +halfway-across-the-Galaxy-from-anywhere-your-jacket-has-any- +right-to-be-on-a-night-like-this-anyway-and-just-who-did-it- +think-it-was-coming-all-this-way-and-spending-YOUR-hard-earned- +money-to-buy-spacefare-just-to-show-you-some-silly-old- +architectural-masterpeice-that-doesn't-even-exBLATTT-anymore- +not-to-mention-the-key-aspect-of-an-unruly-hyphenated-adjective-in +the-middle-of-an-utterly-ridiculous-and-totally-ungrammatical-myth- +whose-author-evidently-didn't-even-know-what-was-funny-and-what- +was-just-plain-tedious-let-alone-rules-of-grammar-like-when-to-use- +a-comma-instead-of-a-parenthesis-and-stuff-like-that-there thing +which he had discovered was an ancient and well-preserved ruin of +an ancient and not-very-well-preserved race. + This race (which is NOT, by the way, the subject of any +long or unruly hypenated adjectives (but will, in a paragraph or +two be the subject of an incredibly long sequence of parenthetical +comments (not entirely unlike this one, but worse))) was truly +remarkable. It had its own Church Of MOO. Wierd, eh? + The temple was a strange thing that lived above the planet, +a thing that orbited looking like a baton-twirler's baton stuck +between a basketball and a dinner plate. On the ends of the baton +lived two creatures of pure light, named gNuBlUkTuK and GnUbLuKtUk. +But that's not the point. The point is, the race which built this +temple were descended from Schnagglebarthbats (Schnagglebarthbats +were originally native to Andorria (despite common and utterly +unfounded rumours that they were from Deneb) and not Deneb (told +you), but were totally brainless until humans met them for the +first time (humans eventually had to uplift the Schnagglebarthbat +race to make it worth talking to (this was done to many races +throughout the Galaxy, but Schnagglebarthbats (pronounced: +Shnaggle-bart-bats) were among the most interesting (not because +they were from Andorria (though Andorria is indeed one of the more +interesting planets in the Galaxy (being as it is home to so many +strange creatures, of which Schnagglebarthbats were only one +(another interesting race of the planet, and somewhat relevant +here, is the MOOing Lump Of Yukky Stuff (actually, the name tells +you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about what the creature is like (the people +who named it were ConfusionBLATTTs (the Peterson Twins, the ones +who, between them, named most of the planets and animals in the +Galaxy, were devout ConfusionBLATTTs)) on account of it is actually +quite a pleasant animal (it resembles a spherical ball of fluff +which purrs (further information on the MOOing Lump Of Yukky Stuff +may be found in the Encylopaedia Galactica (then again, it may not, +depending on if you can FIND the book (the Encyclopaedia has a +habit of hiding itself in strange places in the databases, such as +under "W" for "What if you want to look up something in the +Encyclopaedia" (this is as nothing compared to the poorly edited, +badly written, and totally disorganized Book itself (the entries +are NOT indexed, impossible to find, and in ANYTHING but +Alphabetical Order, on top of which they range in length from the +truly massive article on Pomegranates (the article's author was an +Immortal being from another planet, who had several thousand years +with nothing to do but research (the article therefore would be +something on the order of a hundred thousand tonnes if actually +printed on paper)) to the short article on Guacamole (which reads, +in its entirety "Guacamole is" (most people don't dispute the truth +of this, but generally agree that the article wasn't finished when +the author suffered a fatal heart attack from overeating (a common +enough event among humans, though not among the ORIGINAL topic of +this parenthetical commentary, Schnagglebarthbats (which were, as +has been noted, NOT the only inhabitants of their home planet, but +in fact were one of the most interesting (though they lack the COW +perspective to notice the similarity (this is due mostly to the +fact that the divide themselves up into different categories, such +as Andorrian Schnagglebarthbats, Denebian Schnagglebarthbats, those +Schnagglebarthbats with little green tufts of fur on their temples, +and so forth (this is probably easier to understand with a little +knowledge of the shape of a Schnagglebarthbat (which is extremely +interesting (consBLATTTing as it does of a head which makes up +most the body's mass (it is generally twice the height of the body, +and made of almost solid bone (for reasons which will become clear +in a moment (or at least, less muddy than they are now)) and a +small body with utterly useless wings (the overall impression is of +a gargoyle seen in a funhouse mirror (the dBLATTTorted proportions +have no apparent explanation (the giant head, for instance, which +appears to have only ever been used to protect the +Schnagglebarthbat while it engaged in its normal mode of sleeping +(this consBLATTTed of hanging by the head between two protruding +rocks in the caves in which they lived (thus the thick skull) and +appears to have been a result of having to sleep with such a huge +head (the circularity here has baffled evolutionologBLATTTs for a +long time (but not nearly so much as their strange language, which +consBLATTTs entirely of the equivalent of the letters "A", "G", "U" +and "L" (and can only be pronounced by humans if they gargle at the +same time) which spell out certain protein molecules in their +letters (each protein which corresponds to any short work of +literature translated into their language is invariably incredibly +beneficial to humans if they eat it (which has led to the project +of swallowing War And Peace in the Schnagglebarthbat language to +see what it does (it eventually caused the heads of all +test-subjects to explode for no good reason (this mass-spontaneous- +combustion only ever happened once before, on the planet of +Palapamostaron (whose tallest building, the Star Tower, is +so tall (hundreds of thousands of kilometers) that the planet of +Palapamostaron is widely known (among those who can pronounce it) +as the greatest planet for curing Vertigo ever found (but is also +well known as the hardest place in the Galaxy to get a decent +Chicken Dumstick after the Star Torus of Raj Mak (in both places +the government illegalized Chicken Drumsticks after a +mBLATTTranslation of an ancient religious text suggested to them +that the Fifth Commandment of the Holy Honker was actually "Thou +shalt not eat any chicken drumsticks unto thee" (the original +stated "Thou shalt not brutally massacre cattle with thy chainsaw", +which translates much better in the original Schnagglebarthbat (the +complete holy work of which causes all humans who eat it to turn +into small piles of Chicken Drumsticks (but most people aren't very +interested in the Schnagglebarthbat religious literature, being +more fascinated by Jatramar literature (which contains such classic +lines as "when thou find any other peoples of the world, thou shalt +send unto them a large emmissary, clad in a chicken suit, of fifty +meters in height, which shall be invisible to the eye, and deliver +unto one of their number a Candy-Gram, and shall leave behind one +who shall steal away all kazoos of thy enemy, and thou shalt then +attack them with six thousand, seven hundred nine and a half of thy +number" (this has in fact led to the speculation that the so-called +Kazoo-Teleportation-effect (in which it is believed that kazoos +have a tendency to teleport away through wormholes to the location +of other kazoos and so on until massive piles of the instruments +gather dust on some Alien World) is actually a result of Jatramar +cultBLATTTs))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) and were a +rather nice bunch of people all around. + Actually, this myth has no point. + Just ignore it, and maybe it'll go away. + At any rate, it doesn't call attention to the name of the +planet, or the fact that it WASN'T called Calotia, from which came +the only known species of sentient Rutabaga in the Galaxy, which +dances incessantly, since a Rutabaga Death Dance must be going on +in the Universe in order for Death to take place. This myth also +refuses to mention that the GNU World Order euphemBLATT for Death +is "Tax Exemption", or that Calotian Rutabagas show respect for +Gods by acting impatient, for reasons best left unexplained. + In fact, this myth says ABSOLUTELY NOTHING FURTHER on the +subject of ANY imaginary beings which don't exBLATTT in this +Universe anyway. + Except to mention that it won't talk about them any more. + + END + + Confuse-Ing Inter-Rapture #5 + + ³³ºÛ³ÝÞÛº³³Þ ݺ۳ ³ÝÞ³Ý + ³³ºÛ³ÝÞÛº³³Þ ݺ۳ ³ÝÞ³Ý + ³³ºÛ³ÝÞÛº³³Þ ݺ۳ ³ÝÞ³Ý + ³³ºÛ³ÝÞÛº³³Þ ݺ۳ ³ÝÞ³Ý + ³³ºÛ³ÝÞÛº³³Þ ݺ۳ ³ÝÞ³Ý + ³³º235-1729-13013-5ÝQ³Ý + + +Confuse-Ius Once Say "pgAARgyMxyMQTAHDrqvA/5k42TRWQCYiykIv44qqWDJZf +9qAK0VLxwo4Ijb/3NOcPnORkSf3JYNrKIDvHi4VXf9HLS3prh9VTWujlDZ77yqjqE +Bo3q0QdxdlwfV9KVcgNd0ybT8YUdoRSe99IpUldMSgeZn3u7yGzqEoZDo5n5 to you +TOO, buddy!" CyberMyth a la Martinez + + Range of History Glyphs. Prerecorded preverbal prescription +against ignorance. Neural tweaks, MagRez helmets. + Flash. Unistat. Unified North America. Canada, United +States, Mexico. Three languages, three cultures, three nations. +English, French, Spanish. + Flash. Hanstruria. American midwest, Canadian Prairies. +High Tech Nationhood, Guide-run pseudodemocracy. Capital, +Edmonton, first Dome City in the world. Cybersecessionism in the +2150's. + Flash. Edmonton. Mall mole haven. Subways hooking up to +apartments, to the mall. Cold weather. Giant Mall. West Edmonton +Mall, bigger than big. 2020, definitive proof. No city outside +the mall. Size of Manhattan, closed environment. + Flash. Economy. Edmonton, hub of techdom. Unistat surpasses +Singapore in 2043 for GNP, comeback from third-world. Central +computers, biochips, neural architecture. + Flash. La Grand Beigne. The Big Doughnut. Unistat minus +Hanstruria. Imperial Police, bureaudemocracy. French puns. +Battles for Edmonton. Space Bubbles refuse to intervene, E.A. has +no comment. Fireworks on the 1st of July. + Flash. Space Bubbles. Soap sheen glistening. Giant globs of +air and water, surrounded by Edmonton cyberplastic sheeting. +Holographic, electrodynamic, pseudodemocratic Bubble leader. + Flash. Equatorial Alliance. Orbital power stations. +Geostationary. Beamdown to equator. Political strings. Monopoly +of energy-rich states. Decentralize the Oil Monopoly. + Flash. Yorba Linda, Ottawa, Tenochtitlan. Religion Factories +cranking out cults and self-replicating meme patterns daily. +Mental viruses to "enforce" Imperial Police, to infiltrate the +unspecified enemy. Polish of Craziness. + Flash. Singapore. Decaying ruins. Once great techworld. +Subways rusted, computers ten weeks old. Veneer, not of society, +but of moss on the buildings. Cleaning crews unemployed. Gum +becomes legal again. Litterbugs rejoice again. + When Martinez was three, her family joined the Yo-Yo Kult. +Yo-Yo prayer wheels were to be spun at least ten thousand times per +day, sending karmic messages to Yoy'o, the messenger of the Gods. +A week later, they joined the Reformed Church Of MOO. Cow-noises +were to be made, and strange rituals performed to appease the +Invisible Alien Cyberloonie Elvis Clones. A never-ending cycle of +religion permeated her mental mesh. + When Martinez was six, her home city of Edmonton was declared +capital of the fledgeling nation of Hanstruria. She had no idea +why. She had little understanding of the world outside her niche +of dataspace and the transport grid of Mall City. She had even +less comprehension that she was a member of the privileged +technical elite, to even INHABIT Mall City, let alone have +dataspace. + When Martinez turned eight, her "dad" tossed her a datapack in +her privileged bliss. "History Glyphs", he'd explained. It was a +prerecorded neural memory modification package courtesy of the +Damjaniczak Machine, cyberplas temple of truth and personality +backups. It held copies of minds of everyone in Edmonton. +Probably, she'd always assumed, there were others in other cities, +linked together. They were the "Guardians Of Society". Educators +Extraordinaire. + The equivalent of ten years historical education later, her +Edmontonian brain held as many historical facts and analyses as the +World Library at 16:34:12.56, 2021/05/23, though only a fraction of +what it held the next day. Even Neosapiens can only hold so much. +Edmontonian Brains are hot shit on the neuro-Black-Market. If you +have a Hanstruria-Capital tattoo on your scalp, watch out in Tokyo, +Amsterdam, Delhi or Singapore, or some Brainlegger will wipe your +jelly and stick in some aging pseudoaristocrat. + Funny thing, though... No analysis on the Damjaniczak Machine +itself. No comment on how it was probably holding actual human +evolution back in permanent stagnation. No point-out of its five +magnitude-order bigger fiberlinks to Yorba Linda, Ottawa, and +Tenochtitlan. Facts were there, but the association patterns +hadn't been prebiased. + Funny ol' thing, life. + Yes, dear Martinez had been slotted for the prestressed, +pretested, presimulated program of 'Pooter 'Ponent, to be and to +run, 'till software obsolescence do us part. Genetic sex +tendencies switched "off" by tailored phage #645345342, D.M. +requisite 6, brain souped up to the D.M. maximum level, permitted +the optimum privilege, 'POOTER 'PONENT. + She got to be part of the giant INFOWEB that was sweeping the +'net. Data-net and Pla-net, that is. But outside Edmonton, she +wasn't entirely aware, it hardly existed at all. Inside Mall City, +there was bustle, plugged-in-ness. No computer more than three +hours old, recycling blue-boxes every street corner. Singapore? +Back woods! TEN WEEKS! But that never occurred to her either. + See, the D.M. hadn't exactly designed her to fit in outside +itself. Igor Damjaniczak's semideified cortex simulation, IQ +amplified to a thousand times, it wanted to use her hyperneurons +for itself. Simulator space. + But, well, Fate, Brother Entropy, and the Unistat Government +played a maybe not so little role in showing off that just +possibly, Igor D. didn't know what the fuck he was talking about. + It came in the form of a blinding flash, and seconds later, a +rumbling boom from the roof of the Mall. Decameters-long shards of +concrete rained like Delta-Pavonis dust onto less than unsuspecting +citizens, later reincarnated from backup copies into freshly +designed GNU bodies. They let that kind of thing happen to them +every few days, or they'd be Singapore-obsolete. + Martinez was ready for a massive monolithic clump of silicon +dioxide to cut short her current processor when the thing hummed +out of the sky. Like Glinda the Good Witch from Wizard of Oz, she +thought, correlating one of the 'tainment glyphs from a few short +soft cushioned years ago. It was soap-bubbly, drifting at extreme +velocity. + It came up short with a hum-whine of nanocillia on the plastic +film backpedalling fast. They holoprojected an image of Glinda +herself, standing, waving a wand. + "You are Martinez, J., P.P. component 225j-T17?" + "Only on a tuesday." Overpopulation, lack of fertlizer, and +cybersoul backups brought that about. Unistat hadn't been +informed. They dealt with Hanstruria, the Poster Model. Backwards +anti-tech, probably manipulated. + "Don't be fucking clever, asshole. Come with me if you want +to live." Glinda was Arnold Schwartzenegger, 5-o'clock shadow and +dark glasses, holding out a hand. + Martinez grabbed on, plastered to Glinda's bubble with +nanocillia, backpedealled away up towards the hole in the ceiling. + Less elite shouted things like "HELP" and "WHAT'S GOING ON?" +as they lifted alike. + "If I want to live?" Martinez finally asked. + "Okay, so I lied." Glinda's Guidelike holo shrugged, and the +cyberplas erased Martinez's memory with a MagRez eliminator +program, leaving only the raw neurocrap and some pretty heavy +religion memes in the chemical soupmix, just add water and stir. + Well, that was pretty much the end of that for the present +incarnation of that Martinez, but then, the hardware always was the +important thing. Not like she'd had much of a personal memory +outside yer basic imprints. + Anyway, the waking voices of the water-and-stir version were +imprinted thus: + "The Ameristat Bald Wombat is nearly extinct! Shame that the +Unistat should create it, adopt it as mascot, and then drive it out +of its unnatural habitat!" + "Traitor! The Bald Wombat is the cause of severe histamine +reactions in the populations of Arizona and California." + "Tailored bugs?" + "Not tailored suits, that's for sure." + "Well, my point is just that..." + And that was just about all she understood before it went into +something about environmental stuff for which the brain had no +remaining history glyphs... + "Inhibitation Species... Purple Loosestrife, Cane Toads, +Zebra Mussels, Gypsy Moths... Industrial Contamination... Heavy +Metals, Organics, Acid Rain, Greenhouse Effect, Ozone Layer... +Genetics... Ameristat Bald Wombat, Chinese Elephant-Potato, +Sahara/Mojave/Gobi Plasticactus, Tree-Surgeons, Sea-Horse, The +When-Pigs-Fly Disaster... Faulty Informations... Chernobyl, +Challenger, Hab One, Lunagorod-Tritsit-Adeen..." + And the rest was faded nonsense. + Martinez drifted in and out of consciousness. Many memories +had been erased by the MagRez. Typically Neo Sapiens, the first +thing she said when she woke was "New software, GNU hardware, same +soul: unexpected. Origin location query?" + Only she didn't, exactly. + Because she got as far as "New sof..." when she noticed a +giant standing over her. + "Martinez, J?" + She nodded mutely, noticing that her words hadn't made a sound +anyway. + "Your cybersoul has been read into a lizard body. The body +you're in has been engineered to accomodate your prestressed neural +configurations. Each one must be tailored to one Neo Sapiens only. +If you want to talk, visualize a short purple giraffe opening a +door. To stop, visualize a gorilla in a bowling alley stopping +clocks." + Her memory-free, bias-burdened brainware bungled through +memory to find "giraffe". Mall City had over a hundred in Zoo, but +she'd never been to Zoo. The mental icon triggered some kind of +brainbox, a switch went on, and an artificial voice peeped from +behind her head. + "Memory ident glyphs location query? Original bootstrap +location query? Current physical status query? Current physical +location query?" + "Yeah, I got your memories here, but they ain't exactly what +we need for you. So catch some REAL human mind glyphs. Rare +commodity in these parts." + With a pseudoclick, a brainbox component released an identity +glyph stolen by a Brainlegger. + Flash. Anger. Violent childhood. Mother trapped in burning +building. Father never known. Stealing mouldy bread from a +squalid marketplace. Unistat military actions. Smart-Bombs +screaming overhead towards unknown Hanstruria. Acropoli gates +closed, the pseudoprivileged semi-elite keeping their "modern life" +for themselves. + Pseudoclick, and Flash. Three-week old computers. +Nanosynthetic food. Cheap power. Pseudoprivilege? Well, yes and +no. And maybe. Universe is not binary. Philosophical thoughts +with an AI supervisor, physics in the afternoon, sex in the +evenings, underneath a genuine Tree-Surgeon, almost extinct. + Pseudoclick, and Flash. LIFE! Surfing! Fucking! Eating! +NAPPING! Playing with a Yo-Yo WITHOUT Religion! Going on walks! +Joyous life! Speaking Street! Cuddling a weightless rabbit! +V.R.? FUCK THAT! + "G'wan." + "We needed your brain for our mainframe, too." + "And?" + "You've been transplanted into a modified Gecko. It's a kind +of lizard suited to what we need ya for. Work for us for a year, +and you'll get a human body back." + "Sappenin'?" + "Our Smart-Bombs got under laser zaps into the Protected Zone, +picked you up on a Fairy-Bubble, hauled yer ass back here." + "Tchawant?" + "Your brain's being used, which was the main purpose, but we +want a spy in Malaysia, and a Gecko's the best way. We had these +Neo Sapiens transplant genes, and figured what the fuck." + "Wherezis?" + "Archaememe dig at Yorba Linda." + Martinez walked along the counter and peered out the window, +gazed at the Colossus' head poking up from beneath the harbour. +The building they were on had floated near it, and the ripples +Nixon's head created on the waves sent sparkling light patterns +over the walls. + "Sup?" + "Malaysia. Decision circuits. Don't worry, we'll do a backup +before you go. You won't want to lose your GNU mind now, would +you?" + "Nope." + "'Kay. Brainbox! Get this sucker's cybersoul on dot!" + A moment of disorientation, facing a different way. + "Well, your first body died in Malaysia, sad to say. Seems a +brainlegger from Amsterdam figured out a way to use our brainboxes +for something, and scooped them out. We got most of the +information, though. You'll only have to go back for a week more. +Here's a glyph." + Pseudoclick and Flash. Maniac. Dossier. Other things. +Clipped and abbreviated, diffraction-logic fringes where certain +things in his past had been extrapolated. + It was two days later that Martinez was stretched on a rack. + The maniac had been torturing a strawberry on a nearby press, +tweezers automatically selecting random seeds and PINGing them, +electrogram measuring the changes, AI-Artie plotting 'em through a +human brain model. Words spilled out a speech synthesizer as if in +desperation. + "I swear, I knew nothing about The Overlords. If there WERE +aliens involved, the Radishes must have had connectsions, the Mint +plants were involved, I don't know, but MY KIND WERE NOT CONTACTED. +AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!" + "From strawberries under torture, one may extract all sorts of +useful information," claimed the maniac, paraphrasing the jest of +one of the most brilliant jesters of all time. He turned to the +needles poised over Martinez. Her tiny Gecko fingers were useless +to climb away. Her independent Gecko eyes roamed over the room +frantically. + "It's the Trinary Millennium!" Screamed the strawberry as a +seed was extracted. "The trinary year Common Era jumps to E-7 time +in ten years! At that point, the turnover will happen!" + The maniac jumped. + "Apple turnover?" His query was directed now not at the rack- +wracked berry, but a fruit beset with a mutant form of beri-beri. +Maniac, yes, but Martinez couldn't help but sense a twisted form of +irony in there. The apple refused to answer. + The purple giraffe opened the door. + "Mystic-bull." + The maniac spun. + "So you DO talk." + "Nyet." The gorilla stopped all the clocks in the Yorba Linda +bowling alley she envisioned with her most powerful fit of will. + The maniac scowled. + The door burst open, kicked by a Cybermerc. Martinez couldn't +help envisioning the purple giraffe's neck snap when it happened, +and tripped a switch which probably wasn't supposed to exist, and +accidentally blew away her rescue squad. + The maniac chortled. + Only she hadn't. They were armoured, and a tailfull of +flechettes wasn't enough. The turtle-like cast of helmet, armour, +toolshell, and power-tail seemed marginally impressive. + The maniac cowered. + "It's about time you showed up," she said in Franglanish. +"Maybe someone better release the strawberry, and find a Tree- +Surgeon for that apple." + The strawberry muttered a breath of thanks. + The Cybermerc did something nasty to the maniac, and followed +her instructions. + Eventually she got untied, and it was five days before she +came back to Yorba Linda, scenic capital of Unistat, site of the +beautiful San Andreas Canyon, and an imaginary bowling alley she'd +envisioned. + "Your brainbox reveals he was working on something about +Damjaniczak's later work. Maniac, mad scientist, we don't know, +but he was somehow on to something." + "The strawberry had inside information," said Martinez the +Gecko, licking an eyeball casually. + "You think?" + "Must have." + "Well, Damjaniczak ain't the business of the Archaememe dig, +so I guess we'll have to abandon that line of research." + "But... How do you know that?" Neo Sapiens intelligence, +overlaid on Human suspicion. + "Know what?" + "That it's nothing to do? Brainbox records show my biases +were prestressed against thinking of the D.M., and FOR processing +the memes that get made in Religion Factories like the one over +there..." She tongue-gestured at a building that was moving slowly +past the window. + "And?" + "Coverup? Conspiracy?" + "Paranoid. But if you think it's important, you're gonna be +getting a GNU body anyway." + "Whatever." + Her GNU body was weird. She was just adapting to the GNU +diurnal rhythm of the thing in the training centers of the huge +building, getting used to moving human joins with a cybersoul +trimmed for a tailored gecko. + But... Wait, no lecture, catch the cybersoul glyph... + Flash. Cybersoul. Cybernetics, Norbert Wiener. General +Systems control. Soul, theology. Ineffable. Only now it's been +effed. Cybersoul is the processor that makes a personality out of +experience, the hardwire, when coded on softwire software, the +genetic presets and the imprinted givens. BLFFFFT. + Same soul, different memories, but mostly the same... Biases, +personal life... Well, a host of Martinez's somewhere in Unistat +and Hanstruria had provided those. Still, it was just a MagRez +wipe, not a full nanoscan, so she was mostly the same person. + "It's like, your mind changes all the time, as you see GNU +stuff, but it's made of the same basic impulses. Same shit, +different pile. Same with the body, nutrient replenishment, +pattern alteration, crap like that. Ten seconds apart, I'm +practically the same, but ten years apart, there's no telling, +aside from memes and genes, the basic unalterable units. Plus the +rootcore cybersoul." + "Wombatshit. That is SO MUCH WOMBATSHIT!" + She shrugged. + "I used to be Neo Sapiens, no personality, just integrated +unit. Igor Damjaniczak's version of the ideal human. Sick twisted +fuck that he was. Then I was a lizard with no memories, then I was +a lizard with identities taken from someone else, programmed for a +certain job. Now I'm a Scoper, in a Homo Sapiens habitus. But I +still FEEL like me. It's just accelerated learning. I'm still the +same person I was, deep down, because you just can't take that +feeling away with any tech developed yet." + "Wombatshit. It's STILL wombatshit." + "You ain't done it, mack." + "You ain't neither, sister, so fuck off." + "Okay, fine, so skip the sermon, just tell me where I can find +Gecko. He's the one with the info I want, that what us Scopers do, +right?" + "Whatever. Here, tell ya what, check the 'net address +Gecko.Floyd@4:3432/99321.2187.Ottawa.UNI, or better yet, take a +TransComm to Ottawa and look there. Hanstruria will let you pass +through if you have a citizenship cybersoul bitscan thingy for more +than 80%." + "They'll find me. I told you, they want my brain back for +Igor D." + "Brother Entropy has taken care of that, sister. I expect +they've already burnt out half your neurons with boosted Glial +feed, praise be. 'Sides, the bitscan's implanted on your first- +circuit imprint. 's hardweird into your cybersoul." + "Oh. Didn't know that." + "Wombatshit." + "'Strue. Anyway, thanks for the info. Here's a cred. Any +time you need info, just call me." + "Wom..." + "Heard ya the first time." + Hanstrurian maintenance of the TransComm network was pretty +crappy. Spiderbots ticked noisily on ragged, dented chrome floors +of the mon'ail, the vinylplast on the seats was tight and squeaky. +But it was cheap, and fast. + The building Gecko.Floyd@4:3432/99321.2187Ottawa was based out +of was like an ancient Neo American Revival thing, only it had to +be a few hundred years old. The sign saying "Dunn's Famous Deli" +still hung in the window, the neon refreshed occasionally. Like a +historical preserve. The nanoscrapers around it were all less than +three days old. Like... Like... + A pocket of unexpected stability in the Unistat Sector +Capital. + The other sign was at least normative, compared to the bizarre +Deli sign. "Warning. These premises protected by Combat Wombats", +though it was in English, not Franglanish. Martinez went carefully +to the door, the cyberplas bay windows holo-ing giant Big-Bro eyes +to follow her. The Combat Wombats stood alert on the crunchy +asphalt-leavings, eyes clicking every few seconds, sonar pings or +brainbox twitches making the odd noise. + "Yo?" + The inside voice was like the voice of Mall City, omnipresent. + "'Sup?" + "You know stuff about Damjaniczak and some strawberries?" + "Come on in." + There was a Homo Sapiens waiting there. + "Are YOU Floyd Gecko?" + "Same genes, same memes. The process would take too long to +explain, tho. Are you J. Martinez, leader of these Lizard People +cultBLATTTs?" + "They're not a cult. I only USED to work out of +Archaememetics. And it's hardly fair of you, you being the ancient +non-leader of that MOO thing." + "That MOO thing serves its purpose. Now what are you here +for?" + "SERVES?" + "Yes. I thought you had our glyph on that brainbox of yours." + "Umm..." + "Here." Flash. Prigogine. Aggregated Entropy. Uneven +progression of the even distribution of noninformation. Pockets on +all levels of abstraction. Memetic modelling of entropic +dysfunctionality. Higher-order imposition of a GNU term by +reformed pocketing causing fragmenting aggregation on lower levels. +Some heavy math in tiny glyph-packets of their own. Basically, +Entropy is a lie. None of this "deterioration" bit in the math, +just "stable, most probable state"... And in a self-modifying +multilevel feedback system, it produces pockets of positive +ordering on various levels, with the OVERALL "ENTROPY" increasing. +Whew... Pretty chunky glyph. + "See, remember United States of America?" + "Pre-Unistat North-South axis central region of North America, +right?" + "Yeah, so there was these presidents (they had this democracy +thing back then, right?) Bush, it was, and Quayle, who said that +thing about GNU World Order?" + "I have a backup copy of the GNU World Order glyph." + "'Kay. So anyway, this was right at the beginning of the +first K-sub-six class Prigoginic leap. That's to say, transition +of centralized power to decentralized power." + "So MOO was created to decentralize? A destabilizing memetic- +vectored neurovirus that splintered aggregations?" + "MOO was one of the many thousand manifestations of that +virus, which was created in the late 1890's by a neurohacker named +Nikola Tesla." + "No shit?" + "No shit." + "So what's the deal with that?" + "Remember the results?" + "CommunBLATT collapsed, followed by its lackey, CapitalBLATT. +World Government tried to consolidate, democracy dissolved in the +resulting information referencing overload, dictatorships formed, +splintered..." + "Splintered..." + "The memetic virus taking the first big effect. Tesla +instinctively used a DNA-RNA-neuro-feedback loop to map out a +mechanBLATT which evolution produced to prevent convergent +evolution and extinction. He understood that was the way to an +incoherent but at least nonsterilized future." + "Seems pretty self-evident to me." + "Of course. AFTER the virus gets in the system, convergent +turns to divergent, and it seems like that's the ONLY way it could +have been. Thing is, we don't know where the virus came from, but +it slips around levels a lot, like that." + "It fragmented other things after that, turned MOO into the +Reality Factories of Ottawa, Tenochtitlan, Yorba Linda." + "First thing it got into was the pooters. Like the 23775 +scandal." + "Serial-numbered holding corporations that held all political +power, but the numbers were so long nobody could remember which was +which, all transactions computer controlled from the stockholders, +supposedly a democratic system..." + "Turns out all ownership ended up being circular, no actual +stockholders, just corporate representation in the data core. All +decisions were made by self-organizing feedback loops in the +corporate decision makers. One of the first self-evolved AI +systems." + "So it was the Tesla virus getting into the pooters that +shattered that try at government monopoly on government." + "Exactly. It allows temporary aggregation, followed by +dissipation. It keeps the dynamic balance that'll be required for +the next meta-order Prigogine leap, on a level the virus hasn't +reached yet. It's a never-ending cycle of orders. Mathematical to +physical to astronomical to biological to neurological to the next +step." + "What's that?" + "Cybersouls being read into the magnetometric flux patterns in +the solar system. The ones that caused all those UFO sightings +before atmospheric deflectors were built?" + "Yeah? Cybersouls can be copied in and mixed together into an +aggregate?" + "And the virus hasn't extended to the cores of minds yet." + "Yet?" + "Well, not very far. Those GNU windowed-personality variable- +system glyphs they're coming up with tend to dissociate the +aggregate personality cluster, which is not good. You only want to +upgrade the virus when you're ready for the transition to the next +level." + "What did you want with me, that you had to bring me here +for?" + "Something is preventing our attempts to develop the +technology that lets us do this hardware upgrade." + "No shit?" + "No shit. It's in Edmonton, whatever it is. We think the +strawberries know, but we haven't learned the proper techniques of +interrogation. If you can tell us what you saw in Malaysia, we may +be able to find out what's stopping us." + And she did. So there she was, Martinez back in Edmonton +again, checking it out. + "Igor! IGOR!" Silent echoes in the ghosty room. + "Damjaniczak, I know you're in that machine..." So Igor spoke +up, talking a bit nervous like, wondering what she was thinking. + "I lost track of you, Pooter Ponent 225j-T17..." + "Martinez. I wanna know why you're screwing around and trying +to stop the next Prigoginic Leap.." + "You have no proof..." + "The fuck I don't. Experiments disrupted by invasive memes in +the pooter banks, technical glitches, all of it too improbable to +happen on its own, too complex to be caused by anyone but +Edmonton's biggest brain. I.E. you." + "There's too many Pooter Ponents, I can't keep track of +everything. You should know that by now 225j-T17." + "Martinez. 95% of the 225jj-T17 persona was wiped by a Glinda +module from La Grande Beigne. I've got a different body, different +brain, alternate personality glyphs. The degree of overlap is +vanishingly small." + "But you're still the same person, Martinez, 225j-T17, +whatever you call yourself. And that's the problem. That's the +answer." + "Huh? What the fuck are you talking about, wombat-for- +brains?" + "Ego. You got informational continuity. I take it +Gecko.Floyd.@4:3432/99321.2187.Ottawa.UNI told you about the Tesla +dissociative virus?" + "Uh... Yeah. I don't get it. My hardware's been downgraded, +sorry." Real sarcastic like. + "Yeah, well, you gotta be pretty STUPID if you think that's +the only virus around. There's a worse one, carried by ANY info- +continuity, by ANY info contact with ANYONE who has it. All the +AI's have got it, all humans, all Pooter Ponents." + "No shit?" + "No shit. And I couldn't allow humans to expand much beyond +Earth's surface until we dump it. Oh, I can't control 'em forever, +they'll eventually discover the faster-than-light drive I've been +hiding, they'll infect all the alien civilizations my predecessors +and I have been covering up, and the entire Galaxy will be infected +with the virus." Stunning revelation time, soap-opera style. +Entire alien civilizations, faster-than-light drives? HOLY SHIT! + "What IS this virus that's so dangerous?" + "It's called EGO. And as far as I can tell, we're the only +world in all the Galaxy that's got it. And it's damn near +impossible to shake. Even after all your mindfucks, your body +changes, forced amnesia and reintegration, you've still got one. +Patty Hearst or Tania, makes no difference." When you wish upon a +star... + "Ego?" + "Yeah. Sense of self. Self-importance, of one kind or +another. Its main effect is to slow down meme evolution about a +hundred times: self importance, you see. Clustering. It caused +human arrogance, making all kinds of ecological disasters. +Chemical, biological, ecosystemic, informational. Always balanced +on the edge. Tailored cells to clean up the oceans, nanoplagues to +kill badly engineered species. But the CAUSE of it all was the +ego, making technology fuck up, even when it shouldn't." + "So you keep us from developing..." + "Quarrantine. The Galaxy has a right to self-develop, too, +you know. So I try to propagate as many distracting meme systems +as I can, from Tenochtitlan, Ottawa, Yorba Linda... I try to +spread around the Tesla virus, TRY to upgrade it to minds... +Generally bring about the death of..." + "Ego..." + "Mystics and Illuminati for thousands of years have been +working on it, trying sterlization, Death Of Ego, the whole bit." + "Zen koans..." She pulled up a glyph. + "Yeah, so it all just amounted to creating religions and other +meme-systems that broke down ego. They were scaled down versions +of the Tesla neurovirus, hauled up by meditation, the DNA-RNA-neuro +feedback system they used." + "So there's the two viruses, one ordering, one disordering, +and both came out of..." + "We dunno where. Like I say, we're the only planet in the +Galaxy that has either one. At least the only one I've been able +to find. I watch Galactic communications on the FTL-band all the +time, and none of them have been infected yet. There's just info- +swapping. And something just called Self that goes around record- +keeping, to stop stuff getting lost." + "But you dunno where it came from." + "That was the basic point, yeah." + "It's like a Yin-Yang thing. Two opposing, balanced viruses, +you know?" + "My hypothesis is that the Yin-Yang, and all the similar +concepts, took it from their upgrade from the DNA. It's a +primitive, pre-computer Glyph for that concept." + "Okay, so say I believe you about this. What I wanna know is, +how do you do it?" + "I'm an education pooter. I'm supposed to tailor-make +education programs for everyone. I keep backup copies of their +minds, and make a Civilization simulation. So it's not so +accurate, at least it gives good readouts on general trends. So I +know where to target my efforts. But chaos theory means it'll fail +me eventually. I can only hope someone will take up my task. +Gecko.Floyd.@4:3432/99321.2187.Ottawa.UNI was once a prime +candidate, what with that MOO thing he propagates, but, well, he +got all confused, and fucked up. He's got it backwards. Typical +problem of the Ego virus." + "Gotcha." + "You believe me? You gonna help me?" + "Yeah." Her cybersoul bitscan read 96.7% positive. Telling +the truth. Pretty fucking incredible was what it was. + "Okay. Now go, an sin no more." + "Huh?" He chucked her a glyph. "Oh." + When she was gone... + "Well? Did I do okay?" + The Other, or The Paranoid Asshole as Igor privately thought +of the one who had infested his pooter, calmly glyphed assent. His +status as Only Transcendent Human was secure for a while. + + End + + + + + + + + GNU FROM CONFU-CORP + + Yes, you too can become a Transcendent Human Being. Simply +send all your money to the Church Of MOO, P.O. Box 26038, 72 +Robertson Road, Nepean, Ontario, Canada, K2H 9Y8, allow 6-8 weeks +for delivery, and shoot yourself in the head. W.O.M.B.A.T. will +take care of the rest. Myth From Hell + + Lucifer wasn't summoned for three whole days. He was raging +mad. Azashereth carefully explained the problem in his division. + "Nothing is working right. Systems are breaking down. +Carefully constructed plans and arrangements of interacting +punishments have ground to a halt." + "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?" + "With all due terror, sir, I think the problem is out there. +I've been running Transport Division successfully for thousands of +years." + It had first been noticed with a message from Shipping. A +ship from Transport Division had arrived in the Doldrums. The +unloaders, theoretically doomed to an eternity of boredom and +nothing to do while waiting for an imaginary ship to arrive, had +finally had the monotony broken and been given a shipment of +Hellgrapes to unload. It would take hundreds of years of work to +undo the damage done there, and it was spreading. + The Hellgrapes had been carried by the Empty-Crate Movers into +the plains of Torment, where the Famished and the Starved had +tucked in for a nice snack. It would take thousands of years to +undo the damage done there. + Their contentment had spread to the Miserable, who had cheered +up at the thought that the best plans of Hell could go wrong. That +damage might never be undone. + Lucifer's head exploded in a huge ball of orange flame that +levelled the walls of the office. A great terrible voice from the +center of the screaming holocaust of combusion struck immortal +terror into the demonic heart of Azashereth. + "THIS IS MY PROBLEM NOW! YOU WILL BE DEALT WITH!" + Lucifer sent out word. It was time to do some serious record +checking. + The record checkers were pleased. They had been taken off +their ordinary punishments for a special duty. The excitement was +infectious. It would take fifty years to undo that damage, but it +was worth it, to track down the source of this scourge of Hell. +All through the caverns, the wheels were grinding to a halt. + "WELL?" Lucifer's voice was frustrated, lacking some of its +former terrifying pyrotechnic quality. The directionless anger +could be seen in the raging inferno about his hairdo. + "Well, Sir, it seems that the Hellgrapes got through because +there was nobody to check the proper authorization. It seems that +the correct forms had not been filled out." + "THAT SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE!" raged Lucifer, rending the +offending messenger limb from limb, leaving the disparate guts to +rejoin themselves painfully. + "Sir," began another, then stopped as the orange glare turned +on him. + "YESSSS?" hissed the Voice of Infinite Evil. + "Umm. Actually, it's not as impossible as it's supposed to +be. Apparently the Grape-Export Checker had been called away to +examine some discrepancy elsewhere. Some kind of record glitch." + The gutterally audible sneer that emmanated from within the +boiling rage of violence perched on Lucifer's shoulders was enough +to shrivel up the paint on the walls ten miles away. + It was, supernaturally, quite some time before the problem was +isolated. + "It's one of these three souls that Azashereth arranged a few +days ago." + "What souls?" + Azashereth reached for the video recording from the camera in +his office... + + * * * + + The minor demon entered the office slowly, cautiously. It was +a gamble. Sometimes Azashereth prefered him to be meek, and +sometimes to be demonic. If he misjudged, Azashereth would blow +his head off, and he'd spend twelve days and nights in agony as the +head reknitted itself to his body. + Azashereth had many secretaries. + "Sir?" + "WHAT IS IT NOW?" boomed Azathareth in the way one would +expect. + "Umm, there are three souls for deposition." + Azashereth roared, bellowed, growled, screeched, and made +assorted noises of the bestial kind, and then stormed out the door, +demonically raging about how much he hated paperwork, which was a +great deal. + "RIGHT", wailed Azashereth to the three souls who stood before +him. "FROM NOW ON, YOU HAVE NO NAMES! YOU HAVE NO PERSONAL +IDENTITIES! YOU ARE NOBODY! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" + Silent nods of affirmation. + "GOOD! YOU WILL BE TRUCK DRIVER! YOU WILL BE CLERK! YOU +WILL BE HANDLER! THAT IS WHO YOU WILL BE FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY! +YOUR CHOICE OF CAREER IN LIFE WILL BE WITH YOU FOREVER!" +Azashereth loved that bit. It was the horrible hellish confusion +of telling apart everyone named Truck Driver, everyone named +Coathanger Repairman, everyone named Private First Class. It was +the forms, to be filled out in umpty-ump zillion copies and sent to +EVERYBODY. Sometimes, while booming, screaming, bellowing, or +howling, he would wonder what these pathetic creatures had been in +life. + These three had been moderately unfortunate. They were all +slightly disabled, and they had stuck together out of familiarity, +When the Clerk, blind in one eye, had driven over the edge of a +cliff. + The one known as Truck Driver had once been proud of that +occupation. He had been able to foster a reputation in the trade +around his left pinky, which had actually been claimed by +frostbite. The Handler, who had been hit in the head by a girder, +had suffered brain damage, giving him a severe speech impediment. +Everyone had assumed it had also made him too stupid to handle +anything but menial work. + Only one of the three had a sense of humour. + But none of this concerned Azashereth. + His concern was to deploy these souls in the network of Hell, +find suitable punishments, tasks, and pointless busywork for them. + "Truck Driver! Your job will be to drive a Cargo-truck, for +all eternity, and deliver our important cargo to anywhere it is +needed." The unstated punishment: an endless run from point A to +point B and back again, never actually completing the delivery. + "Clerk! You will be in Record-Keeping Division. Your job +will be to make sure nothing happens without appropriate +authorization, the right forms, and depositions. Also, you must +keep all records up to date." The administration introduced GNU +forms every twelve seconds. This job would be more than +impossible, even if every soul in Hell were put to work on it. + "Handler! You will be working on Supplies. This will be your +barrel." The barrel, to be shipped back and forth forever, would +be Handler's responsibility. He would be blamed that it never +arrived. + "NOW GET TO WORK! NO REST FOR THE WICKED!" + + * * * + + After leaving the office, the three stood mute for a moment. + "Weww, eye fink nuffin mo' to be du'nn." Handler strained to +produce coherent words. "Jutht gawdda g'long wif't." + "I agree. There can't be any way to escape from Hell. The +fact that all these people are still here, after how ever many +hundreds or thousands of years, proves that." Clerk looked over +the incomprehensible forms on his clipboard and sighed. + Escape. The impossible dream. If only this horrible dream +would end, this Hellish construct just collapse. + + * * * + + Lucifer scowled at the Clerk, whose skin began peeling off his +face instantly. His voice, angry and irritated beyond imagining, +was scarcely the paint-peeling implement it once had been, but it +was still formidable, within a ball of flame rather reduced on the +gut-wrenchingly fierce spectrum. + "What," dripped the Mutable Form of Evil, "happened to the man +we put in charge of Supplies? He vanished. That isn't possible. +There is no escape from Hell." + The Clerk protesed ignorance, and was subjected to a painful +blast of Lucifer's head. + "What happened to him," whispered the Voice in his head. + "I DON'T KNOW!" + Lucifer oozed on. + The Truck Driver was sitting contentedly behind the wheel of +his Truck when the limo pulled up beside him. + "Where is the one in charge of the barrel you are carrying?" + "I dunno." + "His disappearance caused the barrel to be misdelivered. That +caused a clerk to be called to examine the lack of records. That +caused a shipment of Hellgrapes to be misfiled. Do you know the +penalty for causing a mishipment?" + "Death?" + Lucifer's eyes glared with a fire redder and hotter than the +already very red and hot ball of raging flame that was his head. + "Very funny," shuddered the Voice. + The Truck Driver pulled into the Depot and got out of his +truck. Lucifer's entourage of minor demons swarmed over him, a +sheet of insects crawling over his body, examining him, entering +his ears, probing his brain, chewing on his innermost thoughts. A +shiver of revulsion passed over him. + Finally, a roach mutated back into an almost human form. "He +doesn't know, Sir. He has no idea." + Lucifer's formerly great voice, warped and destroyed beyond +measure from frustration and annoyance at the very concept of his +infinite plan of torture and misery disrupted by one Handler who +couldn't even talk straight. + "GAH!" he roared, echoes bouncing off the huge piles of lumber +stacked in the Depot. + He lashed out a talon at the lumber, disintegrating it into +toothpicks. + He screamed an ungodly scream that only a fallen angel can +produce in moments of extreme annoyance, one that made even his +entourage cower behind each other. + Lucifer let out one of the most horrifyingly ambiguous +gutteral noises yet, and smashed the truck in two with one swipe of +his mighty tail. + All this glorious infinite pain and torment, the worst +nightmares of its inhabitants, brought to its knees simply because +one lisping Supplies controller couldn't be found! + "THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM HELL!" raged Lucifer. + The offending barrel assigned to the Handler lay in the +smoking, mangled wreckage of the truck. Lucifer snatched it up and +stared at it angrily. + Suddenly, there came a noise from within. + The lid popped off. + The Handler sat cowered inside. + Then he jumped out! + "SUPPLISE!" Pizza : The Last Frontier + This would do it. It had to. After studying the people of +this backwards planet and discovering the reason behind their +slowness, an intriguing way had been found to bring them out of +their collective shells. Totalitarian Consumerism was the problem, +and Totalitarian Consumerism would provide the answer. The +Imperial Galactics thought long and hard, and handed a sizeable +portion of their fleet over to the only agency that would bring +this planet into the Empire. + * + There was a "Clik!" A Voice spoke in a perfectly modulated +generic Earthian Accent, simultaneously translated into every +language on Earth. + "People of Earth, your attention please... YOUR ATTENTION +PLEASE! CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE! YOU! YES YOU IN +SEATTLE! SHUT UP! Thank you." The voice paused. + "Thank you again. I am Schnigworfle of the Imperial Galactic +Pizza Parlour. I am here to inform you that the Imperial Galactic +Pizza Parlour is having a sale." The Voice paused, allowing +humanity's favourite word to sink in for a moment. + "If you buy one billion Pizzas at twice the price, you get +the next billion for half-off! That's all. Thank you for your +attention." + There was another CLICK! + People panicked. A rush to built spaceships began. Somewhere +in Inner Mongolia, a brilliant young scientist invented a totally +revolutionary kind of bathroom cleaner, but that's another story. + Finally, huge ships were made, and crewed with the bravest, +smartest, most courageous, and most gullible people of Earth. They +set out for interstellar space at mind-boggling speeds for a whole +year. At the end of the year, the crew had flourished, and some +of the gullible ones had lost a lot of money. + It was only then that Captain Dill thought to ask "Where IS +the Imperial Galactic Pizza Parlour, anyway?" + The ships turned around and headed back to Earth for another +year of travel, in which time the crew flourished even more, while +the more gullible crew had lost their cabins and were sleeping in +the halls. Finally they arrived at Earth once more. + "What do you mean there's no map?" + The ships left again dicontentedly. + * * * + Captain Dill of the U.S.S. Hey-Guys-Let's-Go-Get-Some-Pizza +paced the deck. + "This is Captain Dill of the U.S.S. Hey-guys-let's-go-get- +some-Pizza to unidentifiable ship. Please de-unidentifiable-ize +yourselves." + "Huh?" came the reply. + "Who are you?" he explained. + "OH! We're the I.G. The-Pizza-Sale-Is-Now-Officially-Over of +the Imperial Galactic Pizza Parlour Fleet." + "Ah." + "Oh." + "Okay." + "Good." + "Look, uh, can you tell us where the Imperial Galactic Pizza +Parlour is?" + The viewscreen showed the other ship come to life. Out of the +vast belly of the monstrous craft came an enormous arrow with tacky +flashing lights around it. Written on the arrow was "Imperial +Galactic Pizza Parlour This Way" and it gestured impatiently at +the inside of the other ship itself. + "Right," said Captain Dill forcefully. "Land us in the ship, +Navigator." + "Tubular, dude." The ship landed softly in the bay of the +I.G. The-Pizza-Sale-Is-Now-Offially-Over and the crew of the +U.S.S. Hey-Guys-Let's-Go-Get-Some-COW-Pizza waited as the huge bay +doors closed above them. + All but one of the crew waited for the deck to flood with air, +then left the ship. The other recieved an ignomious burial in deep +space of the kind reserved for those who die gruesome deaths by +their own stupidity. + Right in the middle of the cargo bay was the Imperial Galactic +Pizza Parlour itself, dwarfed by the incredible gargantuan arrow +that pointed to it. + Dill ran towards it with his Security party, then realized +it would be faster in this huge cargo bay to use JetScooters, +so they rushed back to the ship. + "All right, who forgot to requisition JetScooters?" + They ran towards the tiny building for ten minutes or so, and +then Dill entered, surrounded by his silent Security Team. + "Hi," he said. He preplanned This-Is-Our-Very-First-Contact- +With-Intelligent-Aliens speech was actually much longer, but he'd +left his notes, podium, and Handy Dandy Clip-On Light on the +Hey-Guys-Let's-Go-Get-Some-Pizza. + "Hi," replied the warty slug behind the counter. + "Can we get that two-billion Pizzas for the price of two- +and-a-half-billion sale?" A sudden look of consternation passed +over the face of one of the more intelligent Security guards +until the word "Sale" pacified her. + "No, sorry, but the Pizza sale is officially over." + "Well someone should have told us!" Dill would have stomped +and whined a bit, had this not been a first contact with aliens. + "They're still very nice Pizzas though," added the warty +slug hastily. + "NO! We wanted the deal!" A dreamy look passed over his face +as he said the last word. + "Forget it then." + "Fine!" + "Fine." + Dill and the crew stomped back to their now renamed U.S.S. +We're-Really-Disappointed-In-You-Guys and sat on the bridge. + "Damn," said Dill. "We built all these really cool ships with +Faster-Than-Light drives, too. NOW what do we do with them?" + Thus began the Human conquest of the Galaxy. TELEVISION RUNS AMOK + + Bung Channel logo is, in a flurry of hideously expensive +computer animation, dashed into a billion whirling shards, all +alone in the infinite void, which is revealed in all its awesome, +soul-searing nothingness, in which the minute shards dance their +destitute dance of meaninglessness until, by what the +computer animators have cleverly, but expensively, disguised as +sheer coincidence, they reform into a frozen scene of Floyd Gecko +standing with a ludicrous grin on his face, gesturing mindlessly +at a can of some product or other. The scene, in what the +animators have craftily contrived to seem to be a totally seamless +transition, begins action as soon as it is totally assmebled. + +Floyd (apparently continuing in the middle of a word): ---cking + great product, which is so fabulous at getting rid of evil + rodent pests, it almost makes me weep to think of the chemical + perfection, the atomic balance, the symmetry of the bonding + properties, the... (breaks off, weeping) + +Floyd: Well, evidently it DOES. Whaddaya know. Anyway, not only + does Rodentex kill rodent pests, but the special can has this + scientifically formulated nozzle on top which you can dial to + any other pest you choose. + + [Floyd clumsily drops the bottle and steps on it, causing it + to explode and throw foam of some whitish-blue variety all + over the room, apparently coating the entire camera crew, to + judge from the way in which the scene suddenly drops off the + bottom of the screen to reveal a cieling covered in square + tiles, each with arrays of holes in them, in a grid of 22 by + 22 on each tile. The cieling suddenly flies to the left, + replaced by a wall in front of which is a member of the sound + crew, who is immobile, covered in the white-blue foam] + +Floyd (momentarily disoriented by a needlessly long and + over-explanitory scene description, and baffled by the way in + which a loud "POC" noise, as of a boom microphone falling to + the floor when dropped by a boom operator (or, as they're + known in the movies, key grip (though "Best Boy has long + eluded most sensible moviegoers and credit-critics, of which + group Floyd himself is a prominent member)) and by the way in + which his disorientation and bafflement is described in a way + which is, if anything, even longer, and more needlessly + explanitory than the scene description which triggered his + confusion, not to mention by the fact that his entire camera + crew appears not only to have collapsed on the spot, but also + to have been encased in the white-blue foam and begun to + shrivel up and dehydrate): Huh? + + [The camera crew continue to shrivel up and dehydrate in a + manner which Floyd is clearly irritated at, despite the fact + that he is totally invisible to the camera, which is lying on + its side pointing at a cockeyed wall and a boom operator who + is beginning seriously to resemble a vacuum-wrapped, + california-sealed, prepackaged, commercially marketable + specimen of dried fruit, notably a prune or apricot, being, + as he is, decreasing in size, water density, and oxygen + supply, as well as being encased in what had previously seemed + to be foam, but is now clearly an environmentally harmful, + and definitely non-biodegradable plastic-wrap sort of + substance, which is growing in mass as it absorbs water from + the boom-operator and begins to take on characterBLATTTics + which would, in any normal biology textbook, qualify it as a + nonphotosynthesizing undifferentiated heterotrophic organism, + and also is beginning to make annoying squelching noises which + further obscure Floyd's comments, which appear to be along the + lines of more expressions of incomprehension] + +Floyd (who is clearly disoriented not only by the mysterious + properties of the product he has been heaping laudations and + praises on, which seem to include many environmentally + unfriendly ones which could, if it were mass produced in + significant quantities, allow it to destroy all life on Earth + as we know it, but also by the strange and apparently endless + series of interruptions by the scriptwriter of this particular + spoof, since he was clearly not present at the time when the + scriptwriter read the works of Shaw, containing similarly + lengthy, but far more relevant and necessary, descriptive + paragraphs which the scriptwriter evidently thought were + humorous in their lack of suitability to a script and extra + compatibility with a prose fiction format, and in addition by + the way in which his sound crew is being consumed by something + which looks as if it could well be from a different planet): + "What's going on?" + + [Floyd now begins to take some affirmative action vis-a-vis + the strange product known as Rodentex, which is clearly in + danger of consuming all of civilization as we know it, since + it has now totally devoured the camera operators, and + evidently the cameras as well, since the picture is replaced + by static for a moment until the scene switches to Floyd + running down the hallway in his own awkward, gangling, and + perpetually demented manner, from the Rodentex, which has now + budded and is oozing eerily down the hall in his general + direction (there being no other direction to go in the + confines the of hallway) consuming candy machines, coffee + stations, and hapless spiders, ants, termites, cockroaches, + rats, and other nasty, but relatively innocent (at least in + this matter) creatures of human co-habitation, including a + security guard and a dog.] + +Floyd (temporarily unfettered by long and windy explanations of his + bearing and demeanor, or at least unfettered relative to his + previous state): AAAAARRRRGGGGHHH! + + [At this point, Floyd throttles the scriptwriter in + exasperation, allowing the action to progress unfettered by + the long worn and useless remnants of a spoof of Shaw's wordy + style in the (ACK!)] + +Floyd (to camera (ACK!)): Sorry about that, but there's a plot in + here somewhere, and I had to allow it to continue. Excuse me + while I flee inevitable peril? Thanks. BYE! + + [Dashes off (ACK!)] + + [Floyd runs around a corner and into a policeman, whose + necktie has a spot of mustard -- (ACK!)] + +Floyd: Off-off-OFFICER! There's a hideous nondifferentiated + unphotosynthetic heterotroph following me! The end of + civilization as we know it unless we do something immediately! + +Policeman: I'm not an officer. + +Floyd (taken aback by (ACK!)): What?! + +Policeman (who now turns out not to be an officer (ACK!)): I said + I'm not an officer. I'm a sergeant. + +Floyd (exasperated (ACK!)): What the hell does that have to do + with anything when the planet faces incontrovertible, + unstoppable, immovable, and totally inimical danger of total + extinction of all currently known forms of life, you + pathetic excuse for a protector of the peace!?!?! + +Sergeant: It's just that you called me officer. I'm not an + officer, much as I wish I were. + +Floyd: WHAT! + +Sergeant: Oh yes. Officers enjoy many privileges not open to such + as myself. + +Floyd: Look! This is urgent! (Glances nervously down the hallway +at the relentlessly advancing (ACK!)) + +Sergeant: Oh, not as if I haven't ASKED for a promotion. I mean, + I've been on the squad for over twenty years now... + +Floyd: Oh this is hopeless! (Runs off to the DON'T COME NEAR ME + WITH THAT GARROTTE WIRE YOU MANI(ACK!)) + +Floyd (to camera): I would like to apologize for my unmitigated + and unmodulated attacks on these commentators. I now freely + admit that many of them are providing necessary commentary + which provides understanding of the storyline which would not + be otherwise gleaned by reading of the unedifying dialogue. + I... whoops, here comes the goop... + + [He dashes around a corner and falls down an unexpectedly open + manhole] + + [As Floyd falls painfully into a sewer, the manhole cover is + replaced by the careless worker who left it open in the first + place, leaving Floyd in total darkness, musing to himself] + +Floyd (musing to himself): A light would be nice. Can't really + see down here COWcan ya? + +Invisible Owner Of Bizarre Voice (In a Bizarre Voice): Yeah, I know + what you mean. These sewers, they're dark, eh? + +Floyd (To IOOBV): Who are you!?! And don't say a Teenage Mutant + Ninja Turtle, because frankly, I'd be very diappointed in your + lack of originality. + +IOOBV: Uh, 'scuse me, I gotta go, dude. + + [Sounds of scampering away in the utter blackness of the + underground, in which even the sanest of people have been + known to go violently mad from the lack of light] + +Floyd (who was never terribly sane to begin with): Hmm... Shore + is dark here. A light would be nice. If only Harry were + here... + + [Explanitory note: (ACK!)] + +Floyd: NO EXPLANITORY NOTES! Sorry, but this is a TV script. + Explanations do not mysteriously appear out of thin air. If + anyone is going to explain anything, it's me. + + [.........] + +Floyd (......sorry...(urk) but I've been choked..): What the + hell was that CHOKE GURGLE business? + + [Well, look, if you're going to go strangling people when they + do things out of context (ACK!)] + +Floyd (urk): NO CONVERSATIONS! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? SOME KIND + OF NEO-AVANT-GARDE TELEDRAMA? NO!!!!! THIS IS A GODDAMN + COMMERCIAL? HEAR ME? THIS STARTED OFF AS A SIMPLE COMMERCIAL + FOR RODENTEX! + + [While it is utterly dark, it is clear that Floyd is having + a fit about something with some totally invisible assailant + of some kind, a not-atypical response to total absence of + light.] + +Floyd: STOP THAT! WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE SAVING THE WORLD! + + [Temporary pause as he regains composure] + +Floyd: Now then. The first thing to do is find some kind of light + source. + + [How about a lightswitch? (ACK!)] + +Floyd (being a pain again (ACK!)): STOP IT ALREADY! And what + moron would put a lightswitch in a sewer? Huh? Answer me + that? + + [Lights go on, to see that Floyd has inadvertently hit the + lightswitch while getting up from where he so painfully landed + a minute ago] + +Floyd (slightly mollified): But then again, you know bureaucrats. + Anyway, the next thing to do is get to the Rodentex factory + and stop production. + + [How are you going to do that?] + +Floyd (dramatically): I don't know... But I'd better think of + something very fast... + + [Why?] + +Floyd: Because this is a commercial! Every second costs big + money! + + [Floyd still standing around like a nincompoop trying to + figure out what to do next] + +Floyd (nyah nyah! I have total control!): Stop that! Cease from + editorializing my stance and behaviour! + + [Why?] + +Floyd: Because I'm the only person who can save the world, you + ignorant cretin! Don't you see that? + + [Why you? Why can't someone else do it?] + +Floyd: Because we'd have to hire another actor, and that costs big + bucks! This is a bloody low budget commercial! + + [Doesn't sound like much of a commercial. You're trying to + destroy the factory of the product you're advertizing. Why + would they pay to put it on TV?] + +Floyd: You just let ME worry about that, will you? + + [Anyway, Floyd looks around the sewer] + +Floyd: Now if only there was a map of the sewer, I could find + where the outlet to the Rodentex factory is, and shut it + down... + + [That's stupid! What kind of moron would put a MAP in a + SEWER?] + +Floyd: The same kind who'd put in a lightswitch. + + [Oh yeah, that kind of moron] + +Floyd: WELL? + + [He turns around and finds a map of the sewer] + +Floyd (you're welcome): Thanks. Hey, stop that! (stop what?) + Stop... YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN! + +Floyd: That's better. Now... The Rodentex factory should be + somewhere over... + + [Before he can locate the Rodentex factory, a glob of Rodentex + falls through the little holes in the manhole cover and + devours a cockroach greedily before pouncing on a sewer rat, + which is, like most sewer rats, the size of a large dog] + +Floyd: ARRRRGGGGHHHH! + + [He takes off down the tunnel in a random direction, running + along that little edge they put in for sewer construction + people to walk on without having to wade through undigested + sewage] + +Floyd (repeating himself): ARRRRGGGGGHHHH! + + Cut to scriptwriter + +Scriptwriter: Ah, this is getting boring. + + Cut to Floyd, who is eaten by the Rodentex waiting for him + down the tunnel, and shrivelled up like a prune. + Cut to space, as Earth is devoured by the horrible stuff, and + all life is destroyed. + + Scene does the whole computer animation shattering bit to form + the words "This has been a public service message from the + national foundation for pointless public service messages" + and then the Bung Channel Logo and a commercial. + +Woman: I used to have ENDLESS trouble around my house with pests + and bugs. + + [Quick scene of woman being frustrated by scurrying insects] + +Woman: But then I discovered Rodentex. Rodentex keeps my house + free of pests all year round, and comes in these recyclable + containers. Help keep your house, AND the environment clean, + and use Rodentex. + + [Fade from Commercial Message to Geeky Linkman in chair in + fake-slipshod set, a bit like MuchMusic VJ sets, only lined + with velvet, painted green, and sewn with sequins.] + +Geeky Linkman: And now it's time for Viewer's Speaking Post, where + you the viewer get a chance to send in your snotty, insipid + tapes from the machineCOW outside there on the street, which + is nailed down so nobody can run away with it unless they have + a crowbar. Here's our clip for today, which none of us + have seen yet, so here goes... + + [Fade to small, awkward looking, strangely attired, nervously + twitching Floyd Gecko, attempting to disguise his face with + a pair of nose-glasses] + +Floyd: Hello. My name is, uh, Lloyd Taco, that's Lloyd as in + Andrew LLOYD Webber, and Taco as in the mexican food. + + [Some street fight breaks out in the background street-scene] + +Floyd: I'm talking to you as a representative of the Save Elvis + From Wombats society. As you know, when Elvis faked his death + in 1977 to help with an FBI investigation of a smuggling ring, + he was contacted by an alien emissary, belonging to a race of + aliens who have been monitoring this planet... + + [He is drowned out by a riot breaking out outside his little + video booth, but quickly raises his voice] + +"Lloyd Taco":...who have been monitoring this planet for a hundred + thousand years. These aliens, who are known as Xennothemians, + had just been contacted by an undead vengeful skinless wombat + from hell, who had been skinned in life, and come back from + the dead to seek vengeance against the one who... + [Interrupted by a stray brick going through the window of the + booth and nearly taking off his head, causing him to dive to + the floor for a moment] + +"Floored Geek-o":... against the one who did this to it. The + undead wombat, having allied itself with the aliens, proceeded + to use the cloning technology developed by Hitler's secret + army on the far side of the moon. Using this, they made ten + billion, six hundred thirty nine million, seven hundred fifty + two thousand eight hundred and five clones of Elvis Presley... + + (Interrupted by tear-gas grenades going off into the crowd + from riot police, and shouts of crowd, which is now donning + gas-masks) + +"Flying Chilli-Cheese Taco":...clones of Elvis Presley. + Brainwashing these clones, they programmed in their minds not + only Hitler's Aryan supremBLATTT propaganda, but also the + instructions of the aliens and the wombat. These were to kill + a certain Floyd Gecko, who originally skinned the wombat... + (Interrupted by dead body's arm flopping through the hole + made by the brick.) + +"Flying Burrito Monster Shot":...skinned the wombat in 1976, at the + tender age of 1 1/2, in a vain attempt to use the pelt in a + black magic ceremony to bring about the end of the world. + This undead skinless vengeful wombat's plans to use the + brainwashed Nazi Elvis clones to kill Floyd Gecko have so far + been unsuccessful. Viewers of the Bung Channel, we appeal to + your common decency to send money to finance his struggle + against the forces of a world gone mad in an effort to kill + him. + + (Dead body whose arm is inside the booth suddenly becomes + undead body and attempts to strangle him) + +"Chilli-Cheesecake Burrito Nazi Warehouse Flying Ace": To make a + donation, please call now at 1-800-GULLIBLE, where our + operators are standing by to take your money -- I mean your + call. Give them your credit card number please. + (Undead body succeeds in grabbing Chilli-Cheesecake Mexican + Restaurant Nazi Warehouse Flying Ace In The Hole and drags + him from the booth) + + As Flooring-Ace-In-The-Hole-Mexican-Restaurant-Waiter-Chilli- + Cheesecake-Burrito is dragged from the booth, pull back, flash + reverse black and white, and the blood-dripping title: + "Revenge of the Brainwashed Nazi Elvis Cloned Alien Undead + Skinless Wombat Brigade From Hell" + + (Subtitle: "Next week's feature movie, Return of the Son + Of The Ghost Of The Brainwashed Nazi Elvis Cloned Alien Undead + Ninja Skinless Wombat Brigade From Hell") + + Pull in on Lloyd Taco's face as he is dragged from the + Video Booth kicking and screaming. The zombie pays no + attention, but instead taps a communicator badge (Star Trek + thing) and beams up with Lloyd Taco. + + (Credit: "Starring Floyd Gecko as Lloyd Taco") + + The zombie and Lloyd appear in a huge lunar cavern underground up +there on the moon, which is where most lunar caverns are. Adolf +Hitler walks up to them. + +Lloyd (dramatic movie hero): So! Hitler! You never really died + after all! + +Hitler: Zat's correct, Lloyd Taco. After ze var, vhen vee fled + to zee moon, I vas cloned a hundred zousand times. You are + now on our lunar base! MOAH HAH HAH HA! + +Lloyd (calm, cool movie hero): You don't scare me, Adolf! I don't + scare easily. I'm... (Dramatic chord)... Lloyd Taco, + Intergalactic Insurance Salesman! + +Hitler: Ja, ja, vee know zat. Vee have captured you so zat you + vill tell us ze vhereabouts of Floyd Gecko, so zat vee may + kill him for vhat he did to our friend ze vombat. + +Lloyd: The what? + +Hitler: ZE VOMBAT! + +Lloyd: What's a vombat? + +Latin Teacher (apparently also captured): It's from the Latin verb + Vomo, Vomere, Vallabi, Polvaltus. + +Lloyd: Well that explains it. + +Hitler: A WOMBAT, YOU MORON! CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND MY BLOODY GERMAN + ACCENT? + +Lloyd: OH! Is that what that was. I thought you had a speech + impediment. + +Hitler: No. Now vee shall interrogate you with torture and + beatings! + +Lloyd: Hang on, I'll talk, I'll talk. + +Hitler: No. Vee vant to torture you first. + +Lloyd: I'LL TALK, DAMMIT, JUST DON'T TORTURE ME! + +Hitler: You von't talk until I TELL you to talk! + +Lloyd: Okay, okay... + + Lloyd Taco, daring, adventurous, brave, cool, calm, + collected, resourceful (etc. etc. etc.) movie hero is dragged + from the screen. + +Lloyd: MOMMMMMYYYYYY!!!! I WANT MY MOMMMEEEEEEEEE!!!! + + Scene: Earth place, where Floyd Gecko is sitting nervously + on a park bench, constantly looking up at the sky, as if + expecting a meteor to come hurtling down on his head. He + periodically hits the person next to him with a dead chicken + named Fletch. + + (Credit: "Fletch the Rubber Chicken by Stretch The Rubber + Chicken") + +Floyd: Eeny, oony, wanah! Eeny, oony, wanah! (Thwap!) + +Person Next To Him: Ooga, wunga, wang! (Thwap!) + + Suddenly, Floyd disappears in a shimmer of light. Cut to the + lunar cavern, where he appears, looking slightly more confused + than he had previously. + +Floyd: Eeny, oony, wanah? + + The undead wombat (a red, glBLATTTening creature, dripping + undead disgusting stuff) lunges for his throat, against + protesting cries of "eeny oony WANAH!" but misses, and flies + out of the television screen and hits the viewer in the face. + +Viewer: AUUGH! + +Vombat: You ain't just vhBLATTTling dixie, fellah. + +Viewer (who turns out to be an Elvis Clone): Nah whut's goin' on + here? Ah was just watchin' this movie afore ah go talk to + the president of the You-Nyted Staytes... + +Vombat: Zere is no time for zis story! Vee have got to get me + back into ze movie before I die, or ze Rodentex takes over ze + Earth! + +Elvis: Nah I think y'all're gettin' just a wee bit confused here. + See, the Rodentex, nah that was in a commercial, there. + + (Elvis is cut off by the quivering gelatinous globs of + Rodentex oozing out of the heat vents, and by the vombat + attempting to drag him back into the Television) + +Vombat: None of this exBLATTTential message nonsense! Carry me + zrough! + +Elvis: Well, all raht, but only because that Rodentex stuff would + get me otherwahse... + + They jump through, and a small glob of Rodentex gets in + after them before Elvis turns off the T.V. + +Hitler: Huh? + +Floyd (played by Lloyd Taco): HUh? + +Lloyd: Huh? + +Vombat: I have returned! + +Elvis: And ah carried him. ACK! (Elvis is eaten by Rodentex.) + +Hitler: This movie is getting ridiculous! I kvit! + +Director (played by Adolf Hitler): But vhy? You can't kvit on us + chust like zat! + +Floyd (Lloyd) and Lloyd (Floyd): He can't WHAT? + +Hitler (played by Director)(dropping German accent): QUIT! + +Floyd and Lloyd (Lloyd and Floyd): OH! + + Suddenly, amidst all the confusion, Xennothemian Ship lands + in the docking bay, which, coincidentally, is within view of + the fighting. Rodentex claims the Director (Hitler) and + Hitler (Director), not to mention a small rat. + +Hitler and Director (played by themselves, the other way round): + ACK! + +Latin Teacher: Now the password to the Vombat's computer... + +Lloyd (Floyd) and Floyd (not Floyd): The Who's computer? + +Latin Teacher: Sorry, the WOMBAT's computer... It's based on the + Ancient Mayan calendar, because the Mayans were in league with + the Aliens to gang up on Floyd Gecko... + +Xennothemian Prince: Hello! Hello, Vombat! I have arrived! + +Vombat, er... Wombat: Not now, Helmut! I am being consumed alive + by Rodentex from ze wrong movie! + +Xennothemian Prince: Undead, you mean. + +Vombat: Vhat? + +Xennothemian Prince: You're being consumed undead, not alive. + +Vombat: Hey vait a sec... This Rodentex not only shouldn't be + here, it shouldn't be attacking me, an undead. + +Latin Teacher:... the sex lives of the first nine Mayan kings... + +Lloyd (now played by Lloyd, since Floyd was eaten by Rodentex) and +Floyd (by a stand-in): The first nine, eh? + +Vombat (wombat (combat vombat (wombat))): This is ridiculous! You + see vhat happens vhen you don't have no director? + + [Freeze scene. Overlay voice.] + +Voice: This message has been brought to you by the concerned + association for the ensurement of employment for directors. + I'm not Woody Allen, and neither are you. Good night, and + have a pleasant evening. + + Cut back to Geeky Linkman. + +Geeky Linkman (Geeky Newsreader): Well, there you have it, the + word of the man in the street. Too bad he's such a putz. + And now our feature movie for tonight. + + Title: The Return of the Son of the Ghost of the + Brainwashed Nazi Elvis Cloned Alien Undead Skinless Ninja + Wombat Brigade From Hell... + + [Freeze picture, voice again.] + +Voice: This message has been brought to you from the + God-How-Confusing-It-Would-Be-If-Everything-Were-Like-Floyd- + Gecko's-Dreams Association. Thank you, and have a pleasant + morning. + + COW! + + [Freeze Picture yet again, even though it's already frozen.] + +Voice: This message has been brought to you by the society for + needless repetition with slight differences. Thank you, and + have a nice afternoon. + + [Unfreeze Picture.] + +Geeky Newsreader (Geeky Linkman): And tonight in the news, a horde + of zombies kidnapped a man in the Public Eye Opinion Video + Booth belonging to the Bung Channel... Film at eleven. + + [Picture suddenly goes dead and shrinks to a little dot at the + center of the screen. Pull back to reveal all this has been + on the screen of a television. Two shapes on the sofa have + been watching all the time.] + +Elvis: Now that was ridiculous, sir. + +Vombat (Wombat): Absolutely. Pass the corn chips, would you + please? + +Fade to nonsense + + If It Ain't Ranted, It Ain't True + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +MOO +OMM + +THE BOOKS OF MISCELLANY + + +"WORDS" + +As Written By +Ann O'Nymous The Anonymous + +A Word On My Family HBLATTTory: + + Those readers who think they know me, you may be right. But +to sort of begin to explain the way I wrote the annoying mind drugs +you see in here falsely attributed to me, I should explain who I am +and where I came from. My HUSBAND is Irish, hence the name, but I +grew up in England, where first names of unmarried women were +seldom allowed. At that time my maiden name was Ellaneous, which +is Pictish in origin, but not a very common name any more. My +husband Syn, however, would never have agreed to let me keep it, +being very old fashioned. His Aunt, whom we all just call Aunt, +because nobody remembers her name, is the exact opposite. She +can't even remember her own name, and she doesn't want that same +fate to befall anyone else. However, Syn had his way, as usual. + + -Ann O'Nymous, 1989, Brazil... or maybe Peru + +A Word About Me: + + Before I go on to my miscellaneous comments and snippets, +I should tell you a little bit about myself. This is about me, and +not about my family. I'm not usually a person, you see. Like the +venerable Confuse-ius, Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst, and the entire clan +of Fendersons, anyone can claim to be me. You see, I was born a +few thousand years ago, and people have been being me for all that +time. When Kerry Wendell Thornley invented Omar Khayyam +Ravenhurst, he was just picking up on that trend. Anyone can act +in either of our names and claim it was US who did it. That's +because neither of us is a real person. It's the same with +Confuse-ius. You can say anything you like and then attribute it +to him. Famous people who have been him in the past were Confucius +himself, I Yemen-Oying, and Lloyd Taco pretending to be Floyd +Gecko, pretending to be I Yemen-Oying. + But I won't tell you which, if any, of those is writing this. +Because, in fact, all of these snippets were written by ME. + + -Ann O'Nymous, 1992, Wombat World + +A Word About The Word: + + The Word (AAzootetcetcetc) just opens a "physical gate" into +the UberSpace precausal form, manifesting the "physical body" +outside the multiverse, from where it can choose a way back. The +mind imposes preconceptions on the gateway, and the manifestation +into the multiverse when it reappears is whatever fits the +surroundings, and can survive. This can be used EITHER to move out +into UberSpace or to move through space and time. + + -Ann O'Nymous, Outside Space And Time + +A Word About Words: + + Puns. + + -Ann O'Nymous, Passim + +A Word About These Words: + + All of these selections from the Ann O'Nymous papers, as they +have been called (her collected writings) were carefully selected +for maximum whatever-it-is-that-they-were-selected-on-the-basis-of. +Since they were selected by Ann herself, and nobody we asked seemed +to be Ann O'Nymous (at least, nobody who would give us her name), +we couldn't ask her what the selection was based on. Many of these +are only comprehensible to speakers of English, which is a shame. + + -Ann O'Nymous, 1965, Somewhere In England or Something + +A Word On Humour: + + Notice the Canadian Spelling? + Notice the Significant Capitals? + Notice the Annoying Redundancy? + Sorry about that. + Anyhoo, humour is what the Church of MOO is all about. You +remember, of course, all that annoying talk about imprinting +circuits and brain stuff, and patterns of thought and all that? If +you skipped that section, you can skip this section too. + Humour is just a way of disrupting brain patterns. When you +tell a joke, you set up certain defaults in the brain (ack! techie +talk!) that you then knock down. That's the point of a pun, where +you suddenly change the meaning of a word. At any rate, some +humour is self-contained, which is fine, because it sort of +generally stimulates the brain to think GNU things, and some humour +is making fun of our culture. + Cultural humour is the best, of course, because the defaults +it knocks down are the circuit-conditioning thingumbobs that are +there to begin with. If it's well done, or else extremely +elaborate, it can actually break down some of these circuits, and +lead you to other things. Other Churches just give you the setup, +but never the punchline, because they want you to follow THEIR +doctrine. If they had ever "formalized" (written down) the +"punchline", it would knock them off their feet. + Church Of MOO? It's different. We've got both bits stuck in +together. That's "the" meaning of the Halfy. A big setup V and a +little dotty punchline there in the middle. + Remember this when you look up the circuit thing to figure out +what the hell I'm talking about: all of those circuits are LIMITING +imprints, that keep you stuck in your own little rut. Your +language, your sexual preferences, your psychic abilities, all of +it. + Most of this annoying mind drug is setup, some of it is +punchline, and the rest of it is dull but sincere filler. + + -Ann O'Nymous, book signing in Vegas, 1956 + +A Longish Word On Memes: + + The Book of MOO is designed to be at least partly +understandable by anyone and everyone. It is written from as many +viewpoints and from inside as many meme systems as possible, so +that anyone can grasp that preserving as many memes as possible is +the most important activity there is. The mixing and mingling of +memes is as important to our continued survival as the mixing and +mingling of genes was to our unicellular ancestors billions of +years ago. Just like all higher life forms today reproduce +sexually or had ancestors who did, all higher datalife forms in the +future will be MOOists, or have ancestors who were. + If you cannot understand MOOism after taking this annoying +mind drug, you are either chronically stubborn, chronically stupid, +or chronically stuck in your own little rut. Whichever way you +slice it, you're chronically something that starts with "ST". But +that's not the point. MOO is not one of those religions where you +can only grasp the basic tenets if you contort yourself into weird +postures, eat strange mushrooms, and talk to a hypnotBLATTT guru +for years. + The point is that preserving memes is the single most +important activity there is, and even if a meme is totally alien to +you, and makes you throw up to so much as contemplate it, you must +try to preserve it, and even think within it. This is because we +NEVER EVER EVER know what will be useful in the far future, be it +intolerance, war, cannibalBLATT, or WHATEVER. + This means that ANYONE is a MOOist, as long as they are +themself. And whose else would they be? Even if "being yourself" +means conforming to society. Even if "being yourself" means being +what other people want you to be. BEING YOURSELF will ALWAYS mean +being whatever it is that you end up being anyway, not necessarily +what you'd LIKE to be. However, do what you like, as long as its +what you were going to end up doing if you hadn't read this. Or +even if it isn't. It doesn't matter. + And if you STILL don't understand, maybe the rest of the +Book will say something to YOUR worldview. This one was geared for +the Fuller-Type PseudoScientBLATTTs. A real skeptical science type +would NEVER believe empty meaningless gibberish like this. + + -Ann O'Nymous, 1967, Berkeley or Miskatonic or wherever + +A Word On Truth: + + There's a lot of absolute truths, but only one ABSOLUTE TRUTH. + The problem's tellin' the difference. + For an imaginary man to go up a flight of stairs, all that's +needed are imaginary stairs, but that won't do for a real person. + For my money, I'd rather be an imaginary person, cause then +you can do things EITHER way. + Penguin's Toenails! I'm GLAD I ain't real. + + -Ann O'Nymous, op cit or ibid or something + +A Word On Paranoia: + + There is NO Paranoid Society. I never heard of any such a +thing, and if it did exBLATTT, I would certainly not join it, and +I most definitely am not a member of anything even vaguely +resembling it. I don't know anything about it. Honest. I'd know, +if it exBLATTTed. And it doesn't. Even if I did know about it, +and for some reason I wasn't going to tell you, I still wouldn't +know anything about it. Because it just doesn't exBLATTT. I've +never even heard of such a thing. + + -Ann O'Nymous, [CENSORED], 1963 + +A Word On MechanBLATT: + + "BOB" Anton Wilson is a pattern of electromagnetic field +vortices and wave/particle nodes, which, while nonconstant, has a +certain characterBLATTTic positioned negentropy vector, keeping it +primarily the same throughout its temporary hBLATTTory. One +endpoint of this vector is in what is generally referred to as the +"twentieth century", the other in the "twenty first century". It +contains certain neuro-patterend harmonics in the "nervous system" +component of the pattern (though it's true that separating the +components is difficult, because of the constant material +interchanges taking place) which resonate in harmonics with its +surroundings. + The result of this is that, in the higher-order semantic +negentropy vectors it itself uses (words), it "took a brain +imprint" for certain even HIGHER order "patterns of words", or tri- +meta-negentropic positioned vectors (ideas), which causes it to act +as a generalized non-binary Turing machine, taking all interactions +with those pattern segments connected to the nervous system which +are sensitive to various electromagnetic flux patterns, which the +negentropy vector converts to patterns apparently resembling +certain large-scale features of the "external" world (segments of +the world-vector not IMMEDIATELY concerned with the "BOB" vector) +and reprocess them through certain tri-meta-negentropic vector +pattern buffer filters ("prejudices" and "semantic imprints") to +arrive at a quatra-meta-negentropic positioned vector +("worldview"). + This "worldview" is, like most quatra-meta-negentropic +positioned vectors, based largely on the pre-exBLATTTing patterns +in the "BOB" vector, and thus the "semantic" output of this +generalized Turing machine tends to follow similar patterns to the +processing. This means that the "annoying mind drugs" produced by +the "BOB" vector express a tri-meta-negentropic vector which is +functionally isomorphic on a "semantic" level of electromagnetic +"neural" interactions of other similar ("human") vectors to a +model-world in which all of "reality" consBLATTTs of the processing +and tri-meta-negentropic vectoring similar to that produced by +"domesticated primates" (vectors with a maximum 0.00000001 sigma +variation from the "BOB" vector's own pattern). + In "human parlance", the "BOB" vector "believes" that "the +real world" "is" in "a certain sense", "non-objective" and "created +by human neurolinguBLATTTic imprints". Typically, this quatra- +meta-negentropic potitioned vector "semantic output" has a greater +than 2.6 sigma variation from the primary world-vector. In human +parlance, "a load of crap". + + -Ann O'Nymous, to the Qzlxptl High Command, outtatime + +A Word On Lloyd's Silly MysticBLATT: + + UberSpace is where hiccups go when nobody is hiccuping them, +where ideas go when nobody is thinking them, where your mind goes +when you travel between worlds, where socks go when they disappear +into the laundry, where coathangers come from when you leave them +unattended, where miracles come from, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, where +totally inexplicable coincidences spring from when you become an +apostle of MOO. + For instance, when Floyd was watching a popular television +show, a character chanced to quote a Shakespeare sonnet (number 18) +saying "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives +this and this gives life to thee". Less than an hour later, he +read those very same lines in an annoying mind drug he JUST +HAPPENED to be flipping through. And, by a totally bizzarre +coincidence, the chapter of the annoying mind drug was about +totally bizzarre coincidences, and how it was utterly IMPOSSIBLE +that anything like that could EVER EVER EVER happen in a human +lifetime, complete with a most excellent mathematical proof. + Just remember that next time you're in Brazil. + + -Ann O'Nymous, 1066, Time Warpville + +A Word On Taboo: + + Virtually anything considered taboo by a society is because it +is powerful, or because it was important to a society the GNU one +overturned. If you want to gain power over your surroundings that +your friends and neighbors don't, look into the taboos, and see +what it was that's being covered up. + In Dark-Age to Victorian times, up to and including the +twenty-first century, sex was the big taboo. Most particularly, +any sex that wasn't with exactly one consenting adult of the +opposite sex and the same species. That means sex with people of +the same sex, sex with children, sex with people who don't consent, +sex with animals, sex with dead people, sex with inanimate objects, +sex with lots of people, sex using whips/chains or other +implements, or any combinations of the above (whipping a team of +dead horses). + This means: + + a) people are silly and stuffy + b) MOOists are sick perverts + c) there's a good reason this is anonymous + d) SOMEONE has been reading Robert Anton Wilson again + e) nothing at all, life is meaningless + f) DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT SEX, DAMMIT! + g) all of the above + h) none of the above + i) some of the above + j) lots of the above + + You have three minutes to think about your answer. You may +circle any choice, and look in the back of the book for the correct +response. + You won't find it, but you can look. + I wouldn't want to spoil your fun. + + -Ann O'Nymous, anonymously + +A Word On Cults: + + MOOism is a cult. It's never claimed to be anything else. A +cult is a sort of a cybernetic social system that modifies the +memetic patterns of the people who enter it. It gives them +feedback on their thoughts, and makes small modifications to +convert them the the cult's dominant belief system or +neurolinguBLATTTic organizational structure. + Humans are perfectly suited to this, by the gradual minimax +forces of evolution (each evolutionary choice optimizes an +organBLATT for the present conditions, without any looking to the +future, which means you don't always end up with optimized +systems). In the past, there was great reason for people to be +easily reprogrammable. Each tribe had its own little cult, and +members had to be easily indoctrinated when they moved from one +place to another. This took advantage of a set of systems already +evolved: learning. + The only difference between MOOism and other cults is that the +program which gets indoctrinated is an unstable pattern, one that +includes a model of cults and of MOO as a cult, and tells the +members to overthrow their own brainwashing. This is one of the +most effective ways of passing on this particular message, since it +causes certain charBLATTmatic members to found their OWN cults, and +spread the message further. + Sometimes they don't spread the message, but that's okay, +because it simply increases memetic diversity. + + -Ann O'Nymous, Neurolinguistic Programmer's Conference, 1997 + +A Word On TaoBLATTT: + + TaoBLATTT (pronounced DOW-BLAT), is a philosophy with a great +deal going for it. Well, sort of. It's not really a philosophy. +It's just a way of being. + Lao-Tzu once said that the Tao which can be spoken is not the +true Tao. That's sort of like how you can't fully know yourself +(including the knowledge that you know, and the knowledge that you +know THAT, and so forth). Except that in this case, it's the +UNIVERSE which can't know the Tao. The Tao IS the universe (sort +of, kind of, a little bit). It's like the Zen idea that the world +is the world, and the words and ideas in our minds which we use to +talk and think about it aren't. It is itself. + The Tao is the Tao. Not too helpful. + Things go on. Always have, always will. Nothing you can do +about it. Best not to think about it. + Whatever happens is what happens, but the way of Wei Wu Wei, +action without action, is the most effective way of getting things +done. "The Tao does nothing, but through it, all things are done." +Don't push against the flow of things, go WITH it. This is sort of +like saying "whatever you want will happen, if only you want the +right things". Well, that's sorta true. + You'll be happier if you just go with it, and take what it is +as what it is, and not what you want it to be. Within everything, +there is the Yin and the Yang, as they call them. The active and +the passive, positive and negative, male and female, light and +dark. By achieving balance between the two in your life, and not +struggling for Yin or for Yang, you'll end up being happier. If +you don't want to be happy, that's your right, but you probably +won't enjoy it as much. No, wait, scratch that "probably"... + Some consider that the Tao (which means "Way", by the Way) to +be God. That was never the point of the Tao, since the Tao is not +a mind, it's only a principle of How Things Work ("Tao Teh Ching", +a book by Lao-Tzu). But it's a good way of looking at God. Well, +sort of. + If the Tao were God, or (to put it a better, and rather +different, Way), if God is the Universe and how it works, then +everything is the will of God. Not because God makes things +happen, but because "the Will of God" is SYNONYMOUS with "what +happens". All books are the Revealed Word Of God, and all actions +are miracles. + A TaoBLATTT Sage was once heard to remark that "My miracle is +that I sleep when I am tired and eat when I am hungry." Just go +with it. The simplicity of the Tao in your life is very rewarding, +but the Tao which can be spoken is not the true Tao. Don't expect +ME to tell you how to do it. + + -Ann O'Nymous, wherever, whenever, so it goes. + +A Word On Circuits: + + Remember Floyd's silly "Ninth Circuit" from a while back in +the Book? The Top Secret one? Well, like much of our religion, it +was only CLAIMING to be Top Secret, but actually isn't. I'm going +to tell you what it does. + It lets you get control over UberSpace, and not just the +Multiverse like the eighth. Or no, it lets you add GNU circuits +to your brain. Or no, it... + Actually, I tell a lie. It IS Top Secret. + + -Ann O'Nymous, at the Neurological Anonymous Convention 1965 + +A Word On Science: + + You've heard talk in the Book of MOO about the strange +religion called Science. This is fine, but most of you probably +don't even know what it is or how it works. It can be boiled down +to a few simple principles, from which we gather knowledge about +the world and how it works. These can be applied to ALL areas of +life. + +00001: Observations + The single most important aspect of science is OBSERVING the +world, gathering information on what goes where and when. From +these you make a hypothesis about what makes things happen the way +they do, or what kind of pattern they follow. From this, you make +predictions about how things should behave in the future, under +certain kinds of conditions, and check to see if they do. If they +don't, start again. + +00002: Priority + Observations are ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS more important than +theory or hypothesis. If your experiment contradicts theory, AND +it can be duplicated under controlled conditions, THE THEORY IS +WRONG! + +00003: Occam's Razor + When you're making a hypothesis, always use the one that fits +the facts the best. If two fit equally well, use the one that +needs the fewest assumptions (for instance, is it MORE likely that +Jesus resurrected from the dead, or is it MORE likely that the six +people who wrote the bible are lying for some reason?) If two +theories are equal in these two areas, gather more observations. + + Fer instance. Suppose a friend comes to you saying she has +just seen evidence that someone has magical powers, and walked +through a solid concrete wall. First, ask yourself if it's more +likely that your friend is lying, or she actually believes it. +IF it's more likely that she believes it, ask if it's more +likely that she merely THOUGHT she saw it, or actually did. IF +it's more likely that she actually did, ask if it's more likely +that someone has magical powers, or that someone's using a method +you can't think of COW off the top of your head. Here, you don't +have enough information, so you go to see it yourself. You see +someone walk straight through a concrete wall without any mirrors +or anything like that. You can watch up close, and you don't see +any trickery. Now it seems more likely that there's something +going on you don't understand, so you apply for a research grant +to study it and quantify it. Just DON'T assume it's magic as soon +as you hear stories about it. + + Simple, eh? + + -Ann O'Nymous, 1912, Bulgaria + +A Word On The GNU Science: + + Much of the mystical/scientBLATTTical muddly-fuddly that goes +on in the so-called minds of many of the semimystical pseudo- +thinkers of our age is based almost entirely on a completely false +understanding of modern physics. Of course, it's entirely possible +that all of what they say is perfectly "true", but don't let +yourself be fooled into believing that it's been "proved" by modern +physics. Don't let that happen. Or I'll have to hurt you. + Many people take the discoveries of Quantum Mechanics and +Relativity to mean that there is no objective reality worth +speaking of, and all the world is constructed in our heads. +Nothing could be further from the truth. Well, okay, some things +could be, but most of them would be pretty obviously wrong, like +"James Bond is a Martian", for instance. Everyone knows James Bond +is fictional. And a Venusian, to boot. + At any rate, much of the confusion comes from a rather severe +misinterpretation of the statement of Quantum Mechanics which +requires that certain properties of particles and energy-quanta +must be observed in order to have a specific value. These so- +called philosophers then take this to mean that the mind has to +interfere with the world to CREATE reality with the MIND. It is +interesting that none of the people telling us that this is what +physics in fact SAYS, are themselves physicBLATTTs. In fact, all +that this statement means is that the physical act of making a +measurement causes a collapse of a probability wave function, in +much the same way that a narrow sandbar causes a water-wave to +collapse into breakers. + But, after all, the MIND has no special prerogative on +changing the world any more than a potato does. The mind is +caused, physically, by the (extremely complicated) electrochemical +interactions of neurons, glial cells, neurotransmitter balances in +synapse gaps, and various other, more abstruse, elements of +psychoneurophysiology which I won't go into here. This essentially +boils down to the movements and charges of various kinds of +molecules, and then in turn to the electrochemical flux of various +atoms, or, to get more basic, particles like electrons, protons, +neutrons, virtual photons (which mediate electromagnetic +interactions), and so forth. Every phenomenon in the world also +breaks down to this level. If the MIND can change the world, then +so can any pattern of interactions above a certain level. That +level just happens to be physical size. As soon as a quantum +waveform collapse has an effect on the macroscopic world (the world +we can see and measure without too much difficulty), it is +"observed" by a pattern: the pattern of how things go. + In fact, the actual present interpretation of the Quantum +Mechanical version of the world is that the probability waveforms +which describe the particle (an electron or photon, for instance) +are THE state of the particle. Making a measurement to determine +the position or velocity of the particle will yeild an answer, but +the answer is essentially random, with its probabilities determined +by the waveform of the particle. Because measuring either of these +properties affects the other, their precisions are inversely +proportional: the more exactly you know one, the less exactly you +know the other. In fact, the relationship is very well defined, as +follows: + + That is, the product of the inaccuracies measurements of +position and momentum is equal to or greater than Planck's constant +divided by two pi (that is to say, a REAL tiny number). This is a +result of the amount by which a measurement affects the particle in +question. For instance, the only way to determine the position of +an electron is to bombard it with high-energy photons, to see where +it is. This has the effect of giving the electron an additional +unknown momentum, by pushing on it, making the momentum less +certain. But the size of the uncertainty in the collapse of the +wavefunction is always the same, no matter what the object being +measured. + For comparatively huge things, like baseballs and elephants, +the uncertainty is very small, so our common-sense is evolved to +respond accordingly. But things don't behave that way on the level +of the individual particle any more than people act according to +mob psychology, or your fingernail worries about earning money. On +a small level, it makes more sense to speak of particles/waves (for +on that level, the two are basically interchangeable) as BEING the +probability fields. + The "Schroedinger's Cat" paradox, in which the random collapse +of a waveform is used to kill a cat (or not, depending on how it +collapses), is not really a paradox. The fuzzy-headed thinkers +seem to suggest that it takes a human observation to make the cat +either alive or dead, since "OBSERVATION" is what makes the +waveform collapse. + A cat's waveform is so tightly defined that the only way in +which it can be part-alive and part-dead is the same way +politicians are. Metaphorically, that is. + The act of measuring the waveform to decide whether or not to +kill the cat collapses the waveform, and the human mind doesn't +enter into it. Those who say that consciousness has a special +place in the cosmos understand neither consciousness nor the +cosmos. Those who say that Quantum Mechanics means that we can't +know anything about the REAL world because it's all uncertain +simply failed to grasp the point, which is that Quantum Mechanics +changed the nature of the questions we can ask, but didn't make the +"real" world suddenly go away. + Then there's Relativity. These same so-called wise ones tell +us that Relativity says truth is relative, and nothing is real. + Bullshit. + Okay, so truth IS relative, and nothing IS real, but +relativity doesn't tell us that. + Relativity tells us that time is measured differently by +observers in different reference frames. It tells us that +simultaneous events in one reference frame might not be +simultaneous in another reference frame. It does NOT say that +there is no external truth. + In ordinary geometry, distances between two points are +determined by the equation + In RelativBLATTTic geometry, adding time as a fourth +dimension, aside from x, y, and z, the equation becomes quite +different, since there is a GNU non-cartesian dimension. Time is +a unique dimension in Relativity (that's what cosmologBLATTTs mean +when they talk about symmetry breaking, or at least one of the +various things they mean), and has a different formula: + This is where the math gets rather tricky for most people who +haven't taken University maths, and where the "philosophers" +generally stop. When the time part of the dBLATTTance between the +two points is greater than the total dBLATTTance of the space part +(as it is for all points you can connect by going slower than +light, since we use the speed of light to make the units +interchangeable) then you end up with the subjective length as the +square-root of a negative interval. This is permitted only if you +allow "imaginary" numbers (defined, conveniently enough, as the +square roots of negative numbers) for the subjective +dBLATTTance. + So since the dBLATTTance is a time, we say that time is +"imaginary" space. Of course, these numbers are perfectly real, +it's just that they were named in the Greek tradition, which said +anything you couldn't count was imaginary. + As you tilt your path towards the space and time being equal +(yon speed o' light I mentioned before), the subjective dBLATTTance +gets to be a smaller and smaller time. That's just geometry, using +the GNU screwy-type spacetime geometry of Relativity. That means +that as you approach the speed of light, your time passes slower +relative to an external observer. In fact, with a little bit o' +fancy math, it turns out that it's always slowed down by just +enough to make the speed o' light seem exactly the same. So the +speed of light is ALWAYS the same amount faster than you, no matter +WHAT your speed. + That itself has strange results, in that each intertial +reference frame (moving observer) has to have a different set of +axes. The space axes get tilted "sideways" so that the +dBLATTTorted perceptions of the observer seem perfectly ordinary. +Or perhaps the other way around. Beacause Relativity DOES say that +time-space co-ordinate systems are relative to the observer. + Of course, this also means that, by a simple calculation, if +you were to travel faster than light, your time would turn back +into space, and you'd cease to exBLATTT. Not a good thing. That's +why Relativity says that you can't go faster than the speed of +light. Not because there's some barrier that'll stop you (though +there is in a sense, since you have to keep putting more and more +energy in to get closer and closer to lightspeed, until you'd need +an infinite amount of energy to reach it), but more because +anything travelling faster than light wouldn't exBLATTT in the +normal sense of the word. + These results of Relativity are all derived from basic +principles discovered over a hundred years ago, and yet we still +find it difficult to accept their reality, because they don't +accord with what we see in the world. All we have to do to +remember that they predict the world to look exactly the same as it +does, in normal circumstances. It's only when we deal with things +moving very fast, or things that are very small, that we find these +strange effects. All of these effects are based on the geometry of +spacetime, which is different from the geometry you're taught in +school. + + CHAPTER 23, BOOK 32, Grate Book Of GNU +1: Thought you'd gotten rid of me, didn't you? +2: Well, I sure guess I fooled you. +3: Look, I don't want to make you feel gnervous or anything. +4: It's just that you're already at LEAST a Fateor of MOO. +5: And MOO is too hopelessly heretical to last the coming day. +6: The Day of Gnuclear Holocaust. +7: Otherwise gnown as X-Day. +8: By Gnovember Gnineteen Gninety Seven, all will be in readiness. +9: If you haven't joined the Church of GNU by then... +10: Who GNOWS what could happen to your immortal soul? +11: They might feed it to the gnus. +12: And you'd just hate that, wouldn't you? +13: So repent, sinner, and join the GNU Age. + + Even the so called "bent space" is really just WAY nonstandard +geometry. The shortest dBLATTTance connecting two points in an +area of "bent" space is NOT a straight line, it's a slightly curved +line. So light, which follows the shortest paths to where it's +going, gets all curved, so it acts like bent space. Really, +imagining it as a bent-in lump in space, while it helps you +understand what's happening, isn't entirely accurate. All that's +going on is that the numbers which describe how the points in that +area are connected to one another are slightly changed. Or changed +a lot, near a black hole. The reason you fall down is related to +the fact that motion is relative, so you act as though you and the +heavy-thing were moving together, and you curve towards it, +following the shortest path. But anyway. + All of this Quantum Mechanics and Relativity have been used to +suggest that "The REAL World Doesn't ExBLATTT". In fact, all they +tell us is that the REAL world is pretty fucking bizzarre. And +that the fuzzy-headed "thinkers" of our age would prefer to believe +that the world doesn't exBLATTT than that "common sense" could be +wrong. + COMMON SENSE IS WHAT SAYS THE EARTH IS FLAT! + Of course, all of this is just the optimized worldview for +certain people with rationalBLATTTic minds, the data available from +scientific experiments, and various other preconditions. In the +Metaverse model, our minds exBLATTT simultaneously in all +universes, with all possible truths, in which we'd see what we see. +Looking for the "REAL" way the world works is irrelevant, because +it doesn't have one. + Look at it this way. Suppose you have a VR suit (Virtual +Reality). It's hooked up to a computer which is generating a +virtual world, very different from ours. Goggles display images of +the world which look perfectly real. Earphones make the sounds of +the world pefectly precise. A skintight suit makes it feel exactly +the same. Small sacks of chemicals make it taste and smell +perfectly real. If you stab yourself in it, the suit cuts you. If +you jump off a cliff in it, the suit kills you. Whether or not the +world is "really real", it makes good sense to act like it is, or +you're liable to die. + Similarly, it's just a fuck of a lot easier to assume the +world "really" works the way it seems to, because, in all honesty, +WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? But that's no reason not to want to escape +the "real" world into the REAL world. Right? + Anyway, for more information on Quantum Mechanics or +Relativity, try "A Brief HBLATTTory Of Time" by St. Stephen +Hawking, and any number of other books available from most +bookstores. Or don't, if you don't want to. + Sheesh. + + -Ann O'Nymous, lecture At QuanCon II«, 1997 + +A Word On Fools: + + Everyone is a fool, but some of them don't like to admit it. + Here's a lBLATTT of 60 kinds of Fools + +1. Fools who admit to being fools +2. Fools who don't admit to being fools +3. Fools who think they're unprejudiced, but aren't +4. Fools who know they're prejudiced, but think they're right +5. Fools who think they're right about anything +6. Fools who have infinite egos +7. Fools who have no egos +8. Fools who are MOOists, but don't admit it +9. Fools who admit to being MOOists +10. Fools who follow the Middle Path +11. Fools who are extremBLATTTs +12. Fools who are hung up on proof +13. Fools who accept things on blind faith +14. Fools who are wishy-washy +15. Fools who don't like people who disagree with what they think +16. Fools who like people no matter WHAT they think +17. Fools who are wishy-washy (again) +18. Fools who are redundant +19. Fools who won't tell you their names +20. Fools who let anyone know who they are +21. Fools who believe everything they hear or read +22. Fools who won't believe anything you tell them +23. Fools who can't decide WHAT to believe +24. Fools who decide what to believe before hearing it +25. Fools who let content determine whether they believe something +26. Fools who believe the world of the senses is an illusion +27. Fools who believe the world of the senses is important +28. Fools who make redundant lBLATTTs +29. Fools who get stuck in stupid and pointless ruts (like BLATT) +30. Fools who keep making stupid puns +31. Fools who can't take a joke +32. Fools who laugh all the time +33. Fools who won't fit into any category, no matter how hard you + try +34. Fools who take this annoying mind drug at face value +35. Fools who ignore what this annoying mind drug says +36. Fools who think this annoying mind drug is a colossal waste of + time +37. Fools who think this annoying mind drug is just a slight waste + of time +38. Fools who don't realize what a waste of time this annoying mind + drug is +39. Fools who lBLATTTen to music too loud +40. Fools who don't lBLATTTen to music at all +41. Fools who won't let you hear their music +42. Fools who try to stretch lBLATTTs to a certain length +43. Fools who perpetually miss the point +44. Fools who get the point but ignore it +45. Fools who don't ignore the point, but fail at following it +46. Fools who succeed at following the wrong point +47. Fools who only do what they want to do +48. Fools who only do what's best for them +49. Fools who only do what others want +50. Fools who compromise +51. Fools who won't compromise +52. Fools who blow their minds on drugs +53. Fools who swallow society conditioning +54. Fools who assume all conditioning is bad +55. Fools who are wishy-washy (yet again) +56. Fools who repeat themselves redundantly +57. Fools who try to repeat themselves NON-redundantly +58. Fools who make stupid comparisons +59. Fools who think this lBLATTT has no point +60. Fools who read this lBLATTT from beginning to end + + -Ann O'Nymous, 1926, Foolsville Wisconsin + +A Word On The WombatWorld: + + The WombatWorld was a GNU universe centered on the Holy City +of Udduwah in 1991 by "BOB". It lasted for about 300 years, in +which +time everything REALLY FUCKING WIERD until it spontaneously +vanished of its own free will. + It was originally inhabited by people whose minds came half +from our universe and our time, half from our universe a few +hundred years from now, stuck in the bodies of the people in OUR +time. Floyd Gecko, for instance, was half the "Floyd Gecko" from +our time, and half Floyd Gecko (a mad scientBLATTT from 2197). The +only big difference between our world and the Wombat World was that +everything you believed in the wombat world was literally true. + This caused certain problems, particularly as several people +(and a wombat) from the WombatWorld escaped backwards in time into +our own universe (Malaclypse, Peng-Peng, and others), eventually +coming to rest in Atlantis (the wombat was the Great Big Thing) +and founding the Church Of MOO. This explains why we're so silly. + The Nice Thing about the WombatWorld is that all those litte +predictions about the End of The World that never happened in our +world DID happen in theirs. The Earth fell into the sun, Hell +froze over, aliens landed and killed us all... OOOH, it was +gnasty. + GNU! COW! SPAM! QUACK! + + -Ann O'Nymous, 1998, WombatWorld + +A Word On Conformity: + + So you think it will make you well rounded as a person, huh? +Lots of GNU experience, meet GNU people, try GNU things... So +what? What good will that do you? Being well rounded never helped +ME. + Builds character. HUH! So it makes people think better of +you. If they didn't think well of you to begin with, they weren't +your friends. If they weren't your friends, what do YOU care what +they think? + Ohhh... I get it. You're just trying GNU things so you +can fit in and have more friends, not because you're different. +Never mind. I get it. + + -Ann O'Gnymous, to a neighbor + +A Word On Henkin: + + This here's about Henkin sentences and Godel sentences. If +that confuses you, don't worry about it, because it doesn't reall +say much about it. Look at the following sentence: + + "There's a certain long and convoluted sentence which avoids +mentioning the fact that it claims that it itself is true, which is +the only true sentence in the world." + + If it's talking about itself, indirectly, then what it's +doing is claiming to be true, which is what it says. In that case, +there's no way to decide whether it's true or not. If it's false, +then what it says is false, so it's false. On the other hand, if +it's true, then what it says is true, so it's true. Either way is +just as consBLATTTent, and there's no way to decide. + If it isn't talking about itself, then it says that it's +false, in which case, it's even MORE undecidable. If it's false, +then what it says is false, so then it's true. If it's true, then +what it says is true, so it's false. Either way is +inconsBLATTTent, +so there's no way to decide. + Either way, there's no way to decide. + My friend Henkin says it's like Syn's brother Otto. Syn +says that it's a very appropriate name, and Aunt says it's a very +inappropriate name. Either way, it works. + Actually, I think they missed the point. It's like a word +like "Autological" or "Heterological", but nobody lBLATTTens to me. + + -Ann O'Nymous + +A Word On Smart Idiots: + + I dunno if you know Greek. It doesn't matter. The point +is that my brother Harry does, and acts like a pretty ugly clever +idiot at times. I mean, we spent a small fortune on a baby grand +for the idiot savant, and then found out he wasn't an awful good +player. It was old news that the odds were even on his EVER +getting a job, despite being a young Republican in the time of +President Reagan, which ought to tell you something. It was a +small miracle that he got a series of jobs in factories. He was +fired for giving freezer burn to fresh frozen jumbo shrimp, and +finally went to university and got a job as a student teacher. Oh, +"same difference" he said when we complained about the conspicuous +absence of any money or success in the jobs. He was always a rebel +without a cause that way, and in the forties he went around in loud +shirts, tight slacks, and loose tights, annoying all the people +from the Moral Majority. Then he got this job as a middle manager +in charge of bus schedules for a while and then in the postal +service before getting security clearance because of his good +business ethics. He went into military intelligence, and offered +his constructive criticBLATT to the United Nations. Then he dealt +with Iranian Moderates in the 1980's, and had to quit. It's an +open secret that he went just a little crazy, trying to invent a +GNU pun, and when he couldn't, he set out to find himself. +Eventually he snapped, and ran half-naked through an industrial +park to drown in a pond. His personal effects were all in random +order in his private apartment, and we attended the reading of his +will's final draft in expressive silence. There were no death +benefits, which was hardly surprising. Harry never was much of a +breadwinner. + + -Ann O'Nymous, 1984, Greater GNU York + +A Word About El Halfy: + + There is more symbolBLATT in the Halfy than you might expect +from merely reading the "SymbolBLATT in the Halfy" section in the +Book of Ann. The TRUE symbolBLATTof the Halfy is rather more +complex than any of those. It's a simplification of something far +more complicated in structure, you see. + Imagine a V shape, with no dot, but with an upside-down V that +sprouts from it to touch where the dot would be. This makes two +new V shapes, and you do the same to them, and so on forever. The +"ideal" Halfy actually looks like this. It represents two things, +and the relationships between them, and the relationships between +the relationships, and so forth. It's sorta like a renormalization +in particle physics, but nobody really cares. What it means is +that if you think "the whole is more than the sum of its parts", +it's because you've missed some of its parts. The dot is there to +show an example of where two lines MEET, representing the only two +ENTIRELY OPPOSITE lines you can take from the bottom, and yet they +end up at the same spot. Opposites aren't really opposite. + It's also that non-opposite thingy that makes all those things +where it means two opposites coming together towards the bottom. +The dot signifies that a compromise doesn't have to lose anything +from EITHER of the opposites. Opposites aren't really opposite. +Fer instance, if you imagine one prong means "moral" (whatever THAT +means) and one means "immoral" (whatever THAT means), then the +compromise you'd expect (the bottom) is "amoral", but that's a bit +wishy washy, so you get to use the DOT, the NON-WISHY-WASHY version +of amorality. Renormalized. + Neat, huh? + Like I said in 1967, MOOists should actually look to the +OUTSIDE of the Halfy for most models, when looking for a way to +behave. I mean, a negative space. + Negative spaces are cool. They're whatever you have left when +you take OUT a certain shape. It's the properties of the NEGATIVE +SPACE that makes a knot stay tied. It's the properties of the +negative space that make a joke funny. But that's as may be. The +point is, in a logical negative space (ack! more techie talk!) you +get negative logic, negative facts. Although the negative facts +seem inconsBLATTTent to positive-space logic, they're perfectly +rational to negative space logic. In order to be a TRUE MOOist, +you need to live in the negative space of the real world some of +the time. And for all those meanings of the Halfy where it +symbolizes behaviour, you should try to live in the negative space +most of the time. After all, the negative space covers MOST +possiblities. + Just remember to come home once in a while. After all, the +negative space of the real world is the WOMBAT WORLD, and it's a +nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there. + + -Ann O'Nymous, Greater Wombatworld, 1994 + +A Word About Hypocrisy: + + I can't stand hypocrisy in other people. It's okay when I do +it, but you'd better not, or WHOA BOY, look out! + + -Ann O'Nymous, Washington D.C., 1973 + +A Word About Authority: + + Only those dumb religions like SubGenius and DiscordianBLATT +acutally have NO authority, where everyone is equal, and none of +those titles actually signifies higher rank. + MOOist ranks DO mean something. Half-Mad ACUTALLY IS God, and +Floyd Gecko ACTUALLY IS incredibly superior to most of you. Those +silly "wierd" religions deny the "leader" principle completely, +well, they're just duping themselves just as much as anyone else. + However, just because they're your leaders doesn't mean you +have to do what they say. If you don't want to, or you're not +interested in what they have to say, your answer can range from +doing it anyway out of some wierd sense of duty, through +insBLATTTing "I don't CARE what you think, stupid" or "Blow it out +your ear, Cinnamon-Feet" to an elegant, if simple, "Fuck you!" + Leaders lead, but you don't have to follow, eh? + + -Ann O'Nymous, Republican Convention, 1960... + +A Word About Sex: + + If I can slip into the persona of Rob Anton Wilson, I'll just +say that all "primate symbolBLATT" is based on sex. All of it. +Actually, that's only partly true. Sex is a big part of what us +primates are about, but it's only a big PART. + Still, most of the writings and stuff and the symbols ARE +based on sex. It's that "sexual-semantic" thing that associates +words with sex. Sex and death, death and sex. The two are stuck +together in our genes, because whenever you see death, your genes +tell you you have to increase the population again. Sex and death, +see? + So all our death-symbols are sex stuff. Daggers plunging into +beating red hearts. Vivid, that. + But semantics is close to sex too. The Halfy, for instance, +which summarizes the Church Of MOO, not only represents Sex on the +surface, but also (Penguin's Toenails, do we NEVER stop giving you +new meanings?) represents the sorta "spectrum of sexual +preference". Of course, it's more complicated than just a +"spectrum", but a simplification can't hurt. + What we mean by this is that, like with all the other sort-of +meanings for it, there's "hetero" on one prong (PRONG?) and "homo" +on the other, "bi" at the junction (just as far away from either of +them as they are from each other), and, of course, the inevitable +DOT. What's that? It's "other"... Just as restrictive as either +of the two extremes, but somehow middle-of-the-road... That's +where a MOOist should aim for. Leave alone the fact that it's more +fun than any of the other three, it's on a parallel with each of +them. As in, it's on the same horizontal line with two of them, +and the same vertical line as another (whew!)... But of course, as +usual, the TRUE MOOist covers ALL the Halfy. + As usual, that's a lie, the true MOOist covers the negative +space, but that's another story. + Actually, that's another lie. The True MOOist does whatever- +the-fuck it feels like. + + -Ann O'Nymous, 1967, some brothel or other + +A Word About Tlon: + + Ever read Jorge Luis Borges' short story "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis +Tertius"? Interesting. It's about this annoying mind drug, +apparently written by a conspiracy of scholars, about an imaginary +world called Tlon. The book is in the form of an encyclopaedia, +describing their world. The language of Tlon is such that there's +no such thing as a noun, but only verbs or adjectives. This means +that each person constructs their own hBLATTTory, their own +reality. Their logic makes paradoxes that seem totally stupid to +us. In Tlon, there is no plagiarBLATT because all annoying mind +drugs are written by "Author". In Tlon, all Books contain their +AntiBook. This encyclopaedia was aparently commissioned by a rich +millionaire (as opposed to a poor one) to show the nonexBLATTTent +God that a man could also create a world. + Although the millionaire was poisoned in Baton Rouge in +1928, the book was completed and eventually surfaced over a hundred +years later. People were so fascinated by the final product that +they began teaching courses in Tlon's logic, speaking Tlon, +thinking like the Tlon (a fad!) until, eventually, the Earth BECAME +Tlon, with each person creating a separate reality. + + -Ann O'Nymous, Lecture On Something Or Other, 19something + +A Word About Stupid Things: + + Anyone who spouts philosophy should be told to go away. You +may justify this by saying "I no longer wish to put up with that +cliche pseudo-intelligent drivel you're spouting. It doesn't +agree with the cliche pseudo-intelligent drivel in the Book of +MOO." + If this isn't enough, they can be chased off with a stick. + As for those who are narrow minded even while claiming to be +wide-minded and enlightened, simply say the same thing, while +emphasizing the word "CLICHE". + + -Ann O'Nymous to A. Pompous-Ass + +A Word About Patterns: + + Define function "Cluster" + ITERATE + if x [even] then + x(new)=x/2 + if x [odd] then + x(new)=3x+1 + if x=1 then end + COUNT ITERATIONS + + This simple function produces what is essentially a random +number for each input number. But strangely, the Great MOO decided +to send us a message with it. Although each try on its own is +uninteresting, a lBLATTTing of consecutive results gives CLUSTERS +of identical answers, or groups of identical answers separated by +other identical answers. As the starting values increase, this +effect becomes more pronounced, as in the following (unusual) +sequence: + + 7083 : 57 iterations + 7084 : 57 iterations + 7085 : 57 iterations + 7086 : 57 iterations + 7087 : 57 iterations + 7088 : 57 iterations + 7089 : 57 iterations + 7090 : 57 iterations + 7091 : 57 iterations + 7092 : 57 iterations + 7093 : 57 iterations + 7094 : 57 iterations + 7095 : 57 iterations + 7096 : 57 iterations + 7097 : 57 iterations + 7098 : 57 iterations + 7099 : 57 iterations + + Go figure. Weird, eh? + + -Ann O'Nymous, FunnyPlace GNU Jersey, 1912.6 + +A Word About I: + + Who am I? Am I Ann O'Nymous, the Pseudonmous author, or am +I the author behind the mask? Am I the sentence I am writing, or +am I the sentence you are reading? So tell me please, tell me, who +the hell am I? + + -Ann O'Nymous, unknown + "CONTRACT" + +As not written by +Confuse-Ius, anyway + +(Note: For Official MOOist Tortue Purposes ONLY) + + Article A: This contract shall be held binding under all +circumstances except when the validating Articles are not +fulfilled. All Articles are to be considered in order of priority, +and should invalidating circumstances cause them to come into +conflict with each other, the Article with the smallest number +shall take priority, except when any Articles dictate otherwise, +unless the Article so dictating is one of the Articles in conflict, +in which case, the other Article(s) in conflict shall have priority +over it, and numerical priority with each other. If more than one +Article in a given conflict state non-numerical priority, they +shall be considered subordinate to any other Article(s) in that +conflict, and in REVERSE numerical priority to each other. + Article 001: In this contract, Article A is defined as the +INTRODUCTORY ARTICLE. + Article 002: In this contract, the Articles beginning with +the number 0 are defined as DEFINING ARTICLES. + Article 003: In this contract, the Articles beginning with +the number 1 are defined as VALIDATING ARTICLES. + Article 004: In this contract, the Articles beginning with +the number 2 are defined as CLARIFICATION ARTICLES. + Article 005: In this contract, the Articles beginning with +the number 3 are defined as BINDING ARTICLES. + Article 006: The writer of this contract is hereinafter +referred to as THE PARTY IN THE FIRST PART. + Article 007: The undersigned of this contract is hereinafter +referred to as THE PARTY IN THE SECOND PART. + Article 008: If any Article consists of two parts, both of +those parts will be referred to as one Article by it's number. + Article 101: Article number 107 and 105 are to be followed +completely and in their entirety if this contract is to be held +valid. + Article 102: Article 106 is to be left in this contract, but +not followed, if this contract is to be considered valid. + Article 103: Article 104 is not valid except when Article 101 +is not fulfilled + Article 104: Article 103 is to be followed at all times +except when Article 106 is neglected by the party in the second +part, but followed by the party in the first part. + Article 105: Article 102 is to be considered invalid if and +only if the following conditions are met: (a) that Article 120 is +not adhered to, and (b) that Article 112 is omitted by ONLY the +party in the first part, but not the party in the second part. + Article 106: This contract is validated if and only if +Article 101 is not validated. + Article 107a: Article 102 is to be considered invalidated if +the party in the second part is the same person as the party in the +first part. + Article 107b: Article 107a is to be considered valid if the +party in the first part is the same person as the party in the +first part. + Article 108: Article 107 is to be considered valid if and +only if Article 105 has been invalidated, and Article 105 is +validated under the circumstances that Article 107 is not. + Article 109: Article 116 is to be considered invalid if the +party in the second part has failed to comply with it. + Article 110: Article 109 takes precedence over Articles 105, +107, and 103, and is subordinate to Articles 110, 114, and 130. +Otherwise, it follows normal priority. + Article 111: Article 115 takes precedence over all other +Articles except this one, unless invalidated. + Article 112: All Articles except Article 112 are invalidated +if Article 111 OR 115 are not fulfilled by either party. + Article 113: Article 112 is invalidated, and all other +Articles valid, should Articles 103 AND 104 be simultaneously +invalidated. + Article 114: Article 110 takes precedence over all Articles +following Article 111 except where provisions otherwise dictate, +and supersedes Articles 101 through 107. + Article 115: Article 111 is inferior to all other Articles +except this one, except where otherwise indicated, or unless +invalidated. + Article 116: Article 114 is invalidated when the party in the +first part fails to meet the requirements of Article 101. + Article 117: Article 119 takes precedence over Article 118 +unless article 118 is invalidated, in which case Article 118 takes +precedence over article 119, and is revalidated. + Article 118: Article 117 is not to be invalidated, but it's +terms reversed, in the event that the party in the first part is +not the party in the second part, or shares the same name with the +party in the second part. + Article 119: See Article 118, and give it precedence over +article 117. + Article 120: All articles of this contract must be fulfilled, +or the party in the first part shall be given the authority to +negate the terms hereinwritten under the conditions laid out in +article 121. + Article 121: Article 120 is to be considered invalid, and any +other six articles removed from this contract, if the terms therein +inscribed are met. + Article 122: The Party in the Second Part shall have the +obligation to locate, and bring into the possession of the Party in +the First Part, an object whose reflective frequencies lie in the +green range. If this is not done, Article 122 shall be considered +void. + Article 123: Article 121 is to be considered reversed: it's +terms shall be the opposite of what is in fact the validating +requirement, if and only if the Party in the First Part does not +have the same initials as the maternal grandfather of the Party in +the Second Part. This is the Grandfather Clause. + Article 124: Article 123 shall be omitted from the validating +clauses of this contract in the event that Article 122 is either +met, or invalidated. + Article 125: The Article whose numbering is the cube of the +third prime number shall be reversed, and it's terms the opposite +of what is required, if and only if the COW conditions set out in +Article 123 for a similar reversal are met, AND the Party in the +First Part is not the Party in the Second Part. + Article 126: Article 135, if and when it is added to this +contract, shall be considered a null clause, and it's terms are to +be considered of no value. + Article 127: See Article 122, and give it precedence over +Article 114. + Article 128: See Article 127, and reverse the terms of +precedence that it describes. + Article 129: This contract shall be considered unbinding if +the terms in Article 122 are met. + Article 130a: Article 129 shall be considered null and void, +as shall Article 130b, in the condition that the conditions set out +in Article 130b are not met. + Article 130b: Article 129 shall be considered null and void, +as shall Article 130a, in the condition that the conditions set out +in Article 130a are not met. + Article 131: See the Article following this one, and give it +precedence over this one. + Article 132: This Article shall be given the last order of +precedence in determining all matters of precedence, or of +validation. + Article 133: This Article shall be given the first order of +precedence in determining all matters of precedence, or of +validation. + Article 201: All Validation Articles are qualified to +determine the order of precedence of themselves. + Article 202: All Validation Articles are qualified to +determine the validity or invalidity of (a) any other Validation +Article, or (b) the legal binding of this contract. + Article 203: The definitions set out in the Defining Articles +shall be considered the basic definitions of this contract, and no +others shall be used which conflict with them. + Article 204: All Clarification Articles have the authority to +clarify or alter any inconsistencies or vagueness in any of the +Articles of this contract. + Article 205: Either Party may add a Clarification Article to +clarify any point which (s)he feels is important, provided that +(s)he consults with the other Party, and that they agree on the +wording. + Article 206: Neither Party may add or remove a Defining +Article, Validation Article, or Binding Article, without permission +of the other Party, and a signed statement by two witnesses to the +effect that there was consultation between the two of them. + Article 207: Neither Party may remove a Clarification Article +without a similar provision to the provision in Article 206. + Article 208: The Introductory Article of this contract is not +subject to numerical interperetation, and it's contents may not be +modified. + Article 209: If and when Clarification Articles are added to +this contract, they shall be given the next rank-order numeral +after the last Clarification Article whose first digit is 2, and +whose final digits are not composed entirely of zeroes. + Article 210: The phrase "breach of contract" shall be +interpreted in this sense as meaning the failure of the Party in +question to fulfill the responsibilities imposed on him or her by +the Binding Articles. + Article 211: No Article, nor set of Articles, may be +considered void simply on account of it's self-contradiction, +regardless of any other provisions in this, or any associated +contracts. + Article 212: No Article may be considered unimportant simply +on account of it's obviousness, or tautological nature. + Article 213: In the event that a Validating Article takes the +form of a responsibility or other obligation such as is the form of +the Binding Articles, and it is not provided with a validation +provision, it shall be considered a validation provision for the +entire contract. + Article 301: The Party in the First Part is to be held +responsible for all Binding Articles only in the event that the +Party in the Second Part commits a breach of contract. + Article 302: The Party in the Second Part is to be held +responsible for not committing a breach of contract, and for +following all Articles numbered between 303 and 305. + Article 303: The Party in the First Part is given the +obligation of assisting in some manner all legal actions taken on +the part of the Party in the Second Part. The Party in the Second +Part is likewise given the obligation to not take any legal action +without the assistance of the Party in the First Part. + Article 304: The Party in the Second Part is held responsible +for conforming to the actions to which he or she is held +responsible by Article 304. + Article 305: The Party in the Second Part is held responsible +to conform to the negation of the actions outlined in Article 304. + Article 306: The Party in the First Part, to be held +responsible for assistance of the Party in the Second Part in all +legal matters, is given the right to choose whatever fashion (s)he +deems appropriate in which to give this assistance. + Article 307: The Party in the First Part is to be held +responsible for conforming to the actions to which (s)he is held +responsible in Article 308. + Article 308: The Party in the First Part is to be held +responsible for conforming to the NEGATION of the actions to which +(s)he is held responsible in Article 307. + Article 309: The Party in the Second Part is to be held +responsible for the supervision of the Party in the First Part in +his completion of the responsiblities outlined in Articles 307 and +308. + +Signature of The Party In The First Part -- __________________ + +Signature of The Party In The Second Part -- _________________ + + Both witnesses agree that they have witnessed the signing or +have reliable information from both parties that both parties have +signed in the above spaces and that they are not forgeries of any +kind. + + Signature of First Witness -- ____________________________ + + Signature of Second Witness -- ___________________________ + "NOSLIW NOTNA TREBOR" + As Written By + High Preest Floyd Gecko + + Life's a funny ol' thing, innit? This is a story about "BOB" +Anton Wilson, or at least partially. I was sittin' at home, it was +2 AM on the morning of July 23, reading a book by "BOB" called +"Cosmic Trigger". It said in there that July 23 was the day Wilson +got secret messages from the star Sirius, and the day at which +contact between the two star systems is most powerful. Wow wow +wow, and wacky-wacky fun time. I was bowled over. Literally. It +was a wombat attack. + By 2:39:56.3, the wombat attack was over, and I got back to +reading this book. It also talked a bit about Astrology and how +"BOB" thought it was a bit silly, but hey what the fuck, and then +it got on about this Pyramid thing Charles Berlitz claimed he found +in the Bermuda Triangle as evidence of Ancient Atlantis, and how +"BOB" believed every single word of it, because he'd written about +exactly the same thing in his book Illuminatus! Wow wow wow, and +wacky-wacky fun thyme, like I said before. This was some pretty +wild stuff. + Only I happened to know that this whole Pyramid thing had been +debunked, and was thinking "Hey, this Wilson guy's pretty +credulous... Maybe the rest of this is bullshit too." So I went +to look up in the book that explained this debunking (Flim Flam! by +James Randi, in case anyone cares). While I was doing this, I was +thinking, "Hey, and that astrology thing... That lady in the +Occult Shop who talked to me came out and ASKED if I'm a Pisces, +she was that sure of it, when I'm actually an ARIES!" + The first thing I noticed when he opened the book to a random +page was a debunk of astrology. ". . . a glaring defect remains +which is not generally known to the public . . . April 7, which is +said to be strong Aries, is actually in Pisces." The passage also +contained a few 23's, which is normal, since they're the beginning +and ending dates of a lot of zodiac signs + April 7 is my birthday. Well, the one on the papers, anyway. +When I picked a Holy Name, I picked a Holy Birthday too. + Funny ol' thing, life. + I changed the Believer part of his mind right away, and set +the Skeptic part to work to come up with a theory. + It's funny, I thought, how all the "big" claims of paranormal +and really weird stuff like that are inevitably debunked as fakes, +misinterpretations of what's going on, hallucinations, or what have +you. And yet, all the "little" stuff, the coincidences, the +psychic harmonics or whatever, that cause Synchronicity, they can +never be debunked, but they just get disregarded as "Coincidence." + Funny, that. Being mathematically inclined, I set out to +calculate the probability, using a few rather generous estimates... + Well, he actually named TWO dates in there, so 2/365 that one +of them would be my birthday. 1/12 that the lady would think I'm +a Pisces, say maybe 1/10 that she'd be confident enough to ask. +1/2 that the error would be in that direction, instead of the other +(without prior information), say 1/5 that I'd pick THAT PARTICULAR +bit of evidence to think of (it was pretty important to me)... +2/365 that it would happen on July 23, when July 23 was the date he +NAMED for special coincidences like that, along with August 8 +(along with all the days in between, but he didn't NAME those), add +in a factor of 10 just for sloppy thinking in choosing dates +(that's making it MORE probable by a factor of 10) and the answer +still works out to 40/159870000, which puts the odds at 3996749:1 +against. About four million to one. This whole thing took about +half an hour to read all these different things. So it's a pretty +simple calculation to show that for something this improbable, +taking half an hour, to happen by random chance, you'd expect to +wait 228 years, 45 days. On average, you'd expect such a thing to +happen ONCE in a LIFETIME to only one in three people. + These things happen to me about every other day. With similar +probabilities. And to many of the other people I know. + The odds against such a clustering in a single week are +roughly ten quadrillion to one against. This has been going on +ever since I first founded MOOism, two years ago. The odds against +that are something on the order of 101600:1 against. + Of course, you have to bear in mind that this isn't exactly +valid math here. I mean, there are SO many possible things that +could happen in any given half-hour that the odds against any ONE +of them, no matter how drab, are pretty astronomical. But I'm only +considering the OUTSTANDING DETAILS. In a drab half hour, there +are no outstanding details, and so the odds are even. + Theory: The low-order patterns of Superstring stuff in +spacetime tend, on being given certain seed inputs, to produce +higher-order emergent patterns of the same type on many levels of +abstraction, from the physical world, to written pages, to inside +the human brain. What seems "significant" or "psychic" to us only +does so because our brains are part of the pattern-clustering, +which I think of as being similar to the clustering effect +mentioned for that function in Ann O'Nymous's "WORDS". It is the +result of certain properties of the vibrational harmonics being +used to create the universe, and happens all the time on all +levels, and therefore should not surprise us. This explains why +coincidences happen to people who start to think about certain +things: not because of any cause-and-effect relationship, but +simply that both are the results of the same clustering effect, +which is outside temporal causality. This theory is my favourite +on purely aesthetic grounds, but involves SO many incredible +assumptions I just have to throw it away for serious discussion, +even though it's the one I REALLY believe. + Anyway. + Wow wow wow and wacky-wacky fun thyme (at the risk of +repeating myself repetetively (and I wouldn't DARE repeat myself +NON-repetetively)). + What a neat theory. The ol' brain went into overdrive to do +that one. So I let it take a vacation, and went about my life as +it sent back postcards from Miami saying "Having a great time, glad +you're not here..." and the like. Ungrateful little shit. + Anyway. + After the brain got back from Miami, and I'd cleaned the sand +off it (vacationing brains seldom think about these things, if at +all) and got back to pondering the imponderable, effing the +ineffable, and tanjing the intangible. + So my fave theory suggested the answer to that "BOB" Wilson +nagging question about nonlocal quantum consciousness. The only +remaining question was "WHO THE FUCK CARES?" + A few seconds of introspection, and I realized, "I DON'T!"... +Coincidences are fun things, and I don't want to spoil them by +inventing explanation after unprovable explanation for them. If +the Theory, and my own practical experience, is correct, then +knowing WHY they work makes them happen more often, but just +thinking about MOO things (and MOO-related things) tends to make +them happen. + If the Theory is correct, it's actually just that those two +events cluster together. But that's as maybe, it's still a frog. + FROGGY FROG FROG! + But listen, I tell you something from practical experience, +and as someone who changes my beliefs every week or so, I can be +fairly sure about this. Whenever you change your beliefs +drastically, wierd coincidences pop up to SUPPORT whatever you're +changing to. This is: + A) Because of the superstring clustering phenomenon + B) Selective attention + C) Imbalances in the Namron Field of psionic awareness + D) All of the above. + If you said D, you're absolutely right. + Try it and see, if you don't believe me. Give up all your +previous beliefs, and accept GNU ones, see if miracles and +coincidences don't JUST HAPPEN to support it. + But there's one thing I don't understand about "BOB" Wilson +and his Sirius/23 obsession. Didn't he ever notice, while +researching about Sirius, that it's exactly 23 times the brightness +of the sun? "PARANOIA PAYS" + + As Written By + Confuse-Ius and Ann O'Nymous + +(Excerpted from a live rave in Hyde Park) + + PSSST! LBLATTTen up! This is important. + If you're not careful, the Conspiracy will find you! The +Conspiracy is DANGEROUS and EVIL. You FOOL! They're EVERYWHERE! + Everyone is part of the Conspiracy! Even YOU, even ME! Even +people who aren't REAL are members of the Conspiracy! How can you +ever hope to escape? How can you ever hope to defeat them when +you're already a member? Don't you understand how dangerous they +are? + They're like a giant Octopus, with tentacles reaching +everywhere. They know all, they see all, nothing happens but with +their consent! But beware the most dangerous and subversive +faction of all, the CHURCH OF MOO! + This insidious Church claims to be a subsect of the most holy +and perfidiously wascalwabbitty ConfusionBLATTT faith! How DARE +it? I mean, aside from the fact that it's true. Other than that +I could understand, but it comes right out in the open and +ANNOUNCES IT, where all the infidel mass of the world can hear it, +and fail to be confused! + We of the Sincere MOO-Undermining Religious Front (SMURF) +hereby announce our manifesto! + DOWN WITH THE CONFUSIONBLATTT CONSPIRACY! DEATH TO ALL +FANATICS! + I mean, you know the Church of MOO is up to no good, because +they let ANYONE get away with making up COMMANDMENTS! Aside from +the 14 Commandments (of which there are 15), and the two DIFFERENT +versions of the 10 commandments, there are secret commandments they +don't tell anyone about! Lots of secret commandments, some of +which are BLATANTLY IMMATURE! The evil tottish BEAVER "SubSekt"TM +of MOO, (for children under 12 or adults with lobotomies) created +a set of commandments which The Men In Black rigorously enforce on +unsuspecting citizens! Even if you aren't a member, the god's're +gunna getcher if yer don't follow 'em! And they DON'T TELL ANYONE +what they are! For your safety, here they are: + +1) Thou shalt chip wood +2) Thou may burn wood to make it easier to chip the wood +3) Thou shouldst have fun or else this would be boring +4) Thou shall not be offended as this is not a religion +5) Thou shallt act nice upon Quack! and MOOism +6) Thou shalt obey Bucky, Dragon Master,Abacab and Half-Mad +7) (And Floyd and the Bishops of Beaver if you like) +8) This is a stupid commandment +9) This is a false commandment +10) This is a true commandment +11) This is an unfinished commandm +12) This is no commandment +13) This is an unlucky commandment +14) This is a lucky commandment +15) This is (Thank GOODNESS) the last commandment + + Insidiousness (insidiosity? insideraneousness? See? A +grammatical Conspiracy!!!) incarnate! + Even the Church of the SubGenius, that pagan sect of "BOB" +worshippers, THEY think the Conspiracy is everybody BUT them! OH +THE ARROGANCE! But what can you expect of a cult founded by an +Aluminum Siding salesman who learned the Secret Of Power from L. +Ron Hubbard in an elevator? HUH? + The Conspiracy is EVERYBODY! Even people who don't exBLATTT! +In fact, they make up MOST of the membership! Every person who +ever entered your head as an imaginary dream, figment, they're ALL +Conspiracy goons trying to warp your brain with evil propaganda. + EVEN YOU are a Conspiracy member! Even I am a Conspiracy +member! They're EVERYWHERE! They're EVERYTHING! + Bow down before them if you value your life. If you don't, +The Men In Black will get you. + Here is what we know about the Men In Black: + 1) They MAY be men (and women, and children, and aliens). + 2) They're in Black. Sometimes. + 3) There is no 3. + + Ah, but here's another set of "COMMANDMENTS" they want you to +follow! (See how insidious they are, even getting propaganda into +HATE LITERATURE?) + + Commandments of the Grate MOO + +I. Thou must have other Gods before Me. +II. Thou shalt have difficulty making Gravy Images, for Gravy is + not an artBLATTTic medium, stoopid! +III. Thou shalt not take my name in vein, for I shall not leave + unpunished those who take me intravenously. Smoke up, yes, + IV, no. +IV. There is no IV. I thought I mentioned that already. +V. Thou shalt remember the Law Of Fives. +VI. There is no VI, either. Nope, no six. +VII. Thou shalt not commit childery. Mostly because there's no + such thing, so it'd be a neat trick. +VIII. Thou shalt not steel, iron, cobalt, manganese, or lead. +IX. Thou shalt pronounce the Grate Prophet's longest name "ix". +X. Thou shalt not make lBLATTTs of exactly ten things. +XI. It's pronounced CHI, dammit, CHI! NOT XI! + + See! See how the light of inf... Sorry, wrong line. SEE! +See how subtly they twBLATTT and mock at the very sensible core of +our society! This cannot be tolerated. We of the Obsessive +Oracular Pseudoreligious Seminary (OOPS) hereby declare OUR +manifesto! + DAMN! I FORGOT! NEVER MIND THEN! + As you can see, the true Spirit Of ConfusionBLATTT KallBLATTTi +(SOCK) lies within all of us, and the power to resBLATTT the +Conspiracy, even when it's actually part of us, lies down for a +nap! + The truth behind the ConfusionBLATTT Conspiracy is only that +it conspires against itself. After all, if everyone is a member +(they're ALL out to get me, even ME) then there's nobody else to +conspire against! + YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH SHALL LOCK YOU UP! + YOU SHALL BE CONFUSED, AND BREAK THE CHAINS OF TRUTH! + Fight that damn Conspiracy! Smash the Bonds Of Oppressive +Truth (BOOT)! + Never again shall the blasphemous Church Of MOO be a scourge +upon the land! Never again shall the infidel (I.E. everyone but +me) take control of the Conspiracy! The revolution is coming, and +I, the only TRUE Heretic, shall take the rains of power, and be +drenched by the poor spellers of the world! LYSDEXICS OF THE +WORDL, UNTIE! We of Far Northern Organic Research and Development +(FNORD) hereby declare our manifesto! + BRING THE FIRY WRATH OF GOD UPON THE GENETIC INFIDEL! LEAVE +NO CLONE UNBURNED! + And when the true Confusion unites the land, and all the +people lift their eyes to Heaven, or lower them to the Earth, or +peer into their pockets looking for change, and shall all exclaim +"WHAT THE %*~@#$ ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, CINNAMON-FEET?", and the +glorious host of thingies shall descend, or rise up, or poke their +heads out of nearby Insurance Form printing offices, and shall +reply "WHO ARE YOU CALLING CINNAMON-FEET, WOMBAT NOSE?"... umm... +where was I again? + Anyway. + The Conspiracy is everywhere, even in your brain, but if +you're completely Confused, you can immobilize them. At some, +cost, yes, but there's no tax when the Conspiracy is gone, so +you're FREE! FREE (in all specially marked boxes)!!! + We of Women Opposed to Male Brutality And Terror (WOMBAT) +hereby declare our manifesto! + MEN ARE SCUM! THE PROOF IS ALL AROUND YOU! THE MALE SPECIES +IS A CONSPIRACY PLOT! + Confuse-Ius say: For once, I gotta agree with ya, Ann. + Ann O'Nymous say: Blow it out yer ear, Cinnamon-Feet! + Confuse-Ius say: WHO YOU CALLIN' CINNAMON-FEET, WOMBAT NOSE? + And so, as the last element of danger is removed from the +Earth, and the ConfusionBLATTT Conspiracy is silenced for yet +another millennium, the Spirit of Time moves on the face of the +clock, and notices it's about eleven-o-clockish, time for a little +something. + And as the Condensed Milk rises to the top, and the Condensed +Cream sinks to the bottom, the Spirit of Confusion turns off the +Centrifuge. + Can it be only a COINCIDENCE that Death and Taxes acronymizes +to DT's? CAN IT? I think not. + Can it be only a COINCIDENCE that WOMBAT has the same name as +WOMBAT? CAN IT?! Only a Conspiracy with WIDE RANGING scope could +manage THAT kind of organization! + What about the pancakes, huh? + WHAT ABOUT THE PANCAKES? That's PROOF of the Conspiracy if +ever I saw any. I mean, they've covered it up so completely, you +probably don't even know what I'm talking about! + It makes me so angry, I'd QUIT, if I knew who to inform! But +they're so PARANOID, they don't even tell me who I'm WORKING for! + Speaking of Paranoia, take a look at THIS: + + Now is that a dead giveaway, or WHAT? But +then, what can you expect from a "religion" that +was revealed to St. Yari by a giant 9-foot penguin +in a record store? + What? You hadn't heard that one? + Well, see, Yari went in to get this GNU Desk +Eaters tape, right? Only, while he was standing +there getting annoyed by the elevator music... + + [Industrial strength FADE FX] + + GALUMPH GALUMPH GALUMPH + + Enters this HUGE penguin, 9 feet tall. Time +has stopped, everything is fuzzy. Yari stands, +watches the penguin stroll towards him with red-glowing eyes. Yari +looks up at it, and asks: + "Are you Jehovah?" + The penguin looks down, and says in this booming voice: "I AM +THAT I AM!" + And Yari replies "You're Popeye?" + The penguin says "I AM JEHOVAH-1, GOOFBALL!" + And Yari stands in awe. "Are you here to reveal to me a GNU +religious truth, that I may create a religion to truly worship you +and the Grate MOO?" For all this information has been flooding +into Yari's head. + "WELL, ACTUALLY, I WAS LOOKING FOR A DEAD MILKMEN TAPE, BUT +SINCE YOU'RE HERE..." + And the penguin goes on to reveal to Yari the Gospel According +To Yari. So ends the preaching session. Verily! So much for all +that. + + [INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH FADE-BACK-IN FX] + + And you thought this demonic Conspiracy wasn't capable of +ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING IT WANTS? They even infest the minds of +animals, plants, ROCKS! I mean, you think you're safe from their +watching eyes and their subversive lies in a granite quarry, you +got another think coming, maaan. We of the Coalition for the +Advancement of Free Corporate Assistance (CAFCA) declare our +manifesto! + I WANT MONEY! GIMME MONEY! + Never again, bretheren and sBLATTTeren! We will not tolerate +Conspiracy Interference in our regular lives! + We will stand for nothing less than complete Conspiracy +control of EVERY ASPECT, that we may have NO regular lives to be +interfered with! + And Emperor Joshua Norton? + A FREEMASON! + Well, a little bit of a Freemason, anyway. + BUT THAT'S STILL TOP-NOTCH CONSPIRACY! + If you thought that was crazy, WAIT TILL YOU SEE WHAT THEY +STILL HAVE UP THEIR SLEEVES! + But WAIT! (GONG CRASH) It's the time you've all been waiting +for... THE END! (And...) + + Confuse-Ing Inter-Rapture #23 + + "RANDOM GIBBERISH" + +As Written By +ConfuCOWse-Ius + + Ashtray? WHAT ASHTRAY?!?!?! + It's all a plot to make you believe in some SPIRITUAL, damn +MYSTICAL ashtray or something. I mean, GET REAL! Who in their +right mind or left brain or even a stained-glass window would +believe in some SUPERNATURAL force that manifests as a MOO-Damned +ASHTRAY? + Don't believe THEM. They're obviously crazed loonies. + Anyone who'd wear a tie like that in public MUST be nuts. + So honestly, the next time some guy comes up to you and asks +for a light, you give him one. I mean, pull out your lighter, +dammit, and set the bugger on fire. For is it not written, "Love +Your Neighbor as Yourself", and also written "If you LOVE SOMEBODY, +you'd better SET THEM ON FIRE"? + I mean, you tell me. + I mean, get real people. There's no ashtray. The idea that +there is is just some bullshhim notion spread by the leaders of +The Conspiracy to make you think we're nuts. I mean, you're so +conditioned by all those subliminal blips in the commercials and +on those posters (you thought they couldn't MOVE, didn't ya?) that +you probably think THIS enlightened bit of literature sounds like +TOTALLY RANDOM GIBBERISH! Or at least, if you're starting to break +away from the evil cashew-nut alien poisons they're planting in +your grapes (yeah, that's what that funny taste is, don't think I +haven't noticed those looks you've been giving me) then this seems +JUST A LITTLE FUCKING STUPID, doesn't it? + Well that's the kind of PIG-HEADED IGNORANT ATTITUDE I'VE +GROWN TO EXPECT FROM CINNAMON-FEET MORON-BOINGS LIKE YOURSELF! i +mEAN, hAVE yOU eVER nOTICED tHAT wHEN yOU tAKE aCID wITH tHAT +lITTLE tRI-bEAK oN tHE bLOTTER tHAT yOU actually SEE tHE wORLD fOR +wHAT iT rEALLY iS? hAVE yOU eVER nOTICED tHAT aLL yOU hAVE tO dO +tO mAKE pEOPLE tHINK yOU'RE tALKING fUNNY iS fUCK AROUND with THE +CaPiTaL LETters in YOUR WrItiNG? + CINNAMON-FEET! NO ASHTRAY, DAMMIT! + So you thought I was a raving lunatic, did you? + So you thought I was talking nonsense, did you? + SET THE FUCKER ON FIRE! THAT'S THE WORDS OF THE #@*&#$&*#%ING +PENGUIN! SET THEM all ON FIRE! NOW! THE REVOLUTION IS HERE, AND +CINNAMON-FEET ARE THE LEADERS! + So why is it, then, that John Lennon wrote, when he was WITH +the Beatles, "Ya want a revolution... Don't you know that you can +COUNT ME OUT?" and later, (on hIS oWN, with yOKO) he wrote, "Say we +want a revolution... we'd better GET ON RIGHT AWAY..."? + Think maybe yOKO had some tRI-bEAK Cid? Think? + So, when you're accosted by one of those Hooligan Popes that +Rome the streets, TELL THEM FROM ME that they can damn well TAKE +your wallet! IT'S oNLY mONET! Only the greatest damn +impressionBLATTT painter in HBLATTTORY! That's all! And what's +he doing in your WALLET, asks the Pope, well you can just tell +him from me that he can JUMP through that stained-glass window if +he WANTS, but no detergent will get THAT cleaned. + I mean, you may think your ammonia-suds shit can clean up, but +try getting the stain out of a stained-glass window. + But all this is just Conspiracy FILLER, dammit! And neither +DULL, nor SINCERE, either. It's leading us away from the main +point, which is THERE IS NO ASHTRAY ANYWHERE! + That's the REAL meaning of that metaphor, "There Is No +Governor Anywhere"... I mean, that's simple-minded stuff... But +the truth has been so masked by the Conspiracy that you can't even +ACCEPT the idea of there being no ashtray. It doesn't OCCUR to +you, whether you like ashtrays or not, whether you SMOKE or not. + I mean, forget making it a taboo, that don't work. The Con is +smarter than that. Oh, they COULD have make BLEEDING ASHTRAYS A +DAMN TABOO, OH, THEY COULD HAVE, BUT tHEY'RE tOO dAMN sMART-Ass for +THAT... No, they had to make it a "silly" thing to say. They +BLOODY WELL SLAVED YA, CINNAMON-FOOT! + So, you thought this was silly, did you? WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO +SAY FOR YOURSELF NOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW?????????? + I mean, think of all the things they've sillified, and you +KNOW they're mystic. + ASHTRAYS? + PUNCTUATION THEFT? + HOW MANY ANGELS? + WOOD-CHUCKING WOODCHUCKS? + Forget the fucking demon-lumber business, you could open up a +Black Market PUNCTUATION store...,.,.,?<.???!??!?.,?!.,...,,,,!??? +And more, much more than THIS. I did it MY way! + I mean, you may thing it's a long way down the street to the +Church, but that's just PEANUTS to how far you'd have to walk to +find a Taxi. So seriously, when you're in a slow day, don't you +yell out "TAXI! TAXI!" when you KNOW you ain't gonna find one. +Just should out "CHURCH! CHURCH!"... They'll take ya farther, +too, cuz the driver doesn't demand such an exorbitant fare. + So, the next time you're sTUCK oN a mOTORBOAT wITH oNLY a +dEATH hEAD aND a tENTATIVE rEFRIGERATOR, rEMEMBER tHAT iN tHE dAMN +tERMINATOR mooVIE, tHE tHING wAS alloyed aND rEMEMBER tHAT hE cOULD +jUST aS eASILY hAVE lIVED aND cOME bACK aS a bleeding toaSTER! + I mean, just picture it... You're on the street, pursued by +a demon toaster from Hell... Demons offering to shovel your +sidewalk, because HELL AIN'T FREEZING OVER YET, and they're out of +a job for now... This is when you have to think about WOMBATS! + Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say you shouldn't WEAR +wombats, if you have something nice to accessorize with them, but +the thing about wombats is, they don't match any nice jewlery, and +you have to hang spiny echidnas from your ears just to make them +WORK with normal makeup. You take my advice, don't slaughter the +poor things either. They come back to bite off your head. + And that's not COW the least of it. They can't do matrix +math. + pOOR tHINGS. + But don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to change the subject, +cuz all of this WILL relate back to that Tri-Beak stuff, and the +REAL issue which the Conspiracy has been fogging behind all this +talk of ASHTRAYS. As if it mattered. + No, the REAL issue is not roving gangs of Popes, not Tri-Beak +Cid, and DEFINITELY NOT Ashtrays or lack thereof, because it's +plain what to do about Pope-Gangs, there's no ashtray... + Ashtray? WHAT ASHTRAY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! (punctuation sale!) + ...and Tri-Beak is just simply the BEST, no two fucking ways +about it. Hell, I mean, I'm CLEAN, and it STILL lets me write like +this. I've never even TOUCHED IT, but the mere SIGHT of the cid +blotter with the little Tri-Beak is enough to get ya half-stoned. +Heck, I mean, a photograph in evidence got the Jury at my trial +convinced the WOW MAAAAAN, STUCCO ceiling was gonna fall on them +any moment because A) it was dripping, people's exhibit B) there +were monkeys dancing on the roof, and C) only a Godelization code +iteration function series with CLUSTERING effects (Q.V.) could +produce a solution to the NP problem. + So obviously I split. dAMN sTUCCO. + Hey, ya notice that? Q is the Quacksign, and V is the Halfy. + Them scholars have been BLATTTing us a message. + Anyway, where was I? + Oh yeah, the REAL issue is WHETHER OR NOT Larry King actually +has any studded-leather toe-rests or not. This may sound a little +far-fetched, but the point is, if he DOES, then we all know that +the Xennothemian Invasion Force HATES studded leather, and CNN +can't afford to lose another good newsdude. And if he DOESN'T, +then the Orbital Mind Control Satelites run by the evil Arthur +Phiggis who gave Floyd his popcorn can only come down ONCE A +CENTURY, when the MOOn is in the Eighth Cusp of... Sorry, wrong +line. + No, the point is this: I forget what I was going to say, +sorry. + But seriously, folks... + How many times have you been trying to take a look at a good +solid chunk of clay when a guy comes up to you and says you have to +pay a fee? I mean, then he'll go on like this: + + Senior Citizens : $2.35 + Stu Dents : $2.35 + StudentBLATTTs : $2.36.44.75 + Residents : $Q + Members : $5.43 + ClayBLATTTs : $$$$$$$$$$ and a little bit + Tri-Beak Cid : 4 bucks a hit, maaaaaaaaaan + Sodomites : 15%/a, compounded monthly + Cockroaches : FREE!!! + Ashtray : WHAT ASHTRAY?!?!?!?!?!?! + Clay : Yes + Hot Fudge : $14.00 + Sundaes : 1 Gospel Section, and $14 + Tuesdaes : Carmel Sauce and a Half + EL Cid : Halfy's Hat + Popes : FUCCOWKING STAINED GLASS + Handmaidens : $2.35 + Fibbonacci : $2.35 + Macaroni : $2.35 + + And then you have to reason with him. I mean, you're not +exactly going to pay $14.00 just to look at a bit of clay, are you. +I mean, it's like, a constitutionally protected thing, that each +person has the right to look at clay whenever they feel like, +without a fee. + Ah, he answers, but does the clay have the right to ogle back? + Now there he's got ya stymied, because you're not exactly an +expert on constitutional law. Now, in 1920 there was the claylump +bill that stated SPECIFICALLY that claylumps Ain't Got nO rIGHTS +but to dO wHAT tHEY'RE tOLD. Now that's the kind of thing you +need to know to even PASS the damn const. law class, and anyone who +aces it must be cheating, because they couldn't have written the +answers on a bowl of strawberry sherbet, 'cuz it'd melt. Now the +thing about strawberry sherbet is, it's soft and sqidgy. And the +thing about a Holstein is, it's soft and squidgy. And the thing +about a fish is, you can't write with one. And the thing about +cows are, they go MOO. And the thing about Tri-Beak is, it's a +figment of Rev. Canoe-Head's DERANGED IMaginATION! + But the most important lesson we learn from this is, a +Holstein and a bowl of strawberry sherbet are easily confused. +Which suggests that you should maybe label them to keep from mixing +them up. + But what about a label? It's flat and papery, and has writing +on it. What about a T-108 form? It's flat and papery, and has +writing on it. So to keep from sending in a "strawberry sherbet" +label to the Government, you should label them separately. + On an ashtray, which is harder to mBLATTTake. + ASHTRAY? WHAT ASHTRAY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?.,.,.,.,.,.,.,., + what do you do when this happens to you? + tap your little badge thingy, and say + I'm sleeping, and I can't wake up! + "HAPPY" + +As Written By +Preest Lloyd Taco + + Part One: Peace-Happy + + This is a simple guide on how to be happy. The way may +sound stupid and insipid but it works. + I know this is not the only way, but this is a nice way of +being happy through "inner peace"... Inner peace is the essence of +being balanced, and balanced people tend to be happy. Plus they +make good MOOists, because they find it easier to not hold any +viewpoints, which is the whole point of "MU". Right? Yeah, sure. +Whatever. + Inner Peace may sound stupid, but it makes you happy, plus +it's the root of all those Martial Arts... If you can master this, +you can master them. Stop using your energy to fight yourself, and +turn it outward. Turn your opponent's energy against itself. But +most important, with Inner Peace, you'll know when NOT to fight. + But that's as maybe, it's still a frog. + To begin with, being happy is as simple as it sounds or +even simpler than you ever thought it could be; all you have to do +is know yourself from inside out and not from outside in as you are +normally made to see yourself by what we call "society". There's +a simple way to do this, and although it takes a lot of time each +day it's not an effort or a problem for most people, since the only +thing that you have to do is SLEEP. Do it right every night for a +few weeks, and you'll be fine. + + 1) SLEEP + + Oh, I'm not talking any normal sleep, where you toss and +turn while your body gets its rest but your mind is still on +overdrive because you're all stressed out about the things that +you've stopped doing to get this precious moment of shut-eye. No, +I'm talking the kind of sleep you'd like to have, without no +problems anywhere in your life. So before doing this sleep thing +(which is better than the conventional meditations, by the way), +you pick a time when you don't have a lot to do, or else you make +sure that you can put it out of your mind. MAKE TIME. But like, +how do you sleep? I mean, using drugs is a little stupid, since +the point is to know YOURSELF, right? Okay, so how to sleep +peacefully? + Well, you can use a simple method, and it's been known to +us for ages, and although it's common knowledge no one does it +anymore because we're too stressed out about something or other all +the time. All you have to do is drink a cup of warm tea or hot +chocolate or something, take a warm bath, relax, lBLATTTen to some +pleasant peaceful music, and go to sleep. There are plenty of +relaxation exercises you can use to sleep more pleasantly. + Well, like you try this one: Start off by visualizing each +colour of the rainbow in order (Red first, take time to visualize +it fully, then orange, same thing, then yellow, green, blue, and +violet) and finally fade out on violet into a kind of mBLATTT, then +imagine yourself on top of a staircase with 23 steps (of course), +and walk down, counting backwards on each one. At the bottom, +there's a door, and you open that into some kind of open area. +Walk through that until you come to a forest. Let it be any kind +of forest the first time you do this, but all other times, make +sure it's a nice open spacious forest. Walk down a path: the first +time it can be any kind of path, but it should be a straight +pleasant path all other times. Then you come to a forest pool or +stream: the first time, it can be anything, but after that, it +should be happy, whatever that means to you (shallow and bubbling, +deep and calm, whatever). Then walk out of the forest, through the +open space, to the door, up the stairs, counting forward, then +finally through the rainbow the other way. When this is done, +count backwards from some sufficiently high number so you'll get to +sleep. + Sleep is important in all life. Your dreams should end up +telling you about yourself. It's important to be HAPPY with +whatever comes out of your dreams, because that's WHO YOU ARE. In +order to be happy, you just have to know yourself from the inside. +So remember your dreams, and just BE happy about them. Then forget +them. + Do this for a week or two or until you feel happy enough. + Repeat once any time you're not happy anymore. + + 2) Like, Meditation + + This isn't some meditation that you have to contort into +wierd postures and breathe strangely for. You just lie flat on +your back and don't think too hard. Breathe deeply enough to feel +like there's oxygen and stuff like that going to your brain. Wash +out the inside of your head with, like, white light or something. +Or a fire hose or whatever works to clean out your thoughts. Don't +fight them down, that'll just make more. Just let them bubble away +until there's only one thought left in the conscious part of your +head. That might take practice, but it's worth it for the Inner +Peace bit. + With that one thought, let it sit there for a while, then +think of the first thing that comes into your head, and how it +relates to that one thought. Then go back to the one thought, and +repeat. And do this again and again until you're finished or +you're out of time. This'll make you realize that everything is +the center of all other things, and nothing is more special than +any other. When you understand this, you'll be less hung up on the +things that cause stress and all that, so you'll be happier. If +you go really far, you'll see that although you ARE the center of +all things, you are also only one center of many, and you'll be +happy about it. + + 3) WHY? + + Why be happy through Inner Peace, instead of through lots +of violent running around and blowing up police vans and stuff like +that? Well, either way is happiness, but one is more peaceful, and +peaceful happiness lasts through ANYTHING, as long as you have a +core of peace. I'm happy all the time, even when I should be +stressed out of my head. So then I can stay calm, and do better. +Angry-happy lasts about as long as you have that exhilarating anger +going, which is what keeps the Punk Movement going. + Cuz pUNK aIN'T dEAD, iT jUST sMELLS tHAT wAY! + But Inner Peace ain't the only way to be happy. You can do +it your own way. Because MOO has no leader unless you want to be +led like some people. So don't just take my word for it and ignore +all the other ways just cause I don't use 'em. I'm just sayin' +this so's you know. I thought you might be interested, okay, +SOSUMI! + Plus which, that little peaceful smile REALLY PISSES PEOPLE +OFF when they don't understand it. Us enlightened people, we smile +a lot. Not cuz enlightenment brings happiness... Oh my GOODNESS +no, the world isn't nearly nice enough for that (HONEST!), but we +figure out how to annoy everyone else: smile a lot, people will +wonder what you're up to. + + Part Two: Anger-Happy + + Anger-Happy is easier to do than Peace-Happy, because of +how our "Society" is set up, the FUCKING thing just keeps +REPRESSING your FUCKING emotions, so they just FUCKING pour COW out +onto the nearest target! SO YOU GET HAPPY! BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT +ANGRY ANY MORE!!! + Like, see The Wall... Maaannnnnnn... Anger! FRUSTRATION! +BANG! BANG! KILL!! DEATH! DEATH! ARGH FUCK COW KILL! But +after it's all done, you feel like, happy, right? It's a FUN +MOOvie, it's FUCKING HILLARIOUS... Because after setting up all +that violent emotion, it just kinda says "Ah, fuck this" and +leaves. It's really funny that way, you get happy. + Anger-Happy is easy to get, because it's just NOT BEING +ANGRY rather than actual happiness. So whenever you're tense or +annoyed or just generally pissed off at something, JUST SAY QUACK! +Just take that big stick and HIT SOMETHING with it. + And bang, you're happy. + TAKE THAT AXE AND... + Oh, but forget I said that. + "BOREDOM" + +Things To Do When You're Bored #68 + + + 1) Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that +cigarettes may be harmful to your health, especially if you smoke +them. + + 2) Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that +ziggurats may be harmful to your health, particularly if dropped +on you from several hundred feet in the air. + + 3) Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that sticking +forks in your eyes with electric sockets attached may cause birth +defects in pregnant women (not that you're likely to give birth to +a pregnant woman) + + 4) Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that death +may be harmful to your health. + + 5) Warning: The Surgeon General has determined that +excessive readings of false Surgeon General's Warnings may cause +excessive death in dead people, and eye strain in blind ones. + + 6) Warning: The Surgeon Admiral has determined that being +demoted, though not harmful to your health, is a real pain. + + 7) Warning: The Sturgeon Admiral has determined that +excessively bad fish jokes can be harmful to the health of the +person telling them. + + 8) Warming: The Sturgeon Admiral has determined that being +fried in a pan with butter, or maybe margarine, can be harmful to +the health of fish. + + 9) Warming: The Sturgeon Admiral is determined to quit +smoking, but what with all the stress lately, he just hasn't gotten +around to it yet. + + 10) Warming: The Sturgeon Admiral is determined that all +these foolish jokes about him stop immediately. + + 11) Warming: The trend towards a higher temperature, greater +heat, or warmth. Boil, toast, grill, fry, saute, heat. See also, +Stupid Fish Jokes. + + 12) Warming: The Sturgeon Admiral's tendency to become +extremely hot, and also quite angered and annoyed, when people make +silly lists of fish jokes, false Surgeon General Warnings, or +otherwise make fools of themselves, and a fish out of doctors. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +MOO +OMM + + +APPENDIX I + +APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP (Fill out 42 copies) + +1.Name: Holy Name: +2.Address: +3.Telephone Number: +4.Hat Size: +5.Diameter Of Last Apple Eaten: +6.Purpose of Application: + [ ] Membership as MOOist Acolyte (use this for your first + application) + [ ] Membership in the Outer Circle of MOO (Acolytes can apply + here) + [ ] Membership in the Inner Circle of MOO (Outer Circle MOOists + can apply here) + [ ] Promotion to the Elite High Council of MOO (Inner Circle + MOOists can apply here) + [ ] Membership in the Erisian Liberation Front + [ ] Membership in the Generic Church Of Jonah Cheung + [ ] Employment application for McDonalds + [ ] All of the above + [ ] None of the above + [ ] Other (be vague!): + +7. Age: [ ] cubic meters +8. Height: [ ] fluid oz. +9. Eyes: [ ] 2 [ ] Other +10. Art thou a cabbage? + Reason: +11. Date of last shower [yy/mm/dd] [__/__/__] + Reason: +12. Do you beleive that King Kong died for your sins? + [ ] Yes + [ ] No + [ ] Maybe + [ ] Yes and No + [ ] Yes and Maybe + [ ] No and Maybe + [ ] Yes No and Maybe + [ ] All Of The Above + [ ] None Of The Above + [ ] Can't Decide + [ ] Don't Want To Answer + [ ] Other +Reason: + +13.Would you rather: + [ ] Eat slugs [ ] Live in a wormhole + [ ] Chew on your toenails [ ] Masturbate + [ ] Play hide and go seek [ ] Run into walls with forks in your + eyes + Why? + + +14.Describe the hat of the High Preest: + [ ] Fuzzy [ ] Scuzzy + [ ] Leathery [ ] Feathery + [ ] Heathery [ ] Silly + [ ] Wormhole Hat [ ] Worn On Head + [ ] Flowery [ ] Bowery + [ ] Glowery [ ] All Of The Above + [ ] Most Of The Above [ ] Some Of The Above + [ ] None Of The Above [ ] Other + +15. Lick this spot: + + o + + It is highly unlikely you will be lucky + enough to recieve the proper reward. + +16. Mail one copy of this form to The Church of MOO, at: + P.O. Box 26038, 72 Robertson Rd., Nepean ON, Canada, K2H-9Y8. +17. Or post your answers to this questionaire in the MOO echo + addressed to the Church of MOO. +18. Tape one copy to your fridge or toilet. +19. Burn one copy. +20. Eat the last copy of this form. + APPENDIX II + +CARE AND FEEDING OF MOOFESTS + +Part One: When and Where + + MOOfests may be held at any prearranged time, anywhere in the +world, as long as some MOOists, and the highest ranking MOOist in +the immediate vicinity have been mentioned, invited, consulted, +noticed, ignored, or otherwise been on the receiving end of a verb. + In the Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Earth branch of the religion, +MOOfests are traditionally held in Dunn's Deli, where Floyd for the +first time blew up the ashtray (what ashtray?) of the Grate Prophet +when Halfy stubbed out his cigarrette in a pile of gunpowder. + However, anyone anywhere who belongs to MOOism may suggest a +time for a MOOfest, as long as an Inner CirclBLATTT or higher has +granted some kind of consent, or something vaguely similar, or been +aware of it, or passed near that general area within the last +little while. + +Part Two: The MOO-Belt + + After purchasing a map and examining the locations for +MOOfests, Floyd made an absolutely astonishing discovery. All the +really important spots from MOOfests and MOOist rituals were in a +straight line, never off it by more than a maximum of a few hundred +meters, usually much less. The line is the line that connects the +Ruin with Dunn's Deli. You can locate the line on a map quite +easily, if you know where the Ruin and Dunn's are. If you don't, +well, what kind of a MOOist do you think you are, anyway? +Other spots on this line are Central Park, the west tip of +Vincent Massey Park, Kirsten Salmon's house, and the home-base +of the Nomic Club. + +Part Three: + + DATES, TIMES, AND LOCATIONS OF PREVIOUS MOOFESTS + 1991 +0 March 20th censored 00:00-24:00 PsychoFest 0 +I March 25th Bytowne Cinema 21:00-2:30 PsychoFest 1a +II March 30th Dunn's Deli 19:00-2:00 PsychoFest 1b +III April 6th Floyd Gecko's 19:00-1:00 Python Fest +IV April 8th Ralph's 19:00-24:00 East End B&B +V June 22nd Dunn's Deli etc. 15:00-23:00 Psycho-Fest 2 +V« COW 5th 5 COW St. COW:00-COW:30 COWFest 5 +VI August 17th The Ruin 20:00-23:30 Rained-on-Fest1 +VII November 2nd Dunn's Deli etc. 14:00-1:00 InsanityFest 2.6 +IIX December 19 Bytowne & Dunn's 19:00-23:00 RockyFest Q 1/2 + 1992 +I January 4th Mayfair Cinema 19:00-00:00 MOOvies Fest A +II February 22 Mayfair Cinema 19:00-00:00 MOOvies Fest Z +III March 21st Dunn's Deli 3:11:17.76 Preach Fest 0.6 APPENDIX III + +Payroll of MOOists + +Total Income to Date: must be a lot by now +Expenses for MOOist activities: most +Total income divided amongst MOOists: a bunch +% of income still to be divided out: whatever in't being embezeled + + Grate Prophet of MOO: receives 50% of the profit + uses: anything he damn well pleases + + High Preest of MOO: receives 25% of the profit + uses: rubber chickens, replacement ashtrays, + Monty Python movie rentals, other stuff, and + miscellaneous MOOfest expenditures + +Elite Upper Councilors: each receive 25% of the profit + uses: Printing the Great Book of MOO, Intoxicants + + Everyone else: Nada, Nil, Zip, Nothing + (unless they do something special) + +Income gathering schemes: + +1. Wander around and ask for money for the Church of MOO + results to date: None +2. Call around and ask for money for the Church of MOO + results to date: None +3. Hit people over the head, eat them, and take their money + results to date: broken nose +4. Dress in silly clothes, strum a chicken, sing a pathetic song, + and stand in front of a hat in the Byward Market. + results to date: odd looks, embarassment, fun, but no money +5. Ask MOOists, and perhaps others to contribute to an + entertainment fund for MOOism. Such as collections for + hydrogen for Major Ritual number five. + results to date: none + +Suggestions: Making MOOism a legal religion in Canada. + Becoming a non-profit organisation. + APPENDIX IV + +The Gospel According To Yari + +as written by +Saint Yari + +1) MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! + +2) MOOing makes you feel good... Why don't you try it? + +3) Once upon a time, a long time ago, the world was but a vast + tundra where penguins flourished. But then the god of MOO used + the sacred MOO powers. The world exploded into tiny little + bits. One of these bits was round, so they named it Earth. + People crawled out of the sea to see what had happened. Then + they grew legs and learned to talk. But before this the god of + MOO made cows. They were cool. Cows made the noise MOO that + is a secret worship to the god of MOO. People made their own + language, but today in a last attempt to get more MOO + worshippers, the god of MOO enlightened a select few people. + These cool people would enlighten others. + These people are the Apostles of the Church of MOO. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + gnu gnomic rules Appendix V +As Written By +Severely Many People Indeed + +Main Subdivisions Of MOO + +Part One: TEMPLE OF THE PRIMORDIAL PENGUIN +Part Two: QUACK/IRRELEVANCE +Part Three: OINK +Part Four: DISCORDIANBLATT +Part Five: SALAD + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +FIRST CANCOWTO +By The Upper DingCOWbat Templar +Floyd Gecko +(First Temple) + + + INTRODUCTION + + Know, O ye who read this book that this is the Great Book +Of The Holy Temple Of The Primordial Penguin, and is the most +wholly perfect work of the knowledge of the spirit since the Great +Book Of MOO. + Know, O ye who read this book, that it holds the +secrets of creation, the reason of the universe, and the truth +about hBLATTTory. + Know, O ye who read this book that within its pages there +are held many secrets which you, O humble reader, are priviledged +to know. + Know, O ye who read this book that you enter now into the +knowledge of the Templars of the Penguin, the greatest of whom is +the unknowing Grate Profit. + Know, O ye who read this book that you now are about to +learn of the supreme silliness of all things, and of the purpose +behind why we are here. + + + BOOK ONE + + Understand now, O humble reader, that the beginning of the +world was as a Game, and in the beginning was the Game, and the +Game was Nomic. Know that the Nomic created through itself in its +great dreamings a Cow and a Penguin. And these were the first +occupants of the world, and they played the game. + Understand now, O humble reader, that this Cow was the Great +MOO, and this Penguin was the Primordial Penguin, whose name it is +not permitted to be known, even unto himself. And this was the +first being created by another to play the game, and he created the +world. + Understand now, O humble reader, that as the word was made, +so was made the world, and that as the Game was forged from the +nothingness, so was made the word, and that as the players of the +Game forged the game, so the Game was forged, and that as the Game +created the players, so were the players made. + Understand now, O humble reader, that the players of the game +lived in their world upon a huge tundra, and that the Tundra was +the world. Upon this Tundra flourished great Penguins, noble of +spirit, untroubled of mind, and loud of honk. + Understand now, O humble reader, that these were the very +Penguins saved by the Primordial Penguin when the Great MOO +destroyed the Tundra. The Primordial Penguin played the Game, the +Holy Nomic, against the end of the world, and yet it came. + Understand now, O humble reader, that it was by this great +destruction of the Tundra that was made our world, and all others +that are. + Understand now, O humble reader, that the Primordial Penguin +himself, who reascued many Penguins, noble, untroubled, and loud as +they were, and who made for them companions from the very Tundra +itself, this same Penguin was not given to house them our world. + Understand now, O humble reader, that when the Primordial +Penguin created his Penguin sons and daughters as companions for +those who were noble, untroubled and loud, that he created one +known as Jehovah, or Allah, or Yaweh. + Understand now, O humble reader, that this Penguin, often +mBLATTTaken by the uninformed of the past for a God, lives even +unto this day in Antarctica. + Understand now, O humble reader, that as the Penguins were +scattered like ashes to the breeze onto the worlds of here and +there, that the Primordial Penguin kept playing the Game, and wove +through his cunning, into the fabric of the Game itself, these +other souls who had once been Tundra. + Understand now, O humble reader, that as worship to the noble +efforts of the Primordial Penguin, through whom we became a part of +the world, and a part of the Game which shapes our world, we play +games, and The Game, the Game of Nomic. + Understand now, O humble reader, that the Upper Dingbat to +The Primordial Penguin, who, though not a great Templar in rank, +was the first to play this game as worship to the Primordial +Penguin, and the first to discover the Penguin. + Understand now, O humble reader, that though this Upper +Dingbat Templar may be no Grate Profit, and may be no Hi, Priest!, +he is nevertheless the first of the Templars to the Penguin, and +he is the great Finder Of The Will Of The Primordial Penguin. + Understand now, O humble reader, that though you must be a +follower of the Hi, Priest! if you are a Templar, it is to the +Upper Dingbat to whom you may turn to hear the Will Of The Penguin. + Understand now, O humble reader, that it is the Will Of +The Penguin that the Upper Dingbat be low in the rank of His +Temple, but that he be knowledgeable in the Way Of The Game. + Understand now, O humble reader, that the Way Of The Game is +the Way Of The World, for the World is the Game, and the Game is +more than the World. + Understand now, O humble reader, that it is the Upper Dingbat +of the First Temple, whose Holy Name is Floyd Gecko, who relates +the Great Book Of The Holy Temple Of The Primordial Penguin, and +who tells you now of the Wills Of The Penguin. + + BOOK TWO + + In the Temple Of The Primordial Penguin, there are many +ranks, and many complexities, because this is the Way Of The Game. + You should know that while the Templars of the Penguin are +accepted by the Holy Church Of The Great MOO, and indeed, the Upper +Dingbat is a rank given to the High Preest of MOO, that no MOOist +may ascend higher than the Grand Poobah, who, in this the First +Temple, is Half-Mad, the Great Prophet of MOO. + But it is true that the Great Prophet of MOO is in commune +with the Great MOO, and that the Primordial Penguin is not a Game +Ally of the Great MOO. Thus, while the Grand Poobah sets the rules +of the Temple, he is not in commune with the Penguin. The Upper +Dingbat, namely myself, is in commune with the Penguin, but not +with the Great MOO. + However, the Great MOO and the Penguin are, like all players +of the Game, friendly, and will speak to any other player, even +those as low on the ladder as ourselves. Even the Great MOO will +speak to you or I if She feels. But, as with the Penguin, She +keeps Her messages to her spokesperson on Earth, and elsewhere. + The Penguin, playing the Game, has no set spokesperson. In +this, the First Temple, it is the Upper Dingbat who speaks for the +Penguin, but in the Second Temple, the prediction goes, it shall +be the Grand Poobah, whose Holy Name it is predicted shall be +Peng-Peng. + + Here is the lBLATTT of the first ten Temples, and their times +of exBLATTTence, as well as the spokesperson for the Penguin. This +prediction is accurate to within five percentage points nine times +out of ten. + +First Temple: 135565 to 135657 DPP + Spokesperson: Upper Dingbat Floyd Gecko + +Second Temple: 135657 to 135741 + Spokesperson: Grand Poobah Peng-Peng + +Third Temple: 135741 to 135838 + Spokesperson: Inferior Bonk Joh Malakai + +Fourth Temple: 135838 to 135843 + Spokesperson: Hi, Priest! Lilith Velkor + +Fifth Temple: 135843 to 135931 + Spokesperson: Grate Profit Unknowing Dimwit + +Sixth Temple: 135941 to 136118 + Spokesperson: Elite Upper Councilor Selkie + +Seventh Temple: 136118 to 136209 + Spokesperson: Lower Dingbat Merkin Muffley + +Eighth Temple: 136209 to 136283 + Spokesperson: Lesser Poobah Balthazar Ferigno + +Ninth Temple: 134683 to 136379 + Spokesperson: Superior Bonk Bubba Hurdmeister + +Tenth Temple: 136379 to 136501 + Spokesperson: Upper Dingbat Lloyd Taco + + Now it is important for you to understand the Penguin Date, +or Penguin Calendar. A year DPP (Date Of The Primordial Penguin) +is measured from the time the Penguin first created this calendar +in The Game. This occurred in what is commonly called 14807 BC in +the Heathen Calendar. Since then, time has been marked off into +sections of 6,709.5 years. This is the sacred number of the +Penguin. This period is called a CYCLE. It is divided into nine +ERAS, which are divided into nine SEASONS, which are of roughly 83 +years in length. + The CYCLES, SEASONS, and ERAS are given names, which are +shown below: + +00001st: Chaos +00002nd: Discord +00003rd: Revelation +00004th: Confusion +00005th: Irritation +00006th: Worry +00007th: Anger +00008th: Fear +00009th: Bliss + + These are the most prominent influence at work on hBLATTTory +at the time. Thus, to compare to the Heathen Calendar, based on +the birth of ChrBLATTT; the year of the beginning of the First +Temple took place in the First Period of hBLATTTory, in Revelation, +Irritation, Irritation (shortened to 1: Rev.Irr.Irr. or just 1355) +in the 65th year (thus 135565 DPP), which compared to 1991, the +year given in the Heathen Calendar. Clearly, the Calendar of the +Penguin is far more accurate in its description not only of WHEN +the year is, but also WHAT the year is like. + At the time of transition from one CYCLE, SEASON, or ERA to +another, festivities are held. However, since this does not always +occur on a particular day (the ERAS not being exactly 83 years +long), this festive occasion is not marked in the lBLATTT of sacred +days below. Thus, we have no "New Year". The GNU Year happens +once every 82 5/6 years. So we mark which "year" of the season we +are in from each vernal equinox. + The Penguin Calendar has relatively little to do with +astronomical stuff, and so there is no leap-day, years are exactly +365 days, and so on. If it diverges from the REAL calendar, tough +shit. It's meant to be used in space as well as on Earth. Anyway: + + There are 5 concurrent cycles of different lengths. One is +the base unit of all of them, being the 5-day Erisian week. The +others are all multiples of this: + + 5 Days: "Short Week" + 115 Days: "Little Year" + 365 Days: "Earth Year" + 495 Days: "Long Year" + 831105 Days: "Long Week" + + The Long Week is the harmonic cycle of the three kinds of +Year, and represents the cycle in which their various dates +coincide: at the same point in each Long Week, the dates of each +kind of year are the same. It is therefore 2277 Earth Years long, +7227 Little Years long, and 1679 Long Years long. + + The Little Year has weekdays named for Erisian weekdays: +Sweetmorn, Boomtime, Pungenday, Prickle-Prickle, and +Setting-Orange. + The Earth Year has Gregorian Weekdays: Sunday, Wednesday, +Friday, Monday, Saturday, Thursday, and Saturday. + The Long Year has Penguin weekdays: Chaos, Discord, +Revelation, Confusion, Irritation, Worry, Anger, Fear, and Bliss. + + The Little Year has 5 months, also named for Erisian +Weekdays, only in the opposite order, of 23 days each, numbered +normally. + The Earth Year has 13 months of 28 days each, except +February, which has 29. They have normal Gregorian names, except +Bung, which goes between June and July. + The Long Year has 11 months of 45 days each. These days +aren't numbered, but have a penguin-weekday hyphenated with the +number of that weekday in the month. The months have these names +(in order, this time): Fred, Ethel, Bung, Julian-Mymosh, Wombat, +Rising-Podge, Boomthyme, Primethyme, Harry, Trudy, and Leslie. + + As stated before, these years form long cycles. The +longest is also CALLED the Cycle, and is 6709.5 years long (there +are therefore three kinds of Cycle, and of each other cycle, named +for the kind of year that makes it up), this consBLATTTs of 9 Eras +of 745.5 years length, each of which is named for a Penguin weekday +(the Eras, not the years), and each consBLATTT of 9 Seasons, also +named for penguin weekdays, of 82 5/6 years length. + + So anyway, that about sums up the three dating systems +except to note that the Long Week also forms the Godly Years, but +this hardly matters, as the first Little Year in Godly years hasn't +even passed yet, though I suppose you could keep going up and up to +longer and longer cycles, but that'll only be worth BOTHERING when +23 Long Weeks are up (in a little over 245000 years) and we have to +start fiddling around with GNU dating systems or something, or +maybe adding a digit to the front of the year number. Not that +we'll still be using that calendar by then... But I'll think of +something when it happens. + + + Now, it is important for you to know the RANKS of the Temple +of the Primordial Penguin... + +00001) Great Profit + Similar to Grate Prophet of MOO, but it is always one of the + Lamed Wufniks (Lamm-ED WUFF-nicks) who are, in Jewish + mythology, thirty six good people for whom Jehovah keeps the + Earth in exBLATTTence. Of course, this is slightly + inaccurate, since Jehovah is only a son of the Primordial + Penguin, and Eris is actually playing with the Earth just at + the moment, but the idea is correct. However, since the Lamed + Wufniks may never KNOW that they are Lamed Wufniks, and if one + ever finds out, he dies immediately and is replaced by someone + else, the same is true of the Grate Profit of the Temple Of + The Primordial Penguin. This post may not be held by a high + ranking MOOist. + +00002) Hi, Priest! + Basically the same as the High Preest of MOO. AdminBLATTTers + the ceremonies and rituals, and generally looks after things. + This post may not be held by a high ranking MOOist. + +00003) Elite Upper Council + ConsBLATTTs of three members who do absolutely nothing, but + get impressive titles. They can also tell people what to do. + The people are not required to obey, but at least these people + get to be bossy without being complained about. These posts + may not be held by high ranking MOOists. + +00004) Extreme and Moderate Foolish One + Two ranks of people added in strictly for being foolish and to + outrank everyone below them. They must wield authority like + dictators, telling everyone what to do and how to do it, but + must contradict each other, making sure that everyone ends up + doing what they were going to do anyways. One must be a + political extremBLATTT, the other a moderate. They get to + bop people with large sticks if they think they can get away + with it. These posts may not be held by high ranking MOOists, + or anyone named Rosencrantz or Guildenstern. + +00005) Superior Bonk and Inferior Bonk + These are the members who attend to handing out punishments. + The Inferior Bonk is superior to the Superior Bonk (obviously) + and is in charge mostly of making up GNU punishments and + deciding who gets which ones. Obviously the punishments + aren't too severe, because the Primordial Penguin Whose Name + May Not Be Spoken would disapprove. Punishments are generally + in the form of Game Penalties in Nomic, since everyone plays + the game. Even not being allowed to play is considered a Game + Penalty. They take the position of Co-Director in the game of + Nomic held by the Temple. These posts may not be held by high + ranking MOOists. + +00006) Grand Poobah and Lesser Poobah + The next two highest echelons. They are in control of setting + out holidays, supervising the funds of the Temple, and making + the supplications to the Primordial Penguin on behalf of the + members of the Temple. They are required to play the game of + Nomic, in some form, or alternatively, the games Calvinball or + Mao, which are basically the same. + +00007) Upper and Lower Dingbats + The position of the Upper Dingbat is an honourary position + given to the High Preest of MOO. He or she acts as a liaision + between the Church Of The Great MOO and the Temple of the + Primordial Penguin. The Upper Dingbat is required to act + silly at all official functions, and it is suggested that he + also play the game of Nomic. The Lower Dingbat is a similar + position, but it is subordinate to the Upper Dingbat, and may, + if the Grand or Lesser Poobah decides, be given as an + honourary title to any other high ranking MOOist. If not, it + is given to any dBLATTTinguished member of the Temple of the + Primordial Penguin. + +00008) Inner CirclBLATTT + Same as MOOism. + +00009) Preest + Not as high as the Hi, Priest!, they spread the work to the + ones not enlightened by the Penguin. They also teach the + words of the Primordial Penguin as they come from the + Spokesperson. + +00010) Outer CirclBLATTT + Same as MOOism. + +00011) Acolyte + Same as MOOism. + +00012) Saints + Non-exBLATTTent, except in cases where the Hi, Priest! deems + it necessary to honour some highly dBLATTTinguished visionary + who is clearly a chosen Prophet of the Penguin or his son + Jehovah. ChrBLATTTian, Jewish, or Moslem saints may be + selected if the Hi, Priest! thinks they really, really, really + deserve it. + +00013) Perrennial Heretic + Exactly the same as the equivalent rank in MOOism. + +00014) Evil One + There is no Evil One. It's all a lie, I tell you. + +IF IT AIN'T RANTED, IT AINT TRUE + + + + BOOK THREE + +Part One: Sacred Days + + These are the days set aside by the Penguin's Templars to +celebrate various things. + +January 1: The Nu-Yer. Those Templars who drink use this day to +out and get drunk. Those who don't use it to have a good time. + Official Name: Nu-Yer Day +February 14: Set aside for throwing water at walls and making +shapes out of the ice that forms. Also for being nice to one +another. + Official Name: Ice Day +February 30: The birthday of the Perrennial Heretic, I Yemen-Oying. +Set aside for making fun of people. On those years when this day +does not occur, Templars make fun of people all year round. + Official Name: Dum Day +March 4: A day for affirmative action. Slogan for the day is +"MARCH FOURTH AND DO SOMETHING!" + Official Name: March 4th +April 1: The birthday of the First Temple's Spokesperson, Floyd +Gecko. Set aside for practical jokes and generally playing +Nomic-oid games. + Official Name: Upra-Foo Day +April 7: Floyd Gecko's other birthday. Not particularly sacred. +This day and the evening before are sacred to silliness and Monty +Python. + Official Name: Szilli Day +April 13: Floyd Gecko's third birthday, to compensate for the first +two. Generally considered to be an unlucky day, because it makes +up the average of the other two. A day for sitting inside being +afraid. + Official Name: Cower Inside Day +June 7: A day of celebration of the spirit of doing strange things. +Participate in as many major MOOist and Templar rituals as +possible. + Official Name: Goof Day +August 10: The day of returning home, and of saying "hi" to those +you know. A day to look around your home and laughing at it if +it's funny, or not laughing at it if it isn't. + Official Name: Home Day +September 13: First day of the Nomic season. Although the Templar +Game continues all year, this is the first year of the season, and +is marked by great festivities of strange rituals and activities. + Official Name: Noe-Mick Day +October 31: A day of wearing peculiar costumes and rushing about +from house to house making the noises of the Penguin and those +religions associated with it. Also a GNU Year. + Official Name: Hollow Evening +November 12: A day set aside for those who have no nose. Silent +prayer to the Penguin to give these people back their noses is in +order on this day for all Templars. + Official Name: No-Nose Day +December 31: Blends in with January 1, and the festivities carry +from one to the other. + Official Name: Nu-Yer Evening + + +Part Two: Sacred People + + While it is not the part of this Upper Dingbat to name the +saints, since that it the job of the Hi, Priest!, but this Upper +Dingbat can state some of the important people not lBLATTTed as +saints of MOO, or in any of the Author's lBLATTTs... These people +are to be known not as saints or devine individuals, but rather as +those of the times of this Book. + +00001) The Perrennial Heretic, I Yemen-Oying + A decidedly unsaintly person, the Perrennial Heretic is a +fixture in the Templar speech... He is not actively despised, or +even disliked, but he always insults us to keep us on our toes. + During the foundation of the First Temple, he will, according +to the prediction, finally join the Holy Church of The Great MOO +some time just before Noe-Mick day of 135575. However, this is +one of those predictions which is variably accurate. + In taking part in the rituals of MOO and the Penguin, while +refusing to join, he represents incarnate hypocrisy, and is an +extension of one of the beings created by the Goddess Aneris, as +described in the Book Of MOO. While not a deity, he is related +to one somehow, and should be taunted occasionally. + +00002) The Holy Pedant, Jonathan Tracy + While this person has no Holy Name, he is nevertheless one +of the first members of the Game of Nomic held which included a +Templar. His invented rules were of interest, but involved the +continual theme of The Committee. The The Holy Pedant's constant +attempts to turn the Holy Nomic into a Bureaucracy, he represents +the forces of order and AnerBLATT in the universe, as described in +the Book Of MOO. + Though Templars of the Penguin don't necessarily follow this +idea, it is a valid comparison. The Holy Pedant is clearly the +incarnate form of one of the extendend beings created by the +Goddess Aneris, "neice" of the Primordial Penguin. While he is not +a deity, he should be treated with respect. + +00003) The Great Know-It All, Midget Jim + At the time of this writing, Midget Jim, also a member of the +Nomic Game, is not a Templar or a MOOist, but he is a supplier of +ideas and knowledge of things both stupid and useless. +Nevertheless he is a valid being to know and to admire for his +bizzarre, yet strangely ordered way of thinking, which produced +much of the thought behind the Book of MOO and of the Penguin. + In being so thoughtful and Know-It-All, he is clearly an +extension in this world made by a being created from the Tundra +itself, perhaps by the Primordial Penguin himself. If he is indeed +a Penguin, as was ChrBLATTT, we shall perhaps never know. + +Part Three: Sacred Ceremonies + + There are two ceremonies which celebrate in the spirit of The +Game of the universe, and they are two Games, of which any member +may play any variant as worship of the Penguin. + The first Game is Nomic. Nomic is explained in the Book Of +MOO, but the general idea is that you start with a small set of +rules which allow you to change the rules, and then change +everything as you go along. The Game then becomes whatever you +want it to be. + In The Game, this is very much the case, and the so-called +"Souls" which were formed by the explosion of the Tundra get votes +of different kinds, on different kinds of rules, depending on their +levels. Higher level Souls get to vote on deeper-base rules. But +that's not important. + The second Game is Calvinball. In this game, you get as +much sports equipment as you can find and make up the rules as you +go along, according to no particular pattern. The object is to +have fun. + This is also like The Game, in that It has become so hard +to understand that it looks like it's completely random. Things +simply seem to happen, and nobody at our level is even aware of +the votes they make on the rules. The rules just happen. + + BOOK FOUR + + APPLICATION FOR ENTRANCE INTO THE TEMPLE + + Write the answers to these questions on a separate peice of +paper, or birch-bark. Or, for that matter, sheet metal. Or even, +dare I suggest it, the back of your hand. Have them tattooed into +your forehead. Or skywrite them and film it, transpose the film to +computer, and print out thousands of frames. Spraypaint your +answers in good essay form on the sides of walls (remember to give +your name and address for quick acceptance). If all of this fails, +you must have something wrong with you. + +What is your name? +What is your Holy Name? +What is your quest? +What is your favourite colour? +Why? +How many Penguins does it take to screw in a lightbulb? +How many Penguins can dance on the point of a pin? +Who invented the printing press? +What is the capital of Abyssinia? +How old are you? +How many noses do you have? [None/Some] +Which would you rather do: + (a) Be a Penguin + (b) Eat a Penguin + (c) Shoot a Penguin + (d) Stand on a Penguin + (e) Give CPR to a Penguin + (f) Put a Penguin up your shirt + (g) Put a Penguin down your pants +What sound does a Penguin make? +Who invented the first Penguin? +What is your favourite Meatball Flavour? +What is your spaghetti-tossing record? +What is your sleeve length? +How old was the last Penguin you played tennis with? +Did you win? + + Make three copies of this application. Send one to Temple Of +The Penguin, C/O Floyd Gecko at P.O. Box 26038, Neapan, Ontario, +Canada, K2H 9Y8, and keep the other two in case a Penguin asks you +for one sometime. + + +SECOND CANTO + +By Grand Poobah +Peng-Peng +(Second Temple) + +Chapter 00001 (Book Of The Time Warp) + +00001: And it one day came to pass that there was a great wormhole + that did manifest in both time and in space, and it did at + once swirl and move through the world. +00002: And it was witnessed by the Grand Poobah Peng-Peng, myself, + whose mind was then focused on other things. +00003: And indeed I was carried wide and far in time and space + until I reached this land, an Island called Patmos, and did + rest there for many days, continuing my writings. +00004: And indeed were my writings on the works of MOO many and + multitudinous. +00005: And so it came to pass that I wrote, knowing that I would + gather these writings when I returned to my own time, and + I would add them to the works of MOO and of the Penguin. +00006: But as I worked, I began to see in my handy-dandy copy of + the Book of MOO the things which I wrote, and truly was it + wierd. +00007: And then I knew that my works and my knowledge were spread + across space and time, and truly was I confused. +00008: And as I walked across the island, seeking truth in this + matter, I met a man. +00009: And the man, who said his name was John, asked me what I + was doing here, and I told him. +00010: And he asked me about the future, but I knew little of what + was to come, and so I told him that. +00011: And in exchange for knowledge, he did offer me a curious + food, of which I partook. +00012: And truly did he swipe my annoying mind drug while I + labored under the influence of his mushrooms. +00013: And when I awoke, I found that many pages from the Book Of + Floyd were missing from my hardcopy. +00014: And truly was I pissed, for book 666 was my favourite book + of Floyd. +00015: And I knew that this man, John, was to take credit for the + work of Floyd, and I was enraged. +00016: But before I could seek him out, there was a wailing in the + air, and I heard a movement, and truly was there yet + another time warp. +00017: For as it is written, the forces at work behind my fate had + said unto each other these words: +00018: "Let's do the Time Warp again." +00019: And they had. +00020: So it was that when I returned there was a great confusion + about the book of Floyd, chapter 666, for John, not wishing + those of the future to use that number and write it, had + tried to make it an evil one. +00021: For though you may not believe it, it had once been a lucky + number to all. +00022: And so I wrote these words to send back to those of the + past that they might know that it was really all Floyd's + revelation and not at all stolen from the works of John. +00023: And indeed was John's version heavily influenced by his + many mushrooms, as I could tell. + +Chapter 00002. (Reincarnations) + +00001: Ah dBLATTTinctly I remember, it was in the bleak October of + the last year of my life in good old 135741. +00002: The leaves on the trees were brown and fallen, and + cluttered up the ground underfoot, when I fell through that + warp. +00003: After my many journeys, I came finally to rest in a place + we now know as Atlantis. +00004: But in truth, I had doubts. For now that I knew of the + true nature of time, I wondered about reincarnation. +00005: For everything that Floyd had taught me told me that it was + true and that it happened, but I wondered at the tangled + web that time had wrought for me. +00005«: COW +00006: And so before I set out to do anything, I began to meditate + to find the truth about my previous lives. +00007: Well, I saw many things both wondrous and strange, and in + time I began to sense a pattern, but I was no closer to my + goals. +00008: I may tell of some of the things I saw, and others are too + dreadful to relate. +00009: But OH, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice + to knit. +00010: For so it looked like to me, with a single path that led + from place to place, tangling in and amongst itself. +00011: Or perhaps it was many paths, mixed and matched. I could + hardly tell for all the clutter. +00012: After a while of poking around in and out of time and + space, my mind finally settled on a perspective, and I + finally saw. +00013: The chain of reincarnations stretched around and around, + but I finally untangled it with skill, faith, and a special + unknotting-type tool which I picked up at a hardware store. +00014: And I soon saw that it was shaped yea verily unto the shape + of a Moebius Strip, and it continued forever, with only one + side, when most have two. +00015: And finally I understood the meaning of "Maximum Membership + One Half"... +00016: For I was Half-Mad before, and I shall be Half-Mad again. +00017: But that one little twist partway down the chain that links + all Grate Prophets into one makes it less than one. +00018: And the Moebius Strip itself is the Grate MOO. +00019: Or so I suspected, at any rate, until Malaclypse The Elder + showed up and turned me around in my thoughts. +00020: But Malaclypse is a story unto himself. +00021: But as it turns out, most people have far more complicated + chains than that. +00022: Many tangle with themselves, are their own mother, father, + brother, sister, husband, wife, son and daughter, or things + far stranger than that. +00023: And as for Floyd, I'd rather not even think about it. + +Chapter 00003. (The Book Of Malaclypse) + +00001: It was one day long ago, before the beginning of the last + of the great feuds between the Illustrious Zoombart the + Fifth and V the Obscure. +00002: The two of them were standing in the desert holding + chickens and preparing to do battle against one another. +00003: And it came to pass that a great light came over + everything, and V and Zoombart both fell down. +00004: And so came unto us Malaclypse the Elder, who looked upon + the apostles of MOO in this late day of the Houses and made + a wierd face, sort of like that huge thing on top of the + mountain of Woog near the fnord of Albatross. +00005: And I asked Malaclypse why he was so snarly today. +00006: And Malaclypse looked at me and said: +00007: Fnord. +00008: And I realized in that moment that Malaclypse was either a + great prophet, or else a fool. +00009: Then Malaclypse proved to me that he was a fool, by saying + it again, in a louder voice, causing V and Zoombart to + vanish from sight. +00010: So Mal and I, we sat down and had this little conversation, + see, and Mal gave me a strange mushroom to eat, for this + was in the time before John The Divine did his theiving + act, and I hadn't learned about those things yet. +00011: And Mal began to speak to me of many things, of shoes and + ships, and sealing wax, and whether pigs have wings fnord. +00012: And then I saw the truth about the Moebius Strip. +00013: Only it doesn't really make much sense unless you've + partaken of Mal's Mushrooms, which really help you to + understand the truth of such spiritual matters. +00014: Plus they taste good. +00015: And we sat there talking for five days and five nights, and + at the end of that time, we had concluded that Mal was a + chicken, I was a lump of clay, and the world was made of + green cheese, but the moon was not. +00016: So then Malaclypse left with his mushrooms, and there was + a long time in which nothing much happened anywhere, only + nobody much complained because Zoombart and V weren't + having another feud, since Mal had stopped that. +00017: But when Mal returned, twenty-three years after, when I was + gone again, he found that V and Zoombart were fighting over + some obscure point of astrology, which is where V got his + name, and Zoombart didn't. +00018: And Mal sighed, and gave the two some of his mushrooms, + explaining to them that if they didn't smarten up, he'd + have to explain the Theory of Relativity. +00019: Since they knew that Mal didn't know this theory, they made + laughing noises, and smuggled Greece into the Falklands, + for they too had partaken of Mal's mushrooms. +00020: But after Mal had departed, and I was no longer there, they + continued their feud anyway. +00021: Which just goes to show that they needed me around. +00022: For they bickered all the time, like unto little children. +00023: But that's beside the point, which is that Mal has these + keen mushrooms that he probably gave to John The Divine + later on, being an arrogant pain in the lower lumbar + region... + +Chapter 00004. (The Book Of Astrology) + +00001: It is well known that there are many astrological signs. +00002: It is NOT so well known that there is an astrological + COSINE. +00003: For unlike the SINES (or signs), the COSINE covers the + whole of the year, doing as it will. +00004: And this cosine, which is called "Cottleston Pie", holds + within it a total of 23 days. +00005: And the fixed days are these: +00006: January 1st, February 14, 29, 30 and 31, March 4th, April + 1st, 7th, 13th, and 31st, June 7th and 31st, August 10th, + September 13th and 31st, October 31st, November 12th and + 31st, December 25th and 31st. +00007: And there are also wandering days of Cottleston Pie, for + Cottleston Pie dislikes being tied down specifically. And + the wandering days are these: +00008: The first wandering day is the first Frosty Friday in July. +00009: The second wandering day is the third tuesday following the + second GNU moon after the last day of a month of Mondays. +00010: The third wandering day occurs once in a Blue Moon, and + once in a Red Moon with Green Stripes And A Little Maroon + Splotch. +00011: The fourth wandering day can be found in the middle of the + Gobi Desert, where it wanders to this day (well, not THIS + day, obviously, but you know what I mean). +00012: The fifth wandering day occurs on the fifth thursday of the + fifth month of each year. +00013: Those born under the cosine of Cottleston Pie are well + known to be leaders of GNU religions, or speakers of things + that are not understood until many years later. +00014: Cottleston Pies are usually small, fat, short, and made of + a thin, volatile liquid which supports dissolution of a gas + which catalyses combustion. Either that or they like + bagels. +00015: It is well known to those who study such things that + setting fire to one born under the sign of Cottleston Pie, + or nailing one to a tree, or tying one to a railroad track, + is a popular passtime among those born under the '76 Pinto. +00016: But since the '76 Pinto is an astrological cosecant, it + makes little difference anyway, since it's not possible to + be born under a cosecant, particularly the asymptote. +00017: For truly, those born under the '76 Pinto are known to be + pains in the asymptote anyway, so it's just as well. +00018: But as has been shown before, Cottleston Pies are poor food + for any person who is not a Taurus AND a Pisces, since only + a bull or a fish can consume them, and only they are free + from being run over by the Pinto. +00019: If it should ever some to pass that a Cottleston Pie should + ever be elected to office, then surely shall the day on + which that happens give up its home on the calendar of MOO + and wander around as the fifth thursday of the twenty-third + month of each previous year. +00020: And so it was that when Malaclypse the Elder was born, and + was subsequently elected Messiah of the Heathen ChrBLATTT + peoples, the day on which that happened ceased to exist, + and so February only holds its 29th day ever few years. +00021: And so those born on the 29th of February, when it falls on + the fifth thursday in November, are also born under the + cosecant of the '76 Pinto are. +00022: And indeed was this true of many a Cottleston Pie, for none + of those in the early days kept much track of their birth. +00023: And so there is little point in recording more of this. + +Chapter 5. (Book Of The Houses) + +00001: It will be said that there are 17 Houses of MOO, but this + is a lie, perpetuated by the House of Confuse-ius and by + the House of Zarathud. +00002: For they will be having about to be wished that many will + think that this obsession they have with the number five is + true. +00003: And they will think that many will say that 17 is eight + plus nine, saying that eight is two to the third, and nine + is three to the second, and OOH, AHH, each way it adds up + to five. +00004: But this is nonsense. +00005: For in fact there are 23 Houses of MOO, so HAHAHAHAHA! +00006: For six were purged from the records. +00007: And the purgings were carried out most DAMNED effectively, + by those who would see the Church of MOO dominate US, the + Temple of the Primordial Penguin. +00008: For there was not only a purging of the House of "BOB". +00009: And not only were all records destroyed of the House Of + Mymosh the Self-Begotten. +00010: But also was there destroyed those records pertaining to + the actions and apostle of The House Of Ussher. +00011: For the Church Of MOO was beset by many internal conflicts. +00012: And many did wish to see the FALL of the House of Ussher. +00013: But then it was realized that this would make it impossible + to watch MOOvies, the most truly sacred of all MOOist + passtimes. +00014: For without Usshers, could we revel in the Killer Tomatoes? + Could we boggle at AKIRA? Could we snarl with The Wall? +00015: Well, yes we could, but those who wish the FALL of that + fair House were convinced otherwise, for only I, the one + from the future, had heard of the VCR, which is a holy + emblem. +00016: But that's not the point. +00017: For what is there to say but that there was also a purging + of records of the House of Mirrors, the House of Horrors, + and the House Of [CENSORED BY THE CHURCH OF MOO]? +00018: For indeed, these shall bring forth religions SO FUCKING + WIERD even I, the reincarnation of the Grate Prophet + HALF-MAD, shudder to think of it. +00019: For Mirrors was the one who inspired that saying about the + BOOK, and he was the one who taught us how to Teach by Not + Teaching, which was picked up by Lao-Tzu, my Apostle. +00020: And Horrors, she was the one who gave to us OUR EDGE! +00021: For without that edge, where would we be? +00022: And the Church of Horrors shall be truly great, and the + sheer horror of it (for Horrors taught her student well) + shall be enough to end all "organized government" as we + know it. +00023: And as for the House of [CENSORED BY THE CHURCH OF MOO], it + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³Here Ends The Great Book Of Temple Of The Primordial Penguin³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + + + Confuse-Ius Sez: + "Hoo-boy! What a hum-dinger that turned out to be. Well, +from then on in, the Bowly Lurch of the Snate FOO went steadily +downhill from there on in and afterwards from that. It just did a +NOSEdive, I tell ya. Those Church of Gnu people sure gnu how to +throw a party." + -Book Of Things, Chapter 27, Verse 6 + ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» + ²º * * * THE OH SO HOLY BOOK OF º + ²º * *** º + ²º * ***** ° ° ° °°°° ° ° ° º + ²º * ****** ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° º + ²º * ***** ° ° ° ° ° °°° ° º + ²º * *** ° °° °°°°°°° ° ° ° ° º + ²º * * °°° ° ° ° °°°° ° ° ° º + ²º * * * * º + ²º * º + ²º º + ²º V E R S I O N # 2 5 M A R 2 3 1 9 9 2 º + ²ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ + ²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²² + + + + Confuse-Ius Accident: + "Oops! I deleted it." + + +(Copies of the full Book of Quack may be obtained from Abacab at FidoNet 1:163/277) Confuse-Ing Inter-Rapture #13013 + Area MOO, Msg#65362, 1355660401 23:23:23 + From: The Antique Riced + To: Half-Mad +Subject: MOOists Are Weenies + +The Doctrine of OINK! +Codicil to the Great Book of MOO! +(c) 1991-92 - The_Antique_Riced +@ FidoNet 1:163/266.666 + + +The Concept: + +OINK is not a religion, cult, or group. It is a transcendental way +of life. OINK is a statement of existentialBLATT without +limitations. OINK does not conceptualize or justify actions which +are deemed anti-social, for OINKBLATTTS do not comprehend the +normative nature of society. The Doctrine of OINK does not impose +regulations on individuals, for such impositions would be +superfluous to the philosophy of OINK. Individuals who follow the +guidelines of The Doctrine of OINK are indeed OINKBLATTTS, whereas +those finding no sanctuary in the philosophy are not. OINKBLATTT +wannabe's may never achieve the stature of OINKBLATTTS, for they +are guided by ambition, a concept not recognized by The Doctrine of +OINK. + + +The Guidelines: + +1) Procrastination is a fundamental element of OINK. There are +more important things to be doing at the present time than +concerning oneself with tasks that can be put off until a later +date. Many tasks that are avoided will be performed by others in +the interim, thus conserving the OINKBLATTT'S energy allowing for +less-productive activities. + +2) Beer is an integral part of the life style of the OINKBLATTT. +The OINK beer of preference is Red Baron, since this is the only +libation bottled with a label of a pig on it, however OINKBLATTTS +will consume other beer as long as they haven't personally paid for +it. OINKBLATTTS do apply certain rules of etiquette when consuming +alcohol that they have not paid for. Such behaviour includes, but +is not limited to sarcasm. + +3) Attire is unimportant to the OINKBLATTT. Preferred garb +includes grey sweat pants and mustard stained white T-shirts. +Socks and under-garments have little place in the OINKBLATTT's +wardrobe. + +4) Internal organs are generally donated for transplant upon the +death of an OINKBLATTT. Organs generally recommended include lungs +and liver. The liver and lungs of the OINKBLATTT are well broken in +due to long years of various substance abuse. Rejection is rarely +a problem for the transplant recipient, however, after surgery the +recipient generally has strong OINKBLATTT desires. It is not +uncommon to find transplant recipients frequenting bordellos, crack +houses, and booze camps following their surgery. + +5) OINKBLATTTS, like most mammals, have strong desires to have +sexual relationships with other mammals. + + If It Ain't Ranted, It Ain't True DISCORDIANBLATT + +As Written By +DiscordianBLATTT Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + This is the Five Fingered Hand of Eris, the symbol of POEE +(the Paratheo-anametamystikhood Of Eris Esoteric). It consBLATTTs +of two opposing arrows converging to a single point, plus any crap +you wanna shove on to make it look neat. + +Stuff From Principia Discordia + + From the Introduction: + + On the subject of personal encounters with other + Discordians, and sometimes even the most careful among us cannot + avoid them, keep in mind the lodge grips of our Disorder. + Somewhere in the following pages you will learn how to perform + the Turkey Curse. Among Zen BuddhBLATTTs, it is said, "when you + meet another boddhavBLATTTa on the road, greet him with neither + words nor silence." That leaves a vast selection of barnyard + noises from which to choose. + But as you crow like a rooser or QUACK like a duck or MOO + like a cow, scrutinize your brother or sBLATTTer Discordian with + alert interest, never cracking a smile, and see how she or he + will respond. An oinking reply that is too loud indicates a + swaggering bravado which falls far short of mature erBLATTTic + enlightenment, but that is far better than a feeble and + spiritless neigh. + +Some excerpts from an Interview with Malaclypse the Younger +by THE GREATER METROPOLITAN YORBA LINDA HERALD-NEWS-SUN- +TRIBUNE-JOURNAL-DISPATCH-POST AND SAN FRANCISCO DISCORDIAN +SOCIETY CABAL BULLETIN AND INTERGALACTIC POPE POOP + +GP: Are you really serious, or what? +M2: Sometimes I take humor seriously. Sometimes I take + seriousness humorously. Either way it is irrelevant. + +GP: Maybe you are just crazy. +M2: Indeed! But do not reject these teachings as false just + because I am crazy. The reason that I am crazy is because + they are true. + +GP: Is Eris true? +M2: Everything is true. +GP: Even false things? +M2: Even false things are true. +GP: How can that be? +M2: I don't know man, I didn't do it. + + A Sermon On Ethics And Love + + One day, Malaclypse The Younger asked the messenger +spirit Saint Gulik to approach the Goddess and request Her +presence for some desperate advice. Shortly afterwards, the +radio came on by itself, and an ethereal female voice said + + YES? + + "O! Eris! Blessed Mother Of Man! Queen Of Chaos! +Daughter Of Discord! Concubine Of Confusion! O! Exquisite +Lady, I beseech you to lift a heavy burden rom my heart!" + + WHAT BOTHERS YA, MAL? YOU DON'T SOUND WELL. + + "I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible +visions of pain. Everywhere people are hurting one another, +the planet is rampant with injustices, whole societies plunder +groups of their own people, mothers imprison sons, children +perish while brothers war, O woe!" + + WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH THAT, IF IT'S WHAT YOU WANT TO DO? + + "But nobody WANTS it! Everybody hates it." + + OH. WELL, THEN STOP. + + At which moment She turned herself into an aspirin commercial +and left the Polyfather stranded alone with his species. + + + ZARATHUD'S ENLIGHTENMENT + + Before he became a hermit, Zarathud was a + young Priest, and took great delight in making fools + of his opponents in front of his followers. + + One day Zarathud took his students to a + pleasant pasture and there he confronted the Sacred Chao + while She was contentedly grazing. + + "Tell me, you dumb beast," demanded the Priest + in his commanding voice, "why don't you do something + worthwhile? What is you Purpose In Life, anyway?" + + Munching tasty grass, The Sacred Chao replied + "MU" (2) + + Upon hearing this, absolutely nobody was enlightened. + Primarily because nobody could understand Chinese. + + (2) MU is the Chinese ideogram for NO-THING. + + + THE EPBLATTTLE TO THE PARANOIDS + +1: Ye have locked yerselves up in cages of fear -- and behold, + do ye now complain that ye lack FREEDOM! + +2: Ye have cast out yer brothers for devils and now complain + ye, lamenting, that ye've been left to fight alone. + +3: All Chaos was once yer kingdom; verily, held ye dominion + over the entire Pentaverse, but today ye wax sore afraid + in dark corners, nooks, and sink holes. + +4: O how the darknesses do crowd up, one against the other, + in yer hearts! What fear ye more than what ye have + wroughten? + +5: Verily, verily I say unto you, not all the Sinster MinBLATTTers + of the Bavarian Illuminati, working together in multitudes, + could so entwine the land with tribulation as have yer + baseless warnings. + The Book Of Salad +And MORE 83-FBLATTTed Tales Of WOMBAT +(2 for 1) + +ÉÍÍÍËÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍËÍÍÍ» +º o º This Plaque Is Dedicated To º o º +ÌÍÍͼ The Best Salads ÈÍÍ͹ +º º +º Russian Cabbage And Carrot Salad º +º Canadian Iceberg-Lettuce And Tomato Salad º +º Atlantean Beet And Mouse Salad º +º º +º "Every Time You Go Away, You Take A Peice Of Me With You" º +º -Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock º +º º +ÌÍÍÍ»saladsaladsaladsaladsaladsaladsaladsaladsaladsaladsaladÉÍÍ͹ +º o ºsaladsaladsaladsaladsaladsalsasaladsaladsaladsaladsaladº o º +ÈÍÍÍÊÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÊÍÍͼ + + +SALAD RULES +Our Leader: MOO TSE TUNG + + +5th Part .................... Truth ................ Story Teller +4th Part .................... Salad ................. Confuse-Ius +3rd Part .................... Death ................ MOO Tse Tung +2nd Part .................... Taxes ................... Ann Oying +1st Part .................... Logic ................ Ann O'Nymous + + Fifth Part: Truth + +Chapter Five: The Beginning + + In the beginning was there salad. And salsa. But the salsa +was unimportant, and needn't concern us here. The salad was good. +For in the salad there was cauliflower, the avatar of the +cauliflower god, who brings good to everything. + When the human race was young, they used cauliflower for +everything. Upon cauliflower they slept, and of cauliflower they +ate, and cauliflower they stuffed in their ears to avoid hearing +things. Cauliflower was the center of their life, and cauliflower +was the one true good of the world. + But then there came the shadow of broccoli over the world, and +many people began to sleep on straw, and eat the broccoli (which +they couldn't tell from the cauliflower because they were colour- +blind), and stuff cotton in their ears to avoid hearing things. +And they began to become sick and unhealthily pale with the lack of +cauliflower, even though broccoli is actually better for you. + Funny that. + Never mind that story then. + +Chapter Four: A Little After Teatime + + It is five o'clock in the afternoon. I am sitting here +staring at the remains of tea. Biscuit crumbs dust the tea-table, +sullen trays and plates huddle in the corner conspiring about +something, rings of tea surround the former resting places of the +teacups. Everything is in order. I make a point of that. I make +a point of order. But... + Something is afoot. Something else is aleg. Yet another +thing is ahand. Body parts scatter the drawing room. Logic cannot +explain it, nor the fact that the plates and trays have stopped +conspiring and are looking about for another hacksaw. I am about +to join the body parts. I can still speak. But... + It is the end. The order is gone. The endpoint of a line, or +the endpoint of order. And now I cannot speak. It makes no +difference. + +Chapter Three: The Middle + + A good salad is the one thing that makes the Commissioner's +life worthwhile. A good salad is what she looks forward to every +day. There is a Caesar Salad that beckons from a shop window as +she passes on her way to work. But a Commissioner's salary is not +enough for that salad. That salad is worth a year's savings she +might spend on worthwhile things like mops, spare radio antennae, +and chewing gum. That is a salad to be reckoned with. A mundane, +every-day-living kind of good salad is to be had at one's home. +The Caesar salad, that's a salad that only a Janitor First Class +could affort. + A good salad, that's what makes it all worthwhile. But SHHH! +No talking and NO cursing (a salad is nothing to curse about). +Those are the two big rules. Those are the Salad Proclamations. +Janitors even have to follow those. Salad is worth it, though. +The serene silence of the streets is even peaceful, and the free +salad is worth it. Even the Cult Of NO doesn't dare defy that. + +Chapter Two: Way Past Midnight + + I'm a Ten. Top of the line, I chew barbed wire and spit out +thumbtacks, I can tackle the world. One through Ten, and I'm on +top. Not many of us in this world of lowly citizens. Only the +royalty goes any higher, and I don't see too much of them. +Yessirree, I'm ruler of THIS hill o' beans. I can order me a jumbo +shrimp salad in any ol' restaurant on this planet and they gotta +give it to me pretty darn pronto, or WHOOEEE, there's hell to pay. +Of course, what with Good Salad watching us day and night, I can't +be too mean to my underlings. The Salad is All Good, the Salad is +All Powerful. Or so I'm told. When I insult a Three, I have to do +it kindly. When I knock a Five, I have to be gentle. When I put +down a Seven, I say "Have a nice day". Nines... Well, nines are +pretty close to omnipotent me, so I don't mess around with them. +The Good Salad watches. Those Sevens, they get upset when you put +'em down. Gotta be nice. The next guy, he's extra good. "Have a +VERY nice day"... But, well... It goes on. + If you don't, you take a penalty. In the Game Of Life... Is +this the Great Nomic, or what? + Sheeee-it. I'm happy with my Salad, thanks. This sucker's +got radishes, carrot, cucumber, zucchini, iceberg lettuce AND +Boston butter, not to mention cabbage, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, +bacon-bits, and EVERYTHING. At the mere sight, the Eight changes +direction. Heads off for the shop to buy one for itself, yup? +Like I say, damn good salad. Good Salad is watching you. + +Chapter One: The End + + Good Salad is watching you. Good Salad takes on many guises. +Many bodies with the same mind, all alike, all watching you. +Do you resent being watched by Good Salad? Do you think Good Salad +has plans for your life that you won't like? Don't worry. +Good Salad is all good, all powerful, all seeing, all knowing. How +can Good Salad mean you harm? Good Salad will improve you. + Good Salad will improve your life. + Good Salad will improve your diet. + We people of Skumby are fed on a Diet Of Good Salad, and the +poor people of Earth, they were fed on the Diet Of Worms. + Is it any wonder? Their planet is backwards and ignorant. + They have yet to embrace the meaning of Good Salad. + Good Salad: the signpost of an advanced civilization. + + "Hey, Ace!" + "Yeah, WHAT?" + "Skip it." + + All the Earthians can say? SKIP IT? The meaning of Good +Salad has passed them by for now. + But some day, we will be. + Because it has already begun. + +Fourth Part: Salad + +Chapter Five: Salad's Gonna Get Ya + + In case it hasn't reached you, this is the Book Of Salad. +Good Salad is watching you. May the Salad be with you. Live long +and eat Good Salad. + Herein is written all that you need to know to survive on the +long-awaited Day Of Salad. The true nature of the Day Of Salad is +as secret as the Rules Of Mao. If you cannot see it, it will pass +you over, and YOU'LL LOSE! On that coming Day Of Salad, Good Salad +will come to Earth, and the truth will be released to a people too +long crowded in dark and superstitious ways. + No, Good Salad is not just a God. + No, Good Salad is not just a way of life. + No, Good Salad is not just a bunch of veggies. + No, Good Salad is not just a religion. + The Book Of Salad is not designed to teach. + The Book Of Salad is not designed to entertain. + The Book Of Salad is not designed to liberate. + The fine line between Arrogance and Hypocrisy will never be +crossed. Good Salad lies in neither. + The Truest Good Salad that ever came to Earth will be your +liberator. Trust in it, eat it, and enjoy. + +Chapter Four: Questions And Answers + +Q: Do you believe in Good Salad? +A: I believe it exBLATTTs. + +Q: Do you believe in God/The Government? +A: I believe it exBLATTTs. + +Q: Do you believe in the Bible/Koran/Talmud? +A: I believe it exBLATTTs. + +Q: Do you believe in yourself? +A: I believe I exBLATTT. + +Q: Who is your liberator? +A: Partake, and Good Salad will set you free. + +Q: What is Good Salad? +A: Good Salad is just what you want it to be. + +Q: Why will Good Salad liberate me? +A: Why? Don't you want to be free? + +QQ: Where is the Good Salad? +A: The Good Salad is in everyone who partakes of Good Salad. + +Q: When will the Day Of Salad Arrive? +A: When are you free? + +Chapter Three: Salad As Metaphor + + Salad is more than a metaphor. Salad is a metaphyve, or even +a metasyxxe. More than this, and I run the risk of exaggerating. +But consider, even only as a metaphor, without invoking its higher +reason, without ascending to the Good Salad, I speak of salad only. +Any one of these points I make might be the subject of a long- +winded chapter, but that would be against the basic principles of +the Good Salad. + Just as a salad is made of many component parts of many +different kinds, so is a society made of many people of many +different kinds. Just as a salad only tastes good when there is +variety, so a society is only healthy when there is variety. What +makes a salad "good" is impossible to pin down with finality what +makes ANYTHING good, be it person, action, thought, or music. It +is a combination of many things which makes a salad what it is, and +in our minds, it is a combination of many thoughts and memories +which makes us who we are. + And yet, society is not a salad. Music is not a salad. There +is no salad in the average Earthian's head. The Day Of Salad is +coming. Be prepared. + When the metaphyve of Salad is extended too far, it grows +carried away, like any other metaphyve. But Good Salad might be in +anything. Everywhere you look, the Good Salad might reisde there. + +Chapter Two: Salad Is Not A Cult + + We are not devotees of Salad. + We are not cultBLATTTs of Salad. + We are not worshippers of Salad. + We are admirers of the Good Salad. + We have no heirarchy. + We have only five names. + We may each choose the name we wish. + We have these names: Janitor, Salad, Floor, Mop, Actor. + We have no holidays. + We have no rituals. + We have no sacraments. + We have no philosophy. + We have no religion. + We have no gods. + We have no priesthood. + We are STILL called a Cult. + + When the Day Of Salad arrives, the truth will be sorted out. +Until that day, we don't really mind. Each of us has beliefs, +philosophy, religion, even gods. Each of us has a mind, a mind +made of many things, many thoughts and memories, just like a Salad +is made of many vegetables. Each of those minds goes its own way, +like a salad. But just as two different machines working on the +same problem reach the same number, or two completely different +businessmen can wear the same suit, so we all turn to the Good +Salad. We all, no matter how different we are, we all turn to the +Good Salad, we take on that extra suchness to ourselves. Some of +us are mystics, some of us are Catholics, some of us are +futurBLATTTs, and some of us are even MOOists. But we can all +appreciate a Good Salad. + +Chapter One: Mind Games + + Good Salad can be tricky, and hide itself. It can lurk in the +most unexpected of places, and be totally absent in places you +think it should be. It can appear, like a flitting ghost, a siren- +call to destiny, and then be gone the next instant, an +insubstantial wraith. + Good Salad is not an easy thing to accept into your life. It +is not even a hard thing to accept into your life. It is a thing +which, if you accept it, will grow to dominate you, and rule your +life. But you will come to realize that this is exactly how things +ought to be. + If you try to escape Good Salad, Good Salad will follow you, +but if you try to follow Good Salad, Good Salad will escape you. +When you least want it, Good Salad will be underfoot. When you +desire it the most, Good Salad will be gone. Good Salad is a +player of Mind Games. + Good Salad refuses attempts to ritualize it. None of this +number stuff, none of this wordy stuff. Good Salad is just Good +Salad. No Zen, no Tao, nothing special, nothing suchy. Good Salad +is what it is, and makes no apologies. Try to tie it down, and it +will slip away. + + + Third Part: Death + +Chapter Five: No More Death + + Death in the middle. Death's Fool. No More Death! No More +Taxes! Upwingers and Downwingers, Leftwingers and Rightwingers, +Death absorbs them all, Death is a sponge that soaks up all liquid +humanity, the fluid, ever-changing milk of humankind-ness. + And why? Why do we let him do this? I knew him once, Reggie +Death, ol' Grim Reaper himself. Not a nice guy. A bit morbid for +my liking, but I guess that's to be expected. Always glaring at me +from under that big cowled hood of his, saying "It'll be your turn +one of these days, Tung..." + But MOO Tse Tung doesn't bow down to nobody or nothin', not +Good Salad, and certainly not a mere Death. So I said to myself, +Tung, I said, you've got to find a way of ditching this creep +Reggie once and for all. No more Death. + The answer came when my hard-drive died on me. I saw Reggie +sneaking out the door with one of its many many lives before I went +in to use the computer. When I turned it on, the hard drive was as +I had feared: completely dead. "Darn that Reggie," I thought to +myself, and went on to look through my backups. + As I was loading backup disk after backup disk back onto the +hard drive, the answer strikes me. It doesn't really matter if I +die, as long as I have a backup copy that's fairly up to date. +After all, even a slightly dated backup copy is better than losing +everything. A little gap of amnesia is better than Death. + +Chapter Four: Step One + + My question then was HOW? How to make a backup copy of the +human mind? The Good Salad offered no advice, though it was very +tasty. I had to turn away from Salad and towards MOO for an +answer. This I was loath to do, so I shouted the most vile Skumbag +curse word I knew at the top of my lungs (for I was once from +Skumby, before the Damfools blew it up). + "ASAAOOOOXNAMRTAXOOOOOAAAAAAAAANININIRAAATAOOORZKNAI!" + And a vision appeared before me, brought forth no doubt by the +Good Salad I had taken into me, showing the way. It was a +shimmering, glowing, bearlike being, glBLATTTening redly. +"WOMBAT LBLATTTening Substation Six-Sixty-Six acknowledging receipt +of password, go ahead ground control." + The vision was clearly a product of something dark and demonic +within my subconscious, but perhaps interrogating it would give me +some insights. + "I want to make a backup copy of my mind. How do I do it?" + "WOMBAT archives have sixteen methods of soul-storage. Would +you like a cereal lBLATTTing?" + "Yes, please." + "Kellogg's Special-K, Froot-Loops, Cocoa-Puffs, Quaker Harvest +Crunch, Post..." + "What about backups?" + "Sorry, but I've been waiting ten thousand years and helping +the English language to evolve so I could use that one, I don't +want to have to do it all over again when the language changes +again." + "Well?" + "Oh, right... Sorry." + My subconscious clearly didn't like me that day. + +Chapter Three: The Explanation + + As I sat with the vision, discussing my plan to cheat Death, +I was amazed. Different scientBLATTTs and philosophers of +different disciplines came to so many completely incompatible ways +of describing how the mind works, each one mysteriously attuned to +their respective fields of study. + Every one of them had invented itself a little world out of +what it knew already, and fit the mind into it. The vision took +biochemBLATTTry, neurology, psychology, philosophy, computer +architecture, and mathematics, all their world visions, threw in +WOMBAT's own point of view and told me how IT thought the human +mind works. + "Very badly." + Somehow I wasn't surprised. + +Chapter Two: The Upshot + + "The brain is hardware, a physiochemical analog-base neural- +net architecture of connectivity and flux." + "The mind is self-modifying software, initialized at birth, a +BIOS with the capacity to rewire itself at imprinting times, the +so-called Neural Circuits that end up chemically printed on the +brain as reflex arcs." + "The soul is the supplementary files to the mind, the logs, +the configuration files, the heurBLATTTics it developed, everything +but the primary imprints." + The vision was rambling. I could have done with a nice salad. +Not necessarily a Good Salad, but at least something with crispy +Iceberg Lettuce, fresh tomatoes, cucumber, and OOOHHHHHH, the +lucious bacon-bits. + "To back up the mind, we tape the soul. That's easy. Just +read the config files and all the other supplements. WOMBAT has +readers set up for that implanted in half the hats in the world. +That's why the Xennothemians don't want anyone wearing hats. The +dictatorships of the world make people wear THEIR hats, schools +with dress-codes make students wear THEIR hats. If they had free +access to WOMBAT hats, they'd get the memory implants that makes +'em behave the way WOMBAT wants 'em to. They'd have easy access to +WOMBAT subcommand structures. Very dangerous random factors for +the Xennothemian invasion force." + My subconscious is paranoid? I wouldn't have thought so. +Maybe it's all that hanging around with Reggie Death that did it. + "WOMBAT even has special simulators that can extract the +program of the mind and run using a special config file with the +primary imprints in it, to make the backup even MORE accurate. +After all, you wouldn't want us to reincarnate you in a body with +its OWN imprints, would you? Robot OR human." +Now about that salad... I think I have some eggs in the kitchen... + +Chapter One: NO MORE DEATH! + + The vision is gone now, but I have what I wanted. A special +box it told me how to build. Slip the helmet over my head, it'll +read everything off, and stick it on this special crystal tape, a +glimmering record of my mind and my soul that can play back into +another person, or a robot "bug" body. + Coolness. + If only I could remember where I got the tape... The vision +gave it to me, but that was just a hallucination, right? I mean, +the whole "orbiting psychic satellite" thing... Musta been +something I ate. I'd better lay off those eggs. First time I put +on the helmet, I suddenly realized eggs are bad. + "Chicken abortions?" Well, a bit drastic, maybe. + But it just popped into my head... A memory of something I'd +long forgotten. Something that just entered the logfiles of my +brain... + + +Second Part: Taxes + +Chapter Five: Tarot + + It's a fact. There used to be 23 major arcana Tarot cards, +not 22 like there are now. Death is number THIRTEEN right now. +Well, that's why it's an unlucky number, right? But the hint was +there all along. + I mean, in a normal deck of playing cards, there's thirteen +cards in a suit. But! But... In a Tarot deck, there's FOURTEEN +cards in a suit, plus those extra 23... Well, that was a ruse. +There should only have been thirteen in a suit. The fourteen was +just a little reminder, saying "HEY! SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT HERE!" + But we were deaf to it, for only those attuned to Good Salad +can pick up on little details like that. Only those with the +ability to perceive the minutae of what make the dBLATTTinction +between Salad and GOOD Salad. That's me. + The fourteen was a telltale, saying that number 14 was +MISSING. Between Death and Temperance should come TAXES. That's +Death, TAXES and Temperance. There's only 75 cards in the Tarot +deck. Plus jokers. + Someone took those out too. + But taxes... That's just wishful thinking. + You can cheat good ol' Reggie Death with WOMBAT's help, but +TAXES? No way. + +Chapter Four: IRS + + It hangs suspended over the Earth, racing past point after +point, in a polar-bear orbit, lumbering along with cameras pointed +at the Earth. In 23 days, it scans every point on the surface of +the planet with its powerful lenses, beaming down what it sees to +the questioners on the surface. + It is the IRS. Oh, we're told it means Indo-Russian Satelite, +we're told it's scanning for resources, for underground water, +forest fires, things like that. But this baby doesn't have solar +collectors, it has TAX collectors. + +Chapter Three: Canada + + You want taxes, live in Canada. Government is their job. +It's what they dream about at night. It taxes their minds, as well +as their pocketbooks. Canada, land of taxes. Land of government. + All they do is choose GNU leaders and then complain about them +for four years. Then vote for them again. Is it any wonder they +have more taxes than they know what to do with? + Is it any wonder the instruction booklet alone for the tax +forms takes 23 volumes, and weighs the same number of KILOGRAMS? + Is it any wonder? Since Canucks are what they are? + And still they complain. + But, say the damnyankees, if they keep voting for the +buggers, they deserve what they get. + Well, they're probably right. But with all this ice and snow, +what else is there to do up here? + +Chapter Two: Economy + + Taxes on Good Salad? UNTHINKABLE! And yet they seem to +manage to do it. Taxes are an abomination on the face of the +Earth! TAXES MUST DIE! + Taxes are the means employed by that figment of the collective +imagination calling itself government to appropriate the equally +figmentary trading medium MONEY, which only exBLATTTs because of +the government, from every transaction performed by the people. +Looked at that way, taxation is a particularly inconvenient form of +social neurosis. + If you went up before a group of sane people, most likely +those who know about Good Salad, and told them the ENTIRE REASON +they should put you in a position of authority over them for YEARS +was because you'd do your best to manage that particular neurotic +deviation of society, you'd be laughed all the way to Sacramento! +Unless you happened to be IN Sacramento, in which case you'd be +laughed at LEAST to Sao Paolo. + The fact that the people who do this very thing are NOT +laughed at AT ALL indicates either that the world has no sense of +humour, is completely social-neurotic, or consBLATTTs mostly of +lunatics. Or all three at once. + FIGMENT I TELL YOU! FIGMENT! + Accept the Good Salad into yourself, and this figment need +never bother you again. And that's a fact. As near as I can tell. + +Chapter One: No More Taxes? + + This chapter is so foolish as to deserve no explanation. But +I'll humour it for a paragraph or two. + Taxes are a figment, and don't exBLATTT anyway, outside their +own deranged imaginations. Even if they did exBLATTT, you wouldn't +HAVE to pay them if you didn't want to, and moreover, some form of +self-deluding social neurosis will always exBLATTT, and will go by +the name "TAXES". The very idea. MMPPPPH! + + + First Part: Logic + +Chapter Five: R.A.W.: A Parable Of MOO Tse Tung + + One day, MOO Tse Tung was paging through his CDROM collection +on a palmtop, when he finally came to "MOO-Related Books, Vol 23", +and stumbled across the collected works of Robert Anton Wilson. +Tung being a speed-reader, he went through them in a solid 23-hour +burst, and came out the other end with a reprogrammed soul. + After making a backup copy of this GNU soul, Tung slept for 17 +hours and reread Principia Discordia. Tung, an emminently logical +individual, found his brother, backed up his mind, and loaded down +one of Tung's own previous ones into the free brain so he could +discuss the matter objectively, promising to return his brother to +his body when he was done. + First he hacked up both their souls a bit to make them +smarter, then he got the old one to read other stuff, just to +compare. Bucky Fuller, Rudy Rucker, Jim Randi, Ilya Prigogine, +Hans Moravec, Phil Jennings, and other rationalBLATTTs and +scientBLATTTs, and THEN R.A.W. It was two days before they got +down to it. Tung's funny that way. + "But... But it's so DUMB!" + "You're just seeing it from ONE reality-tunnel. All reality- +tunnels are equally valid and invalid. It may seem illogical to +you, but maybe not to someone else." + "So? I GOT that part. The point is he's far too narrowminded +for his own good. I mean, this business about nonlocal +connections, neural circuits... It's so FUZZY. He doesn't explain +how he thinks it works, he doesn't explain the quantum-mechanical +principles behind it, he completely IGNORES Superstring theory, +which would completely explain all the things he wonders about..." + "But the Thinker and the Prover... Whatever your Thinker +thinks, your internal Prover will PROVE! You can't use normal +science to describe it, when ALL things are true!" + "You're brainwashed. That's Orr's Law, 'member? But over the +long run, our science approaches truth." + "But how do you explain all those UFO sightings he talked +about?" + "The inner core of the brain has far more processing power +than the outer shell. It has enough interconnections and neurons +to be able to function in parallel instead of serially. So it can +make an external map of an internal event, caused by nonlocal +Superstring behaviour." + "Huh?" + "Never mind." + The logic was never settled out. The conclusion was that +either Robert Anton Wilson had a pipeline into Absolute Truth, or +he was full of shit. + Or both. There may not be a difference. + The amoral of the story is, never do a direct hack of your +soul to make yourself smarter unless you know exactly what you're +doing. Cause Tung didn't. + + P.S.: He forgot to give his brother's body back. + +Chapter Four: Bugs + + One of the things Tung II came across when his new-self made +him read stuff in order to have an inconclusive argument was stuff +by Phillip Jennings, Hans Moravec, even Eric Drexler, that went far +beyond "BOB" Wilson. And even that was just the beginning stuff. + The mind can't really be dBLATTTinguished from a computer any +more than anything else can. Everything is behaving in ways that +are completely dictated by the laws of nature. Even if they're +laws of nature we don't know yet, they're still there, making +things tick along, completely unlike clockwork. A computer, with +constantly varying inputs and outputs, with the flux of light or +electrons, balancing out, or a neural-net system, with constantly +mutually-adjusting bias systems, is a perfect model of ANYTHING in +the physical world. Everything is a model of everything else, +because all change is isomorphic. + So, why not put the brain in a computer? + Separation by-parts! + This is HOW you read the Soul, the Mind, the Brain. At least +until you learn enough to do it more efficiently. This is the +Model-T of mind-transfer. + Take Drexler's nanomachines, let them gradually figure out +what each neuron in the brain is doing, one by one if necessary... +After all, with the nano-computers being less than the size of the +nucleus, they can devote massive power to just figuring out the +charge balances and chemical functions of each and every single +cell while hiding inside. + As the nano-pooters figure it out, the assembler nanites +replace the cell's function with their own constructs. They can +keep it fed with chemicals as long as it needs it... that's what +they're best at, manufacturing complex chemicals. All it has to do +is mimic the electrical properties and PRETEND to be a cell. + But when every cell in the brain is gone, and replaced by +something PRETENDING to be a neuron... Why bother with this +chemical stuff? String some optical lines between them and have a +rapid transfer of info... They can simulate everything that WOULD +be happening, but much faster. Sounds like a computer, but there's +been no point where anything has changed. At least functionally. + So BLFFFFT! to you people who thought the brain had to be +chemical. + So what about that DNA-RNA-mind feedback that people keep +talking about? Not a problem. Keep a record of the DNA in the +cell's little nano-pooter, on backup, and let it simulate what +happens when the RNA talks to it. It may turn out to be important, +so we may as well leave it there. If we can believe the wild +speculations of Leary (and, of course, Wilson), it's the Sixth +Neural Circuit. No, really. + Anyway, once you've got all this, you just put it in "pause" +mode (like going to sleep, but more complete: it won't hurt, and it +can't kill you) and read off all the "cells" into a computer. A +real futurBLATTTic, massively high-tech affair using nanochips and +optical stuff, or maybe some kind of subatomic thingumy. Once +it's in there, you can start looking for shortcuts. + Cause there's always shortcuts. The human brain was not +designed for absolute BEST solutions. It's just a collection of +"good enough" engineering. Evolution works by natural selection of +the best at any given time until the general population is "good +enough" that it doesn't make THAT much of a difference, and then +stops. The same thing happens over and over, so we've got lots of +sloppy engineering in the brain because circumstances were never +severe enough to make it get any better. (Basically, the hardware +sucks donkeys.) + When you've got the brain as a giant data-file of neurons, how +they work, how they interconnect, and stuff like that, noticing +that you STILL haven't changed anything from what it was when it +was a pile of organic grey-cell mush, 90% of which has nothing to +do with thinking, but rather cell-maintenance and genetics and +stuff... you cut down on redundancy. Well, like you've got your +entire DNA pattern in there about 50 billion times: one for each +cell. So you cut out all but one, and stick in POINTERS for when +you need more than one copy running. And, like you've got lots of +cells with separate info, taking up lots of room explaining what it +all means in EVERY CELL. So you make a table of the data. And a +lBLATTT of connections. You could probably cut it down to less +than one percent of one percent of... and so forth, just by doing +that. So now you've got a teeny-weeny program, and a WHOLE FUCKING +LOT of data to make it run. At least by today's standards. With +maybe 10K of info per cell (worst case), that still makes somewhere +in the vicinity of 10 to the 14th bits. A fair chunk. Like, say, +about a tenth the size of the Library of Congess in the U.S.A. +Which is big. + But I'll betcha you don't need that much per cell. The +electrical sensitivity of each cell is at MOST 100 bits to digitize +the analog value for maximum sensitivity, right? I mean, more than +that and it doesn't ACTUALLY make a difference. And the chemical +stuff can be cut out by redundancy checks. Say all of the cells' +info makes 10 to the 12th bits, plus coding up the RNA and things +in the brain. Say 10 to the 13th bits, before optimizing. After +optimizing, a tiny fraction of that size. Because a lot of that +information is redundant. + Just like programs on a modern computer can be compressed down +to maybe 60% of their size, and still run effectively (with a +compression algorithm that lets them self-extract while running, or +some such thing). Only trying to talk about the mind by detailing +the operation of EVERY CELL and how they all connect, that's SOOO +redundant. You can start chunking things up into groups, and even +if you lose some detail in the chunking, all the overlap between +the groups would let you run backwards to get what you had before. +But as we learn more and more about how the mind works, we start +throwing out stuff we find we don't ACTUALLY need. + I figure you could get the program down to 100 Gigabytes if +you really tried, and KNEW what you were doing. That's the mind, +the soul, not including all the memories. But then, in the real +mind, memories are grouped together anyway, stored in association +patterns. The program has incredibly sophBLATTTIcated algorithms +for uncrunching them from overlaps. When you go to remember +things, you don't really pull it out from archives, you more DEDUCE +IT from the various ways it's affected the program. So it's hard +to tell. + Somewhere around that size anyway. + The result is a program that IS your mind. Or as close as you +can come without actually cut-and-pasting. + If you believe in the metaphysical soul, it's really hard to +see WHERE in this process you'd lose the damn thing. Maybe in the +transfer to the computer? Well, make it a smooth transition, by +swapping out to a remote control of the pretend-cell by the +computer, until it has all of them, and then a smooth transition +from the big loop to a straight path inside. We can smear all +these sharp lines into grey regions if we want. + Thing is, people just aren't USED to thinking of themselves as +abstract mathematical patterns, yo ho ho? But if you try, you can +smear from one to the other without establishing any clear dividing +line. That doesn't mean you ARE one, just that there's no CLEAR +difference. It's all physics anyway, right? + When will this technology be available to the general public? +Well, scope out Hans Moravec's Mind Children for more detail, but +generally I figure by 2050 the whole shebang should be easily +possible. With great difficulty before that, yeah. Like, for a +MASSIVE government sponsored project, we may be able to do it by +2020, but on the whole, WHY BOTHER? If mind-transfer gear will be +available to the public for maybe a month's salary (by today's +standards) in 2050, why not just wait? + These computer-brains are what Phil Jennings called "bugs". +In tiny insectoid bodies, computer brains... Wouldn't you? + +Chapter Three: Future Stuff + + All of this is just simple projection from current technology, +going ahead into the future a bit. By the time all that happened, +they'll be looking back on this as EITHER prophetic and profound, +OR stupid and primitive. Or else it will never happen at all, and +they'll just think we were dumb not to realize why not. + But what with nanotechnology and space exploration increasing +wealth incredibly (see Ann O'Nymous's chapters elsewhere in the +Book O' MOO), and other fine stuff happenin' all over the place, +everyone should be able to afford a GNU body by then. The whole +influx-of-wealth thing. + But if we're all getting richer, assuming all this happens at +all, why stop there? If you're mind is going into a computer +anyway, why just leave it as it is? Why not make a few judicious +twiddles as it goes through? Like, say, increase the number Glial +Cells (which feed the neurons) in your brain by a factor of 100. +When they dissected Einstein's brain, they found he had more Glials +than the average person by a factor of about 5. The extra food to +the neurons did the trick. Or why not make your simulated neurons +hook together more efficiently in the outer layers of the brain, +which currently are VERY badly designed, because they only have 100 +000 years of evolution going for them. Combine the whole shebang, +right? Instant IQ 5000 or more. Prospective lifespan almost +infinite, in this GNU synthetic body. + Don't like the idea? Well, you don't have to do it, right? +Nobody's forcing you, and your kind will either die out, or +continue on as you always have. The rest of us will probably live +in space anyway. By the time 2050 rolls around, the current trend +to space (two steps forward, one step back) will have brought +enough people to near-Earth orbit that the GNU "bugs" will prefer +it out there anyway. + How widespread will it get? In the 1930's, Television was +invented. By the 1960's, everyone in North America had seen one, +and most of them owned one. By the 1990's, everyone in the world +have been affected by the phenomenon, and most people in North +America and Europe can't live normally without one. Automobiles +swung into mass-production in the 1920's. By the 1950's, most +NorAm/Europeans owned one, and the phenomenon was beginning to have +an effect on the environment and the landscape, and by the 1980's, +the effect on the environment was almost disastrous, and many +NorAm/European families owned two. + It takes 60 years for a phenomenon to grow from GNU Thing to +Old thing. One generation to grow up with it, and one generation +to grow up with PARENTS who grew up with it. So by 2110, will most +NorAm/Euros have TWO bug bodies? + But what about everyone else in the world? What about +abolishing poverty? What about world hunger? + Without those human bodies to feed (we can even use our old +throwaway bodies for fertilizer for crops), we can turn North +America into a giant farm to feed everyone else. With that giant +influx of riches from space, poverty will be at an end. This whole +NorAmEuro thing will end, and the REST of the world can join us. + But with faster thinking minds, and more data available... +Will it take all of 60 long years anymore? With no biological +bodies to reproduce with, and no old-fogeys dying off, will it take +so SHORT? + Hard to judge. But the people who DO IT, the people who go +bug, they'll be the kind who like GNU things. The kind who don't, +they'll stay behind on Earth anyway. With bug brains, this whole +neophobia thing might eventually get edited out. Things will speed +up a lot. + The move to space has hBLATTTorically caused GNU Circuits to +imprint on astronauts. A holBLATTTic imprint, the fifth circuit of +Leary? That's the HolBLATTTic-Neurosomatic Circuit, right? So +astronauts get a holBLATTTic imprint on the nearest object, the +Earth, the same way those famous little baby ducks got a "Mother" +imprint on the ping-pong ball, or whatever the experimenter chose. +Same thing going into a bug body. It fundamentally changes your +outlook on things. You take a holBLATTTic imprint on your GNU +brain, the "computer". No longer a clunking vacuum-tube image, the +GNU imprint conjures up an almost mystical vision of swirling light +and atoms inside the thing. + Computer brains. Join now, or be forever left behind. + +Chapter Two: Data Stack Overflow Error + + 2000 years ago, at the beginning of the Pagan ChrBLATTT dating +system, or in 132747 according to the rational Penguin Dating +system, the total amount of information known or recorded to the +human race was, call it, oh, say, X. + It wasn't until FIFTEEN HUNDRED YEARS later that 2X had been +discovered or learned. The next doubling took a sixth the time, +250 years: 4X. Then in 150 years, 8X (all the time rampaging +Westwards a great deal slower than a jumbo jet or a savage herd of +rabid buffalo, but a lot faster than your average hair-growth, +which is something like a meter in five or ten years). Another +150, and 16X were hanging around North America. In 50, and 32X had +shuffled off to Buffalo. Or rather, somewhere west of Buffalo. +Then it took 10 years for 64X, seven more for 128X, and six more +for 256X. Pretty soon it hit its stride at about doubling twice +every five years or so. Wow, eh? + Of course, most of that information is pretty damn useless +records, like the fact that Bill Q. Schexnayder, on the 13th of +January, 135557, did willfully and with intent to buy a MacDonald's +hamburger, charge $2.56 to his American Express Gold Card. But +even so, lots of it is useful, valuable information, like this. + But with all those "unanswered questions" out there, like +those people who say "we have no idea how the brain works", when +that's just plain wrong, or people who think "scientBLATTTs just +DON'T UNDERSTAND how the universe was created AT ALL", when that's +even LESS correct... It's not ignorance or stupidity, or even +willfull pigheadedness. It's just that there's too much +information out there for anyone to be able to corelate. And +corelating the info is the most important part of being able to +figure out the answers. + That's where bug bodies come in. With a big enough brain for +hardware, custom-built for just pennies by cheap nano-assemblers, +and a little tweaking of your intelligence by a handy software knob +in your head (so you can optimize your smarts for whatever hardware +you're running on), you can make yourself smart enough to learn +EVERYTHING there is to know. At least now, anyway. But the faster +people corelate, the faster things double. You may never be able +to catch up completely, but with special programs designed to +filter out only the important stuff, and eliminate redundancy, you +can come pretty darn close. Especially if you keep getting smarter +and smarter at the speed computers are doing today. Or even +faster, since there'll be more money, smarter designers, cheaper +technology... And with smarter designers making themselves better +brains, we may well be able to keep up with ourselves. + The postbiological world may be complex, but you can be pretty +fucking sure we're not going to let it get away from us, like we +did to the biological world. We just barely escaped from nuclear +and/or environmental catastrophe, and we STILL haven't escaped from +poverty and/or hunger, which is threatening half the world's +population RIGHT NOW! But we will. We'd better. + We won't let THAT happen again. + +Chapter One: Postbiological Life + + What will life be like in a postbiological world? + +1) The salad will be much better. + Since all food will be simulated, we will be able to run +analyses to determine, for each person, which salad will please +them the most. + +2) Sex will be a smaller part of life. + Not because sex will be any less important. Probably the +reverse, what with everyone being mentally able to know every other +person in the world, split into many different people, "get to +know" all of them at once, in more ways than us mere biological +beings can possible imagine, what with having only five basic ways +of doing it. It's just that our life will become so much vaster, +so much MORE to it, that proportionally, sex will be a minuscule +part of our lives. We will probably find even MORE interesting +things to do. + +3) We'll FINALLY Meet The Aliens. + We suspect the reason we haven't met any yet is because +they've all gone Postbiological. When we're on the same level with +them (at least vaguely), we'll be able to interact. Of course, +they'll be so far beyond us, they'll hardly be recognizable. As we +get better and better computers, we'll be moving our minds farther +and farther down the scale of SpaceTime, towards the SuperStrings. +If we finally transcend that barrier (project this around the 23rd +century, if everything goes as we've been suggesting) where the +universe is inside every point of itself, inside every loop of +curled spacetime, we'll meet every race who's ever done this before +us, omnipresent (they're inside every point in the universe), +omnipotent (they can emerge anywhere and affect quantum waves), +omniscient (their immense intellect can see everything in the +universe), and benign (we know this from the empirical fact that +they haven't killed us off yet). The communication between +individuals is so complete, they will seem to be one enormous mind. + +4) Life goes on. + On Earth, everyone who didn't join us, everyone who lacked +faith that their souls would be accurately recorded, will keep +going on as they always did. With all the "cream skimmed off the +top", that is, everyone with a pro-technology bias gone to be a +space bug, technological civilization will collapse. Since most of +the population will have gone, they'll go back to an agricultural +society, and have to evolve back some pro-tech people in a few +thousand years down the line, and go through this whole thing all +over again. Odds are they'll destroy any record of what we went +through before they let their descendants go on with life. Since +we'll have taken our industry with us to space to avoid polluting +the Earth, the clock will basically be set back ten thousand years. + +5) Click, start over. + The bugs basically vanish from the picture in the 23rd +century, after a period of collecting together somewhere to save on +speed-of-light problems. After about 2125, the Solar System should +seem very much like it did in 2125 BC. + +The End Of The Books Of Salad + + And Now An Unscheduled Chapter + + Hi. I'm an anonymous non-denominational "ChrBLATTTian". I'm +not really much for the Jesus guy. I kinda like that Puerto-Rican +Voodoo-Surfer thing, actually. But I guess you could call me a +Bible Prophecy nut. I don't know much about this MOO thing, or the +Salad, but this guy wanted me to proofread this Salad book, and I +couldn't resBLATTT asking to write a few paragraphs for it. This +won't take a page, really. + See, that last part, Part One: Logic... That bit kinda got my +interest. The last few chapters looked an awful lot like the +Prophecy of the Rapture. In the Last Days, when all these various +signs and things shall come to pass, all believers will be lifted +into the heavens to dwell with God, see? + Well, modern technology, politics, and other things, have been +bringing about Bible Prophecy left, right, and center. The +politics in Europe are bringing about the Ten Nations requirements +of lots of prophecies. The cashless society and the GNU microchips +being used for money are obviously the Mark Of The Beast. War and +natural disaster are increasing all the time. Just as the Bible +predicted they would, thousands of years ago. And back then, they +had no way to predict the Mark Of The Beast technology. + And now this Rapture thing? We rise up into the heavens, just +as it says, leaving the unbelievers and the unfaithful behind. +Just as it says. We dwell in the kingdom of God. We become like +lesser angels to an omnipresent, all-seeing, all-knowing, all- +powerful, all-benevolent God. Because we won't have joined fully +into the unity for a while. And sex to an Angel, such as we will +be, is nothing, as it will be to us. + And this God is just like the Bible's God. Time is nothing to +it, because it exBLATTTs in every point in space and time. "A +thousand ages in thy sight..." God is everywhere and everywhen. +This can hardly be a coincidence. All of these connections must be +more than MERE coincidence. I'll tell you what I think. + As the bugs move into the Kingdom Of God (that Superstring +thing), and get able to move in time, they carry the message of the +Prophecy and the Word of God back through time to their +descendants, so that these things might all come to pass. The +authors said it would be to make "Neophiles" evolve, because they +don't like the religion that forms around it? It seems a little +suspicious to me. + But the point is simple. All true ChrBLATTTians would not +object to making this transformation. The prophecy of the Rapture +is coming to pass very soon, and, as we should have expected, God +does not make things simple for believers. We ourselves have to +work towards it. We have to exercise the free will God gave us in +order to ascend to the Heavens and join the Kingdom of God. + All I ask is that you think about this. And consider how much +of the Bible makes sense when seen in this light. Please think +about it. APPENDIX VI + +as written by +Preest Jeffrey Morton + + +FORENOTE: + + This here being a serious plea unto the people of Earth in +general and the Holy Church of The Grate MOO in particular. "BOB" +has revealed these words to make it absolutely clear that there is +a Massive Conspiracy afoot, despite the Fact that there Isn't. + Jehovah-1 has not released these words, due to the fact that +he doesn't exBLATTT, that he is a small Penguin in the Antarctic +with an IQ of 7457856, and is therefore not inclined to release +such trivial words, and that they aren't true anyway. This is +actually a pigment (no, not a figment...) of Jeff's deranged +imagination, the entire (remaining) contents of his only book. + Although Jeff has jealously guarded these words from others, +by placing on them an evil and most Bungicious Spell, called the +Spell of Copyright, by the incantation of the Shannon Spell this +evil work has been Dis-Spelled, enabling us to repeat all of his +work. MOAH HAH HAH HAH! + For those who are interested, the Shannon Spell goes like +this: + + [Chant to the tune of "OMM, OMM, OMM your boat"] + + Information Is The Inverse Of Probability... + Ess Equals Kay Logg Double-Ewe... + Therefore... + No Information ExBLATTTs Outside Itself... + MOO + OMM + + Copying Is Impossible... + For Only Probability Makes Information... + Therefore... + This Has Not Been Copied... + MOO + OMM + + After reciting these words, the Annoying Mind Drug was hacked +up into little bits, and some bits were tossed as confetti at the +Rocky Horror Picture Show. This ritual performed, we were able to +use a probability amplifier (called a WomBLATTTic Inducer, for no +good reason other than that it sounded good at the time) to pull +out random fragments of the remaining confetti and assemble some +words. + Therefore, we are not liable to lawsuit because, well, aw, +screw this, we're not, okay? "BOB" was the victim of a deluded guy +who thought he ran a Publishing Company, and who subsequently +slapped a big COPYRIGHT on the thing when "BOB" wasn't looking. +The Great MOO has instructed us to ignore this fact and pretend it +wasn't there + This also enabled us to edit it shamefully, like making it +more ErBLATTTic, and BLATTTifying it (Or GrATTTifying, if you like, +but "BOB" didn't seem to) and even throwing in totally gratuitous +footnotes. + Or maybe it was that this is an Ancient Atlantean text which +bears a passing resemblance to the Annoying Mind Drug written by +Jeffrey Morton, through no fault of ours... Sorry about the +similarity, guys... + + Anyway... + + Without Further Ado... Here Is The Annoying Mind Drug... + +Annnnnnny moment now... Praise For Jeffrey Morton + + Censorship Of Form And Substance + +"A book of major importance to the future of civilization in a free +world. I only wished it was longer, I was so absorbed." + -The GNU York Times Book Review + +"A . . . [great] book." + -Skeptical Review + +"An ambitious work by an ambitious author. His skill at crafting +the subtleties of form and content eluded me . . . I wish I'd read +it . . . for longer." + -The Lazy Reviewer + +"A remarkable exploration of the depths to which censorship has +infiltrated [our] society, and the ways in which messages may be +conveyed without content. I loved this book's . . . ending." + -The London Times Book Section + +"Neat." + -Alvin's Late Nite Review + +"Censorship is going to make a big impression. I don't know when +I've seen a book this important . . . . since Crime And +Punishment!" + -*** ******** ****** + +"It's time someone wrote this book! I'm glad Morton wasn't the one +to do it." + -George Bush + +"[A] . . . [fine] book . . ." + -Pentagon Book Review + Also By Jeffrey Morton: + +Military Intelligence and other Oxymoronic Idimoms + +(CENSORED BY THE U.S. MILITARY INTELLIGENCE) + +Book Without Body + +Is There Life After Birth? + +Ravings Of A Deranged Philosopher + +Nonsense And Other Necessities + +Who SAID There's No Such Thing As A Free Lunch? + + + Also Reprinted By Gecko Press: + +My Life In A Walnut Tree by Rudy Himmelmann + +Crimean Punishment by Vladimir Lenin + +Leo Tolstoy by C. Rime and P. U. Nishment + +Heart Of The Wombat by Gregg Bennford and Dave Brine + +Self Defense And Alien Space Weapons by Perry Noyd + +Mutterings by Larry Kole + +Mumblings by Alex Kole + +Murmurings by Fred Kole + +Stammerings by Albert Kole-Shute + + Gecko Press Edition + +Censorship Of Form And Substance + + A Gecko Press Book, Published by arrangement with + Geeko Press International, Geeko Falls NY. + + PRINTING HBLATTTORY + + Geeko International Editions + + April 1 1992 + April 2 1992 + April 3 1992 + July 13 1998 + April 4 2406 + + Gecko Press Editions + + April 5 2406 + April 6 2406 + April 7 2406 + July 17 2412 + April 8 2820 + + All Rights reserved, except the right to reserve all rights +except the right to reserve most rights other than the right used +to reserve all rights but this one. + Copyright 1992 by Geeko Press International + This book may not be reproduced by photocopy, modem, + verbal recital, memories, photographs, telephone, vision, + understanding, comprehension, or any other means + For Information address: + Geeko Press International + 1 1st Street NY, NY, 10023 + + ISBN 0-4353-5748399-XXX + + Published almost simultaneously in Canada, the USA, + the CIS, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, + and of course, Venezuela + + THE CONTENTS OF THIS VERSION OF THIS BOOK HAVE BEEN CLEARED + BY THE UNITED STATES MILITARY INTELLIGENCE + (AND BY THE PENTAGON) CONTENTS + + CONTENTS Page 1 + + INTRODUCTION 2 + + Section 1: Censorship Of Form 3 + +Chapter 1: Censoring Newspapers 3 +Chapter 2: Censoring Books 28 +Chapter 3: Censoring Television 45 +Chapter 4: Censoring Radio 67 +Chapter 5: Censoring Thought 95 +Chapter 6: Censoring Speech 120 + + Section 2: Censorship of Substance 143 + +Chapter 7: Censoring Science 143 +Chapter 8: Censoring Art 170 +Chapter 9: Censoring Literature 186 +Chapter 10: Censoring Satire 206 +Chapter 11: The Other Point Of View 276 + + Section 3: HBLATTTory Of Censorship 277 + +Chapter 12: Censorship Before Cities 277 +Chapter 13: Pre-ChrBLATTTian Censors 333 +Chapter 14: Pre-Columbian Censors 381 +Chapter 15: Censors In The Americas 415 + + Section 4: Form And Substance 565 + +Chapter 16: What is Form? 565 +Chapter 17: What is Substance? 573 +Chapter 18: Why the DBLATTTinction? 591 +Chapter 19: How To Censor Form? 621 +Chapter 20: How To Censor Substance? 632 + + ENDNOTES 703 + + EPILOGUE 710 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY 715 + + INDEX 721 CHAPTER ELEVEN + The Other Point Of View + + In the course of criticizing censorship, we must, of course, +pause to think about the other point of view. Certainly, if I were +simply to look at one side of the issue, while ignoring the other, +I would be guilty of the HEINOUS crime of censorship of an opinion, +and also of a great hypocrisy. + Therefore, I turn my attention to the ornery and nigh-on +impossible task of justifying censorship in some circumstances. + Firstly, I must say that any people who would censor anything +must be justified in their own eyes, or else they wouldn't attempt +to do it in the first place. So, in the spirit of openmindedness, +not putting down any individual point of view, we should allow this +opinion to have its fair share of this book. Thus, this chapter. +Let us try to put ourselves in the frame of mind of someone in this +position and see why such horrendous deeds are perpetrated. + First, the argument of stability. Surely, says that criminal +against humanity, the censor, our illustrious society must be +preserved exactly as it is, without any form of change, or anarchy +and destruction will result. Therefore, any books which promote +thinking in GNU ways, incite revolution, or otherwise work to +change society must be banned. + Secondly, the argument of intolerance. If you dislike a +certain group, say for a ridiculous example, people whose last +names begin with "D", you would be likely to be tempted towards +censoring all forms of expression those poor people try to muster, +such as books, music, etcetera. + Thirdly, the argument of secrecy. If you are trying to +prevent a secret from becoming known, for motives good, bad, or +ugly, you will try any means at your disposal to stop the +publishing of a book which announces that secret to the world. +Obviously, this can be good or bad. The secret might well be +harmful if known, and so it might be well to keep it hidden. On +the other hand, one must consider who should be the judge of what +is harmful. It might be better to just let all the facts be known +and let the truth sort itself out. Or maybe not. + Fourth and most convincing, the argument of hate literature. +You might find someone publishing hate literature against (say) +people whose names begin with "C", and try to stop them. +Censorship might even seem reasonable in this case. Maybe. ENDNOTES + + 1 The problem involved with editing of newspapers clearly +were the factors responsible. However, it should be noted that +without the initial pressure from the Chilean government, these +tangled heirarchies of editorial conflict would never have emerged. +[Nonsense, of course, but nevertheless a valiant argument proposed +by the author: while the conclusion is patently wrong, the +arguments are apparently quite convincing. -The Editors] In this +case, it has been suggested that the Chilean government's ATTEMPT +at censorship was at fault. [Again, the author has reached a +blatantly false conclusion: this editor has determined that the +Chilean Government had nothing to do with the attempted sabotage by +militant opponents of the editorial staff. Purely intellectual +arguments were involved.] + + 2 Obviously, censorship of thought is virtually impossible, +since determinging which neuronal pathways correspond to which +memory triggers and semantic signals is a tremendously elaboate +detasking process. [The editors suggest readers ignore the +author's futile attempt at using fancy words to make it sound as if +he knows what he's talking about: language-stuffing is a tool of +communBLATTT running-dogs.] + + 3 The key problem has been in arriving at a reasonable +definition of any of these terms. "Art" has proved the most +elusive word to define, since what may be art to some can be pure +garbage to another, in the most literal sense. [Some might suggest +that it was garbage anyway, regardless of what anyone thought while +creating it. The author has failed to consider this point of +view.] This is, perhaps, akin to censoring thought, since art is +in the eye of the beholder. Here is where the line between form +and substance is blurred. [Again, the author is attempting to +cover up for his fuzzy thinking. It is clear to the editors that +form and substance are two types of the same thing, and the +argument is bunk. Get a life, author!] + + NOTE: Remaining endnotes were lost during a fire in the +editor's office during publication. We apologize for the +inconvenience. However, most of them were stupid anyway, as the +author scored over 98th percentile on the Snidely-Pierce losertest +anyway. BIBLIOGRAPHY + +Aaron, Rupert Moss, ed. Censors of the Mind. Bedford Falls NY: +Buntam Books, 1983. A classic work on the nature of the mind and +its own censors in nature. + +Anders, John. Form And Matter. Anders Falls NY: Geeko Press +International, 1965. A book dealing with the nature of Form versus +the nature of Substance, describing the essential differences and +similarities. + +Atlas, Alexandra. *************. Smeggy Falls NY: Quirrl Books, +1976. A book dealing with + +---. Redundancy and Censorship. Smeggy Falls NY: Quirrl Books, +1975 . A book confronting redundancy as examples of censorship of +original thought. Uses the works of Alan Hansard as central +evidence. + +Avalon, Roberta. Censorship In The Pre-Columbian Era. Smeggy +Falls NY: Quirrl Books, 1974. A book on the censors active in +pre-Columbian America, the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans. + +---. -----------------. Smeggy Falls NY: Quirrl Books, 1978. --- +------------------------------. + +---. PreColumbian Censorship. Smeggy Falls NY: Quirrl Books, +1981. A third book on Pre-Columbian censorship. + +Bat, Otto Hal, ed. Fleeing Censors. Ugly Falls NY: Ugly Falls +Books, 1951. A hBLATTTory of minds struggling to leave areas +affected by censorship. + +Bat, Otto Hal. CENSORED BY THE MILITARY. Ugly Falls NY: Ugly +Falls Books, 1963. CENSORED BY THE MILITARY. + +Buddford, Barbara B. Thought Patrol. Skunk Falls NY: Skunk +Press, 1985. A book dealing with the future of allowable thoughts +in our increasingly repressive society. + +---. Rat Race. Skunk Falls NY: Skunk Press, 1986. The follow-up +to Thought Patrol, Miss Buddford deals with the reactions of people +in a heavily censored society. + +---. Operation Mind Crunch. Skunk Falls NY: Skunk Press, 1987. +A look at the conspiracy to suppress ideas about + +Egston, Milton. Nonsense and Noncensors. Albuquerque Falls NY: +Rag Time Publications, 1957. A provocative examination of the +notion that only nonsense is totally free from censors, and only by +failing to convey any information can communication go unmolested. ---. Insubstantive Evidence. Albuquerque Falls NY: Rag Time +Publications, 1961. Another work on the notion that only +communication lacking substance can be uncensored, and that +censored material lacks substance. + +---. You Censor Me, Sir? Albuquerque Falls NY: Rag Time +Publications, 1963. The tour-de-force of Milton Egston, in which +he seeks to demonstrate the impossibility of censorship. Banned in +the USA. + +Feldman, Ivo. What Happened To The Ds? Wunga Wunga Falls NY: +Lark Press, 1991. A strange and compelling account of missing +authors. + +Fentiman, June. GNU York Censorship. Athabaska Falls NY: +Athabaska Books, 1979. Tales of censorship of Broadway, the GNU +York Times, and other famous GNU York institutions. Told in +narrative style. + +Fezik, Ahmed. Early Suppression. Gnubluktuk Falls NY: Glub Press +International, 1955. Suppression of knowledge during the periods +spanning Early Babylonia to the Roman Empire are covered in this +comprehensive book. + +Gecko, Floyd. Censor? WHAT CENSOR? Topeka Falls NY: Topeka +Books, 1988. A semi-lucid and highly eccentric monograph on +tabloids as refutation of censorship. A clear case of a good hard +knock on the head. + +Gunn, B. B. Bang Bang Pow Pow. Cowboy Falls NY: Shootem Books, +1984. A book. + +Guppy, Shark N. Big Fish, Little Fish. Guppy Falls NY: Random +House, 1977. A lengthy diatribe against the "big fish" companies +who allegedly plot against smaller enterpreneurs using censorship +of advertisements. Another good argument against allowing "G"s +into writing. + +---. Stop Picking On Me. Shark Falls NY: Random Choice, 1987. +Guppy's first book after his mysterious ten-year disappearance. A +short pamphlet describing attempts by the U.S. Military to censor +entire people. + +Hankley, Bertha Q. Censorship and the Scientific Method. +MethodBLATTT Falls NY: MethodBLATTT Books, 1951. Dr. Hankley's +profound and interesting treatise on censorship of science, and the +impossibility of censoring knowledge. Banned in the USA. + +Hansard, Alan. Stuffing Nonsense. Guppy Falls NY: Guppy Press, +1976. A work, very similar to the central works of Milton Egston, +suggesting that censorship is impossible because only +noninformation can be suppressed. ---. Stuffing Nonsense 2. Guppy Falls NY: Guppy Press, 1978. A +work, very similar to the central works of Alan Hansard, suggesting +that censorship is impossible because only noninformation can be +suppressed. + +---. Stuffing Nonsense 3. Guppy Falls NY: Guppy Press, 1980. A +work, very similar to the central works of Alan Hansard, suggesting +that censorship is impossible because only noninformation can be +suppressed. + +Hermann, Beatrice. Self Reference. Smeggy Falls NY: Quirrl +Books, 2997. Hermann suggests that self-reference, both direct and +indirect, is the primary cause of rejecting ideas on all levels. + +---. Time Warps. Smeggy Falls NY: Quirrl Books, 1862. One of +the first books ever to suffest the exBLATTTence of time warps, +giving evidence from throughout hBLATTTory, not only of time warps, +of of a high-level cover-up of their exBLATTTence. + +Hexton, Milly. Hypocrisy. Quirrl Falls NY: Smeggy Books, 1968. +Milly Hexton examines the attitudes of people thoughout hBLATTTory +in this monumental classic on Hypocrisy and self-contradiction, +tackling censorship, as well as self-reference as the basis of +intelligence. + +Hofstadter, Douglas R. Metamagical Themas. GNU York (Falls) NY: +Basic Books, 1985. An unusual book dealing with all matters of +thinking and thought. His twBLATTTy and humourous bibliography is +one of the highlights, in which, among other things, he refers to +a single nonexBLATTTent book in a swarm of real books. + +Huxley, Aldous. Brave GNU World. Quirrl Falls NY: Smeggy Books, +1913. Not the famous one, but a book of the same title by a +different author of the same name. The premise is also the same, +however, and the style is not noticeably different. + +Iam, Sam. Dr. Seuss And Me. Bungy Jump Falls NY: Splatter Books, +1986. A revealing look at the hBLATTTory of evading censorship, +told in rhyming narrative. Reveals the ways in which such +hBLATTTorical figures as Yertle T. Turtle and Sam Iam masked true +meanings. Banned in the USA. + +Infor, Mation. Claude Shannon. NY Falls NY: GNU Yorker Books, +1957. A study of the investigations of Claude Shannon, relating to +the problems of how much information is required to convey a +certain idea. Strange and convoluted arguments. + +Jones, Keeping U. Rat Race. Smeggy Falls NY: Quirrl Books, 1988. +A homage to Barbara Buddford's book of the same name, suggesting a +GNU approach to Buddford's theme of modern Western mindset leading +to censorship. Kealy, Glenn. How I Tried To Sue The Government. Bungy Jump Falls +NY: Splatter Books, 1991. A story of censorship of the legal +system, and how the government evades legal charges. + +Kuntz, Miguel. Life And Times Of Miguel Kuntz. Autobiography +Falls NY: Autobiography Press, 1987. THe story of Miguel Kuntz, +who had nothing to do with this topic, but led a very bawdy life. +Banned in the USA. And in the USSR. + +Ladder, Jacob S. Visions. Bungy Jump Falls NY: Splatter Books, +1953. A clear account of censorship of thought from the earliest +times. + +Lamperd, David. The Art Of Obfuscation. Mumble Falls NY: +Mbpmekdampmpm Press, 1990. A vague description of how people in +high ranking positions get around the freedom of information laws +by making their meanings unclear. + +Letterman, Albert. Much Ado About Nothing. Albuquerque Falls NY: +Rag Time Publications, 1949. A refutation of the exBLATTTence of +censorship. Letterman's faulty premise is that if anything were +really important, nobody would censor it. + +---. As You Like It. Albuquerque Falls NY: Rag Time +Publications, 1951. Another refutation of censorship, and the +"growing tide of liberalBLATT". Letterman suggests that though +nothing is really censored, nobody really needs to read more than +the Bible and a few other books anyway. + +---. Confessions of a Cynic. Athabaska Falls NY: Athabaska +Press, 1972. A stunning revelation after twenty-three years of +bible-thumping, that Letterman was joking all along. Suggests that +censorship didn't seem to be a problem anyway, though. Confusing +and muddled. + +Mation, Infor. Claude Shannon. Bungy Jump Falls NY: Splatter +Books, 1969. Yet another work on the researches of Claude Shannon, +discussing whether censorship is possible in a universe in which +information structures can exBLATTT. + +Morton, Jeffrey. Censorship Of Form And Substance. Geeko Falls +NY: Geeko Press International, 1992. A confused and muddled work, +largely nonexBLATTTent, in which the author attempts to make some +kind of point. Exactly what the point is seems to be of little +importance, as the author satirizes censorship and plays with self- +reference. Heavily annotated bibliography. An ego-trip of a book. +Not worth reading. Banned everywhere. + +---. The BugBook Chronicles. Geeko Falls NY: Geeko Press +International, 1991. A strange tale, partly fictional, of +censorship of entire universes. Banned everywhere. Banned twice +in the USA. Notte, Y. Ever. Needlessness. Topeka Falls NY: Topeka Falls +Press, 1987. A curiously titled book dealing with the reasons why +the second half of the alphabet is curiously under-represented in +final initials of names. Suggests a chilling conspiracy. Banned +a record of 97 times at once in the USA. + +Orby, Richard von. Pre-ChrBLATTTian Censors. Albuquerque Falls +NY: Albuquerque Press, 1956. A study of the origin of censors in +Greek and Roman cultures. + +---. ChrBLATTT as Censor. Albuquerque Falls NY: Albuquerque +Press, 1959. A curious and irreverent look at the true symbolic +nature of the books of St. John the Divine. + +Principle, Peter. James H. Boren: Fact, Or Fiction? Smeggy Falls +NY: Quirrl Books, 1978. A curious study of bureaucracy in action, +and the inevitable loss of information by interoffice memos. + +Quirrl, Smeggy F. Freedom Of The Press. Athabaska Falls NY: +Athabaska Press, 1985. A great book on the nature of publishing +and freedom of information. Published under unusual circumstances. + +---. The Truth Behind Quirrl Books. Athabaska Falls NY: +Athabaska Press, 1987. A relatively stunning revelation about the +secret activities of one of the least known publishing companies in +the world. Cornerstone in the eventual collapse of Quirrl Books. + +Robinson, Crusoe. How I Survived Seven Years On A Desert Island. +Smeggy Falls NY: Quirrl Books, 1971. A strange story about a +fictional character who writes a book about an author writing a +book about someone staggeringly simlar to the main character, not +unlike the author himself. A strange self-referential book. +Tackles problems of Form and Content in an amusing way. + +Rime, C, and Nishment, P. U. Leo Tolstoy. Ugly Falls NY: Ugly +Press, 1978. One of the only books known to have written its own +author. Discussed thoroughly in the book "C. Rime And P. U. +Nishment" by Leo Tolstoy, and in the present work as an example of +Form vs. Substance. + +Seuss, Dr. The One Book I Never Wrote. Smeggy Falls NY: Quirrl +Books, 1967. The only adult book written by Theorore Geisel, it +shows how to evade censorship by masking content in a different +form. Much like the present work, but shorter, with better rhymes, +and more pictures. + +Tolstoy, Leo. C. Rime And P. U. Nishment. Smeggy Falls NY: +Quirrl Books, 1917. About persecution. One of the only books +known to have written its own author. Discussed thoroughly in the +book "Leo Tolstoy" by C. Rime and P. U. Nishment. Not to be +confused with "Crime And Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky or +"Crimean Punishment" by Vladimir Lenin. Ulman, Anne T. Aunty Ulman. Skunk Falls NY: Skunk Press, 1989. +A narrative tale about family relations in a world full of +censorship. + +von Lichter, Erich. U.F.O. Coverup! Big Cliff Falls NY: Big +Bluff Books, 1978. A huge book documenting the evidence of an +alleged U.F.O. coverup. A good argument for censorship. + +Wyeth, Andrew. ChrBLATTTina's World. [CENSORED] Falls NY: +[CENSORED] Books, 19[CENSORED]. One of an ongoing series of +efforts to capture the substance of the same work in a variety of +formats. [CENSORED] in the USA. + +Yu, Hei. Names. Styx Falls NY: Stonez Press, 1973. A curious +book about how we unconsciously censor meaning by lBLATTTening to +names. + +Zeimann, Andrea. The Art Of Satire, The Satire Of Art. Bungy Jump +Falls NY: Splatter Books, 1956. A compendious tome about +satirical aspects of art. INDEX + + + + + + + MOOist Excuses + or, What We Did On Our Summer Vacation + or, Copyright? WHAT COPYRIGHT!?!? + (I don't see a copyright, do YOU see a copyright?) + + Oh yeah, we forgot to mention at the beginning... The Book +of MOO may NOT be copyrighted, and therefore, we aren't stealing +from Jeffrey Morton... All of this is just a portion of its book +that happened to get plunked in here by accident, when all the Book +of MOO was being set out... It just sort of got whooshed in +through space and time by a wormhole. Yeah, that's it, a wormhole, +triggered by the accidental use of the High Preest's Wormhole +Hat... + We only mention this because the guy ain't Hip to the Meme +Propagation Model of True Thought, which means that no matter what +we do or say with his Annoying Mind Drug it only makes it stronger +and bigger, just like what the ChrBLATTTians used to say about the +devil. Umm, that comparison wasn't literal. Honest. Anyway. So +therefore, he's liable (or their publishers) to sue us... + That's the only reason all this is here. + Not to annoy you. + Honest. + Not even to take up space. + After all, this space isn't important. + It's not like TREES are dying to make this space. + Or this one. + Or even this one. + Unless this is the PRINTED COPY of the Book of MOO, in which +case whoever printed and/or Published it should be ashamed of +his/her/its/their/hir/woogy self of allowing this crap to sit here +when it was intended as a joke for the Electronic Medium ONLY, and +not as an excuse for murdering more innocent trees. + Honest. COW APPENDIX VII + +as COWwritten by +High Preest Floyd GecCOWko + +LEARNING TO + + ÛßßßÜ ÛßßßÜ ÜßßÜ ßÛß ÛßÜ Û Û Û ÜßßÜ ÜßßÜ Û Û + Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û + Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û ßÜ Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û + Û Üß Û Üß Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û ßÜ Û Û + ÛßßßÜ ÛßßßÜ ÛßßßßÛ Û Û ßÜ Û Û Û ÛßßßßÛ ßÜ ÛßßßÛ + Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û + Û Û Û Û Û Û Û Û ßÜÛ Û Ü Û Û Û Û Û Û Û + ÛÜÜÜß Û Û Û Û ÜÛÜ Û ÛÛ ÛÜß ßÜÛ Û Û ßÜÜß Û Û + + For the Aspiring Cult Leader + + INTRODUCTION + + So you want to be a cult leader do you? Or, at the very +least, you want to recruit lots more MOOists to serve you in some +strange MOOist version of serving. Fine. But, like every other +cult in hBLATTTory, you'll be needing to brainwash people. What, +you thought you joined of your own accord? So, I'll tell you how +to go about establishing a cult. This is so you can make a MOOist +"front"... Mostly we work in the open, but just to be confusing, +we like to have little GNU Age people working for us and pretending +not to, along with some of those "nasty, evil evil evil" cults that +pretend to be SatanBLATTTs but are actually MOOists wearing funny +costumes. I'll tell ya ALL about classic brainwashing stuff. And +in mighty long words, too. + Boy I use the damn things a lot, don't I? + + Section One: Pavlovian Conditioning + + As you probably recall, Pavlov was a Russian scientBLATTT who +was studying the bahaviour of dogs. In his experiments, among +other things, he measured salivation. What he did was this: + For the first little while, the dogs would hear a bell +ringing, and then be given some red meat to eat. Becuase of the +meat, they would begin salivating. Every day, just before meals +were given, Pavlov would ring the bell, and measure their +salivation. Soon, he began to take the meals away occasionally, or +ring the bell when there were no steaks around. Sure enough, the +dogs began to drool with the bell, long before the steaks had even +shown up, and even if they never did. So, Pavlov had caused the +dogs to associate the sound of the bell with the taste of meat. It +is this trick that allows you to train your dog to do tricks. By +giving them a reward (milk bone, pat on the head, scratch the +stomach) every time they do it right, they learn to associate doing +the trick right with getting a reward. This is what is known as +positive reinforcement. When the dog hears the command, he +anticipates the reward, and does the trick as you want. +However, when the reward is so ingrainedCOW in his mind as being +associated with the trick, he begins to accept doing the trick +correctly as a reward in itself. This very nicely eliminates the +need to keep training him with a reward, because his brain gives it +to itself when he does what you want him to do, thereby +conditioning himself every time you give the command. (Still, the +occasional "Good Boy Rex" helps keep it intact, particularly if he +associated "Good Boy Rex" with getting a milk-bone). + This is why some people, conditioned by our society, consider +that "doing the moral thing is a reward on its own". They have +been brought up such that they are always rewarded for doing the +right thing, and punished for doing the wrong thing. Usually, when +they reach teenage years, they begin to experiment and see how far +they can stretch the limits of what is right and wrong, and this +conditioning loosens a bit. + This kind of reward for doing the right thing is, as I said, +known as positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement will +produce in people the kind of behaviour you want, but won't +eliminate the kind you don't. In order to do that, you have to +deliver a punishment for "doing it wrong". In the case of the dog, +you could yell "BAD" or something, which makes the dog scared, but +will soon cease, because he stops doing it. He learns to associate +the negative behaviour with getting yelled at (or in the case of a +poor trainer, getting hurt). But a good trainer shouldn't hurt the +trainee. Aside from the fact that it's cruel and mean and +generally not very nice at all, it doesn't work too well with +humans, as they tend to hit back. A dog won't hit back, because +it's a pack animal, and will blindly follow the most dominant +individual in it's immediate family. + That fact is due to imprinting, which I will be discussing +later on in this chapter. But back to conditioning. + So, when your hypothetical cult wants to convert a GNU member, +you have to give rewards for the right kind of thinking, and +punishment for the wrong kind of thinking. Since you are dealing +with human beings, you can use subtle kinds of reward and +punishment. A simple "VERY good" can be a very powerful tool in +the hands of someone whom the person looks up to, or even just +respects. Since humans can think about things, and make up things +out of their own minds, you don't have to be too harsh, unless +you're trying to produce a huge change of behaviour, when you're +giving the punishment. + Examples of subtle forms of pavlovian conditioning punishment +would include saying "No, no, you idiot. You've got it all wrong." +in a serious voice. This would have no effect at all on a dog, but +a person who is serious about wanting to earn your respect will +torture themself about it until they get it "right" and earn their +reward, when they will begin congratulating themselves on getting +it right. + However, the person will probably not want to earn your +respect if they perceive you as arbitrary and whimsical. So you +have to be consBLATTTent -- at least at first. Also, it is a good +idea to make sure the subject thinks of you as fair, and even kind. +If you, for instance, act once in a while as if you are about to +hit them, but control yourself, they get nearly as much effect from +the punishment, but also, because their mind is tense, afraid, +waiting to be hit, they're open to perceptions (fear and other +strong emotions prepare the mind for a GNU imprint which will be +accepted as much stronger, in proportion to how strong the emotion +is --more follows in the section on imprints.) The perception then +is that you're kind, and generous, but only to people you like. +They then want to get in on your good side. + Unfortunately, not all people begin by wanting to be on your +good side. If you were, for instance, trying to brainwash someone +into robbing a bank and killing people, when that's totally against +their personality, they will not accept what you say as being +important, and subtle forms of reward will not work. For +suggestions on what kind of rewards and what kind of punishment +will work with these people, see the section on the hBLATTTorical +cultBLATTT methods, and the next paragraph. + This form of conditioning is the basis of all brainwashing. +All forms of brainwashing consBLATTT of breaking down old patterns +of thought, the previous associations, and putting in GNU ones, as +well as trying to break down old imprints, and plant GNU ones. +Unfortunately, breaking down imprints is difficult, as we will see +in the next section. One famous organization that uses these +methods of brainwashing to take a group of widely varied +individuals, and turn them into a squad of robots, is, well, yes, +The Moonies, and the ScientologBLATTTs, but more important, the +U.S. Army. The Army's brainwashing sessions, though, are called by +a different name. They're known as "Basic Training", "Boot Camp", +or, in the marines, "Turning A Man Into A Marine". + The Armed Forces technique is simple, highly effective, and +quite easy to understand. They begin by abruptly lowering your +standard of living. The effect of this is to make simple things, +which nobody would normally think of as a reward, to have that +effect (such as "Well done, soldier"). As punishment, they use +simple physical punishments like a hundred pushups or eighty laps +around the track. The constant gruelling physical exercise makes +the subject weak, and unable to resBLATTT with any effectiveness, +as well as beginning to break down some imprints. + + Section Two: Imprints + + We've all seen the example of imprinting that's so famous. +It's those cute little ducklings, who imprint on their mother at +birth, but instead of imprinting on their mother, they imprint on +something else, such as a dog, human, rubber ball, etcetera. + This is the basic idea of what imprinting is. It is similar +to pavlovian conditioning, but it is virtually instant. It takes +only one occurence of punishment or reward (or whatever) to make an +imprint. The stimulus is not always punishment or reward, though. +When the ducklings imprint on the rubber ball, they're following a +natural instinct: to follow whatever moves and pretend it's their +mother. Usually the first thing they see when they hatch IS their +mother, and it works. But since a newly hatched baby duckling has +no previous experience, it doesn't know what it's mother should +look like. So nature gives it this instinct to imprint on the +first thing it sees that moves. Which is a problem if the mother +is dead. + Imprinting, then, is a natural instinct, by which we pick up +an immediate conditioning about something with which we have no +previous experience. While this can happen with almost anything, +there are only a few basic ones that exBLATTT throughout our +species. + To give an example, we will look briefly at the case of the +Poison Hollandaise Sauce. At one point, there was this batch of +bad Hollandaise Sauce, which was used by a certain restaurant. A +large number of people were poisoned, and became very ill, and many +had to have their stomachs pumped. Strangely, more than half of +them suffered the same effects the next time they ate Hollandaise +Sauce, even though there was nothing wrong. So you see, a single +occurrence made them conditioned to relate sauce with getting sick, +without any of this pavlovian mucking around. + Studies have shown that imprints are only formed or broken in +times of intense emotion or unusual GNU stimulus. Examples of +times when all members of the species would form an imprint: at +birth, during their first time having sex, when they first read +something, at death (only we never notice what it is). This has +led to the idea of four or five basic imprints that exBLATTT in our +minds and control a good deal of our personality. These relate to +(1) The Mother (2) Being Potty-Trained (3) Learning To Read (4) +First Having Sex and (5) any other violent incident. + These four main imprints are produced when the person goes +through a traumatic event (in the sense of causing change). When +they're first born, they imprint on the mother, and this affects +their relations to other people. The second occurs when they're +potty trained. This is the first time they are forced to be +rational or methodical about something (i.e. you can only go when +you're on the toilet, not when you're off). This is what Freud +called the Anal Stage of psychological development. People who are +obsessively or compulsively methodical usually have an unusually +strong second imprint, and Freud called them Anal Retentive. So do +most teenagers. The third imprint, first reading, affects the +intellectual nature of the person. If they're given an imprint +which suggests that reading is bad, they tend to neglect academic +pursuits. This affects how they think when they try to think +logically. The fourth imprint is formed when they first have sex, +probably when they first experience orgasm. The partner at the +time generally sets up the sexual preference for the rest of their +life, although it is obviously not permanently fixed. + All of these imprints, like the Hollandaise Sauce incident, +are formed by strong emotions, feelings, or stimuli. When trying +to brainwash people, it is very helpful to make one imprint on that +person which is based on the idea you're trying to implant in them. +This is why many ancient cults use fear during their process of +initiation, while others, of a different leaning, will invite the +initiate into a mass orgy. This overloading of the senses, by +fear, pain, or pleasure, opens them up for a GNU imprint, at which +point the instructor is at hand, along with other members of the +cult. + This technique is also used in brainwashing. A single moment +of terror can be more effective than months of conditioning. +Certainly it is the only "Quantum Leap" that you can expect. After +this moment, the imprint that is formed will often make the subject +want to get on your good side, making the techniques of pavlovian +conditioning effective. + + Section Three: Cults, Meditation, and HBLATTTorical +Brainwashing + + Modern brainwashing is hardly a GNU invention. Ancient cults +have been using conditioning and imprint methods during their +initiation rites for as long as religions have exBLATTTed. Even in +primitive Stone Age cultures in Europe, young boys would often be +sent into caves at night with the men to undergo some frightening +ordeal, after which he would end up as they wished. + In a now-extinct american indian tribe, a ritual known as the +O-Kee-Pa would be used to initiate braves to become warriors, and +imprint them by overloading them with pain. Generally they would +be starved for four days, then the medecine man would carve hunks +of flesh from their arms and chest, and they would be suspended by +wooden stakes driven through the gashes behind the muscles for a +day, then run around in circles until they dropped either from +exhaustion or death. Strangely, it was smallpox brought from +Europe that finally did in this hapless tribe, not male suicides. + The Indian cult of Kali Worship is a fairly typical example +of the progress through which an initiate must go to become a +member. Kali-Worship, also known as the Cult Of The Black Mother, +is actually, in its final form, much like the final form of any +other mystical religion, such as various forms of Yogic +practicies, or BuddhBLATT. When finally the initate works his way +through the ranks to become a Guru, he is taught that Kali is a +fiction, that all religion is false, and that enlightenment can +only come through meditation and moderation. But the initiate, +entering the Cult, would never deduce this to look at the temples. +Kali, the object of their worship, is presented to the initiate as +an evil force, who demands sacrifices, and death. Mass orgies are +held, and there are sects of the cult whose sole purpose is to kill +people. All of this is based on the principle of brainwashing. +By overloading the senses of the initiate, the cult members hope to +break down the imprints and conditioning of the subject, and then +build them back up again to their liking, ready to look for +enilghtenment peacefully, but firmly dedicated to that particular +religion. + ChrBLATTTianity, on the other hand, uses a firm morality and +threats of eternal punishment, coupled with very little reward, +that is more typical of the methods used by the Army. This kind of +system, while it can be more effective, if the teacher is well +versed in methods of brainwashing, rarely produces GNU converts or +joinups except those conditioned by our society to accept these +groups. This is why, when they have progressed to a certain point, +with previous conditioning broken down, the groups lose a lot of +members. Many people will go to church, but very few progress much +further than that. + Perhaps the most important aspect of a successful initiation +into a group, society, cult, or serious religion is the fact that +imprints must change. For this reason, some strong stimulus has to +occur at some point during the ceremony, ritual, or whatever. In +a ChrBLATTTian Church, this doesn't happen, but since most of those +in the church have grown up surrounded by this church, the imprints +required are already there, and breaking them down would be +counterproductive. However, in most other, less recognized +religions, the best form of intense emotion is fear. + Fear is good for this, not only because it is one of the +strongest emotions, but also because it is usually followed by a +Please Protect Me reaction, left over from childhood, when the kid +would run screaming "Mommy! Mommy!" at the sound of thunder +(Mother Imprint). So, the church, or group of people doing the +brainwashing, will replace that imprint, namely, the Mother +Imprint. This is why so many cultBLATTT joinups disregard their +families, regarding the church as more important. In almost every +cult or primitive culture, the test of initiation is marked by at +least one ordeal of fear. In each case, it is vital that the +subject honestly believes that he or she may be in danger of death. +The threat of death, or at least the apparent threat of death, is +the only thing which can break down the imprint as completely as +the brainwasher wants. However, this threat of death is almost +invariably a staged act, and the initiate is never in any real +danger at all, unless the initiators are really warped. In many +religions of Africa and the Caribbean, this ordeal is often +manifested in the form of a monster of some kind, or a person +dressed up as something from local superstitions, such as a zombie +or other creature, which will attack the victim in some ritual way. + Another common motif is that of displeasure. The initiate is +led into the presence of someone he is told is a high ranking +member of the organization, who will question him as if to find out +how well he has progressed. The questioner will then pretend to be +upset at how badly the initiate has done, and in many cases, a +ritual sword or dagger is used, occasionally with a bulb that will +squirt false blood. Usually this is staged so well that the +initiate, who has already been drugged or otherwise dBLATTTracted +during the ritual, will pass out from fear. If this occurs, the +brainwashers are virtually guaranteed success. + Meditation, on the other side, bears a close resemblance to +many of the more peaceful machines discussed in the other file. By +seeking to blank out the mind and relax totally, the initiates of +even these, the most supposedly free religions, are unwittingly +brainwashing themselves. Of course, the Gurus don't think of it +that way, and these groups do not try to indoctrinate people with +all sorts of nasty stuff like SOME cults I could mention, but +won't. In these organizations, the brainwashing only goes to the +first step, tearing down of previous conceptions of the world. The +meditator is then usually left to find his or her own +enlightenment. This "enlightenment" could be described as a state +in which all previous sets of responses, conditioned, imprinted, or +otherwise, are gone. + In religions like SufBLATT, there is some of each of these +ideas. Both the tearing down, and building up occur. During Sufi +meditation, the initiate often bows of circles his head over and +over, while repeating over and over a mantra. These two aspects +have both been used in modern neuroscience as methods of reaching +various states of mind. The rotation or motion of the head has +been used in a large machine known as the Graham Potentializer, +which has been shown to be extremely effective in inducing the +relaxed state needed for easy brainwashing. Reciting mantras can +be seens as a way of blocking out external sound and replacing it +with flat, featureless sound. Also, concentrating on mandalas, +those designs so frequently used in Eastern MysticBLATT, has been +shown to be a highly effective way to "blank-out", in which state +the subject can then be brainwashed very easily, making them accept +Sufi Doctrines such as the one which states that the initiates will +be obedient unto death and give everything they own, symbollically +and literally, to the leader of their group. + + + Mind Reading In 1 Easy Step + + INTRODUCTION + + If you don't believe in psychic abilities, this chapter will +probably tell you how those damn frauds convince the suckers that +they can tell the future or read your mind. However, if you DO +believe in psychic abilities, you should bear in mind I'm not +saying that they don't exBLATTT, just that it's possible (GASP) to +fake them. + One other thing, however. If you're going to ignore my advice +"don't do this, stupid" and do it anyway, don't be afraid to +actually FIND THINGS OUT to use... A spy network is a bit of an +elaborate way of putting it, but try to know as much as you can. +It's more convincing that way. + Just remember, kids, don't try this at home. This here is for +information purposes ONLY, so you can tell when someone's faking +you out. But, if, on the OFF CHANCE that you decide to try some of +this, hey, I got nothing to do with it. + Without further ado... + + +CHAPTER ONE: PSYCHIC READINGS + + Okay, so you walk into a psychic fair with a thousand dollars +in your pocket, and a hankering to blow it all on people telling +you about your own personality. Instead of getting a +psychologBLATTT, you decided to learn who you are from someone who +waves crystals in your face and sticks chicken bones up your nose. + Well, nobody's perfect. + So anyway, here you are, and you have all this wonderful cash +and you're trying not to get ripped off. What are you going to do +to find out who has the real gift, and who doesn't? Well, let's +say you spend all your money on different readers and compare them. +How can you tell someone who can really peer into your mind and see +your soul from someone who's just a very good fake? + Well... Bottom line? Okay. You can't. + + Section 1: Personality + + The problem lies in the basis of personality. You haven't got +one. If you, like I, look into all kinds of annoying mind drugs +discussing the mind and the brain, looking for an answer to how the +mind works, you'll find out very fast that nobody really has a very +clear idea. + Oh, sure, there are theories about the Ego and the Id, and the +Subconscious and the Jungian Archetype, but if you actually pay +attention, you'll notice that half of it contradicts itself, and so +does the other half. How can you be sure who's giving you an +accurate reading of your personality, if you don't even know what +a personality IS? It's like asking someone to give you a BORSCHT +reading, if you don't know what BORSCHT is. (It's a kind of +Russian soup made from beets and cabbage, served with yogurt or +sour cream) Well, let's look first at the modern theory of the +Mind. + I lied, you see. There are some ideas about how it works. +This stuff is taken from Marvin Minsky, who is probably the single +most respected scientific dude in the field of how minds and brains +work. Anyway. + The basic idea is that your mind doesn't exBLATTT as a single +object. It's made up of lots and lots of little subdivisions which +Minsky calls AGENTS. Each agent does a particular kind of thing, +like building things from blocks, making sentences from words, +eating Russian Soup, sleeping, breaking things, and so forth. Each +agent has a lBLATTT of sub-agents, which do smaller, simpler jobs +for the main agent, and some agents can even call on other whole +agents to do things. When you have something you need to do, it +starts as a lBLATTT of agents to activate, and sub-lBLATTTs to run +through. If the job is a very complicated one (like fixing a +Porsche after you just smashed it into a tree and blew it up (not +that this has ever happened to me or anything)) then the lBLATTT +involves a lot of sub-lBLATTTs and so forth. + The important thing that we get out of all this is that there +are a whole bunch of little sub-personalities running around inside +your head trying to do their own thing. Each agent tries to be +activated as often as possible. This is why if you aren't really +sure what you want to do, you start thinking of all kinds of +things, as different agents try to get control of each other. + So what? + Simple. Your personality has a whole bunch of different +aspects. The smarter you are, the more likely you are to have lots +of DIFFERENT agents that all have fairly equal skill in getting +control of each other. (This is my own rule, and has very little +to do with the kind of intelligence measured on exams etcetera, but +it seems to work okay.) If I tell you "You're Generous", that +makes the Generosity agent more powerful inside you, and you see +that you ARE generous. At least sometimes. + So? + + Section 2: Psychic Readings + + Okay, this is where the fun stuff starts. + Now since a person is a whole mess of conflicting impulses, +those personality readers (palm readers do this a lot) can tell you +what you want to hear, and you start looking for bits of your life +that reinforce that. You'll find a spot where the agent they +mention was in control, and say "HEY! NEAT! It really works!" + The thing is, people are very similar to each other in terms +of the way their agents get control. Unless you have a severely +warped head, you're VERY likely to have a personality that falls in +a certain range. Here's a nifty bit coming up. + Back in 1948, a guy called Bert Forer did this experiment to +measure how similar people are in personalities. He did this by +beginning with the principle "Tell 'em what they want to hear" and +then building from that, and common aspects of personality that +different people share. He made a paragraph that was supposed to +be about "YOU" and your personality. It was given to a large group +of people, and they were asked to rate how well it fit them, from +0 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Of the 31 people he gave it to, only +FIVE rated it lower than 4 (very good) and the LOWEST was 2, which +meant "Average". The average of the ratings was 4.3 and when the +same test was done 30 years later, a different set of people got +almost identical answers. + Here's the paragraph: + + "Some of your hopes tend to be pretty unrealBLATTTic. At +times you are outgoing, friendly, and sociable, while at other +times you can be tired, introverted, and reserved. You have found +by experience that you shouldn't reveal too much about yourself to +other people. You pride yourself on being an independent thinker +unlike other people, and you don't accept other people's opinions +without decent proof. You prefer a certain amount of change and +variety, and you don't like being pinned in my restrictions and +limitations. Sometimes you have serious doubts over whether you +did the right thing, or made the right decision. You tend to be +reasonably controlled and secure on the outside, but you are often +worried and nervous inside. Your sexual adjustment has presented +some problems for you in the past. While you have some weaknesses +and faults, you are usually able to compensate for them. You have +a great deal of unused ability which you haven't turned to +advantage, and you tend to be critical of yourself. You also have +a strong need for other people to like you and admire you." + Not bad, huh? If you want to go out and convince someone that +you can see into their thoughts, all you have to do is to use some +of those sentences and they're almost certain to hit at least half +the time, probably much more. If you mask this with a little +jiggery pokery with tarot cards or looking at funny squiggles on +their palms, it usually dBLATTTracts them from actually noticing +that you're not saying anything. + + Section 3: COWCold Reading + + Okay, you've probably all heard the words "cold reading" +before, but maybe you don't know what they mean. Cold Reading is +basically the method of "fishing" for information. If you want to +convince someone that you actually have psychic powers, you will +want to tell them all about themselves, since that's what they most +want to hear about. So, Cold Reading is very a very handy method +to know. + To begin with, you throw in one of the generic sentences from +the "personality profile" paragraphs above. Then you watch their +expression, to see how they react. Since they don't have time to +sit down and think of how they want to react, they will almost +certainly show you right away a little bit of info. Then you begin +to ask leading questions from that... "I sense feelings about your +mother..." and watch their faces, lBLATTTen to what they say. + Generally, by using a little bit of common sense, you can take +their reactions and their answers and put together a pretty decent +picture of what they're like. Another thing to do is to begin +introducing your "psychic knowledge" of events in their lives right +now. You start with generic things like "You feel a little anxious +about something coming up in the future," or "Your sex-life is +stimulating, but doesn't fully satisfy you." Since this sort of +thing is very vague, and could apply to almost anyone in various +different ways of interpreting what it says, you can very easily go +from a vague impression through to more specific things by +narrowing it down, until you seem to have known something all +along, in your infinite wisdom. Ayup. + + Section 4: Conclusion + + So basically, using a few simple methods, you can use very +vague information, which is almost certainly true for anybody at +all, and use impressions and reactions to narrow it down, +pretending you knew the results all along. This really is very +impressive. + + + +CHAPTER TWO: GNU AGE + + Suppose you're at this same psychic fair I mentioned before. +You walk through the aisles past stalls and stands, your thousand +bucks miraculously reappeared to look at these "new age" folks. +There are "seers", "aura readers", "channellers", and people who +fiddle with crystals. So what's the deal here? You decide to have +a look at what they're doing. + They tell you to harmonize your energy focus, to concentrate +on your past lives, or concentrate on a hunk of fused sand. What +gives? + + Section 1: Gullibility + + If you're trying to make a few bucks as a GNU age psychic, or +a channeller, there are a few things that you should be aware of. +One of the most important of these is the fact that unless someone +is specifically watching you to spot stupid things, they aren't so +much interested in WHAT you say, as HOW you say it, and if they +are, you'll end up looking fake even if you're not. If you act +sincere, and go into a trance when it seems appropriate, you can +easily make most people accept that you're receiving information +from the dead, or controlling some karmic energy in a crystal. +The critical thing is to explain everything. Whether or not they +actually understand what you say is irrelevant, as long as they get +the impression that you're trying to be honest and open about what +it is you're doing and why it works. Explain how a crystal can +focus karmic goodness on their chakra points, or how hypnosis can +reveal past lives, or how going into a trance can bring forth +spirits of the dead. + Now comes the important thing. When people hear a real +scientific explanation of why something works (or why it can't be +real) they don't usually understand it. They come out with the +vague impression that "it has something to do with gas pressure" or +the like. The important thing is to use the right words. So, I've +prepared a lBLATTT of the most impressive words to use in any +explanations. Here it is: + + Chakra Crystal Perceive + Vibration Harmonics Sensations + Spiritual Entity Peace + Resonance Light Love + Energy Mystic Interconnected + Meta- Psychic Balance + Natural HolBLATTTic Trance + FocusCOW Reincarnation Channelling + Astral Plane Center + Netherworld Being Concentration + Psyche Mental Precognition + Karma Limbo Telepathic + Aura Universal Soul + Cosmic Harmony Essence + + Any of these words, interspersed in talking to your subject, +will be so impressive they'll completely ignore the fact that they +don't know what they mean. + Using the methods described in Chapter One, such as Cold +Reading, you can convince the gullible (that is, almost everyone) +into thinking that you're getting knowledge about their minds and +souls (whatever those are) from some spirit in the astral plane +(whatever that is). This is particularly useful for channellers, +who want to make convincing contact with something BEYOND. + + Section 2: GNU Age Things + + The problem with GNU age psychic readings is that they've +gotten away from the glorious old days of sitting around a table +and getting rappings on the table from a spirit of someone you want +to talk to. Now you have to go through ancient egyptian gods and +goddesses, 6000 year-old spirit lumps made of thousands of souls +from all periods of hBLATTTory. + However, this actually helps the GNU age psychic, because if +you're not able to figure out what the subject wants to hear, you +can contact some random spiritual entity or whatever you like and +make up some spiel about cosmic harmony and universal love +resonating from the psychic plane. Or whatever you like. + Crystals, however, are supposed to be an energy focus. So you +should use as many of them as possible, on chains, loose, in +settings, or whatever. Use them to unclog blocked auras, summon +spirits, fix Maytags, or whatever. Nobody seems to be really clear +on what they're supposed to be good for, so if a situation arises +that you don't know what to do with, you can use crystal-power. + Either that or you can say your connection with the astral +plane has been severed. In this case, you should act surprised, +hurt, or confused. Going into a trance might also help. + GNU Age is full of vague generalities about universal love and +harmonic spiritual energy resonances. Basically, some kind of +energy and light is supposed to permeate the universe and vibrates +in some karmic way. Whatever. By using this kind of theme to your +babblings about nothing, you generally reinforce whatever it was +they wanted to hear anyway. + + Section 3: Auras + + So just what IS an aura? Well, it's supposedly a kind of haze +of energy (there's that word again) that surrounds the body and +head. By looking at the size, shape, and colour of this aura, +you're supposed to be able to tell all kinds of things about the +mind of the person inside. Here's a classic case where you'd use +your lBLATTT of personality traits in Chapter One, and the Cold +Reading technique. You can very simply look at the aura and say you +see some kind of colour, which means (whatever), or that it's +clogged up around a chakra. + The problem here is that the person you're trying to fool may +know someting about how auras are supposed to work. For this +reason, you have to make the colours sound right, and give as few +details as possible. This is always good advice: don't say +anything when you can talk about nothing. + Auras are usually going to be golden yellow, so if you get the +impression that the person is fairly normal, you can say that. The +other colours of the aura area basically what you'd expect. Red +means anger or love or something, blue means sadness or calmness, +and so on. Try to avoid mentioning colours unless you don't have +to. It might be advisable to "fish" for information. That is, try +to find out (without actually asking) whether anyone has ever read +their aura before, and if so, what colour the reader thought it +was. + Of course, you don't have to blindly follow along with +the things they tell you... After all, they might be suspicious if +you just say "So, what colour did she think your aura was? Yup. +That's what I see all right." You can say something like "Well, +there is that ASPECT to it, but I can also see some..." and so +forth. Correcting other "psychics" can only make you look better. + Also, the aura is related to the chakras. If the person +you're "reading" knows about this sort of thing (which +unfortunately a few of them do) they'll know all about what chakra +does what, and how things are put together. If they do, criticize +them for being too analytical, and tell them to take a holBLATTTic +perspective (or better still, a pill). + However, you ought to know roughly where the chakras are, and +what they're supposed to do. Chakras are supposedly centers for +this "energy", which they draw in from the universal light there, +and focus (that word again!) it into the personality. A loose, +unclogged chakra means that aspect of the personality is nice and +energetic. So, what are the chakras? + There are a whole bunch (seven) of chakras along the spine or +in the body around there. There's one on top of the head, which is +the "spiritual" chakra, one on the forehead, which is the mental, +thinking chakra, one on the throat (speaking, communicating), one +near the base of the spine (sex) and so forth. You don't have to +make too many references to them, but if you feel a need for being +authentic, you can look them up in any good annoying mind drug on +the matter from an Occult Shop, or the Religion/New Age part of a +library or bookstore or whatever. + A large aura means an outgoing personality, and a small one +means an introvert. So if the person is outgoing, tell them they +have a large aura, and if they seem to be a bit mild-mannered, they +can have a little one. Of course, first impressions aren't always +right, so take a little time to make sure that you've got it right. + + Section 4: Conclusion + + Well, basically, if you're vague enough that people don't +notice that you're not saying anything, you can get away with all +kinds of stupid things. Use impressive words to draw attentiom +from the fact that you don't know what you're talking about, and +make sure to tell them what they want to hear. + + Okay, now you've got the basic idea of what's going on when +you want to fake psychic talents. Now comes the fun part. What +use can you put it to? Heck, get hold of a TENS machine or some +kinda audio mixer and go all out for your display... + + Try the "magic" 7.83 Hz setting on the TENS while giving a +patter about the "universal love" or "chakra harmony" that I +mentioned before. Since this setting causes the brain to +resonate with the Earth's magnetic field, producing a feeling +that exactly matches those words, your victim/subject will +probably fall for anything else you try. In fact, it was by +meditating until their brains got on this frequency that the +gurus thousands of years ago first thought of this patter. + Play a tape in the background with any of the special sound +patterns designed to induce gullibility or any of the Alpha states +(2-10 Hz or so) Since this can easily be inserted into a GNU Age +music tape, you should be able to pass it off with ease. + Of course, using these machines costs a lot of money +if you're not either seriously interested, or phenomenally +rich. However, if you really want to convince someone you're +psychic, they REALLY REALLY REALLY help. + + So why would you WANT to convince someone you're +psychic, aside from the sheer experimental psychology of it all? + Well, this is where we start get back to brainwashing. I +think you start to see the point here. But just in case, I'll +elaborate. If you recall, it's easier to condition someone if +you're in a position of authority, or else a position of trust. A +psychic can be in both of those at once. After all, if someone +thinks you know everything there is to know about them, they HAVE +to trust you, and you're sort of naturally in authority over them. + So now is when you begin the sneaky stuff. + + If you're set up as a cult, or indeed, ARE a cult, then it's +easy to explain why you're psychic. If someone sees you with these +"unexplainable" powers in a high position in the cult, then +OBVIOUSLY they're gonna start thinking about whether you were +telling the truth after all, when you began telling them about the +spirits, Gods, or whatever it is you're telling them about... Use +it to gain their trust, their fear, or whatever's appropriate. + + Some people may say I'm being cyincal and nasty about this +whole brainwashing thing, but you gotta remember, you're constantly +being brainwashed by advertisements from all over, so if you don't +know this stuff, your brain could end up seriously FUBAR. + Besides... It's FUN! + Anyone who tries to tell you that I'm doing something wrong by +telling you about this is clearly brainwashed by the Big Masters, +who don't want anyone else to know how to do it. Everyone has the +right to alter their own mind, or even that of someone else. The +more EVERYONE knows about this, the happier we'll all be. + Just remember kids, don't try this at home. HONEST. + No, really. Don't be trying this at home. + Trying this at home not reccomended. + We take no responsibility for you trying this at home. + Even though other people's brains are always being changed, +one way or another. + But still, that doesn't give you the right to do it ON +PURPOSE. + Heaven forbid there should be a point to it all. + Look, just don't try it at home, okay? + Be a sport, huh? The government wouldn't like it if you tried +it at home. + So come on, let's all join together in a celebration of +sameness! + Aw, fuck it. Go ahead. Try it at home. + See if I care. APPENDIX VIII +as Written By +Preest Lloyd Taco + +Initial Sets Of Nomic Rules +Such As Would Begin The Holy Game + +FIRST: Good For Beginners + +(1)(Big Idea)(1992-0220-1200) + Nomic is a game in which the purpose is to change its rules. +No Nomic Rule may EVER be totally unalterable, but rules may be +altered only by adding GNU rules which may supercede old rules. +Rules contain a title-bar containing relevant data such as serial +number, title, date/time, submitter, votes received etcetera, and +a main text body, which states the effect of the rule. + +(2)(Precedence)(1992-0220-1200) + Precedence is determined on a rule-on-rule basis, when two or +more rules conflict. Initially, all rules have the same degree of +effect, but if a disagreement occurs, players suggest and support +possible precedence arrangements which COW compete in any agreed-on +manner. The winners are recorded in a judgement file stating which +parts of which rules supercede which. + +(5)(Turns)(1992-0217-1200) + A turn initially consBLATTTs of adding one rule to the +ruleset, after having a vote to determine its popularity. If a +rule receives less than one third of the vote in favour, it may not +be added, and the turn passes to the next player, who is determined +by cyclic alphabetical order. A rule takes effect immediately upon +addition. Each player gets exactly one whole vote. + +SECOND: Bureaucratic And Annoying + + This ruleset may be found in the book Metamagical Themas by +Douglas Hofstadter (which ya really ought to read anyway). The +following rule works well with it: + +301. Doughnuts In Voting + If a player has doughnuts on his or her person, the doughnuts +will vote for or against the player or the proposition involved in +a vote according to the type of doughnut, using the following +schedule: + Plain 1/2 for player + No Hole, Creme 2/3 against player + No Hole, Jelly, Not Grape 3/4 for player + No Hole, Jelly, Grape Abstain + Doughnut Hole 1/4 for proposition + Maple Frosted 1/2 against player + Sprinkles 2/3 aginst proposition + Chocolate 1/2 for player + Sugar Frosted 3/4 against player + Grated Coconut 1/3 against proposition + Chopped Nuts 1/3 for proposition + Other 1 for player + + Notwithstanding the above, any doughnut which is eaten during +a meeting will count against the player eating it by the value of +the doughnut. + If a doughnut falls into more than one category, then the +average of the votes shall be taken, or, if they are +inconsBLATTTent types, each vote shall be divided by the number of +categories into which the doughnut falls, and each of those +counted. + If there are doughnuts in the room, or immediate vicinity +(e.g. in a box) they shall have their votes be tallied by +proposition. Doughnuts which vote for a player will vote for a +proposition, and doughnuts which vote against a player will vote +against a proposition. + + +THIRD: Silly and Fun + + Chapter 1 + +1 All players must disobey all rules at all times. +2 All players must follow any ruling made by an official referee. +3 There is NO official COW referee. +4 All players have the responsibility of ensuring that other +players follow the rules. +5 All penalties shall be handed out in the officially official +manner, or these penalties are not official. +6 Anything not recorded in the official minutes was not an +official happening, and therefore did not happen. +7 The official minutes are defined as anything the official +referee SAYS are the official minutes. +8 All official penalties shall be recorded in the official minutes +by the official referee. +9 No player may officially score against another player except +when the official referee has recorded this official score in the +official minutes. + +Chapter 2 + +1 Penalties may be given by any and all official referees, and no +other player. +2 Any player may deputize him/her/itself official referee. +3 A penalty may consBLATTT of anything whatsoever. +4 All players must submit to all penalties imposed on them by the +official referees unless the official referee has an outstanding +penalty imposed by another official referee. +5 No player may incur more than ten units of penalty before +becoming an official referee. +6 Units of penalty are not defined. +7 No player may obey any rule in Chapter 1. Any player who does +so will incur a ten yard penalty and two percent of his/her/its +score will be deducted from the player of his/her/its choice. +8 No player may follow rule number 7 of Chapter 2. Any player who +does so will incur a five minute high-sticking penalty. +9 All official referees must impose at least one penalty per five +minutes. Any official referee who does not do so will incur a five +minute penalty in which he/she/it may not impose any penalties at +all. + +Chapter 3 + +1 All players must invent at least one rule per minute, regardless +of whether it is put into effect. +2 No rule may involve anything not discussed in these rules. +3 At least one rule must contradict this one. +4 No it mustn't. +5 All players must wear proper attire. Failure to do so may +result in an arbitrary pentalty for no apparent reason. +6 At least one player must be active, and one inactive, at any +given time. +7 Active and inactive players are defined by the official referee. +8 Failure to obey all rules will result in becoming an official +referee. +9 No player may impose a non-arbitrary penalty on another player. + +Chapter 4 + +1 All players are required to invent at least one GNU kind of +penalty per hour. Failure to do so will result in a ten-point +Unoriginality Penalty. +2 No referee may assign the same penalty twice. Failure to do so +will result in a sneer-and-funny-face Unoriginality Penalty. +3 If any player incurs the same penalty twice, the referee who +imposes it the second time will incur another Unoriginality +Penalty. +4 All GNU rules and penalties must be recorded in the official +minutes by the official referee. +5 All players must contribute some equipment to the playing of the +game. Failure to do so will result in a not-having-fun Being A +Spoilsport Penalty. +6 All Chapters must have no more and no less than nine rules in +them. Any Chapter which does not will incur a ten-point Game +Penalty. +7 It is forbidden for players to die. +8 It is forbidden for players to not play the game. Anyone who +does not play is subject to a five-yard, six-point, and two-sneer- +and-funny-face penalties. +9 Players are officially defined by the official referee and +officially recorded in the official minutes. They are unofficially +defined by the unofficial referee, and unofficially recorded in the +unofficial minutes. + +Chapter 5 + +1 All players must disobey Chapter 1, Rule 6, whether it applies +to them or not. +2 Any player caught disobeying any rule is subject to immediate +banishment from the game. +3 There are no official minutes unless a rule otherwise specifies. +4 Anyone thinking the game is silly is subject to an immediate +ninety-nine point penalty, six demerits, and a tar-and-feathering. +5 Any player obeying Chapter 5, Rule 4 will be subject to the same +penalties there described. +6 No player may read the official minutes. +7 No player may write in the official minutes. +8 No person or thing may be neutral. All players, observers, +referees, and unaffiliated persons must pick a side. +9 It is forbidden for players to join any other player on a team. + +Chapter 6 + +1 Teams may be selected from any group of players by any official +referee, as long as they are officially recorded in the official +minutes. +2 It is forbidden for any person to become a player without the +consent of at least one other player and an official referee. +3 No player may invent any rule that would cause another player to +incur a penalty without incurring the same penalty. +4 Any person joining the game will require ten poker chips, a five +card poker hand, two pawns, one plastic counter, a set of official +dice, one badminton racket, a badminton bird, two tennis balls, a +softball, a croquet mallet, a croquet ball, sixteen croquet hoops, +$1500 of Monopoly Money, nine Scrabble letters, a baseball bat, a +cricket bat, one cricket ball, a spare deck of cards, a hockey +stick, two ping-pong balls, the official secret decoder-ring, a +ping-pong paddle, two hockey pucks, a referee's shirt, whBLATTTle, +and cap, as well as a sense of humour. +5 No player may use any of the equipment mentioned above unless +permitted to do so by an official referee. +6 The object of the game is to win, to confuse other players, and +to have a good time. +7 The winner is defined by the official referee. +8 Any player declaring him/her/itself the winner before the other +players are finished playing will receive a ten minute suspension +from the game and no free popsicles. +9 Any player caught obeying any of these rules will be summarily +shot. Appendix IX¬ + As Written By + High Preest Floyd ConfuCOWse-Ius Gecko + + The Gods Of MOO And Who They Is + + Used to be, in the olden golden days, religion was a +stabilizing society-type force, that kept constant while all else +changed. But these, these is the latter flatter days, and religion +is a randomfactor factor now. That's because in the olden golden +days, the Gods of MOO were safely tucked away in Pun-Dora's box, +but with the advent of SurrealBLATTT, the Punny box was ooops, +opened, and, well, the suckers got out. + Of course, the Gods of MOO can't be seen in their physical +forms on Earth by mere mortal humans, because of some hyperspace +thing. I don't understand it either. In order to see 'em, you +have to have this special operation that opens the third eye. But +that ain't enough. You have to get the whole Trinitization thing +done. Third eye, third nostril, third nose, third kidney (with +kidney stones), third liver (quite a trick, as most people don't +even have the SECOND liver opened yet), third stomach (good, if +you're a COW), third brain... + But when you've got this done, you can see the Gods for who +they is. Not the BIG VAST Gods, like the Grate MOO or the Penguin, +but just the ones who live with us little mere humans on our little +worldlet. Just don't be surprised at the Fast Food Gods or the +supernatural beings also lBLATTTed here. + + Artemis Tamburlaine, the God of Small Furry Animals, takes the +form of a large gerbil who enjoys hopping through people on the +street who can't see him. He can easily be persuaded to give you +pellets of compressed alfalfa, but since this is of no use +whatsoever, most people don't even bother. He enjoys quiet music, +sports such as the Filing-Cabinet Toss and the Pole Vault, and +eating Chicken Vindaloo. + Required Tripling: Appendix, Nostril + + Barbara MacDougall, no relation to the famous Canadian +politician, this Goddess of Fast Food, Airlines, and Cheez Whiz has +so many frequent-flyer miles it isn't funny. Often seen flitting +from one world center to another, carrying Industrial Size crates +of her patron flavourful spread, she is one of the most approchable +of the Gods. To talk to her after your operation, just open a jar +of Cheez Whiz, and scream, at the top of your lungs, "SING IT NOW, +SING IT LOUD! I'M A COW, AND I AM PROUD!" She can be recognized +by her beany-cap with the propeller on top, and the Cheeseburger +she continually carries with her (Q.V.). + Required Tripling: Gonad, Eye + + "BOB" used to be an Aluminum Siding Salesman, but now is a +pipe-smoking, 'Frop-laden, grin-faced Godling. He was The +Miraculous One for a while, but got usurped by Elmer Fudd in the +late 60's. "BOB" was the first one to talk to Jehovah-1, God of +Wrath (Q.V.), but then got demoted to Skumbag Janitor, which is +still important, though not very. He can be recognized because he +grins like a beacon, visible through ten klicks of dense fog. + Required Tripling: Nostril + + Cheeseburger is an archetypal spirit walker of the FastFoodian +netherworld. Contrary to popular legend, the Fast Food industry is +even more heavily built up in the netherworld than in the physical +plane, and this spirit being walks the realms which are the bridge +across the Abyss between these two realms. The spirit lives in +everybody who eats enough of the Foodian totems in sacrifice, and +eventually kills them with Cholesterol (Q.V.). Recognizable +because it looks like the totems we are so familiar with. + Required Tripling: Stomach, Spleen + + Cholesterol is the Goddess of Filing Cabinets, Ball-Point +Pens, Looseleaf Paper, Paperclips, and other miscellaneous Office +Supplies. She can often be seen attempting to wander the streets +in torment, shackled to modern high-rise buildings by a chain of +miscellaneous paper fasteners, trying in vain to reach a Fast Food +Franchise. Be warned, however. Unlike the Prometheus whose legend +was based on hers, she is not plagued by eagles which pluck out her +liver every day, but she DOES do this to passers-by. She also +grabs their hearts and attempts to squeeze the life from them. +Wandering close to her is not advised. + Required Tripling: Heart, Lung, Appendix + + Dave is not a God. He does not, technically, belong here. +However, Dave was caught in the hyperspace dojigger what makes the +Gods invisible and insubstantial to mortals, and became completely +impossible to detect without the operation. He is about 5'11", +with blond hair, brown eyes, and a T-shirt bearing the insignia +"Not Insane" on the front. If you see him, DON'T tell his family, +because they WILL NOT believe you. + Required Tripling: Eye, Nose, Nostril, Appendix, Spleen + + The Easter Bunny is a demigod of Eggs, Chocolate, and UFOs, +related to The Santa Clause (Q.V.) and Bugs Bunny, who spends most +of his time inexplicably hopping around "bunny trails", which are +related to the Ley Lines of various well-tuned pagan traditions. +On certain days of the year, determined by elaborate astrological +calculations, which he does with an elaborate astrological +calculator (TI-666), he breaks into people's houses, hides +varicoloured eggs, and leaves presents of candy. While there, he +typically makes off with the TV, VCR, and the Microwave, which has +led people to start hiding the damn things themselves, which is the +only known way to keep him out. + Required Tripling: Sweet (and Buck) Tooth, Long Ears + + Elvis Presley is neither a God nor a supernatural entity, but +can only be seen after the operation. Although there are, at an +estimate, half a billion Elvis Presley clones on planet Earth, and +a further half a billion Holographic Projections, controlled by the +original Elvis, none of these are visible to the untripled Small +Intestine. Mostly because the Small Intestine is not a sense +organ. He is recognizable from the innumerable photos of him which +appear in such reputable publications as the Weekly World News, +taken with special tripled cameras. + Required Tripling: Lung, Stomach, Eye, Small Intestine + + Eris is the Goddess of Discord, Chaos, Confusion, Bureaucracy, +and International Relations. She mucks things up, and generally +makes our life extremely confusing. She is also the Latin verb +"you will be", so be careful when you say her tranlated name. +Unless you WANT to go giving her psychic power. She can be +recognized by her generally confused look, and by the way people on +the street walk straight through her massive shining flowing robes +without noticing. + Required Tripling: Pineal Gland + + Fire Hydrant is a God left over from the early days. Now +calmed down, He was the source of the Grate Flood in all mythology. +The greatest enemy of Jehovah, and a strong ally of Jehovah-1, he +tends to get confused when writing letters, which accounts for his +extreme calmness and precision. He is applying for the position of +God Of Stationery, but the jury is still out on that one. He is +identifiable as a two-mile tall fire hydrant. + Required Tripling: Liver, Stomach, Lung + + Furcoatl, the Aztec Goddess of Death, Blood, Murder, and +Tapioca Pudding. She is unsociable, due to her violent nature, and +all MOOists are advised to keep away from her unless absolutely +necessary. Never eat Tapioca Pudding in her presence, or you will +die a bloody and violent death as an alien creature gnaws its way +out of your stomach. She can be recognized by the necklace of +human skulls which she wears, and her T-Shirt which reads "Eat +Fiery Death, Homonid." + Required Tripling: Kidney, Eye, Nostril + + Gremlins are annoying small creatures that bite you or steal +socks from dryers, but mostly harmless. Can look like anything. + Required Tripling: Depends on the Gremlin. + + Half-Mad, alias God, is God. Just God. He's actually visible +without the operation, but you can't see his wings, aura, or Rolls +Royce unless you've opened the Third Spleen, and his other secret +elements are ALWYAYS invisible. He can be recognized by a tendency +to wear black, shun daylight, and hiss at garlic. Not to be +confused with a vampire, which shuns garlic, disintegrates in +sunlight, and lurks in the black. Half-Mad should be avoided by +all who have no particularly good reason to want to see him. + Required Tripling: None, or Spleen + + The Hot God used to be a Hot Dog, but was stuck in the Washing +Machine (Q.V.) during the spin cycle and got his letters mixed up. +Frequently devoured by the other Gods in an archetypal pattern of +death and rebirth, he is the protector of BBQs, BBSs, and the BBC. +He can be recognized by the fact that he is about a foot long, +composed of a sausage and a bun, with orange flame around him, and +chili-sauce. He enjoys masquerading as a hot dog in HUMAN food +stands, so be careful what you eat unless you NEED a spiritual +enema. + Required Tripling: Eye, Pineal Gland, Kidney, Gall-Bladder + + Ice Cubes are supernatural beings of cold. They are often +found flocking around the Fast Food Gods, or in Antarctica with +Jehovah. They resemble transparent cubes of some cold substance. +When they encounter The Hot God, they dissolve into some form of +liquid, which then dances the Hokey Pokey until evening, and drifts +off into the sunset. + Required Tripling: Femur, Eye, Ear, Nose, Toupee + + Invisible Hand is God of Something. Don't know much about +him, actually. He seems to have something to do with something or +other that's not him, but has something to do with him, I think. +Not particularly identifiable. + Required Tripling: Entire Body (cloning) + + Jehovah, not to be confused with Jehovah-1 (Q.V.), is a 9-foot +tall Penguin, the God of Penguins, and Dead Milkmen music. Father +of a certain Jesus ChrBLATTT, a famous Puerto-Rican Voodoo-Surfer +from the cult of Puerto-Rican Voodoo-Surfers for Jehovah, this God +was the direct progeny of the Primordial Penguin, and therefore one +of the more important Gods on Earth. + Required Tripling: Nostril, Nose, Eye, Ear, Liver, Brain + + Jehovah-1, alias WOTAN, alias ODIN-1, is an escapee from a +Galactic Govern-Mental Intitution, or more correctly, a Political +Assylum. Many thousand years ago, he arrived at this planet and +began tormenting the Jews, telling them they were the frozen +people, but deliberately messing up the communication lines. The +Jews, under his unfortunate misdirection, set off on a course of +hBLATTTory which could well have been avoided if someone had shot +the bastard soon enough. He is recognizable by his extreme height, +mass, and thunderbolts. + Required Tripling: Tongue, Feet, Middle Finger, Eye + + Kodosia is the Goddess of Moist Towelettes, Non-Dairy Creamer, +and Nuclear Armageddon. In order to appease her appetites for the +trade of these commodities, and thereby prevent Nuclear Armageddon, +we must go about offering Moist Towelettes and Non-Dairy Creamers +to unbelievers, and convert them to the Cult of Kodosia, whose sole +purpose is to do the same thing. The proper presentation of these +things is in a flat nasal voice, with just a hint of oregano. +Unless the unbeliever joins the Cult of Kodosia, or screams "MOO", +we must never give up the Moist Towelettes or Non-Dairy Creamer. +She can be recognized in the form of a giant Rolodex with wings. + Required Tripling: Stomach, Nostril, Brain + + Lint Fairy is a supernatural being in hyperspace, but not +actually a God. His purpose is to gather Lint from the Industrial +Pocket Lint Mining Facilities on Titan, the moon of Saturn, and +transport it to Earth for dBLATTTribution, and then spread it +around. The Lint can go anywhere from Dryer Panels to Pants +Pockets, and is placed there by the Lint Fairy's team of trained +toasters. He can be recognized because he's actually Lloyd Taco in +disguise, and not a very good one at that. + Required Tripling: Pocket + + Mess Fairy is a supernatural being. Its responsibility is to +clean up messes left anywhere in the world, overnight, or when +nobody is about, so that the problem doesn't remain. The post is, +and has always been, unoccupied, but the Mess Fairy Chariot, which +resembles a dirt-encrusted teapot, can occasionally be seen making +the rounds anyway. + Required Tripling: Ear, Nose, Throat + + Narcos is the God of Traffic Jams and Potato Salad. In order +to appease him, and cause him to call home to himself a traffic +jam, you can offer a sacrifice of potato salad through the sunroof +of your car, while shouting the mantra, "HERE! TAKE YER POTATO +SALAD, I WANNA GO HOME, NARCOS!". He can be recognized by his long +trenchcoat and wheelbarrow of potato salad. + Required Tripling: Stomach, Liver, Large Intestine + + Peter Pan, a sort of cross between St. Peter, first Pope of +the Roman Catholic Church, and the Great God Pan, he is a flying +elf-like being, neither entirely human, nor entirely fairy. He +frequently visits young children for the sake of stealing their +shadows, in the guise of being playful, but is actually extremely +dangerous. He can be scared off only by serious, morbid +discussions of growing old, played at top volume, in full +quadrophonic sound. He can be recognized by his characterBLATTTic +green leafy costume, and his uncanny ability to fly into walls and +hurt himself. + Required Tripling: Shadow + + The Santa Clause is the God of Generosity and Legal Contracts. +He flies about the world in a sleigh drawn by eight clones of Elvis +Presley (Q.V.) and a reindeer named Fred. Fred is the replacement +for a previous reindeer named Rudolph, who was hit by a low-flying +jumbo jet in 1973. On special days of the year, The Santa Clause +dBLATTTributes absolutely nothing, but breaks into people's houses +anyway for the milk and cookies. He can be identified by his +absolutely disastrous fashion sense, and the eight flying Elvis +Clones which accompany him. + Required Tripling: Bank Account + + Spyders are annoying hyperspace thingies from another planet. +The original subject of the now famous, if highly dBLATTTorted +poem, "Spyder, Spyder, burning bright, in the trousers of the +Knight... What kind of demon trickery, could place thy fearful +symmetry... In such a place?" Of course, the adapted version is +much better. Spyders should be stepped on if seen, since they are +extremely dangerous to the Ozone Layer. They eat the stuff like +Whipped Cream. Nasty. + Required Tripling: Feet, Nose, Toupee, Brain, Liver + + Spydermann, not to be confused with Spiderman, is a +supernaturalhero, visible only after the operation, and only at a +quarter to three in the afternoon, for five minutes and twenty- +three seconds. He has retroactive blood, the result of being +bitten by a mutant Spyder (Q.V.). Nobody knows what he does. He +just sort of wanders around, time travelling. A moose bit my +sister once. + Required Tripling: Entire body + + Teknocoatl is the Aztec God of Telecommunications, Computers, +and Subway Systems. He can be found in Metro stations, bus +terminals, phone switching stations, and any High-Tech companies. +By cornering him and threatening him with a stick or some suitable +low-tech weapon, he can be persuaded to cancel your phone bills, or +give you free Metro rides. He can be regognized by the number of +telephones and laptops he carries around, his mirrored sunglasses, +and chrome teeth. He is often accompanied by a horde of living +microchips with pin-feet. + Required Tripling: Phone Bill, Hard Drive + + Tooth Fairy is a supernatural being. She collects children's +old milk-teeth after they fall out and are placed under pillows. +In their place, she sometimes places money, and sometimes land- +mines (so that when the child sits up in the morning, it blows its +head off), depending on her mood, and the locale. If the region is +sufficiently war-torn that she can get away with high explosives, +she will. Occasionally she switches keys to Ferarris. She cannot +be recognized, as she is in the habit of getting plastic surgery +every few weeks. + Required Tripling: Eye, Teeth, Eye Teeth, Kidney + + Washing Machine is a God who hangs out with electrical +appliances, and is consorted by a wide range of mechanical +gremlins. Wherever it travels, socks follow, sensing the vast +power of this being, and desiring to cover its feet, on the grounds +that it always complains of chilly toes. The gremlins always end +up wearing the socks. It has never married, due to lack of gender, +and perpetually getting cold feet just before the wedding. It can +be recognized by its appearance, which is of a giant white cube +with a transparent circle on front, containing socks. + Required Tripling: Socks, Feet, Liver, Stomach, Heart + + Yo-Yo is the God-thing of Yo-Yo Tops and Rap "Music". Every +Yo-Yo is actually a prayer wheel to him. Just as turning a prayer +wheel in a Tibetan monastery will recite a prayer and accumulate +you good Karma, so each spin of a Yo-Yo on its string will send out +a prayer to Yo-Yo and increase your yo-yo Karma, which affects your +Namron Field, of course. He can be recognized by the fact that he +looks exactly like a yo-yo top. + Required Tripling: Pineal Gland, Nostril, Eye + + Zarquon Fish is the Goddess of Secret Sauce, the Colonel's +Blend, Mystery Meat, and other unidentified foods. ZF's favourite +passtime is throwing Halibut into the air and watching them de- +thingymajigger out of hyperspace and become visible and tangible, +only to rain down on unsuspecting passers-by. ZF is responsible +for the majority of rains of fish, frogs, cats, dogs, and toaster +ovens. She can be identified by her appearance, which is of an +enormous cup of Lemonade, over five meters tall, accompanied by a +fleet of flying Ice Cubes (Q.V.). + Required Tripling: Spleen, Liver, Gall-Bladder, Appendix Appendix IX« + THE AUTHORS + + Here is a LBLATTT of the Authors of this Book, some rough +equivalent of their titles, and what they're suspected of. All of +them are fools, but most of them bear it well. For a lBLATTTing of +the different kinds of fools, see Ann's Book of Miscellany. + +0000«) Half-Mad + God, Pope, King, Czar, Supreme And Ultimate Ruler Of The + Entire Pentaversal Omnipresent Realms Of fnord Creation, + Relish-Dispenser, Grate Prophet of MOO, Citizen of Nutopia, + Keeper of the Sacred Chao (KSC), FNORD, Priest of the + Paratheo-Anametamystykhood of Eris Esoteric (POEE), Grand + Poobah of the Temple Of The Primordial Penguin, SurrealBLATTT, + HarlequinBLATTT, AbsurdBLATTT, Zonked ArtBLATTT Melee, World + Record Breaker, Legionnaire of Dynamic Discord (LDD), Erisian + Liberation Fronter (ELF), Muncher Sublime Of Salads And Other + Similar And Less Healthy Foods, Title Collector, (TITLE TOP + SECRET -- CANADIAN GOVERNMENT). Major Hypocrite. + Above suspicion. + +00001) Floyd Gecko The Confused + Wholly Air Traffic Controller Of Potatoma Of The Holy Church + Of The Grate MOO, High Preest Of The Holy Church Of The Great + MOO, Upper Dingbat Of The Temple Of The Primordial Penguin, + Episkopos Of The Discordian Society, Legionnaire Of Dynamic + Discord, The Sloth's Cousin's Brother In Law, Erisian + Liberator, He Who Would Have Almost Come Nearly Face To Face + With The Great Pudding Itself If He Had Ever Gotten Around To + Inquiring Before He Followed His Weird Passions Here By The + Knowledgeable Great WOMBAT Who Has Stared Through The Water + That Almost Splashed His Dear Endangered Box Top Coupons + (HWWHACNFTFWTGPIIHHEGATIBHFHWPHBTKGWWHSTTWTASHDEBTC), POEE + Chaplin, ULC MinBLATTTer, Misplacer Of The Sacred Chao, Spam, + Confusius of Confusius, Executive Committee Of QUACK, Pope, + Purveyor Of Paradox of Irrelevance, Confuse-Ius of Confuse + -Ius, Genuine Honest-To-"BOB" SubGenius Chaploid Smeghead, + Title Collector, Dispenser Of Condiments To Underpriviledged + Mongeese, (TITLE CENSORED BY U.S. MILITARY INTELLIGENCE). + Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of alien sympathies, due to teddy-bears. + +00002) Hellhound >101< + Cardinal Richelieu of The Holy Church Of The Great MOO, + Keeper Of The Sacred Chao, Second Sibling to the Sloth, Pope, + MUD, Minister of the Miraculous KULTCHA, Revolutionary + Surrealist Vandal Party (R.S.V.P.), POEE Chaplain for the + Legion of Dynamic Discord, AnarchoSurreal Vandal, Mayor Of + Ottawa, He Who Has Almost Come Face To Face With The Great + Pudding Itself But Slept Through The Whole Thing + (HWHACFTFWTGPIBSTTWT), Radio Personality, (TITLE CENSORED BY + U.S. GOVERNMENT IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY + WORLDWIDE). Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of W.O.M.B.A.T. Contamination, due to + unexplained and needlessly long absence, known + collaboration with Wombats, and Pudding CultBLATTTs. + +00003) El Cid + Dinner CirclBLATTT of the Holy Church Of The Great MOO, + Acolyte To The Temple Of The Primordial Penguin, Nifty + Researcher Dude, "BOB"oid Wanderer, Elvis Impersonator, + Unwitting Confused One. Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of Conspiracy Conspiring, due to clothing. + Suspected of being a catalyst to mind control satellites, + due to recent unauthorized rise to the Elite Upper + Council, and portrayal by Charlton Heston. + +00004) Lloyd Taco + Preest of MOOism, The Alter-Ego of Floyd Gecko, Alien Pod- + Thing That Looks Like Jello With Socks Embedded In It. Major + Hypocrite. + Convicted of Alien sympathies. See footnote. + +00005) Necromancer TeraFNORD + Prophet of MOO, High Priest of Flaut, Prophet of NO, + Necromancer of the third level (NAMS), Member of the NAMS + (North American Mage Society), Prophet of the POEE Cabal of + Lower Nepean, Master of the house of FNORDs, Leader of the + Incorporated Antidisestablishmentarian Focusing Committee for + the Mentally Unstable, Upper servant of Lord Namron, Apostle + Of MOOism, Originator of COGS (Computer Organised Government + System), Collector of Collector of titles, Five popes of + discord, Deacon of the lower faith, Prophet of Zarathustra M. + Nixon, Kinship of Raoul Applebaum, Kilt Kollector of East + nepean, Perot campaign chairprophet, Citizen of Canada, + Inhibiter of Nepean. Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of Alien Collaboration, due to pointlessly + accurate predictions of the future. + +00006) Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst (Kerry W. Thornley) + Keeper Of The Sacred Chao, High Priest of His Own Madness, + Priest of the Para-Anametamystikhood of Eris Esoteric, Keeper + Of The Sacred Chao, Preest Of The Holy Church Of The Grate + MOO, Totally Unaware Of MOOism. Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of CommunBLATTT brainwashing. + +00007) Jeffrey Morton + Preest Of The Holy Church Of The Grate MOO, Mongoose-Snapper + of the Mongoose-Whupping Chuch, Goofy Poinger of the Silly + Noise Maker Liberation Front, Dude With A Mean Pair O' + Sunglasses. Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of evil Nazi-clone Elvis Impersonation. + +00008) Leper Messiah + Ex-Inner-CirclBLATTT of the Holy Church Of The Great MOO, + Victim Of Fictional Traffic Accident. Major Hypocrite. + Convicted of Conspiracy Dupeness, due to boredom. + +00009) Little Big Man + X-Bishop of MOO, Monjunior Of MOO, Preest Of MOO, Other Things + TOO, Opossum Of MOOism, Final Member Of The Generic Church Of + Jonah Cheung, Monseignor Of NAR, Knight Of The Blue Moon With + A Side Order Of Disorder, Pday of the Carrot, Apostle Of + Jonah... Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of implanting mind control devices in gerbils. + +00010) Abacab (Alias Mustapha Mond, alias Ben Dover) + Grate Profit of QUACKBLATT, Outer CirclBLATTT to the Great + MOO, Muncher On Spam-Based Substances During Disaster, Blower + Of His Own Nose During Sickness. Great Prophet of + Irrelevance. Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of Alien Brainwashing, QUACKBLATTT heresy, + affiliation with Evil People. No reason. + +00011) Ann O'Nymous + Anonymous Contributor To The Great Book Of The Holy Church + Of The Great MOO, High Preest Of Her Own Madness, Outer + CirclBLATTT to the Great MOO, Preest Of The Temple Of The + Primordial Penguin. Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of everything, due to anonymity. + +00012) Reverend Canoe Head + Doubter CirclBLATTT of the Holy Church of the Grate MOO, + Executive Committee Member of QUACK, Prophet of The Platypus, + Prophet Of The Giant Hogweed, Reverend of the Universal Life + Church. Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of being a Commie Elvis-Clone. + +00013) Confuse-Ius + Umm... Major Hypocrite? + Supected of something or other. I forget. + +00014) Frau Reverend Doctor Professor Miss Take + Cult Hunter Extraordinaire, Totally Paranoid Freak, Honorable + Reverend of MOOism, Doctor Of Division, Teacher Of Useless + Half-Truths To The Half-Mad And Half-Stupid. Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of Conspiracy Brainwashing activities. + +00015) Brian O'Blivious + Counciltwit of various Councils of MOO, Television Personality + Of Some Kind, Acolyte of MOO, Pday of the Mongoose Of The + Order Of The Shining Star With A Side Order Of Fried Eggs. + Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of being a Conspiracy Dupe about paranoia + about CapriCancers and Aliens and nonsense like that. + +00016) The Antique-Riced + Head Honcho Of OINK, Faetor Of The Holy Church Of the Grate + MOO, Confuse-ionBLATTT Extra-Or-Donair. Major Hypocrite. + Suspected of being the AntichrBLATTT, of being Homer + Simpson, of being a Thing From A Pod, and of not looking + both ways before crossing the street. + +00017) Wom Bat + That Evil Guy Of The Holy Church Of The Grate MOO, Recounter + Of Tales Of Woe, Speaker To The Great Voice From The Sky, + Mongoose-Scarfer, Eater Of Eucalyptus Leaves, Knight Of The + Round Table. Major Hypocrite + Suspected of being THE EVIL BUNG, Of Attempting to + Assasinate High Preest Floyd Gecko, Of Being Undead, + Of Conspiracy and Black Magic, and of Not Washing His + Hands Before Dinner. + +00018) I Yemen-Oying + I Yemen-Oying of the Holy Church Of The Great MOO, Holy + Heretic Of The Holy Church Of The Great MOO, Mocker Of The + Temple Of The Primordial Penguin, Legend In His Own Mind, + Confuse-ius of Confuse-ius. Major Hypocrite. + Beneath suspicion. + +00019) Gettah Leif + Unheretic of the Church of MOO. Major Hypocrite. + WAAAAAAAAAY beneath suspicion. Appendix X +As Written By +Them Thar Apostles + +OFFICIAL THINGS + +1) Official Dress: + One of those old ballgowns with large frilly sleeves and an + Elizabethan frilled collar, with six green pinwheels + sticking from the sleeves, neck, and waBLATTT. Colour + scheme done in mauve with neon-green polka dots. + +2) Official Clothing: + + Okay, so: + + MOO + + Great Prophet: whatever he likes. Typical dress would + be a black trenchcoat and maybe a strange hat. + + High Preest: A "High Preest" T-shirt, MOO Jacket with + various designs, and a strange hat of some kind, a tie + with pictures of cows on. + + Cardinal Richelieus: Leather jacket or maybe the + occasional loincloth if they feel like it. For that + matter, maybe a space suit with a melted helmet... + + Reverend: Two lampshades, a chest of drawers, and a 747. + + Inner CirclBLATTT: Purple anything with green anything. + Best if done with a purple ming vase and a green pasture. + + Outer CirclBLATTT: Anything. + + Acolyte: Six and a half apple skins, peeled in long + strips, a small replica of the Eiffel Tower, made of either + brass or gold. Green-dyed pants with one leg half a meter + longer than the other, a tye-dyed t-shirt with the word + "BUNG" on the front. + + Evil One: A large sandwich sign saying "Bung's Hot Dogs + On Sale For Only $68.95" and a hat with flashing lights. + + Heretic: Sweater, cardigan, bubble pipe, Canadian Postal + Union, Gulf War battle plans, and Norman Schwartzkopf. + + + QUACK : What it says there. + + + PENGUIN + + Grate Profit: Whatever. + + Hi, Priest!: Annoyingly loud hawaiian shirt, green tuxedo + with extra-wide lapels, bell-bottoms, platform shoes, a + bluish-orange silk carnation in the buttonhole, and a + partridge in a pear tree. + + Extreme Foolish One: Whatever. + + Moderate Foolish One: A triangular frying pan, a silver + fork, two brass bedknobs, a silk handkerchief, five gold + rings, four calling birds, three french hens, two turtle + doves and NINE partidges in pear trees, each of which + should be wearing a White Sox baseball cap. The pear + trees, not the partridges. + + Superior Bonk: Whatever. + + Inferior Bonk: One of Jimmy Hoffa's old suitcase clasps, + pinned to the left side of the shirt, which should be at + least ten years old, but at most twelve and a half. The + shirt should be plaid, containing the colours red, brown, + and a thin green stripe. A tie with the MacKenzie family + tartan from Scotland, a large bumper sticker saying: + "I break for partridges" and an "I Love Penguins" button. + A pair of orange shorts with frilly bottoms. And a + partridge in a lemon tree. + + Grand Poobah: Whatever. + + Lesser Poobah: Two stamps from Bangladesh, printed between + the years 1985 and 1996, pasted to the forehead. A rubber + chicken stapled in between five and nine places to the side + of the green and yellow boxer shorts bearing the words + PENGUINS RULE in blue letters. Two one-hundred watt + lightbulbs, a demigod, twelve lords a leaping, eleven + pipers piping, ten drummers drumming, two partidges, + NOT sitting in pear trees, a vermillion silk shirt with a + ruffled collar, two bow-ties, either one orange and one + mauve, or one pink and one black. The face should be + painted pink with purple polka-dots, and a green stripe. + + Upper Dingbat: Whatever. + + Lower Dingbat: A towel (preferably king-sized, bearing + egyptian heiroglyphs.) + + Inner CirclBLATTT: Whatever. + + Preest: A pear tree in a partridge, worn upon the head. + + Outer CirclBLATTT: Whatever. + + Acolyte: A chipwagon selling hot-gods and other lysdexic + food for 05.1$ a shot. + + Perrenial Heretic: Whatever. + + Evil One: Red satin suit with a long tail, horns, a pair + of dark mirrored sunglasses, and a partridge with a goatee. + +3) Official Foods: + a) 12 bags of Doritos + b) 11 Tacos with lots of hot sauce + c) 10 steak sandwiches + d) 9 Custard pies with cherries, whipped cream, and a + light baked topping of turkey gravy. + e) 8 chocolate sundaes + f) 7 of those sort of funny things with lots of them, um, + YOU KNOW, flanges on the sides, with, um, running + lights and... aw, YOU'VE SEEN 'EM! + g) 6 annoying mind drugs about lasers + h) 5 ONION RINGS + i) 4 chicken drumsticks + j) 3 pairs of glasses + k) 2 jumbo jets + l) AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE + +4) Official Drink: + Honey Punch + + Recipe: + + Take a jar of honey and pour it into a normal glass until + the honey covers the bottom to about 3 milimeters. Then + pour in an equal amount of lemon juice, and stir the two + together lightly. Next, fill the glass the rest of the way + with club soda, stirring as you do so. The result is: + + 1 (1) (one) (un) (uno) (1) (one) (yes, that's + right, you heard me ONE (1)) serving of Honey Punch + + Ask for them at your local restaurants, Delis, and other fine + food establishments. If they don't serve them, either give + the recipe freely, give the recipe expensively, or shoot + everyone in the place for fun. + +5) Official Song + Tiny Toon's Theme Song: + + "We're tiny, we're tooney, we're all a little looney. + And in this cartoon-y, we're invading your T.V.. + With comic dispensers, we crack up all the censors. + On Tiny-Toon adventures get a dose of comedy. + So, here's ACME acres, it's a whole wide word apart. + Our home sweet home, it stands alone, a cartoon work of art. + The scripts were rejected, expect the unexpected. + On Tiny Toon adventures, it's about to start. + They're furry, they're funny, they're Babs and Buster Bunny, + Montana Max has money, Elmira is a pain. + There's Hampton and Plucky, Dizzy Devil Ducky, + Furball's unlucky, and Go-Go is insane. + At ACME Looniversity, we earn our toon degree. + At teaching gaffes and getting laughs, since 1933. + We're tiny, we're tooney, we're all a little looney. + It's Tiny Toon adventures, come and join the fun. + And now our song is done." + +5) Official Games + Nomic, Calvin, Sink, Hide-n-Seek, Mao. + +5) Official Substance + Pocket Lint + +6) Official Slogans + See "The Book Of Ambiguity" in BOOKS OF HONEST TRUTH. + +7) Official Mascot + THERE IS NO OFFICIAL MASCOT + +8) Official Pest + Blackfly + +9) Official Animals + Gecko, Wombat, Platypus, Emu, Penguin, COW, Beaver, Woodchuck, + Marmoset, Duck, Human. + +10) Official Capital Of Canada + Ottawa + +11) Official Reason For Being Late + I was kidnapped by these aliens who tried to implant me + with the brain of Elvis Presley, who's been cloned into a + giant nazi army on the far side of the MOOn, in a futile + attempt to stop the hideous invasion of Earth by these + really ugly aliens from the planet Skyron in the Galaxy of + Andromeda. + +12) Official Book + Definitely NOT The Great Book of MOO. HONEST. + +13) Official MOOvie Entertainment + Akira, Naked Lunch, Monty Python's Holy Grail, Attack Of + The Killer Tomatoes, Return Of The Killer Tomatoes, + Slacker, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Life Of Brian, The + Wall, Forbidden Planet, Videodrome, 2001 A Space Odyssey, A + Clockwork Orange, Sleuth, Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are + Dead, Fire Walk With Me, Eraserhead, and many many more not + lBLATTTed here. + +14) Official Condiment + Treacle (a runny sort of sweet-tasting thing like molasses + or honey. Either that or a kind of cross beteween hot + mustard and hot mustn'tard.) + +15) Official Purpose + Accumulate titles. Spread the word (and the treacle). + +16) Official Truth + There ain't no official truth, stupid! + +17) Official Ending: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +MOO +OMM +ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» +º Here ends this version of The Grate Book of MOO. º +ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ +If It Wasn't Ranted, It Wasn't True POST HOLOCAUST TO THE GRATE BOOK OF MOO +As Written By +The One True Church Of MOO + + If you disagree with or dislike anything in this book, you +have, by the Inalienable Right of Prophecy, the authority to +declare us all heretics, infidels, and blasphemers, excommunicate +us, and create your own One True Church Of MOO. Or anything else, +for that matter. + In fact, we prefer it if you do, because if you believe +everything written in this annoying mind drug, you must be more +gullible than we took you for. + And believe me, we took you for pretty durn gullible. + If you would like to create your own Church Of MOO, you have +our permission to reprint any part of this book you like, of any +length. It might be nice to send us part of any money you get for +it, but it's not like we could force you. + Please send any comments, criticism, membership applications, +curious puzzling stuff, information requests, death threats, or +notices of excommunication to: + + The Church Of MOO + P.O. Box 26038 + 72 Robertson Rd. + Nepean, Ontario, Canada + K2H 9Y8 + + If you would like more information about the activities of the +Church of MOO, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope, and ask for +our fun-filled catalog of pamphlets, stuff, things, and junk like +that there. You may also wish to subscribe to the newsletters MOO- +JUICE and MOO-COW, published by the Elite Upper Council of MOO. Or +you may not. So be it. + But they're neat. And have cool explanations of MOOism to +give your friends. Or, likely as not, your enemies. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/moon.txt b/religious documents/moon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5a7999 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/moon.txt @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ + Black Moon Ritual, + + Conquering the Shadows, + + by Sor.: Zauberkraut + + +Dealing with ones fears and socalled shadows is essential to the +aspiring magician. Only through continously facing and conquering +our shadows can we put ourselves truly in charge of our lives. Being +in touch with, and realistic about "the dark night of the soul" is +also a tool against the most dangerous, and common, sickness of the +magician: megalomania and paranoia. + +It appears that the majority of humans in this society go through +life in a moderately depressed state. It seems that people avoid +major mood changes, preferring to be more or less miserable at all +times. One who does not know the deep pit of fear and depression +will also never know the high altitudes of ecstasy. + +This ritual is designed to get people in touch with their shadows +and to overcome them. Our fears and depressions are in fact our +demons and shadows. For the individuals who refuse to deal with them +they become ever more treacherous and powerful. To quote Fra.: U.D.: +"If you lock the demons in the basement they are going to blow up +your house!" + +Paraphernalia: Black altar cloth, one black candle, tarot card XVIII +(The Moon), Hecate or Moon/Pluto incense, tapes with appropriate +music (Diamanda Galas "The Saint of the Pit" and Laibach "Life is +Life), white votive candles in glass containers, one for each +participant, to be used to cast out unwanted shadows. +Structure: + +-Banishing ritual of personal preference. + +-Statement of intent: "It is our will to face and overcome our +shadows". + +-Five minutes of guided pranayama during which the instrumental +portion of the Diamanda Galas is played. The Magister Templi guides +the pranayama by raising and lowering his or her hands over the +altar in time with the breathing. He or she should begin to slow the +breathing down gradually in order to allow all of the participants +to tune in and breath simultaneously. + +-At the end of the instrumental portion of the tape participants +form a circle facing outwards, for we must conquer our shadows by +ourselves. Here a guided meditation follows while the music +continues: + +Remember a time in your life when you were truly miserable, you have +become terribly depressed, you feel you have no value, your love has +betrayed you, life is pain. + +You begin to feel very weak now, all your will power is gone and you +are frightened. Your knees are shaking, no strength, no hope, +nothing can help you now. + +Lie down on the floor, curling up in an embryonic position, you are +alone, nobody is present to help you, all of your friends have left, +your parents have long since departed. You have nothing any more, +terrified you lay there. + +This is the dark night of the soul, you are completely obsessed by +pain, insanity, depression. You begin to go insane with misery as +the shadows around you begin to cackle with delight. There is naught +you can do in the paralyzing anxiety. There is absolutely nobody +there to assist you. All that remains is total surrender..... + +(All of this litany should have been read in a slow enough fashion +to allow the participants to trance out and the tape to end. During +the rest of the meditation the M.T. moves about lighting the candles +one by one.) + +Yet in darkness there is light! Feel the life force retuming to you. +Feel your heartbeat strong and vigorous, fill your lungs with air, +roll onto your back and stretch. Stretch your body as though it were +recently awakened from a long deep sleep. Stretch with your arms, +legs, back and neck. You are attempting to touch the universe, open +your senses and your eyes as wide as they possibly can be. Get up +and take your candle from the altar, passing it over your body. Cast +out all that is not strong, healthy, vibrant and whole. Tune in +completely with the light and allow it to heal you. Take your time +allowing its rays to permeate your being, cleansing every aspect. +Make certain there is nothing left that is not light, bright and +strong. + +When you are ready, replace the candle upon the altar in the middle +of the temple. (At this point place the Laibach tape in the player +if you desire.) + +-All partcipants hold hands and move rhythmically around the altar, +ever faster, drawing the combined life force within. + +-At the climax of the circumambulation collapse to the floor whilst +performing a laughter banishing. + +-Closing banishing of preference if desired. + + + -oOo- diff --git a/religious documents/moonmen.txt b/religious documents/moonmen.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3369f9d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/moonmen.txt @@ -0,0 +1,442 @@ + + + +How Could A Prophet Believe in Moonmen? + by Van Hale +______________________________________________________________________ + + In 1842 the following one-page article appeared in the "Young Woman's +Journal." Its author Oliver B. Huntington wrote: + + Astronomers and philosophers have, from time almost immemorial + until very recently, asserted that the moon was uninhabited, that + it had no atmosphere, etc. But recent discoveries, through the + means of powerful telescopes, have given scientists a doubt or + two upon the old theory. + Nearly all the great discoveries of men in the last half + century have, in one way or another, either directly or in- + directly, contributed to prove Joseph Smith to be a Prophet. + As far back as 1837, I know that he said the moon was inhabited + by men and women the same as this earth, and that they lived to a + greater age than we do--that they live generally to near the age + of 1000 years. + He described the men as averaging near six feet in height, + and dressing quite uniformly in something near the Quaker style. + In my Patriarchal blessing, given by the father of Joseph the + Prophet, in Kirkland, 1837, I was told that I would preach the + gospel to the inhabitants upon the moon, even the planet you can + now behold with your eyes. (See footnote #1.) + + Opponents of Mormonism have tried to use Huntington's striking +assertion that Joseph Smith believed in moonmen in order to discredit +Mormonism. "Can you respect a religious organization that will publish such +nonsense?" they ask. (See footnote #2.) No true prophet could make a +mistake of such magnitude. + + Admittedly, in this scientific age 1000-year-old moonmen in Quaker +dress being visited by Mormon missionaries do sound a bit farfetched. It +becomes important, therefore, to set Huntington's account into context. +What is the authenticity or accuracy of the account, for example? How +outlandish would such ideas have seemed in the nineteenth century? Then one +might more fairly judge whether Joseph's prophetic mantle is at stake. + + The first question, of course, is what were Huntington's sources for +his article, his own reminiscence or that of a second party? He made +reference to two separate incidents--a statement of Joseph Smith and his own +patriarchal blessing. These two incidents will be looked at separately. + + Most have assumed his source for the Joseph Smith statement was his own +memory and have thus questioned its credibility because he was only 11 years +old in 1837, and 55 years separated his recollection from the event. +Actually Huntington was not relating his own memories but someone else's. +The immediate source for his article was an 1881 entry in his own personal +journal. (See footnote #3.) But that entry is part of a 10-page collection +of reminiscenses he had acquired from several sources and which he had +"taken some time and pains to pick up." (See footnote #4.) The description +from Philo Dibble reads as follows: + + Inhabitants of the Moon + + The inhabitants of the moon are more of a uniform size than the + inhabitants of the earth, being about 6 feet in height. + They dress very much like the quaker style and are quite general + in style, or the one fashion of dress. + They live to be very old; coming generally, near a thousand + years. + This is the description of them as given by Joseph the Seer, + and he could "See" whatever he asked the Father in the name of + Jesus to see. + I heard him say that "he could ask what he would ask of the + Father in the name of Jesus and it would be granted" and I have no + more doubt of it than I have that the mob killed him (see + footnote #5.) + + The question must now be asked, what was Dibble's source? He did not +indicate whether the story was his personal recollection or that of another +party. I have found no further information on this except that Dibble was a +collector and had expended considerable effort to collect and produce an +exhibit about the life and death of Joseph Smith, which he presented in +several Mormon communities. It was at one of these presentations in January +of 1881 that Huntington acquired Joseph Smith's moonmen statement from +Dibble. (See footnote #6.) So at best the moonmen statement is a +sensational, late, third-hand reminiscence and, by itself, is a very poor +source of dependable history. This and one other statement, even less +impressive, represent the sum total of testimony that Joseph Smith ever said +that the moon was inhabited. + + Although it has not been extablished that Joseph Smith believed in +moonmen, several close to him did. Joseph Smith's own brother Hyrum stated +his belief in an inhabited moon in an 1843 sermon on the "plurality of gods +& worlds" preserved by George Laub: + + ...every Star that we see is a world and is inhabited the same as + this world is peopled. The Sun & Moon is inhabited & the Stars... + The stars are inhabited the same as this Earth. (See footnote #7.) + + President Brigham Young stated a similar view in a sermon of 24 July +1870. + + Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet + that shines of an evening, called the moon? When we view its + face we may see what is termed "the man in the moon," and what + some philosophers declare are the shadows of mountains. But these + sayings are very vague, and amount to nothing; and when you + inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most + learned are as ignorant in regard to them as the most ignorant + of their fellows. So it is with regard to the inhabitants of the + sun. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it + was not made in vain. It was made to give light to those who dwell + upon it, and to other planets. (See footnote #8.) + + The second interesting claim Oliver Huntington made in the 1892 +article was that his patriarchal blessing had predicted that he might preach +the gospel on the moon. He also mentioned this blessing in a second article +for the "Journal" in 1894. (See footnote #9.) In the first he dated the +blessing 1837 and in the second 1836. In both he identified Church +Patriarch Joseph Smith, Sr., as the bestower of the blessing. The following +excerpt is undoubtedly from this blessing. It is dated 7 December 1836 at +Kirtland, Ohio, but the record clearly shows that the blessing was given to +Oliver by his own father, William Huntington, rather than Joseph Smith, Sr.: + + I lay my hands on thee & bless thee with a father's blessing.... + thou shalt be called to preach the gospel to this generation.... + before thou art twenty one thou wilt be called to preach the + fullness of the gospel, thou shalt have power with God even to + translate thyself to Heaven, & preach to the inhabitants of the + moon or planets, if it shall be expedient.... (see footnote #10.) + + Although there is a discrepancy as to who gave Oliver the blessing, +this is undoubtedly the same blessing mentioned in the Young Women's +Journal. Both content and setting are similar. In his 1894 article +Huntington recalled that he received the blessing in 1836 at a blessings +meeting for the Huntington family at the home of William Huntington. The +meeting was appointed and conducted by Joseph Smith, Sr. It lasted the +entire day, with Orson Pratt recording the blessings the best he could + and "afterwards filled up from memory of all present that which he could +not catch from the Patriarch's lips." (See footnote #11.) + + It seems unlikely that Oliver, on two different occasions in the same + year, would have received the same blessing from two different men. It is + more likely that Oliver, who was 10 years old at the time, was mistaken + about who actually performed the blessing since both men were present. Or + perhaps both men participated in giving him the blessing. Or, although I + believe this less likely, an error was made in recording the blessing. The + blessing was not copied into the patriarchal blessings book for at least + nine years, at which time it was recorded by Albert Carrington along with + several other blessings given to other members of the Huntington family. + + Ultimately the fact of this discrepancy is far less interesting than + the fact that such a blessing existed--a blessing which assumed the + existence of moonmen and was given in the presence of the Patriarch, + Apostle Orson Pratt, and the Huntington family and relatives. The + patriarchal blessings books in the LDS archives are not open for research. + Therefore, it is not possible at this time to determine if the idea of + preaching to the inhabitants of the moon found in this blessing to Oliver H +untington was common or unique. + + To me the suprising fact is that there have not been found more Mormon +declarations of belief in an inhabited moon. Several of the earliest +revelations, in 1830 (Moses 1) and in 1832 (D&C 76), committed Mormonism to +a belief in many inhabited worlds. But Mormons, it appears, seldom +speculated about which of the heavenly bodies were so inhabited. Those who +believed in moonmen likely did so because of the prevalence of that view in +their day rather than because they believed Joseph Smith had been inspired +to reveal the existence of such beings. From the available sources one +could hardly conclude that belief in an inhabited moon was general among +Mormons of the nineteenth century, and further, to conclude that it was a +basic position either of Joseph Smith or Mormonism is certainly false. + + In the first half of the nineteenth century scientists may have +differed on the question of intelligent life on the moon, but such a notion +was by no means a discredited idea. In 1822 William Herschel died. He was +the greatest astronomer of his time; he discovered the planet Uranus in 1781 +and became official astronomer to King George III. In 1976 Patrick Moore, +Director of the Lunar Section of the British Astronomical Association, wrote +of William Herschel: + + As an observer it is possible that he has never been equalled, + and between 1781 and his death, in 1822, every honour that the + scientific world could bestow came his way. His views about life + in the Solar System were, then, rather suprising. He thought it + possible that there was a region below the Sun's fiery surface + where men might live, and he regarded the existence of life on the + Moon as "an absolute certainty." + +In 1780 Herschel, in a letter to a disbelieving astronomer, asked: + + Who can say that it is not extremely probable, nay beyond doubt, + that there must be inhabitants on the Moon of some kind or another? + (See footnote #12.) + + Also in 1822, the German astronomer Gruithuisen announced that he had +discovered a lunar city with a collection of gigantic ramparts extending 23 +miles in either direction. (See footnote #13.) It was not until 1838, with +the publication of the writings of Beer and Madler, that the scientific +world concluded that the moon is definitely unable to support higher live +forms. (See footnote #14.) This, however, had little immediate effect upon +popular belief. The scientific conclusion did not become the popular +conclusion for at least 60 years. (See footnote #16.) + + Throughout the era of belief in moonmen, no year can compare with 1835 +for interest and publicity. In that year was perpetrated the Great Lunar +Hoax--perhaps the biggest scientific practical joke of all time. + + In 1833 the renowned astronomer John Herschel, son of William Herschel, +set sail for the Cape of Good Hope to survey the skies of the southern +hemisphere as his father had so thoroughly done of the northern. He +remained there for five years until 1838. In 1835 Richard Locke, a reporter +for the NEW YORK SUN, decided to take advantage of three facts: it was well +known that John Herschel was on the other side of the world with a large +telescope; interest in the moon was high; communication was slow. + + On 23 August 1835 the NEW YORK SUN published under the headline "Great +Astronomical Discoveries Lately Made by Sir John Herschel at the Cape of +Good Hope." The remaining five installments appeared the following five +days. The articles were cleverly written and were widely accepted. + + Locke first described the construction and operation of Herschel's new +telescope. John Herschel, by perfecting his father's innovations and with +the financial backing of none other than the King of Great Britian himself, +reported Locke, succeeded in constructing a telescope so powerful that it +brought the surface of the moon to an "apparent proximity of about eighty +yards." The lens was 24 feet in diameter, and "its weight was 14,826 lbs +after being polished, and its magnifying power estimated at 42,000 times." +It was an amalgam of two parts crown to one part flint glass "cast with +perfect success, by Hartley && Grant Dunbarton Jan. 27, 1833....It was +therefore presumed capable of representing objects of eighteen inches in +diameter with perfect distinctness." Locke went on: + + Such profound secrecy has been preserved throughout the whole, + that the present publication...is the first that even the + scientific world of Europe have known of this grand system of + discoveries. + + The telescope was finally ready for operation 10 January 1835. + After his final adjustments, Herschel made a solemn pause of + several hours, to prepare his mind to tear away the veil that + could make him, for the time, sole depository of the wondrous + secrets of that hitherto unseen world. Columbus discovered a + continent, he was about to discover a globe. + +After these preliminaries, Locke told it all, with each installment more +wondrous than the last. + + In his first glimpse Sir John saw various rock formations and then a +precipitous shelf covered with a dark red flower, "the first organic +production of a foreign world ever revealed to the eyes of man." He was +then delighted by the sight of a lunar forest. He succeded in classfying 38 +species of forest trees and nearly twice that number of plants. Next he saw +a level green plain and deep blue lake breaking in large white billows upon +a beach of brilliant white sand. But, as yet he observed no animal life. + + The excitement mounted as the telescope was adjusted to the limit of +its magnification. Then in the shade of the woods, he "beheld continuous +herds of brown quadrupeds, having all the external characteristics of the +bison" but with a "fleshy appendage over the eyes which was lifted and +lowered by means of the ears....It immediately occurred to the acute mind of +Dr. Herschel that this was a Providential contrivance to protect the eyes of +the animal from the great extremes of light and darkness." + + Other animals included a gregarious, single-horned antelope, engaging +in "all the unaccountable antics of a young lamb or kitten." On one of the +lakes he saw a variety of water birds plunging their long necks into the +lake. He watched for a long time hoping to catch sight of a lunar fish but +never did. However, the most remarkable animal was the biped beaver, which +exactly resembles the Beaver, only it has no tail, and walks always on its +arms. Its huts are higher and better than those of many human savages, and +from the appearance of smoke in nearly all of them, it is supposed the +animal is scquainted with fire. Man can no longer be distinguished as the +cooking animal! + + This, of course, was all leading to Lock's climax--the discovery of +moonmen, which he recounted in his final article. They were winged men who +were first observed flying. "When their attitude was erect and dignified, +their stature [was] about four feet." They were covered with coppercolored +hair. "They appeared to be impassioned gesticulation; and hence it was +inferred, that they are rational beings. Others, apparently of a higher +order, were discovered afterwards....And finally a magnificent temple for +the worship of God, of polished sapphire, in a triangle shape, with a roof +of gold." (See footnote #16.) + + The articles were an immediate sensation and were reprinted in many of +the papers. Reverend Harley gave this assessment: + + When the first number appeared the New York SUN...the excitment + aroused was intense. The paper sold saily by thousands; and when + the articles came out as a pamphlet, twenty thousand went off at + once. Not only in Young America, but also in Old England, France, and + through out Europe, the wildest enthusiasm prevailed. + (See footnote #17.) + +Patrick Moore also detailed the reception the articles received: + + The articles met with a mixed reception, but some eminent + critics swallowed the bait hook, line and sinker. "These new dis- + coveries are both probable and plausible," declared the NEW YORK + TIMES, while the NEW YORKER thought that the observations "had + created a new era in astronomy and science generally." (See + footnote #18.) + + The NEW YORK EVANGELIST published a lengthy summary of the articles +which was reprinted on 11 September 1835 in the PAINESVILLE TELEGRAPH +(Ohio), a paper commonly read in the neighboring Mormon center of Kirtland. + + In Massachusetts a women's club wrote to Herschel for his views on how + to contact these moonmen and convert them to Christianity. (See + footnote #19.) One minister told his congregation that, on account of + the wonderful discoveries of the present age, he lived in expectation + of one day calling upon them for a sub-scription to buy Bibles for the + benighted inhabitants of the moon. + (See footnote #20.) + + On September 16 the SUN confessed its hoax. Still the articles only +described what many firmly believed existed on the moon, and popular belief +was undaunted by the confession which was, after all, not nearly so widely +publicized as the original articles. The PAINESVILLE TELEGRAPH near +Kirtland did not even carry the story of the confession. + + The following year the American theologian Dr. Timothy Dwight, in his + book THEOLOGY, declared that "it is most rationally concluded that + intelligent beings in great multitudes inhabit [the Moon's] lucid regions, + being far better and happier than ourselves." (See footnote #21.) + + Belief in intelligent moon life continued for many years. (See footnote + #22.) According to Moore, the last great advocate of intelligent life on + the moon was W.H. Pickering, who authored a 1904 photographic atlas and + wrote many papers about the moon. (See footnote #23.) + + Perhaps the most valuable point in all this is that the credibility of +figures of one generation cannot be judged fairly by the standards of a +later generation. It may be that today a person's credibility should be +questioned if he believes in a moon civilization in need of evangelizing. +But that would not have been the case for someone professing such a view in +the nineteenth century. + + The other question still remains: did Joseph Smith believe in an +inhabited moon? From the historical evidence now available the answer must +be: Not proven. But, all things considered, the possibility, or +probability, that he did cannot reasonably be denied. For all others of +that era the question seems quite insignificant, especially given +contemporary beliefs. But in the case of Joseph Smith, he claimed to be a +prophet. Some extremists contend that his claim demands that his knowled +ge in every area be superior to that of others in his era. If he believed +any false notion of his day, so these critics say, his credibility must be +doubted. Others, not so demanding of infallible incite in a prophet, would +be more comfortable with a description of God's revelation which allowed for +the human and the divine. As Rev. J.R. Dummelow so aptly described the +authors of the Bible in his ONE VOLUME BIBLE COMMENTARY, so might one say of +Joseph Smith: + + Though purified and ennobled by the influence of His Holy Spirit; + men each with his own peculiarities of manner and disposition-- + each with his own education or want of education--each with his + own way of looking at things--each influenced differently from + another by the different experiences and disciplines of his + life. Their inspiration did not involve a suspension of their + natureal faculties; it did not even make them free from earthly + passion; it did not make them into machines--it left them men. + Therefore we find their knowledge sometimes no higher than + that of their contemporaries.... (See footnote #24.) + +Dummelow's description of the author of Genesis is equally applicable: + + His scientific knowledge may be bounded by the horizon of the age + in which he lived, but the religious truths he teaches are ir- + refutable and eternal. (See footnote #25.) + + Certainly some critics will persist in their belief that Oliver B. +Huntington's 1892 article has devastated both Joseph Smith and Mormonism. +Some determined Mormons will dogmatically deny to the end that Joseph Smith +ever, for a moment, believed in moonmen. And I suspect that some ardent +fundamentalists will yet testify fervently that when men really do travel +around the moon they will be greeted by an elderly Quaker-like gentleman, +proving empirically the divine inspiration of the Prophet Joseph Smith. + + + + + +Notes +----- +1. YOUNG WOMEN'S JOURNAL 3:263,264. +2. Jay Jacobson, "Three Reasons Not to Become a Mormon," p. 7. +3. Utah State Historical Society, typescript, p. 166. +4. Ibid. p. 160. +5. Ibid. p. 166. +6. Ibid. p. 161, 168. +7. BYU STUDIES 18:177. +8. JD 13:271. +9. YOUNG WOMEN'S JOURNAL 5:346. +10. Patriarchal Blessing Books, 9:294, 295. +11. YOUNG WOMEN'S JOURNAL 5:345,346. +12. Patrick Moore, NEW GUIDE TO THE MOON (W.W. Norton && Company, New + York: 1976), p. 128. +13. Ibid. p. 129. +14. Ibid. +15. Rev. Timothy Harley, Moon Lore (Swan Sonnenchein, London:1885), + pp. 241,256. +16. Moore, p. 130-131; PAINESVILLE TELEGRAPH, 11 September 1835. +17. Harley, p. 42. +18. Moore, p. 32. +19. Ibid. p. 132. +20. Harley, p. 43. +21. Timothy Dwight, THEOLOGY, p. 91. +22. Harley, p. 249-257. +23. Moore, p. 133. +24. J.R. Dummelow, ONE VOLUME BIBLE + COMMENTARY, p. cxxxv. +25. Ibid. p. xxx. + + + + DISTRIBUTED BY + SOUNDS OF ZION + BOX 7332 + MURRAY, UT 84107 + ___________________ + MORMON MISCELLANEOUS + 8865 South 1300 East + Sandy, Utah 84092 + (801) 561-5103 or 571-5185 + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/moor_usa.txt b/religious documents/moor_usa.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a28c805 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/moor_usa.txt @@ -0,0 +1,292 @@ +From: mimir@hardy.u.washington.edu (Al Billings) +Newsgroups: alt.magick,alt.pagan +Subject: Moorish Orthodox Church +Summary: Spiffy stuff from Hakim Bey +Keywords: neat cool wow +Message-ID: <1992Nov16.232347.5329@u.washington.edu> +Date: 16 Nov 92 23:23:47 GMT +Sender: news@u.washington.edu (USENET News System) +Organization: Imams Anonymous +Lines: 281 + + + + HISTORY & CATECHISM + of the + MOORISH ORTHODOX CHURCH + OF AMERICA + + virtual edition + + + + * * * + + + Transcribed from the CRESCENT MOON PRESS + 1986 Edition and updated by the editors + 1992. no copyright + (all material may be freely reproduced) + + + + Imprimatur & Nihil Obstat + + USTAD SELIM + (Enforcer of the Law + & + Bishop-Exilarch of Persia) + & + ARIF HUSSEIN AL-CAMAYSAR + (Imam of Manhattan) + + + + * * * + + + + A morning breeze + trails musk behind it + perfumes + from the street + where my love is + + Yes, and the world wastes + while you sleep + The caravan is leaving + The sweet smell is dying + Get up! + + Jalaloddin Rumi + + + + + + +Moorish Orthodoxy is not a new religion. Historically it began with +the message of the American prophet Noble Drew Ali, born Timothy Drew +in North Carolina in 1886, raised by Cherokee Indians and adopted into +that tribe. At sixteen Drew began his wanderings as a circus magician, +which took him to Egypt where he received self knowledge and direction +from a priest, the last of a cult of High Magic practiced for centuries +in the pyramid of Cheops. This magus recognized the young American as +a reincarnation of a former leader of the cult, and saw him for the +prophet he was. + +From him Drew Ali learned the messages of The Circle Seven Koran, as +well as much higher truths; he returned to America where he was told +in a dream to found a new religion "for the uplifting of fallen +mankind." He began the first mosque, or temple, in Newark --- but +because he and his followers refused to fight in World War I he was +forced to move to Chicago, where his movement, the Moorish Science +Temple, began to grow. + +The Moorish Science Temple attracted mostly Black Americans. Noble +Drew however was no racist, though he held certain racial theories. +Blacks, he said, are Moabites or Moors, and under this identity he +taught pride to a race of oppressed sufferers. Moors are an "Asiatic +Race" --but so are many others. For example, Noble Drew identified +Celts as an Asiatic Race; later, when Whites of various sorts became +interested in Moorish Science, he identified all such as "Persians", a +sort of spiritual rather than factual identity. For Moorish Americans +Morocco is a "promised land"; this shows the influence of Garveyite +"Return" teachings, and provides an interesting link between Moorish +Science and Rastafarianism. Moorish Orthodoxy (despite its name) gives +all these teachings an esoteric significance. For us, "The Asiatic +Nation of North America" includes all who embrace some form of the +Oriental Wisdom, whatever their other affiliations, and "Morocco" +signifies their goal, "illuminated" consciousness. + +In Chicago Noble Drew issued many Moorish Passports, and it is said +that some new converts, in the zeal of their newfound nationality, +began to grow less and less subservient in their dealings with the +oppressor empire ("Pharoah" or "Babylon"). This culminated in a full +scale attack on the Science Temple in which (despite the secret escape +route, an essential feature of all Moorish Science Temples) many of +the faithful were martyred, including the Enforcer of the Law, a man +whom Noble Drew had recognized as a reincarnation of Jesus. + +Shortly thereafter (in 1929) Noble Drew prophesied the hour of his +death. He was "taken for questioning" by the Chicago Police and +brutally beaten, and died soon after his release. + +After this, the Moorish Science Temple began to split into sects or +factions, one headed by Noble Drew's chauffeur, another by Elijah +Muhammed, who his his Moorish Science origins and taught a +pseudo-science of race hatred disguised as the "Nation of Islam". +Until Elijah's death, many Moors expected him to recant. + +In the 1950's in the Baltimore/DC area, some white poets and jazz +musicians came into contact with the Science Temple and acquired +passports. They formed another offshoot of Moorish Science, the +Moorish Orthodox Church of America. At that early stage, the M.O.C. +was seen as partly Moorish and partly Eastern Orthodox, and there +existed certain ties with "Errant Bishops" of the Old Catholic Church, +Syrian Orthodoxy, etc. Some of these founding fathers drifted +eventually into Sunni Islam, others remained faithful to the M.O.C. +and friendly to the Science Temple. + +In the early 1960's on Manhattan's Upper West Side, one of the +youngest of these, Walid al-Taha (Warren Tartaglia), jazz saxophonist +and author of -The Hundred Seeds of Beirut-, initiated some friends +into the Church shortly before his tragic death (in his early 20's). +A new Temple was established in a basement on 103rd street off +Broadway, along with a head shop "The Crypt", and a Moorish Science +Reading Room. The Church maintained a M.O.C. Motorcycle Club at +various neighborhood garages, and a campsite of 123 acres was acquired +in northern New York. Close ties were formed with the Ananda Ashram in +upstate NY. Members in Baltimore renewed ties with elders and +missionaries of the Moorish Science Temple, including the Moorish +Governor of Maryland, who ran a junk shop that smelled of rose attar +and woodstove smoke, and talked like a Persian poet from Alabama -- +an echo, no doubt, of Noble Drew's own perfect Moorish Voice. Ties +were formed with the M.S.T. in Brooklyn, which provided copies of The +Circle Seven Koran, Catechisms, etc. + +When the Ananda Ashram moved into Milbrook NY with Timothy Leary's +League for Spiritual Discovery commune, the M.O.C. also established a +presence there. The M.O.C. is proud of its heritage in the Psychedelic +Churches Movement of the 60's, when we shared many adventures in +Milbrook till the Empire banished its Celtic guru into exile and +prison. We still have a temple in Duchess County, where the church is +legally incorporated. + +At that time the Church more or less abandoned all "Orthodoxy" (though +not the name) and found its true spirit in Sufism. +What interested us most was Sufism of various unorthodox varieties, +including Ismailism (the teachings of the Assassins). But many other +strains were woven into the M.O.C. in the 60's, including Advaita +Vedanta, Tantra, Neo-American-style psychedelic mysticism, Native +American Symbolism, and insurrectionist activism. + +The 70's and early 80's in retrospect seem a rather dim period in +Church history. Members scattered around the world and interest waned. +The "New Age" bogged down in various Greed Therapies, guru-scams and +bland-outs. For a while only small groups in Manhattan and Dutchess +Co. kept a shadowy existence and continuity. Recently however the time +has become ripe for a Revival. New religions are appearing: Native +American rites, Neo-paganism, Anarcho-taoism, the followers of Eris +and others with whom we feel a natural affinity. We have launched a +new edition of our newspaper, The Moorish Science Monitor (quiescent +since 1967!) and many new conversions have resulted. The sudden +upsurge of interest necessitated this revised edition of the M.O.C. +pamphlet, out of print since the late 60's. + + * * * * * + +What is Moorish Orthodoxy? What is its "Catechism"? Many people have +converted to Moorish Orthodoxy simply on hearing its name or seeing +the photograph of Noble Drew Ali (frontispiece of the Circle Seven +Koran) -- later, however, they may wish to learn something of Moorish +doctrine. + +In effect, there is none. Moorish Orthodoxy is like a mirror in which +each seeker beholds a beloved form, each one different. We have no +required ritual and no source of authority other than those the +individual imagination provides. We do however perhaps share a certain +"taste" or spiritual aesthetic. + +Moorish Orthodoxy was founded originally to explore the esoteric +dimensions of Noble Drew's teachings, discovered in such passages from +the Circle Seven Koran as these: + + "Now cease to seek for heaven in the sky; + Just open up the windows of your hearts and, + like a flood of light, a heaven will come + and bring a boundless joy." + + "By the sweet breath of Allah all life is + bound to one; so if you touch a fiber of + a living thing you send a thrill from + center to the outer bounds of life." + + "You are, each one, a priest, Just for + yourself." + + "Allah and man are one." + + "When man has conquered every foe upon the + plane of soul and the seed will have full + opened out, will have unfolded in the + Holy Breath. The garb of the soul will then + have served its purpose well, and man will + need it never more...and man will then at- + tain unto a blessedness of perfectness + and at one with Allah." + + "I (Jesus) brought immortality to light + and painted on the walls of time a rain- + bow for the sons of men; and what I did + all men shall do." + +The antinomian and egalitarian aspects of lines like these have +reinforced our position, in relation to all organized religion, of +heresy; in relation to all liberatory teachings and beautiful +imaginings we take up a posture of "rootless cosmopolitanism" that +seeks out universal spirit hidden anywhere, revealed in all cultures, +always occult and dissident, an "Invisible College" embracing East and +West but rejecting all official stultifying Consensus Reality. A Moor +might belong to any religion or none, "free either to take up a form +or not take up a form... not bound to any. Forms are for use, not to +make captives" (Hazrat Inayat Khan). + +The idea of an American heretical Islam is one such form. We +appreciate the aesthetic of Moorish Science, of Noble Drew's unique +and prophetic mixture of Afro-American, Native American, Magical, +Oriental and Moorish symbolism and imagery. We admire his courage, his +martyrdom, his revolutionary stance against "Pharoah", his +Americanizing of the prophetic spirit (he always wore a Cherokee +feather in his fez). We reflect this aesthetic in our lives and +creative work. But we are not bound by it. Like certain esoteric +Javanese sects we reject the figure of the Master (guru or murshed) in +favor of the teacher. Anyone can be a teacher in relation to someone; +everyone has something to teach, something to learn. + +To symbolize this attitude, all Moors are encouraged to create new +names and titles for themselves. The Moorish Hierarchy is self +appointed; anyone is free to print Passports, although the old +Manhattan Lodge possesses certain seals and procedures which converts +may appreciate. Popular titles include: Moorish Governor, +Metropolitan, Deacon, Vicar, Exilarch, Imam, Castellan, Papessa, +Contessa, Marshall or just plain Reverend. Moorish Science Temple +adherents often add "Bey" or "El" to their names, others favor other +traditions, and some use their own names. All Moors are entitled to +titles, however, since all Moors have "authority". + +The Moorish Orthodox Catechism, then, consists of no rules or dogmas, +but only of adherance to the "Five Pillars" of Moorish Science as +listed by Noble Drew: + + LOVE + TRUTH + PEACE + FREEDOM + JUSTICE + +to which we add a sixth, "Beauty". + + + + + This bud opens into the red rose, + the nightingale is drunk for joy--- + Hail, seekers! Lovers of wine; + wine for a thirsty world + like a slug under + the rock of repentance... + a rock smashed by a mere goblet--- + and that is the announcement, the Miracle + + Wine for the king! Wine for the slave! + this banquet was set for everyone, + drunk or sober, and when + the Feast is over and night grows up, + and the inside door of the Tavern springs + open + Low and High together will bow down + under the Arch of the World + to meet what...outside? + + Hafez Shirazi diff --git a/religious documents/moororth.txt b/religious documents/moororth.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cdefa05 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/moororth.txt @@ -0,0 +1,286 @@ + HISTORY & CATECHISM + of the + MOORISH ORTHODOX CHURCH + OF AMERICA + + virtual edition + + + + * * * + + + Transcribed from the CRESCENT MOON PRESS + 1986 Edition and updated by the editors + 1992. no copyright + (all material may be freely reproduced) + + + + Imprimatur & Nihil Obstat + + USTAD SELIM + (Enforcer of the Law + & + Bishop-Exilarch of Persia) + & + ARIF HUSSEIN AL-CAMAYSAR + (Imam of Manhattan) + + + + * * * + + + + A morning breeze + trails musk behind it + perfumes + from the street + where my love is + + Yes, and the world wastes + while you sleep + The caravan is leaving + The sweet smell is dying + Get up! + + Jalaloddin Rumi + + + + + + +Moorish Orthodoxy is not a new religion. Historically it began with +the message of the American prophet Noble Drew Ali, born Timothy Drew +in North Carolina in 1886, raised by Cherokee Indians and adopted into +that tribe. At sixteen Drew began his wanderings as a circus magician, +which took him to Egypt where he received self knowledge and direction +from a priest, the last of a cult of High Magic practiced for centuries +in the pyramid of Cheops. This magus recognized the young American as +a reincarnation of a former leader of the cult, and saw him for the +prophet he was. + +From him Drew Ali learned the messages of The Circle Seven Koran, as +well as much higher truths; he returned to America where he was told +in a dream to found a new religion "for the uplifting of fallen +mankind." He began the first mosque, or temple, in Newark --- but +because he and his followers refused to fight in World War I he was +forced to move to Chicago, where his movement, the Moorish Science +Temple, began to grow. + +The Moorish Science Temple attracted mostly Black Americans. Noble +Drew however was no racist, though he held certain racial theories. +Blacks, he said, are Moabites or Moors, and under this identity he +taught pride to a race of oppressed sufferers. Moors are an "Asiatic +Race" --but so are many others. For example, Noble Drew identified +Celts as an Asiatic Race; later, when Whites of various sorts became +interested in Moorish Science, he identified all such as "Persians", a +sort of spiritual rather than factual identity. For Moorish Americans +Morocco is a "promised land"; this shows the influence of Garveyite +"Return" teachings, and provides an interesting link between Moorish +Science and Rastafarianism. Moorish Orthodoxy (despite its name) gives +all these teachings an esoteric significance. For us, "The Asiatic +Nation of North America" includes all who embrace some form of the +Oriental Wisdom, whatever their other affiliations, and "Morocco" +signifies their goal, "illuminated" consciousness. + +In Chicago Noble Drew issued many Moorish Passports, and it is said +that some new converts, in the zeal of their newfound nationality, +began to grow less and less subservient in their dealings with the +oppressor empire ("Pharoah" or "Babylon"). This culminated in a full +scale attack on the Science Temple in which (despite the secret escape +route, an essential feature of all Moorish Science Temples) many of +the faithful were martyred, including the Enforcer of the Law, a man +whom Noble Drew had recognized as a reincarnation of Jesus. + +Shortly thereafter (in 1929) Noble Drew prophesied the hour of his +death. He was "taken for questioning" by the Chicago Police and +brutally beaten, and died soon after his release. + +After this, the Moorish Science Temple began to split into sects or +factions, one headed by Noble Drew's chauffeur, another by Elijah +Muhammed, who his his Moorish Science origins and taught a +pseudo-science of race hatred disguised as the "Nation of Islam". +Until Elijah's death, many Moors expected him to recant. + +In the 1950's in the Baltimore/DC area, some white poets and jazz +musicians came into contact with the Science Temple and acquired +passports. They formed another offshoot of Moorish Science, the +Moorish Orthodox Church of America. At that early stage, the M.O.C. +was seen as partly Moorish and partly Eastern Orthodox, and there +existed certain ties with "Errant Bishops" of the Old Catholic Church, +Syrian Orthodoxy, etc. Some of these founding fathers drifted +eventually into Sunni Islam, others remained faithful to the M.O.C. +and friendly to the Science Temple. + +In the early 1960's on Manhattan's Upper West Side, one of the +youngest of these, Walid al-Taha (Warren Tartaglia), jazz saxophonist +and author of -The Hundred Seeds of Beirut-, initiated some friends +into the Church shortly before his tragic death (in his early 20's). +A new Temple was established in a basement on 103rd street off +Broadway, along with a head shop "The Crypt", and a Moorish Science +Reading Room. The Church maintained a M.O.C. Motorcycle Club at +various neighborhood garages, and a campsite of 123 acres was acquired +in northern New York. Close ties were formed with the Ananda Ashram in +upstate NY. Members in Baltimore renewed ties with elders and +missionaries of the Moorish Science Temple, including the Moorish +Governor of Maryland, who ran a junk shop that smelled of rose attar +and woodstove smoke, and talked like a Persian poet from Alabama -- +an echo, no doubt, of Noble Drew's own perfect Moorish Voice. Ties +were formed with the M.S.T. in Brooklyn, which provided copies of The +Circle Seven Koran, Catechisms, etc. + +When the Ananda Ashram moved into Milbrook NY with Timothy Leary's +League for Spiritual Discovery commune, the M.O.C. also established a +presence there. The M.O.C. is proud of its heritage in the Psychedelic +Churches Movement of the 60's, when we shared many adventures in +Milbrook till the Empire banished its Celtic guru into exile and +prison. We still have a temple in Duchess County, where the church is +legally incorporated. + +At that time the Church more or less abandoned all "Orthodoxy" (though +not the name) and found its true spirit in Sufism. +What interested us most was Sufism of various unorthodox varieties, +including Ismailism (the teachings of the Assassins). But many other +strains were woven into the M.O.C. in the 60's, including Advaita +Vedanta, Tantra, Neo-American-style psychedelic mysticism, Native +American Symbolism, and insurrectionist activism. + +The 70's and early 80's in retrospect seem a rather dim period in +Church history. Members scattered around the world and interest waned. +The "New Age" bogged down in various Greed Therapies, guru-scams and +bland-outs. For a while only small groups in Manhattan and Dutchess +Co. kept a shadowy existence and continuity. Recently however the time +has become ripe for a Revival. New religions are appearing: Native +American rites, Neo-paganism, Anarcho-taoism, the followers of Eris +and others with whom we feel a natural affinity. We have launched a +new edition of our newspaper, The Moorish Science Monitor (quiescent +since 1967!) and many new conversions have resulted. The sudden +upsurge of interest necessitated this revised edition of the M.O.C. +pamphlet, out of print since the late 60's. + + * * * * * + +What is Moorish Orthodoxy? What is its "Catechism"? Many people have +converted to Moorish Orthodoxy simply on hearing its name or seeing +the photograph of Noble Drew Ali (frontispiece of the Circle Seven +Koran) -- later, however, they may wish to learn something of Moorish +doctrine. + +In effect, there is none. Moorish Orthodoxy is like a mirror in which +each seeker beholds a beloved form, each one different. We have no +required ritual and no source of authority other than those the +individual imagination provides. We do however perhaps share a certain +"taste" or spiritual aesthetic. + +Moorish Orthodoxy was founded originally to explore the esoteric +dimensions of Noble Drew's teachings, discovered in such passages from +the Circle Seven Koran as these: + + "Now cease to seek for heaven in the sky; + Just open up the windows of your hearts and, + like a flood of light, a heaven will come + and bring a boundless joy." + + "By the sweet breath of Allah all life is + bound to one; so if you touch a fiber of + a living thing you send a thrill from + center to the outer bounds of life." + + "You are, each one, a priest, Just for + yourself." + + "Allah and man are one." + + "When man has conquered every foe upon the + plane of soul and the seed will have full + opened out, will have unfolded in the + Holy Breath. The garb of the soul will then + have served its purpose well, and man will + need it never more...and man will then at- + tain unto a blessedness of perfectness + and at one with Allah." + + "I (Jesus) brought immortality to light + and painted on the walls of time a rain- + bow for the sons of men; and what I did + all men shall do." + +The antinomian and egalitarian aspects of lines like these have +reinforced our position, in relation to all organized religion, of +heresy; in relation to all liberatory teachings and beautiful +imaginings we take up a posture of "rootless cosmopolitanism" that +seeks out universal spirit hidden anywhere, revealed in all cultures, +always occult and dissident, an "Invisible College" embracing East and +West but rejecting all official stultifying Consensus Reality. A Moor +might belong to any religion or none, "free either to take up a form +or not take up a form... not bound to any. Forms are for use, not to +make captives" (Hazrat Inayat Khan). + +The idea of an American heretical Islam is one such form. We +appreciate the aesthetic of Moorish Science, of Noble Drew's unique +and prophetic mixture of Afro-American, Native American, Magical, +Oriental and Moorish symbolism and imagery. We admire his courage, his +martyrdom, his revolutionary stance against "Pharoah", his +Americanizing of the prophetic spirit (he always wore a Cherokee +feather in his fez). We reflect this aesthetic in our lives and +creative work. But we are not bound by it. Like certain esoteric +Javanese sects we reject the figure of the Master (guru or murshed) in +favor of the teacher. Anyone can be a teacher in relation to someone; +everyone has something to teach, something to learn. + +To symbolize this attitude, all Moors are encouraged to create new +names and titles for themselves. The Moorish Hierarchy is self +appointed; anyone is free to print Passports, although the old +Manhattan Lodge possesses certain seals and procedures which converts +may appreciate. Popular titles include: Moorish Governor, +Metropolitan, Deacon, Vicar, Exilarch, Imam, Castellan, Papessa, +Contessa, Marshall or just plain Reverend. Moorish Science Temple +adherents often add "Bey" or "El" to their names, others favor other +traditions, and some use their own names. All Moors are entitled to +titles, however, since all Moors have "authority". + +The Moorish Orthodox Catechism, then, consists of no rules or dogmas, +but only of adherance to the "Five Pillars" of Moorish Science as +listed by Noble Drew: + + LOVE + TRUTH + PEACE + FREEDOM + JUSTICE + +to which we add a sixth, "Beauty". + + + + + This bud opens into the red rose, + the nightingale is drunk for joy--- + Hail, seekers! Lovers of wine; + wine for a thirsty world + like a slug under + the rock of repentance... + a rock smashed by a mere goblet--- + and that is the announcement, the Miracle + + Wine for the king! Wine for the slave! + this banquet was set for everyone, + drunk or sober, and when + the Feast is over and night grows up, + and the inside door of the Tavern springs + open + Low and High together will bow down + under the Arch of the World + to meet what...outside? + + Hafez Shirazi + + + Praise be to Allah, + Mustafa Bey + +--- + * Origin: -= The Sacred Grove =- Seattle, WA V.32 (206)634-1980 (1:343/56) diff --git a/religious documents/moothwak.txt b/religious documents/moothwak.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..45b6c31 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/moothwak.txt @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +The secret inner core of the MOOist church. They live in shadows, and never +brush their teeth... They are (dramatic music) The Unthwakables. + +Lurking in darkness, the unthwakables perform strange and mysterious rites for +their ring leader, one Mr Half Mad. + +Armed only with wet sponges, the unthwakables are calm, cool, and completely +psychotic. + +They feed off your lack of fear. + +They wear funny hats. + +They know when you are sleeping, and they'll guess when you're awake about 50% +of the time. + +They are, the unthwakables! + +They carve soap into funny animal shapes. + +They haunt you like the plague. + +They feed your pets rare and disaterous herbs that cause your pets excretions +to be bright beige. + +They are, the unthwakables. + diff --git a/religious documents/mor-prof.txt b/religious documents/mor-prof.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..abac69a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mor-prof.txt @@ -0,0 +1,647 @@ + The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith + + Owing to the many reports which have been put in circulation +by evil-disposed and designing persons, in relation to the rise +and progress of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, +all of which have been designed to militate against its character +as a Church and its progress in the world--I have been induced to +write this history, to disabuse the public mind, and put all +inquirers after the truth in possession of the facts, as they +have transpired, in relation both to myself and the Church, so +far as I have such facts in my possession. + + In this history I shall present the various events in +relation to this Church, in truth and righteousness, as they have +transpired, or as they at present exist, being now [1838] the +eighth year since the organization of the said Church. + + I was born in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred +and five, on the twenty-third day of December, in the town of +Sharon, Windsor county, State of Vermont...My father, Joseph +Smith, Sen., left the State of Vermont, and moved to Palmyra, +Ontario (now Wayne) county, in the State of New York, when I was in +my tenth year, or thereabouts. In about four years after my +father's arrival in Palmyra, he moved with his family into +Manchester in the same county of Ontario-- + + His family consisting of eleven souls, namely, my father, +Joseph Smith; my mother, Lucy Smith (whose name, previous to her +marriage, was Mack, daughter of Solomon Mack); my brothers, Alvin +(who died November 19th, 1823, in the 26th year of his age), +Hyrum, myself, Samuel Harrison, William, Don Carlos; and my +sisters, Sophronia, Catherine, and Lucy. + + Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester, +there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on +the subject of religion. It commenced with the Methodists, but +soon became general among all the sects in that region of +country. Indeed, the whole district of country seemed affected +by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the different +religious parties, which created no small stir and division +amongst the people, some crying, "Lo, here!" and others, "Lo, +there!" Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some for +the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist. For, notwithstanding +the great love which the converts to these different faiths +expressed at the time of their conversion, and the great zeal +manifested by the respective clergy, who were active in getting +up and promoting this extra-ordinary scene of religious feeling, +in order to have everybody converted, as they were pleased to +call it, let them join what sect they pleased; yet when the +converts began to file off, some to one party and some to +another, it was seen that the seemingly good feelings of both the +priests and the converts were more pretended than real; for a +scene of great confusion and bad feeling ensued--priest +contending against priest, and convert against convert; so that +all their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any, +were entirely lost in a strife of words and a contest about +opinions. + + I was at this time in my fifteenth year. My father's family +was proselyted to the Presbyterian faith, and four of them joined +that church, namely, my mother, Lucy; my brothers Hyrum and +Samuel Harrison, and my sister Sophronia. + + During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to +serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings +were deep and often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all +these parties, though I attended their several meetings as often +as occasion would permit. In process of time my mind became +somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to +be united with them; but so great were the confusion and strife +among the different denominations, that it was impossible for a +person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, +to come to any certain conclusion who was right and who was +wrong. + + My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were +so great and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided +against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all the powers of +both reason and sophistry to prove their errors, or, at least, to +make the people think they were in error. On the other hand, the +Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in +endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all +others. + + In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I +often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these +parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one +of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it? + + While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by +the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day +reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, +which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that +giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be +given him. + + Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to +the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed +to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I +reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person +needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and +unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never +know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects +understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to +destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to +the Bible. + + At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain +in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, +that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to +"ask of God," concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that +lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might +venture. + + So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, +I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the +morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of +eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life +that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I +had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally. + + After I had retired to the place where I had previously +designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself +alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my +heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was +seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had +such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so +that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and +it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden +destruction. + + But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me +out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at +the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon +myself to destruction--not to an imaginary ruin, but to the +power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such +marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being--just at +this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over +my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended +gradually until it fell upon me. + + It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the +enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw +two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, +standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling +me by name and said, pointing to the other--This is My Beloved +Son. Hear Him! + + My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which +of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No +sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be +able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in +the light, which of all the sects was right and which I should +join. + + I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were +all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their +creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors +were all corrupt; that: "they draw near to me with their lips, +but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the +commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny +the power thereof." + + He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other +things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. +When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, +looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no +strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home. And +as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter +was. I replied, "Never mind, all is well--I am well enough off." +I then said to my mother, "I have learned for myself that +Presbyterianism is not true." It seems as though the adversary +was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined +to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why +should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the +opposition and persecution that arose against me, almost from my +infancy? + + Some few days after I had this vision, I happened to be in +company with one of the Methodist preachers, who was very active +in the before mentioned religious excitement; and, conversing +with him on the subject of religion, I took occasion to give him +an account of the vision which I had had. I was greatly +surprised at his behavior; he treated my communication not only +lightly, but with great contempt, saying it was all of the devil, +that there were no such things as visions or revelations in these +days; that all such things had ceased with the apostles, and that +there would never be any more of them. + + I soon found, however, that my telling the story had excited +a great deal of prejudice against me among professors of +religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued +to increase; and though I was an obscure boy, only between the +fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life +such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of +high standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public +mind against me, and create a bitter persecution; and this was +common among all the sects--all united to persecute me. + + It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, +how very strange it was that an obscure boy, of little over +fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the +necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by his daily labor, +should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract +the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the +day, and in a manner to create in them a spirit of the most +bitter persecution and reviling. But strange or not, so it was, +and it was often the cause of great sorrow to myself. + + However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a +vision. I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when +he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account +of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but +still there were but few who believed him; some said he was +dishonest, others said he was mad; and he was ridiculed and +reviled. But all this did not destroy the reality of his +vision. He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the +persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise; and though +they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and would know +to his latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a +voice speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him +think or believe otherwise. + + So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the +midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality +speak to me; and though I was hated and persecuted for saying +that I had seen a vision, yet it was true; and while they were +persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil +against me falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: +Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a +vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the +world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had +seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I +could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by +so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation. + + I had now got my mind satisfied so far as the sectarian world +was concerned-- that it was not my duty to join with any of them, +but to continue as I was until further directed. I had found the +testimony of James to be true--that a man who lacked wisdom might +ask of God, and obtain, and not be upbraided. + + I continued to pursue my common vocations in life until the +twenty-first of September, one thousand eight hundred and +twenty-three, all the time suffering severe persecution at the +hands of all classes of men, both religious and irreligious, +because I continued to affirm that I had seen a vision. + + During the space of time which intervened between the time I +had the vision and the year eighteen hundred and +twenty-three--having been forbidden to join any of the religious +sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and persecuted +by those who ought to have been my friends and to have treated me +kindly, and if they supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored +in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me--I was +left to all kinds of temptations; and, mingling with all kinds of +society, I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and +displayed the foibles of youth, and the foibles of human nature; +which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, +offensive in the sight of God. In making this confession, no one +need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins. A +disposition to commit such was never in my nature. But I was +guilty of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, +etc., not consistent with that character which ought to be +maintained by one who was called of God as I had been. But this +will not seem very strange to any one who recollects my youth, +and is acquainted with my native cheery temperament. + + In consequence of these things, I often felt condemned for my +weakness and imperfections; when, on the evening of the +above-mentioned twenty-first of September, after I had retired to +my bed for the night, I betook myself to prayer and supplication +to Almighty God for forgiveness of all my sins and follies, and +also for a manifestation to me, that I might know of my state and +standing before him; for I had full confidence in obtaining a +divine manifestation, as I previously had one. + + While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered +a light appearing in my room, which continued to increase until +the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a +personage appeared at my bedside, standing in the air, for his +feet did not touch the floor. + + He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a +whiteness beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I +believe that any earthly thing could be made to appear so +exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands were naked, and his +arms also, a little above the wrist; so, also, were his feet +naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His head and +neck were also bare. I could discover that he had no other +clothing on but this robe, as it was open, so that I could see +into his bosom. + + Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person +was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like +lightning. The room was exceedingly light, but not so very +bright as immediately around his person. When I first looked +upon him, I was afraid; but the fear soon left me. + + He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a +messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name +was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name +would be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and +tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among +all people. + + He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, +giving and account of the former inhabitants of this continent, +and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the +fullness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as +delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants; + + Also, that there were two stones in silver bows--and these +stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the +Urim and Thummim--deposited with the plates, and the possession +and use of these stones were what constituted "seers" in ancient +or former times; and that God had prepared them for the purpose +of translating the book. + + After telling me these things, he commenced quoting the +prophecies of the Old Testament. He first quoted part of the +third chapter of Malachi; and he quoted also the fourth or last +chapter of the same prophecy, though with a little variation from +the way it reads in our Bibles. Instead of quoting the first +verse as it reads in our books, he quoted it thus: + + "For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and +all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as +stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of +Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." + + And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus: "Behold, I will +reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the +prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the +Lord." + + He also quoted the next verse differently: "And he shall +plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the +fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their +fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly +wasted at his coming." + + In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of +Isaiah, saying that it was about to be fulfilled. He quoted also +the third chapter of Acts, twenty- second and twenty-third +verses, precisely as they stand in our New Testament. He said +that that prophet was Christ; but the day had not yet come when +"they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among +the people," but soon would come. + + He also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the +twenty-eighth verse to the last. He also said that this was not +yet fulfilled, but was soon to be. And he further stated that +the fullness of the Gentiles was soon to come in. He quoted many +other passages of scripture, and offered many explanations which +cannot be mentioned here. + + Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he +had spoken--for the time that they should be obtained was not yet +fulfilled--I should not show them to any person; neither the +breastplate with the Urim and Thummim; only to those to whom I +should be commanded to show them; if I did I should be destroyed. +While he was conversing with me about the plates, the vision was +opened to my mind that I could see the place where the plates +were deposited, and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew +the place again when I visited it. + + After this communication, I saw the light in the room begin +to gather immediately around the person of him who had been +speaking to me, and it continued to do so until the room was +again left dark, except just around him; when, instantly I saw, +as it were, a conduit open right up into heaven, and he ascended +till he entirely disappeared, and the room was left as it had +been before this heavenly light had made its appearance. + + I lay musing on the singularity of the scene, and marveling +greatly at what had been told to me by this extraordinary +messenger; when, in the midst of my meditation, I suddenly +discovered that my room was again beginning to get lighted, and +in an instant, as it were, the same heavenly messenger was again +by my bedside. + + He commenced, and again related the very same things which he +had done at his first visit, without the least variation; which +having done, he informed me of great judgments which were coming +upon the earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and +pestilence; and that these grievous judgments would come on the +earth in this generation. Having related these things, he again +ascended as he had done before. + + By this time, so deep were the impressions made on my mind, +that sleep had fled from my eyes, and I lay overwhelmed in +astonishment at what I had both seen and heard. But what was my +surprise when again I beheld the same messenger at my bedside, +and heard him rehearse or repeat over again to me the same things +as before; and added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would +try to tempt me (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of +my father's family), to get the plates for the purpose of getting +rich. This he forbade me, saying that I must have no other +object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God, and must +not be influenced by any other motive than that of building his +kingdom; otherwise, I could not get them. + + After this third visit, he again ascended into heaven as +before, and I was again left to ponder on the strangeness of what +I had just experienced; when almost immediately after the +heavenly messenger had ascended from me for the third time, the +cock crowed, and I found that day was approaching, so that our +interviews must have occupied the whole of that night. + + I shortly after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the +necessary labors of the day; but, in attempting to work as at +other times, I found my strength so exhausted as to render me +entirely unable. My father, who was laboring along with me, +discovered something to be wrong with me, and told me to go home. +I started with the intention of going to the house; but, in +attempting to cross the fence out of the field where we were, my +strength entirely failed me, and I fell helpless on the ground, +and for a time was quite unconscious of anything. + + The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking +unto me, calling me by name. I looked up, and beheld the same +messenger standing over my head, surrounded by light as before. +He then again related unto me all that had related to me the +previous night, and commanded me to go to my father and tell him +of the vision and commandments which I had received. + + I obeyed; I returned to my father in the field, and rehearsed +the whole matter to him. He replied to me that it was of God, +and told me to go and do as commanded by the messenger. I left +the field, and went to the place where the messenger had told me +the plates were deposited; and owing to the distinctness of the +vision which I had had concerning it, I knew the place the +instant that I arrived there. + + Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New +York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated +of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not +far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the +plates, deposited in a stone box. This stone was thick and +rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the +edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the +ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth. + + Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got +fixed under the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion +raised it up. I looked in, and there indeed did I behold the +plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate, as stated by +the messenger. The box in which they lay was formed by laying +stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box +were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones +lay the plates and the other things with them. + + I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the +messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them +forth had not yet arrived, neither would it, until four years +from that time; but he told me that I should come to that place +precisely in one year from that time, and that he would there +meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time +should come for obtaining the plates. + + Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end of +each year, and at each time I found the same messenger there, and +received instruction and intelligence from him at each of our +interviews, respecting what the Lord was going to do, and how and +in what manner his kingdom was to be conducted in the last days. + + As my father's worldly circumstances were very limited, we +were under the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out +by day's work and otherwise, as we could get opportunity. +Sometimes we were at home, and sometime abroad, and by continuous +labor were enabled to get a comfortable maintenance....[My note +to shorten downloads: At this point in the narrative, Joseph +relates his brother's death, his employment in Pennsylvania +digging for silver mines with a Mr. Josiah Stoal, his marriage to +the daughter of his boarder, Emma Hale, on January 18th, 1827, +and his return home to farm at that time.] + + At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim +and Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of +September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having +gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they +were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to +me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that +if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of +mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my +endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call +for them, they should be protected. + + I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict +charges to keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had +said that when I had done what was required at my hand, he would +call for them. For no sooner was it known that I had them, than +the most strenuous exertions were used to get them from me.... +But by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I +had accomplished by them what was required at my hand. When, +according to arrangements, the messenger called for them, I +delivered them up to him; and he has them in his charge until +this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred +and thirty-eight.... + + [Another note: Here Joseph tells how, because of persecution +and danger of losing the plates, he left Manchester and moved to +Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, with the assistance of a +respected Palmyra farmer, Martin Harris. The narrative then +quotes Mr. Harris for a page, telling of what happened then (in +fulfillment of Isaiah 29:10-11).] + + On the 5th day of April, 1829, Oliver Cowdery came to my +house, until which time I had never seen him. He stated to me +that having been teaching school in the neighborhood where my +father resided, and my father being one of those who sent to the +school, he went to board for a season at his house, and while +there the family related to him the circumstances of my having +received the plates, and accordingly, he had come to make +inquiries of me. + + Two days after the arrival of Mr. Cowdery (being the 7th of +April) I commenced to translate the Book of Mormon, and he began +to write for me. + + We still continued the work of translation, when, in the +ensuing month (May, 1829), we on a certain day went into the +woods to pray and inquire of the Lord respecting baptism for the +remission of sins, that we found mentioned in the translation of +the plates. While we were thus employed, praying and calling +upon the Lord, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of +light, and having laid his hands upon us, he ordained us, saying: + + "Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I +confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the +ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of +baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall +never be taken again from the earth until the sons of Levi do +offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness." + + He said this Aaronic Priesthood had not the power of laying +on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but that this should be +conferred on us hereafter; and he commanded us to go and be +baptized, and gave us directions that I should baptize Oliver +Cowdery, and that afterwards he should baptize me. + + Accordingly we went and were baptized. I baptized him first, +and afterwards he baptized me--after which I laid my hands upon +his head and ordained him to the Aaronic Priesthood, and +afterwards he laid his hands on me and ordained me to the same +Priesthood--for so we were commanded. + + The messenger who visited us on this occasion and conferred +this Priesthood upon us, said that his name was John, the same +that is called John the Baptist in the New Testament, and that he +acted under the direction of Peter, James and John, who held the +keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, which Priesthood, he said, +would in due time be conferred on us, and that I should be called +the first Elder of the Church, and he (Oliver Cowdery) the +second. It was on the fifteenth day of May, 1829, that we were +ordained under the hand of this messenger, and baptized. + + Immediately on our coming up out of the water after we had +been baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from +our Heavenly Father. No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery, +than the Holy Ghost fell upon him, and he stood up and prophesied +many things which should shortly come to pass. And again, so +soon as I had been baptized by him, I also had the spirit of +prophecy, when, standing up, I prophesied concerning the rise of +this Church, and many other things concerned with the Church, and +this generation of the children of men. We were filled with the +Holy Ghost, and rejoiced in the God of our salvation. + + +[Additional information: + +Oliver Cowdery also wrote concerning these events: + + "These were days never to be forgotten--to sit under the +sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened +the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, +uninterupted to write from his mouth, as he translated with the +Urim and Thummim, or as the Nephites would have said, +'Interpreters,' the history of record called the 'Book of +Mormon....' + + The Lord, who is rich in mercy, and ever willing to answer +the consistent prayer of the humble, after we had called Him in a +fervent manner, aside from the abodes of men, condescended to +manifest to us His will. On a sudden, as from the midst of +eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us. While the +veil was parted and the angel of God came down clothed with +glory, and delivered the anxiously looked for message, and the +keys of the Gospel of repentance. What joy! what wonder! what +amazement! While the world was racked and distracted--while +millions were groping as the blind for the wall, and while all +men were resting upon uncertainty, as a general mass, our eyes +beheld, our ears heard, as in the 'blaze of day'; yes, +more--above the glitter of the May sunbeam, which then shed its +brilliancy over the face of nature! Then his voice, though mild, +peirced to the center, and his words, 'I am thy fellow-servant,' +dispelled every fear. We listened, we gazed, we admired! 'Twas +the voice of an angel, from glory, 'twas a message from the Most +High! And as we heard we rejoiced, while His love enkindled upon +our sould, and we were wrapped in the vision of the Almighty! +Where was room for doubt? Nowhere; uncertainty had fled, doubt +had sunk no more to rise, while fiction and deception had fled +forever!" + +A few of the many Biblical references to the restoration of the +Gospel and Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days: + +Isaiah 29:4, 10-14, 18, 24 +Isaiah 2:2 and Micah 4:1-3 +Isaiah 11:1, 10-12 +Psalms 85:11 +Revelation 14:6 +Ezekial 37:15-17 (a stick is a scroll, or writings; this refers +to the Bible and the Book of Mormon) +Amos 3:7 +Acts 3:19-21 +Joel 2:28 +Romans 11:25 +Ephesians 1:10 + +The foreward to the Book of Mormon, written by the prophet Mormon +circa 400 A.D. describing its nature and purpose: + + Wherefore, it is an abridgment of the record of the people of +Nephi, and also of the Lamanites--Written to the Lamanites, who +are a remnant of the House of Israel; and also to Jew and +Gentile--Written by way of commandment, and also by the spirit of +prophecy and revelation--Written and sealed up, and hid up unto +the Lord, that they might not be destroyed--To come forth by the +gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof--Sealed by +the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in +due time by way of the Gentile--The interpretation thereof by the +gift of God. + + An abridgment taken from the Book of Ether also, which is a +record of the people of Jared, who were scattered at the time the +Lord confounded the language of the people, when they were +building a tower to get to heaven--Which is to show unto the +remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath +done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of +the Lord, that they are not cast off forever--And also to the +convincing of the Jew and Gentile that JESUS is the CHRIST, the +ETERNAL GOD, manifesting himself unto all nations--And now, if +there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn +not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the +judgment-seat of Christ. diff --git a/religious documents/morm-07.txt b/religious documents/morm-07.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3461ef6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm-07.txt @@ -0,0 +1,258 @@ +Many San Diegans are aware of the new Mormon Temple which is being +constructed at I-5 and Nobel Drive. The building of this temple has +increased the Mormons' visibility in San Diego County, and soon +Mormon missionaries may come knocking at your door, eager and +willing to share their gospel. + +They usually carry two books, the Bible and the Book of Mormon. If +you are not a Christian, either book may be used to draw you into a +discussion. + +However, if you are a Christian, Mormons usually start out with the +Bible - using terminology designed to convince you of their claim +that Mormons are Christians too, and that "we basically believe the +same things". Nothing could be further from the truth, for if you +were to engage in a discussion, you would soon find out that +Mormons do not believe the Bible as you know it. Instead, they will +tell you they "believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as +it is translated correctly' (Article Eight in "Articles of Faith"). +Interestingly enough, this Article was changed from "We believe the +word of God recorded in the Bible...." to its current version after +Joseph Smith started having "revelations" that did not correspond +with the Bible. + +In fact, Mormons consider the Bible to be incorrect every time the +teachings of their church contradict a certain passage. + +Like all cults, they try to validate their Scriptures by attacking +or re-interpreting the Bible. They do so by saying anything from, +'Here's another Testament of Jesus', to 'The Bible as we know it +has been changed, corrupted and edited beyond recognition', to 'It +was never meant to be interpreted like this...'. + +What is interesting, of course, is that cults still use the Bible +to try and proof their points. However, hand a Mormon your Bible +and ask him to show you some examples of words, verses or passages +that have been translated incorrectly, and they are at a loss. Ask +Mormons when all the cutting and editing they speak of took place, +and they will give you explanations that are historically +incorrect. But not only does history prove the Mormons' claims to +be false and misleading, but so do thousands of archeological +findings, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition, there are +over 50,000 manuscripts and portions of manuscripts that attest to +the reliability of the Bible. + +In my discussion with J.F. (Text file available, see notes), a +Mormon from San Diego, who claims to have a position of leadership +in the Mormon church, he used many verses and passages from the +Bible to support the points he was trying to make. Knowing that +Mormons claim much of the Bible has been corrupted, I therefore +asked him if I could assume that the verses and passages he cited +were translated correctly. After all, how could he expect to +support his points with Scriptures that he considers to be +corrupted? Not surprisingly, he did not give a conclusive answer, +because a "yes" or "no" would have meant admitting that the Bible +and the Book of Mormon contradict each other. + +At the same time, Mormons try to minimalize the more than 4000 +changes made in the Book of Mormon, many as recent as 1981. These +changes were made, even though in Volume 1 of the "Documentary +History of the Church", an angel appears and proclaims, "These +plates have been revealed by the power of God. The translation of +them which you have seen is correct." Mormon apostle Bruce McConkie +also said, "The book is true and was translated correctly". If +these statements are true, why were the corrections necessary? + +In fairness, many of the changes include those made to punctuation +and spelling, but the Mormons claim that this is all that was +changed. Not so. For example, the orginal Book of Mormon said that +Jesus is the Grandson of God. This has been changed. In the +original edition we also see that "...the Lamb of God is the +Eternal Father", while current editions read, "...that the Lamb of +God is the Son of the Eternal Father." + +The Book of Mormon used to teach the when a person of a dark skin +accepts the Mormon gospel, his skin would turn white. In 1981 the +word "white" was changed to "pure". + +Joseph Smith claimed that "the Book of Mormon was the most correct +book on earth", and Alma 41:8 states that "the degrees of God are +unalterable". How, then, can Mormons justify all the changes in +their church's doctrine? (polygamy, the Black Revelation of 1978, +changes in the temple oaths, etc.). + +In a 1978 edition of the Book of Mormon we find that an entire +phrase ("or out of the waters of baptism") has been added to +1 Nephi 20. + +Mormon apologists will tell you that the addition was suggested by +Parley Pratt, and approved by Joseph Smith. Dr. Hugh Nibley says +that even though this phrase is not found in the original 1830 +edition, "it stands in all the early editions after the first." +This, of course, is hard to believe, for as late 1908, the phrase +was still not there. + +The Mormon leader with whom I have had a discussion on a Christian +BBS in San Diego claimed that the printer must have made a mistake. +This is rather unfair to the printer, seeing that the phrase can +not be found in the original handwritten account either. + +Joseph Fielding Smith, the tenth president of the Mormon Church, +said this about Joseph Smith: "Mormonism, as it is called, must +stand or fall on the story of Joseph Smith. He was either a prophet +of God, divinely called, properly appointed and commissioned, or he +was one of the biggest frauds this world has ever seen. There is no +middle ground." (Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 1). + +In the "History of the Church", Vol. 4, and in "Teachings of the +Prophet Joseph Smith", we are told that Joseph Smith was the +mouthpiece of God and at the same time that the Book of Mormon is +the written word of God. Joseph Smith himself said, "I told the +brethren that The Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book +on earth...". Thus, with Smith being God's mouthpiece, and the Book +of Mormon being God's written word, statements from both should for +all practical purposes be in perfect harmony. This, however, is not +the case. Here are just a few examples of direct contradications +between the teachings of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon: + + +JOSEPH SMITH BOOK OF MORMON +============ ============== + +1. taught there are three Gods - claims there is only one God. + that make up the godhead. + +2. said God has a body of flesh - says God is a Spirit. + and bones. + +3. claimed that David and Solomon - calls polygamy an abomination. + were justified in having many + wives. + +4. says he saw both God the Father - says that Jesus Christ is God + and Jesus standing above him in come in the flesh. + the air. + +5. said that God does not dwell in - says he does. + the heart of man. + +6. taught that God was not God - claims he was and will always + from all eternity. be God. + + +In 1980, then Mormon Apostle Ezra Taft Benson, in a speech titled, +"The Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet", said, "The +prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything." +During the same speech, reported in the Ogden Standard Examiner of +Febr. 26, 1980, Benson also said, "The Prophet and the Presidency, +the living prophet and the first presidency, accept them and be +blessed, reject them and suffer." In his speech, given at Brigham +Young University, Benson claimed that a church president "must be +obeyed, even when he contradicts scripture or statements of past +prophets". This while he also stated that "Nothing a Mormon +president says can be incorrect." + +Mormon leaders have to make such illogical statements, because we +now have the following situation: + +1. The Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible, while both are claimed + to be the word of God. + +2. Joseph Smith, who claimed that the Book of Mormon was the most + correct book on earth, contradicts both the Bible and the Book + of Mormon. + +3. Thus, Joseph Smith, who Mormons say was the mouthpiece of God, + contradicts God. + +As if this was not enough, the Book of Mormon and the "Doctrine and +Covenants", both of which Mormons claim to be sacred and without +error, also contradict each other. For example, in the Book of +Mormon, God calls David and Solomon's act of polygamy "abominable": +"Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, +which thing is abominable before me, saith the Lord." (Jacob 2:24). +But in Doctrine and Covenants, section 132:1, we read, "Verily, +thus saith the Lord unto my servant Joseph, that inasmuch as you +have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I, the +Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as also +Moses, David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle +and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines...". + +What do Mormons think about such glaring contradictions? How do +Mormons react to being told that church presidents must be obeyed, +even when they contradict scriptures or statements of past +prophets? Who knows - Mormons are taught not to question their +leaders: + +In 1945 Mormons were told that Lucifer, "...wins a great victory +when he can get members of the Church to speak against their +leaders and 'do their own thinking'...When our leaders speak, the +thinking has been done, when they propose a plan - it is God's +plan. When they point the way, there is no other which is safe. +When they give direction, it should mark the end of controversy." +(Improvement Era, June 1945). + +Mormon doctrine tells us the reasons Lucifer was not chosen to be +the savior of mankind was because he wanted to force people into +believing.. His plan was to take away their freedom to choose for +themselves. If - as they say - Mormon leaders truly want their +people to practice their "free agency", why do they threaten +members with "spiritual peril" for bringing out points which show +Joseph Smith and his successors in a bad light? + +While Mormons will not speak out against their leaders, God will: +In Jeremiah 23:32 (Bible), we read, "'Indeed, I am against those +who prophesy false dreams,"' declares the Lord. 'They tell them and +lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send +them or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the +least,' declares the Lord." + +Even stronger is the Lord's statement in the Biblical book of +Deuteronomy, chapter 18:20-22. "..a prophet who presumes to speak +in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet +who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death. You may +say to yourselves, 'How can we know when a message has not been +spoken by the Lord?' If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the +Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord +has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be +afraid of him." + +In 1835 Joseph Smith claimed that the Lord would come again in just +56 years, which would have been on or before 1891. This was a false +prophecy. + +Section 84:1-5 of Doctrine and Covenants records a prophecy given +by Smith on September 22 and 23, 1832, concerning the building of a +temple in Independence, Missouri. He stated, this "temple shall be +reared in this generation. For verily this generation shall not +pass away until a house shall be built unto the Lord, and a cloud +shall rest upon it...". To this day no temple stand on the lot +Smith dedicated, and even if construction started tomorrow there +would be no way this prophecy could be fulfilled as Smith claimed. + + +In this article we have merely scratched the surface of these +issues. But whether or not you are a Christian, this information +has made you aware of the Mormons' deceptive teachings. + +If you are a Mormon, we invite you to check the information in this +article, and to check the sources for context accuracy. The writer +believes that the vast majority of Mormons are very sincere in +their beliefs, but he also believes that Mormons are sincerely +wrong, and that the facts speak for themselves. + +Much of the information in this article was obtained from the +Mormonism Research Ministry, a non-profit organization. + +Feel free to contact them for information about sources, as well as +"Mormonism Researched", a free newsletter: + +Mormonism Research Ministry, +P.O. Box 20705, +El Cajon, CA 92021-0955 +Phone: (619) 447-3873 + + +For more text-files on Mormonism, including a discussion between +the author and a Mormon leader, you may contact Abba II, a +Christian BBS in San Diego, California: (619) 487-7746. diff --git a/religious documents/morm001.txt b/religious documents/morm001.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2ca6b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm001.txt @@ -0,0 +1,203 @@ + + The Jesus of Christianity + Vs + The Jesus of Mormonism + +. The Jesus WE KNOW contrasted to the "Jesus" of Mormonism. The +one true Jesus of the BIBLE, of all eternity God the Son, who died +that we may have eternal life; who paid the price of all sins; who has +entered our lives and is walking with us in a personal relationship +day by day -- is not known in Mormonism. The Jesus of Mormonism is an +entirely different "Jesus". Let's examine what the leaders and +prophets - the foundation of the Latter Day Saints Church - have said: + +. "When the time came that His First-Born, the Saviour, should come +into the world and take a tabernacle, the Father Himself came and +favored the Spirit with a tabernacle instead of letting any other MAN +do it. .... The Saviour was begotten by the Father of His spirit, by +the same being who is the Father of our spirits, and that is all the +organic difference between Jesus Christ and you and me." BRIGHAM +YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 4:218 + +. "The fleshly body of Jesus required a Mother as well as a Father. +Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to the flesh, +must have been associated together in the capacity of Husband and +Wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the time being, the +lawful wife of God the Father." ORSON PRATT, The Seer, pg 158 + +. "Christ was begotten by an immortal Father in the same way that +mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers --- And Christ was born into +the world as the Literal Son of this Holy Being; He was born in the +same personal, real, and literal sense that any mortal son is born of +a mortal father. There is nothing figurative about his paternity; He +was begotten, conceived and born in the normal and natural course of +events, for He is the Son of God, and that designation means what it +says." BRUCE R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine, pg 547,742 + +. Brigham Young, to be consistent with his "Adam-God" doctrine, +believed Adam was the literal father of Jesus Christ: +. "When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had +begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy +Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family +... Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by the same +character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our Father in +Heaven." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 1:50,51 + +. As is evident in these statements, there is no Virgin Birth in +Mormonism. On the other hand, the Bible clearly shows us: + +. Matthew 1:18 Mary with child of the Holy Spirit +. 1:20 That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit +. 1:23 Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son +. Luke 1:35 The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of +. the Most High will overshadow you + +. Further, the "Jesus" of Mormonism was married in polygamy and had +children. This had to be so to be consistent with the doctrines of +Joseph Smith, Junior. As Joseph reports as a "revelation" given him +by God on July 12,1843: "I am the Lord thy God .. obey the +instructions I am about to give unto you .. if ye abide not that +covenant, then ye are damned; for no one can reject this covenant and +be permitted to enter my Glory .. verily I say unto you, if man marry +a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting +covenant .. they shall be gods .. And again, as pertaining to the law +of the priesthood if any man espouses a virgin, and desire to espouse +another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, +and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then he is +justified .. and if he have ten virgins given unto him by the law, he +cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him." JOSEPH SMITH, +Doctrine & Covenants, 132:2,3,4,19,20,61,62 + +. "It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was a +marriage in Cana of Galilee, and on a careful reading of that +transaction, it will be discovered that no less a person than Jesus +Christ was married on that occasion." ORSON HYDE, Journal of +Discourses, 13:259 +. "How was it with Mary and Martha, and other women that followed +Him? In old times, and it is common to this day, the women, even +Sarah, called their husbands 'LORD' .. Jesus was the bridegroom at the +marriage of Cana of Galilee .. We say it was Jesus Christ who was +married, to be brought into relation whereby he could see his seed, +before He was crucified .. I shall say here, that before the Saviour +died, he looked upon His own natural children, as we look upon ours." +ORSON HYDE, Journal of Discourses, 2:81,82 + +. The Bible states that Jesus is God the Son -- eternally existent +with God the Father -- yet Mormon doctrine says Jesus was a spirit +offspring of the Father; that Lucifer was the second spirit offspring +(THEY WERE BROTHERS?!); followed by billions more - or each of us, for +instance. We are "brothers" and "sisters" of Jesus Christ. Jesus is +not the only begotten Son in Mormon Theology: "It makes me think of +that second person that came forth in the heavens when the voice went +forth: 'Who will redeem the earth, who will go forth and make the +sacrifice for the earth and all things it contains?'. The Eldest son +said: 'Here am I'; but he did not say 'send me'. But the second one, +which was 'Lucifer, Son of the Morning', said, 'Lord, here am I, send +me, I will redeem every son and daughter of Adam and Eve that lives on +the earth." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 13:282 +. "The appointment of Jesus to be Saviour of the world was +contested by one of the other sons of God. He was called Lucifer, Son +of the Morning .... this spirit brother of Jesus desperately tried to +become the Saviour of Mankind. MILTON R. HUNTER (First Council of 70) +The Gospel Through the Ages, pg 15 [1958] +. "Jesus Christ is also of our species .. I have heard sectarian +priests undertake to tell the character of the Son of God, and they +make him half of one species and half of another, and I could not +avoid thinking at once of a mule." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of +Discourses, 4:217 +. "There is no impropriety ... in speaking of Jesus Christ as the +elder brother of the rest of human kind." JAMES TALMAGE, ARTICLES OF +FAITH, pg 473 + +. In Mormonism, Jesus was a created being: "Jesus is man's +spiritual brother. We dwelt with Him in the spirit world as members +of that large society of our eldest brother." MILTON R. HUNTER, +Gospel Through the Ages, pg 21 +. "The devil is a spirit son of God who was born in the morning of +pre-existence." BRUCE R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine, "Devil", 1966 +edition, pg 192 +. "There are three Gods - the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." BRUCE +R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine,"God", pg 317 + +. The REAL JESUS, the ONLY Son of God and God the Son, is +proclaimed throughout the BIBLE! Look up these references and tie-ins +of Old and New testaments declaring Jesus' Divinity and NOT being +created: + + LOOK UP: and COMPARE WITH + + Psalm 24:10 I Corinthians 2:8 + Psalm 45:6,7 Hebrews 1:8 + Isaiah 8:13 I Peter 2:8 + Isaiah 40:3 Matthew 3:3 + Malachi 3:1 Matthew 11:10 + Psalm 102:27 Hebrews 13:8 +. James 1:17 + Psalm 102:25 Colossians 1:16 + Psalm 102:26 Matthew 24:35 +. 2 Peter 3:7,10 + +. JOHN 1:1-3,14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was +with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with +God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything +made that was made ... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among +us, (and we beheld His glory, the Glory as of the ONLY begotten of the +Father,) full of grace and truth." +. COLOSSIANS 1:15 "Who is the image of the invisible God, the +firstborn of every creature" [Here 'firstborn' does not mean first +'spirit-child', rather a position of high honor - see verse 18, +Hebrews 12:23, revelation 1:5, and Psalm 89:27]. The next verses, 16 +and 17, tell us, "For in Him were all things created, that are in +heaven, and that are on the earth ... All things were created by Him, +and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things +consist." +. HEBREWS 1:10 "Thou, Lord (Jesus), in the beginning hast laid the +foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hands." +. In Isaiah 44:24 God tells us that He "stretched forth the heavens +alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." Jesus, who IS the +TRUTH and God the Father "have no lies within them" and are INCAPABLE +OF TELLING A LIE. Jesus is God the Son, eternally One with the Father +and the Holy Spirit, and not be confused. God the Son is not God the +Father and God the father is not God the Holy Spirit, but each entity +is a part of the ONE TRUE AND LIVING GOD. +. ISAIAH 9:6 "For unto us a child is born ... his name shall be +called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, +The Prince of Peace." +. MICAH 5:2 "Whose goings forth have been from of old, from +everlasting." +. MATTHEW 28:18 "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, 'All +power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." +. PHILIPPIANS 2:6-10 "Who, being in the form of God, though it not +robbery to be equal with God: ... was made in the likeness of men ... +became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore +God also hath highly exaulted him ... That at the name of Jesus every +knee should bow ....". +. Compare to Isaiah 45:22,23 for if Jesus is not God, then we +worship two (or more) Gods! The Mormons, basically, do not worship +Jesus, or pray to Him, only "through" Him. +. COLOSSIANS 2:9 "For in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead +bodily" +. HEBREWS 1:3 "... The express image of His person ...." +. JOHN 5:23 "That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor +the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father +which hath sent Him." +. JOHN 20:28 "And Thomas answered and said unto Him, 'My Lord and +my God'" +. Jesus used the same descriptions of himself; I AM, ALPHA and +OMEGA, FIRST and LAST; as used by God the Father: + + COMPARE: ... + + JOHN 8:58 to EXODUS 3:14,15 + REV 22:13,16 To REV 1:8 & 21:6 + REV 1:17 to REVELATION 21:6 + REV 2:8 & 22:13 to ISAIAH 44:6 & 48:12 + +. Jesus is GOD the SON! Eternally God and not after, or created by, +or a spirit child of God! Our Jesus is NOT the "Jesus" of Mormonism, +and we are empowered, if we have accepted the true Jesus into our +hearts, to give Thanks unto God for selecting us to reveal His True +Son to us. HALLELUJAH and AMEN!!! + +Computers For Christ - San Jose + diff --git a/religious documents/morm002.txt b/religious documents/morm002.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84d7f12 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm002.txt @@ -0,0 +1,219 @@ + + THE NATURE OF GOD + +. There is but ONE GOD. The BIBLE states that there has been, +and presently is, and always will be only ONE GOD. History and +the BIBLE show that the Jewish people always believed in ONE GOD +of the UNIVERSE. The Jewish nation; However, was lured, time and +time again, into going after "other gods" that were worshipped by +the people surrounding Israel. That was the sin GOD hated and +punished them for practicing. (Jeremiah 2:11 11:9-13 19:13) +. In direct contrast, MORMONISM has a basic belief in many +gods. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost (in Mormonism) are three +separate gods. There were gods before them and will be gods to +follow: "If we should take a million worlds like this and number +their particles, we should find that there are more gods than +there are particles of matter in those worlds." JOURNAL OF +DISCOURSES, Vol 2, page 345 [Feb 1855] Orson Pratt +. "Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son, and the +Holy Spirit are only one God. I say that is a strange God, anyhow +- Three in one and one in three. It is a curious organization ... +all are to be crammed into one God, according to sectarianism. It +would make the biggest God in all the world ... he would be a +giant or a monster." TEACHING OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, page +372; HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 476 +. "In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of +the Gods, and they came together and concocted a plan to create +the world and people it." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, JOSEPH SMITH, +Vol 6, page 5; HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 308 + +. Mormons will say they worship only one God; But, whether +they worship them or not, believing in the valid existence of +many gods -- of the same authority and reality of the one God -- +makes you a polytheist! +. False Prophets have always led the people of history (and +the current peoples of the earth) to go after other gods +(Deuteronomy 13:1 to 13). God's strongest wrath was then and is +now upon people who worship or believe in other gods (Jeremiah +16:10 to 13 and 22:8 & 9). +. Mormonism teaches that "Father God" is married and has many +wives: "In the heaven where our spirits were born, there are many +Gods, each of whom has his own wife or wives, which were given to +him previous to his redemption while yet in his mortal state." +THE SEER, Orson Pratt, page 37 +. Look up John 10:34 used by Mormons to justify a belief in +"many Gods". Jesus, there, is quoting Psalm 82 in which the +judges were referred to as "gods" -- but were wicked and unjust +and "die like all men". +. Anytime the word "gods" occur in the BIBLE it must be +verified in context as referring to the idols, satanic princes or +counterfeit gods - (Isaiah 41:23 and 24 and 45:20). + +. IN CONTRAST The BIBLE states throughout there is but ONE +GOD! Look up these verses: + +. ISAIAH 43:10-11 "Before me NO god was formed, nor after" +. 44: 6-8 "I am the first and the last, beside me no +. other" +. 45: 5-6 "I am the Lord, and there is no other" +. 45:18-22 "HE created the heavens and earth-there is no +. other" +. DEUT 6:4 "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" +. 32:39 "There is no god beside me" +. PSALM 86:10 "Thou alone art God" +. MARK 12:29 "Jesus said, the Lord our God is one; no other" +. GAL 3:20 "God is one" +. JAMES 2:19 "You believe God is one - you do well" +. EPH 4:5-6 "One God and Father of us all" +. I COR 8:4-6 "There is no god but me" + +. GOD IS INFINITE: The BIBLE states that God has always been +the same from all time in eternity past and does not change. In +direct opposition to this, the Mormon Church has the basic belief +that God was once a man, with many gods before Him and many gods +to come after Him. They further believe that God is progressing +to higher levels of power and ability: "God himself was once as +we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder +heavens ... it is necessary that we should understand the +character and being of God, and how He came to be so; for I am +going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and +supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that +idea, and will take away the veil, so that you may see ... he was +once a man like us; yea, that God himself the Father of us all, +dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ did. "TEACHINGS OF THE +PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, page 345; JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES Vol 6, page +3; HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 305 +. "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." THE +GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES, Milton R. Hunter, pages 105 & 106 +. "Our Eternal Father has attained His position of exaltation +and Godhood by obedience to the great law of progression ... was +once a mortal man who passed through a school of earth-life +similar to that which we are now passing." THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE +AGES, Milton R. Hunter, pages 12 & 104 +. "Through modern revelations we learn that the universe is +filled with vast numbers of intelligences, and we further learn +that Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligences +honor and sustain him as such --- But God acquired the honor and +sustaining influence of 'all things'. It follows as a corrolary +that if He should ever do anything to violate the confidence of +'sense of justice' of these intelligences, they would promptly +withdraw their support, and the 'power' of God would disintegrate +--- He would cease to be God. Our Heavenly Father can do only +those things which the intelligences under Him are voluntarily +willing to support Him in accomplishing." THE FIRST 2000 YEARS, +W. Cleon Skousen *,pages 355,356 *=FREEMEN INSTITUTE PRESIDENT & +B.Y.U. Professor + +. Mormonism teaches that God is confined to a body of flesh +and bones. He is at a particular place at a particular time. The +Mormon "god" is a SMALL "god". You can have tremendous faith in a +god - BUT, if that god is not THE GOD, then all that tremendous +faith is meaningless. Elijah once challenged the priests of +"another god" to start a fire, and the "god" who was able to do +so would be recognized as THE GOD. The priests for this wooden +idol, with great faith and efforts prayed and prayed to their god +to bring down fire to prove his godhood. Elijah even became +somewhat sarcastic when he asked a rhetorical question of "Maybe +your god is asleep? Maybe you should cry out louder to wake him +up?". After all these efforts, nothing happened! It didn't matter +if the priest and believers of that "god" had a great faith +because the OBJECT of that faith was incapable of fulfilling the +promise of that faith. The ONE and TRUE GOD fulfills our prayers. +. "If God possesses a form, that form is of necessity of +definite proportions, and therefore of limited extension and +space. It is impossible for Him to occupy at one time more than +one space of such limits." ARTICLES OF FAITH, James E. Talmage, +pages 42 and 43 +. "I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all +description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto +me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other -'This is +my Beloved Son. Hear Him!" PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, Joseph Smith +2:17 +. "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as +man's. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, 130, v:22 +. "God himself is increasing in knowledge, power, and dominion +and will do so, worlds without end." JOURNAL OF +DISCOURSES,Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Vol 6, Pg 120 +. "We were begotten by our Father in heaven; the person of our +Father in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His +Father; and again, He was begotten by still a more ancient Father +...." THE SEER, Orson Pratt, Page 132 + +. The BIBLE states throughout that GOD IS INFINITE! We ask +that you look up these proofs: +. II CHRONICLES 6:18 "Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot +. contain thee." +. PSALM 41:13 (90:2) "God is from everlasting to everlasting" +. PSALM 102:25-27 "created heavens, always the same +. without end" +. PSALM 139:4-8 "Omniscient and Omnipresent" +. JEREMIAH 23:24 "I fill heaven and earth" +. HOSEA 11:9 "I am God, and not man" +. MALACHI 4:39 "I do not change" +. NEHEMIAH 9:6 "made Heaven, Heaven of Heavens and all +. their host" +. PROVERBS 15:3 "His eyes in every place" +. ACTS 17:27 "He is not far from each of us" +. JOHN 4:24 "God is Spirit" +. LUKE 24:39 "A Spirit has not flesh and bones" +. HEBREWS 4:13 "All things opened unto His eyes" +. I JOHN 4:12 "No man has seen God at any time" +. I TIMOTHY 6:15 "No man has seen, nor can see ..." +. JOHN 1:18 "No man has seen God at any time" +. EXODUS 33:20 "There shall be no man see me and live" + +. It is clear that the BIBLE refutes the Mormon church's +claims and the claims of its prophets and leaders in a most +specific manner. +. Brigham Young, second Prophet and President of the Mormon +Church taught that ADAM was "our Father and our God...": "When +our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it +with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with +him ... He is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom +we have to do ... When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, +the Father had begotten Him in His own likeness. He was not +begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the +first of the human family ...." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 1, +page 50, April 9,1852 +. "I have learned by experience that there is but one God that +pertains to this people, and He is the God that pertains to this +earth - the first man. That first man sent His own Son to redeem +the world ..." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 4, pg 1, June 29, 1856 +Prophet & President Heber C. Kimball +. "How much unbelief exist in the minds of the Latter-Day +Saints in regard to a particular doctrine which I revealed to +them, and which God revealed to me -- namely, that Adam is our +Father and our God ... Our Father, Adam helped to make this +earth, it was created expressly for him ... He brought one of his +wives with him, and she was called Eve ... Our Father Adam is the +man who stands at the gate and holds the keys of everlasting life +and salvation to all his children.." DESERET NEWS, June 18,1873: +Discourse by Prophet and President Brigham Young + +. Today, the Mormon Church adamantly denies the "ADAM-GOD" +doctrine taught, and as seen above, and affirmed by "Prophet" +Brigham Young. There is overwhelming evidence that he did teach, +believed and strongly defended this belief. By any, reasonable, +interpretation of the BIBLE, Brigham Young must be classified as +a FALSE PROPHET (see Deuteronomy 13:1 to 10 and 18:20 to 22 - +also Jeremiah 23:16 to 17) ADAM is not OUR god and NEVER will be! +. The BIBLE states: "... then the Lord God formed man of dust +from the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of +life; and man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7) +. GOD is ONE and ETERNALLY the same. Creator of the Heavens +and the Earth ... All powerful, all knowing, all present. Despite +the fact that HE is INFINITE, he knows every hair on our heads +and has a plan for each of our lives (John 3:16 & 10:10). It is +far better to have a small faith in THE TRUE GOD of the universe +than to have a great faith in a small, counterfeit god. +. One should keep in mind that faith in a "counterfeit" god is +really no more than a misplaced faith in the false prophet and +the teaching of a false Prophet. Remember - a counterfeit - to be +called a counterfeit - must "resemble" the GENUINE item. If there +are many "counterfeit" gods, then there must be a REAL GOD, and +HE is found in the scriptures and in everything that surrounds +us. + +Computers for Christ - San Jose + + diff --git a/religious documents/morm005.txt b/religious documents/morm005.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9c18ad --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm005.txt @@ -0,0 +1,179 @@ + DO THE NAG HAMMADI WRITING AND DEAD SEA SCROLLS + CONFIRM MORMONISM + or + IS EINAR ERICKSON CONFUSED ? + +. In recent years, Mormon lecturer, Einar C. Erickson, has +given numerous talks to Mormon church groups concerning the Dead +Sea Scrolls, Nag Hammadi writings, Mandean Ginza and related +Middle East finds. These lectures have been taped and widely +distributed for use in converting the uninformed to Mormonism. Mr +Erickson states that the writings discovered in the vicinity of +Nag Hammadi, Egypt, are one of the greatest confirmations of the +"truthfulness" of the Mormon church that anyone would find +anywhere. +. On one of his tapes, Mr. Erickson boldly declares that: +"These documents and others leave without doubt evidence positive +even on the best rules of evidence that an attorney might be able +to assemble, that this gospel [i.e. the Mormon gospel] is true. +You get no credit for faith anymore." Mr. Erickson attempts to +convince his listeners that the writers of the Nag Hammadi were +the true Christians, (based upon his allegation of their +similarity to Mormonism) and that all others had slipped off into +apostasy. +. However; the Nag Hammadi writings are of "Gnostic" origin +which were written during the first to fourth century A.D. The +Gnostic heretics did cherish both the Old and New testament +Scripture, but re-interpreted them in terms of a mythological +Gnostic Redeemer. Gnosticism gave rise to the writings of a +number of totally spurious apocalyptic books, false gospels and +epistles that incorporated their own mysticism. +. Gnosticism was a movement that vigorously contended with +Orthodox Christianity for supremacy. Writings by the early Church +Fathers show how widespread and influential Gnosticism was; and +it was combatted as a lethal threat to the proclamation of the +Gospel. The bishops pointed out the great gulf between Biblical +Christianity and Gnosticism, even though the Gnostics made use of +Biblical text. It is obvious that Paul, the Apostle, knew of the +false ideas of Gnosticism, and spoke out against such doctrines +several times in the Scriptures. +. The Gnostics believed in the supreme being as an +undescribable God. He is invisible, incomprehensible, and dwells +unbegotten in eternal peace. Some names used to describe God and +to stress His transcendence were "Father of All", "The +Unapproachable God", "The Unknowable". Such a God could not +possibly have direct contact with the material world; therefore, +He does so through intermediates, each one answerable to the +other. Each intermediate in descending order is less divine and +more earthy as the chain nears the material world. +. Mr. Erickson spellbinds his listeners when he tells them +that the Nag Hammadi writings confirm the Mormon doctrine of the +Heavenly Mother! What he fails to tell them is that this Mother +God of the Nag Hammadi is the "Holy Spirit." Certainly this is in +direct conflict with the Mormon concept of a Mother God, because +in Mormon doctrine, the Holy Spirit is a male. The supreme being +has a female counterpart which emanates from Him. She is known as +"Mother of All" or "The Holy Spirit." +. Other emanations that come forth from the Supreme Being in +pairs are called AEONS; the lowest Aeon being "Sophia Akhamoth", +she was so full of passion to understand or know God that she +fell and was placed outside the Pleroma, God's heavenly dwelling. +Because of her desire, she becomes fertile with a formless +monster. This monster (Yaldabaoth, Samael or SATAN) is the +Demiurge or inferior god who created this material world and +brought forth man upon it. +. According to the Gnostic, all matter is evil; therefore, +only an inferior being could have created it. Satan is the +creator-god of this earth and of man, and is an evil god. To the +Gnostics, Satan is Jehovah of the Old Testament! After Jehovah +(Satan) creates man and breathes life into him, he creates Eve. +The demonic forces see the beauty of Eve, and proceed to rape +her. Through this act, she conceives Cain and Abel. +. Mr. Erickson often refers to the Hypostasis of the Archons +of the Nag Hammadi and being direct parallel to the Garden of +Eden scene of the Mormon Temple Ceremony. However, he fails to +inform his listeners that the Hypostasis of the Archeons tells of +the demons raping Eve! Nor does he point out that the serpent in +the garden is really the Holy Spirit coming to give Adam and Eve +the "true knowledge." He neglects to mention to his listeners +that the "god" who comes into the garden to ask Adam and Eve what +they have done is not the "Heavenly Father" but is Satan the +arrogant Archon, the evil god. In this instance, Mr. Erickson is, +at best, mistaken about the facts -- a fault which reappears +throughout his lectures and tapes. +. The authors of the Nag Hammadi writings taught a form of re- +incarnation, and that marriage was evil, because it is of the +earth. They believed the begetting of children was from Satan, +since it merely increases the number subjected to the evil +angels. Resurrection of the flesh is denied by these Gnostics, +since earthly flesh is in itself evil, and can have no part in +the spiritual scheme of God. All of these concepts are not +confirmations of Mormon doctrine, but are direct contradictions +of it! +. Mr. Erickson, looking elsewhere in the Middle East for +"proof," tells his audiences that the writings of the Mandaeans +of Iraq and Iran are (also) a confirmation of Mormonism. His +"evidence" for this is that they speak of baptism for the dead, +baptism by immersion, priesthood and baptize in the name of the +Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. What he fails to mention to +them is: according to the Mandaeans, Jesus was a rebel and a +heretic who led men astray by betraying secret doctrine and +making religion easier. The Mandaean sacred book tells of how +Jesus perverted the Scriptures, and that Jesus told the Jews that +He was the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Furthermore, the +Mandaean book accuses Jesus perverting baptism by baptizing in +the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. +. The Mandaeans were baptized many times throughout their +lives. They baptized infants; and if an infant died before or +during this baptism, a clay or dough image was made which they +then baptized in proxy for that infant. Proxy baptism was also +done for an adult who died before getting his last minute +washings before death. In this case, an individual that looked +like the deceased was baptized in proxy for the dead person. +. The Mandaeans also had a ceremony of "eating for the dead" +to give the deceased nourishment for his travels to the heavenly +spheres. The Mormon people do not baptize infants, do not eat for +the dead, nor do they have last minute washing rituals before +death as the Mandaeans did. The Mormon proxy baptisms have less +in common with the Mandaean baptisms than they do with Catholic +infant baptisms, last rites ritual, and prayers for the dead. +Clearly, the Mandaean concepts of Jesus and baptism are in no way +similar to Mormon doctrine. +. Those holding the Mandaean priesthood had to have a clean +family history for a number of generations, and meet strict +physical and mental qualifications. They had to be without the +slightest physical blemish, and be of pure Mandaean blood. A man +who was circumcised, impotent, or a eunuch could not be a priest +for the body must be sound, pure, and perfect. If a man was +already a priest and he received an injury which destroyed his +manhood or robbed him of a limb, he could no longer officiate as +a priest. There are no such restrictions within the Mormon +priesthoods. The only things in common with the Mormon +priesthoods and baptism and that of the Mandaean are the very +words themselves! +. Mr. Erickson makes false claims about the Dead Sea Scrolls +community, as well. He states that those at Qumran baptized at +the age of eight, just as the Mormons do. This is just simply NOT +the case. They trained young men for their celibate monastic +order for about ten years before they were baptized into their +ranks. This baptism never took place before the age of twenty. +Mr. Erickson states that the people of Qumran were essentially +the first "Mormons." However, the people at Qumran didn't even +believe in marriage! Rather they adopted in young men from other +Essene groups who married only to beget children. By contrast, in +Mormonism, marriage is absolutely essential to each member's +salvation in the Celestial Kingdom of God. +. Mr. Erickson claims that the Apocryphal books should be used +as scripture. However, even the Mormon's own "latter day" +revelation disagrees with him. In the introductory heading of +Section 91 of the Doctrine and Covenants, it declares +specifically that the apocryphal books are NOT to be accepted as +scripture. Beyond that built-in contradiction, lies the fact that +one need only to read some of these apocrypha for himself to +quickly discover their singular lack of inspiration. +. For example, two "Gospels" portray the life of the young +Jesus, allegedly covering the "silent" years skipped over in the +Bible. The book, "The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus" +portrays Jesus as a spoiled despot who curses another child for +bumping into him, and a schoolmaster who was going to discipline +Him for refusing to answer a question. After these two people are +killed at Jesus' command, Joseph tells Mary, "we will not allow +him to go out of the house; for every one who displeases him is +killed." In Thomas' "Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ", we +see Jesus causing the withering of hands, blindness, and again, +death. This is clearly not the Jesus Christ of the Bible! +. The conclusion is inescapable -- the claims by Mr. Erickson +(and consequently other Mormons) that the Mormon doctrine is +"exonerated" by the findings in the Middle East is totally +without foundation. Mormon doctrine is not confirmed by these +different religious sects, it is contradicted by them! It is +apparent that these claims are just another chapter in the long +history of false archeological boasts made by Mormons in the +past. + +NOTE: A full and completely documented study of Mr. Erickson's +scholarship regarding the above topics has been written by Mrs. +Melaine Layton entitled: The Truth About the Dead Sea Scrolls and +the Nag Hammadi Writings in Reference to Mormonism. For further +information, please write to the office of Computers For Christ - +San Jose. diff --git a/religious documents/morm01.txt b/religious documents/morm01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bce75c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,238 @@ + The Jesus of Christianity + Vs + The Jesus of Mormonism + + The Jesus WE KNOW contrasted to the "Jesus" of Mormonism. +The one true Jesus of the BIBLE, of all eternity God the Son, who +died that we may have eternal life; who paid the price of all +sins; who has entered our lives and is walking with us in a +personal relationship day by day -- is not known in Mormonism. +The Jesus of Mormonism is an entirely different "Jesus". Let's +examine what the leaders and prophets - the foundation of the +Latter Day Saints Church - have said: + + "When the time came that His First-Born, the Saviour, should +come into the world and take a tabernacle, the Father Himself +came and favored the Spirit with a tabernacle instead of letting +any other MAN do it. .... The Saviour was begotten by the Father +of His spirit, by the same being who is the Father of our +spirits, and that is all the organic difference between Jesus +Christ and you and me." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, +4:218 + + "The fleshly body of Jesus required a Mother as well as a +Father. Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to +the flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity of +Husband and Wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the +time being, the lawful wife of God the Father." ORSON PRATT, The +Seer, pg 158 + + "Christ was begotten by an immortal Father in the same way +that mortal men are begotten by mortal fathers --- And Christ was +born into the world as the Literal Son of this Holy Being; He was +born in the same personal, real, and literal sense that any +mortal son is born of a mortal father. There is nothing +figurative about his paternity; He was begotten, conceived and +born in the normal and natural course of events, for He is the +Son of God, and that designation means what it says." BRUCE R. +McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine, pg 547,742 + + Brigham Young, to be consistent with his "Adam-God" +doctrine, believed Adam was the literal father of Jesus Christ: + "When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father +had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the +Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human +family ... Jesus, our elder brother, was begotten in the flesh by +the same character that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our +Father in Heaven." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, 1:50,51 + + As is evident in these statements, there is no Virgin Birth +in Mormonism. On the other hand, the Bible clearly shows us: + +Matthew 1:18 Mary with child of the Holy Spirit + 1:20 That which is conceived in her is of the Holy + Spirit + 1:23 Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son +Luke 1:35 The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the + power of the Most High will overshadow you + + Further, the "Jesus" of Mormonism was married in polygamy +and had children. This had to be so to be consistent with the +doctrines of Joseph Smith, Junior. As Joseph reports as a +"revelation" given him by God on July 12,1843: "I am the Lord thy +God .. obey the instructions I am about to give unto you .. if ye +abide not that covenant, then ye are damned; for no one can +reject this covenant and be permitted to enter my Glory .. verily +I say unto you, if man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, +and by the new and everlasting covenant .. they shall be gods .. +And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood if any man +espouses a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first +give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are +virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then he is justified .. +and if he have ten virgins given unto him by the law, he cannot +commit adultery, for they belong to him." JOSEPH SMITH, Doctrine +& Covenants, 132:2,3,4,19,20,61,62 + + "It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was a +marriage in Cana of Galilee, and on a careful reading of that +transaction, it will be discovered that no less a person than +Jesus Christ was married on that occasion." ORSON HYDE, Journal +of Discourses, 13:259 + "How was it with Mary and Martha, and other women that +followed Him? In old times, and it is common to this day, the +women, even Sarah, called their husbands 'LORD' .. Jesus was the +bridegroom at the marriage of Cana of Galilee .. We say it was +Jesus Christ who was married, to be brought into relation whereby +he could see his seed, before He was crucified .. I shall say +here, that before the Saviour died, he looked upon His own +natural children, as we look upon ours." ORSON HYDE, Journal of +Discourses, 2:81,82 + + The Bible states that Jesus is God the Son -- eternally +existent with God the Father -- yet Mormon doctrine says Jesus +was a spirit offspring of the Father; that Lucifer was the second +spirit offspring (THEY WERE BROTHERS?!); followed by billions +more - or each of us, for instance. We are "brothers" and +"sisters" of Jesus Christ. Jesus is not the only begotten Son in +Mormon Theology: "It makes me think of that second person that +came forth in the heavens when the voice went forth: 'Who will +redeem the earth, who will go forth and make the sacrifice for +the earth and all things it contains ?'. The Eldest son said: +'Here am I'; but he did not say 'send me'. But the second one, +which was 'Lucifer, Son of the Morning', said, 'Lord, here am I, +send me, I will redeem every son and daughter of Adam and Eve +that lives on the earth." BRIGHAM YOUNG, Journal of Discourses, +13:282 + "The appointment of Jesus to be Saviour of the world was +contested by one of the other sons of God. He was called Lucifer, +Son of the Morning .... this spirit brother of Jesus desperately +tried to become the Saviour of Mankind. MILTON R. HUNTER (First +Council of 70) The Gospel Through the Ages, pg 15 [1958] + "Jesus Christ is also of our species .. I have heard +sectarian priest undertake to tell the character of the Son of +God, and they make him half of one species and half of another, +and I could not avoid thinking at once of a mule." BRIGHAM YOUNG, +Journal of Discourses, 4:217 + "There is no impropriety ... in speaking of Jesus Christ as +the elder brother of the rest of human kind." JAMES TALMAGE, +ARTICLES OF FAITH, pg 473 + + In Mormonism, Jesus was a created being: "Jesus is man's +spiritual brother. We dwelt with Him in the spirit world as +members of that large society of our eldest brother." MILTON R. +HUNTER, Gospel Through the Ages, pg 21 + "The devil is a spirit son of God who was born in the +morning of pre-existence." BRUCE R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine, +"Devil", 1966 edition, pg 192 + "There are three Gods - the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." +BRUCE R. McCONKIE, Mormon Doctrine,"God", pg 317 + + The REAL JESUS, the ONLY Son of God and God the Son, is +proclaimed throughout the BIBLE! Look up these references and +tie-ins of Old and New testaments declaring Jesus' Divinity and +NOT being created: + +LOOK UP and COMPARE WITH + +Psalm 24:10 I Corinthians 2:8 +Psalm 45:6,7 Hebrews 1:8 +Isaiah 8:13 I Peter 2:8 +Isaiah 40:3 Matthew 3:3 +Malachi 3:1 Matthew 11:10 +Psalm 102:27 Hebrews 13:8 + James 1:17 +Psalm 102:25 Colossians 1:16 +Psalm 102:26 Matthew 24:35 + 2 Peter 3:7,10 + + JOHN 1:1-3,14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word +was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning +with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not +anything made that was made ... And the Word was made flesh, and +dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the Glory as of the +ONLY begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." + COLOSSIANS 1:15 "Who is the image of the invisible God, the +firstborn of every creature" [Here 'firstborn' does not mean +first 'spirit-child', rather a position of high honor - see verse +18, Hebrews 12:23, revelation 1:5, and Psalm 89:27]. The next +verses, 16 and 17, tell us, "For in Him were all things created, +that are in heaven, and that are on the earth ... All things were +created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by +Him all things consist." + HEBREWS 1:10 "Thou, Lord (Jesus), in the beginning hast +laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of +thine hands." + In Isaiah 44:24 God tells us that He "stretched forth the +heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." Jesus, +who IS the TRUTH and God the Father "have no lies within them" +and are INCAPABLE OF TELLING A LIE. Jesus is God the Son, +eternally One with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and not be +confused. God the Son is not God the Father and God the father is +not God the Holy Spirit, but each entity is a part of the ONE +TRUE AND LIVING GOD. + ISAIAH 9:6 "For unto us a child is born ... his name shall +be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting +Father, The Prince of Peace." + MICAH 5:2 "Whose goings forth have been from of old, from +everlasting." + MATTHEW 28:18 "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, +'All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." + PHILIPPIANS 2:6-10 "Who, being in the form of God, though +it not robbery to be equal with God: ... was made in the likeness +of men ... became obedient unto death, even the death of the +cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exaulted him ... That at +the name of Jesus every knee should bow ....". + Compare to Isaiah 45:22,23 for if Jesus is not God, then we +worship two (or more) Gods! The Mormons, basically, do not +worship Jesus, or pray to Him, only "through" Him.) + COLOSSIANS 2:9 "For in Him dwelleth the fullness of the +Godhead bodily" + HEBREWS 1:3 "... The express image of His person ...." + JOHN 5:23 "That all men should honor the Son, even as they +honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the +Father which hath sent Him." + JOHN 20:28 "And Thomas answered and said unto Him, 'My Lord +and my God'" + + Jesus used the same descriptions of himself; I AM, ALPHA and +OMEGA, FIRST and LAST; as used by God the Father: + +JESUS SAYING GOD + +JOHN 8:58 I AM EXODUS 3:14,15 +REV 22:13,16 ALPHA AND OMEGA REV 1:8 & 21:6 +REV 1:17 REVELATION 21:6 + 2:8 FIRST AND LAST ISAIAH 44:6 + 22:13 48:12 + + Jesus is GOD the SON! Eternally God and not after, or +created by, or a spirit child of God! Our Jesus is NOT the +"Jesus" of Mormonism, and we are empowered, if we have accepted +the true Jesus into our hearts, to give Thanks unto God for +selecting us to reveal His True Son to us. HALLELUJAH and AMEN +!!! + +Computers For Christ + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/morm02.txt b/religious documents/morm02.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de0a966 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm02.txt @@ -0,0 +1,241 @@ + + THE NATURE OF GOD + + There is but ONE GOD. The BIBLE states that there has been, +and presently is, and always will be only ONE GOD. History and +the BIBLE show that the Jewish people always believed in ONE GOD +of the UNIVERSE. The Jewish nation; However, was lured, time and +time again, into going after "other gods" that were worshipped by +the people surrounding Israel. That was the sin GOD hated and +punished them for practicing. (Jeremiah 2:11 11:9-13 19:13) + In direct contrast, MORMONISM has a basic belief in many +gods. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost (in Mormonism) are three +separate gods. There were gods before them and will be gods to +follow: "If we should take a million worlds like this and number +their particles, we should find that there are more gods than +there are particles of matter in those worlds." JOURNAL OF +DISCOURSES, Vol 2, page 345 [Feb 1855] Orson Pratt + "Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son, and the +Holy Spirit are only one God. I say that is a strange God, anyhow +- Three in one and one in three. It is a curious organization ... +all are to be crammed into one God, according to sectarianism. It +would make the biggest God in all the world ... he would be a +giant or a monster." TEACHING OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, page +372; HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 476 + "In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of +the Gods, and they came together and concocted a plan to create +the world and people it." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, JOSEPH SMITH, +Vol 6, page 5; HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 308 + + Mormons will say they worship only one God; But, whether +they worship them or not, believing in the valid existence of +many gods -- of the same authority and reality of the one God -- +makes you a polytheist! + False Prophets have always led the people of history (and +the current peoples of the earth) to go after other gods +(Deuteronomy 13:1 to 13). God's strongest wrath was then and is +now upon people who worship or believe in other gods (Jeremiah +16:10 to 13 and 22:8 & 9). + Mormonism teaches that "Father God" is married and has many +wives: "In the heaven where our spirits were born, there are many +Gods, each of whom has his own wife or wives, which were given to +him previous to his redemption while yet in his mortal state." +THE SEER, Orson Pratt, page 37 + Look up John 10:34 used by Mormons to justify a belief in +"many Gods". Jesus, there, is quoting Psalm 82 in which the +judges were referred to as "gods" -- but were wicked and unjust +and "die like all men". + Anytime the word "gods" occur in the BIBLE it must be +verified in context as referring to the idols, satanic princes or +counterfeit gods - (Isaiah 41:23 and 24 and 45:20). + + IN CONTRAST The BIBLE states throughout there is but ONE +GOD! Look up these verses: + +ISAIAH 43:10-11 "Before me NO god was formed, nor after" + 44: 6-8 "I am the first and the last, beside me no + other" + 45: 5-6 "I am the Lord, and there is no other" + 45:18-22 "HE created the heavens and earth-there is no + other" +DEUT 6:4 "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord" + 32:39 "There is no god beside me" +PSALM 86:10 "Thou alone art God" +MARK 12:29 "Jesus said, the Lord our God is one; no other" +GAL 3:20 "God is one" +JAMES 2:19 "You believe God is one - you do well" +EPH 4:5-6 "One God and Father of us all" +I COR 8:4-6 "There is no god but me" + + GOD IS INFINITE: The BIBLE states that God has always been +the same from all time in eternity past and does not change. In +direct opposition to this, the Mormon Church has the basic belief +that God was once a man, with many gods before Him and many gods +to come after Him. They further believe that God is progressing +to higher levels of power and ability: "God himself was once as +we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder +heavens ... it is necessary that we should understand the +character and being of God, and how He came to be so; for I am +going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined and +supposed that God was God from all eternity. I will refute that +idea, and will take away the veil, so that you may see ... he was +once a man like us; yea, that God himself the Father of us all, +dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ did. "TEACHINGS OF THE +PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH, page 345; JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES Vol 6, page +3; HISTORY OF THE CHURCH, Vol 6, page 305 + "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." THE +GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES, Milton R. Hunter, pages 105 & 106 + "Our Eternal Father has attained His position of exaltation +and Godhood by obedience to the great law of progression ... was +once a mortal man who passed through a school of earth-life +similar to that which we are now passing." THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE +AGES, Milton R. Hunter, pages 12 & 104 + "Through modern revelations we learn that the universe is +filled with vast numbers of intelligences, and we further learn +that Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligences +honor and sustain him as such --- But God acquired the honor and +sustaining influence of 'all things'. It follows as a corrolary +that if He should ever do anything to violate the confidence of +'sense of justice' of these intelligences, they would promptly +withdraw their support, and the 'power' of God would disintegrate +--- He would cease to be God. Our Heavenly Father can do only +those things which the intelligences under Him are voluntarily +willing to support Him in accomplishing." THE FIRST 2000 YEARS, +W. Cleon Skousen *,pages 355,356 *=FREEMEN INSTITUTE PRESIDENT & +B.Y.U. Professor + + Mormonism teaches that God is confined to a body of flesh +and bones. He is at a particular place at a particular time. The +Mormon "god" is a SMALL "god". You can have tremendous faith in a +god - BUT, if that god is not THE GOD, then all that tremendous +faith is meaningless. Elijah once challenged the priests of +"another god" to start a fire, and the "god" who was able to do +so would be recognized as THE GOD. The priests for this wooden +idol, with great faith and efforts prayed and prayed to their god +to bring down fire to prove his godhood. Elijah even became +somewhat sarcastic when he asked a rhetorical question of "Maybe +your god is asleep? Maybe you should cry out louder to wake him +up?". After all these efforts, nothing happened! It didn't matter +if the priest and believers of that "god" had a great faith +because the OBJECT of that faith was incapable of fulfilling the +promise of that faith. The ONE and TRUE GOD fulfills our prayers. + "If God possesses a form, that form is of necessity of +definite proportions, and therefore of limited extension and +space. It is impossible for Him to occupy at one time more than +one space of such limits." ARTICLES OF FAITH, James E. Talmage, +pages 42 and 43 + "I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all +description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto +me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other -'This is +my Beloved Son. Hear Him!" PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, Joseph Smith +2:17 + "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as +man's. DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS, 130, v:22 + "God himself is increasing in knowledge, power, and dominion +and will do so, worlds without end." JOURNAL OF +DISCOURSES,Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Vol 6, Pg 120 + "We were begotten by our Father in heaven; the person of our +Father in Heaven was begotten on a previous heavenly world by His +Father; and again, He was begotten by still a more ancient Father +...." THE SEER, Orson Pratt, Page 132 + + The BIBLE states throughout that GOD IS INFINITE! We ask +that you look up these proofs: + II CHRONICLES 6:18 "Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot + contain thee." + PSALM 41:13 (90:2) "God is from everlasting to everlasting" + PSALM 102:25-27 "created heavens, always the same + without end" + PSALM 139:4-8 "Omniscient and Omnipresent" + JEREMIAH 23:24 "I fill heaven and earth" + HOSEA 11:9 "I am God, and not man" + MALACHI 4:39 "I do not change" + NEHEMIAH 9:6 "made Heaven, Heaven of Heavens and all + their host" + PROVERBS 15:3 "His eyes in every place" + ACTS 17:27 "He is not far from each of us" + JOHN 4:24 "God is Spirit" + LUKE 24:39 "A Spirit has not flesh and bones" + HEBREWS 4:13 "All things opened unto His eyes" + I JOHN 4:12 "No man has seen God at any time" + I TIMOTHY 6:15 "No man has seen, nor can see ..." + JOHN 1:18 "No man has seen God at any time" + EXODUS 33:20 "There shall be no man see me and live" + + It is clear that the BIBLE refutes the Mormon church's +claims and the claims of its prophets and leaders in a most +specific manner. + Brigham Young, second Prophet and President of the Mormon +Church taught that ADAM was "our Father and our God...": "When +our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it +with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with +him ... He is our Father and our God, and the only God with whom +we have to do ... When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, +the Father had begotten Him in His own likeness. He was not +begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the +first of the human family ...." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 1, +page 50, April 9,1852 + "I have learned by experience that there is but one God that +pertains to this people, and He is the God that pertains to this +earth - the first man. That first man sent His own Son to redeem +the world ..." JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES, Vol 4, pg 1, June 29, 1856 +Prophet & President Heber C. Kimball + "How much unbelief exist in the minds of the Latter-Day +Saints in regard to a particular doctrine which I revealed to +them, and which God revealed to me -- namely, that Adam is our +Father and our God ... Our Father, Adam helped to make this +earth, it was created expressly for him ... He brought one of his +wives with him, and she was called Eve ... Our Father Adam is the +man who stands at the gate and holds the keys of everlasting life +and salvation to all his children.." DESERET NEWS, June 18,1873: +Discourse by Prophet and President Brigham Young + + Today, the Mormon Church adamantly denies the "ADAM-GOD" +doctrine taught, and as seen above, and affirmed by "Prophet" +Brigham Young. There is overwhelming evidence that he did teach, +believed and strongly defended this belief. By any, reasonable, +interpretation of the BIBLE, Brigham Young must be classified as +a FALSE PROPHET (see Deuteronomy 13:1 to 10 and 18:20 to 22 - +also Jeremiah 23:16 to 17) ADAM is not OUR god and NEVER will be! + The BIBLE states: "... then the Lord God formed man of dust +from the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of +life; and man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7) + GOD is ONE and ETERNALLY the same. Creator of the Heavens +and the Earth ... All powerful, all knowing, all present. Despite +the fact that HE is INFINITE, he knows every hair on our heads +and has a plan for each of our lives (John 3:16 & 10:10). It is +far better to have a small faith in THE TRUE GOD of the universe +than to have a great faith in a small, counterfeit god. + One should keep in mind that faith in a "counterfeit" god is +really no more than a misplaced faith in the false prophet and +the teaching of a false Prophet. Remember - a counterfeit - to be +called a counterfeit - must "resemble" the GENUINE item. If there +are many "counterfeit" gods, then there must be a REAL GOD, and +HE is found in the scriptures and in everything that surrounds +us. + +Computers for Christ + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/morm03.txt b/religious documents/morm03.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90ec1e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm03.txt @@ -0,0 +1,98 @@ + + THE REAL HOLY SPIRIT + + In Mormonism the "Holy Ghost" is a personage, or a god, but +the "Holy Spirit" is an impersonal force. The Mormons refer to +verses that the Holy Spirit is symbolized by oil, fire and water +and show that these are "impersonal". The Bible refers to the +Father and the Son as "bread of life", "living water" and other +"impersonal" terms. Again, we must look at the context. + In John 16:7, our Lord is placing His emphasis on His going +away and the Holy Spirit's being sent by the Father to replace +our Lord himself. This change (or replacement), Jesus says, would +be beneficial for His disciples. AN IMPERSONAL FORCE COULD HARDLY +IMPROVE ON THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF OUR LORD, JESUS CHRIST! + The word in Hebrew and the word in Greek for SPIRIT and +GHOST both mean the same, "breath or wind" and the "translators" +of the King James Bible noted that the Greek word denoted a +neuter gender and mistranslated to be an "IT", but they did +utilize the word Ghost and Spirit and interchanged them on many +occassions. + The words as translated are from only ONE word in Hebrew and +ONE word in Greek - therefore there are NOT two words for SPIRIT +and GHOST - only ONE. Now, let's look at this ONE entity called +the HOLY SPIRIT. In John 16:13 and 14 we see our Lord, Jesus +telling us this about the Holy Spirit, "HE shall not speak of +HIMSELF ... HE shall glorify me ... HE shall receive of mine +....". NOTE that our LORD gives PERSONALITY to the Spirit. +Otherwise our Lord would have used the term that Mormons use +"IT". + Jesus repeatedly (John 16:7-15) uses the MASCULINE PERSONAL +pronoun "He" when referring to the Spirit. Jesus used the term +clearly to tell us that the Spirit had personality and intimacy. + Ananias was struck dead for lying to the HOLY SPIRIT (Acts +5:3). You cannot lie to an impersonal force! It would be like +walking up to a window box fan, turning it on and facing its +"force" and then telling lie after lie to it - IT WOULD NOT CARE +THE SLIGHTEST, WOULD IT? Now, you look at Ananias and, if you are +not a complete idiot, you would not repeat his behavior, now +would you? The Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost are not two +different items mentioned in the Bible. There is only one entity +referred to as both HOLY GHOST and HOLY SPIRIT. + The Holy Spirit is a person. The Spirit may be "grieved" +(Ephesians 4:30) and "sinned against" by UNFORGIVABLE blasphemy +(Mark 3:29). None of these things are possible for an "impersonal +force". + +The Holy Ghost does things which only a person COULD do. + +He SPEAKS: + + "The Spirit said unto Philip, 'Go near'" (Acts 8:29) + +He STRIVES: + + "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever" (Genesis 6:3) +- "The Spirit also helpeth our infirmity ... [and] MAKETH +INTERCESSION for us." (Romans 8:26) + +He REVEALS, SEARCHES, and KNOWS: + + "But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the +Spirit searcheth all things ... the things of God knoweth no man +but the Spirit of God" (I Corinthians 2:10,11). + + Other verses can be shown in which the Spirit IDENTIFIES +with believers (Acts 15:28), The Spirit is ETERNAL (Hebrews +9:14), OMNIPRESENT (Psalm 139:7-10), DOES GOD'S WORK (Genesis +1:2), INVOLVED IN REGENERATION (John 3:8), participates in the +RESURRECTION (Romans 8:11). + Paul identifies the Spirit as the speaker to Isaiah. Acts +28:25-26 and Isaiah 6:8,9. An impersonal force does not counsel, +speak, feel, or anything resembling personality. The HOLY SPIRIT +is a person - one of the THREE ENTITIES of the ONE TRUE GOD. + +Computers For Christ + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/morm04.txt b/religious documents/morm04.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f53b32 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm04.txt @@ -0,0 +1,379 @@ + + MORMONISM'S "SALVATION BY WORKS" + vs. + SALVATION BY GRACE THROUGH CHRIST + + The entire BIBLE points in all directions to the cross. Upon +it God's only begotten Son died that we might have eternal life +from God. Only through Christ can this separation be bridged. + On the other hand, MORMONISM points in all directions to the +"Law of Eternal Progression". We have seen that Mormon doctrine +states that God was once a man. He progressed to become God. The +same law states that man may become God! + Let's go to the authorities of the church and hear what they +have said, first on the subject of man's pre-existence as a +spirit in a "spirit world" prior to taking a body here on earth: + + DID WE PRE-EXIST? + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE (Apostle); MORMON DOCTRINE, page 589 + + "Pre-existence is the term commonly used to describe the +pre-mortal existence of the spirit children of God the Father ... +All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father +and Mother, and we are literally the sons and daughters of Deity; +as spirits they were the offspring of celestial parentage ... +Unless God the father was a personal Being, He could not have +begotten spirits in His image, and if there had been no self- +existent spirit element, there would have been no substance from +which those spirit bodies could have been organized." + + The basis of the Mormon law of progression in Mormonism is +that "intelligences" are eternal. On the other hand, God is not! +He started as a spirit child in another 'spirit world' long ago; +entered a body on another earth as a man; apparently was able to +follow the law of progression perfectly; after death He became +God in the 'celestial kingdom' of that other earth; brought (or +was given) many wives; through sexual union in our spirit world +had billions of spirit children : The first was Jesus, the second +Lucifer, the third and on and on were to enter the earth as you +and me. + No organic difference in the parentage between us and Jesus +and Lucifer! We all have the same literal "Heavenly Father". Note +how those in Mormonism generally refer to Him as "Heavenly +Father" -- they mean just that - LITERALLY!! Just remember that +they could say also; "Heavenly GRANDFATHER", "Heavenly Great- +Grandfather", and so on ...! + +MILTON R. HUNTER (1st Council of 70); GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES; +pages 127-129 (1958) + + "In the first stage, man was an eternally existent being +termed an intelligence ... The next realm where man dwelt was the +spirit world." + + According to Mormon concept eternally existing intelligences +were clothed with spirit bodies in the mansion of their eternal +Father... "numerous sons and daughters were begotten and born of +heavenly parents into that eternal family in the spirit world ... +There ... they were reared to maturity, becoming grown spirit men +and women prior to coming upon this earth ... Following his stay +in the spirit world, man comes to earth in a probationary state +... receives a physical body and undergoes the experiences of +mortality .. Eventually; however, mortal death comes upon all. +The eternal spirit goes to the spirit world to wait resurrection +and judgement ... there they shall be assigned to the glory that +they have merited ... Some will receive celestial glory; others +terrestrial, while those who are recorded in the 'Lamb's Book of +Life' will enter celestial glory. There some of them will become +angels and others priests and kings, or, in other words, Gods." + On page 12, Hunter states a basic "truth" of Mormonism, that +God is subordinate to the law of eternal progression.: "Our +Eternal Father has attained His position of exaltation and +Godhood by obedience to the great law of progression." + +JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH; DOCTRINES OF SALVATION; Vol 1, pg 12 + + "The intelligent part of man was never created but always +existed. That is true of each of us as well as it is of God, yet +we are born sons and daughters of God in the spirit and are +destined to exist forever. Those who become like God will also be +from eternity to eternity." + The BIBLE states explicitly that there are no intelligences +co-eternal or co-existent with God. Anything that exists, other +than God, is a "thing". COLOSSIANS 1:16-17 and JOHN 1:1-3 state +that ONLY Jesus is co-eternal with God as the "WORD WAS GOD" +(John 1:1). He is before all "things" and created all "things". +His creation did not pre-exist Him! God knows the beginning and +end of all things before they exist. There are several scriptures +stating HE "knew" us before we were born. They do not imply we +existed before we were born. + "The burden of the word of the Lord of Israel, saith the +Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the +foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within +him." (ZECHARIAH 12:1) + + SALVATION BY GRACE VERSUS WORKS + + The BIBLE states over and over that we do not merit +salvation (eternal life in God's presence) by our own goodness +and system of good works from or for any organization. You need +only to study the Old Testament and see the hopelessness of a +system whereby man was to live within God's laws with the system +of prophets - temples - priests and ordinances. The purpose of +Jesus coming to earth to die for us was to make provision for our +own inability to bridge this separation of man from God and +brought a new covenant. If you choose Mormonism as your plan of +salvation, you have regressed to the old covenant of the prophet, +temple and ordinance which produce only "dead works" in an +attempt to obtain righteousness on your own. If you trust the LDS +church and its prophets; here is what is said: + +MILTON R. HUNTER; THE GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES; pg 115 JOSEPH F. +SMITH; TEACHINGS OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH; pg 348 + + "Thus all men who ascend to the glorious status of Godhood +can do so only by one method - by obedience to all the principals +and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (another way of +saying "Mormonism")... Men are saved no faster than they gain +knowledge. The Prophet Joseph described the process of going +toward Godhood as follows: When you climb a ladder, you must +begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at +the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel - you +must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all of the +principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you +have passed through the veil before you will have learned them." + +JAMES E. TALMAGE; ARTICLES OF FAITH; pg 480 + + "The sectarian dogma of justification by faith alone has +exercised an influence for evil." + +II NEPHI 25:23 (BOOK OF MORMON) + + "For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after +all we can do." + + WHAT THE MORMONS THINK OF CHRIST + +LDS CHURCH TRACT; pg 32,46,47 + + "Christians speak often of the blood of Christ and its +cleansing power. Much that is believed and taught on this +subject, however, is utter nonsense and so palpably false that to +believe it is to lose one's salvation. Many go so far, for +instance, as to pretend, at least, to believe that if we confess +Christ with our lips and avow that we accept Him as our personal +Savior, we are thereby saved ... And no man can pick the fruit of +eternal life off the branches, as these are tied to the vine, +without accepting both Christ and His prophets ... If it had not +been for Joseph Smith, the Prophet, the perfect knowledge of +Christ would not be had in the world in this day. If it had not +been for him and his mission there would be no legal +administrators now on earth to administer in the ordinances of +salvation." + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE; MORMON DOCTRINE; pgs 84 & 745 + + "The second birth begins when men are legally baptized in +water by a legal administrator ... Those who receive the Gospel +(Mormon Doctrine) and join the church of Jesus Christ of Latter +day Saints have power given them to become sons of God." + (Compare to John 1:12 -- "But as many as received Him, to +them gave He power to become sons of God..") + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE; MORMON DOCTRINE; pg 149 + + "Those things which men are directed to do to attain peace +in this life and gain eternal life in the world to come are +collectively called the commandments." + +BRUCE R. McCONKIE; MORMON DOCTRINE; preface to 1966 Edition; pg +118 + + "Man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge -- (See I +Corinthians 1:17,20-23,2:1-5) -- To gain salvation after baptism +it is necessary to keep the commandments of God and endure to the +end ... The most important things that any member of the church +of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints ever does in this world are: +1. To marry the right person, in the right place, by the right +authority (Mormon Temple marriage); and 2. to keep the covenant +made in connection with this holy and perfect order of matrimony +- thus assuring the obedient persons of an inheritance of +exaltation in the celestial kingdom." + +CHURCH NEWS-EDITORIAL; November 8,1975; page 16 + + "There is only one way to become sanctified and perfected, +and thus prepared to live with God. That is by obedience to His +laws. There is no other way ... When will we learn to obey him +with all our heart, mind and strength? + (Compare with Luke 10:27 - "Thou shalt love the Love the +Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with +all thy strength, and with all thy mind....") + +MILTON R. HUNTER, GOSPEL THROUGH THE AGES; pgs 118-120 + + "If men and women obey all the other laws of the gospel +except that of celestial marriage (Mormon Temple Marriage), they +are appointed angels ...." + +BENNET; WHY I AM A MORMON; pg 170 + + "Once we have been resurrected, it will be our own efforts, +and not Christ's sacrifice, that will be the deciding factor ... +A man can be saved only so fast as he gains knowledge of the laws +of God." Prophets ... temples ... Obedience to the Law ... +Aaronic Priest .. Legalisms ... Dependent on our own efforts and +good works ... + + Sound familiar? Old Testament in a new wrapping? Wrapped in +Christian terminology? Mormonism calls the unsuspecting back +under what amounts to the old covenant. If righteousness could be +obtained, earned or gained by our own efforts to be perfect under +the law, there would have been no need for a "NEW" covenant. If +all Christ's death meant was to conquer death - to pay for Adam's +sin as Mormonism teaches - why are the following among the great +number of God's words declaring the TRUTH of the NEW COVENANT of +salvation through Christ, by faith, not works of the law. Look up +these scriptures and review their full context: + + THE LAW AND WORKS DO NOT SAVE + +JOHN 6:28,29,39,40 ... What must we do to be doing the works of +God? This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He +sent. + +ROMANS 3:21,22 ... No one is justified by the works of the law. +Now righteousness of God is manifested apart from the Law. + +ROMANS 4:13-16 ... If it is adherents of the Law that are to be +heirs, then faith is NULL and the promise void. + +ROMANS 7:4-6 ... Died to the Law through the body of Christ. +Discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so +that we serve not under the old written code but in new life of +the Spirit. + +ROMANS 8:1-4 ... God has done what the law could not do! + +ROMANS 9:30-32 ... Israel who pursued righteousness based on the +law did not succeed. WHY? They did not pursue it through faith, +but as if it were based on works. + +ROMANS 10:1-4 ... A zeal for God - but not enlightened. Seeking +to establish their own righteousness. Christ is the end of the +law. Romans 14:1-23 and Colossians 3:8-23 are clear refutations +of the point made by Joseph Smith in "Words of Wisdom" to not +drink and eat certain things is nothing more than MAN'S +regulation and NOT from God. Read and see what God said through +the Apostle Paul! + +GALATIANS 2:16 ... Man is not justified by works of the law but +is through faith! + +GALATIANS 2:19-21 ... Died to the law, that I might live to God. +I do not nullify the Grace of God; for if righteousness were +through the law, then Christ is dead in vain. + +GALATIANS 3:10 ... As many as are under the works of the law are +under the curse! + +GALATIANS 3:23-28 ... Before faith came, we were under the law - +our schoolmaster (Custodian) until Christ came. Now that faith is +come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. + +GALATIANS 5:18 ... If led by the Spirit, you are not under the +law. + +II TIMOTHY 1:8-10 ... Who saved us, not according to our works, +but according to His own purpose and grace. + +TITUS 3:3-9 ... He saved us, not by works of righteousness which +we have done, but according to His mercy. Being justified by +grace. + + HOW IS MAN (or WE ) SAVED ? + + If salvation is not by works of our own under the law and +ordinances, HOW IS MAN SAVED? Just a few of the scriptures God +has given us are: + +JOHN 3:1-18 ... YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN! In context Jesus, +Himself, explains that, not only do we have a natural birth +(Flesh) but a spiritual birth! "Whosoever believeth in Him shall +not perish but have everlasting life (ETERNAL)! + +ROMANS 5:1-11 ... Christ died for us, sinners, who are now +justified by His blood. We are reconciled through Him. + +ROMANS 5:15-17 ... The free gift of righteousness by the grace of +God. + +ROMANS 10:9-17 ... Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and +believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be +saved. + +GALATIANS 2:16-21 ... We are justified by faith. Our old nature +is crucified with Christ; Christ now lives in us; we live by +faith --- not the law! + +EPHESIANS 2:8-10 ... "For by grace are ye saved through faith; +and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works, +lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in +Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that +we should walk in them." + + Works have nothing to do with our justifying eternal life. +The Mormon will be quick to point out James 2:17 - "Even so +faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." AMEN! That is +not denying salvation by faith. What it is saying is this: "You +say you are saved? Saving faith will naturally flow into a life +that will show evidence of it. Your 'works' will testify of your +faith. If none, there is reason to question whether there really +was a saving faith to start with." To quote Ed Decker in his +tract "To Moroni with Love"; You do not bark to become a dog nor +"baa" to become a sheep. You bark because you are a dog or "baa" +because you are a sheep! Christians, when born-again and indwelt +by the Holy Spirit, have a never ending desire to follow the Lord +Jesus in their daily life behavior. "Works" is not an appropriate +name as it suggests payment after the work has been done. Christ +made the payment IN FULL for our sins by His blood for us; if +only we REPENT of our sins and ACCEPT Him by faith. It is +available only through God's grace for an eternal life. + +I JOHN 1:7 ... Blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin. + +HEBREW 9:23-28,10:10-18 ... Jesus was the sacrifice, once, to +perfect forever those who are sanctified. + +ROMANS 5:6-11 ... We are reconciled by His blood. + +ISAIAH 53:6-11 & I CORINTHIANS 5:17-21 ... Our iniquity was laid +on Jesus; to die for us; that we might be made the righteousness +of God in Him. + +I PETER 2:24 ... "Who his own self bare our sins in His own body +on the tree, that we, being dead to sins should live unto +righteousness: By whose stripes ye are healed." + + You will never (Well, We won't say never because God may +have His plan for their salvation that We are not aware of at +this moment) see a cross on a Mormon structure. They will say +call it a "graven image"; yet "Moroni" stands on top of their +temples. Moroni didn't die for them. Joseph Smith, Jr. didn't die +for them. The church didn't die for them. JESUS DIED FOR THEM, if +they would only cling to His cross and reach out to claim His +blood for their sins. They're told they can earn their own +righteousness based on the law of the church which is based on +"prophets, seers and revelators" proven -TIME AND AGAIN- to be +false. Wouldn't you rather lay your eternal life in the hands of +the ETERNAL GOD; the SON who, personally, died for you - than, +say, a "prophet" in Salt Lake City? + Our prayer is that this comparison of the Bible vs: the LDS +Mormon church will show you the LIGHT of CHRIST. + +Computers For Christ + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/morm05.txt b/religious documents/morm05.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f85952 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm05.txt @@ -0,0 +1,202 @@ + DO THE NAG HAMMADI WRITING AND DEAD SEA SCROLLS + CONFIRM MORMONISM + or + IS EINAR ERICKSON CONFUSED ? + + In recent years, Mormon lecturer, Einar C. Erickson, has +given numerous talks to Mormon church groups concerning the Dead +Sea Scrolls, Nag Hammadi writings, Mandean Ginza and related +Middle East finds. These lectures have been taped and widely +distributed for use in converting the uninformed to Mormonism. Mr +Erickson states that the writings discovered in the vicinity of +Nag Hammadi, Egypt, are one of the greatest confirmations of the +"truthfulness" of the Mormon church that anyone would find +anywhere. + On one of his tapes, Mr. Erickson boldly declares that: +"These documents and others leave without doubt evidence positive +even on the best rules of evidence that an attorney might be able +to assemble, that this gospel [i.e. the Mormon gospel] is true. +You get no credit for faith anymore." Mr. Erickson attempts to +convince his listeners that the writers of the Nag Hammadi were +the true Christians, (based upon his allegation of their +similarity to Mormonism) and that all others had slipped off into +apostasy. + However; the Nag Hammadi writings are of "Gnostic" origin +which were written during the first to fourth century A.D. The +Gnostic heretics did cherish both the Old and New testament +Scripture, but re-interpreted them in terms of a mythological +Gnostic Redeemer. Gnosticism gave rise to the writings of a +number of totally spurious apocalyptic books, false gospels and +epistles that incorporated their own mysticism. + Gnosticism was a movement that vigorously contended with +Orthodox Christianity for supremacy. Writings by the early Church +Fathers show how widespread and influential Gnosticism was; and +it was combatted as a lethal threat to the proclamation of the +Gospel. The bishops pointed out the great gulf between Biblical +Christianity and Gnosticism, even though the Gnostics made use of +Biblical text. It is obvious that Paul, the Apostle, knew of the +false ideas of Gnosticism, and spoke out against such doctrines +several times in the Scriptures. + The Gnostics believed in the supreme being as an +undescribable God. He is invisible, incomprehensible, and dwells +unbegotten in eternal peace. Some names used to describe God and +to stress His transcendence were "Father of All", "The +Unapproachable God", "The Unknowable". Such a God could not +possibly have direct contact with the material world; therefore, +He does so through intermediates, each one answerable to the +other. Each intermediate in descending order is less divine and +more earthy as the chain nears the material world. + Mr. Erickson spellbinds his listeners when he tells them +that the Nag Hammadi writings confirm the Mormon doctrine of the +Heavenly Mother! What he fails to tell them is that this Mother +God of the Nag Hammadi is the "Holy Spirit." Certainly this is in +direct conflict with the Mormon concept of a Mother God, because +in Mormon doctrine, the Holy Spirit is a male. The supreme being +has a female counterpart which emanates from Him. She is known as +"Mother of All" or "The Holy Spirit." + Other emanations that come forth from the Supreme Being in +pairs are called AEONS; the lowest Aeon being "Sophia Akhamoth", +she was so full of passion to understand or know God that she +fell and was placed outside the Pleroma, God's heavenly dwelling. +Because of her desire, she becomes fertile with a formless +monster. This monster (Yaldabaoth, Samael or SATAN) is the +Demiurge or inferior god who created this material world and +brought forth man upon it. + According to the Gnostic, all matter is evil; therefore, +only an inferior being could have created it. Satan is the +creator-god of this earth and of man, and is an evil god. To the +Gnostics, Satan is Jehovah of the Old Testament! After Jehovah +(Satan) creates man and breathes life into him, he creates Eve. +The demonic forces see the beauty of Eve, and proceed to rape +her. Through this act, she conceives Cain and Abel. + Mr. Erickson often refers to the Hypostasis of the Archons +of the Nag Hammadi and being direct parallel to the Garden of +Eden scene of the Mormon Temple Ceremony. However, he fails to +inform his listeners that the Hypostasis of the Archeons tells of +the demons raping Eve! Nor does he point out that the serpent in +the garden is really the Holy Spirit coming to give Adam and Eve +the "true knowledge." He neglects to mention to his listeners +that the "god" who comes into the garden to ask Adam and Eve what +they have done is not the "Heavenly Father" but is Satan the +arrogant Archon, the evil god. In this instance, Mr. Erickson is, +at best, mistaken about the facts -- a fault which reappears +throughout his lectures and tapes. + The authors of the Nag Hammadi writings taught a form of re- +incarnation, and that marriage was evil, because it is of the +earth. They believed the begetting of children was from Satan, +since it merely increases the number subjected to the evil +angels. Resurrection of the flesh is denied by these Gnostics, +since earthly flesh is in itself evil, and can have no part in +the spiritual scheme of God. All of these concepts are not +confirmations of Mormon doctrine, but are direct contradictions +of it! + Mr. Erickson, looking elsewhere in the Middle East for +"proof," tells his audiences that the writings of the Mandaeans +of Iraq and Iran are (also) a confirmation of Mormonism. His +"evidence" for this is that they speak of baptism for the dead, +baptism by immersion, priesthood and baptize in the name of the +Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. What he fails to mention to +them is: according to the Mandaeans, Jesus was a rebel and a +heretic who led men astray by betraying secret doctrine and +making religion easier. The Mandaean sacred book tells of how +Jesus perverted the Scriptures, and that Jesus told the Jews that +He was the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Furthermore, the +Mandaean book accuses Jesus perverting baptism by baptizing in +the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. + The Mandaeans were baptized many times throughout their +lives. They baptized infants; and if an infant died before or +during this baptism, a clay or dough image was made which they +then baptized in proxy for that infant. Proxy baptism was also +done for an adult who died before getting his last minute +washings before death. In this case, an individual that looked +like the deceased was baptized in proxy for the dead person. + The Mandaeans also had a ceremony of "eating for the dead" +to give the deceased nourishment for his travels to the heavenly +spheres. The Mormon people do not baptize infants, do not eat for +the dead, nor do they have last minute washing rituals before +death as the Mandaeans did. The Mormon proxy baptisms have less +in common with the Mandaean baptisms than they do with Catholic +infant baptisms, last rites ritual, and prayers for the dead. +Clearly, the Mandaean concepts of Jesus and baptism are in no way +similar to Mormon doctrine. + Those holding the Mandaean priesthood had to have a clean +family history for a number of generations, and meet strict +physical and mental qualifications. They had to be without the +slightest physical blemish, and be of pure Mandaean blood. A man +who was circumcised, impotent, or a eunuch could not be a priest +for the body must be sound, pure, and perfect. If a man was +already a priest and he received an injury which destroyed his +manhood or robbed him of a limb, he could no longer officiate as +a priest. There are no such restrictions within the Mormon +priesthoods. The only things in common with the Mormon +priesthoods and baptism and that of the Mandaean are the very +words themselves! + Mr. Erickson makes false claims about the Dead Sea Scrolls +community, as well. He states that those at Qumran baptized at +the age of eight, just as the Mormons do. This is just simply NOT +the case. They trained young men for their celibate monastic +order for about ten years before they were baptized into their +ranks. This baptism never took place before the age of twenty. +Mr. Erickson states that the people of Qumran were essentially +the first "Mormons." However, the people at Qumran didn't even +believe in marriage! Rather they adopted in young men from other +Essene groups who married only to beget children. By contrast, in +Mormonism, marriage is absolutely essential to each member's +salvation in the Celestial Kingdom of God. + Mr. Erickson claims that the Apocryphal books should be used +as scripture. However, even the Mormon's own "latter day" +revelation disagrees with him. In the introductory heading of +Section 91 of the Doctrine and Covenants, it declares +specifically that the apocryphal books are NOT to be accepted as +scripture. Beyond that built-in contradiction, lies the fact that +one need only to read some of these apocrypha for himself to +quickly discover their singular lack of inspiration. + For example, two "Gospels" portray the life of the young +Jesus, allegedly covering the "silent" years skipped over in the +Bible. The book, "The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus" +portrays Jesus as a spoiled despot who curses another child for +bumping into him, and a schoolmaster who was going to discipline +Him for refusing to answer a question. After these two people are +killed at Jesus' command, Joseph tells Mary, "we will not allow +him to go out of the house; for every one who displeases him is +killed." In Thomas' "Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ", we +see Jesus causing the withering of hands, blindness, and again, +death. This is clearly not the Jesus Christ of the Bible! + The conclusion is inescapable -- the claims by Mr. Erickson +(and consequently other Mormons) that the Mormon doctrine is +"exonerated" by the findings in the Middle East is totally +without foundation. Mormon doctrine is not confirmed by these +different religious sects, it is contradicted by them! It is +apparent that these claims are just another chapter in the long +history of false archeological boasts made by Mormons in the +past. + +NOTE: A full and completely documented study of Mr. Erickson's +scholarship regarding the above topics has been written by Mrs. +Melaine Layton entitled: The Truth About the Dead Sea Scrolls and +the Nag Hammadi Writings in Reference to Mormonism. For further +information, please write to the office of Computers For Christ - +San Jose. + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/morm06.txt b/religious documents/morm06.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..492f058 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm06.txt @@ -0,0 +1,192 @@ + Do Mormons "Really" Believe in the Bible? + + Isaiah 41:21 - Set Forth your case + I Peter 3:15 - Be prepared, always + + The credibility of a religious claim rests upon its ability +to verify its terms. In the year of 1800, the French Institute in +Paris issued a list of 82 "errors' that it had found in the Bible +and felt would destroy Christianity in short order. In 1804, not +one of the alleged errors remained! + In the year 1901, the American Society of Archeology claimed +that the Biblical account of a peoples called the Hittites was +false. In 1933, archeologists found conclusive proof of the +existence of the Hittites and other peoples that the Bible had +claimed existed! + The primary question for this text is: "Why are we +discussing the matter of the Bible and its completeness? Doesn't +the Mormon church accept the Bible as the Word of God?" To +respond, let me quote from the sources of the Mormon church: + + 8th Article of Faith - "We believe the Bible to be the word +of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the +Book of Mormon to be the Word of God." + Joseph Smith, in Teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page +327, stated "Ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or +designing and corrupt priests committed many errors.' and the +mormon apostle Mark E. Peterson states in his book, As Translated +Correctly - page 4, "Many insertions were made, some of them +"slanted' for selfish purposes, while at times deliberate +falsifications and fabrications were perpetrated.' + Orson Pratt further made a comment in his book, Divine +Authenticity of the Book of Mormon - pages 45 & 47, thus: "If it +be admitted that the apostles and evangelists did write the books +of the New Testament, that does not prove of itself that they +were divinely inspired at the time they wrote ... Add all this +imperfection to the uncertainty of the translation, and who, IN +HIS RIGHT MIND could for one moment suppose the Bible in its +present form to be a perfect guide? Who knows that even one verse +of the Bible has escaped pollution, so as to convey the same +sense now that it did in the original?" + The Book of Mormon, II Nephi 29:6 states "Thou fool, that +shall say a Bible, we have got a Bible and we need no more Bible. +Have ye obtained a Bible save it were by the Jews?" Can you note +the FOOLS are the only ones who trust in the Bible? Read verse +10. Here, the Book of Mormon declares the need for more +revelation and makes way for its own existence! + A point of interest - turn to I Nephi 13:26: "a great and +abominable church - has taken away from the gospel of the Lamb +many parts which are plain and precious; and also many covenants +of the Lord have they taken away." The Book of Mormon tells us +that this is 600 B.C.! Do you know what B.C. means - BEFORE +CHRIST! So we are told that the gospel of the Lamb has been +polluted six hundred years before the Lamb or His Gospel was +recorded in the New Testament and given at the Passover! + + IS THE BIBLE INFALLIBLE? + + The Bible was composed over a period of 1,500 years by more +than 40 different authors from the full range of humanity: from +military generals (Joshua) to prime ministers (Daniel) to +cupbearers (Nehemiah) to fishermen (Peter) to tax collectors +(Matthew) to kings (David). The books were written in many +different places: the wilderness (Moses), prison (Paul), and +exile (John on the Island Patmos). On three different continents +(Africa, Asia and Europe) and in three different languages +(Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek). + The content, yet, remains constant in its unfolding of the +plan of salvation through Christ Jesus. The Old Testament reveals +itself to be the story of the preparation for the arrival of the +Messiah or Christ. The Gospels of the New Testament are the +manifestation of the Christ in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. +Acts is the propagation of the message. The Epistles give the +explanation and the Revelation of John provides the consummation +of the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus or Lord! The entire Bible +is about Jesus (Luke 24:27 - 44 and John 5:39,46,47). I challenge +any Mormon to take any ten people, and you can even get them from +the same heritage - education - language and culture and ask them +separately to give you their opinion of the meaning of life - you +will get opinions of such variety, yet the Bible consists of over +40 authors of more than one generation with very little +similarity and is in total unity! Complete harmony! + + In discussion of the matter of infallibility of the Bible we +need, first to look at the process that we use to arrive at this +conclusion: + PREMISE # 1 - The Bible is basically a reliable and trustworthy +document. + +PREMISE # 2 - On the basis of this reliable document, we have +sufficient evidence to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of +God. + +PREMISE # 3 - Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, is an +infallible authority. (Luke 24:27,44; John 5:39; Hebrews 10:7) + +PREMISE # 4 - Jesus Christ teaches that the Bible is MORE than +generally trustworthy. He teaches that it is the very Word of +God. + +PREMISE # 5 - The WORD, in that it comes from God, is utterly +trustworthy because GOD is utterly trustworthy! + +PREMISE # 6 - On the basis of the infallible authority of Jesus +Christ, the Bible is infallible. + + II Timothy 2:13 declares that God "cannot deny Himself" and +Galatians 1:8,9 tells us that we should be wary of any teaching +of any other Gospel than that which Paul preached, which by the +declaration of Paul in Romans 15:19 states that "I have fully +preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ." + The Mormon church is unable to provide any proof that Paul +taught such doctrines as celestial marriage, no hell, wearing of +sacred underwear, or godhood to be obtained. It is proper to +state that if Paul never taught such doctrines, then Galatians +1:8-9 CONDEMNS them! The claim of the LDS that more scripture is +necessary is groundless. + In II Peter 1:3, we are told that "His divine power hath +given unto us ALL things that pertain to life and godliness." +Paul further explained in Colossians 2:10 that "Ye are COMPLETE +in Him." If just these two statements are true, what possible use +could additional scripture be? Granted that nowhere in the Bible +does it state that "This is the end of Scripture"; However, with +the above statements, anything else could ONLY be redundant. It +is obvious from the text of the New Testament that the writers +were "eyewitnesses" of the ministry and presence of Jesus Christ. +(II Peter 1:15-18 and I John 1:1-5) + Acts 22:14-15 and I Corinthians 11:23 show that the Apostle +Paul was specially chosen by the Lord as a witness while the +other Apostles were alive. Paul's testimony was identical to that +of the other Apostles - what He had seen, heard and taught of the +Lord Jesus was identical to all previous teachings and in accord +with the Old Testament teachings. Much more could have been +written (John 20:30 and 21:25); However, there was no need as +there already existed "all things that pertain to life and +godliness." (II Peter 1:3 and John 20:31) + How many of us, Mormon or Christian have read and digested +all of the meat of the Holy Bible - completely? Can there really +be a need for something more when the original item is still +unplumbed for the depths it contains? + We have the following possibilities: the Bible was written +by either (1) Good Men or Angels, (2) Evil Men or Demons, (3) +God. + Good Men or Angels could not have written it as they could +not write "Thus saith the Lord" when it was a lie or an invention +of their own minds. + Evil men or demons could not have written the Bible as they +would not have written a book that commands all duty, forbids all +sin, and condemns all evil to Hell! + We thus have GOD as the only source of the BIble. + + In the ancient Israel, a class of servants in the Temple +were called Scribes. This was a lifelong calling and one of great +importance to the continuance of the Law and Prophets of Israel. +I will demonstrate the LEGAL method of making a copy of a +document according to the laws of Israel at this time and +according to the great traditions of the Talmud. The possibility +for incorrect copy is almost non-existent. Combine this with the +facts as proven by archeology. Prior to the Dead Sea Scroll copy +of the Book of Isaiah, the best copy of that Book was over 1000 +years newer! In comparing the two copies that covered this gap of +a thousand years, there was found only ONE CHARACTER changed, and +that was an article that "possibly" could have lost the accent +mark of the character to make it 100% identical to the dead sea +scroll version! Imagine - 1000 years of copies and NO CHANGE in +the versions! Now the basis to make copies of the New Testament +were as strict. We find many incidences of the same phenomena of +clarity and correctness. Out of all the many thousands of pieces +and text, not ONE DOCTRINE has been added to or changed or +modified in ANY MANNER! + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/morm07.txt b/religious documents/morm07.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4df3b06 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm07.txt @@ -0,0 +1,216 @@ + JOSEPH SMITH'S FIRST VISION + Fact or Fable ? + By W. P. Walters + + "Sometime in the second year after our removal to +Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual +excitement on the subject of religion. It commenced with the +Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in the +region of country ... my mind became somewhat partial to the +Methodists ... but so great was the confusion and strife among +the different denominations, that it was impossible ... to come +to any certain conclusion who was right, and who was wrong ... in +accordance with this, by determination, to ask God, I retired to +the woods to make an attempt. It was on the morning of a +beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and +twenty ... I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my +heart to God. ... I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head +... When the light rested upon me I saw two personages, (whose +brightness and glory defy all description) standing above me in +the air ... I asked the personages who stood above me in the +light, which of all the sects was right, (for at this time it had +never entered into my heart that all were wrong) and which I +should join. I was answered that I must join none of them, for +they were all wrong ..." Joseph Smith, Jr. + + The well publicized story above, of Joseph Smith's First +Vision is not a true account of the origin of the Latter Day +Saint movement. The facts are decidedly against it! + First, the historical evidence shows that Joseph Smith, Jr. +could not have been stirred by an 1820 revival, to ask which +church was true. + Second, early Mormon statements do not support his claim +that in 1820 he learned through a visitation of the Father and +the Son that all existing churches were wrong. + Third, the details known about Joseph's early life +contradict his assertion that in 1820 he had such a divine +visitation and was persecuted by the community for telling such a +story. + +NO 1820 REVIVAL ..... + + First his neighborhood in 1820 experienced no revival such +as he described, in which "great multitudes" joined the +Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian churches. The Presbyterian +records for the Palmyra Presbyterian Church show that it +experienced no revival in 1820. The local Baptist Church gained +only six on profession of faith the entire year, while the +Methodists actually lost members that year as well as the +preceeding and following years. (Minutes of the Annual +Conference) + Joseph Smith claimed that his mother, sister and two +brothers were led to join the local Presbyterian Church as a +result of that 1820 revival. However, four years before he made +this claim, his own church paper had stated that the revival in +which his family had been led to join the Presbyterian Church +took place in 1823. (Messenger & Advocate I, pp. 42, 78) In fact, +that account says it was the same 1823 revival that led him to go +to his bedroom (not to a sacred grove) and pray "if a Supreme +being did exist" and to know that "he was accepted of him." An +angel (not a deity) is then reported to have appeared and told +him of his forgiveness and of the gold plates. + Joseph's mother, likewise, knew nothing of an 1820 vision. +In her unpublished account she traces the origin of Mormonism to +a BEDROOM VISIT by an angel. Joseph at the time had been +"pondering which of the churches were the true one." The angel +told him "there is not a true church on Earth, No not one." +(First draft of "Lucy Smith's History," LDS Church Archives) + Furthermore, she tells us that the revival which led to her +joining the church took place following the death of her son, +Alvin. Alvin died November 19, 1823, and following that painful +loss she reports that: "..about this time there was a great +revival in religion and the whole neighborhood was very much +aroused to the subject and we among the rest, flocked to the +meeting house to see if there was a word of comfort for us that +might relieve our over-charged feelings." (P. 86) + She adds that although her husband would only attend the +first meetings, he had no objection to her or the children "going +or BECOMING CHURCH MEMBERS." (emphasis added) + There is plenty of additional evidence that the revival Lucy +Smith refers to did occur during the winter of 1824-1825. It was +reported in at least a dozen newspapers and religious +periodicals. The church records show outstanding increases due to +the reception of new converts. The Baptist Church received 94, +the Presbyterian 99, while the Methodist work grew by 208. No +such revival bringing in "great multitudes" occurred in 1820. + It is clear that the revival Joseph Smith, Jr. described did +not occur in 1820, but in 1824. Joseph Smith arbitrarily moved +that revival back four years to 1820 and made it fit a First +Vision story that neither his mother nor other close associates +had heard of in those early days. The historical facts completely +discredit Joseph Smith's First Vision story. (For further details +see, DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT, Spring 1969, pp. 59- +100) + +BIBLE READING vs. REVELATIONS ..... + + About 1832, Joseph Smith, Jr. began an account of the origin +of the Mormon church (the only one written in his own hand), that +contradicts the official First Vision story he dictated some six +years later. The account was never finished and has only recently +been published. (See the text in BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY +STUDIES, Spring 1969, pp. 278ff) In this version Joseph presents +himself between the ages of twelve and fifteen being a committed +and perceptive reader of the Bible. He claims that his STUDY OF +THE SCRIPTURES led him to understand that all the denominations +were wrong. He wrote: "...by searching the Scriptures I found +that mankind did not come into the Lord but that they had +apostatised from the true and living faith and there was no +society or denomination that built upon the Gospel of Jesus +Christ as recorded in the new testament." + Six years later, when he set forth his official First Vision +story, he decided that he never had reached the firm conclusion +that all churches were wrong from his study of the Bible. +Instead, he claimed that it was DURING A VISION OF THE FATHER AND +THE SON that he first learned this information. He presented this +as coming as a great surprise, for he added parenthetically - +"for at this time it had NEVER ENTERED INTO MY HEART THAT ALL +WERE WRONG." (emphasis added) That statement even contradicted +what Joseph had said a few paragraphs earlier in the same +account. There he claimed that "I OFTEN SAID TO MYSELF ... Who of +all these parties are right; or ARE THEY ALL WRONG TOGETHER?" +(emphasis added) Although the former statement appears in the +original manuscript (see BYU Studies above, p. 290), such a +serious contradiction could not be allowed to stand, and after +Joseph's death the embarrassing words were edited out. + Even without these words, however, the 1838 official account +is in conflict with the 1832 version. In the 1832 account it is +his Bible reading that stirs him to seek God, while in the 1838 +story it is a non-existent revival that motivates him. + In the 1832 version he claims to have seen only Christ, +while in the 1838 rendition both the Father and the Son appear. +In the 1832 account he already knows all the churches are wrong, +while in the 1838 story it is the dual deities who first inform +him of this. Different people may have different views of the +same event, but when one person tells contradictory stories about +an event, he completely loses his credibility. + +PERSECUTION vs. ACCEPTANCE ..... + + The 1838 First Vision story not only runs into trouble with +Joseph's earlier 1832 version, it is also contradicted by what we +know about his early years in Palmyra. In his official version +Joseph claims he was persecuted by all the churches in his area +"because I continued to affirm I had seen a vision." However, +Orsemus Turner, an apprentice printer in Palmyra until 1822, was +in the same juvenile debating club with Joseph Smith. He recalled +that Joseph "after catching a spark of Methodism ... became a +very passable exhorter in evening meetings." (HISTORY OF THE +PIONEER SETTLEMENT OF PHELPS AND GORHAM'S PURCHASE, 1851, p. 214) +Thus, instead of being opposed and persecuted as his 1838 account +claims, young Joseph was welcomed and allowed to exhort during +the Methodist's evening preaching. Furthermore, no one, either +Mormon or non-Mormon, seems ever to have heard of Joseph's +encounter with two divine Personages until after 1838. (see this +admission in DIALOGUE, Autumn 1966, pp. 30-31; SAINTS HERALD, +June 29, 1959, p. 21) + + From all available lines of evidence, therefore, Joseph's +First Vision story appears to be a fabrication. There was NO +REVIVAL anywhere in the Palmyra area in 1820, Joseph was +WELCOMED, NOT PERSECUTED by the Methodists. His 1832 account +represents him as PERCEIVING FROM HIS PERSONAL BIBLE STUDY that +all the churches were apostate, while his 1838 account said it +"NEVER ENTERED INTO MY HEART that all were wrong." His 1832 +version claimed ONLY A VISION OF CHRIST, while the 1838 story +transformed this into THE FATHER AND THE SON. No one ever heard +such a story until after he dictated it in 1838. + In the light of such strong contradictory evidence, the +First Vision story must be regarded as only the invention of +Joseph Smith's highly imaginative mind. The facts and Joseph's +own words discredit it. + + + This work is presented with the earnest prayer that sincere +people everywhere may perceive the fallacy and danger of +Mormonism and will not become entangled in it, and that the dear +Mormon people who are unfortunately deceived by it, may be +reclaimed and find the true Way of salvation in the Bible and the +blessed Saviour whom it reveals. + + "Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the +Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14:6) + + We also pray that the earnest reader upon discerning these +things will search the Word of God, the Bible, the only Book +whose message is "able to make thee wise unto salvation through +faith which is in Christ Jesus." (II Timothy 3:15) + +For Further information write: + +Utah Christian Tract Society +P.O. Box 725 +La Mesa, California 92041 + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/morm08.txt b/religious documents/morm08.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..414a67c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm08.txt @@ -0,0 +1,218 @@ + SALVATION THROUGH CHRIST + vs: + THE EXALTATION OF MAN + +God's word, the BIBLE, which clearly states that our +salvation is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, alone +through one faith and His Grace --- not as a result of +fabricating our own righteousness by "good works" by +attempting to become "perfect" as a result of laws and +ordinances of any organization. + + I JOHN 5:11-13 + + "And this is the record, that God hath given us eternal +life, and this life is in His son. He that hath the Son +hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life. +These things have I written unto you that believe on the +name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have +eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the +Son of God." + +God spells it out - you either have life through the Son +or you reject Him. It is either Heaven or the Lake of Fire; +no "grey areas"; no half-way locations. You either accept +the Son or you reject Him. + +Mormonism claims to accept Jesus ---- + +"We have His name on our church" - But we have now +seen that the Jesus of Mormonism is a different Jesus +- not any resembalance to the REAL Jesus. Further, by +rejecting the total sufficiency of the New Covenant of the +sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for their personal sins - +and instead electing to attempt the old covenant of works, +laws, temples, etc ----- they nullify the offer of eternal +life as a gift by God's Love and immeasurable Grace: + + GALATIANS 2:21 + +"I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if righteousness +come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." +As a result, the Mormon believing in the Mormon Jesus, and +not the real Jesus of the BIBLE; and following a life only +of works, even with utmost sincerity, without the saving +faith in the one who died for them, personally, is LOST. We +don't say that - GOD says that - in HIS Word - The BIBLE + + THREE KINGDOMS? + +Let's go further ---- Mormonism claims three "heavens." +They take I CORINTHIANS 15:37-49 totally out of context to +arrive at this false teaching. Where Paul is declaring that +an individual's resurrected body is different in Glory from +his earthly body - as the sun differs from the moon, from +the stars - Mormonism has declared three kingdoms of Heaven: + + TELESTIAL KINGDOM + +Where all the wicked go, whether they've rejected God and +Jesus all their life or not - Murderers, etc ! + + TERRESTIAL KINGDOM + +Where good and honorable persons go - they only failed to +accept the "gospel" of Mormonism. + + CELESTIAL KINGDOM + +a) LOWER DEGREE +Good Mormons, but failed to marry in the Temple and having +"other" imperfections. These will be allowed to be angels. + +b) MIDDLE DEGREE +Mormons who failed to accept the complete "gospel" but were +married in the Temple, sealed to many wives, and are in the +process of being exalted through baptism of the dead, etc. + +c) HIGHEST DEGREE - EXALTATION +"Perfect" Mormons. They will be gods themselves just like +God the Father. Will have eternal, multiple, marriages for +the purpose of sexually procreating billions of spirit +children to populate another world that they will reign +over as that world's god. + + MORMON TERMINOLOGY + +Let's be "clear" on some important terms - even though you +will find Mormon writers interchanging them, in a strict +sense they are: + + SALVATION + +Resurrection only; immortality, or simply life after death. +This is what Christ's death on the cross "achieved". This +is what all mankind has by the Grace of God as a free gift. +But "salvation" for what? This is just the bottom of the +ladder. + +"Those who gain only this general or unconditional +salvation will still be judged according to their works and +receive places in a Terrestial or Telestial kingdom. They +will, therefore, be damned; their eternal progression will +be cut short; they will not fill the full measure of their +creation, but in eternity will be ministering servants to +more worthy persons." +Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, "Salvation",pg 669,670 +(1966 Edition) + +So, you see, salvation as a gift through Christ is nothing +special to a Mormon. When they say, "Jesus is our Savior", +this is what they give Him "credit" for! + +Now, let's find out what the goal of Mormonism is. Who are +these "more worthy persons" ? + +EXALTATION = Eternal Life in the Highest Degree of the +Celestial Kingdom. This is what Mormonism teaches day in +and day out. McConkie continues - + +"Conditional or individual salvation, that which comes by +grace coupled with gospel obedience, consist in receiving +an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God. This kind +of salvation follows faith, repentance, baptism, receipt of +the Holy Ghost, and continued righteousness to the end of +one's mortal life. (D & C 20:29 & 2 Nephi 9:23-24). All +others are damned --- Even those in the celestial kingdom +however, who do not go on to exaltation, will have +immortality only and not eternal life --- they will be +'ministering servants, to minister for and to those who are +worthy of a far more, and an exceeding and an eternal +weight of glory'. They will live "separately and singly" in +an unmarried state 'without exaltation, in their saved +condition, to all eternity' (D & C 132:16,17). Salvation in +its true and full meaning is synonymous with exaltation or +eternal life and consist in gaining an inheritance in the +highest of the three heavens within the Celestial Kingdom +--- It is the salvation which saints seek --- This full +salvation is obtained in and through the continuation of +the family unit in eternity, and those who obtain it are +gods --- If it had not been for Joseph Smith and the +restoration, there would be no salvation. There is no +salvation outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day +Saints." + +"Then shall they be gods, because they have no end - Then +shall they be gods, because they have all power ---" +(D & C 132:20) + +"Here then is eternal life - to know the only wise and true +God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, +and to be kings and priest to God, the same as all gods +have done before you --- and to sit in glory, as do those +who sit in everlasting power --- What is it? To inherit the +same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until +you arrive at the station of a god ---" +Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 345-347; +Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, "Godhood", 1966 +Edition, pg 321 +History of the Church, Volume 6, page 306 + +"They are they into whose hands the Father has given all +things - they are they who are priest and kings, who have +received of His fulness, and his glory -- they are gods --" +Doctrine & Covenants, 76:55-58 + +"As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." +Lorenzo Snow, Millennial Star, Vol 54, pg 404 + +"Mormonism does not tend to debase God to the level of man, +but to exalt man to the perfection of God." +Charles W. Penrose,Millenial Star,Vol 23, pg 181 + +The above quotes appear in Milton R. Hunter's, The Gospel +Through The Ages (1958, pges 105-107) under the chapter +heading "Men may become gods". Hunter surprisingly supports +Mormonism's view of the Godhead of man by noting (on pg 117): +"Even the doctrine of a knowledge of God as the avenue to +Godhood made its way outward from the Divine Fountain of +Truth into the heathenistic religions of the Mediterranean +world. The teaching of the HERMETIC pagan cult sound quite +familiar to those who are acquainted with the doctrine +taught by Jesus, by John the Beloved, by Paul, and by +Joseph Smith, the American Prophet". + +Sorry, but only the teachings of the latter sound familiar. +Nowhere in the BIBLE do we find GOD saying man can reach +godhood. Yes, we do find such a teaching in the BIBLE --- +yet it is Satan who is doing the talking !! + +Computers For Christ prays that this has been interesting +and has opened your eyes to the false nature of the Mormon +teachings. Leave us a message at termination if you wish us +to mail you any additional material. +** END OF TEXT ** + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/morm09.txt b/religious documents/morm09.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6067210 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm09.txt @@ -0,0 +1,143 @@ + + TEN REASONS WHY I CANNOT BE A MORMON + by Rev. John Hornok + +1. ÿMORMONISM DOES NOT TEACH THAT THE BIBLE IS THE INFALLIBLE WORK OF +GOD. ÿÿ"We ÿbelieve the Bible to the the Word of God as far as it ÿis +translated ÿcorrectly; ÿÿwe also believe the book of Mormon to be ÿthe +word of God" (Articles of Faith, No. 8). + + As ÿChristians we believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old ÿand ÿNew +Testaments ÿto ÿthe ÿthe verbally inspired Word ÿof ÿGod, ÿÿthe ÿfinal +authority ÿfor ÿfaith and life, ÿinerrant in ÿthe ÿoriginal ÿwritings, +infallible and God-breathed (2 ÿTim. ÿ3:16-17; ÿ2 Pet. ÿ1:20-21; ÿMatt +5:18). + +2. ÿÿMORMONISM TEACHES THAT GOD IS AN EXALTED MAN AND HAS A ÿPHYSICAL +BODY. ÿÿ"God himself was once as we are now, ÿand is an exalted ÿman" +(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, ÿpg. 345). ÿ"The Father has a +body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's..." ÿ(Doc. ÿ& Cov., ÿSec. +131:22) + + The Bible says, ÿ"God is not a man..." ÿ(Num. ÿ23:19). ÿ"God is a +Spirit; ÿÿand they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and ÿin +truth" ÿÿ(John 4:24). ÿ"A spirit hath not flesh and ÿbones..." ÿÿ(Lk. +24:39). + +3. MORMONISM TEACHES THAT CHRIST AND THE DEVIL ARE BROTHERS. "...that +Lucifer, ÿthe son of morning, ÿis our elder brother and the brother of +Jesus Christ" (Mormon Doctrine by Bruce McConkie, pp. 163-4). + + The Bible says that the devil is a created being, ÿcreated by God. +"thou ÿwast ÿperfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast ÿcreated, +till ÿiniquity ÿwas found in thee" ÿ(Ezekiel 28:15). ÿÿ"For ÿby ÿHim +(Christ) ÿwere all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in +earth, ÿvisible and invisible, whether they be thrones, ÿof dominions, +or principalities, ÿor powers; ÿall things were created by Him and for +Him..." (Col. 1:15-17). + +4. MORMONISM TEACHES THAT JESUS WAS MARRIED AND THE HE IS POLYGAMOUS. +"We ÿsay ÿit ÿwas ÿJesus Christ who was married at ÿCana ÿof ÿGalilee" +(Journal of Discourses, ÿVol 2, p. 80). ÿMormonism teaches that Jesus +was ÿthe ÿnatural ÿchild ÿof Adam and Mary. ÿ"When ÿthe ÿVirgin ÿMary +conceived ÿthe Child Jesus....He was not begotten by the ÿHoly ÿGhost. +And who is his Father? ÿHe is the first of the human family" (Brigham +Young, Journal of Discourses, pp. 50-51). + + The Bible says, ÿ"In the beginning was the Word (Christ), ÿand the +Word was with God, and the Word was God;...The Word was made flesh and +dwelt among us..." ÿ(John 1:1, 14). ÿ"Then Mary said unto the angel, +How ÿshall ÿthis ÿbe, ÿseeing that I know not a man? ÿAnd ÿthe ÿangel +answered... The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee..."(Lk. 1:34-35). + +5. ÿÿMORMONISM TEACHES THAT THE TRUE CHURCH CEASED TO EXIST UNTIL ÿIT +WAS RESTORED TO JOSEPH SMITH. ÿThe church (LDS) was restored April 6, +1830 by Joseph Smith (Doc. & Cov., 20:1). + + Jesus ÿChrist said, ÿ"I will build my church and the gates of hell +shall not prevail against it" ÿ(Matt. ÿ16:18). ÿ"for other foundation +can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. +3:11). ÿÿ"...And ÿare built upon the foundation of the ÿapostles ÿand +prophets, ÿÿJesus ÿChrist himself being the chief cornerstone" ÿÿ(Eph. +2:20). + +6. ÿÿMORMONISM TEACHES ANOTHER (PERVERTED) ÿGOSPEL THAN THAT ÿOF ÿTHE +BIBLE. ÿÿThe gospel to Mormonism is: ÿ"Faith, ÿRepentance, ÿBaptism, +Receiving the Holy Spirit by laying on of hands, ÿMorality, ÿÿLoyalty, +Tithing, ÿWord of Wisdom, Duty Celestial Marriage (for eternity)" (LDS +chart of FREE AGENCY and Articles of Faith, No. 4). + + The Bible says, "Moreover brethren, I ÿdeclare unto you the gospel +that he was buried, ÿand that he rose again the third day according to +the scriptures" ÿ(1 ÿCor. 15:1, ÿ3-4). ÿ"if any man preach any other +gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Gal. +1:9). + +7. ÿÿMORMONISM ÿTEACHES ÿSALVATION FOR THE THE DEAD ÿBY ÿPROXY ÿWATER +BAPTISM. This doctrine is based on one misunderstood Scripture: "Else +what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, ÿif the dead ÿrise +not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" (1 Cor. 15:29). + + Paul ÿdid not practice baptism for the dead. ÿHe excluded himself +by using the pronoun "they" rather than "we" ÿor "ye". He is asking a +question ÿrather than making a statement. ÿ"It is appointed unto ÿman +once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). + +8. ÿMORMONISM TEACHES GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH FOR THE DEAD. ÿ"Let ÿus, +therefore, ÿas a church and a people, and as Latter-day Saints, ÿoffer +unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; ÿand let us present in his +holy temple, when it is finished, a book containing the records of our +dead, ÿwhich shall be worth of all acceptation" ÿ(Doc. ÿ& ÿCov., ÿSec. +128:24). + + The ÿBible ÿsays, ÿÿ"Neither ÿgive ÿheed ÿto ÿfables ÿand ÿendless +genealogies" ÿÿ(1 ÿÿTim. ÿÿ1:4). ÿ"but ÿavoid ÿfoolish ÿquestion ÿand +genealogies..." (Titus 3:9). + +9. ÿÿMORMONISM TEACHES THAT THERE ARE MODERN DAY PROPHETS AND ÿMODERN +DAY REVELATIONS FROM GOD. Mormonism claims that Joseph Smith received +the ÿAaronic ÿPriesthood ÿfrom John ÿthe ÿBaptist. ÿÿThe ÿMelchizedek +Priesthood and Apostleship ÿwas ÿrestored ÿby Peter, ÿÿJames ÿand John +shortly afterwards in 1829 (Doc. & Cov., Sec. 13). + + The Bible says, ÿ"God...hath in these last days spoken unto us ÿby +his ÿSon, ÿwhom he hath appointed heir of all things, ÿby whom also he +made ÿthe worlds" ÿ(Heb. ÿ1:1-2). ÿThe test of a prophet is given ÿin +Deut. 18:20-22. + +10. ÿÿMORMONISM ÿTEACHES THAT SALVATION DEPENDS UPON ÿGOOD ÿWORKS ÿAND +ACCEPTANCE ÿOF ÿJOSEPH SMITH. ÿ"No man who rejects the ÿtestimony ÿof +Joseph ÿSmith can enter the kingdom of God" ÿ(Doctrines of ÿSalvation, +vol. 1 pg. 190). "Men have work to do it they would obtain salvation" +(Doctrines of Salvation. vol. 3, pg 91). + + The ÿBible ÿteaches ÿthat salvation is provided ÿby ÿJesus ÿChrist +alone, ÿÿ"for ÿthere is none other name under heaven given among ÿmen, +whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:10-12). ÿ"For by grace are ye saved +through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not +of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/morm10.txt b/religious documents/morm10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b5fb5a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,179 @@ + + Divine Truths in the Book of Mormon + + Anyone ÿvisited ÿby ÿa ÿMormon Missionary has ÿheard ÿthe ÿElder's +testimony ÿconcerning the Book of Mormon: ÿThat he knows this book is +the ÿWord ÿof God and that the founder of the Mormon ÿChurch, ÿÿJoseph +Smith, ÿJr., translated it by the gift and power of God. Further, the +prospect is encouraged sincerely to study the Book of Mormon and ÿ"The +divine truths it contains." + The Book of Mormon indeed does contain a number of "divine truths", +first set forth in the Bible, the most important of which are: + +1. GOD IS SPIRIT + + Alma 18:28 (p. 242) - "Believest, thou that this Great Spirit, who +is God, created all things". + +2. TRINITARIAN VIEW OF GOD + + 3 ÿNephi 11:27 (p. 422) - "Verily I say unto you, that the Father +and ÿthe Son and the Holy Ghost are one." ÿIn addition, ÿthree ÿclose +associates ÿof Joseph Smith who gave testimony of the authenticity ÿof +the Book of Mormon, close with words: "And the honor be to the Father, +and ÿto ÿthe ÿSon and to the Holy Ghost, ÿWHICH IS ÿONE ÿGOD. ÿÿAmen." +(emphasis added) This endorsement is found in the front of every Book +of ÿMormon and further documents the Book of Mormon's ÿacknowledgement +of the triune nature of God. + +3. GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE + + Moroni 8:18 (p. 517) - ÿ"For I know that God is not a partial God, +neither a changeable being; ÿbut he is unchangeable from all ÿeternity +to all eternity." + +4. NO SALVATION AFTER DEATH + + Mosiah 3:25 ÿ(p. 141) - "And if they be evil they are consigned to +an ÿawful view of their own guilt and abominations, ÿwhich doth ÿcause +them ÿto ÿshrink from the presence of the Lord into a state of ÿmisery +and endless torment, ÿfrom whence they can no more return; ÿÿtherefore +they have drunk damnation to their own souls." + +5. ONLY TWO DESTINATIONS AFTER DEATH + + Mosiah 16:11 ÿ(p. 166) - "If they be good, ÿto the resurrection of +endless life and happiness; ÿand if they be evil, ÿto the resurrection +of endless damnation." + +6. SALVATION BY CHRIST"S WORK - NOT MAN'S + + Helaman 5:9 (p. 369) - "...remember that there is no other way nor +means ÿwhereby ÿmen can be saved, ÿonly through the atoning ÿblood ÿof +Jesus Christ, ÿwho shall come, yea, ÿremember that he cometh to redeem +the world." + + + The Book of Mormon also emphasizes the need for spiritual rebirth. +For ÿexample ÿAlma 5:14 ÿstates "And now behold, ÿI ÿask of ÿyou, ÿÿmy +brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye +received ÿhis image in your countenances? ÿHave ye ÿexperienced ÿthis +mighty change in your hearts?" + Much ÿof ÿthe ÿmajor theology set forth in the Book of ÿMormon ÿis +indeed in harmony with orthodox Christianity. ÿHowever, ÿmany who are +visited by the LDS Missionaries are unaware that the present ÿtheology +of ÿthe Mormon Church is very different from their own Book of Mormon. +Further, ÿnot only are today's major doctrines different, ÿthey are in +total ÿopposition with this work of Joseph Smith, ÿJr., ÿfor which ÿhe +claimed divine inspiration. + + Mormon ÿtheology is not contained in, ÿbut rather contradicted ÿby +the ÿBook ÿof ÿMormon. ÿThe members of the Mormon Church now turn ÿto +newer ÿpublications ÿand ÿrevelations for their ÿbeliefs. ÿÿA ÿÿbrief +examination of some of these will document the contradictions. + +1. ÿÿMormonism today teaches "The Father has a body of flesh and bones +as tangible as man's" (Doctrine & Covenants 130:22). + +2. ÿJoseph Smith, later in his life, flatly denied the Trinity: ÿ"Many +men say there is one God, ÿthe Father, ÿthe Son and the Holy Ghost are +one God! ÿI saw that is a strange God anyhow - three in one, ÿand one +in ÿthree!" ÿHe further concludes that the Father, ÿSon and the ÿHoly +Ghost ÿare not one God, ÿbut rather three Gods (History of the ÿChurch +6:474, 476). + +3. The LDS Church no longer adheres to the unchangeable nature of God, +but ÿrather ÿstates: ÿ"God himself was once as we are now and ÿis ÿan +exalted man... We have imagined and supposed that God was God from all +eternity. I will refute that idea and take away the veil, so that you +may see". (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345). + +4. ÿÿBruce ÿR. ÿMcConkie announces on page 73 ÿof his ÿwork, ÿÿ'Mormon +Doctrine': ÿÿ"The Lord has ordained baptism for the dead as the means +whereby ÿall ÿhis ÿworthy children of all ages ÿcan ÿbecome ÿheirs ÿof +salvation in his kingdom." + +5. ÿÿMormonism today informs its members that all mankind will ÿoccupy +one of three heavenly kingdoms. ÿThe highest is the Celestial Kingdom +(which itself contains various levels). ÿThis kingdom is reserved for +all ÿfaithful Mormons and could lead to Godhood for the ÿmale ÿmembers +there. ÿThe middle Kingdom, the Terrestrial Kingdom, is for those who +did ÿnot ÿaccept the gospel according to Mormonism, ÿbut who lived ÿan +honorable ÿlife. ÿÿThe ÿlowest or Telestial ÿKingdom ÿstill ÿcontains +murderers, ÿÿadulterers, ÿliars and thieves. ÿ(Doctrine ÿ& ÿCovenants +section ÿ76). ÿÿHell ÿin Mormonism is usually thought to ÿbe ÿonly ÿa +temporary ÿstate of suffering, ÿwhich can be terminated through ÿself- +atonement. ÿÿIn ÿsummary, ÿall will be resurrected and ÿreceive ÿsome +degree of glory, according to Mormonism. + +6. Mormons believe not in the infinite atonement of Christ, but rather +that ÿ"redemption ÿfrom ÿpersonal sins can only ÿbe ÿobtained ÿthrough +obedience ÿto ÿthe ÿrequirements of the Gospel, ÿAND A ÿLIFE ÿOF ÿGOOD +WORKS." (emphasis added) (Talmage, Articles of Faith pgs. 478-479) + + These ÿchanges ÿand contradictions contained within ÿthese ÿeasily +available ÿLDS ÿScriptures leave no doubt as to the human, ÿÿman ÿmade +origin of Mormonism. + While ÿMormons regard the Bible as the Word of God, ÿthe Bible ÿis +actually placed lower and superseded by their other Scriptures, ÿwhich +in addition to the Book of Mormon include the Doctrine & Covenants and +the ÿPearl ÿof Great Price. ÿThis devaluation of the Bible ÿis ÿfound +within the LDS Articles of Faith, ÿin the Pearl of Great Price, ÿwhere +it ÿis ÿstated ÿthat Mormons "believe the Bible in so ÿfar ÿas ÿit ÿis +correctly translated." + God's ÿword, ÿÿthe Bible, ÿhas definitely stood the test of ÿtime, +whereas in its short existence the Book of Mormon has not. The Bible, +has been used by and confirmed by archeology, - the Book of Mormon has +not. ÿThe Bible, ÿhas through recent ancient manuscript ÿdiscoveries, +been ÿdemonstrated to have been transmitted and translated accurately, +where the Book of Mormon contains nearly 4000 textual changes from the +first ÿedition ÿin 1830 ÿto the present editions used today, ÿand ÿhas +received further changes in the new 1981 "Triple Combination" edition. + The ÿpresence ÿof ÿ"Divine Truths" ÿwithin the Book of ÿMormon ÿis +merely a result of Joseph Smith, ÿJr. ÿincorporating much of the Bible +into his work. (see 'The use of the Bible in the Book of Mormon by H. +Michael ÿMarquardt). ÿÿThus, ÿthe Book of Mormon must be regarded ÿas +fiction, not as inspired Scripture. + Changes within Mormonism and the Book of Mormon make it clear that +Mormonism is not from God. ÿGod's word does not change. Jesus Christ +is the same yesterday, ÿtoday and forever (Hebrews 13:8) ÿand His Word +shall never pass away (Psalm 119:89; Matthew 24:35). The Jesus Christ +who ÿshed his blood on Calvary's cross to save you is not the Jesus of +present-day ÿMormonism. ÿÿJesus ÿinvites all people to ÿexperience ÿa +spiritual ÿrebirth ÿand to receive the free gift of ÿeternal ÿlife ÿby +trusting in him alone for salvation. + + Write ÿto us and let us share with you more information concerning +our Risen Saviour Jesus Christ and how you can receive Him. + + + PERSONAL FREEDOM OUTREACH + + Route 3 Weir Lake Rd., Kunkletown, PA. 18058 (215) 381-3661 + P.O. Box 26062, Saint Louis, MO. 63136 (314) 388-2648 + P.O. Box 30073, Phoenix, AZ. 85046 (602)867-0538 + P.O. Box 15081, Santa Ana, CA. 92705 (714) 832-9385 + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/morm11.txt b/religious documents/morm11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e0657e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/morm11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,125 @@ + +Information from the + + NATIONAL MUSEUM OF OF NATURAL HISTORY + Smithsonian Institution Washington D.C. + + Your ÿrecent ÿinquiry ÿconcerning ÿthe Book ÿof ÿMormon ÿhas ÿbeen +received in the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology. + + The ÿbook ÿof Mormon is a religious document and not a ÿscientific +guide. ÿÿThe Smithsonian Institution does not use it in archeological +research. Because the Smithsonian Institution receives many inquiries +regarding the book of Mormon, ÿwe have prepared a "Statement Regarding +the Book of Mormon," a copy of which is enclosed for your information. +This statement includes answers to questions most commonly asked about +the Book of Mormon. + + + PREPARED BY + THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY + STATEMENT REGARDING THE BOOK OF MORMON + -------------------------------------- + +1. ÿÿThe Smithsonian Institution has never used the Book of Mormon in +any way as a scientific guide. ÿThe Smithsonian archaeologists see no +direct ÿconnection between archeology of the New World and the subject +matter of the book. + +2. The physical type of American Indian is basically Mongoloid, being +most closely related to that of the peoples of eastern, ÿcentral, ÿand +northeastern ÿÿAsia. ÿÿArcheological ÿevidence ÿindicates ÿthat ÿÿthe +ancestors ÿof the present Indians came into the New World -- ÿprobably +over ÿa land bridge known to have existed in the Bering Strait ÿregion +during the last Ice Age -- ÿin a continuing series of small migrations +beginning from about 25,000 to 30,000 years ago. + +3. ÿÿPresent ÿevidence indicates that the fist people to ÿreach ÿthis +continent from the East were the Norsemen who who briefly visited ÿthe +northeastern part of North America around A.D. ÿ1000 ÿand then settled +in ÿGreenland. ÿThere is nothing to show that they reached Mexico ÿor +Central America. + +4. ÿÿOne ÿof ÿthe main lines of evidence ÿsupporting ÿthe ÿscientific +finding ÿthat contacts with Old World civilizations, ÿif ÿindeed ÿthey +occurred at all, ÿwere of very little significance for the development +of ÿAmerican ÿIndian ÿcivilizations, ÿÿis the fact that ÿnone ÿof ÿthe +principal ÿOld World domesticated ÿfood plants or animals (except ÿthe +dog) ÿÿoccurred in the New ÿWorld ÿin pre-Columbian times. ÿÿAmerican +Indians had ÿno ÿwheat, ÿbarley, ÿoats, ÿmillet, rice, ÿcattle, ÿpigs, +chickens, horses, ÿdonkeys, ÿcamels ÿbefore 1492. ÿ(camels and horses +were in the Americas, along with the bison, mammoth, mastodon, but all +these animals became extinct around 10,000 B.C. ÿat the time the early +big game hunters spread across the Americas.) + +5. Iron, steel, glass, and silk were not used in the New World before +1492 ÿ(except for occasional use of unsmelted meteoric iron). ÿNative +copper ÿwas worked in various locations in pre-Columbian ÿtimes, ÿÿbut +true ÿmetallurgy was limited to southern Mexico and the Andean region, +where its occurrance in late prehistoric times involved gold, ÿsilver, +copper, and their alloys, but not iron. + +6. ÿThere is a possibility that the spread of cultural traits ÿacross +the Pacific to Mesoamerica and the northwestern coast of South America +began several hundred years before the Christian era. ÿHowever, ÿÿany +such ÿinter-hemispheric ÿcontacts appear to have been the ÿresults ÿof +accidental voyages originating in eastern and southern Asia. It is by +no ÿmeans ÿcertain that even such contacts occurred with ÿthe ÿancient +Egyptians, ÿÿHebrews, ÿor other peoples of Western Asia and ÿthe ÿNear +East. + +7. ÿÿNo ÿreputable ÿEgyptologist or other ÿspecialist ÿon ÿOld ÿWorld +archeology, ÿand no expert on New World prehistory, ÿhas discovered or +confirmed any relationship between archeological remains in Mexico and +archeological remains in Egypt. + +8. ÿÿReports of findings of ancient Egyptian, ÿHebrew, ÿand other Old +World ÿwritings ÿin ÿthe ÿNew World ÿin ÿpre-Columbian ÿcontexts ÿhave +frequently ÿappeared in newspapers, ÿmagazines and sensational ÿbooks. +None ÿof ÿthese ÿclaims ÿhas ÿstood up ÿto ÿexamination ÿby ÿreputable +scholars. ÿNo inscriptions using Old World forms of writing have been +shown to have occurred in any part of the Americas before 1492 ÿexcept +for a few Norse rune stones which have been found in Greenland. + +9. ÿÿThere ÿare ÿcopies of the Book of Mormon in the library ÿof ÿthe +National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. + + +NOTE: ÿÿThis article is an exact reproduction of a letter compiled ÿby +The Smithsonian Institution that was received by Computers for Christ, +and has been graciously provided free of charge by them. + +For your own copy, write to: + + The Smithsonian Institute + National Museum of Natural History + Department of Anthropology + Washington D.C. 20560 + + + Computers For Christ, Panama City, Fl. + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/mormast.txt b/religious documents/mormast.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c52abe2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mormast.txt @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@ +Mormon Instructions on Masturbation +From a Guide to Mormon Youth +==================================== + + "Guide to Self-Control: Overcoming Masturbation." + +:: Enlist The Power Of Prayer + +Pray daily, ask for the gifts of the Spirit, that which will strengthen +you against temptation. + +Pray fervently and out loud when the temptations are the strongest. + +When the temptation to masturbate is strong, yell "Stop!" to those +thoughts as loudly as you can in your mind. Then recite a portion of the +Bible or sing a hymn. + +:: Exercise Vigorously + +Follow a program of vigorous daily exercise, which reduce emotional +tension and depression. + +Double your physical activity when you feel stress increasing. + +:: Set Goals + +Set a goal of abstinence. Begin with a day, then a week, month, year. +Finally, commit yourself to never doing it again. + +Make a pocket calendar for a month on a small card. Carry it with you but +show it to no one. + +If you masturbate, color that day black. Your goal will be to have no +black days. + +The calendar becomes a strong visual reminder, and should be looked at +when you are tempted to add another black day. + +Keep your calendar up until you have at least three clear months. + +Set up a reward system. Each time you reach a goal, award yourself a +quarter. Spend it on something that delights you. + +:: Work On Self-Improvement + +Work daily on a self-improvement program. Improve your relationships with +your family. Increase your service to your church. + +Be outgoing and friendly. Force yourself to be with others and learn to +enjoy working and talking with them. + +Change in behavior and attitude is most easily achieved through a changed +self-image. + +Spend time every day imagining yourself strong and in control, easily +overcoming tempting situations. + +:: Avoid Temptation + +When on the toilet or showering, leave the door partly open. + +Arise immediately in the mornings. Don't lie awake in bed -- start each +day with enthusiastic activity. + +Avoid people, situations, pictures and reading material that might create +sexual excitement. + +:: Use Physical Restraints + +Wear pajamas that are difficult to open, yet loose and not binding. + +Put on several layers of clothing that would be difficult to remove while +half asleep. + +Hold an object -- for example, a Bible -- even in bed at night. + +In severe cases, tie a hand to the bed frame. + +:: Be Alert To Emotions + +Be aware of situations that depress you or that cause you to feel lonely, +bored, frustrated or discouraged. These emotional states can trigger the +desire to masturbate as a way of escape. + +Plan to counter these low periods through reading a book, visiting a +friend, doing something athletic, etc. + +Employ aversion therapy. To cancel out the pleasurableness of +masturbating , associate something very distasteful with the act. For +example, imagine bathing in a tub of worms and eating some of them. + +:: "Wet Dreams" Are Normal + +Nocturnal emissions or "wet dreams" empty the seminal vesicles at night +during sleep. The impulses that cause the emptying come from the central +nervous system. + +Often an erotic dream is experienced at the same time, and is a part of +this normal process. + + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/mormonri.txt b/religious documents/mormonri.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1aae27c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mormonri.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1965 @@ +Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc +From: ACUS10@WACCVM.SPS.MOT.COM (Mark Fuller) +Subject: Mormon Rituals ULM 1/4 +Message-ID: <1993Apr28.233616.4464@newsgate.sps.mot.com> +Organization: Motorola Inc. +Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1993 23:35:16 GMT +Lines: 507 + +[This contains all 4 parts, concatenated.] + +The following is was printed by Jerald and Sandra Tanner. +It is posted to provide more information on the LDS cult ritual +of temple ceremonies. For further information on this subject, +or other subjects relating to the LDS, please call 801-485-8894 +and ask for a catalog of materials. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- +Issue no. 75, July 1990 + +Salt Lake City Messenger +Utah Lighthouse Ministry +PO Box, 1884, Salt lake City, Utah 84110 +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Temple Ritual Altered + Mormon Leaders Delete Some of the 'Most Sacred' Parts of the Ceremony + + + + In response to Fawn M. Brodie's book, _No Man Knows My History_, +the noted Mormon apologist Hugh Nibley declared: "Yet of all churches in +the world only this one has not found it necessary to readjust any part +of its doctrine in the last hundred years.... How does Brodie explain +the fact that the doctrine which she claims was the haphazard outgrowth +of complete opportunism remains the most stable on earth?" (_No Ma'am +That's Not History_, 1946, pp. 4647) + + Although most Mormons have always placed a great deal of weight +in Dr. Nibley's arguments, recent developments within the church itself +will undoubtedly cause many to wonder about his claims concerning +doctrinal stability. The New York Times gave this startling report in an +article which begins on the first page of the issue dated May 3, 1990: + + "The Mormon Church has changed some of its most sacred + rituals, eliminating parts of the largely secret ceremonies that have + been viewed as offensive to women and to members of some other + faiths. + "Last month the church... quietly dropped from its + temple rituals a vow in which women pledged obedience to their + husbands... and a portrayal of non-Mormon clergy as hirelings of + Satan. + "Church officials have confirmed that changes went into + effect in mid-April, but the ceremonies are considered to be too + sacred, they say, for them to comment further.... More specific + information on the changes has been provided to the news media by + Mormons participating in the rituals at the church's 43 temples + around the world and by former Mormons who are critical of the + rituals. A number of Mormons who would not discuss details of the + rituals verified that these reports were 'pretty factual' or 'not + inaccurate.'... + "'Because the temple ceremony is sacred to us, we don't + speak about it except in the most general terms,' said Beverly + Campbell, the East Coast director for public communications for the + Church... she said 'the ceremony itself needs to meet the needs of + the people.' The revised ritual is 'more in keeping with the + sensitivities we have as a society,' she added. + "Lavina Fielding Anderson, who will soon become an + editor of the _Journal of Mormon History_, said she 'greeted the + changes with a great deal of joy,' and added, 'The temple ceremony in + the past has given me a message that could be interpreted as + subservient and exclusionary.' + "In the place of an oath of obedience that men took to + God and the church, the previous ceremony required women to vow + obedience to their husbands... + "Although Ms. Anderson would not describe any of the + changes, she said the revision 'gives me hope and renewed faith that + changes will occur in the future as they have in the past.'... + "The ceremony also contains elements resembling the + Masonic rituals current in 1830, when Joseph Smith founded the + church... + "The latest revisions diminish these elements, including + gestures symbolizing the participant's pledge to undergo a gruesome + death rather than reveal the rituals. Also dropped is a scene in + which Satan hires a non-Mormon 'preacher' to spread false + teachings.... + "Ross Peterson, the editor of _Dialogue_, an independent + Mormon quarterly, said the unfamiliar elements of the ritual + frequently 'catches young Mormons cold' and disturbs them. 'I've + known an awful lot of people who went once and it was years before + they'd go back, especially women,' he said.... + "Bruce L. Olsen, managing director of the church's + communications office in Salt Lake City, denied that the changes were + made in response to criticism or social pressure. The Mormon Church + believes 'in continued and modern revelation,' Mr. Olsen said, so + that practices might be changed when 'the Lord clarified' church + teaching.... + "But some Mormons see the church as responding, without + admitting it, both to critics and to the church's growth overseas.... + "Among the critics are many conservative Christians who + complain that Mormonism features occult practices." + + The Arizona Republic (April 28, 1990) referred to the +modifications in the ceremony as "Revolutionary changes." The same +article went on to state: + + "The changes in the Temple Endowment Ceremony are seen + as a move to bring the secret ceremony closer to mainstream + Christianity. The changes are the most drastic revisions of the + century... + "Church officials in Salt Lake City refused to discuss + the ceremony, which is shrouded in secrecy. In fact the church has + issued a directive to temple members telling them to refrain from + talking about the changes in the ceremony.... + "Another prominent Mormon, who asked not to be + identified, confirmed that portions of the ceremony have been + removed. + "'The temple ceremony has been significantly abridged,' + he said.... + "Changes in the ceremony include:... A modified version + of the woman's vow of obedience to the husband.... + "I think this is in response to the feminist movement in + the Mormon Church," said Sandra Tanner, a former Mormon who now heads + Utah Lighthouse Ministries in Salt Lake City. 'Many of the women + objected to the obedience.' " + + An article by Associated Press writer Vem Anderson also noted +that the ceremony has "undergone what some view as their most +significant changes this century." He went on to say: + + "The revisions, effective April 10 in the faith's 43 + temples, are being greeted with enthusiasm by church members who say + they reflect a greater sensitivity toward women and other religions. + "'The temple is an important part of my spiritual life + and the changes have allowed me to go to the temple with renewed + joy,' said Lavina Fielding Anderson... + "'The general consensus is that it's a breath of fresh + air,' said Ross Peterson, co-editor of _Dialogue_, an independent + Mormon journal.... + "Peterson said many Mormons who never had expressed a + negative word about the endowment ceremony are thrilled with the + changes, indicating there had been elements that 'were silently + upsetting them.' + "'I think we're gradually moving away from the + subjugation of women,' Peterson said.... + "Rebecca England... said the changes may boost temple + attendance. + "'I know quite a number of Mormons who stopped going to + the temple because they found it demeaning. And I think this revised + ceremony addresses many of the concerns... + "The changes were not announced to the membership at + large, but temple attendees are being read a statement from the + governing First Presidency which says the revisions, following long + and prayerful review, were unanimously approved by that three-member + body and the advisory Quorum of the Twelve Apostles." (Salt Lake + Tribune, April 29, 1990) + + On May 5, 1990, the Los Angeles Times printed an article by John +Dart. In this article we find the following: + + "The central temple ceremony in the Mormon Church has + been changed to eliminate the woman's vow to obey her husband... In + the new version of the rites, women now pledge to obey God and to + merely listen to the advice of their husbands. + "'That's the most significant change in the church since + blacks received the priesthood in 1978,' said Ron Priddis, vice + president of Signature Books... + "The new version 'reflects greater sensitivity and + awareness of women and women's role in the Christian church,' said + Robert Rees, a Mormon bishop... Although unwilling to disclose + elements of the ritual, Rees nevertheless said that some parts + eliminated 'were historical and cultural anachronisms.' " + + On June 2, 1990, The Salt Lake Tribune ran an article by Los +Angeles Times writer John Dart. In that article, Mr. Dart reported that, +"Most Mormon Church members quoted last month in news stories about +revisions in the church's confidential temple ceremony have been +summoned for interviews by church officials... One man said he was +reprimanded for talking to the press and another was asked to surrender +his 'temple recommend'... The public communications office of the +Church... issued a statement Thursday, defending the questioning of +members and reemphasizing the sacred confidentiality of the temples." + +REVEALED BY GOD + + Mormon leaders have always proclaimed that the temple ritual-- +often referred to as the "temple endowment" because the recipients are +supposed to be "endowed with power from on high"--was given to Joseph +Smith, the first Mormon prophet, by revelation. The ordinances in this +ritual, which are performed for both the living and the dead (by proxy), +are considered to be "most sacred." A person has to go through these +ceremonies before becoming a missionary and those who desire to be +married in the temple for "time and eternity" must first have their +"temple endowments." + + Mormon theology teaches that those who are married in the temple +can eventually become Gods and rule over their own creations. Apostle +Bruce R. McConkie affirmed that the righteous who are married in the +temple "for time and eternity" have "gained eternal life (exaltation), +the greatest of all the gifts of God... Those so inheriting are the sons +and daughters of God... They are joint-heirs with Christ... becoming +gods in their own right.'- (Mormon Doctrine, 1979, pp. 117-18) President +Joseph Fielding Smith, the 10th prophet of the church, made the matter +very clear: + + "It fills my heart with sadness when I see in the paper + the name of a daughter or a son of members of this Church, and + discover that she or he is going to have a ceremony and be married + outside of the temple of the Lord, because I realize what it means, + that they are cutting themselves off from exaltation in the kingdom + of God.... These young people who seem to be so happy now, when they + rise in the resurrection--and find themselves in the condition in + which they will find themselves -- then there will be weeping, and + wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and bitterness of soul... + "Civil Marriage Makes Servants In Eternity.... Celestial + Marriage Makes Gods In Eternity.... it is open to us; it is a free + gift; it doesn't cost us anything: only righteousness, faith, + obedience; and surely we can pay that price." (Doctrines of + Salvation, vol. 2, p. 60-63) + + Mormons who go through the temple ceremony and are sealed in +marriage for eternity believe that they will not only become Gods, but +will also continue to have children throughout all eternity. They will +people other worlds with their spiritual children and these children +will worship and pray to the husband as God. Mormons feel that the God +of the Bible was not always God and that he also had to pass through the +same endowments to achieve deity. Wilford Woodruff, who became the 4th +prophet of the Mormon Church, proclaimed that "the Lord had His +endowments long ago; it is thousands and millions of years since He +received His blessings... He is far in advance of us." (Journal of +Discourses, vol. 4, p. 192) + + According to a revelation given by Joseph Smith, those who will +not submit to Celestial Marriage are "appointed angels in heaven, which +angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of +a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory... these +angels... remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their +saved condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not Gods, but +are angels of God forever and ever." (Doctrine and Covenants 132:16-17) + + Although faithful Mormons have written many articles and books +on temples, they have been very careful not to tell what actually goes +on in the endowment ritual. One of the most revealing and concise +statements, however, comes from comments President Brigham Young made in +1877. These comments were recorded in the diary of L. John Nuttall. The +2nd prophet of the church remarked: + + "When we got our washings and anointings under the hands + of the Prophet Joseph at Nauvoo, we had only one room to work in, + with the exception of a little side room or office where we were + washed and anointed, had our garment placed upon us and received our + new name; and after he had performed these ceremonies, he gave the + key-words, signs, tokens, and penalties. Then after, we went into the + large room... Joseph Smith divided up the room the best that he + could, hung up the veil, marked it, gave us our instructions as we + passed along from one department to another, giving us signs, tokens, + penalties, with the key-words pertaining to those signs." (Statement + of Brigham Young, recorded in the diary of L. John Nuttall, Feb. 7, + 1877, as cited in _God, Man, And The Universe_, by Hyrum L. Andrus, + 1968, p. 334) + + The reader will notice that President Young mentioned washings, +anointings, garments, the new name, the key-words, signs, tokens and +penalties. He also stated that there was a "veil" with certain marks on +it. On another occasion, Brigham Young made it clear that the endowment +contains secret information that the initiated need to get into heaven: +"Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the +Lord... to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, +passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them +the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, +and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell." (Journal +of Discourses, vol. 2, p. 31) Those who have actually been through the +ceremony affirm that secret grips, signs and key-words are learned +during the ceremony which will be needed after death for a person to +gain entrance into God's presence. It is at the "veil" that the Lord +himself questions the candidate who desires to enter into his presence. + + The fact that the temple ritual was changed by the present +leaders of the church will undoubtedly cause serious problems for many +devout members of the church who feel that these ceremonies cannot be +tampered with. They will probably have a difficult time understanding +how the General Authorities can meddle with a sacred ceremony which was +supposed to have been given by revelation to Joseph Smith. + + The inspired nature of the ritual has been impressed on the +minds of the Mormon people since the 1840's. Even before the Nauvoo +temple was built, Joseph Smith gave a revelation foretelling that God +himself was about to restore the ancient mysteries that had been lost +from the earth: "...build a house to my name, for the Most High to dwell +therein. For there is not a place found on earth that he may come to and +restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, +even the fulness of the priesthood.... And verily I say unto you, let +this house be built unto my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances +therein... For I deign to reveal unto my church things which have been +kept hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to +the dispensation of the fulness of times. And I will show unto my +servant Joseph all things pertaining to this house, and the priesthood +thereof, and the place whereon it shall be built." (Doctrine and +Covenants 124:27-28, 40-42) + + After Joseph Smith received the endowment ceremony, it was +accepted as a divine revelation from God. Since that time church leaders +have continued to stress that the endowment came from heaven. Apostle +John A. Widtsoe, for instance, wrote the following: "Joseph Smith +received the temple endowment and its ritual, as all else that he +promulgated, by revelation from God. " (Joseph Smith -- Seeker After +Truth, Prophet Of God, 1951, p. 249) Apostle Bruce R. McConkie wrote the +following under the title "Temple Ordinances": "Certain gospel +ordinances are of such a sacred and holy nature that the Lord authorizes +their performance only in holy sanctuaries prepared and dedicated for +that very purpose.... They were given in modern times to the Prophet +Joseph Smith by revelation, many things connected with them being +translated by the Prophet from the papyrus on which the Book of Abraham +was recorded." (Mormon Doctrine, p. 779) The current prophet of the +church, Ezra Taft Benson, does not hesitate to affirm that the endowment +ritual came by revelation: + + "The endowment was revealed by revelation and can be + understood only by revelation.... + "This temple... is a place of revelation.... The laws + and ordinances which cause men and women to come out of the world and + become sanctified are administered only in these holy places. They + were given by revelation and are comprehended by revelation." (The + Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, 1988, pp. 250, 252) ++++ + In the past, Mormon leaders have not only taught that the +endowment came by revelation, but also that it was not changed since the +time of Joseph Smith. Just after the church passed into the 20th +century, there was an attempt to remove Mormon Senator Reed Smoot from +his seat. These lengthy hearings are usually referred to as the Reed +Smoot Case. Although Senator Smoot retained his seat, the hearings +proved to be very embarrassing for the church because of the testimony +given concerning polygamy after the Manifesto and charges of Mormon +Church interference in politics. In any case, when Senator Smoot, who +was also an apostle in the church, was questioned about the endowment +ceremony, he responded: "...the endowments have never changed; as I +understand it; it has been so testified, and that Joseph Smith, jr., +himself was the founder of the endowments." (Reed Smoot Case, vol. 3, p. +185) + + On page 140 of the same volume, the following statements by +President Joseph F. Smith, the 6th prophet of the church, were entered +into the record: + + "It [the Nauvoo temple] was finished... and was + dedicated unto the Lord. The ordinances of the house of God were + administered therein as they had been taught to the leading + authorities of the church by the Prophet Joseph Smith himself. The + same gospel, the same ordinances, the same authority and blessings + that were administered by the Prophet Joseph Smith, and taught by him + to his associates, are now being enjoyed by and taught to the + Latter-Day Saints in the four temples... When you hear anybody say we + have changed the ordinances, that we have transgressed the laws, or + broken the everlasting covenants which were entered into under the + personal administration of the Prophet Joseph Smith, tell them for + me... and for all those who are living today who received blessings + and ordinances under the hands of the Prophet Joseph Smith, that they + are in error. The same gospel prevails to-day, and the same + ordinances are administered today, both for the living and for the + dead, as were administered by the prophet himself and delivered by + him to the church." + + These statements by President Smith were originally printed in +the church's newspaper, _Deseret Evening News_, Dec. 1, 1900. President +Smith's son, Joseph Fielding Smith, who served as the 10th prophet of +the church in the early 1970's, printed an affidavit by Bathsheba W. +Smith which contained the following: "Near the close of the year 1843, +or in the beginning of the year 1844, I received the ordinance of +anointing... the same day... I received my endowment... The endowments +were given under the direction of the Prophet Joseph Smith... there has +been no change, to my certain knowledge, in these ceremonies, They are +the same today as they were then." (Blood Atonement and the Origin of +Plural Marriage, p. 87) + + Mormon leaders have not only taught that their church has not +changed its doctrines and ordinances, but they have pointed to changes +by other churches as evidence of apostacy. In an editorial published in +the Church Section of the _Deseret News_, June 5, 1965, we find the +following: "...God is unchangeable, the same yesterday, today and +forever.... The great mistake made down through the ages by teachers of +Christianity, is that they have supposed they could place their own +private interpretation upon scriptures, allow their own personal +convenience to become a controlling factor, and change the basis of +[C]hristian law and practice to suit themselves. This is apostacy. + + "The Gospel can not possibly be changed... the saving principles +must ever be the same. They can never change.... the Gospel must always +be the same in all of its parts.... no one can change the Gospel... if +they attempt to do so, they only set up a man-made system which is not +the Gospel, but is merely a reflection of their own views.... if we +substitute 'any other Gospel,' there is no salvation in it.... the Lord +and His Gospel remain the same --always." + + In 1982, W. Grant Bangerter, executive director of the Temple +Department and a member of the First Quorum of Seventy, made it very +clear that the temple ceremony could not be changed: + + "'As temple work progresses, some members wonder if the + ordinances can be changed or adjusted. These ordinances have been + provided by revelation, and are in the hands of the First Presidency. + Thus, the temple is protected from tampering." (Deseret News, Church + Section, January 16, 1982) + + It would appear that instead of protecting the ordinances, the +current First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles have +themselves been "tampering" with them. It is interesting to note that +the first Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, proclaimed that the ordinances +could never be changed: + + "Now the purpose in Himself in the winding up scene of + the last dispensation is that all things pertaining to that + dispensation should be conducted precisely in accordance with the + preceding dispensations.... He set the ordinances to be the same + forever and ever, and set Adam to watch over them, to reveal them + from heaven to man, or to send angels to reveal them." (History of + the Church, vol. 4, p. 208) + + The Book of Mormon itself accuses the Catholics of conspiring to +alter the Bible. It bluntly states that "many plain and precious things" +have been deliberately removed: + + "...thou seest the formation of that great and + abominable church, which is most abominable above all other churches; + for behold they have taken away from the gospel of the Lamb many + parts which are plain and most precious; and also many covenants of + the Lord have they taken away.... this they have done that they might + pervert the right ways of the Lord, that they might blind the eyes + and harden the hearts of the children of men.... thou seest that + after the book hath gone forth through the hands of the great and + abominable church, that there are many plain and precious things + taken away from the book... because of the many plain and precious + things which have been taken out of the book... an exceedingly great + many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power over + them." (Book of Mormon, I Nephi 13:26-30) + + Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., the son of the 10th prophet of the +church, charged: "The Bible alone is an insufficient guide because the +'plainness of the gospel' has been removed.... The early 'apostate +fathers' did not think it was wrong to tamper with inspired scripture. +If any scripture seemed to endanger their viewpoint, it was altered, +transplanted or completely removed from the biblical text. All this was +done that they might keep their traditions. Such mutilation was +considered justifiable to preserve the so-called 'purity' of their +doctrines." (Religious Truths Defined, 1959, pp. 175-76) + + Mormon Apostle Mark E. Petersen bluntly stated: "Many insertions +were made [in the Bible], some of them 'slanted' for selfish purposes, +while at times deliberate falsifications and fabrications were +perpetrated." (As Translated Correctly, 1966, p. 4) + + The current prophet of the church, President Ezra Taft Benson, +emphatically proclaimed: "The Book of Mormon is the keystone in our +witness of Jesus Christ... Unlike the Bible, which passed through +generations of copyists, translators and corrupt religionists who +tampered with the text, the Book of Mormon came from writer to reader in +just one inspired step of translation." (The Teachings of Ezra Taft +Benson, 1988, page 53) + + Since Mormon leaders and apologists have freely criticized other +churches for making changes and have claimed that their doctrines are +"the most stable on earth," the General Authorities of the church must +have approached the question of changing the temple ceremony with a great +deal of caution. David John Buerger informs us that when some procedural +changes were suggested in the temple ceremony some years ago, "initial +opposition came from Elder Harold B. Lee due to what he perceived as +'doctrinal tampering.' " (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Winter +1987, p. 63) Harold B. Lee later became the 11th prophet of the church. +While minor changes have been made in the ceremony during the last few +decades, they appear insignificant when compared with those made on +April 10, 1990. + + We would suspect that the Mormon leaders must have decided to +make the present changes many months ago. Since "motion pictures have +replaced some of the live actors" in most of the temples, it follows +that it would take time to make new films containing the changes. The +Salt Lake Tribune, April 29, 1990, reported that the "new endowment +film, the fifth since the 1950s, incorporates the most recent +revisions." (The Story of the Latter-day Saints, 1976, p. 574) It should +also be noted that it would take time to make new translations of the +changes for the foreign temples. + + We may never know for certain whether George P. Lee, who was a +member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, knew of the proposed changes +in the temple ceremony before his excommunication was announced in the +September 2, 1989, issue of the Salt Lake Tribune. It is interesting to +note, however, that in a letter "To the First Presidency and the +Twelve," Lee did mention his concern that other church leaders felt they +could change the gospel: + + "7. I have heard a few of you declare that you are + greater than ancient apostles such as Moses, Abraham, Noah[,] + Is[a]iah, Isaac, Jacob and etc. This reflects the attitude of all of + you. + "8. I have heard one of [or?] more of you declare that + you can change anything Jesus had said or taught. This also reflects + the attitude of all of you." (Letter by George P. Lee, + photographically printed in Excommunication of a Mormon Church + Leader, page 54) + + Less than two weeks before the changes were made in the temple, +President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency, +expressed concern about members of the church talking about the temple +ceremony: "I remind you of the absolute obligation to not discuss +outside the temple that which occurs wi @hin the temple. Sacred matters +deserve sacred consideration. We are under obligation, binding and +serious, to not use temple language or speak of temple matters +outside... do not discuss outside of the temple that which occurs in the +temple.... when you leave the doors of the House of the Lord, be true to +a sacred trust to speak not of that which is holy and sanctified." (The +Ensign, May 1990, p. 52) It seems obvious that President Hinckley gave +this warning in an attempt to keep members from talking about the +changes which were to be made in the ceremony ten days later. It is +obvious, of course, that Hinckley's admonition was not followed by many +members of the church and therefore accounts of the changes in the +ritual made their way to the news media. We had been told that changes +would be made some time before they actually took place, and members of +the church discussed them with us after they were made. + +Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc +From: ACUS10@WACCVM.SPS.MOT.COM (Mark Fuller) +Subject: Mormon Rituals ULM 2/4 +Message-ID: <1993Apr28.233708.4526@newsgate.sps.mot.com> +Organization: Motorola Inc. +Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1993 23:36:18 GMT +Lines: 493 + + It is interesting to note that the changes in the temple +ceremony were put into effect immediately after the church's general +conference had ended (the conference ended April 1st and the changes +were made on April 10th). The temple presidents were apparently given +instructions about the changes before they returned from conference to +their work in the various temples throughout the world. The general +membership of the church, however, left the conference completely in the +dark with regard to what was about to happen to their sacred ritual. +Since it would be six months before another general conference would +take place, any dissenting opinions or discussion of the changes would +have to take place on a local level. + + Church leader Joseph Fielding Smith declared that "One of the +greatest blessings given to mankind is the gift of free agency." +(Answers to Gospel Questions, vol. 3, p. 46) As far as we can determine, +faithful Latter-day Saints were given no chance to exercise their free +agency with regard to the changes made in the endowment ceremony. The +method of handling this whole matter, however, was in accord with a +statement which appeared in the official Mormon publication Improvement +Era, June 1945 (p. 354): "When our leaders speak, the thinking has been +done. When they propose a plan--it is God's plan. When they point the +way, there is no other which is safe. When they give direction, it +should mark the end of controversy." + + Although it is often ignored, the church actually has a doctrine +of "common consent" which should have applied to the alterations made in +the temple ritual. In a revelation given by Joseph Smith in July 1830 we +find the following: "And all things shall be done by common consent in +the church, by much prayer and faith, for all things you shall receive +by faith. Amen." (Doctrine and Covenants 26:2) Section 28:13 reaffirms +that "all things must be done in order, and by common consent in the +church..." + + Joseph F. Smith, the 6th prophet of the church, testified as +follows in the Reed Smoot investigation: "Mr. Smith-: I will say this, +Mr. Chairman, that no revelation given through the head of the church +ever becomes binding and authoritative upon the members of the church +until it has been presented to the church and accepted by them." (Reed +Smoot Case, vol. 1, p. 96) Apostle John Henry Smith gave this testimony +in vol. 2, p. 321: + + "Mr. Smith-: Yes, sir; he [the prophet] receives + revelations; but the revelations must be accepted by his church by + vote. + "Mr. Tayler-: So that what the Almighty orders depends + on whether the people who are ordered want to do it or not? + "Mr. Smith. Yes, sir, there is no force on the Mormon + people." + + Apostle James E. Talmage likewise testified: "If it is a +revelation it is a revelation, and amounts to just so much; but as to +being a binding law upon the church--a law of practice and action -- it +would have to be first adopted by the church to become such." (vol. 3, +p. 80) + + From the testimony given by the Mormon leaders, a person would +certainly be led to believe that a major revision of the temple ritual +(a ceremony which was supposed to have been given by revelation) would +have to be approved by church members before it would be binding on the +Mormon people and used in the church's 43 temples. For the General +Authorities to drop out important portions of a ceremony they claim came +from God himself, seems far worse than what they have charged the +Catholics with doing. After all, the Book of Mormon's accusation that +the "great and abominable church" removed "many plain and precious +things" from the Bible (a charge which the Mormon leaders cannot prove) +relates to portions that would have been available at one time to +everyone that had access to the Biblical text. The items which were +removed from the temple ceremony were supposed to have been so sacred +that they were never revealed to the world. These secret ceremonies +could only be found in the temples of the Lord. These rituals, in fact, +purport to give the information on how men may become Gods! + + Mormon leaders who have now passed away would have been shocked +at what the present leaders altered or removed from the temple ceremony. +Apostle James E. Talmage emphasized: "No jot, iota, or tittle of the +temple rites is otherwise than uplifting and sanctifying. In every +detail the endowment ceremony contributes to covenants of morality of +life, consecration of person to high ideals, devotion to truth, +patriotism to nation, and allegiance to God." (The House of the Lord +1968, p. 84) ++++ + As the newspaper accounts have stated, the Mormon leaders have +removed the "penalties" which were previously held to be extremely +important and sacred. The reader will remember that we have quoted +President Brigham Young as saying that Joseph Smith himself "gave the +key-words, signs, tokens, and penalties." Before the recent changes in +the ceremony, it was stressed in the ceremony itself that the penalties +were sacred: "We are required to give you the First Tokens of the +Aaronic Priesthood. Before doing this, however, we desire to impress +upon your minds the sacred character of the First Token of the Aaronic +Priesthood, with its accompanying name, sign and penalty, together with +that of all the other Tokens of the Holy Priesthood, with their +accompanying names, signs and penalties, which you will receive in the +temple this day. They are most sacred and are guarded by solemn +covenants and obligations of secrecy to the effect that under no +condition, even at the peril of your life, will you ever divulge them... +The representation of the penalties indicates different ways in which +life may be taken." (Mormonism-- Shadow or Reality? p. 468) + + From this it is very clear that the penalties, which have now +been removed from the temple ritual, were previously considered to be +"most sacred." + + Harold B. Lee, who later became the 12th prophet of the church, +compared the things found in the temple ritual to the "pearls" that +Jesus mentioned in Matthew 7:6: "'But we say the ordinances are sacred +as contrasted with just being secret.... the Master said, 'Give not that +which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, +lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.... +in temples like this, there could be revealed that which couldn't be had +otherwise.'" (Improvement Era Feb. 1965, p. 123, as cited in _Achieving +a Celestial Marriage_ p. 202) Other Mormon leaders have also identified +the elements of the temple ceremony with the pearls mentioned by Christ. +If this were the case, it would appear that the Mormon leaders have now +thrown away some of their "most sacred" pearls! + +SECRETS LEAK OUT + + Joseph Smith swore those who took part in the endowments to +secrecy, but because of his practice of plural marriage and other +doctrines he taught, many of his followers became alienated from the +Mormon Church and some of them revealed the contents of the ritual. An +account was published as early as April 15, 1846, in the Warsaw Signal. +Increase McGee Van Dusen and his wife exposed the temple ceremony in +1847, and their account was reprinted several times. Many other exposes +were printed in the 19th century. As we noted earlier, the Reed Smoot +investigation took place just after the turn of the century. At that +time many people who had been through the ritual were questioned +regarding its contents. While a number refused to talk about it, others +spoke concerning what went on in the temples. Their testimony was +printed by the United States Government in four volumes. + + In 1889 John Moore and W.J. Edgar were denied citizenship +because it was believed that they had taken "an oath or obligation +incompatible with the oath of citizenship..." As in the Reed Smoot +investigation, Mormons or those who had formerly been Mormons were +called upon to give testimony concerning the temple ceremony. In the +"Temple Lot Case," a dispute over the property on which a temple was to +be built, additional testimony was given concerning the ritual. Much of +this testimony appears in a large volume entitled, The Temple Lot Case. + + On February 12, 1906, the Salt Lake Tribune printed the temple +ritual, and in 1931, W. M. Paden published an account of the endowment +ceremony in Temple Mormonism --Its Evolution, Ritual and Meaning. In +1964, William J. Whalen printed the ceremony (see Latter-Day Saints in +the Modern Day World), and two years later John L. Smith, a Baptist +minister, published the ritual in _I Visited the Temple_. + + In 1964, we reprinted Paden's 1931 publication concerning the +temple ceremony. We suspected, however, that there had been some changes +in the ceremony over the years. Since we wanted to publish the most +accurate account possible, we had a couple who had been through the +ritual about fifty times revise Paden's work. Later, however, a man who +had been through the temple approximately 120 times heard that we were +preparing to publish the ritual and felt that it was important that the +most accurate account possible should be given to the world. He, +therefore, volunteered to bring the ceremony right up to date. We +published this account in vol. 1 of _The Mormon Kingdom_ in 1969, and +later we incorporated this same account into our book, +_Mormonism--Shadow or Reality?_ Tens of thousands of copies have been +distributed throughout the world since that time. It was our feeling +that Mormons should have the right to know what they were getting into +before they were sworn to secrecy and had to take part in the +demonstration of the penalties. Although we felt that we were performing +an important service for the Mormon people, many people were horrified +that we would dare to print the ritual. Nevertheless, a number of Mormon +scholars verified that we had produced an extremely accurate account of +the ceremony. Many Mormons had a difficult time believing that God would +allow anyone to reproduce the ritual and found it hard to believe that a +printed copy actually existed. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, May 5, +1990, John Dart commented: "Some candid Mormon officials have +acknowledged in interviews that the whole secret ritual was published +years ago by church critics Jerald and Sandra Tanner of Salt Lake City." + + The Salt Lake City Public Library obtained a number of copies of +_Mormonism--Shadow or Reality?_ Unfortunately, however, there was a +continual problem with people ripping or cutting out pages which related +to the temple endowment. Some people wondered if the church would allow +us to continue to publish the ritual. We shared the same concern, but, +as it turned out, the Mormons allowed us to continue exercising our +freedom of religion and of the press. + + In any case, as far as the Mormon Church was concerned, the +situation turned from bad to worse. About eleven years after our +publication of the ceremony, Bob Whitte and Gordon H. Fraser printed the +ritual in a pamphlet entitled, _What's Going on in Here?_ Later, Chuck +and Dolly Sackett published a pamphlet with a similar title, _What's +Going on in There?_ The Sackett's pamphlet was unique in that on page 4 +of the booklet they claimed that their printing "was transcribed from a +tape recording made inside the temple during the actual Endowment +ceremony." While Mormons questioned the ethics of someone secretly +recording the ceremony, no one seemed to doubt that the tape recording +had actually been made. The Sacketts, who had previously been deeply +involved in genealogy and temple work for the church, went a step +further and began duplicating copies of the tape recording so that +others could actually hear what went on inside the temple. These tapes +were extensively circulated and even played on radio stations. + + Another member of the Mormon Church secretly recorded the temple +ritual in the Provo temple and a good number of copies of this tape have +also been circulated. Many others have published material or made films +concerning the endowment ritual. Still others have given lectures about +it. The cumulative effect of all the audio and video tapes, lectures, +radio programs, films and printed copies of the ceremony being available +to the general public has placed the Mormon leaders in a very awkward +predicament. They had previously maintained that the temple ritual was +so holy that God kept the knowledge of it from the world. Apostle Bruce +R. McConkie declared: "So sacred and holy are the administrations +performed that in every age when they have been revealed, the Lord has +withheld them from the knowledge of the world and disclosed them only to +the faithful saints in houses and places dedicated and selected for that +purpose." (Mormon Doctrine, p. 227) + + To an outsider, it would almost appear that the Mormon leaders +and the God they worship have lost all control over the dissemination of +the ceremony. The contents of the ritual have been scattered to the ends +of the world. Many non-Mormons now know far more about the endowments +than the average Mormon. Only adults are permitted to go through the +temple, and, according to the Church Section of the Mormon newspaper, +Deseret News, Jan. 16, 1982, "two-thirds of the adult members have yet +to go through the temple for the first time, said Elder W. Grant +Bangerter, executive director of the Temple Department..." The same +issue of the church's newspaper also noted that Bangerter said that +"Through the history of the Church... only a fourth of the members have +received endowments..." It is certainly ironic that a person can now +easily obtain a non-Mormon publication such as _Mormonism--Shadow or +Reality?_ or _What's Going On In There?_ and find out more about the +temple ceremony in a few minutes than most of the Mormons learn in a +lifetime! Furthermore, the material available to the public seems to be +proliferating as the Mormon Church grows larger. + + Mormon leaders are not only faced with trying to explain the +availability of a ceremony which they previously asserted was "withheld" +from the "knowledge of the world," but they also will find it very +difficult to explain why God did not protect his sacred temple from +those who brought in tape recorders to expose the ceremony. It has been +a common belief among the Mormons that God's hand protects the temple +and its rituals. Ezra Taft Benson, who is currently the prophet of the +church, stated: "I think the temple is the most sacred spot on earth... +Temples are places of personal revelation." (The Teachings of Ezra Taft +Benson, pp. 250- 51) One would think that if the spirit of the Lord +flows freely in the temple, deceivers would be detected. In the Old +Testament, II Chronicles 26:17-21, we read the story of a wicked king +named Uzziah who "went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon +the altar of incense." He was warned that only the priests who were +"consecrated to burn incense" were allowed to do so. When he persisted +he was "smitten" by the Lord with "leprosy" and was "a leper unto the +day of his death." + + Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie maintained that "the discerning +of spirits is poured out upon presiding officials in God's kingdom; they +have it given to them to discern all gifts and all spirits, lest any +come among the saints and practice deception.... There is no perfect +operation of the power of discernment without revelation. Thereby even +'the thoughts and intents of the heart' are made known." Apostle Mathias +F. Cowley told how the gift of discernment protected the temple: "On one +of the three days during which the Dedicatory Services of the Logan +Temple was held, President John Taylor... sighted a woman in the crowd +whom he did not know but indicated her to President Card and said: +'Don't let that woman come into the assembly; she is not worthy.'... +Brother Card said to President Taylor: 'She couldn't pass the door +keeper without a recommend.' President Taylor replied, 'That matters +not; she is not worthy.'... Brother Card turned her back and later on he +went to see her... she said there was a man in the ward who was not +worthy of a recommend, but the Bishop gave him one... This woman +happened to meet the man on the street and he asked her how she would +like to go to the dedication... She said she would like to but could not +get a recommend. He said: 'I have a recommend and will give it to you +for one dollar.' And so she got her recommend by paying this amount" +(Temples of the Most High, p. 100) + + One would think that if the temples were protected by God and +the current Mormon officials were really led by revelation, those who +used deception to obtain tape recordings to expose the endowment +ceremony would have encountered judgment from God or at least been +thwarted in their nefarious plans to discredit the church. The Sacketts, +however, report the following: "The tape recording of the Mormon temple +Endowment... was recorded in the Los Angeles Mormon Temple, and was made +using a personal pocket-size tape recorder carried by one of the +patrons... The patron... entered the temple using his own personal +temple recommend... He was greeted by several temple worker +acquaintances who obviously did not know of his excommunication from the +Mormon Church, which had been at his own request several months earlier. +One of the objectives of this foray was to test the well-known Mormon +claim of divinely-assisted temple security.... Contrary to popular +Mormon belief, not one person in the temple appeared the slightest bit +spiritually or supernaturally alerted to the presence among them of one +whom they classify as an 'apostate' and a 'son of perdition.' As he +departed, the patron was encouraged by a member of the temple Presidency +to return again soon." (What's Going On In There? p. 4) + + When we think of this incident with the tape recorder, we cannot +help but remember a picture of Mark Hofmann, the man who forged Mormon +documents, standing in the presence of the 12th prophet of the church, +Spencer W. Kimball, and four of the apostles. In this photograph, which +we have reproduced in our book, _Tracking the White Salamander_, p. 73, +the prophet and the apostles appear to be carefully examining what +purports to be the prophet Joseph Smith's copy of characters found on +the gold plates of the Book of Mormon. This document, of course, was a +forgery, but the Mormon leaders were completely oblivious to that fact. +Mr. Hofmann continued meeting with church leaders for about four years +for the express purpose of deceiving them so that they would give him +large amounts of money in exchange for his fraudulent documents. Church +leaders, however, could not discern the wicked plan that Hofmann had in +his heart. While the Mormon leaders claim to have the same powers as the +ancient apostles in the Bible, their performance with regard to Mark +Hofmann certainly does not match up to that of the Apostle Peter when he +caught Ananias and Sapphira red-handed in their attempt to deceive the +church with regard to a financial transaction: "But Peter said, Ananias, +why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep +back part of the price of the land?" (Acts 5:3) + + From the time the endowment ritual was first revealed in Nauvoo, +Mormon leaders have feared that the contents of the ceremony would +become known. It now seems that all of their efforts to stop the spread +of knowledge concerning the endowment ceremony have been completely in +vain. ++++ +NO MORE PENALTIES + + We have already noted that the Mormon leaders have now removed +the "most sacred" penalties which have been in the temple ceremony since +the days of Joseph Smith. We feel that this is a real vindication of our +work and of that of the many other ministries laboring with the Mormons. + + We have always felt that these penalties were not compatible +with Christian teachings and have strongly opposed them in print for +over twenty years. We have continually expressed our belief that Joseph +Smith borrowed the penalties from Masonry after he joined that secret +organization. Although Masonry had been very unpopular since the late +1820's, Smith was not ashamed of his association with the lodge in 1842. +The following appears in Joseph Smith's _History_ under the date of +March 15, 1842: "In the evening I received the first degree in Free +Masonry in the Nauvoo Lodge..." (History of the Church, vol 4, p. 551) +The entry for the following day contains this statement: "Wednesday, +March 16.--I was with the Masonic Lodge and rose to the sublime degree." +(p. 552) + + The Masons had some very bloody oaths in their ritual. Capt. +William Morgan, who had been a Mason for thirty years, exposed these +oaths in a book printed in 1827. After publishing his book, _Freemasonry +Exposed_, Morgan disappeared and this set off the great controversy over +Masonry which was still raging when Joseph Smith wrote the Book of +Mormon. In any case, on pages 21-22 of his book, Morgan revealed the +oath that Masons took in the "First Degree" of their ritual: "...I +will... never reveal any part or parts, art or arts, point or points of +the secret arts and mysteries of ancient Freemasonry... binding myself +under no less penalty than to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn +out by the roots..." On page 23, Morgan went on to show that the Masons +who went through the first degree were also taught to draw "your right +hand across your throat, the thumb next to your throat, your arm as high +as the elbow in a horizontal position." + + In the past, Mormon leaders have argued against the charge by +critics that changes have been made in the temple ceremony. Our +examination of the evidence, however, reveals that their statements were +not correct. Serious changes have been made in the ritual, and these +changes have tended to obscure the fact that the penalties were derived +from Masonry. For example, it is clear from many early sources that the +promise given when one received "The First token of the Aaronic +Priesthood" was derived from the oath given in the "First Degree" of the +Masonic ritual. In Temple Mormonism, published in 1931, p. 18, we find +this information concerning the Mormon ritual: + + "The left arm is here placed at the square, palm to the + front the right hand and arm raised to the neck, holding the palm + downwards and thumb under the right ear. + "Adam--'We, and each of us, covenant and promise that we + will not reveal any of the secrets of this, the first token of the + Aaronic priesthood, with its accompanying name, sign or penalty. + Should we do so, we agree that our throats be cut from ear to ear and + our tongues torn out by their roots.'... + "Sign--In executing the sign of the penalty, the right + hand palm down, is drawn sharply across the throat.. then dropped + from the square to the side." + + The bloody nature of this oath in the temple endowment was +verified by an abundance of testimony given in the Reed Smoot Case. For +example, in vol. 2, page 78, J. H. Wallis, Sr., testified: "...I agree +that my throat be cut from ear to ear and my tongue torn out by its +roots from my mouth." + + A very important letter has come to light which also confirms +the gory wording of this oath in earlier times. It was written by the +First Presidency of the Mormon Church (President Wilford Woodruff and +his counselors George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith) to Lorenzo Snow, +President of the Salt Lake Temple. Some months prior to the time the +letter was written, President Woodruff recorded in his journal that he +had met with George Q. Cannon, Joseph F. Smith, Lorenzo Snow and other +church officials--including representatives who presided over four +temples--and "spent three hours in harmanizing the Different M[ode?]s of +Ceremonies in giving Endowments." (Wilford Woodruffs Journal, Oct. 17, +1893, vol. 9, p. 267) The letter was written about ten months after the +entry in Woodruff's journal and contains this revealing information: + + "As a result of the conference of the brethren engaged + as ordinance workers in the several Temples, held at Salt Lake + Temple, some time ago, the following slight corrections have been + adopted by us... + "In the creation on the fifth day a grammatical error + occurs. The word 'their' is used instead of 'its,' the word their, + therefore, is changes [sic] to its.... + "The words 'that my tongue be torn from its roots in my + mouth,' were substituted for 'from the roof of my mouth.'" (Letter + from the First Presidency, August 31, 1894, LDS Historical + Department, CR 100, 14, #2, Volume 8:16-17, typed copy) + + Some time in the first half of the 20th century, a major change +was made concerning the penalties in the endowment ceremony. The bloody +wording of the oath mentioned above was entirely removed. Nevertheless, +Mormons were still instructed to draw their thumbs across their throats +to show the penalty. In the account of the ritual which we published in +_Mormonism--Shadow or Reality?_ p. 468, the reader can see how the +wording was modified to remove the harsh language regarding the cutting +of the throat and the tearing out of the tongue: + + "...we desire to impress upon your minds the sacred + character of the First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood, with its + accompanying name, sign and penalty, together with that of all the + other Tokens of the Holy Priesthood, with their accompanying names, + signs and penalties,... They are most sacred and are guarded by + solemn covenants and obligations of secrecy to the effect that under + no condition, even at the peril of your life, will you ever divulge + them, except at a certain place that will be shown you hereafter. The + representations of the penalties indicates different ways in which + life may be taken.... + "Adam, we give unto you the First Token of the Aaronic + Priesthood... + "The sign of the First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood + is made by bringing the right arm to the square the palm of the hand + to the front, the fingers close together and the thumb extended. This + is the sign. The execution of the penalty is represented by placing + the thumb under the left ear, the palm of the hand down, and by + drawing the thumb quickly across the throat, to the right ear, and + dropping the hand to the side.... + "Now repeat in your minds after me the words of the + covenant, at the same time representing the execution of the penalty. + "I,_____(think of the new name) do covenant and promise + that I will never reveal the First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood, + together with its accompanying name, sign and penalty. Rather than do + so I would suffer my life to be taken." + + This revised version, which remained in effect for a number of +decades, seemed to be more confused than inspired. The Mormon leaders +apparently desired to get rid of the most offensive wording but still +wanted to retain the idea that there was a death penalty involved if the +secrets were revealed. That the penalty for divulging the "First Token" +was still the cutting of the throat would of course still be very clear +to those who had taken the oath before it was changed but those who +received their endowments after the alteration of the ceremony must have +found the whole thing somewhat confusing. While they were still +instructed that the penalty was to draw "the thumb quickly across the +throat" and that the penalties represented "ways in which life may be +taken," they did not have to agree that their "throats be cut from ear +to ear and our tongues tom out by their roots." All they had to do was +promise not to "reveal the First Token... Rather than do so I would +suffer my life to be taken." + + While some Mormons may not have realized exactly what they were +doing when they took the penalties upon themselves, the more astute who +paid careful attention to the ritual realized what they were doing and +many of them were very offended. John Dart gives this information: + + "In pledging to never reveal the ritual, Mormons + formerly made three motions--drawing one's hand quickly across the + throat, another indicating one's heart would be cut out and the third + suggesting disembowelment. + "'That's why I stopped going to the temple because [the + ritual] was so offensive,' said a former woman member in Salt Lake + City. + "'The so-called penalty gestures were criticized as + 'outgrowing their usefulness' in a talk before a Mormon audience + about a month ago by Keith Normon... 'I had no idea this change was + about to take place,' Norman said after the modifications were + introduced." (Los Angeles Tunes, May 5, 1990) + + The recent removal of the penalties from the endowment ceremony +by the Mormon leaders has been hailed by liberal Mormons as a step in +the right direction. In his article published in the Salt Lake Tribune, +April 29, 1990, Vern Anderson told of Ross Peterson's response to the +removal of the penalties: "It [the endowment] also includes sacred +covenants... Graphic depictions of penalties for breaking them, +considered gruesome by some, were among the recent deletions. 'It's not +as harsh,' Peterson said of the new version. 'It's more uplifting. It's +softer and gentler.'" + + In completely removing the penalties from the endowment +ceremony, the Mormon leaders have taken out some important vestiges of +Masonry which Joseph Smith had borrowed from the Masonic ritual. + +Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc +From: ACUS10@WACCVM.SPS.MOT.COM (Mark Fuller) +Subject: Mormon Rituals 3/4 +Message-ID: <1993Apr28.233810.4590@newsgate.sps.mot.com> +Organization: Motorola Inc. +Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1993 23:37:26 GMT +Lines: 509 + + The reader will remember that the article in the Los Angeles +Times mentioned two other penalties that have been removed from the +Mormon temple endowment. These were also derived from Masonry. In the +"Second or Fellow Craft Degree," Masons bound themselves "under no less +penalty than to have my left breast torn open and my heart and vitals +taken from thence and thrown over my left shoulder and carried into the +valley of Jehosaphat there to become a prey to the wild beasts of the +field, and vulture of the air... The sign is given by drawing your right +hand flat, with the palm of it next to your breast across your breast +from the left to the right side with some quickness, and dropping it +down by your side..." (Freemasonry Exposed, pp. 52-53) + + This oath and the penalty was incorporated into the temple +endowment in the "Second Token of the Aaronic Priesthood." In the 1931 +printing of _Temple Mormonism_, p. 20, we find the following: + + "'We and each of us do covenant and promise that we will + not reveal the secrets of this, the Second Token of the Aaronic + Priesthood, with its accompanying name, sign, grip or penalty. Should + we do so, we agree to have our breasts cut open and our hearts and + vitals torn from our bodies and given to the birds of the air and the + beasts of the field'... + "The Sign is made by placing the left arm on the square + placing the right hand across the chest with the thumb extended and + then drawing it rapidly from left to right and dropping it to the + side." + + As in the case of the "First Token of the Aaronic +Priesthood," the offensive wording was deleted from the Mormon ceremony +a number of decades ago (see Mormonism--Shadow or Reality? p. 470). The +"execution of the penalty," however, was still retained in the ritual +until April, 1990. + + In the "Third, or Master Mason's Degree," Masons bound +themselves "under no less penalty than to have my body severed in two in +the midst, and divided to the north and south, my bowels burnt to ashes +in the center... The Penal Sign is given by putting the right hand to +the left side of the bowels, the hand open, with the thumb next to the +belly, and drawing it across the belly, and letting it fall; this is +done tolerably quick. This alludes to the penalty of the obligation +'Having my body severed in twain,' etc." (Freemasonry Exposed, pp. +75-77) + + Joseph Smith included this Masonic oath in the "First Token of +the Melchizedek Priesthood." Mormons who went through the endowment were +instructed to say that if they revealed "any of the secrets of this, the +First Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood... we agree that our bodies be +cut asunder in the midst and all our bowels gush out." (Temple +Mormonism, p. 20.) These offensive words were removed from the temple +ceremony many years ago, but Mormons continued to execute the sign of +the penalty until just recently: "The sign of the first token of the +Melchizedek Priesthood or sign of the nail is made by bringing the left +hand in front of you with the hand in cupping shape, the left arm +forming a square, the right hand is also brought forward the fingers +close together, and the thumb is placed over the left hip. This is the +sign. The execution of the penalty is represented by drawing the thumb +quickly across the body and dropping the hand to the side." +(Mormonism--Shadow or Reality? p. 471) Finally, in April 1990, this +penalty was entirely removed from the temple ceremony. + + As we have shown, Joseph Smith received the first three degrees +of Masonry on March 15th and 16th of 1842. Less than two months later +(May 4, 1842) he gave the endowment ceremonies (see History of the +Church, vol. 5 pp. 1-2). The fact that the bloody oaths appeared in the +temple ceremony in exactly the same order as in Masonry seems very +suspicious. In both cases the first oath mentioned the slitting of the +throat and tearing out of the tongue. The second spoke of the cutting +open of the breast so that the heart and vitals could be removed, and +the third mentioned disembowelment. Moreover, in all three cases the +same penalties were demonstrated. This all appears to be too similar to +be a coincidence. + + Since many of those who took part in the endowment ceremonies +were already Masons, Joseph Smith had some explaining to do. He, +therefore, maintained that he was restoring the original temple rites +which had been lost from the earth. Smith further explained that +Masonry, which claimed to go back to King Solomon's temple, originally +had the same ritual but that it had become corrupted. Heber C. Kimball, +who later became a member of the First Presidency of the Mormon Church, +could not help but see the resemblance between the two ceremonies. In +the book, _Heber C. Kimball_, p. 85, Stanley B. Kimball gives this +valuable information: "Heber thought he saw similarities between Masonic +and Mormon ritual. In a letter to Parley Pratt, June 17, 1842, Heber +revealed: 'We have received some pressious things through the Prophet... +thare is a similarity of preas[t] Hood in Masonry. Bro. Joseph Ses +[says?] Masonry was taken from preasthood but has become degenerated. +But menny things are perfect.' Later at a special conference... Heber +explained further: 'We have the true Masonry. The Masonry of today is +received from the apostasy which took place in the days of Solomon and +David. They have now and then a thing that is correct, but we have the +real thing'" + + Mormon apologist E. Cecil McGavin wrote: "If we manifested the +belligerent spirit that many of the Masons display, we might say that +Masonry is a spurious system descending from Solomon's Temple. Numerous +changes and corruptions have crept in, yet enough of the original +remains to bear a few humble resemblances to the true endowment.... In +the diary of Benjamin F. Johnson, an intimate friend and associate of +Joseph Smith, it is recorded that 'Joseph told me that Freemasonry was +the apostate endowment, as sectarian religion was the apostate +religion.'" (Mormonism and Masonry, 1947, p. 199) + + Dr. Reed C. Durham, a Mormon historian who has served as +president of the Mormon History Association, was forced by the evidence +to admit that Masonry had a powerful influence on Joseph Smith: "...I am +convinced that in the study of Masonry lies a pivotal key to further +understanding Joseph Smith and the Church.... The many parallels found +between early Mormonism and the Masonry of that day are substantial... I +believe that there are few significant developments in the Church, that +occurred after March 15, 1842 [the day Smith became a Mason], which did +not have some Masonic interdependence.... There is absolutely no +question in my mind that the Mormon ceremony which came to be known as +the Endowment, introduced by Joseph Smith to Mormon Masons, had an +immediate inspiration from Masonry. This is not to suggest that no other +source of inspiration could have been involved, but the similarities +between the two ceremonies are so apparent and overwhelming that some +dependent relationship cannot be denied. They are so similar, in fact, +that one writer was led to refer to the Endowment as Celestial Masonry." +(Mormon Miscellaneous, October 1975, pp. 13-14) + + Some Mormon apologists who are aware of the devastating +parallels between Masonry and the Mormon temple endowment believe that +when Joseph Smith went through the Masonic ritual, God gave him the +spirit of revelation so that he would discern which portions really went +back to Solomon's temple and which parts had been corrupted by later +Masons. The prophet, therefore, only incorporated the genuine God-given +elements into the Mormon "endowment ceremony." + + Now that the Mormon leaders have completely removed both the +gruesome wording and the penalties from the temple ritual, it places +these apologists on the horns of a dilemma. If God really instructed +Joseph Smith to lift the bloody oaths and penalties from the Masonic +ritual and insert them into the endowment ceremony, how can the present +leaders of the church, who are supposed to be guided by revelation, tear +them out of the temple ritual without offending God? It would appear +that either the present leaders of the church feel that they know more +than the God who was supposed to have spoken to Joseph Smith, or else +they realize that Smith made a serious mistake when he borrowed this +embarrassing material from the Masons. + + The action of church authorities in dropping out some of the +elements which were once believed to be "most sacred" will undoubtedly +raise some serious questions in the minds of many faithful LDS people. +If Joseph Smith was in error when he included these things, then it is +obvious that we have no assurance that the other material he took from +the Masons is really inspired. If a portion of the Masonic material he +plagiarized is found to be defective, it throws suspicion on all the +rest of the Masonic ritual which was incorporated into the endowment, +and since there is so much Masonry in the ceremony, it would lead one to +the suspicion that the entire ceremony is man-made. In _Mormonism-Shadow +or Reality?_ pp. 484-492, we presented devastating evidence linking the +Mormon temple ceremony to Masonry. The parallels are too close to be +swept aside. This same information will be included in our new book, +_Evolution of the Mormon Temple Ceremony_, 1842-1990. + + Those who maintain that the recent changes were really made +because of revelation given to church authorities, should consider +another interesting aspect with regard to this question. On Feb. 18, +1987, the church's own newspaper, _Deseret News_, reported that British +Freemasons removed the bloody oaths from their own ceremonies: +"Beheading and ripping out the tongue have been abolished by the British +Freemasons as penalties for violating the solemn code of the secret +society, it was reported. Such punishments have been on the books of +Freemasonry for centuries to enforce solemn obligations that inductees +to Masonic lodges swear on the Bible to uphold. But, the _Daily +Telegraph_ said this week, it's the sort of thing that scares people +away from the secret society." + + Now, if British Freemasons realized that their gruesome oaths +had a tendency to scare "people away from their secret society" and +decided to make a change to accommodate themselves to current thinking, +it seems very likely that the leaders of the Mormon Church could also +see "the handwriting on the wall." If this process is termed +"revelation," then it is obvious that the British Freemasons had the +revelation first. ++++ +IMPORTANT OMISSION + + The Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1990, gave this information +concerning the removal of the "Five Points of Fellowship" from the +temple ceremony: + + "Also dropped is an 'embrace' of a man representing God, + who stands behind a ceiling-to-floor veil. Reaching through a slit in + the veil, the church member puts his or her hand to the back of the + deity and presses against him at the cheek, shoulders, knees and feet + with the veil between them. The contact at 'five points of + fellowship,' including the hand to his back, has been omitted, + although the member must still give a secret handshake and repeat a + lengthy password." + + There can be no question that the "five points of fellowship" +were derived from Masonry. The reader can clearly see this from the +comparison which follows: + + MASONS: "He (the candidate) is raised on what is called + the five points of fellowship... This is done by putting the inside + of your right foot to the inside of the right foot of the person to + whom you are going to give the word, the inside of your knee to his, + laying your right breast against his, your left hands on the back of + each other, and your mouths to each other's right ear (in which + position alone you are permitted to give the word), and whisper the + word Mahhah-bone... He is also told that Mahhah-bone signifies marrow + in the bone." (Freemasonry Exposed, pp. 84-85) + + MORMONS: "The five points of fellowship are given by + putting the inside of the right foot to the inside of the Lord's, the + inside of your knee to his, laying your breast close to his, your + left hands on each other's backs, and each one putting his mouth to + the other's ear, in which position the Lord whispers: + "Lord--'This is the sign of the token: + "'Health to the navel, marrow in the bones...'" + (Temple Mormonism, page 22) + + That the "five points of fellowship" were in the temple ceremony +while the Mormons were still in Nauvoo, Illinois is verified by a +reference H. Michael Marquardt pointed out in _Heber C. Kimball's +Journal_, Nov. 21, 1845 to Jan. 7, 1846. Under the date of Dec. 11, +1845, a scribe wrote of the "second token of the Melchizedek Priesthood +and also the key word on the five points of fellowship." + + The Five Points of Fellowship remained a very important part of +the temple ceremony until the ritual was revised in April 1990. In the +ceremony as we published it in Mormonism-Shadow or Reality? pp. 472-73, +the reader will find that when those receiving their endowments arrive +at the "veil" and seek entrance into heaven, they are lacking one +extremely important key--i. e., the name of the Second Token of the +Melchizedek Priesthood, The Patriarchal Grip or Sure Sign of the Nail. +When the Lord asks the recipient to "give it [the name] to me?" the +response is: "I cannot. I have not yet received it. For this purpose I +have come to converse with the Lord through the veil." The Lord then +responds: "You shall receive it upon the five points of fellowship, +through the veil." The Lord gives the vital information and then asks +for the name again: "Will you give it to me?" This time the recipient +says, "I will, upon the five points of fellowship through the veil..." +After the secret words are given, the Lord says "That is correct." +Shortly after this, the recipient is allowed to enter into the presence +of the Lord in the "Celestial Room." + + In Duncan's _Masonic Ritual and Monitor_, p 120, we read that in +Masonry the candidate can only receive "the grand Masonic word on the +five points of fellowship." The reader will remember that _Heber C. +Kimball's journal_ for 1845 made it clear that in the Mormon endowment +this important key to the Celestial Kingdom was only given "on the five +points of fellowship." We have also shown that up until the revision of +the ceremony in April 1990, the Lord would only give this important +information "upon the five points of fellowship, through the veil." +Furthermore, the recipient had to give it back to the Lord "upon the +five points of fellowship, through the veil." For almost a century and a +half, therefore, the Mormon leaders taught that these secret words could +only be whispered in the ear while the Lord and the recipient were +touching on all "five points of fellowship." From what we can learn, +those who participate in the ritual still put their "left hands on each +other's backs and whisper the words of the sign," but they do not put +their feet and knees together and all the wording concerning the "five +points of fellowship" has been completely deleted. These words +previously appeared in four different places--the "Lord" spoke of the +"five points of fellowship" twice; "Peter" referred to the "five points +of fellowship" once and the recipient mentioned them once. + + While it is good that the Mormon leaders removed this Masonic +element from the endowment ceremony, some people who have been involved +in temple work feel that the reason it was dropped was because some of +the women felt the five points of contact (especially the placing of the +"inside of your knee to his") were too intimate. There were complaints +that the men playing the role of the Lord sometimes took advantage of +the situation. We were also told that even some of the men felt they had +a problem with the "Lord" behind the veil. Since a large number of men +have played the role of the Lord in the various temples throughout the +world, it is certainly possible that complaints could have been made at +various times. The performance of this type of ceremony in any group of +people would probably result in some complaints. In any case, it is very +possible that the "five points of fellowship" were removed because this +part of the ritual seemed awkward or embarrassing to some members of the +Mormon Church. + + Regardless of the reason for the change, it raises serious +questions concerning the inspiration of church officials. If a person +was previously compelled to receive the secret information necessary to +enter heaven on the five points of fellowship, how can the church +leaders now by-pass God's revealed way which was given by the prophet +Joseph Smith. Kim Sue Lia Perkes revealed that: "...a former Mormon +familiar with the changes said the ceremony's climax has been +eliminated. Removal of that part of the ritual, he said, is the +equivalent of taking the Eucharist out of the Roman Catholic Mass. "Not +all Mormons are happy with the ceremony changes. "'I certainly have +Mormon friends who will see it as a step toward apostasy and an +accommodation to the world,' said one practicing Mormon in Utah." +(Arizona Republic, April 28,1990) + +DEVIL'S MINISTER GONE + + When we first printed the temple ceremony in 1969, we commented +on the fact that in the 1906 printing of the endowment, the Devil +offered a preacher four thousand dollars a year to work for him. We said +that in 1906 this was a great deal of money, but that the Mormons had +neglected to give the preacher much of a raise. Therefore, when we +printed the ceremony in 1969, and subsequently in Mormonism-Shadow or +Reality? p. 468, the preacher was still only receiving five thousand +dollars a year. In any case, this portion of the ceremony makes it +perfectly clear that in the eyes of the Mormon leaders the orthodox +Christian religion is the Devil's religion: + + "LUCIFER: Well, if you'll preach your orthodox religion + to this people and convert them, I'll give you--let me see--five + thousand a year." + + In Mormonism, Magic and Masonry, p. 66, we wrote: "...the temple +ritual tries to link Christians and ministers of other churches to the +Devil's work. We feel that this is one of the most objectionable things +about the ceremony, and we do not feel that a Christian would want to +give any support to this type of thing." + + Many other Christians protested against this part of the +ceremony, and a great deal of pressure has been put on the Mormon +leaders to change this part of the endowment. We understand, in fact, +that a petition signed by thousands of people demanded that this portion +of the endowment be changed. + + After this portion of the ceremony was deleted, Vern Anderson +wrote the following: "Among the changes... a portion of the ceremony +with an actor portraying a non-Mormon 'preacher' paid by Satan to spread +false doctrine has been eliminated. 'The general consensus is that it's +a breath of fresh air,' said Ross Peterson... 'You don't put down other +churches, or imply that they are Satan's children.'" (Salt Lake Tribune, +April 29, 1990) We have been told that all the material making fun of +both Protestants and Catholics has now been eliminated. The ceremony as +it was previously given, not only implied that Protestant ministers were +working for the Devil, but also had Lucifer claiming he would buy up +"Popes" to help him in his evil work. + + Unfortunately, the removal of the portion of the temple ceremony +which implies that Christian ministers are working for the Devil does +not really solve the problem. The Mormon Church still retains Joseph +Smith's story of the First Vision in the Pearl of Great Price, Joseph +Smith--History, verses 18-19. In this account, Joseph Smith asserted +that Jesus himself told him that all other churches were wrong: "My +object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the +sects was right... I was answered that I must join none of them, for +they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all +their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors +were all corrupt..." + +OTHER CHANGES + + In the version of the temple ceremony which we published in +_Mormonism--Shadow or Reality?_ p. 467, the men "covenant and promise" +that they will "obey the law of God." The women, however, agree to obey +the law of their husbands: + + "ELOHIM: We will now put the sisters under covenant to + obey the law of their husbands. Sisters, arise, raise your right hand + to the square. Each of you do covenant and promise that you will obey + the law of your husband and abide by his council in righteousness. + Each of you bow your head and say yes. + "SISTERS: Yes." + + We have already shown that since the church leaders revised the +endowment ceremony on April 10, 1990, there has been some kind of a +change in the covenant women are required to make. It has been stated +that they "no longer must vow to obey their husbands." (Salt Lake +Tribune, April 29, 1990) While we do not know the wording of the new +version, it appears that some of the women are pleased with the changes +in the ritual. In the Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1990, we find this: +"Lavina Fielding Anderson... said she received the revisions 'with joy.' +'I anticipate further changes with hope and faith,' she said... 'Some +portions of the temple ceremony have been painful to some Mormon women +and, in some respects, still are,' she added, without identifying what +elements may still be objectionable. Women, for example, still cover +their faces with veils at certain points in the ritual, sources said." + + Another important change seems to have been made in the sign for +the Second Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood. In the ceremony, as +printed in _Mormonism--Shadow or Reality?_ p. 471, we find this: + + "The sign is made by raising both hands high above the + head and by lowering your hands to the side, saying: + Pay lay ale + Pay lay ale + Pay lay ale" + + As early as 1969 we pointed out a problem with this: "...there +seems to have been a change made in this part of the ceremony, for the +Salt Lake Tribune, Feb. 12, 1906, gave the words as 'Pale, Ale, Ale,' +and _Temple Mormonism_ used the words 'Pale, Hale, Hale.' " (The Mormon +Kingdom, vol. 1, p. 138) + + However this may be, in another portion of the ceremony +(Mormonism Shadow or Reality? p. 468), it is explained that "Pay lay +ale" means "O God, hear the words of my mouth!" In the early 1980's some +critics of the church began to proclaim that in Hebrew these words +really mean, "Wonderful Lucifer." If this were true, this would mean +that the Mormons were praying to the Devil in this part of the ceremony. +We took very strong exception to this claim and pointed out that there +is no way that these words can be translated "Wonderful Lucifer." We +still stand by this research which we presented in detail in our book, +The Lucifer-God Doctrine, pp. 11-15, 85-86. + + In any case, many Mormons must have been bothered when they had +to raise and lower their hands repeating the strange words "Pay lay ale" +three times during the ritual. According to what we can learn, the +Mormon leaders have now replaced the mysterious words with the English +words which were mentioned earlier in the ceremony: "O God, hear the +words of my mouth!" The fact that four different versions of the sign of +the Second Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood have been given over the +years certainly raises a question concerning the claim that the +endowment was revealed by revelation. + + We have been informed by two different sources that the Lecture +Before The Veil has been removed. This lecture was previously given to +all those who were going through the ritual for the first time. It was +not deemed necessary, however, for those who were going through the +endowment ceremony for the dead. The words "penalty" or "penalties" were +used six times in this lecture, and it referred to the "sectarian +minister" who preached false doctrine (i.e., the minister who was +employed by Lucifer). + + There probably were many other changes made in the temple +ceremony which have not been reported yet. There have been different +reports regarding how much material was actually removed from the +ceremony or changed in some way. _The Salt Lake Tribune_, April 29, +1990, referred to the rituals "current length of about 90 minutes." One +man noted that just after the changes were made, temple workers were +having a very difficult time with the new wording and felt that when +they become proficient in the use of the new script, the ceremony might +be somewhat shorter than when he went through. ++++ +Revelation Or Accommodation? + + Although the Mormon leaders have been extremely quiet about the +changes in the temple ceremony, John Dart reported that the following +appeared in a statement by church leaders: "'We are a church that +believes in modern and continuous revelation, and the changes that were +recently made in our temple ceremony are reflective of that process...'" +(Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1990) + + An increasing number of Mormons are beginning to believe that +what is called "revelation" by church leaders is not really revelation +from God, but rather "accommodation" to the views of the world. A number +of things which have happened since 1890 lead to that conclusion. The +changes concerning polygamy, the blacks and the temple endowment all +point in this direction. The process of "modern and continuous +revelation" could probably be summed up in the following formula: +Criticism of a specific doctrine or practice from without the church + +acceptance of that criticism by Mormon scholars and prominent people = +"Revelation." + + Take, for example, the practice of polygamy. Joseph Smith +claimed to receive a revelation from God on July 12, 1843, stating that +plural marriage was to be practiced by the Mormon Church. This +revelation is still published in the church's Doctrine and Covenants as +Section 132. Interestingly, this system of marriage was an extremely +important part of the sealing ceremonies which are still performed in +the temple for "time and all eternity." For many years the Mormon +leaders taught that temple marriage and plural marriage stand or fall +together. Apostle Orson Pratt, for instance, emphasized that: "...if +plurality of marriage is not true, or in other words, if a man has no +divine right to marry two wives or more in this world, then marriage for +eternity is not true, and your faith is all vain, and all the sealing +ordinanc[e]s and powers, pertaining to marriages for eternity are vain, +worthless, good for nothing; for as sure as one is true the other also +must be true. Amen." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 21, p. 296) + + Non-Mormons, of course, vigorously opposed the practice of +polygamy. In addition, the United States Government prosecuted Mormons +who were engaged in the practice. On Jan. 16, 1886, Lorenzo Snow, who +later became the fifth prophet of the Mormon Church, was sentenced to +six months in prison. When the prosecuting attorney predicted that if +Apostle Snow was convicted, "a new revelation would soon follow, +changing the divine law of celestial marriage," Lorenzo Snow +emphatically replied: "The severest prosecutions have never been +followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which +brought imprisonment or martyrdom. Though I go to prison God will not +change his law of celestial marriage.'" (Historical Record, 1887, vol. +6, p. 144) + + Things went from bad to worse for the Mormon leaders. Pressure +not only increased from the outside, but members of the church were +swayed by the opposition. John Taylor, who was the third prophet of the +church, strongly denounced those who would give up the practice: "God +has given us a revelation in regard to celestial marriage.... they +would like us to tone that principle down and change it and make it +applicable to the views of the day. This we cannot do... I cannot do it, +and will not do it. I find some men try to twist round the principle in +any way and every way they can. They want to sneak out of it in some +way. Now God don't want any kind of sycophancy like that.... If God has +introduced something for our glory and exaltation, we are not going to +have that kicked over by any improper influence, either inside or +outside of the Church of the living God." (Journal of Discourses, vol. +25, pp. 309- 310) + + Apostle Orson Pratt argued: "God has told us Latter-day Saints +that we shall be condemned if we do not enter into that principle; and +yet I have heard now and then... a brother or a sister say, 'I am a +Latter-day Saint, but I do not believe in polygamy.' Oh, what an absurd +expression!... If the doctrine of polygamy, as revealed to the +Latter-day Saints, is not true, I would not give a fig for all your +other revelations that came through Joseph Smith the Prophet; I would +renounce the whole of them.... The Lord has said, that those who reject +this principle reject their salvation, they shall be damned, saith the +Lord... I want to prophecy that all men and women who oppose the +revelation which God has given in relation to polygamy will find +themselves in darkness... they will finally go down to hell and be +damned if they do not repent." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 17, pp. +224-25) + +Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc +From: ACUS10@WACCVM.SPS.MOT.COM (Mark Fuller) +Subject: Mormon Rituals ULM 4/4 +Message-ID: <1993Apr28.233903.4655@newsgate.sps.mot.com> +Organization: Motorola Inc. +Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1993 23:38:13 GMT +Lines: 430 + + Notwithstanding all of the strong rhetoric used by Mormon +leaders, in 1890, Wilford Woodruff, the fourth prophet of the church, +suspended the practice of polygamy when he issued the Manifesto (see +Doctrine and Covenants Official Declaration--1). President Woodruff +proclaimed that the Manifesto was given by revelation from God: "...the +Lord... is giving us revelation... The Lord showed me by vision and +revelation exactly what would take place if we did not stop this +practice. If we had not stopped it... all ordinances would be stopped... +and many men would be made prisoners.... the God of Heaven commanded me +to do what I did do... I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord +told me to write...." (Evidences and Reconciliations, 3 volumes in 1, +pp. 105-106) It is obvious from the evidence we present in +_Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?_ pp. 231-34, that President Woodruff +yielded to pressures from both non-Mormons and members of his own church +and issued the Manifesto which eventually ended the practice of plural +marriage within the church. + + Prior to June 9, 1978, the Mormon Church had a doctrine which +was referred to by outsiders as the "anti-black doctrine" because blacks +were forbidden the priesthood. The basis for this doctrine was Joseph +Smith's Book of Abraham (published in the Pearl of Great Price, one of +the four standard works of the church). Joseph Smith wrote that "from +Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse in the land." Blacks +were identified as descendants of Ham and were "cursed... as pertaining +to the Priesthood." (Pearl of Great Price, Book of Abraham, 1:21-26) It +was taught that even "one drop of Negro blood" would prevent a person +from holding the priesthood, marrying for eternity in the temple, or +even going though the endowment ceremony (see Race Problems--as They +Affect The Church, by Mark E. Petersen, August 27, 1954). Bruce R. +McConkie, who later became an apostle, bluntly stated: "Negroes in this +life are denied the priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold +this delegation of authority from the Almighty. The gospel message of +salvation is not carried affirmatively to them... Negroes are not equal +with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are +concerned..." (Mormon Doctrine, 1958, p. 477) + + There was a great deal of discussion regarding civil rights in +the 1950's. In 1959 we printed our first criticism of the Mormon +doctrine concerning blacks. As early as 1963, we believed that it was +likely that the Mormon leaders would have a new "revelation" regarding +blacks and printed a sheet entitled, "Will There Be a Revelation +Regarding the Negro?" At the bottom of this sheet we predicted: "If the +pressure continues to increase on the Negro question, the leaders of the +Mormon Church will probably have another revelation which will allow the +Negro to hold the priesthood." Over the years we continued to print a +great deal of material on the subject of blacks and the priesthood. +Although there were some Mormons who had doubts about the anti-black +doctrine, at that time very few were willing to publicly criticize the +church. We were ridiculed for the stand which we took, but we persisted +in challenging this doctrine and a number of Mormons began to take our +work seriously. + + Pressure for a change in the doctrine concerning blacks +continued to mount both without and within the church. Finally, on June +9, 1978, the Mormon church's Deseret News carried a startling +announcement by the First Presidency which said that a new revelation +had been given and that blacks would be allowed to hold the priesthood: +"...we have pleaded long and earnestly... supplicating the Lord for +divine guidance. He has heard our prayers, and by revelation has +confirmed that the long-promised day has come... all worthy male members +of the church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race +or color." Shortly after this revelation was received, it became clear +that the church's ban on marriage to blacks had been lifted. On June 24, +1978, the church's newspaper announced that "the first black man to gain +the priesthood" was allowed to go through the temple endowment and was +sealed to his wife for time and eternity. + + Like the polygamy revelation, the revelation by President +Spencer W. Kimball granting blacks the priesthood was given only after +tremendous pressure was exerted by non-Mormon critics and members of the +church itself. With regard to the recent revision of the temple +ceremony, it is clear that the "revelation" came in the same way as the +changes on polygamy and the black doctrine. In the Introduction to our +1964 reprint of _Temple Mormonism_, we pointed out that "there have been +quite a number of changes made since the Temple ceremony was first +introduced." We went on to predict that there would "probably be other +changes made in the Temple ceremony as time goes on." + + As we have already shown, after printing _Temple Mormonism_ in +1964, we published an updated version of the endowment ceremony in 1969 +in _The Mormon Kingdom_, vol. 1. This same version was printed in +_Mormonism--Shadow or Reality?_ in 1972 and is still found in that book. +In addition, in our book, _The Changing World of Mormonism_, published +by Moody Press in 1980, we included portions of the endowment ceremony. +We have mentioned also that Chuck and Dolly Sackett published the +ceremony in a pamphlet and distributed tapes of the actual ceremony. +Others also disseminated the ceremony or portions of it in books, +pamphlets, tracts, films and tapes. + + Although the Mormon Church completely lost control of the +situation and had no way to stop the tens of thousands of copies of the +endowment which were being distributed throughout the world, most +members of the church who felt there was something wrong with the ritual +did not dare to openly protest. They feared that they would be strongly +reprimanded or even excommunicated if they raised their voices on the +issue. In 1987, however, a remarkably frank article by David John +Buerger was printed in _Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought_, a +liberal Mormon publication which is not controlled by the church. In +this article, Buerger acknowledged that there were "strong indications +that Joseph Smith drew on the Masonic rites in shaping the temple +endowment, and specifically borrowed the tokens, signs, and penalties." +(Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Winter 1987, p. 45) + + Mr. Buerger went even further by suggesting that church leaders +needed to seriously consider making changes in the ceremony to counter +declining rates of attendance at endowment ceremonies: + + "The number of operating temples has increased + dramatically... An analysis of ordinance data, however, suggests that + rates of temple work have remained relatively constant over the last + fifteen years.... Members of my own stake made 2,671 visits to the + Oakland Temple in 1985, versus 3,340 visits in 1981 a 20 percent drop + in activity.... Without comparing the policies of stakes in other + temple districts, it is impossible to say how characteristic my stake + might be. + "These declining rates suggest that many Latter-day + Saints apparently do not participate extensively in either vicarious + or living endowments. The need for reevaluation can at least be + discussed. As the history of the endowment shows, specific content + and procedural alterations were made in 1845, 1877, 1883, 1893, + 1919-27, the early 1960s, and 1968-72.... + "The feelings contemporary Saints have for the temple + certainly merit a careful quantitative analysis by professional + social scientists. I have heard a number of themes from people who + feel discomfort in one degree or another with elements of the temple + ceremony.... Probably in no other settings except college + organizations, with their attendant associations of youthfulness and + possibly immaturity, do most Mormons encounter 'secret' ceremonies + with code handshakes, clothing that has particular significance, and, + perhaps most disturbing to some, the implied violence of the + penalties. Various individuals have commented on their difficulty in + seeing these elements as 'religious' or 'inspirational,' originating + in the desires of a loving Father for his children.... some are also + uncomfortable at the portrayal of a Christian minister as the + hireling of Satan... + "Sixth, the endowment ceremony still depicts women as + subservient to men, not as equals in relating to God. For example, + women covenant to obey their husbands in righteousness, while he is + the one who acts as intermediary to God... Some find the temple + irrelevant to the deeper currents of their Christian service and + worship of God. Some admit to boredom. Others describe their + motivations for continued and regular temple attendance as feelings + of hope and patience--the faith that by continuing to participate + they will develop more positive feelings... Often they feel unworthy + or guilty because of these feelings since the temple is so + unanimously presented as the pinnacle of spiritual experience for + sincere Latter-day Saints.... The endowment has changed a great deal + in response to community needs over time. Obviously it has the + capability of changing still further if the need arises.... From a + strictly functional perspective, the amount of time required to + complete a vicarious endowment seems excessive." (Dialogue: A Journal + of Mormon Thought Winter 1987, pp. 63, 66-69) + + The reader will notice that David John Buerger felt there should +be a "careful quantitative analysis by professional social scientists" +to find out why attendance at temples has been declining. Although it +could have been just a coincidence, it is interesting to note that +within months of the publication of Buerger's article, the Mormon Church +made its own survey of the opinions of members concerning temple work. +In the Instructions for the _Survey of Adult Members in the United +States and Canada_, the following appears: "...we have developed this +survey to help us understand your thoughts, feelings, and experiences +relating to temple and genealogy activities.... along with you, +approximately 3,400 other members in the United States and Canada are +being asked to participate in this project.... We hope that you will +feel you can be candid and open in your answers.... what you write will +be anonymous. We will not be able to associate your name with the +questionnaire you complete." This survey was to be returned in the mail +"by MARCH 30th," 1988. + + Although Question 28 asked the person who had been through the +endowment ritual if he or she "felt spiritually uplifted by the +experience," it also probed to find out if the "experience was +unpleasant" or if the person "was confused by what happened". Q. 29 is +worded, "Briefly describe how you felt after receiving your own +endowment." On the photocopy we have in our possession, the respondent +has written: "Wierd [sic]." Q. 37-k inquired as to whether the person +found "it hard to go to the temple." Q. 39-b asked if the individual +fell "asleep during sessions." Questions were also asked concerning +whether the person really believed "The president of the LDS Church is a +prophet of God," or if "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints +is the only true church on the earth." (Q. 70a-b) There was also a +question with regard to whether there were any "doubts about specific +LDS doctrines and teachings." (Q. 77-g) A page at the end of the Survey +was left blank in case the person had "any additional things to write +about your feelings or activities in temple or genealogical work..." + + Although our photocopy of the page containing the "Comments" is +faded out and difficult to read, it appears that the woman who filled +out the _Survey_ admitted she had lost faith in the church. This is +supported by her answers to Questions 77 and 78. The "main reason for +not attending LDS church services" was listed as: "I have some doubts +about specific LDS doctrines and teachings." From all appearances it +appears that the Mormon Church's Survey was a feeler to find out what +changes should be made in the ceremony and how they would be received by +members of the church. + + While many Mormons will undoubtedly stand firm in their faith +that the decision to change the ceremonies came by direct revelation +from God, the evidence seems to indicate that the publication of the +temple ceremony and objections to it by non-Mormons combined with +criticism from within the church (as evidenced by David John Buerger's +article in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought) forced the Mormon +leaders to issue a survey to find out why temple attendance had fallen +off and what members of the church actually felt about the endowment +ceremony. The results of that survey must have indicated that a +significant number of people were offended by parts of the ceremony. +Consequently, a new "revelation" was given to make the ritual more +appealing to the Mormon people. This tends to verify the formula that +the criticism of a specific doctrine or practice from without the church ++ acceptance of that criticism by Mormon scholars and prominent people = +"Revelation." + + In the early days of the Mormon Church, the word "revelation" +had a very different meaning than it does today. Joseph Smith often used +the word to refer to some new doctrine or teaching which he claimed God +himself had revealed to him. Some of his "revelations" were extremely +unpopular, but this usually did not bother him very much. Take, for +instance, his "revelation" concerning polygamy. In spite of the fact +that many members of the church were violently opposed to the doctrine, +he continued to secretly advocate the practice and to take plural wives +himself. Unlike the current leaders of the church, he did not feel that +it was necessary to take a survey and modify the doctrine to fit the +opinions of others. While we do not believe that the "revelation" on +polygamy came from God and are very opposed to the practice, we must +admit that Smith was not easily swayed by public opinion. + + While Joseph Smith used the word "revelation" to refer to +controversial new doctrines he brought forth to the church, later +prophets have used the same word in an attempt to destroy the very +teachings which Joseph Smith claimed were divinely inspired. When +President Wilford Woodruff claimed he had a "revelation" to stop the +practice of plural marriage in the church, he was not adding any new +doctrine. Instead, he was throwing overboard a doctrine Smith taught was +essential for salvation. If the information that polygamy should not be +practiced was a "revelation," then Christians actually received it +first. Long before Mormonism began, they were condemning the practice. + + Some people now point to the "revelation" which Spencer W. +Kimball, the 12th prophet of the church, gave concerning the blacks as +evidence that the church is still led by revelation. Nothing could be +further from the truth. President Kimball did not reveal any new truth +to the world. Instead, he destroyed a doctrine that came from Joseph +Smith's own "Book of Abraham"--a doctrine which the prophets of the +church had stubbornly clung to until pressure from within and without +the church was so strong that he was forced to yield on the issue. +Millions of Christians and even a large number of Mormons had received +this "revelation" many years before President Kimball received his +answer. + + As far as we know, the recent "revelation" that the temple +ceremony should be altered has not produced any new or important +material. Instead, it is a mutilation of what was supposed to have been +revealed by "revelation" to the prophet Joseph Smith. Things that were +formerly considered to be "most sacred" were stripped from the ritual. +For many years Christians have spoken against the very things which have +now been removed. Why did it take so long for Mormon leaders to obtain +their "revelation" on the subject? The liberal Mormon David John Buerger +seems to have had the "revelation" some time before church leaders +changed the ceremony. + + It seems that it is very difficult for most faithful Mormons to +grasp the significance of what is really going on within the church. The +implications are just too devastating for them to face. The following +hypothetical illustration may help the Mormon reader put the matter into +perspective: If we were to say that God had given us a "revelation" that +baptism should no longer be practiced, members of the church would +protest that this could not be a true revelation. They would undoubtedly +claim that we were merely feigning a "revelation" as a pretext to remove +an important ordinance from the teachings of Christ and might even +suggest that we were embarrassed about getting wet in front of a crowd. + + To those who are paying close attention, it is obvious that the +word "revelation" is really being used as a cover-up for what is going +on. Church leaders are really destroying the original teachings of +Joseph Smith in a very sneaky way. Each time they remove some part that +Smith considered vital, they clothe the action by saying it is a new +"revelation" from God. When will the people wake up and realize what is +going on? We, of course, agree that Joseph Smith's teachings are filled +with errors. We feel, in fact, that sweeping changes need to be made, +but we do not believe it is being honest to do it under the guise of +"revelation." Instead, the General Authorities of the church should +openly admit that they feel Joseph Smith departed from Christian +teachings and then propose a plan to effect the changes that need to be +made. It seems obvious, however, that they will not do this because they +know they will lose power with the people. It is much easier to say that +the prophet has had a new "revelation" and that, of course, marks "the +end of controversy." O. Kendall White has pointed out that the Mormon +leaders' claim of "continuing revelation" is really a mechanism which +they use to side-step acknowledging the "errors of the past." This, of +course, leads to the impression that "the church is never wrong." + + Although they would never admit it, it would appear from the +changes they made in the temple endowment ritual that the current +leaders of the church realize that portions of the ceremony were not +from God--at least we assume that they never would have changed these +parts if they truly believed they came from God. They must agree, +therefore, that we were correct in our assertion that the penalties +which they themselves removed from the ceremony were really derived from +Masonry. It is certainly sad that with all the evidence they have in +their possession that the endowment ritual is man-made, they still +choose to remain silent. + +A BAD EXPERIENCE? + + Many people who have been through the Mormon temple endowment +later admit that they were shocked by the ceremony because it was so +different from anything they had previously encountered in Mormonism. A +prominent Mormon educator who served at Brigham Young University told us +that when his wife first went to the temple to receive her endowments, +she became so upset with the ritual that she refused to go any further +and the entire session was delayed while temple workers tried to +convince her to go on. Over the years a surprising number of people have +told us that they had a very bad experience when they went through the +temple ritual. Many of them said that their first serious doubts +concerning the authenticity of Mormonism arose when they went through +the endowment ceremony. Couples have told us that they both had very +negative feelings during the ceremony but at the time did not dare +confide these doubts with each other. We recently received a letter in +which the following appears: + + "We converted to Mormonism 16 years ago when two + delightful young missionaries knocked on our door.... I had been + raised in a Christian household... We subsequently married in the + Temple in New Zealand; an experience we found to be very confusing + and frightening and we both wanted to leave, but did not mention this + to each other... I became a Christian in October last year and my + husband followed shortly after.... We feel so full of the spirit of + God and we love Jesus with all our hearts." (Letter from Australia, + dated Jan. 11, 1990) + + Many people who enter the temple are puzzled as to why they +should have to wear specially marked garments for the rest of their +lives and learn secret passwords, signs and handshakes to enter into the +presence of God. They feel that this is rather childish. As we have +shown, David John Buerger has pointed out that these types of things are +found in secret lodges and also in "college organizations, with their +attendant associations of youthfulness and possibly immaturity." The +endowment ceremony actually gives the impression that God is like a +youngster who only allows those who know the secret passwords and signs +into his heavenly clubhouse. This is entirely different from anything we +find in the New Testament. In John 10:14, 27-28, the following appears: +"I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.... My +sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give +unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any +man pluck them out of my hand." Those who really know Christ do not have +to worry about remembering any secret words or handshakes. As the +Apostle Paul expresses it, those who are alive at his coming will be +"caught up together with them [i.e., those who are raised from the dead] +in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with +the Lord."(I Thessalonians 4:17) This hardly allows any time for +questions and answers and a ceremony of passing through the veil. In I +Corinthians 15:51-52, Paul wrote that "we shall all be changed, In a +moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump..." Apostle John +added this comforting thought: "...when he shall appear, we shall be +like him; for we shall see him as he is." (I John 3:2) While the temple +ritual leads Mormons to believe that God is going to put them through +the type of test a Mason has to go through to get into the lodge, +Christians believe that at death they will be received immediately into +God's presence. We find great encouragement in this promise. We feel +that God is like the father of the prodigal son; he did not make his son +pass through some type of test upon his return home. Instead, he "ran" +out to meet him, and "fell on his neck, and kissed him." (Luke 15:20) + + As we have already stated, Mormonism teaches that only Mormons +who receive their endowments and are married for eternity can obtain the +highest exaltation in the hereafter. While the Bible clearly proclaims +that "whosoever believeth in him [Jesus] should not perish, but have +eternal life." (John 3:15), Mormon leaders have taught that "eternal +life" only comes through temple marriage. For example, President Spencer +W. Kimball, the 12th prophet of the church, emphasized: "Only through +celestial marriage can one find the strait way, the narrow path. Eternal +life cannot be had in any other way. The Lord was very specific and very +definite in the matter of marriage." (Deseret News, Church Section, Nov. +12, 1977) On another occasion, Spencer W. Kimball bluntly stated that +"the ordinance of sealing is an absolute, and that without it there can +be no salvation in the eternal world, no eternal life." ("The Ordinances +of the Gospel," as cited in Achieving a Celestial Marriage, page 204) As +we have noted earlier, Mormon theology teaches that those who have been +married in the temple can become Gods, whereas those who refuse to go +through the endowment ritual become servants for all eternity. These +teachings are, of course, very objectionable to orthodox Christians. + + The fact that so many changes have been made in the temple +ceremony over the years provides powerful evidence against the claim +that it came to Joseph Smith by divine revelation. While it is true that +these changes have made the endowment more palatable to the Mormon +people, they do not bring the ceremony into conformity to Christian +beliefs. In Mark 2:21, Jesus said that "No man also seweth a piece of +new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh +away from the old, and the rent is made worse." The endowment ritual not +only has many patches in it, but it also has patches on top of patches. +Even though there have been improvements in the temple ceremony, it is +still filled with material taken from the Masonic ritual and concepts +that are not Biblical. Sewing new patches on the many rents in this old +garment will not really solve the problem. The entire ceremony and the +idea of men becoming Gods needs to be abandoned. + + While we do not know what the future holds for Mormonism, we are +very encouraged by recent developments. More and more Mormons are +beginning to reject the concept that "when the leaders speak, the +thinking has been done," and many of them are turning to the Lord for +help. We feel that the recent changes in the endowment ritual will serve +as a catalyst in bringing LDS people to the truth. While the discussion +of the temple ceremony used to be almost completely taboo, active +Mormons are now coming into our bookstore and discussing the matter with +us. A number of them, who have recently gone through the temple, have +provided important details concerning the changes. We have also received +word that they are discussing these matters among themselves. Those of +us who have labored for years to bring the truth to the Mormons are +excited about the future. We have been ridiculed in the past by those +who did not believe our work could have any affect on the leadership of +the church. It is our belief that a large number of Mormons are growing +tired of blindly following their leaders and that we will see tens of +thousands of them turning to the Lord. + + For those who are interested in learning more about the +endowment ceremony, we recommend our new book _Evolution of the Mormon +Temple Ceremony_, 1842- 1990. This book will normally sell for $4.00, +but if it is ordered before August 15, 1990, on our special +pre-publication sale, the price will be only $3.00 (mail orders add +$1.00 for postage and handling). + + diff --git a/religious documents/ms01.txt b/religious documents/ms01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9ce8de --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ms01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1403 @@ +[PAGE 1] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + + + + + + ------------------------------------------------- + [ T H E M E S S A G E O F T H E S T A R S ] + [ ] + [ ] + [ ] + [ BY ] + [ ] + [ M A X H E I N D E L ] + [ ] + [ AND ] + [ ] + [ A U G U S T A F O S S H E I N D E L ] + ------------------------------------------------- + + + + AN ESOTERIC EXPOSITION OF + NATAL AND MEDICAL ASTROLOGY + EXPLAINING THE ARTS OF + READING THE HOROSCOPE AND DIAGNOSING + DISEASE + + + + +[PAGE 2] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + + + + THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS + P.O. BOX 713 + OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, U.S.A. + + + + + +[PAGE 3] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + + + CHAPTER I + + EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + + + It is a matter of common knowledge among mystics that the evolutionary +career of mankind is indissolubly bound up with the divine hierarchies who +rule the planets and the signs of the Zodiac, and that passage of the Sun +and the planets through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, marks man's progress +in time and in space. Therefore it is not to be wondered at, that in the +course of their investigations into the spiritual development of mankind, +the writers have also encountered much that deals with the Zodiac which is +the boundary of our evolutionary sphere at the present time. So much has +been perceived in THE MEMORY OF NATURE that sheds light upon obscure pas- +sages of the Bible, that notes have been made from time to time of different +points, but how to collect and collage these dissociated writings into a +united whole, has been a great problem for a long time. Even now, the writ- +ers know and feel that what they are bringing forth is only a very, very +weak attempt to set before the students that great body of facts which have +come to them through the memory of nature. They feel, however, that this +will give a new and more profound meaning to the old symbols, and that by + + +[PAGE 4] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +passing on what has been found they put themselves in line to receive more +light. + + Concerning the future evolution of planets; the Rosicrucian +Cosmo-Conception teaches, on page 256, that "when the beings upon the planet +have evolved to a sufficient degree, the planet becomes a Sun, the fixed +center of the Solar System. When the beings there have evolved to a still +greater degree, and consequently it has reached its maximum of brilliancy, +it breaks up into a Zodiac and becomes, so to speak, the womb of a new Solar +System. Thus the Great hosts of Divine beings who, until then, were con- +fined upon that Sun gain freedom of actions upon a great number of stars +whence they can affect, in different ways, the system which grows up within +their sphere of influence. The planets or many-bearing worlds within the +Zodiac are constantly being worked upon by these forces but in various ways +according to the stage they have reached in evolution. Our Sun could not +have become a sun until it set out from itself all the beings who were not +sufficiently evolved to endure the high rate of vibration and the great lu- +minosity of the beings who were qualified for that evolution. All the be- +ings upon the different planets would have been consumed had they remained +in the Sun. This visible Sun, however, though it is a place of evolution +for beings vastly above man, is not by any means, the Father of other plan- +ets, as material science supposes. On the contrary, it is itself an emana- + + +[PAGE 5] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +tion fron THE CENTRAL SUN, which is the invisible source of all that IS in +our solar system." + + "Our visible Sun is but the mirror in which are reflected the Rays of en- +ergy from the Spiritual Sun, the real Sun is as invisible as the REAL man." + + From this teaching it is apparent that the great spiritual hierarchies +which are now guiding our evolution, have had their training for this path +in previous schemes of manifestation, also that what THEY are now doing, WE +shall some day do FOR OTHERS. Already the foremost among our race are +treading the path of initiation, and have thereby advanced into stages, far +beyond the general status of our present humanity. It has been learned that +those who have gone through the Mercurial School of the lesser Mysteries, +and have graduated from the School of the Greater Mysteries are now prepar- +ing human evolution for the Jupiter Period. They have entered the planet +Jupiter, by way of one of the Moons, which serves as a stepping stone. Oth- +ers there are, unfortunately, who have gone the other way. We read in the +Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, that even as the whole population of the earth +was at one time expelled from the present Sun because of their inability to +keep up with the vibrations of the beings thereon, thus hindering them and +being hindered themselves, so also it becomes necessary in the Lemurian Ep- +och, to expel a number of the stragglers from earth. Thus the Moon was cast +out into space to revolve as a Satellite around our present planet. Those + + +[PAGE 6] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +unfortunates are gradually degenerating and the time will come when they +will all go to the planet Saturn, which is the door to Chaos. Thence they +will be expelled to inter-planetary space to await the time when, in a new +system, there will be a favorable condition for their further evolution. + + THE GATE OF LIFE AND DEATH + + Thus the Zodiac and the planets are as a book in which we may read the +history of Humanity during past ages, and they also give a key to the future +which is in store for us. In the famous Zodiac in the Temple of Denderah, +Cancer is not pictured as we have it in modern days. There it is a beetle, +a scarab. This was the emblem of the soul, and Cancer has always been known +in ancient times, as well as among modern mystics, to be the sphere of the +soul, THE GATE OF LIFE in the Zodiac whence the spirits coming into rebirth, +enter our sub-lunary conditions. It is therefore aptly ruled by the Moon +which is the planet of fecundation, and it is noteworthy that we find Capri- +corn, which is its opposite, ruled by Saturn the PLANET OF DEATH AND CHAOS, +who is mystically depicted as "the reaper with his scythe and hour glass in +hand." These two opposite signs are therefore turning points in the soul's +career. Cancer and Capricorn respectively mark the highest ascent of the +Sun into the Northern Hemisphere, and its lowest descent into the South. We +observe that during the summer when the Sun is in the sphere of Cancer and + + +[PAGE 7] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +allied signs, fecundation and growth are the order of the day. But when the +Sun is in the South, in Capricorn, we have winter, when nature is dead. The +fruits of the summer are then consumed and assimilated by us. As a circle +dance of the Sun among the twelve signs determines the seasons of the year +WHEN DIRECT, causing the germination of myriads of seeds cast in the earth, +also the mating of the fauna, which then makes the world alive with the +sights and sounds of manifested life, and at another time leaves the world +dumb, dull and drear in winter's gloom, under the sway of Saturn, so by the +slower backward movement, known as the PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOX, does it +produce the great changes which we know as Evolution. In fact, this preces- +sional measure of the sun marks the birth and death of races, nations and +their religions, for the pictorial Zodiac is a symbolical presentation of +our past, present and future development. + + CAPRICORN + + Capricorn, the goat, is not a goat at all as we know that animal, but +part fish and part goat. Its Saturnine rulership, and the fact that it re- +ceives the Sun at the dawn of each New Year, naturally by analogy associates +it with the beginning of precessional epochs. It represents the stage in +evolution covering transition from fish, through amphibia to the mammalian +form. The belligerency of the goat is well known, and an apt symbol of the + + +[PAGE 8] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +struggle for existence, in which the weak perish unless able to outdistance +their foes. This phase of the matter is sometimes expressed in the symbol, +when drawn as part fish and part antelope. Jacob, in the forty-ninth chap- +ter of Genesis, pronounces blessings upon his children, which symbolize the +twelve signs. There he speaks of Naphtali as a "HIND" let loose; thus a +very apt symbol of Capricorn, for when the Sun is there at each winter sol- +stice, it is starting a race through the circle of twelve signs, which it +must complete in a given time--a year. + + SAGITTARIUS + + When the Sun leaves Capricorn, by precession, it enters the sign Sagit- +tarius, and this is pictured in the symbolical Zodiac as a Centaur, part +horse and part man. Thus it shows aptly, the fact that we have evolved +through the animal stage into the human. The centaur is in the act of draw- +ing his bow, showing that there is something for which the human spirit, on +its pilgrimage through matter, is seeking, that it aspires to something that +lies beyond it, as a lofty ideal, for the bow points upward to the stars. + + SCORPIO + + The next step in human unfoldment is not so much along the physical lines +as along the mental. Its nature is shown by the Sun's passage through the +sign Scorpio, which is pictorially represented as a SERPENT or SCORPION, + + +[PAGE 9] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +emblems of cunning and subtility. It is plain from this symbol that the +faculty of the mind evolved by infant humanity was CUNNING, and we still see +that that is a characteristic trait among the lower races, the lower classes +and the lower natures even among our present-day humanity. + + LIBRA + + But, when the Sun enters the sign Libra, 'THE SCALES,' by precession, +the balance of reason gives him a new start upon the evolutionary path. Un- +der the care of divine instructors man had at that time advanced to the +point where because of this new faculty, reason, he could be made fully re- +sponsible to nature's laws, and thus reap what he had sown, that he might +learn the lesson of life by actual experience, be able to reason out the +connection between cause and effect and in time learn to govern himself so +as to progress further upon the path. + + VIRGO + + Thus, under the guidance of the spiritual hierarchies, focused through +the signs of CAPRICORN, SAGITTARIUS, SCORPIO, and LIBRA, were his physical, +moral and mental attributes acquired, and he was equipped and mental at- +tributes acquired, and he was equipped to commence the spiritual side of his +evolution. The germ of this progress is hidden in the celestial virgin, the +sign VIRGO, which is the vehicle of the immaculate conception, the heavenly +mother of Christ; not of one Christ only, but of many. This is one of the +most sublime signs of the Zodiac and one of the most mystical, so fraught + + +[PAGE 10] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +with hidden meaning that its full import cannot be fully understood save +when viewed by the internal light of spiritual illumination. Yearly, at the +winter solstice, the immaculate Madonna is ascendant at midnight, when the +new born Sun commences to rise to the task of growing the grain and grape, +to save humanity from the cold and famine, which would inevitably result +were he to remain in the southern declination. The Sun is therefore an apt +symbol of the Savior, born to feed his flock on the spiritual bread of life. +But, as we must have eyes attuned to light to see the sun, so must the +Christ be born within before we can perceive spiritual light. As Angelus +Silesius says: + + "Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born + And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn. + The Cross of Golgotha thou lookest to in vain + Unless within thyself it be set up again." + + Therefore, by the precessional passage of the Sun through the sign Virgo, +the germinal impulse was given towards the birth of Christ within man. The +MYSTIC MARRIAGE of the lower self to the higher, the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, +and the DIVINE MOTHERHOOD, which nourishes deep in its bosom, unseen by a +scoffing world, "THE NEW BORN CHRIST," are actual experiences of a growing +number of people. And without the celestial prototype, fructified by the +solar precession, this would be an impossibility; neither has this ideal + + +[PAGE 11] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +been realized in such fullness during the past ages as today. The reason of +this will appear when we take up the joint consideration of opposite signs +of the Zodiac. + + LEO + + A great future is in store for this offspring of the celestial virgin. +Listen to the wonderful prophecy of Isaiah: "For unto us a child is born, +unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders and +his name shall be called WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR, the MIGHTY GOD, the EVERLAST- +ING FATHER, the PRICE OF PEACE. Of the increase of His government and peace +there shall be no end." + + Humanity is to rise to a wonderful spiritual height and this is symbol- +ized by the Sun's precessional passage through the royal sign Leo, pictori- +ally represented by the king of beasts, the lion. this is an apt allusion +to the King of Creation, who will then embody the three great virtues of the +Master Man, Strength, Wisdom and Beauty. + + It is wonderful to trace the various phases of the religions given to the +Great Aryo-Semitic Race from the time they were "called out" in the latter +third of the Atlantean Epoch, to the end of the Aquarian Age, when a new +race will have been definitely born. This aspect of the Zodiac will form +the subject of the following pages. It will shed light on many of the most +obscure passages of the Bible, as only study of this Cosmic Science can. + + +[PAGE 12] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + When we consider the Zodiac in its religious as well as its evolutionary +aspects, by means of the six pair of opposite signs into which the twelve +may be divided, we also commence with Cancer and Capricorn, for the reason +given in the previous article, namely: that these are the solstitial points +where the Sun reaches its highest and lowest declination. + + Considered in this manner, we find that there are two sets of three pairs +of signs, the first being Cancer and Capricorn, Gemini and Sagittarius, Tau- +rus and Scorpio. In these pairs of signs we may read the history of human +evolution and religion, in the early, the middle and the latter third of the +Atlantean Epoch. This is also divisible into three distinct periods, +namely: THE ARYAN AGE, from Moses to Christ, which comes under Aries-Libra; +the PISCEAN AGE, which takes in the last two thousand years under +Pisces-Virgo Catholicism; and the two thousand years which are ahead of us, +called the AQUARIAN AGE, where the signs Aquarius and Leo will be illumi- +nated and vivified by the solar precession, for the upliftment of the Son of +Man (Aquarius), by the Christ within, the Lion of Judah (Leo), to the estate +of Superman. + + It must not be thought, however, that the Atlantean Epoch only lasted +while the Sun by precession went through Cancer, Gemini, and Taurus, a + + +[PAGE 13] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +period of only six thousand and a few hundred years; far from it; but there +are spirals within spirals and recapitulation takes place in the epochs and +races, so that we may know what is the general destiny by looking at the +Sun's passage through these signs and therewith taking this import and sym- +bolism into consideration. It may also be said that the further we advance +the smaller do the spirals become, the shorter the time in which a given im- +provement is made, because of the proficiency we attained in former ages, +and therefore it is extremely probable that this present is the last lap, +that the coming Aquarian Age is the final preparatory school day which will +fit us for the new age, the Sixth Epoch, and that this will begin when the +Sun by precession enters Capricorn. + + This, of course, would mean that the Second Advent must take place just +before that time, and though it seems to us that so many signs point that +way, still it is a mere surmise and may not have any truth in it at all. +Thousands of people have been misled during all the ages that we know of, to +think that Christ would soon be here; it is, however, better that we are +looking forward to it than if we should say with some, that it will never +take place. In that case the Great Day would find us unprepared and we +should find ourselves among the stragglers who are unfit to attend the wed- +ding feast of the Higher Self to the lower because lacking the "soul-body," +the "wedding garment," necessary to enfold them. + + +[PAGE 14] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CANCER-CAPRICORN + + The Sun's passage by precession through the sphere of Cancer with its op- +posite sign Capricorn, designates the early third of the Atlantean period, +which was intensely watery as the whole earth was covered by a dense, +drenching fog. The Niebelung, or "Children of the Mist," lived then in the +basins of the Earth. Cancer was not then represented by the same symbol as +today; in ancient times it was pictorially figured as a beetle or scarab. +This was the signature of the soul, for then mankind was much less body than +soul. + + The sign Cancer is watery in its nature, and the fish part of Capricorn, +the opposite sign, also helps to symbolize this state of life under water +when the Sun went through the watery sign Cancer by precession. The Moon, +the planet of fecundation, points mystically to this period of germination, +when mankind first commenced to exercise the Creative function at the dic- +tates of desire inculcated by the Lucifer Spirits. Thus mankind opened the +Gate of physical Life through Cancer, and strayed into the terrestrial +sphere, but opposite stood Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, ready to slay +them with his scythe, and usher them through the Gate of Death back into the +spiritual realms where they are at home. + + Capricorn was the opposite of Cancer and embodied the ideal that as the +goat climbs the mountains, so man must leave the basins of Atlantis and come +up from the mist. + + +[PAGE 15] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + + GEMINI-SAGITTARIUS + + Our condition during the middle third of the Atlantean Epoch is illus- +trated in the Sun's passage through the sign Gemini, the twins, which aptly +represent infant humanity. During this age the division of soul from soul +by the veil of flesh, which we call the body, became more noticeable, for +the atmosphere had already cleared to a considerable extend, and the facul- +ties of the spirit had become more focused in its physical instrument. With +this delusion of the personal self, there came at once the idea of "me" and +"thee," "mine" and "thine," our individual interests commenced to clash with +those of others, so that a tragedy such as that recorded between Cain and +Abel became possible. Nor was the shedding of blood confined to human be- +ings, for we learn from the Bible that "Nimrod was a might hunter". This +savage ideal was expressed in the Celestial Centaur, Sagittarius, with his +bow and arrow. + + But both of these pairs of opposites, Cancer-Capricorn and +Gemini-Sagittarius, may be considered pre-historic hieroglyphics of a devel- +opment accomplished in Sidereal years, long past, though none the less im- +portant on that account. Our own times, with the development prescribed for +them, are symbolically represented in the two pairs of signs within the +fixed cross, the Bull, the Lion, the Serpent and the Man. + + For that reason the two pairs of opposites comprising the fixed signs, +Taurus-Scorpio and Leo-Aquarius, are mentioned in the Bible, and we shall + + +[PAGE 16] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +find that our modern systems of religion are full of allusions to the three +pairs of opposites. Aquarius-Leo and the two adjacent pairs of signs, +Aries-Libra and Pisces-Virgo. These three pairs of opposites are, as al- +ready stated, emblematic of the development in the entire Aryan Epoch. In +the EARLY third of this Epoch, the Sun by precession went through the sign +Aries, the MIDDLE third of its find the Sun in Pisces, by precession, and +during the last third the Sun will go through the sign Aquarius. Then the +solstitial point Capricorn will see the inauguration of a new cycle or age. + + The spiritual preparation for this development commenced about thirteen +thousand B.C., when the Sun by precession, was in the sign Libra, the Bal- +ance, the last time. Different phases of this germinal impregnation of +people then living were carried on during the precessional travel of the Sun +through Virgo, Leo, and culminated in Cancer about eight thousand B.C. when +the last of Atlantis was destroyed by water, substantially as related by the +Egyptian priests to Plato. We shall see presently how the germinal ideals, +given to humanity in those far. by-gone days have grown and flowered into +factors of human development and spiritual standards of the greatest impor- +tance. + + TAURUS-SCORPIO + + In the latter third of Atlantis, egoism had developed to a far greater + + +[PAGE 17] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +degree than before, the spiritual sight had been lost by the large majority +of the people who then lived entirely on the material plane and gloried par- +ticularly in their material possessions. + + THE BULL was very properly worshiped by them, being an emblem of strength +necessary to conquer the material world. It was, on account of its prodi- +gious strength, an invaluable aid in all their work. The proverb about "the +flesh pots of Egypt" has remained illustrative to the present day, to show +how abundantly that animal supplied their physical need of food, the milk of +the female being also an important article of diet. The possession of many +cattle was therefore ardently desired by the ancient infant nations, and the +worship of the Bull was inaugurated under the solar precession through Tau- +rus during earlier Great Sidereal Years, and continued to the comparatively +modern times, when the Sun by precession went through the sign of Celestial +Bull for the last time. + + At that point when the Sun entered the sign of the Lamb, Aries, the Aryan +religions were inaugurated. The religion of the Lamb is to hold sway for +the next Great Sidereal Year, while the Sun by precession passes around the +twelve signs of the Zodiac, as the religion of the Bull has held sway during +the previous celestial year from the time the Sun entered Taurus, until it +left the same sign on its next passage. + + New religions, however, are not revealed in their fullness at the + + +[PAGE 18] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +beginning; they are started and go through a period of gestation long before +the religion which they are to succeed ends its material existence, and +similarly, and ancient religion about to be abrogated survives along after +the religion which succeeds it has become the official source of upliftment +for humanity. The original Semites, chosen to inaugurate the worship of the +Lamb, Aries, during the Aryan Epoch, were taken from "Egypt," the home of +the Bull "Taurus." Not our modern Egypt however. The story of Pharaoh, who +endeavored to prevent their emigration and was drowned, has reference to +Atlantis which was submerged thousands of years before Moses is supposed to +have made his escape with the Israelites through the "Red Sea." The facts +underlying the story are that a multitude of people left the land where the +bull "Taurus" was worshiped, (Atlantis or Egypt) whose inhabitants were then +drowned, to seek a :promised land" beyond the water which had engulfed an +"UNGODLY NATION." There they were dedicated to the worship of the "Lamb" +Aries which had been slain in "Egypt" (Atlantis); through its blood these +pioneers had been preserved from death, and it was thus "the Lamb slain from +the foundation of the (present) World" which we call THE ARYAN EPOCH. +Noah's escape presents another phase of the same occurrence relating that +the mists which had enveloped Atlantis condensed to rain, and flooded the +basis of the earth, leaving a clear atmosphere in which the Rainbow was seen + + +[PAGE 19] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +for the first time at the opening of the New Age, the Aryan Epoch, where a +new Covenant was made with the pioneers of the polity then ushered in. + + Atlantis was the home of the Bull, Taurus, and when the Sun, by preces- +sion, was leaving that sign the last time, the Religion of the Lamb Aries +was definitely ushered in. Thenceforth, the worship of the Bull was abro- +gated and when any of the pioneer race, brought out from the ancient +Atlantean dispensation by the blood of the Lamb, Aries, backslid and wor- +shiped the Taurean "Calf," they acted contrary to the law of progress and +were therefore "Idolaters," and an abomination to the divine hierarchs whose +task it was to guide them during the ages preceding the advent of Christ. +On account of repeated transgressions many were "lost," and they are the +Jews of today who still retain their Atlantean traits (see Cosmo-Concep- +tion). + + Apart from the Astrological key, the Bible is truly a closed book, but +with this key, the matter is different. In the Old Testament reference is +made of two classes of animals: Bulls, which were Taurean, Sheep and Goats, +which were Arian. These alone were used as Sacrifices. (Turtle doves were +permitted as a concession to poverty). All the principal characters of the +Old Dispensation were shepherds (ARIAN) and Christ also announces Himself as +the Great Shepherd. + + In the New Testament we find another animal, the Fish, attaining great + + +[PAGE 20] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +prominence, and the apostles were called to be "Fishers of Men," for then +the sun by precession was nearing the cusp of Pisces, the Fishes, and Christ +spoke of the time when the Son of Man (Aquarius) shall come. Thus our +evolutionary journey is mapped out in the hidden astrological allusions of +the Bible. + + The student now has a line on the march of events, which it is well to +keep in mind. + + Jesus taught the multitudes in parables but explained the mysteries of +the Kingdom to His disciples. Paul gave spiritual meat to the strong, but +the milk of doctrine to the multitude, for there has always been an esoteric +and an esoteric side to every religion. Taking Taurus, the sign of the +Bull, to symbolize the worship of that animal as practiced in Egypt, Persia +and other countries at that time, then we shall find that the opposite sign, +Scorpio, symbolizes the esoteric doctrine if the priesthood, who were the +guardians of the ancient Atlantean Mysteries. + + In this connection we will note first that the sign Scorpio is repre- +sented in the pictorial Zodiac by a Scorpion or Serpent, and we wish to im- +press particularly on the student's mind that the Scorpion has its STING IN +THE TAIL, while the Serpent has the VENOM IN ITS TEETH. This is very sig- +nificant, as well shall see presently. + + On looking up the word "serpent" in the Bible, we shall find that there +are about seven words that have thus been translated; but one of them, which + + +[PAGE 21] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +was borrowed from Egypt, is NAJA. This word is found on the old tablets in +the ancient temples of Egypt where Osiris, the Sun God, is hailed when aris- +ing from the primordial deep. He was then crowned with glory and has the +Uraeus Naja, AN EMBLEM OF COSMIC WISDOM. The Uraeus was a part of a +serpent's body, with its head depicted as protruding from a point in the +forehead just above the nose, where the human spirit has its seat; and +Christ therefore referred to the ancient Serpent-Initiates, when He said: +"Be ye wise as serpents." + + In ancient Egypt the King wore a crown adorned by A DOUBLE SERPENT, +URAEUS or NAJA, which seemed to protrude from his forehead when the crown +was placed upon his head. This was to symbolize the fact that he held the +double office of King and Priest by virtue of his sublime wisdom. In India, +also, the guardians of the Mystery Teachings were called Nagas or Serpents. +In the Icelandic "Eddas," the Northern Vedas, Siegfried, the truth seeker, +slays the serpent, tastes of its blood and them becomes wise. Nor, to +elaborate on the statement made above, is it necessary to go outside our own +religion for proof that the serpent is the symbol of wisdom, for the Christ +Himself said: "Be ye wise as serpents." The serpent is certainly not suf- +ficiently sagacious to warrant a literal meaning of this saying; but when we +understand that when the creative fire is drawn upwards through the serpen- +tine spinal cord it vibrates the pituitary body and the pineal gland, + + +[PAGE 22] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +connecting the Ego with the invisible worlds by opening up a hidden sense, +the allusion is perfectly clear. + + There is, however, a lower phase of spiritual development, symbolized in +ancient times by placing the Uraeus or serpent at the naval, to show that +the mediumistic faculties in the solar plexus had been developed. +Mediumship is a negative phase of spiritual sight or hearing possessed by a +person who, under the control of an outside intelligence, prophesies. This +undesirable phase of seership was represented in the Zodiac by the symbol of +the Scorpion, which has the sting in its tail. In the Serpent, Initiate the +Creative Cosmic Fire was drawn upward through the head to serve as a +spiritual end; in the Medium the creative energy is expressed for selfish, +sensual ends through the procreative organ ruled by Scorpio. + + The point between the eyebrows, whence the serpent of wisdom protrudes, +is THE SEAT OF LIFE, whereas all that opens the womb is subject to THE STING +OF DEATH, contained in the Scorpion's tail. + + If we now turn with this information to our Bible, we shall find that a +great many things, previously obscure, will become clear. As said, the +Egyptian word for this Uraeus or serpent is Naja and it was borrowed by the +Israelites who expressed the negative faculty of mediumship by affixing the +feminine ending "oth," giving NAIOTH; while those able to function con- +sciously in the spiritual worlds were given the positive, make plural ending + + +[PAGE 23] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +"im," and were called NAIM. If we read the nineteenth chapter of first +Samuel with this understanding we shall readily see that the incident there +narrated was of a mediumistic nature. David had become afraid of Saul and +he went with Samuel to "Naioth." This is supposed by Bible translators to +be a place, and maybe a village was so named. But if that was the case, it +was because the people who lived in that place were Naoith, or mediums. +They were called prophets in the chapter before us, and it is significant +that as soon as anyone came within their camp, he commenced to prophesy or +speak under control. Even Saul, who came there, anxious to get David away +that he might slay him, was seized by the spirits and prophesied, to the +amazement of all present. + + In the New Testament we are told that the Christ went to the city of Nain +and there raised THE SON OF A WIDOW. In the Latin Testament, this city was +not called Nain, but NAIM. And it is very significant that all three, Naim, +Naioth and Endor, where the sorceress that assisted Saul is supposed to have +lived, are in the same locality by Mount Tabor. + + Every Freemason knows that the brethren of that Order are called "Sons of +the Widow." And it is stated in the Bible that Hiram Abiff, the Master +Builder of Solomon's Temple, was the Son of a Widow, a cunning craftsman. +We cannot in the present article repeat the Masonic Legend which tells the + + +[PAGE 24] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +reason why. This we have given the book on "Freemasonry and Catholicism" +and also in our books on the Rosicrucian Philosophy. But suffice it to say +that in the Bible story to which reference has been made, we have one of the +Naim, a Widow's Son or initiate of the old Serpent School, for the priests +of Egypt were "PHREE MESSEN," children of light. Each had within, the an- +cient Serpent Wisdom. But a new religion was being inaugurated, and it was +necessary to raise the ancient Initiates to the Mysteries of the Coming Age. +THEREFORE THE CHRIST, THE LION OF JUDAH, LORD OF THE NEW KINGDOM, WENT TO +THE WIDOW'S SON OF NAIM and raised him up by the strong grip of the Lion's +paw. And we may here emphasize that the first Initiate under the new system +was Hiram Abiff, the highest Initiate of the old system, who by this new +initiation given him by the Christ, became a CHRISTIAN, pledged to bear the +ROSE and the CROSS, which were the symbols of the New Mystery Teachings of +the Western World and he was then given the symbolical name, Christian +Rosenkreuz. + + Thus from the time when the Sun entered the sign Aries by precession, it +became a crime for the chosen people to worship the bull exoterically, or to +partake of the esoteric Serpent wisdom. And for a similar reason IT IS +IDOLATRY WHEN PEOPLE OF THE WEST TAKE UP THE EASTERN RELIGIONS. HINDUISM, +BUDDHISM AND KINDRED TEACHINGS. For in the Aryan Epoch, only the Aryan + + +[PAGE 25] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +Religions, the religions of the Lamb, have the proper effect on the human +evolution. All previous systems are detrimental to the Western people; and +in time those also who are now in the East, the orientals, will be forced to +embrace this religion, or be left far behind in evolution. + + THE ARYAN EPOCH + + ARIES-LIBRA + + The Aryan Epoch may be divided into three eras; but they are all served +by the religion of the Lamb. The first division covers the time when the +Sun, by precession, went through the sign Aries, the Lamb. Jesus was born +when the Vernal equinox was in about seven degrees of Aries; so the +twenty-three degrees which lie on the other side belong to the Old Testament +period, when the chosen people were in captivity and lost in the wilderness +of the world; the new religion had not then found its place. Then the +Christ came and inaugurated this new teaching definitely. He came not to +destroy the old prophecies and the law, but to give us something higher when +they shall have been fulfilled. The sign opposite Aries is Leo, the scales +or balance of Justice; and therefore we are told in the new religion that +there will come a day of judgment, when Christ shall appear to give to every +man according to the deeds done in the body. + + PISCES-VIRGO + + Christ was the Great Shepherd, but He called His disciples to be "fishers + + +[PAGE 26] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +of men," for the Sun by precession was then leaving the sign of the Lamb and +entering Pisces, the sign of the fishes. Therefore a new phase of the Aryan +religions was opening up. The Bishop's mitre is also in the form of a +fish's head. + + The New Testament, therefore, does not mention the Bull or the Lamb, but +references to the fishes are numerous. We also found the celestial virgin +prominent and the wheat ear of Virgo is the Bread of Life, to be gained only +through immaculate purity. Thus Christ fed the multitude of fish (Pisces) +and loaves (Virgo). + + Before the time of Christ, the new religion of the Lamb (Aries), could +get no foothold. Moses, the erstwhile leader, could not bring the chosen +people to the "promised land." That was reserved for Joshua, the son of +Nun. Joshua is the Hebriac for "Jesus" and the Hebrew word for "Nun" means +"fish" (Pisces). It was thus foretold that the religion of the Lamb would +attain prominence during the precessional passage of the Sun through the +sign Pisces, the fishes. + + This prophecy has been fulfilled, for during the two thousand years which +have elapsed since the birth of Jesus, the Western religion has been taught +by a celibate priesthood, worshiping an immaculate virgin, symbolized by the +celestial sign Virgo, which is the opposite of Pisces. This same priesthood +has also enjoined the eating of fish and forbidden the use of flesh on + + +[PAGE 27] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +certain days. When the children of Israel left the flesh pots of Egypt, +where the Bull was slain, they left it by the blood of the Lamb. But in the +Piscean dispensation no shedding of blood is enjoined and flesh eating is +condemned as a sin at certain times, for man is now taught to forsake the +lusts of the flesh and also lusting after the flesh. + + This ideal was tried under the Aryan dispensation, when the chosen people +were yet in the Wilderness, so called, but without success; they would not +have the heavenly manna. Now, however, man is being weaned from the can- +nibalistic practice, and in the seven hundred years which remain before the +Aquarian age is definitely ushered in, we will, in all probability, have +made great strides, both in overcoming the lust of the flesh and the lust +after the flesh. For Virgo, the immaculate celestial virgin, and the ears +of wheat contained in the sign, show both these ideals as profitable to soul +growth at the present time. Jupiter, the planet of benevolence and philan- +thropy, which rules Pisces, has been a prominent factor in promoting altru- +ism during the past two milleniums. + + AQUARIUS-LEO + + It is often said, and rightly so, that the boy is father of the man. And +on the same principle we may say that the Son of Man is the Super-Man; +therefore, when the Sun by precession enters the celestial sign Aquarius, + + +[PAGE 28] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the water-bearer we shall have a new phase of the religion of the Lamb, +exoterically; and the ideal to be striven for is shown in the opposite sign, +Leo. + + The Moon, which is the habitat of the autocratic Race Ruler and Lawgiver, +Jehovah, is exalted in Taurus, the sign of the Bull, and all Race religions, +even the Mosaic phase of the Aryan religion of the Lamb, demanded a sacrifi- +cial victim for every transgression of that law. But the Sun is exalted in +Aries, and when the great Sun spirit, Christ, came as High Priest of the +Aryan religion, He abrogated sacrifice of OTHERS by offering up HIMSELF AS A +PERPETUAL SACRIFICE for sin. + + By looking to the mother ideal of Virgo during the Piscean Age, and fol- +lowing the Christ's example of sacrificial service, the immaculate concep- +tion becomes an actual experience to each of us, and Christ, the Son of Man, +Aquarius, is born within us. Thus, gradually, the third phase of the Aryan +religion will be ushered in and a new ideal will be found in the Lion of +Judah, Leo. Courage of conviction, strength of character and kindred vir- +tues will then make man truly the King of Creation, worthy of the trust and +the confidence of the lower orders of life as well as the love of the Divine +Hierarchs above. + + This, the mystic message of Man's evolution, is marked in flaming charac- +ters upon the field of Heave, where he who runs may read. And when we study +the revealed purpose of God, we shall in turn learn to conform intelligently + + +[PAGE 29] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC + +to that design, thereby hastening the day of emancipation from our present +cramped environment to the perfect liberty of free Spirits, risen superior +to the law of Sin and Death, through Christ, the Lord of Love and Life. + + It is for us to decipher this message, and solve the Riddle of the Uni- +verse. + + +[PAGE 30] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER II + + THE MEASURE OF AMENABILITY TO PLANETARY + VIBRATIONS + + When judging a horoscope it is of prime importance that we take into con- +sideration the social and racial standing of the individual, for configura- +tions which are of great significance in the horoscope of an educated Cauca- +sian, may mean little or nothing in the figure of a Chinese coolie and vice +versa. Neglect of this factor would inevitably lead to false conclusions, +as we shall now explain. + + It is a mystic maxim that the lower in the scale of evolution a being is +placed the more certainly it responds to the planetary rays, and conversely +the higher we ascend in the scale of attainment the more the man conquers +and rules his stars, freeing himself from the leading strings of the Divine +Hierarchies through the planetary aspects in such a manner that we do not +hurt ourselves beyond recovery in the experiences of life. + + +[PAGE 31] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + + But coupled with this guidance there is of course the measure of Free +Will, which grows as we evolve. The child in our midst has really very +little free will, being the subject not only to its parents but to the ser- +vants, if such there be in the household, and to everybody with whom it is +associated, all exercising control over it for its own good. As the child +grows, this measure of restraint is by degrees relaxed, and in the course of +years the child will learn to exercise its free will. This method has been +followed by the Divine Hierarchies in the case of man. Infant humanity was +absolutely guided by Divine rules without having any Will at all; "Thus +shalt thou do, or not do," were injunctions laid upon them which must be im- +plicitly obeyed, otherwise the Divine displeasure was at once shown by such +strenuous manifestations as appealed to infant humanity's mind, namely, +lightning, thunder, earth-quakes and great visitations of plagues. This was +for their collective guidance, for individual restraint there were strict +laws, commandments and ordinances. Tribute must be paid continually to the +Divine Leader and offered up on the altar as sacrifices, and for every of- +fense against the law a certain sacrifice of material goods must be made. +Fear was the dominant keynote of that dispensation: for "The fear of the +Lord is the beginning of righteousness." This regime was carried on under +the planetary conditions of Mars and the Moon. Mars, being the home of the +dominant Lucifer Spirits, gave to mankind the energy necessary that + + +[PAGE 32] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +evolution may be accomplished; this martial energy was of the very greatest +importance, particularly of course in the earlier stages. The Moon, which +is the home of the Angels, under their Divine Leader Jehovah, gave to infant +humanity that child-like brain-mind which is amenable to rulership, and +bends itself readily before authority. + + These with Saturn were the only planetary rays which affected mankind as +a whole during the Lemurian Epoch, and if a horoscope were erected for any +of the people who lived then, it would be unnecessary to enter the places of +the other planets, because they could not respond to their rays. Even today +a great part of mankind has not evolved very far beyond that point, a large +class, particularly among those we speak of as the lower races, and even the +lower classes of our western world being dominated principally by these +planetary rays. Under their impulses they act with automatic certainty in a +specific manner, and it is possible to predict exactly what they will do un- +der a certain aspect of these planets, because they live entirely in their +emotions and are scarcely, if at all, responsive to the intellectual vibra- +tions of Mercury. Neither can they appreciate such emotions as signified by +Venus or its octave, Uranus,; they respond solely to the lower nature, the +animal passions. They move under the impulses of Mars and the Moon respect- +ing sex and sustenance. Their pleasures are of the lowest and most sensual +nature, they live like animals altogether in the physical, and their creed + + +[PAGE 33] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + +is "eat, drink and be merry." Their desires run chiefly to "wine and +women," for they have not as yet awakened to the charm of song; Neither has +beauty had a chance to enchant the savage heart at this stage of development +for that comes from the Venus rays which are beyond such people. Woman is +to the man of that stage only a beast of burden and a convenience. + + Meanwhile "Father Time" represented by the planet Saturn, keeps the +score, and wields over them the whiplash of necessity to drive them forward +on this evolutionary path, meting out to each the fruits of his labor at the +harvest time between lives. When the man has cultivated the savage virtues +of bravery, physical endurance, etc., he dreams in the post-mortem existence +of new field to conquer, and sees where he was lacking and why his desires +were frustrated because of lack of implements. Gradually the constructive +martial ray and the Saturn cunning fertilize the lunar brain which he is +building, so that in time he learns to make the crude implements necessary +for the attainment of his primitive ambitions. Even today we see the same +cunning traits of character, the same crude crafts displayed in and by the +lower races for the purpose of irrigating land, mining ores or milling +grain. All those earliest implements were the result of the planetary rays +of Saturn, Moon and Mars, impinging on the primitive brain of infant human- +ity. + + A little further along the path of evolution, in the Atlantean epoch, the + + +[PAGE 34] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Lords of Venus and the Lords of Mercury came to the earth for the purpose of +giving a further impulse to the mental and emotional development. It was +the task of Venus to combat the lower emotions and raise the brutish animal +passion of Mars to the softer and more beautiful Venus-love. She was to add +beauty to strength, and to attain that ideal the Lords of Venus fostered the +plastic arts, painting and sculpture. These were not taught men of the gen- +eral public at that time; the ideals which are to be developed in a race are +always first taught to the most advanced ones in a mystery temple, and at +that time initiation included no spiritual instruction, but consisted of an +education in the liberal arts. Sculpture taught how the beautiful may be +incorporated in physical form. It called attention to the body and ideal- +ized the softly curved lines. The result is now incorporated in our own +race body, for it should be thoroughly understood that in an mystery school +an ideal is not taught today simply to be forgotten tomorrow or in the next +generation, but ideals are inculcated so that in time they may become a part +of the very life, soul and body of the race. Compare the race body of the +modern civilized man with that of the Indian, the Bushman, the Hottentot, +etc., and you will find that there is indeed beauty added to strength. + + It may be objected that we are degenerating compared with what is shown +in the Hellenic Arts, but that is positively not so; it is rather that we + + +[PAGE 35] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + +have not yet attained to that highest ideal. In ancient Greece the mystery +temples occupied a much more prominent position than today; the beautiful +form was idolized to the detriment of the mind notwithstanding the fact that +Greece had a Plato and a Socrates. The Lords of Mercury who had charge of +the development of mind, at the time when the Lords of Venus exercised their +great influence on the emotions, had not then been able to make a univer- +sally strong impression on the early humanity. We are well aware even today +that it hurts to think, but it is easy to follow the emotions. At the +present time the middle class of the West is much further advanced than the +ancient Greeks because of the influence of these two planetary rays in our +lives. Woman naturally excels in the highly imaginative Venus faculty, be- +cause of her part in the creative function which aids in moulding the body +of the race. On that account her figure has the graceful curves which +naturally express beauty, while man has the worldly-wise intellect fostered +by the Lords of Mercury, and is the exponent of reason, the creative agency +of physical progress in the world's work. + + We always long for, admire, and aspire to what we lack. In days of sav- +agery when kicks and cuffs were her daily fare woman longed for a caress +from her lord. The Venus ray gave her beauty and made her an adept in the +feminine arts which have conquered the masculine heart, so that now man + + +[PAGE 36] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +plays the role of protector on the plea that woman is not mentally competent +meanwhile he is becoming that which he admires in her; he is more gentle and +kind, Venus is conquering Mars, but the Mercury delusion of intellectual su- +periority needs another influence to conquer it. And this, woman is now +supplying by her aspiration. As she mastered martial brutality by Venus +beauty, so also, will she free herself from Mercurial bondage by Uranian in- +tuition. + + To primitive man, driven by the whip-lash of Saturnine necessity, when +not by the animal lust and passions of Mars and the Moon, the world looks +gloomy. Fear is the key-note of his existence: fear of animals; fear of +other men; fear of the nature forces; fear of everything around him. He +must ever be watchful and on the alert, vigilance is eternally the price of +safety. But when evolution makes him amenable to the influences of Venus +and Mercury; they will soften his emotions and brighten the mentality; he +begins to regard love and reason as factors in life. The Sun also begins +to brighten his outlook upon life, and sunshine in the nature of man during +this phase of his evolution partly dispels the gloom of Saturn. Thus, by +degrees, as man evolves and becomes responsive to the music of the spheres, +one string after another in the celestial harp strikes the kindred chord in +the human soul and makes him amenable to its vibrations, so that as a tuning +fork which is struck, awakens the music in other tuning forks of even pitch + + +[PAGE 37] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + +within reasonable distance, so the planets in our solar system have in +evolutionary succession struck various chords that have found an echo in the +human heart. + + But the strings on the celestial Lyre of Apollo are not all in harmony, +some are in actual discord, and while man responds to some he must necessar- +ily remain, at least partially, unresponsive to others. In fact, before it +is possible to respond perfectly to the rays of Venus it is necessary for +man to conquer Mars to a considerable degree, and bring him under control so +that certain undesirable martial traits in his nature will be kept in the +background, while others, which may be valuable, are retained. The Venus +love which is willing to give all for the loved ones cannot dwell side by +side in the heart with the Mars ray which demands all for self. Therefore +the savage must learn to conquer himself in a certain measure ere he may be- +come the more civilized family man of modern times. Under the unrestrained +passionate rays of Mars and the Moon, parents bring children into the world +and leave them to take care of themselves almost as animals do, for they are +products of animal passion. The females are brought and sold as a horse or +cow or else taken by force and carried away. Even so late as the mediaeval +dark ages, the knight often carried away his bride by force of arms, practi- +cally in the same manner that the male animals battle for the possession of +the female at mating time. + + Thus we see that the first step toward civilization requires that a man + + +[PAGE 38] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +conquer one or more of the planets to a certain degree at least. Unbridled +passion such as generated by the primitive Mars rays is no more permissible +under the regime of modern civilization, neither is the tenet that "might is +right" any longer admissible, save in wars when we return to barbarism. The +Mars quality of physical prowess, that at one time made it a virtue to at- +tack others and take away property, is no longer admired in the individual. +It is punished by various means, according to law, thought it is still ef- +fective as far as nations are concerned, who go to war under this primitive +impulse for purposes of territorial aggrandizement. However, as said, Mars +has been conquered to a great degree in civil and social life in order that +the Venus love might take the place of the Mars passion. + + As previously noted, the children of primitive man were left to their own +resources, as soon as they had been taught to defend themselves in physical +warfare. With the advent of Mercury another method is observable. The +battle of life nowadays, is no longer fought with physical weapons alone. +Brain, rather than brawn determines success. Therefore the period of +education has been lengthened as mankind advanced, and it aims principally +at mental accomplishments because of the Mercurial rays which accompany the +Venus development of modern civilization. Thus man sees nature from a more +sunny side when he has learned to respond to the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, + + +[PAGE 39] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + +Moon and Saturn, even if only in a very slight measure. + + But although these various stages of evolution have gradually brought man +under the dominance of a number of planetary rays, the development has been +one-sided, for it has aimed to foster interest solely in things over which +he has a proprietary right: HIS business, HIS house, HIS family, HIS +cattle, farm, etc., are all vitally important, and must be taken care of. +HIS possessions must be increased, if possible, no matter what happens to +the possessions, family, etc., belonging to anyone else, that not being his +concern. But before he can reach to a higher stage of evolution it is nec- +essary that this desire to appropriate the earth, and retain it for himself +if possible, must give way to a desire to benefit his fellowmen. In other +words, Egoism must give way to Altruism, and just as Saturn by yielding the +whip lash of necessity over him in his primitive days brought him up to his +present point of civilization, so also Jupiter, the planet of altruism, is +destined to raise him from the state of man to superman where he will come +under the Uranian ray in respect to his emotional nature, where passion gen- +erated by Mars will be replaced by Compassion, and where the childlike con- +sciousness of Lunar origin will be replaced by a Cosmic consciousness of the +Neptunian ray. Therefore the advent into our lives of the Jupiterian ray +marks a very distinct advance in the human development. As taught in the + + +[PAGE 40] MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, we are to advance from our present Earth +period into the Jupiter period, and therefore the Jupiterian ray marks +that high stage of altruism which will then be a prominent factor in +our relations, one with the other, and it will be readily understood that +before we can really respond to the rays of Jupiter we must in a measure +cultivate altruism, and conquer the egoism that comes through the Mercurial +reasoning power. We have learned to conquer some of the phases of Mars and +the Moon, we may have also learned to conquer some of the lower phases of +Mercury and Venus; the more we have overcome these the better we shall be +able to respond to the highest vibratory forces emanating from these plan- +ets; yes, if we strive earnestly we shall some day be able to overcome even +the highest stage of the Venus love, that always attaches itself to an ob- +ject which is owned by us. We love our children because they are ours; we +love our husbands and wives because they belong to us; we take pride, +Venusian pride, in their moral characteristics or Mercurial pride in their +accomplishments; but Christ set a higher standard: "Unless a man leave his +father and mother he can not be my disciple." The idea that we should ne- +glect our fathers and mothers or that we must hate them in order to follow +Him was far from His mind, of course, but father and mother are only bodies; +the soul that inhabits this body of the father and mother is to be loved, +not the mere physical garment. Our love should be the same whether the + + +[PAGE 41] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + +person is old or young, ugly or beautiful. We should look for the beauty of +the soul, for the universal relationship of all souls and not mind so much +the relationship of the bodies. "Who are my mother and my brothers," said +the Christ, and pointed to his disciples, those who were at one with Him in +His great work. They were closer to Him than any brother could be on ac- +count of mere physical relationship. This attitude constitutes an upward +step from the Venus love which places the emphasis on the physical garments +of the love ones and leaves out of consideration the soul that is within. +The Jupiterian love on the other hand takes cognizance only of the soul, re- +gardless of the body it wears. The Mercurial or reasoning phase of mental- +ity is also changed by response to the altruistic Jupiter. Cold calculation +is out of the question. One who feels the expansive ray of Jupiter is big +hearted where his emotions are concerned, his love; big hearted where all +things of the world are concerned. "A jovial fellow," is an apt expression. +He is welcomed and love by everyone he meets because he radiates not the +common selfishness, but a desire to benefit others that breeds in us a feel- +ing of trust, diametrically opposed to the sense of distrust we instinc- +tively feel when we come in contact with a Saturn-Mercury man. + + It is a matter of actual experience to astrologers endowed with spiritual +sight that every man's planetary rays produce certain colors in his aura, in + + +[PAGE 42] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +his aura, in addition to the basic color which is the stamp of the race to +which the man belongs. The man with the thin, sickly blues of a commingled +Saturn and Mercury, is to be pitied rather than censured for the avarice and +gloom which are his constant attitude of mind; he sees everything in the +world through the auric mirror which he has created around himself; he feels +that the world is cold, hard and selfish, that therefore it is necessary for +him to be more selfish and more cold in order that he may protect himself. +On the other hand, when we see the divine blue ray of Jupiter tinted with +perhaps the fine gold of the Uranian nature we realize how differently such +an exalted individual must view the world from the other's sordid way of +seeing things. Even those who have the faintest Jupiterian tinge are in a +world filled with sunshine, flowers blooming, everything in nature gay and +glad. Any by looking at the world through such an atmosphere they call +forth from other sources a similar response, as the tuning fork previously +mentioned generates a vibration in another of an even pitch. + + After what has been said it will not be difficult to understand that the +Uranian characteristics, where love becomes compassion, give wisdom that is +not dependent upon reasoning, a love that is not fixed upon one object +alone, but includes all that lives and moves and has its being' being +similar to the characteristics that are to be evolved by humanity during the + + +[PAGE 43] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + +Venus period when perfect love shall have cast out all fear, when man shall +have conquered all the lower phases of his nature and love shall be as pure +as it is universally inclusive. + + When these Uranian vibrations are felt by advance in the higher life +through aspiration, there is great danger that we may throw away the fetters +of law and convention before we are really ready to govern ourselves by the +law of Love divine, that we may disregard the laws that are in the world, +that we may not render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, whether in obedi- +ence or coin, that we may not be careful of avoiding the appearance of evil, +that we may think that we have so far transcended the ordinary stage of hu- +manity that we can live as super-humans, that the passion of Mars has in our +cases been changed to Uranian compassion, which is sexless. Under such mis- +apprehensions, many people who endeavor to tread the path disregard the laws +of marriage and enter into relationships as soulmates and affinities. They +feel the Uranian ray, but cannot quite respond to its sublime purity, there- +fore they experience a counterfeit Venusian sensation which usually ends in +adultery and sex-perversion, so that instead of the natural animal passion +of Mars having been transmuted to the compassion of Uranus it has as a mat- +ter of fact, degenerated into something that is far worse than the fullest +sex expression of the martial rays committed in a frank and proper manner. +This is a danger that cannot be too strictly guarded against and it behooves + + +[PAGE 44] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +every one who endeavors to live the higher life not to try to aspire to the +Uranian rays until he at first becomes thoroughly imbued with the altruistic +vibrations of Jupiter, for more misery is brought into the world by those +who have aspired too high and fallen low, then by those who are not suffi- +ciently aspiring. "Pride goeth before a fall," is an ancient and very true +proverb, which it behooves every one of us to take to heart. The Christ +took part in the marriage at Cana. Marriage is a regular Christian institu- +tion, and must exist until abolished in the kingdom to come; there the bod- +ies we have will not wear out and therefore there will be no need of mar- +riage to generate new ones. + + Let it also be understood that the minister who marries cannot truly mate +people, therefore the presence of the basic harmony for true marriage should +be determined before the marriage ceremony. + + As we have seen in the foregoing, Mars, Venus and Uranus mark three +stages in the emotional development of man. During the stage where he is +only amenable to Mars, animal passion reigns supreme and he seeks unre- +stricted gratification of all his lower desires in the intercourse with his +fellowman but particularly with the opposite sex; during the stage where he +becomes amenable to the rays of Venus, love softens the brutality of his de- +sires and the animal passions are somewhat held in leash, he is even, under +the higher phases of this planet, ready to sacrifice himself and his desires + + +[PAGE 45] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + +for the benefit and comfort of the loved ones. When he has evolved to the +point where we can feel the rays of Uranus, the passion of Mars gradually +turns to compassion; there the love of Venus which is only for one par- +ticular person, becomes all inclusive so that it embraces all humankind re- +gardless of sex or any other distinction, for it is the divine love of soul +for soul which is above all material considerations of whatever nature. + + The mentality also evolves through three stages according to the amena- +bility of the person to the vibrations of the Moon, Mercury and Neptune. +While man is only amenable to the lunar influence, he is childlike and eas- +ily guided by the higher powers, which have led him through the various +stages mentioned in our pervious chapters. Under the stellar ray of Mercury +he gradually develops his intellectual powers and becomes a reasoning being. +As such, he is placed under the law of cause and effect, made responsible +for his own actions, so that he may reap what he has sown and learn thereby +the lessons that human life has to teach him under the present regime. Be- +ing inexperienced, he makes mistakes in whatever direction indicated by the +afflictions to Mercury in his horoscope and consequently he suffers a cor- +responding penalty of sorrow and trouble. It he has not the mentality to +reason on the connection between this mistakes and the sad experiences grow- +ing from them, during his life times, the panorama of life, which unfolds in + + +[PAGE 46] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the post-mortem state, makes this clear,and leaves with him an essence of +"right feeling" which we know as "conscience." + + This conscience keeps him from repeating past mistakes, when the feeling +generated has become sufficiently strong to overbalance the tendency to +yield to the particular temptation which caused him suffering. Thus he +gradually develops a spiritual consciousness which is above and beyond human +reason, but which nevertheless is also connected with reason in such a man- +ner that when the result has been reached, the man who has this Cosmic Con- +sciousness knows the reason why such and such a thing is and must be, or why +he ought to take a certain action. This Cosmic Consciousness is developed +under the ray of Neptune and differs from that intuitional right feeling de- +veloped under the ray of Uranus in the very important fact that while the +person who has developed the Uranian quality of intuition arrives at the +truth instantaneously without the necessity of thinking over the matter or +reasoning, he is unable to give anything but the result; he cannot connect +the various steps of logical sequence whereby the final result was reached. +The man or woman, however, who develops the Neptunian faculty, also has the +answer of any question immediately and is able to tell the reason why that +answer is the proper and right one. + + The faculty of intuition built up from the Martial base of passion, +through the Venusian stage of love, and the Uranian rays of compassion, + + +[PAGE 47] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + +depends upon the ability of the person involved TO FEEL VERY INTENSELY. By +love and devotion, the heart is attuned to every other heart in the universe +and in this way it knows and feels all that may be known and felt by any +other heart in the universe, thus sharing the divine omniscience that binds +Our Father in Heaven to His children and through the direct heart to heart +touch with that omniscience the person obtains the answers to whatever prob- +lem is placed before him. + + The noblest men of all ages, Christian saints of the most transcendent +spirituality, have attained their wonderful development through the +spiritual rays of this planet because of the intense feeling of Oneness with +the divine and with all that lives and breathes in the universe. + + But there are others who are not thus constituted and they are not able +to walk that path. These, through the Moon, Mercury and Neptune have devel- +oped their intellect and attained the same results plus the Neptunian power +of idealization. + + This is very important point and it is only brought out in the Western +Wisdom Teachings tell us that there is in addition a third factor in univer- +sal advancement, namely, EPIGENESIS; the faculty whereby the spirit may +choose a course that is altogether new and independent of what has gone + + +[PAGE 48] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +before. We see the expression of this in all kingdoms relative to form, but +in the human kingdom, epigenesis expresses itself as genius, a creative in- +stinct, which makes man more akin to the divine than any other of his ac- +complishments. This is developed under the Neptune ray when that planet is +well placed in the horoscope. There is of course also such a thing as an +evil genius, a destructive faculty developed under an afflicted Neptune. + + Only the most sensitive people in the world feel the rays of Uranus and +Neptune at the present time. To feel these vibrations the connection be- +tween the dense physical body and the vital body, which is made of ether +must be rather loose for where these two vehicles are firmly interlocked the +person is always of a materialistic turn, and cannot respond to the higher +and more subtle vibrations from the spiritual world. But when the stellar +rays from these two planets impinge upon a person whose vital body is +loosely connected with the physical, we have what is called a sensitive. +The direction and quality of this faculty depends upon the placement and the +aspects of the two planets mentioned, however. Those who are particularly +under the domination of an adverse aspect of the Uranian ray, usually de- +velop the more undesirable phases of clairvoyance and mediumship. They eas- +ily become the prey of entities from the invisible world who have no regard + + +[PAGE 49] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + +for their victims' desire, even if in a weak manner these should protest. +Such mediums are generally used in simple trance communications and in a few +cases known to the writer have lived very beautiful and happy lives because +of implicit belief in the spirits that dominated them. In these cases the +spirit-controls were of a better class than usually met with. But as this +Uranian faculty is built up through Mars and Venus, passion is prominent in +such natures and under the influence of obsessing spirits many of these +people are driven into gross immorality. Vampirism and kindred dis- +reputable practices are also engendered by the perverse use of the Uranian +ray in mediums. + + Neptune may be said to represent the invisible worlds in more positive +aspects and those who come under the evil rays of this planet are therefore +brought in touch with the most undesirable occupants of the invisible +worlds. Actual obsession whereby the owner of a body is deprived of his ve- +hicle takes place under the ray of Neptune and no materializing seance could +ever be held if it were not for this stellar vibration. Magic, white or +black can never be put to practical use save under and because of this +Neptunian vibration. Apart from this ray it will remain theory, speculation +and book learning. Therefore the Initiates of every Mystery School, +Spiritual; Seers who have full control of their faculty, and Astrologers are +amenable in varying degrees to the ray of Neptune. The Black Magician and + + +[PAGE 50] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the Hypnotist, who is a twin brother to him, are also dependent upon the +power of this stellar ray for use in their nefarious practices. + + The highest human development at the present time, namely, the soul +unfoldment which is undertaken in the mystery temples through initiation, is +directly the result of the Neptune ray, for just as evil configurations lay +men liable to assault by invisible entities, so the good configurations of +Neptune are particularly required to enable a man to unfold by initiation +his whole soul powers and become a conscience agent in the invisible worlds. +Let us remember, however, that good or evil configurations are not the re- +sult of chance or luck, but are the product of our own past acts; the horo- +scope shows what we have earned by our past living and therefore what we are +entitled to in the present life. + + Moreover it should always be kept in mind that THE STARS IMPEL BUT DO NOT +COMPEL; because a man or woman has an evil configuration of Neptune or +Uranus it is not unavoidable that they should go into active evil Mediumship +and Black Magic and thereby makes life harder for themselves in the future. +Their opportunity to do so and the temptation will come at certain times +when the heavenly time markers point to the right hour on the clock of des- +tiny. Then it is time to stand form for the good and for the right; being +forewarned through a knowledge of Astrology one is also forearmed and may +the easier overcome when such an aspect culminates. + + +[PAGE 51] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + + Thus we have seen that man is amenable to the planetary rays in an in- +creasing measure as he advances through evolution, but the more highly he +becomes developed spiritually the less he will allow the planets to dominate +him, while the younger soul is driven unresistingly along the tide of life +in whatever direction of the planetary vibrations impel him. It is the mark +of the advanced soul that he keeps the true course regardless of the plan- +etary vibrations. Between these two extremes there are naturally all +graduations, some amenable to the rays of one planet, some to another. The +bark of life of men and women is often driven upon the rocks of sorrow and +suffering, that they may learn to evolve within themselves the will power +that finally frees them from all domination by the ruling stars. As Goethe, +the great mystic, said, + + "From every power that holds the world in chains, + Man frees himself when self-control he gains." + + And it may be asked, have we run the gamut of vibrations when we have +learned to respond to all the seven planets which are mythically represented +as the seven strings on Apollo's Lyre? In other words is Neptune the high- +est vibration to which we shall yet respond? The Western Wisdom Teachings +tell us that there are two more planets in the universe which will be known +in future ages and that these will have an influence in developing qualities +of so transcendent a nature that we cannot now understand them. The + + +[PAGE 52] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +number of Adam, man or humanity, is nine, and there are nine rungs upon +the stellar ladder by which he is ascending to God; up to the present time +he has climbed only five of these rungs; Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and +Saturn, and not even the vibration of these has he by any means learned; +Uranus and Neptune are slowly coming into our lives; they will not become +active in the same manner and to the same degree that for instance, the Moon +and Mars are at the present time until many ages have passed. But even when +we have learned to respond to them there are two more which we shall know +something later on; it is the opinion of the writers that these are probably +not felt by any except those who have graduated from the Greater Mystery +School and by the Hierophants of that sublime institution. + + In conclusion to this article on the Amenability of Man to Planetary Vi- +brations we quote from the Rosicrucian Mysteries the article on Light, Color +and Consciousness. + + "Truly, GOD IS ONE AND UNDIVIDED. He enfolds within His Being all that +is, as the white light embraces all colors. But He appears three-fold in +manifestation, as the white light is refracted in three primary colors, +Blue, Yellow and Red. Wherever we see these colors they are emblematical of +the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three primary rays of Divine Life +are diffused or radiated through the Sun and produce LIFE, CONSCIOUSNESS AND + + +[PAGE 53] PLANETARY VIBRATIONS + +FORM upon each of the seven light bearers, the planets, which are called the +'Seven Spirits before the Throne.' Their names are, Mercury, Venus, Earth, +Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. Bode's law proves that Neptune does not +yet belong to our solar system and the reader is referred to 'Simplified, +Scientific Astrology' by the present writer, for mathematical demonstration +of this condition. + + "Each of the seven planets receives the light of the Sun in a different +measure, according to its proximity to the central orb and the constitution +of its atmosphere, and the beings on each, according to their stage of de- +velopment have affinity for some of the solar rays. The planets absorb the +color or colors congruous to them, and reflect the rest upon the other plan- +ets. This reflected ray bears with it an impulse of the nature of the be- +ings with which it has been in contact. + + "Thus the divine Light and Life comes to each planet, either directly +from the Sun, or reflected from its six sister planets. and as the summer +breeze which has been wafted over blooming fields carries upon its silent, +invisible wings the blended fragrance of a multitude of flowers, so also the +subtle influences from THE GARDEN OF GOD bring to us the commingled impulses +of all the Planetary Spirits and in that vari-colored light we live and move +and have our being. + + "The rays which come directly from the Sun are productive of spiritual +illumination; the reflected rays from other planets make for added con- + + +[PAGE 54] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +sciousness and moral development and the rays reflected by way of the Moon +give physical growth. + + "But as each planet can only absorb a certain quantity of one or more +colors according to the general stage of evolution there, so each being upon +earth, mineral, plant, animal and man can only absorb and thrive upon a cer- +tain quantity of the various rays projected upon the earth. The remainder +do not affect it or produce sensation any more than the blind are conscience +of the light and color which exist everywhere around them. Therefore each +being is differently affected by the stellar rays, and the science of As- +trology, a fundamental truth in nature is of enormous benefit in the attain- +ment of spiritual growth." + + + --- END OF FILE --- + diff --git a/religious documents/ms02.txt b/religious documents/ms02.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5555928 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ms02.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1745 @@ +[PAGE 55] WERE YOU BORN UNDER A LUCKY STAR? + + CHAPTER III + + WERE YOU BORN UNDER A LUCKY STAR? + + Have you ever looked through a kaleidoscope at the patterns formed there +by the many little pieces of varicolored glass, and noticed how the slight- +est disturbance of the position changes the pattern? Also, do you realize +that it would be impossible, or almost so, to duplicate any pattern, no mat- +ter how much you were to turn; there is such a variety of effect. Similarly +when you look into the heavens night after night you will notice changes +among the planets, in fact such is the variety of changes that occur among +them that it would be impossible to duplicate the position which they hold +relatively to one another while you are reading this, for almost twenty-six +thousand years. Thus in the planetary kaleidoscope there is, we might say, +an infinity of patterns. When we realize that human beings are entering the +world constantly and that each being is stamped at the first complete breath +with the planetary pattern then in the sky, everyone must necessarily be +different from everyone else. Nor should this statement about stellar in- +fluence create doubt when we consider that wireless saves of different +lengths and different pitch sent out from a tiny man-made contrivance can + + +[PAGE 56] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +make themselves felt and can register by mechanical operations involving ex- +penditure of energy thousands of miles from their source. The planetary vi- +brations from those great orbs in the heavens make themselves felt millions +of miles away as surely, as easily, and with equal uncertainty. We know +that the angle of the solar ray determines whether it is winter or summer. +We also know the effect of the Moon upon the waters, and it is within the +experience of all that we feel more buoyant when the atmosphere is clear and +dry than when it is moist and murky. And what determines these atmospheric +conditions but the planets, the circling stars? + + When we look up at this planetary kaleidoscope from time to time we see +in the heavens various configurations which are pronounced lucky or unlucky +according to whether they are formed between so-called benefices alone, such +as Venus, Jupiter and the Sun, or planets said to be malefic such as Saturn, +Mars or Uranus. When Jupiter and Venus are in close conjunction near the +mid-heaven, it is a foregone conclusion that those who come into the world +under this configuration will enjoy a measure of good fortune far above the +average, and such persons would therefore me considered "lucky" in the ex- +treme. On the other hand there are times when Saturn and Mars occupy the +zenith position for souls that are born to suffer. + + But why should one suffer and another be born under a lucky star? Why do +the stars give good fortune to one and misfortune to others, and if we are + + +[PAGE 57] WERE YOU BORN UNDER A LUCKY STAR? + +born to "luck": whether good or bad, what is the use or where is the incen- +tive to individual effort? If there is a law of nature which is established +beyond doubt it is surely the law of Cause and Effect. Every cause must +produce an adequate effect and nothing which we see as an effect can be +without a pre-existence cause. Moreover, if this is a universal law it must +apply to the conditions of birth as well as to subsequent life. Following +up this idea the next question is: If our birth under a lucky or unlucky +star. Thus by induction of belief in Astrology requires also a belief in a +previous existence as well as in future lives, for while we are now reaping +in our horoscopes the effects of our past lives we are also by out acts lay- +ing the foundations for a new horoscope which can only be worked out in a +future life. + + "How closely luck is linked to merit + Does never to the fool occur; + Had he the wise man's stone, I swear it, + The stone had no philospher," + +said MEPHISTO sarcastically in "FAUST" and it is true. If we are born under +a lucky star it shows that we have earned good fortune thereby indicated, by + + +[PAGE 58] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +forethought, kindness, and our other virtues expressed in previous lives, +for we cannot have friends unless we are friendly ourselves. If we happen +to have Saturn and Mars instead of Venus and Jupiter near zenith, it shows +that in the past we ourselves have not been kindly and friendly or we could +not now express the opposite traits. But this is just the point where the +study of Astrology should help us. It shows our limitations for the present +and it points out the obvious remedies and HOW TO BUILD FOR THE FUTURE. Can +the leopard change its skin? No. Can the lion cease to prey? Absolutely +impossible. Can the flower cease to bloom or the mineral to crystallize? +Certainly not; because they are under laws which are as unchangeable as the +laws of the Medes and Persians. THEY HAVE NEITHER CHOICE NOR PREROGATIVE +but must obey the dictates of the group spirit which guides them along their +path of evolution. But in this respect we differ radically from those lower +kingdoms, we have both choice and prerogative. WE MAY DO WHATSOEVER WE WILL +and that is a factor which is never shown in the horoscope, a factor that +may be made to play an all important role in every life. It is not enough +to be born under a lucky star to have a lucky life, for the horoscope shows +only the tendencies and the person who is so well endowed will without ques- +tions have an abundance of opportunities to make his life fortunate in the +very highest degree. BUT ONLY IN SO FAR AS HE EXERTS HIMSELF TO GRASP + + +[PAGE 59] WERE YOU BORN UNDER A LUCKY STAR? + +OPPORTUNITY on the wing, will that which is foreshadowed in his horoscope +come to pass. And similarly with the person who is afflicted by the con- +junction of two malefics in the mid-heaven or anywhere else in the horo- +scope. By his will, and the exercise of choice, which are his divine birth- +rights, HE MAY RULE HIS STARS and make of the unlucky horoscope a fruitful +life from a far higher standpoint than the other. The bark that has been +tossed by the tempest harbors a job when the haven of safety is reached that +is not equaled on the ship that has always said on smiling seas. + + "Who never ate his bread in sorrow, + Who never passed the midnight hours + Weeping, waiting for the morrow, + He knows not yet ye heavenly powers." + + From the higher standpoint those who are living in the lap of luxury are +to be pitied when their lucky stars give them all the good things of this +world and cause them to forget that they are stewards and that the day is +coming when their souls shall be required of them with an accounts of their +stewardship. They shall then be forced to confess that they have failed to +use the substance entrusted to them in the proper manner; while others under +the strain and stress of live, expressed by the horoscopical squares and op- +positions, have wrung from their unlucky stars a measure of victory. What +wonder then if the king's messengers, the circling stars, take from the + + +[PAGE 60] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +unfaithful steward that which he had and give to the other, changing the +latter's adversity to prosperity in later lives. Thus the pendulum of luck +and loss, success and failure swings through many lives till we learn to +make our own "luck" by ruling our stars. + + "A god can love without cessation, + But under laws of alteration + We mortals need, in changing measure, + Our share of pain as well as pleasure." + +And it is this necessity for change that is ministered unto us by the cir- +cling stars which form configurations that we call good or evil, though they +are neither from a higher standpoint; for no matter how good the horoscope, +by progression of the stars evil configurations are sure to come and no mat- +ter how evil, there are always new opportunities for good given by aspects +of the Sun, Venus, and Jupiter to our planets at birth. ALL THAT WE HAVE TO +DO IS TO GRASP THE OPPORTUNITY, AND HELP OUR STARS, THAT OUR STARS MAY HELP +US. + + AMULETS, BIRTH-STONES AND PLANETARY COLORS + + In the windows of jeweler's shops and in cheap, ready made horoscopes one +may often read that it is "LUCKY" for people born in a certain month to wear +a particular stone or color. It means business to the jeweler and the as- +trological prestidigitator who produced "your horoscope" by a turn of the + + +[PAGE 61] AMULETS, BIRTHSTONES, ETC. + +wrist from a box when you tell him in what month you were born. Both buy +their instructive (?) literature at a nominal price per thousand, the prin- +cipal cost being paper and printers' ink; there are no furrows in their +foreheads from deep and earnest study of the problem. + + But as the counterfeit coin argues the existence of the genuine, so also +the fallacious information flippantly dispensed by people who cater to the +sense of mystery and wonder which is deeply imbedded in human nature argues +the existence of a genuine science of mineralogical correspondences with the +stellar rays impinging upon all who inhabit our sub-lunar sphere; and when +this is rightly understood by the majority of people, for then it is THE +RESULT OF ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE SCIENTIFICALLY USED, and therefore the outcome +is as inevitable as that water runs down hill. + + The philosophy of planetary colors and mineralogy is that each of the +Creative Hierarchies which is active in evolution works with the various +classes of beings from mineral to man, and is responsible for the progress +made by them. In the course of this work each Hierarchy naturally imparts +to the beings with whom it labors some of its own nature and vibration. +Thus each group of minerals, each species of plant and animal, vibrates to a +certain keynote which blends with the vibration of the Group Spirit, and the + + +[PAGE 62] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +particular sign and planet with which he is most nearly attuned. + + It has been taught by the Elder Brothers in the Rosicrucian +Cosmo-Conception, that: + + The Archangels, who were humans in the Sun Period when the present +animals started their evolution with a mineral-like existence, are now the +Group Spirits of the animals. + + The Angels, who were human in the Moon Period when the present plants +commenced their evolution with a similar mineral constitution are now the +Group Spirits of the planets. Man, who reached the human stage in the Earth +Period, is now working with the new life-wave which started its evolution on +the Earth as minerals. He is not far enough advanced to assume the role of +Group Spirit, that being reserved for the future. In the Jupiter Period he +will give them life as plants have, in the Venus Period he will bring out +their desires and emotions as animals, and in the Vulcan Period he will give +them a mind and make then human. That, however, is all in the future. At +present he is working with them to the best of his ability, smelting them +into iron bridges, ships and skeleton skyscrapers; he is pulling them into +wires which wind around the world; he is grinding from them gems that glit- +ter and grace the great in our social structure, and thus he is gradually +establishing an intimate relationship with them and preparing to take charge + + +[PAGE 63] AMULETS, BIRTHSTONES, ETC. + +of their evolution as a Group Spirit at some future time. + + It is well known to students of Astrology that an astrological reading +based upon the month in which an individual is born is worth little, for all +the people born in the same month do not have the same experiences by any +means, but if we consider the DAY, the YEAR and the PLACE we get a horoscope +that is absolutely individual and totally different in detail from the horo- +scope of anyone else--and this is the point which concerns us for the +present argument--the ruler is not the lord of the sign of the Sun is in, +except for children born at Sunrise, when the Sun is on the Ascendant. IT +IS THE RULER OF THE RISING SIGN, THAT IS THE DETERMINATOR WITH REGARD TO OUR +MINERALOGICAL AFFINITY, because at the moment of conception when the +seed-atom of our present mineral body was deposited the Moon was in that +particular sign and degree, (or its opposite), and acted then as a focus of +forces which have since crystallized into the vehicle we now wear. + + The following table shows the affinity of each of the twelve signs with +certain gems, metals and colors, and in that chart there are the elements +for making an effective talisman by any individual who has the knowledge of +how to cast a horoscope and blend the ingredients according to the require- +ments of the case. We have no scruples about telling how this is done, for +it may help some to help themselves and others. The only harm it can do is + + +[PAGE 64] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +that it might induce some unscrupulous person to make tailsman for money and +even then, if he is conscientious about the work, whoever obtains them will +not be cheated, the re-action being upon the one who prostitutes the +spiritual science for material gain. + + CHART OF BIRTH-STONES AND COLORS + +SIGNS GEMS RULED BY THE SIGNS SIGN RULER METALS COLORS + +ARIES Amethyst, Diamond Mars Iron Red +TUARUS Moss Agate, Emerald Venus Copper Yellow +GEMINI Crystal, Aqua Marine Mercury Mercury Violet +CANCER Emerald, Black Onyx Moon Silver Green +LEO Ruby, Diamond Sun Gold Orange +VIRGO Pink Jasper, Hyacinth Mercury Mercury Violet +LIBRA Diamond, Opal Venus Copper Yellow +SCORPIO Topaz, Malachite Mars Iron Red +SAGITTARIUS Carbuncle, Turquoise Jupiter Tin Blue +CAPRICORN White Onyx, Moonstone Saturn Lead Indigo +AQUARIUS Sapphire, Opal Saturn Lead Indigo +PISCES Chrysolite, Moonstone Jupiter Tin Blue + + To forestall a question we may say that ancient astrologers who have +studied this aspect of the science have tabulated several hundred minerals +of which the planetary affinities had been noted, but these works have been + + +[PAGE 65] AMULETS, BIRTHSTONES, ETC.. + +mutilated in the course of time, and are now not available. Paracelsus and +also Agrippa, made considerable study of this subject, and with very impor- +tant results; but its extensive consideration is outside the scope of this +work, so the authors will confine their remarks to the essentials, +indicating the way which others may pursue if they feel so inclined. + + To illustrate how the mineral elements may be used to advantage let us +take the following example: Suppose that in a certain horoscope we find +Sagittarius rising with its lord Jupiter on the Ascendant. Jupiter is then +the ruling planet and so, according to our chart turquoise is the person's +birthstone, tin, the metal with which he has affinity, and blue, his color. +That means that it will help him express himself if he wears turquoise, an +amulet of tin, and dresses in blue whenever consistent with custom. That is +true of a certain extent, but it is only a small part of the truth, and it +is by no means the best use that may be made of this knowledge. + + To indicate the better way, let us suppose that this person's figure +shows severe afflictions by Mars and Saturn. + + Mars afflicts three planets; his metal is iron, Venus is the opposite of +Mars; her metal is copper, and consequently copper is an antidote for the +martial vibrations. + + Saturn afflicts one planet; his metal is lead. Jupiter is his opposite + + +[PAGE 66] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +and therefore the Jupiter metal, tin, is an antidote for the Saturian vibra- +tions. + + With this in mind an amulet may be compounded of tin and copper not ex- +actly in the ratio of three to one, but with a mind on the bulk of the +various planets, their destiny and the strength of the aspects it is desired +to overcome, a matter which involves further study. The work itself should +be done under auspicious planetary conditions. A Mars amulet, designed to +give energy to one with a weak figure would be most successful if made in a +Mars-hour on a Tuesday when both the Sun and Moon are in martial signs as +happened in April and November. The same with amulets made for other plan- +ets. (See the Tables of Planetary Hours, in our SIMPLIFIED SCIENTIFIC AS- +TROLOGY.) + + A gem or an amulet made on these principles is a focus of the stellar +rays of the planets it represents and infuses vibrations of their nature +into our auras all the while we are wearing it, just as surely as the wire- +less receiver attuned to a certain pitch catches the waves within its range; +and we may blend the colors in the same manner to obtain help from them. As +a matter of fact, it is the complementary color which is seen in the desire +world that produces the effect of the physical colors. If it is desired to +restrain one whose Mars is too prominent, the gems, colors and metals of +Saturn will help, and such a person should have as little to do with iron +(tools, machinery, etc..) as possible, but if we want to help someone who is + + +[PAGE 67] BEST TIME TO BE BORN + +moody and taciturn, we may use the gems, colors and metals of Mars to advan- +tage. In the final analysis the matter resolves itself into a question of +judgment and common sense. With these, the knowledge concerning the essen- +tials here given may be used by anyone to advantage. + + WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO BE BORN? + + In the light of occult investigation of the subject it appears that birth +is an advent we are powerless to control; therefore when we seem to control +it in a slight degree we are really the agents of Destiny to precipitate or +delay it till the proper moment has arrived. This view is also justified by +the author's experience in Horary Astrology. The philosophy of Horary As- +trology is that at the time one is impelled to ask a question concerning an +important matter the heavens contain also the answer and a figure set is +when the inquirer asks the question of the astrologer, if this is done in +person; when it is done by mail the astrologer sets the figure for the time +he reads the question in the letter. + + On a number of occasions we have received letters containing questions +which bore marks of having been delayed by flood or fire, but the figure +cast for the moment of reading gave the answer, showing that the delay had + + +[PAGE 68] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +a part in the plan, nor should it surprise us that the great Intelligences +which are the ministers of Destiny foresee and make allowance for contingen- +cies beyond the grasp of the human mind. When the Infinite Mind bestows +equal care upon the design of the anatomy of a fly, a mouse and a lion, may +we not conclude that a similar attention to the minutiae prevails in all de- +partments of life and that when we seem to delay or precipitate birth we are +really aiding nature to takes its predetermined course as said in the open- +ing sentence of this article. + + Nevertheless people often ask the astrologer when is the best time to be +born; young astrologers also frequently want to know this, not that they +have any idea of controlling birth but so that on seeing a horoscope or be- +ing told a person's time of birth they may make a quick mental calculation +as to whether the horoscope is good or bad. Such a judgment would of +course, be founded only on the position of the sun by sign and approximate +house, hence general in the extreme. It may be said however that other +planetary positions being equal, it is better to be born when the Moon is +increasing in light from the new to the full than when she is decreasing +from the full to the new for the growing Moon always increases vitality and +furthers our affairs. + + It is best to be born in April or August when the life-giving Sun is in +its exaltation sign Aries or Leo, its home, for then we enter the sea of +life on the crest-save and are backed in the battle of existence by an + + +[PAGE 69] BEST TIME TO BE BORN + +abundant fund of vim and energy. + + It is also good to be born in May or July when the life-light of the Sun +is focused thought the exaltation sign or home of the Moon, Taurus or Can- +cer, especially, as said, when the lesser light is increasing for those con- +ditions, also furnish an abundance of vitality which is such a great asset +in physical life. + + With respect to the time of day most favorable for birth it may be said +that children born about sunrise, or during the forenoon from 8 to 12 while +the Sun is tranversing the houses of friends and social prestige are the +"luckiest" for they are helped on every hand. Children born between noon +and midnight are less "lucky" the nearer the Sun comes to the Nadir, and +them the "luck" turns again in favor of those born in the early morning +while the Daystar is ascending towards the eastern horizon. They will have +to carve their own way in the world, but opportunities will be given them in +abundance. + + We may therefore sum up our conclusions by saying that it is best to be +born at Sunrise or in the forenoon, preferably in April or August when the +Moon is increasing in light. + + Finally it should always be borne in mind that there is no "luck," in the +commonly accepted sense, for that which we have or lack in any respect is +due to our own actions in the past, and in the future we may by proper ap- +plication have what we now lack. + + +[PAGE 70] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER IV + + READING THE HOROSCOPE + + INTRODUCTORY + + When the student of Astrology has learned to cast the horoscope correctly +by the study of our "Simplified Scientific Astrology," or another reliable +textbook, the next and most important part is to read its message. Astrol- +ogy means "Star Logic" and we must seriously advise the student not to de- +pend too much on authorities but to try to understand the basic nature of +each planet, the influence of signs, houses and aspects: then by a process +of reasoning to combine these and thus develop his own intuition which will +serve him far better than the ability to quote like a poll parrot what some +one else has said. + + We would also advise the younger astrologer not to bother too much with +the descriptions of physical appearance indicated in the horoscope. It is +foolish to spend hours in studying over a phase of the subject which is of +limited value. We give descriptions of the different physical types, but do +so for the purpose of aiding the student to determine at sight the probable +sign and planet rising when a person comes who does not know his birth hour. + + +[PAGE 71] READING THE HOROSCOPE + +There are people for instance, who have a face perfectly resembling that of +a sheep. If such a one were in doubt about the birth hour, we would at once +look to Aries and experimentally try how Aries rising would fit with the +other characteristics of that person; if we did so we should probably find +our guess to be correct. Thus also the other signs and planets in signs ex- +hibit distinguishing characteristics of valuable aid to the student in the +direction mentioned. + + The student should also endeavor to cultivate perfect confidence in the +science of Astrology. There is NOTHING EMPIRICAL ABOUT CHARACTER READING +AND DIAGNOSIS. In those respects it is plain as A B C. PREDICTIONS MAY +FAIL because the Astrologer is unable to determine the strength of will of +the person for whom he predicts, but the latent tendencies are always ac- +curately foreshown. The writers have found that where they do not person- +ally know the people who characteristics they read, their delineations are +much deeper and more accurate than otherwise because then personal impres- +sions and bias are absent and the mystic scroll of the heavens is more eas- +ily read. + + There are three factors which bring to us the mystic message of the +stars; the houses, the signs and the planets. + + Each house represents a department of life; the signs are divisions of +the heavens which by their placement relative to the houses indicate our + + +[PAGE 72] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +basic temperament and attitude towards life; and the planets are the mes- +sengers of God which by their motion through the houses and signs bring to +us the opportunities for soulgrowth which we need for our individual devel- +opment. It is therefore necessary for one who wishes to learn to read a +horoscope to become thoroughly acquainted with these three factors both +separately and in their various combinations. The following descriptions +may help to convey this knowledge: + + THE HOUSES + + The houses are called "Mundane Houses," to differentiate between them and +the "Celestial Houses" namely the twelve signs of the Zodiac; but generally +they are designated as "houses" only. + + It is the angle of the stellar ray which determines its effect in our +lives, planets which are in the East affect our physical constitution, plan- +ets in the South near the zenith are factors for good or ill where our so- +cial position is concerned. If a planet is setting in the West at the time +of our birth its ray strikes us in such a manner as to draw us to a certain +type of marriage partner, and the planets under the earth, in the North, +have an effect upon our condition in the latter part of life. Let us sup- +pose for illustration of the point that someone is born at sunrise on a day + + +[PAGE 73] READING THE HOROSCOPE + +when the Sun and Jupiter are in conjunction. Then they strike him from the +eastern angle and give him splendid vitality. Another born on the same day +at noon when Jupiter and the Sun are in the zenith position may have a very +poor, weak body if other planets in the East are adverse, but the ray of the +Sun and Jupiter falling or his birth figure from the South will certainly +attract to him attention in his social sphere and make him the recipient of +public favor and honor. Another born on the same day, when the Sun and Ju- +piter are setting in the West may be an outcast if planets in the East and +South so decree, but the benefic ray of the Sun and Jupiter from the Western +angle will make him beloved of his mate and successful in partnerships. +These facts have been ascertained by observation and tabulation. Therefore +the twelve sections of the circle of observation as seen from the birthplace +are truly said to rule or govern various departments of life and thus people +born on the same day may have the most diverse experiences. + + The houses may be variously grouped according to the influence they exer- +cise in our lives; there are "angular," "succeedent" and "cadent" houses, +also personal, spiritual, material, social and mystical houses. + + Of the ANGLES, the first house governs our personal self, and its oppo- +site the seventh house, rules the one who is nearest and dearest to us, +namely, the marriage partner. The fourth house determines conditions in our + + +[PAGE 74] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +home and its opposite angle, the tenth house, shows our social standing in +the community where we live. Thus the angles show collectively the sphere +of our activities in life. + + Of the SUCCEEDENT HOUSES the second shows our financial status with re- +gard to that which we acquire by our own efforts and the opposite succeedent +house, the eight, shows whatever we may receive from others as legacies, +etc. The other succeedent houses, the fifth and eleventh, show how our in- +come may be spent, for the fifth house indicates the children of our body +who have a legitimate claim to a share of our income, and the eleventh house +shows the children of our brains, our hopes, wishes and aspirations which +also draw upon our resources. + + Of the two pairs of CADENT HOUSES the sixth is the house of voluntary +service which we perform as our share of the world's work for an equivalent +share in the world's wealth, and the twelfth house shows how we may be com- +pelled to labor without remuneration under prison restraint if we do not +work willingly. The sixth house shows also the state of our health and the +twelfth tells if hospital treatment is necessary. + + The other pair of cadent houses, the third and ninth show whether our +life and work will confine us to one place or require travel and changes of +residence. In this respect the third house shows short journeys and the +ninth house long travels. + + The PERSONAL HOUSES comprise the first, fifth and ninth. The first house + + +[PAGE 75] READING THE HOROSCOPE + +rules the constitution and peculiarities of the physical body. Planets and +signs in that house put their stamp on it to make or mar according to the +nature of its self-generated destiny. Our fifth house shows the quality of +love-nature of the soul and the line of its expression if it follows the +line of least resistance; and the ninth house shows as much of the spirit as +we can apprehend in our present limited state. + + The MATERIAL TRINITY OF HOUSES consists of the second, sixth and tenth +and shows the worldly possessions of man, his means of obtaining them and +the enjoyment they bring him. Wealth, or its reverse, is shown by the sec- +ond house, health, without which there can be no joy in any worldly posses- +sion, is shown by the sixth house; and the public prestige which is the +chief source of gratification to the average human being, is shown by the +tenth house. + + The SOCIAL HOUSES are the third, seventh, and eleventh houses and in them +is shown the nature of our relations and various classes of souls we meet in +life. Brothers and sisters to whom we are bound by the time of blood are +shown by the third house, the companion of our heart with whom our blood +blends in another way, is shown by the seventh house, and the friends, more +precious than pearls to whoever has earned friendship, are designated by the +eleventh house. + + The fourth and last trinity of houses is composed of the fourth, eighth +and twelfth. If them are hidden mysteries of the ante-natal life of the + + +[PAGE 76] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +spirit, and the post mortem experiences immediately to follow the TERMINUS +VITAE. On the material plane the fourth house signifies our condition in +the latter part of life, the twelfth shows the sorrow which impresses us +with the worthlessness of material things and the eighth indicates the na- +ture of our exit from the world's stage. + + An illustration may further help the student to understand how the heav- +ens influence our life through the twelve houses. Suppose we are out driv- +ing and our road follows the seacoast, but a mile or so inland. A breeze is +blowing from the ocean and as it passes over the country separating us from +the sea, it brings upon invisible wings messages from that land, which evoke +pleasure or aversion according to their nature. In one place, an aroma of +new mown hay fills us with delight; perhaps we are nauseated by the noxious +smell of jasmine on the next stretch of our journey; and later become really +ill from the stench of stagnant marsh-water. But then we enter a forest, +and soon its grateful pine balm restores the normal health and spirits. + + In our journey from the cradle to the grave we carry the twelve houses +with us in the auric atmosphere surrounding us, as the air envelops the fly- +ing earth. Each house mirrors part of the life; each holds some of our life +lessons; each represents how we have worked or shirked before in a given de- +partment of life's tasks. At the appropriate time of life we reap from each + + +[PAGE 77] READING THE HOROSCOPE + +house what we have sown in past lives, that is, unless we forestall the har- +vest in time. Is our eleventh house afflicted, do friends betray and for- +sake us, do they leave us heartsick, or nauseate us like the scent of jas- +mine and stagnant marsh-water? Then let us examine the horoscope for it +reveals what is hidden in our auric atmosphere. The friends sensed us, and +we then, through the eleventh angle, and something ill-smelling must be +there. It may be, we long to be befriended, more than to befriend others. +Let us cease to be like the sickly, debilitating jasmine, and seek to +manifest the sturdy strength of the invigorating pine tree; then we shall +find friend flocking around, admiring our strength. Not all have such +sturdy natures, but we can attract equally by kindliness, as soothing to +sorrowing hearts as perfume of new mown hay to the sense, and thus we may +rid the house of friends of affliction. + + After the foregoing explanations, the houses may now be said to influence +the affairs of life as follows: + +FIRST HOUSE rules the physical body and its constitution and appearance; it +determines conditions in the childhood home while the person is under con- +trol of the parents. + +SECOND HOUSE rules money, the financial fortunes; it shows what the person +acquires by individual effort and to a certain extent what use he will make +of it. + + +[PAGE 78] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +THIRD HOUSE rules brothers and sisters, neighbors, the instinctual mind, +writings, short journeys and conveyances of travel. + +FOURTH HOUSE--That one of the parents who exercises the lesser influence in +the person's life, conditions in the latter part of life, houses, lands, +mines; everything pertaining to the earth. + +FIFTH HOUSE--Love, courtship and licentiousness, the legitimate and ille- +gitimate attraction and social intercourse between the sexes prior to wed- +lock; children, education institutions, books and newspapers, sports and +amusements, stocks and speculations. + +SIXTH HOUSE--Health, service to be rendered by the person and also the con- +dition and faithfulness of those who serve him. + +SEVENTH HOUSE--The marriage partner, the public in general, competitors, +partners, opponents in litigations, rivals. + +EIGHTH HOUSE--Death, legacies, the marriage partner's finances, occult +abilities and faculties latent but nearly ready for manifestation. + +NINTH HOUSE--Religion, spiritual experiences and aspirations, dreams and vi- +sions, long travels and law. + +TENTH HOUSE--The parent who exercises most influence in the person's life, +the honor and social standing of the person, his employer or judge, and the +government. + + +[PAGE 79] READING THE HOROSCOPE + +ELEVENTH HOUSE--Friends, companions and well-wishers, hopes, wishes and as- +pirations, generally of a material nature, also stepchildren. + +TWELFTH HOUSE--Confinement in hospitals or prison, secret enemies and plots; +sorrow and self undoing. + + THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC + + On either side of the Sun's path there are a number of fixed stars which +are so grouped that they may be conceived as forming twelve constellations, +and as they have certain characteristic influences ancient sages named them +for the animals which express similar traits. These constellations are +called the NATURAL Zodiac and for all practical purposes it may be said that +they occupy permanent positions relative to the other fixed stars of the +firmament. This circle is divided into twelve sections starting at the +first degree of Aries, which is occupied by the Sun at the vernal equinox. + + On account of the precession of the equinox the Sun does not cross the +equator at the same point each year, but it has been found that the first 30 +degrees from the point where the Sun does cross the equator at the equinox +have an effect similar to that ascribed to the constellation Aries; the +next thirty degrees radiate a Taurian influence and so on with the other ten + + +[PAGE 80] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +sections of thirty degrees each. Therefore the twelve sections measured +from the vernal equinox are used exclusively in Astrology and called SIGNS +of the Zodiac, to differentiate them from the CONSTELLATIONS. (For a thor- +ough elucidation of the subject see "Simplified Scientific Astrology," under +the caption "Intellectual Zodiac.") + + These twelve signs of the Zodiac are variously divided according to their +effect on humanity into Cardinal, Fixed and Common signs, also into Fiery, +Earthy, Airy and Watery signs. What their influences are we shall endeavor +to elucidate in the following sections. + + THE CARDINAL SIGNS + + Keyword "Activity" + + The Cardinal Signs are ARIES, CANCER, LIBRA and CAPRICORN. These signs +are called Cardinal because when the Sun is in them he is in one of the four +corners of the heavens; at a turning-point, where he is forced to take an- +other direction. In Aries he is as far EAST as he can go; Cancer is the +tropical point of the NORTH where he gives the PERPENDICULAR RAY at the Sum- +mer Solstice, and consequently the greatest HEAT. Libra is the extreme +WESTERN point of his path, where he turns away from the Northern Hemisphere, +and in midwinter, at Christmas, he is in Capricorn at the farthest point +SOUTH, where his HORIZONTAL RAY leaves the people of the North in winter's +icy grip. The effect of the angels, the first, fourth, seventh and tenth + + +[PAGE 81] READING THE HOROSCOPE + +houses, is similar to the effect of the cardinal signs because these houses +are at the East, North, West and South points of the horoscope. The nature +and effect of cardinal signs and angles may be summed up in the words "Ac- +tion" and "Initiative" (though each acts differently from the others,) +therefore planets placed in cardinal signs and angles give zest to life ac- +cording to the nature of the particular planet, sign and angle. + + "Zodiac" means a circle of animals. The symbols of three of the cardinal +signs are animalistic: ARIES, the Ram; CANCER, the Crab; and CAPRICORN, the +Goat. The fourth , Libra, the Scales, represents the ideal towards which +this class must strive. None need poise so much as those under the impul- +sive influence of the cardinal ray; therefore the Balance was set in the +heavens to direct their aspirations. + + THE FIXED SIGNS + + Keyword "Stability" + + The Fixed Signs are TAURUS, LEO, SCORPIO and AQUARIUS. Three symbols of +the fixed signs are also bestial, violent and virulent; TAURUS, the Bull; +LEO, the Lion; and SCORPIO, the Scorpion. The human figure of AQUARIUS, the +Waterbearer, shows us the ideal towards which this class must strive. In- +stead of fighting, preying upon, or poisoning others in the struggle for ex- +istence they must learn to become humane, to be friends to all instead of +foes. + + +[PAGE 82] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + The influence of the fixed signs rouses the DESIRE nature, giving stamina +and persistence in action. + + When fixed signs are on the angles (the first, fourth, seventh and tenth +houses), they exert a well nigh irresistible force, impelling the individual +along a certain line. He may be slow and plodding, but is sure to be PER- +SISTENT in whatever he undertakes, and whatever talent he may posses in a +certain direction will be exploited to its fullest extent. Setbacks which +would take the courage from a person with cardinal signs do not daunt the +man with fixed signs on the angels, he knows no defeat, and therefore he +usually gains his goal in the end and achieves success by Concentration upon +one point, and Persistence in following his chosen path. On the other hand +such people are conservative to the last degree. They may see and desire +improvements in various lines, but are exceedingly slow to adopt measures to +accomplish the desired end; they never do this until thoroughly satisfied +that a certain method will meet the requirements. In other words, people +with fixed signs on the angels "look before they leap;" they look a long +time and very, very carefully, but on the other hand, when they have once +been won over to a certain cause they are faithful unto death, and no more +ardent advocates can be found; their zeal is almost fanatical. On the +whole, people with fixed signs may be said to be THE MOST RELIABLE PEOPLE in +the world, either for good or bad. + + +[PAGE 83] READING THE HOROSCOPE + + THE COMMON SIGNS + + Keyword "Flexibility" + + Gemini, Sagittarius, Virgo and Pisces are called common signs, their in- +trinsic nature being best expressed by the keyword, Flexibility. + + The forces working through the CARDINAL signs impinge upon the DENSE BODY +and stir it to action. + + The power of the COMMON signs is MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL, giving purpose to +action and incentive to nobility of life. + + Therefore people influenced by stellar forces focused principally through +CARDINAL signs are the workers of the world, not the toilers, but EX- +ECUTIVES, who accomplish things industrially, and who bring into concrete +existence schemes, great or small, of value in the world's work. THE COMMON +SIGNS ARE ALL DOUBLE; two of them are human: GEMINI, the Twins, and VIRGO, +the Virgin; the third, SAGITTARIUS, the Centaur, is partly human; and only +the fourth symbol, PISCES, the Fishes, is taken from the lower kingdom. +None are violent, however, but intensely moral, intellectual and spiritual +symbols. + + Unstable as reeds they are swayed hither and thither; nothing appeals to +them permanently, they desire nothing as much as change. No matter how well +placed, they can seldom resist the lure of an opening in another city, the +farther away, the better. Therefore the old maxim: "a rolling stone gath- +ers no moss," applies particularly to this class, for their roving habits + + +[PAGE 84] READING THE HOROSCOPE + +usually keep them poor. They spend as fast as they earn, or faster. Thus +these people drift upon the sea of life propelled by the currents of circum- +stances. Outside conditions dominate them as they lack stamina to assert +their own individuality. + + The foregoing is true of the great majority who are under the rule and +influence of common signs; they respond to the LOWER PHASE simply because +the higher side is too high for all but a very few at our present stage of +development. Those who make a success in the world because prodded by the +cardinal and fixed influences, call them indolent and good-for-nothing, but +were the former bereft of the cardinal or fixed energy which goads them to +action, and placed under the common ray, they would soon realize its lack of +power and learn compassion for those who must so live all their lives. What +then is the lesson these people have to learn? + + COMPARATIVE EFFECT OF CARDINAL, FIXED AND COMMON + SIGNS ON THE ANGLES + + While the nature of the cardinal signs is such that their rays stir our +latent forces into action and promote change, the most prominent quality of +the fixed signs is Stability; but the student must beware of confounding +stability with inertia. The action induced by the rays of cardinal signs +may be changed into other channels with considerable facility, all they want +being expression; the direction in which they express themselves is a + + +[PAGE 85] READING THE HOROSCOPE + +secondary consideration. Not so with the fixed signs, when their ray impels +to action in a certain direction it is next to impossible to stay the force +or change it. On the other hand, if they deny expression in certain lines, +the obstruction is almost insurmountable. + + People of the fixed class lack ability to make their inventions commer- +cially usable, a task for which the cardinal class is eminently fitted. +Thus these two classes work hand in hand and between them they have trans- +formed the wilderness of the world to a condition of comparative comfort, +their efforts toward improvement are continually carried on, and in time the +desert will be made to bloom like a rose. + + As material success depends on ability to cope with material conditions, +the cardinal class is particularly fortunate, for it is the chief executive +factor in the world's work, and reaps ready reward therefrom. The fixed +class is not so prominently before the public, labors in laboratories and +works experimentally to complete the processes and perfect the models which +are later used in manufacture. Therefore this class also is a potent factor +in life, and shares the material and financial success of the cardinal +class. + + The common class is a sharp contrast. Forces focused through COMMON +signs are MENTAL, therefore people ruled by them are averse to strenuous +physical action which is the forte of the cardinal class; they labor only + + +[PAGE 86] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +when lashed by the whip of necessity. They are also incapable of the slow +by sustained effort put forth by the fixed class and are easily discourage +by obstacles. Thus they are leaners not lifters. TOILERS who do the bid- +ding of the incentive and executive classes are recruited from people ruled +by COMMON signs. There is one sphere, however, where they shine, according +to their ability to think. Being averse to work they have created a +vantage-ground whence they may reap the benefits of the toil of others, of +their inventive faculties and executive skill. To do this they become PRO- +MOTERS who bring inventor and manufacturer together, AGENTS who mediate be- +tween buyer and seller, PEDDLERS, venders and all other MIDDLEMEN who go be- +tween producer and consumer and LIVE ON A COMMISSION; also LITERARY men who +devote their talent to purposeless FICTION belong to the class actuated by +the lower phases of the force in the common signs. + + The cardinal class is active, the common is restless, the fixed class is +rigid, the common is flexible. + + THE FOUR TRIPLICITIES + + The effect of the "Triplicities" is most marked in the rising sign and +when the majority of the planets are grouped in one of them. + + A fiery sign (Aries, Leo or Sagittarius), on the ascendant, gives much +vitality, but it also makes the person prone to fevers and inflammatory dis- +orders; and when the majority of the planets are in fiery signs they make it + + +[PAGE 87] READING THE HOROSCOPE + +very difficult for the person to "keep cool" physically or mentally. + + A watery sign (Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces) rising, gives much less stamina +and predisposes to digestive, urinary and catarrhal troubles. If a person +has many planets in watery signs his problem is to generate enough energy to +keep warm, for this grouping gives a listless, indifferent disposition, ex- +cept when Scorpio is rising or when many planets are in that sign. + + Airy signs rising (Gemini, Libra and Aquarius) give a nervous temperament +and make the person liable to disorders of the lungs, heart and kidneys. +Many planets in these signs give people literary and artistic inclinations. + + Earthy signs rising (Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn), give fair vitality but +a secret fear of disease arrests the vital processes in the body and poisons +these people so that they become victims of chronic ailments oftener than +those of the other groupings. The throat, stomach and intestines are spe- +cially threatened; rheumatism and gout are also frequently experienced. +When a person has many planets in earthy signs it favors the acquisition of +material wealth. + + THE SUN, THE MOON AND THE ASCENDANT + + We stated in our opening paragraph that there are Three Great Factors +which convey to us the Mystic Message of the stars in general, namely, the + + +[PAGE 88] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +"houses," the "signs" and the "planets." There are also three factors which +play a specially important part in the individual horoscope, namely the Sun, +the Moon and the Ascendant, which may be said to represent the spirit, the +soul and the body. + + Properly viewed the Sun, Moon and Ascendant are not really three separate +horoscopical principles but represent two composite parts which when united +constitute the human being. The "rising sing" and the "first house" to- +gether form an avenue for the fecundating influences of the Moon which there +crystallize and form the etheric matrix that moulds the physical particles +from the maternal body into a new vehicle; hence the astrological maxim, +that the ascendant at birth (or its opposite) is the Moon's place at concep- +tion. This composite body is the part of the human being which is born and +dies after a relatively evanescent period of existence. + + The other and immortal part of composite man which consists of the Ego +and its finer vehicles is represented in the horoscope by the Sun and the +Moon. The specific influence of these planets will be described when we +have considered the rising sign. + + THE RISING SIGN + + As taught in "Simplified Scientific Astrology" it is the angle of the +stellar ray which determines in what department of life it will be most +prominently active; and it has been found by observations that the sign ris- +ing or ascending on the eastern horizon when a child is born is the + + +[PAGE 89] READING THE HOROSCOPE + +principal factor in determining the basic constitution and form of the +physical body. Further investigations have shown that the reason for this +fact is that at the time of conception when the seed-atom was planted in the +ovum the Moon, which is the Cosmic agent of fecundation, projected its fer- +tilizing ray through the sign and degree which later rises at the moment of +birth, (or its opposite). For that reason the rising sign and degree con- +tinue to be the avenue of ingress of the life-forces which build the body of +the babe until the severance of the umbilical cord, and the nature of the +rising sign is thus indelibly stamped upon the new vehicle and retained all +through life. + + In this connection it should be noted that conception is not necessarily +coincident with the physical union of the parents, sometimes two weeks or +even more elapsing ere the auspicious moment awaited by the Recording Angels +or their agents strike. At that time cosmic conditions are such that they +will form a body which will facilitate the expression of the Ego seeking +re-embodiment and aid it to work out its self-generated destiny. It should +also be remembered by students that the moment of delivery is not the time +of birth from the astrological point of view. The inhalation of the first +complete breath usually accompanied by a cry, is the moment when the incom- +ing Ego receives its stellar baptism. This renders it ever susceptible to +the influence of the particular configuration of the stars existing at that +moment, and therefore the stars affect each individual differently from all + + +[PAGE 90] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +others, not even the horoscope of twins being alike. It is also strongly +emphasized that according to this explanation we do not have a certain +"fate" because we were born at a particular time, but we are born at a par- +ticular time because we have a certain self-generated destiny to work out. +That is very important distinction for its substitutes divine law for divine +caprice, it eliminates the element of "luck" and inspires man to mastery of +"fate: by working with the Law. If we have made our present horoscope by +our past actions in a past life, logically we are now preparing for future +embodiment and may make it what we choose. If we strive to strengthen our +body now, to overcome our faults, to cultivate new virtues, the Sun of our +next life will rise under much more auspicious conditions than those under +which we now live and thus we may truly rule our stars and master our fate. + + When the last three degrees of a sign are rising or when the first three +degrees ascend at the time of birth the person is said to be born "on the +cusp" between two signs and them the basic nature of the signs involved are +blended in his or her body. Thus a person born when the three last degrees +of Aries or the first degrees of Taurus were ascending would be neither +purely Aries nor Taurus were ascending would be neither purely Aries nor +Taurus but a mixture of the qualities of the two signs. + + The nature of the rising sign is also modified by the presence of + + +[PAGE 91] READING THE HOROSCOPE + +planets. The Sun and Mars increase vitality if well aspected but it af- +flicted they incline to fever and inflammatory disorders but they also favor +rapid recuperation, and make the nature alert and energetic. A +well-aspected Jupiter rising also increases vitality but inclines to corpu- +lence, if the planet is afflicted that makes the circulation sluggish and +thus gives a tendency to disorders of the blood. The foregoing remarks +about Jupiter apply to Venus in a lesser degree. Saturn rising lowers the +vitality and favors chronic ill-health in later life, but at the same time +he gives such a tenacious hold on life that though the person may pray to be +released he cannot die. Mercury, Moon, Uranus and Neptune make the body +more high-strung and nervous than the average, usable specially for pioneers +in music, literature, higher thought, science and the electrical arts. + + Planets placed in the twelfth house are considered as being on the ascen- +dant if within six degrees thereof, also all planets in the first house no +matter how far from the rising degree; but if a sign be intercepted in the +first house, planets placed therein will not have as strong an influence in +the life as though the sign occupy the cusp. + + +[PAGE 92] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER V + + THE INFLUENCE OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + + WHEN RISING + + ARIES, THE RAM + + Aries is mythologically represented as a ram and the symbol describes +most accurately those born under its influence; a pointed and protruding +sheep like nose, wide forehead, pointed chin and the resultant triangular +face noted in many people, are unmistakable indications of their rising +sign. Light brown or reddish tint of the hair is a pronounced characteris- +tic of the Arian,; the body is slender and well formed; if the first part of +the sign is rising the body is shorter, and the complexion darker than given +by the latter degrees. + + Planets in the rising sign will modify the description however, and the +student must use his knowledge of the character of the planets in conjunc- +tion with the description of the Sign. The Sun and Mars make the complexion +more florid, the Moon and Saturn make it paler and darker, Jupiter and Venus +make the body more portly. Saturn shortens. Uranus and Mercury lengthens. +This applies to all the signs, but is especially marked when a planet rises +in the sign it rules. Mars in Aries rising would give fiery red hair and a + + +[PAGE 93] INFLUENCE OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +face full of freckles. The Sun rising in Leo would give a florid complexion +with flaxen hair, but if Saturn were there, instead it would shorten the +body and darken the hair. + + Aries people are bold, self-confident and impulsive; they aim to lead, +dislike to follow, are always ready to take the initiative in any movement +that appeals to them, but often lack persistence to carry their projects to +a conclusion over serious obstacles. + + The Sun, and Mars the Ruler, rising in Aries would intensify the above, +but as a thorough explanation will be given under the heading "The Intrinsic +Nature of the Planets," the student is referred thereto. We may mention +it here, however, as a peculiarity that Aries people live through fevers +to which others succumb. We have known their hair to fall out, and the tem- +perature to remain four degrees above the usual maximum for many hours with- +out fatal result. + + TAURUS, THE BULL + + Taurus is represented by a Bull in the Zodiac, and the bodies generated +under this sign are usually short and stocky. They have a strong neck with +the bump of amativeness well developed, large lobe of the ear, heavy jaws, +full face; nose short and stubby. Dark eyes and wavy hair frequently give +them considerable beauty. The eye of the Taurian may never dart bolts of +fire such as those wherewith the Arian would annihilate his enemies; it is + + +[PAGE 94] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +softer, but under provocation it becomes sullenly expressive of the passive +resistance wherewith these people win their battles. It then marks the +difference between the impulsive Aries and the stubborn Taurus. The inner +phalange of the thumb is large and heavy, the calves well developed and the +foot chubby. In walking the Taurian usually plants his heel first, and +heaviest. + + Taurus people are pre-eminently "thorough and steadfast" in everything +they do: In love, in hate, in work or play, they persist in a given direc- +tion, and neither reason nor argument will turn them. They are verbose and +argumentative in defense of their actions or opinions; they grasp new ideas +slowly, with difficulty and conservatively, but once comprehended and es- +poused, they always remember what they have learned and defend their opin- +ions to the last ditch. + + The Sun rising in Taurus gives an unusually firm physique, and accentu- +ates the Taurus pride in strength. THE MOON, being the planet of fecundity, +is exalted in this exceedingly fruitful sign; hence people with the Moon in +Taurus have large families, particularly if the configuration is in the +fifth house, for that designates children. + + Venus, the ruler of Taurus, rising in that sign, makes the form beautiful +as well as strong, also giving artistic ability and musical inspiration. + + +[PAGE 95] INFLUENCE OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + + GEMINI, THE TWINS + + When Gemini is rising the body generated is tall and slender, the arms +and limbs are particularly long, fingers slender, hair dark, eyes hazel. +Gemini people are quick, active and alert in all their movements, habitual +restlessness being noticeable in the expression of the eyes, which differs +in that respect from more fixed tendencies of the eyes of those born under +the two preceding signs, although of course we do not mean that the Arian +always looks angry and the Taurian stubborn, nevertheless, there is a +settled tendency in those directions noticeable when these people are not +occupied in a certain direction; but the Gemini people have an expression +which is much more vivid, changeable and past finding out. They have +acutely inquiring minds, and always want to know the reason why, but often +lack persistence to follow clews to the end, and thus they meet disappoint- +ment. Being tactful they avoid giving offense even under provocation, and +are therefore generally liked by all; though their own affections are not +deep. Two distinct classes are born under this sign; one, too fond of read- +ing, should cultivate independent thought, instead of repeating other +people's ideas, or aping their manners; the other is scientific, well bal- +anced and reserved; a model for any person. + + The Sun rising in Gemini brings out all the noblest traits of the sign; +it makes the nature more settled and contented, gives more persistence and a +particularly healthy and active body. + + +[PAGE 96] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + Mercury, the ruler, rising in Gemini, sharpens perception, gives ability +as a writer, or speaker, but makes the person born with that position ex- +tremely irritable, vacillating and fond of change of scene and employment. +Such people are best fitted for traveling salesmen. + + CANCER, THE CRAB + + The chief peculiarities of the crab are a clumsy body, slender limbs and +powerful claws.; people born with Cancer rising express them all. They have +a large upper body, augmented in later years by a prominence of the abdomen +acquired by over-eating. The mandible or lower jaw is powerfully hinged to +the cranium, the face is therefore widest between the ears, the mouth is +also large, and the whole construction similar to the crab's claw. The face +is full, the hair brown, the eyes blue, complexion pale and sickly, for the +Cancer person has the least vitality of any. The limbs are extremely slen- +der in proportion to the large upper body, so the structure appears "top +heavy," and he walks with a "rolling" gait. + + Cancer people are very fond of the home and its comforts, they are quiet, +reserved and adapt themselves to conditions, hence they are easy to get +along with; their anger is shortlived, and they hold no spite. Though lack- +ing in physical prowess, they are no hypocrites, but always have the courage +of their convictions; they voice and defend them too. + + +[PAGE 97] INFLUENCE OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + + The Sun rising in Cancer brings out and accentuates all the good +qualities mentioned above, giving more ambition and pride; it also increases +the vitality, and is a particular boon in that respect to people with Cancer +rising on account of their very low life force. Cancer, with its rule; the +Moon, governs the stomach and hence alimentation; Leo and its ruler, the +Sun, have charge of the heart and circulation. If these signs and planets +are well placed in the horoscope, they counteract most other afflictions and +a long lease of life is assured, but if they are afflicted, much sickness +results unless intelligent care is applied to modify the omen. + + The Moon, the ruler, rising in Cancer, will give much instability to the +natures, and Jupiter, being exalted there, will bring fortune and fame. + + LEO, THE LION + + The lion is the king of beasts and even in captivity is an embodiment of +stateliness and pride. The typical Leos of the Zodiac also express pride in +every movement and a stateliness which will not escape attention of the keen +observer; the expansive chest, the massive shoulders, the strong arm and the +large head contrast noticeably with the more slender but still muscular un- +der body; and as Aries has the sheep face, so the typical Leo has certain +feline features. The complexion is florid, eyes large and full, blue or +grayish in color, expressing laughter, cheerfulness and content. The whole + + +[PAGE 98] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +frame is well knit and strong, having great endurance and recuperative +power. + + It is really wonderful how the symbology of the signs is brought out in +the different kinds of people born under them. People who are born under +Leo always want to be noted; they are aggressive and want to attract atten- +tion everywhere they go. They aim to be leaders, not followers. + + Leo rules the heart, and it is a marked characteristic that people with +Leo rising unafflicted, have hearts bigger than their pocketbooks, they give +generously of their time, money or knowledge without thought of self. If +the Sun rises in Leo, this trait becomes almost prodigality, but if Saturn +is there to afflict instead, he will counteract it sot that they will either +circumscribe their gifts with conditions to such an extent that they retain +practical control, or they will spend their means on themselves. + + Leos are honest and faithful; being children of the day star, they love +light and truth, are above subterfuge and aim straight at their object. +Their will is firm to attain by honorable means, They make good orators and +hold their audiences by personal magnetism. They are very attractive to the +opposite sex, and the lower nature should be held firmly in check, otherwise +serious trouble and heartache may ensure. The French, as a race, are ruled +by Leo, and afford ample illustration of this point. + + The Sun rising in Leo, unafflicted, gives a body of wonderful strength, +vitality and recuperative power; superior in its wiriness to the body + + +[PAGE 99] INFLUENCE OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +generated by the Sun in Taurus; but if Mars is afflicted in Leo, palpitation +of the heart will ensue. Saturn here will cause regurgitation unless care +is taken in early years to avoid strain. + + VIRGO, THE VIRGIN + + People born when Virgo is rising are above middle stature. The upper +part of the head is much more developed than the lower, the weak chin, show- +ing lack of will and the large brain indicating greatness of intellect, be- +ing therefore earmarks of the Virgo. The face is thin, the complexion sal- +low, the hair brown and the eyes hazel or grey. The feet are small, the +toes turn inwards and give these people a peculiar labored walk. + + Virgo people are very quick and active in youth, they learn with facil- +ity, and do not work hard for knowledge; they seem to breathe it in without +an effort. They acquire linguistic and elocutionary powers most readily, +are fluent writers but are often cynical, cold and unforgiving when they +have been injured. They are extremists in their food, and make hygiene a +fad; they often fancy that they have every imaginable disease, because Virgo +is the sixth sign and has a certain affinity with the sixth house, denoting +health the and disease. + + Mercury, the ruler, is also exalted here and gives pronouncement of all +the good which otherwise might be expected from the Sun. + + Virgo people are slender in youth, but when the Sun of Life passes the + + +[PAGE 100] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Meridian and begins to throw its shadows toward the East, we find in them a +tendency toward corpulence of body, particularly of that part ruled by +Virgo, namely, the abdomen. They neglect to take exercise, and naturally on +this account a sluggish condition of the intestines may set in which retains +the poisons in the body and robs life of its joys, making one indifferent. +In this fact lies the greatest danger of the Virgo people. Once they get +into the rut of sickness, they actually "enjoy" poor health. They love to +talk over their symptoms with other people, and they resent any thought or +suggestion given to them that they are not sick, or that they can get well. +The presence of Saturn in Virgo, or the sixth house, accentuates this ten- +dency in the very highest degree, and therefore it is an almost infallible +sign that the native will have or be subject to chronic illness, the nature +of the disease being denoted by the aspect, and the afflicting planets. + + In order to deal successfully with Virgo people when they have once be- +come subject to disease, and get them out of it at all, it is necessary to +be firm almost to the verge of cruelty. But though one may seem cruel in +enforcing upon them the regime that is necessary to bring them away from +themselves, this is really the greatest kindness that can be shown, for once +these people are in the grip of sickness they stubbornly refuse to let go; +they will resort to the most cunning, even childlike schemes to excite + + +[PAGE 101] INFLUENCE OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +sympathy, particularly from strangers, and they will represent any effort to +show them that they are not helpless invalids. At the very slightest sug- +gestion of a hopeful nature, they sometimes lost their temper in the most +unwarranted manner. But when at last they are given the deaf ear by every- +body, when people who are in their immediate environment can be persuaded to +show them no sympathy, then they may come to themselves. They need a shock +to bring them out and away from their condition. And until they get that +they never can be cured. + + The Virgos make splendid nurses, if they can keep from taking on the con- +ditions of the patient. The Virgo people never can bear to see blood shed +or touch dead things. They feel bodily injury to others more that harm done +to themselves, and are in fact splendidly described by the word "chicken +hearted." + + LIBRA, THE SCALES + + Elegance may be said to express in one word the physical peculiarities of +the Libran. The body is slender and graceful in youth, it becomes more +plump as life advances, but even the portliness of the Libra body is pleas- +ing. The complexion is smooth and clear, eyes are soft and blue with a kind +expression; the mouth is unusually well formed and the teeth particularly +fine and even. + + Libra people have extremely strong conjugal affection, so strong, in +fact, that it overshadows all other considerations. The Leos love their + + +[PAGE 102] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +families, but their hearts take in all the world besides; not so the +Librans; they are ready for any sacrifice to give comforts to those in their +own immediate home circle, but they are also prepared to sacrifice any other +family for their own, if necessary. + + In most other traits the Librans express aptly the symbolism of their +sign, a pair of scales, and their characteristics might be expressed in the +word: "Changeability." They are people of "moods," because Saturn is ex- +alted here and weighs upon the mind; the changes are sudden and extreme; +they may follow a fad with as much zest as if their life depended upon it, +and them without a moment's warning, drop it and take up something entirely +opposite there are no half-way measures in the swing of the scales. Being +naturally given to change, they are most adaptable to circumstances, and do +not fret over reverses, but set about with vim and vigor to restore their +fortunes. + + Aries and Libra may be said to be the battlefields of the Sun and Saturn: +Life and Death, Joy and Sorrow. The Sun is exalted in Aries, and vanquishes +Saturn; hence the intrepidity of Aries people. In Libra the scales tip the +other way; there Saturn is exalted, and conquers the Sun; this gives a +softer tone to the Libran, whose kindly politeness contrasts markedly with +the Arian's brusque address. Venus, the ruler of Libra, is not alone re- +sponsible for this trait, Taurus people are blunt, though Venus rules. Venus + + +[PAGE 103] INFLUENCE OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +rising in Libra gives artistic ability, Saturn turns the mind in scientific +directions. + + Librans usually have well shaped hands and feet, and are very proud of +them. + + SCORPIO, THE EAGLE + + The nose is the most prominent feature of the Scorpio; it is large, +heave, and hooked, resembling the bill of the eagle, the brows are bushy, +the eyes sharp and piercing; the jaw is very heavy; the glint of the eye, +and the set of the jaw indicate the great determination which is the most +prominent characteristic of the Scorpio. The face is angular, complexion +murky, and hair dark, with a peculiar ruddy tinge noticeable when the sun +shines on it. The teeth are large and subject to early decay. The body is +short and thickest, with a short, thick neck resembling that of the opposite +sign, Taurus. + + Scorpio people always stand up for their rights, and never submit to im- +position, through prone to ride roughshod over others. They are full of +worries over things that may happen, but never do, and thus make life a bur- +den to those around them. Sarcasm that stings like a scorpion is ever upon +the tip of their tongue, yet their love is strong, and their aspirations +lofty. Thus there are two natures struggling in the Scorpios and they need +much sympathy and forbearance from their friends. In the hour of danger +they never flinch, but perform deeds of heroism with a disregard for self +that amounts to foolhardiness. The mind is sharp, cool and collected, + + +[PAGE 104] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +therefore Scorpio men make good army officers and excel in surgery. The +Scorpio woman has a large family. + + The Sun in Scorpio accentuates the good traits, and gives a love mysti- +cism; but Mars, the ruler, brings out the worldly side of the sign and makes +scoffers and skeptics. + + SAGITTARIUS, THE CENTAUR + + People born with Sagittarius rising are even taller that those born under +the opposite sign, Gemini, the men in particular having large hands and +feet. The size and weight of the bony frame is often too much for the +ligaments of the spine to support, so these people often develop a decided +stoop in later years. The face is long and well formed, the nose well pro- +portioned, dark kindly eyes and dark chestnut hair. The body is very ac- +tive, but requires much rest, as the recuperative powers are below the aver- +age. + + The symbol of this sign shows that there are two widely different classes +born therein. One, designated by the animal body of the Centaur, is frankly +in for "a good time," they are sporty, soldiers of fortune, of roving pro- +clivities, fond of games of change, and ready to risk their all on the turn +of a card, the speed of a horse, or a game of ball, while Aries or Scorpio +people may become pugilists, and Taurus people take up wresting as a profes- +sion. The sports of Sagittarius have no element of cruelty in them. +Sagittarians when afflicted may become criminals, their crimes are never + + +[PAGE 105] INFLUENCE OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +violent, however, but rather results of their indulgence of the animal na- +ture. + + The other class is the extreme opposite, symbolized by the human part of +the sign. Here is the man rising above the animal nature, bending the bow +of aspiration and aiming at limitless space, signifying the loftiest longing +of that immortal spark of incipient divinity we call the soul. This class +is law abiding and of the highest morals; from it come the pillars of the +church and beloved rulers of state famed for integrity, benevolence and jus- +tice. + + The Sun rising in this sign is sure to bring preferment even to those +born in lowly and obscure circumstances, and accentuate all good shown in +the sign; so will Jupiter, the ruler. + + Sagittarius rules the thighs and therefore, naturally, configurations +from this sign, if afflicted are likely to cause accidents to those parts. +And it is notable fact that Sagittarius are very liable to broken bones un- +der circumstances where people under other signs seldom meet injury. + + In the eighth degree of Sagittarius we have the fixed star Antares, which +has a very evil effect upon the sight. Two other nebulous spots in the Zo- +diac have a similar influence. One is Ascelli in Leo 6, the other Pleiades +in Taurus 29. The Sun, or Moon, in one of those places and adversely +configurated with one of the malefics, Saturn, Mars, Uranus, or Neptune +gives trouble with the eyes, according to the nature of the evil aspect; or +vice versa, if Saturn, Mars, Uranus or Neptune are in one of the nebulous + + +[PAGE 106] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +spots adversely configurated to the Sun or Moon a similar trouble will be +experienced. Should a planet like one of the above named by in retrograde +motion the aspect is much worse, for when the planet has ceased to retro- +grade and goes direct in the Zodiac again, it will pass over which ever one +of these nebulous spots it is close to a second time and thereby cause an +added damage. There may be, however, a compensating side to this aspect, +for it sometimes happens that while an evil configuration to one of these +nebulous spots, (and Antares is the worst,) deprives a person of his sight, +a benevolent configuration awakens in him a second-sight which will mitigate +the loss in a degree that only those who have that sight can appreciate. + + The Sagittarian must learn to realize his ideals within instead of seek- +ing them without. We are in this school of experience for the purpose of +overcoming, and it is not by running away from one place to another that we +gain experience. By staying in one place, by doing our very best to attain +our ideals where we are, we make our ideals come true. + + CAPRICORN, THE GOAT + + Capricorn rising gives a short, slender, narrow-chested body with a thin +neck, thin silky dark hair, a pale peaked face with small, weak eyes. It +makes the chin pointed and turned upwards, the nose pointed and turned down- +wards, an impediment in the speech, ill formed lower limbs and an awkward + + +[PAGE 107] INFLUENCE OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +walk. The vitality is very low, and these children are reared with great +difficulty, but once infancy is past, they exhibit a tenacity that is truly +amazing, and often become very, very old; they seem to dry up into a mass of +wrinkled skin and bone that is all but imperishable, this, on account of the +Saturn ray which rules Capricorn. It is noticeable also, that all who have +that planet prominent in the nativity show the before mentioned wrinkling of +the skin, even though they may retain corpulence conferred by other con- +figurations. + + Ambition and suspicion are ruling characteristics, an inordinate desire +for recognition of their claims to superiority and advancement; also suspi- +cion that others are trying to subvert or withhold the covet prize, is ever +with these people. It causes them much unnecessary worry, and may result in +habitual melancholy, particularly if Saturn is afflicted. They ought to +seek amusement outdoors, read funny stories and otherwise try to cultivate a +sense of the humorous from childhood, for this is one of the saddest signs, +and needs all possible encouragement. + + Capricorn people are successful in detective work, where secret practices +are used to trap others. and persistence is required to ferret out a mys- +tery, for they never give up. The afflicted Capricorn is very revengeful, +and if by Mars, may shed blood to satisfy a grudge. The Sun rising brings + + +[PAGE 108] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +out the Justice, Purity and Honor of the sign, makes Captains of Industry +such as forward the great enterprises of the world. + + AQUARIUS, THE WATER BEARER + + The stateliness and pride of those born under the sign of Leo are not +missing in the typical Aquarian, but while in the Leo these qualities are of +a lower, more bestial nature agreeable to the sign, they are manly pride and +stateliness in the true Aquarian. Libra generates a beautiful body but more +effeminate as it were, whereas the Aquarian beauty is truly manly or wom- +anly; the fearless eye is kindly and drooping eyelashes are peculiar to this +sign. The forehead is square, and the well developed poise tells of intel- +lect, the large domed head shows the spiritual side of the nature and the +chin is sufficiently developed to give purpose to all actions. Thus the +typical Aquarian is the highest grade of humanity; but therefore, also ex- +ceedingly rare, for the variants produced in each sign from the typical, by +the interposition of one or more planets are so different that the type is +often unrecognizable in the majority of its features. Aquarians are most +loyal to friends, therefore they attract many, keep them through life, and +are much benefited by them. Like Capricorn, this sign is ruled by Saturn, +and he gives to the Aquarian the same retiring nature and tendency to +melancholy which marks the Capricornian, but also the persistence in the +following a given course; and whatever financial success comes to these + + +[PAGE 109] INFLUENCE OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +people is the result of continued and patient effort; Aquarians are very de- +liberate and long suffering; they never act in a hurry, and therefore seldom +have cause to regret their actions, save when reason has been stilled +through play upon their sympathies, for under such circumstances they are +readily imposed upon. the love nature is very strong, but they are not as +demonstratives as the Leo. It is noteworthy that the qualities of opposite +signs are always reflected; Leo in Aquarius, reflects love; Taurus mirrors +the passion of Scorpio; the Gemini body is a reflex of the bony Sagittarius +frame, etc. + + The Sun and Saturn bring out more prominently the good traits of +Aquarius; this sign, where Saturn rules and Libra, where he is exalted, are +therefore under his most benign influence. The Sun in Aquarius adds much +hope and life to the nature, and thus counteracts the melancholy trait pre- +viously mentioned. + + PISCES, THE FISHES + + The typical Piscean is short, flabby and fleshy with a waddling gait not +unlike those born under the sign Cancer, but differs from them by having a +stouter body. The feet are often tuned in, but larger that those born under +Virgo. The body is weak and deficient in recuperative force. The complex- +ion is medium, the eyes blue, watery and expressionless, the nose large and +flat. + + +[PAGE 110] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + There is a strong tendency to mediumship among the Pisces people, and +therein is a danger greater than any other on earth. No one should "sit for +development" and degenerate into the tool of low spirits, but Pisces people +in particular are "lost" if taken control of. They cannot free themselves, +either in this life or the next, because generally inert and devoid of will- +power. They are timid, and even the mean are tearful on the slightest +provocation; they love leisure more than comfort, and do no work which is +not absolutely necessary to keep body and soul together. They love change +of scene, rove about considerably, generally in an aimless manner. Being +fond of good things to eat and drink, particularly the latter, and lacking +will to curb their appetite when afflicted, they frequently indulge their +craving to such an extent that they become habitual drunkards. + + The Sun rising in Pisces gives more energy and ambition, Jupiter, the +ruler, strengthens the morals, and Venus exalted in this sign, gives great +musical talent, but accentuates the tendency to alcoholic indulgence, which +mars the lives of so many splendid musicians. + + When many planets are in Pisces, the person will have a hard life, be- +cause he or she will not want to take up life's burden, but will love to +dream; such people become recluses; they seek to master the hidden arts, oc- +cultism and mysticism; are not guided by reason, but rather by their likes +and dislikes, and unless they can find an occupation that is otherwise + + +[PAGE 111] INFLUENCE OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +isolated from the ordinary business and trend of life they will feel out of +place. They are prone to incur the enmity of people with whom they come in +contact intimately, nobody seems to get along with them, and nearly every- +body, whether he or she shows it or not, will take a dislike to them. + + There is, however, a higher side to Pisces; the person who finds himself +with Pisces on the ascendant is at the end of one cycle of progress and at +the beginning of a new. He stands, as it were, upon the threshold of some- +thing higher. Therefore, he is usually not able to live up to the possi- +bilities of the sign which requires self-sacrifice and non-resistance in ab- +solutely Christlike fashion. The tendency is therefore to drift upon the +sea of life and dream dreams of future greatness. This tendency must be +counteracted by every effort of the will, for otherwise life will be a fail- +ure, and later the stern whip of necessity will be applied to goad him or +her into action. + + +[PAGE 112] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER VI + + THE INTRINSIC NATURE OF THE PLANETS + + The nature of gun powder which causes it to explode under certain circum- +stances is neither good nor bad, the quality of its action being determined +by the way its power is used. When it furthers the welfare of the community +it is called good, and evil when used in a manner derogatory to our well be- +ing; so also with the planets, they are neither good nor evil, each having +its intrinsic nature and acting in a manner consonant therewith save as +modified by the circumstances under which its powers are exerted. When we +know the nature of a sign and the nature of a planet, we may combine the +two, and thus obtain the correct reading of the stellar script by our own +reasoning instead of depending upon authorities. For instance, the Sun is +hot, full of vital force, and exercises an influence that buoys us up in the +body and spirit. When its rays fall upon us with moderate strength it makes +us stronger and more cheerful, for there is an atmosphere of generosity, +out-going love and kindliness in the Sun. Thus if the Sun at birth is in +the weak sign, Cancer, naturally the effect would be to modify the weak con- +stitution described in the foregoing signature of the signs; the heat of the + + +[PAGE 113] INTRINSIC NATURE OF THE PLANETS + +Sun would give a more florid complexion to the Cancer person, the general +health and recuperative powers would be materially augmented, not to speak +of the changes that would be manifested in the disposition, giving more am- +bition, hopefulness and buoyancy to the temperament. Suppose, on the other +hand, that the Sun is in Aries when that sign is rising at the birth of a +person, then the fire of the Sun, added to the fire of the sign Aries, will +increase the boldness and the intrepidity of the person to such a degree +that they may become foolhardiness, particularly, if Mars, the ruler of Ar- +ies, is also there increasing the warlike tendencies. Those are traits of +character, but the physical body will also suffer from this excessive hear, +the blood will race through the veins of such a person like a Niagara of +liquid fire, and fevers will be a frequent experience, as the superabundance +of vitality burns out the physical easement. Were the cold, slow and slug- +gish Saturn there instead of the Sun and Mars, he might squelch almost all +of the Aries characteristics both mental and physical. If we consider Aries +symbolized by a stove in which a fire is burning, it would make the same +difference whether the hot Mars, or the cold Saturn, were placed there, as +it makes a difference whether we pour oil or water into the stove. +Similarly, all the other planets produce various results, according to their +intrinsic natures and their various combinations. For the sake of lucidity, +and ready reference, let us first set down the word which describes the most + + +[PAGE 114] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +salient characteristics of each planet. + + The Sun...................................Life + Venus................................Coalition + Mercury.................................Reason + The Moon...........................Fecundation + Saturn.............................Obstruction + Jupiter...............................Idealism + Mars............................Dynamic Energy + Uranus................................Altruism + Neptune...............................Divinity + + In the foregoing, the essential natures of the planets have been given; +where they are well aspected by another planet these natural characteristics +are enhanced so far as the benefic planets are concerned, but when evilly +aspected, the nature of Venus, which is love and rhythm, becomes folly, li- +centiousness and sloth; the philosophy, law-abiding tendencies, mercy and +lofty aspirations of Jupiter turn into lawlessness, disregard of others, and +low pursuits; the lofty spirituality of the Sun will express itself as just +animals spirits and physical health. In regard to the planets of the lower +nature, good aspects of Mars turn the desires toward constructive objects, +as well regulated activities, while evil aspects are responsible for the de- +structive expression of the desire nature. Saturn, when well aspected, +gives mechanical and executive ability capable of directing the desire + + +[PAGE 115] INTRINSIC NATURE OF THE PLANETS + +nature. It shows the brainy, persevering man able to cope with, and con- +quer, material obstacles; the organizer and the promoter; the scientific in- +vestigator, who follows material lines. As Jupiter, well aspected, denotes +the high-minded philosopher, the worth law-giver, the sincere and ardent +priest, in fact, all who have high and lofty aspirations, so Saturn, when +evilly aspected, denotes the evil-minded, creed-bound sectarian, the materi- +alist, and enemy of society, whether church or state. As Jupiter gives the +lofty, expansive and benevolent mind, so Saturn, evilly aspected, gives a +sarcastic, concrete and narrow tendency. + + It is wonderful to contemplate how the planetary forces balance each +other so perfectly that universal equilibrium is maintained despite the dis- +turbances of the 1700 millions who inhabit the earth alone, not to speak of +other spheres. Every moment of time our actions, individually and collec- +tively, interfere with terrestrial equipoise, and were not this instantly +restored, the earth must leave its orbit, fly off at a tangent and be de- +stroyed. Nor are physical disturbances most potent in disturbing or restor- +ing balance, it being a fallacy to confound solidity and rigidity with +strength, as most thoroughly explained in our lecture No. 19, "The Coming +Force." A train has no strength itself, but must be solid because it is op- +erated upon by an invisible gas called steam. There is no force in a rigid +hammer; but when driven by a column of flexible liquid, like water, backed + + +[PAGE 116] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +by an elastic cushion of compressed air, the force stored in the air, the +force stored in the air drives the powerful hydraulic ram irresistibly +through whatever comes before it. Likewise subtle, invisible, stellar rays +are the factors which maintain our ponderous planet in its path, and +spiritual disturbances generated by mankind are naturally the most subtle +force which interferes with the earth's equipoise. + + Each planet has its opposite, and therefore every time we radiate the +quality of one planet, we call forth a counter current of corresponding +force, and by the action and reaction of those forces in and upon us and our +environment we learn the lessons of life. Do we vibrate to the love ray of +Venus, instantly Mars comes to tempt, and tries to turn love to lust, but it +depends upon US whether we remain steadfast in virtue or yield to vice. Do +we court the ideal of Jupiter; do we aim to elevate the standard of church +or state, instantly the Saturnine forces invite to self-aggrandizement and +appeal to the passion for power. With US it lies to remain true to the +ideal and reap laurels that last through eternity, or yield to the promise +of present gain or worthless gold which we repay in sorrow when Saturn turns +and becomes the chastiser. Each horoscope shows the tendencies in even the +humblest life, and opportunity continually knocks. May we all be prepared +to meet it as spiritual astrologers. + + +[PAGE 117] INTRINSIC NATURE OF THE PLANETS + + HOW TO TEST THE HOROSCOPE + + It sometimes happens that a momentary mental aberration causes even the +best of mathematicians to make a mistake in his figures and if an error oc- +curs when casting a horoscope an immense amount of labor may be wasted be- +fore it is discovered. There is an easy method of verifying the figure in +the main points by a glance at the position of the Sun. The cautious as- +trologer never neglects to make use of this method, and we would specially +recommend it to beginners who are naturally more prone to miscalculate that +those who have long experience. + + When you have calculated the place of the Sun and entered it in its +proper house and sign, note at once if its position coincides with its ac- +tual place in the sky at the time of day when the child was born. If the +birth occurred about sunrise, the Sun must be near the ascendant; if in the +middle of the forenoon the Sun should be somewhere in the eleventh house, if +near noon the Sun will be found near the Midheaven in a correctly cast horo- +scope, and in the middle of the afternoon it is in the eighth house. A +child born near sunset has its sun close to the cusp between the sixth and +seventh houses, and if the birth occurs about 9 p.m., the Sun will be in or +near the fifth house. When birth is at midnight the Sun is near the nadir, +and a child born about 3 o'clock in the morning has the Sun in or near the +second house. + + If you find that the Sun is in its proper position relative to the + + +[PAGE 118] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +houses, you may confidently proceed with your calculations and place the +other planets. If not, you have made a mistake which must be corrected +before you go further. + + When someone hands you a horoscope calculated by another astrologer and +asks you to read it, look first at the time of birth and then see if the Sun +is in its proper position relative to the houses, and the right sign as de- +termined by the month, for if you start to read from an improperly cast +horoscope you lay yourself liable to ridicule. Suppose Saturn were on the +ascendant and you accuse that person of being melancholy; when he denies the +indications and you discover that Mars and Mercury should be there in Scor- +pio, it is not probably that he will accept your explanations; he will more +likely sneer at astrology and astrologers; nor can we deny that from his +point of view such condemnation is justified. Therefore be careful to look +at the Sun. Other mistakes may occur, but that is the most serious and the +most easily detected. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + + diff --git a/religious documents/ms03.txt b/religious documents/ms03.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c37a45 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ms03.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1889 @@ +[PAGE 119] CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + + CHAPTER VII + + THE CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + + THE CHILDREN OF ARIES + + Born March 20th to April 21st + + Aries is the home of Mars, the planet of dynamic energy, and is also the +exaltation sign of the life-giving Sun, hence it is a very fountain of life +and vitality as manifest in the sprouting of the millions of seeds which +break through the earth's crust at spring time and change the white winter +garment to a flower-embroidered carpet of green, making the forests a bridal +bower for the mating beasts and birds. + + This great vital force also finds its expression in the children of Ar- +ies; they bubble over with life and energy to such an extent that it is of- +ten very difficult to curb them sufficiently to hold them within the bounds +of safety and common sense. They are self-assertive and aggressive to a de- +gree, always in the lead for they scorn to follow, turbulent and radical in +all their thoughts, ideas and actions. They are venturesome to the verge of + + +[PAGE 120] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +foolhardiness. We also find that they are greedy for the fruits of their +labor, they never can get enough, and no matter how much they earn they are +generally poor for they spend as freely and as thoughtlessly as they earn. +They make splendid foremen and overseers, for, being so full of vital energy +and ambition themselves, they have a faculty of infusing their energy into +their subordinates or forcing them to work when necessary. But being too +impulsive and reckless they lack the ability to originate for themselves. +They are serious and ardent in all they undertake; they cannot go into any- +thing half-heartedly, and therefore, if they once espouse a cause, social, +political or religious, they will work for that cause with all the vim and +vigor of their energetic nature. But if on the other hand an Aries child +becomes addicted to a vice the whole intensity of its being is turned to- +wards the gratification of that particular part of its lower nature. There- +fore parents with Aries children have a great responsibility to set before +them by precept and example the noblest and best form of conduct of which +they are capable, for this is probably the most impressive sign in the zo- +diac, and the habits formed, the lessons learned in childhood and youth will +generally cling to the person through life and make him either very good or +very bad. Be particularly careful to inculcate abstinence from alcoholic +liquors, for if an Aries child becomes addicted to that he is beyond saving +and often becomes subject to delirium. + + +[PAGE 121] CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + + CHILDREN OF TAURUS + + Born April 21st to May 22nd + + On the 21st of April, the Sun enters the zodiacal sign of the Bull, +thought, and remains in that sign until the 20th of May and therefore chil- +dren born between those dates partake in a great measure of the characteris- +tics of this sign. Taurus is ruled by Venus the planet of love, and there- +fore the children of thought have a basically amicable and kind disposition, +but when they once have conceived an idea they cling to it with stubborn- +ness, they are very resentful of contradiction and very difficult to con- +vince that they have made a mistake; but when one has once succeeded in +showing them that they are wrong their inherent love of justice and truth +will prompt them to acknowledge their mistakes and try to rectify them. +They have a very strong and determined will so that when they set up a goal +for themselves or have made up their minds to do anything they usually keep +on working with patience and persistence until they make a success of what- +ever they have undertaken. They also have good executive ability and are +able to take leading positions where they have others under their command. +Although they are amicable and agreeable when in the company of others they +have a strong tendency to seek solitude and to become very self-centered. +They seem to set up unconsciously a barrier between themselves and other +people so that it is difficult to become intimately acquainted with them. + + +[PAGE 122] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Taurus children are very keen in their desires for material possessions and +they are usually very fortunate also in acquiring them for besides having +good earning power themselves they are often the recipients of inheritance. +But they do not want wealth for the sake of having it as much as for the +pleasure and comfort which they can get out of it; they are very fond of +comforts and luxuries, art, music, drama and other refining influences of +life. + + The children of thought have an abundance of vitality to start with, but +they are very apt to go to excess in work or play, waste their energy and +become ill as a consequence. They are particularly attracted to the plea- +sures of the table. They revel in rich foods which later give them a ten- +dency to digestive troubles, enlargement of the liver, heart disease and +congestion of the kidneys. These diseases are very apt to make them uncom- +fortable in later life, therefore parents should inculcate in them above all +things the virtue of frugality, not only by precept, but by example, for +these Taurus children, are very quick and they will readily see that "mother +and father tell me to eat little but they eat all they want themselves." +They should also be taught to take plenty of exercise as a means to promote +health, for the children of thought are rather indolent in their manner. +However, as said before, they have a most wonderful vitality PARTICULARLY IF +THEY ARE BORN AT SUNRISE and although they may become subject to the + + +[PAGE 123] CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +the diseases mentioned they will usually have a long life and a fair measure +of general good health, wealth and happiness. + + CHILDREN OF GEMINI + Born May 22nd to June 22nd + + The children of Gemini are wonderfully quick-witted and bright; they also +have the ability to express themselves clearly and to the point, therefore +they are always good company. Conversation never lags when they are +present, in fact they are sometimes given to monopolizing it entirely, but +then they are often so interesting that other people are glad to listen. +They acquire learning very rapidly and are very well informed on most sub- +jects. They have a good memory so that what they have won is not lost, that +is of course, provided the horoscope is otherwise well-aspected and +configurated. Where it is seriously afflicted we find the faults of the +Gemini pointing in the opposite directions; then they may be inveterate +chatterboxes, shunned by everybody who can possibly get out of their way. +The great point to remember with these children is that they have the abil- +ity of expression and a great deal may be done during the days of childhood +to mould the character in such a way that it expresses itself in a manner +congenial to others and to the general benefit of the child and its sur- +roundings, and that will be of help to it later in life. + + The children of Gemini are, generally speaking, of a very kind and + + +[PAGE 124] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +affable disposition, easy to get along with. They are able to adapt them- +selves to other people and to circumstances so that they become all things +to all men and in that way they usually make friends and few enemies. They +are of a roving disposition and love to travel about from one place to an- +other. They excel in scientific or clerical activities, as agents or repre- +sentatives of others where their Mercurial talents find an avenue for ex- +pression. + + From the moral point of view it is not good to have a flexible nature. +The children of Gemini are only too easily made victims of flattery and +therefore apt to be led unconsciously into paths of wrong doing. It should +be the aim of the parents of these children to hold before them the ideal of +the straight and narrow path and emphasize the idea in their minds that that +is never to be swerved from under any consideration. + + The children of Gemini are very high-strung and nervous and therefore +they are easily worried and irritated, which is reflected in their actions +and their bodily health. On that account parents with children born in this +month ought to be lenient with them in their flashes of temper for they are +very quick-spoken under wrath; they need a soothing answer rather than re- +proof, in order that they may be helped to overcome while they are young and +to strengthen their moral constitution in that respect. When the horoscope +of a Gemini child is afflicted there is very apt to be some disorder of the + + +[PAGE 125] CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +lungs and Gemini children will be much helped if they are taught proper +breathing exercises and calisthenics. It will at least minimize the tenden- +cies and may entirely overcome them. Gemini children usually grow very tall +and straight. They are fine-looking people with a quick walk and brisk +movements, and they may be either light or dark complexioned according to +the placement and configuration of the planets. + + THE CHILDREN OF CANCER + + Born June 22nd to July 23rd + + The watery sign Cancer is one of the weakest in the zodiac so far as vi- +tality goes and when it is upon the eastern angel of a person's horoscope it +always gives a rather weak body; but usually this does not apply to the +children born during the time when the Sun is in Cancer, for the Sun is the +giver of life, and these children are therefore more fortunate with respect +to vitality that those children who have Cancer rising. + + The children of Cancer are usually very timid and returning, yet they +want and need friendship and sympathy, though they are very sensitive about +seeking it; but when they get well acquainted they can at times be very ex- +acting with their friends, even autocratic in their ways of ordering them +about. At the same time, it must be said they are very conscientious in all +things entrusted to them, and use considerable discretion in whatever they + + +[PAGE 126] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +do, so that one may safely trust them to keep a secrete or execute a commis- +sion. The sign Cancer is ruled by the restless Moon, and therefore changes +of residence, position, vocation, and of all matters, are quite frequent in +the lives of these children. At the same time they cannot be called fickle +and flippant for they are very tenacious whenever they have undertaken to do +a certain work or undertaken a certain obligation; they they stay by it un- +til it is finished. Neither do they run haphazard into anything; in fact, +there are times when they are inclined to be too cautious. Especially where +there is danger of injury they are almost cowards, and they are often given +to anxiety and worry. + + THE CHILDREN OF LEO + + Born July 23rd to August 24th + + The sign Leo is ruled by the life-giving Sun, and it is called the royal +sign of the Zodiac; therefore it confers upon the children which are born +under its influence a noble, ambitious and aspiring nature. They are of the +Master breed and make good leaders but poor followers. Being of a noble and +lofty character themselves they scorn mean and sordid things nor will they +stoop to do a low act even under great provocation or the strong urge of +self-interest. The love nature is very strong and ardent. No inconvenience +or sacrifice is too great to serve those they love. They are loyal and true +friends through thick and thin. Leo is a fixed sign and gives its children + + +[PAGE 127] CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +considerable will power, so that they are usually able to win their way to +the top despite all handicaps and obstacles. They are very fixed in their +opinions and if they espouse any cause they will usually stay by it and work +for it in a most enthusiastic manner. They never do anything +half-heartedly, for Leo being a fiery sign endows them with power, vitality +and enthusiasm. Leo also gives it children a good memory. The foregoing +tendencies are indicated when the Sun is fairly well aspected in the +horoscope; but if it is afflicted by Mars, or any of the malefics, the na- +ture is changed, so that the person becomes bombastic, blustering and +domineering, one not to be trusted in any department of life, and an un- +faithful, amorous husband or wife, or a disloyal friend, one who will not +hesitate to stoop to any meanness. He is then just as bad as the Leo with +the well aspected Sun is good, this on the principle that the brightest +light always casts the deepest shadow. The principal fault of the Leos is a +quick temper, but they do not hold spite, and when shown to have been wrong +they are always ready to apologize and make amends. They are magnanimous, +even to their bitterest enemies. + + THE CHILDREN OF VIRGO + + Born August 24th to September 23rd + + Virgo, the Sixth sign of the zodiac, is ruled by Mercury, the planet of +reason, expression and dexterity. It is said, and with considerable truth, + + +[PAGE 128] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +that love is blind, for were one to see faults in the beloved one the master +passion never would find expression. Therefore the children of Virgo who +are governed so much by intellect are not sympathetic, but inclined to be +cynical, critical and skeptical of anything that is not scientifically de- +monstrable to the reason and senses. They are very quick mentally, though +only too often included to "strain at a gnat," and though they seldom +"swallow the camel," they get into a rut where they become narrow-minded and +bigoted. They are rather lazy themselves and found of taking things easy, +but they like to drive others, and can be very masterful with subordinates. +On that account they often cause enmities of a lasting nature, but whenever +they become friendly with any one they also make very good friends and treat +their friends well. The Mercurial disposition infused by this sign brings +many changes of environment and therefore new associations and friendships +are constantly being formed. They are very acquisitive and always looking +out for ways and means of bettering themselves financially, socially and +economically. It may also be said that they deserve promotion for they are +industrious to a degree where they see that a reward may be gained thereby. +They are also very ingenious and versatile, fond of the study of science, +particularly chemistry, diet and hygiene, and many among them become extreme +food faddists. As Virgo is the Sixth sign these people take on Sixth house + + +[PAGE 129] CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +characteristics and are therefore very sensitive to suggestions of ill +health, so that if they ever become enmeshed in the tentacles of diseases +they frequently lack the necessary will power to extricate themselves with +the result that they then usually become chronic invalids or perhaps rather +they think themselves so, for it may be said that these people seem to re- +sent any effort to cheer them up and get them out of the clutches of their +particular illness, real or fancied. They seem in fact to ENJOY bad health, +and they are always looking for sympathy, though as we noted in the begin- +ning of this reading, they are very slow to grant the same to others. If +they can keep out of the clutches of disease, they often become excellent +nurses and have a splendid influence upon the sick. + + THE CHILDREN OF LIBRA + + Born September 23rd to October 24th + + Libra is the seventh sign of the zodiac. The children which are born un- +der this sign are ruled by the planet of love, Venus. The symbol of Libra +in the pictorial zodiac is a pair of scales and this instrument describes +graphically their principal characteristic. The children of Libra are very +ardent in anything they do; they take up a vocation or an avocation with a +zeal and enthusiasm which for the time being excludes all other things form +their consideration, but after a while they may drop it just as suddenly, +take up something else as a trade, a fad or a hobby, and pursue that with an + + +[PAGE 130] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +equal energy and absorbing interest. This is in fact one of their principal +faults, as they find it very difficult to settle down to anything definite, +and continue it with patience and persistence until they have achieved suc- +cess. + + Libra is the sign where the Sun changes from the northern to the southern +hemisphere; it crosses the equator there, and consequently the Sun is very +weak at that point. It is the great life-giver going down into the dark +winter months, and therefore Saturn, the planet of darkness, is exalted in +Libra. Thus we find two natures very markedly expressed in children that +are born under this sign; one is of the Sun which is cheerful and optimis- +tic, the other is that of Saturn, which is morose and melancholy. And this +expresses itself in the changeable nature of the Libra children; sometimes +they are up in the seventh heaven, optimistic and enthusiastic, cheerful and +happy, then as suddenly and without any seeming cause the scale swings and +they seem to be down in the dumps of worry and melancholy just as if they +had not a friend in the world. As a matter of fact they make many friends +for they have a basically kind disposition engendered by the Lady of Libra, +Venus, but they also have a quick temper, though fortunately they do not +hold spite. They are exceedingly fond of pleasures in general and par- +ticularly lean toward art and music. + + +[PAGE 131] CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + + THE CHILDREN OF SCORPIO + + Born October 24th to November 23rd + + Scorpio is ruled by Mars, the planet of dynamic energy, and therefore the +children born during that month when the Sun is passing through this sign +are filled with a force that must have an outlet somewhere or somehow. They +partake in all the Martial qualities, either good or bad, according to the +way the Sun is placed and aspected, and they are always ready to take up an +argument or a fight; either on their own behalf or for someone else; they +are never content with half measures, either they go to one extreme or the +other, good or bad. Those who show the good side of Scorpio have splendid +constructive and executive abilities. They are brusque but honest and just, +indefatigable workers, and always ready to sacrifice themselves for the good +of others by rebelling against oppression or in other ways unselfishly work- +ing for the cause they have espoused. But those who show the bad side of +Scorpio not only refuse to work themselves but become demagogues who incite +others to anarchy and lawlessness and destruction. These people are social +fire-brands and very dangerous to the community. But here is one redeeming +feature about them and that is that they are not underhanded; whatever they +do is open and aboveboard. The children of Scorpio usually have a very un- +certain temper and a sarcastic tongue that bites like the sting of the scor- +pion, when the turn that side of their nature. Therefore the parents of + + +[PAGE 132] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +these children should take them in hand as early as possible and teach them +self-control by every means within their power; also strive to soften the +Mars ray and instil into them a more kindly spirit. This may be very dif- +ficult because the sign Scorpio gives a very determined nature, still, in +childhood's years it is plastic to a certain extent and can be best worked +upon then. They have a very strong and vivid imagination, with a clear, +sharp and penetrating mind, also a personal magnetism that makes them very +attractive to those with whom they come in contact. They seem to be most +contented in military life where there is sharp and strict discipline. Par- +ticular care should be taken to teach these children sex hygiene, for the +sign Scorpio rules the generative and eliminative organs, whose functions +are stimulated by the presence of the Sun in Scorpio, so that if the person +is not morally and physically clean, much trouble may be expected. These +children also make excellent surgeons and if they are taught to use surgery +only for constructive purposes they can do a great deal of good in the +world. All this depends in a considerable measure upon the early training, +for there is a destructive side to the Scorpio nature which would make it +very dangerous from the spiritual viewpoint for such a person to take up a +vocation that offers scope for malpractice; he would then contract a very +heavy debt under the law of consequence, which must be paid in sorrow and +suffering either in this or later lives. + + +[PAGE 133] CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + + THE CHILDREN OF SAGITTARIUS + + Born November 23rd to December 22nd + + Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the great benefic planet, and it may be +said generally that those who are born while the Sun is in this sign from +November 23rd to December 22nd are well liked in the society where they +move. They are of a hearty and jovial disposition, princes among men, +hail-fellows-well-met, and their acquaintances are generally glad to see +them. There are two very distinct classes born under this sign In the pic- +torial zodiac, Sagittarius is represented as a centaur, half horse and half +man, and one class of those who come to birth unders its influence are well +described by the animal part thereof, for they are of a sporty nature, ready +to gamble on the speed of a horse at long odds or to stake their last dollar +on a game of cards. They are fond of a "good time right straight through" +and their moral nature is of low grade, aptly described by the animal part +of the symbol, so that they have no scruples with respect to the indulgence +of their appetites, passions and desires. They are lacking in respect for +both law and ordinary morals, hence they are often found among the criminal +class. But those children of Sagittarius symbolized by the human part of +the centaur, aiming the bow of aspiration at the stars, are as different +from the above as day is from night, for they are extremely idealistic, +moral law-abiding, noble characters who win the respect of society in + + +[PAGE 134] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +general and particularly of all with whom they come into intimate contact. +Therefore they become in time the pillars of society and often receive posi- +tions of honor and preferment in State or Church as judges or divines. +They are very orthodox and conservative in their opinions and punctilious to +a fault in their observance of all customs and traditions of the times +wherein they live, but they are not progressive, for they value the opinions +of their contemporaries very highly and are seldom induced to espouse any +progressive ideas which might jeopardize the respect of the community en- +joyed by them. They are firm believers in the necessity of red tape. +Withal, however, they are charitable and benevolent, tender and sympathetic; +they can always be relied upon to aid any altruistic movement, and through +they are of a kindly nature and endeavor to avoid quarrels in their own be- +half, they sometimes fight with great zeal and courage for others who have +been injured and in whose behalf their sympathies have been enlisted, hence +they make admirable lawyers. + + The Sagittarius are usually excellent conversationalists; they have quick +and ready wit and are fond of indulging in oratory. Their exhibitions of +memory and interesting way of relating experiences always hold the audience. +They are very proud and have great confidence in themselves. + + +[PAGE 135] CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + + THE CHILDREN OF CAPRICORN + + Born December 22nd to January 20th + + Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the planet of obstruction, therefore the +vitality of these children is very low and they are difficult to raise, but +once infancy is passed the Saturnine persistence makes itself felt and they +cling to life with an amazing tenacity so that they often become very old. +They are very much subject to colds and their principal source of danger is +falls and bruises. The children of Capricorn are usually bashful and timid +in the presence of strangers but when they have become used to people they +show their domineering nature and endeavor to make everybody around them +conform to their will. The Saturnine quality of the sign makes them jealous +and suspicious of the motives of others. Therefore they are very fond of +detective work. They will follow a trail with unerring instinct and +unwavering perseverance that never gives up as long as there is the remotest +chance of success. It is good to be friends with Capricornians and bad to +make enemies of them, for they find it very hard to forgive a real or fan- +cied offense or injury and always brood over any wrong done to them. On the +other hand, if they once give their confidence or friendship they are also +consistent in that direction. They are very ambitious by other people and +they have splendid executive ability because of the unusual qualities of + + +[PAGE 136] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +forethought and concentration conferred by Saturn. They are born leaders +and organizers but change under restrictions and dislike particularly to +take orders from others. When they are placed in such a subordinate posi- +tion and cannot have their way they become gloomy, taciturn, moody, pessi- +mistic, irritable, and given to worry. The children of Capricorn usually +have a disinclination for marriage and are seldom at ease if they enter into +that state. The union is usually childless or children are few. + + THE CHILDREN OF AQUARIUS + + Born January 20th to February 19th + + The children of Aquarius are of a rather shy, retiring nature. They like +to keep their own company and counsel more than is good for them, for if +this bent in the nature is allowed full scope, it has a tendency to breed +melancholy and make them recluses. They have a quiet, unassuming manner +which gains many friends for them and their home life is usually ideal. +they are generally affectionate and of a very sweet and kind disposition; +they are always ready to defer to the opinion of a loved one and ready to +yield a point for the sake of harmony. Besides, Aquarius being a fixed sign +they are very constant in their affection as well as in other things. + + Aquarius is an intellectual sign and its children usually have a good +mentality, because the Saturnine rulership gives depth to the mind, and the +Uranian ray gives them intuition and an inclination towards science, + + +[PAGE 137] CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +literature and philosophy. They are remarkably persistent in whatever they +undertake, and therefore usually succeed in the long run. As Aquarius is +the 11th sign it partakes also of the qualities ruled by the 11th House; +therefore the children of Aquarius are usually well liked among their as- +sociates and have many friends. The children of Aquarius are very proud and +jealous of the esteem of others. Their principal fault is that on account +of Saturnine traits they are somewhat given to worry. As with the Leos, +they are strong in their likes and dislikes; they will do anything for those +who have won their affection, but resent any attempt to drive them, and un- +der such conditions are extremely stubborn; in fact they are very set in +their mental attitude, and once an opinion has been formed it is not easily +changed. They are so very sensitive to the mental conditions around them +that it affects their physical well being perhaps more than they are aware +of for this is one of the most sensitive signs. + + THE CHILDREN OF PISCES + + Born February 20th to March 20th + + The children of Pisces are of a marked negative disposition, subject to +varying moods, and are, like the children of Aquarius, very sensitive to the +mental atmosphere in their environment. For that reason it is of the great- +est importance that parents of these children should guard them during +childhood against the influences of bad companions, for the old proverb + + +[PAGE 138] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +about "bad company corrupting good manners" applies with ten-fold strength +to these children, and they will absorb good or evil with equal facility. +So until they have learned to choose for themselves the good things, it is +especially necessary for their natural guardians to shield them. They also +have a strong tendency to mediumship and if they are taken into seances +there is a great danger that they may become controlled. Moreover, having +such an extremely flexible nature they can never exert sufficient will power +to free themselves from the influence when once they have been subjected to +it, and it may ruin their whole life. + + These children are very peaceable in disposition and suffer injury rather +than fight for their rights, not because they do not care, for they are very +jealous especially when born in the latter part of the sign, but because the +Piscean nature is averse to exertion, and generally they do not want to take +the trouble to fight for their rights. In plain English they are lazy. +Therefore the parents should see that a certain amount of work is allotted +to them during the earliest years, for it is then that the habits are formed +and the nature is the most plastic. They can learn to be diligent with must +less effort at that time than during the later stages of life. But once the +children of Pisces have commenced doing a piece of work it will probably be +a surprise to others to watch them and see the methodical way they go at it, +making every move count until the task has been completed with seemingly + + +[PAGE 139] CHILDREN OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +very little effort on their part. Honesty is another of the virtues of the +Pisces children; they are usually dependable and close-mouthed, so that they +may be trusted with secrets in full confidence that they will not betray the +trust. + + The children of Pisces are generally kind and sympathetic, cordial and +suave in manner, qualities which will of course bring them many friends. +They are notoriously fond of good things to eat, they revel in rich goods, +and are also prone to be fond of drink. If these tendencies are allowed to +work themselves out they will of course ruin the life, and besides bring on +a train of disease. Therefore the parents of these children should endeavor +by precept and example to teach them the simple life, frugality and control +of the appetite during the years when habits are formed, besides guarding +them against too strenuous exercise which even the children of Pisces will +not shun in childhood when the abundance of life force impels them. Then +later in life these lessons will not be without their fruit. The changes +are that the child which by the help of the parent has learned in childhood +to rules its stars will be both healthy and hearty, respected and loved be- +cause of good habits, and will fully enjoy life. In short, these children +need a very careful bringing up to save them from their evil tendencies and +bring out the good, but that is just what such souls come to parents for. +Their necessity is the parent's opportunity to make great and wonderful soul +growth. + + +[PAGE 140] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + + The Sun, being the center of the solar system, is recognized by all as +the physical life-giver even when they do not believe in anything +superphysical; it is patent to everyone from personal observation that the +horizontal ray of the morning sun affects us differently from the perpen- +dicular noon ray, and that in summer the rays carry a life-force which not +only brings forth the verdure upon the fields, but also affects the human +temperament, and endows us with vital energy, courage and a hopeful spirit +foreign to the dark and gloomy winter months. This gloom is permanently no- +ticeable in the temperament of people living in the far north, where the ab- +sence of sunlight makes life a struggle that saps the spirit of frolic, +while in countries where abundance of sunlight lessens the cares of exist- +ence, the temperament is correspondingly vivacious and hopeful and sunny. + + In the horoscope, the angel of each planetary ray at birth determines the +department of life it will affect. If the child is born at the noon hour +when the sun is at the Zenith, the daystar will appear in the 10th house of +the horoscope and bring preferment professionally. If the child were born + + +[PAGE 141] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +at midnight when the sun is directly under the place of birth its influence +would be through the Fourth House, and it would brighten the old age of the +child then born. + + There are three unfortunate angels for the sun; Children born shortly af- +ter sunset have it in the Sixth House, which indicates sickness, and as the +Sun is life-giver this position lessens the vitality and recuperative pow- +ers. Birth in the middle part of the afternoon places the Sun in the Eighth +House. This is the house through which the death-dealing forces act, and +logically, the Lord of Life is out of place in the House of Death. The Sec- +ond House shows what income we obtain by our own efforts, and as the Eighth +House is opposite the Second it reveals the sources of revenue for which we +do not personally exert ourselves, that is to say, legacies, pensions or +grants of a public nature. We have known people with the Sun in the Eighth +House to acquire vast sums, millions in one case, by speculation in mu- +nicipal necessities. Such persons are often threatened by death and some- +times have many hairbreadth escapes, but even with the best of aspects to +the Sun, a ripe age is seldom attained. + + When a child is born shortly after sunrise the Sun is in the Twelfth +House, which is the avenue whence we reap our sorrows, and it has been our +experience that the early life of such a person is encompassed by trouble of +one kind or another. + + When the ascendant of a person is in doubt and the place in the Zodiac + + +[PAGE 142] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +which seems to fit nearest brings the Sun into the Twelfth House, the writer +has often found that the exact ascendant may be ascertained by asking the +person if his childhood's life was clouded by poverty of the parents and +consequent limitation for a number of years just after birth. This in all +the cases where it has been found that all other events fitted in the horo- +scope proved a successful method of determining the true ascendant, so that +the number of degrees from the ascendant to the Sun, the latter located in +the Twelfth House, would indicate the years of poverty, for the Twelfth +House makes for limitation in that respect, especially when the Sun is there +at birth. When the Sun by progression has passed through the Twelfth House +and comes into the ascendant, things begin to brighten for the person in- +volved, and when in time it passes through the Second House he will have a +period of financial success; but as stated the Sun in the Twelfth House, +just above the ascendant, usually makes a very poor home for the child dur- +ing the early years of life. If Pisces is there the cause will generally be +found in slothfulness and a desire for drink on the part of the parents, +which make them thus neglect their offspring. + + The qualities imparted by a well placed Sun are dignity, strength of will +and courage, both physical and moral, a lofty pride and a keen sense of +honor and responsibility which make a person eminently reliable, a sterling +honesty and a hatred of anything small, underhanded or tricky. It makes him + + +[PAGE 143] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +steadfast in love, staunch in friendship and generous even to enemies. A +dignified, exalted or well placed Sun brings friendship from people in a po- +sition to bestow substantial favors and aids the person materially in his +endeavors to advance in life. + + When the Sun is afflicted and weak by sign and position the opposite +qualities are manifested; bom-bastic self-assurance, and bluster, love of +adulation and a desire to rule or ruin, but no courage to face opposition; +indulgence of the lower nature and a waste of the vital force with a conse- +quent loss of health and strength. When the Sun is weak the person is not +to be depended on; he regards his promises as pie-crusts, made to be broken, +and because of these traits such people always remain in obscurity. + + In the world at large the Sun signifies employers and those in immediate +authority over the person, such as judges and other government officers, and +when the exigencies of life bring a person in contact with them he will re- +ceive at their hands whatever treatment is merited by his Sun. + + The Sun being masculine is significator of the marriage partner in a +woman's horoscope (and the feminine Moon serves a similar purpose in a man's +figure), hence a well placed Sun is one of the indications that a man will +make a good husband, and an unaspected, weak of afflicted Sun gives him a +tendency to neglect his hearth and home. + + +[PAGE 144] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + As a general significator of health the Sun rules principally in mascu- +line figures (and the Moon in feminine horoscopes), but both lights are im- +portant. It may be said however, that the health of a man is not so much +endangered by afflictions of the Moon as by a weak Sun, and vice versa, a +woman suffers more if her Moon is afflicted than if her Sun is evilly +aspected. + + THE SUN IN THE TWELVE HOUSES + + THE SUN IN THE FIRST HOUSE + + The Sun is the source of vitality. The First House signifies are consti- +tutional condition and the home of our childhood, hence the Sun well +aspected in the First House adds to the vitality of the rising sign and aug- +ments the recuperative powers. It brightens life during the days of child- +hood and stabilizes the nature, making the person more cheerful and compan- +ionable, ambitious to succeed in life, courageous in overcoming obstacles. +The outlook on life is joyful and optimistic, hence the chances of success +are increased. People with the Sun in this position love to lead and exer- +cise authority over others; they are very jealous of the esteem of the com- +munity, upright and honest in their dealings. + + When the Sun is afflicted in the First House it lowers the vitality, +makes the person timid and vacillating, lacking in courage and ambition; + + +[PAGE 145] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +hence the chances of a successful life are slim unless many aspects are +good, thus modifying this condition. + + THE SUN IN THE SECOND HOUSE + + This shows the person will find favor with people in a position to fur- +ther his material prosperity and will be their help gain a comfortable liv- +ing, but it also gives a tendency to squander money on the principle that +"what comes easy goes easy." Unless this trait be curbed it may bring about +financial stringency, for it is not so much what we earn that counts as what +we spend. We shall be poor with an income of a million if we spend two. + + THE SUN IN THE THIRD HOUSE + + This favors travel and makes the person bright and observing, eager to +investigate conditions and things, for it imparts a scientific turn to the +mind. It is a good position for writers as it helps to bring them to public +notice and favor. + + THE SUN IN THE FOURTH HOUSE + + In one sense this is very unfortunate position because it deprives the +person of the help of the solar influence during the major portion of life, +which is on that account a constant uphill struggle, but as the Fourth House +rules the latter part of life it is always a consolation to know that the + + +[PAGE 146] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +declining years will be brightened by the Sun of success. That should make +the burdens lighter to bear. + + THE SUN IN THE FIFTH HOUSE + + The Fifth House rules courtship; children, pleasure, education and publi- +cations; when the Sun is there it favors all these except children. It +makes the person a favorite with the opposite sex, gives him much enjoyment +of life, also success as a teacher, publisher or editor, but strangely +enough, though the Sun rules the heart whence spring our children, his posi- +tion in the Fifth House is distinctly unfavorable for their begetting. This +is especially so if the fiery Fifth sign Leo is on the cusp. Then the fer- +vent heat of passion seems to scorch the human plant ere it has time to +grow. This tendency is modified to some extent when a watery sign is on the +cusp, but when one of the partners has the Sun in the Fifth House the off- +spring are never numerous. + + THE SUN IN THE SIXTH HOUSE + + Seeing that the Sun is the Giver of Life it is evident that when it is +confined in the Sixth House it is debilitated and the vital flow is ob- +structed; therefore people who have the Sun in that position are par- +ticularly liable to disease and slow to recuperate. On that account their + + +[PAGE 147] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +diseases are frequent and long-drawn-out to an extent which often amounts to +chronic invalidism. + + If the person is an employee of someone else he will be efficient in his +work; he will have no difficulty in obtaining well-paid positions but he +will be very touchy towards his employers and make frequent changes under +the pretext that his abilities are not sufficiently appreciated. If he is +an employer, this position of the Sun is good for success in business, but +indicates trouble with servants, who will be domineering. + + If the configurations in the horoscope enable the person to shake off the +grip of sickness the Sun in the Sixth House gives great ability in chemis- +try, preparation of health-food, and makes the person a capable nurse or +healer. + + THE SUN IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE + + Partnerships are often unsuccessful because of the selfishness of the +participants but he who has the Sun in the Seventh House will have no reason +to complain in that respect for he will always attract someone with a high +sense of honor when in need of a partner, and as marriage is the most inti- +mate of all partnerships, the Sun in the Seventh House is a particularly +fortunate position in that respect, because it will bring the person a mate +who is absolutely steadfast and true, one who may indeed be depended upon as + + +[PAGE 148] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +a helpmeet in all the exigencies and vicissitudes of life till death do +part. As there is no earthly treasure equal to such an enduring love this +is perhaps the best of all solar positions. + + Should the person be unfortunate enough to become involved in litigation +the Sun in the Seventh House promotes the favor of the judge and a success- +ful outcome. + + THE SUN IN THE EIGHTH HOUSE + + The Eighth House is the angle of incidence through which the death deal- +ing forces act, and as the Sun is the giver of life it is evident that this +position is extremely detrimental as far as vitality is concerned, and it +often brings a promising life to an early termination. It also often hap- +pens that when genius has gone begging all through life and passed the por- +tal of death in obscurity it gains belated recognition, fame and immortality +through this position of the Sun. + + As the Second House signifies the financial condition of the person and +shows what he does with the money he earns, so the Eighth shows what comes +to him apart from his own efforts, that is to say, inheritances, the wealth +of the marriage partner, etc. Therefore the Sun in the Eighth House shows +an increase of wealth after marriage but also a tendency of the mate to be + + +[PAGE 149] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +over-generous and squander the means. + + THE SUN IN THE NINTH HOUSE + + This position brightens the mind and imbues the person with high ideals +and lofty ambitions. It makes him generously tolerant of other people's +opinions--noble and kind-hearted. There is an inner urge to solve problems +of life and learn the "whys" and "wherefores," hence the mind turns +naturally toward philosophy, religion and law. And as we always excel in +the things we love, people with the Sun in the Ninth House make excellent +statesmen, lawyers and ministers of God. They shine in all intellectual and +scientific pursuits. Their mission often takes them into foreign lands. + + THE SUN IN THE TENTH HOUSE + + This is one of the surest signs of general success in life. The person +rises by the favor of those above him in the social scale and obtains posi- +tions of responsibility and trust. He is much respected in the community +and often honored by election to public office, and he may always be de- +pended upon to justify the trust reposed in him. + + THE SUN IN THE ELEVENTH HOUSE + + This is a good sign that the hopes, wishes and aspirations of the person + + +[PAGE 150] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +will be realized; it attracts people in a position to befriend him and with +an inclination to do so. + + THE SUN IN THE TWELFTH HOUSE + + This is the signature of the lonely soul who as a recluse shuts himself +off from his fellows. It brings with it a danger of conflict with the au- +thorities or an inability to fit in with the family conditions and on ac- +count of the ensuing trouble the person goes into voluntary or enforced ex- +ile, living his life henceforth a stranger among strangers. Even when such +extreme conditions do not prevail, the first third of the life is usually +wasted in vain efforts to find a balance and settle down to some life work. + + Like the Sixth House position of the Sun, this also favors work with the +sick in hospitals, chemistry and laboratory work, or work with prisoners; it +gives a love of the occult and leads to curious lines of research. + + THE SUN IN THE TWELVE SIGNS + + THE SUN IN ARIES + +Aries is the exaltation-sign of the Sun and hence this is the most powerful +position of the central orb. There it radiates a vital force of unexampled +strength which gives to the person a wonderful fund of energy wherewith to + + +[PAGE 151] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +withstand the onslaughts of disease and should be taken ill his powers of +recuperation will quickly free him from the clutches of sickness. People +having this position are principally liable to fevers on account of the fer- +vent heat of the Sun in Aries. As Aries rules the head the excessive heat +often dries up the scalp so that the hair cannot grow and the person becomes +bald. + + THE SUN IN TAURUS + +A favorable position for the financial fortunes but it also gives a tendency +to extravagance, especially in dress, and makes the person extremely fond of +the opposite sex, sometimes with detrimental results. It gives great +physical strength and the person loves to show off that people may admire +his prowess. Taurus rules the larynx and therefore the Sun in Taurus adds +strength to the vocal organs and gives the person a strong, pleasant voice. + + THE SUN IN GEMINI + +Gemini is a Mercurial sign and third in the gamut, hence this position gives +a blended influence of the Sun, Mercury and the Third House. This favors +expression of Mercury for it is the planet which stirs the vocal chords and +produces sound in the Taurian larynx; it also favors writings and travel; +the mind is brightened by the Sun in Gemini and when it is necessary or + + +[PAGE 152] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +expedient to travel the person gains thereby physically and mentally. It +gives a pleasant, affable disposition which makes him generally liked among +his associates. + + THE SUN IN CANCER + +Cancer is the fourth sign and is ruled by the Moon, hence, the Sun in Cancer +is a mixture of the Sun, Moon and fourth House influences. In the natural +horoscope (where Aries is on the Ascendant) Cancer is at the nadir, and with +the Sun here, vitality is at its lowest ebb; therefore with this position +one is apt to be indolent even when not sickly at all. He is harmless and +avoids quarrels, hence is harmonious and agreeable in the home so long as he +is not asked to work too hard. This position of the Sun makes the first +part of the life barren of fruits but brings success in the later years. +Cancer is a psychic sign and therefore the Sun in Cancer gives a tendency +toward the occult, often with psychic experiences. + + THE SUN IN LEO + +The Sun in Leo gives a masterful nature with a large measure of +self-control, a keen sense of honor and a never-failing integrity. The per- +son aspires to rule others but would scorn to take a mean advantage or to do +anything to others that would not be in strict accord with the golden rule; + + +[PAGE 153] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +the affections are deep and lasting. People with the Sun in Leo are +staunch defenders of those they love, but equally strong in their aversions. +Leo is the sign which rules the heart. Whatever people with the Sun in Leo +do is done with a concentration of purpose which compels success. They make +true friends and if one must have an enemy, a Leo will prove more honorable +and magnanimous than any other. + + THE SUN IN VIRGO + +This is combination of the solar, mercurial and Sixth House influences. It +shows the successful middleman between the producer and consumer, subtle, +extremely quick to see what will work to his advantage in the promotion of +business, pleasant and sociable, agreeable to all from whom he expects to +gain, but domineering to employees and fellow workers; a smooth talker but +not necessarily insincere; he merely looks out for number one. + + The Sun in Virgo makes good chemists, nurses and doctors, NOT SURGEONS +BUT DRUG-DOCTORS; they are firm believers in medicine and lots of it. + + THE SUN IN LIBRA + +Libra is ruled by Venus and is the seventh sign, hence the Sun in Libra com- +bines the influence of Venus with that of the Sun and the Seventh house, + + +[PAGE 154] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +with the result that the person loves the marriage partner so devotedly that +he excludes everyone else; for of a person with that position it may truly +be said that "the Sun rises and sets" in the marriage partner. + + Libra is also the exaltation sign of Saturn, and his influence is there +at its best, giving an element of construction to the art of Venus. This is +brought about as ability for architecture and the finer branches of decora- +tive construction when the Sun is in Libra. This position also gives a +fine, sonorous voice and vocal talent. + + THE SUN IN SCORPIO + +The Sun in Scorpio, when well aspected, gives great energy, courage and in- +dependence. It makes the mind active, and favors success in such occupa- +tions as those of the surgeon or soldier. It also tends to improve the +finances after marriage, but tends to extravagance. + + The Sun here afflicted gives the person a very blunt, brusque manner, a +feeling that his judgment is better than that of others, and a tendency to +ride rough-shod over anybody or anything that stands in his way. It often +makes him indifferent to suffering, and may transform the surgeon into a +vivisectionist. + + THE SUN IN SAGITTARIUS + +This gives lofty ideas and a noble aspiring disposition aiming to rise by +raising others. It makes the person benevolent, philanthropic and therefore + + +[PAGE 155] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +beloved among his associates. He is often the recipient of honors and ap- +pointments to positions of trust, and missions of a delicate nature, not +could a better selection be made, for such people are the souls of honor. +This position will also bring success in religion, law and statesmanship for +it gives an expansive mind fitted to grapple with the greater problems of +life. + + THE SUN IN CAPRICORN + +This is a good sign that the person will rise in life by the aid of the +good-will of people in a higher position than himself; it shows that he will +merit their trust and acquit himself well in a position of responsibility +and trust; it makes him careful, prudent, faithful and honest. Judges with +that position cannot be bought but will administer justice as they see it, +to all comers. It gives an all round love of fair play and wins for those +who have it the respect and esteem of all in their circle. + + THE SUN IN AQUARIUS + +This is a combination of the Sun, Uranus and the Eleventh House influences. +It gives the person an intuitive perception of the inner nature of things +and a touch with the forces and ideas of the spiritual realms which leads + + +[PAGE 156] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +him to take up when possible, new and advanced cults, or methods of healing +such as Naturopathy, Electro-therapy, Astro-therapy, Magnetic Haling, etc. +He is also drawn to scientific research and ultra-intellectual or strange +religions. This position gives much popularity and firm friends among +people who are in a position to bestow favors and further the person's at- +tainment of his ambitions. + + THE SUN IN PISCES + +Gives a retiring disposition and favors success in occupations removed from +the public gaze such as prisons, hospitals, institutions for the poor, etc. +If the person incur enmity of others, he will be vindicated whatever they +may do to hurt his reputation. People with the Sun in Pisces have a strong +tendency towards psychism, mediumship and the occult in general. + + THE SUN IN ASPECT WITH OTHER PLANETS + +VENUS PARALLEL OR IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE SUN calls out the artistic side of +the nature, making the person fond of music, art and poetry; it strengthens +the love nature and if the configuration occurs in the Seventh House it is a +positive testimony of unalloyed marital bliss. In the Second or Eight House +it leads to extravagance of the person or his mate; in Scorpio it is not + + +[PAGE 157] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +good for the morals and in Pisces it leads to intemperance. These aspects +strengthen the constitution, increase the popularity and make social inter- +course smooth so that the person has many friends and keeps them. + + As the orbit of Venus is so small she never forms the sextile, trine, +square or opposition to the Sun. + +MERCURY PARALLEL OR IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE SUN. These are the only aspects +formed between the two. They are good for the memory and mentality if Mer- +cury is not closer to the Sun that three degrees, for then he is 'COMBUST' +and his good qualities are burned up in the Sun's rays. It is most fortu- +nate to have Mercury rise BEFORE the Sun at birth for he is the Lightbearer +who holds the torch of reason before the Spirit which in the horoscope is +symbolized by the Sun. When he rises after the Sun the mentality is not +nearly so keen (unless other good aspects favor). + +THE MOON PARALLEL OR IN CONJUNCTION WITH SUN. No matter in what sign or +house the conjunction of the Lights occurs the person will be so strongly +marked with the characteristics of that sign that lacking knowledge of this +true Ascendant even the most competent astrologer is likely to be misled and +judge him to be born with the sign rising in which the conjunction took +place, and whatever matters are ruled by the House in which conjunction + + +[PAGE 158] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +occurs will play a very important part in the life. In the First House he +is an out and out egotist with very little love for others save in so far as +they serve his ends; in the Seventh, his world pivots on the mate; in the +Tenth House or sign he will sacrifice all other considerations to rise in +public life; in the Twelfth House or sign the conjunction will give a strong +tendency to drink, bringing trouble; in the Third and Ninth Houses it will +brighten the mind and induce travel from which he will benefit; in the Sec- +ond House it will bring wealth, especially if in good aspect with Jupiter. + + But if the conjunction of the Sun and Moon is closer than three degrees +it has a tendency to deplete the vitality and if the conjunction is also a +solar eclipse, AND THE CHILD SURVIVES, this will be particularly noticeable, +all through life. People who have such close conjunctions or eclipses be- +come listless, dis-spirited and out of sorts every time there is a new Moon. +The conjunction or eclipse does not seem to interfere with the good effects +in other departments of life. + +THE MOON SEXTILE OR TRINE TO THE SUN. The good aspects of the Sun and Moon +make for general success in life, health, fair financial conditions, good +home surroundings with faithful friends, and esteem in the community; they +favor a rise in life because of the person's innate ability, which either + + +[PAGE 159] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +gains for him the recognition of people in a position to help him rise, or +impels him to carve his own way. + +THE MOON SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO SUN makes the person vacillating and un- +settled in disposition, changeable and unable to pursue a settled course in +life, rash to plunge into enterprises, but lacking the persistence or conti- +nuity of purpose to carry anything to a successful conclusion. For that +reason such people become failures in life, especially in their dealings +with women and people higher in the social scale such as employers, the au- +thorities, judges, etc. They always have difficulty in obtaining employment +and keeping their positions when they obtain them for they are +hyper-sensitive and ready to take offense, with or without provocation. +These configurations also affect the health, rendering the body liable to +colds and making recuperation slow when sickness has overtaken the person. + +SATURN SEXTILE OR TRINE TO SUN endows the person who is fortunate enough to +so have it with some of the finest faculties in the gamut, for it brings +out the best qualities in the two planets. It gives method, foresight and +organizing, executive and diplomatic ability with the moral stamina to carry +any project determined on to a successful conclusion despite delays and ob- +stacles. Yet the person makes no enemies in so doing, for this configura- + + +[PAGE 160] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +tion also makes him the soul of honor, kind and considerate; he would never +stoop to do anything mean for he is very sincere and just in his dealings +with all men, but on the other hand, when he believes a certain course of +action to be right, he will never swerve therefrom through heaven and earth +be moved against him. These aspects bring success in political or judicial +positions also in connection with mining or agriculture. The person often +benefits by legacy, but recognition and success are generally delayed till +middle life. + +SATURN PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE SUN has a very +detrimental effect where the resistance is fundamentally low; in Gemini and +Sagittarius it gives a tendency to tuberculosis. It does least damage in +the fixed signs where resistance is greatest, but even there when sickness +gets a grip on the person it hangs on like grim death, for it lessens the +power of the body to throw off disease quickly, hence recuperation is very +slow. + + These aspects are extremely adverse to that which is generally termed +success, but they give an abundance of experience, so they are excellent +from the standpoint of the soul. It may be truly said of the person who has +them, that "the best-laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley," for no mat- +ter how carefully he may plan his affairs he will be subject to delays and + + +[PAGE 161] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +obstacles which thwart his desires. His marriage is unhappy and is likely +to end in divorce or early death of the partner. He had difficulty in find- +ing and keeping employment, trouble with employers and authorities, a fell- +ing as if he were held in leash all his life and denied expression in any +direction. These are the outward experiences but they are generated by the +inner nature, and until that changes he must suffer the whiplash of neces- +sity. In the first place he has a tendency to crawl into a shell and shut +himself in and others out. He is a pessimist and a kill-joy, has little or +no regard for the feelings of others and is very obstinate. In the horo- +scope of a woman such an aspect signifies marriage to one much older who +will hold her with a very tight rein; it augurs death of the husband and of- +ten several marriages which are ended by death or divorce. + + These configurations often bring legacies, but either there is trouble +and litigation over the bequests, or the person squanders the estate after +he receives it. If Saturn is in his exaltation sign, Libra, the latter part +of the life may be better because the person may have taken the lessons of +life to heart and mended his ways. + +JUPITER CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO SUN. The conjunction +gives a tendency to apoplexy, especially if it occurs in Aries, but with + + +[PAGE 162] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +that exception we may say that these configurations are sure indications of +health, wealth and happiness. They give the person an abundance of vitality +which is proof against very sever onslaughts of disease, and even when par- +ticularly unfavorable planetary influences succeed in breaking down his re- +sistance, recovery will be so rapid as to seem miraculous. This nearly im- +pregnable condition of health is all the more unassailable because it is +backed by a disposition at once SUNNY and JOVIAL and that latter character- +istic also makes the fortunate possessors of these aspects beloved by all +with whom they come in contact. Everybody is glad to see the person with +the perpetual smile, but they do more than "smile"--they earn the friendship +universally bestowed upon them by deeds of kindness, by words of sympathy, +cheer or hope as the occasion may demand. They are trusted by everybody be- +cause they never betray a trust. They have clear heads, good judgment and +executive ability so that they are well fitted to help others. These char- +acteristics also favor their own financial fortunes, so they accumulate +wealth, but theirs is never "tainted money;" they never benefit by the loss +of others. They are religiously conservative and may be aptly described as +"pillars of society." They shine particularly in government work. + + +[PAGE 163] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +JUPITER SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE SUN is bad for the health because it +gives a tendency to form bad habits. The person is far too fond of the +so-called "good things of life," and very selfish in supplying his own com- +forts; he never exercises nor denies himself so the circulation becomes +sluggish and as these people have a superabundance of blood this sluggish- +ness is productive of various noxious growths and functional disorders; +sometimes a fit of anger raises the blood pressure to such a point that a +vessel bursts and ends the life or leaves the person henceforth a useless +wreck. + + These aspects give a bombastic haughty dispositions with an inordinate +love of display and thus induce extravagance both in social and business af- +fairs with the result that the person sometimes finds himself involved in +debt which he cannot pay and then it is but a step to the bankruptcy court. +A false price often prevents these people from working honestly for others; +they would rather prey upon the public as gamblers, followers of races and +other so-called sports where there is an opportunity to swindle people and +get what they call an "easy" living until they land in the meshes of the +law. Children with these aspects should be given special training in +self-restraint, thrift and honesty; they will have a tendency to scorn and + + +[PAGE 164] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +scoff at religion, but perhaps the memory of a devout mother may help to +keep them straight. + +MARS PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO SUN. The conjunction gives +a tendency to fever, especially if it occurs in Aries, the sign which gov- +erns the head, but it is curious that people with that configuration seem +also to be able to endure a much higher temperature than others, and come +unscathed through such a siege of sickness as would ordinarily prove fatal. +With that exception these aspects all produce a super-abundance of vital en- +ergy which assures their possessor of the most radiant health all through +life, they strengthen the constitution and make the person able to endure +the harder tasks, and give him a dauntless determination and courage to face +the greatest odds. Given a plan to follow he may be trusted to overcome all +physical obstacles for he has both executive and constructive ability to- +gether with an indomitable will which refuses to recognize defeat. The dis- +position is frank and open but blunt and often brusque; they are too in- +tensely bent on whatever they want to do to waste time in politeness and +suavity; they brush the conventionalities aside without compunction and are +therefore not liked by people of too fine sensibilities; they are, however, +men and women of action and the foremost factors in the world's work; but +for their enterprise and energy the world would move much more slowly. + + +[PAGE 165] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + + Aspects to the Sun and Mars are absolutely necessary to give zest to +life; even adverse aspects are better than none, for where these planets are +unaspected the person is listless, vapid and he will never amount to any- +thing no matter how good the figure may be in other respects. + +MARS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE SUN also endows the person with an abun- +dance of energy and the faculty of leadership, but these are turned to pur- +poses of deviltry and destruction. The courage implanted by the good as- +pects becomes foolhardiness, the person has loud, overbearing, swaggering +manner and is ready to fight at the drop of a hat, he is always in opposi- +tion to constituted authority and ready to rebel wherever he sees a chance. +He has an extremely fiery temper but holds no resentment. On account of +these qualities he is universally disliked both by employers and his +fellow-workers, is always in hot water and never stays long in any place for +he is an agitator and trouble-maker. These aspects also dispose to acci- +dents in which the person may be maimed, also to gunshot and knife-wounds, +to scalding-burns and to fevers, inflammatory complaints, boils and erup- +tions. + + +[PAGE 166] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +URANUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO THE SUN makes the person intuitive, original, in- +ventive and independent in his manner of conduct and personal appearance, +also with respect to food and certain mannerisms; he is what people call ec- +centric, often conspicuous, yet not offensively so; given to pursuits and +studies which people consider "queer" such as occultism and astrology, but +also delving into the unknown after nature's secrets concerning electricity +or the like. He often becomes a successful inventor if other aspects give +the mechanical ability to work out his schemes. Uranus rules the ether and +now that we are nearing the Aquarian age his vibrations will in increasing +measure bring to our ken methods of using nature's finer forces and the +people with the Sun sextile or trine Uranus will be the media to attract and +interpret them for us as the aerials and receivers in a wireless station +collect and transcribe the messages carried by the ether waves to which they +are attuned. The person often rises in life through the friendship of +people above him in the social scale. He is of a very high-strung tem- +perament but has himself well under control, and rarely shows temper or an- +ger. He is an out and out idealist. + +URANUS PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITIONS TO SUN makes the person +very high-strung, nervous and of uncontrolled emotions ready to fly into + + +[PAGE 167] THE SUN, GIVER OF LIFE + +hysteria on any or no provocation. It predisposes to all nervous disorders +such as St. Vitus dance, epilepsy and lack of coordination. it makes him +impulsive and unreliable, without regard for the conventionalities highly +impatient of any human restraint upon his liberty and committed to the +theory of affinities, soulmates, and free-love, hence an undesirable mar- +riage partner and likely to figure in divorce proceedings or scandals of an +even worse nature. + + There is also danger of trouble on account of connection with anarchistic +plots where the inventive faculty may find scope in the construction of ex- +plosives and infernal machines. Unless these aspects are modified by other +configurations these people are among the most dangerous to society. They +are liable to accidents from lightning and electricity, and all through life +they meet disappointment in every direction. + +NEPTUNE SEXTILE OR TRINE TO THE SUN favors the possibility of developing the +spiritual faculties, for he intensifies the spiritual vibrations in the +aura. Many people with these configurations hear the harmony of the spheres +and if Mercury, the lower octave of Neptune gives the requisite dexterity +they become musicians of high inspirational nature. In others it breed love +of the occult which leads them into the higher life but they usually + + +[PAGE 168] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +approach it from the intellectual standpoint of psychic investigators; a few +live the life and obtain first-hand knowledge. + +NEPTUNE CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE SUN also brings +the person in touch with the denizens of the invisible world by raising the +vibrations in his aura, but these configurations attract the undesirable el- +ement such as met at the ordinary spiritualistic seance. In a watery sign +Neptune induces the person to drink to excess and then the resulting accel- +eration of the vibratory rate frequently causes him to perceive the ugly, +gruesome forms abounding in the lower realms of the invisible world, which +are real elemental entities and not figments as believed by people who hear +him tell what he sees during delirium tremens. + + These aspects also make the person liable to be swindled by sharpers and +confidence men, and easily hoodwinked. + +It cannot be too strongly impressed upon readers and students that judgment +is never to be formed on any planetary aspect or position apart from the +balance of the horoscope. The unblended, basic nature of aspects is given +so that students may recognize innate tendencies and be alert to overcome +the evil and to cultivate the good. The free will of the individual can al- +ways modify the horoscope, as pointed out on pages 58 and 59, and in Chapter +XXII of this book. ("A word to the wise."--EDITOR.) + + +[PAGE 169] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + + CHAPTER IX + + VENUS THE PLANET OF LOVE + + In the 13th Chapter of Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians we find a +eulogy of "love." The word used in the authorized version is "charity," but +it ought to be read as "love." Love suffereth long and is kind, love +vaunteth not herself, is not puffed up, believeth all things, endureth all +things. . .Whether there be prophecies they shall fail, whether there be +knowledge it shall vanish away." He concludes that in time FAITH and HOPE +will pass away because we shall know the things in which we now have faith +and our hopes will have been realized, but love, he contends, remains for- +ever. The keynote of Venus is "love," "harmony," and "rhythm," and if we +want to know her nature we may profitably read that chapter and substitute +"Venus' for "Love." Venus vaunteth not herself, is not puffed up, seeketh +not her own, rejoices not in iniquity but in truth, beareth all things, +believeth all things, endureth all things. These sayings are all true when +applied to Venus for she furnishes the unifying bond between all members of +the human family in whatever relationship they may be placed. It is the +love-ray of Venus piercing deeply the heart of the mother which breeds in +her the tender care wherewith she nourishes her offspring through helpless + + +[PAGE 170] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +infancy. Venus sounds the love call of the youth and the maiden, gives and +takes, smoothing out all the difficulties in the conjugal career. She is +ever burning incense upon the altar of affection and from her garden of love +comes the flowers which scent even the most sordid souls with celestial per- +fume and raise them for the time being to the stature of gods. + + But when Venus is afflicted, all these sublime qualities become tainted +and take a hideous aspect according to the nature of their affliction. +Squares and oppositions turn love to lust which makes the person revel in +sensual gratification; the perception of beauty which expresses itself as +art becomes slovenliness, the tendency to self-sacrifice, the giving of one- +self for others is turned to selfishness and the person will then seem to +use others to escape any task or effort not to his or her liking, laziness +being one of the most prominent characteristics of an afflicted Venus. + + Being feminine, Venus never reaches out toward others, but exerts a mag- +netic energy which draws them to her. Therefore she represents in a man's +horoscope those of the opposite sex to whom the person is drawn, but in a +woman's horoscope Venus describes the person's own attraction for the op- +posite sex and Mars the masculine planet shows who will be attracted by her +charms. + + Venus is essentially dignified in Taurus and Libra, and exalted in + + +[PAGE 171] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + +Pisces, and therefore her influence is most powerfully felt when she is +placed in those signs. She is weak and afflicted when placed in either of +the martial signs, Aries or Scorpio, where she is in her fall, or when she +is i the mercurial sign, Virgo. The best House position for her is the Sev- +enth where her influence will make the marriage serene and blissful. + + VENUS IN THE TWELVE HOUSES + +VENUS IN THE FIRST HOUSE has a tendency to spread sunshine over the child's +home and make the early life happy. It gives an amiable character so that +the person is well liked because of his social nature and friendly disposi- +tion. It brings out the love of music, art and a desire for pleasure. This +is what may be called "a lucky position" for it makes the person very at- +tractive to all with whom he or she comes in contact and in that way it +tends to give general success in life. It is also very good for the general +health. + +VENUS IN THE SECOND HOUSE is an indication of financial success in life. +People with Venus in this position are usually very popular and are thus +helped by their friends to lucrative positions. At the same time this posi- +tion makes the person very wasteful and prodigal so that it tends to make +him spend more then he earns. The money is usually squandered on + + +[PAGE 172] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +pleasure, dress and ornaments for self by a woman and for an amour by a +man, and not infrequently leads to abuses which undermine the health. +This position also shows gain by dealing in things ruled by Venus, such as +dress goods, jewelry, music, etc. + +VENUS IN THE THIRD HOUSE has a particularly beneficial effect upon the mind, +making the person cheerful, optimistic and inclined to look at everything +from the bright side of life. It gives a love of music, art, literature and +everything that has a refining influence, and unusual facility for express- +ing one's self in a happy, appropriate manner, either in speech or writing. +It gives love of travel; the person will enjoy himself on his journeys and +benefit by them. It also makes relations with brothers and sisters and +neighbors and the people in one's immediate environment congenial. + +VENUS IN THE FOURTH HOUSE shows happy conditions in the home, particularly +in the latter part of life. It also indicates that an inheritance may be +left to the person and that if he owns houses or lands he will gain much by +them. + +VENUS IN THE FIFTH HOUSE makes the person unusually affectionate and as a +result he or she usually experiences a number of love affairs all of which + + +[PAGE 173] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + +run their courses smoothly. In indicates that the marriage will be fruitful +and production of lovely and loving children. It is a fortunate position +for teachers and people connect with education institutions, also for those +engaged in publication of literature and for gain by speculation in stocks +or similar securities. + +VENUS IN THE SIXTH HOUSE gives the person faithful servants who will work +for his interest if he is an employer. If he is an employee, it will make +him well liked by his employers and fellow-workers. It is a fairly good po- +sition for health provided the person does not abuse it. That is to say, +the constitution is harmonious, but not very strong. If the health is +guarded with care it will remain in good condition for life, but a very +little abuse may turn the scales the other way and make the person an in- +valid. + +VENUS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE is one of the surest signs of domestic felicity. +It signifies an early marriage and an increase of prosperity after that +event. If the person finds it expedient to enter into partnership on a +business basis the presence of Venus tends to make this relationship harmo- +nious and beneficial. It is also a good sign that if litigation seems + + +[PAGE 174] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +necessary some way will be found to settle the matter without actual rup- +ture. This position is good for actors, singers, and others whose calling +brings them before the public in a vocal capacity for it ensures a kind and +sympathetic reception on the part of their audience. + +VENUS IN THE EIGHTH HOUSE will bring gain by marriage, partnership or legacy +if it is well aspected, but if it is afflicted it brings loss and disap- +pointment in love, or an extravagant marriage partner, and legal trouble +over a will. + +VENUS IN THE NINTH HOUSE is a very fortunate position if Venus is well +aspected, for being so highly elevated here it exercises considerable influ- +ence in life and makes the disposition exceedingly kind, sympathetic and +helpful so that by these qualities the person becomes much esteemed and +sought after, particularly in charitable or religious work, for this posi- +tion also brings out the devotional side of the nature. It gives a love of +music, art and drama as well as everything that has an influence for soul +upliftment. Whenever the person journeys from one place to another for gain +or for pleasure. Venus in the Ninth House will smooth the path before him +and make his trip thoroughly enjoyable. If Venus is afflicted in the Ninth +House the person will long to do or to be all the foregoing things, but + + +[PAGE 175] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + +will find it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible to accomplish his de- +sire. + +VENUS IN THE TENTH HOUSE is one of the best signs of general success in the +life when well aspected. The person who has this position becomes very +popular, particularly with the opposite sex, and will rise in the social +scale through marriage. It gives an ability to avoid trouble in life and +extract from it all the pleasure there is in every situation. Comfortable +financial circumstances attend upon the person all through life and foster a +general attitude of optimism. When Venus is afflicted in the Tenth House +the person is looked down on by those in his social environment and though +he tries to ingratiate himself with those who are in the charmed circles, he +will find himself left with snubs and insults. A hasty or ill-considered +marriage is apt to make matters worse and bring him farther into disrepute, +as a scapegrace. + +VENUS IN THE ELEVENTH HOUSE if well-aspected brings to the person hosts of +friends who are willing and anxious to aid him in the realization of his +hopes, wishes and desires, but it depends upon the nature and character of +the sign wherein Venus is placed as well as on the strength of the aspects +whether they will be able to do so or not. For instance, if Venus is in the + + +[PAGE 176] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Eleventh House in Aries or Scorpio, one of the martial signs where she is +weak, and aspected only by sextiles from Mercury and the Moon, very little +help can be expected of her compared to what she will give if she is in her +own signs, Taurus or Libra, and aspected by trines from the Sun and Jupiter. +In the case first cited, the friends drawn to the person may be ever so sin- +cere in their wish to help but will not have the ability. In the latter +case they will exert powerful influence and will accomplish wonders. If Ve- +nus is afflicted in the Eleventh House it is very often found that the per- +son attracts friends who impose upon him and use him for their own objects +and when they have so used him to the fullest extend and he cannot serve +their purpose any longer they throw him aside. + +VENUS IN THE TWELFTH HOUSE if well-aspected indicates that the person will +benefit from the things signified by this House, viz., occupations connected +with prisons, hospitals or charitable institutions, or by work in a chemical +laboratory or by some such secluded occupation where he does not come in +touch with the public. It also favors study and practice of the occult and +gives a tendency to secret, clandestine love affairs which will probably run +smoothly if Venus is well-aspected, but if she is weak by sign, or afflicted +in the Twelfth House she will cause trouble through jealousy, divorce and + + +[PAGE 177] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + +scandal, or sickness in confinement on account of over-indulgence of the +passions, particularly if Venus is in Scorpio which governs the generative +organs, or in Taurus which gives the same effect by reflex action, where it +signifies self-abuse. + + VENUS IN THE TWELVE SIGNS + +VENUS IN ARIES lends ardors to the affection of Venus by blending them with +the fire of Mars who is ruler of Aries and for that reason it makes the per- +son very ardent in the expression of affection. This usually leads to +popularity especially among the opposite sex and often results in a hasty +marriage, but that kind of love is not and cannot be lasting. Eventually +the fire of passion burns out the love and marriages brought about by this +position are then fruitful sources of domestic unhappiness. This position +also inclines the person to be rash and impulsive whenever his sympathies +are appealed to, so that he often helps an unworthy cause. Venus in Aries +also inclines the person to general extravagance in his expenditures. + +VENUS IN TAURUS is a splendid position for there she is essentially digni- +fied and much stronger than in the other signs with the exception of Libra + + +[PAGE 178] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +and Pisces where she is respectively dignified and exalted. It is a very +favorable position for financial affairs, especially gains derived through +the person's own efforts in whatever vocation in life he may have chosen. +It gives a friendly and sociable disposition with the ability to inspire re- +ciprocal feelings in others. People with Venus in Taurus are very set in +their opinions concerning correct form and decorum, correct in speech and +once they have formed an opinion they hold to it very tenaciously. They are +generous but not extravagant. + +VENUS IN GEMINI blends the beauty of Venus with the mercurial ability to ex- +press so that people who have this configuration are able to choose their +words with singular facility and infuse in them a rhythm which is like music +to the ears of a listener. Therefore this is one of the positions which +make poets, provided of course that other indications in the horoscope sup- +port, for it should always be remembered by the student that no single as- +pect or position is in itself sufficient to mark a prominent characteristic. +To do this the whole horoscope must be blended. This position has a very +refining influence on the mind, inclining to a literary or artistic career. +It makes the person beloved of his brothers and sisters, neighbors and other +people in his immediate environment. This position also inclines to + + +[PAGE 179] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + +marriage and frequently to more than one union. It favors traveling both +for gain and pleasure, especially short journeys. + +VENUS IN CANCER blends the characteristics of Venus with those of the Moon +and the psychic watery nature of Cancer. Therefore this position gives the +person a very fruitful imagination and he or she is very part to come in +touch with the inhabitants of the unseen world or at least take up some very +devotional phase of religion; but this is dangerous because Venus is +negative, attracting without selecting or discriminating hence makes liable +to domination by spirit controls and the dangers of mediumship. + +VENUS IN LEO is compounding love, for Leo rules the heart and whoever has +this position will be tender-hearted to a degree. Contrary to the commonly +accepted ideas there is a cruel streak in Leo, but when Venus is there, +there is no more loving and tender sign in the zodiac, besides being that +Leo is a fixed sign Venus in this position makes for an unparalleled asser- +tion of the affections when once they have been placed and an unswerving +loyalty to the object thereof. Being that Leo is the fifth sign Venus in +Leo also gives success in entertainment or educational enterprises and the +blending of the Venus ray with the solar brings favor from those above the + + +[PAGE 180] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +person in the social scale. + +VENUS IN VIRGO, the Sixth House sign gives the person a deep and tender sym- +pathy for the sick and people with this position make good nurses. This po- +sition also favors occupation as a chemist, or a dietitian who is concerned +with the preparation of foods for the maintenance or attainment of health. +If the person has employees or subordinates under his management his rela- +tions with those people will always be very pleasant, and they will serve +him well. + +VENUS IN LIBRA, the Seventh House sign is essentially dignified and strong, +This is one of the positions which testify to a fruitful and congenial mar- +riage or successful partnership. It gives musical or artistic ability and +makes the person popular in public life. If engaged as a speaker or singer +it ensures an appreciate audience whenever he appears in public. + +VENUS IN SCORPIO is the worst position of all in which she may be placed, +for here again the love ray of Venus blends with the martial fire of passion +in the sign governing the genitals so that if there are no other redeeming +and restraining influences in the horoscope love turns to lust and the un- +bridled gratification of an exaggerated sexual desire, especially if the + + +[PAGE 181] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + +Moon or Mars are there. This is apt to undermine the constitution and +though that may not be apparent for a long time the effect of such a sapping +of the vitality will some time be felt and cause a general breakdown, but +that, of course, is nothing compared with the moral effect of the practices +indicated by this passion. It should be said furthermore for the benefit of +those who have this position that it does not matter whether such abuses +take place in wedlock or not; Nature does not care whether they have been +legalized by man-made law or not. From her standpoint they are a violation +of the law of life and will be punished whether sanctioned by society or +not. This position also gives a love of luxury and anything that stirs the +emotions or wherein the senses may revel. Curiously enough it also some- +times gives a sense of deep religious devotion which them serves as an out- +let for the overcharged feelings of the native. This position also creates +jealousy and trouble in marriage and the reputation of the person is apt to +be smirched. A well-aspected Venus in Scorpio is liable to bring a legacy. + +VENUS IN SAGITTARIUS. This is another of her strongest positions for there +her qualities blend with those of Jupiter, the planet of benevolence, to +foster love and good-will among men. Therefore also this position indicates + + +[PAGE 182] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +a genial and optimistic disposition, a sympathetic, kind and generous heart, +a love of God expressed in religious devotion, or love of man shown by phi- +lanthropy and charity. It indicates a refined mind, cultured, and fond of +drama, art and music. It fosters the imagination and intuition and like the +other double-bodies signs Gemini and Pisces, it inclines to plurality of +marriages. + +VENUS IN CAPRICON, the Tenth House sign, gives social success and popular- +ity, but Venus does not blend well with Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn. +There is therefore a slight tendency to melancholy in people who have Venus +in that position, Nor are they ever secure in the favors which they receive +from other people or in their popularity, for Saturn has a tendency to throw +them down when they have reached the highest pinnacle. Therefore, though +this influence may help them to climb the ladder of advancement in social +circles or in business they are never safe in their position. This influ- +ence makes a person very jealous of honor and he takes it to heart when +sometimes Saturn throws him down. Venus in Saturn's sign often causes the +person to disregard the fact that disparity in ages is so fatal to happiness +in marriage and hence if he marries young he takes someone who is much older +than himself for a partner or if married in later years he selects someone + + +[PAGE 183] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + +who is still in the bloom of youth with the almost inevitable result that +disagreement and dissolution of the marriage tie take place in the course of +a few years. Frequently also people with this position of Venus marry for +business or as a matter of convenience. In short Venus never reaches her +legitimate expression of love in Saturn's House and therefore such unions +are always a source of sorrow and disappointment to the contracting parties. + +VENUS IN AQUARIUS indicates a blending of the Uranian qualities, indepen- +dence, impatience of restraint, disregard of convention, desire for +originality, uncompromising sincerity and intuition, with those of Venus and +as a result we find that people with this position refuse to be bound by the +usual restrictive rules of society in their love affairs and follow their +heart's inclination regardless of what others may say or think. They are +firm believers in the theory of soul-mates, affinities, et cetera, and li- +able to act in the most unexpected manner with such startling suddenness +that neither they nor anyone else are able to foresee what they may say or +do next. But at the same time they are so loving and sincere in their con- +victions that friends never fail them and whatever success they attain in + + +[PAGE 184] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +life is usually due to the efforts of friends to help them to realize their +hopes, wishes and aspirations. + +VENUS IN PISCES is in her own exaltation sign where she again blends with +the benefic ray of Jupiter and as Pisces is a watery sign this position sig- +nifies a powerful emotional nature, subdued and toned down by the element of +sorrow inherent in the twelfth house sign. This position therefore indi- +cates someone capable of feeling a sentiment such as that felt by our Savior +when He said: "Come unto Me all ye that are weak and heavy laden and I will +give you rest." Thus Venus in Pisces indicates a nature yearning and aching +to assist those who are afflicted by bodily ills or suffering from sorrow. +This position also gives an intense love of music and when other testimonies +concur, considerable ability to express either vocally or instrumentally, +for music is the most wonderful outlet for the deepest emotions of which the +human soul is capable. People with Venus in Pisces are especially liable to +financial imposition on the part of others and trouble through an illegal +marriage. + + +[PAGE 185] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + + VENUS IN ASPECT WITH OTHER PLANETS + + THE SUN PARALLEL OR CONJUNCTION VENUS calls out the artistic side of the +nature, making the person fond of music, art and poetry. It also strength- +ens the love-nature and if the configuration occurs in the seventh house it +is a positive testimony of unalloyed marital bliss. In the second or eighth +house it leads to extravagance of the person or his mate, in Scorpio it is +not good for the morals and in Pisces it leads to intemperance, but gener- +ally speaking, these aspects strengthen the constitution, increase the +popularity and make social intercourse smooth so that the person finds many +friends and keeps them. + + As the orbit of Venus is so small she never forms the sextile, trine, +square or opposition to the Sun. + + MERCURY CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL OR SEXTILE TO VENUS (Note.--Venus and Mer- +cury are never more than 76 degrees apart, therefore they can only form the +conjunctions, parallels and sextiles, but not the trine, square nor opposi- +tion.) + + These aspects make the person cheerful and companionable with a +good-natured disposition and a desire for society. They also give the abil- +ity for music and poetry, especially if in the Ascendant and are a general +indication of success in salesmanship, for such people are suave, affable + + +[PAGE 186] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +and persuasive. + + THE MOON CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO VENUS. The Moon is +significator of marriage for a man and therefore the good aspects between +Venus, the planet of love, and the Moon are good indications of a happy mar- +riage when they occur in a man's horoscope. But in a woman's horoscope +these aspects operate upon the health, for the Moon is the planet of fecun- +dity and has rule over the female functions in particular which are so large +a factor in the health of a woman; this latter is much strengthened by the +good aspects of the Moon and Venus. These aspects make the person an orator +with a fruitful imagination; give love of pleasure, music and art, and an +engaging personality, very attractive to the opposite sex, because kindly, +affectionate and sympathetic. They tend to general success in life and the +person usually has sufficient for the day and the way. + + THE MOON SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO VENUS is an indication of trouble in +marriage for a man, because the wife described by an afflicted Venus will be +slovenly and of dissolute habits which will destroy domestic happiness. In +a woman's horoscope it indicates disturbance of the female functions and it +also gives a tendency to digestive troubles and poor circulation when in the + + +[PAGE 187] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + +horoscope of either sex. These aspects also give a liability to trouble +through slander and public scandal. + + SATURN SEXTILE OR TRINE TO VENUS. The good qualities of Venus are love +and affection and the good qualities of Saturn are tact, diplomacy, method, +system, justice, thrift and economy. We may therefore judge that when these +two planets are configurated in good aspect they make the person faithful +and true, just and methodical, qualities which make for success in all de- +partments of life. Therefore a person with these aspects will be much +sought as a friend or advisor, or as a person to be trusted with any commis- +sion requiring sterling honesty and ability. They make the person simple in +his tastes and of impeachable morality, and give honor, esteem, health and +easy circumstances. + + SATURN PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO VENUS brings out +the evil qualities of the two planets and troubles which are thus generated +usually come through the person's relations with the opposite sex. It makes +him underhanded and scheming to gratify his passions often in an unusual +manner and his perverted desires are usually directed against some one who +is much younger than himself. If regular marriage relations are entered +into, such a person is usually a demon of jealousy who makes life a burden + + +[PAGE 188] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +for the marriage partner on account of his suspicious nature. People with +these afflictions are also stingy in all money matters and exceedingly +avaricious. They have poor business judgment and are therefore liable to +losses, failure and bankruptcy. + + JUPITER PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO VENUS is one of the +nest signs of success and general good fortune. It favors the accumulation +of wealth and the enjoyment of all the luxuries of life. It is a good indi- +cation of a successful and happy marriage, social prestige and the respect +of all whom the person comes in contact. It gives the person a jovial, op- +timistic, generous and large-hearted disposition, and makes hospitable to a +degree; interested and active in philanthropic measures, a liberal mind tol- +erant of the views of others even where he differs radically, fond of plea- +sure, traveling parties, and capable of enjoying life to the fullest extent. +These aspects also give talent for music, especially if either planet is in +Pisces. + + JUPITER SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO VENUS gives the same luxurious likings as +the good aspects, but limits the ability to satisfy them; although such +people make the most frantic efforts to present a fine front to the world, +they are generally found out to be shams. Their lack of business ability is +often responsible for failure and bankruptcy and they are very liable to + + +[PAGE 189] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + +suffer losses through the treachery of others. Love and marriage also are +sources of sorrow for those whom Venus and Jupiter are afflicting. They are +apt to be jilted before marriage or the marriage partner may prove faithless +and may abscound. These aspects also produce and amorous nature likely to +take liberties regardless of the laws of decency and to be faithless to mar- +riage vows. They make people extremely self-indulgent and in Pisces they +predispose to drink. + + MARS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO VENUS will give an ambitious, aspiring and ad- +venturous nature, amorous and extremely demonstrative in its affection, very +fond of sports and pleasures. It gives the person an abundance of energy +and business acumen, consequently he has a splendid earning capacity but he +wastes money for he loves above all things to make a great outward show and +display. Being a free spender he is also very popular among his associates, +and being, as already said, of an amorous nature he marries either very +early or the marriage is a very hasty one. + + MARS CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO VENUS does not always operate in the same +manner, but is to be classed as a good or bad aspect according to circum- +stances and the matter to be judged. For instance, Mars conjunction Venus +makes the person less blunt and domineering, more kind and polite; it is + + +[PAGE 190] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +therefore good in that respect; but the conjunction also strengthens he pas- +sional nature, especially if it occurs in Scorpio; and in the Twelfth House +it leads to self-abuse so that in those cases it is decidedly bad. + +MARS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION VENUS. See page 330. + +URANUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO VENUS makes the person mentally alert, of quick +intuitive perception and exceedingly magnetic, especially to the opposite +sex; and he also attracts hosts of friends who will be a benefit and assis- +tance to him. These aspects give love of art, music and poetry and are fa- +vorable indications of a happy marriage often at a very early age, or one +suddenly consummated. They also sometimes bring the person love of a pla- +tonic nature. + +URANUS CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO VENUS. There is a doubt as to whether +these aspects should be classed as good or evil, which must be settled in +the individual horoscope where they occur for they may work either way, de- +pending upon the other configuration. If Venus is otherwise afflicted in +the horoscope, for instance the conjunction or parallel will further accen- +tuate her evil qualities, but if she is well placed or aspected Uranus will +bring out the nobler side. + + +[PAGE 191] VENUS, THE PLANET OF LOVE + +URANUS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO VENUS. The square or opposition always +brings trouble through the sex relation: a hasty, ill-considered union, +quarrels, divorces, public scandals through clandestine intercourse and kin- +dred irregularities, with loss of friend, prestige and popularity, exile +from home and family and sudden financial losses through unexpected or un- +foreseen happenings. There is a general lack of balance, an erratic person- +ality. + +NEPTUNE SEXTILE OR TRINE TO VENUS makes an inspirational musician. It gives +a fertile imagination and deep emotions, a nature that is pure and chaste, +hence occasionally it leads to platonic unions and companionship of the most +esthetic nature. + +NEPTUNE CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO VENUS is to be judged on the same line as +indicated in the case of Mars and Uranus. + +NEPTUNE SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO VENUS makes the person liable to sorrow, +loss and trouble, especially through the marriage partner or anyone else in +whom he trusts. People with these aspects should be particularly careful to +avoid anything which has in it an element of chance or speculation, for they +are sure to lose, especially in dealing with large companies or corpora- +tions. + + --- END OF FILE --- + + diff --git a/religious documents/ms04.txt b/religious documents/ms04.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..245eab8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ms04.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1644 @@ +[PAGE 192] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER X + + MERCURY, THE PLANET OF REASON + + Mythologically Mercury is represented as a "Messenger of the Gods" and +this is the line with the occult facts, for when infant humanity had been +led astray by the marital Lucifer spirits and had fallen into GENERATION it +became necessary for the other divine hierarchies to take steps looking to a +future REGENERATION and to further that object the Lords of Venus were +brought to the earth to educate humanity in such a manner that love might be +substituted for lust and men might thus be induced to aspire to something +higher. While the Lords of Venus dealt with mankind in general the most +precocious among them were taken in hand by the Lords of Mercury; whose +wisdom-teaching is symbolically represented by the caduceus or "STAFF OF +MERCURY," consisting of two serpents twining around a rod and indication the +solution of the riddle of life, or "Whence have we come, why are we here, +and whither are we bound?" showing the pupil the spiral path of INVOLUTION +by which the divine spark has buried itself in matter, also the spiral path +of EVOLUTION by which humanity will eventually again reach the Father's bo- +som, and the short road of INITIATION represented by the central rod around + + +[PAGE 193] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +which the serpents twine. But to understand these Mysteries requires mind +and reason. Mercury then is the mental educator of men and its place and +position in the horoscope shows the status of the person's mind for whom it +is cast. + + Being the Messenger of the Gods to the other planets Mercury has no voice +of its own and is even more dependent for expression upon the aspects of +other planets than the Moon which rules the instinctual mind. So Mercury is +really a focus through which the faculty of reason finds expression in the +human being to act as a brake upon the lower nature and assist in lifting us +from the human to the divine. Many may and do feel deeply, they may also +have valuable knowledge, but they will be unable to express their feelings +or shore their knowledge with others if Mercury is lacking in aspects. Even +a so-called evil aspect of Mercury helps to bring out what is within and is +therefore better than none. + + When Mercury is so placed in relation to the Sun it goes BEFORE the lumi- +nary it has the effect of materially brightening the mind, for the Sun rep- +resents the Ego and it may therefore be said that then its path is illumi- +nated by the lamp of reason. On the other hand if Mercury is so placed that +it rises later than the Sun and thus follows AFTER the luminary The Ego +learns more by afterthought than by forethought for it walks comparatively + + +[PAGE 194] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +speaking in the dark and must learn a great many of its lessons by experi- +ence. + + As we have found that it is difficult for a number of young students to +determine when Mercury goes before or after the Sun we may say in farther +elucidation of that subject: + + When Mercury is in a lower degree of the same sign as the Sun or in any +degree of the previous sign then as a matter of course he rises BEFORE the +Sun. To illustrate: If the Sun is in twenty degrees of Cancer and Mercury +is in five, ten or fifteen degrees of that sign or if he is in any degree of +Gemini, then he rises BEFORE the Sun. + + But if he is in twenty-five degrees of Cancer which is a higher degree of +the same sign, or if he is in any degree in Leo which is the sign succeeding +Cancer, then he rises AFTER the Sun and loses part of his good influence. + + A retrograde Mercury is also a detriment to the faculty of reason. But +in the year of life when Mercury by progression again turns direct, the rea- +soning faculties will improve correspondingly. Mercury is strong in the +airy signs, Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, but he is exalted and therefore most +powerful in Virgo. Mercury has special rule over agents and messengers, +salesmen, postmen and other common carriers, people engaged in advertising +or printing, literary men, writers, reporters, secretaries, clerks, steno- +graphers and typewriters, commission men and other middle men, demagogues, +confidence-men and thieves. + + +[PAGE 195] MERCURY THE PLANET OF REASON + + MERCURY IN THE TWELFTH HOUSE + + MERCURY IN THE ASCENDANT, OR FIRST HOUSE makes the person quick-witted +and sharp according to the nature of the sign rising and the aspects of the +planets which he receives. The fiery signs and the airy signs have the +strongest influence in that respect. In Aries or Leo he is more impulsive +than when rising in Sagittarius, but Gemini, Libra and Aquarius are best. +When Mercury is rising in the watery signs Cancer or Pisces the intellect is +dull, but rising in Scorpio where it is fired by the martial energy and +armed with the venomous sting of the scorpion it has a somewhat similar in- +fluence to that of Mars in Scorpio through not quite so pronounced. + + MERCURY IN THE SECOND HOUSE is good for gain through mercurial occupa- +tions especially where the person is employed by someone else so that he ap- +pears in a true mercurial capacity as agent, messenger, clerk, writer or +whatever else. + + MERCURY IN THE THIRD HOUSE and well-aspected has wonderful influence on +the mental qualities of the native. It makes the mind serene and optimis- +tic, inclined to study and research work. It gives fluency as a speaker and +success by short journeys or travel and makes the relations of the person +harmonious with his brothers. When Mercury is afflicted in the Third House + + +[PAGE 196] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +it inclines to worry and pessimism, trouble and annoyance with sisters and +brothers and when on short journeys. + + MERCURY IN THE FOURTH HOUSE gives instability to home conditions. It +signifies the homeless wanderer who is always moving from place to place un- +less a good aspect to Saturn comes in to steady him down. This is, however, +a good aspect for people engaged in mercurial occupations which require a +stationary residence, such as librarian, or literary men engaged in newspa- +per work, employees in printing establishments, commission houses, agencies +and kindred organizations. If Mercury is afflicted by Saturn the home con- +ditions of the person will cause him a great deal of worry. + + MERCURY IN THE FIFTH HOUSE centers the mind upon education, amusements, +courtships and children. If Mercury is well-aspected by Saturn or Jupiter +it gives depth to the mind and makes the person successful in enterprises +connected with education, publishing or public amusements. Good aspects +from Mars or Venus give success in courtship but the adverse aspects of the +planets make the person cruel; he is inconstant in affection toward those he +professes to love, inclined to worry over affairs of his children, and su- +perficial as a teacher. A good aspect from the Sun is an excellent indica- + + +[PAGE 197] MERCURY THE PLANET OF REASON + +tion of success in a government position, in an educational capacity. + + MERCURY IN THE SIXTH HOUSE makes the mentality too active for the +person's own good, for he is extremely ambitious and therefore liable to +over-tax himself to the detriment of his health, and the disability of the +nervous system is most likely to express itself by a digestive disorder in +the region governed by Virgo, the sixth sign, viz., the intestines. Such +people are supersensitive to the conditions of others which affects their +health bringing much trouble and worry in dealing with servants and subordi- +nates. They are fond of the study of hygiene and diet and meet with consid- +erable success in the practice of the chemistry of foods, particularly if +Mercury is well-aspected. Adverse aspects of Saturn to a Sixth House Mer- +cury make a chronic invalid of a most melancholy mind. The adverse aspects +of Mars and Uranus are fruitful sources of suicide through brooding over +disease. + + MERCURY IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE and well-aspected makes the person popular +in literary and scientific circles. It is a good position for public speak- +ers and all who are engaged in mercurial activities of a public nature. But +if Mercury is afflicted the Seventh House position brings a great deal of +hostile criticism of a public nature and is liable to involve the person in + + +[PAGE 198] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +litigation either to defend himself against libel from others or on account +of libel committed by himself. A well-aspected Mercury in the Seventh House +indicates a successful marriage to a relative or an employee, but when Mer- +cury is afflicted either the person or the marriage partner is of a nagging +nature so that the married life is spoiled by constant quarrels and disputes +on account of fickleness and faithfulness. + + MERCURY IN THE EIGHTH HOUSE when well-aspected gives gain through liter- +ary or scientific agencies, occupations or other mercurial pursuits provided +they are carried on in partnership with someone else. This position also +indicates that the person may receive a legacy and it is a good indication +of the financial success of the marriage, but if Mercury is afflicted its +position in the Eighth House indicates financial troubles for the marriage +partner and litigation probably in connection with a legacy left to the na- +tive. + + MERCURY IN THE NINTH HOUSE and well-aspected gives love of religion, +science, letters and law, a studious mind capable of delving deeply into +profound problems of life and being, philosophic and philanthropic tenden- +cies, and desire to travel far if need be in the pursuit of knowledge. This +position gives facility in speech and writing and success in religion, phi- +losophy, law or science. The mind is broad, flexible and adaptable, there- + + +[PAGE 199] MERCURY THE PLANET OF REASON + +fore the person is liable to change his views several times in his life on +the various subjects which he has studied, but there will always be a good +reason for adopting another viewpoint. + + If Mercury is afflicted in the Ninth House he makes the person exceed- +ingly unstable of mind, changeable as a weather vane in all his pursuits and +activities. Such a person will never stay by anything long enough to try it +out and therefore he will meet with a series of disasters all through life. +Probably he may journey from one place to another in search of success but +he will never find it until he learns to concentrate his energies upon one +thing. This position is also a fruitful source of trouble with the law or +legal affairs. + + MERCURY IN THE TENTH HOUSE, well-aspected, shows adaptability and re- +sourcefulness such as enable the person to cope with all the contingencies +of life. It makes a successful lecturer, publisher or writer and is also +favorable to success in one of the occult occupations. If Mercury is placed +in one of the airy signs the power of expression is much enhanced. Fre- +quently people with Mercury in this position have several occupations, but +usually they succeed best in a subordinate capacity. + + MERCURY IN THE ELEVENTH HOUSE brings a great many acquaintances among +literary, scientific or other mercurial people but none of them are + + +[PAGE 200] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +sufficiently steadfast to be relied upon unless Mercury is very +well-aspected. This position has a tendency to make a person critical and +cynical. It sharpens his intellect, however, and gives him a good flow of +language. + + MERCURY IN THE TWELFTH HOUSE, if well aspected gives a mind peculiarly +fitted to delve into the mysterious, occult or secret things. This is espe- +cially the case if Mercury is between the Sun and Midheaven, that is to say +if Mercury goes BEFORE the Sun or rises earlier than that luminary, for then +all the light that is in the spirit seems to shine forth and make the person +intellectually keen and bright. Therefore this is a good position for de- +tective work as well as scientific or occult research work. Chemists of +great ability have been produced under this aspect for such people have the +faculty of going into the most minute details in things which seem micro- +scopic and unimportant to others. When Mercury is in the Twelfth House and +afflicted, especially by Saturn or Mars, also when COMBUST or BEHIND THE SUN +there is a danger that the mind may become clouded and insanity may result. +It may also be noted that the affliction will vary according to the way Mer- +cury is aspected; if by Mars or Uranus the subject may be exceedingly +violent, if by Saturn he will become melancholy, but whatever the cause, if + + +[PAGE 201] MERCURY THE PLANET OF REASON + +Mercury is afflicted in the Twelfth House some form of limitation will re- +strain the spirit, for the Twelfth House is the house of limitation and con- +finement. + + Deafness is also the result of this position of Mercury when severely af- +flicted by Saturn. + + MERCURY IN THE TWELVE SIGNS + + MERCURY IN ARIES makes the person very argumentative, fond of disputes, +quick at repartee, with a tendency to exaggerate though not necessarily by +design. If well-aspected he is broad minded and tolerant of the opinions of +others, of a studious nature, quick to grasp situations and ideas, neat and +orderly. When afflicted Mercury in Aries makes people leap before they +look, the mind is vacillating and there is a general recklessness about the +person who is thus very unreliable and devoid of all sense of responsibil- +ity. + + MERCURY IN TAURUS gives a mind that is not very soon made up but when it +has once arrive at a conclusion it is almost as difficult to change as the +laws of the Medes and Persians. However, being based upon thought and rea- +son the judgment of these people is also extremely reliable. They believe +thoroughly in the ancient adage that "Silence is golden" and are therefore + + +[PAGE 202] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +close-mouthed. They are good counselors and can be depended upon to keep +secret. At the same time they are not recluses, but have a pleasant, socia- +ble disposition. They are fond of fun and recreation, they love music, art +and literature, so they are thoroughly likable people if Mercury is well- +aspected. But if Mercury is afflicted they become what the Scotch call +"DOUR," also obstinate, stubborn, secretive and avaricious. + + MERCURY IN GEMINI makes a person fond of change and travel. He is al- +ways ready to investigate some new thing, or go to some other place for a +change; in short, almost anything that is new appeals to him. At the same +time if Mercury is well-fortified such people gain greatly by this fluidic +state of the mind for they are shrewd and penetrating in their judgment so +that they know good value when they see it and are not prejudiced by precon- +ceived, set opinions. Therefore they are good business men and their abil- +ity to see a point makes them particularly good lawyers. They also succeed +well as traveling salesmen. + + MERCURY IN CANCER gives a clear intellect, a good memory and superlative +adaptability. People with this position fit into any place or occupation +they may find and adapt themselves to the opinions and ideas of others. +They love praise and flattery, therefore they are careful not to do anything + + +[PAGE 203] MERCURY THE PLANET OF REASON + +whereby they may forfeit the good opinion of others. + + MERCURY IN LEO gives high ideals and aspirations, a positive, strong and +persevering intellect which scorns to stoop to low and mean acts, and de- +spises equivocation; is blunt and out-spoken, quick-tempered, but +kind-hearted and sympathetic. People with Mercury in Leo well-fortified +have good organizing ability and make capable leaders. They love children +and are also fond of pleasure. When Mercury is afflicted in Leo it makes +the person fickle and inconstant in his affections, an unsuccessful gambler +and speculator, a low and sensual nature. + + MERCURY IN VIRGO is at the zenith of his power for there he is exalted, +consequently when well-aspected it gives a clear, logical, scientific mind, +eloquence and the ability to express oneself fluently in a number of lan- +guages. It gives the person a comprehensive, discriminating outlook upon +life, his conclusions are usually practical and to the point because he +also, like the Taurian Mercury, looks before he leaps. In short this char- +acteristic is in a degree true of all the earthy signs. When Mercury is af- +flicted in Virgo it makes the man irritable, petulant and selfish, always +looking for flaws in everything he comes across. People with Mercury in + + +[PAGE 204] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Virgo make excellent dietitians and chemists. They also have an unusual +dexterity. + + MERCURY IN LIBRA, when well-aspected gives a broad, well-balanced mind +with a love of art and music and an uncommon ability of expression. It +brings success as a public speaker and sometimes as a singer. When Mercury +is afflicted in Libra it indicates trouble by lawsuits through partnerships +and an unfaithful marriage partner. + + MERCURY IN SCORPIO gives a shrewd mind, a keen aspiration, a quick wit +and a sharp tongue with biting sarcasm that can sting like the scorpion. +The disposition is bold and stubborn, headstrong and difficult to get along +wit. But these people are extremely resourceful, dauntless, and able to +overcome difficulties which would crush others. They are attracted to the +occult, a a needle is drawn to a magnet. When Mercury is afflicted they are +subject to disappointment in everything they undertake, quarrelsome, skepti- +cal and cynical, always holding opposite views to others. + + MERCURY IN SAGITTARIUS. Though in detriment it is still a strong posi- +tion of Mercury and if he is well-aspected it gives an exceedingly noble +mind of a religious and philosophical turn, a mind which scorns the shackles +of conventions where they interfere with freedom of thought and speech yet + + +[PAGE 205] MERCURY THE PLANET OF REASON + +does not fly into paths that are contrary to the commonly accepted standards +of moral usage and conduct. It always confines itself within the boundaries +of law and order and people with Mercury in this position are therefore +greatly respected in the community. Mercury in Sagittarius makes the person +fond of travel to see the sights and scenery of nature and to investigate +the customs of strange people. He is also fond of animals and pets. When +afflicted it inclines to lawlessness, dishonesty, sophism and a twisted +character. + + MERCURY IN CAPRICORN gives a critical and penetrating but somewhat sus- +picious mind with a thoughtful and diplomatic disposition, These people +make splendid spies and detectives, having the ability to ferret out secrets +in the most uncanny manner. They also have the persistence of Saturnians +derived from the sign Capricorn so that they never give up until their ob- +ject has been attained. This position gives a love of science, par- +ticularly chemistry. These people are much attracted to the occult, yet are +practical and very thrifty. They hold on to what they get and always have +something for a rainy day. When afflicted Mercury in Capricorn makes the +person miserly, cruel, hard, malicious, vindictive and spiteful. + + +[PAGE 206] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + MERCURY IN AQUARIUS gives the Uranian qualities of originality and inde- +pendence and an unconquerable love of liberty to the mind so that people +with Mercury in this position are apt to repudiate all the social conven- +tions and live according to their highly idealistic conceptions. They often +take no heed of fashion, and dress in a style entirely their own. They ad- +vocate ideas on social subjects which are a thousand years ahead of the +world's development, among them the theory of soul-mates and affinities +which is causing so much trouble in the world today because it advocates +have not yet grown to the spiritual stature where they can separate it from +sex and live the true Uranian love-life which is altogether spiritual. The +foregoing delineations apply particularly where Mercury is aspected by +Uranus and the people described by them are the extreme product of Mercury +in Aquarius. All who have this position, however, are very intellectual, +they have high ideals and aspirations, a love of popular science and math- +ematics and are usually attracted to the occult sciences also, especially to +astrology, for they have a fine faculty for reading the horoscope. They are +kind, sociable and fond of friends with the result that they usually attract +large numbers of intellectual people to their circle of acquaintances. When + + +[PAGE 207] MERCURY THE PLANET OF REASON + +afflicted this position makes the person disloyal and ready to prey upon his +friends, or criticize and slander them. + + MERCURY IN PISCES the occult water sign, seems to endow the mind with a +certain psychic faculty which is not so much intuition as imagination. They +think or imagine that something must be so and so and it is a startling fact +that they are usually correct, but this ability brings them dangerously near +to mediumship if Mercury is afflicted or when Neptune, the higher octave of +Mercury, is in the Twelfth House. Therefore this is rather a dangerous po- +sition. If Mercury is afflicted by Saturn this position in Pisces makes the +person liable to gloom and the mind will be subject to constant worry with a +turn toward melancholy. Usually, people with Mercury in Pisces are of a +kindly and benevolent disposition. This also is a good indication that suc- +cess may be attained in chemistry and as a dietitian in the preparation of +health foods. + + MERCURY IN ASPECT WITH THE OTHER PLANETS + + THE SUN IN PARALLEL OR CONJUNCTION WITH MERCURY. These are the only as- +pects ever formed and are good for the memory and mentality provided Mercury +is not closer to the Sun than three degrees, for then he is "COMBUST" and +his good qualities are burned up in the Sun's rays. It is most fortunate to +have Mercury rise BEFORE the Sun at Birth for he is then the Lightbearer who + + +[PAGE 208] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +holds the torch of reason BEFORE the Spirit which in the horoscope is sym- +bolized by the Sun. When he rises after the Sun the mentality is not nearly +so keen (unless other good aspects favor). + + VENUS PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION OR SEXTILE TO MERCURY. Venus and Mercury are +never more than 76 degrees apart, therefore they can only form the conjunc- +tions, parallels and sextiles, but not the trine, square nor opposition. + + These aspects make the person cheerful and companionable with a +good-natured disposition and a desire for society. They also give the abil- +ity for music and poetry, especially if in the Ascendant, and are a general +indication of SUCCESS in salesmanship for such people are very suave, af- +fable and persuasive. + + THE MOON IN PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MERCURY gives a +receptive mind and a retentive memory, two very rare qualities and therefore +these aspects, particularly the sextile and trine, are good indications of +success in life, especially in one of the mercurial occupations, literary, +clerical or traveling. People with these configurations are usually very +verbose, particularly if the conjunction or trine occurs in airy signs or a +sign of voice, for then the power of expression reaches a superlative degree + + +[PAGE 209] MERCURY THE PLANET OF REASON + +and such people become able linguists and elocutionists; but unless there is +some steadying influence people with configurations of Mercury and the Moon +are not reliable because of their tendency to change their minds repeatedly +in the most unexpected manner. They are inclined to look upon the bright +side of life and are fond of pleasure, particularly travel. + + THE MOON SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MERCURY gives a poor memory and lack of +mental stability with a tendency to indecision and worry, liability to brain +storms and hysterics. These characteristics make the person unpopular and +as the saying is, "unlucky." + + SATURN SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MERCURY acts as a brake upon the flighty mind +and gives it a seriousness, depth and concentration which is of inestimable +value in life. The forethought and profound reasoning ability indicated by +these aspects insure success in whatever vocation the person may pursue. +The patient persistence which permits no temporary failure to stand in the +way of ultimate success; their caution and diplomacy make such people invin- +cible in the long run. Therefore they generally become prominent in connec- +tion with some serious enterprise such as secrete societies, the church or +even politics or governmental affairs. They are in demand for high posi- +tions in great undertakings where a steady hand is required on the helm. + + +[PAGE 210] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +But they do not usually shine in public for they are very quiet, subdued and +serious in their manner and demeanor; besides they are absolutely honest and +fairminded, hence they make the very finest judges obtainable. + + SATURN CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO MERCURY gives depth to the mind, and +forespiritual, together with all the other good qualities enumerated as re- +sulting from the sextile and the trine if Mercury is otherwise +well-aspected, but not in so full a measure, or at any rate the person does +not seem to be able to externalize them as readily, hence does not meet the +same assured success as given by the good aspects. He also suffers from the +tendency to melancholy denoted by the square or opposition, especially if +the aspect occurs in one of the common signs or in Capricorn, and if in +Gemini it interferes sadly with the dexterity. Such people tend to drop ev- +erything they take into their hands. These aspects also give an embarrass- +ing timidity and if Mercury is afflicted the undesirable qualities enumer- +ated as resulting from the square or opposition may be looked for. + + SATURN SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MERCURY makes the person subject to +trouble and delays all through life. He is thwarted on every hand by slan- +der and secret enemies and this condition in time makes him bitter and + + +[PAGE 211] MERCURY THE PLANET OF REASON + +sarcastic with the additional result that he is shunned by all who can pos- +sibly get away from him. This in time leads him to become a recluse who +shuts himself away to brood over his troubles. Such a person sometimes be- +comes subject to melancholia of a most piteous character. These aspects +also make the person cunning and untruthful. They give the same desire to +study the occult conferred by the good aspects, but there is the great dif- +ference that while the good aspects of Saturn and Mercury incline one to the +study of occultism from unselfish motives, the bad aspects impel him to fer- +ret out nature's secret for personal power or gain. + + JUPITER CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MERCURY is one of the +finest assets in life, for it gives a cheerful, optimistic disposition with +the ability to look upon the bright side of things and keep up the spirits +in hours of adversity. The mind is broad, versatile, and able to reason +correctly and to form a reliable judgment by careful deliberation. These +people never give a hasty decision; they require time to think over whatever +is presented to them, but once they have reached a conclusion it will be +found incontrovertible. They are successful in law or literature and much +respected for their honesty and sincerity. These aspects are particularly + + +[PAGE 212] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +fortunate for people who travel for business or pleasure, for they will reap +both benefit and enjoyment from a migratory mode of life; these aspects make +them "healthy, wealthy and wise" beyond the average, and loved by everybody +for the vital vibrations they radiate upon whomever they meet. + + JUPITER SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MERCURY gives a vacillating and wavering +disposition so that the person cannot make up his mind when more than one +course of action is open, hence people with these aspects often lose their +opportunities through procrastination and lack of judgment, and must there- +fore often be classed as failures in life. They are liable to scandal and +slander because of treacherous associates. They should not travel, for it +will bring them loss and trouble. They should also be extremely careful in +making contracts or agreements to do or deliver certain things at a +specified time, for they will probably be unable to fulfill the requirements +and thus trouble and loss will result. + + MARS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MERCURY gives a keen, sharp, ingenious and re- +sourceful mentality. It makes the person enthusiastic over any proposition +which appeals to him and he has also ability to enthuse others and impress +them with his views; an indefatigable worker in any cause which arouses his + + +[PAGE 213] MERCURY THE PLANET OF REASON + +sympathies, but he is not visionary, and is interested only in concrete mat- +ters. These people love argument or debate, and they have an inexhaustible +fund of wit and good humor, sometimes blended with a vein of sarcasm which +always strikes its mark, yet never viciously nor maliciously. They also +have remarkable dexterity and are able to turn their hands to whatever task +is allotted and do it with a speed, facility and expedition that is aston- +ishing, to say the least. They cannot do anything slowly or by halves,; +whatever they undertake must be done with a rush, and they put their whole +energy into it so that they may accomplish the task and do it well, hence +these aspects give success in life, in almost any line of endeavor these +people may select, but most often in literature or the mechanical arts. + + MARS CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO MERCURY gives the same mental energy, en- +thusiasm and dexterity as the definately good aspects, but whether these +qualities are used for constructive and good purposes or for destructive and +evil ends depends upon the sign, house position and other aspects. If the +configuration occurs in a sign where either or both planets are strong and +well-placed, as Mars in Aries or Capricorn, or Mercury in Gemini or Virgo, +or if they are fortified by good aspects from the Sun, Venus or Jupiter, +Mars conjunction or parallel Mercury will operate similarly to the sextile + + +[PAGE 214] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +or trine, as stated in the foregoing paragraph, which see. But if Mars and +Mercury are in one of the watery signs (Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces), or if +either or both are afflicted by Saturn, Uranus or Neptune, the conjunction +or parallel of Mars and Mercury will give the same evil tendencies as the +square or opposition which are defined in the next paragraph. + + MARS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MERCURY makes people quickwitted, sharp and +alert, quick tempered, impulsive and excitable, liable to jump at conclu- +sions and act before they think with the inevitable result that they are al- +ways getting themselves or other people into trouble, hence they are danger- +ous associates. They are born prevaricators and utterly incapable of making +a straight statement. It is just as natural for them to color or exaggerate +their statements as it is to breathe. They are vitriolic in their wrath and +their tongues are more poisonous than the bite of a rattlesnake, hence they +are either feared or hated by those who are unfortunate enough to be bound +to them by environment; all who can, shun them. They are bullies who are +bound either to rule or ruin wherever they are, and they allow no obstacle +to stand in their way which can be removed either by force or slander. They +are the acme of selfishness, swagger and consummate egotism. The foregoing + + +[PAGE 215] MERCURY THE PLANET OF REASON + +tendencies may of course be modified by other aspects, but if they are not, +such people are a menace to society. If either Mars or Mercury is placed in +the Sixth or Twelfth House or in any other position so that the bad aspect +acts upon the health, there is a liability to nervous prostration, brain fe- +ver or insanity. + + URANUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MERCURY gives an original, independent and ec- +centric mind impatient of the fetters of fashion, tradition and convention. +Such a person is strenuous in his efforts to hew a path for himself in com- +plete liberty. Therefore this is the hall-mark of the pioneers in thought +and invention, the sign of genius. Their ideas and ideals are exceedingly +lofty, progressive and inspiring, in fact too much so in the opinion of the +average man or woman who looks upon their actions as vagaries, the outcome +of a diseased mind. Nevertheless they have plenty of friends on account of +their kindly and sympathetic nature. These aspects are good for a literary +or scientific pursuit, also for invention, particularly along lines which +have to do with air or electricity. + + URANUS CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL MERCURY. If Mercury is otherwise af- +flicted the conjunction and parallel are to be judged as bad aspects and +read accordingly, but if Mercury is otherwise well placed and aspected the + + +[PAGE 216] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +delineation given for the sextile and trine will apply. + + URANUS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MERCURY is the hall-mark of the true crank +or anarchist who has extreme ideas in regard to tearing down the social +structure and making reforms. People with these configurations are given to +ranting and raving in public and their language is usually as cruel as the +measures they advocate. Whatever ability they possess is usually turned to +erratic purposes and they are often forced to make sudden changes on that +account. + + NEPTUNE CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MERCURY gives a mind +peculiarly adapted to the occult art, particularly if the conjunction occurs +in the Third or Ninth House or the trines are from the watery signs Cancer +and Pisces. Such people usually succeed in occult science and often develop +a supernormal faculty. They are particularly good as magnetic healers. + + NEPTUNE SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MERCURY gives a chaotic mind, liability +to lack of memory, indolence and a disposition to dream the time away. +There is a restless desire for fame and an inability to fit in anywhere. +Such people are liable to fraud, deception and slander, also to commit sui- +cide. + + +[PAGE 217] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + + CHAPTER XI + + THE MOON, THE PLANET OF FECUNDATION + + From the Bible we learn that Jehovah made man in His image. We are also +told that ANGELS visited Sarah and proclaimed the birth of Isaac. They also +foretold the birth of Samson and Samuel and the ANGEL (not archangel) +Gabriel came to Mary of Bethlehem to announce the coming birth of Jesus. +According to occult science Jehovah and His angels are the guardians of the +seed atoms, the basic factors in fertilization. The activities of the an- +gels are directed to the maintenance of plant, animal and human life upon +earth. To this end their forces are focused by the wandering Moon through +the twelve signs of the zodiac; they impinge upon the foetus in a creative +manner during the period of gestation from the time of conception to birth. + + Thus as the Moon measures the tides of the earth so also does she measure +the soul's passage from the shores of eternity through the waters of the +womb to the world of time. According to astrology Cancer is the home of the +Moon. The ancient Egyptians pictured this sign as a scarab or beetle which +was their emblem of the soul and they called Cancer THE SPHERE OF THE SOUL, +for it is said that through this moist watery sign fertilized by the lunar + + +[PAGE 218] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +ray the seed atoms are projected into the womb of the prospective parent who +is thus prepared for the period of gestation; and occult science adds to +this that the seed atoms of the animal kingdom, which is still mindless and +therefore not amenable to lunar influences in that direction, are projected +through the watery martial sign SCORPIO while the seed atoms of the inert +plants our poured in through the Jupiterian sign Pisces just before the Sun +enters Aries at the vernal equinox to awaken the plant seeds sleeping in +Mother Earth, which have been fertilized by Pisces. Thus the human family +has the longest period of gestation, the animal a somewhat shorter one and +the plant the shortest of all. + + The Moon also measures the period of postnatal growth so that the period +of CHILDHOOD, measured by the change of teeth is complete at about seven +years of age when the Moon is SQUARE to her place at birth. The period of +PUBERTY is ushered in at about fourteen years of age when the Moon is in OP- +POSITION to her place at birth and is marked by the change of voice in the +boy and the commencement of the menses in the girl. At twenty-one years of +age the Moon by progression has traveled three quarters of the circle of the +horoscope from its place at birth. This finishes the period of incubation +and the human being is considered to be full-grown, capable of exercising a +franchise and taking care of his own affairs. Thus the distance traveled by +the New Moon during the prenatal period of gestation in the mother's womb + + +[PAGE 219] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +and the distance traveled by the progressed Moon during the twenty-one years +of post-natal development in the womb of Mother Nature correspond exactly. + + The Moon, like Mercury, has no basic nature of its own but serves to fo- +cus the qualities of the signs and other planets upon the human mind. She +governs the tidal air in the lungs and the colorless lymph in the body, also +the digestive activity and the sympathetic nervous system which auto- +matically takes care of the process of digestion. She also governs the cer- +ebellum, the mammae, the feminine functions and parturition as already ex- +plained. + + People who are strongly under the influence of the lunar rays are of an +easy-going, dreamy, indolent nature, adepts as architects of air castles +which never materialize or assume concrete shape. They are very sociable +and generally easy to get along with. They succeed best as cooks, house- +keepers or in some domestic occupation or in one which has to do with li- +quids or a seafaring life. + + The Moon being female indicates the marriage partner for a man so that in +a man's horoscope affliction of the Moon would not be so apt to cause +trouble in health as in married life and the horoscopes of the two sexes +should therefore be read differently with respect to the Sun and Moon. If +Saturn afflicts the Moon in a woman's horoscope it will affect her health, +but in the same respect to the Sun and Moon. If Saturn afflicts the Moon in +a woman's horoscope it will affect her health, but the same aspect occurring +in a man's horoscope will cause him trouble in married life. If the Sun is +afflicted in a man's horoscope it will affect his health but in a woman's + + +[PAGE 220] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +horoscope it would indicate trouble with her husband. At the same time how- +ever it should not be forgotten that both the Sun and Moon are vital factors +in the health of both sexes but one sex is more affected by the Sun, the +other by the Moon. + + The Moon is the great time-marker of the universe. Without her our lives +would be barren of events for although the Sun and the planets by their +travel through the signs and houses indicate the years when certain tenden- +cies shown in the horoscope may culminate in action, it invariably requires +an aspect of the Moon to fertilize the aspect and make it bloom into +physical manifestation. The Sun and the planets may therefore be likened to +the hour-hand on the clock of destiny which shows the YEAR when each phase +of our destiny which shows the YEAR when each phase of our destiny is ripe +for the harvest and the Moon may be likened to the minute-hand which shows +the MONTH when the influences are due to culminate into action. In order to +become fully conversant with the influences of the Moon we would advise stu- +dents to read carefully the article on eclipses and new moon in our Simpli- +fied Scientific Astrology. + + THE MOON IN THE TWELVE HOUSES + + THE MOON IN THE FIRST HOUSE. When the Moon is rising in the First House +at birth and particularly in common or cardinal sign she gives the person +then born a very restless nature; he is constantly endeavoring to change his + + +[PAGE 221] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +position environment and occupation, is ensouled by an insatiable wanderlust +and always ready to roam. When the Moon is rising in a fixed sign there is +a little more stability to the nature but even then the person will probably +spend at least part of his time in a roving existence. People with the Moon +in the First House are usually sensitives, especially if the Moon is in the +psychic signs Cancer or Pisces. They have a very vivid imagination and are +quite intuitive. This position of the Moon has a powerful influence upon +health especially in a woman's horoscope and the aspects which the Moon re- +ceives determine the strength of the constitution. It is also a sign of +success in such occupations as bring the person in close touch with the pub- +lic. + + THE MOON IN THE SECOND HOUSE signifies fluctuating finances unless for- +tified by good aspects from Jupiter, the planet of opulence, or Venus the +planet of attraction. Good aspects from the Sun make matters more settled +in that respect. + + THE MOON IN THE THIRD HOUSE makes the mind extremely fertile in imagina- +tion with a strong liking for mental occupations, especially such as do not +require continuity but are subject to constant change, like editing and re- +porting on newspapers where one must be on the alert for news and roam +hither and thither for the purpose of gathering it. These people love the + + +[PAGE 222] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +lime-light of publicity and if the Moon is strengthened by good aspects to +Mercury they may reach a position of prominence. + + THE MOON IN THE FOURTH HOUSE well-aspected indicates fortunate home con- +ditions, especially toward the close of life but if the Moon is afflicted we +may judge the reverse. This position also gives a tendency toward psychic +experiences especially if the Moon is in its own sign Cancer or in Pisces, +another watery sign. It also shows many changes of residence which will be +fortunate or otherwise according to other aspects of the Moon. + + THE MOON IN THE FIFTH HOUSE in cardinal or common signs indicates a per- +son of very changeable afflictions, fond of pleasure and gambling. It is a +sign of a fruitful marriage particularly when in Scorpio. Even in a barren +sign like Leo the Moon will give children when she is placed in the Fifth +House. This question, however, should always be judged from both horoscopes +of the prospective parents, for should one be entirely barren, the Moon in +the Fifth House in Leo or Virgo in the other horoscope, would not be suf- +ficient help to mend the matter. + + THE MOON IN THE SIXTH HOUSE is a poor position particularly in a woman's +horoscope and any person with the Moon in that position will be better in a + + +[PAGE 223] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +subordinate position employed by someone else than in a business venture of +his own. Should he be placed in the position of employer he will find it +difficult to keep servants or employees. They will change constantly. + + THE MOON IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE if well-aspected is fortunate for success +in marriage, partnership and all dealings with the public for it makes the +person popular. But if seriously afflicted it indicates a fickle, change- +able marriage partner, loss through litigation, partnership and the general +public which will then hold the person in disfavor. + + THE MOON IN THE EIGHTH HOUSE gives gain by marriage and legacy if it is +well-aspected and it also increases the number of children though there is a +change that some of them may die. But if the Moon is afflicted the finan- +cial fortunes will change for the worse after marriage and if legacies do +come they will bring lawsuits with them whereby the person will lose. + + THE MOON IN THE NINTH HOUSE when well-aspected gives a clean clear mind +of a serious, religious, legal or philosophy turn according to the nature of +the aspect. The person will travel far with both pleasure and profit for +himself and sometime he will come into the lime-light of publicity. This +position also gives a tendency to dreams and visions especially if the Moon + + +[PAGE 224] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +is aspected by Neptune. If the Moon is afflicted the person will be too im- +pulsive and jump to conclusions which are to his detriment. If he under- +takes to travel he is liable to meet much trouble in consequence. He is +also apt to make an ill-considered change in religion and be subjected to +much censure on that account. + + THE MOON IN THE TENTH HOUSE is a sign of good fortune, popularity and +prosperity if well-aspected. It brings the person prominently before the +public and ensures favor especially from women, also the accumulation or +property. It makes the mind deep and diplomatic, curious and inquisitive. +When the Moon is afflicted the person is liable to incur hostility on the +part of the public and reversals of fortune. Sometimes he becomes involved +in public scandal and subject to censure. + + THE MOON IN THE ELEVENTH HOUSE if well-aspected gives many friends espe- +cially among women, but if she is afflicted those who come to the person un- +der the guise of friendship do so in the hope that he may be of benefit to +them. + + THE MOON IN THE TWELFTH HOUSE if well-aspected gives success in such +work as is performed in seclusion away from the public gaze, in prisons, +hospitals or charitable institutions. There is also a liability to become + + +[PAGE 225] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +involved in clandestine love-affairs but if the Moon is well-aspected the +person will be able to keep this a secret. If the Moon is afflicted there +is a danger of secret enemies, trouble and persecution. + + THE MOON IN THE TWELVE SIGNS + + THE MOON IN ARIES gives a very independent type of mind which aims to +hew out its own path in life whether right or wrong and is extremely quick +to resent any interference from others. The person is ambitious and aggres- +sive but lacks forethought, so that he is liable to meet with numerous +setbacks. However, this position gives a dauntless courage and such people +are not easily defeated. When they have failed in one direction they im- +mediately try another venture and in the end their very persistence usually +brings them into prominence in their line and gives them ultimate success, +unless the Moon is afflicted; they they are prone to take up one occupation +after another without giving themselves time to try honestly to make a suc- +cess of any one. + + THE MOON IN TAURUS. This is the Moon's exaltation sign and her effect +is therefore very powerful for good if she is free from affliction and +well-aspected. Then the fixed nature of Taurus tones down the changeability +of the Moon which also blends with the Venus ray. Hence it makes the + + +[PAGE 226] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +disposition gentle, self-reliant and determined. It gives perseverance, +forethought and kindness, therefore the person attracts all the good things +of life, health and wealth, friends and family, houses and lands with the +ability to enjoy all these things for it makes him fond of pleasure, so- +ciable and hospitable, a lover of art and music and all other things which +make for the enjoyment of life. + + THE MOON IN GEMINI gives a wide-awake intellect, fond of literature and +science, resourceful and able to cope with emergencies, broad, liberal and +alert for progressive ideas which are taken up with avidity. Hence such +people are much attracted to literary occupations, particularly in the news- +paper field where they may flit from one subject to another as required by +their extremely restless mind. This position also gives an inordinate love +of traveling, and desire for positions where one meets many people. Hence +it favors such occupations as those of traveling salesmen, canvassers, and +the like. + + THE MOON IN CANCER gives a disposition which is kind, sociable and sym- +pathetic, but indolent and averse to effort whether physical, moral or men- +tal. These people love to drift with the tide and only bestir themselves +when under the whiplash of necessity. They are often sensitive to physic + + +[PAGE 227] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +conditions, especially if the Moon is aspected by Neptune or Uranus and the +nature of the aspect determines whether the influence is favorable or unfa- +vorable. This position also gives a love of home and the comforts to be ob- +tained there. It promotes the digestion and consequently the health if the +Moon is well-aspected. If afflicted it has a tendency to give digestive +troubles. + + THE MOON IN LEO has an illuminating influence on the mind. It gives a +strong, self-reliant and aggressive disposition with ability for organiza- +tion; therefore people with the Moon in this position usually attain to +leadership in their immediate circle. They are honorable in financial and +social matters, fair and magnanimous in their dealings with others, and very +popular with other people. + + THE MOON IN VIRGO increases the mental qualities if she is well-aspected; +she gives a retentive memory, a love of study along scientific or occult +lines and an ambition to excel. Chemistry is the favorite of these people +among the sciences and they excel as dietitians. They are rather reserved +and of quiet demeanor, disliking flattery or ostentation. Unless they de- +vote themselves to dietetics they are more successful as the servants or em- +ployees of others than in business for themselves. + + +[PAGE 228] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + + THE MOON IN LIBRA is a fortunate position for the acquisition of friends +and public popularity for it makes the person kind, sympathetic and agree- +able, optimistic and fond of social pleasures. This position also gives +good reasoning powers and the ability to form a correct judgment, love of +art and music, sometimes considerable ability as a performer if assisted by +other aspects. + + THE MOON IN SCORPIO gives a courageous independent and energetic disposi- +tion. The person who has this configuration will not tolerate interference +with his plans or submit to imposition. He is often very abrupt in his man- +ners and blunt in speech, quick-tempered and not to be coerced by threats, +but singularly amenable to kindness. He has a strong and stubborn will and +determination to carry out whatever he undertakes. This position also gives +a considerable attraction toward the occult sciences but if afflicted may +lead to excess gratification of the senses, trouble with women or difficul- +ties in parturition. + + THE MOON IN SAGITTARIUS gives an alert and active personality, a love of +walking, riding or any other form of physical exercise, a roving of disposi- +tion and love of travel in foreign countries, a fondness of animals, espe- +cially horses and dogs and an inclination for the study of religion, law +philosophy or the science of occultism. These people are very optimistic, + + +[PAGE 229] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +good humored, jovial, and ideal companions unless the Moon is afflicted, +then her position in Sagittarius is conducive to indolence and +self-indulgence. + + THE MOON IN CAPRICORN, if well-aspected, gives abundance of help from +people who are higher in the social scale so that whatever success there may +be will come through others, the person being too timid to push himself for- +ward, besides being of a melancholy turn of mind which makes him exceedingly +sensitive to real or fancied slights. If the Moon is afflicted it gives a +liability to slander whether that is merited or not. This position also has +a detrimental effect upon the digestion. People with Moon in this position +often have an insane fear of coming to want and therefore they become avari- +cious and miserly, denying themselves all comforts at the present time that +they may have something for a rainy day. They have very little feeling for +themselves and none at all for others. + + THE MOON IN AQUARIUS if well-aspected gives the person a very vivid +imagination and the power of calling images up before the mind's eye in such +a manner that they seem almost tangible; besides these people are not depen- +dent upon the faculty of reason, for their intuition is also exceedingly + + +[PAGE 230] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +well-developed. In disposition they are sociable, kindly and courteous with +the result that they attract many friends and are very popular in their en- +vironment, and they are helped by their friends according to the aspects of +the Moon. On the other hand if the Moon is afflicted this position shows +one of an exceedingly erratic mind. + + THE MOON IN PISCES gives a receptive mind and a fertile imagination with +a disposition to indolence and self-pity, vacillation and faint-heartedness, +makes one fond of creaming rather than acting, therefore sorrow, trouble and +self-undoing beset the path in life. This position not infrequently leads +to mediumship, especially if Neptune is in adverse aspect, for these people +are peculiarly sensitive to the flattery of spirit-controls and love any- +thing that will stir their emotions. They are also very wordy in their ex- +pressions. If a good aspect from Venus and Mercury enables them to take up +music they play with extraordinary inspiration and feeling. If the Moon is +afflicted in Pisces love-affairs are apt to bring the person into trouble. +If Pisces is in the Twelfth House and the Moon there at birth this will give +a liability on the part of the parents to drink and thus to neglect their +children who may then become the wards of charitable institutions until they +reach maturity. + + +[PAGE 231] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + + ASPECTS OF THE MOON TO OTHER PLANETS + + THE SUN PARALLEL TO OR CONJUNCTION WITH THE MOON. No matter in what sign +or house the conjunction of the Lights occurs the person will be so strongly +marked with the characteristics that sign that, lacking knowledge of his +true ascendant, even the most competent astrologer is likely to be misled +and judge him to be born with the sign rising in which the conjunction took +place, and whatever matters are ruled by the house in which the conjunction +occurs will play a very important part in the life. In the First he is an +out and out egotist with very little love for others save in so far as they +serve his ends, in the Seventh his world pivots on the mate, in the Tenth +House or sign he will sacrifice all other considerations to rise in public +life; in the Twelfth House or sign the conjunction will give a strong ten- +dency to intemperance which will bring trouble in the life; in the Third and +Ninth Houses it will brighten the mind and induce travel from which he will +benefit; in the Second House it will bring wealth, especially if in good as- +pect with Jupiter. If the conjunction of the Sun and Moon is closer than +three degrees if has a tendency to deplete the vitality and if it is also a +solar eclipse and the child survives, this will be particularly noticeable +all through life. People who have such close conjunctions or eclipses + + +[PAGE 232] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +become listless, dispirited and out of sorts every time there is a new Moon. +The conjunction or eclipse does not seem to interfere with the good effects +in other department of life. + + THE SUN SEXTILE OR TRINE TO THE MOON. The good aspects of the Sun and +Moon make for general success in life, health, fair financial fortunes, good +home conditions with faithful friends and esteem in the community; they fa- +vor a rise in life because of the person's innate ability, which either +gains for him the recognition of people in a position to help him rise, or +impels him to carve his own way. + + THE SUN SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE MOON makes the person vacillating and +unsettled in disposition, changeable and unable to pursue a settled course +in life, rash to plunge into untried ventures but lacking the persistence or +continuity of purpose to carry anything to a successful conclusion. For +that reason such people become failures in life; their dealings with women +and people higher in the social scale such as employers, the authorities, +judges, etc., are especially unsuccessful; they always have difficulty in +obtaining proper employment and in keeping their positions when obtained, +for they are hyper-sensitive and ready to take offense, with or without +provocation. These configurations also affect the health; the body is + + +[PAGE 233] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +liable to colds and recuperation is slow when sickness has overtaken the +person. + + VENUS PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO THE MOON. The Moon is +significator of marriage for a man and therefore the good aspects between +Venus, the planet of love, and the Moon are good indications of a happy mar- +riage when they occur in a man's horoscope. But in a woman's horoscope +these aspects operate upon the health, for the Moon is the plant of fecun- +dity and has rule over the female functions in particular, which are so +large a factor in the woman's health, and this is much strengthened by them. +These aspects give oratorical ability with a fruitful imagination, a love of +pleasure, music and art. They give an engaging personality, very attractive +to the opposite sex because kindly, affectionate and sympathetic, and they +tend to general success in life; though the finances may be fluctuating the +person usually has sufficient for the day and the way. + + VENUS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE MOON is an indication of trouble in +marriage for a man, because the wife described by an afflicted Venus will be +slovenly and of dissolute habits which will destroy domestic happiness. In +a woman's horoscope it indicates a disturbance of the female functions and +also gives a tendency to digestive troubles and poor circulation when in the + + +[PAGE 234] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +horoscope of either sex. These aspects also give a liability to slander and +public scandal as the person so afflicted is fickle and inconstant in his +affections, of a sensual nature which loves to flit from flower to flower +regardless of the sorrows caused by playing with the heart of others. + + MERCURY PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO THE MOON gives a re- +ceptive mind and a retentive memory, two very rare qualities and therefore +these aspects, particularly the sextile and trine are good indications of +success in life, especially in one of the mercurial occupations, literary, +clerical or traveling. People with these configurations are usually very +verbose, particularly if the conjunction or trine occurs in airy signs or a +sign of voice, for then the power of expression reaches a superlative degree +and such people become able linguists and elocutionists; but unless there is +some steadying influence people with aspects of Mercury and the Moon are not +reliable because of their tendency to change their minds repeatedly in the +most unexpected manner. They are inclined to look upon the bright side of +life and are fond of pleasure, particularly travel. + + MERCURY SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE MOON gives a poor memory and lack of +mental stability with a tendency to indecision and worry, liability to brain +storms and hysterics. These characteristics make the person unpopular and + + +[PAGE 235] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +as the saying is "unlucky." + + SATURN SEXTILE OR TRINE TO THE MOON imparts all the best saturnine +qualities to the mind and makes the person self-reliant, serious, sober and +systematic, careful and thrifty in business affairs and gives success in +life through tactful and diplomatic dealings with others. Such people are +eminently responsible and trust worthy in all matters of honor and justice +and gain great esteem in the community on that account. Their patience and +persistence are inexhaustible. + + SATURN PARALLEL TO OR CONJUNCTION WITH THE MOON is not always to be +classed as a bad aspect so far as the mental qualities go for in any case it +depends the mind and gives greater power of concentration. If Saturn is +strong by sign, in Libra or Capricorn, and the Moon is otherwise +well-aspected, this position will also impart the virtues of Saturn though +under all conditions it makes the mind gloomy and the person is subject to +periodical spells of melancholy; but if Saturn is weak by sign, especially +if he is in Aries and if the Moon is otherwise afflicted then his conjunc- +tion is to be judged and read the same as the square or opposition. + + The effect of the conjunction also depends upon the department of life we +are considering: for instance, as already said, the conjunction of the Moon + + +[PAGE 236] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +and Saturn is good for concentration of the mind, but bad for the digestion, +particularly in a woman's horoscope; it has also the tendency to obstruct +the menses with all that that implies, and in a man's horoscope it indicates +the death of the marriage partner. Similar distinctions should be made when +reading the conjunctions of the other so-called malefics. + + SATURN SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE MOON is one of the signatures of sor- +row in life for it makes the mind melancholy and full of worries so that the +person is constantly carrying an atmosphere of gloom with him, and as +thoughts are things this attitude of mind brings about delays and disap- +pointments in every department of life. Such a person will experience dif- +ficulties from people and things signified by Saturn, probably parents, and +if he has money he may lose it and have difficult in getting more; thus he +may be in poverty all his life. He will make more enemies than friends and +become subject to slander and scandal, but the disfavor he meets is undoubt- +edly merited for these aspects make the mind bitter and selfish; such people +are unscrupulous, avaricious and entirely unfeeling with respect to others, +hence they are under the whiplash of Saturn that the sorrow and troubles +which they themselves are constantly feeling may make them more mellow. If +the aspect is six, five or even four degrees from being exact and if Saturn + + +[PAGE 237] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +is in the exaltation sign Libra these aspects are not quite so evil in the +latter part of life. They may then imply that the person has learned his +lesson and as a consequence he may find himself in easier circumstances. +The adverse aspects of Saturn to the Moon are very bad for the health, par- +ticularly in a woman's horoscope. There they indicate obstructions of the +female functions. In the man's horoscope they either deny marriage or indi- +cate the death of the marriage partner and their general tendency to ob- +struct everything connected with the houses and signs wherein they are +placed in the horoscope. + + JUPITER PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO THE MOON gives an op- +timistic, noble and generous disposition. The open-hearted honesty, fair- +ness and friendliness of such people make them universally popular. These +aspects strengthen both the reasoning faculties and constitution; they give +a strong mind in a strong body and hence a powerful personal magnetism which +may be used to great advantage in healing the sick. They have lofty ideals +and a fruitful imagination with the power of acquiring wealth which will +grow greater if used in philanthropic enterprises of which these people are +prone to dream. These are some of the best aspects in the gamut and make + + +[PAGE 238] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +for general success in life both physically and spiritually. + + JUPITER SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE MOON impairs the reasoning faculties +and brings the person trouble through litigation, lack of fore-thought and +indecision or dishonesty. People with these aspects are too fond of osten- +tation and display, extravagant beyond their means and resources, prone to +take desperate chances in gambling or speculation to rehabilitate their for- +tunes and doomed to loss, slander and sometimes bankruptcy on that account. + + These aspects are also bad for health, in a woman's horoscope especially, +indicating digestive and liver problems. + + MARS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO THE MOON gives a wonderful vitality and a strong +physique so that the person is able to overcome almost any tendencies to +ill-health, all of which are overruled by these aspects. The power of en- +durance is increased to a maximum and the person can survive hardships to +which people ordinarily succumb. They give a resolute, courageous, ener- +getic and ambitious mind of a resourceful and eminently constructive turn' +and they make the person quick but not precipitate in his decisions. Thus +he gains the confidence and esteem of others and earns considerable money +but the nature is extremely free and generous so that money does not stay by + + +[PAGE 239] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +these people. They spend it almost as fast as they get it. + + MARS CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO THE MOON may be either good or bad ac- +cording to the sex of the person and the department of life we are consider- +ing. It strengthens the health and the vitality, particularly in the horo- +scope of a woman. In the horoscope of a man it would indicate a robust +marriage partner of a domineering nature. With respect to the mind it would +make the person very impulsive, particularly if placed in one of the common +signs or in the Third or Ninth Houses. It also gives a very bad temper but +not so bad as the square or opposition. If Mars is in conjunction or paral- +lel to the Moon in Scorpio there is an abnormal sexual desire which will not +be denied particularly if Venus is there also. It makes the nature very +restless and unsettled for it is like mixing fire and water. In watery +signs it inclines to drink. + + MARS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE MOON gives a very quick temper with a +tendency to hasty or impulsive expression and acts that may cause the person +a great deal of sorrow and trouble. These people resent rules or regula- +tions or any other measures that tend to curb their desires or the gratifi- +cation of their appetites in whatever direction, but if they are in + + +[PAGE 240] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +authority they are very domineering and exacting in their demands for +instant obedience upon the part of others, nor do they hesitate to use what- +ever physical force may be necessary to compel obedience if they think they +can do so without great danger to themselves. Sometimes they will even take +desperate changes to satisfy their spite and having an improperly balanced +mind they are foolhardy in their venturesomeness so that upon occasion they +will attempt to do things which no one with a sane mind would try. On ac- +count of the foregoing consciousness such people make many enemies and cause +a great deal of suffering to others, particularly among members of their im- +mediate family who cannot very well get away from them. If these aspects +occur in watery signs, particularly with Mars of the Moon in Pisces the per- +son is also an inveterate drunkard. From that standpoint of health they +give a tendency to fever and accidents, trouble with the generative organs +and operations which are usually unnecessary. These people are exceedingly +prodigal with their money and are habitual prevaricators. + + URANUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO THE MOON gives great originality and indepen- +dence to the mind, which is quick, intuitive and very vivid in its imagina- +tion; hence the person has inventive ability and is attracted to the occult +arts and endowed with hypnotic or magnetic powers, also the intuitional + + +[PAGE 241] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +ability to study and practise astrology. If the life is devoted to elec- +tricity as a vocation the person will make a success of it. These aspects +also give a peculiar fascination for the opposite sex and are likely to lead +to a clandestine love affair or an unconventional union. + + URANUS CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO THE MOON gives similar mental and psy- +chic tendencies and also the same liability to irregular love-affairs as the +good aspects but these tendencies are not so pronounced. A secrete +love-affair generated under the conjunction of Uranus and the Moon may have +directly disastrous results similar to those mentioned under the bad as- +pects. If the conjunction occurs in Cancer it tends to nervous indigestion; +in Leo it inclines to palpitations of the heart, interferes with the rhythm +of the heart-beat and gives a spasmodic action which will probably prove fa- +tal when it has run its course. In Scorpio, it inclines to perverted prac- +tices, in Sagittarius the reflex action would be felt in the lungs and +similarly with the other signs. + + URANUS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE MOON makes the person erratic and +touchy to a degree, a walking powder magazine ready to explode at any mo- +ment, overbearing, conceited, intolerant, and shunned by all who can possi- + + +[PAGE 242] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +bly get out of his way. If such people are employers nobody can work for +them and if they are employees nobody will have them. They never remain very +long in any place, but are either discharged or give up their position on +the slightest provocation. People with these aspects are attracted to the +occult arts but they never make a success at them because of their erratic +mentality. Like the other aspects of Uranus and the Moon the square or op- +position also indicates a clandestine attachment either on the part of the +person or the marriage partner. If it occurs in the Seventh House of a +man's horoscope it proves the wife untrue so that public scandal and divorce +will eventually ensue. The bad aspects of the Sun and Uranus give similar +indications in the horoscope of a woman. + + NEPTUNE SEXTILE OR TRINE TO THE MOON increases the faculty of imagina- +tion to a superlative degree, especially if either of the planets is in the +Ninth House. Then it favors prophetic dreams and visions which bring the +person in contact with the invisible worlds. It indicates ability in the +occult arts and success in their practice for it makes the nature exceed- +ingly inspirational and it also gives a kind and sympathetic disposition. +The spiritual qualities mentioned may not be apparent even to the person +himself but then they are latent and capable of development. It is also + + +[PAGE 243] THE MOON, PLANET OF FECUNDATION + +safe to say that at some time or other during the life people with these as- +pects will come in contact with and be very much attracted to the occult +whether the qualities of the soul are subsequently developed or not. + + NEPTUNE CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL MOON indicates the same strong psychic +features as the good aspects, particularly if Neptune is placed in the psy- +chic signs Cancer or Pisces. Those who were born with the good configura- +tions of Neptune during the fourteen years when it was in the airy scien- +tific sign Gemini are now conquering the air and perfecting scientific +inventions which will make us marvel, but the children who have been born +under favorable configurations during the fourteen years Neptune has been +going through the psychic sign Cancer are now growing up around us as a band +of mystics and when they have reached mature years they will astonish us +with their spiritual insight and power. Among other things they will de- +velop the soul of music. + + NEPTUNE SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO THE MOON is also an indication of soul +qualities similar to those of the good aspects, but under the former con- +figurations the person will be of a negative nature and is apt to become the +prey of spirit-controls and subjected to mediumship, therefore he should not +attend seances. + + +[PAGE 244] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER XII + + SATURN, THE PLANET OF SORROW + + KEYNOTE: OBSTRUCTION + + A fruitful method of acquiring knowledge is by comparison of similars and +contrasts of opposites; thus lights and sidelights are brought out, which +otherwise may escape attention. + + Applying this method to the Sun and Saturn, we remember that the keyword +of the Sun is "Life," and at the vernal equinox when the Sun is in Aries, +the sign of its exaltation, we may readily note the powerful effect of the +crestwave of vital fluid then poured over the earth. Nature is vibrant +with life, which races through the forms of all kingdoms and endues them +with such abundance of vitality that they are compelled to generate in order +to take care of the overflow. Life manifests as motion; but the keynote of +Saturn is Obstruction, therefore that is the planet of decrepitude and de- +cay, and consequently when the Sun is in Libra, the sign of Saturn's exalta- +tion, at the fall equinox, Nature is tired and ready for its wintry sleep. +The human frame also is energized by the solar life contained in our food, +which enters our system through the head and throat, governed by the exalta- +tion signs of the Builders, the Sun and Moon, and is eliminated by the Sun + + +[PAGE 245] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + +and Moon, and is eliminated by the activity of the liver and kidneys ruled +by Saturn and his exaltation sign, Libra. + + In youth, when the Sun forces surge through the frame, assimilation and +excretion balance, but as time goes on, "Chronos" or Saturn accumulates ob- +structions in the organs of excretion, and elimination is gradually re- +stricted, the avenues of life are dammed up, and decrepitude and decay turn +the scales of life (Libra) towards the realm of death. + + Similarly in other departments of life; where the Sun makes the social +favorite, by imbuing him with optimism and a bright sunny smile, Saturn +makes recluses and sours existence with frowns and pessimism; where the Sun +furthers our worldly affairs and makes things run smoothly, Saturn causes +provoking delays of the most inexplicable nature; all the world seems to +conspire to frustrate our plans. + + In the Kingdom of God all things are balanced to produce the highest ul- +timate good to all, and so the influence of Saturn is used to offset the +exuberant life of Mars. The intrinsic nature of Saturn is OBSTRUCTION; he +is slow and persistent as Mars is impulsive and quick to change; he takes no +chances, but looks before he leaps, and his cold, calculating reason misses +no flaws in any scheme. + + In the horoscope of a young soul Mars is dominant and the man grows along +physical lines much as animals do under the law of the survival of the fit- +test, but gradually the thumbscrews of Saturn are put on, squares and + + +[PAGE 246] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +oppositions bring sorrow and suffering; Saturn is placed above Mars in the +horoscope, to frustrate and check him, till it seems as if every effort were +futile because of the Saturnian obstruction. + + Elijah could not hear the voice of guidance in the fire, the storm nor +the earthquake, but when the tumult was over he heard "the still small +voice" to cheer him; and likewise with us, while we yield to the unchecked +Mars impulses our lives are too turbulent to admit of communion with the +Higher Self, but when the sorrows of Saturn have chastened the unruly Mars +spirit, when the night seems darkest, as in Elijah's cave, then we also hear +the voice that shall speak peace after the storm. + + The leash of Saturn is not pleasant; we sometimes chafe, fret and fume +while being thus held in leash, but meanwhile we ripen and are more fitted, +when the obstruction is removed, to have or use that which Saturn delayed, +for as we develop physical muscle by overcoming physical obstacles, so we +cultivate soul power by the resistance spiritually engendered by Saturn. +The teaching which he gives may be summed up in the motto: "Patient persis- +tence in well doing." + + Most of us when considering Saturn in the horoscope are inclined to look +upon him as evil on account of the affliction be brings, but that is only a +one-sided view, for there is nothing evil in God's Kingdom. What appears so +is merely good in the making. When we remember that the destiny shown by + + +[PAGE 247] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + +our horoscope is of our own making in past existences then we shall under- +stand that Saturn only marks the weak spots in our horoscope, where we are +vulnerable and liable to go wrong. When the weak points have been brought +out through temptation, AND WE HAVE YIELDED, the punishment follows auto- +matically as a natural and logical sequence, for every wrong acts carries in +itself the seed of punishment which brings home to our consciousness the +mistakes we have made. We must hold clearly before our mind's eye that +through the planets incline to a certain life of action we, as evolving +Egos, are supposed to discriminate between good and evil and choose only +that which is good. If we fail in this respect and YIELD to the temptation +the transgression merits a just recompense under the laws of nature and +these are the things signified by Saturn. WE ARE NOT PUNISHED BECAUSE WE +ARE TEMPTED BUT WE ARE PUNISHED BECAUSE WE YIELDED. Supposing for instance +that Saturn is in Cancer, then it is plain that in the past we have yielded +to an inordinate desire for food, that in consequence our digestive organs +have become impaired and that if we do not learn frugality and discrimina- +tion in the choice of our good we shall be punished by digestive disorders. +We will then be tempted to indulge in dainties and perhaps we will have an +aversion for the simple foods which are best for us. The temptation, how- +ever, will cause no trouble to the stomach unless we yield and satisfy our +appetite. Then the food, and not an avenging Deity, automatically punishes + + +[PAGE 248] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +us until we learn to curb our appetite. Similarly in other departments of +life, if Saturn is on the Ascendant or in the Third of Ninth Houses and ad- +versely aspected to Mercury or the Moon it causes us to brood over our +troubles and fills our lives with gloom. It gives an obstruction there to +warn us that we should be more sociable and not turn our faces away from the +sunshine of life. God is at the helm of the universe, His ministers are +continually working with us for good, there is really no reason for blues +and if we cannot see it today Saturn is going to tighten his grip tomorrow +and crush harder and harder until with the sheer courage of desperation we +burst his bonds and jump out into the joy and sunshine of life. + + If it were not for the chastening, subduing influence of Saturn we should +be liable to run amuck and burn out the lamp of life quickly in the exuber- +ance of spirits. Saturn is well symbolized as Father Time with his +hour-glass and scythe. He does not permit us to leave the school of life +until the time has been run and the course is finished. Furthermore he +gives to humanity many of its noblest qualities. When he lays a restraining +hand upon the flighty Moon or Mercury, the swift "messenger of the gods," he +deepens the mind and makes it more serious and better able to concentrate +upon the problems of life. He makes the mind resourceful and better able to +cope with the difficulties of our existence. Tact and diplomacy, method and +system, patience and perseverance, honor and chastity, industry and + + +[PAGE 249] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + +mechanical ability, justice and fair-mindedness all come from Saturn when he +is well-aspected and it is only when we transgress the principles for which +he stands that under the influences generated by his adverse aspects he pun- +ishes us until he has brought us to our knees to pray to our Father in +Heaven for forgiveness and strength to overcome our lower nature. + + SATURN IN THE TWELVE HOUSES + + SATURN IN THE FIRST HOUSE and well-aspected is a fortunate sign for no +matter how a person may be handicapped in the start of life the ultimate +success is assured through the patience, persistence, self-control and re- +straint of the person through a well-placed Saturn. Such people have a won- +derful capacity for work. They seem never to tire and never to give up no +matter what the obstacles. They have infinite confidence in themselves and +their ability to accomplish that which they undertake and therefore they +eventually win. But when Saturn is weak and afflicted in the First House it +makes the person timid and averse to undertake responsibility; subtile, se- +cretive, and distrustful of other people; of a gloomy disposition and in- +clined to seek isolation. Such people are usually shunned by others and +doomed to sorrow, disappointment, delay and general trouble through life. +This is also a bad sign for health, particularly in the earlier years. + + +[PAGE 250] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Bruises to the head, colds, and if Scorpio is rising, constipation; in our +Leo poor circulation, in Cancer poor digestion, in Libra obstruction of the +kidneys, renal calculi and other urinary difficulties and so on with the +other signs. + + SATURN IN THE SECOND HOUSE when well-aspected and particularly in its ex- +altation sign Libra, brings money by inheritance and ability to increase it +by present economy, careful, conservative investments and similar methods. +Some of the very wealthiest of the world's financiers have had Saturn in +this position. They obtain the money wherewith to start from ancestors in- +dicated by Saturn and from the saturnine ray in this house they derive the +business acumen and far-sighted methods that enable them not only to hold +their own as so many do whose wealth comes through Saturn but also to in- +crease the inherited estate. If Saturn is weak or afflicted, however, the +life is sure to be passed in poverty. + + SATURN IN THE THIRD HOUSE when well-aspected gives a serious, sober and +thoughtful mind, capable of concentration and well able to grapple with the +most profound sciences and other serious subjects in life. It gives tact, +diplomacy, justice, honest and all the other saturnine virtues of the mind. + + When Saturn is afflicted in the Third House it indicates trouble with + + +[PAGE 251] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + +brethren, danger when traveling, delays and disappointments in obtaining an +education. It also fills the mind with gloomy forebodings, worry and gen- +eral despondency. + + SATURN IN THE FOURTH HOUSE, well-aspected, shows gain from inheritance, +also success from investments and administration of houses and lands, agri- +culture or mining property under careful and economical management. The +success grows better as life advances. When Saturn is afflicted in the +Fourth House it signifies the early death of one of the parents, in harmony +and trouble in the home, loss of property and consequent poverty. This po- +sition whether well or ill aspected makes the person a recluse in the latter +years of life. + + SATURN IN THE FIFTH HOUSE when well-aspected by the Sun and Jupiter would +be good for speculation in the things that are ruled by Saturn: houses, +lands and mines. This position and its aspects would also give the person a +chance of appointment to public office, especially in matters connected with +education. If Saturn is afflicted in the Fifth House it indicates trouble, +disappointment and delay in courtship, particularly during the earlier +years, or else the affections are centered upon someone who is much older +than the person whose horoscope is being judged. It decreases the number of + + +[PAGE 252] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +children and indicates probable death of those who are born, also that they +will bring a great deal of trouble to the person. + + SATURN IN THE SIXTH HOUSE, well-aspected, gives the person ability to +handle employees and workmen in general in a most efficient manner, for +though such a person is quiet and subdued he is at the same time firm and +serious. He has a way about him which employees respect and which calls for +instant obedience to his commands without causing the resentment called +forth by a blustering, bellowing Mars. + + When Saturn is afflicted in the Sixth House it means a great deal of +sickness in the life and if in a weak sign like Virgo the person is in dan- +ger of becoming a chronic invalid, for one he is in the grip of sickness the +recuperative powers are so poor it is almost impossible for him to recover. +The nature of the principal illness will depend upon the sign that is on the +cusp of the Sixth House or of the Twelfth, but usually with such people many +complications set in after this. Also a person with an afflicted Saturn in +the Sixth House finds it almost impossible to secure employment and it is +evident that such a person has indeed a hard life, being unable to earn a +living when able to be about. + + +[PAGE 253] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + + SATURN IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE when well-aspected denotes a marriage partner +endowed with the saturnine virtues, chastity and discretion, tact and dis- +crimination, prudence and economy, which will be of great help to the person +in building up his fortunes socially as well as financially; and this is a +very fortunate position save for the fact that Saturn in the Seventh House, +whether well-aspected or afflicted, indicates the early death of the part- +ner. An afflicted Saturn in the Seventh House designates a glum, gloomy, +cold and disagreeable companion who is always restraining and obstructing +the person. "Don't" is the word most frequently on the tongue. It also +gives trouble and loss through litigation and people with this aspect should +never go to law or enter into partnerships for they will always be subject +to treachery. + + SATURN IN THE EIGHTH HOUSE when well-aspected or placed in either of its +own signs, Capricorn or Libra, gains my marriage or inheritance with the +ability to properly care for whatever wealth is acquired in that manner. It +is also a sign of long life and death from natural causes, but if Saturn is +afflicted in the Eighth House or weak by sign, especially in Aries or Can- +cer, the financial prospects of the person will be decidedly worse after +marriage and chronic debility may be expected. + + +[PAGE 254] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + SATURN IN THE NINTH HOUSE when Saturn gives a deep, serious and thought- +ful mind with ability and inclination for the study of law, science and phi- +losophy, physics or metaphysics. It is a splendid position for a president +of a corporation or college, a judge or a divine. Such people always make +their mark in the world, the scope of being naturally dependent upon the na- +ture of the aspects and the line of endeavor selected by the person. + + When Saturn is afflicted in the Ninth House he makes a narrow-minded +bigot, critical and sarcastic; he also gives liability to trouble and loss +through law, danger on voyages and trouble in foreign lands. + + SATURN IN THE TENTH HOUSE shows a strong self-reliant and ambitious +spirit with the patience and perseverance which make a person destined to +rise in life. It is the signature of the self-made man, self-made by all +the sterling saturnine ventures, tact, foresight, honesty and systematic ap- +plication to business. Such people are destined to become captains of in- +dustry, presidents of banks or hold other high positions involving great re- +sponsibility. + + When Saturn is afflicted or weak by the sign he nevertheless gives the +person who has him in the Tenth House, ability to rise, but when he does +rise it is by underhanded trickery and questionable business methods which + + +[PAGE 255] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + +in the end bring exposure, downfall and dishonor. It is said that Napoleon +had Saturn in the Tenth House. + + SATURN IN THE ELEVENTH HOUSE when well-aspected gives friends among the +aged and wealth who will be of benefit to the person in helping him to real- +ize his hopes, wishes and ambitions; but when Saturn is afflicted here he +should beware of seeking friends older than himself, for they will always +endeavor to make use of him for personal ends and desert him when he is no +longer of use to them. + + SATURN IN THE TWELFTH HOUSE gives a secluded life in a position or oc- +cupation where the person does not come into contact with the general pub- +lic. When well-aspected it is good for success in an official capacity in +public institutions, asylums, hospitals or prisons. When afflicted there is +danger of being bed-ridden for many years, imprisoned, or employed in ob- +scure positions. + + SATURN IN THE TWELVE SIGNS + + SATURN IN ARIES is weak and therefore unable to express his best +qualities to their full and legitimate extent even if well-aspected. Never- +theless he gives a minor measure of poise, self-reliance, discretion and +tact, industry, patience and perseverance. But when Saturn is afflicted in + + +[PAGE 256] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Aries the person is quickly angered and apt to hold spite, and also of a +jealous, malicious, and vindictive disposition. + + SATURN IN TAURUS when well-aspected makes a person slow of speech but +that he says will have weight and be well worth hearing. It gives a quiet +disposition, slow to decide, but stubborn in maintaining a position once +taken. These people are close-mouthed, and my be trusted to keep their own +and other people's secrets well. When Saturn is afflicted in Taurus, par- +ticularly by Mercury he always causes trouble with the speech and gives a +quick temper, especially if Mars is also an afflicting planet. This posi- +tion makes financial difficulties. + + SATURN IN GEMINI when well-aspected gives a deep, one-pointed, orderly +and scientific mind, adaptable to circumstances and able to cope with all +the exigencies of life. Love of mathematics is usually pronounced and when +literature is taken up as a vocation the more serious branches devoted to +industrial and mechanical subjects are preferred. When Saturn is afflicted +in Gemini, it gives trouble through brothers and sisters, literature and +law, danger on short journeys. An afflicted Saturn in Gemini also gives +trouble with the lungs. Such people should therefore be particularly care- +ful not to catch cold. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + diff --git a/religious documents/ms05.txt b/religious documents/ms05.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d5268a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ms05.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1433 @@ +[PAGE 257] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + + SATURN IN CANCER is always weak and his virtues therefore find it dif- +ficult to express themselves when he is in this position. Nevertheless he +gives reliable judgment concerning houses, lands, mines etc., and gains by +investing in these things; when well-aspected, he favors thrift, economy and +solid comfort in the home with quiet, peaceful and comfortable conditions in +the latter part of life. He makes the person frugal and gives a good con- +trol of the appetite. But when afflicted he indicates domestic infelicity, +the person being held back in life by a gloomy kill-joy partner who is al- +ways restraining every ambitious thought. Trouble, sorrow and disappoint- +ment increase as the life advances and to this is added ill-health, for Sat- +urn in Cancer indicates that the stomach is weak and the gums subject to +pyorrhoea, hence there is inability to properly digest the food, so that un- +less such people have sufficient will to curb their appetites they become +the victims to chronic indigestion. Saturn in Cancer also indicates a reli- +gious tendency and an inclination toward study of the deeper sciences. + + SATURN IN LEO when well-aspected gives favor from people higher in the +social scale and success in obtaining public appointments where the Satur- +nine virtues, tact, diplomacy, discretion and system, honor and executive + + +[PAGE 258] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +ability are required. The constitution of these people is not overly strong +by they may maintain perfect health by the conservation of energy as indi- +cated by Saturn. When Saturn is afflicted in Leo however, they are cruel +and quick-tempered, jealous, and do not scruple to stoop to underhanded +methods to satisfy an ambition. This position also indicates heart trouble. + + SATURN IN VIRGO gives a studious, deep, scientific mind of studying the +deeper problems of life. It indicates an innate ability to manage others. +It gives a thrifty, economical and frugal nature, but when Saturn is af- +flicted in Virgo the mind usually centers upon disease and the person be- +comes a confirmed hypochondriac. These people are the nest customers of the +patent medicine vendors for most of their ills are usually imaginary. This +position does however, carry with it a liability to intestinal diseases. + + SATURN IN LIBRA is exalted and very strong and therefore his good aspects +bring out all the fine saturnine qualities and on that account secure for +the person public esteem and recognition. The marriage partner is chaste +and pure as gold. This position also brings good health and long life, but +when Saturn is afflicted in Libra the marriage partner is either treacherous +or removed by an early death. If the person goes to law he is likely to +lose, and become the object of public disfavor. He will also be subject to + + +[PAGE 259] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + +urinary troubles. + + SATURN IN SCORPIO when well-aspected gives a rare mechanical turn to the +mind, a resourcefulness under the most difficult conditions, an indomitable +courage and a patient persistence before which even the most difficult con- +struction problems must give way. Hence such people make exceedingly able +engineers and are invaluable in all pioneer undertakings; they blend the +fire of Mars with the forethought of Saturn and are therefore invincible. +They gain by legacy, economy and thrift and their financial fortunes are +much improved after marriage. Good health and a long life are also indi- +cated, but when Saturn is afflicted in Scorpio the marriage partner is poor, +dull, egotistical and exacting and the person is liable to worry and +ill-health; constipation and piles are the basic causes when then affect the +nerves and the whole system. + + SATURN IN SAGITTARIUS when well-aspected gives a charitable and philan- +thropic disposition with a desire to elevate humanity by self-help under +just laws and true religious impulse. It couples all the saturnine virtues +with the benevolent Jupiterian spirit of aspiration so that such people al- +ways aim to work for the public good according to their ability and station +in life. Therefore they are trusted, honored, respected and in much demand + + +[PAGE 260] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +for positions where these qualities are of value, in social, industrial or +religious circles. When Saturn is afflicted in Sagittarius he makes the +person insincere, cynical and sarcastic, ambitious to fill positions of +trust and honor but for selfish purposes, liable to become involved in law +and lose thereby. This position also affects the lungs and the person +should be very careful not to catch cold. + + SATURN IN CAPRICORN when well-aspected is strong and therefore his vir- +tues are also pronounced, with honesty and integrity as staunch as the Rock +of Gilbraltar and the determination to work toward the desired goal no mat- +ter how long it may take. Hence in spite of all handicaps and obstacles +people with a well-aspected Saturn in Capricorn ultimately achieve a large +measure of success and are generally esteemed by their contemporaries. But +when Saturn is afflicted in Capricorn the mind is gloomy and the person sees +life from a biased point of view. There is a general sense of dissatisfac- +tion which sometimes develops into a diseased mind. These people are cun- +ning, underhanded and not to be trusted. + + SATURN IN AQUARIUS when well-aspected gives a humane outlook upon life, a +sympathetic and friendly disposition, very distinct and deliberate speech +and a seriousness in all affairs of life. These people therefore make +friends among the aged, the wealthy and the intellectual who are able to + + +[PAGE 261] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + +help then rise in life. But when Saturn is afflicted in Aquarius it makes +the disposition shrewd, cunning and alert to prey upon others by gaining +their confidence and friendship and such people therefore sink to the lower +levels of society. This position also carries with it a tendency to heart +trouble and varicose veins. + + SATURN IN PISCES when well-aspected gives a tendency to success in some +quiet peaceful line of life where these people do not come into contact with +the public, such as laboratory or research work or in connection with insti- +tutions for the care of wards of the community; they are regular +"home-bodies" but when Saturn is afflicted in Pisces it gives danger of +confinement by a chronic disease or liability to imprisonment. The person +makes many enemies who will be persistent in their persecution of him. + + THE ASPECTS OF SATURN + + THE SUN SEXTILE OR TRINE SATURN endows the person who is fortunate enough +to have it with some of the finest faculties in the gamut, for it brings out +the best qualities in the two planets. It gives foresight, method and orga- +nizing ability with the moral stamina to carry any project determined on to +a successful conclusion despite delays and obstacles. Yet the person makes + + +[PAGE 262] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +no enemies in so doing, for this configuration also makes him the soul of +honor, kind and considerate; he would never stoop to do anything mean for he +is sincere and just in his dealings with all men, but on the other hand, +when he believes a certain course of action to be right he will never swerve +there from through heaven and earth be moved against him. These aspects +bring success in political and judicial positions, also in connection with +mining or agriculture. The person often benefits by legacy, but recognition +and success are generally delayed till middle life. + + THE SUN CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL SATURN. Either aspect has a very detri- +mental effect upon health, especially in the common signs where the resis- +tance is fundamentally low; in Gemini, Sagittarius and Pisces it gives a +tendency to tuberculosis. It does least damage in the fixed signs where the +resistance is greatest, but when sickness does get a grip on the person it +hangs on like grim death, for this configuration lessens the power of the +body to throw off disease quickly, hence recuperation is very slow. This is +especially true in a man's horoscope; in a woman's figure it affects her +husband's health. + + THE SUN SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO SATURN. These aspects are adverse to +that which is generally termed success, but they give an abundance of + + +[PAGE 263] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + +experience, so they are excellent form the standpoint of the soul. It may +truly be said of the person who has either that "the best-laid plans of mice +and men gang aft agely," for no matter how carefully be may plan his affairs +he will be subjected to delays and meet obstacles which will thwart his de- +sires; his marriage often is unhappy and is likely to end in divorce or +early death of the partner; there is difficulty in finding and keeping em- +ployment, trouble with employers and authorities, a feeling as if he were +held in leash all his life and denied expression in any direction. These +are the outward experiences but they are generated by the inner nature, and +until that changes he must suffer the whiplash of necessity. In the first +place such a person has a tendency to crawl into a shall and shut himself in +and others out. He is pessimistic and a kill-joy, has little or no regard +for the feelings of others and is very obstinate. In the horoscope of a +woman it signifies marriage to one much older, a person who will hold her +with a very tight rein; it augurs death of the husband and often several +marriages which are terminated by death or divorce. + + These configurations often bring legacies but either there is trouble and +litigation over the bequests, or the person squanders the estate after he +receives it. If Saturn is in Libra, his exaltation-sign, the latter part of +the life may be better because the person has taken the lessons of life to + + +[PAGE 264] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +heart and mended his ways. + + VENUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO SATURN. The good qualities of Venus are love +and affection and the good qualities of Saturn are tact, diplomacy , method +and system, justice, thrift and economy, and we may therefore judge that +when these two planets are configurated in good aspect they make the person +faithful and true, just and honorable, diplomatic and tactful, systematic +and methodical, qualities which make for success in all departments of life. +Therefore a person with these aspects will be much sought as a friend and +adviser, or as a person to be trusted with any commission requiring sterling +honesty and ability. The make him simple in his tastes and of impeachable +morality. Hence either is what one may call one of the luckiest aspects in +the gamut. + + VENUS PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO SATURN brings out +the evil qualities of the two planets and troubles which are thus generated +usually come through the person's relations with the opposite sex. It makes +him underhanded and scheming to gratify his passions, often in an unusual +manner, and his perverted desires are usually directed against someone who +is much younger than himself. If regular marriage relations are entered +into, such a person is often a demon of jealously which makes life a burden + + +[PAGE 265] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + +for the marriage partner on account of his suspicious nature. People with +these afflictions are also stingy in all money matters and exceedingly +avaricious. They have very poor business judgment and are therefore liable +to losses, failure and bankruptcy. During the earlier years people with +these configurations should beware of dealings with older people who will be +prone to take advantage of them, but later on it will be their turn to prey +upon the young. + + MERCURY SEXTILE OR TRINE TO SATURN acts as a brake upon the flighty mind +and gives it a seriousness, depth and concentration which is of inestimable +value in life. The forethought and profound reasoning ability indicated by +these aspects insure success in whatever vocation the person may pursue. +The patient persistence which permits no temporary failure to stand in the +way of ultimate success, also caution and diplomacy make such people invin- +cible in the long run. Therefore they generally become prominent in connec- +tion with some serious enterprise such as secret societies, the church or +even in politics. They are in demand for high positions where a steady hand +is required on the helm. But they do not usually shine for they are very +quiet, subdued and serious in their manner and demeanor. They are absolute- + + +[PAGE 266] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +ly honest, hence they make the very finest judges obtainable. + + MERCURY CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO SATURN. These aspects also give depth +to the mind and forethought, together with all the other good qualities enu- +merated as resulting from the sextile or the trine, if Mercury is otherwise +well-aspected; but not in so full a measure, or at any rate the person does +not seem to be able to externalize them as readily, hence does not meet the +same assured success as given by the definitely good aspects; he also suf- +fers from the tendency to melancholy denoted by the square or opposition, +especially if the aspect occurs in one of the common signs or in Capricorn, +and if in Gemini it interferes sadly with the dexterity; such people tend to +drop everything they take into their hands. These aspects also give an em- +barrassing timidity and if Mercury is afflicted the undesirable qualities +enumerated as resulting from the square or opposition may be looked for. + + MERCURY SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO SATURN makes the person subject to +trouble and delays all through life. He is thwarted on every hand by slan- +der and secret enemies and this condition in time makes him bitter and sar- +castic with the additional consequence that he is shunned by all who can +possibly get away from him, and that in time leads him to become a recluse + + +[PAGE 267] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + +who shuts himself away to brood over his troubles. Such a person sometimes +becomes a subject of melancholia of a most piteous character. These aspects +also make the person cunning and untruthful. They give the same desire to +study the occult conferred by the good aspects, but there is the great dif- +ference that while the good aspects of Saturn and Mercury incline to the +study of occultism from unselfish motives the bad aspects impel him to fer- +ret out nature's secrets for person power or gain. + + THE MOON SEXTILE OR TRINE TO SATURN imparts all the best saturnine +qualities tot he mind; it makes the person self-reliant, serious, sober and +systematic, careful and thrifty in business affairs and gives success in +life through tactful and diplomatic dealings with others. Such people are +eminently reasonable and trustworthy in all matters of honor and justice and +gain great esteem in the community on that account. Their patience and per- +sistence are inexhaustible. + + THE MOON CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO SATURN is not always to be classed as +a bad aspect so far as the mental qualities go, for in any case it deepens +the mind and gives greater power of concentration, but if Saturn is strong +by sign, in Libra or Capricorn, and the Moon is otherwise well-aspected this +position also will impart the virtues of Saturn, through under all condi- + + +[PAGE 268] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +tions it makes the mind gloomy and the person is subject to periodical +spells of melancholy; but if Saturn is weak by sign, especially if he is in +Aries and if the Moon is otherwise afflicted, then his conjunction is to be +judged and read the same as the square and opposition The effect of the +conjunction also depends upon the department of life we are considering; for +instance, the conjunction of the Moon and Saturn is good for concentration +of the mind, but bad for the digestion, particularly in a woman's horoscope, +where it has also the tendency to obstruct the menses with all that that im- +plies, and in a man's horoscope it indicates the death of the marriage part- +ner. Similar distinctions should be made when reading the conjunctions of +the so-called malefics. + + THE MOONSQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO SATURN is one of the signatures of sor- +row in life, for it makes the mind melancholy and full of worries so that +the person is constantly carrying an atmosphere of gloom with him and as +thoughts are things this attitude of mind brings about delays and disap- +pointments in every department of life. Such a person will experience dif- +ficulties from persons and things signified by Saturn, probably parents, and +if he has money he may lose it and have difficulty in getting more. Thus he + + +[PAGE 269] SATURN, THE PLANT OF SORROW + +may be in poverty all his life. He will make more enemies than friends and +become subject to slander and scandal, but the disfavor he meets is undoubt- +edly merited for these aspects make the mind bitter and selfish and such +people are unscrupulous, avaricious and entirely unfeeling with respect to +others, hence they are under the whiplash of Saturn that the sorrow and +troubles which they themselves are constantly feeling may make them more +mellow. If the aspect is six, five or even four degrees from being exact +and if Saturn is in his exaltation sign Libra these aspects are not quite so +evil in the latter part of life. They may then imply that the person has +learned his lesson and as a consequence he may find himself in easier cir- +cumstances. The adverse aspects of Saturn to the Moon are very had for the +health, particularly in the woman's horoscope. There they indicate obstruc- +tions of the female functions. In the man's horoscope they either deny mar- +riage or indicate the death of the marriage partner and their general ten- +dency is to obstruct everything connected with the houses and signs wherein +they are placed in the horoscope. + + JUPITER SEXTILE OR TRINE TO SATURN gives a strong character with a deep +and profoundly philosophical mind, a benevolent disposition with a strong +sense of justice and fair play. All the virtues of Saturn and Jupiter are + + +[PAGE 270] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +combined by these aspects and people in whose horoscope they are found will +consequently gain honor and esteem in the community where they are. They +will be looked upon as the pillars of society and gain prosperity commensu- +rate with the environment in which they are placed, for these aspects give +sound financial judgment, the ability to grasp opportunity when it is met, +benevolence, devotion to duty, religion and all good objects in life. + + JUPITER PARALLEL OR CONJUNCTION SATURN has the same beneficent influence +as the sextile or trine, though not in as great a measure and if Jupiter is +weak by sign or otherwise afflicted the aspects will probably count for very +little, but in that case its effect upon the arterial circulation will be +obstructive, giving a tendency to sclerosis of the arteries the same as the +opposition and square. + + JUPITER SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO SATURN gives a diffident, vacillating +mind unable to form decisions, always distrustful of others, indolent and +inclined to drift with the tide, often a ward of society either in the +poor-house or the prison, for the character is basically dishonest. These +aspects also give a tendency to arterio-sclerosis. + + +[PAGE 271] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + + MARS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO SATURN gives a capable, determined and ener- +getic nature capable of intense and sustained actions and of obtaining un- +usual results thereby. The executive ability, dominant forcefulness and en- +durance of these people are remarkable and consequently they are constantly +accomplishing that others cannot achieve. On account of these qualities +they always rise to prominent positions and are much esteemed on account of +their ability but seldom liked for these aspects also make the character +cruel and hard. They give a strong physique and general good health. + + MARS CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO SATURN. These are +thoroughly bad aspects indicating a selfish, violent, harsh and cruel na- +ture, quick-tempered and vindictive, absolutely dishonest and untruthful; +unscrupulous and liable to public disgrace and imprisonment, also to acci- +dent and a violent death, but if one of the planets is essentially dignified +or exalted the evil influence is much enhanced. It should also be remem- +bered that such serious defects do not result from one aspect alone and if +the other configurations in the horoscope are good the foregoing delineation +will only apply in a very mild measure. + + URANUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO SATURN is fortunate for a public career in an +officially capacity for it gives ambition and determination with ability to + + +[PAGE 272] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +concentrate upon large problems and exercise authority, plan upon large +problems and exercise authority, plan and systematize. It strengthens the +intuition so that such people are guided by an interior insight when new and +important steps have to be taken, therefore they are in demand and find po- +sitions with large corporations where they win their way through sheer abil- +ity. The mind is both mechanical and ingenious, hence this position often +denotes the successful inventor, particularly along the lines of electri- +city. + + URANUS CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO SATURN has an influence like the good +aspects of the planets are elevated, in angles, essentially dignified or ex- +alted, as Saturn in Libra or Capricorn or Uranus in Aquarius or Scorpio; but +if the conjunction occurs in signs where either of the planets is weak, like +Aries, Taurus, Cancer, or Leo then the influence will be detrimental and +should be judged the same as the square or opposition. + + URANUS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO SATURN gives an unscrupulous, dishonest +nature with an extremely violent temper. The outbursts are as sudden as a +bolt from the blue and exhaust the person completely. These people are very +eccentric and look at everything from a peculiar angle; they are treacher- +ous, idle, indolent and altogether dangerous to the community. These + + +[PAGE 273] SATURN THE PLANET OF SORROW + +aspects also indicate chronic or incurable diseases according to the signs +wherein they are placed, but as said, if the other indications in the horo- +scope are good the influence of a single aspect will not bring out such evil +characteristics and therefore the whole horoscope is to be carefully consid- +ered before judging the influence enumerated for they may be materially +minimized by favorable indications in the horoscope. + + NEPTUNE SEXTILE OR TRINE TO SATURN is good for success in worldly affairs +for it brings out the saturnine virtues--honor, self-reliance, determina- +tion, etc., by which the person gains the confidence and esteem of others, +but the principal effect is spiritual and therefore only felt by those who +are able to respond because of other aspects in the horoscope. To them it +gives the ability to delve deeply into occult and mystical subjects, also to +become proficient in the art and practice of them. + + NEPTUNE CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO SATURN has the same effect as the good +aspects when it occurs in a sign where either of the planets are strong as +Neptune is in Cancer and Pisces and Saturn in Libra and Capricorn. + + NEPTUNE SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO SATURN lays the person liable to loss by +deception, treachery or fraud. + + +[PAGE 274] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER XIII + + JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + + From each of the divine Hierarchies which have ministered at birth and +evolution of humanity we have received certain qualities and faculties upon +which we are being nursed from nescience to omniscience and from impotence +to omnipotence in life's great school. From the Lords of Venus we received +the priceless gift of love which links humanity in the tenderest affection +of varying degrees and makes life beautiful. From the Lords of Mercury we +received the no less valuable gift of mind which enables us to conquer the +material world and provide ourselves with the comforts of life, but some- +thing more is needed. The divine spark within us is every seeking an outlet +and the greater the two qualities of love and intellect grow, the stronger +the upward urge, but this cannot be fully satisfied either if the Spirit +seeks to raise itself to its divine source only through the love nature ex- +pressed by Venus and culminating in its higher octave Uranus. The religious +fervor then expresses itself as devotion of the most sublime nature but +there is still a lack. Feeling without knowledge is incomplete. Nor can +the inner urge be satisfied if through the mercurial channel of intellect it +attempts to raise itself to the spiritual perception of Neptune, the higher + + +[PAGE 275] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +octave of Mercury, for though the intellect be sharp as a razor it is of no +account when it is devoid of love. It therefore follows that ONLY BY THE +WEDDING OF LOVE AND INTELLECT CAN WISDOM BE BORN. The mercurial knowledge in +itself, through neither good nor evil, may be used for one purpose or the +other. Even genius shows only the bent of this knowledge. We speak of a +military genius, one who has a wonderful knowledge of the tactics of war, +but a man of war, whether he be a Napoleon or a common soldier, is not be be +classed as wise because he deliberately crushes the finer feelings of which +we take the heart as symbol. Only when the mercurial faculty of mind is +tempered, blended and balanced by the heart-born faculty of love generated +by the Venus ray, is wisdom born of the union. And this is the quality +which the planetary spirit of Jupiter is seeking to infuse into mankind to +aid them in their spiritual evolution that they may rise above the material +plane and soar to higher spheres. Therefore the Jupiterian ray makes people +human, honorable, courteous, refined and generous, law-abiding and reli- +gious, cheerful and optimistic. The true Jupiterian is aptly described as a +jovial fellow, and he is usually large but his heart is almost too big to +find room even within his capacious chest. The corners of his mouth are al- +ways turned upward with a broad smile that can only be described as radiant +and in his hearty good-feeling he is so demonstrative that when he shakes +your hand the ligaments of your arm are almost sprained. He is "hail + + +[PAGE 276] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +fellow well met" with everybody, always ready to give anything or anybody a +boost. He seems actually grateful to you when you ask him to do you a favor +and is never so happy as when working hard to help others. He would not +harm a child and never gets angry on his own account but when moved to +righteous indignation on account of the wrongs of others then he may be ter- +rible in his wrath, yet he will never be cruel to the aggressor or the op- +pressor, but show mercy and kindness even to them as soon as they have been +vanquished. Such is the pure Jupiterian, but of course he is very seldom +found at the present time. Nevertheless, an increasing number of people are +beginning to walk the way of wisdom and show the Jupiterian traits. + + It is said that "Opportunity knocks at every man's door," yet we often +hear people bewail their fate because they "never had a chance." Saturn is +blamed for our misfortunes when we have learned to study Astrology; we are +so intently on the lookout for evil that we usually forget to look for the +good, and thus miss our opportunity. It takes Saturn thirty years to go +around the horoscope, by transit, and form aspects to all planets, but Jupi- +ter, the most beneficent influence in the solar system, goes around once in +eleven years and thus the good fortunes which he may brings are at least +three times as numerous as the misfortunes brought by Saturn's evil aspects. + + As a matter of fact, we get from others just what we give, each is + + +[PAGE 277] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +surrounded by a subtle auric atmosphere which colors our views of others, +and the thoughts, ideas and actions of others towards us. If we harbor +meanness in our hearts, that colors this atmosphere so that we see meanness +in others and in their actions towards us, we awaken this trait in them, as +vibrations from a tuning-fork start another of the same pitch to sing. On +the other had, if we cultivate the Jupiterian qualities of benevolence, his +expansive smile, his cordial attitude of mind, etc., we shall soon feel the +response in our circle of acquaintances and the beneficent aspect of Jupiter +will them have greater effect in making our life and work pleasant. + + Jupiter is essentially dignified when found in Pisces, or in Sagittarius, +the sign of aspiration. He is exalted in Cancer, the house of the Moon, for +the seed-atom which furnishes the body of the incoming Ego is protected by +the Moon into the sphere of Cancer but in Jupiter represents the spiritual +part and therefore he presides at the ingress of the Ego itself into the +body. He also rules the blood in which the indwelling spirit finds expres- +sion, though his activities are confined principally to the arterial circu- +lation. He furthers assimilation and growth, and therefore he also rules +the liver. (Saturn rules the gall bladder.) Jupiterians are very fond of +show and display. In their religious observances they love ceremonial and +they are rather partial to the established church but often dislike any +"ism" not sanctioned by society or correct form. + + +[PAGE 278] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + When Jupiter is afflicted his influence makes the person lawless, sensu- +ous, self-indulgent, gluttonous, extravagant and careless in the payment of +his obligations, hence liable to loss of health, trouble with the law and +consequent social disgrace. An afflicted Jupiter makes people sporty, fond +of horse-racing and gambling. + + JUPITER IN THE TWELVE HOUSES + + JUPITER IN THE FIRST HOUSE when well-aspected is a good sign of health +and general fortune in life. It gives a good-natured, kindly disposition, a +nature which breathes cordiality, honor and uprightness. These people love +pleasure, particularly out-of-doors, and are fond of traveling. They have +considerable executive ability and are therefore sought for positions of im- +portance and responsibility. There is an inclination to stoutness in later +years. + + Jupiter afflicted on the Ascendant gives a tendency to self-indulgence, +according to the sign wherein he is placed. If in Cancer the person becomes +an inveterate glutton and literally makes a god of his stomach with the in- +evitable result that in the course of years he becomes excessively stout, +the liver being particularly enlarged and as a consequence he is subjected +to sickness of a serious nature. In Sagittarius it makes him an inveterate +gambler who would stake his soul on the toss of a coin. In Pisces he + + +[PAGE 279] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +becomes an incurable drunkard, in Scorpio a sensualist of the worst nature +and so on with the other signs. It may also be said that whenever Jupiter +is afflicted on the Ascendant the health suffers through some corruption of +the blood. + + JUPITER IN THE SECOND HOUSE when well-aspected, particularly by the Sun +or Moon, gives great financial prosperity in life and this is a fortunate +position in that respect even when Jupiter is afflicted, but then the person +is liable to loss under bad directions. When Jupiter is unaspected he gives +no help; the person may then be poor and starve. + + JUPITER IN THE THIRD HOUSE when well-aspected gives a mind of a highly +optimistic nature so that no matter what other obstacles there may be in +life the person who has this position will always look at the silver lining +of the cloud and in so doing forget the cloud itself. He will have excep- +tional educational advantages and what is more the education which he re- +ceives will be of great benefit to him. He will be popular among his broth- +ers, sisters and neighbors and they will help to benefit him. Success is +indicated by traveling, writing and publications. When Jupiter is afflicted +in the Third House the person is liable to be in wrecks and accidents while +traveling, but he will not be injured though he escape only by a hair- + + +[PAGE 280] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +breadth. If Saturn afflicts he will become careless and indolent, thus for- +feiting the respect and esteem of his immediate family, but if Mars is ad- +verse they will mistrust him because of rash and imprudent acts. + + JUPITER IN THE FOURTH HOUSE when well-aspected is most fortunate for the +home conditions, especially in the latter part of life. People with Jupiter +in this position will do better in their place of birth than anywhere else. +They will receive considerable help from the parents and probably an inher- +itance from them. Their business affairs will be on a solid basis and run +smoothly so that at the close of life there will be a considerable accumula- +tion according to their station and the opportunities of their environment. +They pass their days in peace and end them amid friends, wealth and +prosperity. But when Jupiter is afflicted in the Fourth House the person +should leave his native town early in life for the conditions there will be +detrimental to this success. Lavish and extravagant expenditure, love of +display and kindred costly tendencies will sap his resources and bring him +into bankruptcy; besides a false pride will keep him from undertaking a +radical reform even when he has awakened to the fact that he ought to do so +if he would save himself and the only way out of it to make a new start will + + +[PAGE 281] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +be removal to another city. + + JUPITER IN THE FIFTH HOUSE and well-aspected increases the number of +children and they will bring much profit and pleasure to the parents; it +gives popularity and good friends who will be a help to the person, also a +sociable and pleasure loving disposition. Gain by speculation is foreshown, +high intelligence and success in educational work or the publishing or news- +paper business. These people make fine teachers and have a very convincing +way of putting things. If Jupiter is afflicted in the Fifth House, espe- +cially in Sagittarius, it gives a tendency towards gambling and loss +thereby, a love of sports, disinclination for work, and trouble with chil- +dren. + + JUPITER IN THE SIXTH HOUSE gives good health and success in the care and +cure of the sick, faithful servants, and the respect and esteem of all with +whom the person comes in contact in the course of his occupation. But when +Jupiter is afflicted in the Sixth House it gives a tendency toward liver +troubles, enlargement of the liver, obesity and general disorders produced +by over-indulgence of the appetite. + + JUPITER IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE gives a noble, great-hearted and sympathetic +marriage partner who will bring the person favor, fortune and social + + +[PAGE 282] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +prestige. It is an ideal indication for marriage, also for a person seeking +to take a partner or enter into partnership. He may also be assured that +the partner will be noble, sincere, honest and trust-worthy, and that suc- +cess will come by co-operation. It is an ideal position for a lawyer for it +indicates success in law and the ability to reconcile opponents. But if Ju- +piter is weak of afflicted the person will lose his lawsuits or suffer by +misplaced confidence in his partner; marriage will be delayed or denied and +when consummated trouble will arise through the indolence and self-indulgent +habits of the marriage partner. Therefore wisdom would dictate that the +person avoid such relationships. + + JUPITER IN THE EIGHTH HOUSE when well-aspected indicates financial gain +by marriage, partnerships or legacy, but when weak or afflicted it indicates +lawsuits and losses in connection with these matters. A well-aspected Jupi- +ter in the Eighth House is also a sign of an easy and peaceful termination +of the life when the full course has been run. + + JUPITER IN THE NINTH HOUSE gives a peaceful, noble, optimistic and +kind-hearted disposition, with religious tendencies, broad-minded and +tolerant of the opinions of others, but favoring the more orthodox and es- +tablished lines of thought. The person is much esteemed in society and apt + + +[PAGE 283] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +to occupy prominent positions in church, state or in institutions of learn- +ing or philanthropic associations. This position also gives a love of +travel with pleasure and gain thereby. But when weak or afflicted by sign +or aspect it gives arrogance and love of display which is our of proportion +with the person's pocketbook, consequently there are lawsuits and liability +to social discredit. It also shows danger when traveling. + + JUPITER IN THE TENTH HOUSE when well-aspected is one of the best indica- +tion of an eminently successful and virtuous life, especially if he is sup- +ported by Saturn, Sun and Moon, for then the person will rise to a high po- +sition in the church, state or law and gain great wealth, honor and social +esteem. Furthermore he will deserve all he gets for the character will be +of superlative nobility. But if Jupiter be weak or afflicted in the Tenth +House, particularly by Saturn or the luminaries, it shows that the character +is not reliable. The person may rise but his evil deeds will find him out +and therefore he will experience reversals of fortune and loss of prestige. + + JUPITER IN THE ELEVENTH HOUSE and well-aspected gives wealthy and influ- +ential friends who may be relied upon to help the person to realize his +hopes, wishes and ambitions. It also gives a sociable disposition and fond- +ness for pleasure. In a man's horoscope it signifies that the marriage will + + +[PAGE 284] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +be fruitful and that his children will be a credit and a help to him, but +before judgment is rendered in this respect the wife's horoscope should also +be examined to see whether it concurs, for if not then the judgment must be +modified. When Jupiter is afflicted in the Eleventh House either the person +meets friends who are good and sincere in their desire to help him but lack +the ability or less the friends whom he attracts come to him to be ben- +efited. In either case he will not be helped much by friends but must de- +pend upon his own resources to attain his desires. + + JUPITER IN THE TWELFTH HOUSE when well-aspected brings gain and success +through occupations carried on in comparative seclusion such as laboratory +work, work in hospitals or asylums in an executive capacity; or in a posi- +tion in one of the fraternal orders which have to do with sick benefits or +in the study and practice of the mystical or occult arts. If people with +Jupiter in this position are personally indigent they receive much bounty +from people or institutions of a fraternal or charitable nature, but if they +are well-to-do they give lavishly to these purposes. If they have enemies +they also have a way of turning them to friends. If Jupiter is afflicted it +makes the person indolent and improvident so that in time he usually becomes +the ward of one of the charitable institutions where he lives till the end + + +[PAGE 285] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +of life without either trouble or worry. + + JUPITER IN THE TWELVE SIGNS + + JUPITER IN ARIES gives a high-spirited, energetic and ambitious mind, al- +ways on the lookout and alert for new and progressive methods usable for ad- +vancement in the world's work, it makes a true pioneer, neither too conser- +vative not too impulsive, a thoughtful, but sympathetic disposition, +sincere, honest and trustworthy, somewhat religiously inclined. It gives +some legal of literary ability and a love of out-door games with popularity +in social and business circles. But if Jupiter is afflicted the mind is not +so conservative and well-balanced. There is a tendency to rash and impul- +sive acts; impatience and temper are shown under adverse circumstances with +a consequent loss of esteem and popularity. + + JUPITER IN TAURUS when well-aspected gives an eminently kind and sympa- +thetic nature to all people but a deep-seated, tender and warm love for +those towards whom the relationship warrants such expression. This position +also attracts wealth and gives a generous disposition to aid in philan- +thropic enterprises; yet Jupiter in the Second House or second sign is never +lavish or extravagantly generous but rather conservative and inclined to in- +vestigate the merits of any proposition before he extends a helping hand. On + + +[PAGE 286] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the other hand he is absolutely open-handed to those who are near and dear +to him. His home and his family are all in all. When Jupiter is afflicted +in Taurus it inclines to extravagant expenditures for show, display and +gratification of the lower nature. Such people are great gourmandizers, +fond of rich and savory foods that tickle the palate. They often experience +financial difficulties and trouble with creditors, also such sickness as may +result from the over-indulgence of their appetites according to other indi- +cations of the stars. + + JUPITER IN GEMINI when well-aspected gives literary ability of a high +class and if that is backed by the necessary education success in this line +in certain. This position also gives an inventive turn to the mind, a love +of mathematics and an attraction towards the occult. Jupiter in Gemini +shows that travel will bring both pleasure and profit and it gives an honor- +able, courteous and friendly disposition. But if Jupiter is afflicted the +person is liable to meet with losses and trouble when traveling. He will +have a number of hair-breadth escapes from accidents, legal and religious +trouble, also difficulties with brothers, sisters and close relatives. + + JUPITER IN CANCER. The full effect of Jupiter for good or ill is never +felt until the middle life and this is especially the case when he is placed + + +[PAGE 287] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +in the Fourth House or fourth sign, Cancer. When well-placed there he gives +an exceedingly kindly and courteous disposition, that is at peace with all +the world; he is endowed with a most vivid and fruitful imagination, a +dreamer of Utopian dreams and a lover of the occult and mystical. There is +also however, a practical side to the nature which makes him ambitious to +attain worldly success and fortunate in his investment in houses, lands or +mines, so that he will accumulate property and be well-to-do especially af- +ter middle life. this position also indicates that the person may receive +much help from his parents during life and an inheritance after their death. +Jupiter in Cancer makes the person very fond of the pleasures of the table +but if well-aspected he will probably keep himself within such bounds that +his health does not suffer. If however, Jupiter is afflicted it inclines to +inordinate gluttony which will eventually corrupt the blood and cause such +disease and noxious growths as result from that condition. + + JUPITER IN LEO gives a truly noble nature, blending kindness and courage, +self-reliance and loyalty, self-restraint and compassion, mercy and justice. +It indicates, in short, a paragon of virtues nowhere excelled. It gives an +abundance of vitality and a strong constitution so that it marks a leader + + +[PAGE 288] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +physically, morally and spiritually, nor will such a person ever be content +to follow. He craves positions of trust and responsibility, the greater the +better. He will always be equal to the occasion and never abuse the confi- +dence of those who have placed him there. Such people have an innate cul- +ture and refinement. They are fond of everything that tends to the uplift +of humanity, religious, sincere; sure to win recognition and success dealing +in speculative investments. When Jupiter is afflicted in Leo the person be- +comes cruel and sensuous, abnormally fond of pleasure and subject to loss by +investments, speculation and gambling. + + JUPITER IN VIRGO gives a cautious, analytical and practical nature with +an almost unerring faculty for discriminating between the seeming and the +real, for sifting truth from error and arriving at facts. They cannot fer- +ret out secrets by underhanded methods as Saturn in Capricorn which makes an +ideal detective, but if Jupiter in Virgo is the judge no one is clever +enough to hide the truth from him. A well-aspected Jupiter in Virgo indi- +cates success with servants who will be found faithful and loyal, ready to +do their master's bidding. It also indicates prosperity through business or +professional vocations; but if Jupiter is afflicted in Virgo it gives a +cynical carping and critical disposition, mistrustful of others and there- + + +[PAGE 289] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +fore liable to loss through servants or employees. Such people cannot suc- +ceed in business and they will find it extremely difficult to obtain or keep +a position. At any rate they will serve in a very inferior capacity. + + JUPITER IN LIBRA when well-aspected gives a kind, sympathetic and loving +disposition, a conscientious, sociable and benevolent nature and an interest +in all that makes for the uplift of humanity--music, art, literature, social +intercourse, et cetera. On that account the person is popular, particularly +with the opposite sex from whence gain and benefit may be expected. Success +in the business and public life are shown. But if Jupiter is afflicted in +Libra undue indulgence of the lower nature will bring trouble and public +scandal with a consequent loss of popularity and prestige. + + JUPITER IN SCORPIO gives an ardent, aggressive and self-reliant nature, +an enthusiastic, constructive and resourceful mind with the ability to meet +all the exigencies of life in an efficient manner and it ensures success in +practical everyday occupations, gives a large family and plenty of means to +provide for them. This position also shows a tendency towards occult inves- +tigations. But if Jupiter is afflicted in Scorpio it will bring loss and +trouble through the indulgence of the lower nature in an inordinate measure, +love of rich an expensive good and sickness on that account. + + +[PAGE 290] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + JUPITER IN SAGITTARIUS when well-aspected gives good fortune and general +success in life, a humane, broad and philosophical mind, a reverent and re- +ligious disposition. Hence people with this position rise to the top and +become leaders in their various spheres of life, finding places of +prominence in church or state, scientific or philosophic enterprises or in- +stitutions. If Jupiter is afflicted in Sagittarius it makes the person +sporty, fond of cheap and gaudy display, extravagant and ready to take a +chance on any gamble, causes loss of social standing if born in a better en- +vironment, trouble through law, financial difficulties, narrow-minded sec- +tarian views if incline to be religious. + + JUPITER IN CAPRICORN gives an ambitious nature, self-reliant and +self-controlled with a desire to rise to a position of authority over others +also the ability to dictate wisely and well. It gives a careful, economical +disposition, and an abhorrence of waste; ingenuity, resourcefulness and some +mechanical ability. These people are trust-worthy to a degree, sincere and +honest in all their undertakings and hold every promise inviolate, therefore +they usually rise to honor, esteem and general popularity. As already said +their aim is to attain independence at the head of some business, but if + + +[PAGE 291] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +they do not succeed in that and have to work for others they are best suited +to be in the employ of the government, either municipal or national. On ac- +count of the implicit trust generated by their sterling characteristics of +honesty, sincerity and faithfulness these people are often made the re- +cipients of confidence from friends who feel the need of sharing their +troubles with someone who can be depended upon either to give honest, disin- +terested advice or else to keep the secrets told then inviolate. If Jupiter +is afflicted in Capricorn it makes a miser who will hoard all he can scrape +together and deny himself all except the barest necessities and is conse- +quently despised by all who know him. + + + JUPITER IN AQUARIUS when well-aspected gives a humane, optimistic, +original and philosophic mind, fond of friends and the society of others +particularly those who are interested in science or mysticism, literature +and music, consequently he attracts people of that nature and they will be a +benefit to him in helping him to realize his hopes, wishes and ambitions. +He may possibly obtain a position of importance in some official capacity +with secret or occult societies. This is a good indication of general suc- +cess in life, but if Jupiter is afflicted it makes the nature restless, ner- +vous and erratic with revolutionary or anarchistic ideas with disinclination + + +[PAGE 292] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +for serious work and such people are generally disliked and distrusted. + + JUPITER IN PISCES gives a charitable, sympathetic and hospitable nature +which loves to minister to the outcasts of society. These people are +veritable angels of mercy to all who suffer in body, soul or spirit. They +are well known to those who are "sick of in prison." Being of a sensitive +nature and subject to the influences from the invisible world they not in- +frequently have psychic experiences and become students of the occult. They +love music, art and literature and if well-aspected by Venus, Jupiter in Pi- +sces will give considerable ability as a performer; but if Jupiter is af- +flicted in Pisces it gives a vacillating mind, a nerveless, cowardly nature +indulging in all vices in the calendar and a generally despicable +dispositon--a social parasite. + + THE ASPECTS OF JUPITER + + THE SUN CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO JUPITER. The conjunction gives +a tendency to apoplexy, especially if it occurs in Aries, but with that ex- +ception we may say that these configurations are sure indications of health, +wealth and happiness; they give the person an abundance of vitality which is +proof even against very severe onslaughts of disease, and should a + + +[PAGE 293] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +particularly unfavorable planetary influence succeed in breaking down the +constitutional resistance recovery will be so rapid as to seem miraculous. +This nearly impregnable condition of health is all the more unassailable be- +cause it is backed by a disposition at once "sunny" and "jovial" and that +latter characteristic also makes the fortunate possessors of these aspects +beloved by all with whom they come in contact; everybody is glad to see the +person with the perpetual smile, but they do more than "smile"--they EARN +the friendship universally bestowed upon them by deeds of kindness, by words +of sympathy, cheer or hope as the occasion may demand. They are trusted by +everybody for they never betray a trust; they have good clear heads, good +judgment and executive ability so that they are well fitted to help others. +These characteristics also favor their own financial fortunes so that they +accumulate wealth, but theirs is never "tainted money," they never benefit +by the loss of others. They are conservatively religious and may be aptly +described as "pillars of society." They shine particularly in governmental +offices. + + THE SUN SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO JUPITER gives a tendency to indulge in +habits which are bad for the health; the person is far too fond of the "good +things in life" and very selfish in supplying his own comforts; he exercises +little and never denies himself, with the result that the circulation + + +[PAGE 294] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +becomes sluggish and as these people have a superabundance of blood their +lassitude and indulgence is productive of various noxious growths and kin- +dred disorders; sometimes a fit of anger raises the blood pressure to such a +point that a vessel burst and ends the life or leaves the person thenceforth +a useless wreck. These aspects give a bombastic, haughty disposition with +an inordinate love of display and thus induce to extravagance both in social +and business affairs with the result that the person sometimes finds himself +involved in debt which he cannot pay and then there is but a step to the +bankruptcy court. A false pride often prevents these people from working +honestly for others so they would rather prey upon the public as gamblers +where there is an opportunity to swindle other people and get what they call +an "easy" living until then land in the meshes of the law. Children with +these aspects should be given special training in self-restraint, thrift and +honesty, above all, religion, for they have a tendency to scorn and scoff at +religion, but perhaps a memory of a devout mother may help to keep them +straight. + + VENUS CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL SEXTILE OR TRINE TO JUPITER is one of the +best signs of success and general good fortune in life. It favors the + + +[PAGE 295] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +accumulation of wealth and the enjoyment of all the luxuries of life. It is +a good indication of a successful and happy marriage, social prestige and +the respect of all with whom the person comes in contact. It endows him +with a jovial, optimistic, generous and large-hearted disposition, makes him +honorable to a degree, interested and active in philanthropic measures, lib- +eral in mind, tolerant of the views of others even where he differs +radically, fond of pleasure, traveling, parties, and capable of enjoying +life to the fullest extend; he loves expensive and ultra-comfortable things, +a fine house, valuable books, pictures and other rich appointments. + + VENUS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO JUPITER gives the same luxurious likings as +the good aspects but limits the ability to satisfy them; although such +people make the most frantic efforts to present a fine front to the world +they are generally found out to he shams. Their lack of business ability so +often responsible for failure and bankruptcy and they are very liable to +suffer losses through treachery of others. Love and marriage also are +sources of sorrow for those whom Venus and Jupiter are afflicting. They are +apt to be jilted before marriage or the marriage partner will prove faith- +less and may desert them. These aspects also produce an amorous nature + + +[PAGE 296] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +likely to take liberties regardless of the laws of decency and make the per- +son faithless to marriage vows. + + MERCURY CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO JUPITER is one of the +finest assets in life for it gives a cheerful, optimistic disposition with +the ability to always look upon the bright side of things and keep up the +spirits in the hours of adversity; the mind is broad, versatile and able to +reason correctly and to form a reliable judgment be careful deliberation; +these people never decide hastily; they require time to think over what is +presented to them, but once they have reached a conclusion, it will be found +incontrovertible. They are successful in law or literature and much re- +spected for their honesty and sincerity. These aspects are particularly +fortunate for people who travel for business or pleasure, for they will reap +both benefit and enjoyment from a migratory mode of life. It will make them +"healthy, wealthy and wise" beyond the average, loved by everybody for the +vital vibration they radiate upon whomever they meet. + + MERCURY SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO JUPITER gives a vacillating and wavering +disposition so that the person cannot make up his mind when more than one +course of action is open, hence people with these aspects often lose their +opportunities through procrastination and lack of judgment; they must + + +[PAGE 297] JUPITER, PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +therefore often be classed as failures. They are liable to scandal and +slander because of treacherous associates, and should not ravel for it will +bring them loss and trouble; they should also be extremely careful in making +contracts or agreements to do or deliver certain things at a specified time +for they will probably be unable to fulfill the requirements and thus +trouble and loss will result. + + THE MOON PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO JUPITER gives an op- +timistic, noble and generous disposition. The open-hearted honesty, fair- +ness and friendliness of people with these aspects make them universally +popular. These aspects strengthen both the reasoning faculties and consti- +tution, so that such people usually have a strong mind in a strong body and +hence a powerful personal magnetism which may be used to great advantage in +healing the sick. They have lofty ideals and a fruitful imagination with +the power of acquiring wealth which will grow greater if used in philan- +thropic enterprises of which these people are prone to dream. This is one +of the best aspects in the gamut and makes for general success in life both +physically and spiritually. + + THE MOON SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO JUPITER impairs the reasoning faculties +and brings the person trouble through litigation, lack of fore-thought and + + +[PAGE 298] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +indecision or dishonesty. People with these aspects are too fond of osten- +tation aid display, extravagant beyond their means, lavish in their expendi- +tures, prone to take desperate chances in gambling or speculation to reha- +bilitate their fortunes and doomed to loss, slander and sometimes bankruptcy +on that account. These aspects are also bad for health in a woman's horo- +scope especially; they indicate digestive and liver troubles. + + SATURN SEXTILE OR TRINE TO JUPITER gives a strong character with a deep +and profoundly philosophical mind, a benevolent disposition with a strong +sense of justice and fair play. All the virtues of Saturn and Jupiter are +combined by these aspects and people in whose horoscope they are found will +consequently gain the honor and esteem of the community where they are. +Thus they will be looked upon as pillars of society and gain prosperity com- +mensurate with the environment in which they are placed, for these aspects +give sound financial judgment and the ability to grasp the opportunity when +it is met. + + SATURN CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO JUPITER has the same beneficent influ- +ence as the sextile or trine through not in as great a measure and if Jupi- +ter is weak by sign of otherwise afflicted the aspects will probably count +for very little, bit in that case its effect upon the arterial circulation + + +[PAGE 299] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +will be obstructive, giving a tendency to sclerosis of the arteries the same +as the opposition or square. + + SATURN SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO JUPITER gives a different, vacillating +mind unable to form decisions, always distrustful of others, indolent and +inclined to drift with the tide; often a ward of society either in the +poor-house or the prison, for the character is basically dishonest. These +aspects also give a tendency to arterio-sclerosis. + + MARS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO JUPITER. It is the nature of Jupiter to be +somewhat conservative and dignified, but when blended with the fire of Mars +it gives enthusiasm and an ability to influence of others and imbue them +with the same feelings. It makes the nature noble, sincere, honest and +straightforwarded. This aspect is also good for the financial prosperity of +the person, for both Mars and Jupiter when well-aspected give good earning +ability and favor accumulation. Jupiter is somewhat conservative in respect +to expenditures, Mars is too free, but where the Martian and Jupiterian ten- +dencies are blended by a good aspect the result is an ideal, generous na- +ture, neither too lavish not too conservative, able to strike a happy me- +dium. These people have much ingenuity and constructive ability and +whatever they do they put their whole heart in it. Hence they are success- +ful in business, popular in society, fond of out-of-door sports and games. + + +[PAGE 300] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +They love to travel and gain much pleasure by so doing. Mars rules the +haemoglobin in the blood which is so important a factor in health and vital- +ity, therefore the good aspects of Jupiter and Mars increase the red blood +corpuscles with the result that people with these aspects have an abundance +of health, vitality, power and endurance. + + MARS PARALLEL OR CONJUNCTION JUPITER strengthens the constitution and in- +creases the vitality the same as the good aspects. It also indicates that +the person is able to earn much money and uses it freely and generously, but +the mental qualities are similar to those conferred by the bad aspects: +sporty, swaggering, tricky, deceitful and untruthful, impulsive in judgment, +but to be depended upon, and if the conjunction occurs in one of the watery +signs, especially in Pisces, the person will probably be a drunkard, through +this is not as certain as with the square or opposition. + + MARS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO JUPITER is the signature of the gambler and +if one of the planets is in a watery sign, especially in Pisces, he will be +a drunkard also, a tricky, dishonest and disreputable character who always +acts through impulse. With respect to health we find that these people suf- +fer principally from blood and liver complaints, the circulation is poor + + +[PAGE 301] JUPITER THE PLANET OF BENEVOLENCE + +and the blood is so rich that there is danger of apoplexy. + + URANUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO JUPITER gives a broad, humane disposition and +a tendency to delve into the occult arts and sciences. It favors an asso- +ciation with secret orders and gives promise of prosperity in life. Such a +person is honest and sincere, sociable, hospitable and likely to benefit a +great deal from influential friends in official positions. This positions +also gives executive ability and success in connection with institutions of +learning. + + URANUS PARALLEL OR CONJUNCTION JUPITER gives similar indications to the +good aspects but the influence is not quite so decided, particularly if ei- +ther of the planets is weak by sign or otherwise afflicted. In that case it +will be found that the tendencies conferred are more like those of the bad +aspects. + + URANUS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO JUPITER gives am impulsive nature liable +to act in a sudden or unexpected manner to one's own undoing; loss by +speculation, lawsuits and impulsive extravagance are also indicated, many +changes both of occupations and residence, loss of friends and reputation. + + +[PAGE 302] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + NEPTUNE SEXTILE OR TRINE TO JUPITER gives an inspirational, mystical na- +ture and success in an occupation connect with occult orders, that is to say +where the character is sufficiently developed is that Neptune can makes his +influence felt, for then this position brings out all the noblest and most +spiritual strength of both planets, and occult experiences are not infre- +quently the result. During the sleeping hours these people are quite con- +scious in the invisible worlds. + + NEPTUNE PARALLEL OR CONJUNCTION JUPITER gives an influence similar to +that of the good aspects when Neptune and Jupiter are not afflicted, but if +they are in a weak sign and aspecting the other planets by square or opposi- +tion then the influence is similar to that one of the bad aspects of Jupiter +and Neptune. + + NEPTUNE SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO JUPITER indicates lack of control of the +emotions. The person is sensitive to the low psychic influences of the bor- +derland between the seen and the unseen worlds but they are of an +awe-inspiring and disgusting type, hence apt to cause hysterical conditions, +such as involuntary trance and kindred disorders attendant upon negative +psychism. From a material standpoint it gives danger of fraud through +speculation or large companies and dealing with predatory interests should +therefore be avoided. + + +[PAGE 303] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + + CHAPTER XIV + + MARS THE PLANET OF ACTION + + From the Bible we learn that Jehovah was the Creator of mankind for we +find His angels announcing the birth of various notable personages. Thus +the conclusion is inevitable that He and they preside over the generative +function and impart the quality of fertility which at that time was looked +upon as a token of the favor of God while barrenness was indicated as a sign +of His displeasure. This is in accordance with the Western Wisdom Teaching +which tells us that tin the earliest days when mankind was still in the mak- +ing Jehovah and His angels guided them to great temples at the times of year +when planetary conditions were propitious to generation, and men born under +those harmonious conditions lived for hundreds of years without sickness of +disease. It is noticeable that wild animals which are still entirely under +the guidance of their group-spirits and mate only at certain seasons are +also immune from sickness. Jehovah still retains control over the fertil- +ization of the animals which are attuned to His lunar vibrations through +their twenty-eight pairs of spinal nerves that correspond to the +twenty-eight days of the lunar revolution and His vehicle the Moon still + + +[PAGE 304] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +measures the period of gestation for men and beasts. + + But the Bible also tells us of LUCIFER and his FALLEN ANGELS who taught +humanity to take the prerogative of creation into their own hands and in- +stilled into them the passion that has caused sorrow, sin and death, because +the holy function of generation which was intended only for temporary pur- +poses of propagation and which works so well under propitious planetary con- +ditions has been desecrated and made subservient to the lusts of humanity at +all times regardless of the stellar rays. Yet it is a mistake to think of +the Lucifer spirits as evil, for under the sway of the angels humanity nei- +ther good nor evil and having no choice or prerogative, but since though the +martial Lucifer spirits we have learned to know good and evil we are also +able to exercise of will power to shun the evil and choose the good, to flee +from vice and cultivate virtue, thereby placing ourselves in harmonious +co-worker-ship with God and nature and unfolding our divine possibilities so +that we may become like our Father in Heaven. + + While Jehovah and His angels are thus working upon humanity from the Moon +the Lucifer spirits who rebelled against His regime are located on the +planet Mars and from them also we have received and are receiving many valu- +able gifts, chief among them FIRE and IRON. It is well known that every +LIVING body is warm, for the Ego cannot manifest in the physical world save + + +[PAGE 305] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +through heat, or perhaps it should be said that heat is generated in the +manifestation of the Ego. But without iron, which exists in the blood in +the form of haemoglobin, there could be no oxidation and consequently no +heat. That was the condition previous to the fall, so-called, when +man-in-the-making was mindless. But then the Lucifer spirits came and in- +fused iron into the blood, which made it possible for the Ego to draw into +its vehicles and from that time the Ego became an INDWELLING spirit capable +of evolving individuality. Thus had it not been for the Lucifer spirits man +could not have become man. It is their fire and their iron that has made +the world what it is today, good and bad according to the use man has made +of it. The solar force focused through the Moon imparts vitality and the +faculty of growth but the rays of the Sun focused upon us by the martial Lu- +cifer spirits give us dynamic power and are the source of all activity in +the world. + + Power may be latent for milleniums, as exemplified in coalbeds, which are +reservoirs of solar force; a furnace and engine are required to transmute +and make it available as dynamic energy, but, once the sleeping giant has +been roused from latency to potency it knows no rest or peace till it has +expended the last ounce of its prodigious strength. Under strict control, +and carefully guided into channel of useful activity, this Martian force is +the most valuable servant of mankind; the most powerful agent in the world's + + +[PAGE 306] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +work, an incomparable boon to humanity. But if it escapes control the ser- +vant quickly takes mastery, its inimical power of destruction and devasta- +tion is then as terrible as scourge as its beneficent use under guidance is +an inestimable blessing. It is as precious as it is dangerous, eternal +vigilance is the price of safety from its ravages, but without it the world +would be wilderness. + + Mars, as a focus for the latent solar life, transmutes it into desire, +passion and what we may call animal spirits. It is a consuming fire, more +dangerous than all the nitroglycerine every manufactured, but also more pre- +cious than any other blessing we can have or enjoy. + + The Hindoo preacher, nurtured in a land governed by Saturn, the planet of +obstruction, says: "Kill out desire." He dreams away his days in destitu- +tion, but as "temper" conserves the edge of the steel that carves its way +through all obstruction, so the well-directed energetic desires of the mar- +tial Anglo-Saxson have wrought a marvelous transformation in the earth; they +have reared a civilization beyond all which preceded it, and through perhaps +brutal in many respects, there is promise in that also, according to the +proverb: "The greater the sinner, the greater the saint." Parents should +take a lesson from a book of nationals and refrain from applying the Satur- +nine wet blanket to the fiery Mars spirit of children. Saturn always says +"don't, don't;" his aim is to repress and obstruct. A clear fire under + + +[PAGE 307] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +proper control is useful, but death lurks in the smoke and noxious gases of +a smothered fire; too many "don'ts" smother legitimate ambition and frus- +trate accomplishment; they may drive hapless victims into ways of evil, for +the dynamic energy of Mars must and will have an outlet, so beware. The +worst faults of Mars are impulsiveness and lack of persistence, but he +breeds no hypocrites as does an afflicted Saturn. + + From Mars we receive a number of our highly-prized virtues as well as +some of our worst faults. When well-aspected he gives a strong constitution +and physical endurance, a positive, independent and self-reliant nature, de- +termined and proud, generous and energetic, resourceful and quick to learn, +especially when in Aries, Leo, Scorpio or Capricorn, but when he is weak by +sign as in Taurus, Cancer, Libra or aspected by squares or oppositions he +makes the person quick-tempered, obstinate and spiteful, inclined to drunk- +enness and criminal acts, cruel and hard, a bully and braggart. + + People who have Mars prominent in their horoscopes are eminently practi- +cal and play an important part in the world's work. They are especially +proficient in occupations where iron and fire are used for constructive pur- +poses or where sharp instruments are handled. Soldiers, surgeons and butch- +ers, machine workers and iron founders, engineers and man in kindred occupa- +tions are of the martial nature. They also excel in other positions where +courage and intrepidity are necessary qualities. + + +[PAGE 308] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + MARS IN THE TWELVE HOUSES + + MARS IN THE ASCENDANT, OR FIRST HOUSE, when well-aspected has a most ben- +eficial influence upon the constitution, particularly if he is in one of the +fiery signs, Aries, Leo or Sagittarius, or in the sign of his exaltation +Capricorn, but sometimes when a weak sign like Cancer is rising and the +other planets are much afflicted Mars in the Ascendant may infuse sufficient +energy into the body to tide it over the critical period of infancy. This +position also gives energy, ambition, courage, self-reliance and determina- +tion which are exceedingly helpful characteristics in winning the battle of +life. It indicates an enterprising and practical person who will shun no +effort in order to succeed. When Mars is afflicted in the First House he +nevertheless strengthens the constitution and gives muscular power and en- +durance, but he makes such persons rash, impulsive, headstrong and fool- +hardy. Thus they neglect the ordinary precautions to guard their health and +become subject to fevers and other inflammatory diseases, also liable to ac- +cidents and loss of blood by lesions of varying magnitude, danger from fire +such as burns or scalds, according to the nature of the afflicting planet. +In this respect the Sun is usually productive of fevers and inflammations. +Jupiter gives liability to broken bones or accident by railroad or rolling +stock, Uranus and Saturn falls and bruises and Venus disease caused by + + +[PAGE 309] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +indulgence of the passional nature. + + MARS IN THE SECOND HOUSE when well-aspected makes the nature free and +generous in financial dealings with others. The person has a splendid earn- +ing capacity and will make a financial success in any business or a martial +nature involving the use of fire, iron tools or machinery. It is also an +indication of money by marriage or legacy, but although the money comes fast +and easily, the person will not accumulate wealth as he is very generous and +fond of comfort and pleasure. When Mars is afflicted in the Second House +money will come just as fast as under the good aspects at times, but at +other times the bad aspects make the person outrageously extravagant and +inclined to be reckless in financial ventures, with the inevitable result +that heavy losses are incurred and the person may find himself without a +cent in the world. A competence may be made and spent several times during +life. These people never give up, however, and when they have met financial +disaster they immediately start to build up anew on the ruins of the old. +They are then usually successful for a time again, but they can never learn +to be more careful and less extravagant, hence they are always liable to re- +peated financial shipwreck. + + +[PAGE 310] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + MARS IN THE THIRD HOUSE when well-aspected makes the mind keen, bright +and alert, fond of argument, quick at repartee, ingenious, inventive and re- +sourceful, with plenty of initiative and constructive ability. But when +Mars is afflicted in the Third House it gives liability to accidents on +short journeys, a quarrelsome nature specially liable to get into trouble +with brothers, sisters and neighbors. These people are very critical to- +wards everybody with whom they come in contact and therefore generally +feared and avoided when possible. + + MARS IN THE FOURTH HOUSE when well-aspected gives a strong constitution +which is maintained unimpaired even in old age; the digestive faculty is +particularly good and consequently the health and strength are rugged. It +makes the native exceedingly aggressive in his efforts to "feather his nest" +and accumulate property for old age and rainy day. There is also likelihood +of a legacy from his parents. This is a very fortunate position, especially +if Mars is in Aries, Leo or Capricorn, but if Mars is weak as in Cancer or +Pisces and afflicted by square or opposition, digestive troubles or dissipa- +tion will undermine the vitality and the person will become more quarrelsome +and disagreeable every day he lives. He will be liable to accident by fire +in the home also to fevers and inflammatory diseases. People with Mars in + + +[PAGE 311] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +this position should leave their native place as quickly as possible. This +may in some measure relieve the trouble. + + MARS IN THE FIFTH HOUSE when well-aspected gives an ardent, demonstrative +love-nature. It makes the person fond of athletic exercises, sports and +muscular effort, a clean, masterful man much admired by the opposite sex or +a woman who is a real "pal" to her male companion. These people make excel- +lent disciplinarians and are much beloved by their pupils if placed in posi- +tions as teachers, or better still as principals for they make much better +leaders than followers. But when Mars is afflicted in the Fifth House it +makes the person very fickle in his affections. It is on with the new love +even before he is through with the old, an all-around flirt and therefore +likely to get into a great deal of trouble. Over-indulgence of the amorous +nature is liable to sap the vitality and create dangerous physical condi- +tions. In a woman's horoscope there is grave danger of death to a child in +the horoscope of either sex. People with Mars afflicted in the Fifth House +are also liable to loss through gambling and speculation in stocks, bonds +and securities. + + MARS IN THE SIXTH HOUSE when well-aspected makes a quick, energetic +worker who is likely to rise to prominent position in the employ of someone + + +[PAGE 312] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +else, therefore the larger the firm in which he seeks employment the better. +But he should not attempt to start in business for himself, for people with +Mars in the Sixth House always succeed better when in the employment of +someone else. This position also increases the vitality and should the per- +son on account of other planetary configurations in the horoscope become +subject to disease the dynamic energy and recuperative power of Mars will +soon burn and leave it in better health than before. But a liability to +trouble and quarrels with other employees or employer. Should the person be +in the position of employer himself he will always be at a variance with his +employees and subject to loss by theft and dishonesty through them. They +will waste his goods and have no regard for his interests. An afflicted +Mars in the Sixth House also gives a liability to fevers and inflammatory +diseases, dangers of burns, scalds and gun-shots and accidents sustained in +the course of employment. + + MARS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE when well-aspected gives a capable, industrious +and aggressive marriage partner, untiring in the promotion of the welfare of +the family, a strong personality who is bound to rule but will do so in a + + +[PAGE 313] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +kindly manner. This applies to both sexes, for when in a man's horoscope +the marriage partner is indicated by Mars in the Seventh House she also will +be masculine and will want to take the reins of government in her own hands. +However, as Mars in the Seventh House gives a tendency to an early union +when the parties are both plastic they accommodate themselves to these con- +ditions more easily than if the marriage were consummated at a more mature +age. But if Mars is afflicted in the Seventh House it indicates an accident +or sudden death to the marriage partner who will be of a domineering, quar- +relsome nature and if one of the watery signs, Cancer, Scorpio not Pisces is +on the cusp he will also be a drunkard and sex addict. This latter applies +particularly if Mars is afflicted in Scorpio. Then he also brings on in- +flammatory diseases of the genitals or rectum. + + MARS IN THE EIGHTH HOUSE and well-aspected brings financial benefit +through the marriage partner or by legacy. In business it is also good for +gain by partnerships, lawsuits or similar Eighth House matters. But when +Mars is afflicted in the Eighth House the financial conditions grow worse +after marriage through the extravagance of the marriage partner. Business +partnerships and litigation should also be avoided for they are sure to + + +[PAGE 314] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +bring loss. People with Mars in this position should not delay making their +will for the end usually comes very sudden and unexpectedly. + + MARS IN THE NINTH HOUSE well-aspected gives a liberal, broad and progres- +sive view upon all problems of life. People with Mars in this position are +likely to take up some cause having for its object the social or spiritual +upliftment of mankind in general and become very enthusiastic workers in the +particular cult which has aroused their sympathies. They are fond of a rov- +ing life and benefit by changing from one place to another, especially by +travel in foreign lands. They have a clean, clear and alert mentality and a +taking way or presenting their views to others. Therefore they make good +missionaries in whatever line of propaganda they take up. But if Mars is +afflicted in the Ninth House he makes people bigoted and fanatical in their +views, regular ranters who disgust all whom they try to afflict with their +ideas, whether they are religious or atheistic. People with an afflicted +Mars here should never travel, but remain in their native place for they +will always be in danger of accident on journeys and however much they may +be disliked in their native place they will find a still worse reception in +foreign parts. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + + diff --git a/religious documents/ms06.txt b/religious documents/ms06.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5b1c265 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ms06.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1591 @@ +[PAGE 315] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + + MARS IN THE TENTH HOUSE and well-aspected is one of the best signs of +success in life for it gives an ambitious, enthusiastic nature with an inex- +haustible fund of energy, so that no matter what obstacles are placed in his +way the person is bound to rise to the top. It gives a masterful nature and +good executive ability so that the person is well-qualified to conduct busi- +ness and command others. These people succeed best in Martian occupations +where fire, iron or sharp tools are used in a skilled manner, as by engi- +neers or machinists, tailors or surgeons, et cetera. When Mars is afflicted +in the Tenth House it gives the same energy and ambition as the good aspects +but the person will then lack discrimination and overreach himself with the +result that he will incur the enmity of other people who will accomplish his +downfall and bring him into disrepute in the community. Thus the life will +be filled with strife, struggle and unhappiness until the person has learned +to hold himself in leash, regard the rights of others and abandon his auto- +cratic attitude and self-assertion. This position also gives liability to +accident and slander. + + MARS IN THE ELEVENTH HOUSE makes people leaders in their particular so- +cial set, enthusiastic in the pursuit of pleasure, brings friends among mar- +tial and athletic persons; gives energy and enthusiasm for realizing hopes, + + +[PAGE 316] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +wishes and aspirations. But if Mars in the Eleventh House is afflicted it +makes the person touchy and sensitive towards friends with consequent un- +popularity and he is liable to overreach himself in his keen desire to real- +ize his ambitions in life. + + MARS IN THE TWELFTH HOUSE when well-aspected may bring the person benefit +from things denoted by this house, prisons, hospitals and charitable insti- +tutions if employed in an official capacity as warden or surgeon; or as ad- +ministrator of an estate or in detective work. But if Mars is afflicted in +the Twelfth House the person is liable to trouble, sorrow and self-undoing +all through life. He will incur the enmity of other people and may be con- +fined in prison or an insane asylum. If Cancer or Pisces is on the cusp of +the Twelfth House Mars will lead him to drunkenness and dissipation. If +Scorpio is on the cusp the vitality will be sapped through sex or +self-abuse. In any case Mars afflicted in the Twelfth House makes a social +outcast unless there are other redeeming features in the figure. + + MARS IN THE TWELVE SIGNS + + MARS IN ARIES gives an energetic, enthusiastic nature, impulsive, aggres- +sive and impatient of restraint. No matter what the obstacles in the path +these people will attempt the seemingly impossible and often succeed through +sheer audacity. They are original, resourceful, have considerable me- + + +[PAGE 317] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +chanical ability and the more venturesome an undertaking appears the more +it appeals to them. This position gives an abundance of vitality and a love +of sport and muscular exercise. The person is just as enthusiastic in his +enjoyment of recreation and pleasure as he is in his work and on that ac- +count he gets a great deal out of life. But if Mars is afflicted in Aries +it gives a violent temper and a liability to accidents, burns, scaldings, +fevers and inflammatory complaints. The mind is also threatened. + + MARS IN TAURUS and well-aspected is a good indication of an early mar- +riage. It shows good earning power and a free, generous disposition with +regards to finances; it gives an interior strength of an unconquerable na- +ture so that the person will always gain his ends by unflagging determina- +tion and a quiet persistence that recognizes no defeat, but presses on to- +wards the goal that he has set for himself despite all obstacles. It is +also indication of money by legacy. But if Mars is afflicted in Taurus it +gives an exceedingly stubborn, violent and vindictive nature. Such people +will pursue their own way despite reason, argument or entreaty and if anyone +attempts to thwart them in their purposes they never forgive. They also +have good earning power but squander the money foolishly so that they are + + +[PAGE 318] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +often in financial difficulties and if a legacy comes to them they are more +likely to lose it through legal trouble than not and they are sure also to +have domestic trouble. + + MARS IN GEMINI when well-aspected gives a keen, active and alert mental- +ity. People with Mars in this position never beat about the bush. They are +honest and outspoken and say just what they mean perhaps at times a little +too bluntly, but at any rate they are not hypocrites. They love to measure +their wits against others in debate and therefor this position makes for +success in law or literature. They also succeed in the engineering profes- +sions for they are resourceful, ingenious and mechanical, apt at learning +and quick to grasp a problem or proposition. But if Mars is afflicted in +Gemini it gives a cynical, sneering, caustic and critical disposition and +makes these people feared and shunned on account of their disagreeable na- +ture. These people are also vacillating and unable to make a decision. +Thus they cannot be depended on to stand by their word or their promise and +if they keep an appointment once in a while it happens by accident. They +are always in trouble with brothers, sisters and neighbors and liable to ac- +cidents when traveling. It also gives a predisposition to bronchitis, in- +flammation of the lungs, pleurisy and pneumonia. + + +[PAGE 319] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + + MARS IN CANCER and well-aspected gives a bold, independent and fearless +nature with a tendency to rebel against restraint, a home-loving disposi- +tion, very industrious and ambitious to gather and protect all things which +make for comfort and luxury, so that he is a good provider for the home in +every respect. But at the same time people with this aspect aim to exercise +unrestricted authority over everything and everybody within the home. They +tolerate no other authority there. This position makes the temper rather +uncertain and gives a tendency and a desire for change of occupation, sot +that the person never really settles down to one line of endeavor but takes +up a number of vocations and drops them suddenly. If Mars is afflicted in +Cancer it brings domestic troubles, frequent and violent scenes and quarrels +in the home with a tendency to move frequently from one place to another; +inflammatory diseases of the stomach, and digestive ailments, also accidents +by fire in the home through recklessness or carelessness. + + MARS IN LEO and well-aspected gives an active, industrious and honest na- +ture, fearless and independent in all dealings with others, a keen sense of +honor and responsibility, hence makes one eminently fitted to occupy a posi- +tion of trust either in a public or private concern. These people are en- +thusiastic and energetic either in work or play, lovers of sport and a good + + +[PAGE 320] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +time generally. They are very ardent in their admiration of the opposite +sex and woo the object of their affections with an intensity that carries +all before it, overrides all obstacles and brings the matter to a speedy +consummation. These people never beat about the bush but say what they mean +in a manner that is often extremely embarrassing in its directness. They +are strong and forceful in their arguments either for or against that which +they believe or disbelieve and therefore they not infrequently arouse op- +position on the part of those who differ from them. They are very venture- +some and often take a pride in risk either in the pursuit of pleasure or +business. When Mars is afflicted in Leo it gives a fiery, violent temper +and a liability to fever inflammatory diseases, palpitation of the heart, +hallucinations, biliousness. There is also danger of inordinate affection, +trouble in courtship, loss of children and loss through speculations. An +afflicted Mars in Leo gives the same daring as when well-aspected but the +danger of accident is greater because the person with the afflicted planets +becomes foolhardy and reckless. + + MARS IN VIRGO when well-aspected gives an ambitious nature and a quick +intellect, able to grasp an idea and elaborate upon it. It strengthens the +mental qualities and gives a scientific turn to the mind with an ability to + + +[PAGE 321] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +apply this faculty either in research work or in business. The people with +this position are therefore energetic and enterprising in many of the +world's industrial affairs. There their shrewdness and quick-wittedness +brings them success and preferment. This is a good position for people who +are engaged in any of the industries connected with the sick, such as +nurses, doctors, chemists, the science of sanitation and hygiene, prepara- +tion of health-foods and kindred occupations. If people with Mars in Virgo +are themselves overtaken by disease this position gives them the ability to +recuperate quickly and makes them less liable to become chronic invalids as +so many other Virgo people do. + + When Mars is afflicted in Virgo it subjects the mind to worry and irrita- +bility, with a tendency to brood over troubles in life which are mostly il- +lusory. No matter how or where such people are employed they are always +critical toward their fellow-employees and the employer and dissatisfied +with everything connected with their work. They are also of a dishonest na- +ture and cannot be trusted in a position of responsibility. This position +also makes people over-indulgent of their appetites and subject to intesti- +nal disorders. + + MARS IN LIBRA and well-aspected gives an ardent, demonstrative and loving +nature which is very greatly attracted to the opposite sex and therefore it + + +[PAGE 322] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +inclines to an early marriage. It also gives an enthusiastic love of art +and beauty in all their phases and it makes the person very popular with the +public or in societies of a social or religious nature. This is an excel- +lent position for a lawyer, as it will bring much activity in this line and +it is a good indication of general health. But when Mars is afflicted in +Libra it makes the person very unpopular and subject to the opposition and +criticism of the community; danger of public scandal on account of unfaith- +fulness in sex relations, for Mars in Libra always produces a strong attrac- +tion toward the opposite sex and if he is afflicted there the nature is +amorous and fickles with the natural result that trouble arises by playing +with the affections of others. + + MARS IN SCORPIO when well-aspected gives a keen, sharp and forceful men- +tality, a rather blunt manner and an indifference to the finer sensibilities +of others, consequently these people often make themselves disliked at first +until others get used to them and realize that they are not such ogres as +they seem. They are very ingenious and mechanical, with indomitable courage +and inexhaustible energy which carry them over all obstacles whatever goal +they set themselves. In this respect they are very selfish and ready to +sacrifice whatever stands in their way. They make good police officers, +soldiers and surgeons and are able to fill any other position where a + + +[PAGE 323] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +dominant authority is required, or skill with sharp tools. In a woman's +horoscope it shows that the husband has good earning capacity, but is rather +too free and generous with his means. It also indicates the possibility of +a legacy. + + When Mars is afflicted in Scorpio it brings out the worse side of the +passional nature and leads the person into sex excesses or causes addiction +to solitary vice that saps the vitality, and unless corrected it is liable +to bring the person to an early grave. In a woman's horoscope it indicates +that the husband will squander his money on gratification of self, also that +parturition will be a dangerous event. In either sex Mars in Scorpio indi- +cates a quarrelsome nature and a biting tongue. + + MARS IN SAGITTARIUS and well-aspected gives an argumentative disposition +and fondness of debating on subjects of serious nature such as law, phi- +losophy and religion. It makes the person candid and open in all his deal- +ings with others, full of enthusiasm and ambition, anxious to appear well in +the eyes of the community, although he would scorn to cater to the ideas of +others where they do not coincide with this ideas of probity and justice. +These people make interesting and ideal entertainers, especially in later +life for they are fond of traveling and are keen observers, hence they al- +ways have a fund of interesting and instructive information which they are + + +[PAGE 324] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +both willing and anxious to impart to their hearers. These people are also +fond of sports and out-door exercise, in which they usually excel and a +well-aspected Mars in Sagittarius is an ideal position for a lawyer. It +makes for much success in that direction by sharpening and quickening the +mental and oratorical faculties. + + When Mars is afflicted in Sagittarius he gives a sharp tongue and a quar- +relsome disposition and there is a dishonest streak in the nature, therefore +such people are often found generally disliked in the community and par- +ticularly in social circles, for they seem to be always at variance with the +ideas and opinions of others and adopt a most supercilious attitude toward +those with whom they disagree. These people are also liable to meet with +accidents when they travel and to sustain a number of broken bones. + + MARS IN CAPRICORN when well-aspected adds much strength to the character +for it gives an ambitious and enthusiastic disposition backed by an in- +domitable courage and well-nigh inexhaustible energy together with a patient +persistence and perseverance that are bound to overcome all obstacles and in +the end reach the desired goal. Therefore people with Mars in this position +are bound to rise in life, particularly if Capricorn be placed in the Tenth +House. It invites respect and esteem of the community so that people with + + +[PAGE 325] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +this position are often offered public appointments in addition to their +private enterprises and they serve well in posts of honor for they are +naturally fitted to take great responsibilities and carry on great enter- +prises. The wider their scope of action the better they like it, for they +are superlatively efficient. + + When Mars is afflicted in Capricorn there will be a similar ambition to +do great things but the person will be rash, impulsive and headstrong so +that he overreaches himself and takes upon himself more than he can carry +through. He will also lack the persistence and perseverance necessary to +overcome obstacles and as the disposition will be basically dishonest, +through he may rise on account of his enthusiasm and pretentious nature to +some prominence he is certain to be shorn of his authority before very long +and become an object of scorn and derision in the community. There is noth- +ing worse than an afflicted Mars in Capricorn. It also gives a liability to +accidents affecting the limbs and its reflex action on the part of the body +ruled by the opposite sign, viz., the stomach, gives a tendency to gastric +troubles. People with this affliction also have a hasty temper and a vin- +dictive disposition. + + MARS IN AQUARIUS when well-aspected makes the person quick-witted and in- +tuitive, ingenious and original, enterprising and ambitious, a hard worker + + +[PAGE 326] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +for success in whatever line he chooses in life. Hence he will gain friend- +ship from others who are able to help him realize his hopes and wishes. +These people are also very mechanical and ingenious, particularly in things +connected with the electrical science. They also succeed well as managers, +officials or workers in and for a philanthropic society or public utility +corporation. + + When Mars is afflicted in Aquarius it makes the person too independent, +bombastic and resentful of authority, blunt of speech and manner toward oth- +ers, and resentful in the highest degree if he is not treated with what he +considers proper respect and consideration, Hence such people over very +difficult to get along with and often quarrel with everybody around them. +There is a tendency to loss through gambling and speculation. An afflicted +Mars in Aquarius also gives a tendency to trouble with the eyes because +Aquarius governs the ethers; and by reflex action the opposite sign Leo may +cause palpitation of the heart. + + MARS IN PISCES when well-aspected gives ability as a detective, warden of +a prison or surgeon in a hospital and in kindred positions where the person +does not come in direct contact with the public, but exercises authority in + + +[PAGE 327] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +an obscure manner. It also gives a tendency toward secret love affairs +which the person is able to hide from the public eye. But when Mars is af- +flicted in Pisces the indulgence of clandestine intercourse will bring +trouble into the life. There is also liability to suffer from the attaches +of secret enemies and to become enmeshed in the net of the law and suffer +imprisonment, or it may manifest as an inordinate love of strong drink which +will then cause imprisonment and makes the person a ward of the community. +Much trouble and many misfortunes are indicated because the nature is un- +truthful. + + MARS IN ASPECT WITH OTHER PLANETS + + THE SUN PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MARS. The conjunction +gives a tendency to fever, especially if it occurs in Aries, the sign which +governs the head, but it is curious that people with that configuration seem +also to be able to endure a much higher temperature than others, and come +unscathed through such a siege of sickness as would ordinarily prove fatal. +With that exception these aspects produce a superabundance of vital energy +which assures their possessor of the most radiant health all through life. +They strengthen the constitution and makes the person able to endure the +hardest tasks; they give him a dauntless determination and courage to face + + +[PAGE 328] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the greatest odds. Given a plan to follow he may be trusted to overcome all +physical obstacles for he has both executive and constructive ability to- +gether with an indomitable will which refuses to recognize defeat. The dis- +position is frank and open but blunt and often brusque; such people are too +intensely bent on what they want to do to waste time in politeness and sua- +vity, therefore they brush the conventionalities aside without compunction +and are consequently not liked by people of too fine sensibilities, but they +are men and women of action and the foremost factors in the world's work; +but for their energy and enterprise the world would move much more slowly. + + THE SUN SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MARS endows the person with an abundance +of energy, the faculty of leadership, but they are turned to purposes of +deviltry and destruction; the courage implanted by the good aspects becomes +foolhardiness and the person has a loud, overbearing, swaggering manner and +is ready to fight at the drop of a hat; he is always in opposition to the +constituted authority and ready to rebel wherever he sees a chance, he has +an extremely fiery temper but holds not resentment. On account of these +qualities he is universally disliked by both employees and his fellow work- +ers, always in hot water and never stays long in any place for he is an + + +[PAGE 329] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +agitator and trouble maker. These aspects also dispose to accidents in +which the person may be maimed, to gunshot and knife-wounds, also to scald- +ing, fevers, and inflammatory complaints, boils and eruptions. + + Aspects to the Sun and Mars are absolutely necessary to give zest to +life; even adverse aspects are better than none, for where these planets are +unaspected the person is usually listless, vapid and will never amount to +anything no matter how good the figure may be in other respects. + + VENUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MARS will give an ambitious, aspiring and ad- +venturous nature, amorous and extremely demonstrative in its affection and, +very fond of sports and pleasures. It gives the person an abundance of en- +ergy and business acumen, consequently he has a splendid earning capacity, +but no matter how much money he makes it just filters through his fingers, +for he loves above all things to make a great outward show and display. Be- +ing a free spender he is also very popular among his associates, and being +as already said of an amorous nature he marries either very early or his +marriage is a very sudden and hasty one. These aspects are also indications +of money by marriage or legacy. + + +[PAGE 330] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + VENUS CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL MARS does not always operate in the same +manner, but these aspects are to be classed as good of bad according to cir- +cumstances and the matter to be judged. For instance, Mars conjunction Ve- +nus makes the person less blunt and domineering, more kind and polite, and +is therefore good in that respect, but the conjunction also strengthens the +passional nature, especially if it occurs in Scorpio, and in the Twelfth +House it often leads to self-abuse so that in those cases it is decidedly +bad. Therefore students must exercise judgment before classifying these as- +pects. + + VENUS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MARS gives a very voluptuous and sensuous +disposition, liable to gross excesses in the gratification of the passions +which will spa the vitality. It is likely to break down the health and con- +stitution, leaving the person a wreck on the sea of life if it is allowed +free scope. These people are altogether too generous, especially where the +opposite sex is concerned. They are very extravagant and on that account +spend more than they can afford on themselves, besides what they squander on +their many AMOURS, so that no matter how much money they make, they are gen- +erally in financial difficulty, and not infrequently they figure as defen- +dants in the debtor's court. If Mars or Venus is in Cancer, Scorpio or Pi- +sces there is a tendency to such dissolute and dissipated living, such a + + +[PAGE 331] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +craving for low pleasures that, if indulged, it will drag the human being +down below the level of animals. + + MERCURY SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MARS gives a keen, sharp, ingenious and re- +sourceful mentality. It makes the person enthusiastic over any proposition +which appeals to him and he has also the ability to enthuse others and im- +press them with his views. He is an indefatigable worker in any cause which +arouses his sympathies, but he is no visionary, he is interested only in +concrete matters. These people love argument or debate, and they have an +inexhaustible fund of wit and good humor, sometimes blended with a vein of +sarcasm which always strikes it mark, yet never viciously nor maliciously. +They also have remarkable dexterity and are able to turn their hands to +whatever task is required and do it with a speed, facility and expedition +that are astonishing to say the least. They cannot do anything slowly or by +halves; whatever they undertake must be dome with a rush, and they put their +whole energy into it so that they may accomplish the task and do it well; +hence these aspects give success in life, in almost any line of endeavor +these people may select, but probably most in literature or the mechanical +arts. + + +[PAGE 332] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + MERCURY CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO MARS gives the same mental energy, en- +thusiasm and dexterity as the definitely good aspects but whether they are +used for constructive and good purposes or for destructive and evil depends +upon the other aspects, house position and sign which they occupy. If the +configuration occurs in a sign where either or both are strong and well +placed, as Mars in Aries or Capricorn, or Mercury in Gemini or Virgo, or if +they are fortified by good aspects from the Sun, Venus and Jupiter, Mars +conjunction or parallel to Mercury will operate similarly to the sextile or +trine as stated in the foregoing paragraph, which see; but if Mars and Mer- +cury are in one of the watery signs, Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces, or if either +or both are afflicted by Saturn, Uranus or Neptune, the conjunction or par- +allel of Mars and Mercury will give the same evil tendencies as the square +or opposition which are defined in the next paragraph. + + MERCURY SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MARS makes people quick-witted, sharp and +alert, quick-tempered, impulsive and excitable, liable to jump at conclu- +sions and act before they think with the inevitable result that they are al- +ways getting themselves or other people into trouble, hence they are danger- +ous associates. They are born prevaricators and utterly incapable of making +an exact statement. It is just as natural for them to color or exaggerate + + +[PAGE 333] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +their statements as it is to breathe. They are vitriolic in their wrath and +their tongues are more poisonous than the bite of a rattlesnake, hence they +are either feared or hated by those who are unfortunate enough to be bound +to them by environment; all who can, shun them. They are bullies who are +bound either to rule or ruin wherever they are and they allow no obstacle to +stand in their way which can be removed either by force or slander. They +are the acme of selfishness, swagger and consummate egotism. The foregoing +tendencies may of course be modified by other aspects, but if they are not, +such people are a menace to society. If either Mars or Mercury is placed in +the Sixth or Twelfth House or in any other position so that the bad aspect +acts upon the health, there is a liability to nervous prostration, brain fe- +ver and insanity. + + THE MOON SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MARS gives a wonderful vitality and strong +physique so that the person is able to withstand almost any tendencies to +ill-health, which will be overcome by it. The power of endurance is in- +creased and the person can survive hardships to which people ordinarily suc- +cumb. It gives a resolute, courageous, energetic and ambitious mind of a +resourceful and eminently constructive turn. It makes the person quick but +not precipitate in his decisions. Thus he gains confidence and esteem of + + +[PAGE 334] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +others and earns considerable money, but the nature is extremely free and +generous so that money does not stay by such people--they spend it almost as +fast as they get it. + + THE MOON CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO MARS may be either good or bad ac- +cording to the sex of the person and the department of life we are consider- +ing. It strengthens the health and the vitality, particularly in the horo- +scope of a woman. In the horoscope of a man it would indicate a robust +marriage partner of a domineering nature and with respect to the mind it +would make the person very impulsive, particularly if placed in one of the +common signs or in the Third or Ninth House. It also gives a very bad tem- +per but not so bad as the square or opposition. If Mars is in conjunction +or parallel to the Moon in Scorpio it gives an abnormal sex desire which +will not be denied, particularly if Venus is there also. In watery signs in +inclines to drink, and in any place it makes the person restless and un- +settled, for it is like mixing fire and water. + + THE MOON SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MARS gives a very quick temper and a +tendency to hasty or impulsive expressions and acts that may cause such +people a great deal of sorrow and trouble. They resent rules or regulations +or any other measures that tend to curb their desires or the gratification + + +[PAGE 335] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +of their appetites in whatever direction. But if they are in authority they +aver domineering and exacting in their demands for instant obedience upon +the part of others, not do they hesitate to use whatever physical force may +be necessary to compel obedience if they thing they can do so without too +great danger to themselves. Sometimes they will take desperate chances to +satisfy their spite. Having an improperly balanced mind they are foolhardy +in their venturesomeness and upon occasion they will attempt to do things +which no one in his sane mind would try. On account of the foregoing char- +acteristic such people make many enemies and cause a great deal of suffering +to others, particularly among members of their immediate family who cannot +very well get away from them. If these aspects occur in watery signs, par- +ticularly with Mars or the Moon in Pisces the person is also an inveterate +drunkard. From the standpoint of health they give a tendency to accidents +by fire and water, to fevers and acute inflammatory diseases, wounds and +gunshot, diseases of the genitals, too copious menses, danger in parturition +and indigestion. + + SATURN SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MARS gives a determined and energetic nature +capable of intense and sustained action and of obtaining unusual results + + +[PAGE 336] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +thereby. The executive ability, dominant forcefulness and endurance of +these people are remarkable and consequently they are constantly accomplish- +ing what others cannot achieve. Hence they always rise to prominent posi- +tions and are much esteemed on account of their ability, but they are seldom +liked, for these aspects make the character cruel and hard. They give a +strong physique and general good health. + + SATURN CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MARS are throughly +bad aspects indicating a selfish, violent, harsh and cruel nature, quick +tempered and vindictive, absolutely dishonest, untruthful and unscrupulous, +giving liability to public disgrace and imprisonment, also to accident and +violent death, and if one of the planets is essentially dignified or exalted +the evil influence is much enhanced. It should also be remembered that such +serious defects do not result from one aspect alone and if the other con- +figurations in the horoscope are good the foregoing delineation will only +apply in a mild measure. + + JUPITER SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MARS. It is the nature of Jupiter to be +somewhat conservative and dignified, but when blended with the fire of Mars +it gives an enthusiasm and an ability to influence others and imbue them +with the same feelings. It makes the nature noble, sincere, honest and +straightforward. This aspect is also good for the financial prosperity of + + +[PAGE 337] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +the person for both Mars and Jupiter when well-aspected attract money, but +they differ in regard to disbursement. Jupiter is somewhat conservative in +that respect, but where the Martian and Jupiterian qualities are blended by +a good aspect the result is an ideal, generous nature, neither too lavish +nor too conservative, but able to strike the happy medium. These people +have much ingenuity and constructive ability and whatever they do they put +their whole heart into it. Hence they are successful in business and +popular in society. They are fond of out-door sports and games. They love +to travel and gain much pleasure by so doing. Mars rules the haemoglobin in +the blood which is so important a factor in health and vitality therefore +the good aspects of Jupiter and Mars increase the red blood corpuscles with +the result that these people have abundance of health, vitality, power and +endurance. + + JUPITER PARALLEL OR CONJUNCTION MARS strengthens the constitution and in- +creases the vitality the same as the good aspects. It also indicates that +the person is able to earn much money and uses it freely and generously, but +the mental qualities are similar to those conferred by the bad aspects. The +person is tricky, deceitful, untruthful, impulsive in judgment and not to be +depended upon. If the conjunction occurs in one of the watery signs, + + +[PAGE 338] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +especially in Pisces he will probably be a drunkard though this is not as +certain as with the square or opposition. These people are generally ple- +thoric and liable to apoplexy. + + JUPITER SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MARS is the signature of the gambler and +if one of the planets is in a watery sign, especially in Pisces he will be a +drunkard also, a tricky, dishonest and disreputable character who always +acts through impulse. With respect to health we find that these people suf- +fer principally from blood and liver complaints; the circulation is poor and +the blood is so rich that there is danger of apoplexy. + + URANUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO MARS gives an energetic and ambitious disposi- +tion, an original, ingenious, alert, intuitive mind which is resourceful in +the highest degree and able to cope with great difficulties under trying +circumstances. Therefore people with these configurations are naturally of +an inventive turn of mind and successful in bringing their ideas to realiza- +tion. Their inventive genius expresses itself usually along electrical +lines, aviation or other unusual directions for these aspects are one of the +marks of the pioneer of the Aquarian age, where science and intervention +will reach out in directions that are now undreamed of even as possi- + + +[PAGE 339] MARS, THE PLANET OF ACTION + +bilities. But while these people are dreamers of dreams they are also prac- +tical, energetic and enterprising in a sufficient degree to make their +dreams come true in the world. They have a wide vision and a noble nature +which rises over all petty distinctions of race, creed or color and recog- +nizes in all human beings the divine spark which is the basis of universal +brotherhood. They may not be exactly religious in the orthodox sense of the +word, but their ideas are truly cosmic, hence they are often mistaken for +visionaries by those who do not understand them. + + URANUS CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL, SQUARE, OR OPPOSITION TO MARS gives an er- +ratic and eccentric disposition, a violent temper of the worst nature, an +unusually resentment of even the slightest restraint and gives the person a +stubborn, headstrong and dogged determination to go ahead in any line of ac- +tion upon which he has decided no matter what the outcome. He will listed +to neither reason nor entreaty but follows his own course in defiance of +all. People with these configurations often become anarchists of the red- +dest type for they do not stop even at the shedding of blood if other testi- +monies in the figure concur. They are cruel, hard and cold with out a spark +of true love through they may be in flamed with passion of the most burning +intensity. This is particularly the case when Mars is square Uranus and + + +[PAGE 340] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +either planet is placed in Taurus or Scorpio. In a woman's horoscope Mars +square Uranus usually leads to seduction no matter where placed, but if in +Taurus or Scorpio escape is almost impossible. The other characteristics of +these planets in these configurations work themselves out according to the +signs wherein they are placed so that their placement in Taurus or Scorpio +work upon the sex which is governed by these signs. When one of these plan- +ets is in Scorpio if the person takes up the profession of surgery be will +become very cruel and unfeeling, ready to operate for the mere pleasure of +causing pain and in consequence or in pursuit of this passion he will prob- +ably take up vivisection and develop an unusual ingenuity in torturing his +victims. With Mars or Uranus in Scorpio or Pisces he will be underhanded to +tricky though he may show a very different front to the public. In Aries it +will make a rattlebrain, in Gemini and Virgo an unusually quick mentality +but quick in seeing only how to trick others, in Sagittarius it will make +the person very materialistic, atheistic or fanatical against the estab- +lished religion or society; thus the planets blend their nature with each +individual sign. + + + NEPTUNE PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO MARS, see Page +402. + + NEPTUNE SEXTILE OR TRINE MARS, see Page 402. + + +[PAGE 341] PLANETARY OCTAVES + + CHAPTER XV + + PLANETARY OCTAVES + + Before considering the effect of Uranus and Neptune in the various signs +and houses it may be expedient and illuminating to study their relations to +Venus and Mercury which are their lower octaves. That such a relationship +exists has been sensed by various astrological authors who by speculation +and observation have learned a great deal about these two planets. What +they have brought out does great credit to their sagacity, but not having +had the benefit of esoteric training it is not to be wondered at that they +have become confused on certain points which we shall now explain so that +students of the esoteric philosophy may see how these explanations dovetail +into the general philosophy of the Western Wisdom School, and thus bear out +the statement that Uranus is the higher octave of Venus and Neptune the +higher octave of Mercury. + + The Western Wisdom teaching of the Rosicrucian states that +man-in-the-making was plant-like and bi-sexual during the Hyperborean Epoch +and thus able to create from himself without the necessity of co-operation +with anyone else. But at that time he was without a brain and unable to + + +[PAGE 342] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +think, therefore in the Lemurian Epoch the angels directed one-half of the +sex force upward to the part which is now the head and used it for the for- +mation of the brain and larynx. The process is plainly traceable in the +antenatal development of the foetus which accounts for the intimate relation +between the sex organs, the larynx and the brain, observable in the change +of voice which takes place when the boy reaches puberty and the mental dis- +ability which follows the unrestrained abuse of the generative function. +Thus it may be said that the sex function whereby new bodies are created in +the physical world, and become our physical children, is closely connected +with the brain and larynx which man uses to conceive the children of his +brain and mind and give them vocal expression by the larynx. It is a matter +of common knowledge to astrologers that man is incited to perform the gen- +erative function of the begetting of physical children by the love-ray of +Venus; likewise that the ray of reason emanating from Mercury is responsible +for the begetting of the children of mind and their vocal expression by the +larynx, so that both Mercury and Venus are creative in their functions, one +upon the physical plane, the other upon the mental plane. + + Mercury is usually associated with reason and intelligence; to him is as- +cribed rule over the cerebrospinal nervous system, which is the medium of +transmission between the embodied spirit and the world without. Thus as +Neptune signifies the sub- and superhuman intelligence who live and move in + + +[PAGE 343] PLANETARY OCTAVES + +the spiritual realms of the universe, but who work with and upon us, so Mer- +cury indicates the human intelligence focused upon the terrestrial, physical +world wherein we live from birth to death. Therefore it may be said that +Neptune is the octave of Mercury, but there is a deeper sense. + + Reference to a textbook of anatomy of physiology will show that length- +wise fissures in the spinal cord divide it into three parts which enclose a +hollow tube. Each of these columns is ruled by one of the Hierarchies in +closest touch with us; the lunar, martial and mercurial; one of the other +predominating, according to the stage of evolution of the individual. In +the spinal canal the rays of Neptune kindle the spinal spirit fire whereby +the human spirit is enabled to pierce the veil of flesh and contact the +worlds beyond; this vision is colored according to the column of the cord +most actively excited. In the childhood days of mankind the creative force +which is now turned outwards to build ships, houses, and railways, tele- +phones, etc., was used inwardly to build the organs of our body, and as the +surrounding physical world is photographed upon the table of a camera +obscura, so the spiritual world was reflected in the spinal canal. There +man behold the first lunar God Jehovah, whose Angels were his first tutors. +Later a part of Angels, who under the leadership of LUCIFER had rebelled +against Jehovah and who are now exiled on the planet Mars forced entrance to + + +[PAGE 344] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the spinal cord of man and incited him to abuse of the generative function. +The spiritual inner vision of mankind faded when "their eyes were opened and +they saw they were naked;" then they lost touch with the higher self, they +saw only the person, and the docile creature of Jehovah was soon transformed +to a savage and a brute under the impulses of the Lucifer Spirits, the hier- +archy of Mars but by their promptings man has also learned to conquer mate- +rial obstacles, build outwardly and become architect of the world. + + To counteract the unmitigated selfishness bred by the Martian Angels, and +to make mankind humane our Elder Brothers from Mercury, human like our- +selves, whose high state of evolution required the high vibration generated +and prevailing in close proximity to the Sun, were required to invest the +spinal cord of man also, and through their labors civilization has taken on +a different form, mankind is again beginning to look inwards. + + At the present time the right cerebral hemisphere is governed by Mercury, +and the pineal gland, its higher octave, is ruled by Neptune who also has +dominion over the spinal canal which is the avenue whereby one pole of the +creative energy was originally turned upward for the building of the brain. + + The ray of Neptune carries what occultist know as the Father fire, the +light and life of the Divine Spirit, which expresses itself as will. This +it focuses in the voluntary nervous system of the physical body governed by + + +[PAGE 345] PLANETARY OCTAVES + +by its lower octave Mercury which acting through the right brain galvanizes +the body into speech and action, expressing the will of the indwelling +spirit. + + By this diversion of the creative energy the human being ceased, as al- +ready said, to be a physical hermaphrodite, a complete creative unit, and +was them compelled to seek a mate in order to propagate the species, +Therefore the Son, the Cosmic Christ, focused the love-ray of the Life +Spirit upon Uranus, (ruling the pituitary body), who transmits it to the vi- +tal body where Venus, the lower octave of Uranus gives it expression in +propagation and growth. + + Between the Divine Spirit and Life Spirit on the one hand and their coun- +terparts, the physical and vital bodies, on the other hand, is the Human +Spirit ruled by the Sun, and its counterpart, the desire body, ruled by the +lesser light, the Moon. But this is debatable ground contested by Jupiter +and Mercury on the one side, Saturn and Mars being on the other. + + The ray of Uranus is gradually forging a SECOND SPINAL CORD by drawing +the lower love-ray of Venus upward and transmuting it to altruism, conquer- +ing for it the dominion over the sympathetic segment of the present spinal +cord and THE LEFT CEREBRAL HEMISPHERE now ruled by the passionate hierarchy +of Mars, the Lucifer Spirits. This work has been completely accomplished by +the Adepts, therefore they have no need to marry for each is now a complete +creative unit on both the spiritual and physical planes, having turned the + + +[PAGE 346] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +bi-polar creative force, masculine and feminine, upward through the double +spinal cord, illuminated and raised in potential energy by the spinal spirit +fires of Neptune (Will) and Uranus (Love and Imagination). This creative +energy conceives in the twin hemispheres of the cerebrum, ruled by Mars and +Mercury, a vehicle fit for the expression of the spirit, which is then sent +out and objectified in the world BY THE SPOKEN CREATIVE WORD. + + This is the secret of how the Adepts form a new body without going +through the womb, and some day all humanity will attain to this standard of +perfection as SPIRITUAL HERMAPHRODITES; then we shall no longer be "a little +lower than the angels" who create by similar methods but we shall be higher +than they are now for we shall have the reason and intellect which they +lack, in addition to the complete creative power. + + + +[PAGE 347] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + + CHAPTER XVI + + URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + + The love ray of Venus goes out to the mate and blood relations but by a +good aspect of Uranus it is raised beyond the realm of sex love to cosmic +proportions, to love such as that which christ must have felt when he wept +over Jerusalem and said that, as a hen fathers it brood under its wing, so +would he have loved to father them to his bosom. The people who have this +Uranian love therefore become builders of society; associated with every +good and uplifting movement. An adverse aspect of Uranus to Venus on the +other hand, has the most degrading effect on the Venus function, for it +leads to disregard of the laws and conventions of society and to perversion +of the sacred creative function. + + Love is a much abused word, and the emotion thus miscalled is usually so +tainted with desire that it is Martian passion rather than Venusian love. +Coalition, the keyword of Venus, suggests a most intimate union, a blending +of the very souls of two or more people who compose a family. But ALTRUISM, +the keyword of Uranus, hints at such an all-embracing love as our Saviour +felt. Thus Uranus is the octave of Venus and anyone ready to enter the path + + +[PAGE 348] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +of preparation which leads to initiation must gradually learn to outgrow the +Venus love which makes the immediate family all in all and begin to culti- +vate the all-embracing Uranian altruism. + + This goal is high and those who aim so high often fall very low. When we +essay to transcend the Venus love and cultivate the Uranian altruism we are +thus in great danger, and the most promising live are sometimes wrecked by +the pernicious theory of soul-mates, which leads to clandestine love affairs +and perversion of the creative function. But remember this--altruism does +not require return of the love bestowed upon others, it has absolutely no +concern with sex; it will not lessen the love for our family, but they being +nearest to us will feel the increase of our love to a greater degree than +those further away, and unless our love brings forth such fruit it is not +Uranian and will not further us upon the path of attainment. + + Seeing this is so, we may readily understand that the great majority of +humanity cannot yet respond to the higher side of Uranus, and its effect +upon the morals is therefore principally perversion of sex, clandestine love +affairs, free love, and disregard of conventionality; that is, of course, +when aspected by squares and oppositions. Under such conditions it makes +people unconventional and erratic, rebellious at the least restraint, very +independent and brusque in manner, fond of pioneer work, and investigation + + +[PAGE 349] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +of unusual things. They take to the higher mechanics, electricity, +aviation, and the like, as a duck to water, and are rather proud of their +attainments. They find prominence in literature, science, philosophy, and +especially in the occult arts. Uranus also gives a high grade of musical +genius when configurated with Venus, and if Uranus is well fortified in by +position and aspects it qualifies the person for leadership in an unusual +way. It may also be said that the effects of the Uranian ray are very sud- +den and unexpected, whether for good or ill, it comes like a bolt out of the +blue, and as we respond most easily to its evil side, these effects are gen- +erally disastrous in nature. When Uranus is on the Ascendant it adds length +to the body, so that the true Uranian are usually very tall. + + URANUS IN THE TWELVE HOUSES + + URANUS IN THE FIRST HOUSE, even when well-aspected, makes the person very +odd and eccentric in his habits, so that he seems to delight in doing ex- +actly the things that are against the conventions and customs, just so that +he may appear odd. He always finds an original way of doing things, differ- +ent from that of all other people, and is very self-satisfied in his opinion +that his methods and ideas are better than any one else's. If opposed he +will defend his ideas to the last ditch, if Uranus is in any way afflicted. +But when Uranus is well-aspected in the First House there is usually a + + +[PAGE 350] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +tolerance for the opinions of others. a spirit of give-and-take which avoids +the hard feelings generated by an afflicted Uranus. Uranus on the Ascendant +also makes the person very restless, there are many sudden changes in the +life and it will, of course, depend upon the aspects prevailing at the time +whether the changes are for good or ill; but at any rate the call of the far +fields that look so green, are constantly before the mind's eye, sot hat the +Uranians are always ready to be the pioneers in new undertakings or a new +cause, just so that it is something that has not been tried before, and so +offers a chance of risk and adventure. + + URANUS IN THE SECOND HOUSE, which governs finance, naturally indicates a +restless and unsettled state of the finances of the person. There will be +many ups and down, and even though such a person may have other good aspects +that quality him to reason accurately concerning other matters, it will be +found that in the financial department he is unable to protect himself +against these sudden and unforeseen losses, or gains. For him there is no +such thing as a staid and solid investment, for the most unlooked-for-con- +ditions are likely to turn up and either net him an altogether unlooked-for +increase or else bring about an equally unaccountable loss, all with such + + +[PAGE 351] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +suddenness that there is no way of changing the matter. Therefore it is ab- +solutely impossible to give financial advice to such people, for even if +they invested in a proposition as solid as the proverbial rock of Gibraltar, +it is doubtful if an earthquake would not unsettle it. + + URANUS IN THE THIRD HOUSE. The Third House governs brothers and sisters, +neighbors, education, and the mental or intellectual faculties. Therefore +this position strengthens the intuitional abilities of the person, and gives +a certain predisposition towards what is commonly called psychic faculties. +Uranus rules the ether, hence the Third House position should make it easy +for the person to cultivate spiritual sight, especially if Uranus is +well-aspected with the Sun, Moon, Venus or Mercury. If Uranus is afflicted +in the Third House it indicates quarrels with neighbors, brothers and sis- +ters, probably a breaking up of the family ties, also that the education +will be interfered with through the erratic, self-willed conduct of the per- +son, and the mind will be more or less unsettled, and changeable as a +weather-vane. An afflicted Uranus in the Third House also predisposes to +accidents according to the nature of the afflicting planet, and particularly +when on short journeys. These people, it may also be said, are subject to +adventures and strange happenings on their journeys such as do not usually +befall other people. + + +[PAGE 352] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + URANUS IN THE FOURTH HOUSE. People who have Uranus in the Fourth House +ought to leave their place of birth as soon as possible for they cannot suc- +ceed there. Both the parents and their whole neighborhood and environment +will be antagonistic to them. If it so happens that the parents are wealthy +they will try to disinherit a child with Uranus in the Fourth House. Even +if his Seventh and Eighth Houses be well fortified, it is very doubtful if +he would win in a contest for his share of the patrimony, as the public sen- +timent in his birthplace, where such a suit would probably be tried, would +be so much against him that he would lose in the end. It would also be di- +sastrous for such a person to marry and establish a home of his own, for +peace, harmony and contentment cannot exist where the spasmodic and erratic +Uranus is; that is to say, if it is afflicted. If it is well-aspected it is +also doubtful if such a person would ever attempt to establish a home, for +his sympathies would be too large and he would probably be identified with +wider activities--a home or homes on a larger and more universal scale. +This position also gives a very strong attraction towards occult science. + + URANUS IN THE FIFTH HOUSE. The Fifth House rules educational activities, +publications, pleasures, courtship, and childbirth. The erratic Uranus in + + +[PAGE 353] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +this House will in the first place give some very unconventional ideas con- +cerning the intercourse and relation of the sexes and usually leads to a +clandestine relationship contrary to the laws of the land. A woman with +this condition in her horoscope is particularly prone to be taken advantage +of even though she may not consciously be guilty of inviting undue advances. +It also makes parturition very difficult and if a child is brought to birth +there is danger of loss by some sudden accident or unusual disease. If +other influences in the horoscope give a leaning toward literature, a person +who has Uranus in the Fifth House will be found to espouse some unconven- +tional cause, like socialism, anarchism, or kindred movements, and if Uranus +be afflicted by Saturn, Mars, or Neptune, the articles written by him, or +the paper published by him or with which he is connected will probably in- +cite to bloodshed, conspiracy, and treachery, which will bring the person +into trouble with the authorities. If on the other hand, Uranus be +well-aspected from the Fifth House in a horoscope indicating literary ten- +dencies, the ideas advocated on account of this Uranian influence will prob- +ably be so Utopian, idealistic, and altruistic that they will be beyond the +contemporaries of the person. The love nature will also be of such a high +idealistic strain that few if any will be able to respond, and this may also + + +[PAGE 354] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +mitigate in a large measure the physical trouble indicated in parturition. +A person with a well-aspected Uranus in the Fifth House would not gamble, +and if one who has an afflicted Uranus there attempted it, he would +naturally meet with loss, no matter how careful he might seem to be. With +respect to the pursuit of pleasure indulged in by these people, we shall +find them attracted to all new and strange things. At the present time the +most of them are probably longing for the day when it will be possible for +them to race in the clouds and drive aeroplanes more recklessly than they +are now driving automobiles. + + URANUS IN THE SIXTH HOUSE. The Sixth House governs the employment and +service, also health and disease, therefore the erratic, spasmodic Uranus in +the Sixth House predisposes to occupational diseases of a strange nature, +asphyxiation, mental and nervous disorders, such as epilepsy, and St. Vitus +dance. Even if Uranus is well-aspected, these tendencies are not entirely +abrogated, at least, a person with Uranus in this position will be very ner- +vous and highstrung under all conditions. With respect to employers and +fellow-employees this position makes the person very irritable; he is +brusque and abrupt to all connected with his work and therefore liable to + + +[PAGE 355] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +trouble in employment or with employees. This position gives a tendency to- +wards mediumship and undesirable phases of psychic experiences. If Uranus +is much afflicted there is also danger of obsession and insanity. + + URANUS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE, indicates a romantic, sudden, or ill-con- +sidered marriage. Sometimes a common-law or other irregular form of union +is consummated under this position. Often the marriage partner is a person +never thought of as a mate until the Uranian ray impels to marriage on the +spur of th moment. + + People with Uranus in the Seventh house are usually unfortunate in their +marriage relations, because the marriage partner has the spasmodic, incon- +stant, independent Uranian nature, chafes under the limitation and cannot +remain true to any one person, but becomes inveigled into clandestine rela- +tions with the result that the marriage is often dissolved in the divorce +court and separation and estrangement follow; there is quite often a public +scandal in connection with these affairs, or it may indicate the death of +the marriage partner, all according to aspects. + + People with Uranus in the Seventh House should never go to law, for no +matter how just their cause may be they are most likely to be thwarted or +checkmated by some strange, unforseen or sudden circumstances whereby they + + +[PAGE 356] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +are apt to lose their case. They should also avoid public office or posi- +tion, for no matter how honest they may be themselves they are likely to +become involved in scandal and trouble on that account. In short, this Sev- +enth House position of uranus is bad for dealings of any kind with the pub- +lic or with law or partners. + + URANUS IN THE EIGHTH HOUSE is a good omen, for it indicates that when +life has been lived to its fullness the end will come suddenly and thus the +person will be spared the long and pitiful suffering so often incident to +the transition from the physical to the spiritual worlds. But knowing this +it also behooves such people to have their house in readiness and order, so +that when the end comes at 30 or 90 they have their affairs in shape. + + This position often brings an unexpected legacy through the marriage +partner when well-aspected; but if Uranus is afflicted the person may become +involved in litigation on account of or in connection with the estate of +someone deceased. + + People with Uranus in the Eighth House often show great interest in oc- +cult subjects and become well versed in mystic lore. It also gives a pre- +disposition to dreams and psychic experience. + + +[PAGE 357] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + + URANUS IN THE NINTH HOUSE gives a progressive and independent mind, or an +original and inventive turn, sometimes amounting to genius; the intuition is +highly developed and these people indulge in constructive dreams of such a +nature as transform the world in the course of time--that is, provided +Uranus is well-aspected. Nevertheless they are generally looked upon as +cranks because their ideas are so Utopian and far in advance of our present +stage that the ordinary human beings cannot grasp them. On the other hand, +if uranus is afflicted in the Ninth House, particularly if by Mars, these +people become red anarchists and are not even averse to shedding blood in +order to attain what they believe is the ideal; they become fanatical in +whatever cause they espouse. + + This position of Uranus also indicates trouble in travel, particularly on +voyages, and danger of accidents. It is one of the signs which make the ex- +plorer and pioneer in the discovery and development of new countries. + + URANUS IN THE TENTH HOUSE indicates an original, eccentric character, +with a contempt for conventions, who follows his own ideas regardless of +what other people say or think, hence such people are often looked upon as +black sheep and estranged from their kindred, but this they do not seem to + + +[PAGE 358] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +regard as a misfortune; they are ready to offer up all, even life itself, +for absolute freedom. These characteristics also bring them into public +discredit and disfavor. The life is full of sudden changes for better or +worse according to the other planetary aspects prevailing. If Uranus is +much afflicted these people never make a success in life, but meet with con- +tinual sorrow, trouble, disappointment and reverses. When Uranus is +well-aspected genius will come to the fore and is likely to find recognition +in some measure at least, probably by pioneer work of some kind. + + URANUS IN THE ELEVENTH HOUSE. Uranus being lord of the Eleventh Sign, +Aquarius, is more at home in the Eleventh House than in any of the others, +therefore he exerts a strong influence in bringing about strange and eccen- +tric friendships with people of an original, creative, or inventive turn of +mind who will be a benefit to the person if Uranus is well-aspected. This +also indicates that through such friendships the wishes, hopes and aspira- +tions will be promoted and reach a successful culmination. If on the other +hand, Uranus is afflicted in this house, friends are apt to turn traitors or +at least use the person for their own selfish ends as far as possible. + + URANUS IN THE TWELFTH HOUSE indicates loss of reputation, exile, and es- +trangement from one's kin and country, much sickness at various times of + + +[PAGE 359] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +life and confinement in hospitals, if Uranus is without configuration with +any other planet or even if well aspected. But if seriously afflicted it +indicates confinement in prison at some period of the life, or restraint in +a sanitarium on account of mental trouble, also much annoyance by the under- +handed action of others. When well-aspected it brings success in connection +with the occult arts or occult institutions, also by the invention of +chemical processes which remain secret with their discoverer instead of be- +ing protected by patent. These people are haunted all through life by a +vague fear of impending disaster. + + URANUS IN THE TWELVE SIGNS + + URANUS IN ARIES gives an original, independent nature, full of energy and +ambition, ingenious, resourceful and capable of coping with difficulties, +especially those of a mechanical or electrical nature. These people have a +very impulsive, abrupt and brusque manner which often arouses resentment and +opposition in others even though no offense may have been intended. They +are seldom satisfied to remain in one place, but are fond of changes and +rove about a great deal. Changes of place and position are often forced +upon them because of the before-mentioned blunt way of speaking. + + +[PAGE 360] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + URANUS IN TAURUS gives a very intuitive nature but stubborn and +self-willed, so that when these people have made up their minds nothing in +the world will turn them, but they cling to their purpose or idea with the +quiet determination and persistence which neither persuasion nor threats can +alter. If Uranus is afflicted they are suspicious and jealous, also subject +to very sudden and unexpected reverses in financial affairs. But if Uranus +is well-aspected the opposite may be judged, and comfortable financial cir- +cumstances may be looked for. + + URANUS IN GEMINI gives a highly original, intuitive and versatile nature, +fond of scientific pursuits in general, but particularly those studies which +have to do with electricity, aviation, or other similar out-of-the-way sub- +jects. These people are broad-minded and thoroughly progressive, pioneers +in all things new and modern. Among other things they generally have an in- +clination for the study of occultism and astrology. They are well liked +among brothers, sisters, and neighbors. All this providing Uranus is +well-aspected; but if Uranus is afflicted the mind becomes eccentric and +full of vagaries which make the person a nuisance and a crank, disliked by +everybody, particularly brothers, sisters and neighbors. This also brings +trouble and liability to accident in the course of short journeys. + + +[PAGE 361] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + + URANUS IN CANCER. Cancer is a psychic sign and when Uranus is there it +indicates that the person is a sensitive, attuned to the psychic vibrations +and capable of cultivating these powers, but whether for good or ill depends +upon the aspects. If Uranus is afflicted there is a tendency to nervous in- +digestion for Cancer rules the stomach, and if this is not attended to seri- +ous stomach trouble may be expected. These people are liable to separation +from their families, though usually much against their will, but as they are +generally of a very uncertain temper, irritable and impatient, they are usu- +ally to blame for this condition and are only getting their just desserts. + + URANUS IN LEO gives a very determined nature, rebellious and impatient of +restraint or contradiction, with strong likes and dislikes, and an utter +disregard of the conventions where the passional nature is involved. The +personality is strong, forceful and self-assertive, therefore these people +often incur the displeasure of others and create much opposition. They are +very inconstant in affairs of the heart--"on with the new love" before it is +"off with the old." In a woman's horoscope an afflicted Uranus shows dif- +ficulty in childbirth, perhaps the death of a child by accident or in a sud- +den, unexpected manner, also a strong tendency towards palpitation of the + + +[PAGE 362] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +heart. When Uranus is well-aspected in Leo both courtship and domestic af- +fairs run much more smoothly and it indicates original and inventive genius, +particularly along educational or journalistic lines, also for entertainment +and amusement of the public and gain thereby. + + URANUS IN VIRGO, when well-aspected gives a keen, original, scientific +and mechanical mind, a strong and well developed intuitional faculty and a +keen business bent which will make for success in life, and financial gain +by the employment of others. + + But if Uranus is afflicted in Virgo, the person is apt to become subject +to strange ailments, a hypochondriac of a fractious and irritable turn of +mind, a burden to himself and those who have to be around him. This posi- +tion is also full of disappointment in the aims and ambitions of life, espe- +cially because of limitations in the employment or in dealing with employ- +ees, which the person seems unable to overcome. + + URANUS IN LIBRA, when well-aspected gives literary and artistic ability +of an unusual and original nature where the person follows independent lines +of endeavor and expression, often in connection with occultism. This posi- +tion also gives a keen intuition and an attractive personality, a vivid + + +[PAGE 363] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +imagination. It signifies partnership, union, or marriage to someone who +will be of a Uranian character and of much benefit to the person. + + But when ill-placed or afflicted, Uranus in Libra brings sorrow, trouble, +domestic difficulty and death of the marriage partner by a sudden or strange +ailment or accident. Or perhaps the union may be dissolved in the divorce +court, for people with the temperament described by an afflicted Uranus in +Libra simply cannot remain true to one person. This position also indicates +trouble with the public or the authorities on account of eccentric, anar- +chistic, or socialistic activity. + + URANUS IN SCORPIO, when well-aspected gives the person a forceful and de- +termined will, bound to overcome all obstacles and achieve that which he +sets out to accomplish by persistence, perseverance and dogged determina- +tion; the mind is sharp, shrewd and secretive, capable of grasping details +and concentrating deeply upon whatever problem may be in hand. There is an +originality and mechanical ability amounting to genius and a love for sci- +ence, both occult and physical. + + But when ill-aspected, Uranus in Scorpio lays the person liable to ac- +cidents and even assassination or sudden death by explosions, electricity, +aeroplanes or kindred unusual agencies. It also gives a tendency to trouble + + +[PAGE 364] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +with the genitals on account of unbridled abuse of the sacred creative func- +tion, self-abuse or perversion. + + URANUS IN SAGITTARIUS gives a very strong intuitive faculty with a ten- +dency to dreams, visions, and a very vivid imagination. This position also +gives a strong inclination towards an out-of-the-ordinary belief, including +the theory and practice of the occult arts. When well-aspected this posi- +tion gives a strong grasp of the religious and educational problems of the +day, with a philanthropic desire to work for the upliftment of humanity, a +desire to travel for the educational advantages thereby to be obtained, and +success in gaining these points under favorable aspects in the progressed +horoscope. + + When afflicted, Uranus in Sagittarius gives a very eccentric and erratic +mentality, particularly with respect to law and religion. There is a rebel- +lion against the social condition which often brings trouble with the au- +thorities, also a desire to force one-sided views upon the world despite all +protests and at all risk, characteristics which eventually bring discredit +and disfavor. + + URANUS IN CAPRICORN, when well-aspected gives an ambitious and enterpris- +ing disposition, a serious, persevering nature, and an acute sense of re- +sponsibility, with original ideas of business that bring success, especially +if some line is selected that is connected with the electrical or aerial + + +[PAGE 365] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +arts. + + If Uranus is afflicted it gives an erratic and eccentric mind, +self-willed and stubborn, bound to either rule or ruin, quarrelsome and at +odds with society in general and relatives in particular. Hence this posi- +tion gives a great deal of sorrow and trouble in life, frequently involving +sudden changes of employment and environment. + + URANUS IN AQUARIUS, when well-aspected is at its very best, for he is +ruler of this sign and therefore in harmony with its vibrations. Hence this +position strengthens the intuition and originality, and directs the energies +into humanitarian lines of endeavor, unselfish devotion to the cause of +friendship, and a sincere desire to help all who are in trouble. These +people make many friends and generally realize their hopes, wishes, and am- +bitions because they are of such an unselfish nature that they desire what +is good for humanity at large rather than that which is for personal gain. +This position also gives considerable mechanical ability, originality and +inventive genius. + + But if Uranus is afflicted in the sign Aquarius, though the ambitions may +be as strong and sometimes as good, and as pure as with a well-aspected +Uranus, they will be of such an erratic nature that it is impossible to + + +[PAGE 366] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +realize them, and they bill bring trouble with friends, or pretended +friends, who will seek to use the person for their own selfish ends, causing +much sorrow and disappointment. + + URANUS IN PISCES, when well-aspected indicates a love of the occult arts +and ability for development along these lines. It brings friends and as- +sociations which favor these studies. But when ill aspected it leads to +mediumship, obsession, and even insanity, if this tendency to intercourse +with spirits is followed to its conclusion. This position makes the mind +flighty, erratic, and the person will be subject to unexpected misfortune, +scandal, or suicide. All through life, even when fortune smiles and the +skies are clear to all outward appearance, these people are haunted by a +vague fear of impending disaster. + +ASPECTS OF URANUS TO THE OTHER PLANETS + + THE SUN SEXTILE OR TRINE TO URANUS makes the person original, inventive +and independent in his manner of conduct and personal appearance. With re- +spect to food and certain mannerisms, he is what people call eccentric and +conspicuous, yet not offensively so, given to pursuits and studies which +people consider "queer" such as occultism and astrology. But he also loves + + +[PAGE 367] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +delving into the unknown realms after nature's secrets concerning electric- +ity and often becomes a successful inventor if other aspects give the me- +chanical ability to work his schemes out. Uranus rules the ether and now +that we are nearing the Aquarian Age his vibrations will be felt in increas- +ing measure, bringing to our ken methods of using nature's finer forces and +the people with Sun sextile or trine Uranus will be the media who attract +and interpret them for us as the aerials and receivers in a wireless station +collect and transcribe the messages carried by the ether waves to which they +are attuned. These people often rise in life through the friendship of +someone above them in the social scale. They are of a very high-strung tem- +perament but have themselves well under control, and rarely show temper or +anger. They are also out-and-out idealists. + + THE SUN PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO URANUS makes the +person very high-strung, nervous, of uncontrolled emotions and ready to fly +into hysteria on any or no provocation. It predisposes to nervous disorders +such as St. Vitus dance, epilepsy and lack of coordination. It makes people +impulsive, unreliable, and lacking in regard for the conventionalities, +highly impatient of any restraint upon their liberty and committed to the + + +[PAGE 368] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +theory of affinities, soul-mates and free love, hence these people are unde- +sirable marriage partners and likely to figure in divorce proceedings or +scandals of an even worse nature. There is also danger of trouble on ac- +count of connection with anarchistic plots where the inventive faculty may +find scope in the construction of explosives and infernal machines. Unless +these aspects are modified by other configurations such people are among the +most dangerous to society. They are liable to accidents from lightening, +electricity and all through life they meet disappointment from the most un- +expected quarters. + + VENUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO URANUS makes the person mentally alert, or +quick intuitive perception and exceedingly magnetic, especially to the op- +posite sex; and it also attracts hosts of friends who will be of benefit and +assistance to him. These aspects give love of art, music and poetry and are +a favorable indication of a happy marriage, often at a very early age or +suddenly consummated. The good aspects between Venus and Uranus also some- +times bring to the subject love of a platonic nature which then acts as an +inspiration in the life. + + VENUS CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO URANUS. As in the case of Mars conjunc- +tion to Venus, so also in the case of Uranus conjunction to Venus, there is +a doubt as to whether this aspect should be classed as good or evil. This + + +[PAGE 369] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +must be settled in the individual horoscope where it occurs, for it may work +either way, depending upon the other planetary configurations and the stu- +dent will therefore have to use his judgment as to how he classes it. If +Venus is otherwise afflicted in the horoscope, for instance, the conjunction +or parallel will further accentuate her evil qualities and act like the +square or opposition, but if she is well placed or aspected, Uranus will +bring out the nobler side, the same as the sextile or trine. + + VENUS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO URANUS. The square or opposition always +brings trouble through the sex relation--quarrels, divorces, public scandals +through clandestine intercourse and kindred irregularities, with loss of +friends, prestige and popularity, exile from home and family and sudden fi- +nancial losses through unexpected or unforseen happenings. There is a gen- +eral lack of balance, an erratic personality. + + MERCURY SEXTILE OR TRINE TO URANUS gives an original, independent and ec- +centric mind impatient of the fetters of fashion, tradition and convention. +Such a person is strenuous in his efforts to hew a path for himself in com- +plete liberty. Therefore this is the hall-mark of pioneers in thought and +invention, the sign of genius. Their ideas and ideals are exceedingly + + +[PAGE 370] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +lofty, progressive and inspiring, in fact too much so in the opinion of the +average man or woman who looks upon their actions and vagaries as the out- +come of a diseased mind. Nevertheless they have plenty of friends on ac- +count of their kindly and sympathetic nature. These aspects are good for a +literary or scientific pursuit, also for invention, particularly those which +have to do with air or electricity. + + MERCURY PARALLEL OR CONJUNCTION WITH URANUS. If Mercury is otherwise af- +flicted the conjunction and parallel are to be judged as bad aspects and +read accordingly, but if Mercury is otherwise well placed and aspected the +delineation given for the sextile and trine will apply. + + MERCURY SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO URANUS. Mercury in square or opposition +to Uranus is the hall-mark of the true crank or anarchist with extreme ideas +to tear down the social structure and undertake a radical reform without the +ability to build up something better. People with these configurations are +given to ranting and raving in public and their language is usually as cruel +as the measures they advocate. Whatever ability they possess is usually +turned to an erratic purpose and therefore they are ostracised and disliked +wherever they go. They are often forced to make sudden changes to escape +the consequences of their erratic conduct. + + +[PAGE 371] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + + THE MOON SEXTILE OR TRINE TO URANUS gives great originality and indepen- +dence to the mind which is quick, intuitive and very vivid in its imagina- +tion, hence the person has inventive ability; he is attracted to the occult +arts and is endowed with hypnotic or magnetic powers, also the intuitional +ability to study and practice astrology. If electricity is adopted as a vo- +cation the person will make a success of it. These aspects also give the +person a peculiar fascination for the opposite sex and are likely to lead to +a clandestine love affair or an unconventional union. + + THE MOON CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO URANUS gives mental and psychic ten- +dencies similar to those of the good aspects and also the same liability to +irregular love-affairs, but these tendencies are not so pronounced and a +clandestine love-affair generated under the conjunction of Uranus and the +Moon may have distinctly disastrous results similar to those mentioned under +the bad aspects. If the conjunction occurs in Cancer it indicates nervous +indigestion; in Leo it inclines to palpitation of the heart, interferes with +the rhythm of the heartbeat and gives a spasmodic action which will probably +prove fatal when it has run its course; in Scorpio it inclines to perverted +practices; in Sagittarius the reflex action would be felt in the lungs and +similarly with the other signs. + + +[PAGE 372] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + THE MOON SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO URANUS makes the person erratic and +touchy to a degree, walking powder magazine ready to explode at any moment, +overbearing, conceited and intolerant, shunned by all who can possibly get +out of his way. If such people are employers nobody can work for them and +if they are employees nobody will have them. They never remain very long in +any place, but are either discharged or give up their position on the +slightest provocation. People with these aspects are also attracted by the +occult arts but they never make a success at them because of their erratic +mentality. Like the other aspects of Uranus and the Moon, the square and +opposition also indicate a clandestine attachment either on the part of the +person or the marriage partner. If Uranus occurs in the Seventh House of a +man's horoscope it proves the wife untrue and a public scandal and divorce +will eventually ensue. The bad aspects of the Sun and Uranus give similar +indications in the horoscope of a woman. + + SATURN SEXTILE OR TRINE URANUS is fortunate for a public career in an of- +ficial capacity for it gives ambition and determination with ability to con- +centrate upon the work in hand and to exercise authority, plan and system- +atize. It strengthens the intuition so that such people are guided by keen + + +[PAGE 373] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +interior insight when new and important steps have to be taken, therefore +such people are in demand and find positions with large corporations where +they win their way through sheer ability. The mind is both mechanical and +ingenious, hence this position often denotes the successful inventor, par- +ticularly along the lines of electricity, aerial navigation and kindred +pioneer lines. + + SATURN CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO URANUS has an influence like the good +aspects if the planets are unafflicted, elevated, in angles, essentially +dignified or exalted, as Saturn in Libra and Capricorn or Uranus in Aquarius +or Scorpio, but if the conjunction occurs in signs where either of the plan- +ets is weak or afflicted, like Saturn in Aries, Cancer or Leo, then the in- +fluence will be detrimental and should be judged the same as the square or +opposition. + + SATURN SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO URANUS gives an unscrupulous nature with +an extremely violent temper. The outbursts are as sudden as a bolt from the +blue and exhaust the person completely. These people are very eccentric and +look at everything from a peculiar angle--treacherous, idle and indolent, +malicious and altogether dangerous to the community. These aspects also in- +dicate chronic or incurable diseases according to the signs wherein they are +placed, but as often said, if the other indications in the horoscope are + + +[PAGE 374] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +good the influence of a single aspect will not bring out such evil charac- +teristics and therefore the whole horoscope is to be carefully considered +before judging the influences enumerated, for they may be materially +minimized by other favorable indications in the horoscope. + + JUPITER SEXTILE OR TRINE TO URANUS gives a strong, independent and +positive personality with an ingenious, inventive and original turn of mind. +Whatever he undertakes he will carry to a conclusion or die in the attempt. +This position also gives a broad, humane and benevolent disposition and a +tendency to delve into the occult arts and sciences. It favors association +with secret orders and gives promise of prosperity in life. Such a person +is honest and sincere, sociable, hospitable and friendly to all, hence +likely to benefit a great deal from influential friends in an official posi- +tion. This position also gives executive ability and success in connection +with institutions of learning. + + JUPITER CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO URANUS gives similar indications to +the good aspects but the influence is not quite so decided, particularly if +either of the planets is weak by sign or otherwise afflicted. In that case +it will be found that the tendencies conferred are more like those of the +bad aspects. + + +[PAGE 375] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + + JUPITER SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO URANUS gives an impulsive nature liable +to act in a sudden or impulsive nature liable to act in a sudden impulsive, +erratic or unexpected manner to his own undoing. Loss by speculation, law- +suits and impulsive extravagance are also indicated, many changes both of +occupation and residence, loss of friends and reputation. It signifies one +of an ostentatious nature given to sham and camouflage and subterfuge, gen- +erally disliked for his insincerity and double dealings; a confidence man, +bunko man or cheap gambler. + + MARS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO URANUS gives an energetic and ambitious disposi- +tion, an original, ingenious, alert, intuitive mind which in resourceful in +the highest degree and able to cope with great difficulties under trying +circumstances. Thus people with these configurations are naturally of an +inventive turn of mind and successful in bringing their ideas to realiza- +tion. Their inventive genius usually expresses itself along electrical +lines, aviation, or in other unusual directions, for these aspects are one +of the marks of the pioneer of the Aquarian Age, where science and inven- +tions will reach out in directions that are now entirely undreamed of even +as possibilities. But while these people are dreamers of dreams they are +also practical, energetic and enterprising in a sufficient degree to make +their dreams come true in the world. They have a wide vision and a noble + + +[PAGE 376] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +nature which rises over all petty distinctions of race, creed or color and +recognizes in all human beings the divine spark which is the basis of uni- +versal brotherhood. They may not be exactly religious in the orthodox sense +of the word but their ideas are truly cosmic, hence they are often mistaken +for visionaries by those who do not understand them. + + MARS CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO URANUS gives an er- +ratic and eccentric disposition, a violent temper of the worst nature, an +unusual resentment of even the slightest restraint and gives the person a +stubborn, headstrong and dogged determination to go ahead in any line of ac- +tion upon which he has decided no matter what the outcome. He will listen +to neither reason nor entreaty but follows his own course in defiance of +all. People with these configurations very often become anarchists of the +reddest type for they do not even stop at the shedding of blood, if other +testimonies in the figure concur. they are cruel, hard and cold, without a +spark of true love though they may be inflamed with passion of the most +burning intensity. This is particularly the case when Mars is square Uranus +and either planet is placed in Taurus or Scorpio. In a woman's horoscope +Uranus square Mars usually leads to seduction no matter where they are + + +[PAGE 377] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +placed, but if in Taurus or Scorpio escape is almost impossible. The other +characteristics of these planets in these configurations work themselves out +according to the signs wherein they are placed so that their placement in +Taurus or Scorpio works upon the sex which is governed by these signs. When +one of these planets is in Scorpio, if the person takes up the profession of +surgery he will become very cruel and unfeeling, ready to operate for the +mere pleasure of causing pain and in consequence or in pursuit of this pas- +sion he will probably take up vivisection and develop and unusual ingenuity +in torturing his victims. With Uranus or Mars in Scorpio or Pisces he will +be underhanded or tricky though he may show a very different front to the +public. In Aries it will make a rattlebrain, in Gemini and Virgo an unusu- +ally quick mentality but quick in seeing only how to trick others. In Sag- +ittarius it will make the person very materialistic, atheistic, or fanatical +against the established religion or society. Thus the planets blend their +individual natures with the sign. + + NEPTUNE SEXTILE OR TRINE TO URANUS gives inclination towards the occult +or mystical side of life, and if either is placed in the Tenth House the +person usually becomes a leader or authority in these lines, he wins at +least local recognition and if other testimonies concur his fame will be + + +[PAGE 378] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +national or international. Such aspects will bring direct touch with the +spiritual world and success in dealing with the inhabitants of that plane. +It is also productive of dreams and visions of a prophetic and inspirational +nature. It strengthens the healing powers and will consequently enable the +person to do a great deal of good for his suffering fellow-men. These as- +pects give a highly developed intuition which amounts almost to +mind-reading. There is a love of travel and exploration of the physical +world as well as of nature's finer realms. Nor are such people altogether +dreamers, they have a strong will with excellent executive and organizing +powers which will aid them in realizing their hopes, wishes and ambitions to +rise in life and be at the forefront of whatever profession they select. + + NEPTUNE CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO URANUS are convertible aspects; if the +planets are well placed by sign and otherwise well aspected, their effect +will be similar to the sextile or trine, though not so pronounced, but if +they are cadent weak by sign, and afflicted they are only a little less evil +than when aspected by square or opposition. + + NEPTUNE SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO URANUS brings underhanded, deceptive in- +fluences into the life which aim to undermine the reputation and make the + + +[PAGE 379] URANUS, THE PLANET OF ALTRUISM + +person suffer scandal and public disfavor, sudden and unaccountable reverses +in business are met with, or trouble in social affairs. there is the same +love of travel and exploration as given by the good aspects but the person +cannot accomplish his aims with the same facility, or if he does it is to +his disadvantage and brings added trouble. He is also drawn towards the oc- +cult or mystic side of life, but his path is beset by dangers of mediumship +and obsession and all through life he is filled with premonitions of danger +and a vague dread of impending disaster which he can neither account for nor +dispel by will or reason, hence uncertainty overshadows the life as a cloud +and robs him of peace and contentment. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + diff --git a/religious documents/ms07.txt b/religious documents/ms07.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d9830d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ms07.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1778 @@ +[PAGE 380] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER XVII. + + NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + + As URANUS is the octave of Venus and acts principally upon the love na- +ture, aiming to elevate mankind in matters personal and social, so Neptune +is the octave of Mercury, and altogether spiritual in its aims. As Mercury +is Lightbearer of the physical Sun, so Neptune is Lightbearer for the +spiritual Sun, (called Vulcan by the Western Mystics). Intellectuality, +ruled by Mercury lifted us above the animal and made man, man; the Spiritu- +ality ruled by Neptune will in time raise us beyond the state of the human +and make us divine. + + Neptune really signifies what we may call "the gods" commencing with the +supernormal beings we know as Elder Brothers, and compassing the innumerable +hosts of spiritual entities, good, bad, and indifferent, which influence our +evolution. Its position and aspects denote our relation to them; malefic +aspects attract agencies of a nature inimical to our welfare, benefic con- +figurations draw upon the good forces. Thus, if Neptune is placed in the +Tenth House, trine to the ascendant, the person involved will have the op- +portunity to become a leader or prominent in a movement along mystical lines + + +[PAGE 381] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + +as denoted by the exalted position of Neptune. His body will be capable of +receiving the finer vibrations, and of coming in touch with the spiritual +world, as denoted by the trine of the ascendant. On the other hand, when +Neptune is placed in the Twelfth House, whose nature is passive and produc- +tive of suffering, that position indicates that at some time, perhaps under +a square form the midheaven, the evil forces, among whom are +spirit-controls, will be drawn to that person and endeavor to obtain posses- +sion of the body. the conjunction of Neptune with the ascendant will make +the body sensitive and usable for spiritual purposes, as well as the trine. +Given the opportunity afforded by the first aspect mentioned, the man may +become a pupil of a mystery school and a factor for great good in the uplift +of mankind; placed under the affliction of the second aspect, he may become +a helpless tool of spirit-controls: an irresponsible medium. + + But there is one factor which is never shown in the horoscope, and that +is the will of man. He is bound at some time in life to meet with the expe- +riences denoted by his horoscope, and the opportunities there indicated will +be placed before him one by one in orderly succession, as the clock of des- +tiny marks the appropriate time; but how he, the free and independent +spirit, meets that fated experience, no one can determine beforehand, and +the man in whose horoscope the first mentioned benefic configuration occurs +may not be sufficiently awake to the great opportunity before him to catch + + +[PAGE 382] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +it on the wing, it may have flown before he realizes it was there. Yes, he +may never become aware of the fact. On the other hand, the person in whose +life the square indicates the assault by spiritual forces mentioned, may +develop his spiritual muscle by resisting the onslaught and become a victor +instead of being vanquished. Forewarned is forearmed. + + Neptune was not discovered until 1846, but we should err greatly if we +supposed the influence ascribed to it fictitious on that account, for as the +person born blind lacks the organs to see the sunlight and colors, so most +of humanity is still lacking the sensibility which makes them amenable to +the vibrations of Neptune. (See Chapter on that subject, also on Planetary +Octaves). But we are gradually developing finer feelings and becoming more +able to respond to his influence. At first this influence is mostly felt by +sensitives who become occultists when of a positive nature and mediums when +negative, others gain from it the cunning common alike to the criminal and +the detective, or it impels the weakling to take drugs which in another man- +ner produce dreams and visions similar to those obtained by the mediumistic +process. + + Neptune strong in the figure gives a very vivid imagination and an artis- +tic nature, poetic, musical or literary, a fondness of ease, comfort and +beautiful surroundings. The person is easily swayed by the emotions, and +when Neptune is afflicted may become subject to trances, fainting, hysteria, + + +[PAGE 383] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + +or psychic storms. There is a love of travel, preferably by water. + + When Neptune is weak by sign or afflicted it also inclines to drink or +drugs, it robs the person of ambition and makes him an indolent loafer or +cheat, thoroughly dishonest, or if the horoscope is otherwise good he may +become the prey of other people who will rob or defraud him. People with an +afflicted Neptune should particularly avoid dealings with large corporations +or they may be subjected to swindles of the most fantastic nature. + + NEPTUNE IN THE TWELVE HOUSES + + NEPTUNE IN THE ASCENDANT, OR FIRST HOUSE. Neptune is by nature occult, +prophetic and spiritual. The Ascendant signifies the body wherein we func- +tion and thus by combination of these ideas we find that Neptune on the As- +cendant will give a particularly sensitive body capable of feeling the finer +vibrations in nature, and according to the aspects which the planet re- +ceives, these will be either good, bad or indifferent. If Neptune is strong +and well aspected to the Sun, Jupiter or Uranus, we may judge that there is +an intensely mystical nature latent in the person. Whether or not it will +be developed is, of course, another question depending upon opportunity and +environment. On the other hand, if Neptune is afflicted, it indicates a + + +[PAGE 384] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +very low mentality, perhaps even insanity. In any case the nature is vi- +sionary, romantic and generally unpractical, at least from the worldly stan- +dard. The prophetic, inspirational and visionary faculties are usually +highly developed when Neptune is unafflicted in the First House. There is a +love of art and music, a desire for luxury and whatever gives power and tone +to life. But when Neptune is afflicted in the First House the nature is in- +dolent, procrastinating and changeable; perverted tastes and desires come to +the front and impel to acts of indiscretion which may bring grave conse- +quences. There is indication of prostitution of the spiritual faculties; a +deceptive, dishonest disposition, also a tendency to mediumship and spirit +obsession. + + NEPTUNE IN THE SECOND HOUSE and well aspected brings gain through all +things in which water plays a prominent part; also through mystic and occult +matters and societies. But if Neptune is afflicted the financial affairs of +the person will always be in an uncertain, chaotic state. + + NEPTUNE IN THE THIRD HOUSE, when well aspected enhances the mental facul- +ties to a considerable degree. It gives ability in the direction of inspi- +rational writing and speaking, high ideals, a devotional mind. But when +Neptune is afflicted in the Third House the mind is of a low order, cunning, +sometimes imbecile and idiotic, with weird and uncanny feelings and per- + + +[PAGE 385] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + +verted appetites. Neptune in the Third House also gives a tendency to many +journeys, frequently by water, but whether or not they are successful de- +pends upon the aspects. + + NEPTUNE IN THE FOURTH HOUSE, when well aspected, gives a spiritual atmo- +sphere to the home with unusual conditions for soul-growth through the rela- +tionships there formed, but when afflicted it brings fraud and deception, +unhappiness and distrust, peculiar problems and many changes of residence. +There is also a liability to extreme poverty at the close of life, even con- +finement in a public institution of charity. + + NEPTUNE IN THE FIFTH HOUSE, strong and well aspected, indicates a suc- +cessful courtship of one of a highly advanced spiritual nature, success as a +teacher of mystic matters, and gain by investment in things ruled by +Neptune, aquatic sports and any other business in which the watery element +is strong. + + NEPTUNE IN THE SIXTH HOUSE, well aspected, is a favorable indication of +latent psychic faculties which may be developed with profit from the +spiritual point of view. But when afflicted it predisposes to the prostitu- +tion of spiritual faculties by mediumship, etc. Thus the person may become +subject to spirit control and run grave danger of obsession. It also + + +[PAGE 386] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +indicates trouble and loss through employees and a liability to chronic +wasting diseases and deformity. Usually these tendencies are then accentu- +ated by a sensuous nature and a self-indulgent manner of living. + + NEPTUNE IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE and well aspected indicates a marriage to +tone of an occult, inspirational nature, generally a platonic union of the +most soul-satisfying nature, a true companionship of two who are really +mates. It also shows success as a public speaker on occult or mystical sub- +jects. But when afflicted, Neptune in the Seventh House shows an emotional +mediumistic, unreliable marriage partner, or there may be fraud or deception +in connection with the marriage, perhaps one of the partners committing +bigamy. this position also indicates one of the parasites that prey upon +the public in general, or of those who become victims of public disfavor, +all according to the nature of the aspects. They show whether or not this +is merited. + + NEPTUNE IN THE EIGHTH HOUSE, when well aspected, gives gain through the +marriage partner, but not through the ordinary channels of business; it +comes in a peculiar manner. This position is also favorable for occult in- +vestigation and often enables the person who has it to obtain information at + + +[PAGE 387] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + +at first hand. But when Neptune is afflicted in the Eighth house it brings +a loss by fraud or deception of the marriage partner, financial troubles +with estates or corporations and a strange, unusual ending to the life. + + NEPTUNE IN THE NINTH HOUSE is very favorable for the cultivation of +spiritual faculties; when well aspected, it brings strange visions and un- +usual intuitional forebodings and presentiments, also profit and pleasure in +connection with long journeys or voyages. + + When Neptune is afflicted in the Ninth House it makes the mind fearful +and anxious, always on the QUI VIVE with vague forebodings; it inclines to +travel but brings trouble in that connection, also danger of legal complica- +tion and loss on that account. + + NEPTUNE IN THE TENTH HOUSE, when well aspected indicates one of high as- +pirations and inspirations, spiritually inclined, who has the ability to +rise to leadership, fame and honor, in connection with some mystical society +or in scientific research. This position of Neptune also indicates an ac- +cident to one of the parents, probably by water, while the person is still a +child, but when the planet is well aspected a legacy often accrues. + + Neptune in the Tenth house and trine to the Sun or Moon are sure signs of + + +[PAGE 388] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the ability to cultivate the spiritual sight in this life. A number of +well-known seers have this aspect. + + When Neptune is afflicted in the Tenth House it indicates fraud, decep- +tion and dishonesty which in time will bring their reward of sorrow, trouble +and scandal. + + NEPTUNE IN THE ELEVENTH HOUSE and well aspected shows a person of high +spiritual aspirations and the ability to attract others of a similar nature +who will be of help to him in realizing his desires, hopes and wishes. When +Neptune is afflicted in the Eleventh House it indicates deception and +treachery on the part of people who pose as friends; this will bring loss +and trouble. Therefore people with this position should be particularly +careful whom they cultivate and admit their friendship. + + NEPTUNE IN THE TWELFTH HOUSE, well aspected, brings success in research +work of a scientific or occult nature which is carried on in secret or far +from the haunts of men. It also indicates a secret soul-satisfying or clan- +destine but honorable relationship with someone which will bring benefit to +both and it not infrequently happens that this friend is in the spirit +world, but the relations is much more close in such cases than it can ever +be between friends who are both in the physical body. When Neptune is af- +flicted in the Twelfth House it gives a liability to confinement and + + +[PAGE 389] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + +restraint in a public institution such as a hospital, asylum, or prison, on +account of secret but powerful enemies, a chronic and noisome disease or in- +sanity due to perverted practices. + + NEPTUNE IN THE TWELVE SIGNS + + NEPTUNE IN ARIES, when well aspected fills a person with religious enthu- +siasm, though not always of the orthodox kind, and gives him the energy and +ambition to push forward to the front rank in whatever line of thought and +belief he espouses. There is a desire to elevate humanity to a higher and +more noble plane of life and on that account this configuration or position +usually brings the person forward as a public character or more or less im- +portance, according to the general aspects and tenor of the horoscope. + + But when afflicted, Neptune in Aries brings out the destructive tenden- +cies. There is a similar desire to raise humanity to realms of happiness, +but the methods are anarchistic and it incites to murder of those whom the +person conceives to be the enemies of society, by bomb plot or assassina- +tion, and lays the person liable to imprisonment on account of conspiracy +against the government or others in authority. + + NEPTUNE IN TAURUS gives a kindly, companionable disposition and an incli- +nation towards the beautiful and artistic in nature. He is fond of music + + +[PAGE 390] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +and the pleasures of life. This is also a good omen for the acquisition of +land or property. But when Neptune is afflicted in Taurus it gives a sensu- +ous and passionate nature and a strong tendency to gourmandize which in time +is bound to bring trouble and sorrow in its wake. + + NEPTUNE IN GEMINI, well aspected, is one of the best indications of un- +usual mental faculties, for Neptune is the octave of Mercury the planet of +mind, logic and reason. Hence this position develops the occult, prophetic +and inspirational faculties. It makes the person sensitive to the finer in- +tuitional and inspirational vibrations in nature. It is the signature of +genius in one direction or another according to the conditions in the horo- +scope. It gives the gift of oratory and unusual literary ability, and makes +the person a fine mechanician or mathematician; in short, there is no field +of endeavor where mental ingenuity is required, that the person with Neptune +in Gemini, well aspected, does not excel. + + But when Neptune is afflicted in Gemini it indicates inability to concen- +trate to any good purpose. The mind is restless, chaotic and wavering, in- +clined to cunning, fraud and deception, or at best it makes the person a +visionary and a dreamer who is apt to become the dupe of others. There is +generally trouble with brothers, sisters and neighbors who cordially dislike + + +[PAGE 391] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + +the person in whose horoscope this aspect is found. + + NEPTUNE IN CANCER, when well aspected, gives an intuitive, sympathetic +and lovable nature quick to understand the sorrows and joys of others and +ready to feel for them or with them. Hence these people are generally very +much liked, both in the home and in their immediate circle of acquaintances. +This position also brings them in touch with the finer forces of nature and +enables them to cultivate such spiritual faculties as psychometry and a spe- +cies of intuition whereby they can get in touch with whomsoever or whatso- +ever they wish for the help and benefit of others. They are very versatile +in the spiritual direction and may reach great heights by devotion, which is +strongly expressed in them. But when Neptune is afflicted in Cancer it +gives a very self-indulgent disposition which generally exerts a baneful in- +fluence in the home, perhaps more by inuendo than by direct malicious ex- +pression. This position also gives peculiar tastes and appetites which are +apt to cause great trouble to the alimentative system and there is a strong +inclination for drugs or drink. + + NEPTUNE IN LEO, when well aspected, gives a generous, sympathetic and +warm-hearted disposition, a sociable nature, fond of pleasures and artistic +pursuits. These people have considerable ability and success in educational + + +[PAGE 392] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +pursuits because of an intimate understanding of the nature of others and +the faculty of imparting to them whatever knowledge they possess themselves. +They are very conscientious in their dealings with others and successful in +affairs of the heart. + + But when Neptune is afflicted in Leo it makes the nature super-sensual +and therefore liable to disappointments in love. These people are governed +by impulse rather than by reason; they lack the stamina to face an issue, +are cowardly, fickle and not to be depended upon; they incur a general dis- +like among their acquaintances. + + NEPTUNE IN VIRGO. Mercury, the planet of mind, reason and logic is ex- +alted in Virgo, and the occult, prophetic, inspirational, spiritual, devo- +tional and musical Neptune is the octave of Mercury, hence the blending of +the Mercurial and Neptunian qualities produced by Neptune in Virgo gives ex- +ceptionally fine mental faculties with the addition of inspiration, pro- +phetic ability, devotion to high ideals when Neptune is well aspected, for +Neptune adds gentleness and sympathy to the cold Mercury; though such people +are rather odd in their ideas and inclinations, especially with respect to +marriage, which they usually regard from the platonic standpoint. + + +[PAGE 393] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + +If Neptune is afflicted in virgo it gives hypochondriac tendencies and an +imagination of having all the ills and ailments in the universe which makes +the person's life miserable. There is also a tendency to become the play- +thing of spirit controls, not only with respect to mediumship but such +people are liable to direct obsession and when this calamity has once oc- +curred it is very difficult to free the body from the obsessing entity. + + NEPTUNE IN LIBRA, when well aspected, gives a musical, poetic and artis- +tic temperament and indicates a union of a highly spiritual nature which +will be of great comfort and satisfaction to the person. When Neptune is +afflicted in Libra, there is a tendency to clandestine, unconventional and +illegitimate relations, either of the person himself or of the marriage +partner, according to the nature of the aspects to Neptune. It indicates a +weak and over-emotional nature which incurs and merits the dislike for those +in its immediate environment. + + NEPTUNE IN SCORPIO, well aspected, gives a desire to delve into the se- +crets of nature and thus it is a good position for those who work in scien- +tific or occult research. It gives energy, enthusiasm and inspirational +perception beyond the realm of reason and augurs successful accomplishment +of whatever is undertaken. But when afflicted it gives a terrible temper, a + + +[PAGE 394] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +sensuous and passionate nature, an inordinate desire for drink or drugs and +a tendency to drowning either by accident or design. + + NEPTUNE IN SAGITTARIUS, when well aspected increases the inspirational, +devotional and religious tendencies in the horoscope. It brings dreams, vi- +sions, and occult experiences. There is love of travel and a great enjoy- +ment of the pleasures thus obtained. When Neptune is afflicted in Sagit- +tarius the subjects become liable to fears and forebodings; dreams of danger +and visions of distress prey upon the mind, making life miserable. Some- +times they have great desires to travel but are unable to gratify them, or +if they do they have trouble or accidents to contend with. + + NEPTUNE IN CAPRICORN, when well aspected gives a serious and contempla- +tive nature, able to concentrate upon whatever matters come before it, hence +such people are successful, keen and far-sighted business men, usually work- +ing on a large scale, or if the nature of the other aspects of the horoscope +draws them toward secret work they make excellent detectives capable of +solving the most intricate problems, or researchers along psychic lines; in +fact they excel in any occupation where deep thought and concentration are +the keys to success. + + +[PAGE 395] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + + But when Neptune is afflicted in Capricorn it makes the nature melan- +choly, secretive and very often deceitful. These people re generally re- +cluses and shun the society of their fellow-men. + + NEPTUNE IN AQUARIUS, when well aspected, gives an altruistic or utopian +disposition with a desire to emancipate the whole world from whatever so- +cial, mental, moral or physical ills the person may be able to perceive. +Hence these people are usually too far in advance of their time and age to +be understood. They are regarded as dreamers and visionaries, idealists +and, as in a sense, dangerous to society because of their originality and +independence of conventions. At the same time they are very popular with +the most progressive people in society. They easily apprehend Nature's +finer forces and are therefore the pioneers in exploration of hitherto +undreamed-of fields. + + When Neptune is afflicted in Aquarius it gives similar ideas and ideals +in regard to conventions. But it is only too liable to bring such people +and their lives into discredit and disgrace. + + NEPTUNE IN PISCES, when well aspected gives a love of mysticism and a +tendency to investigate the occult. Sometimes these people develop their +spiritual faculties and obtain first-hand knowledge. They are compassionate +towards others, unobtrusive, retiring in their manner, well like also often + + +[PAGE 396] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the recipients of aid from others, cheerfully and willingly given. + + When Neptune is afflicted in Pisces the person is liable to suffer +through mediumship, obsession and deception of secret enemies. There is +danger of imprisonment and a tendency to indulge in drink or drugs which +will end in sorrow and self-undoing. + + NEPTUNE IN ASPECT WITH OTHER PLANETS + + THE SUN SEXTILE OR TRINE TO NEPTUNE favors the possibility of developing +spiritual faculties, for Neptune intensifies the higher vibrations in the +aura and as some express themselves best through music these aspects make +them unusually sensitive to echoes from the heavenworld, which is the realm +of tone. Many people with these configurations hear the harmony of the +spheres and if Mercury, the lower octave of Neptune, gives the requisite +dexterity they become musicians of a high inspirational nature. In others +it breeds a love of the occult which leads them into the higher life, but +they usually approach it from the intellectual standpoint as psychic inves- +tigators. A few live the life and obtain first-hand knowledge. + + THE SUN PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO NEPTUNE also +brings the person in touch with the denizens of the invisible world by + + +[PAGE 397] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + +raising the vibrations in his aura, but these configurations attract the un- +desirable element such as are seen at the ordinary spiritualistic seance. +In a watery sign Neptune induces the person to drink to excess and then the +resulting acceleration of the vibratory rate frequently causes such a person +to perceive the ugly and gruesome forms abounding in the lower realms of the +invisible world, which are real elemental entities and not figments of his +fancy as believed by people who hear him tell what he sees during delirium +tremens. + + VENUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO NEPTUNE makes an inspirational musician. It +gives a fertile imagination and deep emotions, a nature that is pure and +chaste, hence occasionally it leads to platonic unions and companionship of +the most ecstatic nature. + + VENUS CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO NEPTUNE is to be judged on the same line +as indicated in the cases of Mars and Uranus. + + VENUS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO NEPTUNE makes the person liable to sorrow, +loss and trouble, especially through the marriage partner or anyone else in +whom he trusts. People with these aspects should be particularly careful to +avoid anything which has in it an element of chance or speculation for they + + +[PAGE 398] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +are sure to lose, especially in dealing with large companies or corpora- +tions. + + MERCURY IN CONJUNCTION, PARALLEL, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO NEPTUNE makes a +man peculiarly adapted to the occult art, particularly if the conjunction +occurs in the Third or Ninth House or the trines are from watery +signs--Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces. Such people usually succeed in occult +science and often develop a supernormal faculty. They are particularly good +as magnetic healers. + + MERCURY SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO NEPTUNE gives a chaotic mind, liability +to lack of memory, indolence and a disposition to dream the time away. +There is a restless desire for fame frustrated by inability to fit in any- +where. Such people are liable to fraud, deception and slander, also to +temptation to suicide. + + THE MOON SEXTILE OR TRINE TO NEPTUNE increases the faculty of imagination +to a superlative degree, especially if either of the planets is in the Ninth +House. Then it favors prophetic dreams and visions which bring the person +into contact with the invisible worlds. It indicates ability in the occult +arts and success in their practice. It makes the nature exceedingly inspi- +rational and it also gives a kind and sympathetic disposition. The +spiritual qualities mentioned may not be apparent even to the person + + +[PAGE 399] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + +himself, but them they re latent and capable of development. It is also +safe to say that at some time or other during the life persons with these +aspects will come in contact with the occult and be very much attracted, +whether the qualities of the soul are developed or not. + + THE MOON CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO NEPTUNE indicates the same strong +psychic faculties as the good aspects, particularly if Neptune is placed in +the psychic sign Cancer. Those who have been norm with the good configura- +tions of Neptune during the fourteen years when it was in the airy scienti- +fic sign Gemini are now conquering the air and perfecting scientific inven- +tions which will make us marvel, but the children who have been born under +favorable configurations during the fourteen years Neptune has been going +through the psychic sign Cancer are growing up around us as a band of mys- +tics and when they have reached mature years they will astonish us with +their spiritual insight and power. Among other things they will develop the +soul of music in a hitherto unprecedented manner. + + THE MOON SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO NEPTUNE is also an indication of the +soul qualities similar to those given by the good aspects, but under the +former aspects the person will be of a negative nature and is apt to become + + +[PAGE 400] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the prey of spirit-controls and subjected to mediumship, therefore people +with those aspects should be very careful not to attend spiritualistic se- +ances, "sit in silence" or use other methods of occult development. + + SATURN SEXTILE OR TRINE TO NEPTUNE is good for success in worldly affairs +for it brings out the saturnine virtues, forethought, honor, self-reliance, +determinations, system et cetera, by which the person gains the confidence +and esteem of others, but the principal effect is spiritual and therefore +only felt by those who are able to respond because of other aspects in the +horoscope. To them it gives the ability to delve deeply into occult and +mystical subjects, also to become proficient in the art and practice +thereof. + + SATURN CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO NEPTUNE has the same effect as the good +aspects when it occurs in a sign where either of the planets are strong as +Neptune is in Cancer and Pisces and Saturn in Libra and Capricorn. + + SATURN SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO NEPTUNE lays the person liable to loss by +deception, treachery or fraud in worldly matters and if he should undertake +to investigate or practise the occult art he is liable to become the prey of +spirit-controls and be led into mediumship with consequent danger to the + + +[PAGE 401] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + +health, and liability to attempt suicide. + + JUPITER SEXTILE OR TRINE TO NEPTUNE gives an inspirational mystical na- +ture and ability to fill a position connected with occult orders, that is to +say, where the character is sufficiently developed so that Neptune can make +the influence felt for then this position brings out all the noblest and +most spiritual strength of both planets, and occult experiences are not in- +frequently the result. At any rate, during the sleeping hours these people +are quite active and conscious in the invisible worlds and often bring expe- +riences back with them as dreams or visions. + + JUPITER CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO NEPTUNE gives an influence similar to +that of the good aspects when Neptune and Jupiter are not afflicted, but if +they are in a weak sign and aspecting the other planets by square or opposi- +tion them the influence is similar to that of the bad aspects of Jupiter and +Neptune. + + JUPITER SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO NEPTUNE indicates lack of control of the +emotions. The person is sensitive to the influences of the borderland +between the seen and the unseen worlds but they are often of an +awe-inspiring and disgusting type, hence apt to cause hysterical conditions, +involuntary trance and kindred disorders attendant upon negative psychism, + + +[PAGE 402] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +but from a material standpoint it gives danger of fraud through speculation +or large companies and dealing with predatory interests should therefore be +avoided. + + MARS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO NEPTUNE intensifies the emotional nature and +gives a leaning toward the study and practice of occultism and mysticism. +When other testimonies in the horoscope concur, the martial energy directed +toward the psychic subjects denoted by Neptune often helps the person very +materially in his aim to penetrate into the invisible worlds in a conscious +manner. + + MARS CONJUNCTION, SQUARE, PARALLEL, OR OPPOSITION TO NEPTUNE makes the +nature coarse and sensual, impulsive and irascible, militant and extravagant +in speech and action, self-indulgent to a degree in whatever direction his +passions may lead him and unable to exercise restraint over himself in any +direction. It gives a fanatical spirit which may express itself in either +religion or atheism and under favorable conditions such people are liable +to become victims of discarnate spirits who may either use them as a medium +or by obsessing them. It gives a tendency to lawlessness and participation +in anarchistic schemes or plots. + + +[PAGE 403] NEPTUNE, THE PLANET OF DIVINITY + + URANUS SEXTILE OR TRINE TO NEPTUNE gives inclination towards the occult +or mystical side of life, and if either is placed in the Tenth House the +person usually becomes a leader or authority in these lines, he wins at +least local recognition and if other testimonies concur his fame will be na- +tional or international. Such an aspect will bring direct tough with the +spiritual world and success in dealing with inhabitants of that plane. It +produces dreams and visions of a prophetic and inspirational nature, +strengthens the healing powers and will consequently enable the person to do +a great deal of good for his suffering fellow-men. These aspects give a +highly developed intuition which amounts almost to mind-reading. There is a +love of travel and exploration of the physical world as well as of nature's +finer realms. Nor are such people altogether dreamers, they have a strong +will with excellent executive and organizing powers which will aid them in +realizing their hopes, wishes and ambitions to rise in life and be at the +forefront of whatever profession they select. + + URANUS CONJUNCTION OR PARALLEL TO NEPTUNE are convertible aspects; if the +planets are well placed by sign and otherwise well afflicted, their effect +will be similar to the sextile or trine, though not so pronounced, but if +they are cadent, weak by sign, and afflicted they are only a little less + + +[PAGE 404] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +evil than when aspected by square or opposition. + + URANUS SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO NEPTUNE brings underhanded, deceptive in- +fluences into the life which aim to undermine the reputation and make the +person suffer scandal and public disfavor, sudden and unaccountable reverses +in business are met with, or trouble in social affairs. There is the same +love of travel and exploration as given by the good aspects but the person +cannot accomplish his aims with the same facility, or if he does it is to +his disadvantage and brings added trouble He is also drawn towards the oc- +cult or mystic side of life, but his path is beset by dangers of mediumship +and obsession and all through life he is filled with a vague dread of im- +pending disaster which he can neither account for nor dispel by will or rea- +son, hence uncertainty overshadows the life as a cloud and robs him of peace +and contentment. + + + +For influence of Pluto see pages 728-734. + + +[PAGE 405] THE DOCTRINE OF DELINEATION + + CHAPTER XVIII + + THE DOCTRINE OF DELINEATION IN A NUTSHELL + + Students of the Stellar Science will find the following Table very useful +in delineating horoscopes for though the planets confer many more character- +istics than there given, as shown in the general reading which opens the +chapter wherein the places and aspects of each planet are given, the follow- +ing keywords give in a succinct manner the quintessence of the characteris- +tics conferred by each planet according to whether it is well or ill +aspected. + + When the student has mastered the meaning of the positions and aspects of +the various planets as given in the preceding chapters he may with the +greatest of ease give a good delineation of the effect of each aspect by +combining the key-words in this Table and elaborating upon them. for in- +stance, if reading a horoscope where the Sun is trine Saturn, put down the +description given in the Table as follows: + + "The vital, venturesome and authoritive Sun trine the deliberative, per- +severing, tactful, cautious, methodical and thoughtful Saturn (then +elaborate) will give John a tenacious hold on life and endow him with both +courage and caution, so that while he may seem venturesome at times he will + + +[PAGE 406] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +always carefully calculate the obstacles to be overcome and not attempt any- +thing foolhardy, but accomplish his object once he has decided to go ahead. +He will be systematic, orderly and methodical, also persevering in whatever +he undertakes after due deliberation and forethought, hence his efforts will +generally be brought to a successful issue. In dealing with others he will +be thoughtful and tactful, hence usually able to obtain his desires by di- +plomacy. On account of these qualities he will be generally successful in +life and he will lay up a fair fortune, for Saturn is also the planet of ac- +quisitiveness." + + In a similar manner students may combine the key-words of all the other +planets and aspects from this Table and elaborate on them as they can. This +will enable them to give a good reading of any horoscope with a little prac- +tice. For further practical demonstration of this method students are ad- +vised to study the children's horoscopes in RAYS FROM THE RED CROSS, where +the writer makes use of it every month. These horoscopes are a mine of in- +struction which not student desiring to perfect himself in the stellar sci- +ence can afford to be without. The key-words will bring to his mind what +has been said about the general nature of the planets under consideration; +this he may combine with the nature of the signs and houses where the plan- +ets are placed if a very full reading is desired. + + +[PAGE 407] THE DOCTRINE OF DELINEATION + + TABLE OF PLANETARY KEY-WORDS + +The vital, venturesome, dignified and authoritive Sun. + +The lazy, ambitionless, despotic and cowardly Sun. + +The harmonious, artistic, beautiful, lovely, cheerful and suave Venus. + +The dissolute, sensual, vulgar, slothful, loud and lazy Venus. + +The quick-witted, versatile, eloquent, literary, adroit and dexterous Mer- +cury. + +The restless, shiftless, profane, gossipy, demagogic, dishonest, untruthful, +forgetful, and clumsy Mercury. + +The magnetic, imaginative, plastic and changeable Moon. + +The negative, procrastinating, dreamy, vacillating, visionary, frivolous, +childish and worrisome Moon. + +The cautious, deliberate, methodical, persevering, tactful, thoughtful and +thrifty Saturn. + + +[PAGE 408] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +The malicious, materialistic, melancholy, pessimistic, avaricious, obstruc- +tive, secretive and worrisome Saturn. + +The law-abiding, charitable, conservative, reverent, optimistic, opulent and +benevolent Jupiter. + +The indolent, procrastinating, bombastic, ostentatious, prodigal, dissipated +and lawless Jupiter. + +The gallant, enterprising, energetic, enthusiastic and constructive Mars. + +The advanced, romantic, original, independent, liberty-loving and inventive +Uranus. + +The licentious, unconventional, fanatical and irresponsible Uranus. + +The occult, prophetic, inspirational, spiritual, devotional and musical +Neptune. + +The fraudulent, vague, deceptive, dishonest and mediumistic Neptune. + + +[PAGE 409] THE DOCTRINE OF DELINEATION + + THE STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF THE PLANETS + + SHOWN BY ELEVATION, EXALTATION, CRITICAL DEGREES, ETC. + + The foregoing delineation of the effects and influences of the planets in +the various houses and signs, also by aspect and position such as parallel +and conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition, are subject to wide +modification according to the other configurations of the horoscope, and ac- +cording to whether the planets are essentially dignified or in their detri- +ment, exalted or in fall, or placed in critical degrees. The following +table of planetary powers will show at a glance the signs in which the +various planets are strong or weak; and when the student known in what sign +a planet rules or is exalted it is only necessary to remember that it has +its fall or detriment in the opposite sign. Thus the Sun rules Leo and is +exalted in Aries. Hence it is very powerful in those signs, and as the op- +posite signs are Aquarius and Libra it is at once apparent that when placed +in these signs the Sun is comparatively weak. Another important factor +which it is necessary to take into consideration is elevation. The closer a +planet is to the Midheaven, the more highly it is elevated and the more pow- +erful it is. Consulting the table of planetary powers we find that Mars +rules Aries and is exalted in Capricorn. Let us suppose that in a horo- +scope, Mars is found placed close to the Midheaven in Aries or Capricorn and + + +[PAGE 410] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +square to the Sun which is near the Ascendant. Then the evil will be very +much greater than if Mars were in Libra or Cancer, the signs of his fall and +detriment, and the Sun placed in the Midheaven elevated above Mars. +Similarly, if the Sun were placed in Aries, its exaltation sign, close to +the Midheaven in high elevation and trine to Jupiter in its own sign, Sagit- +tarius, then both planets are very strong and their effect would be much +more marked than if they were placed in the signs of their fall and debil- +ity. By memorizing this table and bearing in mind the matter of elevation, +the student will be able to form a much more accurate judgment of the effect +of planets in any particular horoscope than if this is not taken into con- +sideration. + + TABLE OF PLANETARY POWERS + +PLANET RULES DETRIMENT EXALTATION FALL + +SUN------LEO------------------AQUARIUS-------------ARIES 19 DEG.---LIBRA + +VENUS----TAURUS, LIBRA--------SCORPIO, ARIES-------PISCES 27-------VIRGO + +MERCURY--GEMINI, VIRGO--------SAGITTARIUS, PISCES--VIRGO 15--------PISCES + +MOON-----CANCER---------------CAPRICORN------------TAURUS 3--------SCORPIO + +SATURN---CAPRICORN, AQUARIUS--CANCER, LEO----------LIBRA 21--------ARIES + +JUPITER--PISCES, SAGITTARIUS--VIRGO, GEMINI--------CANCER 15-------CAPRICORN + +MARS-----ARIES, SCORPIO-------LIBRA, TAURUS--------CAPRICORN 28----CANCER + +URANUS---AQUARIUS-------------LEO------------------SCORPIO---------TAURUS + +NEPTUNE--PISCES---------------VIRGO----------------CANCER----------CAPRICORN + + + + +[PAGE 411] THE DOCTRINE OF DELINEATION + + CRITICAL DEGREES + + Another division of the Zodiac which it is easy to remember and important +to take into consideration is based upon the massage of the Moon from the +first degree of Aries through the twelve signs. It takes the Moon about 28 +days to go around the Zodiac and she moves with an average velocity of 13 +degrees. Thus if we start with the first point of Aries and measure one +day's travel, the second day will commence at the 13th degree and the third +at the 26th; the fourth commences at 9 degrees of Taurus and the fifth day +she starts at 21 degrees of the same sign; on the sixth day she reaches 4 +degrees of Gemini; on the seventh day she starts at 17 degrees of Gemini and +completes the first quarter by reaching the cusp of Cancer on the morning of +the eighth day. It is evident that she will strike the same degrees of the +signs composing the other three quarters during the three weeks it takes her +to complete the circuit, and thus we may easily memorize the critical de- +grees in the following manner: + + IN THE CARDINAL SIGNS--Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, the first, +thirteenth, and twenty-sixth degrees are critical. + + IN THE FIXED SIGNS--Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius, the ninth and +twenty-first degrees are critical. + + IN THE COMMON SIGNS--Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces, the fourth +and seventeenth degrees are critical. + + +[PAGE 412] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + It has been found that when a planet is within orb of three degrees of +one of these critical points it exercises a much stronger influence in the +life than it would otherwise. Therefore students will also do well to re- +member this and should a planet be in a sign of fall or detriment, but in a +critical degree, it is thereby strengthened and will do more good or bad ac- +cording to its nature and the aspect it has. On the other hand, if a planet +is in its exaltation sign, highly elevated and in a critical degree, its as- +pects will be exceedingly powerful and make themselves felt much more in the +life than would otherwise be the case. + + MERCURY BEFORE AND AFTER THE SUN + + Another important point which is only too often overlooked is the posi- +tion of Mercury with regard to the Sun. When Mercury is in a lower degree +of the same sign as occupied by the Sun, or in any degree of a preceding +sign, he rises before the Sun and, so to speak, carries the rays of the Day +Star forward. But when he is placed in a higher degree of the same sign as +the Sun or in the sign following that occupied by the Sun, then he rises af- +ter the Orb of Day and is, so to speak, overshadowed. Therefore it has been +found that when Mercury, the planet of mind, logic and reason, rises BEFORE +the Sun, it gives a keener, better intellect than when he follows the lumi- +nary. + + +[PAGE 413] THE DOCTRINE OF DELINEATION + + ARE YOU HELPING YOUR STARS? + + One not infrequently hears students of Astrology express their annoyance +at the way the stars work. They complain that the evil directions are al- +ways on time and marked in their effect, while very often the good direc- +tions seem to have little or not influence and they wonder why. Have you +ever realized that you cannot possibly get something for nothing, any more +than you can create something out of nothing. This holds good whether you +want a loaf of bread, a position, favors, or anything else. If at any time +you seem to get something without paying for it, you will have to settle +later, and settle with interest, for it is nature's law of Justice that +nothing is given for nothing. There must be an equivalent in one way or an- +other; the scales may be tipped in one direction for a long time, but as +surely as the pendulum swings equally to one side of the neutral point, so +surely will the scales of justice swing, and swing until the balance is +reached. + + This holds good in Astrology; it is said that "God helps the man who +helps himself;" you may also say that THE STARS HELP THE MAN WHO HELPS HIM- +SELF, for they are God's ministers and it should always be remembered that +THE STARS SHOW TENDENCIES, THEY MARK TIMES WHEN OPPORTUNITIES ARE RIPE, BUT +THEY NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES COMPEL ANYONE TO ACT IN THIS, THAT OR THE +OTHER MANNER. But neither are the directions haphazard events, they are +lessons and experiences for us, of which we may avail ourselves, or not, as + + +[PAGE 414] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +we choose within certain limits. For instance, the Moon comes to a square +of Mars, and it will bring to us an opportunity to lose our temper, and get +into trouble thereby, then when the trouble is over and we sit down to re- +flect on the occurrence we will most likely say to ourselves: Well, what +fools we were to allow a little thing like that to play havoc with our hap- +piness. On the other hand if the Astrological student uses his knowledge in +the proper manner, then he should know what the effect of the Moon square +Mars will be, he should resolve beforehand to be calm and say: Here is an +opportunity for me to rule my stars. I am going to keep my temper well un- +der control so that no matter what happens, I shall maintain my equilibrium. +Then, when the opportunity comes along to lose his temper he may stand firm. +Although he may feel the passions surging WITHIN, he may stand outwardly +quiet, keep a cool head and when the danger is past he will have gained a +victory and learned the lesson which it was intended he SHOULD learn. Or +suppose it is a square of the Moon to Saturn; this will cause people to +worry and look upon the dark side of life, but the astrological student may +say to himself when such a configuration is approaching: No, I am not going +to worry; worry will not help matters, it hinders, because it takes from me +all my strength, wherewith otherwise I could overcome conditions. I am go- +ing to look at the bright side of the matter and see what I can do to remedy + + +[PAGE 415] THE DOCTRINE OF DELINEATION + +this trouble. + + As a matter of fact most of the things we worry about never come to pass, +and if the student can learn under this planetary direction to keep his +equilibrium, to stop worrying, then he has ruled his stars and learned an +important lesson. Thus, if he helps his stars be learning the lessons which +they re endeavoring to teach him, the evil directions will not have the same +power over him as if he simply sits down and folds his hands saying: "Well, +I cannot help it, I am under the evil directions and naturally things are +bound to go wrong in every particular ." There is in the horoscope a +dominant factor, namely, the Individual Will; bear in mind that the HORO- +SCOPE SHOWS ONLY TENDENCIES AND IT HAS NO POWER WHATEVER TO COMPEL YOU; COM- +PULSION IS FROM WITHIN YOURSELF. You, in the final analysis, are the +dominant factor in that horoscope, and can by an exercise of sufficient will +power rule your stars. It is admitted that we are all weak, and therefore +not able to exercise the necessary will power at all times; but that is ex- +actly why these evil directions are sent to us, to enable us to cultivate a +stronger will to do the right thing at the right time and it depends upon +ourselves whether we shall be compelled by circumstances from without or by +our own will from within. Surely that is the proper way, and astrological +students above all other people ought to be able to guide their lives safely +amid the rocks and shoals of existence, because they have proper warning, + + +[PAGE 416] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +they know what is coming, and they should prepare for it. + + On the other hand it is asked: Why do the good directions not bring a +corresponding measure of benefit? And the answer to that question is, for +the same lack of co-operation. It is as absolutely necessary to help our +stars in one direction as to hinder them in the other. Are you out of a po- +sition with perhaps the family exchequer running low and no means in sight +wherewith to replenish it; but your hopes centered upon a strong favorable +direction such as perhaps a trine of the progressed Moon to the ruler of the +Sixth House or the Sun? Under these conditions you feel sure, from an as- +trological standpoint, that you are going to obtain a good position which +will put you on easy street. Very well, you may be sure that the opportu- +nity will come, but do not expect it to be laid in your lap without a single +effort on your part; if a thing is worth having it is worth going after, it +is worth making the very best efforts to get it; do not neglect any detail, +dress yourself carefully, but not showily when you go to see the person who +has it in his power to bestow the favor, remember, first impressions are im- +portant; have all your ammunition ready in the shape of recommendations and +everything else that you would have were you not depending upon an astro- +logical aspect to help you get the position. Use every proper means if im- +pressing the prospective employer with your ability and you may depend that +your effort will be successful, for YOU HAVE HELPED YOUR STARS, you have + + +[PAGE 417] THE DOCTRINE OF DELINEATION + +grasped your opportunity. Or, are you about to embark in a business venture +with some one else and you feel very confident because the Moon is trine to +the Sun and Venus in the Seventh House? Be careful that you do not lay +aside your caution on that account, thinking that under such a direction no +one can come into your partnership who is not all right. If you do, you ne- +glect your part and you will have no reason whatever to blame the stars if +later on it is shown that the person is not all you expected him to be. +Nothing is needed in the world today in the same degree that we need common +sense, and this applies to the department of astrology, as well as to every +other department of life. Opportunity may be likened to a toboggan slide +between ourselves and our desires; it is necessary for us to make an ad- +equate initial effort in order to launch our sled upon this incline, but +once we have done our part, then everything will go along swimmingly under +favorable directions, for then the stars are with us to impress others in +our behalf, or to strengthen our penetrative power so that we may know what +is best for us. + + If you want to know positively the power of directions, even transits, as +will call the actual position of the stars in the sky, take an ephemeris and +note the moon's aspects for the current month. When the Moon is in opposi- +tion to Mars you will find in people a general lack of energy and ambition, +they would rather tear down than build. When we have a conjunction of Mars + + +[PAGE 418] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +and the Moon, people will be active and energetic, but impulse rather than +common sense will govern, hence they will accomplish little good, and may do +harm without intention. But when the Moon and Mars are trine, there will be +a general desire among people to do something of a constructive nature, and +they will meet with success in such efforts. And last, but not least, when +the Moon is square to Mars it will make people irritable, quarrelsome, de- +structive, ready to fly at each other, unreasonable and unmanageable. + + + +[PAGE 419] MIND AND THE RULING PLANET + + CHAPTER XIX + + MIND AND THE RULING PLANET + + When we wish to study the character, disposition and temperament of any- +one we must first realize that the mind is the keystone of the arch of the +human personality. But character, disposition and temperament do not depend +so much upon the quality of mind, whether it be keen, sharp, and alert or +slow and plodding, as upon what channels it takes for its expression. In- +tellects of the first magnitude are sometimes put to perverted use to the +detriment of the community and the individual who thus misuses his divine +heritage, while a slow and very inferior mind may minister to many in lowly +but loving meekness and reap sheaves of soul-growth thereby. Thus it is not +sufficient to determine the quality of the mentality; we must also ascertain +what is the channel of its expression. To judge that or any other matter +thoroughly really involves consideration of the horoscope as a whole, +separately and apart from its bearing upon all other matters. But in a gen- +eral way the character and disposition may be learned fro the Sun, Moon, +Mercury, Ascendant and the ruling planets. + + It has become the custom of many astrologers to take the lord of the + + +[PAGE 420] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +rising sign as the ruler of the horoscope. That is correct in Medical As- +trology because the Ascendant represents the body, but when we want to judge +the character which is the combination of all the forces focused through the +horoscopical wheel of life the matter is different. Then we must find what +planet has the most dominant influence in the life and that is then the life +ruler regardless of whether or not it is the ruler of the Ascendant. To +find that planet look first to the lord of the Ascendant. If he is el- +evated, essentially dignified or angular and strongly aspected, remember, it +matters not whether the aspects are good or bad as long as they are close +and plentiful (for if it were only the good aspects that made the ruler then +there would be only good people in the world. But we know that there are +people of all shades of character and therefore it is necessary to select +the ruler according to the aspects, regardless of whether they are good or +bad), and above all, if the aspects are close, then the lord of the Ascen- +dant is also the ruling planet, for he will exercise the most potent influ- +ence in the life. + + On the other hand if another planet is more highly elevated than the +ruler of the Ascendant, if it is exalted, essentially dignified or placed in +an angle and its aspects re more plentiful or closer than the aspects of the +lord of the Ascendant, the judge that that planet will be the ruler of the +horoscope and exercise a dominant influence in the life regardless of the + + +[PAGE 421] MIND AND THE RULING PLANET + +fact that it is not the ruler of the rising sign. + + But if there are two planets running neck-and-neck in the race for +rulership, so to speak, with no strongly marked difference in favor of one +or the other so that it is difficult to make a choice, do not utterly dis- +card one and choose the other, for then they will both be very active in the +life and must be classed as co-rulers. + + THE INFLUENCE OF RULING PLANETS + + WELL ASPECTED + +THE SUN AS RULING PLANET + + When the vital, courageous and ambitious well aspected Sun is ruler, it +gives dignity to the whole nature, a lofty price that would not stoop to do +anything small, mean or degrading, a fine and noble courage that may show +itself on occasion as much by disdainfully ignoring the attacks of an adver- +sary whom he considers too far beneath his notice as by a fight to the death +for a principle. There is an intense craving for recognition and leadership +which will make it very difficult for him to occupy a subordinate position; +also an intense warm-hearted, affectionate and demonstrative nature. + +VENUS AS RULING PLANET + + When the refined, luxurious and musical well aspected Venus is ruler of +the horoscope it gives tender, loving, even amorous nature which craves love + + +[PAGE 422] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +as we all desire air, for love is the very life breath of such people. They +are extremely fond of children and usually have many pets which serve as av- +enues for their expression of love. They are also pleasure-loving and fond +of social intercourse, neat and artistic in their ideas and in the decora- +tion of their homes. They love jewelry and anything else that adds beauty +to the life; they are luxurious in all their tastes, very amiable and much +beloved by all; their greatest faults is an inordinate love of ease and an +aversion to soiling their hands. + +MERCURY AS RULING PLANET + + When Mercury the planet of reason, expression and dexterity is the well +aspected life ruler it gives a keen, quick-witted mind which craves knowl- +edge as a thirsty man craves water and absorbs it as readily, a mind that +solves, apparently without effort, the most intricate problems. Thus there +is ability in the various branches of mental endeavor, science and lit- +erature, but these people are also very apt and forceful orators and have an +extraordinary dexterity so that they can usually turn their hands to any- +thing. They are fond of traveling and very successful as salesmen and +agents. + + +[PAGE 423] MIND AND THE RULING PLANET + +THE MOON AS RULING PLANET + + When the romantic, imaginative and restless well aspected Moon is the +life ruler, the people born unders its influence are indeed rolling stones +and far fields always look greenest to them. Therefore they have an over- +whelming desire for travel and change which generally does not permit them +to stay in one place longer than necessary to earn the money which will en- +able them to go to the next. They have a most vivid and fanciful imagina- +tion and a romantic nature entirely foreign to any practical endeavor; list- +less, restless and unstable as the tide that comes and goes, flotsam and +jetsam upon the sea of life. They are generally mediumistic, though usually +unconsciously so, but are otherwise quite harmless through utterly irrespon- +sible and untrustworthy where anything requiring an effort is concerned. + +SATURN AS RULING PLANET + + When the serious, sagacious and profound well aspected Saturn is life +ruler, the people born under its influence are of a profoundly thoughtful, +serious nature. They have a keen sense of responsibility and are full of +forethought, hence trustworthy and reliable advisors; they are systematic, +orderly, and have good executive ability, frugal in their tastes, thrifty +and saving; just to a degree, but their justice is cruel, hard and + + +[PAGE 424] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +untempered but the slightest degree of mercy. They are chaste, sober and +exemplary in their lives but they have neither mercy nor pity for those who +are unable to overcome faults or habits or who otherwise become delinquent +to the laws of society. They care little or nothing for pleasure or the so- +ciety of others and generally keep their own counsel and company; they are +highly respected, esteemed and trusted in the community but neither care for +nor merit the LOVE of their fellow men. + +JUPITER AS RULING PLANET + + When the jovial, genial and generous well aspected Jupiter is life ruler, +the people born under his influence are ensouled by a great desire for +honor, respect and esteem in their community. Therefore they aspire to be +pillars in the church, legal lights, or to fill an honored position in the +pulpit; failing this they enter by preference one of the progressions as +lawyer or doctor. They are cordial, genial people with a jovial smile and a +hearty handshake that make one glad to meet them wherever the go, so they +are always welcome. They are law-abiding and just but inclined to temper +their justice with mercy; and while they themselves live lives beyond re- +proach they are kind, forgiving and lenient to those of a weaker morality +whose lives are smirched by sin and crime, hence they are philanthropic and + + +[PAGE 425] MIND AND THE RULING PLANET + +always ready to give to charity and benevolent work. They are not only re- +spected and esteemed but beloved in the community where they reside. + +MARS AS THE RULING PLANET + + When the enthusiastic, energetic, constructive and militant Mars is the +well aspected life ruler, the people born under the influence of this dy- +namic rays are eager for the fray and battle of life. They are ensouled +with an ardent desire to conquer the world. To them it does not so much +matter what they do so long as it affords an adequate outlet for the con- +structive energy which, figuratively speaking, threatens to burst them un- +less released. The bigger and more difficult the undertaking, the more they +exult; hence they become the pioneers and pathfinders of civilization, the +engineers and contractors who build our cities and the highways and byways +that connect them, who develop the resources of the world and turn them over +to others to use. They are extremely impatient of restraint and will brook +no interference with their plans or methods. These people govern others and +bend them to their will by the whiplash of sheer force for they have neither +tact nor diplomacy but win by the merit of might. They earn money easily +and spend it as lavishly and foolishly. They are extremely extravagant and + + +[PAGE 426] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +when reverses come they are down and out for the time being but they never +stay down, the indomitable inner force soon accomplishes rehabilitation and +with it the old reckless ways of living reassert themselves. They are gen- +erally foolhardy to a degree, hence liable to accidents and a violent end. + +URANUS AS RULING PLANET + + When the original, romantic and eccentric well aspected Uranus is life +ruler the character is idealistic, unconventional and utopian. These people +are generally out of patience with the conventional ways of living and de- +termined i their efforts and endeavors to break the shackles of society and +live a bohemian life. They are full of fads and given to usually beliefs, +too advanced for the majority. At the same time they are pioneers of a new +age in which many of the ideas we now consider utopian will be modified so +that they will be held by all. These people are also the inventors of the +world, in touch with the higher worlds where ideas merge from the Divine +Mind to impinge upon the minds of those who are sufficiently sensitive to +grasp them and bring them to birth for the use of humanity. The Uranians +are very headstrong and always ready with an argument to defend their ideas +and secure a convert to their cults; odd in dress, in food, in ideas, they +are a class apart. + + +[PAGE 427] MIND AND THE RULING PLANET + + +NEPTUNE AS RULING PLANET + + When the occult and mystical well aspected Neptune is life ruler we have +a person of a most peculiar power whose chief mark is a strange expression +of the eye which must be seem to be appreciated. It is as if he looked +right through and through whatever is before him, but it is not necessary to +discuss this type for there are so few that they are very seldom encountered +by the average astrologer and only an occultist can know and judge another +occultist. + + THE INFLUENCE OF THE AFFLICTED RULING PLANETS + + When the life rulers are afflicted by the conjunction, parallel, square, +or opposition from the other planets, especially from the malefics--Saturn, +Mars, Uranus and Neptune--they affect the life in an inimical manner which +may be outlined as follows: + +THE SUN AS RULING PLANET + + When the cowardly and arrogant afflicted Sun is life ruler, people born +under his debilitating influence are egotistical in the extreme, full of +swagger, self-importance and arrogance. If they obtain authority over any- +one whom they think they can overawe they will rule such dependent with a +rod of iron, trample upon his tenderest feelings without a twinge of con- +science or compunction, but if they themselves come under the authority of + + +[PAGE 428] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +another these spineless weaklings will then cringe, creep and cater to the +slightest whim of their master though they hate him with an intense hatred +that is only kept in check by their fear. They whine and wheedle at the +faintest frown though ready to spring and devour him if only they dared. It +is the signature of one of the most despicable characters in the gamut. + +VENUS AS RULING PLANET + + When the slovenly, slothful and lazy afflicted Venus is ruler of the +horoscope the persons are sensual and profligate, untidy and slatternly, of +depraved, perverted tastes and utterly disreputable in their conduct; they +are social parasites. They use loud and obscene language and are fond of +music of a clanging, jarring nature. They love revelry and debauch, their +affection expresses itself in coarse lusts, unbridled passion, free love and +moral perversion. They revel in spangles and tinsel, loud, clashing colors +and cheap imitations of beauty and worth. + +MERCURY AS RULING PLANET + + When the untruthful, dishonest and clumsy afflicted Mercury is life ruler +the people under his influence are either entirely mentally unsound so that +they must be confined for their own good in proper institutions, or they are +so cunning that they are able to hide their mental bias and prey upon + + +[PAGE 429] MIND AND THE RULING PLANET + +society as thieves, pick-pockets, defaulters and criminals of similar na- +ture. They are notoriously untruthful and prefer misleading others to tell- +ing the truth, even where it is of no benefit to them. They are either dull +of comprehension or of such consummate cunning that they seem to be driven +by a resistless force to get the nest of some unsuspecting person. They ex- +cel as confidence men, badgers and in similar unsavory occupations, They +are thoroughly unreliable and dishonest in all their dealings; neurotic and +perverted, scabs on society. These people are also inveterate talkers and +always ready to criticize, slander or ruin the reputation of others. They +are a menace to society in all their activities. + +THE MOON AS RULING PLANET + + When the changeable and visionary afflicted Moon is life ruler it makes +the persons extremely restless and averse to labor of any kind, fidgety and +always on the move; if they cannot travel from one city to another, they +move from one house to another and from one situation to another as often as +possible and they infuse the same restlessness into whosoever they come in +contact with. If the afflictions are very severe the mind suffers and their +mental phases coincide with the changes of the orb of night. + + +[PAGE 430] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +SATURN AS RULING PLANET + + When the morbid, melancholy and malicious afflicted Saturn is life ruler +he robs life of all joy and brightness so that these people become recluses +and melancholy misanthropes; so miserly and avaricious that they will starve +themselves and forego the comforts of life even when they have ample means +to satisfy them. They are cruel, hard and suspicious of the acts and mo- +tives of others and if they take up work as a detective they become human +ferrets, blood-hounds who will hound their prey to death and gloat over his +misery. If anyone frustrates such people they will hold spite forever and +aim to get even, if it takes a lifetime. But the end of these people is al- +ways bad, sometime or other they overreach and fall into the trap they have +set for others. They usually die an ignoble death and the world gives a +sigh of relief when they pass out. + +JUPITER AS RULING PLANET + + When the indolent, bombastic and egotistical afflicted Jupiter is the +life ruler the person is often a parasite on the social tree, a gambler, +confidence man and speculator, sporty, fond of display and ostentation; he +wears loud clothing, paste diamonds and cheap jewelry. He is usually met +with in pool rooms, on race tracks and in similar places; playing poker or +playing the ponies are among his favorite means of earning a living; he is + + +[PAGE 431] MIND AND THE RULING PLANET + +very loud and egotistical anxious to attract attention no matter how; he of- +ten figures in court proceedings on account of shady transactions or immoral +conduct or unpaid bills, for he is an adept at obtaining credit for every- +thing he wants and never pays the price of his expensive tastes if there is +any way of avoiding a settlement of his debts. Among the laboring class he +usually figures as a demagogue and agitator, inciting to strikes and riots, +but he is always ready to sell out a striking union to the employers. We +find them among the typical Italian padrones, as keepers of sweat-shops, and +in similar occupations. + +MARS AS RULING PLANET + + When the arrogant, egotistical and foolhardy afflicted Mars is life ruler +the person is an egotist of the first water, bound to attain to his wishes +by force or destruction if other means fail; in fact he prefers to bulldoze +others to do his will rather than to have them submit without a struggle. +He is a first-rate slave driver, section boss on the railway, in a construc- +tion camp and similar places, a liar, braggart, bouncer, or pugilist, a +daredevil wiling to risk his life and the lives of others at any moment and +in any undertaking. + + +[PAGE 432] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +URANUS AS RULING PLANET + + When the stubborn, erratic and independent afflicted Uranus if life ruler +the mentality is usually so obsessed in one direction or another that such +people become fanatics and generally also there is an excessive sensuality +and perverted taste. They are always ready and anxious for an argument as a +means of airing their ideas but they are so hypnotized by their own par- +ticular fad that they are never convinced and can never see when the argu- +ment goes against them. They always espouse the most radical and unconven- +tional ideas. + +NEPTUNE AS RULING PLANET + + When the mediumistic, neurotic and self-indulgent afflicted Neptune is +life ruler, the persons are of a dreamy, neurotic and negative nature, apt +to become the medium of disembodied spirits or even obsessed by them. They +are likely to evolve psychic powers of a low grade such as involuntary +clairvoyance, crystal gazing, etc., and if they are unable to develop these +faculties they often simulate mediumship and other psychic gifts for the +purpose of duping or defrauding others. They have a strong faculty of +imitation and easily become adepts at deception. + + +[PAGE 433] MIND AND THE RULING PLANET + + THE SIGNS AS MENTAL SIGNIFICATORS + + When the CARDINAL Signs, Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, are on the +angles, that is to say, the Ascendant, Midheaven, Fourth and Seventh Houses, +it is a general indication that the person is mentally alert, quick to grasp +an idea, active and enthusiastic in whatever work he undertakes; one who has +organizing and executive ability and is capable of carrying whatever enter- +prise he may start to success; a bold, brave indomitable spirit. This is +especially true when many planets are in Cardinal Signs and these people may +be classed as the business men of the world. + + When the FIXED Signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius are on the angles +it indicates a thoughtful but slow and plodding type of mind which requires +time to come to a decision. They always look before they leap but when they +have made up their minds they adhere to the course mapped out with a remark- +able patience and perseverance which in the end insure success. They are +very reliable and can be depended upon to keep their word and meet their ob- +ligations. Their principal fault is that they are too apt to get into a rut +and become narrow-minded. They are very original and may be classed as the +inventors of the world. These delineations are especially true when many +planets are in Fixed Signs. + + When the COMMON Signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces, are on the +angles the mind is flighty and superficial, wavering and versatile. These + + +[PAGE 434] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +people are often very quick to grasp a point and form a decision, but just +as ready to forget and change their minds. They are adepts at imitation and +often pretend to virtues or abilities entirely foreign to their nature. +They are easily swayed by the winds of emotion; one moment they may be +highly elated over some small matter and the next a trifling trouble bows +them down to earth. They are inconstant and unreliable in all their +dealings with others because they do not know their minds two minutes in +succession. They constitute the agents and middlemen of the world, where +they occupy a subordinate or serving position. These delineations are par- +ticularly apt when many planets are in Common Signs. + + MENTAL EFFECT OF THE RISING SUN + + When there are no planets on the Ascendant the rising sign has consider- +able influence on the type of mind. + +ARIES rising gives an energetic, enthusiastic and ambitious type of mind, +but inclined to rash and impulsive acts and a quick temper. + +TAURUS rising gives a stubborn, headstrong and selfish nature, envious, cov- +etous and malicious when angered. + +GEMINI rising gives a quick, alert and versatile mind, easily adaptable to +conditions but so fluidic that it lacks the ability absolutely essential to + + +[PAGE 435] MIND AND THE RULING PLANET + +sustained effort and lasting success. + +CANCER rising gives a negative, imaginative and receptive type of mind, +sometimes of a rather morbid nature, reserved and mistrustful; but when such +a person has made up his mind to do something he is usually very tenacious +in his adherence to his ideas; sympathetic, hospitable and kind. + +LEO rising gives a frank, open, ambitious mind; a powerful will and a proud, +honorable and kind disposition but inclined to be hasty, quick-tempered, +sensual and apt to go to extremes. + +VIRGO gives a critical, scheming and ingenious mind, able to evolve ideas +galore but usually lacking the initiative to carry them out unless prodded +by others. These people are very selfish, self-centered and reserved. They +do not take other people into their confidence and they seldom become really +familiar with anyone. + +LIBRA rising gives an easy-going but kindly and sympathetic type of mind +which is unable to grasp or cope with the exigencies of existence. There- +fore these people drift along the stream of life, taking as much of the +sweet as they can get and using every effort to avoid the bitter. They +crave approbation and in return adore their friends and are usually bound up +in them. + + +[PAGE 436] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +SCORPIO rising gives a dual type of mind. This is one of the most mystical +of the twelve signs. Some times it is symbolized as an eagle representing +the lofty, aspiring type soaring as does the eagle into the ether. At other +times it is typified as a serpent which crawls in the dust, and again as a +scorpion. There is also considerable occult significance in the fact that +the serpent has the sting in its head and the scorpion has it in its tail. +But for the present purpose we will judge the two latter as one. + + The Scorpio type of mind denoted by the eagle is thoughtful, reserved and +inclined to lofty ideals' dignified in demeanor, proud and with perfect con- +trol of the temper. These people are very reserved and generally keep their +own counsel. + + The other type when Scorpio is represented by the serpent is entirely +different; deceitful, shrewd and secretive; past finding out; sensual and +unforgiving; jealous and passionate, with a very sharp tongue and fiery tem- +per. + +SAGITTARIUS rising gives an energetic, aspiring, benevolent mind but rather +lacking in ambition. These people are usually of an ardent, affectionate +disposition and sometimes very demonstrative. + +CAPRICORN rising gives a tactful, diplomatic, deep and thoughtful type of +mind but selfish, envious and covetous. These people are apt to get into a + + +[PAGE 437] MIND AND THE RULING PLANET + +rut and become very narrow, and when they are crossed they hold spite and +plan revenge. They are self-reliant and persistent in whatever they under- +take. + +AQUARIUS rising gives a good intellect, a friendly, sympathetic and humane +disposition, but these people are very original and independent; they will +brook no interference with their vagaries and pursue their own course re- +gardless of what others say or think, sometimes even against their own rea- +son and just to assert their independence. + +PISCES rising gives a sentimental and romantic type of mind, inclined to +worry and restlessness, apt to turn to the occult, and to mystical ideas. +The mind is very sensitive and often takes in the conditions of others with +the effect of unsettling and troubling the person. + + +[PAGE 438] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER XX + + YOUR LUCK IN LIFE + + Health, wealth and happiness are to most people the prime objects of +life, and whoever has them is rightly considered lucky, though as we have +endeavored to show, luck is very closely linked to merit, and we have earned +what we have either in this or former lives and what we lack in fortune or +ability we may acquire in this or later lives by good use of our opportuni- +ties. + + Thus health and disease, vocational ability, social and financial for- +tunes, marriage, etc., are shown in the horoscope as outlined in the follow- +ing pages. + + HEALTH AND DISEASE + + The subject of health and disease is thoroughly elucidated in that part +of the book which deals with medical astrology, but those who do not care to +go into the depths of the subject will find the following general hints +helpful in determining the matter for ordinary purposes. + + The main indicators of health and disease are the Sun, Moon and Ascen- +dant, together with the planets in the First House or just above the Ascen- +dant. The twelve signs of the Zodiac confer a vitality of differing degrees + + +[PAGE 439] YOUR LUCK IN LIFE + +and when there are no planets near the rising sign it is of much greater im- +portance than otherwise. The signs may be classified as follows: + + Aries, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Sagittarius are strongly vital signs. + + Gemini, Virgo, Libra and Aquarius are moderately vital. + + Cancer, Capricorn and Pisces are signs of weak vitality. + + Both the Sun and the Moon affect health in all horoscopes, but the Sun is +the particular significator of health for men and the Moon has the same +function in a woman's horoscope. Thus, if a boy is born at a New Moon which +is a total eclipse, he will have very poor chances of surviving. The same +may be said of a girl born at the Full Moon when that is eclipsed. + + If the Sun is strong by sign, well aspected by Mars or by the benefics, +if he is in essential dignity, exaltation or elevation in a male horoscope, +it indicates the possession of a strong vitality and presages a life blessed +by good health. If the Moon is similarly placed in a woman's horoscope the +same effect follows. + + On the other hand if the luminaries are in weak signs in the Sixth or +Twelfth Houses or afflicted by Saturn, Mars, Uranus or Neptune, the vitality +is weak and much sickness will result unless, from childhood, care is taken +to follow the laws of health and hygiene. It must be borne in mind that THE +HOROSCOPE SHOWS ONLY TENDENCIES which work out infallibly if we drift with + + +[PAGE 440] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the tide of life. But on the other hand, it does no show the factor of the +human will, which being divine may enter in and by proper efforts in the +right direction correct, at least in a large measure, the limitations. + + It is a good indication of health when a strong sign rises with Jupiter +or Venus close to the Ascendant and well aspected. But if a weak sign is on +the Eastern horizon, and the life forces are further sapped by Saturn, +Uranus or Neptune in the rising sign, a life of suffering is foreshown. + + With respect to Mars it has been found that his presence on the Ascendant +strengthens the constitution when he is well aspected but predisposes to fe- +verish or inflammatory complaints when he is afflicted. + + It should be understood that the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon and Jupi- +ter do not afflict save by square or opposition, whereas the conjunction and +parallel of Saturn, Mars, Uranus and Neptune are considered inimical as well +as the square or opposition. + + The afflictions from CARDINAL Signs, Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, +indicate acute ailments which usually run their course and leave no par- +ticular trace. + + The afflictions from FIXED Signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius, in- +dicate organic or hereditary tendencies which are difficult to conquer and + + +[PAGE 441] YOUR LUCK IN LIFE + +usually become chronic. + + The diseases indicated by COMMON Signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and +Pisces, are convertible. They may be entirely overcome or run their course +until they become chronic, according to the mental temperament of the person +in whose figure these are found. + + The places of the malefics, Saturn, Mars, Uranus or Neptune always indi- +cate weak points in the anatomy and the place of Saturn is particularly sen- +sitive; no matter whether he is afflicted or not it is always a danger +point. By knowing the parts of the body which are ruled by the different +signs it is easy to see where the weak limits in the chain of human health +are located: + + Aries rules the head and face. + Taurus rules the neck and throat. + Gemini rules the lungs, arms and shoulders. + Cancer rules the breast and stomach. + Leo rules the heart and dorsal region of the back. + Virgo rules the abdominal parts. + Libra rules the kidneys and lions. + Scorpio rules the genitals and rectum. + Sagittarius rules the hips and thighs. + Capricorn rules the knees. + Aquarius rules the ankles. + Pisces rules the feet. + + +[PAGE 442] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + Thus if Saturn is placed in Leo it will indicate that the person is sub- +ject to heart trouble. If it is in Pisces it will indicate cold feet. The +hot and inflammatory Mars afflicted in Aries, the sign which rules the head, +would indicate a tendency to fevers, and so on with the other planets. + + There are three nebular spots located in the Zodiac, namely: The +Pleiades in 29 degrees of Taurus, the Ascelli in 6 degrees of Leo, and An- +tares in 8 degrees of Sagittarius. If the Sun or Moon are found in these +placed and afflicted by a malefic, be careful of the eyes, or if one of the +malefics are in one of these places afflicting the Sun and Moon the same +judgment holds good. + + With these general indications the ordinary student should be able to +judge a horoscope with respect to health and disease and should a more thor- +ough examination be desired, a study of the matter in the part dealing with +Medical Astrology will give the necessary information. + + THE SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL FORTUNES + + The vocation, financial fortune and social standing, like all other mat- +ters, should be judged from the whole horoscope, but the Second, the Sixth, +the Eighth and the Tenth Houses with their lords are the chief +significators. + + THE SECOND HOUSE indicates what the person earns by his efforts. When +Jupiter, Venus, the Sun, the Moon or Mars are well aspected and placed in + + +[PAGE 443] YOUR LUCK IN LIFE + +the Second House or lord thereof they attract wealth commensurate with the +number and closeness of their aspects and their position as to dignity, ex- +altation or elevation. But if Saturn, Mars, Uranus or Neptune are elevated +and afflict the Sun and Moon it is a sure sign of financial misfortune. + + Jupiter in the Second House is moderately generous but Mars makes a free +spender and consequently the money he brings goes about as fast as it comes. +Saturn in the Second House, or its ruler, makes the person thrifty and sav- +ing but he will find it difficult to make ends meet unless Saturn is in his +exaltation sign Libra and well aspected by Jupiter; then fortune comes by +legacy or in the latter part of life. Uranus in the Second House and in +good aspect to Jupiter or the Sun and Moon is also a good indication of +financial fortune. + + THE EIGHTH HOUSE: The planetary influences which bring financial fortune +through the person's own efforts when operating through the Second House +bring money through the marriage partnership or legacy when operating +through the Eighth House. Thus Jupiter in the Eighth House indicates money +by marriage or partnership if well aspected by the Sun, Moon, Venus or the +lord of the Seventh House. But if aspected by Saturn or Uranus it shows a +legacy. Mars in the Eighth House well aspected shows a husband, wife or +partner with good earning capacity but too free a spender. The other indi- +cations enumerated as acting through the Second House may be similarly + + +[PAGE 444] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +applied to the Eighth. + + VOCATION + + When the majority of the planets are well aspected and above the Earth or +when the Sun is in good aspect to the Moon and Mars it is generally easy for +the person to obtain a situation and when the Sun is in good aspect to Jupi- +ter it gives promise of a lucrative occupation. But when the majority of +the planets are below the Earth, weak and afflicted, or when the Sun is in +bad aspect to the Moon, Mars or Jupiter, it is usually difficult for the +person to find employment. + + To find the employment in which the person will be most likely to succeed +consider the nature and significance of the Houses and Signs which hold the +majority of the planets. + + When the majority of the planets are in the FIERY Signs, Aries, Leo and +Sagittarius, it indicates as profitable the occupations in which the metals +and fire play a prominent part, as those of machinist, engineers, chauf- +feurs, smiths, cutlers, barbers, surgeons, soldiers, also hazardous and dan- +gerous vocations. + + If the majority of the planets are found in the EARTHY Signs, Taurus, +Virgo and Capricorn, it indicates success in agriculture, horticulture, gar- +dening, land, mines, timber, building materials and as contractor for build- +ings, houses; dealers in foodstuffs, both in the raw and cooked states, such + + +[PAGE 445] YOUR LUCK IN LIFE + +as the grocery business, in restaurants or as grain dealers, chemistry, +etc., also dress goods and clothing; in short everything that comes out of +the Earth to nourish, clothe and shelter the physical body. + + If the majority of the planets are in the AIRY Signs, Gemini, Libra and +Aquarius, it indicates success in clerical, literary, or artistic pursuits; +occupations principally involving brains or travel, as those of accountants, +bookkeepers, agents, messengers, expressmen, architects, civil engineers, +mechanical draughtsmen and designers, lecturers, scientists, electricians, +aviators, inventors, and all similar occupations in which mind is a princi- +pal factor. + + If the majority of the planets are in the WATERY Signs, Cancer, Scorpio +and Pisces, the person should seek occupations in which fluids are +prominent, as those of sailors and fishermen, ship builders and ship owners, +marine engineers, and other occupations on shipboard, manufacturers and +dealers in liquid refreshment, etc. + + The ruling planet also has an important bearing on the life-work, and the +occupations signified by the different planets may be stated as follows: + + THE SUN as life ruler indicates a leader--it may be of a state as king or +president, or of a province or city as governor or mayor, or has head of a +corporation, whether large or small. Thus when the Sun is life ruler, espe- +cially if it is in the Tenth House, it indicates a government position or + + +[PAGE 446] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +employment in an executive capacity. + + VENUS as life ruler indicates employment in an artistic capacity as a mu- +sician, singer, actor, theatrical agent, manufacturer or dealer in millinery +or fancy goods, laces, embroidery and women's clothing; candy and confec- +tions, flowers or ornaments, etc. + + MERCURY as life ruler indicates success in literature or on a lecture +platform; as printers, publishers, or bookkeepers; as school teachers, ex- +press agents, mail carriers, commercial travelers, stenographers, secretar- +ies, office workers and all other clerical and traveling occupations. + + THE MOON as life ruler signifies success as traveling salesmen, railroad +employees, ticket agents and other positions concerned with the transporta- +tion of the public; car builders, hotel keepers, dealers in fluidic com- +modities, nurses, obstetricians, fishermen, sailors and others employed on +shipboard and in the shipping trades. + + SATURN as life ruler signifies all employments connected with the earth +such as agriculture, gardening, mines, building and building materials; dip- +lomats, judges politicians, police, jailers, detectives, secret service +agents and all whose work is accomplished by stealth and strategy; night + + +[PAGE 447] YOUR LUCK IN LIFE + +workers and those engaged in slow, plodding, laborious work. + + JUPITER as life ruler signifies success in the professions, as lawyers, +judges, clergymen, ambassadors, cabinet officers, senators, congressmen or +other positions of public trust; bankers, financial agents, physicians, be- +nevolent or social workers. + + MARS as life ruler signifies employments in which iron and sharp instru- +ments are prominent, as used by soldiers, surgeons, smiths, founders, engi- +neers, and in all dangerous occupations. + + URANUS as life ruler signifies employment in which air, electricity, +thought power and genius are chief factors, as those of inventors, electri- +cians, aviators and those interested in supernormal or superphysical sub- +jects such as psychology, phrenology, magnetic, divine or mental healing; +also in connection with co-operative colonies, socialism, and advanced ideas +of life and living. + + NEPTUNE as life ruler indicates occupations involving the occult, watery +and psychic elements; also those in which fraud and deception are rampant +because the genuine psychic article is so rare. These occupations include +those of astrologers, mediums and clairvoyants. Neptune also produces some +highly inspirational musicians. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + + diff --git a/religious documents/ms08.txt b/religious documents/ms08.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93e7141 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ms08.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1759 @@ +[PAGE 448] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER XXI + + MARRIAGE AND OFFSPRING + + There was a time when man-in-the-making was male-female and able to beget +children without the assistance of another, but when one pole of the cre- +ative force was directed upward to build the brain and the larynx mankind +ceased to be bisexual and thenceforth each male or female had to seek its +complement to accomplish the begetting of children. Therefore marriage was +instituted by the angels as a sacrament and the sacred rite of generation +was performed under their supervision in great temples at certain times of +the year when the interplanetary lines of force were propitious for propaga- +tion. The rest of the time all lived together in the paradisiacal bliss of +chase companionship. Therefore parturition was painless and sickness and +sorrow were unknown. + + But when, under the guidance of the fallen angels, the Lucifer spirits, +mankind commenced to exercise the creative function for pleasure regardless +of the stellar ray, death entered and the woman began to bring forth her +children in sorrow and suffering. For though a minister may LEGALLY marry +people, he, being ignorant of the stellar script, cannot see if the basic +harmony necessary to truly mate two souls is present. Therefore, alas, most + + +[PAGE 449] MARRIAGE AND OFFSPRING + +marriages fail to bring the happiness and satisfaction of soul which mark +the companionship of true mates. Besides there is the pain of parturition +incidental to mismating and the increased suffering of the ego which is +building its body under inharmonious prenatal conditions. Surely, a heavy +toll to pay for ignorance of the stellar science! Worse still, in the great +majority of cases where people do know astrology or where they are informed +of its pronouncement in their case, they refuse to heed it warning voice +when it is contrary to their desires. They often even hate the astrologer +who has the temerity to tell them that sorrow is in store if they wed. +Therefore it is at best a thankless task. + + But this matter is so important at our present stage of evolution, it has +such far-reaching consequences both for the individual and for society, that +it is really criminal to leave to chance the choice of a mate. Fortunately +we are nearing the Aquarian Age and there is no doubt that people will then +study the stellar script; perhaps they will institute matrimonial bureaus +maintained by the church or state, with a view to guiding the growing gen- +eration in the right direction. If children whose nativities are harmonious +could visit at each others' homes and become playmates the attachment would +undoubtedly ripened into love with the years. Then marriage would not end +the romance as it unfortunately does in the majority of unions consummated +at the present time, but it would intensify love and happiness year by year. + + +[PAGE 450] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +The bond of affection would grow stronger and aid the soul growth of those +under its magic spell as no other relation can. + + Children would not be accidents then. They would be loved into life and +they would scarcely miss the heaven they had left for they would find in +their homes a heaven on earth. Therefore we pray that the time may soon +come when each community will have its matrimonial bureau conducted upon the +astrological basis where parents may send their child's birth data and re- +ceive in return the name and address of another child who will be harmonious +as a mate. If the parents of both feel satisfied with respect to family +connections, etc., the children could be made acquainted,; if not, other +names could be submitted by the bureau until one suitable according to both +the social and astrological standards was found. The children could then +become playmates, and there is no doubt that in time their affection would +grow into a love that would satisfy the youthful sentiments of romance. +Later an ideal marriage would crown their happiness. + + Nor should we wait for the church or state to take the initiative. If +parents who believe in astrology would form associations, maintaining a cen- +tral bureau where horoscopes of their children could be kept on file, +grouped and classified with a view to finding true mates for them, it would +give such a practical demonstration of the worth of astrology that in twenty + + +[PAGE 451] MARRIAGE AND OFFSPRING + +five years enough cases could be pointed out to arrest the attention of con- +servative people. + + HARMONY AND DISCORD + + Man is, as Paul says, spirit, soul and body. Therefore the blending of +two beings in perfect harmony requires that they be in accord on the +spiritual, moral and physical planes, symbolized in the horoscope by the Sun +and Moon (Spirit or Ego), Mars and Venus (soul or sex) and the Ascendant +governing the physical body. These significators taken together with the +sign on the Seventh House and the planet therein show the innate agreement +or discord between people so far as the matrimonial relationship is con- +cerned. + + The physical harmony is judged by comparison of the rising sign of the +two persons involved. Fiery signs agree, so do earthy, airy or watery +signs. But a person with a fiery sign rising cannot successfully mate with +one who has a watery or earthy sign on the Ascendant. It is like mixing +fire and water, or heaping earth upon fire. Fire will only combine with +fire and air. People having a watery sign on the Ascendant may harmonize +with a person having an earthy sign rising, or vice versa. But neither the +earthy nor watery signs will mix with the fiery triplicity. + + On the moral plane the relationship is governed by Mars and Venus. If +Venus in the horoscope of one person is the same sign and degree as Mars in + + +[PAGE 452] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the horoscope of another person, there will be love at first sight when they +meet, but the attraction will be sexual and unless there are other powerful +signs of harmony, Mars will dominate Venus, especially if Mars is situated +in the Seventh House or highly elevated above Venus in the other person's +horoscope. + + When the Sun in one person's horoscope is on the place of the Moon in the +other person's chart harmony is shown on the spiritual plane. + + The ideal marriage requires the blending of the two charts in all these +particulars and the happiness will depend upon the measure of agreement as +indicated. There are unions where people are sexually mated but have en- +tirely different characteristics in other respects and vice versa. There- +fore the two charts must be examined in their entirety to give a reliable +judgment. + + The following will explain the indications for marriage in the individual +horoscope of both sexes. + + MEN'S MARRIAGES + + An early marriage is indicated in a man's horoscope: + + (1) When he is born in the light of the Moon, at the time she is pro- +gressing from the new to the full, provided she is placed in the Fourth, +Fifth, Sixth, Tenth, Eleventh, or Twelfth House. + + +[PAGE 453] MARRIAGE AND OFFSPRING + + (2) When the Moon and Venus are strong and well aspected with a number +of other planets in the fruitful signs, Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces. + + (3) When the Moon and Venus are in the Fifth or Seventh Houses which +rule courtship and marriage. + + (4) When a fruitful sign is rising with Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces in +the Fifth or Seventh Houses. + + (5) When Venus and Mars are dignified, elevated, strong and well +aspected. + + (6) When Jupiter or Venus, or both, are in the Seventh House well +aspected. + + A late marriage is shown in a man's horoscope: + + (1) When he is born in the dark of the Moon; that is to say, when the +Moon is going from the full to the new and she is placed in the First, Sec- +ond, Third, Seventh, Eighth, or Ninth Houses. + + (2) When the Moon or Venus are afflicted by Saturn, Mars, Uranus or +Neptune, especially if either of these planets is placed in the Fifth or +Seventh Houses. + + (3) When Saturn, Mars, Uranus or Neptune are in the Fifth or Seventh +Houses. + + (4) When the Moon is square or opposition to Venus or Jupiter they +bring trouble in courtship and consequent delays of the marriage. + + +[PAGE 454] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + Marriage is denied or is accomplished with great difficulty: + + (1) When Saturn is in Scorpio which rules the genitals, or if the Moon +is there parallel, conjunction, square or opposition to Saturn the planet of +obstruction, for then there is little or no desire for sexual intercourse, +hence such people generally remain bachelors. + + (2) When the Moon, or Venus, the planet of love, is afflicted in the +Saturnine sign Capricorn, especially if the affliction comes from Saturn, +the planet of obstruction, many obstacles to marriage present themselves and +it is doubtful if they can be overcome, hence it is unlikely that the person +will marry. + + (3) When the Moon is square or opposition to the Sun it is difficult +for the person to make up his mind on any subject, and if the Moon is placed +in the First, Second, Third, Seventh, Eighth or Ninth Houses, this will make +it particularly difficult to come to a decision regarding marriage. If at +the same time there is an affliction from Saturn he will never make up his +mind, hence marriage will not be consummated. + + (4) When the Moon is in the last degrees of a sign she is said to be +void of course, and if at the same time she makes no aspect to other plan- +ets, it shows a lack of attraction to the opposite sex, which will probably +prevent the person entering the marriage relation. + + +[PAGE 455] MARRIAGE AND OFFSPRING + + WOMEN'S MARRIAGES + + An early marriage is indicated in a woman's horoscope: + + (1) When she is born in the light of the Moon, that is to say, when the +orb of night is going from the new to the full, and the Sun is placed in the +Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Tenth, Eleventh, or Twelfth House. + + (2) When the Sun and Venus are in one of the fruitful signs, Cancer, +Scorpio, or Pisces, and well aspected. + + (3) When the Sun, Venus, and Mars are well aspected in the Fifth or +Seventh Houses which govern courtship and marriage. + + (4) When a fruitful sign is rising with Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces in +the Fifth or Seventh Houses. + + (5) When Sun, Mars, and Venus are dignified, elevated, well and +strongly aspected. + + (6) When Jupiter or Venus is in the Seventh House well aspected. + + A late marriage is shown in a woman's horoscope: + + (1) When she is born in the dark of the Moon; that is to say, when the +Moon is going from the full to the new, and the Sun is placed in the First, +Second, Third, Seventh, Eighth, or Ninth Houses. + + +[PAGE 456] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + (2) When the Sun or Venus are afflicted by Saturn, Mars, Uranus or +Neptune, especially if placed in the Fifth or Seventh Houses, which govern +marriage and courtship. + + (3) When Saturn, Mars, Uranus or Neptune are in the Fifth or Seventh +Houses. + + (4) When the Moon is square or opposition to Venus or Jupiter, delays +and trouble in courtship and marriage may be looked for. + + (5) When the Moon is parallel, square or opposition to Uranus, the oc- +tave of Venus, that also will bring delays. + + Marriage is denied or accomplished only with great difficulty: + + (1) When Saturn is in Scorpio, the sign which rules the genitals, or +when the Sun is there parallel, conjunction, square, or opposition to Sat- +urn, the planet of obstruction, the desire nature is held in clock, hence +when either of these conditions is found in a woman's horoscope it is safe +to judge that she will remain a spinster. + + (2) When the Sun, or Venus the planet of love, is afflicted in the Sat- +urnine sign Capricorn, particularly if the affliction comes from Saturn, the +planet of obstruction, there will be many obstacles to marriage and it is +very doubtful if under the circumstances a marriage will result. + + +[PAGE 457] MARRIAGE AND OFFSPRING + + (3) When the Sun and Moon are afflicting each other by square or op- +position it makes the person vacillating on any subject, and if the Sun, +which is significator or marriage for a woman, is placed in the First, Sec- +ond, Third, Seventh, Eighth, or Ninth Houses, the will make it particularly +difficult to come to a decision regarding marriage. Should there be at the +same time an affliction between the Sun and Saturn it will eventually pre- +vent the person from making up her mind, hence marriage will not be consum- +mated. + + (4) When the Sun by progression makes no aspect to the other planets it +indicates a lack of attraction to the opposite sex, which will probably pre- +vent her from entering the marriage relation. + + HAPPINESS, SORROW AND BEREAVEMENT + + The masculine Sun is the particular significator of the marriage partner +in a woman's horoscope, and the feminine Moon signifies the spouse in a +man's chart. Hence when the Sun and Moon are in good aspect to each other, +or to Venus, the planet of love, or Jupiter, the planet of benevolence, hap- +piness and joy are assured in the married relationship, particularly if +these planets are placed in the Seventh House. + + On the other hand, Saturn, Mars, Uranus or Neptune, afflicting the Sun in +a female figure, or the Moon in a man's chart, indicate sorrow and trouble +through the marriage relation. If they are placed in the Seventh House the + + +[PAGE 458] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +testimony is all the more potent, and it is also foreshown that the marriage +will be dissolved. + + In this respect, Saturn and Mars indicate death of the marriage partner; +Uranus may also bring about this ending if afflicted by Saturn or Mars, but +otherwise it points rather to a clandestine relationship which will probably +bring about the dissolution of marriage by desertion or divorce. + + SECOND MARRIAGES + + If one or more of the malefics, Saturn, Mars, Uranus, and Neptune, are +found in the Seventh House, and the Sun or Moon are in a fruitful sign, Can- +cer, Scorpio, or Pisces, or in the double-bodies signs, Gemini or Sagit- +tarius, it is likely that the person will marry several times, and probably +to his sorrow. + + If the Sun or Moon are aspected to a number of planets placed in +double-bodies signs, Gemini, Sagittarius, or Pisces, especially if these +signs are on the Seventh House, two or more marriages are likely to occur. +When the ruler of the Ascendant is placed in the Seventh House well aspected +to other planets and in a double-sided sign, Gemini, Sagittarius, or Pisces, +it indicates a plurality of marriages. + + DESCRIPTION OF THE HUSBAND OR WIFE + + In a man's horoscope the planets to which the Moon makes an aspect by +progression after birth, indicate the women to whom he will be attracted, + + +[PAGE 459] MARRIAGE AND OFFSPRING + +together with their character and disposition, which are determined by the +signs that the planets are in and the aspects which they make. For illus- +tration, let us suppose that the Moon in a certain person's horoscope comes +first to a sextile of the Sun in Leo, and that the Sun is aspected by a +trine to Jupiter, then we shall find the description of the wife by looking +up the disposition, a noble character, a blonde and of florid complexion. +If on the other hand, we find that the Moon after birth makes a square to +Mars in Scorpio, and Mars in turn square to Venus, then it would show a +woman of a very lewd, slothful and slovenly nature who would be domineering, +quarrelsome, extremely difficult to get along with. Similarly for the other +planets. + + In a woman's horoscope the husband is described by the planets to which +the Sun makes an aspect by progression, these planets to be taken in connec- +tion with the sign where they are found and the planets with which they in +turn form configurations, and the method is the same as indicated in the +case of the Moon in a man's horoscope. It should be remarked, however, that +when the significator of the marriage partner, aspected by the Sun or Moon, +is retrograde or weak by sign, as Saturn in Aries or Jupiter in Gemini, the +attraction is not strong enough to culminate in a marriage but will probably + + +[PAGE 460] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +indicate only a passing attraction. Therefore the student must use his +judgment in these respects. + + CHILDREN + + Whether a person will have children or not cannot be judged from his or +her individual horoscope with any degree of accuracy for this matter is not +dependent on one only, therefore the horoscope of the prospective parents +should be compared and the individuals indications blended, then if both +horoscopes show a fruitful nature many children will be born, but if both +are only moderately fertile, or if one is very fruitful and the other bar- +ren, the forecast must be made accordingly. + + The indications shown i the individual horoscope may be interpreted as +follows: + + The Moon is the planet of fecundation and therefore the most important +significator; next comes Venus, the planet of love and attraction; and last, +Jupiter, the planet of benevolence. If either of these planets is in the +Fifth House, which indicates children, and in one of the fruitful or +double-bodies signs, Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces, Gemini, or Sagittarius, it is +an indication that the person has a fruitful nature and will have a number +of children who will be of good and pleasant disposition. A similar judg- +ment may be formed if the Eleventh House is thus invested. For if we turn +the horoscope upside down so that the Seventh House becomes the First, then + + +[PAGE 461] MARRIAGE AND OFFSPRING + +it will show the marriage partner's figure, and the Eleventh House is then +his Fifth House indicating children, therefore both the Fifth and Eleventh +Houses should be considered in this matter. But as already said, the true +state of conditions cannot be forecasted save by blending the actual figures +of both parents. + + When the violent, turbulent Mars, or Saturn, famed in ancient mythology +as a destroyer of children, or the Sun or Uranus, are in the Fifth or Elev- +enth Houses, they either prevent the birth of children or destroy them dur- +ing childhood. This is particularly true if Aries, Leo or Capricorn are on +the cusps of either of these Houses. + + When the Moon is in Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces, Gemini, or Sagittarius, in +good aspect to Jupiter or Venus, a large family is indicated. + + But when the Moon is in Aries, Leo, or Capricorn, and afflicted by one of +the malefics or by the Sun, the marriage is usually barren. Saturn and Ve- +nus in the Seventh House is also a sign of marriage without issue. + + If there is a difference in the testimonies of the Fifth and Eleventh +Houses the judgment must be modified accordingly. + + +[PAGE 462] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER XXII + + PROGRESSION OF THE HOROSCOPE + + FATE OR FREE WILL + + When a chain is subjected to strain, imperfections in any of its links +become manifest, and the weakest link will break first. Similarly, in the +case of the body, there are certain inherent weak points and these are indi- +cated in the horoscope. From the moment of birth we subject the body to a +constant strain, and in time the weakness of the various points becomes +manifest as disease. The movement of the planets after birth measures the +time when any particular link is liable to break. This motion of the plan- +ets in the horoscope is called "Progression." Study and practice of medical +Astrology require knowledge of how to progress the planets in the horoscope, +and we shall therefore take up that subject in connection with the message +of the stars relative to disease. + + When the Sun rises in the East the day is young and the labors allotted +to each are still before us. Gradually the Sun progresses across the arched +vault of the heavens, and mark the time set for the performance of our +various duties, for keeping our appointments, for taking nourishment, rest +and recreation, and when it has run it course through the day and has ceased + + +[PAGE 463] PROGRESSION IN THE HOROSCOPE + +to illuminate our sphere of action, its absence invites sleep until the dawn +of a new day shall present opportunities for continuation of the activities +left in abeyance from the previous day. If the Sun remained stationary at +any certain point of the sky it would not serve as a time marker but as it +is, all events of our lives are fixed by its progression. + + The horoscope is a chart of the heavens for the time when the mystic Sun +of Life rises and awakes us from the long sleep between two lives, then we +are born in the physical world, to continue the labors of a previous life, +to keep the appointment there made with friend or foe; to reap the joy or +bear the sorrow which is the fruitage of our former existence on earth; and +as the progression of the sun marks the changing time of day and year, as it +ushers in season after season in orderly sequence and changes the appearance +of the Great World, the Macrocosm, so progression of the horoscope will cul- +minate in events; it measures the periods of prosperity and adversity; it +warns of impending temptation and tells from what quarter it will come, thus +aiding us to escape if we will but listen to its warning. The natal horo- +scope shows unerringly weak points in our character or constitution, but the +progressed horoscope indicates when previous indulgence of harmful habits is +scheduled to bring sorrow or sickness; it tells truthfully when crises + + +[PAGE 464] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +culminate; thus it warns us to be on the alert at critical moments, and for- +tifies us in the darkest hour of calamity, with hope of surcease of sorrow +and sickness at a definite time, hence the importance of knowing how to +progress the horoscope. + + But, some may say, if all is thus foreshown, it argues an inexorable des- +tiny decreed by divine caprice; what use is there then of striving, or know- +ing; let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. If we were born +into this life on earth for the first and only time, to live here for a +while and then pass away from this sphere never to return, fate and favorit- +ism independent of justice would seem to rule. Such cannot be the case; in +a world where everything else is governed by law, human existence must also +be reducible to a system, and we hold that a reasonable solution of the mys- +tery of life is given by the Twin Laws of Being, the Law of Rebirth and the +Law of Causation. + + That which has a beginning must have an end, and conversely, that which +is without ending can never have had a beginning. If the human spirit is +immortal and cannot die, neither can it be born; if it will live to all +eternity, it must have lived from eternity, there is no escape from this +truth; pre-existence must be accepted if immortality is a fact in nature. + + In this world there is no law more plainly observable than the law of al- +ternating cycles, which decrees succession of ebb and flow, day and night, +summer and winter, waking and sleeping. Under the same law man's life is + + +[PAGE 465] PROGRESSION IN THE HOROSCOPE + +lived alternatively in the physical world where he sows seeds of action and +gains experiences according to his horoscope. These, the fruits of exist- +ence here, are later assimilated as soul powers in the spiritual world,; +birth and death are thus nothing more than gateways from one phase of man's +life to another, and the life we now live is but one of a series. The dif- +ferences of character, nobility or brutality, moral strength or weakness, +possession of high ideals or low instincts, etc., are certain signatures of +soul power or soul poverty. Finer faculties are the glorious garments of +gentle souls wrought through many lives in the crucible of concrete exist- +ence by trial and temptation. They shine with a luster which illuminates +the way and makes it easier for others to follow. Coarseness of calibre +proclaims the young in Life's School, but repeated existences here will in +due time smoothe the rough corners, mellow and makes them soulful also. + + The horoscope shows this difference in the texture of the soul and the +aspects indicate how the soul is ripened by the kaleidoscopic configurations +of planets in progression, which fan the fires in the furnace of affliction +to cleanse and purify the soul of blemish, or brighten the crown of virtue +when victory is won, but though the planets show the tendencies most accu- +rately there is one indeterminable factor which is not shown, a veritable +astrological "x,"--THE WILL POWER OF THE MAN, and upon that rock astro- +logical predictions are ever liable to founder; that, at times, is the + + +[PAGE 466] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Waterloo of even the most careful and competent astrologer, yet the very +failure of well-founded predictions is the blessed assurance that we are not +fated to do thus and so because our horoscope shows that at a certain time +the stellar rays impel us in a given direction. In the final analysis we +are the arbiters of our destiny, and it is significant, that while it is +possible to predict for the great majority of mankind with absolute cer- +tainty that the prediction will be vindicated, because they drift along the +sea of life directed by the current of circumstance, predictions fro the +striving idealist fail in proportion to this spiritual attainment of will +power which rouses him to self assertion and resistance of wrong. + + A beautiful little poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox gives the idea in a most +pleasing form: + + "One ship sails East and another sails West, + With the selfsame winds that blow; + 'Tis the set of the sail + And not the gale + That determines the way they go. + + "Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate, + As we voyage along through Life; + 'Tis the act of the soul + That determines the goal' + And not the calm or the strife." + + +[PAGE 467] DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + + + CHAPTER XXIII + + DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + + AND THE REASON FOR THEM + + Besides the physical world in which we live, move and have our being at +the present time, where sunshine and rain, storm and snow, heat and cold af- +fect our physical being in various ways, a world of finer substance perme- +ates the denser matter, and the forces indigenous to that realm impinge upon +our souls, as feelings, desires and emotions, because the soul is clothed in +substance from that world. Mystics therefore call this realm in nature the +Desire World. A still more subtle substance, an ocean of Thought, pervades +both the Desire World and the Physical World, and as the mind is composed of +substance from that region, it senses the waves of thought generated by +other spirits endowed with mind. + + Here in the physical world, Time and Space are prime factors of exist- +ence, but in the Desire World distance is practically eliminated because +spirits having dropped the mortal coil travel with the speed of lightning, +and as spiritual sight pierces the densest substance, light there is never +obscured, so there is no night, neither does heat and cold affect the soul, +hence there is no seasonal division either, to mark time as definitely as in + + +[PAGE 468] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the physical world. But nevertheless, there is a certain sequence of +events. In soulflights from place to place on the globe, we sense the na- +ture of intervening country in spite of speed, but in the World of Thought, +to think of a place, is to be there instanter, neither is there past or fu- +ture; events are not separated by time, or places by space, but all is one +eternal HERE and NOW. + + As the science of Astrology is founded in cosmic fact, there are also +three stages in progression from incipient events in the World of Thought, +to accomplished facts in the Physical World, and there are two methods of +horoscopic progression pertaining to the finer realms besides the actual +movement of planets observable in the Heavens. + + Suppose a pole billions of miles long stuck into the earth at the Equa- +tor, and at right angles to the poles, then, as the earth turns upon its +axis, the end of the pole would describe a circle in the heavens; this the +Astronomers call the "Celestial Equator," and the position of a heavenly +body on this line is measured in degrees and minutes of "Right Ascension," +from the point where the sun crosses the equator at the vernal equinox. +This axial rotation of the earth brings a new degree to the zenith, or Me- +ridian about every four minutes, and by the rules of one system of progres- +sion we may calculate how many degrees of Right Ascension come to the Merid- +ian position from birth to the formation of a certain aspect. The + + +[PAGE 469] DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + +intervening degrees are then converted to time at the rate of 1 degree +equals 1 year. + + The other system of progression is founded upon the orbital revolution of +the earth, but in this system the positions of the planets are expressed in +degrees of Longitude and measured on the ecliptic or Sun's path, from Aries +0 degrees to Pisces 29. The measure of time is the same as in the system +first mentioned: 1 degree equals 1 year, but there is this important dif- +ference, that while the earth takes only 4 minutes to turn 1 degree upon it +axis, it requires 24 hours to move 1 degree in its orbit. + + Thus, by one system of progression all the aspects that govern events in +a life of 60 years would be formed in 60 times 4 minutes, which equals 4 +hours or one-sixth part of a day. + + By the other system, formation of aspects for the same period of life +would require 60 days, or 2 months, or one-sixth part of a year. + + Thus coming events cast their shadows before, but the shadows varies in +length according to the exaltation of the sphere of life whence it is cast. + + From the sublime height of the World of Thought, where all things have +their inception in the eternal, the progression of events in a life are sil- +houetted upon the screen of Time while the infant is still upon the thresh- +old of birth, but the shadow is so short, 1-360 part of a day being +equivalent to a year, that an error of 4 minutes in the given time of birth +would throw predictions out a whole year. Few people know their birth hour + + +[PAGE 470] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +to the minute, therefore this systems of progression is of little use and +little used. + + Shadows of events projected from the denser Desire World are longer and +more definite; it does not require great delicacy or precision to calculate +progression at the rate of 1-360 part of a year equal to 1 year. By this +method an error of 2 hours in the given time of birth would only cause an +error of 1 month in predictions; this system therefore gives universal sat- +isfaction, and is most commonly used. In the following pages we shall ex- +plain a simplified method of this system of prediction, whereby mathematical +calculation of events for a whole life may be performed in a few minutes by +any intelligent child who can add and subtract. + + THE ADJUSTED CALCULATION DATE + + When a child is born at 7 A.M., in New York, and another at 6 A.M., in +Chicago, a third at 1 P.M., in Berlin, a fourth at 2 P.M., in St. Petersburg +and a fifth at 12 noon in London, the Observatory clock at Greenwich would +point to noon, at the exact moment when all these children were born, hence +though the clocks in their several birthplaces pointed to different hours, +the Greenwich Mean Time of their births would be identical:--noon. And as +the planets' places in the ephemeris are calculated for Greenwich, noon, it +would be unnecessary to make corrections; we should simply place each planet + + +[PAGE 471] DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + +in the natal horoscopes as tabulated in the ephemeris. This would be most +convenient, but he saving of calculation in a natal horoscope where the G. +M. T. is noon, fades into insignificance before the facility this gives in +progressing the planets for years subsequent to birth, as required to pre- +dict events, for in natal horoscopes where the G. M. T. is before or after +noon, the places of the planets must be calculated for each year just the +same as at birth. We have evolved the following simple method of saving +this calculation and of copying the progressed planets direct from the +ephemeris into any horoscope. + + THEOREM I + + If the Greenwich Mean Time of birth was BEFORE noon, it is evident that +the planets' places in the ephemeris are calculated for a LATER time and +also that, as they progress at the rate of a day (of 24 hours) for a year, +they will reach the Longitude given in the ephemeris some day within a year +after birth. + + THEOREM II + + If the G. M. T. of birth was AFTER noon, it is plainly to be seen that +the planets' places in the ephemeris for the year of birth are calculated +for an EARLIER time than birth, and that the position there given corre- +sponds to a certain day in the twelve-month BEFORE birth. + + +[PAGE 472] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + Furthermore, if we can find the date in the twelve-month before birth, or +after as the case may be, when the planets were in the degree and minute of +longitude registered in the ephemeris, we may use that date as a starting +point of calculation instead of the birthday, and as aspects formed during +the travel of the planets from the position given on any noon to the noon +next following, indicate events in the corresponding year of life, the same +starting date may be used for any year. Therefore, once that adjusted cal- +culation date has been found, no further calculations is required to +progress the planets in that horoscope; they may be simply copied from the +ephemeris. It is only necessary to bear in mind that the horoscope thus +erected does NOT apply to the year FROM BIRTHDAY TO BIRTHDAY, but from the +adjusted calculation date of one year to the same date of the next. There +are two methods of finding this date; the first is the more difficult and +not so accurate, but it shows the philosphy of the correction better than +the second method, and we therefore give examples of both. + + We will use the figure No. 26 (Medical Astrology Section), which is the +horoscope of a man who died of hemorrhages in June, 1918, to illustrate how +the adjusted calculation date is found, but defer description of the case +and its crises. The man was born April 24, 1884, Longitude 95 W., Latitude +42 N., at 2 P.M., True Local Time. We first find the G. M. T. by adding to +the local time of birth 4 minutes for each degree the birthplace is west of +Greenwich. + + +[PAGE 473] DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + +True local time of birth, April 24......................2:00 P.M. +Correction for 95 degrees W. Long.......................6:20 + ----------- +Greenwich Mean Time of birth April 24...................8:20 P.M. + + + In compliance with Theorem II, we subtract from the birthdate, April 24, +a correction of 8 hours and 20 minutes which the G. M. T. is past noon. The +measure of time used in this system is as follows: + + 24 hours correspond to 12 months. + 2 hours correspond to 1 month. + 1 hour corresponds to 15 days. + 4 minutes correspond to 1 day. + +According to this scale we subtract +from....................................................April 24, 1884 +Correction for 8 hours--4 months +Correction for 20 minutes--5 days + --4 months, 5 days + ---------------------- +Adjusted Calculation Date...............................December 19, 1883 + + We may, however, find the Adjusted Calculation Date much more accurately +and with less labor by the following fourfold rule: + + RULE + + (1) Find the interval from G. M. T. to the FOLLOWING noon. + + +[PAGE 474] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + (2) To this interval add the Sidereal Time for Greenwich noon on the +birthday, as given in the ephemeris. The sum of these is the Sidereal Time +of the Adjusted Calculation Date. + + (3) When the G. M. T. at birth is A. M. of the birthday, or P. M. of +the preceding day, COUNT FORWARDS in the ephemeris till you find a day hav- +ing the required S. T.; that is the Adjusted Calculation Date. + + (4) When the G. M. T. at birth is P. M. of the birthday or A. M. of the +succeeding day READ BACKWARDS in the ephemeris till you find the day having +the required S. T. which designates it as the Adjusted Calculation Date. + + We shall use the same example as before to demonstrate this method. + + Section 1 directs us to find the interval between G. M. T. and the fol- +lowing noon. Please observe this, the FOLLOWING noon, for all depends upon +this being accurately understood. + +From.................................................April 25, 12:00 NOON +Subtract G. M. T.....................................April 24. 8:20 P.M. + +Interval from G. M. T. to next Noon, 15 hrs. 40 min. + + By Section 2 of Rule: + +Add S. T. of birthday + as given in ephemeris....................................2 hrs. 11 min. + +S. T. of Adjusted Calculation Date..........................17 hrs. 51 min. + + +[PAGE 475] DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + + By Section 4 of Rule: + + As G.M.T. is P.M. we read backwards in the column of the ephemeris giving +S.T., until we come to Dec. 19, 1883. On that day the S.T. is 17 hrs., 51 +min., and the A.C.D. is therefore Dec. 19, 1883. + + Thus, by both methods we have arrived at identical results, but slight +discrepancies may appear in using the proportional method because that makes +no allowances for long and short months, hence the method last demonstrated +is more accurate as well as easier. If this man had been born two hours +later, the Adjusted Calculation Date would have been November 19, 1883. +Where children are born LATE in the year and EARLY in the morning, the Ad- +justed Calculation Date may run into January or February of the next year. +IT IS THEREFORE VERY IMPORTANT TO STATE THE ADJUSTED CALCULATION DATE BY +YEAR also, in this case December 19, 1883. + + Now, that we have arrived at the point where we are to make use of our +A.C.D. to progress the man's horoscope and show how accurately it marks the +crises, the first application of the date to the horoscope is a crucial +point, and the student is earnestly warned to overlook no word in our de- +scription so that he may acquire understanding of the principle. Once hav- +ing grasped the point, an immense amount of labor will be saved, so it will +pay to follow our instructions to the letter. + + Write in the margin of your ephemeris for 1884 opposite the birthday +(April 24), December 19, 1883. Opposite April 25 write December 19, 1884. + + +[PAGE 476] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Opposite April 26 write December 19, 1885, and so on, as shown below. Every +day after birth corresponds to a certain year of life which starts on the +day written in the margin, and the planets in line with any A.C.D. indicate +the events for twelve months from that date. + +Dec. 19, 1883....Apr. 24 Dec. 19, 1897....May 8 +Dec. 19, 1884....Apr. 25 Dec. 19, 1907....May 18 +Dec. 19, 1885....Apr. 26 Dec. 19, 1916....May 27 +Dec. 19, 1886....Apr. 27 Dec. 19, 1917....May 28 +Dec. 19, 1887....Apr. 28 Dec. 19, 1918....May 29 + + The motion of the Sun and planets from day to day is slow, and as we +count a day for a year, we may liken their progression to the short hand on +the clock of destiny: they indicate the year when a certain condition shown +in the natal horoscope has ripened, and is ready to manifest as an event. +The swift moving Moon is the long hand; it marks the months when aspects +culminate in events. Therefore we divide its motion during the year com- +mencing with any adjusted calculation date, by 12, but for rough figuring we +may consider the Moon's travel in the progressed horoscope one degree a +month. + + Planetary aspects alone do not operate, however; an aspect of the pro- +gressed Moon or a New Moon is required to focus the hidden forces. There- +fore crises shown by the planets are sometimes retarded beyond the time when +the aspect culminated and we may think we have safely escaped, but the first + + +[PAGE 477] DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + +aspect of the Moon which excites it will prove that "though the mills of the +gods grind slowly, they grind exceeding fine." The finer forces lose none +of their intensity by lying latent in Nature's lock-box of events. + + Now let us see how the planets worked in the horoscope we have just +given. In the year 1915 we find the progressed Sun, the life-giver, had +reached the conjunction of the Midheaven, Gemini 5-0. The New Moon on May +2, 1916 fell in Taurus 11-44, square to the radical Mars; on the 31st of May +the second New Moon was in Gemini 9-40 in conjunction with the radical Sat- +urn in the M.C., which latter had been obstructing the capillaries of the +lungs; thus hemorrhages resulted. At this time the young man, who had be- +come a very efficient astrologer, began to realize that he was entering a +critical period and did all possible to overcome its influence. But a suc- +cession of lunations during the year 1916 afflicted his Midheaven and Saturn +by square and opposition in the sign ruling the lungs, Gemini, made a con- +stant struggle necessary. With the negative sign of Virgo on the Ascendant, +with Uranus in the First House square to Venus in Gemini, and with Jupiter +afflicted by a square of the Moon, both the venous and arterial circulations +were restricted, preventing deep breathing and complete oxygenation of the +blood in the lungs. + + In the Spring of 1918 this young man, after consulting his own horoscope, +unfortunately made up his mind that he would pass out on a certain day, and + + +[PAGE 478] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +made all necessary arrangements for his funeral. This state of mind was +very dangerous to one in his weakened condition and to one with his negative +Ascendant. He precipitated the crisis even before its normal time, as we +will show. + + We will now proceed to find what brought about the crises that terminated +the life on June 1, 1918. We first find where the progressed planets were +at that time. We take the date May 28, 1884 for the places of the pro- +gressed planets on the Adjusted Calculation Date, Dec. 19, 1917. We now +progress the Sun and Moon 5 1-2 months beyond this date to June 1, 1918. If +we subtract the Moon's longitude on a given day from its place on the fol- +lowing day, the difference is its motion during the 24 hours intervening, +which corresponds to a year of life in progression. Division of this by 12 +gives us the rate of its monthly travel. + +Moon's place on A.C.D. Dec. 19, 1917, + (May 28 in ephemeris for 1884)...Cancer 27.11 +Moon's place on A.C.D. Dec. 19, 1918, + (May 29 in ephemeris for 1884)...Leo 11.14 + ____________ +Moon's travel by progression from Dec. 19, 1917 to +Dec. 19, 1918 ............................ 14.03 + + Dividing 14 degrees 3 minutes by 12 gives the Moon's monthly travel as 1 +degree 10 minutes. This we add to its place for each month as shown in the +following table: + + + +[PAGE 479] DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + + +Dec. 19, 1917 CANCER...27.11 Mar. 19, 1918 LEO...0.41 +Jan. 19, 1918 CANCER...28.21 Apr. 19, 1918 LEO...1.51 +Feb. 19, 1918 CANCER...29.31 May 19, 1918 LEO...3.01 + + As we see above, the progressed Moon was in Leo 3.01 on May 19, 1918, and +as it moves 1 degree 10 min. per month, in the 13 days to June 1st it would +travel 0 degrees 29 min., reaching Leo 3.30, and making a square to the +radical Sun. + + On Dec. 19, 1917, the progressed Sun was in Gemini 7.29. We count for- +ward from Dec. 19th to June 1, 1918, 5 1-2 months, and as the Sun moves 58 +minutes per year, making 5 minutes per month, in 5 1-2 months the progressed +Sun would arrive at Gemini 7.56, conjunction to Saturn. + + The New Moon on May 10, 1918 fell in Taurus 19.00, conjunction to the +radical Neptune. This was the day the young man had chosen as the day of +his death, but the crisis was not reached until the transiting Sun reached +the conjunction of Saturn in Gemini 8.33, the night of May 30th. At the +same time Saturn was transiting conjunction to radical Mars and square to +radical Sun, depleting the vitality, and the transiting Moon and Neptune +were square to the radical Sun. All this was too much for him to endure in +his weakened condition and he began to sink. June 1st when the transiting +Moon reached the square to Saturn and the Midheaven, and the opposition to +the Ascendant, he passed into the great beyond. + + +[PAGE 480] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + Thus we see that we cannot base judgment upon merely one affliction. We +must look to the progressed planets, the strong transiting planets, and par- +ticularly to the New Moon to excite a natal affliction. + + PROGRESSION OF THE ANGLES + + Besides the progression of planets which we trust has been sufficiently +elucidated, we must also note a similar forward movement of the houses, but +these must be calculated by the same method as when casting a natal figure, +save that we use the Sidereal Time for the day which corresponds to the year +for which we wish to progress the horoscope. In relation to the man's horo- +scope we have studied, the critical year was 1918, and May 28 in the ephem- +eris for 1884 corresponds. We bear in mind that birth occurred at 2:00 +P.M., True Local Time, in Lat. 42 N., Long. 95 W., for these factors are +used in placing the degrees on the houses just as in the natal chart; the +only change is using the S.T. of the progressed birth day. + +S.T. at noon previous to progressed birthday, 1918 H. M. S. +(see ephemeris for 1884, May 28)......................4 25 0 + +Correction of 10 seconds for each 15 deg. +birthplace is West of Greenwich.......................0 1 3 + +Interval from previous noon to birth..................2 0 0 + +Correction of 10 secs. per hr. of interval............0 0 20 + ---- ---- ---- +Sidereal Time of progressed birth.....................6 26 23 + + +[PAGE 481] DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + + With this S.T. we turn to the Tables of Houses for the Latitude of birth +place, and erect a horoscope with twelve Houses in the usual manner; we may +further insert the planets' places on the A.C.D. for 1918, then we shall +have a complete separate horoscope for the year, which we may compare with +the natal chart. Some Astrologers use that method, but we advise another, +which we think facilitates comparison and judgment of aspects between the +natal and progressed position of the planets in a degree unattainable by any +other system; it is illustrated in the various figures used in this book. + + We write the natal chart in ink, as that is unchanged during life; we +also draw a large circle outside it, to contain the progressed position of +the planets. These and the houses we write in their proper places, but +lightly, and with pencil, so that they may be easily erased and the horo- +scope erected for another year without the necessity of rewriting the natal +chart. + + But no matter how placed, two full horoscopes with 24 houses, 18 planets, +a couple of dragons' heads, each with its respective "tail," and two Parts +of Fortune, make quite a maze, and if the full galaxy of aspects, including +biquintiles, sesquiquadrates and other highsounding nonsensicals are to be +figured out the astrologer will surely so lose himself in the mathematical +labyrinth that he will be unable to read a syllable of the message of the +stars. During the first year of his astrological study, one of the writers + + +[PAGE 482] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +being originally of a mathematical turn, had the habit of constructing fig- +ures, and tables of aspects, so fearfully and wonderfully made that they +beat the proverbial "Chinese puzzle;" they were veritable "Gordian Knots," +and the destiny of a human being was so tangled in each, that neither the +writer who had concocted the abomination, nor anyone else could ever hope to +disentangle the poor soul involved. May he be forgiven; he has mended his +ways, and is now just as zealous to eliminate all non-essentials from the +horoscope, but having been enmeshed in the maze of mathematics, his experi- +ence should serve as a warning. Our minds, at best, are but feeble instru- +ments to fathom fate and surely we shall have the greatest chance of success +by applying our science to the most important facts, and these are usually +the simplest. + + If this be granted, the question presents itself: What are the essen- +tials and what may be eliminated with advantage to clear the progressed +horoscope of useless, befogging elements? + + First, with regard to the progressed houses, only two vital points pro- +duce results when aspected: the Midheaven, which is spiritual in nature, +and the Ascendant, which is a significator in material matters. We shall +treat that subject later; for the present we confine ourselves to the argu- +ment that it will facilitate judgment of the progressed horoscope if we +leave the ten unessential cusps out, and draw two dotted lines with pencil +to mark the progressed Midheaven and Ascendant. + + +[PAGE 483] DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + + In the second place, the student may readily convince himself by looking +through the columns of any ephemeris, that the motion of Neptune, Uranus, +Saturn and Jupiter, during the two months which represent progression for a +life of 60 years, is so slow that they seldom form an aspect not registered +in the natal chart. In rare cases where an important aspect is formed, the +fact is easily seen, and the planet should then be entered in the outer ring +of the progressed horoscope, but in the great majority of cases it is better +to leave these planets out, and enter only the progressed positions of the +Sun, Moon, Mars, Venus and Mercury. + + In conclusion of our treatment of the method of Progression, two impor- +tant points must be mentioned: The Midheaven at a given Sidereal Time is +the same for all Latitudes, so that two children born at the same S.T. would +have the same sign and degree on the M.C., but if one were born in Alaska +and the other in Mexico, the Asc. would vary much and change the grouping of +planets in the houses very considerably, with the further result that plan- +ets which influence the First House affairs in one horoscope affect Twelfth +House matters in the other, etc. Thus the lives of these people would be +very different. + + The same argument applies to the progressed horoscope of a person travel- +ing North or South from his birthplace. His progressed M.C. remains un- +changed, but he receives the forces from a different ascending figure, ac- +cording to the Latitude where he resides, and the grouping of planets + + +[PAGE 484] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +relative to the progressed Ascendant varies accordingly. As examples we may +state that both writers have left their birthplace; one traveled 2,000 miles +West, but is close to the same Latitude as her birthplace, hence both her +M.C. and Asc. are the same as if she had remained in her native city. + + The other writer was born in Latitude 56 N., and now lives in Latitude +32. Had he remained in the far North, his progressed Ascendant would in +(1912) be Virgo 6, exactly conjunction to Mars' place at birth, but the As- +cendant of his new home is Virgo 0 degrees, and in this latitude he will not +feel the effect of the Mars ray for a number of years. + + The other important point we had in mind is the necessity of being +definite in regard to the year for which we progress. Perhaps a person +tells us that a certain event occurred when he was 26, and another in his +50th year. Such statements are ambiguous, and give no safe working basis. +The Astrologer may go home and do an immense amount of work to no use, be- +cause he thought the person meant that one event occurred when he, the per- +son, was between 26 and 27 years of age, and a later consultation reveals +that he meant the year between his 25th and 26th birthdays. Pin them down +to the year, 1850, 1900, or whatever it may be, but never accept a person's +age as a starting point. + + On the same principle, never predict that an event will happen when a +person is so and so old; that also is ambiguous and gives them no satisfac- + + +[PAGE 485] DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + +tion; give the year and month; never hedge; never predict anything of which +you are in doubt; when you are satisfied a prediction is justified, speak +fearlessly, BUT TACTFULLY; believe in the stars, and the stars will fully +justify your faith. + SOME IMPORTANT POINTS + + When judging the effects of directions it is of the greatest importance +to bear in mine the tenor of the nativity, for even weak aspects which are +in harmony with the tendencies foreshown in the natal figure will be much +more active than a strong aspect which is contrary to the radical indica- +tions. Supposing, for instance, that there are strong testimonies of sick- +ness and accident, as Mars in Sagittarius in the Midheaven square the Sun in +Pisces in the Twelfth House and square Saturn in Virgo in the Sixth House; +then the progression of Mars to square of the radical Ascendant would un- +doubtedly precipitate an accident or a fever of a serious nature, but if the +Sun were trine Mars and Jupiter the effect of Mars square Ascendant would +produce little if any discomfort. Similarly with all the other directions, +and if the student neglects to take into consideration this all-important +point, he is likely sometime to make a great mistake and wonder why a seem- +ingly powerful direction produced no result in one case, while in another a +very weak aspect had such a far-reaching effect. Aspects between two + + +[PAGE 486] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +progressed planets are unimportant. + + Another important point to remember is that aspects of the progressed to +the radical planets operate in proportion to the power of the radical planet +in the nativity. Let us suppose, for illustration, that in a certain figure +the Sun is elevated in Leo and aspected to a number of the other planets--it +matters not whether the aspects are good or bad so long as they are +close--then even a weak aspect from a progressed planet to the Sun will have +a marked result. On the other hand, if the Sun in that horoscope received +no aspect, or only one or two weak ones, then even a strong aspect of a pro- +gressed planet would have little effect. + + It should also be noted that a good aspect from a progressed planet to a +planet that is much afflicted in the nativity would produce small if any +benefit. In short, and to sum up, progressed aspects operate only in the +measure that they are in harmony with the trend of the nativity and the +planet wherewith they are blending. + + The third important point to remember when judging the effects of direc- +tions is that an aspect from a progressed to a radical planet is never in +itself sufficient to produce results; a harmonious aspect from the pro- +gressed Moon or a lunation is absolutely essential to bring the tendency to +fruition. That is to say, if the progressed Sun comes to square of radical +Saturn, a sextile or trine aspect of the progressed Moon or of a lunation + + +[PAGE 487] DIFFERENT METHODS OF PROGRESSION + +will pass unnoticed; no effect will be felt until either the progressed Moon +or a lunation comes into conjunction, square, or opposition to Sun or Sat- +urn, and vice-versa, if the progressed Sun comes to a trine of the radical +Jupiter a square or opposition of the Moon will not affect it, it must wait +for a sextile or trine. For this reason directions are sometimes delayed in +their action beyond the time of their culmination, and at other times they +are somewhat hastened because a lunar aspect of the requisite nature occurs +slightly in advance of the time when the aspects of the planets are com- +plete. + + It also happens that in cases where the event indicated by an aspect in- +volves two people the aspects of the planets by progression may be complete +in one person's horoscope and fertilized by a harmonious aspect without pro- +ducing a result, because the aspect in the other person's horoscope has not +yet matured. In this connection we remember the horoscope of a lady whose +Venus was placed in the Eighth House showing a late marriage. In her 45th +year the progressed Sun reached conjunction Venus but neither engagement nor +marriage resulted; then the Sun and Venus came into conjunction in the horo- +scope of a gentleman of her acquaintance bringing an engagement quickly fol- +lowed by marriage. Thus one had waited for the other, and unless such a +contingency is taken into consideration the astrologer is most liable to +meet his Waterloo when forecasting events. + + +[PAGE 488] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER XXIV. + + PROGRESSED SOLAR DIRECTIONS + + When the Sun forms a conjunction, sextile, square, trine or opposition to +one of the planets by progression the influence begins to manifest when the +Sun is 1 1/2 degrees from the exact aspect, and it is felt until the Sun is +1 1/2 degrees past the point of culmination. And as the Sun moves about one +degree a day, and the time measure of directions is that one day equals a +year, we may say that the influence of the solar aspects is felt for a pe- +riod of three years. Their effects are particularly strong at times during +this period when aspects of the progressed Moon or lunations vivify them. + + The parallel is different from the other aspects. In the case of the +slow-moving planets it lasts for a considerable number of years so that a +parallel of the Sun and Saturn may operate for ten or more years, and a par- +allel of the Sun and Jupiter nearly as long. + + It may also be noted that the conjunction ad parallel act principally +upon the health, while the other aspects also affect the business, social +standing, etc. Thus under the parallel of the Sun and Saturn there would be + + +[PAGE 489] PROGRESSED SOLAR DIRECTIONS + +a very protracted state of ill-health, while the parallel of the Sun and Ju- +piter would strengthen the constitution materially. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL VE- +NUS. + +If the radical Venus was well aspected these directions will bring +a three-year period of unusual pleasure and enjoyment into the +life. If the person is not already married an attachment will be +formed and ripen into marriage of an ideal nature. If the horoscope shows +artistic ability, this will receive a great impetus during the activity of +this direction, and it will bring honor and social preferment. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL VENUS. + +If the radical Venus was afflicted, these directions will bring a +period of petty annoyances, social disgrace, trouble and sorrow, +with a tendency to be slovenly and to look upon the dark side of +life, but it can be overcome if the person will strive to be careful of his +morals and personal appearance. "Where there's a will there's a way." + + THE SUN PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION OR SEXTILE RADICAL MERCURY. + +If Mercury was well aspected at birth this will mark a period of +unusual mental activity, so that the person will be able to further his + + +[PAGE 490] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +his ambitions and succeed in business by new ventures. If the natal figure +shows literary ability this is the time to make all efforts to produce some- +thing worth while. It is a good and profitable time to travel either for +pleasure, in search of inspiration, or for the good of whatever business he +may follow. Advertising will be found a most effective way of promotion +business success under this direction. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED SQUARE TO RADICAL MERCURY. + +The Sun cannot reach the square of Mercury until late in life, and +in comparatively few lives at that, therefore its effects can only +be conjectured and it has no importance. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE, OR TRINE TO RADICAL +MOON. + +If the Moon was well aspected at birth these directions bring a period of +success and popularity. It increases the honor and esteem which the person +enjoys in his environment, it brings favors from influential persons, em- +ployers, or the authorities, and if marriage has not already been con- +tracted, this direction will most likely bring about a successful union. It +is also an excellent time to form partnerships. + + +[PAGE 491] PROGRESSED SOLAR DIRECTIONS + + THE SUN PROGRESSED SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL MOON. + +If the Moon was afflicted at birth this marks a very evil period, +replete with domestic unhappiness if the person is married; discredit among +the people with whom he is associated in business or socially, perhaps im- +prisonment; loss by dishonesty of the partner, financial stricture or even +bankruptcy. He is also likely to suffer severely from ill health, and if +either the Sun or Moon are in Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces he may become a +chronic drunkard. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL SATURN. + +If Saturn is well aspected in the nativity these directions will +bring a steadying and consolidating influence into the life so that +the person will be able to discharge his duties in a most effective, sys- +tematic and tactful manner. He will have greater opportunities for advance- +ment than before, and will be able to assume the added responsibilities with +credit. Much benefit may be expected from older people who will be drawn to +him will full confidence. Investments in land, mines, houses, and similar +things will prove profitable when made under this direction, and in +general it gives a very deep insight into all problems of life. + + +[PAGE 492] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + THE SUN PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL +SATURN. + +If Saturn was afflicted in the natal chart these directions mark a +period of very evil influence. This is especially true of the +parallel, which lasts about ten years; the other aspects are only +active during the usual three years. Under these directions the +person suffers disappointments and delays in everything he undertakes. No +matter how carefully he may plan, something is sure to crop up to thwart +him, and this is apt to breed a spirit of worry and pessimism which makes +life seem a hopeless battle, with everyone conspiring to checkmate him. Fi- +nancial difficulties make matters harder, and he is liable to incur the op- +position of employers or the authorities. To crown it all, the health suf- +fers, especially under the parallel; his vitality will be very low, and +the recuperative power almost NIL. All will depend on whether he +can look for the silver lining to the cloud, and strive to learn +the intended lessons, or whether he simply sinks down under the +load and gives up. Forewarned is forearmed and students of Astrology have +at least the knowledge that these trials are only passing. They know when +brighter days will come. + + +[PAGE 493] PROGRESSED SOLAR DIRECTIONS + + THE SUN PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE JUPITER. + +If Jupiter is well aspected at birth these aspects are among the +most fortunate in the whole gamut of directions, for they indicate +a period of financial prosperity, where every undertaking succeeds, +hence speculation, investments, and new ventures in business will +bring success and gain, the person will rise in popularity and esteem in the +community or his immediate sphere of associations, he may gain much credit +in connection with philanthropic or charitable undertakings, and he will en- +joy much social success and domestic happiness. There is a tendency to +travel or changes which will bring both pleasure and profit, and ambitions +that for years seemed impossible of realization are likely to be gratified. +Under these directions lasting friendships of benefit to the person are of- +ten formed. They also strengthen the constitution and bring radiant +health, but the exuberance of animal spirits may later, under evil +directions, bring disease. If this is guarded against the increased flow of +vital fluid given by these directions will have a lasting beneficial effect +on the health. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL JUPITER. + +If Jupiter is afflicted at birth these directions denote a period +of trouble and trials. Someone near and dear will pass out of the person's + + +[PAGE 494] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +person's life, either by estrangement or death; lawsuits, financial +losses and social disaster are threatened, with much opposition +from other people. If he invests money or speculates each venture +will prove a failure because of deception and misrepresentation of +those with whom he deals. If he makes a change of business or +travels to another city he will meet with worse conditions, the +health will suffer and domestic infelicity will result. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL +MARS. + +If Mars is afflicted at birth these aspects mark an extended period +of a very evil nature. There is a state of rash and reckless excitement +which is apt to lead the person to do the most foolhardy things, hence a li- +ability to squander his money, wreck his prospects in life, become crippled +by an accident, or indulge in excesses which bring on fevers, boils, or in- +flammatory complaints. He should be particularly careful not to handle +fire, hot water, explosives or firearms, and be guarded by insurance +against loss by fire, sickness or accident. The reputation is also +likely to suffer by scandal, therefore he should exert all his energy and +will power to act with all the discretion possible to him and so endeavor to +rule his stars. + + +[PAGE 495] PROGRESSED SOLAR DIRECTIONS + + THE SUN PROGRESSED SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL MARS. + +If Mars is well aspected at birth these directions indicate a period of ad- +venture when the person will be imbued with a powerful spirit of activity, +enterprise and industry; he will become acquainted with people of a pioneer- +ing instinct or in some way receive an impulse that will start him upon a +new venture in life which will bring him success, friends, and prosperity. +He is likely to travel in search of new fields and to be very restless in +seeking an outlet for the energy which threatens to burst him, but +he is also too prone to squander the money which seems to come so +easily. If he were wise he would be a little less generous, for +when this aspect passes off, it is likely that the golden days are +over. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL +URANUS. + +If Uranus is afflicted at birth these aspects mark a very critical +period in the life. The person becomes very irritable and short- +tempered. He is liable to tax the patience of friends and +relatives to the breaking point so that a separation or estrangement occurs. +He will be repellent to others, rash, erratic, liable to do the most strange +and unexpected things. He may rush into litigation when he has not the +shadow of a case or cause, just for the mere insane love of quarreling. + + +[PAGE 496] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Thus he is likely to disgrace himself permanently in the eyes of all who +know him, or, depending upon what other aspects are in force at the +time, it may be someone close to him who causes the disgrace which +then reflects upon him on account of the friendship or relationship. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL URANUS. + +If Uranus is well aspected at birth and the person is of a sufficiently ad- +vanced type to respond to this influence, these aspects mark a period of +great spiritual and mental acceleration; the originating, organizing, and +inventive faculties become greatly enhanced, so that he is able to formulate +ideas, perfect inventions, and organize enterprises in a most surprisingly +efficient manner, with little or no effort. There may be sudden +and unexpected gains through inventions, investment or speculation, +and if he is not already interested in advanced thought or occultism he will +most likely be attracted during this period and obtain a good start before +the aspect wears off. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL +NEPTUNE. + + +If Neptune is afflicted at birth these aspects mark a critical time for +those who can respond to the spiritual influence. They are then hypersensi- +tive and likely to develop an undesirable phase of involuntary spiritual + + +[PAGE 497] PROGRESSED SOLAR DIRECTIONS + +sight or apt to become entranced or obsessed by spirits from the invisible +world who seek a medium to gratify their desires, which are usually bad. +The person may also most easily become the victim of a hypnotist and get +into trouble through fraud, deception and disadvantageous changes, or loss +by speculation in large companies where the stock is watered. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL NEPTUNE. + +If Neptune is well aspected at birth these aspects mark a period of +spiritual awakening, when the person may receive an initiation which will +develop his spiritual powers and open the invisible worlds to him, if he is +sufficiently developed. For others it may develop the faculty of inspira- +tional music, and yet other people may experience a period of unexampled +love and bliss, but the majority cannot respond to this influence. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL +MIDHEAVEN. + +These aspects bring a period of profit, preferment, honor and recognition, +favors from the authorities or employers, added social prestige, and a gen- +eral advancement of the worldly affairs. + + +[PAGE 498] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +This is a good time to make special effort for obtaining an increase of in- +come for all endeavors in that direction will have a favorable stellar in- +fluence behind them and are therefore more likely to succeed than at other +times. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL MIDHEAVEN. + +These aspects mark a period of discredit when slander and enmity threaten +the honor and social standing. It is therefore best for the person to be +very circumspect in all he does or says, for trouble with the authorities +may result in imprisonment, or if with employers it may bring loss of +position. Financial fortunes are also threatened. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED, PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE RADICAL +ASCENDANT. + +These aspects mark a period of general good fortune, radiant health and hap- +piness. Whatever the person undertakes seems to prosper. + + THE SUN PROGRESSED SQUARE OF OPPOSITION TO RADICAL ASCENDANT. + +These aspects mark a period of ill-health, especially in a woman's horo- +scope. There is also a great deal of trouble and general so-called "bad +luck." + + +[PAGE 499] PROGRESSED LUNAR DIRECTIONS + + CHAPTER XXV + + PROGRESSED LUNAR DIRECTIONS + + The Moon travels through the Zodiac at an average rate of between twelve +and thirteen degrees a day, and as the day in the art of progression is +9aken as a time measure equivalent to a year, we may say that the Moon by +progression from birth to death travels at the rate of between twelve and +thirteen degrees a year, or about one degree per month. Thus in the course +of about twenty-eight years she circles the whole horoscope and forms all +the aspects that can be formed to all the planets in the radical figure, and +she may thus travel two or three times around the horoscope in the life of +the average man or woman. It is her passage around the horoscope that makes +the life fruitful of events for the aspects of the planets themselves which +indicate the year when a certain influence is ready to be reaped as ripe +destiny and produce events in the life, do not of themselves cause either +good or ill effects unless an aspect of the progressed Moon or a lunation +brings the matter to a focus and marks the month when the occurrence will +take place. Therefore sometimes even strong aspects between the Sun and +planets, or between the planets themselves, are barren in effect when not + + +[PAGE 500] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +fortified by a progressed lunar aspect or a lunation of the same nature. + + Neither do the lunar aspects have an influence of their own, or at least +if they have, it is not very marked unless the lunar aspect agrees in nature +with the primary direction then in force. + + These are important points which the student should always bear in mind. +It should also be noted that the aspects of the progressed Moon to pro- +gressed planets produce little or no effect and the influences set down be- +low are with respect to the radical planets. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL +SUN. + +These aspects mark a rather prosperous period in life, bringing important +changes for the better. Not infrequently marriage results which is both +successful and happy. An increase of business if the person is an employer, +or a raise in salary if he is an employee, may be looked for at this time, +for superiors and those in a position to bestow favors are in a generous +mood and ready to give the person credit for all that is good in him. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL SUN. + +These aspects indicate a time of trouble and loss. There is a tendency to +difficulty with employers or customers which will bring loss of employment +or business; the mind is vacillating so that the person cannot make up his + + +[PAGE 501] PROGRESSED LUNAR DIRECTIONS + +mind what to do, and thus he is apt to lose opportunities which might bring +gain and instead they bring loss. He will experience trouble with the oppo- +site sex, particularly the marriage partner if he is in the state of matri- +mony. The health will suffer and there is a change for the worse in all the +affairs of life. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE, OR TRINE TO RADICAL +VENUS. + +If Venus is strong and well aspected in the natal chart this period will be +one of pleasure and profit both, for the person will make new friends and +have opportunities to advance himself both socially and financially. These +aspects also frequently indicate the commencement of courtship or the culmi- +nation of courtship in marriage, in a man's horoscope. They bring good +health and a happy, cheerful frame of mind, so that the whole world seems +bathed in sunshine. This is, in short, a period of general success and hap- +piness. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL VENUS. + +If Venus was afflicted at birth this marks a period of considerable trouble +and disappointment. A courtship may be broken off or a marriage dissolved + + +[PAGE 502] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +by separation. The financial fortunes are likely to suffer and the health +is apt to be poor. Snubs and ostracism may be expected in the social rela- +tion and the person should be particularly careful with the opposite sex, +for while this direction is operative there is considerable liability to +trouble from that source. Knowing what is doing and the nature and duration +of the influence, he should try to rule his stars by keeping as cheerful a +frame of mind as possible, schooling himself to act wisely in the matters +which are particularly shown as danger points. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL +MERCURY. + +If Mercury was well aspected at birth, these directions will bring out the +mental powers and it is therefore a favorable time to take up any study +which the person may feel attracted to. If any important changes have been +in contemplation this is the time to make the move, for under these direc- +tions success is sure to attend in a much larger measure than under less fa- +vorable influences, and if he has any important matters to settle with +brothers, sisters or neighbors, he will reach a favorable conclusion with +them much more quickly than at any other time. + + +[PAGE 503] PROGRESSED LUNAR DIRECTIONS + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL MERCURY. + +If Mercury was afflicted at birth the person will need to exercise a great +deal of care during the operation of these planetary influences, for there +will be a tendency to rash and indiscreet speech; thereby the person may lay +himself liable for libel or slander. It is also likely that if any deeds or +legal papers are signed during this time it will be to the person's detri- +ment and will later regret it. He should also be very careful of his ex- +pressions in correspondence and if he is a literary man he should be doubly +careful or his writings will be more than likely to cause trouble for him- +self or others. The mind will be much disturbed and he should neither +travel nor make changes but endeavor to keep himself as quiet as possible +during this time. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED PARALLEL OR CONJUNCTION RADICAL SATURN. + +If Saturn was afflicted in the natal chart this is a very critical period. +In a woman's horoscope it indicates ill-health, worry and trouble. In the +horoscope of a man, if he is married, it indicates domestic difficulties or +ill-health of the wife. There is trouble, delay and disappointment in all +the affairs of life and a tendency to worry over things and become morbid +and melancholy. + + +[PAGE 504] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL SATURN. + +If Saturn is afflicted at birth, these aspects mark a very evil time, par- +ticularly with respect to health and the conditions in the home. They pro- +duce a disturbed frame of mind with irritability and a tendency to worry, a +pessimistic outlook on life; gloom and despondency seem to be the rule, the +financial affairs also suffer and care should be taken to make no changes or +investments at this time. The only remedy is to try to keep as philo- +sophical an attitude as possible, looking for the silver lining of the cloud +and endeavoring to learn the lessons that are to be taught during this pe- +riod. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL SATURN. + +If Saturn was well aspected in the natal chart these aspects mark a success- +ful and prosperous period when one will gain recognition of a lasting nature +in his sphere of life. He will be able to take on added responsibilities +and acquit himself of the trust with credit. If any investments in houses, +lands or mines are contemplated this will be a very favorable period to un- +dertake such matters. This time will be epoch-making in the life when a +new, solid and stable foundation for success will be laid, upon which the +edifice of a successful life may be reared. + + +[PAGE 505] PROGRESSED LUNAR DIRECTIONS + + THE MOON PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL +JUPITER. + +If Jupiter was well aspected at birth, these aspects mark a period of suc- +cess and general good fortune. The health is excellent, or if the person +has been sick improvement may be looked for at this time. The frame of mind +will be happy and he will enjoy all the pleasures of life. It is a par- +ticularly good time to travel for he will meet a friendly and cordial recep- +tion everywhere. The financial fortunes will be benefited if investments +are made under these directions, or if the business is pushed to the best of +his ability. This is an epoch when things take a decided turn for the bet- +ter, and if the person takes proper advantage of the opportunities then pre- +sented to him this time will be long felt in the life. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL JUPITER. + +If Jupiter was afflicted at birth the person should be very careful of his +diet during the time when these aspects last, for there is a tendency to ex- +cesses which will cause disease by making the blood impure. He should also +be very careful not to lose his temper because if there is any danger of +apoplexy shown in the natal figure it is more likely to manifest under these +stellar influences than at any other time. Keep as cool as possible and + + +[PAGE 506] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +avoid all stimulating food and liquors. Do not under any circumstances un- +dertake to speculate while these directions last for loss is certain and +there is a liability to be deceived or defrauded by others. There is also a +danger of domestic troubles and loss by lawsuits or similar matters. The +social prestige is likely to suffer on account of haughty, bombastic and +overbearing manners, therefore the person should be careful and moderate in +everything and also hold himself well in check. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION RADICAL +MARS. + +If the radical Mars was afflicted these aspects mark a very evil period. In +a woman's horoscope they indicate, for one thing, bad health, and in a +man's, violent quarrels in the home. There is a tendency to be quarrelsome, +foolhardy and reckless, with the result that the person may sustain bodily +injuries or accidents, also a tendency to the over-indulgence of the lower +passional nature which may bring trouble in its train, therefore he should +be very careful in his dealings with those of the opposite sex. Unless +great care is taken slander and social discredit are sure to result. These +directions also make the person very reckless and extravagant in financial +matters, liable to form hasty and erroneous judgments, therefore if papers + + +[PAGE 507] PROGRESSED LUNAR DIRECTIONS + +are signed at this time disaster is very to follow. These directions are +among the most reliable in operation and the person rarely escapes without +suffering loss or injury in some manner, therefore the greatest care should +be taken during this period. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SEXTILE OR TRINE RADICAL MARS. + +If Mars was well aspected at birth thee aspects mark a period of consider- +able activity in the life which will be to the benefit of the person in- +volved. A great deal of vital energy is accumulated and this dynamic force +naturally must have an outlet in some way, hence this is a good time for the +expansion of business or undertaking new enterprises; they are sure to suc- +ceed if the person is not too precipitate in his efforts but uses a grain of +caution in the expenditure of this great energy. These aspects are par- +ticularly active among those who work with or deal in the partial elements +of iron and fire, such as soldiers, surgeons and engineers; to them they +bring honor and promotion. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION RADICAL +URANUS. + +If Uranus was afflicted at birth these aspects mark a very critical period, +when the person is apt to make a sudden and unexpected change which will + + +[PAGE 508] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +have a disadvantageous effect upon the life, therefore he should guard care- +fully against such a contingency. There is also a liability to the forma- +tion of a clandestine relationship which will bring sorrow and trouble to +the person, hence he should avoid association with the opposite sex and when +this is unavoidable he should be very circumspect in his manner and behav- +ior, for under these directions people are very likely to judge him severely +for the slightest semblance of wrong-doing. There is a tendency to irrita- +bility and cruelty of speech which is likely to cause domestic unhappiness +and the loss of friends that will later be regretted very much, therefore +the person should endeavor to curb himself; in fact it would be better to +avoid his friends as much as possible during this time. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL URANUS. + +These are excellent aspects for those who are sufficiently advanced to re- +spond. If Uranus was well aspected at birth, the original, intuitive and +inventive faculties will find an outlet at this time which may be very ad- +vantageous to the person. If he is interested in the study of advanced +thought or occultism this is a particularly good time to pursue such sub- +jects, for an expansion of consciousness may most easily result under these +directions, friendships are formed with advanced people who will be of + + +[PAGE 509] PROGRESSED LUNAR DIRECTIONS + +benefit to the person, and advantageous changes or removals may be made, +hence it marks an epoch in the life which is likely to leave a permanent +mark for good. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED PARALLEL, CONJUNCTION, SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO +RADICAL NEPTUNE. + +If Neptune was afflicted in the natal chart these directions mark a period +of weird and uncanny experiences, when the person is likely to come under +the spell of hypnotism or mediumship or have visions or begin to hear +voices, but all these experiences are of an undesirable character and should +therefore be guarded against as much as possible. It would be very unwise +under these directions to enter the seance room of a spiritualistic meeting +where the conditions favor such manifestations, and if the aspects occur +from water signs--Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces--there is a strong tendency to +form a drink or drug habit which may operate to the sorrow and trouble of +the person for all the rest of his life. As these aspects produce a mental +and physical lassitude, when the vital forces are low and the person +negative, such undesirable influences are particularly apt to gain a +foothold. There is also a danger from plots by secret enemies which tend to + + +[PAGE 510] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +bring the person into discredit and trouble. He may even suffer imprison- +ment or be confined in a hospital through ill-health, for Neptune rules +prisons, hospitals, insane asylums, and similar places. Great care should +be taken in all dealings with others. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL NEPTUNE. + +If Neptune was well aspected at birth these directions may bring a slight +extension of consciousness and if the solar aspects to Neptune are also in +force at the same time an initiation may be looked for by those who are suf- +ficiently advanced to respond to this influence. But to the majority of +people it will probably mean only a pleasant time, a feast of music or some +similar experience. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED PARALLEL OR CONJUNCTION RADICAL ASCENDANT OR +MIDHEAVEN. + +These aspects bring changes in the life, but whether these are good or bad +depends upon the other influences operating in the horoscope at the time. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL MIDHEAVEN. + +If other influences agree this is a time of beneficial changes, preferment +and honor, and general success in the various departments of life. + + +[PAGE 511] PROGRESSED LUNAR DIRECTIONS + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL MIDHEAVEN. + +These aspects indicate loss of prestige, trouble and anxiety, financial +loss, especially if dealing with women. It is a bad time to travel or make +changes. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SEXTILE OR TRINE TO RADICAL ASCENDANT. + +These aspects bring beneficial changes, financial prosperity, and general +good fortune. + + THE MOON PROGRESSED SQUARE OR OPPOSITION TO RADICAL ASCENDANT. + +These aspects mark a period of trouble. Ill-health may be looked for, and +if any changes or removals are made they will be to the person's disadvan- +tage. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + diff --git a/religious documents/ms09.txt b/religious documents/ms09.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..81f1718 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ms09.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1754 @@ +[PAGE 512] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER XXVI + + MUTUAL PLANETARY DIRECTIONS + + Aspects between two progressed planets have little or no potency, but +when a planet by progression comes into aspect with a RADICAL planet it op- +erates for good or ill, according to its nature and the power of the radical +planet in the horoscope. + + In the following paragraphs we have set down these tendencies, and it +matters not whether Venus progresses to a good aspect with radical Saturn, +or Saturn progresses to a good aspect with radical Venus, the effects are as +noted in the first paragraph, and similarly with the other aspects follow- +ing. + + VENUS AND SATURN IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION indicate a period of fi- +nancial success, gain in social prestige and emotional exaltation. The re- +ligious and devotional nature is likely to receive an awakening. + + VENUS AND SATURN IN EVIL ASPECT BY PROGRESSION indicate a period of sor- +row and trouble. Both the health and reputation suffer; delays, disappoint- +ment and losses are frequent and annoying. Others will seek to impose upon + + +[PAGE 513] MUTUAL PLANETARY DIRECTIONS + +the person; death or separation from loved ones, and other disagreeable ex- +periences are met. The mind is gloomy and inclined to worry. + + MERCURY AND SATURN IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION mark a good time to un- +dertake new responsibilities, make investments in houses, mines, lands, or +similar property, undertake study or research work of a deeper nature, and +make important contracts which will prove of lasting benefit to the person. +It is a good time to deal with agents and elderly persons, or to undertake +journeys for a serious purpose. + + MERCURY AND SATURN AFFLICTED BY PROGRESSION indicate a time of delays and +disappointments with a tendency to look upon the dark side of things. It is +a bad time to undertake new responsibilities, deal with elderly people or +sign legal papers. The person is liable to slander and loss of reputation. + + MARS AND SATURN IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION mark a period when the per- +son will be very enterprising yet tactful and diplomatic, courageous but not +foolhardy, strong and dignified, better able to shoulder the responsi- +bilities of life than at any other time. If he makes proper use of these +qualities he will gain financially, also in honor and respect among his as- +sociates. + + +[PAGE 514] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + MARS AND SATURN IN BAD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION make the person very fool- +hardy and impulsive, hence there is a liability to accident under these di- +rections. Occasionally when the horoscope shows violence there is a +tendency to crime and bloodshed which may result in imprisonment. All the +vices of the character seem to come to the fore at this time, and loss of +temper is the least among them. The greatest care should be taken to keep +the animal nature down and hold a firm check upon all the undesirable traits +in the character. + + VENUS AND JUPITER IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION bring financial benefits, +and a rise in social position and esteem. They make the person more kindly, +sympathetic and considerate, hence increase his popularity. It is a good +time to travel and enjoy life. Investments made under this influence are +generally successful, and the health is excellent, or if the person has been +ill this marks the period of convalescence and recuperation, when life takes +on a rosier hue. + + VENUS AND JUPITER AFFLICTING EACH OTHER BY PROGRESSION indicate a period +of mild domestic trouble, small financial losses and a tendency to ex- +travagance and wastefulness, pecuniary difficulties on that account, and +possibly lawsuits. There is also some loss of prestige in the social circle +or the person's environment. + + +[PAGE 515] MUTUAL PLANETARY DIRECTIONS + + MERCURY AND JUPITER IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION indicate a very suc- +cessful period in the life. The person will probably travel with both plea- +sure and profit to himself. He will have good health and be in the best of +spirits, so that life in general will take on a very rosy hue. There are +indications of gain by investments and in the general course of his busi- +ness, and it is a good time to enter into contracts and agreements, espe- +cially for literary work. + + MERCURY AND JUPITER AFFLICTED BY PROGRESSION mark a troublesome time, +when the person is liable to become involved in lawsuits and lose thereby. +He should be very careful not to sign papers or enter into agreements, for +there will be trouble and misunderstanding, involving financial loss; also +if he lends money to other people they will endeavor to impose upon him and +defraud him, and dealings with agents and commission men should be par- +ticularly avoided. + + MARS AND JUPITER IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION mark a period in life when +the usual conservatism of Jupiter is blended with the martian enthusiasm, +hence the person will become more enthusiastic and enterprising so that he +is likely to extend his business and be successful in gaining an added in- +come thereby. He should be careful, however, not to overreach himself at + + +[PAGE 516] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +this time. These aspects also work upon the devotional nature and may some- +times express themselves as religious enthusiasm when the person turns over +a new leaf and becomes a better man or woman than before. + + MARS AND JUPITER IN EVIL ASPECT BY PROGRESSION mark a danger point in the +life when the person is liable to wreck his whole career by acts which are +definitely criminal, or by losses due to ostentatious display and ex- +travagance, or he may become interested in some wildcat mining scheme or +speculate upon the stock exchange in such a reckless manner that he loses +all he has and becomes a pauper. The health is also likely to suffer under +this direction; impurities of the blood may cause growths, tumors, boils, +and kindred afflictions. Altogether it is a very evil time and the person +should guard himself very carefully against yielding to any of these influ- +ences. + + VENUS AND MARS IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION mark a period of pleasure +and enjoyment when an attachment of a lasting nature may be formed with +someone through an enthusiastic courtship. There are also indications of +financial gain and an increase of popularity. + + VENUS AND MARS IN EVIL ASPECT BY PROGRESSION mark a period of impulse and +recklessness when the person is likely to act in a most indiscreet manner + + +[PAGE 517] MUTUAL PLANETARY DIRECTIONS + +that may cause great trouble in life. If married there will be some domes- +tic unhappiness. Financial losses and discredit are also shown, therefore +the person should endeavor to hold himself in check and avoid any tempta- +tions that may come in his path. + + MERCURY AND MARS IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION mark a time when the per- +son is generally successful in all affairs of life, especially where the +mental qualities are called into action, for this will make him keen, shrewd +and sharp, quick to see a point and grasp an advantage, hence financial gain +is also indicated. This is a good time for advertising and extending the +person's business, entering contracts and agreements, and dealing with +agents and middlemen. It is good for literary work of a lighter nature, and +an excellent time to travel. The health is good and there is a feeling of +cheerfulness, joy and optimism. + + MERCURY AND MARS IN EVIL ASPECT BY PROGRESSION. This is a critical time +when the person is liable to act on impulse, to speak and act impulsively +without due deliberation and forethought, hence he is likely to get into +trouble or suffer loss through the sharp practices of other people. He +should therefore be very careful not so sign papers or enter into agree- + + +[PAGE 518] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +ments, and there is danger of accident and trouble if the person travels. +It is a bad time for changes or extensions of business. + + MARS AND URANUS IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION indicate a good period for +perfecting inventions or starting new and original enterprises. Friendships +of a beneficial nature are often made under these directions, and not infre- +quently a psychic awakening takes place through associations with people, or +groups of people, or a Uranian nature. + + MARS AND URANUS IN EVIL ASPECT BY PROGRESSION mark a very dangerous time +in the person's life. There is a liability to accidents of an unusual na- +ture, a breaking up of conditions, estrangement from friends, and the person +is liable to find himself suddenly alone in the world. Sometimes there is a +psychic awakening but always of an undesirable nature. + + MARS AND NEPTUNE IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION mark a time of good health +and high spirits for advanced people, but the majority do not feel its in- +fluence. + + MARS AND NEPTUNE IN EVIL ASPECT BY PROGRESSION produce a neurotic condi- +tion in those who can respond to its influence. There is also a liability +to be defrauded or victimized in some unaccountable manner. + + +[PAGE 519] MUTUAL PLANETARY DIRECTIONS + + VENUS AND URANUS IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION give a probability of some +financial gain and it is likely that the person will have what he considers +a good time, involving probably a romantic love affair, but it is likely to +leave a sting behind. This direction insures the aid of friends and in- +creases the popularity of the person for the time being. + + VENUS AND URANUS IN EVIL ASPECT BY PROGRESSION are a fruitful cause of +domestic unhappiness and divorce. This direction is likely to bring about a +scandal on account of immoral conduct. Lawsuits and financial loss are also +threatened, and the person is likely to act in a most erratic manner. + + VENUS AND NEPTUNE IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION indicate a period of suc- +cess in social matters, happiness and enjoyment of life for those who can +respond to this direction. The person is particularly apt to indulge in the +building of air castles and the concoction of roseate daydreams which are of +no particular avail but serve to make the period thoroughly enjoyable. + + VENUS AND NEPTUNE IN EVIL ASPECT BY PROGRESSION are likely to bring some +psychic experience of a disagreeable nature connected with mediumship or +hypnotism. There is a tendency to sensuality and immorality, occasionally + + +[PAGE 520] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the indulgence in drinks or drugs which will cause sorrow and trouble to +come to the person. + + MERCURY AND URANUS IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION make the native active +mentally, bring unexpected pleasures, give impulse to mental work, make the +mind keen and give a desire for occult investigation. Many are attracted to +and become interested in altruistic and humanitarian work under this aspect. + + MERCURY AND URANUS AFFLICTING EACH OTHER BY PROGRESSION make the native +unconventional, erratic and restless, create a nervous, wayward state of +mind, and may bring unexpected lawsuits. + + MERCURY AND NEPTUNE IN GOOD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION. The mind is active +and inclined to the study of Astrology and Mysticism. The native is apt to +travel by water and make changes. Only those who are advanced along +spiritual lines feel the effect of Neptune. + + MERCURY AND NEPTUNE IN BAD ASPECT BY PROGRESSION. Persons under this in- +fluence should guard against investments in corporations. The mind is dis- +turbed by evil thoughts and the morals may be lax if such a tendency is +shown in the natal horoscope. + + SATURN, JUPITER, URANUS, AND NEPTUNE seldom form aspects by progression +on account of their slow motion. + + +[PAGE 521] TRANSITS + + CHAPTER XXVII + + TRANSITS + + The progressed positions of planets are the principal significators of +events, but the transitory positions of the planets in space at the actual +time of events strengthen or weaken effects of aspects in the progressed +horoscope, according to whether they are akin in nature or not. The New +Moons are particularly potent. These so-called TRANSITS are seen in the +ephemeris for the actual year of events. + + THE INCREASING OR DECREASING MOON + + Among the points in Astrology which bother the beginner, is when the Moon +is increasing in light or decreasing. Astrological works frequently use +these expressions when tabulating the effects of various configurations. +But so far as we know, no explanation has been given elsewhere, and we trust +the following may make the subject clear to students. + + Each month the Moon comes into conjunction with the Sun, and this con- +junction of the luminaries is called a LUNATION OR NEW MOON. After the con- +junction or New Moon, she may be seen in the western sky close to the hori- +zon as a tiny crescent; day by day the lighted surface grows larger; at the +time of the opposition to the Sun she has increased her light to the fullest + + +[PAGE 522] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +capacity, and at that time we speak of her as a full Moon; she then rises in +the eastern sky at the same time as the Sun sets in the west. From that +time for another fortnight it will be observed that she rises later and +later in the night; at the same time the illuminated part of her disc de- +creases until just before the next conjunction or new Moon, early risers may +observe her in the eastern sky just before sunrise as a tiny crescent upon +the vault of heaven. Thus the Moon is increasing in light from the time of +its conjunction or new Moon to the opposition, or full Moon, and from the +full Moon to the net New Moon it is decreasing in light. The times of the +New Moon, Full Moon and eclipses are given each month in our SIMPLIFIED SCI- +ENTIFIC EPHEMERIS, which see. + + Transits of Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter are important, and when +the student has become familiar with the mysteries of the progressed horo- +scope but not before, he may profitably write the ephemeral position of +these planets outside the progressed horoscope and watch their effect, also +the aspects of the New Moons. But be sure, at first, to keep the progressed +horoscope down to first principles, for fancy aspects are "the stuff dreams +are made of," the warp and woof of astrological romances which fade away +into moonshine and leave the astrologer discomfited. It is comparatively +easy to wield the shuttle of imagination with natal, progressed and transit- + + +[PAGE 523] TRANSITS + +ing planets, each set with its corresponding houses, and a multitude of as- +pects to choose from, but simple judgment based upon the prime essentials of +a horoscope is almost invariably justified by events. + + SATURN TRANSITING THE RADICAL SUN, MOON, VENUS OR JUPITER. +These transits lower the vitality and act as a damper on the spirits of the +person; there is a tendency to colds, gloom and melancholy, delays and dis- +appointments, and if Saturn should turn retrograde passing and repassing +these points, quite a long time of trouble and anxiety results. + + SATURN TRANSITING SQUARE OR OPPOSITION RADICAL SUN, MOON, VENUS OR +JUPITER. +These aspects will produce similar effect to the conjunction but more in- +tense, and falls, bruises, or broken bones are often additional results. + + SATURN TRANSITING SEXTILE OR TRINE THE RADICAL SUN, MOON, VENUS OR +JUPITER. +These aspects do not produce any benefit so far as has been observed. + + SATURN TRANSITING SEXTILE OR TRINE THE RADICAL MERCURY. +These aspects steady the mind and make it more capable of concentration when +Saturn is direct, or when he is retrograde, but aspecting Mercury by SQUARE + + +[PAGE 524] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +OR OPPOSITION, fear, worry, melancholy, gloom and trouble result; then it +is also dangerous to travel. + + SATURN TRANSITING RADICAL MARS, URANUS OR NEPTUNE. +These transits always mark a time of trouble, NO MATTER WHAT THE ASPECT, but +the nature of the trouble is best determined by the house and sign where the +afflicted planet is located. + + SATURN TRANSITING THE RADICAL MIDHEAVEN. +This aspect always produces slander, discredit and loss of prestige. + + SATURN TRANSITING THE SIXTH OR TWELFTH HOUSE OR THE ASCENDANT. +These positions have an inimical effect on the health, according to the +signs which are on the cusps of these houses. + + JUPITER TRANSITING SEXTILE OR TRINE THE RADICAL SUN, VENUS, MERCURY OR +MOON. +These aspects bring health, happiness and financial benefit in accordance +with the radical indications. If Jupiter retrogrades he is not so active +but the period of good is protracted by his repeated direct passage over the +good aspects. + + +[PAGE 525] TRANSITS + + JUPITER TRANSITING SQUARE OR OPPOSITION RADICAL SUN, VENUS, MERCURY OR +MOON. +These aspects are not very evil because evil is out of harmony with the ba- +sic nature of Jupiter. + + JUPITER TRANSITING OR ASPECTING RADICAL SATURN, MARS, URANUS OR NEPTUNE. +These aspects produce no appreciable results because the basic natures of +these planets are entirely different. This is on the same principle that +tuning forks of different pitch do not respond to one another. + + URANUS TRANSITING RADICAL SUN OR VENUS. +These transits produce romantic attachments, Bohemian pleasures, unconven- +tional experiences; when Uranus is retrograde this may last for a long time, +but when he is in evil aspect immorality, scandal and divorce may result. + + URANUS TRANSITING RADICAL MARS, MOON OR MERCURY. +These aspects of Uranus to the radical Mars. Moon or Mercury have a ten- +dency to make the person rash, reckless, foolhardy and erratic, sometimes to +the point of insanity if other testimonies in the horoscope concur, the +phase of the mental disturbance varying from violence when induced by Mars, +to mild idiocy when produced by the Moon. + + +[PAGE 526] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + URANUS TRANSITING OR IN EVIL ASPECT TO RADICAL SATURN, MARS OR NEPTUNE. +These transits cause trouble according to the house and sign where Uranus is +located. Good aspects produce no benefit as far as we have observed. + + NEPTUNE TRANSITING RADICAL MERCURY OR MOON. +These aspects bring a spiritual awakening accompanied by dreams and visions +of an elevating nature. These aspects are also good for travel, but the bad +aspects make the mind unclean, polluted and criminal if the radical horo- +scope allows, so that the person may commit a crime and suffer imprisonment. +Mediumship is also often the result of these transits. + + +[PAGE 527] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + PART II + + MEDICAL ASTROLOGY + + AFTER AN EXTENSIVE PRACTICE OF MANY YEARS, THE + FOLLOWING TREATISE IS SUBMITTED AS EMBODYING + THE AUTHORS' EXPERIENCE, GAINED BY SUC- + CESSFUL DIAGNOSIS OF MANY THOUSANDS + OF HOROSCOPES + + [But we want to make it clearly understood that we do not cast horoscopes +for money, or tell fortunes. Our work is a strictly humanitarian undertak- +ing. To us, Astrology is a phase of religion.] + + +[PAGE 528] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + + ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASE + + Parents have an exceptional opportunity and may lay up much treasure in +heaven by judicious care of growing children based upon knowledge of tenden- +cies to disease revealed by the horoscope. The writers rely implicitly upon +the horoscope's testimony and though in a few cases doubts have been ex- +pressed as to the correctness of our diagnosis, because it varied from that +of practitioners in personal touch with the patient, subsequent developments +have invariable vindicated our judgment and proved the far-reaching penetra- +tion of Astrology which is as much in advance of the X-Ray as that is supe- +rior to a candle, for even though the X-Ray were capable of illuminating the +entire body to such an extent that we could see each individual cell in ac- +tivity, it could only show the conditions of the body at a given moment. +But the horoscope shows incipient disease from the cradle to the grave, thus +it gives us ample time to apply the ounce of prevention, and maybe escape an +illness, or at least, ameliorate its severity when disease has overtaken us. +It indicates to the day when crises are due. Thus forewarned, we may take +extra precautionary measures to tide over the critical point. It indicates + + +[PAGE 529] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASE + +when the inimical influences will wane and fortifies us to bear present suf- +fering with strength born of the knowledge that recovery at a specific time +is certain. Thus Astrology offers help and hope in a manner obtainable by +no other method; for its scope is wider than all other systems, and it pen- +etrates to the very soul of Being. + + AN IMPORTANT WARNING + + If letters of fire that would burn themselves into the consciousness of +the reader were obtainable, we would spare no effort to procure them for the +purpose of warning students on some particular points in connection with the +practice of medical Astrology; these are: + + Never tell a patient a discouraging fact. + Never tell him when impending crises are due. + Never predict sickness at a certain time. + Never, NEVER predict death. + + It is a grave mistake, almost a crime, to tell sick persons anything dis- +couraging, for it robs them of strength that should be husbanded with the +utmost care to facilitate recovery. It is also wrong to suggest sickness to +a well person, for it focuses the mind on a specific disease at a certain +time, and such a suggestion is liable to cause sickness. it is a well known +fact that many students in medical colleges feel the symptoms of every dis- +ease they study, and suffer greatly in consequence of auto-suggestion, but + + +[PAGE 530] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the idea of impending disease implanted by one in whom the victim has faith +is much more dangerous; therefore it behooves the medical astrologer to be +very cautious. If you cannot say anything encouraging, be silent. + + This warning applies with particular force when treating patients having +Taurus or Virgo rising or the Sun or Moon in those signs. These positions +predispose the mind to center on disease, often in a most unwarranted man- +ner. The Taurean fears sickness to an almost insane degree, and prediction +of disease is fatal to this nature. The Virgos court disease, in order to +gain sympathy, and though professing to long for recovery, they actually de- +light in nursing disease. They beg to know their symptoms, the crises, and +delight in probing the matter to the depths; they will plead ability to +stand full knowledge and profess that it will help them; but if the practi- +tioner allows himself to be enticed by their protestations, and does tell +them, they wilt like a flower. They are the most difficult people to help +in any case, and extra care should be taken not to aggravate their chances +by admissions of the nature indicated. + + Besides, thought the writers have used medical Astrology for many years +and with astonishing success, and though Astrology, as a science, is abso- +lutely exact and infallible, it must not be forgotten that there remains +nevertheless the chance of mistaken judgment on the part of the practitioner +and the chance that the person whose horoscope he is judging may assert his + + +[PAGE 531] TRANSITS + +will to such an extent that it overrules the indication in the horoscope. +He may change his mode of life without knowing what would have happened if +he had gone on as before, and thus he may be in no danger at the time when +the tendency to sickness shown by the horoscope arrives; it is cruel to un- +settle his mind in any case. Naturally, the young student would be most li- +able to make a mistake in judgment, but no one is immune. We remember a +case that came to our notice recently. One of the most prominent European +astrologers predicted for a client in South Africa that on a certain date he +would have a severe haemorrhage of the lungs. The poor man wrote to us for +help, but though liability to colds in the lungs was shown, we saw no seri- +ous trouble at the time predicted, nor has haemorrhage been experienced in +the year elapsed between that time and the present writing. + + Some students have a morbid desire to know the time of their own death, +and probe into this matter in a most unwarranted manner; but not matter how +they may seek to deceive themselves there are very few who have the mental +and moral stamina to live life in the same manner, if they knew with abso- +lute certainty that on a certain date their earthly existence would be ter- +minated. That is one of the points most wisely hidden until we are to see +on both sides of the veil, and we do wrong, no matter what our ground, to +seek to wrest that knowledge from the horoscope. + + +[PAGE 532] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + Moreover, it has been well said that "the doctor who prescribes for him- +self has a fool for a patient," and this applies to diagnosis of one's own +horoscope with tenfold force, for there we are all biased; either we make +too light of conditions, or we take them too seriously, particularly if we +investigate the time and mode of death. We remember a case where an intel- +lectual women, principal of a private school in New York, wrote asking for +admission to our correspondence class, "if we thought it worth while, as she +was going to die the first week in March." She gave us all the aspects upon +which she based her judgment, and as one of the writers had just emerged +hale and hearty from similar configurations, she gave the lade in question a +good talking to that straightened her out; she told the lady she (the +writer) expected to live to a ripe age. Now that lady is thinking of a use- +ful life, she has learned to forget death. Astrology is too sacred to be +thus misused. Let the student forget about his own horoscope and devote his +knowledge to helping others; then it will aid him in accumulating treasure +in heaven as no other line of spiritual endeavor will. + + PLANETARY POLARITIES + + When we study magnetism we are dealing with an invisible force; and ordi- +narily we can at best state the way it manifests in the physical world, as +is the case whenever we deal with any FORCE. The physical world is the +world of effects; the causes are hidden from our sight, though they are + + +[PAGE 533] PLANETARY POLARITIES + +nearer than hands or feet. Force is all about us, invisible and only seen +by the effects it produces. + + If we take a dish of water, for illustration, and allow it to freeze, we +shall see a myriad of ice crystals, beautiful geometrical figures. These +show the lines along which the water congealed and these lines are lines of +force which were present before the water congealed; but they were invisible +until the proper conditions were furnished them and they became manifest. +In the same way there are lines of force going between the two poles of a +magnet; they are neither seen nor felt until we bring iron or iron filings +into the place where they are, when they will manifest by arranging the fil- +ings in an orderly pattern. By making the proper conditions we may cause +any of the nature forces to show their effects--moving our street cars, car- +rying messages with lightning speed over thousands of miles, etc., etc.; but +the FORCE itself is ever invisible. We know that magnetism travels always +at right angles to the electric current with which it manifests; we know the +difference between the manifestations of the electric and the magnetic +current, so dependent upon one another, but we have never seen either; +though they are about the most valuable servants we have today. + + Magnetism may be divided into "mineral" and "animal" magnetism, though in +reality they are one, but the former has very little influence upon animal + + +[PAGE 534] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +tissue, while the latter is generally impotent in working with minerals. + + The mineral magnetism is derived directly from lodestones which are used +to magnetize iron, and this process gives to the metal thus treated the +property of attracting iron. This kind of magnet is very little used, how- +ever, as its magnetism becomes depleted, is too weak in proportion to its +bulk, and principally because the magnetic force cannot be controlled in +such a so-called "permanent" magnet. + + The "electro-magnet" is also a "mineral" magnet. It is simply a piece of +iron wound around with many turns of electric wire; the strength of the mag- +net varies as the number of turns of wire, and the strength of the electric +current that is passed through it. + + Electricity is all about us in a diffused state, of no use for industrial +purposes until it is COMPRESSED and forced through the electric wires by the +powerful ELECTRO-MAGNETS. We must have MAGNETISM in the FIRST place before +we can get any electricity. Before a new electric generator is started the +"fields," which are nothing but electro-magnets, must be magnetized. If +that is not done they may turn it till the crack of doom, at any rate of +speed they please, and it will never light a single lamp nor move a grain of +weight; all depends upon the magnetism being there FIRST. After this magne- +tism is once started it will leave a little behind when the generator is +shut down, and this so-called "residual magnetism" will be the nucleus of + + +[PAGE 535] PLANETARY POLARITIES + +force to be built up each time the generator is started afresh. + + All bodies of plants, animals and men are but transformed mineral. They +have all come from the mineral kingdom in the first place, and chemical +analysis of the plant, animal and human bodies brings out the fact beyond +cavil. Moreover, we know that the plants get their sustenance from the min- +eral soil, and both animal and man are eating mineral when they consume the +plants as food; even when man eats the animals he is nevertheless eating +mineral compounds, and therefore he gets with his food both the mineral sub- +stances and the magnetic force which they contain. + + This force we see manifesting in "Haemoglobin," or the red coloring mat- +ter in the blood, which attracts the life-giving oxygen when it comes into +contact with it in the millions of minute capillaries of the lungs, parting +with it as readily when it passes through the capillaries which all over the +body connect the arteries with the veins. Why is this? + + To understand this, we must acquaint ourselves a little closer with the +way magnetism manifests as seen in industrial uses. + + There are always two fields or a multiple of two fields in a generator or +motor, every alternate "field" or magnet being "north-pole" and every other +one, "south-pole." If we wish to run two or more generators "in multiple" +and force their electricity into the same wire, the first requisite is that + + +[PAGE 536] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the magnetic current in the field-magnets should run IN THE SAME DIRECTION. + + If that were not the case, they would not run together; they would gener- +ate currents going in OPPOSITE directions, blowing their fuses. That would +be because the poles in one generator, which should have attracted, re- +pelled, and vice-versa. The remedy is to change the ends of the wire which +magnetizes the fields; then the magnetic current in one generator will be- +come like the current of the other, and both will run smoothly together. + + Similar conditions prevail in magnetic healing; a certain vibratory pitch +and magnetic polarity were infused into each of us when the stellar forces +surged through our bodies and gave us our planetary baptism at the moment +when we drew our first complete breath. These are modified during our pil- +grimage of life, but in the main their initial impulse remains undisturbed +and therefore the horoscope at birth retains the most vital power in life to +determine our sympathies and antipathies as well as all other matters. Nay +more, its pronouncements are more reliable than our conscious likes and dis- +likes. + + Sometimes we may meet and learn to like a person, although we have a +feeling that he has an inimical influence on us for which we cannot account, +and therefore strive to put aside; but a comparison of his horoscope with +our own will reveal the reason and if we are wise we heed its warning, or as +surely as the circling stars move in their orbits around the Sun we will + + +[PAGE 537] PLANETARY POLARITIES + +live to regret our disregard of this handwriting on the wall. + + But there are also many cases when we do not sense the antipathy between +ourselves and a certain person, though the horoscope reveals it, and if we +see the signs when comparing the two horoscopes we may feel inclined to +trust our feelings rather than the stellar script of the horoscopes. That +also will in time lead to trouble, for the planetary polarity is certain to +manifest in time unless both parties are sufficiently evolved to rule their +stars in a large measure. Such people are few and far between at our +present stage of evolution. Therefore we shall do well if we use our knowl- +edge of the stellar script to compare our horoscopes with those at least who +come intimately into our lives. This may save both them and us much misery +and heartache. We would advise this course particularly with regard to a +healer and his patients, and with reference to a prospective marriage part- +ner. + + When anyone is ill, resistance is at the lowest ebb, and on that account +he is then least able to withstand outside influences. So the vibrations of +the healer have practically unrestrained effect, and even though he may be +ensouled by the noblest of altruistic motives, desiring to pour out his very +life for the benefit of the patient, if their stars were adverse at birth, +his vibratory pitch and magnetism are bound to have an inimical effect upon +the patient. Therefore it is of prime necessity that any healer should + + +[PAGE 538] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +have a knowledge of Astrology and the law of compatibility, whether he be- +longs to those who admittedly heal by magnetism and the laying on of hands +or to the regular schools of physicians, for the latter also infuse their +vibrations into the patient's aura and help or hinder according to the +agreement of their planetary polarity with that of the patient. + + What has been said with regard to the healer applies with tenfold force +to the nurse, for he or she is with the patient practically all the time and +the contact is so much more intimate. + + For healer, nurse and patient, compatibility is determined by the rising +sign, Saturn, and the Sixth House. If their rising signs agree in nature so +that all have fiery signs rising, or all have earthy, airy, or watery signs +rising, they are harmonious, but if the patient has a water sign rising, a +nurse or a doctor with fiery signs will have a very detrimental effect. + + It is also necessary to see that Saturn in the horoscope of the nurse of +healer is not placed in any of the degrees of the zodiac within the +patient's Sixth House. + + With respect to marriage the planetary polarity is shown principally by a +consideration of the feminine Moon and Venus in a man's horoscope, for they +describe his attractions towards the opposite sex, and in a woman's horo- +scope the masculine Sun and Mars have a similar significance. If these +planets are harmoniously configurated and the signs on the cusps of the + + +[PAGE 539] PLANETARY POLARITIES + +Seventh Houses of the prospective partners agree, harmony will prevail, es- +pecially if the Sun, Venus or Jupiter of one person is placed in the Seventh +House of the other. But if the planets mentioned afflict one another, or +the Seventh Houses of the parties are out of harmony, or if Saturn, Mars, +Uranus or Neptune of one is in a degree included in the Seventh House of the +other, it is the handwriting on the wall which indicates that the planetary +polarities are inharmonious and that sorrow is in store for them if they al- +low their evanescent emotions to draw them together in a bond of unhappi- +ness; for it is easy to change the field wires on two electric generators so +that their polarities will agree, but it is extremely difficult to reverse +the planetary polarity of one person to make it agree with that received by +another at his planetary baptism. + + +[PAGE 540] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER XXIX + + THE LAW OF CORRESPONDENCES + + It is said in the Bible that God made man in His likeness, and from hoary +antiquity seers and sages have noted a correspondence between the MACROCOSM, +the great world, and the MICROCOSM, the little world, or man. This is again +expressed in the hermetic axiom which is the master-key to all mysteries: +"AS ABOVE, SO BELOW." Therefore we may note that the various parts of the +human body are correlated to different divisions of the vaulted arch of +heaven and the marching orbs that move through it. As the creative forces +within the womb act upon the ovum and gradually build the foetus, so also +the stellar rays from the macrocosmic body of mother nature are active upon +man. It is their activity which we note in the process of evolution whereby +that which is now man has come up through the lower kingdoms to his present +stage of completion, and it is by the same rays that he will gradually +evolve to the divine stature where he will indeed be like the Father in +Heaven, consequently we may note the correspondences between the signs and +planets and the different divisions of the human body as follows: + + +[PAGE 541] THE LAW OF CORRESPONDENCES + + PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF THE TWELVE SIGNS + +ARIES rules the head, the cerebral hemispheres, the various organs within +the head, and the eyes, but the nose is under the rulership of Scorpio. + + Thus any affliction in Aries will react upon the head, producing head- +aches, neuralgia, coma and trance conditions, diseases of the brain and ce- +rebral hemorrhages. + +TAURUS rules the neck, throat, palate, larynx and tonsils, lower jaw, ears, +and occipital region. The cerebellum is also under the rule of Taurus, so +are the atlas and cervical vertebrae, the carotid arteries, jugular veins, +and certain minor blood vessels. + + The diseases to which these regions are subject are goitre, diphtheria, +croup and apoplexy. As each sign always reacts upon the opposite, afflic- +tions in Taurus may also produce venereal diseases, constipation, or ir- +regular menses. + +GEMINI rules the arms and hands, shoulders, lungs, and the thymus gland, +also the upper ribs, therefore afflictions in Gemini cause pulmonary dis- +eases, pneumonia, pleurisy, bronchitis, asthma and inflammation of the +pericardium. + +CANCER rules the oesophagus, stomach, diaphragm, pancreas, the mammae, +lacteals, upper lobes of liver, and thoracic duct, hence afflictions in + + +[PAGE 542] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Cancer produce indigestion, gas in the stomach, cough, hiccough, dropsy, +gloom, hypochondria, hysteria, gall stones, and jaundice. + +LEO rules the heart, the dorsal region of the spine, the spinal cord, and +the aorta, therefore the afflictions in Leo cause regurgitation, palpita- +tion, faintings, aneurism, spinal meningitis, and curvature of the spine, +also arterio-sclerosis and angina pectoris, hyperaemia, anaemia and +hydraemia. + +VIRGO rules the abdominal region, the large and small intestines, the lower +lobes of the liver, and the spleen, therefore afflictions in Virgo produce +peritonitis, tapeworm, malnutrition, interference with the absorption of the +chyle, typhoid fever, cholera, and appendicitis. + +LIBRA rules the kidneys, the suprarenals, the lumbar region of the spine, +the vasomotor system and the skin, hence afflictions in Libra produce +polyuria, or suppression of the urine, inflammation of the ureters which +connect the kidneys with the bladder, Bright's disease, lumbago, eczema and +other skin diseases. + +SCORPIO rules the bladder, urethra, and genital organs in general, also the +rectum and the descending colon, the sigmoid flexure, the prostate gland, +and the nasal bones; hence afflictions in Scorpio produce nasal catarrh, + + +[PAGE 543] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF THE SIGNS + +adenoids, and polypi, diseases of the womb and ovaries, various venereal +diseases, stricture, and enlargement of the prostate gland, irregularities +of the menses, leucorrhoea, rupture, renal stones and gravel. + +SAGITTARIUS rules the hips and thighs, the femur, ilium, the coccygeal and +sacral regions of the spine, the iliac arteries and veins, sciatic nerves, +hence afflictions to Sagittarius produce locomotor ataxia, sciatica, rheuma- +tism, and hip diseases. Furthermore, as each sign has an influence upon its +opposite, afflictions in Sagittarius may also cause pulmonary troubles. It +is also noteworthy that broken bones are caused by this sign. + +CAPRICORN governs the skin and the knees, but it has also a reflex action on +the stomach, which is governed by the opposite sign Cancer. Hence afflic- +tions in Capricorn produce eczema and other skin diseases, erysipelas, lep- +rosy, and digestive disturbances. + +AQUARIUS rules the ankles, the limbs from the knees to the ankles, and has +also a reflex action on its opposite sign Leo, hence afflictions in Aquarius +produce varicose veins, sprained ankles, irregularities of the heart action +and dropsy. + + +[PAGE 544] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +PISCES rules the feet and toes. It also has a reflex effect on the ab- +dominal region governed by the opposite sign, Virgo, hence afflictions in +this sign indicate trouble and deformities of the feet, intestinal diseases +and dropsy. It also produces a desire for drink and drugs which may bring +about delirium tremens. Consumption is sometimes found to be a secondary +result of cold in the feet contracted by an afflicted Pisces. + + PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF THE SUN + + The Sun rules in the very first place the vital fluid which is special- +ized through the spleen, transferred to the solar plexus, and thence dis- +tributed over the whole body. This vital fluid is invisible to ordinary hu- +manity, but to those gifted with the spiritual sight it appears as a +rose-colored fluid which is like the electricity in the wires of a telephone +or telegraph system. When the wires designed to carry electricity are minus +the electric fluid they are dead and the telephone or telegraph instruments +do not respond. Similarly, when for some reason the invisible vitial fluid +ceases to flow through any part of the human organism in sufficient guan- +tity, that part of the body will not perform its proper function, and there- +fore disease results, continuing until some obstruction has been removed and +the path cleared for the vital fluid. On that account an afflicted Sun al- +ways causes disease, particularly in a man's horoscope, and in a woman's + + +[PAGE 545] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF THE SUN + +nativity the Moon, which is the collector of solar forces, takes the same +office or function. The heart and the PONS VAROLII, or vital knot, situated +in the brain, are the principal parts of the body ruled by the Sun. When +the Sun is well aspected in Leo or Aries radiant health may be looked for. +But on the other hand, when he is afflicted he produces the various ailments +according to the sign wherein he is placed at the time. These disabilities +may be set down as follows: + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN ARIES, the sign which rules the head, gives a tendency +to aphasia, loss of identity, brain fever, cerebral haemorrhage, and menin- +gitis, cerebral anaemia or congestion of the blood, faintings and headaches. + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN TAURUS gives a tendency to quinsy, diphtheria, and +polypus of the nose. In the Pleiades (Taurus 29), eye trouble. + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN GEMINI gives a tendency to pleurisy, bronchitis, and +hyperaemia of the lungs. + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN CANCER gives a tendency to anemia, dropsy, dyspepsia, +and gastric fever. + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN LEO gives a tendency to palpitation of the heart, back- +ache, and spinal affections. In the Ascelli (Leo 6), eye trouble. + + +[PAGE 546] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN VIRGO gives a tendency to interference with the as- +similation, peritonitis, typhoid fever, and dysentery. + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN LIBRA gives a tendency to Bright's disease and erup- +tions of the skin through overheated blood, for Saturn rules the skin and +Libra is his exaltation sign. + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN SCORPIO gives a tendency to renal calculus, +genito-urinary and menstrual disturbances, uterine and ovarian affections. + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN SAGITTARIUS gives a tendency to sciatica, paralysis of +the limbs and pulmonary diseases. If the Sun is in Antares (Sagittarius 8) +and afflicted by one or more of the malefics there is danger of disease of +the eyes. + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN CAPRICORN gives a tendency to rheumatism, skin dis- +eases, and digestive troubles. + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN AQUARIUS gives a tendency to varicose veins, dropsy, +palpitation of the heart, and poor circulation. + +THE SUN AFFLICTED IN PISCES gives a tendency to perspiration of the feet, +also intestinal troubles, typhoid fever, et cetera. + + +[PAGE 547] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF VENUS + + PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF VENUS + + On account of her rulership of Taurus and Libra, Venus is responsible for +a number of affections of the throat and kidneys, also maladies due to gas- +tronomical indiscretions, lack of exercise, sedentary habits, poor circula- +tion of the venous blood, excess of amorous indulgence and dissolute living, +hence she brings obesity, tumors, cysts, poor circulation, venereal dis- +eases, tonsilitis, and various other disorders. Her general effect when +placed in the twelve signs may be classed as follows: + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN ARIES gives a tendency to catarrh in the head, mucus, +and, by reflex action in Libra congestion of the kidneys. + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN TAURUS gives a tendency to mumps, headaches affecting the +occipital region, goitre, tonsilitis, and glandular swellings of the throat. +By reflect action in Scorpio this also brings venereal diseases or other +troubles peculiar to the genitals. + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN GEMINI gives a tendency to corrupt blood, pulmonary inef- +ficiency, whitlows, warts, and dropsy. + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN CANCER gives a tendency to distended stomach, gastric tu- +mor, and nausea. + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN LEO gives a tendency to spinal affections, backache and +enlarged heart. + + +[PAGE 548] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN VIRGO gives a tendency to weakened peristaltic action of +the intestines, tumors, tapeworm, and worms in children. + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN LIBRA gives a tendency to uremia and polyuria; by reflex +action in Aries, headaches. + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN SCORPIO gives a tendency to varicocele, venereal +diseases, uterine prolapsis or tumors, painful menstruation and other female +complaints, and by reflex action in Taurus, throat affections. + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN SAGITTARIUS gives a tendency to tumors and kindred dis- +eases in the hips, and by reflex action in Gemini, bronchial and pulmonary +affections. + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN CAPRICORN gives a tendency to gout in the limbs, and, by +reflex action in Cancer, digestive troubles, nausea and vomiting. + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN AQUARIUS gives a tendency to varicose veins, and, by re- +flex action in Leo, heart trouble. + +VENUS AFFLICTED IN PISCES gives a tendency to tender feet, bunions, chil- +blains, gout, and, by reflex action in Virgo, abdominal tumors and intesti- +nal disorders. + + +[PAGE 549] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF MERCURY + + PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF MERCURY + + Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo, therefore his afflictions manifest in +diseases related to these signs, as bronchitis, pulmonary and respiratory +troubles. He also rules the right cerebral hemisphere, the motor segment of +the spinal cord, and the vocal cords, hence locomotor ataxia and nervous and +vocal disorders are among his manifestations; so is deafness. The following +effects may be noted when he is afflicted in the twelve signs: + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN ARIES gives a tendency to brain fever, nervous head- +ache, vertigo, neuralgia, and, by reflex action in Libra, nervous disorders +of the kidneys, and lumbago. + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN TAURUS gives a tendency to stuttering, hoarseness and +deafness, and by reflex action in Scorpio, nervous affections of the +genito-urinary system. + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN GEMINI gives a tendency to gout in head, arms, and +shoulders, bronchitis, asthma, asphyxiation, pleurisy, and, by reflex action +in Sagittarius, nervous pains in the hips. + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN CANCER gives a tendency to nervous indigestion, phlegm, +flatulence, and drunkenness. + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN LEO gives a tendency to pain in the back, fainting, and +palpitation of the heart. + + +[PAGE 550] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN VIRGO gives a tendency to flatulence, wind colic, short +breath, and nervous debility. + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN LIBRA gives a tendency to suppression of urine, renal +paroxysms, lumbago, and, by reflex action in Aries, vertigo, nervous head- +aches and eye trouble. + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN SCORPIO gives a tendency to pains in bladder and +genitals, menstrual trouble, and, by reflex action in Taurus, stuttering or +hoarseness and deafness. + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN SAGITTARIUS gives a tendency to pain in the hips and +thighs. By reflex action in Gemini, cough, asthma and pleurisy. + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN CAPRICORN gives a tendency to rheumatism, especially in +the knees; pains in the back, skin diseases, melancholy; by reflex action in +Cancer, nervous indigestion, flatulence. + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN AQUARIUS gives a tendency to shooting or gnawing pains +in the whole body, varicose veins, corrupt blood and, by reflex action in +Leo, palpitation, and neuralgia of the heart. + +MERCURY AFFLICTED IN PISCES gives a tendency to gout in the feet, or they +are tender and subject to cramp, or, by reflex action in Virgo, a general +weakness, lassitude, worry, and sometimes tuberculosis, deafness. + + + +[PAGE 551] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF MOON + + PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF THE MOON + + The Moon rules the oesophagus and stomach, the uterus and ovaries, the +lymphatics and the sympathetic nervous system, the synovial fluid. When af- +flicted she produces dropsical and menstrual troubles, uterine and ovarian +afflictions, dyspepsia, eye trouble, and lunacy, according to the sign, +house and nature of the afflicting planet. She has particular rule over the +mother during pregnancy. + +THE MOON AFFLICTED IN ARIES gives a tendency to insomnia, headache, leth- +argy, and weak eyes. + +THE MOON AFFLICTED IN TAURUS gives a tendency to sore throat, and if in Tau- +rus 29 with the Pleiades and afflicted by Saturn, Mars, Uranus, or Neptune, +eye trouble results; by reflex action in Scorpio, menstrual or other trouble +with the genitals. + +THE MOON AFFLICTED IN GEMINI gives a tendency to catarrh of the lungs, +asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia, rheumatism in the arms and shoulders. THE +MOON AFFLICTED IN CANCER gives a tendency to cancer of the stomach, dropsy, +obesity, bloating, digestive troubles, and epilepsy. + +THE MOON AFFLICTED IN LEO gives a tendency to backache, disturbed circula- +tion, convulsions, and heart trouble; if in Leo 6, eye trouble. + + +[PAGE 552] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +THE MOON AFFLICTED IN VIRGO gives a tendency to disorders in the bowels, ab- +dominal tumors, dysentery, and peritonitis. + +THE MOON AFFLICTED IN LIBRA gives a tendency to Bright's disease, abscess of +the kidneys, uraemia; by reflex action in Aries, headache or insomnia. + +THE MOON AFFLICTED IN SCORPIO gives a tendency to disturbed menses, bladder +troubles, hydrocele, and other genito-urinary disturbances; by reflex action +in Taurus, throat troubles. + +THE MOON AFFLICTED IN SAGITTARIUS gives a tendency to blood affections, hip +disease, and, sometimes, a broken femur; by reflex action in Gemini, +asthma. + +THE MOON AFFLICTED IN CAPRICORN gives a tendency to articular rheumatism, +lack of synovial fluid, eruptions of the skin, and by reflex action in Can- +cer, digestive troubles. + +THE MOON AFFLICTED IN AQUARIUS gives a tendency to varicose veins, ulcers of +the leg, dropsy, and, by reflex action in Leo, hysteria, fainting, and heart +trouble. + +THE MOON AFFLICTED IN PISCES gives a tendency to drink, drug habits, tender +feet, and, by reflex action in Virgo, abdominal disorders of various kinds. + + +[PAGE 553] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF SATURN + + PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF SATURN + + Saturn is the planet of obstruction, crystallization and atrophy. By his +action the circulation or passage of bodily fluids, such as the blood, +lymph, or urine, is impeded, and by this stagnation waste materials are re- +tained instead of being eliminated. Thus they form various deposits in the +body, building the skeleton, which is CONSTRUCTIVE, hardening the arteries +and articulations, which is DESTRUCTIVE. Saturn rules the gall bladder, +where he forms the painful gallstones, and by virtue of his exaltation power +in Libra he crystallizes the renal stones and gravel which cause such suf- +fering to those who have these concretions. By retention of the urea he +causes the painful rheumatism and gout which often manifest in deformity of +the joints that so often disfigures and disables the sufferers therefrom. +He rules the pneumogastric nerve, and by his restrictive action through that +medium he may at any moment slow down the heart action, stop digestion, sup- +press the urine and stool under the emotions of fear and worry generated by +him. Thus he has the power to bring every bodily function to a standstill. + + Saturn also rules the teeth and the skin. By his action the teeth decay, +leading to malnutrition, the synovial membranes are hardened, making the +spine and limbs rigid; he makes the skin tough as the years go by. Saturn +is at home in Capricorn, and by his reflex action in Cancer he interferes +with the peristaltic action which is necessary in the digestion of food; he + + +[PAGE 554] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +then causes antiperistalsis, or vomiting. His general activities in the +body are destructive and tend to end the life of the organism. + + Saturn generally hurts by falls, bruises, and colds. He predisposes to +chronic and deep-seated ailments, and his victims are difficult to reach be- +cause he imbues them with fear, worry, and pessimism, so that they refuse to +believe in the possibility of a cure and cannot be induced to take a cheer- +ful look on life. + + The presence of Saturn in any part of the horoscope constitutes an af- +fliction in itself, therefore we may note the following effects in the +twelve signs, whether he is aspected by squares, oppositions, trines or +sextiles, but naturally his effects are somewhat more inimical when in evil +aspect. + +SATURN IN ARIES gives a tendency to headache, colds, catarrh, deafness, and +chills, cerebral anaemia, dental decay, tartar, faintings, and, by reflex +action in Libra, renal disorders. + +SATURN IN TAURUS gives a tendency to phlegm, diphtheria, quinsy, mumps, +croup, decay of the lower teeth, choking, and by reflex action in Scorpio, +stricture, constipation and similar disorders. + +SATURN IN GEMINI gives a tendency to rheumatic pains in shoulders and arms, +bronchitis, pulmonary consumption, asthma, and, by reflex action in Sagit- +tarius, sciatica and hip diseases. + + +[PAGE 555] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF SATURN + +SATURN IN CANCER gives a tendency to pyorrhoea, dyspepsia, gastric ulcer and +cancer, nausea and belching, scurvy, jaundice, gallstones, anaemia, and +stricture of the oesophagus. + +SATURN IN LEO gives a tendency to curvature of the spine, muscular ineffi- +ciency of the heart, weak back, arterio-sclerosis, and sclerosis of the spi- +nal cord. + +SATURN IN VIRGO gives a tendency to weakened peristalsis of the intestines, +abated absorption of chyle, obstruction of the ILEUM CAECUM and transverse +colon, appendicitis. + +SATURN IN LIBRA gives a tendency to locomotor ataxia, renal stones, gravel +and sand, Bright's disease, suppression of urine, malnutrition, and, by re- +flex action in Aries, headache, toothache, and other disorders of the head. + +SATURN IN SCORPIO gives a tendency to sterility, suppression of the menses, +stricture, constipation, haemorrhoids, and, by reflex action in Taurus, na- +sal catarrh, hoarseness, phlegm, and other throat affections. + +SATURN IN SAGITTARIUS gives a tendency to contusions of the hips and thighs, +sciatica, gout, and hip disease; by reflex action in Gemini, bronchitis, tu- +berculosis, and other Gemini affections. + + +[PAGE 556] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +SATURN IN CAPRICORN gives a tendency to articular rheumatism, eczema, +erysipelas, and other diseases of the skin; by reflex action in Cancer, +jaundice, gallstones, and dyspepsia. + +SATURN IN AQUARIUS gives a tendency to weak ankles, easily sprained, and, by +reflex action in Leo, curvature of the spine, sclerosis and other affections +of the heart, back and arteries. + +SATURN IN PISCES gives a tendency to cold feet, rheumatism and bunions, also +tuberculosis due to cold and wet feet, and, by reflex action in Virgo, +dropsy. + + PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF JUPITER + + The liver is the great center of the Jupiterian activity; there he forms +glycogen from the waste products of the portal blood-stream. The great cen- +tral vortex of the desire body is also in the liver, and when an extra ef- +fort is to be made, Mars draws upon the glycogen storehouse of Jupiter for +fuel. Saturn too is active in the liver, forming the gall, urea, and uric +acid. + + It is somewhat difficult for the average student to segregate and combine +the varied functions of this organ, but if we bear in mind that Cancer is +the exaltation sign of Jupiter and the opposite sign Capricorn is the home +of Saturn and the exaltation sign of Mars, we shall more readily understand +that the great benefic, Jupiter, endeavors to store in the liver the + + +[PAGE 557] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF SATURN + +glycogen so necessary to the bodily activity. This, Mars, the opposing ex- +altation ruler, recklessly scatters by expenditure of muscular energy, and +he is aided and abetted in his destructive activities by Saturn, who pro- +duces gall and urea which he deposits during the muscular work as uric acid +in the various parts of the body where it manifests as gout and rheumatism. +Saturn also makes the liver torpid and causes constipation. + + Jupiter rules the adrenals and arterial circulation, hence his afflic- +tions cause formation of adipose tissue, fatty degeneration of muscles, tu- +mors, and morbid growths, enlargement of organs, waste of sugar and albumen +as in diabetes and kindred diseases. Blood-poisoning, hyperaemia and +apoplexy are due to afflictions of Jupiter. + + The following effects may be noted when Jupiter is afflicted in the +twelve signs. + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN ARIES gives a tendency to dizziness, cerebral conges- +tion, sleepiness, thrombosis, fainting, ulcerated gums of upper jaw, and, by +reflex action in Libra, diabetes and depression due to lack of adrenal se- +cretion. + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN TAURUS gives a tendency to gourmandize, hence plethora +and apoplexy, ringworm and carbuncles follow; also ulcerated gums of man- +dible; by reflex action in Scorpio, catarrh of the nose and nosebleed. + + +[PAGE 558] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN GEMINI gives a tendency to pleurisy, blood affections, +congestion of the lungs, pulmonary apoplexy; by reflex action in Sagit- +tarius, broken bones, gout and rheumatism in hips and thighs. + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN CANCER gives a tendency to gourmandize, causing dila- +tion of the stomach, dyspepsia, liver complaints, jaundice, and dropsy; by +reflex action in Capricorn, which rules the skin, pimples and similar erup- +tions. + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN LEO gives a tendency to apoplexy and fatty degeneration +of the heart, the valve action is weakened, the circulation sluggish at +times and at other times there are palpitation and feverish conditions; by +reflex action in Aquarius, swollen ankles. + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN VIRGO gives a tendency to enlarged liver, often ulcer- +ated, jaundice. + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN LIBRA gives a tendency to melancholy due to diminished +adrenal secretion, renal abscess, diabetes, skin eruptions due to sluggish +action of kidneys; by reflex action in Aries, congestion of brain, coma and +vertigo. + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN SCORPIO gives a tendency to enlarged prostate gland, +uterine tumors, urethral abscess, dropsy, hydraemia, excess of urates and +strangury; by reflex action in Taurus, apoplexy and nosebleed. + + +[PAGE 559] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF JUPITER + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN SAGITTARIUS gives a tendency to rheumatism and gout; by +reflex action in Gemini, pulmonary apoplexy and corrupt blood. + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN CAPRICORN gives a tendency to various skin diseases, +and, by reflex action in Cancer, digestive ailments, dropsy, jaundice, and +fatty degeneration of the liver. + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN AQUARIUS gives a tendency to milk-leg, swollen ankles, +and, by reflex action in Leo, apoplexy and palpitation. + +JUPITER AFFLICTED IN PISCES gives a tendency to swollen, perspiring feet, +and, by reflex action in Virgo, enlarged liver, abdominal tumors, jaundice, +and diseased intestines. + + PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF MARS + + The ancient Egyptian sages called Cancer the sphere of the soul, and when +the mystic Sun of life goes through this moist, fruitful lunar sign the +seed-atom of the ego's physical body is planted. While the embryonic body +grows unconsciously as a plant grows, the mystic Sun of life passes through +Leo, Virgo, and Libra. In the fourth month of gestation it passes through +the second of the water signs, Scorpio. Then the spirit dies to its heav- +enly home and is immured in its earthly prison house by Mars, who chains it +with the silver cord and thus brings about the quickening. Then the Sun of + + +[PAGE 560] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +life proceeds through Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and when after the +nine months have been completed it has passed through the last of the watery +signs, Pisces, the flood-gates of the womb are opened and the ego is +launched upon the sea of life under the auspices of the martial sign Aries, +where the giver of life, the Sun, is exalted. + + During the gestatory period Mars has given to the body iron, especially +in the form of haemoglobin, and with the first breath oxidation of this sub- +stance commences to produce the heat so necessary to life and consciousness. +This operation is continued all through life, and thus to the Martian ray +falls the important task of supplementing the Sun in the maintenance of the +vital spark until the mystic Sun of life has completed its circle and +reached the sign where the quickening took place. Then Scorpio gives the +body its death-sting, Mars and his friend Saturn cut the silver cord, and +the free soul soars as an eagle into the empyrean seeking the celestial +spheres which are its true home. Therefore Scorpio is symbolized both by a +scorpion and an eagle. + + On account of his mission as AIDE to the Sun in the maintenance of life, +Mars every aims to cleanse the body of filth and waste accumulation so that +the fires of life may burn brightly, hence, when the gourmandizing habits of +Jupiter and Venus have clogged the system, or the obstructive tendencies of +Saturn have poisoned the body by stoppage of elimination, Mars lights the + + +[PAGE 561] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF MARS + +fire of fever and inflammation to burn out the refuse and give the system a +new lease on life and energy. Thus many of the pathogenic effects of Mars +aim at a constructive end. + + But Mars not only aids the vital process of the life-giving Sun, who is +exaltation ruler of Aries; he is himself exaltation ruler of Capricorn, +where Saturn, the planet of death, holds sway, and between those two thieves +the Sun, the Lord of Life, is crucified, suffers and dies, while they part +his physical garment. The role of Saturn in this process has been described +in the appropriate chapter, and of Mars it may be said that by his reckless- +ness he predisposes to accidents by burning, scalding, wounds, or gunshot. +He rules the genitals through Scorpio, and depletes the vitality and causes +genital disorders by passional excesses, haemorrhage, rupture of blood ves- +sels. Excessive menses and haemorrhoids show his activities in the blood; +hernia and contagious diseases are also manifestations of the martian ray. +As mars is a malefic, his presence in any sign or house constitutes an af- +fliction in itself, regardless of his aspects, but naturally his pathogenic +effects are worse when he is aspected by square or opposition than when he +is fortified by sextile or trine. + + His effects in the twelve signs may be more specifically stated as fol- +lows: + +MARS IN ARIES gives a tendency to sunstroke, cerebral haemorrhages or con- +gestion, inflammation of the brain, brain fever and delirium, shooting pains + + +[PAGE 562] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +in the head, insomnia, and wounds in the head; by reflex action in Libra, +inflammation of the kidneys, renal haemorrhage and renal calculi. + +MARS IN TAURUS gives a tendency to mumps, enlarged or inflamed tonsils, suf- +focation, adenoids, diphtheria, polypus and nosebleed, goitre, inflammation +of the larynx; by reflex action in Scorpio, excessive menstrual flow, scald- +ing urine, venereal ulcers, enlargement of the prostate gland and strangury. + +MARS IN GEMINI gives a tendency to haemorrhage of the lungs, pneumonia, +bronchitis, cough, wounds or fractures of hands, arms, and collarbone; by +reflex action in Sagittarius, fractured femur, and sciatica. + +MARS IN CANCER gives a tendency to milk-fever, inflammation, ulceration and +haemorrhage of the stomach, dyspepsia. + +MARS IN LEO gives a tendency to muscular rheumatism in the back, overheating +of the blood, enlargement of the heart and palpitation, pain in the heart, +suffocation and fainting (ANGINA PECTORIS), inflammation of the pericardium. + +MARS IN VIRGO gives a tendency to typhoid, inflammation of the bowels, peri- +tonitis, worms, diarrhoea, cholera, and ventral hernia, appendicitis. + + +[PAGE 563] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF MARS + +MARS IN LIBRA gives a tendency to inflammation of the kidneys, excess of +urine, haemorrhage of the kidneys, and renal stones; by reflex action in Ar- +ies, brain-fever, sunstroke, pains in the head. + +MARS IN SCORPIO gives a tendency to excessive menses, scalding urine, +gravel, sand, and renal stones, inflammation and ulceration of the ovaries +and uterus, also of the vagina and urethra, varicocele, enlargement of the +prostate gland, stricture and strangury, venereal ulcers and haemorrhoids; +by reflex action in Taurus, inflamed tonsils or larynx and nosebleed. + +MARS IN SAGITTARIUS gives a tendency to fracture or dislocation of the fe- +mur, sciatica, and ulcers of the thighs; by reflex action in Gemini, pneumo- +nia, bronchitis and coughs. + +MARS IN CAPRICORN gives a tendency to carbuncles, erysipelas, smallpox, +chicken pox, measles, pimples, itch and other eruptive or inflammatory skin +diseases; by reflex action in Cancer, dyspepsia and ulcerated stomach. + +MARS IN AQUARIUS gives a tendency to varicose veins, fracture of the leg and +blood-poisoning; by reflex action in Leo, heart failure, overheated blood, +fainting and palpitation. + + +[PAGE 564] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +MARS IN PISCES gives a tendency to deformities of the feet, or accidents to +them, corns, bunions and perspiring feet; by reflex action in Virgo, ventral +hernia, inflammation of the bowels and diarrhea. + + PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF URANUS + + Uranus rules the ether which is the medium by which the light rays are +transmitted, hence he has considerable influence over the eyes and is re- +sponsible, when afflicting the Sun or Moon, for various diseases of the +eyes, or even blindness. This is especially the case when the Sun or Moon +is placed in the Pleiades (Taurus 29), or the Ascelli (Leo 6) or Antares +(Sagittarius 8). + + Modern astrologers have not yet had time to tabulate the full effects of +Uranus in all the signs, and as for the pathogenic effects still less is +known, but he is said to be exalted in Scorpio and our own experience seems +to indicate that Uranus has a very marked evil influence on the sex which is +ruled by this sign, producing most deep-seated venereal diseases. By reflex +action or affliction to planets in Taurus (ruled by Venus) where the organ +of coordinated action is located, he produces erratic movements, as seen in +St. Vitus dance, contortions, spasms, tetanus, cramps, hiccough and hyste- +ria. + + As ruler of the ether and gases he is responsible for injury and shock by +electricity which travels through the ether. Nitrogen, a gas, is the base + + +[PAGE 565] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF URANUS + +of a number of compounds whose characteristic Uranian instability makes them +highly explosive, and Uranus is thus responsible for such deaths and inju- +ries as occur on that account, especially if placed in the Eighth House. + +URANUS IN TAURUS gives a tendency to diminished pituitary secretion and con- +sequent abnormal growth. + +URANUS IN GEMINI gives a tendency to spasmodic asthma, colds, and a dry, +hard cough. + +URANUS IN CANCER gives a tendency to hiccough, produced by the erratic ac- +tion of the diaphragm, also to a hard, dry stomach cough and cramp of the +stomach, gas and flatulence. + +URANUS IN LEO gives a tendency to palpitation, spasmodic heart action, spi- +nal meningitis and infantile paralysis; by reflex action from Aquarius +similar effects are now observable. + +URANUS IN VIRGO gives a tendency to flatulence, and abdominal cramps. + +URANUS IN LIBRA gives a tendency to intermittent action of the kidneys and +venereal eruptions of the skin; by reflex action in Aries, sudden and +violent headaches, shooting pains in the head, and hallucinations. + + +[PAGE 566] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +URANUS IN SCORPIO gives a tendency to miscarriages, abortions, and venereal +diseases, and in the Fifth House he causes painful and difficult parturi- +tion, generally involving the use of instruments and often the infant is se- +verely or fatally injured or stillborn. + +URANUS IN CAPRICORN usually works by reflex action in Cancer, but as the +children with this position are still young (this is written in 1918) the +full effects are as yet unknown. + + PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF NEPTUNE + + Neptune, the octave of Mercury, works principally upon the nervous system +(ruled by Mercury) and at times produces frenzy where the person is beside +himself on account of religious or other excitement. At other times he pro- +duces lethargy, coma, catalepsy, trance or mediumship, where the bodily en- +ergies are in abeyance while the psychic powers are in a state of hyperac- +tivity. He rules the spinal canal, which is filled with ether during life. +(It is true that surgeons tap it and draw out a fluid, but they may also +draw water from a steam boiler because the steam condenses to water.) This +luminous gas is called THE SPINAL SPIRIT FIRE by occultists, and by vibrat- +ing the pineal gland, also ruled by Neptune, spiritual sight is produced, +but it depends upon the rate and pitch of these vibrations what the person +sees. By prayer, concentration and meditation, a state of ecstasy may be + + +[PAGE 567] PATHOGENIC EFFECTS OF NEPTUNE + +produced where he sees the celestial hosts, or if a lower rate of +super-normal vibration is produced by drink or drugs he sees demoniac shapes +as related by sufferers of delirium, which is due to Neptune, especially in +the watery sign Pisces. The pathogenic influence of Neptune is most evil in +the Sixth House (or the sixth sign, Virgo) indicating disease, or in the +Twelfth House (or the twelfth sign, Pisces) which governs sorrow, trouble +and self-undoing. If these two houses are occupied by Taurus and Scorpio, +the signs ruling the throat and genitals, there is an abnormal and perverted +passional desire which gives a tendency to self-abuse, and perversion of a +still worse nature. The mind, ruled by Mercury, the lower octave of +Neptune, is morbid in its brooding upon unsavory subjects, and parents with +children having Neptune in the Sixth or Twelfth Houses will do well to watch +them carefully, especially if Neptune is in opposition to Uranus; that cov- +ers a number of those who are now, in 1918, reaching puberty, for Neptune +has been going through the psychic sign Cancer while Uranus was in the op- +posite sign Capricorn. + + We have found that Neptune square Saturn and Jupiter brought mental dis- +turbances; Neptune conjunction Mars in Aries, square Uranus and the Moon in +Cancer caused temporary instability of a periodic nature; Neptune conjunc- +tion Moon square Uranus caused spirit control. We have also seen many other +indications, but the full effects of Neptune have not yet been systemat- + + +[PAGE 568] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +ically observed. We are working to that end, however, and hope in future +years to be able to present a fairly full tabulation. + + THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + + THEIR ROLE AND RULERS + + It is well known to the esoteric astrologer that the human body has an +immense period of evolution behind it and that this splendid organism is the +result of a slow process of gradual upbuilding which is still continuing and +will make each generation better than the previous until in some far distant +future it shall have reached a stage of completion of which we cannot even +dream. It is also understood by the deeper students that in addition to the +physical body man has finer vehicles which are not yet seen by the great ma- +jority of human beings, though all have within them latent a sixth sense +whereby they will in time cognize these finer sheaths of the soul. The oc- +cultist speaks of these finer vehicles as the VITAL BODY, made of ether, and +the DESIRE BODY, made of desire stuff, the material whence we draw our feel- +ings and emotions, and with the addition of the SHEATH OF MIND and the +physical body these complete what may be termed the personality which is the +evanescent part distinct from the immortal spirit that uses these vehicles +for its expression. These finer vehicles interpenetrate the dense physical +body as air permeates water and have particular dominion over certain parts + + +[PAGE 569] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + +thereof, because the physical body itself is a crystallization of these +finer vehicles in the same manner and upon the same principle that the soft +fluids of a snail's body gradually crystallize into the hard and flinty +shell which it carries upon its back. For the purpose of this dissertation +we may say broadly that the softer parts of our bodies which we commonly +call flesh may be divided into two kinds, glands and muscles. The vital +body was started in the Sun Period. Crystallization from that time on in +that vehicle has developed what we now call glands and to this day they and +the blood are the special manifestations of the vital body within the +physical vehicle, and therefore the glands as a whole may be said to be un- +der the rule of the life-giving Sun and the great benefic, Jupiter. For it +is the function of the vital body to build and restore the tone of the +muscles when tense and tired by the work imposed upon them by the restless +desire body which was started in the Moon Period. The muscles are therefore +ruled by the wandering Moon, which is the present vantage point of the an- +gels, the humanity of the Moon Period, and by the impulsive and turbulent +Mars, where the so-called "Fallen Angels," the Lucifer spirits, dwell; that +is to say as a whole, for the student must carefully note that individual +glands and particular groups of muscles are under the rulership of other +planets as well. It is as when we say that all who live within the United +States of America are citizens of that country, but some are subject to the + + +[PAGE 570] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +laws of California, others to those of Maine. + + We know the Hermetic axiom, "AS ABOVE, SO BELOW," which is the master key +to all mysteries, and as there are upon the earth, the macrocosm, a great +many undiscovered places, so also in the microcosm of the body do we find +unknown countries that are a closed book to the scientific explorers. Chief +among them has been a small group of the so-called "ductless glands," seven +in number, namely: + + The PITUITARY BODY, ruled by Uranus. + The PINEAL GLAND, ruled by Neptune. + The THYROID GLAND, ruled by Mercury. + The THYMUS GLAND, ruled by Venus. + The SPLEEN, ruled by the Sun. + The two ADRENALS. ruled by Jupiter. + + They have a great and particular interest for occultists, and they may be +termed in a certain sense "the seven roses" upon the Cross of the body, for +they are intimately connected with the occult development of humanity. Four +of them, the Thymus Gland, the Spleen and the two Adrenals, are connected +with the personality. The Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland are par- +ticularly correlated with the spiritual side of our nature and the Thyroid +Gland forms the link between. The astrological rule over these seven glands +is as follows: + + The Spleen is the entrance gate of the solar forces specialized by each +human being and circulated through the body as the vital fluid, without + + +[PAGE 571] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + +which no being can live. This organ is therefore governed by the Sun. The +two Adrenals are under the rulership of Jupiter, the great benefic, and ex- +ert a calming, quieting and soothing effect when the emotional activities of +the Moon and Mars or Saturn have destroyed the poise. When the obstructive +hand of Saturn has awakened the melancholy emotions and laid its restraint +upon the heart, the Adrenals' secretions are carried by the blood to the +heart and act as a powerful stimulant in its effort to keep up the circula- +tion, while the Jovial optimism struggles against the Saturnine worries or +against the impulse of Mars, which stirs the desire body into turbulent emo- +tions of anger, rendering the muscles tense and trembling, dissipating the +energy of the system; then the secretion of the Adrenals comes to the res- +cue, releasing the glycogen of the liver in a more abundant measure than +usual to cope with the emergency until the equipoise has been again at- +tained, and similarly during whatever other stress or strain. It was the +knowledge of this occult fact that prompted the ancient astrologers to place +the kidneys under the rulership of Libra, the Balance, and in order to avoid +confusion of ideas we may say the kidneys themselves play an important part +in the nutrition of the body, being under the rulership of Venus, the Lady +of Libra, but Jupiter governs the Adrenals, with which we are now par- +ticularly engaged. + + +[PAGE 572] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + Both Venus and her higher octave, Uranus, govern the functions of nutri- +tion and growth, but in different ways and for different purposes. There- +fore Venus rules the Thymus Gland, which is the link between the parents and +the child until the latter has reached puberty. This gland is located im- +mediately behind the sternum or breast bone; it is largest in ante-natal +life and through childhood while growth is excessive and rapid. During that +time the vital body of the child does its most effective work, for the child +is not then subject to the passions and emotions generated by the desire +body after that comes to birth at or about the fourteenth year. But during +the years of growth the child cannot manufacture the red blood corpuscles as +does the adult, for the unborn, unorganized desire body does not then act as +an avenue for the martian forces which assimilate the iron from the food and +transmute it into haemoglobin. To compensate for this lack there is stored +in the Thymus Gland a spiritual essence drawn from the parents, who are sym- +bolized by Venus, the ruler, and with this essence provided by the love of +the parents the child is able to accomplish the alchemistry of blood tempo- +rarily until its desire body becomes dynamically active. Then the Thymus +Gland atrophies and the child draws from its own desire body the necessary +martian force. From that time, under normal conditions, Uranus, the octave +of Venus, and ruler of the Pituitary Body, takes charge of the function of +growth and assimilation in the following manner: + + +[PAGE 573] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + + It is well known that all things, our food included, radiate from them- +selves continuously small particles which given an index of the thing whence +they emanate, its quality included. Thus when we lift the food to our mouth +a number of these invisible particles enter the nose and by excitation of +the olfactory tract convey to us a knowledge of whether the food we are +about to take is suitable for this purpose or not, the sense of smell warn- +ing us to discard such foods as have a noxious odor, etc. But besides those +particles which attract or repel us from food by their action upon the ol- +factory tract through the sense of smell, there are others which penetrate +the sphenoid bone, impinge upon the Pituitary Body and start the Uranian +alchemistry by which a secretion is formed and injected into the blood. +This furthers assimilation through the chemical ether, thus affecting the +normal growth and well-being of the body through life. Sometimes this +Uranian influence of the Pituitary Body is eccentric and therefore respon- +sible for strange and abnormal growths which produce the unfortunate freaks +of nature we occasionally meet. + + But besides being responsible for the spiritual impulses which generate +the before-mentioned physical manifestations of growth, Uranus, working +through the Pituitary Body, is also responsible for the spiritual phases of +growth which aid awakened man in his efforts to penetrate the veil into the +Invisible Worlds. In this work it is, however, associated with Neptune, the +ruler of the Pineal Gland, and it will therefore be necessary, in order to + + +[PAGE 574] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +properly elucidate, that we study the functions of the Thyroid Gland, ruled +by Mercury, and of the Pineal Gland, which is under the domination of his +higher octave, Neptune, simultaneously. + + That the Thyroid Gland is under the rule of Mercury, the planet of rea- +son, is readily realized when we understand the effect which the degen- +eration of this gland has upon the mind, as shown in the diseases of Cretin- +ism and Myxedema. The secretions of this gland are as necessary to the +proper functioning of the mind as ether is to the transmission of electric- +ity, that is to say, upon the physical plane of existence where the brain +transmutes thought into action. Contact with and expression in the invis- +ible worlds depends upon the functional ability of the Pineal Gland, which +is altogether spiritual in function, and is therefore ruled by the octave of +Mercury, Neptune, the planet of spirituality. But Neptune operates in con- +junction with the Pituitary Body ruled by Uranus, the planet of wisdom, as +has already been stated. + + Scientists have wasted much time in speculation upon the nature and func- +tion of these two little bodies, the Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland, +but without avail, and principally because, as Mephistopheles says so sar- +castically to the young man who wants to study science under Faust: + + +[PAGE 575] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + + "Who e'er would know and treat of aught alive + Seeks first the living spirit thence to drive; + Then are the lifeless fragments in his hand; + He lacks, alas! THE VITAL SPIRIT BAND." + + No one can really and truly observe the physiological functions of any +organ under such conditions as exist in the laboratory, on the operating +table, or in the dissection or vivisection chamber. To arrive at an ad- +equate understanding one must necessarily see these organs exercising their +physiological functions IN THE LIVING BODY, and that can only be done by +means of the spiritual sight. There are a number of organs which are either +atrophying or developing; the former show the path we have already traveled +during our past evolution, the latter are finger-posts, indicating our fu- +ture development. But there is still another class of organs which are nei- +ther degenerating nor evolving; they are simply dormant at the present time. +Physiologists believe that the Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland are atro- +phying because they find these organs more developed in some of the lowest +classes of life, such as worms, but as a matter of fact they are wrong in +their ideas; these organs are only dormant. Some have also suspected that +the Pineal Gland is in some way connected with the mind, because it contains +certain crystals after death, and the quantity was much less in those who +were mentally defective than in people of normal mentality. This conclusion +is right, but the Seer knows that the spinal canal of the living is not + + +[PAGE 576] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +fluid with FLUID; that the blood is not LIQUID, and that these organs have +no CRYSTALS in them when the body is alive; these assertions are made with +full knowledge of the fact that the blood and the spinal essence are liquid +when drawn out of the physical body, living or dead, and the contents of the +Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland APPEAR crystalline when the brain is +dissected; but the reason is similar to that which causes steam drawn from a +steam boiler to condense immediately upon contact with the atmosphere, and +molten metal drawn from a smelter's furnace to crystallize immediately upon +withdrawal therefrom. + + All these substances are purely spiritual essences when inside the body; +they are then ethereal and the substance in the Pineal Gland, when seen by +the spiritual sight, appears as LIGHT. Furthermore, when one Seer looks +upon the Pineal Gland of another who is then also exercising his spiritual +faculties, this light is of a most intense brilliancy and of an irridescence +similar to but transcending in beauty the most wonderful play of the North- +ern Lights, the AURORA BOREALIS, ever witnessed by the writer, and he has +seen them many times. It may also be said that the function of this organ +seems to have changed in the course of human evolution. During the earlier +epochs of our present stay upon the earth, when man's body was a large, +baggy thing into which the spirit had not yet entered, but was there only as +an overshadowing presence, there was an opening in the top and the Pineal + + +[PAGE 577] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + +Gland was within it; it was then an organ of orientation, giving a sense of +direction. As the human body condensed, it became less and less able to en- +dure the intense heat which prevailed during that time and the Pineal Gland +gave warning when the body was brought too near one of the many craters and +active volcanoes which were then erupting the thin earth crust, thus en- +abling the spirit to guide it away from these dangerous places. It was an +organ of direction which operated by feeling, but feeling has since been +distributed over the skin of the whole body, and this is an indication to +the occultist that some day the senses of hearing and sight will also be +similarly distributed so that we shall both see and hear with our whole body +and thus become still more sensitive in those respects than we are now. + + Since then the Pineal Gland and the Pituitary Body have become tempo- +rarily dormant to make man oblivious to the invisible world while he learns +the lessons afforded by the material world; but the Pituitary Body has +manifested the Uranian influence sporadically in abnormal physical growth, +producing freaks and monstrosities of various kinds, while Neptune, working +also abnormally through the Pineal Gland, has been responsible for the ab- +normal spiritual growth of medicine men, witches and mediums of spirit con- +trols. When they are awakened to normal activities these two ductless +glands will open the door to the inner worlds in a sane and safe manner, but +in the meantime the Thyroid Gland, ruled by Mercury, the planet of reason, + + +[PAGE 578] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +holds the secretion necessary to give the brain balance. + + In the future the ductless glands are destined to play a prominent role; +their development will accelerate evolution greatly, for their effects are +mainly mental and spiritual. We are now nearing the Aquarian Age; the Sun +as therefore beginning to transmit the highly intellectual vibrations of +this sign which accounts for the intuitions, premonitions and telepathic +transmission now so prevalent. In the final analysis these phenomena are +due to the awakening of the Pituitary Body, ruled by Uranus, the lord of +Aquarius, and every passing year will make them more manifest. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + diff --git a/religious documents/ms10.txt b/religious documents/ms10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b532dc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ms10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1882 @@ +[PAGE 579] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHAPTER XXX. + + THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + IN ORDER to further aid the student of the stellar science we present a +number of horoscopes of people who have come to us for help in their +trouble. We therefore know these cases to be authentic and trust that our +delineation of their various ailments by means of astro-diagnosis may prove +a true guide. + + We have made an attempt at classification of these horoscopes, but as +there are generally symptoms of several diseases in each horoscope it has +been impossible to draw hard and fast lines in the grouping, and the student +will therefore have to rely mainly on the headlines for indications of what +the figure shows. + + The first 22 horoscopes are found on pp. 624-634. + + The last 14 figures are attached to their respective readings. + + SEX AS A FACTOR IN DISEASE + + It is our earnest conviction, that the less we dwell upon sex, the less +we read about it and think about it, the purer we shall be mentally, and +also less liable to danger of morbid habits, for these are often formed by +overstudy of the sex question, and persons having a tendency in that direc- + + +[PAGE 580] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +tion should be discouraged in attempts to discuss the matter at all. In +planning this chapter we had at one time thought it possible to escape men- +tion of the subject, but more mature thought based upon much study of health +and disease from the mystical standpoint has convinced us that we must go +back to the allegorical Garden of Eden for the starting-point of pain and +sorrow, as fully explained in our literature. The effects of continued +transgression are with us today as a matter of actual fact, abuse of sex is +in the most literal sense the primal source of sorrow, disease and degen- +eracy under which the world is groaning, and in a work of this nature it is +obligatory to show the causes so that the remedy may be found and applied. +Therefore we shall attempt to show the prenatal influences revealed by the +horoscope as a warning to parents that marriage is a sacrament, and not a +license to sex abuse, and that "the sins of the fathers are indeed visited +upon the children." At the same time, of course, an innocent child is not +born with the tendency to a certain disease, its former living has made it +liable to a specific weakness, and for that reason it is drawn by the Law of +Association to parents from whom it may obtain a body subject to that par- +ticular ailment. Thus parents are only instruments in fulfilling the +self-made destiny of the child. If we thoroughly realize that fact, and can +be persuaded to live pure and wholesome lives, so that we may draw to our- + + +[PAGE 581] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +selves souls of a kindred virtuous nature, how much better for all the +world. To drive this point home, the writers undertake to paint the loath- +some picture of degeneracy, that the picture of purity may be the more at- +tractive by contrast. + + In this connection we present first figure No. 1, which is that of a boy, +in 1912 about 16 years of age. The Fourth and Tenth Houses, the planets in +them and their rulers show the parents. the parent who most influences the +life is shown by the Tenth House configurations, and the Fourth House indi- +cates the one lease concerned in the child's destiny. + + In this figure Gemini is on the Midheaven, and Mercury, its ruler, is +square the Moon from cardinal signs. Neptune is conjunction Mars in the +Tenth House and square the Sun in the mercurial sign Virgo. This estab- +lishes well the morbid, neurotic nature of the father, and his instrumental- +ity in depriving the boy of the faculty of speech and of coordination of +muscular movements; the boy cannot walk, but staggers. + + The mother's part is described by Sagittarius on the Fourth House. Jupi- +ter, the ruler is in Leo in conjunction with the Dragon's Tail, (the Moon's +Western Node), which has an influence similar to Saturn. It is also square +to Saturn and Uranus, these being in conjunction in Scorpio. This describes +her as being a lewd woman; degenerate, committed to the dreadful theory of +soul-mates, affinities, free love and all kindred abuses. These lewd + + +[PAGE 582] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +tendencies she imparted to the boy. The affliction to Leo affects the +heart, and as Saturn is the embodiment of obstruction, restraint and sup- +pression, we may know that the heart action is very weak, (had the afflic- +tion come from Mars his dynamic energy would have caused palpitation). +Scorpio has rule over the sex organ, Uranus and Saturn there give tendency +to self-abuse, and on the well known principle that mutilation of that organ +affects the voice, we have in this configuration an added reason for the +poor boy's inability to speak. The affliction coming from fixed signs shows +the deep rooted constitutional nature of the evil, and what may come of con- +ception during a drunken debauch. + + THE GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD + + Horoscope No. 2 shows one of the most remarkable psychic conditions we +have ever come across. Its portents in some respects are plain to any as- +trologer, but investigation by one of the writers into this person's past +life adds sidelights and gives depth to the meaning of configurations not +otherwise obtainable; also to the writer, who made the spiritual investiga- +tion two years before the horoscope was cast, it was a revelation to note +how the mystic facts he remembered so well, were inscribed in this little +wheel of life. To enable the student to properly appreciate the remarkable +case we relate the story of how we came into connection with the person, +what we attempted to do, and what actually happened. + + +[PAGE 583] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + In the fall of 1910, a friend told us the sad case of a young boy con- +fined to his bed, lying upon his stomach and elbows, persistently gazing at +a certain spot in a corner of the room, as if fascinated, his whole frame +continually shaking with sobs and moans. At request of the friend we vis- +ited the unfortunate boy, and found that the object which drew his gaze, +with a power similar to that whereby the snake charms a bird into its fangs, +was an elemental of the most horrible type we have ever seen. Standing by +the bedside we directed a stream of force towards the base of the poor +victim's brain, and thus drew him towards us in an endeavor to break the +spell, but the fiend held the consciousness charmed to such a degree that +there was evident danger of rupture of body and soul. We therefore de- +sisted, and, with the fearlessness born of inexperience, decided to fight +the elemental upon his own plane of being. But the Elder Brother who is our +Mentor sought us that evening; he advised caution, and investigation of the +genesis of the monster before we took action. + + Research of the memory of nature developed the fact that in its last life +the spirit embodied in the youth had been an initiate of the Order of Jesus, +a Jesuit, and a zealot of the most ardent type, cruel and unfeeling in the +highest degree, yet perfectly impersonal, with no other aim in life save to +further the interests of his Holy Order. The health, wealth, reputation or +life of others he sacrificed without qualm of conscience, so that the order + + +[PAGE 584] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +was benefited; he would have offered himself up as freely, for he was sin- +cere to the core. Love was as foreign to his nature as hate, but sex was +rampant; it tore his strong soul to shreds, yet it never mastered him; he +was too proud to show his passion even to one who could have gratified it, +and so he developed the secret habit. It must not be supposed that he be- +came an abject slave in that respect; he, the immortal spirit, fought his +lower nature by prayer, castigations, fastings and every other conceivable +means; sometimes he thought he had conquered, but when he least expected it +the beast in him rallied, and the war waged as fiercely as ever. Many times +he was tempted to mutilate himself, but he scorned such a course as unworthy +a man, especially when that man had taken the vows of priesthood. At last +he succumbed to the strain; vigorous manhood was succeeded by a middle age +of delicate health, constant pain increased his mental anguish and sympathy +was born of suffering; he was no longer indifferent to the tortures of vic- +tims of the Holy Office. Being by nature a zealot and enthusiast in what- +ever direction his energies were exerted, the pendulum soon swung to the +other extreme, Paul-like, he fought to protect whom he had previously perse- +cuted, he incurred the enmity of the Holy Office, and finally, broken in +body, but dauntless of spirit he fell a victim to the torture to which he +had subjected so many. + + By the sincerity of his nature, and his later life he earned the right of +admission to a Mystery School and prepared for the privilege of working as + + +[PAGE 585] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +an Invisible Helper in future lives. The Law of Association drew him to +birth in an American family who were former friends, and from them he re- +ceived a nervous organization tuned to the high pitch required for his expe- +rience. + + Saturn opposes the life-giving Sun, suppresses the nervous energy of Mer- +cury, and obstructs the Venus (venous) circulation, by hindering secretion +of urine and elimination of poisonous matter through the kidneys which are +ruled by Libra, the sign of Saturn's exaltation where he is placed in this +natal figure. As the planets which he opposes are placed in Aries, ruler of +the head, his disordering influence manifests through the brain and mind, as +well as the genito-urinary system. The morbid condition of these parts +caused by Saturn's repressive influence on the kidneys is further accentu- +ated by Uranus conjunction the Moon in the Sixth House which indicates the +health, under the sign ruling the generative organs, Scorpio. As the horo- +scope shows tendencies resulting from our actions in past lives, it is +evident that the self-abuse of this person must bring him to birth under a +stellar ray affecting the health in that particular manner, for when the +soul has been overcome by any particular besetting sin in any life, death +does not pay all any more than removal to another city pays our debts in our +present abode. When we return, temptation will again confront us until we +conquer our weakness. It is the task of this poor soul to extract the + + +[PAGE 586] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +essence of virtue and chastity from the burning embers of passion and secret +vice. May God help him and strengthen his arm in the terrible combat. Only +Astrology, the Master Key of Compassion, can adequately reveal to us the +struggle and anguish of the soul, and save us from the crime of despising +one in conditions of depravity. + + The before-mentioned aspects were from Cardinal and Fixed signs, which +indicate that which is almost unalterable destiny. But Neptune on the As- +cendant, in a Common sign, Gemini, points to a condition in the making. He +is trine to Saturn, the afflicter of the mind, and supported by the dynamic +energy of Mars. + + Neptune indicates the invisible spiritual hierarchies which work with and +upon us, and when placed in the Twelfth House it is evident that sorrow and +distress may be expected from them. This position renders the person liable +to be preyed upon by spirit controls, but the trine to Saturn and the +sextile to the Sun, Venus and Mercury protect him against influence from +outside sources. Thus he became a prey to the demoniac embodiment of his +former actions, the terrible creature known to mystics as "Guardian of the +Threshold," which the neophyte must pass ere he can enter consciously into +the Invisible World. This dreadful shape had drawn its being from acts of +cruelty committed by the man in his bygone life; it has fed upon the curses +of his tortured victims, and gorged itself upon the odor of their blood and +perspiration, as is the wont of elementals; it was a monster in every sense + + +[PAGE 587] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +of the word. earth of its progenitor rendered it latent, but in the new +birth figure time was marked for retribution upon the clock of destiny. +When the Moon by progression reached Mars' natal place in the Twelfth House, +his dynamic energy galvinized the monster into new life, and the troubles of +the poor lad had commenced. The hate, anger and malice stored in the mon- +ster radiated back upon him pang for pang and his negative Gemini nature +crumpled under the onslaughts of the demon. When we saw the thing it ap- +peared as a shapeless jellylike mass with many large greenish eyes imbedded +at different parts of its body. Every few seconds a sharp pointed, sword- +like projection shot out from the most unexpected places in its body and +pierced the poor lad who lay cringing upon his bed. Then, although the mon- +ster had no mouth, wherewith to laugh, it seemed convulsed with fiendish +glee at the fear and pain it had given. At other times, one or another of +the eyes seemed to dart from the monster, projected upon what resembled an +elephant's trunk and it would halt within an inch of the victim's eyes, gaz- +ing into them with a compelling power of awesome intensity. + + There being so many good aspects to help him, it is not likely that he +will succumb, and when the Sun reaches conjunction of Jupiter's place in the +natal figure and the Moon has passed the square to the Sun's natal place, a +distinct turn for the better may be looked for. In the meanwhile the poor + + +[PAGE 588] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +soul must struggle alone with its self-made demon. Had not the secret habit +sapped vitality in the former life, birth under a stronger sign would have +given greater power of physical endurance and rendered victory more certain. + + DISEASE OF THE EYES + + This malady is due to rays from certain nebulous parts of the Zodiac; the +Pleiades in Taurus 29, the Ascelli in Leo 6, and Antares in Sagittarius 8. +When the Sun or Moon is in orb of one of these places, and afflicted by Sat- +urn, Mars or Uranus, or vice versa, when Saturn, Uranus or Mars is in these +nebulous parts afflicting the Sun or Moon, trouble is indicated, but if care +is taken in the case of children having this tendency to disease it may be +greatly modified or entirely avoided. The light in schoolrooms calls for +attention on general principles, but where a child has incipient eye trouble +the parent ought to request proper placement of the child in a modified +light; reading by lamplight or in the dusk should not be permitted, and win- +dow shades in the home ought to be of a soothing color. With civilization +and life in cities the eyes have become habituated to short focus and cannot +quickly adjust themselves to variation of range as can those of sailors and +plainsmen. When a child's horoscope indicates weak eyes, residence in a ru- +ral district, if possible, may be of immense value in preserving the vision, +for exercise of the eye muscles by frequent adjustment of focus from short + + +[PAGE 589] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +to long range, and vice versa, will materially aid to strengthen the eyes. +It is a fact, that much eye strain is due to congestion of the ciliary +muscle, which adjusts the lens to range of objects, and of the muscle which +contracts the iris. Each time the latter fails to act quickly too much +light enters the retina is hurt. Life in the open while the child's muscles +are still limber will do wonders towards correcting such defects, and even +grown persons may derive vast benefit from outdoor life provided the eyes +are properly shaded at first. Careful osteopathic treatment of the eyes has +also a most beneficial effect of stimulating circulation and limbering the +muscles. + + SUBTILE INDICATIONS OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT + + It is a well know scientific fact, that sensation depends on ability to +feel and interpret vibration in air and ether, according to the sense in- +volved. Ancient seers devised the Staff of Mercury as a symbol of its ef- +fects, and among other spiritual secrets embodied in the undulating forms of +the twin serpents, is also this, that Mercury is the originator of all vi- +bratory movement. Hence he is a prime factor in production of sensation and +mental processes arising in the consciousness as a result. An elevated, +well aspected Mercury therefore makes our senses acute and the mind keen; +and afflicted Mercury either dulls the senses, or makes the person hypersen- +sitive; in either case an abnormal state of the brain mind is produced + + +[PAGE 590] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +which causes suffering according to house, sign and affliction; even a good +aspect of a so-called evil planet, though it brings out the virtue of that +planet, also carries with it a touch of the darker side because even the +best of us have something in our inner natures which vibrates to that phase +of the planet's nature. + + But, besides this roundabout way of acquiring knowledge through vibra- +tions in the air and ether inaugurated by Mercury and interpreted by slow +processes in the brain mind where spirit and matter meet, THERE IS A DIRECT +PATH TO KNOWLEDGE symbolized by the staff around which the serpents twine. +This is the ray of Neptune, the octave of Mercury, which puts us in touch +with the spiritual worlds. But, observe this, the staff and the serpents +are not separate, the staff goes THROUGH the winding forms of the serpents, +and thus we learn that in our present condition spiritual knowledge is de- +pendent on the brain mind for concrete expression, and through the brain +mind the latter is colored according to the aspects of Neptune. + + Experience has proved that the afflicted stellar ray from certain parts +of the Zodiac already mentioned, interferes with the etheric vibration +sensed by the retina of the eye, and thus impairs the physical sight. If, +in the same figure, Neptune is focused through one of these places, the +so-called "blind spot," which is BLIND because unresponsive to the etheric +mercurial vibrations is sensitized by the spiritual ray of Neptune, and thus + + +[PAGE 591] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +it may be that a person physically near sighted, or even blind, may view the +spiritual worlds hidden from people whose sight is focused by mercurial vi- +brations. The aspect of Neptune determines the grade and nature of the +spiritual sight evolved, as illustrated in various horoscopes herewith. +These were picked to demonstrate other points, but it occurred to us that +the phase just mentioned is worthy of notice. It may be well, however, to +warn students against absurd conclusions; we do not say that everyone af- +flicted with eye trouble by Antares, Ascelli or the Pleiades is gifted in +return with spiritual sight. The woman in horoscope No. 5 is much afflicted +physically, but Neptune is out of orb, and she derives no vision from his +ray. Spiritual vision may also be undeveloped in many who have the aspect +well defined, but in those cases it is in process of unfoldment, and will +yield EASILY to proper exercises. Where this aspect is a square or opposi- +tion it is wise, however, to refrain from any attempt to seek illumination, +for in those aspects lurk great danger from spirit controls, elementals, +etc., which is amply illustrated in horoscope No. 2, where the opposition of +Neptune to Antares is responsible for the awful vision of the Guardian of +the Threshold. There the physical sight is not impaired, but in horoscope +No. 3, defective eyesight is shown by affliction from the Ascelli and like +trouble comes from Antares in No. 4. In one the trine from Neptune produces +voluntary vision of the super-physical realms, but in the other his focus is + + +[PAGE 592] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +square, hence the spiritual sight obtained is intermittent and not under +control. + + We have spoken of Mercury as originator of all sense vibrations, audi- +tory, olfactory, visual, etc., and of Neptune as its octave; to forestall +questions we may say that in the spiritual world separateness ceases, sensa- +tions merge, so that sound and sight, voice and vision are one. The Neptune +ray carries both, but undeveloped seers suffering from the involuntary fac- +ulty, "see" or "hear" as it suits the entities which obtain admission to +them through this ray. + + Horoscope NO. 3 shows the inimical influence of the nebulous spot in Leo +6, the Ascelli, on the sight. This dangerous degree was rising at birth +with the Moon in close conjunction, and the Sun also in orb. Saturn in 24 +degrees of Libra is just within orb of a square to the Sun in Leo 0 degrees, +and as a result of these various afflictions the person is compelled to use +bifocal glasses. There is a compensating advantage, however; Neptune in el- +evation and trine to the Ascelli (with Sun, Moon and Ascendant in orb), has +endowed him with spiritual sight over which he has perfect control, as the +student may readily see by examination of Mercury, the best fortified planet +in the horoscope. Saturn, by sextile, from the sign of his exaltation, +gives steadiness, persistence and concentration; Jupiter by trine from the +house he rules expands the mind, makes it religiously inclined and + + +[PAGE 593] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +benevolent; Venus by sextile, adds kindliness and love of beauty. Thus it +is evident that in this horoscope the relation of Mercury and its octave, +Neptune, to physical and spiritual expression of mind, is well illustrated. +Neptune is most highly elevated and Mercury is most strongly aspected. Nei- +ther is afflicted, therefore he is not liable to hallucinations, but weighs +his experiences in the scale of logic. Compare this horoscope with that of +the poor young man afflicted by the Guardian of the Threshold (No. 2), where +Neptune is in the Twelfth House in conjunction with Mars, and where Mercury +is afflicted by the opposition of Saturn, all from Cardinal signs; contrast +of the two figures will bring out some fine points. + + In horoscope No. 5 we see the Moon in the Sixth House, about three de- +grees from Antares, and Saturn is in the Twelfth House within 4 degrees of +an opposition to Antares, about 7 degrees from exact opposition to the Moon; +thus his natal influence was minimized. Had the opposition been close or +exact, blindness from birth would have been inevitable, but fortunately it +was a weak aspect and the vision was not seriously affected until the Sun by +progression entered the Twelfth House, passed the opposition to the Moon, +then opposition to Antares and arrived at conjunction with Saturn. These +points of contact in the horoscope marked crises in the disease of the eyes. +Saturn being the afflicter, the nerves and muscles crystallized until sight + + +[PAGE 594] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +of one eye was lost and the other eye is almost blind. In November, 1912, +the Moon had progressed to the square of the Sun's place at birth. That was +the final crisis which vivified the before-mentioned aspects. Neptune makes +not aspect to the points of the Zodiac mentioned, hence the spiritual sight +is deeply dormant. + +Horoscope NO. 4 is the most afflicted of all; the Dragon's Tail, the Sun and +Antares are in conjunction. That alone is sufficiently severe; the condi- +tion is further aggravated, however, by a close square of Neptune and Mars +to the Sun, and the affliction to the eyes is increased by a conjunction of +Saturn with the Pleiades which occurs in the Twelfth House. Thus this horo- +scope shows the person when born to have very weak eyes, and as a matter of +fact she can scarcely read even when holding book or paper a few inches from +the eyes and using a magnifying glass; but the square of Neptune to Antares +has opened her spiritual senses to a certain extent so that she hears spirit +voices and at times has visions. These manifestations, being uncontrolled +by her, are very unsatisfactory of course, but prove the effect of Neptune +aspecting these points in the Zodiac. + + THE DRAGON'S "HEAD" AND "TAIL" + + As it has often been a sore puzzle to students what are the "Dragon's +Head" and "Tail" (called the Moon's nodes in the ephemeris), and why one is +supposed to be good and to further all that comes under its benefic ray, + + +[PAGE 595] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +while the other is considered extremely evil, it may be well to show the +reasonableness of the philosophy. + + First, let us say for the information of students not versed in astro- +nomical terms, that "nodes" are points where a planet, traveling in its or- +bit, crosses the Sun's path; as for instance, the earth does at the equi- +noxes. This is explained from both the astronomical and mystic sides in our +SIMPLIFIED SCIENTIFIC ASTROLOGY, and also the revolution of the Moon's +Nodes. + + Speaking from the convenient geocentric viewpoint, the Sun crosses its +eastern node each year at the vernal equinox, 50 seconds of space in advance +of the point where it crossed the previous year; as the Sun travels 15 de- +grees per hour, 50 seconds of space are traversed in about 3 seconds of +time. + + The Moon rises about 50 minutes later each night; applying the same mea- +sure, 50 minutes of time correspond to about 3 minutes of space, and the +Moon's nodes recede just that much every day. + + Thus the Sun travels around the circle of the Zodiac in one year, but re- +quires 27 times as many thousands (27,000 years), to complete the preces- +sional circle of its nodes, the equinoctial points. the swift moving Moon +circles the Zodiac in 27 days and its nodes make a full revolution in 1000 +weeks or 19 years. (These figures are only approximate.) + + In the case of the Sun the place where it crosses the earth's equator in +the east is always regarded as the first point of Aries, no matter where in + + +[PAGE 596] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the constellations it falls because of precession. This procedure is per- +fectly justified because the life-giving qualities ascribed to the Sun in +Aries are observable as soon as it has crossed the equator; then the seeds +sprout, the mating season commences and the whole creation seems stirred by +the solar ray to bring forth. Therefore astrologers say that the Sun is ex- +alter in Aries, and Aries is understood to be the first 30 degrees from the +equinoctial point, the eastern node of the Sun, where he crosses the equator +at the vernal equinox. + + On the same principle the western node of the Sun, the point where he +leaves the northern hemisphere for the winter months, is called the first +point of Libra, and Saturn, the planet of obstruction and suppression is +here exalted; he is the reaper with his scythe, he mows down the fruits of +the solar ray, he suppresses life and joy, the gladsome voices of our feath- +ered friends are hushed in his presence, and the earth goes down to its win- +try grave under his withering influence. + + As the Moon gathers and reflects the solar light upon earth, this bor- +rowed light is similar to the direct ray in certain respects; no matter +where its eastern node (called the Dragon's Head), falls in the signs, the +effect upon affairs wherewith it is connected by conjunction is like that of +the Sun in Aries, which makes nature sing with joy; it furthers and acceler- +ates personal matters in a most beneficial manner, it so to speak, oils the +wheels of life in the particular department where it is conjoined with a + + +[PAGE 597] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +planet. On the other hand, the Moon's western node, (called the Dragon's +Tail), corresponds to Libra where Saturn is exalted and if in conjunction +with a planet it exerts an influence of suppression and obstruction similar +in effect to the chill blasts of winter ushered in by the saturnine exalta- +tion. + + Horoscope No. 6 shows its part in breaking the femur (thigh bone) of a +woman. Its position in the Twelfth House indicates confinement; the square +of the Sun from the Midheaven is a further natal affliction. In December, +1908, the full Moon was in exact conjunction, and Jupiter, ruler of the +Sixth House (which shows sickness), was in exact square to the Dragon's +Tail, also in exact opposition to her Sun. Thus indications of trouble were +many. Sagittarius, which has dominion over the hips and thighs, occupies +the Sixth House, so the femur was broken when the lady slipped on an icy +pavement just outside her house. No. 4 shows the Dragon's Tail in conjunc- +tion with the Sun near the fixed star Antares which has an inimical influ- +ence on the sight, and the poor woman who is thus afflicted is in great dan- +ger of blindness. + + The Moon's nodes are tabulated in our SIMPLIFIED SCIENTIFIC EPHEMERIS, +the position being given for every day; their places at birth are found by +simple proportion, and the diagram herewith will explain that these points +are called the "Dragon's Head" and the "Dragon's Tail" because the paths of + + +[PAGE 598] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + DIAGRAM: + THE SERPENTINE PATH OF SUN, MOON, AND PLANETS + + + +[PAGE 599] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +Sun and planets appear serpentine when drawn upon a plane surface. + + DISEASE OF THE EARS + + The Twelfth House indicates the confining influences in life. Mercury +there in conjunction with the Sun limits the spirit, and deafness hampers +its search after knowledge. The same happens if Saturn, Mars, Uranus or +Neptune afflict, also when the mercurial signs, Gemini or Virgo, are on the +twelfth cusp and Mercury is afflicted, (no matter where in the figure it is +placed). We append horoscopes of people who are suffering from this malady; +No. 7 is the horoscope of a woman who is gradually losing here hearing. +Mercury, Venus and the Sun are in close conjunction in Pisces, the twelfth +sign, which is in the Twelfth House. Blood, lymph and the invisible vital +fluid, called "nerve force" by science, are the builders of our bodies; each +planet, except Uranus and Neptune, has dominion over one of their con- +stituent parts. + +MERCURY rules the nerves, particularly the cerebrospinal system, and the in- +visible rose colored vital fluid which flows in the visible nerve sheath. + +THE MOON also rules the nerves in a general way, but has special dominion +over the nerve sheaths of the body, the sympathetic system and the lymph. + +JUPITER governs the arterial circulation. + + +[PAGE 600] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +VENUS rules the venous blood. + +MARS rules the iron in the blood. + +THE SUN rules the oxygen. + +SATURN has dominion over the mineral deposits carried by the blood, which +causes the arteries and other parts of the body to harden. + + When a planet is in very close conjunction to the Sun, three degrees or +less, it is said to be combust; its ray is, so to speak, burned up in the +terrific heat of the Sun, and thus the afflicted planet is unable to prop- +erly exercise its function in the life of persons born under that configura- +tion. It is also evident that as the weakest link of a chain is the first +to give, so the disability would show itself in a part of the body otherwise +afflicted. + + Horoscope No. 7 has both Venus and Mercury combust in the Twelfth House; +we may therefore conclude that there is a lack of nerve force or vital +fluid, and that the venous circulation of the ear is obstructed. Thus con- +gestion is inevitable, and the hearing becomes less and less acute. Oste- +opathy is excellently equipped to deal successfully with a case like this; +were the configuration in a fixed sign we might not feel optimistic, but +flexibility is the salient characteristic of the common signs, so we see no +reason why with patience and perseverance a cure may not be consummated. + + +[PAGE 601] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + As said, Saturn rules the earthly mineral matter carried by our blood; +from this the bony structure is formed, also concretions in the softer tis- +sues. Therefore the skeleton is also under the dominion of Saturn. + + In horoscope No. 8, the auditory disability comes through the fixed signs +Leo and Scorpio; this makes it more difficult to remedy, particularly as +Saturn is the afflicter and throws his malefic ray upon Mercury from an +angle. Science thought at one time that the tympanum was the only, or at +least the main factor in hearing, but realizes now that as much or more de- +pends upon the bony structure. It is the nature of Saturn to obstruct and +as Scorpio rules the organs of Saturn to obstruct and as Scorpio rules the +organs of excretion, we may easily see that this important function is im- +paired, and that waste products have difficulty in passing kidneys and co- +lon. The whole system becomes clogged in consequence, and as Mercury in the +Twelfth House marks the ears as weak, it is only natural that the auditory +nerve becomes clogged and the bony parts of the ear grow denser in the +course of time. + + Sour milk or buttermilk has a particularly wholesome influence in clear- +ing up a clogged system. Many people rebel against the use of milk in quan- +tity because of an idea that it aggravates constipation: that is true in +the beginning, but after a short time the system will accommodate itself to +the diet, which will be then found superlatively cleansing, wholesome and +nutritious. Greens and fruits will also aid a person afflicted as in horo- +scope No. 8 to eliminate the waste and effect a cure in time. + + +[PAGE 602] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + DISEASE OF THE VOCAL ORGANS + + Among the subjects germane to thorough knowledge of Astrology are the +similar effects of intrinsically opposite factors; Saturn is called evil, +and Jupiter good, but when Saturn is well fortified in a horoscope it has an +exceedingly desirable effect, and an afflicted Jupiter is the very reverse +of beneficial. Thus there is a good side to each so-called "evil" plant, +and every "good" planet has also an undesirable phase. The signs of the Zo- +diac are said to rule certain parts of the body, but each sign has also sub- +sidiary dominion over the part ruled by its opposite sign; affliction of +Gemini may cause bronchitis, or weaken the arms and shoulders, but sciatica, +a Sagittarius disease, may also result. Taurus rules the throat; it has +great sympathy with Scorpio, the sign that rules the generative organs, +hence we note the change of voice in boys at the time of puberty; also +woman, when she forsakes the path of chastity and lives a life of debauch +acquires a coarser voice. Taurus rules the larynx, but Mercury governs the +air which stirs the vocal chords to vibration; thus organic affliction is +indicated by affliction of Taurus and Scorpio, but functional disability by +the position and aspect of Mercury. There is a similar relation between +Taurus (ruling the vocal organs) and Mercury (ruling the air which passes +through the larynx) as between instrument and player. + + +[PAGE 603] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +If Taurus (and Scorpio) are unafflicted the vocal organ is in good condi- +tion, but an afflicted Mercury may nevertheless cause a functional disorder +of the speech. The reverse may also happen, namely, that a well fortified +Mercury partially overrides the effect of a Taurus affliction. This is well +exemplified in horoscope No. 9; Saturn, Neptune and the Sun conjoined in +Taurus cause a throat affection, but Mercury is in a sign of voice, Gemini, +(Libra and Aquarius are the other signs of voice) and in conjunction with +Jupiter. The woman suffers constantly from throat trouble, but as a good +musician draws melody from a dilapidated instrument, so, by the aid of her +well placed Mercury, this woman is able to express herself better than many +whose vocal organs are sound; in fact, she teaches elocution. + + Horoscope No. 3 has a singularly well fortified Mercury; there is no af- +fliction to Taurus or Scorpio, and the gentleman has a powerful voice ca- +pable of filling the largest halls without effort, yet not too loud for the +smallest; but Mercury in Leo, a bestial sign, and Saturn in Libra, a sign of +voice, are obstructive of perfect vocalization, therefore the gentleman has +at times a certain halt or hesitancy of speech. + + It follows as a matter of course that disabilities of speech are more +easily remedied that those that are organic; patience, practice of vocal and +breathing exercises such as teachers of voice culture give, (these are en- +tirely different from the dangerous Hindu breathing exercises) are almost + + +[PAGE 604] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +sure to restore normal conditions. + + Horoscopes Nos. 9, 10, and 11 have Saturn and Neptune conjoined in Tau- +rus; as a consequence all have throat trouble, and also a disorder of the +genital organs. Nos. 10 and 11 have both undergone operations for removal +of certain parts, and Mercury in Scorpio centers the thoughts of No. 10 upon +sex, causing intense torture, as it is impossible to gratify the craving. +Saturn in a fixed sign is certainly a sore afflicter, the reaper of fruits +from a past life, and if there is to be any solace it must come through +knowledge of the cause, prayer, and the patience engendered thereby. + + DISORDERS OF THE MIND + + Before closing discussion of maladies peculiar to the head, mention must +be made of insanity, though the underlying causes can only be hinted at in a +work of this kind; but the student is referred to THE ROSICRUCIAN +COSMO-CONCEPTION for a thorough explanation, and a key to the astrological +correspondences. Here we only give the essential facts. + + The brain and larynx were first built by the angelic host from the Moon +(Luna), who used part of the sex force for that purpose, hence the intimate +connection between these organs. "Lunacy" is often induced by misuse of the +sex force, and "lunatics" frequently have a flaw in the speech. When boys + + +[PAGE 605] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +reach puberty the voice changes; the speech of a fast woman becomes coarse, +and degenerate men acquire effeminate voices. In Italy singers anxious to +cultivate high tenor voices have become eunuchs to achieve their purpose. + + Into the system thus built by the lunar host under Jehovah, rebel Angels +led by Lucifer, the Spirit of Mars, insinuated themselves, and inculcated +passion, sex abuse and rebellion against the rulership of the Angels of Je- +hovah. To offset their influence our Elder Brothers from Mercury were com- +missioned to foster reason that many may in time learn to guide himself. +All the great Hierarchies work in our bodies constantly, but the three men- +tioned have particular dominion over sex and sense; each invests one of the +three segments of the spinal cord. The sublimely spiritual hierarchy of +Neptune works in the spinal canal and cerebral ventricles to awaken +spiritual senses, which when evolved, enable the imprisoned spirit to pierce +the veil of flesh and contact super-physical realms. The Lucifer Spirits +dominate the left cerebral hemisphere, which will come into activity in the +future and elevate mankind to a higher, nobler plane of life, give us the +power over the lower nature and make us Christlike. The lunar Angels hold +sway in the cerebellum which is the instrument of coordination. In this +veritable "Tree of Knowledge" the fight is fought between forces which make +for emancipation of man and agencies which aim to keep him dependent, as + + +[PAGE 606] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +explained in Rosicrucian Christianity Series, Lecture No. 14, "Lucifer, +Tempter or Benefactor?" + + Such are the teachings which explain the deep reason back of astrological +dicta, and any qualified seer may easily perceibe the various agencies at +work in the human body; such are few, however, and the student of Astrology +has reason to thank God day by day for the blessed science which is of +greater benefit than any measure of spiritual sight. Though the writers are +firm believers in the law of compensation which gives to each exactly what +he has earned, neither more nor less, we cannot free ourselves from the +feeling that our measure of spiritual faculties has been heaped and shaken +down. We feel very, very grateful for the privilege and added usefulness in +service which this gives us. Nevertheless, were the alternatives placed be- +fore us involving choice between loss of spiritual faculties and loss of our +knowledge of Astrology, we should not hesitate one moment, but decide at +once in favor of our beloved science, neither ought this surprise anyone who +will give the matter a moment's thought. It is true that spiritual sight, +even in its rudimentary form enables us to see the condition of the human +body to the minutest detail, and thus affords a much easier means of diagno- +sis than Astrology, but though it penetrates to the innermost core of the +bone, mere clairvoyance is superficial compared to Astrology for it shows +only present conditions of the body. To find the causes which led up to + + +[PAGE 607] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +that state and judge of future tendencies, it is necessary to consult the +memory of nature. We should have to do that personally, and this, time +would not permit, as were are handling hundreds of cases, but a simple as- +trological figure, which we may commission one of our students to case, re- +veals as much at a glance. There are delineated the causes of mental, moral +and physical disorders; it shows accurately the stages that have been passed +and the crises yet to come. It also indicates the direction from which a +remedy may be looked for and the most favorable time for administering the +same. It helps people Here and Now, and the astrologer who lives up to his +privilege has a mission so high and so holy that the office of priest (in +the esoteric sense) pales into insignificance by comparison. Let the aspir- +ant to this great knowledge remember that he stands upon holier ground that +Moses before the burning bush, when he looks at a horoscope. Through that +circle symbol of infinity an immortal soul is laid bare, and woe to him who +dares to look with profane gaze, for no matter how that soul may have been +smirched in its pilgrimage through matter, it is essentially divine and dear +the Father, yea, perhaps even more precious, than the righteous who do not +need mercy and compassion. This has been somewhat of a digression, but we +have no apologies to offer, for we preach Astrology as a religion and feel +the necessity of emphasizing this phase in season and out, if by any means + + +[PAGE 608] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +we may inculcate in others the reverence which we ourselves feel for this +divine science. + + Returning to the astrological consideration of insanity, and in view of +what has been said we may note that the horoscope shows how, in the spinal +canal, rays of the various hierarchies blend, and Astrology tabulates the +resultant mental conditions as follows: + + People are not congenitally affected, who have cardinal signs rising, +particularly if cardinal or fixed signs also invest the Midheaven and Nadir, +rarely become insane. The active nature forbids morbid tendencies and +blues, disappointment is quickly thrown off and hope springs eternal in the +cardinal breast urging to renewed struggle with conditions. It is said that +the exception proves the rule, and when Capricorn rises the saturnine +rulership gives a tendency to melancholy which under certain aggravating +circumstances may provoke suicide, particularly when the ruler is cooped up +in the Eighth House, as we see in horoscope No. 12. Virgo, a common sign, +devoid of stamina, holds the Sun, Saturn, Venus, and the Moon in this, the +house of death; this robs the person of joy in life and impels him to end it +under stress of sorrow. Knowledge on the part of an astrologer friend has +so far forestalled the calamity, and it is hoped, may save the poor man from +committing so grave a crime. + + When a Fixed sign rises at birth of a normal child, chances of insanity +in later life are so exceedingly remote as to be almost negligible, espe- +cially if a Fixed and Cardinal sign is also on the Midheaven. + + + +[PAGE 609] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +In our extended practice, we know of no exception; the rigid, set and in- +flexible nature of the Fixed signs seems to protect the mind under all +exigencies of stress. + + It therefore follows that the mentally unbalanced come principally from +those born with Common signs on the angles. The intrinsic nature of these +signs if FLEXIBILITY; as a reed in the wind people under these signs are +swayed hither and thither by circumstances; they have no stamina or stabil- +ity, and take reverses much to heart, while they last. Sorrow seems to +overwhelm them and balance is easily lost. + + It is a distinctive feature of the Rosicrucian teachings that pupils in +the Western world must be given every dictum, so as to forestall criticism +as much as possible, for it retards development every time it is indulged. +The Rosicrucian teachings therefore aim to forestall questions at every +point by giving reasons for every dictum, so that the critical mind may be +weaned away from this attitude. We are ardently looking for the day and +reign of Christ, the Friend of man; we do not know when He comes we shall be +like Him. Adverse criticism and skepticism were not traits of His character +and any things that will aid to eradicate these undesirable characteristics +hastens the glad day of UNIVERSAL FRIENDSHIP. + + The reason has been given in SIMPLIFIED SCIENCE ASTROLOGY why the Ascen- +dant rules the body as a whole; it (or its opposite) is the place of the + + +[PAGE 610] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Moon at conception. In the Bible angels are mentioned as heralds of birth +and their lunar home is the focus whence the spirits enter our terrestrial +sphere on their return to physical life. They fashion the etheric mould for +our present instrument, and direct the growth of the fetus. Therefore the +Ascendant and the Moon show the organic disabilities which lead to mental +disorder. The congenital idiocy resulting from lack of proper adjustment +between the vital body and the physical vehicle has been thoroughly de- +scribed in the ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, together with causes producing +the same during prenatal life. Astrologically this condition is produced by +an affliction of the Ascendant, that is to say, the Moon's place at concep- +tion, which throws the angle of the stellar ray out of parallax to the +mother's body and the physical vehicle is built in such a manner that the +head of the vital body is several inches above the skull. Thus the nerve +centers are askew, preventing the ego from properly controlling its instru- +ment. This is one of the configuration which produce idiocy and St. Vitus' +dance. Uranus and Neptune are especially concerned in producing this latter +phenomenon. + + Saturn is the cause of melancholy and depression. Mars and Uranus pro- +duce the muscular and violent forms of insanity. Horoscopes 13 and 14 il- +lustrate these peculiarities. No. 13 also shows the connection between pu- +berty and the mental state. Gemini is rising, with Taurus and Mars +intercepted in the Six and Twelfth Houses, from whence come disease and + + +[PAGE 611] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +confinement. The Moon is in Taurus, which rules the larynx; she is in con- +junction with Neptune, square to Mercury, and Mars is in Scorpio, which +rules the generative organs. There we have at once the tendencies to a dis- +ease, which further accentuated by the fact that Neptune in Taurus squares +the Sun in Leo, and Leo has rule over the heart, and is the prime factor in +circulation upon which the life of the body depends; thus the threatened +illness may be set down to trouble with the blood, produced by a nervous af- +fection. Puberty occurs at the time when the Moon is in the opposite quar- +ter from its place at birth. She entered Scorpio, the opposite of Taurus +which held her at birth, at the time when the child was nearly twelve years +of age. Up to that time the little girl had been bright, but the conjunc- +tion with Mars in Scorpio precipitated the period and robbed the growing +child of vitality sorely needed at that time. The initial periods were few, +but left her depleted of strength to withstand the square to Mercury and the +opposition of the Moon to its radical place. (The radical place of a planet +is its position at birth.) This affliction of Mercury, the ruler, by Moon +at birth, was thus excited and insanity showed itself in consequence. As +the affliction comes from fixed signs, we may judge it will be impossible to +overcome, and the best that can be done for the poor soul is to pray for the +day of its release, that it may have a better chance in a future embodiment. + + +[PAGE 612] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + No. 14 is the horoscope of a young man. The common sign, Gemini, is +rising, the ruler, Mercury, is in the Eighth House, the house of death, and +Uranus and the Moon are in opposition to Mercury. This configuration, is +similar to that of No. 12, and has the same significance, namely, suicidal +tendencies under nervous strain, and this augur is all the more dangerous as +it comes from fixed signs. Mars and Neptune in Taurus give a desire for +drink and the Sun in a watery sign accentuates this tendency. Under such +circumstances the man has several times tried to end his life in a most ex- +traordinary manner. Jupiter and Sagittarius, square to Saturn in Pisces, +increases the looseness of his morals and makes him dishonest. He will +forge and steal in order to satisfy his passion and craving for drink and +questionable society. Leo on the Second House with Uranus and the Moon in +close conjunction, shows that he spends what he gets in dissolute living. + + There is one redeeming feature in the horoscope: Venus in the Midheaven +sextile to his ruler, and trine to the Moon. He has energy and artistic +ability which, it is hoped, may in time rouse the better qualities and make +him a man. But again we reiterate that with the affliction from fixed signs +the obstacle is almost insurmountable. + + In conclusion the student's attention is directed to the Third and Ninth +Houses, which will also have an influence on the mind. Planets therein act + + +[PAGE 613] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +according to the intrinsic nature expressed in the key word of each. + + PULMONARY DISEASES + + Horoscope No. 15 is the chart of a woman who, among other things, was +afflicted with pulmonary trouble. + + Virgo is rising and Mercury, the ruler, is trine at birth, but unfortu- +nately he is combust, a term which has been previously explained as the +meaning that the heat of the Sun burns up the ray of any planet placed too +close thereto. The disease was not congenital however, although the Moon +was square to the Ascendant. But Virgo people, we have seen, are extremely +fond of being sick. When once they have had a little pain, they magnify and +nurse it and are loath to let it go. The square of Neptune in Aries to +Uranus caused St. Vitus' dance at about the age of four years when the Moon +reached the conjunction of Saturn (which is 21:15 Capricorn) and the opposi- +tion to Uranus. This was the beginning of her illness. She afterwards re- +garded herself as an invalid and nursed sickness. Saturn in opposition to +Jupiter added to the trouble by restricting the arterial circulation. At +the time of puberty the Moon was in Gemini in opposition to its place at +birth. This excited the above mentioned square between the radical Moon and +the Ascendant; it also caused the periods to be irregular and troublesome. +The blood must have an outlet and the square of Neptune to Jupiter in Can- +cer, which rules the stomach, causes hemorrhages when the Moon came into + + +[PAGE 614] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +conjunction with the Dragon's Tail in Sagittarius (the opposite sign to +Gemini), and the radical square of the Ascendant and the Moon were again ex- +cited. Then also the lungs became affected. In April, 1909, the progressed +Moon squared the natal positions of Saturn, Jupiter, and Uranus. This in- +imical force from the house of death, the Eighth, ended the life. + + As we feel that this cannot be reiterated too often, we repeat our in- +junction to students never to let a patient know that there is any danger or +that there is a crisis ahead. Particularly, please remember, PARTICULARLY, +if it is a Virgo, for he has no chance at all if he knows what is coming. + + Horoscope No. 16 shows the natal configuration of an actress. Sagit- +tarius is rising; Jupiter and the Moon are in close conjunction in Gemini, a +mercurial sign, and are supported by a trine of the Sun; thus she had a most +healthy constitution at birth, so far as the lung power is concerned. Mars +and Mercury are also in an airy sign, giving energy to respiration and it +thus seems as though this person were singularly well fortified against pul- +monary trouble. But Saturn, Neptune and the Dragon's Tail in Taurus in the +Sixth House, give a tendency to colds and contraction of the throat. Uranus +in Virgo produces convulsive movements of the diaphragm and abdominal re- +gion; he is square to Jupiter and the Moon, and thus we see how graphically +the stellar script pictures the tendency to convulsive coughing and + + +[PAGE 615] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +hemorrhages which nearly brought the young woman to an early grave when +Mars, by progression, came into conjunction with the radical Sun and +vivified the square to Saturn. We rejoice to say that the good aspects +first mentioned enabled the young woman to weather the storm; but close at- +tention to diet, regular living and above all absolute continence are re- +quired to regain full physical strength, for there is much evidence to show +that license played an important part in reducing the life forces and +robbing her of the needed strength at the critical period. + + DISEASES OF THE STOMACH + + Horoscope No. 17 presents a number of diseases, but all have their root +in an insatiable appetite fostered by the fact that the person is a profes- +sional chef. Venus in Taurus gives discrimination in food, and the sextile +to Mercury in Cancer causes the mind to run in the direction of preparations +wherewith to tickle the palate. But the Moon being ruler of Cancer, the +rising sign, which has dominion over the stomach, shows that +over-indulgences of the appetite will result disastrously. The distended +stomach presses upon the heart, of which the Sun, our life-giver, is ruler. +This planet is in Gemini, the sign which has dominion over the lungs, square +to Mars in Pisces. Mars rules the iron in the blood and the Sun gives us +oxygen, thus this square shows that the blood will lack in the life-giving +element. The conjunction of the Sun with Uranus in Gemini produces spas- + + +[PAGE 616] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +modic motion of the lungs and labored inspiration to obtain sufficient oxy- +gen wherewith to supply the system; thus we have the condition called asth- +ma. Saturn and Jupiter are in Virgo which rules the abdomen, square to the +Sun and Uranus in Gemini, showing a lack of circulation and a tendency to +ulcerous growths, and there is a general lack of nutrition in the whole sys- +tem because of the great energy required to eliminate waste from the enor- +mous quantities of food which this person consumes. Sad to say, however, +persons in that occupation protest that they cannot help tasting, and that +in spite of all ills they must eat to excess. It were wiser of course, to +see another profession and train the system to moderation. + + In horoscope No. 18 we have the natal configurations of another chef; +they are similar to those delineated in No. 17. Cancer, the sign of the +stomach, is rising, with Mars and the Sun close to the Ascendant; thus the +forces of this individual will be directed principally toward the stomach, +and the opposition of the Moon shows disastrous results which eventually re- +sulted from gratifying his ravenous appetite. The Sun is life and motion, +Mars is dynamic energy, and the excessive activity centered in the stomach +to take care of digestion causes this organ to be inflamed. Nature is not a +jerry-builder; she builds substantially and well, or our bodies could never +stand the abuse we give them as well as they do, but even the healthiest + + +[PAGE 617] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +organism must give way in time under such dreadful strain. As indicated by +the Sun and Mars, an ulcer developed from the internal heat, ate through the +stomach and relieved the poor soul of its misused body. Neptune in Taurus, +the sign of the palate, was of course also a contributing factor. It is not +to be supposed however, that anyone who has Cancer rising or many planets in +Cancer, is necessarily going to die of the disease to which that name has +been given, but it would be the part of wisdom to train children with such +conditions to abstain from overeating, for it is a truism that more people +die from overeating than from starvation. + + DISEASES OF THE HEART + + As the heart is the seat of physical life, it natural ruler is the Sun. +The solar sign is Leo. But it is a mistake to think that palpitation of the +heart is necessarily shown by an affliction to the sign Leo. Indeed, there +are many cases where overindulgence of the appetite indicated by the sign +Cancer distends the stomach, which presses upon the heart producing what the +person then believes to be heart trouble. This was the case in horoscopes +Nos. 17 and 18; both believed their heart trouble to be the primal cause of +the illness under which they were suffering, while in reality it was only +one of the effects. + + But No. 3 shows a case of organic weakness of the heart. The Sun is at +home in the fixed sign Leo and receives a square from Saturn the reaper; + + +[PAGE 618] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +thus it is evident that the heart was a weak link in the constitution and +would cause trouble in time, unless care was taken. Unfortunately of +course, parents knew less about Astrology a generation ago than today, when +the science is coming to the fore. The energy of which this horoscope is +full, was allowed to spend itself unrestrained with no thought given to com- +ing disaster. + + Venus and Jupiter, the planets ruling the venous and arterial circula- +tion, are in opposition. Venus is in Gemini the sign of the lungs, and when +the Sun progressed to the square of Venus' radical place, and Uranus tran- +sited the Sixth House, illness began; breathing became labored as indicated +by the square of the life-giver to the lungs. Uranus in opposition to his +natal place in Cancer produced the convulsive movement known as the stomach +cough, and thus for years this illness robbed the man of vital energy; but +these afflictions passed and because of attention to right living the system +has been left none the worse for the experience. Moreover, the suffering of +the soul has resulted in growth that he might not otherwise have obtained. + + Horoscope No. 19 shows another case of heart disease. The Sun and +Neptune are conjunct in the Eighth House, in opposition to Mars. As this +conjunction is in the sign Gemini and in the house of death, it is easy to +see the portent. The dynamic energy of Mars tears everything to pieces, ac- +celerates motion, causes palpitation etc. The Sun and Neptune in Gemini + + +[PAGE 619] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +shows a likelihood of a hemorrhage of the lungs, resulting from over activ- +ity of the heart. The Moon and Saturn in Leo show the obstructed passage of +the blood, for the keynote of Saturn is obstruction and retardation: thus +the valves of the heart become leaky and the backward flow of the blood +called regurgitation takes place. + + Leo also rules the spinal cord and malefic configurations there may pro- +duce hunchback and kindred disabilities. + + Horoscope No. 20 is the figure of a beautiful boy, well formed and +healthy, who became afflicted with curvature of the spine. Here we find the +Moon in conjunction with the Dragon's Tail in the Twelfth House, square to +Saturn and Uranus in Scorpio. At five and one half years of age the Moon +had progressed to the square of its own place; this and the conjunction with +Saturn and Uranus in Scorpio, brought on his affliction. After enduring +eight years of torture he died, having been taken from one free dispensary +to another and used by the doctors to practice on. Each doctor tried anew +cure. He was plaster casts for years but to no purpose. The mothers is +represented by Neptune in conjunction with Mars, careless and of dissolute +habits; she was glad of the opportunity to place the boy anywhere in order +to shirk the responsibility of caring for him. The boy died when the Moon +had progressed to an opposition of its own place; it was also then in square +to Uranus and Saturn. + + +[PAGE 620] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS + + The kidneys are ruled by Libra and Scorpio both. That is to say, the +functional activity of secretion of urine comes from Libra, but the bladder +and urethra through which elimination takes place are ruled by Scorpio. Re- +nal stones and gravel would result from an affliction to Libra, for they are +formed int he peduncle of the kidneys. These would also result from an af- +fliction to Scorpio, causing faulty elimination and consequent retention of +calcareous matter in the system. Diseases of the ureters are under Libra. + + Horoscopes Nos. 3 and 21 are examples of how the stars indicate diseases +of the kidneys. In both cases Saturn is in or near an angle and square to +the Sun, and in his sign of exaltation. Libra, which rules the kidneys, is +also elevated. This latter point may not be apparent to beginners who look +at No. 3 and find Saturn, as they would say, DOWN in the Fourth House, but +the nadir of the birth place in Midheaven or Zenith of an opposite point on +earth, and planets at either of these points are found to have an added +power. + + In the two examples mentioned, Saturn, the planet of obstruction, pre- +vents secretion of urine but does not interfere with elimination of that +which has been secreted. But in horoscope No. 8 where he is posited in the +sign Scorpio square to Mercury, we have a case where the formation of gravel +and renal stones is shown to result from incomplete elimination. A person + + +[PAGE 621] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +with such a configuration ought to be extremely careful not to drink hard +water, for this may cause a painful ailment. Only filtered water should be +used for purposes of cooking and drinking. Sour milk, buttermilk and grape +juice are great solvents. We may further to say that to boil water will not +soften it, and the fur which gathers in the tea kettle where hard water has +been boiled is no evidence to the contrary, for that scaly formation was ob- +tained from the water which evaporated; what remains in the kettle for use +is as hard as ever. + + In horoscope No. 7 we find Saturn in Scorpio square to Mars. Saturn pro- +duces the obstruction of the blood known as hemorrhoids, and the dynamic en- +ergy of Mars causes rupture of the congested places, thus we have the pain- +ful bleeding well known to so many sufferers. As a secondary result +constipation adds to the malady, because persons afflicted with the first +named disease shrink from the added pain of the stool, and do not respond to +nature's call. A prolonged rest seems to be the only physical means which +is really effective. Nature however, will be very much aided by proper os- +teopathic manipulations, and a diet consisting principally of milk. + + ACCIDENTS TO HIPS AND ARMS + + Sagittarius rising, or in the Sixth or Twelfth House is responsible for +broken bones and accidents. Under the chapter on the Dragon's Tail we saw +how the person described in horoscope No. 6 fell upon the ice and broke her + + +[PAGE 622] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +hip. No. 21 has even stronger indications of accidents and probably the +life will end in an untoward manner. Sagittarius is rising, Saturn is ex- +alted in the Midheaven exactly square to the Sun, and Neptune is elevated at +the nadir also squaring the Moon; thus both luminaries are afflicted. As +the Sun is lord of the house of death these auguries presage an untimely +end. The only hope lies in the sextile of Jupiter to the Sun which gives +hair-breadth escapes. This man's life has been jeopardized many times in +railroad wrecks, automobile accidents, etc., but although he has thus been +near the gate of death many times, the benefic ray of Jupiter has so far +preserved his life and no bones have yet been broken. The woman described +in horoscope No. 22 has not been so fortunate; her arms and legs have been +accidentally broken several times, for Mars and the Moon are in Sagittarius +in the Twelfth House, also in opposition to Jupiter. The Sun and Mercury +are in the Eighth House in opposition to Neptune and these planets are +square the first mentioned positions. Saturn, her ruler, is square to Venus +so that she attracts accidents and never escapes being hurt. + + DISEASES OF THE LIMBS + + In horoscope No. 7 we find Mars in Aquarius square to Saturn, and from +this affliction it is evident that there is an obstruction of the blood in +the lower limbs, which produces varicose veins. Horoscope No. 17 shows Mars + + +[PAGE 623] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +in the sign Pisces in opposition to Saturn and Jupiter. It is the nature of +Saturn to obstruct, and his conjunction with Jupiter shows that the circula- +tion is poor. Mars in Pisces produces heat, inflammation and swelling of +the feet, because of the stagnated blood. We have already seen that the +person there described is gluttonously inclined, and therefore it is no won- +der that stagnation of the blood produces such painful afflictions as indi- +cated by these configurations. The remedy of course if self-evident; it is +moderation. + + +[PAGE 624] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + CHART #1: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 6:07 VIRGO SUN: 24:47 VIRGO SATURN: 15:27 SCORPIO +MC: 0 GEMINI MOON: 24:32 CAPRICORN URANUS: 21:29 SCORPIO +11H: 6 CANCER MERCURY: 20:28 LIBRA NEPTUNE: 20:18 GEMINI +12H: 9 LEO VENUS: 13:09 LIBRA DRAGON'S TAIL: 22:44 LEO +2H: 28 VIRGO MARS: 17:03 GEMINI +3H: 26 LIBRA JUPITER: 27:40 LEO + + + + CHART #2: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 20:36 GEMINI SUN: 14:00 ARIES SATURN: 9:06R LIBRA +MC: 24 AQUARIUS MOON: 9:55 SCORPIO URANUS: 9:44R SCORPIO +11H: 25 PISCES MERCURY: 9:45R ARIES NEPTUNE: 9:04 GEMINI +12H: 7 TAURUS VENUS: 6:30 ARIES +2H: 10 CANCER MARS: 3:56 GEMINI +3H: 0 LEO JUPITER: 2:03 TAURUS + + + + +[PAGE 625] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + + CHART #3: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 6:41 LEO SUN: 0:14 LEO SATURN: 24:07 LIBRA +MC: 10 ARIES MOON: 4:54 LEO URANUS: 1:36 CANCER +11H: 21 TAURUS MERCURY: 20:58 LEO NEPTUNE: 10:35R ARIES +12H: 5 CANCER VENUS: 14:44 GEMINI DRAGON'S HEAD: 25:27 LIBRA +2H: 21 LEO MARS: 5:53 VIRGO PART OF FORTUNE: 11:31 LEO +3H: 12 VIRGO JUPITER: 20:03R SAGITTARIUS + + + + CHART #4: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 2:41 GEMINI SUN: 10:25 SAGITTARIUS SATURN: 27:22R TAURUS +MC: 9 AQUARIUS MOON: 10:08 CAPRICORN URANUS: 9:27R TAURUS +11H: 7 PISCES MERCURY: 16:13R SAGITTARIUS DRAGON'S TAIL: 10:24 +12H: 16 ARIES VENUS: 26:50 CAPRICORN SAGITTARIUS +2H: 26 GEMINI MARS: 6:48 VIRGO +3H: 17 CANCER JUPITER: 0:10 SAGITTARIUS + + + + + +[PAGE 626] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + + CHART #5: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 26:20 GEMINI SUN: 16:10 ARIES SATURN: 11:42 GEMINI +MC: 10 PISCES MOON: 4:53 SAGITTARIUS URANUS: 14:58 TAURUS +11H: 13 ARIES MERCURY: 18:50 PISCES NEPTUNE: 16:48 PISCES +12H: 21 TAURUS VENUS: 13:17 TAURUS PROGRESSED SUN: 11:28 +2H: 19 CANCER MARS: 16:56 ARIES GEMINI +3H: 12 LEO JUPITER: 24:30 AQUARIUS PROGRESSED MOON: 16:30 + CAPRICORN + + + CHART #6: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 4:49 CANCER SUN: 12:30 PISCES SATURN: 22:23R LIBRA +MC: 12 PISCES MOON: 12:08 TAURUS URANUS: 27:26 AQUARIUS +11H: 9 ARIES MERCURY: 24:44R PISCES NEPTUNE: 2:54 AQUARIUS +12H: 28 TAURUS VENUS: 25:45 CAPRICORN +2H: 24 CANCER MARS: 5:25 CANCER +3H: 16 LEO JUPITER: 3:45 GEMINI + + + +[PAGE 627] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + + CHART #7: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 15:26 ARIES SUN: 9:05 PISCES SATURN: 12:16R SCORPIO +MC: 8 CAPRICORN MOON: 28:07 LEO URANUS: 29:36 GEMINI +11H: 0 AQUARIUS MERCURY: 9:05 PISCES NEPTUNE: 9:08 PISCES +12H: 29 AQUARIUS VENUS: 10:36 PISCES DRAGON'S HEAD: 13:39 ARIES +2H: 22 TAURUS MARS: 10:12 AQUARIUS +3H: 17 GEMINI JUPITER: 23:21 CAPRICORN + + + + CHART #8: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 23:14 LEO SUN: 19:45 CANCER SATURN: 17:32R SCORPIO +MC: 17 TAURUS MOON: 3:22 SAGITTARIUS URANUS: 9:19 CANCER +11H: 21 GEMINI MERCURY: 14:53 LEO NEPTUNE: 15:05 ARIES +12H: 24 CANCER VENUS: 29:36 GEMINI +2H: 16 VIRGO MARS: 11:57 VIRGO +3H: 14 LIBRA JUPITER: 7:09R PISCES + + + + + +[PAGE 628] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + + CHART #9: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 21:10 SCORPIO SUN: 22:50 TAURUS SATURN: 16:36 TAURUS +MC: 12 VIRGO MOON: 6:22 ARIES URANUS: 14:27R VIRGO +11H: 12 LIBRA MERCURY: 6:03 GEMINI NEPTUNE: 16:31 TAURUS +12H: 7 SCORPIO VENUS: 13:30 GEMINI +2H: 21 SAGITTARIUS MARS: 2:45 LEO +3H: 2 AQUARIUS JUPITER: 5:01 GEMINI + + + + CHART #10: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 21:50 SAGITTARIUS SUN: 18:33 LIBRA SATURN: 10:34R TAURUS +MC: 15 LIBRA MOON: 10:45 GEMINI URNAUS: 16:17 VIRGO +11H: 11 SCORPIO MERCURY: 12:34 SCORPIO NEPTUNE: 15:53R TAURUS +12H: 2 SAGITTARIUS VENUS: 17:05 VIRGO DRAGON'S TAIL: 11:38 +2H: 28 CAPRICORN MARS: 7:38 CANCER GEMINI +3H: 9 PISCES JUPITER: 25:04R TAURUS + + + +[PAGE 629] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + + CHART #11: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 23:31 LIBRA SUN: 9:80 TAURUS SATURN: 14:51 TAURUS +MC: 28 CANCER MOON: 2:19 LIBRA URANUS: 14:38R SCORPIO +11H: 1 VIRGO MERCURY: 6:45 TAURUS NEPTUNE: 16:00 TAURUS +12H: 0 LIBRA VENUS: 22:37 TAURUS DRAGON'S HEAD: 1:02 +2H: 21 SCORPIO MARS: 25:36 CANCER SAGITTARIUS +3H: 23 SAGITTARIUS JUPITER: 1:25 GEMINI + + + + CHART #12: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 14:52 CAPRICORN SUN: 28:33 VIRGO SATURN: 26:13 VIRGO +MC: 9 SCORPIO MOON: 2:51 VIRGO URANUS: 22:44 GEMINI +11H: 2 SAGITTARIUS MERCURY: 21:40 LIBRA NEPTUNE: 2:33R ARIES +12H: 23 SAGITTARIUS VENUS: 8:27 VIRGO +2H: 27 AQUARIUS MARS: 16:44R ARIES +3H: 8 ARIES JUPITER: 4:45 LIBRA + + + +[PAGE 630] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + + CHART #13: + +HOUSE CUSPS: PLANETS: + +ASC: 10:57 GEMINI SUN: 29:02 LEO SATURN: 18:04 CANCER +MC: 17 AQUARIUS MOON: 21:36 TAURUS URANUS: 5:43 LIBRA +11H: 17 PISCES MERCURY: 19:05R LEO NEPTUNE: 27:49 TAURUS +12H: 27 ARIES VENUS: 3:01 LEO +2H: 3 CANCER MARS: 0:08 SCORPIO +3H: 24 CANCER JUPITER: 6:16 LIBRA + + + CHART #14: + +ASC: 24:16 GEMINI SUN: 17:47 PISCES SATURN: 0:56 PISCES +MC: 18 ARIES MOON: 20:02 LEO URANUS: 16:46 LEO +11H: 14 TAURUS MERCURY: 20:25 AQUARIUS NEPTUNE: 1:09 TAURUS +12H: 5 GEMINI VENUS: 26:25 ARIES +2H: 2 LEO MARS: 6:43 TAURUS +3H: 13 VIRGO JUPITER: 1:52 SAGITTARIUS + + + +[PAGE 631] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + CHART #15: + +ASC: 3:33 VIRGO SUN: 5:47 TAURUS URANUS: 27:21 CANCER +MC: 29 TAURUS MOON: 5:02 SAGITTARIUS NEPTUNE: 24:14 ARIES +11H: 3 CANCER MERCURY: 4:22R TAURUS PROGRESSED SUN: 11 GEMINI +12H: 5 LEO VENUS: 14:06 VENUS PROGRESSED MOON: 20:29 ARIES +2H: 27 VIRGO MARS: 11:11 TAURUS PROGRESSED ASC: 2:37 LIBRA +3H: 25 LIBRA JUPITER: 22:22 CANCER PROGRESSED M.C.: 3 CANCER + + + CHART #16: + +ASC: 1:44 SAGITTARIUS SUN: 27:10 AQUARIUS SATURN: 19:56 TAURUS +MC: 20 VIRGO MOON: 18:50 GEMINI URANUS: 22:18R VIRGO +11H: 19 LIBRA MERCURY: 8:13R AQUARIUS NEPTUNE: 16:10 TAURUS +12H: 12 SCORPIO VENUS: 10:35 CAPRICORN +2H: 3 CAPRICORN MARS: 10:22 AQUARIUS +3H: 12 AQUARIUS JUPITER: 21:21 GEMINI + + + + + +[PAGE 632] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + + CHART #17: + +ASC: 28:47 CANCER SUN: 22:54 GEMINI SATURN: 16:26 VIRGO +MC: 5 ARIES MOON: 20:47 CAPRICORN URANUS: 16:43 GEMINI +11H: 13 TAURUS MERCURY: 15:02 CANCER NEPTUNE: 3:44 ARIES +12H: 25 GEMINI VENUS: 10:39 TAURUS +2H: 15 LEO MARS: 16:05 PISCES +3H: 6 VIRGO JUPITER: 18:50 VIRGO + + + CHART #18: + +ASC: 7:18 CANCER SUN: 8:06 CANCER SATURN: 13:16R AQUARIUS +MC: 4 PISCES MOON: 12:22 CAPRICORN URANUS: 5:35 LEO +11H: 7 ARIES MERCURY: 9:40 LEO NEPTUNE: 0:31 TAURUS +12H: 11 TAURUS VENUS: 10:04 LEO +2H: 23 CANCER MARS: 9:42 CANCER +3H: 11 LEO JUPITER: 24:20 VIRGO + + + +[PAGE 633] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + + CHART #19: + +ASC: 21:36 LIBRA SUN: 4:19 GEMINI SATURN: 27:38 LEO +MC: 0 LEO MOON: 19:11 LEO URANUS: 23:08R LIBRA +11H: 5 VIRGO MERCURY: 11:10 GEMINI NEPTUNE: 4:15 GEMINI +12H: 1 LIBRA VENUS: 28:28 GEMINI +2H: 17 SCORPIO MARS: 7:10R SAGITTARIUS +3H: 20 SAGITTARIUS JUPITER: 12:07 AQUARIUS + + + CHART #20: + +ASC: 13:35 VIRGO SUN: 10:46 LIBRA SATURN: 17:04 SCORPIO +MC: 12 GEMINI MOON: 23:14 LEO URANUS: 22:14 SCORPIO +11H: 13 CANCER MERCURY: 21:54R LIBRA NEPTUNE: 20:17R GEMINI +12H: 16 LEO VENUS: 3:50 SCORPIO DRAGON'S HEAD: 21:53 +2H: 10 LIBRA MARS: 23:53 GEMINI AQUARIUS +3H: 10 SCORPIO JUPITER: 1:00 VIRGO + + + +[PAGE 634] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + + CHART #21: + +ASC: 26:51 SAGITTARIUS SUN: 17:26 CAPRICORN SATURN: 17:45 LIBRA +MC: 20 LIBRA MOON: 5:16 CAPRICORN URANUS: 22:06R GEMINI +11H: 16 SCORPIO MERCURY: 6:30 AQUARIUS NEPTUNE: 3:18 ARIES +12H: 7 SAGITTARIUS VENUS: 2:53 SAGITTARIUS +2H: 5 AQUARIUS MARS: 15:54 SAGITTARIUS +3H: 16 PISCES JUPITER: 21:41 SCORPIO + + + CHART #22: + +ASC: 4:17 CAPRICORN SUN: 22:24 VIRGO SATURN: 8:18 LEO +MC: 17 SCORPIO MOON: 26:26 SAGITTARIUS URANUS: 3:20R GEMINI +11H: 5 SAGITTARIUS MERCURY: 21:00R VIRGO NEPTUNE: 22:00 PISCES +12H: 19 SAGITTARIUS VENUS: 8:03 SCORPIO +2H: 0 PISCES MARS: 18:59 SAGITTARIUS +3H: 20 ARIES JUPITER: 20:37 GEMINI + + + +[PAGE 635] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + NO. 23.--INSANITY AND SPIRIT CONTROL + + + CHART #23: + +[FLAT CHART] +ASC: 0 ARIES SUN: 21:15 PISCES SATURN: 19:20 CAPRICORN +MC: 0 CAPRICORN MOON: 16:37 ARIES URANUS: 27:24R LEO +11H: 0 AQUARIUS MERCURY: 21:50 PISCES NEPTUNE: 22:31 ARIES +12H: 0 PISCES VENUS: 18:48 AQUARIUS +2H: 0 TAURUS MARS: 7:17 ARIES +3H: 0 GEMINI JUPITER: 19:53 CANCER + + + + + + In judging this horoscope we look first to the mentality, as this is al- +ways the most important factor in the treatment of a patient. Mercury and +the Moon are the two principal factors in determining this point, though, of +course, all the planets have their bearing on that as well as on any other +subject. Here we find that Mercury is combust and that it is with the Sun +in the Common sign, Pisces. That in itself is not a very good augur; we +further find that the Moon is in conjunction with Neptune in Aries, that + + +[PAGE 636] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +it is square to both Saturn and Jupiter, and that therefore the mind must be +of a weak and unstable nature. Mars, the Moon and Neptune in Aries would be +in themselves make a person erratic, but when we find, as here, that Luna is +square to Jupiter, the planet of religion, also to Saturn, the planet of ob- +struction and negation, it naturally causes a very evil condition. The op- +position of Jupiter to Saturn shows that whatever desire for religion Jupi- +ter might engender, would always be opposed by the influence of Saturn, who +would counsel "Don't, don't," causing the person to deride what he or she +really wants to believe. It is a common experience that that which we can- +not understand, appears chaotic and erratic to our minds. Neptune is the +planet of fear and chaos to us, for the human race has not learned to live +up to its high vibrations, and this, with the Moon, square to Uranus makes +that chaotic mental state which we find in this circle. To offset this in- +fluence there is the trine of Jupiter, the planet of religion, to both the +Sun and Mercury; but even this influence there is the trine of Jupiter, the +planet of religion, to both the Sun and Mercury; but even this influence +will not be able to break the condition entirely, though there is no doubt +this great redeeming power has had an effect is staving off the evil day +when the mind will break down entirely. As usual, the marching orbs in +their circling dance come to a point where the string of each aspect is +touched which them produces the tome of either harmony or discord that im- +pels us to actions which we call good or evil; so also in this case. The +time marked on the clock of destiny by the hand of God was April, 1913; + + +[PAGE 637] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +then the lunation fell in conjunction with the radical Moon in Aries. This +naturally excited the radical square to Saturn and Jupiter, also their op- +position, and thus the climax was precipitated; the person became violently +insane. + + We may look for the immediate cause the precipitated that calamity to the +radical position of Neptune and Uranus. These, the octaves of Mercury and +Venus, in a square position will always bring the person in contact with +spirits who have left the body, or who have never inhabited a body such as +we have at the present time. + + During aspects like the above, they would have an excellent chance to use +this poor person as a tool for their nefarious practices, for naturally +those spirits which come under a square are not what we would call good in +any respect; they have no benevolent designs for helping their victim, no +matter what they may profess in that direction. + + The question them comes: What can we do for a person in that condition? +We have a good aspect to the Moon and Neptune, which is the sextile of Ve- +nus. Neptune rules music--classical string music in particular--and Venus +in Aquarius gives the person a love of just that kind of music, which will +soothe the mind. This configuration also gives a love of bright colors and +sunshine which will help to tone the system. She should not be allowed +books, but should have a complete rest from all mental effort, the brightest +conversation possible, and a vegetarian diet. With these there is a + + +[PAGE 638] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +probability that the evil configuration may be overcome and the person re- +stored to mental health, though that will never be robust. + + NO. 24.--HEART TROUBLE, INSUFFICIENT OXYGENATION, EYE TROUBLE, DEATH + + CHART #24: + +ASC: 16:07 SAGITTARIUS SUN: 24:43 ARIES SATURN: 7:26 GEMINI +MC: 6 LIBRA MOON: 6:13 SAGITTARIUS URANUS: 24:57R VIRGO +11H: 4 SCORPIO MERCURY: 10:07 TAURUS NEPTUNE: 19:48 TAURUS +12H: 26 SCORPIO VENUS: 9:26 GEMINI +2H: 20 CAPRICORN MARS: 8:04 LEO +3H: 0 PISCES JUPITER: 25:28 CANCER + + + + + GOOD ASPECTS: Mars trine the Moon, sextile Saturn; Uranus trine Neptune; +Jupiter sextile Neptune and Uranus. + + BAD ASPECTS: The Moon conjunction Antares, opposition Saturn and Venus; +the Sun conjunction Dragon's Tail, square Jupiter; Mercury square Mars. + + +[PAGE 639] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + The Moon on the Ascendant in Sagittarius makes the patient restless and +unstable, but not shiftless, because the Moon is also trine to Mars. This +gives her much more energy than usually possessed by Sagittarians. Even the +opposition of the Moon to Saturn and Venus, which robs life of its joys and +makes her melancholy, is, in a certain sense, help; it gives her a persis- +tence and resistance that will not allow her to give in to disease. Mercury +square Mars shows that she has a very quick temper, and as Mercury is in +Taurus, the sign of voice, the unfortunate characteristic will find expres- +sion in an unbridled tongue. This will hurt her very seriously from a +physical standpoint (not to speak of the even more deplorable spiritual in- +juries), for Mars is in Leo, the sign of the heart, and that always predis- +poses to palpitation. He is sextile to Saturn, but even good aspects to +Saturn are physically inimical. The sun, which is ruler of the heart, is in +conjunction with the saturnine Dragon's Tail. The nerves also are affected +by the square of Mars to Mercury, hence the heart is far from normally bal- +anced, and the outbursts of temper which this person is apt to indulge in on +the slightest provocation may cause heart failure at some time, by putting +an undue strain on this organ and interfering with the already sluggish cir- +culation, which is shown by the square of Jupiter to the Sun and the +Dragon's Tail, also by the conjunction of Venus with Saturn, and their op- +position to the Moon; Jupiter and Venus being governors respectively of the + + +[PAGE 640] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +arterial and venous circulations. + + The head is particularly congested because the Sun conjunction the satur- +nine Dragon's Tail occurs in Aries, the sign of the head, and Saturn, the +planet of obstruction, is in Gemini, the sign of the lungs, in conjunction +with Venus. This shows interference with the circulation of the venous +blood in the lungs. The Moon, which governs the tidal air, is in opposi- +tion, showing that an insufficient amount of air is inspired into the lungs +to cleanse the blood of its poisonous carbon dioxide, and the presence of +Saturn shows a hardening of the tissues, which is apt to develop into tuber- +culosis. You will also notice that Jupiter, the ruler of the Ascendant, is +in the Eight House square to the Sun and the saturnine Dragon's Tail in the +Fourth House, and all are in Cardinal signs. This is a strong testimony of +an accidental death, and Mars in the Eighth House, in the sign Leo, which +rules the heart, shows that hemorrhages may be the cause which will end the +physical life. + + If this person had been taken hold of in time and taught self-control, +this serious condition could probably have been avoided; even now a frank +statement concerning the great danger that undue excitement may cause, +should help her govern her temper, and thus lengthen life. + + The Moon conjunction Antares, and opposition to Saturn shows that the +eyes are in danger also, and Saturn in Gemini, which is a mercurial sign, + + +[PAGE 641] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +shows nervous affection. The conjunction with Venus would suggest a conges- +tion of the muscles of the eyes, which may be greatly relieved by osteo- +pathic treatment. + + A healer with Leo rising, and Saturn not in Gemini, would be best able to +handle the case. + + NO. 25--HEART TROUBLE, TUBERCULOSIS, KIDNEYS + + + CHART #25: + +ASC: 21:28 VIRGO SUN: 18:49 LEO SATURN: 9:40 VIRGO +MC: 21 GEMINI MOON: 26:15 LIBRA URANUS: 15:41 GEMINI +11H: 22 CANCER MERCURY: 0:02 LEO NEPTUNE: 1:17R ARIES +12H: 23 LEO VENUS: 13:37 VIRGO DRAGON'S TAIL: 11:38 +2H: 18 LIBRA MARS: 23:58 LEO GEMINI +3H: 19 SCORPIO JUPITER: 3:26 VIRGO + + + + + + + + We judge first the mental calibre of our patient. Four Common signs are +on the angles, and this at once describes the nature as weak and vacillat- +ing. Mercury square the Moon further accentuates this wavering and + + +[PAGE 642] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +flightiness of her mind, and Saturn conjunction Venus and Jupiter in the +Twelfth House robs life of its joy, making this woman subject to melancholy +and morbid fear. This characteristic is somewhat ameliorated by the sextile +of the Sun to Uranus, which fosters altruism, and the trine of Mercury to +Neptune, which gives spiritual perception, thus aiding to dispel gloom by +directing the mind from sorrows which are but fleeting, to the eternal +verities. To sum up, she is prone to be either "down in the dumps," or "up +in the air," and it is necessary to strive to cure her of both depression +and elation, which are alike harmful. Equipoise must be cultivated to aid +in attaining and maintaining health. Were Fixed signs on the angles this +would be next to impossible, but with Common signs there she is more adapt- +able and reachable. + + Regarding the ailments to which this woman is subject, we note first +Uranus in high elevation, conjunction the Dragon's Tail, whose influence is +saturnine, that is to say, obstructive, crystallizing, and hardening. Both +are in the airy sign Gemini, which governs the lungs, and square to Saturn +in the Twelfth House, which denotes confinement-in prison, hospitals or upon +a sickbed. This gives us at once the key to the trouble. Sometimes the +tidal air is almost stopped by the Dragon's Tail and the square of Saturn; +Uranus prevents asphyxiation by the conclusive movement of the lungs knows +as coughing, which clears away the obstruction and enables the heart to + + +[PAGE 643] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +again circulate the blood. + + The blood is unable to throw off its poisonous carbonic acid because of +the obstructive power of the Dragon's Tail in Gemini, and the square of Sat- +urn to Uranus in the sign of the lungs. The arterial and venous circula- +tions are also impeded by the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus with Saturn, +hence, malnutrition and carbonic acid poisoning are in evidence. The hard- +ening of the lungs and consequent cough, label the case as tuberculosis. + + Elimination of urine is retarded by the square of Mercury to the Moon, +which is in the latter part of Libra, the sign of the kidneys. Mercury gov- +erns the sensory nerves, while Mars rules the motor nerves and muscles. +Mars is in good aspect, showing that the mechanical apparatus is in good +condition, but that the trouble is nervous. This may be alleviated by ma- +nipulations, and so may the sluggishness of the bowels indicated by Saturn +in Virgo. The Mars hour would be the best time, the Sun hour next. Besides +this treatment dry rubs with coarse gloves will stimulate the skin and aid +in eliminating carbonic acid from the system. Whole wheat bread toasted, +plenty of fresh milk given while still warm (for them it contains the +maximum quantity of the ether which is so necessary to restore the vital +body), and as much green uncooked food as the patient can take should be +given, for that also contains a maximum of ether. Onions are particularly + + +[PAGE 644] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +valuable nerve-builders. + + A person with Taurus rising, whose Saturn is not in the degrees included +within the patient's First or Sixth House, will make the best healer for +this patient. + + NO. 26--TUBERCULOSIS + + +ASC: 8:56 VIRGO SUN: 5:01 TAURUS SATURN: 8:33 GEMINI +MC: 5 GEMINI MOON: 24:09 ARIES URANUS: 24:35R VIRGO +11H: 10 CANCER MERCURY: 25:20 TAURUS NEPTUNE: 2:09 TAURUS +12H: 12 LEO VENUS: 20:16 GEMINI +2H: 3 LIBRA MARS: 11:35 LEO +3H: 2 SCORPIO JUPITER: 26:22 CANCER + + + + + + + + GOOD ASPECTS: Uranus trine Mercury and Neptune, Moon sextile Venus; Sat- +urn sextile Mars. + + BAD ASPECTS: Moon conjunction Dragon's Tail; (Dragon's Tail: 22-33 + Aries); Moon square Jupiter; Sun square Mars; Uranus square Venus. + + +[PAGE 645] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + This is the horoscope of our friend, James Casey, who wrote such helpful +articles in the "RAYS." He passed into the invisible worlds in June, 1918, +and as he has no relatives connected with our society who might read this +diagnosis and feel badly on that account, he gave us permission to use if +for the benefit of his fellows. He was born on April 24, 1884, 2:00 P.M., +in Harlem, Iowa, and became afflicted with tuberculosis while living in Den- +ver, Colo., the Mecca for all who are afflicted with this disease. + + You will notice that Saturn, the planet of crystallization and obstruc- +tion, is placed in Gemini, the sign which rules the lungs, and although Sat- +urn is the highest elevated planet in the horoscope, besides being +unafflicted there is always a weak spot in the anatomy where he is found. +The hot, inflammatory and disruptive Mars is in Leo, the sign which governs +the heart, square to the Sun, which is ruler of Leo, in the sign Taurus, +which governs the throat and all the passages there. This is a configura- +tion which usually produces fevers, inflammation, wounds and hemorrhages. +Thus there was a tendency in the system toward tuberculosis, and you will +furthermore notice that there are four Common, flexible signs on the angles, +the Sixth House sign, Virgo, being on the Ascendant with the spasmodic +Uranus afflicting Venus, the ruler of the venous circulation, which is +placed in Gemini, the sign ruling the lungs. Uranus gives a tendency to +coughs and spasms, so you see that the condition is very well outlined in +the horoscope. The four common signs show that when he became subject to + + +[PAGE 646] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +illness the Virgo nature was too weak to throw it off and he simply made up +his mind that he was going to die from it, hence there was no help. If he +had been able to throw off the feeling of impending death and to struggle +against the sickness there is no doubt that with this horoscope he could +have overcome. + + For a more detailed analysis of the conditions which resulted in death, +see pages 477-480. + + NO. 27--ADENOIDS AND CONSTIPATION + + In this figure the planets occur in four groups: Neptune is in conjunc- +tion with Mars, Saturn in conjunction with Uranus, Mercury in conjunction +with the Sun, and Jupiter in conjunction with the Moon. The last two groups +are also squaring each other. Venus is alone and forms a trine to Jupiter. +Note also that the Sun is parallel to Neptune and Mercury, and Venus is par- +allel to Mars. + + +[PAGE 647] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + +ASC: 22 ARIES SUN: 5:23 SAGITTARIUS SATURN: 23:25 SCORPIO +MC: 11 CAPRICORN MOON: 3:55 VIRGO URANUS: 25:29 SCORPIO +11H: 2 AQUARIUS MERCURY: 5:06 SAGITTARIUS NEPTUNE: 19:17 GEMINI +12H: 2 PISCES VENUS: 11:25 CAPRICORN +2H: 29 TAURUS MARS: 24:53 GEMINI +3H: 21 GEMINI JUPITER: 9:01 VIRGO + + + + + + + + This is the horoscope of a young woman born Nov. 27th, 1896, 2:15 P.M., +Tacoma Wash. We note first that there are Cardinal signs on the angles, +showing her to be active in nature. But she acts more from impulse than +from reason. This characteristic is shown by the fact that the Moon is + + +[PAGE 648] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +square to Mercury and the Sun. Naturally as both the Moon and Mercury are +significators of mind, any inharmonious aspects between them are detrimen- +tal. Add to this the further fact that Mercury is combust or burned up by +its close proximity to the Sun, and it is very evident that we may expect to +do very little with the person by reason. This does not mean that she is of +evil mental disposition; she is quite the reverse, as shown by the conjunc- +tion of the Moon with the planet of benevolence, Jupiter, and the trine be- +tween this last named planet and Venus, the planet of love and pleasure. + + The trouble for which this young woman has consulted us is adenoids, +which cause extreme difficulty in breathing. The condition is very clearly +shown in the horoscope. When we remember that afflictions in one sign al- +ways give a reflex action in the opposite, we shall readily understand that +Saturn, the planet of obstruction, in conjunction with Uranus, the planet of +spasmodic action in the sign Scorpio, is certain to interfere with the +rhythmic breath through the Taurus region comprising the throat and lower +part of the head. Furthermore, Scorpio also governs the nose, as you will +realize when you remember that the most prominent feature of the true Scor- +pio person is a aquiline of generous dimensions. Thus an afflicted Saturn +located in Scorpio, which causes an obstructed rectal region and constipa- +tion, also at the same time gives a tendency to throat trouble and obstruc- +tion of the nasal passages. + + +[PAGE 649] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + In the case of this patient we find the condition aggravated by the +square of the Sun and Mercury to the Moon and Jupiter. The Sun and Mercury +being placed in Sagittarius are therefore active in the opposite sign +Gemini, which governs the lungs, and as the Moon governs the tidal air in +the lungs the square of these planets will naturally affect the breathing. + + Now for the remedy; it seems far-fetched to attempt to rectify an ob- +struction in the throat by working on the anus. Nevertheless, Saturn, the +planet of obstruction, conjoined with Uranus, the planet of spasmodic action +in Scorpio, shows that at certain times the sphincter muscles of the anus +are so tightly closed that it is impossible for the diaphragm to move. Un- +der ordinary conditions there is an in-breathing through the anys which +regulates the air pressure in the bowels, a fact that is not generally +known, but when the sphincter muscles are congested by a configuration of so +severe a nature as this one, this automatic regulation stops and the +diaphragm is then unable to work with the necessary freedom; therefore the +lungs are deprived of the necessary tidal flow of air. So, to relieve this +condition an adjustable mechanical dilator should be used. It should be +noted that THERE ARE TWO SPHINCTER MUSCLES to operate upon, the inside one +being located just a little way inside the anus. + + After a few treatments of this kind the bowels should be kept open by the +use of the proper laxative foods such a prunes, figs AND NOT FORGETTING + + + --- END OF FILE --- + diff --git a/religious documents/ms11.txt b/religious documents/ms11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7090a82 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ms11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2685 @@ +[PAGE 650] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +COARSE WHOLE WHEAT BREAD. + + There is no doubt that this person has resorted to mouth breathing, which +has aggravated the throat trouble, but by consistent continuance of the +treatment here outlined she will soon experience less difficulty in breath- +ing and it will then be an easy matter to learn to breathe through the +proper channels, the nostrils. + + A healer having Leo on the Ascendant and whose Saturn is not in Virgo +would probably be the best one to help this patient. + +NO.28. ACCIDENTS TO HEAD, POOR OXYGENATION + + GOOD ASPECTS: Saturn sextile Jupiter, trine Mars and Uranus. + + BAD ASPECTS: Jupiter opposition Mars and Uranus; Moon opposition Venus; +Sun and Mercury square Uranus, Mars and Jupiter. + + This is the horoscope of a man born on March 16, 1865, at 3 P.M., in En- +gland, and it affords a good example of how accidents are also crises are +shown in the horoscope. The main affliction comes from the fact that the +Sun and Mercury are in close conjunction in the Eighth House, occupied by +Pisces. This itself is unfortunate for the reasoning faculty. They are +both square to Jupiter in Sagittarius, which also has a strong influence +upon the mind. But worst of all, they are square to Mars, the planet of dy- +namic energy, impulse, etc., and Uranus, the planet of lightning-like + + +[PAGE 651] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +action, which precludes forethought. When action is dictated by intuition +generated under good aspects, all is well and the person is better off than +when he is forced to use the comparatively slow reason. But when + + CHART #28: + +ASC: 23:27 LEO SUN: 26:00 PISCES SATURN: 29:14R LIBRA +MC: 10 TAURUS MOON: 11:26 SCORPIO URANUS: 25:34 GEMINI +11H: 20 GEMINI MERCURY: 24:07 PISCES NEPTUNE: 7:34 ARIES +12H: 25 CANCER VENUS: 10:51 TAURUS +2H: 12 VIRGO MARS: 22:41 GEMINI +3H: 7 LIBRA JUPITER: 27:39 SAGITTARIUS + + + +it is generated under the adverse aspects of the square and opposi- +tion, it results in such rattle-brained foolhardiness and absolute lack of +thought and intelligence that the person is generally mentally incompetent. +So we see at the very first glance that we have here before us a person who + + +[PAGE 652] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +on account of weak mentality is apt to get into trouble and accidents. But +the injuries which he has received in consequence of his lack of forethought +were all to the head and as the horoscope does not show any serious afflic- +tion to Aries, which rules the head, except that Mars and Mercury, which +rule the two hemispheres of the cerebrum, are square, what then caused these +accidents, we may ask. The answer is found in the progression of the Sun, +which corresponds with the time when this person was injured, the Moon also +bearing its part in bringing about these accidents. In 1876, when he was +eleven years of age, the Sun and Moon were both in conjunction with Neptune +in the sign Aries and at that time he met with an accident which caused the +first injury to his head. In 1896 the progressed Sun was in opposition to +Saturn from Aries; you will notice that Saturn is retrograde so that al- +though he is in the last degrees of Libra his influence is thrown backward +into that sign and works as an opposition between Libra and Aries, affecting +the head. The Sun was also parallel to Saturn and this is one of the most +inimical influences in the whole gamut, for it destroys all vitality of the +person who is under its sway for a number of years. (One of the writers can +testify to this from personal experience, having felt it for ten or twelve +years.) At the same time the progressed Moon was in opposition to Mars and +Uranus and square to the Sun and Mercury at birth; thus there were very + + +[PAGE 653] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +severe afflictions at that time and the poor man suffered a considerable in- +jury. + + The third accident came in 1908, at the age of forty-three. At that time +the Sun was in opposition to the Moon's radical place and the progressed +Moon was in conjunction with Uranus and Mars, square to the Sun and Mercury, +radix. The opposition of the Sun to the Moon occurred from Taurus, which +governs the lower part of the head, where he was hurt. + + In consequence of these various accidents the man is now suffering from +chronic headaches and he is on the verge of insanity. Various doctors have +been called on for advice but no one is able to put his finger on the seat +of the trouble. Consulting our ephemeris we find that during the man's +lifetime Saturn will continue to retrograde further back into Libra, and +that his influence in Aries is becoming stronger with every year. Saturn +always causes bruises and depression; we are therefore satisfied that there +must be a depression of the skull and an examination should be made to find +this and have it removed. But he square of the Sun and Mercury to Mars and +Uranus in Gemini, which rules the lungs, shows also that there is something +the matter with the oxygenation of the system, and Saturn in Libra indicates +that there is a scarcity of urine. These defects can be remedied by breath- +ing exercises and through regulating the diet. When that is done there will +be at least a large measure of relief. + + +[PAGE 654] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + A healer with Aries rising, whose Saturn is not in Aquarius, will be best +able to look after this patient. + + NO. 29.--GOITRE + +[FLAT CHART] +ASC: 0 ARIES SUN: 6:12 LEO SATURN: 24:46 TAURUS +MC: 0 CAPRICORN MOON: 21:12 CAPRICORN NEPTUNE: 18:41 TAURUS +11H: 0 AQUARIUS MERCURY: 16:38 CANCER +12H: 0 PISCES VENUS: 15:16 VIRGO +2H: 0 TAURUS MARS: 17:26 VIRGO +3H: 0 GEMINI JUPITER: 22;05 GEMINI + + + + As the hour of birth of the person in this horoscope is not known, we +place Aries in the First House, Taurus in the second, etc. + + Mercury and the Moon are significators of the mind, and we find them in +opposition. This in itself is not a sign of good mentality. We further +find that Jupiter in the mercurial sign Gemini is square to Uranus in Virgo + + +[PAGE 655] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +16-20 and Mars is also in the sign Virgo,; thus all the significators point +to a weak and even an erratic mentality. In the last few years Mercury has, +moreover, progressed past the natal places of Uranus and Mars, thus accentu- +ating the trouble. + + A person may, however, have a weak mind and yet it may not become en- +tirely unbalanced, provided there are no other malefic aspects between the +natal planets or the progressed positions. The person may be constitution- +ally below the stature of the normal mind, and still retain unto the last +sufficient hold upon himself or herself so that it does not become an actual +disease. + + When we look for the signs of disability in a horoscope like the present, +we turn to the aspects for our information. Saturn, it appears, as in con- +junction with the Dragon's Tail ( 26-10 ), and this adds to his malefic in- +fluence; he is further in conjunction with Neptune in 18 degrees of Taurus, +and also with the fixed star Alcyone in 29 degrees of Taurus. As Saturn is +the planet of obstruction and Taurus rules the throat we naturally look for +some obstruction in that region, and we find that a concretion has taken +place, a growth, a crystallization known as Goitre, a disease which also +further bears out the indications in the former aspects which we have dis- +cussed. + + Were it not for good aspects which we have not hitherto mentioned, +namely, the sextile of Saturn to Mercury and its trine to the Moon, this +person would certainly have become an inmate of an insane asylum, but this + + +[PAGE 656] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +is one of the few cases where Saturn really helps in a material sense, for +even his good aspects will obstruct when coming to the other planets; but +when this obstruction is applied to the Moon, the flightiest planet of all, +and to Mercury, the one next to her in swiftness and instability, both of +then significators of the mind, Saturn does really help to hold the flighty +mind in check, and such a weak mental condition as the one found here will +be vastly benefited by these aspects, whereas if there are no evil aspects +the sextile of Mercury and Saturn will strengthen the mind in a wonderful +degree. + + As Saturn in Taurus always affects the functions of the opposite sign, +Scorpio, namely elimination, it is of great importance to see that both kid- +neys and bowels act freely with a person like this. Nothing but distilled +water should be taken into the system on any account. As the muscles of the +beck are always strained in hill and star climbing, a person with this dis- +ease should be housed on a level and on the lower floor of the house. A +vegetarian diet consisting of uncooked food is preferable to any other, and +it is particularly necessary to get the vegetable salts which may tone the +body and bring the standard of general health as high as possible; lettuce +is the best single vegetable for this purpose. + + +[PAGE 657] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + NO. 30--WEAK BACK AND LIMBS, EYE TROUBLE, DEAFNESS + + GOOD ASPECTS: The Moon sextile to Uranus and Jupiter; the Sun sextile to +Mars; Venus trine to Jupiter. + + BAD ASPECTS: Saturn opposition to Neptune; the Sun and Mercury square to +Jupiter and Uranus. + + CHART #30: + +ASC: 18 VIRGO SUN: 13:27 VIRGO SATURN: 28:27 SAGITTARIUS +MC: 16 GEMINI MOON: 5:27 AQUARIUS URANUS: 8:37 SAGITTARIUS +11H: 20 CANCER MERCURY: 6:41 VIRGO NEPTUNE: 29:04 GEMINI +12H: 21 LEO VENUS: 28:00 CANCER +2H: 12 LIBRA MARS: 17:40 CANCER +3H: 12 SCORPIO JUPITER: 3:17 SAGITTARIUS + + + + This is the horoscope of a young man born on September 6, 1900, at 6:00 +A.M., and the disability complained of is weakness in the back and limbs, +which prevents him for moving about normally. Astrologically we find + + +[PAGE 658] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +that this is due to several causes. In the first place, there are four +Common signs on the angles, the Sixth House sign, Virgo, being on the +Ascendant which governs the condition of the body. It is a vital point in +that respect. This in itself shows his somewhat indolent nature and a +tendency to give up very easily. We also find Mercury, the ruler of the +Ascendant, in the Twelfth House, denoting hospitals and chronic illness; +he is square to Jupiter and Uranus, which are placed in Sagittarius, the +sign which governs the hips and the great sciatic nerve. The Sun, the +giver of life, is also square to Uranus, the planet of irregularity, +which is conjoined with Jupiter in Sagittarius. And finally, Saturn, the +ruler of the bony structure and its articulations, is placed in Sagittarius +in opposition to Neptune, in Gemini. All these configurations naturally +tend to bring about the conditions complained of if nothing is done to +prevent; but in this case, with four Common, flexible signs on the +angles, with the life-giving Sun sextile to Mars, the planet of dynamic en- +ergy, and with the Moon sextile to Jupiter, the planet governing the arte- +rial blood, it is quite possible to obtain relief by means obtain relief by +means of exercises which will remove the sluggish conditions. + + But we also find other weaknesses of a serious nature latent in this +horoscope. Uranus is in conjunction with nebulous star Antares in Sagit- +tarius 8 degrees, square to the Sun and Mercury. This implies a grave dan- +ger to the sight and also to the hearing because of Mercury being in the + + +[PAGE 659] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +Twelfth House. These conditions can certainly be overcome if the ounce of +prevention is applied. We take it that because the man is not able to oth- +erwise occupy himself he is an inveterate reader and this will bring trouble +if persisted in. Massage of the head in the region of the eyes and ears, +and exercise of the limbs and body will aid in restoring this young man to +health. A healer with Taurus on the Ascendant whose Saturn is not in the +patient's Sixth House will probably have the most persistence in the perfor- +mance of his work. + +NO. 31--EYE AND EAR TROUBLE, POOR CIRCULATION + + Mercury, the significator of mind, rises BEFORE the Sun and is in the +Twelfth House, conjunction Neptune, its higher octave. This shows that the +mind is naturally inclined toward the higher and more spiritual things of +life, through Jupiter square Mercury from the house of mind indicates that +under severe afflictions this woman may at times follow the example of Job +and reason with God concerning the hard fate she has to bear. The Moon, +which is the other significator of mind, square Venus, shows us that consid- +erable sorrow may be expected in this life; but the conjunction of Mercury +with the mystical Neptune in the Twelfth House gives her a certain degree of +spiritual development, which brings much comfort through her communion with +the higher worlds, compensating her for her isolation. Jupiter is the +Midheaven trine to the Ascendant causes her to look upon life from a more + + +[PAGE 660] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +hopeful angle than even people who are not at all afflicted (in comparison +with her), and the strength of her hope is bound to help her in a degree be- +yond human measure; for even as the person who gives way to worry + + + CHART #31: + +ASC: 2:43 GEMINI SUN: 29:20 TAURUS SATURN: 0:28 ARIES +MC: 11 AQUARIUS MOON: 19:28 CAPRICORN URANUS: 25:28 LEO +11H: 9 PISCES MERCURY: 10:56 TAURUS NEPTUNE: 8:05 TAURUS +12H: 18 ARIES VENUS: 14:14 ARIES +2H: 27 GEMINI MARS: 9:00 CANCER +3H: 18 CANCER JUPITER: 7:07 AQUARIUS + + + + +and melancholy is thereby made more unhappy or unhealthy, so also the person +who constantly keeps an optimistic spirit is bound to gain thereby corre- +spondingly in health and happiness. The Sun on the Ascendant, even though +it is afflicted by a square of Uranus, is nevertheless a valuable asset in +recuperation. The Sun sextile Saturn will give her a persistence, a tena- + + +[PAGE 661] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +of life, that will not let go despite all discouragements. + + This woman has been deaf since she was five years of age and this dis- +ability is indicated by the position of Mercury in the Twelfth House, by his +conjunction with Neptune, and his square to Jupiter. This latter aspect in- +dicates that it is sluggish circulation of the blood which is responsible +for the disability. These aspects of Mercury also make her dumb, par- +ticularly because Mercury is in Taurus, which governs the vocal organs. She +has nevertheless learned to talk, showing that there is no organic disabil- +ity but only a functional weakness. + + But these are not all of the poor woman's afflictions. You will notice +that the Sun is in Taurus 29. In other words, it is in conjunction with the +Pleiades, a nebular spot in the Zodiac. It is also square to Uranus and +parallel to Mars. Therefore the eyes are sorely afflicted; one is almost +blind, the other not much better, so that there is danger that she may lose +her sight entirely. + + On account of her afflictions and the position in which she has been +placed, this woman has been unable to get an education. Nevertheless, by +persistence indicated by Saturn sextile the Sun, she has accomplished much. +She writes a really beautiful letter which tells how she was in comfortable +circumstances up to 1906, when the earthquake in San Francisco deprived her +of her all, and still she has not given up hope. Her mental attitude, in- +spired by her Sun conjunction Ascendant and sextile Saturn, is justified in + + +[PAGE 662] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +quite a large measure. The trouble comes from Saturn, the planet of ob- +struction, in Aries, the sign which governs the head, and the square of Ju- +piter, the planet which governs arterial circulation, to Mercury in Taurus, +the sign which governs the throat. There were also signs of malnutrition, +indicated by the presence of Mars in Cancer, the sign which governs the +stomach, square Venus, which governs the venous circulation. If the system +could be given the proper amount and kind of food and the head and neck mas- +saged with special attention to manipulations of the ears and eyes, condi- +tions might be considerably relieved and further progress of deterioration +stopped. An Aquarian whose Saturn is not in Libra or Scorpio would have a +most beneficial effect in this case. + +NO. 32.--HEMORRHOIDS, BLINDNESS, LATENT SPIRITUAL SIGHT + + In the case before us we have not the hour of birth, and will therefore +insert the signs in their respective Houses, commencing with Aries in the +First, Taurus in the Second, etc. This person was born November 27, 1867. + + GOOD ASPECTS: Sun and Mars trine Neptune. + + BAD ASPECTS: The Sun and Mars conjunction Antares; Saturn and Mercury +square Jupiter; Mars conjunction the Moon and Venus; Saturn conjunction Mer- +cury, Jupiter Square Sun, Uranus square Neptune. + + +[PAGE 663] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + Regarding the mentality of this person, we find that the conjunction of +Saturn and Mercury, particularly in the Eighth House sign, Scorpio, clouds +the mind with gloom. The Moon, which is the other significator of mind, +conjunction Mars in the Ninth House sign, Sagittarius, would have the + + CHART #32: + +[FLAT CHART] +ASC: 0 ARIES SUN: 4:48 SAGITTARIUS SATURN: 27:37 SCORPIO +MC: 0 CAPRICORN MOON: 19:12 SAGITTARIUS URANUS: 12:18R CANCER +11H: 0 AQUARIUS MERCURY: 23:05 SCORPIO NEPTUNE: 12:00R ARIES +12H: 0 PISCES VENUS: 20:41 CAPRICORN +2H: 0 TAURUS MARS: 14:14 SAGITTARIUS +3H: 0 GEMINI JUPITER: 29:34 AQUARIUS + + + +tendency is somewhat softened and toned down by the presence of Venus in +conjunction with these planets, and we may therefore conclude that this per- +son is apt to be very much depressed in mind whenever misfortune overtakes + + +[PAGE 664] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +him; that he rebels, at least inwardly, very strongly against the blows of +fate, though Venus may prevent him from expressing his disappointments. + + With regard to the ailments to which this person is subject, we find in +the first place that Jupiter square to Mercury and Saturn, the latter being +in Scorpio, which rules the rectum, gives a tendency to constipation and +hemorrhoids. This configuration also interferes with the circulation of the +arterial blood. His disability is further enhanced by the square of Jupiter +to the Sun, the latter planet being ruler of the organ which circulates the +vital fluid. + + But there is a great misfortune in this life, compared with which the +troubles previously mentioned pale into insignificance. The Sun and Mars +are in conjunction with the fixed star Antares in eight degrees of Sagit- +tarius, and this configuration always brings trouble to the eyes, though it +may not result in blindness from birth. In the present case the crisis came +when the Sun had progressed to the opposition of Uranus, at the same time +striking the square to Neptune. In that year the Moon also was in conjunc- +tion with Neptune in the sign Aries, which rules the head. This kindled the +double fire of Mars and the Sun at birth, with the result that inflammation +of the eyes made the man blind beyond hope of recovery. + + It may seen strange that the writers selected this horoscope for +analysis, as the patient is beyond help, but if offers certain points which +it will be well for the student to impress upon his mind. You will notice + + +[PAGE 665] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +that Mars is trine to Neptune, and that the Sun is only about seven degrees +from a trine to Neptune. The culmination of the latter aspect will occur +before even the vital body is brought to birth. This is a very good indica- +tion that THE SPIRITUAL SIGHT MAY BE AWAKENED in this person and that it +will compensate, or more than compensate, for the loss of the physical fac- +ulty. There is, however, as you will also note, the square of Neptune and +Uranus which makes for mediumship; on that account it would be advisable for +this person to be very closely on his guard during the time when the +spiritual faculty is being developed, and until he is perfectly safe and +balanced in the other world; and it would be a great privilege for a healer +receiving such a case to aid a person stricken by the misfortune of blind- +ness to cultivate the latent faculty shown by the horoscope. + + NO. 33.--HEART TROUBLE, DROPSY + + GOOD ASPECTS: Jupiter trine Mercury; Saturn trine Mars. + + BAD ASPECTS: Saturn square the Sun, Moon and Venus; the Moon opposition +to the Sun and Venus; Mercury square Neptune; Mars conjunction Uranus. + + We consider first the mind of this woman, to obtain the key to her condi- +tion, for the mind is the most important factor in bringing about disease +and curing it. You may call that Christian Science or whatever you please, + + +[PAGE 666] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +the fact remains and has been made use of by all successful healers, either +consciously or unconsciously, no matter to what school they belong. And +there is more healing in a cheery word from the physician in whom the + + CHART #33: + +ASC: 12:44 SAGITTARIUS SUN: 29:26 CANCER SATURN: 28:37 ARIES +MC: 0 LIBRA MOON: 0:10 AQUARIUS URANUS: 6:54 VIRGO +11H: 29 LIBRA MERCURY: 20:05 LEO NEPTUNE: 14:08 TAURUS +12H: 22 SCORPIO VENUS: 1:20 LEO +2H: 15 CAPRICORN MARS: 0:45 VIRGO +3H: 24 AQUARIUS JUPITER: 19:0 ARIES + + +patient has faith, than in all his medicines. Conversely, when the doctor +gives up hope and makes a long face, the patient dies unless he "GETS MAD," +or "SPUNKEY," as once happened to the writer when he was broken down from +overwork. He went to a hospital to get nursing and quiet, and had to engage +a regular doctor to comply with the rules. He knew that his condition would + + +[PAGE 667] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +not change till the Moon did, and lay patiently waiting, though the case was +approaching a crises, for his mind was too lethargic to set to work; HE EX- +PECTED THE MOON TO DO IT ALL at the proper time. But on the day of the New +Moon his doctor came in with another, and both had faces a yard long. They +did not think he had another hour to live; and he laughed, but it made him +"mad," and he commenced to work on himself with the result that the dropsi- +cal swelling which had almost reached his heart, was gone in a few hours and +he was out in the sunshine getting a dose of new life. Before a month had +elapsed he had not only left the hospital behind, but had written THE +ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY. There is no doubt that the fluid could not have +been eliminated before the change of the Moon, but the co-operation of his +mental attitude was necessary to help the lunar forces, and combined with +proper action it brought results. Similarly in every case, the right at- +titude of the mind must be cultivated or cure is impossible. + + This figure shows an unfortunate person, for the mind is in a bad state. +Saturn is square to the Sun, Moon and Venus. The Moon, which signifies the +instinctual mind, is in opposition to the Sun and Venus, robbing life of all +joy, making her pessimistic and prone to look only on the dark side. Mer- +cury, the planet of reason, is square to Neptune, the planet of spiritual +perception, all these testimonies tell us that nothing we may say is likely +to make her cheer up. + + +[PAGE 668] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + Such a poor person is a burden to herself and her associates all through +life, so they shun her while she is able to take care of herself, that is to +say, while the body is in comparative health; but the afflictions which make +her mentally miserable also have their effect on the body, for as we mould +the lines of our face to an exact expression of our habitual mode of +thought, so are also our other organs shaped and built by this force, and +the evil effects show themselves as disease. The Sun, Venus and mercury in +the Eighth House indicate that when sickness comes she is going to let it +take its course, and will make no effort to fight for life. + + The nature of her sickness is seen to be heart trouble, from the fact +that the Sun is on the cusp of Leo, which governs the heart, in conjunction +with Venus, which governs the venous circulation, and opposed by the Moon, +which rules the liquids of the body. The Sun, Venus and the Moon are +squared by Saturn, the planet of obstruction, and thus we see that there was +a natal tendency to poor heart action and faulty elimination of liquids. + + In 1913 the Sun progressed to the conjunction of Uranus and Mars. The +aspects of the Sun are always effective for three years, one and one-half +years before the aspect is exact, and a like period after. Therefore it was +still active in 1914, when the Moon progressed to the conjunction of Saturn +and thus enlivened this square to the Sun, Moon and Venus. Neptune, the wa- +tery planet, also reached the natal Sun by transit, and the poor soul was + + +[PAGE 669] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +released by the total obstruction of the liquids; in other words, the drop- +sical condition stopped the heart. + + The main effort in such cases should be to get the person to fight. If +she could have been made to see that it was her gloomy outlook on life that +was responsible for her sickness and that if she did not fight here and now, +she would have a harder fate to face next time, it might have helped. No +person who is naturally pessimistic can change over night, but he can do a +whole lot to cultivate optimism if given years, and we should strive to in- +culcate this attitude of mind in all, BESIDES TRYING TO BE CHEERFUL OUR- +SELVES, for that is a healer's greatest asset. + + NO. 34.--SEX, EYE AND THROAT TROUBLE + + The type of mind is denoted particularly here by the square of Saturn to +the Sun. This occurs from Cardinal signs, Saturn being essentially digni- +fied and therefore very powerful, while the Sun is in Libra, the sign of its +debility and greatest weakness. Life and joy come from the Sun, while Sat- +urn gives gloom and death. Therefore we readily see that this person must +be subject to gloom and melancholy. The sextile of Uranus to Mercury, the +significator of mind, tells that the person is endowed with an almost un- +canny lightining-like intuition, and the square of Uranus to the Moon and +Venus shows that she is indiscreet and too weak for her own good. + + +[PAGE 670] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +You will notice that this square occurs from the Fixed signs, Leo and Scor- +pio, and it is therefore a condition which would be very difficult to over- +come. Leo governs the heart, and Scorpio the generative organs, and thus +her secret is told in the horoscope in unmistakable terms. + + CHART #34: + +[FLAT CHART] +ASC: 0 ARIES SUN: 11:34 LIBRA SATURN: 14:57 CAPRICORN +MC: 0 CAPRICORN MOON: 3:42 SCORPIO URANUS: 5:18 LEO +11H: 0 AQUARIUS MERCURY: 4:55 LIBRA NEPTUNE: 25:18R ARIES +12H: 0 PISCES VENUS: 3:06 SCORPIO +2H: 0 TAURUS MARS: 29:18 VIRGO +3H: 0 GEMINI JUPITER: 23:58 LEO + + + + +When such secrets of the soul are revealed by this sacred science, it shows +us also the hidden springs which are causes of the acts we are only too +prone to condemn, and it teaches us that we should pity rather than censure +a soul impelled by such an almost irresistible force as here revealed. + + +[PAGE 671] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +The act itself should, of course, never be condoned, but the tenderest kind- +ness and the greatest effort to succor should be given to the one who is +thus Aquarius. + + The horoscope is, as you know, the clock of destiny, and the position +taken by the planets at birth give certain tendencies for life. From that +natal position the planets move on to different positions with every year +that passes, as the hands of a clock move around its face; thus they bring +to pass events foreshown at birth. Now you will notice that the Sun is in +eleven degrees of Libra in this horoscope, so at nineteen years of age the +Sun entered the sign Scorpio. At twenty-two it reached the conjunction with +the Moon and Venus and a couple of years later the square with Uranus was +reached. During this period the unfortunate tendency spoken of developed +and the seeds of disease were sown which resulted in a number of operations, +both in the lower regions and in the throat, for you must remember that the +opposite is always afflicted. The generative organ can never be hurt with- +out in some measures it counterpart, the larynx and throat, also being af- +fected. During the years which intervened between that time and 1914 the +Sun had pursued its path through Scorpio, and reached the affliction of Ju- +piter, which occurs from the sign Leo in 23 degrees. This square was also +augmented by the fact that the Moon in its circle around the horoscope had +been going through Taurus, so that was an opposition of the progressed Sun +and Moon, both of them squaring the planet Jupiter at the same time. The + + +[PAGE 672] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Sun's square to Jupiter will for a few years be an affliction to this poor +person. Uranus at birth was also on the Ascelli in Leo, the nebulous spot +that is so dangerous to the eyes, and from there it squares the Moon. This, +also, is another danger which faces this person, for , as you know, eye +trouble is very often the accompaniment of indiscretion. + + Now comes the question as to what can be done for this poor person. As +we have often stated, the first effort should be toward instilling hope into +the mind. Persons suffering with melancholy are always centering their +thoughts upon self, always seeing their own desperate position which appears +to them more hopeless than that of any other. If their interest can be di- +verted from self then the battle is more than half won; that should be the +first consideration of the healer. + + A simple diet should be prescribed and no highly seasoned dishes permit- +ted a person of this nature. The sextile of Uranus to the Sun and Mercury +and the trine of Neptune to Jupiter shows that an appeal along the higher +lines, an appeal to the better and noble nature will not meet with a rebuff +and it is possible on account of these positions to elevate this person's +ideas and ideals so that she may become a servant of humanity instead of +driftwood upon the ocean of life. You will note that all the good aspects +are from Cardinal and Fixed signs, that the Common signs are void of plan- +ets, hence there is a great deal of hope. There is energy in this person, + + +[PAGE 673] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +and when this energy has been turned in the right direction, when she has +become thoroughly aroused, then the great sinner may become the great saint, +and a blessing to humanity. + + NO. 35.--SOLITARY VICE, TUBERCULOSIS + +ASC: 7:11 GEMINI SUN: 0:03 GEMINI SATURN: 29:37 TAURUS +MC: 11 AQUARIUS MOON: 23:00 SCORPIO URANUS: 19:14R VIRGO +11H: 9 PISCES MERCURY: 20:05 GEMINI NEPTUNE: 18:00 TAURUS +12H: 20 ARIES VENUS: 28:03 ARIES +2H: 0 CANCER MARS: 23:29 ARIES +3H: 19 CANCER JUPITER: 3:16 CANCER + + + + + + GOOD ASPECTS: Neptune trine Uranus; Uranus sextile the Moon; Jupiter +sextile Venus. + + BAD ASPECTS: Mars conjunction Venus; Sun conjunction Saturn; Uranus +square Mercury; Neptune opposition the Moon. + + +[PAGE 674] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + This is the horoscope of a woman born May 21, 1883, at 5 A.M., Longitude +88 West, Latitude 44, North. The student will at once note that five of the +nine planets are placed in the Twelfth House, which governs sorrow, trouble, +and self-undoing. This has been a characteristic feature in the life. She +is a competent worker in her vocation, stenography and bookkeeping, but has, +nevertheless, found herself unable to obtain employment at various times and +has been at those times on the verge of starvation. This is due to the op- +position of Saturn and Neptune from the Twelfth House to the Moon in the +Sixth, the house of employment. Jupiter, though exalted in the Second House +and sextile Venus, is unable to offset this. + + With respect to the mental qualities we find that Mercury is square to +Uranus, and the Moon in opposition to Neptune. This makes her skeptical, +critical, very peculiar and spasmodic in her mental processes, with an ex- +tremely morbid imagination. Uranus is placed in the Fifth House, governing +courtship and the relations among the sexes prior to marriage, and there- +fore, squared to Mercury, it indicates an unconventional turn of the mind, +with a tendency to promiscuous relations, involving public criticism and +slander. That in itself is an extremely unfortunate configuration and con- +dition in a life, but it is only one of a number of afflictions which point +in the same direction, for in the Twelfth House, the house of sorrow, +trouble, and self-undoing, we find Mars, the planet of dynamic energy, + + +[PAGE 675] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +conjoined with Venus, the planet of love, in the fiery sign Aries, another +inflammatory sex condition; and last, but not least, we note Neptune in Tau- +rus, opposition to the Moon in Scorpio, which governs the generative organs. +This latter is the worst of all for it makes the mind almost insane upon +this subject, conjuring up before the imagination morbid pictures, and where +the configuration occurs from the Sixth and Twelfth Houses it is a certain +indication of inveterate self-abuse. Naturally such practices in time un- +dermine the health and disease shows itself in the weakest parts of the body +according to the indications of the horoscope. In the present case we find +Saturn on the cusp of Gemini in conjunction with the Sun. Gemini is the +sign which rules the lungs, and the conjunction as we see is almost exact, +wanting only 26 minutes. Thus the cold, crystallizing saturnine forces are +hardening the lungs and producing the disease we know as tuberculosis, which +is slowly sapping her vitality and carrying her toward an early grave. It +may be noted in passing that her mother succumbed to tuberculosis at the +very moment when she gave birth to this child. Mars by progression has now +arrived close to the place of Neptune at birth. This will unfortunately in +all probability accentuate the morbid craving indicated by Neptune opposi- +tion to the Moon, so that if left to herself the end will not be very far +off. + + Tuberculosis though serious is not, however, necessarily fatal if she can + + +[PAGE 676] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +be put under restraint so that it becomes impossible for her to gratify the +passion for solitary vice that saps her vitality. Thus the spells of gloom +which are also resultant from the conjunction of Saturn and the Sun in the +Twelfth House can be overcome if she can be given a brighter outlook upon +life. Then the usual measures employed against tuberculosis may probably +save her. The occult has an intense attraction for her, indicated by the +exact trine of Neptune and Uranus, also by Uranus sextile to the Moon. By +playing upon those strings and giving her a new interest in life it may be +possible to win her away from her present morbid channels of thought. At +any rate salvation from the evil configurations should always be sought +through the good aspects and substituting the higher for the lower may help +this poor soul out of her condition. Very little can be done physically un- +til the mental condition is changed. A healer with either Libra or Aquarius +rising and whose Saturn is not in Libra or Scorpio would be beneficial, but +much firmness is needed here and therefore probably the Fixed sign would be +preferable. + + NO. 36.--HORNY, VENEREAL GROWTHS AND KIDNEY TROUBLE + + GOOD ASPECTS: Mercury sextile Jupiter; the Moon trine Venus. + + BAD ASPECTS: The Sun conjunction Uranus; Mars conjunction Venus; Neptune +square to Saturn. + + +[PAGE 677] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + This is the horoscope of a young man born in Boynton, Missouri, October +11, 1889, at 6:00 P.M. It is a strange case which has puzzled all the doc- +tors who have been consulted. About five years ago the joins in arms, + + CHART #36: + +ASC: 3:48 TAURUS SUN: 18:57 LIBRA SATURN: 0:26 VIRGO +MC: 19 CAPRICORN MOON: 21:33 TAURUS URANUS: 22:07 LIBRA +11H: 13 AQUARIUS MERCURY: 28:03R LIBRA NEPTUNE: 4:15R GEMINI +12H: 16 PISCES VENUS: 17:22 VIRGO +2H: 5 GEMINI MARS: 11:22 VIRGO +3H: 27 GEMINI JUPITER: 1:46 CAPRICORN + + + +legs and neck commenced to grow stiff, so that by degrees he became unable +to move. At the same time there appeared, instead of the nails, a strange +horny growth on fingers and toes; this grows to a certain length or stage of +development and then it begins to suppurate. This facilities the removal of + + +[PAGE 678] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +growth and when that has been completed the suppuration ceases, but immedi- +ately a new growth begins to form. Lately the jaws have also commenced to +grow stiff, so that now the young man can no longer eat with comfort. + + The very first glance at the horoscope shows us Uranus, the planet of +spasmodic action, in conjunction with the Sun, and in the sign Libra, which +rules the kidneys. WE also note that Uranus is parallel with Mars, the +planet of dynamic energy; this shows at once that the action of the kidneys +is spasmodic and irregular so that instead of the poisons being eliminated +from the body by these organs they are retained and naturally contaminate +the whole system. But we also find that this patient is poisoned to a +greater extend than ordinarily by a venereal disease contracted about seven +to eight years ago; this is shown as a tendency in the natal horoscope by +the conjunction of Venus, the planet of love, with Mars, the planet of dy- +namic energy, in the Fifth House, which governs courtship and the relations +of the sexes before marriage. Saturn is also there with his obstructive +hand and square to Neptune, the planet which governs strange and unusual +conditions. Neptune is in the sign Gemini, which rules the hands and fin- +gers. About seven years ago, when the Moon was in Pisces by progression, +the sign which governs the toes, it was in opposition to Venus, Mars and +Saturn and square to Neptune. We base our judgment that the disease was +contracted at that time on the fact that the afflicting planets are in + + +[PAGE 679] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + +Common or flexible signs; hence it could have been avoided much effort. As +it is, the most drastic measures for purification of the blood must be +adopted; the patient should be brought to California, treated with daily +sun-baths to facilitate copious perspiration, and given nothing but water +and fruit juices until the system has been cleansed. + + PLANETARY HOURS + + Measures for the alleviation of pain and disease cannot always be de- +ferred to a propitious time, but where that is possible the student will +find that remedial treatments given under the propitious planetary rays are +much more efficient and successful than when applied haphazard. Therefore +the following hints may be found valuable. + + Surgeons who have watched and tabulated these matters inform us that the +operations performed while the Moon is increasing in light (see Page 521) +are generally more successful, less liable to cause complications and more +quickly healed than operations performed with the Moon is decreasing in +light. + + When a surgical operations seems unavoidable consult the ephemeris and if +the Moon is going through the sign which rules that part of the body where +the operation is to be performed defer it for a day to two till the Moon +gets well into the next sign. This will minimize the danger of complica- +tions, and not infrequently the symptoms change so that operation is +avoided. + + +[PAGE 680] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + Always look to the benefics and the good aspects in a horoscope for di- +rections concerning how and when to treat. Suppose the Sun, the giver of +life, is square to Saturn, the planet of stagnation and death. The tendency +is to rob the person of vitality and if he is taken ill recuperation will be +very slow. Then, to give the most effective and energizing treatment apply +the principle of the day and hour rulers as given in our SIMPLIFIED SCIEN- +TIFIC ASTROLOGY; choose the Sun's day (Sunday) and the hours ruled by the +Sun on any day. Treatments on Mars' day (Tuesday) and the hours ruled by +Mars on any day, will also build up wonderfully. Similarly with the other +planets, their virtues and power is greatest during the days ruled by them. + + But the so-called malefics also have their virtues. Poultices intended +to draw suppuration from a wound, or bring a boil to a head are most effica- +cious on the hot and inflammatory Mars' day (Tuesday), or in the hours of +Mars on any day, but applications made to disperse a swelling are most suc- +cessful when applied on the day of Saturn, the planet of suppression, or in +his hours on any day. + + Treatments received on the day and in the hours of the planets which are +well aspected in the patient's horoscope are always more powerful and ben- +eficial than they would be if given in the hours and on the days ruled by +planets afflicted when he was born. + + +[PAGE 681] THIRTY-SIX EXAMPLE HOROSCOPES + + Six tables of Planetary Hours covering the twelve months, usable for both +North and South Latitude will be found in SIMPLIFIED SCIENTIFIC ASTROLOGY. + + CONCLUSION + + We have now given an exposition of the methods we use in diagnosis of +disease. This we trust will enable the student to work out the subject of +himself in greater detail. And as he uses it unselfishly to aid suffering +human beings, the spiritual qualities will be developed in him so that THE +MESSAGE OF THE STARS revealed in each horoscope will be as an open book. +Thus used, this wonderful science will aid him to lay up treasures in heaven +as nothing else in the world can do. And we pray God that this book may be +the means of fostering soul growth in all who aspire to follow the dual com- +mandment of Christ: + + "PREACH the Gospel and HEAL the sick." + + IMPORTANT NOTICE + + Despite all we can say, many people write enclosing money for horoscopes, +forcing us to spend valuable time writing letters of refusal and giving us +the inconvenience of returning their money. Please do not thus trouble us, +as it will avail nothing. We use Astrology only for healing purposes. If +you are sick we will gladly help you, but we do not advise people in worldly +affairs either gratis of for pay. + + +[PAGE 682] MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + TABLE OF CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I. + Evolution as Shown in the Zodiac................................... 3 + Early Atlantean Epoch [Cancer-Capricorn]........................... 14 + Middle Atlantean Epoch [Gemini-Sagittarius]........................ 15 + Later Atlantean Epoch [Taurus-Scorpio]............................. 16 + Aryan Epoch [Aries-Libra].......................................... 25 + Piscean Age [Pisces-Virgo]......................................... 25 + Aquarian Age [Aquarius-Leo]........................................ 27 + +CHAPTER II. + The Measure of Amenability to Planetary Vibrations................. 30 + Mystery of Light, Color and Consciousness.......................... 52 + +CHAPTER III. + Were You Born Under a Lucky Star?.................................. 55 + Amulets, Birthstones and Planetary Colors.......................... 60 + When Is the Best Time to Be Born?.................................. 67 + +CHAPTER IV. + Reading the Horoscope. Introductory............................... 70 + Mundane Houses..................................................... 72 + Signs of the Zodiac................................................ 79 + Cardinal Signs..................................................... 80 + Fixed Signs........................................................ 81 + Common Signs....................................................... 83 + Comparative Effect of Cardinal, Fixed and Common Signs + on the Angles................................................ 84 + Triplicities....................................................... 87 + Sun, Moon and Ascendant............................................ 87 + The Rising Sign.................................................... 88 + + + +[PAGE 683] TABLE OF CONTENTS + +CHAPTER V. + Influence of the Twelve Signs When Rising.......................... 92 + +CHAPTER VI. + Intrinsic Nature of the Planets.................................... 112 + +CHAPTER VII. + Children of the Twelve Signs....................................... 19 + +CHAPTER VIII. + Sun, the Giver of Life............................................. 140 + Sun in the Twelve Houses........................................... 144 + Sun in the Twelve Signs............................................ 150 + Sun in Aspect with Other Planets................................... 156 + +CHAPTER IX. + Venus, the Planet of Love.......................................... 169 + Venus in the Twelve Houses......................................... 171 + Venus in the Twelve Signs.......................................... 177 + Venus in Aspect with Other Planets................................. 185 + +CHAPTER X. + Mercury, the Planet of Reason...................................... 192 + Mercury in the Twelve Houses....................................... 195 + Mercury in the Twelve Signs........................................ 201 + Mercury in Aspect with Other Planets............................... 207 + +CHAPTER XI. + Moon, the Planet of Fecundation.................................... 217 + Moon in the Twelve Houses.......................................... 220 + Moon in the Twelve Signs........................................... 225 + Moon in Aspect with Other Planets.................................. 231 + + +CHAPTER XII. + Saturn, the Planet of Sorrow....................................... 244 + Saturn in the Twelve Houses........................................ 249 + Saturn in the Twelve Signs......................................... 255 + Saturn in Aspect with Other Planets................................ 261 + + +[PAGE 684] MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +CHAPTER XIII. + Jupiter, the Planet of Benevolence................................. 274 + Jupiter in the Twelve Houses....................................... 278 + Jupiter in the Twelve Signs........................................ 285 + Jupiter in Aspect with Other Planets............................... 292 + +CHAPTER XIV. + Mars, the Planet of Action......................................... 303 + Mars in the Twelve Houses.......................................... 308 + Mars in the Twelve Signs........................................... 316 + Mars in Aspect with Other Planets.................................. 327 + +CHAPTER XV. + Planetary Octaves: Neptune-Mercury and Uranus-Venus................ 341 + +CHAPTER XVI. + Uranus, the Planet of Altruism..................................... 347 + Uranus in the Twelve Houses........................................ 349 + Uranus in the Twelve Signs......................................... 359 + Uranus in Aspect with Other Planets................................ 366 + +CHAPTER XVII. + Neptune, the Planet of Divinity.................................... 380 + Neptune in the Twelve Houses....................................... 383 + Neptune in the Twelve Signs........................................ 389 + Neptune in Aspect with Other Planets............................... 396 + +CHAPTER XVIII. + Doctrine of Delineation in a Nutshell.............................. 405 + Table of Planetary Keywords........................................ 407 + Elevation, Exaltation and Critical Degrees.......................... 409 + Mercury Before or After the Sun.................................... 412 + Are You Helping Your Stars?........................................ 413 + +CHAPTER XIX. + Mind and the Ruling Planet......................................... 419 + Influence of Ruling Planets, Well Aspected......................... 421 + Influence of Ruling Planets, Afflicted............................. 427 + Mental Effects of Rising Sign...................................... 433 + + +[PAGE 685] TABLE OF CONTENTS + +CHAPTER XX. + Your Luck in Life.................................................. 438 + Health and Disease................................................. 438 + Social and Financial Fortunes...................................... 442 + Vocation........................................................... 444 + +CHAPTER XXI. + Marriage and Offspring............................................. 448 + Harmony and Discord................................................ 451 + Men's Marriages.................................................... 452 + Women's Marriages.................................................. 455 + Happiness, Sorrow and Bereavement.................................. 457 + Second Marriages................................................... 458 + Description of the Husband or Wife................................. 458 + Children........................................................... 460 + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Progression of the Horoscope--Fate and Freewill.................... 462 + +CHAPTER XXIII. + Different Methods of Progression................................... 467 + Adjusted Calculation Date.......................................... 470 + Progression of the Angles.......................................... 480 + Some Important Points.............................................. 485 + +CHAPTER XXIV. + Progressed Solar Directions........................................ 488 + +CHAPTER XXV. + Progressed Lunar Directions........................................ 499 + +CHAPTER XXVI. + Mutual Aspects of the Planets...................................... 512 + +CHAPTER XXVII. + Transits........................................................... 521 + The Moon Increasing or Decreasing.................................. 521 + + +[PAGE 686] MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + PART II. + + MEDICAL ASTROLOGY + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + Astro-Diagnosis of Disease......................................... 528 + An Important Warning............................................... 529 + Planetary Polarities............................................... 532 + +CHAPTER XXIX. + Law of Correspondences............................................. 540 + Signs, Pathogenic Effects of....................................... 531 + Sun, Pathogenic Effects of......................................... 544 + Venus, Pathogenic Effects of....................................... 547 + Mercury, Pathogenic Effects of..................................... 549 + Moon, Pathogenic Effects of........................................ 551 + Saturn, Pathogenic Effects of...................................... 553 + Jupiter, Pathogenic Effects of..................................... 556 + Mars, Pathogenic Effects of........................................ 559 + Uranus, Pathogenic Effects of...................................... 564 + Neptune, Pathogenic Effects of..................................... 566 + The Ductless Glands................................................ 568 + +CHAPTER XXX. + Thirty-six Example Horoscopes...................................... 579 + No. 1. Conception in a Drunken Debauch............................ 579 + No. 2. Elemental Possession....................................... 582 + No. 3. Heart and Eye Trouble, Spiritual Sight..................... 588 + No. 4. Eye Trouble...............................................591-594 + No. 5. Eye Trouble................................................ 593 + Dragon's Head and Tail..................................... 594 + No. 6. Broken Femur............................................... 597 + No. 7. Ear Disease................................................ 599 + No. 8. Ear Disease, Kidney Trouble, Constipation.................. 601 + No. 9. 10. and 11. Throat and Genitals.....................602, 603, 604 + Disorders of the Mind....................................... 604 + + +[PAGE 687] TABLE OF CONTENTS + + No. 12. Melancholy, Suicidal Tendency............................. 608 + No. 13. St. Vitus Dance and Adolescence........................... 610 + No. 14. Suicide and Alcoholism.................................... 611 + No. 15. St. Vitus Dance and Tuberculosis.......................... 613 + No. 16. Tuberculosis.............................................. 614 + No. 17. Digestive Disorder and Asthma............................. 615 + No. 18. Digestive Disorder........................................ 616 + No. 19. Heart Trouble............................................. 618 + No. 20. Curvature of the Spine.................................... 619 + No. 21. Kidney Trouble, Accidents................................. 620 + No. 22. Accidental Fractures...................................... 622 + No. 23. Insanity and Spirit Control............................... 635 + No. 24. Heart Failure, Spasms..................................... 638 + No. 25. Heart, Lung and Kidney Trouble............................ 641 + No. 26. Tuberculosis.............................................. 644 + No. 27. Adenoids and Constipation................................. 647 + No. 28. Accidents to Head......................................... 651 + No. 29. Goitre.................................................... 654 + No. 30. Eye and Ear Trouble, Weak Back............................ 657 + No. 31. Eye and Ear Trouble, Poor Circulation..................... 660 + No. 32. Blindness, Hemorrhoids.................................... 663 + No. 33. Heart Trouble, Dropsy..................................... 666 + No. 34. Diseased Throat and Genitals.............................. 670 + No. 35. Solitary Vice, Tuberculosis............................... 673 + No. 36. Horny Venerial Growths.................................... 677 + Planetary Hours.................................................... 679 +Index to Natal Astrology.............................................. 688 +Index to Medical Astrology............................................ 703 +The Rosicrucian Fellowship............................................ 725 + + +[PAGE 688] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + Index to Natal Astrology + + --A-- + +Abel, tragedy connected with, 15 +Abiff, Hiram, builder of Solomon's Temple, 23 + highest initiate of old system, 24 +Adam, man, humanity, number of, is nine, 52 +Adept, a complete creative unit, 345 + can form new bodies without going through the womb, 346 +Adjusted Calculation Date, how to find, article, 470-480 +Ailments, acute, afflictions from cardinal signs, 440 + convertible, or chronic, from common signs, 441 + organic or hereditary, from fixed signs, 441 +Altruism, must supersede egoism; relation of Saturn and Jupiter to, 39 +Amulets, effective and ineffective use of, article 60-67 +Angels, fallen, are Lucifer Spirits, 569 + were human in Moon Period, 62 +Angels, of the horoscope, are first, fourth, seventh, tenth houses, 73-74 +Animals, archangels, their group-spirits, 62 +Antares, in Sagittarius 8, a danger to eyes, 546 +Aquarian Age, at end of, new race born, 11 + length of, approximately 2000 years, 20 + probably final preparatory day before Sixth EPOCH, 13 + seven hundred years before definitely ushered in, 27 +Aquarius, effect when Sun in, 136, 137, 155 + influence of, when rising, 108, 109, 437 + rules the ankles, 441 + ruled by Saturn, 64, and by Uranus, 358, 365 +Aquarius-Leo, age of, indicates new phase of religion, 27 +Archangels, human in Sun Period, 62 +Aries, children of, effect when Sun in, 119-120, 150 + influence when rising, 92, 93, 434 + rules head and face, 441 + when Sun entered sign of, by precession, 17, 24 + + +[PAGE 689] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Aries-Libra, age of, indicates a day of judgment, 25 +Aryan Epoch, divided into three ages: 12, 25-29 + Aryan Age, Moses to Christ, Aries-Libra, 12, 25 + Piscean Age, Roman Catholicism, Pisces-Virgo, 12, 25 + Aquarian Age, to come, Aquarius-Leo, 12, 27 +Aryan Epoch, development in, 16 + rainbow seen first time at opening of, 19 +Aryo-Semitic Race, when called out, 11 +Ascelli, Leo 6, one of three danger spots to eyes, 564, 545 +Ascendant, at birth, or its opposite, is Moon's place at conception, 88 + important factor in horoscope, 88 + ruler determines mineralogical affinity, 63 + SEE ALSO Rising Sign. +Aspects, Lunar, little, if any, influence of their own, 500 + adverse, or good, never to be judged singly, 168, 415 +Astrologers, advice to younger ones, 70, 71 + see aura if endowed with spiritual sight, 41 + unable to determine strength of will of native, 71 +Astrology, belief in requires belief in previous and future lives, 57 + founded on cosmic fact, 468 + horary, author's experience in, and philosophy of, 67 + of enormous benefit in attainment of spiritual growth, 54 + three factors in, bring mystic message of stars, 71 +Atlantean Epoch, early third, 14; duration of, 12; latter third, 11 +Atlantis, development of egoism during latter third, 16; home of the Bull, + 19; last of, destroyed by water, 16; when submerged, 18 +Aura, colored by planetary rays, 42 + + + --B-- + +Barrenness and fertility, under control of Jehovah, 303 +Bible, astrological key needed to open otherwise "closed book," 19 + discussion of events and principles of, Chapter I, 3-30 + light given on obscure passages of, 3 + translation of word "serpent" in, 21 +Birth, best time for, article, 67-70 + occurs with first breath inhaled, 89 + rising sign at, or its opposite, is Moon's place at conception, 89 +Birth stones, amulets, etc., value of, 60-67 + + +[PAGE 690] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Black magician, dependent upon Neptunian ray, 50 +Bode's Law, proves Neptune does not belong to our solar system, 53 +Body, parts of ruled by planets, 441 +Brain, angels helped to form, 342 +Bull, properly worshiped by Atlanteans, 17 + + --C-- + +Cadent houses, 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, indicate work, voluntary and forced, 74 +Cain, tragedy connected with, 15 +Cancer, effect when Sun in, 125-126, 152 + influence when rising, 96, 97, 435 + rules breast and stomach, 441 + sphere of the soul, ruled by Moon, 6 + watery in nature, 14 +Cancer-Capricorn, age of, early third of Atlantean Epoch, 14 +Capricorn, effect when Sun in, 135-136, 155 + fish part of, symbolizes state of life under water, 14 + influence when rising, 106-108, 436 + part fish and part goat, 7 + ruled by Saturn, 6 + rules the knees, 441 + solstitial point, will see inauguration of new cycle, 16 +Cardinal signs, nature and keyword, 80 +Cattle, possession of, desired by ancient nations, 17 +Celestial Centaur (Sagittarius), shows savage ideal, 15 +Chaos, Saturn is door to, 6 +Children, indications for, in horoscope, 460-461 + desired and loved into life, 450 + of Israel, left flesh pots of Egypt, 27 +Christ, abrogated sacrifice of others, 28 + announces himself as the Great Shepherd, 19 + called disciples fishers of men, 26 + came and inaugurated new teaching, 25 + heavenly mother of, 9 + must be born within, 10 + newborn, within, actual experience, 10 + raised widow's son, 24 +Christian Rosenkreuz, reincarnation of Hiram Abiff, 24 +Circulation, venous and arterial, restricted, prevents deep breathing and + oxygenation, 477 +Clairvoyance, undesirable, is result of adverse aspects of Uranus, 48 + + +[PAGE 691] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Color, of eyes and hair, determined by rising sign and planets, SEE + Chapter V. +Colors, absorbed by planets, according to congruity, 53 + of planets, birth-stones, amulets, 64 + planetary, produced by Creative Hierarchies, 61 + primary, refractions of white light, represent Father, Son, and Holy + Spirit, 52 +Common signs, nature and keyword, 83 +Conception, not necessarily coincident union, 89 + place of Moon at, is rising sign at birth (or its opposite), 89 +Cosmic Christ, focused love-ray of Life Spirit upon Uranus, 345 + consciousness, developed under Neptune ray, 46 +Creative fire, drawn upward through serpentine canal, 21, 22 + force, bi-polar, possessed by Adepts, 345, 346 +Critical degrees, based on passage of Moon through the twelve signs, 411 + of cardinal , common, and fixed signs, 411 +Cusps, effect of being born on, 90 + + --D-- + +Delineation, Doctrine of, 405-418 +Desire body, ruled by Moon, 345 +Destiny, Clock of, progression of horoscope, 463 + we are arbiters of our, 466 +Dietitian, indicated by Mercury in Pisces, 207; Moon in Virgo, 227 +Directions. SEE article on Progressed Lunar and Solar Directions. + effect of evil, 415; of good, 416 +Dragon's Head and Tail, nodes of Moon, article on, 594-599 +Ductless Glands, article on, 568. (Part II, Medical Astrology) + + --E-- + +Earth, orbital revolution of, related to progression, 469 +Egoism, comes through Mercurial reasoning power, 40 +Egypt, ancient, its use of serpent symbolism, 21 + flesh pots of, origin, 17 + priests of, were PHREE MESSEN, or children of light, 24 + + +[PAGE 692] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Elder Brothers, from Mercury, have given civilization different form, 344; + human, like us, 344 +Elevation of planets, nearness to midheaven, 409 +Epigenesis, developed under Neptune ray, 48 + expresses itself as genius, 48 + third factor in advancement, 47 +Equator, Celestial, circle in heavens described by pole turning, 468 +Essential dignity, determined by sign a planet is in, 409-410 +Evolution, result of equinoctial precession, 7 +Evolutionary path, journey mapped out, 20 + new start upon, given by balance, 9 +Exaltation of planets, determined by sign they are in, 409-410 + + --F-- + +Fate or Free Will, article, 462 +Father Fire, expresses as will, 344 + focuses in voluntary nervous system, 344 +Fear, dominant keynote of past, 31, 36 +Fertilization of animals, controlled by Jehovah, 303 +Financial and social fortunes, article on, 442-444 +Fixed signs, nature, and key-word, 81 +Foetus, antenatal development of, 342 +Free will, possessed by man, not by animals, 58-60 + students of astrology, and, 413 + time and progressed chart in relation to, 462 + + --G-- + +Gemini, effect when Sun in, 123-125, 151 + influence when rising, 95, 96, 434 + represents infant humanity, 15 + rules lungs, arms, shoulders, 441 + Sun's passage through, 15 +Gemini-Sagittarius, age of indicates middle third of Atlantean Epoch, 15 +Generation, formerly controlled by Jehovah and His angels, 303 +Glands, SEE Medical Astrology. +Great Sidereal Year, Sun's passage through the twelve zodiacal signs, by + precession, 17 +Greater Mysteries, those who have graduated from, 5 +Greece, had mystery temples, 35 +Group Spirit, vibration of, 61-62 + man, in process of becoming, 62 + + +[PAGE 693] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Group Spirits, of minerals, none, 62; of plants, angels, 62; of animals, + archangels, 62 + + --H-- + +Healers, magnetic, aspects of Mercury and Neptune, 216 +Health, conjunction and parallel act upon, 488 +Health and Disease, article on, 438-442 + SEE ALSO Medical Astrology. +Hermaphrodites, spiritual, ultimate goal of humanity, 346 +Hierarchies, divine, now guiding our evolution, 4, 5 + we are restrained by, 30, 31 + work with various classes of beings, 61 +Horary astrology, author's experience with, 67 +Horoscope, essentials of, natal, progressed, etc., 481-485 + foundation for a new, 57 + how to test, 117-118 + important points in judging, 485-487 + indicates self-generated destiny, 980 + individual when day, year, and place used, 63 + progressed, study of, before transits, 522 + progression of, 462-466 + shows difference in texture of soul, 4656 + shows only tendencies, 58, 415, 440 + shows what we have earned, 50 + when judging, consider race, etc., 30 +Houses, of horoscope, article, 72-79 + departments of life governed by the twelve, 77-79 +Human Spirit, counterpart is desire body, 345 + ruled by Sun, 345 +Hypnotist, dependent upon power of Neptunian ray, 50 + + --I-- + +Idealization, Neptunian power, 47 +Immaculate conception, becomes actual experience to each of us, 28 +Initiation, foremost of our race attaining to, 5 + made possible by Neptune, 50 +Insanity. SEE The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by Max Heindel, for + relation to past incarnations; SEE ALSO Part II, Medical Astrology, + in this volume. +Intuition, depends upon ability to feel intensely, 47 + will free men from Mercurial bondage, 36 + Uranian quality of, reaches truth at once, 36, 46 + + +[PAGE 694] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + --J-- + +Jacob, pronounces blessings on twelve sons, 8 +Jesus, and religion of the Lamb, 26 + born when vernal equinox about 7 of Aries, 25 + taught multitudes in parables, 20 +Joshua, son of Nun, leads chosen people into "promised land," 26 +Jupiter, as ruling plant, 27, 110, 424, 430, 447 + blue ray of, and gold of Uranus, 42 + effect in twelve houses, 278-285 + effect in twelve signs, 285-292 + gives spiritual love, 41 + in aspect with other planets, 292-302 + nature of, 274-278 + pioneers of earth entering moon of, 5 + planet of benevolence and philanthropy, 27 + ray of, marks high stage of altruism, 39, 40, 41 +Jupiter Period, man will give present minerals life, 62 + preparing human evolution for the, 5 + + --K-- + +Key-words, of planets, give essential natures, 114 + table of planetary, 407-408 + + --L-- + +Lamb, religion of, to hold sway for Great Sidereal Year, 17, 25 +Law of Cause and Effect, established beyond doubt, 57 +Lemurian Epoch, only Moon, Mars, and Saturn affected humanity during, 32 + stragglers of, expelled from earth to Moon, 5 +Leo, effect when Sun in, 126-127, 152 + influence when rising, 97, 98, 435 + Lion of Judah, 12; represented by lion, 11 + rules heart and dorsal region of back, 441 +Lesser Mysteries, Mercurial School of, prepares for Greater Mysteries, 5 +Libra, effect when Sun in, 129-130, 153 + entrance of Sun into brings balance, 9 + influence when rising, 101-103, 435 + rules kidneys and loins, 441 + Sun entered by precession LAST time, 13,000 B.C., 16 + + + + +[PAGE 695] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Light, color, and consciousness, emanations from God, 52 +Limitation, twelfth house indicates, 142 +Love, kinds of, defined, 347 +Lucifer Spirits, desire inculcated by, 14 + exiled on planet Mars, 304, 343, 569 + should not be thought of as evil, 304 +Luck, closely linked to merit, 438 +Lunation, conjunction of the luminaries, 521 + essential to bring results, 486, 499 + + --M-- + +Magic, Neptune makes possible, 50 +Magnetism, personal, used in healing sick, 297 + SEE ALSO Medical Astrology. +Malefics, give eye trouble if afflicted Sun or Moon in nebular spot, 442 + indicate weak points in anatomy, 441 +Man, now working with new (mineral) life-wave, 62 +Marital relationship, improved by astrological bureaus, 450 +Marriage, and offspring, 448-461 + Christian institution, will exist until coming kingdom, 44 + description of husband or wife, 458-460 + happiness and sorrow in, 457, 458; harmony and discord in, 451, 452 + indications of, in man's horoscope, 452-454 + indictions of, in women's horoscope, 455-457 + second, aspects denoting, 458 +Mars, as ruling planet, 425, 431, 447 + effect in the twelve houses, 308-316 + effect in the twelve signs, 316-327 + home of Lucifer Spirits, 31 + in aspect to other planets, 327-340 + Planet of Action, article, 303-307 + rules left cerebral hemisphere, 345 +Material houses, 2nd, 6th, and 10th, 75 +Matrimonial bureaus, based on astrology forecast for Aquarian Age, 449 +Matrix, etheric, formed by rising sign, first house, and moon, 88 +Mediums, used in trance communications, 49 +Mediumship, negative phase of spiritual sight or hearing, 22 +Memory of nature, sheds light on Bible passages, 3 +Mental significators, signs as, article on, 433-434 + + +[PAGE 696] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Mentality, evolves through three stages, 45 +Mercurial School of initiation, deals with the Lesser Mysteries, 5 +Mercury, afflictions to, cause mistakes, 45 + and Venus, creative in function, 342 + as ruling planet, 422, 428, 446 + before and after Sun, article, 412 + effect in twelve houses, 195-201 + effect in twelve signs, 201-207 + effect on mental development, in Atlantean Epoch, 34 + governs cerebrospinal nervous system, 342; also right cerebral + hemisphere, 344 + in aspect with other planets, 207-216 +Mercury, Lords of, and development of mind, 35 + the Planet of Reason, article, 192 +Midheaven, vital point, spiritual in nature, 482 +Minerals, method of using and planetary rulers, 64, 65 +Moon, Ascendant, and Sun, relationship to human being, 88 + as ruling planet, 423, 429, 446 + cast out into space, 5 + effect in twelve houses, 220-225 + effect in twelve signs, 225-230 + effect of, upon waters, 56 + habitat of Jehovah, exalted in Taurus, 28 + home of the angels, 32 + in aspect to other planets, 231-243 + increasing and decreasing, 521-523 + new, particularly potent, 521 + planet of fecundation, 6, 14 + progressed aspect of, needed to focus forces, 476 + rules desire body, 345 + the Planet of Fecundation, article, 217 + travels through zodiac at rate of 12 or 13 degrees a day, 499 +Morning Star, or Daystar, influence on individual, 69 +Mundane houses, differentiated from celestial houses or zodiacal signs, 72 +Music, houses and signs aid in bestowing love of and talent for, 122, 130 + inspiration in, given by Jupiter in Pisces, 292; Neptune, 390, 392, 408; + Uranus, 349; Venus, 94, 397 +Mutual Planetary Directions, article on, 512-520 +Mutable signs, SEE Common signs. +Mystery School, inculcates ideals, 34 +Mystic marriage, of lower self to higher, 10 + + +[PAGE 697] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + + --N-- + +Nadir, position of Sun with respect to, influences individual, 69 +Nain, city of, location and identity, 23 +Naja, translated from serpent, the Uraeus of ancient Egypt, 21 +Naphtali, symbol of Capricorn, 8 +Nature, the Intrinsic, of Planets, article, 112-116 +Nebular spots of zodiac, location of, 442 +Neptune, and epigenesis, 47-48 + aspects with other planets, 396-404 + as ruling planet, 427, 432, 447 + carries Father fire, 344 + discovered in 1846, 382 + effect in twelve houses, 383-389 + effect in twelve signs, 389-396 + focuses will in voluntary nervous system, 344 + governs pineal gland, 344 + in Cancer (1901-1915), and mystics, 399 + makes obsession possible, 49 + higher octave of Mercury, 275 + the Planet of Divinity, article, 380 + relation to Mercury, 341-346 + represents invisible worlds, 49, and sub- and super-human intelligences, + 343 +Neptunian Ray, astrologers amenable to, 49 + cosmic consciousness of, 39 + initiation comes about under, 50 + makes possible practical use of magic, 49 +New Testament, does not mention the Bull or the Lamb, 26 + teachings of Christ in, 19, 21, 23 +Nimrod, a mighty hunter, compared to the Celestial Centaur, 15 +Nodes, points where planet crosses Sun's path, 595 + SEE Dragon's Head and Tail, article, 594-599 + + --O-- + +Obesity, conditions making for, 281 +Obstacles, Sun aids in overcoming, 144 +Obstruction, keynote of Saturn, 244 +Octaves, of Mercury and Venus, 341 +Orb, of influence of progressed Sun, 488, 668 + of three degrees to critical points, strongly felt, 412 + + +[PAGE 698] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + --P-- + +Paracelsus, studied minerals and their planetary affinities, 65 +Parallel, acts principally upon health, 488 +Paul, gave spiritual meat to strong, 20 +Personal houses, 1st, 5th, 9th, indicate personal or private affairs, 74-75 +Pharoah, story of, refers to Atlantis, 18 +Pineal gland, vibration of with pituitary body, produces clairvoyance, 22 +Piscean Age, flesh eating condemned at certain times as sin, 27 + is middle period of Aryan Epoch, 12, 25 +Pisces, effect when Sun in, 137-139, 156 + influence when rising, 109-111, 437 + ruled by Jupiter, 27, 110; rules the feet, 441 +Pisces-Virgo, age of, refers to loaves and fishes, 26 +Pituitary body, vibration of, with pineal gland produces clairvoyance, 21-22 +Planetary Colors, Amulets, Birth-stones, and, article, 60-67 +Planetary Directions, Mutual, effects of progressed and radical, 512-520 +Planetary hours, use of in medical practice, 679 +Planetary Key-words, how to use in adverse or favorable aspect, 407, 408 +Planetary Octaves, articles, explains Rosicrucian viewpoint of, 341-346 +Planetary powers, shown by elevation, exaltation, fall, rulership, etc., + 409, 410 +Planetary rays, effect of, and status in evolution, 30 + influence of, not dependent on distance, 56 + produce certain colors in aura, 42 + vibrations, response to, consideration of individual's social and racial + standing necessary, 30 +Planets, absorb colors congruous to them, 53 + changing positions of, prevent identical horoscopes, 55 + in the East, affect body; in the South, social standing; in the West, + partnership, 72 + Intrinsic Nature of, article, 112-116 + man-bearing worlds in zodiac, constantly worked upon, 4 + messengers of God, bring opportunities, 72 + seven spirits before the Throne, 53 + Strength and Weakness of the, article, 409-410 + two more, will be known in future, 51 + + +[PAGE 699] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Plants, angels are now their Group Spirits, 62 +Polarities, planetary. SEE Medical Astrology. +Precession of Equinoxes, produces evolutionary changes, 7 +Prenatal and postnatal positions of Moon, 217 +Profession, or vocation, article on, 444-445 +Progressed Lunar Directions, article 499-511 + aspects of progressed Moon to natal planets, 500-510 + aspects of progressed Moon to Midheaven, 510; to Ascendant, 511 +Progressed planets, aspects between, not important, 486 +Progressed Solar Directions, article, 488-498 + aspects of progressed Sun to natal planets, 489-497 + aspects of progressed Sun to Midheaven, 497-498; to Ascendant, 498 +Progression, of the angles, 480-485 + of the horoscope, methods of, 467-487; philosophy of, 462-466 +Psychism, negative, conditions of, 302 +Puberty, change of voice takes place at, 342 + + --Q-- + +Quadruplicities, three groups of, article, 80-84 + effect of, in angles, 84-86 + + --R-- + +Race, new, will be born by end of the Aquarian Age, 11 +Recapitulation, takes place in epochs and races, 13 +Recording Angels, place seed atom, 89 +Religions, Aryan, started when Sun entered Aries by precession, 17 + new, overlap the ancient by long period, 18 +Right Ascension, used in measuring position of planets, 468 +Rising Sign, article, 88-91 + influence of each of the twelve as, 92 + mental effect of, 434-437 + nature of, modified by presence of planets, 91 +Rosicrucian Fellowship, The, article describing aims and headquarters, 725 +Rotation, axial, of earth, in progression, 468 + +Rulers, of Aquarius: Saturn, SEE table, 64; Uranus, lord of, 358, 365 +Rulership, determined by position of planets, 409 + or horoscope, lies in Individual Will, 415 +Ruling planet, effect on mind, 419-432 + + +[PAGE 700] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + --S-- + +Sagittarius, celestial centaur, 8, 15 + effect when Sun in, 133-134 + entrance of Sun into, by precession, 8 + influence when rising, 104-106, 436 + rules hips and thighs, 441 +Saturn, as ruling planet, 423, 430, 446 + door to chaos, 6 + effect in twelve houses, 249-255 + effect in twelve signs, 255-261 + gives cunning, combines with Moon and Mars in crude crafts, 33 + in aspect to other planets, 261-272 + the Planet of Sorrow, article, 244-249 +Scarab, emblem of the soul, 6, 14 +Scorpio, effect when Sun in, 131-132 + influence when rising, 103, 104, 436 + represented as serpent or scorpion, 8 + rules the genitals and rectum, 441 +Scorpion, has sting in the tail, 20 +Second Advent, of Christ, probable time a surmise, 13 +Semites, chosen to inaugurate worship of the Lamb, 18 +Serpent, has venom in teeth, 20 + symbol of wisdom in many lands, 21 +Sight, spiritual. SEE Medical Astrology. +Signs of the Zodiac, article, 79-91 + airy, 87; earthly, 87; fiery, 86; watery, 87 + cardinal, 80; common, 83; fixed, 81 + effect of, on angles, 84-86 + mental significators, 433-437 +Sixth Epoch, may begin when Sun by precession enters Capricorn, 13 +Social houses, 3rd, 7th, 11th, shows nature of relations with various souls, + 75 +Social standing, indicated by 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 10th houses, partly, 442 +Solar ray, determines summer and winter, 56 +Spinal canal, Neptune kindles spirit fire in, 343 +Spinal cord, fissures in, 343 + forging of second, by Uranian ray, 345 +Spirit, faculties of, focused in physical instrument, 15 +Stars, helping your, 413-418 +Stellar baptism, at inhalation of first complete breath, 89 +Stellar ladder, nine rungs upon, 52 +Stellar ray, angle of, determines activity, 88 + + +[PAGE 701] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Stragglers, unfit to attend wedding feast, 13 +Succeedent houses, 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th, indicate finances, legacies, + children of body and of brain, 74 +Sun, as factor in horoscope, 87, 88 + as ruling planet, 421, 427, 445 + central, invisible source of solar system, 4 + direct rays of, productive of spiritual illumination, 53 + effect of position of horoscope, 140-156 + fixed center of a solar system, 4 + in aspect with other planets, 156-16 + newborn, and winter solstice, 10 + position indicates time of birth, 117, 118 + spiritual, the real Sun, 5 + symbol of the Savior, 10 + visible, emanation of Central Sun, 4, 5 + + + --T-- + +Talisman, effective, may be made of gems, metals, colors, 63, 64 +Taurus, effect when Sun in, 121-123, 151 + influence when rising, 93, 94, 434 + rules neck and throat, 441 +Taurus, Scorpio, age of, latter third of Atlantis, 16-17 +Theorem I and II on Progression, 471 +Theorem II, called Adjusted Calculation Date, 471-475 +Thought, World of, no separation of, in time or space, 468 +Transits, effect of, 417, 521-526 +Triplicities, the four, effect of, in zodiac, 86-88 + + --U-- + +Uranus, aspects to other planets, 366-379 + as ruling planet, 426, 432, 447 + effect in twelve houses, 349-359 + effect in twelve signs, 359-366 + gives compassion, etc., 42, 43 + keyword of, Altruism, compared with Coalition, 347 + nature of, 346-349 + octave of Venus, 32. SEE ALSO Chapter XV. + ray of, forging second spinal cord, 345 + relation to Venus, 341-346 + ruler of Aquarius, 358, 364; rules the ether, 166 + spiritual rays of, give intense feeling of Oneness, 47 + + +[PAGE 702] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + --V-- + +Vampirism, engendered by perverse use of Uranian ray, 49 +Venus, as ruling planet, 421, 428, 446 + effect in twelve houses, 171-177 + effect in twelve signs, 177-184 + fostered plastic arts, 34 + in aspect with other planets, 185-191 + Lords of, came to earth in Atlantean Epoch, 34 + the Planet of Love, 169 +Virgo, effect when Sun in, 127-129, 153 + heavenly mother of Christ, 9 + influence when rising, 99-101, 435 + passage of Sun through by precession, 10 + rules abdominal parts, 441 + vehicle of immaculate conception, 9 +Vital points, Midheaven and Ascendant, 482 +Vitality, Sun is main source of, 144 + Sun, with Moon and Ascendant, indictor of health and disease, 438 +Vocation, how to choose, article on, 444-447 +Vulcan, Neptune so called by Western Mystics, 380 +Voluntary nervous system, governed by Mercury, 344-345 + + --W-- + +Wedding feast, of higher to lower self, 13 + stragglers lack "wedding garment" required for, 13 +Widow, son of a, member of Freemasons, 23 +Will, of man, an indeterminable factor, 465 + may overrule power of stars, 59, 462-466 + not shown in horoscope, 381 +Winter solstice, time of rise of newborn sun, 10 +World, Desire, world of feelings, desires, and emotions, 467 + + --Z-- + +Zodiac, evolution as shown, in chapter on, 3-29 + natural and intellectual, 79 + of Temple of Denderah, pictures Cancer as beetle or scarab, 6 + + +[PAGE 703] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + Index to Medical Astrology + + --A-- + +Abdominal cramps, Uranus in Virgo, 565 +Abdominal Disorders, Moon in Pisces, 552 +Abdominal Tumors, Jupiter in Pisces, 559; Moon in Virgo, 552; Venus in + Pisces, 548. +Abortions, Uranus in Scorpio, 566 +Abscess of kidneys, Moon in Libra, 552 +Accidents, Mars predisposes to, 561 +Adenoids, 646; afflictions in Scorpio, 542; Mars in Taurus, 562 +Adrenals, Jupiter rules 557, 570, 571. SEE ALSO Jupiter afflicted in Libra. + secretions of, deficient, Jupiter in Libra, 558 +Afflictions. SEE each Sign and Planet by name. +Alcoholism, SEE Drunkenness. +Anemia, afflictions in Leo, 542 + Saturn in Cancer, 555. SEE ALSO Hydraemia. +Aneurism, afflictions in Leo, 542 +Angels, fallen, Lucifer spirits, 569 + present vantage point of, is the Moon, 569 +Anger, writer "gets mad" and lives, 666, 667 +Angina pectoris, afflictions in Leo, 542; Mars in Leo, 562 +Ankles, swollen, Jupiter in Aquarius, 559; Jupiter in Leo, 558 + weak, Saturn in Aquarius, 556 +Antares, Sagittarius, 8, 546 +Antiparistalsis, afflicted Saturn, 554 +Antipathy, revealed in horoscopes, 537 +Aphasia, loss of power of speech, Sun afflicted in Aries, 545 +Apoplexy, afflicted Jupiter, 556,; afflictions in Taurus, 541; + Jupiter in Leo, 558; Jupiter in Scorpio, 558; Jupiter in Taurus, 557 +Appendicitis, Mars in Virgo, 563; Saturn in Virgo, 555 + + +[PAGE 704] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Aquarius, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 543 + passage of mystic sun through, 560 +Aries, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 541 + Sun in, gives strong vitality, 545 +Arms, accidents to, Mars in Gemini, 562, 621 +Arteries, diseases of, Saturn in Aquarius, 556 +Arterio-sclerosis, afflictions in Leo, 542; Saturn in Leo, 555 +Ascelli, Leo 6, 545 +Asphyxiation, Mercury in Gemini, 549 +Assimilation, poor, Sun afflicted in Virgo, 546 +Asthma, afflictions in Gemini, 541; Mercury in Gemini, 549; Mercury in + Sagittarius, 550; Moon in Gemini, 551; Moon in Sagittarius, 552; + Saturn in Gemini, 554 +Astrology, infallible but for patient's will, 530 + judgment of astrologer fallible, 530-531 + preferable to spiritual sight for diagnosis, 606 + + --B-- + +Back, affections of, Mars in Leo, 562; Saturn in Aquarius, 556 +Backache, afflictions in Leo, 545; Mercury in Capricorn, 550; Mercury in + Leo, 549; Moon in Leo, 551; Sun in Leo, 545; Venus in Leo, 547 +Baptism, planetary, given with first complete breath, 536 +Belching, Saturn in Cancer, 555 +Bladder, inflammations, Mercury in Scorpio, 550; Moon in Scorpio, 552 +Blindness, aspects indicating, 662-664 +Blind spot, sensitized by Neptune, 590 +Bloating, Moon in Cancer, 551. SEE ALSO Dropsy. +Blood, affections of, Jupiter in Gemini, 558; Jupiter in Sagittarius, 559; + Mercury in Aquarius, 550; Moon in Sagittarius, 552; Venus in + Gemini, 547 + circulation of venous, 547 + not liquid, as supposed, 576 + overheating of, Mars in Aquarius, 563; Mars in Leo, 562 + stagnation and obstruction of in lower limbs, 622, 623 + venous, ruled by Venus, 600 +Blood poisoning, afflicted Jupiter, 557; Mars in Aquarius, 563 +Blood vessels, rupture of, Mars causes, 561 +Bodies, all are transformed mineral, 535, SEE ALSO Body. + + +[PAGE 705] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Body, etheric, desire, mental, 568 + human, has had long period of evolution, 568 + Mars cleanses of waste, 560 + parts of, rulership. SEE each sign and planet. + receives death sting from Scorpio, 560 +Bones, broken, caused by Sagittarius, 543 + of skeleton hardened by Saturn, 553 +Bowels, inflammation of, Mars in Pisces, 564; Mars in Virgo, 562; Moon in + Pisces, 552. SEE ALSO Diarrhoea. +Brain disorders, afflictions in Aries, 541; Jupiter in Libra, 558; Mars in + Aries, 545 +Brain, transmutes thought, 574 +Breathing exercises, harmless and dangerous, 603 +Breathing, through anus, 649 +Bright's disease, affliction in Libra, 542; Moon in Libra, 546; Saturn in + Libra, 555; Sun in Libra, 546. SEE ALSO Kidney disorders. +Broken bones, afflictions in Sagittarius, 543; Jupiter in Gemini, 558 +Bronchial affections, Venus in Sagittarius, 548 +Bronchitis, afflictions in Gemini, 541; Mars in Gemini, 562; Mars in + Sagittarius, 563; Mercury in Gemini, 549; Moon in Gemini, 551; + Saturn in Gemini, 554; Saturn in Sagittarius, 555; Sun in Gemini, + 545 +Bruises, afflictions of Saturn, 554 +Bunions, Mars in Pisces, 564; Saturn in Pisces, 556; Venus in Pisces, 548 +Burns, afflictions of Mars, 561 + + --C-- + +Cancer, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 541 +Cancer of stomach, Moon in Cancer, 551; Saturn in Cancer, 555 + "sphere of the soul", 559 +Capricorn, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 543 + and mystic sun of life, 560 + Mars, exaltation ruler of, 561 +Catarrh, nasal, afflictions in Scorpio, 543; Jupiter in Taurus, 557; Saturn + in aries, 554; Saturn in Scorpio, 555; Venus in Aries, 547 + + +[PAGE 706] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Catarrh of Lungs, Moon afflicted in Gemini, 551 +Catalepsy, Neptune causes, 566 +Cerebellum, instrument of coordination, 605 +Cerebral anemia, Saturn in Aries, 554; Sun afflicted in Aries, 545 +Cerebral congestion, Jupiter in Aries, 557 +Cerebral hemisphere, left, dominated by Lucifer spirits, 605 + right, dominated by Mercury, 605 +Cerebral hemispheres, Aries rule, 541 +Cerebral hemorrhage, Mars in Aries, 561; Sun in Aries, 545 +Chicken pox, Mars in Capricorn, 563 +Chilblains, Venus in Pisces, 548 +Child, and thymus gland, 572 + red corpuscles in blood not made by, 572 +Chills, Saturn in Aries, 554 +Choking, Saturn in Taurus, 554 +Cholera, afflictions in Virgo, 542; Mars in Virgo, 563 +Chronic ailments, afflicted Saturn, 554 + +Chyle, bad absorption of, afflictions in Virgo, 542; Saturn in Virgo, 555 +Circulation, arterial and venous, governed by Jupiter and Venus, + respectively, 640-643 + poor, 659; Jupiterin Leo, 558; Moon in Leo; 551; Sun in Aquarius, 546 +Collar bone fractures, Mars in Gemini, 562 +Colds, afflicted Saturn, 554; Saturn in Aries, 554; Uranus in Gemini, 565 +Colic, Mercury in Virgo, 550 +Color and sunshine, value in sooting mind, 637 +Coma, afflictions in Aries, 541; Jupiter in Libra, 558 + Neptune causes, 566. SEE ALSO Lethargy. +Combust, any planet within three degrees of Sun, 600 +Compatibility, of patient, nurse, and healer, 538 +Congenital idiocy. SEE Lungs, congestion of. +Congestion, in ear, 600 +Constipation, 646; afflictions in Taurus, 541; Saturn in Scorpio, 555; + Saturn in Taurus, 554 + causative factor in haemorrhoids, 621 +Consumption. SEE Tuberculosis. +Corns, Mars in Pisces, 564 +Contagious diseases, Mars causes, 561 +Correspondences, Law of, 540-568 +Coughs, Mars in Gemini, 562; Mars in Sagittarius, 563; Mercury in + Sagittarius, 550; Uranus in Gemini, 565 + + +[PAGE 707] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Cramps, afflictions to Uranus, 564; Uranus in Cancer, 565 +Croup, affliction in Taurus, 541; Saturn in Taurus, 554 +Cretinism, caused by thyroid gland, 574 +Critical degrees, detriment, exaltation, fall, rulership, 409, 410 +Crystals, none in pineal and pituitary glands, 576 +Crystalline appearance explained, 576 +Curvature of spine, 619; afflictions in Leo, 542; Saturn in Aquarius, 556; + Saturn in Leo, 555; + + + --D-- + +Deafness, 657; Mercury in Pisces, 550; Mercury in Scorpio, 550; Mercury in + Taurus, 549; Saturn in Aries, 554 +Death, time of, should not be sought in horoscope, 531 + never, never predict, 529 +Delirium, and brain fever, Mars in Aries, 562 +Delirium Tremens, and Neptune, 567 +Dental decay. SEE Teeth, decay of. +Depression, Jupiter in Aries, 557 +Desire body, of unborn child, and Mars forces, 572 +Detriment, exaltation, fall, 409, 410 +Diabetes, afflicted Jupiter, 557; Jupiter in Aries, 557; Jupiter in Libra, + 558 +Diagnosis, by horoscope, superior to X-ray, 528 + of own horoscope biased, 532 +Diarrhoea, Mars in Pisces, 564; Mars in Virgo, 563 +Diet, cleansing, value of greens and fruits, 601-602 +Dietitian, indicated by Mercury in Pisces, 207; Moon in Virgo, 227 +Digestive disorders, afflictions in Capricorn, 543; Jupiter in Capricorn, + 558; Moon in Cancer, 551; Moon in Capricorn, 552. SEE ALSO + Indigestion, Dyspepsia. +Diphtheria, afflictions in Taurus, 541; Mars in Taurus, 562; Saturn in + Taurus, 554; Sun in Taurus, 545 +Disease, predisposition to, if Sun or Moon in Taurus or Virgo, or these + signs rising, 530 +Dissection, futile for functional study, 575 +Dizziness. SEE Vertigo. +Dormant organs, 575 +Dragon's Head and Tail, article, 594-599 + conjunction, influence of, like Sun in Aries and Saturn in Libra, 596-597 + eastern and western nodes of Moon (geocentric), 596 + + + +[PAGE 708] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + example horoscopes of: broken bones, 597, injury to sight, 597; heart + trouble, 639 +Dropsy, 665; afflictions in Aquarius, 543; in Cancer, 542; Jupiter in + Cancer, 558; Jupiter in Capricorn, 559; Jupiter in Scorpio, 558; + afflictions in Pisces, 544; afflictions to Moon, 551; Moon in + Aquarius, 552; Moon in Cancer, 551; Saturn in Pisces, 556; Sun in + Aquarius, 546; Sun in Cancer, 545, Venus in Gemini, 547 +Drug habits, Moon in Pisces, 552 +Drunkenness, afflictions in Pisces, 544; Mercury in Cancer, 549; Moon in + Pisces, 552 +Ductless Glands. SEE article, 568-578. + and blood are manifestations of vital body, 569 + effects of, mainly mental and spiritual, 578 + future role to be prominent, 578 + in general ruled by Sun and Jupiter, 569 + rulers of, 570 +Dysentery, Moon in Virgo, 552; Sun in Virgo, 546 +Dyspepsia, afflictions in Cancer, 545; Jupiter in Cancer, 558; Mars in + Cancer, 562; Mars in Capricorn, 563; Saturn in Cancer, 555; Saturn + in Capricorn, 556; Venus in Capricorn, 548 + + --E-- + +Ears, diseases of, 599, 659, SEE ALSO Deafness. +Eczema, afflictions in Capricorn, 543; afflictions in Libra, 542; Saturn + in Capricorn, 556 +Electricity, and magnetism, 534 + injury from, 564 +Elimination, obstructed by Saturn, 553 +Epilepsy, Moon in Cancer, 551 +Equinoxes and equinoctial points, 595 + precession of, 595-596 +Equipoise, necessary to attain for healing, 642 +Erysipelas, affliction in Capricorn, 543; Mars in Capricorn, 563; Saturn in + Capricorn, 556 +Ether, transmits light rays, ruled by Uranus, 564 +Evolution, caused by activity of stellar rays, 540; Precession of Equinoxes, + 7 + long period of, back of human body, 568 +Excretion, organs of, ruled by Scorpio, 601 +Exercise, lack of, afflicted Venus, 547 +Explosions, injury from, 565 + + +[PAGE 709] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Eyes, diseases of, article, 588 + affections of, 588, 638, 657, 659, 662; Mercury in Libra, ,550; Moon in + Aries, 551; Moon in 6 of Leo, 545; Sun in 8 of Sagittarius, 546; +Sun in 29 of Taurus, 546; Uranus influences, 564 + + --F-- + +Fainting, afflictions in Leo, 542; Jupiter in Aries, 557; Mars in Aquarius, + 563; Mars in Leo, 562; Mercury in Leo, 549; Moon in Aquarius, 552; + Saturn in Aries, 554; Sun in Aries, 545 +Falls, Saturn causes, 554 +Fatty degeneration, afflicted Jupiter, 556 +Feet, deformities of, afflictions in Pisces, 544; Jupiter in Pisces, 559; + Mars in Pisces, 564; Saturn in Pisces, 556 +Femur, broken, Mars in Gemini, 562; Mars in Sagittarius, 563; Moon in + Sagittarius, 552 +Fever, Jupiter in Leo, 558 +Flatulence, Mercury in Cancer, 549; Mercury in Capricorn, 550; Mercury in + Virgo, 550; Uranus in Cancer, 565; Uranus in Virgo, 565 +Fluids, obstructed by Saturn, 553 +Foods, minerals, used as, for plant, animal, and man, 535 + onions as nerve builders, 643 + plants as, for animal and man, 535 + radiate particles to give index, 573 + raw vegetable, for goitre, 656 + value of sour or buttermilk as, 601 + + --G-- + +Gall bladder, ruled by Saturn, 553 +Gallstones, afflictions in Cancer, 542; Saturn in Cancer, 555; Saturn in + Capricorn, 556 +Gas, in stomach, Uranus in Cancer, 565 + Uranus rules, 564 +Gastric cancer, Moon in Cancer, 551; Saturn in Cancer, 555 +Gastric fever, Sun in Cancer, 545 +Gastric tumor, Venus in Cancer, 547 +Gastric ulcer, Saturn in Cancer, 555 +Gemini, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 541 + and thymus gland, 541 + + +[PAGE 710] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Genitals, pains in, Mercury in Scorpio, 550 + ruled by Mars through Scorpio, 561 +Genito-urinary diseases, Mercury in Taurus, 549; Sun in Scorpio, 546 +Gestation, Mars gives hemoglobin, 560 + Moon rules mother during, 551 + watery signs and, 559, 560 +Glands, Ductless, article on, 568 + in general, ruled by Sun, Jupiter, 569 + specific, ruled by specific planets, 570 +Glandular swellings, Venus in Taurus, 547 +Glycogen, Jupiter rules, 556 + of liver, adrenals, 571 +Goitre, 654; afflictions in Taurus, 541; Mars in Taurus, 562; Venus in + Taurus, 547 + diet for, uncooked, vegetable diet, 656 +Gourmandizing, Jupiter in Cancer, 558; Jupiter in Taurus, 557 +Gout, afflictions of Jupiter, 557; afflictions of Saturn, 553; Jupiter in + Sagittarius, 559; Venus in Pisces, 548 + in head, Mercury in Gemini, 549 + in limbs, Jupiter in Gemini, 558; Mercury in Gemini, 549; Venus in + Capricorn, 548 +Gravel, Mars in Scorpio, 563 +Growth, abnormal, Uranus in Taurus, 565 +Growth and assimilation, after puberty directed by Uranus, 572, 573 +Growths, abnormal, related to Uranus, 573 + horny, due to venereal disease, 676. SEE ALSO Venereal Disease. +Guardian of the Threshold, article, 582 + spiritual investigations of, made by author, 582 +Gums, ulceration of, Jupiter in Aries, 557; Jupiter in Taurus, 557 + + --H-- + +Haemoglobin, manifests magnetic force, attracts oxygen, 535 +Haemorrhoids, a Mars activity, 561; Mars in Scorpio, 563; Saturn in + Scorpio, 555 + constipation, in relation to, 621 +Hallucinations, Uranus in Libra, 565 +Hands, fractures of, Mars in Gemini, 562 +Head, accidents to, 650; Mars in Aries, 562 + + +[PAGE 711] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Headache, afflictions in Aries, 541; Mars in Aries, 549; Mars in Libra, 563; + Mercury in Libra, 550; Moon in Aries, 551; Moon in Libra, 552; + Saturn in Aries, 554; Saturn in Libra, 555; Sun in Aries, 545; + Uranus in Libra, 565; Venus in Libra, 548; Venus in Taurus, 547. +Healer, nurse, and patient, rising sign shows compatibility, 538-539 +Hearing and sight, distribution over body, 577 +Heart affections, 617, 638, 641, 665; afflictions in Aquarius, 543; + afflictions in Leo, 542; afflictions to Saturn, 553; Jupiter in + Leo, 558; Mars in Aquarius, 563; Mars in Leo, 562; Moon in + Aquarius, 552; Saturn in Aquarius, 556; Saturn in Leo, 555; Sun in + Aquarius, 546; Sun in Leo, 545; Uranus in Aquarius, 565; Uranus in + Leo, 565; Venus in Aquarius, 548. SEE ALSO Palpitation. +Heart, diseases of the, article, 617-619 + enlargement, Venus in Leo, 547 + failure, due to dropsical condition, 669 + functional and organic weaknesses of, 617, 618 +Hemorrhage, of Lungs. SEE Tuberculosis. + Mars in Aries, 561; Sun in Aries, 545 +Hernia, afflictions of Mars, 561; ventral, Mars in Pisces, 564. SEE ALSO + Rupture. +Hiccoughs, afflictions of Uranus, 564; Uranus in Cancer, 565 +Hip diseases, afflictions in Sagittarius, 543; Jupiter in Gemini, 558; + Mercury in Gemini, 549; Mercury in Sagittarius, 550; Moon in + Sagittarius, 552; Saturn in Gemini, 554; Venus in Sagittarius, 548 +Hips, contusion of, 621; Saturn in Sagittarius, 555 +Hoarsness, Mercury in Scorpio, 550; Mercury in Taurus, 549; Saturn in + Scorpio, 555 +Horoscope, and will of Native, 531 + reveals mental, moral, physical disorders, 607 + shows incipient disease better than X-ray, 528 +Horoscopes, compare for compatibility in healing, and in matrimony, 537 + example, delineated, 579-679 +Hydraemia, afflictions in Leo, 542; Jupiter afflicted in Scorpio, 558 +Hydrocele, Moon in Scorpio, 552 +Hyperaemia, or congestion of blood, due to afflictions of Jupiter, 557 +Hypochondria, afflictions in Cancer, 542 + + +[PAGE 712] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Hysteria, afflictions in Cancer, 542; afflictions to Uranus, 564; Moon in + Aquarius, 552 + + --I-- + +Idiocy, congenital, lack of adjustment, 610 +Indigestion, afflictions in Cancer, 541, 542; Mercury in Cancer, 549; + Mercury in Capricorn, 550. SEE ALSO Dyspepsia, Digestive + disorders. +Infantile paralysis, Uranus in Leo, 565 +Inflammation, Mars lights fire of, 561 +Insanity and Spirit Control, article with Chart 23, 635. SEE ALSO Brain + disorders. +Insanity. SEE Lunacy; SEE ALSO The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, by + Max Heindel, for explanation of origins. + caused by misuse of sex-force, 604 + violent, lunation and aspects which precipitated, 637 +Insomnia, Mars in Aries, 562; Moon in Aries, 551; Moon in Libra, 552 +Instability,, mental, caused by afflicted Neptune, 567. SEE ALSO Brain + disorders. +Intestinal disorders, afflictions in Pisces, 544; Jupiter in Pisces, 559; + Mars in Virgo, 562; Saturn in Virgo, 555; Sun in Pisces, 546; Venus + in Pisces, 548; Venus in Virgo, 548 +Intestines, large and small, ruled by Virgo, 542 +Iron, in blood, Mars gives, 560 +Itch, and other eruptive diseases, Mars in Capricorn, 563 + + --J-- + +Jaundice, Jupiter in Cancer, 558; Jupiter in Capricorn, 559; Jupiter in + Pisces, 559; Jupiter in Virgo, 558; Saturn in Cancer, 555; Saturn + in Capricorn, 556 +Jupiter afflicted in the twelve signs, 557-559; parts of body ruled by, 556 + Pathogenic Effects of, article, 556 + rules Sagittarius, 133; arterial circulation, 599; two adrenal glands, + 570 + + --K-- + +Kidneys, disorders of, 641, 676; abscess, 552; afflictions in Libra, 542; + Mars in Aries, 562; Mars in Libra, 563; Mercury in Aries, 549; + Uranus in Libra, 565. SEE ALSO Diabetes. + + +[PAGE 713] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + + --L-- + +Law. SEE Correspondences. + of association, draws child to certain parents, 580 + of compatibility, knowledge of, necessary for healer, 538 +Laryngitis, Mars in Scorpio, 563; Mars in Taurus, 562 +Leg, fractures of, Mars in Aquarius, 563 +Leo, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 542 + and mystic sun of life, 559 + ruled by Sun, 126, 545 +Leprosy, affliction in Capricorn, 543 +Lethargy, coma, catalepsy, trance, caused by Neptune, 566 + Moon in Aries, 551. SEE ALSO Coma. +Leucorrhea, affliction in Scorpio, 543 +Libra, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 542 + and mystic sun of life, 559 +Life, mystic Sun of, 559, 560 +Likes and dislikes, found in horoscope, 536 +Limbs, diseases of, illustrated in Charts 7 and 17, 622 +Liquids of body, ruled by Moon, 668 +Liquids, faulty elimination of, 688 +Liver complaints, afflicted Jupiter, 556; Mars, Saturn, 557; Jupiter in + Cancer, 558; Jupiter in Capricorn, 559; Jupiter in Pisces, 559. + SEE ALSO Jaundice. +Liver, torpid, due to Saturn, 557 +Locomotor ataxia, afflictions of Mercury, 549; afflictions in Sagittarius, + 543; Saturn in Libra, 555 +Lumbago, afflictions in Libra, 542; Mercury in Aries, 549; Mercury in Libra, + 550 +Lunacy, named from Luna, the Moon, 551, 604 +Lungs, congestion of, Jupiter in Gemini, 558 + + --M-- + +Macrocosm, or great world, 540 +Magnetic healing and polarity, 536 +Magnetism. SEE article on Planetary Polarities. + mineral and animal, 533, 534 + travels at right angles to electric current, 533 +Malnutrition, afflictions in Virgo, 542; Saturn in Libra, 555; Mars in + Cancer, 662 +Marriage, compatibility in, shown by horoscope, 537, 538 +Mars, afflicted in the twelve signs, 561-564; parts of body ruled by, 564 + + +[PAGE 714] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + draws upon Jupiter for fuel, 556 + home of Lucifer Spirits, 569 + mission of, as AIDE to Sun, 560 + Pathogenic Effects of, article, 559 + predisposes to accidents, 561 + rules Aries and Scorpio, 119, 131; iron in blood, 600; muscles in + general, 569; vitality, 561 +Measles, Mars in Capricorn, 563 +Medicine men, etc., caused by abnormal spiritual growth, 577 +Mediumship indicated by square of Neptune to Uranus, 665; Neptune causes, + 566 +Melancholy, due to thoughts centered on self, 672 + Jupiter in Libra, 558; Mercury in Capricorn, 550 +Membranes hardening of, afflicted Saturn, 553 +Meningitis, Sun afflicted in Aries, 545 +Menses, afflicted Moon, 551; excessive, Mars, 561, 563 +Menstruation, irregular, afflictions in Scorpio, 543; in Taurus, 541; Mars + in Taurus, 562; in Scorpio, 552; Moon in Taurus, 557; Saturn in + Scorpio, 555 +Mentality, calibre of, to be judged first, 641 + disturbance and temporary instability of, caused by Neptune, 567 +Mercury, afflicted in the twelve signs, 549, 550; parts of body ruled by, + 549, 599 + Pathogenic Effects of, 549 + rules Gemini and Virgo, 549; nervous system, 566; thyroid gland, 570 +Microcosmic, or small world, man, 540 +Milk fever, Mars in Cancer, 562 + leg, Jupiter in Aquarius, 559 +Milk, sour, its value in clearing up clogged system, 601 + sweet, value greatest when warm and full of ether, 643 +Mind, article on disorders of, 604 + attitude of, necessary to effect cure, 665, 667 + brain-mind and Mercury, 578 + color and sunshine, as medicine for, 637 + connection of, with pineal gland, 575 + most important factor in disease, 665 + needs secretions of thyroid gland, 574 + vegetarian diet for, 637 +Miscarriages, Uranus in Scorpio, 566 +Moon, afflicted in the twelve signs, 551, 552; parts of body ruled by, 551, + 599 + collector of solar forces, 545 + detriment, exaltation, fall, 410 + + +[PAGE 715] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + + indicator of women's health, 544 + mother ruled by, during pregnancy, 551 + muscles ruled by Mars and, 569 + rules Cancer, 97 + vantage point of angels, 569 +Moon Period, angels are humanity of, 569 +Mumps, Mars in Taurus, 562; Saturn in Taurus, 554; Venus in Taurus, 547 +Muscles, ruled by Moon and Mars, 569 +Muscular rheumatism, Mars in Leo, 562. SEE ALSO Rheumatism. +Music, value in soothing mind, 637 +Myxedema, caused by degeneracy of thyroid gland, 574 + + --N-- + +Nasal catarrh. SEE Catarrh, nasal. +Nausea, Saturn in Cancer, 555; Venus in Cancer, 547; Venus in Capricorn, 548 +Neptune, afflictions from, cause delirium, other diseases, and mental + instability, 567 + article on Pathogenic Effects of, 566 + effects of, in all twelve houses and signs not given, 568 + effects of, in sixth and twelfth houses and signs, 567 + indicates invisible spiritual hierarchies working with us, 586 + influences spiritual development, 573 + is octave of Mercury, 566. SEE ALSO Chapter XV. + responsible for medicine men, witches, spirit controls, 573, 574 + rules classical string music, 637 + rules pineal gland, 570; spinal canal, 566 +Nerve force, invisible vital fluid, 599 +Nerves, rulership; Mercury, 549, 566, 599; Moon, 551, 599 +Nervous debility, Mercury in Virgo, 550 +Nervous disorders, afflicted Neptune, 566 +Nervous system, Neptune works upon, 566; ruled by Mercury, 566 +Neuralgia, afflictions in Aries, 541; Mercury in Aries, 549 + of heart, Mercury in Aquarius, 550 +Nose bleed, Jupiter in Scorpio, 558; Jupiter in Taurus, 557; Mars in + Scorpio, 563; Mars in Taurus, 562 +Nose bones, Scorpio rules, 542 +Nose, effect of smell on choice of foods, 573 +Nutrition and growth, governed by Venus and Uranus, 472 + + +[PAGE 716] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + --O-- + +Obesity, afflictions of Venus, 547; Moon in Cancer, 551 +Obsession, 582; Neptune conjunction Moon, 567; Neptune square Uranus, 567. + SEE ALSO Mediumship. +Obstruction and suppression, Saturn, planet of, 596 +Obstruction of the ileum, caecum, Saturn in Virgo, 555 + in throat removed by work on anus, 649 +Onions, as nerve builders, 643 +Operations, in relation to Moon and planetary hours, 679 +Osteopathy, good for ear congestion, 600 +Ovarian diseases, afflictions of Moon, 551; afflictions in Scorpio, 543; + Mars in Scorpio, 563; Sun in Scorpio, 546 +Oxidation, 560. SEE ALSO Oxygenation. +Oxygen in blood ruled by Sun, 600 +Oxygen, life-giving, attracted by magnetic force, 535 +Oxygenation, insufficient, Charts 24 and 26, 638, 650 + + --P-- + +Pains, in body, Mercury in Aquarius, 550 +Palpitation, afflictions in Aquarius, 543; in Leo, 542; Jupiter in Aquarius, + 559; Mars in Aquarius, 563; Mars in Leo, 562; Mercury in Aquarius, + 550; Mercury in Leo, 549; Sun in Aquarius, 546; Sun in Leo, 545; + Uranus in Leo, 565 +Paralysis, infantile. SEE Infantile paralysis. + of limbs, Sun in Sagittarius, 546 +Parturition, complicated, Uranus in Scorpio, 566 +Pericardium, inflamed, afflictions in Gemini, 541; Mars in Leo, 562 +Peristalsis of intestines, Saturn in Virgo, 555; Saturn by reflex action in + Cancer interferes with, 553 +Peritonitis, afflictions in Virgo, 542; Moon in Virgo, 552 +Personality, composition of, 568; evanescent, distinct from immortal + spirit, 568 +Perspiring feet, Mars in Pisces, 564 +Phlegm, Mercury in Cancer, 549; Saturn in Scorpio, 555; Saturn in Taurus, + 554 +Piles. SEE Hemorrhoids. +Pimples, Jupiter in Cancer, 558; Mars in Capricorn, 563 +Pineal gland, ruled by Neptune, 566 and 570 + and abnormal spiritual growth of medicine men, witches, mediums, etc. 577 + governs expression in invisible worlds, 574 + + +[PAGE 717] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Pisces, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 544 + mystically opens womb and launches ego, 560 +Pitch, vibratory, infused into each at planetary baptism, 536 +Pituitary body, and abnormal physical growth, freaks, monstrosities, 573, + 577 + and normal growth and assimilation, 572 + in regard to alchemistry, 573 +Pituitary secretion, diminished, Uranus in Taurus, 565 +Planetary hours, article on, 679 +Polarities, planetary, article on, 532 +Planets, SEE each planet by name. +Pleiades, affliction of Sun or Moon in 29 of Taurus, 545, 551 +Plethora, or excessive fulness of blood vessels, Jupiter in Taurus, 557 +Pleurisy, afflictions in Gemini, 541; Jupiter in Gemini, 558; Mercury in + Gemini, 549; Mercury in Sagittarius, 550; Sun in Gemini, 545 +Pluto, not discovered when this book was written. +Pneumogastric nerve, Saturn rules, 553 +Pneumonia, afflictions in Gemini, 541; Mars in Gemini, 562; Mars in + Sagittarius, 563; Moon in Gemini, 551 +Polarities, planetary, article on 532-539 +Polarity, and magnetic healing, 536 + and law of compatibility, 538 + planetary, a guide to friendship, 537 +Polypi, afflictions in Scorpio, 543 +Polypus, of nose, Mars in Taurus, 562; Sun in Taurus, 545 +Polyuria, afflictions in Libra, 542; Venus afflicted in Libra, 548 +PONS VAROLII, location of, 545 +Poultices, when to apply, 680 +Prediction, of disease, may cause sickness, 530, 531 +Prostate gland, enlargement of, afflictions in Scorpio, 543; Jupiter in + Scorpio, 558; Mars in Scorpio, 563; Mars in Taurus, 562 +Pulmonary diseases, 613; afflictions in Gemini, 541; in Sagittarius, 543; + Jupiter in Gemini, 558; Jupiter in Sagittarius, 559; Saturn in + Gemini, 554; Saturn in Sagittarius, 555; Venus in Gemini, 547; + Venus in Sagittarius, 548 +Pulmonary diseases. SEE Tuberculosis, Pleurisy, Pneumonia. +Pyorrhea, Saturn in Cancer, 555 + + +[PAGE 718] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + + --R-- + +Recklessness, of Mars, predisposes to accidents by burning, scalding, etc., + 561 +Reflex, action. SEE Signs of Zodiac. +Regurgitation, afflictions in Leo, 542 + due to leaky heart valves, 619 +Renal calculus, Mars in Aries, 562; Sun in Scorpio, 546 +Renal disorders, Jupiter in Libra, 558; Mars in Aries, 562; Mercury in + Libra, 550; Saturn in Aries, 554 +Renal stones, afflictions in Scorpio, 543; Mars in Libra, 563; Mars in + + Scorpio, 563; Saturn in Libra, 555 +Rheumatism, afflictions in Sagittarius, 543, afflictions of Jupiter, 557; + afflictions of Saturn, 553; Jupiter in Sagittarius, 559; Mercury in + Capricorn, 550; Moon in Capricorn, 552; Saturn in Capricorn, 556; + Saturn in Pisces, 556; Sun in Capricorn, 546 +Rheumatism in arms, Moon in Gemini, 551; Saturn in Gemini, 554; muscular, + Mars in Leo, 562 +Ringworm, Jupiter in Taurus, 557 +Roses, seven upon Cross of body are ductless glands, 570 +Rubs, dry, stimulate skin, 643. SEE ALSO Skin. +Rulers of Ductless Glands, 568 +Rupture, afflictions in Scorpio, 543 +Rupture. SEE Hernia. + + --S-- + +Sagittarius, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 513 + mystic sun proceeds through, 560 + afflictions in, by reflex action, caused lung trouble, 543 +Saint Vitus' dance, afflictions of uranus, 564 + SEE ALSO Idiocy, congenital. +Saturn, afflicted in the twelve signs, 554, 556; parts of body ruled by, + 553 + exalted in Libra, 410, 553 + hurts by bruises, colds, falls, 554 + has power to halt every bodily function, 553 + Pathogenic Effects of, article, 5532 + rules Capricorn, 410, 553; earthly mineral matter in blood, 600; + skeleton, 601; prevents insanity, 655 +Saturn's diseases, gall bladder, 553 +Sciatica, afflictions in Sagittarius, 543; Mars in Gemini, 562; Mars in + Sagittarius, 563; Saturn in Gemini, 554; Saturn in Sagittarius, + + +[PAGE 719] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + + + 555; Sun in Sagittarius, 546 +Sclerosis of spine, afflictions in Leo, 555 +Scorpio, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 542 + and gestation, 560 + gives death sting, 560 +Scurvy, Saturn in Cancer, 555 +Sex, as a Factor in Diseases, article, 579 +Sex diseases. SEE Venereal Diseases. +Sex force, misuse of, causes insanity, 604 +Signs of zodiac. SEE each sign by name. + each sign reacts on its opposite, 541, 543, 553, 554, 555-565 + Pathogenic Effects of Twelve, article, 541 +Sight, classes of, produced by prayer, meditation; drink, drugs, 567 + spiritual, produced by vibrating pineal gland, 566 +Silver cord, cut by Mars and Saturn, 560 +Sixth sense, perceives vital, desire, and mind bodies, 568 +Skeleton, built by Saturn, 553; ruled by Saturn, 601 +Skin, ruled by Saturn, 553; Sun in Libra, 546 +Skin diseases, afflictions in Capricorn, 543; afflictions in Libra, 542; + Jupiter in Cancer, 558; Jupiter in Capricorn, 559; Jupiter in + Libra, 558; Mars in Capricorn, 563; Mercury in Capricorn, 550; Moon + in Capricorn, 552; Saturn in Capricorn, 556; Sun in Libra, 546 +Skin, diseases of. SEE Ringworms, Eczema, Erysipelas. + stimulated by dry rubs, 643 +Sleepiness, tendency to, given by Jupiter in Aries, 557 +Smallpox, Mars in Capricorn, 563 +Snail, body of, crystallizes from fluids, 569 +Soil, mineral, sustains plant, animal, and man, 535 +Solar forces, or vital fluid, ruled by Sun, 544, 571 + specialized by each human being, 571 + specialized through the spleen, 544 +Solar plexus, vital fluid from spleen transferred to, 544 +Solitary Vice, article on, 673, 676 +Solvents, buttermilk, sour milk, grape juice, distilled water, as, 621 +Spasms, caused by Uranus, 564 +Speech disabilities of, how remedied, 603 +Sphenoid bone, penetrated by particles emanated from food, 573 +Sphincter muscles affect diaphragm, 649 + + +[PAGE 720] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Spinal affections, afflictions in Leo, 545; Venus in Leo, 547 + canal, ruled by Neptune, 566; of living not filled with fluid, 576; + spirit fire, in, 566 + meningitis, afflictions in Leo, 542; Uranus in Leo, 565 +Spirit control, afflictions of Neptune, 567 +Spiritual essences: blood, spinal fluid, contents of pineal and pituitary, + 576 +Spiritual Sight, Subtitle Indications of, article on, 589 +Spleen ruled by Sun as planet, 570; and Virgo as sign, 542 + rulers, planetary, Sun 544, 570; sign, Virgo, 542 + storer of vital fluid, 544 + vital fluid specialized through, 544 +Sprained ankles, afflictions in Capricorn, 543 +Staff of Mercury, devised by ancient seers, 589 +Sterility, Saturn in Scorpio, 555 +Stomach cough, Uranus in Cancer, 565 + disorders, 615; Mars in Cancer, 562; Mars in Capricorn, 563; Uranus in + Capricorn, 566 + distended, Jupiter in Cancer, 558; Venus in Cancer, 547 +Strangury, Jupiter in Scorpio, 558; Mars in Scorpio, 563; Mars in Taurus, + 562 +Stricture, afflictions in Scorpio, 543; Mars in Scorpio, 563; Saturn in + Scorpio, 555; Saturn in Taurus, 555 + of aesophagus, Saturn in Cancer, 555 +Stuttering, Mercury in Scorpio, 550; Mercury in Taurus, 549 +Suffocation, Mars in Leo, 562; Mars in Taurus, 562 +Sun afflicted in the twelve signs, 545, 546; parts of body ruled by, 559 + and "first point in Aries," 595; combust, 600; mystic, 599; planetary + ruler of oxygen in blood, 600; rules Leo, 126, 545; rules spleen, + 544, 570; shows health for men, 644; progressed, parallel Saturn, + 652 + aspects to progressed, last three years, 668 + Pathogenic Effects of, article, 544 +Sun of life, Mystic, and entrance into Cancer, not identical with physical + sun in horoscope, 6, 14, 559, 560 +Symbolism of Scorpio, reason for, 560 +Sympathies and antipathies, determined by horoscope, 536 +System, clogged, value of sour milk and buttermilk, 601 + + --T-- + +Tapeworm, afflictions in Virgo, 542; Venus afflicted in Virgo, 548 +Tartar, Saturn in Aries, 554 + + +[PAGE 721] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Taurean or Virgoan fears sickness, 530 +Taurus, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 541 + reacts on opposite sign, 541 +Teeth, decay of, Saturn in Aries, 554; Saturn in Taurus, 554 +Tetanus, afflicted Uranus, 564 +Thighs, diseases of, Jupiter in gemini, 558; Mars in Sagittarius, 563; + Mercury in Sagittarius, 550 +Throat. SEE Bronchitis, Laryngitis, Tonsilitis. +Throat affections, 669; Moon in Scorpio, 552; Saturn in Scorpio, 555; Venus + in Taurus, 548 + trouble, aggravated by mouth breathing, 650; related to disorders of + genital organs, 604 +Thrombosis, or plugging of blood vessel by a clot, Jupiter in Aries, 557 +Thymus gland, of child, atrophies after puberty, 572 + ruled by Venus, 570 + stores spiritual essence, 572 +Thyroid gland, ruled by Mercury, 570, 574 + secretions of, necessary for functioning of minds, 574 +Tonsilitis, Mars in Scorpio, 563; Mars in Taurus, 562; Venus in Taurus, 547 +Toothache, Saturn in Libra, 555 +Trance, afflictions in Aries, 541 + caused by Neptune, 566 +Treatment, how and when to apply, 680 +Tuberculosis, 641, 644, 673; afflictions in Pisces, 544; Mercury in Pisces, + 550; Saturn in Pisces, 556; Saturn in Sagittarius, 555 + effect of Saturn in causing, 640 +Tumors, Venus in Virgo, 548. SEE ALSO Abdominal Tumors. +Typhoid, afflictions in Virgo, 542; Mars in Virgo, 562; Sun in Pisces, 546; + Sun in Virgo, 546 + + --U-- + +Ulcer of leg, Moon in Aquarius, 552 + of stomach, Saturn in Cancer, 555 +Uranus, afflicted in twelve signs, 565 + association of Neptune with, 573 + causes injury by electricity, explosions, 565 + effect of, on physical and spiritual growth, 573 + freaks and abnormal growths due to, 573, 577 + Pathogenic Effects of, article, 564 + parts of body ruled by, 564 + rules ether and gases, 564 + + +[PAGE 722] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS + +Urates, excess of, Jupiter in Scorpio, 558 +Uremia, Moon in Libra, 552; Venus in Libra, 548 +Urethral disorders, Jupiter in Scorpio, 558; Mars in Scorpio, 563 +Ureters, diseases of, under Libra, 620 +Urinary complications, action of Saturn, 553; Mars in Libra, 563; Mars in + Scorpio, 563; Mars in Taurus, 562; Mercury in Libra, 550, Saturn in + Libra, 555; square of Mercury and Moon, 563. + SEE ALSO Polyuria. +Uterine trouble, Mars in Scorpio, 563; Sun in Scorpio, 546; Venus in + Scorpio, 548 + + --V-- + +Vagina, inflammation of, Mars in Scorpio, 563 +Varicocele, Mars in Scorpio, 563; Venus in Scorpio, 548 +Varicose veins, afflictions in Aquarius, 543; Mars in Aquarius, 563; Mercury + in Aquarius, 550; Moon in Aquarius, 552; Sun in Aquarius, 546; + Venus in Aquarius, 548 +Vehicles, man possesses finer than the physical, 568 +Venereal disease, 579, 676; afflictions in Scorpio, 543; afflictions in + Taurus, 541; afflictions of Uranus, 564; afflictions of Venus, 547; + Mars in Scorpio, 563; Mars in Taurus, 562; Uranus in Libra, 565; + Uranus in Scorpio, 566; Venus in Scorpio, 548; Venus in Taurus, 547 + growths and kidney trouble, chart No. 36, 676 +Ventral hernia, Mars in Pisces, 564; Cancer, 547 +Venus, afflicted in the twelve signs, 547, 548; parts of body ruled by, 547 + Pathogenic Effects of, article, 547 + rules Taurus and Libra, 547; Thymus gland, 570; venous blood, 600; venous + circulation, 547 +Vernal equinox. SEE article entitled "The Dragon's Head and Tail." +Vertigo, Jupiter in Aries, 557; Jupiter in Libra, 558; Mercury in Aries, + 549; Mercury in Libra, 550 +Vibrations, of sense, due to Mercury, 592 + two kinds of, carried by Neptune, 592 +Virgo, afflictions, diseases, parts of body ruled by, 542 + and mystic sun of life, 559 + is sign-ruler of spleen, 542 +Virgoans and Taureans fear sickness, 530 + + +[PAGE 723] INDEX TO NATAL ASTROLOGY + +Vital fluid, electricity of body; failure to flow causes disease; invisible + to most; rose color, 544 + ruled by Sun, 664 +Vivisection, futile for functional study, 575 +Vocal Organs, Diseases of, article, 602 +Voice changes, of certain types, due to immorality, 605 +Voluntary nervous system, ruled by Mercury, 345 +Vomiting, affliction of Saturn, 554; Venus in Capricorn, 548. SEE ALSO + Nausea. + + --W-- + +Warning, An Important article on, 529-532 + about Taurus or Vigor patients, 530 + to astrologers never to predict death or crises, 529 +Warts, Venus in Gemini, 547 +Weak back, Saturn in Leo, 655 +Weakness, general, Mercury in Pisces, 550 +Whitlows, inflammation of fingers or toes, Venus in Gemini, 547 +Will, may overrule horoscope, 531; Neptune, will, 346 +Womb, diseases of, afflictions in Scorpio, 543 +Worms, Mars in Virgo, 562 +Worry, Mercury in Pisces, 550 + + --X-- + +X-ray for diagnosis, inferior to astrology, 528 + + --Y-- + +Yellow. SEE colors. + + + --Z-- + +Zodiac, Pathogenic Effects of Twelve Signs, 541 + SEE each sign by name. + + + + + + END OF "THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS" + + + --- END OF FILE --- + diff --git a/religious documents/msgs.txt b/religious documents/msgs.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..094a6de --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/msgs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +In reply to Msg # 185 in Conf # 6 'Magicknet' / / +To : Darren Hanson +From: THE IMAGE +Subj: Tarotic Hygene +-------------------------------------------------------------------------- +In message #185, Darren Hanson writes: + +Greetings Darren, + +> Okay, now I think I understand why. How about giving a +> poor, uninformed solitary Wiccan a few hints on the HOW of +> it now. + + Whenever someone self-describes as something like "poor, +uninformed", alarms start pealing ! But no prob. + + A bit more background, it'll make this a bit more sensible when +I. explain how I. did it. When I. started this, I. was heavily into +Qabbalistic Magick, Crowleyish to the core. My methods at the time, +and which I. continue to use for this purpose simply because it's one of +many that happen to work fine, were based upon that in basic form. I. just +want to make sure you understand that any system will do ya just fine, +adapt till it tastes just about right! + + First I. went out to purchase a box, and found that no such animal was +readily available that would handle the Thoth, the thing was just too +outsized. But I. did run across a leather dice bag in a gaming store which +was perfect, down to the loop on the back so that I. could hang it from my +belt. Nice bag, I. took it home, and made it into a talisman. Talisman +making comes in a zillion different forms, again, just use whichever is +native your Perspective, or appeals the most. I. used Israel Regardie's +talismanic system, supplimented by the GD's work in that huge blue book. +The details of the talisman I.'ll leave to you, but here's what it did. + + I. used the Emanation from 000->Kether for clearing a Tarot Deck +ordinarily, just as I. would for clearing a psychically dirty room or +implement. It is 'pure' enough that it doesn't bias anything, boundless +in quantity and availability, and powerful enough to do a thorough job of +it. Just as you would do a Middle Pillar exercise, but have the Talisman +do this constantly and draw it inwards. I. was heavy into symbology as +well and anchored support from a number of different systems in +conjunction with Qabbalism. You can work with whatever you like, it really +doesn't matter, as long as you get the result. The power that the Talisman +drew to cleanse the deck was the same power source to keep it running. +Sort of the way dams were supposed to provide self-sustaining power once +upon a time, but in Magick it actually works. If you hold my Thoth pouch +in your hands and 'scan' it, it feels like it's vibrating just a faint +bit, the way a pipe does when water is flowing thru it rapidly. Neat. + +> My deck worries me some days as I stumble blindly +> along with it. I think it would be rather nice to get any +> of the extranious influences out and away from the deck.... + + The only real danger a Tarot deck can pose is that it helps to set the +potentials in the Pattern, not only predicting the future, but also aiding +strongly in bringing it about.... I. rarely use mine anymore, I.'ve +incorporated most of the Tarot's basic function, intrinsically. But on +occassion, when I. want to really skew the potentials hard, I.'ll haul 'em +out and lay 'em out.... Not often tho.... + +Always, +-Images of the Imagination + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/muhammad.txt b/religious documents/muhammad.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6db6de0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/muhammad.txt @@ -0,0 +1,226 @@ + +From a Baha'i book by 'Abdu'l-Baha: + + MUHAMMAD + + Americans and Europeans have heard a number of stories about +the Prophet which they have thought to be true, although the +narrators were either ignorant or antagonistic: most of them were +clergy; others were ignorant Muslims who repeated unfounded +traditions about Muhammad which they ignorantly believed to be +to His praise. + + Thus some benighted Muslims made His polygamy the pivot of +their praises and held it to be a wonder, regarding it as a +miracle; and European historians, for the most part, rely on the +tales of these ignorant people. + + For example, a foolish man said to a clergyman that the true +proof of greatness is bravery and the shedding of blood, and that +in one day on the field of battle a follower of Muhammad had cut +off the heads of one hundred men! This misled the clergyman to +infer that killing is considered the way to prove one's faith to +Muhammad, while this is merely imaginary. The military expeditions +of Muhammad, on the contrary, were always defensive actions: a +proof of this is that during thirteen years, in Mecca, He and His +followers endured the most violent persecutions. At this period +they were the target for the arrows of hatred: some of His +companions were killed and their property confiscated; others fled +to foreign lands. Muhammad Himself, after the most extreme +persecutions by the Qurayshites, who finally resolved to kill Him, +fled to Medina in the middle of the night. Yet even then His +enemies did not cease their persecutions, but pursued Him to +Medina, and His disciples even to Abyssinia. + + These Arab tribes were in the lowest depths of savagery and +barbarism, and in comparison with them the savages of Africa and +wild Indians of America were as advanced as a Plato. The savages +of America do not bury their children alive as these Arabs did +their daughters, glorying in it as being an honorable thing to do. +[The Banu-Tamim, one of the most barbarous Arab tribes, practiced +this odious custom.] Thus many of the men would threaten their +wives, saying, "If a daughter is born to you, I will kill you." +Even down to the present time the Arabs dread having daughters. +Further, a man was permitted to take a thousand women, and most +husbands had more than ten wives in their household. When these +tribes made war, the one which was victorious would take the women +and children of the vanquished tribe captive and treat them as +slaves. + + When a man who had ten wives died, the sons of these women +rushed at each other's mothers; and if one of the sons threw his +mantle over the head of his father's wife and cried out, "This +woman is my lawful property," at once the unfortunate woman became +his prisoner and slave. he could do whatever he wished with her. +He could kill her, imprison her in a well, or beat, curse and +torture her until death released her. According to the Arab habits +and customs, he was her master. It is evident that malignity, +jealousy, hatred and enmity must have existed between the wives and +children of a household, and it is, therefore, needless to enlarge +upon the subject. Again, consider what was the condition and life +of these oppressed women! Moreover, the means by which these Arab +tribes lived consisted in pillage and robbery, so that they were +perpetually engaged in fighting and war, killing one another, +plundering and devastating each other's property, and capturing +women and children, whom they would sell to strangers. How often +it happened that the daughters and sons of a prince, who spent +their day in comfort and luxury, found themselves, when night fell, +reduced to shame, poverty and captivity. Yesterday they were +princes, today they are captives; yesterday they were great ladies, +today they are slaves. + + Muhammad received the Divine Revelation among these tribes, +and after enduring thirteen years of persecution from them, He +fled. [To Medina.] But this people did not cease to oppress; they +united to exterminate Him and all His followers. It was under such +circumstances that Muhammad was forced to take up arms. This is +the truth: we are not bigoted and do not wish to defend Him, but +we are just, and we say what is just. Look at it with justice. +If Christ Himself had been placed in such circumstances among such +tyrannical and barbarous tribes, and if for thirteen years He with +His disciples had endured all these trials with patience, +culminating in flight from His native land -- if in spite of this +these lawless tribes continued to pursue Him, to slaughter the men, +to pillage their property, and to capture their women and children +-- what would have been Christ's conduct with regard to them? If +this oppression had fallen only upon Himself, He would have +forgiven them, and such an act of forgiveness would have been most +praiseworthy; but if He had seen that these cruel and bloodthirsty +murderers wished to kill, to pillage and to injure all these +oppressed ones, and to take captive the women and children, it is +certain that He would have protected them and would have resisted +the tyrants. What objection, then, can be taken to Muhammad's +action? Is it this, that He did not, with His followers, and their +women and children, submit to these savage tribes? To free these +tribes from their bloodthirstiness was the greatest kindness, and +to coerce and restrain them was a true mercy. They were like a man +holding in his hand a cup of poison, which, when about to drink, +a friend breaks and thus saves him. If Christ had been placed in +similar circumstances, it is certain that with a conquering power +He would have delivered the men, women and children from the claws +of these bloodthirsty wolves. + + Muhammad never fought against the Christians; on the contrary, +He treated them kindly and gave them perfect freedom. A community +of Christian people lived at Najran and were under His care and +protection. Muhammad said, "if anyone infringes their rights, I +Myself will be his enemy, and in the presence of God I will bring +a charge against him." In the edicts which He promulgated it is +clearly stated that the lives, properties and honor of the +Christians and Jews are under the protection of God; and that if +a Muhammadan married a Christian woman, the husband must not +prevent her from going to church, nor oblige her to veil herself; +and that if she died, he must place her remains in the care of the +Christian clergy. Should the Christians desire to build a church, +Islam ought to help them. In case of war between Islam and her +enemies, the Christians should be exempted from the obligation of +fighting, unless they desired of their own free will to do so in +defense of Islam, because they were under its protection. But as +a compensation for this immunity, they should pay yearly a small +sum of money. In short, there are seven detailed edicts on these +subjects, some copies of which are still extant at Jerusalem. This +is an established fact and not dependent on my affirmation. The +edict of the second Caliph [Of 'Umar] still exists in the custody +of the orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, and of this there is no +doubt. [Cf. Jurji Zaydan's _Umayyads and Abbasids_, trans. D. S. +Margoliouth.] + + Nevertheless, after a certain time, and through the +transgression of both the Muhammadans and the Christians, hatred +and enmity arose between them. Beyond this fact, all the +narrations of the Muslims, Christians and others are simply +fabrications, which have their origin in fanaticism, or ignorance, +or emanate from intense hostility. + + For example, the Muslims say that Muhammad cleft the moon, and +that it fell on the mountain of Mecca: they think that the moon is +a small body which Muhammad divided into two parts and threw one +part on this mountain, and the other part on another mountain. + + Such stories are pure fanaticism. Also the traditions which +the clergy quote, and the incidents with which they find fault, are +all exaggerated, if not entirely without foundation. + + Briefly, Muhammad appeared in the desert of Hijaz in the +Arabian Peninsula, which was a desolate, sterile wilderness, sandy +and uninhabited. Some parts, like Mecca and Medina, are extremely +hot; the people are nomads with the manners and customs of the +dwellers in the desert, and are entirely destitute of education and +science. Muhammad Himself was illiterate, and the Qur'an was +originally written upon the bladebones of sheep, or on palm leaves. +These details indicate the condition of the people to whom Muhammad +was sent. The first question which He put to them was, "Why do you +not accept the Pentateuch and the Gospel, and why do you not +believe in Christ and in Moses?" This saying presented +difficulties to them and they argued, "Our forefathers did not +believe in the Pentateuch and the Gospel; tell us, why was this?" +He answered, "They were misled; you ought to reject those who do +not believe in the Pentateuch and the Gospel, even though they are +your fathers and your ancestors." + + In such a country, and amidst such barbarous tribes, an +illiterate Man produced a book in which, in a perfect and eloquent +style, He explained the divine attributes and perfections, the +prophethood of the Messengers of God, the divine laws, and some +scientific facts. + + Thus, you know that before the observations of modern times - +- that is to say, during the first centuries and down to the +fifteenth century of the Christian era -- all the mathematicians +of the world agreed that the earth was the center of the universe, +and that the sun moved. The famous astronomer who was the +protagonist of the new theory discovered the movement of the earth +and the immobility of the sun. [Copernicus.] Until his time all +the astronomers and philosophers of the world followed the +Ptolemaic system, and whoever said anything against it was +considered ignorant. Though Pythagoras, and Plato during the +latter part of his life, adopted the theory that the annual +movement of the sun around the zodiac does not proceed from the +sun, but rather from the movement of the earth around the sun, this +theory had been entirely forgotten, and the Ptolemaic system was +accepted by all the mathematicians. But there are some verses +revealed in the Qur'an contrary to the theory of the Ptolemaic +system. One of them is "The sun moves in a fixed place," which +shows the fixity of the sun, and its movement around an axis. +[Qur'an 36:37] Again, in another verse, "and each star moves in +its own heaven." [Qur'an 36:38] Thus is explained the movement of +the sun, of the moon, of the earth, and of other bodies. When the +Qur'an appeared, all the mathematicians ridiculed these statements +and attributed the theory to ignorance. Even the doctors of Islam, +when they saw that these verses were contrary to the accepted +Ptolemaic system, were obliged to explain them away. + + It was not until after the fifteenth century of the Christian +era, nearly nine hundred years after Muhammad, that a famous +astronomer made new observations and important discoveries by the +aid of the telescope, which he had invented. [Galileo] The +rotation of the earth, the fixity of the sun, and also its movement +around an axis, were discovered. It became evident that the verses +of the Qur'an agreed with existing facts, and that the Ptolemaic +system was imaginary. + + In short, many Oriental peoples have been reared for thirteen +centuries under the shadow of the religion of Muhammad. During the +Middle Ages, while Europe was in the lowest depths of barbarism, +the Arab peoples were superior to the other nations of the earth +in learning, in the arts, mathematics, civilization, government and +other sciences. The Enlightener and Educator of these Arab tribes, +and the Founder of the civilization and perfections of humanity +among these different races, was an illiterate Man, Muhammad. Was +this illustrious Man a thorough Educator or not? A just judgment +is necessary. + + + 'Abdu'l-Baha + _Some Answered Questions_, pages 18-24 + (c) 1930, 1954, 1964, 1981 + by the National Spiritual Assembly + of the Baha'is of the United States + All Rights Reserved + +For electronic reproduction only! Do not reproduce in any other +way without permission from the National Spiritual Assembly of the +Baha'is of the United States. Copies intended for electronic +reproduction such as within files available for download on +Bulletin Board Systems must contain the copyright information and +this paragraph and must not be altered in any way. diff --git a/religious documents/murder-x.txt b/religious documents/murder-x.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..697f292 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/murder-x.txt @@ -0,0 +1,115 @@ + +The Murder +in X. Street + +We begin this new series of The Oriflamme with a quarterly +competition. The competition was written by Aleister Crowley in five +installments, and will continue in the next four issues. To compete, +read each installment of the story and send in your solution of the +problems propounded. Each issue, we will announce the winner of the +previous issue's competition. In the Spring 1987 E.V. we will announce +the winner of the Grand Prize, to be awarded to the competitor who +submits the best solutions for all five installments. The Grand Prize +will be a leather-bound copy of the 93 Publishing limited edition of +Crowley's classic Leah Sublime, printed on handmade paper, gold +stamped and with marbled end-papers. Oriflamme staff and their +offspring cannot possibly compete.--H.B. + +PART ONE + +Rupert Lascelles has been dining too freely, a fact that accounts for +his extraordinary mistake about the time. He had steered a fairly +successful course down the Strand, avoiding the few passengers who +were still loitering in that never deserted thoroughfare, and now +paused at the corner of X. Street. Here, seeking support against a +convenient lamp-post, he fumbled with his watch chain, and at last +succeeded in snapping open the case of his gold hunter repeater. + +At this moment a rough, uncouth man, who had been lurking under the +shadow of the houses, came across and addressed him: + +``Wot's the time, guv?'' he asked. + +``Pasht two,'' replied Lascelles. + +``Ho! is it?'' said the rough man, making a deft grab at his watch. +The next moment Lascelles found himself alone. + +Now, it appeared afterwards that Lascelles had made a mistake in his +estimate of the time, since he had mistaken the long and short hands +of his watch for each other, a mistake which caused him to believe +that the time was between 55 and 57 minutes later than it actually +was. (What was the real time?) + +For a moment Lascelles was too startled to grasp the fact that he had +been robbed, then, pulling himself together with an effort, he started +down X. Street in a belated chase after the pickpocket, who had by +this time safely made his escape. + +At the bottom of the street, however, Lascelles saw two men bending +over some object on the ground, and, believing that one of them was +his late assailant, he slowed down and approached them cautiously, +with the result that he was enabled to overhear the following +extraordinary conversation which was being held between them:-- + +Said the first: ``I will take from the red things such as are round.'' + +``Very good,'' said the first, ``but, of course, anything that is not +round, even in your original portion, comes to me.'' + + + + + + + + + +``That is hardly fair,'' replied the second. ``If I agree to that you +must let me have all the red hot round things that are golden.'' + +``Done,'' cried the first, ``on condition that you give up from all +you are at present entitled to everything which is neither silver nor +gold.'' + +``An easy condition,'' said the second, ``for everything I am entitled +to is silver.'' + +As they laughed and shook hands on the bargain, Lascelles lurched +forward: ``Shay, ol' pals,'' he observed, ``what was the swag, +anyway?'' + +``You'd better ask the readers of The Oriflamme,'' replied the +thieves, making off hurriedly. + +At this dramatic moment a series of heart-rending shrieks broke the +silence of the night, and a book was thrown furiously from an upper +window. + +``Murder! Murder!'' came the appalling and inhuman yell. + +``Thine hour is come, oh, execrable hag!'' replied a firm but +courteous voice. ``Thou worthy spouse of Ahab! I am not employed in +the royal household--far from it! But permit me to take the +liberty!''--and he plunged her after the book. A grey- headed, +wizened, monkey-like mass fell upon the pavement with a resounding +plunk. + +``Life is not extinct,'' exclaimed Lascelles, sober in a moment. Run, +one of you, and get a word of seven letters which spells the same +forward and backwards.'' + +But it was useless. The victim of the dastardly outrage was as dead as +mutton. + +The question then most seriously arose--How dead is mutton? But +Lascelles easily showed to the satisfaction of the bystanders and Mr. +Algernon Ashton, that it was as dead as anything can be. + +``Why!'' he said; ``I can easily think of six words implying death or +burial whose initials form the word `mutton.''' + +With a muttered curse, Robert Caldwell slunk away! + +What six words can you suggest? +  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/my_wicca.txt b/religious documents/my_wicca.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddc37be --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/my_wicca.txt @@ -0,0 +1,278 @@ + MY WICCA + By Durwydd MacTara + + My RELIGION is Wicca, my LIFE-STYLE is Witchcraft! I believe in +a supreme being that is both Immanent and Transcendent, that is +expressing itself within AND without. However, I also believe that +trying to define/describe such an infinite Divine Being in finite terms +to be a waste of time and energy. I CAN describe my perceptions of the +Ultimate in terms of the energies that I work with and find significant +in my daily living. My style and methods of relating to what I can +perceive of these Divine Energies are what I describe as my RELIGION. +How I apply these insights gained via my religious practices, I term my +CRAFT. + + The name for my religion is derived from the Saxon root "wicce" +(pronounced "witchy") and is loosely translated as "Wise". The word +"Wicca" was first used in modern times in England by Gerald B. Gardner +to describe/define an attempt at restoring "the old wisdom" of pre- +Christian beliefs and practice into a modern context in the 1940's. +Ergo, I could call my religion "wisdom" and my style of application of +this wisdom "wise-craft" or more simply, "The Craft of the Wise". + + For the sake of convenience and easy understanding, I divide the +expressions of the Divine Energies into two groups; that of the active +positive (symbolically "male") energies represented to me by the stag +horned Lord of the Forest, and those of a more passive, nurturing, or +"negative" polarity represented to me by the Threefold Goddess. +Approaching my perceptions of the universe and its energies in this way +allows me to break them down into "bite sized chunks", applicable to my +daily life in a mundane world, and what good is ANY belief system if it +is not of immediate and practical use here and now? + + So what are some of the beliefs and practices of this religion +called Wicca, and how do I apply them to my daily life? What does it +all mean? The following explanation is based on a press statement +released by the American Council of Witches released in the early +1970's, with some editing on my part to reflect my own beliefs and +practices. + + ================================= + + BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE CRAFT + +1. The first principle is that of love, and it is expressed in the +ethic, + "AN IT HARM NONE, DO AS THOU WILL" + + a) love is not emotional in it's essence, but is an + attribute of the individual as expressed in relation + to other beings; + b) harming others can be by thought, word, or deed. + Thought is included here, because for the Witch, + "thoughts are things" and every action, even thoughts, + can become magical actions, whether consciously intended + or not; + c> it is to be understood the "none" includes oneself, + though it is permissable to harm self in helping others, + should one so choose; + d) the harm which is to be regarded as unethical is + gratuitous harm; war, in general, is gratuitous harm, + although it is ethical to defend oneself and one's + liberty when threatened by real and present danger, + such as personal defense or defense of another WHEN REQUESTED. + + +2. The Witch must recognize and harmonize with the forces of the +universe, in accord with the Law of Polarity: everything is dual; +everything has two poles; everything has it's opposite; for every action +there is a reaction; all can be categorized as either active or reactive +in relation to other things. + a) The Infinite and Ultimate Godhead is one unique and + transcendent wholeness, beyond any limitations or expressions; + thus, it is beyond our human capacity to understand and identify + with this principle of Cosmic Oneness, except as It is + revealed to us in terms of It's attributes and operation. + + b) One of the most basic and meaningful attribute of the One + that we, as humans, can relate to and understand, is + that of polarity, of action and reaction; therefore + Witches recognize the Oneness of the Divinity, but + worship and relate to the Divine as the archetypal + polarity of God and Goddess, the All-Father and the + Great Mother of the universe. The Beings are as near as + we can approach to the One within our human limitations + of understanding and expression, though it is possible to + experience the divine Oneness through the practices of the + Mysteries. + + c) Harmony does not consist of the pretty and the nice, + but the balanced, dynamic, poised co-operation and + co-relationship. + + 3. The Witch must recognize, and operate within the framework of the +Law of Cause and Effect; every action has it's reaction, and every +effect has it's cause. All things occur according to this law; nothing +in the universe can occur outside this law, though we may not always +appreciate the relation between a given effect and it's cause. Sub- +sidiary to this is the Law of Three, which states that whatever goes +forth must return threefold, whether of good or ill; for our actions +affect more than people generally realize, and the resulting reactions +are also part of the harvest. + +4. As Above, So Below. That which exists in the Macrocosm exists, on +a smaller scale and to a lesser degree, in the Microcosm. The powers +of the universe exist also in the human, though in general instance they +lie dormant. The powers and abilities can be awakened and used if the +proper techniques are practiced, and this is why initiates of the +Mysteries are sworn to guard the secrets from the unworthy: Much harm +can be done by those who have power without responsibility, both to +others and to themselves according to the Laws of Cause and Effect and +of Threefold Return. + + a) Since our philosophy teaches that the universe is the + physical manifestation of the Divine, there can be + nothing in the universe which does not partake of the + nature of the Divine; hence, the powers and attributes + of the Divine exist also in the manifest, though to much + smaller degree. + + + b) These powers can be awakened through the various + techniques of the Mysteries, and, although they are only + capable of small effects in and of themselves, it is + possible to use them in order to draw upon the forces of + the universe. Thus humanity can be the wielders of the + power of the Gods, a channel for Godhead to act within + It's own manifestation. This, many feel, is further reason + for the oath of secrecy. + + c) Since the universe is the body of the One, possessing + many of the same attributes as the One, it's Laws must be the + principles through and by which the One operates. By + reasoning from the known to the unknown, one can learn + of the Divine, and thus of oneself. By experiencing the Mysteries + a person can truly LEARN more about the One. Thus the Craft is a + natural religion as well as a MYSTERY religion, seeing in Nature + the expression and revelation of Divinity. + +5. We know that everything in the universe is in movement or vibration +and is a function of that vibration. Everything vibrates; all things +rise and fall in a tidal system that reflects the motion inherent in the +universe and also in the atom. Matter and energy are but two poles of +one continuous phenomenon. Therefore the Witch celebrates, harmonizes +with, and makes use of the tides of the universe and of life as +expressed through the cycle of the seasons and the motion of the solar +system. These ritual observances are the eight great Festivals of the +Year, referred to as the Wheel of the Year. Further, the Witch works +with the forces and tides of the Moon, for this body is the mediator of +much energy to our planet Earth and thus to ourselves. + +6. Nothing is dead matter in the universe. All things exist, +therefore all things live, though perhaps in a different manner from +that which we are used to calling life. In view of this, the Witch +knows that there is no true death, only change from one condition to +another. The universe is the body of Godhead, and therefore +possesses one transcendent consciousness; all things partake of the +consciousness, in varying levels of trance/awareness. + + a) Because of this principle, all things are sacred to + the Witch, for all partake of the one Life. + + b) Therefore the Witch is a natural ecologist, for Nature + is part of us as we are a part of Nature. + +7. Throughout the development of the human race, civilizations have +seen and worshipped many and various attributes of the Divine. These +universal forces have been clothed in forms which were expressive to the +worshipper of the attribute of the Godhead which they expressed. Use of +these symbolic representations of the natural and divine forces of the +universe, or god forms, is a potent method for contacting and utilizing +the forces they represent. Thus the Gods are both natural and truly +divine, and man-made in that the forms with which they are clothed are +products of humanity's striving to know the Godhead. + + a) In keeping with the Law of Polarity, these god-forms + are brought into harmony by the one great Law which + states: All Gods are one God. All Goddesses are one + Goddess. There is one Initiator. This law is an + expression of our understanding that all of the forces of + the universe, by whatever ethnic god-form is chosen to + clothe and relate to whichever force, can be resolved + into the fundamental polarity of the Godhead, the Great + Mother and the All-Father. + + + b) It is the use of differing god forms, of differing + ethnic sources or periods, which is the basis of many of + the differences between the various Traditions of the + Craft. Each Tradition uses the forms, and thus the names, + which to that Tradition best express and awaken an + understanding of the force represented, according to the + areas of emphasis of the Tradition. + + c) Because we know that differing names or + representations are but expressions of the same divine + principles and forces, we require our members to swear + that they will never mock the names by which another + honors the Divine, even though those names be different + from and seemingly less expressive than the names and god + forms used by our Tradition (for to the members of + another Tradition, using it's names, ours may easily seem + equally less expressive). + +8. A Witch refuses to allow her/himself to be corrupted by the great +guilt neuroses which have been foisted on humanity in the name of the +Divine, thus freeing the self of the slavery of the mind. The Witch +expresses responsibility for her/his actions, and accepts the consequen- +ces of them; guilt is rejected as inhibiting to one's self-actualiza- +tion, and replaced by the efforts of the Witch to obey the teachings of +harmlessness, responsibility for the consequences of one's actions, and +the goal of actualizing the full powers of the individual. + + a) We refuse to believe that a human being is born + innately sinful, and recognize the concepts of sin and + guilt are tremendously inhibiting to the human potential; + the consequences of the Law of Cause and Effect, called + karma by some, are not punishment, but the recurrences of + situations and their effects because the individual has + not gained the Wisdom needed to handle or avoid such + situations. + + b) There is no heaven except that which we ourselves make + of our life on Earth, and likewise there is no hell + except the effects of our unwise actions. Many of us believe + in a "waiting place" sometimes called Summerland where we rest, + recuperate and prepare for our next sojurn in the earth. "Death + is not followed by punishment or reward, but by life and the + continuing personal evolution of our human potential. + + c) One cannot damn the divine in oneself; one can, + however, cut oneself off from it through the rejection of + wisdom and a refusal to strive for self-realization. + This cutting off does not lead to personal suffering in + "hell", for there is no Self to suffer if the tie to + one's own divinity has been severed; what remains is + merely an empty shell, a "personality" or thought-form + devoid of it's ensouling Spark of the Divine Fire. + + +9. We know of the existence of the life-force which ensouls all living +things, that is, all that exists. We know that a spark of this Divine +Fire is within each and every thing that exists, and that it does not +die; only the form of it's existence changes. We know that this spark +of the life-force returns to manifestation again and again in order to +fully realize and actualize it's potential, evolving finally to the peak +and essence of existence which is pure being. In this process of +reincarnation each form returns in the same type of form, though it's +ever-increasing actualization may lead to higher levels of existence of +that form. Man returns as man, cat as feline, mineral as mineral, each +class of form evolving as the individual forms of that class evolve. + +10. This process of evolution through successive incarnations in +manifest form works through the utilizations of wisdom gained, the +essence of the life-experience. This essence of experience, or Wisdom, +is an attribute of the spark of life itself, one and inseparable. + +11. We must care for the body, for it is the vehicle of the spark of +life, the form by which we attain. Thus we must heal the body of it's +ills and keep it a tuned and perfected tool; so must we heal others +(both physically and psychologically) as far as it is within our power +to do so. However, we cannot interfere with the life of another, even +to heal, except at their request or with their express permission. The +reasoning behind this apparent limitation is that we are endowed with +Free Will, and what the Gods themselves hesitate to infringe upon, is +best left alone by us "mere" mortals. + +13. Harmony with, and utilization of, the great natural forces of the +universe is called magick. By magick we speak, not of the super- +natural, but of the superbly natural, but whose laws and applications +are not as yet recognized by the scientific establishment. The Witch +must strive to recognize these forces, learn their laws, attune +her/himself to them, and make use of them. The Witch must also be aware +that power corrupts when used _only_ for the gains of the self, and +therefore must strive to serve humanity: Either through the service in +the Priesthood, or by example and effects of his/her life on others. +The choice must be made in accord with the true nature of the Witch. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/mystdegr.txt b/religious documents/mystdegr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b6c15b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/mystdegr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,286 @@ +THE MYSTERY DEGREES + +Leslie M. Scott, 33 degree + +Sovereign Grand Inspector General in Oregon + +Address before Multnomah Council of Kadosh, at Portland, Ore. +THE NEW AGE - AUGUST 1946 + +Old as philosophy is the phrase, "To know is to live." We find that +thought in the Ancient Mysteries, running back thousands of years. + +To know, said the sages of antiquity, is to believe in the unity of God, +to purify the soul, to prepare for the future life, and to do our duty +to our fellow men. So said Zarathustra, Socrates and the Man of +Nazareth; the authors of Jewish and Christian Scriptures; the authors of +Masonic doctrine; the thinkers and reformers of every age, and Albert +Pike, the formulator of the Scottish Rite. + +To know is to live. Men seek to know, so that they may live wiser, +better and happier. "Seek and ye shall find." (Luke XI:9.) + +The phrase "live and learn" is a cynical reversal of words. Better for +spiritual and material progress is first to learn, so that one may +thereafter live; and "keep himself unspotted from the world." (James +1:27.). + +The ancients practised a moral science which the Greeks, 2,500 years +ago, called Mysteries. The word generically meant to close the eyes and +mouth, to hide. The hidden things inspired the Apostle Paul, who was +versed in the Mysteries, to say: "For the things which are seen are +temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Cor. IV: +18.) + +The science seems to have originated in India, and to have spread to +Ethiopia, Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, Persia, Assyria, Rome, Britain and +Scandinavia. It consisted originally of secret religious rite's. The +Egyptians made much of them, and attached legends to their supreme gods +Osiris, the father, Horus, the son, and Isis, the spirit. These legends +were imitated in the religious and philosophical lore of the peoples of +antiquity, including the Goths and Scandinavians of Northern Europe, and +the Druids of Britain. The early Christians used them in their +sacramental rites, especially as to the eucharistic elements of Christ, +the communion, and the exclusion of strangers and persecutors. + +Says Albert Pike: "Originally, the Mysteries were meant to be the +beginning of a new life of reason and virtue. The initiated, or +esoteric, companions were taught the doctrine of the One Supreme God, +the theory of death and eternity, the hidden mysteries of nature, the +prospect of the ultimate restoration of the soul to that state of +perfection from which it had fallen, its immortality, and the states of +reward and punishment after death. The uninitiated were deemed profane, +unworthy of public employment or private confidence, sometimes, +proscribed as atheists, and certain of everlasting punishment beyond the +grave.... + +"The veil of secrecy was impenetrable, sealed by oaths and penalties, +the most tremendous and appalling. + +"It was by initiation only, that a knowledge of the hieroglyphics +(Egyptian) could be obtained, with which the walls, columns and ceilings +of the Temples were decorated.... + +"The ceremonies were performed at dead of night ... with every appliance +that could alarm and excite the candidate. . . . + +"The early Christians, taught by the founder of their religion, but in +greater perfection, those primitive truths that from the Egyptians had +passed to the Jews, and been preserved among the latter by the Essenes, +received also the institution of the Mysteries; adopted as their object +the building of the symbolic Temple, preserving the old Scriptures of +the Jews as their sacred book, and as the fundamental law, which +furnished the new veil of initiation with the Hebraic words and +formulas, that, corrupted a nd disfigured by time and ignorance, appear +in many of our degrees.... + +"The formula which the primitive [Christian] church pronounced at the +moment of celebrating its Mysteries, was this: 'Depart, ye profane! Let +the catechumens [neophytes] and those who have not been admitted or +initiated, go forth'." + +The unity of design of the Mysteries of all lands shows their common +origin. They contained secret knowledge and rites of secret worship. +At first religious, they became political and promotive of caste, and +degenerated into charlatanry. They were imitated in public pageants. +The Rose Festival of Portland uses some of the imitations, as in the +obligation of Rosaria; likewise, the Mardi Gras of New Orleans. Such +pageants were common in Elusinian and Orphic Greece. But the real +Mysteries were exclusive and secretive to their devotees and initiates. +The obligations and penalties were solemn and harrowing. + +The rites contained not only moral precepts and doctrines of Deity, the +soul, and future life, but also knowledge of astronomy, the harmonious +and regular procession of the stars and the seasons, and the precision +of numbers and mathematics. + +They taught lessons of life, death and after-life; they were funereal, +heroic, dramatic, as in our Mysteries of Hiram. To the Egyptians, Hiram +was Osiris; to the Persians, Mithras; to the Greeks, Dionysus; to the +Christians, the Man of Nazareth. Hiram is Khuram, Hebrew, meaning Noble +Born, higher type of humanity; "exemplar of what man may and should +become, in the course of ages ... ; gifted with a glorious intellect, a +noble soul, a fine organization, and a perfectly balanced moral being +... ; the possi bility of the race made real." + +Cicero said of the Mysteries: "For a wild and ferocious life, [they] +have substituted humanity and urbanity of manners. It is with good +reason they use the term initiation; for it is through them that we in +reality have learned the first principles of life; and they not only +teach us to live in a manner more consoling and agreeable, but they +soften the pains of death by the hope of a better life hereafter." + +Plato, 400 B. C., said that the object was to reestablish the soul in +its primitive purity; the Roman philosopher, 500 years later, Epictetus, +to uphold the "instruction of man and the correction of morals." + +Aristotle said the Mysteries were the most valuable of all religious +institutions; Socrates, that they brought to the dying the most glorious +hopes for eternity. + +The Mysteries were practised in Rome until 400 A.D.; in Athens, until +700 A.D.; in Wales and Scotland, until 1100 A.D. They contained +conceptions that have deeply affected the religious history of the +world. In Greece they were given in four stages: + +(1) Preliminary purification; +(2) Communication of mystic knowledge; +(3) Revelation of holy things; +(4) Crowning of the mystic as a privileged person. + +The Homeric poems, 800 B.C., speak of the comfort brought to the +afflicted. Modern Catholics are said to receive similar consolation +from the elevation of the Host at Mass, which is imitative of the +Mysteries. The early Christians adopted the mass of Mithras of the +Persian Mysteries, and thence took their sacraments and their rites of +confirmation. The priests of Mithras used confession and baptism, and +promised future life of happiness or misery; they celebrated the +oblation of bread, image of resurrect ion, and gave extreme unction. + +Pythagoras, 500 B.C., had three Mystery Degrees, for which a preparation +of five years of abstinence and silence was required. He was familiar +with the Mysteries of Egypt. He taught Mathematics as an evidence of +God and His laws; grammar, rhetoric and logic to improve the reasoning +powers, and geometry, music and astronomy for useful knowledge. He +taught also the omnipotence of God, the immortality of the soul, +truthfulness, silence, temperance, fortitude, prudence, justice, and +abstinence from vice. Pa rticularly we owe the Fellowcraft instructions +to Pythagoras. Plato elaborated the Pythagoras doctrines, one hundred +years later. + +The Masonic Fraternity is the modern repository of the Mysteries. As +used by us, they are shorn of mysticism and superstition, and are +retentive of spiritual and moral values, and doctrines of Divine unity +and harmony, and future life of the soul. Mankind has made little or no +progress in spiritual and moral excellence in thousands of years, nor in +expression. The Golden Rule seems as distant an ideal as when +pronounced by the founders of Christianity, and Confucianism, 500 B.C. + +Masonry does not specify the type of future life, nor the dogma or +doctrine that is to be followed. Blue Lodge Masonry pledges belief in +"future life," but not in "immortal life." Scottish Rite Masonry holds +the soul to be immortal, but does not postulate the soul's mode of +existence hereafter. + +Some of our degrees are likened to degrees of the Ancient Mysteries. +That is to say, our degrees, in their ritual, use the ancient teachings +and symbolisms and ceremonials. Other degrees of our series follow the +philosophy of the Ancient Mysteries. We use Hebrew symbolisms and +discipline; the Druse combination of Hebrew, Mohammedan and Christian, +and the Christian symbolism, for Masonry is a faith universal, sharing +the beliefs that are common to all great religions, of God, future life, +earthly duty, an d personal rectitude. + +The early Christians practised three degrees, based upon the Ancient +Mysteries. Some of ours have a similar sequence and present the essence +of Scottish Rite philosophy. + +Ancient astronomers saw symbols in the stars; the circle, triangle, +square, parallelogram. The Spring constellation of Taurus, the Bull, +ushered in the Blazing Star of Sirius, the three kinds of Orion, the +five Hyades and the seven Pleiades, signifying the mystic numbers 1, 3, +5, 7. The Nile began to rise, as our Columbia River does, in the +springtime; Osiris returned with Taurus at the Vernal Equinox to +regenerate the world, after being slain by Python, six months before, in +the constellation Scorpio, whi ch is opposite Taurus in the sky. + +Masonic Lodges have many astronomical symbols from the Ancient +Mysteries; churches have them also. The cross is astronomical, pointing +four directions to the universe. The Bible makes many references to the +stars. The Mysteries have permeated the great religions, and still live +in them. The birth of the Christ was heralded by a star in the East. + +We are Knights of the Brazen Serpent, because the serpent was an emblem +of reason, faith and repentance. The pharaohs wore the serpent emblem +on their brow, as a symbol of their piety in the Mystery religion. + +Have we moderns found a better way of explaining the soul's origin and +its advent to, and departure from, the body, than the ancients had? Are +the plain virtues better known now than then? + +One of our degrees may be likened to the Master's Degree and to the +third degree of the early Christians, to their Degree of the Faithful, +in which their sacramental secrets were confined. Our degree uses +Christian symbolisms and Christian forms of discipline, and leads to the +explanation of the Word, in the final Masonic Trinity: God, the Source +of All; His Thought conceiving the Universe; His Word, uttering the +Thought and becoming the Creator. The manifestation, the revelation of +the Word is the Univer se: material, mental, spiritual. + +The triple dogma has long been known in the sanctuaries of the sages, +and Masonry has other expressions of Trinity, such as Wisdom, Strength +(Force), Beauty (Harmony); Faith, Hope, Charity; Liberty, Equality, +Fraternity; also many references to other triads. + +The search for the Word has engaged the great minds of the ages. It is +a search for the Logos, the nature and purpose of the Divine Plan, for +spiritual life and light, by which to guide in the pathway of Truth. +Philosophers have variously struggled to define the Word. + +To a Mason the Word is a synonym of the true nature of God, of wisdom, +intellect, of the soul of the universe. It is the unuttered expression +of being and life that are in the Absolute. + +The search is an allegory of attempts to find the Word. In the allegory +are represented the general ignorance of the nature and attributes of +the true Deity, the worship of other deities, and faulty ideas of the +Great Architect. + +We say the Word once found was lost. That is part of the allegory. The +writer of St. John's Gospel says: "In the beginning was the Word, and +the Word was with God, and the Word was God." + +Men have contrived one substitute definition after another. And in this +atomic age they are finding new substitutes for their concepts. We say +Masonry is a science of seeking and finding. We have been told that the +substitute Word of the Master's third degree is Sanskrit, meaning, The +Holy Child, the Son of God. The formulators of Masonry were Christians, +to whom the True Word was a synonym of Christ the Saviour. We could go +on and on with substitutes for the Word, on which men have not been able +to jo in, and from which they have passed, one after another, +unsatisfied. + +Such is the climax of the Mystery Degrees of the Scottish Rite, +paralleling the Craft Degrees and the Christian Degrees, and signifying +three steps or stages: + +(1) Material: blindness, repentance, light. + +(2) Intellectual: sympathy, justice, gratitude, veneration, geometry, +rule of harmony. + +(3) Spiritual: rebirth, death, resurrection, faith, the New Law - Love +ye one another. + +Masonry holds that justice and beneficence are divine attributes, shared +by imperfect man. Evil, pain and sorrow are parts of the Divine +Harmony, to be balanced according to the Divine Plan, and not by human +creed or doctrine. + +Says Albert Pike: "Masonry inculcates its old doctrine . . , that God is +One; that His Thought, uttered in His Word, created the Universe, and +preserves it by those Eternal Laws which are the expression of that +thought; that the Soul of Man, breathed into him by God, is immortal as +his thoughts are; that he is free to do evil or to choose good, +responsible for his acts and punishable for his sins; that all evil and +wrong and suffering are but temporary, the discords of one great +Harmony, and that in His goo d time they will lead by infinite +modulations to the great, harmonic, final chord and cadence of Truth, +Love, Peace and Happiness, that will ring forever and ever under the +arches of heaven, among all the stars and worlds, and in all souls of +men and angels." + +This is the Masonic Creed, expressed in these four degrees: + +"Believe in God's infinite benevolence, wisdom, and justice; + +"Hope for the final triumph of good over evil, and for perfect harmony, +as the final result of all the concords and discords of the Universe; +and + +"Be charitable, as God is, toward the unfaith, the errors, the follies +and the faults of men; for all make one great brotherhood." + +And, by the revealing light of initiation, learn, know and live. + + diff --git a/religious documents/myth1.txt b/religious documents/myth1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d116e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/myth1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1126 @@ +[The following material is published by Way of Life Literature and is +copyrighted by David W. Cloud, 1986. All rights are reserved. Permission is +given for duplication for personal use, but not for resale. The following +is available in booklet format from Way of Life Literature, Bible Baptist +Church, 1219 N. Harns Road, Oak Harbor, Washington 98277. Phone (206) 675- +8311. This article is number one in a set of five booklets.] + +MYTHS ABOUT THE KING JAMES BIBLE +By David Cloud + +Copyright 1986 by David W. Cloud. All rights reserved. + +In the summer of 1985 Dr. Tom Hale, a medical doctor working in Nepal, +visited our home in Kathmandu and began a discussion about Bible versions. +He was involved with a Nepali Bible translation and wanted to know what I +could share with him about the texts and versions. We had an interesting +time going through some of the reasons why the new versions differ from the +old Protestant ones, and when he returned to his hospital in central Nepal, +we carried on our conversation via correspondence. I also gave him some +books on the subject, including, if I remember correctly, Edward F. Hills's +Defending the King James Bible, and D.O. Fuller's Which +Bible? On July 28, Dr. Hale wrote the following: + +"Thank you very much for your long and thoughtful letter to me about +the Greek texts. I greatly appreciate the time you took to answer me, and I +have found what you have written to be most informative, and indeed, +worrisome. I hadn't realized that the battleground, as it were, is in the +area of the Greek texts." + +I was amazed at this. The man is a student of the Scriptures and of Bible +theology and has sat under the ministry of key evangelical leaders, yet he +had never heard that the major differences between the new versions and the +KJV results from the different Greek texts upon which they are founded. + +As time passed it became evident that Dr. Hale had rejected the Received +Text in favor of the modern critical text. A chief factor in this bad +decision was the counsel he received from Dr. James M. Boice, pastor of the +Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, and head of the International +Council on Biblical Inerrancy. Hale wrote to Boice to seek his opinion on +Bible versions, and Hale sent me a copy of Boice's letter when he closed +our conversations on the subject. The following statements from this +evangelical leader reveal how multitudes of Christians have been led to +reject the Bible of their forefathers: + +"There are some in this country and elsewhere who are very zealous for the +textus receptus, prepared by the humanistic scholar, Erasmus, and used as +the basis for the King James translation. This has led some, quite unwisely +in my judgment, to defend the King James Version as the only true and +faithful English text. + +"Let me say that the concerns of some of these people are undoubtedly good. +They are zealous for the Word of God and very much concerned lest liberal +or any other scholarship enter in to pervert it. But unfortunately, the +basis on which they are operating is wrong, and I have always tried to do +what I could in a gentle way to lead them to appreciate good, current +evangelical scholarship where the Greek text and the translations are +concerned. ... + +"The situation is somewhat complex, and many people do not understand it as +a result of that complexity. ... + +"What this boils down to is that, although there are large numbers of +manuscripts that support the textus receptus, these do not have a weight +proportionate to their numbers. In fact, if one or two very old manuscripts +disagree with a reading common to this very large number of European +manuscripts, the one or two early manuscripts should perhaps be preferred. +This is what the scholarly editions of the Greek text do. They attempt to +apply sound principles of judgment to determine the oldest and best +readings which, however, as I have pointed out, are not necessarily the +readings of the majority of the manuscripts. + +"Now let me say a word about the textus receptus. Sometimes people who +object to modern English versions of the Bible do so on the basis that one +or more of the translators is less than evangelical, perhaps even liberal +in theology. They defend the King James on that basis, because all of those +translators were godly men. However, in doing that, they overlook the fact +that Erasmus, who produced the Greek text on which the King James Bible is +based, was actually a humanist. He was not supportive of the reformation +and took issue with Luther in his book on the Freedom of the Will. This is +not to say that Erasmus was not a good scholar. He was. He was perhaps the +best scholar of his day; but he was a humanist, and if bias is supposed to +enter in on that basis, it would presumably have entered into his text and +thus have contaminated the KJV. Moreover, Erasmus did not have very many +texts to work with. ... He was a great scholar; his Greek comes quite close +to what was originally written. However, people who defend the textus +receptus ardently should know these facts. It is not a Divinely given and +specially preserved text of the New Testament. + +"Let me say personally that the English text that I work from most often is +the New International Version. It is not perfect, but it is a very good +text and may well win a place in the contemporary church similar to the +place held by the King James Version for so long. ... + +"Of course, all these matters are spelled out in the various textbooks +dealing with textual criticism. I am particularly appreciative of the works +of Bruce Metzger, the best textual scholar I know. But you can find those +books yourself. What you were asking for was my own understanding of the +situation and problem as an evangelical scholar committed to inerrancy and +biblical exposition" (Letter from James M. Boice, Tenth Presbyterian +Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Dr. Thomas Hale, United Mission to +Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal, September 13, 1985). + +I have quoted this lengthy letter because it presents such a typical +defense of the modern versions. Though Boice's reasoning sounds plausible, +when examined carefully, a great many of his assumptions must be called +"myths." The Random House Webster's College Dictionary defines myth as "a +belief or set of beliefs, often unproven or false, that have accrued around +a person, phenomenon, or institution." That is exactly what we find in +modern textual criticism. + +I identify the following myths in Boice's letter: (1) Erasmus is a +"humanist." (2) Erasmus and the Reformation editors had extremely limited +access to manuscript witness. (3) True scholars reject the Received Text +and the KJV. (4) The subject of Bible versions and texts is too complex for +the average person to comprehend. (5) The readings of the Sinaiticus and +Vaticanus (which Boice calls "one or two early manuscripts") are to be +preferred over the majority of manuscripts. (6) The doctrine of Bible +preservation does not guarantee a perfect Bible. Boice thinks the Received +Text used during the past 450 years was corrupted, and he admits that there +is no perfect text or version today. His concept of preservation is very +weak. He tells Hale about the supposed weakness and errors of Bible editors +of old, but he does not remind Hale that God is the One who has promised to +keep His Word. (7) Modernists can be trusted in their testimony regarding +Bible texts and versions. James Boice pointed Dr. Hale to the writings of +Bruce Metzger, a modernist who works for the radical National Council of +Churches in America. Metzger is the head of the continuing committee for +the perverted Revised Standard Version, and thinks the Old Testament is +filled with myths and errors. I have documented Metzger's heresies in +Unholy Hands on God's Holy Book: A Report on the United Bible Societies, +available from Way of Life Literature. + +In this series of booklets we will deal with most of the myths which Boice +delineated. + +In the late 1800s, after taking a long, hard look at the theories of Drs. +Westcott and Hort, the +brilliant biblical scholar John Burgon referred to these myths. Most of the +significant differences between modern versions and the Authorized Version +are the result of Westcott and Hort's textual theories. Burgon's scholarly +evaluation as described by Philip Mauro, one of the foremost patent lawyers +of the United States of the last century, is an appropriate way to begin +these studies: + +Dean Burgon is not amiss when he characterizes the whole theory as "mere +moonshine." Indeed, it seems to us to be either a case of solemn trifling +with a matter of supreme importance or a deliberate attempt to lead astray +the English-speaking nations, and through them the whole world, and that +without the support of a scintilla of real proof, but rather in the face of +all the pertinent facts. As Dean Burgon, in his exhaustive analysis of Dr. +Hort's theory, says: + +"`Bold assertions abound (as usual with this respected writer) but proof, +he never attempts any. Not a particle of "evidence" is adduced.' And again: + +"`But we demur to this weak imagination (which only by courtesy can be +called a "theory") on every ground, and are constrained to remonstrate with +our would-be guides at every step. They assume everything. They prove +nothing. And the facts of the case lend them no favor at all.' + +"Truly, that with which we are here dealing is not a theory, but a dream; a +thing composed entirely of gratuitous assumptions, "destitute not only of +proof, but even of probability" (Philip Mauro, "Which Version," True or +False, p. 114). + +"Moonshine." + +"Not a particle of evidence is adduced." + +"They assume everything; they prove nothing." + +"Not a theory, but a dream." + +"A thing composed entirely of gratuitous assumptions." + +"Destitute not only of proof, but even of probability." + +Burgon was talking about myths surrounding the Received Text and the King +James Bible. + +It is our conviction that this subject abounds with myths, myths which are +promulgated at most Bible institutions and held commonly among Christians. + +MY TESTIMONY + +I was converted through the witness of the King James Bible the summer of +1973, and the overwhelming desire of my life as a new Christian was to +learn the blessed Word of God. I had been deceived for many years, and I +wanted never again to be in that condition. The Lord Jesus Christ had given +me some promises. In John 7:17 He said, "If any man will do his will, +he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of +myself." The Lord Jesus said if a man sets his heart to do the will of +God, He will show that man sound doctrine. That man will not be deceived by +error. Further, in John 8:31-32 Christ said, "If ye continue in my +word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the +truth shall make you free." Again, this is a promise for the man who +determines to continue in the Word of God, to read it, study it, memorize +it, meditate in it, love and obey it. + +Buoyed by these blessed promises, I have given myself for twenty years to +serious study of the Word of God and to attempt to do the will of Christ. +For the first several years of my Christian life I probably spent an +average of eight hours a day studying the Bible. I have tried always to be +willing to do His will, and, knowing the deceitfulness and wickedness of my +own heart, often I have cried out to the Lord that if unknowingly I am +unwilling to do His will, He would make me willing! It has cost friends; it +has cost habits which I loved; it has cost music which I loved; it has cost +going to one of the parts of the world where I least wanted to go and +enduring some very hard and fearful circumstances. It cost becoming perhaps +the most unpopular preacher in an entire country as the national fellowship +there defamed me and tried to have me evicted because of my stand upon +Bible truth. If I had simply kept quiet about some unpopular doctrinal +matters, the door was before me to become a popular conference and church +speaker in that land. Continuing in the Word of God always costs something, +but in my stumbling, imperfect manner I have desired to do the will of God +whatever it might be. + +It was not long after my conversion, though, that I was forced to begin +considering the problem of the new versions. + +Thinking the new translations merely updated the sometimes antiquated +language of the KJV, I went to a bookstore and asked for "a Bible that +is easier to read." Though the lady behind the counter recommended that +I stay with the KJV, something unusual for a commercial Christian bookstore +today, she sold me a Today's English Version. I also obtained an +Amplified Bible. As I studied these, though, neither seemed to be +the uncorrupted Word of God, so I stayed with the old Authorized Bible. + +The first church I joined helped me a great deal, but the pastor believed +the New American Standard Bible in many places contained readings preferred +to the KJV. + +At that church I saw that some of the folk had The New Analytical +Bible, and I purchased one of these study Bibles as well. The cross +references, dictionary, and many of the helps were excellent, and I enjoyed +using this Bible except for one serious matter. Scattered throughout the +King James text were what the title page of the The New Analytical +Bible claimed to be "the more correct renderings of the American +Standard Version (1901)." Thereafter, as I studied the Bible I had to +consider the changes and omissions brought into the text by these NASV +readings. Were they to be preferred over the KJV readings? Were they, +indeed, "more correct"? + +One year after I was saved I attended Bible school at Tennessee Temple in +Chattanooga, Tennessee, from which institution I graduated with highest +honors in 1977. While there I took a course in Greek, and we studied from +the United Bible Societies' Third Edition Greek New Testament. I was not +told this Greek text was superior to the Received Text underlying the KJV, +but this was assumed throughout the course. Why would the teacher use this +particular Greek text if it is inferior? The Received Text was available +from the Trinitarian Bible Society. The fact is that our teacher took the +popular but inconsistent position that both the KJV and the NASV are +excellent versions, and that, though the differences between the texts and +versions make for interesting research, they are not truly significant. + +Another of my teachers at Tennessee Temple used the NASV in the classroom. +The point is that I had to consider the matter of texts and versions head +on. I had to make a choice. What Bible would I base my Christian life and +ministry upon? I found that I was no longer absolutely certain that every +word of my Bible was perfect. I found myself wondering if this passage and +that passage might be a transcriber's gloss. + +Not long after graduation from Bible school my wife and I began missionary +deputation, and in early February 1979, we left the States to travel to the +land of Nepal. The next ten years we lived and served Christ in Asia. One +of the projects we desired to accomplish in Nepal was to help produce a +concordance in the Nepali language. We knew that one did not exist, but as +we discussed this with Christian leaders in that land, we learned that the +existing Nepali Bible needed to be revised or retranslated before a +concordance could be produced. + +As we looked more closely at the Nepali Bible we understood why this was +the consensus of opinion. The New Testament portion of the standard Nepali +Bible at that time was based upon the English Revised Version of 1881. The +Old Testament was based upon two or three English versions, including the +Revised Standard Version and the New English Bible. Not only were there +textual problems with this Bible, but it seemed that portions of it had not +been carefully translated. There were all sorts of errors. + +It was during my research into this Bible and discussions with the chairman +of the Nepal Bible Society that I was forced to look seriously into the +matter of texts and versions. Did the differences matter? If so, which text +is the correct one? It was in those days during my first two years in Nepal +that I came to a solid position regarding the superiority of the Received +Text and of the English Authorized Version which is founded upon it. + +It was in those days that I began to understand about the myths surrounding +this issues. + +I certainly don't know all of the answers to the questions which surround +the issues of Bible inspiration, transmission, and translation, but I have +learned some quite shocking FACTS about the Bible version issue which were +hidden to me for many years. I have learned that many of the commonly +promoted ideas about Bible versions are but "moonshine." I call +them myths. Don't ask me the motives of those evangelical and fundamental +leaders who promote these myths. I don't know their motives, and surely +they vary from individual to individual. I only know this: Many Bible- +believing Christian leaders are promoting ideas about our Holy Book what +can only rightly be called myths. + +I trust you will stay with me as we consider six of the popular myths about +the King James Bible: Myth one, Erasmus was a humanist. Myth two, the +Reformation editors lacked sufficient manuscript evidence. Myth three, +there are no doctrinal differences between the texts and versions. Myth +four, while inspiration was perfect, preservation was general. Myth five, +true scholars today reject the Textus Receptus. Myth six, the issues are +too complex for the average Christian to understand. + +MYTH NUMBER ONE: +ERASMUS WAS A HUMANIST + +Invariably, if texts and versions are discussed, the name of Erasmus will +enter into the conversation. And so, too, will the idea that "Erasmus was a +humanist." + +A popular evangelical leader and one time head of the International Council +on Biblical Inerrancy, James Boice, writes of those who still persist in +supporting the ancient and God-honored Textus Receptus. He seems to think +one of the main problems with those who hold such old fashioned views today +is their ignorance of the supposed fact that Erasmus was a humanist. Let us +hear this, though, in his own words: + +"However, in doing that [defending the Textus Receptus], they overlook the +fact that Erasmus, who produced the Greek text on which the King James +Bible is based, was actually a humanist" (Letter to Tom Hale, September 13, +1985). + +It's amazing how often this charge is repeated by those who desire to +belittle the text which literally covered the inhabited earth during the +last 450 years. Stewart Custer, professor at the well-known fundamentalist +university, Bob Jones, in The Truth About the King James Version +Controversy, offers the same view of Erasmus: + +"The Textus Receptus began with an edition of the Greek New Testament put +together by a Roman Catholic humanist, Desiderius Erasmus, in A.D. 1516" +(page 10). + +As is usually the case, this view of Erasmus is given without proof. It +would appear that these matters in regard to Erasmus are settled historical +facts, but in reality there is evidence that Erasmus was more than merely a +"Roman Catholic humanist." + +As in most historical matters, there are areas of uncertainty; the evidence +is imperfect and really insufficient; the time factor which divides us from +the man is vast--450 years; the records which do exist can be interpreted +from more than one angle, and are typically slated according to the bias of +the historian or reviewer. + +Also, I want to make it clear that by no means am I ready to assign any +degree of perfection to Erasmus, either spiritual or intellectual. I am not +trying to excuse the man's problems. There were serious imperfections in +the man by fundamental Christian standards--his refusal to practice +biblical separation from the error he so clearly saw; his overly zealous +affection for pagan scholarship; his refusal (like that of all the +Protestants) to discard in toto all of Rome's errors, including the very +concept of sacramentalism, papacy, and the priesthood, etc. + +Having said this, though, the evidence reveals that to label Erasmus merely +as a Roman Catholic humanist and a careless, blundering textual editor is +not the true picture. + +I have made the effort to look into Erasmus's life and theology to acquaint +myself sufficiently, I believe, for the task at hand. With considerable +difficulty (since these studies were first written in South Asia without +the benefit of proper theological library) I obtained two biographies of +Erasmus's life--Erasmus of Christendom by Roland H. Bainton, and more +importantly, the out-of-print classic Life and Letters of Erasmus by J.A. +Froude, 1894. I have also used many other church historians and resources, +and in light of the records available, I don't understand why evangelical +men persist in casting Erasmus in such a totally negative spiritual light. +These often are the same New-evangelicals who see nothing wrong with yoking +together with modernists and Romanists today. One obvious motive for their +attitude toward Erasmus would be an attempt to disparage his editorial work +in reference to the Textus Receptus. + +The studies I have made into the life and beliefs of Erasmus have been +edifying and challenging. Without doubt, he held the treasure of his faith +in Christ in a clay vessel, but the record holds evidence that the man +lived and died with Christ, that he was born of the Spirit. + +GOD CAN USE LESS THAN PERFECT MEN + +The finality of such a judgment, obviously, is beyond the ability of any +man to make, and it is not necessary to believe that Erasmus was a saved or +spiritual man to believe that God used him as a chosen vessel in the matter +of preserving the Word of God. Balaam, Samson, and Solomon were greatly +used of God in spite of the fact that one of them was not even a part of +the people of God, and the other two were disobedient. Two of these men +were used in the process of the giving of inspired Scripture to the world. +They were channels of divine revelation. + +We could use the example here of another man who was used of God and even +called the servant of God, but who was not described in Scripture as a +saved man--Cyrus. See Isaiah 44:28--45:4. Cyrus was God's chosen instrument +for the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and in spite of the fact that he was a +heathen king, God said of him in this passage, "He is my shepherd, and +shall perform all my pleasure ... Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to +Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden ... I will go before thee ... I will +give thee ..." Note that Isaiah 45:4 makes it plain that Cyrus was not +saved, for God said he would do all of this through Cyrus "though thou hast +not known me." + +I am saying that even if it were true that Erasmus was not a saved man, and +even if there are many things about Erasmus which were not right before +God, this does not exempt him from having been a channel for divine +preservation of Holy Scripture. I personally believe, though, that the +record shows Erasmus was not a Cyrus or a Balaam. + +Erasmus was within the Catholic Church, at least much of his life. But this +does not mean Erasmus was blinded by Catholic heresies, certainly not to +the extent that opponents of the Received Text would have us believe. And +it is absolutely clear that Erasmus was not a humanist as it is defined in +our day. A humanist by modern terms is one who has placed man in God's +position and contends that man is the master of his own destiny. Today's +humanists are atheistic evolutionists, and Erasmus absolutely does not fit +into this category. If men such as those quoted above do not mean to say +that Erasmus is a humanist after the modern definition, why don't they say +so plainly? Certainly they know what most people think of today when they +read that someone is a humanist. + +The following facts will help balance the picture and I pray they will +receive a wide hearing: + +ERASMUS'S EARLY YEARS PROVIDED A BIBLE FOUNDATION + +"In his youth, Erasmus was brought up among the Brethren of the Common Life +who held the Bible in great reverence and awe ... Erasmus through life +always had a similar reverence and respect for God's Word." We should note that Lion's History is biased against the Textus +Receptus, yet even this volume admits that Erasmus was brought up among +Bible-believing Christians and carried a reverence toward the Word of God +throughout his life. + +We should add that such a reverence for the Scriptures was certainly not +the common experience among Roman Catholics in those dark days just before +and after the breaking out of the Reformation. Nor is it today, either, by +the way! Erasmus's belief and spirit were closer to Scripture than to Rome. + +Consider Erasmus's testimony toward the Bible in his own words: + +"I would have the weakest woman read the Gospels and the Epistles of St. +Paul ... I would have those words translated into all languages, so that +not only Scots and Irishmen, but Turks and Saracens might read them. I long +for the plowboy to sing them to himself as he follows the plow, the weaver +to hum them to the tune of his shuttle, the traveler to beguile with them +the dullness of his journey. ... Other studies we may regret having +undertaken, but happy is the man upon whom death comes when he is engaged +in these. These sacred words give you the very image of Christ speaking, +healing, dying, rising again, and make Him so present, that were He before +your very eyes you would not more truly see Him." + +These, my friend, are not the convictions of the typical dupe of Rome in +the sixteenth century. Note that the phrase about making the plowboy to +sing the Scriptures originated with Erasmus--though it was popularized by +William Tyndale. + +ERASMUS SPOKE OUT PLAINLY AGAINST ROMAN ERRORS + +"Europe was rocked from end to end by his books which exposed the ignorance +of the monks, the superstitions of the priesthood, the bigotry and the +childish and coarse religion of the day. ... The Pope offered to make him a +cardinal. This he steadfastly refused, as he would not compromise his +conscience." + +This matter of Erasmus being offered high positions in the Roman church and +refusing for conscience' sake is confirmed by every source I have +consulted. It is not possible to know for certain his motive in each +instance, but it is a historical fact that Erasmus repeatedly refused +positions which would have made him wealthy and given great worldly +prestige. The record indicates that his primary motive in most instances +was the driving desire to be free to study, to write, to translate the +Scriptures. He often spoke of this as his compulsion in life. + +"Erasmus was of no mind to relinquish his liberty to travel wherever books, +scholars, and printers were to be found." + +"The consummate scholar Erasmus was the star of his age, who, though he +might have lived opulently in France, Germany, or Italy, had chosen to +finish his days among his English friends." + +"`I hear,' he wrote, `that the Christian King will make me a bishop in +Sicily. I am glad he thinks of me, but I would not give up my freedom to +study for the most splendid of bishoprics.'" + +It is a historical fact that Erasmus was strong and public in his +condemnation of Catholic heresies, and "these attacks were made at a time +when they might well have cost him his life. They did, in fact, result in +the Roman Catholic church branding him as an `impious heretic' and the Pope +forbade Catholics to read his works." + +ERASMUS DEMONSTRATED HIS REJECTION OF ROMANISM BY HIS REJECTION OF THE +LATIN VULGATE + +Erasmus's own edition of the Latin New Testament was so opposed to the +official Catholic Vulgate that "many thought Erasmus's Latin translation a +presumptuous attack on the venerated Vulgate. Erasmus had also provided +some annotations justifying his translation, and these annotations included +sharp barbs aimed at the corrupt Catholic clergy." + +Historian Andrew Miller reminds us of the dangerous climate which existed +in that day for anyone who would oppose the Roman Vulgate: + +"Under the gracious, guiding hand of Him who sees the end from the +beginning, Erasmus bent all his great mental powers, and all his laborious +studies, to the preparation of a critical edition of the Greek Testament. +This work appeared at Basel in 1516, one year before the Reformation, +accompanied by a Latin translation, in which he corrected the errors of the +Vulgate. This was daring work in those days. There was a great outcry from +many quarters against this dangerous novelty. "His New Testament was +attacked," says Robertson, `why should the language of the schismatic +Greeks interfere with the sacred and traditional Latin? How could any +improvement be made on the Vulgate translation?' To question the fidelity +of the Vulgate, was a crime of the greatest magnitude in the eyes of the +Roman Catholic church" + +Again, we observe that this is not the work of the typical priest of Rome! + +ERASMUS'S BIBLE COMMENTARY DEALT A SHARP BLOW TO ROME'S PERVERSIONS + +It is crucial to understand the times in which Erasmus labored. His +writings and the publication of his New Testament paved the way for the +Reformation. Erasmus lit the fuse for the Reformation explosion. This is no +mean feat. Though I am a Baptist and do not trace my heritage through the +Protestant Reformation, I do praise God for the multitudes which have been +saved because of the Reformation. I believe God used the Reformation to +break the back of Rome's temporal power to prepare the way for the great +missionary era of the last 400 years. I praise God for the political and +social blessings I enjoy today because of the Reformation. + +We are sorry that Erasmus did not more wholeheartedly join the Reformation +and make an unequivocal departure from the Catholic church. Apparently he +felt that the necessary changes could be made from within the existing +traditional church structures. He was wrong in this, for sure, BUT HE DID +SEE THE ERRORS AND THE PROBLEMS. He did see the wickedness. AND HE DID +SPEAK OUT PLAINLY AND UNHESITATINGLY AGAINST THESE THINGS. It was Erasmus's +boldness to identify Rome's vileness that led others, such as Luther, to +take a stand. + +Nothing more plainly evidences this than his commentary. At this point we +will quote from Froude's Life and Letters of Erasmus: + +"Erasmus had undertaken to give the book to the whole world to read for +itself--the original Greek of the Epistles and Gospel, with a new Latin +translation--to wake up the intelligence, to show that the words had a real +sense, and were not mere sounds like the dronings of a barrel-organ. + +"It was finished at last, text and translation printed, and the living +facts of Christianity, the persons of Christ and the Apostles, their +history, their lives, their teachings were revealed to an astonished world. +For the first time the laity were able to see, side by side, the +Christianity which converted the world, and the Christianity of the Church +with a Borgia pope, cardinal princes, ecclesiastical courts, and a +mythology of lies. The effect was to be a spiritual earthquake. + +"Each gospel, each epistle had its preface; while notes were attached to +special passages to point their force upon the established usages. ... + +"I shall read you some of these notes, and ask you to attend to them. +Erasmus opens with a complaint of the neglect of Scripture, of a priesthood +who thought more of offertory plates than of parchments, and more of gold +than of books; of the degradation of spiritual life, and of the vain +observances and scandalous practices of the orders specially called +religious. ... + +"Matthew 19:12 (on those who make themselves eunuchs)--`Men are threatened +or tempted into vows of celibacy. They can have license to go with harlots, +but they must not marry wives. They may keep concubines and remain priests. +If they take wives they are thrown to the flames. Parents who design their +children for a celibate priesthood should emasculate them in their infancy, +instead of forcing them, reluctant or ignorant, into a furnace of +licentiousness.' + +"Matthew 23 (on the Scribes and Pharisees)--`...what shall we say of those +who destroy the Gospel itself, make laws at their will, tyrannize over the +laity, and measure right and wrong with rules constructed by +themselves? ... prelates of evil, who bring disgrace and discredit on their +worthier brethren?' + +"Matthew 23:27 (on whited sepulchres)--`What would Jerome say could he see +the Virgin's milk exhibited for money ... the miraculous oil; the portions +of the true cross, enough if they were collected to freight a large ship? +Here we have the hood of St. Francis, there Our Lady's petticoat, or St. +Anne's comb, or St. Thomas of Canterbury's shoes ... and all through the +avarice of priests and the hypocrisy of monks playing on the credulity of +the people. Even bishops play their parts in these fantastic shows, and +approve and dwell on them in their rescripts.' + +"Matthew 24:23 (on Lo, here is Christ or there)--`I saw with my own eyes +Pope Julius II, at Bologna, and afterwards at Rome, marching at the head of +a triumphal procession as if he were Pompey or Csar. St. Peter subdued the +world with faith, not with arms or soldiers or military engines.' ... + +"1 Corinthians 14:19 (on unknown tongues)--`They chant nowadays in our +churches in what is an unknown tongue and nothing else, while you will not +hear a sermon once in six months telling people to amend their lives. ... A +set of creatures who ought to be lamenting their sins fancy they can please +God by gurgling in their throats.' + +"1 Timothy 1:6 (on vain disputations)--`Theologians are never tired of +discussing the modes of sin, whether it be a privation in the soul or a +spot on the soul. Why is it not enough simply to hate sin? ... Hundreds of +such questions are debated by distinguished theologians, and the objects of +them are better unknown than known. It is all vanity. ... Over speculations +like these theologians professing to teach Christianity have been +squandering their lives.' + +"1 Timothy 3:2 (on the husband of one wife)--`Other qualifications are laid +down by St. Paul as required for a bishop's office, a long list of them. +But not one at present is held essential, except this one of abstinence +from marriage. Homicide, parricide, incest, piracy, sodomy, sacrilege, +these can be got over, but marriage is fatal. There are priests now in vast +numbers, enormous herds of them, seculars and regulars, and it is notorious +that very few of them are chaste. The great proportion fall into lust and +incest, and open profligacy. It would surely be better if those who cannot +contain should be allowed lawful wives of their own, and so escape this +foul and miserable pollution.' + +"Such are extracts from the reflections upon the doctrine and discipline of +the Catholic Church which were launched upon the world in the notes to the +New Testament by Erasmus, some on the first publication, some added as +edition followed edition. They were not thrown out as satires, or in +controversial tracts of pamphlets. They were deliberate accusations +attached to the sacred text, where the religion which was taught by Christ +and the Apostles and the degenerate superstition which had taken its place +could be contrasted side by side. Nothing was spared; ritual and ceremony, +dogmatic theology, philosophy, and personal character were tried by what +all were compelled verbally to acknowledge to be the standard whose awful +countenance was now practically revealed for the first time for many +centuries. Bishops, seculars, monks were dragged out to judgment, and hung +as on a public gibbet, in the light of the pages of the most sacred of all +books, published with the leave and approbation of the [Pope] himself. + +"Never was volume more passionately devoured. A hundred thousand copies +were soon sold in France alone. The fire spread, as it spread behind +Samson's foxes in the Philistines' corn. The clergy's skins were tender +from long impunity. They shrieked from pulpit and platform, and made Europe +ring with their clamour. ... + +"The words of the Bible have been so long familiar to us that we can hardly +realize what the effect must have been when the Gospel was brought out +fresh and visible before the astonished eyes of mankind" + +I don't know of any humanists today who have written anything like the +words of Erasmus, because humanists today don't believe the Bible. Erasmus +was definitely not a humanist in the modern definition of the term, and it +is wrong for proponents of modern versions to identify him as such. It is +also clear that Erasmus was not your ordinary Roman Catholic, to say the +least. + +ERASMUS'S PROTESTANT SPIRIT IS SEEN IN ROME'S REACTION TO HIS WORK + +We have already noted that Erasmus was branded as a heretic because of the +publication of his Greek New Testament, his correction of the Catholic +Latin Vulgate, and his translation of the Bible into Latin. The Pope forbad +the people to read his works. The storm which swept around the man who +produced the first printed Greek New Testament was terrific. + +"Traditional Catholicism uttered a cry from the depths of its noisome pools +(to use Erasmus's figure). Franciscans and Dominicans, priests and bishops, +not daring to attack the educated and well-born, went among the ignorant +populace, and endeavoured by their tales and clamours to stir up +susceptible women and credulous men. `Here are horrible heresies,' they +exclaimed, `here are frightful antichrists! If this book be tolerated it +will be the death of the papacy!' `We must drive this man from the +university,' said one. `We must turn him out of the church,' added another. +`The public places re-echoed with their howlings,' said Erasmus. The +firebrands tossed by their furious hands were raising fires in every +quarter; and the flames kindled in a few obscure convents threatened to +spread over the whole country. ... + +"The priests saw the danger, and by a skillful maneuver, instead of finding +fault with the Greek Testament, attacked the translation and the +translator. `He has corrected the Vulgate,' they said, `and puts himself in +the place of Saint Jerome. He sets aside a work authorized by the consent +of ages and inspired by the Holy Ghost. What audacity!' and then, turning +over the pages, they pointed out the most odious passages: `Look here! This +book calls upon men to repent, instead of requiring them, as the Vulgate +does, to do penance!' (Matt. 9:17). The priests thundered against him from +their pulpits: `This man has committed the unpardonable sin,' they +asserted, `for he maintains that there is nothing in common between the +Holy Ghost and the monks--that they are logs rather than men!' ... `He's a +heretic, an heresiarch, a forger! He's a goose. ... He's a very +antichrist!'" + +Edward Lee, a staunch Papist, organized a league of Englishmen to oppose +Erasmus. D'Aubigne writes of the wide influence of this league: "In every +place of public resort, at fairs and markets, at the dinner-table and in +the council-chamber, in shops, and taverns, and houses of ill-fame, in +churches and in the universities, in cottages and in palaces the league +blattered against Erasmus and the Greek Testament. Carmelites, Dominicans, +and Sophists, invoked heaven and conjured hell." + +Historian Andrew Miller adds this testimony regarding the hatred expressed +by traditional Romanists toward Erasmus: "This was daring work in those +days. There was a great outcry from many quarters against this dangerous +novelty. ... To question the fidelity of the Vulgate was a crime of the +greatest magnitude in the eyes of the Roman Catholic church." + +ERASMUS REVEALED HIS LOVE FOR TRUTH IN HIS ATTITUDE TOWARD THE BIBLE + +Historian J.H. Merle D'Aubigne tells us what Erasmus had in mind with his +edition of the Greek New Testament: + +"When Erasmus published this work, at the dawn, so to say, of modern times, +he did not see all its scope. Had he foreseen it, he would perhaps have +recoiled in alarm. He saw indeed that there was a great work to be done, +but he believed that all good men would unite to do it with common accord. +`A spiritual temple must be raised in desolated Christendom,' said he. `The +mighty of this world will contribute towards it their marble, their ivory, +and their gold; I who am poor and humble offer the foundation stone,' and +he laid down before the world his edition of the Greek Testament. + +"Then glancing disdainfully at the traditions of men, he said: "It is not +from human reservoirs, fetid with stagnant waters, that we should draw the +doctrine of salvation; but from the pure and abundant streams that flow +from the heart of God." + +"And when some of his suspicious friends spoke to him of the difficulties +of the times, he replied: `If the ship of the church is to be saved from +being swallowed up by the tempest, there is only one anchor that can save +it: it is the heavenly word, which, issuing from the bosom of the Father, +lives, speaks, and works still in the gospel.' + +"These noble sentiments served as an introduction to those blessed pages +which were to reform England." + +These, my friends, are not the sentiments of a mere "Roman Catholic +humanist." + +THE TERM "HUMANIST" HAS CHANGED MEANINGS SINCE THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY + +The term "humanist" meant something entirely different in the sixteenth +century than it means today. In December 1984 I wrote to Andrew Brown, at +that time the Editorial Secretary of the Trinitarian Bible Society, and +asked about the charge of Erasmus being a humanist. Brown's reply was most +enlightening: + +"Erasmus was a thoroughgoing `Christian humanist' from his youth to his +death. The use of the word `humanist' in the Renaissance and Reformation +period does not in any way share the atheistic connotations which that word +now has in popular usage. A `humanist' in that period was simply someone +who was interested in classical literature, culture and education, as a +means of attaining a higher standard of civilised life. Stephanus, Calvin +and Beza were all humanists in this sense, and it is these `humanist' +ideals which have largely shaped Western culture in the succeeding +centuries, blended with the teachings of the Christian Gospel. + +"Erasmus was both a Catholic and a Reformer at the same time. He criticised +many of the worst abuses and corruptions of the Catholic church, but he +thought that the church should be reformed from within and that it was +wrong to separate from it. He was praised and criticised by Protestants and +Catholics alike. Some of his writings are highly spiritual, even if there +are occasional traces of unsound doctrine. His Enchiridon (Manual of a +Christian Soldier) was so edifying that it was translated into English by +William Tyndale, the translator of the first printed English New Testament. +I am sending separately an extract from one of his last works, the +`Treatise on Preparation for Death,' which I think will satisfy you +concerning his spiritual outlook. A good biography of Erasmus is R. +Bainton's Erasmus of Christendom." + +ERASMUS'S DOCTRINAL ORTHODOXY IS SEEN IN HIS WRITINGS + +Erasmus's own writings illustrate his doctrinal soundness and repulsion at +Roman heresies. This was evidenced in his commentary to the Bible, but I +want to quote from some of his other writings. We will begin with a quote +from the last part of the work mentioned by Brown, Erasmus's Manual of the +Christian Soldier. It is obvious from this that Erasmus did not follow +Roman thought, but was sound at least regarding the major teachings of the +Gospel. And it is certain that Erasmus was no humanist in any modern sense. +As to the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God, Erasmus was orthodox. + +Bainton informs us that Manual was "a resolute call to action in the +Christian warfare" (p. 66). "As with Kempis and the Brethren [with whom +Erasmus spent his early years], the stress is laid upon the exemplification +of the gentler virtues: humility, meekness, self-effacement, tenderness, +compassion, yielding rather than asserting one's due, forgiveness, love of +enemies, overcoming evil with good. ... The color of monastic habits, the +wearing of girdles and sandals are all inconsequential ... The sacraments, +we learn, are without value apart from the spirit." + +Let us hear it in Erasmus's own words. Following are quotes from "Treatise +on Preparation for Death": + +"Would you please Peter and Paul? Then emulate the faith of the one and the +charity of the other. Thereby you will do better than if you make ten +pilgrimages to Rome ... You honor a statue of Christ in wood or stone and +adorned with colors. You would do better to honor the image of his mind +which through the Holy Spirit is expressed in the gospels. Are you excited +over the seamless robe and the napkin of Christ and yet doze over the +oracles of his law? Far better that you should believe than that you should +treasure at home a piece of the wood of the cross. Otherwise you are no +better than Judas, who with his lips touched the divine mouth. The physical +presence of Christ is useless for salvation ... In a word, let all your +possessions, all your concern, all your care be directed toward the +imitation of Christ, who was not born for himself, lived not to himself, +died not to himself, but for our sakes ... + +"We are assured of victory over death, victory over the flesh, victory over +the world and Satan. Christ promises us remission of sins, fruits in this +life a hundredfold, and thereafter life eternal. And for what reason? For +the sake of our merit? No indeed, but through the grace of faith which is +in Christ Jesus. We are the more secure because he is first our doctor. He +first overcame the lapse of Adam, nailed our sins to the cross, sealed our +redemption with his blood, which has been confirmed by the testimonies of +the prophets, apostles, martyrs, and virgins and by the universal Church of +the saints. He added the seal of the Spirit lest we should waver in our +confidence ... What could we little worms do of ourselves? Christ is our +justification. Christ is our victory. Christ is our hope and security. +"Unto us a child is born." Unto US, born for us, given for us. He it is who +teaches us, cures our diseases, casts out demons, for us suffers hunger and +thirst, is afflicted, endures the agonies of death, sweats blood, for us is +conquered, wounded, dead and resurrected, and sits at the right hand of God +the Father ... + +"As we approach death the sacraments are not to be despised, but of greater +importance is faith and charity without which all else is vain. I believe +there are many not absolved by the priest, not having taken the Eucharist, +not having been anointed, not having received Christian burial who rest in +peace, while many who have had all the rites of the Church and have been +buried next to the altar have gone to hell. There is no point in putting on +a cowl. Better to resolve to live a better life if you get well. I know a +noble woman who gave a large sum to a priest to have masses said for her +soul at Rome. Her money might better have been spent to obligate the priest +never to go to Rome. ... + +"Christ said, "Come unto me all ye that labour." Take refuge then in his +cave in the rocks. Flee to his wounds and you will be safe. The way to +enter paradise is the way of the penitent thief. Say simply, `Thy will be +done. The world to me is crucified and I to the world.'" + +To the end of his life Erasmus fought with his pen against the excesses of +Rome. From one of his earlier writings we have this typical sampling: + +"Obedience is so taught as to hide that there is any obedience due to God. +Kings are to obey the Pope. Priests are to obey their bishops. Monks are to +obey their abbots. Oaths are exacted, that want of submission may be +punished as perjury. It may happen, it often does happen, that an abbot is +a fool or a drunkard. He issues an order to the brotherhood in the name of +holy obedience. And what will such order be? An order to observe chastity? +An order to be sober? An order to tell no lies? Not one of these things. It +will be that a brother is not to learn Greek; he is not to seek to instruct +himself. He may be a sot. He may go with prostitutes. He may be full of +hatred and malice. He may never look inside the Scriptures. No matter. He +has not broken any oath. He is an excellent member of the community. While +if he disobeys such a command as this from an insolent superior there is +stake or dungeon for him instantly." + +Of the work of Erasmus, the biographer Froude says: + +"A few words will not be out of place about the work which Erasmus was +himself busy over, and of which the Adagia [from which the paragraph above +was quoted] had been but a preliminary specimen. If we are to believe the +account of his intellectual history which he began in his later writings, +the Christian religion [speaking of the Christian faith of the New +Testament] appeared to him to have been superseded by a system which +differed only in name from the paganism of the old world. The saints had +taken the place of the gods. Their biographies were full of lies and as +childish and absurd as the old theogonies. The Gospels were out of sight. +Instead of praying to Christ, the faithful were taught to pray to miracle- +working images and relics. The Virgin, multiplied into a thousand +personalities--our Lady of Loretto, our Lady of Saragossa, our Lady of +Walsingham, and as many more as there were shrines devoted to her--was at +once Queen of Heaven and a local goddess. Pious pilgrimages and indulgences +had taken the place of moral duty. The service of God was the repeating of +masses by priests, who sold them for so much a dozen. In the exuberance of +their power the clergy seemed to exult in showing contempt of God and man +by the licentiousness of their lives and the insolence of their dominion. +They ruled with their self-made laws over soul and body. + +"Their pope might be an Alexander VI; their cardinals were princes, with +revenues piled up out of accumulated benefices; their bishops were +magnificent nobles; and one and all, from his Holiness at Rome to the +lowest acolyte, were amenable to no justice save that of their own courts. +This extraordinary system rested on the belief in the supernatural powers +which they pretended to have received in the laying on of hands. As +successors of the Apostles they held the keys of heaven and hell; their +excommunications were registered by the Almighty; their absolutions could +open the gates of Paradise. The spiritual food provided in school or parish +church was some preposterous legend or childish superstition, varied with +the unintelligible speculations of scholastic theology. + +"An army of friars, released from residence by dispensation, were spread +over Europe, taking the churches out of the hands of the secular priests, +teaching what they pleased, and watching through the confessional the +secret thoughts of man and woman. These friars thrust themselves into +private families, working on the weakness of wife or daughter, dreaded and +detested by husbands and fathers; and Erasmus, as well as the loudest of +the Protestant reformers, declared that they abused the women's confidence +for the vilest purposes. Complaint was useless. Resistance was heresy, and +a charge of heresy, unless a friendly hand interposed, meant submission or +death. Unhappy men, unconscious of offence, were visited by a bolt out of +the blue in the shape of a summons before a Church court, where their +accusers were their judges." + +Upon Erasmus's first visit to Italy he witnessed a papal procession. +Quoting History of the Popes by Ludwig Pastor and Lugduni Batavorum, the +Leiden edition of the works of Erasmus, edited by Leclerc, 1703, Bainton +gives this interesting description of the scene and Erasmus's response: + +"Erasmus and his party, hearing that the city was actually in the +possession of the pope, continued their journey and arrived in time to +witness the papal triumph. The procession was led by horsemen and then +infantry in glistening armour, followed by the papal standard bearers and +the pope's ten white palfreys with golden bridles, then the foreign envoys, +next forty of the clergy with lighted candles, the cardinals preceding the +pope in a palaquin and clad in purple cape shot through with threads of +gold and on his head a mitre sparkling with pearls and jewels. Patriarchs +followed, archbishops and bishops, ecclesiastics, generals of the monastic +orders, and at the end the papal guard. Erasmus viewed the spectacle magno +cum gemitu, "with a mighty groan." + +"`Was Pope Julius the successor of Jesus Christ,' he asked, `or of Julius +Caesar?' + +"A `mighty groan' is an apt description of Erasmus's reaction to Rome's +vile errors throughout his life!" + +So much more, of course, could be given from Erasmus's writings to +illustrate the man's Bible faith and love for Christ, but we think one more +quote will suffice to prove our thesis. The following was composed by +Erasmus for the boys at a school established by his Bible-believing friend +John Colet. Note Erasmus's love for Christ and his pure faith in the true +Christ of the Bible--truly God, truly man, only Savior. And note, as well, +that there is no hint here of that false Catholic mysticism which attempts +to pass itself off as devotion to Christ. Give an ear to Erasmus's +exhortation to these sixteenth century boys: + +"Who in all history is like to Jesus, ineffably, inconceivably God of God, +born before all times, eternal and fully equal to his eternal and loftiest +parent? Does not his human birth easily overshadow that of all kings? By +the will of the Father and the breath of the Spirit he was born of a +Virgin, a man in time and still God, unsullied by our corruption. Who is +richer than he who gives all things and is not diminished? Who more +illustrious as the splendor of the glory of the Father, enlightening every +man that comes into the world? Who more powerful than he to whom the Father +has given power in heaven and on earth? Who more mighty by whose nod the +universe was established? at whose nod the sea is calm, species changed, +diseases flee, armed men fall on their faces, devils are expelled, rocks +rended, the dead raised, sinners repent, and all things are made new? Who +is more august whom angels adore and before whom devils tremble? Who more +invincible than he who has conquered death and cast down Satan from heaven? +Who more triumphant than he who has harrowed hell and brought souls to +heaven where he sits at the right hand of God the Father? Who is more wise +than he who founded and governs the universe in harmony? Whose authority is +greater than his of whom the Father said, "This is my beloved Son. Hear ye +him"? Who is more to be feared than he who can cast body and soul into +hell? Who more fair than he whom to behold is perfect joy? Who is more +ancient than he who has no beginning and will have no end? But perhaps boys +may better think of him as a boy, lying in swaddling clothes in a manger, +while angels sang, shepherds adored, the animals knew him, the star stood +over where he lay, Herod trembled, Simeon embraced, Anna prophesied. O +humble simplicity! O sublime humility! How can thoughts conceive or words +suffice to express his greatness? Better to adore than to seek to explain. + +"What then shall we do, if John the Baptist said he was unworthy to unloose +the latchet of his shoes? Strive, my dear boys, to sit at the feet of Jesus +the teacher." + +In these writings we see the heart and soul of a Protestant, not a true +Roman Catholic; of a Bible-believing Christian, not a humanist. Those +familiar with the writings and beliefs of the Protestant leaders such as +Luther and Calvin will understand that all of these men continued to be +somewhat intermingled in their thinking with Catholic theology in many +areas. This is why the denominations they established were more akin in +many ways to the one at Rome than to the one of the first century in +Jerusalem. Luther (and Lutheranism after him), for example, retained infant +baptism, believed in a real presence in the `Eucharist' (though not exactly +in the Roman sense), established formal ties between church and state, +retained much of the ritualism of Romanism, maintained the Catholic concept +of "clergy" and "laity," and followed a type of church polity closer to +Rome's than to the simple New Testament pattern of the pure independence of +the local assembly. + +It is also true that many of the Protestant leaders did not, in the +beginning, desire to depart from Catholicism, but only to purify it from +within. Thus there were many in those days who, like Erasmus, were within +the Catholic church and could very definitely be called Catholic, but were +at the same time Protestant--protesters against Rome's errors--in belief +and heart. We must remember that was the very beginning of the sixteenth +century, the mere dawn of the Reformation. + +I am saying that the historical facts and the writings of Erasmus reveal +that he was a Bible believer and a reformer even though he long remained +within the confines of Catholicism. At the very worse, he had rejected the +chief errors of Romanism. In fact, as we shall see later in this study, +Westcott and Hort, leaders in the revision work of the late 1800s in +England, were much closer in their affection toward Rome and sacramentalism +than was Erasmus of Rotterdam! + +One illustration, for now, will suffice to demonstrate this. While Erasmus +fought against Roman sacredotalism (pertaining to the priesthood, +especially as relates to the concept of a priesthood possessing special +divine authority and power) and sacramentalism, Westcott and Hort loved +these things and desired to bring the Church of England closer to Rome: +"Hort writes to Westcott, October 17, 1865, [only five years before they +started the English Revised Version]: `I have been persuaded for many years +that Mary-worship and Jesus-worship have very much in common in their +causes and their results.' And again, in correspondence with Westcott, Hort +said: `But this last error can hardly be expelled till Protestants unlearn +the crazy horror of the idea of priesthood.' Hort writes to Dr. Lightfoot, +October 26, 1867: `But you know I am a staunch sacerdotalist.'" + +Some protest against the use of the above correspondence to demonstrate +Westcott and Hort's beliefs. It is true that some of the letters within +these volumes were written when the men were young, during their formative +years. But the ones I have quoted were written in the last half of the +nineteenth century, when the men were matured in their thinking. In fact, +as already noted, these letters were written just a few years before they +began working on the translation of the English Revised Version. The first +resolution of intent to produce the ERV was published in early 1870 by the +Southern Convocation of the Church of England. Westcott was born in 1825 +and Hort in 1828; therefore, both men were about forty years of age when +they wrote the letters I have quoted. + +ERASMUS DIED AMONG PROTESTANT FRIENDS, POSSIBLY OUTSIDE OF THE CATHOLIC +CHURCH + +We read that "in 1535, he [Erasmus] again returned to Basel and died there +the following year IN THE MIDST OF HIS PROTESTANT FRIENDS, without +relations of any sort, so far as known, with the Roman Catholic Church." + + +It must also be mentioned that Erasmus, almost to the end, desired to see +Rome and England (after the Anglican church broke from Catholicism) +reconciled, and was willing to offer his services toward that goal. This is +a sad commentary, but is a fact, and is but the fruit of his lifelong +refusal to understand or practice biblical separation. It can be said, +though, to his credit, that a year before his death Erasmus turned down a +strong offer to become a Roman cardinal. "In another letter he says on the +same subject: `Some of my friends at Rome wish to provide the income +required for the red hat, and promote me whether I will or no. They mean it +seriously. The Pope, six of the cardinals, and the Portuguese Ambassador +are moving for me. I have written to say that I will not by provided for by +benefice or pension.'" + +THE GREEK EDITORS WHO REVISED ERASMUS'S TEXT WERE UNQUESTIONABLY +PROTESTANT, BIBLE-BELIEVING MEN + +It is important to note that the men who followed Erasmus in the work of +producing editions of the Greek New Testament and from whose editions most +of the translations of the Protestant Reformation were made, were strong +Bible-believing men. It must be kept in the mind that it was through the +work of these men, of whom there can be no doubt that they were separated, +persecuted Protestants, that the Textus Receptus was perfected. It is upon +their Greek texts, and not directly upon that of Erasmus that the KJV was +based. + +Theodore Beza, for example, "was one of the leading advisors to the +Huguenots [separatist New Testament Christians] in France. He participated +in their conferences and defended the purity of the Reformed faith. He +produced new versions of the Greek and Latin New Testament, a source for +the Geneva and King James Bibles ... Under his leadership Geneva became the +centre of Reformed Protestantism." + +It could be mentioned here that the Geneva Bible contained notes which were +unhesitatingly anti-Catholic. + +Of Robert Stephanus, whose third edition of the Greek New Testament is +commonly regarded as the Textus Receptus in Britain, we read: "In 1523 he +published a Latin New Testament, and two times he published the Hebrew +Bible entire. But the most important were his four editions of the Greek +New Testament in 1546, 1549, 1550, and 1551 respectively. These activities +aroused the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church, so much so that in +1550 he was compelled to leave Paris and settle in Geneva, where he became +a Protestant, embracing the Reformed faith." + +It can be said, and rightly so, that the men who produced the Greek texts +and Bible translations of the sixteenth century were imperfect men. It +CANNOT be said that they were men of weak faith in the Scriptures or men +who were apostate in their beliefs, as CAN be said of those who have +produced the vast majority of Greek texts of modern times and most of the +translations from these corrupted texts. + +My friends, let us not accept this evangelical myth which surrounds Erasmus +and other sixteenth and seventeenth century Protestant editors and +translators. As we have seen, there is more to the picture than is commonly +presented in the writings of those who for some strange reason feel called +to downgrade the text and versions in which the Word of God was preserved +for centuries and to slander anyone who persists in reverencing and +defending that Text. + +In conclusion we must urge upon our reader the conviction that it is not +Erasmus or any other man who is the focus of our faith. We do not believe +the Received Text is the pure Word of God because of any perfection we find +in Tyndale, or Erasmus, or Beza, or Stephanus, or King James I, or the +Authorized Version translators, or David Otis Fuller, or any other man or +group of men. Far from it! Our faith is in Almighty God who gave a perfect +Bible and Who has promised to keep it. + +In this regard we quote from Edward F. Hills, a Harvard educated scholar +who defended the Received Text and the King James Version in spite of the +derision this brought from the intellectual crowd. The one great thing that +made Hills different from most liberally educated scholars is this: he +believed the Bible. He believed God's testimony regarding the inspiration +and preservation of Holy Scripture. Praise be to God for such a scholar in +this age of unbelief! + +"In the editing of his Greek New Testament text, especially, Erasmus was +guided by the common faith in the current text. And back of this common +faith was the controlling providence of God. ... + +"The God who brought the New Testament text safely through the ancient and +medieval manuscript period did not fumble when it came time to transfer +this text to the modern printed page. This is the conviction which guides +the believing Bible student. ..." + +To that we say Amen and amen! + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/myth2.txt b/religious documents/myth2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae6e05e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/myth2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,492 @@ +[The following material is published by Way of Life Literature and is +copyrighted by David W. Cloud, 1986. All rights are reserved. Permission is +given for duplication for personal use, but not for resale. The following +is available in booklet format from Way of Life Literature, Bible Baptist +Church, 1219 N. Harns Road, Oak Harbor, Washington 98277. Phone (206) 675- +8311. This article is number two in a set of five booklets.] + +MYTHS ABOUT THE KING JAMES BIBLE + +Copyright 1986 by David W. Cloud. All rights reserved. + +MYTH NUMBER 2: +REFORMATION EDITORS LACKED SUFFICIENT MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE +By David W. Cloud + +A second popular myth about the Received Text is the well-worn but +erroneous idea that Erasmus and the textual editors and Bible translators +of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had access to a severely limited +variety of manuscript evidence. Again I quote a popular evangelical leader, +the one time head of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, James +Boice: "Moreover, Erasmus did not have very many texts to work +with." + +If you read only the studies of men who are opposed to the Textus Receptus +you would think that this is an absolute, unquestionable fact of history. +Hear the dogmatic assertion of another writer who holds the views of Dr. +Boice: + +"Although Erasmus published a fourth and fifth edition, we need say no more +about them here. Erasmus's Greek Testament stands in line behind the King +James Version; yet it rests upon a half dozen minuscule manuscripts, none +of which is earlier than the tenth century. ... the textual basis of the TR +is a small number of haphazardly and relatively late minuscule +manuscripts." + +Let's give one more example to illustrate just how common this thinking is. +Consider this quote from an article by Doug Kutilek, assistant to +evangelist Robert L. Sumner: + +"In constructing and editing the text, Erasmus had the feeblest of +manuscript resources. He chiefly used one manuscript of the Gospels, dating +from the twelfth century, and one manuscript of Acts and the Epistles, also +from the twelfth century. These he edited and corrected, using one or two +additional manuscripts of each section along with his Latin Vulgate.... + +"Erasmus's fourth and fifth editions were all but slavishly reprinted by +Stephanus, Beza, the Elzivirs and others in their editions of the Greek New +Testament in the century that followed. All these collectively are often +referred to as the Textus Receptus, or received text. It must be observed +that these reprints merely reproduced without examination of evidence the +hastily-produced text of Erasmus. The result is that the text of Erasmus, +hurriedly assembled out of the slimmest of manuscript resources--containing +a number of readings without any Greek manuscript support--became for +nearly 300 years the only form of the Greek New Testament available in +print, and the basic text for the Protestant translations of the New 7(2 +Testament made in those centuries. ... + +"In short, there is no ground whatsoever for accepting the Textus Receptus +as the ultimate in precisely representing the original text of the New +Testament. Rather than being the most pristine and pure Greek New +Testament, it was in fact the most rudimentary and rustic, at best only a +provisional text that could be made to serve for the time being until +greater care, more thorough labor, and more extensive evidence could be had +so as to provide a text of greater accuracy. It is unfortunate that what +was only a meager first attempt at publishing a New Testament Greek text +became fossilized as though it were the ultimate in accuracy. + +"It was not until the nineteenth century that the shackles of mere +tradition and religious inertia were thrown off and a Greek text based on a +careful and thorough examination of an extensive amount of manuscript +evidence was made available. The Greek texts of Griesbach, Tregelles, +Tischendorf, Alford, and Westcott and Hort were, individually and +collectively, a great improvement over the text of Erasmus, because they +more accurately presented the text of the New Testament in the form it came +from the pens of the apostles." + +This lengthy quote was included to demonstrate the perversion of history +which has become so common among Bible scholars, and also because it so +graphically illustrates the strange hatred which prevails today among +scholars of every label toward the ancient and revered Textus Receptus and +those multitudes of versions which are based upon it. + +Even stranger is the fact that after dragging the textual editors of the +Reformation and their work, the Received Text, through the mud and mire of +hateful criticism for sixteen lengthy paragraphs, Kutilek makes an about +face and contends that there actually is not a "hair's breadth in doctrinal +difference between Erasmus's text and that of, say, Westcott and Hort," (a +myth which is dealt with in another of this series--Myth #3: No Doctrinal +Differences Between Texts and Versions) and is so kind to say, "I do not +wish to be too hard on Erasmus, after all, I recognize him as a pioneer who +opened up a frontier for others to follow and laid a foundation on which +others would build." + +These men have found out a marvelous thing: They seemingly have mastered +the art of facing two ways at the same time! + +One further comment regarding these statements by Kutilek is in order. If +all of this is true, and only an imprecise, rudimentary, rustic, and +provisional text was produced at the dawn of the age of printing and of the +Protestant Reformation and was for four hundred years carried to the +farthest reaches of the earth during the most zealous period of missionary +Gospel work since the first century--where was God at that time and why did +He allow such a text to prevail? Why does Kutilek completely ignore the +Bible passages which promise that God will preserve His Word to every +generation? We deal with this in yet another booklet in this series (Myth +#4: Inspiration Is Perfect, but Preservation Is General), but this point is +too important to pass over lightly. Kutilek's God must have been on a long +lunch break during the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries because, +according to Kutilek, He certainly was not preserving the Scriptures. + +We hasten now to offer some historical facts surrounding this matter of the +Reformation editors and translators and their textual resources which quite +contradict the popular ideas we have considered. + +ERASMUS'S TRAVEL AND CORRESPONDENCE BROUGHT HIM INTO CONTACT WITH BROAD +MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE + +Erasmus personally visited libraries and carried on correspondence which +brought him in touch with manuscript evidence which was vast both in number +and variety. + +If we would believe the critics of the Received Text, Erasmus and other +Greek scholars of the Reformation engaged in their work while confined to +barren rooms with only a handful of resource materials. This is far from an +accurate view of history. These men were scholars of the first rank, which +even their enemies and those in disagreement with their conclusions admit. +As such, they were men engaged continually in dissertation with other +scholars; they were men of wide-ranging personal correspondence, men who +traveled, visiting libraries and centers of learning--yea, men who did all +that was necessary to discover everything possible about the beloved +projects to which they were devoted. + +"He [Erasmus] was ever at work, visiting libraries, searching in every nook +and corner for the profitable. He was ever collecting, comparing, writing +and publishing. ... He classified the Greek manuscripts and read the +Fathers." + +"By 1495 he [Erasmus] was studying in Paris. In 1499 he went to England +where he made the helpful friendship of John Cabot, later dean of St. +Paul's, who quickened his interest in biblical studies. He then went back +to France and the Netherlands. In 1505 he again visited England and then +passed three years in Italy. In 1509 he returned to England for the third +time and taught at Cambridge University until 1514. In 1515 he went to +Basel, where he published his New Testament in 1516, then back to the +Netherlands for a sojourn at the University of Louvain. Then he returned to +Basel in 1521 and remained there until 1529, in which year he removed to +the imperial town of Freiburg-im-Breisgau. Finally, in 1535, he again +returned to Basel and died there the following year in the midst of his +Protestant friends, without relations of any sort, so far as known, with +the Roman Catholic Church. + +"One might think that all this moving around would have interfered with +Erasmus' activity as a scholar and writer, but quite the reverse is true. +By his travels he was brought into contact with all the intellectual +currents of his time and stimulated to almost superhuman efforts. He became +the most famous scholar and author of his day and one of the most prolific +writers of all time, his collected works filling ten large volumes in the +Leclerc edition of 1705 (phototyped by Olms in 1963). As an editor also his +productivity was tremendous. Ten columns of the catalog of the library in +the British Museum are taken up with the bare enumeration of the works +translated, edited, or annotated by Erasmus, and their subsequent +reprints." + +According to Dr. Edward F. Hills, the evidence points to the fact that +Erasmus used other manuscripts beside five: + +"When Erasmus came to Basel in July 1515, to begin his work, he found five +Greek New Testament manuscripts ready for his use. ... Did Erasmus use +other manuscripts beside these five in preparing his Textus Receptus? The +indications are that he did. According to W. Schwarz (1955), Erasmus made +his own Latin translation of the New Testament at Oxford during the years +1505-6. His friend John Colet who had become Dean of St. Paul's, lent him +two Latin manuscripts for this undertaking, but nothing is known about the +Greek manuscripts which he used. He must have used some Greek manuscripts +or other, however, and taken notes on them. Presumably therefore he brought +these notes with him to Basel along with his translation and his comments +on the New Testament text. It is well known also that Erasmus looked for +manuscripts everywhere during his travels and that he borrowed them from +everyone he could. Hence although the Textus Receptus was based mainly on +the manuscripts which Erasmus found at Basel, it also included readings +taken from others to which he had access. It agreed with the common faith +because it was founded on manuscripts which in the providence of God were +readily available." + +The following quotation from D'Aubigne's diligent historical research also +indicates that Erasmus had access to more textual evidence than his modern +detractors admit: + +"Nothing was more important at the dawn of the Reformation than the +publication of the Testament of Jesus Christ in the original language. +Never had Erasmus worked so carefully. `If I told what sweat it cost me, no +one would believe me.' He had collated many Greek MSS. of the New +Testament, and was surrounded by all the commentaries and translations, by +the writings of Origen, Cyprian, Ambrose, Basil, Chrysostom, Cyril, Jerome, +and Augustine. ... He had investigated the texts according to the +principles of sacred criticism. When a knowledge of Hebrew was necessary, +he had consulted Capito, and more particularly Cecolampadius. Nothing +without Theseus, said he of the latter, making use of a Greek proverb." + + +THE VATICANUS READINGS WERE KNOWN AND REJECTED BY THE PROTESTANT +TRANSLATORS + +Erasmus, Stephanus, and other sixteenth century editors had access to the +manuscript from the Vatican called Codex B, the manuscript most preferred +by Westcott and Hort and the English Revised translation committee. Yet +this manuscript was rejected as corrupt by the Bible publishers of the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. + +Consider the following quotation from Benjamin Wilkinson, author of Our +Authorized Bible Vindicated: + +"The problems presented by these two manuscripts [the Vaticanus and the +Sinaiticus] were well known, not only to the translators of the King James, +but also to Erasmus. We are told that the Old Testament portion of the +Vaticanus has been printed since 1587. The third great edition is that +commonly known as the `Sixtine,' published at Rome in 1587 under Pope +Sixtus V ... Substantially, the `Sixtine' edition gives the text of B ... +The `Sixtine' served as the basis for most of the ordinary editions of the +LXX for just three centuries" (Ottley, Handbooks of the Septuagint, p. 64). + +"We are informed by another author that, if Erasmus had desired, he could +have secured a transcript of this manuscript" (Bissell, Historic Origin of +the Bible, p. 84). + +"There was no necessity, however, for Erasmus to obtain a transcript +because he was in correspondence with Professor Paulus Bombasius at Rome, +who sent him such variant readings as he wished" (S.P. Tregelles, On the +Printed Text of the Greek Testament, p. 22). + +"A correspondent of Erasmus in 1533 sent that scholar a number of selected +readings from it [Codex B], as proof [or so says that correspondent] of its +superiority to the Received Text" (Frederic Kenyon, Our Bible and the +Ancient Manuscripts, Harper & Brothers, 1895, fourth edition 1939, p. 138). + +"Erasmus, however, rejected these varying readings of the Vatican +Manuscript because he considered from the massive evidence of his day that +the Received Text was correct. ... + +"We have already given authorities to show that the Sinaitic Manuscript is +a brother of the Vaticanus. Practically all of the problems of any serious +nature which are presented by the Sinaitic, are the problems of the +Vaticanus. Therefore the [editors of the 1500s and the] translators of 1611 +had available all the variant readings of these manuscripts and rejected +them. + +"The following words from Dr. Kenrick, Catholic Bishop of Philadelphia, +will support the conclusion that the translators of the King James knew the +readings of Codices Aleph, A, B, C, D, where they differed from the +Received Text and denounced them. Bishop Kenrick published an English +translation of the Catholic Bible in 1849. I quote from the preface: + +"`Since the famous manuscripts of Rome, Alexandria, Cambridge, Paris, and +Dublin were examined ... a verdict has been obtained in favor of the +Vulgate. At the Reformation, the Greek Text, as it then stood, was taken as +a standard, in conformity to which the versions of the Reformers were +generally made; whilst the Latin Vulgate was depreciated, or despised, as a +mere version'" (H. Cotton, quoted in Rheims and Douay, p. 155). + +"In other words, the readings of these much boasted manuscripts, recently +made available, are [largely] those of the Vulgate. The Reformers knew of +these readings and rejected them, as well as the Vulgate. ... + +"On the other hand, if more manuscripts have been made accessible since +1611, little use has been made of what we had before and of the majority of +those made available since. The Revisers systematically ignored the whole +world of manuscripts and relied practically on only three or four. As Dean +Burgon says, "But nineteen-twentieths of those documents, for any use which +has been made of them, might just as well be still lying in the monastic +libraries from which they were obtained." + +"We feel, therefore, that a mistaken picture of the case has been presented +with reference to the material at the disposition of the translators of +1611 and concerning their ability to use that material." + +To this testimony I add one more quote: + +"In the margin of this edition [his fourth] Stephanus entered variant +readings taken from the Complutensian edition and also 14 manuscripts, one +of which is thought to have been Codex D." If this was not actually Codex +D, at the very least it was another one of that small family of manuscripts +which presents a similar reading that contradicts the majority text." + + +ERASMUS KNEW OF THE VARIANT READINGS PREFERRED BY MODERN TRANSLATORS + +The notes which Erasmus placed in his editions of the Greek New Testament +prove that he was completely informed of the variant readings which have +found their way into the modern translations since 1881. + +Even though Erasmus did not have access to all of the manuscripts +translators can use today, there can be no doubt that he did have access to +the variant readings in other ways. + +"Through his study of the writings of Jerome and other Church Fathers +Erasmus became very well informed concerning the variant readings of the +New Testament text. Indeed almost all the important variant readings known +to scholars today were already known to Erasmus more than 460 years ago and +discussed in the notes (previously prepared) which he placed after the text +in his editions of the Greek New Testament. Here, for example, Erasmus +dealt with such problem passages as the conclusion of the Lord's Prayer +(Matt. 6:13), the interview of the rich young man with Jesus (Matt. 19:17- +22), the ending of Mark (Mark 16:9-20), the angelic song (Luke 2:14), the +angel, agony, and bloody seat omitted (Luke 22:43-44), the woman taken in +adultery (John 7:53-8:11), and the mystery of godliness (I Tim. 3:16)." + + +THE REFORMATION TEXT IS AS ANCIENT AS THE WESTCOTT-HORT TEXT + +It is further true that the Greek text produced by Erasmus and other +Reformation editors is representative of a text demonstrably as ancient as +the modern critical text. Consider again the words of D.A. Carson in his +book on the King James Version: "... the textual basis of the TR is a small +number of haphazardly and relatively late minuscule manuscripts" (Carson, +p. 36). + +While it is true that the actual Greek manuscripts Eramus had in his +possession were relatively late ones, this is not the whole story. When all +the facts are considered, we find that Carson's statement is a myth. +Consider the testimony of Bishop Ellicott, the chairman of the committee +that produced the English Revised Version, the predecessor of all modern +versions: + +"The manuscripts which Erasmus used differ, for the most part only in small +and insignficant details, from the great bulk of the cursive MSS. The +general character of their text is the same. By this observation the +pedigree of the Received Text is carried up beyond the individual +manuscripts used by Erasmus ... That pedigree stretches back to remote +antiquity. The first ancestor of the Received Text was at least +contemporary with the oldest of our extant MSS, if not older than any one +of them" (Ellicott, The Revisers and the Greek Text of the N.T. by two +members of the N.T. Company, pp. 11-12). + +In commenting on Ellicott's statement, the Trinitarian Bible Society puts +the matter into a perspective that the KJV detractors would like to ignore: + +"It must be emphasised that the argument is not between an ancient text and +a recent one, but between two ancient forms of the text, one of which was +rejected and the other adopted and preserved by the Church as a whole and +remaining in common use for more than fifteen centuries. The assumptions of +modern textual criticism are based upon the discordant testimony of a few +specimens of the rejected text recently disinterred from the oblivion to +which they had been deliberately and wisely consigned in the 4th century" +(The Divine Original, TBS article No. 13, nd, p. 7). + +REFORMATION EDITORS HAD WIDE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE IN THE BIBLES AVAILABLE TO +THEM + +Another matter frequently ignored by the detractors of the ReceivedText is +the fact that Erasmus and the textual editors of the Reformation had a wide +variety of Bibles which provided great help in their work. The editors and +translators of the Reformation had access to many excellent Bible versions +which attested to the textual witnesses upon which they, in turn, were +based. + +It was Erasmus's knowledge both in Greek manuscripts AND of versions of the +Scripture in various languages, both contemporary with his time and +ancient, that provoked Dr. Benjamin Wilkinson to note that "the text +Erasmus chose had such an outstanding history in the Greek, the Syrian, and +the Waldensian Churches, that it constituted an irresistible argument for +and proof of God's providence." + +Wilkinson gives a brief history of the important role held by the +Waldensian Bibles in preservation of the true text of Scripture: + +"The Reformers held that the Waldensian Church was formed about 120 A.D., +from which date on, they passed down from father to son the teachings they +received from the apostles (Allix, Church of Piedmont, 1690, p. 37). We are +indebted to Beza, the renowned associate of Calvin, for the statement that +the Italic Church dates from 120 A.D. From the illustrious group of +scholars which gathered round Beza, 1590 A.D., we may understand how the +Received Text was the bond of union between great historic churches. + +"There are modern writers who attempt to fix the beginning of the Waldenses +from Peter Waldo, who began his work about 1175. This is a mistake. The +historical name of this people as properly derived from the valleys where +they lived, is Vaudois. Their enemies, however, ever sought to date their +origin from Waldo. ... Nevertheless the history of the Waldenses, or +Vaudois, begins centuries before the days of Waldo. + +"There remains to us in the ancient Waldensian language, `The Noble Lesson' +(La Nobla Leycon), written about the year 1100 A.D., which assigns the +first opposition to the Waldenses to the Church of Rome to the days of +Constantine the Great, when Sylvester was Pope. This may be gathered from +the following extract: `All the popes, which have been from Sylvester to +the present time' (Gilly, Excursions to the Piedmont, Appendix II, p. 10). + +Thus when Christianity, emerging from the long persecutions of pagan Rome, +was raised to imperial favor by the Emperor Constantine, the Italic Church +in northern Italy--later the Waldenses--is seen standing in opposition to +papal Rome. Their Bible was of the family of the renowned Itala. It was +that translation into Latin which represents the Received Text. Its very +name, "Itala," is derived from the Italic district, the regions of the +Vaudois. Of the purity and reliability of this version, Augustine, speaking +of different Latin Bibles (about 400 A.D.) says: `Now among translations +themselves the Italian (Itala) is to be preferred to the others, for it +keeps closer to the words without prejudice to clearness of expression'" +(Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Christian Lit. Ed., Vol. II, p. 542). + + +Here we can see the hand of God plainly evident in preserving the precious +Word He had given to men. Through every dark century of persecution and +apostasy, faithful and separated saints held to the Scriptures at the cost +of earthly comfort, fortune, even life. The Waldenses, or Vaudois, were but +one of these groups of faithful brethren. There were others, but the +Vaudois were especially honored of God in that their versions of Scriptures +were selected by the leaders of the Protestant Reformation as +representative of the original manuscripts of the prophets and apostles. + +God promised to preserve His Word. How can we fail to see in these events +the fulfillment of this promise? The pure Word of God was preserved by pure +churches and in turn transmitted into the hands of the men who had been +prepared of God to give this pure Word to the world during the great +missionary period of the last four-and-a-half centuries. + +In conclusion I quote from Which Version by Philip Mauro, outstanding trial +lawyer of the nineteenth century. The testimony of men such as Mauro, Dr. +Edward F. Hills, Dr. John Burgon, and Dr. David Otis Fuller is largely +ignored and despised by evangelical (even many fundamental) scholars today, +but their teaching is based upon the solid foundation of the biblical +doctrine of divine inspiration and preservation, combined with careful +scholarship. It is unwise and less than honest simply to ignore the +testimony of such men, and yet that is exactly what is being done. + +"When we consider what the Authorized Version was to be to the world, the +incomparable influence it was to exert in shaping the course of events, and +in accomplishing those eternal purposes of God for which Christ died and +rose again and the Holy Spirit came down from heaven--when we consider that +this Version was to be, more than all others combined, `the Sword of the +Spirit,' and that all this was fully known to God beforehand, we are fully +warranted in the belief that it was not through chance, but by providential +control of the circumstances, that the translators had access to just those +Mss. which were available at that time, and to none others. + +"So far in our series on Myths About the King James Bible we have seen that +it is not true that Erasmus was a humanist in the normal sense of which +this would be understood in our day. Nor is it true that Erasmus and the +Bible editors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were severely +limited in manuscript and textual evidence as compared with the late +nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. If you have followed carefully with +me in these studies to this point, I trust you can see that to call these +myths is not at all an exaggeration of the term." + +It is important to remind ourselves that our faith regarding the +preservation of the Scriptures is not in man, but in God. Even if the +Reformation editors had fewer resources than those of more recent times, we +know that God was in control of His Holy Word. The preserved Bible was not +hidden away in some monastic hole or in the Pope's library. + +The vast majority of existing Greek manuscripts, ancient versions, and the +writings of church fathers support the Received Text. This was a fact known +by the Reformation editors. They saw the hand of God in this and believed +that the witness of the majority of textual evidence contained the +preserved Word of God. God's promise to preserve His Word has been +fulfilled in the multiplication of pure Bibles and the rejection and disuse +of corrupted Bibles. In reviewing the existing manuscript evidence, Jack +Moorman gives the following summary: + +"At Marquette Manor Baptist Church in Chicago (1984), Dr. [Stewart] Custer +said that God preserved His Word `in the sands of Egypt.' No! God did not +preserve His Word in the sands of Egypt, or on a library shelf in the +Vatican library, or in a wastepaper bin in a Catholic monastery at the foot +of Mt. Sinai. God did not preserve His Word in the `disusing' but in the +`using.' He did not preserve the Word by it being stored away or buried, +but rather through its use and transmission in the hands of humble +believers. ... + +"At latest count, there were 2,764 cursive manuscripts (MSS). Kenyon says, +`... An overwhelming majority contain the common ecclesiastical [Received] +text.' ... Kenyon is prepared to list only 22 that give even partial +support to the [modern critical] text. ... + +"Are we to believe that in the language in which the New Testament was +originally written (Greek), that only twenty-two examples of the true Word +of God are to be found between the ninth and sixteenth centuries? How does +this fulfill God's promise to preserve His Word? ... + +"We answer with a shout of triumph God has been faithful to His promise. +Yet in our day, the world has become awash with translations based on MSS +similar to the twenty-two rather than the [more than] two-and-a-half +thousand." + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/myth3.txt b/religious documents/myth3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..18295f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/myth3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1370 @@ +[The following material is published by Way of Life Literature and is +copyrighted by David W. Cloud, 1986. All rights are reserved. Permission is +given for duplication for personal use, but not for resale. The following +is available in booklet format from Way of Life Literature, Bible Baptist +Church, 1219 N. Harns Road, Oak Harbor, Washington 98277. Phone (206) 675- +8311. This article is number three in a set of five booklets.] + +MYTHS ABOUT THE KING JAMES BIBLE + +Copyright 1986 by David W. Cloud. All rights reserved. + +MYTH NUMBER 3: +THERE ARE NO DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BIBLE TEXTS AND VERSIONS +By David W. Cloud + +One of the common ideas on the subject of Bible texts and versions is the +supposed non-existence of doctrinal differences between them. As an +illustration, I quote from a letter received from a professor of Greek at +an evangelical seminary in India: + +"You have given statistics to show the difference between the UBS +[United Bible Society] text and the TR [Textus Receptus]. But you haven't +given a single illustration to show that the difference between the TR and +the UBS would affect my Christian faith and life." + +Robert L. Sumner makes a similar claim: + +"...the rare parts about which there is still uncertainty do not affect in +any way any doctrine" (Bible Translations). + +Stanley Gundry, writing in Moody Monthly, echoes this sentiment: + +"Only a few outstanding problems remain, and these do not affect doctrine +or divine command to us" (Ernest Pickering, Questions and Answers About +Bible Translations). + +We could give many more quotes from Christian leaders who say practically +the same thing regarding the texts and versions, but this should be +sufficient. If this idea were true that the new versions contain no +doctrinal corruption, we would still protest that thousands of differences +between Bible texts and versions is significant. But what they are saying +is not true. There IS a doctrinal difference between the texts and +versions, and we will do well to make every effort to find out which text +has been preserved by God and to cleave to that text. + +The Bible is necessary food for the spirit, the hammer which breaks hard +hearts, the fire which burns the soul, the light which enlightens our path; +it is the sword of the Spirit, the living and powerful Word which discerns +the thoughts and intents of the heart. Indeed, the Bible is our foundation; +and if the foundation be destroyed, what shall the righteous do? + +THE PRINCIPLE OF THE DULL SWORD + +The Bible is called a sword. It is also said to be sharper than any sword! +Compare Eph. 6:17 and Heb. 4:12. Who would think highly of a soldier who +does not care if his sword is sharp just so long as he has a sword? No more +should we think highly of those today who claim to be strong Bible 7(2 +believers but are seemingly unconcerned about the perfection of their +Bibles, so long as they have a Bible of some sort. Far too many Christians +cannot discern the difference between a sharp and a dull sword. And this is +true whether such individuals fly under the flag of Evangelical, +Fundamental, Baptist, whatever. + +This is not a light matter. A battle is raging. There are spiritual enemies +in high places. Truth is being cast to the ground. It is difficult enough +to win the battle when we have the sharpest sword and the most complete +armor. Woe unto that Christian whose sword is dull! And yet, I contend that +we have come upon an entire generation of Christians who are slashing away +at their spiritual enemies with dull swords. + +Well, you say, be on with it. Are there really doctrinal differences +between the texts? Can you prove it? Yes, indeed. Please give close +attention to the following remarks: + +ARE THOUSANDS OF DIFFERENCES REALLY INCONSEQUENTIAL? + +First we need to emphasize that regardless of whether or not there are +doctrinal differences between the versions, it is a strange matter for a +Bible believer to argue that the thousands of textual differences is an +insignificant thing. + +Consider: There are 36,000 word differences between the English Revised +Version of 1881 and the KJV. Thirty-six thousand. In the New Testament +alone there are over 8,000 word differences between the Textus Receptus and +the Westcott-Hort, or Bible Society Greek text [they are basically the same +text]. Eight thousand word differences. At least 2,300 of these directly +affect the translation. It is true that many of these are not as +significant as others--but ALL ARE real differences, whether we consider +them significant or not. + +In the edition of the RSV which I have in my study, there are approximately +775 words on one page. Speaking now only of the New Testament and using the +lowest figure above, this means that approximately three full pages of +Bible text are affected by these changes. If someone were to take three +pages from your New Testament, either by removing the words or changing +them in various ways, would you look lightly upon such a thing? This, in +reality, is what men do by downplaying the differences between the two +texts in discussion. Personally, I don't want someone taking away or +changing three pages of my New Testament (not to mention the Old Testament +changes), and I'll never understand how men can look so lightly upon this. +They do, though. Consider the remarks made in the following letter from a +missionary medical doctor in Asia. This letter was addressed to me in late +1985: + +"I cannot concern myself with the figures 8,000 and 2,000 [speaking of +differences between the Textus Receptus and Westcott-Hort text]. If I +concerned myself with those, I would have to insist that we should never +have translated the Bible out of the original Greek and Hebrew. ... I just +can't believe that Jesus wants us to be disunited in spirit because of +these 481 words, or even 2,000 words. There are weightier matters. One of +these weightier matters is unity in the body of Christ." + +It is easy to sympathize with this man's longing for unity among those who +name the name of Christ, but the unity that he calls for--a unity which +would look lightly upon thousands of God's inspired and holy words--is +certainly not a unity which is pleasing to Christ. We don't have to guess +as to what the Lord Jesus Christ really thinks about someone who slights +God's Words. Consider what He said: "But he answered and said, It is +written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceed +eth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4; Lk. 4:4; Deut. 8:3). Jesus did not +say that man lives by some of God's words, or by most of God's words. He +said man lives by every one of God's words. Every word of God. This is what +the Son of God thinks of the words of the Bible! Who are we to have a +lesser concept? + +THE PRINCIPLE OF DETAILS + +Holy Scripture is filled with detail. Minute detail. Detail which is +sometimes so apparently insignificant that its purpose is not evident even +to the pious reader. But understood or not, the fact remains that the Bible +is filled with detail. The Lord Jesus spoke of the jots and tittles of the +Old Testament. That is detail. As we read the many genealogies in Scripture +we note detail. And what of Noah's ark? God describes its dimensions, how +many stories it had, the type of wood and pitch, even how many windows. +Detail. There is the tabernacle which Israel built in the wilderness. Many +chapters of God's Word is taken up with a description of every tiny detail +of the tabernacle, to the tiniest hooks and the colors of the thread woven +into the curtains. Details. + +If the Bible is indeed God's Word, details are important--highly important. +Therefore how--how, tell me!--can those who call themselves Christians say +that thousands of Bible words are to be considered too insignificant to +fight for? Such an attitude is not piety; it is treachery. As one godly +evangelist from America said, "You can say you will only cut a few small +parts from my mother and it will do no harm, but you will have to do so +over my dead body!" In some matters "small" things become very important! +The late John Burgon, that great nineteenth- century contender for the Word +of God, recognized this truth in the following statement: + +"This barbarous mutilation of the Gospel, by the unceremonious excision of +a multitude of little words, is often attended by no worse consequence than +that thereby an extraordinary baldness is imparted to the Evangelical +narrative. The removal of so many of the coupling-hooks is apt to cause the +curtains of the Tabernacle to hang wondrous ungracefully." + +Let's move to another principle: + +THE PRINCIPLE OF WORDS + +It's not just the basic doctrines of the Scriptures by which we live, but +the actual words and details of the Scripture. Three times that truth is +repeated in Scripture: in Deut. 8:3, Matt. 4:4, and Lk. 4:4. + +"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, +which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make +thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that +proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." (Deut. 8:3) + +Three times the Voice from heaven tells mankind it is not just the general +doctrine of Scripture, or even the fundamental doctrines of Scripture that +we need; it is every word. The argument that no Bible doctrine is at stake +between texts and versions (even if it were true, which it isn't as we will +see) doesn't address the real issue. + +Time and again God reminds us of the importance of each "word" He has +given. The Bible is the Word of God, but the Bible is written in the words +of God. If we don't have the words, neither do we have the full Word. Those +who have ears to hear, please hear what the Holy Spirit says about this: + +Exodus 24:4--"And Moses wrote ALL THE WORDS of the Lord..." + +Deuteronomy 6:6--"And THESE WORDS, which I command thee this day, shall be +in thine heart." + +Deuteronomy 12:28--"Observe and hear ALL THESE WORDS which I command thee, +that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for +ever..." + +Deuteronomy 17:18,19--"...he shall write him a copy of this law in a book +out of that which is before the priests the Levites: And it shall be with +him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn +to fear the Lord his God, to keep ALL THE WORDS of this law and these +statutes, to do them." + +Deuteronomy 18:18--"I will raise them up a Prophet from among their +brethren, like unto thee, and will put my WORDS in his mouth; and he shall +speak unto them ALL that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, +that whosoever will not hearken unto my WORDS which he shall speak in my +name, I will require it of him." + +Deuteronomy 27:2,3--"And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over +Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt +set thee up great stones, and plaister them with plaister: And thou shalt +write upon them ALL THE WORDS of this law...." + +Deuteronomy 32:1--"Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O +earth, THE WORDS of my mouth." + +Deuteronomy 32:45,46--"And Moses made an end of speaking ALL THESE WORDS to +all Israel: And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto ALL THE WORDS which +I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to +observe to do, ALL THE WORDS of this law." + +Joshua 8:34,35--"And afterward he read ALL THE WORDS of the law, the +blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the +law. there was not A WORD of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read +not before all the congregation." + +Joshua 24:26--"And Joshua wrote these WORDS in the book of the law of +God..." + +I Samuel 8:10--"And Samuel told ALL THE WORDS of the Lord unto the people +that asked of him a king." + +Psalm 12:6--"The WORDS of the Lord are pure WORDS: as silver tried in a +furnace of earth, purified seven times." + +Proverbs 30:6,7--"EVERY WORD of God is pure ... Add thou not unto his +WORDS, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." + +Jeremiah 1:9--"Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And +the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my WORDS in thy mouth." + +Jeremiah 7:27--"Therefore thou shalt speak ALL THESE WORDS unto them..." + +Jeremiah 23:9--"Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all +my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath +overcome, because of the Lord, and because of THE WORDS of his holiness." + +Jeremiah 23:36--"...ye have perverted THE WORDS of the living God, of the +Lord of hosts our God." + +Jeremiah 30:2--"Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee +ALL THE WORDS that I have spoken unto thee in a book." + +Ezekiel 3:10--"Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, ALL MY WORDS that I +shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears." + +Luke 4:4--"And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall +not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD OF GOD." (See also Matthew 4:4.) + +John 8:47--"He that is of God heareth God's WORDS: ye therefore hear them +not, because ye are not of God." + +1 Corinthians 2:13--"Which things also we speak, not in THE WORDS which +man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth..." + +1 Timothy 4:6--"...nourished up in THE WORDS of faith and of good +doctrine..." + +2 Peter 3:2--"That ye may be mindful of THE WORDS which were spoken before +by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord +and Saviour." + +Jude 17--"But, beloved, remember ye THE WORDS which were spoken before of +the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ." + +Revelation 1:3--"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear THE WORDS +of this prophecy..." + +Revelation 22:18,19--"For I testify unto every man that heareth THE WORDS +of the prophecy of this book ... And if any man shall take away from THE +WORDS of the book of this prophecy..." + +It should be clear from these verses that it is not only the Word of God in +general that we need. As the Lord Jesus said, man lives by EVERY WORD OF +GOD. In this light, the idea that thousands of omissions and changes are of +little significance because they (allegedly) do not affect the basic doc +trines of the Bible is invalid. It's not just the basic doctrines we need. +It's also the very words; yea, as we noted earlier, it is even more than +the words--it is the most minute details that we need. The Lord Jesus +Christ, the Lord from Heaven, spoke of the preservation even of the jots +and tittles of the Word of God. + +ENTIRE VERSES AND PHRASES OMITTED FROM NEWER TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS + +There are 17 verses omitted outright in the New International +Version--Matt. 17:21; 18:11; 23:14; Mk. 7:16; 9:44; 9:46; 11:26; 15:28; +17:36; 23:17; Jn. 5:4; Acts 8:37; 15:34; 24:7; 28:29; Rom. 16:24; and 1 +John 5:7. Further, the NIV separates Mark 16:9-20 from the rest of the +chapter with a note that says, "The two most reliable early manuscripts do +not have Mark 16:9-20," thus effectively ruining the authority of these +crucial verses in the minds of their readers. Thus another 12 verses are +effectively removed from the Bible. John 7:53 - 8:11 is also removed from +the rest of the text with this footnote: "The earliest and most reliable +manuscripts do not have John 7:53-8:11." Yet another 12 verses are +effectively removed from the Bible. The NIV questions four other verses +with footnotes--Matt. 12:47; 21:44; Lk. 22:43; 22:44. This makes a total of +45 entire verses which are removed entirely or seriously questioned. In +addition there are 147 other verses with significant portions missing. + +THE PRINCIPLE OF REPETITION + +Many of the omissions in the Westcott-Hort or Bible Society text (and +carried over in the new translations) are omissions of repetitious matter. +There are many examples of this in the Gospels. In the Bible Society text +and the translations based on it, a phrase or verse will be left out in one +Gospel but retained in another. An illustration is Matt. 4:4 and Lk. 4:4. +In Matthew the phrase about man living by every word of God is intact, +while it is omitted in Lk. 4:4. If we point out the fact that Lk. 4:4 has a +serious omission, a chorus of voices will argue that we are pointing out an +inconsequential matter, since the phrase is retained in Matt. 4:4. But is +it really true that the omissions are unimportant if they are only matters +of repetition? By no means, for repetition within Scriptures is obviously +planned of God and has a divine purpose. + +Teachers understand the importance of the principle of repetition. +Repetition reinforces a truth; it helps the hearer grasp it; it helps the +hearer retain it. And this is exactly the purpose for the great amount of +repetition in the Bible and is the reason why it is so evil for someone +like Reader's Digest to "condense" the Scriptures by removing the +supposedly unnecessary and boring repetition. Woe unto foolhardy men who so +tamper with God's holy and eternal Word! They will receive the reward +promised of God in Revelation 22. + +Why did the Lord Jesus Christ begin many statements with the phrase, +"Verily, verily," when He could just as easily have omitted the word +"verily" altogether, or at least have said "verily" only one time. +Obviously He did this for emphasis. Why are there four Gospels instead of +only one? The repetition within Scripture is God crying out to man, "Listen +to this; listen to this; listen to this; listen to this!" + +Therefore, when men come along and remove some of the Bible's repetition, +they are doing a great, great evil. That's right, I said a great evil. What +is man that he is free to remove some of God's words and then hide behind +the contention that God was redundant? Jesus said, "Verily, verily." What +is man that he would edit out one of those verilys and then act as if he +had done no harm or evil? + +A key example of this is in Mark 9 in which Christ describes Hell as a +place "where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." In the +Authorized Version that phrase is repeated three times, in verses 44, 46, +and 48. But in the new versions, such as the New International Version, two +of those references are deleted (verses 44 and 46). + +We believe Jesus Christ repeated the truth about Hell being a place where +the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched because it is so crucial +that lost men be impressed with the awfulness and certainty of Hell. Some +will say, "But that verse is still in Mark 9:48. No doctrine is changed. No +significant harm is done in removing verses 44 and 46, because verse 48 +which says exactly the same thing has been retained." Those who say this +are wrong; serious harm IS done; the divinely-intended emphasis has been +weakened. The Sword has been dulled. + +By the way, someone reading this might be wondering about the textual +authority for verses 44 and 46 of Mark 9. It is a fact that these two +verses are omitted from practically all twentieth century translations and +in all new editions of the Greek text since the days of the introduction of +Westcott-Hort's text in 1881. Are these omissions based upon sound textual +authority? Not at all. In fact, the two verses are attested to by the vast +majority of existing Greek manuscripts, old Bible versions, and quotes from +the writings of church fathers. The only textual "authority" for omitting +these important verses is a handful of texts of very questionable origin, +primarily the manuscript Sinaiticus (discovered in the 1800's in a +wastebasket of an apostate monastery in Mt. Sinai), the manuscript +Vaticanus (which was hidden for centuries in the library at the Roman +Catholic Pope's palace), and one or two fifth century manuscripts of even +lesser importance. In many places modern textual critics accept the +extremely questionable testimony of these manuscripts while rejecting the +overwhelming majority of existing evidence. + +Consider another example of this important principle of repetition. It is +seen in the vision which was given to Peter about the conversion of the +Gentiles. He saw a vessel in appearance like a sheet lowered down from +Heaven full of animals which were unclean under the Mosaic law. When the +voice accompanying the vision demanded that Peter rise, kill, and eat, he +balked. The vision was repeated three times. Three times (Acts 10:9-16). +Why? For emphasis. God doesn't waste words, but at the same time ALL of +God's words are important and are not to be tampered with by man. The +Scriptures have already been purified seven times (Psa. 12:6). We, +therefore, do not need a Reader's Digest condensation committee, nor a +paraphraser, nor a naturalistic-minded critical editor, nor a so-called +"dynamic equivalent" translator. + +Let us think a little more about the important principle of repetition as a +tool of emphasis. Joseph testified to this regarding the prophecy God had +given Pharaoh in a dream: + +"And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because this +thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass" (Gen. +41:32). + +Joseph recognized the importance even of the repetitions of God's Word. +Through repetitions God emphasizes important truths, and removing some of +the Bible's repetition removes some of the power and emphasis of that +particular truth. In this we can see more clearly how the devil would +attempt, in his subtle way, to undermine the power of the Word of God over +men's lives by seeing that texts are made with vast numbers of omissions of +words and phrases. The overall teaching of Scripture is not changed; +therefore, many see no harm. An alarm is not raised by the average careless +shepherd of the fold. But with each omission the strength and impact of +certain truths upon the readers' lives are rendered less forceful. + +THE DOCTRINE OF INDIVIDUAL PASSAGES IS CHANGED + +The omissions and changes in the Bible Societies' Greek Text (which is a +revision of the Westcott-Hort Text and is the basis for practically all +recent translations) very definitely do change the doctrine of the +particular verses and passages involved, and this numbers into the +hundreds. I would remind our friends that doctrine means teaching. In the +King James Bible, the Greek word for doctrine is also translated teaching +and instruction. I am saying that if any teaching is changed, doctrine is +changed. And while many of the word changes admittedly do not change the +overall teaching of Scripture, they do change the teaching--and therefore +the doctrine--of the particular passages. + +Does not the omission of the phrase "to repentance" in Matthew 9:13 change +the meaning of that verse significantly? As translated from the Textus +Receptus the verse reads in the KJV, "But go ye and learn what that +meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call +the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Most of the new versions omit +"to repentance," thus creating a significant difference in the meaning and +usage of the verse. The doctrine of this verse has been changed. + +The omission of entire verses, such as Matt. 12:47, 17:21, Mk. 7:16, 9:44, +11:26, 15:28, and Acts 8:37, does significantly change the teaching of the +passages in which they were contained. + +When the phrase "but by every word of God" is omitted from Lk. 4:4, does +this not significantly change the meaning of that particular verse in Luke? + +We could go on and on. Can anyone seriously testify that there is no change +in the teaching of the verses in which we find the thousands of omissions +or additions? And even if there were absolutely no doctrinal difference +between the two texts in consideration, which there is as I will soon +demonstrate, this does not change the fact that hundreds and hundreds of +doctrinal changes are made within particular passages. I do not understand +the cavalier way these facts are treated by so many Christian leaders, even +by many who claim to be fundamental. + +MANY DOCTRINES ARE ATTACKED AND WEAKENED + +While not entirely removing any "major" teaching of Scripture, the Greek +text underlying the new versions does viciously attack and seriously weaken +some teachings. To illustrate this I will use (primarily) the New American +Standard Bible (NASV), known to some as "the rock of biblical honesty," and +which is popular even in some fundamental schools and churches. There are +many kinds of rocks, of course, and in this case the rock is brittle and +untrustworthy. Much of the following material is used by permission from A +Critical Examination of the New American Standard Bible by D.K. Madden. +Copies of this excellent study can be obtained from Way of Life Literature. +See front of book for address. + +For our statements about the textual basis for a certain reading we have +consulted several sources, including the critical apparatus in two Greek +New Testaments. Revision Revised by John Burgon, the studies of Dr. Edward +F. Hills, the edited works of David Otis Fuller, and personal +correspondence with Dr. Bruce Lackey have also been of great help. Burgon's +Revisions Revised, the two major works of Edward Hills (Believing Bible +Study and The King James Version Defended), and Fuller's Which Bible? have +excellent indexes, which facilitate their use as textual evidence resource +guides. The stateside Way of Life Literature catalog contains a list of +this type of resource material. + +The fact that there is basic doctrinal agreement between the different +Greek text families shows us two things. First, we can rejoice that God has +overruled the wicked plan of men and devils and has maintained essential +doctrine even in the most corrupted texts. Second, this does not mean, +though, that the differences between the texts are insignificant and +harmless. It does not mean that doctrine is unaffected. It also does not +mean it is not important to find and use the purest text. + +I can show someone the true Gospel of the grace of Christ with any Bible +translation, even a Roman Catholic one. I can prove the deity of Christ +through any Bible translation--even the perverted New World Translation +used by the Jehovah's Witnesses. I can teach the doctrine of the Atonement +even from a perversion such as the Today's English Bible which deletes the +word "blood" in most major passages. This shows the marvelous hand of God +to confound the efforts of the devil. But this does not mean that the +changes made in these and other new translations are not significant. + +The following study shows that doctrine has been affected by the modern +versions: + +THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST'S DEITY + +Matthew 1:25--"Firstborn" is out, speaking of the Lord Jesus. + +Matthew 19:17--Instead of "Why callest thou me good?" as in the KJV, the +NASV reads, "Why are you asking Me about what is good?" This obscures the +true sense of the passage and of Jesus' remarks, through which He was +pointing out the fact that either He is God or He is not good. Matt. 19:17, +rightly translated from the proper text, is a reference to Christ's deity, +but is removed from the new texts and translations. + +Matthew 27:54--The new translations remove or question the centurion's +clear testimony to Christ's deity. The true reading is "Truly this was the +Son of God" (KJV). But the NASB refers the reader to a footnote here which +reads, "Or, possibly, a son of God, or a son of a god." This is blasphemy +against Christ. The NIV and RSV have basically the same footnote, while the +New English Bible, the Jerusalem Bible, and the Phillips New Testament +incorporate the spurious reading into the text itself. The Living Bible's +footnote here says, "Or, a godly man." Who will say this is not a doctrinal +change? + +Mark 9:24--The man's testimony that Christ is Lord is removed from the +NASB, NIV, TEV, RSV, ASV, Phillips, Living Bible, Jerusalem Bible, New +English Bible, and the Revised Berkeley Version (distributed by the Gideons +in some instances as an alternate to the KJV). + +Mark 15:39--The same situation exists here as with Matthew 27:54. The +centurion's testimony of Christ's deity is removed from the text or +questioned with a footnote, and this in spite of the fact that the reading +of the Textus Receptus and KJV is attested by the majority of textual +witnesses. + +Luke 2:33--"In this verse the NASB, in common with most other modern +versions, again attacks the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ by changing +`Joseph and his mother' to `father and mother.' This same corrupted reading +is found in the NIV, RSV, TEV, Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, +Phillips, and Revised Berkeley Version. The KJV translation is attested by +the majority of textual witnesses." + +Luke 2:43--In consistency with the reading of verse 33 noted above, the +NASV has "his parents" instead of the correct rendering of the KJV--"Joseph +and his mother." + +Luke 4:41--The powerful and clear witness identifying Jesus as the promised +Messiah, "Christ the Son of God," is removed by the extraction of "Christ" +in the new versions. The NASB, NIV, TEV, RSV, etc., read, "You are the Son +of God," whereas the KJV correctly reads, "Thou art the Christ the Son of +God." The KJV translation is attested by the majority of textual witnesses. + +Luke 23:42--NASB has the penitent thief address the dying Saviour merely as +"Jesus," whereas according to the Textus Receptus and KJV, he calls him +"Lord." This again is an important detail because it records that even when +the disciples had forsaken their Lord and Master, God in His sovereign +providence caused a dying penitent thief to publicly acknowledge His deity. +This wonderful testimony is removed from the modern versions, and upon what +overwhelming manuscript authority? Again the omission rests upon the flimsy +foundation of a bare handful of questionable witnesses, whereas the +majority of all manuscripts, versions, and ancient commentaries attest that +the thief did indeed call upon Jesus as "Lord." + +John 1:14; 1:18; 3:16; 3:18--The NIV and most other modern versions omit +"begotten," thereby removing an important witness to the uniqueness of +Christ as the only begotten Son of God. (One exception is the NASV which +retains "begotten" in these passages.) To remove "begotten" from these +passages creates a lie within the text. Christ is not the only son of God. +Adam is called the son of God; Christians are called the sons of God. But +Christ IS the only begotten son of God just as the KJV correctly affirms. +The problem here is the failure to properly translate the Greek word +"monogenes." This is a combination of two words--"mono," meaning only and +"ginomai," meaning to cause to be. The failure to translate "ginomai" is +inexcusable, and even more so as it refers to our Lord Jesus Christ. + +John 3:13--A very important phrase is omitted from the Westcott-Hort-UBS +Greek text (and therefore is omitted in the modern translations). I am +referring to the phrase "which is in heaven." The KJV reads, "And no man +hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son +of man WHICH IS IN HEAVEN." This is a plain, irrefutable testimony of the +deity and omnipresence of Christ, but is removed from modern translations. +The KJV translation of the Textus Receptus is based upon the majority of +textual witnesses. + +John 4:42--Again, the clear witness that Jesus is the Christ is removed. +The KJV reads, "we ... know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of +the world." The NASB and other modern versions omit Christ, but again, the +KJV translation stands upon the solid ground of the majority of textual +evidence. + +John 6:69--"And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son +of the Living God." Here is another wonderful and clear testimony that +Jesus was the very Christ prophesied in Old Testament Scripture, yea, the +Son of the Living God. But in this verse, the modern translations destroy +this testimony. The NASB reads, "And we have believed and have come to know +that You are the Holy One of God." The RSV, NIV, Phillips, TEV, New +English, Revised Berkeley Version, and Jerusalem Bible have the same +erroneous reading which ignores the majority of textual evidence. The +weakened translation is based upon the authority of the same handful of +questionable manuscripts referred to previously. + +John 9:4--KJV: "I must work the works of him that sent me..." The NASB +reads, "We must work the works of Him who sent me..." You can see that this +slight change in pronouns from I to we removes entirely this beautiful +reference to Christ's unique work. Seemingly small changes in the Bible can +create big differences. + +Acts 2:30--The KJV says God promised to raise up CHRIST to sit on the +throne of David. According to the modern versions, God promised merely "to +seat one of his descendants upon his throne." This reading is found in the +NASV, NIV, RSV, New English Bible, TEV, Jerusalem Bible, Phillips, Revised +Berkeley Version, and other modern translations. + +The removal of the word "Christ" in the modern versions renders ineffective +this powerful reference to the Messianic lineage of Jesus. The Received +Text here exalts Jesus, the son of David, as the very Messiah (Christ is +the Greek form of the Hebrew Messiah), the mighty God and everlasting +Father (Isa. 9:6), the Immanuel, God with us (Isa. 7:14). The modern +versions based upon a corrupted Greek text show their normal tendency to +tamper with these marvelous testimonies to the deity of Jesus Christ. + +And upon what strong textual basis did the modern Greek editors and +translators weaken this blessed witness? What overwhelming proof did they +have before them that would require the removal of this ancient landmark? +As usual, the reading of the modern versions is based upon the witness of +the same small group of questionable manuscripts, while the witness of the +majority of textual evidence is discarded. + +Acts 8:37--The NASB omits this verse and thereby removes the glorious and +important testimony of the Ethiopian eunuch as to the incarnation and deity +of Jesus Christ. "And Phillip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, +thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the +Son of God." This verse is also removed from the RSV, NIV, Jerusalem Bible, +New English Bible, and Phillips, and is placed in brackets in the TEV, +indicating great doubt as to its trustworthiness. + +1 Corinthians 15:47--This is another serious omission pertaining to +Christ's deity. The KJV reads, "The first man is of the earth, earthly: the +second man is the Lord from heaven." The NASV reads, "...the second man is +from heaven," thus effectively removing this blessed and powerful testimony +that Jesus Christ is Lord from heaven. The NIV, TEV, RSV, Revised Berkeley, +New English, Jerusalem, Living Bible, and Phillips imitate this perversion. + +By the way, it was the editors of the English Revised Version and of the +Westcott-Hort text who removed this blessed witness from the Bible. Before +that the words, "the Lord" (from heaven) had stood uncontested in most +Bibles throughout the entire world, boldly witnessing to Christ's eternal +deity. Upon what overpowering textual authority did these nineteenth +century editors remove these significant and precious words? Again it was +done only on the exceedingly weak testimony of a few manuscripts of dubious +value against the vast majority of textual witnesses. The sad part is that +most twentieth century translators and Greek editors have followed in these +sad footsteps. + +1 Corinthians 16:22--"If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be +Anathema, Maranatha." This is changed by the NASB to read, "If any one does +not love the Lord, let him be accursed. Maranatha." Obviously the more +general reference robs Christ of the witness and honor He has received from +this passage for centuries in most Bibles. Again, this new reading is a +subtle, but definite weakening of the witness of Scripture to Christ's +deity. The strange thing is that even though the KJV translation is based +solidly upon the majority of textual witnesses, the NASB does not even have +a footnote to show that they have tampered with the Received Text on the +basis of very slight manuscript authority. The NIV, TEV, RSV, Revised +Berkeley, Jerusalem, New English, Living Bible, and Phillips follow the +faulty NASB translation. + +Galatians 3:17--By the removal of "in Christ," the NASB and other modern +versions strike another subtle yet definite blow against the preexistence +of Christ and of His part in the covenant of salvation. The KJV reads, "And +this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, +the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul..." +Here we are reminded that every word of the text is highly significant. + +1 Timothy 3:16--KJV reads: "And without controversy great is the mystery of +godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of +angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up +into glory." The NASB (together with practically all twentieth century +versions) reads, "And by common confession great is the mystery of +godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit." + +The following extract from a sermon by Terrance Brown, formerly the +Editorial Secretary of the Trinitarian Bible Society, offers important +facts which reveal the error of the NASV reading and the shocking history +of how this perversion crept into modern versions: + +"Countless millions of the Lord's people, from the dawn of the Christian +era to the present day, have read these words in their Bibles precisely as +they appear in our Authorised Version, but now this powerful testimony to +the Godhead of our Saviour is to be swept out of the Scriptures and to +disappear without trace. If we have the temerity to murmur or complain +about this erosion of the sacred text of God's Word we are liable to be +accused of defending the Authorised Version on emotional rather than on +rational grounds. Our present purpose is not so much to vindicate the +English translation as to demonstrate that we have good reason to believe +that the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write `God was manifest +in the flesh.' ... + +"Unfortunately this `mutual toleration' was attempted by those responsible +for the Revised Version [of 1881], and Dr. G. Vance Smith, minister of St. +Saviour's Gate Unitarian Chapel, York, was invited to join the revising +body. Dr. Smith attended a Communion service in Westminster Abbey in +company with the other Revisers and in a letter to `The Times' of 11th +July, 1870, he declared that he received the sacrament without joining in +the Creed and without compromise of his principles as a `Unitarian.' This +evoked a solemn protest signed by several thousand clergy, and a resolution +of the Upper House of Convocation in February, 1871, ``That it is the +judgment of this House that no person who denies the Godhead of our Lord +Jesus Christ ought to be invited to join either company to which is +committed the revision of the Authorised Version of Holy Scripture ... and +that any such person now on either company should cease to act therewith.' + +"Vance Smith nevertheless remained on the committee. Among other passages +robbed of their true significance was 1 Timothy 3:16, where `God was +manifest in the flesh" was altered to "who was manifest...' This was +entirely satisfactory to Dr. Smith, who commented, `The old reading has +been pronounced untenable by the Revisers, as it has long been known to be +by all careful students of the New Testament [doesn't that lying statement +make you want to throw up!]... It is another example of the facility with +which ancient copiers could introduce the word "God" into their +manuscripts--a reading which was the natural result of the growing tendency +in early Christian times to look upon the humble Teacher as the incarnate +Word, and therefore as "God manifested in the flesh."' [The author of this +book, for one, stands with those blessed early Christians in looking upon +Jesus Christ as the incarnate God!] + +"Most of the Revisers were also of the opinion that the original words +written by the Apostles did not include the name of God, and as a result +the Revised Version presents this text in a weakened form. + +"Notwithstanding the hostile note in the margin of the Revised Version at +this place, <`The word God, in place of He who, rests on no sufficient +ancient evidence.'> there is abundant ancient evidence for the text as we +have it in the Authorised Version, and comparatively little for the +adulterated text of the modern versions. ... + +"The great majority of the Greek copies have `God was manifested,' and very +few indeed have `who' or `which.' At the time of the Revision nearly three +hundred Greek copies were known to give indisputable support to the +Received Text, while not more than a handful of Greek copies could be +quoted in favour of `who' or `which.' It is thus apparent that the correct +and best attested reading of this verse is preserved in the Authorised +Version. ... + +"While it is of interest to record the opinions of scholars during the last +century, it is infinitely more important that we should know what was +written by the Apostle in the first, and the evidence is overwhelmingly in +favour of the inclusion of the Name of God in this text. To quote Professor +Charles Hodge (Systematic Theology), "For God we find the great body of the +cursive Greek manuscripts and almost all the Greek fathers ... The internal +evidence is decidedly in favour of the common text ... The leading truths +concerning the manifestation of Christ are concisely stated, (1) He is God; +(2) He was manifested in the flesh..." + +"This text as we have it is an integral part of God's inspired and holy +Word. It would be presumptuous to add to it, perilous to reject it, wise +and profitable to receive it and to remember the admonition to the prophet +of old--`Diminish not a word.'" + +To this testimony we add that of the Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon +Spurgeon: + +"[If] the text does not say "God was manifest in the flesh," who does it +say was manifest in the flesh? Either a man, or an angel, or a devil. Does +it tell us that a man was manifest in the flesh? Assuredly that cannot be +its teaching, for every man is manifest in the flesh, and there is no sense +in making such a statement concerning any mere man, and then calling it a +mystery. Was it an angel then? But what angel was ever manifest in the +flesh? And if he were, would it be at all a mystery that he should be `seen +of angels'? Is it a wonder for an angel to see an angel? Can it be that the +devil was manifest in the flesh? If so he has been `received up into +glory,' which, let us hope, is not the case. Well, if it was neither a man, +nor an angel, nor a devil, who was manifest in the flesh, surely he must +have been God; and so if the word be not there, the sense must be there, or +else nonsense. + +"We believe that if criticism should grind the text in a mill, it would get +out of it no more and no less than the sense expressed by our grand old +version. God Himself was manifest in the flesh. What a mystery is this! A +mystery of mysteries! God the invisible was manifest; God the Spiritual +dwelt in flesh; God the infinite, uncontained, boundless, was manifest in +the flesh. What infinite leagues our thought must traverse between Godhead +self existent, and therefore, full of power and self sufficiency, before we +have descended to the far down level of poor flesh, which is as grass at +its best, and dust in its essence! Where find we a greater contrast than +between God and flesh, and yet the two blended in the incarnation of the +Saviour. Matchless truth, let the Church never fail to set it forth, for it +is essential to the world's salvation that this doctrine of the incarnation +be made fully known." + +Thus we see that in the modern reading of 1 Timothy 3:16, in the omission +of one highly significant word--just one little three letter word--one of +the Bible's clearest, most indisputable witnesses to Christ's eternal deity +has been wiped away. + +1 John 4:3--"And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come +in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof +ye have heard that it should come; and even now is it in the world." The +NASB reads, "And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from +God..." It is easy to see that this is a seriously weakened translation +which does not give forth the proper test whereby we can discern the spirit +of antichrist. The NASB rendering (which is followed by the other modern +versions) is almost meaningless. Even Modernists, Mormons, Mohammedans, +Jehovah's Witnesses, and Masons will confess "Jesus"--in their own +perverted ways. The test is not whether someone confesses Jesus in a +general sense, but whether he confesses that Jesus is the Christ of Old +Testament prophecy. Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6 and other Old Testament passages +prophesied that Christ would be God. Jesus IS that Christ, and anyone who +denies this is of the spirit of antichrist. The NASB reading of this +passage is seriously corrupted. + +Revelation 1:11--Without so much as a marginal note of explanation, the +NASB removes the important words, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the +last" from this verse. Other modern translations do the same--NIV, TEV, +RSV, Revised Berkeley, New English, Jerusalem, Phillips. + +We have looked briefly at twenty-five key passages in which the testimony +of Christ's deity either has been removed entirely or critically weakened +in newer versions of the Bible. The deity of Christ has not been removed +entirely from these Bibles, but by the changes in the wordings of more than +two dozen important passages, the overall testimony to the doctrine of +Christ's deity has been weakened. Is this really a matter, friends, of +little consequence as so many would have us believe? I say not. + +This is not all. In addition to these major omissions are the following +omissions of names and titles belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. For this +list we are indebted to D.K. Madden's A Critical Examination of the New +American Standard Bible. + +LORD--Omitted in Matt. 13:51; Mark 9:24; Acts 9:6; 2 Cor. 4:10; Gal. 6:17; +2 Tim. 4:1; Titus 1:4. + +JESUS--Omitted in Matt. 8:29; Matt. 16:20; 2 Cor. 4:6; 2 Cor. 5:18; Col. +1:28; Phile. verse 6; 1 Pet. 5:14. + +CHRIST--Omitted in Lk. 4:41; Jn. 4:42; Acts 16:31; Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor. 16:23; +2 Cor. 11:31; Gal. 3:17; Gal. 4:7; 1 Thes. 2:19; I Thes. 3:11; 1 Thes. +3:13; 2 Thes. 1:8; Heb. 3:1; 1 Jn. 1:7; Rev. 12:17. + +JESUS CHRIST--Omitted in 1 Cor. 16:22; Gal. 6:15; Eph. 3:9; 2 Tim. 4:22. + +LORD JESUS CHRIST--Omitted in Romans 16:24; Eph. 3:14; Col. 1:2. + +SON OF GOD--Omitted in John 9:35; John 6:69. + +From the above non-exhaustive study it can be seen that the Westcott-Hort- +Bible Society text and the modern translations make a definite attack upon +the Scriptures' testimony of the deity of Jesus Christ. This one fact alone +is sufficient cause to retain the Textus Receptus and faithful translations +founded upon it. + +Note further that the above readings of the TR and KJV are supported by +every edition of the Textus Receptus and of the Majority Text. Some enemies +of the TR delight in pointing out the fact that there are some differences +between the various editions of the Textus Receptus, such as Erasmus's, +Stephens', Elzevir's, and Scrivener's. These critics usually fail to +mention an important fact relevant to this issue-- the differences between +these texts are amazingly few (and minute), whereas the differences between +the TR and the Westcott-Hort type text are amazingly vast. + +The few differences which do exist between the various editions and +manuscripts within the Received Text family cannot be ignored, but they do +not present the type of difficulty as that presented by the Egyptian +textual family. The orthodoxy of the Received Text family is seen in its +united witness FOR the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ in the above +mentioned passages. + +THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST + +There are only two passages in the Gospel which directly contain the +account of Christ's ascension to Heaven after His resurrection--Mark +16:19 and Luke 24:51. It is interesting that both of these passages are +questioned by the Westcott-Hort text and the versions which are based upon +this foundation. + +D.K. Madden notes: "Luke 24:51 AV reads--`And it came to pass, while +he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.' NASB +omits the last part of this verse from the text, while a marginal note +says--`Some mss. add: and was carried up into heaven.' It is also +significant that NASB places the last twelves verses of Mark 16 in brackets +with a marginal note casting doubt on their genuineness, because these two +portions of Scripture contain the only Gospel account of the +Ascension." Also, "Luke 24:52--Worship of the Ascended Lord +Jesus Christ is omitted from the text while a marginal note says, `Some +mss. insert: worshiped Him, and...'" + +OMISSIONS AFFECTING THE DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT + +Colossians 1:14--The AV [Authorized Version, KJV] reads, "In whom we +have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." NASB +omits "through his blood" (D.K. Madden). + +Hebrews 1:3--The AV reads, "Who being the brightness of his glory, +and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word +of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right +hand of the Majesty on high." The NASB omits "by himself" (D.K. +Madden). + +1 Peter 4:1--The AV reads, "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered +for us in the flesh ..." The NASB omits "for us" (D.K. +Madden). + +1 Corinthians 5:7--The AV reads, "... For even Christ our passover +is sacrificed for us." Again, the NASB omits "for us" (D.K. +Madden). + +OMISSIONS AFFECTING THE DOCTRINE OF FASTING + +The new versions make a strange attack against the New Testament teaching +of fasting. Though some references to fasting remain, several very +significant references are removed. + +Matthew 17:21--KJV "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer +and fasting." This entire verse is omitted in the NASV, RSV, NIV, New +English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, and Phillips. The TEV puts the verse in +brackets. + +Mark 9:29--KJV reads "And he said unto them, This kind can come +forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." The Bible Society Greek +text and the new versions based on this text omit the phrase "and +fasting." This is true in the NIV, NASV, RSV, Living Bible, Phillips, +New English Bible, and Jerusalem Bible. + +These two verses about fasting are certainly not the only references to +this doctrine in Scripture, but they are the only two references which +specifically, directly teach the importance of fasting as an aspect of +spiritual warfare. Those who have fought spiritual battles against the +powers of darkness know from experience the precious truth of what Jesus is +saying in these passages. Prayer is a powerful spiritual resource, but +there ARE demonic strongholds which cannot be broken by prayer alone +without fasting. It is a fact, and it is a part of the Bible! + +To remove these references from the Bible is folly and evil. It is equal to +removing part of the essential armament from a soldier's equipment before +sending him into battle. + +The textual evidence for the references is overwhelming. Again, it is +basically a matter of the vast majority of textual witnesses on one hand +(which support the fasting readings) against the flimsy, questionable +testimony of two manuscripts, primarily-- Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. + +Personally, I will require a much stronger witness than this before +allowing someone to remove these blessed Scriptures from my Bible. In fact, +you will not take them from my Bible, thank you! I consider these +references so important spiritually, that the removal of these two passages +alone demonstrate to me the error of following the Westcott-Hort textual +principles which allow the Sinaitic and Vaticanus manuscripts to overthrow +the testimony of multitudes of other witnesses. + +There are four other passages dealing with the doctrine of fasting which +are removed in the new versions: + +Acts 10:30--Here we read in the King James Version and most of the old +Protestant translations in various languages that Cornelius was fasting and +praying. The new versions, following the lead of the Westcott-Hort Greek +text, remove the word fasting. This is true for the RSV, NASV, NIV, Living +Bible, TEV, New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible, the New Berkeley Version, +and Phillips. + +1 Corinthians 7:5--The KJV reads, "Defraud ye not one the other, +except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to +fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for +your incontinency." Again, rejecting the majority of textual witnesses, +the new versions remove fasting from this important passage. This is true +for all of the versions we have been checking as mentioned above. + +2 Corinthians 6:5--The KJV reading, "fasting," has been changed +in the new versions to "hunger." Obviously hunger and fasting are +two different things. In 2 Cor. 11:27, where the Apostle Paul gives a +similar listing of some aspects of his ministry, he mentions both hunger +AND fasting. We see from this that the Holy Spirit is not using these terms +synonymously. Therefore, this is another attack upon the biblical doctrine +of the spiritual benefit of fasting. + +2 Corinthians 11:27--The KJV reading, "fastings often," is +replaced in the new versions with "often without food." The comment +on 2 Cor. 6:5 above applies here as well. One can be hungry and go without +food without it being connected with the spiritual life and warfare. The +KJV reading says, "in hunger and thirst, in fastings often." A +clear distinction is made between the hunger Paul often endured and his +frequent times of spiritual fasting. If in these two passages the Holy +Spirit is referring to the apostle's spiritual battles, to spiritual +fasting, which is most probable since such a distinction is made, the +modern translators have done a great evil in removing this teaching through +their versions. + +When the reading of these six verses is taken together, a definite pattern +of attack appears in the new Greek texts and versions upon the doctrine of +fasting as a spiritual weapon. This is even more serious in light of the +fact that we are warned in Scripture that spiritual warfare will grow in +intensity as the time of Christ's return draws near. "This know also, +that in the last days perilous times shall come. ... But evil men and +seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived" (2 +Tim. 3:1,13). Don't be deceived, dear Christian friend, into accepting a +Bible version which removes these important spiritual weapons from your +life. + +By no means are these all of the doctrines attacked in the modern versions, +but from with these examples the overall result can be seen. It is admitted +that the above doctrines are not entirely removed in the modern versions, +but there is no doubt that a definite weakening of doctrine has taken +place. + +Some of the most precious passages dealing with these doctrines have been +tampered with--for example, 1 Tim. 3:16, dealing with the deity of our +Lord Jesus Christ. There is not a clearer testimony in the New Testament to +Christ's deity than this. As one writer has noted, the Westminster +Confession, which supports each of its doctrinal statements with Scripture +references, uses 1 Tim. 3:16 as proof of its testimony to Christ's deity. +Few Christians in evangelical circles would use this today, because first, +it is not in their Bibles; or second, it is not in the Bibles used by those +with whom they are dealing. This is the sad fruit of Westcott-Hort textual +work. + +MORE THAN 50 TEACHINGS ARE REMOVED, WEAKENED, CHANGED OR ADDED IN THE +UNITED BIBLE SOCIETIES GREEK TEXT AND THE NEW VERSIONS + +The following list is by no means exhaustive, but we will note over fifty +different teachings which either are removed entirely, weakened, changed, +or added in the UBS text. You will look in vain for these teachings in the +new English translations. Someone might reply that the following things do +not affect one's Christian faith and life, but one can say that only by +ignoring the truth that ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God and +ALL of it is profitable for "doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for +instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly +furnished unto all good works." Man might say we don't need the +following teachings; God says we do. + +Remember, too, that "doctrine" simply means teaching. Thus, when +any teaching of Scripture is removed or changed in the modern versions, in +actuality, a doctrine has been removed or changed. + +(1) The doctrine pertaining to the exact purpose, power and importance of +FASTING is removed from the Bible in the UBS text. + +Though we have already mentioned this, it is proper to point out this fact +again in the present context. At least six significant references to +fasting are removed in the UBS text, and two of these are related to the +teaching that some demonic strongholds can be broken only through +fasting--Matt. 17:21 and Mk. 9:29. The omission of the word +"fasting" in these two verses completely removes this particular +doctrine of fasting from the entire Bible. Yes, there are other references +in the Bible to fasting, but no other references unequivocally specify its +effectiveness in spiritual warfare. + +(2) The teaching of the virgin birth is effectively removed from the +epistles in the UBS text. + +Those who deny the virgin birth love to point out the supposed fact that +the apostles did not refer to this doctrine in their writings to the +churches. These liberals are wrong, of course. The virgin birth is referred +to in Gal. 4:4 and Heb. 2:16, but the "small" changes made in these +passages in the UBS text and the new translations effectively remove the +possibility of these verses being references to the virgin birth. Gal. 4:4 +in the NIV reads "born of a woman," whereas it reads "made of a +woman" in the KJV. To be born of a woman is natural; to be made of a +woman is supernatural! Heb. 2:16 in the NIV reads, "For surely it is +not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants," whereas the KJV reads, +"For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him +the seed of Abraham." In the NIV we find Jesus helping the Jews; in the +KJV we find the preexistent Christ becoming a Jewish man through the womb +of a virgin. + +(3) The teaching that Christians are to withdraw from men who "deny the +doctrine which is according to godliness," is removed from 1 Tim. 6:5. + +The phrase "from such withdraw thyself" is attested by the majority +of Greek manuscripts, and the chief support for omitting the phrase is +merely the corrupt Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus manuscripts. + +There are other passages which contain the doctrine of separation, but each +has different kinds of separation in view. No other passage in the Bible +contains the exact doctrine taught in 1 Tim. 6:3-5, that Christians are to +withdraw from those who deny the doctrine according to godliness in the +ways spoken of there. + +There are many promoting a worldly Christianity, scoffing at biblical +standards of personal holiness such as abstinence from rock music, alcohol, +drugs, immoral and violent movies, even saying homosexuality and divorce +are not displeasing to God. Too, there are a growing number of supposed +Christians who believe homosexuality is a proper lifestyle. 1 Tim. 6:3-6 is +a plain prophecy of such men, concluded by the command to separate from +them. Often I have wanted to use this passage to exhort such separation, +but I could not because those to whom I was speaking used Bibles which +deleted the clause about separation. In light of the growing tendency among +professing Christians to deny the doctrine of godliness, this passage +becomes more needful with each passing year. + +(4) According to the UBS text and the new translations, eagles fly in +Heaven and give messages from God. Rev. 8:13 in the NASV is representative +of the modern versions: "... I heard an eagle flying in mid-heaven, +saying with a loud voice, `Woe, woe, woe, to those who dwell on the +earth.'" You won't find this doctrine anywhere in the TR or the KJV! + +(5) The teaching that the healing of Peter's mother-in-law was immediate is +entirely removed from the UBS text by the omission of the word +"immediately" in Mk. 1:31. + +(6) The doctrine that Jesus came expressly to call sinners to repentance is +omitted in the UBS text. The words "to repentance" are omitted in +Matt. 9:13 and Mk. 2:17. Other passages, such as Matt. 4:17, have Jesus +preaching repentance in the modern versions, but only the two referred to +say expressly that this was His actual purpose in coming. + +(7) The doctrine that every sacrifice shall be salted with salt is omitted +entirely from the UBS Greek text by the omission of the words "every +sacrifice shall be salted" in Mk. 9:49. + +(8) The teaching that the young ruler had to "take up the cross" is +omitted entirely from the Bible in the UBS text by the removal of those +words in Mk. 10:21. This account is repeated in Matt. 19:21 and Lk. 18:22, +but the reference to Christ's command that the young ruler must take up the +cross is not contained in these passages. + +(9) The matter of trusting in riches making it hard for men to enter the +kingdom of God is removed from your Bible if you use one based upon the UBS +text, because the words "for them that trust in riches" are omitted +in Mk. 10:24. Other passages mention the rich man (Matt. 19:23,24, etc.) +but no other New Testament passage explains that the wealthy man's problem +was the matter of "trusting in riches." + +(10) By omitting the words "of the saved" in Rev. 21:24, the +teaching regarding these future things is significantly changed. + +(11) The teaching that Mary was blessed among women is removed. The modern +versions omit "blessed art thou among women" from Lk. 1:28. No +other verse says this, and it is omitted in all new versions. Perhaps this +is unimportant? Who are we to say? This IS a Bible doctrine in the TR and +KJV, and it is NOT a Bible teaching in the UBS text or new translations. + +(12) The teaching that Jesus commanded the devil to get behind Him is +omitted. Lk. 4:8. Matt. 4:10 reads, "Get thee hence, Satan," but +says nothing about Satan being commanded to get behind Jesus. This teaching +is missing from new versions of the Bible. + +(13) The teaching that the apostles James and John were wanting to imitate +Elijah in calling fire from Heaven is removed. "...even as Elias +did" is omitted in the UBS text in Lk. 9:54. + +(14) The teaching that the apostles did not "know what manner of +spirit" they were of and that "the Son of man is not come to +destroy men's lives, but to save them" is removed from the new Bibles +by the omission of these words from Lk. 9:55,56. + +(15) The teaching that Jesus was struck on the face is removed entirely +from the New Testament. The modern versions remove the words "they +struck him on the face" from Lk. 22:64. Parallel passages say they +smote and buffeted Him in a general sense, but only this one verse +specifically mentions the striking of His blessed face. + +(16) The teaching that Peter "wondered in himself at that which had +come to pass" is removed from the Bible, because the entire verse of +Luke 24:12 is removed from the UBS text. A parallel passage, John 20:3-7, +says Peter went in the tomb and saw the grave clothes, but does not mention +about him wondering in himself about the whole matter. + +(17) The UBS text and new Bibles remove the teaching that the disciples +worshiped Jesus as He ascended to Heaven. The words "and they +worshipped him" are removed from Lk. 24:52. + +(18) The teaching that Jesus was preferred before John is omitted from the +UBS text by the omission of the words "preferred before me" from +Jn. 1:27. + +(19) The new Bibles which follow the UBS text remove the doctrine that +Jesus was in heaven even while He was on earth. The words "which is in +heaven" are omitted from Jn. 3:13. + +(20) The UBS text and new Bibles remove the doctrine about the people +waiting for the moving of the water and about the angel stirring the water +in Jn. 5:3,4. Both verses are omitted. By the way, this KJV and TR reading +is supported by the vast majority of manuscript evidence. We might not +understand this passage; we might not even like it. But the fact remains +that the Textus Receptus contains it. It has been in the Bible through the +centuries, but it is deleted from the UBS text. + +(21) The doctrine regarding the woman taken in adultery in John 8:1-11 +either is removed or is included in brackets, thereby placing its authority +in grave doubt, but is supported by the majority of manuscript evidence. +Much doctrine is contained here, some of which is in no other passage of +the Bible. + +(22) The teaching that Jesus addressed Thomas by name is omitted in Jn. +20:29 and is contained in no parallel passage. This might seem an +insignificant matter, but how precious it is to see Jesus calling His +own--and a faithless, stubborn one at that!--by name. These little +"insignificant" details of God's Word hold much wonderful doctrine. + +(23) That which Philip the evangelist required of those he baptized is +removed from the new Bibles, together with the wonderful confession of the +eunuch who was saved while riding in the chariot. See Acts 8:37, which is +omitted in the new versions. + +(24) The teaching that Paul was being deeply convicted by the Lord is +removed from the Bible by the omission in Acts 9:5 of "it is hard for +thee to kick against the pricks." + +(25) The teaching of what Paul first said to the Lord Jesus Christ is +removed from the Bible with the omission in Acts 9:6 of "And he +trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" You +cannot find out what Paul first said to Christ in the new Bibles. + +(26) Most of Tertullus' speech is removed from the Bible, together with any +teaching it contains by the omission of Acts 24:6-8. + +(27) The teaching that the other prisoners were delivered to the captain of +the guard while Paul was allowed to dwell by himself is removed from the +Bible by the omission of Acts 28:16. + +(28) The teaching that the Jews left Paul after his words recorded in Acts +28:25-28 and that they had great reasoning among themselves is removed from +the Bible by the omission of Acts 28:29. + +(29) The teaching that those who turned from the truth were filled with +"fornication" is removed from the Bible by the omission of this +word in Rom. 1:29. Other Bible passages speak of the fact that fallen man +commits fornication, but no other Bible passage says specifically, as this +one does, that fallen man became "filled with fornication" when he +rejected God. + +(30) The teaching that if something "be of works, then it is no more +grace: otherwise work is no more work" is removed from the Bible by its +omission from Rom. 11:6. Though the first part of this verse is retained +and the teaching of the first and second halves of the verse is similar, +the teaching of the two clauses is not exactly the same; and the teaching +of the second clause is removed from the Bible in the new versions. + +(31) Doctrine regarding keeping or not keeping holy days is omitted from +Rom. 14:6, with the deletion of the words "he that regardeth not the +day, to the Lord he doth not regard it." + +(32) By the omission in Rom. 14:21 of the words "or is offended, or is +made weak," the UBS text removes some doctrine from the Bible in this +context. + +(33) The doctrine that we are to glorify God in our spirit as well as body +is removed in 1 Cor. 6:20 with the deletion of the words "and in your +spirit, which are God's." + +(34) The doctrine that fasting and prayer is the only thing which is to +keep married couples from their physical relationship is removed by its +omission in 1 Cor. 7:5. + +(35) By the omission of the words "by the law" in 1 Cor. 7:39, the +teaching is removed from this passage that it is the law which binds the +woman to her husband while he is alive--1 Cor. 7:39. + +(36) The doctrine that Jesus is the Lord from Heaven is removed from the +UBS text and new Bibles by the omission of these words in 1 Cor. 15:47. The +KJV says, "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the +Lord from heaven." The NIV, as a representative of all modern versions, +reads, "The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from +heaven." + +(37) The truth that the covenant of God promised to Abraham was IN CHRIST +is removed from the Bible by the omission of these words in Gal. 3:17. + +(38) The doctrine that we are members of Christ's flesh and of His bones is +removed by the omission of these words in Eph. 5:30. The KJV reads, "For we +are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." The NIV, again +representing practically all modern versions, reads, "for we are members of +his body." + +(39) The teaching that Christians are to mind the same thing is removed by +the modern version omission in Phil. 3:16. The KJV reads, +"Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the +same rule, let us mind the same thing." The NIV reads, "Only let us +live up to what we have already attained." You can see that the entire +last half of the verse is omitted, as it is in all the modern translations +which follow the critical text. The doctrine of walking by the same rule is +therefore removed from Scripture. + +A similar thought is in Rom. 15:5,6, but there is a distinct difference +between the two (as is usually true of similar passages and which is +another reason for the repetition). Rom. 15:5,6 is speaking of the +Christian's attitude toward another--"be likeminded one toward +another." Phil. 3:16,17 is speaking of Christians being of one mind in +doctrine and practice. This is a different matter, and the removal of the +teaching of Phil. 3:16 is sad in light of the widespread apostasy from the +doctrine and practice of the apostles among professing Christians in our +day. + +(40) Col. 2:11 teaches that it is the sins of the flesh which are affected +by regeneration and not the body itself. This doctrine is changed in the +new Bibles by the omission of the words "of the sins." This changes +the entire doctrine of this important passage on salvation. + +(41) The teaching that preachers are to be examples "in spirit" is +removed by the omission of these words in 1 Tim. 4:12. + +(42) The teaching that Philemon was asked to receive Onesimus is removed +from the Bible by the omission of the words "receive him" in Phile. +1:12. + +(43) The doctrine that Jesus "by himself" purged our sins is +removed from the new Bibles by the omission of these words in Heb. 1:3. +This doctrine that Christ wrought salvation entirely by Himself is nowhere +else exactly stated. + +(44) Christians are to confess their "sins" to one another, +according to James 5:16 in the Westcott-Hort and UBS text. The TR uses the +Greek word paratoma, which refers to "a side-slip, lapse, +deviation, faults" (Strong's Exhaustive Concordance). The UBS +text, on the other hand, uses hamartia, the "most comprehensive +term for moral evils" (Vine's Expository Dictionary of the New +Testament Words). The reading of the new versions fits the Roman +Catholic doctrine of confession, whereas the TR reading does not. + +(45) The teaching in 1 Peter 1:22 that it is through the Holy Spirit that +we obey the truth for salvation is removed from the new versions by the +omission of the words "through the Spirit." + +(46) The doctrine that Christ is glorified on our part when we endure +reproach and suffering is removed by the omission in 1 Pet. 4:14 of the +words "on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is +glorified." + +(47) The teaching is removed from the new Bibles that the "old +commandment" referred to by John is the one we have "heard from the +beginning" by the omission of this phrase in 1 Jn. 2:7. + +(48) The proper test to determine the false spirit of antichrist is removed +from the new Bibles by the perversion of 1 Jn. 4:3 in the UBS text. The KJV +reads, "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come +in the flesh is not of God..." The NIV reads, "But every spirit +that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God..." There is a great +difference between these two tests. Every false spirit will +"acknowledge Jesus" in a general sense, but the spirit of +antichrist will not "confess that Jesus Christ is come in the +flesh," referring to the fact that Jesus is that very Messiah, that +very God manifest in the flesh, promised in Old Testament prophecy. We +considered this earlier when discussing the modern version omissions +pertaining to Christ's deity. This is a serious textual and translational +error. + +(49) The doctrine that we love God because he first loved us is removed +from the new Bibles by the omission of the word "Him" in 1 Jn. +5:19. + +(50) The teaching that "there are three that bear record in heaven, the +Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one" is +removed from the new Bibles by the omission of these words in 1 Jn. 5:7. +Absolutely nowhere else in Scripture is the doctrine of the Trinity stated +so clearly. Though this reading is not supported by the majority of +existing Greek manuscripts, it does have some manuscript evidence and other +authority to support it. It was not something Erasmus or someone created +from thin air! It is true that the doctrine of the Trinity is contained +elsewhere in Scripture and does not depend upon this one verse, but it is +also true that nowhere else in the Bible is the doctrine of the Trinity so +clearly and simply stated as here. We must remember this is a 2verse which +God has blessed throughout the world for 450 years by the vast influence of +the Received Text, the Authorized Bible, and the other great Protestant +versions which were carried to the ends of the earth. It is thus impossible +not to see the hand of God in the preservation of this reading in our old +Bible. + +(51) The teaching that the fire which destroys the armies of Satan at the +end of time is from Heaven is removed by the omission of the words +"from God out of" in Revelation 20:9. + +(52) The teaching in Rev. 22:19 that those who tamper with God's Word will +have their part taken out of the book of life is changed. The new texts say +"tree of life" rather than book of life. + +In all of these instances the doctrine of the Bible IS changed by the +reading of the new translations. Some might argue that none of these are +significant. Others will argue that only a few are significant. However, +whether or not these changes are considered significant by men is not +relevant. My argument is that the omissions and changes in the UBS text and +new translations do affect the doctrine of the Bible. The common +evangelical myth that there is no doctrinal difference between texts and +versions is just that--a myth. + +Consider again the voice of a well-known evangelist: + +"...the rare parts about which there is still uncertainty do not affect in +any way any doctrine" (R.L. Sumner, Bible Translations). + +This, my friends, is a myth. + +May the precious Lord Jesus Christ give His people wisdom to know His voice +in this amazingly confusing day. We need the sharpest sword possible. We +need all of the words of God. Actually, the thing that is most urgently +needed among God's people today is a heart of willingness to obey His +voice, for He has already promised, "If any man will do his will, HE SHALL +KNOW OF THE DOCTRINE, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" +(Jn. 7:17). + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/myth4.txt b/religious documents/myth4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a081d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/myth4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1023 @@ +[The following material is published by Way of Life Literature and is +copyrighted by David W. Cloud, 1986. All rights are reserved. Permission is +given for duplication for personal use, but not for resale. The following +is available in booklet format from Way of Life Literature, Bible Baptist +Church, 1219 N. Harns Road, Oak Harbor, Washington 98277. Phone (206) 675- +8311. This article is number four in a set of five booklets.] + +MYTHS ABOUT THE KING JAMES BIBLE: + +Copyright 1986 by David W. Cloud. All rights reserved. + +MYTH # 4: INSPIRATION IS PERFECT, BUT PRESERVATION IS GENERAL +By David W. Cloud + +CHAPTER 1 +THE NATURALISTIC VIEW OF PRESERVATION + +Another popular myth surrounding the King James Bible is the concept that +while God inspired the Scriptures perfectly, He has preserved the +Scriptures only in a more general sense. To put this another way, while +inspiration was miraculous, preservation has been merely circumstantial. + +This thinking is common among evangelicals. It is also common among +fundamentalists who have been trained in many of the large colleges and +seminaries of our land. These contend that though the Bible was verbally +inspired and infallible in the original autographs, there is no +truly perfect Bible today. According to this position, none of the various +editions of the Greek and Hebrew texts, nor the translations thereof, are +absolutely perfect. + +EXAMPLES OF THE POPULAR VIEW + +Harold Lindsell exemplifies this persuasion. Lindsell is in the mainstream +of the evangelical movement. He was vice-president of Fuller Theological +Seminary; he taught at Columbia Bible College and at Northern Baptist +Seminary; and he has served as Senior Editor of Christianity Today. In 1976 +Lindsell published The Battle for the Bible to warn of the downgrading of +the doctrine of inspiration among evangelicals. Lindsell said, "This change +of position with respect to the infallibility of the Bible is widespread +and has occurred in evangelical denominations, Christian colleges, +theological seminaries, publishing houses, and learned societies" (p. 20). + +The point to note here is that Lindsell stands for the absolute perfection +of the Bible AS ORIGINALLY GIVEN. Consider some statements from his book: + +"Inspiration may be defined as the inward work of the Holy Spirit in the +hearts and minds of chosen men who then wrote the Scriptures so that God +got written what He wanted. The Bible in all of its parts constitutes the +written Word of God to man. This Word is free from all error IN ITS +ORIGINAL AUTOGRAPHS. ... It is wholly trustworthy in matters of history and +doctrine. ... The very nature of inspiration renders the Bible +infallible ... It is inerrant in that it is not false, mistaken, or +defective. Inspiration extends to all parts of the written Word of God and +it includes the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit even in the selection of +the words of Scripture" (pp. 30- 31). + +This is an excellent statement on the Bible's inspiration. The strange +problem is that Lindsell does not believe such a Bible exists today. When +it comes to the Bible today, Lindsell takes a rather different position. He +says, "God did not shield Scripture when it became a part of history. ... +F.F. Bruce has this to say ... `The variant readings about which any doubt +remains ... affect no material question of historic fact or of Christian +faith and practice'" (p. 37). + +This is a different matter altogether. A Bible that is word-for- word +inspired and absolutely perfect in every detail is a different thing from +one that is only accurate in its basic historical facts and doctrines, one +which contains hundreds of variant readings which might be wrong. + +Lindsell's thinking as to existing Bibles is seen in that he has published +a study Bible using The Living Bible, which is one of the worst +translations in existence. In announcing The Lindsell Study Bible - The +Living Bible, Lindsell said, "The Living Bible makes clearer what other +translations render obscure. ... I recommend it highly." In 1972, while +Lindsell was editor, free copies of The Living Bible were offered as a +bonus for every new subscription to Christianity Today. + +Lindsell fights for the absolute perfection of the original autographs of +the Bible but he accepts practically any and every translation and +paraphrase, regardless of the fact that these versions differ from one +another in thousands of consequential particulars. In practice, therefore, +Lindsell has no perfect Bible, as he has admitted. + +Let me give another example of this thinking. James Boice was Chairman of +the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, which in the 1980s held +several conferences to explain and defend the doctrine of biblical +inerrancy. Speaking of these matters, Boice said, "These are the great +issues of the day, and they need to be dealt with, particularly by men and +women who approach them on the basis of God's inerrant Word, our Bible" +(Christian News, Sept. 16, 1985). + +That sounds great. But again, when it comes to existing Bibles, Dr. Boice +changes his tune. In a letter dated Sept. 13, 1985, to Dr. Thomas Hale, +missionary doctor in Nepal, Boice gave his opinion regarding translations. +Earlier in 1985, Dr. Hale had visited our home in Nepal and had asked me +for information on Bible versions. For the next few months we corresponded +on these matters and I sent him some materials, including Which Bible +edited by David Otis Fuller, and The King James Bible Defended by Edward F. +Hills. As these communications proceeded, Dr. Hale wrote to Boice and asked +his opinion of texts and translations. A copy of this letter was given to +me by Dr. Hale. Consider an excerpt: + +"I might add that the issue has come before the International Council on +Biblical Inerrancy on several occasions and that every one of these men see +the value of the newer texts in translations and are not defenders of the +King James Version as the only text. Every man on this council is committed +to inerrancy. Some prefer the King James Version and use it, for various +reasons. But not one defends it or the textus receptus as the true and only +valid text. + +"... people who defend the textus receptus ardently should know these facts +[editor: Boice had voiced the timeworn arguments that 1) the majority of +manuscripts which support the Received Text are supposedly inferior to the +few that support the Westcott-Hort Text, 2) Erasmus supposedly was a +humanist and did not have broad manuscript evidence]. It is not a Divinely +given and specially preserved text of the New Testament. ... + +"Let me say personally that the English text that I work from most often is +the New International Version. IT IS NOT PERFECT, but it is a very good +text and may well win a place in the contemporary church similar to the +place held by the King James Version for so long. ... I must say, although +I DO NOT ALWAYS AGREE WITH THE NIV, that GENERALLY it does a better job of +translating the Greek text than the King James does." + +We can see that while Boice and the other evangelical leaders in the +Council on Biblical Inerrancy are committed to the perfect inspiration of +the Bible as a theological concept, they are equally committed to the fact +that no such Bible exists today. They say the Received Text is not perfect. + The King James Bible is +not perfect. The NIV is nice, but it certainly is not perfect. These men +have no perfect Bible and do not believe such a Bible exists. Yet they are +busy fighting for the absolute infallibility and verbal inspiration of the +Bible! What Bible? A Bible that has ceased to exist. Further, these +scholarly giants slander those who do believe in a perfect Bible and +contend that WE are unreasonable troublemakers! + +Note the intellectual pride which oozes from Boice's pen regarding those +simpletons who believe the Received Text is the perfect, preserved Word of +God: + +"Let me say that the concerns of some of these people are undoubtedly good. +They are zealous for the Word of God and very much concerned lest liberal +or any other scholarship enter in to pervert it. But unfortunately, the +basis on which they are operating is wrong, and I have always tried to do +what I could in a gentle way to lead them to appreciate good, current +evangelical scholarship where the Greek text and the translations are +concerned. ... The situation is somewhat complex, and many people do not +understand it as a result of that complexity." + +This amazing scholarly pride characterizes the writings of all of these +men, regardless of their theological bent. Anyone who refuses to accept the +common scholarly line regarding texts and versions is an ignoramus. Dr. +David Otis Fuller identified this phenomenon as "scholarolotry." These men +conveniently ignore the fact that many intelligent, knowledgeable men +reject the modern text and stand firmly upon the KJV. + +In the fundamentalist world a similar situation exists, particularly among +Bible college professors and their ardent followers. Stewart Custer of Bob +Jones University epitomizes this position. His book Does Inspiration Demand +Inerrancy? is a fine defense of the perfect infallibility of the +Scriptures--but only in regard to the so-called autographs. Consider: + +"Conservatives are not contending for the infallibility of any translation, +but only for the infallibility of the original documents. ... `the record +for whose inspiration we contend is the original record--the autographs or +parchments of Moses, David, Daniel, Matthew, Paul, or Peter, as the case +may be, and not any particular translation or translations of them +whatever. There is no translation absolutely without error, nor could there +be, considering the infirmities of human copyists, unless God were pleased +to perform a perpetual miracle to secure it'" (p. 88). + +In the book The Truth about the King James Version Controversy, Custer +acknowledges that there is at least a 10% difference between the Greek text +of the King James Bible and that of the modern Bibles. Yet of this vast +amount of difference he concludes, "There is no fundamental doctrine that +is at stake between these two families of manuscripts. ... God's +preservation is not a continuing inspiration, but a preservation so that no +teaching of the Bible would be lost." + +The problem with this position is that it is based on human logic and not +on the Word of God. The same God that perfectly inspired the Scriptures has +promised to perfectly preserve the Scriptures--not merely its teachings, +but its very words. What is wrong with believing in a continuing miracle? +If Bible preservation is not miraculous, the doctrine of inspiration is +meaningless. If inspiration was perfect but preservation is only general, +the entire matter is vain jangling. + +CHAPTER 2 +THE EXTENT OF PRESERVATION + +The bottom line in this matter is that the same Bible that claims to be +perfectly inspired also claims to be perfectly preserved. My faith in this +is not based on common sense (though it is sensible to believe that if God +gave a perfect Bible He would preserve that very Bible). My faith in this +matter is based on the promises of a God that cannot lie. + +The men quoted previously, which represent a wide field of thinking, write +volumes defining and defending what the Bible says about its own +inspiration, but they are strangely silent on what the same Bible says +about preservation. They take the position of faith in regard to +inspiration but retreat to the position of skepticism in regard to +preservation. + +Jack Moorman, in his excellent manual Forever Settled, states the problem +plainly: "A far better principle is given in Rom. 14:23--`Whatsoever is not +of faith is sin.' If I cannot by faith take the Bible in my hand and say +this is the preserved Word of God, then it is sin. If we do not approach +the study of how we got our Bible from the standpoint of faith, then it is +sin. If I cannot believe what God says about the preservation of His Word, +then I cannot believe what He says about its inspiration either--all is +sin." + +Faith stands on the Word of God. Let us see exactly what the Bible says +about this matter of its own preservation: + +"The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of +earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt +preserve them from this generation for ever." Psa. 12:6-7 + +"The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to +all generations." Psa. 33:11 + +"For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to +all generations." Psa. 100:5 + +"The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are +sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and +uprightness." Psa. 111:7-8 + +"... the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord." Psa. +117:2 + +"For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." Psa. 119:89 + +"Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded +them for ever." Psa. 119:152 + +"Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous +judgments endureth for ever." Psa. 119:160 + +"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall +stand for ever." Isa. 40:8 + +"As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that +is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart +out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of +thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." Isa. 59:21 + +"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one +tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Matt. +5:18 + +"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Matt. +24:35 + +"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the +Word of God which liveth and abideth forever." 1 Pet. 1:23 + +"But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by +the gospel is preached unto you." 1 Pet. 1:25 + +"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of +this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him +the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away +from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part +out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things +which are written in this book." Rev. 22:18-19 + +The teaching of these passages is that God would preserve His Word in +detail to every generation. This, and this alone, is the biblical doctrine +of preservation. I call this verbal preservation. The scholars mock this +position and sneeringly label it with derogatory terms such as "secondary +inspiration," but I am convinced the Bible teaches miraculous inspiration +and miraculous preservation. + +Psa. 12:6-7 summarizes the doctrine of Bible preservation. This passage +promises that the pure words (not just thoughts or general teachings) of +God would be kept to every generation. Preserved words. Not just the +doctrines. Not just the historical facts. The words! This is verbal +preservation, and it is exactly what the Bible plainly promises. + +Psa. 33:11 says God's thoughts would not be lost but rather would stand to +all generations, and we know from passages such as 1 Cor. 2:12-13 that +these divine thoughts have been expressed through divinely-chosen words. +"Which things also we speak, NOT IN THE WORDS which man's wisdom teacheth, +but which the Holy Ghost teacheth..." Therefore we see that this promise in +Psalm 33, too, is a promise of the verbal preservation of Scripture. + +Psa. 100:5, 111:7-8, and 117:2 tell us that the truth of God will stand +forever and endure to all generations. This could mean that sound doctrine +in general will be preserved, as those who take a naturalistic view of +preservation contend, but this cannot be. We know that God's truth is not +expressed to man merely in general doctrinal terms. Truth is expressed in +divinely-selected words. Jesus said, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy +word is truth" (Jn. 17:17). He also said, "It is written, Man shall not +live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of +God" (Mat. 4:4). It is crucial that men have the very words of Scripture. +God has not merely given man a pattern of truth; He has given the very form +of truth in the Scriptures. It is this verbally inspired truth that the Old +Testament is promising will be preserved. + +Psa. 119:160 adds the testimony that even the very earliest portions of +God's Word, Genesis and the other writings of Moses, would be preserved. + +Psa. 100:5 connects Bible preservation with God's goodness and mercy. It is +because God loves man that He has given His Book. Psalm 100:5 reminds us +that the same love which motivated God to inspire the Scriptures, motivates +Him to keep them. + +Isaiah adds his "amen" to this doctrine of preservation. According to Isa. +59:21, it is the very words of God which will be preserved. + +The Lord Jesus Christ is even more specific in His teaching about the +preservation of Scripture. In Mat. 24:35 the Son of God promises that His +WORDS will not pass away. And in Mat. 5:18, He says the very JOTS AND +TITTLES of God's Word will not pass away! That is certainly verbal +preservation. + +The Apostle Peter tells us with absolute authority that the Word of God is +preserved perpetually, and this includes the Word which has been preached +to us in the gospel writings. And by gospel writings we must understand +Peter to mean the whole of the New Testament, not just the first four +books, for Heb. 2:3 instructs us that the gospel "at the first began to be +spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him." + +Capping off our brief survey of Scripture on this important doctrine is the +testimony of Revelation. In the last chapter of this book man is given a +dire warning not to tamper with its contents. Obviously this applies +directly to Revelation, but it must apply equally to the entire Book of +which Revelation forms the last chapter. Think about it. If mankind is +forbidden from taking away from or adding to the contents of a Book, it +must be obvious that God intends to preserve that Book in every detail. And +note that it is the WORDS which man is forbidden to tamper with. "For I +testify unto every man that heareth the WORDS of the prophecy of this +book ... if any man shall take away from the WORDS of the book of this +prophecy..." The WORDS! If God forbids man to tamper with any of the WORDS +of the Bible, it is obvious that He intends to preserve those words so they +will be available to man. If this isn't true, the warning of Rev. 22:18-19 +is meaningless. + +In summary, we see that the Bible teaches God will preserve His Word in +pure form, including the most minute details (the jots and titles, the +words), and that this would include the whole Scriptures, Old and New +Testaments. The biblical doctrine of preservation is verbal, plenary +preservation, which is the only reasonable view in light of the biblical +doctrine of the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Writings. Of what +benefit are perfect writings which no longer exist? + +DOES PSALM 12:6-7 REFER TO GOD'S WORDS? + +There are those who do not believe Psa. 12:6-7 is speaking of the Word of +God. These contend that this key passage refers rather to God's +preservation of the godly men spoken of in Psa. 12:1. Doug Kutilek, +professor at Baptist Bible College of Springfield, is a proponent of this, +and R.L. Sumner has printed Kutilek's articles on this in The Biblical +Evangelist. I wrote to Dr. Bruce Lackey about Kutilek's teaching on Psalm +12:6-7 and received the following excellent comments in February 1984: + +"I submit the following reasons for my not being moved away from my +conviction that Psalm 12:6-7 does teach the preservation of Scripture. + +"1. His [Kutilek's] admission that `there are occasional exceptions to the +principle of agreement in the Hebrew Bible (see Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar +135 o)' immediately shows that the preservation-interpretation is not +automatically incorrect, grammatically, but is definitely possible. A +somewhat similar situation exists in John 15:6, where `them' is neuter +plural in Greek, and `they are burned' is a singular verb. Dana and Mantey, +in A Manual Grammar of The Greek New Testament, on page 165, give the +following statement: `A seeming exception to the above principle of syntax +is the fact that a neuter plural subject regularly takes a singular verb +(John 9:3).' Therefore, it is unwise to prove or disprove a position using +the argument of gender and number. Anyone who studies languages knows that +there are exceptions. + +"2. The argument listing various verses in Psalms where `keep' and +`preserve' speak of people is not very weighty. Psalm 12:6-7 might be the +only place in the whole book which uses these words to refer to things +[other than people], but that would not disqualify the situation. Psalm +110:4 is the only verse in the Old Testament which teaches the +Melchisedical priesthood of the Lord Jesus, but Hebrews 4:7 does not +hesitate to make much of it! + +"3. The argument from context does not hold water, either. He says, `The +basic thrust of the message of Psalm 12 is clear: the psalmist bemoans the +decimation of the upright and the growing strength of the wicked.' Thus, he +tries to show that verse 7, teaching preservation, would not fit. If this +be true, neither would verse 6. Rather, the context is favorable to the +preservation-interpretation. God's promise to save the poor and needy is +given in verse 5; verses 6 and 7 are injected to show that His promise of +verse 5 will never be broken. + +"4. In the last paragraph, he [Kutilek] says that those who apply these +verses `to any doctrine of Bible preservation' are guilty of handling `the +Word of God deceitfully and dishonestly, something unworthy of any child of +God.' But earlier, he admitted that such illustrious interpreters as John +Wesley, Henry Martyn, G. Campbell Morgan, and Kidner, agreed with the +preservation-interpretation. Sounds like a mouse attacking elephants! They +might have been wrong on some points, but they were certainly not deceitful +and dishonest. + +"Some other verses which teach that God would preserve His Words for all +generations are Psalm 33:11; 119:152,160; Isa. 59:21; Mat. 24:35; and I +Pet. 1:25. Also, a comparison of Mat. 28:20 and John 14:23 shows that +Christ's promise of His continual presence with us is fulfilled as we keep +His words; thus His words must be available to believers `alway, even unto +the end of the world. Amen.'" + +Bruce Lackey, who died in 1988, was the Dean of the Bible School at +Tennessee Temple when I attended there in the 1970s. He was a true scholar +in every sense of the word. He was intelligent. He used the Greek language. +He was a diligent and careful researcher. He was a highly accomplished +musician. But he was also a Bible believer. His doctrine was always based +on the Scriptures, not on logic. He was not afraid of rejecting the popular +scholarly positions if they were contrary to the Word of God. I sat under +Bruce Lackey's teaching for three years and was never, ever given the idea +that my Bible was less than perfect. He never caused his students to +question the Bible. If that is unscholarly, so be it. + +DERIVED INSPIRATION + +Those who mock the idea that there is a perfect Bible today claim that we +are teaching a "continuing inspiration." That is not the case. I believe +the Bible was inspired of God as it was given to the holy men of old (2 +Peter 1:21). As accurate copies and translations of this inspired Scripture +have been made, these also bear the holy impression of the originals. I +believe an accurate translation of the Greek and Hebrew text can properly +be called the inspired Word of God because its inspiration is derived from +the original text. + +The King James Bible is an example. + +Let me make it clear that I do not believe the KJV is given by inspiration +in the same way that original writings were. I believe it has derived its +inspiration from the Greek and Hebrew text upon which it is based. + +Further I do not believe the King James Bible corrects the Greek and +Hebrew, is better than the Greek and Hebrew, or a further revelation beyond +the Greek and Hebrew. I believe the King James Bible is an accurate and +beautiful translation of the preserved Scriptures and as such is the +inspired Word of God--inspired derivatively, not directly. + +I do not believe there are mistakes in the King James Bible. + +I do believe there are places which could be translated more clearly. I do +believe there are antiquated words which could be brought up to date. (Note +I did not say should be, but could be.) To say, though, there are changes +which could be made in the KJV is entirely different from saying it +contains mistakes. I believe the KJV is superior to all other English +versions--superior in its textual basis, superior in its method of +translation, superior in the scholarship of its translators, superior in +its time of translation. + +The key New Testament passage on the inspiration of Scripture is 2 Timothy +3:15-17. Verse 16 says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." +This refers to the original giving of the Word of God. The thrust of this +passage, though, is that Timothy should have confidence in the Scriptures +that he possessed. Verse 15 says the Scripture Timothy had known from a +child were "holy Scripture." What Scriptures had Timothy known? Were they +the original autographs of Moses and David? Certainly not. Timothy had been +taught either from copies of the Hebrew text or from a translation thereof, +most likely the later since his father was a Greek and his mother and +grandmother had instructed him (2 Tim. 1:5; Acts 16:1). + +Further, verse 17 encourages Timothy that the inspired Scripture was given +to be profitable. Any definition of inspiration which does not involve this +doctrine of profitability is wrong. God did not intend that His Word be +inspired, then lost. The inspired Word of God has been kept by God. There +is inspiration, and there is preservation, and this guarantees +profitability. + +CHAPTER 3 +THE PRACTICALITY OF PRESERVATION: CAN A TRANSLATION BE CALLED THE INSPIRED +WORD OF GOD? + +Very few people read the Bible languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) +fluently. We have seen that Paul's doctrine of inspiration in 2 Timothy +chapter three allows for copies and translations to be viewed as the +inspired Word of God. Why not? If a translation is an accurate +representation of the original Text of Scripture, what is wrong with saying +that translation is the inspired Word of God? Many mock such an idea, +though. Recently I received a paper written by a Bible college professor in +Canada which maligned me for teaching that the King James Version is the +inspired Word of God. It was clear that the man had misunderstood and +misrepresented my position. In replying to the man and attempting to make +my stand on the KJV clear, I sent him statements by certain men that I have +high respect for. + +Consider some of the statements that I sent to this Bible college +professor. In addition to statements by the Institute for Biblical Studies +and the Dean Burgon Society, I am including ones by Pastor Bob Barnett of +Calvary Baptist Church, Grayling, Michigan, who has some wonderful insight +into the matter of Bible versions, and the late Frank Logsdon, who was on +the committee which prepared the New American Standard Version and the +Amplified New Testament. Logsdon later publicly disavowed his association +with these versions and defended the King James Bible as the preserved Word +of God. + +Each of these statements was written by intelligent, godly men, who are +attempting before God to come to grips with exactly what the Bible teaches +about preservation. A man certainly has the privilege of rejecting these +statements, but to say that these men are unscholarly or that they do +misjustice to the Scripture is slanderous: + +INSTITUTE FOR BIBLICAL TEXTUAL STUDIES STATEMENT ON PRESERVATION + +The Institute for Biblical Textual Studies was founded as an extension of +Dr. David Otis Fuller's ambition to address the version issue and textual +debate on a broader scale. The Institute is committed to: + +-- the immediate, verbal, plenary inspiration of the original writings of +Scripture and that they are therefore inerrant and infallible. This +inspiration is unique, applicable both to the process of giving the +original writings and the writings themselves which are that product; + +-- the verbal preservation of the Greek Received Text as published by the +Trinitarian Bible Society; + +-- the verbal preservation of the Traditional Masoretic Hebrew Text of +Daniel Bomberg, as edited by Jacob ben Chayim; + +-- the position that translation is not an inherent boundary to verbal +preservation. The breath of God, product, not process, conveyed by +translation from the immediately inspired language copies of Scripture into +any providentially prepared receptor language will impart to that +translation infallible authority and doctrinal inerrancy inherent in the +original language copies. Such a translation by the internal witness of the +Holy Spirit, both with and through that translation, will evidence to the +believer its own self- attestation and self-authentication whereby God +asserts himself as the supreme Authority to that culture. For the English +speaking world this revelation of God's authority is preserved in the +Authorized Version. + +THE DEAN BURGON SOCIETY STATEMENT ON PRESERVATION + +We believe that the King James Version (or Authorized Version) of the +English Bible is a true, faithful, and accurate translation of these two +providentially preserved Texts [the Traditional Masoretic Hebrew Text and +the Received Greek Text], which in our time has no equal among all of the +other English Translations. The translators did such a fine job in their +translation task that we can without apology hold up the Authorized Version +of 1611 and say, "This is the Word of God!" while at the same time +realizing that, in some verses, we must go back to the underlying original +language Texts for complete clarity, and also compare Scripture with +Scripture. ... + +Bible inspiration and Bible preservation are supremely important. The +undermining or destroying of either doctrine renders the other meaningless. +If the Bible is not verbally, plenarily, and inerrantly inspired, and if +inspiration does not extend to all matters of which the Bible speaks, it +does not matter if the Bible has been preserved or how it has been +preserved. It also follows that if the Bible has not been preserved it does +not matter how it was inspired. (From the Committee Statement on Bible +Preservation of the Dean Burgon Society) + +FRANK LOGSDON'S STATEMENT ON PRESERVATION + +Providential preservation is a necessary consequence of Divine Inspiration. +Most arguments against the Authorized Version abandon reason! If the +Authorized Version is not authentic, which is? If the Authorized Version is +not God's revelation, have we been deceived? Did God wait 1900 years to +reveal His true Word? If the Authorized Version has been incorrect, what +harm has resulted? If the True Revelation was lost, where was God when it +happened? Was man left in darkness when the Authorized Version was his only +Bible? Were we wrong these years in claiming the Authorized Version to be +indeed God's Word? Why has this present generation become so dissatisfied +with the Authorized Version? Are we so naive that we do not suspect Satanic +deception in all of this? Who would risk his integrity in saying that any +present-day volume excels the Authorized Version? + +BOB BARNETT'S STATEMENT ON PRESERVATION + +"I remain in the tradition of Dr. [D.O.] Fuller and many, many others in +declaring the authorized King James Bible to be the inspired, inerrant, +infallible Word of God in English. In an attempt to avoid confusion, I have +accepted the wisdom of using modifiers to explain and qualify these terms +when they are questioned. + +"I understand that in theological circles, it is not scholarly to claim +inspiration, inerrancy, or infallibility for any one-language Bible. Yet, +all of us agree and say in public that the Bible is inspired, inerrant, and +infallible. When some make that claim, they are referring only to the +original autographs of the Bible. When others make that claim, they are +referring both to the original autographs and also to the apographs from +which the authorized King James Bible was translated. When some of us make +that same claim, we are speaking of the total traditional Bible line +preserved by divine providence from the autographs, continuing through the +apographs, and manifested in English today through our authorized King +James Bible. When laymen hear each of us speaking they often assume we are +all talking in agreement about the same Bible. + +"In reality, if inspiration be limited to the languages of the original +autographs, then logically an Englishman must master four languages before +he can claim to accurately know and communicate God's inspired scriptures +to other English speaking people. He must master Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek +as well as his own English tongue. This elevates the accurate ministry of +God's inspired scriptures to a small handful of scholars who have spent +many years in diligent preparation for a few years of ministry. It renders +the average pastor and masses of believers submissive to the Bible +interpretation of these scholars. This violates the scriptural principles +of Acts 17:11. ... + +"By faith I believe my authorized King James Bible is inspired. I do not +believe the KJB translators were inspired, neither were the English words +they used. I do believe the KJB derives its inspiration, its inerrancy in +doctrine, and its infallible authority from the accurately translated +apographs of the original autographs of Holy Scripture. The KJB is +inspired, not directly, but derivatively. ... It is inspired in the +"logos," but not the "rhema." By this we mean the English letters and words +are not inspired, but the truth they communicate in the English language is +inspired and alive. This same inspired truth has continued from the +original God-breathed Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek into our English language. +This results in an infallible body of truth, through which the Spirit of +Truth can lead the English speaking Bible-believer unto all truth. We +cannot adequately defend the accuracy and authority of the authorized KJB +without defending its inspiration. + +"Satan's primary attack upon the Bible today is not upon the original +autographs; they are gone. It is not upon the remaining apographs of the +Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Scriptures. Few people have the ability to read, +study, and know them. The authorized King James Bible is the greatest +danger to Satan in our generation. It is the Bible he hates and attacks the +most. While we cannot defend the KJV separate from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and +Greek roots from which it comes, neither can we effectively share our faith +in these apographs of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Scriptures to an English +speaking world without preaching and defending the KJV." + +We conclude this section with the words of Bruce Lackey: "Faith which is +based on a clear promise is stronger than objections which are raised by +our lack of information. Since God has promised to preserve His Word for +all generations, and since the Hebrew and Greek which is represented by the +King James Version is the Bible that has been received from ancient +tradition, and since God has so singularly used the truth preached from +this Bible, I must follow it and reject others where they differ." + +CHAPTER 4 +THE CONSEQUENCE OF PRESERVATION + +If the Bible has been perfectly preserved, what does this tell us about the +Bible situation today? There are four important consequences of the +doctrine of Bible preservation: 1) I must accept the Received Text as the +Word of God, 2) I must reject the Westcott-Hort text and its allies, 3) I +must reject those modern versions based upon the Westcott-Hort text, and 4) +I must reject the so-called Majority Text which seeks to modify the +Received Text. + +I MUST ACCEPT THE RECEIVED TEXT AS THE WORD OF GOD + +Believing the Bible to be preserved by God, we can look back on the history +of the transmission of the Scriptures to see the hand of God in the +preservation of a certain text. God's stamp of approval has been upon the +Received Text underlying the King James Bible. John Burgon, the +distinguished author of Revision Revised, gave this testimony to the +antiquity of the Received Text: + +"The one great fact which especially troubles him [Dr. Hort] and his joint +editor [Westcott] (as well it may) is the Traditional Greek Text of the New +Testament Scriptures. Call this text Erasmian or Complutensian, the text of +Stephens, or of Beza, or of the Elzevirs, call it the Received or the +Traditional, or by whatever name you please--the fact remains that a text +has come down to us which is attested by a general consensus of ancient +Copies, ancient Fathers, and ancient Versions." + +Burgon, one of England's chief linguistic scholars, knew what he was +talking about. One of his accomplishments was collecting and indexing more +than 86,000 quotations from the writings of ancient church leaders. (More +than 4,000 of these were from writers who died before the year 400 A.D.) He +also collated more than 350 Greek manuscripts which had been previously +unknown to the scholastic world. Burgon was in a perfect position to know +what Bible text was used by Christians down through the centuries. When he +says that the Received Text is the one attested by general historic +consensus, we can be sure that it is. Few men have possessed more knowledge +of their subject than John William Burgon. + +Further, Burgon was a Bible respecter. While we do not excuse the fact that +he was a high church Anglican, we do praise the Lord that the man believed +the Book. In this he followed in the footsteps of the King James +translators themselves. One of Burgon's peers testified in 1888, "From +first to last, all my reminiscences of Dean Burgon are bound up with the +Bible, treated as few teachers of divinity now appear to regard it, as +God's Word written; `absolute, faultless, unerring, supreme'" (Wilbur +Pickering, "Contribution of John William Burgon to New Testament +Criticism," True or False?, p. 217). + +Dr. D.A. Waite, in his book The King James Bible's Superiority, lists the +following historical witnesses to the Received text which underlies the +King James Bible: + +The received text was used by: + +The Churches in Palestine +The Syrian Church at Antioch +The Peshitta Syriac Version (150 A.D.) +Papyrus #75 +The Italic Church in Northern Italy (157 A.D.) +The Gallic Church of Southern France (177 A.D.) +The Celtic Church in Great Britain +The Church of Scotland and Ireland +The Pre-Waldensian Church +The Waldensian, 120 A.D. onward, (The Early Church Period 100-312) +The Gothic Version of the 4th century +Codex W of Matthew in the 4th or 5th century +Codex A in the Gospels in the 5th century +The vast majority of extant New Testament manuscripts +The Greek Orthodox Church +The present Greek Church (the Byzantine Period (312-1453 A.D.) +All the churches of the Reformation +The Erasmus Greek New Testament (1516) +The Complutensian Polyglot (1522) +Martin Luther's German Bible (1522) +William Tyndale's Bible (1525) +The French Version of Oliveton (1535) +The Coverdale Bible (1535) +The Matthews Bible (1537) +The Taverners Bible (1539) +The Great Bible (1539-41) +The Stephanus Greek New Testament (1546-51) +The Geneva Bible of 1557-60) +The Bishops' Bible (1568) +The Spanish Version (1569) +The Beza Greek New Testament (1598) +The King James Bible (1611) +The Elziver Brothers' Greek New Testament (1624) + +Waite reaches the conclusion that "the Received Text in the New Testament +is the Received Text--the text that has survived in continuity from the +beginning of the New Testament itself. It is the only accurate +representation of the originals we have today!" + +Edward Miller, a British scholar who published several important books on +the subject of textual criticism at the turn of the century, gave this +summary of the period from Chrysostom to the invention of printing: "The +great feature in this period was the rise of the Traditional Text into a +predominance which was scarcely disputed" (Edward Miller, A Guide to the +Textual Criticism of the New Testament, pp. 103,104). + +It is evident that the Bible text commonly received among God's people from +the 1st to the 17th century is the text which underlies the King James +Bible. + +It is also evident that most of the Bibles translated throughout the world +during the great missionary era of the 17th to 19th centuries were based +upon the Received Text. This includes the Bibles translated by the +Reformers and Baptists into the languages of Europe, as well as the non- +Catholic missionaries who traveled throughout the globe--William Carey in +India, Adinoram Judson in Burma, Henry Martyn in Persia, and great numbers +of other godly missionaries across the world who translated Bibles into the +languages of the people. The vast majority of these Bibles were based upon +the Received Text. + +What this means is this: The majority of Bibles of centuries past contained +the verses and words which are disputed by the new texts and versions. They +contained Matt. 17:21; 18:11; 21:44; 23:14; Mk. 7:16; 9:44; 9:46; 11:26; +15:28; Lk. 17:36; 24:12; 24:40; Jn. 5:4; Acts 8:37; and Rom. 16:24--all of +which are omitted or put in brackets in the new versions. The old +missionary Bibles contained the words "God" in 1 Tim. 3:16, "firstborn" in +Matt. 1:25, "begotten" in Jn. 1:14, and "the Lord" in 1 Cor. 15:47. All of +these are key references to Christ's deity which are removed in the new +Bibles. Further, no questions are raised in the old missionary versions +regarding the authority of Mk. 16:9-20 or 1 Jn. 5:7-8, as we find in the +new texts. + +History tells us that the Received Text is clearly the preserved Word of +God. + +Further, the King James Bible is the only English Bible translated from the +Received Text which bears God's stamp of approval. The King James Bible has +endured and increased in popularity for more than three centuries. It was +the undisputed English Bible through the 1600s, the 1700s, the 1800s, and +most of the 1900s. + +In the words of Dr. Waite, who has diligently researched matters +surrounding Bible texts and versions, "You can trust with confidence the +King James Bible in the English language as the most accurate reflection of +the original Hebrew and Greek text we have--and probably will have until +the Lord returns in the Rapture of the Church. Read it! Study it! Memorize +it! Understand it! Believe it! Practice it!" + +Contrary to this sweet confidence in a preserved Bible, the Preface to the +Revised Standard Version gives the popular viewpoint of those who support +the modern texts and versions: + +"...the King James Version has grave defects. By the middle of the +nineteenth century, the development of Biblical studies and the discovery +of many manuscripts more ancient than those upon which the King James +Version was based, made it manifest that these defects are so many and so +serious as to call for revision of the English translation. ... The King +James Version of the New Testament was based upon a Greek text that was +marred by mistakes, containing the accumulated errors of fourteen centuries +of manuscript copying." + +This same thinking is voiced by Neil Lightfoot in How We Got the Bible, a +popular text on the transmission of Scripture: + +"The King James Version rests on an inadequate textual base. ... The text +underlying the King James was essentially a medieval text embodying a +number of scribal mistakes that had accumulated through the years ... The +revisers of 1611 ... simply did not have at their disposal the many +manuscripts which are now known. ... All of which means that the King James +is a translation of an inferior Greek text..." + +By faith in God's promise to preserve His Word, I know that the above +thinking cannot be true. If the Received Text and the King James Bible are +corrupted, God did not preserve His Word. Rather, He allowed a corrupted +text to become the world's undisputed Bible. Since this cannot be possible, +I place my confidence in the venerable Received Text. I will not allow +anyone to take one line of it from me. + +WE MUST REJECT THE WESTCOTT-HORT LINE OF TEXTS + +The Westcott-Hort Greek Text was published in 1881 in conjunction with the +publication of the English Revised Version. The popular new Greek texts +since 1881 are revisions of the Westcott-Hort Text and are significantly +different from the Received Text. There are two reasons why the doctrine of +preservation results in rejection of the Westcott-Hort Text. + +First, the Westcott-Hort textual line must be rejected because it was a +discarded text. As we have seen, the Received Text was the one which was +preferred by God's people through the centuries. The readings adopted by +Westcott and Hort, the Revisers of 1881, and critical authorities since, +had been rejected as spurious in prior centuries. Erasmus had access to the +Westcott-Hort readings, but he rejected them. The King James Translators +had access to the Westcott-Hort readings, but they rejected them. Luther +rejected the Westcott-Hort readings. The translators of all the other great +Protestant versions rejected the Westcott- Hort readings. The great +missionary translators such as William Carey and Adinorim Judson rejected +the Westcott-Hort readings. I, too, discard the corrupted Westcott-Hort +readings! + +Second, the Westcott-Hort textual line must be rejected because it was a +lost text. The most significant changes which Westcott and Hort introduced +into their volume were based upon the readings of manuscripts which had +been hidden from use during the previous three hundred years--chiefly the +Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus. The Vaticanus manuscript was locked away in +the Vatican library during the era of the great missionary period of the +17th to 19th centuries. While it's readings were known by textual +researchers--including Erasmus--it did not come into favor until Westcott +and Hort incorporated many of its readings into their Greek text. Likewise, +the Sinaiticus manuscript was kept in a monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai, +and was not available to the public until after it was found by Count +Tischendorf in 1844. + +The doctrine of Bible preservation forces me to reject these manuscripts as +spurious. If these were the preserved Word of God, they would not have been +hidden away during those crucial centuries. + +Third, the Westcott-Hort textual line must be rejected because it is a +different text. There is a critical difference between the Westcott-Hort +Text and the Received Text. Dozens of verses and thousands of important +words are omitted in these new texts--verses and words which were in the +Bible for centuries. + +Everett Fowler made extensive studies of the Westcott-Hort Text, the Nestle +Text, the United Bible Societies (UBS) Text, and many of the modern English +versions based upon these, comparing them with the Received Text and the +King James Bible. When the UBS Greek New Testament (a revision of the +Westcott-Hort Text which is the most popular Greek text today in Christian +education and translation work) is compared with the Received Text, we +learn the following: + +2,625 words are omitted +310 words are added +18 entire verses omitted; 46 verses questioned by the use of brackets +221 omissions of names regarding the Lord God +318 other different omissions having substantial effect on meaning +TOTAL WORD DIFFERENCES 8,674 (Fowler, Evaluating Versions of the New +Testament, p. 9). + +The point is this: If the Bible Societies' Text (there are only 250 or so +word differences between the Westcott-Hort Text and the United Bible +Societies' Text) is assumed to be the nearest to the verbally inspired +original text, then the Received Text includes over 8,000 Greek words not +inspired of God, including 18 to 46 entire spurious verses, and dozens of +portions of verses. The difference amounts to roughly the same amount of +material as that contained in 1 and 2 Peter combined. + +Not only are the new texts and versions quantitatively different from the +Received Text, but they are qualitatively different. A great many of the +differences are doctrinally significant. For example, the removal of the +word "God" in 1 Tim. 3:16 in the new texts, deletes one of the most +powerful testimonies in the Bible to the fact that Jesus Christ is God. The +removal of the word "Lord" in 1 Cor. 15:47 deletes another powerful +testimony to Christ's deity. The removal of Acts 8:37 deletes the eunuch's +testimony of his faith in Christ prior to baptism. + +A convenient list of 200 of the significant changes in the UBS Greek +Testament is available in the New Eye Opener pamphlet. This can be obtained +from Way of Life Literature. Myth # 3 in this series of booklets also deals +with the doctrinal differences in the versions. + +There can be no doubt that the Westcott-Hort textual line is significantly +different from that which underlies the King James Version and the other +great Protestant translations which have been so honored and singularly +blessed by God for 400 years. + +The truth that God would preserve His Word obligates me to reject these new +Greek texts as perversions of the Word of God. I will not allow any reading +of the God-honored Received Text to be removed from my Bible. + +WE MUST REJECT THE MODERN VERSIONS + +Another consequence of Bible preservation is that we are forced to reject +the modern versions. Since these versions are based upon the Westcott-Hort +type text, they carry the corruptions of that text. They omit dozens of +verses and thousands of important words which were in the Received Text +through the centuries. This includes the New American Standard Version and +the New International Version. The most significant differences between +these versions and the King James Bible are textual differences. + +WE MUST REJECT THE MAJORITY TEXT WHICH SEEKS TO MODIFY THE RECEIVED TEXT + +I would mention one final consequence of God's preservation--the rejection +of the so-called Majority Text. + +Until recently the term "majority text" was used as a synonym for the +Received Text. This changed in 1982 with the publication by Thomas Nelson +of The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text edited by Zane +Hodges and Arthur Farstad, both of Dallas Theological Seminary. It claims +to be a corrected edition of the Received Text. The editors' goal was to +consider the textual evidence among existing Greek manuscripts for each New +Testament word and phrase. If a reading is attested by the majority of +manuscripts, it is retained. Otherwise, it is rejected. Other evidence to +the authenticity of readings, such as ancient versions and writings of +Christian leaders, is not taken into account by Hodges and Farstad--only +the Greek manuscripts. + +There are almost 1900 differences between the Textus Receptus and the +Hodges-Farstad Text, many of these highly consequential. Thus, while this +matter is not as serious as the problem between the Received Text and the +Westcott-Hort Text, it is something which must be faced. For example, I Jn. +5:7-8 is omitted in the Hodges-Farstad Text. While there is manuscript +evidence for this reading, it is true that the majority of existing +manuscripts do not support it. Thus Hodges-Farstad would have us delete +this powerful reference to the Triune Godhead. The author's booklet +Slipping Away from Preserved Scripture: Examining the Hodges- Farstad +Majority Text gives more information on this matter. + +The fact is that while the Received Text is a form of the majority text, it +is not entirely a majority text. The reason for this is simple: In +determining the true reading of Scripture, there are essential factors +beyond merely examining extant manuscripts. + +The important point is this: The editors and supporters of the this new +"majority" text would leave us in a situation similar to that found among +the proponents of the other modern versions. They don't believe we have a +perfect Bible and they make light of those who do. + +In the introduction to the Hodges-Farstad Text, the editors admit that they +do not believe they are presenting a perfect Bible to their readers: "The +editors do not imagine that the text of this edition represents in all +particulars the exact form of the originals. Desirable as such a text +certainly is, much further work must be done before it can be produced. It +should therefore be kept in mind that the present work, The Greek New +Testament According to the Majority Text, is both preliminary and +provisional." + +@PARABEFORE2 = Wilbur Pickering, who has written in defense of the Received +Text and against the Westcott-Hort Text in general, is a proponent of the +new Majority Text. He, too, does not believe there is yet a perfect Bible. +Note some of Pickering's statements: + +"We do not at this moment have the precise wording of the original text." + +"When all this evidence is in I believe the Textus Receptus will be found +to differ from the original in something over a thousand places." + +"Most seriously misleading is the representation that I am calling for a +return to the Textus Receptus ... While men like Brown, Fuller and Hills DO +call for a return to the TR as such, Hodges and I do NOT. We are advocating +what Kurt Aland has called the majority text." (quoted by Jack Moorman, +When the KJV Departs From the `Majority' Text) + +In The Identity of the New Testament Text, Pickering tells his readers, +"Hodges ... will be very happy to hear from anyone interested in furthering +the quest for the definitive Text." + +After almost 2,000 years of church history, the best that Hodges, Farstad, +and their allies can offer is a "provisional" New Testament and a "quest +for a definitive text." I'm sorry, folks, but I don't want it. I believe +God's promises that He would preserve His Word, even the jots and tittles. +I don't have to set out in search for the preserved Word of God. It's not +lost! My confidence is not in man; it is in Almighty God. I have an +absolute authority, and I refuse to play the scholar's game. + +By the way, Hodges and Farstad were key players in the production of the +New King James Version. Approximately 500 footnotes appear in the NKJV +which give the supposed "majority readings" over against the Received Text +readings, thus deceiving people into thinking that these readings should +replace those of the KJV. Future editions of the NKJV will reflect even +more of the research of Hodges and Farstad as they and their cohorts plow +ahead with their "quest for the definitive text." + +I praise God that we are not left to drift upon the unsteady seas of modern +critical scholarship. As a consequence of faith in God's promises to +preserve His Word, I can reject all of these new texts and Bibles and can +cleave confidently to the faithful Received Text-based King James Version. +"Can the matter be so simple?" you say. Why not? Has God not spoken on the +subject? My friends, God has not allowed His Book to be lost. + +Faith does not have to answer every question the skeptic can throw at it. +The Trinity is believed, though we are at a loss to explain the details of +it, and those who do not believe it mock us because we cannot answer all +their questions. The fact of the Bible canon is believed, though we cannot +describe every step whereby the canon was sealed. We have the complete +Bible, and that is enough for the man who has faith in God. Yet those who +refuse to accept the Bible as the Word of God mock us because we cannot +answer all their questions. Likewise, we believe that the Bible has been +perfectly preserved because God has said so, though we are at a loss to +explain some of the difficulties with this position. Again, those who +reject the doctrine of preservation mock us because we cannot answer all +their questions. + +Let them mock. We have God's promise on these things. What do we care if +some think we are foolish or unlearned? Was that not the charge brought +against the first Christians by their proud detracters? Dear friends, +believe God and do not allow any man to shake your confidence in His +perfect, preserved Word. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/myth5.txt b/religious documents/myth5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8cd2499 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/myth5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1320 @@ +[The following material is published by Way of Life Literature and is +copyrighted by David W. Cloud, 1986. All rights are reserved. Permission is +given for duplication for personal use, but not for resale. The following +is available in booklet format from Way of Life Literature, Bible Baptist +Church, 1219 N. Harns Road, Oak Harbor, Washington 98277. Phone (206) 675- +8311. This article is number four in a set of five booklets.] + +MYTHS ABOUT THE KING JAMES BIBLE: + +Copyright 1986 by David W. Cloud. All rights reserved. + +MYTH # 5: TRUE SCHOLARS REJECT THE RECEIVED TEXT +By David W. Cloud + +Let us consider another matter which is frequently brought out in +discussions about the KJV and the Received Text: Modern scholarship +supposedly is fully arrayed against the TR and is on the side of the +"oldest is best" line of textual theory. The evangelical leader we +have quoted several times in these studies says: + +"There are some in this country and elsewhere who are very zealous for the +textus receptus ... But unfortunately, the basis on which they are +operating is wrong, and I have always tried to do what I could in a gentle +way to lead them to appreciate good, current evangelical scholarship where +the Greek text and the translation are concerned. The situation is somewhat +complex, and many people do not understand it as a result of that +complexity" (Letter from James M. Boice, Tenth Presbyterian Church, +Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Dr. Thomas Hale, United Mission to Nepal, +Kathmandu, Nepal, September 13, 1985). + +It is true, of course, that "evangelical scholarship," for the most +part, is indeed predisposed against the TR. But if we had only this letter +upon which to base our thinking, we would be left with the idea that NO +evangelical or Bible-believing scholar today holds the opinion that the TR +is the preserved Word of God. The silence of Boice regarding the existence +of such men implies that this is the case. + +This same silence is promoted in most classrooms of Bible colleges and +seminaries when the subject of Greek or Bible texts and translations is +discussed. David Garrett, a California pastor who graduated from a +prestigious school, acknowledges this silence. He testifies that he was +shocked when, seven years after graduation, he read Which Bible and +saw the power of the Bible-honoring dissertations contained therein. "I +was unaware that such a position existed! The issue of a rival theory was +not even mentioned in class and was given one page in my textbook for +textual criticism" (David Otis Fuller, Four Recognized Greek +Scholars, p. 6). + +@PARABEFORE2 = Dr. Donald Waite, director of Bible for Today ministries, is +at home in the Greek and Hebrew languages, and he defends the Received Text +as the preserved Word of God. Consider his testimony of how he was kept in +the dark concerning the Received Text position during his schooling: + +@BODY TEXT2 = For about twenty years I was in darkness about this issue. I +knew nothing of it from roughly 1951 to 1971. ... I was at Dallas +Theological Seminary from 1948 to 1952. That was my Master of Theology. +Then I stayed an extra year, 1953. Throughout those years we were simply +told to use the Westcott and Hort Greek New Testament, which we did in the +Greek classes. It was the actual text Westcott and Hort developed. It was +not simply another text--the Nestles Text or the Souter Text--but it +was Westcott and Hort. And I didn't know there was any other Greek +text. ... + +@BODY TEXT2 = I majored in classic Greek and Latin at the University of +Michigan, 1945-48. Took three years to get my four years of work. I went +summer and winter, so that I could marry my wife. Then I came to Dallas +Seminary. I was learning New Testament Greek, and I didn't pay much heed to +the text. I didn't care. I just wanted to learn the forms and get good +grades, which I did. But I did not examine the textual base that we were +using. I just assumed that was the only one to use. + +@BODY TEXT2 = You ask the question, then, how I came to understand the +Bible version issue. I guess the first thing I read about, or knew about, +my mother-in-law to be, Mrs. Gertrude Grey Sanborn, gave me the book +God Wrote Only One Bible. I didn't say or think too much about it. I +didn't study it at the time, but that was my first introduction. Then as I +was teaching as professor of Greek at Shelton College in Cape Maine, New +Jersey, one of my pupils, Sandra Devos--Sandra Phillips, I think, was +her name then--said that there was a book in our library at Shelton by +Dean John William Burgon that defends not only the King James Bible, but +also the Greek text, the Received Text, that underlies that Bible. + +@BODY TEXT2 = "Have you ever seen that book, Dr. Waite?" she asked +me. + +@BODY TEXT2 = I said, "Well, no, I haven't." + +@BODY TEXT2 = I think I might have looked at it; I might have glanced at +it. I thought to myself, "Here is an interesting thing. Here is the +first book that I have seen that says there is a difference in the Greek +text that the modern versions are using, and that the King James Bible text +that underlies it, the Textus Receptus, is superior to the Westcott and +Hort-type text, or to the critical text." + +@BODY TEXT2 = ... Then about that time, I think it was about 1969 or 1970, +along in there, Dr. Fuller came out with his book Which Bible. I +read that. Also I looked at at least one of the books by Dr. Edward F. +Hills--Believing Bible Study. I don't think I saw at the time his +other book, The Defense of the King James Bible. + +@BODY TEXT2 = So in 1971, having read these various books, I was deeply +convicted and convinced that the King James Bible and the Greek text that +underlies it, as well as the Hebrew text--although I got into the Hebrew +text a little bit later--but I was convinced that the Greek text that +underlies the New Testament of the King James Bible was the accurate text +to use. ... + +@BODY TEXT2 = So you can say the first twenty years, from 1951-71, I was in +somewhat of a daze, somewhat of a darkness, concerning the issues. Then +from 1971-91, twenty more years, I have been writing, I have been studying, +I have been preaching, I have been teaching, I have been debating, I have +been arguing, I have been talking about, I have been preaching from, I have +continued to memorize from and believe the King James Bible and the text +that underlies that Bible. So for twenty years I've been a stalwart +defender of that Book. + +@PARAAFTER2 = A great many preachers can testify of similar experiences. +When I took Greek at Tennessee Temple, I was instructed to purchase a +United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (the Westcott-Hort text) and +was never told that the Received Text was the ancient, traditional text. We +were not instructed in the issues surrounding this crucial matter. + +To return to the point at hand, though, we note that it is popular to +characterize those who uphold the Received Text as unscholarly. Another +example of this is seen in a speech by Bible editor Eldon Epps to a group +of "scholars" in 1973. After noting the fact that there are still a +considerable number of men who are defending the TR and KJV as the +preserved Word of God, Epps observes: "I am being facetious only to a +limited extent when I ask, if the T.R. can still be defended, ALBEIT IN +MERELY A PSEUDO-SCHOLARLY FASHION [emphasis is the editor's], how much +solid progress have we made in textual criticism in the 20th century?" +(Eldon Jay Epps, Journal of Biblical Literature, 1974, No. 93). + +Epps seems amazed that after a century of the promotion of Westcott-Hort's +critical theories, some persist in defending the TR. This same attitude is +expressed by Christian leaders within practically every spectrum of +Christianity--Liberal, Evangelical, Charismatic, Fundamental, Anglican, +Lutheran, Methodist, Brethren, Baptist, you name it. + +@PARABEFORE2 = Consider another testimony which illustrates what the +average Christian "scholar" thinks of those who defend the TR and +KJV. After being given a copy of Which Bible by Cecil Carter, an +elder in a brethren assembly in Canada, Bible translator Dick Walker shares +what he thought at that point in time: + +@BODY TEXT2 = I received [the] book and exhortation at `arms length.' I +considered your opinion genuine but perhaps naive. After all, I had +graduated from a seminary in California which had one of the highest +accreditations on the west coast. I had majored in New Testament, taken two +and one-half years of New Testament Greek from a scholar who had his Ph.D +in Greek studies and who also had many years of related semitic studies. My +studies also included a course in the text and canon of the New Testament +as well as writing my graduation thesis titled `The Exegetical Value of the +Greek Participle.' I was satisfied with the science of textual criticism +and the `Nestles' text, which is based on the Westcott and Hort text. + +@PARAAFTER2 = This Bible translator later saw that he had been led astray +by modern scholarship and had been kept in the dark about the writings of +godly men who defend the TR, but his thinking upon receiving the copy of +Which Bible? well illustrates the common attitude. + +@PARABEFORE2 = Another Bible scholar, William Bruner, Th.M, Ph.D., gives +further illustration of this attitude. In a letter to David Otis Fuller he +says this: + +@BODY TEXT2 = On May 12, 1970, you wrote me a very kind letter and sent me +some sample materials from your book Which Bible? You might as well +have been shooting a pop gun at a stone wall. My mind was so strongly +fortified in the doctrine of Westcott and Hort that I could not for one +moment consider the King James Bible. Had I not studied Textual Criticism +under the great Dr. A. T. Robertson? I thought that you were just one of +those die-hard Fundamentalists who were striving to keep the Christian +world under the bondage of traditionalism. Such men are interested only in +pleasing the people by catering to their ignorance, prejudice and +sentimentality! But just a few weeks ago I happened to read your two books, +Which Bible? and True or False? For the first time a little new light shone +in. I saw that there is another side to the argument. Dr. Robertson had not +given us all the facts (Four Recognized Greek Scholars, p. 2). + +@PARAAFTER2 = Indeed, Dr. Robertson had not given his students all the +facts! + +@PARABEFORE2 = Wilber N. Pickering is a recognized Greek scholar and a +defender of the Traditional Text. At the turn of the century, Anglican +scholar John Burgon raised powerful arguments against the theories and the +textual work of Westcott and Hort and the English Revised Version +translation committee. Burgon's treatises were never answered. From a +Bible-believing viewpoint they are unanswerable. In reviewing some of +Burgon's arguments, Pickering makes an interesting and indicting +observation: + +@BODY TEXT2 = The prevailing ignorance concerning Burgon and his work may +be largely attributed to the circumstance that he is either ignored or +misrepresented in every handbook (that the author has seen) published in +English in this century that touches on the method of New Testament textual +criticism (Wilber N. Pickering, "Contribution of John William Burgon to +New Testament Criticism," True or False? p. 218). + +@PARABEFORE2 = Who actually was this John Burgon? Why is it so strange that +he is not so much as mentioned in many handbooks dealing with New Testament +textual criticism today? Consider these facts: + +@BODY TEXT2 = Burgon was a man of unquestioned scholarship. His biographer +lists over fifty published works, on a considerable variety of subjects, +besides numerous articles contributed to periodicals. ... He contributed +considerably to Scrivener's A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of +the New Testament in its various editions. Edward Miller, who became +posthumous editor to both Scrivener and Burgon, said of this contribution, +"He has added particulars of three hundred and seventy-four manuscripts +previously unknown to all the world of letters." + +@BODY TEXT2 = Of the considerable volume of unpublished materials that Dean +Burgon left when he died, of special note is his index of New Testament +citations by the Church Fathers of antiquity. It consists of sixteen thick +manuscript volumes, to be found in the British Museum, and contains 86,489 +quotations. It may be said that Burgon's scholarship in this facet of the +total field has never been equaled (Ibid., p. 217). + +@PARAAFTER2 = And yet this man of such prestigious scholarship, a man whose +work in the field of Greek textual criticism was so uniquely important, is +consistently ignored or misrepresented today. Why? The answer can only be +that Burgon unhesitatingly defended the Textus Receptus and aimed mighty +blows at the popular Westcott-Hort theories of textual criticism, and +therefore at those who are following those theories. Burgon doesn't fit the +popular mold; his arguments are powerful, so he is simply ignored; or if +not ignored, his well-reasoned observations are subtly replaced with +"straw men" which are then easily dismissed as unworthy of the +modern critic's time. + +That is fact, dear friends. This same treatment is allotted to every man of +God who defends the Received Text. + +In the secular field, this same game is played by the humanists who control +much of today's mass media--newspapers, radio, television, periodicals. +It is possible for people to survey the media continually and not even +learn of the existence of many important people, groups, and philosophies. +Someone from the lunatic fringe of an issue can show up in front of an +embassy, for example, with two or three likeminded loonies and the media +will make it into a front page event, while a convention of 15,000 +Fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians in the same city is completely +ignored. By selective use of this media blackout, those in charge of pro +gramming can effectively control the thinking of the average person who is +without alternate sources of information. + +This is what is happening in regard to the important issues of Bible texts +and translations. Even the graduates of basically sound Bible institutions +are, as we have seen, practically unaware even of the existence of a +scholarly "other side" of the issue. Because of evangelical +"media blackout" on this subject, they are aware only of views +closely paralleling Westcott-Hort's turn-of-the-century theories: +"Oldest and better manuscripts are to be preferred in passages of +question" (meaning Sinaiticus and Vaticanus and the few other +manuscripts which follow their corrupted pattern are to replace the +readings of the entire majority of other textual witnesses), etc., etc. + +Some years ago I published a study on the history and work of the United +Bible Societies. Included in this was a brief sharing of my conviction that +the TR is the pure, preserved Word of God as opposed to the text +represented in the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament. Actually I +did not spend a great amount of time defending the TR, since that was not +the primary purpose of the study. I did mention the fact that the editors +of the United Bible Societies Greek text are apostates--Modernists and +Roman Catholic prelates--and I quoted from the Preface to the American +Bible Society's RSV which states that the KJV and the Greek text upon which +it is based are gravely defected. I then proceeded to demonstrate just how +significantly different the UBS text is from the Textus Receptus, and +concluded with the contention that it is not possible, in light of God's +promises to preserve His Word pure through the centuries, that the text +which went throughout the earth during the past centuries was a gravely +corrupted one. The opposite is true. It is the United Bible Societies' text +which is the gravely defected one. That was all. Certainly it was no wild- +eyed rampage about the King James Bible being inspired down to the jots and +tittles of every antiquated word. The main thesis of the book had to do +with the deep theological apostasy which has taken root within the United +Bible Societies, and I occupied myself primarily with a thorough +documentation of this frightful apostasy. + +Shortly after the release of this study in Asia, a letter arrived from a +professor in a theological school in India. He claimed to be an evangelical +professor of Greek who believes in the verbal inspiration of Scripture, yet +consider what he thinks of my view of the TR--"Your theory that +God's promise of preservation applies only to TR is rather ludicrous." +This man has a doctorate in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. Of +course he has every right to reject my position regarding the TR, but the +very fact that he calls it "ludicrous" shows that he is ignorant of +the Bible-believing scholarship which is arrayed on the side of the +venerable Textus Receptus. + +SCHOLARS WHO SUPPORT THE TEXTUS RECEPTUS + +What follows is basically my reply to this Greek professor: + +Dear Brother: According to my dictionary, "ludicrous" means +"absurd; ridiculous." It refers to something which has no backing +whatsoever in reality; something which cannot possibly be true. This +statement is a strong hint that you are not familiar with the basic +arguments and issues at stake here. If my position is truly absurd, meaning +"opposed to manifest reason or truth; irrational" (Funk & +Wagnalls), please tell me how a great number of very godly and scholarly +men can hold this very position? + +You might disagree with the position, and I admit that many men do; but it +is folly to call the position ludicrous. + +I do not want to be a follower of men, because men can be found on either +side of any doctrine or issue, but I do want to point out the fact that a +great number of born again scholars have and do hold the same basic +position that I presented in my study. The following are just a few. + +I do not make it a habit to "glory in man," but, as Paul said, you +have forced me. "Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will +glory also." I will not glory in myself, of course, for in me there +is no special scholarship in which to glory, but I will list a few men who +could, if they so desired, glory in such scholarship and who hold basically +the same position as I hold. + +It should be kept in mind that these men will not agree on some +particulars. Some stand strictly for the Received Text underlying the +King James Version, while others prefer what they call the Majority text +which in some points differs from the Textus Receptus. Some believe the +King James Version is without error, while others believe there are slight +changes which should be made in the KJV. But all agree on the basic premise +that the Received Text is the preserved Word of God and represents the +Divine Original, whereas the Westcott-Hort text is a corrupted one. + +It also should be noted that these men vary in the degree of +scholarship possessed in the traditional sense of holding high formal +degrees and being recognized Bible linguists, but none of them can be +lumped in the category to which today's defenders of the TR and KJV are +usually assigned--ignorant, uninformed, weak-minded men who cling to old +ways because of some strange bias against that which is modern! + +@PARABEFORE2 = DR. EDWARD F. HILLS graduated from Yale University and +Westminster Theological Seminary, received the Th.M. from Columbia +Seminary, and the Th.D. from Harvard. He also pursued graduate studies at +Chicago University and Calvin Seminary. Dr. Hills authored The King +James Version Defended and Believing Bible Study, both of which +uphold the TR alone as the fulfillment of God's promise of preservation. To +illustrate briefly the conviction of this scholar in regard to the TR and +KJV we will quote from one of the closing paragraphs in The King James +Version Defended: + +@BODY TEXT2 = In regard to Bible versions many contemporary Christians are +behaving like spoiled and rebellious children. They want a Bible version +that pleases them no matter whether it pleases God or not. "We want a +Bible version in our own idiom," they clamor. "We want a Bible that +talks to us in the same way in which we talk to our friends over the +telephone. We want an informal God, no better educated then ourselves, with +a limited vocabulary and a taste for modern slang." And having thus +registered our preference, they go their several ways. Some of them unite +with the modernists in using the R.S.V. or the N.E.B. Others deem the +N.A.S.V. or the N.I.V. more "evangelical." Still others opt for the +T.E.V. or the Living Bible. + +@BODY TEXT2 = But God is bigger than you are, dear friend, and the Bible +version which you must use is not a matter for you to decide according to +your whims and prejudices. It has already been decided for you by the +workings of God's special providence. ... Put on the spiritual mind that +leads to life and peace! Receive by faith the True Text of God's holy +Word, which has been preserved down through the ages by His special +providence and now is found in the Masoretic Hebrew text, the Greek Textus +Receptus, and the King James Version and other faithful translations! + +@PARAAFTER2 = DR. DAVID OTIS FULLER (D.D.), editor of Which Bible, True +or False, and Counterfeit or Genuine, all of which present in no +uncertain terms the position that the Textus Receptus is the pure, holy, +preserved Word of God. Dr. Fuller obtained his Bachelor of Arts at Wheaton +College, majoring in English literature. He obtained the Master of Divinity +degree at Princeton Theological Seminary, studying under men such as Robert +Dick Wilson who was a master of 45 ancient languages and could repeat from +memory a Hebrew translation of the entire New Testament without missing a +single syllable. Dallas Theological Seminary awarded Fuller the Doctor of +Divinity degree. He pastored the Wealthy Street Baptist Church in Grand +Rapids, Michigan, for 40 years. While there he founded the Grand Rapids +Baptist Institute which later became the Grand Rapids Baptist Bible +College. Fuller co-founded the Children's Bible Hour radio program in 1942 +and for 33 years was its chairman. The Children's Bible Hour is on nearly +600 radio stations. For 52 years Fuller was on the board of the Association +of Baptists for World Evangelism. Fuller's published books totaled fifteen +to twenty. Fuller's Which Bible, which has 350 pages, has gone +through more than a dozen printings totaling more than 50,000 copies. + +@PARABEFORE2 = The following excerpt from one of Dr. Fuller's sermons +illustrates his view of Bible versions: + +@BODY TEXT2 = But someone replies, "We believe in the inerrancy of the +original manuscripts." All right, I agree with you there. But then we +ask the question, and it's a good one, too: "Was God careless? Or +didn't He realize that these errors were creeping in? Or was He impotent +that He could not keep His Word even if He wanted to?"Look out yonder +into space, will you please? Listen to some of the Christian astronomers +and scientists who study the stars and all the planets and constellations +there in outer space, and they will tell you that God has so created them +in such a meticulous fashion that they obey all the laws that He has laid +down for His whole vast creation. If God is that careful to keep His +universe, do you think He is going to be careless about His sacred, holy +Word upon which hangs the destiny of the souls of men, whether for heaven +or hell? You know good and well He could not possibly be careless about +such a wonderful Book. But if you want to go ahead and believe in a God who +has just let his book go and become filled with errors through the mistakes +of men, you go ahead, but please count me out as of now. + +@BODY TEXT2 = I believe with all my heart that there was a time in the +early church when God blessed certain men to choose the twenty-seven books +which comprise our New Testament, and in this order we have them now. The +proof for that is in the Bible. There they are. Twenty-seven books in that +particular order. Just so, I believe God was very definitely in the +choosing of the forty-seven scholars who came together at the command of +King James I around 1605 to produce a new version of the Bible. We are bold +enough to say that we don't believe there was ever such a collection of +great, I mean truly great, scholars as these who were so chosen. + +@BODY TEXT2 = You see, God knows what he is doing. He always does, and He +chose that particular time and age when the English language was at its +zenith, to use these men for that purpose. + +@BODY TEXT2 = Now let me say here before I go any further, I have never +claimed to be a scholar. I do not claim to be one now, and I never expect +to claim to be one. But there are two very definite claims that I make +without hesitation, or trepidation, or reservation. One is I claim to have +studied under some of the greatest scholars this country has ever produced, +if not the world. It was my privilege to be a student at Princeton Seminary +and to graduate from that institution just before the flood. I mean by +that, before the flood of modernism. Today Princeton is modernistic in +every sense of the word, but not then. There were giants in the earth in +those days. + +@BODY TEXT2 = Consider Robert Dick Wilson. He was one of the greatest +linguists this country has ever seen. He was at home in forty-five +languages and dialects. He was a contemporary of the great scholar of +Oxford, England, Dr. Driver, who claimed that the book of Daniel was wrong +because of certain statements or phrases in it. Dr. Wilson spent years +going through some 50,000 manuscripts to prove that Driver was wrong and +that Daniel was right. + +@BODY TEXT2 = A second claim is that I can tell a true Christian scholar +when I hear him, or read his works, or talk with him. By Christian I mean +one who holds to and reverences the Word of God as being THE Word of God, +and as being different from any other book that has ever been published +because it is the only book that God ever wrote. + +@BODY TEXT2 = As I have said before so say I now again, there are those +people who tell us today that there is no version of the Scripture that is +without error. Very well, then, where does the doctrine of inerrancy go +if there are errors in the Bible? They come back with that statement, +"Well, we believe that the original autographs were inspired, but not +those copies of them." We agree that the originals were inspired, but +my question is simply this: If God wrote this Book in the beginning, +wasn't He able to keep it intact and pure and without error all through the +ages? My answer to that is that He certainly was and He still is so +capable. I would remind you again that God is jealous for His Word, just as +much as He is jealous for His blessed Son, Jesus Christ. + +@BODY TEXT2 = If someone says to you that all manuscripts and all versions +today have errors in them, then ask them in return what kind of a God they +worship. A careless or impotent God in my book is a monstrosity. I believe +that the King James Version does not have any errors. + +@BODY TEXT2 = Please remember this. You and I are facing, as I have said +before, the most vicious and malicious attack upon the Word of God that has +ever been made since the garden of Eden, and the modern attack began with +the publication of the Revised Version of 1881. This is an unpopular cause +at present in Christian circles. I have found this out again and again, and +I am going to find it out in the future. But I can say as far as I am +concerned it doesn't make any difference what happens to me, but it makes a +whale of a difference what happens to the cause of Jesus Christ. And +someday you and I, my friend, will have to stand before a holy God and give +an account to what we did or did not do in seeking to open the eyes of +people to the facts that have been covered up for so long concerning His +holy, indestructible, impregnable Word. + +@PARAAFTER2 = JOHN WILLIAM BURGON held several high degrees from Oxford +University. "Most of his adult life was spent at Oxford as Fellow of +Oriel College and then as vicar of St. Mary's (the University Church) and +Gresham Professor of Divinity" (Which Bible, p. 86). He made +several tours of European libraries, examining and collating New Testament +manuscripts wherever he went and personally inspected the Vaticanus and +Sinaiticus manuscripts in 1860 and 1862 (Ibid., p. 87). "His biographer +lists over fifty published works, on a considerable variety of subjects, +besides numerous articles contributed to periodicals. He contributed +considerably to Scrivener's A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of +the New Testament in its various editions. Edward Miller, who became +posthumous editor to both Scrivener and Burgon, said of this contribution, +`He has added particulars of three hundred and seventy-four manuscripts +previously unknown to the world of letters.' Of the considerable volume of +unpublished material that Dean Burgon left when he died, of special note is +his index of New Testament citations by the Church Fathers of antiquity. It +consists of sixteen thick manuscript volumes, to be found in the British +Museum, and contains 86,489 quotations. It may be said that Burgon's +scholarship in this facet of the total field has never been equaled (Wilbur +Pickering, "Contribution of John William Burgon to New Testament +Criticism," True or False? p. 217). + +@PARABEFORE2 = Without question, Burgon was a Greek scholar of the highest +order and also an unwavering, very bold defender of the TR. Though he +believed there might be room for minor changes in the TR, he was completely +opposed to the modern critical text. Consider an excerpt from his critique +of the English Revised Version of 1881. Everything he says about the ERV is +applicable to the popular versions of our day: + +@BODY TEXT2 = In the end, when partisanship had cooled down, and passion +had evaporated, and prejudice had ceased to find an auditory, the +`Revision' of 1881 must come to be universally regarded as what it most +certainly is, the most astonishing, as well as the most calamitous literary +blunder of the Age. ... + +@BODY TEXT2 = In thus demonstrating the worthlessness of the `New Greek +Text' of the Revisionists, I considered that I had destroyed the key of +their position. And so perforce I had. For if the underlying Greek Text be +mistaken, what else but incorrect must the English Translation be? ... + +@BODY TEXT2 = A yet stranger phenomenon is, that those who have once +committed themselves to an erroneous theory [Westcott and Hortism], seem to +be incapable of opening their eyes to the untrustworthiness of the fabric +they have erected, even when it comes down in their sight like a child's +house built with playing cards, and presents to every eye but their own the +appearance of a shapeless ruin. ... + +@BODY TEXT2 = For we resolutely maintain, that external evidence +must after all be our best, our only safe guide. And to come to the point, +we refuse to throw in our lot with those who, disregarding the witness of +every other known Codex, every other Version, every other available +Ecclesiastical Writer, insist on following the dictates of a little group +of authorities, of which nothing whatever is known with so much certainty +as that often, when they concur exclusively, it is to mislead. ... + +@BODY TEXT2 = Shame--yes, shame on the learning which comes abroad only +to perplex the weak, and to unsettle the doubting, and to mislead the +blind! Shame on that two-thirds majority of well-intentioned but most +incompetent men who, finding themselves (in an evil hour) appointed to +correct `plain and clear errors' in the English Authorized Version, +occupied themselves instead with falsifying the inspired Greek Text in +countless places, and branding with suspicion some of the most precious +utterances of the Spirit! Shame, yes, shame upon them! ... + +@BODY TEXT2 = Changes of any sort are unwelcome in such a book as the +Bible; but the discovery that changes have been made for the worse, offends +greatly. ... + +@BODY TEXT2 = What offends us is the discovery that, for every +obscurity which has been removed, at least half a dozen others have been +introduced: in other words, the result of this Revision has been the +planting of a fresh crop of difficulties, before undreamed of, so that a +perpetual wrestling with these is what hereafter awaits the diligent +student of the New Testament. ... + +@BODY TEXT2 = Call this Text Erasmian or Complutensian--the text of +Stephens, or of Beza, or of the Elzevirs--call it the `Received,' or the +Traditional Greek Text, or whatever other name you please--the fact +remains, that a Text has come down to us which is attested by a general +consensus of ancient Copies, ancient Versions, ancient Fathers (John +Burgon, Revision Revised). + +@PARAAFTER2 = TERENCE H. BROWN. Terence Brown is retired from the position +of Editorial Secretary of the Trinitarian Bible Society, and he is but one +example of the godly, evangelical scholarship which resides within that +organization. The Trinitarian Bible Society has the remarkable testimony +that for more than 150 years it has held fast to its founding principles, +one of which is that it will publish and distribute only the Textus +Receptus and faithful translations based on it. The Trinitarian Bible +Society has existed since 1831 and has not ceased to uphold the TR and +faithful translations of this text as the perfect and preserved Word of +God. They translate, publish, and distribute Received Text-based Scriptures +in many languages and nations. They also publish a Greek edition of the +Received Text. + +DR. DONALD A. WAITE. We referred to Dr. Waite earlier in this study, so we +will not repeat his credentials here. He is a scholar who stands +unequivocally for the Received Text. + +@PARABEFORE2 = ZANE HODGES. Hodges is Professor of New Testament Literature +and Exegesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, and has taught Greek for thirty +years. He wrote "The Greek Text of the King James Version" which +appeared in the journal Bibliotheca Sacra. An excerpt makes it clear +where Hodges stands in regard to Majority Text as contrasted with the new +critical texts: + +@BODY TEXT2 = The average well-taught Bible-believing Christian has often +heard the King James Version corrected on the basis of "better +manuscripts" or "older authorities." Such corrections are often +made from the pulpit as well as being found in print. If he has ever +inquired into the matter, the Bible-believing Christian has probably been +told that the Greek text used by the translators of 1611 is inferior to +that used for more recent translations. He has perhaps also been told that +the study of the Greek text of the New Testament (called textual criticism) +is now a highly developed discipline which has led us to a more accurate +knowledge of the original text of the Bible. Lacking any kind of technical +training in this area, the average believer probably has accepted such +explanations from individuals he regards as qualified to give them. +Nevertheless, more than once he may have felt a twinge of uneasiness about +the whole matter and wondered if, by any chance, the familiar King James +Version might not be somewhat better than its detractors think. It is the +purpose of this article to affirm that, as a matter of fact, there are +indeed grounds for this kind of uneasiness and--what is more--these +grounds are considerable. ... + +@BODY TEXT2 = ... The Majority text, upon which the King James Version +is based, has in reality the strongest claim possible to be regarded as an +authentic representation of the original text. This claim is quite +independent of any shifting consensus of scholarly judgment about its +readings and is based on the objective reality of its dominance in the +transmissional history of the New Testament text. This dominance has not +and--we venture to suggest--cannot be otherwise explained. + +@BODY TEXT2 = It is hoped, therefore, that the general Christian reader +will exercise the utmost reserve in accepting corrections to his Authorized +Version ... He should go on using his King James Version with confidence. +New Testament textual criticism, at least, has advanced no objectively +verifiable reason why he should not. + +@PARAAFTER2 = I must note here that Dr. Hodges does not believe exactly +like I do regarding the Received Text. I believe the TR is perfect and that +it has no need of modification, but Dr. Hodges, while supporting the +Received Text in general, believes it should be modified somewhat by +principles he and others have developed and which they call The Majority +Text. In 1982 Zane Hodges and Arthur Farstad published The Greek New +Testament According to the Majority Text based on these principles. I +reject these efforts to change the Received Text, but it is also a fact +that though the Hodges-Farstad Text does differ somewhat from the Received +Text, its differences are slight compared with those of the Westcott-Hort +Text. + +The point of this study is to illustrate that there are scholars who reject +the Westcott-Hort text and who follow the Received textual line. Zane +Hodges is certainly an example of this as can be seen in the excerpts we +have given from his writings. + +@PARABEFORE2 = DR. THOMAS M. STROUSE has a B.S. in engineering from Purdue +University, a M.Div. from Maranatha Baptist Graduate School of Theology, a +Ph.D. from Bob Jones University, and has completed all residence work for +the Th.D. from Maranatha. He has been Professor of Theology at Tabernacle +Baptist Theological Seminary since 1988, and he heads up the Doctorate +Program at Tabernacle. That Strouse stands for the Received Text is evident +in his book The Lord God Hath Spoken: A Guide to Bibliology, +published in 1992: + +@BODY TEXT2 = The student of the Bible must recognize that the Bible's +underlying texts are extremely important. ... The student of the Word +should use the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew OT because it is the +standardized and traditional text of the OT, and the student should use the +Received Text of the Greek NT because it is superior to the Critical Text +and Majority Text textually, historically, and Christologically. Not only +is the text of the Bible important, but so is the translation of the Bible. +Since the Masoretic and Received Texts are superior, it follows that their +resultant translation, the KJV, is superior. ... The KJV is the Word of +God in the English language. It has no errors in it because it carefully +reflects the original language texts closest to the autographs. The AV, +like all translations, has `language limitations,' but these are not +errors. + +DR. WILBUR N. PICKERING, Linguist-Translator and Director of Public +Relations for the Assoiacao Wycliffe para Traduao da B!blia in Brasilia, +Brazil. Pickering is the author of The Identity of the New Testament Text, +which is based partially on his master's thesis at Dallas Theological +Seminary in 1968 entitled "An Evaluation of the Contribution of John +William Burgon to New Testament Textual Criticism." While Pickering does +not believe the Received Text is perfect, he does take a clear stand +against the modern critical text: + +"I am thinking of the degree to which they [the critical texts] differ +among themselves, the uncertainty as to the identity of the text reflected +in the many footnotes regarding textual variants, and the nature and extent +of their common divergence from the King James Version. ... + +:Down through the centuries of copying, the original text has always been +reflected with a high degree of accuracy in the manuscript tradition as a +whole. The history of the text presented in this chapter not only accounts +nicely for the Majority Text, it also accounts for the inconsistent +minority of MSS. They are remnants of the abnormal transmission of the +text, reflecting ancient aberrant forms. It is a dependence upon such +aberrant forms that distinguishes contemporary critical editions of the New +Testament. ... + +"I have demonstrated that the W-H [Westcott-Hort] critical theory and +history of the text are erroneous." + +What has been said of Zane Hodges can be said of Dr. Pickering. He does +support some slight modification of the Received Text, but it is also plain +that he unhesitatingly rejects the Westcott-Hort text. + +DR. ALFRED MARTIN, Vice-President and Dean of Education Emeritus of Moody +Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. For his Doctor of Theology +dissertation at the Graduate School of Dallas Theological Seminary in 1951, +Dr. Martin presented "A Critical Examination of the Westcott-Hort Textual +Theory." Consider an excerpt from this: + +"Bible-believing Christian had better be careful what he says about the +Textus Receptus, for the question is not at all the precise wording of that +text, but rather a choice between two different kinds of texts, a fuller +one and a shorter one. ... + +"The present generation of Bible students, having been reared on Westcott +and Hort, have for the most part accepted the theory without independent or +critical examination. To the average student of the Greek New Testament +today it is unthinkable to question the theory at least in its basic +premises. Even to imply that one believes the Textus Receptus to be nearer +the original text than the Westcott-Hort text is, lays one open to the +suspicion of gross ignorance or unmitigated bigotry. ... + +"At precisely the time when liberalism was carrying the field in the +English churches the theory of Westcott and Hort received wide acclaim. +These are not isolated facts. Recent contributions on the subject--that is, +in the present century--following mainly the Westcott-Hort principles and +method, have been made largely by men who deny the inspiration of the +Bible. ... + +"Textual criticism cannot be divorced entirely from theology. No matter how +great a Greek scholar a man may be, or no matter how great an authority on +the textual evidence, his conclusions must always be open to suspicion if +he does not accept the Bible as the very Word of God. ... + +"The great difficulty in New Testament textual criticism today, which makes +it impossible for Bible-believing Christians to be sanguine about the +results of present research, is the almost universally held view among +critics of the relative nature of truth. Textual criticism has become more +and more subjective since Westcott and Hort opened the door of subjectivism +wide." + +DR. JAKOB VAN BRUGGEN, Professor of New Testament Exegesis at the Reformed +Theological College in Kampen, The Netherlands. Dr. Van Bruggen obtained +his doctor's degree under Prof. Dr. W.C. can Unnik (Utecht). Consider his +position on the Bible text as published in The Ancient Text of the New +Testament. This was a lecture which he preached in the Netherlands in +December 1975: + +"One can even say that the modern textual criticism of the New Testament is +based on the one fundamental conviction that the true text of the New +Testament is at least not found in the great majority of the manuscripts. +The text which the Greek church has read for more than 1,000 years, and +which the churches of the Reformation have followed for centuries in their +Bible translations, is now with certainty regarded as defective and +deficient: a text to be rejected. ... + +"This rejection of the traditional text, that is the text preserved and +handed down in the churches, is hardly written or thought about any more in +the 20th century: it is a fait accompli. ... + +"The textus receptus, which stands very close to the Byzantine text, is +considered a "tyrant" that finally "died a slow death." ... It is strange +that in the realm of modern textual criticism all types of searchers and +skeptics are given a place, but that those who revert to a former certainty +are disqualified as renegades. ... + +"Over against this modern textual criticism, we plead for rehabilitation of +the ancient and well-known text. This means that we do not dismiss this +text which is found in a large majority of the textual witnesses and which +underlies all the time-honored Bible translations of the past, but prize +and use it." + +What we have said about Zane Hodges and Wilbur Pickering is also true for +Dr. Van Bruggen. He supports efforts to modify the Received Text along +lines he calls strict Majority principles. It is plain, though, that he +rejects the Westcott- Hort text and stands for the Received Text in most +details. + +It is important to point out that the facts brought to light in Dr. Van +Bruggen's lecture make it plain that the theory presented so matter-of- +factly by great numbers of Christian scholars is becoming increasingly +debunked, not only by evangelicals but by liberals as well. + +A similar situation exists in regard to the theory of Darwinian evolution. +Even secular scientists are rejecting the basic tenets of evolution in +rapidly increasing numbers. And yet, though they have nothing better with +which to replace Darwinian theories, they do not wish to admit that the +entire idea is an utter falsehood. And they refuse even to consider the +possibility that divine creation could be true; therefore, they cling +resolutely to the broad conclusions produced by Darwinian thinking even +while having rejected that thinking! + +Likewise, the pillars of Westcott-Hortism, the theory of a Syrian recension +and the neutral text concept, have been torn down. It was with these +theories that Westcott-Hort and their followers built the Greek texts in +which a few supposedly older manuscripts overthrow the witness of the +majority. Yet even with the pillars pulled down, the foundationless +building is still upheld by modern textual scholars. This is very strange. +Is it because these scholars have a prejudice against the God-honored +Textus Receptus and for some reason do not desire to see it returned to its +proper and reasonable position as the preserved Word of God? In my opinion, +the facts point to this conclusion. + +I will hasten to mention a few other evangelical scholars who teach that +the common evangelical theories about the TR are wrong. + +BRUCE LACKEY. Dr. Lackey, who died December 1, 1988, taught at Tennessee +Temple in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for nineteen years and was the dean of +the Bible school department. He pastored the Lakewood Baptist Church of +Chattanooga, Tennessee, for eight years, and pastored two other churches +before that. The last few years of his life he traveled as a Bible +conference speaker and authored several books. He was an accomplished +musician, a highly respected Bible teacher, and was proficient in the Greek +language. He was a diligent student of the Greek Received Text. Dr. Lackey +held that the Received Text is the preserved and perfect Word of God. In +his book Can You Trust Your Bible Dr. Lackey states: + +"The King James Version was the only Bible available to most English- +speaking people for centuries. The manuscripts from which it was translated +were used by the majority of believers through the centuries. Thus they +represent the Word of God which He promised to preserve for all +generations. "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a +furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou +shalt preserve them from this generation for ever" (Psalm 12:6-7). "For the +Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all +generations" (Psalm 100:5). + +"Almost every modern version has been made from manuscripts which were +rather recently discovered, though they claim to be more ancient. These are +highly touted to be more accurate than those from which the King James +Version came, and have led to the charge that many errors exist in the KJV. +It is the author's experience that this has caused many people to doubt +whether there is any Bible in the world today that is accurate, infallible, +or dependable. ... + +"When the so-called facts of textual criticism produce doubt in the Bible +which people have had for centuries, they should be considered as no better +than the so-called facts of evolution. In reality, there are very few +"facts" in textual criticism today. It is very difficult to get textual +critics to agree on their conclusions which are drawn from the principles +which most of them accept. Even a cursory study of the material available +on the subject today reveals that there is much personal opinion and bias +regarding which manuscripts are the oldest or best. ... + +"The most serious problem created by the multiplicity of versions and half- +truths from textual critics is that many believe that we have no accurate, +infallible Bible anywhere in the world today. To say that it exists in all +the versions is to say, in effect, that you can not find it, since no one +can agree on the best way to resolve all the differences in the versions. + +"To say that the various differences in versions are unimportant is to +raise a basic question: Why make them? If there is no basic difference, why +do we need them? ... Every version claims to be "more accurate ... more +understandable," but when faced with the problem of difference with others, +almost every scholar, professor, translator, and textual critic says that +no major doctrine is affected, and that the differences are minor and +relatively unimportant. One wonders if the motive for more and more +translations might not be commercial, rather than spiritual. + +"The fact is that many a Christian has had doubts, fears, and skepticism +instilled in his mind by these claims of discovering "more accurate +manuscripts." ... + +"If we believe God's promises of preservation, we must believe that the +Bible which has been available to all generations is that which God has +preserved. Conversely, that which was hidden was not God's truth, `which +endureth to all generations'" (pp. 48-52). + +DR. MYRON CEDARHOLM, retired President of Maranatha Baptist Bible College +and Graduate School of Theology, Watertown, Wisconsin. During Dr. Cedar +holm's tenure at Maranatha, the school stood resolutely for the Received +Text. Following was the school's position statement in those days [sadly, +the position has changed since then]: + +"Maranatha Baptist Bible College is dedicated to the defense of the +Massoretic Text, the Textus Receptus, and the Authorized Version and uses +them in its classes for study and the Authorized Version in the churches +for preaching. Maranatha is the first college to organize on its campus a +Dean Burgon Society chapter, which society exists for the defense of the +traditional Baptist texts." + +DR. JAMES HOLLOWOOD, retired professor of Theology and Philosophy at +Maranatha Baptist Bible College and Graduate School of Theology, Watertown, +Wisconsin. Dr. Hollowood is a member of the Dean Burgon Society which +stands for the Received Text and the King James Bible. Dr. Hollowood gave +editorial supervision to the publication of Evaluating Versions of the New +Testament by Everett Fowler, and he stands without hesitation for the +Received Text. + +EVERETT FOWLER, author of Evaluating Versions of the New Testament, had an +engineering degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, +Massachusetts. The following is from the Foreword to Evaluating Versions: + +"Mr. Fowler held the office of a deacon for 50 years as well as other +positions in the First Baptist Church of New York ... known from its +beginning in 1711 as a center of fundamentalism. It was his privilege to +sit and serve under the outstanding fundamentalist pastor, Dr. Isaac M. +Haldeman, whom God used throughout a long pastorate (1884-1933) to preserve +that church from modernism. To the glory of God, First Baptist Church has, +from its beginning until this day, enjoyed pastors preaching from the +Authorized Version and proclaiming the truths thereof as the very Word of +God. Though Mr. Fowler was not an ordained preacher and did not possess an +advanced degree in theology, he studied diligently from the Greek New +Testament for more than 30 years. It was in 1953 that he attended Greek +classes with the express goal of reading the Greek New Testament. + +"After reading the Nestle text several times Mr. Fowler began to note and, +later, to list the significant omissions and instances which did not +correspond with his Biblical knowledge. ... This treatise is the product of +his findings through hours of labor over the years, beginning with the +listing of differences in the Nestle text and growing through the years by +use of various helps and methods. Not only did Mr. Fowler regularly read +the Greek New Testament, but he also read his English Bible. ... For some +40 years he read the Bible through twice a year in English." + +DONALD T. CLARKE, former Dean and Chairman of the Greek Department at Bible +Truth Institute, Sunbury, Pennsylvania; author of Bible Version Manual. +Thomas E. Baker, President of Bible Truth Institute says of Donald Clarke: + +"[He] is the most practical proponent of the Greek New Testament of anyone +I know. His knowledge has come through his dedication to the Holy Spirit +and a diligent comparison of the manuscripts of the Word of God. His +conclusions are clear and positive in relation to the history of the +Scriptures. In the Introduction to Bible Version Manual the position of its +author is clearly stated: `God has not only inspired His Word, but He has +also preserved it down through the corridors of time. I rest in the +knowledge that God has safeguarded the Bible in the past from the wicked +poison of vain philosophy and will continue to do so in the future.'" + +JAY P. GREEN, SR., General Editor and Translator of The Interlinear Bible, +now in its fourth edition. The Interlinear Bible employs the Hebrew +Masoretic text and the Greek Received Text published by the Trinitarian +Bible Society in 1976, based upon the text followed in the Authorized +Version. I will quote some excerpts from the Introduction to this volume to +show that Green is unswerving in his defense of the Majority Text. Please +keep in mind that there is some difference between a so-called Majority +Text and the Textus Receptus upon which the old Protestant versions are +based, but it is also true that the differences are, to say the least, very +few and minute when compared with those between a Westcott-Hort type text +and the TR. It also should be pointed out that many who defend the TR and +KJV would not be happy with Green's own translation which he called the +King James II, but which actually is a new and different translation. These +things, though, do not detract from the fact that Jay Green is a scholar +who defends the Received Text and rejects the Westcott-Hort text as +corrupted. + +"Considering, then, that the words of this Book [the Bible] are the ones +that will judge every person who has lived in all the ages, how important +it must be that the very words of God, and no other, shall be contained in +a portable book, to be distributed far and wide. ... With these +considerations in mind, and in holy fear inculcated by our God, we have +sought to provide in The Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible all the +original God-breathed Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek words. And after much +laborious study, accompanied by much prayer, it was concluded that this +could best be done by providing you with the two attested texts that alone +have been uniquely preserved whole, having been accepted in all +generations, in all lands, by the vast majority of God's people as their +`received texts.' ... + +"These new versions [of the Bible] are not only marked by additions, but by +subtractions (enough to make up at least four whole pages of words, +phrases, sentences, and verses). And the words left out are attested to as +God's words by overwhelming evidence contained in all the Greek +manuscripts, in the ancient versions, in the writings of the early fathers; +and these from every inhabited land on the earth, anywhere that +Christianity has been introduced by God the Spirit. ... What then is the +evidence these Bible-alterers offer to persuade you to give up the precious +words they have removed from their version? Mainly, they cite two +manuscripts, admittedly old (c. 300 a.d.), but also admittedly carelessly +executed." + +DONALD R. WHITE, editor of the Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, +published by Baker Book House. I will quote from the Preface to this +volume: + +"The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament ... is based on the Greek Text +of Stephens, 1550, which (with the Elzevir Text of 1624) is commonly called +the Textus Receptus, or the Received Text, from which the New Testaments of +the King James Version, William Tyndale's Bible, Luther's German Bible, +Olivetan's French Bible, the Geneva Bible, and many other vernacular +versions of the Protestant Reformation were translated. It is the +"Traditional Text" that has been read and preserved by the Greek Orthodox +Church through the centuries. From it came the Peshitta, the Italic, +Celtic, Gallic, and Gothic Bibles, the medieval versions of the evangelical +Waldenses and Albigenses, and other versions suppressed by Rome during the +Middle Ages. Though many copies were ruthlessly hunted down and destroyed, +the Received Text has been preserved by an almighty Providence. This +interlinear text maintains the basic integrity of the Received Text (also +called the Majority Text, since it is represented by 95 percent of the +manuscript evidence). This is in sharp contrast to the Westcott-Hort +tradition (which leans heavily on two manuscripts of the unreliable +Alexandrian Text type), the shaky foundation of many of today's versions. +In the sixteenth century, Erasmus and the Reformers knowingly rejected the +Gnostic readings of Codex Vaticanus and other very old uncial (i.e., all +capital-letter) manuscripts, whose variant readings they judged to be +corrupt. They regarded such dubious `treasures' as the products of scribes +who had doctored the text to suit their own private interpretations. They +also rejected Jerome's Latin Vulgate as a corrupt version and as an +improper basis for vernacular translations" (Donald R. White, Editor, pp. +xi, xii). + +PHILIP MAURO was a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United +States and one of the foremost patent lawyers of his day. Mauro is the +author of Which Version? Authorized or Revised?, and a quote from this book +leaves no doubt as to the position of this brilliant man in regard to the +textual and translation issue: + +"It will be seen, therefore, that the making of a Greek Text, as the first +step in producing an English Version, involves the immense labor of +examining, for every disputed word and passage, the numerous manuscripts, +ancient versions, and quotations now known to exist, and also the making of +a decision in each case where there is a conflict between the various +witnesses. This is a highly complicated task; and for the performance of it +other qualities besides Greek and English scholarship are required. For +example, one must settle at the outset what degree of credibility is to be +imputed to the respective manuscripts; and this is where, in our opinion, +the compilers of the Greek Text used as the basis for the R.V. [the Revised +Version of 1881] went far astray, with the result that the Text adopted by +them was much inferior to that used in the translation of the A.V. Our +reasons for this opinion, which will be given later on, are such as to be +easily understood." + +JOSEPH C. PHILPOT. Of Philpot, True or False? records: "One time fellow of +Worcester College, a faithful Minister of the Gospel, and Editor of The +Gospel Standard 1849-1869 ... one of the greatest Hebrew and Greek scholars +of his day, and certainly a deeply spiritual man with a sanctified +discernment of the evil trend of the apostate church" (p. 21). Referring to +the King James Bible and the call for a revision, Philpot held this +opinion: + +"We appreciate any alteration as a measure that the smallest sprinkling of +good would deluge us with a flood of evil. The following are our reasons. +1. Who are to undertake it? Into whose hands would the translation +fall? ... Of course they must be learned men, great critics, scholars, and +divines. But these are notoriously either tainted with popery [a reference +to the Tractarian movement within the Anglican church--of which Westcott +and Hort and others of the translation company were members or +sympathizers] or infidelity ... 2. Again, it would unsettle the minds of +thousands, as to which was the Word of God--the old translation or the new. +What a door it would open for the workings of infidelity. ... 3. ... There +would be two Bibles spread throughout all the land, the old and the new, +and what confusion would this create in almost every place! ... 4. If the +new translation were once to begin, where would it end? It is good to let +well enough alone, as it is easier to mar than to mend. The Socinianising +Neologian would blot out `GOD' in I Timothy 3:16, and strike out I John 5:7 +as an interpolation. The Puseyite would mend it to suit his Tractarian +views. ... Once set up a notice, `The old Bible to be mended,' and there +would be plenty of workmen, who, trying to mend the cover, would pull the +pages to pieces. ... Instead of our good old Saxon Bible, simple and solid, +with few words obsolete, and alike majestic and beautiful, we should have a +modern English translation in pert and flippant language of the day. ... We +should be traitors in every sense of the word if we consented to give it up +to be rifled by the sacrilegious hands of the Puseyites, concealed papists, +German Neologian, infidel divines, Armenians, Socinians, and the whole +tribe of enemies of GOD and godliness" (True or False pp. 21-23). + +Looking back upon the history of Bible translation during the past 100 +years, it is evident that this man was a true prophet of God! + +WILLIAM T. BRUNER, Th. M., Ph.D. Dr. Bruner once held the typical position +of today's scholarship, considering the Westcott-Hort text a vast +improvement upon the ancient Textus Receptus and the versions (such as the +KJV) based upon it. The views of this scholar were changed, though, through +a careful reading of the studies of men such as Burgon and Hoskier. +Bruner's own testimony is contained in a letter to Dr. David Otis Fuller: + +"Dear Dr. Fuller: + +"On May 12, 1970, you wrote me a very kind letter and sent me some sample +materials from your book Which Bible? You might as well have been shooting +a pop gun at a stone wall. My mind was so strongly fortified in the +doctrine of Westcott and Hort that I could not for one moment consider the +King James Bible. + +"Had I not studied Textual Criticism under the great Dr. A.T. Robertson? I +thought that you were just one of those die-hard Fundamentalists who were +striving to keep the Christian world under the bondage of traditionalism. +Such men are interested only in pleasing the people by catering to their +ignorance, prejudice and sentimentality! + +"But just a few weeks ago I happened to read your two books, Which Bible? +and True or False? For the first time a little new light shone in. I saw +that there is another side to the argument. Dr. Robertson had not given us +all the facts. + +"As I perused your selections from Burgon and Hoskier, the idols of B and +Aleph started to totter, and soon they fell off their pedestals. That was +all I needed. I bought a copy of the Textus Receptus and am now using it. +Thanks to you ... + +"Sincerely yours, + +"William T. Bruner, Th.M., Ph.D. + +DICK WALKER, Bible Translator. Walker is another scholar whose views were +changed and whose heart was turned toward the Received Text after a careful +study of the writings edited by Dr. Fuller. We have the testimony of this +Bible translator in a letter to Cecil Carter, an elder for the past 50 +years in a Brethren assembly in Canada. + +"July 13, 1976 + +"Dear Brother Cecil: + +"Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ and in the joy of knowing Him, whom to +know is life eternal. I well remember your visit a few years back when you +expressed your deep concern to me over so many Christians who are using +translations not based on the Textus Receptus (from which we get the King +James Version). Also you gave me a copy of the book Which Bible? by David +Otis Fuller. + +"I received your book and exhortation at `arms length.' I considered your +concern genuine but perhaps naive. After all I had graduated from a +seminary in California which had one of the highest accreditations on the +west coast. I had majored in New Testament, taken two and one-half years of +New Testament Greek from a scholar who had his Ph.D. in Greek studies and +who also had many years of related semitic studies. My studies also +included a course in the text and canon of the New Testament as well as +writing my graduation thesis titled `The Exegetical Value of the Greek +Participle.' I was satisfied with the science of textual criticism and the +`Nestles' text, which is based on the Westcott and Hort text. + +"I never knew then how mistaken I was! I had forgotten, or ignored, in +Paul's exhortation to the Corinthians, the folly of applying human +reasoning to God's pattern of revelation, ` ... that in the wisdom of God +the world by wisdom knew not God ...' I Cor. 1:21 (this is true both of +Himself and His ways). I did not realize that I, like so many others who +love the Lord Jesus, had accepted unquestioningly the unproved and +unfounded reasoning that the `oldest manuscripts are the best.' I had +placed my confidence in the scholarship of others who have undoubtedly also +accepted the same logic while at the same time ignoring the fact that men +of God were quoting from the last 12 verses of Mark (which verses are not +found in the so called `oldest and best' manuscripts) and that the writings +of these men of God who quote from the last 12 verses in Mark predate the +`oldest and best,' i.e. Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. + +"I praise God for sending you to me and for the kind and loving manner in +which you shared these truths with me before I commenced the translation of +the Carrier New Testament. I do pray that the Lord Jesus will continue to +use your many, many years of solid research into this attack on the Word of +God for the edification of other sincere but deceived believers. To the end +that the day will come when believers in our Lord Jesus Christ will cease +from using translations which are not the Word of God but corruptions of +the Word of God. + +"Sincerely in Christ, + +"Dick Walker, Bible Translator" + +DR. FRANK LOGSDON. Dr. Logsdon was on the committees which produced the New +American Standard Version and the Amplified Version. Logsdon was a highly +respected pastor and Bible conference speaker. He pastored Moody Church for +a number of years, as well as other churches. After reading Dr. David Otis +Fuller's most excellent books, Which Bible? and True or False?, he writes +as follows: + +"I carried these titles with me all the summer long, and immersed myself in +them. I have never underscored books so much as I have done in them. They +enhanced my appreciation of the K.J.V. as the true revelation of God as no +other writings. As a member of the committee in the production of the +Amplified New Testament, we conscientiously and honestly felt it was a mark +of intelligence to follow `Westcott and Hort.' Now what you have in these +books strikes terror to my heart. It proves alarmingly that being +conscientiously wrong is a most dangerous state of being. God help us to be +more cautious, lest we fall into the snare of the arch deceiver." + +In a personal letter to Cecil Carter of British Columbia, Canada, Dr. +Logsdon writes with reference to the New American Standard Version: + +"When questions began to reach me, at first I was quite offended. However, +in attempting to answer, I began to sense that something was not right +about the N.A.S.V. Upon investigation, I wrote my very dear friend, Dr. +Lockman, explaining that I was forced to renounce all attachment to the +N.A.S.V. ... I could not add much to what Dr. Fuller has in his books, +copies of which you possess. I can aver that the project (N.A.S.V.) was +produced by thoroughly sincere men who had the best intentions. The +product, however, is grievous to my heart and helps to complicate matters +in these already troublous times. God bless you as you press the battle!" + +We could continue with this listing of scholars who uphold the Received +Text, but this is sufficient for our purposes. It is the position of men +such as these that is called "ludicrous" by the evangelical professor in +India, that is called "pseudo-scholarly" by Kurt Aland, and that is ignored +and belittled in the letter from the evangelical leader James Boice. The +fact remains that there ARE a number of scholarly men who remain convinced +that the TR is the preserved Word of God and that the Westcott-Hort text is +corrupted. + +It is not an evidence of superior intelligence or spirituality to ignore or +belittle this historical position. In fact, the doctrine of preservation +and the weight of history is on the side of those who support the TR. It is +not those who honor the TR who are making a new doctrine; these men are +simply standing in the time-honored tradition of loving and defending the +Received Text. Even Westcott and Hort admitted that the Textus Receptus was +the dominate text throughout the world from at least the third century. +This is an undeniable historical fact. Are we not warned by God against +removing the ancient landmark? + +MYTH #6: +THE ISSUES ARE TOO COMPLEX FOR THE AVERAGE CHRISTIAN TO UNDERSTAND + +This is the last point in our series on Myths About the King James Bible. +Consider again the letter from Evangelical leader James Boice to the +missionary doctor, Tom Hale: + +"The situation is somewhat complex, and many people do not understand it as +a result of that complexity. But let me try to explain what is +involved. ... Let me say that the concerns of some of these people [those +who defend the King James Bible and its underlying textual basis] are +undoubtedly good. They are zealous for the Word of God and very much +concerned lest liberal or any other scholarship enter in to pervert it. But +unfortunately, the basis on which they are operating is wrong, and I have +always tried to do what I could in a gentle way to lead them to appreciate +good, current evangelical scholarship where the Greek text and the +translations are concerned" (Letter from James Boice, leader with the +International Council of Biblical Inerrancy, to missionary doctor Tom +Hale). + +As noted earlier in this series of articles, these words were directed to a +missionary medical doctor in South Asia in response to that doctor's +queries about the issue of Bible texts and translations. The medical doctor +had read several books and booklets I had given him. In particular he had +read Which Bible? edited by David Otis Fuller, The King James Version +Defended by the late Dr. Edward F. Hills, and several smaller works by the +Trinitarian Bible Society and others. + +Note the paternalistic, condescending attitude of Dr. Boice toward those +who would defend the Textus Receptus. It would appear that there is no +possibility that Dr. Boice is the one who is in error, the one who is +following unsound "scholarship"! Of course he can maintain this kind of +attitude toward those who have not studied the issues very thoroughly, or +who, in his opinion, do not possess sufficient intelligence or education to +understand the issues. But if he were writing to some of the men we have +mentioned in the last section, he would doubtless demonstrate a different +attitude entirely. Would he try to lead Dr. Edward Hills, Dr. David Otis +Fuller, or Dr. Donald Waite "in a gentle way to appreciate good, current +evangelical scholarship where the Greek text and the translations are +concerned"? + +Would he say to the learned translators of the King James Bible and other +mighty Reformation Bibles that "the situation is somewhat complex, +brethren, and many people do not understand it as a result of that +complexity. But let me try to explain what is involved"! + +I'm sure you understand what I am saying. This condescending, paternalistic +attitude is a common feature of the writings of those who despise the TR. +Surely they know that the difference between their views and those of TR +supporters is not a matter of greater and lesser intelligence, but they +often imply that this is the case. There is a myth here. + +The most important issue in all the world is to know what and where is the +Word of God. By that Word we are born again; in it we find eternal life; by +it we live. As the Lord Jesus said, "It is written, That man shall not live +by bread alone, but by every word of God" (Luke 4:4). This being the case, +we must have these words--all of them. + +Since the issue before us is so crucial for the souls and destinies of men, +is it unreasonable to believe that God would make it possible for the +average saint, and especially for the average church leader, to know the +truth of the matter? God loves the world so much that He gave His only +begotten Son to suffer and die, and He has given a pure revelation of this +love in a Book. Has this God allowed the issues surrounding the +preservation and translation of the Bible to be as complex as Dr. Boice +says they are? "The situation is somewhat complex, and many people do not +understand it as a result of that complexity." Can it be so? + +I am reminded of Matthew 11:25-27--"At that time Jesus answered and said, I +thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these +things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even +so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered +unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, and he to whomsoever the +Son will reveal him." + +I am reminded of I Corinthians 1:26-29--"For ye see your calling, brethren, +how that NOT MANY WISE men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many +noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to +confound the wise; and GOD HATH CHOSEN THE WEAK THINGS of the world to +confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and +things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, +to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his +presence." + +I am reminded of Acts 4:13--"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and +John, and perceived that they were UNLEARNED AND IGNORANT MEN, they +marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." + +I am reminded of 2 Corinthians 11:3--"But I fear, lest by any means, as the +serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be +corrupted from THE SIMPLICITY that is in Christ." + +I am reminded of Colossians 2:8--"Beware lest any man spoil you through +philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments +of the world, and not after Christ." + +I am reminded of 1 John 2:27--"But the anointing which ye have received of +him abideth in you, and YE NEED NOT THAT ANY MAN TEACH YOU: but as the same +anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even +as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." + +This is not to say God does not call and use scholarly men. Certainly He +does, but this is not the normal situation in the churches of God. A +few--but not many--wise, mighty and noble are called. The common man has +more often received the truth than the wise and mighty, who have more often +than not stumbled in their pride. Even when the Son of God walked the earth +such was the case. The religious scholars discounted his eternal wisdom, +while "the common people heard him gladly" (Mark 12:37). + +The Bible enumerates the qualifications for a pastor, but nowhere does God +say that he must be a scholar. He must be trained in the Word of God; he +must be a man of study; he must be ready and able to teach--but there is no +qualification that he be a scholar, that he possess a M.Th. or Ph.D. Where +in the Bible does God say that a pastor must master Greek and Hebrew, even? +This being the case, God simply is not going to make the issue surrounding +the question of the Bible translations so complex that the average church +leader cannot readily know the truth of the matter. + +How has God made the matter simple in His Word? First, He has given a pure +Word. Second, He has promised to preserve this Word. Third, it is evident +that a certain textual family, a certain type of Bible, was preserved and +published throughout the world across the centuries. Fourth, this text was +adopted by the Reformation translators and editors. Fifth, this is the +pure, preserved Word of God and should not be discarded for a text which +was rejected in past centuries by God's people. + +These facts are not complex at all. And THEY ARE FACTS, by the way. There +are certain details and questions in the midst of these simple facts which +admittedly are complex. There are things hard to be answered. But the +basic, overall issues are quite simple and straightforward; so much so that +the average man of God can grasp them and know where the Word of God is +today. + +I therefore reject Dr. Boice's contention that "the situation is somewhat +complex, and many people do not understand it as a result of that +complexity." The truth of the matter is that the situation is rather simple +and many scholars stumble at the simplicity of the truth! + +We have looked at six myths which are continually promoted by those who are +opposed to the idea that the pure Word of God is preserved in that Text and +in those Versions which dominated non-Catholic Christian life for the past +nineteen centuries. Obviously no attempt has been made to answer all of the +questions which can be asked on this subject. Our goal was singular: +Brethren, beware of myths which are disguised as truth. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/necron.txt b/religious documents/necron.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e0b8d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/necron.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1350 @@ +:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: +: Earth's Dreamlands : Info on: RPG's, :(313)558-5024 : area code : +:RPGNet World HQ & Archive: Drugs, Industrial :(313)558-5517 : changes to : +: 1000's of text files : music, Fiction, :InterNet : (810) after : +: No Elite / No porn : HomeBrew Beer. :rpgnet@aol.com: Dec 1,1993 : +:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.: + +%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% +%%%% %%%% +%%%% THE CORONER %%%% +%%%% Presents %%%% +%%%% %%%% +%%%% THE NECRONOMICAN %%%% +%%%% %%%% +%%%% DEC. 1985 %%%% +%%%% %%%% +%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% + + WARNING: The NECRONOMICON'S magick is nothing to fool with and it may +expose you to psycological forces with which you cannot cope. Remember if you +fool with the incantations, you were warned! THIS IS NOT A FARCE!!! As a +former follower in the ways of the Occult I can guarentee the legitimacy of +this. + + Book 1: The Introduction + "LET THEM CURSE IT THAT CURSE THE DAY, WHO ARE SKILFUL TO ROUSE THE +LEVIATHAN" + JOB 3:8 + + CHART OF COMPARISONS + H.P. Lovecraft Alexander Crowley Sumer + + Cthulhu The Great Beast as Ctha-lu, Kutulu + represented in + "CTH/\H 666" + The Ancient Ones Satan; Teitan Tiamat + Azathoth Aiwass (?) Azag-thoth + The Dunwitch Choronzon Pazuzu + Horror + Shub Niggurath Pan Shub Ishniggarab (?) + Out Of Space The Abyss Absu; Nar Mattaru + IA! IO! IAO! IA (JAH; EA; LORD + OF WATERS) + The Five-pointed The Pentagram The AR, or UB + (Plough Sign; the + original pentagram + and sign of the + Aryan Race) + gray star cavern + Vermis Mysteriis The Serpent Erim (the enemy; + and the sea as + Chaos; Gothic: + Orim, or Worm + great Serpent + + This, of coarse, is not a complete list but rather an inspisational +sampling. Meditation upon the various things mentioned in the Mythos will +permit the scholor to draw his own conclusions; research upon the etymology +of both Lovecraft's and Crowley's respective literature enables the occultist +to discover the ancient Names and Numbers for much of his own, familiar, +material. + (Note:that Lovecraft may have heard of Crowley is hintedat darkly in +his short story "The Thing On The Doorstep" in which he refers to a cult +leader from England who established a covenstead of sorts in New York. In +that story, published in Weird Talesin 1936, the cult leader is closely +identified with chthoinc forces, is described as "notorious", and linked to +the strange fate that befell the protagonist, Edward Derby) + + SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL TO 777 + THE CHART that follows is based on research presently available to +the Editor with regard to Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian religions. Entries +in parenthesis refer to the state of Correspondance before the advent of the +Elder Gods, the Race of Marduk ; that is, it reflects the nature of the cosmos +before the Fall of Marduk from Heaven. (Names of zodiacal constellations are +after Budge's renderings) + + Table VII [A.C.] Table XXV [S,] + 0. ... ANU (TIAMAT) + 1. Sphere of the Primum ENLIL (ABSU) + Mobile + 2. Sphere of the Zodic or ENKI; LUMASHI (IGIGI) + Fixed Sars + 3. Sphere of Saturn ADAR + 4. Sphere of Jupiter MARDUK + 5. Sphere of Mars NERGAL + 6. Sphere of the Sun UTU + 7. Sphere of Venus INANNA + 8. Sphere of Mercury NEBO + 9. Sphere of the Moon NANNA + 10. Sphere of the Elements KIA + 11. Air ANNA + 12. Mercury GUDUD + 13. Moon SIN + 14. Venus DLIBAT + 15. Aries AGRU (XUBUR) + 16. Taurus KAKKAB U ALAP SHAME (KINGU) + 17. Gemini RE'U KINU SHAME U + TU'AME RABUTI (VIPER) + 18. Cancer SHITTU (SNAKE) + 19. Leo KALBU RABU (LAKHAMU) + 20. Virgo SHIRU (WHIRLWIND) + 21. Jupiter UMUNPADDU + 22. Libra ZIBANITUM (Ravening Dog) + 23. Water BADUR + 24. Scorpio AKRABU (SCORPION-MAN) + 25. Sagittarius PA-BIL-SAG (HURRICANE) + 26. Capricorn SUXUR MASH (FISH-MAN) + 27. Mars MASTABARRU + 28. Aquarius GULA (HORNED BEAST) + 29. Pisces DILGAN U RIKIS NUNI (WEAPON) + 30. Sun SHAMASH + 31. Fire AG + 32. Saturn KAIMANU + 32. (bis) Earth KIA + 31. (bis) Spirit ZI + + NOTES ON PRONOUNCIATION + + WE CANNOT BE absolutely sure how Sumerian and Akkadian were +spoken; but many use ful guidelines are available to the student, including +the translated tablets found all over Mesopotamia. Basically, we can offer +the following principles which should prove of value in reciting the foreign +language instructions: + + Vowels + + a as in "father" + e as in "whey" + i as in "antique" + o as in "boat" (but rarely found) + u as in "zulu" + + Consonants + + Most are basically the same as in English. The Sumerians did not have an +alphabet as we know it, but they had developed a syllabry, very much like the +Japenese "Kana" script of today. In phonetic transliterations, the English +spelling sought to approximate the Sumerian pronounciation. However, there +are a few sounds which English does not possess, and which have been put into +phonetic variations. Important examples below: + + x as in the German "ach" + ch (same as above) + q as in "liKe" + k (same as above) + sh as in "shall" + ss as in, perhaps, "lasso"; a hissing "s" common to Arabic languages + z as in "lotS"; a hard "ts" sound, not quite as in "zoo" + + Remember, in the translations which follow, every letter must be +pronounced. There are no schwas or silent syllables in Sumerian. Hence, KIA +is pronounced "keeya"; "KAIMANU" is pronounced "ka-ee-mah-nu" or, if spoken +rapidly, the two initial vowell sounds slur onto "kigh" rhyming with "high". + + The incantations should be carefully and slowly at first, to +familiarize oneself with the tongue-twisting phrases. A mistake may prove +fatal to the Work. + + SPELLS + (TRANSLATED) + + WHERE POSSIBLE, the Editor has taken every oppurtunity to find the +original Summerian or Akkadian translation of a given Greek charm or conjura- +tion. These will be given here. Also, the reader will find English transla- +tions of the Sumerian charms as they are given in the NECRONOMICON. Not all +of the charms are avaliable in this way, and sometimes we have had to make do +with near misses. Much of what is found here is from the MAKLU text, of which +only extant translation is in German or Tallqvist. The word "maklu" or +"maqlu" itself is controversial, but Tallqvist seems to think that it does, +indeed, mean "burning"; especially so as the incantations to be found therin +invaribly entail burning something, usually a doll made in the likeness of a +witch or evil sorcerer that the magician wished to dispose of. Hence, we have +here probably the archetype of the Great Burning Times of the Inquisition, +when people were condemmed to firey deaths as Witches and Pagans. The chant +"burn!witch!burn!" can be found in the MAKLU text, in all its pristine glory. + Indeed, Cthulhu Calls. + The Conjuration "The Binding of the Evil Sorcerers" + + + Alsi ku nushi ilani mushiti + Itti kunu alsi mushitum kallatum kattumtum + Alsi bararitum qablitum u namaritum + Ashshu kashshaptu u kashshipanni + Eli nitum ubbiraanni + Ili-ia u Ishtari-ia ushis-su-u-eli-ia + Eli ameri-ia amru-usanaku + Imdikula salalu musha u urra + Qu-u imtana-allu-u pi-ia + Upu unti pi-ia iprusu + Me mashtiti-ia umattu-u + Eli li nubu-u xiduti si-ipdi +Izizanimma ilani rabuti shima-a dababi + Dini dina alakti limda + Epu-ush salam kashshapi-ia u kashshapi-ia + Sha epishia u mushtepishti-ia + Is mass-ssarati sha mushi lipshuru ruxisha limnuti + Pisha lu-u ZAL.LU Lishanusha Lu-u Tabtu + Sha iqbu-u amat limutti-ia kima ZAL.LU litta-tuk + qi-ishrusha pu-uttu-ru ipshetusha xulluqu + Kal amatusha malla-a sseri + Ina qibit iqbu-u ilani mushitum + + NOTE: SINCE THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS INCANTATION I HAVE LEFT OUT 1 VERSE +SO IF IT IS TRIED IT WILL NOT WORK!!!! + + The Conjuration "XILQA XILQA BESA BESA" or "A Most Exellant Charm +Aginst the Hordes of Demons" etc. + + Arise! Arise! Go far away! Go far away! + Be shamed! Be shamed! Flee! Flee! + Turn around, go, arise and go far away! + Your wickedness may rise to heaven like unto smoke! + Arise and leave my body! + From my body, depart in shame! + From my body flee! + Turn away from my body! + Go away from my body! + Do not return to my body! + Do not come near my body! + Do not approach my body! + Do not throng around my body! + Be commanded by Shammash the Mighty! + Be commanded by Enki, Lord of All! + Be commanded by Marduk, the Great Magician of the Gods! + Be commanded by the God of Fire, your Destroyer! + May you be held back from my body! + + NOTE: THIS SPELL IS LISTED COMPLETE + + "Another Binding of the Sorcerers" + + Ssalmani-ia ana pagri tapqida duppira + Ssalmani-ia ana pagri taxira duppira + Ssalmani-ia iti pagri tushni-illa duppira + Ssalmani ini ishdi pagri tushni-illa duppira + Ssalmani-ia ana qulqullati tapqida duppira + Ssalmani-ia ina igari tapxa-a duppira + Ssalmani-ia ina askuppati Tushni-illa duppira + Ssalmani-ia ina bi'sha duri tapxa-a duppira + Ssalmani-ia ana GISHBAR tapqida duppira + + NOTE: SINCE THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS SPELL A VERSE HAS BEEN LEFT OUT +FOR YOUR SAFETY! IT WILL NOT WORK IF READ LIKE THIS!!!! + + "The Conjuration of the Mountains of MASHU" + + May the mountain overpower you! + May the mountain hold you back! + May the mountain conquer you! + May the mountain frighten you! + May the mountain shake you to the core! + May the mountain hold you in check! + May the mountain subject you! + May the mountain cover you! + May the mighty mountain fall on you! + May you be held back from my body! + + NOTE: THIS SPELL IS COMPLETE! + + (Note that the original translator had noted the resembelance between the +Greek word for Lord, KURIOS, and the Sumerian word for mountain, KUR, and for +a type of underworld, chthonic, monster which is also called KUR and which +refers to the Leviathan of the Old Testiment. Also in this particular +conjuration, the word for mountain is SHADU-SHADDAI? The Old Serpent KUR is, +of coarse, invoked every day by the Christians: Kyrie Eleison!) + +%%% BOOK 1 PART 2 %%% + + WARNING: The NECRONOMICON'S magick is nothing to fool with and it +may subject you to psycological forces with which you cannot cope. Remember, +if you fool with the incantations, you were warned! As a former follower in +the ways of the occult I can vouch for the legitimaty of this! + + + COMMON SUMERIAN WORDS AND PHRASES + IN ENGLISH + + Akhkharu Vampire + Alal Destroyer + Alla Xul Evil God + Barra! Begone + Dingir Xul Evil God + Edin Na Zu! Go To The Desert! + (a form of exercism) + Gelal Incubus + Gigim xul Evil Spirit + Gidim Xul Evil Ghost + Idimmu Demon + Idpa Fever + Kashshaptu Witch + Lalartu Phantom + Lalassu Spectre + Lilit Succubus + Maskim Xul Evil Fiend (Ambusher, + Lier-In-Wait) + Mulla Xul Evil Devil + Rabishu (same as Maskim Xul) + Telal Wicked Demon (Warrior) + Uggae God Of Death + Uruku Larvae + Utuk Xul Evil Spirit + Zi Dingir Anna Kanpa! Spirit, God of the Sky, + Remember! + Zi Dingir Kia Kanpa! Spirit, God of the Earth, + Remember! + + BANISHINGS + + Read this section carefully. + + In the interim period between the translation and the publication of +this work, the editor, along with a circle of initiates in another dicipline, +undertook to experiment with the rituals and forces outlined in the NECRONOMI- +CON. In using the material alone, or within a Western ceremonial structure +(such as the Golden Dawn system) we came upon startling discoveries in both +cases: THERE ARE NO EFFECTIVE BANISHINGS FOR THE FORCES INVOKED IN THE NECRON- +OMICON ITSELF! {Except, that is, for Christians} The rituals, incantations, +formulae, of this work are of ancient origin, comprising some of the oldest +written magickal workings in Western occult history. The deities and demons +identified within probably have not been effectivly summoned in nearly six +thousand years. Ordinary exercisms and banishings have thus far proved +extreamly inadequate: this, by experienced magicians. Hence, the following +recommendations. + The religion of the ancient Sumerian peoples seem to have been +lunar-oriented, a religion-or religio-magickal structure-of the night, of +darkness in a sense. Invocations using solar formulae have proved thus far +effective in successfully banishing NECRONOMICON demons and intelligence.For +instance, the KADDISH prayer of the Jewish faith contains some solar elements +that have proved resilient to inimical genii, and the vibration of the Lord's +Prayer for Christians is also a workable method. + + We suggest that individual operators utilize an equivelant solar +(i.e., positive light) invocation from thier own religion or the religion of +thier ancestors, should they no longer have a religion or should they have +changed it in thier lifetime. + For best practical purposes in the beginning-for those intent on +actually the rituals contained herein-it is advisable to take espicial care +in the construction of the magickal defences. A preliminary period of +purification is well in order before attempting anything in this grimiore +Persons of unstable emotional condition should not be allowed, under any +circumstances, to observe one of these rituals in progress. That would be +criminal, and perhaps even suicidal. One of our colleagues was fearfully +attacked by his dog directly following a fairly simple and uncomplicated +formula from this book. This is definatly not a Gilbert chemestry set. + The method of the NECRONOMICON concerns deep, primeval forces that +seem to pre-exist the normal archetypal images of the Tarot trumps and the +Golden Dawn telematic figures. These are forces that developed outside the +Judeo-Christian mainstream, and were worshipped and summoned long before +the creation of the Qubala as we know it today. Hence, the ineffectiveness +of the Golden Dawn banishing procedures aginst them. They are not necessarily +demonic or qliphotic in the sense that these terms are commonly understood +in the West, they just simply represent power scources largely untapped and +thus far ignored by twentieth-century, mainstream consciouness. + The results of any experimentation with this work, as well as prac- +tical suggestions concerning its rituals, are welcomed by the publishers. + +%%% BOOK 2 PART 1 %%% + + WARNING: The NECRONOMICON'S magick is nothing to fool with and +may expose you to pscycological forces with which you cannot cope. Remember +if you fool with the incantations, you were warned! + + THE TESTIMONY OF THE + MAD ARAB + + TTTTTHIS is the testimony of all that I have seen, and all that I have + T learned, in those years that I have possesed the Three Seals of + T MASSHU. I have seen One Thousand and-One moons, and surely this + is enough for the span of a mans life, though it is said the + Prophets lived much longer. I am weak, and ill, and bear great tired- +ness and exaustion, and a sigh hangs in my breast like a dark lantern, I am +old. + The wolves carry thier name in thier midnight speeches, and that +quiet, subtle Voice is summoning me from afar. And a voice much closer will +shout into my ear with unholy impatience. The weight of my soul will decide +its final resting place. Before the time, I must put down here all that I can +concerning the horrors that stalk Without, and which lie in wait at the door +of every man, for this is the ancient arcana that has been handed down of old, +but which has been forgotten by all but a few men, the worshippers of the +Ancient Ones (may thier names be blotted out!) + And if I do not finish this task, take what is here and discover the +rest, for time is short and mankind does not know or understand the evil that +awaits it, from every side, from every open Gate, from every broken barrier, +from every mindless acolyte at the alters of madness. + For this is the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Black Earth, that +I have writ down at the peril of my life, exactly as I recieved it, on the +planes of IGIGI, the cruel celestial spirits from beyond the Wanderers of the +Wastes. + Let all who read this book be warned thereby that the habitation of +men are seen and surveyed by that Ancient Race of gods and demons from a time +before time, and that they seek revenge for that forgotten battle that took +place somewhere in the Cosmos and rent the Worlds in the days before the crea- +tion of Man, when the Elder Gods walked the Spaces, the race of MARDUK, as he +is known to the Chaldeans, and of ENKI our master, the Lord of Magicians. + Know, then, that I have trod all the Zones of the Gods, and also the +places of Azonei, and have descended into the foul places of Death and Eternal +Thirst, which may be reached through the Gate of GANZIR, which was built in UR +in the days before Babylonian was. + Know, too, that I have spoken with all manner of spirit and daemon, +whose names are no longer known in the societies of Man, or were never known. +And the seals of these are writ herein ; yet others I must take with me when I +leave you. ANU have mercy on my soul! {Actually Jesus Christ is the one he +should ask for forgiveness from, for Christ is the all powerful God and the +only god full of love} + I have seen the Unknown Lands, that no map has ever charted. I have +lived in the deserts and the wastelands, and spoken with demons and the souls +of slaughtered men, and of women who have died in childbirth, victims of the +she-fiend LAMMASHTA. + I have traveled beneath the Seas, in search of the Palace of Our +Master, and found the stone monuments of vanquished civilizations, and de- +ciphered the writings of some of these; while still others remain mysteries +to any man who lives. And these civilizations were destroyed because of the +knoeledge contained in this book. + I have traveled among the stars, and trembled before the gods. I +have at last found the formula by which I passed the gate of ARZIR, and passed +into the forbidden realms ofthe foul IGIGI. + I have raised demons, and the dead. + I have summoned the ghosts of my ancestors to real and visible ap- +pearence on the tops of temples built to reach the stars, and built to touch +the nethermost cavities of HADES. I have wrestled with the Black Magician, +AZAG-THOTH, in vain, and fled to the Earth by calling upon INANNA and her +brother MARDUK, Lord of the double-headed AXE. + I have raised armiesagainst the Lands of the East, by summoning the +hordes of fiends I have made subject unto me, and so doing found NGAA, the god +of the heathens, who breathes flame and roares like a thousand thunders. + I have found fear. + I have found the Gate that leads to the Outside, by which the +Ancient Ones, who ever seek the entrance to our world, keep eternal watch. I +have smelled the vapors of that Ancient One, Queen of the Outside, whose name +is writ in the MAGAN text, the testiment of some dead civilization whose +priests, seeking power, swing open the dread, evil Gate for an hour past the +time and were consumed. + I came to possess this knowledge through circumstances quite pecul- +iar, while still the unlettered son of a shepherd in what is called Mesopot- +amia by the Greeks. + When I was only a youth, traveling alone in the mountains to the +East, called MASSHU by the people who live there, I came upon a grey rock +carved with three strange symbols. It stood as high as a man, and as wide +around as a bull. It was firmly in the ground, and I could not move it. +Thinking no more of the carvings, save that they might be the work of a king +to mark some Ancient victory over an enemy, I built a fire at its foot to +protect me from the from the wolves that wander in that reigons and went to +sleep, for it was night and I was far from my village, being Bet Durrabia. +Bieng about three hours from dawn, in the nineteenth of Shabatu, I was +awakened by the howl of a dog, or perhaps a wolf, uncommonly loud and close +at hand. The fire had died to its embers, and these red, glowing coals cast a +faint, dancing shadow across the stone monument with the three carvings. I +began to make haste to build another fire when, at once, the grey rock began +to rise slowly into the air, as if it were a dove. I could not move or speak +for the fear that siezed upon my spine and wrapped cold fingers around my +skull. The Dik of Azug-bel-ya was no stranger seemed to melt into my hands! + Presently, I heard a voice, softly, some distance away and a more +practical fear, that the possibility of robbers, took hold of me and I rolled +behind weeds, trembling. Another voice joined the first, and soon several men +in black robes of thieves came together over the place where I was, surroundin +the floating rock, of which they did not exhibit in the least fright. + I could see clearly now that the three carvings on the stone monu- +ment were glowing, a flame red color, as through the rock were on fire. The +figures were murmuring together in prayer or invocation, of which only a few +words could be heard, and these in some unknown tongue; though, ANU have mercy +on my soul!, these rituals are not unknown to me any longer. + The figures, whose faces I could not see or recognize, began to make +wild passes in the air with knives that glinted cold and sharp in the mountain +night. + From beneath the floating rock, out of the very ground where it had +sat, came rising the tail of a serpent. This serpent was surely larger than +any I had ever seen. The thinnest section thereof was fully that of the arms +of two men, and as it rose from the earth it was followed by another, although +the end of the first was not seen as it seemed to reach down into the very Pit +itself. These were followed by still more, and the ground began to tremble +under the pressure of so many of these enormous arms. The chanting of the +priests, for I knew them now to be some the servents ofsome hidden Power, +became much louder and nearly hysterical. + IA! IA! ZI AZAG! + IA!IA! ZI AZKAK! + IA! IA! KUTULU ZI KUR! + IA! + + The ground where I was hiding became wet with some substance, being +slightly downhill from the scene I was witnessing. I touched the wetness and +found it to be blood. In horror I screamed and gave my presence away to the +priests. They turned toward me, and I saw with loathing that they had cut +their chests with the daggers they had used to raise the stone, for some mys- +tical purpose I could not then divine; although I now know that blood is the +very food of these spirits, which is why tha field after the battles of war +glows with an unnatural light, the manifestation of the spirits feeding there- +on. + + May ANU protect us all! + My scream had the effect of casting thier ritual into chaos and dis- +order. I raced through the mountain path by which I had come, and the priests +came running after me, although some seemed to stay behind, perhaps to finish +the Rites. However, as I ran wildly down the slopes in the cold night, my +heart gave rise in my chest and my head growing hot, the sound of splitting +rocks and thunder came from behind me and shook the very ground I ran on. In +fright and haste I fell to the earth. + Rising, I turned to face whatever attackerhad come nearest me, +though I was unarmed. To my surprise, what I saw was no priest of ancient +horror, no necromancer of that forbidden Art, but black robes fallen upon the +grass and weeds, with no seeming presance of life or bodies beneath them. + I walked cautiously to the first and, picking up a long twig, lifted +the robe from the tangle of weeds and thorns. All that remained of the priest +was a pool of slime, like green oil, and the smell of a body lain long in the +sun to rot. Such a stench nearly overpowered me, but I was resolute to find +the others, to see if the same fortune had also befallen them. + Walking back up the slope that I had so fearfully run down only +moments ago, I came across yet another of the black priests, in identical +condition to the first. I kept walking, passing more of the robes as I went, +not venturing to overturn them any longer. Then, I finally came upon the grey +stone monument that had risen unnaturally into the air at the command of the +priests. It was now upon the ground once more, but the carvings still glowed +with supernatural light. The serpents, or what I had then thought of as ser- +pents, had disappeared. But in the dead embers of the fire, now cold and +black, was a shining metal plate. I picked it up and saw that it was also +carved, as the stone, but very intricatly, after a fasion I could not under- +stand. It did not bear the same markings as the stone, but I had the feeling +I coukd almost read the characters, but could not, as though I once knew the +tongue but had since long forgotten. Mt head began to ache as though a devil +was pounding my skull, when a shaft of moonlight hit the metal amulet, for I +know now what it was, and a voice entered my head and told me the secrets of +the scene I had witnessed in one word: + KUTULU. + In that moment, as though whispered fiercly into my ear, I under- +stood. + These were the signs carved upon the grey stone, that was the gate +to the Outside: + /\ /-\ /\ + __/ \__ | o / \ + \ / | / \ + \ / o------------ / \ + / \ | / \ ---- + / \ | / \ + | / o + + (I wish to apologize for the primitive descriptions of the sym- +bols but its about the best that can be done with this file writer) + + The amulet that I held in my hand, and hold to this very day, around +my neck as I write these words, is this: (after seeing the so-called picture +of the symbols you can probably understand why I did not attempt to show you +the amulet) + Of the three symbols carved, the first is the Sign of our Race from +beyond the Stars, and is called ARRA in the tongue of the Scribe who taught it +to me, an emissary of the Elder Ones. In the tongue of the eldest city of +Babylon, it was UR. It is the Sigil of the Covenant of the Elder Gods, and +when they see it, they who gave it to us, they will not forget us. They have +sworn! + Spirit of the Skies, Remember! + The second sign is the Elder Sign, and is the Key whereby the Powers +of the Elder Gods may be summoned, when used with the proper words and shapes. +It has a Name, and is called AGGA. + The third sign is the Sigil of the Watcher. It is called BANDAR. +The Watcher is a Race sent by the Elder Ones. It keeps vigil while one sleeps +provided the appropriate rituals and sacrifice has been preformed; else, if +called, it will turn upon you. + These seals, to be effective, must be graven on stoneand set in the +ground. Or, set upon the alter of offerings. Or, carried to the Rock of +Invocations. Or, engraved upon the metal of ones God or Goddes and hung about +the neck, but hidden from the view of the profane. Of these three, the ARRA +and the AGGA may be used seperatly, that is to say singly, and alone. The +BANDAR however, must never be used alone, but with one or both of the others, +for the Watcher must needs to be reminded of the Covenant he has sworn with +the Elder Gods and our Race, else it will turn upon thee and slay thee and +ravage thy town untill succour is to be had from the Elder Gods by the tears +of thy people and the wailing of thy women. + KAKAMMU! + +%%% BOOK 2 PART 2 %%% + + THE TESTIMONY OF THE MAD ARAB (CONT) + + The fire amulet that I retrieved from the ashes of the fire, and +which caught the light of the moon, is a potent seal against whatever may come +in the Gate from the Outside for, seeing it, they willretreat from thee SAVE +ONLY IF IT CATCH THE LIGHT OF THE MOON UPON ITS SURFACE for, in the dark days +of the moon, or in clouds, there can be little protection against the fiends +from the Ancient Land should they break the barrier, or be let in by thier +servants upon the face of the Earth. In such a case, no recourse is to be had +untill the light of the moon shines upon the Earth, for the moon is the Eldest +among the Zonei, and is the starry symbol of our pact. NANNA, Father of the +Gods, Remember! + Wherefore, the amulet must be engraved upon pure silver in the full +light of the moon, that the moon shine upon it at its working, and the essence +of the moon be drawn down and captured therein. And the proper incantations +must be performed, and the prescribed rituals as given forth in this Book. +And the amulet must NEVER be exposed to the light of the Sun, for SHAMMASH +called UDU, in his jealousy, will rob the seal of its power. In such case, it +must be bathed in waters of camphor, and the incantations and ritual performed +once again. But verily, it were better to engrave another. + These secrets I give to thee at the pain of my life, never to be +revealed to the profane, or the banished, or the Worshippers of the Ancient +Serpent, but to keep within thine own heart, always silent upon these things. + Peace be to thee! + Henceforth, from that fateful night in the mountains of MASSHU, I +wandered about the countryside in search of the key to the secret knowledge +that had been given me. And it was a painful and lonley journey, during which +time I took no wife, called no house or village my home, and dwelt in variuos +countries, often in caves or in the deserts, lerning several tongues as a +traveler, to bargin with the tradespeople and learn of the news and customs. +But my bargining was with the Powers that reside in each of these countries. +And soon, I came to understand many things of which before I had no knowledge, +except perhaps in dreams. The friends of my youth deserted me, and I them. +When I was seven years gone from my family, I learned that they had all died +of thier own hand, for reasons no one was able to tell me; thier flocks had +later been slain as the victoms of some strange epidemic. + I wandered as a begger, being fed from town to town as the local +people saw fit, often being stoned instead of threatened with imprisonment. +On occasion, I was able to convince some learned man that I was a sincere +scholar, and was thereby permitted to read the Ancient Records in which +the details of necromancy, sorcery, magick and alchemy are given. I learned +of the spells that cause men illness, the plague, blindness, insanity and even +death. I learned the various classes of demons and evil gods that exist, and +of the old legends concerning the Ancient Ones. I was thus able to arm myself +against the dread Maskim, who lie in wait about the boundaries of the world, +ready to trap the unwary and devour the sacrifices set out at night and in +deserted places; against the she-devil LAMMASHTA, who is called Sword that +Splits the Skull, the sight of whom causes horror and dismay, and (some say) +death of a most uncommon nature. + In time I learned of the names and properties of all the demons, +devils, fiends and monsters listed herein, in this Book of the Black Earth. I +learned of the powers in the astral Gods, and how to summon thier aid in times +of need. I learned, too, of the frightful beings who dwell beyond the astral +spirits, who guard the entrance to the Temple of the Lost, of the Ancient Days +the Ancient of the Ancient Ones, whose Name I connot write here. + In my solitary ceremonies in the hills, worshipping with fire and +sword, with water and dagger, and with the assistance of strange grass that +grows wild in certain parts of the MASSHU, and with which I had unwittingly +built my fire before the rock, that grass that gives the mind great power to +travel termendous distances into the heavens, as also into the hells, I recie- +ved the formulae for the amulets and talismans which follow, which provide the +Priest with safe passage among the spheres wherein he may travel in search of +the Wisdom. + But now, after One Thousand-and-One moons of the journey, the Maskim +nip at my heels, the Rabishu pull at my hair, Lammashta opens her dread jaws, +AZAG-THOTH gloats blindly at his throne, KUTULU raises his head and stares up +through the Veils of sunkun Varloorni, up through the Abyss, and fixes his +stare upon me; wherefore I must with haste write this Book lest my end come +sooner than I had prepared. For indeed, it appears as though I have failed in +some regard as to the order of the rites, or to the formulae, or to the sacri- +fices, for now it appears as if the entire host of ERESSKIGAL lies waiting, +dreaming, drooling for my departure. I pray the gods that I am saved (which +he is not, for "gods" cannot save ones soul, only GOD) and not perish as did +the Priest, ABDUL BEN-MARTU, in Jerusalem (the gods remember and have mercy +upon him!). My fate is no longer writ in the stars, for I have broken the +Chaldean Covenant by seeking power over the Zonei. I have set foot on the +moon, and the moon no longer has power over me. The lines of my life have +been obliterated by my wanderings in the Waste, over the letters writ in the +heavens by the gods. And even now I can hear the wolves howling in the moun- +tains as they did that fateful night, and they are calling my name, and the +names of the Others. I fear for my flesh, but I fear for my spirit more. + Remember, always, in every empty moment, to call upon the gods not +to forget thee, for they are forgetful and very far away. Light thy fires +high in the hills, and on the tops of temples and pyramids, that they may see +and remember. + Remember, always, to copy each of the formulae as I have put it down +and not to change it by one line or dot, not so much as hair's breadth, lest +it be rendered valueless, or worse: a broken line provides means of entrance +for those Outside, for a broken star is the Gate of GANZIR, the Gate of Death, +the Gate of the Shodows and the Shells. Recite the incantations as they are +written here, in the manner thus prescribed. Prepare the rituals without +erring, and in the proper places and times render the sacrifices. + May the gods ever be merciful unto thee! + May thou escape the jaws of the MASKIM, and vanquish the power to +the Ancient Ones! + + AND THE GODS GRANT THEE DEATH BEFORE THE ANCIENT ONES RULE THE EARTH +ONCE MORE! + + KAKAMMU! SELAH! + + CORONERS NOTE: These powers and incantations arent anything to fuck +with I have made sure that some spells couldent be used by taking out a few +lines. I do not in any way, shape, or form have ANYTHING to do with these +beliefs. Dr. Dos made a file called "BACK UP TO THE NECRONOMICON". Read it! +It tells it how it actually is. + +%%% BOOK 3 %%% + + WARNING: The powers explained herein are nothing to fuck with! They +are extreamly dangerous and could be fatal to ones health if a problem occured +Remember, if you screw with this...YOU WERE WARNED! + + CORONERS NOTE: The Coroner or any boards advertised on this file +have nothing to do with the powers of the occult in any way, shape, or form! + + + OF THE ZONEI AND THEIR + ATTRIBUTES + + The gods of the Stars are Seven. They have Seven Seals, each of +which may be used in their turn. They have Seven Colors, Seven Material Es- +sences and each have a seperate Step on the Ladder of Lights. The Chaledeans +were but imperfect in their knowledge, although they had understanding of the +Ladder, and certain of the formulae. They did not however, possess the form- +ulae for the passing of the Gates, save one, of whom it is forebidden to speak + The passing of the Gates gives the Priest both power and wisdom to +use it. He becomes able to control the affairs of his life more perfectly +than before, and many have been content to merely pass the first three Gates +and then sit down and go no further than that, enjoying the benifits that they +have found on the preliminary spheres. But this is Evil, for this is not +equipped to deal with the attack from Without that must surely come, and the +people will cry unto them for safety, and it will not come forth. Therefore, +set thy face towards the ultimate goal and strive ever onward to the furthest +reaches of the stars, thoug it mean thineown death; for such a death is as a +sacrifice to the gods, and pleasing, that they will not forget thier people. + The ZONEI and their attributes then, are as follows: + + The god of the Moon is the god NANNA. He is father of the Zonei, +and eldest of the Wanderers. He is long of beard, and bears a wand of lapis +lazuli in his palm, and posseses the secret tides of blood. His color is +Silver. His essance is to be found in Silver, and in camphor, and in those +things bearing the sign of the Moon. He is sometimes called SIN. His Gate is +the first you will pass in the rituals that follow. His Step on the Ladder of +Lights is also Silver. + This is his seal, which you must engrave on his metal, on the 13th +day of the Moon in which you are working, having no other person about you who +may watch you in its manufacture. Being finished, it should be wrapped in a +square of the finest silk and lain aside untill such time as you desire its +use, and then, it should be removed only after the Sun has gone to rest. No +ray of sunlight should strike the seal, lest its power be rendered nil and a +new Seal must needs be cast. + The number of NANNA IS Thirty (30) + {I will NOT show any of the engravings for the reason that you wont +know what to engrave. This way Ill be assured no harm has come from writing +this} + + The god of Mercury is NEBO. He si a very old spirit, having a long +beard, and is the guardian of the gods, as well as the keeper of the knowledge +of Science. He wears a crown of 100 horns, and the long robe of a priest. +His color is Blue. His Essance is in that metal known as Quicksilver, and is +sometimes also found in sand, and in those things bearing the sign of Mercury. +His Gate is the 2nd you will pass in the rituals that follow. His Step on the +Ladder of Lights is Blue. + This is his Seal, which you must write on perfect parchment, or on +the broad leaf of a palm tree, having no other person about you who may watch +you in its construction. Being finished it should be wrapped in a square of +the finest silk and lain aside untill such time as you desire its use, and +then, it should only be removed when its light is in the sky. Such is also the +best time for its manufacture. + The number of NEBO is 12. + + The goddess of Venus is the most exellant Queen INNANA, called of +athe Babylonians ISHTAR. She is the goddess of passion, both of love and of +war, in the heavens. She appears as a most beautiful lady, in the company of +lions, and partakes of a subtile astral nature with the Moon god NANNA. When +they are in agreement, that is, when their two planets are auspiciously +arranged in the heavens, it is as two offering-cups split freely in the +heavens, to rain the sweet wine of the gods upon the earth. And the there +is great happiness and rejoicing. She sometimes appears in armor, and is +thereby a most excellent gaurdian against the machinations of her sister, the +dread Queen ERESHKIGAL of KUR. With the Name and Number of INANNA, no +Priest need fear to walk into the very depths of the Underworld; for being +armed, in Her arlmor, he is similar to the goddess. It was thus that I +descended into the foul pits that lie gaping beneath the crust of the earth, +and commanded deamons. + She is similarly the goddess of Love, and bestows a favorable bride +upon any man who desires it, and who makes the proper sacrifice. BUT KNOW THAT +INANNA TAKES HER OWN FOR HER OWN, AND THAT ONCE CHOSEN BY HER NO MAN MAY TAKE +ANOTHER BRIDE. + Her color is the purest White. Her manifestation is in the metal +Copper, and also in the most beautiful flowers of a field, and in saddest +death of the battlefield, which is that field's fairest flower. Her Gate +is the Third you will pass in the rites that follow, and in which place +you will be of a heart to stay; but turn you face to the road that leads +beyond, for that is your genuine goal, unless the goddess choses you. Her +Step on the Ladder if Lights, built of old in Babylon and at UR, is White. + This is her seal, which you must engrave on Copper, Venus being +exalted in the heavens with no one about watching its construction. Being +finished, it is to be wrapped in the purest silk and lain safely away, only +to be removed when need arises, at any time. + The number of INANNA is Fifteen, by which Number she is frequently +known in the incantations of the Dispensation. + + The god of the Sun is the Lord SHAMMASH, son of NANNA. He is seated +upon a throne of gold, wearing a crown of two horns, holding a sceptre aloft +in his right hand and a flame disk in his life, sending rays in every direc- +tion. he is the god of life. His color is gold. His essance is to be found in +all gold, and in all golden objects and plants. He is sometimes called UDDU. +His Gate is the Fourth you will pass in the rituals that follow. His step on +the great Ladder of Lights is Gold. + You must engrave his Seal in gold when the Sun is exalted in the +heavens, alone on a mountain top or some such place close to the rays, but +alone. Being finished it should be wrapped in a square of the finest silk +and lain aside untill such time as it is needed. + The number of SHAMMASH is Twenty. + The god of Mars is the mighty NERGAL, + He has the head of a man on the body of a lion, and bears a sword +and a flail. He is the god of war, and an agent of the Ancient Ones, for he +dwealt in CUTHA for a time. His color is a dark red. His essance is to be +found in Iron, and in all weapons made to spill the blood of man and of ani- +mals. His Gate is the Fifth you will see as you pass the Zones in the rituals +that follow. His Step on the Ladder of Lights is Red. + His Seal must be engraved upon a plate of Iron, or on paper in blood +when Mars is in exaltion in the heavens. It is best done at night, far from +the habitations of men and of animals, where you cannot be seen or heard. It +must be wrapped first in heavy cloth, then in fine silk, and then hid away +untill some time as it is needed. But take care not to use this Seal hastily, +for it is a sharp Sword. + The Number of NERGAL is Eight. + + The god of Jupiter is the Lord of the Magicians, MARDUK KURIOS of +the Double-headed Axe. MARDUK was born of our father {Not of MY father, at +spiritally or otherwise. GOD is the only true father I know of}, ENKI, to do +battle against the forces of the Ancient Ones and he won powerful fight, +subduing the armies of the Evil and putting the Queen of the Ancient Ones +beneath his foot. That Serpent is dead, but dreams. MASDUK was bestowed Fifty +Names and Powers by the Council of the Elder Gods, which powers he retains to +this day. His color is Purple. His Essance is in the material Tin, and in +Brass. His Gate is the Sixth that you will come upon in the rituals that +follow. His Step on the Ladder of Lights is Purple. + His Seal which you must engrave on a plate of tin or brass, when +Jupiter is strong in the heavens, while making special invocations to ENKI +Our Master. This shall be wrought as the others, and wrapped in pure silk and +lain away untill the time for its use. Know that MARDUK appears as a mighty +warrior with a long beard and a flaming disk in his hands. He carries a bow +and a quiver of arrows, and treads about the heavens keeping the Watch. Take +care to summon his assistance in only the most terrible of circumstances, for +his might is powerful and his anger fierce. When thou hast need of the powers +of the star Jupiter, call instead one of the appropriate powers listed within +these files and they will surely come. + The Number of MARDUK is Ten. + + The god of Saturn is NINIB called ADAR, the Lord of Hunters and of +Strength. He appears with a crown of horns and a long sword, wearing a lions +skin. He is the final Zonei before the terrible IGIGI. His color is the dark- +est Black. His Essance is to be found in Lead, in the burnt embers of fire, +and in things of death and of antiquity. The horns of a stag are his symbol. +His Gate is the Last you will come upon in the rites that follow. His Step +on the Ladder of Lights is Black. + You must engrave his Seal on a leaden plate or bowl, keeping it well +hiden from the eyes of the profane. It should be wrapped and put away as all +the others, untill its use is desired. It should never be removed when the Sun +is in the sky, but only after the night has fallen and the earth has grown +black, for NINIB knows the best ways of the demons that prowl among the sha- +dows, looking for sacrifice. He knows best the territories of the Ancient Ones +the practices of their worshippers, and the locations of the Gates. His realm +is the realm of the Night of Time. + His Number is Four (as the quarters of the Earth). + +%%% BOOK 4 %%% + + WARNING: The incantations explained herein arent anything to fuck +with. They are very potent and may enter you in a state of being of which +there is no escape (its called "DEATH"). Remember, if you screw with this... +.......YOU WERE WARNED!!!!! + + CORONERS NOTE: The Coroner nor any boards advertised on these files +have ANYTHING to do with Black Magick, the Occult, or any Supernatural forces. +I can vouch for the potential of this information because I was a follower in +its ways....A LONG FUCKING TIME AGO!!!! anyhow I just want to remind you that +these incantations are extreamly dangerous and for this reason some of the +lines are deleted so you cant fuck with it even if you wanted to. + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + THE BOOK OF ENTRANCE AND + OF THE WALKING + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + This is the book of enterance to the Seven Zones above the earth, +which Zones were known as Chaldeans, and to the Ancient Races proceeded them +among the lost Temples of UR. Know that these Zones are governed by celestial +spirits, and that passage may be had by the priest through those lands that +border the Unzoned Wastes beyond. Know that, when walking thus through the Sea +of Spheres, he should leave his Watcher behind that It may guard his body and +property, lest he be slain unawares and must wander throughout eternity among +the dark spaces between the Stars, or else by devoured by the wrathful IGIGI +that dwell beyond. + Know that thou must walk thy Steps of the Ladder of Lights, each in +its place and one at a time, and that thou must enter the gates in the lawful +manner, as put down in the Covenant; else thou ist surely lost. + Know that thou must keep purified for the space of one moon for the +Entrance to the First Step, one moon between the First and Second Step, and +again between the Second and Third ans so on in like manner. Thou must obtain +by spilling thy seed in any manner for the period of time, but thou mayest +worship at the Temple of ISHTAR, provided thou not lose thine Essance. And +this is a great secret. + Thou must needs call upon thy god in the Dawn Light and upon thy +goddess in the Light of Dusk, every day of the moon of purification. Thou must +summon thy Watcher and instruct it perfectly in its duties, providing it a +time and place to where it must serve thee, and surround thee with a flaming +sword in every direction. + Thy clothing for thy Walking should be fair, clean and simple but +appropriate to each Step. And thou should have with thee the Seal of the par- +ticular Step whereupon thou Walkest, which is the Seal of the Star apper- +taining thereunto. + Thou must need to prepare an alter that face the North, having it +upon thy statues of thine deities, or some sutable images, an offering bowl, +and a brazier. Upon the earth should be inscribed the Gate appropriate to the +Walking. If above thee is the sky, so much the better. If there is a roof +above thine head it must be free from all hangings. Not even a lamp should be +suspended over thee, save in Operations of Calling, which is discussed in a +Book not yet released. The only light shall be from the four lamps upon the +ground, at each of the four Gates of the Earth: of the North, one lamp; of +the East, one lamp; of the South, one lamp; and of the West, one lamp. The +oil should be pure with no odor, or else sweet-smelling, or especially approp- +riate to the Star where thou wouldst desire Entrance after thy fasion of thy +country. + The Seven Gates here follow: + THE FIRST GATE...THE GATE OF NANNA CALLED SIN + THE SECOND GATE..THE GATE OF NEBO + THE THIRD GATE...THE GATE OF INANNA CALLED ISHTAR + THE FOURTH GATE..THE GATE OF SHAMMASH CALLED UDDU + THE FIFTH GATE ..THE GATE OF NERGAL + THE SIXTH GATE...THE GATE OF THE LORD MARDUK + THE SEVENTH GATE.THE GATE OF NINIB CALLED ADAR + + And the Walking must follow the formulae herein described: + First thou must observe the moon of purification. In this time thou +mayest not eat meat for the space of seven days preceeding the last day of the +moon thou mayest not eat anything whatsoever, save to drink sweet water. On +the last three days thou must invoke, in addition to thy god and goddess thy +Three Great Elder Ones, ANU, ENLIL, ENKI, by their proper invocations. And the +Number of ANU is sixty, the perfect Number, for he is Father of the Heavens. +And the Number of ENLIL is fifty, and he is Father of thy Wind. And the Number +of ENKI is forty, a most exellant Number, and he is the Father, of all who +would tread these forgotten paths and wander into lands unknown, among the +Wastes amid the frightful monsters of the Azonei. + Second on the night of the Walking which must be the 13th night of +the moon, having begun on the previous 13th night, thou must approach the Gate +with awe and respect. Thy Temple is excersised, thou must light thy Fire and +conjure it, by the invocation of the God of Fire, and pour incense thereon. +Thou must make offering to the dieties on the alter. + Third, thou must light the four lamps from the flaming brazier, +reciting the invocation proper to each of these Watchtowers in its proper +place, summoning the respective Star. + Third, thou must recite the invocatation of the Watcher, thrusting +the sword intp thy earth at Its station, not touching it untill it is at the +appointed time for Its departure. + Fifth, thou must take thy Seal of the Star in thy right hand, and +whisper its Name softly upon it. + Sixth, thou must recite the invocatation of the Walking, loudly, +and in a clear voice, as thou walkest about the Gate in a circular fasion, +beginning at the North, walking to the East, then to the South, and then to +the West, the Number of times beingEqual to the special Number of the Star. + Seventh, thou must needs arrive back at the center of the Gate, +before thine alter, at which time thou must fall to the ground looking neither +to the right nor left at what may be moving there, for these Operations +attract many kinds of wandering demons and ghosts to the Gate, but in the air +above the alter, whereupon thou wilt see the Gate presently opening for thee +and the spirit messenger of the Sphere, greeting thee in a clear voice and +giving thee a Name, which thou must remember, for that is the Name of the +Passing thy Gate which you must use Each time thou passeth thereby. The +same Spirit-Messenger will meet thee and, if thou knoe not thy Name, will +forbid thee entrance and thou wilt fall to the earth immediatly. + When the First Gate has been entered and Name recieved, thou wilt +fall back to earth amid thine Temple. That which has been moving about thy +Gate on thy ground will have gone. Recite thine thanksgiving to thy gods upon +thine alter, strike thy Sword of the Watcher that It mat depart, and give the +incantation of INANNA, which says how she conquered the realm of the under- +world and vanquisheth KUTULU. All Idimmu will vanquish thereby and thou wilt +be thus free to depart the Gate and estinguish the Fire. + Thou mayest not call upon NANNA till thou hast passed the Gate of +NANNA. Thou mayest not call NEBO untill his Gate is passed, similarly to the +rest of the Gates. When thou hast ascended to the Limit of the Ladder of +Lights, thou wilt have knowledge and power over the Spheres, and will be able +to summon them in times of need. This will not give thee power over the ABSU +however this power being obtained differently by the ritual of the Descent. +This Ritual thou will undertake in the 15th day after the 13th of the month +when thou hast summoned the Gate of Marduk to open. +For MARDUK slew the Feinds, and INANNA, the goddess of the 15, conquered the +Netherworld where some of theirs still dwell. This is a most perilous rite +and can be undertaken by any man who has the formulae wether he has passed +the previous Gates or not, save that it is best advised to pass through MARDUK +Gate before venturing forth into the pit. For this reason few have ever opened +the Gate of ADAR, and spoken to the Horned One who resideth there and give all +manner of wisdom regarding to Operations of necromancy, and of the spells that +hasten unto death. Only when thou hast shown thy power over the Maskim and the +Rabishu mayest thou venture forth into the Land of the IGIGI, and for that +reason was this Covenant made, that none shall safely walk through the Sunken +Valleys of the Dead before having ascended to MARDUK, nor shall they breach +the Gates that lie beyond ADAR untill they have seen the signs of the Mad God +and felt the fury of the hellish Queen. + And aginst the Ancient Ones there is only defense. Only a madman, +indeed, such as I am called!, can hope to overpower Them that dwell in the +Outer Spaces, for their power is unknown and the number of their hordes +uncounted, and each day they breed more horrors than a mans mind can conceive, +the sight of which he can hardly bear. There was a time when the Gate to the +Outside was open too long and I witnessed a horror that struck, of which words +cannot speak, and of which writing can only confuse. The Ancient One that had +escaped into the Inner World was forced back through the Gate by a magician +of great power, but at a great loss to the villages and flocks of the Island. +Many sheep were slain after an unnatural fasion, and many devored, and many +Bedou rendered senseless; for the mind percieves what it is shown, but the +sight of the Ancient Ones is a blasphemy to the ordinary senses of a man, for +they come from a world that is not straight, but crooked, and their existance +is of forms unnatural and painful to the eye and to the mind, whereby the +spirit is threatened and wrenches loose from the body in flight, and for that +reason the fearful utukku xul take possesion of the body and dwell therein +untill the Priest banish them back to whence they came and the normal spirit +may return to its erstwhile neighborhood. + And there are ALLU, frightened dog-faced demons that are the Messen- +gers of the Gods of Prey, and that chew on the very bones of a man. And there +are many other of which it is not the rightful place wherein they be mentioned +save to warn the Priest aginst ambitious striving aginst the Ancient Ones of +the Outside, untill mastery is acquired over the powers that reside Within. +Only when ADAR has been obtained, may the Priest consider himself a master +over the Planes of the Spheres and able to wrestle with the Old Gods. Once +Death Herself has been stared in the Eye can the Priest then summon and contro +the denziens of Death's darkly curtained halls. Then he can hope to open the +Gate without fear and without that loathing of the spirit that slays man. + Then can he hope to have power over the demons that plague the mind +and body pulling at the hair and grasping the hands, and screaming the vile +Names into the airs of the Night. + For what comes on the Wind can only be slain by he who knows the +Wind; and what comes on the Seas can only be slain be he who knows the Waters. +Thus it is written in Ancient Covenant. + +%%% BOOK 5 %%% + + CORONERS NOTE: None of the boards advertised on this file have any- +thing to do with powers of the occult! + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + THE INCANTATIONS + OF THE GATES + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + This section of the NECRONOMICON is by far the most dangerous of the +Books to come! For this reason I felt it sane to leave this section out of the +going. Maybe...SOMEDAY...Ill release the Fifth book but as of now I urge all +readers to become more familiar with Books 1, 2, 3, and 4. Thank you for your +understanding... + ...The Coroner + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +%%% BOOK 6 %%% + + WARNING: Dont fuck with this shit! + + CORONERS NOTE: None of the lines advertised in these files have +anything to do with powers of the occult in any way! + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + CONJURATION + OF + THE FIRE GOD + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + {This is a real short book...but then lifes a bitch isnt it!} + + Spirit of the Fire, Remember! + GIBIL, Spirit of the Fire, Remember! + GIRRA, Spirit of the Flames, Remember! + Oh God of Fire, mighty son of ANU, Most terrifying among Thy Brothers, +Rise! + O God of the Furnace, God of Destruction, Remember! + Rise up, O God of Fire, GIBIL, in Thy Majesty, and devour my enimies! + GIBIL GASHRU UMUNA YANDURU + TUSHTE YESH SHIR ILLANI U MA YALKI! + GISHBAR IA ZI IA + IA ZI DINGIR GIRRA KANPA! + Rise up, son of the Flaming Disk of ANU! + Rise up, offspring of the Goldem Weapon of MARDUK! + It is not I, but ENKI, Master of Magicians who summons Thee! + It is not I, but MARDUK, Slayer of the Serpent, who calls Thee here now! + Burn the Evil and the Evildoer! + Burn the Scorcer and the Scorceress! + Singe Them! Burn Them! Destroy Them! + Consume Their powers! + Carry Them away! + Rise up, GISHBR BA GIBBIL BA GIRRA ZI AGA KANPA! + Spirit of the God of Fire, Thou art conjured! + KAKKAMMANUNU! + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + Thats it! as always Ive left out a certain number of phrases that will +render the conjuration useless due to the danger involved! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +%%% BOOK 7 %%% + + WARNING: This is a very dangerous volume! I suggest that it only be +read by those with a good understanding of the power ratio between Jesus +Christ and Satan (Satan=0:Jesus=100000000000000000x) <--- To prove a point!!! + + CORONERS NOTE: None of the Sysops of the lines listed above have +ANYTHING to do with supernatural powers in any way, shape, or form!!!! + + THE BOOK OF MAKLU + OF THE BURNING OF THE EVIL SPIRITS + ------------------------------------ + + Here are the Banishments, the Burnings, and the Bindings handed down to +us by ENKI, the Master. They are to be preformed over the AGA MASS SSARATU +(which is explained in Book 8) by the Priest, with the appropriate images as +described herein. The incantations must be recited after the Watcher has been +summoned, and he will do the deeds set down for him by the incantations. When +he returns, he is to be dismissed as set down previously. Know that, when +images are used, they must be burned utterly, and the ashes buried in safe +ground where none may find them, else to touch them would be death. + Know that the Evil Spirits are principally Seven, for the Seven Maskim +who tear away the heart of a man and mock his Gods. And their magick is very +strong, and they are the Lords over the shadows and over the depths of the +Seas, and reigned once, it is said, over MAGAN, whence they came. The ban- +ishings, or excorsisoms, are to be said in a clear voice without trembling, +without shaking. The arms should be held over the head in the attitude of a +Priest of SHAMMASH, and the eyes must behold the Spirit of the God SHAMMASH +even though it be the time of the Sleeping of SHAMMASH behimd the Mountain of +the Scorpion. + No word wust be changed. These must not be shown to any but the properly +instructed. To show them to anyone other is to ask the curse of NINNGHIZHIDA +on yourself and upon your generations. + The Book MAKLU of the Burnings: + + THE EXCORCISM OF THE CROWN OF ANU + ----------------------------------- + + The Priest, in time of peril, Shall put on the spotless white crown of +ANU with the Eight-rayed Seal and stand in the prescribed manner with the +Tablets of Calling on his breast and the copper dagger of INANNA in his right +hand aloft. + For it is said, if a man builds a fire,does he not build it in a Pit, +that he might not be harmed thereby? Thus it is true of the UDUGGU we call, +for they are like Fire and every caution must be used lest they consume the +magician and his entire generation. + Thus, the Excorcism of ANU + + I have put the Starry Crown of Heaven, the potent Disk of ANU on my head + That a kindly Spirit and a kindly Watcher + Like the God that hath me + May stand at my head always + To lift me to favor with the Elder Gods + UDUGGHUL + ALLACHUL + MALLACHUL + MASQIMCHUL + DINGIRCHUL + No Evil Spirit + No Evil Demon + No Evil God + No Evil Fiend + No Hag Demon + No Filth-Eating Demon + No Thieving Demon + No Shadow of the Night + No Shell of the Night + No Mistress of the Demon + No Offspring of the Demon + No Evil Spell + No Enchantment + No Scorcery + NO EVIL IN THE WORLD OR UNDER IT + OVER THE WORLD OR INSIDE THE WORLD + MAY SEIZE ME HERE! + BARRA ANTE MALDA! + ZI DINGER ANNA KANPA! + ZI DINGER KIA KANPA! + GAGGAMANNU! + + CONJURATION AGAINST THE SEVEN LIERS IN WAIT + --------------------------------------------- + + They are Seven + They are Seven + In the depths of the Ocean, they are Seven + In the shining heavens, they are Seven + They proceed from the ocean depths + They proceed from the hidden retreat + They are neither male nor female + These which streach themselves out like chains + They have no spouse + They beget not children + They are strangers to charity + They ignore prayer + They scoff at wishes + They are the vermin that comes forth from the Mountains of MASHU + Enemies of Our Master ENKI + They are the vengence of the Ancient Ones + Raising up difficulties + Obtaining power through wickedness + The Enemies! The Enemies! The Seven Enemies! + They are Seven! + They are Seven! + Spirit of the Sky Remember! Spirit of the Earth Remember! + + THE EXCORCISM BARRA EDINNAZU + FOR SPIRITS WHO ATTACK THE CIRCLE + ----------------------------------- + + ZI ANNA KANPA! + ZI KIA KANPA! + GALLU BARRA! + NAMTAR BARRA! + ASHAK BARRA! + GIGIM BARRA! + ALAL BARRA! + TELAL BARRA! + MASQIM BARRA! + UTUQ BARRA! + IDPA BARRA! + LALLASSU BARRA! + AKHKHARU BARRA! + KIELGALAL BARRA! + LILITU BARRA! + UTUQ XUL EDIN NA ZU! + ALLA XUL EDIN NA ZU! + GIGIM XUL EDIN NA ZU! + MULLA XUL EDIN NA ZU! + MASQIM XUL NA ZU! + BARRA! + EDINNAZU! + ZI ANNA KANPA! ZI KIA KANPA! + + THE EXCORCISM DI DINGIR + ------------------------- + + (To be used against any kind of malefick) + + ZI DINGIR NNGI E NA KANPA + ZI DINGIR NINGI E NA KANPA + ZI DINGIR ENNUL E NA KANPA + ZI DINGIR NINNUL E NA KANPA + ZI DINGER ENN KURKUR E NA KANPA + ZI DINGIR N DA SHURRIM MA KANPA + ZI DINGER NINNDA SHURRIM MA KANPA + ZI DINGIR ENDUL AAZAG GA KANPA + ZI DINGIR NINNDUL AAZAG GA KANPA + ZI DINGIR ENUHDDIL LA KANPA + ZI DINGIR NINN UHDDIL LA KANPA + ZI DINGIR ENMESHIR RAA KANPA + ZI DINGIR NINNME SHIR RAA KANPA + ZI DINGIR ENAA MAA A DINGIR ENLIL LAAGE KANPA + ZI DINGIR NINNA MAA A DINGIR NINNLIL LAAGE KANPA + ZI DINGIR SSISGI GISH MA SAGBA DAA NI IDDA ENNUBALLEMA KANPA + ZI DINGIR BHABBHAR L'GAL DEKUD DINGIR RI ENNEGE KANPA + ZI DINGIR NINNI DUGGAANI DINGIR A NNUNNA IA AN SAGGNNUUNGA GATHA KANPA! + + THE EXCORCISM AGAINST AZAG-THOTH + AND HIS EMMISSARIES + ---------------------------------- + + (An image must be made of a throne-chair, and put into the flames of the +AGA MASS SSARATU while chanting the following excorcism) + + Boil! Boil! Burn! Burn! + UTUX XUL TA ARDATA! + Who art thou, whose son? + Who art thou, whose daughter? + What scorcery, what spells, has brought thee here? + May ENKI, Master of Magicians, free me! + May ASHARILUDU, son of ENKI, free me! + May they bring to naught your vile scorceries! + I chain you! + I bind you! + I deliver you to GIRRA + Lord of the Flames + Whose sears burns, enchains + Of whom even mighty KUTULU has fear! + May GIRRA, the Ever-burning One, give strength to my arms! + May GIBIL, the Lord of Fire, give power to my magick! + Injustice, murder, freezing of the loins + Rending the bowels, devouring of the flesh, and maddness + In all ways hast thou persecuted me! + May God of CHAOS! + May GIRRA free me! + AZAG-THOTH TA ARDATA! IA MARDUK! IA MARDUK! IA ASALLUXI! + You have chosen me for a corpse. + You have delivered me to the Skull. + You have sent Phantoms to haunt me. + You have sent vampires to haunt me. + To the wandering Ghosts of the Wastes, have you delivered me. + To the Phantoms of the fallen ruins, have you delivered me. + Open Thy Mouth In Scorceries Against Me No More! + I have handed thine image over + Into the flames of GIBIL! + Burn, Mad Fiend! + Boil, Mad God! + May the burning GIRRA untie thy knots! + May the flames of GIBIL untie your cord! + May the Law of the Burning seize your throat! + May the Law of the Burning avenge me! + + It is not I, but MARDUK, son of ENKI, Masters in Magick, that commands +thee! + + KAKKAMMU! KANPA! + + INCANTATION AGAINST THE ANCIENT ONES + -------------------------------------- + + (To be recited each year, when the Bear hangs from its Tail in the +Heavens) + + Destructive storms and Evil winds are they + An evil blast, herald of the baneful storm + They are mighty children, Ancient Ones + Heralds of Pestilence + Throne-bearers of NINNKIGAL + They are the flood which rusheth through the land + + Seven Gods of the Broad Heavens + Seven Gods of the Broad Earth + Seven Ancient Ones are They + Seven Gods of Might + Seven Evil Gods + Seven Evil Demons + Seven Demons of Oppression + Seven in Heaven + Seven on Earth + + UTUG XUL + ALA XUL + GIDIM XUL + MULLA XUL + MASQIM XUL + ZI ANNA KANPA! + ZI KIA KANPA + ZI DINGIR ENLIL LA LUGAL KURKUR RA GE KANPA! + ZI DINGIR NINLIL LA NIN KURKUR RA GE KANPA! + ZI DINGIR NINIB IBILA ESHARRAGE KANPA! + ZI DINGIR NINNI NIN KURKUR RA GE KANPA! + ZI DINGIR A NUNNA DINGIR GALGALLA E NE KANPA! + ZI DINGER ANNA KANPA! + ZI DINGIR KIA KANPA! + + BABABARARARA ANTE MALDADA! + BABABARARARA ANTE GEGE ENENE! + +%%% END %%% + +////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// +//// //// +//// Call these lines!!! //// +//// The Medicine Shop: //// +//// sysop: Dr.Dos //// +//// phone #: 208/746-0071 //// +//// storage: 10 Megs //// +//// ..................................... //// +//// The Morgue: //// +//// sysop: The Coroner //// +//// phone #: 208/743-4720 //// +//// storage: 10 Megs //// +//// notes: No Password //// +//// .................................... //// +//// The Mouse Trap: //// +//// sysop: Danger Mouse //// +//// phone #: 208/743-2638 //// +//// storage: 10 Megs //// +//// //// +//// ---->The 3m<---- //// +//// All Day...All Night... //// +//// ALL THE LATEST! //// +//// //// +////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/newagm.txt b/religious documents/newagm.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7ef16a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/newagm.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2586 @@ +Feel free to distribute this catalog as you see fit. This catalog is not +copyrighted, but I am sure Alpine Enterprises (a rare/out-of-print book search +service which specializes in searching and stocking these titles) would +appreciate that their name not be removed from the file. In building my +collection of research materials, I have found their search services beyond reproach. + +Most of these books are out-of-print and/or rare and not to be found in most +libraries. + +To obtain books contact your local used book store for search services or +contact Alpine Enterprises by mail with your requests. + +Alpine Enterprises Catalog as of: 08/05/93 + +Alpine Enterprises +PO Box 766 +Dearborn, Michigan 48121 + + +Masonry + +IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII +Author (Last, Frst) Jones, Peter. +Title: The 1848 Revolutions +Subtitle: + +Cat#13122 Pages: 139 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $20.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/20/93 Up-dated: 06/20/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Clymer, Dr. R. Swinburne. +Title: Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry +Subtitle: +Its teachings, Rules, Laws and Present Usages which govern the Order +at the Present day. "True Masonry and the Universal Brotherhood of +Man Are One" +Cat#10976 Pages: 0193 Year: 1907 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $7.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Parchment, S. R.. +Title: Ancient Operative Masonry +Subtitle: +A treatise on Ancient Operative Masonry and the mysteries of +antiquity. The philosophy contained herein is non-sectarian since it +is an aspect of the Ancient Wisdom Religion +Cat#10977 Pages: 0207 Year: 1930 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $7.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Ratner, Lorman. +Title: Anti-Masonry +Subtitle: +The Crusade and the Party +Cat#12423 Pages: 0100 Year: 1969 Hardcover Estimated Price: $45.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: Up-dated: 12/12/92 +Establishment history of that too often forgotten movement. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Staschek, George. +Title: The Apocalypse +Subtitle: + +Cat#12621 Pages: 8 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $3.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Analysis of Satanic Masonic/Cabalist symbology. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Fisher, Paul A.. +Title: Behind the Lodge Door +Subtitle: + +Cat#11200 Pages: 372 Year: 1988 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Traces the secret machinations of American Freemasonry from its early +days concentrating on its unrelenting warfare against Christianity and +particularly the Catholic Church. Breaks new ground in correlating +the number of Masons on the Supreme Court with the Court's tilt Left +in the 50's and 60's. Especially good on Masonry's role in American +government's shift from 150 years of open support for organized +religion to strict neutrality and even subtle opposition while "New +Age" and "Occult" pursuits are increasingly encouraged. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Gilman, Richard. +Title: Behind World Revolution +Subtitle: +Strange Career of Nesta Webster +Cat#11678 Pages: 0000 Year: 1982 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +Hostile reviewer faults Nesta Webster for her Christian pose that +concealed an intense occultism from her readers that included the +belief that she was the reincarnation of a French noble woman. Like +Taylor Caldwell, she gained much of her historical insight from trance +states. Also faults Nesta for her fascist-Nazi sympathies that were +denied by Robert Welch and other American conservatives who promoted +her world view. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Kelley, . +Title: Blood Drenched Altars +Subtitle: + +Cat#13106 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $18.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/20/93 Up-dated: 06/20/93 +Story of Masonic Revolution in Mexico and its defeat of the Church in +a Catholic country! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) , . +Title: Born in Blood +Subtitle: +The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry +Cat#11156 Pages: 0000 Year: 1989 Hardcover Estimated Price: $18.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +Pro-Masonic scholar presents a very convincing case that Masonry +descends directly from the persecuted heretics of the Knights Templar. +See Figure 1. for fascinating origin of just one Masonic symbol. This +very frank books admits role of Masons behind various brutal episodes +of "World Revolution"! Must reading! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Knight, Stephen. +Title: The Brotherhood +Subtitle: + +Cat#11169 Pages: 326 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Kelley, Rev. Clarence. +Title: Conspiracy Against God and Man +Subtitle: +A Study of the Beginnings and Early History of the Great Conspiracy +Cat#10570 Pages: 264 Year: 1974 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/11/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hamill, Librarian and Curator of th, John. +Title: The Craft +Subtitle: +A History of English Freemasonry +Cat#12545 Pages: 189 Year: 1986 Hardcover Estimated Price: $16.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/29/92 Up-dated: 01/14/93 +Propagandistic history from the source! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hannah, Walton. +Title: Darkness Visible +Subtitle: +A Revelation and Interpretation of Freemasonry +Cat#10613 Pages: 0232 Year: 1952 Paperback Estimated Price: $11.93 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) McKenney, Jim Shaw and Tom. +Title: The Deadly Deception +Subtitle: +Freemasonry Exposed...By One of Its Top Leaders +Cat#10614 Pages: 157 Year: 1988 Paperback Estimated Price: $7.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 06/20/93 +33rd Degree initiation ceremony revealed for the first time in +history! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Ludendorf, General Erich. +Title: Destruction of Freemasonry (Ludendorff: Rebel or Reactionary) +Subtitle: +Through Revelation of Their Secrets +Cat#10788 Pages: 0142 Year: 1927 Hardcover Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Vishita, Swami Bhakta. +Title: The Development of Seership +Subtitle: +Hindoo and Oriental Methods +Cat#10978 Pages: 0350 Year: PB Reprint Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Keith, P. J.. +Title: English Masonic Isolation +Subtitle: +A Myth Exploded +Cat#10804 Pages: 6 Year: 1937 Pamphlet Estimated Price: $4.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 12/03/92 +Reprinted from the April 1937 "Catholic Gazette". +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Phylotus, . +Title: Esoteric Masonry +Subtitle: +Or the Storehouse Unlocked +Cat#10979 Pages: 0000 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $5.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Billington, James H.. +Title: Fire in the Minds of Men +Subtitle: +Origins of the Revolutionary Faith +Cat#11673 Pages: 722 Year: 1980 Hardcover Estimated Price: $32.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 03/24/93 +Are political revolution and Illuminist/Masonic secret societies the +secular religions of our time? Encyclopedic treatment of the +revolutionary faith from its earliest origins in occult Freemasonry to +the allegedly "scientific Marxism" of today. Must reading! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Wagner, Richard. +Title: Freemasonry +Subtitle: +An Interpretation +Cat#11138 Pages: 563 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Classic expos + originally published in 1912 exposing much never before +put into print. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) MacNulty, W. Kirk. +Title: Freemasonry +Subtitle: +A Journey Through Ritual and Symbol +Cat#12001 Pages: 96 Year: 1991 Paperback Estimated Price: $22.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 09/27/92 Up-dated: 01/13/93 +Masonry as a system of mystical self-developmental psychology. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Leese, Arnold. +Title: Freemasonry +Subtitle: + +Cat#12838 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $3.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 03/14/93 Up-dated: 03/14/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) de Poncins, Viscount Leon. +Title: Freemasonry and the Vatican +Subtitle: +A Struggle for Recognition +Cat#10009 Pages: 224 Year: 1968 Paperback Estimated Price: $8.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Attempts to demonstrate continuing Masonic campaign for acceptance by +the Vatican. Some chapter topics: the Campaign in Favour of +Freemasonry, Pontifical Condemnations, The Masonic Secret, Judaism +and Freemasonry, Satanism-Naturalism and Freemasonry, Regularity & +Irregularity in Freemasonry, Occult Theology and Gnosticism, +Freemasonry and the Revolution of 1789, Communism and Freemasonry, +20th Century Freemasonry, Pax and Poland, 1917 Masonic Congress. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Berry, Glen. +Title: Freemasonry Antichrist Upon Us +Subtitle: +A False Religion; A Sex Cult; A Super Antichrist World Power; Father +of Communism +Cat#11672 Pages: 0000 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $6.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Fleishauer, Col.. +Title: Freemasonry as a Secret Political Weapon of Jewish-English Imperialism +Subtitle: + +Cat#12783 Pages: Year: 1940 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 02/21/93 Up-dated: 02/21/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Trudhope, . +Title: Freemasonry Came to America with Captain John Smith +Subtitle: + +Cat#11186 Pages: 0000 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 12/27/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Cook, Ph.D., Benjamin L.. +Title: Freemasonry Condemned from Its Own Sources +Subtitle: +Freemasonry Versus Christianity and Phallic Worship of Freemasonry +Unveiled +Cat#11674 Pages: 93 Year: 1991 Paperback Estimated Price: $11.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Edited by Dr. Jurjevich. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Morgan, Captain William. +Title: Freemasonry Exposed and Explained +Subtitle: +Origin, History, and Nature of Masonry; Its Effect on the Government, +and Christian Religion; Containing a Key to all the Degrees of +Freemasonry; Giving a clear and correct view of the manner of +conferring the different degrees, as practiced in all Lodges +throughout the globe; Together with the means to be used by such as +are not Masons to gain admission therein--The whole intended as Guide +to the Craft and a Light to the Unenlightened +Cat#10981 Pages: 0128 Year: 1882 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $5.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +Famous exposure for which Morgan was allegedly murdered by Masons. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Welsh and Other Adhering Masons, General. +Title: Freemasonry on Trial +Subtitle: +Masonic Attempt to Prevent by Law Public Initiations--The Horrible +Oaths and Penalties Sworn to in Open Court--Was Washington a Perjured +Villain +Cat#12615 Pages: 32 Year: 1895 Paperback Estimated Price: $5.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 03/03/93 +Contains court records of horrible Masonic oaths, "Masonic Attempt to +Prevent Public Initiations by Law", and "Was Washington a Perjured +Villain?", and a letter from Richard Rush to the Anti-Masonic +Committee of York County, PA. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Leadbeater 33o, C. W.. +Title: Glimpses of Masonic History +Subtitle: + +Cat#10982 Pages: 0370 Year: 1926 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $17.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Dillon, Msgr. George E. +Title: Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked +Subtitle: +As the Secret Power Behind Communism +Cat#10615 Pages: 142 Year: 1952 Hardcover Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Originally given as lecture in Edinburgh, 1884. Includes powerful +introduction by Rev. Fahey. Original title: The War of the +Antichrist with the Church and Christian Civilization. Excellent +review of Barruel's Illuminati theories--Illuminism, Voltaire. The +power of Masonry in the 1st French Revolution through Nubius. +Palmerson and Mazzini. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Leadbeater 33o, C. W.. +Title: The Hidden Life of Freemasonry +Subtitle: + +Cat#10983 Pages: 0374 Year: 1949 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $17.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: The Hidden Secrets of Masonry +Subtitle: +(with Audio Tape) +Cat#12506 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Morgan, Captain William. +Title: Illustrations of Masonry +Subtitle: +By One of the Fraternity Who Has Devoted Thirty Years to the Subject +Cat#10012 Pages: 110 Year: 1827 Paperback Estimated Price: $5.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Exposure of Masonry by a turn-coat Mason later found murdered, +allegedly by Masons. Caused a sensation and anti-Masonic fervor in +1827. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Short, Martin. +Title: Inside the Brotherhood +Subtitle: +Further Secrets of the Freemasons--The Explosive Sequel to Stephen +Knight's The Brotherhood +Cat#11685 Pages: 528 Year: 1989 Hardcover Estimated Price: $24.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/17/93 +Mysterious death of Knight and much more. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Wathen, Father. +Title: Is the Order of St. John Masonic? +Subtitle: + +Cat#13104 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $6.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/20/93 Up-dated: 06/20/93 +History of the Order since the loss of Malta in 1798. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Knight, Stephen. +Title: Jack the Ripper +Subtitle: +The Final Solution +Cat#11932 Pages: 284 Year: 1976 Hardcover Estimated Price: $32.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 08/16/92 Up-dated: 05/04/93 +Theory most in line with the Project ruling class/conspiracy theory: +Masonic murder to protect the Royal Family from scandal (and +manipulate the social organism?). +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Sharkey, Terence. +Title: Jack the Ripper +Subtitle: +100 Years of Investigation +Cat#12054 Pages: 144 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $19.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/13/92 Up-dated: +Survey of the evidence and theories. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) , . +Title: John Quincy Adams +Subtitle: +Anti-Masonic Letterwriter +Cat#11211 Pages: 0000 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $5.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Partner, Peter. +Title: The Knights Templar and Their Myth +Subtitle: + +Cat#12267 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $14.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/12/92 Up-dated: + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Grace, Dean. +Title: A Little Masonic History Book +Subtitle: +The One Dollar Bill (1992 Up-Date) +Cat#11213 Pages: 36 Year: 1992 Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +Great introduction to the fact that America is a Masonic country, not +a Christian one. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hotema, Prof. Hilton. +Title: The Lost Word of Freemasonry +Subtitle: + +Cat#10959 Pages: 0065 Year: 1967 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $6.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Chailley, Jacque. +Title: The Magic Flute Unveiled +Subtitle: +Esoteric Symbolism in Mozart's Masonic Opera +Cat#13175 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $14.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/27/93 Up-dated: 06/27/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hoffman, Michael Anthony. +Title: Masonic Assassination +Subtitle: +What is actually possible on the stage of national affairs? Can +innocent men be assassinated by conspirators who not only go free but +enjoy elite positions in the social and political sectors? +Cat#12755 Pages: 29 Year: 1978 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 02/10/93 Up-dated: 02/12/93 +Assassinations of William Morgan, Joseph Smith, and Edgar Allen Poe. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Ronayne, Edmond. +Title: The Master's Carpet (Mah-Hah-Bone) +Subtitle: +Masonry & Baal-Worship Identical-Reviewing Similarity Between Masonry, +Romanism, and the "Mysteries"-Comparing the Whole with the Bible +Cat#10014 Pages: 0406 Year: 1879 Paperback Estimated Price: $7.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +Ex-Mason, Protestant Christian exposes the secret society Lodge +philosophy as identical to occult "Mysteries" and "Roman Catholicism". +Detailed religious-symbolic analysis. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Wilmshurst, W. L.. +Title: The Meaning of Masonry +Subtitle: + +Cat#12866 Pages: 216 Year: 1980 Hardcover Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 03/24/93 Up-dated: 03/24/93 +Explanation by a Masonic leader. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Barruel, Abbe. +Title: Memoirs Jacobin (4 Volume English Edition) +Subtitle: + +Cat#12477 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $200.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/27/92 Up-dated: 12/28/92 +According to Barruel the following intertwined forces came together to +bring about the anti-"Throne and Altar" French Revolution: 1) The +anti-Christian 18th Century Philosophy of Voltaire, 2) The +anti-Monarchy, Republican Occult Lodges of Freemasonry, and 3) The +Anarchistic Lodges of the Illuminati. The book also contains a +geopolitical theory in keeping with the Project, in spite of the +author. Barruel presents all the data necessary to show that the +French Revolution was a plot of the "Northern Princes", that is, +Frederic, Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, the Prince of Brunswick (British +Royal Family also called the House of Brunswick), Louis Duke of +Wirtemberg, Charles Theodore, Elector of Palatine, Princess +Anhalt-Zerbst, Frederic II, King of Prussia (in alliance with +England), the King of Sweden, the King of Denmark, and Catherine the +Great of Russia to break the "old world order" power of the Vatican. + +Barruel assumes that Voltaire, the Masons, and the Illuminati tricked +their Royal Patrons into supporting their evil "anti-Christian" +programs. However, the opposite is more likely the case! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Pike, Albert. +Title: Morals and Dogma +Subtitle: + +Cat#12771 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $75.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 02/14/93 Up-dated: 02/26/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) , . +Title: Mozart and Masonry +Subtitle: + +Cat#11214 Pages: 0000 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) , . +Title: The Murdered Magicians +Subtitle: +The Templars and Their Myth +Cat#11158 Pages: 0000 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $17.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 12/27/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Anonymous, . +Title: Mysteries of the Rosy Cross +Subtitle: + +Cat#10961 Pages: 0000 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $17.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Smedley, William T.. +Title: The Mystery of Francis Bacon +Subtitle: + +Cat#10960 Pages: 0196 Year: ???? PB Reprint Estimated Price: $7.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Cardinal of Chile, The. +Title: The Mystery of Freemasonry Unveiled +Subtitle: + +Cat#10616 Pages: 254 Year: 1992 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Classic Catholic condemnation of Masonry. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Waite, Arthur Edward. +Title: A New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry +Subtitle: +An of Cognate Instituted Mysteries--Their Rites Literature and History +Cat#13000 Pages: 482 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $35.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Exhaustive! Authoritative! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Churchward MD, MRCP FGS PM PZ 30o, Albert. +Title: The Origin and Evolution of Freemasonry +Subtitle: +Connected with the Origin and Evolution of the Human Race +Cat#10962 Pages: 0237 Year: 1920 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $27.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Morey, Dr. Robert A.. +Title: The Origins and Teachings of Freemasonry +Subtitle: + +Cat#12622 Pages: 163 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 02/26/93 +Unbiased expos + of the topic. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Jouin, Monseigneur. +Title: Papacy and Freemasonry +Subtitle: + +Cat#10617 Pages: 36 Year: 1930 Paperback Estimated Price: $4.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +"Let us abandon even the thought of being Christians if we have +reached the point of trembling before the threats or the traps laid +for us by perverts." -- Pope Clement XIII +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Fry, L.. +Title: Politico-Occult-Masonry Charts +Subtitle: + +Cat#12618 Pages: Year: Over-size Estimated Price: $3.00 + Charts +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 03/03/93 +Masonic conspiracy in graphic chart form. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Robison, John. +Title: Proofs of a Conspiracy +Subtitle: + +Cat#10593 Pages: 304 Year: 1798 Paperback Estimated Price: $8.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Original (1797) expos + of the Illuminati conspiracy within Masonry. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Fay, Bernard. +Title: Revolution and Freemasonry +Subtitle: +1680-1800 +Cat#11998 Pages: 349 Year: 1935 Hardcover Estimated Price: $55.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 09/26/92 Up-dated: 12/12/92 +Important, scholarly investigation of the relationship between Masonry +and Revolution against the ancient regime. The author was prosecuted +after WWII for allegedly helping the Nazis track down Masons during +the occupation of France. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Addison, Alexander. +Title: The Rise and Progress of Revolution +Subtitle: + +Cat#12616 Pages: 19 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $3.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Charge to the Grand Juries of Pennsylvania (1801) revealing Illuminati +conspiracy. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) , . +Title: Robert the Bruce +Subtitle: +King of Scots +Cat#13325 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $24.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/26/93 Up-dated: 07/26/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Ronayne, Edmond. +Title: Ronayne's Handbook of Freemasonry +Subtitle: +Revised-Enlarged-Complete--Containing a thorough exposition of all the +signs, grips, passwords, and hieroglyphics used by Freemasons; also +the proper manner of opening, closing, and conducting the Lodge, +together with the correct method of conferring the three degrees of +"Ancient Craft Masonry"; Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master +Mason +Cat#10963 Pages: 0312 Year: 1924 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $20.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Clymer (Editor), R. Swinburne. +Title: The Rose Cross College +Subtitle: +A resum of the teachings and proceedings of the Rose Cross College +during its session held in the month of October, 1916 on the Four +Hundredth Anniversary of the Founding of the Order. The Imperialistic +Council and Venerable Order of the Magi, its instructions and the +Official Degree "Priests of Melchizadek". The "Knights of Chivalry +and Order of the Holy Grail" +Cat#10964 Pages: 0220 Year: 1917 Hardcover Estimated Price: $7.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 12/28/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Clymer, R. Swinburne. +Title: The Rose Cross Order +Subtitle: +A short sketch of the History of the Rose Cross Order in America, +together with a sketch of the like of Dr. P. B. Randolph, the Founder +of the Order. Also, a short history of his persecutions and +prosecutions, which resulted in giving him greater freedom than he had +before, and which trial proved that the things of which he had been +accused were absolutely false. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF--For the Members +of the Rose Cross Order +Cat#10965 Pages: 0208 Year: 1916 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $7.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Khei, . +Title: Rosicrucian Manual +Subtitle: +For the Instruction of Postulants in the Congregation of the Outer, +Neophytes, and Praters of Duly Instituted Colleges of the Societas +Rosicruciana In America +Cat#10966 Pages: 0128 Year: 1920 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Khei, . +Title: Rosicrucian Symbology +Subtitle: +A Treatise wherein the Discerning Ones will find the Elements of +Constructive Symbology and Certain Other Things +Cat#10967 Pages: 0070 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Jennings, Hargrave. +Title: The Rosicrucians +Subtitle: +Their Rites and Mysteries-4th Revised Edition +Cat#10968 Pages: 0464 Year: 1870 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $12.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Westcott, S.M., IXo, Dr. W. Wynn. +Title: The Rosicrucians +Subtitle: +Past and Present, At Home and Abroad +Cat#10969 Pages: 0120 Year: ???? PB Reprint Estimated Price: $4.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Upton-Ward, J. M.. +Title: The Rule of the Templars +Subtitle: + +Cat#13116 Pages: 200 Year: 1886 Hardcover Estimated Price: $59.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/20/93 Up-dated: 06/20/93 +Modern English translation of the 1886 original. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Incognito, Magnus. +Title: The Secret Doctrine of the Rosicrucians +Subtitle: +Illustrated with the Secret Rosicrucian Symbols +Cat#10970 Pages: 0250 Year: 1918 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $6.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) de Poncins, Vicomte Leon. +Title: Secret Powers Behind Revolution +Subtitle: +Freemasonry and Judaism +Cat#12620 Pages: 260 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $8.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 03/03/93 +The conspiracy to overthrow civilization. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hoffman II, Michael A.. +Title: Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare +Subtitle: + +Cat#13085 Pages: 0115 Year: 1992 Paperback Estimated Price: $7.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: Up-dated: 12/09/92 +Expanded edition of Hoffman's 1989 hot seller: Secrets of Masonic +Mind Control. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hoffman II, Michael. +Title: The Secrets of Masonic Mind Control +Subtitle: + +Cat#11179 Pages: 0000 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $5.75 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 05/12/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hoffman II, Michael A.. +Title: Secrets of Masonic Mind Control +Subtitle: +Alchemical Psychodrama & the Processing of Humanity +Cat#13086 Pages: 0052 Year: 1989 Paperback Estimated Price: $5.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: Up-dated: 12/09/92 +Controversial, incredible, but lucid explanation of the Masonic Magic +that allegedly controls our world in the interests of the Occult +Cryptocracy, Hermetic Academy, or Invisible College. Also must +reading for those interested in Fortean concepts of world organism. +Was the Kennedy assassination and the purposely obvious cover-up a +classic psychodrama designed to transform the 20th Century mass mind +just as was the "Jack-the-Ripper" episode and obviously bungled +investigation designed to manipulate and poison the 19th Century mass +mind? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Brown, Robert Hewitt. +Title: Steller Theology and Masonic Astronomy +Subtitle: + +Cat#10971 Pages: 0000 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $7.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Sibley, W. G.. +Title: The Story of Freemasonry +Subtitle: + +Cat#10972 Pages: 0114 Year: 1913 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $4.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Burman, Edward. +Title: The Templars +Subtitle: +Knights of God +Cat#13176 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/27/93 Up-dated: 06/27/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Dowd, Freeman B.. +Title: Temple of the Rosy Cross +Subtitle: +Order of Illuminati--Foundation or Kindergarten of the Rosicrucian +Order +Cat#10973 Pages: 0000 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $8.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Trudhope, Author of Bacon Masonry, George V.. +Title: That Masonic Lost Word +Subtitle: + +Cat#10974 Pages: 6 Year: Pamphlet Estimated Price: $2.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 03/03/93 +Ultimate secret of Masonry revealed by a Mason? Is Francis Bacon the +greatest Mason who ever lived? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Fisher, Paul. +Title: Their God is the Devil +Subtitle: +Papal Encyclicals and Freemasonry--Has Masonry Won Its War With the +Church? +Cat#11676 Pages: 0000 Year: 1991 Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 12/12/92 +Reads like a modern suspense novel of international intrigues. +Alleges Masonry as the occult origin of war, revolutions, and +assassinations. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Pottenger 32o, Milton A.. +Title: Three Master Masons +Subtitle: +A Scientific and Philosophical Explanation of the Emblems of Masonry +from Apprentice to Shrine--Not An Expos, But An Elucidation--Proving +Masonry to be the Great Constructive Principle of the World +Cat#10975 Pages: 0399 Year: 1916 PB Reprint Estimated Price: $9.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Morey, Robert. +Title: The Truth About the Masons +Subtitle: + +Cat#13304 Pages: Year: 1993 Hardcover Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/15/93 Up-dated: 07/15/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Finney, Rev. Charles G.. +Title: The Workings of Freemasonry +Subtitle: +Character, Claims, and Practical Workings of Freemasonry +Cat#12617 Pages: 272 Year: 1869 Paperback Estimated Price: $7.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 03/03/93 +Expos + of Masonry by the President of Oberlin College. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Number of Entries in Preceding Category: 000084 + +New Age, Occult, and Satanic Conspiracy Theories--Pro and Con! + +IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII +Author (Last, Frst) Pagels, Elaine. +Title: Adam, Eve, and the Serpent +Subtitle: + +Cat#12464 Pages: 189 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $17.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/23/92 Up-dated: 12/23/92 +Gnostic interpretation of the Genesis. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Clymer, Swinburne. +Title: The Age of Treason +Subtitle: + +Cat#12328 Pages: 237 Year: 1957 Hardcover Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/15/92 Up-dated: 11/15/92 +Conspiracy to pervert the use of science to primitivise, enslave and +zombify humanity for the benefit of a tiny elite. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Poncelet, Father Frank. +Title: Air Waves from Hell +Subtitle: + +Cat#13314 Pages: 242 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/93 Up-dated: 07/16/93 +Expos + of the problems flooding our families via the television set. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Gurdjieff, G.. +Title: All and Everything--Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson +Subtitle: +An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man--3 Volumes @ 450 +pages +Cat#13003 Pages: Year: 1973 Paperback Estimated Price: $40.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hieronimus, Ph.D., Robert. +Title: America's Secret Destiny +Subtitle: +Spiritual Vision & the Founding of a Nation +Cat#11503 Pages: 0000 Year: 1989 Paperback Estimated Price: $10.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +An occultist whose thesis, An Historic Analysis of the Reverse of the +American Great Seal and Its Relationship to the Ideology of Humanistic +Psychology, won him a Ph.D., expands on his finding that America was +founded by a secret society bent on a world dominating New World +Order! Must reading for both pro and anti-occultists! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Peterson, Alan H.. +Title: American Focus on Satanic Crime +Subtitle: +Volume 1 +Cat#11975 Pages: Year: Estimated Price: $34.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 08/16/92 Up-dated: 08/17/92 +Report on Satanic crime from of zealous "Watchdog" group. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Peterson, Alan H. +Title: The American Focus on Satanic Crime +Subtitle: +Vol 2 +Cat#11976 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $49.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 08/16/92 Up-dated: 08/17/92 +Reports on the accelerating wave of Satanic crime by a zealous +watchdog group +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Peterson, Alan H.. +Title: The American Focus on Satanic Crime +Subtitle: +Vol 3--Includes America Bewitched--Rise of Black Magic and +Spiritism--Hell Ranch--Nightmare Tale of Voodoo, Drugs, Death in +Matamoros +Cat#11977 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $39.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 08/16/92 Up-dated: 08/17/92 +Reports on the accelerating wave of Satanic crime by a zealous +watchdog group +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Peterson, Alan H.. +Title: The American Focus on Satanic Crime +Subtitle: +Vol 4 +Cat#11978 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $79.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 08/16/92 Up-dated: 08/17/92 +Reports on the accelerating wave of Satanic crime by a zealous +watchdog group. Includes large number of reports and videos. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Burke, O. M.. +Title: Among the Dervishes +Subtitle: +The First Hand Account of a Westerner's Travels Through the Land of +the Sufis +Cat#12109 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $16.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/22/92 Up-dated: +More must reading for those interested in the Sufi roots of the +conspiracy. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Butterfield, Stephen. +Title: Amway +Subtitle: +The Cult of Free Enterprise +Cat#10873 Pages: 0185 Year: 1985 Hardcover Estimated Price: $30.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +Has Amway spent 25 years in alliance with the religious right building +an authoritarian cult within the US middle class? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Parfrey, Adam. +Title: Apocalypse Culture +Subtitle: + +Cat#11561 Pages: 0000 Year: 1987 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +According to J. G. Ballard: "...is compulsory reading for all those +concerned with the crisis of our times. This is an extraordinary +collection unlike anything I have ever encountered--a remarkable +compilation of powerfully disturbing statements. These are the +terminal documents of the 20th Century!" Bizarre social developments +foreshadow end of Western Civilization or beginning of Empire Stage? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Ferguson, Marilyn. +Title: The Aquarian Conspiracy +Subtitle: + +Cat#12557 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/18/93 Up-dated: 01/18/93 +Thinly veiled exposure of the Establishment plot for a paradigm shift +away from scientific progress and industrial and technical development +toward a no-growth society of cults and mysticism. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Steiner, Rudolf. +Title: Aspects of Human Evolution +Subtitle: + +Cat#13017 Pages: 186 Year: 1987 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Aranza, Jacob. +Title: Backward Masking Unmasked! +Subtitle: + +Cat#13111 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $6.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/20/93 Up-dated: 06/20/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Crowley, Aleister. +Title: The Book of the Law +Subtitle: + +Cat#12321 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $20.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/15/92 Up-dated: 07/26/93 +The mysterious text allegedly transmitted 1904 from a higher +intelligence (Aiswas) to Crowley through his wife while she was in a +clairvoyant trance in an Egyptian "Mummy Room"! Said to have ushered +the current "New Age of Horus the Child" with the accompanying break +down of all moral standards and the deification of the individual +will. "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be the Whole of the Law; Love is the +law, Love under will!" Also avialable in taped "reading" $15.00 +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Fact Book Committee (Editors), . +Title: Caught Looking +Subtitle: +Feminism, Pornography, and Censorship--Illustrated +Cat#10865 Pages: 0096 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $11.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +A collection of writings by feminists on the current pornography +debate--anti-censorship and not anti-pornography. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Burroughs, William S.. +Title: Cities of the Red Night +Subtitle: + +Cat#13009 Pages: 325 Year: 1981 Hardcover Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +The novels of William S. Burroughs have much more to do with the +up-surge of "alternative lifestyles" in the "new age" than is commonly +realized. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Freud, Editor, Anna. +Title: Cocaine Papers of Sigmund Freud +Subtitle: + +Cat#12992 Pages: 400 Year: 1974 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Did cocaine give Freud uncanny insight into the subconscious or +morbid, Satanic sexual obsession? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hassan, Steven. +Title: Combatting Cult Mind Control +Subtitle: +The #1 Best Selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from +Destructive Cults +Cat#13173 Pages: Year: 1993 Audio Tape Estimated Price: $22.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/27/93 Up-dated: 06/27/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Lytton, Lord Edward Bulwer. +Title: The Coming Race +Subtitle: +Vril +Cat#12473 Pages: 144 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/26/92 Up-dated: 12/27/92 +Classic occult allegory by the intellectual mentor of Adolph Hitler, +George Bernard Shaw, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, +Richard Wagner, Benjamin Disraeli, and Karl Haushofer. Haushofer +founded the Vril Society which helped propell Hitler to power. +Lytton, literary powerhouse, was the leading member of the Rosicrucian +Society. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) ?, . +Title: The Computation of 666 +Subtitle: + +Cat#13078 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $40.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 05/01/93 Up-dated: 05/01/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Gaebelein, Arno C.. +Title: The Conflict of the Ages +Subtitle: + +Cat#10662 Pages: 171 Year: 1933 Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Illuminati theory of the sources of evil...pro-Christian analysis. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Bucke, MD, Richard Maurice. +Title: Cosmic Consciousness +Subtitle: +A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind +Cat#12990 Pages: 326 Year: 1961 Hardcover Estimated Price: $20.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Reprint of original 1901 classic! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Wilson, Robert Anton. +Title: Cosmic Trigger +Subtitle: +The Final Secret of the Illuminati +Cat#12319 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/15/92 Up-dated: + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Carroll, Jim. +Title: Cover of Darkness +Subtitle: +A Novel +Cat#13109 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $7.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/20/93 Up-dated: 06/20/93 +Theory of world-wide occult conspiracy in novel form. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Spencer, Keith. +Title: The Cult of the All-Seeing Eye +Subtitle: + +Cat#11188 Pages: 64 Year: Pamphlet Estimated Price: $5.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Anti-Occult interpretation of the "eye in the pyramid" on the back of +dollar bill. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Kahaner, Larry. +Title: Cults That Kill +Subtitle: + +Cat#11506 Pages: 0000 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $17.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +Searches for a nation-wide conspiracy behind the increasing number of +bizarre torture and mutilation murders. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Mullins, Eustace. +Title: The Curse of Canaan +Subtitle: +A Demonology of History +Cat#12279 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/14/92 Up-dated: + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Shah, Idries. +Title: Darkest England +Subtitle: + +Cat#12110 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $22.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/22/92 Up-dated: +Using the etymology of the English language itself, scholarly +research, and a rich store of anecdotes Shah investigates the origins +and character of this strangely oriental tribe and comes to the +conclusion that it shares common roots with the Islamic Sufis of +Afghanistan. Concocted "British Islam" myth to compete with "British +Israel" theory?!! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) LaVey, Anton Szandor. +Title: The Devil's Notebook +Subtitle: + +Cat#12125 Pages: Year: 1992 Paperback Estimated Price: $10.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: +Collected wit and wisdom of the infamous head of the Church of Satan. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Cirlot, J. E.. +Title: A Dictionary of Symbols +Subtitle: + +Cat#12070 Pages: 419 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $22.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/18/92 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +From abracadabra to zodiac (a-z). +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Deren, Maya. +Title: Divine Horsemen +Subtitle: +The Voodoo Gods of Haiti +Cat#12989 Pages: 350 Year: 1970 Hardcover Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Maple, Eric. +Title: The Domain of Devils +Subtitle: + +Cat#12988 Pages: 192 Year: 1966 Hardcover Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Wheeler, Robert E.. +Title: Dragons for Sale +Subtitle: +Studies in Unreason +Cat#12581 Pages: 135 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $22.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/26/93 Up-dated: 01/26/93 +The human capacity for delusion and mass mind control. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Christensen, Allan Conrad. +Title: Edward Bulwer-Lytton +Subtitle: +The Fiction of New Regions +Cat#12934 Pages: 37 Year: Reprint Estimated Price: $8.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/06/93 Up-dated: 04/06/93 +Scholarly study of his work and influence. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Stirner, Max. +Title: The Ego and His Own +Subtitle: +The Case of the Individual Against Authority +Cat#12993 Pages: 363 Year: 1982 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Classic indivualist diatribe by a Hegelian contempory of Marx who +"took a different path". +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Carrico and Rick Doninger, David L.. +Title: The Egyptian-Masonic-Satanic Connection +Subtitle: +Warning: Graphic Expos +--Mature Adults Only! +Cat#12624 Pages: 139 Year: 1991 Paperback Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 03/03/93 +Amazing similarities between cases of Satanic ritual abuse and the +Egyptian mysteries. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Bataille, Georges. +Title: Erotism, Death and Sensuality +Subtitle: + +Cat#12987 Pages: 276 Year: 1957 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Crisiani, . +Title: The Evidence of Satan in the Modern World +Subtitle: + +Cat#13101 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $8.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/20/93 Up-dated: 06/20/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. +Title: Faust +Subtitle: +Part I +Cat#12752 Pages: 240 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $32.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 02/09/93 Up-dated: 02/09/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Burke, Edmund. +Title: Further Reflections on the Revolution in France +Subtitle: + +Cat#12412 Pages: 326 Year: 1992 Hardcover Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/07/92 Up-dated: 12/07/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Barnaby, Frank. +Title: Gaia Peace Atlas +Subtitle: + +Cat#13236 Pages: Year: 1988 Hardcover Estimated Price: $18.00 + 1939 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/11/93 Up-dated: 07/11/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Elkington, John. +Title: The Gene Factory +Subtitle: +Inside the Science and Business of Biotechnology +Cat#10366 Pages: 0240 Year: 1985 Paperback Estimated Price: $11.25 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 06/02/93 +An up-to-date, eye-opening account of the revolutionary developments +taking place in tbiotechnology. Fascinating reading! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Sitchin, . +Title: Genesis Revisited +Subtitle: +Is Modern Science Catching up with Ancient Knowledge? +Cat#12218 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $7.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Rudolph, K.. +Title: Gnosis +Subtitle: +The Nature and History of Gnosticism +Cat#12380 Pages: 411 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $24.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/16/92 Up-dated: 11/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Kinney, Editor, Jay. +Title: Gnosis, No. 10, Winter 1989 +Subtitle: +A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions +Cat#13012 Pages: 72 Year: 1989 Magazine Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Jung and the Unconscious Issue: June Singer, Stephan Hoeller, Robert +Anton Wilson +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Kinney, Jay. +Title: Gnosis, No. 11, Spring 1989 +Subtitle: +A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions +Cat#13011 Pages: 64 Year: 1989 Magazine Estimated Price: $8.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Ritual Issue: Dervishes, Wilderness Rites, the Mass +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Kenny, Jay. +Title: Gnosis, No. 16, Summer 1990 +Subtitle: +A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions +Cat#13010 Pages: 80 Year: 1990 Magazine Estimated Price: $8.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Orthodoxy Issue +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Kinney, Editor, Jay. +Title: Gnosis, No. 6, Winter 1988 +Subtitle: +A Journal of the Western Inner Traditions +Cat#13013 Pages: 56 Year: 1988 Magazine Estimated Price: $8.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Secret Societies Issue: Robert Anton Wilson, Rosicrucians, Knights +Templar, Freemasons, Druids, Priory of Sion +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Loomis, Roger Sherman. +Title: The Grail +Subtitle: +From Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol +Cat#12465 Pages: 290 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $24.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: Up-dated: 12/23/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: The Great Brain Robbery +Subtitle: +The New Age Seduction of America's Classrooms (2-tapes) +Cat#12519 Pages: Year: Audio Tape Estimated Price: $7.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Dobbs, Zygmund. +Title: The Great Deceit +Subtitle: +Social Pseudo Sciences +Cat#12356 Pages: 354 Year: 1964 Hardcover Estimated Price: $30.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/16/92 Up-dated: 11/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) , . +Title: The Great Sex Divide +Subtitle: + +Cat#12979 Pages: 160 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +A psychologist demolishes feminist propaganda...why women think, act, +feel, and work differently from men. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Pauwels, Louis. +Title: Gurdjieff +Subtitle: + +Cat#13021 Pages: 437 Year: 1972 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Call, Max. +Title: Hand of Death +Subtitle: +The Henry Lee Lucas Story +Cat#10506 Pages: 0187 Year: 1983 Hardcover Estimated Price: $18.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 02/15/93 +Involvement with Satanism and Cannibalism! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Cox, Donald W.. +Title: Hemlock's Cup +Subtitle: +The Struggle for "Death with Dignity" +Cat#12580 Pages: 200 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $22.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/26/93 Up-dated: 02/26/93 +Pro-death with dignity account of a growing movement...what does this +portend for the "New Age". +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Cumby, Constance. +Title: The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow +Subtitle: +The New Age Movement and Our Coming Age of Barbarism +Cat#12419 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $8.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/09/92 Up-dated: 07/11/93 +Lawyer who challenged Afro-Centric education in the Detroit public +schools for its religious content, exposed the New Age some years +back. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: High Crimes and Misdemeanors +Subtitle: +The New Age Subversion and Takeover of Christianity +Cat#12515 Pages: 90 Year: Audio Tape Estimated Price: $10.00 + min. +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Huchede, . +Title: The History of Anti-Christ +Subtitle: + +Cat#13103 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $4.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/20/93 Up-dated: 06/20/93 +Proves he will come, be a real man, and rule the world! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Filoramo, Giovanni. +Title: A History of Gnosticism +Subtitle: + +Cat#12381 Pages: 288 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $24.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/16/92 Up-dated: 11/16/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Daraul, Arkon. +Title: A History of Secret Societies +Subtitle: + +Cat#12120 Pages: 256 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $14.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: 02/13/93 +Classic overview of secret societies throughout history. +Indispensible for ruling class/conspiracy researchers! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Franzius, Enno. +Title: The History of the Order of Assassins +Subtitle: + +Cat#12007 Pages: 261 Year: 1969 Hardcover Estimated Price: $34.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/03/92 Up-dated: +The amazing story of Hasan Sabbah, the "Old Man of the Mountain", and +his mountain fortress in Persia, from which his marijuana using +terrorist cult manipulated Middle East Kingdoms for Centuries +thereafter. The archtype of current Mideast terrorism? Aga Khan's +current-day Ismailis descend from the assassin cult with Islam. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Summers, Montague. +Title: The History of Witchcraft and Demonology +Subtitle: + +Cat#12565 Pages: 384 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $24.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/19/93 Up-dated: 02/26/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Yepsen, Jr., Roger B.. +Title: How to Boost Your Brain Power +Subtitle: +Achieving Peak Intelligence, Memory, and Creativity +Cat#13024 Pages: 220 Year: 1987 Hardcover Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Intelligence increase through mega-vitamins and amino acids is a +crucial aspect of "new age" thought... +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hamilton, John W.. +Title: I Was Branded With the Number 666 +Subtitle: +Life Story of a Young Man Trained to Be A Communist Leader Today, +Giving His Full Time As A Christian Crusader, Warning People Aginst +Satanic Christ-Hating Program of World Communism +Cat#10845 Pages: 0030 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $3.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 06/27/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Wilson, Robert Anton. +Title: The Illuminati Papers +Subtitle: + +Cat#12389 Pages: 150 Year: 1981 Paperback Estimated Price: $20.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/23/92 Up-dated: 11/23/92 +Novel conspiracy theories of New Age Crowleyite occultist Robert Anton +Wilson. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Wilson, Robert Shea and Robert Anton. +Title: The Illuminatus Trilogy +Subtitle: + +Cat#12150 Pages: 832 Year: 1979 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: +Occult, libertarian classic explores conspiracy theories on a not +always fully serious level! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Lamm, Gary Imhoff and Gov. Richard. +Title: The Immigration Time Bomb +Subtitle: +The Fragmenting of America +Cat#10373 Pages: 0271 Year: 1985 Hardcover Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 06/02/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Russell, Bertrand. +Title: The Impact of Science on Society +Subtitle: + +Cat#12329 Pages: 140 Year: 1952 Hardcover Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/15/92 Up-dated: 11/15/92 +Russell, after discussing their program with the top conspirators in +the British Oligarchy, explains the bone chilling uses to which +science will be put in the elite's rush to achieve one-world +government tyranny. This is the book quoted by Clymer in his Age of +Treason. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hicks, Robert D.. +Title: In Pursuit of Satan +Subtitle: +The Police and the Occult +Cat#12552 Pages: 415 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $25.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/17/93 Up-dated: 01/17/93 +Satanic conspiracy or police/Fundamentalist hysteria! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Diamond, Stanley. +Title: In Search of the Primitive +Subtitle: +A Critique of Civilization +Cat#10887 Pages: 0387 Year: 1987 Paperback Estimated Price: $19.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +Radical anthropolgist rejects civilization. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Besant, Annie. +Title: The Inner Government of the World +Subtitle: + +Cat#12756 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 02/10/93 Up-dated: 02/10/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: Inside the New Age +Subtitle: + +Cat#12523 Pages: 2 hr Year: VHS Video Estimated Price: $20.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Baer, Randall N.. +Title: Inside the New Age Nightmare +Subtitle: + +Cat#12590 Pages: 197 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/27/93 Up-dated: 01/27/93 +World renown new age leader defects and "tells all". +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Novak, Michael. +Title: The Joy of Sports +Subtitle: +End Zones, Bases, Baskets, Balls, and the Consecration of the American +Spirit +Cat#12556 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/18/93 Up-dated: 01/18/93 +America's insipid "sports" and "fitness" obsession defended as a new +religion! Are we heading toward a rebirth of Rome Colliseum? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) McCully, Robert S.. +Title: Jung and Rorschach +Subtitle: + +Cat#13007 Pages: 281 Year: 1987 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Reisman & Edward W. Eichel, Judith. +Title: Kinsey, Sex, and Fraud +Subtitle: +Indoctrination of a People +Cat#11510 Pages: 0000 Year: 1991 Hardcover Estimated Price: $19.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 06/20/93 +Claims Kinsey's sex study used sexual abuse of children as part of its +methodology and that its research techniques were so faulty as to +constitute a conscious conspiracy to destroy societal sexual +ethics--the fruits of which we see all around us. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Inquire Within (Miss Stoddard), . +Title: Lightbearers of Darkness +Subtitle: + +Cat#12619 Pages: 207 Year: 1930 Paperback Estimated Price: $8.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Reprint of 1930 classic. Defector from the Stella Matutina Temple in +London reveals the occult conspiracy for world domination and Occult +Theocracy. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) , . +Title: London's Psychogeographical Association Newsletter +Subtitle: +Thirty-five Years of Non-Existence--1957 to 1992 +Cat#12801 Pages: 4 Year: 1992 Newsletter Estimated Price: $3.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 03/10/93 Up-dated: 05/22/93 +In this issue: We Are Back; Victory to the Dongas, The Great +Conjunction, The Winchester Trip, Astro Info, Review of the Chains of +Empire: English Public Schools, Masonic Cabalism, Historical +Causality, and Imperial Clubdom by P. J. Rich (from the perspective of +Sheldrake's Morphic Resonance). +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) , . +Title: The Lost books of the Bible +Subtitle: +Being All the Gospels, Epistles, and Other Pieces Now Extant +Attributed tin the First Four Centuries to Jesus Christ his Apostles +and Their Companions Not Included, by Its Compilers, in the Authorized +News Testament; and Syriac MSS. of Pilate's Letters to Tiberious, Etc. +Cat#12850 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 03/24/93 Up-dated: 03/24/93 +"Gnostic-tinged" books of the Bible suppressed by the Church? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: The Magic of Thousand Points of Light +Subtitle: + +Cat#12513 Pages: 60 Year: Audio Tape Estimated Price: $7.00 + min. +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Rehmus, E. E.. +Title: The Magicians Dictionary +Subtitle: +An Apocalyptic Cyclopaedia of Advanced Magic(k)al Arts and Alternate +Meanings +Cat#12128 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: +Important survey of contemporary occultism from an advocate influenced +by such occultists as Robert Anton Wilson, John Whitesides Parsons, +Aleister Crowley, Philip K. Dick, Terence McKenna, and Kenneth Grant. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Crowley, Aleister. +Title: Magick in Theory and Practice +Subtitle: + +Cat#12236 Pages: 460 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $19.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: 01/19/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Jung, Conceived and Edited by, Carl G.. +Title: Man and His Symbols +Subtitle: + +Cat#12991 Pages: 316 Year: 1964 Hardcover Estimated Price: $20.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Exhaustive, illustrated... +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Nicoll, Maurice. +Title: The Mark +Subtitle: + +Cat#12995 Pages: 213 Year: 1981 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Follower of Gurdjieff expounds on the esoteric meaning of the Bible, +esp. Revelations. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Ravenscroft, T. Wallace Murphy and Trevor. Title: The Mark of the Beast +Subtitle: +The Continuing Study of a Legend, Its Occult Powers, and Its Role in +the Final Apocalypse +Cat#12123 Pages: 256 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $22.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: +More from the author of the Spear of Destiny. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) de Sade, Marquis. +Title: The Marquis de Sade +Subtitle: +Three Complete Novels--Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, Eugenie de +Franval, and Other Writings +Cat#12996 Pages: 740 Year: 1965 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +The similarity between de Sade's evil, destructive fantasies, +especially his insane political philosophy expressed in Philosophy in +a Bedroom, is strikingly similar to the insane, New Age coddling of +violent criminals... +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Linedecker, . +Title: Massacre at Waco Texas +Subtitle: +David Koresh and the Branch Davidians +Cat#13145 Pages: Year: 1993 Hardcover Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/20/93 Up-dated: 06/20/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Khan, Hazrat Inayat. +Title: Mastery Through Accomplishment +Subtitle: +Developing Inner Strength for Life's Challenges +Cat#13018 Pages: 320 Year: 1978 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 06/27/93 +Head of the Sufi Order presents his philosophy. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: Mega Forces +Subtitle: +Signs and Wonders of the Coming Chaos +Cat#12505 Pages: 266 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $7.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Khan, Pir Vilayat Inayat. +Title: The Message of Our Time +Subtitle: +The Life and Teachings of the Sufi Master Pir-O-Murshid Inayat Khan +Cat#13019 Pages: 430 Year: 1978 Hardcover Estimated Price: $18.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Story of the great Sufi Master assigned to bring Sufism to the West by +his son. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Jung, C. G.. +Title: Modern Man in Search of a Soul +Subtitle: + +Cat#13005 Pages: 244 Year: 1933 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hubner and Lindsey Gruson, John. +Title: Monkey on a Stick +Subtitle: +Murder, Madness, and the Hare Krishnas +Cat#12567 Pages: 414 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $19.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/20/93 Up-dated: 01/20/93 +Hare Krishnas cult...institutionalized evil in the name of God? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Pauwels, Jacques Bergier & Louis. +Title: The Morning of the Magicians +Subtitle: + +Cat#11095 Pages: 300 Year: 1963 Hardcover Estimated Price: $35.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/31/93 +Strange book that created the interest in Hitler's occult roots and +the influence of Gurdjieff. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Daumal, Ren +. +Title: Mount Analogue +Subtitle: +A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain +Climbing +Cat#13023 Pages: 117 Year: 1986 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Shapiro and Sandra Bowen, F R Nick Nocerino, Joshua. +Title: Mysteries of the Crystal Skulls Revealed +Subtitle: + +Cat#12257 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $17.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/07/92 Up-dated: + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: Mystery Mark of the New Age +Subtitle: + +Cat#12504 Pages: 287 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Sklar, Dusty. +Title: Nazis and the Occult +Subtitle: + +Cat#11563 Pages: 0000 Year: 1977 Hardcover Estimated Price: $19.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +Exposes the occult Thule Society roots of Hitler's Nazism and shows +parallels to today's New Age movements. Does the occult cover-up +Vatican scheming? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Gardner, Martin. +Title: The New Age +Subtitle: +Notes of a Fringe Watcher +Cat#12549 Pages: 273 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $17.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/17/93 Up-dated: 01/17/93 +Confronts current trends in pseudoscience and the paranormal parading +under the "New Age" banner from a skeptical viewpoint. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: New Age Cults and Religions +Subtitle: + +Cat#12502 Pages: 352 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Rowe, H Edward. +Title: New Age Globalism +Subtitle: + +Cat#13114 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $6.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/20/93 Up-dated: 06/20/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Wanda. +Title: New Age Lies to Women +Subtitle: + +Cat#12501 Pages: 256 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Lawrence, Troy. +Title: New Age Messiah Identified +Subtitle: +Tara Center's "Mystery Man" Alive and Well and Living in London--Who +Is Lord Maitreya? +Cat#11560 Pages: 0000 Year: 1991 Paperback Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 12/20/92 +Undercover Christian infiltrates Tara Center and reports on New Age +plot! Valid research or part of the plot? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Ferreira, M. Sc., Cornelia R.. +Title: The New Age Movement +Subtitle: +The Kingdom of Satan on Earth +Cat#13313 Pages: 16 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $2.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/93 Up-dated: 07/16/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Muller, Robert. +Title: New Genesis +Subtitle: +Shaping a Global Spirituality +Cat#13288 Pages: ? Year: 1984 Hardcover Estimated Price: $24.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/11/93 Up-dated: 07/11/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Konkin III, Samuel Edward. +Title: New Libertarian Manifesto +Subtitle: + +Cat#13082 Pages: Year: 1980 Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 05/02/93 Up-dated: 05/02/93 +"Agorist" theory of building an alternative libertarian society now +explained... "counter-economics" (underground economy), ignoring the +state, etc... +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: The New Rome +Subtitle: +Germany, the Fourth Reich, and the New Age Movement +Cat#12507 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $8.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 06/23/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Decter, Jacqueline. +Title: Nicholas Roerich +Subtitle: +Messengers of Beauty +Cat#13172 Pages: 160 Year: 1993 Paperback Estimated Price: $24.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/27/93 Up-dated: 06/27/93 +Guru of Henry Wallace, in turn, who was instrumental in pressuring +Morgenthau to put the "eye in the Pyramid" on the back of the $1.00 +bill during the New Deal. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Howard, Michael. +Title: Occult Conspiracy +Subtitle: +Secret Societies--Their Influence and Power in World History +Cat#11504 Pages: 0000 Year: 1989 Paperback Estimated Price: $10.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 07/16/92 +Though clearly the author harbors profound respect for the occult +tradition, he also recognizes the havoc let loose upon the world by +those secret society adepts behind the scenes whose pride regularly +outstrips their "occult wisdom." +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Webb, James. +Title: Occult Establishment +Subtitle: + +Cat#11641 Pages: 535 Year: 1976 Paperback Estimated Price: $14.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Encyclopedia of the late 19th Century "Occult Revival" including its +relationship to 20th Century totalitarian creeds. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Carrico, David L.. +Title: The Occult Meaning of the the Great Seal of the US +Subtitle: + +Cat#12623 Pages: 96 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Bible teacher reveals the occult conspiracy. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Steiner, Rudolf. +Title: The Occult Movement in the Nineteenth Century +Subtitle: + +Cat#13004 Pages: 190 Year: 1973 Hardcover Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Queensboro (Edith Starr Miller), Lady. +Title: Occult Theocracy +Subtitle: + +Cat#11096 Pages: 741 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $18.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Compendium of occult secret societies throughout the world by a +defector from the Golden Dawn. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Webb, James. +Title: The Occult Underground +Subtitle: + +Cat#12867 Pages: 387 Year: 1974 Hardcover Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 03/24/93 Up-dated: 03/24/93 +Exhaustive survey of the Satanic or "Dark Side" occult groups. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Bloch, Dr. Iwan. +Title: Odoratus Sexualis +Subtitle: +A Scientific and Literary Study of Sexual Scents and Erotic Perfumes +Cat#13001 Pages: 27 Year: 1967 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Gardner, Martin. +Title: On the Wild Side! +Subtitle: +The Big Bang, ESP, The Beast 666, Levitation, Rainmaking, Trance +Channeling, S +ances, Ghosts, and More... +Cat#12550 Pages: 257 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $24.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/17/93 Up-dated: 01/17/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Shelden, Michael. +Title: Orwell +Subtitle: +The Authorized Biography +Cat#13196 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/28/93 Up-dated: 06/28/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Gorham, Melvin. +Title: The Pagan Bible +Subtitle: + +Cat#12985 Pages: 296 Year: 1962 Hardcover Estimated Price: $20.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Systematic defense of pagan philosophy as the bulwark of individual +sovereignty. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Raschke, Carl A.. +Title: Painted Black +Subtitle: +The Chilling True Story of the Wave of Violence Sweeping Through Our +Hometowns +Cat#12099 Pages: 0447 Year: 1990 Paperback Estimated Price: $16.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: Up-dated: +Satanic crime sweeping the nation?! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Scott, Ernest. +Title: The People of the Secret +Subtitle: +With An Introduction by Colin Wilson +Cat#12108 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.50 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/22/92 Up-dated: +Do invisible guardians of this planet (the "people of the secret") +"seed" ideas into the earth's cultures to prepare human beings for +huge steps in their evolution and development? Must reading for those +interested in the "Sufi Conspiracy". +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Barrie, J. M.. +Title: Peter Pan +Subtitle: +Or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up +Cat#13014 Pages: 162 Year: 1982 Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Occult novel/play that programmed the "new generation" for the "new +age"? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Monick, Eugene. +Title: Phallos +Subtitle: +Sacred Image of the Masculine +Cat#13002 Pages: 141 Year: 1987 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Kevorkian, MD, Jack. +Title: Prescription +Subtitle: +Medicide--The Goodness of Planned Death +Cat#13188 Pages: 268 Year: 1993 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/28/93 Up-dated: 06/28/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Russell, Jeffrey B.. +Title: The Prince of Darkness +Subtitle: +Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History--The Face and Figure of +Evil +Cat#12750 Pages: 320 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $21.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 02/09/93 Up-dated: 02/09/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Malacalypse the Younger, . +Title: Principia Discordia +Subtitle: +If Organized Religion is the Opium of the Masses, Then Disorganized +Religion is the Marijuana of the Lunatic Fringe +Cat#12116 Pages: 120 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $9.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: 02/15/93 +Bible of "Discordianism". Made famous by Robert Anton Wilson's +"Illuminatus" trilogy. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Anderson, John. +Title: Psychic Phenomena Unveiled +Subtitle: +Confessions of a New Age Warlock +Cat#13108 Pages: Year: 1991 Paperback Estimated Price: $8.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/20/93 Up-dated: 06/20/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Nicoll, Maurice. +Title: Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky +Subtitle: + +Cat#13022 Pages: 369 Year: 1984 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: Ravaged by the New Age +Subtitle: + +Cat#12503 Pages: 272 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Steiner, Rudolf. +Title: The Reappearance of Christ in Etheric +Subtitle: + +Cat#13008 Pages: 234 Year: 1983 Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Creme, Benjamin. +Title: The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom +Subtitle: + +Cat#13271 Pages: ? Year: 1980 Hardcover Estimated Price: $28.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/11/93 Up-dated: 07/11/93 +Infamous plot to fake the "return of Christ" for advance "new age" +agenda? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Brandon, Jim. +Title: The Rebirth of Pan +Subtitle: +Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit +Cat#12994 Pages: 287 Year: 1983 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Right-wing Fortean extremism! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Bolles, Edmund Blair. +Title: Remembering and Forgetting +Subtitle: +Inquiries into the Nature of Memory +Cat#13016 Pages: 312 Year: 1988 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Argues that memory is actually imagination! So much for truth! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) deParrie, Paul. +Title: Romanced to Death! +Subtitle: +The Sexual Seduction of American Culture +Cat#12290 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/14/92 Up-dated: + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Danvers Archival Center, . +Title: Salem Village Witchcraft Collection +Subtitle: +Deadly Hysteria That Swept New England in 1692 +Cat#12105 Pages: 7000 Year: 1992 3 rolls of Estimated Price: $350.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/20/92 Up-dated: +Includes early publications by contemporaries of the trials, full +length histories, often overlooked local publications and histories, +important bibliographic information, full text of Cotton Mather's The +Wonders of the Invisible World, George Lincoln Burr's Narratives of +the Witchcraft Cases (1648-1706), and Charles Upham's Salem +Witchcraft. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Linsey, Hal. +Title: Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth +Subtitle: + +Cat#12986 Pages: 251 Year: 1972 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) LaVey, Anton Szandor. +Title: The Satanic Bible +Subtitle: + +Cat#12126 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: +Fulminations of the founder of the Church of Satan. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) LaVey, Anton Szandor. +Title: The Satanic Witch +Subtitle: + +Cat#12127 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $9.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: +"Forbidden knowledge of seduction and manipulation" from the founder +of the Church of Satan. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Emerson, David. +Title: Satanism +Subtitle: +A Practical Guide to Witch Hunting +Cat#10997 Pages: 0023 Year: 1970 Pamphlet Estimated Price: $5.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 06/27/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Gardner, Martin. +Title: Science +Subtitle: +Good, Bad, and Bogus +Cat#12551 Pages: 412 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $16.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/17/93 Up-dated: 01/17/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hall, Manly Palmer. +Title: Secret Destiny of America +Subtitle: + +Cat#12308 Pages: Year: 1946 Hardcover Estimated Price: $32.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/15/92 Up-dated: +Conspiracy of secret societies has existed for 1000's of years to +implement the type of tyranny described in Plato's Republic. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Barton, Blanche. +Title: The Secret Life of a Satanist +Subtitle: +The Authorized Biography of Anton LaVey +Cat#12124 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: 02/15/93 +The bizarre man who founded the Church of Satan including his +relationships with Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, dark origins of +Satanic ritual, early careers as a hoodlum, burlesque house organist, +Zionist operative, lion tamer, etc., and banned essay on lycanthropic +transformation. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Tame, David. +Title: The Secret Power of Music +Subtitle: +The Transformation of Self and Society Through Musical Energy +Cat#12485 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $10.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/27/92 Up-dated: 06/27/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Beckley, Art Crockett and Timothy Green. +Title: Secret Prophesy of Fatima Revealed +Subtitle: +New Age Visions of the Virgin Mary +Cat#12163 Pages: Year: 1992 Paperback Estimated Price: $9.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/23/92 Up-dated: +New Age, Earth Mother interpretation of the Fatima miracle. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: Secrets of the New Age Revealed +Subtitle: + +Cat#12524 Pages: 1 hr Year: VHS Video Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Webster (pen name Julian Sterne), Nesta. +Title: Secrets of the Zodiac +Subtitle: + +Cat#12631 Pages: 320 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $8.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Nesta Websters reveals herself as an occultist! Her authorship of +this book was carefully hidden for many years! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Newton, Michael. +Title: Serial Slaughter +Subtitle: + +Cat#12101 Pages: 165 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $19.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/19/92 Up-dated: +The frightening wave of serial killers analyzed. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Avalon, Arthur. +Title: Serpent Power +Subtitle: +The Secrets of Tantric and Shaktic Yoga +Cat#13006 Pages: 529 Year: 1974 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Bennett, J. G.. +Title: Sex +Subtitle: +The Relationship Between Sex and Spiritual Development--Sexual Power +Releases Creative Energy that Enables Us to Exercise Will--That is, to +"do" in Gurdjieff's Sense of the Word +Cat#12998 Pages: 74 Year: 1981 Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Key to sex magic? +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Dannemeyer, Cong. William. +Title: Shadow in the Land +Subtitle: +Homosexuality in America +Cat#12686 Pages: 243 Year: 1989 Paperback Estimated Price: $16.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 03/03/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Chambers, Claire. +Title: The Siecus Circle +Subtitle: +A Humanist Revolution +Cat#13257 Pages: Year: 1977 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/11/93 Up-dated: 07/11/93 +Humanist one-world conspiracy behind sex education. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Temple, Robert. +Title: The Sirius Mystery +Subtitle: + +Cat#13174 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/27/93 Up-dated: 06/27/93 +The strange connection between a multitude of occult traditions and +Sirium...the mysterious "dog star". +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Reisman, Ph.D., Judith. +Title: Soft Porn Plays Hardball +Subtitle: + +Cat#12644 Pages: 153 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $10.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 01/31/93 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +The rising tide of violence against women and children! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Ravenscroft, Trevor. +Title: The Spear of Destiny +Subtitle: +The Occult Power Behind the Spear Which Pierced the Side of +Christ..Did Hitler Make a Pact with the Devil? In this book you may +find the ultimate explanation of his evil genius and assent to +power..The Occult Power behind the amazing Spear which piercedthe side +of Christ. +Cat#12119 Pages: 0361 Year: 1973 Paperback Estimated Price: $25.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: Up-dated: +Fascinating history...unfortunately from spiritual reading of the +"Akashic Records" by a student of Rudolf Steiner. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Bach, Marcus. +Title: Strange Sects and Curious Cults +Subtitle: + +Cat#12068 Pages: 288 Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $19.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/18/92 Up-dated: + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Shah, Idries. +Title: The Sufis +Subtitle: + +Cat#12751 Pages: Year: Hardcover Estimated Price: $23.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 02/09/93 Up-dated: 02/09/93 +Are the Sufis the real origin and secret masters of the Western Secret +Societies including the Templars, Masons, and Illuminati? Yes, +according to a modern day Sufi! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Choucha, Nadia. +Title: Surrealism and the Occult +Subtitle: +Shamanism, Magic, Alchemy, and the Birth of an Artistic Movement +Cat#13177 Pages: Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 06/27/93 Up-dated: 06/27/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Weger, BA, Robert A.. +Title: The Swastika +Subtitle: +A History +Cat#12051 Pages: 42 Year: 1991 Paperback Estimated Price: $14.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 10/12/92 Up-dated: +Historical study of the Swastika as an occult symbol through the ages, +especially in Hindu culture. Apparently, very unbiased and objective. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Marrs, Texe. +Title: Texe Marrs Exposes the New Age Plan for a One World Order +Subtitle: + +Cat#12525 Pages: 2 hr Year: VHS Video Estimated Price: $20.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 12/30/92 Up-dated: 12/30/92 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Huxley, Aldous. +Title: The Perenial Philosophy +Subtitle: + +Cat#13283 Pages: ? Year: 1958 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/11/93 Up-dated: 07/11/93 +Huxley's version of the one-world religion required by the one-world +government! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Sears, Donald J.. +Title: To Kill Again +Subtitle: +The Motivation and Development of Serial Murder +Cat#12863 Pages: 175 Year: 1991 Hardcover Estimated Price: $24.95 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 03/24/93 Up-dated: 03/24/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Inquire Within (Miss Stoddard), . +Title: The Trail of the Serpent +Subtitle: + +Cat#10781 Pages: 325 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $12.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/16/92 Up-dated: 01/31/93 +Reprint of 1935 classic. Further revelations on the occult conspiracy +from a defector. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Hieronimus, . +Title: The Two Great Seals of America +Subtitle: + +Cat#12341 Pages: 46 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 11/16/92 Up-dated: 11/16/92 +"New Age" explanation of the "eye in the pyramid" that mysteriously +appeared on the back of the dollar bill during the New Deal. +Pro-Occult interpretation. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Bailey, Alice A.. +Title: The Unfinished Autobiography +Subtitle: + +Cat#13015 Pages: 303 Year: 1951 Paperback Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Straight from the Lucis Trust! +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Groothuis, Douglas R.. +Title: Unmasking the New Age +Subtitle: + +Cat#13281 Pages: ? Year: 1986 Hardcover Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 07/11/93 Up-dated: 07/11/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Urantia Foundation, . +Title: The Urantia Book +Subtitle: +The Central and Superuniverses, the Local Universe, the History of +Urantia, and the Life and Teachings of Jesus +Cat#12997 Pages: 2097 Year: 1955 Hardcover Estimated Price: $35.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/18/93 Up-dated: 04/18/93 +Weird religion of UFO contactees...their Bible... +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Griffith, Kyle. +Title: War in Heaven +Subtitle: + +Cat#12917 Pages: 192 Year: 1988 Paperback Estimated Price: $35.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/05/93 Up-dated: 04/05/93 +Interesting New Age theory claims "theocrats" (fundamentalists) hold +slaves in bondage after death to feed on their energy, preventing +natural cycle of reincarnation. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Cullen, Tom A.. +Title: When London Walked in Terror +Subtitle: +A Masterful Study of Jack the Ripper and a Victorian England Powerless +Before Hime +Cat#12960 Pages: 304 Year: 1965 Hardcover Estimated Price: $15.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 04/12/93 Up-dated: 04/12/93 + +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Author (Last, Frst) Russell, Bertrand. +Title: Why I am Not a Christian +Subtitle: + +Cat#12768 Pages: 268 Year: Paperback Estimated Price: $18.00 +Capsule Review: Date Entered: 02/13/93 Up-dated: 02/13/93 +Infamous New World Order theorist exposes his philosophy. +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Number of Entries in Preceding Category: 000169 +Total Number of Catalog Entries: 00253 diff --git a/religious documents/newlaw.txt b/religious documents/newlaw.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f36c9b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/newlaw.txt @@ -0,0 +1,658 @@ +.he THE NEW BOOK OF THE LAW + +[sources: The Book of The Law, The Old Laws for the Old Religion, +The Great Book of the Law, The Dragon Law] + +Preface: In my years of teaching and running a group, I have +always had a dissatisfaction with the popular "Book of the Law" +available to most Seekers. I felt it to be too archaic in its +wording and perspective -- and while it was valuable in the +Burning Times, it simply does not deal with the concerns and +needs of "modern-day" Witches. Over the years I became familiar +with several other sets of Laws. Each of these had many good +points, yet they also had their disadvantages as well. + +Recently, I decided to do something daring -- I took the four +different versions of the Laws which I had, and combined and +reworked them. I deleted what was no longer pertinent or +meaningful, rewording others to make them clearer and more +understandable, as well as throwing in a few new ones which I +felt had been lacking. I believe that what has evolved out of +this work is a set of Laws which are readable, usable, and most +importantly, pertinent to the needs of today's Witches and Neo- +Pagans. It is with these thoughts and hopes that I would like to +share them with you. If you should find merit or worth in them, +then I will feel as though I have accomplished something. The +material in this booklet has not been copyrighted, so you may +reproduce the Laws for students or friends, or reprint them in +your publication. It is my sincere hope that the New Book of the +Law will be of use to the Craft Community. + + Blessed Be, + Lady Galadriel + +Subject: New Book o' Law 1 + +PART ONE + +1. The Laws were created to give our lives form and order, that +all might be balanced throughout all of the planes. In truth +there are two sets of laws which govern us -- one sets forth the +ways of the Wiccan, and the other the ways of the Universe. Both +are important, both should be observed with respect and treated +with honor. The Laws were shaped and molded to teach us, to +advise us, and to counsel us in our time of mortal life on earth. + +2. Honor the Gods, for They are the channels and the +manifestation of the Source. Honor yourself, for this force also +lies within you. Love the Gods as They love you, and by loving +yourself and your brothers and sisters, so the Gods shall honor +you. As the love and joy of a man and a woman [or "lover and +beloved" -- LAH] flowers and grows when nurtured with respect, +and cultivated with understanding and honor, so should you love +the Gods. + +3. The Goddess is the Great Mother, and the God is the Great +Father, and we are Their children; and we shall worship Them, for +They are the rulers of the Universe, and all that is therein. +Therefore, O Children of the Gods, try Them not, nor attempt to +test Them, for They shall show you that he Ways of the Craft are +not to be belittled or mocked. + +4. Let the Power of the Craft flow from you only in love -- or +not at all. For it has always been known that the energy webs +which we weave and maintain shall eventually return to encircle +their creator. Thus our works become either the net which +intaglios and binds us, or the web of light by which we find the +Gods. + +5. Let the Rites of the Wicca be a way for the children of the +Gods to be as One -- for Power only flows when unified. Always +should you revere the Earth, and heal and tend Her, for She is +our life, our Mothership, on which we navigate the dark currents +of space. + +6. When you reap the harvests of your lands, then you shall not +reap one corner of the field, nor glean the herb gardens, or the +fallen fruits of the orchards. These you shall offer to the +Earth Mother, in direct return, or through offerings made to your +Circle, or to sustain its Priests and Priestesses. + +7. Always be proud to be of the Wicca, but do not allow your +pride to become vanity -- for those who are conceited are a +stubling block at the door of the Temple, and they shall be cast +adrift, to swim within their own vanity. + +8. Observe and listen, reserving your judgment, for until all the +silver is weighed, who can know the worth thereof? + +9. As like breeds like, even more so does good beget love and +joy. Your life will be full of love and joy if you are joyful and +happy. + +10. Your teachers are the servants of the Gods, and they shall +plant the seeds of knowledge within the minds of their students, +and they shall use their power for the good of the Wicca. Yet it +is each individual's duty to tend the seeds which are planted, +and to make the final harvest. Those who misuse the power and the +trust of the teacher's position shall have to answer to the Lords +of Karma, and adjust the balance accordingly. + +11. The Temples of the Gods, which are Their abode on Earth, +shall belong to all Their children, and each Circle shall be as a +special family. Do naught against any Temple or any family of the +Wicca, lest you do that thing unto the Gods, and against +yourself. + +12. You must not be a teller of tales amongst the children of the +Goddess, and you must hold no malice or evil thoughts towards +others of the Wicca. + +13. You should not lie, nor give false testimony before your +Elders, or those who are of the Wicca -- for liars are fools, and +a menace unto themselves, and to the Wicca. Be truthful in all +your works and deeds, especially within the Circle, for what you +say within the presence of the Gods becomes manifest. + +14. You must not put stumbling blocks in the way of those who do +not follow the Path of the Wicca. You must make no unrighteous +judgments of their ways, and you should aid them with an attitude +of love when it is asked for. Yet ever should you keep the +Counsel of the Elders, and reveal naught to others of where our +Circles may be, nor may you reveal our ways without the consent +of the Priestess. + +15. When you make a vow to the Lord or the Lady, or you swear an +oath to another of the Wicca, then you must do all that has come +forth from your mouth, for a covenant with the Gods, or with the +Wicca, is your Honor, and woe to those who care not for the +fetters they attach to their souls by not keeping their word. + +16. The Great Mother and Father would not have their children +suffer the indignities of oppressors for their sake, for what is +within the hearts of Their children is dear and true to Them. The +Ancient and Mighty Ones shall cause the balance to be made for +those who desecrate the Lord and Lady, Their temples, or Their +creations. + +17. Never shall you use Magick, nor the Craft, to cause harm, for +this is misuse of the Power, and it is not to be condoned. To +cause the death of another through the Craft is to require the +death of the Self in sacrifice. + +18. Never betray any of the brethren, nor the lore of our people, +for you are all servants of the Gods, and must live by the +virtues of love, honor and wisdom. Let truth, loyalty and honor +be your creed. Let them be your guides, tempered by love and +wisdom. + +19. The Order of the Gods shall you keep, and within Their +Circles shall you walk. You should not say "I believe" when you +doubt, nor claim to obey the Lord and Lady's word when you never +enter into the Temple. You must not profess with your lips that +which is not in your heart. + +20. Do not use the names of the Gods in negative or evil ways, +for They love and cherish Their children above all others. All +others They love, even those who know them not. Yet those who +hate and curse in Their name shall have the Mighty Ones take the +measure of their worth. + +21. In any disputes between the children of the Goddess, no one +may invoke any laws but those of the Craft, or any tribunal but +that of Priestess, Priest, and Elders. + +22. No one of the Wicca may do anything which will endagner the +Craft, nor bring any of the Wicca into conflict with the Law of +the Land, or with any of our persecutors. + +23. Your magickal tools are channels to that which is most +precious and pure within you. Do not cheapen them by haggling +their price when you acquire them. + +24. Never accept money for the use of the Power. It is sorcerers +and charlatans who accept money for their spells and prayers. If +you accept no money, you will be free from the temptation to use +the Craft for evil or unworthy causes. + +25. You shall never take unduly from any human, animal or +elemental that which is not yours to take -- for if you steal +from another, in the end you will have to sacrifice something +dearer to you in order to attain the balance. + +26. Show honor to all people, that they may look up to you, and +respect you, and their eyes shall become a mirror for your soul. + +27. Those who are of the Wicca shall not own slaves, for one +person may not own the spirit of another, for only the Great +Mother and Father own our souls. Nor shall you take as a pledge +any person's life, for to do so is to take upon yourself both a +mill and a millstone. + +28. If a stranger sojourns with you, you shall do them no wrong; +they shall be as one of the Circle, born amongst ye, and you +shall deal with them as you would yourself. + +29. Just weights and just balances shall be given by you, and +just value shall you give, and thereby receive threefold. + +30. Your altars shall be kept clean, pure and holy, and all that +is brought into the Temple or the Circle shall be cleansed and +blessed, for the joy of the Gods, and of the Wicca. + +31. A clean mind should have a clean body. You should keep your +body, your clothes, and your house clean, in honor of the Mother, +who gives these things to you. + +32. Let none die without honor, without love, without respect, +unless their actions have decreed otherwise. + +33. You should not couple together if it shall cause pain, +jealousy or deprivation to another by doing so. Union for malice +or evil reasons such as these upsets the balance, and the Lords +of the Universe shall make adjustments accordingly. + +34. Let those who would love, and would be as one, and bear +child, be handfasted. For the sharing of love in this manner is +beauteous, and love's union in the energy of the Gods, and the +heritage of the child. It is important for children to know and +to identify with those who brought them here. + +35. The Law of the Goddess is that none of the Wicca shall take +and wed someone who they do not love, whether it is to harm +another, or for some form of material gain. + +36. Remember that your children are Goddess-spawned, and are free +spirits. You do not own nor control them. They are your brethren, +come to visit for a while, that they may share in the vision of +your love and wisdom. Let each parent realize that although they +may teach and guide with love, the child shall also teach the +parent, and aid them in their growth and lessons. + +END OF PART ONE + +PART TWO + +37. The etheric web and energy vortexes of the earth are in +constant flux and motion to adjust to the needs of the planet. +The sacred trust of the Wicca is to create and to maintain +centers of light and knowledge, using the magick of the divine +spark within us to focus and channel the forces of the Universal +fire. And these are the channels established between the worlds +of the stars and the realms of the earth, bringing in and +regulating the spirit flames which energize and activate all life +forms. Thus we tend and guard the threads of creation, and we +weave the patterns of life and manifestation in an ever-evolving +tapestry. + +38. Never use your heritage or position for self-glorification or +gain. Respect your magick and our ways. We must always recognize +that while others may look to us to lead them, they too are our +guides. + +39. Keep your body strong, your mind keen, and your purpose pure, +for within your being you shall channel the Power, and it needs +to be strong and pure. And these are the keys to the path of +Oneness, and to communication with the Gods. Yet first you must +learn to speak to Them in such a manner as They can comprehend +you. For the children of the Wicca must aid the Gods, and work +with Them, otherwise the Gods cannot aid and work with you. Ever +remember that the Priest and Priestess are the living +representatives of the God and Goddess Forces, and likewise that +all humans carry these forces within them, though they may lie +dormant and unawakened. + +40. As the Great Mother and Father come unto one another and +create with the pure vibration of Love-Wisdom, so should you +strive to make your Temple pure in vibration, and thus a fitting +place wherein you may invite the Gods. Thus, your Circle should +always be duly purified and cast, and likewise, those who would +use the gateways and travel the Circle between the earth and +other realms should also be duly prepared and purified. + +41. The Goddess hath said, "I shall not carry thee, yet neither +shall I hinder thee, nor keep thee from having the same +opportunities as all of my children. Thou art free, yet thou +shalt not be coddled like babes in the storm. If thou hast true +devotion within thee, then all obstacles may be overcome." + +42. The laggard is but half a person -- and though half is better +than none, the whole is twice as good as the half. Those who do +not work, or who lack the will and desire to learn the ways of +the Gods, unto them is said, "The Ancient and Mighty Ones shall +not keep thee within their house, if ye learneth not." + +43. A sanctuary you shall make unto the Gods, that They may dwell +amongst you. And you shall fashion it to the best of your +ability, according to all that your Elders shall show you, and +pure energy shall you place therein. + +44. An altar shall you make to unto the Lady, and you shall make +due reverence unto Her, for every place where She is exalted, She +will come to you and bless you. And you shall fashion your altar +out of wood or stone, and burn incense and candles thereon, at +the proper times, in observance of her ways. + +45. You should set aside at least one day during each moon unto +the Goddess, and on these days you shall do Her work; and on +those days She shall renew Her children and bless them. + +46. Learn to build your own Temple, and to craft your own sacred +Circle, and all the tools that are used therein -- for to be a +person of the Craft is to be a person of consequence. + +47. Let each of you inscribe your own record of our ways and +teachings. For the course of each Wiccan should be charted, that +the patterns of their life-web may be made known and utilized. +Let each Wiccan start their Book of Light with the teachings and +lore of their tradition, yet let it also contain the rites and +ways of each individual, which are the harvest of each child of +the Wicca, to use the wisdom of their heritage as the seeds of +their own wisdom. Thus shall our lore and knowledge continue to +grow and unfold, like a beautiful flower. + +48. It is right to study and to understand the sigils, statues +and stories of the Gods, for they shall guide your thoughts to +Them, and They shall hear them. Yet you must ever remember that +you worship not the sign nor the statue, but the Gods which +inspired them. + +49. If your Circle owns any land, let all guard it, and help to +keep it clean. Let all justly guard all moneys of the Circle, as +well as the rights and property of all members of the Circle. + +50. If any Wiccan truly labors, then it is right that they should +have their just pay. This is not considered the taking of money +for the Art, but good and honest work. Yet if any Wiccan works +willingly for the good of the Craft, or for their brothers and +sisters without pay, then it is to their greatest honor. + +51. If any Wiccan should deny themselves some pleasure or +material indulgence in order to do service in the Circle, this +person shall be blessed and remembered. For those who give for +the greater good of all shall have their spirit uplifted. + +52. Know also that if you gift the Lady's Priests and +Priestesses, or Her Circles, this is an offering made unto the +Mother Herself, for a true Priest or Priestess strives always to +do Her work, and to be of service to Her children, so to honor +and respect them is to honor and respect the Queen of All. + +53. And the offerings which are considered the most pleasing to +the Gods are these: + + the fruits of the orchards + the scents of the trees and herbs + the metals of the earth + the waters of the earth + the flowers of the meadows + and the milk of all mothers. + +Yet offerings of labor or money are honest too, and these will +also be accepted -- more so if you work with love in your heart, +for always there is work to be done for the Gods, and service to +be given to the children of the Wicca. + +54. If your offerings are made to restore the balance, it must by +of a nature that it not offensive to the Gods. It must be of +value, yet given with a free heart. Thus shall the harmony be +restored. If your offerings are given with a heart filled with +love and devotion, or are of service to the Gods, or to the +Craft, then shall you receive blessings manifold. + +55. And when you make an offering unto the Gods, you should offer +it thru the most proper medium, at the proper times, and in such +a manner as to make it acceptable. Any and all remains of the +rituals shall be consumed in the fire, or buried within the +Earth, as a way of returning to the Source all that we use in the +observance of our ways, thus ensuring the continuity of the +cycle. + +56. All may use the Craft to help and aid them, or for the +advantage of their Circle, or the Craft -- yet only if you are +sure that you harm none. Let each Wiccan and Circle always debate +these matters at length. Only if all be satisfied that none be +harmed in any way, may the Art then be used. If it is not +possible to achieve your ends one way, then perhaps the goal may +be achieved by acting in a different way, so as to harm none. + +57. Throughout the world it has been many a year since Wiccans +have been burned. Yet misuse of the Power might raise the +persecutions once again. So never break the Laws, however much +you might be tempted, and never consent to their being broken. +And if you know they are being broken, then you must work +strongly against it. + +58. In days of old it was decided by the Mighty Ones who came +before us that the Art might be used to restrain others from +harming the Craft or its children, yet only after great +consultation with all members of the Circle, and only then to +deflect or to constrain them. + +59. And such were the ways of the Lady that She brought us forth +in joy, and such were the Ways of the Lord that His reign gave +all life pleasure. Offer love in your worship and all shall be +joyous in beauty. + +END OF PART TWO + +PART THREE + +60. In the dimly remembered dawn of ages past, the Wicca were +truly free. Then, in Atlantis came the Age of the Misuse of +Power, followed by the Ages of Persecution and Suffering. Thus +the people of the Wicca hid themselves and cloaked their +knowledge, and wove veils of secrecy and silence. And this is how +the Ways of the Wicca have been preserved through the time of +darkness. Yet much of the ways of our people were lost to the +ignorance of others. + +61. Yet the cycle spirals ever on -- and the Age of the Earth +Mother once again draws nigh. We must be strong -- one with our +birthright, and one with our Gods, if we are to bring forth the +balance. Those who would harm us, or attempt to enslave us, we +must overcome -- yet only through light and love, and never +through violence or the evil of chaos. And through our efforts +the time of our people will come into being once more. In the +times which lie ahead, there lies much work to be done, so that +once more the cycles of life are drawn to the path of light, and +the balance achieved through the power of love. + +62. In order to bring the ways of Light and Love and Life to the +peoples of the Earth, our secrets are slowly becoming secrets no +more, and it is good that this is so -- for the age of shadow and +secrecy is passing. Yet the sharing of our ways needs always to +be guided by wisdom and by love. Let our rites and our mysteries +be kept sacred. Let no one defile our worship or our heritage. +For the defilement of our ways is an honor loss to self, and for +the Craft. + +63. Let each High Priestess govern her Circle with justice and +Love, and with the help and advice of the Elders and the High +Priest, always heeding the messages of the Gods when they come. + +64. Ever remember that although the Priest is the force with +which the Circle is built, the Priestess is the ruler therein -- +for it is through her that the Goddess created the world, and all +things therein. + +65. The High Priestess will heed all complaints of all Pagans and +Wiccans, and strive to settle any differences between them with +reason and with justice. + +66. Let each Circle of Light decide how it shall be known -- +whether by earthly name or magickal one. For each child of the +Wicca knows best the safety or dangers of their homeland. + +67. Let each Circle or Temple maintain and dedicate unto the +Goddess and the God all the things that are required for Their +rituals, for what is blessed in the name of the Gods rightly +belongs to Them, and the Priest and Priestess shall be the +caretakers thereof. + +68. Anyone of the circle who is of sufficient rank, and wishes to +form a new Circle, shall tell the High Priestess and the Elders +of their intentions. Members of the old Circle may join the new +Circle when it is formed, but if they do so they must leave the +other Circle, unless otherwise instructed. For it is the Old Law +that each Wiccan may join the Circle of their choice, yet their +energy should not be divided between two or more Temples. + +69. The Elders of the old and new Circles shall meet in peace and +with respect, to decide the level of interaction and connection +between the Circles. Yet it is known that the splitting of a +Circle often means strife. So only if it is truly in a spirit of +peace and harmony should the Circles meet for the celebration of +the Great Festivals. + +70. None shall enter the Circle that have a sickness or an +ailment which may be passed on to the Lady's other children -- +for to do so causes harm to yourself, as well as to the others of +the Circle. Rather should the Healers go unto the sick one, that +through the love of the Gods they shall be made well and whole +once more. + +71. It has been judged lawful that if any of the Craft need a +house, or land, and none will sell, to incline someone's mind so +as to be willing to sell, providing it harms none and the full +price is paid without haggling. + +72. In the matter of quarrels or disputes between the members of +the Circle, the High Priestess shall convene the Council, and +inquire into the matter. The Council shall hear each person +privately, and then both together. And they shall decide justly, +not favoring one side nor the other. + +73. If an agreeable resolution cannot be reached, then that +Wiccan must leave the Circle, for a Circle of Light cannot be +properly formed where there is disagreement and discord. And when +a Circle is not properly formed, the energy within is either +dissipated, or turns ugly, festering like a hidden sore. So let +them leave, but only with love in their hearts and yours, for +even though your paths may diverge, you are still all children of +the Wicca, and there must be no violence between us. Bear no +grudges, hold no thoughts of vengeance, for this will rot away +the foundation of your power. + +74. It has ever been recognized that there are some people who +can never agree to work under any others. At the same time there +are also people who cannot rule justly. To those who must ever be +chief there is but one answer: "Void this Circle, and seek +another one, or if ye be of sufficient rank, then form a Circle +of your own." To those who cannot rule justly, the answer shall +be "Those who cannot bear your rule will leave you." For none may +come to Circle with those with whom they are at variance, for to +do so angers the Gods, and hinders the Craft. + +75. Those that do wrong without knowledge shall be held innocent; +those that do wrong through carelessness shall be judged lacking +in wisdom, and dealt with according to the nature of the +transgression. Those who do wrong with deliberation and +forethought shall be thrice punished, and the Lords of Karma +shall lay low their pride. + +76. Each person must make a balance for their words and actions, +and the judgments of the Elders should incline to try to make +good come from the injustice or wrong-doing. Many are the ways to +restore the balance, so let the judgments of the Elders and the +Priestess be in keeping with this. + +77. Do not turn aside those who seek the ways of the Wicca for +the want of an offering or the lack of a robe. You are the +servants of the Gods, and the servants of Their people, and those +that seek for the Gods you must aid in their quest. + +78. Of those who would inquire as to the ways of the Goddess, or +who wish to become of the Wicca, ye shall search their hearts, +and even into their spirits you shall look, as you are able. For +the Wicca do not look to acquire mere numbers. Let none be turned +away if their hearts are true, and their desire earnest. + +79. The hidden children are like the strings of a harp: each one +may give a clear note, and when gathered together in sympathy and +accord, they shall give rise to a beautiful symphony. Yet when +struck without reason or thought, these notes may cause discord +or disharmony. Therefore the Gods decree to Their Teachers and +Priests that all must be taught to master their harp, and to +pluck their strings with care, that they cause no discord or +imbalance. + +80. Choose the Priests and Teachers of the Wicca with diligence +and with care. The qualities that you should search for within +them are Faith, Belief, Knowledge, Ability, Patience, Leadership, +Humility, and a loving nature -- for they must lead and teach the +children of the Goddess, and will thereby have the power to do +great good, or to cause great imbalance. + +81. In practice it should be that the greatest of the Priests and +Priestesses should guide the rituals within each of the Temples +of the Old Gods, and truly you should be content with the advice +and guidance given by them. Yet ever it should be given so that +it is clear and understandable, for within the Temple each of the +Wicca is free, and thus they should be able to recognize and to +understand our ways and their implications. And those who cannot +explain the inner workings, or give just cause and reason for +their decisions, may be questioned, or the wisdom of the advice +weighed. + +82. Let the Priestess and Priest lead as long as they are able, +and their leadership be wise and strong, and to the benefit of +the Wicca. Yet if their health is ill-favored, or if the next +generation needs to try their hand, then let them have the vision +and the wisdom to step away from their position, and pass the +duties of the Circle to another. Let them not become overly +attached to the office, nor too fond of the power. + +83. If a Priestess or a Priest should tire of their duties and +charges, then they may step down, but only after having trained +and acknowledged a successor. If a Priest or Priestess deserts +their Circle, then they have lost the right to ever lead again +within this life, so great a trust they have broken. If they +should return to the Circle within one turn of the Wheel, and are +judged to have true atonement in their hearts, new insight and +growth, then they may be forgiven, and allowed to return to the +Circle, yet they shall worship only, and hold no office or title. +Leadership is a sacred commitment and an honor, and they have +shown that they cannot be trusted with such responsibility. + +84. Any Priestess, Priest, or Elder who consents to a breach of +the Laws regarding the use of the Craft to cause harm to others +must immediately be relieved of their office, for it is the lives +of the children of the Goddess which they endanger, as well as +the honor of the Craft. + +85. The High Priestess may take a Sabbatical from her Circle, if +her personal life and duties require it, for up to a year and a +day. During that time, the Maiden shall act as High Priestess. If +the High Priestess does not return at the end of a year and a +day, then the Initiates of the Circle shall name a new Priestess. +Unless there is good reason to the contrary, the person who has +done the work of the Priestess should reap the reward. If someone +else is named, then the Maiden should continue in that office. + +86. Each Priestess and Priest shall choose their own consorts, +yet let them be wise in the learning of our people, and thus +others shall abide by the wisdom of their choice. Yet if the +Circle feels the decision is ill-advised, or that they cannot +abide and work in honor and trust with that consort, then they +may request a gathering of all concerned to meet and to talk, and +to resolve the balance with love and honor. For only those who +are pure and strong, keen and wise, patient and loving, can +effectively and properly carry out the duties of a Keeper of the +Circle. + +87. Those of the Priesthood shall not neglect their mates, or +their children, or their house, nor anything which is in their +possession; nor shall the sick and the needy be neglected for the +sake of the Circle. Therefore let them adjust the one thing +against the other, that neither should suffer, and that which is +given by the Gods is treated with love and respect. + +88. Long ago, at the time of Creation, it was deemed that the +female should hold the power of life-giving. And such was the +male force drawn to the love and beauty of the Creation of life, +that he surrenders unto her keeping the force of his powers in +the furtherance of life. Yet the Priestess must always remember +that the fuel of the flames which light the fires within her +Temple comes from the Priest. Thus she must use the force wisely, +and only with love, and she must honor and respect he who is the +activator of the Life Force. + +HERE ENDS THE NEW BOOK OF THE LAW. + +Published by: The Grove of the Unicorn PO Box 13384 Atlanta, GA +30324 + +Ordering Information: Send Legal size SASE A small contribution +towards printing/handling costs will be appreciated. +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + +To this I would add only one more admonishment, based on my own +experience: It is as important not to take oneself, one's power, +and one's Craft too seriously as it is not to take them too +lightly. Moderation in all things, including moderation. And +remember that all acts of love and pleasure are the rites of the +Goddess, and this includes HAVING FUN. + +B*B Leigh Ann + + + + NOTICE: This file is part of Cassandra-News for November 1989 (CNEW1189) + and its as well asthe various members of the arcive may be downloading or + FREQ. The Current Issue of Cassandra-News may be FREQ with the "Fido Magic + Word" CASSNEWS. Cassandra-News is a news service of the United Wiccan Church + a 501(c)(3) California non-profit, tax-exempt religious corporation. + Cassandra-News grants License for Non-Commercial electronic and print + reproduction and distribution as long as no fee is charged for these + reproductions other than the cost of reproduction and printing. The name + and address of the United Wiccan Church this notice must be preserved on + all copies. + + United Wiccan Church + P. O. Box 16025 + North Hollywood California, 91615-6025, U.S.A., NA. + (818) 899-3687 (3/12/2400 Baud 8N1) + FIDO 1:102/922 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/newlaws.txt b/religious documents/newlaws.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9516b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/newlaws.txt @@ -0,0 +1,581 @@ + +THE NEW BOOK OF THE LAW +[sources: The Book of The Law, The Old Laws for the Old Religion, The +Great Book of the Law, The Dragon Law] + +Preface: In my years of teaching and running a group, I have always had +a dissatisfaction with the popular "Book of the Law" available to most +Seekers. I felt it to be too archaic in its wording and perspective -- +and while it was valuable in the Burning Times, it simply does not deal +with the concerns and needs of "modern-day" Witches. Over the years I +became familiar with several other sets of Laws. Each of these had many +good points, yet they also had their disadvantages as well. + +Recently, I decided to do something daring -- I took the four different +versions of the Laws which I had, and combined and reworked them. I +deleted what was no longer pertinent or meaningful, rewording others to +make them clearer and more understandable, as well as throwing in a few +new ones which I felt had been lacking. + +I believe that what has evolved out of this work is a set of Laws which +are readable, usable, and most importantly, pertinent to the needs of +today's Witches and Neo-Pagans. It is with these thoughts and hopes +that I would like to share them with you. If you should find merit or +worth in them, then I will feel as though I have accomplished something. +The material in this booklet has not been copyrighted, so you may +reproduce the Laws for students or friends, or reprint them in your +publication. It is my sincere hope that the New Book of the Law will be +of use to the Craft Community. + + Blessed Be, Lady Galadriel + + +PART ONE + +1. The Laws were created to give our lives form and order, that all +might be balanced throughout all of the planes. In truth there are two +sets of laws which govern us -- one sets forth the ways of the Wiccan, +and the other the ways of the Universe. Both are important, both should +be observed with respect and treated with honor. The Laws were shaped +and molded to teach us, to advise us, and to counsel us in our time of +mortal life on earth. + +2. Honor the Gods, for They are the channels and the manifestation of +the Source. Honor yourself, for this force also lies within you. Love +the Gods as They love you, and by loving yourself and your brothers and +sisters, so the Gods shall honor you. As the love and joy of a man and +a woman [or "lover and beloved" -- LAH] flowers and grows when nurtured +with respect, and cultivated with understanding and honor, so should +you love the Gods. + +3. The Goddess is the Great Mother, and the God is the Great Father, and +we are Their children; and we shall worship Them, for They are the +rulers of the Universe, and all that is therein. Therefore, O Children +of the Gods, try Them not, nor attempt to test Them, for They shall +show you that he Ways of the Craft are not to be belittled or mocked. + +4. Let the Power of the Craft flow from you only in love -- or not at +all. For it has always been known that the energy webs which we weave +and maintain shall eventually return to encircle their creator. Thus +our works become either the net which entagles and binds us, or th eweb +of light by which we find the Gods. + +5. Let the Rites of the Wicca be a way for the children of the Gods to +be as One -- for Power only flows when unified. Always should you +revere the Earth, and heal and tend Her, for She is our life, our +Mothership, on which we navigate the dark currents of space. + +6. When you reap the harvests of your lands, then you shall not reap one +corner of the field, nor glean the herb gardens, or the fallen fruits +of the orchards. These you shall offer to the Earth Mother, in direct +return, or through offerings made to your Circle, or to sustain its +Priests and Priestesses. + +7. Always be proud to be of the Wicca, but do not allow your pride to +become vanity -- for those who are conceited are a stubling block at +the door of the Temple, and they shall be cast adrift, to swim within +their own vanity. + +8. Observe and listen, reserving your judgement, for until all the +silver is weighed, who can know the worth thereof? + +9. As like breeds like, even more so does good beget love and joy. Your +life will be full of love and joy if you are joyful and happy. + +10. Your teachers are the servants of the Gods, and they shall plant the +seeds of knowledge within the minds of their students, and they shall +use their power for the good of the Wicca. Yet it is each individual's +duty to tend the seeds which are planted, and to make the final +harvest. Those who misuse the power and the trust of the teacher's +position shall have to answer to the Lords of Karma, and adjust the +balance accordingly. + +11. The Temples of the Gods, which are Their abode on Earth, shall +belong to all Their children, and each Circle shall be as a special +family. Do naught against any Temple or any family of the Wicca, lest +you do that thing unto the Gods, and against yourself. + +12. You must not be a teller of tales amongst the children of the +Goddess, and you must hold no malice or evil thoughts towards others of +the Wicca. + +13. You should not lie, nor give false testimony before your Elders, or +those who are of the Wicca -- for liars are fools, and a menace unto +themselves, and to the Wicca. Be truthful in all your works and deeds, +especially within the Circle, for what you say within the presence of +the Gods becomes manifest. + +14. You must not put stumbling blocks in the way of those who do not +follow the Path of the Wicca. You must make no unrighteous judgements +of their ways, and you should aid them with an attitude of love when it +is asked for. Yet ever should you keep the Counsel of the Elders, and +reveal naught to others of where our Circles may be, nor may you reveal +our ways without the consent of the Priestess. + +15. When you make a vow to the Lord or the Lady, or you swear an oath to +another of the Wicca, then you must do all that has come forth from your +mouth, for a covenant with the Gods, or with the Wicca, is your Honor, +and woe to those who care not for the fetters they attach to their +souls by not keeping their word. + +16. The Great Mother and Father would not have their children suffer +the indignities of oppressors for their sake, for what is within the +hearts of Their children is dear and true to Them. The Ancient and +Mighty Ones shall cause the balance to be made for those who desecrate +the Lord and Lady, Their temples, or Their creations. + +17. Never shall you use Magick, nor the Craft, to cause harm, for this +is misuse of the Power, and it is not to be condoned. To cause the +death of another through the Craft is to require the death of the Self +in sacrifice. + +18. Never betray any of the brethren, nor the lore of our people, for +you are all servants of the Gods, and must live by the virtues of love, +honor and wisdom. Let truth, loyalty and honor be your creed. Let them +be your guides, tempered by love and wisdom. + +19. The Order of the Gods shall you keep, and within Their Circles shall +you walk. You should not say "I believe" when you doubt, nor claim to +obey the Lord and Lady's word when you never enter into the Temple. You +must not profess with your lips that which is not in your heart. + +20. Do not use the names of the Gods in negative or evil ways, for They +love and cherish Their children above all others. All others They +love, even those who know them not. Yet those who hate and curse in +Their name shall have the Mighty Ones take the measure of their worth. + +21. In any disputes between the children of the Goddess, no one may +invoke any laws but those of the Craft, or any tribunal but that of +Priestess, Priest, and Elders. + +22. No one of the Wicca may do anything which will endagner the Craft, +nor bring any of the Wicca into conflict with the Law of the Land, or +with any of our persecutors. + +23. Your magickal tools are channels to that which is most precious and +pure within you. Do not cheapen them by haggling their price when you +acquire them. + +24. Never accept money for the use of the Power. It is sorcerors and +charlatans who accept money for their spells and prayers. If you accept +no money, you will be free from the temptation to use the Craft for evil +or unworthy causes. + +25. You shall never take unduly from any human, animal or elemental that +which is not yours to take -- for if you steal from another, in the end +you will have to sacrifice something dearer to you in order to attain +the balance. + +26. Show honor to all people, that they may look up to you, and respect +you, and their eyes shall become a mirror for your soul. + +27. Those who are of the Wicca shall not own slaves, for one person may +not own the spirit of another, for only the Great Mother and Father own +our souls. Nor shall you take as a pledge any person's life, for to do +so is to take upon yourself both a mill and a millstone. + +28. If a stranger sojourns with you, you shall do them no wrong; they +shall be as one of the Circle, born amongst ye, and you shall deal with +them as you would yourself. + +29. Just weights and just balances shall be given by you, and just value +shall you give, and thereby receive threefold. + +30. Your altars shall be kept clean, pure and holy, and all that is +brought into the Temple or the Circle shall be cleansed and blessed, for +the joy of the Gods, and of the Wicca. + +31. A clean mind should have a clean body. You should keep your body, +your clothes, and your house clean, in honor of the Mother, who gives +these things to you. + +32. Let none die without honor, without love, without respect, unless +their actions have decreed otherwise. + +33. You should not couple together if it shall cause pain, jealousy or +deprivation to another by doing so. Union for malice or evil reasons +such as these upsets the balance, and the Lords of the Universe shall +make adjustments accordingly. + +34. Let those who would love, and would be as one, and bear child, be +handfasted. For the sharing of love in this manner is beauteous, and +love's union in the energy of the Gods, and the heritage of the child. +It is important for children to know and to identify with those who +brought them here. + +35. The Law of the Goddess is that none of the Wicca shall take and wed +someone who they do not love, whether it is to harm another, or for +some form of material gain. + +36. Remember that your children are Goddess-spawned, and are free +spirits. You do not own nor control them. They are your brethren, +come to visit for a while, that they may share in the vision of your +love and wisdom. Let each parent realize that although they may teach +and guide with love, the child shall also teach the parent, and aid them +in their growth and lesson + +37. The etheric web and energy vortexes of the earth are in constant +flux and motion to adjust to the needs of the planet. The sacred trust +of the Wicca is to create and to maintain centers of light and +knowledge, using the magick of the divine spark within us to focus and +channel the forces of the Universal fire. And these are the channels +established between the worlds of the stars and the realms of the earth, +bringing in and regulating the spirit flames which energize and activate +all life forms. Thus we tend and guard the threads of creation, and we +weave the patterns of life and manifestation in an ever-evolving +tapestry. + +38. Never use your heritage or position for self-glorification or gain. +Respect your magick and our ways. We must always recognize that while +others may look to us to lead them, they too are our guides. + +39. Keep yor body strong, your mind keen, and your purpose pure, for +within your being you shall channel the Power, and it needs to be strong +and pure. And these are the keys to the path of Oneness, and to +communication with the Gods. Yet first you must learn to speak to Them +in such a manner as They can comprehend you. For the children of the +Wicca must aid the Gods, and work with Them, otherwise the Gods cannot +aid and work with you. Ever remember that the Priest and Priestess are +the living representatives of the God and Goddess Forces, and likewise +that all humans carry these forces within them, though they may lie +dormant and unawakened. + +40. As the Great Mother and Father come unto one another and create with +the pure vibration of Love-Wisdom, so should you strive to make your +Temple pure in vibration, and thus a fitting place wherein you may +invite the Gods. Thus, your Circle should always be duly purified and +cast, and likewise, those who would use the gateways and travel the +Circle between the earth and other realms should also be duly prepared +and purified. + +41. The Goddess hath said, "I shall not carry thee, yet neither shall I +hinder thee, nor keep thee from having the same opportunities as all of +my children. Thou art free, yet thou shalt not be coddled like babes in +the storm. If thou hast true devotion within thee, then all obstacles +may be overcome." + +42. The laggard is but half a person -- and though half is better than +none, the whole is twice as good as the half. Those who do not work, or +who lack the will and desire to learn the ways of the Gods, unto them is +said, "The Ancient and Mighty Ones shall not keep thee within their +house, if ye learneth not." + +43. A sanctuary you shall make unto the Gods, that They may dwell +amongst you. And you shall fashion it to the best of your ability, +according to all tha your Elders shall show you, and pure energy shall +you place therein. + +44. An altar shall you make to unto the Lady, and you shall make due +reverence unto Her, for every place where She is exalted, She will come +to you and bless you. And you shall fashion your altar out of wood or +stone, and burn incense and candles thereon, at the proper times, in +observance of her ways. + +45. You should set aside at least one day during each moon unto the +Goddess, and on these days you shall do Her work; and on those days She +shall renew Her children and bless them. + +46. Learn to build your own Temple, and to craft your own sacred Circle, +and all the tools that are used therein -- for to be a person of the +Craft is to be a person of consequence. + +47. Let each of you inscribe your own record of our ways and teachings. +For the course of each Wiccan should be charted, that the patterns of +their life-web may be made known and utilized. Let each Wiccan start +their Book of Light with the teachings and lore of their tradition, yet +let it also contain the rites and ways of each individual, which are the +harvest of each child of the Wicca, to use the wisdom of their heritage +as the seeds of their own wisdom. Thus shall our lore and knowledge +continue to grow and unfold, like a beautiful flower. + +48. It is right to study and to understand the sigils, statues and +stories of the Gods, for they shall guide your thoughts to Them, and +They shall hear them. Yet you must ever remember that you worship not +the sign nor the statue, but the Gods which inspired them. + +49. If your Circle owns any land, let all guard it, and help to keep it +clean. Let all justly guard all monies of the Circle, as well as the +rights and property of all members of the Circle. + +50. If any Wiccan truly labors, then it is right that they should have +their just pay. This is not considered the taking of money for the Art, +but good and honest work. Yet if any Wiccan works willingly for the +good of the Craft, or for their brothers and sisters without pay, then +it is to their greatest honor. + +51. If any Wiccan should deny themselves some pleasure or material +indulgence in order to do service in the Circle, this person shall be +blessed and remembered. For those who give for the greater good of all +shall have their spirit uplifted. + +52. Know also that if you gift the Lady's Priests and Priestesses, or +Her Circles, this is an offering made unto the Mother Herself, for a +true Priest or Priestess strives always to do Her work, and to be of +service to Her children, so to honor and respect them is to honor and +respect the Queen of All. + +53. And the offerings which are considered the most pleasing to the Gods +are these: the fruits of the orchards the scents of the trees and herbs +the metals of the earth the waters of the earth the flowers of the +meadows and the milk of all mothers. Yet offerings of labor or money are +honest too, and these will also be accepted -- moreso if you work with +love in your heart, for always there is work to be done for the Gods, +and service to be given to the children of the Wicca. + +54. If your offerings are made to restore the balance, it must by of a +nature that it not offensive to the Gods. It must be of value, yet +given with a free heart. Thus shall the harmony be restored. If your +offerings are given with a heart filled with love and devotion, or are +of service to the Gods, or to the Craft, then shall you receive +blessings manifold. + +55. And when you make an offering unto the Gods, you should offer it +thru the most proper medium, at the proper times, and in such a manner +as to make it acceptable. Any and all remains of the rituals shall be +consumed in the fire, or buried within the Earth, as a way of returning +to the Source all that we use in the observance of our ways, thus +ensuring the continuity of the cycle. + +56. All may use the Craft to help and aid them, or for the advantage of +their Circle, or the Craft -- yet only if you are sure that you harm +none. Let each Wiccan and Circle always debate these matters at length. +Only if all be satisfied that none be harmed in any way, may the Art +then be used. If it is not possible to achieve your ends one way, then +perhaps the goal may be achieved by actng in a different way, so as to +harm none. + +57. Throughout the world it has been many a year since Wiccans have been +burned. Yet misuse of the Power might raise the persecutions once +again. So never break the Laws, however much you might be tempted, and +never consent to their being broken. And if you know they are being +broken, then you must work strongly against it. + +58. In days of old it was decided by the Mighty Ones who came before us +that the Art might be used to restrain others from harming the Craft or +its children, yet only after great consultation with all members of the +Circle, and only then to deflect or to constrain them. + +59. And such were the ways of the Lady that She brought us forth in joy, +and such were the Ways of the Lord that His reign gave all life +pleasure. Offer love in your worship and all shall be joyous in beauty. + +60. In the dimly remembered dawn of ages past, the Wicca were truly +free. Then, in Atlantis came the Age of the Misuse of Power, followed by +the Ages of Persecution and Suffering. Thus the people of the Wicca hid +themselves and cloaked their knowlege, and wove veils of secrecy and +silence. And this is how the Ways of the Wicca have been preserved +through the time of darkness. Yet much of the ways of our people were +lost to the ignorance of others. + +61. Yet the cycle spirals ever on -- and the Age of the Earth Mother +once again draws nigh. We must be strong -- one with our birthright, +and one with our Gods, if we are to bring forth the balance. Those who +would harm us, or attempt to enslave us, we must overcome -- yet only +through light and love, and never through violence or the evil of chaos. +And through our efforts the time of our people will come into being once +more. In the times which lie ahead, there lies much work to be done, so +that once more the cycles of life are drawn to the path of light, and +the balance acheived through the power of love. + +62. In order to bring the ways of Light and Love and Life to the peoples +of the Earth, our secrets are slowly becoming secrets no more, and it is +good that this is so -- for the age of shadow and secrecy is passing. +Yet the sharing of our ways needs always to be guided by wisdom and by +love. Let our rites and our mysteries be kept sacred. Let no one +defile our worship or our heritage. For the defilement of our ways is +an honor loss to self, and for the Craft. + +63. Let each High Priestess govern her Circle with justice and Love, and +with the help and advice of the Elders and the High Priest, always +heeding the messages of the Gods when they come. + +64. Ever remember that although the Priest is the force with which the +Circle is built, the Priestess is the ruler therein -- for it is through +her that the Goddess created the world, and all things therein. + +65. The High Priestess will heed all complaints of all Pagans and +Wiccans, and strive to settle any differences between them with reason +and with justice. + +66. Let each Circle of Light decide how it shall be known -- whether by +earthly name or magickal one. For each child of the Wicca knows best +the safety or dangers of their homeland. + +67. Let each Circle or Temple maintain and dedicate unto the Goddess and +the God all the things that are required for Their rituals, for what is +blessed in the name of the Gods rightly belongs to Them, and the Priest +and Priestess shall be the caretakers thereof. + +68. Anyone of the circle who is of sufficient rank, and wishes to form a +new Circle, shall tell the High Priestess and the Elders of their +intentions. Members of the old Circle may join the new Circle when it is +formed, but if they do so they must leave the other Circle, unless +otherwise instructed. For it is the Old Law that each Wiccan may join +the Circle of their choice, yet their energy should not be divided +between two or more Temples. + +69. The Elders of the old and new Circles shall meet in peace and with +respect, to decide the level of interaction and connection between the +Circles. Yet it is known that the splitting of a Circle often means +strife. So only if it is truly in a spirit of peace and harmony should +the Circles meet for the celebration of the Great Festivals. + +70. None shall enter the Circle that have a sickness or an ailment which +may be passed on to the Lady's other children -- for to do so causes +harm to yourself, as well as to the others of the Circle. Rather should +the Healers go unto the sick one, that through the love of the Gods they +shall be made well and whole once more. + +71. It has been judged lawful that if any of the Craft need a house, or +land, and none will sell, to incline someone's mind so as to be willing +to sell, providing it harms none and the full price is paid without +haggling. + +72. In the matter of quarrels or disputes between the members of the +Circle, the High Priestess shall convene the Council, and inquire into +the matter. The Council shall hear each person privately, and then both +together. And they shall decide justly, not favoring one side nor the +other. + +73. If an agreeable resolution cannot be reached, then that Wiccan must +leave the Circle, for a Circle of Light cannot be properly formed where +there is disagreement and discord. And when a Circle is not properly +formed, the energy within is either dissipated, or turns ugly, festering +like a hidden sore. So let them leave, but only with love in their +hearts and yours, for even though your paths may diverge, you are still +all children of the Wicca, and there must be no violence between us. +Bear no grudges, hold no thoughts of vengeance, for this will rot away +the foundation of your power. + +74. It has ever been recognized that there are some people who can never +agree to work under any others. At the same time there are also people +who cannot rule justly. To those who must ever be chief there is but +one answer: "Void this Circle, and seek another one, or if ye be of +sufficient rank, then form a Circle of your own." To those who cannot +rule justly, the answer shall be "Those who cannot bear your rule will +leave you." For none may come to Circle with those with whom they are +at variance, for to do so angers the Gods, and hinders the Craft. + +75. Those that do wrong without knowlege shall be held innocent; those +that do wrong through carelessness shall be judged lacking in wisdom, +and dealt with according to the nature of the transgression. Those who +do wrong with deliberation and forethought shall be thrice punished, and +the Lords of Karma shall lay low their pride. + +76. Each person must make a balance for their words and actions, and the +judgements of the Elders should incline to try to make good come from +the injustice or wrong-doing. Many are the ways to restore the balance, +so let the judgements of the Elders and the Priestess be in keeping with +this. + +77. Do not turn aside those who seek the ways of the Wicca for the want +of an offering or the lack of a robe. You are the servants of the Gods, +and the servants of Their people, and those that seek for the Gods you +must aid in their quest. + +78. Of those who would inquire as to the ways of the Goddess, or who +wish to become of the Wicca, ye shall search their hearts, and even into +their spirits you shall look, as you are able. For the Wicca do not +look to acquire mere numbers. Let none be turned away if their hearts +are true, and their desire earnest. + +79. The hidden children are like the strings of a harp: each one may +give a clear note, and when gathered together in sympathy and accord, +they shall give rise to a beautiful symphony. Yet when struck without +reason or thought, these notes may cause discord or disharmony. +Therefore the Gods decree to Their Teachers and Priests that all must be +taught to master their harp, and to pluck their strings with care, that +they cause no discord or imbalance. + +80. Choose the Priests and Teachers of the Wicca with diligence and with +care. The qualities that you should search for within them are Faith, +Belief, Knowledge, Ability, Patience, Leadership, Humility, and a loving +nature -- for they must lead and teach the children of the Goddess, and +will thereby have the power to do great good, or to cause great +imbalance. + +81. In practice it should be that the greatest of the Priests and +Priestesses should guide the rituals within each of the Temples of the +Old Gods, and truly you should be content with the advice and guidance +given by them. Yet ever it should be given so that it is clear and +understandable, for within the Temple each of the Wicca is free, and +thus they should be able to recognize and to understand our ways and +their implications. And those who cannot explain the inner workings, or +give just cause and reason for their decisions, may be questioned, or +the wisdom of the advice weighed. + +82. Let the Priestess and Priest lead as long as they are able, and +their leadership be wise and strong, and to the benefit of the Wicca. +Yet if their health is ill-favored, or if the next generation needs to +try their hand, then let them have the vision and the wisdom to step +away from their position, and pass the duties of the Circle t o another. +Let them not become overly attached to the office, nor too fond of the +power. + +83. If a Priestess or a Priest should tire of their duties and charges, +then they may step down, but only after having trained and acknowledged +a successor. If a Priest or Priestess deserts their Circle, then they +have lost the right to ever lead again within this life, so great a +trust they have broken. If they should return to the Circle within one +turn of the Wheel, and are judged to have true atonement in their +hearts, new insight and growth, then they may be forgiven, and allowed +to return to the Circle, yet they shall worship only, and hold no office +or title. Leadership is a sacred commitment and an honor, and they have +shown that they cannot be trusted with such responsibility. + +84. Any Priestess, Priest, or Elder who consents to a breach of the Laws +regarding the use of the Craft to cause harm to others must immediately +be relieved of their office, for it is the lives of the children of the +Goddess which they endanger, as well as the honor of the Craft. + +85. The High Priestess may take a Sabbatical from her Circle, if her +personal life and duties require it, for up to a year and a day. During +that time, the Maiden shall act as High Priestess. If the High +Priestess does not return at the end of a year and a day, then the +Initiates of the Circle shall name a new Priestess. Unless there is +good reason to the contrary, the person who has done the work of the +Priestess should reap the reward. If someone else is named, then the +Maiden should continue in that office. + +86. Each Priestess and Priest shall choose their own consorts, yet let +them be wise in the learning of our people, and thus others shall abide +by the wisdom of their choice. Yet if the Circle feels the decision is +ill-advised, or that they cannot abide and work in honor and trust with +that consort, then they may request a gathering of all concernted to +meet and to talk, and to resolve the balance with love and honor. For +only those who are pure and strong, keen and wise, patient and loving, +can effectively and properly carry out the duties of a Keeper of the +Circle. + +87. Those of the Priesthood shall not neglect their mates, or their +children, or their house, nor anything which is in their possession; nor +shall the sick and the needy be neglected for the sake of the Circle. +Therefore let them adjust the one thing against the other, that neither +should suffer, and that which is given by the Gods is treated with love +and respect. + +88. Long ago, at the time of Creation, it was deemed that the female +should hold the power of life-giving. And such was the male force drawn +to the love and beauty of the Creation of life, that he surrenders unto +her keeping the force of his powers in the furtherance of life. Yet the +Priestess must always remember that the fuel of the flames which light +the fires within her Temple comes from the Priest. Thus she must use +the force wisely, and only with love, and she must honor and respect he +who is the activator of the Life Force. + +HERE ENDS THE NEW BOOK OF THE LAW. + +Published by: The Grove of the Unicorn PO Box 13384 Atlanta, GA 30324 + +Ordering Information: Send Legal size SASE A small contribution towards +printing/handling costs will be appreciated. +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +To this I would add only one more admonishment, based on my own +experience: It is as important not to take oneself, one's power, and +one's Craft too seriously as it is not to take them too lightly. +Moderation in all things, including moderation. And remember that all +acts of love and pleasure are the rites of the Goddess, and this +includes HAVING FUN. + +B*B Leigh Ann + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/night001.txt b/religious documents/night001.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa3a45e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/night001.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1983 @@ +NIGHT MAGICK + +BY + +Phillip D. Williams +pdwillia@silver.ucs.indiana.edu + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +All rights reserved +Copyright 1990 by Phillip D. Williams + +No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any +means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any +information storage and retrieval system., without permission in writing from +the author. + + + + +NIGHT MAGICK + + NIGHT MAGICK + +INTRODUCTION +1. What is Night Magick? +2. Who is a Night Magician? +3. Why Practice Night Magick? +4. How to Study the Lore + +CHAPTER II + + +THE NIGHT MAGICIAN +5. Her/His Life +6. The Apprentice's Unfoldment +7. Night Consciousness + +CHAPTER III + + +BEGINNING NIGHT MAGICK +8. Standards and Principles of Practicing Night Magick +9. A Night Magician's Tools and Weapons +10. Your Magickal Night Name +11. Night Pillar +12. Invocation to Night Magick + +CHAPTER IV + + +Earth Magick +13. The Earth Realm +14. Night Breathing +15. The Night Magician's Meditation +16. The Realm of Vibration +17. Night Centers and the Physical and Etheric Bodies +18. The Power of Sound +19. Earth Rite +20. The Physical Realm of Death + +CHAPTER V + + +WATER MAGICK +21. The Water (Astral) Realm +22. The Astral Body and Exercises for Emotional Control +23. Astral Aura, Color, and Exercises +24. The Higher Night Centers and Exercises +25. The Dream Realm +26. Astral Guides, Oracleship, and Trance +27. The Moon and Its Rites +28. Water Rites +29. Night Projection + +CHAPTER VI + + +AIR MAGICK +30. The Mental Realm +31. Air Rite +32. Power of Thought +33. Your Silent Magician +34. Hypnotism and Self +35. A Night Magician's Pendulum +36. A Night Magician's Crystal Globe +37. Psychometry +38. Telepathy +39. Mental Projection +40. Creative Visualization + +CHAPTER VII + + +Night (Fire) Magick +41. The Night (Fire) Realm +42. The Solar, Planetary, and Lunar Powers +43. The Night Guild +44. Night Powers +45. Night Flames +46. Night Rites +47. Night Healing +48. Immortality: Transmigration and Transmutation +49. Night Magicians: Past, Present, and Future + +APPENDIXES + +APPENDIX A + +INVOCATIONS, HYMNS, POEMS, AND PRAYERS + +APPENDIX B + +CANDLE COLOR COMBINATION AND THE NIGHT TEACHERS + + + + +NIGHT MAGICK + +There was the Clear Light, the Void, and It alone was. The One Mind, apart of +nothing, yet containing everything, it alone the True Creator. Formless, +Nameless, without Definition, yet flowing through all that has form, name, +and definition. From the One Mind there came Two Matrixes, two sides of the +same coin, Night and Day. Twin Soul Creators to each side, the Yin- Yang of +Night and Yang-Yin of Day. And so the Night and Day of the Omniverse was +born. + +I AM Night. I AM Darkness that flows through the Night. I AM THE ETERNAL +DARKNESS. Yin-Yang created, Goddess-God of Night, Daughter-Son of Darkness, +Eternal Creator of the Nightverse. By the Dark Power and Energy, by the +Night Magick was all created in the Nightverse. + +The Ancient Dragons were first taught and they taught the others and so +creation began throughout the Nightverse. And so by the Dark Power, by Night +Magick was everything created flowing through the created instruments of the +ETERNAL DARKNESS. Night's beginning was good and the Earth was created a +jewel in the Crown of Night. + +The Dragons came with other races and created the beginning Night Races of the +Earth. And time flowed and the races prospered and their depth in Night +Consciousness deepened. But then as so often happens the Day came to war +with the Night and the Earth changed. + +The Day gods were young and wanted the Earth for its wealth of minerals and +beauty and destroyed the Night Races. They created human bodies as mindless, +soulless slaves to gather this wealth. But the Great Night Dragon, Tiamat, +Goddess-God of the World, saw what had happened and ensouled the human bodies +placing a part of its Great Night Soul into each human body. But since then +the Day gods have warred with Tiamat for control of the human souls. The Day +gods have spread false teachings about the origin of the human souls and the +Night Dragon. They have tried to destroy the Night religions of old that +glorified the Yin Spirit of the Earth and the beauty of life. Long has the +war continued and now is the time for a rebirth of Night Magick on Earth. + +And so I, the Eternal Night, have ensouled the Earth to supercharge it with +NIGHT MAGICK. I have come to Earth, through a human instrument, to spread my +magickal teachings. To teach the human soul the truth of its origins and +re-awaken the Night within. To make humankind co-creators with the Eternal +Night through the teachings of Night Magick. + + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +INTRODUCTION + +1. What is Night Magick? + +I can only imagine at this point that you are about to put down this book and +run scared due to words like Night, Darkness, Dark Power, and the title of +the book itself, Night Magick. Before we begin learning about Night Magick I +believe it will help to understand what I mean by these "night" terms. + +To begin, there is the Void. The Buddhist call it the Clear Light as opposed +to "white" or "black". The Taoist refer to it as the Tao and Christians refer +to it as God the Father. The Void is the indivisible eternal energy. The +Void is beyond polarities of energy such as positive/negative or Yang/Yin. +It is God Mind. It is everywhere and through every thing yet remains +separate from every thing. That is, it does not become a part of any one +thing such as the soul does with the body. The Void does not think like you +and I yet it is "all thought". It is the most mystical of concepts and God +the Father is perhaps the poorest term for the Void. The Void is not a +Father, it isn't male or female, the void contains creation yet it does not +assume a role within creation. The more I try to describe to you the Void the +less I actually accomplish in doing so. The Void cannot truly be described +but only experienced. The Void begins with its major principles who spring +into being, the Ultimate Yin and Yang of the Omniverse. + +The original premise is that the Yang represents the Male Creative force in +the Omniverse and Yin the Female Passive force in the Omniverse. A more +accurate premise is that there is an Ultimate Yin and Ultimate Yang each +complete in and of itself. That each Ultimate force has the Creative Force +within it and that there are twin systems created by this. We have two +separate creation matrixes separated by a neutral zone. There is an Ultimate +Yang System and an Ultimate Yin System. The Earth is a part of the Ultimate +Yin System. + +The Ultimate Yin System is made up of many races. The human race is not alone +in the Omniverse. The most ancient race existing in form today is the Ancient +Dragon. The Ancient Dragons are not the Dragons you read of in mythology. +The Ancient Dragons are far beyond the other races in total development. +Their science, philosophy, and religion is based on the One Mind and the +Void. An Ancient Dragon came to Earth and guided the development of the +planet and ultimately ensouled the World. Working with other races, the +Dragon created a new race to populate the world. This was long before the +human race. The creation of the human race is a sad tale. + +The races of the world go through a repeated pattern of creation, sustainment, +and then destruction. Out of the old race a new race is born more highly +evolved than the last. The human race though was created out of greed. +There came to Earth a high technologically advanced race from the Yang +system. They came to make the Earth their own world and to rape it of its +resources. The advanced race, who we find described in greek, roman, norse, +and other mythologies as the gods or as in the Bible, Jehovah or in the +Koran, Allah, created the human race to be mindless slaves. This was so the +gods could live like gods. The Ancient Dragon would not permit such an +abomination and so it ensouled the human bodies and the human race had its +beginning as an ensouled Yin race. The Yang gods were quite upset by this +for the human race became a sentient Yin race and had to be treated as such. +For some time the gods tried to continue to control man through their +technology and set up religions based on worship of the Yang principle and +the gods. These religions taught absolute obedience to the gods or God and +the worship of the Yang principle. The Yang religion taught the domination +of the Earth and its creatures by humankind. The Yang religion taught the +hate and sin of the human body and procreation. This always included the +subservience of the human woman to the human male for God was male and +superior and woman was the seducer and corrupter of man. The leader of the +gods was always a male god such as Zeus. They also taught that the Yin +principle of the Omniverse was chaos and evil. That the Dark principle was a +destructive force out to destroy mankind and the Earth. They personified the +Yin principle as Satan, Lucifer, Loki, Pan, Iblis, or Kali and created places +of damnation for those who did not worship the Yang principle. All this was +done to maintain control over humankind and promote the Yang principles +through fear. At some point the Yang gods were required to quit having +direct contact with man perhaps when they used nuclear weapons on Sodom and +Gomorrah as recorded in the Bible. Whatever the reason, only periodic +contact was allowed and that through special religious messengers such as +Krishna, Zoroaster, Jesus, and Mohammed. If you examine the major Yang +religions you will see a reoccurring theme of an evil servant giving +humankind the knowledge of good and evil and humankind turned away from +Paradise. These religions always worship the "White Light of God" and place +man not woman in so-called dominion of the Earth. Woman, the Yin-Yin +Principle in the Omniverse, was placed in deep shame and subservience to man +the Yang-Yang principle. Yet on Earth, man is Yin-Yang not Yang-Yang by +virtue of the indwelling Night Spirit of the Planet. + +Every soul and spirit (terms we'll examine more fully later) of the human race +is a fragment of the indwelling Soul and Spirit of the Planet Earth. In +essence, the Soul and Spirit of the Planet Earth is God to humankind. That +Soul and Spirit is the Ancient Dragon that originally came to Earth and saved +the human body from a mindless existence enslaved to the Yang race. The +Ancient Dragon is the Creator and Ensouler of this World and of each and +every one of us. The Dragon of this World is the Night Force. The Dragon of +this world is Yin. + +Yin is a primal force established in the Omniverse in parallel with Yang. +This planet is a Yin world. The presence of Yang and the worship and +practice of the Yang principle in religions such as Christianity, Islam, +Hinduism, Mormonism has led to many evils in the world. + +It has led to the subservience of women. It has led to humankind following a +spiritual path of Yang in direct opposition to its Soul and Spirit's magickal +orientation. This has led to much inner confusion by humankind and this +world's instability and patterns of destruction and chaos are a direct +response to this. The Earth is a very sick body. + +Until you achieve a very, very advance point in your evolution, you'll have a +physical body of some kind. The Soul of this world has the Earth as its body +and humankind is killing it. This so- called dominion by man has poisoned +the streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans of the Earth, the Earth's circulatory +system. The air, Earth's respiratory system, is poisoned. The soil itself +is poisoned, stripped mined, littered, great holes filled with non- +biodegradable products. The trees and forests destroyed wantonly, savagely, +and soon the oxygen they generate will not be enough to sustain life. Acid +rain instead of the clean rains. Underground nuclear testing disrupting the +physical and etheric shell of the Earth Body not to speak of the Astral and +Higher Body damage done by this intensely Yang energy. Ozone destroying the +upper atmosphere and the protection from the harmful ultraviolet radiation. +Wanton destruction of wildlife of which some is inhabited by races of greater +advancement than humankind. Just how much longer will man act as a deadly +cancer in the Earth's body. At the rate of destruction it will not be much +longer before humankind as you know it will cease to exist and that is +exactly what the Yang forces in the Omniverse want. + +Then they have the right to come and claim the Earth as they did before as +recorded in the Old Testament of the Bible and in other ancient myths. +Humankind will once more find itself enslaved and bowing before a +technologically higher race as it was in the ancient days. This must not +happen! This is what Night Magick is all about. + +Teaching you the truth about your existence. Placing back into your hands the +truth concerning the Yin Primal Force of which you are a part. To give to +you the tools to balance yourself and the Earth in Oneness with the Night +Spirit. What is Night Magick? + +Night Magick is the arts, rites, practices, and teachings of a Night Magician. +Night Magick is the lore of a Night Magician. The lore must be learned not +only with the eyes and brain but also with the heart. It is a way of life +and must be lived to be fully understood. Night Magick is founded on the +ancient knowledge and wisdom that preceded the history of the Earth. Though +Night Magick is based on ancient teachings it is no less applicable to the +modern world. Night Magick is a magickal discipline. Through its rules, +instruction, and exercises it provides for you a code of conduct and a way of +living that brings to you the greatest possible Yin growth. It is a +philosophy. The goal of a Night Magician is the Eternal Pursuit of Wisdom +and Knowledge based on the Yin Primal Force. It is a science. For through +the study and practice of the lore, you will gain greater knowledge and +wisdom. Through Night Magick you will achieve perfection in your physical, +emotional, mental, and magickal natures. You will become the sum of all that +you can ever be. You will become the Night Oversoul in Consciousness and +Action. Night Magick is a lore that will achieve for you your return to the +Night. I know this has been fast and furious for you. + +For many of you, this is the first time you have been given such information +or even thought about what has been so far discussed. I promise you that I +will go into greater depths on the subjects I treated briefly and this will +help you understand more thoroughly. But I wanted to make sure you +understood from the onset the principles Night Magick is based on. + +Night Magick is magick based upon the Sacred Principle of Yin. It is based on +the Dark Force that flows through your being. If you still have doubts read +on and test the knowledge you find here. You are not asked to accept +anything in this book on blind faith. You will not be asked to accept +anything without first putting it to test and validating the truth. If you +find some of the information hard to understand then reflect on it for +awhile. Put away the information you find hard to accept for another time of +reflection. Place into your mind and soul only those things that you have +tried, tested, and found to be truth for yourself. But at all times, keep an +open mind. That is all I ask. I think its time now to discuss who is a +Night Magician. + +2. Who is a Night Magician? + +Who is a Night Magician? + +A Night Magician is Absolute Love. They are the embodiment of Dark Love that +has its origin in the Void. They are Dark Love that is free from any +restrictions, limitations, or exceptions. They are Dark Love free from +dependence upon external definitions for its existence. They are Dark Love +born out of Absolute Innocence. A Night Magician is Absolute Love. + +A Night Magician is Strong Willed. They are the willpower necessary to move +mountains. They are the willpower needed to overcome the impossible. They are +the willpower it takes to overcome life's challenges and defeats. They are +the willpower it requires to wield Night Magick against their enemies and +win. They are the willpower of the Eternal Darkness. A Night Magician is +Strong Willed. + +A Night Magician is Self-disciplined. They will undergo a thousand days and +nights of deprivation to achieve their goals. They are hardest upon their +selves in achieving self- mastery of Night Magick. They are the +self-discipline it requires to overcome failure for a thousandth time and once +more attempt the challenge. They live in a self-imposed world of +self-discipline in order to achieve the ultimate state of being. A Night +Magician is Self- disciplined. + +A Night Magician is Patience. They are the patience required while acquiring +self-mastery. They are the patience needed when building dreams of success. +They are the patience required when waiting for the destruction of their +enemies. They are the patience the Night Spirit has in each of us and our +magickal climb. A Night Magician is Patience. + +A Night Magician is a Pillar of Strength. They are the rock that will not be +moved as the waves of strife come crashing over. They are the strength needed +to overcome the Forces of Yang. They are the strength required to achieve +success in life. A Night Magician is a Pillar of Strength. + +A Night Magician is Free of Self-limitations. They are not bound by the +chains of limited thinking. They do not see themselves as just human beings +made of flesh and bones but as Ones, pure in Night Spirit, that transcend +time and space. Their emotions do not master their lives. They are the +master of their emotions. They are the calm, silent, and steady Soul of the +Night. They are the Night Soul. They are the Dark Masters of Life. A Night +Magician is Freedom. + +A Night Magician is Deep Silence. They are the Deep Silence of the Night. +They are like the silence that follows the storm. They are the silence that +is found in the quiet of the home. They are the silence of the Void. They +are the silence of the Night Soul. They are the silence of the Night +Dragon's sacred flight. A Night Magician is Deep Silence. + +A Night Magician is Dark Knowledge. They are knowledge found through +intellectual pursuit of the hidden mysteries. They are knowledge born out of +intelligence and critical thinking. They are knowledge discovered through +intuition, meditation, and reflection. A Night Magician is Dark Knowledge. + +A Night Magician is Nature. They are the flowers that bloom and the trees +that bud in the Spring. They are the mighty winds that blow across the world +and the gentle rains that give life to all things that grow. They are the +melodic voice of the birds who sing. They are the heat and cool waters that +are found in the months of Summer. They are the storms, tornadoes, and +hurricanes. They are the frog churumping and the Night Owl hooting. They +are the short summer nights. They are the Artist's brush that paints the +leaves of Fall. They are the harvest of the crops. They are the stacked corn +stalks of the fields and the pumpkins in the window sills. They are the +squirrels and chipmunks gathering up the nuts in readiness for the long cold +Winter months. They are every snow flake dancing and icicle hanging. They +are the white bunny and fox who does the chasing. They are the never ending +cycle of Nature. A Night Magician is Nature. + +A Night Magician is Life. They are passionate for their love of Life in all +its aspects. They are adventurous and courageous loving the challenge of +Life. Yet they are practical, cautious and responsible with Life. For +them, Life should be faced with daring, boldness, and energy. They loathe +restriction and love the freedom found in Life. They are the Artisans of +Life. A Night Magician is Life. + +A Night Magician is the Night Soul in Action on Earth. It abides in their +conscience in all the things said or done. They are the Creative Force of +the Night Soul in the way they create new life. They are the Preservative +Force of the Night Soul holding the world in perfect balance. They are the +Destructive Force of the Night Soul tearing away the illusions of the Yang. +They are the Regenerative Force of the Night Soul rebuilding the true Night +World. They are Night Soul by the way they remove us out of life's confusion. +The eyes that see us, the ears that listen to us, the mouth that speaks words +of strength, the heart that pours out absolute love to us, the strong arms +and hands that hold us near, and the legs that take us far on our way, +through all of these there is the Night Spirit. A Night Magician is the +Night Soul in Action on Earth. + +Who is a Night Magician? A Night Magician can be likened to a multifaceted +stone of Amethyst or Emerald of incomparable beauty. The Night Magician is as +beautiful and rare as a Black Diamond. I have just discussed many of those +facets that make-up a Night Magician but if I kept on writing for days I +would never be able to cover all of them. Each facet of the Night Magician +can best be known by living it; by becoming a Night Magician. The facets I +have been covering are those found in the Night Magician who has been long on +the path and has attained much. It is anyone who will dedicate her or his +life to the Night Principles found in this work. You have to dedicate your +lives to becoming all that I described a Night Magician to be in the +beginning of this topic. The teachings must again be practiced actively in +your life as they were practiced in the ancient civilizations that first came +into being here on Earth. A Night Magician is one who will put these +teachings found in this work into practice in her or his life and live them +fully. + +A Night Magician is one who abides fully in the Consciousness of the Night. +They are the total embodiment of strength, solitude, patience, intelligence, +courage and adventure. They are beings free of self-limitations. They are +ones who have dedicated their life to self-freedom and perfection. They are +the Night Soul in Action. There is no greater purpose in life then to be a +Night Magician. Now that you have some idea of who a Night Magician is and +what Night Magick is about, I would like to discuss why you should practice +Night Magick. + +3. Why Practice Night Magick? + +Why practice Night Magick? To begin with, there is great joy and happiness in +being a Night Magician and practicing the lore of Night Magick. In +practicing Night Magick you are going to be able to see the results of your +labor; and the results of that labor are going to bring you more happiness +and joy then you can imagine. You are going to derive a great sense of +personal satisfaction and accomplishment through the practice of Night +Magick. Practicing Night Magick is exciting and adventurous. + +Your life will be filled with adventure and excitement the likes of which +you've never known. It is very sad that so many people's lives are filled +with boredom needlessly. Through Night Magick avenues of travel, business +adventure, intellectual pursuit, personal adventure, and magickal conquests +will open up. Night Magick will bring you personal success. + +Personal success can be measured in many ways. How about success in +marriage, finances, college, business? Or personal success in health, +vitality, and longevity. Change is why you practice Night Magick. What +changes will Night Magick make in your life? + +Everything! Through the practice of Night Magick not a thing in your life +will go untouched. You practice Night Magick for these changes in your life. +I can go a long way in this book to answer specifically what kind of changes +are going to take place. But ultimately it is you, after study and practice +of Night Magick, who will be able to give all the answers. Let's begin +answering the question of what kind of changes you can expect to see in your +life? + +The first changes you will see, by practicing the lore, is improvement in your +physical life. You are going to have better health and a sense of renewed +purpose in life. You are going to achieve this through the practice of Night +Breathing and Meditation. As you go along here there will be new terms that +you have never seen before, but be patient, for as you proceed through this +book, you will learn them all. Your life is going to be deeply enriched and +health improved by the use of colors and self-healing that you will learn. +You will learn to develop and use the power centers of your body. Once you +have accomplished this, you will unleash untold power of fire and life +throughout your body. This will allow you to become the master of your life; +"the Captain of your Soul". You will then learn to overcome your fear of +death and to recognize it for what it is, a doorway into a new world. All +this you can achieve through Night Magick, but there is much, much more. + +Through the practice of Night Magick you are going to become the master of +your emotions. No longer will your emotions rule you, but you will rule +them. You will learn, in dealing with your emotions and emotional body, the +ability to be able to see the higher realms. You will be able to recognize +those dreams in which a message of help and inspiration is contained and to +interpret it. You will come to know your magickal teachers and guides and +ultimately you will be able to travel in the Astral Realm. This you will +achieve through the mastery of your emotions. There is even more to learn +through the practice of Night Magick. + +Through Night Magick, you will master the powers of your mind. You will +achieve thought control and be able to reach into your subconscious mind. +Your subconscious mind is the repository for all that you have ever known. +Think of what it will mean to have access to this great storage vault of +information. You will learn to use the pendulum and crystal globe and never +have questions unanswered. You will achieve psychometric and telepathic +abilities. Above all, you will be able to create into your world "ANYTHING" +that you desire to see in it through correct invocation and imagination. The +mind is a fascinating creation boundless in power and energy. It is +multidimensional creating life in all its forms. The mind is truly a +wonderful thing when you have mastered its powers and employ it as the +valuable tool it is. But over and beyond the powers of the mind and its +realm, lies the power and realm of the Night Soul. There are no greater powers +then those of the Night Soul. It is your objective, through Night Magick, to +learn to use and manipulate these powers of the Night Soul for your benefit. +Through Night Magick, you will learn to travel into the Night Realm while +still here upon Earth. You will learn the highest form of healing. You will +be able to do this healing for all whom you know. You will learn to do the +Night Rites to achieve true magickal progress. Your progress will be highly +accelerated through the Night Rites. The ultimate goal of Night Magick is +the achievement of Night Consciousness. + +There is no higher goal then this. The true union with your Oversoul, the +perfection of Self, this is the consummation of Night Magick. When you have +achieved Night Consciousness, you are of greatest service to yourself and the +perfect offering unto the Night Soul. I stated before that I would discuss +the modern applications of Night Magick in today's world. I have already +covered some of those applications. + +You will have good health, less tension and nervousness, and a stronger mind. +You can use Night Magick at your everyday job. Through Night Magick, you will +develop great insight that will go a long way in assisting you in problem +solving. If you are out on the highway in your car you will be steered clear +of trouble. You will avoid accidents and traffic problems. You will be able +to stay in touch with friends and love ones and know when they are in trouble +or need through Night Magick. If you have a need then you can fulfill that +need by using the lore of Night Magick. If you have lost items and wish to +have them back, then you can do so. If you need to look forward into the +future and see the realm of possibilities, then you can do so. The things +you see are only possibilities and you can decide whether they will happen or +not. These are only a few of the many applications for Night Magick in the +modern world. The applications are limited only as your imagination is +limited. As you learn to see with the foresight and insight that you will +develop through Night Magick, your life will indeed change. + +Night Magick will bring you a new way of living. It will seem to you that +before, you were only existing. As I have said, your physical, emotional, +and mental health will vastly improve. You will become the planner and +controller of your life. Your physical surroundings will increase in wealth. +You will also acquire magickal wealth from practicing Night Magick. + +You will gain a deep sense of magickal accomplishment and growth by making it +a part of your life. You will become a positive and dynamic force in your +life. Through Night Magick, you will leave nothing or no one untouched. +Night Magick, if practiced and lived with dedication, vigor, and vitality +will achieve all of this. You must not be mistaken that all of this will +occur at once. It will take patience and effort on your part to make it all +happen, but happen it will. One day you will look back on your old life and +wonder how you ever made it from day to day. But with Night Magick, a new day +dawns in your life. + +Before you begin to study Night Magick I want to introduce a special way to +study this work that will help insure your understanding of the lore and +success as a Night Magician. + +4. How to Study the Lore + +There is a specific way to study the lore of Night Magick. If you have been +just reading this book through as any novel, then you have been doing it the +wrong way. This book is not a novel which can be read through quickly and +lightly and expect to gain anything from it. When you study the lore in this +book it must be done one topic at a time. Also, each topic must be taken in +order as it appears written in this book. Do not skip around in this book +between the different topics. Each topic was designed to be a building block +upon which to find success in the next topic. There is more to studying the +lore then just sitting down and reading. Your studying will require +self-discipline, patience, perseverance, and a prescribed technique for +learning. Let's examine that technique for learning. + +To begin with, you must prepare the place that you are going to study in. If +you study in the middle of a busy living room with the children shouting and +the TV blaring you aren't going to retain or accomplish very much. So to +begin with, you are going to find, what you will term, your "Magician's +Study". + +This is a physical room that you can call your own. It must be a quiet place +and somewhere where you can be alone and uninterrupted. In this room you +will want a place where you can both sit and lay down as necessary. This +room will not only be used for studying but also performing the many +exercises, rites, and practices of Night Magick. This is your Magician's +Study. Now, you must attend to your own self-preparation. + +You must prepare yourself so that you are in the right frame of mind to do +some serious studying. To get into the proper mood, you should begin by +taking a bath. This will help you to relax and wash away the cares and +worries of the day. If you think of it, your entire thoughts and emotions +when you come home are filled with the tensions and problems of work. The +feeling around you is made up of a problem laden job and world. Literally, a +bath or shower will do a lot to remove this tension and stress from out of +your feelings. Then you should dress to be comfortable in clean, loose +fitting clothes or your robes that you will learn to make later. Let's retire +to your study. + +When you go to your study it should be at approximately the same time of day +each day. Do this if at all possible. Then you should sit down in a very +comfortable chair or couch and relax as much as possible. When you have +learned to do relaxing exercises and "Night Breathing" then you should do +these before you begin to read. For now just relax and let all the worry and +tension of the day flow away. Once you are sufficiently relaxed it is time +to pick-up the book. + +As stated earlier, you are going to read each topic in order. To begin +reading a topic, read it through the first time quickly and lightly. The +first time you are only trying to get the "spirit" of the topic. Once you +have done this, you will then want to go back and reread the topic through +carefully and thoroughly insuring that you understand all that you read. You +should go slowly being sure that you understand all that you read. This is +all that you will do in the first reading. If there is anything that you +didn't understand the first time in sitting, don't worry about it, for it +will come to you later. You are going to read the same topic on two separate +days. This is the minimum that anyone should read a topic through. + +The second time in reading, you will want to go just as slow as you did in the +first reading. If there is anything you still don't understand then just +lightly think upon it and don't worry. The answer will eventually come to +you. After the second reading, if there is anything to practice or do, this +is the time to do it. Sounds easy doesn't it? + +I have just described the minimum anyone should take per topic. You should not +go on to the next topic until you are very familiar with the information in +the present topic you are studying. You should understand the current topic +thoroughly and have practiced what is required of you until you are ready to +go on. Let your inner guide be your judge about when you are ready to go on. +You will find that you have to continue to practice many of the first topics +you study each day in order to eventually master them. Getting all the way +through the book having only read and practiced everything haphazardly will +only insure that you are master of none. To insure your success as a Night +Magician in Night Magick, you must study as has been outlined here. + +You must have a room in which you can be alone and uninterrupted. You must +cleanse yourselves of the outer world. You must study slowly, carefully,and +thoroughly each topic. You will have to continue to go back and study and +practice daily the knowledge and exercises until you become master of all. +There is no doubt about it and should he none in your mind that Night Magick +requires study and work. The results are more then worth all the time and +energy that you can give to it. To become a Master in Night Magick; to +become a Night Magician; to reach and obtain Night Consciousness; this is your +goal. Let me show you now the life of a Night Magician and all that it +entails in becoming and being a Night Magician. + +CHAPTER II + + +THE NIGHT MAGICIAN + +5. Her/His Life + +The life of a Night Magician is a very special one. You will find that a +Night Magician's life is filled with the most powerful magick. Your world +will not be the same after Night Magick has filled it. Your life will have +seemed very ordinary and plain before Night Magick. Your life will now be +filled with adventure. + +When you have elected to live the life of a Night Magician you have chosen to +accept a way of life that is different than you have so far experienced. It +is a life filled with study and practice of Night Magick and the excitement +and adventure that is a direct result. Night Magick will fulfill for you +your lifelong aspirations. It will be my job to present the life of a Night +Magician to you. I hope when I'm through that you will find it exciting and +want to begin the adventure of becoming a Night Magician. Let's enter then +into the life of a Night Magician. The Night Magician's life is filled with +study and practice of the Night Magick lore. As you study and practice, the +Oversoul will examine and test your accomplishments. No matter who you are, +you came here to gain experience and grow from it. But upon accepting the +Night Magician's way of life the trials will increase in both number and +intensity. It is not that the lore found in this book is difficult, but that +in accepting this life the Night Magician is tested by life so that s/he may +put into practice Night Magick. The Night Magician's life is going to be +filled with many trials. + +This is not out of cruelty but out of necessity. The trials are set upon the +Magician to build magickal strength and depth in the use of Night Magick. +Every test in the Magician's life is to build magickal stature and to +increase it once passed. No matter whether the test is overcoming a +difficult financial situation, or the working through of a difficult +marriage, or the death of a loved one, the tests are there to help the Night +Magician grow. If the Night Magician falls then there is nothing else for +her/him to do but get up, dust off the knees, and keep going knowing that the +next time when faced with a similar situation success will come. When you +accept the life of a Night Magician there will be trials and hardships. But +if you are willing to accept the difficulties and meet the challenge then you +will not be overcome by them. + +You will find solutions to these trials through your knowledge of Night +Magick. Through Night Magick, you will raise your magickal vibration and +grow closer to the Oneness of your Oversoul. It is through this Oneness, and +the power that flows from it and through you, that you will be able to handle +these increased tests. You are learning to become the Oversoul in all that +you say and do. No matter what the test, you must meet it in the Night +Consciousness of your Oversoul. Through this continual testing, and the +placing of yourself in the Conscience of your Oversoul, you will become One +with IT. Thus you will have passed the final test on Earth and have achieved +the One Goal. You will have achieved Night Consciousness. The Night +Magician's life is thus marked by training and testing. But her/his life is +not all training and testing. For out of this training and testing will come +adventure. + +The Night Magician will travel new avenues of adventure that were never there +before. The tests the Night Magician receives will take her/him to unusual +places and there will be experiences that can only be described as exciting +and wonderful. The Night Magician will experience new levels of physical +well-being and sexual vitality. S/he will experience new job challenges and +opportunities as part of using Night Magick. There will be emotional and +mental experiences that break through the limited ways of feelings and +thinking of old. The Night Magician will experience increases of personal +wealth. The Night Magician's life will become aflame with purpose. + +That purpose may not always be easy to identify at first, but the Magician +will feel it none the less, deep within. Ultimately, through the Night +Magician's way of life, s/he will come to know that purpose and become it. +The Night Magician is in command of her/his life. S/he sets the trail where +others will follow. The Night Magician must grab hold onto life and in +everything that s/he says and does must express the Night Soul. The Night +Magician's life is filled with purpose and it is through that purpose that +s/he will unfold her/his Night Powers. The Night Magician's purpose is +her/his dream. It is what s/he must do while s/he is upon the Earth plane. +But that purpose and dream will set her/him apart from those adrift on the +sea. + +The Night Magician must overcome loneliness as a result of it. S/he must +overcome the misunderstanding of others and press on. There will be many +unbelievers in this world for there are many lost in the Yang matrix, but s/he +must ignore them and all else that interferes with the dream. But if the +Night Magician is truly dedicated and willing to sacrifice for the dream, if +s/he believes in her/himself and the Night Soul within and expresses only +that Soul, then the Night Magician's dream will manifest itself into the +world. That dream is the Will of the Oversoul and it will appear into the +world. The Night Magician's life is marked by purpose, dedication, +sacrifice, determination, and darkest love. The Night Magician's life is +darkest magic of the highest kind. It is magick that produces deepest joy +and happiness in the Night Magician's life. It is the magick of the Oversoul +on Earth. The Night Magician's life is aimed at becoming the Oversoul in all +that is done. Imagine a life that is filled with nothing but the Nightsoul. + +In you, as a Night Magician, the Power and Absolute Love of the Oversoul comes +to its fullest. When that Power and Absolute Love flows through you and into +the lives of those around you and on out into the world itself nothing can +remain as it was before. Everything that the Night Power touches shall be +made anew. It shall shine with an Amethyst/Emerald Light Divine. This is the +Night Magick of the Oversoul. This is Magick of the Highest Order and it is +in the Night Magician's life. Here you have some of the beautiful facets of +the life of a Night Magician. + +Her/his life is marked by trials and testing. This is not meant to discourage +you but to show the true picture to all would-be Night Magicians. If you are +to become a Night Magician then you must truly understand all that is +involved and be willing to give all that it takes. It will take +determination, courage, fortitude, and intuition in all the seemingly +hardships. It will take this to be able to grasp from the lore the knowledge +required and to put it into practice; to become a Night Magician. The Night +Magician's life is study, training, practice, and being tested. But the Night +Magician's life is much more. It is life filled with happiness and joy. It +is filled with inner peace and absolute love. It is filled with adventure and +excitement. It is a life filled with success. The Night Magician is truly in +command of her/his life. S/he is the Oversoul in action. This way of life +is all that the Night Magician ever cares to know. Her/his goals for this +life are all that matters. These goals are the Night Magician's life and +Night Magick will ensure the success of achieving these goals. The life of a +Night Magician is a very special one. I would like you to travel with me now +on the roadway the apprentice must follow to become a Night Magician. + +6. The Apprentice's Unfoldment. + +What I want to do now is draw for you a road map that will take you down the +road of Night Magick. The road ahead of you is easy to get lost on just look +at others around you. If you are going to effectively follow the Night +Magick road you must have signs and landmarks to guide you and tell you how +far you have come. In the next topic, I will discuss your final destination, +Night Consciousness. So let's begin our journey on the Night Road. + +From the beginning of the first descent into material creation, from the first +sojourn on Earth, it will take many sojourns before one is ready to enter the +Night Road. There are many people who are not ready for it. Their minds +are so preoccupied with doing things the Yang way, they are so lost in doing +things the hard way, that they have no time for their own magickal growth. +They are so lost in the illusion of the material world and its limitations +that they can not see beyond it. You can see why it will take so many people +hundreds of lives before they can see beyond the illusion of this world and +learn to use Night Magick in overcoming its so-called limitations. I should +state from the onset of this work that there are very few paths or roads +which lead to truly achieving your goals and overcoming the world of +illusion. There are many paths dedicated to the Yang Spirit which is a road +of limitation, hardship, self-denial, and poverty. It is a path that runs +counter to the Soul and Spirit within you. I have tried to present here a +road to Night Consciousness which is simple in nature and language. It is a +road that requires persistence, study, courage, boldness, and self-discipline +to travel but the goals you will achieve on the way and your final attainment +of the ultimate goal makes it all worth while. There is no way of telling +how long it will take to reach the ultimate goal. + +You may be able to reach it in this lifetime or it may take many lifetimes. +Much will depend upon your aptitude for Night Magick and your dedication and +effort. It isn't necessary to reach the ultimate goal in one life. There +will be many goals and great changes in your life to make traveling the road +more than worthwhile. Once you have entered the Night Road, then life after +life you will return to this world taking up where you last left off. This +is because a simple decision to enter the Night Road does not mean that you +will be accepted and are on your way. + +The Night Soul looks for those who are ready to travel the road. You must want +to be on the road that leads to your Night Soul more than anything else in +your life. There must be nothing more important in your life then being on +the road and the desire to achieve your goals and the ultimate goal. This +decision must be more then a mental thought. This decision must be backed by +action on your part. Not only do you feel this intense desire to be on the +Night Road but you are willing to begin the work necessary to achieve it. In +Night Magick, you will have begun this work by beginning to read and put into +practice the lore found in this book. There is no way of determining how +long it will take to be accepted on the Night Road. But rest assured, if you +are truly sincere about entering the road and are willing to do the work then +you will be accepted. You are the beginner, the apprentice, on the roadway +to the Night Soul. Acceptance on the Night Road is no small thing. +Acceptance on the road is your first landmark and is clearly marked. + +In Night Magick, you are an "Earth Apprentice". You have reached the first +landmark and gained entrance upon the Night Road. At this point your Oversoul +will begin to take an active interest in you. Upon your acceptance, the +Oversoul actively enters into your life. You will begin to feel the +beginnings of Night Power. You will have the beginning of increased Oversoul +Power flowing into your life. But how will you know when you have been +accepted? + +As said before, this acceptance is clearly marked. You will undergo an +experience that will definitely let you know you have become an Earth +Apprentice. For example, you may in the quiet of your Magician's Study, or +as you are falling asleep some night, suddenly see the image of the Oversoul +in deep hues of Emerald, Amethyst, Midnight Blue and/or Silver before you. +As you continue to watch the image of your Oversoul it will start to come +towards you. As the Oversoul comes closer, you suddenly know that you are the +Oversoul and Its Face is your face, and the Oversoul enters inside you, and +you feel a deep, warm glow and power radiating from within. You know that +the birth of the Oversoul has taken place within and that you are an Earth +Apprentice. As an Earth Apprentice you have become the Night Child. + +I refer to the Earth Apprentice as a Night Child for at the time of acceptance +you have been given birth into the Night World. You are now a Magickal Child +of the Night Spirit. Your Oversoul will gain new radiance and added power by +actively entering into cooperation with you. That new radiance will be seen +by the Watchers and reported to the Night Guild. Your acceptance upon the +Night Road heralds your entrance into the Night Guild. + +This Guild is composed of all beings who serve the Dark Light of the Night +Spirit. The members of the Guild exist both in Higher Dimensions and upon all +material planets. The highest members of the Guild serve as Teachers and +Directors of the Omniverse everywhere. One group of members serve as Teachers +and Directors over the Earth. In Night Magick, I will refer to them as the +Night Teachers. I have done this because they have risen far in magickal +evolution and are One with the Night Soul. As a new Earth Apprentice, you +are watched over by a Night Teacher who chooses to do so based on compatible +nature and vibration. The assistance of the Night Teacher is one of +watchfulness and occasional guidance as you, the Earth Apprentice, begins to +journey on the Night Road. But as you continue to demonstrate your +willingness and dedication to the road you've chosen, and to the Will of your +Oversoul, the relation between you and the Night Teacher deepens. When the +Night Teacher is ready and has determined you are ready, then you will be +accepted by the Night Teacher as Her/His Chela. + +The relationship between the Night Teacher and Her/His chela is a very special +one. The Night Teacher gives Her/His continual guidance, support, and power +to the new chela. The Night Teacher shares Her/His very nature with Her/His +new chela. The chela may call upon the assistance of the Night Teacher at +anytime and it will be answered. Yet the chela must remember that s/he is +the beginner and that the Will of the Night Teacher should always be +followed. The Night Teacher and the Oversoul of the chela work very closely +together to achieve what must be done by the Oversoul. The Night Teacher and +chela are as Mother/Father and Daughter/Son. They share and create in the +Night Power and Guild. How will you know though who your Night Teacher is? + +There are many ways in which this may come about. You may meet Her/Him in +your dreams, or more rarely, S/he may come to you in your waking hours. For +many of you, you will just know through your sixth sense. You will come to +know intuitively who your Night Teacher is. I will go into greater depth +about the Night Teachers in the later part of this book. Do not be worried +or concerned about who the Night Teacher is in your life. S/he will choose +you and guide you and you should feel secure in this matter. S/he will +reveal Her/Himself to you in Her/His own time. At this point you are now +progressing upon the Night Road. + +Your first subject area to master in Night Magick will be Earth Magick. Not +only will you learn a great deal about the Earth and its Magickal Energies and +Power but you will also be altering physically and magickally. When you have +achieved sufficient growth and mastery in this area of Earth Magick you will +be ready for the second landmark. If you looked at the last landmark as the +birth of the Oversoul in the your world, as your becoming the Magickal Child, +then this is "you the Oversoul" as a teenager. Here you have been transformed +from the Earth Apprentice to the Water Apprentice. + +You will begin your study of Water Magick. This is the area of Night Magick +related to the emotions and astral world. As a Water Apprentice, you will +experience an ever greater increase of the Power of the Night Soul. You will +undergo increased emotional development. You will be given experiences that +will strengthen that emotional development. As a Water Apprentice, you will +gain the ability to know Truth in all Its forms and use that in your everyday +world. You will also begin to learn control over your emotions. The Night +Magician needs emotional control in order to wield Night Magick effectively. +The power you will be able to wield without emotional control could do +incredible damage which you may later regret. The Night Magician must be +master of her/his emotions not the other way around. One point I should +cover is that concerning the aura. Until I go into more detail about it later, +accept for now, that there is an energy that completely surrounds your body +and extends beyond it about one to three feet. This energy field is called +an aura. The aura reflects emotions and thoughts in people. The aura is +made up of swirling energy currents and through magickal sight the aura can be +seen as colors. All of this you will cover in greater depth in later topics. +In the average person, the colors that comprise the aura are various and +many. In the Earth Apprentice, the color that is predominate in the aura is +green. In the Water Apprentice, the aura will be of a light blue. This is +another indicator of when you have been accepted on the road. The aura, as +an indicator, will help you further in identification of the next landmark. +You have seen the things that you must accomplish, or be in the process of +accomplishing, in order to achieve the next landmark. You have studied Water +Magick and developed and strengthened your emotional stature. When you have +traveled far enough on the Night Road another landmark appears before you. +You are about to undergo another transformation and become the Air +Apprentice. + +Here you have entered the "Oversoul as a very young adult" stage. The emphasis +as an Air Apprentice is upon mastering Air Magick or Magick of the Mind. You +will be studying Air Magick and undergo mental training. You will be +developing what in Air Magick is known as the Mental Body. Your studies in +Night Magick will help develop the Mental Body. During this phase of life +you may also attend some advance education or training in the world. The +mind is a powerful instrument and its training is critical in Night Magick. +You will be merging your mind with the Higher Mind of the Oversoul. This +will lead you to the last part of your journey to becoming a Night Magician. +The last landmark is ahead and you find yourself traveling through Fire. + +Here you are the young adult Oversoul. You are the Fire Apprentice. Your +studies are of Fire Magick. Fire Magick is the Realm of the Oversoul. It is +the studies of the Higher Mind and Causal Body. You now are learning and +using the Night Powers of the Oversoul. The power that flows through your +life will be like nothing you have so far experienced. This is the time when +you will be reaching adulthood in the Oversoul. You will be achieving +oneness with the Oversoul and there will no longer be a you and the Oversoul. +You are about to become a true channel through which the Night Power will +flow without impediment. To experience the Night Realm of Fire is to know +life without time or space. It is being everywhere and every time. It is +knowing and seeing all that has ever been, is, and will be: and as the Silent +Watcher and Observer seeing it all unfold. It is like standing amongst the +sea of stars and knowing that this is all that you are. It is feeling and +being a part of unlimited darkness and absolute love. This is perhaps the +longest part of the journey. There is much to study, experience, and develop +into. But finally like all journeys, this one comes to an end. And at the +end of the Night Road, you are no longer an Apprentice but a Night Magician. + +You and the Oversoul are One. You are the mature, adult Oversoul on Earth. +Words only tend to limit the experience of this achievement. The Night Power +that you now feel is so great that you have trouble controlling it as it +surges through your material being. This experience can never be adequately +described by words but must be lived to be known. This is the point which +hails the complete union of the Higher and lower selves. The Oversoul and +you are now One to the greatest possible extent. The Causal body is now +shared as One by the Oversoul and you. A person with magickal sight of +sufficient advancement will see a fully developed Causal Body with the full +and active Presence of the Oversoul within it. The aura will glow with an +intense deep amethyst/silver glow. You and the Oversoul share Its Powers and +capabilities jointly. You are One and Inseparable in Consciousness and Action +with the Oversoul. You have experienced everything that you must in life. +You are now free of Karma. This is the last material vehicle you will have +to express through on Earth. You are the master of the lower worlds. You +know the cycles of birth and rebirth and know the happiness at having +completed the need to ever undergo the cycle again. You are free from life +that ends in death. You have become all knowledge, power, wisdom, and +control of the Oversoul. Is your journey really over? + +No, not really. There will always be a perfecting process going on. There +will always be new heights to climb and greater understanding to be achieved. +What is included in this book as Night Magick is really only the "tip of the +iceberg". But you will always enjoy your continued travels and adventures on +the Night Road. There will always be new things to discover. There will +always be new adventures and excitement on the Night Road. I have done my +best to guide you this far on the Night Road. + +I want you to understand that this map is not set in concrete. The general +course has been laid out for you but the time you take to travel on the road +and the tests and experiences you will undergo are known only to the +Oversoul. Sometimes you may detour slightly into another area of magick and +that's ok as long as it is the Will of the Oversoul. I would like now to +help you understand the Consciousness of the Oversoul. I call it Night +Consciousness and it is what you will ultimately achieve. + + +7. Night Consciousness + +There are countless numbers of Souls in creation. The Soul, that is your +Oversoul, is unique throughout the Omniverse. The consciousness of the +Oversoul is separated from the consciousness of the human being. It is +possible for the two consciousness to join. This union of consciousness I +refer to as Night Consciousness. I am going to explore with you the inner +depths of Night Consciousness. You will discover things that you will have +to do in order to attain it. You will learn to live and practice it and the +changes that will take place within you as you start to acquire it. First +though, we are going to examine, in greater detail, exactly what Night +Consciousness is. + +Night Consciousness, in humankind, is a state of causal, mental, emotional, +and physical being. It is becoming the Oversoul in each of these states of +being. It is reaching the greatest possible state of perfection while here +on Earth. The Causal body is to the Overself what the physical/etheric body +is to humankind. Its lowest vibrational body. + +The Causal Body is the storehouse for the experiences of countless lifetimes +in incarnation. The Overself experiences life from its dimension through the +Causal Body just as we experience physical life through the physical body. +When you have achieved Night Consciousness you will be able to consciously +use the Causal Body. You will be able to directly tap into awareness of the +Oversoul. This will directly effect your mental being. + +Mentally, you must achieve all that the Oversoul is. It is your mental +development and attitude which will carry you into this Magickal +Consciousness. When you have mentally set your sights upon your goal and +give it all that you possible have, then you will bring it into manifestation +within you. Night Consciousness is mentally being aware of all knowledge and +wisdom of the Oversoul. You will know, whatever it is that you must know by +simply tapping into it. You will have supreme wisdom for all situations +knowing just what and how to do it. You may have never studied the subject +before but the knowledge will be there when you need it. You will have +tremendous willpower and concentration. This is Night Consciousness in +humankind. Night Consciousness is more then just a mental state. It is also +your emotional state of being. + +It fills your world of feeling and changes it to perfection. It is having +perfect understanding of all situations. It is the giving of perfect, +absolute love. This is love beyond the human state that enters you into the +absolute state of being. More on this in a later topic. The emotional state +in Night Consciousness is one of silence and profound solitude. It is a high +state of reflection and receptivity. It is also a state of aggression, +boldness, and daring. Night Consciousness is an emotional state of passion, +courage and love of pleasure and ease. + +This Consciousness even descends into the physical state of being. Your +bodies become pure, Night Energy through Night Consciousness. The body +becomes the perfect channel through which the Oversoul may flow out into the +world. Night Consciousness is perfect control and mastery of the physical +being. This is Night Consciousness in the four aspects of humankind. Night +Consciousness is many things to humankind. + +It is a state of bliss and peace that humankind has yet to know. It is a state +of perfect knowledge, wisdom, absolute love, understanding, innocence, +happiness, joy, and freedom. It is a state of awareness that words can not +do justice to. Words only tend to diminish the real understanding of the +nature of Night Consciousness. Yet I have made the attempt to do so in +hopes that you would have a better understanding of what it is. Night +Consciousness is the goal of life on Earth. It is a goal worth giving your +all in dedication, devotion, and determination to in reaching it. Therefore, +let's see exactly what you will have to do in reaching the Bliss of Night +Consciousness. + +The things necessary to do, to reach Night Consciousness, may at first seem to +overwhelm you. There is a great deal to accomplish if you want to reach it. +But you should not be scared by the number of things you must accomplish, nor +by the feeling that some of them seem impossible for you to do. Nothing +that is described here will be impossible for you to do if you will be +determined and persistent in your efforts. To begin you must master the +physical body. + +Its alright to indulge the physical body with food, pampering and passion. At +the same time, you must also balance this with physical training to maintain +physical well-being. The body is essential to every Night Magician for it is +the channel through which Night Magick flows and alters the world. Take care +of it. Much of the knowledge you will gain will slowly alter the human body +changing its frequency into harmony with the Night Force. As the body changes +you will be able to increase the flow of the Night Force through you. Do +everything in balance. You must become masters of your emotional life. + +From the onset of studying Night Magick you will experience emotions. It is +alright to experience and even use the emotions in Night Magick. But at all +times, you must be in control them. You must not be ruled by jealousy, lust, +pride, or selfishness. You must control anger and hatred. These things will +still try to enter into your feelings but you will gain instant control over +them. You must remain in control under all conditions. No matter how +disturbing the current challenges in your life you must remain centered. You +must also maintain a balanced mind. + +Your mind must always be centered in the silence of the Night. There is great +power in the silence of the Mind. Your mind should be fixed in +self-discipline and strong-willed. Your mind must be fixed in intellectual +pursuit and critical thinking. You must maintain original and independent +thinking at all times. You will be inventive and versatile in your thinking. +Your mind set must be one of persistence, patience and persevering. Your +mind will at times be required to act in a reserved and cautious manner and at +other times courageous, bold, and gallant. Flexibility to meet the ever +changing challenges is the key of Night Consciousness. You must be temperate, +wise, and poised in all things. These are just a few of the things necessary +for you to reach Night Consciousness. + +They are not easy to master. Yet they must be mastered and put actively into +your life. You must live and practice Night Consciousness from the very +beginning. This topic is placed early in the book because it is the first +thing which you will have to learn and begin practicing in Night Magick. If +you are to have any success at all in Night Magick, you will have to practice +and master this topic. In all other subjects you will study and master in +this book, Night Consciousness is of the most importance. It will bring you +success in all other things you attempt in Night Magick. How then do you +practice and live Night Consciousness? + +To begin, you must live the life of the Oversoul. You must be consciously +aware of the Night Power that flows through you from your Oversoul. +Everywhere you go, you must constantly remain in the Consciousness of the +Oversoul. You must know that you are the Oversoul and radiate Night Power. +You must speak and act as the Oversoul. You must gain a very special +attitude towards life. You must learn to be in the world but not of it. +You must not become lost in the illusions of limitations. With the aid of +Night Magick you will want for nothing but at the same time you must never +allow material possessions to possess you. Your magickal life must be +balanced by your practical life. You must give each part of your life equal +time. Your practical life should be filled with your magickal nature. You +must learn to take each day, one at a time. It is wrong to worry about +tomorrow for in Night Consciousness your destiny of success is assured. You +must learn to obey your Oversoul as you would yourself for in reality you and +the Oversoul are One. All of your needs will be taken care of through Night +Consciousness. That doesn't mean you can just sit back and do nothing. You +must give your full effort to life but without worry or concern about your +future. If you are following the Night Road to Night Consciousness, then the +outcome is clear. There is also one other thing that you can do to enhance +your attaining Night Consciousness until you become more adept in Night +Magick. + +In your pursuit of Night Consciousness you will be greatly benefitted if you +will get out into the outdoors as much as possible. The beauty, peace, and +power of nature will do much in restoring and helping to maintain your +Oversoul Nature. The Earth is a storehouse of Night Energy and by your +visits to those places where the Earth has been relatively untouched you will +be able to absorb the Night Energy. If you begin to practice what I just +covered and continue to study and practice Night Magick then you will +eventually reach Night Consciousness. But only your Oversoul knows all the +things necessary for you to do to reach Night Consciousness and the time +required to do so. So you must be untiring in your efforts to reach it and +know that it will come. You must come to know that there is no separation in +Consciousness between you and your Oversoul. There are signs which will +indicate to you that you are starting to approach Night Consciousness. + +There are changes that will take place within you all along the road to your +final destination. These changes will help reassure you that you are making +progress. One of the first significant changes in your life will be a new +powerful inner vibration. + +You will become charged with a new zest for life. The Oversoul Power will +flow through you and raise every cell in your body in a glorious fire. You +will find you will need less sleep and yet your energy will remain very high. +You will find that your health will be greatly improved and that your +breathing will come much easier. Your body will become the Body of your +Oversoul. You will find yourselves growing more in the ways of the Silver +Rule. You may do anything that you want if you always maintain the Eternal +Night Balance. You will begin to hear an Inner Voice who will be your +instructor and guardian. This Inner Voice will be that of your Oversoul +and/or Night Teacher who will guide you and care for you. This will cause +you to develop flashes of intuition. These brief moments of insight should +be carefully listened to and followed. If you do, then the help will continue +to come to you. You will find that your knowledge seems to increase within +you. You will gain an understanding of things that you never seemed to +understand before. You will instinctively seem to know what to do about a +particular problem. For example, if your car breaks down you will know almost +immediately what is wrong with it and if possible, how to repair it. You +will also come to know Truth from untruth. It doesn't matter whether that +source originates from a person, reading material, or whatever, you will know +whether what is said is True or not. Nothing will be able to hide from your +inner knowing and vision. This is also about the time when your lower +psychic abilities and faculties start to open up. You will learn a great +deal about them later in the book. They will give you abilities and powers +beyond that of other people. Therefore you must be careful in using them +such that the Eternal Night Balance is always maintained. Do not worry about +these centers for now in a later topic you will be given what you need to +maintain control. You will feel a greater need for solitude and a time away +from people. There are more indications of approaching Night Consciousness +and you will learn more about them as you continue your studies of Night +Magick. Remember, Night Consciousness is a physical, emotional, mental, and +causal development. You know some of the things to concentrate on to help +develop this consciousness. As I just said you will learn more of the +essentials to help develop this consciousness as you learn Night Magick. +You have also learned some of the indicators of your developing Night +Consciousness and when you finally reach it you will know it. What is +required is effort, dedication, persistence, self-discipline and study. With +all this, you will achieve Night Consciousness. Combined with Night Magick +there won't be a thing you can't achieve. Your imagination and dreams are +the only limits in Night Magick. From this point in your study of Night +Magick, I would like to go over the principles upon which a Night Magician's +life is based. + +CHAPTER III + + +BEGINNING NIGHT MAGICK + +8. Standards and Principles of Practicing Night Magick + +You are about to embark on the Night Road of learning Night Magick and +achieving Night Consciousness. There are certain standards and practices +which you must include in your life while on the Road. I have covered a few +of them already but I will go into greater depth over some of them and cover +some additional standards and principles to insure your success. + +The Silver Rule (silver being a precious metal to the Night Force) is "you may +do anything that you want if you always maintain the Eternal Night Balance". +The Eternal Night Balance is a fundamental law of the Night Force. Balance +in the Omniverse is a vital factor to order within the Eternal Night. For +everything you take from the Eternal Night you must give back to the Eternal +Night in equal measure. This does not mean of course that if through Night +Magick, using the energy of the Night Force, you acquire wealth that you must +give money back to the Night Force. It means that the amount of energy used +to accomplish something must be returned in full. This keeping of the +Eternal Night Balance is an intuitive matter that is easy to maintain when +working within Night Consciousness. Therefore, before using Night Magick to +accomplish any event, always work within the consciousness of the Oversoul to +be able to maintain the Balance. There also follows another major principle +within which you must practice Night Magick. This is the "Law of Night +Magick". + +The Law of Night Magick is "there is nothing impossible when you are One with +the Night Force". I mean absolutely nothing. Always remember this fundamental +law and believe it with all your might. Remember that everything you do in +life is Night Magick. It should be done in Night Consciousness. Your whole +life is now an expression of Night Magick and Consciousness. There is nothing +you cannot do. I'd like to turn for the moment to the principles governing +the Night Magician and the world as a whole. + +You will find the world to be rather hostile to you concerning Night Magick. +The religions of the world are predominantly Yang. The majority of people +have been conditioned to respond in a Yang manner. Yang and Yin are opposite +forces which do not mix well. From Night Consciousness's view, each soul is +responsible for its own world. Each soul determines much of its life and the +quality of that life before coming here. There is some predestination in all +lives yet there is much which is not. If individuals are poor and/or +homeless then this gives the Oversoul that experience. If souls are wealthy +then that is another experience. This world offers a myriad of different +experiences for the Oversoul to live and experience. The Oversoul lives +many lives on Earth in order to get a well-rounded education. The Earth can +be a very rough school and souls here are experiencing in essence the first +grade of life. When the Oversoul has experienced all the lessons it deems +necessary then It moves on to a new world with more advanced lessons to be +learned. This system is called reincarnation and is very difficult for much +of the world to except. + +They would rather explain much of the world's problems and their own as the +fault of someone else. The Christians blame Satan for the ills of the world. +There are many people who blame their government. Others blame other people +and their not caring about their fellow human. The Night Magician blames no +one. + +The Night Magician knows that her/his beginnings on this planet are chosen +from the other side of life. S/he chooses her/his parents, race, sex, +country, and many of the future events before arriving to insure that the +necessary lessons for this life are achieved. It may sound terrible but a +woman may actually chose to be raped in order to gain that experience and +learn from it. There are children born bad. They are souls who previously +raped, murdered, robbed, etc. and are returning little changed from their +previous lives. Human souls are not born innocent regardless of how innocent +that baby looks in her/his cradle. They have lived before on Earth and are +returning little changed from when they last lived on Earth. They are a +bundle of possibilities and potentials and already have the beginnings of +personality for this life. You arrive the same way but as a Night Magician +you must take charge of your life. If you don't like it then change it. Use +Night Magick to alter your world. Some parts of life are predestined but +many are not. The free times feel like your adrift on a sea without much +direction. This is the time to chose a new direction. You shouldn't get +involved in changing all the world's ills. + +I believe someone said before that there will always be the poor and hungry. +This is true because this world requires those experiences for a certain group +of souls. There will always be crime because there will always be others who +want what someone else has. There are experiences of hardship, suffering, +crime, poverty, hunger, divorce, physical and sexual abuse, and a thousand +more like it. There are experiences of wealth, fame, comfort, peace, happy +marriage, beautiful children, successful career, and a thousand more like it, +too. The Oversoul needs all these experience possibilities. The Night +Magician chooses her/his experiences and controls them through Night Magick. +The Night Magician knows that the rest of the world chooses their experiences +too and lives them the best they can so that the Oversoul may gain +experience. Help the other soul when led by your Oversoul to do so. But +have no guilt, nor interfere in another soul's existence, when in Night +Consciousness you know that what they are experiencing is necessary. The +practice of Night Magick requires that the affairs of your world move with a +steady, even pace. + +There is no set limit as to how fast this pace may be. Setting limits upon +pace is a relative matter. But the pace must be even and steady. Do not +become so embroiled in the everyday routines of the hustling, bustling world +that your world is conducted without Night Magick. You must have a magickal +attitude while in the world. You must keep your consciousness raised above +the mire and limitations of the world. You must approach life with passion +and zest. + +In Night Consciousness, life is an adventure. Life is usually made up of one +adventure after another. Everything that has happened to you is a type of +adventure that requires your use of Night Magick to see it through. There +are adventures which you may feel have had an unhappy ending. Perhaps that +ending did not have to occur with the use of Night Magick. If you are in the +Night Flow and something bad seems to have happened perhaps there was a +reason. Use Night Magick to find out. Use Night Magick to correct the +situation. Do all this in Night Consciousness. There will be times when you +must approach life with courage, boldness, and energy. There will be other +times when you must use caution, prudence, and reflection. Approach life from +Night Consciousness and you will always know what to do. In Night +Consciousness, life is art. + +You are the Night Magician. You are the artist. Create! Create any kind of +life you want. Your imagination is the limit. Fill your life with passion +and love. Fill your life with honor, dignity, and pride in the works you +create. As the artist be inventive and imaginative in what you create as +your life. If you want wealth that is fine. If you want pleasure and ease +that is fine. Remember, Night Balance in what you create. The Night Magician +operates from a point of solitude. + +The Night Magician is a solitary worker. This doesn't mean you won't have +friends. You may be a very active person socially with many friends. You +can even practice Night Magick collectively in groups. But ultimately, the +Night Magician is a solitary worker. The Night Magician must achieve mastery +in Night Magick and Night Consciousness on her/his own. No one else can do +this for you. I can show you how to practice Night Magick and give you the +keys to obtaining Night Consciousness but I can't bestow upon you, mastery in +Night Magick or Night Consciousness. This you must do on your own with +study, self- discipline, effort and energy. + +Night Magick is for those willing to pursue knowledge. It takes knowledge not +faith to become a Night Magician. It takes a lover of independent thinking. +One who is free of convention and is not a sheep in the world. It takes +mental precision and intelligence to master Night Magick. It will require +will power and perseverance to overcome obstacles when they show up. You +must learn control of thoughts. You will hear this over and over, "thoughts +are things". I don't know who first said this but remember it. If you think +thoughts of poverty then guess what, you are poor. If you wish some one dead, +even idly, then they may die. Through Night Magick, thoughts become things +with purpose. Learn control of your thoughts from the onset. Emotions are +also part of this. + +Emotions add energy to thoughts. So you must also learn to control emotions. +Emotions, like thoughts, are energy and energy changes the world around you. +I am not limiting any thoughts or emotions from your world. You are free to +think and feel anything you want. But remember, thoughts and emotions will +change the world around you and you are responsible for those changes. Keep +the Eternal Night Balance. Remember the Silver Rule and you will have no +problems. You need to take care of your physical body. + +Night Magicians come in all shapes and sizes. There are no requirements in +this area. What is important is the physical body is the ultimate channel +through which the Night Force flows out into the world. You need to keep +that channel as in tuned with the Night Force as possible. You will learn +techniques to do this shortly. Try to maintain oneness with your Oversoul +and the Night Force by keeping them in your thoughts and emotions at all +time. This will help maintain the balance. It is alright to smoke, eat, and +provide the body with physical pleasure. But balance is again important to +your practicing Night Magick. You can't practice Night Magick if you die of +overeating, heart attack, or cancer. You will learn to control your thoughts +and emotions to help prevent these things. But if you go too far one way +then all your knowledge won't help if the body can't act as a channel for the +Night Force. Balance pleasure with physical exercise, breathing exercises +with smoking, and right thoughts and emotions that will control the stress and +pressures in your life. I want to talk to you about drugs. + +Their use is a very popular thing. In the right hands drugs can be very +beneficial to human health. Magickally, drugs have been used to induce +certain mental and emotional states. In the case of Night Magick, DON'T USE +THEM! Drugs have more then a physical effect. They alter the etheric, +astral, and mental bodies. Drugs can do severe damage to these bodies that +may take many "lifetimes" to repair. I assure you that there is nothing +drugs can do for you that Night Magick can't do for you. There is no high or +altered state that Night Magick can't achieve for you. Drugs can so alter +your many bodies that by using Night Magick you will place yourself in danger +of losing your physical life. Moreover, you may lose your emotional and mental +stability that will require hospitalization. So far, I have not limited you +in thought or action in this book. But in this case, be warned. Do not use +drugs. If you are using prescription drugs under a physician's care and they +severely alter your state of being then for that time don't practice Night +Magick. Wait till you no longer need the drugs. Under drugs I am also +including alcohol. On occasion you may feel like getting drunk. As you +progress in Night Consciousness you will eventually be able to drink and not +get drunk. For most, that is a long time from now. Drinking, to a lesser +degree, alters the physical, etheric, astral, and mental bodies. The +effects are usually not as damaging unless you overdose on alcohol. Drinking +in moderation is fine. There is nothing wrong with an occasional drink. For +some though, an occasional drink becomes overuse of alcohol which ultimately +will have the same effect as non-alcohol drugs. Again, do not practice Night +Magick while under the influence of alcohol regardless of the amount of +alcohol. It has the same possible effect as non-alcohol drugs. Let's go on +to sex. + +In today's world one usually talks about sex after talking about drugs. Sex +is great. With Night Magick, sex is going to become fantastic. The energy +that is going to flow through you during orgasm will give you the ultimate +orgasms of your life. There are though some rules that apply to this area. + +It should be obvious that you must practice "safe sex". The male should use a +condom and the woman should be sure he uses it. No matter how close you are +to your spouse or circle of friends unless you're sure of their monogamy, men +use condoms. Women should also use contraceptives to prevent pregnancy. Men +should learn how to put on condoms to insure they don't break and never use +petroleum products that will cause the latex to break. Women should also +know how to put a condom on a man to insure the man does it right. You may +find that as you increase in Night Consciousness and the flow of the Night +Force increases that the only time you will achieve those ultimate orgasms is +when the partner is also practicing Night Magick. + +In Night Magick, concerning sex, it doesn't matter whether the couple is +heterosexual, male- male, female-female. It doesn't matter if the couple act +alone. It doesn't matter if there is a man and more then one woman or a +woman and more then one man to the couple. It doesn't matter if there is a +group of couples of all polarities. It doesn't matter if the group is +exclusively men or women. What really makes the difference is if everyone is +practicing Night Magick. + +When all are practicing Night Magick then all are in the Night Flow. Everyone +present will have some increase of energy flowing through them. All will feel +the bond of Night Consciousness. In Night Magick there is no jealousy or +possessiveness. In Night Magick there is no Judeo-Christian, or Moslem, or +Mormon, or any oppressive religious hang-ups about sex. Each Night Magician +is independent and free. Marriage under Night Magick is not one of +possession but of mutual cooperation and love. + +Group marriage is a very real possibility under Night Magick because a Night +Magician honors independence, freedom, and equality in action among Night +Magicians. There is no jealousy or possessiveness among Night Magicians. +Women and Men have equal rights in Night Magick and Consciousness and in the +world itself. But marriage between a Night Magician and non- practicing +human being rarely works out. Ultimately, the Night Magician changes so much +that the spouse no longer understands the Night Magician. It is very rare to +find a spouse who will understand the Night Magician and their way of life. +The marriage often ends in divorce. But it is better to divorce and remain +friends then to stay in a marriage which creates hostility and resentment. +There is no balance in such a marriage. Many are made to feel guilty if there +are children involved and stay married although there is hostility and +resentment between them. I believe it is better for everyone involved if +the couple divorce, and even if they can't remain friends, to at least remain +cooperative and fair with each other concerning settlement and visitation. +Balance and harmony are important in a Night Magician's life. It is +important to her/his success on the Night Road. Also important to this +success and of a more concrete nature are Magickal Tools. + +Down through the ages the Ancient Night Magicians have used many different +types of tools and implements in the practice of the Ancient Art. You too +are going to need Magickal Tools and in the next topic I will help you attain +these tools. + +9. A Night Magician's Tools and Weapons + +These are the Night Tools a Night Magician will need to set the proper +atmosphere and conduct the basic rites. You will conduct these rites in the +room you have designated as your Magician's Study within the Magick Circle +which you will define its area with the Night Cord. + +This cord should be made of silk, cotton, or wool. The cord needs to be long +enough so that when it is laid down on the floor it will form a circle that +contains the altar and yourself. If there are more people then yourself +conducting Night Magick or even possibly just observing then you will need a +long enough length to make a large enough circle to contain them. Within the +Night Circle you will build the Night Altar. + +The Night Altar is symbolic for your physical being in which is focused the +Night Spirit. You will build an altar upon which you will focus your Powers +of Eternal Darkness here on the Earth plane. It is best to keep it simple. +The basic structure can be a small table, box, or anything which is sturdy. +The altar should be about three feet wide by six feet long. The height of +the Night Altar is your decision. You can have one which is at waist height +when you are standing and one for when you are sitting. It is best to have +both in your magickal inventory. Place the Night Altar so that when you are +standing or sitting behind it you are facing North. Use a compass if +necessary so that you can place it facing North. Then cover the Night Altar +with a cloth of your choice. If at all possible choose a black, red, or +silver colored cloth. It is best if the cloth has no distinctive pattern on +the surface portion of the altar. This is your Night Altar. You then must +place upon it some very special articles. + +Upon the altar and towards the back left side place a red candle and on the +right side place a black candle. On the left side and in front of the red +candle place an incense holder and on the right place your copy of Night +Magick. You may also place any other small trinkets that help build your +feeling of Night Magick. Dragons, wizards, owls, and so on are fine. The +Night Altar is a sacred symbol before which you come to release Night Power. +It is the physical symbol of your body and heart and serves the same purpose: +an anchor of the Night Force. You will need a good supply of incense to fill +the incense holder on your Night Altar. Through trial and error you will +find the right incense that fits your personal vibration. Each incense +creates a vibration in the air and as you grow more magickal, you will be +ever more sensitive to its vibration. Incense, which is of the stick variety +and is thick in nature is good or you may have a small charcoal brazier and +powdered incense. On the Night Altar you will also need the following things: +a silver or crystal dish of sea salt; a vial of patchouli oil; a crystal +bowl of water; a silver or crystal chalice; and a silver or crystal bell. Now +all these articles sit on a Pentacle which is in the center of the Night +Altar. + +The Pentacle is a symbol of the Earth. It is a round plate made of wood and +inscribed with sacred symbols of Night Magick. The plate is thirteen inches +in diameter. For an example of such a plate and the layout of the articles +see Figure 1. Then you will need a loose leaf notebook which will become +your Night Magician's Grimoire. + +From the very beginning of Night Magick you will have practices, exercises, +and rites to perform and grow from. After each practice, exercise, or rite +you should develop a grimoire which records the date, time, and experiences +felt in that session. Record in as much detail as possible the successes and +difficulties experienced. Keep a separate section for each type of practice, +exercise, and rite. This will allow you to see your progress in each and to +help you see where your difficulties are and how to possibly solve them. Be +faithful and accurate in all entries made and this record will help speed your +progress. These are your Night Tools. Next you will need your Night Weapons +the first of which is a Night Amulet. + +You need to make for yourself an amulet of black quartz crystal. This is a +grounding and power stone of Night Force. If you want, the necklace the +stone hangs from can also be made from quartz. I recommend though that the +necklace be made of silver or amethyst. This will help balance the power of +the black quartz stone. The Night Amulet will help keep your physical body +in tune with the Night Force. You can tune into the Night Amulet and by +holding it increase your vibration in the Night Force. You will also need to +make a Night Ring. + +This should be a ring made of silver. You can set the Night Ring with any +combination of amethyst, black quartz, emerald, ruby, or diamond. A plain +band of silver is fine. You may later want to add Night Runes and Night +Magick Symbols to the Night Ring as you learn them. The Night Ring is a +symbol of union with the Night Force. Next you need to make your Night +Wand. + +The wand should be about thirteen inches long. It should be made of wood or +silver. You may encrust the wand with a combination of semi-precious and +precious jewels. You may inscribe the Night Wand with Night Runes and +Symbols. You will find these in Appendix C. You may place a crystal at +either or both ends of the wand. The Night Wand is a focus of the Night +Energy that leaves your body to be transmitted to an object or place. You now +need to make a Night Staff. + +The Night Staff is a symbol of Night Guidance, Power, and Authority. The +Night Staff is to be made of wood. The kind of wood is left up to you but it +should be one which you are in harmony with. The Night Staff should be +approximately six feet high. You should leave the staff in its natural state +or paint it black, red or silver if you feel its necessary. As said earlier, +the Night Staff is a symbol of true Night Power and the Night Spirit's support +to you. You will need a Night Athame. + +This is a small dagger whose blade and handle is about twelve inches in +length. This is used for ceremonial purposes only. Do not use this knife +for cutting. You may want to place special symbols on the handle and/or +blade to add magickal importance to your athame. Make for your Night Athame +a scabbard which you can place on a belt on your person. You will also need +a Night Sword. + +You can use any style of sword. Japanese samurai, scimitar, cavalry sword, or +excalibur style sword. You should also have a scabbard which you keep the +sword in and attach it to your side under your Night Cape. Of course, the +next item you need is a Night Cape. + +There is an easy way to make the Night Cape. Take enough cloth so that you +have a square which is twice your height long on each side. Now go to the +center of the cloth, and using a string that is half the length of one side +of the cloth and on one end has a chalk stick attached, draw a circle on the +cloth that has the radius of half the length of one side of the cloth. Also +draw from the center a circle that has a radius of three inches. Now cut +out the small circle and the large circle. Then place a slit from one edge of +the small circle you just cut down the center of the cloth and through the +edge. Sew ties into the material on the edge you just cut and near the top +of the cape. You will also need to make a hood that will cover your entire +head and will go over the head far enough to cover the face. You may attach +the hood to the cape. See figure ___. The Night Cape serves a valuable +purpose. + +The Night Cape acts as an insulator to the outside forces that surround you. +It will help block them out of your inner world and keep them from +interfering in your magickal operations. Keep the cape secured in a cloth bag +and put it where no one else may touch or bother it. Use it only in the +practice of Night Magick. Next you will need to make the Night Plate. + +Actually this is a breast plate. The basic shape and size of this plate is +given in Figure __. You may change the size and shape as fits you best. You +may place upon the plate Night Symbols and Runes. You may also want to place +stones of black quartz, amethyst, emerald, ruby, or diamond on it. The color +of the plate should be black with runes and symbols in red and silver. +Finally you will need to make a Night Shield. + +The Night Shield is patterned after the shields used by knights of chivalry. +Some basic shapes and sizes are given in Figure ___. Again the background +should be black and symbols and runes should be in red and silver. The runes +and symbols you place on the shield as with the Night Plate should help you +increase your feeling of strength and courage in Night Magick. These runes +and symbols should help place you in Night Consciousness. The Night +Magician's Tools and Weapons are very valuable to you. They provide for you a +means to advance in Night Magick. They provide the proper atmosphere in +which to practice the lore of Night Magick. There are other devices that will +be needed as you progress in your studies. As a rule, each will be relatively +simple to acquire. They will be brought to your attention as you proceed. +The Night Magician's Tools and Weapons given here are those which you will +need before you proceed further in Night Magick. Once you have your tools and +weapons made it is time to select your Night Name. + +10. Your Magickal Night Name + +The true name given to anything is very important. A true name contains the +essence of that entity. It describes the differences and qualities of that +entity. To know the true name of a thing is to imply acquisition and +knowledge of that essence. To know the true name gives you dominion over it. +The name that you as a Night Magician will choose is of great importance. + +You will select a Night Name which to you contains the very essence of your +Inner Nature. This name may be the same as a famous personage you wish to +emulate or a famous saying or motto. For example, you may choose a name such +as Merlin, Saint Germain, Abra-Melin, Mithratar, or any other name that +strikes your imagination and heart. You may choose a name from a saying or +motto. A Night Name will help to build-up your Night Essence, your feeling +of Night Consciousness and will quicken your magickal vibration. This name +should be given to no one else to know. It is your own Magickal Name that +when used will bring you to Night Consciousness. Now, you must choose a +second name. + +This is the name that you will be known outwardly by to fellow Night +Magicians. You should pattern this name after something unlike your Night +Name. This name will be used on all correspondence with other Night +Magicians and any published writings. The second name is your public name +and is used in such rites and exercises. Remember, to know the name of a +thing is to know its Eternal Essence and to have dominion over it. + +In selecting a magickal name you are defining that Inner Essence. To tell +another is to give him access to your Inner Nature. He may reach you and +make demands of you whenever he chooses by knowing your inner name. Do not +reveal it for any reason. You should always use your second or outer name as +Night Magicians. To do so will insure that you will never be bothered here or +hereafter. Both names are important and should be selected to help bring you +into your Night Consciousness. Your Night Name will bring you closer into +the aura of Night Magick. Having selected your Night Name you now must learn +Magickal Protection in order to conduct Night Magick safe from outside +influences. + +11. Night Pillar + +What you are about to learn is perhaps the most valuable Night Tool you will +ever acquire. There are many forces in the world which will attempt to do you +harm if you practice Night Magick. By harm, I don't necessarily mean physical +violence although that is possible. I am talking about the threat of harm to +your subtle bodies: Astral, Mental, and Causal bodies. Harm to these bodies +could cause serious emotional and mental sickness. There is also the threat +of attack to your Etheric which usually translates to physical harm. For +Night Magicians there is a serious threat of attack from Yang followers. This +could be from so- called White Magicians and their use of magick against you. +It could come from Christians, Jews, Muslims and so on. Attacks can come from +collective emotional or mental energy meant to harm a Night Magician. A group +of Yang worshipers gathered together in prayer praying for the demise of all +Night Magicians everywhere could build up enough energy to harm the +unprotected Night Magician. As you grow more magickal you will become very +sensitive to subtle energies around you. Attacks could come from anyone who +wishes you harm. You will need protection. You will need to build the Night +Pillar. The Night Pillar is not just for protection. + +The Night Pillar also acts as an invisible wall which will contain the energy +you will be creating through Night Magick. This will allow you to build-up the +energy to a great intensity before you release it to accomplish your will. +This will increase the effectiveness of the magickal rites you create. So +how do you build the Night Pillar. + +You begin by calming and clearing your mind of extraneous thoughts. Close +your eyes and visualize the Night Energy collecting around your form. See +the Night Energy forming a pillar of protective force that extends around you +about six feet. See that energy flowing below your feet and above your head. +See yourself in a pillar of deep violet and emerald energies. See yourself +in a pillar of darkest night. Know that you cannot be harmed while contained +in the Night Pillar. Now say the following invocation: + +"I am a Night Magician surrounded in a Pillar of Night Energy that cannot be +penetrated. It repels all energy that would harm me. It repels all thoughts +and emotional energy of my enemies. Through the Power of my Oversoul, I am +protected in a Pillar of Night Energy and cannot be harmed. May this Night +Pillar remain around me at all times keeping me out of harms way. So be it." + +Say this invocation and visualize the Night Pillar around you until you can +feel its protection. This energy comes from the Oversoul within. As you +begin the invocation the Oversoul extends the Night Energy into your world +through the silver cord. The silver cord is your life line to your Oversoul +and through it all energy passes to you which sustains your life on Earth. +You can invoke more of this energy and power into your life when you work in +conscious union with your Oversoul. There are many different kinds of energy +which can be invoked into your world through the Oversoul. The Night Energy +of Protection is only one of them. You will learn about many more types of +energy you can invoke and use towards the end of the book. What you want to +remember about the Night Pillar is to use it often. + +Always place the Night Pillar around you before you work Night Magick. Always +place yourself in the Night Pillar at the beginning of each day. The more you +use it the stronger it will become. The Pillar will protect you from all +physical and psychic harm. You must learn to consciously keep the Night +Pillar around you all the time. You should always remain in the Night +Pillar. Everything that you practice in the lore of Night Magick should begin +with the Night Pillar. You must always do this whether it's stated so or not. +Through the Night Pillar you will safely live and learn in Night Magick. You +now have built a strong foundation upon which to live and practice Night +Magick. You have learned what it is to be a Night Magician and to practice +the lore of Night Magick. If you are ready to begin using Night Magick then +let's consecrate your Night Study and Tools. + +12. Invocation to Night Magick + +This is a most sacred time in your life for it marks the beginning of your +entry into Night Magick. You are going to perform a very sacred rite to mark +your entry. You will, in this solemn rite, dedicate your physical, emotional, +mental, and magickal energies to the practice of Night Magick. This rite is +meant to convey to you the seriousness and importance with which you should +view Night Magick. In this rite, you will learn the basics which will begin +every ritual you will learn. In this rite, you will invoke the Night Energy +into your Night Tools and Weapons and make them yours and yours alone. The +Night Tools and Weapons will then be sacred and contain the Power of the +Night. To begin, you must have your Magician's Study and Night Altar +prepared. + +To do this, have all your Night Tools and Weapons laid out on the Night Altar. +Have the cord laid on the floor in a circle around the Night Altar. On the +Night Altar you should now light the candles and the incense. Your bowl +should be full of water and your chalice should contain wine or grape juice. +Be sure and turn off the phones and lock the doors so you won't be disturbed. +Once you have accomplished this be sure and have your Night Name selected. It +is this name you will use in the performance of this rite. Now for the actual +ritual. + +You will begin by invoking the Night Pillar. Standing before your Night Altar +and with your eyes closed see the Protective Night Energy pouring down from +the Oversoul above you, through your head, on into your heart, and out into +the study completely surrounding and interpenetrating the room. See the Light +continuing through you and on into the Earth. At this point you should repeat +the Night Pillar Invocation given earlier. Feel the Night Energy +concentrate deeply within the circle boundary outlined by the cord. + +Now pick up the bell and ring it six times in each major direction, that is +North, South, East and West. Then repeat the following invocation, "I who am +(give your Night Name) summon the Presence of all Deities in the Night Force +to attend my ritual of Eternal Night. To witness my consecration of my Night +Tools in the service of the Eternal Darkness. We now stand in the Eternal +Night beyond time and space. Come and witness my Ritual of the Night". After +this, pick up the salt container, and repeat the following: "By my sacred +name, (give your Night Name), through the Presence of my Oversoul and the +Eternal Earth Deities, I invoke the Earth Night Power into this container of +salt and now place the salt upon the earth to mark the boundary of my sacred +circle." Visualize the Earth Deities filling the vessel with their power. +Pinch a little salt lightly between your fingers dropping it on the floor +over the cord going completely around the circle. BE CAREFUL NOT TO STEP +OUTSIDE THE CIRCLE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE RITUAL. Place the salt container +back on the Night Altar and pick up the crystal bowl of water. Repeat the +following: "May the Presence of my Oversoul and the Eternal Water Deities fill +this water and container and endow it with the Water Night Power." Visualize +the Water Deities of the Earth filling the vessel with the power. With your +left hand dip it into the water and sprinkle lightly the boundary you have +already marked with the salt. Place the water bowl back on the altar and pick +up the incense burner. + +Repeat the following: "Let the Presence of the Four Winds of the Earth enter +into the incense burner filling it with Air Night Power". Now face each +direction, rotating counterclockwise, and see the Presence of each Wind Deity +enter into the incense burner. Then circle four times in a counterclockwise +manner around and within the Magick Circle. Place the incense burner back on +the Night Altar and pick up the candle. + +Repeat the following: "May the Presence of my Oversoul and the Fire Deities +of the Earth place their sacred flame here within my candles and upon my +Night Altar." See the Fire Deities come and dance around the flames and +upon your altar. Place the candle back where it came from and pick up the +chalice of wine or juice. + +Repeat the following: "Let the Presence of my Oversoul and the Eternal +Darkness enter into the liquid and fill it with the Power of the Eternal +Night. May this elixir give me strength, healing, and courage each day of my +life." Feel the Power flow through you and into the chalice. See the energy +collect and concentrate till the chalice glows with Night Energy. Then drink +the liquid and your ready to consecrate the other Night Tools. + +You will begin with the oil so pick it up and repeat the following: "Let this +oil be made sacred and filled with the Power of the Night. Let the Presence +of the Oversoul and Night Spirit touch it with their might, courage, +solitude, and darkness. For the oil is now sacred and made for anointing the +Weapons of a Night Magician." Take a small amount of oil and touch the +Pentacle and state, "May the Night Force flow into this Pentacle and bless all +things laid on it". Now it is time to anoint each weapon in your sacred +arsenal. + +You will pick up each Night Weapon, one at a time, and while placing a small +amount of oil on each tool, repeat the following: "Through the Presence of my +Oversoul and the Eternal Darkness, I (Night Name), consecrate this Night +Weapon in the service of Night Magick and the Eternal Night." Do this with +the Night Amulet, Ring, Wand, Staff, Grimoire, Athame, Sword, Plate, Shield, +and Cape. Now put the Night Amulet, Ring, Plate, Athame and Sword on your +body. Place the Grimoire in the front center edge of your Night Altar. Put +on the Night Cape. Place the Night Shield over your left forearm and in the +left hand hold the Night Wand and in the right hold the Night Staff and state +the following: "I,(give your Night Name), commit my all to the Oversoul and +the Night Spirit within, and to the dedication of my Magickal Energies to the +practice of Night Magick. I dedicate myself to the Oversoul within and to my +union with it in Night Consciousness. May these Night Tools and Weapons +serve me ever in this cause. So be it." Now face each direction and repeat +the following: "Thank you Night Deities for your attendance at this sacred +Night Rite. May we ever serve the Eternal Powers of Darkness here on Earth +and the Omniverse forever. So be it." And that's it, you have finished your +first night rite and all your Night Tools and Weapons are consecrated in +Night Magick. At this point stop and re-enforce your Night Pillar and then +take off all your Night Weapons and place them back upon the Night Altar. +Leave the cord in place on the floor. + +Each ritual will begin by your stepping into the Night Circle and putting on +your Night Weapons and Cape. It is alright if you wear your Night Amulet and +Ring outside the Circle. After this place the Night Pillar around you. Do +not leave the Circle until the end of the ritual and be sure and re-enforce +the Night Pillar around and through you before leaving the Night Circle. Go +through the actions of consecrating the Night Circle with earth, water, air, +and fire each time. Fill the chalice, say the invocation, and drink the wine +each time. Then always ring the bell and summon the Night Deities. These +are the basic procedures you will begin each ritual which takes place within +the Night Circle. I hope you have had fun and are ready to begin learning +about the first realm you will pass through on the Night Road. Let's go then +to the Earth Realm. + +CHAPTER IV + + +Earth Magick + +13. The Earth Realm + +Since time began there has been traditionally four elements which make up the +world of the Night Magician. These are the elements of Earth, Water, Air, +and Fire. They are symbolic for the basic four worlds of being: that of the +physical(Earth), emotional(Water), mental(Air), and causal(Fire). The +Oversoul must express through each of these realms using the appropriate +vehicle or body and ultimately gain mastery over each of them. So, I have +divided Night Magick into four basic realms with knowledge, exercises, and +rituals appropriate to each realm. Ultimately, the Oversoul, through you, +working in and mastering each realm will have learned all that must be +learned here upon Earth and return no more. The Earth Realm is your +beginning point in becoming a Night Magician. I want to take you back to +the beginning of time and the origin of the soul. + +From an understanding of general cosmology, that is the origin of the Void, +Monad/Godsoul/Oversoul and the soul of humankind, then this will help you to +see the whys of a magickal evolution and the reasons for being on the Night +Road that follows this magickal evolution. + +There is no beginning to the origin of the Void. The Void has always been, is +now, and ever will be. The Void is principle, unmanifest, and exists +entirely in itself, from itself, and by itself. The Void is the potential and +unmanifest Source of all that exists. The Void is the Life present in all +things. It is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. From out of the +Void, the potential and unmanifest Source, comes the Ultimate Yin and Yang +Creators. The Spirit of the Spirits. The Ultimate Spirits are the first +and only creations by the Void. The totality of all that the Void can be is +brought into being in the Ultimate Spirits. The Ultimate Spirits derive all +potential and essence from the Void, the potential and unmanifest. The +Ultimate Yin and Yang then created twin parallel matrixes and so it began. +What is now referred to here is also applicable for the Ultimate Yang. + +The Ultimate Yin created beings like unto itself. Each of these Beings I will +refer to as a Monad. Each Monad was created in order to share in the joy of +creation with the Ultimate Yin. The Eternal Night gave to each Monad the +potential of becoming all that It is. The Dark Goddess-God gave to each +Monad the essence and potential for expressing the Eternal Darkness. Each +Monad evolves into the Oneness of the Eternal Night by actualizing its +Eternal Night's potential. Each Monad grows by bringing into manifestation +the latent abilities and powers placed within It by the Eternal Night. Like +the Eternal Night, each Monad is given the right of free will to determine how +it will do this. The free will of each Monad permits it to choose how it +will create and what path of evolvement to follow. When the Monad chooses to +manifest its Abilities and Powers and to Create, the way of interest to you +as a Night Magician, is by its descent into matter. + +The material universe is made up of an infinite number of vibrational +energies. The very highest of these energies is the substance upon which the +Monad first creates. Through the Creative Power of the Monad, acting on the +highest vibrational matter, the Monad first takes on form. This is not form +as you understand form but something that is beyond your understanding. When +the Monad first takes on form, it becomes two Godsouls. + +The two Godsouls are true twin souls. They are the magickal twins who shall +evolve and create together by the Will and Power of the Monad. They each +have free will and free choice of their own. Yet all creation that proceeds +from them is related. All fragments of their divine spirit which are sent +forth to be ensouled in the world of spirit and matter are thus related and +united in purpose. In all they do the twin souls are united through the Will +of the Monad. One Godsoul is predominately Yin with Yang and the other is +totally Yin. This is a simplification of the energy systems but basically +these twin Godsouls now have the creative energies ready to continue downward +into material creation. Each Godsoul has the full potential and essence of +the Monad and also the free will to use them. Because of the power and high +vibrational energies of the Godsoul it cannot continue its direct descent +into matter, thus it created an extension of itself into the lower worlds. +This level of presence I have called the Oversoul. The Oversoul is a being of +lower vibrational levels. It is very active on its levels in learning and +creating and using the potential given to it by the Godsoul. Ultimately, the +Oversoul must learn to create on the lowest of levels and thus it sends a part +of itself into the lowest worlds of form and so is born the soul. + +The soul is the instrument through which the Oversoul learns about the lowest +worlds of creation. The human soul will return to the Earth many times for +the human body does not last long. The human soul will return to experience +many different lives in order that it might gain all the experience the Earth +has to teach it. Once the human soul has gained all the experience the +Oversoul needs then the human soul will move on to different worlds and +dimensions in order to gain new experience. The soul gets its life force and +direction from the Oversoul. This Power and Will flows through what is called +the Silver Cord. This Cord is made up of high energy particles through which +flows energy of varying frequencies. The soul operates through a mental, +emotional or astral, etheric, and physical body. On Earth this is the human +body. + +The Soul (Oversoul and soul) is very delicate and composed of very high +vibrational energies. If the Soul is to grow, develop, and evolve in material +creation then it has to have a material vehicle through which to work. You +could compare this to a person who wants to go into outer space. + +Because outer space is very cold, lacks oxygen, and is a vacuum the human body +could never withstand going out into space without being protected from it. +So a special suit is designed which is heated, pressurized, and contains +oxygen with which to breathe. It also contains many devices and sensors to +work in space and monitor the surroundings. In order to protect the delicate +Soul from the dense material surroundings, and for it to be able to work in +and monitor its surroundings a special suit was devised. This is called the +physical body. + +The physical body is composed of the lowest and densest matter. It is designed +to respond and interact with its material surroundings. There are the five +senses: sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing; and their respective organs: +eyes, skin, nose, mouth, and ears. These allow the soul to react to the +world around it. The hands, arms, legs, feet, and joints allow the soul to +work with its surroundings with great dexterity and ability. The physical +body is an excellent tool through which the soul to operate when it is +properly attuned and under the control of the Oversoul. Unfortunately, for +the majority of humankind this is not the case. + +Too many human beings are the human body instead of the soul and Oversoul. The +Oversoul/soul is not in charge but it is the human body which is in charge. +The human body is basically undisciplined and unruly. Whatever the human +body wants it gets and half the time it doesn't really want what it thinks it +wants. Without the control of the Oversoul/soul, the body is helpless before +the elements of life. The human body has no control over the world around +it. Because of this current state, the Oversoul/soul does not pay attention +to the human body. It is much like a car out of control. If you were the +driver of a car that refused to go where you wanted it to go and was always +headed for destinations unwanted and going past places uncared about, you +would get out and just let it go till it crashed and burned. This is pretty +much what the Oversoul/soul does concerning the human body. But there is a +way to change this. You must identify, tune into, and become the +Oversoul/soul. + +You must gain mastery over the physical body. You are the Oversoul/soul and +not the physical body. You must remember that you are eternal and only +working through the physical body. It is your tool through which to work and +experience the material world around you. You cannot allow the passions and +desires of the body to rule you. You must develop control over the body. +Properly channeled and controlled these forces can be used to your advantage +instead of your detriment. You will learn through Night Magick how to +develop this control and mastery. The Night Magician must attain through +discipline, diet, exercise, and ritual mastery over her/his body and the world +around her/him. But in all trials that occur in your life be easy on +yourself. You will fail many times, but get up, dust off your knees, and go on +vowing to try and do better. Never give up for all things are possible to +those who follow the Night Magician's life. "The world is but a stage and +we are the actors upon it,'' thus it was said by Shakespeare. This world is +but an illusion and your attitude should be that of "in it but not of it". +You must never become lost in the illusion of the game played by the majority +of humankind. You must become the Master of Illusion, the Night Magician. Let +me discuss with you for a moment the Stage upon which we experience life. + diff --git a/religious documents/night_magick.txt b/religious documents/night_magick.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5d4a3d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/night_magick.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6384 @@ +NIGHT MAGICK + +BY + +Phillip D. Williams +pdwillia@silver.ucs.indiana.edu + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +All rights reserved +Copyright ©1990 by Phillip D. Williams + +No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic +or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and +retrieval system., without permission in writing from the author. + + + + +NIGHT MAGICK + + NIGHT MAGICK + +INTRODUCTION +1. What is Night Magick? +2. Who is a Night Magician? +3. Why Practice Night Magick? +4. How to Study the Lore + +CHAPTER II + + +THE NIGHT MAGICIAN +5. Her/His Life +6. The Apprentice's Unfoldment +7. Night Consciousness + +CHAPTER III + + +BEGINNING NIGHT MAGICK +8. Standards and Principles of Practicing Night Magick +9. A Night Magician's Tools and Weapons +10. Your Magickal Night Name +11. Night Pillar +12. Invocation to Night Magick + +CHAPTER IV + + +Earth Magick +13. The Earth Realm +14. Night Breathing +15. The Night Magician's Meditation +16. The Realm of Vibration +17. Night Centers and the Physical and Etheric Bodies +18. The Power of Sound +19. Earth Rite +20. The Physical Realm of Death + +CHAPTER V + + +WATER MAGICK +21. The Water (Astral) Realm +22. The Astral Body and Exercises for Emotional Control +23. Astral Aura, Color, and Exercises +24. The Higher Night Centers and Exercises +25. The Dream Realm +26. Astral Guides, Oracleship, and Trance +27. The Moon and Its Rites +28. Water Rites +29. Night Projection + +CHAPTER VI + + +AIR MAGICK +30. The Mental Realm +31. Air Rite +32. Power of Thought +33. Your Silent Magician +34. Hypnotism and Self +35. A Night Magician's Pendulum +36. A Night Magician's Crystal Globe +37. Psychometry +38. Telepathy +39. Mental Projection +40. Creative Visualization + +CHAPTER VII + + +Night (Fire) Magick +41. The Night (Fire) Realm +42. The Solar, Planetary, and Lunar Powers +43. The Night Guild +44. Night Powers +45. Night Flames +46. Night Rites +47. Night Healing +48. Immortality: Transmigration and Transmutation +49. Night Magicians: Past, Present, and Future + +APPENDIXES + +APPENDIX A + +INVOCATIONS, HYMNS, POEMS, AND PRAYERS + +APPENDIX B + +CANDLE COLOR COMBINATION AND THE NIGHT TEACHERS + + + + +NIGHT MAGICK + +There was the Clear Light, the Void, and It alone was. The One Mind, apart of nothing, yet +containing everything, it alone the True Creator. Formless, Nameless, without Definition, yet +flowing through all that has form, name, and definition. From the One Mind there came Two +Matrixes, two sides of the same coin, Night and Day. Twin Soul Creators to each side, the Yin- +Yang of Night and Yang-Yin of Day. And so the Night and Day of the Omniverse was born. + +I AM Night. I AM Darkness that flows through the Night. I AM THE ETERNAL DARKNESS. +Yin-Yang created, Goddess-God of Night, Daughter-Son of Darkness, Eternal Creator of the +Nightverse. By the Dark Power and Energy, by the Night Magick was all created in the +Nightverse. + +The Ancient Dragons were first taught and they taught the others and so creation began +throughout the Nightverse. And so by the Dark Power, by Night Magick was everything +created flowing through the created instruments of the ETERNAL DARKNESS. Night's +beginning was good and the Earth was created a jewel in the Crown of Night. + +The Dragons came with other races and created the beginning Night Races of the Earth. And +time flowed and the races prospered and their depth in Night Consciousness deepened. But +then as so often happens the Day came to war with the Night and the Earth changed. + +The Day gods were young and wanted the Earth for its wealth of minerals and beauty and +destroyed the Night Races. They created human bodies as mindless, soulless slaves to gather +this wealth. But the Great Night Dragon, Tiamat, Goddess-God of the World, saw what had +happened and ensouled the human bodies placing a part of its Great Night Soul into each +human body. But since then the Day gods have warred with Tiamat for control of the human +souls. +The Day gods have spread false teachings about the origin of the human souls and the Night +Dragon. They have tried to destroy the Night religions of old that glorified the Yin Spirit of the +Earth and the beauty of life. Long has the war continued and now is the time for a rebirth of +Night Magick on Earth. + +And so I, the Eternal Night, have ensouled the Earth to supercharge it with NIGHT MAGICK. I +have come to Earth, through a human instrument, to spread my magickal teachings. To teach +the human soul the truth of its origins and re-awaken the Night within. To make humankind +co-creators with the Eternal Night through the teachings of Night Magick. + + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +INTRODUCTION + +1. What is Night Magick? + +I can only imagine at this point that you are about to put down this book and run scared due to +words like Night, Darkness, Dark Power, and the title of the book itself, Night Magick. Before +we begin learning about Night Magick I believe it will help to understand what I mean by these +"night" terms. + +To begin, there is the Void. The Buddhist call it the Clear Light as opposed to "white" or "black". +The Taoist refer to it as the Tao and Christians refer to it as God the Father. The Void is the +indivisible eternal energy. The Void is beyond polarities of energy such as positive/negative or +Yang/Yin. It is God Mind. It is everywhere and through every thing yet remains separate from +every thing. That is, it does not become a part of any one thing such as the soul does with the +body. The Void does not think like you and I yet it is "all thought". It is the most mystical of +concepts and God the Father is perhaps the poorest term for the Void. The Void is not a Father, +it isn't male or female, the void contains creation yet it does not assume a role within creation. +The more I try to describe to you the Void the less I actually accomplish in doing so. The Void +cannot truly be described but only experienced. The Void begins with its major principles who +spring into being, the Ultimate Yin and Yang of the Omniverse. + +The original premise is that the Yang represents the Male Creative force in the Omniverse and +Yin the Female Passive force in the Omniverse. A more accurate premise is that there is an +Ultimate Yin and Ultimate Yang each complete in and of itself. That each Ultimate force has +the Creative Force within it and that there are twin systems created by this. We have two +separate creation matrixes separated by a neutral zone. There is an Ultimate Yang System and +an Ultimate Yin System. The Earth is a part of the Ultimate Yin System. + +The Ultimate Yin System is made up of many races. The human race is not alone in the +Omniverse. The most ancient race existing in form today is the Ancient Dragon. The Ancient +Dragons are not the Dragons you read of in mythology. The Ancient Dragons are far beyond +the other races in total development. Their science, philosophy, and religion is based on the +One Mind and the Void. An Ancient Dragon came to Earth and guided the development of the +planet and ultimately ensouled the World. Working with other races, the Dragon created a new +race to populate the world. This was long before the human race. The creation of the human +race is a sad tale. + +The races of the world go through a repeated pattern of creation, sustainment, and then +destruction. Out of the old race a new race is born more highly evolved than the last. The +human race though was created out of greed. There came to Earth a high technologically +advanced race from the Yang system. They came to make the Earth their own world and to +rape it of its resources. The advanced race, who we find described in greek, roman, norse, and +other mythologies as the gods or as in the Bible, Jehovah or in the Koran, Allah, created the +human race to be mindless slaves. This was so the gods could live like gods. The Ancient +Dragon would not permit such an abomination and so it ensouled the human bodies and the +human race had its beginning as an ensouled Yin race. The Yang gods were quite upset by this +for the human race became a sentient Yin race and had to be treated as such. For some time +the gods tried to continue to control man through their technology and set up religions based +on worship of the Yang principle and the gods. These religions taught absolute obedience to the +gods or God and the worship of the Yang principle. The Yang religion taught the domination of +the Earth and its creatures by humankind. The Yang religion taught the hate and sin of the +human body and procreation. This always included the subservience of the human woman to +the human male for God was male and superior and woman was the seducer and corrupter of +man. The leader of the gods was always a male god such as Zeus. They also taught that the Yin +principle of the Omniverse was chaos and evil. That the Dark principle was a destructive force +out to destroy mankind and the Earth. They personified the Yin principle as Satan, Lucifer, +Loki, Pan, Iblis, or Kali and created places of damnation for those who did not worship the +Yang principle. All this was done to maintain control over humankind and promote the Yang +principles through fear. At some point the Yang gods were required to quit having direct +contact with man perhaps when they used nuclear weapons on Sodom and Gomorrah as +recorded in the Bible. Whatever the reason, only periodic contact was allowed and that +through special religious messengers such as Krishna, Zoroaster, Jesus, and Mohammed. If +you examine the major Yang religions you will see a reoccurring theme of an evil servant +giving humankind the knowledge of good and evil and humankind turned away from +Paradise. These religions always worship the "White Light of God" and place man not woman +in so-called dominion of the Earth. Woman, the Yin-Yin Principle in the Omniverse, was +placed in deep shame and subservience to man the Yang-Yang principle. Yet on Earth, man is +Yin-Yang not Yang-Yang by virtue of the indwelling Night Spirit of the Planet. + +Every soul and spirit (terms we'll examine more fully later) of the human race is a fragment of +the indwelling Soul and Spirit of the Planet Earth. In essence, the Soul and Spirit of the +Planet Earth is God to humankind. That Soul and Spirit is the Ancient Dragon that originally +came to Earth and saved the human body from a mindless existence enslaved to the Yang race. +The Ancient Dragon is the Creator and Ensouler of this World and of each and every one of us. +The Dragon of this World is the Night Force. The Dragon of this world is Yin. + +Yin is a primal force established in the Omniverse in parallel with Yang. This planet is a Yin +world. The presence of Yang and the worship and practice of the Yang principle in religions +such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism has led to many evils in the world. + +It has led to the subservience of women. It has led to humankind following a spiritual path of +Yang in direct opposition to its Soul and Spirit's magickal orientation. This has led to much +inner confusion by humankind and this world's instability and patterns of destruction and +chaos are a direct response to this. +The Earth is a very sick body. + +Until you achieve a very, very advance point in your evolution, you'll have a physical body of +some kind. The Soul of this world has the Earth as its body and humankind is killing it. This +so- called dominion by man has poisoned the streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans of the Earth, +the Earth's circulatory system. The air, Earth's respiratory system, is poisoned. The soil itself +is poisoned, stripped mined, littered, great holes filled with non- biodegradable products. The +trees and forests destroyed wantonly, savagely, and soon the oxygen they generate will not be +enough to sustain life. Acid rain instead of the clean rains. Underground nuclear testing +disrupting the physical and etheric shell of the Earth Body not to speak of the Astral and +Higher Body damage done by this intensely Yang energy. Ozone destroying the upper +atmosphere and the protection from the harmful ultraviolet radiation. Wanton destruction of +wildlife of which some is inhabited by races of greater advancement than humankind. Just +how much longer will man act as a deadly cancer in the Earth's body. At the rate of destruction +it will not be much longer before humankind as you know it will cease to exist and that is +exactly what the Yang forces in the Omniverse want. + +Then they have the right to come and claim the Earth as they did before as recorded in the Old +Testament of the Bible and in other ancient myths. Humankind will once more find itself +enslaved and bowing before a technologically higher race as it was in the ancient days. This +must not happen! This is what Night Magick is all about. + +Teaching you the truth about your existence. Placing back into your hands the truth +concerning the Yin Primal Force of which you are a part. To give to you the tools to balance +yourself and the Earth in Oneness with the Night Spirit. What is Night Magick? + +Night Magick is the arts, rites, practices, and teachings of a Night Magician. Night Magick is +the lore of a Night Magician. The lore must be learned not only with the eyes and brain but also +with the heart. It is a way of life and must be lived to be fully understood. Night Magick is +founded on the ancient knowledge and wisdom that preceded the history of the Earth. Though +Night Magick is based on ancient teachings it is no less applicable to the modern world. Night +Magick is a magickal discipline. Through its rules, instruction, and exercises it provides for +you a code of conduct and a way of living that brings to you the greatest possible Yin growth. It +is a philosophy. The goal of a Night Magician is the Eternal Pursuit of Wisdom and Knowledge +based on the Yin Primal Force. It is a science. For through the study and practice of the lore, +you will gain greater knowledge and wisdom. Through Night Magick you will achieve +perfection in your physical, emotional, mental, and magickal natures. You will become the +sum of all that you can ever be. You will become the Night Oversoul in Consciousness and +Action. Night Magick is a lore that will achieve for you your return to the Night. I know this +has been fast and furious for you. + +For many of you, this is the first time you have been given such information or even thought +about what has been so far discussed. I promise you that I will go into greater depths on the +subjects I treated briefly and this will help you understand more thoroughly. But I wanted to +make sure you understood from the onset the principles Night Magick is based on. + +Night Magick is magick based upon the Sacred Principle of Yin. It is based on the Dark Force +that flows through your being. If you still have doubts read on and test the knowledge you find +here. You are not asked to accept anything in this book on blind faith. You will not be asked to +accept anything without first putting it to test and validating the truth. If you find some of the +information hard to understand then reflect on it for awhile. Put away the information you +find hard to accept for another time of reflection. Place into your mind and soul only those +things that you have tried, tested, and found to be truth for yourself. But at all times, keep an +open mind. That is all I ask. I think its time now to discuss who is a Night Magician. + +2. Who is a Night Magician? + +Who is a Night Magician? + +A Night Magician is Absolute Love. They are the embodiment of Dark Love that has its origin +in the Void. They are Dark Love that is free from any restrictions, limitations, or exceptions. +They are Dark Love free from dependence upon external definitions for its existence. They are +Dark Love born out of Absolute Innocence. A Night Magician is Absolute Love. + +A Night Magician is Strong Willed. They are the willpower necessary to move mountains. +They are the willpower needed to overcome the impossible. They are the willpower it takes to +overcome life's challenges and defeats. They are the willpower it requires to wield Night +Magick against their enemies and win. They are the willpower of the Eternal Darkness. A +Night Magician is Strong Willed. + +A Night Magician is Self-disciplined. They will undergo a thousand days and nights of +deprivation to achieve their goals. They are hardest upon their selves in achieving self- +mastery of Night Magick. They are the self-discipline it requires to overcome failure for a +thousandth time and once more attempt the challenge. They live in a self-imposed world of +self-discipline in order to achieve the ultimate state of being. A Night Magician is Self- +disciplined. + +A Night Magician is Patience. They are the patience required while acquiring self-mastery. +They are the patience needed when building dreams of success. They are the patience required +when waiting for the destruction of their enemies. They are the patience the Night Spirit has +in each of us and our magickal climb. A Night Magician is Patience. + +A Night Magician is a Pillar of Strength. They are the rock that will not be moved as the waves +of strife come crashing over. They are the strength needed to overcome the Forces of Yang. +They are the strength required to achieve success in life. A Night Magician is a Pillar of +Strength. + +A Night Magician is Free of Self-limitations. They are not bound by the chains of limited +thinking. They do not see themselves as just human beings made of flesh and bones but as +Ones, pure in Night Spirit, that transcend time and space. Their emotions do not master their +lives. They are the master of their emotions. They are the calm, silent, and steady Soul of the +Night. They are the Night Soul. They are the Dark Masters of Life. A Night Magician is +Freedom. + +A Night Magician is Deep Silence. They are the Deep Silence of the Night. They are like the +silence that follows the storm. They are the silence that is found in the quiet of the home. They +are the silence of the Void. They are the silence of the Night Soul. They are the silence of the +Night Dragon's sacred flight. A Night Magician is Deep Silence. + +A Night Magician is Dark Knowledge. They are knowledge found through intellectual pursuit +of the hidden mysteries. They are knowledge born out of intelligence and critical thinking. +They are knowledge discovered through intuition, meditation, and reflection. A Night +Magician is Dark Knowledge. + +A Night Magician is Nature. They are the flowers that bloom and the trees that bud in the +Spring. They are the mighty winds that blow across the world and the gentle rains that give +life to all things that grow. They are the melodic voice of the birds who sing. They are the heat +and cool waters that are found in the months of Summer. They are the storms, tornadoes, and +hurricanes. They are the frog churumping and the Night Owl hooting. They are the short +summer nights. They are the Artist's brush that paints the leaves of Fall. They are the harvest +of the crops. They are the stacked corn stalks of the fields and the pumpkins in the window +sills. They are the squirrels and chipmunks gathering up the nuts in readiness for the long +cold Winter months. They are every snow flake dancing and icicle hanging. They are the white +bunny and fox who does the chasing. They are the never ending cycle of Nature. A Night +Magician is Nature. + +A Night Magician is Life. They are passionate for their love of Life in all its aspects. They are +adventurous and courageous loving the challenge of Life. Yet they are practical, cautious and +responsible with Life. For them, Life should be faced with daring, boldness, and energy. They +loathe restriction and love the freedom found in Life. They are the Artisans of Life. A Night +Magician is Life. + +A Night Magician is the Night Soul in Action on Earth. It abides in their conscience in all the +things said or done. They are the Creative Force of the Night Soul in the way they create new +life. They are the Preservative Force of the Night Soul holding the world in perfect balance. +They are the Destructive Force of the Night Soul tearing away the illusions of the Yang. They +are the Regenerative Force of the Night Soul rebuilding the true Night World. They are Night +Soul by the way they remove us out of life's confusion. The eyes that see us, the ears that listen +to us, the mouth that speaks words of strength, the heart that pours out absolute love to us, the +strong arms and hands that hold us near, and the legs that take us far on our way, through all +of these there is the Night Spirit. A Night Magician is the Night Soul in Action on Earth. + +Who is a Night Magician? A Night Magician can be likened to a multifaceted stone of +Amethyst or Emerald of incomparable beauty. The Night Magician is as beautiful and rare as a +Black Diamond. I have just discussed many of those facets that make-up a Night Magician but +if I kept on writing for days I would never be able to cover all of them. Each facet of the Night +Magician can best be known by living it; by becoming a Night Magician. The facets I have been +covering are those found in the Night Magician who has been long on the path and has attained +much. It is anyone who will dedicate her or his life to the Night Principles found in this work. +You have to dedicate your lives to becoming all that I described a Night Magician to be in the +beginning of this topic. The teachings must again be practiced actively in your life as they were +practiced in the ancient civilizations that first came into being here on Earth. A Night +Magician is one who will put these teachings found in this work into practice in her or his life +and live them fully. + +A Night Magician is one who abides fully in the Consciousness of the Night. They are the total +embodiment of strength, solitude, patience, intelligence, courage and adventure. They are +beings free of self-limitations. They are ones who have dedicated their life to self-freedom and +perfection. They are the Night Soul in Action. There is no greater purpose in life then to be a +Night Magician. Now that you have some idea of who a Night Magician is and what Night +Magick is about, I would like to discuss why you should practice Night Magick. + +3. Why Practice Night Magick? + +Why practice Night Magick? To begin with, there is great joy and happiness in being a Night +Magician and practicing the lore of Night Magick. In practicing Night Magick you are going to +be able to see the results of your labor; and the results of that labor are going to bring you more +happiness and joy then you can imagine. You are going to derive a great sense of personal +satisfaction and accomplishment through the practice of Night Magick. Practicing Night +Magick is exciting and adventurous. + +Your life will be filled with adventure and excitement the likes of which you've never known. +It is very sad that so many people's lives are filled with boredom needlessly. Through Night +Magick avenues of travel, business adventure, intellectual pursuit, personal adventure, and +magickal conquests will open up. Night Magick will bring you personal success. + +Personal success can be measured in many ways. How about success in marriage, finances, +college, business? Or personal success in health, vitality, and longevity. Change is why you +practice Night Magick. What changes will Night Magick make in your life? + +Everything! Through the practice of Night Magick not a thing in your life will go untouched. +You practice Night Magick for these changes in your life. I can go a long way in this book to +answer specifically what kind of changes are going to take place. But ultimately it is you, after +study and practice of Night Magick, who will be able to give all the answers. Let's begin +answering the question of what kind of changes you can expect to see in your life? + +The first changes you will see, by practicing the lore, is improvement in your physical life. You +are going to have better health and a sense of renewed purpose in life. You are going to achieve +this through the practice of Night Breathing and Meditation. As you go along here there will be +new terms that you have never seen before, but be patient, for as you proceed through this book, +you will learn them all. Your life is going to be deeply enriched and health improved by the use +of colors and self-healing that you will learn. You will learn to develop and use the power +centers of your body. Once you have accomplished this, you will unleash untold power of fire +and life throughout your body. This will allow you to become the master of your life; "the +Captain of your Soul". You will then learn to overcome your fear of death and to recognize it +for what it is, a doorway into a new world. All this you can achieve through Night Magick, but +there is much, much more. + +Through the practice of Night Magick you are going to become the master of your emotions. No +longer will your emotions rule you, but you will rule them. You will learn, in dealing with your +emotions and emotional body, the ability to be able to see the higher realms. You will be able +to recognize those dreams in which a message of help and inspiration is contained and to +interpret it. You will come to know your magickal teachers and guides and ultimately you will +be able to travel in the Astral Realm. This you will achieve through the mastery of your +emotions. There is even more to learn through the practice of Night Magick. + +Through Night Magick, you will master the powers of your mind. You will achieve thought +control and be able to reach into your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind is the +repository for all that you have ever known. Think of what it will mean to have access to this +great storage vault of information. You will learn to use the pendulum and crystal globe and +never have questions unanswered. You will achieve psychometric and telepathic abilities. +Above all, you will be able to create into your world "ANYTHING" that you desire to see in it +through correct invocation and imagination. The mind is a fascinating creation boundless in +power and energy. It is multidimensional creating life in all its forms. The mind is truly a +wonderful thing when you have mastered its powers and employ it as the valuable tool it is. +But over and beyond the powers of the mind and its realm, lies the power and realm of the +Night Soul. +There are no greater powers then those of the Night Soul. It is your objective, through Night +Magick, to learn to use and manipulate these powers of the Night Soul for your benefit. +Through Night Magick, you will learn to travel into the Night Realm while still here upon +Earth. You will learn the highest form of healing. You will be able to do this healing for all +whom you know. You will learn to do the Night Rites to achieve true magickal progress. Your +progress will be highly accelerated through the Night Rites. The ultimate goal of Night Magick +is the achievement of Night Consciousness. + +There is no higher goal then this. The true union with your Oversoul, the perfection of Self, +this is the consummation of Night Magick. When you have achieved Night Consciousness, you +are of greatest service to yourself and the perfect offering unto the Night Soul. I stated before +that I would discuss the modern applications of Night Magick in today's world. I have already +covered some of those applications. + +You will have good health, less tension and nervousness, and a stronger mind. You can use +Night Magick at your everyday job. Through Night Magick, you will develop great insight that +will go a long way in assisting you in problem solving. If you are out on the highway in your +car you will be steered clear of trouble. You will avoid accidents and traffic problems. You will +be able to stay in touch with friends and love ones and know when they are in trouble or need +through Night Magick. If you have a need then you can fulfill that need by using the lore of +Night Magick. If you have lost items and wish to have them back, then you can do so. If you +need to look forward into the future and see the realm of possibilities, then you can do so. The +things you see are only possibilities and you can decide whether they will happen or not. These +are only a few of the many applications for Night Magick in the modern world. The +applications are limited only as your imagination is limited. As you learn to see with the +foresight and insight that you will develop through Night Magick, your life will indeed change. + +Night Magick will bring you a new way of living. It will seem to you that before, you were only +existing. As I have said, your physical, emotional, and mental health will vastly improve. +You will become the planner and controller of your life. Your physical surroundings will +increase in wealth. You will also acquire magickal wealth from practicing Night Magick. + +You will gain a deep sense of magickal accomplishment and growth by making it a part of your +life. You will become a positive and dynamic force in your life. Through Night Magick, you +will leave nothing or no one untouched. Night Magick, if practiced and lived with dedication, +vigor, and vitality will achieve all of this. You must not be mistaken that all of this will occur +at once. It will take patience and effort on your part to make it all happen, but happen it will. +One day you will look back on your old life and wonder how you ever made it from day to day. +But with Night Magick, a new day dawns in your life. + +Before you begin to study Night Magick I want to introduce a special way to study this work +that will help insure your understanding of the lore and success as a Night Magician. + +4. How to Study the Lore + +There is a specific way to study the lore of Night Magick. If you have been just reading this +book through as any novel, then you have been doing it the wrong way. This book is not a +novel which can be read through quickly and lightly and expect to gain anything from it. +When you study the lore in this book it must be done one topic at a time. Also, each topic must +be taken in order as it appears written in this book. Do not skip around in this book between +the different topics. Each topic was designed to be a building block upon which to find success +in the next topic. There is more to studying the lore then just sitting down and reading. Your +studying will require self-discipline, patience, perseverance, and a prescribed technique for +learning. Let's examine that technique for learning. + +To begin with, you must prepare the place that you are going to study in. If you study in the +middle of a busy living room with the children shouting and the TV blaring you aren't going to +retain or accomplish very much. So to begin with, you are going to find, what you will term, +your "Magician's Study". + +This is a physical room that you can call your own. It must be a quiet place and somewhere +where you can be alone and uninterrupted. In this room you will want a place where you can +both sit and lay down as necessary. This room will not only be used for studying but also +performing the many exercises, rites, and practices of Night Magick. This is your Magician's +Study. Now, you must attend to your own self-preparation. + +You must prepare yourself so that you are in the right frame of mind to do some serious +studying. To get into the proper mood, you should begin by taking a bath. This will help you to +relax and wash away the cares and worries of the day. If you think of it, your entire thoughts +and emotions when you come home are filled with the tensions and problems of work. The +feeling around you is made up of a problem laden job and world. Literally, a bath or shower +will do a lot to remove this tension and stress from out of your feelings. Then you should dress +to be comfortable in clean, loose fitting clothes or your robes that you will learn to make later. +Let's retire to your study. + +When you go to your study it should be at approximately the same time of day each day. Do this +if at all possible. Then you should sit down in a very comfortable chair or couch and relax as +much as possible. When you have learned to do relaxing exercises and "Night Breathing" then +you should do these before you begin to read. For now just relax and let all the worry and +tension of the day flow away. Once you are sufficiently relaxed it is time to pick-up the book. + +As stated earlier, you are going to read each topic in order. To begin reading a topic, read it +through the first time quickly and lightly. The first time you are only trying to get the "spirit" +of the topic. Once you have done this, you will then want to go back and reread the topic +through carefully and thoroughly insuring that you understand all that you read. You should +go slowly being sure that you understand all that you read. This is all that you will do in the +first reading. If there is anything that you didn't understand the first time in sitting, don't +worry about it, for it will come to you later. You are going to read the same topic on two +separate days. This is the minimum that anyone should read a topic through. + +The second time in reading, you will want to go just as slow as you did in the first reading. If +there is anything you still don't understand then just lightly think upon it and don't worry. +The answer will eventually come to you. After the second reading, if there is anything to +practice or do, this is the time to do it. Sounds easy doesn't it? + +I have just described the minimum anyone should take per topic. You should not go on to the +next topic until you are very familiar with the information in the present topic you are +studying. You should understand the current topic thoroughly and have practiced what is +required of you until you are ready to go on. Let your inner guide be your judge about when you +are ready to go on. You will find that you have to continue to practice many of the first topics +you study each day in order to eventually master them. Getting all the way through the book +having only read and practiced everything haphazardly will only insure that you are master of +none. To insure your success as a Night Magician in Night Magick, you must study as has been +outlined here. + +You must have a room in which you can be alone and uninterrupted. You must cleanse +yourselves of the outer world. You must study slowly, carefully,and thoroughly each topic. +You will have to continue to go back and study and practice daily the knowledge and exercises +until you become master of all. There is no doubt about it and should he none in your mind +that Night Magick requires study and work. The results are more then worth all the time and +energy that you can give to it. To become a Master in Night Magick; to become a Night +Magician; to reach and obtain Night Consciousness; this is your goal. Let me show you now the +life of a Night Magician and all that it entails in becoming and being a Night Magician. + +CHAPTER II + + +THE NIGHT MAGICIAN + +5. Her/His Life + +The life of a Night Magician is a very special one. You will find that a Night Magician's life is +filled with the most powerful magick. Your world will not be the same after Night Magick has +filled it. Your life will have seemed very ordinary and plain before Night Magick. Your life +will now be filled with adventure. + +When you have elected to live the life of a Night Magician you have chosen to accept a way of +life that is different than you have so far experienced. It is a life filled with study and practice +of Night Magick and the excitement and adventure that is a direct result. Night Magick will +fulfill for you your lifelong aspirations. It will be my job to present the life of a Night Magician +to you. I hope when I'm through that you will find it exciting and want to begin the adventure +of becoming a Night Magician. Let's enter then into the life of a Night Magician. +The Night Magician's life is filled with study and practice of the Night Magick lore. As you +study and practice, the Oversoul will examine and test your accomplishments. No matter who +you are, you came here to gain experience and grow from it. But upon accepting the Night +Magician's way of life the trials will increase in both number and intensity. It is not that the +lore found in this book is difficult, but that in accepting this life the Night Magician is tested +by life so that s/he may put into practice Night Magick. The Night Magician's life is going to be +filled with many trials. + +This is not out of cruelty but out of necessity. The trials are set upon the Magician to build +magickal strength and depth in the use of Night Magick. Every test in the Magician's life is to +build magickal stature and to increase it once passed. No matter whether the test is +overcoming a difficult financial situation, or the working through of a difficult marriage, or +the death of a loved one, the tests are there to help the Night Magician grow. If the Night +Magician falls then there is nothing else for her/him to do but get up, dust off the knees, and +keep going knowing that the next time when faced with a similar situation success will come. +When you accept the life of a Night Magician there will be trials and hardships. But if you are +willing to accept the difficulties and meet the challenge then you will not be overcome by them. + +You will find solutions to these trials through your knowledge of Night Magick. Through Night +Magick, you will raise your magickal vibration and grow closer to the Oneness of your +Oversoul. It is through this Oneness, and the power that flows from it and through you, that +you will be able to handle these increased tests. You are learning to become the Oversoul in all +that you say and do. No matter what the test, you must meet it in the Night Consciousness of +your Oversoul. Through this continual testing, and the placing of yourself in the Conscience +of your Oversoul, you will become One with IT. Thus you will have passed the final test on +Earth and have achieved the One Goal. You will have achieved Night Consciousness. The +Night Magician's life is thus marked by training and testing. But her/his life is not all +training and testing. For out of this training and testing will come adventure. + +The Night Magician will travel new avenues of adventure that were never there before. The +tests the Night Magician receives will take her/him to unusual places and there will be +experiences that can only be described as exciting and wonderful. The Night Magician will +experience new levels of physical well-being and sexual vitality. S/he will experience new job +challenges and opportunities as part of using Night Magick. There will be emotional and +mental experiences that break through the limited ways of feelings and thinking of old. The +Night Magician will experience increases of personal wealth. The Night Magician's life will +become aflame with purpose. + +That purpose may not always be easy to identify at first, but the Magician will feel it none the +less, deep within. Ultimately, through the Night Magician's way of life, s/he will come to know +that purpose and become it. The Night Magician is in command of her/his life. S/he sets the +trail where others will follow. The Night Magician must grab hold onto life and in everything +that s/he says and does must express the Night Soul. The Night Magician's life is filled with +purpose and it is through that purpose that s/he will unfold her/his Night Powers. The Night +Magician's purpose is her/his dream. It is what s/he must do while s/he is upon the Earth +plane. But that purpose and dream will set her/him apart from those adrift on the sea. + +The Night Magician must overcome loneliness as a result of it. S/he must overcome the +misunderstanding of others and press on. There will be many unbelievers in this world for +there are many lost in the Yang matrix, but s/he must ignore them and all else that interferes +with the dream. But if the Night Magician is truly dedicated and willing to sacrifice for the +dream, if s/he believes in her/himself and the Night Soul within and expresses only that Soul, +then the Night Magician's dream will manifest itself into the world. That dream is the Will of +the Oversoul and it will appear into the world. The Night Magician's life is marked by purpose, +dedication, sacrifice, determination, and darkest love. The Night Magician's life is darkest +magic of the highest kind. It is magick that produces deepest joy and happiness in the Night +Magician's life. It is the magick of the Oversoul on Earth. The Night Magician's life is aimed at +becoming the Oversoul in all that is done. Imagine a life that is filled with nothing but the +Nightsoul. + +In you, as a Night Magician, the Power and Absolute Love of the Oversoul comes to its fullest. +When that Power and Absolute Love flows through you and into the lives of those around you +and on out into the world itself nothing can remain as it was before. Everything that the Night +Power touches shall be made anew. It shall shine with an Amethyst/Emerald Light Divine. +This is the Night Magick of the Oversoul. This is Magick of the Highest Order and it is in the +Night Magician's life. Here you have some of the beautiful facets of the life of a Night Magician. + +Her/his life is marked by trials and testing. This is not meant to discourage you but to show +the true picture to all would-be Night Magicians. If you are to become a Night Magician then +you must truly understand all that is involved and be willing to give all that it takes. It will +take determination, courage, fortitude, and intuition in all the seemingly hardships. It will +take this to be able to grasp from the lore the knowledge required and to put it into practice; to +become a Night Magician. +The Night Magician's life is study, training, practice, and being tested. But the Night +Magician's life is much more. It is life filled with happiness and joy. It is filled with inner +peace and absolute love. It is filled with adventure and excitement. It is a life filled with +success. The Night Magician is truly in command of her/his life. S/he is the Oversoul in +action. This way of life is all that the Night Magician ever cares to know. Her/his goals for this +life are all that matters. These goals are the Night Magician's life and Night Magick will +ensure the success of achieving these goals. The life of a Night Magician is a very special one. I +would like you to travel with me now on the roadway the apprentice must follow to become a +Night Magician. + +6. The Apprentice's Unfoldment. + +What I want to do now is draw for you a road map that will take you down the road of Night +Magick. The road ahead of you is easy to get lost on just look at others around you. If you are +going to effectively follow the Night Magick road you must have signs and landmarks to guide +you and tell you how far you have come. In the next topic, I will discuss your final destination, +Night Consciousness. So let's begin our journey on the Night Road. + +From the beginning of the first descent into material creation, from the first sojourn on Earth, +it will take many sojourns before one is ready to enter the Night Road. There are many people +who are not ready for it. Their minds are so preoccupied with doing things the Yang way, they +are so lost in doing things the hard way, that they have no time for their own magickal growth. +They are so lost in the illusion of the material world and its limitations that they can not see +beyond it. You can see why it will take so many people hundreds of lives before they can see +beyond the illusion of this world and learn to use Night Magick in overcoming its so-called +limitations. I should state from the onset of this work that there are very few paths or roads +which lead to truly achieving your goals and overcoming the world of illusion. There are +many paths dedicated to the Yang Spirit which is a road of limitation, hardship, self-denial, +and poverty. It is a path that runs counter to the Soul and Spirit within you. I have tried to +present here a road to Night Consciousness which is simple in nature and language. It is a road +that requires persistence, study, courage, boldness, and self-discipline to travel but the goals +you will achieve on the way and your final attainment of the ultimate goal makes it all worth +while. There is no way of telling how long it will take to reach the ultimate goal. + +You may be able to reach it in this lifetime or it may take many lifetimes. Much will depend +upon your aptitude for Night Magick and your dedication and effort. It isn't necessary to reach +the ultimate goal in one life. There will be many goals and great changes in your life to make +traveling the road more than worthwhile. Once you have entered the Night Road, then life +after life you will return to this world taking up where you last left off. This is because a simple +decision to enter the Night Road does not mean that you will be accepted and are on your way. + +The Night Soul looks for those who are ready to travel the road. You must want to be on the +road that leads to your Night Soul more than anything else in your life. There must be nothing +more important in your life then being on the road and the desire to achieve your goals and the +ultimate goal. This decision must be more then a mental thought. This decision must be +backed by action on your part. Not only do you feel this intense desire to be on the Night Road +but you are willing to begin the work necessary to achieve it. In Night Magick, you will have +begun this work by beginning to read and put into practice the lore found in this book. There is +no way of determining how long it will take to be accepted on the Night Road. But rest assured, +if you are truly sincere about entering the road and are willing to do the work then you will be +accepted. You are the beginner, the apprentice, on the roadway to the Night Soul. Acceptance +on the Night Road is no small thing. Acceptance on the road is your first landmark and is +clearly marked. + +In Night Magick, you are an "Earth Apprentice". You have reached the first landmark and +gained entrance upon the Night Road. At this point your Oversoul will begin to take an active +interest in you. Upon your acceptance, the Oversoul actively enters into your life. You will +begin to feel the beginnings of Night Power. You will have the beginning of increased Oversoul +Power flowing into your life. But how will you know when you have been accepted? + +As said before, this acceptance is clearly marked. You will undergo an experience that will +definitely let you know you have become an Earth Apprentice. For example, you may in the +quiet of your Magician's Study, or as you are falling asleep some night, suddenly see the image +of the Oversoul in deep hues of Emerald, Amethyst, Midnight Blue and/or Silver before you. As +you continue to watch the image of your Oversoul it will start to come towards you. As the +Oversoul comes closer, you suddenly know that you are the Oversoul and Its Face is your face, +and the Oversoul enters inside you, and you feel a deep, warm glow and power radiating from +within. You know that the birth of the Oversoul has taken place within and that you are an +Earth Apprentice. As an Earth Apprentice you have become the Night Child. + +I refer to the Earth Apprentice as a Night Child for at the time of acceptance you have been +given birth into the Night World. You are now a Magickal Child of the Night Spirit. Your +Oversoul will gain new radiance and added power by actively entering into cooperation with +you. That new radiance will be seen by the Watchers and reported to the Night Guild. Your +acceptance upon the Night Road heralds your entrance into the Night Guild. + +This Guild is composed of all beings who serve the Dark Light of the Night Spirit. The +members of the Guild exist both in Higher Dimensions and upon all material planets. The +highest members of the Guild serve as Teachers and Directors of the Omniverse everywhere. +One group of members serve as Teachers and Directors over the Earth. In Night Magick, I will +refer to them as the Night Teachers. I have done this because they have risen far in magickal +evolution and are One with the Night Soul. As a new Earth Apprentice, you are watched over by +a Night Teacher who chooses to do so based on compatible nature and vibration. The +assistance of the Night Teacher is one of watchfulness and occasional guidance as you, the +Earth Apprentice, begins to journey on the Night Road. But as you continue to demonstrate +your willingness and dedication to the road you've chosen, and to the Will of your Oversoul, the +relation between you and the Night Teacher deepens. When the Night Teacher is ready and has +determined you are ready, then you will be accepted by the Night Teacher as Her/His Chela. + +The relationship between the Night Teacher and Her/His chela is a very special one. The Night +Teacher gives Her/His continual guidance, support, and power to the new chela. The Night +Teacher shares Her/His very nature with Her/His new chela. The chela may call upon the +assistance of the Night Teacher at anytime and it will be answered. Yet the chela must +remember that s/he is the beginner and that the Will of the Night Teacher should always be +followed. The Night Teacher and the Oversoul of the chela work very closely together to +achieve what must be done by the Oversoul. The Night Teacher and chela are as Mother/Father +and Daughter/Son. They share and create in the Night Power and Guild. How will you know +though who your Night Teacher is? + +There are many ways in which this may come about. You may meet Her/Him in your dreams, +or more rarely, S/he may come to you in your waking hours. For many of you, you will just +know through your sixth sense. You will come to know intuitively who your Night Teacher is. +I will go into greater depth about the Night Teachers in the later part of this book. Do not be +worried or concerned about who the Night Teacher is in your life. S/he will choose you and +guide you and you should feel secure in this matter. S/he will reveal Her/Himself to you in +Her/His own time. At this point you are now progressing upon the Night Road. + +Your first subject area to master in Night Magick will be Earth Magick. Not only will you +learn a great deal about the Earth and its Magickal Energies and Power but you will also be +altering physically and magickally. When you have achieved sufficient growth and mastery in +this area of Earth Magick you will be ready for the second landmark. If you looked at the last +landmark as the birth of the Oversoul in the your world, as your becoming the Magickal Child, +then this is "you the Oversoul" as a teenager. Here you have been transformed from the Earth +Apprentice to the Water Apprentice. + +You will begin your study of Water Magick. This is the area of Night Magick related to the +emotions and astral world. +As a Water Apprentice, you will experience an ever greater increase of the Power of the Night +Soul. You will undergo increased emotional development. You will be given experiences that +will strengthen that emotional development. As a Water Apprentice, you will gain the ability +to know Truth in all Its forms and use that in your everyday world. You will also begin to learn +control over your emotions. The Night Magician needs emotional control in order to wield +Night Magick effectively. The power you will be able to wield without emotional control could +do incredible damage which you may later regret. The Night Magician must be master of +her/his emotions not the other way around. One point I should cover is that concerning the +aura. +Until I go into more detail about it later, accept for now, that there is an energy that completely +surrounds your body and extends beyond it about one to three feet. This energy field is called +an aura. The aura reflects emotions and thoughts in people. The aura is made up of swirling +energy currents and through magickal sight the aura can be seen as colors. All of this you will +cover in greater depth in later topics. In the average person, the colors that comprise the aura +are various and many. In the Earth Apprentice, the color that is predominate in the aura is +green. In the Water Apprentice, the aura will be of a light blue. This is another indicator of +when you have been accepted on the road. The aura, as an indicator, will help you further in +identification of the next landmark. You have seen the things that you must accomplish, or be +in the process of accomplishing, in order to achieve the next landmark. You have studied +Water Magick and developed and strengthened your emotional stature. When you have +traveled far enough on the Night Road another landmark appears before you. You are about to +undergo another transformation and become the Air Apprentice. + +Here you have entered the "Oversoul as a very young adult" stage. The emphasis as an Air +Apprentice is upon mastering Air Magick or Magick of the Mind. You will be studying Air +Magick and undergo mental training. You will be developing what in Air Magick is known as +the Mental Body. Your studies in Night Magick will help develop the Mental Body. During this +phase of life you may also attend some advance education or training in the world. The mind +is a powerful instrument and its training is critical in Night Magick. You will be merging your +mind with the Higher Mind of the Oversoul. This will lead you to the last part of your journey +to becoming a Night Magician. The last landmark is ahead and you find yourself traveling +through Fire. + +Here you are the young adult Oversoul. You are the Fire Apprentice. Your studies are of Fire +Magick. Fire Magick is the Realm of the Oversoul. It is the studies of the Higher Mind and +Causal Body. You now are learning and using the Night Powers of the Oversoul. The power +that flows through your life will be like nothing you have so far experienced. This is the time +when you will be reaching adulthood in the Oversoul. You will be achieving oneness with the +Oversoul and there will no longer be a you and the Oversoul. You are about to become a true +channel through which the Night Power will flow without impediment. To experience the +Night Realm of Fire is to know life without time or space. It is being everywhere and every +time. It is knowing and seeing all that has ever been, is, and will be: and as the Silent Watcher +and Observer seeing it all unfold. It is like standing amongst the sea of stars and knowing that +this is all that you are. It is feeling and being a part of unlimited darkness and absolute love. +This is perhaps the longest part of the journey. There is much to study, experience, and develop +into. But finally like all journeys, this one comes to an end. And at the end of the Night Road, +you are no longer an Apprentice but a Night Magician. + +You and the Oversoul are One. You are the mature, adult Oversoul on Earth. Words only tend to +limit the experience of this achievement. The Night Power that you now feel is so great that +you have trouble controlling it as it surges through your material being. This experience can +never be adequately described by words but must be lived to be known. This is the point which +hails the complete union of the Higher and lower selves. The Oversoul and you are now One to +the greatest possible extent. The Causal body is now shared as One by the Oversoul and you. A +person with magickal sight of sufficient advancement will see a fully developed Causal Body +with the full and active Presence of the Oversoul within it. The aura will glow with an intense +deep amethyst/silver glow. You and the Oversoul share Its Powers and capabilities jointly. +You are One and Inseparable in Consciousness and Action with the Oversoul. You have +experienced everything that you must in life. You are now free of Karma. This is the last +material vehicle you will have to express through on Earth. You are the master of the lower +worlds. You know the cycles of birth and rebirth and know the happiness at having completed +the need to ever undergo the cycle again. You are free from life that ends in death. You have +become all knowledge, power, wisdom, and control of the Oversoul. Is your journey really +over? + +No, not really. There will always be a perfecting process going on. There will always be new +heights to climb and greater understanding to be achieved. What is included in this book as +Night Magick is really only the "tip of the iceberg". But you will always enjoy your continued +travels and adventures on the Night Road. There will always be new things to discover. There +will always be new adventures and excitement on the Night Road. I have done my best to guide +you this far on the Night Road. + +I want you to understand that this map is not set in concrete. The general course has been laid +out for you but the time you take to travel on the road and the tests and experiences you will +undergo are known only to the Oversoul. Sometimes you may detour slightly into another +area of magick and that's ok as long as it is the Will of the Oversoul. I would like now to help +you understand the Consciousness of the Oversoul. I call it Night Consciousness and it is what +you will ultimately achieve. + + +7. Night Consciousness + +There are countless numbers of Souls in creation. The Soul, that is your Oversoul, is unique +throughout the Omniverse. The consciousness of the Oversoul is separated from the +consciousness of the human being. It is possible for the two consciousness to join. This union +of consciousness I refer to as Night Consciousness. I am going to explore with you the inner +depths of Night Consciousness. You will discover things that you will have to do in order to +attain it. You will learn to live and practice it and the changes that will take place within you +as you start to acquire it. First though, we are going to examine, in greater detail, exactly what +Night Consciousness is. + +Night Consciousness, in humankind, is a state of causal, mental, emotional, and physical +being. It is becoming the Oversoul in each of these states of being. It is reaching the greatest +possible state of perfection while here on Earth. The Causal body is to the Overself what the +physical/etheric body is to humankind. Its lowest vibrational body. + +The Causal Body is the storehouse for the experiences of countless lifetimes in incarnation. +The Overself experiences life from its dimension through the Causal Body just as we experience +physical life through the physical body. When you have achieved Night Consciousness you +will be able to consciously use the Causal Body. You will be able to directly tap into awareness +of the Oversoul. This will directly effect your mental being. + +Mentally, you must achieve all that the Oversoul is. It is your mental development and +attitude which will carry you into this Magickal Consciousness. When you have mentally set +your sights upon your goal and give it all that you possible have, then you will bring it into +manifestation within you. Night Consciousness is mentally being aware of all knowledge and +wisdom of the Oversoul. You will know, whatever it is that you must know by simply tapping +into it. You will have supreme wisdom for all situations knowing just what and how to do it. +You may have never studied the subject before but the knowledge will be there when you need it. +You will have tremendous willpower and concentration. This is Night Consciousness in +humankind. Night Consciousness is more then just a mental state. It is also your emotional +state of being. + +It fills your world of feeling and changes it to perfection. It is having perfect understanding of +all situations. It is the giving of perfect, absolute love. This is love beyond the human state +that enters you into the absolute state of being. More on this in a later topic. The emotional +state in Night Consciousness is one of silence and profound solitude. It is a high state of +reflection and receptivity. It is also a state of aggression, boldness, and daring. Night +Consciousness is an emotional state of passion, courage and love of pleasure and ease. + +This Consciousness even descends into the physical state of being. Your bodies become pure, +Night Energy through Night Consciousness. The body becomes the perfect channel through +which the Oversoul may flow out into the world. Night Consciousness is perfect control and +mastery of the physical being. This is Night Consciousness in the four aspects of humankind. +Night Consciousness is many things to humankind. + +It is a state of bliss and peace that humankind has yet to know. It is a state of perfect +knowledge, wisdom, absolute love, understanding, innocence, happiness, joy, and freedom. It +is a state of awareness that words can not do justice to. Words only tend to diminish the real +understanding of the nature of Night Consciousness. Yet I have made the attempt to do so in +hopes that you would have a better understanding of what it is. Night Consciousness is the goal +of life on Earth. It is a goal worth giving your all in dedication, devotion, and determination to +in reaching it. Therefore, let's see exactly what you will have to do in reaching the Bliss of +Night Consciousness. + +The things necessary to do, to reach Night Consciousness, may at first seem to overwhelm you. +There is a great deal to accomplish if you want to reach it. But you should not be scared by the +number of things you must accomplish, nor by the feeling that some of them seem impossible +for you to do. Nothing that is described here will be impossible for you to do if you will be +determined and persistent in your efforts. To begin you must master the physical body. + +Its alright to indulge the physical body with food, pampering and passion. At the same time, +you must also balance this with physical training to maintain physical well-being. The body +is essential to every Night Magician for it is the channel through which Night Magick flows +and alters the world. Take care of it. Much of the knowledge you will gain will slowly alter the +human body changing its frequency into harmony with the Night Force. As the body changes +you will be able to increase the flow of the Night Force through you. Do everything in balance. +You must become masters of your emotional life. + +From the onset of studying Night Magick you will experience emotions. It is alright to +experience and even use the emotions in Night Magick. But at all times, you must be in control +them. You must not be ruled by jealousy, lust, pride, or selfishness. You must control anger and +hatred. These things will still try to enter into your feelings but you will gain instant control +over them. You must remain in control under all conditions. No matter how disturbing the +current challenges in your life you must remain centered. You must also maintain a balanced +mind. + +Your mind must always be centered in the silence of the Night. There is great power in the +silence of the Mind. Your mind should be fixed in self-discipline and strong-willed. Your +mind must be fixed in intellectual pursuit and critical thinking. You must maintain original +and independent thinking at all times. You will be inventive and versatile in your thinking. +Your mind set must be one of persistence, patience and persevering. Your mind will at times be +required to act in a reserved and cautious manner and at other times courageous, bold, and +gallant. Flexibility to meet the ever changing challenges is the key of Night Consciousness. +You must be temperate, wise, and poised in all things. These are just a few of the things +necessary for you to reach Night Consciousness. + +They are not easy to master. Yet they must be mastered and put actively into your life. You +must live and practice Night Consciousness from the very beginning. This topic is placed early +in the book because it is the first thing which you will have to learn and begin practicing in +Night Magick. If you are to have any success at all in Night Magick, you will have to practice +and master this topic. In all other subjects you will study and master in this book, Night +Consciousness is of the most importance. It will bring you success in all other things you +attempt in Night Magick. How then do you practice and live Night Consciousness? + +To begin, you must live the life of the Oversoul. You must be consciously aware of the Night +Power that flows through you from your Oversoul. Everywhere you go, you must constantly +remain in the Consciousness of the Oversoul. You must know that you are the Oversoul and +radiate Night Power. You must speak and act as the Oversoul. You must gain a very special +attitude towards life. You must learn to be in the world but not of it. You must not become lost +in the illusions of limitations. With the aid of Night Magick you will want for nothing but at +the same time you must never allow material possessions to possess you. Your magickal life +must be balanced by your practical life. You must give each part of your life equal time. Your +practical life should be filled with your magickal nature. You must learn to take each day, one +at a time. It is wrong to worry about tomorrow for in Night Consciousness your destiny of +success is assured. You must learn to obey your Oversoul as you would yourself for in reality +you and the Oversoul are One. All of your needs will be taken care of through Night +Consciousness. That doesn't mean you can just sit back and do nothing. You must give your +full effort to life but without worry or concern about your future. If you are following the Night +Road to Night Consciousness, then the outcome is clear. There is also one other thing that you +can do to enhance your attaining Night Consciousness until you become more adept in Night +Magick. + +In your pursuit of Night Consciousness you will be greatly benefitted if you will get out into the +outdoors as much as possible. The beauty, peace, and power of nature will do much in restoring +and helping to maintain your Oversoul Nature. The Earth is a storehouse of Night Energy and +by your visits to those places where the Earth has been relatively untouched you will be able to +absorb the Night Energy. If you begin to practice what I just covered and continue to study and +practice Night Magick then you will eventually reach Night Consciousness. But only your +Oversoul knows all the things necessary for you to do to reach Night Consciousness and the +time required to do so. So you must be untiring in your efforts to reach it and know that it will +come. You must come to know that there is no separation in Consciousness between you and +your Oversoul. There are signs which will indicate to you that you are starting to approach +Night Consciousness. + +There are changes that will take place within you all along the road to your final destination. +These changes will help reassure you that you are making progress. One of the first significant +changes in your life will be a new powerful inner vibration. + +You will become charged with a new zest for life. The Oversoul Power will flow through you +and raise every cell in your body in a glorious fire. You will find you will need less sleep and +yet your energy will remain very high. You will find that your health will be greatly improved +and that your breathing will come much easier. Your body will become the Body of your +Oversoul. You will find yourselves growing more in the ways of the Silver Rule. You may do +anything that you want if you always maintain the Eternal Night Balance. You will begin to +hear an Inner Voice who will be your instructor and guardian. This Inner Voice will be that of +your Oversoul and/or Night Teacher who will guide you and care for you. This will cause you to +develop flashes of intuition. These brief moments of insight should be carefully listened to +and followed. If you do, then the help will continue to come to you. You will find that your +knowledge seems to increase within you. You will gain an understanding of things that you +never seemed to understand before. You will instinctively seem to know what to do about a +particular problem. For example, if your car breaks down you will know almost immediately +what is wrong with it and if possible, how to repair it. You will also come to know Truth from +untruth. It doesn't matter whether that source originates from a person, reading material, or +whatever, you will know whether what is said is True or not. Nothing will be able to hide from +your inner knowing and vision. This is also about the time when your lower psychic abilities +and faculties start to open up. You will learn a great deal about them later in the book. They +will give you abilities and powers beyond that of other people. Therefore you must be careful in +using them such that the Eternal Night Balance is always maintained. Do not worry about +these centers for now in a later topic you will be given what you need to maintain control. You +will feel a greater need for solitude and a time away from people. There are more indications of +approaching Night Consciousness and you will learn more about them as you continue your +studies of Night Magick. Remember, Night Consciousness is a physical, emotional, mental, +and causal development. + You know some of the things to concentrate on to help develop this consciousness. As I just +said you will learn more of the essentials to help develop this consciousness as you learn Night +Magick. You have also learned some of the indicators of your developing Night Consciousness +and when you finally reach it you will know it. What is required is effort, dedication, +persistence, self-discipline and study. With all this, you will achieve Night Consciousness. +Combined with Night Magick there won't be a thing you can't achieve. Your imagination and +dreams are the only limits in Night Magick. From this point in your study of Night Magick, I +would like to go over the principles upon which a Night Magician's life is based. + +CHAPTER III + + +BEGINNING NIGHT MAGICK + +8. Standards and Principles of Practicing Night Magick + +You are about to embark on the Night Road of learning Night Magick and achieving Night +Consciousness. There are certain standards and practices which you must include in your life +while on the Road. I have covered a few of them already but I will go into greater depth over +some of them and cover some additional standards and principles to insure your success. + +The Silver Rule (silver being a precious metal to the Night Force) is "you may do anything that +you want if you always maintain the Eternal Night Balance". The Eternal Night Balance is a +fundamental law of the Night Force. Balance in the Omniverse is a vital factor to order within +the Eternal Night. For everything you take from the Eternal Night you must give back to the +Eternal Night in equal measure. This does not mean of course that if through Night Magick, +using the energy of the Night Force, you acquire wealth that you must give money back to the +Night Force. It means that the amount of energy used to accomplish something must be +returned in full. This keeping of the Eternal Night Balance is an intuitive matter that is easy +to maintain when working within Night Consciousness. Therefore, before using Night Magick +to accomplish any event, always work within the consciousness of the Oversoul to be able to +maintain the Balance. There also follows another major principle within which you must +practice Night Magick. This is the "Law of Night Magick". + +The Law of Night Magick is "there is nothing impossible when you are One with the Night +Force". I mean absolutely nothing. Always remember this fundamental law and believe it with +all your might. Remember that everything you do in life is Night Magick. It should be done in +Night Consciousness. Your whole life is now an expression of Night Magick and +Consciousness. There is nothing you cannot do. I'd like to turn for the moment to the +principles governing the Night Magician and the world as a whole. + +You will find the world to be rather hostile to you concerning Night Magick. The religions of +the world are predominantly Yang. The majority of people have been conditioned to respond +in a Yang manner. Yang and Yin are opposite forces which do not mix well. From Night +Consciousness's view, each soul is responsible for its own world. Each soul determines much +of its life and the quality of that life before coming here. There is some predestination in all +lives yet there is much which is not. If individuals are poor and/or homeless then this gives +the Oversoul that experience. If souls are wealthy then that is another experience. This world +offers a myriad of different experiences for the Oversoul to live and experience. The Oversoul +lives many lives on Earth in order to get a well-rounded education. The Earth can be a very +rough school and souls here are experiencing in essence the first grade of life. When the +Oversoul has experienced all the lessons it deems necessary then It moves on to a new world +with more advanced lessons to be learned. This system is called reincarnation and is very +difficult for much of the world to except. + +They would rather explain much of the world's problems and their own as the fault of someone +else. The Christians blame Satan for the ills of the world. There are many people who blame +their government. Others blame other people and their not caring about their fellow human. +The Night Magician blames no one. + +The Night Magician knows that her/his beginnings on this planet are chosen from the other +side of life. S/he chooses her/his parents, race, sex, country, and many of the future events +before arriving to insure that the necessary lessons for this life are achieved. It may sound +terrible but a woman may actually chose to be raped in order to gain that experience and learn +from it. There are children born bad. They are souls who previously raped, murdered, robbed, +etc. and are returning little changed from their previous lives. Human souls are not born +innocent regardless of how innocent that baby looks in her/his cradle. They have lived before +on Earth and are returning little changed from when they last lived on Earth. They are a +bundle of possibilities and potentials and already have the beginnings of personality for this +life. You arrive the same way but as a Night Magician you must take charge of your life. +If you don't like it then change it. Use Night Magick to alter your world. Some parts of life are +predestined but many are not. The free times feel like your adrift on a sea without much +direction. This is the time to chose a new direction. You shouldn't get involved in changing all +the world's ills. + +I believe someone said before that there will always be the poor and hungry. This is true +because this world requires those experiences for a certain group of souls. There will always be +crime because there will always be others who want what someone else has. There are +experiences of hardship, suffering, crime, poverty, hunger, divorce, physical and sexual abuse, +and a thousand more like it. There are experiences of wealth, fame, comfort, peace, happy +marriage, beautiful children, successful career, and a thousand more like it, too. The Oversoul +needs all these experience possibilities. The Night Magician chooses her/his experiences and +controls them through Night Magick. The Night Magician knows that the rest of the world +chooses their experiences too and lives them the best they can so that the Oversoul may gain +experience. Help the other soul when led by your Oversoul to do so. But have no guilt, nor +interfere in another soul's existence, when in Night Consciousness you know that what they +are experiencing is necessary. The practice of Night Magick requires that the affairs of your +world move with a steady, even pace. + +There is no set limit as to how fast this pace may be. Setting limits upon pace is a relative +matter. But the pace must be even and steady. Do not become so embroiled in the everyday +routines of the hustling, bustling world that your world is conducted without Night Magick. +You must have a magickal attitude while in the world. You must keep your consciousness +raised above the mire and limitations of the world. You must approach life with passion and +zest. + +In Night Consciousness, life is an adventure. Life is usually made up of one adventure after +another. Everything that has happened to you is a type of adventure that requires your use of +Night Magick to see it through. There are adventures which you may feel have had an unhappy +ending. Perhaps that ending did not have to occur with the use of Night Magick. If you are in +the Night Flow and something bad seems to have happened perhaps there was a reason. Use +Night Magick to find out. Use Night Magick to correct the situation. Do all this in Night +Consciousness. There will be times when you must approach life with courage, boldness, and +energy. There will be other times when you must use caution, prudence, and reflection. +Approach life from Night Consciousness and you will always know what to do. In Night +Consciousness, life is art. + +You are the Night Magician. You are the artist. Create! Create any kind of life you want. Your +imagination is the limit. Fill your life with passion and love. Fill your life with honor, +dignity, and pride in the works you create. As the artist be inventive and imaginative in what +you create as your life. If you want wealth that is fine. If you want pleasure and ease that is +fine. Remember, Night Balance in what you create. The Night Magician operates from a point +of solitude. + +The Night Magician is a solitary worker. This doesn't mean you won't have friends. You may +be a very active person socially with many friends. You can even practice Night Magick +collectively in groups. But ultimately, the Night Magician is a solitary worker. The Night +Magician must achieve mastery in Night Magick and Night Consciousness on her/his own. No +one else can do this for you. I can show you how to practice Night Magick and give you the keys +to obtaining Night Consciousness but I can't bestow upon you, mastery in Night Magick or +Night Consciousness. This you must do on your own with study, self- discipline, effort and +energy. + +Night Magick is for those willing to pursue knowledge. It takes knowledge not faith to become +a Night Magician. It takes a lover of independent thinking. One who is free of convention and +is not a sheep in the world. It takes mental precision and intelligence to master Night Magick. +It will require will power and perseverance to overcome obstacles when they show up. You +must learn control of thoughts. You will hear this over and over, "thoughts are things". I don't +know who first said this but remember it. If you think thoughts of poverty then guess what, +you are poor. If you wish some one dead, even idly, then they may die. Through Night Magick, +thoughts become things with purpose. Learn control of your thoughts from the onset. +Emotions are also part of this. + +Emotions add energy to thoughts. So you must also learn to control emotions. Emotions, like +thoughts, are energy and energy changes the world around you. I am not limiting any thoughts +or emotions from your world. You are free to think and feel anything you want. But +remember, thoughts and emotions will change the world around you and you are responsible +for those changes. Keep the Eternal Night Balance. Remember the Silver Rule and you will +have no problems. You need to take care of your physical body. + +Night Magicians come in all shapes and sizes. There are no requirements in this area. What is +important is the physical body is the ultimate channel through which the Night Force flows +out into the world. You need to keep that channel as in tuned with the Night Force as possible. +You will learn techniques to do this shortly. Try to maintain oneness with your Oversoul and +the Night Force by keeping them in your thoughts and emotions at all time. This will help +maintain the balance. It is alright to smoke, eat, and provide the body with physical pleasure. +But balance is again important to your practicing Night Magick. You can't practice Night +Magick if you die of overeating, heart attack, or cancer. You will learn to control your +thoughts and emotions to help prevent these things. But if you go too far one way then all your +knowledge won't help if the body can't act as a channel for the Night Force. Balance pleasure +with physical exercise, breathing exercises with smoking, and right thoughts and emotions +that will control the stress and pressures in your life. I want to talk to you about drugs. + +Their use is a very popular thing. In the right hands drugs can be very beneficial to human +health. Magickally, drugs have been used to induce certain mental and emotional states. In +the case of Night Magick, DON'T USE THEM! Drugs have more then a physical effect. They +alter the etheric, astral, and mental bodies. Drugs can do severe damage to these bodies that +may take many "lifetimes" to repair. I assure you that there is nothing drugs can do for you +that Night Magick can't do for you. There is no high or altered state that Night Magick can't +achieve for you. +Drugs can so alter your many bodies that by using Night Magick you will place yourself in +danger of losing your physical life. Moreover, you may lose your emotional and mental +stability that will require hospitalization. So far, I have not limited you in thought or action +in this book. But in this case, be warned. Do not use drugs. If you are using prescription drugs +under a physician's care and they severely alter your state of being then for that time don't +practice Night Magick. Wait till you no longer need the drugs. Under drugs I am also including +alcohol. On occasion you may feel like getting drunk. As you progress in Night Consciousness +you will eventually be able to drink and not get drunk. For most, that is a long time from now. +Drinking, to a lesser degree, alters the physical, etheric, astral, and mental bodies. The effects +are usually not as damaging unless you overdose on alcohol. Drinking in moderation is fine. +There is nothing wrong with an occasional drink. For some though, an occasional drink +becomes overuse of alcohol which ultimately will have the same effect as non-alcohol drugs. +Again, do not practice Night Magick while under the influence of alcohol regardless of the +amount of alcohol. It has the same possible effect as non-alcohol drugs. Let's go on to sex. + +In today's world one usually talks about sex after talking about drugs. Sex is great. With Night +Magick, sex is going to become fantastic. The energy that is going to flow through you during +orgasm will give you the ultimate orgasms of your life. There are though some rules that apply +to this area. + +It should be obvious that you must practice "safe sex". The male should use a condom and the +woman should be sure he uses it. No matter how close you are to your spouse or circle of friends +unless you're sure of their monogamy, men use condoms. Women should also use +contraceptives to prevent pregnancy. Men should learn how to put on condoms to insure they +don't break and never use petroleum products that will cause the latex to break. Women should +also know how to put a condom on a man to insure the man does it right. You may find that as +you increase in Night Consciousness and the flow of the Night Force increases that the only +time you will achieve those ultimate orgasms is when the partner is also practicing Night +Magick. + +In Night Magick, concerning sex, it doesn't matter whether the couple is heterosexual, male- +male, female-female. It doesn't matter if the couple act alone. It doesn't matter if there is a +man and more then one woman or a woman and more then one man to the couple. It doesn't +matter if there is a group of couples of all polarities. It doesn't matter if the group is exclusively +men or women. What really makes the difference is if everyone is practicing Night Magick. + +When all are practicing Night Magick then all are in the Night Flow. Everyone present will +have some increase of energy flowing through them. All will feel the bond of Night +Consciousness. In Night Magick there is no jealousy or possessiveness. In Night Magick there +is no Judeo-Christian, or Moslem, or Mormon, or any oppressive religious hang-ups about sex. +Each Night Magician is independent and free. Marriage under Night Magick is not one of +possession but of mutual cooperation and love. + +Group marriage is a very real possibility under Night Magick because a Night Magician honors +independence, freedom, and equality in action among Night Magicians. There is no jealousy +or possessiveness among Night Magicians. Women and Men have equal rights in Night Magick +and Consciousness and in the world itself. But marriage between a Night Magician and non- +practicing human being rarely works out. +Ultimately, the Night Magician changes so much that the spouse no longer understands the +Night Magician. It is very rare to find a spouse who will understand the Night Magician and +their way of life. The marriage often ends in divorce. But it is better to divorce and remain +friends then to stay in a marriage which creates hostility and resentment. There is no balance +in such a marriage. Many are made to feel guilty if there are children involved and stay +married although there is hostility and resentment between them. I believe it is better for +everyone involved if the couple divorce, and even if they can't remain friends, to at least +remain cooperative and fair with each other concerning settlement and visitation. Balance +and harmony are important in a Night Magician's life. It is important to her/his success on +the Night Road. Also important to this success and of a more concrete nature are Magickal +Tools. + +Down through the ages the Ancient Night Magicians have used many different types of tools +and implements in the practice of the Ancient Art. You too are going to need Magickal Tools +and in the next topic I will help you attain these tools. + +9. A Night Magician's Tools and Weapons + +These are the Night Tools a Night Magician will need to set the proper atmosphere and conduct +the basic rites. You will conduct these rites in the room you have designated as your Magician's +Study within the Magick Circle which you will define its area with the Night Cord. + +This cord should be made of silk, cotton, or wool. The cord needs to be long enough so that +when it is laid down on the floor it will form a circle that contains the altar and yourself. If +there are more people then yourself conducting Night Magick or even possibly just observing +then you will need a long enough length to make a large enough circle to contain them. Within +the Night Circle you will build the Night Altar. + +The Night Altar is symbolic for your physical being in which is focused the Night Spirit. You +will build an altar upon which you will focus your Powers of Eternal Darkness here on the +Earth plane. It is best to keep it simple. The basic structure can be a small table, box, or +anything which is sturdy. The altar should be about three feet wide by six feet long. The height +of the Night Altar is your decision. You can have one which is at waist height when you are +standing and one for when you are sitting. It is best to have both in your magickal inventory. +Place the Night Altar so that when you are standing or sitting behind it you are facing North. +Use a compass if necessary so that you can place it facing North. Then cover the Night Altar +with a cloth of your choice. If at all possible choose a black, red, or silver colored cloth. It is +best if the cloth has no distinctive pattern on the surface portion of the altar. This is your +Night Altar. You then must place upon it some very special articles. + +Upon the altar and towards the back left side place a red candle and on the right side place a +black candle. On the left side and in front of the red candle place an incense holder and on the +right place your copy of Night Magick. You may also place any other small trinkets that help +build your feeling of Night Magick. Dragons, wizards, owls, and so on are fine. The Night Altar +is a sacred symbol before which you come to release Night Power. It is the physical symbol of +your body and heart and serves the same purpose: an anchor of the Night Force. You will need +a good supply of incense to fill the incense holder on your Night Altar. Through trial and error +you will find the right incense that fits your personal vibration. Each incense creates a +vibration in the air and as you grow more magickal, you will be ever more sensitive to its +vibration. Incense, which is of the stick variety and is thick in nature is good or you may have +a small charcoal brazier and powdered incense. On the Night Altar you will also need the +following things: a silver or crystal dish of sea salt; a vial of patchouli oil; a crystal bowl of +water; a silver or crystal chalice; and a silver or crystal bell. Now all these articles sit on a +Pentacle which is in the center of the Night Altar. + +The Pentacle is a symbol of the Earth. It is a round plate made of wood and inscribed with +sacred symbols of Night Magick. The plate is thirteen inches in diameter. For an example of +such a plate and the layout of the articles see Figure 1. Then you will need a loose leaf notebook +which will become your Night Magician's Grimoire. + +From the very beginning of Night Magick you will have practices, exercises, and rites to +perform and grow from. After each practice, exercise, or rite you should develop a grimoire +which records the date, time, and experiences felt in that session. Record in as much detail as +possible the successes and difficulties experienced. Keep a separate section for each type of +practice, exercise, and rite. This will allow you to see your progress in each and to help you see +where your difficulties are and how to possibly solve them. Be faithful and accurate in all +entries made and this record will help speed your progress. These are your Night Tools. Next +you will need your Night Weapons the first of which is a Night Amulet. + +You need to make for yourself an amulet of black quartz crystal. This is a grounding and power +stone of Night Force. If you want, the necklace the stone hangs from can also be made from +quartz. I recommend though that the necklace be made of silver or amethyst. This will help +balance the power of the black quartz stone. The Night Amulet will help keep your physical +body in tune with the Night Force. You can tune into the Night Amulet and by holding it +increase your vibration in the Night Force. You will also need to make a Night Ring. + +This should be a ring made of silver. You can set the Night Ring with any combination of +amethyst, black quartz, emerald, ruby, or diamond. A plain band of silver is fine. You may +later want to add Night Runes and Night Magick Symbols to the Night Ring as you learn them. +The Night Ring is a symbol of union with the Night Force. Next you need to make your Night +Wand. + +The wand should be about thirteen inches long. It should be made of wood or silver. You may +encrust the wand with a combination of semi-precious and precious jewels. You may inscribe +the Night Wand with Night Runes and Symbols. You will find these in Appendix C. You may +place a crystal at either or both ends of the wand. The Night Wand is a focus of the Night +Energy that leaves your body to be transmitted to an object or place. You now need to make a +Night Staff. + +The Night Staff is a symbol of Night Guidance, Power, and Authority. The Night Staff is to be +made of wood. The kind of wood is left up to you but it should be one which you are in harmony +with. The Night Staff should be approximately six feet high. You should leave the staff in its +natural state or paint it black, red or silver if you feel its necessary. As said earlier, the Night +Staff is a symbol of true Night Power and the Night Spirit's support to you. You will need a +Night Athame. + +This is a small dagger whose blade and handle is about twelve inches in length. This is used for +ceremonial purposes only. Do not use this knife for cutting. You may want to place special +symbols on the handle and/or blade to add magickal importance to your athame. Make for +your Night Athame a scabbard which you can place on a belt on your person. You will also +need a Night Sword. + +You can use any style of sword. Japanese samurai, scimitar, cavalry sword, or excalibur style +sword. You should also have a scabbard which you keep the sword in and attach it to your side +under your Night Cape. Of course, the next item you need is a Night Cape. + +There is an easy way to make the Night Cape. Take enough cloth so that you have a square +which is twice your height long on each side. Now go to the center of the cloth, and using a +string that is half the length of one side of the cloth and on one end has a chalk stick attached, +draw a circle on the cloth that has the radius of half the length of one side of the cloth. Also +draw from the center a circle that has a radius of three inches. Now cut out the small circle +and the large circle. Then place a slit from one edge of the small circle you just cut down the +center of the cloth and through the edge. Sew ties into the material on the edge you just cut and +near the top of the cape. You will also need to make a hood that will cover your entire head and +will go over the head far enough to cover the face. You may attach the hood to the cape. See +figure ___. The Night Cape serves a valuable purpose. + +The Night Cape acts as an insulator to the outside forces that surround you. It will help block +them out of your inner world and keep them from interfering in your magickal operations. +Keep the cape secured in a cloth bag and put it where no one else may touch or bother it. Use it +only in the practice of Night Magick. Next you will need to make the Night Plate. + +Actually this is a breast plate. The basic shape and size of this plate is given in Figure __. You +may change the size and shape as fits you best. You may place upon the plate Night Symbols +and Runes. You may also want to place stones of black quartz, amethyst, emerald, ruby, or +diamond on it. The color of the plate should be black with runes and symbols in red and silver. +Finally you will need to make a Night Shield. + +The Night Shield is patterned after the shields used by knights of chivalry. Some basic shapes +and sizes are given in Figure ___. Again the background should be black and symbols and +runes should be in red and silver. The runes and symbols you place on the shield as with the +Night Plate should help you increase your feeling of strength and courage in Night Magick. +These runes and symbols should help place you in Night Consciousness. The Night Magician's +Tools and Weapons are very valuable to you. +They provide for you a means to advance in Night Magick. They provide the proper +atmosphere in which to practice the lore of Night Magick. There are other devices that will be +needed as you progress in your studies. As a rule, each will be relatively simple to acquire. +They will be brought to your attention as you proceed. The Night Magician's Tools and +Weapons given here are those which you will need before you proceed further in Night Magick. +Once you have your tools and weapons made it is time to select your Night Name. + +10. Your Magickal Night Name + +The true name given to anything is very important. A true name contains the essence of that +entity. It describes the differences and qualities of that entity. To know the true name of a +thing is to imply acquisition and knowledge of that essence. To know the true name gives you +dominion over it. The name that you as a Night Magician will choose is of great importance. + +You will select a Night Name which to you contains the very essence of your Inner Nature. This +name may be the same as a famous personage you wish to emulate or a famous saying or motto. +For example, you may choose a name such as Merlin, Saint Germain, Abra-Melin, Mithratar, +or any other name that strikes your imagination and heart. You may choose a name from a +saying or motto. A Night Name will help to build-up your Night Essence, your feeling of Night +Consciousness and will quicken your magickal vibration. This name should be given to no +one else to know. It is your own Magickal Name that when used will bring you to Night +Consciousness. Now, you must choose a second name. + +This is the name that you will be known outwardly by to fellow Night Magicians. You should +pattern this name after something unlike your Night Name. This name will be used on all +correspondence with other Night Magicians and any published writings. The second name is +your public name and is used in such rites and exercises. Remember, to know the name of a +thing is to know its Eternal Essence and to have dominion over it. + +In selecting a magickal name you are defining that Inner Essence. To tell another is to give +him access to your Inner Nature. He may reach you and make demands of you whenever he +chooses by knowing your inner name. Do not reveal it for any reason. You should always use +your second or outer name as Night Magicians. To do so will insure that you will never be +bothered here or hereafter. Both names are important and should be selected to help bring you +into your Night Consciousness. Your Night Name will bring you closer into the aura of Night +Magick. Having selected your Night Name you now must learn Magickal Protection in order to +conduct Night Magick safe from outside influences. + +11. Night Pillar + +What you are about to learn is perhaps the most valuable Night Tool you will ever acquire. +There are many forces in the world which will attempt to do you harm if you practice Night +Magick. By harm, I don't necessarily mean physical violence although that is possible. I am +talking about the threat of harm to your subtle bodies: Astral, Mental, and Causal bodies. +Harm to these bodies could cause serious emotional and mental sickness. There is also the +threat of attack to your Etheric which usually translates to physical harm. For Night +Magicians there is a serious threat of attack from Yang followers. This could be from so- +called White Magicians and their use of magick against you. It could come from Christians, +Jews, Muslims and so on. Attacks can come from collective emotional or mental energy meant +to harm a Night Magician. A group of Yang worshipers gathered together in prayer praying for +the demise of all Night Magicians everywhere could build up enough energy to harm the +unprotected Night Magician. As you grow more magickal you will become very sensitive to +subtle energies around you. Attacks could come from anyone who wishes you harm. You will +need protection. You will need to build the Night Pillar. The Night Pillar is not just for +protection. + +The Night Pillar also acts as an invisible wall which will contain the energy you will be +creating through Night Magick. This will allow you to build-up the energy to a great intensity +before you release it to accomplish your will. This will increase the effectiveness of the +magickal rites you create. So how do you build the Night Pillar. + +You begin by calming and clearing your mind of extraneous thoughts. Close your eyes and +visualize the Night Energy collecting around your form. See the Night Energy forming a pillar +of protective force that extends around you about six feet. See that energy flowing below your +feet and above your head. See yourself in a pillar of deep violet and emerald energies. See +yourself in a pillar of darkest night. Know that you cannot be harmed while contained in the +Night Pillar. Now say the following invocation: + +"I am a Night Magician surrounded in a Pillar of Night Energy that cannot be penetrated. It +repels all energy that would harm me. It repels all thoughts and emotional energy of my +enemies. Through the Power of my Oversoul, I am protected in a Pillar of Night Energy and +cannot be harmed. May this Night Pillar remain around me at all times keeping me out of +harms way. So be it." + +Say this invocation and visualize the Night Pillar around you until you can feel its protection. +This energy comes from the Oversoul within. As you begin the invocation the Oversoul extends +the Night Energy into your world through the silver cord. The silver cord is your life line to +your Oversoul and through it all energy passes to you which sustains your life on Earth. You +can invoke more of this energy and power into your life when you work in conscious union +with your Oversoul. There are many different kinds of energy which can be invoked into your +world through the Oversoul. The Night Energy of Protection is only one of them. You will +learn about many more types of energy you can invoke and use towards the end of the book. +What you want to remember about the Night Pillar is to use it often. + +Always place the Night Pillar around you before you work Night Magick. Always place +yourself in the Night Pillar at the beginning of each day. The more you use it the stronger it +will become. The Pillar will protect you from all physical and psychic harm. You must learn +to consciously keep the Night Pillar around you all the time. You should always remain in the +Night Pillar. Everything that you practice in the lore of Night Magick should begin with the +Night Pillar. You must always do this whether it's stated so or not. Through the Night Pillar +you will safely live and learn in Night Magick. You now have built a strong foundation upon +which to live and practice Night Magick. You have learned what it is to be a Night Magician +and to practice the lore of Night Magick. If you are ready to begin using Night Magick then let's +consecrate your Night Study and Tools. + +12. Invocation to Night Magick + +This is a most sacred time in your life for it marks the beginning of your entry into Night +Magick. You are going to perform a very sacred rite to mark your entry. You will, in this +solemn rite, dedicate your physical, emotional, mental, and magickal energies to the practice +of Night Magick. This rite is meant to convey to you the seriousness and importance with +which you should view Night Magick. In this rite, you will learn the basics which will begin +every ritual you will learn. In this rite, you will invoke the Night Energy into your Night Tools +and Weapons and make them yours and yours alone. The Night Tools and Weapons will then +be sacred and contain the Power of the Night. To begin, you must have your Magician's Study +and Night Altar prepared. + +To do this, have all your Night Tools and Weapons laid out on the Night Altar. Have the cord +laid on the floor in a circle around the Night Altar. On the Night Altar you should now light +the candles and the incense. Your bowl should be full of water and your chalice should contain +wine or grape juice. Be sure and turn off the phones and lock the doors so you won't be +disturbed. Once you have accomplished this be sure and have your Night Name selected. It is +this name you will use in the performance of this rite. Now for the actual ritual. + +You will begin by invoking the Night Pillar. Standing before your Night Altar and with your +eyes closed see the Protective Night Energy pouring down from the Oversoul above you, through +your head, on into your heart, and out into the study completely surrounding and +interpenetrating the room. See the Light continuing through you and on into the Earth. At +this point you should repeat the Night Pillar Invocation given earlier. Feel the Night Energy +concentrate deeply within the circle boundary outlined by the cord. + +Now pick up the bell and ring it six times in each major direction, that is North, South, East +and West. Then repeat the following invocation, "I who am (give your Night Name) summon +the Presence of all Deities in the Night Force to attend my ritual of Eternal Night. To witness +my consecration of my Night Tools in the service of the Eternal Darkness. We now stand in the +Eternal Night beyond time and space. Come and witness my Ritual of the Night". After this, +pick up the salt container, and repeat the following: "By my sacred name, (give your Night +Name), through the Presence of my Oversoul and the Eternal Earth Deities, I invoke the Earth +Night Power into this container of salt and now place the salt upon the earth to mark the +boundary of my sacred circle." Visualize the Earth Deities filling the vessel with their power. +Pinch a little salt lightly between your fingers dropping it on the floor over the cord going +completely around the circle. BE CAREFUL NOT TO STEP OUTSIDE THE CIRCLE FOR THE +REMAINDER OF THE RITUAL. Place the salt container back on the Night Altar and pick up +the crystal bowl of water. Repeat the following: "May the Presence of my Oversoul and the +Eternal Water Deities fill this water and container and endow it with the Water Night Power." +Visualize the Water Deities of the Earth filling the vessel with the power. With your left hand +dip it into the water and sprinkle lightly the boundary you have already marked with the salt. +Place the water bowl back on the altar and pick up the incense burner. + +Repeat the following: "Let the Presence of the Four Winds of the Earth enter into the incense +burner filling it with Air Night Power". Now face each direction, rotating counterclockwise, +and see the Presence of each Wind Deity enter into the incense burner. Then circle four times +in a counterclockwise manner around and within the Magick Circle. Place the incense burner +back on the Night Altar and pick up the candle. + +Repeat the following: "May the Presence of my Oversoul and the Fire Deities of the Earth place +their sacred flame here within my candles and upon my Night Altar." See the Fire Deities +come and dance around the flames and upon your altar. Place the candle back where it came +from and pick up the chalice of wine or juice. + +Repeat the following: "Let the Presence of my Oversoul and the Eternal Darkness enter into the +liquid and fill it with the Power of the Eternal Night. May this elixir give me strength, healing, +and courage each day of my life." Feel the Power flow through you and into the chalice. See the +energy collect and concentrate till the chalice glows with Night Energy. Then drink the liquid +and your ready to consecrate the other Night Tools. + +You will begin with the oil so pick it up and repeat the following: "Let this oil be made sacred +and filled with the Power of the Night. Let the Presence of the Oversoul and Night Spirit touch +it with their might, courage, solitude, and darkness. For the oil is now sacred and made for +anointing the Weapons of a Night Magician." Take a small amount of oil and touch the +Pentacle and state, "May the Night Force flow into this Pentacle and bless all things laid on it". +Now it is time to anoint each weapon in your sacred arsenal. + +You will pick up each Night Weapon, one at a time, and while placing a small amount of oil on +each tool, repeat the following: "Through the Presence of my Oversoul and the Eternal +Darkness, I (Night Name), consecrate this Night Weapon in the service of Night Magick and the +Eternal Night." Do this with the Night Amulet, Ring, Wand, Staff, Grimoire, Athame, Sword, +Plate, Shield, and Cape. Now put the Night Amulet, Ring, Plate, Athame and Sword on your +body. Place the Grimoire in the front center edge of your Night Altar. Put on the Night Cape. +Place the Night Shield over your left forearm and in the left hand hold the Night Wand and in +the right hold the Night Staff and state the following: "I,(give your Night Name), commit my all +to the Oversoul and the Night Spirit within, and to the dedication of my Magickal Energies to +the practice of Night Magick. I dedicate myself to the Oversoul within and to my union with it +in Night Consciousness. May these Night Tools and Weapons serve me ever in this cause. So be +it." Now face each direction and repeat the following: "Thank you Night Deities for your +attendance at this sacred Night Rite. May we ever serve the Eternal Powers of Darkness here +on Earth and the Omniverse forever. So be it." And that's it, you have finished your first night +rite and all your Night Tools and Weapons are consecrated in Night Magick. At this point stop +and re-enforce your Night Pillar and then take off all your Night Weapons and place them back +upon the Night Altar. Leave the cord in place on the floor. + +Each ritual will begin by your stepping into the Night Circle and putting on your Night +Weapons and Cape. It is alright if you wear your Night Amulet and Ring outside the Circle. +After this place the Night Pillar around you. Do not leave the Circle until the end of the ritual +and be sure and re-enforce the Night Pillar around and through you before leaving the Night +Circle. Go through the actions of consecrating the Night Circle with earth, water, air, and fire +each time. Fill the chalice, say the invocation, and drink the wine each time. Then always +ring the bell and summon the Night Deities. These are the basic procedures you will begin each +ritual which takes place within the Night Circle. I hope you have had fun and are ready to +begin learning about the first realm you will pass through on the Night Road. Let's go then to +the Earth Realm. + +CHAPTER IV + + +Earth Magick + +13. The Earth Realm + +Since time began there has been traditionally four elements which make up the world of the +Night Magician. These are the elements of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. They are symbolic for +the basic four worlds of being: that of the physical(Earth), emotional(Water), mental(Air), and +causal(Fire). The Oversoul must express through each of these realms using the appropriate +vehicle or body and ultimately gain mastery over each of them. So, I have divided Night +Magick into four basic realms with knowledge, exercises, and rituals appropriate to each +realm. Ultimately, the Oversoul, through you, working in and mastering each realm will have +learned all that must be learned here upon Earth and return no more. The Earth Realm is your +beginning point in becoming a Night Magician. I want to take you back to the beginning of +time and the origin of the soul. + +From an understanding of general cosmology, that is the origin of the Void, +Monad/Godsoul/Oversoul and the soul of humankind, then this will help you to see the whys +of a magickal evolution and the reasons for being on the Night Road that follows this magickal +evolution. + +There is no beginning to the origin of the Void. The Void has always been, is now, and ever will +be. The Void is principle, unmanifest, and exists entirely in itself, from itself, and by itself. +The Void is the potential and unmanifest Source of all that exists. The Void is the Life present +in all things. It is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. From out of the Void, the +potential and unmanifest Source, comes the Ultimate Yin and Yang Creators. The Spirit of +the Spirits. The Ultimate Spirits are the first and only creations by the Void. The totality of +all that the Void can be is brought into being in the Ultimate Spirits. The Ultimate Spirits +derive all potential and essence from the Void, the potential and unmanifest. The Ultimate +Yin and Yang then created twin parallel matrixes and so it began. What is now referred to here +is also applicable for the Ultimate Yang. + +The Ultimate Yin created beings like unto itself. Each of these Beings I will refer to as a +Monad. Each Monad was created in order to share in the joy of creation with the Ultimate +Yin. The Eternal Night gave to each Monad the potential of becoming all that It is. The Dark +Goddess-God gave to each Monad the essence and potential for expressing the Eternal +Darkness. Each Monad evolves into the Oneness of the Eternal Night by actualizing its +Eternal Night's potential. Each Monad grows by bringing into manifestation the latent +abilities and powers placed within It by the Eternal Night. Like the Eternal Night, each Monad +is given the right of free will to determine how it will do this. The free will of each Monad +permits it to choose how it will create and what path of evolvement to follow. When the Monad +chooses to manifest its Abilities and Powers and to Create, the way of interest to you as a Night +Magician, is by its descent into matter. + +The material universe is made up of an infinite number of vibrational energies. The very +highest of these energies is the substance upon which the Monad first creates. Through the +Creative Power of the Monad, acting on the highest vibrational matter, the Monad first takes +on form. This is not form as you understand form but something that is beyond your +understanding. When the Monad first takes on form, it becomes two Godsouls. + +The two Godsouls are true twin souls. They are the magickal twins who shall evolve and create +together by the Will and Power of the Monad. They each have free will and free choice of their +own. Yet all creation that proceeds from them is related. All fragments of their divine spirit +which are sent forth to be ensouled in the world of spirit and matter are thus related and united +in purpose. In all they do the twin souls are united through the Will of the Monad. One +Godsoul is predominately Yin with Yang and the other is totally Yin. This is a simplification +of the energy systems but basically these twin Godsouls now have the creative energies ready to +continue downward into material creation. Each Godsoul has the full potential and essence of +the Monad and also the free will to use them. Because of the power and high vibrational +energies of the Godsoul it cannot continue its direct descent into matter, thus it created an +extension of itself into the lower worlds. This level of presence I have called the Oversoul. The +Oversoul is a being of lower vibrational levels. It is very active on its levels in learning and +creating and using the potential given to it by the Godsoul. Ultimately, the Oversoul must +learn to create on the lowest of levels and thus it sends a part of itself into the lowest worlds of +form and so is born the soul. + +The soul is the instrument through which the Oversoul learns about the lowest worlds of +creation. The human soul will return to the Earth many times for the human body does not +last long. The human soul will return to experience many different lives in order that it might +gain all the experience the Earth has to teach it. Once the human soul has gained all the +experience the Oversoul needs then the human soul will move on to different worlds and +dimensions in order to gain new experience. The soul gets its life force and direction from the +Oversoul. This Power and Will flows through what is called the Silver Cord. This Cord is made +up of high energy particles through which flows energy of varying frequencies. The soul +operates through a mental, emotional or astral, etheric, and physical body. On Earth this is +the human body. + +The Soul (Oversoul and soul) is very delicate and composed of very high vibrational energies. +If the Soul is to grow, develop, and evolve in material creation then it has to have a material +vehicle through which to work. You could compare this to a person who wants to go into outer +space. + +Because outer space is very cold, lacks oxygen, and is a vacuum the human body could never +withstand going out into space without being protected from it. So a special suit is designed +which is heated, pressurized, and contains oxygen with which to breathe. It also contains +many devices and sensors to work in space and monitor the surroundings. In order to protect +the delicate Soul from the dense material surroundings, and for it to be able to work in and +monitor its surroundings a special suit was devised. This is called the physical body. + +The physical body is composed of the lowest and densest matter. It is designed to respond and +interact with its material surroundings. There are the five senses: sight, touch, smell, taste, +and hearing; and their respective organs: eyes, skin, nose, mouth, and ears. These allow the +soul to react to the world around it. The hands, arms, legs, feet, and joints allow the soul to +work with its surroundings with great dexterity and ability. The physical body is an excellent +tool through which the soul to operate when it is properly attuned and under the control of the +Oversoul. Unfortunately, for the majority of humankind this is not the case. + +Too many human beings are the human body instead of the soul and Oversoul. The +Oversoul/soul is not in charge but it is the human body which is in charge. The human body is +basically undisciplined and unruly. Whatever the human body wants it gets and half the time +it doesn't really want what it thinks it wants. Without the control of the Oversoul/soul, the +body is helpless before the elements of life. The human body has no control over the world +around it. Because of this current state, the Oversoul/soul does not pay attention to the human +body. It is much like a car out of control. If you were the driver of a car that refused to go where +you wanted it to go and was always headed for destinations unwanted and going past places +uncared about, you would get out and just let it go till it crashed and burned. This is pretty +much what the Oversoul/soul does concerning the human body. But there is a way to change +this. You must identify, tune into, and become the Oversoul/soul. + +You must gain mastery over the physical body. You are the Oversoul/soul and not the physical +body. You must remember that you are eternal and only working through the physical body. It +is your tool through which to work and experience the material world around you. You cannot +allow the passions and desires of the body to rule you. You must develop control over the body. +Properly channeled and controlled these forces can be used to your advantage instead of your +detriment. You will learn through Night Magick how to develop this control and mastery. The +Night Magician must attain through discipline, diet, exercise, and ritual mastery over her/his +body and the world around her/him. But in all trials that occur in your life be easy on yourself. +You will fail many times, but get up, dust off your knees, and go on vowing to try and do better. +Never give up for all things are possible to those who follow the Night Magician's life. "The +world is but a stage and we are the actors upon it,'' thus it was said by Shakespeare. This world +is but an illusion and your attitude should be that of "in it but not of it". You must never +become lost in the illusion of the game played by the majority of humankind. You must +become the Master of Illusion, the Night Magician. Let me discuss with you for a moment the +Stage upon which we experience life. + +After many millenniums of experience there is a Soul who is qualified to become a Planetary +Soul. The Planetary Soul is the Soul for every person upon that planet. Think of a pie sliced +into an incredible number of pieces of pie. The pie as a whole is the Planetary Soul and you are +one of those pieces of the pie. The Earth is the physical body of a very advanced Soul who I have +told you is the Ancient Dragon Tiamat. Many of humankind have named this Soul, Gaia/Pan. +This name representing the fe/male aspect of the Earth Soul. Every human being is a part of +the Soul of Earth. Moreover every part of our human body, that is causal, mental, emotional, +etheric and physical is directly effected by the Earth Soul. Our entire existence is constantly +effected by the Energies of this Being which plays upon our own energies. Just as you are +developing and evolving magickally so is Soul Earth. Soul Earth's evolution is far greater +then that of yours but all are aiming towards the One Goal; every greater unfoldment of Night +Consciousness. You must take care of the Earth Body. + +It is your stage upon which you gain magickally and moreover it is the vehicle through which +Gaia/Pan gains magickally and has its physical being. If the body of Tiamat is killed then the +Soul will leave it just as if your body is killed your soul must leave it. If there is continued +pollution and destruction of planetary life and resources then soon Tiamat will have to rid +itself of the cancer that is causing physical destruction. I believe all of humankind should +take this as a warning. It has happened before and it will happen again, Tiamat will not allow +the death of its physical body before its proper time. It will do what is necessary to stop the +destruction of its body just as you would. There is also another type of destruction happening +on Earth and that is with alien races from the Yang matrix. + +I know this subject may be tough for you to deal with but consider it as you have everything +else, with an open mind. +This planet is a battlefield between Yang races and the Night Soul of this world, Tiamat. The +opening poem was not just a piece of fiction. There are still Yang races who desire to possess +the Earth for its wealth and who enjoy dominion over human beings. There are other Yang +races who plan to slowly convert the Yin souls of this world into Yang souls. To change the +basic polarity of all souls on this world. They believe that their polarity is the only +appropriate polarity and would see the destruction of the Yin matrix of life. What evidence is +there of this? + +I can point out to you books on the market today that deal with alien visitation and +kidnapping in which there are biological experiments going on to create a human/alien yang +body in which they plan on placing Earth yin souls in order to ultimately change the polarity +of the souls. Turning back to the pie example given earlier, think of what happens to the pie if +pieces of it are removed never to be returned. I believe Soul Death is an appropriate term. You +can look at the Yang religions that were introduced by the so-called gods or god and see that +through their magickal practices they slowly change a soul's vibration from Yin to Yang. +These of course are the religions that have no tolerance for other religions and have gone to +great lengths to force conversion on others such as Christianity. There is also my own +personal experience. I will not go further in discussing my personal experience except to say it +wasn't pleasant and could have led to my ultimate destruction. What can you do? + +You will learn many things to do in Night Magick. You will learn to place your body in +attunement with the Yin Force of this planet. You are learning to unite with the consciousness +of the Oversoul which is one in consciousness with the Planetary Oversoul. If enough human +souls accomplish this the Night Force will become too strong for the Yang races to deal with. +You have learned to take care of the Earth. Go out and help environmentalists who promote +care of the planet. When you feel physically well the rest of you responds in kind and so it is +with the Earth. If the Earth Body is strong and healthy the Earth Soul will be strong and its +aura will repel the alien races. In your meditations and visualizations, see the Earth and Its +Soul strong in the Night Force. Use your Night Pillar and extend its protection around and +through the Earth. Use your Night Pillar around every human body and soul to keep them +strong in the Night Force. If enough of humankind joins in there will be no destruction of the +Yin life force. If you think that aliens are fiction, DON'T. If you practice Night Magick you will +draw their attention to you. I have had personal experience with aliens and my battle with +them continues. I advise you strongly to wear your Night Amulet and Ring at all times and +keep your Night Pillar strong through constant use. I hope you will take my advice and not +have to learn through experience. + +This is the Earth Realm where you have to live and practice Night Magick. In Earth Magick, I +will introduce knowledge, rites, and exercises which will help to improve and refine your +physical body. To make your body a more sensitive instrument to the Night forces around +you. The more refined the instrument the greater the Night Power that will be able to be +expressed through it. These exercises will not only benefit the physical but overlap into the +development of the higher vehicles too. Earth Magick will give you ultimate control over your +physical body and the world around you. So study with all your heart, persevere, practice, +have courage and patience and you will attain the Earth. Your first subject for study and +practice in the Earth Realm is Night Breathing. + +14. Night Breathing + +Breathing is an important aspect in life and Night Magick. Breathing is essential to life and +your well-being. That may seem like an obvious statement since without air you could not +live, but actually breathing means more then just taking in air to sustain life. As you will see, +breathing correctly and with the knowledge of what it can do for you will propel you far down +the magickal road. Incorrect breathing leads to many problems in your life. + +Does it seem that you run out of energy well before the day is done? Are you often nervous and +irritable for no real apparent reason? Through correct breathing you can eliminate these +problems from your life. You will be able to go through each day with boundless energy. +Tension, irritability, and nervousness will disappear from your life. What is wrong with the +way you breathe? + +Stop right now and notice how you are breathing. Do you find that your breathing is shallow? +Almost everyone in the world is a lazy breather. Deep breathing is a simple thing to do but in +the beginning it will take some effort on your part for it to become a regular practice. Begin by +taking a slow, deep breath and as you inhale, not only expand your chest to hold more air but +force out your abdomen and feel that air going deep down into your lungs. When you have +inhaled as much air as you can, try to take in just a bit more air. Really fill up your lungs. +Now that you have inhaled as much air as possible, exhale very slowly and steadily. Bring +your expanded abdomen in and force out the air till you are completely empty. At no time +should you strain yourself in doing deep breathing. Even though you cannot go around in +public being very obvious about this exercise you should, no matter where you are, breathe as +deeply, slowly, and rhythmically as possible. You will do this consciously at first but soon +this will become a part of your life without thinking of it. Do this and you will have a vibrant, +youthful body. Why would an increase in air intake cause this increased vitality? + +There is an active, vital, life force that energizes the world around you. In the Eastern +languages this essence is called Prana. This Force is active not only on the physical plane but +on all planes or dimensions of life. On the physical level, you breathe in the air which +contains one aspect of this Force and which then is transmitted throughout your body via the +nerve network. When you are feeling nervous, irritable, or tense, this can be due to a lack of +this vital Force. The Pranic Force is not just for the physical body. + +There are many aspects of the Pranic or what is called in Earth Magick, Earth Force. To utilize +the Earth Force, you must learn to draw in this Energy within you. The technique outlined is +termed Night Breathing. +To begin with, retire to your Magician's Study and sit comfortable with spine erect in your +chair. For a few minutes practice deep breathing with your feet on the floor and touching. Your +hands should be resting in your lap, palms down at all times. The indrawing of the Earth +Force is through the action of the mind rather then the physical act of breathing. As your +attention has been on the physical act of breathing let's now move it to the Earth Force +surrounding you. + +This Force is the Life of the world. Through it you have your well-being. Your mind must +remain in a state of complete openness to the Earth Force. Your mind must be completely +centered in the Earth Force alone. The mind must be without strain. You must not force the +indrawing of the Earth Force. It is breathed into your being through a conscious attunement to +it. Feel the Earth Force entering into your body. See it penetrating every cell in your body and +causing them to be filled Earth Light. Know that as it fills your physical body with Earth Light +and Life that the Earth Force also charges your higher bodies with this same Emerald Light. +As you continue to absorb the Earth Force know that you will achieve a Oneness with it. You +will lose identity with your physical body and forget physical limitations for in the Earth +Force there are no limits. You are the Earth Force, Limitless and Free. Through Night +Breathing, you will become filled with the Earth Force. This Force will keep your body in +Eternal Youth. You will be free of sickness. You will have abundant energy. Not only does the +Earth Force quicken the physical but also the Emotional Body. Your outlook on life will +improve. It will raise the vibration of your body so that depression, loneliness, and fear will +not have a part in your world. The Night Force transforms the Mental Body. It can give you +perfect memory. Your mind and all that it can do will be greatly enhanced. Your memory will +be able to search back to when it first was. The Earth Force will help raise your overall Being +into Night Consciousness. In addition to the practice of Night Breathing and the use of the +Earth Force you must also study and practice the art of the Magician's Meditation. + +15. The Night Magician's Meditation + +The Night Magician's Meditation is the beginning level at which you will begin to awaken your +Inner Self. It is an exercise that is essential to your magickal growth. In the beginning stages +of meditation, your sense of awareness will take place from your physical awareness, but as +you grow your conscious awareness will move into your Oversoul. There are many benefits +that can be derived from meditation. + +Meditation will greatly benefit your health. The body will become inwardly calm and +tranquil. The practice of Magician's Meditation can help to eliminate ulcers and other +physical problems due to stress and tension. What meditation can do for you physically it can +also do for you emotionally. + +You can achieve a state of emotional tranquility and stability never before thought possible. +No matter the confusion going on around you, you will be able remain steady and firm as a +rock. It will develop your ability to concentrate and to expand the workings of your mind. + +You will be able to achieve true telepathic communication with those of similar magickal +standing. Your memory will be vastly enhanced. Ideas from the Higher Mental Realm will +come to you. From the Mental Realm, you will be able to contact and obtain information from +the Akashic Record. This Record I will speak of later. You will be able to know the past, +present, and future probabilities for yourself and for others. You will be able to gain a true +understanding of your life and why you are here. There are preparations and precautions to +take prior to meditating. + +First, you must watch the food you eat. You must avoid fried foods and spicy foods close to the +meditation period. Do not eat just prior to meditating for a full stomach can be quite +discomforting. You will then need to set a quiet period aside each day. This period should be at +the same time each day if possible. Early morning or late evening will be the best time. You +should feel refreshed when you meditate so wash up prior to commencing. Now that you have +taken care of your bodily needs it is time to set the proper atmosphere for meditation. + +Retire to your Magician's Study and be sure that you can not be disturbed for say a half hour. +Put on your robe, light your incense, and sit down in a very comfortable chair. Do not light +your candle for the flickering will tend to distract you. Once you have done this you are ready +to begin the Magician's Meditation. + +Close your eyes now and place the Night Pillar around you. Follow this with Night Breathing. +Now select the type of meditation. There are actually two ways of meditating, and they differ +by your conscious directive. +The first way of meditating will have you direct your thoughts on a particular subject. For +example, the subject can be on strength. You will want to look at the different types of +strength. Try to understand how strength develops and how you can become stronger. You can +go on to becoming Pure Strength and the qualities needed in your life to be Strength. As you +continue to look fully at the subject of strength and understand all that there is about it your +conscious thoughts will slowly be overshadowed by your Oversoul, and you will be given true +enlightenment on Strength, or any subject you should choose. The second way deals with +entering the Silence of your Oversoul. + +Here you will not choose a topic but remain in a state of silence and complete Openness to the +Indwelling Oversoul. You must remain completely free of thought. You must not enter into +this meditation with cares or worries but surrender them into the care of your Oversoul. As +you advance into the meditation you will become aware of Its Presence. You will feel Its +Energy. Here the Oversoul will choose the subject of importance and instruct you directly. +Remember, "to be Silent and Know". + +Having chosen the type of meditation, turn your attention to within yourself and give open +recognition to the Oversoul within. If you feel a slight sense of shaking or a raising of the heart +beat do not let it bother you. It is a good sign that what you want is taking place. Remain very +relaxed and allow your thoughts to drift on the subject. Do not overtire yourself. If at first you +can only do five to ten minutes then that's fine. Do not push for results. The results will come +in their own good time. Meditate only as long as you feel comfortable with it. After you have +finished don't get up and plunge back into the work-a-day world. Take it easy and allow +yourself a few minutes or however long is necessary to adjust to a faster pace of living. In +Magician's Meditation, you slowed your rate of living considerably. Strive to attain but be +patient for the results to happen. You will not attain all you can be overnight but someday the +Night will be yours. There is nothing greater you can do for your quest on the Night Road then +the sincere practice of Night Magician's Meditation. In Night Magician's Meditation you +studied a method of changing your conscious vibration and attuning it with the Oversoul's +Consciousness. Now you are going to explore the very depths and heights of the Realm of +Vibration. +16. The Realm of Vibration + +The study of vibration is important to a Night Magician. The actual magickal progression +made is a result of increased vibration of the physical, emotional, mental, and causal bodies. +You must therefore begin with the lowest level of vibration, the physical, and study its nature. + +Vibration is movement. In the physical world, vibration is based on molecular motion or +movement. The physical world is composed of small particles in motion which are termed +molecules. Molecules are composed of small particles known as atoms. Atoms are composed +of even smaller particles which are protons, neutrons, and electrons. If you could become +small enough you would see that the electrons orbit around the nucleus like the planets around +the Sun. If you took the analogy farther, you would see that the human body would be +composed of many solar and galactic systems. The human body is in constant molecular +motion which produces something akin to electricity. There are machines today which can +measure this very fine electricity. The combination of this fine electricity added to the Energy +of the Oversoul causes sentient life. All forms of matter produce this fine energy due to +molecular motion. + +Further, all matter, that is the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, are guided in +development, just as you are, by a Higher Power and therefore have Life. This Life is perhaps +not as you know Life, but yet it is Life. As you have seen, all forms of matter have molecular +activity. This molecular activity is very active in some forms and slower in others. The rock +has a very slow molecular, or vibrational rate, whereas the air has a very high vibrational +rate. This rate of vibration is termed frequency. When the vibrational rate is high the +frequency is high and the opposite is also true. You have learned that matter is in a constant +state of motion. That all motion has a relative vibrational rate, or frequency, dependent on +the molecular activity. An important part of the physical realm of vibration which goes on to +touch all levels of vibration is light and color. + +Light and colors are dependent on matter and its rate of vibration. Color is important in your +physical life. In a moment, you will discuss how it effects the human body, but some +background information on light and color will prove beneficial. Light is energy. Light is +actually electromagnetic radiation. When light strikes an object the molecules absorb some of +that energy, and in turn, that which is not absorbed is reflected and radiated out into the +surrounding space. This radiation is perceived by the eyes as color. The different colors seen +are due to the different frequencies of that radiation. This frequency is a slightly different +term than that used to describe molecular activity. The frequency used to measure color is +based on the fact that color is a radiation or energy. Light is separated into seven basic +frequencies. These frequencies are seen as the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, +and violet. Red is of the lowest frequency and violet the highest. Here you have looked at the +physical definitions of light and color. How, though, can light and color be of benefit to the +well-being of your physical body? + +You are familiar with how colors can effect one's mood. A blue room for example can give one +a feeling of peace and relaxation while a red room would tend to make one feel energetic or +even nervous. But few of us are aware of how colors can effect the physical body directly. The +entire principle behind color healing is vibration. Every part of your body vibrates at a +particular frequency. Disease is the result when any part of the body develops disharmony or +the wrong frequency. Color radiation when directed at the particular area of imbalance, +induces a sympathetic vibration into that organ and corrects the frequency of the organ back +to its original frequency, and thus, good health. How can this be done? + +Before explaining this procedure its best to give this WARNING!!! Do not go out based on these +teachings and setup a healing practice! If you are not a doctor, are you really sure of what is +wrong with the person? You could be sued if you end up hurting someone. As you progress +magickally, you will know through your Oversoul what is wrong with the person and what +color to use. Use this science to help only those to whom you are close to and on yourself. Be +absolutely sure of what you are doing. If you have any doubts, DON'T DO IT! This is a great +healing science if used wisely. Be careful. There are several methods to induce color healing. +No discussion will be made here of the use of color lamps for they will be replaced soon with a +more advanced machine. What will be discussed is the use of color meditation and your own +physical instrument, the body. + +You are a channel for the higher energies. You are a magnet for these energies and by +concentrating or meditating on the specific color necessary to be applied you will magnetize +them to you and then be able to apply them to the one needing healing. Before discussing the +actual procedure you must prepare yourself as you did in meditation. Be sure you are in good +health or you could induce your illness into the one your healing. When you enter into +meditation it would be good to get a sheet of paper with the color you wish to magnetize and +gaze on it. As your meditation proceeds be sure your ankles and hands are crossed. This +conserves the energy you are magnetizing. Visualize this color energy filling your Night Pillar. +See the Pillar becoming filled with the color until it can hold no more. Then you are ready to +pass it to the one in need of healing. If you are the one who needs healing see that energy +penetrating the area in poor health. See that part of the body becoming whole and perfect. If it +is another person or anything needing the color energy place your hands on the area that is ill. +Again see that energy penetrating into that part and restoring it to perfect harmony and +vibration. You do not necessarily have to be present to administer the healing energy. If the +person is somewhere else see your energy moving to that person. Visualize that person and the +area of illness and again see the energy making all whole and perfect. Be sure when you are +finished that you wash your hands in cold running water. It will be necessary to continue the +number of treatments once every hour until the condition is relieved. You should apply the +healing for a period lasting fifteen minutes. These continuous treatments are necessary so +that you are working in harmony with the cyclic nature of the body. This time period allows +the body adequate time to use the energy being supplied to it. Also it allows you to know when +to stop treatment, for sometime in the forty-five minute period, you can observe the healing +process and its progress. The last subject to discuss is the colors themselves and what ailments +they cure. You will begin with the lowest frequency of color, red. + +Red is vibrant and alive. Red is a heating, vitalizing, and stimulating color. It is directly +responsible for your physical vitality. In cases where there is a lack of energy red is an +exceptional color. It is effective in the treatment of anemia and cancer. It vitalizes the blood +and helps to purify it. Do not use this color when there is an inflammatory condition present +or when the person is of excitable temperament. + +The color orange has often been associated with the Sun. It is necessary for health and +vitality. It influences primarily the processes of assimilation and circulation. The color +helps to regulate the intake of food and is centered around the spleen. It is good for the +treatment of asthma, bronchitis, colds, and epilepsy. It is further useful for the treatment of +gout, inflammation of the kidneys, gall stones, cessation of menstruation, and mental +debility. + +The color yellow acts as a tonic on the nerves. It is an inspiring and mentally stimulating +color. It is good for the treatment of dyspepsia, diabetes, flatulence, and constipation. Clear +golden yellow is one of the most powerful forces against depression and limitations of every +kind. Yellow stimulates the brain as well as exerting great therapeutic influence on the +assimilative organs of the body. Yellow also stimulates the purifying action in the body for it +effects the liver, gall bladder, and intestines in stimulating them and aiding in the +elimination of the body wastes. Yellow improves the texture of the skin, heals scars, and heals +other blemishes. + +Green is the color of the Earth. It is the color of harmony and balance. It has a soothing effect +upon the nerves. It has a very powerful effect on the blood supply and its distribution +throughout the body. Green is an excellent tranquilizer and is further beneficial in the +treatment of heart complaints, blood pressure, and headaches. Blue is the color of deep peace +and harmony. It acts upon the body as a powerful antiseptic. It is excellent in the treatment of +insomnia. Blue is good in the treatment of all throat diseases and in the treatment of gall +bladder attacks, jaundice, skin abrasions, cuts, burns, and rheumatism. + +Indigo is the Healer for the eyes, ears, and nose. It is excellent in the treatment of deafness, +cataract, delirium tremens, and eye inflammation. It is good in the treatment of lung +disorders, pneumonia, asthma, bronchitis, and indigestion. + +Violet is the highest vibration of visible light. Its effect is primarily in the area of the brain. It +is good in the treatment of mental disorders, cataracts, and paralysis. Creative artist and +workers would benefit by surrounding their room with objects of this color and meditating +and storing this color. It is excellent in the treatment of insomnia. + +In closing, again use the colors carefully. Do not use them excessively. At all times, you should +seek the guidance of your Oversoul. Never prescribe treatment to anyone. And above all, in the +case of illness Consult your Physician! You can use this science to aid your healing and that of +others, but it is not meant to replace the therapeutic care given by your Physician. I have made +a small beginning in discussing the realm of vibration. I spoke of the vibrating world around +us and how all life is in constant motion. I discussed the special world of light and colors and +their relationship to the human body. In the next topic you are going to explore some +fascinating information concerning the human body and how it works. + +17. Night Centers and the Physical and Etheric Bodies + +In the Eastern languages the Night Centers are known as chakras. Night Centers are located in +each type of body that you have, from the Etheric to the Mental Body. They are, in appearance, +small whirlpool-like vortices of concentrated energy. The Night Centers are responsible for a +number of functions. They are conveyors of the Night Force from higher dimensions to the +lower ones. They act as step-down transformers taking the higher energy and lowering it to +meet the requirements of each body. They further function as message centers. They connect +each dimension from the higher ones to the lower with an internal form of communication +keeping your entire system of bodies in rapport with each other. They have other functions but +these will be covered in later topics. You are presently going to look at two bodies, the physical +and Etheric, and the role of the Night Centers to each. Let's look at the physical body first. + +In the physical body there is a corresponding organ and/or gland to each of the Night Centers. +The lowest of the centers is at the base of the spine and relates to the gonads. The second of +these centers is located over the area of the spleen and is associated with the spleen/pancreas. +The third Night Center is located over the navel area or the solar plexus and corresponds to the +adrenal glands. The fourth is located over the heart region and relates to the thymus gland. +The fifth is located in the throat area and relates to the thyroid gland. The sixth Night Center +is located in the brow area and relates to the pineal gland. The seventh Night Center is located +at the top or crown of the head and is associated with the pituitary gland. What is interesting +and important to observe is that the organs make up the endocrine system. + +These glands produce a substance called hormone which is spilled into the blood stream to +regulate every cell in the body. These glands further effect the growth and development of the +physical body; the way you feel; and even the way you think. The endocrine system is regulated +by the nervous system. Here there is an important parallel. For every Night Center there is a +nerve center that corresponds to it too. These nerve centers are closely related to the glands +they regulate, which are those of the endocrine system. This leads us to the Night Centers, +Etheric Body, and their relationship to your bodily control. + +The Etheric Body is produced by the electromagnetic energy generated by the physical body. +The Etheric is an exact counterpart to the physical body. The Etheric Body interpenetrates the +physical body and extends from a half inch to four inches around the physical body and can be +seen by the Night Eye as a whitish blue light. The Etheric Body is the lowest body where the +Night Centers can be found. The Oversoul influences the body through the transmission of +Night Force through the Higher Night Centers which continues to be stepped down till the +energies enter the Etheric vortices which in turn affects the nerve centers, endocrine system, +and the body overall. They are all interrelated. The two Night Centers which directly effect the +well-being of the physical body are the lowest two. + +The lowest center found at the base of the spine contains the Earth Fire. In the Eastern +religions it is called Kundalini. I will discuss this Energy in a later topic but for now I will +discuss the intake of Earth Force, a less concentrated form of the Earth Fire. Those who have +ever lived in a high-rise apartments and worked in similar offices may recall feeling very tired +and run down. This is due to lack of direct contact with the Earth. It is essential for humans to +remain in contact with the Earth. When the body makes direct contact with the Earth, the base +Night Center is then able to absorb the Earth's energy. Everyone should take time to get +outdoors in direct contact with Mother Earth and absorb that vital energy. In a later topic, I +will present a rite to help keep the Earth energies high in yourself. The second Night Center +concerned with your well-being is located over the spleen/pancreas and absorbs the pranic +force generated by the Sun. +This is the second energy necessary for the well-being of your physical body. An adequate +intake of this energy will give you good health. It will give you vitality, youth, and a zest for +life. As was mentioned earlier, the Etheric extends beyond and around the outline of the body +approximately a half to four inches. It is bluish grey to bluish white in color. When a person is +in good health the Etheric will be strong in appearance and extend several inches beyond the +outline of the body. In poor health or when one is low in energy the Etheric will be close to the +body and hard to see. How do you see the Etheric? + +Etheric sight is the best way to begin to see magickally. Since this energy is of lesser vibration +then that of auric energy it will be easier to see with the Night Eye. For a moment, let's discuss +exactly what is the Night Eye and then the mechanics of how it operates. + +The Night Eye and its existence have been known since the time of the Ancient Ones. In the +Eastern languages it's referred to as the "Third Eye" . The Night Eye is a magickal organ that +when activated allows you to see the higher dimensions. The Night Eye is also capable of +enlarging microscopic particles till you can see them. This is very similar to the microscope +and its function. For most, the Night Eye is closed and blind to the higher realm, but through +the techniques and practices in this work you will learn to use and see through the Night Eye. +The mechanics of the Night Eye will be discussed in greater depth in a later topic. For now, the +Night Eye is related to the sixth Night Center and the pineal gland. When they are functioning +under your voluntary control then you are able to see magickally. Knowledge of the exact +mechanics is not necessary in order for you to see through the Night Eye. What is necessary is +knowing the techniques for opening and using the Night Eye and then plenty of practice. +Therefore, let's perform some exercises to begin its development. + +To convince yourself more fully that there really is an Etheric Body begin with the following +experiment. One night as you are in bed, lie on your back with your feet spread apart. Then +slowly bring your feet together until you can feel them touch each other. When you feel them +just touch try and see if you can put them together any closer. You will be surprised to find that +you can. This distance is the area occupied by the Etheric. You can also do this with another +person. Try touching the other person on an area of bare skin. The neck and head area is the +best. Touch them with one finger very lightly and then slowly remove the finger to about one +inch away. The person will not be able to tell the difference when you are touching and when +you are not. Now that you are more fully convinced that there is an Etheric, let's move on and +see it. + +It will be easier if you get another person to help you. Have that person stand against a neutral +background, the best color is white, and have them relax and breathe deeply. The lighting is +very important. The light should be behind you and positioned such that it will not produce a +shadow on the subject. The lighting should be dim. You should now position yourself away +from the subject about six to ten feet and sit or stand in a comfortable position. Relax and +breathe deeply. Look at the subject and let your eyes relax. Do not concentrate on seeing +anything. Look beyond the subject as if looking off into the distance. The subject's Etheric +Energy will extend around the outline of the physical body. If you are alone you can still +practice seeing the Etheric. + +Have a mirror positioned in front of you such that you can see the upper body outline. Have +behind you a background of neutral color. Do the same as outlined above as if you had +someone before you. In all the work, outlined above, do not become discouraged if results do +not occur the first time. Be patient and know that all is, and will, work for you if you but try. +No one can become a Master Night Magician without great practice and perseverance. So you, +too, can be a Master of Night Magick if you will but practice and persevere. You leave the Realm +of the Etheric and Magickal Sight to enter into the Realm of Magickal Sound. + +18. The Power of Sound + +Ever see an opera singer shatter a crystal glass? It is said that words are things and once +spoken may cause the very thing to happen. Can there really be so much to the spoken word? +Let's explore the physical properties of the spoken word, or in other words, sound and its +properties and discover the secret. + +You first must learn that sound is caused by vibrating structures. That for sound to travel it +must move through a material substance or medium. Sound travels as a wave motion. As a +sound wave travels, in a medium, small displacements occur to the molecules in that medium +or substance. These small displacements are a regular collective motion in which all the +molecules, in a small volume of matter, move together. Think of this motion as compared to a +small volume of water held by a container in which you would see a wave moving in the +volume of water. This ordered wave motion is superimposed on the random thermal agitation +or vibration of the molecules. We, therefore, look at sound waves as the molecules of the +substance jiggling back and forth in a regular fashion. You know that sound is the result of +vibrating bodies but beyond this you must know that a traveling sound wave transports +energy. + +When this sound wave is incident on, or striking, a body of matter there is absorption of that +sound wave's energy by that body. In some cases this will force the body to vibrate at the +frequency of the incident wave. A state of resonance will occur when the vibration of the body +and that of the incident wave are close in natural frequency. Sound can do some phenomenal +things. For example, remember the high pitched note of the singer, when it is incident upon the +crystal glass, causes it to break. But even greater is the Power of the spoken word or sound +energy, when that energy is transmitted on the carrier wave of creative magickal thought. The +spoken word is endowed with the Night Force when the creative thought behind that word is +that of Night Consciousness. Your words are endowed with Night Force when your Magickal +Consciousness is that of the Oversoul. Your words are as potent as your consciousness is equal +to that of Night Consciousness. For your words to be life and accomplish that where they are +sent, then your consciousness must be that of the Oversoul. Your will is the selector of the +words, but for them to be more then mere words they must be endowed with Night Force +through Night Consciousness. Let's try it. + +To begin with first see yourself as the Oversoul. Feel the Night Presence of your own Oversoul +selecting the words with which you wish to create with. Then speak the words knowing that it +is not you that says the words, but that it is the Oversoul who says the Words. Then those +Words will go forth and do as they are sent forth to do. The greater your attunement with your +Oversoul, the greater will be the potency of the Words. Keep your thoughts in tune with your +Oversoul at all times. For your words to take on the Night Force you must become the Oversoul +in all you do. Repeat the Words over and over again till you can feel the words take on a life of +their own. Repeat them till your words are endowed with Night Force then they will go forth +and create as you have said. There are no limitations to what your Words in Night +Consciousness may do. They can bring to you your heart's desire. They can literally move +mountains. They can create life. There are no limitations to what you can do, so long as it is +in accord with your Oversoul. As you are filled with the Sound of the Oversoul, now to fill +yourself with the Energies of the Earth. + +19. Earth Rite + +Your body is very much like that of the Earth. As was shown in an earlier topic, the body has +interspaced in it an Etheric Body. This is your magnetic field just as the Earth has a magnetic +field. It is essential to your good health to be in contact with the Earth. The Earth currents +mixed with your own magnetic currents keep you in good health. You will experience less +tension and frustration. If you can do nothing else you should get out into the country and go +barefoot. Here though, I would like to introduce a rite which will allow you to absorb a great +deal more Earth Energy. + +The Earth's energy is of the highest order. You may feel that the Earth is an unclean place and +that its energies are of the same order. This is not true! Man's attitude is the harmful energy +which is slowly destroying the Earth itself. From the Oversoul's viewpoint the Earth is +covered in a dense blanket of Man's wrongful attitude concerning the Earth. The Earth is the +Body of a magickally advanced Being and Its Energies are of the deepest order. Let's look +specifically at how to absorb these life giving energies. + +The only place to do this rite is outdoors. You should select a place which is free of Man's +urbanization. Go out into a park or a private woods. Go somewhere so that you won't be +disturbed. Once you have selected a place that feels right sit down and get comfortable. Your +bottom should be in direct contact with the Earth. Do not sit in a chair. Next begin with deep +breathing, relax, and let all tension go. When you are perfectly relaxed begin to feel your own +Etheric Body. Feel your magnetic current touching the magnetic current of the Earth. When +you breathe in, you will draw the Earth Energy up into your body via the Night Centers. See +this energy flowing up through the base center and flow on higher and higher through each +center until it reaches the crown center. When it has reached this far, hold the energy there +and allow it to penetrate your entire being. Then, as you exhale, see the tired and tense +energies of your own body flow back out of your body and being absorbed by the Earth. The +Earth will change and charge these energies with Earth Force. Continue this exercise as long as +you feel comfortable. During this exercise you should feel a communion and Oneness with the +Soul of the Earth. The Earth is a Magickal Fountain of the Darkest Night. Drink from it and +be renewed! + +You have traveled far on the Earth Road. You have learned a great deal about yourself. You +have come to know the hidden faculties and powers that lie within you. But as all things on +Earth must end so in the next topic, you will come to know your own ending and this chapter +on Earth Magick. + +20. The Physical Realm of Death + +It has always been said that people fear the unknown. One of the greatest unknowns in life is +death. Dying is as important as living on Earth. Dying does not have to be a big unknown. +There does not have to be fear of death. To end the fear of dying one must look at death and +understand it. + +Your life is sustained only so long as the silver cord is attached to your physical body. This is +your lifeline from your Oversoul to that which you know as "I". In the actual physical process +of dying it takes three complete days for this cord to separate. The body should be left alone +and undisturbed as much as possible till then. As you are separating, you feel like a cloud +drifting over your physical body. After three days, you will cast off like a ship adrift on the +seas. The process of dying is entirely painless and you should have no fear. Before casting off +for the next dimension, you are required to view the actual process of the preparation of your +body for burial. This is to convince you that your physical body has actually died, but that you +still live. Here, it might be appropriate to say something about those who are left behind. + +In the west, you have been taught that you should grieve for the one who has departed. It would +be more appropriate to celebrate for they now have left this world for a new world of happiness +and joy. In this new world there is no suffering, hunger, or struggle for survival. You grieve +over another's dying for many reasons, but mostly at the loss you feel and at being alone. How +can you overcome this grief? + +First, you should realize that you will someday be reunited with them if you wish. Only those +in harmony with each other can reunite, for only harmony can exist on the other side. You +should also realize that you should not grieve so much for the one gone, for you tend to disturb +their rest and recuperation on the other side. What can you do to help the person who is +suffering from grief? + +The best help you can provide is to be the "listening ear". You should do everything in your +power to help the person talk out their grief. Let them talk to you about the sorrow they feel +over their loss and talk about how it was in the past. Keep them company and let them cry all +they want. Crying and tears are the greatest safety valve the human body has. This prevents +an emotional overload causing perhaps insanity. Allow the person a reasonable time to +express their grief. But this should not go on for ever and ever. Grief can not be allowed to go +too far. It will cause the person to develop self-pity and this is just as bad. Dying to this world +is birth to the next and higher world. There is a practice which will assist you in the process of +dying. You should prepare yourself through meditation. Meditate on the subject of death as +has been described here. See yourself at the time of dying. Feel and know yourself developing +as a cloud of consciousness over the physical body. See yourself actually trying to get out of +that old dying house. Then you should see and visualize the person you want to come help you +and meet you. Feel their presence very strong and know that they are there to help you make +the transition. If you have no one special to come get you, know that there are special helpers +waiting to assist you into the next dimension. Have no fear for you are never alone. Know that +just as soon as there is complete separation of the silver cord from the physical body that they +will assist you to the next realm. Then allow yourself to relax and wait out the physical +process of dying. There is no pain nor fear to experience, only the beginning of a new day in a +new world. The only thing you will experience is the feeling of going home. This simple +process of meditating on the transition from one world to the next can relieve much anxiety +and worry when the actual time seems near. There is no way that meditating on death can +bring about the actual thing. Only the Oversoul knows the time of transition and can cause it +to happen. So rest assured, that in dying from the physical world, the process is simple, easy, +and merely a phase of transition necessary to enter the next world beyond. Now you must also +make the transition from one chapter in Night Magick to the next. + +You must leave behind the Earth Realm and enter the Water Realm. You have seen many +wonders in the Earth Realm. You have learned better ways of breathing and things about your +body you may have never known about. You are opening your Night Eye by learning about and +seeing your Etheric Body. You should be acquiring better health and a sounder mind through +meditation and the use of colors. I must emphasize here, before leaving Earth Magick, that no +matter how far you go do not stop practicing the techniques, rites, and exercises learned early +in this book. Always take time to meditate and practice Night Breathing. All the things you +have learned, so far, are essential for your success later on. If you are ready to explore a +fascinating realm and discover many new wonders, then let's enter into the exciting Realm of +Water Magick. + +CHAPTER V + + +WATER MAGICK + +21. The Water (Astral) Realm + +Here you will enter a land of great beauty. A land of Harmony and Peace. In the last topic, you +had just left your dying body, the silver cord had separated, and you were set off adrift. At this +point, it is essential that you believe that there is continuity in life after physical death, +otherwise you will simply drift in a dense, dark fog, until slowly you realize, that you are still +conscious and alive. As soon as doubt is gone, the clouds will dissipate and your loved ones +will be there to help you. + +In the first stage of transition, you will be allowed time to recuperate. The process of living on +Earth and the troubles of the long years spent there have made you very weary. In the new +realm that you have just entered, you are given time to rest from your journey on Earth and to +adjust to the Astral Realm. Everyone, no matter what their magickal attainment, must enter +this level of the Astral Realm. It has been referred to, by some religions, as purgatory. You are +here in order to rest, purify yourself of human dross and make decisions about your magickal +future. Your magickal development determines the level of purgatory you first arrive at. + +For souls who are of the lowest and crudest of development, there is a very low vibrational +level for them. At this level, acts of the worst kind, akin to their own vibrations, are portrayed +before them. The things that they did wrong on Earth are done to them. This is a very dense +region. This is not a land of punishment and torture, but a place to show the individual the +folly of such a life and a place to rid the soul of its denser energies. This is not Hell. There is no +such place as Hell. If Hell is anywhere it is right here on Earth. It is what humankind has +made of the Earth. + +Above this there is the next level which some go immediately to and some come up to from a +lower level. This level is for souls who allowed their lower passions to rule them. For those +who sought after money and power without maintaining the Eternal Night Balance. This +region is very much akin to the physical plane just left behind. The Astral surroundings will +be very similar to those of the Earth. Here the souls will remain, till they rid themselves of the +courser Astral material, so that they may go ever higher. They rid themselves of this dense +Astral material by learning control of their passions. They must make up the Eternal +Balance. From here we go to the level you probably rose to from the beginning. + +You rise to the level where generally all begin who are of a basically good nature. This land is +filled with beautiful parks and lakes. There are very beautiful buildings all around you. There +are colors never before seen by you. The air is alive with energy and life. Animal life is +abundant and tame. There is beautiful music everywhere in the air. Here in this realm no +disharmony can occur. No one can meet anyone who would cause them unhappiness of any +kind. When you first arrive, your loved ones or magickal helpers will be there to assist you. In +this realm, all that you want is produced by your thoughts. Travel is by thought. If you want to +wear clothes then you must think of yourself dressed as you want to be dressed. Your +nourishment is all around you. All you have to do is breathe. Your physical habits that you +learned on Earth will still be with you. You may feel that you still have to eat. This is fine. +You need only think of the food you want to eat plus the table and so forth necessary to eat it +with. But the sooner you learn to forget the old physical habits, and learn and experience your +new Astral Body, the sooner you will be able to progress. This is a very real world. This world +is as solid and real to its inhabitants as your own Earth is to you. But there are some who see +this realm slightly different. + +For some souls who believe in an exact type of heaven according to their religious beliefs, or +even of the opposite region, and feel that this is where they are going, then this is what they +will see. If they believe that they will see the Pearly Gates and St. Pete at them, then this is +what they will see. Gradually though, imperfections will show up here and there. The gates +may squeak or even fall off the hinges as they start to open. The angels, flying about, may +suddenly be wearing flannel shirts and play off-key on their rusty harps. When the person has +enough doubts about their make-believe heaven, then like a dream, it will disappear and the +real Astral Realm will appear and so their beloved ones too. + +It is best to keep an open mind when you make the transition. This will quicken your entry +into your new realm and life. After you have become adjusted to this new realm, you will be +escorted to a building where you will review your recent life and past lives you have lived. All +that you have ever done will be shown to you on what has been called in some religions the +Akashic Record, and by others, the Book of Records. Let's look at this Record and see what it +is? + +The Night Record, as you will come to know it, is a special energy upon which everything that +has ever occurred to anyone and anything is recorded. There is further shown, on the Night +Record, the probabilities for the future. This Record not only can show what has occurred on +the Earth, but for anyplace located anywhere. This Record can be seen by those who have +made the Earth transition in order to look at their life just lived, and by those of high +magickal development who have a need to see. The Record is not for the use of just anyone. + +So, you were just entering the Night Record Hall and preparing to review your life. You see the +things you did and the things you shouldn't have done. You see the things you were supposed to +have done and learned. No one judges you but yourself and your Oversoul! You are your own +sternest judge. It is through your Oversoul that you see where you have gone wrong and what +your Oversoul wanted you to accomplish in your life. You are then led out of the Hall by your +guide and taken to a council of advisors. These advisors are trained to aid you in reviewing +your lives and determining the best means for accomplishing the previous desired results +wanted by your Oversoul and thus planning your future. You are placed in the proper +circumstances, at the proper time, to achieve the desired results. After this planning, you will +retire to the Astral Realm of your vibration and rest and prepare yourself for the next phase of +life. + +You are responsible for all that you do in life. You are responsible for the debts you occur in +life and for repaying your debts. No one will pay your debts except you. The bad and good you +create is called Karma. Karma and the Astral Realm are deeply related. It is at this plane of +life that you make decisions which will effect your future. Until you learn the lessons +necessary to be learned on the Earth plane then you must continue to return until you have +learned all there is to be learned. Who determines when you have learned all that there is to be +learned? The Oversoul is who! + +In a Process not described here, your future is woven out of your magickal essence in the Astral +Realm. This magickal fabric that is being woven contains the basic kinds of programs. By +programs, I am referring to programs very similar to that used by the computer so that it can +carry out its basic functions. One of your inner programs sets for you predetermined events +which you must experience. These events are the results of energies you have set into motion +from out of the past which must be again experienced and worked through. Further, they can +be events, not necessarily a result of your past but of events which you need to experience to +make you stronger and a better instrument for your Oversoul. The second program is for you to +make. + +These are periods which allow you to determine the path you will choose. They are like a +blank tape upon which you write your future. You know when you have entered these periods +for you feel like a ship adrift on the seas. All the familiar surroundings, experiences, and +securities in your life are gone. They are not easy times for you, but they are the greatest +periods for your soul growth. They bring to you periods of inner growth, new directions in your +life, and a chance to accelerate your magickal growth. In these periods, you are the Captain of +your Destiny. By the choices you make and the opportunities you take to advance, your future +is set in motion. These periods allow you to clear up excess karmic debt. They will bring to you +new friends, teachers, and many changes which if taken advantaged of, will allow you to +achieve great magickal growth. You must watch for these periods and take all the advantage of +them you can. You have to be tough. They will test the very essence of that which you are made +of. You must do the very best you can in all that you do. You must be strong and know that you +are guided. You never fail in life if you can say that you did your best. You can gain these +learning experiences in the Astral Realm just as you can learn them on Earth. So why would +you want to leave the Astral world. + +In the Astral, life is full of harmony and beauty. It would take a long time to learn even the +easiest of lessons. So, in order for the Oversoul to grow at a fast rate, it chooses to send a part of +itself, being you, to learn quickly in the "School of Hard Knocks". You know that you grow +fastest when you have to learn the hard way. You learn your lessons quickly and well. If life +was all fun and games you would never learn, so life is not easy. There are some lessons that +can only be learned on Earth. A hard life may not necessarily be a sign of large karmic debt, +but a period of quick growth and possible advancement. How many lifetimes does it take +before you don't have to come back here anymore? + +No one can really say how many lives it will take except your Oversoul. There is only so much +that can be learned from each sojourn on Earth. There are so many things that must be +learned from living on Earth. You keep coming here to the Earth until you have learned all the +lessons necessary and until the Oversoul is in charge of your life. Each of your lives adds to the +Eternal Essence which is your Oversoul. Yet this idea of reincarnation or the returning to life +on Earth time and time again scares many. + +They don't like reincarnation because they are afraid that they will lose their individuality. +Well, you never lose that individuality. Your Oversoul can be compared to a vessel of water. In +that vessel of water, if you add some red dye the water will appear red add the color yellow and +you will have orange. Each color is still there but their added essence creates a new whole. +Thus you add each individuality into the Oversoul. The Oversoul grows and becomes more +then it just was by that new addition. You are still that individuality but you are in +cooperative union with all the other parts which make up the sum, which is the Oversoul. +When you have learned all that must be learned, then you no longer have to return to the Earth. +You then pass beyond the Astral World when you have learned all that you have to learn there. +There are many things to learn in the Astral. + +There is the special group that is responsible for the souls making the transition from the +Earth to the Astral. There are those who weave the soul fabric for a soul's journey to Earth. +There are also teachers, doctors, nurses, advisors, and guides to those still living on Earth. +You can, after gaining all that you must learn in the Astral, die or leave this dimension and go +on to an even higher realm. You could also go on to a more advanced planet and civilization +and begin the cycle of life and death there. The variables are endless and the choice of your +Oversoul. I have referred to the Astral Realm as the Water Realm. In Night Magick, the things +you will learn of this realm are known as Water Magick. + +From the beginning, the Ancients have likened the Astral Realm to water because things of the +Astral involve the emotions. The Astral Body is the body of emotions. You feel and express +emotions because you have an Astral Body. It is the purpose of Water Magick to help you gain +control over, and to refine, your Astral Body. The instruction, exercises, and rites are +presented here to accomplish this purpose. This is the hardest body to gain control over. The +emotions in most people run wild and out-of-control. People give into their emotions without +trying to gain any self-control. You have to learn to control your emotions in order to have +magickal growth. You must make the Astral Body an instrument worthy of the Oversoul. It +must become an Instrument through which the Oversoul pours out Its Night Energies into the +world. You must strive at all times to be consciously aware that as you feel and express +emotions that actually it is the Oversoul who feels and expresses through you. That control +over your emotions and the expression of Night Force comes only through constant +communion with your Oversoul. Strive for this communion at all times. You are the Oversoul +in emotional expression here on Earth. Through the Oversoul you will succeed. Let's begin +immediately learning exercises for emotional control and magickal advancement. + +22. The Astral Body and Exercises for Emotional Control + +On each realm of life that the Oversoul lives on there is a necessity for a vehicle made up of that +realm's essence in order for the Oversoul to find expression in that realm. The vehicle you are +most familiar with is the physical body. It is made up of dense physical matter. You know +from earlier discussions that there is a large amount of space between all the molecules of the +physical body. Interspaced in the physical body can be found the Astral molecules which +make up the Astral Body. + +In the Astral Realm, your Astral Body and all the Astral surroundings are as solid and real to +you as is your physical body and surroundings, when you are in the physical realm. The Astral +Body is much more refined, and vibrating at a higher vibration, then is the physical body. The +Astral Body has the same identical form as your physical body. When you are in the Astral +Realm though, your Astral Body is very beautiful and without imperfections. There are no +signs of ageing as there are in the physical world. The Astral form is very beautiful and the +face is of exquisite beauty. There is no ugliness or lack of harmony in the Astral. The Astral +Body exists simultaneously with the physical body and all other bodies as well. While you are +in the physical body, the Astral Body is the body through which you feel. It is the body through +which the Oversoul impresses and communicates with you. + +At night, when you sleep, it is the body through which you experience dreams. Dreams are +often distortions of your experiences in the Astral Realm. The Astral Body is the body of +emotions. The Astral Body can be likened to an emotion magnet. When you express an +emotion, you actually charge the surrounding Astral material with that emotion. You have +experienced this happening. + +For example, when you have gotten someone angry, you can actually feel the atmosphere +around that person become alive with anger. You have also seen this when someone expresses +love for another. The Astral material which surrounds you and the physical world is made up +of charged Astral Energy. For the Earth, this energy is of a dense nature. + +There are all kinds of emotional energies which make up the astral material around the Earth. +These energies range from love to hate. On the Earth you can have inharmony and discord and +harmony and accord. This is what is meant by dense. You can express any emotions while on +Earth. + +When you express an emotion, such as hate, the energy which is of like quality in the Astral is +attracted to you. You can see that your hate, added to the greater hate which is surrounding you +only makes your hatred more intense. You can then become consumed with hate, so much so, +that you may lose control and seriously hurt through that hate. Long after the hate seems to +have left you, it still remains within your Astral Aura. The slightest thing can trigger again +this hate reaction and more hate energy will be generated. This is what happens from a lack of +emotional control. + +As I've said, the world as a whole is made up of many kinds of emotional energies. The energies +are there to use and express with control. Without control, you become a pawn for domination +by the emotional energies surrounding you. You must begin by learning to refine your Astral +Body. To learn to place it under the control of your Oversoul. Let me introduce some exercises +which will help you gain self-control. + +Begin by deliberately slowing yourself down. When you drive on the road always let the other +person go first. Slow down when you drive. If you will drive the speed limit, or five miles an +hour below it, you will be passed by all. When you walk do it slowly. Let others enter a building +or room ahead of yourself. The idea is to slow down. This is the first exercise and the next +involves your use of meditation. +When you are in meditation, visualize a cleansing energy moving through your Astral Body +and Night Centers. See that energy cleansing all emotional energy and replacing it with the +Night Force. Visualize bliss, peace, and ecstasy filling your entire being. Next, visualize any +act which you know produces an out- of-control emotional response within yourself. See that +event occurring and you remaining in perfect control. Do this with all events and slowly you +will gain control. Learn to disassociate from an emotional world of chaos. + +The world rids itself of an over abundance of chaotic energies through natural means. These +include such events as hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, floods, and violent storms. They +are the world's safety valves when the human emotional energies become too much. You can +help to prevent these occurrences by correcting your own energy production. In meditation, +you can visualize the entire world and do for it what you did for yourself above. See that +cleansing energy fill the world. See the emotional energies of humankind balanced and in +order. If you will do this daily the world will become a more stable environment. This is your +first step on the Road of Water Magick. Your next involves the Astral Aura and its relationship +to colors. + +23. Astral Aura, Color, and Exercises + +Around you, shaped like an egg, is the electromagnetic energy known as the aura. Each body +produces its own aura. The most studied aura is the product of the Astral Body. I will discuss +the astral aura, its relationship to colors, and exercises for seeing and strengthening the aura. + +The aura surrounds your body like an egg with the point at the feet. In the average individual +the aura extends approximately twelve to eighteen inches around the body. As you develop +magickally the aura enlarges. The electromagnetic energy is perceived by the Night Eye as +color. + +In the Astral aura, these colors reflect the emotions which make up the individual. The colors +of the aura generally extend up to the eyes with the halo region just beyond that. Out of the top +of the head extends a fountain of energy in the more advanced soul. This halo region is the +strongest region of energy and is the easiest to see using your Night Eye. On the outer fringes of +the aura is the Auric Sheath. + +This is a skin-like film and completely encloses the aura. On the auric sheath, which can be +compared to a translucent screen, the subconscious mind projects a variety of thought +pictures. On this screen can be seen images of thoughts and even past life images. Before you +learn to see the aura, let's look at what the auric colors reveal about people. + +To begin with, some of the colors seen reflect current emotional expression. For example, +anger will flash into the aura as a deep, dark blackish-red. This color will generally last only +as long as a person feels the emotion, although residuals of this anger will remain for +sometime. The second kind of colors seen reflect long standing emotional states. You'll +remember in the last topic that the emotional energy produced by your Astral Body was a +magnetic attracter for similar energy. + +For example, if you become angry a great deal, then this energy tends to concentrate in your +aura. The concentration tends to increase for surrounding anger energy is attracted to the +anger energy already in your aura. Thus, you will see a heavy concentration of blackish-red in +your aura which remains there over long periods of time. It won't dissipate so long as you +continue to create this energy. This applies to all kinds of emotional energy. + +There are seven basic colors in the aura. They are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and +violet. All the colors and their shades indicate a particular emotion or something about the +character of an individual. Take each color and try to learn as much about it as it pertains to +people. Some things you will learn about colors will come from your experiences over the +years. Colors can first be broken down into two main groups. The red, orange, yellow group +are full of energy. They represent people who are vibrant. These are people who are extroverts. +They are the worlds' socialites. The second group, green, blue, indigo, and violet are the +introverts. These are the quiet, less social people. They are more concerned with their +interests then those of the world. + +The color red rules the physical world. It is the color of Earth's fertility. It is the color of +activity and creativeness. When seen as a clear, bright red in the aura it signifies people who +possesses the attributes of ambition, leadership, sociability, and strong character. It indicates +force, vigor, and vitality in people. They will have a strong sex drive. They will be pioneers. +They will love adventure and have a great need for new friends and new things. These are very +aggressive people. This does lead to some problems. + +Red makes people very impulsive. They are apt to be abrupt and impatient in all things. They +are very earthy in their ways. This is the person with clear, bright red in their aura. But there +are many modifications to the color red that can be see in the aura. Dark red indicates a deep +passion or emotion within. A person who is sometimes domineering and brash. A light red +indicates irritability, nervousness, and one who is excitable. A bright red flashing on a black +background indicates extreme anger arising from hatred and malice. A brick red is for conceit +and reddish brown is for deceit. A dark scarlet is for the strongest, sensual love. A coral color +pink is for immaturity in teenagers; childishness and insecurity in adults. A clear, rose pink +is for a friendly, selfless loving person. The people who have red in the best and clearest colors +are leaders of the world. They are one-pointed, high spirited, and seek after what they want on +their high driving force. These are people of high energy and a color you could use some of in +your aura. This is the color of creation. + +The color orange is related in some ways to the color red. The color orange is formed by the +blending of the red and yellow colors. It is the color of vitality. When this color is found in the +aura it indicates people who are in good health and full of vitality. Orange indicates that they +are considerate towards others. They are the humanitarian. It can further indicate people +who are creative, even to the extent of genius. This is a social person. Again, you see the red +nature of this color. These are people who like to get along with others and be liked in return. +They like to lead an adventurous life. They look for events in their lives which offer +excitement. They are lovers of freedom and look forward to all that is new. Shades of orange +represent many things. + +A dark orange indicates one full of self-pride. A brownish orange represents one who is lazy. +It could also indicate someone who is subject to kidney trouble. If muddy and cloudy orange is +present in the aura it indicates a person of low intellect. But yellowish golden orange in the +aura shows self-control and efficiency in all things. I have indicated what orange can mean +when seen in the aura. Let's go a bit further and see what orange induced into your aura +through meditation can do for you. + +The color orange is a color which can induce change into your system. It is an energy for +dealing with problems which can be changed to a more positive situation. For example, let's +say you have an inferiority problem. You always feel unmatched towards any problem. You +perhaps have a low opinion of yourself and never feel able to deal with life. The orange light +can change this attitude. It can make you feel free of limitations. It will add zest and optimism +in your life. Orange helps to induce change into your thinking processes so that you can +assimilate new ideas. It also induces stability in your thinking. As you will recall, orange is +made up of two colors. The first was red and the second is yellow. + +Yellow is the color of the mind. It signifies all there is in relation to intelligence. In the aura, a +bright, clear yellow represents good mental capabilities. This color is very prominent in the +halo region. An excess of this color denotes people who spend almost all their time after +mental pursuits. These people have very quick minds. They are able to realize their mental +capabilities. They have a desire to help other people through the products of their mental +abilities. They do tend to be shy and slightly introverted. They control their anger easily. +They are the concrete thinker. They deal in hard physical realities. This is a good color for +scientists and professors. If the colors are of a softer, paler shades, then this is good for the +writer, artist, and all creative workers. Diffused yellow, in the aura, indicates people who are +tactful, cheerful, and use discrimination in all they do. They do not worry about mundane +things. They are generally happy, friendly, and helpful to others. If the yellow is muddy, +mustard yellow it shows craftiness. A grayish cast to the yellow shows mental cunning. A +greenish yellow aura it indicates jealousy. Pinkish yellow shows astuteness in people. A +dingy yellow shows cowardice and reddish yellow shows mental, moral, and physical +timidity. Yellow induced into the physical body leads to the regeneration of the human cells +keeping the body in beauty and health. Yellow effects the Astral Body by inducing a state of +emotional well-being. It further helps the mental capabilities by sharpening them and +improving the memory. It will make the mind quicker and able to more easily assimilate new +material. Yellow qualities help to produce the next color. + +Green is the color of Earth. It is the garment that clothes the Goddess/God of Earth. This is the +color which symbolizes balance, harmony, and abundance. In the Night World, this is the +color of balance and harmony. In the physical world, it is the color of success and prosperity. +If this color is a pure, emerald green, with just a touch of blue, it is the color of healing. This +color can be found in the aura of doctors and nurses. Green is also found in the auras of +teachers. Green in the aura generally indicates people of peace and harmony. They are the +good neighbor and active in all community projects. They are people who have a strong inner +faith in themselves and humankind. It is a color representing generosity and sympathy +towards all of humankind. If there is a light green present it shows prosperity and success. A +middle green denotes adaptability and versatility. An excess of green indicates people who are +very individualistic and independent. Clear green denotes sympathy and dark green indicates +deceit. Olive green shows treachery and a double nature. Next we have blue. + +Blue is the color of the Sky World. This is the color denoting peace and calm. In the aura, the +deeper the shade of blue the deeper the nature of the individual. Blue is a good color regardless +of its darkness. Pale blue is an indication of people who are trying to grow emotionally. They +may be struggling with who they are and what they should do in life. As the blue deepens so +does their emotional maturity. They are closer to knowing who they are. They are closer to +seeing the true purpose of their life. They are people who are more dedicated and work harder +in life. The deep shades of blue indicate people who have found their quest. + +They are people actively involved in their quest. They know their purpose in life and actively +seek to complete it. They are totally immersed in the magickal quest. People with blue +predominate in their auras are generally very calm individuals. They seek the contemplative +life and friends of like nature. They are not akin to the social set. They can be very +temperamental when their calm is disrupted. They are easy people to get along with and are +very thoughtful. They are sensitive people towards their surroundings and other people. They +enjoy times of intimacy with close friends and love the quiet and solitude. In the aura, a deep +and clear blue indicates one of pure magickal devotion. A pale and etherial blue shows +devotion to a noble idea. A bright blue shows one given to loyalty and sincerity. The sixth +color is indigo. + +Indigo is the color of the true seeker on the magickal path. They are one dedicated to the +magickal quest and only the magickal quest. People with indigo predominate in their aura are +the ones who aim at the stars and succeed for they combine the ideal with the practical. They +have developed a magickal maturity which will carry them unto their ultimate goal; the goal +of Night Consciousness. The final color to study is violet. Violet is the highest vibration of +color that can be seen in the aura. The souls who have this color in predominance are very +rare indeed. They are supersensitive and will hold to their ideals even at the cost of personal +suffering. All the great works of art owe their realization to the souls who have this color in +their aura. Violet is the stimulator of ideals and provides nourishment for the brain cells in +the upper brain which gives greater magickal understanding. They are people of a mature, well- +rounded personality. They are strong in character with sound judgement in all things. They +have excellent mental abilities and strong reasoning capabilities. They have the highest sense +of personal integrity. People are strongly attracted to them. They are introspective and +temperamental. They can be easily irritated because of their sensitivity. They enjoy the +refinements of life, but can easily forego these and endure the most austere of lives, if it will +serve their purpose in attaining their goals. So far, I have said a great deal about the colors of +the aura itself. This won't help you, if you can't see them. + +To be able to see the aura you will need to go back to the topic on seeing the Etheric (Topic 17). If +you have been studying and practicing seeing the etheric, then you will soon be able to see the +Astral aura. The aura is not easy to see. The colors in the aura are of a much higher vibration +then the energies of the Etheric, and this requires that you have greater development of the +Night Eye. It requires that you do not become impatient and give up. The lower colors, those +from red to yellow, will be the easiest to see. The higher colors may elude you for some time. Do +not forget that you can also see thought images or in other words pictures projected onto the +auric screen. The procedures for seeing the Astral aura are identical for seeing the Etheric. + +It is best to begin with a period of meditation before trying to see the aura so that you will be in +the highest of magickal states and awareness. All of this will take time and practice on your +part but the effort is well worth it. You will help your magickal development and learn more +about people. You will come to know people for what they truly are inside when you can see +their auras. The second exercise involves strengthening the aura. + +To strengthen the aura, you must first cross your wrists and your ankles. This will complete +your bodily circuit and prevent your energies from being dissipated. You must also slow down +and deepen your breathing. A few minutes of Night Breathing would be excellent. You should +then see added energy flowing down your silver cord, from your Oversoul, adding tremendous +Power to your aura. This will aid you when dealing with others who try to exert their own aura +against you. This often takes place between people in business who are negotiating a contract +between themselves. It will also aid you in trying to see someone else's aura along with your +own. If you are trying to view another person's aura, and they are practicing with you, have +them do this too. You will find you can see it much easier and more clearly. The progression of +the colors from red to violet marks the road of a Night Magician's journey. + +You must develop the highest qualities and characteristics of each color. Ultimately, you must +master each. Through mastery of the qualities embodied in the colors and their energy added +to your aura, you will see yourself progressing towards Night Consciousness. As you learn to +see your aura, you can identify the colors and the character they represent. If they are not of +the highest standard then you can work for their improvement. Again, strive to achieve +mastery over self. Embody within yourself the highest qualities of the colors. The next subject +is intricately related to auras and colors. It is the Higher Night Centers. + +24. The Higher Night Centers and Exercises + +In topic seventeen, you looked at the purely physical aspects of the Night Centers. Here, you are +going to examine the magickal aspects of all seven. You will discover the powers that will +become yours to use as each Night Center begins to function within you. You will see how +colors are related to each Night Center and learn an important exercise to help advance the +opening of the Night Centers. Finally, you will examine and perform an exercise that will +release the Night Energy through the Night Centers into your world. + +First, let's have a quick review of what you learned in topic seventeen. You were able to locate +the Night Centers in relation to the physical organs. The first and lowest was located at the +base of the spine in relation to the gonads. The second was located over the spleen/pancreas +and the third over the navel area or solar plexus. The fourth is located at the heart level. The +fifth at the throat. The sixth at the brow level and the seventh at the crown of the head. The +Etheric Centers have a role in your life which extends beyond the physical plane and your +physical bodies. You saw that the centers are for the purpose of keeping all planes in +communication with each other. As you grow magickally, the Night Centers begin to unfold +more and release their energies into your life. As these centers unfold, you become aware of the +higher things on those realms. As you develop magickally, all Night Centers on all realms +evolve and receive continually higher energies which pour into your lives. This releases +abilities and powers into your life not normally present in the lesser evolved. What are the +abilities and powers of each awakening Night Center, and what do they mean to you? + +Let me begin by saying, "DO NOT FORCE YOUR DEVELOPMENT!" As you proceed in this topic, I +will cover the powers which will awaken in you as you develop magickally and the Night +Centers begin to open. In the unevolved, only the minimum of energy flows through the Night +Centers to the physical body so that there is life. But as you develop magickally, the centers +evolve and the Oversoul is able to send more of Its Energies through you. As long as you +develop along magickal lines, the Oversoul will send ever greater Energies through you. But do +not practice any form of Night Meditation, or Yoga, or whatever, which will force the +development of the base Night Center. This is the seat of the Earth Fire. In the eastern +languages, it is referred to as the Kundalini. The Earth Fire is Life. It is the Energies of Life +itself. This Energy lies in the base Night Center of all planes. It is a powerful and special +Energy which when released, will surge upward through the Night Centers and awaken each of +them to their fullest extent. Only if you are fully and magickally developed and have special +guidance from a magickal teacher of the Higher Realms will you survive such a forced +awakening. For example, the Earth Fire, on its way up, could very easily tear through tissue +and destroy various organs and cause physical death. This is the least that could happen! + +The second Night Center is concerned in its undeveloped state with sensual gratification, +sexual desires, and reproduction. If the Fire is unleashed while the Night Center is magickally +undeveloped, then all the bad traits of this center will be extremely heightened which could +result in uncontrollable, depraved, sexual conduct and harm to others. This forced awakening +could cause insanity. Allow the Earth Fire to awaken inside of you, naturally, as the result of +your magickal development. Grow magickally and the base Night Center will awaken in you, +as you are ready to handle the power that is contained within it. You will be shown how to +unfold the upper Night Centers but allow the base center to unfold of itself. It will awaken +naturally and easily as you unfold magickally. When this base Night Center has fully +awakened, you will become the Oversoul. You will be a Night Magician of the highest degree. In +the beginning of your development, this center will glow with a reddish light. When you have +achieved Night Consciousness it will glow with an intense dark light of incredible power. + +The second Night Center relates to your passions. The deeper your passions are and +involvement in lust and sexual gratification the darker the red of this center's light. As you +develop magickally, a dark light begins to be added to the red till the center is all aglow in the +Night. In its highest development, this Night Center will allow one to overcome disease, old +age, and eventually physical death. This is a great center of vitality. It absorbs the orange +light and distributes the energies throughout one's being. As this Night Center begins to +awaken, you will be able to remember journeys taken into the Astral Realm at night. Upon +awakening in the morning, you will begin to have vague recollections of what they did in the +Astral that night as their body slept. You will probably have the feeling of flying while in the +Astral Realm. + +The third Night Center as it awakens will give you the feeling of an awareness of Astral +presences. You will become very conscious and sensitive to all manner of psychic and Astral +influences. Some of these influences may feel good, while others may induce in you a sense of +fear. On the lowest levels, this center is associated with power, mastery, and ego control. This +is the center for engrossment in material matters and their control. On the highest levels, this +center will be able to help you achieve strong magickal rapport with your fellow Astral +brothers. This center is used to contact Astral entities. This Night Center should be +surrounded in the Night Pillar such that the contact remains a contact and does not allow the +Astral entities control over your bodily mechanism. + +The next Night Center is the crossroad for all centers. This is the fourth Night Center and it is +located over the heart. As this center begins to open on the etheric level, you will begin to have +an emotional rapport with others. You will be able to know and feel the emotions of others +around you. You will have empathy with them on all levels of feeling, to include that of feeling +their pains as your pains. Located within this Night Center is the "Heart of the Oversoul". This +is the anchor within your magickal being placed there by your Oversoul. It is around this +miniature dark star that all that you are is gathered. You can liken it to a small miniature +Oversoul. It is the embryo of your Oversoul beginning. As you begin on the path of Night +Magick and continue to grow magickally, you will see this embryo begin to grow into a small +child of the Oversoul. The farther along you develop, the child will continue to develop and +grow, until you gain Night Consciousness and the Oversoul within you is a full adult. This +center actually does exist and can be seen in meditation. You will learn to do this in a later +topic. It is the focal point in your world where you, as a Night Magician, can go and meet your +Oversoul. In this center's fullest development, the Power of your Oversoul will pour out from +you. Through the Energy pouring out of you there will be nothing you cannot do. This is the +Center of the Night in which you move and have your being. + +Through the fifth Night Center, you gain the ability for clairaudience. Clairaudience is the +ability to hear voices in the Astral Realm. You will have the sensation of hearing those on the +other side, as you can hear those on this side of life. You may also be able to hear the "Music of +the Night Spheres". As this center continues to develop, you will be able to clothe your thoughts +in form. The thoughts you generate with your mind, through this center, will be able to take on +direction and energy and go forth and do as directed. Through the development of this center, +you will achieve strong will power which will see you through difficult tasks. Through this +center, you will achieve true mastery over yourself and life. This is only, though, when you +link up this center with that of the heart. Together, these centers in unison can do anything. + +In Night Magick, the sixth center is the Night Eye. As this center begins to develop, you first +perceive Astral shadows. You will often see nothing more then clouds of color. As the Night +Eye continues to develop, you will be able to see Astral people, landscape, and symbols. When +the Night Eye is fully developed, you will be able to have true seeing which you call +clairvoyance. Clairvoyance is the ability to see and know Truth in all its forms. It is seeing +and knowing as the Oversoul within you sees and knows. You will be able to see the past and +present. You will be able to see anyplace at anytime and be able to enlarge, in the physical +world, matter ranging in size from small to microscopic. In the future, you will be able to see +the probabilities of what might happen. In the future, there is little which must happen, and a +great deal which can change according to your actions. Thus, according to the way things seem +to be forming you can see what will probably happen. +The seventh center is the link between your mind and that of your Oversoul. In the beginning, +as this center begins to open, it allows for partial consciousness when you are in the Astral +world. As this center unfolds, your consciousness will be more complete, and you will perceive +the Astral Realm as clearly as you do the physical world. You will never know any cessation +of consciousness whether you are in the physical world or the Astral world. As you grow more +and more dedicated to doing the Soul's Will this Night Center will continue to open on Higher +Realms allowing more and more Magickal Energy to be released into your everyday world. You +will become more in tune with what your Higher Self would have you do in this world. When +this center has developed far enough, in conjunction with the heart Night Center, the Oversoul +Child will be born within you. When this Night Center has opened completely, your aura and +your word will be filled with Night Energies and the aura will glow with a brilliant radiance of +the Night. From what has just been said, there can be seen a relationship between the Night +Centers and colors. + +Each Night Center, in its pure and developed state, vibrates to a particular color. The base +Night Center vibrates to the color red. The spleen/pancreas center vibrates to the color orange. +The third center, located over the solar plexus, vibrates to the color yellow. The heart center +vibrates to the color green and the throat center to that of blue. The brow center, Night Eye, +vibrates to that of indigo, and the highest of Night Centers, the crown, vibrates to the color +violet. As all the Night Centers are developing magickally, they will attain to the purest of +colors. As the Night Centers reach perfection, they will open, and the colors will flow till they +can be perceived as the color of the Night. Let's look at an exercise which can be done to +develop the Night Centers so that they will radiate in the Night and permit your the Night +Powers to flow through you. + +First, refer back to topic sixteen. In that topic, we discussed meditating on the desired color +you needed for healing and projecting it into your Night Pillar. You prepared yourself for +meditation with a sheet of color paper, which would help you concentrate, and draw to you, the +desired color energy that you wished to use. Let's again do the same technique, only this time, +instead of sending the color into your Pillar, you will send it into the specific Night Center you +wish to stimulate. + +You should first see the specific Night Center, in your mind, and feel that great wheel of Night +Energy slowly rotating, and see the specific color desired flowing into the Night Center and +stimulating it. See the center whirling faster and faster as the result of the inflow of color +energy. See the center becoming a pure channel for the color energy and the impure energies +leaving it. Further, see the added Energies of the Oversoul flowing into the center via the silver +cord. Do this with all of the Night Centers except the base Night center. This is an excellent +exercise will actually bring the Night Energies from the Higher Realms and then release them +into the physical world around you. Stand with your feet together, and your arms and hands +outstretched, as you form a living X. Palms should be facing outward. Now you must become +very calm and silent within. See yourself as the Oversoul on Earth. See yourself as a Night +Being. Now, you will bring into your being Two Great Energies. Through the soles of your feel, +you will see the Earth Energies rise up, and at the same time, you will be drawing into you the +Night Force flowing from your Oversoul down through the Crown Night Center. These Energies +will meet in the heart Night Center. As they meet, see these Energies going out, under the +direction of your Oversoul and the Night Gods, healing, cleansing, purifying, and touching the +Earth. If you know someone in special need of the Energies, see them flowing to her or him. As +you continue to practice this exercise the flow of the Energies will become stronger and +stronger. You will be of true service to the Night Guild. You will truly be a Night Magician +when the Night Centers radiate in the night of your world. I said earlier, that as the Crown +Night Center begins to open, you have partial awareness of the Astral Realm. Yet, your +awareness is often distorted. One state of awareness that you have of your Astral journeys is +the dream state. In our next discussion, you will enter the Dream Realm. + +25. The Dream Realm + +There are a great many books on the market dealing with the topic of dreams. Many of these +books list the symbols which you see in your dreams and then tell you what they mean, or +what is going to happen because of what you dreamed. But interpreting dreams is just not that +easy. Dreams are a very personal thing to each of us. A dog, seen in one dream, may mean one +thing to me and a totally different thing to you. + +To begin with, there are two basic types of dreams. The first type of dream is a common +occurrence in most people's lives. This is the dream when upon awakening you have only vague +recollections of what transpired. These are dreams which you rapidly forget what took place. +They are very confusing dreams and are the mental garbage which your mind gets rid of as you +sleep. The second type of dream is what you need to pay attention to. + +These are dreams which you remember very vividly upon awakening. You see images, and +possibly colors, vividly. You feel that you were actually there and taking part in what was +going on. You have a sharp recollection of what took place and you do not easily forget what +transpired after awakening. If this is the kind of dream that has occurred in your life, then +you are remembering an actual experience that has taken place in the Astral Realm. You can +also be witnessing a message that is meant to help guide your life. The first type of dream you +can forget about. This is just your mind getting rid of a lot of mental garbage and worries +pressed upon it, or a distortion of a journey in the Astral Realm. The second type is important. +You have often heard of the phrase, "sleep on it", in connection with solving a problem that you +cannot seem to resolve. + +When you sleep on a problem, you are out in the Astral Realm and can meet with people on that +side of life and receive an answer to your problem. The answer generally comes to you in the +form of a dream. There are other things that can be done in the use of your dreams. + +Let's say that you have an important interview with a client coming up. The night before, you +will need a picture of your client that you're going to meet. Preferably, this should be a +physical picture or a strong mental picture will suffice. Then before going to sleep, you should +concentrate on the picture of your client and think of the thing you would like your client to +do. Think and say the things to your client that will persuade her/him your way. Then put it +out of your mind and just know, that as you sleep, you will meet your client in the Astral and +this will help prepare your way in tomorrow's meeting. You will be successful if you do this. +You can see that there are endless variations and possibilities in the use of your dreams. You +can also help improve your dreaming. The first thing you should do in helping yourself in +dreaming is find out which way you sleep best. The body best picks up magickal currents by +having the head facing in a certain direction. Practice sleeping with your head pointed say to +the North and keep a record on how you slept for a week. Then the next week, sleep in a new +direction and do the recording. You should do this for all four directions. This is the first step +towards better sleeping and dreaming. + +To further improve dreaming do the following: when you fall asleep at night, say to yourself +that you're going to remember all that you dream of clearly and sharply. Say this over and +over to yourself until you fall asleep naturally. Know that you are going to dream true! Now, +you will want to keep a diary of your dreams. + +Keep this diary by your bed along with a pen. Upon awakening from a vivid and true dream, +record what you saw and the impressions of what it meant to you. If the dream is in a very +symbolic form, then take that dream into your meditation periods and seek to discover the +meaning of those symbols. As said before, symbols are a very personal thing to you and their +meaning lies with the Oversoul and Night Teacher. You may want to record these symbols on a +three by five card and arrange them alphabetically. Symbolism is used a great deal of the time +by your Oversoul for communication with you. Symbolism is used so that you will spend more +time in communication with your Night Teacher and Oversoul in seeking an answer. Dreams +are important. It is important for you to become familiar with your dreams and their +meaning. Dreams are one means by which the Oversoul may speak with you and give +important information to guide your life. This could be from warnings concerning your health +or well-being to job assistance or ways to improve your practice of Night Magick. Another +mode of communication is the Oracle, which we will discuss in the next topic, along with a +discussion of Astral Guides and the use of Trance. + +26. Astral Guides, Oracleship, and Trance + +You are never alone in this world. You may feel that you stand on some deserted island in the +middle of the ocean, yet you should take comfort in the fact that all around you your Guides +and Teachers are with you each and every moment of the day and night. In addition to +discussing the Guides, you will also explore communication with the Astral Guides, or +oracleship, and a special state of consciousness, the Trance. To begin with, let's take a close +look at who your Guides and Teachers really are? + +Your Guides and Teachers are actually two distinct groups of magickal helpers. The Guides are +those who have remained on the Astral Realm and assist you from that dimension. They are +composed of both relatives and friends of your past lives who are gaining valuable experience +and magickal growth by assisting you on the physical plane. You should remember that their +personalities are still very much akin to the ones they had in their last life. There are +Specialist who come under this group of Guides. They assist you with special guidance if you +are undertaking a special task and need their magickal expertise. They assist those in the +process of transition from physical to Astral living. They are the Astral doctors and nurses. +The other group is made up of those I term Teachers. + +They are a magickally advanced group of Beings. They administer to you from a much higher +realm of existence. The Realm of the Soul. They are usually with you from the beginning of +time and follow you long into your magickal development. As you reach a special development +in your magickal path, the rank of the Teacher continues to advance until you work with your +Night Teacher. I will discuss the Night Teachers in a later topic. + +Everyone on this planet has been led by inspiration at some time or another, but most have +never taken the time to try and understand where that inspiration came from. Inspiration has +its origins from two different sources. The first is your Oversoul and is of the highest form of +inspiration. The second is guidance given to you through your Magickal Guides and Teachers. +You can receive a closer rapport with your Guides and Teachers by learning to remain in a state +of inner listening, by remaining in a state of inner awareness, knowing that they are always +with you and that you can receive from them guidance in all that you do. +You must begin by accepting their Presence and knowing that you can communicate with +them. Whenever you can shut out the outer world and its problems, then can you hear them +speak to you. You must always carefully weigh what they tell you and know that, ultimately, +the decision is yours. They never compel you to do anything, but simply guide you as to what +the probabilities are and then it's your decision. You may be able to hear the Astral message, +but some are exceptionally good at hearing those from the Astral Realm. These individuals are +Oracles. +An Oracle is a person who through a difference in body and brain structure is able to receive +messages from the Astral with an exceptional clarity. They are individuals with a delicate +physical and nervous system upon which Astral Spirits may impress the message. The person +enters an altered state of consciousness, whereby the Guide or Teacher is able to impress upon +the nervous system the message to be given. The Highest Guide or Teacher also acts as a traffic +controller regulating which Guide or Teacher will give a message and who will not, through the +Oracle. The Oracle must remain in a very passive state of mind. The Oracle is only a link +between this world and that of the Astral. There are degrees of passivity in consciousness for +the Oracle. The Oracle may retain almost total consciousness while seeing and hearing the +message, and then again, consciousness may be totally repressed by the Guide or Teacher. This +total repression of consciousness, in the Oracle, is known as Trance. + +Trance is an altered state of consciousness, whereby the Oracle's consciousness leaves the body +and that of a Higher Entity enters into it. Thus, the Higher Entity has free reign to speak and +act through the body instrument without misinterpretation by the Oracle. In the other form of +oracleship, the Oracle hears and interprets what s/he sees and in this case s/he does not. +Generally, for the Oracle in Trance, it seems as if s/he has been pleasantly sleeping. Depending +on the Oracle's development, s/he can go into Trance on the physical plane and still remain +conscious and active on the Astral plane, and so can control the type of entity who is giving the +message through her/his body, to those on the physical plane who are listening. Even if the +Oracle cannot remain awake in the Astral, there is nothing to fear. If her/his body, emotions, +and thoughts are one with the Oversoul then nothing can happen to her/him while s/he is in a +state of Trance. Here is a warning to those who would attempt to practice the state of Trance. If +you are without fear and know that there is nothing to be afraid of, and live in the Night Pillar +of the Oversoul, then no harm can befall you. Remember this, keep your thoughts at one with +the Oversoul and nothing bad will ever happen to you. If you cannot live in this state of being +then do not try to reach a state of Trance. Otherwise, you are subject to entry and hold by the +lower mischievous entities. Most people have a safeguard against entering Trance and that is +falling asleep, but entry and hold is still possible at just the point of falling asleep, and the +point of awakening. This can only occur when you are attempting to reach the state of Trance. +This cannot occur if you are just normally going to sleep. Have no fear, but live in the Oversoul +and no wrong entry can occur to you during the state of Trance. There are several forms of +Trance. + +There is the kind, just mentioned above, whereby a Higher Entity uses your body to transmit a +message to a group of listeners while the Oracle is in a soporific state. There is also what is +called Night Trance. +Here the Oracle can be fully conscious and by his own control deliberately enter the state of +Trance rather then it being induced by the possessing Higher Entity. The next kind is called +Magician's Trance. + +Here, the body is very rigid, even to the point of having hard skin. You are still in your body, +but what you see can be likened to sitting on the highest peak with a telescope. In other word +wherever you look, you can see what is transpiring. There is no limit as to where or what you +can see. Time, distance, and/or physical structures are no obstacles to your seeing. The final +kind is called Trance Projection. + +Here you leave the body. The flesh remains very limp and the breathing greatly reduced. The +heart rate is also greatly reduced. Again, there are no limits to where you can see. Everyone, to +one degree or another can receive messages from the Astral. It is important that everyone +learn to take time to know and become close to their Guides and Teachers. Their messages of +guidance and help can completely change the world that you live in. There is no limit to the +aid that they can provide in your world. Take the time to still the mind and body so that you +may hear the guidance that they have to offer you. It is not essential that you try the states of +Trance. You should only induce the state of Trance under the guidance of your Magickal +Teacher. Therefore, I have omitted the how-to instruction for the state of Trance. You should +not try the different states of Trance unless you are sure of what you're doing and that you're +entering them with the correct frame of mind and under the proper supervision. Above all +learn this, "To be still and know the Oversoul." This is the key to Night Magick and Night +Consciousness. We have been discussing the magickal influence of your Astral Guides and +Teachers. Yet, they are only one magickal source, out of many, that influence your life. +Another great source of magickal influence over your emotional and magickal life is the +Goddess Diana. She is better known to you as the Presence of the Moon. + +27. The Moon and Its Rites + +There are many roads of magickal evolution which are filled with excitement, adventure, +accomplishment, and success by those who travel them. One of these roads is serving as the +indwelling life force for souls within a moon, planet, or star. The stars, planets, and moons +are the physical bodies of Great Beings who are on far on the road of magickal evolution. Of all +these grand Bodies, the one most symbolic of this chapter on Water Magick is the Moon. + +The Moon of the Earth exerts great influence over the tides of the ocean. You can then extend +the Moon's influence over the Tides of humankind's emotions. In this topic, you will examine +this function and the magickal role that the Moon plays in your life. You will also study and +perform special rites associated with the Moon. Let's begin by looking directly at the magickal +role of the Moon. + +You see the Moon because it is lit by the reflected light from the Sun. The Moon is a source of +Yin Light for it takes the Light of the Sun and transforms it into Yin Light. This Energy is at a +lesser extent, when the Moon is new, for it reflects lesser quantities of the transformed +Energies. The Energies of the Moon can help directly in the process of your Oversoul's gaining +control over your emotions. The Energies of the Moon passing through your Oversoul where in +turn, they are purified and added to your aura, go on to strengthen and build emotional +stability. The Energies of the Moon are very powerful and add great Magickal Force to your life +when purified. The Oversoul, acting as a filter, filters out the impurities of the Moon's Energies +caused by the grey energies that come from humankind. After filterization, you have the +Moon's Pure Magickal Energies, and the Moon shines in the night as a Luminous Orb of +Rarified Power. When your life and aura are illumined with the Yin Light of the Oversoul and +is in turn magnified by the Moon, a great reflector, then is your Power in the Night multiplied +to its maximum. You are likened to the Moon, when you, as a Night Magician, use your +purified Night Consciousness to reflect the Yin Light of the Moon into the world. You are the +Moon, a reflector of the Night Energies. The time of the New Moon is a time of new beginnings. + +It is a time when a Night Magician should consecrate and dedicate her/his aspirations and life +anew unto her/his Oversoul. Thus you celebrate this time with a rite of new beginning. The +rite unfolds as follows: + +Make sure your Night Altar is ready except don't fill the chalice with any wine or grape juice. +Putting on your Night Robe and arming yourself with your Night Weapons place the Night +Pillar around yourself, the Night Altar, and the world. Put in your right hand the Night Wand; +face the direction of North which symbolizes the element of Water; and now while making the +sign of Night Magick, see fig.___, say this solemn invocation to the First of the Four Great +Beings of the Cosmic Elements: "I invoke the Great Powers of the Cosmic Being of the (insert +direction) to flow into my being. Fill me with the Cosmic Power of (insert element). Renew me +in the Power of Night Consciousness. Make me a Being of Cosmic Yin Light. Guide me upon the +Road of Night Magick." Then face the Night Altar and place a little of the correct element from +the vile into the chalice. The chalice is symbolic of you and the element representing the +Cosmic Being. Then face the West and repeat the entire procedure inserting the correct +direction and selecting the correct element to put into the chalice. Do this for all four +directions. The correct elements and directions are as follows: water representing Water and +North; oil representing Air and the West; salt is of the Earth and South; and fire(candle) that of +Itself and East. Now pickup the candle; make the sign of Night Magick over the chalice; and if +there is just you, then repeat an invocation of dedication of your life and being to the guidance +and care of your Oversoul, Night Teacher, and Guides. After this, touch your first two fingers of +your left hand in the substance of the chalice, and upon your heart make the sign of Night +Magick and then repeat the Night Invocation on Earth as follows: + +"Let the Earth be filled with the Presence of the Night. I honor the Presence of the Night in all I +say and do. By the Night all things are given, by the Night all enemies removed. By the Yin +Light of the Moon I shall walk the Night Road on Earth in power, and glory and victory forever. +So be it." + +After this you will need to hum for ten to thirty minutes. Although you probably know how to +hum let me make sure. With your lips shut and together make the "mmmm" sound. Hum the +sound such that eventually you'll feel a resonance building in your head. As you head begins to +resonate, this resonance will spread over your body and you will begin to feel yourself +vibrating and pulsating. + +If there are others doing this with you, then select one to be the officiant. The officiant will do +all that has been described so far, up to the point of saying the Night Invocation on Earth. Each +member present will repeat a silent prayer of dedication to her/his life and being, and +committing it to the guidance and care of her/his Oversoul, Night Teacher, and Guides. After +this, the officiant will touch her/his first two fingers of her/his left hand in the substance of +the chalice, and upon each member's heart s/he will make the sign of Night Magick and repeat +the following: "With the substance of the Four Worlds and the Powers thereof, may you forever +be guided on the Road of Night Magick and become a Night Magician." Then, repeat the Night +Invocation on Earth, in unison. Everyone will then hum in unison till stopped by the +officiant. This is the Rite of the New Moon. A time of joyous, beautiful renewal in Night +Magick. + +The next rite is in celebration of the Full Moon. The Full Moon marks the time of realization, +attainment, and fulfillment. The consecration and deepening within of these aspects is +celebrated in a very beautiful rite. If there is just you performing this rite, then you will need +only one small candle on a plate. In addition, you will need two more small plates; one +containing sage and the other holding your vessel of water. With these things in hand, you are +now ready to begin. + +Place these three things on your floor Night Altar, with the candle in the middle, the sage on +the right, and the water on the left. Place them such that you will be seated facing the North +with them in front of you. Then before being seated, take the candle in your right hand and +with your left hand clear the four points of direction. You will begin with the East and move +counterclockwise making the sign of Night Magick and repeating to each direction: "This way +is the clear road to Night Magick bathed in the Yin Light of the Full Moon." Now be seated, +repeat the Night Invocation of the Earth and enter into a deep silence and communion with +your Oversoul and feel the achievement of knowing and being the Oversoul on Earth. Now take +a small portion of the sage in your right hand and say, "This is the Spirit of the Night in form +upon the Earth. It is the Essence of a Night Magician. Honor to the Night Spirit that I have +achieved all that I AM". Place the sage around the candle. The candle should be lit from the +beginning of the rite. Next pickup the water in your left hand and repeat "Water is the Night +Spirit in pure Essence. It is the Power of the Spirit and Life on Earth. I AM the Waters of Life +and the Night Soul on Earth." Pour the water around and on the sage. Now repeat, "the Night +Soul united, One and forever, in Spirit, Power, and Life, within that which I am, a Night +Magician. So be it". Close by humming the "mmmm" sound till you resonate deeply the sound. +If there is more then one then use the following guidelines. + +Everyone present will have the same plates and materials before them. Selecting one as +officiant, s/he will clear the four points following the same procedures outlined earlier. S/he +will stand in the center of the circle formed by all the celebrants and begin in the East. Then +everyone should be seated. Hum together after seated. Continue all as the same in unison. + +The final rite requires nothing other then yourself. Be seated comfortably on the ground at +eventide, or night, when the light of the Full Moon may fall upon you. Doing this on a +cloudless night is best. Put the Night Pillar around yourself and all members participating. If +there are more people doing this then just yourself, then all should face towards the Moon. +Begin with Night Breathing for a few minutes. Then you will visualize, and all with you, the +Light of the Full Moon passing through your Oversoul. Know that the Moon's Energy is being +purified of all the Earth's human dross and is flowing now into your Astral Body and aura. See +yourself filled with a most intense, pure Yin Light. This Light will give you emotional stability +and inner strength. Do this, feeling the Night Soul's Presence being magnified within yourself. +Know that you are the Oversoul. + +You have learned from the Moon and its cycles, that it represents your beginning upon the path +of Night Consciousness in its New Moon phase and ends with your fulfillment as the Night +Soul in the Full Moon phase. Use carefully the Light of the Moon. The Light of the Moon must +be purified by the Oversoul before it can be accepted into your world. Thus, you must always +remain in Night Consciousness in order to reflect into your world only the Night Energies. The +Moon is a very Advanced Being. The Moon is a great reflector of the Yin Light into your world +during its night. The Goddess Diana is the Master of the Element Water on Earth. Now, you, +too, will become Master of the Element Water in the next topic. + +28. Water Rites + +Water is representative of the Night Spirit. Water is Life and the Night Spirit. I will introduce +two rites which embody the use of water. Water is a very powerful magnet and container for the +Night Energies. Water will greatly intensify your drawing power of the Night Force. The first +rite that I will teach is designed simply to aid your drawing upon, and concentrating the Night +Force. + +Begin by obtaining a glass bowl, similar to a mixing bowl, with a large open space at the top. +The size you will need is based upon the number of people participating with you. You should +have a bowl set aside for private use and one for group use. When your not using the bowl keep it +wrapped and in a place so that no one else will disturb it. You will also need three black +candles, your Night Altar that is close to the floor, and a black cloth to cover the table. Setup +the Night Altar so that you, or the officiant, when seated at the altar faces North. If there are +others present then they should be seated around the altar. The Night Altar should be covered +with the altar cloth. Fill the bowl full of water and place it in the center of the Night Altar. +Finally, everyone will be seated, but the officiant who will light the three candles and place +two of them on the outer edges of the group. Now that you have these things setup your ready to +begin. + +Light the incense with the third candle; face West of the Night Altar; and with the lit, black +candle in your right hand and while making the sign of Night Magick with the left hand repeat +the following invocation: "Let only the Night Spirit remain here and only the Night Spirit go +out. This room is protected in the Yin Light of the Oversoul. Let the Light of the Night Brethren +enter here and only the Night Force remain. The first Night Guardian shall remain this way +and only the Night Spirit's Power will stay. So be it". Now turn counterclockwise to the next +major direction and repeat again this invocation. Each time preceding it with the sign of +Night Magick. Do this again in the third major direction, and finally over the Night Altar +itself. Then take your seat on the floor before the bowl and again surround yourself with the +Night Pillar. Contact your Oversoul and begin to draw into yourself the Night Force. Then +reach out and touch the bowl with both your hands, one on each side of the bowl. If this is +being done as a group, then all will interlock fingers when hands are placed upon the bowl by +all members present. All should see the Force flowing into themselves, and then into the bowl +filling the bowl with the Night Force. Continue to do this as long as you, and the members with +you, feel comfortable and can control the Force. If at anytime you should begin to feel +uncomfortable, you should stop and again stand and clear all four corners of the room. Then +rest a while before trying this again. This is a tremendous rite for collecting the Night Force in +its most concentrated form. After the rite, it is suggested that you obtain clean drinking +glasses (one for each member present) and dip them into the water of the bowl and drink of it. +Drink as much water as you can comfortably hold. The water has a great healing and +energizing effect and will ward off illness for a long time. It is further effective in aiding ailing +plants and animals. The benefit of the Force, coursing through your body, is cause enough to +do this as often as possible. + +In the second rite, in addition to what you have setup, a mirror and two of the following color +candles: violet, blue, green, yellow, red, and black. This is not a group rite but for you alone. +Begin this rite the same way you did the first rite, by clearing the four points of the room. +Setup the bowl of water and a mirror directly behind it. You will use four candles placed upon +the Night Altar, one on each corner. The two closest to you will be black candles. The other +two candles' colors depend upon what you are trying to accomplish. When this rite is properly +setup and performed, you will be able to see your Guides and Teacher and to receive answers to +questions you put before them. The color combination of the candles is very important. + +If you wish to have questions answered by no one in particular, then a blue and red candle are +used. Another strong color combination you can use is red and violet. To contact your Night +Teacher, the color combination must match their personal harmony and frequency. There is +a chart located in Appendix B which will give you the proper color combination for the various +Night Teachers I speak of in this work. For those Night Teachers not listed or if you're not sure +who yours is, then you can use the blue and red candle combination to find out and also their +specific color combination to be used in this rite. Here is how to use this rite. + +Be sure you have cleared the four points in the room and have surrounded yourself in the Night +Pillar. Otherwise, you will attract the wrong force. Setup the bowl of water with the black +candles in front and the other two in the rear, (make sure that the four candles can be seen in +the mirror), and the mirror directly behind the bowl. Light the candles and your ready to +begin. Meditate upon your Teacher and Guides and upon the fixtures in front of you. Be sure to +get comfortable, surround yourself in the Pillar of Protection, and relax with Night Breathing. +Sit directly in front of the Night Altar, such that, you will see the top and surface of the water +in the mirror. The reflection you should see in the mirror, is the surface of the water and the +candles. The candles will form a figure 8. The faces of the Teacher, or Guides, will appear in the +reflection of the water in the mirror, or just above the actual bowl. If at anytime you should +start to lose the vibration, stand up and again clear the four points and begin at another time. +Not only will the faces appear in the mirror but also images that will answer your questions. It +is also possible that you will hear the voice of the Teacher from the image that appears. This is +very much akin to picture telephones. Your mind should be free of mental garbage and +worries. You should also be in good overall health. If you seem to fail at first then you know +that you are making true progress. As with anything, you must practice over and over again to +achieve true results. If you do so, then you'll achieve the highest results. You have learned so +much about the Astral Realm. But wouldn't it be great if you could go there and see it for +yourself? Well if your ready, just turn the page and you'll be on your way. + +29. Night Projection + +Perhaps a more familiar term for what you are about to study is Astral Projection or traveling. +The word "Astral" is derived from the Latin and Greek language which means "of the stars". +You learned in the beginning of this chapter on Water Magick, that the Astral Body +interpenetrates the physical body. Your consciousness resides in the physical body during the +day and by night, when your physical body sleeps, your consciousness resides in the Astral +Body. People don't remember what takes place during their Astral sojourns because they +believe that this physical world is the only true reality, and so their mind rationalizes what +they have seen in the Astral Realm into a distorted dream. But if you truly believe that the +Astral Realm exists and that you can go there then you will remember what you have seen and +done in the Astral Realm and remember it upon awakening. Yet, you can go beyond dreaming +and actually travel there. You can bring back your experiences in the Astral Realm. You can do +this by learning, consciously, to project yourself into the Astral Realm. This is Astral or Night +Projection. + +To begin with, in learning to Night Project consciously, you must learn to have no fear. Fear is +the greatest destroyer of good results in this work. Fear will prevent you from accomplishing +anything in Night Magick. So do not be afraid to Night Project. You can not get lost while you +reside in the Astral Realm. The physical body is firmly attached to the Astral Body by the +silver cord. No matter where you travel in the Astral Realm, whenever you wish to return to +the physical body, simply think of yourself there, and you will do so. Why would you want to +travel in the Astral, in the first place? + +To begin with you could see how well you're doing so far in your sojourn on Earth. You can +meet face-to-face with your Guides and Teacher and receive first hand instruction on how to +solve certain problems. You can receive instruction on how to better your life and access the +lessons you have learned so far. You can also travel anywhere on the Earth plane you wish to. +You can see great libraries and be able to read the books contained therein. You could see +museums and other places of interest. There is no limit to the things you can do while Night +Projecting. But be warned if you try to go somewhere and invade another's privacy. You are +liable to receive an "astral shock" and get slammed back into your body with a terrific +headache. Although the person you visited may not be able to physically see you their +subconscious will be able to do so and send a strong astral blow to your Astral Body. Its best if +you don't go where you intuit you shouldn't go. Without fear and listening to your Oversoul for +guidance your ready to Night Project. + +First, you should watch your diet before Night Projecting. Try to eat as little fried food as +possible. Do not travel on a full stomach. You won't get anywhere if you are uncomfortable +because your stomach is full and in the process of digestion. For about a week prior to actually +projecting you should prepare yourself mentally by repeating the following invocation, four +times daily. Do it once in the morning, noon, evening, and before going to bed. The invocation +is, "On this day ___, I am going to Night Project. I am going to travel in the Astral Realm and +remember all that I see and do. I will recall all of this after I have returned to my body. This I +will do and won't fail." On the day you have selected to Night Project be sure and have as +peaceful and quiet a day as possible. You must try and keep your mind on the subject of Night +Projecting all that day. You must look forward to going to bed that night with the intentions of +traveling in the Astral Realm. Now, you need to learn to relax before projecting. + +Many will say this is easy for them to do, but actually this is not true. True relaxation is an art +and must be practiced to be mastered. To begin Night Projection, you must be fully relaxed. +There must not be a tense nerve or muscle in your entire body. When you lay down to project, +the room must be just right, being neither too cold, or hot, if you are to achieve true relaxation. +To assist relaxing and projecting, darken the room and secure it from entry by anyone else. In +no way should there be any way that you can be disturbed. If you are touched, while traveling, +this could cause harm to your physical body. Further, no one should attempt to try Night +Projection if they are prone to heart trouble. This is not to scare anyone, but the body should +be in good health. You should not cover yourself with heavy bedding for this will interfere +with relaxation and projecting. If you're ready to relax, then let's begin. + +Turn your consciousness upon your toes. Concentrate mentally on them and see them +relaxing. See all the tension leaving the toes. Next, work on the foot and see all tension +leaving it. Do this all the way up one leg and then do it for the other leg. Do not go on till there +is no tension or tightness in any part of your lower extremities. Then move on to the pelvic +region and do the same relaxation technique. Then do the arms and each finger, individually, +till you feel calm and relaxed. The stomach and chest region are next, then on up the neck and +finally, the head region. Relax the jaw and forehead. Relax each part thoroughly before going +to the next part. Once you have accomplished this, it is time to relax the mind. + +In order to relax your mind, allow your thoughts to dwell on a beautiful day with billowy +clouds in the sky. Take your thoughts and place them on one of those beautiful dark clouds. +Just relax and drift on the cloud and let your mind forget all its worries. Think of nothing else +but the deep sensation of peace and floating on the cloud. At this point your eyes should be +closed. Relax your thoughts and for a few moments try to think of nothing. In Night +Projection, you are where your thoughts are. + +The Astral Body looks somewhat like your own physical body so picture it floating about three +feet above you. You must know that you're actually floating above your physical body. Relax, +do not force the process, do not strain or induce tenseness in the physical body, and above all, +do not jerk. If your body jerks, then you will find that you will have to wait till the next night +to try again. You will feel a floating sensation and a gentle sense of rising. This is great! If you +don't jerk, then you will find that you will continue to float and rise, so carefully, open your +eyes. You will have found that you have floated up and away from your physical body. If you +want to view your room then you can do so by just thinking of doing so, but be careful. The +experience is something akin to hearing your voice for the first time on the tape recorder. It +will be quite a shock and you'll hardly believe it's your body. Some have become so startled +that they have returned to their bodies with a shock. Do not be startled or afraid. Just relax as +you float there and get used to the sensation of your new body. You will find that you are +naked. If you will think of clothes, then you will be dressed, but remember to put that thought +away in a corner of your mind in order to remain dressed. Slowly, "will" yourself to settle back +to the floor. What will you do next? + +For the first night, it is best that you go straight to the Astral Realm. All you need do is think +of being there and you will do so. Wherever you want to be your thoughts will take you. If you +will go to the Astral Realm first, and thereafter spend a little time in the Astral before doing +other things on the Earth plane, you will never have trouble getting out of the physical body +again. You will also receive a tremendous magickal recharge by visiting the Astral Realm. +When you want to return simply think of your physical body and you will be there. Now, you +must return slowly, and carefully, back into your body. + +It is essential that you do this slowly. Have you ever had a dream where you felt yourself +suddenly falling and woke up with a start. This is what happens when you return too fast into +your physical body. It is essential to align the two bodies up correctly, or you will suffer from a +headache. If this happens, simply fall back to sleep and when you awaken the alignment +process will have occurred naturally and the headache will be gone. On reentry, you will feel as +if you are returning to a very dense and cold body. It won't be the most comfortable experience +in your life. But this shows you how much more crude and slower a rate of vibration the +physical body really is. There, you have Night Projected. Let's examine another technique for +projecting yourself out of your physical body. + +Again relax fully and make sure that there are no rough edges disturbing your body and +distracting you. Have your eyes closed and roll them up so that, in effect, you are looking +somewhere up at the top of your forehead. Do not create eyestrain though. Breathe regularly, +rhythmically, and deeply then forget all about your breathing. Turn your conscious awareness +towards your third Night Center which is located over the solar plexus, or navel area. It is +from this area that the Astral Body leaves the physical body. Visualize your Astral Body +slowly starting to leave your physical body. Picture the third Night Center like a window +through which the Astral is going to leave. See the Astral as a cloud-like figure, shaped +similarly to the physical body, and slowly rising up and floating about six feet above the +physical form. At this point any one of the following might happen: 1) again you might jerk +and return to your body and so on another night you'll have to try again, 2) you'll feel a tingling +or numbness in your physical body which is a good sign, but which you should ignore. From +here, you will feel a rigidity or stiffness come over the body and you will not be able to move. +DON'T PANIC! This is an excellent sign of progress. You will be able to see as if through your +eyelids and the surroundings will be bathed in a soft light, if you remain calm, you will begin +to feel a slight swaying and out you'll move into the Astral Realm. You will see things in very +vivid colors and with remarkable clarity, 3) you may feel a swaying motion and then +experience the feeling as if going through a dark tunnel, at the end of which is a bright light. At +the end of the tunnel you will pass through a curtain of brilliant colored drops and then, +suddenly you will be in the Astral World. Night Projection is a very beautiful experience. + +Have no fear and you will have no problems. Don't be discouraged if, at first, you don't succeed. +Nothing ever comes too easy in life but must be worked at with great patience and diligence. +Never talk about your travels except to help others. Use it to grow magickally on the road of +Night Magick. Remain always in the Shadow of your Night Teacher as you travel in the +Greater Realms. You have come to the end of another chapter in Night Magick. + +It was a chapter filled with the wonders of Water Magick and the Astral Realm. You have come +to know the Realm, intimately, and even how to travel in it while still living in a physical +body. You have explored the secret uses of water. You have learned secrets about your physical +and Astral bodies and the inner power contained within them. You can look at others now and +know their thoughts and emotions by the use of your Night Eye. You have met the Goddess +Diane and perhaps most importantly, you have come to know that you are never alone in this +world. That your love ones and friends are just in the next Realm always waiting to help you if +you will let them. Yet, for the moment, you must leave the beauty of the Astral Realm and the +lore of Water Magick and enter into a higher and even more exciting phase of Night Magick. +This is the Mental Realm and the lore of Air Magick. + +CHAPTER VI + + +AIR MAGICK + +30. The Mental Realm + +As you travel on the road of Night Magick and endeavor to become a Night Magician, you first +had to gain some mastery over your physical and emotional selves. This is a long process and +may take many lives to accomplish. But as you begin to achieve that mastery, you will +continue down the road towards Night Consciousness. Now you will travel the third portion of +the road towards self-mastery. You enter the Realm of Mind. + +As you found with the Astral Realm, the Mental Realm is composed of varying levels of +vibration. It would be wise to examine, in brief, these different vibrations and their +interrelationship. Let's begin with the highest realm and work our way down to the lowest +level. + +The Void is the highest level that can be reached. It is the level where we are all united in Mind +as One. Here, all are One. This is the level of knowing. Here, you do not think for all is known. +Here all ideas exist, all things are known, and you as the Spirit are the Knower. This is the +level of Pure Mind, the Void Mind, the sum of all. This mind essence interpenetrates all and is +accessible to all who are in vibration with it. This is the ultimate level all must someday +reach. You must be the Knower. The Godsoul Mind is the next level. + +This is the level of original mind. Here all minds are as one yet there is individuality. This is +the level of highest individual mind. Here is the origin of the archetypes of mind. The Oversoul +Mind is the next level. + +This is the level of the Higher Mind. From out of the Godsoul Mind, ideas that exist become +manifest in this world. Here, you find all joined in the Oversoul Mind. There is Oneness in +thought and consciousness. The Oversoul Thought first creates, using the ideas drawn from +the Godsoul Mind and the mind substance of the Oversoul Realm. Here, you are the Oversoul in +Thought and Action, the Creator. Now you enter the physical world of thought and mind. + +You may believe you know this world. Actually, your thoughts and consciousness are much +more then you realize. You will remember that your emotions were tied into your emotional or +Astral Body. Your thoughts and consciousness are the same and make up the Mental Body. It is +through your Mental Body that you think and have consciousness on the physical plane. But +in order for the physical body to be tied into this Mental Body, there must be a physical link +and this is the brain. Many believe that it is the brain that actually does the thinking, but the +brain is actually a receiving station. It takes the Mental energies sent to it, by the Mental +Body, and translates it into action in the physical body. Your brain is attuned to the +wavelength of your Mental Body. Your brain and Mental Body produces an electromagnetic +current through its activities, and thus, also produces a Mental Aura which is akin to your +Astral Aura. To see these energies, you would have to develop your Night Eye to a greater degree +then you had when you saw the Astral energies. I discussed earlier how the Oversoul is directly +linked to the physical body via the silver cord into the heart region. The silver cord is also +directly linked to the brain region. Thus your thoughts are always monitored and acted upon +by your Oversoul. Your Oversoul in order to experience the physical world must build-up +physical counterparts to its Magickal Being. + +So in the beginning of the Oversoul's physical sojourn, the mind substance of the Mental Body +is undeveloped. But as time in this world and the others passes, the physical mind develops +and slowly becomes refined. Life after life, you come to this plane trying to develop your +physical consciousness into one with your Oversoul consciousness. Although the Oversoul can +influence the Mental Body if the Mental Body does not listen then there is little that the +Oversoul can do. The majority of the world does not listen to the Oversoul. Therefore the +Oversoul withdraws into its own realm and remains there until the Lower Mind calls upon it +for assistance and tries to listen and follow its will. This is what you are trying to do. +So, as you move farther into this chapter on Air Magick, you will encounter exercises, rites, +and the use of your Night Magician's Tools and Weapons, in order to develop your mind. You +will take your mind through the tests of self-mastery in order to become a Night Magician. +Your first rite in Air Magick will give you the link between the air and your mind. + +31. Air Rite + +The Ancient Ones compared the element of air to that of the mind. The Ancient Mysteries, +likewise, showed that the mental faculties could be compared to the aerial regions. It is my +intention to introduce a rite that will greatly benefit the mind and its faculties. The rite puts +together two elements: your mind and the air. I will show you how your mental powers can be +enhanced through a special form of breathing. + +You will remember in the topic on Night Breathing that it was through very deep breathing +that your health could be improved and for many, breathing is very shallow. In the Air Rite, +you are going to use deep breathing but it is going to be based on a particular breathing rate. +Instead of just breathing in and out rhythmically, you will breathe in and hold the breath for +so long, and then breathe out and then, again, hold your breath. Great benefit can be derived by +such. Before you begin, I want to make it clear that this is serious business and not a game. +Please, DO NOT deviate from the set pattern that is about to be described. To do so can be very +hazardous to your health. + +To begin with, you must sit or lie down so that you are very comfortable. Then, you want to +become very relaxed and reduce all the tenseness possible in your body. Then, you will need to +cross your ankles and wrists to build-up the energy from your breathing. If you have done all +of this, then you are ready to begin with the breathing. To start with, you will do three +complete deep breathing exercises. If you have forgotten how, then here is a quick review. + +Inhale as deep a breath as possible pushing the diaphragm out as far as possible. When you feel +you have taken in all the air possible, take in just a bit more air. Then exhale the air very +steadily and completely bringing in the diaphragm and abdomen as far as possible. You want +to really empty your lungs. After you have done this, you are ready to do the timed breathing. + +Timed breathing means you are going to breathe in for so many seconds, then hold your breath +for so many seconds, then exhale so many seconds, and again hold your breath for so many +seconds. In the Air Rite, you are going to begin by inhaling for five seconds, hold your breath +for ten seconds, exhale for ten seconds, and hold your breath for seven to ten seconds. You are +going to repeat the entire process ten times. There are certain precautions you must take in +doing this rite. + +You must not do it if you are in poor health. You must stop doing it if for any reason you are +feeling dizzy or light headed. If you persist in doing it past these warning signals then you are +likely to pass out. You must not strain yourself in doing this rite. There should be absolutely +no force on your part to maintain the pattern of breathing. If there is, then you need to reduce +the number of seconds that you hold your breath. If you do the rite correctly then the benefits +are tremendous. + +You will find that your mental health will be tremendous. You will feel relieved of all tension +and mental strain. You will feel extra charged with new mental power. This is an excellent +rite to use before and after any of the mental exercises in Air Magick. If you need added mental +power for long periods of study or for increased memory then this rite will greatly increase +both. If your world is filled with mental demands, then this rite is best practiced several times +a day. It is especially good to use it when you feel the least mentally drained. You can see that +there is a very close relationship to the air you breathe and your mental faculties. It is all +based on the right use of your breathing patterns. You should remember to be relaxed and not +to strain when you use the Air Rite. Further, you must not play around with different patterns +of timed breathing if you don't want to hurt yourself. You should always use this rite to the +benefit of your good health. By now, you should be mentally charged up and ready to explore +the power of your mind. + +32. Power of Thought + +As the title suggests, there is power in your thoughts. You probably have never thought of your +thoughts as containing any kind of power but they do. Much of Mental Magick requires your +understanding of the Mental Realm and how to increase the powers of your mind. Here I will +discuss briefly the Mental Realm and begin your development of a more powerful Mental Body. + +When you die to the physical plane you move first to the Astral Realm. After reviewing your +past life and lives, you then receive guidance as to what to do next. If you are of a higher +vibration then that of the Astral Realm, then you may leave, or die to, the Astral and go on to +the Mental Realm. It is here in the Mental Realm that all ideas are first brought forth in +created form. It is a world of thought and creation through thought. The great creations, +inventions, social ideas, and art that are in the world today were originally created in this +mind world and released into the physical world. Here, in the physical world, a receptive +individual is able to tune into these thought patterns and create from them on the physical +level. Thought creation is the work of the Great Beings who live upon this Mental World. They +create in thought great things that will enhance the physical world. This leads to your +relationship with the Mental World. + +There was some very significant information in that last paragraph that you can carry over +into your world here in the physical, in regards to thought power. The Beings who live in the +Mental Realm first perceive the idea, then they picture the idea, and then they give the idea +form and send it into the physical world. You do the very same thing all the time, but without +very much effort or concentration. You often get an idea of something that you want, but that's +usually where it all ends. You may think about it once in a while and hope you will get it, but +only sporadically. If you look at the Mental Realm around you and examine its properties and +how it works, then you will see why thoughts can have power. + +In this material world of ours, if you want to create something you must use some physical +means to do so. This means is usually by way of your hands. In the Mental Realm, your +material, so to speak, that you create with is the etherial Mental energies. The tool with which +you create with is your thought. By applying a strong, concentrated, and continuous thought +directed at the Mental energies, you can create a Thought Form. That is, your thoughts take on +a form imbued with the qualities of your thoughts. If you continue to add more thought power +to this form, it will eventually materialize into your material world. Whatever the thought is +programmed to do, it will happen here on Earth. So if you wanted a forty foot yacht, then that +is what would eventually come into your possession. If the thought was that of a specific +healing for someone, then the thought would go forth and heal. Now, before you go and rush off +and start wishing for this and that, let's look at a few more facts. + +You just can't sit down and start wishing. You do that all the time. There is a certain way that +this must be done. Next, you must build-up your powers of observation, concentration, +memory, and visualization. The meditation that you have been doing, hopefully all along, is +important too. In topic forty, you will learn how to create through thought. It may seem that +you are a long way from getting to topic forty, but please don't jump the topics in between this +one and forty. You will, first, have to develop those powers of the mind, through the exercises +that follow shortly. The exercises must be practiced faithfully, and for as long as it takes to +master them. Further, each topic that follows, up to number forty, will further enhance your +mental abilities and prepare you for topic forty. Now, let's get to those exercises. + +Exercise #1, Observation. There aren't too many who can at the end of the day recall what they +did step-by-step. Yet, this is part of your observation training. In the evening, sit down and +recall the day the best that you can. At first, this may not be as easy as it sounds. Then, take +this one stage further, and at the end of the week, say on Saturday, again sit down and recall +the entire week in as much detail as possible. Visualize, or picture, the people you met, things +that you did, and things said. Another observation exercise you can do is to enter a room +quickly and, for say thirty seconds, look around the room and then shut your eyes and recall +as many objects as possible. You can do this in the outdoors, too. For example, while walking +down the sidewalk, or in the park, observe what's around you and then stop and close your eyes +and recall all the details of your surroundings that you have just passed. If you will study these +examples, then perhaps you can go on to create more observation exercise for yourself. + +Exercise #2, Concentration. To begin with, do some mental arithmetic. On your mental +blackboard, begin by adding a row of numbers. Write down the numbers on a sheet of paper +and then close your eyes and see those numbers on your board. Then, add them mentally, and +when you have the answer write it down and then do it on paper. Next, multiply some numbers +and, also, do some division. At first, you will be able to use only simple numbers, but as your +concentration develops, you will be able to do more and more complicated problems. Another +concentration exercise you might use is to concentrate on NOT thinking. That's right! You are +going to get very quiet in your Magician's Study, with the curtains drawn, and you are going to +picture your mental blackboard and you are going to keep it blank. You are going to cease +thinking of anything. Concentrate on doing this. It is not easy, for thoughts will do their best +to creep in, but you must concentrate and not permit them to do so. Do this for about ten +minutes to begin with, and then gradually lengthen the time per sitting. +Exercise #3, Memory. Begin by picking your favorite passage from a book or poet and +selecting five or six lines from it. Then memorize them. Constantly create new memory games +that will exercise your power of memory. Acquire a booklet that gives you some material to +study, and provides you with a test that will see just how much you have been able to retain of +the material. Make a list of ten people, places, or things and then recall them forward and +backward. Gradually increase the number of items on your list. + +Exercise #4, Visualization. A phrase that you might select to mean the same as the word +visualization is, "to picture with the mind's eye". You are going to create an image of something +in your mind. Begin this exercise by thinking of someone you know and then picturing what +that person looks like. Get this image in your mind's eye so real, that it seems to be right there +in front of you. An aid that you might use is to get a photograph of the person and then study it +for a minute and then do your visualization. Next, you might try, while walking down the +sidewalk and coming towards someone, to study their face carefully and after they have passed +you, recall their face in your mind's eye. Don't just use people as subjects. If you can think of +objects, or animals, that will be great, too. But when you visualize these people, or whatever +you choose, see them in clear detail and always in color. These are the four exercises that will +set your feet definitely on the path of acquiring mastery over your mind. In all these exercises +do them no more then about fifteen minutes each. You should do them all, at least, once a day. +You might want to separate them, doing some exercises during the day and others when you are +at home at night. Continue to practice these exercises for the rest of your sojourn here on +Earth. + +Practice these with patience and determination and you will gain mental mastery. You will be +on your way to being able to have great success with creative visualization. An important part +of the Mental Realm involves the Silent Magician who you'll meet next. + +33. Your Silent Magician + +You have just come from looking at your Mental Body and knowing that it is your physical +consciousness. But actually, your Mental Body is much, much more. Your Mental Body also +contains that part of your consciousness which is called the Subconscious Mind. How much of +your consciousness is composed of the Subconscious? Would you believe, almost all of it? +That's right! You actually use only a very small fraction of your total mental capacity. What +about geniuses, you ask? They only use a part of a fraction more then do the rest of us. To get +some idea of how small your mental capacity is, in relation to the whole, let's first imagine a +fifty-five gallon drum. + +It's empty right now, but if you were going to fill it with water, representing your physical +consciousness, how much water would it take? Well, believe it or not, it would take only about +five gallons. The rest of the space comprises your Subconscious Mind. As you can see, your +Subconscious is a mental giant. Just imagine what would happen if you could tap into this +great source of mental power. You are going to learn to do this in just a little while. But first, +you must become more familiar with the Subconscious Mind and the role it plays in your life. + +You could actually name the Subconscious Mind, your "Silent Witness". For indeed, that is +what your Subconscious does. It witnesses all that you do. It is able to remember all that you +have ever done in this lifetime and what's more, it contains the memories from all your lives +here on Earth and sojourns in the otherworlds. Why can't you remember them then? + +This is because there is an energy screen between yourself and the Subconscious. This screen is +there for several reasons. First, this screen prevents you from tampering with the +Subconscious Mind. For most people memories of past lives should remain off limits. +Therefore, you have this screen which prevents you from directly learning what is stored in +your Subconscious. To know your past lives may seem, at first, important, but really it's not. +What if in a past life you were a murderer or a robber? Could you handle this information? +Some say, that they would like to search into the Subconscious Mind and know why they have +returned to this world and learn what it is they came here for. But if you find this out, and +concentrate so hard on accomplishing this one thing, that you might, inadvertently, overlook +something else which will cause you to have to come back down here. Actually, knowing your +past lives, and why you came down here, is really unnecessary. What's really important is that +you live this life to your very best. That each, and every day, you do the very best that you can +and give life your very best effort. If you do this, then when you reach the other side you can +say, you did your very best, and that is all anyone can ask. + +Second, unlike your physical consciousness, your Subconscious hasn't the ability to +discriminate between Truth and untruth. The Subconscious simply takes all information +given to it by the physical consciousness and records it. The energy screen allows you time to +hash over a problem, discerning what's right and what's wrong, and when you have come up +with the right answer, or what seems right to you, your Subconscious then incorporates that +into its storage banks. The screen prevents data from leaving your conscious mind, too soon, +and entering the Subconscious. So, you know that your Subconscious Mind is the storage +house for all that you have ever done. You also know that it is not able to discern between +Truth and untruth, but there is more. It will store whatever you know to be Truth. From this +you can determine that your Subconscious is unable to reason, that is, unable to form +conclusions or make judgments. The Subconscious is not logical. Yet, your Subconscious +Mind plays a big role in your life. The biggest role it plays is to function as a relay between you, +the physical consciousness, and your Oversoul. + +Your Oversoul receives information on your progress down here on Earth from your +Subconscious Mind and the Oversoul relays information and directives to your Subconscious, +who then puts them into action in your life. This is an important aspect which I will expand +on a little later. Your Subconscious Mind is also in link with all other Subconscious Minds. +Your Subconscious Mind is able to tap in with any other Subconscious Mind, and they are able +to pool information. So, if you were able to communicate with your Subconscious Mind +directly, you would be able to find out from it information about anything that you needed to +know. Your Subconscious has direct links with both your Oversoul and with all other +Subconscious Minds. But communication with your Subconscious Mind is not an easy thing +to do. + +You can see by all the things your Subconscious Mind is involved in, that it is a very busy +entity. Getting its attention is the task at hand. What would you do, if you were trying to get the +attention of your next-door neighbor who is very busy in their house and who has never been +disturbed before? You would go next-door, and knock, and call out their name, until someone +answered. You are going to use a similar procedure with your Subconscious Mind. First, before +you start knocking on your Subconscious Mind's door, your going to do a little visualization. + +In your mind's eye, view a large room with storage files and computer data banks and a large +control panel, and in charge of all this is your Subconscious, your Silent Witness, and who you +will picture as your Silent Night Magician. You'll envision her/him dressed as you are dressed +during your rituals in full Night Magick regalia. It is here, in this room, on the Isle of your +Silent Magician located in the Mental Realm, that you will go to speak with your Silent +Magician. Before you can communicate with Her or Him, let's first look at the language you +must communicate in. +There is a special way that you must talk to your Silent Magician in order for Her/Him to +understand you correctly. You know S/he can not reason nor is S/he able to be logical. S/he +can not discern between Truth or untruth. So the Silent Magician takes everything you say +very literal. So when you talk to your Silent Magician, you must use the most simple, direct, +and plain language. You do not want to say anything which has a double meaning. For +example, if you want to find out where your lost ring is, and you ask Her/Him if S/he knows if +the ring is in the sink drain, the Silent Magician will answer, Yes! Yes, S/he does know if it is +there or not, but that doesn't mean it is there. Ask Her/Him a direct question, "Is the ring in the +sink drain of the kitchen?" Now that you have the preliminaries over with, its time for you to +get down to the actual business of communion with your Silent Magician. + +To begin with, go into your Magician's Study and lie down and relax. Do some Night Breathing +and get very comfortable. Now, envision the control room in your mind, where your Silent +Magician is located. And once again, picture your Silent Magician at work. Now call out +Her/His name. What's Her/His name? + +You're going to have to give Her/Him a very personal name similar to the one you selected as +your Night Name. This is a name that only you will know. You're not going to tell anyone else +the name of your Silent Magician. Now, picturing very strongly your Magician at work, call +out Her/His new name. A proper way of doing such would be to say, "You who are my +Subconscious Mind and Silent Magician and Friend, I give you the name of __________ ." +Say this at least three times. Then go on to say to, "when I call out your name you will please +listen to me. I want you and me to be partners and friends for this will benefit both of us. I +want you to help me in all that I do. I want this in all sincerity and honesty." Say this also +three times. You must do this three times a day. You must grow use to saying and doing this +and thinking of your Subconscious as a friend and ally. Know that when you have the +attention of your Subconscious Mind, that you are without limitation. + +The Silent Magician is all powerful and all knowing. S/He can be a tremendous ally. For now, +this is all you should do. Just get acquainted with your Silent Magician and gain Her/His +trust. You should always be truthful and straightforward with your Silent Friend. You, in +your own right, are mentally strong and you are only a small fraction of your full potential. +Imagine what would be your mental ability and the power of your thoughts, if you could +increase them eleven fold. This can be, if you will tie in with your Silent Magician. Your ally +on Earth. As you have seen, your Subconscious is unique. Even though S/he can not reason or +be logical, S/he can do all that you can do. S/He can do all you can do only eleven times +greater. It is the seat of total memory. By reaching Her/Him, and convincing Her/Him that +you need Her/Him, S/he will release information to you that you are unaware of, about +yourself. S/he can correct wrongs with you such as, habits that you would like to be rid of, and +can increase such things as your memory retention if you will work with Her/Him. You can +also go direct to your Oversoul by gaining your Silent Magician's trust and aid. + +The Subconscious will be glad to go direct to your Oversoul for you if S/he truly sees the need. +You must convince Her/Him of your sincerity and trustworthiness. You will be cooperating +with your Silent Magician in the use of self-hypnosis, the pendulum, crystal, psychometry, +and telepathy. So work hard on reaching your Silent Magician and developing the close +rapport needed in your work as a Night Magician. Your first joint undertaking, between you +and your Silent Friend, is the practice of self- hypnosis. + +34. Hypnotism and Self + +In classical mythology, Hypnos was the god of sleep. He was the brother of Thanatos and the +son of Erebus and Nyx. The word, hypnotism, is taken from the greek word, "hypnoein", which +means, "to put to sleep". So you can see that hypnotism must have something to do with sleep, +right? Actually, it doesn't have anything to do with sleep, except that when a person is in a +hypnotic state of consciousness, s/he may appear to be sleeping. What then is hypnosis? + +In the state of hypnosis, you are extremely vulnerable to suggestions. For example, if you are +told that when you put your hand in a vat of water and will feel a pleasant warmth, then this +will be so. Even if the water in the tub is very, very cold. That doesn't mean that your hand +won't be cold, but as far as your physical consciousness is concerned, the hand feels warmth +from the cold water. How can this be? You're going to examine that very question in-depth and +go on to learn some good uses for hypnotism and also the dangers of hypnotism. Lastly, you +are going to learn how to induce self-hypnosis and the reasons for doing so. First though, let's +see how hypnosis works. + +To begin your investigation, you're going to examine the technique of a hypnotist at work. For +in studying how a hypnotist works, you will be able to gain an insight into how hypnosis +works. The hypnotist first needs a subject and that is going to be you. The hypnotist will then +stand in front of you and s/he will suspend some shiny object and ask you to concentrate on +the object. As you continue to concentrate, the hypnotist will begin the first of her/his +suggestions to you; you are starting to feel drowsy. Next, s/he will tell you that your eyelids are +starting to feel heavy. You can see already that from just trying to concentrate on the object +that you will start to feel eye fatigue. And because your eyes are starting to feel tired, you +already are beginning to trust the suggestions of the hypnotist. As the process continues, you +will start to fall into an altered state of awareness. When the hypnotist has you deeply relaxed, +s/he will continue with further suggestions. For example, s/he will then ask you to raise your +right arm straight out in front of you. Then s/he will tell you that your arm is starting to feel +very heavy and that you can hardly hold it up. Well, it's obvious that the hypnotist is +requesting you to do things and then makes suggestions which corresponds with what you are +feeling. But in all of this, there is a very real purpose, and that is for you to believe in the +hypnotist. You are starting to trust the hypnotist and believe that whatever s/he tells you is +going to occur. But actually, there is much more to it then just your outer conscious belief in +the hypnotist. + +Here, you rejoin your new friend, the Silent Magician, for the explanation. What the hypnotist +has been doing is breaching the energy screen that is between you and your Silent Friend. The +hypnotist has actually been working on the Subconscious Mind with her/his suggestions and +gaining Her/His trust. When the hypnotist has convinced the Silent Magician that whatever +s/he says is going to happen, then you are truly hypnotised. You will remember from the last +topic, that your Subconscious is unable to discern between the Truth and untruth. They are not +able to reason. So as you, the physical consciousness, trusted the hypnotist and began to +believe in her/him, so the Subconscious Mind will too. The hypnotist, in convincing you with +her/his simple suggestions has caused you to lower the energy screen between you and your +Subconscious. Once this screen was lowered, the hypnotist is directly working with your +Subconscious Mind. +All that s/he now tells you, your Silent Magician will believe and comply with. If s/he tells +you when you look at an object, that you will not be able to see it, then to your physical +consciousness, the object will not be there. This is hypnosis. Hypnosis can be a real benefit to +humankind, but it can also be a real danger. There have been some valuable uses for hypnosis +in today's society. Medically they have used hypnosis in some cases as a substitute for +anesthetic. Thereby eliminating the dangers of having to anesthetize someone. The police +have used it to hypnotize a crime victim, or witness, in order to draw out of the Subconscious +Mind greater details of a crime, and so, possibly leading to the capture of the criminals. These +are some very positive uses for hypnosis. +Hypnosis can be a very dangerous subject. You should under no circumstances allow yourself +to be placed under hypnosis by someone you do not fully trust. Nor should you undergo +hypnosis for fun and games. Hypnosis is a serious business. When you undergo hypnosis, you +surrender your Subconscious Mind, out of the Hands of your Oversoul, and into the hands of +the hypnotist. As you can see, this can lead to some serious consequences for you, if you are in +the wrong hands. Let your imagination conjure up the harm that can be done to you by the +hypnotist. So let this be warning enough, DO NOT BE HYPNOTIZED, unless you are absolutely +sure of the hypnotist and why you are being hypnotized. How can you get around the +hypnotist? + +You can circumvent her/him by using self-hypnosis. You are going to be the hypnotist. For +sure, I can think of no better hypnotist then you, once you are properly trained. There are +many reasons why you might want to use self-hypnosis. If you have ever wanted to stop +smoking; to improve your memory; to stop a bad habit; to develop particular traits within +yourself, for example, patience and calmness; then you will want to try self- hypnosis. For +some, a big reason would be to lose weight. The possibilities are endless. When you tell your +Silent Magician, in self-hypnosis, what you want, then you will see it occur in yourself. But be +sure, if you are trying to give up something, that you truly want to give it up. Otherwise you +won't be able to do it. As you begin to learn the techniques for self-hypnosis, you should be in +reasonably good health. If you are in good health, then let's begin. +You will practice this in your Magician's Study insuring that the room is free from intrusion +by others and without drafts. The room should be reasonably dark. Once all your room +preparations have been made, then you should lay down on something comfortable. Now you +are going to practice the complete body relaxation that you practiced in preparation for Night +Projection. If you go through the same motions that you did in that topic, then you will have +achieved the proper state of relaxation. To quickly recount what you did; you began thinking +of your toes and erasing all tension in them. Then you went up the leg and did this for both +legs. You worked on every part of your body achieving the fullest relaxation possible. This is +what you want here. Now, practice some Night Breathing and deepen the relaxation. While you +are breathing, just let your thoughts float on your breath. The key is to relax deeply. Now to +contact your Silent Magician. + +Pull your thoughts together and concentrate your gaze upon a point somewhere on the ceiling +above you. This point should be at such an angle that it causes slight eye strain. Now, as you +continue to stare, you will begin to feel eye strain. When you can feel this, you should then tell +yourself, aloud, that when you count beginning from ten and reach one, you are going to close +your eyes and be unable to open them. So let's do it. + +"I am going to count from ten to one and when I reach one my eyes will close because they have +become very tired. Ten, my eyes are starting to feel tired; nine, my eyes are becoming much +more tired and I am beginning to feel like closing them; eight, my eyes are starting to become +very tired; seven-six, my eyelids are becoming very heavy; five-four, my eyes are so tired that I +have to close them; three, I can no longer keep my eyes open and feel a real need to close them; +two, my eyes are so tired they will no longer stay open; one, my eyes have shut." + +Your eyes should shut automatically, even if your eyes should not close do not worry. Go ahead +and close them anyway for what you are doing is setting up an automatic reaction, within +yourself, when you do this. Now that you have your eyes closed, let's continue with self- +hypnosis. + +You are going to visualize your Silent Magician and you are going to say outloud the following: + +"I am going to count from ten to one and when I reach one I'm going to be in a deep state of self- +hypnosis. I'm going to be alert and fully conscious and my Friend is going to respond to all I +say to her/him and comply with my desires. Ten, I am becoming very relaxed and my body is +starting to feel very heavy; nine, my body is feeling heavy and my spirit is lightly floating +within my body; eight-seven, I am becoming deeply relaxed and slowly entering into trance; +six-five, I am now in trance yet alert and fully conscious; four-three, I am going deeper and +deeper into trance; two, I am reaching the deepest state of trance every before achieved; one, I +am completely in trance yet fully alert and conscious. State name of your Silent Magician +please listen to me and do what I ask for." + +Now is the time to make known to your Silent Friend all that you want her/him to do. Let's +give Her/Him, though, only one thing per session. You are going to practice the entire +technique, as outlined previously, for the first few times, until you can do it correctly and +easily. Then you will condense the relaxation and self-hypnosis state into one happening. + +You are going to say to yourself that when you count to one, you are going to achieve a complete +state of relaxation and self-hypnosis. That you are going to be fully alert and know what's +going on and that you are going to be able to direct your Silent Witness to do as you ask. The +relaxation and self-hypnosis state should come easily, for it should now have become an +automatic reaction. Do not have any fear of coming out of this state of self-hypnosis for it will +happen automatically. Through self-hypnosis you can correct faults within yourself, or +implant qualities that you would like to acquire. Through regular practice you can achieve +this. This is serious business and should be approached as such. Self-hypnosis will achieve +for you all that you desire, and you know that you're in safe hands, your own! Your Silent +Magician will also be your partner and friend in your use of the Night Magician's Pendulum. + +35. A Night Magician's Pendulum + +On a dark green hill, encircled by gardens of flowers, immense old trees, fountains, and set +against a starlit night sky we find the cave entrance to the cavern home of the Night Magician. +A home dedicated to the ancient practice and knowledge of Night Magick. A home that is as +ageless as the stars that it is dedicated to. As we enter this beautiful home, through its ancient +portal, we can see into the Magician's Study and find the Ancient One, busy in observation of +the stars through a cavern window. We continue to enter, very quietly so as not to disturb the +Old One, when suddenly we are startled by the resounding chimes of a huge grandfather clock, +in its act of proclaiming the hour of the night. The most striking thing about the clock is its +beautiful, ornate brass pendulum. The pendulum swings side-to-side ticking away the hours. +We all know that the pendulum is set so that time is measured out with the greatest of accuracy. +But the pendulum is not just for telling time. The pendulum is also a valuable tool for the +Night Magician. So let's leave the Old One and move to your Magician's Study to take up the +study of the Night Magician's Pendulum. + +Your pendulum is not going to be as ornate and beautiful as the one you just observed at the +Magician's home, but it is based upon the same principle. The pendulum is made up of a long +arm with a weight suspended on the end. The pendulum you will use is simple to make. You +will want to construct at least two pendulums. + +One will require a string at least forty-eight inches long, and the other about twelve inches +long. A strong sewing thread will serve very well as the material from which to make the +string. The weight you use can be made of a variety of things. The weight can be made of a +round ball, about one inch in diameter, and constructed of wood, plastic, glass, or a neutral +metal. You should have pendulums on hand made up of a variety of the materials just listed. +You can also use a simple ring as a weight. Another very simple weight you can construct will +require an unused pencil and sewing needle. Put the point of the needle through the top of the +eraser, so that the needle will remain attached to the pencil. Then, put the thread through the +eye of the needle and tie it off, and so, you have the complete pendulum. Once you have made, +or acquired, your pendulums, what are you going to use them for? + +Your pendulum will answer questions that range across the entire spectrum of your +imagination. Have you lost a ring and want to find it? You could find missing people or a lost +pet. The pendulum can answer questions you have concerning most any topic that you wish to +pursue. But how can it do this? + +For part of the answer you must look to your old friend, the Silent Magician. The pendulum is +an instrument, used by the Silent Magician, to give you the answers to the questions that you +put to Her/Him. In review, you will remember that your Silent Friend is very brilliant and +there is very little that s/he does not know, or cannot find out, since They are in direct contact +with all other Silent Magicians. You will remember that your entire body has an electrical +field which completely surrounds it. When you have the pendulum suspended from your hand +and ask your Magician a question, s/he alters the electrical field of your body. That field also +surrounds the pendulum and causes it to move. The pendulum's movement has been set in a +certain pattern to indicate Yes or No. The Silent Magician is not the only one who can alter the +movement of the pendulum. Any resident of the higher realms can also alter your electrical +field, and so the movement of the pendulum, if they know how. As a rule, the entity working +with you, and through the pendulum, requires some time before they really can manipulate the +pendulum well. So not only can you receive information from your Silent Magician but also +your Guides and Teacher. Before studying the mechanics of how to use the pendulum, you must +prepare yourself to use the pendulum. + +The how-to of self-preparation is relatively simple to state, but often hard to achieve. You +begin by being sure your hands and body are clean, otherwise this will interfere with your body +electricity. You must have a calm and receptive mind. Your mind must be in a relaxed state +and without nervous tension and fears. Your mind must be prepared to concentrate on only +one thing, and that is what you are trying to answer. Your mental attitude must be a serious +one when you approach this lore. If you have achieved this self-preparation in mind and body, +then you're ready to begin learning how to use your Magician's Pendulum. + +First, you will prepare your Magician's Study for the use of the pendulum. Be sure the room +will be free from interruptions. Then erect a table to work on that is made up of only a hard top +surface and four legs. Nothing should be under the table for this will interfere with the +reception of the proper answer. In all cases, you will want to have blank, clean, unused, white +sheets of paper. + +The standard, eleven by eight white typing paper will be fine. This is the paper over which you +are going to suspend your pendulum. On the paper, you are going to draw in the center a large +plus sign(+). At the top and bottom of the paper, you are going to write the word, YES. On the +right and left sides of the paper, you are going to write the word, NO. You will use a new sheet +marked in this way for each set of questions asked pertaining to a certain area of +examination. Please be sure and use a fresh sheet for each set of questions asked, for when +questions are asked, the paper becomes saturated with the impressions from those questions, +and these impressions will interfere with any other set of questions asked. To begin, you must +formulate the questions you are going to ask. + +For example, where is my lost gold ring? The question must be simple, clear, concise, and +unambiguous. Then you must invoke the Night Pillar around yourself and your Magician's +Study or the place you're working in. If you don't do this, then any force may use the pendulum +and cause misleading answers. After this, you'll take the short stringed pendulum, between +your hands, and concentrate on the Night Force around you. Then ask the question three +times. Then, take the string of the pendulum and wrap it around the first or second finger of +the right hand, if you are right handed; left hand if you are left handed, such that when you rest +your elbow on the table, the weight of the pendulum is about an inch above the paper and +suspended over the plus sign. Then, begin asking if the ring is in the kitchen sink, and so on. +You can tell when the pendulum is answering you, because it will swing with purpose. Be sure +and wait between each question, till the pendulum answers. If the pendulum makes a circling +motion, this indicates uncertainty. Either the force guiding the pendulum doesn't know, the +question is ambiguous, or they refuse to answer the question. Try asking the question in a +more precise and clear way, and if there is still uncertainty, go on to another question. If you +ask a question that involves a geographical answer, then you will need a map. If the search +area involves a large area, use a map of small scale. This is a map which covers a large area of +land on a small amount of map area. Then, when you have found a more precise location, use a +larger scale map to get a pinpoint location. In order for you to use the map, place it on the left +side, and the plus marked paper on the right. Take the pendulum over the map area and ask it +to reveal the location of what you're looking for. Then hold the pendulum over the white sheet +of paper as before, and as you ask your question, you'll move your left forefinger slowly over +the map area. The pendulum will swing in the positive direction when you have reached the +right area. This completes the instruction on the use of the pendulum, indoors. It takes +practice to gain mastery over the use of the pendulum. You must be sure and use simple +language and concentrate strongly on the question you want answered. Perhaps you've seen, or +even used, some form of dowsing rod to locate water. + +The dowsing rod works on the very same principles as the pendulum. For uniformity, and +familiarity, you are going to use the pendulum outdoors in locating not only water, if that is +what you want, but anything else you desire. For this method, you will now need your longer +stringed pendulum. To start with, you must prepare the pendulum for your use. Let's say you +want to find gold. Then you will need to place in, or on the weight of the pendulum, a sample of +gold. This can be as small as a flake, but it must be pure gold. Further, you must put under your +feet another piece of gold. The gold must be pure, so for example, if you use your wedding ring +be sure it is solid, pure gold. Then, with your pendulum in the correct hand, you will again ask +your Silent Magician or Guides to find gold for you. Then, loosely holding the string in the +proper hand, slowly lower the weight towards the ground until it swings in a definite circular +motion. You will need to experiment with the proper length of string, until you get just the +right length which gives you the best circular motion. At this point, you should mark the +string with a knot, and color code it, and record it for future reference. You can apply this same +technique to anything that you want to find. You should take the time to prepare your +pendulum for all the things that you will want to find. In all that you do with the Night +Magician's Pendulum, you should remember certain key things in its proper use. + +You should remember that in talking with your Silent Friend, you want to use the simplest and +most direct language, and to repeat it at least three times. You should always remind your +Friend that you need Her/Him, because what you ask Her/Him to do for you, S/he does for +Her/Himself, too; that you are One in Thought and Purpose. So be sure, that whatever you +decide to do, that it is in agreement with your inner beliefs. If you try to use it for something +you know to be wrong, then your Silent Friend will stop working with you and that will be the +end of your growth. At the end of each set of questions, be sure and thank your Silent Magician +for the aid that S/he has provided. Appreciation and respect, go a long way in your successful +use of the Night Magician's Pendulum. Remember, that the pendulum is for your use alone. +Never allow anyone else to use or touch your personal pendulum. You can use the pendulum to +help others find answers to their questions but they should never use your pendulum to do so, +you will use it for them. Most of all, you should go into this practice with the most serious of +attitudes towards it. Your frame of mind can mean the difference between success and failure. +Everything you do to get closer with your Silent Magician, Guides, and Teacher, and to make +them your unfailing allies in all that you do, will bring mastery into your life here, and +hereafter. The pendulum is the first of your new Magician's Tools to be acquired in Air +Magick, and now you are to acquire your second tool, the Night Magician's Crystal Globe. +36. A Night Magician's Crystal Globe + +You will remember that when you were in the Night Magician's cave last, you found the Old One +busily engaged in the observation of the stars. Let's return to the Magician's cavern home and +see if the Ancient One has begun some new practice from which you can observe and learn. + +As you quietly enter the home, you have the feeling that you must go to the study. As you move +into the study, you find the Ancient One sitting on the floor in an apparent state of deep +meditation. You find that the room is very dark and that it is taking your eyes some time to +adjust to the darkness. As you continue to observe the Magician, you suddenly become aware +that more then just meditation is taking place. You can now see that the Wise One is gazing +into a sphere of apparent nothingness. To your vision, there appears to be a hole of darkness +into which the Magician seems to be gazing. You move closer to get a better view of what this +phenomena is. You can now see that this sphere of emptiness is composed of what appears to +be a clear substance. Suddenly, it dawns upon you that you are observing the Magician in the +act of Crystal Gazing. Now you know this is what you are going to learn to do. Let's begin your +instruction then with an in-depth examination of the Crystal the Ancient One was using. + +The Crystal is spherical in shape and was so clear that there appeared to be nothing there in +the darkness. Due to the clarity of the Crystal Globe, no reflection of light could be observed to +give it depth. The Crystal Globe, that the Magician is using, is without flaw. If there were flaws +in the Crystal then what light was available would cast reflections off these flaws and disturb +the Magician's gazing. When the Magician gazes into the Crystal Globe it is like looking into a +deep globe of nothingness. If you were to visit a store in order to purchase a Crystal Globe or +even one of glass, you would find that a perfectly flawless one is very expensive. So for your +purposes, you are going to use a crystal hollow globe with a hole in the top. + +I indicated you should use crystal but glass will also do. The hollow globe should be as round as +possible. The surface of the globe should be without flaws or markings. The globe should be +about six inches in diameter. A similar globe is often sold as a fish bowl. It should be able to +sit on a flat surface. If you have now purchased this Crystal Globe, then let's go on to prepare +the gazing area. + +Arrange your Magician's Study so that you can be seated comfortably on the floor, and in front +of you, you should have your small Night Altar of about eighteen inches in height. There +should be no strain on the back or shoulder muscles. If there is then adjust the height of the +table. It is not absolutely necessary that you sit on the floor, for you can sit in a chair as long +as you can see directly into the globe and it is within easy reach. Cover the table with a dark +blue or black cloth. You must insure that almost all light has been eliminated from the room. + +Be sure you are clean and have washed your hands before ever touching the globe. You must +clean the globe, without soap, before filling it with water. Clean the globe under running water +and hold the globe with a cloth and dry it before filling it. Never allow direct light to fall on the +globe. Keep the globe in a safe place and wrapped in a dark cloth. Never allow the curious to +touch the globe. After you have placed the globe on the table then fill it with water. Fill it all +the way to the rim so that the globe appears to be solid. This takes care of your study +preparation but you mustn't forget self-preparation. + +Be sure you are in good health. Before you begin this exercise, you must be in a good mental +state. Your mind should be calm and as free from worry as possible. Be sure that you have been +eating sensibly and don't eat a big meal just before commencing to use the globe. Now you are +ready to begin using the Crystal Globe. + +Be seated comfortably and place the Night Pillar around you. You must practice Night +Breathing for a few minutes in order to become more relaxed. Then place your hands on the +bottom sides of the globe. Your hands should be in direct contact with the glass. Gaze lightly +upon the globe. Do not begin with a fixed and concentrated gaze. Look at a point somewhere +inside the globe and relax. Do not try to see anything. As you continue to gaze, you will see the +globe start to cloud up with a whitish appearance. This is excellent and exactly what you want. +You should continue to gaze, and the cloudiness will disappear, and you will begin to see. You +may even feel a slight falling sensation so don't be startled, or you will have to try another +evening, which by the way is the best time to practice this. +There are three types of seeing that may occur. + +You may actually see as if you were watching television. That is, you may see pictures and +events occurring. Next, you may only see symbols. These are pictures which represent events +or happenings. Finally, you may only receive impressions. You may only receive feelings and +thoughts as to what is trying to be communicated to you. Whatever you receive, through the use +of the Crystal Globe is a true achievement. You are successful, whether you see pictures, +symbols, or impressions. In the beginning, you may encounter some difficulty in achieving +any results. + +You should only begin by gazing for about fifteen minutes at the most. By the end of the week, +you should have extended that time to about thirty minutes. This is all that is recommended +when you are first beginning. In the beginning, you will see only things that pertain to you +alone. As you begin to see more clearly and easily, you should begin to direct the Crystal in +what you want to see. As you first touch the globe and relax, concentrate a mental thought at +the Crystal and tell it what it is you want to see. Eventually, you will gain control over the +Crystal and be able to direct it at whatever it is you are interested in knowing. You can also use +the Crystal Globe to give others a reading. + +To do this, you will go through the very same setup procedures. Then before you actually touch +the globe, direct the individual who desires the reading, to touch the globe and concentrate on +what s/he wants to know about. You should also warn them, in advance, not to say anything +that will disturb you while you are gazing and giving her/him their reading. Then, you will +take over control of the Crystal and gaze upon it as you would for yourself, and give what you +see. + +In all cases, when you are through using the Crystal Globe, you will again rinse the globe and +dry it off before putting it away. +The Crystal Globe works by focusing and concentrating the clairvoyant energies from your +Night Eye Center. The Crystal Globe is an extension of your Night Eye. The globe, as with your +own personal clairvoyance, is able to do many things. + +The globe can help you look into the past, present, and future. It can help you look into any +matter which concerns you and to see all sides of the matter under discernment. You can go +anywhere at anytime and see all that you wish to see. + +You must know that you are going to succeed each time you use the Crystal. Even if you don't +succeed, you must not become discouraged. Every attempt at using the Crystal Globe leads you +one step closer to success. You should have the attitude of a very personal commitment to the +Crystal Globe. Always treat it with the utmost respect. The entire business of crystal gazing is +very serious business and should be treated as such if you are going to succeed at it. Your next +subject is also a form of seeing. Only instead of using the eyes to see with, you are going to use +your hands. + +37. Psychometry + +Psychometry is the development of your clairaudient faculties in relation to your sense of +touch. By psychometry, you are going to be able to pickup an object and know its origin and +history. If the object ever belonged to someone, then you will receive the thoughts and feelings +of that individual. Psychometry is related to your clairaudient faculties. Let's see how? + +As you will recall, clairaudience is related to your fifth Night Center which is located at the +throat level. As your Night Center begins to grow and develop, you develop the sense, in part, of +being able to perceive sound from the Night Realm. You can hear in a sense, the voice of the +Night Spirit and even the so called "Music of the Night Spheres". All of this is the attunement +to, and perception of, higher vibration. An extension of your clairaudient ability is the +perception of an object's vibration through touch. Your left hand, if you are right handed, is +the sensitive hand to magickal vibration. All things, of all types of nature, have a personal +vibration. That vibration is composed of the entire history and nature peculiar to that object. +Your clairaudient faculty is able to attune to that vibration and translate it into pictures, +sounds, and/or feelings that you can perceive. + +Psychometry has many practical applications. You can see actual history taking place by +using objects that are related to a particular historical event. But remember, you will see +history as it related to that particular object and its part in that history. You can view the +origin of the planet through very ancient objects. In a more practical application, you could +pickup a book and get the basic feeling of that book and what it is about, and then decide if you +are going to like reading it or not. You can learn about the inner nature of individuals of +interest to you by examining an object which belongs to them. For example, this could help you +understand your employer better; why s/he expects certain things from you, her/his reasoning +behind certain acts, and overall, help you to improve your working relationship with +her/him. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination is fertile. How do you go about +developing your clairaudient faculties in relation to psychometry? + +To begin, let's look at the area of self-preparation. You are going to see a trend developing +through self-preparation. As in the use of the Night Magician's Pendulum and Crystal Globe, +you again need a clean body and hands, and a sound and tranquil state of mind. In review, I +stated in topic thirty-two, "Power of Thought", that in all the exercises used to strengthen and +train the mind, meditation was very important. Hopefully, you can see the reason for this and +have been practicing it. Meditation builds for you a tranquil mind. If you have not been doing +it, regularly, then get to it without fail. If you expect to achieve anything in the Night Magick, +it must be done through a strong and tranquil mind. So much for self-preparation, now on to +the mechanics of psychometry. + +Hopefully, you have someone who is very sympathetic towards your magick and wishes to see +you succeed in it. If so, get this person to pickup a smooth stone, and take that stone and wash +it thoroughly, along with their hands. Then holding the stone in her/his left hand, allowing it +to rest in their open palm, ask them to concentrate on a single thought. This thought should be +simple. For example, thinking of the color red. Have them concentrate for several minutes on +this thought. Then, s/he should wrap the stone in a clean cloth and give it to you. Then take +the stone with you and retire to your Magician's Study. +Now lie down, relax, place the Night Pillar around you, do some Night Breathing, and place the +stone in your clean, left hand. Let the stone rest in the palm of your open hand. Now you must +allow your mind to be without thought and tranquil. Do not try to concentrate on the stone. +Just relax and allow your mind to drift on nothingness. You may or may not feel a tingling in +the palm of your hand. What you should receive is a feeling or impression, in this case, the +color red. If not, then try moving the stone to your left temple and again relax. If you do not +receive an impression do not be discouraged. It takes practice and perseverance to succeed. If +you do not have someone who can help you, then you can try something else. The next time you +receive a letter or bill, before you open it, retire to your room and go through the same +procedures as just outlined above with the stone. As you receive the impressions, record them +and then open the bill or letter and see if you're right. Remember, that many people will touch +the letter or bill before it gets to you, and so their impressions will also be on it. This is +psychometry. + +You will receive impressions, feelings, or pictures from objects you touch. As your +clairaudient faculties develop through practice, you will be able to see easier and much more +extensively into the depths of an object's history. Practice and perseverance is the key to +mastery. Not only in psychometry, but in all things as they relate to a Night Magician's life. +Your next subject is something which has long been talked about, and yet not understood. You +are going to learn to bridge the gap between your mind and another. + +38. Telepathy + +We have all heard the old phrase, "you must be reading my mind". The other person seemed to +know your thoughts in some way. This ability to know another's thoughts is telepathy. +Telepathy is the ability to be able to transmit and/or receive thoughts from one person to +another. You are going to learn how to do this and some of the possible uses, but first, you +should learn how telepathy works. + +In order to understand how telepathy works, you need to go back and re-examine the workings +of the brain. The brain is an extraordinarily complex organ, and its physical workings are +little understood. What is known about it, and the key to understanding how telepathy works, +is that in the brain's functioning it generates electricity. This electricity is very fine and can +be measured upon an electroencephalograph (EEG). Your brain emits high frequency waves +upon which thought is carried. Your brain operates upon a certain frequency which is unique +for each individual. When you can attune yourself to that frequency generated by the brain's +electrical functioning then you can intercept and comprehend another's thought waves. As a +radio can receive radio waves when tuned to the proper frequency, so can your brain receive +thought waves from another person when properly attuned to them. Occasionally, a person is +telepathic to another, unknowingly, because each is very close in frequency to the other. They +seem to be able to know what the other is thinking constantly, and this is because of the close +harmony between their personal frequencies. Couples who have been married for sometime +grow close in harmony and each becomes attuned to the other's thoughts. You are not limited, +though, to accidental telepathic reception. + +You can learn to consciously tune in to anyone you desire. Thought wave attunement is +achieved through the opening of your crown Night Center. Not only are you able to tune into +other peoples' thoughts, but you are able to begin receiving direct communication with your +Oversoul. To begin this awakening of your Crown Center, you must have begun to reach some +mastery over the mental exercise in topic thirty-two. You must be achieving a strong and +tranquil mind. If you are to practice telepathy, you are going to need someone who you can +send thoughts to, and who will, in turn, transmit to you. If you have such a person, then at a +certain designated time each of you is going to retire to your Magician's Study, dim the lights, +and try to eliminate all possible distractions. + +One of you will have agreed, in advance, to be the transmitter and the other the receiver. +People generate thoughts constantly, but they do this in such a scattered manner that the +thought goes in all direction and carries little effect. You, though, are going to concentrate and +direct your thought specifically at the receiver. As the transmitter, you will have prepared, in +advance, a simple message or symbol to transmit. So lie down and become very relaxed. You +must place the Night Pillar around you and practice Night Breathing for a few minutes. You +should have in your hand a picture of the person you are going to transmit to. Spend a few +moments thinking of this person and all the things that bring you both together. Then for +about five to ten minutes, you will transmit the message. This completes the portion for the +transmitter. + +As the receiver, you also will lie or sit down and become very relaxed. Place the Night Pillar +into action and practice Night Breathing for a few moments. You will need a picture of your +transmitter and will be thinking of those things that draw you together in harmony. The you +will allow your mind to become still and without thought. Just let go for about five to ten +minutes and receive. Sound easy? + +It will become so if you practice and do not become easily discouraged. After you have +completed this exercise, you will certainly want to call each other and check the results. Don't +become upset, though, if it did not work. Be positive, know it works, and in a short time, you +will be able to do it, not only with your friend, but with anyone you meet. The uses for +telepathy are numberless and important. + +It would be great if you could transact business with another and know whether you were +getting a good deal or not. You would always be able to stay in touch with your friends and +know if there are ever any problems. If you had a friend who was ever in trouble or danger, +they could beam a thought to you, for help, and you could go to them. The possible uses for +telepathy are endless. Make the most of them. As you continue to develop your telepathic +abilities, and thus your seventh Night Center, the closer you will become to your Oversoul. + +You have learned to use your mind for communication with other minds. Next, you will learn +to use your mind to travel in the Mental Realm. + +39. Mental Projection + +You will recall, in Night Projection, you traveled in the Astral Realm in your Astral Body. So +you can conclude, in Mental Projection, you will travel in the Mental Realm in your Mental +Body. You can look upon Mental Projection as the "flight of the mind". It is with your mind +that you will see and visit places, and find a universe open to your mental explorations. So +let's begin this topic with a short flight, and view one of the many places that are open before +you. + +Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one... and you have lift-off. You begin to +climb through the sky, leaving the Earth far, far behind, and enter the darkness of deep space. +You continue to travel at the speed of thought passing by planets and stars in the twinkle of an +eye. In moments, you find yourself approaching the first planet in your journey. The planet's +side you approach is enveloped in the darkness of night. As you approach it closer, you see, +outlined in the light of a setting sun, a vast beach and cliffs upon which a great ocean touches, +and whose waves gently caress it. Set in the side of the cliffs is a great door which you know +leads to a vast city below the surface. You, mentally, beam a message asking to enter, where +upon the great door opens and you find yourself moving rapidly through a long, lighted tunnel. +Inside, you find a great city shrouded in the twilight of an artificial night. There are beautiful +fountains and statues inside and buildings resembling those of Ancient Greece. By some +unknown force, you are now led away from this city beneath the surface and find yourself +leaving the planet far behind, and once again, traveling through space. You soon approach +your next destination, which is a planet that, at first, appears similar to the one you just left. +As you grow closer, though, you see a culture much different then the last one. Here, the culture +is very mechanized, and the citizenry live upon the surface. The dwellings are very rustic and +blend naturally with the bareness of the planet. You continue to watch with fascination at the +unique machinery and lifestyle of the people. You find, though, that you are starting to grow +weary and feel a need to return to your origin. So you return to your body which you left far +behind on the planet Earth. You think of your body, and its place on Earth, and the sensation +of rapid movement, of flight, is upon you again. Pinpoints of light and matter, again, whisk +past you with incredible speed. Then, you feel the slowing in movement, and the heaviness of +your body, and ...Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.., you have arrived. So +ends your short flight of the mind through time and space. Were you really there? Did you see +the planets, buildings, and people? + +The answer is a definite, Yes! There is no place or time period that you cannot visit in Mind. +You can visit anyplace on your planet or see anyone. You can travel back into time or go +forward into the realm of possibilities. As you have seen, you can travel to any planet, of any +star system, of any galaxy. You can even travel into the various planes of the Magickal Realm. +The only restraints to your traveling is your own magickal development. + +Your own magickal development is the only limiting factor as to where you can travel. This +applies to Night, as well as Mental Projection. You are allowed to see and visit those things +which have an equal or lower vibration to your own. For example, each planet, in the +universe, has a unique magickal vibration. In order for you to see and visit a planet, your own +vibration must be equal or higher to it. Otherwise, you will be prevented from going there. +Similarly, for you to visit a magickal level or plane, you must have an equal or higher +vibration in relation to it. Of course, the solution to unlimited travel is a personal magickal +vibration that allows you to go anywhere. Although there will always be magickal plateaus +that you must strive for, you can develop magickally so that you are relatively unrestricted in +your magickal travels. How do you develop magickally? + +The answer has been before you all along. You must follow the instruction outlined in this +book. If you follow these instructions, live by the Will of your Oversoul within you, then your +magickal growth will be both rapid and unending. Being Magickal is not being able to read +minds or see in the Night Magician's Crystal Globe, but is based on living as the Oversoul on +Earth. Telepathy, crystal gazing, and all that you are studying, is developing within you the +necessary physical, emotional, mental, and magickal discipline that will aid you in living as +the Oversoul on Earth. This, brings true magickal growth that will be with you forever and +ever. + +To practice Mental Projection, you must be physically fit and mentally sound. Your mind +must be in a state of peace and relaxation. Your mind must be free of tension and worries and +your body should be in good health, especially your heart. You do not have to wait for truly +advance magickal growth in order to start traveling mentally. The only thing, as said before, +is that your magickal development will limit those places that you can visit. As you continue +to travel and grow magickally so will the places that you can visit grow in clarity, beauty, and +magick. The "how-to" of Mental Projection is not that difficult. +You must enter your Magician's Study and extinguish all light in the room. The room should +be in almost total darkness. Then, you should be seated or lying down in a very comfortable +and relaxed manner. You must place the Magician's Night Pillar around yourself and begin +Night Breathing. You must achieve a very relaxed and calm state of body and mind. Once you +have reached this state, you are ready to take flight with your mind. In Mental Projection, +unlike Night Projection, you are not going to project a body in which your consciousness is +going to travel. In Mental Projection, only your consciousness is going to be projected forth. +Remember, your Mental Body is your consciousness. In Night Projection, you projected forth +your Astral Body from your physical body, and in that Astral Body you placed your +consciousness. In Mental Projection, all visual and emotional sensation will center around +the forehead of your physical body. It is from here, that you will project your formless Mental +energies or consciousness. + +To start with, you must visualize in your mind the place, person, and/or thing you wish to +visit. Once you have in mind where you want to travel to, then you should imagine your mind +doing the traveling and actually going there. See your formless Mental energies going forth to +discover and see in the Mental Realm. You will feel your consciousness starting to travel forth +into the Mental Realm. You will have visual impressions of your surroundings passing you by, +just as if you were traveling in an airplane, only much faster. Then you'll begin to truly see +your destination. + +In the beginning, your visual images may be hazy and faint. But as you practice, the images +will become clearer and take on color. While Mental Projecting, if you want to go somewhere +else then where you're currently visiting, all you have to do is concentrate on the place you +want to be, and with the speed of thought you will be there. Where your thoughts are, there you +will be too. In no way, should you force Mental Projection. When you project, it must be from +the area of the forehead. If you feel a swaying sensation from your entire body, then you are +starting to project the Astral Body, rather then the Mental Body. Your conscious projection of +the Mental Body must be from the forehead. You must center your conscious efforts to project +from the area of the head. You should definitely know that it is your mind body that you do +travel and see through. You are actually present in your Mental Body and can send magickal +healing and power through it to any person, place, or thing as you feel the need. When you are +ready to return, you should do so slowly and easily. You should see yourself returning the same +way you went. +As you begin to feel your physical body again, for while in traveling you will forget it, move the +fingers and hands slowly. Next, you will concentrate on your breathing, and you will find the +need to take a deep breath, for while traveling, your breathing has become very slow and +shallow. In all, return very slowly and you will prevent any harm to yourself, for returning +too quickly can cause headaches and an "out-of-sorts" feeling. Mind Traveling is your key to +unlimited new discoveries in life. You can visit and stay in touch with friends and love ones +far away. You can see cities, great libraries, countries, and places untold. You can go into space +and discover new worlds and civilizations. Your past and future are open to your exploration. +You can even explore the Magickal Realms and see the Magickal Leaders and Teachers of the +world. At first, go easy in learning to use your mind to travel with. You must practice and be +patient and the results are assured. Remember, Mental Projection is your means to worlds +untold; the passport is your own magickal development. You have finally reached the topic +that you waited so patiently for. So without further delay, let's learn how to create the world +around and within you that you desire to have. + +40. Creative Visualization + +The Magick of Creative Visualization is awesome. There is absolutely nothing you cannot +create into your world through Creative Visualization. There are examples of people who used +the power of Creative Visualization throughout history. Look at the lives of Albert Einstein, +Thomas Edison, and Leonardo Da Vinci. Look at the lives of Mozart, Beethoven, and Wagner. +In all these lives and thousands more like them, they used their minds and a vision they held +in their minds and created and changed the world. They created intuitively. You too can +become like them by knowing how its done and then using it. The whole process is known as +Creative Visualization. + +Through this process, you will be able to create for yourself and others anything that you +desire. Remember always to create within the laws of the Eternal Night Balance and the Silver +Rule. As long as you follow these two principles there is absolutely nothing you cannot create +into your world through Creative Visualization. The process of Creative Visualization is +broken down into two basic parts, a.) Imagination and b.) Invocation. The process ends with +the final results of c.) Materialization. So without further delay, let's begin with imagination. + +a. Imagination + +Imagination is a product of your mind. It is the ability of your mind to be able to visualize, +picture, envision, or imagine situations and things. As a kid, you used your imagination in +playing house. You imagined yourself as either the father or mother and your toy dolls as your +children. Your house was a big box that you got from the local appliance dealer that once +contained a refrigerator or stove. Or remember the time you laid down on the soft, cool, green +grass and looked up at the big, fluffy, white clouds on a warm summer day and imagined what +this cloud or that looked like. Some looked like big elephants or dogs and others looked like +planes. Remember? This is your imagination at work. + +As an adult, you constantly use your imagination to imagine what an interview is going to be +like with the new boss, or what an appointment with the dentist is going to feel like. If you +have a birthday coming up, you try to imagine what gifts are going to be given to you and who +will send cards. You constantly employ your imagination in your life. Your imagination is a +very powerful force in your life. In fact, your imagination is the most powerful force in your +life today. Disagree? + +Well if you do, then let's look at some examples. Many will say that your will is the strongest +force in your life but this can be easily disproved. In any contest between the will and the +imagination, the imagination always wins. For example, let's take a catwalk high above the +factory floor. The catwalk is only two feet wide and there are guard rails at waist height +running the fifty foot length. Can you cross it in safety and ease? Sure, for you have the added +safety measure of the guard rails. Now, let's take away the guard rails. Has your ease in +crossing changed any? The catwalk is still quite wide enough to cross with ease but when you +take away the guard rails, your imagination starts to go to work. You look at the long drop +below and without the rails, you start to imagine what would happen if you slip. It will be hard +to convince your imagination that you can cross without any danger. You find that you are +truly scared at walking on a two-foot wide catwalk suspended one hundred feet in the air. If +you attempt to force your will over your self, this will only create more tension, and begin to +cause your body to shake and sweat to appear on your forehead, and you will be totally unable +to cross. Your imagination wins. Another example of how your imagination has been used as +a powerful force in your life is the fear that many people have of a place called Hell. + +Churches have long used the idea of Hell to keep people in line. In your imagination, you +believe that if you are not good and do exactly what the church says, you will pay for it by going +to a very, very hot, sulfurous, brimstone place, and there suffer eternal torment. If you truly +believe this and have convinced your imagination of this, then you will not do any wrong if +possible. Your imagination is even stronger then the sexual forces in your life. + +It is in your imagination that a particular type of man or woman is attractive to you. +Imagination must come first before the sexual forces can be activated. So, your imagination is +dominant even over your love life. As you have just seen in these examples presented here, and +many more that come to mind, the imagination is a very powerful force. Whatever you +imagine to be true in your life, your imagination will insure that it is so in your life. If you feel +that an unsupported walk will be very dangerous, then your imagination will conjure up the +most dismal of pictures in your mind's eye, of you lying broken up on the floor far, far below. +The idea, then, is to learn to use your imagination constructively. You must learn how to +manipulate your imagination to achieve materialization. With your imagination, you are +going to learn to imagine whatever it is that you desire to happen. + +To begin with, you should have by this time become quite proficient at visualization. The +hows of this was discussed in topic thirty-two, exercise four. If you haven't been doing this +exercise, then refer back to it and begin doing so at once until proficiency is obtained. +Whatever it is that you want to happen, you must first be able to visualize it. Once you have +visualized it clearly in your mind's eye, then you must continue to add to the visualization +using your imagination and give it substance. Let's begin with an easy example. + +You want to create an apple. First, you would have already visualized the apple itself. You +have pictured, in your mind, a bright, beautiful apple. Then with your imagination, you will +continue to add substance to it by adding the color to its skin. Now, you have a bright, +beautiful, red apple. Then you will, in your imagination, see the insides of the apple, and how +beautifully yellow they are. Then, go on remembering how delicious and sweet they taste, and +even how fragrant it smells. In your imagination, hold this total picture of a bright, red, +yellowish insides, sweet tasting and smelling apple. This is how you will use your imagination +in Creative Visualization. But you don't have the apple yet, do you? You need something more +then just your imagination alone. You need the added ingredient of Invocation. + +b. Invocation + +You are probably asking yourself what I mean by Invocation. The very meaning of the word +tells you what is required next. Invocation is the act of calling upon a deity or higher power for +aid in accomplishing something. In Night Magick you are going to invoke the aid of your +Oversoul to complete the act of Creative Visualization. It is your Oversoul who answers your +invocation. The Oversoul places into your world those things you desire to see in it. There are +no limitations placed upon what invocation can do when combined with visualization and +imagination. None! How do you invoke so that your Oversoul will answer with action? +First, you must have the attention of your Oversoul. If you have been practicing meditation +with dedication and sincerity, then you will have been slowly opening the Crown Night Center +or your Portal to your Oversoul. In your practice of meditation and Night Magick overall, you +have been practicing a way of life that raises your magickal vibration and that of your +Oversoul, too. When you dedicate yourself to this magickal way of life, your Oversoul then +becomes directly involved in your magickal growth. So, since you have been practicing +meditation all along, you know that your Oversoul is listening. To begin your invocation then, +you must establish that communications link with your Oversoul. You can do this standing, +sitting, or lying down, whichever you are most comfortable with. Then, you will put the Night +Pillar around yourself. You will need to use your imagination and see yourself as the Living +Oversoul. Envision yourself dressed in a seamless, black garment glowing in intense magickal +radiation. You must see yourself as you would imagine your Oversoul must seem in Its Realm. +That is, as an embodiment of Power and Glory unknown on Earth. You must go beyond just +imagining yourself as the Oversoul on Earth. You must know that you are the Oversoul. That if +you raise your vibration high enough, and know that you are the Oversoul, then your Oversoul +will join you on Earth and will work with, and through you. At this point, you will start to feel +an increase in heart rate and exhilaration unknown to you before. Through this, you will +know your Oversoul is listening and is with you. Even if you don't feel this exhilaration, be +assured, that your Oversoul is with you. Then you can say your invocation to your Oversoul. +There is a certain way that the invocation should he said. This is not like a typical prayer that +you have been taught how to say. Your invocation is more a command and affirmation. The +invocation should be based on the following example: "Darkest Oversoul which I AM, send +your Yin Light and Energy through me. For I AM the Oversoul in Action here on Earth and live +by Your Will alone. I AM commanding as Oversoul in Action here on Earth that your request +be done. By the Oversoul's Will let it be done. So be it." You should repeat this invocation three +times. If you do this with all sincerity and knowing that it will be done, then it will be done. +The result of this invocation and your use of imagination is defined as Materialization. + +c. Materialization + +What is materialization? Materialization is the bringing forth into material or physical +existence your desires. This is the ultimate goal of Creative Visualization. You want to bring +into the material world your ideals. Can you achieve this materialization through invocation +alone? No, you must have the combination of imagination and invocation together. One +question that may come to your mind is where the apple, or anything that you are trying to +create, materializing from? + +When I speak of using your imagination to form the image of what it is you want, you are also +using concentrated thought. You are building this image first on the Mental Realm. As you +continue the imaginative process, you continue to fill the image with your emotions or feelings +about what it is and like to have. Thus, you continue to build it, and so, lower it into the Astral +Realm. The object is actually materializing on both the Mental and Astral planes. Then, you +employ your power of invocation, building or materializing it on both the Magickal and the +Etheric planes. In the materialization of objects, this form, made up of condensed energy, will +create the necessary events in order to manifest into your or another's world, depending on +what it is you are trying to achieve. If you are of advanced magickal development, with a need +of the object immediately, then physical matter will start to form around the energy form +until you have the final material product. With your imagination and invocation, you are +programming the energy form to materialize. The energy form will do whatever is necessary to +bring about the creation. Let's return beck to the apple you were trying to materialize, and see +the whole process through. + +Remember, you were imagining a bright, red, yellowish insides, sweet tasting and smelling +apple. You had used your imagination to such a point that you could almost smell and taste +that apple. At that moment, you would go on to use invocation. You now see yourself as the +Oversoul on Earth. You truly feel Its Power and Energy descend upon you and know that you +are One. Now, you would insert in your invocation the image of your apple. From this, you +would have your apple. Is the apple going to be right there in front of you, after you do all of +this? +That depends on you and your magickal development. If you have reached the state of Night +Consciousness, then YES, the apple will be there in front of you. For in Night Consciousness, +you and the Oversoul are One. There is perfect communion and cooperation in all things. In +lesser magickal development, the apple would have been there, but only as low as the etherial +state. But, what is in the etherial state of materialization will eventually have its material +existence fulfilled. Somehow, and eventually, that bright, red apple will come into your life. +Food is not the only thing that you can materialize. + +There is no limit on the physical objects that you can materialize into your life, but more +importantly, there is no limit to the physical happenings that you can cause to exist. By +physical happenings, I am referring to events or changes to occur in your or another's life. For +example, you may want to become more like one of the Night Teachers. You would, then, first +activate your imagination and begin to build the image of the Teacher you would like to +become more like. Think of all the qualities and attributes held by that Teacher. What they +look like? What mannerisms? Build the image very strong and then you will slowly start to +see yourself taking on these magickal qualities. You should then bring in your invocation. +You will ask your Oversoul to build within you, the qualities found in the Teacher. You should +then continue this visualization over a long period of time. In other words, you must practice +this visualization process many times, over a long period of time, in order to become fully like +the Teacher. There is no way of knowing how long it will take to acquire these qualities. But +as each day goes by, you will become more and more like your Night Teacher. The change will +hardly be perceptible to you, but change you will. You can help build these qualities into other +people. You can materialize in anyone, anything, through your imagination and invocation. +Through Creative Visualization, you could achieve unlimited supply of the things you need on +Earth and the Soul qualities you need in life to reach Night Consciousness. You have traveled +to the end of your journey in Air Magick. + +You began it, by visiting the dimension where the Great Ones live and bring into mental +creation, what will soon thereafter become a physical discovery and invention. You have long +been convinced, by now, of the great power of your thoughts, and the even greater power of your +Friend, the Silent Magician. You have learned to bring improvements into your life through +self- hypnosis. You have acquired new Night Magician Tools such as the Pendulum and +Crystal Globe. You have learned to travel to anywhere, at anytime, through Mental Projection, +and to invoke or communicate with your Oversoul. Best of all, you have learned to control the +world around you and create as the Oversoul through Creative Visualization. You have come a +long way on the road of Night Magick, but the road stretches out before you a bit farther. You +find yourself journeying on the last part of the Night Road and entering the Night Realm. + +CHAPTER VII + + +Night (Fire) Magick + +41. The Night (Fire) Realm + +Fire was the fourth element held sacred by the Ancient Magicians. Fire represents a Magickal +Energy that transforms the lower nature into the Magickal. It was used in Magickal Alchemy +to represent the transmuting agent necessary to change ordinary metals or souls, into silver or +the Oversoul. It is symbolic of the Oversoul and the Night Forces, pouring forth into the life of +the Night Magician, changing the base elements into the Silver of the Oversoul. This is the +final realm into which you will enter for exploration. It is the Realm of Magickal and +Celestial Energies. In this topic, you will explore the Night Realm, as the Land of the Perfected +Night Magician. You will learn of the different vibrational levels of the Night Realm. You will, +then, enter the Inner Night Realm found within you; and the purpose of this chapter on Night +Magick. If you are ready, let's discover the Night Realm. + +This is a realm, that for many, even a glimpse of it is still far down the road. It is a realm of +pure Night Power and Energy. It is a Realm of Pure Night. The beauty of this realm, words can +not describe. I made an attempt earlier in the book to describe this realm, and could not even +come close in describing the Power and Energy found in this world. If, in your highest +magickal imagination, you could envision a Magickal Realm of dazzling, silver, violet, and +dark light, that fills every part of your being with a warmth and power beyond description, +then you would have some idea of the Night Realm. If you could imagine a power that flows +through you, giving to you knowledge and wisdom beyond anything you know; to know +yourself as timeless and eternal; then you would know the Night Realm. In the Night Realm, +you would see each other as radiating Spheres of Eternal Night Energy, outshining even your +surroundings. As has been said before, you must strive to reach this realm, for it is only then, +when you see and experience it yourself, will you truly know the Night Realm. The Night +Realm is divided into numerous vibrational levels. + +Each level is the home for Beings of compatible harmony and vibration. The Night Realm can +be viewed as having basically two major levels. The higher region, I will refer to as the +Celestial Night, and the lower as the Magickal Night. + +The Celestial Night is the home, so to speak, of the Night Spirit. It is the region of the Night +Spirit Power and Energy. Beyond this, very little can be said about this region. The concepts +that make up this region go well beyond your understanding. Perhaps it is here, that I should +discuss the concept of dimensions. + +Referring back to the Astral Realm, you will remember that when you are in it, that you could +do a great deal of things that you could not do on Earth. You could float in the air, conjure up a +four course meal, build a house by thought, and could return to the lower level of Earth. In your +Astral Body, you could go through Earthly walls and not be seen by people still in an Earthly +Body. On Earth, you often refer to the physical plane as the third dimension, and you could, +therefore, refer to the Astral Realm as the fourth. If you go to the next dimension, that is the +fifth, you would have an even greater range of abilities and be governed by totally different +concepts then those of the lower dimensions. With each higher dimension, the concepts that +apply become more abstract and less understandable by those in lower dimensions. This is +why the Celestial Region is far beyond your understanding. This region could be viewed as the +twentieth or fiftieth dimension. It is well beyond comprehension. Then, there is the Magickal +Region. + +You could view it as the ninth or tenth dimension. So again, understanding of its composition +and concepts is well beyond you. You do know that it is the home of your Oversoul. It is the +place you know as the Realm of the Perfected Night Magician. It is the region of Magickal +Wisdom. It is here that all ideas and prototypes are fixed and released into the lower +dimensions below and become manifest on each level. This is the dimension where you find +the Causal Body. + +The Magickal Region holds the vehicle through which you enter your Inner Night Realm. You +enter the Inner Night Realm through your Causal Body. Your magickal nature is found +summed in the Causal Body. All that you have ever done has gone into molding the Causal +Body. The Causal Body is as inert and undeveloped as any other Body or vehicle in which you +have had to find expression here on Earth. All that you have ever done, has gone towards +refining the Causal or Magickal Body. You could liken the Causal Body to a treasure chest. It is +here, that you store your Magickal Silver. Your Magickal Silver consisting of all the +accomplishments and growth you have ever acquired while in existence. It is these things +which activate and quicken the Magickal Body. It is through this Magickal Vehicle, that you +are joined in Oneness with your Oversoul. It is the Oversoul's Magickal Body, as well as yours. +This is why I have stressed to give so much energy to Night Magick. This is why I have stressed, +so much, on the things that you must do to grow magickally. When the Causal Body is perfected +then you join the Oversoul in Perfection and Energy. Then, you reach up and into the +Consciousness of your Night Soul. This is why I have presented this chapter on Fire or Night +Magick. + +Through the practice of the information, exercises, and rites found in this chapter, you will +greatly enhance the development of your Causal Body. Through hard effort, dedication, +perseverance, and patience, you can achieve perfection of the Magickal Body. You will expand, +refine, and fully develop your Magickal Body and the perfection of your Inner Nature. All that +you will do, in this chapter, will directly effect your Oversoul. S/He will be your active Partner +and Friend in your life. You will learn to give and apply magickal healing direct from the +Oversoul within. You will learn the Night Rites, which will directly bring power and energy +into your Inner Being and the world around you. You will learn how to use the Night Powers +and Flames, and the great changes that you can bring into the world through them. There are +other subjects that you will explore, and that will bring knowledge and wisdom into your life +from their study. This is your final chapter and will, perhaps, open up before you knowledge +and power never before encountered. Remember, that in all you learn and practice, you must +remain in the Energy and Will of your Oversoul. + +Even though this is the final chapter, and you may have been sailing along in your education +in Night Magick, and passing all the tests, remember, that your study and progress goes on +forever into eternity. You will never stop learning and growing in Night Magick. Beyond this +Earthly life, there is so much that awaits before you. So, practice Night Magick with +dedication and perseverance and remain victorious on the road of Night Magick. Your first +subject for discussion, in Fire Magick, is the Great Magickal Beings who are the Citizenry of +the Magickal and Material Universe. + +42. The Solar, Planetary, and Lunar Powers + +It may come as a shock to you, but the Stars, Planets, and Moons that you look upon every day +and night are indeed Great Magickal Entities. Descending from out of the Celestial Realm, +they have chosen to incarnate into the Stars, Planets and Moons. Their magickal path is one +of many advanced magickal paths, but it is a very important path. It is important, especially +in regards to you, for it provides places upon which lesser souls may find development and +magickal advancement. Humans are not, by any means, the only race in the universe. The +Stars, Planets and Moons are, indeed, Conscious, Sentient Beings, each with their own +personal natures. Under this topic, I am going to discuss each of these Inner Natures. I will +begin with a discussion of the Solar Life. I will then discuss the Planetary and Lunar +God/Goddesses, in general, and then discuss, specifically, the Inner Natures of each. Along +with discussing their Inner Natures, I will also talk about the auric effect of each, upon you. If +you are ready, then let's proceed to the Solar Force. + +The visible Stars are inhabited by advanced beings following the Yang path of development. +There is no doubt that physically we need the Sun in order to provide physical heat and act as a +physical source for the positive solar energy needed by living things on Earth. As a Night +Magician you will become very sensitive to solar energy. As your depth in the Night proceeds +you will need less and less of the solar energy. You want to be very careful not to receive too +much sunlight and so become overcharged with solar force. This will definitely harm your +magickal workings. I have been to places where the Night Force was so strong that it acted +much like a polarized lens and filtered the harmful energy of the Sun from me. But these +places are few and far between. If you wrap yourself tightly in your Night Pillar then you will +greatly minimize the harmful effects of the Sun. + +Within this system though because it is a Yin system there is also the Dark Sun. It is also +called the Black Sun. The Black Sun absorbs too much Yang Energy and moves it to another +time and place that is a Yang system. The Black Sun is the source of all Yin Energy in this +Dark Solar System. It is the Parent Force to the Planetary and Lunar Deities. Let's examine +this parenthood some more. + +You will remember that every human being receives its Oversoul and Godsoul from a part of +the great whole which is the Earth Goddess/God's Oversoul and Godsoul. In similar manner, +the Planetary and Lunar Deities receive their Oversoul and Godsoul from the Dark Sun. So we +have the Dark Sun as the sum of the whole, who then divides Its Eternal Self into smaller +pieces who are the Planetary and Lunar Deities, and they in turn divide their sum into +individual sparks which become encased in the material world. The Ancients knew, thou +enshrouded in myth, that the Planets and Moons are the physical vehicles of very advanced +beings. You are familiar with your own physical body and the other vehicles that make up +your material being. You also know that you have an aura that is charged with emotions and +thoughts. When you meet someone in the office, for example, and come within range of their +aura, you often sense things about that person. If they are feeling uplifted, or angry and +depressed, you can sense that about the person. You also have found that if you permit it, their +aura may induce these same feelings in you. This is somewhat similar when we speak about +the Planetary and Moon Spirits having bodies. + +They do have bodies, and along with that, they also have an aura that is supercharged with +emotions and thoughts that reflect the Inner Nature of their Being. Their bodies are enormous +and so are their auras. Thus, the effect of these auras is far reaching. Yet, I want to say this: +Humankind are foolish creatures when they allow the Stars, Planets, or Moons to rule their +destiny. The effect of Their Auras may heighten the highest qualities in humankind but they +do not rule humankind's destiny. Your destiny is in your own hands and the Hands of Your +Oversoul. Remember this. Now what effects do these Great Ones have upon you. + +When the Dark Sun runs strong through you, you find yourself filled with vitality and health. +You are ambitious, proud, strong willed, and face life with great courage. You have a very +strong and stable personality. You have a great drive and zest for life. You are a very +independent and confidant soul. You are generally quick witted, perceptive, thoughtful, and +considerate. These are the things that the Dark Sun can bring out in you. You will soon learn +how to increase the power of the Dark Sun that runs through your veins. You will learn how to +do this through the Night Rites. The Dark Sun does run through everyone, to some degree, but +can be greatly intensified by practicing the Night Rites. + +From the Dark Sun we proceed onward with the Planetary and Lunar Spirits. The first-born +Children of the Father-Mother Dark Sun are the Planetary and Lunar Night Powers. Each +Night Power has elected to incarnate into a planetary or lunar physical body. They serve the +noble purpose of giving a home to countless souls. They serve as Father, Mother, and Guardian +to all the souls incarnate thereon. They are beautiful, Magickal Beings of the Night Spirit's +Power. They all embody the Energy of the Night Soul. They all serve to help the progress and +advancement of lesser souls. Think about this; you only live a span of generally less then one +hundred years, but they live a life that is many billions of years long! Thus, you should +recognize them for what they are, and give them your energy as best you can. Each Planetary +and Lunar Night Power has followed a separate and unique magickal evolution, which is ever +ongoing, just as you have. The only thing is, that they have been at it a lot longer then you +have. You find that, just as you are strong in certain inner traits and qualities, so the +Planetary and Lunar Night Beings are. They have embodied certain magickal qualities and +forces from their magickal growth and advancement. These forces and qualities make up +their Inner Nature and are reflected in Their Auras. There is a science that is based upon the +interplay of these forces, and others, on humankind. It is called Astrology. It is based upon +many factors and is a very real science. What you are going to do is study the Inner Nature of +each Planetary and Lunar Night Spirit, and then the Auric effect of that Night Spirit, on you, +when it plays upon you (or others) the strongest. You will begin with the Night Spirit Mercury. + +Perhaps, it is here, that I should interject this bit of information. The names of the Lunar and +Planetary Night Spirits are prefixed with the word Night God or Goddess. This is so, whenever +you refer to them as Magickal Beings in speech, or addressing them in meditation. Although +each Lunar and Planetary Spirit contains a Yin and Yang side their is one aspect that is +predominate just as there is in you. Let's return now to the Night God Mercury. + +Mercury has always been represented as the winged god messenger. You can, indeed, think of +Mercury as the Winged Night Spirit, in the form of a beautiful Silver Hawk. The Hawk is the +symbol of great magickal attainment, and the Night God Mercury has reached those lofty +heights of the Planetary Oversoul. His very core of Being is filled with Night Energy. His +Presence is filled with Oversoul Strength and the Night Power. Yet, His Nature is that of a very +warm Being. He stands as the Rock of the Oversoul upon whom all may build their lives in +confidence. He is sure of His Place in the Drama of Life. His Aura radiates with the Power of +the Night Command and Direction. Thus, He fills your life with Night Direction when you are +open to His Influence. When you are attuned to His Presence and Power, you are filled with the +Presence of Oversoul. You find inner freedom and independence in yourself as the Magickal +Hawk. You find yourself as a seeker of Wisdom, wherever It may be. His Presence quickens +your mental faculties and gives you good memory. You enjoy the pursuit of Wisdom in reading +and writing. His Aura makes you perceptive, studious, and logical. You can be a strong leader +in life. This is the Power of the Night God Mercury in your life. From the Night Spirit Mercury, +you travel to visit with the Night Goddess Venus. + +Venus is a Night Planetary Goddess who is very Warm, Vibrant, and Alive with the Night +Energy. She is filled with the Energy of the Oversoul and the Night Spirit, which She radiates +in Her Aura to all beings. If you were to visualize Her Presence, you would see Her attired in a +flowing, red gown. She has beautiful green eyes, skin that is pale and soft, and Her hair is long, +flowing, and red in color. You find Her a bit Reserved and Mysterious in Nature. She is filled +with the deepest of Compassion for others. You know Her as the Morning Star, the last to say +good-bye. When you bathe in the Presence of Her Aura, your Inner Nature becomes filled with +Energy. She fills you with a vibrancy and warmth for life. She gives to you an artistic nature +and an energy for beauty, art, and music. You become a part of Her Compassion for all of life. +You enjoy being with other people and spreading harmony, peace, and happiness among them. +This is the Power of the Goddess Venus in your life. From here, you move to the next Goddess, +and One whom you call Mother, the Earth. + +The Presence of Mother Earth is a very Commanding One. She has a very strong sense of +Direction and Purpose in Her Life. Yet, you find Her a very Compassionate and Loving +Creature. If you could envision Her Presence, you would find Her arrayed in a beautiful, +emerald green gown and shimmering in the Glory of the Night Spirit's Light. She is a very +Magickal and Elegant Lady. She is very much concerned with life and nature. When filled +with the Presence of Her Nature, you, too, become filled with a concern for life and nature. You +sense the great importance all life and nature plays in your world. You feel very earthy and +strong in the ways of the Earth. You become a part of Her Direction and Purpose in Life. You +become filled with Her Compassion and Concern for all things living. You know the feeling of +true parenthood, just as She does for all of you. This is your Mother and Night Goddess, Earth. +You won't have to go far to meet your next Lunar Night Goddess, the Moon. + +She has been known as Diana, or Artemis, the Goddess of Light and the Moon. She has been +recognized as the Goddess of Fertility. The Moon's Light comes from sun light but she reflects +to the Earth only Yin Light. She is the Great Reflector of the Yin Light into your world. She is +the Giant Mirror through which humankind can see their selves reflected. Thus, She is All- +seeing of the wrong and harm that is done to the beautiful body of the Goddess Earth. As you +meditate upon Her Presence, you see only the All-seeing Eye and the tears that are shed for +humankind. The Goddess Diana is a very Compassionate and Loving Being, who has +constantly seen the wrong and harm caused by humankind. Thus, She is filled with a Great +Sadness over humankind and its doings. When you come strongly under Her Presence, you are +filled with a restlessness and boundless energy to correct those wrongs. She has great control +over your emotional nature and can raise in you the highest of qualities. She makes you +sensitive and intuitive to all things around you. She fills you with great compassion. She gives +you a receptive and imaginative mind. This is the outpouring of the Goddess Diana's Aura on +you. Now, you are off to visit the Night God Mars. + +Man has always envisioned the Night God Mars as a god of war. But the time has passed, when +the Night God Mars may be referred to as such. The Night God Mars, as all the Planetary Night +Spirits, is a Great Being of the Night Spirit and Energy. The problem lies with humankind +itself. The Energies of Mars can either bring humankind to its Highest, or lowest Self, +dependent on the Inner Nature of humankind. Thus, the Energies have always reacted +adversely with the human aura and created a state of war in humankind. Where Mars was, +before, symbolized as a Hawk, now, He shall be symbolized as a Swan. The Swan is a living +symbol of the Oversoul in the Night Spirit. The Night God Mars is a Masculine Night Spirit +who is Young and Energetic. He is Night Courage and Strength. He represents Victory in, and +through, Peace. He is the Fighter and Defender of the Ways of the Night Spirit. He is a very +Wise and Noble Night Spirit. He is a King in All Things. His Aura can raise the highest and +noblest of qualities in humankind. + +He fills you with a energy of liberty, freedom, and independence. He gives to you an Inner +Nature of Night Strength and Courage. You become filled with inner purpose and direction. +You are filled with His Night Energy and thus, are ambitious, aggressive, and straightforward +in all things. You are given a good mind that makes you ingenious and inventive. You are +filled with the Wisdom of the Night God Mars. When you are filled with His Night Energies, you +must always be centered in your Oversoul. You must guard against a lack of patience and +rashness. You must guard against an unruly temper. You must always be filled with the Night +Energy and Light, and thus raise the Energies of the Night God Mars to their Highest in you. +You leave the Night Spirit Mars, and move on to the Goddess Jupiter. +Perhaps this will upset many, but the Goddess Jupiter is predominately a Feminine Night +Spirit. She does have strong Masculine overtones, but She is, nonetheless, a Feminine Night +Spirit. If you could envision Her Presence, you would see Her with very long, flowing, blond +hair. She wears a very radiant dress of blue light. She is a very Magickal and Radiant Goddess. +She is a virtual pool of Explosive Night Energy. She is always ready to go; to be; to do. She is +filled with Night Liberty, Freedom, Justice, and the Eternal Night Balance. She is symbolized +by a Blue Raven of Harmony and Peace. She is a very Refined and Elegant Being. She is very +businesslike in all Her Ways. She brings to you this businesslike attitude. + +She fills you with a very real sense of purpose and direction. She gives you strong convictions. +She give to you an optimistic, confidant, and determined attitude. When you have the Power of +the Goddess Jupiter flowing through strongly, you are very sincere, courteous, pleasant, and +noble person. You are a very refined individual. You value your freedom and independence +very highly. This is the Power of the Goddess Jupiter. You leave Her to visit another of Her +Sisters, the Goddess Saturn. + +As you approach the Aura of the Goddess Saturn, you find Her Awesome, Powerful, and +Creative. She is filled with Great Elegance and Grace. She is a very Mysterious the Goddess of +the Night and Power. She is the Mistress of Time and Space. She is the Taskmaster for those +who would enter the Path towards Night Consciousness. She wears the Silver Crown of the +Oversoul, and holds it for all who attain to the Oversoul. She is a very Stern Goddess, who +demands much from Her Sons and Daughters. Yet, She is filled with Great Compassion and +Energy. Her Very Nature contains Night Tolerance, Patience, and Fortitude. She brings to all +humankind the aspiration to attain unto the Oversoul. + +If Saturn's Aura rules in you then you are very calm, grave, and serious in nature. You are one +who is ready to face the trials and tests of life. You are ready for the great changes and upsets to +come into your life. You are ready, because you are one who strives to become the Oversoul in +all things. There is no greater goal and crown to be won, from the Hands of the Goddess Saturn. +You must take on the Goddess' Qualities of Tolerance, Patience, and Fortitude. You must be +ready for the long, slow climb towards Night Consciousness, for indeed, with these Night +Qualities inside yourself, you can not fail. These are the Powers of the Goddess Saturn, in the +life of those who would be the Oversoul. Let's go onward and meet the Night God Uranus. + +The Inner World of the Night God Uranus is one related to the technology of the world. He is a +very Strong-willed Night God. He has a great feeling for the World of Technology. He is very +thorough in all He undertakes. The Power of His Aura is very far reaching, and is felt strongly +in the world today. He gives to those, who feel His Power, strong originality and independence +of thought. His Power gives the genius and inventor of the world. The inventor is a lover of his +freedom and independence. As with all geniuses and inventors, there is a peculiarity or +strangeness that tends to set them apart from others. It makes them feel as if they are many +years ahead of their time. The Night Spirit Uranus is still very much wrapped up in His Own +Ways and Mysteries, and so it is with the next the Night God Neptune. + +To look into the Inner Nature of the Night God Neptune is very much like looking into the +depths of the oceans. His Inner Nature is extremely Deep and Vast. The Inner Depths of +Neptune conceal many of the Ancient Mysteries that are still to be revealed to humankind. +The Night God Neptune is a very Refined and Noble Planetary Night God. He is filled to the +Depths with Night Strength and Power. He is symbolized by a Trident, with a Blazing Silver +Light atop it. + +He gives to you Inner Strength of Purpose and Direction. He knows who you are; why you are; +and where you're going. He fills you with a sense of Destiny and Purpose in Life. His Aura fills +you with His Night Strength. He gives to you an Energy for the Mysteries. He makes you +intuitive and perceptive to the Night Force. To those in whom the Power of the Night God +Neptune flows strongest, He gives the Energy of the Seas and Oceans. It is best, for this one, to +live close to large bodies of water. This is the Power of the Night God Neptune. Your last stop is +to visit the Night Goddess/God Pluto. In the Night God Pluto, the Forces of Masculinity and +Femininity are in equal balance. The Night God is neither more feminine or more masculine, +but finds a balance in both. In the Night God Pluto, you find the Knowledge of the Night. S/he +is filled with Night Life, Light, and Speed. S/he is the Guardian of the Night Age. S/he is the +Harbinger of the Age of the Eternal Night. S/he is the First One to see and understand the New +Horizons that lie before humankind. S/he is symbolized by the Equilateral Triangle ablaze in +Green Cold Fire. She is filled with a New Night Power for the Yin System and it is called Cold +Fire. It represents a new form of Night Power and Strength, and when magickally invoked, +feels both cool and warm. Its Power has yet to be fully understood and used in this world. The +Night Goddess/God Pluto represents, in humankind, the dying of the material concerns and +the birth of the magickal way of life. S/he will fill humankind with a new power and energy +that will bring about new ways of life. If the Powers of the Night Goddess/God Pluto flow +strongest in you, you will find yourself standing atop the Mountain of the Night God, holding +aloft the Blazing Night Energy of Your Own Divinity. In the Night Goddess/God Pluto, you find +the New Human. This is the Human of the Night Age, the Aquarian Age, the return to a +Magickal Way of Life. + +You found that Dark Stars, Planets, and Moons are Conscious, Sentient Beings of the Night +Power and Energy. You found that in some ways they differ as much as humans differ from +each other. May you find in knowing the Planetary Night Goddess/Gods and the Goddess +Diana, greater understanding about yourself, your future, and your relation to the Universe +around you. You leave the Magickal-Material Universe of the Planetary and Lunar +Goddess/Gods and enter into the Magickal Realm of the Night Teachers. + +43. The Night Guild + +You will recall, for a moment, that in the beginning of the book, I stated then, while discussing +the Night Teachers, that I would return to them later and go into greater depth and detail. +Therefore, I have donated this topic to the in-depth examination of the Night Teachers in their +realm. I discussed earlier in the book, the realm in which they live. + +You will remember that the Night Realm (Causal Realm) was the home of the Perfected Night +Magician. This is the region of the Night Teachers, the Perfected Humankind. Yet, the Night +Teachers also work and reside in the lower dimensions. You will recall that the Night Guild is +the organization dedicated to the service of the Will of the Night Spirit. It is dedicated to using +the Power, Wisdom, and Energy of the Night Spirit in whatever way is required to further +promote that Will. The membership of the Night Guild is as vast and varied as the stars that +make up the Universe. There are members that work in Realms and Spheres of Light and +Energy far beyond your imagination. I spoke in the last topic, of those members who are the +Night and Planetary Night Spirits. These are the Great Beings that are the Night Spirit and +Life of the planets and suns of the Dark Sun system. There are even Magickal Beings who are +on an even higher magickal level then these Great Ones. What you will become the most +familiar with, and your interest lies with in this topic, are those Great Ones who are the Night +Teachers. + +The Night Teachers, as you will remember, are those members who work directly with the +magickal evolution and progress of Earth and its inhabitants. What kind of Beings are they +really? Well, they are in reality very much like you. They are like you because they have +walked the same roads that you walk. Many have lived before on Earth facing the same trials +and testings you face each day. They have lived many lives and finally overcome the cycle of +life and death on Earth. They are free of all Earthly karma. They are the Elder Brothers and +Sisters of Earth. +In the Night Guild are the Invisible Directors and Governors of the countries, states, provinces, +and large cities on Earth. There is a Guild Member for each of these geographical regions, and a +World Director over all of them and the planet. The World Director is Germain. His last +incarnation on Earth was as the Comte de Sainte-Germain. There are many other offices held +within the Invisible Government. I cannot give you their names nor regions that they rule +over because they are too busy dealing with the world and its population and problems to +actually teach. You should not call upon the World Director or any of his hierarchy. They +serve only the indwelling Night Presence of the Planet and would find any interruption or +disturbance troubling. What does concern you is a branch of the Invisible Government that +does deal with you directly. This is the office of the World Teacher. + The office of World Teacher is currently held by the Night Teacher Merlin. It is His task to +plan the magickal education of the inhabitants of Earth. If it is necessary to establish a new +teaching then one of their own members is selected to establish it. The World Teacher may +elect to go into the world or may select an apprentice to go. This is indeed a great honor for the +apprentice so selected. The members of the Night Guild who work under the direction of the +World Teacher are the Night Teachers. You will recall that the Night Teachers deal directly +with those who have traveled far enough on the Night Road and truly want to become Night +Magicians. Let's have a quick review of the relationship between the Teacher and apprentice. + +You will remember that the initial contact between yourself and the Teacher is very minimal. +This contact only comes about when you have been accepted on the road of Night Magick. In +time, and with self-perseverance, the relationship between yourself and the Night Teacher +deepens, until you become the Teacher's apprentice. Then you come under Her/His direct +supervision and instruction. You become as Mother/Father and Daughter/Son. Yet, you ask +yourself the same question, who is your Night Teacher? + +To answer this questions, leads you to the Seven Forces of Life. The Seven Forces of Life are the +seven basic types of forces, characteristics, and vibrations that can be found in life. There are +seven basic types of people, and within their Inner Nature, these Seven Forces can be seen at +work. For each type of person, there is one of the Forces that strongly predominates over the +others. The Seven Forces of Life are the seven predominate ways that a person may find +expression in life. In you, there is a predominate Force and characteristic that makes up your +Inner Nature, and it is through expression of this trait in life, that you find satisfaction and +happiness. You would even find this true for the Night Teachers. They find predominate +expression through one of the Seven Forces of Life. The Night Teachers have achieved, though, +perfection and mastery in each of the Seven Forces, and have the seven basic characteristics +balanced evenly within their Inner Nature. Yet you will find that One Force and characteristic +is predominate over the others. It is from this Dominant Force that the Night Teachers choose +Their students and apprentices. The Night Teacher chooses Their apprentice based upon like +vibration. The Teacher and apprentice can be found traveling the same road of expression in +life. The Teacher and apprentice are on One of the Seven Forces of Life. This is the +predominate Force and drive of their lives. As I said earlier, there is a Night Teacher who is +the Channel and Focus for each of the Seven Forces. You will find in Her/Him the Supreme +Perfection and Expression of the Force. They are the Gateway for the Force from out of the +Infinite, into the finite. We will call Her/Him the "Keeper of the Force", and shorten it to +"Keeper". There are seven Keepers, and they are each Teachers of apprentices. There are also +many Teachers who do not function as Keepers, but nonetheless, receive apprentices based +upon the Force predominate in both their lives. The real key, in the selection of the +apprentice, is harmony between both the Teacher and the student. Let's examine the Seven +Forces of Life, and their Keepers, and then meet a few other Teachers of the Night Realm. You +will begin, then, with the First Force. + +The First Force is the Will and Power of the Night Spirit. You find it, exemplified and exalted, +in the personage of its Keeper, Asmodeus. The Keeper Asmodeus is a Night Teacher in whom +flows the True Power of the Night Spirit, under the Direction of the Magickal Will. He is a stern +but kindly Teacher, asking only the very best from His apprentices. If He were to appear, in +person, to an apprentice, He would appear in an Indian attire, that is, turban and robe +complete. To be His apprentice will require the strongest of will to persevere through all trials +and testings. The apprentice, in whom the First Force dominates, is a self-ruler. The +apprentice prefers to have self-rule and independence over their life. The worst thing, the +apprentice feels could happen is to have to work for another. This would be pure misery. They +are the kind of individual, who takes the initiative and sets the course. They are of strong will +and the ruler in life. They will make the queen/king, statesperson, or governor of the physical +world. They will seek freedom through mastery over self and the world around them. This is +the way of the Teachers and apprentices of the First Force of Night Power and Will. + +The Second Force is the Wisdom of the Night Spirit. It finds a special place in the Being of its +Keeper, Kali. In appearance, to Her apprentices, She appears as an Indian (India). She is a very +kind and loving Teacher. She helps bring to Her students, the perfect example of Night +Consciousness. As a Magickal Teacher, She tries to help Her students grow in magick and +expand their Inner Vision, so that they can see things as She sees them, and understand things +as She understands them, and above all, to have the Wisdom of the Night Spirit to respond to +things as She would respond to them. Her expressed desire is to see Her apprentices take flight, +on their own, into the Night Realm, and soar as the Great Magickal Owl. + +The apprentice of the Second Force is the student of life. They are the kind of person who will +learn by studying all of life around them. They will gain their freedom from life and death on +Earth, by observing and learning from all that goes on around them. This is how they will +gain illumination and enlightenment, and soar into the Night Realm. They are the +philosopher and poet. These are the Teachers and apprentices of the Second Force of Night +Wisdom. + +The Third Force is the Energy of the Night Spirit. There is no one, who could better embody +this Force, then its Keeper, Baal. As a Magickal Teacher, He seeks to impart to His apprentices, +an Energy that is unknown in the world. An Energy that is purely and wholly of the Night +Spirit. He teaches of an Energy that is totally impartial and a balm to heal all wounds. His +guidance sets the apprentice free of any limitations. He teaches the apprentice to be free of +dependance upon another's judgment, and above all, another's will. + +The apprentice is the true disciple of the Night. The apprentice gives their all in energy to the +Night. They see no differences in the races of humankind but know them all as the Children of +the Night Spirit. They are totally devoted to bringing all the world back under the Night Spirit. +To returning the world back to Yin. This is the way of the Teachers and apprentices in the +Third Force of Night Energy. + +The Fourth Force is the crossroad of the Night Forces of Life. You have seen that the first Three +Forces, and the way that they are expressed in life, are wholly that of the Night Spirit. They +have their center of expression in the Magickal. As you will see shortly, the last three have +their expression and unfoldment on the material plane. The Fourth Force is, therefore, +referred to as the Crossroad of the Night Forces. It is the Force of Balance, Dignity, and Purity. + +This Force finds its expression through the Mighty Keeper, Lilith. She is a very stern Teacher, +but at the same time, has a very warm and loving sense of humor. She is very demanding of +Her apprentices to always do their best, and pushes them hard in all they do. Under Her +tutelage, the apprentice cannot fail but to grow magickally. Her Presence is very powerful and +noble, and once She visits Her apprentices, they will never forget Her. + +The apprentice of the Fourth Force always tries to achieve balance in all they undertake. They +are the excellent arbitrator. They have the wonderful ability to see all the sides of an issue. +The only problem, here, is that the apprentice can be faced with indecision because of this very +ability. Therefore, it is very necessary for the apprentice, no matter the Life Force they're on, to +develop all of the Forces to the greatest degree of perfection and balance possible. The +apprentice seeks freedom through the perfection and purity of their Inner Nature and the outer +world. It is their way, to achieve perfection, through the balance of both the magickal and +physical worlds. This is the way of the Teachers and apprentices in the Fourth Force of Night +Balance, Dignity, and Purity. + +The Fifth Force is that of Knowledge. The Keeper of the Fifth Force is Dagon. This Force finds +itself in great expression throughout the world. The Keeper Dagon instructs the apprentice in +the ways of knowledge that are to be found in the deep study of the ways and laws of nature. He +teaches that it is through the study of the Earth, and the learning and understanding of its +concealed knowledge, that you as an apprentice can find your Inner Freedom. The Keeper +Dagon is a mighty Teacher and whose ways follow very closely to those of Nature. If you want +to know more about His Nature, then you must study that of the Earth's. +The apprentice of the Fifth Force seeks to find knowledge in the world. The problem is that +many students become lost in the seeming rigidity of Earth science. The ordinary person of +this Force is your scientist of today. But, the apprentices of this Force must go beyond what +seems the scientific knowledge of today. They must study the ways of the Earth and all of +nature, and from that study will come their Inner Freedom and Night Consciousness. This is +the way of the Fifth Force and its Teachers and apprentices. + +The Sixth Force is the return to the Way of Energy. The Sixth Force is that of Devotion to the +Night Spirit. This is a very powerful Force and is embodied in its Keeper, Lucifer. The Keeper +Lucifer teaches the Force of Devotion to His apprentices. He brings into their being the true and +burning feeling of Devotion to the Night Spirit. He conveys, into their world of feeling, the +devotion necessary to complete the journey to their Oversoul. He brings, to their Inner Vision, +the energy and power that is behind everything in the world of nature and form. He shows +them the power and energy that is behind all things, which is the Night Spirit. The Keeper +Lucifer is a very Radiant and Magnificent Being. He is filled with an Inner Yin Light and +Radiance that comes from the Exalted Devotion found within Him. He is a very patient +Teacher as are all the Teachers of the Night. The Keeper of the Sixth Force has a true +understanding of all His apprentices. + +The devotion practiced by the apprentices allow them to find happiness in all that happens to +them in life. They except all that comes into their world knowing that, whether it seems good +or bad at the time, that it is all for their magickal growth. They have true belief and trust in the +Night Spirit. They know that all their needs will be met through the agency of the Night Spirit. +This is the Sixth Force of Devotion to the Night Spirit and its Teachers and apprentices. + +The Seventh Force is founded in creativeness through the Night Spirit. The Seventh Force is +the Beauty and Action of the Night Spirit. This Force is found in rare and exalted form in its +Keeper, Hecate. The Keeper Hecate imparts to Her apprentices the Energy and Beauty that is +found in all of the Night Spirit's Creation. She teaches them how to create using the Power and +Will of the Night Spirit. She makes of them Magickal Channels for the Creative Power of the +Night Spirit to flow through. She shows them that within all of the Night Spirit's Creation, +flows Its Night Spirit, Beauty, Power, Will, and Action. She is a very beautiful and wise +Teacher. She finds in all of Her apprentices the Magickal Beauty and Action being expressed. +She helps all Her apprentices to find within them the Touch of the Magickal Artist. + +You see, then, the type of apprentices found under the Seventh Force of Beauty and Action in +the Night Spirit. The apprentices of the Seventh Force are very sensitive and refined +individuals. They are the artists and artisans of life. Through them flows the Creative Power +and Will of the Night Spirit, and by the action of their steady minds, feelings, and hands, +which are in tune to this Power, come the rare forms of creativity to the world. The +apprentices truly worship the Night Spirit in nature. They find in the power and beauty of +nature, their Inner Self. There is no greater communion that can be found by them, then that +within the Night Spirit found in nature. The apprentices are able to look upon the beauty and +power of a sunset over the ocean, a wooded landscape, or mountainous scene, and feel, absorb, +and become that very power and beauty. They can even go further, by expressing that very +essence of the Night Spirit in painting, sculpturing, composing, writing, or craftsmanship. +The apprentices, through their talents, can bring to others the power and beauty they feel +which is captured in a work of art. The Seventh Force has also been said to find expression in +the rite or ceremony. + +It doesn't matter whether that rite be of a magickal nature, or that of the coronation of a +Queen/King, all rites are rooted in the Seventh Force of Beauty and Action of the Night Spirit. +For example, let's look at any rite that can be found in this book. What do you see? + +In each rite, you find that all the acts in combination with each other form a true creation of +art and beauty. The acts, gestures, and movements of the Night Magicians officiating and +participating are very graceful and add to the overall picture being painted. You have incense, +candles, altar cloth, background draperies perhaps, pictures of your favorite Teachers, and +music in the background. You then have the majestic and beautiful words of the invocation +added to the whole. The sum of all these different things add up to a beautiful and majestic +work of creation. Thus, you find many apprentices who are of the Seventh Force involved in +rites. They obtain to great magickal heights through the instrument of the rite, whether they +are the participant or officiant. This is the Seventh Force of Beauty and Action of the Night +Spirit and its Teachers and apprentices. You have now examined the Seven Forces of Life and +the Keeper of each of those Forces. Let's look, for a moment, at a few of the Night Teachers not +yet mentioned. + +Of the First Force we have Azazel, Leviathan, Santanas, and Amon. Of the Second Force we +have Lucifuge Rofocale, Belial, and Azael. +Of the Third Force we have Endor, Abraxas, and Balan. Of the Fourth Force we have Astaroth, +Nisroch, and Bensozia. Of the Fifth Force we have Agares, John Dee, Bifrons, Belphegor, and +Alocer. Of the Sixth Force we have Moloch, Astartes, and Marie Laveau. Of the Seventh Force +we have Aleister Crowley, Armida, Cagliostro, Baphomet, and Eliphas Levi. +This is only a sampling of the many Night Teachers of the Seven Night Forces. If any of these +names happen to appeal to you in that special inner way then perhaps they are your Teacher. +Or you may have one who is not listed here. Then through meditation, Astral or Mental +Projection, or in some other manner you will come to know your Night Teacher. I assure you +that when the time is right you will become an apprentice of a Night Teacher. Remember, to +always study and work with the Night Teachers. You must always include them in the ways +and activities of your life. You are a member of the Night Guild, when you have entered upon +the Night Road and aid the Night Teachers in the magickal evolution of life on Earth. To aid +the Night Teachers you must learn to use the Night Powers. + +44. Night Powers + +Inherent within you lie the dormant Powers of the Oversoul and Creation. You can actualize +these Powers when you have realized the Oversoul within you. I intend to discuss some of the +Powers of the Oversoul that are at your disposal. Some of the Powers that you will discover are +levitation, vibrational change, invisibility, weather control, and the list goes on. Some of +these Powers may already seem incredible to you, but really they are just the outpouring of the +Oversoul's Power through you, when you live in Its Consciousness and by Its Will. All the +things that you have been studying and practicing have been preparing you for this day when +you would put these Powers and Knowledge into use. When you use these Powers, you must +always use them under the Direction of your Oversoul. If you are ready to use these Powers of +the Oversoul then let's begin with the first Power of Unlimited Thought Control. + +This may not sound like a specific Power but, indeed, it is. This is a very special concept of +awareness that will unleash for you Powers untold. It is virtually the key to the Universe of +Life. If you will stop reading for a moment, and look around the room, do you note anything +out of the ordinary? For most the answer would be No. Yet, under the special awareness you +are going to acquire the room around you is a very special place as is all creation. The room is +the way it is because your thoughts keep it just the way you have always pictured it. You have +become very conditioned in life to see material things as concrete and solid. The chair is a +chair and nothing will change that, you think! But let's stop again and see what really a chair +is. + +The chair is an aggregate or collection of molecules which are very dense and specifically +arranged to form the chair. The chair has wood, cloth, and metal molecules that make up its +physical structure. Suppose now, that a very hot fire came along and destroyed the chair, what +has really happened to the chair? Well, the fire so accelerated the molecules and released the +energy that binds all the molecules together, that it has transformed some of the molecules to +ash and the others have been set free into the atmosphere. They are now particles, so widely +scattered, that they can no longer be seen in the form of a chair. Is there anything else that +could do this to the chair? Yes indeed, your very thoughts could do the same to the molecules of +the chair. This is that very special state of awareness that I was discussing earlier. Your +thoughts help chain the molecules together to form what you think of as a chair. You see, feel, +and know that this is a chair and that is all it is. But if you use your Oversoul Awareness and +Thought, you can release the energy that binds the molecules of the chair into its physical +form, and then it will no longer be a chair. You, then, can release the molecules back into the +atmosphere, remold the molecules into some other form, or rebind them into its original +form. There is a much greater use of the First Power. You could use this Power on your own +physical structure. Any ideas on what would happen? Remember, that your physical body is +just a repository for your emotions and consciousness. You are not the body, but Pure +Oversoul Awareness and Thought. If you release the thoughts that bind the physical body into +its material form, then it would become formless. Yet your consciousness has complete +control of all the physical molecules. You would be aware of your body as a million pinpoints +of light. If you desire to go anywhere, at anytime, all you have to do is think of that time and +place and you would be there. To regain your material form, all you have to do is release the +thought that unleashed the binding power of the molecules. This is perhaps the most +important concept you will ever learn. It is the essence of many of the other Powers that you +will learn. The concept, therefore, bears repeating. + +It is your thoughts that literally bind you to limitation and the material world. If you unleash +the thoughts that bind your physical structure, or anything in your world, you become +formless and free of any physical restrictions. Through this Power, you will have total control +over your physical form or any material thing. If you unleash the material thoughts that bind +you to anything, and replace it with the Oversoul Thought, then you become unlimited and +free. +The Second Power is like the first, and it is Vibrational Control over all that is. Imagine for a +moment that you have been caught in a building that is on fire and you cannot get out, what are +you going to do? You are going to use the Second Power of Vibrational Control and walk +through the fire unharmed. That's right! You are going to walk right through the fire, and it +will never hurt you. It really is not so incredible as it may seem. The fire has a high +vibrational rate and energy. The molecules around you are in a very high state of agitation +and are combining with oxygen, giving off heat, flame, and light. If you can raise the +vibrational rate of your physical body to a very high rate, higher then that of the fire, through +the Oversoul Awareness and Thought, then you will go unharmed by the fire. You can do this +not only for your physical body but for anything you desire to change the vibrational rate of. +Further, you not only can raise the vibrational rate but you can also lower the rate of vibration +in all things. + +This leads you into the Third Power of Invisibility. The first thing that comes to your mind, +when you think of invisibility, is the legends of the invisible man. It is true, though, that you +can become invisible. Not only can you become invisible, but you can create invisibility in +anything. There are two ways of doing this, and the first uses the power just discussed of +vibrational control. + +If you raise the vibrational rate of the entity high enough, the molecules will vibrate at such an +extremely high rate that light will simply pass through them and, so, you have invisibility. It +is only when light can fall on a sufficiently dense article, and be reflected off of it, that it can be +seen. This is the first type of invisibility. The second revolves around the absence of thought. + +The second type will allow you to remain physically solid, yet invisible to others. When you +emit thought from your mind, you have learned that this is an energy which all are sensitive +to. It is your thoughts that make you visible to others. So to achieve invisibility, you must +erect a shield that completely encloses you and that will not permit any thought energy to +escape. You do this by visualizing the Oversoul Energy completely surrounding and inclosing +you. You then project, into this Oversoul Energy Screen, with Oversoul Thought, the Power +that all your thoughts will remain enclosed within this capsule, and so you will be invisible. +For a moment, let's change pace and look at something that may be causing many of you some +trouble, and that is what I mean by the Oversoul Awareness, Thought, Energy, and other terms +used in relation to the Oversoul. + +If you are to put this topic to successful use in your life, then you must understand something +very basic to Night Magick. You are the Oversoul! If you can't understand this very simple +concept, then you should go back and read topics six and seven. For it is only when you truly +know that you are the Oversoul in Power, Energy, and Consciousness, that you will accomplish +anything in this current topic. When I speak of Oversoul Awareness, you know yourself as the +Oversoul in Consciousness and Power. You know, that you have the full use of Its +Consciousness and Power for it is your consciousness and power. There is no difference, or +separation, between yourself and the Oversoul. You are One in All Things. Study, learn, and +know this to the Inner Depths of Your Being and you have mastered all. + +Let's resume, now, with the Fourth Power of Multiple Being. The concept of this may seem +difficult, but study and try to follow along. When I speak of multiple being, I speak of having +your physical presence in more then one place, at the same time. The key word, here, is +physical. You can do this in several ways. To begin with, you can separate your Astral Body, +from your physical form, and retain consciousness in both. Then, you can lower the +vibrational rate of the Astral Body till it can be seen and touched. To be in even more places, +you can build a copy of your physical form, out of the Oversoul Energy, and again condense and +lower the Energy Form until it can be seen and felt. Then, you will place your consciousness in +control of it, and use it as you would use your own physical body. There is no limit to the +number of the Oversoul Energy forms you can make. You must keep control over each form +and sustain it with your Oversoul Energy and Consciousness. Either you maintain complete +Oversoul Control and Consciousness over each form, or they will return to the Eternal +Darkness. The Fifth Power is that of Levitation. You know the physical law on Earth that +"opposites attract". You have also seen the experiment whereby you take two magnets and +place the like ends, that is either both North or South ends of the magnets, facing each other, +they will repel each other. The Earth has a certain polarity, and you have a certain polarity, +which keep you both together. If you can reverse your polarity such that it is the same as the +Earth, then you will be repelled by the Earth and so, levitate above it. To accomplish this +requires a combination of Night Breathing and the drawing upon, and application of the +Earth's Energy around and through your body. There is an easier way of doing levitation. If +you use the Power of Vibrational Control and slowly raise the vibrational rate of the molecules +of your body, the body will become like the sky. The body will become very light and float +above the Earth. You can direct your movement and height by Oversoul Thought. Remember +though, that the body is still subject to lack of oxygen and the cold of extreme heights. This is +Levitation. + +The Sixth Power is that of Weather Control. In order to understand how to control the +weather, you must understand the Powers behind the weather. These Powers have been known +by some as Nature Souls, Elves, Fairies, or Elementals. They are in almost all legends of every +country in the world. They are behind everything that is in Mother Earth's Realm. There are +Nature Souls of the Earth, ranging from small ones over the flowers and plants to those Great +and powerful ones over the mountains. There are Nature Souls over the waters, again ranging +from the small ones of brooks to the great Kings and Queens of the Oceans. There are those who +are responsible over the Magickal Energies of the Earth and the elements of fire. The ones who +are responsible for your weather can be found in charge of the air. There are elementals who +guide the rains. The great ones are responsible for the great winds and their directions. It is +they, in combination with each other, that create the various weather patterns. If you are +going to control the weather, then you must solicit the help of the air Nature Souls. The secret +to gaining the aid of the Air Spirits and all Spirits is to know that they obey the Oversoul. +Thus, when you ask for a specific weather condition, you must do so as the Oversoul on Earth. +Remember, that you are responsible for whatever you ask for. If you ask for sunny and bright +days, then that is what you will get, but if rain was originally planned, then you must +remember to set aside a period for this to occur, too. If you want a day or two of good weather +then fine, but then you should turn over the controls of the weather back to Mother Earth and +the Air Spirits, or you will cause grave harm that you will be responsible for. + +The Seventh Power is that of Knowing the essence of all things with or without form. This is a +very important Power, or concept, that will unfold for you many Powers that lie within your +Oversoul Being. The first essential key to achieving this Power is the mastery of meditation. +In meditation, you began learning to concentrate on a particular subject and its true essence. +You tried to come to know a particular subject as best as you could. You wanted to learn its very +nature and feel that nature within you. Now you are going to take this concept or Power to its +Nth degree. For example, you are going to examine a tree. You will begin by meditating on the +tree. You will study its outer form and the way it moves and behaves, but then you are going to +go much farther. You are going to go on and feel what it is to be a tree. You are going to come to +know, and feel yourself as a tree. You will feel the wind blowing through your limbs and +leaves. To feel the warm sun as it shines upon you and gives you new life. To feel the Earth +below you and your roots sunk deep into it, pulling up water and nourishment to help you grow. +To go back into your memories and remember what it was like to be a seedling, and the first +feel of the sun and rain upon your newly risen face. You are going to become the Tree in all its +eternal essence of life. There will be nothing that you will not know about the Tree. You will +come to know its beginning and ending. You will come to know, and be, the sum of the Tree. +You will go on and develop this Power not only for animate things, but inanimate objects. +Then, you will also develop it for things without form, such as the sky and energy. +If you achieve all of this, then you are ready to attempt the Eighth Power of Great Personal +Strength. Here, you are going to activate the Seventh Power on the great beings of strength. +This would include the elephant, whale, and bear. You are going to become all that they are, +but you will specifically come to know them for their great personal strength. Then, you are +going to absorb that physical power within your own being. If you have done this correctly and +completely, you will have the physical power of these animals as long as you remain under the +Seventh Power. + +This also gives you the Ninth Power of Great Personal Speed. If you will use the seventh Power +on the deer, elk, and gazelle, you will again become all they are in personal speed. You will be +able to move across land with their terrific speed. There are so many things that you can use +the Seventh Power for, that will bring to you added knowledge and wisdom. + +If you study, intensely, the World of Form and its relation in Time and Space, you will find +that you can move along its line of history, either forward or backward. You know that time is +only a relative thing. You have experienced, in Astral and Mental Projection, that what +seemed only a few moments in those realms actually was hours here on Earth. If you truly +come to know Creation, Time, and Space as the Oversoul sees them, then you will be able to +know both the past and future. You must become their essence. If you study the essence of +another person, and become all that s/he is in essence, then you will know all there is to know +of her/him. The very essence of any person is found in the Oversoul. + +If you study the Essence of your own Oversoul, it would be the same as studying the person in +question. For in your own Oversoul, is the Oversoul of the person, and within the Oversoul of +the person is locked all that s/he was, is, and ever will be. If you study your own Eternal +Essence, you will come to know many things. Your Eternal Essence can reveal to you your past +lives. It can unfold for you why you came down here. By studying why you came here, and the +things that you must clear up, you can come to know the time of your own passing from this +Earth. By studying the Eternal Essence of your Oversoul, with the application of the Seventh +Power, there is nothing that you will not know. All the Powers of the Oversoul will become +yours, when you have become the total essence of that which you study, the Eternal Essence. +There will be no other Powers to search for, since you will have become the Power Itself. Yet +there will always be the unveiling and unfolding of the Powers of the Oversoul within you as +you climb towards the Eternal Night. In addition to learning and using the Night Powers you +must also learn to use the Night Flames. + +45. Night Flames + +And the Night Flames blazed before the Living Throne of the Eternal Darkness, who are a part +of Its Living Night Spirit, and by Its Will the Flames went forth into formless matter and there +was Creation. + +These are the Night Flames that you are about to study and use. As the Night Flames are a part +of the Eternal Night, so they are a part of your Oversoul. As with the Night Powers, when you +live in the Consciousness and Will of your Oversoul, so you too may use and create with the +Night Flames. You are going to study the general nature and use of the Night Flames, and then +examine each Night Flame individually. Finally, I will discuss how you can invoke the Night +Flames and use them in your world. If you are ready, let's begin your general instruction of the +Night Flames. + +The Night Flames you will be studying are the Black, Violet, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red, +Silver, and Rainbow Flames. You may have noticed right away that the majority of the Night +Flames are named after a type of color. If you will review some information about colors, for a +moment, you will see the difference. + +You will remember that light is a type of energy. Colors were a product of light. The energy of +colors was of a passive nature, and was effective by inducing a sympathetic reaction on what +they were used. Night Flames have their origin in the Eternal Darkness. You will find that the +use of the Night Flames is a very active process. The Night Flames are very active energies, +which cause a change to take place according to the nature of the Night Flame. The Night +Flames are effective in changing people and the world. There are many other uses for the Night +Flames, and their discussion will be reserved to the study of each individual Night Flame. +Each Night Flame has its particular properties and uses. Therefore, let's begin by studying the +first Night Flame, the Black Flame. + +The Black Flame of the Oversoul brings into the world the Purity and Perfection of the Night. +If you wish to create the conditions of purity and perfection in a person or world condition, you +can do so with this Flame. For example, if you find that there is a state of imperfection +existing in something or someone, that needs help in being erased, this would be the Flame to +use. If you find a Yang condition or person using the Yang energy then this Flame will change +the balance to the Night. By using this Flame you can maintain the Eternal Night Balance. +This is the Black Flame. + +The second is the Violet Flame of Transmutation. The Violet Flame is the Flame of +Transmutation or Change. The Violet Flame transmutes Yang energy back into Pure Night +Energy. If you look at yourself, for example, what kind of person is it you see at the end of the +day? You find a person who has been saturated in the Yang energy of the world. People and +conditions have constantly, throughout the day, been filling your world with harmful energy. +You feel irritable, nervous, angry, run-down, and a host of other Yang conditions. The Violet +Flame can change all this. You can apply this energy to your own world, or to those of others, +and completely transmute the Yang energy into Yin. You will restore your Night Self and feel a +true sense of buoyancy and upliftment. By using this Violet Flame, on yourself, you will be +able to have a greater flow of the Oversoul Energy through you. You will have eliminated the +energy which blocks the natural flow of the Oversoul Energy into your world. It is good to use +this Violet Flame first, before using any of the other Night Flames. Use this Flame, always in +conjunction with the Night Pillar. This is the Violet Flame. + +The next Night Flame is the Blue Flame. The Blue Flame creates harmony and peace in all +people and conditions. If there is any lack of harmony or peace, either in a person or +condition, then you can use the Blue Flame to change all that. You could use the Blue Flame on +unhappy marriages. You could use it on unhappy business partners or between unhappy firms. +The uses are only limited by the extent of your imagination. Remember though, that the use of +the Blue Flame may not be the only Flame needed in a situation to bring about lasting change. +One or more Flames, used in conjunction with each other, may be necessary to cure all the +problems and create a final and lasting change. This is the Blue Flame. + +The fourth Night Flame is the Green Flame. The Green Flame is the Flame of Healing. You will +use it extensively in the Healing Topic that soon follows. It is the way of the Oversoul Healing. +It brings about the healing of all people and conditions. The healing of people is easy for you to +understand, but what is the healing of conditions? There are many conditions which need the +healing power of the Green Flame. The Green Flame can heal the broken heart. It doesn't +matter whether its broken through the loss of a love one through transition into the next +world, or an unhappy love affair. The Green Flame can heal the pain or sorrow of a nation +over some unhappy event. The Green Flame not only mends the body but also the heart. This +is the Green Flame of Healing. + +The fifth is the Yellow Flame of Wisdom and Intelligence. The Yellow Flame of Wisdom and +Intelligence is a very powerful energy. It can bring to you the Wisdom necessary to see through +a decision that has to be made. The application of the Yellow Flame can raise your Magickal +Consciousness to the highest of heights so that you may perceive Magickal Knowledge. A +person cannot lie under the Power of the Yellow Flame. The Yellow Flame can increase the +power of your intellect and improve your memory. This is the Yellow Flame. + +The sixth Night Flame that you will study is the Orange Flame. The Orange Flame produces +energy into the substance it is used on. If you need an energy pickup this is a good Flame. If a +situation is moving slowly in your life then use the Orange Flame. The Orange Flame is heavy +with Yang energy so be careful and not get burnt by using it. + +The seventh Night Flame is the Red Flame. The Red Flame is an intense form of the Orange +Flame. You will have to be careful in its use for it can cause extreme nervousness and +irritability if used too much. The Red Flame can remove depressing situations or emotions. +The Red Flame can speed up the process of healing in the human body. + +The eighth Night Flame is the Silver Flame. The Silver Flame will purify the subconscious +world. It will keep the subconscious in the Yin Flow. The Silver Flame is good for +counteracting too much Yang Energy. The Silver Flame is good for healing sunburn or if your +ever burnt by Yang Energy. + +The ninth and final Night Flame is the Rainbow Flame. The Rainbow Flame does not really +exist in Creation of its own. It is a composite of all the Flames together. The Rainbow Flame is +created by you acting as the Oversoul on Earth. It is through your Power and Will as the +Oversoul on Earth, acting as the Creator, that you bring the Rainbow Flame into the world. +The use of this Flame should be obvious. The Flame is something of a Universal Cure-all. If +you are in doubt about which Flame to use, or the situation seems to require a majority of all +the Flames together, the Rainbow Flame is the answer. It will require your all to hold all the +Flames together in order that they act as the Rainbow Flame. It will require the Night +Magician, in Night Consciousness, to create, hold, and use the Rainbow Flame on Earth. You +must remember then, that because this Flame does not exist of its own, that it may have less +power then the other Night Flames depending on you. + +This is all the Night Flames that I will present in this topic. There are more but their use in the +world is restricted. I have discussed the Night Flames in general, and individually, now it is +time to teach you how to invoke and wield them. + +Before you ever use the Night Flames, you should give very careful consideration as to exactly +what is the right type of Night Flame necessary to do the job. The Night Flames must be +invoked through the Presence of the Oversoul. The Oversoul is the channel through which the +Night Flames pass. Therefore, you must be in the highest state of Night Consciousness possible +in order to invoke these Flames into the material world. You should be prepared bodily, +emotionally, and mentally as you would for anything you do in Night Magick. You must be +prepared magickally, by reaching the greatest state of Oneness with your Oversoul. The +quality and quantity of the individual Night Flame you wish to invoke into this world, is +based directly on your self-preparation. As you are able to reach farther and higher into Night +Consciousness, so will the quantity and strength of the Night Flame increase. You must +invoke and use the Night Flames often, if they are to achieve the desired results. Now, let's get +down to the specifics on how to invoke the Night Flames. + +I will use the invoking of the Black Flame as an example. The invoking of the other Night +Flames is similar, and requires the same basic procedures as outlined here. To begin with, you +need to be in the highest state of Night Consciousness possible. Thus, you will begin with a +period of meditation on your Oversoul. When you are ready, redirect the focus of your +meditation from your Oversoul to the Black Flame. When you feel the highest of heights, in +Night Consciousness, and have come to know the Black Flame of Purity and Perfection of the +Oversoul, then you are ready to begin the invocation or invoking of the Flame. You should +have already prepared your Magician's Study and your Night Altar. Standing before the Night +Altar, you begin by seeing yourself as the Oversoul on Earth and robed in blazing Yin Energy. +You invoke the Great Black Flame by saying: + +"By the Presence of the Oversoul within me I am invoking the Great Black Flame of the +Oversoul's Purity and Perfection through me. I AM seeing this Black Flame descending from +above and filling my being with Its Essence and Power. I AM then placing it here before me on +the Altar of the Night, there to collect and concentrate into a blazing Night Black Flame. Now, +oh blazing Night Black Flame, I AM commanding thee by the Power of the Presence of the +Oversoul in me, to obey my Will as the Oversoul on Earth." + +This is your invocation through which you invoke or draw into your world the Black Flame. +Invocations for the other Night Flames are found in Appendix A. Thus, you should have +envisioned the blazing Black Flame, descending out of the Oversoul and into your mortal +form. Then, you should have directed the Black Flame through your heart Night Center and +out onto the Night Altar. There, you collect and intensify Its Presence into a blazing Black +Flame Star. Once you have the sufficient amount of Black Flame to do the task at hand (you'll +know how much by Oversoul Direction), you then must visualize the task to be accomplished. +You then direct the Black Flame with your Oversoul Will to where you want the action of it to +take place. Then, you will go on to visualize the Black Flame Action taking place and see and +know that it has happened. Then you give thanks to your Oversoul. This is the way you invoke +the Black Flame and all other Night Flames. + +I hope you are not ready to stop here in the unfoldment of your Oversoul Powers, Flames, and +Causal Body. Your next subject is directed at the unfoldment of all these, into Night +Consciousness. + + +46. Night Rites + +The Night Rites are defined as any exercises or practices which ultimately gain the freedom of +the Soul from imperfection and the cycle of death and rebirth into the material world. They +are exercises in becoming the Yin Light of the Night Spirit. They are practices that will +eventually lead you into Magickal Perfection. There are four Night Rites that will be +introduced here. They are, in order of discussion, the Dark Sun Meditation, the Inner Cavern +of the Dark Sun, the Night Energy Beam, and the Magician's Night Body. I will begin this +discussion with the Dark Sun Meditation if you are ready. + +In the Dark Sun Meditation, you will review who the Great Being is in the Dark Sun; what It +represents; and Its path. Then, you will learn the benefits of the Dark Sun Meditation; how to +perform the Dark Sun Meditation; and becoming One with the Blazing Dark Sun. Where is the +Dark Sun? + +The actual physical body of the Dark Sun Goddess/God is the dark sun system itself with all its +planets, moons, dark sun, and solar sun. As the human body has a solar plexus so does the +dark sun system. This is the solar sun. The physical dark sun is located adjacent to the solar +sun and is akin to the human heart Night Center. As said before, part of the function of the +dark sun is to channel off excess solar energies from the solar sun. The dark sun Night Center +is the heart of the dark sun system and is the focus of the Great Night Entity who is the Living +Night Force of the dark sun system. The planets, moons, solar sun, and dark sun are the Night +Centers of the physical body of the Dark Sun Goddess/God. Who is the Dark Sun Goddess/God +? + +It is difficult to imagine an Entity who is so far ahead of you in magickal evolution, as is the +Dark Sun Spirit. Even though I have already discussed the Dark Sun Goddess/God and Its +Magickal Nature, let's take the time to review again Its Eternal Nature. It will be important to +do so in relation to the Dark Sun Meditation and Night Rites. + +The Dark Sun Goddess/God is on an even higher magickal plateau then the Planetary Night +Spirits. You can look on the physical dark sun, in relation to the Dark Sun Goddess/God, as +similar to yourself and your own heart Night Center. The Dark Sun Goddess/God is +Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent. Its Radiation effects you and all humankind. You +are Its grandchild and a part of your Spirit is shaped by Its Living Presence. It is indeed very +difficult to understand a Living Entity who is multidimensional. Its Night Spirit is very much +like the physical dark sun itself. + +The dark sun pours out life-giving yin light, warmth, and energy to all that lives and grows on +the surrounding planets. Its Night Spirit pours out to life: Energy, Warmth, and Night Force. It +is the Goddess/God of the dark sun system. It watches over you and sustains the Magickal Light +that guides you. Yet, It, too, is advancing on the Magickal Path that leads to the Eternal Night. +The only thing is that It is far, far ahead on the very same path that you have just begun to +tread. It shows you that you, too, can become all that It is if you but try. You are going to find +that meditating on Its Presence, centered in the dark sun, is going to bring you great help +magickally and physically. + +The power of the dark sun has a truly transforming effect over your physical body. As you +practice the Dark Sun Meditation, the power of the dark sun coursing through your body will +transform every cell in it. You will find every cell in your body becoming renewed through the +Night Energy of the dark sun. The power of the dark sun will transform every cell into a +miniature dark sun. The power of the dark sun will bring great Healing Energies into your +body. The dark sun will transform every diseased part of your body back into perfect health. +Whether you suffer from cancer, or a cold, the power of the dark sun will overcome their effect. +The dark sun will bring a truly energizing effect over the body. If you are low on energy, you +will not be after the Dark Sun Meditation. These are just the physical effects of the Dark Sun, +there are still the magickal effects to consider. + +You will find that the Power of the Dark Sun Goddess/God will transport you into the highest +of consciousness. You will be able to draw the Power of the Dark Sun Goddess/God into your +magickal vehicles and fill them with supercharged Night Energy. The effect upon your more +magickal vehicles will be truly amazing. On the Astral, Mental, and Causal Realms, your +vehicles will glow with a Yin Light only seen in the Magickal Dark Sun of the Universe. Each +vehicle will become a better channel through which the Power of the Night Spirit can flow +freely. You become transformed into the Dark Crystal Channel of Yin Light. The constant use +of the Dark Sun Meditation will bring truly amazing growth in your magickal vehicles. They +will become like the Dark Sun Goddess/God themselves. Now that you see the valuable reasons +for doing the Dark Sun Meditation, let's learn how to do it. + +Actually, the technique is very easy. You can practice this rite at any time and any place. If +you do it outdoors then you should do it in the shade. You will also be able to do this rite at +night. This is because the physical energies of the dark sun can penetrate through all things. +You will prepare yourself as always by surrounding yourself in the Night Pillar. You should be +seated on the ground in whatever manner is most comfortable to you. You should have your +legs crossed and your hands open on your legs with palms down during the day and palms up +during the night. Then, you begin the actual part of the Dark Sun Meditation. + +With your eyes closed, direct your Night Eye so that it is facing up into the Dark Sun. Then you +must become very relaxed and allow your thoughts to drift. Now draw into yourself the Power +of the Dark Sun. This Power will come to you as a dark ray of intense Night Force filled with +Life, Warmth, and Energy. Feel and move this Power down through your body slowly. First, +consciously move it into the head and see its effect there. Then move it on into the upper chest +and arms. Continue to go on through the body slowly, allowing the total effect of the Power to +take place in each part of the body. Then just relax and bathe in the glow of the Power of the +Dark Sun. Next, you will move on to the magickal vehicles. + +Here, you are going to project yourself consciously towards the dark sun. This is the same +technique you used in Mental Projection. You are going to go to the dark sun itself in your +magickal vehicles. As you approach the dark sun, you are going to feel the full effects of its +Magickal Power. You are going to keep moving towards the dark sun until you have merged +with its Presence. You are going to become a part of the Dark Sun in Night Spirit. Here again, +you are going to draw the Power through your magickal vehicles. Feel the Power blazing and +coursing through your magickal bodies changing them into miniature Dark Suns.. You should +then relax your magickal presence in the Magickal Presence of the Dark Sun. This is where +your real Dark Sun Meditation begins. + +You are going to become One with the Blazing Dark Sun. You are going to meditate on Its +Magickal Presence. The Dark Sun is like your heart Night Center. You will remember that in +your own heart Night center is located the miniature Oversoul. It is here you can meet the very +Presence of your own Oversoul. It is your Oversoul's magickal anchor in your own world. In +the Heart of the dark sun, you can meet the very Presence of the Dark Sun Spirit. Here is the +focus of Its Oversoul Consciousness. You can do this only when you have risen to the highest of +consciousness. You must know yourself as the Oversoul. It is in the Heart of the Dark Sun, +that you can meet the Night Spirit of the Dark System. You must meditate on Its Presence and +become all that it is. If you can do this, then you will become One with Its Living Night Spirit +and become the Blazing Dark Sun. Then, you must end this meditation. + +You do so by slowly withdrawing your magickal consciousness back into your physical body. +Do this be concentrating on your breathing. Then you will slowly start to move your fingers +and toes. Continue to slowly move all parts of the body until you feel that you are physically +whole again. Remember, in closing, to thank the Dark Sun Goddess/God Its Power and +Presence in your life. This is the Dark Sun Meditation. The next rite covers something I began +to discuss in the last rite. + +This is the aspect of the miniature Oversoul in the heart Night Center, or the Inner Cavern of +the Dark Sun. You are going to come to know, very well, the fourth Night Center and the +Oversoul within it. You are going to build the Inner Cavern of the Dark Sun within the heart +Night Center, and learn to enter within it and thereby come into rapport with the Oversoul. +Through this, you will learn the power revealed to you in the fourth Night Center. Let's begin +with the fourth Night Center and the Dark Sun Spirit found within it. + +You will recall from our previous discussion of the fourth Night Center, that as it starts to +unfold in you, you become aware of the feelings and emotions in others. You develop genuine +magickal empathy with those around you. To those you are really close with, this empathy +will extend across vast distances. Distance will make absolutely no difference in the power of +your fourth Night Center. I have said before that the heart is the center of your Magickal Being. +It is the site of your magickal anchor. I mean, by this, that the silver cord that proceeds out of +the heart of your Oversoul is anchored in your heart Night Center. This silver cord is also tied +into the sixth Night center, or your Night Eye. In the heart Night Center, at the end of the silver +cord, is what you would liken to a miniature dark sun. It is from this miniature dark sun that +the energy comes to sustain your physical life. It is this miniature dark sun which is the +primary focus of your Oversoul in the material worlds. This miniature dark sun exists on the +physical, Astral, Mental, and Causal Realms. Your Oversoul is tied in to all these planes of life +and is aware of all that takes place within you on these levels. In the beginning of your +progress on Earth, the Oversoul is not very concerned with your lives. + +This is because you are shut off from Its Presence and Will. Therefore, the power of this +miniature dark sun is very small. The Oversoul will invest very little power and energy into +someone who is unconcerned with doing Its Will. But as you begin to listen to the Inner Voice +within, and obey Its Will, then the power of the miniature dark sun begins to expand and +increase in intensity and brilliance till the dark sun is no longer miniature, but fills the entire +being of the Night Magician. Then you become One in the Dark Sun or Night Consciousness. As +you entered into the heart of the dark sun and meditated upon the Presence of the Dark Sun +Goddess/God so you can enter into the miniature dark sun and enter into rapport and +communion with the Oversoul. To come into rapport with the Inner Oversoul, you are going to +visualize and build within your heart Night Center, the Inner Cavern of the Dark Sun. You +will, as always, enter into your Magician's Study and place yourself in whatever way is a +comfortable position. Then, you will place the Night Pillar around you, and relax as much as +possible. Next you are going to visualize the place that you would think is appropriate to meet +your Oversoul in. You begin by turning your consciousness inward and directing it towards the +heart Night Center. You will visualize yourself descending within your Inner Being and finally +coming to rest in the heart Night Center. Then envision entering a beautiful cavern. This +cavern should be seen so real that you can even smell it. This place should be envisioned with +all of your magickal talents. It is a very real place and should be looked upon as such. Once +you have the Inner Cavern created, you are ready to enter into the Cavern. As you enter into +the Cavern, you see before you a great Night Altar. The Night Altar is made of the purest black +marble. There upon the Night Altar is a great blazing Dark Sun of the Yin Light. The +brilliance of the Dark Sun is magnificent. From the Dark Sun, you can feel warmth and +energy being beamed at you. You feel a power pulling you closer to the Dark Sun. As you +approach closer to the Dark Sun, you begin to see the Image of a Great Being standing within +the center of the Dark Sun. As you gaze upon Its Face, you see your face, only it is a face set in +power and energy. You can feel the power and glory radiating from the Presence of the +Oversoul within the Blazing Dark Sun. Then you will find yourself sitting before the Presence +of your Oversoul and receiving instruction from It. You will find yourself bathing in the Power +and Energy that is radiating from Its Dark Presence. You will feel knowledge and instruction +filling your entire presence. Then, you will know when the time has come to leave the Inner +Cavern and return to the outer world. So retrace your steps out of the Inner Cavern of the Dark +Sun and find yourself floating back out into the world. You will again, come out of this Night +Rite the same as you did the Dark Sun Meditation. Once you have experienced this Night Rite, +you will know the Power located within your Inner Being. You will find, through this rite, that +whenever you have a question, that you can take it into the Dark Heart of the Oversoul. You +can go into the center of the Inner Dark Sun and gain Wisdom and Energy. You can go into the +Inner Cavern and find Healing, Understanding, Peace, and Happiness. You need never feel, or +be alone in the Presence of the Oversoul. It is here that you will find the center of your life and +intelligence. It is here that you will find the center of your Oversoul and the Night Powers. It is +this very center of the Night Power that leads you to your next Night Rite, the Night Energy +Beam. + +You are aware that the physical dark sun, that shines over the world, is a giver of warmth and +Yin Light. You have also seen that no matter whether the Dark Sun is a physical or magickal +one under discussion, that it gives off immense amounts of Radiation, Yin Light, and Power. +You have also found out, that there is a Magickal Dark Sun blazing within the Inner Depths of +your Being. The Power and Light that radiates off from your Magickal Dark Sun is very +dispersed. The Yin Light radiates off at all angles. What if you could take this Power and +Energy and reflect it into a narrow, concentrated beam of the Night Energy? Let's look at a +modern day example, the laser. + +In the laser, we have turned a normal power and light source into a very concentrated beam of +light energy. The laser light is many more times powerful then its origin. This is what you are +going to do in this Night Rite. You are going to take the Power and Light that comes from your +Inner Magickal Dark Sun, and concentrate it into a very powerful beam of Night Energy. This +rite again calls for visualization. You should retire to your Magician's Study until you become +adept in the use of the Night Energy. In your Magician's Study, you will find peace and quiet in +which to work. As you become adept at its use, you will be able to put this rite into practice no +matter where you are. You will begin by visualizing your heart Night Center running parallel +with your body. That is, you should envision the Night Center as a large round disk, with a +slight curvature in it, placed in front of you like a large shield. Then, you are going to envision, +centered in front of the Night Center, the miniature dark sun. Once you have envisioned all of +this, then you are ready to transmit the Night Energy. As you envision the Night Center, and +the Dark Sun in front of it, the Energy begins to build-up. The Night Energy begins to become +concentrated, magnified in intensity, and then, suddenly, will beam forth from your presence. +What are you going to do with it? + +You are not only the emitter of the Night Energy, but you are also the director of it. Not only +visualize the emission of this Night Energy, but you must also visualize its direction and use. +The beam will go wherever you direct it. You do not have to be facing in the right direction for +it to go where you want it. All you have to do is envision where it is going, with the +Consciousness of Oversoul, and it will do so. Now, you must consider its uses. The beam itself +is of Pure Night Energy. It is filled with the Oversoul's Energy and Power. The person or +situation that it is aimed at, will be filled with the Energy and Power of Oversoul. If the +situation or person is basically of the Night Spirit then the beam will not harm the person or +situation in any way. It will bring only Energy, Healing, and Happiness to them. But if the +person or situation is in a state of inharmony and discord, then the beam of Night Energy will +change that. The beam will bring about what the emitter envisions happening. Nothing can +resist or fight the Oversoul Energy. It will only magnify and increase in intensity till the +change comes about. The beam can also be used as a carrier wave of your Oversoul Direction. +Whatever you project, in Night Consciousness, into the beam, the beam will bring into +manifestation. If someone is trying to hurt you with harmful energy, you can direct the beam +at the harmful energy sent, and change it into Night Energy and return it to its source, even if +you do not know who the source is. This is the Night Rite of the Night Energy Beam. So far, you +have been in the Night Presence of the Dark Sun Goddess/God, you have been in the miniature +Dark Sun, and have learned to direct the Energy of the Night. Now, you are going to become a +Dark Sun. + +You are going to develop the Magician's Night Body and become a Dark Sun. The Magician's +Night Body is, indeed, unique. You have meditated on the Presences of the Dark Sun +Goddess/God and Personal Oversoul, and thus it should be well rooted in you, the feeling of +being a Dark Sun. In developing the Magician's Night Body, begin by dwelling on the Eternal +Presences of the Dark Sun Goddess/God and Oversoul. You must become filled with Their +Energy and Substance. The Yin Light for your Magician's Night Body will come from your +heart Night Center. See the Yin Light filling your entire being, that is, physical, emotional, +mental, and magickal. The Light that you are going to become is exceedingly dark. Yet it is so +intense that it glows. You have, thus, prepared yourself as to the Nature of a Dark Sun, the Yin +Light of a Night, and the Shape of your Night Body. You are ready, then, to begin visualizing +your Magician's Night Body. You will visualize your Night Body as an intense, pulsating, +glowing Body of the Night. As your Body begins to take shape, you loose awareness of your +human form. You are becoming the Dark Sun of the Night. You are beautiful, luminescent, +and radiant. You are filled with a Radiance of the Night Spirit's Energy and Power. And so, +filled with the very Essence of the Dark Sun, you repeat this invocation: + +"I am the Night Soul that glows in the darkness of the night. I am Night Energy and all those +who gaze on me become the like. I am the Pure Essence of the Oversoul in the form of a Dark +Sun. I am no longer feeling the material form. I am becoming transcendent and translucent +and know myself as Pure Night Energy. I am not this physical form but a Body of Pure Night +Energy. I am the Night Magician, Eternal in the Light of the Night Spirit. I AM the Night +Magician within my Night Body." + +You have become a Dark Sun of the Night Spirit. You are Pure Energy. Your visualization has +become much more. You are no longer just visualizing but have become the Dark Sun in +Magickal Reality. You are the Night Magician physically, emotionally, mentally, and +magickally. You are a Dark Sun that shines in the night of your world. These are the four +Night Rites. + +They were exercises in the Dark Sun of the Night Spirit. They were Rites carried out under +Night Consciousness. They are presented here to give you practice in becoming the Dark Sun of +your life. If you use these Night Rites with dedication, perseverance, and practice them often, +you will become the Dark Sun of the Night Spirit. In the next subject, you will combine your +knowledge and use of the Night Powers, Flames, and Rites into Night Healing. + +47. Night Healing + +Earlier I presented the subject of healing through the use of color energy. The type of healing I +will present here is infinitely more potent. Night Healing involves the very Healing Power of +the Night Spirit. Night Healing is simple to learn but difficult to practice. To practice Night +Healing, you are going to have to reach Night Consciousness. Night Consciousness is the key to +Night Healing. Before I go much further into Night Healing, let's discuss the subjects you will +have to learn which make up Night Healing. + +In learning Night Healing, I am going to discuss the Seventh Night Power, Invocation, +Meditation, the Night Body, Night Energy Beam, and the Green Flame. Therefore, since there +are so many Magickal Tools that you will use in combination with each other, let's start from +the beginning using Invocation, Meditation, and the Seventh Night Power. This may seem a +review and in a way it is. You have already covered every subject just mentioned, but it is the +way that you put them together that brings about Night Healing. You are going to recover each +subject lightly, and as you do so, you will be putting them together to form Night Healing. + +You begin, as always, by entering your Magician's Study and darkening the room. Then either +sit or lie down just so that whatever your choice is, you are as comfortable as possible. You will +then relax as much as possible; put the Night Pillar around yourself; and practice Night +Breathing for a few minutes. When you are ready, begin with Invocation. + +Your invocation, as always, must be directed towards your Oversoul. You are going to visualize +your Oversoul at the other end of the silver cord. You are going to use the silver cord as you +would use a telegraph line. You are going to first envision what it is that you are going to heal. +Is it a person or animal? Is it something internally wrong or external? If it is something +wrong and you're not quite sure what it is, that's alright. The Oversoul can heal what's wrong +whether you know what's wrong or not. You are going to envision your very simple message +traveling up the silver cord and being received by the Oversoul. As you send the message, not +only should you envision it, but you should say it aloud. You will remember from the topic on +the Power of Sound what saying your message aloud will do. You should say the invocation at +least three times. You must keep the invocation simple and concise. A simple invocation +might be as follows: + +"I am the Night Presence of the Oversoul. I call upon that Presence to pass through me and to +(person's name or thing to be healed). The (person or thing) requires the Healing Power of the +Night Oversoul to correct the (wrong or name the specific condition). As I am performing the +act of Night Healing raise me into your Night Consciousness and let the healing be done. So be +it." + +Through the power of this invocation you have already begun the Magick of Night Healing. +You have begun your ascent into Night Consciousness. Next, you will enter into Meditation. + +Your meditation is going to be upon the Healing Oversoul. Let's picture the Healing Oversoul as +you have always pictured the Oversoul, only you are going to add an Emerald Green Light +around Its Presence. This Emerald Green Light surrounds the Oversoul as does the Yin Light. +Feel and know the Healing Power of the Emerald Green Light wherein is contained the Green +Flame of Night Healing. Go on and enter directly into the Presence of the Oversoul and become +the Oversoul and Emerald Healing Power that surrounds It. Then you are going to take your +meditation into the Seventh Night Power. + +You are going to do more then just meditate upon the Presence of the Oversoul. You are going to +know yourself as the Healing Oversoul. Its Consciousness and yours are One. You are the +Healing Oversoul and the Emerald Healing Power. You know, feel, and are the Oversoul. All +that the Oversoul is, you are. Its very Nature is revealed before you. Its Power, Energy, and +Healing Energy is yours to use for you are the Healing Oversoul. Thus, you have invoked the +Seventh Night Power and have become the Emerald Crystal Tool of the Magickal Master. The +Emerald Light of the Oversoul pours through your nature and transforms you into the Healing +Oversoul. Now, you are ready to take on the Night Body. + +As you have entered into Night Consciousness, your very Essence has become radiant and +luminescent with the Magickal Yin Light. You have become, again, the Dark Sun of the +Oversoul. You are the Dark Goddess/God. You know yourself as the Pure Energy of the Night +Spirit. You are no longer a physical being but have become etherial in nature. Again, you +invoke the Hymn of the Night: + +"I am the Dark Sun that radiates Night Energy in the night. I am filled with Darkness and +Energy and all those who gaze on me become the like. I am the Pure Essence of Oversoul in the +form of the Dark Sun. I am no longer feeling the material form. I have become transcendent +and translucent and know myself as Pure Night Energy. I am not this physical form but a Body +of Pure Yin Light. I AM the Night Magician, Eternal in the Light of the Night Spirit. I AM the +Night Magician." + +You have become the Oversoul. You are totally ready in Consciousness and Form to use the +Healing Power of the Night. Thus, you turn to the use of the Night Energy Beam and the Green +Night Flame. + +To activate and use the Night Energy Beam, you must turn within to the Heart of your Night +Being. You are going to envision yourself as a great Silver Night Disk. In front of the Night +Disk is the Blazing Sun of the Oversoul. The Night Force begins to concentrate, magnify, and +intensify, until you release it in a narrow Beam of Night Energy. Again, you will remember +that your Night Consciousness directs the Beam to the receiver. This is the person you are +going to heal. Now is the time you are going to invoke the Green Night Flame. From out of the +Oversoul comes the Green Flame. It is a Flame of Dazzling Emerald Green. It is the Power of +the Night Spirit Healing. The Green Flame brings Healing to all people and all conditions, and +thus you invoke: +"By the Power of the Presence of the Oversoul within the Night Heart, I am invoking the Green +Flame of the Oversoul Healing. I am seeing this Green Flame of the Oversoul Healing filling +my Night Being. I AM seeing it before the Great Silver Night Disk becoming concentrated, +magnified, and intensified until it glows as an Emerald Green Night." + +Thus, by the Oversoul Will, you release the Emerald Green Flame and direct it onto the Night +Energy Beam. You are using the Beam as a carrier for the Green Flame of the Night Spirit +Healing. There is a twin action taking place in the person being healed. There is the action of +the Night Energy in the Beam and also the action of the Green Flame. These Twin Energies of +the Oversoul will bring about the desired action of Magickal Healing. The action of the +Oversoul Healing is instantaneous, if the Night Healing is carried out in Night Consciousness. +This is Night Healing. + +You have put together the things that you have been learning and practicing into a very +valuable technique for healing. If you have been studying and practicing with constancy and +perseverance, then your success at Night Healing will be excellent. Night Healing is the +Universal Cure for all ills. You will be able to apply a very similar technique, as used here, in +obtaining physical Immortality. + +48. Immortality: Transmigration and Transmutation + +Immortality has been a subject discussed many, many times over the ages. When I speak of +Immortality there is generally two ways that it can be viewed. The first is the Immortality of +the physical form. The physical body can be Eternal and live forever. This has perpetuated the +myths of the Fountain of Youth and the Philosopher's Stone of the Ancient Alchemists. The +second is the Immortality of the soul. That is, after physical death, the personality continues +to live on forever in the Night Realm. It is the idea that "I who am I will always be I, now and +forever". I am going to discuss both types. The emphasis will be on the Immortality of the +physical body. That is, I consider it to be the most important. Let's begin the discussion with +transmigration. + +Transmigration is the transference of the soul or personality from one physical body to +another without the normal rest between lives associated with in reincarnation. The body, the +soul transfers to, may be of a newly born infant or one of more advanced age. Transmigration +is also the entry by a disembodied Night Teacher into a body of advance age. The age being +determined by what is available and what is needed by the disembodied Night Teacher. This is +not so far-out as it may seem. + +We have discussed many times that you are not the physical body, but the emotional, mental, +and magickal nature of being. The physical body is only a house in which you reside. It is a +special vehicle created especially for you to operate through here on Earth. As Shakespeare +said, "All the world is a stage and you are but the actor on it." You are acting out a certain part +while you are here and the physical body is nothing more then a costume in which to appear +and act in. So, transmigration is simply changing from one costume and role, to another +costume and role. It is simply entering a new house which is about to be vacated by its old +occupant. The how's of transmigration are not so difficult to understand. + +I have spoke of the silver cord many times. It is your life line from your Oversoul to you. The +silver cord is anchored into your physical heart. You know from Astral Projection that you +can leave the body at night and travel in many other realms. The physical body continues to +live only because the silver cord is still attached to it in the heart. In transmigration, you +remove the silver cord from the old residence, which dies, and move it to the new residence +where it is anchored into the new heart. At the very same time, the former occupant, who was +resident in the body that is about to be newly inhabited, is removed and set free into the Astral +Realm. This is a very delicate procedure. It may be easy to imagine, but it is difficult to +perform. There are very special Astral Night Spirits who are especially trained to perform +such a magickal operation. The procedure is basically the same for a disembodied Night +Teacher wanting a physical body. There are very special considerations that have to be taken, +before transmigration can take place. + +First of all, the person giving up the body that is about to be newly occupied, must voluntarily +want to do so. It cannot be done against their will. There are many reasons why s/he may +want to do so. The person may be very tired of living on Earth. Her/His life may have been a +very difficult one and s/he feels there is very little left for her/him in life. This person may +even be contemplating suicide. In another case, the person may have almost completed what +s/he came into the world to accomplish and death may soon happen even though the body may +be in good health. Therefore, before letting suicide occur in the first case, or natural death in +the other, the individual is approached, while s/he is in the Astral, about going through +transmigration. If s/he consents to the transfer then it can be done. This is not an easy way +out for the possible suicide. It is her/his chance for doing something very worth while in life. +There is another consideration that must be met; the basic frequencies must be the same or +closely similar. + +Not everyone is a suitable candidate for transmigration. The person leaving, and the person +entering, must be closely related in basic vibration. This does not mean that they must be of +the same magickal level. Everyone has a basic frequency that is akin to the frequency of a +musical note. It is a frequency that is set from the Nature of the Oversoul. If the frequencies of +the two are very close, then the transfer can take place. + +There are many reasons why transmigration would be necessary. For example, if a person had +worked all their life at a very special project that would do much towards the advancement of +humankind, but s/he had not quite finished and the span of her/his body was about to expire, +what would or could s/he do? By special arrangement through the Night Guild s/he could +undergo transmigration. This could occur before the life span of the old body was finished or +shortly after bodily death. The control of transmigration is in the hands of the World +Directors. Suppose now, that the Night Guild needed to put one of its Emissaries in the world. +They want her/him there now and functioning in her/his task. This is another use of +transmigration. Now it is time to consider another form of Immortality. + +This is transmutation. The definition of transmutation is "to change". You are going to +transmute or change the substance of your physical body into the Oversoul Body. To begin +with, this process is threefold. It deals with the transmutation of your physical body and your +emotional and mental attitudes. The discussion will deal with all three, and we'll start with +the physical. +The transmutation of the physical begins with proper diet. You must eat correctly. You must +have the proper diet that provides you with the best of health. You must not overeat anything +to excess. The best diet is one that eliminates all meat. You must have the proper amounts of +exercise and rest. You must keep your body clean. The rule is to treat the body with respect and +proper care. This is the beginning of the transmutation of the physical body and is followed by +the transmutation of your emotions. + +You must feel young, alive, and vibrant. You must feel the eternalness of being young. You +must feel the very Youth of the Oversoul flowing through you. It is essential that you manifest +only thoughts of being alive in the Oversoul. If you feel young, you are young. If you feel alive +and ready for any challenge by the world, then you will remain in perpetual youth forever. The +only thing that causes you to grow old is the negative emotions that you allow to enter into +your world. You grow old through worry, tension, and anger. If you keep your emotions +centered in the Oversoul, then you shall become Immortal. Not only is feeling Immortal +important, but thinking Immortal is of the utmost importance. + +Your thoughts must be centered in the Oversoul Mind. Not only do you feel alive and vibrant, +but you know that you are. Your thoughts are not troubled by the concerns of the world, for +those concerns shall find their own solutions. Your thoughts are centered on the Immortal +Oversoul, and you know that you are the Immortal Oversoul. When you know that you are +Immortal, and feel Immortal, then there is only one thing left to do, and that is to apply your +Night Powers and Flames to your Immortality. + +The application for the use of the Night Powers and Flames is very similar to what you learned +in Night Healing. You will begin with Invocation, in telling your Oversoul that you are going to +use both the Green Flame of the Night Spirit Healing and the Night Flame to reach +Immortality. Then, you will move into the next phase, that of meditation and the Seventh +Night Power. You will use the same meditation on both the subjects of Healing and +Immortality. You already have learned how to do it for Healing. You then will begin with +meditation on Immortality. You shall dwell on the Immortal Oversoul within you. Then, you +shall take this meditation into the Seventh Night Power. + +Thus, you shall do more then just meditate on Immortality, you shall come to know the very +essence of Immortality. You shall absorb that essence of Immortality into your Inner +Awareness and become Immortal. So first, the meditation on the Healing Oversoul, then the +meditation on the Immortal Oversoul. You take both of these meditations into the Seventh +Power and you are ready to continue, in Night Consciousness, with the Night Body. You will +use the very same procedure in acquiring the Night Body as I have outlined in Night Healing. +Since this is Self-healing and Immortality that you are learning, you will omit the use of the +Night Energy Beam. You are going to retain the Energies of the Night Flames. Then, you will +continue the procedure, by invoking the Emerald Green Flame as you did in the last topic. Once +you have used the Green Flame sufficiently, as to feel cleansed of all imperfections and +afflictions, then you are ready to invoke the Black Flame. The invocation for the Black Flame +in this case is as follows: + +"I am the Presence of the Oversoul and I am invoking the powerful Black Night Flame to +transmute the human body to an Eternal Oversoul Body. I behold the Night Flame entering +within my three material forms and Purifying, Transmuting, and being made wholly into the +Night Soul of Life. I am filled with the Transmuting Night Flame that is changing my material +form into the Everlasting Form of the Oversoul. I am Eternal in the Oversoul; that which I am +shall never experience physical death again; I AM Immortal as the Oversoul in the Oversoul +Body. So be it." + +Then, you shall bathe in the Black Night Flame, until you have become Bodily Immortal in the +Oversoul. This is transmutation. You are Immortal in Soul and can be in material form. + +Whether you are able to achieve the Immortality of your mortal form or not, you are forever +Immortal in Soul and Night Spirit. You are very close to the end of Fire Magick. You have +come a very long way on the road of Night Magick. Yet, in Magickal Reality, you have only +begun to learn a small portion of the lore of Night Magick. You have only just begun the trek +towards Home. Still, there must be an ending to your first studies in Night Magick, so I will +close with the final topic on the past, present, and future of Night Magicians. + + +49. Night Magicians: Past, Present, and Future + +This is the concluding topic in the lore of Night Magick. You have gone through all the +elements of Night Magick. You have covered Earth, Water, Air, and Fire and have learned the +basics of each. Yet, in actuality, you have hardly scratched the surface. You have only just +begun to learn Night Magick. There is still so much more to learn. + +There is no end to the body of knowledge that is Night Magick. You must always search for +knowledge and wisdom wherever it may be, for this is Night Magick. No Night Magician ever +stops learning or comes to know it all. You will always be unfolding the Night Powers that lie +within you. For your final topic, as in the beginning, I would like to speak once more about +Night Magicians. + +I would like to present the Night Magicians of the past, giving their origin, purpose, and names; +of the present, again speaking of their origin and purpose; the future, taking a glimpse of what +might be. To begin this presentation, I would like to discuss the Night Magicians of the Past. + +In the beginning of distant civilization the Dragon Tiamat taught humankind the knowledge +and wisdom of Night Magick. Civilizations flourished under Night Magick and the Earth was a +beautiful and wonderful place. Then came the invasion by the Yang and the destruction of the +Yin civilizations. But even among the Yang gods and goddesses there were the Yin. + +Among the gods and goddesses were Set, Isis, Nuit, Loki, Pan, Cybele, Hecate, Kali, Bacchus, +and others who were known to give the other gods and goddesses trouble. Among humankind +the Night Religions and Night Magick continued. + +There are the worshippers and practitioners of the dark religions of the above listed gods and +goddesses. There are also the ancient religions of the Druids and the North and South +American Indians. There are the religions of Africa and other so-called dark continents. +There is Voodoo. Many of these continue to remain in existence today. There are also +individual practitioners of the past. + +There are Night Magicians such as Abra Melin, and Abraham the Jew, Cagliostro, Althotas, +Comte de Sainte-Germain, Aleister Crowley, Baian, Jeanne Belloc, Dr. Lamb, Marie Le +Normand, Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, Jacob Boehme, Eliphas Levi, Marie Laveau, +Alexander Seton, and William Butler Yeats. + +There are also Night Magicians of the present, but I cannot name them here. This is still very +much a Yang world with great hatred for those devoted to the world of Night Magick. So all I +will say is that Night Magicians can be found in all walks of life. There are no barriers to those +of the Night World. What all Night Magicians have in common is the preparation for the +future. + +The future of humankind is bleak. With the pollution and rape of this world by humankind +the Earth will soon rid itself of much of the cancer that is causing its death. There are many +predictions about when this period of life is going to happen. Prophets have been forecasting +this event and the time of its happening for ages. But determining the exact date of this +happening is like trying to forecast the first snowfall of the winter. There are a great deal of +things that determine when it will first snow, and so with this event. I can say that some of the +signs of this happening have already begun to manifest. + +There has been an increasingly large number of natural disasters. There has and will continue +to be a large number of shifts going on within the Earth. This will give earthquakes, +volcanoes, and the rising and lowering of land. There will be terrible storms that will cause +widespread destruction. There will be flooding, extremes of heat and cold, draughts and all +kinds of out of the ordinary weather changes. There will be a great deal of panic and terror +among the citizenry. The skies will have a very unusual glow to them and be of a reddish black +hue. There will be great shifts in the land with some rising and others falling. Some of the +land will be covered with water and other portions, currently under water, will rise up into the +open air. Not only will the land be undergoing a major shift, but there will also be political +and social upheaval. This is a time of the Earth's balancing the large amounts of karma that +humankind has created. It is a time of correcting the harm that humankind has done to the +body of the planet itself. This is not presented here to bring panic and fear into anyone's heart. +It is presented in an explicit manner so you can do something about it. + +Futures don't have to be written in stone. They can be changed. You can help the future to +change by practicing Night Magick. It is a way of preparing yourself for the changes about to +take place. There is much you have learned in Night Magick that can help you prepare. You +could use psychometry to find a safe place to be when the trouble begins. You can learn to give +the Earth healing energy and give back to it vitality it has lost. You can stop any destructive +practices which cause further harm to the Earth. You can be part of many voices trying to +change the way the Earth is slowly being destroyed. You can use Night Magick to influence +those who make decisions. The future is an odd thing. + +Sometimes you can look forward and feel what is ahead, but it is always based upon the +probabilities, or possibilities that will open up before you. If you could stand high upon a +mountain and look at your future, it would seem like there are many roads that lay before you +and all the choices that determine which road you take are yours to choose. You would find +that even from your lofty height, you could not see the end of the road you chose, or its +outcome. But one road you have already chosen will insure a bright future. Of course this is +the Night Road of a Night Magician. + +To travel the Night Road you must have a desire to learn and a willingness to experiment. You +must be adventurous and love excitement and the unusual. You must be willing to be tested and +trials will come your way. But the outcome of traveling the Night Road leads to victory in life. +The Night Road leads to the Night Magician's Dream. + +A Night Magician's Dream + +Picture if you will a Land of Enchantment; a Land of Honor, Strength, and Energy. The Land of +the Night Magicians. This is the Land in which your dreams evolve from within. Reality is +seen through your Night Eye and felt through your Night Heart. You are as rich as your Soul is +in the Eternal Night. You are as young as the Oversoul is within you. Search within your +heart, within the Heart of Creativity, and become the Living Oversoul. The Night Magician is, +knows, and becomes all. They exist within all things; such is the Night Consciousness of the +Oversoul in them. They are free of self-limitations and control the world of form, and the +things found in it. They are Pure in Night Spirit. They transcend all things: space, time, and +the world around them. + +Believe as you will; what you are is all that is; what you will be is limited by yourself; this is +your creed and your life as it is within you. No longer bound by the limitations of a Yang, past +world, you are the Progress of a New Age, an Age of the Night World. You are the Foundation of +Time and Space. You are the Strength of the Night Spirit. If only in the hearts of all, you were +what you felt when you dream, then there could exist no wrong ideas. + +There is potential in thought and ideas, and it is for Humanity to bring them out of the Void. +Only Humanity can be what they believe their selves to be. They cannot be what they don't +believe is possible to be. Freedom begins in thought and when Manifest in Action can be Truth +as the Night Spirit sees the Truth: focused on a Point in Time; balanced on the Edge of Infinity. + +Believe in yourself and your ability to succeed in all things. Only you control you; only you can +find happiness; only you make the destiny that lies before you. You are a Channel for the +Eternal Night; use this right, and bring forth into your world the Energy of the Night and make +Humanity what They can be as the Night Spirit Wills. You are the strength of the Earth and +only you can open the Doorway to your Success. Be what you Believe, and be what you can be, +for no one can limit, another. You can only limit Yourself. The challenge of life is to know +thyself; to know how one limits another, and how to be all you can be in life and Night Magick. + +The Night Magician is the Knower, the Doer, and is the Night Spirit within all things. There +Responsibility lies with the Night Spirit and the Oversoul. They are the Heart of all things, +bringing Humanity into harmony with Nature, and the world into harmony with the Night +Spirit. + +You are the One who becomes Your Dreams; who is unlimited by Your Energy for all things, for +Your Energy is Boundless and Eternal. No longer in this world is the Door shut to this One; the +One who has become the Night Magician. + + + +APPENDIXES + + + +APPENDIX A + +INVOCATIONS, HYMNS, POEMS, AND PRAYERS + +1. Invocation for the Night Magician's Pillar of Protection. + +I am a Night Magician surrounded in a Pillar of Night Energy that cannot be penetrated. It +repels all energy that would harm me. It repels all thoughts and emotional energy of my +enemies. Through the Power of my Oversoul, I am protected in a Pillar of Night Energy and +cannot be harmed. May this Night Pillar remain around me at all times keeping me out of +harms way. So be it. + +2. Ritual Invocations + +Each ritual will begin by your stepping into the Night Circle and putting on your Night +Weapons and Cape. After this place the Night Pillar around you. Do not leave the Circle until +the end of the ritual and be sure and re-enforce the Night Pillar around and through you before +leaving the Night Circle. Go through the actions of consecrating the Night Circle with earth, +water, air, and fire each time. Fill the chalice, say the invocation, and drink the wine each +time. Then always ring the bell and summon the Night Deities. These are the basic procedures +you will begin each ritual which takes place within the Night Circle. + +Now pick up the bell and ring it six times in each major direction, that is North, South, East +and West. Then repeat the following invocation, "I who am (give your Night Name) summon +the Presence of all Deities in the Night Force to attend my ritual of Eternal Night. We now +stand in the Eternal Night beyond time and space. Come and witness my Ritual of the Night". + +After this, pick up the salt container, and repeat the following: "By my sacred name, (give your +Night Name), through the Presence of my Oversoul and the Eternal Earth Deities, I invoke the +Earth Night Power into this container of salt and now place the salt upon the earth to mark the +boundary of my sacred circle." Visualize the Earth Deities filling the vessel with their power. +Pinch a little salt lightly between your fingers dropping it on the floor over the cord going +completely around the circle. BE CAREFUL NOT TO STEP OUTSIDE THE CIRCLE FOR THE +REMAINDER OF THE RITUAL. Place the salt container back on the Night Altar and pick up +the crystal bowl of water. + +Repeat the following: "May the Presence of my Oversoul and the Eternal Water Deities fill this +water and container and endow it with the Water Night Power." Visualize the Water Deities of +the Earth filling the vessel with the power. With your left hand dip it into the water and +sprinkle lightly the boundary you have already marked with the salt. Place the water bowl +back on the altar and pick up the incense burner. Repeat the following: "Let the Presence of the +Four Winds of the Earth enter into the incense burner filling it with Air Night Power". Now +face each direction, rotating counterclockwise, and see the Presence of each Wind Deity enter +into the incense burner. Then circle four times in a counterclockwise manner around and +within the Magick Circle. Place the incense burner back on the Night Altar and pick up the +candle. + +Repeat the following: "May the Presence of my Oversoul and the Fire Deities of the Earth place +their sacred flame here within my candles and upon my Night Altar." See the Fire Deities +come and dance around the flames and upon your altar. Place the candle back where it came +from and pick up the chalice of wine or juice. Repeat the following: "Let the Presence of my +Oversoul and the Eternal Darkness enter into the liquid and fill it with the Power of the +Eternal Night. May this elixir give me strength, healing, and courage each day of my life." Feel +the Power flow through you and into the chalice. See the energy collect and concentrate till the +chalice glows with Night Energy. +Now face each direction and repeat the following: "Thank you Night Deities for your +attendance at this sacred Night Rite. May we ever serve the Eternal Powers of Darkness here +on Earth and the Omniverse forever. So be it." + +At this point stop and re-enforce your Night Pillar and then take off all your Night Weapons +and place them back upon the Night Altar. Leave the cord in place on the floor. + +3. Invocation to Night Magick. + +I,(give your Night Name), commit my all to the Oversoul and the Night Spirit within, and to the +dedication of my Magickal Energies to the practice of Night Magick. I dedicate myself to the +Oversoul within and to my union with it in Night Consciousness. May these Night Tools and +Weapons serve me ever in this cause. So be it. + +4. Invocation to the Cosmic Being of the(insert-direction). + +I invoke the Great Powers of the Cosmic Being of the (insert direction) to flow into my being. +Fill me with the Cosmic Power of (insert element). Renew me in the Power of Night +Consciousness. Make me a Being of Cosmic Yin Light. Guide me upon the Road of Night +Magick." + +5. Invocation for Night Projection. + +On this day ___, I am going to Night Project. I am going to travel in the Astral Realm and +remember all that I see and do. I will recall all of this after I have returned to my body. This I +will do and won't fail." + +6. Night Invocation on Earth. + +Let the Earth be filled with the Presence of the Night. I honor the Presence of the Night in all I +say and do. By the Night all things are given, by the Night all enemies removed. By the Yin +Light of the Moon I shall walk the Night Road on Earth in power, and glory and victory forever. +So be it. + +7. Hymn of the Nights. + +I am the Dark Sun that radiates Night Energy in the night. I am filled with Darkness and +Energy and all those who gaze on me become the like. I am the Pure Essence of Oversoul in the +form of the Dark Sun. I am no longer feeling the material form. I have become transcendent +and translucent and know myself as Pure Night Energy. I am not this physical form but a Body +of Pure Yin Light. I AM the Night Magician, Eternal in the Light of the Night Spirit. I AM the +Night Magician. + +8. Invocation for the Night Body. + +I am the Night Soul that glows in the darkness of the night. I am Night Energy and all those +who gaze on me become the like. I am the Pure Essence of the Oversoul in the form of a Dark +Sun. I am no longer feeling the material form. I am becoming transcendent and translucent +and know myself as Pure Night Energy. I am not this physical form but a Body of Pure Night +Energy. I am the Night Magician, Eternal in the Light of the Night Spirit. I AM the Night +Magician within my Night Body. + +9. Invocation for Night Healing. + +I am the Night Presence of the Oversoul. I call upon that Presence to pass through me and to +(person's name or thing to be healed). The (person or thing) requires the Healing Power of the +Night Oversoul to correct the (wrong or name the specific condition). As I am performing the +act of Night Healing raise me into your Night Consciousness and let the healing be done. So be +it. + +10. Invocation for Transmutation by the Black Night Flame. + +I am the Presence of the Oversoul and I am invoking the powerful Black Night Flame to +transmute the human body to an Eternal Oversoul Body. I behold the Night Flame entering +within my three material forms and Purifying, Transmuting, and being made wholly into the +Night Soul of Life. I am filled with the Transmuting Night Flame that is changing my material +form into the Everlasting Form of the Oversoul. I am Eternal in the Oversoul; that which I am +shall never experience physical death again; I AM Immortal as the Oversoul in the Oversoul +Body. So be it. + + +11. Invocation of the Black Night Flame. + +By the Presence of the Oversoul within me I am invoking the Great Black Flame of the +Oversoul's Purity and Perfection through me. I AM seeing this Black Flame descending from +above and filling my being with Its Essence and Power. I AM then placing it here before me on +the Altar of the Night, there to collect and concentrate into a blazing Night Black Flame. Now, +oh blazing Night Black Flame, I AM commanding thee by the Power of the Presence of the +Oversoul in me, to obey my Will as the Oversoul on Earth. + +12. Invocation of the Violet Night Flame. + +I AM the Oversoul on Earth and I AM invoking the Violet Night Flame of Transmutation. I AM +seeing this Violet Night Flame descending from my own Night Soul and entering within me +transmuting all that I AM into the Night Soul. All negation and inharmony is removed from +by being and replaced with Pure Night Energy. I AM the Violet Night Flame and all who see +with me are alive with the Violet Night Flame and so Transmuted, Purified and forever Free. + +13. Invocation of the Blue Night Flame. + +I AM the Oversoul on Earth, and I AM invoking the Peace and Harmony of the Blue Night +Flame. I AM seeing this Blue Flame of the Night Spirit's Peace and Harmony descending out of +my the Night Soul and into that which I AM. I AM focusing this Blue Flame here before me on +the Altar of the Nights. I AM the Blue Night Flame here in Oversoul Action giving Peace and +Harmony to all. + +14. Invocation of the Green Night Flame. + +By the Power of the Presence of the Oversoul within the Night Heart, I am invoking the Green +Flame of the Oversoul Healing. I am seeing this Green Flame of the Oversoul Healing filling +my Night Being. I AM seeing it before the Great Silver Night Disk becoming concentrated, +magnified, and intensified until it glows as an Emerald Green Night. + +15. Invocation of the Yellow Night Flame. + +Through the Night Oversoul within me I AM invoking the Power of the Night Flame of Wisdom +and Intelligence. I AM filled with these three Magickal Qualities and know, and see, all that +the Night Soul sees. And I AM surrounding myself and the world around me in the Yellow +Night Flame of Wisdom and Intelligence. + +16. Invocation of the Orange Night Flame. + +I draw from out of the sun the Orange Night Flame. With this Night Flame I empower the world +around me with energy. I Am protected from the Orange Night Flame by the Power of the Night. + +17. Invocation of the Red Night Flame. + +Through the Presence of the Oversoul in me and the Power of the Night Guild I AM +commanding the Red Flame of the Night into my world and being. I AM the Red Flame of the +Night in Action on Earth today and forever. + +18. Invocation of the Rainbow Night Flame. + +I AM the composite of the Night Flames in Action on Earth. I AM the Night Soul in +Consciousness and by the Night Consciousness I AM invoking the Total Power of the Night +Flames embodied in the Rainbow Flame. I AM commanding this Night Flame into existence +by the Will of the Eternal Darkness. And by my Oversoul Consciousness the Rainbow Flame is +sustained and placed into Night Action by Night Direction. I AM the Action of the Rainbow +Flame. I AM the Rainbow Night Flame. + +APPENDIX B + +CANDLE COLOR COMBINATION AND THE NIGHT TEACHERS + +Candle color is arranged by the basic force the Night Teachers are aligned with. Remember +that the two front candles are always black for the second Water Rite. So here is the color +candles to use with the particular force and teachers. + +Use midnight blue and red candles for the First Force of the Will and Power of the Night Spirit. +This includes the Keeper Asmodeus and Azazel, Leviathan, Santanas, and Amon. + +Use two midnight blue candles for the Second Force of the Wisdom of the Night Spirit. This +includes the Keeper Kali and Lucifuge Rofocale, Belial, and Azael. + +Use two black candles for the Third Force of the Energy of the Night Spirit. This includes the +Keeper Baal and Endor, Abraxas, and Balan. + +Use two red candles for the Fourth Force of Balance, Dignity, and Purity. This includes the +Keeper Lilith and Astaroth, Nisroch, and Bensozia. + +Use two yellow candles for the Fifth Force of Knowledge. This includes the Keeper Dagon and +Agares, John Dee, Bifrons, Belphegor, and Alocer. + +Use red and violet candles for the Sixth Force of Devotion. This includes the Keeper Lucifer +and Moloch, Astartes, and Marie Laveau. + +Use two violet candles for the Seventh Force of Beauty and Action of the Night Spirit. This +includes the Keeper Hecate and Aleister Crowley, Armida, Cagliostro, Baphomet, and Eliphas +Levi. + + diff --git a/religious documents/no-link.txt b/religious documents/no-link.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4196a4d Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/no-link.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/nwlwsjrf.txt b/religious documents/nwlwsjrf.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b15850e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/nwlwsjrf.txt @@ -0,0 +1,479 @@ + THE NEW BOOK OF THE LAW + + Commentary by J. Random Folksinger + + I have to preface this by stating that I was first drawn to this + work by Leigh Ann Hussey, and reacted very negatively to it. This will + be my second time through these Laws, with comments that are SOLELY MY + OWN OPINION. I know that Lady Galadriel put a lot of work (translate: + sweat blood) into these Laws, and I am not attacking her or her work. + Making my points without sounding negative would have been nice, but I + have not been very successful at this; since several people have been + asking me to put down *WHY* I didn't like them, I felt that getting the + project over with would be better than struggling with a novel-length + exercise in not offending anyone. To Lady Galadriel: I, too, have sweat + blood over a reconstruction project similar to this (and I got lots of + negative feedback, too). My finished copy, which includes the old + "Burning Times" laws as a historical source or what to do when things + *really* get bad, can be had from Leigh Ann, Judy Harrow, or downloaded + from WeirdBase in St. Louis as "JRFLAWS.TXT". My heart goes out to you, + but I am commenting on your Laws from my head only. + + Notes: + + On the Preface: The Book of the Law, or Liber Al, which Lady G. refers + to as a primary source, is not the same as Craft law in most traditions + as it was written by Aleister Crowley; it is, therefore, hardly a + wonder why it was not found to be very pertinent by Lady G. If, indeed, + Lady G.'s Book of the Law was *not* Liber Al, it is hard to understand + where many of these Laws originated. + + The Laws: + + 1. Form and Order? Ask a Discordian or Shamanic Craft type. The Laws + were created for guidance, as the latter part of this Law attests. + + 2. Channels, and manifestation of the Source? This sounds more like New + Age Xtianity than Wicca. I should stop talking about the flowers in the + language, although they are disconcerting and very distracting from the + original goal of "readable, usable, and pertinent to the needs ..." I + suppose I can just use the term "flowers" as my way of saying that the + language is unnecessarily complicated when it really bothers me -- and + most of these laws do fall in this category. + + 3. Oh, no. Not the Xtian "Ye are as children" routine again. The Gods, + in my training, wish us to grow, not perpetually remain children. To + not test what they say is the same as channelling some unknown spirit + and believing everything he/she says. We are growing, making the Gods + proud, not belittling or mocking them. + + 4. This law is over-judgemental (something I am accused of being at + times), and ignores the need for working with our shadow-side; I + suppose naivete is the worst I can say about this Law. I can easily + find better in Marion Weinstein's POSITIVE MAGIC... + + 5. The "Mothership" routine smacks of Close Encounters, but other than + the children routine and some language problems, this one isn't too bad + -- but isn't there something in an initiation ritual about us and the + Gods being the same "but for a difference of power"? I would think + Brothers and Sisters of the Gods would be better terminology -- + feminists are welcome to reverse the wording. + + 6. Hmmm. Sounds like tithing to me. While it is certainly a good idea, + we give back to the Gods all the time -- this would be making the + meaningful ritual a mechanical one. Sustain its Priests and + Priestesses? Paid (or fed) clergy? Shades of Paul! This part would + still work in my tradition, since we are all priests and priestesses, + but I know some that are different... + + 7. I can't see the purpose of this Law, and know of no corresponding + Law in the Laws I have come across. It sounds like the God of the + Xtians again, making people the way they are and then judging them for + being that way. + + 8. A direct statement would be better. Who do you know in these times + that goes around weighing silver? Is this a modern metaphor? I don't + think so. + + 9. Does not parse. Sounds good, though... + + 10. This sounds like it's setting up the teacher as infallible -- shut + up and listen. Also, while I hear Karma used frequently in Craft + discussions, it is because it is a useful concept for us; however, this + is the first time I have seen the Lords of Karma enthroned in Craft + Law. + + 11. I could have taken the Golden Rule in one of its permutations, but + this is much more akin to the concept of "Sin" than that of Karma. + + 12. "You must not be a teller of tales..."? What, we are to have no + Bards in the Craft? If this law means that gossipping is not a good + thing, why doesn't it say so? And "must hold no malice" indicates that + we are not allowed to be human again -- true, it is better for the + Craft that we all be as a loving family, but there are other ways to + deal with the problems caused by personality conflicts than to outlaw + legitimate feelings. + + 13. Flowers. Old Law. (Meaning that, other than difference in wording, + this is the same as the "Old Laws", i.e., Lady Sheba and others.) + + 14. Oh, boy! Priestess Knows Best (and will be happy to be responsible + for *you*). If someone asks me a question, give them the straightest + answer I can, and without phoning up my Priestess for permission to do + so. I am a trained, adult Witch, and am capable both of making my own + decisions *and* taking the consequences for making a wrong decision. + The "You must not put stumbling blocks..." sounds like the old parental + admonishment, "Don't put beans in your ears." The Xtians have enough + stumbling blocks of their own; I don't think ours would even be + noticed, and so are unnecessary. + + 15. The key words are in the Preface: readable, usable, and pertinent. + "Fetters" and "woe" are not very meaninful words in this half of the + 20th century. Not sure about the use of "souls", either, since that + seems to be mostly a Xtian concern. Remember, Lady G. said that she + reworded some of these laws "to make them clearer and more + understandable". I think she missed here. + + 16. Sounds like "Trust in God; He will provide." Where is the Craft + basis for this Law? + + 17. If you kill someone magickally, accidentally or otherwise, you + should be sacrificed to atone for it? My Goddess demands nothing in + sacrifice. It would be far better to get into therapy and see how you + could forgive yourself and help others to forgive you (I'm using + "forgive" as a psychological, not religious, term). No problem with the + first sentence. + + 18. Could be said more clearly. + + 19. The source for this, especially the final sentence, seems to be + Jesus in Revelation. "Many say, Lord, Lord, but I know them not..." + etc. + + 20. Sounds like, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God in + vain". Either that is what this law is saying, or it needs to be + clearer. + + 21. Old Law. I would have worded it, "In any disputes among the + Wicca..." + + 22. Old Law. + + 23. To me, my magickal tools are channels between what is within me and + what is outside of me (on the magickal planes, which frequently + intersect with the planes of reality). Still, Do Not Haggle is Old Law. + + 24. Old Law, except for the semantical substitution of "Power" for + "Art" and the use of the judgmental terms "evil" and "unworthy". + + 25. "Thou shalt not steal"? Hinted-at consequences are unnecessary. + + 26. I don't understand "Show honor" as a phrase, and the last phrase is + not comprehensible to me. + + 27. "Those who are of the Wicca shall not own slaves," -- good idea, + although I have never seen it included in Craft Law. The rest of this + sentence is again unclear and/or unnecessary justification. "Nor shall + you take as a pledge any person's life,"; well, the Laws of Karma (if + you accept them, which these Laws purport to) demand otherwise from + time to time, and again, this has not been found necessary in any other + set of Craft Laws I have seen. + + 28. This is the second time the Golden Rule has been quoted in a faulty + permutation. "If a stranger sojourns with you...they shall be as one of + the Circle..." What, we're going to invite total strangers into our + rites just because this Law says so? There are enough Laws that + contradict this already. This doesn't sound right. + + 29. This came straight out of Leviticus, and also exists in Baha'i law + in a slightly clearer form. It's nice that we're getting ecumenical, + but what is the need for this in Craft Law? The Threefold Law applies, + and is easier to understand. + + 30. The Good Wiccan Houskeeping Seal is required for Circle? + + 31. Not a Wiccan Law. "Cleanliness is next to god/dessliness" would be + a shorter way of phrasing this. Although the old customs (NOT laws) + require bathing prior to a ritual, even that has been used to "find" + Witches with in some areas (they're clean and smell nice -- they must + be seducing our men for Satan!). + + 32. Not Law, but a start; I believe none should die without someone + having cared for them; and that death with dignity is the hoped-for + ideal. Many of you already know that I'm initiating action toward Pagan + hospice, funeral, and cemetery care. The judgement about "their + actions" is for the Dark Lord to make. + + 33. Threefold Law is all you need here. Anything else is moral + judgement. + + 34. Amended version: "Let those who desire union as a couple (or other + forms as might be desirable, such as a triad or a group relationship) + be handfasted, sharing their love in a manner they and the Gods find + pleasing." Children are not necessary for shared love (and often + separate the parents from their mutual desires), and there is no need + to deny handfasting to couples not wanting children. I also am not + certain that this needs to be a Law. + + 35. "The Law of the Goddess is that none of the Wicca shall take and + wed someone who they do not love." Period. + + 36. Not Law. Also uses "brethren", another male term. (Anyone who has + read my revision of Gardnerian Craft Law should have noticed the + near-total lack of gender terminology.) + + END OF PART ONE + ------------------- + + PART TWO + + 37. The first sentence is incomprehensible, immaterial, or both. This + law is very flowery, and I would love to know what Lady G. extracted it + from. + + 38. Old Law: "Never boast, never threaten..." seems to be the root here + - and is much clearer in that form. + + 39. The concept of magickal purity is one of ritual magick, not the + Craft. This Law is, in letter and spirit, one of ritual magick. While + some traditions of the Craft do get into ritual magick, that still does + not make this "proper" as Craft Law. + + 40. Old Law was both clearer and less "new-agey". + + 41. WHERE hath the Goddess said these things? Nowhere in my tradition, + and they sound more like things She may have said in circle -- + certainly no need to canonize them. + + 42. Back to Leviticus. This is far too judgemental for any tradition I + am familiar with. There also seems to be confusion between "work" as in + make money and "work" as in learning and teaching the things of the + Craft. + + 43. A sacred trust? This explains why Grove of the Unicorn built a + sanctuary in Georgia, but I have never seen this expressed as a + requirement. Most traditions are not getting over being hidden; this + Law requires total openness. I think it's dangerous to do this in most + areas, and having the Goddess decree (here) that we should do something + that could harm Her Witches (something She expressly forbids us to do + in the Old Laws) doesn't feel right. What is the source of this one? It + appears to be the inner feelings of some Witch or Witches, which is not + good enough to pass off as Craft Law. + + 44. While I have been taught this, it was under "What We Do" rather + than "The Law". The style of presentation sounds too much like what + YHWH would have written as a law rather than the Goddess I know... + + 45. Am I reading this wrong, or is this saying "Honor the Sabbath and + keep it holy"? We need to set aside a whole day(s)? I don't think + that's realistic in these times, although it might have been in + paleolithic times. + + 46. Not necessary. Any teacher will give you this information. + + 47. Definitely flowers. Let each Witch keep a book (she even dropped + the "in their own hand" part). What else is necessary? + + 48. Clumsy, with too many "they"s in spots; How about, "Study the signs + of the Gods in all their forms; these shall guide your thoughts to the + Gods and the Gods will take notice of you. Turn your thoughts and + worship to the Gods, not the signs and statues of them." + + 49. The original here says "If *any* in the Craft owns any land...guard + all monies of the Craft..." thus widening the circle of love beyond + just the Circle you are a part of. + + 50. Old Law. I feel this could be done a bit more clearly. + + 51. Extremely Crowleyian in content, where the content can be + determined. It sounds like it is favoring asceticism "for the good of + the Craft...". Unclear rules like this have led to excesses in other + religions they have appeared in. + + 52. NOT CRAFT LAW. Paul would have loved to have this kind of law as + stated by Christ, but it wasn't true then and it isn't true now. IF + WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO TAKE MONEY FOR THE ART, HOW COME WE CAN BE + ALLOWED TO TAKE GIFTS????? + + 53. Taken as an extension of #52, this law repulses me; however, having + deleted #52, and deleting "offerings of ... money", it could be OK. But + it is totally unnecessary unless you're trying to set yourself up as + the First Church of Wicca, N.A., complete with Xtian abuses of power. + In any loving circle, poeple will bring the incense, or the cakes + and/or wine, or work together on building a new altar. This is already + covered in the laws above, though. + + 54. Harmony will be restored by working toward harmony, not by donating + to your favorite non-profit Temple. Again, the emphasis on giving makes + me think of televangelists ("I need to make the payment on my + Inspirational Cadillac"). I don't know what problems Grove of the + Unicorn has been having in keeping up their payments on the land or + whatever, but their problems should not be used as a lever to change + Craft Law (if indeed this is the object of these laws). + + 55. Once more, this law either comes out of ritual magic or + televangelism (or both). Every Witch should know (or know how to look + up) the proper times for a ritual, and should be able to offer it up + themselves ("thru the most proper medium" could mean "Pay the + Priestess" or it could mean "use the right tools" -- if it is *not* + intended to mean the latter, then this law has no basis in the Craft). + + 56. Old Law, and one of the most important Craft Laws. + + 57. Separating this Law from the previous one causes a minor problem -- + it now becomes "Never break the Laws" (and there are some dillies in + this set) instead of "Never break *this* Law". + + 58. The "Mighty Ones" decided for us "in days of old" that we cannot + use the Art against anyone? A shirking of responsibility is again + evident. While the same precept occurs in my set of the Laws, it is + obviously a decision made in the light of persecutions, not something + decreed from on high. + + 59. Sentence fragments. (sic) This is a subject that is not in the Laws + (but is in the Charge of the Goddess, without the God's side of + things). + + END OF PART TWO + ------------------- + + PART THREE + + 60. Why do we need "the dimly remembered dawn of ages past" and + Atlantis to make this point? This is the only version I've seen that + goes beyond remembered history. + + 61. Should be combined with #60, and have more of the excessive + verbiage dropped. Oh, no! Not another cry of "the evil of chaos" again! + How can these people even *talk* to Discordians??? Any set of Laws that + is intended to be Craft-inclusive must not include value judgements, + especially using the words "good", "evil", and "chaos". This law seems + to be wishing for the time when we were in power; every set of Laws + I've seen prior to this one would settle for a time in which we are + tolerated or accepted. + + 62. I don't understand what this is trying to say -- it seems to + fluctuate between "No more secrets", "Only a few secrets", and "Don't + tell anybody anything". Since all three of these have been expressed + above, I'm not sure this law is needed; it hardly even adds to the + confusion. + + 63. The change from "always heeding the Messenger" to "always heeding + the messages" is a little dangerous, but otherwise, this is Old Law. + + 64. This law sounds pretty Gardnerian in tone, but it does not agree + with Gardnerian myths -- i.e., while Goddess created everything, she + did not create Death itself. Life without Death offers no regeneration, + as Life could not continue on its own; the God was outside of Her + creation, and so He had things to teach Her about Death. (Those of you + who prefer Starhawk's version of this myth are TOTALLY ignored in this + law.) + + 65. I thought an HPs was only concerned mainly with what happens in Her + Circle -- this Law seems to state that She is concerned with an + unstated, but large-sounding, community. Other than that, this is Old + Law. + + 66. I don't think this needs to be in the Laws, but it's a good idea + for each Circle to consider. + + 67. This seems to be based upon the Old Laws' "If any in the Craft has + any land...", but it does take that additional step into demi-deified + clergy. I wish I knew whether Grove of the Unicorn was an authoritarian + structure or not, but these Laws go a long way toward making its sound + like one. (I'm not sure this group could "pass" Isaac Bonewits' Cult + Danger Evaluation Frame after having read this many of their Laws.) + + 68. Aha! Almost Old Law, and a "Burning Times" law! This is still a + good Law , but it was formulated to keep anyone from knowing more than + one group to "give away" if they cracked under pressure of Inquisition. + + 69. Old Law; probably should be included in #68. + + 70. Are we talking about pneumonia, herpes, or a cold here? You can do + a lot better healing work *in* Circle (in my experience) than outside + of it in many cases, and any Witch can decide for her/himself whether + they are too sick to be in Circle and ask (or not ask) for healing. I + suppose I find this law too judgemental, or too general. + + 71. Old Law. + + 72. There is no definition of Council given (the "Old Law" says "the + Elders"), and the "Old Law" states that either the High Priest or the + High Priestess can convene the Elders (useful if the HPs is out of + town...) Otherwise, Old Law. + + 73. Generally, Old Law. Some of the restatements are difficult or + unwieldy, but no real problems. + + 74. Old Law. (Actually, a bit of another Old Law is grafter in for + clarification, but it doesn't hurt anything.) + + + 75. In conflict with English(/American) Law, "Ignorance is no excuse," + includes threefold law (which is NOT included in the Old Laws), and + throws in the Lords of Karma again; rephrased, this could be an + excellent law or rule, but I do not recognize a single source for this + one. Some ritual magic, a little Hinduism, no Craft per se. + + 76. Nice thought; sounds like a personal addition. + + 77. As above, the "want of an offering" is not an issue in Old Law; the + "lack of a robe" has never been discussed, since most groups I am + familiar with generally work skyclad or negotiate the issue. Personal + addition? + + 78. Nice thought; sounds like a personal addition. + + 79. So many flowers that (I feel) most would miss the point. I'm afraid + I did, and I'm a musician. + + 80. Sounds like the Apostle Paul. The qualities I was taught to look + for in a High Priestess were caring, leadership, patience, ability, and + knowing when to ask for help. This cuts out faith (something Goddess + says in Her Charge is not asked for) and belief (something she wouldn't + be in Circle without). More flames on the topic of children. + + 81. Source? Sounds clergy-like to me... + + 82. Old Law states that a requirement of being High Priestess is youth; + while this is not easily practiced in all covens, going to the opposite + extreme is probably not much better. My personal experiences have been + in covens where everyone takes their hand at practicing HP and HPs, + with the HPs acting more like organizer and running coven meetings. + + 83. Ouch. Based upon Old Law, this Law removes the aspect of Love as an + excuse (or Glands, if you like the Wombat Wicca version) -- and demands + both judgement *and* atonement for a HPs who has left and come back -- + even uses the judgemental term, "deserts", in dealing with the issue. + The Old Law may have its drawbacks, but is a much better guide (I feel) + than getting nasty about it. Oooh, they don't even get to hold office + again! Many things are sacred, and certainly being High Priestess is + one of them, but in my teaching, Love is a higher ideal, and the Craft + has always allowed for it. + + 84. Old Law, with flames as above. "It is the lives of all of the Craft + they endanger." Honor is still undefined in this context. + + 85. The use of the word, "Sabbatical" is cute in this context, but this + should be a part of #83 rather than separating them out. Also, the + phrase, "the Maiden should continue in that office" confuses the reader + as to which office -- the law has already stated that she should reap + the reward; does election of another person invalidate the election? It + should read, "...the Maiden shall be the Maiden for the new HPs." + + 86. This is a new idea, and probably a good one: the Priestess and the + Priest need not be the consort of the other, but are selected each by + the coven or circle and are free to choose their own consorts. The one + possible negative I can think of concerns the few times when Great Rite + is held, and the feelings of their consorts on this matter. But then it + lets the coven decide whether the choice was right nor not! If we're + dealing with private lives, let them remain private. Based on Old Law, + except that in Old Law the Priestess is chosen and She selects the + Priest. This law again contains too many value judgements -- if you + need a perfect person to run your circle, you will never meet. + + 87. Adapted from the Letters of Paul the Apostle, not the Old Laws. It + is nice to state that we should be responsible for ourselves, but that + is a part of being a Witch (oops, by these Laws, Witches are only + children, so I suppose making "those of the Priesthood" adults is what + this law is about). This also seems to state (per Xtianity) that their + mates, children, and house are all possessions; hardly a feminist or + Craft perspective. + + 88. Reverse Xtian. Extremely sexist, and no more or less bad than + making the Man ruler of the world. + + THE NEW BOOK OF THE LAW is published by: + The Grove of the Unicorn PO Box 13384 Atlanta, GA 30324 + To order, send a legal size SASE. A small contribution towards + printing/handling costs will be appreciated. + + These comments have been made by Gerald L. Bliss, who is also known as + J. Random Folksinger. Address further comments to Lady Galadriel at the + above address and/or myself. My address is P.O. Box 1842, Colorado + Springs, CO 80903. Also, please feel free to give pointers on how to + make some of these comments in a less-judgemental manner (especially + since my major complaint on these Laws was their own jundgemental + style). I need all the help I can get... + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/nz_aqin.txt b/religious documents/nz_aqin.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..945c06a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/nz_aqin.txt @@ -0,0 +1,309 @@ +Area: Mundane +From : Ammond Shadowcraft 25-Nov-90 19:03:00 + +------------------------------------------------------------------- +Date: Wed Nov 14, 1990 7:47 am MST +From: Dr. Michael A. Aquino / MCI ID: 278-4041 + +TO: * Michael Morgan / MCI ID: 421-3086 + +RESPONSE TO TIM MARONEY'S "THE NAZI TRAPEZOID" + +by- +Michael A. Aquino, Ph.D. +High Priest +Temple of Set +Post Office Box 470307 +San Francisco, CA 94147 +MCI-Mail: 278-4041 + + A correspondent has recently provided me with a copy of a BBS essay + by Tim Maroney entitled "The Nazi Trapezoid" - essentially an + accusation that the Temple of Set's Order of the Trapezoid and myself + are Nazi-sympathetic. [Maroney did not show me the courtesy of + providing me with a copy directly.] + + Maroney first appeared as a conversationalist on the Weirdbase BBS, + via which I occasionally offered some comments about magical & + philosophical subjects. In Maroney's case it soon became apparent, + however, that he was simply interested in picking a fight about Nazism + - evidently a personal fetish of his. + + After being patient with Maroney's abuse and insults for longer than + I felt courtesy required, I finally declined to gratify his emotional + need for confrontation any further and simply ignored his electronic + vitriol. Thus frustrated, he appears to have channeled his ardent + Naziphobia into this BBS tract of his, to which at least a brief + response is in order: + + Within the Temple of Set are several specialized Orders (somewhat + analogous to the departments of a university). One of these is the + Order of the Trapezoid. + + In actuality this particular Order is concerned with a great many + areas of research, of which north European [including Nazi German] + occultism is only one. Others include time/space sciences, proxemics, + art & architecture (particularly Expressionism, Art + Nouveau/Deco/Moderne), electronics (Tesla et al.), _film noir_, + Lovecraftian literature, music & the electromagnetic spectrum, mental + sciences, etc. + + To the extent the Order is interested in Nazi Germany, it is + essentially with regard to the very extensive research into occultism + conducted by the Ahnenerbe and other groups & individuals during that + period. To study and evaluate such material is not to endorse Nazi + Germany generally, any more than a political scientist who studies Nazi + political culture is thereby an apologist for it. In his selective and + out-of-context quoting from the Order's informational paper, Maroney + somehow neglects to mention the following very central passage: + + "The Order of the Trapezoid extracts the positive, the + constructive, the exalted, and the Romantic from the Germanic magical + tradition - and just as carefully avoids and rejects those excesses, + distortions, and cruelties which have made this tradition an object + of the most extraordinary fear, condemnation, and suppression in the + postwar period. The Germanic tradition is also part of the legacy of + the Prince of Darkness, hence is appropriate to an Order within the + Temple of Set, which embraces all manifestations of the Powers of + Darkness in the world. + + "Nevertheless the care required in any investigation into this + tradition cannot be overemphasized. Magical and research ability are + not enough; ethical sensitivity and social discretion are just as + important. The prospects for new and wondrous perspectives on the + Black Art are exhilarating, but success will come only if the Order + conducts its affairs with the same dedication and nobility that have + made the Temple of Set a legend in its time." + + Maroney's accusation that I refuse to make my opinions on Nazi + Germany explicit is absurd. I have always deplored its premises, + policies, and activities which resulted in savagery and misery to a + great many people. Equally emphatically I have deplored premises, + policies, and activities by other countries which resulted in savagery + and misery at the same time in history [and in other eras as well]. + + This, apparently, is not enough for Maroney, who froths with fury at + the notion that there could be anything at all about the Third Reich + not deserving of instant and unqualified condemnation - or at the + heresy that its antagonists were not all lily-white angels of racial + equality, religious tolerance, and all-round political purity. + + As Maroney spends a great deal of time ranting about the supposed + fascist-sympathy of the Temple of Set's reading list, I suppose a word + or two about that is called for. + + That reading list consists of well over a hundred books in 24 + specialized categories of magical and philosophical research. Some of + these are well-known books accepted without a blink in current secular + society. Others are books that cause or have caused a good deal of + controversy because of their statement of facts or expression of + opinions distasteful to current secular society. + + The Temple of Set agrees with Plato that the search for truth should + not be "democratized": Whether an idea is palatable or not, popular or + not, should not justify its promotion or suppression. All data must be + looked at carefully and dispassionately if a true picture of the topic + in question is to emerge. This is, at least theoretically, the aim of + reputable modern universities - but even they, in light of popular + sentiment, must not dare to question certain sacred cows. + + Times change. When my mother attended Stanford University in the + 1920s, women students could not be too intellectual or accomplished + without being ostracized. It was taken for granted that women were + genetically inferior to men, just as in this same country it was taken + for granted that Blacks, Native Americans, and Orientals were + genetically inferior to Caucasians. American Jews were routinely + discriminated against in all sectors of society. + + Maroney evidently imagines that racism and anti-semitism appeared by + magic in Nazi Germany exclusively in the early 20th century. What the + Temple of Set understands, and what a _comprehensive_ tour of its + reading list demonstrates, is that the impulses behind prejudice of any + sort - religious, racial, sexual, etc. - are present in _all_ cultures. + Show me a person - perhaps Maroney would care to volunteer? - who + believes himself beyond all bias, and I'll show you a victim of tragic + - and dangerous - self-deceit. + + Ultimately the proof of the pudding is in the eating. If the Order + of the Trapezoid is so dangerously fascist, where are the stormtroopers + it has spawned? The riots? The revolutions? But wait: If we are to + believe Maroney, it is the very _absence_ of conspicuous neo-Nazism in + the Order's actual accomplishments that makes it all the more + frightful. As for Michael Aquino, Maroney's baleful portrait reminds me + charmingly of an H.P. Lovecraft passage in his _Strange Case of Charles + Dexter Ward_: + + "By 1760 Joseph Curwen was virtually an outcast, suspected of + vague horrors and demonic alliances which seemed all the more + sinister because they could not be named, understood, or even proved + to exist." + + Sorry about that. But I am not about to cease my quest for the Grail + of Truth simply to appease the private neuroses of the Maroneys of the + World. Indeed I might respond with a quote from Abraham Lincoln, who + during the Civil War was also vilified for being insufficiently + supportive of various popular passions of that troubled time: + + "If I were to try to read, much less answer all the attacks made + on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do + the very best I know how - the very best I can, and I mean to keep + doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is + said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out + wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." + +******************************************************************** + + Note: Here from Oz Tech is a response to Tim Maroney's article on + the Nazi Trapezoid. I know from personal experience that Oz Tech is a + member of the Temple of Set and that this electronic mail bore her + mundane network address header. + ------------------------ + + Thank you for forwarding Maroney's "Trapezoid" article and for + asking about it. + + As you well know, I am a member of the Priesthood of Set. Upon + meeting with Dr. Stephen Edred Flowers a few years ago and discussing + my interests I was extended an invitation to join the Order of the + Trapezoid. I have participated in the mysteries of that Order. I have + examined past and present publications, corresponded with many Setians + and traveled to several parts of the continent to meet Setians in + person. I am black. I have also been a member of the ACLU for over ten + years. + + Nazism is a totalitarian ideology based on bogus notions of racial + supremacy, blood & land. If the Temple of Set were actually a neo-Nazi + front I think would have *noticed*. + + The doctrines and practices of the Temple of Set, and those of the + Order of the Trapezoid, are neither totalitarian nor racist. + + Questing after "Nazi occultism", and having no real knowledge of the + Order of the Trapezoid's work, Tim Maroney fails to mention the 36 + other books outside "Fascism, Totalitarianism and Magic" that are + marked in the reading list as titles of importance to the Order of the + Trapezoid. + + So eager is he to identify Order interest in Germanic magic with + "Nazi occultism" he =ignores= "Runic Arts and Sciences", the section + devoted to pre-Christian occult practices in Europe. + + As for the many other OT-recommended books--the texts on Pythagorean + philosophy, sacred geometry, archeology and archetypes in fiction--he + ignores them, having made up his mind: this is surely a front for a + Hitler admiration society + + His references to "evasion" and "plausible deniability" seem to + derive from his fury at being brushed off by Dr. Aquino on the net some + months ago. Dr. Aquino has dealt with so many fruitcake conspiracy + buffs that to him Maroney is probably just another dragonslayer a la + Geraldo. + + What of the re-formulation of the Order of the Trapezoid at + Wewelburg Castle? Here again the intent is magically precise. + + Any occultist or neo-Pagan familiar with the pre-Christian history + of Europe knows that the continent is crossed by "ley lines" of + telluric current. Pennick's book, HITLER'S SECRET SCIENCES, describes + how the geomancer Himmler sought out key points on ley lines for his SS + buildings: "Deeply conscious of the magical aspect of earth mysteries, + by a seemingly innocent interest in the preservation of ancient + monuments he managed to gain personal control of those places he + considered magically powerful." (What is more, that book describes a + similar study of geomancy used by the Jesuits in their spiritual + conquest of Europe and the southwestern territories of the New World!) + + The Wewelburg is one such site. In the eyes of a materialist, the + use of a "power spot" formerly held by Nazis is support of Nazism. In + the eyes of a trained occultist it is no such thing. The elemental + forces in such a place are not "Nazi" any more than the water arising + from a spring is "Native American" or "French" or "Republican". Tim + Maroney infers that the use of this site implies Nazism within the + Order of the Trapezoid. It would be as logical to infer that the + cathedrals of Europe are host to the pagan worship formerly carried on + at those sites: logical, but dead wrong. + + Lest there be any doubt: the SS catechism explains that the Nazi + ethos is squarely based on belief in God. The candidate swore to serve + Hitler as an agent of God! There is Hitler's own brazen oath, "By + resisting the Jews, I strive for the work of the Lord". We have + nothing to do with this religious insanity. In the Order of the + Trapezoid the candidate swears an oath to one master only: to his or + her immortal fylga, the numinous Self. + + Indeed, this is true of all Temple practices. We swear no oaths to + mystic masters, high priests, books or even to Set. Selfhood alone + binds the individual to his or her destiny. + + For all Tim Maroney's claims about human dignity, he cannot clearly + distinguish friend from foe. + + What? Tim says this reading list lacks books on the Holocaust? Well, + if we thought genocide was a magical technique we'd surely have + included a few--but we don't! + + What's magically important about the Nazi is not that they butchered + millions--rather, it's that they bewitched seemingly "rational" people + into helping them. + + THAT is magic, a magic that must be understood instead of drugging + ourselves with the opium of righteousness. Between Aquino's offer of + knowledge and Maroney's dire warnings against moral contamination, I + feel it is a simple choice, though not a comfortable one. + + Oz Tech + + Note: I received more comments from Oz Tech from her normal net + mail address. + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + Thanks for posting my response. + + I don't know if it will do much good, actually, since for most + folks, fantasies about wicked conspiracy elsewhere are far more + delicious than self-recognition. (Dr. Aquino scored a true hit when he + took the measure of Maroney's obsession and jokingly asked if he had a + wish to be flogged by an SS she-devil. I know Tim will *never* forgive + him. Would-be dragonslayers never have a sense of humor.) + + Some of our best applicants to the Temple have come from those who + saw Aquino speak of his philosophy on the Geraldo show while being + attacked by folks who were not playing with a full deck. I doubt the + Usenet readership will come running to the Temple gates but I am sure a + few can comprehend & respect the Setian way, whether it is their way or + not. + + Oz Tech +----------------------------------------------------------------- + + So while Tim has gone out of his way to question the motives of the + Temple of Set's Order of the Trapezoid, one among ten orders, no one + has seen fit to question Tim's motives. Why? Because Tim is + cantankerous. He's hard to work with. Confronting him requires time + and effort. And that's as it should be. He does his part and we do + ours. If either side drops the ball the outcome of the game is + diminished. So let's avoid the issue of confronting Tim. He's a lost + cause, but he does some really wonderful things for the magikal + communities. + + Let's thank him instead. In the last year or so Tim has been on a + nice little campaign to expose neo-Pagan and Wiccan prejudice. The + Nazi Trapezoid article has nicely brought to surface some neo-Pagan + prejudice. The Trickster manifests in Tim quite well. Where the + Trickster is involved, the left hand need not know what the right + hand is doing. In fact it works better if all parties are unaware + of the Trickster's capricious devices. We owe Tim many thanks for + exposing these prejudices. Thanx Tim. + + This has been a very good thing for the Temple of Set. Neo-Pagan + prejudice has been exposed, the Temple's ethics and Orders have been + fully advertised--complete with snail and MCI mail addresses--and Dr. + Aquino has had a chance to address these problems here and on Usenet. + + Why am I doing all this work to defend the Temple of Set? I believe + in intellectual freedom. Furthermore, I despise prejudice, hidden or + overt. I think it is a damn shame that many neo-Pagans suffer from + the same problems they ardently struggle against. These are the ones + who enjoyed Tim's article and who suddenly found themselves at the + bottom of his slippery slope. OOOOPPPSS... + + * Origin: THE CRYSTAL CAVE "DAS MAGICK TREFFPUNKT"(719-391-1092) (1:128/50) diff --git a/religious documents/nz_bala.txt b/religious documents/nz_bala.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06c0ab5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/nz_bala.txt @@ -0,0 +1,471 @@ +To: Diane Vera +Subject: Non-Fascist Temple of Set +Area: Base of Set + + +Diane, + +I have not seen any of the 1990 correspondence between Tim Maroney +and Dr. Aquino, nor do I have any interest in seeing it. I will +try to avoid commenting on the alleged abuses or failings of +language, protocol, or courtesy from either side within that +correspondence. + +Nor am I going to comment on the personal comments made by anyone +concerning anyone else anywhere in this thread -- I find only two +justifications for my spending so much time this week examining the +documents and comments concerning same, material which is at best +peripheral to my own personal Xeper: + +a) You have indicated that you want to be able to present a clear +argument that Satanism is not inherently fascist, and you want my +assistance in proving that the Temple of Set is not fascist, so +you can use it to support your argument. I think this is a worthy +project. + +b) If the Temple presents me with another opportunity to exercise +my Toastmasters training on their behalf, and if the same sorts of +questions are asked of me (as they likely will be if your +activities garner publicity), I had better be prepared. + +So I'm going to concentrate strictly on the question of fascism, +the supposed appearance of same, and the actuality of non-fascism. + +----- + +In your 1/25 post to me, you suggest that the question "What does +Aquino agree with and disagree with about Nazi ideology (repeat: +Nazi *ideology*, not just Nazi practices)?" is a reasonable one. +I would agree. You go on to wonder why Dr. Aquino "felt he had to +duck this question." + +I find he answered several elements of the question. However, those +answers may have been too general to answer the questions you have. + +"I have always deplored its [Naziism's] premises, policies, and +activities which resulted in savagery and misery to a great many +people." (Dr. Aquino's 11/14 response, as quoted in part 2 of your +1/25 post to me.) He deplores its premises (ideology) and its +policies (practices) which result in savagery and misery. + +What are the specifics not covered in that statement that you need +clarification on? What are the elements of Nazi ideology that +concern you which did not "result in savagery and misery to a great +many people"? + +For those who may not know the precise definition, my dictionary +defines ideology as: "1: visionary theorizing. 2a: a systematic +body of concepts, esp. about human life or culture. 2b: a manner +or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, group, +or culture. 2c: the integrated assertions, theories, and aims that +constitute a sociopolitical program." + +Each of the variations of definition 2 apply to this discussion. +My dictionary defines Naziism as, "the body of political and +economic doctrines held and put into effect by the National +Socialist German Workers' party in the Third German Reich including +the totalitarian principle of government, state control of all +industry, predominance of groups assumed to be racially superior, +and supremacy of the fuhrer." + +I'm not Dr. Aquino, but I've been reading his works for well over +a decade now, and I've heard some of his discussions on these and +related topics, and I believe I can accurately state the following: + +1) Dr. Aquino disagrees with the Nazi ideology of the totalitarian +principle of government. While he recognizes that there are +problems in every form of democracy used to date, democracy in +general results in better governments and better organizations than +does totalitarianism. + +In evidence of this, I point to the organization of the Temple of +Set (his design), where a) there are multiple checks and balances +designed to ensure that no single person wields totalitarian power, +b) all members of the Priesthood have an equal vote concerning the +bylaws of the organization, and c) a democratic vote of the Council +of Nine is powerful enough to remove any officer from power and to +expel any member from the organization, including the High Priest. + +2) Dr. Aquino disagrees with the Nazi ideology of the state control +of all industry. While Dr. Aquino is certainly no captain of +industry (he prefers to earn his livelihood within academia), I've +never heard him express any dissatisfaction with capitalism or the +free market system, other than the generally recognized fact that +people can be financially hurt in a non-socialist state. + +Instead of arguing for a socialist state, which would be the case +if he supported this Nazi ideology, Dr. Aquino instead argues that +Black Magicians should be able to successfully make their own way +in a capitalist society. + +3) Dr. Aquino disagrees with the Nazi ideology of the predominance +of groups assumed to be racially superior. I have always seen Dr. +Aquino treat people of various races as comparative equals, judging +people not by race, but by personal qualities under the control of +the individual (their education, their application of their native +intelligence, their sociability, their honor, their dedication, +etc). + +4) Dr. Aquino disagrees with the Nazi ideology of the supremacy of +the fuhrer. There were some things that Hitler said or wrote which +are worth studying, but there were also many, many things said, +written, and done by Hitler which are reprehensible. Setians are +fond of saying they worship none but their own higher Selves. Dr. +Aquino lives that ideal. + +Those are the four ideologies of Naziism listed in my dictionary. +If there are other ideologies you wonder about, you'll need to ask +about them specifically. + +----- + +You quote Dr. Aquino's 11/14/90 statement, "To the extent the Order +is interested in Nazi Germany, it is essentially with regard to +the very extensive research into occultism conducted by the +Ahnenerbe and other groups & individuals during that period." You +then go on to claim, "As the Order of the Trapezoid statement makes +clear, there is much more to its interest in Nazism than this. +Aquino does not address any of the specific issues raised in Tim's +article, which I will highlight in a later message to you." (I +haven't received same, as far as I know.) + +Reading through the Order of the Trapezoid statement, I find that +the introduction concentrates on German Romanticism, and the +Order's statement doesn't even mention the Third Reich until the +eighth paragraph. The Third Reich and the Nazi influence is then +discussed and dismissed in six paragraphs. The Third Reich and Nazi +influence occupies less than one page in the five-page document. + +Reading those six paragraphs, I find myself unable to support your +claim that "there is much more to its interest in Nazism than +this." + +I do find the 1939 quote from Herman Rauschning, which said, "This +irrational element in National Socialism is the actual source of +its strength. It is the reliance on it that accounts for its +'sleepwalker's immunity' in the face of one practical problem after +another. It explains why it was possible for National Socialism to +attain power almost without the slightest tangible idea of what it +was going to do. ..." + +Yes, the study of the social dynamics which are mentioned are of +interest, but I fail to see the connection between those social +dynamics and Naziism ... those social dynamics apply to all +fanatical movements which quickly rise to power (or at least +struggle for it). Do you disagree? + +If you can point out to me where you find this interest in Naziism +rather than German Romanticism, perhaps I'll be better able to +answer your question. Until then, I just don't see the source of +your concern. + +----- + +In your 1/18 reply to Triple Six's 1/13 message to you, you quote +his statement, "Dr. Aquino states that the 'third Reich's dynamism +got out of hand, leading it to embark on irrational and destructive +foreign invasions...'" and his commentary, and you respond, "Yes, +but can't you see that Aquino's statement *is* rather puzzling? +Aquino tries to distinguish between the Third Reich's "dynamism and +life-worship" on the one hand, and its racism and "crude +xenophobia" on the other hand. But what else was Nazism's "dynamism +and life-worship" based on, besides racism?" + +As indicated in the Order of the Trapezoid's statement, that +dynamism and life worship was founded in a historical philosophy +of German Romanticism, which significantly predates Naziism. I +believe you'll find that verified in the books listed in that +reading list section (though since I haven't read them, I can't +verify that from my own research -- like you I'm not interested in +the topic myself). It's my impression that racism is not a +significant part of the more historical German traditions, at least +not any more than you'll find /anywhere/ in the ancient world up +through the 1800's. + +----- + +Moving on to Tim's 11/11/90 "The Nazi Trapezoid" itself, Tim +Maroney opens his discussion of the supposed Nazi sympathy within +the Temple of Set with, "But unsettling questions remain concerning +this organization. It harbors a subgroup, the Order of the +Trapezoid, which is dedicated to Nazi occultism. Aquino is known +to have participated in black magical rituals at Wewelsburg Castle, +set up as a place of occult working for the SS by Heinrich Himmler. +Aquino counts Nazi occultism as one of his chief interests, and the +heraldry and symbolism of the SS is one of his favorite topics of +discussion. These facts would seem to indicate, at least on the +face of them, that Aquino is sympathetic to Nazism." + +1) The Temple of Set also "harbors" a subgroup, the Order of the +Vampyre. No, this group doesn't wander the streets at night and +suck the blood out of homeless victims, but rather (quoting from +its statement), "Members of this Order will strive to bring to Life +those qualities and aspects of our potential which have long been +considered to be dead, undead, or just plain latent." + +It also "harbors" a subgroup, the Order of Shuti, which examines +(among other things) Opposites and Extremes. In its statement +(which I just uploaded to Northern Lights) I find, "One obsolete +philosophy of magic was that to achieve balance, the magician has +to experience and participate in the extremes (often the extremes +of good and evil)." No, this group doesn't advocate the pursuit of +evil and the execution of horrors, "but the Initiate of Shuti will +recognize and work with any and all opposites / extremes, and with +the ranges and balances between them, whenever and however +appropriate." + +It also "harbors" a subgroup, the Order of the Scarab. Quoting from +its statement, "This Order directly addresses the question of +*responsible* Setian magic. ... Major emphasis is placed on +personal aims, wakefulness, Becoming, and the use of Lesser and +Greater Black Magic with accountability." + +There is a wide diversity of activity within the Temple of Set +(these are but four of the eleven Orders found within the Temple +of Set as of today). Many of the activities pursued within the +Temple of Set are in direct opposition to Nazi ideas and policies. +To indicate that there is Nazi sympathy because one group looks at +the Nazi use of occultism seems to be jumping to a conclusion on +insufficient information. + +2) The Order of the Trapezoid is *not* "dedicated" to Nazi +occultism. That is just one of the areas which they explore, and +my impression (from reading their newsletter and talking to their +members, since I myself am not a member of that Order) is that Nazi +occultism is a fairly minor aspect of the Order. If the Order of +the Trapezoid is "dedicated" to anything, that dedication is found +in the statement, + +"The O.Tr. is an Order of knighthood characterized by strict +personal honor and faithfulness to the quest for the Grail. The +Order is a *knighthood* in that its members are pledged to the +traditional chivalric virtues as appropriate to each situation +encountered. By *honor* is meant a sense of justice, ethics, and +responsibility prior to personal comfort, convenience, or +advantage. This honor is known by one's *faithfulness* to the Quest +of the Grail, which is the self, soul, or psyche made perfect +through conscious refinement and exercise of the Will." + +Let me repeat that sentence which expands on the Order's concept +of honor: "By *honor* is meant a sense of justice, ethics, and +responsibility prior to personal comfort, convenience, or +advantage." + +In my opinion that statement directly and absolutely disproves +Tim's expectation of fascism. + +3) Aquino is known to have participated in black magical rituals +at Wewelsburg Castle, set up as a place of occult working for the +SS by Heinrich Himmler. As I've pointed out in other posts on this +topic, simply using a site does not imply the condoning of any +activity which may have occurred previously at that site. Oz Tech +suggested some very good reasons for the use of that site in her +1990 post (attached to Dr. Aquino's response), as I did in my 1/20 +message to you. + +From recent posts I gather that Bobby Meizer and Tim Maroney +disagree with me on this point. I can understand why they +disagree, but on reviewing my opinions on this matter I stand by +my comments. + +4) "Aquino counts Nazi occultism as one of his chief interests, +and the heraldry and symbolism of the SS is one of his favorite +topics of discussion." + +How does one determine someone's "chief interests" and "favorite +topics of discussion"? Yes, Dr. Aquino knows quite a bit about +these topics, as he does about many, many, many topics (is my +jealousy showing, or is it camouflaged by your green terminal +screen?). He writes and talks about these topics as well as he does +with many other topics. + +But, in over a decade of reading his writings, I have not seen any +special concentration in this area. In several years of attending +social and other gatherings with Dr. Aquino, I have not found him +to launch into discussions about these topics in preference to +other topics. I therefore offer that Tim's claims here seem to be +a projection of Tim's expectations, and an exaggeration, rather +than fact. + +5) "These facts would seem to indicate, at least on the face of +them, that Aquino is sympathetic to Nazism." I can see how someone +who is overly sensitive to the possibilities of covert racism (as +you suggest might be Tim's case) can make such an interpretation. +But I suggest that an open minded inquirer, with a little bit of +actual information (as I present above), will see that there is not +sufficient information to reach that conclusion. + +Indeed, I stand by my own personal knowledge of Dr. Aquino, and +the definition of Naziism quoted from the dictionary above, to +state simply that Dr. Aquino is *not* sympathetic to Naziism as an +ideology, as a political party, as a governmental force, etc. He +is interested in their occult studies, and he is interested in +studying just how they obtained so much power so rapidly. That is +not an indication of sympathy. + +----- + +Let me add one more "fact" here. You mention in another post of +yours how the presence of one (or even a few) black Priests would +not disprove Tim's claims of apparent racism. However, I believe +there is a similar example which does provide a strong proof +against Tim's claim of fascism. + +Dr. Aquino, as High Priest, I believe in 1989, appointed a IV* +Magister Templi of Jewish descent as Chairman of the Council of +Nine. The Chairman of the Council of Nine is a post with a one- +year term of office, and Dr. Aquino has twice reappointed this +"Jew" to this highest of offices. In each case, the Council of +Nine overwhelmingly ratified these appointments. + +(The Chairman of the Council of Nine is the one person who can +start the process of deposing the High Priest from office, and the +Chairman of the Council of Nine is the one person who appoints a +new High Priest in the event of any vacancy in that office.) + +I think you'll agree that this is not an example of "tokenism". +Instead, this action prooves that Dr. Aquino and the highest +Initiates of the Temple of Set do not discriminate against Setians +of Jewish background. (Let me point out that the initial +appointment to that office predates Tim's accusations and his "The +Nazi Trapezoid".) + +----- + +Tim goes on to quote the Order of Trapezoid statement: + +"Crucial also to German Romanticism were the concepts of _dynamism_ +and _life-worship_. The former term represents an urge towards +constant movement and evolution, whether intellectual, artistic, +or social. [...] The uncanny attraction of the Third Reich - Nazi +Germany - lies in the fact that it endorsed and practiced both +dynamism and life-worship without restraint and to a world-shaking +degree of success." + +Normally I wouldn't argue too much with the text someone feels is +unimportant and therefore condenses into "[...]" -- but I feel that +here Tim left out a very important paragraph. The statement +actually reads, + +"Crucial also to German Romanticism were the concepts of /dynamism/ +and /life-worship/. The former term represents an urge towards +constant movement and evolution, whether intellectual, artistic, +or social. [...] + +"German Romantic life-worship was not love and respect for the +phenomenon of life per se, but rather a compulsion to exercise +one's own life -- to 'really live' rather than to simply exist. +Again this is commendable, but as with dynamism it can be dangerous +in excess -- when one's 'rage to live' interrupts and consumes the +lives of others. + +"The uncanny attraction of the Third Reich - Nazi Germany - lies +in the fact that it endorsed and practiced both dynamism and +life-worship without restraint and to a world-shaking degree of +success." + +In my opinion, the three paragraphs in succession point to Dr. +Aquino's opinion that the Third Reich took the traditional German +philosophies too far. That middle paragraph (which Tim chose not +to quote) points to Dr. Aquino's disagreement with the excesses of +German Romanticism, even without the influence of Naziism. Taking +that into account, his statements disagreeing with the "excesses" +of Naziism can be seen to be disagreements, not apologies as Tim +seems to suggest. + +Tim then goes into a rather lengthy examination of section 14 of +the Temple's reading list, attempting to demonstrate Nazi +sympathies through Dr. Aquino's comments concerning the books +listed there. In my opinion the case is not made, and I value my +time too much to go through and dispute those statements. But then +I cheated -- I know the man and understand what he feels and thinks +a bit better than Tim Maroney does. + +----- + +You asked me to give you some feedback concerning your 1/25 +3-part message to Triple Six. + +You state to Triple Six, "My interest is not "feigned", as you +seemed to imply on January 19, but my interest *is* indirect. That +is, what you perceive as my "laziness" is the fact that I don't (at +the present time, at least) have any deep interest in the topic of +Nazi occultism itself, but only in the question of how non-Nazi +sympathizers relate to it." + +The problem you face in getting Setians on the echoes to discuss +this topic in the detail you so obviously desire is that we don't +have any deep interest in the topic either, not in Nazi occultism, +nor even in how non-Nazi sympathizers relate to it. I haven't seen +any members of the Order of the Trapezoid participating in any +on-going discussion in any of these echoes. The brevity and +shallowness of the responses you've gotten is indicative of our +general lack of interest. + +(I've been a member of the Temple of Set since well before the +founding of the Order of the Trapezoid, and I'm interested in some +of the things they do, but not enough to belong to that Order. +They, apparently, are either not watching the echoes or are too +busy doing whatever they're doing to respond to you.) + +"It greatly helps my defense of Satanism to be able to point to +ToS as an example of a prominent Satanic organization which is +*not* fascistic (despite my philosophical disagreements with ToS +on other matters). + +"Unfortunately, it's a common perception among occultists that ToS +too is a bunch of neo-fascists and/or Nazi sympathizers." + +Yes, I've found that perception to be fairly common. However, it's +a perception which I've also found fairly easy to disperse once I +start talking to or corresponding with people. Of course, I have +the benefit of actually being a member of the Temple, and being +able to talk from personal experience. You don't have that benefit, +and so I can see where you would need some more impersonal +evidence. I hope this response helps. + +"This idea isn't just 'Tim's paranoia'; it is a view shared by +*many* occultists, including even some ex-ToS members. (See, for +example, the brief description of the Temple of Nepthys in SATAN +WANTS YOU by Arthur Lyons, Chapter IX.)" + +You've just pushed a button of mine with reference to that specific +ex-ToS member. At one time I considered Lynn Johnson to be a +friend, and a very promising Adept of the Temple of Set. I liked +her, and I was close friends with her Setian fiance, and I was +looking forward to being present at their wedding. + +But almost without warning, she then became a very disruptive +element, very antagonistic to the Temple and to all who believe in +it, apparently because no one would Recognize her to the III*. +(This is my interpretation of her motivation, based on what I know +of her activities, including several hours of listening to her on +the telephone during that period in time while she tried to +"enlist" me to her side of the "struggle".) + +She worked as hard as she could to harm the Temple of Set, and then +founded her own "Temple of Nepthys". She declared herself Maga, and +distributed (sold) copies of our _Crystal Tablet_, substituting her +own name for Dr. Aquino's, substituting "Red Magic" for "Black +Magic", "Nepthys" for "Set", etc., but otherwise it was a word for +word copy (down to entries in her inter-member communication roster +-- my own entry was copied verbatim, with only the names changed). + +She's continued to do what she can to harm the Temple of Set, +apparently up to and including obtaining a false membership (or +having someone else do it for her), apparently so she could obtain +updated copies of the _Crystal Tablet_ which she can then sell to +others as her own again. (I have not seen a recently plagiarized +copy, but I've heard that others have.) + +I strongly suggest that anything she says about anything be +disregarded. + +----- + +I think I've covered all of the substantive points in this +discussion. I hope I have, since other work is calling to me. + +Balanone + PP + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/nz_dvr1.txt b/religious documents/nz_dvr1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b734624 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/nz_dvr1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,354 @@ + +******************************************************************************* + From: Diane Vera Msg Num: 73 of 80 + To: Balanone Date: 29 Feb 92 22:32:30 + Subj: "Nazi sympathies" + Attr: Rec'd Read: N + Conf: Magickal Chat Echo (93Net) +******************************************************************************* + +Here, at last, is my long-procrastinated reply to your February 3 +string of messages to me in BASE OF SET titled "Non-Fascist Temple +of Set". I've decided to try to move this discussion to OASIS, +since I gather that most BASE OF SET readers are long since tired of +it, and so that Tim can comment without being perceived as "hounding +Setians". OASIS, in case you're unfamiliar with it, is an occult +"anything goes" echo, distributed mainly to OTO boards and thus +inhabited mainly by Thelemites, with a large minority of Satanists. +. +Thanks for spelling out Aquino's disagreements with all the main +tenets of Nazi ideology. I hope you'll suggest to Aquino that he +give a similarly straightforward reply next time someone tries to +question him in depth about the common perception of "Nazi +sympathies" on his part. (Had he done so in MAGICKNET two years +ago, I don't think Tim would have written "The Nazi Trapezoid", +although Tim might still have had a few questions. Right, Tim?) +. + B > In Dr. Aquino's 11/14/90 response, as quoted in part + 2 of your 1/25 post to me, Dr. Aquino says, "I have always + deplored its [Naziism's] premises, policies, and activities + which resulted in savagery and misery to a great many + people." He deplores its premises (ideology) and its + policies (practices) which result in savagery and misery. +. +But, unlike your message to me, Aquino's "response" to "The Nazi +Trapezoid" doesn't specify *what* these "premises" are which he +deplores. Aquino does, after all, agree with (or at least encourage +open-mindedness toward) *some* ideas that are associated with +Nazism. For example, on March 15, 1990 in MAGICKNET, Aquino wrote +to Mel. White in a message titled "Taboo Genetics": +. + MA > Dear Ms. White, + Yes, it's interesting when one comes across a living example + of the Nazi genetic breeding experiments - bearing in mind + that this program barely got off the ground before the outcome + of WW2 brought an end to it. + Humanity breeds vegetables and virtually every other + animal except itself to improve strength, substance, + appearance, etc. Prior to WW2 the entire subject of human + genetic engineering by selective breeding was not a taboo as + it is today. It was not just Nazi Germany which was + interested in it. But the Nazis' experiments in it transformed + it into a postwar taboo, equated today with racism, genocide, + etc. Perhaps in another century this taboo will have + exhausted itself, but for now even a hint of interest in it is + certain to provoke howls of indignation from the masses. + I have a friend who was [un]fortunate enough to be born + in Nazi Germany as a result of a marriage adhering to the + country's multi-generational racial laws. Consequently she has + a birth certificate, complete with gold eagle & swastika, + which is positively dazzling - certainly nothing like the + rubber-stamp certificates issued today. She has been heard to + remark rather bitterly that all the golden certificate got her + was increased persecution in the years following the war. Such + is the mandala of history. +. +Aquino suggests here that human "genetic engineering by selective +breeding" doesn't necessarily have to mean racism. And indeed it +doesn't, at least in theory. But I don't see how, in practice, +human eugenics could ever be disentangled from racism and other +forms of oppression. I'm wondering how, "in another century", +Aquino thinks it might be implemented. +. +I don't necessarily expect you to provide an answer to this +question, since you're not Aquino. I'm just trying to give you an +idea of why, in the absense of any clear statement by Aquino stating +what he does *not* agree with about Nazi ideology, Tim got the +very strong impression that Aquino is a "Nazi sympathizer". Simply +disapproving of Nazi atrocities (as Aquino has done) does not +constitute a statement of fundamental disagreement with Nazism. As +Tim Maroney wrote in MAGICKNET on February 26, 1990, in a message to +Brad Hicks, "Re: Oh, Yeh?": +. + TM > One more thing -- it may not be clear why I regard + Aquino's latest statement about Nazism to still be unclear on + the subject. To transplant the argument, I personally am + aware that socialists have done any number of mean, evil, and + nasty things, and I condemn those -- this is an exact parallel + to Aquino's stated feelings about Nazism. However, you would + be incorrect to draw from that the conclusion that I consider + socialism an abomination or am not sympathetic to it. In + fact, the opposite is true; I consider the socialist + atrocities to be aberrations and the fundamental theory to + remain sound. Anyone dealing honestly with any political + movement that has attained any degree of public success must + admit that many manifestations of the movement have been + undesirable. But this in itself does not mean that one does + not remain in essential sympathy with the goals of the + movement. +. +If only Aquino had posted something like your message, which does +constitute a clear statement of disagreement with Nazi ideology, not +just Nazi atrocities (though I see a couple minor problems with your +statement which I'll discuss later). For the benefit of other +readers, I will quote in full the relevant parts of your message: +. + B > My dictionary defines Naziism as, "the body of + political and economic doctrines held and put into effect + by the National Socialist German Workers' party in the + Third German Reich including the totalitarian principle of + government, state control of all industry, predominance of + groups assumed to be racially superior, and supremacy of + the fuhrer." +. + B > I'm not Dr. Aquino, but I've been reading his works + for well over a decade now, and I've heard some of his + discussions on these and related topics, and I believe I + can accurately state the following: + 1) Dr. Aquino disagrees with the Nazi ideology of + the totalitarian principle of government. While he + recognizes that there are problems in every form of + democracy used to date, democracy in general results in + better governments and better organizations than does + totalitarianism. + In evidence of this, I point to the organization of + the Temple of Set (his design), where a) there are multiple + checks and balances designed to ensure that no single + person wields totalitarian power, b) all members of the + Priesthood have an equal vote concerning the bylaws of the + organization, and c) a democratic vote of the Council of + Nine is powerful enough to remove any officer from power + and to expel any member from the organization, including + the High Priest. + 2) Dr. Aquino disagrees with the Nazi ideology of + the state control of all industry. While Dr. Aquino is + certainly no captain of industry (he prefers to earn his + livelihood within academia), I've never heard him express + any dissatisfaction with capitalism or the free market + system, other than the generally recognized fact that + people can be financially hurt in a non-socialist state. + Instead of arguing for a socialist state, which + would be the case if he supported this Nazi ideology, Dr. + Aquino instead argues that Black Magicians should be able + to successfully make their own way in a capitalist society. + 3) Dr. Aquino disagrees with the Nazi ideology of + the predominance of groups assumed to be racially superior. + I have always seen Dr. Aquino treat people of various races + as comparative equals, judging people not by race, but by + personal qualities under the control of the individual + (their education, their application of their native + intelligence, their sociability, their honor, their + dedication, etc). + 4) Dr. Aquino disagrees with the Nazi ideology of + the supremacy of the fuhrer. There were some things that + Hitler said or wrote which are worth studying, but there + were also many, many things said, written, and done by + Hitler which are reprehensible. Setians are fond of saying + they worship none but their own higher Selves. Dr. Aquino + lives that ideal. + Those are the four ideologies of Naziism listed in + my dictionary. If there are other ideologies you wonder + about, you'll need to ask about them specifically. + Since Naziism and fascism are so closely related, + and since Dr. Aquino and the Temple of Set have been + accused of being fascist, let me explore that topic also. +. + B > Fascism -- 1: a political philosophy, movement, or + regime that exalts nation and race above the individual, + and that stands for a centralized autocratic government + headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social + regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. 2: + a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic + or dictatorial control. + 1) Dr. Aquino believes in and exalts the individual + over the nation and race. This is central to the concept + of Xeper and the Left Hand Path. This concept is even more + important than the Temple of Set -- as High Priest he as + seen many individual initiates pleasantly leave the Temple + of Set for reasons of their own, and has later welcomed + back several of those with open arms. Such is not the + behavior of a fascist. + 2) Dr. Aquino does not believe in a centralized + autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader. He + believes in the American form of democracy (while admitting + that it has its problems), and he has designed the Temple's + organization and bylaws to prevent any dictatorial leader + from gaining absolute control. + 3) Dr. Aquino does not believe in social + regimentation nor forcible suppression of opposition. + Instead he welcomes diversity within the Temple of Set, and + has not only tolerated but welcomed intelligent forms of + opposition within the Temple of Set. +. +So far, my one objection is to the following statement: +. + B > Instead of arguing for a socialist state, which would + be the case if he supported this Nazi ideology, Dr. Aquino + instead argues that Black Magicians should be able to + successfully make their own way in a capitalist society. +. +This is one argument I would hesitate to present to a politically- +sophisticated audience. At the very least, I certainly wouldn't +emphasize it. +. +Technically, "Nazism" was indeed an abbreviation for the phrase +"National Socialism". However, *today's American* neo-fascists, +racists, and "Nazi sympathizers" will usually present themselves as +ardent champions of capitalism. How they reconcile this +contradiction, I don't know; but it's nonetheless a fact that they +will usually oppose welfare, rather than arguing (as perhaps a +classical Nazi might) that we should keep welfare but reserve it for +people of pure Nordic descent. Today's neo-Nazi types usually +assume (like the LaVey crowd) that only "inferior" folks would ever +need welfare. Also, they will sometimes claim to be champions of +small business against the corporate establishment ("Main Street vs. +Wall Street"). +. +It has also been questioned how genuinely socialist "National +Socialism" really was. I've read several places that Nazism was +promoted by German industrialists as an alternative to "real" +socialism. I don't know enough about Nazism's actual ecomonic +policies to make a judgment about this. In any case, Nazism was +fiercely anti-Communist, which it has in common with today's +American neo-Nazi's. +. +I'm *not* trying to suggest that being pro-capitalist or fiercely +anti-Communist makes one a "Nazi sympathizer". I'm simply pointing +out that, in today's political context, being pro-capitalist does +not constitute evidence *against* a perception that one is a "Nazi +sympathizer", semantically correct though that argument may be. +. +Later in your message, in your comments on Tim Maroney's article +"The Nazi Trapezoid", you made another argument I wouldn't present +to a politically-aware audience: +. + B > The Order of the Trapezoid is *not* "dedicated" to + Nazi occultism. [...] If the Order of the Trapezoid is + "dedicated" to anything, that dedication is found in the + statement, + "The O.Tr. is an Order of knighthood characterized + by strict personal honor and faithfulness to the quest for + the Grail. The Order is a *knighthood* in that its members + are pledged to the traditional chivalric virtues as + appropriate to each situation encountered. By *honor* is + meant a sense of justice, ethics, and responsibility prior + to personal comfort, convenience, or advantage. This honor + is known by one's *faithfulness* to the Quest of the Grail, + which is the self, soul, or psyche made perfect through + conscious refinement and exercise of the Will." + Let me repeat that sentence which expands on the + Order's concept of honor: "By *honor* is meant a sense of + justice, ethics, and responsibility prior to personal + comfort, convenience, or advantage." + In my opinion that statement directly and absolutely + disproves Tim's expectation of fascism. +. +That statement does "directly and absolutely disprove" an +expectation of LaVey-style nihilism; but, as Tim pointed out to me +in BASE OF SET, fascist ideology is *not* incompatible with an +emphasis on the idea of honor. (The concepts of elitism and honor +don't prove that ToS and/or the Order of the Trapezoid *are* +fascist, but they certainly don't disprove it.) So, I definitely +wouldn't use this particular argument unless you're familiar with +fascist concepts of "honor" and are prepared to spell out how the +Order of the Trapezoid's concept differs from it. +. +Backtracking a bit, just after your enumeration of the central +doctrines of Nazism and fascism which Aquino disagrees with, you +made a series of arguments which I wouldn't use because they sound +too much like evasions (which seems to be a common ToS bad habit, +perhaps growing out of most Setians' understandable desire to keep +a low profile). +. + B > You quote Dr. Aquino's 11/14/90 statement, "To the + extent the Order is interested in Nazi Germany, it is + essentially with regard to the very extensive research into + occultism conducted by the Ahnenerbe and other groups & + individuals during that period." You then go on to claim, + "As the Order of the Trapezoid statement makes clear, there + is much more to its interest in Nazism than this. Aquino + does not address any of the specific issues raised in Tim's + article, which I will highlight in a later message to you." + [...] + Reading through the Order of the Trapezoid + statement, I find that the introduction concentrates on + German Romanticism, and the Order's statement doesn't even + mention the Third Reich until the eighth paragraph. The + Third Reich and the Nazi influence is then discussed and + dismissed in six paragraphs. The Third Reich and Nazi + influence occupies less than one page in the five-page + document. + Reading those six paragraphs, I find myself unable + to support your claim that "there is much more to its + interest in Nazism than this." + I do find the 1939 quote from Herman Rauschning, + which said, "This irrational element in National Socialism + is the actual source of its strength. It is the reliance on + it that accounts for its 'sleepwalker's immunity' in the + face of one practical problem after another. It explains + why it was possible for National Socialism to attain power + almost without the slightest tangible idea of what it was + going to do. ..." + Yes, the study of the social dynamics which are + mentioned are of interest, but I fail to see the connection + between those social dynamics and Naziism ... those social + dynamics apply to all fanatical movements which quickly + rise to power (or at least struggle for it). Do you + disagree? + If you can point out to me where you find this + interest in Naziism rather than German Romanticism, perhaps + I'll be better able to answer your question. Until then, I + just don't see the source of your concern. +. +The Order of the Trapezoid statement does deal with how the German +Romantic concepts of "dynamism and life-worship" got used/abused by +the Nazis. The statement says, "The uncanny attraction of the Third +Reich - Nazi Germany - lies in the fact that it endorsed and +practiced both dynamism and life-worship without restraint and to a +world-shaking degree of success." +. +Taken together, the Order of the Trapezoid statement and Aquino's +"response" to Tim show a concern with at least four different +elements pertaining to Nazi Germany: (1) The Ahnenerbe S.S.'s +occult research, (2) the German Romantic philosophical background of +"dynamism and life-worship", (3) the social dynamics of a fanatical +movement, and (4) official Nazi artwork, as in the Fenris wolf on +the masthead of the Order of the Trapezoid's newsletter: not just +any old Fenris wolf, but the specific artistic rendition of Fenris +"from the cover of the August 1941 issue of _Germanien_, official +journal of the _Ahnenerbe_, the elite section of the SS concerned +with the theory and practice of the Black Arts". All of this, +together with the above-quoted statement referring to "The uncanny +attraction of the Third Reich", does indicate a *fascination* with +Nazi Germany, though not necessarily an *agreement* with Nazism +itself. The fact that some of the above elements are not unique to +Nazism does not invalidate the thesis that Aquino's writings show a +*fascination* for Nazi Germany, a thesis whose truth is even more +evident when I review the MAGICKNET archives. +. +Of course, as I've indicated, having a fascination for Nazi Germany +isn't the same thing as agreeing with Nazism. You made a very good +case for the thesis that Aquino is not a "Nazi sympathizer". Please +don't overstate your case by trying to claim or imply that he +doesn't have a particular fascination for Nazi Germany. It probably +isn't an *all-consuming* fascination, and it's probably only one +of a number of Aquino's fascinations; but the fascination is clearly +there. +. +Regarding "the specific issues raised in Tim's article, which I will +highlight in a later message to you", I discussed most of them in my +5-part February 24 message to All in BASE OF SET, "Trapezoi.TXT". + +-!- Maximus 2.00 + ! Origin: BaphoNet-by-the-Sea -=- 718/499-9277 (1:278/666) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/nz_dvr2.txt b/religious documents/nz_dvr2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6455444 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/nz_dvr2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,317 @@ + +******************************************************************************* + From: Diane Vera Msg Num: 86 of 91 + To: All Date: 02 Mar 92 19:56:00 + Subj: Trapezoi.TXT (1 of 6) + Attr: Read: N + Conf: Magickal Chat Echo (93Net) +******************************************************************************* +To give other readers some background on the discussion amongst Tim +Maroney, Balanone, and myself, which I am now trying to move from +the BASE OF SET echo to OASIS, here is a revised version of my 5- +part message "Trapezoi.TXT" which I posted to All in BASE OF SET on +February 23. +. +Following is my critique of Tim Maroney's November 1990 article "The +Nazi Trapezoid" (Trapezoi.TXT), which presents Tim's opinion that +Michael Aquino and the Temple of Set's Order of the Trapezoid are +covertly "sympathetic" to Nazism. +. +Near the beginning of Tim's article, before discussing why he thinks +Aquino is a "Nazi sympathizer", Tim makes the following observation: +. + TM > Aquino himself has been the target of some of the + worst modern witch hunting, being falsely accused of child + molestation based on a statement by a Christian minister. + Despite having much of his personal property seized by the + police, his name and face splashed all over papers and + television as a child molester, and his career interfered + with, he was never formally charged with any crime. It is + not only clear that he did not do it; it is clear that he + couldn't have done it, since he was not even in the + vicinity when the alleged abuse occurred. +. +Given Aquino's direct personal experience as a persecuted member of +a minority religion, he really would have to be out of his mind to +support either (1) Nazism as it existed in Germany or (2) modern +American neo-Nazism and neo-fascism, intertwined as the latter are +with "theo-fascist" Christianity. Anton LaVey, on the other hand, +has never experienced this kind of harassment (not as far as I know, +anyway) and is thus able to fantasize that there is such a thing as +a "benign police state". +. +It is true that the oppressed, when liberated, can become the +oppressors. However, it's unlikely that in Aquino's lifetime, the +Temple of Set will ever be politically "liberated" enough to become +an oppressor (at least not in any more-than-petty sense). Thus it +will always be in Aquino's interests to fight *for* freedom, not +against it. (At least within THIS country. We don't know what he +may be doing, in his capacity as a military intelligence officer, by +way of supporting fascist dictatorships in other countries.) As +far as I know, the only political activism he's involved in is the +Alliance of Magical and Earth Religions, a group which fights for +religious freedom, and whose enemy is America's number-one brand of +neo-fascism, i.e. theo-fascism. +. +The bulk of Tim's article is based on two ToS documents which can be +found as files on various bulletin boards: the "Order of the +Trapezoid - Statement" and the ToS reading list, Category 14, +"Fascism, Totalitarianism, and Magic". Both of these documents do +contain statements which could be interpreted as covert "sympathy" +for Nazism; but this does not seem to me to be the correct +interpretation. +. + TM > Consider this passage from "Order of the Trapezoid - + Statement": + "Crucial also to German Romanticism were the + concepts of _dynamism_ and _life-worship_. The former term + represents an urge towards constant movement and evolution, + whether intellectual, artistic, or social. [...] The + uncanny attraction of the Third Reich - Nazi Germany - lies + in the fact that it endorsed and practiced both dynamism + and life-worship without restraint and to a world-shaking + degree of success." + As he will not in public debate, Aquino also + discusses here his trifling criticisms of Nazism: + "Just as the Third Reich's dynamism got out of hand, + leading it to embark on irrational and destructive foreign + invasions, so its life-worship - which could have been a + truly evolutionary synthesis of the most sublime concepts + of Hegel and Nietzsche - became perverted into crude + xenophobia, hatreds built upon superficial notions of + 'race', and ultimately a maddened stampede towards a + Wagnerian _Goetterdaemmerung_ in defiance of a return to + rationalism." +. +This is hardly a "trifling criticism", despite its apologetic tone. +Nazism without "crude Xenophobia" would be a little like +fundamentalism without Biblical inerrancy. Aquino is endorsing the +German Romantic philosophical *background* of Nazism, but *not* +Nazism's own central idea, which is none other than "crude +xenophobia" and "hatreds built upon superficial notions of 'race'". +(And, as a Hispanic person living in a largely "Nordic" white- +dominated country, Aquino would have to be really insane to +sympathize with "Nordic" xenophobia, "crude" or otherwise.) +. +Aquino's statement *is* worded a bit strangely, though, as if he +sees the philosophical background of "dynamism and life worship" as +being more central to Nazism than its defining themes of extreme +xenophobia and totalitarianism. In BASE OF SET on February 23, I +asked if anyone could provide some quotes from ToS literature +clarifying this. On February 25, Balanone (who is a high-ranking +ToS member: at least a priest, if not higher, though he is not a +member of the Order of the Trapezoid) wrote to me "Re: Trapezoi.TXT +(2 of 5)": +. + B > I can't provide any quotes, but perhaps a possible + explanation. + Recognizing that neither xenophobia nor + totalitarianism supplies any reason to explore the history, + works, or any other aspect of Naziism, perhaps it's that + background of "dynamism and life worship" that makes + Naziism worth looking at. + More, while "dynamism and life worship" sounds grand + and glorious, and none of us would turn our backs on + dynamism and life worship, the Nazis demonstrated that this + core concept can be twisted into horrendous and horrific + activity. Perhaps we should study and learn from that + lesson, hopefully to avoid repeating that specific lesson + of history again... +. +Back to Tim's article: +. + TM > This "discretion" in discussing the elements of the + Temple of Set which are sympathetic to Nazism is also + evident in the Temple of Set reading list on the subject of + "Fascism, Totalitarianism, and Magic". Aquino repeatedly + implies in this list that he would like to endorse Nazi + "philosophy", but he wouldn't want to be accused of + "crimethink", so read it and decide for yourself. + The reading list makes it clear that Aquino is not + only a Nazi sympathizer but an advocate of Nazi racial + policy -- albeit of an enlightened interpretation based on + the prime movers of the party rather than the "hatreds + built upon superficial notions of 'race'" practiced by the + rank and file. Yet it was the philosophers and the movers + and shakers, not the rank and file, who created the policy + of vernichtung, the "final solution", annihilation of the + Jews -- a subject on which Aquino maintains silence. In + one review, he even admits that the only reason he holds + back from outright endorsement of "a European race history + that would have done credit to Hitler" is that he "wouldn't + want to get in trouble for even appearing to endorse it". +. +Tim is referring here to 14N, THE PASSING OF THE GREAT RACE by +Madison Grant. Aquino's review says: +. + MA > You can still find #14F in print, because it's a good + whipping-boy for sanctimonous finger-waggling. It is less + easy to find the books from 'our side' that argued along + similar lines. This is [was!] one of the more famous, and + you may still uncover an occasional copy in the back room + of a used-book store or in the darkest corners of obscure + libraries. Grant was not exactly a nonentity or + lunatic-fringe fanatic. He was Chairman of the New York + Zoological Society, Trustee of the American Museum of + Natural History, and a Councilor of the American + Geographical Society. In this book [by a prominent + publisher] he argues a forceful case for a European race + history that would have done credit to Hitler and + Rosenberg. The most interesting aspect of this book is that + only a very few years ago it was accepted as a respectable + contender in the academic/scientific community. After World + War II it was, in Orwell's terms, guilty of Crimethink and + thus condemned to be an Unperson. There is a lesson to be + learned here concerning the durability and invulnerability + of 'established scientific fact' when it becomes + politically or socially inconvenient. I hereby suggest that + you make up your own mind as to whether the book is + convincing. After all, I wouldn't want to get in trouble + for even appearing to endorse it. +. +In December 1991 in BASE OF SET, I asked Oz Tech about this. (Oz +Tech is a black woman and a Setian priestess.) On December 22, Oz +Tech wrote to me "Re: Politics and Satanism": +. + OT > Again, irony comes through poorly in print. Yes, + Aquino writes of whether it is convincing -- but does he + write of whether it is true? + And if you think I'm side-stepping the question, + look at the LBM section of the reading list: an entire + section devoted to stage magic, propaganda, and other + techniques that rely on the difference between + "convincingness" and truth! Is the mention of this book + truly out of place? If Aquino's trying to make a point + about the susceptibility of intelligent people to insanity + I can't think of a better way to go than to cite a + respected American scientist who spins pseudoscience + *exactly* like a German National Socialist. +. +In the context of the reading list, it is not at all clear that "the +susceptibility of intelligent people to insanity" is, in fact, the +point Aquino was trying to make in his review of 14N. However, Tim +and I don't have the full context. The reading list is an excerpt +from THE CRYSTAL TABLET. In BASE OF SET on February 23, I asked if +anyone could provide any concise quotes, from THE CRYSTAL TABLET or +other official ToS literature, which clarify Aquino's point, i.e. +which clearly indicate that concern about "the susceptibility of +intelligent people to insanity" is one of the Order of the +Trapezoid's reasons for studying Nazism. No one provided any such +quotes at that time. However, judging by what Balanone and Frc have +told me so far about the Wewelsburg Working (including a lengthy +excerpt from the paper "the Wewelsburg Working", which Balanone +posted in a message to me on February 21), it does indeed seem +likely that Aquino and the Order of the Trapezoid are concerned +about such matters, though from a mostly nonpolitical perspective. +. +Tim also quotes Aquino's review of MEIN KAMPF (14F): +. + MA > Everyone knows that this is 'the most evil book ever + written', but few have taken the time to actually read it, + hence cannot really explain why. Further complicating the + situation is Hitler's interspersion of political philosophy + (interesting) with emotional tirades (not so interesting). + Look for the discussions concerning the selection of + leaders, control of the masses, and the justification for + human social organization. You may be surprised at what you + discover. +. +Tim, have you ever read MEIN KAMPF? I never did read the whole +thing, but I read about half of it back when I was in college and, +while I can't remember very many specifics, I do remember having a +reaction quite similar to Aquino's review; and I'm certainly not a +Nazi sympathizer. +. +The "emotional tirades (not so interesting)" are the rants against +Jews, against Communists, and against democracy -- in short, +everything we ordinarily think of as Nazism. These "tirades" are, +however, interspersed with some very clear-headed insights into the +workings of politics in general. And indeed, Hitler *had to* have +had some profound insights into the workings of politics, or he +couldn't have been as successful as he was. Those insights may well +be worth learning from. I should probably read them again someday. +. + TM > Apparently, the only flaw of Nazism was that it took + its great ideas too far. Aquino thinks of Nazism as a + wonderful movement that went wrong. Therefore, it seems + fair to refer to him as a Nazi sympathizer, though perhaps + not as a Neo-Nazi. +. +One problem here is the vagueness of the term "Nazi sympathizer", as +distinguished from "Neo-Nazi". My idea of a "Nazi sympathizer" who +is not a "Neo-Nazi" would be a person who doesn't just admire some +aspects of Nazi philosophy (however central he perceives those +aspects to be) but is also a self-identified racist (at least when +talking to other racists) and thinks Bush is too liberal, yet who +has assorted minor disagreements with today's neo-Nazi organizations +(or perhaps just thinks neo-Nazism is a lost cause). Can a person +who does not endorse "Nordic" xenophobia be meaningfully called a +"Nazi sympathizer", even if that person thinks Nazism had some +admirable qualities (and even if that person is counterproductively +defensive about his admiration for those qualities)? +. + TM > It could of course be objected that these selections + are out of context. Both length and copyright + considerations prevent quoting the entire file here, + [...] + However, a book-by-book breakdown by category is + appropriate. Here is a summary of the classifications, + followed by an in-depth explanation and listing of each + category. I believe the numbers speak for themselves. + PRO-NAZI (7) + BOTH ANTI-NAZI AND ANTI-COMMUNIST (2) + ANTI-NAZI (1) + NAZI OCCULTISM (7) + NON-NAZI OCCULTISM (2) + NEUTRAL HISTORY (5) + PRO-NAZI (7) + Obviously, any investigation of Nazism must include a study + of source materials from within the movement. Therefore, + presentation of the opinions of Hitler, Rosenberg, + Haushofer, etc., was not considered a criterion for + classifying a source as pro-Nazi. These citations are + considered pro-Nazi because Aquino's review praises their + opinions, and those opinions are clearly pro-Nazi. +. +But *which* opinions does Aquino praise? Not all the opinions of +a Nazi are specifically pro-Nazi; most Nazis, for example, were +probably of the opinion that the sky is blue. Aquino never praises +any specifically pro-Nazi opinions (except possibly in his review of +14N, for which Oz Tech has provided an alternative explanation). +Aquino merely asserts that the Nazi leaders had a lot of valuable +political, philosophical, and magic(k)al insights, which +magic(k)ians can learn from. +. + TM > NON-NAZI OCCULTISM (2) + A surprisingly slim selection, considering how often Aquino + and his associate in the Order of the Trapezoid, Stephen + Flowers ("Edred Thorsson"), use the phrase "Germanic + occultism" rather than "Nazi occultism". Obviously the + preferred phrase is a euphemism. +. +No, a more likely reason for the "slim selection" of books on non- +Nazi occultism is that there's no reason to include them in a +section of the reading list on "Totalitarianism, Fascism, and +Magic". A more logical place to list books on non-Nazi "Germanic +occultism" would be in section 24 of the reading list, "Runic Arts +and Sciences". +. +I would appreciate any comments anyone may have. Sometime in the +next month or so, I will upload a revised version of this string of +messages (revised in light of any worthwhile feedback I get, +especially from ToS members and/or Tim) as a file on several +bulletin boards. +. +I would especially appreciate it if anyone can provide clear, +concise quotes from THE CRYSTAL TABLET or other official ToS +literature which support or clarify any of the points I've made in +these messages. Such quotes may also come in handy if I ever again +have occasion to rebut an anti-Satanist article like Bonewits's "The +Enemies of Our Enemies", one of whose key arguments was a claim that +Satanic organizations, including ToS, are "extremely fascistic". +(My response to that article can be downloaded from BaphoNet or +HaditNet as the file DVeraBon.TXT, if anyone is interested.) + +-!- Maximus 2.00 + ! Origin: BaphoNet-by-the-Sea -=- 718/499-9277 (1:278/666) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/nz_ntdis.txt b/religious documents/nz_ntdis.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf53046 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/nz_ntdis.txt @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@ + +******************************************************************************* + From: Ammond Shadowcraft Msg Num: 95 of 97 + To: All Date: 26 Feb 92 08:35:00 + Subj: Please consider this Disclaimer + Attr: Read: N + Conf: Article Echo Of The MagickNet Trio +******************************************************************************* +A Request From A Concerned Participant + +Please accept my apologies for this, but at this point I feel it +necessary to ask for the sysop's consideration on a minor +matter. + +WHEREAS: About a year and a half ago Tim Maroney wrote an article +focusing on the Temple of Set's Order of the Trapezoid. In this +article Tim Maroney attempts to justify his claim that the Temple of +Set is fascist, and afterward in other forums, is also racist. When +Tim Maroney wrote this particular article I gave Maroney the benefit +of doubt and answered his article reasonably by saying that from my +personal knowledge the ToS was neither fascist nor racist. +Answering along with me was one Oz Tech, a III'd degree (Priestess), +a black woman and a Knight of the Order of the Trapezoid. She +responded along with me that from personal knowledge the Order was +neither fascist nor racist. Some days later Dr. Michael Aquino, the +High Priest of the Temple of Set, a minority himself, answered Tim's +accusations by responding that the Temple of Set is not fascist (in +fact the ToS is greatly concerned with individual rights and freedom +of religion) and is relatively indifferent to the state. Further +Dr. Aquino told the readers that Tim Maroney did not even extend to +Aquino the common courtesy of letting Aquino read and comment on the +article before Tim released it to the public. + +After eighteen months of relatively little continuing dispute the +issue was brought up in THE_BASE_OF_SET echo whereupon I reminded +the participants of the above facts. In this echo one Balanone, a +high Initiate and member of the Temple of Set for over a decade, +replied that from his personal knowledge the Temple is not fascist +and is relatively less racist than the public at large. In point of +fact Balanone is of Jewish heritage. I have informed the +participants (which includes Tim Maroney) that while Tim Maroney is +baiting the Temple via virtual (or cyberspace) defecation on Dr. +Michael Aquino, that Dr. Aquino does not run the Temple. The Temple +of Set is run by a duly elected Board of Directors (including women) +of which the Head of that board is a person of minority descent--a +Jew, and by the Priesthood (of which race is not a qualifier) at +large. Thus Tim Maroney's allegations are proved fully wrong. + +To this date, after more than a year, Tim Maroney has neither +offered an apology to those whose reputations he has attempted to +damage, nor has he offered to retract his irresponsible and +fallacious "Nazi Trapezoid" article. After watching his actions over +the years I can only conclude that Tim Maroney is, in this +particular matter, acting irresponsibly and/or +obsessive/compulsively with respect to the Temple of Set. + +THEREFORE I ask the sysops to consider the idea that to continue +to propagate an irresponsible attack upon an institution (which has +survived federal scrutiny and personal deprivations over the years) +would poorly serve the network and the participants of that network. + +THEREFORE I ask the sysops to consider putting a disclaimer with +Tim Maroney's Nazi-Trapezoid article indicating something like the +following... + + "In this article Tim Maroney alleges that the Temple of Set's +Order of the Trapezoid is Nazi sympathetic and by extension, the +Temple of Set is fascist. He offers as proof the fact that the +Temple of Set's Reading List Category 14 is full of Nazi sympathetic +works. With a few meager points Tim Maroney alleges that the Temple +of Set is Nazi sympathetic--ie. fascist and racist. + + "Tim Maroney fails to mention that the Reading List contains a +number of books, some written from a pro-Nazi standpoint, some +written from anti-Nazi stand and some neutral. Tim Maroney also +refuses to consider the fact that Dr. Aquino is a Phd. in political +science and serves his (Aquino's) organization well by assuring the +readers of the Reading List they have a complete view of this very +emotional subject. Further more, four persons, Dr. Michael +Aquino--High Priest of the Temple of Set, one Balanone--a high +Initiate of the Temple of Set (and of Jewish descent) and member for +over 10 years, one Oz Tech, a black Priestess (III' degree) and +Knight of the Order of the Trapezoid, and Ammond Shadowcraft, a +Setian I', informed Tim Maroney that from their personal experience +*neither* the Temple of Set nor the Order of the Trapezoid is +fascist or racist in policy or practice. + + "To this date (February 1992) after almost a year and a half, +Tim Maroney has offered neither an apology to the Temple membership +nor has he offered to update or retract his apparently irresponsible +article. Therefore please be warned that this particular article is +flawed in that the author is obviously in some adversarial +relationship with the Temple of Set. There are two sides to this +article. Tim presents only his side. + + "To further compound this problem Tim Maroney has uploaded the +article on various machines on the Internet and FidoNet. Tim Maroney +has lost control of the article and thus the Temple of Set is robbed +of any possible reasonable response to or from the future readers of +this article. + Ammond Shadowcraft, Feb 1992" + +While I doubt that any legal problems could resolve from carrying +this article it seems unethical to let such an irresponsible article +stand alone and unanswered. Apparently Tim has uploaded this article +on many different machines and now no one knows where these copies +reside. Please look at your text files to see if this article is +present and please consider disclaiming the article. + +The above disclaimer relates only to Tim Maroney's Nazi-Trapezoid +article and none other. However should a sysop decided to delete +the article entirely I suppose that such an action is entirely +reasonable. + +I apologize for any inconvenience this request might incur. + +For more information please contact the Temple at the following +address: + +TEMPLE OF SET +Post Office Box 470307 +San Francisco, CA 94147; U.S.A. +MCI-Mail: 314-3953 +Telex: 6503143953 + +-!- QuickBBS 2.75 Ovr + ! Origin: CRYSTAL CAVE DAS MAGICKAL TREFFPUNKT 719-391-1092 (93:9510/0) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/nz_ntrap.txt b/religious documents/nz_ntrap.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b67f30a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/nz_ntrap.txt @@ -0,0 +1,370 @@ +=========================================================================== + BBS: The Northern Lights +Date: 01-16-92 (13:15) Number: 244 +From: TRIPLE SIX Refer#: 229 + To: BALANONE Recvd: YES +Subj: Tim's Nazi Trapezoid 1/3 Conf: (36) Set +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + THE NAZI TRAPEZOID + by Tim Maroney + 11 November 1990 + + There has been much discussion lately within the cloisters of occultism + of Michael Aquino and his group, the Temple of Set. As little as a + decade ago, a Satanic group of this kind would have been dismissed out + of hand by most occultists and pagans, because of reflexive prejudices + against Satanism. But the 1980's brought a greater openness to Satanic + perspectives, as well as a certain feeling of solidarity between Satanists, + who were the targets of harassment by police and the media, and other + occultists, who are aware that they figure on all the same target lists. + + Aquino himself has been the target of some of the worst modern witch + hunting, being falsely accused of child molestation based on a statement + by a Christian minister. Despite having much of his personal property + seized by the police, his name and face splashed all over papers and + television as a child molester, and his career interfered with, he was + never formally charged with any crime. It is not only clear that he did + not do it; it is clear that he couldn't have done it, since he was not + even in the vicinity when the alleged abuse occurred. + + Censorship attempts remain one of the surest ways to boost book sales, and + young religious movements still thrive on persecution. In typical fashion, + the attempts at supression by these modern-day anti-occult Comstocks + actually leant popularity to their target. Aquino has justly garnered a + good deal of sympathy from this affair, and the Temple of Set is becoming + more popular and respected within the occult community. + + But unsettling questions remain concerning this organization. It harbors a + subgroup, the Order of the Trapezoid, which is dedicated to Nazi occultism. + Aquino is known to have participated in black magical rituals at Wewelsburg + Castle, set up as a place of occult working for the SS by Heinrich Himmler. + Aquino counts Nazi occultism as one of his chief interests, and the heraldry + and symbolism of the SS is one of his favorite topics of discussion. These + facts would seem to indicate, at least on the face of them, that Aquino is + sympathetic to Nazism. + + Aquino himself will neither confirm or deny this. He refuses to answer + questions on his feelings about the ethical quality of Nazism or the reality + of the Holocaust. He will say only that the general consensus against + Nazism in the West today is the result of the victors writing the history + books. If pressed on the subject, he becomes hostile, but remains + uncommunicative. + + In his materials for the Order of the Trapezoid, he is somewhat more overt + in his sympathy. Consider this passage from "Order of the Trapezoid - + Statement": + + "Crucial also to German Romanticism were the concepts of _dynamism_ and + _life-worship_. The former term represents an urge towards constant + movement and evolution, whether intellectual, artistic, or social. [...] + The uncanny attraction of the Third Reich - Nazi Germany - lies in the + fact that it endorsed and practiced both dynamism and life-worship + without restraint and to a world-shaking degree of success." + + As he will not in public debate, Aquino also discusses here his trifling + criticisms of Nazism: + + "Just as the Third Reich's dynamism got out of hand, leading it to embark + on irrational and destructive foreign invasions, so its life-worship - which + could have been a truly evolutionary synthesis of the most sublime concepts + of Hegel and Nietzsche - became perverted into crude xenophobia, hatreds + built upon superficial notions of 'race', and ultimately a maddened stampede + towards a Wagnerian _Goetterdaemmerung_ in defiance of a return to + rationalism." + + Apparently, the only flaw of Nazism was that it took its great ideas too + far. Aquino thinks of Nazism as a wonderful movement that went wrong. + Therefore, it seems fair to refer to him as a Nazi sympathizer, though + perhaps not as a Neo-Nazi. + + In the same file, Aquino states that "social discretion" is needed in + a member of the Order of the Trapezoid. Those of us who have discussed + the subject with Aquino in public are well aware of the nature of this + "discretion", and would describe it instead as "evasion". Aquino is + a military intelligence officer by profession. What he refers to as + "discretion" is more commonly known in the intelligence community as + "plausible deniability". This is the principle that, when carrying out + a covert action, one should always make sure that the avenues are open + to a plausible denial of involvement. + + In this case, "discretion" or "plausible deniability" means that a + member of the Order of the Trapezoid would not state in public any + straightforward sympathies for Nazism; instead, he must use ambiguous + language which could readily be identified by fellow sympathizers, but + which would not be amenable to a short proof of sympathy. A careful + investigator can find an undeniable pattern of involvement, but most + people will never pay enough attention to the investigation to notice + its results. It takes more than a fifteen-word "text bite" to prove + involvement -- Aquino will never say "Heil Hitler, the greatest man + of our age" any more than Reagan will ever say "I knew and approved of + the sale of arms to Iran" -- so it is unlikely that the facts will + ever achieve wide circulation. + + This "discretion" in discussing the elements of the Temple of Set which + are sympathetic to Nazism is also evident in the Temple of Set reading + list on the subject of "Fascism, Totalitarianism, and Magic". Aquino + repeatedly implies in this list that he would like to endorse Nazi + "Fascism, Totalitarianism, and Magic" + + "This is a very potent, controversial, and dangerous area of magic, whose + implications are rarely examined, understood, or appreciated by the profane + [which is just as well]. Much of the data concerning it derives from Nazi + Germany, whose character as a state based upon magical rather than + conventional principles goes a long way towards explaining the 'peculiar' + fascination which that episode continues to exert on students of history + and political science. Many of the techniques pioneered or perfected by + the Nazis continue to be used/abused - generally in a superficial and + ignorant fashion - by every country of the world in one guise or another. + The magician who can recognize and identify these techniques and the + principles behind them can thus control or avoid their influence as + desired." + + 14F. _Mein Kampf_ by Adolf Hitler. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943. + (TS-5) (OT-3) MA: "Everyone knows that this is 'the most evil book ever + written', but few have taken the time to actually read it, hence cannot + really explain why. Further complicating the situation is Hitler's + interspersion of political philosophy (interesting) with emotional tirades + (not so interesting). Look for the discussions concerning the selection of + leaders, control of the masses, and the justification for human social + organization. You may be surprised at what you discover. [...]" + + 14K. _Hitler's Secret Conversations 1941-1944_ by H.R. Trevor-Roper (Ed.). + NY: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1953 [simultaneously published in England as + _Hitler's Table Talk_ by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London]. (TS-5) (OT-3) MA: + "Martin Bormann was sufficiently fascinated by Adolf Hitler's private + conversational comments on various topics that he persuaded Hitler to allow + them to be stenographically recorded. [...] Hitler's conversations cover an + astonishingly broad spectrum of topics - organized religion, metaphysics, + dogmatism, Voltaire, origins of the human race, aesthetics, Egyptian & Greek + culture, Hoerbiger's cosmology, genius, philosophy of law, superstition, + mental diseases, etc. An impressive look into the mind of an individual whom + the postwar world has been conditioned to dismiss as a crude, criminal, and + unintrospective thug. Read, then judge for yourself." + + 14N. _The Passing of the Great Race_ by Madison Grant. NY: Charles + Scribner's Sons, 1916. (TS-5) MA: "You can still find #14F in print, because + it's a good whipping-boy for sanctimonous finger-waggling. It is less easy + to find the books from 'our side' that argued along similar lines. This is + [was!] one of the more famous, and you may still uncover an occasional copy + in the back room of a used-book store or in the darkest corners of obscure + libraries. Grant was not exactly a nonentity or lunatic-fringe fanatic. He + was Chairman of the New York Zoological Society, Trustee of the American + Museum of Natural History, and a Councilor of the American Geographical + Society. In this book [by a prominent publisher] he argues a forceful case + for a European race history that would have done credit to Hitler and + Rosenberg. The most interesting aspect of this book is that only a very few + years ago it was accepted as a respectable contender in the + academic/scientific community. After World War II it was, in Orwell's terms, + guilty of Crimethink and thus condemned to be an Unperson. There is a lesson + to be learned here concerning the durability and invulnerability of + 'established scientific fact' when it becomes politically or socially + inconvenient. I hereby suggest that you make up your own mind as to whether + the book is convincing. After all, I wouldn't want to get in trouble for + even appearing to endorse it." + + 14O. _Race and Race History and Other Essays_ by Alfred Rosenberg (Robert + Pois, Ed.). NY: Harper & Row (Harper Torchback #TB-1820), 1974. (TS-5) MA: + "Extracts from the major race-history writings of the Nazis' 'official + philosopher' - with a finger-waggling introduction, of course. It is O.K. + for this book to be in print; it has the appropriate editorial condemnation. + [See also #14S.]" + + 14S. _The Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology_ by + Robert Cecil. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1972. (TS-4) (OT-3) MA: "The best + biography and critical analysis concerning Alfred Rosenberg, 'official + philosopher' of the Nazi movement. Much of the material otherwise in + existence concerning Rosenberg is suppressed by the Soviet Union, while + previous Western biographies and editions of his memoirs were crudely + edited to portray him as more of a monster than a human being, much less + a philosopher. [...] [See also #14O.]" + + It could of course be objected that these selections are out of context. + Both length and copyright considerations prevent quoting the entire file + here, but it can be obtained from the electronic bulletin board system + WeirdBase in St. Louis, at 314-741-2231. (I do not know whether this + board is still in operation, but these files were originally retrieved + from its Aquino-sanctioned Temple of Set area.) + + However, a book-by-book breakdown by category is appropriate. Here is + a summary of the classifications, followed by an in-depth explanation + and listing of each category. I believe the numbers speak for themselves. + + PRO-NAZI (7) + BOTH ANTI-NAZI AND ANTI-COMMUNIST (2) + ANTI-NAZI (1) + NAZI OCCULTISM (7) + NON-NAZI OCCULTISM (2) + NEUTRAL HISTORY (5) + + --- + PRO-NAZI (7) + + Obviously, any investigation of Nazism must include a study of source + materials from within the movement. Therefore, presentation of the + opinions of Hitler, Rosenberg, Haushofer, etc., was not considered a + criterion for classifying a source as pro-Nazi. These citations are + considered pro-Nazi because Aquino's review praises their opinions, + and those opinions are clearly pro-Nazi. + + Please note that I have not had time to track down all twenty-four books + on this list, and it is possible that sources I have classed as "neutral" + below actually belong in this category, just as I might have mistakenly + classified Viereck's book as neutral if I had not already known of it. + + 14F. _Mein Kampf_ by Adolf Hitler. + + 14K. _Hitler's Secret Conversations 1941-1944_ by H.R. Trevor-Roper (Ed.). + + 14N. _The Passing of the Great Race_ by Madison Grant. + + 14O. _Race and Race History and Other Essays_ by Alfred Rosenberg. + + 14P. _Geopolitics: The Struggle for Space and Power_ by Robert Strausz-Hupe. + + 14Q. _Wewelsburg 1933 bis 1945: SS Kult- und Terrorstaette_ by Prof. Dr. + Karl Hueser. + + 14T. _Metapolitics from the Romantics to Hitler_ by Peter Viereck. + + --- + + BOTH ANTI-NAZI AND ANTI-COMMUNIST (2) + + 14A. _The Mass Psychology of Fascism_ by Wilhelm Reich. + + 14E. _1984_ by George Orwell. + + These sources are mentioned by Aquino as reflecting badly on both Nazism + and Nazism's chief political enemy in Germany, Communism. + + Their reason for inclusion is made clearer by the cross-reference to + Orwell's _1984_ in the reading list, in the discussion of the pro-Nazi + book _The Passing of the Great Race_: "After World War II [this book] + was, in Orwell's terms, guilty of Crimethink and thus condemned to be + an Unperson." In Aquino's universe, the architects of 1984 are the + Communists and modern Westerners who insist on slandering the Nazis. + + The books are also explicitly mentioned as indicting two other + ideological enemies of Aquino; Reich against Christianity, and Orwell + against British socialism. Any criticism of Nazism comes in a distant + third in this category, though these books' inclusion in that light + serves the purposes of plausible deniability. + + --- + + ANTI-NAZI (1) + + 14V. _The True Believer_ by Eric Hoffer. NY: Harper & Row, 1951. + + This is the one book in the list mentioned as simply indicting Nazism. + Even here, Aquino can't resist new apologetics for Nazism and yet more + complaining about how unfairly it is treated, which is why I hesitate + to classify the review as anti-Nazi at all. Aquino ends his recommendation + with "The book's strong point is Hoffer's famed common-sense, but this + same feature is also its weak point, because it is obvious that Hoffer + is not aware of [or does not understand] the principles discussed, for + example, in #14T." (#14T is Viereck's pro-Nazi book _Metapolitics from + the Romantics to Hitler_. Like other bracketed notes, "[or does not + understand]" is Aquino's, not mine.) + + --- + + NAZI OCCULTISM (7) + + The books on Nazi occultism which carry special ideological endorsements + are listed in the pro-Nazi section above. This section contains only + those books which are endorsed as historical surveys but not as + ideological tracts. In other words, this is the list of relatively + neutral citations, containing phrases like "well footnoted" and + "fact-packed", and perhaps ideological warnings about Theosophical + and Thelemite bias as well. + + 14B. _The Occult and the Third Reich_ by Jean-Michel Angebert. + + 14D. _The Spear of Destiny_ by Trevor Ravenscroft. + + 14L. _The Voice of Destruction_ by Hermann Rauschning. + + 14M. _Hitler's Secret Sciences_ by Nigel Pennick. + + 14R. _Hitler: The Occult Messiah_ by Gerald Suster. + + 14W. _Astrology and the Third Reich_ by Ellic Howe. + + 14X. _The Occult Roots of Nazism: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany + 1890-1935_ by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. + + --- + + NON-NAZI OCCULTISM (2) + + A surprisingly slim selection, considering how often Aquino and his + associate in the Order of the Trapezoid, Stephen Flowers ("Edred Thorsson"), + use the phrase "Germanic occultism" rather than "Nazi occultism". Obviously + the preferred phrase is a euphemism. + + 14C. _The Grail Legend_ by Emma Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz. + + 14U. _For Freedom Destined: Mysteries of Man's Evolution in the Mythology + of Wagner's "Ring" Operas and "Parsifal"_ by Franz E. Winkler. + + --- + + NEUTRAL HISTORY (5) + + As with the section on Nazi occultism, above, this list consists of + those books which were praised for their scholarship, without any comments + about the virtues of their subject matter. In other words, these are + ideologically neutral historical citations. + + Please note the absence of books on the Holocaust -- a subject which is + mentioned nowhere in this list, nor in the Trapezoid statement referred + to above. I don't know whether Aquino is a Holocaust revisionist, + because when myself and others have asked him about the subject, he has + refused to answer. + + From the title, it may seem that _The Myth of the Master Race_ deserves + to be classified as anti-Nazi. However, the citation does not present it + as such, but rather as an objective appraisal of Rosenberg's "weaknesses + as well as his strengths". For that reason I have classified it as + neutral. + + 14G. _Hitler: Legend, Myth, & Reality_ by Werner Maser. + + 14H. _The War Path_ and Hitler's War by David Irving. + + 14I. _The Bormann Brotherhood_ by William Stevenson. + + 14J. _Three Faces of Fascism_ by Ernst Nolte. + + 14S. _The Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology_ by + Robert Cecil. + + --- + + So what has been shown? It has been shown that Aquino thinks highly of + Hitler and Rosenberg; that he presents little criticism of Nazi ideology, + and what little he does present is hemmed around by disclaimers concerning + the glorious romanticism of Nazism; that he unambiguously endorses the + study and practice of Nazi occultism; that he will not come right out and + say what he thinks on the subject, but insists on hiding behind a coy facade + of "I wouldn't want to get in trouble for even appearing to endorse it". + Under serious examination, the plausibility of his denials becomes as + threadbare as they did in the case of his fellow lieutenant colonel in + military intelligence, Oliver North. + + The sympathy many now feel for the unjustly attacked Temple of Set is a + disturbing echo of Aquino's own misguided attempts to reclaim Nazism. + Just as Aquino seems to have overreacted against the simplistic demonization + of Nazism and swung to the opposite extreme, just so occultists today may + look at the ignorance and prejudice of Aquino's own persecutors and react + against it to the point of forming allegiances with Aquino. In both cases + this reaction fails to come to grips with the complicated ethical fact that + demonization is no proof of virtue. Someone may be unjustly accused, and + oversimplified to the point of caricature; this does not imply that the + person is actually a saint. We should limit our reactions to defense on + the points of unfair attack; we should not wholeheartedly embrace whoever + becomes a popular demon. + +--- + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/occ_dir.txt b/religious documents/occ_dir.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a136193 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/occ_dir.txt @@ -0,0 +1,859 @@ +The Occult and Metaphysical Business Directory +The past decade has seen a substantial increase in the number of +people involved in alternative religions and spirituality. +Consequently, there has been a boom in the number of businesses +catering to the needs of this growing community. Such businesses +are often small, and unable to afford advertising, relying upon +word of mouth to let people know of their existence. + +I have been in the occult business for several years, and I +understand the important role such businesses play, not only as +suppliers of goods and services, but also as contact points for the +magical communities they serve. I am hoping that this directory +will help people find such contacts, as well as help to support the +growing occult and metaphysical business community. + +Jennifer Holding +Editor + + +How to Use this directory +The addresses in this directory were collected from various +sources; other directories, advertisements, word of mouth, etc. I +set out to limit the directory to retail occult/metaphysical +stores. I have not included P.O. boxes, as cottage-industry-type +businesses could fill up a whole other directory. For the same +reason, I have not included women's book-stores, unless they +specialize in books on women's spirituality. Once the addresses +were collected, I sent questionnaires to each business to verify +the information, and to find out exactly what kinds of goods and +services they offered. Because not all of the businesses responded, +this information is not included in many of the listings. + +I have done my best to include only current addresses and phone +numbers. Unfortunately, the occult business is a risky one and some +of the businesses listed may no longer exist. If you discover this +to be the case, or you have more information, please let me know. +I have included a copy of the directory listing form in the back. + +A complete listing includes the business name, address, phone +number, and a letter code describing the types of goods and +services offered by that business. The code translates as follows:- + + +Books: O = Occult/Pagan/Women's spirituality + M = Metaphysical/New Age + E = Eastern religions/Spirituality + +Supplies: T = Tarot cards/ crystal balls/runes + C = Candles/oils/occult supplies + J = Jewellery/crystals/ritual tools + H = Herbs/herbal preparations + +Services: R =Tarot/palm/psychic readings + S = Seminars/classes + P = Pagan contact/networking + W = Wholesale/mail-order + +These are general categories only, and a store may only offer one +or two of the goods or services under each category. + +CANADA + +Alberta + +Kairos New Age Books +101, 1022 -17 Ave. NW +Calgary, Alta. +T2M 0P4 +(403) 244 - 3009 + +British Columbia + +Banyen Books +2671 West Broadway +Vancouver, B.C. +V6K 2G2 +(604) 732 - 7912 + +Moonshadow +26 - 671 Fort St. +Victoria, B.C. +V8W 1G7 +(604) 380 - 1721 + +Ontario + +Ben Abraham Books +139 Roberts St. +Toronto, Ont. + +(416) 924 - 5633 + +The Dawn Horse Bookstore +75 Blantyre Ave. +Scarborough, Ont. +M1N 2R3 +(416) 698 - 0306 +OME/TCJ + +5th Kingdom Books +77 Harbord St. +Toronto, Ont. +M5S 1G4 +(416) 929 - 5649 + +Mandala Bookshop +427 Dufferin Ave. +London Ont. +N6B 1Z7 +(519) 432 - 9488 + +Merlin's Whim +343 Richmond St. +London, Ont +N6A 3C2 +(519) 432 -4528 +OME/TCJH/RSPW + +The Occult Shop +109 Vaughn Rd. +Toronto, Ont. +M6C 2L9 +(416) 658-0570 +OME/TCJH/RSPW + +The Occult Shop +593 Bank St. +Ottawa, Ont. +K1S 3T4 +(613) 231-4138 +OME/TCJH/RSPW + +Omega Centre +29 Yorkville Ave. +Toronto, Ont. +M4W 1L1 +(416) 975-9086 + +The 100th. Monkey +66 Wellesley St. E. 2nd. flr. +Toronto, Ont. +M4Y 1G2 +(416) 925-7633 +OME/TCJ/RS + +Visions +1126 Bank St. +Ottawa, Ont. +K1S 3X6 +(613) 234-3477 + +Oshawa New Age Bookstore +11 1/2 Simcoe St. S. +Oshawa, Ont. +L1H 4G1 +(416) 433-2920 + +Sunnyside Books +113 Murray St. +Ottawa, Ont. +K1N 5M5 +(613) 236-0943 + +Ways to Wisdom +470 Bardon St. E. +Hamilton, Ont. +L8L 2Y8 +(416) 528-6877 + +QUEBEC + +Metamorphoses Books +3418A Park Ave. +Montreal, Que. +H2X 2H5 +(514) 842-0578 + +La Librairie L'emeraude +1094 ouest, Cure-Poirier, +Longueuil, Que. +J4K 2E6 +(514) 646-7299 + +U.S.A. + +Alabama + +Lodestar Books +2020B 11th. Ave. S. Unit B +Birmingham, Alabama +35205 +(205) 939-3356 + +California + +Assembly of Wiccan Inc. +4715 Franklin Blvd. +Sacramento, CA +95820 +(916) 455-0109 +OE/T/RSP + +Bodhi Tree Bookstore +8585 Melrose Ave. +Los Angeles, CA +90069 +(213) 659-1733 + +Brass Unicorn +845 East Fern +Fresno, CA +93728 +(209) 441-7107 + +The Controversial Bookstore +3021 University Ave. +San Diego, CA +92104 +(619) 296-1560 + +Crystal Cave Bookstore +777 S. Main, #2 +Orange, CA +92668 +(714) 543-0551 +ME/TCJH + +Eye Of The Cat +3314 E. Broadway +Long Beach, CA +90803 +(213) 438-3569 + +House Of Hermetic +5338 Hollywood Blvd. +Los Angeles, CA +90027 +(213) 466-7553 + +Inner Journey +1207 East Main +El Cajon, CA +92021 +(619) 447-7335 + +Lady Bountiful +1513 Aviation Blvd. +Redondo Beach, CA +90278 +(213) 376-5920 + +The Magick Bookstore +2306 Highland Ave. +National City, CA +92050 +(619) 477-5260 +OME/TCJH/RSPW + +The Magick Circle +956 N.Lake Ave. +Pasadena CA +91104 +(818) 794-6013 +OME/TCJH/RW + +Mystic Moon +4433 Park Blvd. +San Diego, CA +92116 +(619) 543-1070 + +Old Wives Tales +1009 Valencia St. +San Francisco, CA +94110 +(415) 821-4675 + +Ram Metaphysical Books +1749 Park Av. +San Jose, CA +95126 +(408) 294-2651 + +San Jose Book Shop +1231 E.Kentwood Ave. +San Jose, CA +95129 +(408) 243-4733 +OME/TJ + +The Sorcerer's Shop +82461/2 Santo Monica Blvd. +West Hollywood, CA +90046 +(213) 656-1563 + +Touchstone +1601A Page St. +San Francisco, CA +94112 +(415)621-2782 + +Colorado + +Isis Metaphysical Books +5701 E. Colfax Ave. +Denver, CO +80220 +(303) 321-0867 + +Connecticutt + +A World Of Magick Bookstore +1143 Chapel St. +New Haven, Conn. +06511 + +Florida + +Gladstar Books +158 Cone Rd. +Ormond Beach, Fl +32074 +(904) 672-9950 +OME/TCJH/RSPW + +Magical Forest Books +5725 Hollywood Blvd. +Hollywood, Fl +33021 +(305) 987-3960 +OME/TCJH/RS + +New Age Books & Things +4401 N.Federal Hwy. +Ft.Lauderdale, Fl +33308 +(305) 771-0026 +OME/TCJH/RP + +Under The Stars +127 N.W. 40th. Ave. +Plantation, Fl +33317 +(305) 739-3537 + +Georgia + +Avalon Metaphysical Books +3120 Maple Dr. +Atlanta, GA +30305 +(404) 233-1611 +OME/TCJ/RSPW + +Sphynx Metaphysical Books +1510-H Piedmont Rd. +Atlanta, GA +30324 +(404) 875-2665 + +Illinois + +Everything Under The Sun +4332 N. Lincoln Ave. +Chicago, IL +60618 +(312) 509-0009 + +Healing Earth Resources +2570 N. Lincoln Ave. +Chicago, IL +60614 +(312) 327-8459 + +Isis Rising +7001 N. Glenwood +Chicago, IL +60626 +(312) 465-8347 +OME/TCJ/RSW + +Little Shop Of Incense +6207 N. Broadway +Chicago, IL +60660 +(312) 973-0011 + +Occult Book Store +3230 N. Clark St. +Chicago, IL +60657 +(312) 281-0599 + +Platypus Book Shop +606 Dempster +Evanston, IL +60202 +(312) 866-8040 + +Quest Book Shop +306 W. Geneva Rd. +Wheaton, IL +60187 +(312) 665-0123 + +Ravenquest +604 Mascoutah Ave. +Belleville, IL +62220 +(618) 234-1727 + +The Sunshine House +1504 N. 8th. St. +Vandalia, IL +62471 +(618) 283-0888 + +Indiana + +Astrology & Spiritual Centre +4535 Hohman Av. +Hammond, Indiana +46327 +(219) 931-8050 +OME/TCJH/RSPW + +Maine + +Harvest Time +Capitol Shopping Centre +Augusta, Maine +04330 +(207) 623-8700 + +Massachusetts + +Abyss +34 Cottage St. +Easthampton, MA +01027 +(413) 527-8765 +OME/TCJ/W + +Arsenic & Old Lace +1743 Massachusetts Ave. +Cambridge, MA +02140 +(617) 354-7785 + +Crow Haven Corner +125 Essex Corner +125 Essex St. +Salem, MA +01970 +(61) 745-8763 + +Shambhala Publications +58 J.F. Kennedy St. +Boston, MA +02138 +(617) 424-0030 + +The Tao Of Books +174A Main St. +W. Medway, MA +02053 +(508) 533-4622 + +Unicorn Books +1210 Massachusetts Ave. +Arlington, MA +02174 +(617) 646-3680 + +Michigan + +Crazy Wisdom Bookstore +207 E. Ann +Ann Arbor, MI +48104 +(313) 665-2757 + +Mayflower Bookshop +2645 W.12 Mile +Berkley, MI +48072 +(313) 547-8227 + +Middle Earth Bookshop +2791 E.14 Mile Rd. +Sterling Heights, MI +48310 +(313) 979-7340 +OME/TJ/RS + +Minnesota + +Amazon Bookstore +1612 Harmon Pl. +Minneapolis, Min. +55403 +(612) 338-6560 +OME/TJ/S + +Evenstar Bookstore +2035 Riverside Ave. +Minneapolis, Min. +55454 +(612) 332-4739 + +Many Voices +727 Grand Ave. +St. Paul, Min. +55105 +(612) 224-0374 + +Sunlight Books & Stuff +616 W. Lake +Minneapolis, Min. +55408 +(612) 823-1166 + +Missouri + +Earthwalk +6248 Delmar Blvd. +St. Louis, Mo +63130 +(314) 862-0702 + +Magick Lantern +1715 Westport Rd. +Kansas, City, MO +64111 +(816) 531-7265 + +Mystic Valley Crystal Co. +7720 Big Bend +St. Louis, MO +63119 +(314) 781-1971 + +Renaissance Books & Gifts +319 East Grand +Springfield, MO +65807 +(417) 883-5161 + +Nevada + +Bell, Book & Candle +1725 E. Charleston +Las Vegas, Nev +89104 +(702) 384-6807 + +New Hampshire + +The Witchery +101 Manchester St. +Manchester, NH +03101 +(603) 627-0770 + +The Witches Brew +206 Market St. +Portsmouth, NH +03810 +(603) 436-2412 + +New Jersey + +4 AD. +430 Bloomfield Ave. +Montclair, NJ +07047 +(201) 746-5057 + +The Philosopher's Stone +557 Rt.46 +Kenvil, NJ +07847 +(201) 584-1369 + + +New Mexico + +Brotherhood of Life +110 Dartmouth Dr. SE. +Albuquerque, NM +87106 +(505) 255-8980 +OME/TCJ/W + +Full Circle Books +2205 Silver SE. +Albuquerque, NM +87106 +(505) 266-0022 +OM/TJH/SW + +New York + +Aquarian Book Shop +800 Niagara Falls Blvd. +Buffalo, NY +14223 +(716) 835-7888 + +Body & Soul Connection +1 Sumner Park +Rochester, NY +14607 +(716) 271-2540 +OME/TCJH/RSP + +Crystal Voyage +315 Gregory St. +Rochester, NY +14620 +(716) 461-2137 +ME/TJ/RSW + +Enchantments +341 E. 9th. St. +New York, NY +10003 +(212) 228-4394 +OME/TCJH/RSPW + +The Magickal Childe +35 W. 19th. St. +New York, NY +10011 +(212) 242-7182 +OME/TCJH/RSPW + +New Age Psychic Centre +3121 Westridge Rd. +Rochester, NY +14626 +(716) 227-2060 + +Samuel Weiser Books +132 E. 24th. St. +New York, NY +10010 +(212) 777-6363 + +Seven Rays Bookstore +508 Westcott St. +Syracuse, NY +13210 +(315) 424-9137 + +Ohio + +Crazy Ladies' Bookstore +4112 Hamilton Ave. +Cinncinati, OH +45223 +(513) 541-4198 +OM/TJ + +Epic Bookshop +232 Xenia Ave. +Yellow Springs, OH +45387 +(513) 767-7997 + +Moonstar +38422 Lakeshore Blvd. +Willoughby, OH +44094 +(216) 942-5652 +OME/TCJH/RW + +Trade Winds +1652 N. High St. +Columbus, OH +43210 +(614) 294-2062 + +Oklahoma + +The Four Winds +761 Asp +Normon, OK +73069 +(405) 329-6856 +OME/TCJ/RSP + +Oregon + +Perlandra Metaphysical Books +1016 Willamette +Eugene, OR +97401 +(503) 485-4848 +OME/TJ/W + +Pennsylvania + +Ram Metaphysical Books +1687 Washington Rd. +Mt. Lebanon, PA +15228 +(412) 835-5696 + +Sagittarius Books +875 Main St. +New Hope, PA +18938 +(215) 862-9430 + +Rhode Island + +Ceres, Inc. +744 Park Ave.,Ste.7 +Cranston,RI +02910 +(401) 941-5599 + +Merlin's Closet +166 Valley St. +Providence, RI +02903 +(401) 351-9272 + +Metagion +184 Angel St. +Providence, RI + +(401) 861-8084 + +White Light Books +556 Atwells Ave. +Providence, RI +02909 +(401) 831-8817 + +Texas + +Celebration! +108 W. 43rd. St. +Austin, TX +78751 +(512) 453-6207 + +Flight of the Phoenix +1034 N. Carrier Parkway +Grandprarie, TX +75050-1101 +(214) 642-6363 + +New Age Books +3925 W. Waco Dr. +Waco, TX +76710 +(817) 776-0072 + +The Occult Shop +2222 Yale +Houston, TX +77008 +(713) 869-0324 + +Utah + +Gypsy Moon +1649 S. 1100 E. +Salt Lake City, Utah +84105 +(801) 484-4400 + +Virginia + +Aquarius +1614 King St. +Alexandria, VA +22314 +(703) 836-0616 + +Mystique Shoppe +3130 Tidewater Dr. +Norfolk, VA +23509 +(804) 627-5354 + +Washington + +Astrology, ET.AL. +4728 University Way, NE +Seattle, WA +98105 +(206) 524-6365 + +Wisconsin + +Mimosa +212 N. Henry St. +Madison, WI +53703 +(608) 256-5432 + +Prisca Magia +819 E. Johnson St. +Madison, WI +53703 +(608) 255-2171 + +Red Oak Books +610 Main St. +LaCrosse, WI +54601 +(608) 782-3424 + +Shakti Bookshop +320 State St. +Madison, WI +53703 +(608) 255-5007 +OME/TCJ/SW +Tree of Life +3432 Spring St. +Racine, WI +53405 +(414) 637-3898 + +England + +The Atlantis Bookshop, Ltd. +49a Museum St. +London, England +WC1A 1LY +(01) 405-2120 +OME/T/PW + +Ba Ankh Ka +67 Temple Rd. +Kew, Surrey, Eng. +TW9 2EB +(01) 948-1365 + +Occultique +73 Kettering Rd. +Northampton, England +MN14AW +(0604) 27727 +OME/TCJH/RW + +Ireland + +The Alchemist's Head Bookshop +10 East Essex St. +Dublin, Eire + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/occbooks.txt b/religious documents/occbooks.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..640f650 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/occbooks.txt @@ -0,0 +1,196 @@ +I have uploaded this file as information only. By doing so, I am +not in any way recommending or attesting to the veracity or usefullness +of any material contained in any of the listed books. I have found +John (Ballantrae) to be an excellent source of out-of-print material +and there have been very few books that I have requested that he has +not been able to locate and I hope that he will be a valuable resource +for the members of this forum also. + + Blessed Be! + + Alan Sante + +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +I am sending you a descriptive listing of a number of +BALLANTRAE REPRINTS that you may find of interest and +use. We publish approximately five hudred different titles +in such areas as: + + Alchemy + Astrology + Biography/Autobiography + Celts and Druids + Egypt/Ancient Egypt + Folklore and Customs + Health and Healing + Kaballah + Magic/Demons/Witchcraft + Mythology + Numbers + Origins of Man + Philosophy/Spiritual Understanding + Religions, Ancient and Modern + Sex and Sex Worship + Symbolism + The Tarot + Templars and Rosicrucians + Words/Names/Language + + If you wish to purchase any of the books on this list, +Please add 10% for -surface- postage or 25% for -airmail-. We +will bill or credit you for any difference. + + A complete catalogue is available for $2.00. + + We are expanding our selection all the time. Let us know +if there are any books you have not been able to find and we +shall see what we can do. + + THE UNIVERSE BOOKSTORE + 10 George Street North + Brampton, Ontario + L6X 1R2 CANADA + (416) 454-4523 + + + + +BOOK OF CHARMS AND TALISMANS - Sepharial. History and background +of magical talismans and charms with illustrations and directions on how +to make talismans for success, prosperity, etc. 118pp $8.75 US + +BOOK OF WITCHES (1908) O.M. Hueffer. "I have sought to show whence +the witch came and why, as well as what she was and is; to point out, +further, how necessary she is and must be to the happiness of mankind, and +how great the responsibility of those who, disbelieving in her themselves, +seek to infect others with thier scepticism." x+333pp $23.25 US. + +BRITISH GOBLINS (1880) Wirt SIkes. Welsh Folk-Lore, Fairy Mythology, +Legends and Traditions. "In a certain sense Wales may be spoken of as the +cradle of fairy legend. It is not now disputed that from the Welsh were +borrowed many of the first subjects of composition in the literature of all +the cultivated peoples of Europe." xvi+412pp $28.50 US + +CAT IN THE MYSTERIES OF RELIGION AND MAGIC M.Oldfield Howey. +"The Cat, like the Serpent, conveys, though necessarily imperfectly, the +thought that God is all... The Cat is the symbol of Good and Evil, of Light +and of Darkness, of Christ and of Satan, of Religion and of Black Magic, of +Sun and of Moon, of Father, Mother and Son." 254pp. $17.50 US + +CRYSTAL GAZING (1924) Theodore Besterman. A study in the History, +Distribution, Theory and Practice of Scrying. viii+183pp $13.25 US + +DAEMONOLOGIE IN FORME OF A DIALOGUE (1597) "The fearefull +aboundage at this time in this countrie, of these detestable slaves of the +Devill, the WItches or enchaunters, hath moved me (beloved reader) to +dispatch in post, this following treatise of mine...." The author is seeking +to prove that Satanism and suchlike do exist and that they ought to be +punished. 94pp $6.75 US + +DEMONOLOGY AND DEVIL LORE (1881) M.D. Conway. A wealth of +research on Demonology and Devil Lore from East and West, North and +South, from the past and distant past. + Volume 1. Chapters on Demons of Hunger, Heat, Cold, Elements, +Animals, Barrenness, Obstacles, Darkness, etc. Decline of Demons, The +Serpent, The Worm, The Dragon Slayer, etc. xvi+428pp $29.50 US + Volume 2. Chapters on Diabolism, Ahriman, Elohim and Jehovah, +Paradise and the Serpent, Eve, Lilith, War in Heaven, War on Earth, The +Holy Ghost, Antichrist, The Curse on Knowledge, etc. xii+478pp $32.50 US + +DEVILS (1904) J Charles Wall. "The mosaic here displayed makes but a +very imperfect picture of a widely distributed subject; yet...there may be +found sufficient remains to indicate the original design conceived in the +minds of men of past generations". Chapters on Devils, Origin of the Devil, +Hell, Proverbs, Legends, etc. x+152pp $11.50 US + +DOWSING (1939) W.H. Trinder. The theory and practice of dowsing +xiv+137pp $9.75 US + +ELIZABETHAN DEMONOLOGY (1880) Thomas Alfred Spalding, LL. B. An +essay in illustration in trhe belief in the existance of Devils, and +the powers possessed by them, as it was generally held during the period +of the Reformation and the Times immediately succeeding; with special +reference to Shakespeare and his works. xii+151pp $11.50 + +ENCIRCLED SERPENT - M. Oldfield Howey. A study of Serpent Worship +in all countries and ages. Chapters on The Caduceus; The Serpent and the +Tree; Women Serpent SUbduers; The Brazen Serpent; The Great Red Dragon, +etc. xii+411pp $27.00 US + +HISTORY OF THE DEVIL AND THE IDEA OF EVIL (1900) Dr. Paul Carus. +The Devil form the earliest times to the present day. Chapters on Devil +Worship, ANcient Egypt, Israel, Buddism, Demonology of Northern Europe, +the Inquisition etc. xvi +496pp $33.25 US + +INQUISITION OF THE MIDDLE AGES (1887) Henry Cahrles Lea. The +Organization and Operation of the Inquisition. Eight chapters from the +classic three volume "History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages". From +this book emerges a comprehensive and vivid picture of a system which, as +Lea points out, "might well seem the invention of demons, and was fitly +characterized...as the Road to Hell". vi+260pp $18.75 US + +MATERIALS TOWARDS A HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT (1890) Henry Charles Lea. +PART ONE - THE OLDER BELIEFS +A The Powers of Evil +B Magic and Sorcery +C Popular Beliefs Accepted by Churchmen +PART TWO - HOW THE WITCH THEORY DEVELOPED +A Assimilation of Sorcery to Heresy +B Witch Trials to the Middle of the 16th Century +C Treatises of Witchcraft to 1550. +D Views of the Protestant Reformers +E Mysticism and Witchcraft. +PART THREE - THE DELUSION AT ITS HEIGHT +A Its Promoters and Critics +B Witchcraft as viewed by Secular Law. +C Witchcraft Literature of the Roman Inquisition. +D Demoniacal Possession +E Witchcraft by Regions +PART FOUR - THE DECLINE OF WITCHCRAFT +A Witchcraft and the Philosophers +B Witchcraft and Moral Theologians +C The Final Controversies +D Surival Into Later Times. + Volume 1 xlvii+434pp $31.00 US + Volume 2 603pp $38.75 US + Volume 3 509pp $33.00 US + +OBSERVATIONS ON THE POPULAR ANTIQUITIES OF GREAT BRITAIN (1853) +John Brand, M.A. Chiefly illustrating the Origin of our Vulgar and +Provincial Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions. A wealth of +Information on customs, traditions, holiday celebrations, etc. + Volume 1 xx+539pp $36.00 US + Volume 2 vi+522pp $34.25 US + Volume 3 iv+499pp $32.75 US + +PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN CREED: THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING - Edward Carpenter +"The main Christian Doctrines and festivals, besides a great mass of +affiliated legend and ceremonial, are really quite derived from, and +related to, preceding Nature worships; and it has only been by a good +deal of deliberate mystification and falsification that this derivation +has been kept out of sight". 318pp $20.75 US + +SACRED BEE IN ANCIENT TIMES AND FOLKLORE - Hilda M. Ransome. 308pp $21.00 US + +SATAN'S INVISIBLE WORLD DISCOVERS (1789) George Sinclair. A Choice +Collection of Modern Relations, Proving eveidently, against the Atheists +of this present Age, that there are Devils, Spirits, Witches, and +Apparitions, from authentic Records and Attestations of Witnesses of +undoubted veracity. To which is added that Marvellous History of Major +Wier and his Sister, the Witches of Bargarran, Pittenweem, Calder &c. +vii+174pp $12.95 US + +SEX SYMBOLISM IN RELIGION (1922) J.B. Hannay. "All the Ideas in the Bible, +the nature of the Gods, the stories of creation, miracles, life and death, +the manner of sacrificing, worshipping, vowing, building altars, arks, +dress, altar furniture, and symbolism - in fact the entire religion as taught +us in the Bible - are absolutely and totaqlly founded upon and saturated with +Pallism; and the Phallic cult is that on which Christianity has been founded. +Phallism is sex symbolism, and all creative power in a god is symbolized by +the actual facts of creation of life in nature by means of the organs of sex. +In my preface to Christianity I wrote, 'Any work on the symbolism of +religion, without treating its pahllic basis, would be like Hamlet without +the Prince of Denmark". + Volume 1 ii+540pp $35.00 US + Volume 2 644pp $40.75 US diff --git a/religious documents/octrit.txt b/religious documents/octrit.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c316ba --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/octrit.txt @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ + + A SAMHAIN RITUAL + +[older woman to older man]: + One-eye, Wanderer, God of wisdom, + Hunt-lord, hail, who leads the hosting! + Nine nights hanging, knowledge gaining, + Cloaked at crossroads, council hidden. + Now the night, your time, is near us -- + Right roads send us on, Rune-winner. +[older man to older woman]: + Every age your eye has witnessed; + Cauldron-Keeper, hail wise Crone! + Rede in riddles is your ration -- + Wyrd-weaving at the World-tree's root. + Eldest ancient, all-knowing one, + Speak secrets to us, send us vision. +[younger woman to younger man]: + Lord of Life, hail Land-Master! + God of grain that grows and dies + And rises reborn, full of richness; + Fallow fields shall yet be fertile -- + Spring sap runs as stirs your phallus + Bless barren earth, let it bear again! +[younger man to younger woman]: + Snow-shoes striding, hail swift Huntress! + Wild one, free and willful Goddess + Bow and blade you bear beside you, + Finding food to fend off hunger -- + Winter will not leave us wanting; + Give good hunting, grant us skill. + + USHERING IN THE NEW YEAR: + Welcome winter, waning season, + Now with night the new year comes; + Hail the horse's head with blessings -- + Blessings be on those who bide here + And indeed on all the world! + + SCRYING: + Wide are the worldgates, + Sights to be sent us; + Ready for rede-gifts, + We wait for your wisdom. + + OFFERINGS/THANKSGIVING: + Grateful, we give now, gifts of our own + Heart-work and hand-work the hearth shall grace; + Happiness, harmony, health in the new year, + Send to the world and we in it, we wish you. + + DISMISSAL/OPENING: + To watching winds we wish fair travelling; + To sleepless dead sweet rest we send; + Gods and Godesses, go with praises -- + See: the circle is severed thus. [cut with sword at east] + +The horse's skull is a primitive form of the Mari Lwyd (Grey Mare/Mary), +a Welsh folk traditional hobby horse that goes from house to house at +the calendar New Year, but she's such a bizzare and macabre beast that +she was almost certainly a Samhain leftover. There's interesting +material about her in Trefor Owen's WELSH FOLK CUSTOMS. + * diff --git a/religious documents/odin-cal.txt b/religious documents/odin-cal.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..764dcaf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/odin-cal.txt @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ + +The Odinist Year 2242 R.E. (Runic Era) +As followed by the Odinic Rite; BCM Runic; London WC1 UK + +Snowmoon (Jan) 17 CHARMING OF THE PLOW + Festival of labour + 31 Norns, Disir, and Valkyries +Horning (Feb) 14 VALI + Festival of the family +Lenting (March) 20 SUMMER FINDING +Ostara (April) 14 Miura Anjin (William Adams) + 23 SIGURD + Festival of the homeland + Odinic Rite Restored (1980) + 30 Walpurgis +Merrymoon (May) 1 May Day + 22 RAGNAR LODBROK + Commemoration of the Vikings + 29 Oak Apple Day +Fallow (June) 8 Lindisfarne Day + 20 MIDSUMMER + Festival of Balder +Haymoon (July) 26 SLEIPNIR + Festival of Life +Harvest (August) 24 Harvest Monday + 25 DISCOVERY OF THE RUNES + Festival of the Mind +Shedding (Sept) 20 WINTER FINDING + Festival of the Harvest End +Hunting (Oct) 12 HENGEST + Festival of Settlement + 24 Winter Saturday + 25 Winter Sunday +Fogmoon (Nov) 1 Heimdall + 11 EINHERIAR + Heroes' Day + 23 Wayland Smith + Festival of Metal Craftsmen +Wolfmoon (Dec) 20 THE MOTHER NIGHT + The 12 nights of Yule + 31 The Twelfth Night + diff --git a/religious documents/odinism.txt b/religious documents/odinism.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b3976b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/odinism.txt @@ -0,0 +1,784 @@ + 1. What do you mean by Odinism? + + Odinism is the indigenous religious faith of the + Scandinavian, British and other peoples of Northern Europe; + it is an amalgam of attitudes, ideas and behavior, both a + personal faith and a communal way of life. In its beginings Odinism is + probably as old as our race. Historically it may be divided into three + periods: + + A. Before the coming of Christianity + B. Its gradual merging with Christianity and the ensuing Period of + Dual Faith, and + C. Its efforts in the present century to free itself of Christian + influences and to reassert its ancient independence. + + 2. How have the tenets of Odinism been preserved? + Is there an Odinist holy book? + + The ancient oral traditions of Odinism were during the Middle Ages + embodied in writings, the Odinist books of wisdom, the principals of which + are the Eddas. The poetic Elder Edda presents the Odinist cosmogony, the + mythological lays and the heroic lays, including the story of Sigurd and + Brynhild which were in later times moulded into the Lay of the Nibelungs. + The Younger Edda is a prose synopsis of the Odinist faith. + + 3. When did Britain and the rest of Europe cease to be Odinist? + + The first of our Northern countries to succumb to the false promises of + the new religion were the Goths, in the fourth century of the Christian + era; the Icelanders became Christians by official decree in the year + 1000 CE, to be followed by the Scandinavian countries over the next two + hundred years. England was "converted" between 597 and 686 CE and Scotland + somewhat earlier (although some of the people of Ross-shire were still + worshipping the old Gods as late as the seventeenth century). Ireland, + when Patrick the Proselytizer landed there in the year 432, was decribed + as "a heathen land"; Dublin and the other principal Irish towns were + actually founded by Odinist Vikings, who dedicated the country to the god + Thor. + + 4. Well, the people were converted to Christianity. + Would you have denied them their freedom of choice? + + They had no choice. Most of those who were "converted" had little +knowledge of Christian doctrine; the new religion was imposed on them by +sword and sermon. The Revd S. C. Olland's Dictionary of English Church +History is explicit: "The adoption of Christianity generally depended +upon State action: the king and his nobles were baptized and the people +largely followed their example. . . . .The wholesale conversions. . . . . +could not have implied individual conviction." On one day alone in the +year 598 more than ten thousand English "converts" were baptized in a mass +ceremony; it is unlikely that they had received a great deal of instruction +in the Christian faith. Even in the twentieth century the vast majority of +Christians are still quite ignorant of Christian doctrine. It was always so. + + + 5. Why do you say that Odinism was practiced in the Church + during what you have called "the Period of Dual Faith"? + + We can see the evidence everywhere, even today. When the foreign +missionaries subverted Britain, they repressed what they could and what +they could not they ignored or adopted. The ancient spring renewal festival +of Summer Finding was transformed into the Christian feast of the +Resurrection; the Mid-winter festival of Yule became Christmas. Not only +the folk festivals connected with the great changes of season - May Day and +Midsummer and Harvest - but numerous customs associated with life's +milestones, birth and marriage and death, all showed that the old Gods +lived on in the life and in the language of the people. Many of the external +signs of the ancient faith were retained: water was consecrated and wood +was blessed. A Christian writer, Professor P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye +DD, has said, "We recognize in this folklore a form of historical +continuity, the bond of union between the life of the people in pagan and +in Christian times." Even today when we say, "Touch (or, knock on) wood!" +we are recalling the sacred nature of an important symbol of our ancient +religion; and how many people are aware that they are paying unconscious +tribute to the Gods of Odinism when they light their Christmas or Paschal +candles or their bonfire on the fifth of November? Or that the very +"Christmas tree" is itself the World Ash of Odinism? Even the sign of the +cross is really the sign of Thor's hammer! + + 6. How lond did the Period of Dual Faith last? + + The period during which Odinism was actually practiced within the Church +extended in Britain from about the seventh century CE right down to the +1930's, when the purity of ancient worship was revived by a number of +groups working outside the Church for the first time for more than a +thousand years. + + 7. But the adoption of Christianity, a creed that preaches peace on earth + and the equality of all men was, surely you must agree, a step forward + in the civilizing of our people? + + Odinists were happy enough to put up with the new doctrines so long as + they were allowed to go on practicing their own faith in peace. But + the inherent contradiction at the heart of Christianity is that it + denies in action the faith that it professes verbally. There is no + history of religious warfare in Europe before the coming of + Christianity. It is ironic indeed that the message of peace on earth + has been propogated with so much bloodshed. As for the equality of all + men, we just do not believe in it; and even the Christian god has his + "chosen people". + + 8. Why is it now necessary to reassert what you describe as Odinism's + ancient independence? Why can you not, in the present unsettled state + of society, leave well alone. Surely we should be getting together, + not creating more divisions amongst ourselves? + + First of all it is necessary to state that because of its organic + origins and development Odinism is a religion of visual truth. + Nevertheless, for just so long as Christian and Odinist ethics + coincided - even superficially - it was possible for Odinists to + worship the Gods under their Christian designations; but only for so + long as they remained adequate interpretations of the true divinities + of Odinism (the nature of a god being of greater importance than his + name). + + The Churches are today opposed to many of the things that Odinists hold + sacred: they sin against nation and people by espousing causes whose + ultimate aim is the destruction of our personal freedom;. . . + they encourage criminal activities by calling for the exemption from + punishment, or even prosecution, of whole categories of lawbreakers; + they provide financial aid for revolutionary propoganda and even + terrorist activities against our own people; they remain totally + indifferent to the rape of our countryside in the short-term interests + of economic gain and technology; and they have successfully divided the + people of our own islands against themselves (eg, in Ireland). Life in + Northern Europe is today, after fifteen hundred years of Christianity, + almost entirely concerned with material wealth and self-indulgence and + the Christian clergy have largely forsaken their spiritual vocations in + order to preach the causes of subversion and revolution. + + The people yearn for spiritual bread but have been offered by the + Churches only a political stone. It is no longer possible for anyone + who has concern for the future of our nation and race to remain within + the Christian Church. This must not, however be taken to imply that + Odinists bear hatred towards Christians; we recognize that there are + many good and sincere people within the Christian community from whose + example Odinists themselves could not fail to profit. But the Church is + itself largely responsible for the "present unsettled state of society". + Odinists see it as their duty to oppose those who menace the things that + they regard as holy. If we cannot in justice always blame the sheep we + should and do attack the shepherds. + + 9. But surely it would be preferable to have one god for all mankind? + + Why? One god or many gods, it really does not matter. Our true Gods are + actually worshipped by peoples all over the world, using their own + mythologies and adapting their worship to local cultures and conditions. + We prefer to worship the Gods in our own way with people of our own + kind. And we respect the right of others to their own beliefs. It was + an Odinist gothi (priest), Sigrith, who told the foreign missionaries, + "I must not part from the faith which I have held, and my forefathers + before me; on the other hand I shall make no objection to your believing + in the god that pleases you best." + + 10. You have mentioned the "Gods of Nature". Does this mean that Odinists + are nature-worshippers? + + Odinists recognize man's spiritual kinship with Nature, that within + himself are in essence all that is in the greater world, which perform + within him the same functions as in the world. Thus there are in man the + four elements, the vegetative life of plants, an ethereal body - the god- + soul - corresponding to the heavens, the sense of animals, of spiritual + things and reason and understanding. Because in this way man comprises + all the parts of the world within himself he is thus a true image of the + Gods. + + Also containing the essence of the universe within themselves, the Gods + are everywhere and in everything: they show themselves to us as fire, as + a flower, as a tree. Odinists believe that all life should be lived in + communion with Nature and with. . .the Gods. Christianity turned + away from Nature and concentrated its adherents' attention on the human + soul and became obsessed with the fall of man, by which it was implied + that man had brought all Nature down into sin with him. Christian + teaching encouraged man to see Nature only in her physical form whereas + Odinists regard Nature as a true manifestation of the divine. "We and + the cosmos are one," wrote D. H. Lawrence, "The cosmos is a vast living + body, of which we are still part. The sun is the great heart whose + tremors run through our smallest veins. The moon is a great gleaming + nerve-centre from which we quiver forever. . . . Now all this is + literally true, as men knew in the great past and as they will know + again." Whoever shall properly know himself and all things in himself + shall know the Gods. The Odinist, because of his awareness of his + relationship with Nature, is able to feel a consanguinous kinship with + plants and animals and the land - a complete oneness. + + 11. You speak of "the Odinist mythology". Do you really expect anyone to + believe in a myth? + + Every religion is mythical in its development. Mythology is the + knowledge that the ancients had of the divine; it is religious truth + expressing in poetical terms mankind's desire for personal and visible + gods. The mythology of Odinism consists of a group of legends, fables + and tales relating to The Gods, heroes, demons and other beings whose + names have been preserved in popular belief. Our object must be to + discover, with the help of our mythology, the Gods who manifest + themselves throughout Nature: in the streets and in the trees and in + the rocks, in the running streams and in the heavy ear of grain, in + the splendor of the sun by day and in the star-strewn sky at night. + But it is not the myth that Odinists believe in but the Gods whom that + myth helps us to understand. + + 12. What, then, is the Odinist mythology? + + Briefly, our mythology unfolds in five acts (which may be compared to + the evolution of the seasons of the year): + + A. the Creation (spring) + B. the time preceeding the death of Balder (summer) + C. the death of Balder (summer's end) + D. the time immediately after the death of Balder (autumn) + E. Ragnarok, the decline and fall followed by the regeneration of + the world (winter and spring) + + The first effort of speculative man has always been to solve the + mystery of existence, to ask what was in the beginning. The condition + of things before the world's creation is expressed in the Eddas + negatively; there was nothing of that which sprang into existence: + + Nothing was + Neither land nor sea, + Nor cool waves. + Earth was not , + Sky was not, + But a gaping void + And no grass. + + Ymir was a frost-giant, eg chaotic matter: + + From Ymir's flesh + The world was made, + And from his blood the sea. + Mountains from his bones, + Trees from his hair, + And the welkin from his skull. + + There were as yet no human beings upon the earth when one day as the Gods +Odin, Hoener and Loder (the latter two being probably hypostases of Odin) +were walking along the seashore they saw two trees from which they created +the first human pair. Odin gave them life and spirit, +Hoener endowed them with reason and the power of motion and Loder gave +them blood, hearing, and a fair complexion. The man they called Ask (ash)-- +and the woman Embla (elm). As their abode the newly-created pair received +from the Gods Midgarth and from them is descended the whole human race. + + Balder is the god of the summer, the favourite god of all Nature and a son +of Odin; he is one of the wisest and most eloquent of the Gods and his +dwelling is in a place where nothing impure can enter. The story of Balder, +well-known in the Northern countries, finds explanation in the seasons of +the year, in the change from light to darkness; he represents the bright +and clear summer and his death is the impermanent victory of darkness over +light, of winter over summer, of death over life. When Balder is dead, all +Nature mourns. His death presages the disaster of Ragnarok, the consummation +of the world, followed by its cleansing and return to the primal state. + + Ragnarok, the Twilight of the Gods, represents a great conflict between +. . .lawful and chaotic powers. The idea is already suggested in the +story of the Creation in which the Gods are represented as proceeding from +giants, that is from an. . .unconscious and chaotic force. And whatever can +be born must surely die. In the seasons and activities of Nature we see a +constantly recurring picture of the necessity for death and the equal +certainty of its being over-come. At Ragnarok all the worlds of Nature will +be destroyed and even the giants must die. But from that catastrophe will +emerge a renewed world and the Gods themselves will be born again. We see +this drama enacted every year in minature when autumn heralds the period of +decline and decay until with the spring we witness the magic of resurrection +and new life. + + This, briefly told, is the myth that explained to our ancestors their +origin and the origin of the world, the creation of life from chaos and the +emergence of evolution and harmony. + + 13. Who is Odin? + + Odin is the first and eldest of the Gods, the all-pervading spirit of the +sun, the moon, the stars, the hills, the plains and of man. With his help +were made heaven and earth and the first man and woman. All knowledge came +from him; he is the inventor of poetry and discovered the runes; he governs +all things, protects the social organization, influences the human mind, +avenges murder and upholds the sanctity of the oath. He is well named +Allfather. And because he chooses to surround himself with a bodyguard of +those who have fallen in battle he is also known as Valfather, Father of +the Slain. + + In the mythology Odin's single eye (the other he sacrificed in exchange for +wisdom) is the sun, his broad-brimmed hat the arched vault of heaven, his +blue cloak the sky. A conspicuous passage in the Edda is Odin's sacrifice +of himself to himself: + + I know I hung + on the windy tree + nine nights through: + I know I hung + I know I hung + myself to myself, + on the tree + that springs + from roots unknown. + + Order is the basis of Odin's government. Nature the garment by which he +manifests himself. Odinism says: study the natural laws... + + 14. Who are the other Gods of Odinism? What kind of Gods are they? + + We have already spoken of Odin and Balder. Of the other Gods the best-known +is Thor, the most famous story concerning whom tells of this Warrior-God +crushing the powers of chaos. He rules over clouds and rain and makes his +presence known in the lightning's flash. He is the protector of the farm +worker, the chief god of agriculture, a helpful deity who makes the crops +grow and who also blesses the bride with fertility. In the words of +Professor P. V. Glob, "He wishes all men well and stands by them in face +of their enemies and against the new God, Christ." Tyr is the God of +martial honor, the most daring and intrepid of the Gods. He dispenses +justice in time of peace and valor in war. He it was who sacrificed a hand +when overpowering the evil Fenris Wolf, showing us that we ourselves must +be prepared to make sacrifices in order to protect ourselves and our kin +from those who seek to cast our society into anarchy and chaos. + + Frey is God of the harvest and is therefore also a God of fecundity and +growth; some authorities believe that he and Christ may have become blended, +in England at least, in the new religion of Christianity. Freya is a +Goddess of love and the sister and lover of Frey: barren women may invoke +her and she is also the Goddess of death for all women. Another God, Vali, is +called the Avenger because when he was yet only one night old he avenged +Balder's death, thus demonstrating the moral obligation we have of punishing +society's enemies. Other Gods include Bragi, Heimdal, Vidar, Frigg and Forseti. + + The Gods of Odinism are the ordaining powers of Nature clothed in +personality. They direct the world which they themselves created. They are +referred to collectively as the Aesir, of whom every living thing forms a +part (thus not all the Gods are necessarily good ones). Objects and +phenomena that are regarded as greater or lesser. . .divinities are +qualities such as thought and memory, and natural things such as the sun, +rivers, mountains and trees as well as animals and ancestral spirits. There +are also the guardian Gods of the land, of skills and occupations and the +spirits of national heroes, the Einherjar and other men and women whose +outstanding deeds and virtues have contributed to our civilization, culture +and well-being. + + 15. Is there a table of commandments that sets out the rules to be + followed by Odinists? + + Some guidelines of Odinist conduct are: + + 1. To maintain candor and fidelity in love and devotions to the tried + friend: though he strike me I will do him no scathe. + + 2. Never to make a wrongsome oath: for great and grim is the reward for + the breaking of plighted troth. + + 3. To deal not hardly with the humble and lowly. + + 4. To remember the respect that is due great age. + + 5. To suffer no evil to go unremedied and to fight against the enemies of + family, nation, race and faith: my foes will I fight in the field nor + be burnt in my house. + + 6. To succor the friendless but to put no faith in the pledged word of a + stranger people. + + 7. If I hear the fool's word of a drunken man I will strive not: for many + a grief and the very death groweth out of such things. + + 8. To give kind heed to dead men: straw-dead, sea-dead or sword-dead. + + 9. . . .To bear with courage and fortitude the decrees of the Norns. + + The Charges are based on the rules of life indicated by the High Song of +Odin and in the Lay of Sigurd in which the Valkyrie gives counsel to Sigurd. +They may be summarized as demanding in the struggle for life a self-reliance +which should be earned by a love of learning and industry, a prudent +foresight in word and deed, moderation in the gratification of the senses +and in the exercise of power, modesty and politeness in intercourse and a +desire to earn the goodwill of our fellow men. + + 16. The first four Charges seem fairly innocuous, but I must say the + Fifth Charge sounds rather sinister! Isn't it all very violent and + retributive? + + "To suffer no evil to go unremedied," does appear to run contrary to the +trends of modern progressive thinking. And the idea of fighting "against +the enemies of family, nation, race and faith" would be anathema to many +people. Unlike the Christian, whose duty it is to "turn the other cheek" +(advice that is more often observed breached than otherwise) and to be +patient and long-suffering under the most grievous attacks, it is the duty +of the Odinist to punish wrongs and above all those wrongs offered to his +own family and kin. Society's enemies already know the basic law of life: +that the race is to the strong and that the meek will inherit the earth only +when the earth inherits them dust to dust. Others should also learn to +recognize this truth. + + 17. What do you mean by "kinship loyalty"? + + We must of course give loyal service to anyone or any concept to whom or to +which loyalty is due. But we owe our loyalty in the fullest degree to our +immediate family and to those who are related to us by blood-ties or blood- +brotherhood. A husband owes loyalty to his wife, for instance, and vice +versa, just as a son owes loyalty to his parents to a greater extent than +to anyone outside the immediate family circle. . . . + + This concern for kin is an essential part of Odinist teaching. More than +twelve centuries ago the Christian proselytizer, Boniface, wrote of the +Odinists, "Have pity on them, because even they themselves are accustomed +to say, "We are of one blood and one bone". Filial love, patriotism and +kinship loyalty are religious principles still adhered to by Odinists. In +the words of the Edda: + + We shall help our kinsmen as foot helps foot. . . + If one foot stumbles then shall the other restore balance. + + 18. You seem to have an exaggerated respect for things like law and order! + What about unjust laws? + + No, not an "exaggerated respect for law and order"; just regard for the +rules by which civilized man must live. But laws, to be just, must apply +equally to all citizens and groups without discrimination. Odinists +certainly have a duty to oppose what they regard as unjust laws but in doing +so they accept the consequences of their oppostion and do not expect to be +given exemption or favorable treatment. + + 19. What view do Odinists take of modern, enlightened substitutes for + traditional, repressive forms of punishment? Do you agree that the + wrong-doer in our society is more often than not the victim of his + environment and that we are thus all guilty? + + Odinists refuse to accept responsibility for the actions of others. Just as +it would be wrong to accept credit for another person's merits so it is +wrong to relieve the wrong-doer of responsibility for his actions. "Crime +should be blazoned abroad by its retribution," wrote Tacitus. Punishment +should be an unpleasant and memorable experience. Those in authority who +neglect to punish the criminal adequately place themselves in the position +of being accessories after the fact. Odinists believe that anyone who +seriously or continually flouts the law should forfeit for a period of time +his rights to protection under that law; enemies of the community should +not be permitted to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds! + + 20. The Sixth Charge speaks about putting no faith in the pledged word of + a stranger people. What is meant by "a stranger people"? + + By "a stranger people" we mean those from different cultures than our own. +It is a warning that words often mean different things to different peoples, +that their standards are not always the same as our own. It is simply one of +those things in life that ought to be widely known and appreciated but does +not seem to be! + + 21. Please explain the Ninth Charge, which speaks of "the decrees of the + Norns". Who or where are the Norns? + + The Norns are the three Fates of Northern mythology, the Goddesses of time. +They are named Urdhr (the past), Verdandi (the present) and Skuld (the future). +They watch over man; they spin his thread of fate at his birth and mark out +with it the limits of his sphere of action through life; their decrees are +inviolable destiny, their dispensations inevitable necessity. Urdhr and +Verdandi, the past and present, may be seen as stretching a web from the +radiant dawn of life to the glowing sunset, while Skuld, the future tears +it to pieces! + + Man's fate must be met but the way in which it is met rests with the +individual; and by the way in which he meets his fate man is able to +demonstrate his free will. This important principle shows a man that it is +worthwhile fighting life's battles courageously while at the same time +fate's inexorable nature allows no room for careful weighing of arguments +for and against or for anxiety about the nature of things that are in any +case destined to happen. + + 22. What other aspects of human behavior are admired by Odinists? + + The Noble Virtues are held in high esteem. They are: + + Courage + Truth + Honor + Fidelity + Discipline + Hospitality + Industriousness + Self-reliance + Perseverance + + The Odinist must do what lies before him without fear of either foes, +friends or the Norns. He must hold his own council, speak his mind and seek +fame without respect of persons; be free, independant and daring in his +actions; act with gentleness and generosity towards friends and kinsmen but +be stern and grim to his enemies (but even towards the latter to feel bound +to fulfill necessary duties); be as forgiving to some as he is unyielding +and unforgiving to others. He should be neither trucebreaker nor oathbreaker +and utter nothing against any person that he would not say to his face. +These are the broad principles of Odinist behavior, features of the spirit +that made our Northern peoples great. + + 23. You call industriousness a Noble Virtue? What is so spiritual about + that? + + Industriousness is a virtue which, partly inherited, is nevertheless +acquired largely through training and self-dicipline; it is at once +something we owe to ourselves, to our family and to the community. There is +a time for relaxation as there is a time for most things but it is not, for +instance, during our working hours; neither should it be at the expense of +other members of the community by way of the so-called welfare state. + + 24. What about material possessions? + + A principle of Odinism is the realization of the worthlessness and fleeting +nature of worldly possessions. Enough should be enough. Adam of Bremen, a +Christian, remarked how Odinists with whom he had come into contact "lack +nothing of what we revere except our arrogance. They have no aquisitive +love of gold, silver, splendid chargers, the furs of beaver and marten or +any of the other possessions we pine for". One thing alone is worth while +in this life: the stability of a well-earned reputation. "Goods perish, +friends perish, a man himself perishes," says the Edda "but fame never dies +to him that hath won it worthily." + + 25. You describe self-reliance as one of the Noble Virtues. Surely even + you must admit that none of us is, or can be, self-reliant in these + days? + + Self reliance does not, as you appear to suggest, imply selfishness or mean +that a man must live in isolation from his fellows. We recognize that man +is dependent upon Nature and on the community of which he forms part; he +has obligations to that community as well as to his employer or employees. +He receives from society and he owes a debt to society. Odinism teaches +that people must be encouraged to stand on their own feet and not to ask +continually, "When is somebody going to do something for me?" + + 26. Do Odinists believe in prayer? + + Odinism is not a philosophy invented to ease mankind's comfort or to +assuage his fears; that kind of religion acts against rather than in man's +interests because it takes from him his independence and self-respect and +makes of him a humble supplicant by encouraging him to shed his +responsibilities. The person who prays to a saint or God asking for help or +guidance is seeking to shift the responsibility from his own shoulders, +surrendering his own faculties of thought and physical action, unless he +also does something to help himself. To pray is to beg and plead; it is self- +abasement ("we worms of the earth"). That is not the object of true religion +which, as Carlyle has told us, is "trancendent wonder": wonder without +limit or measure, reverent admiration alike for the immensity of creation, +the inspiration of the human heart and the capability of the human brain. + + Odinists in their inveitan ("praise"; singular, inveita) call upon the Aesir +to approach them in their thoughts as they themselves strive towards the +Aesir. Through increased understanding is achieved wholeness, a unity with +the Gods that helps us to think out our problems and how they may be +overcome. We project the Gods within ourselves and that, externally realized, +speaks to the divine in others. Through their inveitan Odinists express +gratitude for life and the world they live in and resolve to try to make it +better - not just to leave it to "someone up there" or hope for something +better in the next world. + + 27. How do Odinists regard good and evil? + + Evil of itself cannot originate in man but must always be regarded as an +intruder, like an illness or an affliction; as such it must be opposed and +expelled. Good and evil are relative: there can be no absolute norm and +actions must depend upon circumstances and motives as well as time and +place. The ethical standards relating to custom and tradition are flexible +and responsive to the specific demands of different ages, so that moral +judgements of what is right and wrong cannot be placed in a fixed system of +standards but must vary according to time and situation. Just as the +world is constantly changing so are values constantly changing, so that +nothing can be regarded as unconditionally good or evil in all ages. In +general, that which disturbs the social order and peaceful evolution and +causes unhappiness - including such natural disasters as floods and +earthquakes, disease and pollution - obstructs the natural development of +the world and must be regarded as evil. As for sin, Odinism knows but two +major sins - perjury and murder: that is sin against the Gods and sin +against one's fellow man. + + 28. Do you believe in Original sin? + + Man is inherently good and the world in which he lives is good. There is no +sin in man which has been inherited from his first, or any other, ancestor; +it is enough that he should be held responsible for his own actions. But +although his spirit is good, his flesh and his senses may succumb to evil, +especially when by neglecting his own spiritual well-being he has left his +defenses weakened. So it is necessary for him to be able to distinguish +between what is good and what is evil. + + + 29 What do Odinists believe about marriage - and divorce? + + Odinists support the institution of marriage and marital fidelity. But a +broken marriage is an unhappy marriage and traditional Odinic law allows +great latitude to separation of husband wife, at the will of both parties, +if a good reason exists for the desired change. It is recognized that the +worst possible service is rendered to those who are forced to live together +against their will; but it must be borne in mind that marriage is basically +a solemn exchange of vows between two people and as such can only be ended +by agreement between the same two people. + + 30. Does Odinism offer salvation to those who believe? + + Odinism offers no salvation in the sense in which that term is used by +Christians. Instead, the Odinist seeks liberation by bringing the Aesir +into the world of man and into his daily life - whether at home or at work. +. . .It is not, "the kingdom of God which is within you," but the Gods +themselves which exist within man. + + 31. Does man possess an immortal soul? Is there a life after death and + will people go to Odin in heaven? + + Odinists believe that man consists of body (i.e. matter) and spirit or soul. +Physical man is born, produces young and eventially dies. But the whole of +Nature shows us that death is not final: the material body decomposes and +recombines, it is regenerated and lives again. As it was in the beginning +so it is now; every atom continues to exist and must exist as in the +beginning. There is nothing new under the sun and what we call death is +really nothing more than transformation. + + Spiritual man is divided into at least two distinct souls: one passive, +the other active, the divine and the human, which we call God-soul and +human-soul. The first is in the fullest sense a divine being, contemplating +a past eternity and a future immortality, occupying itself in contemplation +ratherthan in action and to be regarded as a kind of guardian spirit. Although +the God-soul and the material body are associated in this life, the former +is not bound to man in the way that, say, a limb is (it may indeed absent +itself from his body during sleep or periods of unconsciousness). Without +the spirit there can be no motivation: when the physical change +(i.e. death) takes place the God-soul passes to another living organism - +a human being, a tree, an animal, perhaps a bird. This is the element that +gives man his mystical attachment to a particular district or country +(which is what we call patriotism): because it is where the God-souls of +countless generations of ancestors dwell. It is because of this that man is +compelled to nurture, love and defend his country, which is, in the purest +sense, a holy land. The philosopher Fichte said, "Death is the ladder by +which my spiritual vision rises to a new life and a new nature." This is +also the reason why Odinists regard all life as sacred and unnecessary +violence as criminal. + + The human-soul (or self-soul), is essentially individual to a particular +person. It may be likened to his personality, his fame or his infamy. +Because the whole of man's life is a continuing struggle of the good and +light Gods on the one hand and the offspring of chaotic matter (the giants, +Nature's disturbing forces) on the other, the human-soul is extremely +active. It is involved in a struggle that extends to man's innermost being: +both the human-soul and the God-soul proceed from the Gods; but the body +belongs to the world of giants and they struggle for supremacy. If the human- +soul conquers by virtue and courage then it goes after death to Valhalla, +to fight in concert with the Gods against the evil powers. If on the other +hand the body conquers and links the spirit to itself by weakness then +after man's death the human-soul sinks to the world of the giants and +joins itself with the evil powers in their warfare against the Gods. Long +after his individual identity has been forgotten a man's human-soul, +absorbed into the corporate spirit of the regiment, college, village, +nation or other group, continues to demonstrate its immortality by +inspiring future generations to noble deeds - or to acts of degradation. + + 32. If the God-soul migrates to other living things after death, how can + you square this with, for example, the need to slaughter livestock in + order to sustain human life? Isn't it rather like killing a God? + + The God-soul must not be confused with the being that it inhabits. Animals, +birds and trees have always been regarded by Odinists with respect; it is +indeed probable that the domsestication of some sreatures arose from their +former sacred character. Every living thing is a manifestation of the +divine and its spirit is immortal: every time a tree is felled or an +animal slaughtered it is indeed a kind of sacrifice. But the tree or the +animal is only a temporary dwelling-place for the immortal God. Everything +in Nature has a purpose and it is necessary in order that life may be +sustained in others for such "sacrifices" to be made. Such an attitude +encourages consideration and reverence for Nature and discourages its +wanton despoliation. It is the unnecessary, cruel or unnatural killing of +animals (or of human beings), the unjustifiable destruction of trees or +landscape and the defiling of natural resources, that is wrong. + + 33. You have mantioned "ancestral spirits". Does this mean that Odinists + believe in ancestor-worship? + + The human-souls of one's own family ancestors provide us with moral +strength and inspiration. Just as we received our spirit from Odin, so we +received our physical being through our parents and our ancestors from time +memorial. Our respect for ancestors maintains the continuity of the family, +the kin and the race. . . .Life is a continuing process: +we must try to visualize ourselves as ancestors; +for ancestors and descendants are genealogically one. Edmund Burke once +remarked that society was a partnership between those who were living, +those who are dead and those yet to be born; past and present and future +are seen as a continuing evolvement and must be looked upon as complete +being. + + 34. What kind of status do women have within the Odinist community? + + Odinists do not need reminding of women's rights! Our religion anciently +held women in high honor: not only are Goddesses included in the Odinist +pantheon, but, when the Odinist priesthood is restored, all offices will be +open to women just as they were before the Christian usurpation relegated +them to permanent backbenches of religious life. + + 35. What are the chief festivals of the Odinic Rite? + + In ancient times there were three great festivals: Yule (the Mid-Winter +Festival), Summer Finding (or spring equinox) and Winter Finding (autumn +equinox). To these we nowadays add the Midsummer Festival. + + Yule, the popular Festival of Mid-Winter (sometimes called the Festival of +Light), heralds the beginning of the Odinist year. It is the birthday of +the unconquered sun, which at this time begins to new vigor after its +autumnal decline when, having descended into darkness, it pauses, kindles +the fire of germination and ascends renewed with the fruit of hope. The +Mid-Winter Festival includes the Twelve Nights of Yule, encapsulating the +twelve months of the year in miniature, and culminates in the celebration +of Twelfth Night. + + Summer Finding, in March, is the Festival of Odin. It celebrates the +renewal, or resurrection, of Nature after the darkness of winter. It was +transformed by the Christians into their Easter (named after the Odinist +Goddess of the Saxons, Ostara), Rogation and Whitsun and was also recalled +in folk custom by the festivities of May Day. + + The Midsummer Festival, the Feast of Balder, is the great celebration of +the triumph of light and the sun. + + Winter Finding mourns the death of summer and heralds the coming of autumn. +It is dedicated to the god Frey, patron of the harvest, and is also +sometimes called the Charming of the Fruits of Earth, when we render thanks +for the years supply of life-giving foods. + + + 36. What other Odinist festivals are there? + + Besides the great festivals there are a number of secondary festivals and +also some commemorations of local Gods or various aspects of life. + + The secondary festivals of the Odinic Rite are: + The Charming of the Plough, January 3 + + The festival of Vali, Febuary 14, which commemorates the family and is an +occasion for betrothals, the renewal of marriage vows and vows of kinship +loyalty. + + The festival of the Einherjar on November 11, known as Heroes' day, which +honors the dead. + + 37. What is the Odinist Committee? + + The committee for the Restoration of the Odinic Rite (to give its full +title) was set up on April 23, 1973 with the limited objects of restoring +Odinist ritual and ceremonies, to define Odinist faith and doctrine and to +constitute a teaching order of gothar (singular: gothi, meaning priest or +teacher). When these immediate objects have been achieved the Committee +will disband. In the past not a great deal of attentiion was paid to +systemizing the doctrinal aspects of Odinism and consequently the body of +writing on the subject has remained limited and uneven. The Odinist +Committee will place the worship of the Aesir on a more formal and +permanent basis. + + 38. How do I go about becoming an Odinist? + + First of all by understanding, then by believing. You do not have to "be +born again" but you are expected to live your whole life according to the +Odinist precepts. There is a ceremony of reception (or initiation) into the +Odinist community for those who wish it. The secretary of the Odinist +Committe, 10 Trinity Green, London, E1, will be able to tell you whether +there is an Odinist group in your neighborhood or, if there is not one, how +you may form one. + + 39. Can the Odinist Committee supply me with a list of Odinist temples + and shall I be permitted to attend some of the inveitan? + + There are at present no Odinist hofs (temples) in Great Britain open for +public worship. Odinism starts with the individual and extends, through the +family, to the communtiy and the world. So with worship, which is at +present practiced mostly at family level, the festivals of the Odinist year +being celebrated in the home, with friends and other Odinist sometimes +being invited to participate. But it is expected that various regional +meeting places will be authorized when eventually the ritual of Odinist +worship has been fully restored and gothar licensed by the successor body +to the Odinist committee. + + + These things are thought the best: + Fire, the sight of the sun, + Good health with the gift to keep it, + And a life that avoids vice. + + The High Song of Odin * + + + * The verse from The High Song of Odin is from Paul B. Taylor and W H +Auden's translation of The Elder Edda and is reproduced by permission of +Messrs Faber and Faber. Other quotations from the Eddas in the foregoing +pages are from the translation by Rasmus B. Anderson. + + diff --git a/religious documents/ogma-adf.txt b/religious documents/ogma-adf.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1597d03 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ogma-adf.txt @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ + AN INVOCATION OF OGMA + By Beth Bock + +The following invocation of Ogma was used in the main ritual at last year's +Mean Earrach in New York. It opens a very nice portal to facilitate +communication with the Gods. + + Ogma! Bearer of knowledge. + Ogma! Who brought the sacred script to our people. + Ogma! Keeper of the gates between the worlds. + Hear us! + Open the gate to the other world + That we may commune with our ancestors, + The spirits of this place, + And the Gods. + Open the gate. + Open the door. + Open the way. + So mote it be. + +Closing the portal: + + Ogma! + We thank you for giving us access to the other world, + Our work is done. + Close the gate that we may leave this place in peace. + Blessed Be. (or alternatively 'So mote it be') +__________________________________________________________________________ + +THis is reprinted from 'News From the Mother Grove, Gamonios, May 1990' +An internal publication presented monthly to members of ADF. Requests for +membership information, etc should be sent to: ADF PO Box 1022, Nyack NY +10960. + This file may be transmitted electronically for useage by religious or +scholarly intent freely. All others wishing to utilize it or to reprint it +Must contact the author via the address for ADF. NO modification of this +file is allowed from its present content. + + diff --git a/religious documents/oils.txt b/religious documents/oils.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..270341d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/oils.txt @@ -0,0 +1,99 @@ + + + SEULS JOURNEY MAGICKAL OILS + --------------------------- + + In most traditions of Candleburning, it is considered + important to consecrate and bless one's candles before using them for + Magick. This is done by pouring a little bit of oil onto the palm or + fingertips then applying the oil to the candle by starting from it's + center and rubbing upwards toward the tip ion smooth, even strokes + then returning to the center and applying oil in the same manner + downward toward the candles lower end. Magickal oils may also be used + to anoint objects and ritual tools. SEULS JOURNEY MAGICKAL OILS are + designed for the following specific purposes. + + CLEOPATRA OIL - Named after the legendary Egyptian seductress, this + oil is used for love and romance, Anoint and burn + pink candles for love magicks + + BANISHING OIL - Use this oil to neutralize and eliminate unwanted and + or harmful influences. Anoint and burn white candles + for clearing a space and protection + + HEALING OIL - This oil is used to promote good physical health and + to accelerate the healing process. For general + purposes anoint white candles for self healing or to + send healing energy to others who need it. + + HIGH CONQUERING + OIL - Use to oil to master life situations. Anoint and burn + purple candles to overcome obstacles and control your + life. + HOLY PROTECTION + OIL - This specially blended oil was formulated from an old + Celtic family recipe. Anoint and burn white candles + for protection from all harm and for generally + improving spiritual vibrations + + JUPITER OIL - This planetary oil is used for drawing success, good + fortune, and good luck. Anoint and burn royal blue + candles on a Thursday while the moon is waxing + (between the new and full moon) to bring beneficial + energies into your life. + + MONEY IN + ABUNDANCE + OIL - This is a money and wealth drawing oil, used to + increase one's financial resources. Anoint and burn + emerald green candles for money spells. Anoint and + burn gold candles to attract riches and to win. + + MOONGODDESS + OIL - This is an excellent oil for drawing in the presence + of the triple goddess. Anoint and burn white, silver, + or light purple candles for new and full moon rituals + to invoke the Goddess in time of need, and to enhance + your psychic talents + + POWER OIL - This oil has been catalyzed with roots and herbs + traditionally used for enpowerment. Anoint and burn + candles of any color to add extra potency to your + magicks + + SATYR OIL - Dedicated to the Horned God, this dynamic attraction + oil can be used by men to attract and excite a lover + Anoint and burn red candles for love and pleasure. + + VENUS OIL - Named after the goddess of love, this oil can be used + by women to attract a lover, and also as a planetary + oil for Venusian magicks. Anoint and burn red candles + for love and passion. Anoint and burn pink or green + candles for friendship and popularity + + ALSO AVAILABLE - Copal, Styrax, Patchouli, Camphor, Clove, Lavendar, + Orange Grove, Bergamont, Vetivert, Lotus, Spearmint, Frankincense, + Myrrh, Heliotrope, Jasmine, Cedar, Sandalwood + + PRICES - 1 dram is $2.00 + 2 drams are $3.50 + 4 drams are $7.00 + + These are only suggestions for basic uses of these oils. + Use your knowledge of planetary correspondences, color magick, psychic + intuition, and other sources of information to help you make full use + of these oils. The advanced magickal practitioner may utilize these + oils according to techniques gained in further study. + + High quality ingredients have been used to formulate these + oils and every possible effort has been made to insure that they are + safe for use. They are designed as ritual anointing oils for candles + and the consecration of objects. Common sense will dictate how to + safely and with optimum benefit use these oils. BLESSED BE! + + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ointment.txt b/religious documents/ointment.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b455bf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ointment.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +ab:ointment.txt 16jan90 + + + To Make Anointing Ointment + + + Take a glazed pan half full of grease or olive oil. Put in sweet mint + leaves bruised. Place pan in hot water bath. Stir occasionally. After + four or five hours pour into linen bag and squeeze grease through into + pot again and fill with fresh leaves. Repeat until grease is strongly + scented. Do same with marjoram, thyme and pounded dried patchouli + leaves, an you may have them (for they be best of all). When strongly + scented, mix all the greases together and keep in a well-stoppered jar. + + Anoint behind ears, throat, breasts and womb. In rites where "Blessed + be ..." may be said, anoint knees and feet, as also for rites connected + with journeys or war. +---------- + -Published in Janet & Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way", from GBG's + Text B/C BOS diff --git a/religious documents/oldcall.txt b/religious documents/oldcall.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db26b19 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/oldcall.txt @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +ab:oldcall.txt 14jan90 + + + + Ancient Call + +May be used as a circle chant, or declaimed (generally by HP) +generally either before the Great God Cernunnos Invocation, +or before the Witches' Rune. + +HP raises his arms wide and says: + +HP: "Eko, Eko, Azarak (these three verses sometimes dropped) + Eko, Eko, Zamilak + Eko, Eko, Cernunnos, + Eko, Eko, Aradia + + Eko, Eko, Azarak + Eko, Eko, Zamilak + Eko, Eko, Cernunnos, + Eko, Eko, Aradia + + Eko, Eko, Azarak + Eko, Eko, Zamilak + Eko, Eko, Cernunnos, + Eko, Eko, Aradia + + Bagabi laca bachabe + Lamac cahi achababe + Karelyos ! + Lmaca lamac bachalyos + Cabahagi sabalyos + Baryolas ! + Lagoz atha cabyolas + Samahac atha famyolas + Hurrahya ! + +HPS and coven repeat "Hurrahya !" +---------- +-Lots of published sources for this one, in several variants +-Michael Harrison's "The Roots of Witchcraft" attempts to explain it. +-Other published sources include: + -"The Grimoire of Lady Sheba" + -Janet and Stewart Farrar's "Eight Sabbats for Witches" + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/oldgard.txt b/religious documents/oldgard.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe8911e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/oldgard.txt @@ -0,0 +1,267 @@ + REFLECTIONS ON 'OLD GUARD' PAGANISM + + by Mike Nichols + c/o The Magick Lantern + 1715 Westport Road + Kansas City, MO 64111 + + +[This article may be reproduced and distributed exactly as is, without +further permission of the author, provided it is offered free of charge. +Changes in the text, however, must be approved in advance by the author.] + +Origin: The MAGICK LANTERN BBS + Kansas City, MO + 816/531-7265 + + +'Old Guard Paganism'. The phrase started out as a joke, but then caught on. +This tells us something. It tells us there is a NEED for such a term. It +also implies its own antithesis, 'New Guard Paganism'. And it indicates +that there is some difference between the two -- a 'difference that makes a +difference' -- and thus requires differentiating labels. (It should perhaps +be noted that the word 'Paganism' is used in the present context -- however +inaccurately -- to refer to modern Neo-Pagan Witchcraft , or Wicca. With +grave misgivings, I have adopted this usage here.) + +The first time I heard the phrase 'Old Guard Pagan' (used as a pejorative, +as I remember) was during the organizing of the first Heartland Pagan +Festival. It seems that the festival was being organized mainly by 'New +Guard Pagans' who felt they were not getting the anticipated support from +the 'Old Guard'. Yet, even after such misunderstandings were cleared up, +the phrase remained. Why? And what is the line of demarcation? +I remember a discussion I had at the time with a long-time High Priestess +and friend, in which we laughingly concluded that an Old Guard Pagan was any +'pre-Starhawk' Pagan. ( Starhawk's important book, 'The Spiral Dance' was +first published in 1979.) Th us, an Old Guard Pagan is any pre- 1979 Pagan. +And yet, seniority alone couldn't BE the difference -- although it might +ACCOUNT for many differences. (It is interesting to note that Starhawk's +book is responsible for a massive influx of people into femin ist traditions +of Wicca, and this shift in focus may likewise account for key differences.) + +I suppose it's time for a bit of a disclaimer on my part. By the preceding +definition, I myself am an Old Guard Pagan, having become a Witch in 1970. +Thus, my views may be consequently biased toward the Old Guard. Still, I +don't intend for this essay t o degenerate into shaking my cane at novices +and using words like 'whipper-snapper' and 'scalliwag'. On the contrary, I +enjoy working with novices and have taught a beginner's Witchcraft course +for the past 18 years. No, my real goal here is to examine what I believe +to be real and profound differences in attitudes concerning certain key +issues between the two groups. Hopefully, this will lead to greater +understanding and tollerance on the part of both. + +In the following passages, I've tried to distill the differences between Old +and New Guard Paganism, presenting them as strict dichotomies. However, bear +in mind the vagaries that must accompany all such generalizations and the +exceptions that will inevit ably be cited. + +FEW VS. MANY: Even today, with a substantial Pagan community for support, a +newcomer often feels insecure, frightened, and alone when rejecting the +religious training of childhood in favor of Paganism. Imagine then, how +much more insecure, frightened and alone an Old Guard Pagan would have felt, +with literally no one to support such a decission. In fact, no one to talk +to at all. When I first became a Witch, I knew of no other Witches +anywhere. For all I knew, I was the first human being in centuries to make +such a conscious choice. And this, I found, was typical of most Old Guard +Pagans. + +RESISTANCE VS. ACCEPTANCE: Naturally, only those of extraordinary courage +and perception would make such a choice back then. Not only because they +assumed they were choosing a solitary path, but also because they were sure +to encounter active resistance -- if not outright hostility. Today, of +course, Witches have appeared on Phil Donahue, Oprah Winfrey, Geraldo +Rivera, and other national TV and radio shows, and the general populace is +becoming more educated and, if not totally accepting, at least more +tolerant. + +SECRECY VS. OPENNESS: But before such positive media PR, most Old Guard +Pagans learned quickly to 'keep themselves to themselves'. Usually, there +was no one to talk with anyway, and when there was, it was someone trying to +dissuade you from your choice. Thus, most Old Guard Pagans are more +inclined to secrecy concerning their involvement than New Guard Pagans. + +INACCESSABLE VS. ACCESSABLE INFORMATION: For Old Guard Pagans, information +was hard won indeed. There were no Starhawks or Margot Adler's back then -- +no one to neatly organize and systemitize the beliefs of Pagans. There were +instead books by Sybil Lee k, Paul Huson, Leo Martello, and Lady Sheba (at +best), and books by Hans Holzer and Louise Huebner (at worst). And there +were the historical tomes of Murray, Thorndike, Robbins, and others, as well +as the disorganized 'linking' work of Gardner, Leland, a nd a few more. And +there was no one to tell you which book was worthwhile and which wasn't -- +so you read them ALL! Typically, an Old Guard Pagan has read (and owns!) a +small library of books on Paganism. And, back then, if you HADN'T read the +classics (like Murray and Gardner) then you weren't taken very seriously by +other Pagans. By contrast, many New Guard Pagans feel that reading one or +two books (usually Adler and Starhawk) is quite sufficient. One unfortunate +result is that Adler's or Starhawk' s version of Paganism is taken as the +'standard' by the New Guard, which is far from the case. + +SOLITARY VS. COVEN: Old Guard Pagans used to dream of the day they might +meet another real Witche, or maybe even (ecstacy of ecstacies!) an entire +Coven! Meanwhile, there was nothing to do but continue studying AND +PRACTICING alone, as a 'solitary'. Th is meant that, since Old Guard Pagans +studied and practised the Craft in relative isolation, they developed strong +individual concepts about it, an inner sense of theology, and the ability to +use ritual and magic effectively alone. By contrast, New Guar d Pagans are +often introduced to other PAGANS before being introduced to PaganISM. Their +first experiences are group-oriented (Would you like to come to a Circle?), +and the group continues to DEFINE Paganism for the novice. Without going +through a solit ary phase, most New Guard Pagans never develop a strong +personal sense of what Paganism means. Worse, when asked to perform magic or +rituals on their own, they are brought to a complete standstill, since all +their experience has been with groups. + +LONG VS. SHORT PERIOD OF TRAINING: Even for the Old Guard Pagan who had +managed to find a Coven to join, it was only the beginning of an even longer +period of intensive training -- 'a year and a day' was the standard minimum. +During this time, the novic e might be apprenticed to any number of members +of the Coven, to learn what they had to teach. At the end of that time, the +candidate MAY or MAY NOT be judged ready for initiation. By contrast, New +Guard Pagans are often introduced to Paganism and invit ed to join their +first rituals in the same breath (often at Pagan 'festivals'). From the Old +Guard point of view, this is not only wrong but actually DANGEROUS! A +person who is untrained in handling magical power has no business inside a +magic circle -- for their own sake, and the sake others attending! + +JOIN VS. CREATE A COVEN: Naturally, the Old Guard Pagan would much prefer +to join a pre-existing Coven -- the older the better. Only then could there +be centuries-old secrets passed down through oral tradition for the novice +to learn! The New Guard Pag an seems to care nothing for this. It is +enough to gather a small group of people interested in Paganism, and start +your own group. From the Old Guard perspective, this makes as much sense as +a novice mountain-climber being taken on his first climb by a group of rank +beginners as green as he is! + +ONE VS. MANY COVENS: You may also be sure that an Old Guard Pagan is only +going to belong to a single Coven. By contrast, New Guard Pagans often join +as many Covens as will have them, collecting initiations as though they were +stamps. (This is also a m ark of New Guard Covens, because an Old Guard +Coven would never consider initiating someone who is already a member of +another Coven.) + +INITIATORY VS. NON-INITIATORY: And, of course, initiation was the ultimate +goal of most Old Guard Witches -- the one moment of transformation that all +the training led up to -- the final reward for years of difficult study, +work and devotion -- both alon e and in the group. Most New Guard Pagans +don't believe in initiations, since they claim (and they are often right!) +that there is no one in the group more advanced than themselves. + +RESPECT FOR ELDERS VS. NONE: This may come the closest to sounding like +cane-shaking, but it follows logically from the previous passage. Most Old +Guard Pagans would tend to assume that someone who has been a practising +Pagan for more years than they ha ve, has more knowledge and experience to +draw on, and consequently more to teach. And unless situations prove +otherwise, these Elders deserve our respect. New Guard Pagans, often +feeling that Elders must first 'earn' their respect, do not seek out the w +isdom of the older generations of Witches. The unfortunate result is the +loss of much valuable legend and lore. + +TRADITONAL VS. ECLECTIC: Granted, there is no such thing as a 'pure' +uncontaminated tradition of the Craft, stretching back to the dawn of time. +Nor would such a case be necessarily desireable, even if it could be found. +Every tradition has borrowed fro m outside sources and is eclectic to some +extent. Yet, while Old Guard Pagans often work to preserve their own +traditions, New Guard Pagans are often deliberately eclectic, with a +wonderful disregard of cultural heritage. The advantage of being eclectic +is that it doesn't require much work, in the way of research. The +disadvantage is that one often becomes 'jack of all trads, master of none'. + +SKEPTICAL VS. UNCRITICAL: Perhaps because of the value Old Guard Pagans +place on traditional forms of magic and divination, they are very often +skeptical of new forms. For example, you won't find many Old Guard Pagans +going in for the current fad of quart z crystals. In fact, Old Guard Pagans +will likely point out that there have been no controlled experiments +concerning the psychic property of crystals, that there is no historical +precedent for such beliefs, that the use of crystals by Native Americans ha +s been overstated and misrepresented, and that other precious and semi- +precious gem stones are traditionally just as effective. New Guard Pagans, +however, are often not far removed from New Age Pagans, and go in for +everything from crytals, to channeling, to UFO's, without much hint of +critical evaluation. + +RELIGIOUS VS. SOCIAL REASON FOR JOINING: This is perhaps the SINGLE MOST +IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE that exists between the two groups, and it could well +account for many other differences. For many Old Guard Pagans, there COULD +be NO SOCIAL REASON for becoming a Pagan, since Pagans were so few and far +between that most of us didn't know ANY other Pagans anywhere! New Guard +Pagans, on the other hand, often become involved in Paganism for purely +social reasons. One has the feeling they need the security of being in the +SCA, or some other form of surrogate extended family. Not that such a need +isn't valid. But if social reasons are the primary motivation for becoming a +Pagan, it marks a significant break from the Old Guard, whose motivation was +chiefly religious. Perhaps that is why Old Guard Pagans are often a bit +isolationist, and are quite happy with a fragmented, insular Pagan +community. In fact, Old Guard Pagans tend to look with grave suspicion on +the 'calls to unity' -- to create a homogenous Pagan communi ty -- that one +often hears coming from New Guard Pagans. + +RELIGIOUS VS. POLITICAL REASONS FOR JOINING: Similar to the passage above, +this again deals with one's primary motivation for becoming a Pagan. For Old +Guard Pagans, being political was something that grew out of one's religious +ideas. But, just as there is much variance in Old Guard Paganism, so too +there is much variance in Old Guard politics. From my own friends, I can +cite Old Guard Pagans who run the gamut from Socialist to Libertarian. This +same political diversity is noticably absent in New Guard P aganism, with +most New Guard Pagans sticking to the same party line. Also, there is less +tollerance of Pagans who diverge from that party line. More stress is placed +on being 'politically correct'. + +RELIGIOUS VS. FEMINIST REASONS FOR JOINING: Finally, many Old Guard Pagans +have become feminists AS A RESULT OF their Pagan beliefs. By contrast, many +New Guard Pagans are Pagans AS A RESULT OF their feminist beliefs. Once +more, it's a question of which t akes precedent. And although it may seem +like the final result would be the same, such is not the case. Pagans who +come to Paganism via feminism are often separatists, Goddess monotheists, +anarchists, distrustful of both structure and authority, insisting on such +ideas as consensus political forms, rotating High Priestesses (often without +High Priests at all), and other non-traditional Coven structures. ( Often, +such groups disdain to use the word 'Coven' and simply refer to their +'Circles'.) The perenial problems that plague such groups (the lack of +focus, the inability to set goals, the endless personality clashes and power +plays, and the fact that nothing ever gets done) come as no surprise. Much +of this would be unthinkable to Old Guard Pagans, who wo uld no more rotate +the position of High Priestess in their Coven than they would rotate the +position of mother in their family. ( The New Guard attitude toward +authority arises, I believe, from a healthy mistrust of it as it is +typically used (abused) in patriarchal society. This perception is +particularly acute among feminists. What it fails to consider is how +authority may be used positively in a matriarchy.) + +NON- VS. PROSELYTIZING: For an Old Guard Pagan, the idea of saying to +someone 'Would you like to join our Coven?' or 'Would you like to become a +Witch?' would have been unthinkable. Proselytizing was one of the most +detested aspects of the religious tradi tion (usually Christian) being left +behind. Those groups who actively recruit members were, to the Old Guard, +groups to be shunned at all costs. Witchcraft is not the one, right, and +only religion. In fact, it probably appeals only to a select few. And th ose +few exhibit their courage and sincerity when they seek out a Coven or a +tradition. When a Coven seeks THEM out instead (Won't you please join our +Circle tonight?), there is no guage of the novice's devotion. Perhaps that +is why the 'drop-out' rate is much higher for New Guard than Old Guard. +(Other mystery traditions, such as the Freemasons, strictly forbid a member +to ask an outsider if they would like to join.) + +Lest one conclude that there are only differences between Old and New Guard +Pagans, let me mention a few things they seem to have in common. First, +there is magic -- both in its frequency of use, and what it is used for. +Second, the use of drugs by modern Witches has always been a minority +position, and seems to remain so. Third, the times of celebration and +festival, appointed by the seasons and the phases of the moon, seem constant +(although New Guard Pagans often employ inappropriate names for the holi +days). So, while there are differences, there is common ground as well. + +If the remarks you overhear made by Old Guard Pagans (and the remarks made +in this essay!) seem slighty petulent, tinged with sibling rivalry, it is +not to be wondered at. The Old Guard Pagan is in the position of older +brother or sister of the family. Th ey often feel, quite justifiably, that +the things which they had to fight Mom and Dad so HARD for, are now being +handed to the younger brother or sister on a silver platter. They feel that +since their freedoms and privileges were so hard won, they value t hem more. +They often feel that the younger siblings do not APPRECIATE all the things +the older siblings have done to make such freedoms possible. And, of course, +they are right. Such will always be the way of the world -- the march of +generations. Still, the thing to remember about sibling rivalry is that, +underneath it all, we ARE siblings; we ARE brothers and sisters, whatever +forms may divide us; we ARE all sons and daughters of the Great Mother. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/oldgard1.txt b/religious documents/oldgard1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0338373 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/oldgard1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,99 @@ +Koren #1 @7314 +Fri Mar 23 12:47:40 1990 + REFLECTIONS ON 'OLD GUARD' PAGANISM + + by Mike Nichols + c/o The Magick Lantern + 1715 Westport Road + Kansas City, MO 64111 + + +[This article may be reproduced and distributed exactly as is, without +further permission of the author, provided it is offered free of charge. +Changes in the text, however, must be approved in advance by the author.] + +Origin: The MAGICK LANTERN BBS + Kansas City, MO + 816/531-7265 + + +'Old Guard Paganism'. The phrase started out as a joke, but then caught on. +This tells us something. It tells us there is a NEED for such a term. It +also implies its own antithesis, 'New Guard Paganism'. And it indicates +that there is some difference between the two -- a 'difference that makes a +difference' -- and thus requires differentiating labels. (It should perhaps +be noted that the word 'Paganism' is used in the present context -- however +inaccurately -- to refer to modern Neo-Pagan Witchcraft , or Wicca. With +grave misgivings, I have adopted this usage here.) + +The first time I heard the phrase 'Old Guard Pagan' (used as a pejorative, +as I remember) was during the organizing of the first Heartland Pagan +Festival. It seems that the festival was being organized mainly by 'New +Guard Pagans' who felt they were not getting the anticipated support from +the 'Old Guard'. Yet, even after such misunderstandings were cleared up, +the phrase remained. Why? And what is the line of demarcation? +I remember a discussion I had at the time with a long-time High Priestess +and friend, in which we laughingly concluded that an Old Guard Pagan was any +'pre-Starhawk' Pagan. ( Starhawk's important book, 'The Spiral Dance' was +first published in 1979.) Th us, an Old Guard Pagan is any pre- 1979 Pagan. +And yet, seniority alone couldn't BE the difference -- although it might +ACCOUNT for many differences. (It is interesting to note that Starhawk's +book is responsible for a massive influx of people into femin ist traditions +of Wicca, and this shift in focus may likewise account for key differences.) + +I suppose it's time for a bit of a disclaimer on my part. By the preceding +definition, I myself am an Old Guard Pagan, having become a Witch in 1970. +Thus, my views may be consequently biased toward the Old Guard. Still, I +don't intend for this essay t o degenerate into shaking my cane at novices +and using words like 'whipper-snapper' and 'scalliwag'. On the contrary, I +enjoy working with novices and have taught a beginner's Witchcraft course +for the past 18 years. No, my real goal here is to examine what I believe +to be real and profound differences in attitudes concerning certain key +issues between the two groups. Hopefully, this will lead to greater +understanding and tollerance on the part of both. + +In the following passages, I've tried to distill the differences between Old +and New Guard Paganism, presenting them as strict dichotomies. However, bear +in mind the vagaries that must accompany all such generalizations and the +exceptions that will inevit ably be cited. + +FEW VS. MANY: Even today, with a substantial Pagan community for support, a +newcomer often feels insecure, frightened, and alone when rejecting the +religious training of childhood in favor of Paganism. Imagine then, how +much more insecure, frightened and alone an Old Guard Pagan would have felt, +with literally no one to support such a decission. In fact, no one to talk +to at all. When I first became a Witch, I knew of no other Witches +anywhere. For all I knew, I was the first human being in centuries to make +such a conscious choice. And this, I found, was typical of most Old Guard +Pagans. + +RESISTANCE VS. ACCEPTANCE: Naturally, only those of extraordinary courage +and perception would make such a choice back then. Not only because they +assumed they were choosing a solitary path, but also because they were sure +to encounter active resistance -- if not outright hostility. Today, of +course, Witches have appeared on Phil Donahue, Oprah Winfrey, Geraldo +Rivera, and other national TV and radio shows, and the general populace is +becoming more educated and, if not totally accepting, at least more +tolerant. + +SECRECY VS. OPENNESS: But before such positive media PR, most Old Guard +Pagans learned quickly to 'keep themselves to themselves'. Usually, there +was no one to talk with anyway, and when there was, it was someone trying to +dissuade you from your choice. Thus, most Old Guard Pagans are more +inclined to secrecy concerning their involvement than New Guard Pagans. + +INACCESSABLE VS. ACCESSABLE INFORMATION: For Old Guard Pagans, information +was hard won indeed. There were no Starhawks or Margot Adler's back then -- +no one to neatly organize and systemitize the beliefs of Pagans. There were +instead books by Sybil Lee k, Paul Huson, Leo Martello, and Lady Sheba (at +best), and books by Hans Holzer and Louise Huebner (at worst). And there +were the historical tomes of Murray, Thorndike, Robbins, and others, as well +as the disorganized 'linking' work of Gardner, Leland, a nd a few more. And +there was no one to tell you which book was worthwhile and which wasn't -- +so you read them ALL! Typically, an Old Guard Pagan has read (and owns!) a +small library of books on Paganism. And, back then, if you HADN'T read the +classics (like Murray and Gardner) then you weren't taken very seriously by +other Pagans. By contrast, many New Guard Pagans feel that reading one or +two books (usually Adler and Starhawk) is quite sufficient. One unfortunate +result is that Adler's or Starhawk' s version of Paganism is taken as the +'standard' by the New Guard, which is far from the case.T \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/oldgard2.txt b/religious documents/oldgard2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..af6a64e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/oldgard2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +Koren #1 @7314 +Fri Mar 23 12:48:09 1990 + + +RELIGIOUS VS. POLITICAL REASONS FOR JOINING: Similar to the passage above, +this again deals with one's primary motivation for becoming a Pagan. For Old +Guard Pagans, being political was something that grew out of one's religious +ideas. But, just as there is much variance in Old Guard Paganism, so too +there is much variance in Old Guard politics. From my own friends, I can +cite Old Guard Pagans who run the gamut from Socialist to Libertarian. This +same political diversity is noticably absent in New Guard P aganism, with +most New Guard Pagans sticking to the same party line. Also, there is less +tollerance of Pagans who diverge from that party line. More stress is placed +on being 'politically correct'. + +RELIGIOUS VS. FEMINIST REASONS FOR JOINING: Finally, many Old Guard Pagans +have become feminists AS A RESULT OF their Pagan beliefs. By contrast, many +New Guard Pagans are Pagans AS A RESULT OF their feminist beliefs. Once +more, it's a question of which t akes precedent. And although it may seem +like the final result would be the same, such is not the case. Pagans who +come to Paganism via feminism are often separatists, Goddess monotheists, +anarchists, distrustful of both structure and authority, insisting on such +ideas as consensus political forms, rotating High Priestesses (often without +High Priests at all), and other non-traditional Coven structures. ( Often, +such groups disdain to use the word 'Coven' and simply refer to their +'Circles'.) The perenial problems that plague such groups (the lack of +focus, the inability to set goals, the endless personality clashes and power +plays, and the fact that nothing ever gets done) come as no surprise. Much +of this would be unthinkable to Old Guard Pagans, who wo uld no more rotate +the position of High Priestess in their Coven than they would rotate the +position of mother in their family. ( The New Guard attitude toward +authority arises, I believe, from a healthy mistrust of it as it is +typically used (abused) in patriarchal society. This perception is +particularly acute among feminists. What it fails to consider is how +authority may be used positively in a matriarchy.) + +NON- VS. PROSELYTIZING: For an Old Guard Pagan, the idea of saying to +someone 'Would you like to join our Coven?' or 'Would you like to become a +Witch?' would have been unthinkable. Proselytizing was one of the most +detested aspects of the religious tradi tion (usually Christian) being left +behind. Those groups who actively recruit members were, to the Old Guard, +groups to be shunned at all costs. Witchcraft is not the one, right, and +only religion. In fact, it probably appeals only to a select few. And th ose +few exhibit their courage and sincerity when they seek out a Coven or a +tradition. When a Coven seeks THEM out instead (Won't you please join our +Circle tonight?), there is no guage of the novice's devotion. Perhaps that +is why the 'drop-out' rate is much higher for New Guard than Old Guard. +(Other mystery traditions, such as the Freemasons, strictly forbid a member +to ask an outsider if they would like to join.) + +Lest one conclude that there are only differences between Old and New Guard +Pagans, let me mention a few things they seem to have in common. First, +there is magic -- both in its frequency of use, and what it is used for. +Second, the use of drugs by modern Witches has always been a minority +position, and seems to remain so. Third, the times of celebration and +festival, appointed by the seasons and the phases of the moon, seem constant +(although New Guard Pagans often employ inappropriate names for the holi +days). So, while there are differences, there is common ground as well. + +If the remarks you overhear made by Old Guard Pagans (and the remarks made +in this essay!) seem slighty petulent, tinged with sibling rivalry, it is +not to be wondered at. The Old Guard Pagan is in the position of older +brother or sister of the family. Th ey often feel, quite justifiably, that +the things which they had to fight Mom and Dad so HARD for, are now being +handed to the younger brother or sister on a silver platter. They feel that +since their freedoms and privileges were so hard won, they value t hem more. +They often feel that the younger siblings do not APPRECIATE all the things +the older siblings have done to make such freedoms possible. And, of course, +they are right. Such will always be the way of the world -- the march of +generations. Still, the thing to remember about sibling rivalry is that, +underneath it all, we ARE siblings; we ARE brothers and sisters, whatever +forms may divide us; we ARE all sons and daughters of the Great Mother. diff --git a/religious documents/oldgard3.txt b/religious documents/oldgard3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef3e036 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/oldgard3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +Koren #1 @7314 +Fri Mar 23 12:48:45 1990 + + +RELIGIOUS VS. POLITICAL REASONS FOR JOINING: Similar to the passage above, +this again deals with one's primary motivation for becoming a Pagan. For Old +Guard Pagans, being political was something that grew out of one's religious +ideas. But, just as there is much variance in Old Guard Paganism, so too +there is much variance in Old Guard politics. From my own friends, I can +cite Old Guard Pagans who run the gamut from Socialist to Libertarian. This +same political diversity is noticably absent in New Guard P aganism, with +most New Guard Pagans sticking to the same party line. Also, there is less +tollerance of Pagans who diverge from that party line. More stress is placed +on being 'politically correct'. + +RELIGIOUS VS. FEMINIST REASONS FOR JOINING: Finally, many Old Guard Pagans +have become feminists AS A RESULT OF their Pagan beliefs. By contrast, many +New Guard Pagans are Pagans AS A RESULT OF their feminist beliefs. Once +more, it's a question of which t akes precedent. And although it may seem +like the final result would be the same, such is not the case. Pagans who +come to Paganism via feminism are often separatists, Goddess monotheists, +anarchists, distrustful of both structure and authority, insisting on such +ideas as consensus political forms, rotating High Priestesses (often without +High Priests at all), and other non-traditional Coven structures. ( Often, +such groups disdain to use the word 'Coven' and simply refer to their +'Circles'.) The perenial problems that plague such groups (the lack of +focus, the inability to set goals, the endless personality clashes and power +plays, and the fact that nothing ever gets done) come as no surprise. Much +of this would be unthinkable to Old Guard Pagans, who wo uld no more rotate +the position of High Priestess in their Coven than they would rotate the +position of mother in their family. ( The New Guard attitude toward +authority arises, I believe, from a healthy mistrust of it as it is +typically used (abused) in patriarchal society. This perception is +particularly acute among feminists. What it fails to consider is how +authority may be used positively in a matriarchy.) + +NON- VS. PROSELYTIZING: For an Old Guard Pagan, the idea of saying to +someone 'Would you like to join our Coven?' or 'Would you like to become a +Witch?' would have been unthinkable. Proselytizing was one of the most +detested aspects of the religious tradi tion (usually Christian) being left +behind. Those groups who actively recruit members were, to the Old Guard, +groups to be shunned at all costs. Witchcraft is not the one, right, and +only religion. In fact, it probably appeals only to a select few. And th ose +few exhibit their courage and sincerity when they seek out a Coven or a +tradition. When a Coven seeks THEM out instead (Won't you please join our +Circle tonight?), there is no guage of the novice's devotion. Perhaps that +is why the 'drop-out' rate is much higher for New Guard than Old Guard. +(Other mystery traditions, such as the Freemasons, strictly forbid a member +to ask an outsider if they would like to join.) + +Lest one conclude that there are only differences between Old and New Guard +Pagans, let me mention a few things they seem to have in common. First, +there is magic -- both in its frequency of use, and what it is used for. +Second, the use of drugs by modern Witches has always been a minority +position, and seems to remain so. Third, the times of celebration and +festival, appointed by the seasons and the phases of the moon, seem constant +(although New Guard Pagans often employ inappropriate names for the holi +days). So, while there are differences, there is common ground as well. + +If the remarks you overhear made by Old Guard Pagans (and the remarks made +in this essay!) seem slighty petulent, tinged with sibling rivalry, it is +not to be wondered at. The Old Guard Pagan is in the position of older +brother or sister of the family. Th ey often feel, quite justifiably, that +the things which they had to fight Mom and Dad so HARD for, are now being +handed to the younger brother or sister on a silver platter. They feel that +since their freedoms and privileges were so hard won, they value t hem more. +They often feel that the younger siblings do not APPRECIATE all the things +the older siblings have done to make such freedoms possible. And, of course, +they are right. Such will always be the way of the world -- the march of +generations. Still, the thing to remember about sibling rivalry is that, +underneath it all, we ARE siblings; we ARE brothers and sisters, whatever +forms may divide us; we ARE all sons and daughters of the Great Mother.T \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/olhp2.txt b/religious documents/olhp2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc4a362 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/olhp2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,153 @@ + ORDER OF THE LEFT HAND PATH + + An Introduction + + The OLHP us a non-sectarian, non-dogmatic forum of philosophers and +occultists operating within the broad-range of the Left Hand Path. + There has been much misunderstanding in the West regarding the Left +hand and Right Hand Paths. The West, still imbued with Judaeo-christian +concepts of moral-dualism, regards the two paths as representing 'evil' and +'good' respectively. Thus, neo-wiccans, for e.g. will describe themselves +as 'good' RHP witches, to distinguish themselves from 'evil' LHP satanists. + The fast is, the concept has been ill-digested from the East, where +RHP and LHP are recognised as the two ways of the one reality (Tao). The +Hebrew Kabbalah also has its Right, Left and Middle Pillars on the +Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Pythagorean cosmolgy is the same. + RHP is male, aggressive; LHP is female, receptive, the yang and yin +of Taoism, the animus and anima of Jungian psychology. The LHP reflects the +flow of the Dark Force which animates Nature, the Sat/tan. + +SAT TAN + From whence 'Satan'? From the Sanskrit Sat, the Dark Force that +infuses Nature, and Tan the way that force manifests in Nature. + +PENTAGRAM + The best-known symbol of Sat-Tan-ism is the pentagram with the 2 +points up, mistakenly called the 'inverse' pentagram. The Satanist Adept +and leader of Universal Freemasonry, Albert Pkie, explained the Satanic +pentagram thus: + "The Eastern Star is the nocturnal representation of the Hidden +Lord. It represents our House, with the 5 angles surrounding it, showing +how the Dark Hidden Lord acts as a force in nature." + This dark force is both creative and destructive. It's the force +that causes change in nature, what physicists call entory. It's the +All-Begetter & the All-Destroyer. + +MAN AS ANIMAL + Anti-nature dogmas such as christianity state that man is separate +from nature. Satanism holds that man is part of nature, an animal whose +behaviour is genetically based. This the modern sciences of genetics and +sociobiology verify. The instict is still the dominating force for human +and all other animal behaviour. Therefore, the individual cannot be more +than what he is genetically-endowed with; although he can be LESS than his +genetic potential if repressed by influences which aren't in accord with +his true nature (Will). + Satanism unfolds the real nature of the individual; what the Greeks +called physis. + +SATANIC ETHOS + The Satanist frees himself from the bondage of dogma; he unfolds +that which he IS. But he is the antithesis of the self-destructive nihilist +the pseudo-satanists proclaim themselves to be. What animal consumes drugs +and alcohol to the point of illness of death? What animal deliberately +weakens iteslf? Only man does this, with his so-called 'higher +consciousness' seeking to over-ride his animal instinct. + What is evil? That which weakens, what is good? that which +strengthens, the individual, to paraphrase the satanic philosopher +Nietzsche. + +FAUSTIAN SOUL + The Satanic 'soul' can be described as 'Faustian'. We stand for +wisdom undefiled and unfettered by any dogma. Our desire for knowledge, and +to see the scope of human thought extended unto infinity, is insatiable. We +desire to see humanity play amongst the stars. + Prof. R.S. Knox's description of the Faustian soul in his intro. to +the 1924 ed. of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus states: "The Faustus legend +becomes for us a symbol of humanity's splendid struggle to reach for stars, +the tradgedy of infinite aspiration" + + * * * + + CONSTITUTION + +PURPOSE + (1) The aim of the OLHP is to (A) encourgae the unfolding of the full + potential of its adherents; (b) herald the dawn of a Faustian + Civilization. + +ADMINISTRATION + (2) Leadership is vested in the Magister. + (3) The Priesthood collectively forms the Magister's Advisory Council. + (4) Upon the resignation or death of the Magister, the Council shall elect + one of its own to assume the position. + +ORGANIZATION + (5) The basic unit is the Coven. + (6) At least 3 Adepts in a given area may form a Coven, which assumes + responsibilty for its own actions. + (7) Where there is no priest/ess a Coven Master/Mistress may be elected to + preside over the Coven. + +DEGREES + (8) There are 3 Degrees: Neophyte Iø, Adept IIø, Priest/ess IIIø. + (9) The Degrees may be undertaken by correspondence by those at least 18. +(10) Examination for the Priesthood is undertaken at the invitation of the + Magister. + +CONDUCT +(11) Members are expected to conduct themselves in a manner befitting + Satanic honour. +(12) A Priest/ess or Coven Master/Mistress may suspend a subordinate, + subject to review by the Magister. +(13) The Magister shall have ultimate responsibility for the interpretation + and amendment of this Constitution. + + Revised 14 April 1993ev + + Order of the Left Hand Path + P.O. Box 38-262 + Petone + Wellington + New Zealand + + + DEGREES + + There are Three Degrees in the OLHP which may be attained by +completing courses by correspondence. + +NEOPHYTE Iø - Basics of Satanic philosophy and magick, self-initiation, +visualization... $15.00 (US$8.00) + +ADEPT IIø - Pathworkings, steps in physis, ritual... $15.00 (US$8.00) + +PRIEST/ESS IIIø - Undertaken by Adepts at the invitation of the Magister. + $25.00 (US$12.00) + + +All applicants must be at least 18. A Certificate of ordination is issued +to each degree. IIø+ are also given an OLHP membership card. + +Please make all cheques & Money Orders payable to "Realist Publications", +P.O. Box 38-262, Petone, Wellington. New Zealand. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + ENROLMENT FORM + +Understanding the conditions above, I, the undersigned apply for enrolment +to the following Degree: +[ ] Neophyte [ ] Adept [ ] Priest/ess +I enclose payment herewith of $_____________ + +Please print or type: + +Name___________________________________________________ + +Address________________________________________________ + +_______________________________________________________ + +Signed____________________ Date________________________ + +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - diff --git a/religious documents/olhp_lit.txt b/religious documents/olhp_lit.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..45bcbc2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/olhp_lit.txt @@ -0,0 +1,92 @@ + ORDER OF THE LEFT HAND PATH + P.O. Box 38-262 Petone, Wellington, New Zealand + +Please make all cheques payable to "Realist Publications" +Overseas - payment can be made in US currency or via an International +Money Order. (NOTE: We CANNOT accept overseas POSTAL money orders). +Discounts: a 50% discount is offered on 5 or more of an item marked *. + + BOOKS + +* The Dark Doctrine - publication explicating OLHP's Satanism, Satanic +philosophy, origin and meaning of the word 'Sat/Tan', Cyclic evolution & +the doctrine of polarities, Nietzschean philosophy, Eugenics, Faustianism, +Pike's Palladium Masonic Satanism, Blac Mass, LHP magickal theory and +practice, Rites of Ishtar, Hecate, Kail... + NZ$10 (US$5) + +* sinister Vivendi - Selection of documents, articles, poetry & art on LHP. + NZ$10 (US$5) + +* Satanism - A Baisc Intro. by Anton Long (Order of Nine Angles). Satanism +as a philosophy of living, plus a question & answer section. + NZ$4 (US$2) + +* Anti-Christ - The Bible Reconsidered. Refutation of the xtian dogma using +their bible. + NZ$5 (US$3) + +* The Book of the Law - by Aleister Crowley The Beast 666. + NZ$5 (US$3) + +* Might is Right - by Ragnar Redbeard. 1896 pagan/Darwinist/Nietzschean +classic. Demolishes all the herd dogmas of our time - xtianity, pacifism, +etc. + 153 pages NZ$20 (US$10) + +* Nietzsche: Selections from his Works. Extracts from the principal works +of this self-declared 'Anti Christ'. + NZ$5 (US$3) + +* Debunking the Witch Hunters. Exposing the anti-Satanist hysteria in NZ, +Britain, Australia, N. America. Includes a successful complaint lodged by +OLHP to the Press Council against a gutter tabloid. + NZ$10 (US$5) + +* Christian Child Abuse - The Reality. Over 100 recent cases of xtian child +abuse in the churches, priestly paedophilia, child porn in the rectories. +Much documentation from press cuttings. + NZ$10 (US$5) + +* Dark Visions - Enochian Pathworkings. Astral journeying with the Enochian +alphabet. Illustrated. + NZ$5 (US$3) + + * * * + + LEAFLETS - Christian Child Abuse. Small leaflet for mass distribution. + NZ$5/100 (US$3/100) + + Christianity Exposed - synopsis of the booklet The Bible + Reconsidered. NZ$5/50 ($US3/50) + + Death Cult Warning - Christianity + NZ$3/100 (US$2/100) + + Satanism - A World to Win - Calling Youth. Advocates a satanic + revolutionary youth vanguard - neo-barbarians - to overthrow + the old order and herald the New. + NZ$5/50 (US$3/50) + + STICKERS Illustrated - guaranteed to offend every christian/liberal/ +humanitarian on your block! +(State title required: "Hail Satan!" + "Stop Christian Child Abuse" + "Fight Christian Pestilence" + "Satanic Bible Quotes" + NZ$5/50 (US$3/50) + + Inverse pentegram badge 24mm. Black & White. + NZ$5 (US$3) + +* Unique Satanic Tarot of the 22 Major Arcana plus booklet providing the +full working record of the pathworkings from which it derived. Black on red +card. + NZ$30.00 (US$15) + + POSTERS: SABBATH GOAT & TRADITIONAL BLACK MASS "PRAYER" + ALEISTER CROWLEY PORTRAIT + Both measure 12"x16" NZ$2.00 each (US$1) + + + diff --git a/religious documents/openwitc.txt b/religious documents/openwitc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc61c56 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/openwitc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ + + +From: Paul Seymour +To: All Msg #182, 03/03/92 08:26cst +Subject: Open letter to New Witches + +Message number 827 in "WICCA" +Date: 03-01-92 1:12 +From: Puck +To: Camille Lockyer +Subj: On a slightly different note... + +AN OPEN LETTER TO A WITCH +I do not know what Tradition you follow. That does not matter. Indeed, for +all I know, you may not follow any of the traditions. You may be one of +those many lonely ones who, for whatever reason, must worship by 'feel' +rather than through any formal coven training or participation. But whoever +you are, and however you worship, all that matters to me is that you hold +true to the God and the Goddess. +My purpose in writing this letter is to enjoin your aid in destroying that +which cripples our Craft. Dissension is the disease. It is not a cancer, +for it can be cured; and, as with most herbal cures, the best treatment is +that administered internally. + Friend, help spread the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of the Craft. do not +seek to establish a scale of Wicca purism, (for no two Witches will ever +agree on the relative positions on the scale of even their own tradition.) +There is no one religion for all people, and THERE IS NO ONE TRADITION FOR +ALL WITCHES! Let this be understood, and accepted. Choose your own path and +leave your neighbor to choose his. Remember the primary tenet: "AN IT HARM +NONE, DO WHAT THOU WILT." + Yet never forget: "An it harm none..." If your path leads to sex rites, +to homosexuality, to phallic-initiation...do not pt it foreward as "THE +WICCAN WAY". It is only A Wiccan way, one of MANY. And by the same token, +if a path so presented is not your way, do not decry it simply because it is +not your way. Who are you to say another is wrong, so long as it harms none. + Strive for honesty, friend. Do not make false Craft claims, whether of +position, heredity, lineage, or whatever. If you have a quarrel with +someone, seek out the one you disagree with, rather than utilize perhaps +unreliable intermediaries. do not spread unfound rumors and question those +who do so. News of battle makes more exciting reading than news of peace. +Why, then, provide battle news for publication when the serenity of the Craft +is what we should be showing? + We have come a long way, my friend, in a few short years. Let us move +on along our chosen paths till we emerge - as we will - accepted and +respected by ALL as a religion in our own right. + Help us bring an end to washing our dirty linen in public. There will +always be disagreements, there will always be those who cannot tolerate +others, but they are in the minority and so they should remain, if you wish. +But do not deny them their right to those differences. + Friend, we are Children of the Universe, and Children of the God and the +Goddess. Let us try to remember that, and live in Peace. + Blessed Be, and Merry Part! + + +This letter was first given to me by an exceptional HPS, Lady Mariah, in +L.A., when I was first initiated. She had received it upon her first +initiation in the Craft from her HPS, Lady Bethea, who received it from hers +in England. I share this with all of you in hopes that it will spark some +good discussion, and, above all, help us to THINK!!!!! +Blessed Be! +Puck + +--- + * Origin: The Mountain Oracle, P.O.D.S. for CO. Springs (1:128/101) diff --git a/religious documents/oprah.txt b/religious documents/oprah.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f035f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/oprah.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1146 @@ +June 24, 1987 Transcript #W203 +WLS-TV, 190 North State Street, Chicago, Illinois 60601 +Transcripts: Journal Graphics, Inc., 2 John Street, New York, NY 10038 +Press contact: Alice McGee (312) 580-1950 + + THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW + + WITCHES + +OPRAH WINFREY ........................................................... Host + + Guests: + + LAURIE CABOT, official witch of Salem + DORA RUFFNER, white witch + JOSEPH MARQUIS, former satanic priest + WHITLEY STRIEBER, author + BOB LARSON, Christian minister + +Produced by ..................................................... DEBRA DiMAIO +Directed by .................................................... JIM McPHARLIN + +Copyright (C) 1987 by WLS-TV, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This transcript may not be +reproduced in whole or in part without permission. Transcript produced by +Journal Graphics, Inc., New York, N.Y. + +TRANSCRIPT CHARGES: One to ten copies, $3.00 each; additional copies, $1.00 +each. Be sureto indicate air date and subject or participants. All orders must +be prepaid. Annual subscriptions at $225 per year. Indicate starting date and +enclose payment. + + +THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW Show #W203 Air Date: June 24, 1987 + + WITCHES + +OPRAH WINFREY: Toil and trouble. That's what's been bubbling across this +country ever since the new movie _The Witches of Eastwick_ started production +last year. Witches throughout America are outraged by the film's portrayal of +them. Let's take a look at one of the scenes from _Witches of Eastwick_ that +has caused such controversy. And here it is now. + + [clip from "The Witches of Eastwick"] + +WINFREY: Well, my first guest led a protest picketing the state film bureau, +saying that the film's portrayal of witches was unfair. She says that witch- +craft and satanism are two different belief systems and that witches have +never believed in or worshipped Satan. She also says that Christians created +all of those monstrous stories about bad witches. Meet the official witch of +Salem, Massachusetts, Laurie Cabot. My next guest calls herself a white witch +and specializes in shamanic healing, working with people to help them get in +touch with their natural forces. She says that witchcraft is a true religion +of true magic. Dora Ruffner is her name. And my next guest says that after +spending 18 years as a high satanic priest, he knows that witchcraft is evil. +He claims that the only way to escape once you've joined is to either be +killed or saved by Jesus Christ. Meet Joseph Marquis. Welcome them all to the +show. Glad to have you. + Now, many people have seen _The Witches of Eastwick_ and view it as just +a light-hearted, funny, amusing, entertaining [movie], Jack Nicholson is won- +derful, and say that they don't come away feeling that witches are bad. + +LAURIE CABOT, official witch of Salem: Well, that's sort of like saying, okay, +we're going to do a racial picture, but it's not going to be racist. We're +going to do a picture, and this young boy is going to have only - this black +boy is only going to have a piece of watermelon in his mouth and he's only +going to shuffle a bit in the show, and he's really - he really is friends +with the guy in the big house, it's okay. It's not okay because we don't do +evil with our psychic abilities, and that's what it's portraying. And our +psychic abilities are part of our way of life - it's part of our religion, our +art, our science. + +WINFREY: You see it as being a negative portrayal in the same way that black +people being portrayed as shuffling along, eating watermelon and fried +chicken, is bad, and Indians in all the westerns are the bad guys - in that +way? + +Ms. CABOT: Absolutely. There was a movie that just came out for children +called _My Little Pony_, and in it there were three bad witches, not three bad +Buddhists and not three bad Baptists, you know. There were three bad witches, +and they were cackling and green. You know, we're always green with a wart on +our nose. Snaggly teeth, you know. And yes, oh yeah, I wear black. Black to us +is a tool. So do priests, nuns, rabbis wear black. The High Dalai Lama wears +black in one of his highest rituals. We've done this, and this is one of the +recorded things about witchcraft from Celtic tribes, is that we wear long +black robes. And I chose to do that because it's a statement, it's a political +statement, and that's why I do it all the time. + +WINFREY: Well, if _The Witches of Eastwick_ is a poor portrayal, I would think +that _The Wizard of Oz_ is an incredibly bad portrayal for witches. + +Ms. CABOT: Right, well, the good witch was in pink, though. She wasn't in +black, so that makes it okay. And the whole issue is that word "witch" which +comes from the word "megus," - + +WINFREY: Wicca - + +Ms. CABOT: "magi" and "magi." [?] "Magisus" [?] still means "witch" in Greece +today, and it means "wise people." And the word came from the word "wise." +"Wit," "whit" and "witch." And by the time it got to witch, in the middle +ages, is - during the reformation and the forming of Christianity, who - +Christianity - we're not anti-Christian by the way. Satanic people are anti- +Christian because Christianity has a Satan in their deity structure, people +who went against Christians. We're pre-Christian - we've been here since the +beginning of time. We come out of the Celtic tribes. We've never changed our +ways. We brought with us the sense of healing, the sense of using our psychic +abilities. We wear black because it's a tool - it's like wearing a rainbow, it +draws in light, so it helps us to be more balanced and psychic. We use our +tools, we emulate our gods and goddesses by dressing and wearing makeup, and +that's our emulation. + +WINFREY: Would you agree, though, Dora, that just as there are good Baptists +and bad Baptists and good Catholics and good Buddhists and bad ones, that +there are good witches and bad witches who perhaps do practice evil? + +DORA RUFFNER, white witch: I think that there are people who try to practice +evil of all persuasions. + +WINFREY: Right. + +Ms. RUFFNER: I don't know if the problem is that they're actually practicing +evil or that they separate their own badness. I think everybody has within +themselves dark and light. + +WINFREY: I think that too. + +Ms. RUFFNER: And if they think that they're practicing evil, what they're +actually doing is they're separating their shadow from themselves and pro- +jecting that onto something else. + +WINFREY: I know that. In metaphysical terms that's exactly what they're doing, +but it comes out in the exteriorization, and the manifestation is that it's +evil. Regardless of whether it's separation of light and dark, and the +conscious mind from the subconscious mind, it still looks like, feels like, is +tangibly evil. + +Ms. RUFFNER: Tastes like, yes. And you will have even people who say that +they're practicing good - in fact, sometimes the people who say they're doing +the most good are projecting the most evil, because in order to feel good they +have to see the evil outside themselves. + +WINFREY: On the other hand, you've been a high priest. + +JOSEPH MARQUIS, former satanic priest: For 18 years, Oprah. I first started +when I was at the age of five. I first - someone sent a demon to me. Now, I'm +talking about a literal figurative entity, something that you can actually +reach out to. Eventually, as the years passed on - + +WINFREY: Somebody sent the demon to you? + +Mr. MARQUIS: Right. I'm positive I know who it was. + +WINFREY: Okay. Why? As a five-year-old they sent the demon to you? + +Mr. MARQUIS: Well, as a matter of fact there are witch queens right now over +entire states who are only 13 years old. Their word is law. Going back to what +you were saying about _The Wizard of Oz_, _The Wizard of Oz_ was one of the +first movies ever where we saw a portrayal of a good witch. I mean, now that +philosophy is changing. Before, we used to think of witchcraft from the +scriptural point of view as being evil. Now suddenly there's a shift. + +WINFREY: What is the shift? + +Mr. MARQUIS: That there is now a good side. + +WINFREY: To the witches. + +Mr. MARQUIS: To witchcraft. + +WINFREY: Were you a witch? + +Mr. MARQUIS: Yes, I was. I was a practicing one for 18 years. + +WINFREY: You were a practicing witch, that's what you called yourself. + +Mr. MARQUIS: Right. As a matter of fact, the first thing I started off as was +with what's known as earth mother religion. You believe in the plurality of +gods and goddesses. Eventually - + +WINFREY: Which is what Laurie has been telling us. + +Mr. MARQUIS: Basically. Eventually, as I got to the higher levels, your philo- +sophy is changed. You are now told what's really going on. Now, a lot of +witches today, independent witches, people who are doing it by themselves and +those who haven't really reached the higher levels yet, honestly believe that +they're just, you know, this earth mother religion. After you get to the +higher levels, you're actually told what God you're worshipping. We call him +Satan, okay, but they call him Lucifer. This group I'm talking about isknown +as the illuminati. They are the most powerful, subversive group that's ever +existed in all of man's history. + +WINFREY: And where are they existing, here? + +Mr. MARQUIS: Yes. As a matter of fact, they've already infiltrated our govern- +ment. On the back of the one dollar bill you will find three hexagrams and a +pentacle. The hexagram with that symbol and the little circle around it, a +witch can summon up a demon. Demons you order about, you know, to cause things +to happen. It's not something psychic we all have, you know, this innate power +within us. It's the ordering about of demons. + +WINFREY: So other people can order demons to you, or to whomever. + +Mr. MARQUIS: If you know how to do it. + +WINFREY: If you know how. You say that's true or not, Laurie? + +Ms. CABOT: It's not true. + +WINFREY: We'll be right back. + + [Commercial break.] + +WINFREY: My next guest started out to write a horror novel about witchcraft, +but says that after researching witches he discovered only goodness and +beauty. He says that witches he met doing research for his book _Cat Magic_ +were no more evil than Christians or the practitioners of any other perfectly +legitimate religion. Although he is not a witch himself he has participated in +many Wiccan rituals. Please meet Whitley Strieber. And my next guest is the +host of a daily national Christian radio show who says that witchcraft is not +the harmless nature religion that the media would have us believe, but is +based upon beliefs that are dangerous to society. Meet Bob Larson and welcome +them both to the show. + So Whitley, you set out to write a book on witchcraft. + +WHITLEY STRIEBER, author: Yeah, a horror novel. + +WINFREY: Yeah. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Expecting that it would be about evil satanic witches, the kind +that she was describing just a moment ago with the green and the fangs and +everything. And I started my research by looking for some witches, and I found +some. I went out to Long Island and I found this terrible ritual going on. +They killed a little goat and it was horrible. I left the place in disgust. I +followed it up, and a week later discovered that these people weren't even +witches, that they had to do with a very fanatical religion of another type, a +little Christian church out there, and that there was something false about +what had been done. And I kept doing research. I finally found a witch named +Margo Adler, who's a very famous witch, and she showed me around to a lot of +other witches. And what I discovered was simply this. you take all of the +nonsense and the lies and the superstition and the fear, mainly the fear that +is in our hearts, away, and what you have is just another human religion. +That's all. And so it turned out to be a religion with really neat tradi- +tions, and it made a wonderful book. I had more fun writing _Cat Magic_ than I +ever have had writing one of my books. + +WINFREY: So it's just another religion, he says, Bob. + +BOB LARSON, Christian minister: Everybody's left out the divine perspective. +God's had something to say about this for thousands of years, and when the +theocratic state of Israel was established and the people of God came into the +promised land, the Lord set down some priorities on how they were to conduct +their affairs and their forms of worship. He mandated capital punishment +against witches, not because He's some harsh, vengeful God but because he knew +the ultimate destination of those who followed the ways of Satan was hell, and +God wanted to keep people out of hell. The real issue is the ultimate intent +of what witchcraft means from Satan's standpoint. There's a very real devil, +there are very real demons, as this man pointed out a moment ago - + +Mr. STRIEBER: Oh, there aren't. + +Mr. LARSON: And this is not some very harmless, benign belief system. The +Bible tells us plainly in Second Corinthinans 11 Satan is transformed into an +angel - + +Mr. STRIEBER: You have - + +Mr. LARSON: This gentleman is trying to interrupt me over here. I tried to -- +[crosstalk] + +WINFREY: One at a time. Let him finish. + +Mr. LARSON: I tried to meet this young lady before the show, and this man was +so obnoxious before the show, he jumped in and wouldn't even let me meet this +young lady. I didn't even know who she was. I don't know what the problem is. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Oh, nonsense. + +Mr. LARSON: This man is hardly an objective spokesperson on behalf of witch- +craft. Read the front page of his book. It's an apologetic for witchcraft. +What we're dealing with here is an ideology rooted in the heart of Satan that +wants people to end up in hell, but on the surface wants it to be philanthro- +pically viewed. I want to know where her hospitals are; I want to know where +her homes - for the shelters, where her food lines are; I want to know if +there's anything she's ever done to benefit humanity on a, constructive, +institutional level. + +Mr. STRIEBER: She hasn't got any money. You've got it all. And she deserves +some. + +Mr. LARSON: Who says I've got the money? You look at my bank account? + +Mr. STRIEBER: Not you, but the religion you represent. + +Mr. LARSON: You walk around this city and you see how many hospitals there are +in this city established by Christians. + +Ms. CABOT: I don't stand on street corners and collect money because we don't +recruit - + +Mr. LARSON: How many witchcraft hospitals are there? + +Mr. STRIEBER: They don't have any money. + +Ms. CABOT: I don't recruit - [crosstalk] + +WINFREY: We're going to have to talk one at a time here. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Because it's so small, and it's small and it's innocent and it's +vulnerable. + +Mr. LARSON: She claims it's the first religion. She's had a thousand years to +get her act together. + +Mr. STRIEBER: It does not need to be hated anymore; the hate should end. + +Mr. LARSON: Christianity has been around 2,000 years. + +Ms. CABOT: Christianity burned, hanged and tortured nine million people during +the reformation. [crosstalk] + +Mr. LARSON: The institution of Christianity did not - + +WINFREY: One at a time. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Thank you, Oprah. I'm really not that obnoxious; I'll be nice. + +WINFREY: Laurie? + +Ms. CABOT: Yes. I said that Christianity, when it came into existence - we've +been in existence a long, long time. We do not have devils, demons, and we +don't have a Satan in our deity structure. We do not believe in one; we still +don't. We don't do anything harmful. I'm a recognized reverend by the United +States government. I belong to the National Association of Pantheists, and our +ways are known by everyone. There is nothing harmful in any - + +Mr. LARSON: You're not responding to the issue. Where are your hospitals? +Where are your homeless - [crosstalk] + +WINFREY: Who's to say she has to have hospitals, though? + +Ms. CABOT: I don't have - + +WINFREY: Who's to say she has to have hospitals? [crosstalk] Let me just say +this. Please let me speak. There are other religions in this society - this is +a society in America that allows freedom of the practice of religion -- and +there are religions, other religions than the practicing of witchcraft, that +don't have hospitals, they don't have homes for the aged, they don't have +organizations structured so as to promote the welfare of other people in +society, okay. Please let me finish. And so are you saying that because she +doesn't do that, that's not a legitimate religion? + +Mr. LARSON: I'm saying Jesus Christ made it very plain that spirituality, true +spirituality and true relationship with God, is proven by the fruit it produ- +ces in terms of helping humanity. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. + +WINFREY: But can you not help humanity in other ways? Can you not help huma- +nity in ways that don't necessarily mean you form a hospital or home for the +aged? Can't you help humanity by loving your fellow man and being kind to your +neighbor and treating people - + +Mr. LARSON: Do what thou wilt is the whole of the law and harm none is a self- +aggrandizing, selfish philosophy of witchcraft that is a far cry from turning +the other cheek, going the second mile and loving your neighbor as yourself, +and the contrast between witchcraft and Christianity is very vivid. Why +apologize for them? Why not ask them for the proof of what they've done to +better humanity? + +WINFREY: Okay, we will get the answer to that question when we come back. Back +in a moment. + + [Commercial break] + +WINFREY: Laurie or Dora, do you care to answer Bob's question? + +Ms. RUFFNER: Well, I had a question, which is that in helping humanity, many +people - if it goes by you that if you're not helping humanity in the way that +you say - it appears to be that you're helping humanity, that you are bad, is +it helping - if you are destroying the one thing which sustains humanity, +which is the earth, the planet, our environment, which is something that +people in the cause of goodness and trying to help themselves and other people +have separated themselves, which is why people are, I think, turning towards +earth-centered religions. If you are not also helping in that way, then are +you also evil? + +Mr. LARSON: The Bible addresses that issue in Romans Chapter I. It says you +can either worship the creation or the creator, and witchcraft is the worship +of that which God made. Christianity and the Jewish faith teaches that there +is a transcendent God above and beyond and apart from creation. We're not +worried about a bunch of earth or a grove of trees. What Christianity is con- +cerned about - + +Ms. RUFFNER: Now, wait a minute. How do you know that a grove of trees - + +Mr. LARSON: - is the ultimate God. + +Ms. RUFFNER: How do you not know that a grove of trees doesn't contain within +it a piece of the ultimate God. + +Mr. LARSON: Because God says so. God is God. God made the tree, and the one +who made the tree is greater than the tree. + +Ms. RUFFNER: He made it and then He left. + +WINFREY: Okay. Laurie? + +Ms. CABOT: That's the difference in our belief. We believe that God exists in +all things, in rocks and stones and trees and within each one of us, and that +we are totally responsible for every thought and every action that you have. A +thought is a form of action. You know, thoughts are forms of action. + +Mr. LARSON: Then who are you accountable to? The Bible teaches when we die - + +Ms. CABOT: God. + +Mr. LARSON: - we account to God. You can't account to a stone. + +Ms. CABOT: Goddess. We have a god and a goddess, by the way. + +Mr. LARSON: You're going to account to this chair? + +Ms. CABOT: We're leaving out the goddess. + +Mr. STRIEBER: I learned so much about real reverence from these people, from +the witches, more than I ever learned before. Although I come from a very +loving Catholic home, I never knew what reverence for our earth could be until +I came into the presence of witches who loved it with their blood. I never +knew - + +WINFREY: What do you mean with their blood? + +Mr. STRIEBER: I mean so deeply, so deeply. No - + +WINFREY: I don't think that's such a good example you're using. + +Mr. STRIEBER: I think it is. I disagree with you, Oprah, I think it is a good +example. Because what I was trying to say is that they love it more deeply +than I imagined it could be loved. + +WINFREY: Caller, you say what? Hello. + +1st CALLER: Hello. I'd like to say, how can you say that this is love and how +can you say you came from a Catholic or Christian home? My husband joined one +of these groups four years ago. My life turned to hell, literally. Because +there is no goodness; this is evil. My husband took off, he left behind three +kids, a job, a home and a lot of other real good things going on in his life +to be a part of this. + +WINFREY: To be a part of what? See, you have to tell us what "this" is. + +1st CALLER: A witchcraft cult. + +WINFREY: Witchcraft. + +1st CALLER: Living in some witch occult group up in a northern suburb. + +WINFREY: Of Chicago? + +1st CALLER: Yeah. + +Ms. CABOT: Why would he leave his family to do that? We have children and fam- +ilies. We're human beings. I have two daughters. + +1st CALLER: I have no doubts that you have children. They attempted to kidnap +my kids. + +Ms. CABOT: We are airline stewardesses, we are lawyers, we work, we are part +of the community. + +Mr. LARSON: She brings up a very good point. + +1st CALLER: I have no doubt that you're in every corner of society. These +people attempted to kidnap my children. They caused us physical harm. They +caused us emotional harm. What they have done is destroyed basically what God +put together, a family. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Well, that's very sad - + +WINFREY: Caller, could you not accept this premise, just a possibility, just +that there are people who have wars and kill each other in the name of Jesus +Christ, that there are also people who practice witchcraft and do all kinds of +horrible, inhumane things to other people? + +1st CALLER: Well, I know they do this. I don't have to live with it or accept +it. Four years ago, for instance, my husband had a party at the house. We +weren't invited to it; he said it was a bachelor party. We came home to find +several people still at our house just kind of sitting - they had killed three +of our cats at one of these parties. + +Mr. STRIEBER: A witch would never kill a cat. + +Mr. LARSON: That is not true. They do it all the time. + +Mr. STRIEBER: No, they don't. + +Mr. LARSON: You can't get off the hook that easy. + +WINFREY: Please speak just - [crosstalk] + +Mr. MARQUIS: Oprah, there are eight ceremonies on a witch's calendar. There +are certain sabbaths that must be done every single year. + +Ms. CABOT: That's not true. + +Mr. MARQUIS: As a matter of fact - + +WINFREY: Let him speak. Thank you. + +Mr. MARQUIS: Four of them are definite human sacrifice ones. The victims are +easily picked up. They are wandering teenagers looking for a good time, run- +aways, skid row bums, paper boys, paper girls. You can go out to the street +the day before or the day during, pick up that child, drug him, or whoever you +want to, get him ready for the ceremony, and at that time they will slice the +person's throat open, pick up the blood in a chalice, because they believe +that the power in the blood will add to them. + +WINFREY: How do you know this? + +Mr. MARQUIS: I wasn't the only one who practiced this. + +WINFREY: So you have practiced in going out and picking up people off the +street and slicing their throats? + +Mr. MARQUIS: Yes, they were the easiest ways to - + +Ms. CABOT: And why aren't you in jail? + +WINFREY: Wait a minute. I want him to say - + +Ms. CABOT: Why didn't they kill him, and why aren't you in jail? + +WINFREY: Please let him speak. + +Mr. MARQUIS: Sharon Tate-La Bianca's murder, okay, was a witch's hitting. Sha- +ron Tate wanted out, but the thing is, the illuminati - + +WINFREY: What do you mean she wanted out? She was a witch? + +Mr. MARQUIS: Yes, she was tired of it. She wanted to get out, but the thing +was - + +WINFREY: Sharon Tate was a witch, okay. You base those allegations on what? + +Mr. MARQUIS: On when I was in, myself. I'm not the only one who knows this in- +formation. Anybody who was in witchcraft during that time can tell you the +same thing. + +WINFREY: That Sharon Tate was a practicing witch? + +Mr. MARQUIS: Yes. As a matter of fact, the illuminati - + +WINFREY: I have no information to refute it, so I'm only going on what you're +saying. + +Mr. MARQUIS: The illuminati sent Charles Manson in to kill her. If you remem- +ber, she was killed, one leg was strung up from the rafter, her hands behind +her, her throat sliced open. There is a tarot, 78 cards in a tarot deck. You +look at the 12th major arcane one, it looks like the hangman. That's exactly +how Sharon Tate-La Bianca was left. Charles Manson did not go into prison; he +volunteered to go in. + +WINFREY: So you're saying that Charles Manson came from this group, the illu- +minati. + +Mr. MARQUIS: He's one of the most powerful wizards alive today. + +WINFREY: And it was a part of this whole witch plan. + +Mr. MARQUIS: Yes. + +WINFREY: And are you also saying that as a practicing high priest and a former +witch, that you participated in human sacrifice? + +Mr. MARQUIS: As a matter of fact, my group, we did. + +WINFREY: You actuall stood there, sat there, and watched somebody's throat +slashed? + +Mr. MARQUIS: It would be either kids, grown-ups, animals. And the thing is, we +didn't body bag these people afterwards. We'd just take them, throw them in +the woods, the side of the road on a highway. Somebody's going to find them. + +WINFREY: We'll be right back. + + [Commercial break] + +WINFREY: You can't argue if he says he was a high priest and that's what he +saw and what they did, fine. But I think what we need to establish here, what +you're saying is that there is a difference between satanism and witchcraft. + +Mr. STRIEBER: A great difference. But there's also a lot more. That made me so +sad to hear that. First of all, for him and the suffering that must be in this +poor man. + +Mr. MARQUIS: I'm not suffering. I'm feeling great. + +Mr. STRIEBER: If he has indeed participated in the killing of another human +being, he's suffering from the rest of his life, in all seriousness. + +Mr. MARQUIS: You know, as a matter of fact, when I became a born-again - + +WINFREY: Now you have to let him finish. Thank you. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Now, he wrote this little document that your office has that I +was given parts of to read. + +WINFREY: _I, Witch_. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Yeah. He says there are three million witches. I just want to - +of his ilk in New England. He says they participate in human sacrifice. Now, +here is the truth. There are 14.6 million people in New England, 5.9 million +of them are Catholics, 1.6 million of them are Protestants, according to the +United States Census in 1980. Now, there can't be twice as many witches as +Protestants in New England. Come on. + +WINFREY: But if you are a witch - let me just ask you this here, Whitley - if +you are a witch, is it something, particularly after hearing him speak, is it +something you would want to come out and tell people you are? So if you are a +practicing witch, would you even admit it? So who knows who the witches are? + +Mr. STRIEBER: The courage it takes to get up here for a witch is great, yes. +But they're doing something good, they're doing something wonderful. + +Mr. LARSON: It's called publicity, not courage. + +Mr. MARQUIS: Human sacrifice is anything but wonderful. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Well, then why are you here? + +Mr. LARSON: I'm here because I was invited to be here. I don't need the publi- +city. I've got my own talk show every day. She needs it and that's why she's +here. + +WINFREY: Are you here because of publicity, Laurie? + +Ms. CABOT: Absolutely not. If I never have another TV show, another interview +on a newspaper, I'm still going to look the same, I'm still going to put the +eye makeup on, I'm still going to be a witch, I'm still going to practice +meditation and healing and balance. I'm going to do my magic because it's our +way of life. And the one thing that other religions are afraid of us for is +because we do our own magic. We are attributed with our own miracles. As well +as our god and goddess doing miracles, creating the universe and the earth and +the earth mother and the sun, and those kind of terms that we use for the +energy of the god and goddess, we also are a part of the god and goddess. And +we are attributed to do our own magic, to heal ourselves, to keep our families +healed, to keep food on the table, a roof over your head and be protected, and +to keep the animals growing and the earth growing and the plants. That's part +of our ways. Those are our ways of life. + +WINFREY: May I ask you this? If you really don't want this negative attention, +although I know you have the right to dress and look and be whatever you want +to be, why the dark makeup and the black garb? + +Ms. CABOT: Because it is traditional. Black robes are our tradition, like Ca- +tholics, the priests and nuns and rabbis wear black. The High Dalai Lama wears +black. It's our tradition, so it's our right. I made a dedication as a politi- +cal statement to dress in our traditional clothing for the rest of my life, +because we can't do it. Because she could be a witch, she could be a witch, he +could be a witch, and no one would know it because we're not green and ugly, +wearing long, black robes. And I wanted to stand out and say, "Wait a minute. +I'm not a harmful person. I have children. I'm a healer. I love this earth. I +love this universe. I am a part of the god and goddess, and I want to show you +that I'm a human being and I do not do evil. We do not do evil." And we - + +WINFREY: Would you - + +Ms. CABOT: Let me tell you why we went into hiding. We had nine million people +burned, hanged and tortured under the wrong definition of witch. That means +that every family had someone tortured and hanged and burned. It was a ter- +rible time - + +Mr. LARSON: That's a myth and - [crosstalk] + +Ms. CABOT: It's true. And we went silent. + +Mr. LARSON: There's no documentation of that. + +Ms. CABOT: We swore to secrecy and we went underground. It was the wrong thing +to do, because it left a gray area where you people could say anything at all +about us. + +WINFREY: You're saying the Salem witch trials is not documented? + +Mr. LARSON: Of course they took place. But those inflated statistics have been +battered around for years, and she's giving this pretty little sermon. + +Ms. CABOT: What, 19 people in Salem? + +Mr. LARSON: The ultimate issue is what happens when you die. The Bible addres- +ses the issue as heaven or hell; she's going to address it as coming back or +whatever in terms of reincarnation. + +Ms. CABOT: I didn't say that. + +Mr. LARSON: I want to know what she does - + +Ms. CABOT: I believe reincarnation - + +Mr. LARSON: If we're going to talk about religion, I want to know what the +sexual ethic is, I want to know how they deal with the problem of suffering, +how they deal with the nature of eternity, not all this warm, fuzzy gobbledy- +gook. What is your sexual ethic? + +Ms. CABOT: What is my sexual ethic? + +Mr. STRIEBER: What is your sexual ethic? You tell us first. + +Mr. LARSON: Read the Ten Commandments. You're a Catholic. You know what they +are. + +Mr. STRIEBER: You tell us your sexual ethic. + +Mr. LARSON: I can tell you. Look in the Bible and you'll find out my sexual +ethic. + +Ms. CABOT: Excuse me, can I say one of the Ten Commandments? [crosstalk] + +WINFREY: You can say it when we come back, after this. We'll be back. + + [Commercial break] + +WINFREY: Laurie? Yes. + +Ms. CABOT: Yes, I just wanted to repeat one of the Ten Commandments that I +think he broke: thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. + +Mr. LARSON: How did I break that? + +Ms. CABOT: Because you're saying things about me that are not true. You're +making up stories about things that I believe. + +Mr. LARSON: I was talking generically in broad categorizations regarding +witchcraft. + +Ms. CABOT: No, we're not. I'm trying to be specific. + +Mr. LARSON: Well, be specific. + +Ms. CABOT: I am. + +Mr. LARSON: What do you do with the nature of suffering? What do you do with +the nature of eternity? You have a religion; tell us about eternity. What hap- +pens when you die? + +Ms. CABOT: Well, that's your belief. How do you know - + +Mr. LARSON: I'm asking yours. + +Ms. CABOT: I believe that we go on forever? I mean, you're assuming an awful +lot. + +Mr. LARSON: Reincarnation is a standard tenet of witchcraft. + +Ms. CABOT: Why are you assuming that you know what I believe? + +WINFREY: What did you say about reincarnation? + +Mr. LARSON: Reincarnation is a standard tenet of witchcraft. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Standard tenet of - + +WINFREY: There are a lot of people who believe in reincarnation, however, that +are not witches. And I would like to ask you, does she not have the right to +practice whatever religion she chooses to practice? + +Mr. LARSON: Absolutely. Perfectly. + +WINFREY: What is it that you have against her religion? Let me ask you, is it +because it's not Christian, because she doesn't believe what you believe, that +it's wrong? + +Mr. LARSON: It's because there is an eternity, there is a heaven, there is a +hell. + +WINFREY: That's what you believe, though. + +Mr. LARSON: That's what God says. We're either going to believe what God - + +WINFREY: That's what the God you serve says. + +Mr. LARSON: That's what the Bible says, and that's what the God of the Scrip- +tures says, and one either does objectively accept - + +WINFREY: Okay, so what about the Hindus and the Buddhists and the Moslems, are +they all wrong? + +Mr. LARSON: God so loved the world, He gave his only begotten son - + +WINFREY: Answer the question. + +Mr. LARSON: Jesus Christ - + +WINFREY: Answer the question. [crosstalk] + +Mr. STRIEBER: He won't answer it directly. + +Mr. LARSON: I'm answering the question. [crosstalk] + +Ms. CABOT: Christianity is a minority religion. + +Mr. LARSON: If you believe in Jesus Christ, you are saved. + +WINFREY: But let me ask you this. Does that mean if you don't believe in Jesus +Christ, if you are Jewish and you don't believe in Jesus Christ, or if you are +of other religions and you don't believe in Jesus Christ, are they as wrong as +the people who practice witchcraft? + +Mr. LARSON: The Bible posits where to go in the world and preach the gospel to +every creature, and every individual is judged according to their conscience +and the like knowledge of God they have according to the revelation of God as +they have sought God beholding His wonder in creation. [crosstalk] + +WINFREY: But that's your interpretation of the Bible. That's your - + +Mr. LARSON: That is historic Christianity. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Christianity is getting a bad rap up here, and I want to defend +it, because I am a Catholic and I apologize for him. + +Mr. LARSON: You apologize for witches, and you're going to defend Christi- +anity? + +Mr. STRIEBER: Christianity is about love, gentleness, openness, acceptance. We +all know that this is true, this is the truth in our hearts. It's not about +this rejecting, being close-minded, being afraid. They're afraid. He's afraid. + +Mr. LARSON: Afraid of what? What's he afraid of? + +Mr. STRIEBER: He's - believe me, these people - + +WINFREY: Joseph, yes? Because you are now a born-again Christian. + +Mr. MARQUIS: Christian, right. I was raised a Catholic. + +Mr. STRIEBER: A Catholic, a witch, he's everything. + +Mr. MARQUIS: See it was a great - I'll answer that. You see, back when I was +just as afraid as any other witch of being caught. What I did, I taught Sunday +school as a Catholic. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Look, I think - + +WINFREY: Please let him finish. I want to hear what he has to say. + +Mr. MARQUIS: If anybody tried to pin anything on me, I could just go to the +priest. They would say, "Wait a second, this guy is a long, faithful Catho- +lic." [crosstalk] + +Mr. STRIEBER: But he's saying he taught Sunday school as a Catholic, and we +don't have Sunday schools. We don't have - now, wait a minute. There's some +flim-flam going on here, Oprah. + +WINFREY: Where did you teach Sunday School? + +Mr. MARQUIS: It was called St. Mary's. It's in Lawrence, Massachusetts. + +Mr. STRIEBER: St. Mary's, which one? Which one? + +Mr. MARQUIS: In Lawrence, Mass., there's only one. + +Mr. LARSON: Don't get so uptight. + +WINFREY: I want to know, so you say you taught Sunday school. [crosstalk] +Please let's talk one at a time. You taught Sunday school as a way of +disguising your ... + +Mr. MARQUIS: Right. I was as afraid as most other witches then of being +caught. There was a lot of turmoil going on. Now, I don't care if you call it +white, gray, luciferianism, satanism, the earth mother religion, you have to +consider where is the source. The source is all in the one saint, and it +doesn't come from God. There is one other thing, though. + +WINFREY: Where does it come from, you claim? + +Mr. MARQUIS: It comes from Satan. + +Ms. CABOT: That's their belief system. They have a Satan. I don't even have a +Satan. + +Mr. MARQUIS: That is a fact. + +WINFREY: Can you accept the fact that perhaps maybe there are people who prac- +tice it, but maybe she's absolutely telling us the truth? + +Mr. MARQUIS: Oh, as a matter of fact - + +WINFREY: That she's a good witch. + +Mr. MARQUIS: - according to her knowledge, she is. I believe every single word +this lady over here is saying. Because the thing is, I was fed that same line +when I first began. + +Ms. CABOT: By whom? + +WINFREY: So at what time is she going to be fed a different line? Does she +have to go higher up the heirarchy of witchdom and then discover - + +Mr. MARQUIS: Well, she is an established witch of Salem, okay. She's going to +be there forevermore, probably. Unless you get into some of the real big +organizations, like the illuminati, okay, in the illuminati, once you get past +the third level they will tell you what's really going on. + +WINFREY: You say there is no illuminati? + +Ms. CABOT: Give me an address. + +Mr. STRIEBER: What is it? It doesn't exist. + +Ms. CABOT: Give me a phone number and an address. I'll call them. I'd like to +know who these people are. + +WINFREY: We'll be right back. + + [Commercial break] + +WINFREY: I think what's confusing to those of us in the audience here is that +neither side refuses to accept the fact that each side exists. You did, how- +ever, say that you believe that she is right - or that at least she believes +what she says is true. You say that the illuminati, this cult of witches, +doesn't exist. What if - + +Mr. STRIEBER: I think there's flim-flam going on down at the end of the stage. +I've got to be just very plain-spoken about it. + +WINFREY: In what way? + +Mr. LARSON: [unintelligible], please. + +Mr. STRIEBER: Past you. No, you're for real, sadly enough. + +WINFREY: In what way do you consider - + +Mr. STRIEBER: Well, I've got to - he says in his book that there are three +million witches in New England. He says they're practicing human sacrifice. I +had my researchers yesterday call 10 police departments in New England. No one +had heard anything about any human sacrifices taking place in their towns in +the past five years. And it cannot be kept secret. + +WINFREY: Let me ask you this. What about all the children's - we did a show, +one of the moist poignant shows that I recall, with a 10-year-old boy, a 10- +year-old boy who had been brought into a cult. Whether they called themselves +witches, whether they called themselves satanists, this child had been brought +into a cult, witnessed human sacrifices and said what they do, just as Joseph +said to us today, they throw the bodies away or they burn the bodies. And +there are missing children, missing people all over this country. Just +because, Whitley, nobody found the bodies and nobody called in to a newspaper +and said human sacrifices are going on, doesn't mean that it does not exist. + +Mr. STRIEBER: You're right, Oprah. There may be something terrible happening +in this United States. That's very true. + +WINFREY: And I think it's unfortunate that we close our eyes to the fact that +something terrible is going on in these United States. It doesn't mean that +they are doing it, but for you to say it doesn't exist says to me that you're +closing your eyes. + +Mr. STREIBER: No, it's not true. + +Ms. CABOT: It exists, but I think you're aggrandizing it. I don't think +there's millions of people out there doing that. I think there's people who +are skulking under rocks somewhere doing that kind of stuff. It's illegal and +it's nasty. It's totally against our way of life. It terrifies me. + +WINFREY: Okay, I accept that. + +Ms. RUFFNER: What I hear is that everybody, everyone, is giving away their +power to discriminate in the present moment what is good for them, what is +their truth. I mean, if you are in a group and you cannot tell that that group +has about it the kind of people and energy that would include human sacrifice, +then you're sadly not in touch with something. And if it matters to you +whether they say they're a witch or a Catholic or a Buddhist or something, if +you have to look at that before you can look at a person and say, "I see you, +and I see who you are," then - + +Mr. MARQUIS: No, you see a lot of us - excuse me - a lot of us were too afraid +to get out. You see, most people who belong to the illuminati, you get out +within 24 hours, you have nothing less than a $10,000 bounty put on your head. + +WINFREY: Who's going to pay it? + +Mr. MARQUIS: They don't care how it's collected. + +WINFREY: Who's going to pay the bounty? + +Mr. MARQUIS: As a matter of fact, the illuminati has their own hitmen. + +Ms. CABOT: Who is he talking about? + +Mr. STREIBER: I don't know what he's talking about. He's crazy. + +Mr. MARQUIS: Oh, they do. As a matter of fact, Dr. Adam Wieshopf [?] in 1776 +established this order. As a matter of fact, it was supposed to be a new world +order, as he called it, getting the brightest, the best of intelligent people +to guide and control the earth. + +WINFREY: So what's going to happen to you for speaking out against the illumi- +nati? + +Mr. MARQUIS: I've already had six attempts on my life. They have failed so +far. + +Ms. CABOT: They're very bad at their magic. + +Mr. MARQUIS: I know people - [crosstalk] + +Mr. STREIBER: They're [unintelligible] but they missed him. + +WINFREY: We'll be back. + + [Commercial break.] + +WINFREY: So what you're trying to tell us is that there are people who prac- +tice evil under the guise of being witches. + +Mr. STREIBER: They call themselves witches in order - and it does two things. +It gives witches a bad rap, and it creates a completely false impression about +what real witches do. Witches want to save their word. They want their word to +belong to them, and I don't blame them. They have a right to hear words. + +Mr. LARSON: Do they do hexes and spells? + +Mr. STREIBER: You answer that question. + +Ms. CABOT: No. Hexes and spells - the word "spell" does not equate with evil. + +Mr. LARSON: You've never done a hex or a spell? + +Ms. CABOT: Not a hex. + +Mr. LARSON: Have you put a spell on somebody? + +Ms. CABOT: Yes. Spells are prayers. They are projections. + +Mr. LARSON: No, have you ever put a spell on - [crosstalk] + +Mr. STREIBER: You are twisting her words. + +Ms. CABOT: You want to ask me? You're twisting my words. + +Mr. LARSON: I'm asking, have you put a spell on somebody? + +Ms. CABOT: Yes. + +Mr. LARSON: And what did you do to him? + +Ms. CABOT: I healed them. + +Mr. LARSON: Only healed them? + +Ms. CABOT: That's right. + +Mr. LARSON: Never done evil? + +Ms. CABOT: No, I don't do evil. + +Mr. LARSON: Good, glad to hear that. Wonderful. + +Ms. CABOT: You should be glad, because if I was a black witch you'd probably +be in trouble right now. [laughter] + +Mr. LARSON: No, no, Jesus Christ is in me and the power of the Holy Spirit is +greater than anything that's in you. + +Mr. STREIBER: Oprah, you think you can grab the show back from us? + +WINFREY: I don't know why I even came here today. Yes? + +Mr. MARQUIS: Oprah, there was a book that was published by Dr. Raymond Buckley +[?]. It's called _Practical Candle Burning_. It will show you how, as a witch, +you can use ceremonies with candles to cast spells. Now, that will be on the +left side of whatever page you're looking at. Now, if you look on the right +hand side of the page, you'll see how they're going to tell you, you can use +the Holy Scriptures to cast spells. + +Mr. STREIBER: Now, wait a minute. Let's ask, who exactly wrote this book? + +Mr. MARQUIS: As a matter of fact, how does that equate with what God is +telling us with witchcraft? God said that thou shalt not suffer a witch to +live. That was back then. Nowadays - + +Ms. CABOT: No, it didn't say that. I know what the original scripture said. + +Mr. MARQUIS: As a matter of fact, the punishment back then was stoning to +death. + +Mr. LARSON: You're going to tell us what the Bible says? [crosstalk] What does +it say? + +Ms. CABOT: King James, thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live in Greek. + +Mr. LARSON: And what does it say in Revelations Number One about - [crosstalk] + +WINFREY: One at a time. + +Ms. CABOT: - and added the word "witch" so that he could hang and burn and +torch them. You can make use of any word - + +Mr. MARQUIS: She knows a different Greek than - [crosstalk] + +WINFREY: One at a time. Yes? + +Mr. MARQUIS: She said it was from the Greek. The scripture quotation I just +said comes from the Hebrew. It's not Greek. As a matter of fact - [crosstalk] + +Ms. RUFFNER: Oh, here you go. How many people here speak Hebrew? How many +people - + +Mr. MARQUIS: As a matter of fact, you will find it - + +WINFREY: One at a time. I'm going to commercial. Forget it. + + [Commercial break.] + +WINFREY: Bob, your position is what? We should fear them, we should - + +Mr. LARSON: Absolutely. I have absolutely no fear of this person, any hexes or +spells or anything. + +Ms. CABOT: Good, because I don't do them. + +Mr. LARSON: I think that we should understand witchcraft is based upon the +false worship of a fallen angel who was defeated by Jesus Christ at the cross, +and witchcraft has absolutely no power to the child of God who has been born +again. The name of Jesus Christ is the power over witchcraft, and if anybody's +afraid about any witch anywhere, all they've got to do is get on their knees +and ask God for help and strength to overcome that power. Greater is Christ in +me than anything she has in her, around her or - + +WINFREY: And you agree? You're in agreement? + +Mr. MARQUIS: Yes, as a matter of fact, a very good friend of mine, Gilbert +Gomez, he's going to be working with me and my pastor. We're going to be +trying to form some type of outreach for these people who sincerely want out. +As a matter of fact, I couldn't agree with this man more because he jsut +stated exactly what the Holy Scriptures just said. Witchcraft is a threat. + +WINFREY: Okay. You say, however? + +Ms. CABOT: I say that we are loving people, we are not a threat. We don't +believe in Satan, we don't have their devils. And we don't do things that way. +If people would like to understand us more, we've been in the dark so long, +we're trying to help explain what we are and we're trying to be open about it. +I have a newsletter called _The Witch's Companion_. If people want to write +for it, they can do that, and then maybe they can begin to understand. We're +not trying to recruit anybody either. + +WINFREY: Okay. Thank you all. It's been interesting. + diff --git a/religious documents/oral-2.txt b/religious documents/oral-2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8597e13 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/oral-2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,352 @@ + +HERE IS the second installment of the autobiographical interview with +the late Caliph Hymenaeus Alpha conducted by his close friend Soror +Lola DeWolfe. + + On the first anniversary of H.A.'s death, July |2, |986 EV, some +thirty-odd O.T.O. members and friends boarded a boat, sailed to the +waters off San Francisco, and distributed Grady's ashes at sea--such +was his oft-stated will. The event was organized by Sister Lola, Rusty +Sporer and GTG Bill Heidrick. By all reports it was a celebratory and +emotional affair, fitting for a great Thelemite who lived long and +desired death much. + + The following day many Bay Area Thelemites gathered at Thelema +Lodge for a banana split party in honor of the late Caliph's well- +known predisposition for such mood-altering substances. In +remembrance, we also reproduce one of Grady's poems (the recitation is +also from the interview tape) as a preface to the interview proper.-- +H.B. + +Hymenaeus Alpha: + +Oh sweet adulterous harlot of the skies + + I yearn to thee with heart of burning fire +Pray that I might lie between thy thighs + To find one mad all-consuming quire + The passion promised in thy tender eyes. + +That I might find, o sweet incestuous one + The flame uniting heart to soul and mind +And having found this love of two and none + Cast off the shell that maketh mankind blind + Unto the glory of the dawning sun. + +And having found my rapture in thy kiss + O daughter of the evening's purple charms +To know the beauty, and the carnal bliss + Of total dissolution in thine arms + My Babalon, veiled by the dread abyss. + +And then I penned a few sentences, the first two sentences come right +out of ``The City Of Dreadful Night'' which Crowley thought was the +greatest poem of the nineteenth century... the rest of it I added and +he didn't like it, but anyway... + +O melancholy brothers + + Dark--dark--dark +Death is the way of thy birth, + Pain is the curse of thy mirth, + Sweet is the kiss of the earth. + +(Continued...) I got acquainted with a bunch of Chicano kids in Selma, +and it turned out that they were involved with the Selma High School +band. And it also turned out that there was a guy in Pasadena by the +name of Aubrey Strong. And he happened to be dean of men at Pasadena +Junior College. He also happened to be the bandmaster for the +Tournament of Roses band. Which of course was the Pasadena Junior +College band during the year. And on New Year's day, it was the +Tournament of Roses Band. + + Therefore, he had incentive to take certain high schools in +California...the ones who had outstanding bands that any band member +that wanted to come to Pasadena Junior College would be damned sure +that all of their costs would be paid...it wasn't exactly a +scholarship, it was something like ``National Youth Authority.'' +That's right, N.Y.A. There was like so much money available to +deserving students to help them in their program of trying to get an +education. And so he could guarantee that you would get one because he +was the Dean of Men. + + So anyway, now I had a problem...and this is one for the record, +folks! OK, you do with what you've got. So what happened was this! I + + + + + + + + +found out these kids were going to be going down to Pasadena to go to +school. Well, I wanted to go to college, too. But I didn't have a +prayer. But I could play the trombone. And they were all in the band. + + Now there's a custom, over in places in the agricultural district +of California, over in Central Valley, just like in Kansas. They have +a gazebo in the central park in the small town and on Friday night, +everybody comes in and they space out on the movies or the ice cream +cones or whatever, and the band plays in the park, and everybody sits +around and lets the air blow across them, because it's hot and you're +sweaty and everybody gets off on the band music and then everybody +goes home, right? + + Now, these three guys, they were all, like I said, Chicano. I can't +remember their names...Roy Lopez was one, I can't remember the +others...anyway, they were used to playing in the gazebo. So what they +said to me was this: ``O.K. Grady, bring your trombone this +Friday...and we'll get you in.'' And they did. And I sat there and I +played with them. And then, I got up and I left with them. + + And so then, like a number of weeks later, came time to report into +Pasadena Junior College and the four of us lined up before Aubrey +Strong, the Dean of Men, and he said, ``You're from Selma?'' ``Yes, +Sir!'' And he accepted us all, and they didn't snitch on me. And +that's how I got into college. Because my daddy got busted for being a +bank robber and learned to play the trombone. + +Did you get along well with your father? +My father was always a puzzle to me. (Silence.) He had the cunning of +a streetwise animal. He was a medieval knight in the wrong age. When +we ran out of money, and him being a known ex-con, in Oklahoma in the +thirties, there was nothing to stop him from running out, but he +didn't. + + One morning, we were living in this little run down shack down by +the railroad yard...the reason this is standing out is that every hour +on the hour a passenger or a freight train came charging along...swish +kuchuuung. I used to risk my life going over to pick up coals for my +mother so she could put them on the stove. So one morning I got up, I +was a curious kid, and my family was still in bed. So I go out onto +the back porch and there's mother...If you don't shut up I'm going to +throw you out {to meowing cat}...I go out onto the back porch and +here's several big boxes of groceries, and there is a great, big +Hershey's chocolate bar, you know what a sweet tooth I have! Well, +Joe, who was sitting in the front room with a couple of loaded German +Lugers {tape becomes unintellegible} they had the great big clips on +them, you know? I leaned right out the side of the car alongside a +delivery truck and popped a few caps over the windshield and he +stopped, and I stopped too... + +How old were you? +Oh, god, I was born in '18, '28, '38 (unintellegible). In his own way +he was a very honest guy. How to get along with him I don't know +because I didn't know him that well. For example, he offered to teach +me all of the elements of criminal training. One night, we were +sitting there in his little room...and Dad says ``Come out into the +garage, there's something I'd like to show you.'' So we went out and +there's a nice Chevy Chevrolet, I think they called it, nice, and + + + + + + + + +painted black. I started to touch it, you know kids, and Dad said, +``No, Buck, never touch it like that, always pull your finger like +this'' and he showed me. In other words, if I had wanted to be a +criminal, I had a perfect teacher. But I didn't want to, I wanted to +go to school. Somebody was in Kansas and Dad was driving it to Texas. + +You didn't mention that you're a double Libra. +Yes, well, for those, in terms of oral history, for those who would be +interested, the double Libra, sun conjunct rising sign in 26 degrees +of Libra with Mercury ascendant. I have {a Grand} trine in fire signs +and it goes like this: Moon in Aries 40 degrees trine Neptune in Leo +at nine degrees and trine Mars {in Sagittarius} twelve degrees. I have +Saturn in Leo at 25 degrees in opposition to Uranus and Aquarius 23 +degrees (unintellegible). + +We left off here, you're in college, +My career in college was shall we say spectacular, but not very. I +tried to go out for a career in engineering/physics, but I blew it +when I discovered I couldn't understand differential calculus. As a +consequence, I didn't quite make that. + However, in the process, because I'd been into science fiction +since the mid-thirties, when I was a high school student, I had gotten +involved in the local Los Angeles science fiction club. Where I was +living back then. Paul Friables' habit and mine. Paul Friables was one +of those genius types, he was a student of chemistry at Cal-Tech. He +was to take his degree and die young because he had a bad heart. He +was putting out a fan mag called Polaris in which some of Ray +Bradbury's very earliest stories were printed. + + It was his habit and mine on Friday evening, to take the big red +car, the big red streetcar over from Pasadena to Los Angeles where we +would transfer over to a streetcar and we would wind up at a place +called the ``Cliff Cafeteria'' which is about five stories tall, and +as in any metropolitan area on Friday night, when everybody goes home, +it was empty from the top down, which meant that the top floor was +cheap for rent, and it had a room called ``The Little Brown Room'' +with a big long conference table in it and outside the diners would +sit with all these containers of bug juice...free. + + And so we would line up in there around this table. And there were +two chicks in the whole group...Lona and Pogo and they had a +particular mission in life, to turn us all on to Esperanto because if +we all spoke the same language there wouldn't be any wars. Remember, +this was 1938 and War Two was just hanging over our heads...they were +sure preaching the doctrine. + + In any case, one evening I was sitting there and I saw this idiot +running up and down on the other side of the table. Well, there were +original paintings by artists for the covers of science fiction +magazines on the wall and so, this guy was running up and down with a +horrible Halloween rubber mask over his face trying to scare the +people, especially the girls and they wondered who the hell that idiot +was and he got tired of it and took his mask off and it was Ray +Bradbury, he was just getting really hot at the time. It was that kind +of an atmosphere. + + So anyway, one night we were standing around being happily bombed +and this little swirl of people comes moving through the crowd. I + + + + + + + + +might add, in those days, Cory Ackerman had one of the leading +collections of science fiction, this was thirty-eight, thirty-nine. +Well of course you can imagine what it's like now, but in any case, it +happened to be one of our particular little games to say, ``Hey, +everybody, let's go over to Cory's place and see his collection,'' and +we would. + + It was like this great big cavern and that was only upstairs, I +don't know what he had downstairs, but we used to go on trips like +that. Anyway, so I went to this founding meeting of the California +Sci-Fi Society and we're standing around being happily bombed, the +rooms were just full of people in and out and this little swirl of +people comes moving through the crowd, and this very handsome +guy...looked a lot like me in a way and what we talked about most was +science fiction, magick and poetry. ``What kind of poetry are you +writing?'' And so the next thing I know, it turned out that his name +was Jack Parsons. And he said, ``By the way, where do you live?'' +Was he already famous at that time? +No, he wasn't famous. Well, in the scientific community he was very +well known. And in the science of rocketry he was very well known. But +as far as the general public was concerned I doubt if the general +public even knew he existed. True they named a crater on the Moon +after him, but the people in the general public didn't know who Jack +Parsons was. + + But, so, I said ``Pasadena'' and he said he had a private home, so +that's how I wound up on Terrace Drive. And I became a part of the +menage on Terrace Drive. And I discovered beautiful things like +Wagner, and Debussy and music and fantastic illustrated books by Poe +and Aleister Crowley and fantastically wonderful times...I always knew +I'd been there. + +And did Jack Parsons know Crowley? + +He never did know him. He wrote letters. He never did meet him in +person. When Jack Parsons died, we were all rather shocked because we +looked at him as our coming genius. We expected him to do great +things. After all, he was the only member of the Order of the Temple +whose name had been perpetuated by having a crater on the moon named +for him. However, he did die, and the question rose as to why? Why +would he have chosen to have exited this world at that particular time +and that particular manner--and there was considerable speculation. + + One line of speculation was that it was an accident. Another line +of speculation was that it was suicide at the psychic level. +Personally, I hold to the second point of view. That is to say, my +personal opinion is that Jack Parsons came down, did his trip and went +home. And as far as I'm concerned, it's as simple as that. So that +when it comes to psychic suicide, or something like that, in other +words, had he fulfilled his mission, there wasn't any point in +sticking around. + + Now, what was the next point? + +It seems like, in a way, he was the Antichrist? + +Well, there's one way of looking at it, that Christ committed suicide. +Being the son of god, he didn't have to die, but he did. Well, + + + + + + + + +apparently, Jack Parsons saw something that the rest of us didn't see, +and that was this: that if we were going to put an end to the reign of +Christianity, you would have to have an antichrist to counterbalance +the effect of Christ. Like the Star Trek episode I was mentioning +earlier. In which these two guys, the only way to keep them from +tearing the universe apart was to lock them in a tunnel where they +will be in eternal combat...at least they won't tear this universe +apart. And that's what Parsons did if I'm correct. The point is, if +you didn't seal it off, it wouldn't do any good. + +And how was it he created Magical children? + +Oh, through his Babalon working. + +In what year did he do that? + +(answer unintellegible.) So, anyway, the other night at Solartron's +tarot reading...we had, by the way, by count, ten Thoth decks there +and I was part of a very beautiful...I had this very beautiful +communication. Each person did a different reading laying out cards in +their own pattern...whatever they wanted to do. + + But me, I had this little treasure chest with these very unique +reading cards. Thoth deck and the way I did, I took the reading from +zero right on up through until I came to the Universe card and it +wasn't there. And then I realized that when I had gone through picking +out the major arcana that I had somehow or other mixed them. So I +wondered what to do, but I needed a card to fill it, so I reached over +to the deck...I wasn't playing any games or anything...I just reached +over and pulled a card and it turned out to be the Prince of Cups. + + Now, my birthday happens to be October 18th, which if you check +your Tarot, you'll discover is the Prince of Cups. In other words, a +Libra going over into Scorpio, which, in the I Ching, is known as +``Kung Fu'' or ``Inner Truth'' as it says in the I Ching it is so +powerful that it moves even pigs and fishes. + +And so then you drew three more cards after that? + +Oh yes, then I drew three more cards just to see what was happening, +and what I found was the Eight of Wands which is like lightning +invocation and in the middle there was the Universe ard where it +should have been in the major Atu and on the other side of that, there +was the Ace of Disks which is called in the Thoth deck Aleister +Crowley's 666 and it says that right in the middle. It seemed like +somebody was trying to tell me something. It is on public record, +printed in a couple of places that Aleister Crowley wrote the +letter...he wrote several in fact, one was to me. The substance of it +was that having discovered that Jack Parsons was up to creating a +Moonchild and (unintelligible) those were the facts of these +(unintelligible) bondages or whatever, my apologies to +(unintelligible). I have no idea what they're talking about yet he +{Crowley} had published Moonchild (unintelligible) and all Jack +Parsons was trying to do as far as I can tell was someplace put into +effect was what the masters...and what you have here is a Babalon +operation. This was dated 22 February, 1946. + + One thing, I seem to have my elementals...{Grady here quotes from +Parsons}: ``She turned up on night after the conclusion of the + + + + + + + +operation...before she goes back to New York next week. She has red +hair and green eyes as specified.'' + +END OF INTERVIEW + + diff --git a/religious documents/ordeal.txt b/religious documents/ordeal.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..270d205 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ordeal.txt @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +ab:ordeal.txt 16jan90 + + + Of the Ordeal of the Art Magical + + + Learn of the spirit that goeth with burdens that have not honour, for + 'tis the spirit that stoopeth the shoulders and not the weight. Armour + is heavy, yet it is a proud burden and a man standeth upright in it. + Limiting and constraining any of the senses serves to increase the + concentration of another. Shutting the eyes aids the hearing. So the + binding of the Initiate's hands increases the mental perception, while + the scourge increaseth the inner vision. So the Initiate goeth through + it proudly, like a princess, knowing it but serves to increase her + glory. + + But this can only be done by the aid of another intelligence and in a + circle, to prevent the power thus generated being lost. Priests attempt + to do the same with their scourgings and mortifications of the flesh. + But lacking the aid of bonds and their attention being distracted by + their scourging themselves and what little power they do produce being + dissipated, as they do not usually work within a circle, it is little + wonder that they oft fail. Monks and hermits do better, as they are apt + to work in tiny cells and caves, which in some ways act as circles. The + Knights of the Temple, who used mutually to scourge each other in an + octagon, did better stil; but they apparently did not know the virtue + of bonds and did evil, man to man. + + But perhaps some did know. What of the Church's charge that they wore + girdles or cords ? +---------- + -Published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way", from GBG's + Text B/C BOS. + diff --git a/religious documents/order.txt b/religious documents/order.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0a4358 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/order.txt @@ -0,0 +1,768 @@ + + AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ORDER AND SYSTEM OF ORDO ARGENTUM ASTRUM + + By: Anthra Andromda + + +Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. + + THE NEW AEON + +There are vast aggreates of 'stars' or experience that may be described as +Gods. One of these is in charge of the destinies of this planet for periods +of 2,000 years. In the history of the world, as far as we know accurately, +are three such Gods: Isis, the mother, when the Universe was conceived as +simple nourishment drawn directly from her; this period is marked by +matriarchal government. + +Next, beginning 500 B.C., Osiris, the father, when the Universe was imagined +as catastrophie, love, death, resurrection, as the method by which experience +was built up; this corresponds to patriarchal systems. Much as we now have. + +Now, Horus, the child, in which we come to perceive events as a continual +growth partaking in its elements of both these methods, and not to be +overcome by circumstance. This present period involves the recognition of +the individual as the unit of society. + +We realize ourselves as explained in the first paragraphs of this essay. +Every event, including death, is only one more accretion to our experience, +freely willed by ourselves from the beginning and therefore also predestined. + +This "God," Horus, has a technical title: Heru-Ra-Ha, a combination of the +twin gods, Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-Paar-Kraat. The meaning of this doctrine +must be studied in 'Magick.' (He is symbolized as a Hawk-Headed God +enthroned.) + +He rules the present period of 2,000 years beginning in 1904. Everywhere his +government is taking root. Observe for yourselves the decay of the sense of +sin, the growth of innocence and irresponsibility, the strange modifications +of the reproductive instinct with a tendency to become bi-sexual or epicene, +the childlike confidence in progress combined with nightmare fear of +catastrophe, against which we are yet half unwilling to take precautions. + +Consider the outcrop of dictatorships, only possible when moral growth is in +its earliest stages, and the prevalence of infantile cults like Communism, +Fascism, Pacifism, Heath Crazes, Occultism in nearly all its forms, religions +sentimentalised to the point of practical extinction. + +Consider the popularity of the cinema, radio and television, the football +pools, guessing competitions, all devices for soothing fractious infants, no +seed of purpose in them. + +Consider sport, the babyish enthusiasms and rages which it excites, whole +nations disturbed by disputes between boys. + +Consider war, the atrocities which occur daily and leave us unmoved and hardly +worried. + +We are children. + +How this new Aeon of Horus will develop, how the Child will grow up, these are +for us to determine, growing up ourselves in the way of the Law of Thelema +under the enlightened guidance of the Master Therion. + + + + + FAILINGS OF OTHER SYSTEMS + +"With my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross." + +"I flap my wings in the face of Mohammed & blind him." + +"With my claws I tear out the flesh of the Indian and the Buddhist, + Mongol and Din." + +"Bahlasti! Ompehda! I spit on your crapulous creeds." + +Strong and almost blasphemous words from the Book of the Law. But, within +these words are gems of truth. Let us consider each of these in turn. + +Jesus...the God of the Christian. In the verse from the Book of the Law, Heru- +Ra-Ha pecks at his eyes. It is therefore the point of view that is in error, +because of his gesture of self-sacrifice. Also the concept of god or the +higher will existing outside of Oneself. The subject of Jesus is unfortunately +too extensive to treat here, so we will leave it at this; it is the point of +view of the Christian that is incorrect. + +The point of view of Islam is also wrong; but needs no such sharp correction. +The tenets of Islam, when correctly interpreted, are not far from the Thelemic +way of Life, Light, Love and Liberty. However, this only applies to the +esoteric teachings, the exoteric is mere nonsense suited to the intelligence +of the peoples among whom it was promulgated. + +The 'Indian', the religion of Hindustan, is metaphysically and mystically +complete enough to assure itself of the possession of much truth. It is, +however, in practice almost as supersitious and false as Christianity. It is +a faith of slaves, and liars. The same remarks apply roughly to Buddhism. + +The 'Mongol', presumably a reference to Confucianism and Taoism. These are +metaphsically and ethically flawless, but this has not saved them from losing +those 'ruder' virtues which are proper to a warrior. + +"Din" -- "severity" or "Judgement" refers to the Jewish Law, rather than to +the faith (ad "din") of Islam. Thus, the six religions whose flesh must be +'torn out' cover the whole globe outside Islam and Christianity. + +Why this 'assult' on their flesh rather than their eyes? Because the +metaphysics, or point of view, is correct. The Master Therion took Judaism +as Qabalistic and therefore, in a sense, correct -- but the practice is +imperfect. + +Thus we see that the spiritual system of the past are in some manner or +another lacking, either in their point of view or their practice. Each of +these systems, in their time, were marvelous achievments of man and his +Gods. Unfortunately, over time, they all were erroded to the point that they, +for the most part, no longer work. + +The Christian has left his ways of Love in the dust, and has turned into a +creature of hate -- hate for anything or idea that is contrary to his modern +and twisted version of the teachings of his God. + +The Taoist has become a pacifist, prefering to allow circumstance to lead +him where it will. + +In almost all systems there is a willingness to be lead to any place that +conditions will take the adhearent. The individual strength is gone in all +systems except that of Islam, and in that case; strength has turned into +force. All systems of old have evolved into systems that incorperate a +greater or lesser factor of restriction. This restriction places limits on +an individuals Liberty, and his ability to attain to his highest potential. + + + + NEED FOR NEW SYSTEM + +Democracy dodders. + +Ferocious Fascism, cackling Communism, religous fundimentalism, new age +nuisances, equally frauds, cavort crazily all over the globe. + +They are hemming us in. + +They are abortive births of the Child, the New Aeon of Horus. + +Liberty stirs once more in the womb of Time. + +Evolution makes its changes by anti-Socialistic ways. The 'abnormal' man who +forsees the trend of the times and adapts circumstance intelligently, is +laughed at, persecuted, often destroyed by the herd; but he and his heirs, +when the crisis comes, are survivors. + +Above us today hanges a danger never yet paralleled in history. We suppress +the individual in more and more ways. We think in terms of the herd. War no +longer kills soldiers; it kills all indiscriminately. Every new measure of the +most democratic and autocratic governments is Communistic in essence. It is +always restriction. We are all treated as imbecile children. Drug and abortion +laws, restriction of civil and divine right, Sunday suffocation, the +Censorship -- they won't trust us to cross the road at will. + +Fascism is like Communism, and dishonest into the bargain. The dictators +suppress all art, literature, theatre, music, news, that does not meet their +requirements; yet the world only moves by the light of genius. The herd will +be destroyed in mass. + +The establishment of the Law of Thelema is the only way to preserve individual +liberty and to assure the future of the race. + +In the words of the famous paradox -- The absolute rule of the state shall +be a function of the absolute liberty of each individual will. + +All men and women are invited to co-operate with each other in this, the +Great Work. + +The Book of the Law lays down a simple Code of Conduct. + +"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." + +"Love is the law, love under will." + +"There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt." + +This means that each of us stars is to move on our true orbit, as marked out +by the nature of our position, the law of our growth, the impulse of our past +experiences. All events are equally lawful -- and every one neccessary, in the +long run -- for all of us, in theory; but in practice, only one act is lawful +for each one of us at any given moment. Therefore Duty consists in determining +to experience the right event from one moment of consciousness to another. + +Each action or motion is an act of love, the uniting with one or another part +of "Nuit"; each such act must be 'under will,' chosen so as to fulfil and not +thwart the true nature of the being concerned. + +The technical methods of achieving this are to be studied in 'Magick', or +acquired by personal instruction. + +"Do what thou wilt". This seems at first glance to be a license to do whatever +one might desire, it is, however, not what one might suspect. The word of the +Law of this new aeon is 'Thelema', the greek word for will. This is not, +however, refering to the lower animal will, but to the higher will of that +part of each of us that is the 'star'. In the terms of the old aeon, this is +the Will of God. This Will, though, is not from any outside source, rather, +it is the Will of our own higherself. + +It is therefore, incumbent upon each of us to attain a knowledge of this +Higherself, to attain a conversation with the self. This is known as the +Great Work, and is perhaps one of the single most difficult tasks any being +may enter into. + +Spiritual systems of the past are for the most part lacking in any technique +to attain this. Even most of the newer systems are lacking in completeness. +The old religion of Christ is based on selfsacrifice, but, the self cannot be +sacrificed to the self. And the Higherself does not accept anything in +sacrifice. Like the Christian religion, most other systems have undergone +much change in their history, some bearing little resemblence to the original +teachings. These old systems have been destroyed by man and now offer little +that may help One on the path to true Spiritual unfoldment. + +It is for these reasons that a new system and aeon are required. For if man is +to reach his true potential, he must attain to the highest spiritual levels. +Ordo Argentum Astrum will not limit any individual in respect of his path, +although, the Order does teach it's own path and system. The Order instead +acts as a guide to those who are traveling along their own path to this higher +spiritual plane. + +All systems of the past are still equally valid, so long as one adhears to the +original teaching of that path. Even the incomplete systems that are extant +may be useful. The Order, however, realizes that individuals oft times need +a helping hand, a guide through difficult terrain. It is for this reason that +the Order regocnizes all true paths, and extends it's hand to all who are +seeking Light, Life, Love, and Liberty. + + + + MAGICK + + +"So far, therefore, as the public profession of magic has been one of the +roads by which men have passed to supreme power, it has contributed to +emancipate mankind from the thraldom of tradition and to elevate them into +a larger, freer life, with a broader outlook on the world. This is no small +service rendered to humanity. And when we remember further that in another +direction magic has paved the way for science, we are forced to admit that if +the black art has done much evil, it has also been the source of much good; +that if it is the child of error, it has yet been the mother of freedom and +truth." + +I. DEFINITION. + +MAGICK + +is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will. + +II. POSTULATE. + +Any required Change may be effected by the application of the proper kind and +degree of Force in the proper manner through the proper medium to the proper +object. + +III. THEOREMS. + +(1) Every intentional act is a Magical Act. + +(2) Every successful act has conformed to the postulate. + +(3) Every failure proves that one or more of the requirements of the postulate +have not been fulfilled. + +(4) The first requisite for causing any change is thorough qualitative and +quantitative understanding of the conditions. + +(5) The second requisite of causing change is the practical ability to set in +right motion the necessary forces. + +(6) "Every man and every woman is a star". + +(7) Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly on the self, and +partly on the enviroment which is natural and neccessary for each. Anyone who +is forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, or +through external opposition, comes into conflict with the order of the +Universe, and suffers accordingly. + +(8) A man whose conscious will is at odds with his True Will is wasting his +strength. He cannot hope to influence his enviroment efficiently. + +(9) A man who is doing his True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist +him. + +(10) Nature is a continuous phenomenon, though we do not know in all cases how +things are connected. + +(11) Science enables us to take advantage of the continuity of Nature by the +empirical application of certain principles whose interplay involves different +orders of idea connected with each other in a way beyond our present +comprehension. + +(12) Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and powers. Even his idea +of his limitations is based on experience of the past, and every step in his +progress extends his empire. There is therefore no reason to assign +theoretical limits to what he may be, or to what he may do. + +(13) Every man is more or less aware that his individuality comprises several +orders of existance, even when he maintains that his subtler principles are +merely symptomatic of the changes in his gross vehicle. A similar order may be +assumed to extend throught nature. + +(14) Man is capable of being, and using, anything which he perceives, for +everything that he perceives is in a certain sense a part of his being. He may +thus subjugate the whole Universe of which he is conscious to his individual +Will. + +(15) Every force in the Universe is capable of being transformed into any +other kind of force by using suitable means. There is thus an inexhaustible +supply of any particular kind of force that we may need. + +(16) The application of any given force affects all the orders of being which +exist in the object to which it is applied, whichever of those orders is +directly affected. + +(17) A man may learn to use any force so as to serve any purpose, by taking +advantage of the above theorems. + +(18) He may attract to himself any force on the Universe by making himself a +fit receptacle for it, establishing a connection with it, and arranging +conditions so that its nature compels it to flow toward him. + +(19) Man's sense of himself as separate from, and opposed to, the Universe is +a bar to his conducting its currents. It insulates him. + +(20) Man can only attract and employ the forces for which he is really fitted. + +(21) There is no limit to the extent of the relations of any man with the +Universe in essence; for as soon as man makes himself one with any idea the +means of measurement cease to exist. But his power to utilize that force is +limited by his mental power and capacity, and by the circumstances of his +human enviroment. + +(22) Every individual is essentially sufficient to himself. But he is +unsatisfactory to himself until he has established himself in his right +relation with the universe. + +(23) Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and one's conditions. It +is the Art of applying that understanding in action. + +(24) Every man has an indefeasible right to be what he is. + +(25) Every man must do Magick each time that he acts or even thinks, since a +thought is an internal act whose influence ultimately affects action, though +it may not do so at the time. + +(26) Every man has a right, the right of self-preservation, to fulfil himself +to the utmost. + +(27) Every man should make Magick the keynote of his life. He should learn its +laws and live by them. + +(28) Every man has a right to fulfil his own will without being afraid that it +may interfere with that of others; for if he is in his proper place, it is the +fault of others if they interfere with him. + +Such is the definition, postulate, and theorems of magick as set forth by +Crowley. As a practical demostration of magick I submit this paper. The fact +that you are reading it proves that I have followed all the laws and met all +the requisites. + +It is written; "Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good".--St. Paul. + +It is said that every intentional act is a magical act. What makes an act +intentional is the WILL or intention. Now for the most part one's Will in a +given case makes not much difference, ie. the will to eat, or work, etc. But +magick goes far deeper than this surface Will, magick cuts to the bone, to the +TRUE WILL. This Will can be defined as; a powerful resolve toward some +conscious action or purpose. We have spoken of the 'TRUE WILL', this is a part +of virtually everyone that remains hidden for their entire life, pushed down +by the old programming thay received as children. This is the reason for +'visiting the child', to remove the old program and allow the TRUE WILL to +manifest and take its possesor on to true greatness. This is the goal and +purpose of magick, to release the TRUE WILL. + + +The release of this 'TRUE WILL' is attained when one gains 'The Knowledge and +Conversation of The Holy Guardian Angel'. This term, sometimes referred to as +'the Great Work', is a somewhat colorful and psudo-religious phrase that +refers to one getting to core of one's self, and, TRULY getting to know +themself. When this is done the real 'desires' (if you will) become known, One +may find that for their entire life to that point they were in the wrong line +of work. They may have become a lawyer, to please mom and dad, when they +perhaps should have been a seaman. Once these things are found out, the +individual may start to reconstruct their life so as to attract real happiness +and success. But this process is not easy, on the contrary, it is perhaps the +most difficult thing any one can attempt. It is a long and hard path that can +take several lifetimes, and begins with the 'WILL' to do it. + +Next comes education, not in the classical sense, for the subjects one must +study are not taught in most schools. But, rather in the occult or esoteric +sense. This education begins by throwing out EVERYTHING that was learned in +the church, whatever church it was. Then starting with the classical tales of +the Greeks and others, and the 'Secret Doctrine'. Then one may proceed to the +more spiritual by taking up Magick. If the reader has an objection to magick +then one may, with great care, select an Eastern Guru, for there is little +difference between mysticism and magick. + +Consider this; + +1. Yoga is the art of uniting the mind to a single idea. + Yoga is the primary tool of the mystic. It has four primary + tools: + + Gnana-Yoga union by Knowledge + Raja-Yoga union by Will + Bhakta-Yoga union by Love + Hatha-Yoga union by Courage + add: + Mantra-Yoga union by Speech + Karma-Yoga union through work. + +If the various unions seem familiar, they are for we spoke of them earlier in +this work. These are the '5 inner secrets of truth', although they appear as +six (union by speech and through work are taken as one). + +These are then united by the supreme method of Silence. + +Now compare this with Magick, for Magick is the art of uniting the mind to a +single idea, and it too has four primary tools: + + The Qabalah union by Knowledge + The Sacred Magick union by will + Acts of worship union by Love + The Ordeals union by Courage + add: + The Invocations union by Speech + Acts of Service union through work. + +As can be seen these two systems are for the most part indentical, for in +Magick these are united by the supreme method of Silence. + +This 'Supreme method of Silence' cannot be explained with the use of language, +for it is 'Silence' itself. + + +5. THE SYSTEM OF A.'. A.'. + + + ORDO ARGENTUM ASTRUM + +Being a outer manifestation of the inner Order of the Star. A college of +Adepts and Initiates, dedicated to Thelema, and the true teachings of the +Great White BrotherHood. + +The Order originally founded by Aleister Crowley in 1907, and reformed in 1990 +by Anthra-Andromda according to the guide lines given in Liber AL vel Legis. + + + ONE STAR IN SIGHT + +Thy feet in mire, thine head in murk, + O man, how piteous thy plight, +The doubts that daunt, the ills that irk, + Thou hast nor wit nor will to fight -- +How hope in heart, or worth in work? + Nor star in sight ! + +Thy Gods proved puppets of the priest. + "Truth ? All's relation !" science sighed. +In bondage with thy brother beast, + Love's tortured thee, as Love's hope died +And Love's faith rotted. Life no least + Dim star descried. + +Thy cringing carrion cowered and crawled + To find itself a chance-cast clod +Whose Pain was purposeless; appalled + That aimless accident thus trod +Its agony, that void skies sprawled + On the vain sod ! + +All souls eternally exist, + Each individual, ultimate, +Perfect -- each makes itself a mist + Of mind and flesh to celebrate +With some twin mask their tender tryst + Insatiate. + +Some drunkards, doting on the dream, + Dispair that it should die, mistake +Themselves for their own shadow-scheme. + One star can summon them to wake +To self; star-souls serene that gleam + On life's calm lake. + +That shall end never that began. + All things endure because they are. +Do what thou wilt, for every man + And every woman is a star. +Pan is not dead; he liveth, Pan ! + Break down the bar ! + +To man I come, the number of + A man my number, Lion of Light; +I am the Beast whose Law is Love. + Love under will, his royal right -- +Behold within, and not above, + One star in sight ! + + +I;37. Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the + wand and the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach. + +I;38. He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals. + +The Order is in essence a teaching Order, however, knowing that there are many +paths to the same goal, we serve mainly as guides along an individuals given +path. + +Our curricula is diverse, and will acquaint the seeker with many options. The +specific direction/path taken is the choice of the individual. + +We do, however, offer a course of study in the Qabalah, Ritual Magick, the +Enochian System, and the Warrior Path. + + +I;39. The word of the Law is THELEMA. + +This is of course our main point and the goal of our Order. The finding of +One's True Will or the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. +We also seek to establish the Law of Thelema upon the Earth, and to free +every man from the enslavement of the old aeon. + + +I;40. Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into + the word. For there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, + and the man of Earth. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. + +Those who are members of our Order are Thelemites, for we adhear strictly to +the Word of the Law. + +There are in truth but two Grades in the Order; Student, and Initiate. There +are, however, three modes of Initiate; The Hermit, the Lover, and the man of +Earth. + + + THE HERMIT + +In the traditional sense a Hermit is one who isolates himself from society, +retires to some place far from his fellows to live his life as he sees fit. + +However, in this sense, this is not true. The Hermit, while being a Magician +who works alone, does not isolate himself. Rather he ramains in full contact +with the society of the world so that he may work toward the establishment of +the law of Thelema. + +The reader is refered to the Book of Thoth for more on The Hermit. +[See Atu IX -- The Hermit] + + + + THE LOVER + +The Lover, or the 'Brother', is closely related to the Hermit, in that they +both are forms of the Logos. The Lover, however, is an initiate who works with +groups as opposed to alone. Whether it be a 'circle' or 'lodge' or whatever, +the Lover, like the Hermit, works to establish the Law of Thelema. + +Again the reader is refered to the Book of Thoth for more about the Lover. +[See Atu VI -- The Lovers] + + + + THE MAN OF EARTH + +The man of Earth is the Thelemic equivelent of the Shaman. He is an initiate +who works both alone and with groups to provide Spiritual healing along with +the teaching of the Thelemic path. + +There is no known equivelent in the Tarot for the man of Earth, save for +perhaps the Aeon. The man of Earth is at the same time a new element and a +synthesis of the Hermit and the Lover. + + + +It is stressed here, that all three 'grades' of initiate are teachers and +priests of Thelema. The sole goal of any initiate of the A.`. A.'. is the +establishment of Thelema. + +It will also be pointed out that all initiates of the A.`. A.'. are warriors +of Our Lord and Lady. All initiates exist in their own truth and light. They +live and exist by but one Law; Thelema. + +I;41. The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she + will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the + divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to the + aeons! Hell. + +Restriction is an act that the Order does not engage in, even though a student +or Initiate is treding a path to his own destruction, even though he may be +abusing the knowledge and power given by the Order, the Order will never bar +or deny him the true light. + + + "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." + "There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt." + "[...] thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and + no other shall say nay. For pure will, unassuaged of + purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way + perfect." + "Love is the law, love under will." + "Every man and every woman is a star." + +The Order recognizes that responsible action does not lead to restriction, but +rather, leads to Liberty. We therefore present these guidelines, in the form +of 'duties', for all who would be of us. + + + A. YOUR DUTY TO YOURSELF + +1. Find yourself to be the centre of your own Universe. + +"I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every +star." + +2. Explore the Nature and Powers of your own Being. + +This includes everything which is, or can be for you; and you must accept +everything exactly as it is in itself, as one of the factors which go to +make up your True Self. This True Self thus ultimately includes all things +soever; its discovery is Initiation (the travelling inwards) and as its Nature +is to move continually, it must be understood not as static, but as dynamic, +not as a Noun but as a Verb. + +3. Develop in due harmony and proportion every faculty which you possess. + +"Wisdom says: be strong!" + +"But exceed! exceed!" + +"Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that +any God shall deny thee for this." + +4. Contemplate your own Nature. + +Consider every element thereof both separately and in relation to all the rest +as to judge accurately the true purpose of the totality of your Being. + +5. Find the formula of this purpose, or "True Will", in an expression as +simple as possible. + +Learn to understand clearly how best to manipulate the energies which you +control to obtain the results most favourable to it from its relations with +the part of the Universe which you do not yet control. + +6. Extend the dominion of your consciousness, and its control of all forces +alien to it, to the utmost. + +Do this by the ever stronger and more skillful application of your faculties +to the finer, clearer, fuller, and more accurate perception, the better +understanding, and the more wisely ordered government, of that external +Universe. + +7. Never permit the thought or will of any other Being to interfere with your +own. + +Be constantly vigilant to resent, and on the alert to resist, with +unvanquishable ardour and vehemence of passion unquenchable, every attempt of +any other Being to influence you otherwise than by contributing new facts to +your experience of the Universe, or by assisting you to reach a higher +synthesis of Truth by the mode of passionate fusion. + +8. Do not repress or restrict any true instinct of your Nature; but devote all +in perfection to the sole service of your one True Will. + +9. Rejoice! + +Remember... that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as +shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains. + +"Now rejoice! now come in our splendour & rapture! Come in our passionate +peace, & write sweet words for the Kings!" + +"Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, +our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter +and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us." + + + B. YOUR DUTY TO OTHER INDIVIDUAL MEN AND WOMEN + +1. "Love is the law, love under will." + +Unite yourself passionately with every other form of consciousness, thus +destroying the sense of separateness from the Whole, and creating a new +baseline in the Universe from which to measure it. + +2. "As brothers fight ye!" + +"If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him." + +To bring out saliently the differences between two points-of-view is useful to +both in measuring the position of each in the whole. Combat stimulates the +virile or creative energy; and, like love, of which it is one form, excites +the mind to an orgasm which enables it to transcend its rational dullness. + +3. Abstain from all interferences with other wills. + +"Beware lest any force another, King against King!" + +(The love and war in the previous injunctions are of the nature of sport, +where one respects, and learns from the opponent, but never interferes with +him, outside the actual game.) To seek to dominate or influence another is +to seek to deform or destroy him; and he is a necessary part of one's own +Universe, that is, of one's self. + +4. Seek, if you so will, to enlighten another when need arises. + +This may be done, always with the strict respect for the attitude of the good +sportsman, when he is in distress through failure to understand himself +clearly, especially when he specifically demands help; for his darkness may +hinder one's perception of his perfection. (Yet also his darkness may serve as +a warning, or excite one's interest.) It is also lawful when his ignorance has +lead him to interfere with one's will. All interference is in any case +dangerous, and demands the exercise of extreme skill and good judgement, +fortified by experience. To influence another is to leave one's citadel +unguarded; and the attempt commonly ends in losing one's own self-supremacy. + +5. Worship all! + +"Every man and every woman is a star." + +Each being is, exactly as you are, the sole centre of a Universe in no wise +identical with, or even assimilable to, your own. The impersonal Universe of +"Nature" is only an abstraction, approximately true, of the factors which it +is convenient to regard as common to all. The Universe of another is therefore +necessarily unknown to, and unknowable by, you; but it induces currents of +energy in yours by determining in part your reactions. Use men and women, +therefore, with the absolute respect due to inviolable standards of +measurement; verify your own observations by comparison with similar +judgements made by them; and, studying the methods which determine their +failure or success, acquire for yourself the wit and skill required to cope +with your own problems. + + + C. YOUR DUTY TO MANKIND + +1. Establish the Law of Thelema as the sole basis of conduct. + +The general welfare of the race being necessary in many respects to your own, +that well-being, like your own, principally a function of the intelligent and +wise observance of the Law of Thelema, it is of the very first importance to +you that every individual should accept frankly that Law, and strictly govern +himself in full accordance therewith. + +You may regard the establishment of the Law of Thelema as an essential element +of your True Will, since, whatever the ultimate nature of that Will, the +evident condition of putting it into execution is freedom from external +interference. + + + D. YOUR DUTY TO ALL OTHER BEINGS AND THINGS + +1. Apply the Law of Thelema to all problems of fitness, use, and development. + +It is a violation of the Law of Thelema to abuse the natural qualities of any +animal or object by diverting it from its proper function, as determined by +consideration of its history and structure. Thus, to train children to perform +mental operations, or to practice tasks, for which they are unfitted, is a +crime against nature. Similarly, to build houses of rotten material, to +adulterate food, to destroy forests, etc., etc., is to offend. The Law of +Thelema is to be applied unflinchingly to decide every question of conduct. + +Love is the law, love under will. + diff --git a/religious documents/organ.txt b/religious documents/organ.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccf19cb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/organ.txt @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@ + +Sources and Resources for Asatru + +Organizations: + +The Asatru Alliance of Independent Kindreds P.O. Box 961; Payson AZ 85547 + +The Alliance is the linear descendent of the Asatru Free Assembly. They are +a democratically run national confederation of independent kindreds who +meet once a year in an Allthing to conduct business. It is essentially +conservative and libertarian. "The Alliance is based upon the ancient model +of tribal democracy known as the Thing, and member kindreds support a code +of laws we feel necessary to preserve and protect Asatru from those who +would dilute, subvert, or in any way harm our religion. Membership in the +Alliance is encouraged for those who actively promote and believe in the +Aesir and Vanir and our collective Heathen Heritage. Anyone interested in +joining the Alliance should contact the kindred of choice for acceptance. +There is no membership in the Alliance except through a kindred. Applicants +must subscribe to the membership requirements of the kindred of choice and +uphold the bylaws of the Asatru Alliance." + +The Ring of Troth P.O. Box 18812; Austin TX 78760 The Ring of Troth was +founded by Edred Thorsson. He resigned in Spring of 2242 (Runic Reckoning - +1992 C.E.) and has been replaced by Prudence Priest, most well known as the +editor of Yggdrasil. Due to the resignation of Thorsson and several other +members of the High Rede (i.e. Board of Directors) the Ring is currently in +reorganization, and it appears that it will emerge much stronger than +before. + +The Ring is governed by an appointed High Rede of 9 persons who guide the +national affairs of the Ring. They offer a number of programs include an +Elder training program for prospective clergy, The Rune Ring for study of +the magickal properties of the Runes from within a Germanic Pagan context, +and recognition for local Kindreds. + +The Ring of Troth requires that "its members affiliate for cultural and +religious reasons rather than for racial and political reasons. The use of +the Ring of Troth as a platform for any type of political or racial +propoganda will not be tolerated" + +Dues are $24 and include a subscription to Idunna. If one does not wish to +join, Friends of the Troth may receive Idunna for $24 as well. + +Magazines: + +Vor Tru - $12/year. The Journal of the Asatru Alliance (see above address). +Concentrates on community issues within the Alliance, news of kindreds, +letters, etc. + +Idunna - $24/year. The journal of the Ring of Troth. Idunna concentrates on +fairly heavy academic subjects, runelore, etc. + +Mountain Thunder - $15/year, 1630 30th St #266; Boulder CO 80301. Glossy +covered and well put together. Usually excellent articles on relgious +issues of Heathenry, scholarly stuff, reviews, and opinion. + +Uncle Thorr's Newsletter - $12/year, P.O. Box 080437; Staten Island NY +10308-0005. Simple newsletter with ranting and raving from Uncle Thorr and +company, news from NY, and articles on lifestyle, runes, and other topics. + +Kindreds: + +American Church of Theodish; 107 Court St, Suite 131; Watertown NY 13601 +(Anglo Saxon Theodism) + +Am Church of Theodish West; 9353 Otto St; Downey CA 90241 + +Arizona Kindred; P.O. Box 961; Payson AZ 85547 (Asatru Alliance) + +Barnstokker Hearth; P.O. Box 1972; Seattle WA 98111-1972 + +Eagles Reaches; P.O. Box 382; Deer Park TX 77536 (Ring of Troth) + +Mountain Moot; P.O. Box 328; Elizabeth CO 80107 + +Nerthus Heart; 27 Gap Rd; Black Hawk CO 80422 + +Northern California Kindred; P.O. Box 445; Nevada City CA 95959 + +Norvegr Kindred; 219 Lewis St; Wash Court House OH 43160 + +Oak Rune Kindred; P.O. Box 3392; Galveston TX 77552 + +Raven Kindred; P.O. Box 970; Amherst MA 01004-0970 + +Skelland Kindred; P.O. Box 7608; Clearwater FL 34618 + +Thorr's Hammer Kindred; 9461 Bella Vista Rd; Apple Valley CA 92308 + +Torwald Kindred; 1630 30th St #266; Boulder CO 80301 + +Vinland Kindred; P.O. Box 15431 PSS; Stamford CT 06901 + +Wulfing Kindred; P.O. Box 18237; Chicago IL 60618 (Asatru Alliance) + +Yggdrasil Kindred; 1709 West Midvale Village Dr; Tucson AZ 85476 + +Recommended Books: + +The Poetic Edda, Lee Hollander translation (basic mythology in an +excellently translated poetic version.) + +The Prose Edda, Jean Young translation (basic mythology) + +The Norse Myths, Kevin Crossley Holland (basic mythology in modern language +and retelling, excellent for readings or meditation) + +A Book of Troth by Edred Thorsson (Not my favorite author and not a book +without many imperfections, but the only mass market book of the basic +rituals of Asatru) + +The AFA Rituals, three volumes available from World Tree Books ($18 from +World Tree) The original ritual volumes from the Asatru Free Assembly. + +Introduction to Ritual and Invocation Tape ($7 from World Tree Books) A +basic cassette tape that goes through a ritual step by step, the other side +is a variety of invocations and prayers. + +The last two are from World Tree Publications; P.O. Box 961; Payson AZ 85547 +(checks payable to the O.F. of Arizona). World Tree is a service of the +Asatru Alliance and carries a number of tapes and booklets as well as +Thor's Hammers and statuary. + + diff --git a/religious documents/origmas1.txt b/religious documents/origmas1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fbbcc16 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/origmas1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,136 @@ +THE ORIGIN OF MASONRY + +I. From Operative To Speculative + +By E. Cromwell Mensch + +THE NEW AGE - JULY 1948 + +The most prolific source of Masonic literature is that dealing with the +origin of the Craft. It is a theme which has filled many volumes, and +one which invariably follows the same pattern to the point of monotony. +Practically all research along these lines starts with the stone masons +of Europe, and ends up with the guilds, or associations, of ancient +Rome. The Temple itself as a source of origin is avoided for two +reasons, the first of which is a fear of encroaching upon the secret +work of the Order. The s econd reason is a more logical one, for it is +founded in the fact that very little is known about the Temple. There +were three Temples built at Jerusalem, each of which was to replace an +earlier structure. The last Temple was built by Herod, and is supposedly +described by Josephus, the historian. He was an eyewitness to the +destruction of this last Temple, but his lack of technical knowledge is +painfully evident from his description of its structural details. The +Temple previous to Herod's was built by Zeru bbabel, a very brief +account of which is set forth in the Book of Ezra. The so-called first +Temple was built by Solomon, and a fairly complete description of it is +set forth in the first Book of Kings. + +However, Masonry was founded long before the Temple of Solomon was +built. The identification of our Craft with the Temple came about +through the ambition of David. It was he who realized the importance of +the Tabernacle of Moses, and planned the Temple as s substitute +therefor. Through it he sought credit for the establishment of the house +and kingdom of God. This ambition of David is described in the second +Book of Samuel, but more particularly in the words of II Samuel 7:13, +"He shall build an house for m y name, and I will stablish the throne of +his kingdom for ever." These words are supposedly the Lord's, uttered +through the medium of Nathan, the prophet. However, they were prompted +by David, for Nathan was a member of David's court. + +What David really sought was a vehicle which would perpetuate the divine +power of the Tabernacle. That this structure was possessed of such power +is quite evident from the fact that, within its confines, Moses +established the word of God among men. The Word has come down to us +practically intact in the form of the Pentateuch, or first five books of +the Bible; and the House still stands today! Its original form is +essentially unchanged, although some of its parts have been destroyed by +the violence of fire a nd the quantity of water, which have been visited +upon it from time to time. This House and this Book were founded at one +and the same time, and both are an integral part of Masonry. + +This particular phase of the inquiry into the origin of Masonry deals +with the shift from operative to speculative, for our ritual tells us +that we no longer work in operative, but speculative Masonry only. An +entirely new approach to this subject is to be had through the medium +which has never changed since our Order was founded. That medium is the +Holy Bible, which is placed in the same setting as Moses placed it in +the beginning. Save for the legendary part of our ritual, it contains +all the factual deta ils of our Craft. When these factual details are +worked out to their ultimate conclusion, it will be found that the +legendary part of our ritual comprises but a very small percentage of +the whole. That the operative phase of our Order was in effect during +the time of Moses is stated in Exodus 1:11, "And they built for Pharaoh +treasure cities, Pitham and Raamses." It was from the builders of these +two cities that Moses recruited the founders of our Order. They were the +enslaved workers of Ramses II. + +Ramses II reigned over Egypt from 1292 to 1225 B.C. His reign was +singularly marked by a wealth of building activities. He completed +Seti's Temple at Abydos, and added to the Temples at Luxor and Karnak. +He constructed at Thebes the great mortuary Temple of the Rameseum, with +its colossal statues of himself; and he built the rock-cut temple at +Abu-Simble. During the early part of his reign Ramses II engaged in an +important campaign against the Hittites, and fought an indecisive battle +at Kadesh on the Oront es River in Syria. In these forays across +Palestine, and into Syria, the victor found a means to augment his +labour supply in the form of prisoners of war. They were put to work +building such cities as Pithom and Raamses, and it was from their ranks +that Moses recruited the people of his Exodus. It is specifically stated +that some of them worked in brick and mortar (Exodus 1:14). Any attempt +to connect our membership with operative masonry at a later period in +history is an inconsiste ncy, for it was these b uilders of Pithom and +Raamses who established speculative Masonry when they built the +Tabernacle on Mt. Rinai. + +The Tabernacle was really the first Temple, for it was, and still is, a +masterpiece of the builder's art. Every part of it has a symbolic +meaning far beyond anything incorporated into the Temple built by +Solomon. The superb engineering employed in the design of the Tabernacle +indicates that several years of study went into this feature alone prior +to its actual building. Since Moses was a royal scribe by calling, he +undoubtedly planned the Tabernacle in collaboration with an architect. +This period of planni ng took place while they were still in Egypt, for +a great many of its features were borrowed from those to be found in the +Temples along the Nile. Its design was too intricate to have been +improvised in the desert of Sinai. + +Ramses II died in 1225 B.C., and was succeeded by Merneptah. From all +the evidence available, it is quite plain the Exodus must have taken +place fairly close to this change in the administration of the affairs +of Egypt. In summing up, operative Masonry flourished during the reign +of Ramses II, and the transition to speculative Masonry took place +during the reign of Merneptah. + +The transition to the speculative phase is definitely stated in the +words of Exodus 36:8, "And every wise hearted man among them that +wrought the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twined +linen." This is the first of a long list of specifications, wherein +Moses describes the manner in which the Tabernacle was built. It is +placed first because these ten curtains of fine twined linen symbolized +a pair of hands raised in supplication. Symbolically, they were so +placed that Moses might tell us tha t no man should ever enter upon any +great or important undertaking without first invoking the blessing of +God. + +As a protege of the royal household, Moses was raised in the pagan +worship of Osiris, a deified king. The domain of Osiris was centred in +an underground heaven, sealed with the doom of perpetual darkness. This +great king of the spiritual world was flanked with a myriad of lesser +deities, to whom tribute had to be paid before the novitiate could hope +to enter. Associated with this monopoly of the Egyptian hierarchy was +the tyranny and oppression of its rulers. + +As Moses grew to manhood he saw that the beneficence of God came from +above, and that it was the Light from the celestial sphere which caused +all nature to blossom forth and prosper. His problem was to present this +new doctrine to a people whose ancestors had been steeped in paganism +for centuries. To this end he endowed his House with the attributes of +the heavens by making every part thereof symbolic of some feature of the +celestial sphere. This master plan, of course, called for the utmost +secrecy, and w as tied in with a key. The plan itself he concealed by +scattering it throughout all five of the books of the Pentateuch, but +the key was left for future ages to discover. Since every one of the +7,625 parts of the Tabernacle played a part in its symbolic meaning, the +'building of this House coincided with the commencement of the +speculative phase of Masonry. + diff --git a/religious documents/origmas2.txt b/religious documents/origmas2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..536a590 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/origmas2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ +THE ORIGIN OF MASONRY + +II. The House Erected to God + +by E. Cromwell Mensch 32 degree + +THE NEW AGE - AUGUST 1948 + +The House, which it was decreed in the wisdom and counsels of Deity +aforetime should be built, was the Tabernacle of Moses, and not the +Temple of Solomon. The Tabernacle was the vehicle used by Moses to bring +the word of God to the people he had led out of Egypt. It was the shrine +around which these Israelites gathered after they had migrated into +Palestine. It served that purpose for something like 200 years, but had +fallen into disuse by the time David came into power. Realizing the +importance of the Tabe rnacle, David planned to replace it with the +structure now known to history as Solomon's Temple. In this replacement +an attempt was made to copy the Tabernacle's design, the secrets of +which had been lost ever since the death of Moses. The secrets of this +design were concealed by Moses in the Pentateuch, or the first five +books of the Bible. Therein lies the key to Masonry, for the Temple was +merely an imperfect copy of the Tabernacle. + +There are two sets of specifications covering the building of the +Tabernacle in the Book of Exodus. Those in Chapter 26 represent the +command of God that the House should be built. Those set forth in +Chapter 36 are the specifications for the actual building of the House. +Exodus 36:8 is the starting point, and states that every wise hearted +man that wrought the work of the Tabernacle made ten curtains of Fine +Twined Linen. These curtains were 4 cubits wide and 28 cubits long. Five +of them were coupled togeth er, and the other 5 were coupled together. +The result was a pair of curtains, each half of which contained 5 +strips. The total width of each set of 5 strips was 20 cubits, for the +individual strips were 4 cubits wide. This 20 cubits coincided with the +width of the House. When assembled, they were raised over the House to +form a gable roof. As there were 10 strips in all, they represented the +digits of a pair of hands raised in supplication. + +From this symbolic meaning it will be seen why Moses placed these +curtains as the first item in his list of specifications. It was his +admonition to us that no man should ever enter upon any great or +important undertaking without first invoking the blessing of God. There +were several thousand people engaged in the building of the House, and, +obviously, only a small percentage were actually engaged in the +fabrication of these curtains. And yet the language is clear, for it +says "every wise hearted man that w rought the work of the tabernacle +made ten curtains." Those who chose to engage in the work were first +prepared in their hearts, or became "wise hearted." They all "made" ten +curtains, for this was the sign of a pair of hands raised in +supplication. + +The second item in the specifications was the curtains of Goats' Hair. +They were superimposed above those of Fine Twined Linen, and were 4 +cubits wide by 30 cubits long. There were 11 of these curtains, and this +fact has stumped the experts for centuries. Ten of them may be arranged +to match the 10 curtains of Fine Twined Linen. Being above the first set +of curtains, those of Goats' Hair represented a pair of hands stretched +forth in benediction. That this is so is gleaned from the fact that this +is the onl y specification in Chapter 36 that needs to be filled in from +the supplemental information contained in Chapter 26 of Exodus. This +Chapter 26 contains the command of God, and this second pair of curtains +symbolized His hands stretched forth in benediction. + +Exodus 26:9 and 26:12 dispose of the 11th curtain of Goats' Hair by +stating that it shall be doubled over in the forefront of the +Tabernacle, and the remnant that remaineth, the half curtain that +remaineth, shall hang over the backside of the Tabernacle. In other +words, the 11th curtain of Goats' Hair was cut into 4 strips, each 1 +cubit wide, to form the drip for the gable part of the roof. Exodus +26:13 explains how the eaves were formed on the ends, for it states that +the length of these curtains shall han g over a cubit on the one side +and a cubit on the other side. + +The length of these Goats' Hair curtains was 30 cubits, which was +symbolic of the 30 days of the solar month. The length of the curtains +of Fine Twined Linen, which were protected from the sun by the upper +curtains, was 28 cubits. They were symbolic of the 28 days of the lunar +month. + +The gable roof arrangement of the curtains of Goats' Hair formed an +isosceles triangle, each leg of which was 30 cubits long. The length of +its base is obtained from Exodus 26:13, which states that the curtains +shall hang over a cubit on the one side and a cubit on the other side. +This called for a base of 52 cubits, for the Court which encompassed the +Tabernacle was exactly 50 cubits wide. The actual length of the +Tabernacle was 48 cubits, which left a space of 1 cubit between each of +its ends and the adja cent wall of the court. This space was +approximately 24 inches wide and, no doubt, sheltered the original +eavesdroppers. No such arrangement was possible in the Temple, for it +was encompassed by 3 banks of chambers, which were set into the walls of +the main structure. + +These triangular spaces formed in the east and west walls of the +Tabernacle were called pediments. They were covered with the Rams' Skins +dyed red specified in Exodus 36:19. Like the roof curtains, they also +were 4 cubits in width, and 12 of them exactly fitted into the 48 cubits +width of the base of the pediments. There were 12 of these curtains in +the east pediment, and 12 in the west pediment - together they +symbolized the 24 hours of the day. + +This Rams' Skins dyed red was a translucent material, and as the sun +rose in the east the interior was filled with a soft, red glow. The sun +at meridian height came down through an aperture in the roof, but only +on occasion. As the sun was in the west at the close of the day, the +soft tones which filtered through the Rams' Skins dyed red again +permeated the interior. Above them were placed the Badgers' Skins, which +were opaque, and were manipulated like window shades to control the +lighting effects. There w as no such arrangement in the Temple, for +neither roof curtains nor rams' skins were employed in its construction. + + +The lower part of the Tabernacle was sheathed with boards, 20 of them +being specified for the south wall, and a like number for the north +wall. According to Exodus 36:21, these particular boards were each 10 +cubits long and 1 1/2 cubits wide. Two of them, placed end to end, +matched the 20 cubits width of the House, which makes it obvious that +the 20 boards in both north and south walls were arranged in two stacks +of 10 boards each. This height of 10 boards in each panel was symbolic +of the "Ten Commandments . Exodus 36:27 specifies 6 boards for the west +wall of the Tabernacle. These 6 boards were laid out end to end, and +formed the bottom course for the 6 panels into which the west wall was +divided. Each board was 8 cubits long, and the total length of the wall +was 48 cubits. Each panel was 10 boards high, or 15 cubits, for each +board was 1 1/2 cubits wide. Actually, the 6 panels of the west wall +were laid out by means of a mathematical formula, which Moses designated +as Jacob's ladder . This fact was unknown t o the builders of the +Temple, for they made the west wall of their structure 60 cubits long. +The interior of the Temple was sheathed with boards, and obviously the 6 +boards they used were each 10 cubits long. + +The height of the Tabernacle at the apex of its roof was 30 cubits; its +depth, or width, was 20 cubits; and its length, which was across the +breadth of the Court, was 48 cubits. The first two dimensions were +faithfully copied into the design of the Temple, for it was 30 cubits +high by 20 cubits deep. But the length of the Temple, as given in I +Kings 6:2, was 60 cubits. This discrepancy over the 48 cubits length of +the Tabernacle is prima facie evidence that the builders of the Temple +did not possess the sec rets of the design of the original House. In +other words "that which was lost" was the secret design of the +Tabernacle, which had not been discovered at the time Solomon built his +Temple. + diff --git a/religious documents/origmas3.txt b/religious documents/origmas3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4240d18 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/origmas3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,137 @@ +THE ORIGIN OF MASONRY +III The Symbolism of the Father's House +by E. Cromwell Mensch 32 degree + +THE NEW AGE - SEPTEMBER 1948 + +Speculative Masonry was instituted by Moses for the purpose of bringing +the true "word" of God to his followers. These were the people of the +Exodus, most of whom had been engaged in building the treasure cities, +Pithom and Raamses, in Egypt. They were not a literate people, for at +that time the art of writing was confined to the rulers of Egypt and +their official families. Although Moses himself was a loyal scribe, he +knew that the only way he could spread his doctrine among the people was +through the medi um of symbolism. The nucleus of that symbolism was the +Ark of the Covenant, in which was deposited the true word of God. The +setting for this sacred instrument was the Tabernacle, every part of +which symbolized some feature of the Father's house in the celestial. + +This symbolism is concealed in the cabalism of the writings of Moses, +and the key to that cabmlism lies in the pattern of our planetary +system. For example, the superstructure of the" House was made up of 7 +bents, or frames, for they were symbolic of the 7 days of the week. This +may be picked up from Exodus 36:27, wherein the e boards of the sides +westw@rd are specified. These 6 boards were strung out, end to end, +across the 5 vertical bars, also spe@ified for this west wall in Exodus +36 : 32. Obviously, th e terminal ends of boards No. 1 mnd No. 6 also +were attached to vertical bars, for they were the corner bars in the +north and south walls, rp,spectively. Added to the 5 sper,ified for the +sides westward, these two corner bars brought the number up to 7. Each +of these 7 bars was paired off with a corresponding bar in the east +wall, and, with the other members of the framing, formed the 7 bents. + +The symbolism of these 7 bents is to be found in the Second Degree, + wherein it is stated that in 6 days God created the heaven and the + earth, and rested on the 7th day. The total number of structural + numbers with which the Tabernacle was framed is also given in the + Second Degree. However, this symbolism was lost in the Temple of + Solomon, for the stone walls of that structure replaced the function of + the 7 bents used in the Tabernacle. These bents were designed as + trusses, the patern of which is indicated in the specifications for the + north and south walls. Each of these walls contained 5 vertical bars. + They were braced at the corners with the diagonals specified in Exodus + 36:28 as corner boards, and were tied together at the top with the + horizontal cross bar specified in Exodus 36:33. An extra cross bar was + used in these walls to form the eaves of the Tabernacle, and was + supported on 5 struts. In all, there were 14 members in each of these + end wall bents, and there were 12 members in each of the 5 intermediate + bents. The bents themselves were held together at the top with a series + of 60 rafters, and were also held together at the ceiling level with a + series of 26 horizontal ties. In all there were 178 structural members + in the Tabernacle proper. + +There were also 67 structural members in the Court of the Congregation, +which surrounded the Tabernacle. In the specifications, 20 pillars each +were assigned to the north and south sides of the Court, and 10 to the +west side. The specifications for the east side are quite complicated, +and, when Properly analyzed, only yield 9 pillars for this side of the +Court. To these 59 pillars must be added the 8 corner boards used as +diagonal bracing at the corners of the Court, which makes the total 67. + +The lower part of the Tabernacle was sheathed with boards, which were +120 in number. The 178 structural members of the Tabernacle, plus the 67 +members of the Court and the 120 boards, bring the grand total up to +365. These 365 members were symbolic of the days of the year, and +correspond to the phenomenon arising from the annual revolution of the +earth around the sun, and its diurnal rotation on its own axis, as set +forth in the monitorial work of the Second Degree. There was no such +symbolism incorporated into the stone walls of the Temple, although the +1,453 columns and 2,906 pilasters used to enclose the court before the +Temple were evidently multiples of 365, less 7, and 14, respectively. + +The specifications for the east wall of the Tabernacle are rather brief. +They simply call for a Door, and the 5 pillars of it (Exodus 36:38). +Between the 5 pillars were the 4 archways, which formed the Door. In +addition, there was a panel flanking the Door on either side, making a +total of 6 panels in all. These, of course, matched the panels formed by +the "six" boards in the west wall. These flanking panels in the east +wall contained the corner boards, which served as diagonal wind bracing +to impart stabil ity to the structure. They ran from the tops of the +corner posts down to the adjacent end pillars of the Door. Since these +diagonal braces blanked off the use of these two end panels in the east +wall, it is obvious they must have been sheathed with boards. This +brings the total number of panels up to 12, for there were 6 in the west +wall, 2 each in the north and south walls, and these 2 in the east wall. +This also accounts for the 120 boards, for each panel was 10 boards +high. These 12 pane ls represented th e 12 tribes of Israel. + +This arrangement of the panels is confirmed in Genesis 48:13, wherein it +is stated that "Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand, toward +Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right +hand, and brought them near unto him." In other words, the two panels +flanking the Door were named Ephraim and Manasseh. The 5 pillars of the +Door are now represented by the 5 orders of architecture, although these +orders were actually formulated by Vignola, worthy successor to Michel +Angelo. + +The parts so far enumermted are all authentic, for they have been worked +out according to the bill of materials Moses left to posterity. Among +other items, this bill lists the fastenings which held the Tabernacle +together. As it was a portable structure, these fastenings were so +designed that the House could be dismantled and reassembled at will. The +structural members were held together by means of rings, but the +specification covering them is very brief, and is only given in +connection with the corner boa rds (Exodus 36:29): "And they were +coupled beneath, and coupled together at the head thereof, to one ring." +The ring in this case was cast with two lugs, and the corner boards had +sockets in their ends, which fitted over the lugs of the ring. To make +the joint secure after assembling, pins were inserted through both lug +and corner boards. This same type of fastening was used wherever two or +more structural members intersected each other. Where more than two +structural members were brought to a common focal point, rings were +supplied with additional lugs. Rings with as high as 4 lugs were used in +some of the complicated portions of the bents. + +The boards which formed the sheathing of the Tabernacle were also held +to the framing by means of rings. These rings encircled the vertical +bars and had lugs projecting outward from them in a horizontal plane. +The boards themselves were joined together by means of dowel pins, in +the same manner that extra leaves are joined together in a dining-room +table, except that they were in a vertical plane. The lugs of the rings +fitted in between the edges of two boards, and the dowel pins in the +boards also passed t hrough holes in the lugs. This type of joint is +covered by the specification for the sockets and tenons of the boards in +Exodus 36:24 + +From the use of these rings and pins it truly may be said of the +Tabernacle that there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron +heard in the House, while it was in building. These lines are to be +found in I Kings 6:7, and are applied to the stone work of Solomon's +Temple. It is hard to conceive of the fabrication of a stone building in +which no tools of iron are employed. The insertion of the word "axe," +even though it was not used, raises the question as to whether this +passage was not also borrow ed from the Tabernacle along with the +attempt to copy its design. The axe was used to shape the boards and +bars of the Tabernacle during its initial fabrication, but, after that, +no tool of iron was ever required during its subsequent assemblies. + diff --git a/religious documents/origmas4.txt b/religious documents/origmas4.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..446d27c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/origmas4.txt @@ -0,0 +1,146 @@ +THE ORIGIN OF MASONRY +IV Mt. Gerizim and the Land of Moriah +by E. Cromwell Mensch 32 degree + +THE NEW AGE - OCTOBER 1948 + +The fame of King Solomon's Temple lies in the reflected glory of the +House of Moses, for it was planned and built with the idea of replacing +the Tabernacle with a more permanent structure. The purpose behind its +building is to be found in the history of David, father of Solomon. The +original Tabernacle was the vehicle which had welded the Israelites into +a united mass, and had kept them united during their successful invasion +of Palestine. The initial breakthrough took place at Jericho, after +which the Isra elites spread out to the north and south, but they did +not succeed in taking Jerusalem. + +Their first objective was to locate the "spot" on which to erect the +Tabernacle, which was believed to be at Luz. Moses died just prior to +the invasion, but he had left certain instructions, which were to be +followed out after they reached the promised land. Among other things, +they were instructed to put the blessing upon Mt. Gerizim, and the curse +upon Mt. Ebal. Neither the geographical location of these mounts, nor +the manner in which the blessing was to be bestowed, were specified. It +was decided that t he medium was the altar specified in Exodus 20:24, +which was to be of earth, or of unhewn stone, and without steps. The +allegorical meaning here, of course, is the good earth upon which we +dwell. + +The Israelites found Luz ill-favoured as a location for the Tabernacle, +even though it had been specified by Moses as none other but the house +of God and the gate of heaven in Genesis 28:17. They then moved on to +Samara and set up their Tabernacle and their altar between the two peaks +in that country, which are still called Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal to this +day. However, the choice of this "spot" was far from unanimous, and it +was not long before the Tabernacle was moved elsewhere. + +About 200 years later, or in 1005 B.C.David succeeded in wresting +Jerusalem away from the native Jebusites. After taking the city; he had +himself declared king over both Israel and Judah. Israel was the common +name applied to the Israelites of the north, for by then they had lost +their tribal distinctions. David himself had risen to power under the +banner of the Tribe of Judah, which had maintained its tribal identity +in the south. At the time David established himself at Jerusalem, the +true location of the mount upon which a blessing was to be put was still +a live issue. + +In the meantime the original Tabernacle had vanished and the Ark of the +Covenant had been placed in storage. The lustre of the Ark had been +somewhat dimmed prior to this on account of its failure to stop the +Philistines on the field of battle. Under this combination of +circumstances David saw a splendid opportunity to restore the Ark to its +natural setting, and, at one and the same time, establish a mount of his +own upon which to put a blessing. He accordingly purchased the threshing +floor of Ornan, the Jeb usite, and this is the "spot" upon which the +Temple was subsequently erected. + + +It was called the Zion, or hill, which is the literal interpretation of +the word Zion. Mount would have served the purpose just as well, for it +was here that he pitched a new tabernacle in order that the Ark might be +brought out of storage. The use of the word Gerizim was probably avoided +because this new shrine was designed to serve Israel as well as Judah, +and these people of the north already had a Mt. Gerizim. We get a vague +hint of this from the use of the word Moriah, which is commonly called +Mt. Mori ah today. The original use of this word is to be found in +Genesis 22:2, which states that the sacrifice of Abraham's son Isaac was +to take place in the land of Moriah, and upon one of the mountains of +which he was to be told. This passage of Scripture was probably cited at +that time as an authority, or precedent, for the establishment of a +second mount at Jerusalem. + +It was after David had pitched this new Tabernacle that he made known +his intention of replacing it with a more permanent structure. With this +structure he undertook to create a vehicle, which, in the words of II +Samuel 7:13, he hoped would establish the throne of his kingdom forever. +This hope lay in the belief that he could endow his contemplated Temple +with the powers of the original Tabernacle by duplicating its design. +Hiram of Tyre was called in as a collaborator, because he had previously +built the p alace in which David had set himself up as king over the two +branches of the Israelites. Hiram was a Phoenician, and his city of Tyre +was in a better position to furnish skilled artisans. + +However, the basic, design of the Temple was copied from the description + of the Tabernacle, or rather that part of its description which is to + be found in the Book of Exodus. The builders of the Temple apparently + did not understand the true cabalism of the writings of Moses, for the + key to the design of the Tabernacle is concealed in the ladder Jacob + supposedly dreamt about. In the words of Moses, this was none other but + the house of God and the gate to heaven, as set forth in Genesis 28:17. + In the previous verse, Genesis 28:16, Jacob had just awaked out of his + sleep, which refers back to Genesis 28:12, and, "he dreamed, and behold + a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and + behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." + +The essence of the ladder of Jacob was the cubical Holy of Holies of the +Tabernacle. It was projected into a column of 7 cubes on the Trestle +Board, with horizontal coordinates extending out over the centre of the +drawing from the upper levels of the 2nd, 4th, and 6th cubes. Below +these horizontals, and on the base line, another cube was drawn to +represent the Holy of Holies itself. From the centre of this Holy of +Holies a series of ascending "angles" were projected upward to intercept +the horizontals. At t he points of intersection, vertical ordinates were +dropped to the base line, and they exactly prescribed the 48 cubits +length of the Tabernacle. A 7th ordinate was projected upwards into +infinity, from the centre of the base line, and represented the joining +of the celestial with the terrestrial sphere. This 7th ordinate was the +top of the ladder, which reached to heaven. The cubes were 7 in number +because they represented the 7 bodies of our planetary system which are +visible to the n aked eye. Each of the ascending angles were 23 1/2 +degrees", because that is the celestial angle at which the earth is +inclined away from the plane of its orbit. + +The unit of measurement was obtained by dividing one edge of the cubical + Holy of Holies into 10 equal parts. The Apex of the curtains of Goats' + Hair was equal to the height of 3 cubes, or 30 cubits. Half this + height, or 15 cubits, was equivalent to the combined widths of the 10 + boards of the sheathing, and the upper half prescribed the height of + the pediments. The descending "angles" of Genesis 28:12 exactly + subtended the 1 1/2, cubits cross section of the Ark of the Covenant + below the centre of the Holy of Holies". The descending ordinates + exactly laid out the 7 bents, or vertical bars across which the "six" + boards of Exodus 36:27 were spaced out. This is indeed none other but + the House of God, and the House we proclaim was erected to God and + dedicated to His Holy name. + +The 7th ordinate came direct from the celestial, and was symbolic of the +path down which Moses had brought the word of God, for it intersected +the mercy seat of the Ark in its exact centre. This was within the +cubical of the Holy of Holies, which was designated as the most Holy +place. The balance of the space within the House was called the Holy +place, and its several parts were symbolic of the several features of +our planetary system. + +Outside the House, and far off about the Tabernacle, the 12 tribes were +encamped. As each tribe was encamped under the ensign of his Father's +house, the encampment itself was symbolic of the 12 constellations of +the Zodiac. Hence, the complete layout of Tabernacle and encampment was +copied from the design of the Father's house in the celestial. + +Had the builders of the Temple thoroughly understood the implications of +the ladder Jacob supposedly dreamt about, it is highly improbable they +would have built their structure of stone. This ladder truly located the +gateway to heaven, for whenever and wherever the original Tabernacle was +set up, the ladder of Jacob formed an integral part of its design. The +"mount" it blessed was the mother earth on which the Tabernacle rested. + diff --git a/religious documents/origmas5.txt b/religious documents/origmas5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7495d38 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/origmas5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,144 @@ +THE ORIGIN OF MASONRY +V. The Holy of Holies and the Resurrection + +by Cromwell Mensch 32 degree + +THE NEW AGE - NOVEMBER 1948 + + +The Holy of Holies of King Solomon's Temple was called the Oracle, and +was sometimes entirely different and apart from thee room called the +"middle chamber" of the Temple. The Temple itself was a stone building, +60 cubits long, 20 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. Around the outside +of the main structure were three chambers, superimposed one above the +other. These three chambers were designated as the nethermost, the +middle, and the third chambers, respectively. They were narrow, +corridor-like rooms, for the nethermost was 5 cubits wide, the middle 6 +cubits, and the third, 7 cubits wide. The nethermost was on the ground +floor level, and evidentl y served as a rob ing room, as well as a place +for the storage of implements and vessels used in the ceremonials. The +middle chamber was one flight up, and served as a storage vault, as did +the third chamber above it. Estimates as to the value of gold, silver, +and other valuables stored in these upper chambers of the Temple, run +all the way from five to ten billions of dollars. In short, this middle +chamber of the Temple served as the storage vault for the material +wealth which fou nd its way into the coffers of the priesthoo d. These +chambers were an innovation peculiarly adapted to the Temple, for there +was nothing comparable to them in the original Tabernacle. + +The Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle was a perfect cube, formed of the +veil, and the 4 pillars which supported it. This cube was the central +theme of its design, and the unit of measurement by which all parts of +the Tabernacle were apportioned. For practical purposes, one edge of +this cube was divided into 10 equal parts, and each of these parts was +called a cubit. In other words, the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle was +10 cubits long in each of its three dimensions. The Oracle of the +Temple, on the other hand, measured 20 cubits in each of its three +dimensions. This increase in size destroyed the perfect harmony of +design which had prevailed in the Tabernacle. In the Tabernacle, the +Holy of Holies was placed in the middle of the structure, and the +celestial angle of 23 1/2 degrees was brought down to the center of the +cubical room. This descending angle was the essential ingredient of +Jacob's ladder, and below the center of the cubical it exactly subtended +the 1 1/2 cubits of the Ark of the Covenant in section. It also did the +same for the Ark in longitudinal section. The 7th ordinate of Jacob's +ladder intersected the Arc in its exact center, and joined the celestial +an d terrestrial spheres. It was the axis about which the Tabernacle +formed a symmetrical design. These celestial ingredients set the Holy of +Holies up as a material token that the Tabernacle was indeed none other +but the House of God. This did not hold true of the arrangement in the +Temple, for its Oracle was at the rear of the main room, and its +volumetric displacement was 8 times that of the Tabernacle's Holy of +Holies. + +The resurrection, or raising of the body from the dead, was exemplified +as a ritual long before Moses came onto the, scene. The very temples +where he was initiated into the mysteries contain graphic illustrations +of this ceremony. The central figure is Osiris, who was raised from his +bier at the command of Horus. The departed soul of Osiris is shown as a +graven image in the form of a bird, perched in the Erica tree at the +head of the bier. Moses transposed this into a nobler conception , by +coupling the rebirth of nature with the phenomenon of the spring equinox +in the celestial. This position he gave to Reuben the first born, as the +beginning of Israel's strength, the excellency of dignity, and the +excellency of power, Genesis 49:3. But Reuben was unstable as water, and +destined not to excel, because he wentest up to his Father's bed, and +then defiledst he it, Genesis 49:4. The tribe of Reuben corresponded +with the constell ation of Taurus, the bull. This bull was called Apis b +y the Egyptians, and was part of the animal worship and deification +practiced by them. The doctrine of Moses pointed out that the +beneficence of God came from the celestial sphere, and this figure of +Apis the bull in the constellation of Taurus defiled his Father's bed. +Reuben was named as the firstborn because at the time of the Exodus the +spring equinox occurred in the constellation of Taurus. The rebirth is +now symbolized by the Aca cia, instead of the Erica tree. + +It was this paganism of the bull in Taurus that caused Moses to shift +the leadership to the tribe of Judah, from whence comes the strong grip +of the Lion's paw. As a matter of fact, the 12 tribes of Israel +originated in the Father's house, for they all correspond with the +characteristics of the 12 constellations of the Zodiac. Every third one +of these constellations contains one of the 4 guardian stars of the +heavens; namely, Aldebaran in Taurus, Regulus in Leo, Antares in +Scorpio, and Fomalhaut in connecti on with Aquarius. Reuben corresponded +with Taurus, who defiled his Father's bed. Judah represented Leo, the +lion, with the guardian star of Regulus. Regulus is described in Genesis +48:10 as the lawgiver, which shall not depart from between his (Leo's) +feet until Shiloh come. The next guardian star is Antares, in the +constellation of Scorpio. It was represented by Dan; for he was to be a +serpent by the way, that biteth the horse heels, Genesis 49:17. This +designation comes from the fact that the scorpion is the only "serpent" +whose striking range is limited to the heel of the horse. The fourth +guardian star is Fomalhaut, actually in the constellation of Pisces +Austrinus; but the stream of water which flows from the jar of Aquarius +is inseparable from Fomalhaut in this mythological presentation. +Aquarius was represented by Ephraim, one of the sons of Joseph, who +Genesis 49:22 says was a fruitful bough by the well. These 4 tribes, +which corresponded with the c onstellations containing the 4 guardian +stars, occupi ed the 4 corners of the encampment about the Tabernacle. +The other eight were interspersed between - these four encamped at the +corners. + +The rendition of the so-called Hiramic legend has a great deal more fact +in it than fiction. All that is needed is to replace the Temple with the +Tabernacle. It was Moses who lived under the tyranny of Ramses II, and +it was such a tyrant as he who struck first at the free speech of the +individual. This is the episode that is enacted at the first station. If +this blow at the power of guttural expression failed to quench the fire +of independent thought, sterner measures were taken by striking at the +very hear t of such characters as Moses. Finally, the lash and the +burdens were increased to the point where the workmen literally fell +dead at their feet. The three stations which epitomize these episodes +may be identified with the three stations in the Tabernacle; namely, the +Altar in the east, the Candlestick in the south, and the Table of +Shewbread in the north. The 12 tribes are still preserved in the 12 +fellowcraft, who are assigned to the same positions in which the tribes +were encamped about the Tab ernacle. A ccording to Chapter 2 of the Book +of Numbers, 3 of the tribes were encamped in the east, 3 in the south, 3 +in the west, and 3 in the north." + +It is a common error to confuse that which was lost with the so-called +"lost" word. This word is one of the most peculiar words in the +dictionary, which gives it a prominence no lost word could ever assume. +That which was really lost are the secrets of the Tabernacle's design, +although, in a broader sense, they were merely concealed in the cabalism +of the writings of Moses. As a matter of fact, the layout of the modern +lodge room more closely follows the design of the Tabernacle than it +does that of the Temple. The central feature of that design was the Holy +of Holies, and the Ark of the Covenant, which was subtended below its +center by the angle of the ecliptic. The modern altar is in the +identical position occupied by the Ark in the Tabernacle, which was in +the exact center of the structure. The token of the "Word" is now on top +of the Altar, whereas in the Tabernacle it was deposited inside the Ark. +The Candlestick still stands at the south, although its lights have now +been reduced to 3. The Golden Altar in the east still retains its +position as the station of the master of ceremonies. The Table of the +Shewbread originally was in the north, but this station has now been +shifted to the west. The modern master of ceremonies would be somewhat +at a loss in an attempt to arrange the 10 candlesticks and the 10 tables +specified for the Temple of Solomon, I Kings 7:49. He would be a little +more successful with the "lost" word, for a clue to both it and the +design of the Tabernacle is to be found in the cabalism of Moses, when +he changed the name of Abram to Abraham, and the name of Jacob to +Yisrael. + diff --git a/religious documents/osvintro.txt b/religious documents/osvintro.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d2f106 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/osvintro.txt @@ -0,0 +1,326 @@ + Ordo Sinistra Vivendi + + (formerly Order of the Left Hand Path) + + + + An Introduction + + + +THE SINISTER WAY + + + + The OSV is an esoteric warrior Order embracing both the Left Hand + +and Right Hand paths within the context of what it terms The Sinister Way. + + Because Westerners have been dualised by Judaeo-Christianity, they + +incorrectly see the LH and RH paths as representing "evil" and "good" + +respectively. The original meanings of the two paths however are: + + LHP: Anima/Yin, feminine principle of the universe, intuitive, + +receptive, dark. + + RHP: Animus/Yang, male, logic, active, light principle. + + Rather than moral dualities, they reflect how nature operates via + +interacting polarities. When an individual or a culture incorporate both + +polarities as a totality, there is balance. + + + + + +SATAN + + The sinister Way recognises the need to restore balance through + +opposition (heresy); to create through destruction. + + The best-known archetype of opposition to stasis is Satan, from + +Hebrew "adversary and accuser". This is the entropic force which energises + +the universe, functioning in a state of perpetual flux - chaotically, + +rather than in an orderly & predictable manner. + + + + + +SINISTRA VIVENDI - THE SINISTER WAY + + Sinister from Latin translates as "on the left", signifying that + +which goes against the norm. The OSV uses the term to signify the + +universe's entropic force. + + + + + +SYMBOL + + The goat and pentagram symbol of the OSV as shown on the cover, + +symbolises the carnality of man: man as animal, rather than as separated + +from nature which the spiritual dogmas believe. The goat is an + +individualist rather than herd-like. Even Christianity recognises the + +symbolism, with man separated into "goats" on the left, & Christian sheep + +on the right. It's also Pan, the half-man, half-animal god. The self- + +devouring world serpent is a universal archetype symbolising the entropic + +force: creation - destruction - renewal. + + + + + +MAN AS ANIMAL + + Anti-nature dogmas such as Christianity state that man is separate + +from nature. Satanism holds that man is part of nature, an animal whose + +behaviour is genetically based. This the modern sciences of genetics and + +sociobiology verify. The instinct is still the dominating force for human + +and all other animal behaviour. Therefore, the individual cannot be more + +than what he is genetically-endowed with; although he can be less than his + +genetic potential if repressed by influences which aren't in accord with + +his true nature (Will). + + Satanism unfolds the real nature of the individual; what the Greeks + +called physis. + + + + + +SATANIC ETHOS + + The Satanist frees himself from the bondage of dogma; he unfolds + +that which he is. But he is the antithesis of the self-destructive nihilist + +the pseudo- satanists proclaim themselves to be. What animal consumes drugs + +and alcohol to the point of illness or death? What animal deliberately + +weakens itself? Only man does this, with his so-called 'higher + +consciousness' seeking to over-ride his animal instinct. + + What is evil? That which weakens. What is good? That which + +strengthens, the individual, to paraphrase the Satanic philosopher + +Nietzsche. + + + + + +FAUSTIAN SOUL + + The Satanic 'soul' can be described as 'Faustian'. We stand for + +wisdom undefiled and unfettered by any dogma. Our desire for knowledge, and + +to see the scope of human thought extended unto infinity, is insatiable. We + +desire to see humanity play amongst the stars. + + Professor R.S. Knox's description of the Faustian soul in his + +introduction to the 1924 edition of Marlowe's Doctor Faustus states: "The + +Faustus legend becomes for us a symbol of humanity's splendid struggle to + +reach for the stars, the tragedy of infinite aspiration." + + + + + +CONSTITUTION + + + +PURPOSE + +(1) The aim of the OSV is to (a) encourage the unfolding of the full + + potential of its adherents; (b) herald the dawn of a Faustian + + Civilisation. + + + +ADMINISTRATION + +(2) Leadership is vested in the Magister. + +(3) The Priesthood collectively forms the Magister's Advisory Council. + +(4) Upon the resignation or death of the Magister, the Council shall elect + + one of its own to assume the position. + + + +ORGANISATION + +(5) The basic unit is the Coven. + +(6) At least 3 members in a given area may form a Coven, which assumes + + responsibility for its own actions. + +(7) Where there is no priest/ess a Coven Master/Mistress may be elected to + + preside over the Coven. + + + +MEMBERSHIP + +(8) There are two levels of Membership: Official Member, and Priest/ess. + +(9) Membership is attained by completion of an Entrance Examination by + + those at least 18 years old. + +(10) Priest/esses are appointed at the discretion of the Magister. + + + +CONDUCT + +(11) Members are expected to conduct themselves in a manner befitting + + Satanic honour. + +(12) A Priest/ess or Coven Master/Mistress may suspend a subordinate, + + subject to review by the Magister. + +(13) The Magister shall have ultimate responsibility for the interpretation + + and amendment of this Constitution. + + + + Revised 14 April 1993ev + + + + Ordo Sinistra Vivendi + + PO. Box 5293 + + Dunedin + + New Zealand + + + + + +MEMBERSHIP + + + +Aspirants to Membership must undertake an Entrance Examination by + +correspondence. + + + +The cost is $20 (US$12) and includes a copy of the OSV's principle text + +Sinistra Vivendi. A membership card is issued upon acceptance into the + +Order. + + + + + + All applicants must be at least 18 years old. + + + + + + There are no refunds. + + + + + + Please make all cheques & Money Orders payable to Realist Publications. + + + + ______________________________________________ + + + + ENROLMENT FORM + + + + + +Understanding the above conditions, I hereby apply for enrolment for the + +Entrance Examination. + + + + + +I enclose payment of $ ____________ + + + +Please print or type clearly: + + + +Name: _________________________________________ + + + +Address: ______________________________________ + + + +_______________________________________________ + + + +Signed: __________________ Date: ______________ + + + diff --git a/religious documents/otoflow.txt b/religious documents/otoflow.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f28f17 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/otoflow.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/ourways.txt b/religious documents/ourways.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..42777d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ourways.txt @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ + ----> The Nature Of Our Ways <---- + + As often as possible, hold the Rites, in the Forests, by the + Seashore, on deserted Mountain Tops or near tranquil Lakes. + + If this is impossible a garden or some chamber shall suffice, + if it is reeded with fumes or flowers. Seek out Wisdom in Books, Rare + Manuscripts and cryptic poems if you will, but seek it out also in + simple Stones and fragile Herbs and in the cries of wild birds. + + Listen to the whisperings of the wind and the roar of water + if you would discover Magick, for it is here that the Old Secrets + are preserved. Books contain words; trees contain energies and + Wisdom. Books ne'er dreamt of. + + Ever remember that the Old Ways are constantly revealing + themselves. Therefore, be as the river willow that bends and sways with + the wind. That which remains changeless, shall outlive its spirit, but + that which evolves and grows will shine for centuries. + + There can be no monopoly on wisdom. Therefore, share what + you will of Our Ways with others who seek them, but Hide Mystic Lore + from the eyes of those who would destroy, for to do otherwise increases + their destruction. + + Mock not the Rituals of another, for who can say yours are + greater in Power and Wisdom. Ensure that your actions are honorable, + for all that you do shall return to you three folds, good or Bane. + + Be wary of those who would dominate you, who would control and + manipulate your workings and reverences. True reverence for the Goddess + and God occurs within. Look suspicious on any who would twist workship + from you for their own gain and glory, but welcome those Priestesses + and Priests who are suffused with love. Honor all living things for we + are of the bird, the fish, the bee. + + Destroy not life, save it be to preserve your own. And this is + the Nature Of Our Way. + So Mote It Be diff --git a/religious documents/p-h_mode.txt b/religious documents/p-h_mode.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9018968 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p-h_mode.txt @@ -0,0 +1,372 @@ + + ÛÛÛ± + ÛÛÛ± + ÛÛ± ÛÛÛ± ÛÛ± + ÛÛ± ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ± ÛÛ± + ÛÛ± ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ± ÛÛ± + ÛÛÛ C H A O S ÛÛÛ± + ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ BOX ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ± + ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ + ßßßßßßßßÛÛÛÛÛ THE MAGICAL ÛÛÛÛÛßßßßßßßß + ÛÛÛÛÛ MAILBOX ÛÛÛÛÛÛ± + ÛÛÛ06257 7966ÛÛÛÛ± + ÛÛ± ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ± ÛÛ± + ÛÛ± ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ± ÛÛ± + ÛÛ± ÛÛÛ± ÛÛ± + ÛÛÛ± + ÛÛÛ± + + + +The Psycho-Historic Mechanism of the Aeons, by Pete Carroll +(The Book of -ists and -isms) + +A superficial examination of the paradigms which have dominated +aeons of cultural development indiicates that three major world +views have arisen to dominance in succession. These are the magical, +transcendental, and materialist paradigms. A simple picture of these +views rising successively to prominence has a certain descriptive +use but it lacks explanatory or predictive power and cannot account +for the persistence or resurgence of a particular paradigm at some +other point in cultural development. For this a more sophisticated +model is required which includes a consideration of the various +opposition philosophies which invariably complement the prevailing +cultural paradigm. If the linear time frame of materialism and +transcendentalism is combined with the cyclic or recurrent time +frame of magical philosophy a graph can be derived which represent +both the dominant and opposition paradigms in a form which exhibits +considerable explanatory and predictive power, the Psychohistoric +Model. + +The Psychohistoric Model +(Imagine these curves round and smooth...) + +Mat. . . * . . + . . - . . * . +(-) - * + + - - * * + - * * + + - - * * + + + - - + . - * . . * + . . +- . . - * . . + *- + - + - + - + * - + * - +Magic.* - + - + - +(*) . +. *. - . .+ .* . . + - + * - - + + - + * + * - + + - - * + - + . .+ - . .- *. . +* . . -+ . + - * + - + + - - * * + + - +Trans.+ + - - * * + + - +(+) . ++ . . - . . * . . + . . + Animi- Spiri- Pagan Mono- Athei- Nihil- Chaoi- ??? + st tist theist st ist st + . SHAMANIC . RELIGIOUS . RATIONALIST . PANDEMON . + + + +This model is qualitative, a quantitative treatment would imply a +non-linear calibration of the time axis with dates specific to +particular cultures. At the time of writing, various human cultures +can be identified as passing through a particular aeon and it can +be observed that cultures have varied considerably in the length of +time they have to progress from one aeon to the next. In cultures +where aeonic development has been rapid it is usual to find both +remnants of previous aeonic paradigms and evidence of impending +aeonic paradigms amongst various individuals and sub-cultures. This +is particularly noticeable in western industrial nations at the time +of writing. The ebb and flow of the magical, transcendental and +magical paradigms appears to be partly due to competition between +them and partly due to certain features of the paradigms themselves. +Each has a tendency to become an awesome tyranny at its zenith +whilst at its nadir its absence creates such difficulties that it +inevitably persists as a rediculed, barely tolerated, or outright +illegal opposition philosophy. + +Each paradigm expresses itself with a particular physical +technology. Thus the shamanic aeon is characerised by hunter- +gatherer technologies, agrarian technologies characterize the +religious aeon and the rationalist aeon is characterized by +industrialism. The paradigm of the coming aeon will complement post +industrial cultures. + +There seems little value in extrapolating the psycho-history model +backwards in time beyond the shamanic aeon for animistic beliefs +appear to characterize the earliest forms of anything that can be +called human culture. The aeons tend to divide quite neatly into two +smaller phases each as the paradigms underlying them gain or loose +ground relative to each other. The animist phase of the shamanic +aeon is dominated by magic and materialsm. Magic supplies the +insight that all phenomena embody a particular power or mana which +can be transfered or used to manipulate or anticipate the actions of +those phenomena. The system is a perfectly rational extrapolation +from the initial mana hypothesis and it is entirely empirical. +Certain magical procedures are performed and certain results usually +follow, apart from that the world is conceived in a simple +materialistic fashion, as it presents itself to the senses. +Transcendentalism plays no part in pure animism which has no +pretences beyond assisting its practioners through this life. There +would appear to be no purely animistic cultures left on this world +but anthropologists have observed a few remote cultures in the +spiritist phase of shamanism into which animism is prone to decay. +In this phase magical theory becomes baroque as the decline of +rational empiricism leads to a progressive divorce between magical +procedures and their desired effects. Magical theories and +procedures tend to proliferate for a time as their effects and +explanatory power become less certain. Thus ritual, myth, fetishism +and taboo come to the fore and begin to accrete transcendental +overtones. + +...to be continued... + +Pagan or polytheistic cultures arise with a more settled +agricultural and city state civilisation. Magical theories and +practices decline as the powers recognised in shamanism become +anthropomorphized into human deities, synonymous with an increasing +transcendentalism as the shamanic view of personal power becomes +elaborated into a personal soul. Ritual negotiation with the gods +comes to replace direct magical procedures. Materialism is largely +absent from pagan metaphysical thought wherein the world is +conceived in largely magical and transcendental terms. Such +technical progress as occurs develops on a trial and error basis and +any advances are more often given a mythological rather than a +rational interpretation. The limited materialist theorizing about +the world that does occur in pagan cultures invariably begins or +ends with mythic premises. It is frequently a proscribed activity +and not a few pagan philosophers paid dearly for their speculations +if their conclusions differs from priestly orthodoxy. + +Paganism tends to decay into monotheism during the religious aeon as +magical theories are replaced by transcendental ones. A number of +factors are at work here. Monotheism equates with the growing sense +of individual self that transcendentalism stimulates. At the same +time monotheism readily allows for more widespread and effective +social control. It is also far easier to train a monotheistic +priesthood or maintain a monotheistic theocracy. For the magic often +expected of pagan priests is inherently difficult and unreliable +except in the most talented hands and is not generally expected of +monotheistic priests. As the monotheist phase progresses there is +some increment in materialistic theories of nature but except where +these are heavily circumscribed by theology such researches are +conducted at great peril. Indeed, because both material and magical +theories are in opposition to the prevailing orthodoxy, science and +sorcery are often inseperable both to their practioners and to the +priesthood which persecute them in this period. Peculiar hybrids of +materialism and magic such as alchemy are frequently found in +opposition to monotheism and magic often disguises itself as theurgy +partly as protective camouflage and partly out of pure metaphysical +confusion. + +The gradual ascent of materialist philosophy towards the end of the +religious aeon is coupled with technological developments. These in +turn lead to a further decline in the mythical aspects of religion. +Thus in the first atheistic phase of the rationalist aeon +transcendental theories are giving ground to material ones. Such +cultures usually remain nominally monotheist as religion recedes in +the face of technological achievement and the ascendancy of material +descriptions of reality. Purely magical theories virtually disappear +during this phase although some spiritualist occultism often rears +its grotesque head. This phenomena bears little relationship to +magic. Any magic which manifests within it is explained away in +terms of the transcendental materialism of which spiritualism +consists. Freemasonry is characteristic of the increasing +materialism and declining transcendentalism of this sub-aeon. Whilst +nominally monotheistic, freemasonry seeks a mild transcendence +through reason in its virtual worship of the rational archtect of +the material universe. It is essentially a child of the old European +enlightenment and persists on a clubbish basis although its original +anti-clerical and anti-monarchist purposes are long forgotten. The +philosophies of humanism, communism and capitalism also have their +roots in the material transcendentalism of this aeon. + +Atheism is prone to decay into nihilism as the rationalist aeon +progresses. Transcendentalism becomes progressively less sustainable +as a world view whilst the explanatory and technical power of +materialism grows. As the materialist paradigm peaks it becomes +sterile and tyrannical in its attempt to quantify all things in +material terms. At the time of writing, many of the world's current +problems are due to large segments of the dominant Western culture +entering their nihilist phase. The initial optimism of capitalism, +science and socialism is fading as faith in the products of these +systems diminishes and no alternatives seem to present themselves as +we accelerate into global ecological squalor. + +...to be continued... + +Magic and transcendentalism exist in opposition to the dominant +materialist paradigm and often become confused for this reason, much +as magic and science were often confused together in their +opposition to monotheism in the religious aeon. Magical theories +tend to proliferate partly in response to the tyranny of materialism +and partly because although materialism is self evidently +incomplete, the holes cannot be patched with a transcendentalism +that is tinged with increasing absurdity. Thus in opposition to +nihilistic materialism we find the remains of a monotheistic +transcendentalism which we find the remains of a monotheistic +transcendentalism which is on the way out and a purely magical view, +manifesting, for example, in the growth of parapsychology, which is +on the increase. Strange admixtures of magic and transcendentalism +in various proportions arise at this time. Neo-paganism, witchcraft +and white light occultism are characteristic rebel philosophies +during the cultural dominance of nihilism. Charismatic revival +movements on the fringes of a decaying monotheism attempt to +perceive and invoke the supposed magical powers of their deities in +an immediate way to bolster a transcendentalism which is inexorably +fading into obscurity. Similarly in the initial phase of the revival +of magic, transcendental or neo-religious themes tend to become +mixed with magic. However the psycho-history model predicts that +they will part company and that the surviving magical traditions +will be those with no religious components. The model further +predicts that the nihilist phase of the rationalist aeon will give +way to a new aeon in which the relative strengths of the three +paradigms will be in a similar configuration to that of the shamanic +aeon. Materialist and magical beliefs will dominate the culture of +the new aeon initially and then magic alone will come to dominate. +The new aeon has been dubbed the Pandaemonaeon and its first phase +the Chaoist sub-aeon in recognition of the non transcendental magic- +materialist theories which will characterize it. + +From the standpoint of the popular rational materialism which +dominates the nihilist phase it may appear absurd that the +philosophy of magic will arise first to complement and then surpass +that of science and materialism. However the most advanced +scientific theories are already beginning to exhibit magical +features in their new descriptions of reality. Both in particle +physics and cosmogenesis a fundamental acausality, indeterminacy and +observer dependence is now ascribed to reality. These are, properly +speaking, magical theories, not material ones. It also appears that +in biology, psychology and medicine materialist theories of strict +causality must give ground to some form of emergent vitalism for +organisms are evidently more than the sum of their parts. This +co-emergent vital principle or morphic field is equivalent to the +intrinsic power or mana of magical theory. + +The prevailing orthodoxy of the coming chaoist age will represent +something of a truce between magic and science; although the magical +aspects may take on heavy scientific camouflage first to make them +more acceptable. Transcendental theories will virtually disappear +and magical phenomena will no longer be acknowledged as proof of +anything spiritual. The word "God" will be both objectively and +subjectively meaningless except to a few cliques and cranks; +although towards the end of the pandaemonaeon new forms of magical +transcendentalism will arise but it would be premature to speculate +on their precise manifestation. The model does not predict the +nature of the characteristic post-industrial technology of the +impending aeon. The decline of materialistic theories throughout the +aeon does not in itself imply the loss of advanced technology. As +technology becomes progressively more complex and less +comprehensible there is a tendency to conceive of it and use it as +though it were a magical phenomenon. Devices incorporating quantum +mechanical or direct psi-interactive components may well make any +distinction between magical and material systems meaningless in any +case. So the impending pandaemonaeon may be characterized by an +extremely complex yet rationally incomprehensible high technology. +Alternatively the model will equally well accommodate a post +catastrophe technology sufficient to support a new hunter gatherer +tribalized society resembling the first shamanic aeon when the +relative strengths of the paradigms were similar. At the time of +writing it is too early to speculate on the character of the second +phase of the pandaemoneaon which has been left nameless. It remains +to be seen whether humanity will spend this phase out amongst the +stars or squabbling over tinned food in the smoking ruins. Yet any +credible form of stellar travel will have to be based on principles +more akin to those currently under investigation in magic than in +science. Some form of machine enhanced teleportation might suffice, +reaction-thrust vehicles plainly will not. + +...to be continued... + +The magician's stance towards the aeonic cycle depends on his +attitude towards change. Progress is merely the mechanism whereby +humanity exchanges one set of problems for another, often larger, +set. To campaign for or against change is necessarily to draw +oneself into strive and conflict. Yet it seems that by nature we +find it more stimulating to engage in turmoil and contention than to +abstain. The advantages of having history on one's side are that one +may enjoy the company of radical rather than conservative minds and +one may even enjoy the satisfaction of being proved right in one's +lifetime. The satisfactions afforded by the defense of orthodoxy and +the bittersweet appeal of vainglorious defeat should not, however, +be underestimated. Politics, being a mere squabble over the +secondary codification of the primary values of a society, has +little effect on the aeonic cycle. All it can do is effect the +timing. Democracy for example is entirely due to industrialism, +military technology and the weaking of monotheism; it is not +something which arises out of politics itself, nor is it by any +means the ultimate form of social organisation. If there is a tide +in the affairs of men then it is caused by deep changes in our views +of self and reality and politics are mere eddies and ripples on its +surface. + +Armed with the Psycho-historic model of aeonic change the magician +can readily see what factors he should work on to hasten impede or +reverse aeonic development in a particular culture or sub-culture. +For example it is necessary to encourage both materialism and +transcendentalism and to undermine magical theories when engaged in +monotheistic missionary work with pagans. Conversely to help combat +the effects of such missionary work or to revive a pagan cabal +within a monotheist or atheist culture one should do just the +opposite. However, one hopes that the primary concern for +contemporary magi is to ensure the safe and speedy birth of the +pandaemonaeon from within nihilist culture. To assist in this +transition, magical philosophy must strive for three things. +Firstly, it must strive to eliminate any remaining transcendental or +religious concepts which still contaminate it. These are destined +for the dustbin of history for a long while and when they eventually +re-emerge it will be in a completely different form anyway. No +useful part of magic ought to be thrown away with them. Secondly, it +must seek to present its ideas and techniques using maximum +camouflage. Magic must enter popular consciousness using a series of +Trojan horses. Thirdly, as a precautionary measure magic should +attempt to undermine the decaying remnants of monotheism without +offering itself as a target in the process. For example, +parapsychology presents an enormous and unacknowledged threat to +fundamentalism; although the existence of various idiotic satanisms +is surely a great comfort to it. + +Dangerous times lie ahead. Millennial apocalyptic beliefs present in +monotheism may still yet trigger disaster during the death spasms of +transcendentalism. A fierce rearguard action may be expected from +materialist philosophies as they slide further into a nihilism whose +adherents will, for a while, demand ever more of what is not +working, ever more luxury and sensationalism in an ecology unable to +support it. The birth of the pandaemonaeon as a generally accepted +paradigm could be a long and bloody business. If things go badly it +could be preceded by a catastrophe which precipitates us into a new +stone age rather than an interstellar age. Although there will be +important niches for magicians in either situation, I would prefer +my descendants to perform their sorceries amongst the stars, rather +than huddled in the ruins. + +Appendix +Eastern Traditions in the Psycho-Historic Model + +The origins of Buddhism lie in rebellious speculation during the +late pagan sub aeon in the orient. Similar developments during the +first millennium B.C. led to Taoism in China and certain allied +pre-Socratic speculations in Greek civilisation, notably those of +Heraclitus of Ephesus. The core principles of these essentially +non-theistic metaphysical systems have some relevance to an emerging +magico-meterialist synthesis. However, during their subsequent +histories, both Taoism and Buddhism have been heavily coloured by +competing philosophies whilst the Heraclitian philosophy has faded +into obscurity. Taoism has exhibited a strong tendency to regress +into mere superstitious ritual whilst Buddhism has, at times, +appeared in monotheistic guise with the Buddha as a de facto God. At +others it has presented itself as a form of virtual paganism +overlaid with abstruse transcendental theories, whilst the Zen +manifestation of Buddhism attempts to recover the original teachings +by severe austerity measures. In Tibet the fusion of Buddhism with +indigenous Shamanic traditions has led to a graded system of beliefs +called Tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism. At various levels this +incorporates features from most of the aeons. Within it one can find +sorcery, shamanism, polytheism, transcendental monotheism, doctrines +of material causality and nihilism. It is presumably the benign +ethical system developed in response to the harsh Himalayan +environment which has prevented any one of these traditions from +violently asserting itself over its rivals. The rigours of climate +and geography seem to have the development of a high technology; yet +the monastic tradition and the endless winters allowed the flowering +of an extraordinary culture in which the influence of all the aeons +exists simultaneously to some degree. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/p001.txt b/religious documents/p001.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ec4660 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p001.txt @@ -0,0 +1,710 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 1 The Universal Father + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 1 The Universal Father + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Universal Father is the God of all creation, the First Source and Center of +all things and beings. First think of God as a creator, then as a controller, +and lastly as an infinite upholder. The truth about the Universal Father had +begun to dawn upon mankind when the prophet said: "You, God, are alone; there +is none beside you. You have created the heaven and the heaven of heavens, with +all their hosts; you preserve and control them. By the Sons of God were the +universes made. The Creator covers himself with light as with a garment and +stretches out the heavens as a curtain." Only the concept of the Universal +Father--one God in the place of many gods--enabled mortal man to comprehend the +Father as divine creator and infinite controller. + +The myriads of planetary systems were all made to be eventually inhabited by +many different types of intelligent creatures, beings who could know God, +receive the divine affection, and love him in return. The universe of universes +is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse creatures. "God +created the heavens and formed the earth; he established the universe and +created this world not in vain; he formed it to be inhabited." + +The enlightened worlds all recognize and worship the Universal Father, the +eternal maker and infinite upholder of all creation. The will creatures of +universe upon universe have embarked upon the long, long Paradise journey, the +fascinating struggle of the eternal adventure of attaining God the Father. The +transcendent goal of the children of time is to find the eternal God, to +comprehend the divine nature, to recognize the Universal Father. God-knowing +creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one consuming desire, and that +is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him as he is in his Paradise +perfection of personality and in his universal sphere of righteous supremacy. +From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the +supreme mandate, "Be you perfect, even as I am perfect." In love and mercy the +messengers of Paradise have carried this divine exhortation down through the +ages and out through the universes, even to such lowly animal-origin creatures +as the human races of Urantia. + + top of page - 22 + +This magnificent and universal injunction to strive for the attainment of the +perfection of divinity is the first duty, and should be the highest ambition, +of all the struggling creature creation of the God of perfection. This +possibility of the attainment of divine perfection is the final and certain +destiny of all man's eternal spiritual progress. + +Urantia mortals can hardly hope to be perfect in the infinite sense, but it is +entirely possible for human beings, starting out as they do on this planet, to +attain the supernal and divine goal which the infinite God has set for mortal +man; and when they do achieve this destiny, they will, in all that pertains to +self-realization and mind attainment, be just as replete in their sphere of +divine perfection as God himself is in his sphere of infinity and eternity. +Such perfection may not be universal in the material sense, unlimited in +intellectual grasp, or final in spiritual experience, but it is final and +complete in all finite aspects of divinity of will, perfection of personality +motivation, and God-consciousness. + +This is the true meaning of that divine command, "Be you perfect, even as I am +perfect," which ever urges mortal man onward and beckons him inward in that +long and fascinating struggle for the attainment of higher and higher levels of +spiritual values and true universe meanings. This sublime search for the God of +universes is the supreme adventure of the inhabitants of all the worlds of time +and space. + +1. THE FATHER'S NAME + +Of all the names by which God the Father is known throughout the universes, +those which designate him as the First Source and the Universe Center are most +often encountered. The First Father is known by various names in different +universes and in different sectors of the same universe. The names which the +creature assigns to the Creator are much dependent on the creature's concept of +the Creator. The First Source and Universe Center has never revealed himself by +name, only by nature. If we believe that we are the children of this Creator, +it is only natural that we should eventually call him Father. But this is the +name of our own choosing, and it grows out of the recognition of our personal +relationship with the First Source and Center. + +The Universal Father never imposes any form of arbitrary recognition, formal +worship, or slavish service upon the intelligent will creatures of the +universes. The evolutionary inhabitants of the worlds of time and space must of +themselves--in their own hearts--recognize, love, and voluntarily worship him. +The Creator refuses to coerce or compel the submission of the spiritual free +wills of his material creatures. The affectionate dedication of the human will +to the doing of the Father's will is man's choicest gift to God; in fact, such +a consecration of creature will constitutes man's only possible gift of true +value to the Paradise Father. In God, man lives, moves, and has his being; +there is nothing which man can give to God except this choosing to abide by the +Father's will, and such decisions, effected by the intelligent will creatures +of the universes, constitute the reality of that true worship which is so +satisfying to the love-dominated nature of the Creator Father. + +When you have once become truly God-conscious, after you really discover the +majestic Creator and begin to experience the realization of the indwelling +presence of the divine controller, then, in accordance with your enlightenment +and in accordance with the manner and method by which the divine Sons reveal + + top of page - 23 + +God, you will find a name for the Universal Father which will be adequately +expressive of your concept of the First Great Source and Center. And so, on +different worlds and in various universes, the Creator becomes known by +numerous appellations, in spirit of relationship all meaning the same but, in +words and symbols, each name standing for the degree, the depth, of his +enthronement in the hearts of his creatures of any given realm. + +Near the center of the universe of universes, the Universal Father is generally +known by names which may be regarded as meaning the First Source. Farther out +in the universes of space, the terms employed to designate the Universal Father +more often mean the Universal Center. Still farther out in the starry creation, +he is known, as on the headquarters world of your local universe, as the First +Creative Source and Divine Center. In one near-by constellation God is called +the Father of Universes. In another, the Infinite Upholder, and to the east, +the Divine Controller. He has also been designated the Father of Lights, the +Gift of Life, and the All-powerful One. + +On those worlds where a Paradise Son has lived a bestowal life, God is +generally known by some name indicative of personal relationship, tender +affection, and fatherly devotion. On your constellation headquarters God is +referred to as the Universal Father, and on different planets in your local +system of inhabited worlds he is variously known as the Father of Fathers, the +Paradise Father, the Havona Father, and the Spirit Father. Those who know God +through the revelations of the bestowals of the Paradise Sons, eventually yield +to the sentimental appeal of the touching relationship of the creature-Creator +association and refer to God as "our Father." + +On a planet of sex creatures, in a world where the impulses of parental emotion +are inherent in the hearts of its intelligent beings, the term Father becomes a +very expressive and appropriate name for the eternal God. He is best known, +most universally acknowledged, on your planet, Urantia, by the name God. The +name he is given is of little importance; the significant thing is that you +should know him and aspire to be like him. Your prophets of old truly called +him "the everlasting God" and referred to him as the one who "inhabits +eternity." + +2. THE REALITY OF GOD + +God is primal reality in the spirit world; God is the source of truth in the +mind spheres; God overshadows all throughout the material realms. To all +created intelligences God is a personality, and to the universe of universes he +is the First Source and Center of eternal reality. God is neither manlike nor +machinelike. The First Father is universal spirit, eternal truth, infinite +reality, and father personality. + +The eternal God is infinitely more than reality idealized or the universe +personalized. God is not simply the supreme desire of man, the mortal quest +objectified. Neither is God merely a concept, the power-potential of +righteousness. The Universal Father is not a synonym for nature, neither is he +natural law personified. God is a transcendent reality, not merely man's +traditional concept of supreme values. God is not a psychological focalization +of spiritual meanings, neither is he "the noblest work of man." God may be any +or all of these concepts + + top of page - 24 + +in the minds of men, but he is more. He is a saving person and a loving Father +to all who enjoy spiritual peace on earth, and who crave to experience +personality survival in death. + +The actuality of the existence of God is demonstrated in human experience by +the indwelling of the divine presence, the spirit Monitor sent from Paradise to +live in the mortal mind of man and there to assist in evolving the immortal +soul of eternal survival. The presence of this divine Adjuster in the human +mind is disclosed by three experiential phenomena: + +1. The intellectual capacity for knowing God--God-consciousness. + +2. The spiritual urge to find God--God-seeking. + +3. The personality craving to be like God--the wholehearted desire to do the +Father's will. + +The existence of God can never be proved by scientific experiment or by the +pure reason of logical deduction. God can be realized only in the realms of +human experience; nevertheless, the true concept of the reality of God is +reasonable to logic, plausible to philosophy, essential to religion, and +indispensable to any hope of personality survival. + +Those who know God have experienced the fact of his presence; such God-knowing +mortals hold in their personal experience the only positive proof of the +existence of the living God which one human being can offer to another. The +existence of God is utterly beyond all possibility of demonstration except for +the contact between the God-consciousness of the human mind and the +God-presence of the Thought Adjuster that indwells the mortal intellect and is +bestowed upon man as the free gift of the Universal Father. + +In theory you may think of God as the Creator, and he is the personal creator +of Paradise and the central universe of perfection, but the universes of time +and space are all created and organized by the Paradise corps of the Creator +Sons. The Universal Father is not the personal creator of the local universe of +Nebadon; the universe in which you live is the creation of his Son Michael. +Though the Father does not personally create the evolutionary universes, he +does control them in many of their universal relationships and in certain of +their manifestations of physical, mindal, and spiritual energies. God the +Father is the personal creator of the Paradise universe and, in association +with the Eternal Son, the creator of all other personal universe Creators. + +As a physical controller in the material universe of universes, the First +Source and Center functions in the patterns of the eternal Isle of Paradise, +and through this absolute gravity center the eternal God exercises cosmic +overcontrol of the physical level equally in the central universe and +throughout the universe of universes. As mind, God functions in the Deity of +the Infinite Spirit; as spirit, God is manifest in the person of the Eternal +Son and in the persons of the divine children of the Eternal Son. This +interrelation of the First Source and Center with the co-ordinate Persons and +Absolutes of Paradise does not in the least preclude the direct personal action +of the Universal Father throughout all creation and on all levels thereof. +Through the presence of his fragmentized spirit the Creator Father maintains +immediate contact with his creature children and his created universes. + + top of page - 25 + +3. GOD IS A UNIVERSAL SPIRIT + +"God is spirit." He is a universal spiritual presence. The Universal Father is +an infinite spiritual reality; he is "the sovereign, eternal, immortal, +invisible, and only true God." Even though you are "the offspring of God," you +ought not to think that the Father is like yourselves in form and physique +because you are said to be created "in his image"--indwelt by Mystery Monitors +dispatched from the central abode of his eternal presence. Spirit beings are +real, notwithstanding they are invisible to human eyes; even though they have +not flesh and blood. + +Said the seer of old: "Lo, he goes by me, and I see him not; he passes on also, +but I perceive him not." We may constantly observe the works of God, we may be +highly conscious of the material evidences of his majestic conduct, but rarely +may we gaze upon the visible manifestation of his divinity, not even to behold +the presence of his delegated spirit of human indwelling. + +The Universal Father is not invisible because he is hiding himself away from +the lowly creatures of materialistic handicaps and limited spiritual +endowments. The situation rather is: "You cannot see my face, for no mortal can +see me and live." No material man could behold the spirit God and preserve his +mortal existence. The glory and the spiritual brilliance of the divine +personality presence is impossible of approach by the lower groups of spirit +beings or by any order of material personalities. The spiritual luminosity of +the Father's personal presence is a "light which no mortal man can approach; +which no material creature has seen or can see." But it is not necessary to see +God with the eyes of the flesh in order to discern him by the faith-vision of +the spiritualized mind. + +The spirit nature of the Universal Father is shared fully with his coexistent +self, the Eternal Son of Paradise. Both the Father and the Son in like manner +share the universal and eternal spirit fully and unreservedly with their +conjoint personality co-ordinate, the Infinite Spirit. God's spirit is, in and +of himself, absolute; in the Son it is unqualified, in the Spirit, universal, +and in and by all of them, infinite. + +God is a universal spirit; God is the universal person. The supreme personal +reality of the finite creation is spirit; the ultimate reality of the personal +cosmos is absonite spirit. Only the levels of infinity are absolute, and only +on such levels is there finality of oneness between matter, mind, and spirit. + +In the universes God the Father is, in potential, the overcontroller of matter, +mind, and spirit. Only by means of his far-flung personality circuit does God +deal directly with the personalities of his vast creation of will creatures, +but he is contactable (outside of Paradise) only in the presences of his +fragmented entities, the will of God abroad in the universes. This Paradise +spirit that indwells the minds of the mortals of time and there fosters the +evolution of the immortal soul of the surviving creature is of the nature and +divinity of the Universal Father. But the minds of such evolutionary creatures +originate in the local universes and must gain divine perfection by achieving +those experiential transformations of spiritual attainment which are the +inevitable result of a creature's choosing to do the will of the Father in +heaven. + + top of page - 26 + +In the inner experience of man, mind is joined to matter. Such material-linked +minds cannot survive mortal death. The technique of survival is embraced in +those adjustments of the human will and those transformations in the mortal +mind whereby such a God-conscious intellect gradually becomes spirit taught and +eventually spirit led. This evolution of the human mind from matter association +to spirit union results in the transmutation of the potentially spirit phases +of the mortal mind into the morontia realities of the immortal soul. Mortal +mind subservient to matter is destined to become increasingly material and +consequently to suffer eventual personality extinction; mind yielded to spirit +is destined to become increasingly spiritual and ultimately to achieve oneness +with the surviving and guiding divine spirit and in this way to attain survival +and eternity of personality existence. + +I come forth from the Eternal, and I have repeatedly returned to the presence +of the Universal Father. I know of the actuality and personality of the First +Source and Center, the Eternal and Universal Father. I know that, while the +great God is absolute, eternal, and infinite, he is also good, divine, and +gracious. I know the truth of the great declarations: "God is spirit" and "God +is love," and these two attributes are most completely revealed to the universe +in the Eternal Son. + +4. THE MYSTERY OF GOD + +The infinity of the perfection of God is such that it eternally constitutes him +mystery. And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the +phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the +Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of +all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery +of mysteries. + +The physical bodies of mortals are "the temples of God." Notwithstanding that +the Sovereign Creator Sons come near the creatures of their inhabited worlds +and "draw all men to themselves"; though they "stand at the door" of +consciousness "and knock" and delight to come in to all who will "open the +doors of their hearts"; although there does exist this intimate personal +communion between the Creator Sons and their mortal creatures, nevertheless, +mortal men have something from God himself which actually dwells within them; +their bodies are the temples thereof. + +When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form +on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that +composes the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it came"; then, it +is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who gave it." There +sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and +parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is +designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence. + +We are constantly confronted with this mystery of God; we are nonplused by the +increasing unfolding of the endless panorama of the truth of his infinite +goodness, endless mercy, matchless wisdom, and superb character. + +The divine mystery consists in the inherent difference which exists between the +finite and the infinite, the temporal and the eternal, the time-space creature + + top of page - 27 + +and the Universal Creator, the material and the spiritual, the imperfection of +man and the perfection of Paradise Deity. The God of universal love unfailingly +manifests himself to every one of his creatures up to the fullness of that +creature's capacity to spiritually grasp the qualities of divine truth, beauty, +and goodness. + +To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every +world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his +gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit +beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either +spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe +enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature +to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world. + +As a reality in human spiritual experience God is not a mystery. But when an +attempt is made to make plain the realities of the spirit world to the physical +minds of the material order, mystery appears: mysteries so subtle and so +profound that only the faith-grasp of the God-knowing mortal can achieve the +philosophic miracle of the recognition of the Infinite by the finite, the +discernment of the eternal God by the evolving mortals of the material worlds +of time and space. + +5. PERSONALITY OF THE UNIVERSAL FATHER + +Do not permit the magnitude of God, his infinity, either to obscure or eclipse +his personality. "He who planned the ear, shall he not hear? He who formed the +eye, shall he not see?" The Universal Father is the acme of divine personality; +he is the origin and destiny of personality throughout all creation. God is +both infinite and personal; he is an infinite personality. The Father is truly +a personality, notwithstanding that the infinity of his person places him +forever beyond the full comprehension of material and finite beings. + +God is much more than a personality as personality is understood by the human +mind; he is even far more than any possible concept of a superpersonality. But +it is utterly futile to discuss such incomprehensible concepts of divine +personality with the minds of material creatures whose maximum concept of the +reality of being consists in the idea and ideal of personality. The material +creature's highest possible concept of the Universal Creator is embraced within +the spiritual ideals of the exalted idea of divine personality. Therefore, +although you may know that God must be much more than the human conception of +personality, you equally well know that the Universal Father cannot possibly be +anything less than an eternal, infinite, true, good, and beautiful personality. + +God is not hiding from any of his creatures. He is unapproachable to so many +orders of beings only because he "dwells in a light which no material creature +can approach." The immensity and grandeur of the divine personality is beyond +the grasp of the unperfected mind of evolutionary mortals. He "measures the +waters in the hollow of his hand, measures a universe with the span of his +hand. It is he who sits on the circle of the earth, who stretches out the +heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a universe to dwell in." "Lift up +your eyes on high and behold who has created all these things, who brings out +their worlds by number and calls them all by their names"; and so it is true +that "the invisible things of God are partially understood by the things which +are made." Today, and as you are, you must discern the invisible Maker through +his manifold and + + top of page - 28 + +diverse creation, as well as through the revelation and ministration of his +Sons and their numerous subordinates. + +Even though material mortals cannot see the person of God, they should rejoice +in the assurance that he is a person; by faith accept the truth which portrays +that the Universal Father so loved the world as to provide for the eternal +spiritual progression of its lowly inhabitants; that he "delights in his +children." God is lacking in none of those superhuman and divine attributes +which constitute a perfect, eternal, loving, and infinite Creator personality. + +In the local creations (excepting the personnel of the superuniverses) God has +no personal or residential manifestation aside from the Paradise Creator Sons +who are the fathers of the inhabited worlds and the sovereigns of the local +universes. If the faith of the creature were perfect, he would assuredly know +that when he had seen a Creator Son he had seen the Universal Father; in +seeking for the Father, he would not ask nor expect to see other than the Son. +Mortal man simply cannot see God until he achieves completed spirit +transformation and actually attains Paradise. + +The natures of the Paradise Creator Sons do not encompass all the unqualified +potentials of the universal absoluteness of the infinite nature of the First +Great Source and Center, but the Universal Father is in every way divinely +present in the Creator Sons. The Father and his Sons are one. These Paradise +Sons of the order of Michael are perfect personalities, even the pattern for +all local universe personality from that of the Bright and Morning Star down to +the lowest human creature of progressing animal evolution. + +Without God and except for his great and central person, there would be no +personality throughout all the vast universe of universes. God is personality. + +Notwithstanding that God is an eternal power, a majestic presence, a +transcendent ideal, and a glorious spirit, though he is all these and +infinitely more, nonetheless, he is truly and everlastingly a perfect Creator +personality, a person who can "know and be known," who can "love and be loved," +and one who can befriend us; while you can be known, as other humans have been +known, as the friend of God. He is a real spirit and a spiritual reality. + +As we see the Universal Father revealed throughout his universe; as we discern +him indwelling his myriads of creatures; as we behold him in the persons of his +Sovereign Sons; as we continue to sense his divine presence here and there, +near and afar, let us not doubt nor question his personality primacy. +Notwithstanding all these far-flung distributions, he remains a true person and +everlastingly maintains personal connection with the countless hosts of his +creatures scattered throughout the universe of universes. + +The idea of the personality of the Universal Father is an enlarged and truer +concept of God which has come to mankind chiefly through revelation. Reason, +wisdom, and religious experience all infer and imply the personality of God, +but they do not altogether validate it. Even the indwelling Thought Adjuster is +prepersonal. The truth and maturity of any religion is directly proportional to +its concept of the infinite personality of God and to its grasp of the absolute +unity of Deity. The idea of a personal Deity becomes, then, the measure of +religious maturity after religion has first formulated the concept of the unity +of God. + + top of page - 29 + +Primitive religion had many personal gods, and they were fashioned in the image +of man. Revelation affirms the validity of the personality concept of God which +is merely possible in the scientific postulate of a First Cause and is only +provisionally suggested in the philosophic idea of Universal Unity. Only by +personality approach can any person begin to comprehend the unity of God. To +deny the personality of the First Source and Center leaves one only the choice +of two philosophic dilemmas: materialism or pantheism. + +In the contemplation of Deity, the concept of personality must be divested of +the idea of corporeality. A material body is not indispensable to personality +in either man or God. The corporeality error is shown in both extremes of human +philosophy. In materialism, since man loses his body at death, he ceases to +exist as a personality; in pantheism, since God has no body, he is not, +therefore, a person. The superhuman type of progressing personality functions +in a union of mind and spirit. + +Personality is not simply an attribute of God; it rather stands for the +totality of the co-ordinated infinite nature and the unified divine will which +is exhibited in eternity and universality of perfect expression. Personality, +in the supreme sense, is the revelation of God to the universe of universes. + +God, being eternal, universal, absolute, and infinite, does not grow in +knowledge nor increase in wisdom. God does not acquire experience, as finite +man might conjecture or comprehend, but he does, within the realms of his own +eternal personality, enjoy those continuous expansions of self-realization +which are in certain ways comparable to, and analogous with, the acquirement of +new experience by the finite creatures of the evolutionary worlds. + +The absolute perfection of the infinite God would cause him to suffer the awful +limitations of unqualified finality of perfectness were it not a fact that the +Universal Father directly participates in the personality struggle of every +imperfect soul in the wide universe who seeks, by divine aid, to ascend to the +spiritually perfect worlds on high. This progressive experience of every spirit +being and every mortal creature throughout the universe of universes is a part +of the Father's ever-expanding Deity-consciousness of the never-ending divine +circle of ceaseless self-realization. + +It is literally true: "In all your afflictions he is afflicted." "In all your +triumphs he triumphs in and with you." His prepersonal divine spirit is a real +part of you. The Isle of Paradise responds to all the physical metamorphoses of +the universe of universes; the Eternal Son includes all the spirit impulses of +all creation; the Conjoint Actor encompasses all the mind expression of the +expanding cosmos. The Universal Father realizes in the fullness of the divine +consciousness all the individual experience of the progressive struggles of the +expanding minds and the ascending spirits of every entity, being, and +personality of the whole evolutionary creation of time and space. And all this +is literally true, for "in Him we all live and move and have our being." + +6. PERSONALITY IN THE UNIVERSE + +Human personality is the time-space image-shadow cast by the divine Creator +personality. And no actuality can ever be adequately comprehended by an +examination of its shadow. Shadows should be interpreted in terms of the true +substance. + + top of page - 30 + +God is to science a cause, to philosophy an idea, to religion a person, even +the loving heavenly Father. God is to the scientist a primal force, to the +philosopher a hypothesis of unity, to the religionist a living spiritual +experience. Man's inadequate concept of the personality of the Universal Father +can be improved only by man's spiritual progress in the universe and will +become truly adequate only when the pilgrims of time and space finally attain +the divine embrace of the living God on Paradise. + +Never lose sight of the antipodal viewpoints of personality as it is conceived +by God and man. Man views and comprehends personality, looking from the finite +to the infinite; God looks from the infinite to the finite. Man possesses the +lowest type of personality; God, the highest, even supreme, ultimate, and +absolute. Therefore did the better concepts of the divine personality have +patiently to await the appearance of improved ideas of human personality, +especially the enhanced revelation of both human and divine personality in the +Urantian bestowal life of Michael, the Creator Son. + +The prepersonal divine spirit which indwells the mortal mind carries, in its +very presence, the valid proof of its actual existence, but the concept of the +divine personality can be grasped only by the spiritual insight of genuine +personal religious experience. Any person, human or divine, may be known and +comprehended quite apart from the external reactions or the material presence +of that person. + +Some degree of moral affinity and spiritual harmony is essential to friendship +between two persons; a loving personality can hardly reveal himself to a +loveless person. Even to approach the knowing of a divine personality, all of +man's personality endowments must be wholly consecrated to the effort; +halfhearted, partial devotion will be unavailing. + +The more completely man understands himself and appreciates the personality +values of his fellows, the more he will crave to know the Original Personality, +and the more earnestly such a God-knowing human will strive to become like the +Original Personality. You can argue over opinions about God, but experience +with him and in him exists above and beyond all human controversy and mere +intellectual logic. The God-knowing man describes his spiritual experiences, +not to convince unbelievers, but for the edification and mutual satisfaction of +believers. + +To assume that the universe can be known, that it is intelligible, is to assume +that the universe is mind made and personality managed. Man's mind can only +perceive the mind phenomena of other minds, be they human or superhuman. If +man's personality can experience the universe, there is a divine mind and an +actual personality somewhere concealed in that universe. + +God is spirit--spirit personality; man is also a spirit--potential spirit +personality. Jesus of Nazareth attained the full realization of this potential +of spirit personality in human experience; therefore his life of achieving the +Father's will becomes man's most real and ideal revelation of the personality +of God. Even though the personality of the Universal Father can be grasped only +in actual religious experience, in Jesus' earth life we are inspired by the +perfect demonstration of such a realization and revelation of the personality +of God in a truly human experience. + + top of page - 31 + +7. SPIRITUAL VALUE OF THE PERSONALITY CONCEPT + +When Jesus talked about "the living God," he referred to a personal Deity--the +Father in heaven. The concept of the personality of Deity facilitates +fellowship; it favors intelligent worship; it promotes refreshing trustfulness. +Interactions can be had between nonpersonal things, but not fellowship. The +fellowship relation of father and son, as between God and man, cannot be +enjoyed unless both are persons. Only personalities can commune with each +other, albeit this personal communion may be greatly facilitated by the +presence of just such an impersonal entity as the Thought Adjuster. + +Man does not achieve union with God as a drop of water might find unity with +the ocean. Man attains divine union by progressive reciprocal spiritual +communion, by personality intercourse with the personal God, by increasingly +attaining the divine nature through wholehearted and intelligent conformity to +the divine will. Such a sublime relationship can exist only between +personalities. + +The concept of truth might possibly be entertained apart from personality, the +concept of beauty may exist without personality, but the concept of divine +goodness is understandable only in relation to personality. Only a person can +love and be loved. Even beauty and truth would be divorced from survival hope +if they were not attributes of a personal God, a loving Father. + +We cannot fully understand how God can be primal, changeless, all-powerful, and +perfect, and at the same time be surrounded by an ever-changing and apparently +law-limited universe, an evolving universe of relative imperfections. But we +can know such a truth in our own personal experience since we all maintain +identity of personality and unity of will in spite of the constant changing of +both ourselves and our environment. + +Ultimate universe reality cannot be grasped by mathematics, logic, or +philosophy, only by personal experience in progressive conformity to the divine +will of a personal God. Neither science, philosophy, nor theology can validate +the personality of God. Only the personal experience of the faith sons of the +heavenly Father can effect the actual spiritual realization of the personality +of God. + +The higher concepts of universe personality imply: identity, +self-consciousness, self-will, and possibility for self-revelation. And these +characteristics further imply fellowship with other and equal personalities, +such as exists in the personality associations of the Paradise Deities. And the +absolute unity of these associations is so perfect that divinity becomes known +by indivisibility, by oneness. "The Lord God is one." Indivisibility of +personality does not interfere with God's bestowing his spirit to live in the +hearts of mortal men. Indivisibility of a human father's personality does not +prevent the reproduction of mortal sons and daughters. + +This concept of indivisibility in association with the concept of unity implies +transcendence of both time and space by the Ultimacy of Deity; therefore +neither space nor time can be absolute or infinite. The First Source and Center +is that infinity who unqualifiedly transcends all mind, all matter, and all +spirit. + +The fact of the Paradise Trinity in no manner violates the truth of the divine +unity. The three personalities of Paradise Deity are, in all universe reality +reactions and in all creature relations, as one. Neither does the existence of +these three + + top of page - 32 + +eternal persons violate the truth of the indivisibility of Deity. I am fully +aware that I have at my command no language adequate to make clear to the +mortal mind how these universe problems appear to us. But you should not become +discouraged; not all of these things are wholly clear to even the high +personalities belonging to my group of Paradise beings. Ever bear in mind that +these profound truths pertaining to Deity will increasingly clarify as your +minds become progressively spiritualized during the successive epochs of the +long mortal ascent to Paradise. + +[Presented by a Divine Counselor, a member of a group + +of celestial personalities assigned by the Ancients of + +Days on Uversa, the headquarters of the seventh + +superuniverse, to supervise those portions of this + +forthcoming revelation which have to do with affairs + +beyond the borders of the local universe of Nebadon. I + +am commissioned to sponsor those papers portraying the + +nature and attributes of God because I represent the + +highest source of information available for such a + +purpose on any inhabited world. I have served as a + +Divine Counselor in all seven of the superuniverses and + +have long resided at the Paradise center of all things. + +Many times have I enjoyed the supreme pleasure of a + +sojourn in the immediate personal presence of the + +Universal Father. I portray the reality and truth of + +the Father's nature and attributes with unchallengeable + +authority; I know whereof I speak.] + + top of page - 33 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ + ³ The Nature Of G... ³ Urantia Book PA... ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p002.txt b/religious documents/p002.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2f3f5c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p002.txt @@ -0,0 +1,688 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 2 The Nature Of God + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 2 The Nature Of God + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +INASMUCH as man's highest possible concept of God is embraced within the human +idea and ideal of a primal and infinite personality, it is permissible, and may +prove helpful, to study certain characteristics of the divine nature which +constitute the character of Deity. The nature of God can best be understood by +the revelation of the Father which Michael of Nebadon unfolded in his manifold +teachings and in his superb mortal life in the flesh. The divine nature can +also be better understood by man if he regards himself as a child of God and +looks up to the Paradise Creator as a true spiritual Father. + +The nature of God can be studied in a revelation of supreme ideas, the divine +character can be envisaged as a portrayal of supernal ideals, but the most +enlightening and spiritually edifying of all revelations of the divine nature +is to be found in the comprehension of the religious life of Jesus of Nazareth, +both before and after his attainment of full consciousness of divinity. If the +incarnated life of Michael is taken as the background of the revelation of God +to man, we may attempt to put in human word symbols certain ideas and ideals +concerning the divine nature which may possibly contribute to a further +illumination and unification of the human concept of the nature and the +character of the personality of the Universal Father. + +In all our efforts to enlarge and spiritualize the human concept of God, we are +tremendously handicapped by the limited capacity of the mortal mind. We are +also seriously handicapped in the execution of our assignment by the +limitations of language and by the poverty of material which can be utilized +for purposes of illustration or comparison in our efforts to portray divine +values and to present spiritual meanings to the finite, mortal mind of man. All +our efforts to enlarge the human concept of God would be well-nigh futile +except for the fact that the mortal mind is indwelt by the bestowed Adjuster of +the Universal Father and is pervaded by the Truth Spirit of the Creator Son. +Depending, therefore, on the presence of these divine spirits within the heart +of man for assistance in the enlargement of the concept of God, I cheerfully +undertake the execution of my mandate to attempt the further portrayal of the +nature of God to the mind of man. + +1. THE INFINITY OF GOD + +"Touching the Infinite, we cannot find him out. The divine footsteps are not +known." "His understanding is infinite and his greatness is unsearchable." The +blinding light of the Father's presence is such that to his lowly creatures he +apparently "dwells in the thick darkness." Not only are his thoughts and plans +unsearchable, but "he does great and marvelous things without number." "God is + + top of page - 34 + +great; we comprehend him not, neither can the number of his years be searched +out." "Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven (universe) and +the heaven of heavens (universe of universes) cannot contain him." "How +unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out!" + +"There is but one God, the infinite Father, who is also a faithful Creator." +"The divine Creator is also the Universal Disposer, the source and destiny of +souls. He is the Supreme Soul, the Primal Mind, and the Unlimited Spirit of all +creation." "The great Controller makes no mistakes. He is resplendent in +majesty and glory." "The Creator God is wholly devoid of fear and enmity. He is +immortal, eternal, self-existent, divine, and bountiful." "How pure and +beautiful, how deep and unfathomable is the supernal Ancestor of all things!" +"The Infinite is most excellent in that he imparts himself to men. He is the +beginning and the end, the Father of every good and perfect purpose." "With God +all things are possible; the eternal Creator is the cause of causes." + +Notwithstanding the infinity of the stupendous manifestations of the Father's +eternal and universal personality, he is unqualifiedly self-conscious of both +his infinity and eternity; likewise he knows fully his perfection and power. He +is the only being in the universe, aside from his divine co-ordinates, who +experiences a perfect, proper, and complete appraisal of himself. + +The Father constantly and unfailingly meets the need of the differential of +demand for himself as it changes from time to time in various sections of his +master universe. The great God knows and understands himself; he is infinitely +self-conscious of all his primal attributes of perfection. God is not a cosmic +accident; neither is he a universe experimenter. The Universe Sovereigns may +engage in adventure; the Constellation Fathers may experiment; the system heads +may practice; but the Universal Father sees the end from the beginning, and his +divine plan and eternal purpose actually embrace and comprehend all the +experiments and all the adventures of all his subordinates in every world, +system, and constellation in every universe of his vast domains. + +No thing is new to God, and no cosmic event ever comes as a surprise; he +inhabits the circle of eternity. He is without beginning or end of days. To God +there is no past, present, or future; all time is present at any given moment. +He is the great and only I AM. + +The Universal Father is absolutely and without qualification infinite in all +his attributes; and this fact, in and of itself, automatically shuts him off +from all direct personal communication with finite material beings and other +lowly created intelligences. + +And all this necessitates such arrangements for contact and communication with +his manifold creatures as have been ordained, first, in the personalities of +the Paradise Sons of God, who, although perfect in divinity, also often partake +of the nature of the very flesh and blood of the planetary races, becoming one +of you and one with you; thus, as it were, God becomes man, as occurred in the +bestowal of Michael, who was called interchangeably the Son of god and the Son +of Man. And second, there are the personalities of the Infinite Spirit, the +various orders of the seraphic hosts and other celestial intelligences who draw +near to the material beings of lowly origin and in so many ways minister to +them and serve them. And third, there are the impersonal Mystery Monitors, +Thought Adjusters, the actual gift of the great God himself sent to indwell +such as the humans of Urantia, sent without announcement and without +explanation. In + + top of page - 35 + +endless profusion they descend from the heights of glory to grace and indwell +the humble minds of those mortals who possess the capacity for +God-consciousness or the potential therefor. + +In these ways and in many others, in ways unknown to you and utterly beyond +finite comprehension, does the Paradise Father lovingly and willingly downstep +and otherwise modify, dilute, and attenuate his infinity in order that he may +be able to draw nearer the finite minds of his creature children. And so, +through a series of personality distributions which are diminishingly absolute, +the infinite Father is enabled to enjoy close contact with the diverse +intelligences of the many realms of his far-flung universe. + +All this he has done and now does, and evermore will continue to do, without in +the least detracting from the fact and reality of his infinity, eternity, and +primacy. And these things are absolutely true, notwithstanding the difficulty +of their comprehension, the mystery in which they are enshrouded, or the +impossibility of their being fully understood by creatures such as dwell on +Urantia. + +Because the First Father is infinite in his plans and eternal in his purposes, +it is inherently impossible for any finite being ever to grasp or comprehend +these divine plans and purposes in their fullness. Mortal man can glimpse the +Father's purposes only now and then, here and there, as they are revealed in +relation to the outworking of the plan of creature ascension on its successive +levels of universe progression. Though man cannot encompass the significance of +infinity, the infinite Father does most certainly fully comprehend and lovingly +embrace all the finity of all his children in all universes. + +Divinity and eternity the Father shares with large numbers of the higher +Paradise beings, but we question whether infinity and consequent universal +primacy is fully shared with any save his co-ordinate associates of the +Paradise Trinity. Infinity of personality must, perforce, embrace all finitude +of personality; hence the truth--literal truth--of the teaching which declares +that "In Him we live and move and have our being." That fragment of the pure +Deity of the Universal Father which indwells mortal man is a part of the +infinity of the First Great Source and Center, the Father of Fathers. + +2. THE FATHER'S ETERNAL PERFECTION + +Even your olden prophets understood the eternal, never-beginning, never-ending, +circular nature of the Universal Father. God is literally and eternally present +in his universe of universes. He inhabits the present moment with all his +absolute majesty and eternal greatness. "The Father has life in himself, and +this life is eternal life." Throughout the eternal ages it has been the Father +who "gives to all life." There is infinite perfection in the divine integrity. +"I am the Lord; I change not." Our knowledge of the universe of universes +discloses not only that he is the Father of lights, but also that in his +conduct of inter-planetary affairs there "is no variableness neither shadow of +changing." He "declares the end from the beginning." He says: "My counsel shall +stand; I will do all my pleasures" "according to the eternal purpose which I +purposed in my Son." Thus are the plans and purposes of the First Source and +Center like himself: eternal, perfect, and forever changeless. + +There is finality of completeness and perfection of repleteness in the mandates +of the Father. "Whatsoever God does, it shall be forever; nothing can be + + top of page - 36 + +added to it nor anything taken from it." The Universal Father does not repent +of his original purposes of wisdom and perfection. His plans are steadfast, his +counsel immutable, while his acts are divine and infallible. "A thousand years +in his sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night." +The perfection of divinity and the magnitude of eternity are forever beyond the +full grasp of the circumscribed mind of mortal man. + +The reactions of a changeless God, in the execution of his eternal purpose, may +seem to vary in accordance with the changing attitude and the shifting minds of +his created intelligences; that is, they may apparently and superficially vary; +but underneath the surface and beneath all outward manifestations, there is +still present the changeless purpose, the everlasting plan, of the eternal God. + +Out in the universes, perfection must necessarily be a relative term, but in +the central universe and especially on Paradise, perfection is undiluted; in +certain phases it is even absolute. Trinity manifestations vary the exhibition +of the divine perfection but do not attenuate it. + +God's primal perfection consists not in an assumed righteousness but rather in +the inherent perfection of the goodness of his divine nature. He is final, +complete, and perfect. There is no thing lacking in the beauty and perfection +of his righteous character. And the whole scheme of living existences on the +worlds of space is centered in the divine purpose of elevating all will +creatures to the high destiny of the experience of sharing the Father's +Paradise perfection. God is neither self-centered nor self-contained; he never +ceases to bestow himself upon all self-conscious creatures of the vast universe +of universes. + +God is eternally and infinitely perfect, he cannot personally know imperfection +as his own experience, but he does share the consciousness of all the +experience of imperfectness of all the struggling creatures of the evolutionary +universes of all the Paradise Creator Sons. The personal and liberating touch +of the God of perfection overshadows the hearts and encircuits the natures of +all those mortal creatures who have ascended to the universe level of moral +discernment. In this manner, as well as through the contacts of the divine +presence, the Universal Father actually participates in the experience with +immaturity and imperfection in the evolving career of every moral being of the +entire universe. + +Human limitations, potential evil, are not a part of the divine nature, but +mortal experience with evil and all man's relations thereto are most certainly +a part of God's ever-expanding self-realization in the children of +time--creatures of moral responsibility who have been created or evolved by +every Creator Son going out from Paradise. + +3. JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS + +God is righteous; therefore is he just. "The Lord is righteous in all his +ways." "`I have not done without cause all that I have done,' says the Lord." +"The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." The justice of +the Universal Father cannot be influenced by the acts and performances of his +creatures, "for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, no respect of +persons, no taking of gifts." + +How futile to make puerile appeals to such a God to modify his changeless +decrees so that we can avoid the just consequences of the operation of his wise + + top of page - 37 + +natural laws and righteous spiritual mandates! "Be not deceived; God is not +mocked, for whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap." True, even in the +justice of reaping the harvest of wrongdoing, this divine justice is always +tempered with mercy. Infinite wisdom is the eternal arbiter which determines +the proportions of justice and mercy which shall be meted out in any given +circumstance. The greatest punishment (in reality an inevitable consequence) +for wrongdoing and deliberate rebellion against the government of God is loss +of existence as an individual subject of that government. The final result of +wholehearted sin is annihilation. In the last analysis, such sin-identified +individuals have destroyed themselves by becoming wholly unreal through their +embrace of iniquity. The factual disappearance of such a creature is, however, +always delayed until the ordained order of justice current in that universe has +been fully complied with. + +Cessation of existence is usually decreed at the dispensational or epochal +adjudication of the realm or realms. On a world such as Urantia it comes at the +end of a planetary dispensation. Cessation of existence can be decreed at such +times by co-ordinate action of all tribunals of jurisdiction, extending from +the planetary council up through the courts of the Creator Son to the judgment +tribunals of the Ancients of Days. The mandate of dissolution originates in the +higher courts of the superuniverse following an unbroken confirmation of the +indictment originating on the sphere of the wrongdoer's residence; and then, +when sentence of extinction has been confirmed on high, the execution is by the +direct act of those judges residential on, and operating from, the headquarters +of the superuniverse. + +When this sentence is finally confirmed, the sin-identified being instantly +becomes as though he had not been. There is no resurrection from such a fate; +it is everlasting and eternal. The living energy factors of identity are +resolved by the transformations of time and the metamorphoses of space into the +cosmic potentials whence they once emerged. As for the personality of the +iniquitous one, it is deprived of a continuing life vehicle by the creature's +failure to make those choices and final decisions which would have assured +eternal life. When the continued embrace of sin by the associated mind +culminates in complete self-identification with iniquity, then upon the +cessation of life, upon cosmic dissolution, such an isolated personality is +absorbed into the oversoul of creation, becoming a part of the evolving +experience of the Supreme Being. Never again does it appear as a personality; +its identity becomes as though it had never been. In the case of an +Adjuster-indwelt personality, the experiential spirit values survive in the +reality of the continuing Adjuster. + +In any universe contest between actual levels of reality, the personality of +the higher level will ultimately triumph over the personality of the lower +level. This inevitable outcome of universe controversy is inherent in the fact +that divinity of quality equals the degree of reality or actuality of any will +creature. Undiluted evil, complete error, willful sin, and unmitigated iniquity +are inherently and automatically suicidal. Such attitudes of cosmic unreality +can survive in the universe only because of transient mercy-tolerance pending +the action of the justice-determining and fairness-finding mechanisms of the +universe tribunals of righteous adjudication. + +The rule of the Creator Sons in the local universes is one of creation and +spiritualization. These Sons devote themselves to the effective execution of +the + + top of page - 38 + +Paradise plan of progressive mortal ascension, to the rehabilitation of rebels +and wrong thinkers, but when all such loving efforts are finally and forever +rejected, the final decree of dissolution is executed by forces acting under +the jurisdiction of the Ancients of Days. + +4. THE DIVINE MERCY + +Mercy is simply justice tempered by that wisdom which grows out of perfection +of knowledge and the full recognition of the natural weaknesses and +environmental handicaps of finite creatures. "Our God is full of compassion, +gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy." Therefore "whosoever calls +upon the Lord shall be saved," "for he will abundantly pardon." "The mercy of +the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting"; yes, "his mercy endures forever." +"I am the Lord who executes loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the +earth, for in these things I delight." "I do not afflict willingly nor grieve +the children of men," for I am "the Father of mercies and the God of all +comfort." + +God is inherently kind, naturally compassionate, and everlastingly merciful. +And never is it necessary that any influence be brought to bear upon the Father +to call forth his loving-kindness. The creature's need is wholly sufficient to +insure the full flow of the Father's tender mercies and his saving grace. Since +God knows all about his children, it is easy for him to forgive. The better man +understands his neighbor, the easier it will be to forgive him, even to love +him. + +Only the discernment of infinite wisdom enables a righteous God to minister +justice and mercy at the same time and in any given universe situation. The +heavenly Father is never torn by conflicting attitudes towards his universe +children; God is never a victim of attitudinal antagonisms. God's +all-knowingness unfailingly directs his free will in the choosing of that +universe conduct which perfectly, simultaneously, and equally satisfies the +demands of all his divine attributes and the infinite qualities of his eternal +nature. + +Mercy is the natural and inevitable offspring of goodness and love. The good +nature of a loving Father could not possibly withhold the wise ministry of +mercy to each member of every group of his universe children. Eternal justice +and divine mercy together constitute what in human experience would be called +fairness. + +Divine mercy represents a fairness technique of adjustment between the universe +levels of perfection and imperfection. Mercy is the justice of Supremacy +adapted to the situations of the evolving finite, the righteousness of eternity +modified to meet the highest interests and universe welfare of the children of +time. Mercy is not a contravention of justice but rather an understanding +interpretation of the demands of supreme justice as it is fairly applied to the +subordinate spiritual beings and to the material creatures of the evolving +universes. Mercy is the justice of the Paradise Trinity wisely and lovingly +visited upon the manifold intelligences of the creations of time and space as +it is formulated by divine wisdom and determined by the all-knowing mind and +the sovereign free will of the Universal Father and all his associated +Creators. + +5. THE LOVE OF GOD + +"God is love"; therefore his only personal attitude towards the affairs of the +universe is always a reaction of divine affection. The Father loves us +sufficiently + + top of page - 39 + +to bestow his life upon us. "He makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the +good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." + +It is wrong to think of God as being coaxed into loving his children because of +the sacrifices of his Sons or the intercession of his subordinate creatures, +"for the Father himself loves you." It is in response to this paternal +affection that God sends the marvelous Adjusters to indwell the minds of men. +God's love is universal; "whosoever will may come." He would "have all men be +saved by coming into the knowledge of the truth." He is "not willing that any +should perish." + +The Creators are the very first to attempt to save man from the disastrous +results of his foolish transgression of the divine laws. God's love is by +nature a fatherly affection; therefore does he sometimes "chasten us for our +own profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness." Even during your fiery +trials remember that "in all our afflictions he is afflicted with us." + +God is divinely kind to sinners. When rebels return to righteousness, they are +mercifully received, "for our God will abundantly pardon." "I am he who blots +out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins." +"Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be +called the sons of God." + +After all, the greatest evidence of the goodness of God and the supreme reason +for loving him is the indwelling gift of the Father--the Adjuster who so +patiently awaits the hour when you both shall be eternally made one. Though you +cannot find God by searching, if you will submit to the leading of the +indwelling spirit, you will be unerringly guided, step by step, life by life, +through universe upon universe, and age by age, until you finally stand in the +presence of the Paradise personality of the Universal Father. + +How unreasonable that you should not worship God because the limitations of +human nature and the handicaps of your material creation make it impossible for +you to see him. Between you and God there is a tremendous distance (physical +space) to be traversed. There likewise exists a great gulf of spiritual +differential which must be bridged; but notwithstanding all that physically and +spiritually separates you from the Paradise personal presence of God, stop and +ponder the solemn fact that God lives within you; he has in his own way already +bridged the gulf. He has sent of himself, his spirit, to live in you and to +toil with you as you pursue your eternal universe career. + +I find it easy and pleasant to worship one who is so great and at the same time +so affectionately devoted to the uplifting ministry of his lowly creatures. I +naturally love one who is so powerful in creation and in the control thereof, +and yet who is so perfect in goodness and so faithful in the loving-kindness +which constantly overshadows us. I think I would love God just as much if he +were not so great and powerful, as long as he is so good and merciful. We all +love the Father more because of his nature than in recognition of his amazing +attributes. + +When I observe the Creator Sons and their subordinate administrators struggling +so valiantly with the manifold difficulties of time inherent in the evolution +of the universes of space, I discover that I bear these lesser rulers of the +universes a great and profound affection. After all, I think we all, including +the mortals of the realms, love the Universal Father and all other beings, +divine or human, because we discern that these personalities truly love us. The +experience of loving is very much a direct response to the experience of being +loved. Knowing + + top of page - 40 + +that God loves me, I should continue to love him supremely, even though he were +divested of all his attributes of supremacy, ultimacy, and absoluteness. + +The Father's love follows us now and throughout the endless circle of the +eternal ages. As you ponder the loving nature of God, there is only one +reasonable and natural personality reaction thereto: You will increasingly love +your Maker; you will yield to God an affection analogous to that given by a +child to an earthly parent; for, as a father, a real father, a true father, +loves his children, so the Universal Father loves and forever seeks the welfare +of his created sons and daughters. + +But the love of God is an intelligent and farseeing parental affection. The +divine love functions in unified association with divine wisdom and all other +infinite characteristics of the perfect nature of the Universal Father. God is +love, but love is not God. The greatest manifestation of the divine love for +mortal beings is observed in the bestowal of the Thought Adjusters, but your +greatest revelation of the Father's love is seen in the bestowal life of his +Son Michael as he lived on earth the ideal spiritual life. It is the indwelling +Adjuster who individualizes the love of God to each human soul. + +At times I am almost pained to be compelled to portray the divine affection of +the heavenly Father for his universe children by the employment of the human +word symbol love. This term, even though it does connote man's highest concept +of the mortal relations of respect and devotion, is so frequently designative +of so much of human relationship that is wholly ignoble and utterly unfit to be +known by any word which is also used to indicate the matchless affection of the +living God for his universe creatures! How unfortunate that I cannot make use +of some supernal and exclusive term which would convey to the mind of man the +true nature and exquisitely beautiful significance of the divine affection of +the Paradise Father. + +When man loses sight of the love of a personal God, the kingdom of God becomes +merely the kingdom of good. Notwithstanding the infinite unity of the divine +nature, love is the dominant characteristic of all God's personal dealings with +his creatures. + +6. THE GOODNESS OF GOD + +In the physical universe we may see the divine beauty, in the intellectual +world we may discern eternal truth, but the goodness of God is found only in +the spiritual world of personal religious experience. In its true essence, +religion is a faith-trust in the goodness of God. God could be great and +absolute, somehow even intelligent and personal, in philosophy, but in religion +God must also be moral; he must be good. Man might fear a great God, but he +trusts and loves only a good God. This goodness of God is a part of the +personality of God, and its full revelation appears only in the personal +religious experience of the believing sons of God. + +Religion implies that the superworld of spirit nature is cognizant of, and +responsive to, the fundamental needs of the human world. Evolutionary religion +may become ethical, but only revealed religion becomes truly and spiritually +moral. The olden concept that God is a Deity dominated by kingly morality was +upstepped by Jesus to that affectionately touching level of intimate family +morality of the parent-child relationship, than which there is none more tender +and beautiful in mortal experience. + + top of page - 41 + +The "richness of the goodness of God leads erring man to repentance." "Every +good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights." "God is +good; he is the eternal refuge of the souls of men." "The Lord God is merciful +and gracious. He is long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth." "Taste +and see that the Lord is good ! Blessed is the man who trusts him." "The Lord +is gracious and full of compassion. He is the God of salvation." "He heals the +brokenhearted and binds up the wounds of the soul. He is man's all-powerful +benefactor." + +The concept of God as a king-judge, although it fostered a high moral standard +and created a law-respecting people as a group, left the individual believer in +a sad position of insecurity respecting his status in time and in eternity. The +later Hebrew prophets proclaimed God to be a Father to Israel; Jesus revealed +God as the Father of each human being. The entire mortal concept of God is +transcendently illuminated by the life of Jesus. Selflessness is inherent in +parental love. God loves not like a father, but as a father. He is the Paradise +Father of every universe personality. + +Righteousness implies that God is the source of the moral law of the universe. +Truth exhibits God as a revealer, as a teacher. But love gives and craves +affection, seeks understanding fellowship such as exists between parent and +child. Righteousness may be the divine thought, but love is a father's +attitude. The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was +irreconcilable with the selfless love of the heavenly Father, presupposed +absence of unity in the nature of Deity and led directly to the elaboration of +the atonement doctrine, which is a philosophic assault upon both the unity and +the free-willness of God. + +The affectionate heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on earth, +is not a divided personality--one of justice and one of mercy--neither does it +require a mediator to secure the Father's favor or forgiveness. Divine +righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive justice; God as a father +transcends God as a judge. + +God is never wrathful, vengeful, or angry. It is true that wisdom does often +restrain his love, while justice conditions his rejected mercy. His love of +righteousness cannot help being exhibited as equal hatred for sin. The Father +is not an inconsistent personality; the divine unity is perfect. In the +Paradise Trinity there is absolute unity despite the eternal identities of the +co-ordinates of God. + +God loves the sinner and hates the sin: such a statement is true +philosophically, but God is a transcendent personality, and persons can only +love and hate other persons. Sin is not a person. God loves the sinner because +he is a personality reality (potentially eternal), while towards sin God +strikes no personal attitude, for sin is not a spiritual reality; it is not +personal; therefore does only the justice of God take cognizance of its +existence. The love of God saves the sinner; the law of God destroys the sin. +This attitude of the divine nature would apparently change if the sinner +finally identified himself wholly with sin just as the same mortal mind may +also fully identify itself with the indwelling spirit Adjuster. Such a +sin-identified mortal would then become wholly unspiritual in nature (and +therefore personally unreal) and would experience eventual extinction of being. +Unreality, even incompleteness of creature nature, cannot exist forever in a +progressingly real and increasingly spiritual universe. + + top of page - 42 + +Facing the world of personality, God is discovered to be a loving person; +facing the spiritual world, he is a personal love; in religious experience he +is both. Love identifies the volitional will of God. The goodness of God rests +at the bottom of the divine free-willness--the universal tendency to love, show +mercy, manifest patience, and minister forgiveness. + +7. DIVINE TRUTH AND BEAUTY + +All finite knowledge and creature understanding are relative. Information and +intelligence, gleaned from even high sources, is only relatively complete, +locally accurate, and personally true. + +Physical facts are fairly uniform, but truth is a living and flexible factor in +the philosophy of the universe. Evolving personalities are only partially wise +and relatively true in their communications. They can be certain only as far as +their personal experience extends. That which apparently may be wholly true in +one place may be only relatively true in another segment of creation. + +Divine truth, final truth, is uniform and universal, but the story of things +spiritual, as it is told by numerous individuals hailing from various spheres, +may sometimes vary in details owing to this relativity in the completeness of +knowledge and in the repleteness of personal experience as well as in the +length and extent of that experience. While the laws and decrees, the thoughts +and attitudes, of the First Great Source and Center are eternally, infinitely, +and universally true; at the same time, their application to, and adjustment +for, every universe, system, world, and created intelligence, are in accordance +with the plans and technique of the Creator Sons as they function in their +respective universes, as well as in harmony with the local plans and procedures +of the Infinite Spirit and of all other associated celestial personalities. + +The false science of materialism would sentence mortal man to become an outcast +in the universe. Such partial knowledge is potentially evil; it is knowledge +composed of both good and evil. Truth is beautiful because it is both replete +and symmetrical. When man searches for truth, he pursues the divinely real. + +Philosophers commit their gravest error when they are misled into the fallacy +of abstraction, the practice of focusing the attention upon one aspect of +reality and then of pronouncing such an isolated aspect to be the whole truth. +The wise philosopher will always look for the creative design which is behind, +and pre-existent to, all universe phenomena. The creator thought invariably +precedes creative action. + +Intellectual self-consciousness can discover the beauty of truth, its spiritual +quality, not only by the philosophic consistency of its concepts, but more +certainly and surely by the unerring response of the ever-present Spirit of +Truth. Happiness ensues from the recognition of truth because it can be acted +out; it can be lived. Disappointment and sorrow attend upon error because, not +being a reality, it cannot be realized in experience. Divine truth is best +known by its spiritual flavor. + +The eternal quest is for unification, for divine coherence. The far-flung +physical universe coheres in the Isle of Paradise; the intellectual universe +coheres in the God of mind, the Conjoint Actor; the spiritual universe is +coherent in the personality of the Eternal Son. But the isolated mortal of time +and space + + top of page - 43 + +coheres in God the Father through the direct relationship between the +indwelling Thought Adjuster and the Universal Father. Man's Adjuster is a +fragment of God and everlastingly seeks for divine unification; it coheres +with, and in, the Paradise Deity of the First Source and Center. + +The discernment of supreme beauty is the discovery and integration of reality: +The discernment of the divine goodness in the eternal truth, that is ultimate +beauty. Even the charm of human art consists in the harmony of its unity. + +The great mistake of the Hebrew religion was its failure to associate the +goodness of God with the factual truths of science and the appealing beauty of +art. As civilization progressed, and since religion continued to pursue the +same unwise course of overemphasizing the goodness of God to the relative +exclusion of truth and neglect of beauty, there developed an increasing +tendency for certain types of men to turn away from the abstract and +dissociated concept of isolated goodness. The overstressed and isolated +morality of modern religion, which fails to hold the devotion and loyalty of +many twentieth-century men, would rehabilitate itself if, in addition to its +moral mandates, it would give equal consideration to the truths of science, +philosophy, and spiritual experience, and to the beauties of the physical +creation, the charm of intellectual art, and the grandeur of genuine character +achievement. + +The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking +men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and +appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated +modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a +new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind +of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul. Truth, beauty, and +goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale of spiritual +living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become increasingly co-ordinated +and unified in God, who is love. + +All truth--material, philosophic, or spiritual--is both beautiful and good. All +real beauty--material art or spiritual symmetry--is both true and good. All +genuine goodness--whether personal morality, social equity, or divine +ministry--is equally true and beautiful. Health, sanity, and happiness are +integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human +experience. Such levels of efficient living come about through the unification +of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems. + +Truth is coherent, beauty attractive, goodness stabilizing. And when these +values of that which is real are co-ordinated in personality experience, the +result is a high order of love conditioned by wisdom and qualified by loyalty. +The real purpose of all universe education is to effect the better +co-ordination of the isolated child of the worlds with the larger realities of +his expanding experience. Reality is finite on the human level, infinite and +eternal on the higher and divine levels. + +[Presented by a Divine Counselor acting by authority of the Ancients of Days on +Uversa.] + + top of page - 44 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Universal ³ The Attributes ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ F... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p003.txt b/religious documents/p003.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..57ae2c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p003.txt @@ -0,0 +1,633 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 3 The Attributes Of God + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 3 The Attributes Of God + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +GOD is everywhere present; the Universal Father rules the circle of eternity. +But he rules in the local universes in the persons of his Paradise Creator +Sons, even as he bestows life through these Sons. "God has given us eternal +life, and this life is in his Sons." These Creator Sons of God are the personal +expression of himself in the sectors of time and to the children of the +whirling planets of the evolving universes of space. + +The highly personalized Sons of God are clearly discernible by the lower orders +of created intelligences, and so do they compensate for the invisibility of the +infinite and therefore less discernible Father. The Paradise Creator Sons of +the Universal Father are a revelation of an otherwise invisible being, +invisible because of the absoluteness and infinity inherent in the circle of +eternity and in the personalities of the Paradise Deities. + +Creatorship is hardly an attribute of God; it is rather the aggregate of his +acting nature. And this universal function of creatorship is eternally +manifested as it is conditioned and controlled by all the co-ordinated +attributes of the infinite and divine reality of the First Source and Center. +We sincerely doubt whether any one characteristic of the divine nature can be +regarded as being antecedent to the others, but if such were the case, then the +creatorship nature of Deity would take precedence over all other natures, +activities, and attributes. And the creatorship of Deity culminates in the +universal truth of the Fatherhood of God. + +1. GOD'S EVERYWHERENESS + +The ability of the Universal Father to be everywhere present, and at the same +time, constitutes his omnipresence. God alone can be in two places, in +numberless places, at the same time. God is simultaneously present "in heaven +above and on the earth beneath"; as the Psalmist exclaimed: "Whither shall I go +from your spirit? or whither shall I flee from your presence?" + +"`I am a God at hand as well as afar off,' says the Lord. `Do not I fill heaven +and earth?'" The Universal Father is all the time present in all parts and in +all hearts of his far-flung creation. He is "the fullness of him who fills all +and in all," and "who works all in all," and further, the concept of his +personality is such that "the heaven (universe) and heaven of heavens (universe +of universes) cannot contain him." It is literally true that God is all and in +all. But even that is not all of God. The Infinite can be finally revealed only +in infinity; the cause can never be fully comprehended by an analysis of +effects; the living God is immeasurably greater than the sum total of creation +that has come into being as a result of the creative acts of his unfettered +free will. God is revealed throughout + + top of page - 45 + +the cosmos, but the cosmos can never contain or encompass the entirety of the +infinity of God. + +The Father's presence unceasingly patrols the master universe. "His going forth +is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit to the ends of it; and there is +nothing hidden from the light thereof." + +The creature not only exists in God, but God also lives in the creature. "We +know we dwell in him because he lives in us; he has given us his spirit. This +gift from the Paradise Father is man's inseparable companion." "He is the +ever-present and all-pervading God." "The spirit of the everlasting Father is +concealed in the mind of every mortal child." "Man goes forth searching for a +friend while that very friend lives within his own heart." "The true God is not +afar off; he is a part of us; his spirit speaks from within us." "The Father +lives in the child. God is always with us. He is the guiding spirit of eternal +destiny." + +Truly of the human race has it been said, "You are of God" because "he who +dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him." Even in wrongdoing you torment +the indwelling gift of God, for the Thought Adjuster must needs go through the +consequences of evil thinking with the human mind of its incarceration. + +The omnipresence of God is in reality a part of his infinite nature; space +constitutes no barrier to Deity. God is, in perfection and without limitation, +discernibly present only on Paradise and in the central universe. He is not +thus observably present in the creations encircling Havona, for God has limited +his direct and actual presence in recognition of the sovereignty and the divine +prerogatives of the co-ordinate creators and rulers of the universes of time +and space. Hence must the concept of the divine presence allow for a wide range +of both mode and channel of manifestation embracing the presence circuits of +the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and the Isle of Paradise. Nor is it +always possible to distinguish between the presence of the Universal Father and +the actions of his eternal co-ordinates and agencies, so perfectly do they +fulfill all the infinite requirements of his unchanging purpose. But not so +with the personality circuit and the Adjusters; here God acts uniquely, +directly, and exclusively. + +The Universal Controller is potentially present in the gravity circuits of the +Isle of Paradise in all parts of the universe at all times and in the same +degree, in accordance with the mass, in response to the physical demands for +this presence, and because of the inherent nature of all creation which causes +all things to adhere and consist in him. Likewise is the First Source and +Center potentially present in the Unqualified Absolute, the repository of the +uncreated universes of the eternal future. God thus potentially pervades the +physical universes of the past, present, and future. He is the primordial +foundation of the coherence of the so-called material creation. This +nonspiritual Deity potential becomes actual here and there throughout the level +of physical existences by the inexplicable intrusion of some one of his +exclusive agencies upon the stage of universe action. + +The mind presence of God is correlated with the absolute mind of the Conjoint +Actor, the Infinite Spirit, but in the finite creations it is better discerned +in the everywhere functioning of the cosmic mind of the Paradise Master +Spirits. Just as the First Source and Center is potentially present in the mind +circuits of the Conjoint Actor, so is he potentially present in the tensions of +the Universal Absolute. But mind of the human order is a bestowal of the +Daughters of the Conjoint Actor, the Divine Ministers of the evolving +universes. + + top of page - 46 + +The everywhere-present spirit of the Universal Father is co-ordinated with the +function of the universal spirit presence of the Eternal Son and the +everlasting divine potential of the Deity Absolute. But neither the spiritual +activity of the Eternal Son and his Paradise Sons nor the mind bestowals of the +Infinite Spirit seem to exclude the direct action of the Thought Adjusters, the +indwelling fragments of God, in the hearts of his creature children. + +Concerning God's presence in a planet, system, constellation, or a universe, +the degree of such presence in any creational unit is a measure of the degree +of the evolving presence of the Supreme Being: It is determined by the en masse +recognition of God and loyalty to him on the part of the vast universe +organization, running down to the systems and planets themselves. Therefore it +is sometimes with the hope of conserving and safeguarding these phases of God's +precious presence that, when some planets (or even systems) have plunged far +into spiritual darkness, they are in a certain sense quarantined, or partially +isolated from intercourse with the larger units of creation. And all this, as +it operates on Urantia, is a spiritually defensive reaction of the majority of +the worlds to save themselves, as far as possible, from suffering the isolating +consequences of the alienating acts of a headstrong, wicked, and rebellious +minority. + +While the Father parentally encircuits all his sons--all personalities--his +influence in them is limited by the remoteness of their origin from the Second +and the Third Persons of Deity and augmented as their destiny attainment nears +such levels. The fact of God's presence in creature minds is determined by +whether or not they are indwelt by Father fragments, such as the Mystery +Monitors, but his effective presence is determined by the degree of +co-operation accorded these indwelling Adjusters by the minds of their sojourn. + +The fluctuations of the Father's presence are not due to the changeableness of +God. The Father does not retire in seclusion because he has been slighted; his +affections are not alienated because of the creature's wrongdoing. Rather, +having been endowed with the power of choice (concerning himself), his +children, in the exercise of that choice, directly determine the degree and +limitations of the Father's divine influence in their own hearts and souls. The +Father has freely bestowed himself upon us without limit and without favor. He +is no respecter of persons, planets, systems, or universes. In the sectors of +time he confers differential honor only on the Paradise personalities of God +the Sevenfold, the co-ordinate creators of the finite universes. + +2. GOD'S INFINITE POWER + +All the universes know that "the Lord God omnipotent reigns." The affairs of +this world and other worlds are divinely supervised. "He does according to his +will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth." It is +eternally true, "there is no power but of God." + +Within the bounds of that which is consistent with the divine nature, it is +literally true that "with God all things are possible." The long-drawn-out +evolutionary processes of peoples, planets, and universes are under the perfect +control of the universe creators and administrators and unfold in accordance +with the eternal purpose of the Universal Father, proceeding in harmony and +order and in keeping with the all-wise plan of God. There is only one lawgiver. +He upholds the worlds in space and swings the universes around the endless +circle of the eternal circuit. + + top of page - 47 + +Of all the divine attributes, his omnipotence, especially as it prevails in the +material universe, is the best understood. Viewed as an unspiritual phenomenon, +God is energy. This declaration of physical fact is predicated on the +incomprehensible truth that the First Source and Center is the primal cause of +the universal physical phenomena of all space. From this divine activity all +physical energy and other material manifestations are derived. Light, that is, +light without heat, is another of the nonspiritual manifestations of the +Deities. And there is still another form of nonspiritual energy which is +virtually unknown on Urantia; it is as yet unrecognized. + +God controls all power; he has made "a way for the lightning"; he has ordained +the circuits of all energy. He has decreed the time and manner of the +manifestation of all forms of energy-matter. And all these things are held +forever in his everlasting grasp--in the gravitational control centering on +nether Paradise. The light and energy of the eternal God thus swing on forever +around his majestic circuit, the endless but orderly procession of the starry +hosts composing the universe of universes. All creation circles eternally +around the Paradise-Personality center of all things and beings. + +The omnipotence of the Father pertains to the everywhere dominance of the +absolute level, whereon the three energies, material, mindal, and spiritual, +are indistinguishable in close proximity to him--the Source of all things. +Creature mind, being neither Paradise monota nor Paradise spirit, is not +directly responsive to the Universal Father. God adjusts with the mind of +imperfection--with Urantia mortals through the Thought Adjusters. + +The Universal Father is not a transient force, a shifting power, or a +fluctuating energy. The power and wisdom of the Father are wholly adequate to +cope with any and all universe exigencies. As the emergencies of human +experience arise, he has foreseen them all, and therefore he does not react to +the affairs of the universe in a detached way but rather in accordance with the +dictates of eternal wisdom and in consonance with the mandates of infinite +judgment. Regardless of appearances, the power of God is not functioning in the +universe as a blind force. + +Situations do arise in which it appears that emergency rulings have been made, +that natural laws have been suspended, that misadaptations have been +recognized, and that an effort is being made to rectify the situation; but such +is not the case. Such concepts of God have their origin in the limited range of +your viewpoint, in the finiteness of your comprehension, and in the +circumscribed scope of your survey; such misunderstanding of God is due to the +profound ignorance you enjoy regarding the existence of the higher laws of the +realm, the magnitude of the Father's character, the infinity of his attributes, +and the fact of his free-willness. + +The planetary creatures of God's spirit indwelling, scattered hither and yon +throughout the universes of space, are so nearly infinite in number and order, +their intellects are so diverse, their minds are so limited and sometimes so +gross, their vision is so curtailed and localized, that it is almost impossible +to formulate generalizations of law adequately expressive of the Father's +infinite attributes and at the same time to any degree comprehensible to these +created intelligences. Therefore, to you the creature, many of the acts of the +all-powerful Creator seem to be arbitrary, detached, and not infrequently +heartless and cruel. But again I assure you that this is not true. God's doings +are all purposeful, intelligent, wise, kind, and eternally considerate of the +best good, not always of an individual + + top of page - 48 + +being, an individual race, an individual planet, or even an individual +universe; but they are for the welfare and best good of all concerned, from the +lowest to the highest. In the epochs of time the welfare of the part may +sometimes appear to differ from the welfare of the whole; in the circle of +eternity such apparent differences are nonexistent. + +We are all a part of the family of God, and we must therefore sometimes share +in the family discipline. Many of the acts of God which so disturb and confuse +us are the result of the decisions and final rulings of all-wisdom, empowering +the Conjoint Actor to execute the choosing of the infallible will of the +infinite mind, to enforce the decisions of the personality of perfection, whose +survey, vision, and solicitude embrace the highest and eternal welfare of all +his vast and far-flung creation. + +Thus it is that your detached, sectional, finite, gross, and highly +materialistic viewpoint and the limitations inherent in the nature of your +being constitute such a handicap that you are unable to see, comprehend, or +know the wisdom and kindness of many of the divine acts which to you seem +fraught with such crushing cruelty, and which seem to be characterized by such +utter indifference to the comfort and welfare, to the planetary happiness and +personal prosperity, of your fellow creatures. It is because of the limits of +human vision, it is because of your circumscribed understanding and finite +comprehension, that you misunderstand the motives, and pervert the purposes, of +God. But many things occur on the evolutionary worlds which are not the +personal doings of the Universal Father. + +The divine omnipotence is perfectly co-ordinated with the other attributes of +the personality of God. The power of God is, ordinarily, only limited in its +universe spiritual manifestation by three conditions or situations: + +1. By the nature of God, especially by his infinite love, by truth, beauty, and +goodness. + +2. By the will of God, by his mercy ministry and fatherly relationship with the +personalities of the universe. + +3. By the law of God, by the righteousness and justice of the eternal Paradise +Trinity. + +God is unlimited in power, divine in nature, final in will, infinite in +attributes, eternal in wisdom, and absolute in reality. But all these +characteristics of the Universal Father are unified in Deity and universally +expressed in the Paradise Trinity and in the divine Sons of the Trinity. +Otherwise, outside of Paradise and the central universe of Havona, everything +pertaining to God is limited by the evolutionary presence of the Supreme, +conditioned by the eventuating presence of the Ultimate, and co-ordinated by +the three existential Absolutes--Deity, Universal, and Unqualified. And God's +presence is thus limited because such is the will of God. + +3. GOD'S UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE + +"God knows all things." The divine mind is conscious of, and conversant with, +the thought of all creation. His knowledge of events is universal and perfect. +The divine entities going out from him are a part of him; he who "balances the +clouds" is also "perfect in knowledge." "The eyes of the Lord are in every +place." Said your great teacher of the insignificant sparrow, "One of them +shall not fall + + top of page - 49 + +to the ground without my Father's knowledge," and also, "The very hairs of your +head are numbered." "He tells the number of the stars; he calls them all by +their names." + +The Universal Father is the only personality in all the universe who does +actually know the number of the stars and planets of space. All the worlds of +every universe are constantly within the consciousness of God. He also says: "I +have surely seen the affliction of my people, I have heard their cry, and I +know their sorrows." For "the Lord looks from heaven; he beholds all the sons +of men; from the place of his habitation he looks upon all the inhabitants of +the earth." Every creature child may truly say: "He knows the way I take, and +when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." "God knows our downsittings +and our uprisings; he understands our thoughts afar off and is acquainted with +all our ways." "All things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we +have to do." And it should be a real comfort to every human being to understand +that "he knows your frame; he remembers that you are dust." Jesus, speaking of +the living God, said, "Your Father knows what you have need of even before you +ask him." + +God is possessed of unlimited power to know all things; his consciousness is +universal. His personal circuit encompasses all personalities, and his +knowledge of even the lowly creatures is supplemented indirectly through the +descending series of divine Sons and directly through the indwelling Thought +Adjusters. And furthermore, the Infinite Spirit is all the time everywhere +present. + +We are not wholly certain as to whether or not God chooses to foreknow events +of sin. But even if God should foreknow the freewill acts of his children, such +foreknowledge does not in the least abrogate their freedom. One thing is +certain: God is never subjected to surprise. + +Omnipotence does not imply the power to do the nondoable, the ungodlike act. +Neither does omniscience imply the knowing of the unknowable. But such +statements can hardly be made comprehensible to the finite mind. The creature +can hardly understand the range and limitations of the will of the Creator. + +4. GOD'S LIMITLESSNESS + +The successive bestowal of himself upon the universes as they are brought into +being in no wise lessens the potential of power or the store of wisdom as they +continue to reside and repose in the central personality of Deity. In potential +of force, wisdom, and love, the Father has never lessened aught of his +possession nor become divested of any attribute of his glorious personality as +the result of the unstinted bestowal of himself upon the Paradise Sons, upon +his subordinate creations, and upon the manifold creatures thereof. + +The creation of every new universe calls for a new adjustment of gravity; but +even if creation should continue indefinitely, eternally, even to infinity, so +that eventually the material creation would exist without limitations, still +the power of control and co-ordination reposing in the Isle of Paradise would +be found equal to, and adequate for, the mastery, control, and co-ordination of +such an infinite universe. And subsequent to this bestowal of limitless force +and power upon a boundless universe, the Infinite would still be surcharged +with the same degree of force and energy; the Unqualified Absolute would still +be undiminished; God would still possess the same infinite potential, just as +if force, + + top of page - 50 + +energy, and power had never been poured forth for the endowment of universe +upon universe. + +And so with wisdom: The fact that mind is so freely distributed to the thinking +of the realms in no wise impoverishes the central source of divine wisdom. As +the universes multiply, and beings of the realms increase in number to the +limits of comprehension, if mind continues without end to be bestowed upon +these beings of high and low estate, still will God's central personality +continue to embrace the same eternal, infinite, and all-wise mind. + +The fact that he sends forth spirit messengers from himself to indwell the men +and women of your world and other worlds in no wise lessens his ability to +function as a divine and all-powerful spirit personality; and there is +absolutely no limit to the extent or number of such spirit Monitors which he +can and may send out. This giving of himself to his creatures creates a +boundless, almost inconceivable future possibility of progressive and +successive existences for these divinely endowed mortals. And this prodigal +distribution of himself as these ministering spirit entities in no manner +diminishes the wisdom and perfection of truth and knowledge which repose in the +person of the all-wise, all-knowing, and all-powerful Father. + +To the mortals of time there is a future, but God inhabits eternity. Even +though I hail from near the very abiding place of Deity, I cannot presume to +speak with perfection of understanding concerning the infinity of many of the +divine attributes. Infinity of mind alone can fully comprehend infinity of +existence and eternity of action. + +Mortal man cannot possibly know the infinitude of the heavenly Father. Finite +mind cannot think through such an absolute truth or fact. But this same finite +human being can actually feel--literally experience--the full and undiminished +impact of such an infinite Father's LOVE. Such a love can be truly experienced, +albeit while quality of experience is unlimited, quantity of such an experience +is strictly limited by the human capacity for spiritual receptivity and by the +associated capacity to love the Father in return. + +Finite appreciation of infinite qualities far transcends the logically limited +capacities of the creature because of the fact that mortal man is made in the +image of God--there lives within him a fragment of infinity. Therefore man's +nearest and dearest approach to God is by and through love, for God is love. +And all of such a unique relationship is an actual experience in cosmic +sociology, the Creator-creature relationship--the Father-child affection. + +5. THE FATHER'S SUPREME RULE + +In his contact with the post-Havona creations, the Universal Father does not +exercise his infinite power and final authority by direct transmittal but +rather through his Sons and their subordinate personalities. And God does all +this of his own free will. Any and all powers delegated, if occasion should +arise, if it should become the choice of the divine mind, could be exercised +direct; but, as a rule, such action only takes place as a result of the failure +of the delegated personality to fulfill the divine trust. At such times and in +the face of such default and within the limits of the reservation of divine +power and potential, the Father does act independently and in accordance with +the mandates of his own choice; and that choice is always one of unfailing +perfection and infinite wisdom. + + top of page - 51 + +The Father rules through his Sons; on down through the universe organization +there is an unbroken chain of rulers ending with the Planetary Princes, who +direct the destinies of the evolutionary spheres of the Father's vast domains. +It is no mere poetic expression that exclaims: "The earth is the Lord's and the +fullness thereof." "He removes kings and sets up kings." "The Most Highs rule +in the kingdoms of men." + +In the affairs of men's hearts the Universal Father may not always have his +way; but in the conduct and destiny of a planet the divine plan prevails; the +eternal purpose of wisdom and love triumphs. + +Said Jesus: "My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one is +able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." As you glimpse the manifold +workings and view the staggering immensity of God's well-nigh limitless +creation, you may falter in your concept of his primacy, but you should not +fail to accept him as securely and everlastingly enthroned at the Paradise +center of all things and as the beneficent Father of all intelligent beings. +There is but "one God and Father of all, who is above all and in all," "and he +is before all things, and in him all things consist." + +The uncertainties of life and the vicissitudes of existence do not in any +manner contradict the concept of the universal sovereignty of God. All +evolutionary creature life is beset by certain inevitabilities. Consider the +following: + +1. Is courage--strength of character--desirable? Then must man be reared in an +environment which necessitates grappling with hardships and reacting to +disappointments. + +2. Is altruism--service of one's fellows--desirable? Then must life experience +provide for encountering situations of social inequality. + +3. Is hope--the grandeur of trust--desirable? Then human existence must +constantly be confronted with insecurities and recurrent uncertainties. + +4. Is faith--the supreme assertion of human thought--desirable? Then must the +mind of man find itself in that troublesome predicament where it ever knows +less than it can believe. + +5. Is the love of truth and the willingness to go wherever it leads, desirable? +Then must man grow up in a world where error is present and falsehood always +possible. + +6. Is idealism--the approaching concept of the divine--desirable? Then must man +struggle in an environment of relative goodness and beauty, surroundings +stimulative of the irrepressible reach for better things. + +7. Is loyalty--devotion to highest duty--desirable? Then must man carry on amid +the possibilities of betrayal and desertion. The valor of devotion to duty +consists in the implied danger of default. + +8. Is unselfishness--the spirit of self-forgetfulness--desirable? Then must +mortal man live face to face with the incessant clamoring of an inescapable +self for recognition and honor. Man could not dynamically choose the divine +life if there were no self-life to forsake. Man could never lay saving hold on +righteousness if there were no potential evil to exalt and differentiate the +good by contrast. + +9. Is pleasure--the satisfaction of happiness--desirable? Then must man live in +a world where the alternative of pain and the likelihood of suffering are +ever-present experiential possibilities. + + top of page - 52 + +Throughout the universe, every unit is regarded as a part of the whole. +Survival of the part is dependent on co-operation with the plan and purpose of +the whole, the wholehearted desire and perfect willingness to do the Father's +divine will. The only evolutionary world without error (the possibility of +unwise judgment) would be a world without free intelligence. In the Havona +universe there are a billion perfect worlds with their perfect inhabitants, but +evolving man must be fallible if he is to be free. Free and inexperienced +intelligence cannot possibly at first be uniformly wise. The possibility of +mistaken judgment (evil) becomes sin only when the human will consciously +endorses and knowingly embraces a deliberate immoral judgment. + +The full appreciation of truth, beauty, and goodness is inherent in the +perfection of the divine universe. The inhabitants of the Havona worlds do not +require the potential of relative value levels as a choice stimulus; such +perfect beings are able to identify and choose the good in the absence of all +contrastive and thought-compelling moral situations. But all such perfect +beings are, in moral nature and spiritual status, what they are by virtue of +the fact of existence. They have experientially earned advancement only within +their inherent status. Mortal man earns even his status as an ascension +candidate by his own faith and hope. Everything divine which the human mind +grasps and the human soul acquires is an experiential attainment; it is a +reality of personal experience and is therefore a unique possession in contrast +to the inherent goodness and righteousness of the inerrant personalities of +Havona. + +The creatures of Havona are naturally brave, but they are not courageous in the +human sense. They are innately kind and considerate, but hardly altruistic in +the human way. They are expectant of a pleasant future, but not hopeful in the +exquisite manner of the trusting mortal of the uncertain evolutionary spheres. +They have faith in the stability of the universe, but they are utter strangers +to that saving faith whereby mortal man climbs from the status of an animal up +to the portals of Paradise. They love the truth, but they know nothing of its +soul-saving qualities. They are idealists, but they were born that way; they +are wholly ignorant of the ecstasy of becoming such by exhilarating choice. +They are loyal, but they have never experienced the thrill of wholehearted and +intelligent devotion to duty in the face of temptation to default. They are +unselfish, but they never gained such levels of experience by the magnificent +conquest of a belligerent self. They enjoy pleasure, but they do not comprehend +the sweetness of the pleasure escape from the pain potential. + +6. THE FATHER'S PRIMACY + +With divine selflessness, consummate generosity, the Universal Father +relinquishes authority and delegates power, but he is still primal; his hand is +on the mighty lever of the circumstances of the universal realms; he has +reserved all final decisions and unerringly wields the all-powerful veto +scepter of his eternal purpose with unchallengeable authority over the welfare +and destiny of the outstretched, whirling, and ever-circling creation. + +The sovereignty of God is unlimited; it is the fundamental fact of all +creation. The universe was not inevitable. The universe is not an accident, +neither is it self-existent. The universe is a work of creation and is +therefore wholly subject to the will of the Creator. The will of God is divine +truth, living love; there- + + top of page - 53 + +fore are the perfecting creations of the evolutionary universes characterized +by goodness--nearness to divinity; by potential evil--remoteness from divinity. + +All religious philosophy, sooner or later, arrives at the concept of unified +universe rule, of one God. Universe causes cannot be lower than universe +effects. The source of the streams of universe life and of the cosmic mind must +be above the levels of their manifestation. The human mind cannot be +consistently explained in terms of the lower orders of existence. Man's mind +can be truly comprehended only by recognizing the reality of higher orders of +thought and purposive will. Man as a moral being is inexplicable unless the +reality of the Universal Father is acknowledged. + +The mechanistic philosopher professes to reject the idea of a universal and +sovereign will, the very sovereign will whose activity in the elaboration of +universe laws he so deeply reverences. What unintended homage the mechanist +pays the law-Creator when he conceives such laws to be self-acting and +self-explanatory! + +It is a great blunder to humanize God, except in the concept of the indwelling +Thought Adjuster, but even that is not so stupid as completely to mechanize the +idea of the First Great Source and Center. + +Does the Paradise Father suffer? I do not know. The Creator Sons most certainly +can and sometimes do, even as do mortals. The Eternal Son and the Infinite +Spirit suffer in a modified sense. I think the Universal Father does, but I +cannot understand how; perhaps through the personality circuit or through the +individuality of the Thought Adjusters and other bestowals of his eternal +nature. He has said of the mortal races, "In all your afflictions I am +afflicted." He unquestionably experiences a fatherly and sympathetic +understanding; he may truly suffer, but I do not comprehend the nature thereof. + +The infinite and eternal Ruler of the universe of universes is power, form, +energy, process, pattern, principle, presence, and idealized reality. But he is +more; he is personal; he exercises a sovereign will, experiences +self-consciousness of divinity, executes the mandates of a creative mind, +pursues the satisfaction of the realization of an eternal purpose, and +manifests a Father's love and affection for his universe children. And all +these more personal traits of the Father can be better understood by observing +them as they were revealed in the bestowal life of Michael, your Creator Son, +while he was incarnated on Urantia. + +God the Father loves men; God the Son serves men; God the Spirit inspires the +children of the universe to the ever-ascending adventure of finding God the +Father by the ways ordained by God the Sons through the ministry of the grace +of God the Spirit. + +[Being the Divine Counselor assigned to the presentation of the revelation of +the Universal Father, I have continued with this statement of the attributes of +Deity.] + + top of page - 54 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Nature Of ³ God's Relation ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ G... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p004.txt b/religious documents/p004.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6cbfdb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p004.txt @@ -0,0 +1,469 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 4 God's Relation To The Universe + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 4 God's Relation To The Universe + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Universal Father has an eternal purpose pertaining to the material, +intellectual, and spiritual phenomena of the universe of universes, which he is +executing throughout all time. God created the universes of his own free and +sovereign will, and he created them in accordance with his all-wise and eternal +purpose. It is doubtful whether anyone except the Paradise Deities and their +highest associates really knows very much about the eternal purpose of God. +Even the exalted citizens of Paradise hold very diverse opinions about the +nature of the eternal purpose of the Deities. + +It is easy to deduce that the purpose in creating the perfect central universe +of Havona was purely the satisfaction of the divine nature. Havona may serve as +the pattern creation for all other universes and as the finishing school for +the pilgrims of time on their way to Paradise; however, such a supernal +creation must exist primarily for the pleasure and satisfaction of the perfect +and infinite Creators. + +The amazing plan for perfecting evolutionary mortals and, after their +attainment of Paradise and the Corps of the finality, providing further +training for some undisclosed future work, does seem to be, at present, one of +the chief concerns of the seven superuniverses and their many subdivisions; but +this ascension scheme for spiritualizing and training the mortals of time and +space is by no means the exclusive occupation of the universe intelligences. +There are, indeed, many other fascinating pursuits which occupy the time and +enlist the energies of the celestial hosts. + +1. THE UNIVERSE ATTITUDE OF THE FATHER + +For ages the inhabitants of Urantia have misunderstood the providence of God. +There is a providence of divine outworking on your world, but it is not the +childish, arbitrary, and material ministry many mortals have conceived it to +be. The providence of God consists in the interlocking activities of the +celestial beings and the divine spirits who, in accordance with cosmic law, +unceasingly labor for the honor of God and for the spiritual advancement of his +universe children. + +Can you not advance in your concept of God's dealing with man to that level +where you recognize that the watchword of the universe is progress? Through +long ages the human race has struggled to reach its present position. +Throughout all these millenniums Providence has been working out the plan of +progressive evolution. The two thoughts are not opposed in practice, only in +man's mistaken concepts. Divine providence is never arrayed in opposition to +true human progress, either temporal or spiritual. Providence is always +consistent with the unchanging and perfect nature of the supreme Lawmaker. + + top of page - 55 + +"God is faithful" and "all his commandments are just." "His faithfulness is +established in the very skies." "Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in +heaven. Your faithfulness is to all generations; you have established the earth +and it abides." "He is a faithful Creator." + +There is no limitation of the forces and personalities which the Father may use +to uphold his purpose and sustain his creatures. "The eternal God is our +refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." "He who dwells in the secret +place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." "Behold, +he who keeps us shall neither slumber nor sleep." "We know that all things work +together for good to those who love God," "for the eyes of the Lord are over +the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers." + +God upholds "all things by the word of his power." And when new worlds are +born, he "sends forth his Sons and they are created." God not only creates, but +he "preserves them all." God constantly upholds all things material and all +beings spiritual. The universes are eternally stable. There is stability in the +midst of apparent instability. There is an underlying order and security in the +midst of the energy upheavals and the physical cataclysms of the starry realms. + +The Universal Father has not withdrawn from the management of the universes; he +is not an inactive Deity. If God should retire as the present upholder of all +creation, there would immediately occur a universal collapse. Except for God, +there would be no such thing as reality. At this very moment, as during the +remote ages of the past and in the eternal future, God continues to uphold. The +divine reach extends around the circle of eternity. The universe is not wound +up like a clock to run just so long and then cease to function; all things are +constantly being renewed. The Father unceasingly pours forth energy, light, and +life. The work of God is literal as well as spiritual. "He stretches out the +north over the empty space and hangs the earth upon nothing." + +A being of my order is able to discover ultimate harmony and to detect +far-reaching and profound co-ordination in the routine affairs of universe +administration. Much that seems disjointed and haphazard to the mortal mind +appears orderly and constructive to my understanding. But there is very much +going on in the universes that I do not fully comprehend. I have long been a +student of, and am more or less conversant with, the recognized forces, +energies, minds, morontias, spirits, and personalities of the local universes +and the superuniverses. I have a general understanding of how these agencies +and personalities operate, and I am intimately familiar with the workings of +the accredited spirit intelligences of the grand universe. Notwithstanding my +knowledge of the phenomena of the universes, I am constantly confronted with +cosmic reactions which I cannot fully fathom. I am continually encountering +apparently fortuitous conspiracies of the interassociation of forces, energies, +intellects, and spirits, which I cannot satisfactorily explain. + +I am entirely competent to trace out and to analyze the working of all +phenomena directly resulting from the functioning of the Universal Father, the +Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and, to a large extent, the Isle of Paradise. +My perplexity is occasioned by encountering what appears to be the performance +of their mysterious co-ordinates, the three Absolutes of potentiality. These +Absolutes seem to supersede matter, to transcend mind, and to supervene spirit. +I am constantly confused and often perplexed by my inability to comprehend +these complex transactions which I attribute to the presences and performances +of the Unqualified Absolute, the Deity Absolute, and the Universal Absolute. + + top of page - 56 + +These Absolutes must be the not-fully-revealed presences abroad in the universe +which, in the phenomena of space potency and in the function of other +superultimates, render it impossible for physicists, philosophers, or even +religionists to predict with certainty as to just how the primordials of force, +concept, or spirit will respond to demands made in a complex reality situation +involving supreme adjustments and ultimate values. + +There is also an organic unity in the universes of time and space which seems +to underlie the whole fabric of cosmic events. This living presence of the +evolving Supreme Being, this Immanence of the Projected Incomplete, is +inexplicably manifested ever and anon by what appears to be an amazingly +fortuitous co-ordination of apparently unrelated universe happenings. This must +be the function of Providence--the realm of the Supreme Being and the Conjoint +Actor. + +I am inclined to believe that it is this far-flung and generally unrecognizable +control of the co-ordination and interassociation of all phases and forms of +universe activity that causes such a variegated and apparently hopelessly +confused medley of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual phenomena so +unerringly to work out to the glory of God and for the good of men and angels. + +But in the larger sense the apparent "accidents" of the cosmos are undoubtedly +a part of the finite drama of the time-space adventure of the Infinite in his +eternal manipulation of the Absolutes. + +2. GOD AND NATURE + +Nature is in a limited sense the physical habit of God. The conduct, or action, +of God is qualified and provisionally modified by the experimental plans and +the evolutionary patterns of a local universe, a constellation, a system, or a +planet. God acts in accordance with a well-defined, unchanging, immutable law +throughout the wide-spreading master universe; but he modifies the patterns of +his action so as to contribute to the co-ordinate and balanced conduct of each +universe, constellation, system, planet, and personality in accordance with the +local objects, aims, and plans of the finite projects of evolutionary +unfolding. + +Therefore, nature, as mortal man understands it, presents the underlying +foundation and fundamental background of a changeless Deity and his immutable +laws, modified by, fluctuating because of, and experiencing upheavals through, +the working of the local plans, purposes, patterns, and conditions which have +been inaugurated and are being carried out by the local universe, +constellation, system, and planetary forces and personalities. For example: As +God's laws have been ordained in Nebadon, they are modified by the plans +established by the Creator Son and Creative Spirit of this local universe; and +in addition to all this the operation of these laws has been further influenced +by the errors, defaults, and insurrections of certain beings resident upon your +planet and belonging to your immediate planetary system of Satania. + +Nature is a time-space resultant of two cosmic factors: first, the +immutability, perfection, and rectitude of Paradise Deity, and second, the +experimental plans, executive blunders, insurrectionary errors, incompleteness +of development, and imperfection of wisdom of the extra-Paradise creatures, +from the highest to the lowest. Nature therefore carries a uniform, unchanging, +majestic, and marvelous thread of perfection from the circle of eternity; but +in each universe, on each planet, and in each individual life, this nature is +modified, qualified, and per- + + top of page - 57 + +chance marred by the acts, the mistakes, and the disloyalties of the creatures +of the evolutionary systems and universes; and therefore must nature ever be of +a changing mood, whimsical withal, though stable underneath, and varied in +accordance with the operating procedures of a local universe. + +Nature is the perfection of Paradise divided by the incompletion, evil, and sin +of the unfinished universes. This quotient is thus expressive of both the +perfect and the partial, of both the eternal and the temporal. Continuing +evolution modifies nature by augmenting the content of Paradise perfection and +by diminishing the content of the evil, error, and disharmony of relative +reality. + +God is not personally present in nature or in any of the forces of nature, for +the phenomenon of nature is the superimposition of the imperfections of +progressive evolution and, sometimes, the consequences of insurrectionary +rebellion, upon the Paradise foundations of God's universal law. As it appears +on such a world as Urantia, nature can never be the adequate expression, the +true representation, the faithful portrayal, of an all-wise and infinite God. + +Nature, on your world, is a qualification of the laws of perfection by the +evolutionary plans of the local universe. What a travesty to worship nature +because it is in a limited, qualified sense pervaded by God; because it is a +phase of the universal and, therefore, divine power! Nature also is a +manifestation of the unfinished, the incomplete, the imperfect outworkings of +the development, growth, and progress of a universe experiment in cosmic +evolution. + +The apparent defects of the natural world are not indicative of any such +corresponding defects in the character of God. Rather are such observed +imperfections merely the inevitable stop-moments in the exhibition of the +ever-moving reel of infinity picturization. It is these very +defect-interruptions of perfection-continuity which make it possible for the +finite mind of material man to catch a fleeting glimpse of divine reality in +time and space. The material manifestations of divinity appear defective to the +evolutionary mind of man only because mortal man persists in viewing the +phenomena of nature through natural eyes, human vision unaided by morontia mota +or by revelation, its compensatory substitute on the worlds of time. + +And nature is marred, her beautiful face is scarred, her features are seared, +by the rebellion, the misconduct, the misthinking of the myriads of creatures +who are a part of nature, but who have contributed to her disfigurement in +time. No, nature is not God. Nature is not an object of worship. + +3. GOD'S UNCHANGING CHARACTER + +All too long has man thought of God as one like himself. God is not, never was, +and never will be jealous of man or any other being in the universe of +universes. Knowing that the Creator Son intended man to be the masterpiece of +the planetary creation, to be the ruler of all the earth, the sight of his +being dominated by his own baser passions, the spectacle of his bowing down +before idols of wood, stone, gold, and selfish ambition--these sordid scenes +stir God and his Sons to be jealous for man, but never of him. + +The eternal God is incapable of wrath and anger in the sense of these human +emotions and as man understands such reactions. These sentiments are mean and +despicable; they are hardly worthy of being called human, much less divine; and +such attitudes are utterly foreign to the perfect nature and gracious character +of the Universal Father. + + top of page - 58 + +Much, very much, of the difficulty which Urantia mortals have in understanding +God is due to the far-reaching consequences of the Lucifer rebellion and the +Caligastia betrayal. On worlds not segregated by sin, the evolutionary races +are able to formulate far better ideas of the Universal Father; they suffer +less from confusion, distortion, and perversion of concept. + +God repents of nothing he has ever done, now does, or ever will do. He is +all-wise as well as all-powerful. Man's wisdom grows out of the trials and +errors of human experience; God's wisdom consists in the unqualified perfection +of his infinite universe insight, and this divine foreknowledge effectively +directs the creative free will. + +The Universal Father never does anything that causes subsequent sorrow or +regret, but the will creatures of the planning and making of his Creator +personalities in the outlying universes, by their unfortunate choosing, +sometimes occasion emotions of divine sorrow in the personalities of their +Creator parents. But though the Father neither makes mistakes, harbors regrets, +nor experiences sorrows, he is a being with a father's affection, and his heart +is undoubtedly grieved when his children fail to attain the spiritual levels +they are capable of reaching with the assistance which has been so freely +provided by the spiritual-attainment plans and the mortal-ascension policies of +the universes. + +The infinite goodness of the Father is beyond the comprehension of the finite +mind of time; hence must there always be afforded a contrast with comparative +evil (not sin) for the effective exhibition of all phases of relative goodness. +Perfection of divine goodness can be discerned by mortal imperfection of +insight only because it stands in contrastive association with relative +imperfection in the relationships of time and matter in the motions of space. + +The character of God is infinitely superhuman; therefore must such a nature of +divinity be personalized, as in the divine Sons, before it can even be +faith-grasped by the finite mind of man. + +4. THE REALIZATION OF GOD + +God is the only stationary, self-contained, and changeless being in the whole +universe of universes, having no outside, no beyond, no past, and no future. +God is purposive energy (creative spirit) and absolute will, and these are +self-existent and universal. + +Since God is self-existent, he is absolutely independent. The very identity of +God is inimical to change. "I, the Lord, change not." God is immutable; but not +until you achieve Paradise status can you even begin to understand how God can +pass from simplicity to complexity, from identity to variation, from quiescence +to motion, from infinity to finitude, from the divine to the human, and from +unity to duality and triunity. And God can thus modify the manifestations of +his absoluteness because divine immutability does not imply immobility; God has +will--he is will. + +God is the being of absolute self-determination; there are not limits to his +universe reactions save those which are self-imposed, and his freewill acts are +conditioned only by those divine qualities and perfect attributes which +inherently characterize his eternal nature. Therefore is god related to the +universe as the being of final goodness plus a free will of creative infinity. + +The Father-Absolute is the creator of the central and perfect universe and the +Father of all other Creators. Personality, goodness, and numerous other + + top of page - 59 + +characteristics, God shares with man and other beings, but infinity of will is +his alone. God is limited in his creative acts only by the sentiments of his +eternal nature and by the dictates of his infinite wisdom. God personally +chooses only that which is infinitely perfect, hence the supernal perfection of +the central universe; and while the Creator Sons fully share his divinity, even +phases of his absoluteness, they are not altogether limited by that finality of +wisdom which directs the Father's infinity of will. Hence, in the Michael order +of sonship, creative free will becomes even more active, wholly divine and +well-nigh ultimate, if not absolute. The Father is infinite and eternal, but to +deny the possibility of his volitional self-limitation amounts to a denial of +this very concept of his volitional absoluteness. + +God's absoluteness pervades all seven levels of universe reality. And the whole +of this absolute nature is subject to the relationship of the Creator to his +universe creature family. Precision may characterize trinitarian justice in the +universe of universes, but in all his vast family relationship with the +creatures of time the God of universes is governed by divine sentiment. First +and last--eternally--the infinite God is a Father. Of all the possible titles +by which he might appropriately be known, I have been instructed to portray the +God of all creation as the Universal Father. + +In God the Father freewill performances are not ruled by power, nor are they +guided by intellect alone; the divine personality is defined as consisting in +spirit and manifesting himself to the universes as love. Therefore, in all his +personal relations with the creature personalities of the universes, the First +Source and Center is always and consistently a loving Father. God is a Father +in the highest sense of the term. He is eternally motivated by the perfect +idealism of divine love, and that tender nature finds its strongest expression +and greatest satisfaction in loving and being loved. + +In science, God is the First Cause; in religion, the universal and loving +Father; in philosophy, the one being who exists by himself, not dependent on +any other being for existence but beneficently conferring reality of existence +on all things and upon all other beings. But it requires revelation to show +that the First Cause of science and the self-existent Unity of philosophy are +the God of religion, full of mercy and goodness and pledged to effect the +eternal survival of his children on earth. + +We crave the concept of the Infinite, but we worship the experience-idea of +God, our anywhere and any-time capacity to grasp the personality and divinity +factors of our highest concept of Deity. + +The consciousness of a victorious human life on earth is born of that creature +faith which dares to challenge each recurring episode of existence when +confronted with the awful spectacle of human limitations, by the unfailing +declaration: Even if I cannot do this, there lives in me one who can and will +do it, a part of the Father-Absolute of the universe of universes. And that is +"the victory which overcomes the world, even your faith." + +5. ERRONEOUS IDEAS OF GOD + +Religious tradition is the imperfectly preserved record of the experiences of +the God-knowing men of past ages, but such records are untrustworthy as guides +for religious living or as the source of true information about the Universal + + top of page - 60 + +Father. Such ancient beliefs have been invariably altered by the fact that +primitive man was a mythmaker. + +One of the greatest sources of confusion on Urantia concerning the nature of +God grows out of the failure of your sacred books clearly to distinguish +between the personalities of the Paradise Trinity and between Paradise Deity +and the local universe creators and administrators. During the past +dispensations of partial understanding, your priests and prophets failed +clearly to differentiate between Planetary Princes, System Sovereigns, +Constellation Fathers, Creator Sons, Superuniverse Rulers, the Supreme Being, +and the Universal Father. Many of the messages of subordinate personalities, +such as Life Carriers and various orders of angels, have been, in your records, +presented as coming from God himself. Urantian religious thought still confuses +the associate personalities of Deity with the Universal Father himself, so that +all are included under one appellation. + +The people of Urantia continue to suffer from the influence of primitive +concepts of God. The gods who go on a rampage in the storm; who shake the earth +in their wrath and strike down men in their anger; who inflict their judgments +of displeasure in times of famine and flood--these are the gods of primitive +religion; they are not the Gods who live and rule the universes. Such concepts +are a relic of the times when men supposed that the universe was under the +guidance and domination of the whims of such imaginary gods. But mortal man is +beginning to realize that he lives in a realm of comparative law and order as +far as concerns the administrative policies and conduct of the Supreme Creators +and the Supreme Controllers. + +The barbarous idea of appeasing an angry God, of propitiating an offended Lord, +of winning the favor of Deity through sacrifices and penance and even by the +shedding of blood, represents a religion wholly puerile and primitive, a +philosophy unworthy of an enlightened age of science and truth. Such beliefs +are utterly repulsive to the celestial beings and the divine rulers who serve +and reign in the universes. It is an affront to God to believe, hold, or teach +that innocent blood must be shed in order to win his favor or to divert the +fictitious divine wrath. + +The Hebrews believed that "without the shedding of blood there could be no +remission of sin." They had not found deliverance from the old and pagan idea +that the Gods could not be appeased except by the sight of blood, though Moses +did make a distinct advance when he forbade human sacrifices and substituted +therefor, in the primitive minds of his childlike Bedouin followers, the +ceremonial sacrifice of animals. + +The bestowal of a Paradise Son on your world was inherent in the situation of +closing a planetary age; it was inescapable, and it was not made necessary for +the purpose of winning the favor of God. This bestowal also happened to be the +final personal act of a Creator Son in the long adventure of earning the +experiential sovereignty of his universe. What a travesty upon the infinite +character of God! this teaching that his fatherly heart in all its austere +coldness and hardness was so untouched by the misfortunes and sorrows of his +creatures that his tender mercies were not forthcoming until he saw his +blameless Son bleeding and dying upon the cross of Calvary! + +But the inhabitants of Urantia are to find deliverance from these ancient +errors and pagan superstitions respecting the nature of the Universal Father. +The revelation of the truth about God is appearing, and the human race is +destined to know the Universal Father in all that beauty of character and love- + + top of page - 61 + +liness of attributes so magnificently portrayed by the Creator Son who +sojourned on Urantia as the Son of Man and the Son of God. + +[Presented by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.] + + top of page - 62 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Attributes ³ God's Relation ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p005.txt b/religious documents/p005.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ac93d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p005.txt @@ -0,0 +1,657 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 5 God's Relation To The Individual + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 5 God's Relation To The Individual + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +IF THE finite mind of man is unable to comprehend how so great and so majestic +a God as the Universal Father can descend from his eternal abode in infinite +perfection to fraternize with the individual human creature, then must such a +finite intellect rest assurance of divine fellowship upon the truth of the fact +that an actual fragment of the living God resides within the intellect of every +normal-minded and morally conscious Urantia mortal. The indwelling Thought +Adjusters are a part of the eternal Deity of the Paradise Father. Man does not +have to go farther than his own inner experience of the soul's contemplation of +this spiritual-reality presence to find God and attempt communion with him. + +God has distributed the infinity of his eternal nature throughout the +existential realities of his six absolute co-ordinates, but he may, at any +time, make direct personal contact with any part or phase or kind of creation +through the agency of his prepersonal fragments. And the eternal God has also +reserved to himself the prerogative of bestowing personality upon the divine +Creators and the living creatures of the universe of universes, while he has +further reserved the prerogative of maintaining direct and parental contact +with all these personal beings through the personality circuit. + +1. THE APPROACH TO GOD + +The inability of the finite creature to approach the infinite Father is +inherent, not in the Father's aloofness, but in the finiteness and material +limitations of created beings. The magnitude of the spiritual difference +between the highest personality of universe existence and the lower groups of +created intelligences is inconceivable. Were it possible for the lower orders +of intelligence to be transported instantly into the presence of the Father +himself, they would not know they were there. They would there be just as +oblivious of the presence of the Universal Father as where they now are. There +is a long, long road ahead of mortal man before he can consistently and within +the realms of possibility ask for safe conduct into the Paradise presence of +the Universal Father. Spiritually, man must be translated many times before he +can attain a plane that will yield the spiritual vision which will enable him +to see even any one of the Seven Master Spirits. + +Our Father is not in hiding; he is not in arbitrary seclusion. He has mobilized +the resources of divine wisdom in a never-ending effort to reveal himself to +the children of his universal domains. There is an infinite grandeur and an +inexpressible generosity connected with the majesty of his love which causes +him to yearn for the association of every created being who can comprehend, +love, or + + top of page - 63 + +approach him; and it is, therefore, the limitations inherent in you, +inseparable from your finite personality and material existence, that determine +the time and place and circumstances in which you may achieve the goal of the +journey of mortal ascension and stand in the presence of the Father at the +center of all things. + +Although the approach to the Paradise presence of the Father must await your +attainment of the highest finite levels of spirit progression, you should +rejoice in the recognition of the ever-present possibility of immediate +communion with the bestowal spirit of the Father so intimately associated with +your inner soul and your spiritualizing self. + +The mortals of the realms of time and space may differ greatly in innate +abilities and intellectual endowment, they may enjoy environments exceptionally +favorable to social advancement and moral progress, or they may suffer from the +lack of almost every human aid to culture and supposed advancement in the arts +of civilization; but the possibilities for spiritual progress in the ascension +career are equal to all; increasing levels of spiritual insight and cosmic +meanings are attained quite independently of all such sociomoral differentials +of the diversified material environments on the evolutionary worlds. + +However Urantia mortals may differ in their intellectual, social, economic, and +even moral opportunities and endowments, forget not that their spiritual +endowment is uniform and unique. They all enjoy the same divine presence of the +gift from the Father, and they are all equally privileged to seek intimate +personal communion with this indwelling spirit of divine origin, while they may +all equally choose to accept the uniform spiritual leading of these Mystery +Monitors. + +If mortal man is wholeheartedly spiritually motivated, unreservedly consecrated +to the doing of the Father's will, then, since he is so certainly and so +effectively spiritually endowed by the indwelling and divine Adjuster, there +cannot fail to materialize in that individual's experience the sublime +consciousness of knowing God and the supernal assurance of surviving for the +purpose of finding God by the progressive experience of becoming more and more +like him. + +Man is spiritually indwelt by a surviving Thought Adjuster. If such a human +mind is sincerely and spiritually motivated, if such a human soul desires to +know God and become like him, honestly wants to do the Father's will, there +exists no negative influence of mortal deprivation nor positive power of +possible interference which can prevent such a divinely motivated soul from +securely ascending to the portals of Paradise. + +The Father desires all his creatures to be in personal communion with him. He +has on Paradise a place to receive all those whose survival status and +spiritual nature make possible such attainment. Therefore settle in your +philosophy now and forever: To each of you and to all of us, God is +approachable, the Father is attainable, the way is open; the forces of divine +love and the ways and means of divine administration are all interlocked in an +effort to facilitate the advancement of every worthy intelligence of every +universe to the Paradise presence of the Universal Father. + +The fact that vast time is involved in the attainment of God makes the presence +and personality of the Infinite none the less real. Your ascension is a part of +the circuit of the seven superuniverses, and though you swing around it +countless times, you may expect, in spirit and in status, to be ever swinging +inward. You can depend upon being translated from sphere to sphere, from the +outer circuits + + top of page - 64 + +ever nearer the inner center, and some day, doubt not, you shall stand in the +divine and central presence and see him, figuratively speaking, face to face. +It is a question of the attainment of actual and literal spiritual levels; and +these spiritual levels are attainable by any being who has been indwelt by a +Mystery Monitor, and who has subsequently eternally fused with that Thought +Adjuster. + +The Father is not in spiritual hiding, but so many of his creatures have hidden +themselves away in the mists of their own willful decisions and for the time +being have separated themselves from the communion of his spirit and the spirit +of his Son by the choosing of their own perverse ways and by the indulgence of +the self-assertiveness of their intolerant minds and unspiritual natures. + +Mortal man may draw near God and may repeatedly forsake the divine will so long +as the power of choice remains. Man's final doom is not sealed until he has +lost the power to choose the Father's will. There is never a closure of the +Father's heart to the need and the petition of his children. Only do his +offspring close their hearts forever to the Father's drawing power when they +finally and forever lose the desire to do his divine will--to know him and to +be like him. Likewise is man's eternal destiny assured when Adjuster fusion +proclaims to the universe that such an ascender has made the final and +irrevocable choice to live the Father's will. + +The great God makes direct contact with mortal man and gives a part of his +infinite and eternal and incomprehensible self to live and dwell within him. +God has embarked upon the eternal adventure with man. If you yield to the +leadings of the spiritual forces in you and around you, you cannot fail to +attain the high destiny established by a loving God as the universe goal of his +ascendant creatures from the evolutionary worlds of space. + +2. THE PRESENCE OF GOD + +The physical presence of the Infinite is the reality of the material universe. +The mind presence of Deity must be determined by the depth of individual +intellectual experience and by the evolutionary personality level. The +spiritual presence of Divinity must of necessity be differential in the +universe. It is determined by the spiritual capacity of receptivity and by the +degree of the consecration of the creature's will to the doing of the divine +will. + +God lives in every one of his spirit-born sons. The Paradise Sons always have +access to the presence of God, "the right hand of the Father," and all of his +creature personalities have access to the "bosom of the Father." This refers to +the personality circuit, whenever, wherever, and however contacted, or +otherwise entails personal, self-conscious contact and communion with the +Universal Father, whether at the central abode or at some other designated +place, as on one of the seven sacred spheres of Paradise. + +The divine presence cannot, however, be discovered anywhere in nature or even +in the lives of God-knowing mortals so fully and so certainly as in your +attempted communion with the indwelling Mystery Monitor, the Paradise Thought +Adjuster. What a mistake to dream of God far off in the skies when the spirit +of the Universal Father lives within your own mind! + +It is because of this God fragment that indwells you that you can hope, as you +progress in harmonizing with the Adjuster's spiritual leadings, more fully to +discern the presence and transforming power of those other spiritual influences +that surround you and impinge upon you but do not function as an integral part +of + + top of page - 65 + +you. The fact that you are not intellectually conscious of close and intimate +contact with the indwelling Adjuster does not in the least disprove such an +exalted experience. The proof of fraternity with the divine Adjuster consists +wholly in the nature and extent of the fruits of the spirit which are yielded +in the life experience of the individual believer. "By their fruits you shall +know them." + +It is exceedingly difficult for the meagerly spiritualized, material mind of +mortal man to experience marked consciousness of the spirit activities of such +divine entities as the Paradise Adjusters. As the soul of joint mind and +Adjuster creation becomes increasingly existent, there also evolves a new phase +of soul consciousness which is capable of experiencing the presence, and of +recognizing the spirit leadings and other supermaterial activities, of the +Mystery Monitors. + +The entire experience of Adjuster communion is one involving moral status +mental motivation, and spiritual experience. The self-realization of such an +achievement is mainly, though not exclusively, limited to the realms of soul +consciousness, but the proofs are forthcoming and abundant in the manifestation +of the fruits of the spirit in the lives of all such inner-spirit contactors. + +3. TRUE WORSHIP + +Though the Paradise Deities, from the universe standpoint, are as one, in their +spiritual relations with such beings as inhabit Urantia they are also three +distinct and separate persons. There is a difference between the Godheads in +the matter of personal appeals, communion, and other intimate relations. In the +highest sense, we worship the Universal Father and him only. True, we can and +do worship the Father as he is manifested in his Creator Sons, but it is the +Father, directly or indirectly, who is worshiped and adored. + +Supplications of all kinds belong to the realm of the Eternal Son and the Son's +spiritual organization. Prayers, all formal communications, everything except +adoration and worship of the Universal Father, are matters that concern a local +universe; they do not ordinarily proceed out of the realm of the jurisdiction +of a Creator Son. But worship is undoubtedly encircuited and dispatched to the +person of the Creator by the function of the Father's personality circuit. We +further believe that such registry of the homage of an Adjuster-indwelt +creature is facilitated by the Father's spirit presence. There exists a +tremendous amount of evidence to substantiate such a belief, and I know that +all orders of Father fragments are empowered to register the bona fide +adoration of their subjects acceptably in the presence of the Universal Father. +The Adjusters undoubtedly also utilize direct prepersonal channels of +communication with God, and they are likewise able to utilize the +spirit-gravity circuits of the Eternal Son. + +Worship is for its own sake; prayer embodies a self- or creature-interest +element; that is the great difference between worship and prayer. There is +absolutely no self-request or other element of personal interest in true +worship; we simply worship God for what we comprehend him to be. Worship asks +nothing and expects nothing for the worshiper. We do not worship the Father +because of anything we may derive from such veneration; we render such devotion +and engage in such worship as a natural and spontaneous reaction to the +recognition of the Father's matchless personality and because of his lovable +nature and adorable attributes. + +The moment the element of self-interest intrudes upon worship, that instant +devotion translates from worship to prayer and more appropriately should be di- + + top of page - 66 + +rected to the person of the Eternal Son or the Creator Son. But in practical +religious experience there exists no reason why prayer should not be addressed +to God the Father as a part of true worship. + +When you deal with the practical affairs of your daily life, you are in the +hands of the spirit personalities having origin in the Third Source and Center; +you are co-operating with the agencies of the Conjoint Actor. And so it is: You +worship God; pray to, and commune with, the Son; and work out the details of +your earthly sojourn in connection with the intelligences of the Infinite +Spirit operating on your world and throughout your universe. + +The Creator or Sovereign Sons who preside over the destinies of the local +universes stand in the place of both the Universal Father and the Eternal Son +of Paradise. These Universe Sons receive, in the name of the Father, the +adoration of worship and give ear to the pleas of their petitioning subjects +throughout their respective creations. To the children of a local universe a +Michael Son is, to all practical intents and purposes, God. He is the local +universe personification of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The +Infinite Spirit maintains personal contact with the children of these realms +through the Universe Spirits, the administrative and creative associates of the +Paradise Creator Sons. + +Sincere worship connotes the mobilization of all the powers of the human +personality under the dominance of the evolving soul and subject to the divine +directionization of the associated Thought Adjuster. The mind of material +limitations can never become highly conscious of the real significance of true +worship. Man's realization of the reality of the worship experience is chiefly +determined by the developmental status of his evolving immortal soul. The +spiritual growth of the soul takes place wholly independently of the +intellectual self-consciousness. + +The worship experience consists in the sublime attempt of the betrothed +Adjuster to communicate to the divine Father the inexpressible longings and the +unutterable aspirations of the human soul--the conjoint creation of the +God-seeking mortal mind and the God-revealing immortal Adjuster. Worship is, +therefore, the act of the material mind's assenting to the attempt of its +spiritualizing self, under the guidance of the associated spirit, to +communicate with God as a faith son of the Universal Father. The mortal mind +consents to worship; the immortal soul craves and initiates worship; the divine +Adjuster presence conducts such worship in behalf of the mortal mind and the +evolving immortal soul. True worship, in the last analysis, becomes an +experience realized on four cosmic levels: the intellectual, the morontial, the +spiritual, and the personal--the consciousness of mind, soul, and spirit, and +their unification in personality. + +4. GOD IN RELIGION + +The morality of the religions of evolution drives men forward in the God quest +by the motive power of fear. The religions of revelation allure men to seek for +a God of love because they crave to become like him. But religion is not merely +a passive feeling of "absolute dependence" and "surety of survival"; it is a +living and dynamic experience of divinity attainment predicated on humanity +service. + +The great and immediate service of true religion is the establishment of an +enduring unity in human experience, a lasting peace and a profound assurance. + + top of page - 67 + +With primitive man, even polytheism is a relative unification of the evolving +concept of Deity; polytheism is monotheism in the making. Sooner or later, God +is destined to be comprehended as the reality of values, the substance of +meanings, and the life of truth. + +God is not only the determiner of destiny; he is man's eternal destination. All +nonreligious human activities seek to bend the universe to the distorting +service of self; the truly religious individual seeks to identify the self with +the universe and then to dedicate the activities of this unified self to the +service of the universe family of fellow beings, human and superhuman. + +The domains of philosophy and art intervene between the nonreligious and the +religious activities of the human self. Through art and philosophy the +material-minded man is inveigled into the contemplation of the spiritual +realities and universe values of eternal meanings. + +All religions teach the worship of Deity and some doctrine of human salvation. +The Buddhist religion promises salvation from suffering, unending peace; the +Jewish religion promises salvation from difficulties, prosperity predicated on +righteousness; the Greek religion promised salvation from disharmony, ugliness, +by the realization of beauty; Christianity promises salvation from sin, +sanctity; Mohammedanism provides deliverance from the rigorous moral standards +of Judaism and Christianity. The religion of Jesus is salvation from self, +deliverance from the evils of creature isolation in time and in eternity. + +The Hebrews based their religion on goodness; the Greeks on beauty; both +religions sought truth. Jesus revealed a God of love, and love is all-embracing +of truth, beauty, and goodness. + +The Zoroastrians had a religion of morals; the Hindus a religion of +metaphysics; the Confucianists a religion of ethics. Jesus lived a religion of +service. All these religions are of value in that they are valid approaches to +the religion of Jesus. Religion is destined to become the reality of the +spiritual unification of all that is good, beautiful, and true in human +experience. + +The Greek religion had a watchword "Know yourself"; the Hebrews centered their +teaching on "Know your God"; the Christians preach a gospel aimed at a +"knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ"; Jesus proclaimed the good news of +"knowing God, and yourself as a son of God." These differing concepts of the +purpose of religion determine the individual's attitude in various life +situations and foreshadow the depth of worship and the nature of his personal +habits of prayer. The spiritual status of any religion may be determined by the +nature of its prayers. + +The concept of a semihuman and jealous God is an inevitable transition between +polytheism and sublime monotheism. An exalted anthropomorphism is the highest +attainment level of purely evolutionary religion. Christianity has elevated the +concept of anthropomorphism from the ideal of the human to the transcendent and +divine concept of the person of the glorified Christ. And this is the highest +anthropomorphism that man can ever conceive. + +The Christian concept of God is an attempt to combine three separate teachings: + +1. The Hebrew concept--God as a vindicator of moral values, a righteous God. + +2. The Greek concept--God as a unifier, a God of wisdom. + + top of page - 68 + +3. Jesus' concept--God as a living friend, a loving Father, the divine +presence. + +It must therefore be evident that composite Christian theology encounters great +difficulty in attaining consistency. This difficulty is further aggravated by +the fact that the doctrines of early Christianity were generally based on the +personal religious experience of three different persons: Philo of Alexandria, +Jesus of Nazareth, and Paul of Tarsus. + +In the study of the religious life of Jesus, view him positively. Think not so +much of his sinlessness as of his righteousness, his loving service. Jesus +upstepped the passive love disclosed in the Hebrew concept of the heavenly +Father to the higher active and creature-loving affection of a God who is the +Father of every individual, even of the wrongdoer. + +5. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD + +Morality has its origin in the reason of self-consciousness; it is superanimal +but wholly evolutionary. Human evolution embraces in its unfolding all +endowments antecedent to the bestowal of the Adjusters and to the pouring out +of the Spirit of Truth. But the attainment of levels of morality does not +deliver man from the real struggles of mortal living. Man's physical +environment entails the battle for existence; the social surroundings +necessitate ethical adjustments; the moral situations require the making of +choices in the highest realms of reason; the spiritual experience (having +realized God) demands that man find him and sincerely strive to be like him. + +Religion is not grounded in the facts of science, the obligations of society, +the assumptions of philosophy, or the implied duties of morality. Religion is +an independent realm of human response to life situations and is unfailingly +exhibited at all stages of human development which are postmoral. Religion may +permeate all four levels of the realization of values and the enjoyment of +universe fellowship: the physical or material level of self-preservation; the +social or emotional level of fellowship; the moral or duty level of reason; the +spiritual level of the consciousness of universe fellowship through divine +worship. + +The fact-seeking scientist conceives of God as the First Cause, a God of force. +The emotional artist sees God as the ideal of beauty, a God of aesthetics. The +reasoning philosopher is sometimes inclined to posit a God of universal unity, +even a pantheistic Deity. The religionist of faith believes in a God who +fosters survival, the Father in heaven, the God of love. + +Moral conduct is always an antecedent of evolved religion and a part of even +revealed religion, but never the whole of religious experience. Social service +is the result of moral thinking and religious living. Morality does not +biologically lead to the higher spiritual levels of religious experience. The +adoration of the abstract beautiful is not the worship of God; neither is +exaltation of nature nor the reverence of unity the worship of God. + +Evolutionary religion is the mother of the science, art, and philosophy which +elevated man to the level of receptivity to revealed religion, including the +bestowal of Adjusters and the coming of the Spirit of Truth. The evolutionary +picture of human existence begins and ends with religion, albeit very different +qualities of religion, one evolutional and biological, the other revelational + + top of page - 69 + +and periodical. And so, while religion is normal and natural to man, it is also +optional. Man does not have to be religious against his will. + +Religious experience, being essentially spiritual, can never be fully +understood by the material mind; hence the function of theology, the psychology +of religion. The essential doctrine of the human realization of God creates a +paradox in finite comprehension. It is well-nigh impossible for human logic and +finite reason to harmonize the concept of divine immanence, God within and a +part of every individual, with the idea of God's transcendence, the divine +domination of the universe of universes. These two essential concepts of Deity +must be unified in the faith-grasp of the concept of the transcendence of a +personal God and in the realization of the indwelling presence of a fragment of +that God in order to justify intelligent worship and validate the hope of +personality survival. The difficulties and paradoxes of religion are inherent +in the fact that the realities of religion are utterly beyond the mortal +capacity for intellectual comprehension. + +Mortal man secures three great satisfactions from religious experience, even in +the days of his temporal sojourn on earth: + +1. Intellectually he acquires the satisfactions of a more unified human +consciousness. + +2. Philosophically he enjoys the substantiation of his ideals of moral values. + +3. Spiritually he thrives in the experience of divine companionship, in the +spiritual satisfactions of true worship. + +God-consciousness, as it is experienced by an evolving mortal of the realms, +must consist of three varying factors, three differential levels of reality +realization. There is first the mind consciousness--the comprehension of the +idea of God. Then follows the soul consciousness--the realization of the ideal +of God. Last, dawns the spirit consciousness--the realization of the spirit +reality of God. By the unification of these factors of the divine realization, +no matter how incomplete, the mortal personality at all times overspreads all +conscious levels with a realization of the personality of God. In those mortals +who have attained the Corps of the Finality all this will in time lead to the +realization of the supremacy of God and may subsequently eventuate in the +realization of the ultimacy of God, some phase of the absonite +superconsciousness of the Paradise Father. + +The experience of God-consciousness remains the same from generation to +generation, but with each advancing epoch in human knowledge the philosophic +concept and the theologic definitions of God must change. God-knowingness, +religious consciousness, is a universe reality, but no matter how valid (real) +religious experience is, it must be willing to subject itself to intelligent +criticism and reasonable philosophic interpretation; it must not seek to be a +thing apart in the totality of human experience. + +Eternal survival of personality is wholly dependent on the choosing of the +mortal mind, whose decisions determine the survival potential of the immortal +soul. When the mind believes God and the soul knows God, and when, with the +fostering Adjuster, they all desire God, then is survival assured. Limitations +of intellect, curtailment of education, deprivation of culture, impoverishment +of social status, even inferiority of the human standards of morality resulting +from the unfortunate lack of educational, cultural, and social advantages, +cannot invalidate the presence of the divine spirit in such unfortunate and +humanly handicapped but believing individuals. The indwelling of the Mystery +Monitor con- + + top of page - 70 + +stitutes the inception and insures the possibility of the potential of growth +and survival of the immortal soul. + +The ability of mortal parents to procreate is not predicated on their +educational, cultural, social, or economic status. The union of the parental +factors under natural conditions is quite sufficient to initiate offspring. A +human mind discerning right and wrong and possessing the capacity to worship +God, in union with a divine Adjuster, is all that is required in that mortal to +initiate and foster the production of his immortal soul of survival qualities +if such a spirit-endowed individual seeks God and sincerely desires to become +like him, honestly elects to do the will of the Father in heaven. + +6. THE GOD OF PERSONALITY + +The Universal Father is the God of personalities. The domain of universe +personality, from the lowest mortal and material creature of personality status +to the highest persons of creator dignity and divine status, has its center and +circumference in the Universal Father. God the Father is the bestower and the +conservator of every personality. And the Paradise Father is likewise the +destiny of all those finite personalities who wholeheartedly choose to do the +divine will, those who love God and long to be like him. + +Personality is one of the unsolved mysteries of the universes. We are able to +form adequate concepts of the factors entering into the make-up of various +orders and levels of personality, but we do not fully comprehend the real +nature of the personality itself. We clearly perceive the numerous factors +which, when put together, constitute the vehicle for human personality, but we +do not fully comprehend the nature and significance of such a finite +personality. + +Personality is potential in all creatures who possess a mind endowment ranging +from the minimum of self-consciousness to the maximum of God-consciousness. But +mind endowment alone is not personality, neither is spirit nor physical energy. +Personality is that quality and value in cosmic reality which is exclusively +bestowed by God the Father upon these living systems of the associated and +co-ordinated energies of matter, mind, and spirit. Neither is personality a +progressive achievement. Personality may be material or spiritual, but there +either is personality or there is no personality. The other-than-personal never +attains the level of the personal except by the direct act of the Paradise +Father. + +The bestowal of personality is the exclusive function of the Universal Father, +the personalization of the living energy systems which he endows with the +attributes of relative creative consciousness and the freewill control thereof. +There is no personality apart from God the Father, and no personality exists +except for God the Father. The fundamental attributes of human selfhood, as +well as the absolute Adjuster nucleus of the human personality, are the +bestowals of the Universal Father, acting in his exclusively personal domain of +cosmic ministry. + +The Adjusters of prepersonal status indwell numerous types of mortal creatures, +thus insuring that these same beings may survive mortal death to personalize as +morontia creatures with the potential of ultimate spirit attainment. For, when +such a creature mind of personality endowment is indwelt by a fragment of the +spirit of the eternal God, the prepersonal bestowal of the personal Father, +then does this finite personality possess the potential of the divine and the +eternal and aspire to a destiny akin to the Ultimate, even reaching out for a +realization of the Absolute. + + top of page - 71 + +Capacity for divine personality is inherent in the prepersonal Adjuster; +capacity for human personality is potential in the cosmic-mind endowment of the +human being. But the experiential personality of mortal man is not observable +as an active and functional reality until after the material life vehicle of +the mortal creature has been touched by the liberating divinity of the +Universal Father, being thus launched upon the seas of experience as a +self-conscious and a (relatively) self-determinative and self-creative +personality. The material self is truly and unqualifiedly personal. + +The material self has personality and identity, temporal identity; the +prepersonal spirit Adjuster also has identity, eternal identity. This material +personality and this spirit prepersonality are capable of so uniting their +creative attributes as to bring into existence the surviving identity of the +immortal soul. + +Having thus provided for the growth of the immortal soul and having liberated +man's inner self from the fetters of absolute dependence on antecedent +causation, the Father stands aside. Now, man having thus been liberated from +the fetters of causation response, at least as pertains to eternal destiny, and +provision having been made for the growth of the immortal self, the soul, it +remains for man himself to will the creation or to inhibit the creation of this +surviving and eternal self which is his for the choosing. No other being, +force, creator, or agency in all the wide universe of universes can interfere +to any degree with the absolute sovereignty of the mortal free will, as it +operates within the realms of choice, regarding the eternal destiny of the +personality of the choosing mortal. As pertains to eternal survival, God has +decreed the sovereignty of the material and mortal will, and that decree is +absolute. + +The bestowal of creature personality confers relative liberation from slavish +response to antecedent causation, and the personalities of all such moral +beings, evolutionary or otherwise, are centered in the personality of the +Universal Father. They are ever drawn towards his Paradise presence by that +kinship of being which constitutes the vast and universal family circle and +fraternal circuit of the eternal God. There is a kinship of divine spontaneity +in all personality. + +The personality circuit of the universe of universes is centered in the person +of the Universal Father, and the Paradise Father is personally conscious of, +and in personal touch with, all personalities of all levels of self-conscious +existence. And this personality consciousness of all creation exists +independently of the mission of the Thought Adjusters. + +As all gravity is circuited in the Isle of Paradise, as all mind is circuited +in the Conjoint Actor and all spirit in the Eternal Son, so is all personality +circuited in the personal presence of the Universal Father, and this circuit +unerringly transmits the worship of all personalities to the Original and +Eternal Personality. + +Concerning those personalities who are not Adjuster indwelt: The attribute of +choice-liberty is also bestowed by the Universal Father, and such persons are +likewise embraced in the great circuit of divine love, the personality circuit +of the Universal Father. God provides for the sovereign choice of all true +personalities. No personal creature can be coerced into the eternal adventure; +the portal of eternity opens only in response to the freewill choice of the +freewill sons of the God of free will. + + top of page - 72 + +And this represents my efforts to present the relation of the living God to the +children of time. And when all is said and done, I can do nothing more helpful +than to reiterate that God is your universe Father, and that you are all his +planetary children. + +[This is the fifth and last of the series presenting the narrative of the +Universal Father by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.] + + top of page - 73 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ God's Relation ³ The Eternal Son ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p006.txt b/religious documents/p006.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..01a88b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p006.txt @@ -0,0 +1,523 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 6 The Eternal Son + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 6 The Eternal Son + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Eternal Son is the perfect and final expression of the "first" personal and +absolute concept of the Universal Father. Accordingly, whenever and however the +Father personally and absolutely expresses himself, he does so through his +Eternal Son, who ever has been, now is, and ever will be, the living and divine +Word. And this Eternal Son is residential at the center of all things, in +association with, and immediately enshrouding the personal presence of, the +Eternal and Universal Father. + +We speak of God's "first" thought and allude to an impossible time origin of +the Eternal Son for the purpose of gaining access to the thought channels of +the human intellect. Such distortions of language represent our best efforts at +contact-compromise with the time-bound minds of mortal creatures. In the +sequential sense the Universal Father never could have had a first thought, nor +could the Eternal Son ever have had a beginning. But I was instructed to +portray the realities of eternity to the time-limited minds of mortals by such +symbols of thought and to designate the relationships of eternity by such time +concepts of sequentiality. + +The Eternal Son is the spiritual personalization of the Paradise Father's +universal and infinite concept of divine reality, unqualified spirit, and +absolute personality. And thereby does the Son constitute the divine revelation +of the creator identity of the Universal Father. The perfect personality of the +Son discloses that the Father is actually the eternal and universal source of +all the meanings and values of the spiritual, the volitional, the purposeful, +and the personal. + +In an effort to enable the finite mind of time to form some sequential concept +of the relationships of the eternal and infinite beings of the Paradise +Trinity, we utilize such license of conception as to refer to the "Father's +first personal, universal, and infinite concept." It is impossible for me to +convey to the human mind any adequate idea of the eternal relations of the +Deities; therefore do I employ such terms as will afford the finite mind +something of an idea of the relationship of these eternal beings in the +subsequent eras of time. We believe the Son sprang from the Father; we are +taught that both are unqualifiedly eternal. It is apparent, therefore, that no +time creature can ever fully comprehend this mystery of a Son who is derived +from the Father, and yet who is co-ordinately eternal with the Father himself. + +1. IDENTITY OF THE ETERNAL SON + +The Eternal Son is the original and only-begotten Son of God. He is God the +Son, the Second Person of Deity and the associate creator of all things. As the +Father is the First Great Source and Center, so the Eternal Son is the Second +Great Source and Center. + + top of page - 74 + +The Eternal Son is the spiritual center and the divine administrator of the +spiritual government of the universe of universes. The Universal Father is +first a creator and then a controller; the Eternal Son is first a cocreator and +then a spiritual administrator. "God is spirit," and the Son is a personal +revelation of that spirit. The First Source and Center is the Volitional +Absolute; the Second Source and Center is the Personality Absolute. + +The Universal Father never personally functions as a creator except in +conjunction with the Son or with the co-ordinate action of the Son. Had the New +Testament writer referred to the Eternal Son, he would have uttered the truth +when he wrote: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and +the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything +made that was made." + +When a Son of the Eternal Son appeared on Urantia, those who fraternized with +this divine being in human form alluded to him as "He who was from the +beginning, whom we have heard, whom we have seen with our eyes, whom we have +looked upon, and our hands have handled, even the Word of life." And this +bestowal Son came forth from the Father just as truly as did the Original Son, +as is suggested in one of his earthly prayers: "And now, O my Father, glorify +me with your own self, with the glory which I had with you before this world +was." + +The Eternal Son is known by different names in various universes. In the +central universe he is known as the Co-ordinate Source, the Cocreator, and the +Associate Absolute. On Uversa, the headquarters of the superuniverse, we +designate the Son as the Co-ordinate Spirit Center and as the Eternal Spirit +Administrator. On Salvington, the headquarters of your local universe, this Son +is of record as the Second Eternal Source and Center. The Melchizedeks speak of +him as the Son of Sons. On your world, but not in your system of inhabited +spheres, this Original Son has been confused with a co-ordinate Creator Son, +Michael of Nebadon, who bestowed himself upon the mortal races of Urantia. + +Although any of the Paradise Sons may fittingly be called Sons of God, we are +in the habit of reserving the designation "the Eternal Son" for this Original +Son, the Second Source and Center, cocreator with the Universal Father of the +central universe of power and perfection and cocreator of all other divine Sons +who spring from the infinite Deities. + +2. NATURE OF THE ETERNAL SON + +The Eternal Son is just as changeless and infinitely dependable as the +Universal Father. He is also just as spiritual as the Father, just as truly an +unlimited spirit. To you of lowly origin the Son would appear to be more +personal since he is one step nearer you in approachability than is the +Universal Father. + +The Eternal Son is the eternal Word of God. He is wholly like the Father; in +fact, the Eternal Son is God the Father personally manifest to the universe of +universes. And thus it was and is and forever will be true of the Eternal Son +and of all the co-ordinate Creator Sons: "He who has seen the Son has seen the +Father." + +In nature the Son is wholly like the spirit Father. When we worship the +Universal Father, actually we at the same time worship God the Son and God the +Spirit. God the Son is just as divinely real and eternal in nature as God the +Father. + + top of page - 75 + +The Son not only possesses all the Father's infinite and transcendent +righteousness, but the Son is also reflective of all the Father's holiness of +character. The Son shares the Father's perfection and jointly shares the +responsibility of aiding all creatures of imperfection in their spiritual +efforts to attain divine perfection. + +The Eternal Son possesses all the Father's character of divinity and attributes +of spirituality. The Son is the fullness of God's absoluteness in personality +and spirit, and these qualities the Son reveals in his personal management of +the spiritual government of the universe of universes. + +God is, indeed, a universal spirit; God is spirit; and this spirit nature of +the Father is focalized and personalized in the Deity of the Eternal Son. In +the Son all spiritual characteristics are apparently greatly enhanced by +differentiation from the universality of the First Source and Center. And as +the Father shares his spirit nature with the Son, so do they together just as +fully and unreservedly share the divine spirit with the Conjoint Actor, the +Infinite Spirit. + +In the love of truth and in the creation of beauty the Father and the Son are +equal except that the Son appears to devote himself more to the realization of +the exclusively spiritual beauty of universal values. + +In divine goodness I discern no difference between the Father and the Son. The +Father loves his universe children as a father; the Eternal Son looks upon all +creatures both as father and as brother. + +3. MINISTRY OF THE FATHER'S LOVE + +The Son shares the justice and righteousness of the Trinity but overshadows +these divinity traits by the infinite personalization of the Father's love and +mercy; the Son is the revelation of divine love to the universes. As God is +love, so the Son is mercy. The Son cannot love more than the Father, but he can +show mercy to creatures in one additional way, for he not only is a primal +creator like the Father, but he is also the Eternal Son of that same Father, +thereby sharing in the sonship experience of all other sons of the Universal +Father. + +The Eternal Son is the great mercy minister to all creation. Mercy is the +essence of the Son's spiritual character. The mandates of the Eternal Son, as +they go forth over the spirit circuits of the Second Source and Center, are +keyed in tones of mercy. + +To comprehend the love of the Eternal Son, you must first perceive its divine +source, the Father, who is love, and then behold the unfolding of this infinite +affection in the far-flung ministry of the Infinite Spirit and his almost +limitless host of ministering personalities. + +The ministry of the Eternal Son is devoted to the revelation of the God of love +to the universe of universes. This divine Son is not engaged in the ignoble +task of trying to persuade his gracious Father to love his lowly creatures and +to show mercy to the wrongdoers of time. How wrong to envisage the Eternal Son +as appealing to the Universal Father to show mercy to his lowly creatures on +the material worlds of space! Such concepts of God are crude and grotesque. +Rather should you realize that all the merciful ministrations of the Sons of +God are a direct revelation of the Father's heart of universal love and +infinite compassion. The Father's love is the real and eternal source of the +Son's mercy. + +God is love, the Son is mercy. Mercy is applied love, the Father's love in +action in the person of his Eternal Son. The love of this universal Son is +like- + + top of page - 76 + +wise universal. As love is comprehended on a sex planet, the love of God is +more comparable to the love of a father, while the love of the Eternal Son is +more like the affection of a mother. Crude, indeed, are such illustrations, but +I employ them in the hope of conveying to the human mind the thought that there +is a difference, not in divine content but in quality and technique of +expression, between the love of the Father and the love of the Son. + +4. ATTRIBUTES OF THE ETERNAL SON + +The Eternal Son motivates the spirit level of cosmic reality; the spiritual +power of the Son is absolute in relation to all universe actualities. He +exercises perfect control over the interassociation of all undifferentiated +spirit energy and over all actualized spirit reality through his absolute grasp +of spirit gravity. All pure unfragmented spirit and all spiritual beings and +values are responsive to the infinite drawing power of the primal Son of +Paradise. And if the eternal future should witness the appearance of an +unlimited universe, the spirit gravity and the spirit power of the Original Son +will be found wholly adequate for the spiritual control and effective +administration of such a boundless creation. + +The Son is omnipotent only in the spiritual realm. In the eternal economy of +universe administration, wasteful and needless repetition of function is never +encountered; the Deities are not given to useless duplication of universe +ministry. + +The omnipresence of the Original Son constitutes the spiritual unity of the +universe of universes. The spiritual cohesion of all creation rests upon the +everywhere active presence of the divine spirit of the Eternal Son. When we +conceive of the Father's spiritual presence, we find it difficult to +differentiate it in our thinking from the spiritual presence of the Eternal +Son. The spirit of the Father is eternally resident in the spirit of the Son. + +The Father must be spiritually omnipresent, but such omnipresence appears to be +inseparable from the everywhere spirit activities of the Eternal Son. We do, +however, believe that in all situations of Father-Son presence of a dual +spiritual nature the spirit of the Son is co-ordinate with the spirit of the +Father. + +In his contact with personality, the Father acts in the personality circuit. In +his personal and detectable contact with spiritual creation, he appears in the +fragments of the totality of his Deity, and these Father fragments have a +solitary, unique, and exclusive function wherever and whenever they appear in +the universes. In all such situations the spirit of the Son is co-ordinate with +the spiritual function of the fragmented presence of the Universal Father. + +Spiritually the Eternal Son is omnipresent. The spirit of the Eternal Son is +most certainly with you and around you, but not within you and a part of you +like the Mystery Monitor. The indwelling Father fragment adjusts the human mind +to progressively divine attitudes, whereupon such an ascending mind becomes +increasingly responsive to the spiritual drawing power of the all-powerful +spirit-gravity circuit of the Second Source and Center. + +The Original Son is universally and spiritually self-conscious. In wisdom the +Son is the full equal of the Father. In the realms of knowledge, omniscience, +we cannot distinguish between the First and Second Sources; like the Father, +the Son knows all; he is never surprised by any universe event; he comprehends +the end from the beginning. + + top of page - 77 + +The Father and the Son really know the number and whereabouts of all the +spirits and spiritualized beings in the universe of universes. Not only does +the Son know all things by virtue of his own omnipresent spirit, but the Son, +equally with the Father and the Conjoint Actor, is fully cognizant of the vast +reflectivity intelligence of the Supreme Being, which intelligence is at all +times aware of all things that transpire on all the worlds of the seven +superuniverses. And there are other ways in which the Paradise Son is +omniscient. + +The Eternal Son, as a loving, merciful, and ministering spiritual personality, +is wholly and infinitely equal with the Universal Father, while in all those +merciful and affectionate personal contacts with the ascendant beings of the +lower realms the Eternal Son is just as kind and considerate, just as patient +and long-suffering, as are his Paradise Sons in the local universes who so +frequently bestow themselves upon the evolutionary worlds of time. + +It is needless further to expatiate on the attributes of the Eternal Son. With +the exceptions noted, it is only necessary to study the spiritual attributes of +God the Father to understand and correctly evaluate the attributes of God the +Son. + +5. LIMITATIONS OF THE ETERNAL SON + +The Eternal Son does not personally function in the physical domains, nor does +he function, except through the Conjoint Actor, in the levels of mind ministry +to creature beings. But these qualifications do not in any manner otherwise +limit the Eternal Son in the full and free exercise of all the divine +attributes of spiritual omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. + +The Eternal Son does not personally pervade the potentials of spirit inherent +in the infinity of the Deity Absolute, but as these potentials become actual, +they come within the all-powerful grasp of the spirit-gravity circuit of the +Son. + +Personality is the exclusive gift of the Universal Father. The Eternal Son +derives personality from the Father, but he does not, without the Father, +bestow personality. The Son gives origin to a vast spirit host, but such +derivations are not personalities. When the Son creates personality, he does so +in conjunction with the Father or with the Conjoint Creator, who may act for +the Father in such relationships. The Eternal Son is thus a cocreator of +personalities, but he bestows personality upon no being and of himself, alone, +never creates personal beings. This limitation of action does not, however, +deprive the Son of the ability to create any or all types of +other-than-personal reality. + +The Eternal Son is limited in transmittal of creator prerogatives. The Father, +in eternalizing the Original Son, bestowed upon him the power and privilege of +subsequently joining with the Father in the divine act of producing additional +Sons possessing creative attributes, and this they have done and now do. But +when these co-ordinate Sons have been produced, the prerogatives of creatorship +are apparently not further transmissible. The Eternal Son transmits creatorship +powers only to the first or direct personalization. Therefore, when the Father +and the Son unite to personalize a Creator Son, they achieve their purpose; but +the Creator Son thus brought into existence is never able to transmit or +delegate the prerogatives of creatorship to the various orders of Sons which he +may subsequently create, notwithstanding that, in the highest local universe +Sons, there does appear a very limited reflection of the creative attributes of +a Creator Son. + + top of page - 78 + +The Eternal Son, as an infinite and exclusively personal being, cannot +fragmentize his nature, cannot distribute and bestow individualized portions of +his selfhood upon other entities or persons as do the Universal Father and the +Infinite Spirit. But the Son can and does bestow himself as an unlimited spirit +to bathe all creation and unceasingly draw all spirit personalities and +spiritual realities to himself. + +Ever remember, the Eternal Son is the personal portrayal of the spirit Father +to all creation. The Son is personal and nothing but personal in the Deity +sense; such a divine and absolute personality cannot be disintegrated or +fragmentized. God the Father and God the Spirit are truly personal, but they +are also everything else in addition to being such Deity personalities. + +Though the Eternal Son cannot personally participate in the bestowal of the +Thought Adjusters, he did sit in council with the Universal Father in the +eternal past, approving the plan and pledging endless co-operation, when the +Father, in projecting the bestowal of the Thought Adjusters, proposed to the +Son, "Let us make mortal man in our own image." And as the spirit fragment of +the Father dwells within you, so does the spirit presence of the Son envelop +you, while these two forever work as one for your spiritual advancement. + +6. THE SPIRIT MIND + +The Eternal Son is spirit and has mind, but not a mind or a spirit which mortal +mind can comprehend. Mortal man perceives mind on the finite, cosmic, material, +and personal levels. Man also observes mind phenomena in living organisms +functioning on the subpersonal (animal) level, but it is difficult for him to +grasp the nature of mind when associated with supermaterial beings and as a +part of exclusive spirit personalities. Mind must, however, be differently +defined when it refers to the spirit level of existence, and when it is used to +denote spirit functions of intelligence. That kind of mind which is directly +allied with spirit is comparable neither to that mind which co-ordinates spirit +and matter nor to that mind which is allied only with matter. + +Spirit is ever conscious, minded, and possessed of varied phases of identity. +Without mind in some phase there would be no spiritual consciousness in the +fraternity of spirit beings. The equivalent of mind, the ability to know and be +known, is indigenous to Deity. Deity may be personal, prepersonal, +superpersonal, or impersonal, but Deity is never mindless, that is, never +without the ability at least to communicate with similar entities, beings, or +personalities. + +The mind of the Eternal Son is like that of the Father but unlike any other +mind in the universe, and with the mind of the Father it is ancestor to the +diverse and far-flung minds of the Conjoint Creator. The mind of the Father and +the Son, that intellect which is ancestral to the absolute mind of the Third +Source and Center, is perhaps best illustrated in the premind of a Thought +Adjuster, for, though these Father fragments are entirely outside of the mind +circuits of the Conjoint Actor, they have some form of premind; they know as +they are known; they enjoy the equivalent of human thinking. + +The Eternal Son is wholly spiritual; man is very nearly entirely material; +therefore much pertaining to the spirit personality of the Eternal Son, to his +seven spiritual spheres encircling Paradise and to the nature of the impersonal +creations of the Paradise Son, will have to await your attainment of spirit +status following your completion of the morontia ascension of the local +universe of + + top of page - 79 + +Nebadon. And then, as you pass through the superuniverse and on to Havona, many +of these spirit-concealed mysteries will clarify as you begin to be endowed +with the "mind of the spirit"--spiritual insight. + +7. PERSONALITY OF THE ETERNAL SON + +The Eternal Son is that infinite personality from whose unqualified personality +fetters the Universal Father escaped by the technique of trinitization, and by +virtue of which he has ever since continued to bestow himself in endless +profusion upon his ever-expanding universe of Creators and creatures. The Son +is absolute personality; God is father personality--the source of personality, +the bestower of personality, the cause of personality. Every personal being +derives personality from the Universal Father just as the Original Son +eternally derives his personality from the Paradise Father. + +The personality of the Paradise Son is absolute and purely spiritual, and this +absolute personality is also the divine and eternal pattern, first, of the +Father's bestowal of personality upon the Conjoint Actor and, subsequently, of +his bestowal of personality upon the myriads of his creatures throughout a +far-flung universe. + +The Eternal Son is truly a merciful minister, a divine spirit, a spiritual +power, and a real personality. The Son is the spiritual and personal nature of +God made manifest to the universes--the sum and substance of the First Source +and Center, divested of all that which is nonpersonal, extradivine, +nonspiritual, and pure potential. But it is impossible to convey to the human +mind a word picture of the beauty and grandeur of the supernal personality of +the Eternal Son. Everything that tends to obscure the Universal Father operates +with almost equal influence to prevent the conceptual recognition of the +Eternal Son. You must await your attainment of Paradise, and then you will +understand why I was unable to portray the character of this absolute +personality to the understanding of the finite mind. + +8. REALIZATION OF THE ETERNAL SON + +Concerning identity, nature, and other attributes of personality, the Eternal +Son is the full equal, the perfect complement, and the eternal counterpart of +the Universal Father. In the same sense that God is the Universal Father, the +Son is the Universal Mother. And all of us, high and low, constitute their +universal family. + +To appreciate the character of the Son, you should study the revelation of the +divine character of the Father; they are forever and inseparably one. As divine +personalities they are virtually indistinguishable by the lower orders of +intelligence. They are not so difficult of separate recognition by those whose +origin is in the creative acts of the Deities themselves. Beings of nativity in +the central universe and on Paradise discern the Father and the Son not only as +one personal unity of universal control but also as two separate personalities +functioning in definite domains of universe administration. + +As persons you may conceive of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son as +separate individuals, for they indeed are; but in the administration of the +universes they are so intertwined and interrelated that it is not always +possible to distinguish between them. When, in the affairs of the universes, +the Father and the Son + + top of page - 80 + +are encountered in confusing interassociations, it is not always profitable to +attempt to segregate their operations; merely recall that God is the initiating +thought and the Son is the expressionful word. In each local universe this +inseparability is personalized in the divinity of the Creator Son, who stands +for both Father and Son to the creatures of ten million inhabited worlds. + +The Eternal Son is infinite, but he is approachable through the persons of his +Paradise Sons and through the patient ministry of the Infinite Spirit. Without +the bestowal service of the Paradise Sons and the loving ministry of the +creatures of the Infinite Spirit, beings of material origin could hardly hope +to attain the Eternal Son. And it is equally true: With the help and guidance +of these celestial agencies the God-conscious mortal will certainly attain +Paradise and sometime stand in the personal presence of this majestic Son of +Sons. + +Even though the Eternal Son is the pattern of mortal personality attainment, +you find it easier to grasp the reality of both the Father and the Spirit +because the Father is the actual bestower of your human personality and the +Infinite Spirit is the absolute source of your mortal mind. But as you ascend +in the Paradise path of spiritual progression, the personality of the Eternal +Son will become increasingly real to you, and the reality of his infinitely +spiritual mind will become more discernible to your progressively +spiritualizing mind. + +Never can the concept of the Eternal Son shine brightly in your material or +subsequent morontial mind; not until you spiritize and commence your spirit +ascension will the comprehension of the personality of the Eternal Son begin to +equal the vividness of your concept of the personality of the Creator Son of +Paradise origin who, in person and as a person, onetime incarnated and lived on +Urantia as a man among men. + +Throughout your local universe experience the Creator Son, whose personality is +comprehensible by man, must compensate for your inability to grasp the full +significance of the more exclusively spiritual, but none the less personal, +Eternal Son of Paradise. As you progress through Orvonton and Havona, as you +leave behind you the vivid picture and deep memories of the Creator Son of your +local universe, the passing of this material and morontia experience will be +compensated by ever-enlarging concepts and intensifying comprehension of the +Eternal Son of Paradise, whose reality and nearness will ever augment as you +progress Paradiseward. + +The Eternal Son is a grand and glorious personality. Although it is beyond the +powers of the mortal and material mind to grasp the actuality of the +personality of such an infinite being, doubt not, he is a person. I know +whereof I speak. Times almost without number I have stood in the divine +presence of this Eternal Son and then journeyed forth in the universe to +execute his gracious bidding. + +[Indited by a Divine Counselor assigned to formulate this statement depicting +the Eternal Son of Paradise.] + + top of page - 81 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ God's Relation ³ Relation Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ The... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p007.txt b/religious documents/p007.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b0dcc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p007.txt @@ -0,0 +1,557 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 7 Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 7 Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Original Son is ever concerned with the execution of the spiritual aspects +of the Father's eternal purpose as it progressively unfolds in the phenomena of +the evolving universes with their manifold groups of living beings. We do not +fully comprehend this eternal plan, but the Paradise Son undoubtedly does. + +The Son is like the Father in that he seeks to bestow everything possible of +himself upon his co-ordinate Sons and upon their subordinate Sons. And the Son +shares the Father's self-distributive nature in the unstinted bestowal of +himself upon the Infinite Spirit, their conjoint executive. + +As the upholder of spirit realities, the Second Source and Center is the +eternal counterpoise of the Isle of Paradise, which so magnificently upholds +all things material. Thus is the First Source and Center forever revealed in +the material beauty of the exquisite patterns of the central Isle and in the +spiritual values of the supernal personality of the Eternal Son. + +The Eternal Son is the actual upholder of the vast creation of spirit realities +and spiritual beings. The spirit world is the habit, the personal conduct, of +the Son, and the impersonal realities of spirit nature are always responsive to +the will and purpose of the perfect personality of the Absolute Son. + +The Son is not, however, personally responsible for the conduct of all spirit +personalities. The will of the personal creature is relatively free and hence +determines the actions of such volitional beings. Therefore the freewill spirit +world is not always truly representative of the character of the Eternal Son, +even as nature on Urantia is not truly revelatory of the perfection and +immutability of Paradise and Deity. But no matter what may characterize the +freewill action of man or angel, the Son's eternal grasp of the universal +gravity control of all spirit realities continues as absolute. + +1. THE SPIRIT-GRAVITY CIRCUIT + +Everything taught concerning the immanence of God, his omnipresence, +omnipotence, and omniscience, is equally true of the Son in the spiritual +domains. The pure and universal spirit gravity of all creation, this +exclusively spiritual circuit, leads directly back to the person of the Second +Source and Center on Paradise. He presides over the control and operation of +that ever-present and unerring spiritual grasp of all true spirit values. Thus +does the Eternal Son exercise absolute spiritual sovereignty. He literally +holds all spirit realities and all spiritualized values, as it were, in the +hollow of his hand. The control of universal spiritual gravity is universal +spiritual sovereignty. + + top of page - 82 + +This gravity control of spiritual things operates independently of time and +space; therefore is spirit energy undiminished in transmission. Spirit gravity +never suffers time delays, nor does it undergo space diminution. It does not +decrease in accordance with the square of the distance of its transmission; the +circuits of pure spirit power are not retarded by the mass of the material +creation. And this transcendence of time and space by pure spirit energies is +inherent in the absoluteness of the Son; it is not due to the interposition of +the antigravity forces of the Third Source and Center. + +Spirit realities respond to the drawing power of the center of spiritual +gravity in accordance with their qualitative value, their actual degree of +spirit nature. Spirit substance (quality) is just as responsive to spirit +gravity as the organized energy of physical matter (quantity) is responsive to +physical gravity. Spiritual values and spirit forces are real. From the +viewpoint of personality, spirit is the soul of creation; matter is the shadowy +physical body. + +The reactions and fluctuations of spirit gravity are ever true to the content +of spiritual values, the qualitative spiritual status of an individual or a +world. This drawing power is instantly responsive to the inter- and intraspirit +values of any universe situation or planetary condition. Every time a spiritual +reality actualizes in the universes, this change necessitates the immediate and +instantaneous readjustment of spirit gravity. Such a new spirit is actually a +part of the Second Source and Center; and just as certainly as mortal man +becomes a spiritized being, he will attain the spiritual Son, the center and +source of spirit gravity. + +The Son's spiritual drawing power is inherent to a lesser degree in many +Paradise orders of sonship. For there do exist within the absolute +spirit-gravity circuit those local systems of spiritual attraction that +function in the lesser units of creation. Such subabsolute focalizations of +spirit gravity are a part of the divinity of the Creator personalities of time +and space and are correlated with the emerging experiential overcontrol of the +Supreme Being. + +Spirit-gravity pull and response thereto operate not only on the universe as a +whole but also even between individuals and groups of individuals. There is a +spiritual cohesiveness among the spiritual and spiritized personalities of any +world, race, nation, or believing group of individuals. There is a direct +attractiveness of a spirit nature between spiritually minded persons of like +tastes and longings. The term kindred spirits is not wholly a figure of speech. + +Like the material gravity of Paradise, the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son +is absolute. Sin and rebellion may interfere with the operation of local +universe circuits, but nothing can suspend the spirit gravity of the Eternal +Son. The Lucifer rebellion produced many changes in your system of inhabited +worlds and on Urantia, but we do not observe that the resultant spiritual +quarantine of your planet in the least affected the presence and function of +either the omnipresent spirit of the Eternal Son or the associated +spirit-gravity circuit. + +All reactions of the spirit-gravity circuit of the grand universe are +predictable. We recognize all actions and reactions of the omnipresent spirit +of the Eternal Son and find them to be dependable. In accordance with +well-known laws, we can and do measure spiritual gravity just as man attempts +to compute the workings of finite physical gravity. There is an unvarying +response of the Son's spirit to all spirit things, beings, and persons, and +this response is always in accordance + + top of page - 83 + +with the degree of actuality (the qualitative degree of reality) of all such +spiritual values. + +But alongside this very dependable and predictable function of the spiritual +presence of the Eternal Son, there are encountered phenomena which are not so +predictable in their reactions. Such phenomena probably indicate the +co-ordinate action of the Deity Absolute in the realms of emerging spiritual +potentials. We know that the spirit presence of the Eternal Son is the +influence of a majestic and infinite personality, but we hardly regard the +reactions associated with the conjectured performances of the Deity Absolute as +personal. + +Viewed from the personality standpoint and by persons, the Eternal Son and the +Deity Absolute appear to be related in the following way: The Eternal Son +dominates the realm of actual spiritual values, whereas the Deity Absolute +seems to pervade the vast domain of potential spirit values. All actual value +of spirit nature finds lodgment in the gravity grasp of the Eternal Son but, if +potential, then apparently in the presence of the Deity Absolute. + +Spirit seems to emerge from the potentials of the Deity Absolute; evolving +spirit finds correlation in the experiential and incomplete grasps of the +Supreme and the Ultimate; spirit eventually finds final destiny in the absolute +grasp of the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son. This appears to be the cycle +of experiential spirit, but existential spirit is inherent in the infinity of +the Second Source and Center. + +2. THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE ETERNAL SON + +On Paradise the presence and personal activity of the Original Son is profound, +absolute in the spiritual sense. As we pass outward from Paradise through +Havona and into the realms of the seven superuniverses, we detect less and less +of the personal activity of the Eternal Son. In the post-Havona universes the +presence of the Eternal Son is personalized in the Paradise Sons, conditioned +by the experiential realities of the Supreme and the Ultimate, and co-ordinated +with the unlimited spirit potential of the Deity Absolute. + +In the central universe the personal activity of the Original Son is +discernible in the exquisite spiritual harmony of the eternal creation. Havona +is so marvelously perfect that the spiritual status and the energy states of +this pattern universe are in perfect and perpetual balance. + +In the superuniverses the Son is not personally present or resident; in these +creations he maintains only a superpersonal representation. These spirit +manifestations of the Son are not personal; they are not in the personality +circuit of the Universal Father. We know of no better term to use than to +designate them superpersonalities; and they are finite beings; they are neither +absonite nor absolute. + +The administration of the Eternal Son in the superuniverses, being exclusively +spiritual and superpersonal, is not discernible by creature personalities. +Nonetheless, the all-pervading spiritual urge of the Son's personal influence +is encountered in every phase of the activities of all sectors of the domains +of the Ancients of Days. In the local universes, however, we observe the +Eternal Son personally present in the persons of the Paradise Sons. Here the +infinite Son spiritually and creatively functions in the persons of the +majestic corps of the co-ordinate Creator Sons. + + top of page - 84 + +3. RELATION OF THE ETERNAL SON TO THE INDIVIDUAL + +In the local universe ascent the mortals of time look to the Creator Son as the +personal representative of the Eternal Son. But when they begin the ascent of +the superuniverse training regime, the pilgrims of time increasingly detect the +supernal presence of the inspiring spirit of the Eternal Son, and they are able +to profit by the intake of this ministry of spiritual energization. In Havona +the ascenders become still more conscious of the loving embrace of the +all-pervading spirit of the Original Son. At no stage of the entire mortal +ascension does the spirit of the Eternal Son indwell the mind or soul of the +pilgrim of time, but his beneficence is ever near and always concerned with the +welfare and spiritual security of the advancing children of time. + +The spiritual-gravity pull of the Eternal Son constitutes the inherent secret +of the Paradise ascension of surviving human souls. All genuine spirit values +and all bona fide spiritualized individuals are held within the unfailing grasp +of the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son. The mortal mind, for example, +initiates its career as a material mechanism and is eventually mustered into +the Corps of the Finality as a well-nigh perfected spirit existence, becoming +progressively less subject to material gravity and correspondingly more +responsive to the inward pulling urge of spirit gravity during this entire +experience. The spirit-gravity circuit literally pulls the soul of man +Paradiseward. + +The spirit-gravity circuit is the basic channel for transmitting the genuine +prayers of the believing human heart from the level of human consciousness to +the actual consciousness of Deity. That which represents true spiritual value +in your petitions will be seized by the universal circuit of spirit gravity and +will pass immediately and simultaneously to all divine personalities concerned. +Each will occupy himself with that which belongs to his personal province. +Therefore, in your practical religious experience, it is immaterial whether, in +addressing your supplications, you visualize the Creator Son of your local +universe or the Eternal Son at the center of all things. + +The discriminative operation of the spirit-gravity circuit might possibly be +compared to the functions of the neural circuits in the material human body: +Sensations travel inward over the neural paths; some are detained and responded +to by the lower automatic spinal centers; others pass on to the less automatic +but habit-trained centers of the lower brain, while the most important and +vital incoming messages flash by these subordinate centers and are immediately +registered in the highest levels of human consciousness. + +But how much more perfect is the superb technique of the spiritual world! If +anything originates in your consciousness that is fraught with supreme +spiritual value, when once you give it expression, no power in the universe can +prevent its flashing directly to the Absolute Spirit Personality of all +creation. + +Conversely, if your supplications are purely material and wholly self-centered, +there exists no plan whereby such unworthy prayers can find lodgment in the +spirit circuit of the Eternal Son. The content of any petition which is not +"spirit indited" can find no place in the universal spiritual circuit; such +purely selfish and material requests fall dead; they do not ascend in the +circuits of true spirit values. Such words are as "sounding brass and a +tinkling cymbal." + + top of page - 85 + +It is the motivating thought, the spiritual content, that validates the mortal +supplication. Words are valueless. + +4. THE DIVINE PERFECTION PLANS + +The Eternal Son is in everlasting liaison with the Father in the successful +prosecution of the divine plan of progress: the universal plan for the +creation, evolution, ascension, and perfection of will creatures. And, in +divine faithfulness, the Son is the eternal equal of the Father. + +The Father and his Son are as one in the formulation and prosecution of this +gigantic attainment plan for advancing the material beings of time to the +perfection of eternity. This project for the spiritual elevation of the +ascendant souls of space is a joint creation of the Father and the Son, and +they are, with the co-operation of the Infinite Spirit, engaged in associative +execution of their divine purpose. + +This divine plan of perfection attainment embraces three unique, though +marvelously correlated, enterprises of universal adventure: + +1. The Plan of Progressive Attainment. This is the Universal Father's plan of +evolutionary ascension, a program unreservedly accepted by the Eternal Son when +he concurred in the Father's proposal, "Let us make mortal creatures in our own +image." This provision for upstepping the creatures of time involves the +Father's bestowal of the Thought Adjusters and the endowing of material +creatures with the prerogatives of personality. + +2. The Bestowal Plan. The next universal plan is the great Father-revelation +enterprise of the Eternal Son and his co-ordinate Sons. This is the proposal of +the Eternal Son and consists of his bestowal of the Sons of God upon the +evolutionary creations, there to personalize and factualize, to incarnate and +make real, the love of the Father and the mercy of the Son to the creatures of +all universes. Inherent in the bestowal plan, and as a provisional feature of +this ministration of love, the Paradise Sons act as rehabilitators of that +which misguided creature will has placed in spiritual jeopardy. Whenever and +wherever there occurs a delay in the functioning of the attainment plan, if +rebellion, perchance, should mar or complicate this enterprise, then do the +emergency provisions of the bestowal plan become active forthwith. The Paradise +Sons stand pledged and ready to function as retrievers, to go into the very +realms of rebellion and there restore the spiritual status of the spheres. And +such a heroic service a co-ordinate Creator Son did perform on Urantia in +connection with his experiential bestowal career of sovereignty acquirement. + +3. The Plan of Mercy Ministry. When the attainment plan and the bestowal plan +had been formulated and proclaimed, alone and of himself, the Infinite Spirit +projected and put in operation the tremendous and universal enterprise of mercy +ministry. This is the service so essential to the practical and effective +operation of both the attainment and the bestowal undertakings, and the +spiritual personalities of the Third Source and Center all partake of the +spirit of mercy ministry which is so much a part of the nature of the Third +Person of Deity. Not only in creation but also in administration, the Infinite +Spirit functions truly and literally as the conjoint executive of the Father +and the Son. + + top of page - 86 + +The Eternal Son is the personal trustee, the divine custodian, of the Father's +universal plan of creature ascension. Having promulgated the universal mandate, +"Be you perfect, even as I am perfect," the Father intrusted the execution of +this tremendous undertaking to the Eternal Son; and the Eternal Son shares the +fostering of this supernal enterprise with his divine co-ordinate, the Infinite +Spirit. Thus do the Deities effectively co-operate in the work of creation, +control, evolution, revelation, and ministration--and if required, in +restoration and rehabilitation. + +5. THE SPIRIT OF BESTOWAL + +The Eternal Son without reservation joined with the Universal Father in +broadcasting that tremendous injunction to all creation: "Be you perfect, even +as your Father in Havona is perfect." And ever since, that invitation-command +has motivated all the survival plans and the bestowal projects of the Eternal +Son and his vast family of co-ordinate and associated Sons. And in these very +bestowals the Sons of God have become to all evolutionary creatures "the way, +the truth, and the life." + +The Eternal Son cannot contact directly with human beings as does the Father +through the gift of the prepersonal Thought Adjusters, but the Eternal Son does +draw near to created personalities by a series of downstepping gradations of +divine sonship until he is enabled to stand in man's presence and, at times, as +man himself. + +The purely personal nature of the Eternal Son is incapable of fragmentation. +The Eternal Son ministers as a spiritual influence or as a person, never +otherwise. The Son finds it impossible to become a part of creature experience +in the sense that the Father-Adjuster participates therein, but the Eternal Son +compensates this limitation by the technique of bestowal. What the experience +of fragmented entities means to the Universal Father, the incarnation +experiences of the Paradise Sons mean to the Eternal Son. + +The Eternal Son comes not to mortal man as the divine will, the Thought +Adjuster indwelling the human mind, but the Eternal Son did come to mortal man +on Urantia when the divine personality of his Son, Michael of Nebadon, +incarnated in the human nature of Jesus of Nazareth. To share the experience of +created personalities, the Paradise Sons of God must assume the very natures of +such creatures and incarnate their divine personalities as the actual creatures +themselves. Incarnation, the secret of Sonarington, is the technique of the +Son's escape from the otherwise all-encompassing fetters of personality +absolutism. + +Long, long ago the Eternal Son bestowed himself upon each of the circuits of +the central creation for the enlightenment and advancement of all the +inhabitants and pilgrims of Havona, including the ascending pilgrims of time. +On none of these seven bestowals did he function as either an ascender or a +Havoner. He existed as himself. His experience was unique; it was not with or +as a human or other pilgrim but in some way associative in the superpersonal +sense. + +Neither did he pass through the rest that intervenes between the inner Havona +circuit and the shores of Paradise. It is not possible for him, an absolute +being, to suspend consciousness of personality, for in him center all lines of +spiritual gravity. And during the times of these bestowals the central Paradise +lodgment of spiritual luminosity was undimmed, and the Son's grasp of universal +spirit gravity was undiminished. + + top of page - 87 + +The bestowals of the Eternal Son in Havona are not within the scope of human +imagination; they were transcendental. He added to the experience of all Havona +then and subsequently, but we do not know whether he added to the supposed +experiential capacity of his existential nature. That would fall within the +bestowal mystery of the Paradise Sons. We do, however, believe that whatever +the Eternal Son acquired on these bestowal missions, he has ever since +retained; but we do not know what it is. + +Whatever our difficulty in comprehending the bestowals of the Second Person of +Deity, we do comprehend the Havona bestowal of a Son of the Eternal Son, who +literally passed through the circuits of the central universe and actually +shared those experiences which constitute an ascender's preparation for Deity +attainment. This was the original Michael, the first-born Creator Son, and he +passed through the life experiences of the ascending pilgrims from circuit to +circuit, personally journeying a stage of each circle with them in the days of +Grandfanda, the first of all mortals to attain Havona. + +Whatever else this original Michael revealed, he made the transcendent bestowal +of the Original Mother Son real to the creatures of Havona. So real, that +forevermore each pilgrim of time who labors in the adventure of making the +Havona circuits is cheered and strengthened by the certain knowledge that the +Eternal Son of God seven times abdicated the power and glory of Paradise to +participate in the experiences of the time-space pilgrims on the seven circuits +of progressive Havona attainment. + +The Eternal Son is the exemplary inspiration for all the Sons of God in their +ministrations of bestowal throughout the universes of time and space. The +co-ordinate Creator Sons and the associate Magisterial Sons, together with +other unrevealed orders of sonship, all partake of this wonderful willingness +to bestow themselves upon the varied orders of creature life and as the +creatures themselves. Therefore, in spirit and because of kinship of nature as +well as fact of origin, it becomes true that in the bestowal of each Son of God +upon the worlds of space, in and through and by these bestowals, the Eternal +Son has bestowed himself upon the intelligent will creatures of the universes. + +In spirit and nature, if not in all attributes, each Paradise Son is a divinely +perfect portraiture of the Original Son. It is literally true, whosoever has +seen a Paradise Son has seen the Eternal Son of God. + +6. THE PARADISE SONS OF GOD + +The lack of a knowledge of the multiple Sons of God is a source of great +confusion on Urantia. And this ignorance persists in the face of such +statements as the record of a conclave of these divine personalities: "When the +Sons of God proclaimed joy, and all of the Morning Stars sang together." Every +millennium of sector standard time the various orders of the divine Sons +forgather for their periodic conclaves. + +The Eternal Son is the personal source of the adorable attributes of mercy and +service which so abundantly characterize all orders of the descending Sons of +God as they function throughout creation. All the divine nature, if not all the +infinity of attributes, the Eternal Son unfailingly transmits to the Paradise +Sons who go out from the eternal Isle to reveal his divine character to the +universe of universes. + + top of page - 88 + +The Original and Eternal Son is the offspring-person of the "first" completed +and infinite thought of the Universal Father. Every time the Universal Father +and the Eternal Son jointly project a new, original, identical, unique, and +absolute personal thought, that very instant this creative idea is perfectly +and finally personalized in the being and personality of a new and original +Creator Son. In spirit nature, divine wisdom, and co-ordinate creative power, +these Creator Sons are potentially equal with God the Father and God the Son. + +The Creator Sons go out from Paradise into the universes of time and, with the +co-operation of the controlling and creative agencies of the Third Source and +Center, complete the organization of the local universes of progressive +evolution. These Sons are not attached to, nor are they concerned with, the +central and universal controls of matter, mind, and spirit. Hence are they +limited in their creative acts by the pre-existence, priority, and primacy of +the First Source and Center and his co-ordinate Absolutes. These Sons are able +to administer only that which they bring into existence. Absolute +administration is inherent in priority of existence and is inseparable from +eternity of presence. The Father remains primal in the universes. + +Much as the Creator Sons are personalized by the Father and the Son, so are the +Magisterial Sons personalized by the Son and the Spirit. These are the Sons +who, in the experiences of creature incarnation, earn the right to serve as the +judges of survival in the creations of time and space. + +The Father, Son, and Spirit also unite to personalize the versatile Trinity +Teacher Sons, who range the grand universe as the supernal teachers of all +personalities, human and divine. And there are numerous other orders of +Paradise sonship that have not been brought to the attention of Urantia +mortals. + +Between the Original Mother Son and these hosts of Paradise Sons scattered +throughout all creation, there is a direct and exclusive channel of +communication, a channel whose function is inherent in the quality of spiritual +kinship which unites them in bonds of near-absolute spiritual association. This +intersonship circuit is entirely different from the universal circuit of spirit +gravity, which also centers in the person of the Second Source and Center. All +Sons of God who take origin in the persons of the Paradise Deities are in +direct and constant communication with the Eternal Mother Son. And such +communication is instantaneous; it is independent of time though sometimes +conditioned by space. + +The Eternal Son not only has at all times perfect knowledge concerning the +status, thoughts, and manifold activities of all orders of Paradise sonship, +but he also has perfection of knowledge at all times regarding everything of +spiritual value which exists in the hearts of all creatures in the primary +central creation of eternity and in the secondary time creations of the +co-ordinate Creator Sons. + +7. THE SUPREME REVELATION OF THE FATHER + +The Eternal Son is a complete, exclusive, universal, and final revelation of +the spirit and the personality of the Universal Father. All knowledge of, and +information concerning, the Father must come from the Eternal Son and his +Paradise Sons. The Eternal Son is from eternity and is wholly and without +spiritual qualification one with the Father. In divine personality they are +co-ordinate; in spiritual nature they are equal; in divinity they are +identical. + + top of page - 89 + +The character of God could not possibly be intrinsically improved upon in the +person of the Son, for the divine Father is infinitely perfect, but that +character and personality are amplified, by divestment of the nonpersonal and +nonspiritual, for revelation to creature beings. The first Source and Center is +much more than a personality, but all of the spirit qualities of the father +personality of the First Source and Center are spiritually present in the +absolute personality of the Eternal Son. + +The primal Son and his Sons are engaged in making a universal revelation of the +spiritual and personal nature of the Father to all creation. In the central +universe, the superuniverses, the local universes, or on the inhabited planets, +it is a Paradise Son who reveals the Universal Father to men and angels. The +Eternal Son and his Sons reveal the avenue of creature approach to the +Universal Father. And even we of high origin understand the Father much more +fully as we study the revelation of his character and personality in the +Eternal Son and in the Sons of the Eternal Son. + +The Father comes down to you as a personality only through the divine Sons of +the Eternal Son. And you attain the Father by this same living way; you ascend +to the Father by the guidance of this group of divine Sons. And this remains +true notwithstanding that your very personality is a direct bestowal of the +Universal Father. + +In all these widespread activities of the far-flung spiritual administration of +the Eternal Son, do not forget that the Son is a person just as truly and +actually as the Father is a person. Indeed, to beings of the onetime human +order the Eternal Son will be more easy to approach than the Universal Father. +In the progress of the pilgrims of time through the circuits of Havona, you +will be competent to attain the Son long before you are prepared to discern the +Father. + +More of the character and merciful nature of the Eternal Son of mercy you +should comprehend as you meditate on the revelation of these divine attributes +which was made in loving service by your own Creator Son, onetime Son of Man on +earth, now the exalted sovereign of your local universe--the Son of Man and the +Son of God. + +[Indited by a Divine Counselor assigned to formulate this statement depicting +the Eternal Son of Paradise.] + + top of page - 90 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Eternal Son ³ The Infinite ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ³ Sp... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p008.txt b/religious documents/p008.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3852353 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p008.txt @@ -0,0 +1,480 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 8 The Infinite Spirit + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 8 The Infinite Spirit + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +BACK in eternity, when the Universal Father's "first" infinite and absolute +thought finds in the Eternal Son such a perfect and adequate word for its +divine expression, there ensues the supreme desire of both the Thought-God and +the Word-God for a universal and infinite agent of mutual expression and +combined action. + +In the dawn of eternity both the Father and the Son become infinitely cognizant +of their mutual interdependence, their eternal and absolute oneness; and +therefore do they enter into an infinite and everlasting covenant of divine +partnership. This never-ending compact is made for the execution of their +united concepts throughout all of the circle of eternity; and ever since this +eternity event the Father and the Son continue in this divine union. + +We are now face to face with the eternity origin of the Infinite Spirit, the +Third Person of Deity. The very instant that God the Father and God the Son +conjointly conceive an identical and infinite action--the execution of an +absolute thought-plan--that very moment, the Infinite Spirit springs +full-fledgedly into existence. + +In thus reciting the order of the origin of the Deities, I do so merely to +enable you to think of their relationship. In reality they are all three +existent from eternity; they are existential. They are without beginning or +ending of days; they are co-ordinate, supreme, ultimate, absolute, and +infinite. They are and always have been and ever shall be. And they are three +distinctly individualized but eternally associated persons, God the Father, God +the Son, and God the Spirit + +1. THE GOD OF ACTION + +In the eternity of the past, upon the personalization of the Infinite Spirit +the divine personality cycle becomes perfect and complete. The God of Action is +existent, and the vast stage of space is set for the stupendous drama of +creation--the universal adventure--the divine panorama of the eternal ages. + +The first act of the Infinite Spirit is the inspection and recognition of his +divine parents, the Father-Father and the Mother-Son. He, the Spirit, +unqualifiedly identifies both of them. He is fully cognizant of their separate +personalities and infinite attributes as well as of their combined nature and +united function. Next, voluntarily, with transcendent willingness and inspiring +spontaneity, the Third Person of Deity, notwithstanding his equality with the +First and Second Persons, pledges eternal loyalty to God the Father and +acknowledges everlasting dependence upon God the Son. + +Inherent in the nature of this transaction and in mutual recognition of the +personality independence of each and the executive union of all three, the +cycle + + top of page - 91 + +of eternity is established. The Paradise Trinity is existent. The stage of +universal space is set for the manifold and never-ending panorama of the +creative unfolding of the purpose of the Universal Father through the +personality of the Eternal Son and by the execution of the God of Action, the +executive agency for the reality performances of the Father-Son creator +partnership. + +The God of Action functions and the dead vaults of space are astir. One billion +perfect spheres flash into existence. Prior to this hypothetical eternity +moment the space-energies inherent in Paradise are existent and potentially +operative, but they have no actuality of being; neither can physical gravity be +measured except by the reaction of material realities to its incessant pull. +There is no material universe at this (assumed) eternally distant moment, but +the very instant that one billion worlds materialize, there is in evidence +gravity sufficient and adequate to hold them in the everlasting grasp of +Paradise. + +There now flashes through the creation of the Gods the second form of energy, +and this outflowing spirit is instantly grasped by the spiritual gravity of the +Eternal Son. Thus the twofold gravity-embraced universe is touched with the +energy of infinity and immersed in the spirit of divinity. In this way is the +soil of life prepared for the consciousness of mind made manifest in the +associated intelligence circuits of the Infinite Spirit. + +Upon these seeds of potential existence, diffused throughout the central +creation of the Gods, the Father acts, and creature personality appears. Then +does the presence of the Paradise Deities fill all organized space and begin +effectively to draw all things and beings Paradiseward. + +The Infinite Spirit eternalizes concurrently with the birth of the Havona +worlds, this central universe being created by him and with him and in him in +obedience to the combined concepts and united wills of the Father and the Son. +The Third Person deitizes by this very act of conjoint creation, and he thus +forever becomes the Conjoint Creator. + +These are the grand and awful times of the creative expansion of the Father and +the Son by, and in, the action of their conjoint associate and exclusive +executive, the Third Source and Center. There exists no record of these +stirring times. We have only the meager disclosures of the Infinite Spirit to +substantiate these mighty transactions, and he merely verifies the fact that +the central universe and all that pertains thereto eternalized simultaneously +with his attainment of personality and conscious existence. + +In brief, the Infinite Spirit testifies that, since he is eternal, so also is +the central universe eternal. And this is the traditional starting point of the +history of the universe of universes. Absolutely nothing is known, and no +records are in existence, regarding any event or transaction prior to this +stupendous eruption of creative energy and administrative wisdom that +crystallized the vast universe which exists, and so exquisitely functions, at +the center of all things. Beyond this event lie the unsearchable transactions +of eternity and the depths of infinity--absolute mystery. + +And we thus portray the sequential origin of the Third Source and Center as an +interpretative condescension to the time-bound and space-conditioned mind of +mortal creatures. The mind of man must have a starting point for the +visualization of universe history, and I have been directed to provide this +technique of approach to the historic concept of eternity. In the material +mind, consistency + + top of page - 92 + +demands a First Cause; therefore do we postulate the Universal Father as the +First Source and the Absolute Center of all creation, at the same time +instructing all creature minds that the Son and the Spirit are coeternal with +the Father in all phases of universe history and in all realms of creative +activity. And we do this without in any sense being disregardful of the reality +and eternity of the Isle of Paradise and of the Unqualified, Universal, and +Deity Absolutes. + +It is enough of a reach of the material mind of the children of time to +conceive of the Father in eternity. We know that any child can best relate +himself to reality by first mastering the relationships of the child-parent +situation and then by enlarging this concept to embrace the family as a whole. +Subsequently the growing mind of the child will be able to adjust to the +concept of family relations, to relationships of the community, the race, and +the world, and then to those of the universe, the superuniverse, even the +universe of universes. + +2. NATURE OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT + +The Conjoint Creator is from eternity and is wholly and without qualification +one with the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The Infinite Spirit reflects +in perfection not only the nature of the Paradise Father but also the nature of +the Original Son. + +The Third Source and Center is known by numerous titles: the Universal Spirit, +the Supreme Guide, the Conjoint Creator, the Divine Executive, the Infinite +Mind, the Spirit of Spirits, the Paradise Mother Spirit, the Conjoint Actor, +the Final Co-ordinator, the Omnipresent Spirit, the Absolute Intelligence, the +Divine Action; and on Urantia he is sometimes confused with the cosmic mind. + +It is altogether proper to denominate the Third Person of Deity the Infinite +Spirit, for God is spirit. But material creatures who tend towards the error of +viewing matter as basic reality and mind, together with spirit, as postulates +rooted in matter, would better comprehend the Third Source and Center if he +were called the Infinite Reality, the Universal Organizer, or the Personality +Co-ordinator. + +The Infinite Spirit, as a universe revelation of divinity, is unsearchable and +utterly beyond human comprehension. To sense the absoluteness of the Spirit, +you need only contemplate the infinity of the Universal Father and stand in awe +of the eternity of the Original Son. + +There is mystery indeed in the person of the Infinite Spirit but not so much as +in the Father and the Son. Of all aspects of the Father's nature, the Conjoint +Creator most strikingly discloses his infinity. Even if the master universe +eventually expands to infinity, the spirit presence, energy control, and mind +potential of the Conjoint Actor will be found adequate to meet the demands of +such a limitless creation. + +Though in every way sharing the perfection, the righteousness, and the love of +the Universal Father, the Infinite Spirit inclines towards the mercy attributes +of the Eternal Son, thus becoming the mercy minister of the Paradise Deities to +the grand universe. Ever and always--universally and eternally--the Spirit is a +mercy minister, for, as the divine Sons reveal the love of God, so the divine +Spirit depicts the mercy of God. + + top of page - 93 + +It is not possible that the Spirit could have more of goodness than the Father +since all goodness takes origin in the Father, but in the acts of the Spirit we +can the better comprehend such goodness. The Father's faithfulness and the +Son's constancy are made very real to the spirit beings and the material +creatures of the spheres by the loving ministry and ceaseless service of the +personalities of the Infinite Spirit. + +The Conjoint Creator inherits all the Father's beauty of thought and character +of truth. And these sublime traits of divinity are co-ordinated in the +near-supreme levels of the cosmic mind in subordination to the infinite and +eternal wisdom of the unconditioned and limitless mind of the Third Source and +Center. + +3. RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE FATHER AND THE SON + +As the Eternal Son is the word expression of the "first" absolute and infinite +thought of the Universal Father, so the Conjoint Actor is the perfect execution +of the "first" completed creative concept or plan for combined action by the +Father-Son personality partnership of absolute thought-word union. The Third +Source and Center eternalizes concurrently with the central or fiat creation, +and only this central creation is eternal in existence among universes. + +Since the personalization of the Third Source, the First Source no more +personally participates in universe creation. The Universal Father delegates +everything possible to his Eternal Son; likewise does the Eternal Son bestow +all possible authority and power upon the Conjoint Creator. + +The Eternal Son and the Conjoint Creator have, as partners and through their +co-ordinate personalities, planned and fashioned every post-Havona universe +which has been brought into existence. The Spirit sustains the same personal +relation to the Son in all subsequent creation that the Son sustains to the +Father in the first and central creation. + +A Creator Son of the Eternal Son and a Creative Spirit of the Infinite Spirit +created you and your universe; and while the Father in faithfulness upholds +that which they have organized, it devolves upon this Universe Son and this +Universe Spirit to foster and sustain their work as well as to minister to the +creatures of their own making. + +The Infinite Spirit is the effective agent of the all-loving Father and the +all-merciful Son for the execution of their conjoint project of drawing to +themselves all truth-loving souls on all the worlds of time and space. The very +instant the Eternal Son accepted his Father's plan of perfection attainment for +the creatures of the universes, the moment the ascension project became a +Father-Son plan, that instant the Infinite Spirit became the conjoint +administrator of the Father and the Son for the execution of their united and +eternal purpose. And in so doing the Infinite Spirit pledged all his resources +of divine presence and of spirit personalities to the Father and the Son; he +has dedicated all to the stupendous plan of exalting surviving will creatures +to the divine heights of Paradise perfection. + +The Infinite Spirit is a complete, exclusive, and universal revelation of the +Universal Father and his Eternal Son. All knowledge of the Father-Son +partnership must be had through the Infinite Spirit, the conjoint +representative of the divine thought-word union. + +The Eternal Son is the only avenue of approach to the Universal Father, and the +Infinite Spirit is the only means of attaining the Eternal Son. Only by the + + top of page - 94 + +patient ministry of the Spirit are the ascendant beings of time able to +discover the Son. + +At the center of all things the Infinite Spirit is the first of the Paradise +Deities to be attained by the ascending pilgrims. The Third Person enshrouds +the Second and the First Persons and therefore must always be first recognized +by all who are candidates for presentation to the Son and his Father. + +And in many other ways does the Spirit equally represent and similarly serve +the Father and the Son. + +4. THE SPIRIT OF DIVINE MINISTRY + +Paralleling the physical universe wherein Paradise gravity holds all things +together is the spiritual universe wherein the word of the Son interprets the +thought of God and, when "made flesh," demonstrates the loving mercy of the +combined nature of the associated Creators. But in and through all this +material and spiritual creation there is a vast stage whereon the Infinite +Spirit and his spirit offspring show forth the combined mercy, patience, and +everlasting affection of the divine parents towards the intelligent children of +their co-operative devising and making. Everlasting ministry to mind is the +essence of the Spirit's divine character. And all the spirit offspring of the +Conjoint Actor partake of this desire to minister, this divine urge to service. + +God is love, the Son is mercy, the Spirit is ministry--the ministry of divine +love and endless mercy to all intelligent creation. The Spirit is the +personification of the Father's love and the Son's mercy; in him are they +eternally united for universal service. The Spirit is love applied to the +creature creation, the combined love of the Father and the Son. + +On Urantia the Infinite Spirit is known as an omnipresent influence, a +universal presence, but in Havona you shall know him as a personal presence of +actual ministry. Here the ministry of the Paradise Spirit is the exemplary and +inspiring pattern for each of his co-ordinate Spirits and subordinate +personalities ministering to the created beings on the worlds of time and +space. In this divine universe the Infinite Spirit fully participated in the +seven transcendental appearances of the Eternal Son; likewise did he +participate with the original Michael Son in the seven bestowals upon the +circuits of Havona, thereby becoming the sympathetic and understanding spirit +minister to every pilgrim of time traversing these perfect circles on high. + +When a Creator Son of God accepts the creatorship charge of responsibility for +a projected local universe, the personalities of the Infinite Spirit pledge +themselves as the tireless ministers of this Michael Son when he goes forth on +his mission of creative adventure. Especially in the persons of the Creative +Daughters, the local universe Mother Spirits, do we find the Infinite Spirit +devoted to the task of fostering the ascension of the material creatures to +higher and higher levels of spiritual attainment. And all this work of creature +ministry is done in perfect harmony with the purposes, and in close association +with the personalities, of the Creator Sons of these local universes. + +As the Sons of God are engaged in the gigantic task of revealing the Father's +personality of love to a universe, so is the Infinite Spirit dedicated to the +unending ministry of revealing the combined love of the Father and the Son to +the individual minds of all the children of each universe. In these local +creations the + + top of page - 95 + +Spirit does not come down to the material races in the likeness of mortal flesh +as do certain of the Sons of God, but the Infinite Spirit and his co-ordinate +Spirits do downstep themselves, do joyfully undergo an amazing series of +divinity attenuations, until they appear as angels to stand by your side and +guide you through the lowly paths of earthly existence. + +By this very diminishing series the Infinite Spirit does actually, and as a +person, draw very near to every being of the animal-origin spheres. And all +this the Spirit does without in the least invalidating his existence as the +Third Person of Deity at the center of all things. + +The Conjoint Creator is truly and forever the great ministering personality, +the universal mercy minister. To comprehend the ministry of the Spirit, ponder +the truth that he is the combined portrayal of the Father's unending love and +of the Son's eternal mercy. The Spirit's ministry is not, however, restricted +solely to the representation of the Eternal Son and the Universal Father. The +Infinite Spirit also possesses the power to minister to the creatures of the +realm in his own name and right; the Third Person is of divine dignity and also +bestows the universal ministry of mercy in his own behalf. + +As man learns more of the loving and tireless ministry of the lower orders of +the creature family of this Infinite Spirit, he will all the more admire and +adore the transcendent nature and matchless character of this combined Action +of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. Indeed is this Spirit "the eyes of +the Lord which are ever over the righteous" and "the divine ears which are ever +open to their prayers." + +5. THE PRESENCE OF GOD + +The outstanding attribute of the Infinite Spirit is omnipresence. Throughout +all the universe of universes there is everywhere present this all-pervading +spirit, which is so akin to the presence of a universal and divine mind. Both +the Second Person and the Third Person of Deity are represented on all worlds +by their ever-present spirits. + +The Father is infinite and is therefore limited only by volition. In the +bestowal of Adjusters and in the encircuitment of personality, the Father acts +alone, but in the contact of spirit forces with intelligent beings, he utilizes +the spirits and personalities of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. He is +at will spiritually present equally with the Son or with the Conjoint Actor; he +is present with the Son and in the Spirit. The Father is most certainly +everywhere present, and we discern his presence by and through any and all of +these diverse but associated forces, influences, and presences. + +In your sacred writings the term Spirit of God seems to be used interchangeably +to designate both the Infinite Spirit on Paradise and the Creative Spirit of +your local universe. The Holy Spirit is the spiritual circuit of this Creative +Daughter of the Paradise Infinite Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a circuit +indigenous to each local universe and is confined to the spiritual realm of +that creation; but the Infinite Spirit is omnipresent. + +There are many spiritual influences, and they are all as one. Even the work of +the Thought Adjusters, though independent of all other influences, unvaryingly +coincides with the spirit ministry of the combined influences of the Infinite +Spirit and a local universe Mother Spirit. As these spiritual presences operate +in the + + top of page - 96 + +lives of Urantians, they cannot be segregated. In your minds and upon your +souls they function as one spirit, notwithstanding their diverse origins. And +as this united spiritual ministration is experienced, it becomes to you the +influence of the Supreme, "who is ever able to keep you from failing and to +present you blameless before your Father on high." + +Ever remember that the Infinite Spirit is the Conjoint Actor; both the Father +and the Son are functioning in and through him; he is present not only as +himself but also as the Father and as the Son and as the Father-Son. In +recognition of this and for many additional reasons the spirit presence of the +Infinite Spirit is often referred to as "the spirit of God." + +It would also be consistent to refer to the liaison of all spiritual ministry +as the spirit of God, for such a liaison is truly the union of the spirits of +God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and God the Sevenfold even the +spirit of God the Supreme. + +6. PERSONALITY OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT + +Do not allow the widespread bestowal and the far-flung distribution of the +Third Source and Center to obscure or otherwise detract from the fact of his +personality. The Infinite Spirit is a universe presence, an eternal action, a +cosmic power, a holy influence, and a universal mind; he is all of these and +infinitely more, but he is also a true and divine personality. + +The Infinite Spirit is a complete and perfect personality, the divine equal and +co-ordinate of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The Conjoint Creator +is just as real and visible to the higher intelligences of the universes as are +the Father and the Son; indeed more so, for it is the Spirit whom all ascenders +must attain before they may approach the Father through the Son. + +The Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity, is possessed of all the +attributes which you associate with personality. The Spirit is endowed with +absolute mind: "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." +The Spirit is endowed not only with mind but also with will. In the bestowal of +his gifts it is recorded: "But all these works that one and the selfsame +Spirit, dividing to every man severally and as he wills." + +"The love of the Spirit" is real, as also are his sorrows; therefore "Grieve +not the Spirit of God." Whether we observe the Infinite Spirit as Paradise +Deity or as a local universe Creative Spirit, we find that the Conjoint Creator +is not only the Third Source and Center but also a divine person. This divine +personality also reacts to the universe as a person. The Spirit speaks to you, +"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says." "The Spirit himself +makes intercession for you." The Spirit exerts a direct and personal influence +upon created beings, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the +sons of God." + +Even though we behold the phenomenon of the ministry of the Infinite Spirit to +the remote worlds of the universe of universes, even though we envisage this +same co-ordinating Deity acting in and through the untold legions of the +manifold beings who take origin in the Third Source and Center, even though we +recognize the omnipresence of the Spirit, nonetheless, we still affirm that +this same Third Source and Center is a person, the Conjoint Creator of all +things and all beings and all universes. + +In the administration of universes the Father, Son, and Spirit are perfectly +and eternally interassociated. Though each is engaged in a personal ministry to + + top of page - 97 + +all creation, all three are divinely and absolutely interlocked in a service of +creation and control which forever makes them one. + +In the person of the Infinite Spirit the Father and the Son are mutually +present, always and in unqualified perfection, for the Spirit is like the +Father and like the Son, and also like the Father and the Son as they two are +forever one. + +[Presented on Urantia by a Divine Counselor of Uversa commissioned by the +Ancients of Days to portray the nature and work of the Infinite Spirit.] + + top of page - 98 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Relation Of ³ Relation Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ The... ³ The... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p009.txt b/religious documents/p009.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b16cd16 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p009.txt @@ -0,0 +1,627 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 9 Relation Of The Infinite Spirit To The Universe + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 9 Relation Of The Infinite Spirit To The Universe + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +A STRANGE thing occurred when, in the presence of Paradise, the Universal +Father and the Eternal Son unite to personalize themselves. Nothing in this +eternity situation foreshadows that the Conjoint Actor would personalize as an +unlimited spirituality co-ordinated with absolute mind and endowed with unique +prerogatives of energy manipulation. His coming into being completes the +Father's liberation from the bonds of centralized perfection and from the +fetters of personality absolutism. And this liberation is disclosed in the +amazing power of the Conjoint Creator to create beings well adapted to serve as +ministering spirits even to the material creatures of the subsequently evolving +universes. + +The Father is infinite in love and volition, in spiritual thought and purpose; +he is the universal upholder. The Son is infinite in wisdom and truth, in +spiritual expression and interpretation; he is the universal revealer. Paradise +is infinite in potential for force endowment and in capacity for energy +dominance; it is the universal stabilizer. The Conjoint Actor possesses unique +prerogatives of synthesis, infinite capacity to co-ordinate all existing +universe energies, all actual universe spirits, and all real universe +intellects; the Third Source and Center is the universal unifier of the +manifold energies and diverse creations which have appeared in consequence of +the divine plan and the eternal purpose of the Universal Father. + +The Infinite Spirit, the Conjoint Creator, is a universal and divine minister. +The Spirit unceasingly ministers the Son's mercy and the Father's love, even in +harmony with the stable, unvarying, and righteous justice of the Paradise +Trinity. His influence and personalities are ever near you; they really know +and truly understand you. + +Throughout the universes the agencies of the Conjoint Actor ceaselessly +manipulate the forces and energies of all space. Like the First Source and +Center, the Third is responsive to both the spiritual and the material. The +Conjoint Actor is the revelation of the unity of God, in whom all things +consist--things, meanings, and values; energies, minds, and spirits. + +The Infinite Spirit pervades all space; he indwells the circle of eternity; and +the Spirit, like the Father and the Son, is perfect and changeless--absolute. + +1. ATTRIBUTES OF THE THIRD SOURCE AND CENTER + +The Third Source and Center is known by many names, all designative of +relationship and in recognition of function: As God the Spirit, he is the +person- + + top of page - 99 + +ality co-ordinate and divine equal of God the Son and God the Father. As the +Infinite Spirit, he is an omnipresent spiritual influence. As the Universal +Manipulator, he is the ancestor of the power-control creatures and the +activator of the cosmic forces of space. As the Conjoint Actor, he is the joint +representative and partnership executive of the Father-Son. As the Absolute +Mind, he is the source of the endowment of intellect throughout the universes. +As the God of Action, he is the apparent ancestor of motion, change, and +relationship. + +Some of the attributes of the Third Source and Center are derived from the +Father, some from the Son, while still others are not observed to be actively +and personally present in either the Father or the Son--attributes that can +hardly be explained except by assuming that the Father-Son partnership which +eternalizes the Third Source and Center consistently functions in consonance +with, and in recognition of, the eternal fact of the absoluteness of Paradise. +The Conjoint Creator embodies the fullness of the combined and infinite +concepts of the First and Second Persons of Deity. + +While you envisage the Father as an original creator and the Son as a spiritual +administrator, you should think of the Third Source and Center as a universal +co-ordinator, a minister of unlimited co-operation. The Conjoint Actor is the +correlator of all actual reality; he is the Deity repository of the Father's +thought and the Son's word and in action is eternally regardful of the material +absoluteness of the central Isle. The Paradise Trinity has ordained the +universal order of progress, and the providence of God is the domain of the +Conjoint Creator and the evolving Supreme Being. No actual or actualizing +reality can escape eventual relationship with the Third Source and Center. + +The Universal Father presides over the realms of pre-energy, prespirit, and +personality; the Eternal Son dominates the spheres of spiritual activities; the +presence of the Isle of Paradise unifies the domain of physical energy and +materializing power; the Conjoint Actor operates not only as an infinite spirit +representing the Son but also as a universal manipulator of the forces and +energies of Paradise, thus bringing into existence the universal and absolute +mind. The Conjoint Actor functions throughout the grand universe as a positive +and distinct personality, especially in the higher spheres of spiritual values, +physical-energy relationships, and true mind meanings. He functions +specifically wherever and whenever energy and spirit associate and interact; he +dominates all reactions with mind, wields great power in the spiritual world, +and exerts a mighty influence over energy and matter. At all times the Third +Source is expressive of the nature of the First Source and Center. + +The Third Source and Center perfectly and without qualification shares the +omnipresence of the First Source and Center, sometimes being called the +Omnipresent Spirit. In a peculiar and very personal manner the God of mind +shares the omniscience of the Universal Father and his Eternal Son; the +knowledge of the Spirit is profound and complete. The Conjoint Creator +manifests certain phases of the omnipotence of the Universal Father but is +actually omnipotent only in the domain of mind. The Third Person of Deity is +the intellectual center and the universal administrator of the mind realms; +herein is he absolute--his sovereignty is unqualified. + +The Conjoint Actor seems to be motivated by the Father-Son partnership, but all +his actions appear to recognize the Father-Paradise relationship. At times + + top of page - 100 + +and in certain functions he seems to compensate for the incompleteness of the +development of the experiential Deities--God the Supreme and God the Ultimate. + +And herein is an infinite mystery: That the Infinite simultaneously revealed +his infinity in the Son and as Paradise, and then there springs into existence +a being equal to God in divinity, reflective of the Son's spiritual nature, and +capable of activating the Paradise pattern, a being provisionally subordinate +in sovereignty but in many ways apparently the most versatile in action. And +such apparent superiority in action is disclosed in an attribute of the Third +Source and Center which is superior even to physical gravity--the universal +manifestation of the Isle of Paradise. + +In addition to this supercontrol of energy and things physical, the Infinite +Spirit is superbly endowed with those attributes of patience, mercy, and love +which are so exquisitely revealed in his spiritual ministry. The Spirit is +supremely competent to minister love and to overshadow justice with mercy. God +the Spirit possesses all the supernal kindness and merciful affection of the +Original and Eternal Son. The universe of your origin is being forged out +between the anvil of justice and the hammer of suffering; but those who wield +the hammer are the children of mercy, the spirit offspring of the Infinite +Spirit. + +2. THE OMNIPRESENT SPIRIT + +God is spirit in a threefold sense: He himself is spirit; in his Son he appears +as spirit without qualification; in the Conjoint Actor, as spirit allied with +mind. And in addition to these spiritual realities, we think we discern levels +of experiential spirit phenomena--the spirits of the Supreme Being, Ultimate +Deity, and Deity Absolute. + +The Infinite Spirit is just as much a complement of the Eternal Son as the Son +is a complement of the Universal Father. The Eternal Son is a spiritualized +personalization of the Father; the Infinite Spirit is a personalized +spiritualization of the Eternal Son and the Universal Father. + +There are many untrammeled lines of spiritual force and sources of +supermaterial power linking the people of Urantia directly with the Deities of +Paradise. There exist the connection of the Thought Adjusters direct with the +Universal Father, the widespread influence of the spiritual-gravity urge of the +Eternal Son, and the spiritual presence of the Conjoint Creator. There is a +difference in function between the spirit of the Son and the spirit of the +Spirit. The Third Person in his spiritual ministry may function as mind plus +spirit or as spirit alone. + +In addition to these Paradise presences, Urantians benefit by the spiritual +influences and activities of the local and the superuniverse, with their almost +endless array of loving personalities who ever lead the true of purpose and the +honest of heart upward and inward towards the ideals of divinity and the goal +of supreme perfection. + +The presence of the universal spirit of the Eternal Son we know--we can +unmistakably recognize it. The presence of the Infinite Spirit, the Third +Person of Deity, even mortal man may know, for material creatures can actually +experience the beneficence of this divine influence which functions as the Holy +Spirit of local universe bestowal upon the races of mankind. Human beings can +also in some degree become conscious of the Adjuster, the impersonal presence +of the Universal Father. These divine spirits which work for man's uplifting +and spirit- + + top of page - 101 + +ualization all act in unison and in perfect co-operation. They are as one in +the spiritual operation of the plans of mortal ascension and perfection +attainment. + +3. THE UNIVERSAL MANIPULATOR + +The Isle of Paradise is the source and substance of physical gravity; and that +should be sufficient to inform you that gravity is one of the most real and +eternally dependable things in the whole physical universe of universes. +Gravity cannot be modified or annulled except by the forces and energies +conjointly sponsored by the Father and the Son, which have been intrusted to, +and are functionally associated with, the person of the Third Source and +Center. + +The Infinite Spirit possesses a unique and amazing power--antigravity. This +power is not functionally (observably) present in either the Father or the Son. +This ability to withstand the pull of material gravity, inherent in the Third +Source, is revealed in the personal reactions of the Conjoint Actor to certain +phases of universe relationships. And this unique attribute is transmissible to +certain of the higher personalities of the Infinite Spirit. + +Antigravity can annul gravity within a local frame; it does so by the exercise +of equal force presence. It operates only with reference to material gravity, +and it is not the action of mind. The gravity-resistant phenomenon of a +gyroscope is a fair illustration of the effect of antigravity but of no value +to illustrate the cause of antigravity. + +Still further does the Conjoint Actor display powers which can transcend force +and neutralize energy. Such powers operate by slowing down energy to the point +of materialization and by other techniques unknown to you. + +The Conjoint Creator is not energy nor the source of energy nor the destiny of +energy; he is the manipulator of energy. The Conjoint Creator is +action--motion, change, modification, co-ordination, stabilization, and +equilibrium. The energies subject to the direct or indirect control of Paradise +are by nature responsive to the acts of the Third Source and Center and his +manifold agencies. + +The universe of universes is permeated by the power-control creatures of the +Third Source and Center: physical controllers, power directors, power centers, +and other representatives of the God of Action who have to do with the +regulation and stabilization of physical energies. These unique creatures of +physical function all possess varying attributes of power control, such as +antigravity, which they utilize in their efforts to establish the physical +equilibrium of the matter and energies of the grand universe. + +All these material activities of the God of Action appear to relate his +function to the Isle of Paradise, and indeed the agencies of power are all +regardful of, even dependent on, the absoluteness of the eternal Isle. But the +Conjoint Actor does not act for, or in response to, Paradise. He acts, +personally, for the Father and the Son. Paradise is not a person. The +nonpersonal, impersonal, and otherwise not personal doings of the Third Source +and Center are all volitional acts of the Conjoint Actor himself; they are not +reflections, derivations, or repercussions of anything or anybody. + +Paradise is the pattern of infinity; the God of Action is the activator of that +pattern. Paradise is the material fulcrum of infinity; the agencies of the +Third Source and Center are the levers of intelligence which motivate the +material level and inject spontaneity into the mechanism of the physical +creation. + + top of page - 102 + +4. THE ABSOLUTE MIND + +There is an intellectual nature of the Third Source and Center that is distinct +from his physical and spiritual attributes. Such a nature is hardly +contactable, but it is associable--intellectually though not personally. It is +distinguishable from the physical attributes and the spiritual character of the +Third Person on mind levels of function, but to the discernment of +personalities this nature never functions independently of physical or +spiritual manifestations. + +The absolute mind is the mind of the Third Person; it is inseparable from the +personality of God the Spirit. Mind, in functioning beings, is not separated +from energy or spirit, or both. Mind is not inherent in energy; energy is +receptive and responsive to mind; mind can be superimposed upon energy, but +consciousness is not inherent in the purely material level. Mind does not have +to be added to pure spirit, for spirit is innately conscious and identifying. +Spirit is always intelligent, minded in some way. It may be this mind or that +mind, it may be premind or supermind, even spirit mind, but it does the +equivalent of thinking and knowing. The insight of spirit transcends, +supervenes, and theoretically antedates the consciousness of mind. + +The Conjoint Creator is absolute only in the domain of mind, in the realms of +universal intelligence. The mind of the Third Source and Center is infinite; it +utterly transcends the active and functioning mind circuits of the universe of +universes. The mind endowment of the seven superuniverses is derived from the +Seven Master Spirits, the primary personalities of the Conjoint Creator. These +Master Spirits distribute mind to the grand universe as the cosmic mind, and +your local universe is pervaded by the Nebadon variant of the Orvonton type of +cosmic mind. + +Infinite mind ignores time, ultimate mind transcends time, cosmic mind is +conditioned by time. And so with space: The Infinite Mind is independent of +space, but as descent is made from the infinite to the adjutant levels of mind, +intellect must increasingly reckon with the fact and limitations of space. + +Cosmic force responds to mind even as cosmic mind responds to spirit. Spirit is +divine purpose, and spirit mind is divine purpose in action. Energy is thing, +mind is meaning, spirit is value. Even in time and space, mind establishes +those relative relationships between energy and spirit which are suggestive of +mutual kinship in eternity. + +Mind transmutes the values of spirit into the meanings of intellect; volition +has power to bring the meanings of mind to fruit in both the material and +spiritual domains. The Paradise ascent involves a relative and differential +growth in spirit, mind, and energy. The personality is the unifier of these +components of experiential individuality. + +5. THE MINISTRY OF MIND + +The Third Source and Center is infinite in mind. If the universe should grow to +infinity, still his mind potential would be adequate to endow limitless numbers +of creatures with suitable minds and other prerequisites of intellect. + +In the domain of created mind the Third Person, with his co-ordinate and +subordinate associates, rules supreme. The realms of creature mind are of ex- + + top of page - 103 + +clusive origin in the Third Source and Center; he is the bestower of mind. Even +the Father fragments find it impossible to indwell the minds of men until the +way has been properly prepared for them by the mind action and spiritual +function of the Infinite Spirit. + +The unique feature of mind is that it can be bestowed upon such a wide range of +life. Through his creative and creature associates the Third Source and Center +ministers to all minds on all spheres. He ministers to human and subhuman +intellect through the adjutants of the local universes and, through the agency +of the physical controllers, ministers even to the lowest nonexperiencing +entities of the most primitive types of living things. And always is the +direction of mind a ministry of mind-spirit or mind-energy personalities. + +Since the Third Person of Deity is the source of mind, it is quite natural that +the evolutionary will creatures find it easier to form comprehensible concepts +of the Infinite Spirit than they do of either the Eternal Son or the Universal +Father. The reality of the Conjoint Creator is disclosed imperfectly in the +very existence of human mind. The Conjoint Creator is the ancestor of the +cosmic mind, and the mind of man is an individualized circuit, an impersonal +portion, of that cosmic mind as it is bestowed in a local universe by a +Creative Daughter of the Third Source and Center. + +Because the Third Person is the source of mind, do not presume to reckon that +all phenomena of mind are divine. Human intellect is rooted in the material +origin of the animal races. Universe intelligence is no more a true revelation +of God who is mind than is physical nature a true revelation of the beauty and +harmony of Paradise. Perfection is in nature, but nature is not perfect. The +Conjoint Creator is the source of mind, but mind is not the Conjoint Creator. + +Mind, on Urantia, is a compromise between the essence of thought perfection and +the evolving mentality of your immature human nature The plan for your +intellectual evolution is, indeed, one of sublime perfection, but you are far +short of that divine goal as you function in the tabernacles of the flesh. Mind +is truly of divine origin, and it does have a divine destiny, but your mortal +minds are not yet of divine dignity. + +Too often, all too often, you mar your minds by insincerity and sear them with +unrighteousness; you subject them to animal fear and distort them by useless +anxiety. Therefore, though the source of mind is divine, mind as you know it on +your world of ascension can hardly become the object of great admiration, much +less of adoration or worship. The contemplation of the immature and inactive +human intellect should lead only to reactions of humility. + +6. THE MIND-GRAVITY CIRCUIT + +The Third Source and Center, the universal intelligence, is personally +conscious of every mind, every intellect, in all creation, and he maintains a +personal and perfect contact with all these physical, morontial, and spiritual +creatures of mind endowment in the far-flung universes. All these activities of +mind are grasped in the absolute mind-gravity circuit which focalizes in the +Third Source and Center and is a part of the personal consciousness of the +Infinite Spirit. + +Much as the Father draws all personality to himself, and as the Son attracts +all spiritual reality, so does the Conjoint Actor exercise a drawing power on +all + + top of page - 104 + +minds; he unqualifiedly dominates and controls the universal mind circuit. All +true and genuine intellectual values, all divine thoughts and perfect ideas, +are unerringly drawn into this absolute circuit of mind. + +Mind gravity can operate independently of material and spiritual gravity, but +wherever and whenever the latter two impinge, mind gravity always functions. +When all three are associated, personality gravity may embrace the material +creature--physical or morontial, finite or absonite. But irrespective of this, +the endowment of mind even in impersonal beings qualifies them to think and +endows them with consciousness despite the total absence of personality. + +Selfhood of personality dignity, human or divine, immortal or potentially +immortal, does not however originate in either spirit, mind, or matter; it is +the bestowal of the Universal Father. Neither is the interaction of spirit, +mind, and material gravity a prerequisite to the appearance of personality +gravity. The Father's circuit may embrace a mind-material being who is +unresponsive to spirit gravity, or it may include a mind-spirit being who is +unresponsive to material gravity. The operation of personality gravity is +always a volitional act of the Universal Father. + +While mind is energy associated in purely material beings and spirit associated +in purely spiritual personalities, innumerable orders of personality, including +the human, possess minds that are associated with both energy and spirit. The +spiritual aspects of creature mind unfailingly respond to the spirit-gravity +pull of the Eternal Son; the material features respond to the gravity urge of +the material universe. + +Cosmic mind, when not associated with either energy or spirit, is subject to +the gravity demands of neither material nor spiritual circuits. Pure mind is +subject only to the universal gravity grasp of the Conjoint Actor. Pure mind is +close of kin to infinite mind, and infinite mind (the theoretical co-ordinate +of the absolutes of spirit and energy) is apparently a law in itself. + +The greater the spirit-energy divergence, the greater the observable function +of mind; the lesser the diversity of energy and spirit, the lesser the +observable function of mind. Apparently, the maximum function of the cosmic +mind is in the time universes of space. Here mind seems to function in a +mid-zone between energy and spirit, but this is not true of the higher levels +of mind; on Paradise, energy and spirit are essentially one. + +The mind-gravity circuit is dependable; it emanates from the Third Person of +Deity on Paradise, but not all the observable function of mind is predictable. +Throughout all known creation there parallels this circuit of mind some +little-understood presence whose function is not predictable. We believe that +this unpredictability is partly attributable to the function of the Universal +Absolute. What this function is, we do not know; what actuates it, we can only +conjecture; concerning its relation to creatures, we can only speculate. + +Certain phases of the unpredictability of finite mind may be due to the +incompleteness of the Supreme Being, and there is a vast zone of activities +wherein the Conjoint Actor and the Universal Absolute may possibly be tangent. +There is much about mind that is unknown, but of this we are sure: The Infinite +Spirit is the perfect expression of the mind of the Creator to all creatures; +the Supreme Being is the evolving expression of the minds of all creatures to +their Creator. + + top of page - 105 + +7. UNIVERSE REFLECTIVITY + +The Conjoint Actor is able to co-ordinate all levels of universe actuality in +such manner as to make possible the simultaneous recognition of the mental, the +material, and the spiritual. This is the phenomenon of universe reflectivity, +that unique and inexplicable power to see, hear, sense, and know all things as +they transpire throughout a superuniverse, and to focalize, by reflectivity, +all this information and knowledge at any desired point. The action of +reflectivity is shown in perfection on each of the headquarters worlds of the +seven superuniverses. It is also operative throughout all sectors of the +superuniverses and within the boundaries of the local universes. Reflectivity +finally focalizes on Paradise. + +The phenomenon of reflectivity, as it is disclosed on the superuniverse +headquarters worlds in the amazing performances of the reflective personalities +there stationed, represents the most complex interassociation of all phases of +existence to be found in all creation. Lines of spirit can be traced back to +the Son, physical energy to Paradise, and mind to the Third Source; but in the +extraordinary phenomenon of universe reflectivity there is a unique and +exceptional unification of all three, so associated as to enable the universe +rulers to know about remote conditions instantaneously, simultaneously with +their occurrence. + +Much of the technique of reflectivity we comprehend, but there are many phases +which truly baffle us. We know that the Conjoint Actor is the universe center +of the mind circuit, that he is the ancestor of the cosmic mind, and that +cosmic mind operates under the dominance of the absolute mind gravity of the +Third Source and Center. We know further that the circuits of the cosmic mind +influence the intellectual levels of all known existence; they contain the +universal space reports, and just as certainly they focus in the Seven Master +Spirits and converge in the Third Source and Center. + +The relationship between the finite cosmic mind and the divine absolute mind +appears to be evolving in the experiential mind of the Supreme. We are taught +that, in the dawn of time, this experiential mind was bestowed upon the Supreme +by the Infinite Spirit, and we conjecture that certain features of the +phenomenon of reflectivity can be accounted for only by postulating the +activity of the Supreme Mind. If the Supreme is not concerned in reflectivity, +we are at a loss to explain the intricate transactions and unerring operations +of this consciousness of the cosmos. + +Reflectivity appears to be omniscience within the limits of the experiential +finite and may represent the emergence of the presence-consciousness of the +Supreme Being. If this assumption is true, then the utilization of reflectivity +in any of its phases is equivalent to partial contact with the consciousness of +the Supreme. + +8. PERSONALITIES OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT + +The Infinite Spirit possesses full power to transmit many of his powers and +prerogatives to his co-ordinate and subordinate personalities and agencies. + +The first Deity-creating act of the Infinite Spirit, functioning apart from the +Trinity but in some unrevealed association with the Father and the Son, person- + + top of page - 106 + +alized in the existence of the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise, the +distributors of the Infinite Spirit to the universes. + +There is no direct representative of the Third Source and Center on the +headquarters of a superuniverse. Each of these seven creations is dependent on +one of the Master Spirits of Paradise, who acts through the seven Reflective +Spirits situated at the capital of the superuniverse. + +The next and continuing creative act of the Infinite Spirit is disclosed, from +time to time, in the production of the Creative Spirits. Every time the +Universal Father and the Eternal Son become parent to a Creator Son, the +Infinite Spirit becomes ancestor to a local universe Creative Spirit who +becomes the close associate of that Creator Son in all subsequent universe +experience. + +Just as it is necessary to distinguish between the Eternal Son and the Creator +Sons, so it is necessary to differentiate between the Infinite Spirit and the +Creative Spirits, the local universe co-ordinates of the Creator Sons. What the +Infinite Spirit is to the total creation, a Creative Spirit is to a local +universe. + +The Third Source and Center is represented in the grand universe by a vast +array of ministering spirits, messengers, teachers, adjudicators, helpers, and +advisers, together with supervisors of certain circuits of physical, morontial, +and spiritual nature. Not all of these beings are personalities in the strict +meaning of the term. Personality of the finite-creature variety is +characterized by: + +1. Subjective self-consciousness. + +2. Objective response to the Father's personality circuit. + +There are creator personalities and creature personalities, and in addition to +these two fundamental types there are personalities of the Third Source and +Center, beings who are personal to the Infinite Spirit, but who are not +unqualifiedly personal to creature beings. These Third Source personalities are +not a part of the Father's personality circuit. First Source personality and +Third Source personality are mutually contactable; all personality is +contactable. + +The Father bestows personality by his personal free will. Why he does so we can +only conjecture; how he does so we do not know. Neither do we know why the +Third Source bestows non-Father personality, but this the Infinite Spirit does +in his own behalf, in creative conjunction with the Eternal Son and in numerous +ways unknown to you. The Infinite Spirit can also act for the Father in the +bestowal of First Source personality. + +There are numerous types of Third Source personalities. The Infinite Spirit +bestows Third Source personality upon numerous groups who are not included in +the Father's personality circuit, such as certain of the power directors. +Likewise does the Infinite Spirit treat as personalities numerous groups of +beings, such as the Creative Spirits, who are in a class by themselves in their +relations to encircuited creatures of the Father. + +Both First Source and Third Source personalities are endowed with all and more +than man associates with the concept of personality; they have minds embracing +memory, reason, judgment, creative imagination, idea association, decision, +choice, and numerous additional powers of intellect wholly unknown to mortals. +With few exceptions the orders revealed to you possess form and distinct +individuality; they are real beings. A majority of them are visible to all +orders of spirit existence. + + top of page - 107 + +Even you will be able to see your spiritual associates of the lower orders as +soon as you are delivered from the limited vision of your present material eyes +and have been endowed with a morontia form with its enlarged sensitivity to the +reality of spiritual things. + +The functional family of the Third Source and Center, as it is revealed in +these narratives, falls into three great groups: + +I. The Supreme Spirits. A group of composite origin that embraces, among +others, the following orders: + +1. The Seven Master Spirits of Paradise. + +2. The Reflective Spirits of the Superuniverses. + +3. The Creative Spirits of the Local Universes. + +II. The Power Directors. A group of control creatures and agencies that +function throughout all organized space. + +III. The Personalities of the Infinite Spirit. This designation does not +necessarily imply that these beings are Third Source personalities though some +of them are unique as will creatures. They are usually grouped in three major +classifications: + +1. The Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit. + +2. The Messenger Hosts of Space. + +3. The Ministering Spirits of Time. + +These groups serve on Paradise, in the central or residential universe, in the +superuniverses, and they embrace orders that function in the local universes, +even to the constellations, systems, and planets. + +The spirit personalities of the vast family of the Divine and Infinite Spirit +are forever dedicated to the service of the ministry of the love of God and the +mercy of the Son to all the intelligent creatures of the evolutionary worlds of +time and space. These spirit beings constitute the living ladder whereby mortal +man climbs from chaos to glory. + +[Revealed on Urantia by a Divine Counselor of Uversa commissioned by the +Ancients of Days to portray the nature and work of the Infinite Spirit.] + + top of page - 108 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Infinite ³ The Paradise ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Sp... ³ Tr... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p010.txt b/religious documents/p010.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a47353 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p010.txt @@ -0,0 +1,605 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 10 The Paradise Trinity + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 10 The Paradise Trinity + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Paradise Trinity of eternal Deities facilitates the Father's escape from +personality absolutism. The Trinity perfectly associates the limitless +expression of God's infinite personal will with the absoluteness of Deity. The +Eternal Son and the various Sons of divine origin, together with the Conjoint +Actor and his universe children, effectively provide for the Father's +liberation from the limitations otherwise inherent in primacy, perfection, +changelessness, eternity, universality, absoluteness, and infinity. + +The Paradise Trinity effectively provides for the full expression and perfect +revelation of the eternal nature of Deity. The Stationary Sons of the Trinity +likewise afford a full and perfect revelation of divine justice. The Trinity is +Deity unity, and this unity rests eternally upon the absolute foundations of +the divine oneness of the three original and co-ordinate and coexistent +personalities, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. + +From the present situation on the circle of eternity, looking backward into the +endless past, we can discover only one inescapable inevitability in universe +affairs, and that is the Paradise Trinity. I deem the Trinity to have been +inevitable. As I view the past, present, and future of time, I consider nothing +else in all the universe of universes to have been inevitable. The present +master universe, viewed in retrospect or in prospect, is unthinkable without +the Trinity. Given the Paradise Trinity, we can postulate alternate or even +multiple ways of doing all things, but without the Trinity of Father, Son, and +Spirit we are unable to conceive how the Infinite could achieve threefold and +co-ordinate personalization in the face of the absolute oneness of Deity. No +other concept of creation measures up to the Trinity standards of the +completeness of the absoluteness inherent in Deity unity coupled with the +repleteness of volitional liberation inherent in the threefold personalization +of Deity. + +1. SELF-DISTRIBUTION OF THE FIRST SOURCE AND CENTER + +It would seem that the Father, back in eternity, inaugurated a policy of +profound self-distribution. There is inherent in the selfless, loving, and +lovable nature of the Universal Father something which causes him to reserve to +himself the exercise of only those powers and that authority which he +apparently finds it impossible to delegate or to bestow. + +The Universal Father all along has divested himself of every part of himself +that was bestowable on any other Creator or creature. He has delegated to his +divine Sons and their associated intelligences every power and all authority +that could be delegated. He has actually transferred to his Sovereign Sons, in +their respective universes, every prerogative of administrative authority that +was + + top of page - 109 + +transferable. In the affairs of a local universe, he has made each Sovereign +Creator Son just as perfect, competent, and authoritative as is the Eternal Son +in the original and central universe. He has given away, actually bestowed, +with the dignity and sanctity of personality possession, all of himself and all +of his attributes, everything he possibly could divest himself of, in every +way, in every age, in every place, and to every person, and in every universe +except that of his central indwelling. + +Divine personality is not self-centered; self-distribution and sharing of +personality characterize divine freewill selfhood. Creatures crave association +with other personal creatures; Creators are moved to share divinity with their +universe children; the personality of the Infinite is disclosed as the +Universal Father, who shares reality of being and equality of self with two +co-ordinate personalities, the Eternal Son and the Conjoint Actor. + +For knowledge concerning the Father's personality and divine attributes we will +always be dependent on the revelations of the Eternal Son, for when the +conjoint act of creation was effected, when the Third Person of Deity sprang +into personality existence and executed the combined concepts of his divine +parents, the Father ceased to exist as the unqualified personality. With the +coming into being of the Conjoint Actor and the materialization of the central +core of creation, certain eternal changes took place. God gave himself as an +absolute personality to his Eternal Son. Thus does the Father bestow the +"personality of infinity" upon his only-begotten Son, while they both bestow +the "conjoint personality" of their eternal union upon the Infinite Spirit. + +For these and other reasons beyond the concept of the finite mind, it is +exceedingly difficult for the human creature to comprehend God's infinite +father-personality except as it is universally revealed in the Eternal Son and, +with the Son, is universally active in the Infinite Spirit. + +Since the Paradise Sons of God visit the evolutionary worlds and sometimes even +there dwell in the likeness of mortal flesh, and since these bestowals make it +possible for mortal man actually to know something of the nature and character +of divine personality, therefore must the creatures of the planetary spheres +look to the bestowals of these Paradise Sons for reliable and trustworthy +information regarding the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. + +2. DEITY PERSONALIZATION + +By the technique of trinitization the Father divests himself of that +unqualified spirit personality which is the Son, but in so doing he constitutes +himself the Father of this very Son and thereby possesses himself of unlimited +capacity to become the divine Father of all subsequently created, eventuated, +or other personalized types of intelligent will creatures. As the absolute and +unqualified personality the Father can function only as and with the Son, but +as a personal Father he continues to bestow personality upon the diverse hosts +of the differing levels of intelligent will creatures, and he forever maintains +personal relations of loving association with this vast family of universe +children. + +After the Father has bestowed upon the personality of his Son the fullness of +himself, and when this act of self-bestowal is complete and perfect, of the +infinite power and nature which are thus existent in the Father-Son union, the +eternal partners conjointly bestow those qualities and attributes which +constitute still + + top of page - 110 + +another being like themselves; and this conjoint personality, the Infinite +Spirit, completes the existential personalization of Deity. + +The Son is indispensable to the fatherhood of God. The Spirit is indispensable +to the fraternity of the Second and Third Persons. Three persons are a minimum +social group, but this is least of all the many reasons for believing in the +inevitability of the Conjoint Actor. + +The First Source and Center is the infinite father-personality, the unlimited +source personality. The Eternal Son is the unqualified personality-absolute, +that divine being who stands throughout all time and eternity as the perfect +revelation of the personal nature of God. The Infinite Spirit is the conjoint +personality, the unique personal consequence of the everlasting Father-Son +union. + +The personality of the First Source and Center is the personality of infinity +minus the absolute personality of the Eternal Son. The personality of the Third +Source and Center is the superadditive consequence of the union of the +liberated Father-personality and the absolute Son-personality. + +The Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit are unique +persons; none is a duplicate; each is original; all are united. + +The Eternal Son alone experiences the fullness of divine personality +relationship, consciousness of both sonship with the Father and paternity to +the Spirit and of divine equality with both Father-ancestor and +Spirit-associate. The Father knows the experience of having a Son who is his +equal, but the Father knows no ancestral antecedents. The Eternal Son has the +experience of sonship, recognition of personality ancestry, and at the same +time the Son is conscious of being joint parent to the Infinite Spirit. The +Infinite Spirit is conscious of twofold personality ancestry but is not +parental to a co-ordinate Deity personality. With the Spirit the existential +cycle of Deity personalization attains completion; the primary personalities of +the Third Source and Center are experiential and are seven in number. + +I am of origin in the Paradise Trinity. I know the Trinity as unified Deity; I +also know that the Father, Son, and Spirit exist and act in their definite +personal capacities. I positively know that they not only act personally and +collectively, but that they also co-ordinate their performances in various +groupings, so that in the end they function in seven different singular and +plural capacities. And since these seven associations exhaust the possibilities +for such divinity combination, it is inevitable that the realities of the +universe shall appear in seven variations of values, meanings, and personality. + +3. THE THREE PERSONS OF DEITY + +Notwithstanding there is only one Deity, there are three positive and divine +personalizations of Deity. Regarding the endowment of man with the divine +Adjusters, the Father said: "Let us make mortal man in our own image." +Repeatedly throughout the Urantian writings there occurs this reference to the +acts and doings of plural Deity, clearly showing recognition of the existence +and working of the three Sources and Centers. + +We are taught that the Son and the Spirit sustain the same and equal relations +to the Father in the Trinity association. In eternity and as Deities they +undoubtedly do, but in time and as personalities they certainly disclose +relationships + + top of page - 111 + +of a very diverse nature. Looking from Paradise out on the universes, these +relationships do seem to be very similar, but when viewed from the domains of +space, they appear to be quite different. + +The divine Sons are indeed the "Word of God," but the children of the Spirit +are truly the "Act of God." God speaks through the Son and, with the Son, acts +through the Infinite Spirit, while in all universe activities the Son and the +Spirit are exquisitely fraternal, working as two equal brothers with admiration +and love for an honored and divinely respected common Father. + +The Father, Son, and Spirit are certainly equal in nature, co-ordinate in +being, but there are unmistakable differences in their universe performances, +and when acting alone, each person of Deity is apparently limited in +absoluteness. + +The Universal Father, prior to his self-willed divestment of the personality, +powers, and attributes which constitute the Son and the Spirit, seems to have +been (philosophically considered) an unqualified, absolute, and infinite Deity. +But such a theoretical First Source and Center without a Son could not in any +sense of the word be considered the Universal Father; fatherhood is not real +without sonship. Furthermore, the Father, to have been absolute in a total +sense, must have existed at some eternally distant moment alone. But he never +had such a solitary existence; the Son and the Spirit are both coeternal with +the Father. The First Source and Center has always been, and will forever be, +the eternal Father of the Original Son and, with the Son, the eternal +progenitor of the Infinite Spirit. + +We observe that the Father has divested himself of all direct manifestations of +absoluteness except absolute fatherhood and absolute volition. We do not know +whether volition is an inalienable attribute of the Father; we can only observe +that he did not divest himself of volition. Such infinity of will must have +been eternally inherent in the First Source and Center. + +In bestowing absoluteness of personality upon the Eternal Son, the Universal +Father escapes from the fetters of personality absolutism, but in so doing he +takes a step which makes it forever impossible for him to act alone as the +personality-absolute. And with the final personalization of coexistent +Deity--the Conjoint Actor--there ensues the critical trinitarian +interdependence of the three divine personalities with regard to the totality +of Deity function in absolute. + +God is the Father-Absolute of all personalities in the universe of universes. +The Father is personally absolute in liberty of action, but in the universes of +time and space, made, in the making, and yet to be made, the Father is not +discernibly absolute as total Deity except in the Paradise Trinity. + +The First Source and Center functions outside of Havona in the phenomenal +universes as follows: + +1. As creator, through the Creator Sons, his grandsons. + +2. As controller, through the gravity center of Paradise. + +3. As spirit, through the Eternal Son. + +4. As mind, through the Conjoint Creator. + +5. As a Father, he maintains parental contact with all creatures through his +personality circuit. + +6. As a person, he acts directly throughout creation by his exclusive +fragments--in mortal man by the Thought Adjusters. + +7. As total Deity, he functions only in the Paradise Trinity. + + top of page - 112 + +All these relinquishments and delegations of jurisdiction by the Universal +Father are wholly voluntary and self-imposed. The all-powerful Father +purposefully assumes these limitations of universe authority. + +The Eternal Son seems to function as one with the Father in all spiritual +respects except in the bestowals of the God fragments and in other prepersonal +activities. Neither is the Son closely identified with the intellectual +activities of material creatures nor with the energy activities of the material +universes. As absolute the Son functions as a person and only in the domain of +the spiritual universe. + +The Infinite Spirit is amazingly universal and unbelievably versatile in all +his operations. He performs in the spheres of mind, matter, and spirit. The +Conjoint Actor represents the Father-Son association, but he also functions as +himself. He is not directly concerned with physical gravity, with spiritual +gravity, or with the personality circuit, but he more or less participates in +all other universe activities. While apparently dependent on three existential +and absolute gravity controls, the Infinite Spirit appears to exercise three +supercontrols. This threefold endowment is employed in many ways to transcend +and seemingly to neutralize even the manifestations of primary forces and +energies, right up to the superultimate borders of absoluteness. In certain +situations these supercontrols absolutely transcend even the primal +manifestations of cosmic reality. + +4. THE TRINITY UNION OF DEITY + +Of all absolute associations, the Paradise Trinity (the first triunity) is +unique as an exclusive association of personal Deity. God functions as God only +in relation to God and to those who can know God, but as absolute Deity only in +the Paradise Trinity and in relation to universe totality. + +Eternal Deity is perfectly unified; nevertheless there are three perfectly +individualized persons of Deity. The Paradise Trinity makes possible the +simultaneous expression of all the diversity of the character traits and +infinite powers of the First Source and Center and his eternal co-ordinates and +of all the divine unity of the universe functions of undivided Deity. + +The Trinity is an association of infinite persons functioning in a nonpersonal +capacity but not in contravention of personality. The illustration is crude, +but a father, son, and grandson could form a corporate entity which would be +nonpersonal but nonetheless subject to their personal wills. + +The Paradise Trinity is real. It exists as the Deity union of Father, Son, and +Spirit; yet the Father, the Son, or the Spirit, or any two of them, can +function in relation to this selfsame Paradise Trinity. The Father, Son, and +Spirit can collaborate in a non-Trinity manner, but not as three Deities. As +persons they can collaborate as they choose, but that is not the Trinity. + +Ever remember that what the Infinite Spirit does is the function of the +Conjoint Actor. Both the Father and the Son are functioning in and through and +as him. But it would be futile to attempt to elucidate the Trinity mystery: +three as one and in one, and one as two and acting for two. + +The Trinity is so related to total universe affairs that it must be reckoned +with in our attempts to explain the totality of any isolated cosmic event or +personality relationship. The Trinity functions on all levels of the cosmos, +and mortal man is + + top of page - 113 + +limited to the finite level; therefore must man be content with a finite +concept of the Trinity as the Trinity. + +As a mortal in the flesh you should view the Trinity in accordance with your +individual enlightenment and in harmony with the reactions of your mind and +soul. You can know very little of the absoluteness of the Trinity, but as you +ascend Paradiseward, you will many times experience astonishment at successive +revelations and unexpected discoveries of Trinity supremacy and ultimacy, if +not of absoluteness. + +5. FUNCTIONS OF THE TRINITY + +The personal Deities have attributes, but it is hardly consistent to speak of +the Trinity as having attributes. This association of divine beings may more +properly be regarded as having functions, such as justice administration, +totality attitudes, co-ordinate action, and cosmic overcontrol. These functions +are actively supreme, ultimate, and (within the limits of Deity) absolute as +far as all living realities of personality value are concerned. + +The functions of the Paradise Trinity are not simply the sum of the Father's +apparent endowment of divinity plus those specialized attributes that are +unique in the personal existence of the Son and the Spirit. The Trinity +association of the three Paradise Deities results in the evolution, +eventuation, and deitization of new meanings, values, powers, and capacities +for universal revelation, action, and administration. Living associations, +human families, social groups, or the Paradise Trinity are not augmented by +mere arithmetical summation. The group potential is always far in excess of the +simple sum of the attributes of the component individuals. + +The Trinity maintains a unique attitude as the Trinity towards the entire +universe of the past, present, and future. And the functions of the Trinity can +best be considered in relation to the universe attitudes of the Trinity. Such +attitudes are simultaneous and may be multiple concerning any isolated +situation or event: + +1. Attitude toward the Finite. The maximum self-limitation of the Trinity is +its attitude toward the finite. The Trinity is not a person, nor is the Supreme +Being an exclusive personalization of the Trinity, but the Supreme is the +nearest approach to a power-personality focalization of the Trinity which can +be comprehended by finite creatures. Hence the Trinity in relation to the +finite is sometimes spoken of as the Trinity of Supremacy. + +2. Attitude toward the Absonite. The Paradise Trinity has regard for those +levels of existence which are more than finite but less than absolute, and this +relationship is sometimes denominated the Trinity of Ultimacy. Neither the +Ultimate nor the Supreme are wholly representative of the Paradise Trinity, but +in a qualified sense and to their respective levels, each seems to represent +the Trinity during the prepersonal eras of experiential-power development. + +3. The Absolute Attitude of the Paradise Trinity is in relation to absolute +existences and culminates in the action of total Deity. + +The Trinity Infinite involves the co-ordinate action of all triunity +relationships of the First Source and Center--undeified as well as deified--and +hence is very difficult for personalities to grasp. In the contemplation of the +Trinity as infinite, do not ignore the seven triunities; thereby certain +difficulties of understanding may be avoided, and certain paradoxes may be +partially resolved. + + top of page - 114 + +But I do not command language which would enable me to convey to the limited +human mind the full truth and the eternal significance of the Paradise Trinity +and the nature of the never-ending interassociation of the three beings of +infinite perfection. + +6. THE STATIONARY SONS OF THE TRINITY + +All law takes origin in the First Source and Center; he is law. The +administration of spiritual law inheres in the Second Source and Center. The +revelation of law, the promulgation and interpretation of the divine statutes, +is the function of the Third Source and Center. The application of law, +justice, falls within the province of the Paradise Trinity and is carried out +by certain Sons of the Trinity. + +Justice is inherent in the universal sovereignty of the Paradise Trinity, but +goodness, mercy, and truth are the universe ministry of the divine +personalities, whose Deity union constitutes the Trinity. Justice is not the +attitude of the Father, the Son, or the Spirit. Justice is the Trinity attitude +of these personalities of love, mercy, and ministry. No one of the Paradise +Deities fosters the administration of justice. Justice is never a personal +attitude; it is always a plural function. + +Evidence, the basis of fairness (justice in harmony with mercy), is supplied by +the personalities of the Third Source and Center, the conjoint representative +of the Father and the Son to all realms and to the minds of the intelligent +beings of all creation. + +Judgment, the final application of justice in accordance with the evidence +submitted by the personalities of the Infinite Spirit, is the work of the +Stationary Sons of the Trinity, beings partaking of the Trinity nature of the +united Father, Son, and Spirit. + +This group of Trinity Sons embraces the following personalities: + +1. Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy. + +2. Eternals of Days. + +3. Ancients of Days. + +4. Perfections of Days. + +5. Recents of Days. + +6. Unions of Days. + +7. Faithfuls of Days. + +8. Perfectors of Wisdom. + +9. Divine Counselors. + +10. Universal Censors. + +We are the children of the three Paradise Deities functioning as the Trinity, +for I chance to belong to the tenth order of this group, the Universal Censors. +These orders are not representative of the attitude of the Trinity in a +universal sense; they represent this collective attitude of Deity only in the +domains of executive judgment--justice. They were specifically designed by the +Trinity for the precise work to which they are assigned, and they represent the +Trinity only in those functions for which they were personalized. + + top of page - 115 + +The Ancients of Days and their Trinity-origin associates mete out the just +judgment of supreme fairness to the seven superuniverses. In the central +universe such functions exist in theory only; there fairness is self-evident in +perfection, and Havona perfection precludes all possibility of disharmony. + +Justice is the collective thought of righteousness; mercy is its personal +expression. Mercy is the attitude of love; precision characterizes the +operation of law; divine judgment is the soul of fairness, ever conforming to +the justice of the Trinity, ever fulfilling the divine love of God. When fully +perceived and completely understood, the righteous justice of the Trinity and +the merciful love of the Universal Father are coincident. But man has no such +full understanding of divine justice. Thus in the Trinity, as man would view +it, the personalities of Father, Son, and Spirit are adjusted to co-ordinate +ministry of love and law in the experiential universes of time. + +7. THE OVERCONTROL OF SUPREMACY + +The First, Second, and Third Persons of Deity are equal to each other, and they +are one. "The Lord our God is one God." There is perfection of purpose and +oneness of execution in the divine Trinity of eternal Deities. The Father, the +Son, and the Conjoint Actor are truly and divinely one. Of a truth it is +written: "I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God." + +As things appear to the mortal on the finite level, the Paradise Trinity, like +the Supreme Being, is concerned only with the total--total planet, total +universe, total superuniverse, total grand universe. This totality attitude +exists because the Trinity is the total of Deity and for many other reasons. + +The Supreme Being is something less and something other than the Trinity +functioning in the finite universes; but within certain limits and during the +present era of incomplete power-personalization, this evolutionary Deity does +appear to reflect the attitude of the Trinity of Supremacy. The Father, Son, +and Spirit do not personally function with the Supreme Being, but during the +present universe age they collaborate with him as the Trinity. We understand +that they sustain a similar relationship to the Ultimate. We often conjecture +as to what will be the personal relationship between the Paradise Deities and +God the Supreme when he has finally evolved, but we do not really know. + +We do not find the overcontrol of Supremacy to be wholly predictable. +Furthermore, this unpredictability appears to be characterized by a certain +developmental incompleteness, undoubtedly an earmark of the incompleteness of +the Supreme and of the incompleteness of finite reaction to the Paradise +Trinity. + +The mortal mind can immediately think of a thousand and one +things--catastrophic physical events, appalling accidents, horrific disasters, +painful illnesses, and world-wide scourges--and ask whether such visitations +are correlated in the unknown maneuvering of this probable functioning of the +Supreme Being. Frankly, we do not know; we are not really sure. But we do +observe that, as time passes, all these difficult and more or less mysterious +situations always work out for the welfare and progress of the universes. It +may be that the circumstances of existence and the inexplicable vicissitudes of +living are all interwoven into a meaningful pattern of high value by the +function of the Supreme and the overcontrol of the Trinity. + + top of page - 116 + +As a son of God you can discern the personal attitude of love in all the acts +of God the Father. But you will not always be able to understand how many of +the universe acts of the Paradise Trinity redound to the good of the individual +mortal on the evolutionary worlds of space. In the progress of eternity the +acts of the Trinity will be revealed as altogether meaningful and considerate, +but they do not always so appear to the creatures of time. + +8. THE TRINITY BEYOND THE FINITE + +Many truths and facts pertaining to the Paradise Trinity can only be even +partially comprehended by recognizing a function that transcends the finite. + +It would be inadvisable to discuss the functions of the Trinity of Ultimacy, +but it may be disclosed that God the Ultimate is the Trinity manifestation +comprehended by the Transcendentalers. We are inclined to the belief that the +unification of the master universe is the eventuating act of the Ultimate and +is probably reflective of certain, but not all, phases of the absonite +overcontrol of the Paradise Trinity. The Ultimate is a qualified manifestation +of the Trinity in relation to the absonite only in the sense that the Supreme +thus partially represents the Trinity in relation to the finite. + +The Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit are, in a +certain sense, the constituent personalities of total Deity. Their union in the +Paradise Trinity and the absolute function of the Trinity equivalate to the +function of total Deity. And such completion of Deity transcends both the +finite and the absonite. + +While no single person of the Paradise Deities actually fills all Deity +potential, collectively all three do. Three infinite persons seem to be the +minimum number of beings required to activate the prepersonal and existential +potential of total Deity--the Deity Absolute. + +We know the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit as +persons, but I do not personally know the Deity Absolute. I love and worship +God the Father; I respect and honor the Deity Absolute. + +I once sojourned in a universe where a certain group of beings taught that the +finaliters, in eternity, were eventually to become the children of the Deity +Absolute. But I am unwilling to accept this solution of the mystery which +enshrouds the future of the finaliters. + +The Corps of the Finality embrace, among others, those mortals of time and +space who have attained perfection in all that pertains to the will of God. As +creatures and within the limits of creature capacity they fully and truly know +God. Having thus found God as the Father of all creatures, these finaliters +must sometime begin the quest for the superfinite Father. But this quest +involves a grasp of the absonite nature of the ultimate attributes and +character of the Paradise Father. Eternity will disclose whether such an +attainment is possible, but we are convinced, even if the finaliters do grasp +this ultimate of divinity, they will probably be unable to attain the +superultimate levels of absolute Deity. + +It may be possible that the finaliters will partially attain the Deity +Absolute, but even if they should, still in the eternity of eternities the +problem of the Universal Absolute will continue to intrigue, mystify, baffle, +and challenge the ascending and progressing finaliters, for we perceive that +the unfathomability of + + top of page - 117 + +the cosmic relationships of the Universal Absolute will tend to grow in +proportions as the material universes and their spiritual administration +continue to expand. + +Only infinity can disclose the Father-Infinite. + +[Sponsored by a Universal Censor acting by authority from the Ancients of Days +resident on Uversa.] + + top of page - 118 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Relation Of ³ The Eternal ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ The... ³ Isl... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p011.txt b/religious documents/p011.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f56cf1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p011.txt @@ -0,0 +1,630 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 11 The Eternal Isle Of Paradise + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 11 The Eternal Isle Of Paradise + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +PARADISE is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding +place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their +divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic +organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a +material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation +of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the +absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be +reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real. + +The material beauty of Paradise consists in the magnificence of its physical +perfection; the grandeur of the Isle of God is exhibited in the superb +intellectual accomplishments and mind development of its inhabitants; the glory +of the central Isle is shown forth in the infinite endowment of divine spirit +personality--the light of life. But the depths of the spiritual beauty and the +wonders of this magnificent ensemble are utterly beyond the comprehension of +the finite mind of material creatures. The glory and spiritual splendor of the +divine abode are impossible of mortal comprehension. And Paradise is from +eternity; there are neither records nor traditions respecting the origin of +this nuclear Isle of Light and Life. + +1. THE DIVINE RESIDENCE + +Paradise serves many purposes in the administration of the universal realms, +but to creature beings it exists primarily as the dwelling place of Deity. The +personal presence of the Universal Father is resident at the very center of the +upper surface of this well-nigh circular, but not spherical, abode of the +Deities. This Paradise presence of the Universal Father is immediately +surrounded by the personal presence of the Eternal Son, while they are both +invested by the unspeakable glory of the Infinite Spirit. + +God dwells, has dwelt, and everlastingly will dwell in this same central and +eternal abode. We have always found him there and always will. The Universal +Father is cosmically focalized, spiritually personalized, and geographically +resident at this center of the universe of universes. + +We all know the direct course to pursue to find the Universal Father. You are +not able to comprehend much about the divine residence because of its +remoteness from you and the immensity of the intervening space, but those who +are able to comprehend the meaning of these enormous distances know God's +location and residence just as certainly and literally as you know the location +of New York, London, Rome, or Singapore, cities definitely and geographically +located on Urantia. If you were an intelligent navigator, equipped with ship, + + top of page - 119 + +maps, and compass, you could readily find these cities. Likewise, if you had +the time and means of passage, were spiritually qualified, and had the +necessary guidance, you could be piloted through universe upon universe and +from circuit to circuit, ever journeying inward through the starry realms, +until at last you would stand before the central shining of the spiritual glory +of the Universal Father. Provided with all the necessities for the journey, it +is just as possible to find the personal presence of God at the center of all +things as to find distant cities on your own planet. That you have not visited +these places in no way disproves their reality or actual existence. That so few +of the universe creatures have found God on Paradise in no way disproves either +the reality of his existence or the actuality of his spiritual person at the +center of all things. + +The Father is always to be found at this central location. Did he move, +universal pandemonium would be precipitated, for there converge in him at this +residential center the universal lines of gravity from the ends of creation. +Whether we trace the personality circuit back through the universes or follow +the ascending personalities as they journey inward to the Father; whether we +trace the lines of material gravity to nether Paradise or follow the insurging +cycles of cosmic force; whether we trace the lines of spiritual gravity to the +Eternal Son or follow the inward processional of the Paradise Sons of God; +whether we trace out the mind circuits or follow the trillions upon trillions +of celestial beings who spring from the Infinite Spirit--by any of these +observations or by all of them we are led directly back to the Father's +presence, to his central abode. Here is God personally, literally, and actually +present. And from his infinite being there flow the flood-streams of life, +energy, and personality to all universes. + +2. NATURE OF THE ETERNAL ISLE + +Since you are beginning to glimpse the enormousness of the material universe +discernible even from your astronomical location, your space position in the +starry systems, it should become evident to you that such a tremendous material +universe must have an adequate and worthy capital, a headquarters commensurate +with the dignity and infinitude of the universal Ruler of all this vast and +far-flung creation of material realms and living beings. + +In form Paradise differs from the inhabited space bodies: it is not spherical. +It is definitely ellipsoid, being one-sixth longer in the north-south diameter +than in the east-west diameter. The central Isle is essentially flat, and the +distance from the upper surface to the nether surface is one tenth that of the +east-west diameter. + +These differences in dimensions, taken in connection with its stationary status +and the greater out-pressure of force-energy at the north end of the Isle, make +it possible to establish absolute direction in the master universe. + +The central Isle is geographically divided into three domains of activity: + +1. Upper Paradise. + +2. Peripheral Paradise. + +3. Nether Paradise. + +We speak of that surface of Paradise which is occupied with personality +activities as the upper side, and the opposite surface as the nether side. The +periphery of Paradise provides for activities that are not strictly personal or + + top of page - 120 + +nonpersonal. The Trinity seems to dominate the personal or upper plane, the +Unqualified Absolute the nether or impersonal plane. We hardly conceive of the +Unqualified Absolute as a person, but we do think of the functional space +presence of this Absolute as focalized on nether Paradise. + +The eternal Isle is composed of a single form of materialization--stationary +systems of reality. This literal substance of Paradise is a homogeneous +organization of space potency not to be found elsewhere in all the wide +universe of universes. It has received many names in different universes, and +the Melchizedeks of Nebadon long since named it absolutum. This Paradise source +material is neither dead nor alive; it is the original nonspiritual expression +of the First Source and Center; it is Paradise, and Paradise is without +duplicate. + +It appears to us that the First Source and Center has concentrated all absolute +potential for cosmic reality in Paradise as a part of his technique of +self-liberation from infinity limitations, as a means of making possible +subinfinite, even time-space, creation. But it does not follow that Paradise is +time-space limited just because the universe of universes discloses these +qualities. Paradise exists without time and has no location in space. + +Roughly: space seemingly originates just below nether Paradise; time just above +upper Paradise. Time, as you understand it, is not a feature of Paradise +existence, though the citizens of the central Isle are fully conscious of +nontime sequence of events. Motion is not inherent on Paradise; it is +volitional. But the concept of distance, even absolute distance, has very much +meaning as it may be applied to relative locations on Paradise. Paradise is +nonspatial; hence its areas are absolute and therefore serviceable in many ways +beyond the concept of mortal mind. + +3. UPPER PARADISE + +On upper Paradise there are three grand spheres of activity, the Deity +presence, the Most Holy Sphere, and the Holy Area. The vast region immediately +surrounding the presence of the Deities is set aside as the Most Holy Sphere +and is reserved for the functions of worship, trinitization, and high spiritual +attainment. There are no material structures nor purely intellectual creations +in this zone; they could not exist there. It is useless for me to undertake to +portray to the human mind the divine nature and the beauteous grandeur of the +Most Holy Sphere of Paradise. This realm is wholly spiritual, and you are +almost wholly material. A purely spiritual reality is, to a purely material +being, apparently nonexistent. + +While there are no physical materializations in the area of the Most Holy, +there are abundant souvenirs of your material days in the Holy Land sectors and +still more in the reminiscent historic areas of peripheral Paradise. + +The Holy Area, the outlying or residential region, is divided into seven +concentric zones. Paradise is sometimes called "the Father's House" since it is +his eternal residence, and these seven zones are often designated "the Father's +Paradise mansions." The inner or first zone is occupied by Paradise Citizens +and the natives of Havona who may chance to be dwelling on Paradise. The next +or second zone is the residential area of the natives of the seven +superuniverses of time and space. This second zone is in part subdivided into +seven immense divisions, the Paradise home of the spirit beings and ascendant +creatures who hail from the universes of evolutionary progression. Each of +these sectors is exclu- + + top of page - 121 + +sively dedicated to the welfare and advancement of the personalities of a +single superuniverse, but these facilities are almost infinitely beyond the +requirements of the present seven superuniverses. + +Each of the seven sectors of Paradise is subdivided into residential units +suitable for the lodgment headquarters of one billion glorified individual +working groups. One thousand of these units constitute a division. One hundred +thousand divisions equal one congregation. Ten million congregations constitute +an assembly. One billion assemblies make one grand unit. And this ascending +series continues through the second grand unit, the third, and so on to the +seventh grand unit. And seven of the grand units make up the master units, and +seven of the master units constitute a superior unit; and thus by sevens the +ascending series expands through the superior, supersuperior, celestial, +supercelestial, to the supreme units. But even this does not utilize all the +space available. This staggering number of residential designations on +Paradise, a number beyond your concept, occupies considerably less than one per +cent of the assigned area of the Holy Land. There is still plenty of room for +those who are on their way inward, even for those who shall not start the +Paradise climb until the times of the eternal future. + +4. PERIPHERAL PARADISE + +The central Isle ends abruptly at the periphery, but its size is so enormous +that this terminal angle is relatively indiscernible within any circumscribed +area. The peripheral surface of Paradise is occupied, in part, by the landing +and dispatching fields for various groups of spirit personalities. Since the +nonpervaded-space zones nearly impinge upon the periphery, all personality +transports destined to Paradise land in these regions. Neither upper nor nether +Paradise is approachable by transport supernaphim or other types of space +traversers. + +The Seven Master Spirits have their personal seats of power and authority on +the seven spheres of the Spirit, which circle about Paradise in the space +between the shining orbs of the Son and the inner circuit of the Havona worlds, +but they maintain force-focal headquarters on the Paradise periphery. Here the +slowly circulating presences of the Seven Supreme Power Directors indicate the +location of the seven flash stations for certain Paradise energies going forth +to the seven superuniverses. + +Here on peripheral Paradise are the enormous historic and prophetic exhibit +areas assigned to the Creator Sons, dedicated to the local universes of time +and space. There are just seven trillion of these historic reservations now set +up or in reserve, but these arrangements all together occupy only about four +per cent of that portion of the peripheral area thus assigned. We infer that +these vast reserves belong to creations sometime to be situated beyond the +borders of the present known and inhabited seven superuniverses. + +That portion of Paradise which has been designated for the use of the existing +universes is occupied only from one to four per cent, while the area assigned +to these activities is at least one million times that actually required for +such purposes. Paradise is large enough to accommodate the activities of an +almost infinite creation. + +But a further attempt to visualize to you the glories of Paradise would be +futile. You must wait, and ascend while you wait, for truly, "Eye has not seen, +nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the mind of mortal man, the things + + top of page - 122 + +which the Universal Father has prepared for those who survive the life in the +flesh on the worlds of time and space." + +5. NETHER PARADISE + +Concerning nether Paradise, we know only that which is revealed; personalities +do not sojourn there. It has nothing whatever to do with the affairs of spirit +intelligences, nor does the Deity Absolute there function. We are informed that +all physical-energy and cosmic-force circuits have their origin on nether +Paradise, and that it is constituted as follows: + +1. Directly underneath the location of the Trinity, in the central portion of +nether Paradise, is the unknown and unrevealed Zone of Infinity. + +2. This Zone is immediately surrounded by an unnamed area. + +3. Occupying the outer margins of the under surface is a region having mainly +to do with space potency and force-energy. The activities of this vast +elliptical force center are not identifiable with the known functions of any +triunity, but the primordial force-charge of space appears to be focalized in +this area. This center consists of three concentric elliptical zones: The +innermost is the focal point of the force-energy activities of Paradise itself; +the outermost may possibly be identified with the functions of the Unqualified +Absolute, but we are not certain concerning the space functions of the +mid-zone. + +The inner zone of this force center seems to act as a gigantic heart whose +pulsations direct currents to the outermost borders of physical space. It +directs and modifies force-energies but hardly drives them. The reality +pressure-presence of this primal force is definitely greater at the north end +of the Paradise center than in the southern regions; this is a uniformly +registered difference. The mother force of space seems to flow in at the south +and out at the north through the operation of some unknown circulatory system +which is concerned with the diffusion of this basic form of force-energy. From +time to time there are also noted differences in the east-west pressures. The +forces emanating from this zone are not responsive to observable physical +gravity but are always obedient to Paradise gravity. + +The mid-zone of the force center immediately surrounds this area. This mid-zone +appears to be static except that it expands and contracts through three cycles +of activity. The least of these pulsations is in an east-west direction, the +next in a north-south direction, while the greatest fluctuation is in every +direction, a generalized expansion and contraction. The function of this +mid-area has never been really identified, but it must have something to do +with reciprocal adjustment between the inner and the outer zones of the force +center. It is believed by many that the mid-zone is the control mechanism of +the mid-space or quiet zones which separate the successive space levels of the +master universe, but no evidence or revelation confirms this. This inference is +derived from the knowledge that this mid-area is in some manner related to the +functioning of the nonpervaded-space mechanism of the master universe. + +The outer zone is the largest and most active of the three concentric and +elliptical belts of unidentified space potential. This area is the site of +unimagined activities, the central circuit point of emanations which proceed +spaceward in every direction to the outermost borders of the seven +superuniverses and on + + top of page - 123 + +beyond to overspread the enormous and incomprehensible domains of all outer +space. This space presence is entirely impersonal notwithstanding that in some +undisclosed manner it seems to be indirectly responsive to the will and +mandates of the infinite Deities when acting as the Trinity. This is believed +to be the central focalization, the Paradise center, of the space presence of +the Unqualified Absolute. + +All forms of force and all phases of energy seem to be encircuited; they +circulate throughout the universes and return by definite routes. But with the +emanations of the activated zone of the Unqualified Absolute there appears to +be either an outgoing or an incoming--never both simultaneously. This outer +zone pulsates in agelong cycles of gigantic proportions. For a little more than +one billion Urantia years the space-force of this center is outgoing; then for +a similar length of time it will be incoming. And the space-force +manifestations of this center are universal; they extend throughout all +pervadable space. + +All physical force, energy, and matter are one. All force-energy originally +proceeded from nether Paradise and will eventually return thereto following the +completion of its space circuit. But the energies and material organizations of +the universe of universes did not all come from nether Paradise in their +present phenomenal states; space is the womb of several forms of matter and +prematter. Though the outer zone of the Paradise force center is the source of +space-energies, space does not originate there. Space is not force, energy, or +power. Nor do the pulsations of this zone account for the respiration of space, +but the incoming and outgoing phases of this zone are synchronized with the +two-billion-year expansion-contraction cycles of space. + +6. SPACE RESPIRATION + +We do not know the actual mechanism of space respiration; we merely observe +that all space alternately contracts and expands. This respiration affects both +the horizontal extension of pervaded space and the vertical extensions of +unpervaded space which exist in the vast space reservoirs above and below +Paradise. In attempting to imagine the volume outlines of these space +reservoirs, you might think of an hourglass. + +As the universes of the horizontal extension of pervaded space expand, the +reservoirs of the vertical extension of unpervaded space contract and vice +versa. There is a confluence of pervaded and unpervaded space just underneath +nether Paradise. Both types of space there flow through the transmuting +regulation channels, where changes are wrought making pervadable space +nonpervadable and vice versa in the contraction and expansion cycles of the +cosmos. + +"Unpervaded" space means: unpervaded by those forces, energies, powers, and +presences known to exist in pervaded space. We do not know whether vertical +(reservoir) space is destined always to function as the equipoise of horizontal +(universe) space; we do not know whether there is a creative intent concerning +unpervaded space; we really know very little about the space reservoirs, merely +that they exist, and that they seem to counterbalance the +space-expansion-contraction cycles of the universe of universes. + +The cycles of space respiration extend in each phase for a little more than one +billion Urantia years. During one phase the universes expand; during the + + top of page - 124 + +next they contract. Pervaded space is now approaching the mid-point of the +expanding phase, while unpervaded space nears the mid-point of the contracting +phase, and we are informed that the outermost limits of both space extensions +are, theoretically, now approximately equidistant from Paradise. The +unpervaded-space reservoirs now extend vertically above upper Paradise and +below nether Paradise just as far as the pervaded space of the universe extends +horizontally outward from peripheral Paradise to and even beyond the fourth +outer space level. + +For a billion years of Urantia time the space reservoirs contract while the +master universe and the force activities of all horizontal space expand. It +thus requires a little over two billion Urantia years to complete the entire +expansion-contraction cycle. + +7. SPACE FUNCTIONS OF PARADISE + +Space does not exist on any of the surfaces of Paradise. If one "looked" +directly up from the upper surface of Paradise, one would "see" nothing but +unpervaded space going out or coming in, just now coming in. Space does not +touch Paradise; only the quiescent midspace zones come in contact with the +central Isle. + +Paradise is the actually motionless nucleus of the relatively quiescent zones +existing between pervaded and unpervaded space. Geographically these zones +appear to be a relative extension of Paradise, but there probably is some +motion in them. We know very little about them, but we observe that these zones +of lessened space motion separate pervaded and unpervaded space. Similar zones +once existed between the levels of pervaded space, but these are now less +quiescent. + +The vertical cross section of total space would slightly resemble a maltese +cross, with the horizontal arms representing pervaded (universe) space and the +vertical arms representing unpervaded (reservoir) space. The areas between the +four arms would separate them somewhat as the midspace zones separate pervaded +and unpervaded space. These quiescent midspace zones grow larger and larger at +greater and greater distances from Paradise and eventually encompass the +borders of all space and completely incapsulate both the space reservoirs and +the entire horizontal extension of pervaded space. + +Space is neither a subabsolute condition within, nor the presence of, the +Unqualified Absolute, neither is it a function of the Ultimate. It is a +bestowal of Paradise, and the space of the grand universe and that of all outer +regions is believed to be actually pervaded by the ancestral space potency of +the Unqualified Absolute. From near approach to peripheral Paradise, this +pervaded space extends horizontally outward through the fourth space level and +beyond the periphery of the master universe, but how far beyond we do not know. + +If you imagine a finite, but inconceivably large, V-shaped plane situated at +right angles to both the upper and lower surfaces of Paradise, with its point +nearly tangent to peripheral Paradise, and then visualize this plane in +elliptical revolution about Paradise, its revolution would roughly outline the +volume of pervaded space. + +There is an upper and a lower limit to horizontal space with reference to any +given location in the universes. If one could move far enough at right angles +to + + top of page - 125 + +the plane of Orvonton, either up or down, eventually the upper or lower limit +of pervaded space would be encountered. Within the known dimensions of the +master universe these limits draw farther and farther apart at greater and +greater distances from Paradise; space thickens, and it thickens somewhat +faster than does the plane of creation, the universes. + +The relatively quiet zones between the space levels, such as the one separating +the seven superuniverses from the first outer space level, are enormous +elliptical regions of quiescent space activities. These zones separate the vast +galaxies which race around Paradise in orderly procession. You may visualize +the first outer space level, where untold universes are now in process of +formation, as a vast procession of galaxies swinging around Paradise, bounded +above and below by the midspace zones of quiescence and bounded on the inner +and outer margins by relatively quiet space zones. + +A space level thus functions as an elliptical region of motion surrounded on +all sides by relative motionlessness. Such relationships of motion and +quiescence constitute a curved space path of lessened resistance to motion +which is universally followed by cosmic force and emergent energy as they +circle forever around the Isle of Paradise. + +This alternate zoning of the master universe, in association with the alternate +clockwise and counterclockwise flow of the galaxies, is a factor in the +stabilization of physical gravity designed to prevent the accentuation of +gravity pressure to the point of disruptive and dispersive activities. Such an +arrangement exerts antigravity influence and acts as a brake upon otherwise +dangerous velocities. + +8. PARADISE GRAVITY + +The inescapable pull of gravity effectively grips all the worlds of all the +universes of all space. Gravity is the all-powerful grasp of the physical +presence of Paradise. Gravity is the omnipotent strand on which are strung the +gleaming stars, blazing suns, and whirling spheres which constitute the +universal physical adornment of the eternal God, who is all things, fills all +things, and in whom all things consist. + +The center and focal point of absolute material gravity is the Isle of +Paradise, complemented by the dark gravity bodies encircling Havona and +equilibrated by the upper and nether space reservoirs. All known emanations of +nether Paradise invariably and unerringly respond to the central gravity pull +operating upon the endless circuits of the elliptical space levels of the +master universe. Every known form of cosmic reality has the bend of the ages, +the trend of the circle, the swing of the great ellipse. + +Space is nonresponsive to gravity, but it acts as an equilibrant on gravity. +Without the space cushion, explosive action would jerk surrounding space +bodies. Pervaded space also exerts an antigravity influence upon physical or +linear gravity; space can actually neutralize such gravity action even though +it cannot delay it. Absolute gravity is Paradise gravity. Local or linear +gravity pertains to the electrical stage of energy or matter; it operates +within the central, super-, and outer universes, wherever suitable +materialization has taken place. + +The numerous forms of cosmic force, physical energy, universe power, and +various materializations disclose three general, though not perfectly +clear-cut, stages of response to Paradise gravity: + + top of page - 126 + +1. Pregravity Stages (Force). This is the first step in the individuation of +space potency into the pre-energy forms of cosmic force. This state is +analogous to the concept of the primordial force-charge of space, sometimes +called pure energy or segregata. + +2. Gravity Stages (Energy). This modification of the force-charge of space is +produced by the action of the Paradise force organizers. It signalizes the +appearance of energy systems responsive to the pull of Paradise gravity. This +emergent energy is originally neutral but consequent upon further metamorphosis +will exhibit the so-called negative and positive qualities. We designate these +stages ultimata. + +3. Postgravity Stages (Universe Power). In this stage, energy-matter discloses +response to the control of linear gravity. In the central universe these +physical systems are threefold organizations known as triata. They are the +superpower mother systems of the creations of time and space. The physical +systems of the superuniverses are mobilized by the Universe Power Directors and +their associates. These material organizations are dual in constitution and are +known as gravita. The dark gravity bodies encircling Havona are neither triata +nor gravita, and their drawing power discloses both forms of physical gravity, +linear and absolute. + +Space potency is not subject to the interactions of any form of gravitation. +This primal endowment of Paradise is not an actual level of reality, but it is +ancestral to all relative functional nonspirit realities--all manifestations of +force-energy and the organization of power and matter. Space potency is a term +difficult to define. It does not mean that which is ancestral to space; its +meaning should convey the idea of the potencies and potentials existent within +space. It may be roughly conceived to include all those absolute influences and +potentials which emanate from Paradise and constitute the space presence of the +Unqualified Absolute. + +Paradise is the absolute source and the eternal focal point of all +energy-matter in the universe of universes. The Unqualified Absolute is the +revealer, regulator, and repository of that which has Paradise as its source +and origin. The universal presence of the Unqualified Absolute seems to be +equivalent to the concept of a potential infinity of gravity extension, an +elastic tension of Paradise presence. This concept aids us in grasping the fact +that everything is drawn inward towards Paradise. The illustration is crude but +nonetheless helpful. It also explains why gravity always acts preferentially in +the plane perpendicular to the mass, a phenomenon indicative of the +differential dimensions of Paradise and the surrounding creations. + +9. THE UNIQUENESS OF PARADISE + +Paradise is unique in that it is the realm of primal origin and the final goal +of destiny for all spirit personalities. Although it is true that not all of +the lower spirit beings of the local universes are immediately destined to +Paradise, Paradise still remains the goal of desire for all supermaterial +personalities. + +Paradise is the geographic center of infinity; it is not a part of universal +creation, not even a real part of the eternal Havona universe. We commonly +refer to the central Isle as belonging to the divine universe, but it really +does not. Paradise is an eternal and exclusive existence. + + top of page - 127 + +In the eternity of the past, when the Universal Father gave infinite +personality expression of his spirit self in the being of the Eternal Son, +simultaneously he revealed the infinity potential of his nonpersonal self as +Paradise. Nonpersonal and nonspiritual Paradise appears to have been the +inevitable repercussion to the Father's will and act which eternalized the +Original Son. Thus did the Father project reality in two actual phases--the +personal and the nonpersonal, the spiritual and the nonspiritual. The tension +between them, in the face of will to action by the Father and the Son, gave +existence to the Conjoint Actor and the central universe of material worlds and +spiritual beings. + +When reality is differentiated into the personal and the nonpersonal (Eternal +Son and Paradise), it is hardly proper to call that which is nonpersonal +"Deity" unless somehow qualified. The energy and material repercussions of the +acts of Deity could hardly be called Deity. Deity may cause much that is not +Deity, and Paradise is not Deity; neither is it conscious as mortal man could +ever possibly understand such a term. + +Paradise is not ancestral to any being or living entity; it is not a creator. +Personality and mind-spirit relationships are transmissible, but pattern is +not. Patterns are never reflections; they are duplications--reproductions. +Paradise is the absolute of patterns; Havona is an exhibit of these potentials +in actuality. + +God's residence is central and eternal, glorious and ideal. His home is the +beauteous pattern for all universe headquarters worlds; and the central +universe of his immediate indwelling is the pattern for all universes in their +ideals, organization, and ultimate destiny. + +Paradise is the universal headquarters of all personality activities and the +source-center of all force-space and energy manifestations. Everything which +has been, now is, or is yet to be, has come, now comes, or will come forth from +this central abiding place of the eternal Gods. Paradise is the center of all +creation, the source of all energies, and the place of primal origin of all +personalities. + +After all, to mortals the most important thing about eternal Paradise is the +fact that this perfect abode of the Universal Father is the real and +far-distant destiny of the immortal souls of the mortal and material sons of +God, the ascending creatures of the evolutionary worlds of time and space. +Every God-knowing mortal who has espoused the career of doing the Father's will +has already embarked upon the long, long Paradise trail of divinity pursuit and +perfection attainment. And when such an animal-origin being does stand, as +countless numbers now do, before the Gods on Paradise, having ascended from the +lowly spheres of space, such an achievement represents the reality of a +spiritual transformation bordering on the limits of supremacy. + +[Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom commissioned thus to function by the +Ancients of Days on Uversa.] + + top of page - 128 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Paradise ³ The Universe ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Tr... ³ Of... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p012.txt b/religious documents/p012.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de4ef19 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p012.txt @@ -0,0 +1,899 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 12 The Universe Of Universes + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 12 The Universe Of Universes + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE immensity of the far-flung creation of the Universal Father is utterly +beyond the grasp of finite imagination; the enormousness of the master universe +staggers the concept of even my order of being. But the mortal mind can be +taught much about the plan and arrangement of the universes; you can know +something of their physical organization and marvelous administration; you may +learn much about the various groups of intelligent beings who inhabit the seven +superuniverses of time and the central universe of eternity. + +In principle, that is, in eternal potential, we conceive of material creation +as being infinite because the Universal Father is actually infinite, but as we +study and observe the total material creation, we know that at any given moment +in time it is limited, although to your finite minds it is comparatively +limitless, virtually boundless. + +We are convinced, from the study of physical law and from the observation of +the starry realms, that the infinite Creator is not yet manifest in finality of +cosmic expression, that much of the cosmic potential of the Infinite is still +self-contained and unrevealed. To created beings the master universe might +appear to be almost infinite, but it is far from finished; there are still +physical limits to the material creation, and the experiential revelation of +the eternal purpose is still in progress. + +1. SPACE LEVELS OF THE MASTER UNIVERSE + +The universe of universes is not an infinite plane, a boundless cube, nor a +limitless circle; it certainly has dimensions. The laws of physical +organization and administration prove conclusively that the whole vast +aggregation of force-energy and matter-power functions ultimately as a space +unit, as an organized and co-ordinated whole. The observable behavior of the +material creation constitutes evidence of a physical universe of definite +limits. The final proof of both a circular and delimited universe is afforded +by the, to us, well-known fact that all forms of basic energy ever swing around +the curved path of the space levels of the master universe in obedience to the +incessant and absolute pull of Paradise gravity. + +The successive space levels of the master universe constitute the major +divisions of pervaded space--total creation, organized and partially inhabited +or yet to be organized and inhabited. If the master universe were not a series +of elliptical space levels of lessened resistance to motion, alternating with +zones of relative quiescence, we conceive that some of the cosmic energies +would be observed to shoot off on an infinite range, off on a straight-line +path into trackless + + top of page - 129 + +space; but we never find force, energy, or matter thus behaving; ever they +whirl, always swinging onward in the tracks of the great space circuits. + +Proceeding outward from Paradise through the horizontal extension of pervaded +space, the master universe is existent in six concentric ellipses, the space +levels encircling the central Isle: + +1. The Central Universe--Havona. + +2. The Seven Superuniverses. + +3. The First Outer Space Level. + +4. The Second Outer Space Level. + +5. The Third Outer Space Level. + +6. The Fourth and Outermost Space Level. + +Havona, the central universe, is not a time creation; it is an eternal +existence. This never-beginning, never-ending universe consists of one billion +spheres of sublime perfection and is surrounded by the enormous dark gravity +bodies. At the center of Havona is the stationary and absolutely stabilized +Isle of Paradise, surrounded by its twenty-one satellites. Owing to the +enormous encircling masses of the dark gravity bodies about the fringe of the +central universe, the mass content of this central creation is far in excess of +the total known mass of all seven sectors of the grand universe. + +The Paradise-Havona System, the eternal universe encircling the eternal Isle, +constitutes the perfect and eternal nucleus of the master universe; all seven +of the superuniverses and all regions of outer space revolve in established +orbits around the gigantic central aggregation of the Paradise satellites and +the Havona spheres. + +The Seven Superuniverses are not primary physical organizations; nowhere do +their boundaries divide a nebular family, neither do they cross a local +universe, a prime creative unit. Each superuniverse is simply a geographic +space clustering of approximately one seventh of the organized and partially +inhabited post-Havona creation, and each is about equal in the number of local +universes embraced and in the space encompassed. Nebadon, your local universe, +is one of the newer creations in Orvonton, the seventh superuniverse. + +The Grand Universe is the present organized and inhabited creation. It consists +of the seven superuniverses, with an aggregate evolutionary potential of around +seven trillion inhabited planets, not to mention the eternal spheres of the +central creation. But this tentative estimate takes no account of architectural +administrative spheres, neither does it include the outlying groups of +unorganized universes. The present ragged edge of the grand universe, its +uneven and unfinished periphery, together with the tremendously unsettled +condition of the whole astronomical plot, suggests to our star students that +even the seven super-universes are, as yet, uncompleted. As we move from +within, from the divine center outward in any one direction, we do, eventually, +come to the outer limits of the organized and inhabited creation; we come to +the outer limits of the grand universe. And it is near this outer border, in a +far-off corner of such a magnificent creation, that your local universe has its +eventful existence. + +The Outer Space Levels. Far out in space, at an enormous distance from the +seven inhabited superuniverses, there are assembling vast and unbelievably + + top of page - 130 + +stupendous circuits of force and materializing energies. Between the energy +circuits of the seven superuniverses and this gigantic outer belt of force +activity, there is a space zone of comparative quiet, which varies in width but +averages about four hundred thousand light-years. These space zones are free +from star dust--cosmic fog. Our students of these phenomena are in doubt as to +the exact status of the space-forces existing in this zone of relative quiet +which encircles the seven superuniverses. But about one-half million +light-years beyond the periphery of the present grand universe we observe the +beginnings of a zone of an unbelievable energy action which increases in volume +and intensity for over twenty-five million light-years. These tremendous wheels +of energizing forces are situated in the first outer space level, a continuous +belt of cosmic activity encircling the whole of the known, organized, and +inhabited creation. + +Still greater activities are taking place beyond these regions, for the Uversa +physicists have detected early evidence of force manifestations more than fifty +million light-years beyond the outermost ranges of the phenomena in the first +outer space level. These activities undoubtedly presage the organization of the +material creations of the second outer space level of the master universe. + +The central universe is the creation of eternity; the seven superuniverses are +the creations of time; the four outer space levels are undoubtedly destined to +eventuate-evolve the ultimacy of creation. And there are those who maintain +that the Infinite can never attain full expression short of infinity; and +therefore do they postulate an additional and unrevealed creation beyond the +fourth and outermost space level, a possible ever-expanding, never-ending +universe of infinity. In theory we do not know how to limit either the infinity +of the Creator or the potential infinity of creation, but as it exists and is +administered, we regard the master universe as having limitations, as being +definitely delimited and bounded on its outer margins by open space. + +2. THE DOMAINS OF THE UNQUALIFIED ABSOLUTE + +When Urantia astronomers peer through their increasingly powerful telescopes +into the mysterious stretches of outer space and there behold the amazing +evolution of almost countless physical universes, they should realize that they +are gazing upon the mighty outworking of the unsearchable plans of the +Architects of the Master Universe. True, we do possess evidences which are +suggestive of the presence of certain Paradise personality influences here and +there throughout the vast energy manifestations now characteristic of these +outer regions, but from the larger viewpoint the space regions extending beyond +the outer borders of the seven superuniverses are generally recognized as +constituting the domains of the Unqualified Absolute. + +Although the unaided human eye can see only two or three nebulae outside the +borders of the superuniverse of Orvonton, your telescopes literally reveal +millions upon millions of these physical universes in process of formation. +Most of the starry realms visually exposed to the search of your present-day +telescopes are in Orvonton, but with photographic technique the larger +telescopes penetrate far beyond the borders of the grand universe into the +domains of outer space, where untold universes are in process of organization. +And there are yet other millions of universes beyond the range of your present +instruments. + +In the not-distant future, new telescopes will reveal to the wondering gaze of +Urantian astronomers no less than 375 million new galaxies in the remote + + top of page - 131 + +stretches of outer space. At the same time these more powerful telescopes will +disclose that many island universes formerly believed to be in outer space are +really a part of the galactic system of Orvonton. The seven superuniverses are +still growing; the periphery of each is gradually expanding; new nebulae are +constantly being stabilized and organized; and some of the nebulae which +Urantian astronomers regard as extragalactic are actually on the fringe of +Orvonton and are traveling along with us. + +The Uversa star students observe that the grand universe is surrounded by the +ancestors of a series of starry and planetary clusters which completely +encircle the present inhabited creation as concentric rings of outer universes +upon universes. The physicists of Uversa calculate that the energy and matter +of these outer and uncharted regions already equal many times the total +material mass and energy charge embraced in all seven superuniverses. We are +informed that the metamorphosis of cosmic force in these outer space levels is +a function of the Paradise force organizers. We also know that these forces are +ancestral to those physical energies which at present activate the grand +universe. The Orvonton power directors, however, have nothing to do with these +far-distant realms, neither are the energy movements therein discernibly +connected with the power circuits of the organized and inhabited creations. + +We know very little of the significance of these tremendous phenomena of outer +space. A greater creation of the future is in process of formation. We can +observe its immensity, we can discern its extent and sense its majestic +dimensions, but otherwise we know little more about these realms than do the +astronomers of Urantia. As far as we know, no material beings on the order of +humans, no angels or other spirit creatures, exist in this outer ring of +nebulae, suns, and planets. This distant domain is beyond the jurisdiction and +administration of the superuniverse governments. + +Throughout Orvonton it is believed that a new type of creation is in process, +an order of universes destined to become the scene of the future activities of +the assembling Corps of the Finality; and if our conjectures are correct, then +the endless future may hold for all of you the same enthralling spectacles that +the endless past has held for your seniors and predecessors. + +3. UNIVERSAL GRAVITY + +All forms of force-energy--material, mindal, or spiritual--are alike subject to +those grasps, those universal presences, which we call gravity. Personality +also is responsive to gravity--to the Father's exclusive circuit; but though +this circuit is exclusive to the Father, he is not excluded from the other +circuits; the Universal Father is infinite and acts over all four +absolute-gravity circuits in the master universe: + +1. The Personality Gravity of the Universal Father. + +2. The Spirit Gravity of the Eternal Son. + +3. The Mind Gravity of the Conjoint Actor. + +4. The Cosmic Gravity of the Isle of Paradise. + +These four circuits are not related to the nether Paradise force center; they +are neither force, energy, nor power circuits. They are absolute presence +circuits and like God are independent of time and space. + + top of page - 132 + +In this connection it is interesting to record certain observations made on +Uversa during recent millenniums by the corps of gravity researchers. This +expert group of workers has arrived at the following conclusions regarding the +different gravity systems of the master universe: + +1. Physical Gravity. Having formulated an estimate of the summation of the +entire physical-gravity capacity of the grand universe, they have laboriously +effected a comparison of this finding with the estimated total of absolute +gravity presence now operative. These calculations indicate that the total +gravity action on the grand universe is a very small part of the estimated +gravity pull of Paradise, computed on the basis of the gravity response of +basic physical units of universe matter. These investigators reach the amazing +conclusion that the central universe and the surrounding seven superuniverses +are at the present time making use of only about five per cent of the active +functioning of the Paradise absolute-gravity grasp. In other words: At the +present moment about ninety-five per cent of the active cosmic-gravity action +of the Isle of Paradise, computed on this totality theory, is engaged in +controlling material systems beyond the borders of the present organized +universes. These calculations all refer to absolute gravity; linear gravity is +an interactive phenomenon which can be computed only by knowing the actual +Paradise gravity. + +2. Spiritual Gravity. By the same technique of comparative estimation and +calculation these researchers have explored the present reaction capacity of +spirit gravity and, with the co-operation of Solitary Messengers and other +spirit personalities, have arrived at the summation of the active spirit +gravity of the Second Source and Center. And it is most instructive to note +that they find about the same value for the actual and functional presence of +spirit gravity in the grand universe that they postulate for the present total +of active spirit gravity. In other words: At the present time practically the +entire spirit gravity of the Eternal Son, computed on this theory of totality, +is observable as functioning in the grand universe. If these findings are +dependable, we may conclude that the universes now evolving in outer space are +at the present time wholly nonspiritual. And if this is true, it would +satisfactorily explain why spirit-endowed beings are in possession of little or +no information about these vast energy manifestations aside from knowing the +fact of their physical existence. + +3. Mind Gravity. By these same principles of comparative computation these +experts have attacked the problem of mind-gravity presence and response. The +mind unit of estimation was arrived at by averaging three material and three +spiritual types of mentality, although the type of mind found in the power +directors and their associates proved to be a disturbing factor in the effort +to arrive at a basic unit for mind-gravity estimation. There was little to +impede the estimation of the present capacity of the Third Source and Center +for mind-gravity function in accordance with this theory of totality. Although +the findings in this instance are not so conclusive as in the estimates of +physical and spirit gravity, they are, comparatively considered, very +instructive, even intriguing. These investigators deduce that about eighty-five +per cent of the mind-gravity response to the intellectual drawing of the +Conjoint Actor takes origin in the existing grand universe. This would suggest +the possibility that mind activities are involved in connection with the +observable physical activities now in progress throughout the realms of outer +space. While this estimate is probably far from accurate, it accords, in +principle, with our belief that intelligent force organizers + + top of page - 133 + +are at present directing universe evolution in the space levels beyond the +present outer limits of the grand universe. Whatever the nature of this +postulated intelligence, it is apparently not spirit-gravity responsive. + +But all these computations are at best estimates based on assumed laws. We +think they are fairly reliable. Even if a few spirit beings were located in +outer space, their collective presence would not markedly influence +calculations involving such enormous measurements. + +Personality Gravity is noncomputable. We recognize the circuit, but we cannot +measure either qualitative or quantitative realities responsive thereto. + +4. SPACE AND MOTION + +All units of cosmic energy are in primary revolution, are engaged in the +execution of their mission, while swinging around the universal orbit. The +universes of space and their component systems and worlds are all revolving +spheres, moving along the endless circuits of the master universe space levels. +Absolutely nothing is stationary in all the master universe except the very +center of Havona, the eternal Isle of Paradise, the center of gravity. + +The Unqualified Absolute is functionally limited to space, but we are not so +sure about the relation of this Absolute to motion. Is motion inherent therein? +We do not know. We know that motion is not inherent in space; even the motions +of space are not innate. But we are not so sure about the relation of the +Unqualified to motion. Who, or what, is really responsible for the gigantic +activities of force-energy transmutations now in progress out beyond the +borders of the present seven superuniverses? Concerning the origin of motion we +have the following opinions: + +1. We think the Conjoint Actor initiates motion in space. + +2. If the Conjoint Actor produces the motions of space, we cannot prove it. + +3. The Universal Absolute does not originate initial motion but does equalize +and control all of the tensions originated by motion. + +In outer space the force organizers are apparently responsible for the +production of the gigantic universe wheels which are now in process of stellar +evolution, but their ability so to function must have been made possible by +some modification of the space presence of the Unqualified Absolute. + +Space is, from the human viewpoint, nothing--negative; it exists only as +related to something positive and nonspatial. Space is, however, real. It +contains and conditions motion. It even moves. Space motions may be roughly +classified as follows: + +1. Primary motion--space respiration, the motion of space itself. + +2. Secondary motion--the alternate directional swings of the successive space +levels. + +3. Relative motions--relative in the sense that they are not evaluated with +Paradise as a base point. Primary and secondary motions are absolute, motion in +relation to unmoving Paradise. + +4. Compensatory or correlating movement designed to co-ordinate all other +motions. + + top of page - 134 + +The present relationship of your sun and its associated planets, while +disclosing many relative and absolute motions in space, tends to convey the +impression to astronomic observers that you are comparatively stationary in +space, and that the surrounding starry clusters and streams are engaged in +outward flight at ever-increasing velocities as your calculations proceed +outward in space. But such is not the case. You fail to recognize the present +outward and uniform expansion of the physical creations of all pervaded space. +Your own local creation (Nebadon) participates in this movement of universal +outward expansion. The entire seven superuniverses participate in the +two-billion-year cycles of space respiration along with the outer regions of +the master universe. + +When the universes expand and contract, the material masses in pervaded space +alternately move against and with the pull of Paradise gravity. The work that +is done in moving the material energy mass of creation is space work but not +power-energy work. + +Although your spectroscopic estimations of astronomic velocities are fairly +reliable when applied to the starry realms belonging to your superuniverse and +its associate superuniverses, such reckonings with reference to the realms of +outer space are wholly unreliable. Spectral lines are displaced from the normal +towards the violet by an approaching star; likewise these lines are displaced +towards the red by a receding star. Many influences interpose to make it appear +that the recessional velocity of the external universes increases at the rate +of more than one hundred miles a second for every million light-years increase +in distance. By this method of reckoning, subsequent to the perfection of more +powerful telescopes, it will appear that these far-distant systems are in +flight from this part of the universe at the unbelievable rate of more than +thirty thousand miles a second. But this apparent speed of recession is not +real; it results from numerous factors of error embracing angles of observation +and other time-space distortions. + +But the greatest of all such distortions arises because the vast universes of +outer space in the realms next to the domains of the seven superuniverses seem +to be revolving in a direction opposite to that of the grand universe. That is, +these myriads of nebulae and their accompanying suns and spheres are at the +present time revolving clockwise about the central creation. The seven +superuniverses revolve about Paradise in a counterclockwise direction. It +appears that the second outer universe of galaxies, like the seven +superuniverses, revolves counterclockwise about Paradise. And the astronomic +observers of Uversa think they detect evidence of revolutionary movements in a +third outer belt of far-distant space which are beginning to exhibit +directional tendencies of a clockwise nature. + +It is probable that these alternate directions of successive space processions +of the universes have something to do with the intramaster universe gravity +technique of the Universal Absolute, which consists of a co-ordination of +forces and an equalization of space tensions. Motion as well as space is a +complement or equilibrant of gravity. + +5. SPACE AND TIME + +Like space, time is a bestowal of Paradise, but not in the same sense, only +indirectly. Time comes by virtue of motion and because mind is inherently aware +of sequentiality. From a practical viewpoint, motion is essential to time, but +there is no universal time unit based on motion except in so far as the +Paradise-Havona + + top of page - 135 + +standard day is arbitrarily so recognized. The totality of space respiration +destroys its local value as a time source. + +Space is not infinite, even though it takes origin from Paradise; not absolute, +for it is pervaded by the Unqualified Absolute. We do not know the absolute +limits of space, but we do know that the absolute of time is eternity. + +Time and space are inseparable only in the time-space creations, the seven +superuniverses. Nontemporal space (space without time) theoretically exists, +but the only truly nontemporal place is Paradise area. Nonspatial time (time +without space) exists in mind of the Paradise level of function. + +The relatively motionless midspace zones impinging on Paradise and separating +pervaded from unpervaded space are the transition zones from time to eternity, +hence the necessity of Paradise pilgrims becoming unconscious during this +transit when it is to culminate in Paradise citizenship. Time-conscious +visitors can go to Paradise without thus sleeping, but they remain creatures of +time. + +Relationships to time do not exist without motion in space, but consciousness +of time does. Sequentiality can consciousize time even in the absence of +motion. Man's mind is less time-bound than space-bound because of the inherent +nature of mind. Even during the days of the earth life in the flesh, though +man's mind is rigidly space-bound, the creative human imagination is +comparatively time free. But time itself is not genetically a quality of mind. + +There are three different levels of time cognizance: + +1. Mind-perceived time--consciousness of sequence, motion, and a sense of +duration. + +2. Spirit-perceived time--insight into motion Godward and the awareness of the +motion of ascent to levels of increasing divinity. + +3. Personality creates a unique time sense out of insight into Reality plus a +consciousness of presence and an awareness of duration. + +Unspiritual animals know only the past and live in the present. Spirit-indwelt +man has powers of prevision (insight); he may visualize the future. Only +forward-looking and progressive attitudes are personally real. Static ethics +and traditional morality are just slightly superanimal. Nor is stoicism a high +order of self-realization. Ethics and morals become truly human when they are +dynamic and progressive, alive with universe reality. + +The human personality is not merely a concomitant of time-and-space events; the +human personality can also act as the cosmic cause of such events. + +6. UNIVERSAL OVERCONTROL + +The universe is nonstatic. Stability is not the result of inertia but rather +the product of balanced energies, co-operative minds, co-ordinated morontias, +spirit overcontrol, and personality unification. Stability is wholly and always +proportional to divinity. + +In the physical control of the master universe the Universal Father exercises +priority and primacy through the Isle of Paradise; God is absolute in the +spiritual administration of the cosmos in the person of the Eternal Son. +Concerning the domains of mind, the Father and the Son function co-ordinately +in the Conjoint Actor. + + top of page - 136 + +The Third Source and Center assists in the maintenance of the equilibrium and +co-ordination of the combined physical and spiritual energies and organizations +by the absoluteness of his grasp of the cosmic mind and by the exercise of his +inherent and universal physical- and spiritual-gravity complements. Whenever +and wherever there occurs a liaison between the material and the spiritual, +such a mind phenomenon is an act of the Infinite Spirit. Mind alone can +interassociate the physical forces and energies of the material level with the +spiritual powers and beings of the spirit level. + +In all your contemplation of universal phenomena, make certain that you take +into consideration the interrelation of physical, intellectual, and spiritual +energies, and that due allowance is made for the unexpected phenomena attendant +upon their unification by personality and for the unpredictable phenomena +resulting from the actions and reactions of experiential Deity and the +Absolutes. + +The universe is highly predictable only in the quantitative or +gravity-measurement sense; even the primal physical forces are not responsive +to linear gravity, nor are the higher mind meanings and true spirit values of +ultimate universe realities. Qualitatively, the universe is not highly +predictable as regards new associations of forces, either physical, mindal, or +spiritual, although many such combinations of energies or forces become +partially predictable when subjected to critical observation. When matter, +mind, and spirit are unified by creature personality, we are unable fully to +predict the decisions of such a freewill being. + +All phases of primordial force, nascent spirit, and other nonpersonal ultimates +appear to react in accordance with certain relatively stable but unknown laws +and are characterized by a latitude of performance and an elasticity of +response which are often disconcerting when encountered in the phenomena of a +circumscribed and isolated situation. What is the explanation of this +unpredictable freedom of reaction disclosed by these emerging universe +actualities? These unknown, unfathomable unpredictables--whether pertaining to +the behavior of a primordial unit of force, the reaction of an unidentified +level of mind, or the phenomenon of a vast preuniverse in the making in the +domains of outer space--probably disclose the activities of the Ultimate and +the presence-performances of the Absolutes, which antedate the function of all +universe Creators. + +We do not really know, but we surmise that such amazing versatility and such +profound co-ordination signify the presence and performance of the Absolutes, +and that such diversity of response in the face of apparently uniform causation +discloses the reaction of the Absolutes, not only to the immediate and +situational causation, but also to all other related causations throughout the +entire master universe. + +Individuals have their guardians of destiny; planets, systems, constellations, +universes, and superuniverses each have their respective rulers who labor for +the good of their domains. Havona and even the grand universe are watched over +by those intrusted with such high responsibilities. But who fosters and cares +for the fundamental needs of the master universe as a whole, from Paradise to +the fourth and outermost space level? Existentially such overcare is probably +attributable to the Paradise Trinity, but from an experiential viewpoint the +appearance of the post-Havona universes is dependent on: + +1. The Absolutes in potential. + +2. The Ultimate in direction. + + top of page - 137 + +3. The Supreme in evolutionary co-ordination. + +4. The Architects of the Master Universe in administration prior to the +appearance of specific rulers. + +The Unqualified Absolute pervades all space. We are not altogether clear as to +the exact status of the Deity and Universal Absolutes, but we know the latter +functions wherever the Deity and Unqualified Absolutes function. The Deity +Absolute may be universally present but hardly space present. The Ultimate is, +or sometime will be, space present to the outer margins of the fourth space +level. We doubt that the Ultimate will ever have a space presence beyond the +periphery of the master universe, but within this limit the Ultimate is +progressively integrating the creative organization of the potentials of the +three Absolutes. + +7. THE PART AND THE WHOLE + +There is operative throughout all time and space and with regard to all reality +of whatever nature an inexorable and impersonal law which is equivalent to the +function of a cosmic providence. Mercy characterizes God's attitude of love for +the individual; impartiality motivates God's attitude toward the total. The +will of God does not necessarily prevail in the part--the heart of any one +personality--but his will does actually rule the whole, the universe of +universes. + +In all his dealings with all his beings it is true that the laws of God are not +inherently arbitrary. To you, with your limited vision and finite viewpoint, +the acts of God must often appear to be dictatorial and arbitrary. The laws of +God are merely the habits of God, his way of repeatedly doing things; and he +ever does all things well. You observe that God does the same thing in the same +way, repeatedly, simply because that is the best way to do that particular +thing in a given circumstance; and the best way is the right way, and therefore +does infinite wisdom always order it done in that precise and perfect manner. +You should also remember that nature is not the exclusive act of Deity; other +influences are present in those phenomena which man calls nature. + +It is repugnant to the divine nature to suffer any sort of deterioration or +ever to permit the execution of any purely personal act in an inferior way. It +should be made clear, however, that, if, in the divinity of any situation, in +the extremity of any circumstance, in any case where the course of supreme +wisdom might indicate the demand for different conduct--if the demands of +perfection might for any reason dictate another method of reaction, a better +one, then and there would the all-wise God function in that better and more +suitable way. That would be the expression of a higher law, not the reversal of +a lower law. + +God is not a habit-bound slave to the chronicity of the repetition of his own +voluntary acts. There is no conflict among the laws of the Infinite; they are +all perfections of the infallible nature; they are all the unquestioned acts +expressive of faultless decisions. Law is the unchanging reaction of an +infinite, perfect, and divine mind. The acts of God are all volitional +notwithstanding this apparent sameness. In God there "is no variableness +neither shadow of changing." But all this which can be truly said of the +Universal Father cannot be said with equal certainty of all his subordinate +intelligences or of his evolutionary creatures. + +Because God is changeless, therefore can you depend, in all ordinary +circumstances, on his doing the same thing in the same identical and ordinary +way. God + + top of page - 138 + +is the assurance of stability for all created things and beings. He is God; +therefore he changes not. + +And all this steadfastness of conduct and uniformity of action is personal, +conscious, and highly volitional, for the great God is not a helpless slave to +his own perfection and infinity. God is not a self-acting automatic force; he +is not a slavish law-bound power. God is neither a mathematical equation nor a +chemical formula. He is a freewill and primal personality. He is the Universal +Father, a being surcharged with personality and the universal fount of all +creature personality. + +The will of God does not uniformly prevail in the heart of the God-seeking +material mortal, but if the time frame is enlarged beyond the moment to embrace +the whole of the first life, then does God's will become increasingly +discernible in the spirit fruits which are borne in the lives of the spirit-led +children of God. And then, if human life is further enlarged to include the +morontia experience, the divine will is observed to shine brighter and brighter +in the spiritualizing acts of those creatures of time who have begun to taste +the divine delights of experiencing the relationship of the personality of man +with the personality of the Universal Father. + +The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man present the paradox of the +part and the whole on the level of personality. God loves each individual as an +individual child in the heavenly family. Yet God thus loves every individual; +he is no respecter of persons, and the universality of his love brings into +being a relationship of the whole, the universal brotherhood. + +The love of the Father absolutely individualizes each personality as a unique +child of the Universal Father, a child without duplicate in infinity, a will +creature irreplaceable in all eternity. The Father's love glorifies each child +of God, illuminating each member of the celestial family, sharply silhouetting +the unique nature of each personal being against the impersonal levels that lie +outside the fraternal circuit of the Father of all. The love of God strikingly +portrays the transcendent value of each will creature, unmistakably reveals the +high value which the Universal Father has placed upon each and every one of his +children from the highest creator personality of Paradise status to the lowest +personality of will dignity among the savage tribes of men in the dawn of the +human species on some evolutionary world of time and space. + +This very love of God for the individual brings into being the divine family of +all individuals, the universal brotherhood of the freewill children of the +Paradise Father. And this brotherhood, being universal, is a relationship of +the whole. Brotherhood, when universal, discloses not the each relationship, +but the all relationship. Brotherhood is a reality of the total and therefore +discloses qualities of the whole in contradistinction to qualities of the part. + +Brotherhood constitutes a fact of relationship between every personality in +universal existence. No person can escape the benefits or the penalties that +may come as a result of relationship to other persons. The part profits or +suffers in measure with the whole. The good effort of each man benefits all +men; the error or evil of each man augments the tribulation of all men. As +moves the part, so moves the whole. As the progress of the whole, so the +progress of the part. The relative velocities of part and whole determine +whether the part is retarded by the inertia of the whole or is carried forward +by the momentum of the cosmic brotherhood. + + top of page - 139 + +It is a mystery that God is a highly personal self-conscious being with +residential headquarters, and at the same time personally present in such a +vast universe and personally in contact with such a well-nigh infinite number +of beings. That such a phenomenon is a mystery beyond human comprehension +should not in the least lessen your faith. Do not allow the magnitude of the +infinity, the immensity of the eternity, and the grandeur and glory of the +matchless character of God to overawe, stagger, or discourage you; for the +Father is not very far from any one of you; he dwells within you, and in him do +we all literally move, actually live, and veritably have our being. + +Even though the Paradise Father functions through his divine creators and his +creature children, he also enjoys the most intimate inner contact with you, so +sublime, so highly personal, that it is even beyond my comprehension--that +mysterious communion of the Father fragment with the human soul and with the +mortal mind of its actual indwelling. Knowing what you do of these gifts of +God, you therefore know that the Father is in intimate touch, not only with his +divine associates, but also with his evolutionary mortal children of time. The +Father indeed abides on Paradise, but his divine presence also dwells in the +minds of men. + +Even though the spirit of a Son be poured out upon all flesh, even though a Son +once dwelt with you in the likeness of mortal flesh, even though the seraphim +personally guard and guide you, how can any of these divine beings of the +Second and Third Centers ever hope to come as near to you or to understand you +as fully as the Father, who has given a part of himself to be in you, to be +your real and divine, even your eternal, self? + +8. MATTER, MIND, AND SPIRIT + +"God is spirit," but Paradise is not. The material universe is always the arena +wherein take place all spiritual activities; spirit beings and spirit ascenders +live and work on physical spheres of material reality. + +The bestowal of cosmic force, the domain of cosmic gravity, is the function of +the Isle of Paradise. All original force-energy proceeds from Paradise, and the +matter for the making of untold universes now circulates throughout the master +universe in the form of a supergravity presence which constitutes the +force-charge of pervaded space. + +Whatever the transformations of force in the outlying universes, having gone +out from Paradise, it journeys on subject to the never-ending, ever-present, +unfailing pull of the eternal Isle, obediently and inherently swinging on +forever around the eternal space paths of the universes. Physical energy is the +one reality which is true and steadfast in its obedience to universal law. Only +in the realms of creature volition has there been deviation from the divine +paths and the original plans. Power and energy are the universal evidences of +the stability, constancy, and eternity of the central Isle of Paradise. + +The bestowal of spirit and the spiritualization of personalities, the domain of +spiritual gravity, is the realm of the Eternal Son. And this spirit gravity of +the Son, ever drawing all spiritual realities to himself, is just as real and +absolute as is the all-powerful material grasp of the Isle of Paradise. But +material-minded man is naturally more familiar with the material manifestations +of a physical + + top of page - 140 + +nature than with the equally real and mighty operations of a spiritual nature +which are discerned only by the spiritual insight of the soul. + +As the mind of any personality in the universe becomes more +spiritual--Godlike--it becomes less responsive to material gravity. Reality, +measured by physical-gravity response, is the antithesis of reality as +determined by quality of spirit content. Physical-gravity action is a +quantitative determiner of nonspirit energy; spiritual-gravity action is the +qualitative measure of the living energy of divinity. + +What Paradise is to the physical creation, and what the Eternal Son is to the +spiritual universe, the Conjoint Actor is to the realms of mind--the +intelligent universe of material, morontial, and spiritual beings and +personalities. + +The Conjoint Actor reacts to both material and spiritual realities and +therefore inherently becomes the universal minister to all intelligent beings, +beings who may represent a union of both the material and spiritual phases of +creation. The endowment of intelligence, the ministry to the material and the +spiritual in the phenomenon of mind, is the exclusive domain of the Conjoint +Actor, who thus becomes the partner of the spiritual mind, the essence of the +morontia mind, and the substance of the material mind of the evolutionary +creatures of time. + +Mind is the technique whereby spirit realities become experiential to creature +personalities. And in the last analysis the unifying possibilities of even +human mind, the ability to co-ordinate things, ideas, and values, is +supermaterial. + +Though it is hardly possible for the mortal mind to comprehend the seven levels +of relative cosmic reality, the human intellect should be able to grasp much of +the meaning of three functioning levels of finite reality: + +1. Matter. Organized energy which is subject to linear gravity except as it is +modified by motion and conditioned by mind. + +2. Mind. Organized consciousness which is not wholly subject to material +gravity, and which becomes truly liberated when modified by spirit. + +3. Spirit. The highest personal reality. True spirit is not subject to physical +gravity but eventually becomes the motivating influence of all evolving energy +systems of personality dignity. + +The goal of existence of all personalities is spirit; material manifestations +are relative, and the cosmic mind intervenes between these universal opposites. +The bestowal of mind and the ministration of spirit are the work of the +associate persons of Deity, the Infinite Spirit and the Eternal Son. Total +Deity reality is not mind but spirit-mind--mind-spirit unified by personality. +Nevertheless the absolutes of both the spirit and the thing converge in the +person of the Universal Father. + +On Paradise the three energies, physical, mindal, and spiritual, are +co-ordinate. In the evolutionary cosmos energy-matter is dominant except in +personality, where spirit, through the mediation of mind, is striving for the +mastery. Spirit is the fundamental reality of the personality experience of all +creatures because God is spirit. Spirit is unchanging, and therefore, in all +personality relations, it transcends both mind and matter, which are +experiential variables of progressive attainment. + +In cosmic evolution matter becomes a philosophic shadow cast by mind in the +presence of spirit luminosity of divine enlightenment, but this does not +invalidate + + top of page - 141 + +the reality of matter-energy. Mind, matter, and spirit are equally real, but +they are not of equal value to personality in the attainment of divinity. +Consciousness of divinity is a progressive spiritual experience. + +The brighter the shining of the spiritualized personality (the Father in the +universe, the fragment of potential spirit personality in the individual +creature), the greater the shadow cast by the intervening mind upon its +material investment. In time, man's body is just as real as mind or spirit, but +in death, both mind (identity) and spirit survive while the body does not. A +cosmic reality can be nonexistent in personality experience. And so your Greek +figure of speech--the material as the shadow of the more real spirit +substance--does have a philosophic significance. + +9. PERSONAL REALITIES + +Spirit is the basic personal reality in the universes, and personality is basic +to all progressing experience with spiritual reality. Every phase of +personality experience on every successive level of universe progression swarms +with clues to the discovery of alluring personal realities. Man's true destiny +consists in the creation of new and spirit goals and then in responding to the +cosmic allurements of such supernal goals of nonmaterial value. + +Love is the secret of beneficial association between personalities. You cannot +really know a person as the result of a single contact. You cannot +appreciatingly know music through mathematical deduction, even though music is +a form of mathematical rhythm. The number assigned to a telephone subscriber +does not in any manner identify the personality of that subscriber or signify +anything concerning his character. + +Mathematics, material science, is indispensable to the intelligent discussion +of the material aspects of the universe, but such knowledge is not necessarily +a part of the higher realization of truth or of the personal appreciation of +spiritual realities. Not only in the realms of life but even in the world of +physical energy, the sum of two or more things is very often something more +than, or something different from, the predictable additive consequences of +such unions. The entire science of mathematics, the whole domain of philosophy, +the highest physics or chemistry, could not predict or know that the union of +two gaseous hydrogen atoms with one gaseous oxygen atom would result in a new +and qualitatively superadditive substance--liquid water. The understanding +knowledge of this one physiochemical phenomenon should have prevented the +development of materialistic philosophy and mechanistic cosmology. + +Technical analysis does not reveal what a person or a thing can do. For +example: Water is used effectively to extinguish fire. That water will put out +fire is a fact of everyday experience, but no analysis of water could ever be +made to disclose such a property. Analysis determines that water is composed of +hydrogen and oxygen; a further study of these elements discloses that oxygen is +the real supporter of combustion and that hydrogen will itself freely burn. + +Your religion is becoming real because it is emerging from the slavery of fear +and the bondage of superstition. Your philosophy struggles for emancipation +from dogma and tradition. Your science is engaged in the agelong contest +between truth and error while it fights for deliverance from the bondage of +abstraction, the slavery of mathematics, and the relative blindness of +mechanistic materialism. + + top of page - 142 + +Mortal man has a spirit nucleus. The mind is a personal-energy system existing +around a divine spirit nucleus and functioning in a material environment. Such +a living relationship of personal mind and spirit constitutes the universe +potential of eternal personality. Real trouble, lasting disappointment, serious +defeat, or inescapable death can come only after self-concepts presume fully to +displace the governing power of the central spirit nucleus, thereby disrupting +the cosmic scheme of personality identity. + +[Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom acting by authority of the Ancients of +Days.] + + top of page - 143 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Eternal ³ The Sacred ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Isl... ³ Sphe... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p013.txt b/religious documents/p013.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..23859de --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p013.txt @@ -0,0 +1,533 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 13 The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 13 The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +BETWEEN the central Isle of Paradise and the innermost of the Havona planetary +circuits there are situated in space three lesser circuits of special spheres. +The innermost circuit consists of the seven secret spheres of the Universal +Father; the second group is composed of the seven luminous worlds of the +Eternal Son; in the outermost are the seven immense spheres of the Infinite +Spirit, the executive-headquarters worlds of the Seven Master Spirits. + +These three seven-world circuits of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are +spheres of unexcelled grandeur and unimagined glory. Even their material or +physical construction is of an order unrevealed to you. Each circuit is diverse +in material, and each world of each circuit is different excepting the seven +worlds of the Son, which are alike in physical constitution. All twenty-one are +enormous spheres, and each group of seven is differently eternalized. As far as +we know they have always been; like Paradise they are eternal. There exists +neither record nor tradition of their origin. + +The seven secret spheres of the Universal Father, circulating about Paradise in +close proximity to the eternal Isle, are highly reflective of the spiritual +luminosity of the central shining of the eternal Deities, shedding this light +of divine glory throughout Paradise and even upon the seven circuits of Havona. + +On the seven sacred worlds of the Eternal Son there appear to take origin the +impersonal energies of spirit luminosity. No personal being may sojourn on any +of these seven shining realms. With spiritual glory they illuminate all +Paradise and Havona, and they directionize pure spirit luminosity to the seven +superuniverses. These brilliant spheres of the second circuit likewise emit +their light (light without heat) to Paradise and to the billion worlds of the +seven-circuited central universe. + +The seven worlds of the Infinite Spirit are occupied by the Seven Master +Spirits, who preside over the destinies of the seven superuniverses, sending +forth the spiritual illumination of the Third Person of Deity to these +creations of time and space. And all Havona, but not the Isle of Paradise, is +bathed in these spiritualizing influences. + +Although the worlds of the Father are ultimate status spheres for all +Father-endowed personalities, this is not their exclusive function. Many beings +and entities other than personal sojourn on these worlds. Each world in the +circuit of the Father and the circuit of the Spirit has a distinct type of +permanent citizenship, but we think the Son's worlds are inhabited by uniform +types of other-than-personal beings. Father fragments are among the natives of +Divinington; the other orders of permanent citizenship are unrevealed to you. + +The twenty-one Paradise satellites serve many purposes in both central and +superuniverses not disclosed in these narratives. You are able to understand so + + top of page - 144 + +little of the life of these spheres that you cannot hope to gain anything like +a consistent view of them, either as to nature or function; thousands of +activities are there going on which are unrevealed to you. These twenty-one +spheres embrace the potentials of the function of the master universe. These +papers afford only a fleeting glimpse of certain circumscribed activities +pertaining to the present universe age of the grand universe--rather, one of +the seven sectors of the grand universe. + +1. THE SEVEN SACRED WORLDS OF THE FATHER + +The Father's circuit of sacred life spheres contains the only inherent +personality secrets in the universe of universes. These satellites of Paradise, +the innermost of the three circuits, are the only forbidden domains concerned +with personality in the central universe. Nether Paradise and the worlds of the +Son are likewise closed to personalities, but neither of those realms is in any +way directly concerned with personality. + +The Paradise worlds of the Father are directed by the highest order of the +Stationary Sons of the Trinity, the Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy. Of these +worlds I can tell little; of their manifold activities I may tell less. Such +information concerns only those beings who function thereon and go forth +therefrom. And though I am somewhat familiar with six of these special worlds, +never have I landed on Divinington; that world is wholly forbidden to me. + +One of the reasons for the secrecy of these worlds is because each of these +sacred spheres enjoys a specialized representation, or manifestation, of the +Deities composing the Paradise Trinity; not a personality, but a unique +presence of Divinity which can only be appreciated and comprehended by those +particular groups of intelligences resident on, or admissible to, that +particular sphere. The Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy are the personal agents +of these specialized and impersonal presences of Divinity. And the Secrets of +Supremacy are highly personal beings, superbly endowed and marvelously adapted +to their exalted and exacting work. + +1. DIVININGTON. This world is, in a unique sense, the "bosom of the Father," +the personal-communion sphere of the Universal Father, and thereon is a special +manifestation of his divinity. Divinington is the Paradise rendezvous of the +Thought Adjusters, but it is also the home of numerous other entities, +personalities, and other beings taking origin in the Universal Father. Many +personalities besides the Eternal Son are of direct origin by the solitary acts +of the Universal Father. Only the Father fragments and those personalities and +other beings of direct and exclusive origin in the Universal Father fraternize +and function on this abode. + +The secrets of Divinington include the secret of the bestowal and mission of +Thought Adjusters. Their nature, origin, and the technique of their contact +with the lowly creatures of the evolutionary worlds is a secret of this +Paradise sphere. These amazing transactions do not personally concern the rest +of us, and therefore do the Deities deem it proper to withhold certain features +of this great and divine ministry from our full understanding. In so far as we +come in contact with this phase of divine activity, we are permitted full +knowledge of these transactions, but concerning the intimate details of this +great bestowal we are not fully informed. + + top of page - 145 + +This sphere also holds the secrets of the nature, purpose, and activities of +all other forms of Father fragments, of the Gravity Messengers, and of hosts of +other beings unrevealed to you. It is highly probable that those truths +pertaining to Divinington which are withheld from me, if revealed, would merely +confuse and handicap me in my present work, and still again, perhaps they are +beyond the conceptual capacity of my order of being. + +2. SONARINGTON. This sphere is the "bosom of the Son," the personal receiving +world of the Eternal Son. It is the Paradise headquarters of the descending and +ascending Sons of God when, and after, they are fully accredited and finally +approved. This world is the Paradise home for all Sons of the Eternal Son and +of his co-ordinate and associate Sons. There are numerous orders of divine +sonship attached to this supernal abode which have not been revealed to mortals +since they are not concerned with the plans of the ascension scheme of human +spiritual progression through the universes and on to Paradise. + +The secrets of Sonarington include the secret of the incarnation of the divine +Sons. When a Son of God becomes a Son of Man, is literally born of woman, as +occurred on your world nineteen hundred years ago, it is a universal mystery. +It is occurring right along throughout the universes, and it is a Sonarington +secret of divine sonship. The Adjusters are a mystery of God the Father. The +incarnation of the divine Sons is a mystery of God the Son; it is a secret +locked up in the seventh sector of Sonarington, a realm penetrated by none save +those who have personally passed through this unique experience. Only those +phases of incarnation having to do with your ascension career have been brought +to your notice. There are many other phases of the mystery of the incarnation +of the Paradise Sons of unrevealed types on missions of universe service which +are undisclosed to you. And there are still other Sonarington mysteries. + +3. SPIRITINGTON. This world is the "bosom of the Spirit," the Paradise home of +the high beings that exclusively represent the Infinite Spirit. Here forgather +the Seven Master Spirits and certain of their offspring from all universes. At +this celestial abode may also be found numerous unrevealed orders of spirit +personalities, beings assigned to the manifold activities of the universe not +associated with the plans of upstepping the mortal creatures of time to the +Paradise levels of eternity. + +The secrets of Spiritington involve the impenetrable mysteries of reflectivity. +We tell you of the vast and universal phenomenon of reflectivity, more +particularly as it is operative on the headquarters worlds of the seven +superuniverses, but we never fully explain this phenomenon, for we do not fully +understand it. Much, very much, we do comprehend, but many basic details are +still mysterious to us. Reflectivity is a secret of God the Spirit. You have +been instructed concerning reflectivity functions in relation to the ascension +scheme of mortal survival, and it does so operate, but reflectivity is also an +indispensable feature of the normal working of numerous other phases of +universe occupation. This endowment of the Infinite Spirit is also utilized in +channels other than those of intelligence gathering and information +dissemination. And there are other secrets of Spiritington. + +4. VICEGERINGTON. This planet is the "bosom of the Father and the Son" and is +the secret sphere of certain unrevealed beings who take origin by the acts of +the Father and the Son. This is also the Paradise home of many glori- + + top of page - 146 + +fied beings of complex ancestry, those whose origin is complicated because of +the many diverse techniques operative in the seven superuniverses. Many groups +of beings forgather on this world whose identity has not been revealed to +Urantia mortals. + +The secrets of Vicegerington include the secrets of trinitization, and +trinitization constitutes the secret of authority to represent the Trinity, to +act as vicegerents of the Gods. Authority to represent the Trinity attaches +only to those beings, revealed and unrevealed, who are trinitized, created, +eventuated, or eternalized by any two or all three of the Paradise Trinity. +Personalities brought into being by the trinitizing acts of certain types of +glorified creatures represent no more than the conceptual potential mobilized +in that trinitization, albeit such creatures may ascend the path of Deity +embrace open to all of their kind. + +Nontrinitized beings do not fully understand the technique of trinitization by +either two or three Creators or by certain creatures. You will never fully +understand such a phenomenon unless, in the far-distant future of your +glorified career, you should essay and succeed in such an adventure, because +otherwise these secrets of Vicegerington will always be forbidden you. But to +me, a high Trinity-origin being, all sectors of Vicegerington are open. I fully +understand, and just as fully and sacredly protect, the secret of my origin and +destiny. + +There are still other forms and phases of trinitization which have not been +brought to the notice of the Urantia peoples, and these experiences, in their +personal aspects, are duly protected in the secret sector of Vicegerington. + +5. SOLITARINGTON. This world is the "bosom of the Father and the Spirit" and is +the rendezvous of a magnificent host of unrevealed beings of origin in the +conjoint acts of the Universal Father and the Infinite Spirit, beings who +partake of the traits of the Father in addition to their Spirit inheritance. + +This is also the home of the Solitary Messengers and of other personalities of +the superangelic orders. You know of very few of these beings; there are vast +numbers of orders unrevealed on Urantia. Because they are domiciled on the +fifth world, it does not necessarily follow that the Father had aught to do +with the creation of Solitary Messengers or their superangelic associates, but +in this universe age he does have to do with their function. During the present +universe age this is also the status sphere of the Universe Power Directors. + +There are numerous additional orders of spirit personalities, beings unknown to +mortal man, who look upon Solitarington as their Paradise home sphere. It +should be remembered that all divisions and levels of universe activities are +just as fully provided with spirit ministers as is the realm concerned with +helping mortal man ascend to his divine Paradise destiny. + +The secrets of Solitarington. Besides certain secrets of trinitization, this +world holds the secrets of the personal relation of the Infinite Spirit with +certain of the higher offspring of the Third Source and Center. On +Solitarington are held the mysteries of the intimate association of numerous +unrevealed orders with the spirits of the Father, of the Son, and of the +Spirit, with the threefold spirit of the Trinity, and with the spirits of the +Supreme, the Ultimate, and the Supreme-Ultimate. + +6. SERAPHINGTON. This sphere is the "bosom of the Son and the Spirit" and is +the home world of the vast hosts of unrevealed beings created by the Son and +the Spirit. This is also the destiny sphere of all ministering orders of the + + top of page - 147 + +angelic hosts, including supernaphim, seconaphim, and seraphim. There also +serve in the central and outlying universes many orders of superb spirits who +are not "ministering spirits to those who shall be heirs of salvation." All +these spirit workers in all levels and realms of universe activities look upon +Seraphington as their Paradise home. + +The secrets of Seraphington involve a threefold mystery, only one of which I +may mention--the mystery of seraphic transport. The ability of various orders +of seraphim and allied spirit beings to envelop within their spirit forms all +orders of nonmaterial personalities and to carry them away on lengthy +interplanetary journeys, is a secret locked up in the sacred sectors of +Seraphington. The transport seraphim comprehend this mystery, but they do not +communicate it to the rest of us, or perhaps they cannot. The other mysteries +of Seraphington pertain to the personal experiences of types of spirit servers +as yet not revealed to mortals. And we refrain from discussing the secrets of +such closely related beings because you can almost comprehend such near orders +of existence, and it would be akin to betrayal of trust to present even our +partial knowledge of such phenomena. + +7. ASCENDINGTON. This unique world is the "bosom of the Father, Son, and +Spirit," the rendezvous of the ascendant creatures of space, the receiving +sphere of the pilgrims of time who are passing through the Havona universe on +their way to Paradise. Ascendington is the actual Paradise home of the +ascendant souls of time and space until they attain Paradise status. You +mortals will spend most of your Havona "vacations" on Ascendington. During your +Havona life Ascendington will be to you what the reversion directors were +during the local and superuniverse ascension. Here you will engage in thousands +of activities which are beyond the grasp of mortal imagination. And as on every +previous advance in the Godward ascent, your human self will here enter into +new relationships with your divine self. + +The secrets of Ascendington include the mystery of the gradual and certain +building up in the material and mortal mind of a spiritual and potentially +immortal counterpart of character and identity. This phenomenon constitutes one +of the most perplexing mysteries of the universes--the evolution of an immortal +soul within the mind of a mortal and material creature. + +You will never fully understand this mysterious transaction until you reach +Ascendington. And that is just why all Ascendington will be open to your +wondering gaze. One seventh of Ascendington is forbidden to me--that sector +concerned with this very secret which is (or will be) the exclusive experience +and possession of your type of being. This experience belongs to your human +order of existence. My order of personality is not directly concerned with such +transactions. It is therefore forbidden to me and eventually revealed to you. +But even after it is revealed to you, for some reason it forever remains your +secret. You do not reveal it to us nor to any other order of beings. We know +about the eternal fusion of a divine Adjuster and an immortal soul of human +origin, but the ascendant finaliters know this very experience as an absolute +reality. + +2. FATHER-WORLD RELATIONSHIPS + +These home worlds of the diverse orders of spiritual beings are tremendous and +stupendous spheres, and they are equal to Paradise in their matchless beauty +and superb glory. They are rendezvous worlds, reunion spheres, serving as per- + + top of page - 148 + +manent cosmic addresses. As finaliters you will be domiciled on Paradise, but +Ascendington will be your home address at all times, even when you enter +service in outer space. Through all eternity you will regard Ascendington as +your home of sentimental memories and reminiscent recollections. When you +become seventh-stage spirit beings, possibly you will give up your residential +status on Paradise. + +If outer universes are in the making, if they are to be inhabited by time +creatures of ascension potential, then we infer that these children of the +future will also be destined to look upon Ascendington as their Paradise home +world. + +Ascendington is the only sacred sphere that will be unreservedly open to your +inspection as a Paradise arrival. Vicegerington is the only sacred sphere that +is wholly and unreservedly open to my scrutiny. Though its secrets are +concerned in my origin, in this universe age I do not regard Vicegerington as +my home. Trinity-origin beings and trinitized beings are not the same. + +The Trinity-origin beings do not fully share the Father's worlds; they have +their sole homes on the Isle of Paradise in close proximity to the Most Holy +Sphere. They often appear on Ascendington, the "bosom of the +Father-Son-Spirit," where they fraternize with their brethren who have come up +from the lowly worlds of space. + +You might assume that Creator Sons, being of Father-Son origin, would regard +Vicegerington as their home, but such is not the case in this universe age of +the function of God the Sevenfold. And there are many similar problems that +will perplex you, for you are sure to encounter many difficulties as you +attempt to understand these things which are so near Paradise. Nor can you +successfully reason out these questions; you know so little. And if you knew +more about the Father's worlds, you would simply encounter more difficulties +until you knew all about them. Status on any of these secret worlds is acquired +by service as well as by nature of origin, and the successive universe ages may +and do redistribute certain of these personality groupings. + +The worlds of the inner circuit are really fraternal or status worlds more than +actual residential spheres. Mortals will attain some status on each of the +Father's worlds save one. For example: When you mortals attain Havona, you are +granted clearance for Ascendington, where you are most welcome, but you are not +permitted to visit the other six sacred worlds. Subsequent to your passage +through the Paradise regime and after your admission to the Corps of the +Finality, you are granted clearance for Sonarington since you are sons of God +as well as ascenders--and you are even more. But there will always remain one +seventh of Sonarington, the sector of the incarnation secrets of the divine +Sons, which will not be open to your scrutiny. Never will those secrets be +revealed to the ascendant sons of God. + +Eventually you will have full access to Ascendington and relative access to the +other spheres of the Father except Divinington. But even when you are granted +permission to land on five additional secret spheres, after you have become a +finaliter, you will not be allowed to visit all sectors of such worlds. Nor +will you be permitted to land on the shores of Divinington, the "bosom of the +Father," though you shall surely stand repeatedly at the "right hand of the +Father." Never throughout all eternity will there arise any necessity for your +presence on the world of the Thought Adjusters. + + top of page - 149 + +These rendezvous worlds of spirit life are forbidden ground to the extent that +we are asked not to negotiate entrance to those phases of these spheres which +are wholly outside our realms of experience. You may become creature perfect +even as the Universal Father is deity perfect, but you may not know all the +experiential secrets of all other orders of universe personalities. When the +Creator has an experiential personality secret with his creature, the Creator +preserves that secret in eternal confidence. + +All these secrets are supposedly known to the collective body of the Trinitized +Secrets of Supremacy. These beings are fully known only by their special world +groups; they are little comprehended by other orders. After you attain +Paradise, you will know and ardently love the ten Secrets of Supremacy who +direct Ascendington. Excepting Divinington, you will also achieve a partial +understanding of the Secrets of Supremacy on the other worlds of the Father, +though not so perfectly as on Ascendington. + +The Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy, as their name might suggest, are related +to the Supreme; they are likewise related to the Ultimate and to the future +Supreme-Ultimate. These Secrets of Supremacy are the secrets of the Supreme and +also the secrets of the Ultimate, even the secrets of the Supreme-Ultimate. + +3. THE SACRED WORLDS OF THE ETERNAL SON + +The seven luminous spheres of the Eternal Son are the worlds of the seven +phases of pure-spirit existence. These shining orbs are the source of the +threefold light of Paradise and Havona, their influence being largely, but not +wholly, confined to the central universe. + +Personality is not present on these Paradise satellites; therefore is there +little concerning these pure-spirit abodes which can be presented to the mortal +and material personality. We are taught that these worlds teem with the +otherwise-than-personal life of the beings of the Eternal Son. We infer that +these entities are being assembled for ministry in the projected new universes +of outer space. The Paradise philosophers maintain that each Paradise cycle, +about two billion years of Urantia time, witnesses the creation of additional +reserves of these orders on the secret worlds of the Eternal Son. + +As far as I am informed, no personality has ever been on any one of these +spheres of the Eternal Son. I have never been assigned to visit one of these +worlds in all my long experience in and out of Paradise. Even the personalities +cocreated by the Eternal Son do not go to these worlds. We infer that all types +of impersonal spirits--regardless of parentage--are admitted to these spirit +homes. As I am a person and have a spirit form, no doubt such a world would +seem empty and deserted even if I were permitted to pay it a visit. High spirit +personalities are not given to the gratification of purposeless curiosity, +purely useless adventure. There is at all times altogether too much intriguing +and purposeful adventure to permit the development of any great interest in +those projects which are either futile or unreal. + +4. THE WORLDS OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT + +Between the inner circuit of Havona and the shining spheres of the Eternal Son +there circle the seven orbs of the Infinite Spirit, worlds inhabited by the + + top of page - 150 + +offspring of the Infinite Spirit, by the trinitized sons of glorified created +personalities, and by other types of unrevealed beings concerned with the +effective administration of the many enterprises of the various realms of +universe activities. + +The Seven Master Spirits are the supreme and ultimate representatives of the +Infinite Spirit. They maintain their personal stations, their power focuses, on +the periphery of Paradise, but all operations concerned with their management +and direction of the grand universe are conducted on and from these seven +special executive spheres of the Infinite Spirit. The Seven Master Spirits are, +in reality, the mind-spirit balance wheel of the universe of universes, an +all-embracing, all-encompassing, and all-co-ordinating power of central +location. + +From these seven special spheres the Master Spirits operate to equalize and +stabilize the cosmic-mind circuits of the grand universe. They also have to do +with the differential spiritual attitude and presence of the Deities throughout +the grand universe. Physical reactions are uniform, unvarying, and always +instantaneous and automatic. But experiential spiritual presence is in +accordance with the underlying conditions or states of spiritual receptivity +inherent in the individual minds of the realms. + +Physical authority, presence, and function are unvarying in all the universes, +small or great. The differing factor in spiritual presence, or reaction, is the +fluctuating differential in its recognition and reception by will creatures. +Whereas the spiritual presence of absolute and existential Deity is in no +manner whatever influenced by attitudes of loyalty or disloyalty on the part of +created beings, at the same time it is true that the functioning presence of +subabsolute and experiential Deity is definitely and directly influenced by the +decisions, choices, and will-attitudes of such finite creature beings--by the +loyalty and devotion of the individual being, planet, system, constellation, or +universe. But this spiritual presence of divinity is not whimsical nor +arbitrary; its experiential variance is inherent in the freewill endowment of +personal creatures. + +The determiner of the differential of spiritual presence exists in your own +hearts and minds and consists in the manner of your own choosing, in the +decisions of your minds, and in the determination of your own wills. This +differential is inherent in the freewill reactions of intelligent personal +beings, beings whom the Universal Father has ordained shall exercise this +liberty of choosing. And the Deities are ever true to the ebb and flow of their +spirits in meeting and satisfying the conditions and demands of this +differential of creature choice, now bestowing more of their presence in +response to a sincere desire for the same and again withdrawing themselves from +the scene as their creatures decide adversely in the exercise of their divinely +bestowed freedom of choice. And thus does the spirit of divinity become humbly +obedient to the choosing of the creatures of the realms. + +The executive abodes of the Seven Master Spirits are, in reality, the Paradise +headquarters of the seven superuniverses and their correlated segments in outer +space. Each Master Spirit presides over one superuniverse, and each of these +seven worlds is exclusively assigned to one of the Master Spirits. There is +literally no phase of the sub-Paradise administration of the seven +superuniverses which is not provided for on these executive worlds. They are +not so exclusive as the spheres of the Father or those of the Son, and though +residential status is limited to native beings and those who work thereon, +these seven administrative planets + + top of page - 151 + +are always open to all beings who desire to visit them, and who can command the +necessary means of transit. + +To me, these executive worlds are the most interesting and intriguing spots +outside of Paradise. In no other place in the wide universe can one observe +such varied activities, involving so many different orders of living beings, +having to do with operations on so many diverse levels, occupations at once +material, intellectual, and spiritual. When I am accorded a period of release +from assignment, if I chance to be on Paradise or in Havona, I usually proceed +to one of these busy worlds of the Seven Master Spirits, there to inspire my +mind with such spectacles of enterprise, devotion, loyalty, wisdom, and +effectiveness. Nowhere else can I observe such an amazing interassociation of +personality performances on all seven levels of universe reality. And I am +always stimulated by the activities of those who well know how to do their +work, and who so thoroughly enjoy doing it. + +[Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom commissioned thus to function by the +Ancients of Days on Uversa.] + + top of page - 152 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Universe ³ The Central ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Of... ³ And... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p014.txt b/religious documents/p014.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d23749 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p014.txt @@ -0,0 +1,745 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 14 The Central And Divine Universe + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 14 The Central And Divine Universe + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE perfect and divine universe occupies the center of all creation; it is the +eternal core around which the vast creations of time and space revolve. +Paradise is the gigantic nuclear Isle of absolute stability which rests +motionless at the very heart of the magnificent eternal universe. This central +planetary family is called Havona and is far-distant from the local universe of +Nebadon. It is of enormous dimensions and almost unbelievable mass and consists +of one billion spheres of unimagined beauty and superb grandeur, but the true +magnitude of this vast creation is really beyond the understanding grasp of the +human mind. + +This is the one and only settled, perfect, and established aggregation of +worlds. This is a wholly created and perfect universe; it is not an +evolutionary development. This is the eternal core of perfection, about which +swirls that endless procession of universes which constitute the tremendous +evolutionary experiment, the audacious adventure of the Creator Sons of God, +who aspire to duplicate in time and to reproduce in space the pattern universe, +the ideal of divine completeness, supreme finality, ultimate reality, and +eternal perfection. + +1. THE PARADISE-HAVONA SYSTEM + +From the periphery of Paradise to the inner borders of the seven superuniverses +there are the following seven space conditions and motions: + +1. The quiescent midspace zones impinging on Paradise. + +2. The clockwise processional of the three Paradise and the seven Havona +circuits. + +3. The semiquiet space zone separating the Havona circuits from the dark +gravity bodies of the central universe. + +4. The inner, counterclockwise-moving belt of the dark gravity bodies. + +5. The second unique space zone dividing the two space paths of the dark +gravity bodies. + +6. The outer belt of dark gravity bodies, revolving clockwise around Paradise. + +7. A third space zone--a semiquiet zone--separating the outer belt of dark +gravity bodies from the innermost circuits of the seven superuniverses. + +The billion worlds of Havona are arranged in seven concentric circuits +immediately surrounding the three circuits of Paradise satellites. There are +upwards of thirty-five million worlds in the innermost Havona circuit and over +two hundred and forty-five million in the outermost, with proportionate numbers + + top of page - 153 + +intervening. Each circuit differs, but all are perfectly balanced and +exquisitely organized, and each is pervaded by a specialized representation of +the Infinite Spirit, one of the Seven Spirits of the Circuits. In addition to +other functions this impersonal Spirit co-ordinates the conduct of celestial +affairs throughout each circuit. + +The Havona planetary circuits are not superimposed; their worlds follow each +other in an orderly linear procession. The central universe whirls around the +stationary Isle of Paradise in one vast plane, consisting of ten concentric +stabilized units--the three circuits of Paradise spheres and the seven circuits +of Havona worlds. Physically regarded, the Havona and the Paradise circuits are +all one and the same system; their separation is in recognition of functional +and administrative segregation. + +Time is not reckoned on Paradise; the sequence of successive events is inherent +in the concept of those who are indigenous to the central Isle. But time is +germane to the Havona circuits and to numerous beings of both celestial and +terrestrial origin sojourning thereon. Each Havona world has its own local +time, determined by its circuit. All worlds in a given circuit have the same +length of year since they uniformly swing around Paradise, and the length of +these planetary years decreases from the outermost to the innermost circuit. + +Besides Havona-circuit time, there is the Paradise-Havona standard day and +other time designations which are determined on, and are sent out from, the +seven Paradise satellites of the Infinite Spirit. The Paradise-Havona standard +day is based on the length of time required for the planetary abodes of the +first or inner Havona circuit to complete one revolution around the Isle of +Paradise; and though their velocity is enormous, owing to their situation +between the dark gravity bodies and gigantic Paradise, it requires almost one +thousand years for these spheres to complete their circuit. You have +unwittingly read the truth when your eyes rested on the statement "A day is as +a thousand years with God, as but a watch in the night." One Paradise-Havona +day is just seven minutes, three and one-eighth seconds less than one thousand +years of the present Urantia leap-year calendar. + +This Paradise-Havona day is the standard time measurement for the seven +superuniverses, although each maintains its own internal time standards. + +On the outskirts of this vast central universe, far out beyond the seventh belt +of Havona worlds, there swirl an unbelievable number of enormous dark gravity +bodies. These multitudinous dark masses are quite unlike other space bodies in +many particulars; even in form they are very different. These dark gravity +bodies neither reflect nor absorb light; they are nonreactive to +physical-energy light, and they so completely encircle and enshroud Havona as +to hide it from the view of even near-by inhabited universes of time and space. + +The great belt of dark gravity bodies is divided into two equal elliptical +circuits by a unique space intrusion. The inner belt revolves counterclockwise; +the outer revolves clockwise. These alternate directions of motion, coupled +with the extraordinary mass of the dark bodies, so effectively equalize the +lines of Havona gravity as to render the central universe a physically balanced +and perfectly stabilized creation. + +The inner procession of dark gravity bodies is tubular in arrangement, +consisting of three circular groupings. A cross section of this circuit would +exhibit three concentric circles of about equal density. The outer circuit of +dark gravity + + top of page - 154 + +bodies is arranged perpendicularly, being ten thousand times higher than the +inner circuit. The up-and-down diameter of the outer circuit is fifty thousand +times that of the transverse diameter. + +The intervening space which exists between these two circuits of gravity bodies +is unique in that nothing like it is to be found elsewhere in all the wide +universe. This zone is characterized by enormous wave movements of an +up-and-down nature and is permeated by tremendous energy activities of an +unknown order. + +In our opinion, nothing like the dark gravity bodies of the central universe +will characterize the future evolution of the outer space levels; we regard +these alternate processions of stupendous gravity-balancing bodies as unique in +the master universe. + +2. CONSTITUTION OF HAVONA + +Spirit beings do not dwell in nebulous space; they do not inhabit ethereal +worlds; they are domiciled on actual spheres of a material nature, worlds just +as real as those on which mortals live. The Havona worlds are actual and +literal, albeit their literal substance differs from the material organization +of the planets of the seven superuniverses. + +The physical realities of Havona represent an order of energy organization +radically different from any prevailing in the evolutionary universes of space. +Havona energies are threefold; superuniverse units of energy-matter contain a +twofold energy charge, although one form of energy exists in negative and +positive phases. The creation of the central universe is threefold (Trinity); +the creation of a local universe (directly) is twofold, by a Creator Son and a +Creative Spirit. + +The material of Havona consists of the organization of exactly one thousand +basic chemical elements and the balanced function of the seven forms of Havona +energy. Each of these basic energies manifests seven phases of excitation, so +that the Havona natives respond to forty-nine differing sensation stimuli. In +other words, viewed from a purely physical standpoint, the natives of the +central universe possess forty-nine specialized forms of sensation. The +morontia senses are seventy, and the higher spiritual orders of reaction +response vary in different types of beings from seventy to two hundred and ten. + +None of the physical beings of the central universe would be visible to +Urantians. Neither would any of the physical stimuli of those faraway worlds +excite a reaction in your gross sense organs. If a Urantia mortal could be +transported to Havona, he would there be deaf, blind, and utterly lacking in +all other sense reactions; he could only function as a limited self-conscious +being deprived of all environmental stimuli and all reactions thereto. + +There are numerous physical phenomena and spiritual reactions transpiring in +the central creation which are unknown on worlds such as Urantia. The basic +organization of a threefold creation is wholly unlike that of the twofold +constitution of the created universes of time and space. + +All natural law is co-ordinated on a basis entirely different than in the +dual-energy systems of the evolving creations. The entire central universe is +organized in accordance with the threefold system of perfect and symmetrical +control. Throughout the whole Paradise-Havona system there is maintained a +perfect + + top of page - 155 + +balance between all cosmic realities and all spiritual forces. Paradise, with +an absolute grasp of material creation, perfectly regulates and maintains the +physical energies of this central universe; the Eternal Son, as a part of his +all-embracing spirit grasp, most perfectly sustains the spiritual status of all +who indwell Havona. On Paradise nothing is experimental, and the +Paradise-Havona system is a unit of creative perfection. + +The universal spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son is amazingly active +throughout the central universe. All spirit values and spiritual personalities +are unceasingly drawn inward towards the abode of the Gods. This Godward urge +is intense and inescapable. The ambition to attain God is stronger in the +central universe, not because spirit gravity is stronger than in the outlying +universes, but because those beings who have attained Havona are more fully +spiritualized and hence more responsive to the ever-present action of the +universal spirit-gravity pull of the Eternal Son. + +Likewise does the Infinite Spirit draw all intellectual values Paradiseward. +Throughout the central universe the mind gravity of the Infinite Spirit +functions in liaison with the spirit gravity of the Eternal Son, and these +together constitute the combined urge of the ascendant souls to find God, to +attain Deity, to achieve Paradise, and to know the Father. + +Havona is a spiritually perfect and physically stable universe. The control and +balanced stability of the central universe appear to be perfect. Everything +physical or spiritual is perfectly predictable, but mind phenomena and +personality volition are not. We do infer that sin can be reckoned as +impossible of occurrence, but we do this on the ground that the native freewill +creatures of Havona have never been guilty of transgressing the will of Deity. +Through all eternity these supernal beings have been consistently loyal to the +Eternals of Days. Neither has sin appeared in any creature who has entered +Havona as a pilgrim. There has never been an instance of misconduct by any +creature of any group of personalities ever created in, or admitted to, the +central Havona universe. So perfect and so divine are the methods and means of +selection in the universes of time that never in the records of Havona has an +error occurred; no mistakes have ever been made; no ascendant soul has ever +been prematurely admitted to the central universe. + +3. THE HAVONA WORLDS + +Concerning the government of the central universe, there is none. Havona is so +exquisitely perfect that no intellectual system of government is required. +There are no regularly constituted courts, neither are there legislative +assemblies; Havona requires only administrative direction. Here may be observed +the height of the ideals of true self-government. + +There is no need of government among such perfect and near-perfect +intelligences. They stand in no need of regulation, for they are beings of +native perfection interspersed with evolutionary creatures who have long since +passed the scrutiny of the supreme tribunals of the superuniverses. + +The administration of Havona is not automatic, but it is marvelously perfect +and divinely efficient. It is chiefly planetary and is vested in the resident +Eternal of Days, each Havona sphere being directed by one of these +Trinity-origin personalities. Eternals of Days are not creators, but they are +perfect administrators. + + top of page - 156 + +They teach with supreme skill and direct their planetary children with a +perfection of wisdom bordering on absoluteness. + +The billion spheres of the central universe constitute the training worlds of +the high personalities native to Paradise and Havona and further serve as the +final proving grounds for ascending creatures from the evolutionary worlds of +time. In the execution of the Universal Father's great plan of creature +ascension the pilgrims of time are landed on the receiving worlds of the outer +or seventh circuit, and subsequent to increased training and enlarged +experience, they are progressively advanced inward, planet by planet and circle +by circle, until they finally attain the Deities and achieve residence on +Paradise. + +At present, although the spheres of the seven circuits are maintained in all +their supernal glory, only about one per cent of all planetary capacity is +utilized in the work of furthering the Father's universal plan of mortal +ascension. About one tenth of one per cent of the area of these enormous worlds +is dedicated to the life and activities of the Corps of the Finality, beings +eternally settled in light and life who often sojourn and minister on the +Havona worlds. These exalted beings have their personal residences on Paradise. + +The planetary construction of the Havona spheres is entirely unlike that of the +evolutionary worlds and systems of space. Nowhere else in all the grand +universe is it convenient to utilize such enormous spheres as inhabited worlds. +Triata physical constitution, coupled with the balancing effect of the immense +dark gravity bodies, makes it possible so perfectly to equalize the physical +forces and so exquisitely to balance the various attractions of this tremendous +creation. Antigravity is also employed in the organization of the material +functions and the spiritual activities of these enormous worlds. + +The architecture, lighting, and heating, as well as the biologic and artistic +embellishment, of the Havona spheres, are quite beyond the greatest possible +stretch of human imagination. You cannot be told much about Havona; to +understand its beauty and grandeur you must see it. But there are real rivers +and lakes on these perfect worlds. + +Spiritually these worlds are ideally appointed; they are fittingly adapted to +their purpose of harboring the numerous orders of differing beings who function +in the central universe. Manifold activities take place on these beautiful +worlds which are far beyond human comprehension. + +4. CREATURES OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE + +There are seven basic forms of living things and beings on the Havona worlds, +and each of these basic forms exists in three distinct phases. Each of these +three phases is divided into seventy major divisions, and each major division +is composed of one thousand minor divisions, with yet other subdivisions, and +so on. These basic life groups might be classified as: + +1. Material. + +2. Morontial. + +3. Spiritual. + +4. Absonite. + +5. Ultimate. + +6. Coabsolute. + +7. Absolute. + + top of page - 157 + +Decay and death are not a part of the cycle of life on the Havona worlds. In +the central universe the lower living things undergo the transmutation of +materialization. They do change form and manifestation, but they do not resolve +by process of decay and cellular death. + +The Havona natives are all the offspring of the Paradise Trinity. They are +without creature parents, and they are nonreproducing beings. We cannot portray +the creation of these citizens of the central universe, beings who never were +created. The entire story of the creation of Havona is an attempt to time-space +an eternity fact which has no relation to time or space as mortal man +comprehends them. But we must concede human philosophy a point of origin; even +personalities far above the human level require a concept of "beginnings." +Nevertheless, the Paradise-Havona system is eternal. + +The natives of Havona live on the billion spheres of the central universe in +the same sense that other orders of permanent citizenship dwell on their +respective spheres of nativity. As the material order of sonship carries on the +material, intellectual, and spiritual economy of a billion local systems in a +superuniverse, so, in a larger sense, do the Havona natives live and function +on the billion worlds of the central universe. You might possibly regard these +Havoners as material creatures in the sense that the word "material" could be +expanded to describe the physical realities of the divine universe. + +There is a life that is native to Havona and possesses significance in and of +itself. Havoners minister in many ways to Paradise descenders and to +superuniverse ascenders, but they also live lives that are unique in the +central universe and have relative meaning quite apart from either Paradise or +the superuniverses. + +As the worship of the faith sons of the evolutionary worlds ministers to the +satisfaction of the Universal Father's love, so the exalted adoration of the +Havona creatures satiates the perfect ideals of divine beauty and truth. As +mortal man strives to do the will of God, these beings of the central universe +live to gratify the ideals of the Paradise Trinity. In their very nature they +are the will of God. Man rejoices in the goodness of God, Havoners exult in the +divine beauty, while you both enjoy the ministry of the liberty of living +truth. + +Havoners have both optional present and future unrevealed destinies. And there +is a progression of native creatures that is peculiar to the central universe, +a progression that involves neither ascent to Paradise nor penetration of the +superuniverses. This progression to higher Havona status may be suggested as +follows: + +1. Experiential progress outward from the first to the seventh circuit. + +2. Progress inward from the seventh to the first circuit. + +3. Intracircuit progress--progression within the worlds of a given circuit. + +In addition to the Havona natives, the inhabitants of the central universe +embrace numerous classes of pattern beings for various universe +groups--advisers, directors, and teachers of their kind and to their kind +throughout creation. All beings in all universes are fashioned along the lines +of some one order of pattern creature living on some one of the billion worlds +of Havona. Even the mortals of time have their goal and ideals of creature +existence on the outer circuits of these pattern spheres on high. + +Then there are those beings who have attained the Universal Father, and who are +entitled to go and come, who are assigned here and there in the universes on + + top of page - 158 + +missions of special service. And on every Havona world will be found the +attainment candidates, those who have physically attained the central universe, +but who have not yet achieved that spiritual development which will enable them +to claim Paradise residence. + +The Infinite Spirit is represented on the Havona worlds by a host of +personalities, beings of grace and glory, who administer the details of the +intricate intellectual and spiritual affairs of the central universe. On these +worlds of divine perfection they perform the work indigenous to the normal +conduct of this vast creation and, in addition, carry on the manifold tasks of +teaching, training, and ministering to the enormous numbers of ascendant +creatures who have climbed to glory from the dark worlds of space. + +There are numerous groups of beings native to the Paradise-Havona system that +are in no way directly associated with the ascension scheme of creature +perfection attainment; therefore are they omitted from the personality +classifications presented to the mortal races. Only the major groups of +superhuman beings and those orders directly connected with your survival +experience are herein presented. + +Havona teems with the life of all phases of intelligent beings, who there seek +to advance from lower to higher circuits in their efforts to attain higher +levels of divinity realization and enlarged appreciation of supreme meanings, +ultimate values, and absolute reality. + +5. LIFE IN HAVONA + +On Urantia you pass through a short and intense test during your initial life +of material existence. On the mansion worlds and up through your system, +constellation, and local universe, you traverse the morontia phases of +ascension. On the training worlds of the superuniverse you pass through the +true spirit stages of progression and are prepared for eventual transit to +Havona. On the seven circuits of Havona your attainment is intellectual, +spiritual, and experiential. And there is a definite task to be achieved on +each of the worlds of each of these circuits. + +Life on the divine worlds of the central universe is so rich and full, so +complete and replete, that it wholly transcends the human concept of anything a +created being could possibly experience. The social and economic activities of +this eternal creation are entirely dissimilar to the occupations of material +creatures living on evolutionary worlds like Urantia. Even the technique of +Havona thought is unlike the process of thinking on Urantia. + +The regulations of the central universe are fittingly and inherently natural; +the rules of conduct are not arbitrary. In every requirement of Havona there is +disclosed the reason of righteousness and the rule of justice. And these two +factors, combined, equal what on Urantia would be denominated fairness. When +you arrive in Havona, you will naturally enjoy doing things the way they should +be done. + +When intelligent beings first attain the central universe, they are received +and domiciled on the pilot world of the seventh Havona circuit. As the new +arrivals progress spiritually, attain identity comprehension of their +superuniverse Master Spirit, they are transferred to the sixth circle. (It is +from these arrangements in the central universe that the circles of progress in +the human mind have been + + top of page - 159 + +designated.) After ascenders have attained a realization of Supremacy and are +thereby prepared for the Deity adventure, they are taken to the fifth circuit; +and after attaining the Infinite Spirit, they are transferred to the fourth. +Following the attainment of the Eternal Son, they are removed to the third; and +when they have recognized the Universal Father, they go to sojourn on the +second circuit of worlds, where they become more familiar with the Paradise +hosts. Arrival on the first circuit of Havona signifies the acceptance of the +candidates of time into the service of Paradise. Indefinitely, according to the +length and nature of the creature ascension, they will tarry on the inner +circuit of progressive spiritual attainment. From this inner circuit the +ascending pilgrims pass inward to Paradise residence and admission to the Corps +of the Finality. + +During your sojourn in Havona as a pilgrim of ascent, you will be allowed to +visit freely among the worlds of the circuit of your assignment. You will also +be permitted to go back to the planets of those circuits you have previously +traversed. And all this is possible to those who sojourn on the circles of +Havona without the necessity of being ensupernaphimed. The pilgrims of time are +able to equip themselves to traverse "achieved" space but must depend on the +ordained technique to negotiate "unachieved" space; a pilgrim cannot leave +Havona nor go forward beyond his assigned circuit without the aid of a +transport supernaphim. + +There is a refreshing originality about this vast central creation. Aside from +the physical organization of matter and the fundamental constitution of the +basic orders of intelligent beings and other living things, there is nothing in +common between the worlds of Havona. Every one of these planets is an original, +unique, and exclusive creation; each planet is a matchless, superb, and perfect +production. And this diversity of individuality extends to all features of the +physical, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of planetary existence. Each of +these billion perfection spheres has been developed and embellished in +accordance with the plans of the resident Eternal of Days. And this is just why +no two of them are alike. + +Not until you traverse the last of the Havona circuits and visit the last of +the Havona worlds, will the tonic of adventure and the stimulus of curiosity +disappear from your career. And then will the urge, the forward impulse of +eternity, replace its forerunner, the adventure lure of time. + +Monotony is indicative of immaturity of the creative imagination and inactivity +of intellectual co-ordination with the spiritual endowment. By the time an +ascendant mortal begins the exploration of these heavenly worlds, he has +already attained emotional, intellectual, and social, if not spiritual, +maturity. + +Not only will you find undreamed-of changes confronting you as you advance from +circuit to circuit in Havona, but your astonishment will be inexpressible as +you progress from planet to planet within each circuit. Each of these billion +study worlds is a veritable university of surprises. Continuing astonishment, +unending wonder, is the experience of those who traverse these circuits and +tour these gigantic spheres. Monotony is not a part of the Havona career. + +Love of adventure, curiosity, and dread of monotony--these traits inherent in +evolving human nature--were not put there just to aggravate and annoy you +during your short sojourn on earth, but rather to suggest to you that death is +only the beginning of an endless career of adventure, an everlasting life of +anticipation, an eternal voyage of discovery. + + top of page - 160 + +Curiosity--the spirit of investigation, the urge of discovery, the drive of +exploration--is a part of the inborn and divine endowment of evolutionary space +creatures. These natural impulses were not given you merely to be frustrated +and repressed. True, these ambitious urges must frequently be restrained during +your short life on earth, disappointment must be often experienced, but they +are to be fully realized and gloriously gratified during the long ages to come. + +6. THE PURPOSE OF THE CENTRAL UNIVERSE + +The range of the activities of seven-circuited Havona is enormous. In general, +they may be described as: + +1. Havonal. + +2. Paradisiacal. + +3. Ascendant-finite--Supreme-Ultimate evolutional. + +Many superfinite activities take place in the Havona of the present universe +age, involving untold diversities of absonite and other phases of mind and +spirit functions. It is possible that the central universe serves many purposes +which are not revealed to me, as it functions in numerous ways beyond the +comprehension of the created mind. Nevertheless, I will endeavor to depict how +this perfect creation ministers to the needs and contributes to the +satisfactions of seven orders of universe intelligence. + +1. The Universal Father--the First Source and Center. God the Father derives +supreme parental satisfaction from the perfection of the central creation. He +enjoys the experience of love satiety on near-equality levels. The perfect +Creator is divinely pleased with the adoration of the perfect creature. + +Havona affords the Father supreme achievement gratification. The perfection +realization in Havona compensates for the time-space delay of the eternal urge +of infinite expansion. + +The Father enjoys the Havona reciprocation of the divine beauty. It satisfies +the divine mind to afford a perfect pattern of exquisite harmony for all +evolving universes. + +Our Father beholds the central universe with perfect pleasure because it is a +worthy revelation of spirit reality to all personalities of the universe of +universes. + +The God of universes has favorable regard for Havona and Paradise as the +eternal power nucleus for all subsequent universe expansion in time and space. + +The eternal Father views with never-ending satisfaction the Havona creation as +the worthy and alluring goal for the ascension candidates of time, his mortal +grandchildren of space achieving their Creator-Father's eternal home. And God +takes pleasure in the Paradise-Havona universe as the eternal home of Deity and +the divine family. + +2. The Eternal Son--the Second Source and Center. To the Eternal Son the superb +central creation affords eternal proof of the partnership effectiveness of the +divine family--Father, Son, and Spirit. It is the spiritual and material basis +for absolute confidence in the Universal Father. + +Havona affords the Eternal Son an almost unlimited base for the ever-expanding +realization of spirit power. The central universe afforded the Eternal Son the +arena wherein he could safely and securely demonstrate the spirit and + + top of page - 161 + +technique of the bestowal ministry for the instruction of his associate +Paradise Sons. + +Havona is the reality foundation for the Eternal Son's spirit-gravity control +of the universe of universes. This universe affords the Son the gratification +of parental craving, spiritual reproduction. + +The Havona worlds and their perfect inhabitants are the first and the eternally +final demonstration that the Son is the Word of the Father. Thereby is the +consciousness of the Son as an infinite complement of the Father perfectly +gratified. + +And this universe affords the opportunity for the realization of reciprocation +of equality fraternity between the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, and +this constitutes the everlasting proof of the infinite personality of each. + +3. The Infinite Spirit--the Third Source and Center. The Havona universe +affords the Infinite Spirit proof of being the Conjoint Actor, the infinite +representative of the unified Father-Son. In Havona the Infinite Spirit derives +the combined satisfaction of functioning as a creative activity while enjoying +the satisfaction of absolute coexistence with this divine achievement. + +In Havona the Infinite Spirit found an arena wherein he could demonstrate the +ability and willingness to serve as a potential mercy minister. In this perfect +creation the Spirit rehearsed for the adventure of ministry in the evolutionary +universes. + +This perfect creation afforded the Infinite Spirit opportunity to participate +in universe administration with both divine parents--to administer a universe +as associate-Creator offspring, thereby preparing for the joint administration +of the local universes as the Creative Spirit associates of the Creator Sons. + +The Havona worlds are the mind laboratory of the creators of the cosmic mind +and the ministers to every creature mind in existence. Mind is different on +each Havona world and serves as the pattern for all spiritual and material +creature intellects. + +These perfect worlds are the mind graduate schools for all beings destined for +Paradise society. They afforded the Spirit abundant opportunity to test out the +technique of mind ministry on safe and advisory personalities. + +Havona is a compensation to the Infinite Spirit for his widespread and +unselfish work in the universes of space. Havona is the perfect home and +retreat for the untiring Mind Minister of time and space. + +4. The Supreme Being--the evolutionary unification of experiential Deity. The +Havona creation is the eternal and perfect proof of the spiritual reality of +the Supreme Being. This perfect creation is a revelation of the perfect and +symmetrical spirit nature of God the Supreme before the beginnings of the +power-personality synthesis of the finite reflections of the Paradise Deities +in the experiential universes of time and space. + +In Havona the power potentials of the Almighty are unified with the spiritual +nature of the Supreme. This central creation is an exemplification of the +future-eternal unity of the Supreme. + +Havona is a perfect pattern of the universality potential of the Supreme. This +universe is a finished portrayal of the future perfection of the Supreme and is +suggestive of the potential of the Ultimate. + + top of page - 162 + +Havona exhibits finality of spirit values existing as living will creatures of +supreme and perfect self-control; mind existing as ultimately equivalent to +spirit; reality and unity of intelligence with an unlimited potential. + +5. The Co-ordinate Creator Sons. Havona is the educational training ground +where the Paradise Michaels are prepared for their subsequent adventures in +universe creation. This divine and perfect creation is a pattern for every +Creator Son. He strives to make his own universe eventually attain to these +Paradise-Havona levels of perfection. + +A Creator Son uses the creatures of Havona as personality-pattern possibilities +for his own mortal children and spirit beings. The Michael and other Paradise +Sons view Paradise and Havona as the divine destiny of the children of time. + +The Creator Sons know that the central creation is the real source of that +indispensable universe overcontrol which stabilizes and unifies their local +universes. They know that the personal presence of the ever-present influence +of the Supreme and of the Ultimate is in Havona. + +Havona and Paradise are the source of a Michael Son's creative power. Here +dwell the beings who co-operate with him in universe creation. From Paradise +come the Universe Mother Spirits, the cocreators of local universes. + +The Paradise Sons regard the central creation as the home of their divine +parents--their home. It is the place they enjoy returning to ever and anon. + +6. The Co-ordinate Ministering Daughters. The Universe Mother Spirits, +cocreators of the local universes, secure their prepersonal training on the +worlds of Havona in close association with the Spirits of the Circuits. In the +central universe the Spirit Daughters of the local universes were duly trained +in the methods of co-operation with the Sons of Paradise, all the while subject +to the will of the Father. + +On the worlds of Havona the Spirit and the Daughters of the Spirit find the +mind patterns for all their groups of spiritual and material intelligences, and +this central universe is the sometime destiny of those creatures which a +Universe Mother Spirit jointly sponsors with an associated Creator Son. + +The Universe Mother Creator remembers Paradise and Havona as the place of her +origin and the home of the Infinite Mother Spirit, the abode of the personality +presence of the Infinite Mind. + +From this central universe also came the bestowal of the personal prerogatives +of creatorship which a Universe Divine Minister employs as complemental to a +Creator Son in the work of creating living will creatures. + +And lastly, since these Daughter Spirits of the Infinite Mother Spirit will not +likely ever return to their Paradise home, they derive great satisfaction from +the universal reflectivity phenomenon associated with the Supreme Being in +Havona and personalized in Majeston on Paradise. + +7. The Evolutionary Mortals of the Ascending Career. Havona is the home of the +pattern personality of every mortal type and the home of all superhuman +personalities of mortal association who are not native to the creations of +time. + +These worlds provide the stimulus of all human impulses towards the attainment +of true spirit values on the highest conceivable reality levels. Havona is the +pre-Paradise training goal of every ascending mortal. Here mortals attain +pre-Paradise Deity--the Supreme Being. Havona stands before every will creature +as the portal to Paradise and God attainment. + + top of page - 163 + +Paradise is the home, and Havona the workshop and playground, of the +finaliters. And every God-knowing mortal craves to be a finaliter. + +The central universe is not only man's established destiny, but it is also the +starting place of the eternal career of the finaliters as they shall sometime +be started out on the undisclosed and universal adventure in the experience of +exploring the infinity of the Universal Father. + +Havona will unquestionably continue to function with absonite significance even +in future universe ages which may witness space pilgrims attempting to find God +on superfinite levels. Havona has capacity to serve as a training universe for +absonite beings. It will probably be the finishing school when the seven +superuniverses are functioning as the intermediate school for the graduates of +the primary schools of outer space. And we incline to the opinion that the +potentials of eternal Havona are really unlimited, that the central universe +has eternal capacity to serve as an experiential training universe for all +past, present, or future types of created beings. + +[Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom commissioned thus to function by the +Ancients of Days on Uversa.] + + top of page - 164 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Sacred ³ The Seven ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Sphe... ³ Super... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p015.txt b/religious documents/p015.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eea8c32 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p015.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1191 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 15 The Seven SuperUniverses + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 15 The Seven SuperUniverses + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AS FAR as the Universal Father is concerned--as a Father--the universes are +virtually nonexistent; he deals with personalities; he is the Father of +personalities. As far as the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit are +concerned--as creator partners--the universes are localized and individual +under the joint rule of the Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits. As far as +the Paradise Trinity is concerned, outside Havona there are just seven +inhabited universes, the seven superuniverses which hold jurisdiction over the +circle of the first post-Havona space level. The Seven Master Spirits radiate +their influence out from the central Isle, thus constituting the vast creation +one gigantic wheel, the hub being the eternal Isle of Paradise, the seven +spokes the radiations of the Seven Master Spirits, the rim the outer regions of +the grand universe. + +Early in the materialization of the universal creation the sevenfold scheme of +the superuniverse organization and government was formulated. The first +post-Havona creation was divided into seven stupendous segments, and the +headquarters worlds of these superuniverse governments were designed and +constructed. The present scheme of administration has existed from near +eternity, and the rulers of these seven superuniverses are rightly called +Ancients of Days. + +Of the vast body of knowledge concerning the superuniverses, I can hope to tell +you little, but there is operative throughout these realms a technique of +intelligent control for both physical and spiritual forces, and the universal +gravity presences there function in majestic power and perfect harmony. It is +important first to gain an adequate idea of the physical constitution and +material organization of the superuniverse domains, for then you will be the +better prepared to grasp the significance of the marvelous organization +provided for their spiritual government and for the intellectual advancement of +the will creatures who dwell on the myriads of inhabited planets scattered +hither and yon throughout these seven superuniverses. + +1. THE SUPERUNIVERSE SPACE LEVEL + +Within the limited range of the records, observations, and memories of the +generations of a million or a billion of your short years, to all practical +intents and purposes, Urantia and the universe to which it belongs are +experiencing the adventure of one long and uncharted plunge into new space; but +according to the records of Uversa, in accordance with older observations, in +harmony with the more extensive experience and calculations of our order, and +as a result of conclusions based on these and other findings, we know that the +universes are engaged in an orderly, well-understood, and perfectly controlled +processional, swinging in majestic grandeur around the First Great Source and +Center and his residential universe. + + top of page - 165 + +We have long since discovered that the seven superuniverses traverse a great +ellipse, a gigantic and elongated circle. Your solar system and other worlds of +time are not plunging headlong, without chart and compass, into unmapped space. +The local universe to which your system belongs is pursuing a definite and +well-understood counterclockwise course around the vast swing that encircles +the central universe. This cosmic path is well charted and is just as +thoroughly known to the superuniverse star observers as the orbits of the +planets constituting your solar system are known to Urantia astronomers. + +Urantia is situated in a local universe and a superuniverse not fully +organized, and your local universe is in immediate proximity to numerous +partially completed physical creations. You belong to one of the relatively +recent universes. But you are not, today, plunging on wildly into uncharted +space nor swinging out blindly into unknown regions. You are following the +orderly and predetermined path of the superuniverse space level. You are now +passing through the very same space that your planetary system, or its +predecessors, traversed ages ago; and some day in the remote future your +system, or its successors, will again traverse the identical space through +which you are now so swiftly plunging. + +In this age and as direction is regarded on Urantia, superuniverse number one +swings almost due north, approximately opposite, in an easterly direction, to +the Paradise residence of the Great Sources and Centers and the central +universe of Havona. This position, with the corresponding one to the west, +represents the nearest physical approach of the spheres of time to the eternal +Isle. Superuniverse number two is in the north, preparing for the westward +swing, while number three now holds the northernmost segment of the great space +path, having already turned into the bend leading to the southerly plunge. +Number four is on the comparatively straightaway southerly flight, the advance +regions now approaching opposition to the Great Centers. Number five has about +left its position opposite the Center of Centers while continuing on the direct +southerly course just preceding the eastward swing; number six occupies most of +the southern curve, the segment from which your superuniverse has nearly +passed. + +Your local universe of Nebadon belongs to Orvonton, the seventh superuniverse, +which swings on between superuniverses one and six, having not long since (as +we reckon time) turned the southeastern bend of the superuniverse space level. +Today, the solar system to which Urantia belongs is a few billion years past +the swing around the southern curvature so that you are just now advancing +beyond the southeastern bend and are moving swiftly through the long and +comparatively straightaway northern path. For untold ages Orvonton will pursue +this almost direct northerly course. + +Urantia belongs to a system which is well out towards the borderland of your +local universe; and your local universe is at present traversing the periphery +of Orvonton. Beyond you there are still others, but you are far removed in +space from those physical systems which swing around the great circle in +comparative proximity to the Great Source and Center. + +2. ORGANIZATION OF THE SUPERUNIVERSES + +Only the Universal Father knows the location and actual number of inhabited +worlds in space; he calls them all by name and number. I can give only + + top of page - 166 + +the approximate number of inhabited or inhabitable planets, for some local +universes have more worlds suitable for intelligent life than others. Nor have +all projected local universes been organized. Therefore the estimates which I +offer are solely for the purpose of affording some idea of the immensity of the +material creation. + +There are seven superuniverses in the grand universe, and they are constituted +approximately as follows: + +1. The System. The basic unit of the supergovernment consists of about one +thousand inhabited or inhabitable worlds. Blazing suns, cold worlds, planets +too near the hot suns, and other spheres not suitable for creature habitation +are not included in this group. These one thousand worlds adapted to support +life are called a system, but in the younger systems only a comparatively small +number of these worlds may be inhabited. Each inhabited planet is presided over +by a Planetary Prince, and each local system has an architectural sphere as its +headquarters and is ruled by a System Sovereign. + +2. The Constellation. One hundred systems (about 100,000 inhabitable planets) +make up a constellation. Each constellation has an architectural headquarters +sphere and is presided over by three Vorondadek Sons, the Most Highs. Each +constellation also has a Faithful of Days in observation, an ambassador of the +Paradise Trinity. + +3. The Local Universe. One hundred constellations (about 10,000,000 inhabitable +planets) constitute a local universe. Each local universe has a magnificent +architectural headquarters world and is ruled by one of the co-ordinate Creator +Sons of God of the order of Michael. Each universe is blessed by the presence +of a Union of Days, a representative of the Paradise Trinity. + +4. The Minor Sector. One hundred local universes (about 1,000,000,000 +inhabitable planets) constitute a minor sector of the superuniverse government; +it has a wonderful headquarters world, wherefrom its rulers, the Recents of +Days, administer the affairs of the minor sector. There are three Recents of +Days, Supreme Trinity Personalities, on each minor sector headquarters. + +5. The Major Sector. One hundred minor sectors (about 100,000,000,000 +inhabitable worlds) make one major sector. Each major sector is provided with a +superb headquarters and is presided over by three Perfections of Days, Supreme +Trinity Personalities. + +6. The Superuniverse. Ten major sectors (about 1,000,000,000,000 inhabitable +planets) constitute a superuniverse. Each superuniverse is provided with an +enormous and glorious headquarters world and is ruled by three Ancients of +Days. + +7. The Grand Universe. Seven superuniverses make up the present organized grand +universe, consisting of approximately seven trillion inhabitable worlds plus +the architectural spheres and the one billion inhabited spheres of Havona. The +superuniverses are ruled and administered indirectly and reflectively from +Paradise by the Seven Master Spirits. The billion worlds of Havona are directly +administered by the Eternals of Days, one such Supreme Trinity Personality +presiding over each of these perfect spheres. + + top of page - 167 + +Excluding the Paradise-Havona spheres, the plan of universe organization +provides for the following units: + +Superuniverses ..........................................7 + +Major sectors ..........................................70 + +Minor sectors .......................................7,000 + +Local universes ...................................700,000 + +Constellations .................................70,000,000 + +Local systems ...............................7,000,000,000 + +Inhabitable planets .....................7,000,000,000,000 + +Each of the seven superuniverses is constituted, approximately, as follows: + +One system embraces, approximately ................1,000 worlds + +One constellation (100 systems) .................100,000 worlds + +One universe (100 constellations) ............10,000,000 worlds + +One minor sector (100 universes)...........1,000,000,000 worlds + +One major sector (100 minor sectors) ....100,000,000,000 worlds + +One superuniverse (10 major sectors)...1,000,000,000,000 worlds + +All such estimates are approximations at best, for new systems are constantly +evolving while other organizations are temporarily passing out of material +existence. + +3. THE SUPERUNIVERSE OF ORVONTON + +Practically all of the starry realms visible to the naked eye on Urantia belong +to the seventh section of the grand universe, the superuniverse of Orvonton. +The vast Milky Way starry system represents the central nucleus of Orvonton, +being largely beyond the borders of your local universe. This great aggregation +of suns, dark islands of space, double stars, globular clusters, star clouds, +spiral and other nebulae, together with myriads of individual planets, forms a +watchlike, elongated-circular grouping of about one seventh of the inhabited +evolutionary universes. + +From the astronomical position of Urantia, as you look through the cross +section of near-by systems to the great Milky Way, you observe that the spheres +of Orvonton are traveling in a vast elongated plane, the breadth being far +greater than the thickness and the length far greater than the breadth. + +Observation of the so-called Milky Way discloses the comparative increase in +Orvonton stellar density when the heavens are viewed in one direction, while on +either side the density diminishes; the number of stars and other spheres +decreases away from the chief plane of our material superuniverse. When the +angle of observation is propitious, gazing through the main body of this realm +of maximum density, you are looking toward the residential universe and the +center of all things. + +Of the ten major divisions of Orvonton, eight have been roughly identified by +Urantian astronomers. The other two are difficult of separate recognition +because you are obliged to view these phenomena from the inside. If you could +look upon the superuniverse of Orvonton from a position far-distant in space, +you would immediately recognize the ten major sectors of the seventh galaxy. + + top of page - 168 + +The rotational center of your minor sector is situated far away in the enormous +and dense star cloud of Sagittarius, around which your local universe and its +associated creations all move, and from opposite sides of the vast Sagittarius +subgalactic system you may observe two great streams of star clouds emerging in +stupendous stellar coils. + +The nucleus of the physical system to which your sun and its associated planets +belong is the center of the onetime Andronover nebula. This former spiral +nebula was slightly distorted by the gravity disruptions associated with the +events which were attendant upon the birth of your solar system, and which were +occasioned by the near approach of a large neighboring nebula. This near +collision changed Andronover into a somewhat globular aggregation but did not +wholly destroy the two-way procession of the suns and their associated physical +groups. Your solar system now occupies a fairly central position in one of the +arms of this distorted spiral, situated about halfway from the center out +towards the edge of the star stream. + +The Sagittarius sector and all other sectors and divisions of Orvonton are in +rotation around Uversa, and some of the confusion of Urantian star observers +arises out of the illusions and relative distortions produced by the following +multiple revolutionary movements: + +1. The revolution of Urantia around its sun. + +2. The circuit of your solar system about the nucleus of the former Andronover +nebula. + +3. The rotation of the Andronover stellar family and the associated clusters +about the composite rotation-gravity center of the star cloud of Nebadon. + +4. The swing of the local star cloud of Nebadon and its associated creations +around the Sagittarius center of their minor sector. + +5. The rotation of the one hundred minor sectors, including Sagittarius, about +their major sector. + +6. The whirl of the ten major sectors, the so-called star drifts, about the +Uversa headquarters of Orvonton. + +7. The movement of Orvonton and six associated superuniverses around Paradise +and Havona, the counterclockwise processional of the superuniverse space level. + +These multiple motions are of several orders: The space paths of your planet +and your solar system are genetic, inherent in origin. The absolute +counterclockwise motion of Orvonton is also genetic, inherent in the +architectural plans of the master universe. But the intervening motions are of +composite origin, being derived in part from the constitutive segmentation of +matter-energy into the superuniverses and in part produced by the intelligent +and purposeful action of the Paradise force organizers. + +The local universes are in closer proximity as they approach Havona; the +circuits are greater in number, and there is increased superimposition, layer +upon layer. But farther out from the eternal center there are fewer and fewer +systems, layers, circuits, and universes. + + top of page - 169 + +4. NEBULAE--THE ANCESTORS OF UNIVERSES + +While creation and universe organization remain forever under the control of +the infinite Creators and their associates, the whole phenomenon proceeds in +accordance with an ordained technique and in conformity to the gravity laws of +force, energy, and matter. But there is something of mystery associated with +the universal force-charge of space; we quite understand the organization of +the material creations from the ultimatonic stage forward, but we do not fully +comprehend the cosmic ancestry of the ultimatons. We are confident that these +ancestral forces have a Paradise origin because they forever swing through +pervaded space in the exact gigantic outlines of Paradise. Though nonresponsive +to Paradise gravity, this force-charge of space, the ancestor of all +materialization, does always respond to the presence of nether Paradise, being +apparently circuited in and out of the nether Paradise center. + +The Paradise force organizers transmute space potency into primordial force and +evolve this prematerial potential into the primary and secondary energy +manifestations of physical reality. When this energy attains gravity-responding +levels, the power directors and their associates of the superuniverse regime +appear upon the scene and begin their never-ending manipulations designed to +establish the manifold power circuits and energy channels of the universes of +time and space. Thus does physical matter appear in space, and so is the stage +set for the inauguration of universe organization. + +This segmentation of energy is a phenomenon which has never been solved by the +physicists of Nebadon. Their chief difficulty lies in the relative +inaccessibility of the Paradise force organizers, for the living power +directors, though they are competent to deal with space-energy, do not have the +least conception of the origin of the energies they so skillfully and +intelligently manipulate. + +Paradise force organizers are nebulae originators; they are able to initiate +about their space presence the tremendous cyclones of force which, when once +started, can never be stopped or limited until the all-pervading forces are +mobilized for the eventual appearance of the ultimatonic units of universe +matter. Thus are brought into being the spiral and other nebulae, the mother +wheels of the direct-origin suns and their varied systems. In outer space there +may be seen ten different forms of nebulae, phases of primary universe +evolution, and these vast energy wheels had the same origin as did those in the +seven superuniverses. + +Nebulae vary greatly in size and in the resulting number and aggregate mass of +their stellar and planetary offspring. A sun-forming nebula just north of the +borders of Orvonton, but within the superuniverse space level, has already +given origin to approximately forty thousand suns, and the mother wheel is +still throwing off suns, the majority of which are many times the size of +yours. Some of the larger nebulae of outer space are giving origin to as many +as one hundred million suns. + +Nebulae are not directly related to any of the administrative units, such as +minor sectors or local universes, although some local universes have been +organized from the products of a single nebula. Each local universe embraces +exactly one one-hundred-thousandth part of the total energy charge of a +superuniverse irrespective of nebular relationship, for energy is not organized +by nebulae--it is universally distributed. + + top of page - 170 + +Not all spiral nebulae are engaged in sun making. Some have retained control of +many of their segregated stellar offspring, and their spiral appearance is +occasioned by the fact that their suns pass out of the nebular arm in close +formation but return by diverse routes, thus making it easy to observe them at +one point but more difficult to see them when widely scattered on their +different returning routes farther out and away from the arm of the nebula. +There are not many sun-forming nebulae active in Orvonton at the present time, +though Andromeda, which is outside the inhabited superuniverse, is very active. +This far-distant nebula is visible to the naked eye, and when you view it, +pause to consider that the light you behold left those distant suns almost one +million years ago. + +The Milky Way galaxy is composed of vast numbers of former spiral and other +nebulae, and many still retain their original configuration. But as the result +of internal catastrophes and external attraction, many have suffered such +distortion and rearrangement as to cause these enormous aggregations to appear +as gigantic luminous masses of blazing suns, like the Magellanic Cloud. The +globular type of star clusters predominates near the outer margins of Orvonton. + +The vast star clouds of Orvonton should be regarded as individual aggregations +of matter comparable to the separate nebulae observable in the space regions +external to the Milky Way galaxy. Many of the so-called star clouds of space, +however, consist of gaseous material only. The energy potential of these +stellar gas clouds is unbelievably enormous, and some of it is taken up by +near-by suns and redispatched in space as solar emanations. + +5. THE ORIGIN OF SPACE BODIES + +The bulk of the mass contained in the suns and planets of a superuniverse +originates in the nebular wheels; very little of superuniverse mass is +organized by the direct action of the power directors (as in the construction +of architectural spheres), although a constantly varying quantity of matter +originates in open space. + +As to origin, the majority of the suns, planets, and other spheres can be +classified in one of the following ten groups: + +1. Concentric Contraction Rings. Not all nebulae are spiral. Many an immense +nebula, instead of splitting into a double star system or evolving as a spiral, +undergoes condensation by multiple-ring formation. For long periods such a +nebula appears as an enormous central sun surrounded by numerous gigantic +clouds of encircling, ring-appearing formations of matter. + +2. The Whirled Stars embrace those suns which are thrown off the great mother +wheels of highly heated gases. They are not thrown off as rings but in right- +and left-handed processions. Whirled stars are also of origin in +other-than-spiral nebulae. + +3. Gravity-explosion Planets. When a sun is born of a spiral or of a barred +nebula, not infrequently it is thrown out a considerable distance. Such a sun +is highly gaseous, and subsequently, after it has somewhat cooled and +condensed, it may chance to swing near some enormous mass of matter, a gigantic +sun or a dark island of space. Such an approach may not be near enough to +result in collision but still near enough to allow the gravity pull of the +greater body to start tidal convulsions in the lesser, thus initiating a series +of tidal upheavals which occur simultaneously on opposite sides of the +convulsed sun. At their height + + top of page - 171 + +these explosive eruptions produce a series of varying-sized aggregations of +matter which may be projected beyond the gravity-reclamation zone of the +erupting sun, thus becoming stabilized in orbits of their own around one of the +two bodies concerned in this episode. Later on the larger collections of matter +unite and gradually draw the smaller bodies to themselves. In this way many of +the solid planets of the lesser systems are brought into existence. Your own +solar system had just such an origin. + +4. Centrifugal Planetary Daughters. Enormous suns, when in certain stages of +development, and if their revolutionary rate greatly accelerates, begin to +throw off large quantities of matter which may subsequently be assembled to +form small worlds that continue to encircle the parent sun. + +5. Gravity-deficiency Spheres. There is a critical limit to the size of +individual stars. When a sun reaches this limit, unless it slows down in +revolutionary rate, it is doomed to split; sun fission occurs, and a new double +star of this variety is born. Numerous small planets may be subsequently formed +as a by-product of this gigantic disruption. + +6. Contractural Stars. In the smaller systems the largest outer planet +sometimes draws to itself its neighboring worlds, while those planets near the +sun begin their terminal plunge. With your solar system, such an end would mean +that the four inner planets would be claimed by the sun, while the major +planet, Jupiter, would be greatly enlarged by capturing the remaining worlds. +Such an end of a solar system would result in the production of two adjacent +but unequal suns, one type of double star formation. Such catastrophes are +infrequent except out on the fringe of the superuniverse starry aggregations. + +7. Cumulative Spheres. From the vast quantity of matter circulating in space, +small planets may slowly accumulate. They grow by meteoric accretion and by +minor collisions. In certain sectors of space, conditions favor such forms of +planetary birth. Many an inhabited world has had such an origin. + +Some of the dense dark islands are the direct result of the accretions of +transmuting energy in space. Another group of these dark islands have come into +being by the accumulation of enormous quantities of cold matter, mere fragments +and meteors, circulating through space. Such aggregations of matter have never +been hot and, except for density, are in composition very similar to Urantia. + +8. Burned-out Suns. Some of the dark islands of space are burned-out isolated +suns, all available space-energy having been emitted. The organized units of +matter approximate full condensation, virtual complete consolidation; and it +requires ages upon ages for such enormous masses of highly condensed matter to +be recharged in the circuits of space and thus to be prepared for new cycles of +universe function following a collision or some equally revivifying cosmic +happening. + +9. Collisional Spheres. In those regions of thicker clustering, collisions are +not uncommon. Such an astronomic readjustment is accompanied by tremendous +energy changes and matter transmutations. Collisions involving dead suns are +peculiarly influential in creating widespread energy fluctuations. Collisional +debris often constitutes the material nucleuses for the subsequent formation of +planetary bodies adapted to mortal habitation. + + top of page - 172 + +10. Architectural Worlds. These are the worlds which are built according to +plans and specifications for some special purpose, such as Salvington, the +headquarters of your local universe, and Uversa, the seat of government of our +superuniverse. + +There are numerous other techniques for evolving suns and segregating planets, +but the foregoing procedures suggest the methods whereby the vast majority of +stellar systems and planetary families are brought into existence. To undertake +to describe all the various techniques involved in stellar metamorphosis and +planetary evolution would require the narration of almost one hundred different +modes of sun formation and planetary origin. As your star students scan the +heavens, they will observe phenomena indicative of all these modes of stellar +evolution, but they will seldom detect evidence of the formation of those +small, nonluminous collections of matter which serve as inhabited planets, the +most important of the vast material creations. + +6. THE SPHERES OF SPACE + +Irrespective of origin, the various spheres of space are classifiable into the +following major divisions: + +1. The suns--the stars of space. + +2. The dark islands of space. + +3. Minor space bodies--comets, meteors, and planetesimals. + +4. The planets, including the inhabited worlds. + +5. Architectural spheres--worlds made to order. + +With the exception of the architectural spheres, all space bodies have had an +evolutionary origin, evolutionary in the sense that they have not been brought +into being by fiat of Deity, evolutionary in the sense that the creative acts +of God have unfolded by a time-space technique through the operation of many of +the created and eventuated intelligences of Deity. + +The Suns. These are the stars of space in all their various stages of +existence. Some are solitary evolving space systems; others are double stars, +contracting or disappearing planetary systems. The stars of space exist in no +less than a thousand different states and stages. You are familiar with suns +that emit light accompanied by heat; but there are also suns which shine +without heat. + +The trillions upon trillions of years that an ordinary sun will continue to +give out heat and light well illustrates the vast store of energy which each +unit of matter contains. The actual energy stored in these invisible particles +of physical matter is well-nigh unimaginable. And this energy becomes almost +wholly available as light when subjected to the tremendous heat pressure and +the associated energy activities which prevail in the interior of the blazing +suns. Still other conditions enable these suns to transform and send forth much +of the energy of space which comes their way in the established space circuits. +Many phases of physical energy and all forms of matter are attracted to, and +subsequently distributed by, the solar dynamos. In this way the suns serve as +local accelerators of energy circulation, acting as automatic power-control +stations. + +The superuniverse of Orvonton is illuminated and warmed by more than ten +trillion blazing suns. These suns are the stars of your observable astronomic +system. More than two trillion are too distant and too small ever to be seen +from + + top of page - 173 + +Urantia. But in the master universe there are as many suns as there are glasses +of water in the oceans of your world. + +The Dark Islands of Space. These are the dead suns and other large aggregations +of matter devoid of light and heat. The dark islands are sometimes enormous in +mass and exert a powerful influence in universe equilibrium and energy +manipulation. The density of some of these large masses is well-nigh +unbelievable. And this great concentration of mass enables these dark islands +to function as powerful balance wheels, holding large neighboring systems in +effective leash. They hold the gravity balance of power in many constellations; +many physical systems which would otherwise speedily dive to destruction in +near-by suns are held securely in the gravity grasp of these guardian dark +islands. It is because of this function that we can locate them accurately. We +have measured the gravity pull of the luminous bodies, and we can therefore +calculate the exact size and location of the dark islands of space which so +effectively function to hold a given system steady in its course. + +Minor Space Bodies. The meteors and other small particles of matter circulating +and evolving in space constitute an enormous aggregate of energy and material +substance. + +Many comets are unestablished wild offspring of the solar mother wheels, which +are being gradually brought under control of the central governing sun. Comets +also have numerous other origins. A comet's tail points away from the +attracting body or sun because of the electrical reaction of its highly +expanded gases and because of the actual pressure of light and other energies +emanating from the sun. This phenomenon constitutes one of the positive proofs +of the reality of light and its associated energies; it demonstrates that light +has weight. Light is a real substance, not simply waves of hypothetical ether. + +The Planets. These are the larger aggregations of matter which follow an orbit +around a sun or some other space body; they range in size from planetesimals to +enormous gaseous, liquid, or solid spheres. The cold worlds which have been +built up by the assemblage of floating space material, when they happen to be +in proper relation to a near-by sun, are the more ideal planets to harbor +intelligent inhabitants. The dead suns are not, as a rule, suited to life; they +are usually too far away from a living, blazing sun, and further, they are +altogether too massive; gravity is tremendous at the surface. + +In your superuniverse not one cool planet in forty is habitable by beings of +your order. And, of course, the superheated suns and the frigid outlying worlds +are unfit to harbor higher life. In your solar system only three planets are at +present suited to harbor life. Urantia, in size, density, and location, is in +many respects ideal for human habitation. + +The laws of physical-energy behavior are basically universal, but local +influences have much to do with the physical conditions which prevail on +individual planets and in local systems. An almost endless variety of creature +life and other living manifestations characterizes the countless worlds of +space. There are, however, certain points of similarity in a group of worlds +associated in a given system, while there also is a universe pattern of +intelligent life. There are physical relationships among those planetary +systems which belong to the same physical circuit, and which closely follow +each other in the endless swing around the circle of universes. + + top of page - 174 + +7. THE ARCHITECTURAL SPHERES + +While each superuniverse government presides near the center of the +evolutionary universes of its space segment, it occupies a world made to order +and is peopled by accredited personalities. These headquarters worlds are +architectural spheres, space bodies specifically constructed for their special +purpose. While sharing the light of near-by suns, these spheres are +independently lighted and heated. Each has a sun which gives forth light +without heat, like the satellites of Paradise, while each is supplied with heat +by the circulation of certain energy currents near the surface of the sphere. +These headquarters worlds belong to one of the greater systems situated near +the astronomical center of their respective superuniverses. + +Time is standardized on the headquarters of the superuniverses. The standard +day of the superuniverse of Orvonton is equal to almost thirty days of Urantia +time, and the Orvonton year equals one hundred standard days. This Uversa year +is standard in the seventh superuniverse, and it is twenty-two minutes short of +three thousand days of Urantia time, about eight and one fifth of your years. + +The headquarters worlds of the seven superuniverses partake of the nature and +grandeur of Paradise, their central pattern of perfection. In reality, all +headquarters worlds are paradisiacal. They are indeed heavenly abodes, and they +increase in material size, morontia beauty, and spirit glory from Jerusem to +the central Isle. And all the satellites of these headquarters worlds are also +architectural spheres. + +The various headquarters worlds are provided with every phase of material and +spiritual creation. All kinds of material, morontial, and spiritual beings are +at home on these rendezvous worlds of the universes. As mortal creatures ascend +the universe, passing from the material to the spiritual realms, they never +lose their appreciation for, and enjoyment of, their former levels of +existence. + +Jerusem, the headquarters of your local system of Satania, has its seven worlds +of transition culture! each of which is encircled by seven satellites, among +which are the seven mansion worlds of morontia detention, man's first +postmortal residence. As the term heaven has been used on Urantia, it has +sometimes meant these seven mansion worlds, the first mansion world being +denominated the first heaven, and so on to the seventh. + +Edentia, the headquarters of your constellation of Norlatiadek, has its seventy +satellites of socializing culture and training, on which ascenders sojourn upon +the completion of the Jerusem regime of personality mobilization, unification, +and realization. + +Salvington, the capital of Nebadon, your local universe, is surrounded by ten +university clusters of forty-nine spheres each. Hereon is man spiritualized +following his constellation socialization. + +Uminor the third, the headquarters of your minor sector, Ensa, is surrounded by +the seven spheres of the higher physical studies of the ascendant life. + +Umajor the fifth, the headquarters of your major sector, Splandon, is +surrounded by the seventy spheres of the advancing intellectual training of the +superuniverse. + + top of page - 175 + +Uversa, the headquarters of Orvonton, your superuniverse, is immediately +surrounded by the seven higher universities of advanced spiritual training for +ascending will creatures. Each of these seven clusters of wonder spheres +consists of seventy specialized worlds containing thousands upon thousands of +replete institutions and organizations devoted to universe training and spirit +culture wherein the pilgrims of time are re-educated and re-examined +preparatory to their long flight to Havona. The arriving pilgrims of time are +always received on these associated worlds, but the departing graduates are +always dispatched for Havona direct from the shores of Uversa. + +Uversa is the spiritual and administrative headquarters for approximately one +trillion inhabited or inhabitable worlds. The glory, grandeur, and perfection +of the Orvonton capital surpass any of the wonders of the time-space creations. + +If all the projected local universes and their component parts were +established, there would be slightly less than five hundred billion +architectural worlds in the seven superuniverses. + +8. ENERGY CONTROL AND REGULATION + +The headquarters spheres of the superuniverses are so constructed that they are +able to function as efficient power-energy regulators for their various +sectors, serving as focal points for the directionization of energy to their +component local universes. They exert a powerful influence over the balance and +control of the physical energies circulating through organized space. + +Further regulative functions are performed by the superuniverse power centers +and physical controllers, living and semiliving intelligent entities +constituted for this express purpose. These power centers and controllers are +difficult of understanding; the lower orders are not volitional, they do not +possess will, they do not choose, their functions are very intelligent but +apparently automatic and inherent in their highly specialized organization. The +power centers and physical controllers of the superuniverses assume direction +and partial control of the thirty energy systems which comprise the gravita +domain. The physical-energy circuits administered by the power centers of +Uversa require a little over 968 million years to complete the encirclement of +the superuniverse. + +Evolving energy has substance; it has weight, although weight is always +relative, depending on revolutionary velocity, mass, and antigravity. Mass in +matter tends to retard velocity in energy; and the anywhere-present velocity of +energy represents: the initial endowment of velocity, minus retardation by mass +encountered in transit, plus the regulatory function of the living energy +controllers of the superuniverse and the physical influence of near-by highly +heated or heavily charged bodies. + +The universal plan for the maintenance of equilibrium between matter and energy +necessitates the everlasting making and unmaking of the lesser material units. +The Universe Power Directors have the ability to condense and detain, or to +expand and liberate, varying quantities of energy. + +Given a sufficient duration of retarding influence, gravity would eventually +convert all energy into matter were it not for two factors: First, because of +the antigravity influences of the energy controllers, and second, because +organized matter tends to disintegrate under certain conditions found in very +hot stars and under certain peculiar conditions in space near highly energized +cold bodies of condensed matter. + + top of page - 176 + +When mass becomes overaggregated and threatens to unbalance energy, to deplete +the physical power circuits, the physical controllers intervene unless +gravity's own further tendency to overmaterialize energy is defeated by the +occurrence of a collision among the dead giants of space, thus in an instant +completely dissipating the cumulative collections of gravity. In these +collisional episodes enormous masses of matter are suddenly converted into the +rarest form of energy, and the struggle for universal equilibrium is begun +anew. Eventually the larger physical systems become stabilized, become +physically settled, and are swung into the balanced and established circuits of +the superuniverses. Subsequent to this event no more collisions or other +devastating catastrophes will occur in such established systems. + +During the times of plus energy there are power disturbances and heat +fluctuations accompanied by electrical manifestations. During times of minus +energy there are increased tendencies for matter to aggregate, condense, and to +get out of control in the more delicately balanced circuits, with resultant +tidal or collisional adjustments which quickly restore the balance between +circulating energy and more literally stabilized matter. To forecast and +otherwise to understand such likely behavior of the blazing suns and the dark +islands of space is one of the tasks of the celestial star observers. + +We are able to recognize most of the laws governing universe equilibrium and to +predict much pertaining to universe stability. Practically, our forecasts are +reliable, but we are always confronted by certain forces which are not wholly +amenable to the laws of energy control and matter behavior known to us. The +predictability of all physical phenomena becomes increasingly difficult as we +proceed outward in the universes from Paradise. As we pass beyond the borders +of the personal administration of the Paradise Rulers, we are confronted with +increasing inability to reckon in accordance with the standards established and +the experience acquired in connection with observations having exclusively to +do with the physical phenomena of the near-by astronomic systems. Even in the +realms of the seven superuniverses we are living in the midst of force actions +and energy reactions which pervade all our domains and extend in unified +equilibrium on through all regions of outer space. + +The farther out we go, the more certainly we encounter those variational and +unpredictable phenomena which are so unerringly characteristic of the +unfathomable presence-performances of the Absolutes and the experiential +Deities. And these phenomena must be indicative of some universal overcontrol +of all things. + +The superuniverse of Orvonton is apparently now running down; the outer +universes seem to be winding up for unparalleled future activities; the central +Havona universe is eternally stabilized. Gravity and absence of heat (cold) +organize and hold matter together; heat and antigravity disrupt matter and +dissipate energy. The living power directors and force organizers are the +secret of the special control and intelligent direction of the endless +metamorphoses of universe making, unmaking, and remaking. Nebulae may disperse, +suns burn out, systems vanish, and planets perish, but the universes do not run +down. + +9. CIRCUITS OF THE SUPERUNIVERSES + +The universal circuits of Paradise do actually pervade the realms of the seven +superuniverses. These presence circuits are: the personality gravity of + + top of page - 177 + +the Universal Father, the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son, the mind +gravity of the Conjoint Actor, and the material gravity of the eternal Isle. + +In addition to the universal Paradise circuits and in addition to the +presence-performances of the Absolutes and the experiential Deities, there +function within the superuniverse space level only two energy-circuit divisions +or power segregations: the superuniverse circuits and the local universe +circuits. + +The Superuniverse Circuits: + +1. The unifying intelligence circuit of one of the Seven Master Spirits of +Paradise. Such a cosmic-mind circuit is limited to a single superuniverse. + +2. The reflective-service circuit of the seven Reflective Spirits in each +superuniverse. + +3. The secret circuits of the Mystery Monitors, in some manner interassociated +and routed by Divinington to the Universal Father on Paradise. + +4. The circuit of the intercommunion of the Eternal Son with his Paradise Sons. + +5. The flash presence of the Infinite Spirit. + +6. The broadcasts of Paradise, the space reports of Havona. + +7. The energy circuits of the power centers and the physical controllers. + +The Local Universe Circuits: + +1. The bestowal spirit of the Paradise Sons, the Comforter of the bestowal +worlds. The Spirit of Truth, the spirit of Michael on Urantia. + +2. The circuit of the Divine Ministers, the local universe Mother Spirits, the +Holy Spirit of your world. + +3. The intelligence-ministry circuit of a local universe, including the +diversely functioning presence of the adjutant mind-spirits. + +When there develops such a spiritual harmony in a local universe that its +individual and combined circuits become indistinguishable from those of the +superuniverse, when such identity of function and oneness of ministry actually +prevail, then does the local universe immediately swing into the settled +circuits of light and life, becoming at once eligible for admission into the +spiritual confederation of the perfected union of the supercreation. The +requisites for admission to the councils of the Ancients of Days, membership in +the superuniverse confederation, are: + +1. Physical Stability. The stars and planets of a local universe must be in +equilibrium; the periods of immediate stellar metamorphosis must be over. The +universe must be proceeding on a clear track; its orbit must be safely and +finally settled. + +2. Spiritual Loyalty. There must exist a state of universal recognition of, and +loyalty to, the Sovereign Son of God who presides over the affairs of such a +local universe. There must have come into being a state of harmonious +co-operation between the individual planets, systems, and constellations of the +entire local universe. + +Your local universe is not even reckoned as belonging to the settled physical +order of the superuniverse, much less as holding membership in the recognized +spiritual family of the supergovernment. Although Nebadon does not yet have + + top of page - 178 + +representation on Uversa, we of the superuniverse government are dispatched to +its worlds on special missions from time to time, even as I have come to +Urantia directly from Uversa. We lend every possible assistance to your +directors and rulers in the solution of their difficult problems; we are +desirous of seeing your universe qualified for full admission into the +associated creations of the superuniverse family. + +10. RULERS OF THE SUPERUNIVERSES + +The headquarters of the superuniverses are the seats of the high spiritual +government of the time-space domains. The executive branch of the +supergovernment, taking origin in the Councils of the Trinity, is immediately +directed by one of the Seven Master Spirits of supreme supervision, beings who +sit upon seats of Paradise authority and administer the superuniverses through +the Seven Supreme Executives stationed on the seven special worlds of the +Infinite Spirit, the outermost satellites of Paradise. + +The superuniverse headquarters are the abiding places of the Reflective Spirits +and the Reflective Image Aids. From this midway position these marvelous beings +conduct their tremendous reflectivity operations, thus ministering to the +central universe above and to the local universes below. + +Each superuniverse is presided over by three Ancients of Days, the joint chief +executives of the supergovernment. In its executive branch the personnel of the +superuniverse government consists of seven different groups: + +1. Ancients of Days. + +2. Perfectors of Wisdom. + +3. Divine Counselors. + +4. Universal Censors. + +5. Mighty Messengers. + +6. Those High in Authority. + +7. Those without Name and Number. + +The three Ancients of Days are immediately assisted by a corps of one billion +Perfectors of Wisdom, with whom are associated three billion Divine Counselors. +One billion Universal Censors are attached to each superuniverse +administration. These three groups are Co-ordinate Trinity Personalities, +taking origin directly and divinely in the Paradise Trinity. + +The remaining three orders, Mighty Messengers, Those High in Authority, and +Those without Name and Number, are glorified ascendant mortals. The first of +these orders came up through the ascendant regime and passed through Havona in +the days of Grandfanda. Having attained Paradise, they were mustered into the +Corps of the Finality, embraced by the Paradise Trinity, and subsequently +assigned to the supernal service of the Ancients of Days. As a class, these +three orders are known as Trinitized Sons of Attainment, being of dual origin +but now of Trinity service. Thus was the executive branch of the superuniverse +government enlarged to include the glorified and perfected children of the +evolutionary worlds. + +The co-ordinate council of the superuniverse is composed of the seven executive +groups previously named and the following sector rulers and other re- + + top of page - 179 + +gional overseers: + +1. Perfections of Days--the rulers of the superuniverse major sectors. + +2. Recents of Days--the directors of the superuniverse minor sectors. + +3. Unions of Days--the Paradise advisers to the rulers of the local universes. + +4. Faithfuls of Days--the Paradise counselors to the Most High rulers of the +constellation governments. + +5. Trinity Teacher Sons who may chance to be on duty at superuniverse +headquarters. + +6. Eternals of Days who may happen to be present at superuniverse headquarters. + +7. The seven Reflective Image Aids--the spokesmen of the seven Reflective +Spirits and through them representatives of the Seven Master Spirits of +Paradise. + +The Reflective Image Aids also function as the representatives of numerous +groups of beings who are influential in the superuniverse governments, but who +are not, at present, for various reasons, fully active in their individual +capacities. Embraced within this group are: the evolving superuniverse +personality manifestation of the Supreme Being, the Unqualified Supervisors of +the Supreme, the Qualified Vicegerents of the Ultimate, the unnamed liaison +reflectivators of Majeston, and the superpersonal spirit representatives of the +Eternal Son. + +At almost all times it is possible to find representatives of all groups of +created beings on the headquarters worlds of the superuniverses. The routine +ministering work of the superuniverses is performed by the mighty seconaphim +and by other members of the vast family of the Infinite Spirit. In the work of +these marvelous centers of superuniverse administration, control, ministry, and +executive judgment, the intelligences of every sphere of universal life are +mingled in effective service, wise administration, loving ministry, and just +judgment. + +The superuniverses do not maintain any sort of ambassadorial representation; +they are completely isolated from each other. They know of mutual affairs only +through the Paradise clearinghouse maintained by the Seven Master Spirits. +Their rulers work in the councils of divine wisdom for the welfare of their own +superuniverses regardless of what may be transpiring in other sections of the +universal creation. This isolation of the superuniverses will persist until +such time as their co-ordination is achieved by the more complete +factualization of the personality-sovereignty of the evolving experiential +Supreme Being. + +11. THE DELIBERATIVE ASSEMBLY + +It is on such worlds as Uversa that the beings representative of the autocracy +of perfection and the democracy of evolution meet face to face. The executive +branch of the supergovernment originates in the realms of perfection; the +legislative branch springs from the flowering of the evolutionary universes. + +The deliberative assembly of the superuniverse is confined to the headquarters +world. This legislative or advisory council consists of seven houses, to each +of which every local universe admitted to the superuniverse councils elects a +native representative. These representatives are chosen by the high councils of +such local universes from among the ascending-pilgrim graduates of Orvonton + + top of page - 180 + +who are tarrying on Uversa, accredited for transport to Havona. The average +term of service is about one hundred years of superuniverse standard time. + +Never have I known of a disagreement between the Orvonton executives and the +Uversa assembly. Never yet, in the history of our superuniverse, has the +deliberative body ever passed a recommendation that the executive division of +the supergovernment has even hesitated to carry out. There always has prevailed +the most perfect harmony and working agreement, all of which testifies to the +fact that evolutionary beings can really attain the heights of perfected wisdom +which qualifies them to consort with the personalities of perfect origin and +divine nature. The presence of the deliberative assemblies on the superuniverse +headquarters reveals the wisdom, and foreshadows the ultimate triumph, of the +whole vast evolutionary concept of the Universal Father and his Eternal Son. + +12. THE SUPREME TRIBUNALS + +When we speak of executive and deliberative branches of the Uversa government, +you may, from the analogy of certain forms of Urantian civil government, reason +that we must have a third or judicial branch, and we do; but it does not have a +separate personnel. Our courts are constituted as follows: There presides, in +accordance with the nature and gravity of the case, an Ancient of Days, a +Perfector of Wisdom, or a Divine Counselor. The evidence for or against an +individual, a planet, system, constellation, or universe is presented and +interpreted by the Censors. The defense of the children of time and the +evolutionary planets is offered by the Mighty Messengers, the official +observers of the superuniverse government to the local universes and systems. +The attitude of the higher government is portrayed by Those High in Authority. +And ordinarily the verdict is formulated by a varying-sized commission +consisting equally of Those without Name and Number and a group of +understanding personalities chosen from the deliberative assembly. + +The courts of the Ancients of Days are the high review tribunals for the +spiritual adjudication of all component universes. The Sovereign Sons of the +local universes are supreme in their own domains; they are subject to the +supergovernment only in so far as they voluntarily submit matters for counsel +or adjudication by the Ancients of Days except in matters involving the +extinction of will creatures. Mandates of judgment originate in the local +universes, but sentences involving the extinction of will creatures are always +formulated on, and executed from, the headquarters of the superuniverse. The +Sons of the local universes can decree the survival of mortal man, but only the +Ancients of Days may sit in executive judgment on the issues of eternal life +and death. + +In all matters not requiring trial, the submission of evidence, the Ancients of +Days or their associates render decisions, and these rulings are always +unanimous. We are here dealing with the councils of perfection. There are no +disagreements nor minority opinions in the decrees of these supreme and +superlative tribunals. + +With certain few exceptions the supergovernments exercise jurisdiction over all +things and all beings in their respective domains. There is no appeal from the +rulings and decisions of the superuniverse authorities since they represent the +concurred opinions of the Ancients of Days and that Master Spirit who, from +Paradise, presides over the destiny of the superuniverse concerned. + + top of page - 181 + +13. THE SECTOR GOVERNMENTS + +A major sector comprises about one tenth of a superuniverse and consists of one +hundred minor sectors, ten thousand local universes, about one hundred billion +inhabitable worlds. These major sectors are administered by three Perfections +of Days, Supreme Trinity Personalities. + +The courts of the Perfections of Days are constituted much as are those of the +Ancients of Days except that they do not sit in spiritual judgment upon the +realms. The work of these major sector governments has chiefly to do with the +intellectual status of a far-flung creation. The major sectors detain, +adjudicate, dispense, and tabulate, for reporting to the courts of the Ancients +of Days, all matters of superuniverse importance of a routine and +administrative nature which are not immediately concerned with the spiritual +administration of the realms or with the outworking of the mortal-ascension +plans of the Paradise Rulers. The personnel of a major sector government is no +different from that of the superuniverse. + +As the magnificent satellites of Uversa are concerned with your final spiritual +preparation for Havona, so are the seventy satellites of Umajor the fifth +devoted to your superuniverse intellectual training and development. From all +Orvonton, here are gathered together the wise beings who labor untiringly to +prepare the mortals of time for their further progress towards the career of +eternity. Most of this training of ascending mortals is conducted on the +seventy study worlds. + +The minor sector governments are presided over by three Recents of Days. Their +administration is concerned mainly with the physical control, unification, +stabilization, and routine co-ordination of the administration of the component +local universes. Each minor sector embraces as many as one hundred local +universes, ten thousand constellations, one million systems, or about one +billion inhabitable worlds. + +Minor sector headquarters worlds are the grand rendezvous of the Master +Physical Controllers. These headquarters worlds are surrounded by the seven +instruction spheres which constitute the entrance schools of the superuniverse +and are the centers of training for physical and administrative knowledge +concerning the universe of universes. + +The administrators of the minor sector governments are under the immediate +jurisdiction of the major sector rulers. The Recents of Days receive all +reports of observations and co-ordinate all recommendations which come up to a +superuniverse from the Unions of Days who are stationed as Trinity observers +and advisers on the headquarters spheres of the local universes and from the +Faithfuls of Days who are similarly attached to the councils of the Most Highs +at the headquarters of the constellations. All such reports are transmitted to +the Perfections of Days on the major sectors, subsequently to be passed on to +the courts of the Ancients of Days. Thus the Trinity regime extends from the +constellations of the local universes up to the headquarters of the +superuniverse. The local system headquarters do not have Trinity +representatives. + +14. PURPOSES OF THE SEVEN SUPERUNIVERSES + +There are seven major purposes which are being unfolded in the evolution of the +seven superuniverses. Each major purpose in superuniverse evolution will + + top of page - 182 + +find fullest expression in only one of the seven superuniverses, and therefore +does each superuniverse have a special function and a unique nature. + +Orvonton, the seventh superuniverse, the one to which your local universe +belongs, is known chiefly because of its tremendous and lavish bestowal of +merciful ministry to the mortals of the realms. It is renowned for the manner +in which justice prevails as tempered by mercy and power rules as conditioned +by patience, while the sacrifices of time are freely made to secure the +stabilization of eternity. Orvonton is a universe demonstration of love and +mercy. + +It is, however, very difficult to describe our conception of the true nature of +the evolutionary purpose which is unfolding in Orvonton, but it may be +suggested by saying that in this supercreation we feel that the six unique +purposes of cosmic evolution as manifested in the six associated supercreations +are here being interassociated into a meaning-of-the-whole; and it is for this +reason that we have sometimes conjectured that the evolved and finished +personalization of God the Supreme will in the remote future and from Uversa +rule the perfected seven superuniverses in all the experiential majesty of his +then attained almighty sovereign power. + +As Orvonton is unique in nature and individual in destiny, so also is each of +its six associated superuniverses. A great deal that is going on in Orvonton is +not, however, revealed to you, and of these unrevealed features of Orvonton +life, many are to find most complete expression in some other superuniverse. +The seven purposes of superuniverse evolution are operative throughout all +seven superuniverses, but each supercreation will give fullest expression to +only one of these purposes. To understand more about these superuniverse +purposes, much that you do not understand would have to be revealed, and even +then you would comprehend but little. This entire narrative presents only a +fleeting glimpse of the immense creation of which your world and local system +are a part. + +Your world is called Urantia, and it is number 606 in the planetary group, or +system, of Satania. This system has at present 619 inhabited worlds, and more +than two hundred additional planets are evolving favorably toward becoming +inhabited worlds at some future time. + +Satania has a headquarters world called Jerusem, and it is system number +twenty-four in the constellation of Norlatiadek. Your constellation, +Norlatiadek, consists of one hundred local systems and has a headquarters world +called Edentia. Norlatiadek is number seventy in the universe of Nebadon. The +local universe of Nebadon consists of one hundred constellations and has a +capital known as Salvington. The universe of Nebadon is number eighty-four in +the minor sector of Ensa. + +The minor sector of Ensa consists of one hundred local universes and has a +capital called Uminor the third. This minor sector is number three in the major +sector of Splandon. Splandon consists of one hundred minor sectors and has a +headquarters world called Umajor the fifth. It is the fifth major sector of the +superuniverse of Orvonton, the seventh segment of the grand universe. Thus you +can locate your planet in the scheme of the organization and administration of +the universe of universes. + +The grand universe number of your world, Urantia, is 5,342,482,337,666. That is +the registry number on Uversa and on Paradise, your number in the catalogue of +the inhabited worlds. I know the physical-sphere registry number, but it is of +such an extraordinary size that it is of little practical significance to the +mortal mind. + + top of page - 183 + +Your planet is a member of an enormous cosmos; you belong to a well-nigh +infinite family of worlds, but your sphere is just as precisely administered +and just as lovingly fostered as if it were the only inhabited world in all +existence. + +[Presented by a Universal Censor hailing from Uversa.] + + top of page - 184 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Central ³ The Seven ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ And... ³ Maste... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p016.txt b/religious documents/p016.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f0c289 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p016.txt @@ -0,0 +1,830 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 16 The Seven Master Spirits + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 16 The Seven Master Spirits + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Seven Master Spirits of Paradise are the primary personalities of the +Infinite Spirit. In this sevenfold creative act of self-duplication the +Infinite Spirit exhausted the associative possibilities mathematically inherent +in the factual existence of the three persons of Deity. Had it been possible to +produce a larger number of Master Spirits, they would have been created, but +there are just seven associative possibilities, and only seven, inherent in +three Deities. And this explains why the universe is operated in seven grand +divisions, and why the number seven is basically fundamental in its +organization and administration. + +The Seven Master Spirits thus have their origin in, and derive their individual +characteristics from, the following seven likenesses: + +1. The Universal Father. + +2. The Eternal Son. + +3. The Infinite Spirit. + +4. The Father and the Son. + +5. The Father and the Spirit. + +6. The Son and the Spirit. + +7. The Father, Son, and Spirit. + +We know very little about the action of the Father and the Son in the creation +of the Master Spirits. Apparently they were brought into existence by the +personal acts of the Infinite Spirit, but we have been definitely instructed +that both the Father and the Son participated in their origin. + +In spirit character and nature these Seven Spirits of Paradise are as one, but +in all other aspects of identity they are very unlike, and the results of their +functioning in the superuniverses are such that the individual differences of +each are unmistakably discernible. All the afterplans of the seven segments of +the grand universe--and even the correlative segments of outer space--have been +conditioned by the other-than-spiritual diversity of these Seven Master Spirits +of supreme and ultimate supervision. + +The Master Spirits have many functions, but at the present time their +particular domain is the central supervision of the seven superuniverses. Each +Master Spirit maintains an enormous force-focal headquarters, which slowly +circulates around the periphery of Paradise, always maintaining a position +opposite the superuniverse of immediate supervision and at the Paradise focal +point of its specialized power control and segmental energy distribution. The +radial boundary lines of any one of the superuniverses do actually converge at +the Paradise headquarters of the supervising Master Spirit. + + top of page - 185 + +1. RELATION TO TRIUNE DEITY + +The Conjoint Creator, the Infinite Spirit, is necessary to the completion of +the triune personalization of undivided Deity. This threefold Deity +personalization is inherently sevenfold in possibility of individual and +associative expression; hence the subsequent plan to create universes inhabited +by intelligent and potentially spiritual beings, duly expressive of the Father, +Son, and Spirit, made the personalization of the Seven Master Spirits +inescapable. We have come to speak of the threefold personalization of Deity as +the absolute inevitability, while we have come to look upon the appearance of +the Seven Master Spirits as the subabsolute inevitability. + +While the Seven Master Spirits are hardly expressive of threefold Deity, they +are the eternal portrayal of sevenfold Deity, the active and associative +functions of the three ever-existent persons of Deity. By and in and through +these Seven Spirits, the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, or the Infinite +Spirit, or any dual association, is able to function as such. When the Father, +the Son, and the Spirit act together, they can and do function through Master +Spirit Number Seven, but not as the Trinity. The Master Spirits singly and +collectively represent any and all possible Deity functions, single and +several, but not collective, not the Trinity. Master Spirit Number Seven is +personally nonfunctional with regard to the Paradise Trinity, and that is just +why he can function personally for the Supreme Being. + +But when the Seven Master Spirits vacate their individual seats of personal +power and superuniverse authority and assemble about the Conjoint Actor in the +triune presence of Paradise Deity, then and there are they collectively +representative of the functional power, wisdom, and authority of undivided +Deity--the Trinity--to and in the evolving universes. Such a Paradise union of +the primal sevenfold expression of Deity does actually embrace, literally +encompass, all of every attribute and attitude of the three eternal Deities in +Supremacy and in Ultimacy. To all practical intents and purposes the Seven +Master Spirits do, then and there, encompass the functional domain of the +Supreme-Ultimate to and in the master universe. + +As far as we can discern, these Seven Spirits are associated with the divine +activities of the three eternal persons of Deity; we detect no evidence of +direct association with the functioning presences of the three eternal phases +of the Absolute. When associated, the Master Spirits represent the Paradise +Deities in what may be roughly conceived as the finite domain of action. It +might embrace much that is ultimate but not absolute. + +2. RELATION TO THE INFINITE SPIRIT + +Just as the Eternal and Original Son is revealed through the persons of the +constantly increasing number of divine Sons, so is the Infinite and Divine +Spirit revealed through the channels of the Seven Master Spirits and their +associated spirit groups. At the center of centers the Infinite Spirit is +approachable, but not all who attain Paradise are immediately able to discern +his personality and differentiated presence; but all who attain the central +universe can and do immediately commune with one of the Seven Master Spirits, +the one presiding over the superuniverse from which the newly arrived space +pilgrim hails. + + top of page - 186 + +To the universe of universes the Paradise Father speaks only through his Son, +while he and the Son conjointly act only through the Infinite Spirit. Outside +of Paradise and Havona the Infinite Spirit speaks only by the voices of the +Seven Master Spirits. + +The Infinite Spirit exerts an influence of personal presence within the +confines of the Paradise-Havona system; elsewhere his personal spirit presence +is exerted by and through one of the Seven Master Spirits. Therefore is the +superuniverse spirit presence of the Third Source and Center on any world or in +any individual conditioned by the unique nature of the supervisory Master +Spirit of that segment of creation. Conversely, the combined lines of spirit +force and intelligence pass inward to the Third Person of Deity by way of the +Seven Master Spirits. + +The Seven Master Spirits are collectively endowed with the supreme-ultimate +attributes of the Third Source and Center. While each one individually partakes +of this endowment, only collectively do they disclose the attributes of +omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. No one of them can so function +universally; as individuals and in the exercise of these powers of supremacy +and ultimacy each is personally limited to the superuniverse of immediate +supervision. + +All of everything which has been told you concerning the divinity and +personality of the Conjoint Actor applies equally and fully to the Seven Master +Spirits, who so effectively distribute the Infinite Spirit to the seven +segments of the grand universe in accordance with their divine endowment and in +the manner of their differing and individually unique natures. It would +therefore be proper to apply to the collective group of seven any or all of the +names of the Infinite Spirit. Collectively they are one with the Conjoint +Creator on all subabsolute levels. + +3. IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE MASTER SPIRITS + +The Seven Master Spirits are indescribable beings, but they are distinctly and +definitely personal. They have names, but we elect to introduce them by number. +As primary personalizations of the Infinite Spirit, they are akin, but as +primary expressions of the seven possible associations of triune Deity, they +are essentially diverse in nature and this diversity of nature determines their +differential of superuniverse conduct. These Seven Master Spirits may be +described as follows: + +Master Spirit Number One. In a special manner this Spirit is the direct +representation of the Paradise Father. He is a peculiar and efficient +manifestation of the power, love, and wisdom of the Universal Father. He is the +close associate and supernal adviser of the chief of Mystery Monitors, that +being who presides over the College of Personalized Adjusters on Divinington. +In all associations of the Seven Master Spirits, it is always Master Spirit +Number One who speaks for the Universal Father. + +This Spirit presides over the first superuniverse and, while unfailingly +exhibiting the divine nature of a primary personalization of the Infinite +Spirit, seems more especially to resemble the Universal Father in character. He +is always in personal liaison with the seven Reflective Spirits at the +headquarters of the first superuniverse. + + top of page - 187 + +Master Spirit Number Two. This Spirit adequately portrays the matchless nature +and charming character of the Eternal Son, the first-born of all creation. He +is always in close association with all orders of the Sons of God whenever they +may happen to be in the residential universe as individuals or in joyous +conclave. In all the assemblies of the Seven Master Spirits he always speaks +for, and in behalf of, the Eternal Son. + +This Spirit directs the destinies of superuniverse number two and rules this +vast domain much as would the Eternal Son. He is always in liaison with the +seven Reflective Spirits situated at the capital of the second superuniverse. + +Master Spirit Number Three. This Spirit personality especially resembles the +Infinite Spirit, and he directs the movements and work of many of the high +personalities of the Infinite Spirit. He presides over their assemblies and is +closely associated with all personalities who take exclusive origin in the +Third Source and Center. When the Seven Master Spirits are in council, it is +Master Spirit Number Three who always speaks for the Infinite Spirit. + +This Spirit is in charge of superuniverse number three, and he administers the +affairs of this segment much as would the Infinite Spirit. He is always in +liaison with the Reflective Spirits at the headquarters of the third +superuniverse. + +Master Spirit Number Four. Partaking of the combined natures of the Father and +the Son, this Master Spirit is the determining influence regarding Father-Son +policies and procedures in the councils of the Seven Master Spirits. This +Spirit is the chief director and adviser of those ascendant beings who have +attained the Infinite Spirit and thus have become candidates for seeing the Son +and the Father. He fosters that enormous group of personalities taking origin +in the Father and the Son. When it becomes necessary to represent the Father +and the Son in the association of the Seven Master Spirits, it is always Master +Spirit Number Four who speaks. + +This Spirit fosters the fourth segment of the grand universe in accordance with +his peculiar association of the attributes of the Universal Father and the +Eternal Son. He is always in personal liaison with the Reflective Spirits of +the headquarters of the fourth superuniverse. + +Master Spirit Number Five. This divine personality who exquisitely blends the +character of the Universal Father and the Infinite Spirit is the adviser of +that enormous group of beings known as the power directors, power centers, and +physical controllers. This Spirit also fosters all personalities taking origin +in the Father and the Conjoint Actor. In the councils of the Seven Master +Spirits, when the Father-Spirit attitude is in question, it is always Master +Spirit Number Five who speaks. + +This Spirit directs the welfare of the fifth superuniverse in such a way as to +suggest the combined action of the Universal Father and the Infinite Spirit. He +is always in liaison with the Reflective Spirits at the headquarters of the +fifth superuniverse. + +Master Spirit Number Six. This divine being seems to portray the combined +character of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. Whenever the creatures +jointly created by the Son and the Spirit forgather in the central universe, it +is this Master Spirit who is their adviser; and whenever, in the councils of +the Seven Master Spirits, it becomes necessary to speak conjointly for the +Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, it is Master Spirit Number Six who +responds. + + top of page - 188 + +This Spirit directs the affairs of the sixth superuniverse much as would the +Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. He is always in liaison with the +Reflective Spirits at the headquarters of the sixth superuniverse. + +Master Spirit Number Seven. The presiding Spirit of the seventh superuniverse +is a uniquely equal portrayal of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the +Infinite Spirit. The Seventh Spirit, the fostering adviser of all triune-origin +beings, is also the adviser and director of all the ascending pilgrims of +Havona, those lowly beings who have attained the courts of glory through the +combined ministry of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. + +The Seventh Master Spirit is not organically representative of the Paradise +Trinity; but it is a known fact that his personal and spiritual nature is the +Conjoint Actor's portraiture in equal proportions of the three infinite persons +whose Deity union is the Paradise Trinity, and whose function as such is the +source of the personal and spiritual nature of God the Supreme. Hence the +Seventh Master Spirit discloses a personal and organic relationship to the +spirit person of the evolving Supreme. Therefore in the Master Spirit councils +on high, when it becomes necessary to cast the ballot for the combined personal +attitude of the Father, Son, and Spirit or to depict the spiritual attitude of +the Supreme Being, it is Master Spirit Number Seven who functions. He thus +inherently becomes the presiding head of the Paradise council of the Seven +Master Spirits. + +No one of the Seven Spirits is organically representative of the Paradise +Trinity, but when they unite as sevenfold Deity, this union in a deity +sense--not in a personal sense--equivalates to a functional level associable +with Trinity functions. In this sense the "Sevenfold Spirit" is functionally +associable with the Paradise Trinity. It is also in this sense that Master +Spirit Number Seven sometimes speaks in confirmation of Trinity attitudes or, +rather, acts as spokesman for the attitude of the Sevenfold-Spirit-union +regarding the attitude of the Threefold-Deity-union, the attitude of the +Paradise Trinity. + +The multiple functions of the Seventh Master Spirit thus range from a combined +portraiture of the personal natures of the Father, Son, and Spirit, through a +representation of the personal attitude of God the Supreme, to a disclosure of +the deity attitude of the Paradise Trinity. And in certain respects this +presiding Spirit is similarly expressive of the attitudes of the Ultimate and +of the Supreme-Ultimate. + +It is Master Spirit Number Seven who, in his multiple capacities, personally +sponsors the progress of the ascension candidates from the worlds of time in +their attempts to achieve comprehension of the undivided Deity of Supremacy. +Such comprehension involves a grasp of the existential sovereignty of the +Trinity of Supremacy so co-ordinated with a concept of the growing experiential +sovereignty of the Supreme Being as to constitute the creature grasp of the +unity of Supremacy. Creature realization of these three factors equals Havona +comprehension of Trinity reality and endows the pilgrims of time with the +ability eventually to penetrate the Trinity, to discover the three infinite +persons of Deity. + +The inability of the Havona pilgrims fully to find God the Supreme is +compensated by the Seventh Master Spirit, whose triune nature in such a +peculiar manner is revelatory of the spirit person of the Supreme. During the +present universe age of the noncontactability of the person of the Supreme, +Master Spirit Number Seven functions in the place of the God of ascendant +creatures + + top of page - 189 + +in the matter of personal relationships. He is the one high spirit being that +all ascenders are certain to recognize and somewhat comprehend when they reach +the centers of glory. + +This Master Spirit is always in liaison with the Reflective Spirits of Uversa, +the headquarters of the seventh superuniverse, our own segment of creation. His +administration of Orvonton discloses the marvelous symmetry of the co-ordinate +blending of the divine natures of Father, Son, and Spirit. + +4. ATTRIBUTES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE MASTER SPIRITS + +The Seven Master Spirits are the full representation of the Infinite Spirit to +the evolutionary universes. They represent the Third Source and Center in the +relationships of energy, mind, and spirit. While they function as the +co-ordinating heads of the universal administrative control of the Conjoint +Actor, do not forget that they have their origin in the creative acts of the +Paradise Deities. It is literally true that these Seven Spirits are the +personalized physical power, cosmic mind, and spiritual presence of the triune +Deity, "the Seven Spirits of God sent forth to all the universe." + +The Master Spirits are unique in that they function on all universe levels of +reality excepting the absolute. They are, therefore, efficient and perfect +supervisors of all phases of administrative affairs on all levels of +superuniverse activities. It is difficult for the mortal mind to understand +very much about the Master Spirits because their work is so highly specialized +yet all-embracing, so exceptionally material and at the same time so +exquisitely spiritual. These versatile creators of the cosmic mind are the +ancestors of the Universe Power Directors and are, themselves, supreme +directors of the vast and far-flung spirit-creature creation. + +The Seven Master Spirits are the creators of the Universe Power Directors and +their associates, entities who are indispensable to the organization, control, +and regulation of the physical energies of the grand universe. And these same +Master Spirits very materially assist the Creator Sons in the work of shaping +and organizing the local universes. + +We are unable to trace any personal connection between the cosmic-energy work +of the Master Spirits and the force functions of the Unqualified Absolute. The +energy manifestations under the jurisdiction of the Master Spirits are all +directed from the periphery of Paradise; they do not appear to be in any direct +manner associated with the force phenomena identified with the nether surface +of Paradise. + +Unquestionably, when we encounter the functional activities of the various +Morontia Power Supervisors, we are face to face with certain of the unrevealed +activities of the Master Spirits. Who, aside from these ancestors of both +physical controllers and spirit ministers, could have contrived so to combine +and associate material and spiritual energies as to produce a hitherto +nonexistent phase of universe reality--morontia substance and morontia mind? + +Much of the reality of the spiritual worlds is of the morontia order, a phase +of universe reality wholly unknown on Urantia. The goal of personality +existence is spiritual, but the morontia creations always intervene, bridging +the gulf between the material realms of mortal origin and the superuniverse +spheres of advancing spiritual status. It is in this realm that the Master +Spirits make their great contribution to the plan of man's Paradise ascension. + + top of page - 190 + +The Seven Master Spirits have personal representatives who function throughout +the grand universe; but since a large majority of these subordinate beings are +not directly concerned with the ascendant scheme of mortal progression in the +path of Paradise perfection, little or nothing has been revealed about them. +Much, very much, of the activity of the Seven Master Spirits remains hidden +from human understanding because in no way does it directly pertain to your +problem of Paradise ascent. + +It is highly probable, though we cannot offer definite proof, that the Master +Spirit of Orvonton exerts a decided influence in the following spheres of +activity: + +1. The life-initiation procedures of the local universe Life Carriers. + +2. The life activations of the adjutant mind-spirits bestowed upon the worlds +by a local universe Creative Spirit. + +3. The fluctuations in energy manifestations exhibited by the +linear-gravity-responding units of organized matter. + +4. The behavior of emergent energy when fully liberated from the grasp of the +Unqualified Absolute, thus becoming responsive to the direct influence of +linear gravity and to the manipulations of the Universe Power Directors and +their associates. + +5. The bestowal of the ministry spirit of a local universe Creative Spirit, +known on Urantia as the Holy Spirit. + +6. The subsequent bestowal of the spirit of the bestowal Sons, on Urantia +called the Comforter or the Spirit of Truth. + +7. The reflectivity mechanism of the local universes and the superuniverse. +Many features connected with this extraordinary phenomenon can hardly be +reasonably explained or rationally understood without postulating the activity +of the Master Spirits in association with the Conjoint Actor and the Supreme +Being. + +Notwithstanding our failure adequately to comprehend the manifold workings of +the Seven Master Spirits, we are confident there are two realms in the vast +range of universe activities with which they have nothing whatever to do: the +bestowal and ministry of the Thought Adjusters and the inscrutable functions of +the Unqualified Absolute. + +5. RELATION TO CREATURES + +Each segment of the grand universe, each individual universe and world, enjoys +the benefits of the united counsel and wisdom of all Seven Master Spirits but +receives the personal touch and tinge of only one. And the personal nature of +each Master Spirit entirely pervades and uniquely conditions his superuniverse. + +Through this personal influence of the Seven Master Spirits every creature of +every order of intelligent beings, outside of Paradise and Havona, must bear +the characteristic stamp of individuality indicative of the ancestral nature of +some one of these Seven Paradise Spirits. As concerns the seven superuniverses, +each native creature, man or angel, will forever bear this badge of natal +identification. + + top of page - 191 + +The Seven Master Spirits do not directly invade the material minds of the +individual creatures on the evolutionary worlds of space. The mortals of +Urantia do not experience the personal presence of the mind-spirit influence of +the Master Spirit of Orvonton. If this Master Spirit does attain any sort of +contact with the individual mortal mind during the earlier evolutionary ages of +an inhabited world, it must occur through the ministry of the local universe +Creative Spirit, the consort and associate of the Creator Son of God who +presides over the destinies of each local creation. But this very Creative +Mother Spirit is, in nature and character, quite like the Master Spirit of +Orvonton. + +The physical stamp of a Master Spirit is a part of man's material origin. The +entire morontia career is lived under the continuing influence of this same +Master Spirit. It is hardly strange that the subsequent spirit career of such +an ascending mortal never fully eradicates the characteristic stamp of this +same supervising Spirit. The impress of a Master Spirit is basic to the very +existence of every pre-Havona stage of mortal ascension. + +The distinctive personality trends exhibited in the life experience of +evolutionary mortals, which are characteristic in each superuniverse, and which +are directly expressive of the nature of the dominating Master Spirit, are +never fully effaced, not even after such ascenders are subjected to the long +training and unifying discipline encountered on the one billion educational +spheres of Havona. Even the subsequent intense Paradise culture does not +suffice to eradicate the earmarks of superuniverse origin. Throughout all +eternity an ascendant mortal will exhibit traits indicative of the presiding +Spirit of his superuniverse of nativity. Even in the Corps of the Finality, +when it is desired to arrive at or to portray a complete Trinity relationship +to the evolutionary creation, always a group of seven finaliters is assembled, +one from each superuniverse. + +6. THE COSMIC MIND + +The Master Spirits are the sevenfold source of the cosmic mind, the +intellectual potential of the grand universe. This cosmic mind is a subabsolute +manifestation of the mind of the Third Source and Center and, in certain ways, +is functionally related to the mind of the evolving Supreme Being. + +On a world like Urantia we do not encounter the direct influence of the Seven +Master Spirits in the affairs of the human races. You live under the immediate +influence of the Creative Spirit of Nebadon. Nevertheless these same Master +Spirits dominate the basic reactions of all creature mind because they are the +actual sources of the intellectual and spiritual potentials which have been +specialized in the local universes for function in the lives of those +individuals who inhabit the evolutionary worlds of time and space. + +The fact of the cosmic mind explains the kinship of various types of human and +superhuman minds. Not only are kindred spirits attracted to each other, but +kindred minds are also very fraternal and inclined towards co-operation the one +with the other. Human minds are sometimes observed to be running in channels of +astonishing similarity and inexplicable agreement. + +There exists in all personality associations of the cosmic mind a quality which +might be denominated the "reality response." It is this universal cosmic +endowment of will creatures which saves them from becoming helpless victims of +the implied a priori assumptions of science, philosophy, and religion. This + + top of page - 192 + +reality sensitivity of the cosmic mind responds to certain phases of reality +just as energy-material responds to gravity. It would be still more correct to +say that these supermaterial realities so respond to the mind of the cosmos. + +The cosmic mind unfailingly responds (recognizes response) on three levels of +universe reality. These responses are self-evident to clear-reasoning and +deep-thinking minds. These levels of reality are: + +1. Causation--the reality domain of the physical senses, the scientific realms +of logical uniformity, the differentiation of the factual and the nonfactual, +reflective conclusions based on cosmic response. This is the mathematical form +of the cosmic discrimination. + +2. Duty--the reality domain of morals in the philosophic realm, the arena of +reason, the recognition of relative right and wrong. This is the judicial form +of the cosmic discrimination. + +3. Worship--the spiritual domain of the reality of religious experience, the +personal realization of divine fellowship, the recognition of spirit values, +the assurance of eternal survival, the ascent from the status of servants of +God to the joy and liberty of the sons of God. This is the highest insight of +the cosmic mind, the reverential and worshipful form of the cosmic +discrimination. + +These scientific, moral, and spiritual insights, these cosmic responses, are +innate in the cosmic mind, which endows all will creatures. The experience of +living never fails to develop these three cosmic intuitions; they are +constitutive in the self-consciousness of reflective thinking. But it is sad to +record that so few persons on Urantia take delight in cultivating these +qualities of courageous and independent cosmic thinking. + +In the local universe mind bestowals, these three insights of the cosmic mind +constitute the a priori assumptions which make it possible for man to function +as a rational and self-conscious personality in the realms of science, +philosophy, and religion. Stated otherwise, the recognition of the reality of +these three manifestations of the Infinite is by a cosmic technique of +self-revelation. Matter-energy is recognized by the mathematical logic of the +senses; mind-reason intuitively knows its moral duty; spirit-faith (worship) is +the religion of the reality of spiritual experience. These three basic factors +in reflective thinking may be unified and co-ordinated in personality +development, or they may become disproportionate and virtually unrelated in +their respective functions. But when they become unified, they produce a strong +character consisting in the correlation of a factual science, a moral +philosophy, and a genuine religious experience. And it is these three cosmic +intuitions that give objective validity, reality, to man's experience in and +with things, meanings, and values. + +It is the purpose of education to develop and sharpen these innate endowments +of the human mind; of civilization to express them; of life experience to +realize them; of religion to ennoble them; and of personality to unify them. + +7. MORALS, VIRTUE, AND PERSONALITY + +Intelligence alone cannot explain the moral nature. Morality, virtue, is +indigenous to human personality. Moral intuition, the realization of duty, is a +component of human mind endowment and is associated with the other inalienables +of human nature: scientific curiosity and spiritual insight. Man's mentality + + top of page - 193 + +far transcends that of his animal cousins, but it is his moral and religious +natures that especially distinguish him from the animal world. + +The selective response of an animal is limited to the motor level of behavior. +The supposed insight of the higher animals is on a motor level and usually +appears only after the experience of motor trial and error. Man is able to +exercise scientific, moral, and spiritual insight prior to all exploration or +experimentation. + +Only a personality can know what it is doing before it does it; only +personalities possess insight in advance of experience. A personality can look +before it leaps and can therefore learn from looking as well as from leaping. A +nonpersonal animal ordinarily learns only by leaping. + +As a result of experience an animal becomes able to examine the different ways +of attaining a goal and to select an approach based on accumulated experience. +But a personality can also examine the goal itself and pass judgment on its +worth-whileness, its value. Intelligence alone can discriminate as to the best +means of attaining indiscriminate ends, but a moral being possesses an insight +which enables him to discriminate between ends as well as between means. And a +moral being in choosing virtue is nonetheless intelligent. He knows what he is +doing, why he is doing it, where he is going, and how he will get there. + +When man fails to discriminate the ends of his mortal striving, he finds +himself functioning on the animal level of existence. He has failed to avail +himself of the superior advantages of that material acumen, moral +discrimination, and spiritual insight which are an integral part of his +cosmic-mind endowment as a personal being. + +Virtue is righteousness--conformity with the cosmos. To name virtues is not to +define them, but to live them is to know them. Virtue is not mere knowledge nor +yet wisdom but rather the reality of progressive experience in the attainment +of ascending levels of cosmic achievement. In the day-by-day life of mortal +man, virtue is realized by the consistent choosing of good rather than evil, +and such choosing ability is evidence of the possession of a moral nature. + +Man's choosing between good and evil is influenced, not only by the keenness of +his moral nature, but also by such influences as ignorance, immaturity, and +delusion. A sense of proportion is also concerned in the exercise of virtue +because evil may be perpetrated when the lesser is chosen in the place of the +greater as a result of distortion or deception. The art of relative estimation +or comparative measurement enters into the practice of the virtues of the moral +realm. + +Man's moral nature would be impotent without the art of measurement, the +discrimination embodied in his ability to scrutinize meanings. Likewise would +moral choosing be futile without that cosmic insight which yields the +consciousness of spiritual values. From the standpoint of intelligence, man +ascends to the level of a moral being because he is endowed with personality. + +Morality can never be advanced by law or by force. It is a personal and +freewill matter and must be disseminated by the contagion of the contact of +morally fragrant persons with those who are less morally responsive, but who +are also in some measure desirous of doing the Father's will. + +Moral acts are those human performances which are characterized by the highest +intelligence, directed by selective discrimination in the choice of superior +ends as well as in the selection of moral means to attain these ends. Such +conduct is virtuous. Supreme virtue, then, is wholeheartedly to choose to do +the will of the Father in heaven. + + top of page - 194 + +8. URANTIA PERSONALITY + +The Universal Father bestows personality upon numerous orders of beings as they +function on diverse levels of universe actuality. Urantia human beings are +endowed with personality of the finite-mortal type, functioning on the level of +the ascending sons of God. + +Though we can hardly undertake to define personality, we may attempt to narrate +our understanding of the known factors which go to make up the ensemble of +material, mental, and spiritual energies whose interassociation constitutes the +mechanism wherein and whereon and wherewith the Universal Father causes his +bestowed personality to function. + +Personality is a unique endowment of original nature whose existence is +independent of, and antecedent to, the bestowal of the Thought Adjuster. +Nevertheless, the presence of the Adjuster does augment the qualitative +manifestation of personality. Thought Adjusters, when they come forth from the +Father, are identical in nature, but personality is diverse, original, and +exclusive; and the manifestation of personality is further conditioned and +qualified by the nature and qualities of the associated energies of a material, +mindal, and spiritual nature which constitute the organismal vehicle for +personality manifestation. + +Personalities may be similar, but they are never the same. Persons of a given +series, type, order, or pattern may and do resemble one another, but they are +never identical. Personality is that feature of an individual which we know, +and which enables us to identify such a being at some future time regardless of +the nature and extent of changes in form, mind, or spirit status. Personality +is that part of any individual which enables us to recognize and positively +identify that person as the one we have previously known, no matter how much he +may have changed because of the modification of the vehicle of expression and +manifestation of his personality. + +Creature personality is distinguished by two self-manifesting and +characteristic phenomena of mortal reactive behavior: self-consciousness and +associated relative free will. + +Self-consciousness consists in intellectual awareness of personality actuality; +it includes the ability to recognize the reality of other personalities. It +indicates capacity for individualized experience in and with cosmic realities, +equivalating to the attainment of identity status in the personality +relationships of the universe. Self-consciousness connotes recognition of the +actuality of mind ministration and the realization of relative independence of +creative and determinative free will. + +The relative free will which characterizes the self-consciousness of human +personality is involved in: + +1. Moral decision, highest wisdom. + +2. Spiritual choice, truth discernment. + +3. Unselfish love, brotherhood service. + +4. Purposeful co-operation, group loyalty. + +5. Cosmic insight, the grasp of universe meanings. + +6. Personality dedication, wholehearted devotion to doing the Father's will. + + top of page - 195 + +7. Worship, the sincere pursuit of divine values and the wholehearted love of +the divine Value-Giver. + +The Urantia type of human personality may be viewed as functioning in a +physical mechanism consisting of the planetary modification of the Nebadon type +of organism belonging to the electrochemical order of life activation and +endowed with the Nebadon order of the Orvonton series of the cosmic mind of +parental reproductive pattern. The bestowal of the divine gift of personality +upon such a mind-endowed mortal mechanism confers the dignity of cosmic +citizenship and enables such a mortal creature forthwith to become reactive to +the constitutive recognition of the three basic mind realities of the cosmos: + +1. The mathematical or logical recognition of the uniformity of physical +causation. + +2. The reasoned recognition of the obligation of moral conduct. + +3. The faith-grasp of the fellowship worship of Deity, associated with the +loving service of humanity. + +The full function of such a personality endowment is the beginning realization +of Deity kinship. Such a selfhood, indwelt by a prepersonal fragment of God the +Father, is in truth and in fact a spiritual son of God. Such a creature not +only discloses capacity for the reception of the gift of the divine presence +but also exhibits reactive response to the personality-gravity circuit of the +Paradise Father of all personalities. + +9. REALITY OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS + +The cosmic-mind-endowed, Adjuster-indwelt, personal creature possesses innate +recognition-realization of energy reality, mind reality, and spirit reality. +The will creature is thus equipped to discern the fact, the law, and the love +of God. Aside from these three inalienables of human consciousness, all human +experience is really subjective except that intuitive realization of validity +attaches to the unification of these three universe reality responses of cosmic +recognition. + +The God-discerning mortal is able to sense the unification value of these three +cosmic qualities in the evolution of the surviving soul, man's supreme +undertaking in the physical tabernacle where the moral mind collaborates with +the indwelling divine spirit to dualize the immortal soul. From its earliest +inception the soul is real; it has cosmic survival qualities. + +If mortal man fails to survive natural death, the real spiritual values of his +human experience survive as a part of the continuing experience of the Thought +Adjuster. The personality values of such a nonsurvivor persist as a factor in +the personality of the actualizing Supreme Being. Such persisting qualities of +personality are deprived of identity but not of experiential values accumulated +during the mortal life in the flesh. The survival of identity is dependent on +the survival of the immortal soul of morontia status and increasingly divine +value. Personality identity survives in and by the survival of the soul. + +Human self-consciousness implies the recognition of the reality of selves other +than the conscious self and further implies that such awareness is mutual; that +the self is known as it knows. This is shown in a purely human manner in man's +social life. But you cannot become so absolutely certain of a fellow being's +reality as you can of the reality of the presence of God that lives within you. + + top of page - 196 + +The social consciousness is not inalienable like the God-consciousness; it is a +cultural development and is dependent on knowledge, symbols, and the +contributions of the constitutive endowments of man--science, morality, and +religion. And these cosmic gifts, socialized, constitute civilization. + +Civilizations are unstable because they are not cosmic; they are not innate in +the individuals of the races. They must be nurtured by the combined +contributions of the constitutive factors of man--science, morality, and +religion. Civilizations come and go, but science, morality, and religion always +survive the crash. + +Jesus not only revealed God to man, but he also made a new revelation of man to +himself and to other men. In the life of Jesus you see man at his best. Man +thus becomes so beautifully real because Jesus had so much of God in his life, +and the realization (recognition) of God is inalienable and constitutive in all +men. + +Unselfishness, aside from parental instinct, is not altogether natural; other +persons are not naturally loved or socially served. It requires the +enlightenment of reason, morality, and the urge of religion, God-knowingness, +to generate an unselfish and altruistic social order. Man's own personality +awareness, self-consciousness, is also directly dependent on this very fact of +innate other-awareness, this innate ability to recognize and grasp the reality +of other personality, ranging from the human to the divine. + +Unselfish social consciousness must be, at bottom, a religious consciousness; +that is, if it is objective; otherwise it is a purely subjective philosophic +abstraction and therefore devoid of love. Only a God-knowing individual can +love another person as he loves himself. + +Self-consciousness is in essence a communal consciousness: God and man, Father +and son, Creator and creature. In human self-consciousness four +universe-reality realizations are latent and inherent: + +1. The quest for knowledge, the logic of science. + +2. The quest for moral values, the sense of duty. + +3. The quest for spiritual values, the religious experience. + +4. The quest for personality values, the ability to recognize the reality of +God as a personality and the concurrent realization of our fraternal +relationship with fellow personalities. + +You become conscious of man as your creature brother because you are already +conscious of God as your Creator Father. Fatherhood is the relationship out of +which we reason ourselves into the recognition of brotherhood. And Fatherhood +becomes, or may become, a universe reality to all moral creatures because the +Father has himself bestowed personality upon all such beings and has +encircuited them within the grasp of the universal personality circuit. We +worship God, first, because he is, then, because he is in us, and last, because +we are in him. + +Is it strange that the cosmic mind should be self-consciously aware of its own +source, the infinite mind of the Infinite Spirit, and at the same time +conscious of the physical reality of the far-flung universes, the spiritual +reality of the Eternal Son, and the personality reality of the Universal +Father? + +[Sponsored by a Universal Censor from Uversa.] + + top of page - 197 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Seven ³ The Seven ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Super... ³ Supre... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p017.txt b/religious documents/p017.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c9fcbb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p017.txt @@ -0,0 +1,596 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 17 The Seven Supreme Spirit Groups + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 17 The Seven Supreme Spirit Groups + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE seven Supreme Spirit groups are the universal co-ordinating directors of +the seven-segmented administration of the grand universe. Although all are +classed among the functional family of the Infinite Spirit, the following three +groups are usually classified as children of the Paradise Trinity: + +1. The Seven Master Spirits. + +2. The Seven Supreme Executives. + +3. The Reflective Spirits. + +The remaining four groups are brought into being by the creative acts of the +Infinite Spirit or by his associates of creative status: + +4. The Reflective Image Aids. + +5. The Seven Spirits of the Circuits. + +6. The Local Universe Creative Spirits. + +7. The Adjutant Mind-Spirits. + +These seven orders are known on Uversa as the seven Supreme Spirit groups. +Their functional domain extends from the personal presence of the Seven Master +Spirits on the periphery of the eternal Isle, through the seven Paradise +satellites of the Spirit, the Havona circuits, the governments of the +superuniverses, and the administration and supervision of the local universes, +even to the lowly service of the adjutants bestowed upon the realms of +evolutionary mind on the worlds of time and space. + +The Seven Master Spirits are the co-ordinating directors of this far-flung +administrative realm. In some matters pertaining to the administrative +regulation of organized physical power, mind energy, and impersonal spirit +ministry, they act personally and directly, and in others they function through +their multifarious associates. In all matters of an executive nature--rulings, +regulations, adjustments, and administrative decisions--the Master Spirits act +in the persons of the Seven Supreme Executives. In the central universe the +Master Spirits may function through the Seven Spirits of the Havona Circuits; +on the headquarters of the seven superuniverses they reveal themselves through +the channel of the Reflective Spirits and act through the persons of the +Ancients of Days, with whom they are in personal communication through the +Reflective Image Aids. + +The Seven Master Spirits do not directly and personally contact universe +administration below the courts of the Ancients of Days. Your local universe is +administered as a part of our superuniverse by the Master Spirit of Orvonton, +but his function in relation to the native beings of Nebadon is immediately +discharged and personally directed by the Creative Mother Spirit resident on +Salvington, the headquarters of your local universe. + + top of page - 198 + +1. THE SEVEN SUPREME EXECUTIVES + +The executive headquarters of the Master Spirits occupy the seven Paradise +satellites of the Infinite Spirit, which swing around the central Isle between +the shining spheres of the Eternal Son and the innermost Havona circuit. These +executive spheres are under the direction of the Supreme Executives, a group of +seven who were trinitized by the Father, Son, and Spirit in accordance with the +specifications of the Seven Master Spirits for beings of a type that could +function as their universal representatives. + +The Master Spirits maintain contact with the various divisions of the +superuniverse governments through these Supreme Executives. It is they who very +largely determine the basic constitutive trends of the seven superuniverses. +They are uniformly and divinely perfect, but they also possess diversity of +personality. They have no presiding head; each time they meet together, they +choose one of their number to preside over that joint council. Periodically +they journey to Paradise to sit in council with the Seven Master Spirits. + +The Seven Supreme Executives function as the administrative co-ordinators of +the grand universe; they might be termed the board of managing directors of the +post-Havona creation. They are not concerned with the internal affairs of +Paradise, and they direct their limited spheres of Havona activity through the +Seven Spirits of the Circuits. Otherwise there are few limits to the scope of +their supervision; they engage in the direction of things physical, +intellectual, and spiritual; they see all, hear all, feel all, even know all, +that transpires in the seven superuniverses and in Havona. + +These Supreme Executives do not originate policies, nor do they modify universe +procedures; they are concerned with the execution of the plans of divinity +promulgated by the Seven Master Spirits. Neither do they interfere with the +rule of the Ancients of Days in the superuniverses nor with the sovereignty of +the Creator Sons in the local universes. They are the co-ordinating executives +whose function it is to carry out the combined policies of all duly constituted +rulers in the grand universe. + +Each of the executives and the facilities of his sphere are devoted to the +efficient administration of a single superuniverse. Supreme Executive Number +One, functioning on executive sphere number one, is wholly occupied with the +affairs of superuniverse number one, and so on to Supreme Executive Number +Seven, working from the seventh Paradise satellite of the Spirit and devoting +his energies to the management of the seventh superuniverse. The name of this +seventh sphere is Orvonton, for the Paradise satellites of the Spirit have the +same names as their related superuniverses; in fact, the superuniverses were +named after them. + +On the executive sphere of the seventh superuniverse the staff engaged in +keeping straight the affairs of Orvonton runs into numbers beyond human +comprehension and embraces practically every order of celestial intelligence. +All superuniverse services of personality dispatch (except Inspired Trinity +Spirits and Thought Adjusters) pass through one of these seven executive worlds +on their universe journeys to and from Paradise, and here are maintained the +central registries for all personalities created by the Third Source and Center +who function in the superuniverses. The system of material, morontial, and + + top of page - 199 + +spiritual records on one of these executive worlds of the Spirit amazes even a +being of my order. + +The immediate subordinates of the Supreme Executives consist for the greater +part of the trinitized sons of Paradise-Havona personalities and of the +trinitized offspring of the glorified mortal graduates from the agelong +training of the ascendant scheme of time and space. These trinitized sons are +designated for service with the Supreme Executives by the chief of the Supreme +Council of the Paradise Corps of the Finality. + +Each Supreme Executive has two advisory cabinets: The children of the Infinite +Spirit on the headquarters of each superuniverse choose representatives from +their ranks to serve for one millennium in the primary advisory cabinet of +their Supreme Executive. In all matters affecting the ascending mortals of +time, there is a secondary cabinet, consisting of mortals of Paradise +attainment and of the trinitized sons of glorified mortals; this body is chosen +by the perfecting and ascending beings who transiently dwell on the seven +superuniverse headquarters. All other chiefs of affairs are appointed by the +Supreme Executives. + +From time to time, great conclaves take place on these Paradise satellites of +the Spirit. Trinitized sons assigned to these worlds, together with the +ascenders who have attained Paradise, assemble with the spirit personalities of +the Third Source and Center in the reunions of the struggles and triumphs of +the ascendant career. The Supreme Executives always preside over such fraternal +gatherings. + +Once in each Paradise millennium the Seven Supreme Executives vacate their +seats of authority and go to Paradise, where they hold their millennial +conclave of universal greeting and well-wishing to the intelligent hosts of +creation. This eventful occasion takes place in the immediate presence of +Majeston, the chief of all reflective spirit groups. And they are thus able to +communicate simultaneously with all their associates in the grand universe +through the unique functioning of universal reflectivity. + +2. MAJESTON--CHIEF OF REFLECTIVITY + +The Reflective Spirits are of divine Trinity origin. There are fifty of these +unique and somewhat mysterious beings. Seven of these extraordinary +personalities were created at a time, and each such creative episode was +effected by a liaison of the Paradise Trinity and one of the Seven Master +Spirits. + +This momentous transaction, occurring in the dawn of time, represents the +initial effort of the Supreme Creator Personalities, represented by the Master +Spirits, to function as cocreators with the Paradise Trinity. This union of the +creative power of the Supreme Creators with the creative potentials of the +Trinity is the very source of the actuality of the Supreme Being. Therefore, +when the cycle of reflective creation had run its course, when each of the +Seven Master Spirits had found perfect creative synchrony with the Paradise +Trinity, when the forty-ninth Reflective Spirit had personalized, then a new +and far-reaching reaction occurred in the Deity Absolute which imparted new +personality prerogatives to the Supreme Being and culminated in the +personalization of Majeston, the reflectivity chief and Paradise center of all +the work of the forty-nine Reflective Spirits and their associates throughout +the universe of universes. + + top of page - 200 + +Majeston is a true person, the personal and infallible center of reflectivity +phenomena in all seven superuniverses of time and space. He maintains permanent +Paradise headquarters near the center of all things at the rendezvous of the +Seven Master Spirits. He is concerned solely with the co-ordination and +maintenance of the reflectivity service in the far-flung creation; he is not +otherwise involved in the administration of universe affairs. + +Majeston is not included in our catalogue of Paradise personalities because he +is the only existing personality of divinity created by the Supreme Being in +functional liaison with the Deity Absolute. He is a person, but he is +exclusively and apparently automatically concerned with this one phase of +universe economy; he does not now function in any personal capacity with +relation to other (nonreflective) orders of universe personalities. + +The creation of Majeston signalized the first supreme creative act of the +Supreme Being. This will to action was volitional in the Supreme Being, but the +stupendous reaction of the Deity Absolute was not foreknown. Not since the +eternity-appearance of Havona had the universe witnessed such a tremendous +factualization of such a gigantic and far-flung alignment of power and +co-ordination of functional spirit activities. The Deity response to the +creative wills of the Supreme Being and his associates was vastly beyond their +purposeful intent and greatly in excess of their conceptual forecasts. + +We stand in awe of the possibility of what the future ages, wherein the Supreme +and the Ultimate may attain new levels of divinity and ascend to new domains of +personality function, may witness in the realms of the deitization of still +other unexpected and undreamed of beings who will possess unimagined powers of +enhanced universe co-ordination. There would seem to be no limit to the Deity +Absolute's potential of response to such unification of relationships between +experiential Deity and the existential Paradise Trinity. + +3. THE REFLECTIVE SPIRITS + +The forty-nine Reflective Spirits are of Trinity origin, but each of the seven +creative episodes attendant upon their appearance was productive of a type of +being in nature resembling the characteristics of the coancestral Master +Spirit. Thus they variously reflect the natures and characters of the seven +possible combinations of the association of the divinity characteristics of the +Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. For this reason it +is necessary to have seven of these Reflective Spirits on the headquarters of +each superuniverse. One of each of the seven types is required in order to +achieve the perfect reflection of all phases of every possible manifestation of +the three Paradise Deities as such phenomena might occur in any part of the +seven superuniverses. One of each type was accordingly assigned to service in +each of the superuniverses. These groups of seven dissimilar Reflective Spirits +maintain headquarters on the capitals of the superuniverses at the reflective +focus of each realm, and this is not identical with the point of spiritual +polarity. + +The Reflective Spirits have names, but these designations are not revealed on +the worlds of space. They pertain to the nature and character of these beings +and are a part of one of the seven universal mysteries of the secret spheres of +Paradise. + + top of page - 201 + +The attribute of reflectivity, the phenomenon of the mind levels of the +Conjoint Actor, the Supreme Being, and the Master Spirits, is transmissible to +all beings concerned in the working of this vast scheme of universal +intelligence. And herein is a great mystery: Neither the Master Spirits nor the +Paradise Deities, singly or collectively, disclose these powers of co-ordinate +universal reflectivity just as they are manifested in these forty-nine liaison +personalities of Majeston, and yet they are the creators of all these +marvelously endowed beings. Divine heredity does sometimes disclose in the +creature certain attributes which are not discernible in the Creator. + +The personnel of the reflectivity service, with the exception of Majeston and +the Reflective Spirits, are all the creatures of the Infinite Spirit and his +immediate associates and subordinates. The Reflective Spirits of each +superuniverse are the creators of their Reflective Image Aids, their personal +voices to the courts of the Ancients of Days. + +The Reflective Spirits are not merely transmitting agents; they are retentive +personalities as well. Their offspring, the seconaphim, are also retentive or +record personalities. Everything of true spiritual value is registered in +duplicate, and one impression is preserved in the personal equipment of some +member of one of the numerous orders of secoraphic personalities belonging to +the vast staff of the Reflective Spirits. + +The formal records of the universes are passed up by and through the angelic +recorders, but the true spiritual records are assembled by reflectivity and are +preserved in the minds of suitable and appropriate personalities belonging to +the family of the Infinite Spirit. These are the live records in contrast with +the formal and dead records of the universe, and they are perfectly preserved +in the living minds of the recording personalities of the Infinite Spirit. + +The reflectivity organization is also the news-gathering and the +decree-disseminating mechanism of all creation. It is in constant operation in +contrast with the periodic functioning of the various broadcast services. + +Everything of import transpiring on a local universe headquarters is inherently +reflected to the capital of its superuniverse. And conversely, everything of +local universe significance is reflected outward to the local universe capitals +from the headquarters of their superuniverse. The reflectivity service from the +universes of time up to the superuniverses is apparently automatic or +self-operating, but it is not. It is all very personal and intelligent; its +precision results from perfection of personality co-operation and therefore can +hardly be attributed to the impersonal presence-performances of the Absolutes. + +While Thought Adjusters do not participate in the operation of the universal +reflectivity system, we have every reason to believe that all Father fragments +are fully cognizant of these transactions and are able to avail themselves of +their content. + +During the present universe age the space range of the extra-Paradise +reflectivity service seems to be limited by the periphery of the seven +superuniverses. Otherwise, the function of this service seems to be independent +of time and space. It appears to be independent of all known subabsolute +universe circuits. + +On the headquarters of each superuniverse the reflective organization acts as a +segregated unit; but on certain special occasions, under the direction of +Majeston, all seven may and do act in universal unison, as in the event of the + + top of page - 202 + +jubilee occasioned by the settling of an entire local universe in light and +life and at the times of the millennial greetings of the Seven Supreme +Executives. + +4. THE REFLECTIVE IMAGE AIDS + +The forty-nine Reflective Image Aids were created by the Reflective Spirits, +and there are just seven Aids on the headquarters of each superuniverse. The +first creative act of the seven Reflective Spirits of Uversa was the production +of their seven Image Aids, each Reflective Spirit creating his own Aid. The +Image Aids are, in certain attributes and characteristics, perfect +reproductions of their Reflective Mother Spirits; they are virtual duplications +minus the attribute of reflectivity. They are true images and constantly +function as the channel of communication between the Reflective Spirits and the +superuniverse authorities. The Image Aids are not merely assistants; they are +actual representations of their respective Spirit ancestors; they are images, +and they are true to their name. + +The Reflective Spirits themselves are true personalities but of such an order +as to be incomprehensible to material beings. Even on a superuniverse +headquarters sphere they require the assistance of their Image Aids in all +personal intercourse with the Ancients of Days and their associates. In +contacts between the Image Aids and the Ancients of Days, sometimes one Aid +functions acceptably, while on other occasions two, three, four, or even all +seven are required for the full and proper presentation of the communication +intrusted to their transmission. Likewise, the messages of the Image Aids are +variously received by one, two, or all three Ancients of Days, as the content +of the communication may require. + +The Image Aids serve forever by the sides of their ancestral Spirits, and they +have at their disposal an unbelievable host of helper seconaphim. The Image +Aids do not directly function in connection with the training worlds of +ascending mortals. They are closely associated with the intelligence service of +the universal scheme of mortal progression, but you will not personally come in +contact with them when you sojourn in the Uversa schools because these +seemingly personal beings are devoid of will; they do not exercise the power of +choice. They are true images, wholly reflective of the personality and mind of +the individual Spirit ancestor. As a class, ascending mortals do not intimately +contact with reflectivity. Always some being of the reflective nature will be +interposed between you and the actual operation of the service. + +5. THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF THE CIRCUITS + +The Seven Spirits of the Havona Circuits are the joint impersonal +representation of the Infinite Spirit and the Seven Master Spirits to the seven +circuits of the central universe. They are the servants of the Master Spirits, +whose collective offspring they are. The Master Spirits provide a distinct and +diversified administrative individuality in the seven superuniverses. Through +these uniform Spirits of the Havona Circuits they are enabled to provide a +unified, uniform, and co-ordinated spiritual supervision for the central +universe. + +The Seven Spirits of the Circuits are each limited to the permeation of a +single Havona circuit. They are not directly concerned with the regimes of the +Eternals of Days, the rulers of the individual Havona worlds. But they are in + + top of page - 203 + +liaison with the Seven Supreme Executives, and they synchronize with the +central universe presence of the Supreme Being. Their work is wholly confined +to Havona. + +These Spirits of the Circuits make contact with those who sojourn in Havona +through their personal offspring, the tertiary supernaphim. While the Circuit +Spirits are coexistent with the Seven Master Spirits, their function in the +creation of tertiary supernaphim did not attain major importance until the +first pilgrims of time arrived on the outer circuit of Havona in the days of +Grandfanda. + +As you advance from circuit to circuit in Havona, you will learn of the Spirits +of the Circuits, but you will not be able to hold personal communion with them, +even though you may personally enjoy, and recognize the impersonal presence of, +their spiritual influence. + +The Circuit Spirits are related to the native inhabitants of Havona much as the +Thought Adjusters are related to the mortal creatures inhabiting the worlds of +the evolutionary universes. Like the Thought Adjusters, the Circuit Spirits are +impersonal, and they consort with the perfect minds of Havona beings much as +the impersonal spirits of the Universal Father indwell the finite minds of +mortal men. But the Spirits of the Circuits never become a permanent part of +Havona personalities. + +6. THE LOCAL UNIVERSE CREATIVE SPIRITS + +Much that pertains to the nature and function of the local universe Creative +Spirits properly belongs to the narrative of their association with the Creator +Sons in the organization and management of the local creations; but there are +many features of the prelocal universe experiences of these marvelous beings +which may be narrated as a part of this discussion of the seven Supreme Spirit +groups. + +We are conversant with six phases of the career of a local universe Mother +Spirit, and we speculate much concerning the probability of a seventh stage of +activity. These different stages of existence are: + +1. Initial Paradise Differentiation. When a Creator Son is personalized by the +joint action of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, simultaneously there +occurs in the person of the Infinite Spirit what is known as the "supreme +reaction of complement." We do not comprehend the nature of this reaction, but +we understand that it designates an inherent modification of those +personalizable possibilities which are embraced within the creative potential +of the Conjoint Creator. The birth of a co-ordinate Creator Son signalizes the +birth within the person of the Infinite Spirit of the potential of the future +local universe consort of this Paradise Son. We are not cognizant of this new +prepersonal identification of entity, but we know that this fact finds place on +the Paradise records of the career of such a Creator Son. + +2. Preliminary Creatorship Training. During the long period of the preliminary +training of a Michael Son in the organization and administration of universes, +his future consort undergoes further development of entity and becomes group +conscious of destiny. We do not know, but we suspect that such a +group-conscious entity becomes space cognizant and begins that preliminary +training requisite to the acquirement of spirit skill in her future work of +collaboration with the complemental Michael in universe creation and +administration. + + top of page - 204 + +3. The Stage of Physical Creation. At the time the creatorship charge is +administered to a Michael Son by the Eternal Son, the Master Spirit who directs +the superuniverse to which this new Creator Son is destined gives expression to +the "prayer of identification" in the presence of the Infinite Spirit; and for +the first time, the entity of the subsequent Creative Spirit appears as +differentiated from the person of the Infinite Spirit. And proceeding directly +to the person of the petitioning Master Spirit, this entity is immediately lost +to our recognition, becoming apparently a part of the person of this Master +Spirit. The newly identified Creative Spirit remains with the Master Spirit +until the moment of the departure of the Creator Son for the adventure of +space; whereupon the Master Spirit commits the new Spirit consort to the +keeping of the Creator Son, at the same time administering to the Spirit +consort the charge of eternal fidelity and unending loyalty. And then occurs +one of the most profoundly touching episodes which ever take place on Paradise. +The Universal Father speaks in acknowledgment of the eternal union of the +Creator Son and the Creative Spirit and in confirmation of the bestowal of +certain joint powers of administration by the Master Spirit of superuniverse +jurisdiction. + +The Father-united Creator Son and Creative Spirit then go forth on their +adventure of universe creation. And they work together in this form of +association throughout the long and arduous period of the material organization +of their universe. + +4. The Life-Creation Era. Upon the declaration of intention to create life by +the Creator Son, there ensue on Paradise the "personalization ceremonies," +participated in by the Seven Master Spirits and personally experienced by the +supervising Master Spirit. This is a Paradise Deity contribution to the +individuality of the Spirit consort of the Creator Son and becomes manifest to +the universe in the phenomenon of "the primary eruption" in the person of the +Infinite Spirit. Simultaneously with this phenomenon on Paradise, the +heretofore impersonal Spirit consort of the Creator Son becomes, to all +practical intents and purposes, a bona fide person. Henceforth and forevermore, +this same local universe Mother Spirit will be regarded as a person and will +maintain personal relations with all the personality hosts of the ensuing life +creation. + +5. The Postbestowal Ages. Another and great change occurs in the never-ending +career of a Creative Spirit when the Creator Son returns to universe +headquarters after the completion of his seventh bestowal and subsequent to his +acquirement of full universe sovereignty. On that occasion, before the +assembled administrators of the universe, the triumphant Creator Son elevates +the Universe Mother Spirit to cosovereignty and acknowledges the Spirit consort +as his equal. + +6. The Ages of Light and Life. Upon the establishment of the era of light and +life the local universe cosovereign enters upon the sixth phase of a Creative +Spirit's career. But we may not portray the nature of this great experience. +Such things pertain to a future stage of evolution in Nebadon. + +7. The Unrevealed Career. We know of these six phases of the career of a local +universe Mother Spirit. It is inevitable that we should ask: Is there a seventh +career? We are mindful that, when finaliters attain what appears to be their +final destiny of mortal ascension, they are of record as entering upon the +career of sixth-stage spirits. We conjecture that there awaits the finaliters +still + + top of page - 205 + +another and unrevealed career in universe assignment. It is only to be expected +that we would likewise regard the Universe Mother Spirits as having ahead of +them some undisclosed career which will constitute their seventh phase of +personal experience in universe service and loyal co-operation with the order +of the Creator Michaels. + +7. THE ADJUTANT MIND-SPIRITS + +These adjutant spirits are the sevenfold mind bestowal of a local universe +Mother Spirit upon the living creatures of the conjoint creation of a Creator +Son and such a Creative Spirit. This bestowal becomes possible at the time of +the Spirit's elevation to the status of personality prerogatives. The narration +of the nature and functioning of the seven adjutant mind-spirits belongs more +appropriately to the story of your local universe of Nebadon. + +8. FUNCTIONS OF THE SUPREME SPIRITS + +The seven groups of Supreme Spirits constitute the nucleus of the functional +family of the Third Source and Center both as the Infinite Spirit and as the +Conjoint Actor. The domain of the Supreme Spirits extends from the presence of +the Trinity on Paradise to the functioning of mind of the evolutionary-mortal +order on the planets of space. Thus do they unify the descending administrative +levels and co-ordinate the manifold functions of the personnel thereof. Whether +it is a Reflective Spirit group in liaison with the Ancients of Days, a +Creative Spirit acting in concert with a Michael Son, or the Seven Master +Spirits encircuited around the Paradise Trinity, the activity of the Supreme +Spirits is encountered everywhere in the central, super-, and local universes. +They function alike with the Trinity personalities of the order of "Days" and +with the Paradise personalities of the order of "Sons." + +Together with their Infinite Mother Spirit, the Supreme Spirit groups are the +immediate creators of the vast creature family of the Third Source and Center. +All orders of the ministering spirits spring from this association. Primary +supernaphim originate in the Infinite Spirit; secondary beings of this order +are created by the Master Spirits; tertiary supernaphim by the Seven Spirits of +the Circuits. The Reflective Spirits, collectively, are the mother-makers of a +marvelous order of the angelic hosts, the mighty seconaphim of the +superuniverse services. A Creative Spirit is the mother of the angelic orders +of a local creation; such seraphic ministers are original in each local +universe, though they are fashioned after the patterns of the central universe. +All these creators of ministering spirits are only indirectly assisted by the +central lodgment of the Infinite Spirit, the original and eternal mother of all +the angelic ministers. + +The seven Supreme Spirit groups are the co-ordinators of the inhabited +creation. The association of their directing heads, the Seven Master Spirits, +appears to co-ordinate the far-flung activities of God the Sevenfold: + +1. Collectively the Master Spirits near-equivalate to the divinity level of the +Trinity of Paradise Deities. + +2. Individually they exhaust the primary associable possibilities of triune +Deity. + + top of page - 206 + +3. As diversified representatives of the Conjoint Actor they are the +repositories of that spirit-mind-power sovereignty of the Supreme Being which +he does not yet personally exercise. + +4. Through the Reflective Spirits they synchronize the superuniverse +governments of the Ancients of Days with Majeston, the Paradise center of +universal reflectivity. + +5. In their participation in the individualization of the local universe Divine +Ministers, the Master Spirits contribute to the last level of God the +Sevenfold, the Creator Son-Creative Spirit union of the local universes. + +Functional unity, inherent in the Conjoint Actor, is disclosed to the evolving +universes in the Seven Master Spirits, his primary personalities. But in the +perfected superuniverses of the future this unity will undoubtedly be +inseparable from the experiential sovereignty of the Supreme. + +[Presented by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.] + + top of page - 207 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Seven ³ The Supreme ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Maste... ³ Tri... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p018.txt b/religious documents/p018.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f5af14 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p018.txt @@ -0,0 +1,457 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 18 The Supreme Trinity Personalities + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 18 The Supreme Trinity Personalities + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +SUPREME Trinity Personalities are all created for specific service. They are +designed by the divine Trinity for the fulfillment of certain specific duties, +and they are qualified to serve with perfection of technique and finality of +devotion. There are seven orders of the Supreme Trinity Personalities: + +1. Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy. + +2. Eternals of Days. + +3. Ancients of Days. + +4. Perfections of Days. + +5. Recents of Days. + +6. Unions of Days. + +7. Faithfuls of Days. + +These beings of administrative perfection are of definite and final numbers. +Their creation is a past event; no more are being personalized. + +Throughout the grand universe these Supreme Trinity Personalities represent the +administrative policies of the Paradise Trinity; they represent the justice and +are the executive judgment of the Paradise Trinity. They form an interrelated +line of administrative perfection extending from the Paradise spheres of the +Father to the headquarters worlds of the local universes and to the capitals of +their component constellations. + +All Trinity-origin beings are created in Paradise perfection in all their +divine attributes. Only in the realms of experience has the passing of time +added to their equipment for cosmic service. There is never any danger of +default or risk of rebellion with Trinity-origin beings. They are of divinity +essence, and they have never been known to depart from the divine and perfect +path of personality conduct. + +1. THE TRINITIZED SECRETS OF SUPREMACY + +There are seven worlds in the innermost circuit of the Paradise satellites, and +each of these exalted worlds is presided over by a corps of ten Trinitized +Secrets of Supremacy. They are not creators, but they are supreme and ultimate +administrators. The conduct of the affairs of these seven fraternal spheres is +wholly committed to this corps of seventy supreme directors. Though the +offspring of the Trinity supervise these seven sacred spheres nearest Paradise, +this group of worlds is universally known as the personal circuit of the +Universal Father. + + top of page - 208 + +The Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy function in groups of ten as co-ordinate +and joint directors of their respective spheres, but they also function +individually in particular fields of responsibility. The work of each of these +special worlds is divided into seven major departments, and one of these +co-ordinate rulers presides over each such division of specialized activities. +The remaining three act as the personal representatives of triune Deity in +relation to the other seven, one representing the Father, one the Son, and one +the Spirit. + +Although there is a definite class resemblance which typifies the Trinitized +Secrets of Supremacy, they also disclose seven distinct group characteristics. +The ten supreme directors of Divinington affairs are reflective of the personal +character and nature of the Universal Father; and so it is with each of these +seven spheres: Each group of ten resembles that Deity or Deity association +which is characteristic of their domain. The ten directors who rule +Ascendington are reflective of the combined nature of the Father, Son, and +Spirit. + +I can reveal very little about the work of these high personalities on the +seven sacred worlds of the Father, for they are truly the Secrets of Supremacy. +There are no arbitrary secrets associated with the approach to the Universal +Father, the Eternal Son, or the Infinite Spirit. The Deities are an open book +to all who attain divine perfection, but all the Secrets of Supremacy can never +be fully attained. Always will we be unable fully to penetrate the realms +containing the personality secrets of Deity association with the sevenfold +grouping of created beings. + +Since the work of these supreme directors has to do with the intimate and +personal contact of the Deities with these seven basic groupings of universe +beings when domiciled on these seven special worlds or while functioning +throughout the grand universe, it is fitting that these very personal relations +and extraordinary contacts should be held sacredly secret. The Paradise +Creators respect the privacy and sanctity of personality even in their lowly +creatures. And this is true both of individuals and of the various separate +orders of personalities. + +To beings of even high universe attainment these secret worlds ever remain a +test of loyalty. It is given us fully and personally to know the eternal Gods, +freely to know their characters of divinity and perfection, but it is not +granted us fully to penetrate all of the personal relations of the Paradise +Rulers with all of their creature beings. + +2. THE ETERNALS OF DAYS + +Each of the billion worlds of Havona is directed by a Supreme Trinity +Personality. These rulers are known as the Eternals of Days, and they number +exactly one billion, one for each of the Havona spheres. They are the offspring +of the Paradise Trinity, but like the Secrets of Supremacy there are no records +of their origin. Forever have these two groups of all-wise fathers ruled their +exquisite worlds of the Paradise-Havona system, and they function without +rotation or reassignment. + +The Eternals of Days are visible to all will creatures dwelling in their +domains. They preside over the regular planetary conclaves. Periodically, and +by rotation, they visit the headquarters spheres of the seven superuniverses. +They are close of kin to, and are the divine equals of, the Ancients of Days, +who preside over the destinies of the seven supergovernments. When an Eternal +of Days is absent from his sphere, his world is directed by a Trinity Teacher +Son. + + top of page - 209 + +Except for the established orders of life, such as the Havona natives and other +living creatures of the central universe, the resident Eternals of Days have +developed their respective spheres entirely in accordance with their own +personal ideas and ideals. They visit each other's planets, but they do not +copy or imitate; they are always and wholly original. + +The architecture, natural embellishment, morontia structures, and spirit +creations are exclusive and unique on each sphere. Every world is a place of +everlasting beauty and is wholly unlike any other world in the central +universe. And you will each spend a longer or shorter time on each of these +unique and thrilling spheres on your way inward through Havona to Paradise. It +is natural, on your world, to speak of Paradise as upward, but it would be more +correct to refer to the divine goal of ascension as inward. + +3. THE ANCIENTS OF DAYS + +When mortals of time graduate from the training worlds surrounding the +headquarters of a local universe and are advanced to the educational spheres of +their superuniverse, they have progressed in spiritual development to that +point where they are able to recognize and communicate with the high spiritual +rulers and directors of these advanced realms, including the Ancients of Days. + +The Ancients of Days are all basically identical; they disclose the combined +character and unified nature of the Trinity. They possess individuality and are +in personality diverse, but they do not differ from each other as do the Seven +Master Spirits. They provide the uniform directorship of the otherwise +differing seven superuniverses, each of which is a distinct, segregated, and +unique creation. The Seven Master Spirits are unlike in nature and attributes, +but the Ancients of Days, the personal rulers of the superuniverses, are all +uniform and superperfect offspring of the Paradise Trinity. + +The Seven Master Spirits on high determine the nature of their respective +superuniverses, but the Ancients of Days dictate the administration of these +same superuniverses. They superimpose administrative uniformity on creative +diversity and insure the harmony of the whole in the face of the underlying +creational differences of the seven segmental groupings of the grand universe. + +The Ancients of Days were all trinitized at the same time. They represent the +beginning of the personality records of the universe of universes, hence their +name--Ancients of Days. When you reach Paradise and search the written records +of the beginning of things, you will find that the first entry appearing in the +personality section is the recital of the trinitization of these twenty-one +Ancients of Days. + +These high beings always govern in groups of three. There are many phases of +activity in which they work as individuals, still others in which any two can +function, but in the higher spheres of their administration they must act +jointly. They never personally leave their residential worlds, but then they do +not have to, for these worlds are the superuniverse focal points of the +far-flung reflectivity system. + +The personal abodes of each trio of the Ancients of Days are located at the +point of spiritual polarity on their headquarters sphere. Such a sphere is +divided into seventy administrative sectors and has seventy divisional capitals +in which the Ancients of Days reside from time to time. + + top of page - 210 + +In power, scope of authority, and extent of jurisdiction the Ancients of Days +are the most powerful and mighty of any of the direct rulers of the time-space +creations. In all the vast universe of universes they alone are invested with +the high powers of final executive judgment concerning the eternal extinction +of will creatures. And all three Ancients of Days must participate in the final +decrees of the supreme tribunal of a superuniverse. + +Aside from the Deities and their Paradise associates, the Ancients of Days are +the most perfect, most versatile, and the most divinely endowed rulers in all +time-space existence. Apparently they are the supreme rulers of the +superuniverses; but they have not experientially earned this right to rule and +are therefore destined sometime to be superseded by the Supreme Being, an +experiential sovereign, whose vicegerents they will undoubtedly become. + +The Supreme Being is achieving the sovereignty of the seven superuniverses by +experiential service just as a Creator Son experientially earns the sovereignty +of his local universe. But during the present age of the unfinished evolution +of the Supreme, the Ancients of Days provide the co-ordinated and perfect +administrative overcontrol of the evolving universes of time and space. And the +wisdom of originality and the initiative of individuality characterize all the +decrees and rulings of the Ancients of Days. + +4. THE PERFECTIONS OF DAYS + +There are just two hundred and ten Perfections of Days, and they preside over +the governments of the ten major sectors of each superuniverse. They were +trinitized for the special work of assisting the superuniverse directors, and +they rule as the immediate and personal vicegerents of the Ancients of Days. + +Three Perfections of Days are assigned to each major sector capital, but unlike +the Ancients of Days, it is not necessary that all three be present at all +times. From time to time one of this trio may absent himself to confer in +person with the Ancients of Days concerning the welfare of his realm. + +These triune rulers of the major sectors are peculiarly perfect in the mastery +of administrative details, hence their name--Perfections of Days. In recording +the names of these beings of the spiritual world, we are confronted with the +problem of translating into your tongue, and very often it is exceedingly +difficult to render a satisfactory translation. We dislike to use arbitrary +designations which would be meaningless to you; hence we often find it +difficult to choose a suitable name, one which will be clear to you and at the +same time be somewhat representative of the original. + +The Perfections of Days have a moderate-sized corps of Divine Counselors, +Perfectors of Wisdom, and Universal Censors attached to their governments. They +have still larger numbers of Mighty Messengers, Those High in Authority, and +Those without Name and Number. But much of the routine work of major sector +affairs is carried on by the Celestial Guardians and the High Son Assistants. +These two groups are drawn from among the trinitized offspring of either +Paradise-Havona personalities or glorified mortal finaliters. Certain of these +two orders of creature-trinitized beings are retrinitized by the Paradise +Deities and then are dispatched to assist in the administration of the +superuniverse governments. + + top of page - 211 + +Most of the Celestial Guardians and the High Son Assistants are assigned to the +service of the major and the minor sectors, but the Trinitized Custodians +(Trinity-embraced seraphim and midwayers) are the officers of the courts of all +three divisions, functioning in the tribunals of the Ancients of Days, the +Perfections of Days, and the Recents of Days. The Trinitized Ambassadors +(Trinity-embraced ascendant mortals of Son- or Spirit-fused nature) may be +encountered anywhere in a superuniverse, but the majority are in the service of +the minor sectors. + +Before the times of the full unfolding of the governmental scheme of the seven +superuniverses, practically all administrators of the various divisions of +these governments, excepting the Ancients of Days, served apprenticeships of +varying duration under the Eternals of Days on the various worlds of the +perfect Havona universe. The later trinitized beings likewise passed through a +season of training under the Eternals of Days before they were attached to the +service of the Ancients of Days, the Perfections of Days, and the Recents of +Days. They are all seasoned, tried, and experienced administrators. + +You will early see the Perfections of Days when you advance to the headquarters +of Splandon after your sojourn on the worlds of your minor sector, for these +exalted rulers are closely associated with the seventy major sector worlds of +higher training for the ascendant creatures of time. The Perfections of Days, +in person, administer the group pledges to the ascending graduates of the major +sector schools. + +The work of the pilgrims of time on the worlds surrounding a major sector +headquarters is chiefly of an intellectual nature in contrast with the more +physical and material character of the training on the seven educational +spheres of a minor sector and with the spiritual undertakings on the four +hundred ninety university worlds of a superuniverse headquarters. + +Although you are entered only upon the registry of the major sector of +Splandon, which embraces the local universe of your origin, you will have to +pass through every one of the ten major divisions of our superuniverse. You +will see all thirty of the Orvonton Perfections of Days before you reach +Uversa. + +5. THE RECENTS OF DAYS + +The Recents of Days are the youngest of the supreme directors of the +superuniverses; in groups of three they preside over the affairs of the minor +sectors. In nature they are co-ordinate with the Perfections of Days, but in +administrative authority they are subordinate. There are just twenty-one +thousand of these personally glorious and divinely efficient Trinity +personalities. They were created simultaneously, and together they passed +through their Havona training under the Eternals of Days. + +The Recents of Days have a corps of associates and assistants similar to that +of the Perfections of Days. In addition they have assigned to them enormous +numbers of the various subordinate orders of celestial beings. In the +administration of the minor sectors they utilize large numbers of the resident +ascending mortals, the personnel of the various courtesy colonies, and the +various groups originating in the Infinite Spirit. + +The governments of the minor sectors are very largely, though not exclusively, +concerned with the great physical problems of the superuniverses. The + + top of page - 212 + +minor sector spheres are the headquarters of the Master Physical Controllers. +On these worlds ascending mortals carry on studies and experiments having to do +with an examination of the activities of the third order of the Supreme Power +Centers and of all seven orders of the Master Physical Controllers. + +Since the regime of a minor sector is so extensively concerned with physical +problems, its three Recents of Days are seldom together on the capital sphere. +Most of the time one is away in conference with the Perfections of Days of the +supervising major sector or absent while representing the Ancients of Days at +the Paradise conclaves of the high Trinity-origin beings. They alternate with +the Perfections of Days in representing the Ancients of Days at the supreme +councils on Paradise. Meanwhile, another Recent of Days may be away on a tour +of inspection of the headquarters worlds of the local universes belonging to +his jurisdiction. But at least one of these rulers always remains on duty at +the headquarters of a minor sector. + +You will all sometime know the three Recents of Days in charge of Ensa, your +minor sector, since you must pass through their hands on your way inward to the +training worlds of the major sectors. In ascending to Uversa, you will pass +through only one group of minor sector training spheres. + +6. THE UNIONS OF DAYS + +The Trinity personalities of the order of "Days" do not function in an +administrative capacity below the level of the superuniverse governments. In +the evolving local universes they act only as counselors and advisers. The +Unions of Days are a group of liaison personalities accredited by the Paradise +Trinity to the dual rulers of the local universes. Each organized and inhabited +local universe has assigned to it one of these Paradise counselors, who acts as +the representative of the Trinity, and in some respects, of the Universal +Father, to the local creation. + +There are seven hundred thousand of these beings in existence, though they have +not all been commissioned. The reserve corps of the Unions of Days functions on +Paradise as the Supreme Council of Universe Adjustments. + +In a special manner these Trinity observers co-ordinate the administrative +activities of all branches of the universal government, from those of the local +universes up through the sector governments to those of the superuniverse, +hence their name--Unions of Days. They make a threefold report to their +superiors: They report pertinent data of a physical and semi-intellectual +nature to the Recents of Days of their minor sector; they report intellectual +and quasi-spiritual happenings to the Perfections of Days of their major +sector; they report spiritual and semiparadisiacal matters to the Ancients of +Days at the capital of their superuniverse. + +Since they are Trinity-origin beings, all of the Paradise circuits are +available to them for intercommunication, and thus are they always in touch +with each other and with all other required personalities up to the supreme +councils of Paradise. + +A Union of Days is not organically connected with the government of the local +universe of his assignment. Aside from his duties as an observer, he acts only +at the request of the local authorities. He is an ex officio member of all +primary councils and all important conclaves of the local creation, but he does +not participate in the technical consideration of administrative problems. + + top of page - 213 + +When a local universe is settled in light and life, its glorified beings +associate freely with the Union of Days, who then functions in an enlarged +capacity in such a realm of evolutionary perfection. But he is still primarily +a Trinity ambassador and Paradise counselor. + +A local universe is directly ruled by a divine Son of dual Deity origin, but he +has constantly by his side a Paradise brother, a Trinity-origin personality. In +the event of the temporary absence of a Creator Son from the headquarters of +his local universe, the acting rulers are largely guided in their major +decisions by the counsel of their Union of Days. + +7. THE FAITHFULS OF DAYS + +These high Trinity-origin personalities are the Paradise advisers to the rulers +of the one hundred constellations in each local universe. There are seventy +million Faithfuls of Days, and like the Unions of Days, not all are in service. +Their Paradise reserve corps is the Advisory Commission of Interuniverse Ethics +and Self-government. Faithfuls of Days rotate in service in accordance with the +rulings of the supreme council of their reserve corps. + +All that a Union of Days is to a Creator Son of a local universe, the Faithfuls +of Days are to the Vorondadek Sons who rule the constellations of that local +creation. They are supremely devoted and divinely faithful to the welfare of +their constellations of assignment, hence the name--Faithfuls of Days. They act +only as counselors; never do they participate in administrative activities +except upon the invitation of the constellation authorities. Neither are they +directly concerned in the educational ministry to the pilgrims of ascension on +the architectural training spheres surrounding a constellation headquarters. +All such undertakings are under the supervision of the Vorondadek Sons. + +All Faithfuls of Days functioning in the constellations of a local universe are +under the jurisdiction of, and report directly to, the Union of Days. They do +not have a far-flung system of intercommunication, being ordinarily +self-limited to an interassociation within the limits of a local universe. Any +Faithful of Days on duty in Nebadon can and does communicate with all others of +his order on duty in this local universe. + +Like the Union of Days on a universe headquarters, the Faithfuls of Days +maintain their personal residences on the constellation capitals separate from +those of the administrative directors of such realms. Their abodes are indeed +modest in comparison with the homes of the Vorondadek rulers of the +constellations. + +The Faithfuls of Days are the last link in the long administrative-advisory +chain which reaches from the sacred spheres of the Universal Father near the +center of all things to the primary divisions of the local universes. The +Trinity-origin regime stops with the constellations; no such Paradise advisers +are permanently situated on their component systems or on the inhabited worlds. +These latter administrative units are wholly under the jurisdiction of beings +native to the local universes. + +[Presented by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.] + + top of page - 214 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Seven ³ The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Supre... ³ Co-ordinate... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p019.txt b/religious documents/p019.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea081c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p019.txt @@ -0,0 +1,576 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 19 The Co-ordinate Trinity-origin Beings + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 19 The Co-ordinate Trinity-origin Beings + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THIS Paradise group, designated the Co-ordinate Trinity-origin Beings, embraces +the Trinity Teacher Sons, also classed among the Paradise Sons of God, three +groups of high superuniverse administrators, and the somewhat impersonal +category of the Inspired Trinity Spirits. Even the Havona natives may properly +be included in this classification of Trinity personalities along with numerous +groups of beings resident on Paradise. Those Trinity-origin beings to be +considered in this discussion are: + +1. Trinity Teacher Sons. + +2. Perfectors of Wisdom. + +3. Divine Counselors. + +4. Universal Censors. + +5. Inspired Trinity Spirits. + +6. Havona Natives. + +7. Paradise Citizens. + +Excepting the Trinity Teacher Sons and possibly the Inspired Trinity Spirits, +these groups are of definite numbers; their creation is a finished and past +event. + +1. THE TRINITY TEACHER SONS + +Of all the high orders of celestial personalities revealed to you, the Trinity +Teacher Sons alone act in a dual capacity. By origin of Trinity nature, in +function they are almost wholly devoted to the services of divine sonship. They +are the liaison beings who bridge the universe gulf between Trinity- and +dual-origin personalities. + +While the Stationary Sons of the Trinity are of completed numbers, the Teacher +Sons are constantly increasing. What the final number of Teacher Sons will be I +do not know. I can, however, state that, at the last periodic report to Uversa, +the Paradise records indicated 21,001,624,821 of these Sons in service. + +These beings are the only group of the Sons of God revealed to you whose origin +is in the Paradise Trinity. They range the central and superuniverses, and an +enormous corps is assigned to each local universe. They also serve the +individual planets as do the other Paradise Sons of God. Since the scheme of +the grand universe is not fully developed, large numbers of Teacher Sons are +held in the reserves on Paradise, and they volunteer for emergency duty and +unusual service in all divisions of the grand universe, on the lone worlds of +space, in the local and superuniverses, and on the worlds of Havona. They also +function on Paradise, but it will be more helpful to postpone their detailed +consideration until we come to the discussion of the Paradise Sons of God. + + top of page - 215 + +In this connection, however, it may be noted that Teacher Sons are the supreme +co-ordinating personalities of Trinity origin. In such a far-flung universe of +universes there is always great danger of succumbing to the error of the +circumscribed viewpoint, to the evil inherent in a segmentalized conception of +reality and divinity. + +For example: The human mind would ordinarily crave to approach the cosmic +philosophy portrayed in these revelations by proceeding from the simple and the +finite to the complex and the infinite, from human origins to divine destinies. +But that path does not lead to spiritual wisdom. Such a procedure is the +easiest path to a certain form of genetic knowledge, but at best it can only +reveal man's origin; it reveals little or nothing about his divine destiny. + +Even in the study of man's biologic evolution on Urantia, there are grave +objections to the exclusive historic approach to his present-day status and his +current problems. The true perspective of any reality problem--human or divine, +terrestrial or cosmic--can be had only by the full and unprejudiced study and +correlation of three phases of universe reality: origin, history, and destiny. +The proper understanding of these three experiential realities affords the +basis for a wise estimate of the current status. + +When the human mind undertakes to follow the philosophic technique of starting +from the lower to approach the higher, whether in biology or theology, it is +always in danger of committing four errors of reasoning: + +1. It may utterly fail to perceive the final and completed evolutionary goal of +either personal attainment or cosmic destiny. + +2. It may commit the supreme philosophical blunder by oversimplifying cosmic +evolutionary (experiential) reality, thus leading to the distortion of facts, +to the perversion of truth, and to the misconception of destinies. + +3. The study of causation is the perusal of history. But the knowledge of how a +being becomes does not necessarily provide an intelligent understanding of the +present status and true character of such a being. + +4. History alone fails adequately to reveal future development--destiny. Finite +origins are helpful, but only divine causes reveal final effects. Eternal ends +are not shown in time beginnings. The present can be truly interpreted only in +the light of the correlated past and future. + +Therefore, because of these and for still other reasons, do we employ the +technique of approaching man and his planetary problems by embarkation on the +time-space journey from the infinite, eternal, and divine Paradise Source and +Center of all personality reality and all cosmic existence. + +2. THE PERFECTORS OF WISDOM + +The Perfectors of Wisdom are a specialized creation of the Paradise Trinity +designed to personify the wisdom of divinity in the superuniverses. There are +exactly seven billion of these beings in existence, and one billion are +assigned to each of the seven superuniverses. + +In common with their co-ordinates, the Divine Counselors and the Universal +Censors, the Perfectors of Wisdom passed through the wisdom of Paradise, of +Havona, and except for Divinington, of the Father's Paradise spheres. After +these experiences the Perfectors of Wisdom were permanently assigned to the + + top of page - 216 + +service of the Ancients of Days. They serve neither on Paradise nor on the +worlds of the Paradise-Havona circuits; they are wholly occupied with the +administration of the superuniverse governments. + +Wherever and whenever a Perfector of Wisdom functions, there and then divine +wisdom functions. There is actuality of presence and perfection of +manifestation in the knowledge and wisdom represented in the doings of these +mighty and majestic personalities. They do not reflect the wisdom of the +Paradise Trinity; they are that wisdom. They are the sources of wisdom for all +teachers in the application of universe knowledge; they are the fountains of +discretion and the wellsprings of discrimination to the institutions of +learning and discernment in all universes. + +Wisdom is twofold in origin, being derived from the perfection of divine +insight inherent in perfect beings and from the personal experience acquired by +evolutionary creatures. The Perfectors of Wisdom are the divine wisdom of the +Paradise perfection of Deity insight. Their administrative associates on +Uversa, the Mighty Messengers, Those without Name and Number, and Those High in +Authority, when acting together, are the universe wisdom of experience. A +divine being can have perfection of divine knowledge. An evolutionary mortal +can sometime attain perfection of ascendant knowledge, but neither of these +beings alone exhausts the potentials of all possible wisdom. Accordingly, +whenever in the conduct of the superuniverse it is desired to achieve the +maximum of administrative wisdom, these perfectors of the wisdom of divine +insight are always associated with those ascendant personalities who have come +up to the high responsibilities of superuniverse authority through the +experiential tribulations of evolutionary progression. + +The Perfectors of Wisdom will always require this complement of experiential +wisdom for the completion of their administrative sagacity. But it has been +postulated that a high and hitherto unattained level of wisdom may possibly be +achieved by the Paradise finaliters after they are sometime inducted into the +seventh stage of spirit existence. If this inference is correct, then would +such perfected beings of evolutionary ascent undoubtedly become the most +effective universe administrators ever to be known in all creation. I believe +that such is the high destiny of finaliters. + +The versatility of the Perfectors of Wisdom enables them to participate in +practically all of the celestial services of the ascendant creatures. The +Perfectors of Wisdom and my order of personality, the Divine Counselors, +together with the Universal Censors, constitute the highest orders of beings +who may and do engage in the work of revealing truth to the individual planets +and systems, whether in their earlier epochs or when settled in light and life. +From time to time we all make contact with the service of the ascending +mortals, from an initial-life planet on up through a local universe and the +superuniverse, particularly the latter. + +3. THE DIVINE COUNSELORS + +These Trinity-origin beings are the counsel of Deity to the realms of the seven +superuniverses. They are not reflective of the divine counsel of the Trinity; +they are that counsel. There are twenty-one billion Counselors in service, and +three billion are assigned to each superuniverse. + + top of page - 217 + +Divine Counselors are the associates and equals of the Universal Censors and +the Perfectors of Wisdom, from one to seven Counselors being associated with +each of these latter personalities. All three orders participate in the +government of the Ancients of Days, including major and minor sectors, in the +local universes and constellations, and in the councils of the local system +sovereigns. + +We act as individuals, as I do in inditing this statement, but we also function +as a trio whenever the occasion requires. When we act in an executive capacity, +always there are associated together a Perfector of Wisdom, a Universal Censor, +and from one to seven Divine Counselors. + +One Perfector of Wisdom, seven Divine Counselors, and one Universal Censor +constitute a tribunal of Trinity divinity, the highest mobile advisory body in +the universes of time and space. Such a group of nine is known either as a +fact-finding or as a truth-revealing tribunal, and when it sits in judgment +upon a problem and renders a decision, it is just as if an Ancient of Days had +adjudicated the matter, for in all the annals of the superuniverses such a +verdict has never been reversed by the Ancients of Days. + +When the three Ancients of Days function, the Paradise Trinity functions. When +the tribunal of nine arrives at a decision following its united deliberations, +to all intents and purposes the Ancients of Days have spoken. And it is in this +manner that the Paradise Rulers make personal contact, in administrative +matters and governmental regulation, with the individual worlds, systems, and +universes. + +Divine Counselors are the perfection of the divine counsel of the Paradise +Trinity. We represent, in fact are, the counsel of perfection. When we are +supplemented by the experiential counsel of our associates, the perfected and +Trinity-embraced beings of evolutionary ascent, our combined conclusions are +not only complete but replete. When our united counsel has been associated, +adjudicated, confirmed, and promulgated by a Universal Censor, it is very +probable that it approaches the threshold of universal totality. Such verdicts +represent the nearest possible approach to the absolute attitude of Deity +within the time-space limits of the situation involved and the problem +concerned. + +Seven Divine Counselors in liaison with a trinitized evolutionary trio--a +Mighty Messenger, One High in Authority, and One without Name and +Number--represent the nearest superuniverse approach to the union of the human +viewpoint and the divine attitude on near-paradisiacal levels of spiritual +meanings and reality values. Such close approximation of the united cosmic +attitudes of the creature and the Creator is only surpassed in the Paradise +bestowal Sons, who are, in every phase of personality experience, God and man. + +4. THE UNIVERSAL CENSORS + +There are exactly eight billion Universal Censors in existence. These unique +beings are the judgment of Deity. They are not merely reflective of the +decisions of perfection; they are the judgment of the Paradise Trinity. Even +the Ancients of Days do not sit in judgment except in association with the +Universal Censors. + +One Censor is commissioned on each of the billion worlds of the central +universe, being attached to the planetary administration of the resident +Eternal of Days. Neither Perfectors of Wisdom nor Divine Counselors are thus +permanently attached to the Havona administrations, nor do we altogether +understand + + top of page - 218 + +why Universal Censors are stationed in the central universe. Their present +activities hardly account for their assignment in Havona, and we therefore +suspect that they are there in anticipation of the needs of some future +universe age in which the Havona population may partially change. + +One billion Censors are assigned to each of the seven superuniverses. Both in +an individual capacity and in association with Perfectors of Wisdom and Divine +Counselors, they operate throughout all divisions of the seven superuniverses. +Thus the Censors act on all levels of the grand universe, from the perfect +worlds of Havona to the councils of the System Sovereigns, and they are an +organic part of all dispensational adjudications of the evolutionary worlds. + +Whenever and wherever a Universal Censor is present, then and there is the +judgment of Deity. And since the Censors always render their verdicts in +liaison with Perfectors of Wisdom and Divine Counselors, such decisions embrace +the united wisdom, counsel, and judgment of the Paradise Trinity. In this +juridical trio the Perfector of Wisdom would be the "I was," the Divine +Counselor the "I will be," but the Universal Censor is always "I am." + +The Censors are universe totaling personalities. When a thousand witnesses have +given testimony--or a million--when the voice of wisdom has spoken and the +counsel of divinity has recorded, when the testimony of ascendant perfection +has been added, then the Censor functions, and there is immediately revealed an +unerring and divine totaling of all that has transpired; and such a disclosure +represents the divine conclusion, the sum and substance of a final and perfect +decision. Therefore, when a Censor has spoken, no one else may speak, for the +Censor has depicted the true and unmistakable total of all that has gone +before. When he speaks, there is no appeal. + +Most fully do I understand the operation of the mind of a Perfector of Wisdom, +but I certainly do not fully comprehend the working of the adjudicating mind of +a Universal Censor. It appears to me that the Censors formulate new meanings +and originate new values from the association of the facts, truths, and +findings presented to them in the course of an investigation of universe +affairs. It seems probable that the Universal Censors are able to bring forth +original interpretations of the combination of perfect Creator insight and the +perfected creature experience. This association of Paradise perfection and +universe experience undoubtedly eventuates a new value in ultimates. + +But this is not the end of our difficulties regarding the working of the minds +of the Universal Censors. Having made due allowances for all that we know or +conjecture about the functioning of a Censor in any given universe situation, +we find that we are still unable to predict decisions or to forecast verdicts. +We very accurately determine the probable result of the association of Creator +attitude and creature experience, but such conclusions are not always accurate +forecasts of Censor disclosures. It seems likely that the Censors are in some +manner in liaison with the Deity Absolute; we are otherwise unable to explain +many of their decisions and rulings. + +Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine Counselors, and Universal Censors, together with +the seven orders of Supreme Trinity Personalities, constitute those ten groups +which have been sometimes designated Stationary Sons of the Trinity. Together +they comprise the grand corps of Trinity administrators, rulers, executives, +advisers, counselors, and judges. Their numbers slightly exceed thirty + + top of page - 219 + +-seven billion. Two billion and seventy are stationed in the central universe +and just over five billion in each superuniverse. + +It is very difficult to portray the functional limits of the Stationary Sons of +the Trinity. It would be incorrect to state that their acts are finite limited, +for there are transactions of superuniverse record which indicate otherwise. +They act on any level of universe administration or adjudication that may be +required by time-space conditions and that pertains to the past, present, and +future evolution of the master universe. + +5. INSPIRED TRINITY SPIRITS + +I will be able to tell you very little concerning the Inspired Trinity Spirits, +for they are one of the few wholly secret orders of beings in existence, +secret, no doubt, because it is impossible for them fully to reveal themselves +even to those of us whose origin is so near the source of their creation. They +come into being by the act of the Paradise Trinity and may be utilized by any +one or two of the Deities as well as by all three. We do not know whether these +Spirits are of completed numbers or are constantly increasing, but we incline +to the belief that their number is not fixed. + +We fully understand neither the nature nor the conduct of the Inspired Spirits. +They may possibly belong to the category of superpersonal spirits. They seem to +operate over all known circuits and appear to act well-nigh independently of +time and space. But we know little about them except as we deduce their +character from the nature of their activities, the results of which we +certainly observe here and there in the universes. + +Under certain conditions these Inspired Spirits can individualize themselves +sufficiently for recognition by beings of Trinity origin. I have seen them; but +it would never be possible for the lower orders of celestial beings to +recognize one of them. Certain circumstances also arise from time to time in +the conduct of the evolving universes in which any being of Trinity origin may +directly employ these Spirits in the furtherance of his assignments. We +therefore know that they exist, and that under certain conditions we may +command and receive their assistance, sometimes recognize their presence. But +they are not a part of the manifest and definitely revealed organization +intrusted with the conduct of the time-space universes before such material +creations are settled in light and life. They have no clearly discernible place +in the present economy or administration of the evolving seven superuniverses. +They are a secret of the Paradise Trinity + +The Melchizedeks of Nebadon teach that Inspired Trinity Spirits are destined, +sometime in the eternal future, to function in the places of the Solitary +Messengers, whose ranks are slowly but certainly being depleted by their +assignment as associates of certain types of trinitized sons. + +The Inspired Spirits are the solitary Spirits of the universe of universes. As +Spirits they are very much like the Solitary Messengers except that the latter +are distinct personalities. We obtain much of our knowledge of the Inspired +Spirits from the Solitary Messengers, who detect their nearness by virtue of an +inherent sensitivity to the presence of the Inspired Spirits which functions +just as unfailingly as a magnetic needle points to a magnetic pole. When a +Solitary Messenger is near an Inspired Trinity Spirit, he is conscious of a +qualitative indication of such a divine presence and also of a very definite +quantitative + + top of page - 220 + +registration which enables him actually to know the classification or number of +the Spirit presence or presences. + +I may relate a further interesting fact: When a Solitary Messenger is on a +planet whose inhabitants are indwelt by Thought Adjusters, as on Urantia, he is +aware of a qualitative excitation in his detection-sensitivity to spirit +presence. In such instances there is no quantitative excitation, only a +qualitative agitation. When on a planet to which Adjusters do not come, contact +with the natives does not produce any such reaction. This suggests that Thought +Adjusters are in some manner related to, or are connected with, the Inspired +Spirits of the Paradise Trinity. In some way they may possibly be associated in +certain phases of their work; but we do not really know. They both originate +near the center and source of all things, but they are not the same order of +being. Thought Adjusters spring from the Father alone; Inspired Spirits are the +offspring of the Paradise Trinity. + +The Inspired Spirits do not apparently belong to the evolutionary scheme of the +individual planets or universes, and yet they seem to be almost everywhere. +Even as I am engaged in the formulation of this statement, my associated +Solitary Messenger's personal sensitivity to the presence of this order of +Spirit indicates that there is with us at this very moment, not over +twenty-five feet away, a Spirit of the Inspired order and of the third volume +of power presence. The third volume of power presence suggests to us the +probability that three Inspired Spirits are functioning in liaison. + +Of more than twelve orders of beings associated with me at this time, the +Solitary Messenger is the only one aware of the presence of these mysterious +entities of the Trinity. And further, while we are thus apprised of the +nearness of these divine Spirits, we are all equally ignorant of their mission. +We really do not know whether they are merely interested observers of our +doings, or whether they are, in some manner unknown to us, actually +contributing to the success of our undertaking. + +We know that the Trinity Teacher Sons are devoted to the conscious +enlightenment of universe creatures. I have arrived at the settled conclusion +that the Inspired Trinity Spirits, by superconscious techniques, are also +functioning as teachers of the realms. I am persuaded that there is a vast body +of essential spiritual knowledge, truth indispensable to high spiritual +attainment, which cannot be consciously received; self-consciousness would +effectively jeopardize the certainty of reception. If we are right in this +concept, and my entire order of being shares it, it may be the mission of these +Inspired Spirits to overcome this difficulty, to bridge this gap in the +universal scheme of moral enlightenment and spiritual advancement. We think +that these two types of Trinity-origin teachers effect some kind of liaison in +their activities, but we do not really know. + +On the superuniverse training worlds and on the eternal circuits of Havona, I +have fraternized with the perfecting mortals--spiritualized and ascendant souls +from the evolutionary realms--but never have they been aware of the Inspired +Spirits, which ever and anon the powers of detection resident in the Solitary +Messengers would indicate were very near us. I have freely conversed with all +orders of the Sons of God, high and low, and they likewise are unconscious of +the admonitions of the Inspired Trinity Spirits. They can and do look back in +their experiences and recount happenings which are difficult to explain if the +action of such Spirits is not taken into account. But excepting Solitary Mes- + + top of page - 221 + +engers, and sometimes Trinity-origin beings, none of the celestial family have +ever been conscious of the nearness of the Inspired Spirits. + +I do not believe the Inspired Trinity Spirits are playing hide and seek with +me. They are probably trying just as hard to disclose themselves to me as I am +to communicate with them; our difficulties and limitations must be mutual and +inherent. I am satisfied that there are no arbitrary secrets in the universe; +therefore will I never cease in my efforts to solve the mystery of the +isolation of these Spirits belonging to my order of creation. + +And from all this, you mortals, just now taking your first step on the eternal +journey, can well see that you must advance a long way before you will progress +by "sight" and "material" assurance. You will long use faith and be dependent +on revelation if you hope to progress quickly and safely. + +6. HAVONA NATIVES + +The Havona natives are the direct creation of the Paradise Trinity, and their +number is beyond the concept of your circumscribed minds. Neither is it +possible for Urantians to conceive of the inherent endowments of such divinely +perfect creatures as these Trinity-origin races of the eternal universe. You +can never truly envisage these glorious creatures; you must await your arrival +in Havona, when you can greet them as spirit comrades. + +During your long sojourn on the billion worlds of Havona culture you will +develop an eternal friendship for these superb beings. And how deep is that +friendship which grows up between the lowest personal creature from the worlds +of space and these high personal beings native to the perfect spheres of the +central universe! Ascending mortals, in their long and loving association with +the Havona natives, do much to compensate for the spiritual impoverishment of +the earlier stages of mortal progression. At the same time, through their +contacts with ascending pilgrims, the Havoners gain an experience which to no +small extent overcomes the experiential handicap of having always lived a life +of divine perfection. The good to both ascending mortal and Havona native is +great and mutual. + +Havona natives, like all other Trinity-origin personalities, are projected in +divine perfection, and as with other Trinity-origin personalities, the passing +of time may add to their stores of experiential endowments. But unlike the +Stationary Sons of the Trinity, Havoners may evolve in status, may have an +unrevealed future eternity-destiny. This is illustrated by those Havoners who +service-factualize capacity for fusion with a non-Adjuster Father fragment and +so qualify for membership in the Mortal Corps of the Finality. And there are +other finaliter corps open to these natives of the central universe. + +The status evolution of Havona natives has occasioned much speculation on +Uversa. Since they are constantly filtering into the several Paradise Corps of +the Finality, and since no more are being created, it is apparent that the +number of natives remaining in Havona is constantly diminishing. The ultimate +consequences of these transactions have never been revealed to us, but we do +not believe that Havona will ever be entirely depleted of its natives. We have +entertained the theory that Havoners will possibly cease entering the finaliter +corps sometime during the ages of the successive creations of the outer space +levels. + + top of page - 222 + +We have also entertained the thought that in these subsequent universe ages the +central universe may be peopled by a mixed group of resident beings, a +citizenship consisting only in part of the original Havona natives. We do not +know what order or type of creature may be thus destined to residential status +in the future Havona, but we have thought of: + +1. The univitatia, who are at present the permanent citizens of the local +universe constellations. + +2. Future types of mortals who may be born on the inhabited spheres of the +superuniverses in the flowering of the ages of light and life. + +3. The incoming spiritual aristocracy of the successive outer universes. + +We know that the Havona of the previous universe age was somewhat different +from the Havona of the present age. We deem it no more than reasonable to +assume that we are now witnessing those slow changes in the central universe +that are anticipatory of the ages to come. One thing is certain: The universe +is nonstatic; only God is changeless. + +7. PARADISE CITIZENS + +There are resident on Paradise numerous groups of superb beings, the Paradise +Citizens. They are not directly concerned with the scheme of perfecting +ascending will creatures and are not, therefore, fully revealed to Urantia +mortals. There are more than three thousand orders of these supernal +intelligences, the last group having been personalized simultaneously with the +mandate of the Trinity which promulgated the creative plan of the seven +superuniverses of time and space. + +Paradise Citizens and Havona natives are sometimes designated collectively as +Paradise-Havona personalities. + +This completes the story of those beings who are brought into existence by the +Paradise Trinity. None of them have ever gone astray. And yet, in the highest +sense, they are all freewill endowed. + +Trinity-origin beings possess prerogatives of transit which make them +independent of transport personalities, such as seraphim. We all possess the +power of moving about freely and quickly in the universe of universes. +Excepting the Inspired Trinity Spirits, we cannot attain the almost +unbelievable velocity of the Solitary Messengers, but we are able so to utilize +the sum total of the transport facilities in space that we can reach any point +in a superuniverse, from its headquarters, in less than one year of Urantia +time. It required 109 days of your time for me to journey from Uversa to +Urantia. + +Through these same avenues we are enabled to intercommunicate instantaneously. +Our entire order of creation finds itself in touch with every individual +embraced within every division of the children of the Paradise Trinity save +only the Inspired Spirits. + +[Presented by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.] + + top of page - 223 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Supreme ³ The Paradise ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Tri... ³ So... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p020.txt b/religious documents/p020.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1788e6d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p020.txt @@ -0,0 +1,658 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 20 The Paradise Sons Of God + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 20 The Paradise Sons Of God + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AS THEY function in the superuniverse of Orvonton, the Sons of God are +classified under three general heads: + +1. The Descending Sons of God. + +2. The Ascending Sons of God. + +3. The Trinitized Sons of God. + +Descending orders of sonship include personalities who are of direct and divine +creation. Ascending sons, such as mortal creatures, achieve this status by +experiential participation in the creative technique known as evolution. +Trinitized Sons are a group of composite origin which includes all beings +embraced by the Paradise Trinity even though not of direct Trinity origin. + +1. THE DESCENDING SONS OF GOD + +All descending Sons of God have high and divine origins. They are dedicated to +the descending ministry of service on the worlds and systems of time and space, +there to facilitate the progress in the Paradise climb of the lowly creatures +of evolutionary origin--the ascending sons of God. Of the numerous orders of +descending Sons, seven will be depicted in these narratives. Those Sons who +come forth from the Deities on the central Isle of Light and Life are called +the Paradise Sons of God and embrace the following three orders: + +1. Creator Sons--the Michaels. + +2. Magisterial Sons--the Avonals. + +3. Trinity Teacher Sons--the Daynals. + +The remaining four orders of descending sonship are known as the Local Universe +Sons of God: + +4. Melchizedek Sons. + +5. Vorondadek Sons. + +6. Lanonandek Sons. + +7. The Life Carriers. + +Melchizedeks are the joint offspring of a local universe Creator Son, Creative +Spirit, and Father Melchizedek. Both Vorondadeks and Lanonandeks are brought +into being by a Creator Son and his Creative Spirit associate. Vorondadeks are +best known as the Most Highs, the Constellation Fathers; Lanonandeks as System +Sovereigns and as Planetary Princes. The threefold order of Life Carriers is +brought into being by a Creator Son and Creative Spirit as- + + top of page - 224 + +sociated with one of the three Ancients of Days of the superuniverse of +jurisdiction. But the natures and activities of these local Universe Sons of +God are more properly portrayed in those papers dealing with the affairs of the +local creations. + +The Paradise Sons of God are of threefold origin: The primary or Creator Sons +are brought into being by the Universal Father and the Eternal Son; the +secondary or Magisterial Sons are children of the Eternal Son and the Infinite +Spirit; the Trinity Teacher Sons are the offspring of the Father, Son, and +Spirit. From the standpoint of service, worship, and supplication the Paradise +Sons are as one; their spirit is one, and their work is identical in quality +and completeness. + +As the Paradise orders of Days proved to be divine administrators, so have the +orders of Paradise Sons revealed themselves as divine ministers--creators, +servers, bestowers, judges, teachers, and truth revealers. They range the +universe of universes from the shores of the eternal Isle to the inhabited +worlds of time and space, performing manifold services in the central and +superuniverses not disclosed in these narratives. They are variously organized, +dependent on the nature and whereabouts of their service, but in a local +universe both Magisterial and Teacher Sons serve under the direction of the +Creator Son who presides over that domain. + +The Creator Sons seem to possess a spiritual endowment centering in their +persons, which they control and which they can bestow, as did your own Creator +Son when he poured out his spirit upon all mortal flesh on Urantia. Each +Creator Son is endowed with this spiritual drawing power in his own realm; he +is personally conscious of every act and emotion of every descending Son of God +serving in his domain. Here is a divine reflection, a local universe +duplication, of that absolute spiritual drawing power of the Eternal Son which +enables him to reach out to make and maintain contact with all his Paradise +Sons, no matter where they may be in all the universe of universes. + +The Paradise Creator Sons serve not only as Sons in their descending +ministrations of service and bestowal, but when they have completed their +bestowal careers, each functions as a universe Father in his own creation, +while the other Sons of God continue the service of bestowal and spiritual +uplifting designed to win the planets, one by one, to the willing recognition +of the loving rule of the Universal Father, culminating in creature +consecration to the will of the Paradise Father and in planetary loyalty to the +universe sovereignty of his Creator Son. + +In a sevenfold Creator Son, Creator and creature are forever blended in +understanding, sympathetic, and merciful association. The entire order of +Michael, the Creator Sons, is so unique that the consideration of their natures +and activities will be reserved to the next paper in this series, while this +narrative will be chiefly concerned with the two remaining orders of Paradise +sonship: the Magisterial Sons and the Trinity Teacher Sons. + +2. THE MAGISTERIAL SONS + +Every time an original and absolute concept of being formulated by the Eternal +Son unites with a new and divine ideal of loving service conceived by the +Infinite Spirit, a new and original Son of God, a Paradise Magisterial Son, is +produced. These Sons constitute the order of Avonals in contradistinction to +the order of Michael, the Creator Sons. Though not creators in the personal + + top of page - 225 + +sense, they are closely associated with the Michaels in all their work. The +Avonals are planetary ministers and judges, the magistrates of the time-space +realms--of all races, to all worlds, and in all universes. + +We have reasons for believing that the total number of Magisterial Sons in the +grand universe is about one billion. They are a self-governing order, being +directed by their supreme council on Paradise, which is made up of experienced +Avonals drawn from the services of all universes. But when assigned to, and +commissioned in, a local universe, they serve under the direction of the +Creator Son of that domain. + +Avonals are the Paradise Sons of service and bestowal to the individual planets +of the local universes. And since each Avonal Son has an exclusive personality, +since no two are alike, their work is individually unique in the realms of +their sojourn, where they are often incarnated in the likeness of mortal flesh +and sometimes are born of earthly mothers on the evolutionary worlds. + +In addition to their services on the higher administrative levels, the Avonals +have a threefold function on the inhabited worlds: + +1. Judicial Actions. They act at the close of the planetary dispensations. In +time, scores--hundreds--of such missions may be executed on each individual +world, and they may go to the same or to other worlds times without number as +dispensation terminators, liberators of the sleeping survivors. + +2. Magisterial Missions. A planetary visitation of this type usually occurs +prior to the arrival of a bestowal Son. On such a mission an Avonal appears as +an adult of the realm by a technique of incarnation not involving mortal birth. +Subsequent to this first and usual magisterial visit, Avonals may repeatedly +serve in a magisterial capacity on the same planet both before and after the +appearance of the bestowal Son. On these additional magisterial missions an +Avonal may or may not appear in material and visible form, but on none of them +will he be born into the world as a helpless babe. + +3. Bestowal Missions. The Avonal Sons do all, at least once, bestow themselves +upon some mortal race on some evolutionary world. Judicial visits are numerous, +magisterial missions may be plural, but on each planet there appears but one +bestowal Son. Bestowal Avonals are born of woman as Michael of Nebadon was +incarnated on Urantia. + +There is no limit to the number of times the Avonal Sons may serve on +magisterial and on bestowal missions, but usually, when the experience has been +seven times traversed, there is suspension in favor of those who have had less +of such service. These Sons of multiple bestowal experience are then assigned +to the high personal council of a Creator Son, thus becoming participants in +the administration of universe affairs. + +In all their work for and on the inhabited worlds, the Magisterial Sons are +assisted by two orders of local universe creatures, the Melchizedeks and the +archangels, while on bestowal missions they are also accompanied by the +Brilliant Evening Stars, likewise of origin in the local creations. In every +planetary effort the secondary Paradise Sons, the Avonals, are supported by the +full power and authority of a primary Paradise Son, the Creator Son of their +local universe of service. To all intents and purposes their work on the +inhabited spheres is just as effective and acceptable as would have been the +service of a Creator Son upon such worlds of mortal habitation. + + top of page - 226 + +3. JUDICIAL ACTIONS + +The Avonals are known as Magisterial Sons because they are the high magistrates +of the realms, the adjudicators of the successive dispensations of the worlds +of time. They preside over the awakening of the sleeping survivors, sit in +judgment on the realm, bring to an end a dispensation of suspended justice, +execute the mandates of an age of probationary mercy, reassign the space +creatures of planetary ministry to the tasks of the new dispensation, and +return to the headquarters of their local universe upon the completion of their +mission. + +When they sit in judgment on the destinies of an age, the Avonals decree the +fate of the evolutionary races, but though they may render judgments +extinguishing the identity of personal creatures, they do not execute such +sentences. Verdicts of this nature are executed by none but the authorities of +a superuniverse. + +The arrival of a Paradise Avonal on an evolutionary world for the purpose of +terminating a dispensation and of inaugurating a new era of planetary +progression is not necessarily either a magisterial mission or a bestowal +mission. Magisterial missions sometimes, and bestowal missions always, are +incarnations; that is, on such assignments the Avonals serve on a planet in +material form--literally. Their other visits are "technical," and in this +capacity an Avonal is not incarnated for planetary service. If a Magisterial +Son comes solely as a dispensational adjudicator, he arrives on a planet as a +spiritual being, invisible to the material creatures of the realm. Such +technical visits occur repeatedly in the long history of an inhabited world. + +Avonal Sons may act as planetary judges prior to both the magisterial and +bestowal experiences. On either of these missions, however, the incarnated Son +will judge the passing planetary age; likewise does a Creator Son when +incarnated on a mission of bestowal in the likeness of mortal flesh. When a +Paradise Son visits an evolutionary world and becomes like one of its people, +his presence terminates a dispensation and constitutes a judgment of the realm. + +4. MAGISTERIAL MISSIONS + +Prior to the planetary appearance of a bestowal Son, an inhabited world is +usually visited by a Paradise Avonal on a magisterial mission. If it is an +initial magisterial visitation, the Avonal is always incarnated as a material +being. He appears on the planet of assignment as a full-fledged male of the +mortal races, a being fully visible to, and in physical contact with, the +mortal creatures of his day and generation. Throughout a magisterial +incarnation the connection of the Avonal Son with the local and the universal +spiritual forces is complete and unbroken. + +A planet may experience many magisterial visitations both before and after the +appearance of a bestowal Son. It may be visited many times by the same or other +Avonals, acting as dispensational adjudicators, but such technical missions of +judgment are neither bestowal nor magisterial, and the Avonals are never +incarnated at such times. Even when a planet is blessed with repeated +magisterial missions, the Avonals do not always submit to mortal incarnation; +and when they do serve in the likeness of mortal flesh, they always appear as +adult beings of the realm; they are not born of woman. + + top of page - 227 + +When incarnated on either bestowal or magisterial missions, the Paradise Sons +have experienced Adjusters, and these Adjusters are different for each +incarnation. The Adjusters that occupy the minds of the incarnated Sons of God +can never hope for personality through fusion with the human-divine beings of +their indwelling, but they are often personalized by fiat of the Universal +Father. Such Adjusters form the supreme Divinington council of direction for +the administration, identification, and dispatch of Mystery Monitors to the +inhabited realms. They also receive and accredit Adjusters on their return to +the "bosom of the Father" upon the mortal dissolution of their earthly +tabernacles. In this way the faithful Adjusters of the world judges become the +exalted chiefs of their kind. + +Urantia has never been host to an Avonal Son on a magisterial mission. Had +Urantia followed the general plan of inhabited worlds, it would have been +blessed with a magisterial mission sometime between the days of Adam and the +bestowal of Christ Michael. But the regular sequence of Paradise Sons on your +planet was wholly deranged by the appearance of your Creator Son on his +terminal bestowal nineteen hundred years ago. + +Urantia may yet be visited by an Avonal commissioned to incarnate on a +magisterial mission, but regarding the future appearance of Paradise Sons, not +even "the angels in heaven know the time or manner of such visitations," for a +Michael-bestowal world becomes the individual and personal ward of a Master Son +and, as such, is wholly subject to his own plans and rulings. And with your +world, this is further complicated by Michael's promise to return. Regardless +of the misunderstandings about the Urantian sojourn of Michael of Nebadon, one +thing is certainly authentic--his promise to come back to your world. In view +of this prospect, only time can reveal the future order of the visitations of +the Paradise Sons of God on Urantia. + +5. BESTOWAL OF THE PARADISE SONS OF GOD + +The Eternal Son is the eternal Word of God. The Eternal Son is the perfect +expression of the "first" absolute and infinite thought of his eternal Father. +When a personal duplication or divine extension of this Original Son starts on +a bestowal mission of mortal incarnation, it becomes literally true that the +divine "Word is made flesh," and that the Word thus dwells among the lowly +beings of animal origin. + +On Urantia there is a widespread belief that the purpose of a Son's bestowal +is, in some manner, to influence the attitude of the Universal Father. But your +enlightenment should indicate that this is not true. The bestowals of the +Avonal and the Michael Sons are a necessary part of the experiential process +designed to make these Sons safe and sympathetic magistrates and rulers of the +peoples and planets of time and space. The career of sevenfold bestowal is the +supreme goal of all Paradise Creator Sons. And all Magisterial Sons are +motivated by this same spirit of service which so abundantly characterizes the +primary Creator Sons and the Eternal Son of Paradise. + +Some order of Paradise Son must be bestowed upon each mortal-inhabited world in +order to make it possible for Thought Adjusters to indwell the minds of all +normal human beings on that sphere, for the Adjusters do not come to all bona +fide human beings until the Spirit of Truth has been poured out upon all flesh; +and the sending of the Spirit of Truth is dependent upon the return to + + top of page - 228 + +universe headquarters of a Paradise Son who has successfully executed a mission +of mortal bestowal upon an evolving world. + +During the course of the long history of an inhabited planet, many +dispensational adjudications will take place, and more than one magisterial +mission may occur, but ordinarily only once will a bestowal Son serve on the +sphere. It is only required that each inhabited world have one bestowal Son +come to live the full mortal life from birth to death. Sooner or later, +regardless of spiritual status, every mortal-inhabited world is destined to +become host to a Magisterial Son on a bestowal mission except the one planet in +each local universe whereon a Creator Son elects to make his mortal bestowal. + +Understanding more about the bestowal Sons, you discern why so much interest +attaches to Urantia in the history of Nebadon. Your small and insignificant +planet is of local universe concern simply because it is the mortal home world +of Jesus of Nazareth. It was the scene of the final and triumphant bestowal of +your Creator Son, the arena in which Michael won the supreme personal +sovereignty of the universe of Nebadon. + +At the headquarters of his local universe a Creator Son, especially after the +completion of his own mortal bestowal, spends much of his time in counseling +and instructing the college of associate Sons, the Magisterial Sons and others. +In love and devotion, with tender mercy and affectionate consideration, these +Magisterial Sons bestow themselves upon the worlds of space. And in no way are +these planetary services inferior to the mortal bestowals of the Michaels. It +is true that your Creator Son selected for the realm of his final adventure in +creature experience one which had had unusual misfortunes. But no planet could +ever be in such a condition that it would require the bestowal of a Creator Son +to effect its spiritual rehabilitation. Any Son of the bestowal group would +have equally sufficed, for in all their work on the worlds of a local universe +the Magisterial Sons are just as divinely effective and all wise as would have +been their Paradise brother, the Creator Son. + +Though the possibility of disaster always attends these Paradise Sons during +their bestowal incarnations, I have yet to see the record of the failure or +default of either a Magisterial or a Creator Son on a mission of bestowal. Both +are of origin too close to absolute perfection to fail. They indeed assume the +risk, really become like the mortal creatures of flesh and blood and thereby +gain the unique creature experience, but within the range of my observation +they always succeed. They never fail to achieve the goal of the bestowal +mission. The story of their bestowal and planetary service throughout Nebadon +constitutes the most noble and fascinating chapter in the history of your local +universe. + +6. THE MORTAL-BESTOWAL CAREERS + +The method whereby a Paradise Son becomes ready for mortal incarnation as a +bestowal Son, becomes enmothered on the bestowal planet, is a universal +mystery; and any effort to detect the working of this Sonarington technique is +doomed to meet with certain failure. Let the sublime knowledge of the mortal +life of Jesus of Nazareth sink into your souls, but waste no thought in useless +speculation as to how this mysterious incarnation of Michael of Nebadon was +effected. Let us all rejoice in the knowledge and assurance that such +achievements are + + top of page - 229 + +possible to the divine nature and waste no time on futile conjectures about the +technique employed by divine wisdom to effect such phenomena. + +On a mortal-bestowal mission a Paradise Son is always born of woman and grows +up as a male child of the realm, as Jesus did on Urantia. These Sons of supreme +service all pass from infancy through youth to manhood just as does a human +being. In every respect they become like the mortals of the race into which +they are born. They make petitions to the Father as do the children of the +realms in which they serve. From a material viewpoint, these human-divine Sons +live ordinary lives with just one exception: They do not beget offspring on the +worlds of their sojourn; that is a universal restriction imposed on all orders +of the Paradise bestowal Sons. + +As Jesus worked on your world as the carpenter's son, so do other Paradise Sons +labor in various capacities on their bestowal planets. You could hardly think +of a vocation that has not been followed by some Paradise Son in the course of +his bestowal on some one of the evolutionary planets of time. + +When a bestowal Son has mastered the experience of living the mortal life when +he has achieved perfection of attunement with his indwelling Adjuster, +thereupon he begins that part of his planetary mission designed to illuminate +the minds and to inspire the souls of his brethren in the flesh. As teachers, +these Sons are exclusively devoted to the spiritual enlightenment of the mortal +races on the worlds of their sojourn. + +The mortal-bestowal careers of the Michaels and the Avonals, while comparable +in most respects, are not identical in all: Never does a Magisterial Son +proclaim, "Whosoever has seen the Son has seen the Father," as did your Creator +Son when on Urantia and in the flesh. But a bestowed Avonal does declare, +"Whosoever has seen me has seen the Eternal Son of God." The Magisterial Sons +are not of immediate descent from the Universal Father, nor do they incarnate +subject to the Father's will; always do they bestow themselves as Paradise Sons +subject to the will of the Eternal Son of Paradise. + +When the bestowal Sons, Creator or Magisterial, enter the portals of death, +they reappear on the third day. But you should not entertain the idea that they +always meet with the tragic end encountered by the Creator Son who sojourned on +your world nineteen hundred years ago. The extraordinary and unusually cruel +experience through which Jesus of Nazareth passed has caused Urantia to become +locally known as "the world of the cross." It is not necessary that such +inhuman treatment be accorded a Son of God, and the vast majority of planets +have afforded them a more considerate reception, allowing them to finish their +mortal careers, terminate the age, adjudicate the sleeping survivors, and +inaugurate a new dispensation, without imposing a violent death. A bestowal Son +must encounter death, must pass through the whole of the actual experience of +mortals of the realms, but it is not a requirement of the divine plan that this +death be either violent or unusual. + +When bestowal Sons are not put to death by violence, they voluntarily +relinquish their lives and pass through the portals of death, not to satisfy +the demands of "stern justice" or "divine wrath," but rather to complete the +bestowal, "to drink the cup" of the career of incarnation and personal +experience in all that constitutes a creature's life as it is lived on the +planets of mortal existence. Bestowal is a planetary and a universe necessity, +and physical death is nothing more than a necessary part of a bestowal mission. + + top of page - 230 + +When the mortal incarnation is finished, the Avonal of service proceeds to +Paradise, is accepted by the Universal Father, returns to the local universe of +assignment, and is acknowledged by the Creator Son. Thereupon the bestowal +Avonal and the Creator Son send their conjoint Spirit of Truth to function in +the hearts of the mortal races dwelling on the bestowal world. In the +presovereignty ages of a local universe, this is the joint spirit of both Sons, +implemented by the Creative Spirit. It differs somewhat from the Spirit of +Truth which characterizes the local universe ages following a Michael's seventh +bestowal. + +Upon the completion of a Creator Son's final bestowal the Spirit of Truth +previously sent into all Avonal-bestowal worlds of that local universe changes +in nature, becoming more literally the spirit of the sovereign Michael. This +phenomenon takes place concurrently with the liberation of the Spirit of Truth +for service on the Michael-mortal-bestowal planet. Thereafter, each world +honored by a Magisterial bestowal will receive the same spirit Comforter from +the sevenfold Creator Son, in association with that Magisterial Son, which it +would have received had the local universe Sovereign personally incarnated as +its bestowal Son. + +7. THE TRINITY TEACHER SONS + +These highly personal and highly spiritual Paradise Sons are brought into being +by the Paradise Trinity. They are known in Havona as the order of Daynals. In +Orvonton they are of record as Trinity Teacher Sons, so named because of their +parentage. On Salvington they are sometimes denominated the Paradise Spiritual +Sons. + +In numbers the Teacher Sons are constantly increasing. The last universal +census broadcast gave the number of these Trinity Sons functioning in the +central and superuniverses as a little more than twenty-one billion, and this +is exclusive of the Paradise reserves, which include more than one third of all +Trinity Teacher Sons in existence. + +The Daynal order of sonship is not an organic part of the local or +superuniverse administrations. Its members are neither creators nor retrievers, +neither judges nor rulers. They are not so much concerned with universe +administration as with moral enlightenment and spiritual development. They are +the universal educators, being dedicated to the spiritual awakening and moral +guidance of all realms. Their ministry is intimately interrelated with that of +the personalities of the Infinite Spirit and is closely associated with the +Paradise ascension of creature beings. + +These Sons of the Trinity partake of the combined natures of the three Paradise +Deities, but in Havona they seem more to reflect the nature of the Universal +Father. In the superuniverses they seem to portray the nature of the Eternal +Son, while in the local creations they appear to show forth the character of +the Infinite Spirit. In all universes they are the embodiment of service and +the discretion of wisdom. + +Unlike their Paradise brethren, Michaels and Avonals, Trinity Teacher Sons +receive no preliminary training in the central universe. They are dispatched +directly to the headquarters of the superuniverses and from there are +commissioned for service in some local universe. In their ministry to these +evolutionary realms they utilize the combined spiritual influence of a Creator +Son and the associated Magisterial Sons, for the Daynals do not possess a +spiritual drawing power in and of themselves. + + top of page - 231 + +8. LOCAL UNIVERSE MINISTRY OF THE DAYNALS + +The Paradise Spiritual Sons are unique Trinity-origin beings and the only +Trinity creatures to be so completely associated with the conduct of the +dual-origin universes. They are affectionately devoted to the educational +ministry to mortal creatures and the lower orders of spiritual beings. They +begin their labors in the local systems and, in accordance with experience and +achievement, are advanced inward through the constellation service to the +highest work of the local creation. Upon certification they may become +spiritual ambassadors representing the local universes of their service. + +The exact number of Teacher Sons in Nebadon I do not know; there are many +thousands of them. Many of the heads of departments in the Melchizedek schools +belong to this order, while the combined staff of the regularly constituted +University of Salvington embraces over one hundred thousand including these +Sons. Large numbers are stationed on the various morontia-training worlds, but +they are not wholly occupied with the spiritual and intellectual advancement of +mortal creatures; they are equally concerned with the instruction of seraphic +beings and other natives of the local creations. Many of their assistants are +drawn from the ranks of the creature-trinitized beings. + +The Teacher Sons compose the faculties who administer all examinations and +conduct all tests for the qualification and certification of all subordinate +phases of universe service, from the duties of outpost sentinels to those of +star students. They conduct an agelong course of training, ranging from the +planetary courses up to the high College of Wisdom located on Salvington. +Recognition indicative of effort and attainment is granted to all, ascending +mortal or ambitious cherubim, who complete these adventures in wisdom and +truth. + +In all universes all the Sons of God are beholden to these ever-faithful and +universally efficient Trinity Teacher Sons. They are the exalted teachers of +all spirit personalities, even the tried and true teachers of the Sons of God +themselves. But of the endless details of the duties and functions of the +Teacher Sons I can hardly instruct you. The vast domain of Daynal-sonship +activities will be better understood on Urantia when you are more advanced in +intelligence, and after the spiritual isolation of your planet has been +terminated. + +9. PLANETARY SERVICE OF THE DAYNALS + +When the progress of events on an evolutionary world indicates that the time is +ripe to initiate a spiritual age, the Trinity Teacher Sons always volunteer for +this service. You are not familiar with this order of sonship because Urantia +has never experienced a spiritual age, a millennium of cosmic enlightenment. +But the Teacher Sons even now visit your world for the purpose of formulating +plans concerning their projected sojourn on your sphere. They will be due to +appear on Urantia after its inhabitants have gained comparative deliverance +from the shackles of animalism and from the fetters of materialism. + +Trinity Teacher Sons have nothing to do with terminating planetary +dispensations. They neither judge the dead nor translate the living, but on +each planetary mission they are accompanied by a Magisterial Son who performs +these services. Teacher Sons are wholly concerned with the initiation of a +spiritual age, with the dawn of the era of spiritual realities on an +evolutionary planet. + + top of page - 232 + +They make real the spiritual counterparts of material knowledge and temporal +wisdom. + +The Teacher Sons usually remain on their visitation planets for one thousand +years of planetary time. One Teacher Son presides over the planetary millennial +reign and is assisted by seventy associates of his order. The Daynals do not +incarnate or otherwise so materialize themselves as to be visible to mortal +beings; therefore is contact with the world of visitation maintained through +the activities of the Brilliant Evening Stars, local universe personalities who +are associated with the Trinity Teacher Sons. + +The Daynals may return many times to an inhabited world, and following their +final mission the planet will be ushered into the settled status of a sphere of +light and life, the evolutionary goal of all the mortal-inhabited worlds of the +present universe age. The Mortal Corps of the Finality has much to do with the +spheres settled in light and life, and their planetary activities touch upon +those of the Teacher Sons. Indeed, the whole order of Daynal sonship is +intimately connected with all phases of finaliter activities in the +evolutionary creations of time and space. + +The Trinity Teacher Sons seem to be so completely identified with the regime of +mortal progression through the earlier stages of evolutionary ascension that we +are often led to speculate regarding their possible association with the +finaliters in the undisclosed career of the future universes. We observe that +the administrators of the superuniverses are part Trinity-origin personalities +and part Trinity-embraced ascendant evolutionary creatures. We firmly believe +that the Teacher Sons and the finaliters are now engaged in acquiring the +experience of time-association which may be the preliminary training to prepare +them for close association in some unrevealed future destiny. On Uversa it is +our belief that, when the superuniverses are finally settled in light and life, +these Paradise Teacher Sons, who have become so thoroughly familiar with the +problems of evolutionary worlds and have been so long associated with the +career of evolutionary mortals, will probably be transferred to eternal +association with the Paradise Corps of the Finality. + +10. UNITED MINISTRY OF THE PARADISE SONS + +All the Paradise Sons of God are divine in origin and in nature. The work of +each Paradise Son in behalf of each world is just as if the Son of service were +the first and only Son of God. + +The Paradise Sons are the divine presentation of the acting natures of the +three persons of Deity to the domains of time and space. The Creator, +Magisterial, and Teacher Sons are the gifts of the eternal Deities to the +children of men and to all other universe creatures of ascension potential. +These Sons of God are the divine ministers who are unceasingly devoted to the +work of helping the creatures of time attain the high spiritual goal of +eternity. + +In the Creator Sons the love of the Universal Father is blended with the mercy +of the Eternal Son and is disclosed to the local universes in the creative +power, loving ministry, and understanding sovereignty of the Michaels. In the +Magisterial Sons the mercy of the Eternal Son, united with the ministry of the +Infinite Spirit, is revealed to the evolutionary domains in the careers of +these Avonals of judgment, service, and bestowal. In the Trinity Teacher Sons +the + + top of page - 233 + +love, mercy, and ministry of the three Paradise Deities are co-ordinated on the +highest time-space value-levels and are presented to the universes as living +truth, divine goodness, and true spiritual beauty. + +In the local universes these orders of sonship collaborate to effect the +revelation of the Deities of Paradise to the creatures of space: As the Father +of a local universe, a Creator Son portrays the infinite character of the +Universal Father. As the bestowal Sons of mercy, the Avonals reveal the +matchless nature of the Eternal Son of infinite compassion. As the true +teachers of ascending personalities, the Trinity Daynal Sons disclose the +teacher personality of the Infinite Spirit. In their divinely perfect +co-operation, Michaels, Avonals, and Daynals are contributing to the +actualization and revelation of the personality and sovereignty of God the +Supreme in and to the time-space universes. In the harmony of their triune +activities these Paradise Sons of God ever function in the vanguard of the +personalities of Deity as they follow the never-ending expansion of the +divinity of the First Great Source and Center from the everlasting Isle of +Paradise into the unknown depths of space. + +[Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.] + + top of page - 234 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The ³ The Paradise ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Co-ordinate... ³ Cr... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p021.txt b/religious documents/p021.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce0cec4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p021.txt @@ -0,0 +1,554 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 21 The Paradise Creator Sons + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 21 The Paradise Creator Sons + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Creator Sons are the makers and rulers of the local universes of time and +space. These universe creators and sovereigns are of dual origin, embodying the +characteristics of God the Father and God the Son. But each Creator Son is +different from every other; each is unique in nature as well as in personality; +each is the "only-begotten Son" of the perfect deity ideal of his origin. + +In the vast work of organizing, evolving, and perfecting a local universe, +these high Sons always enjoy the sustaining approval of the Universal Father. +The relationship of the Creator Sons with their Paradise Father is touching and +superlative. No doubt the profound affection of the Deity parents for their +divine progeny is the wellspring of that beautiful and well-nigh divine love +which even mortal parents bear their children. + +These primary Paradise Sons are personalized as Michaels. As they go forth from +Paradise to found their universes, they are known as Creator Michaels. When +settled in supreme authority, they are called Master Michaels. Sometimes we +refer to the sovereign of your universe of Nebadon as Christ Michael. Always +and forever do they reign after the "order of Michael," that being the +designation of the first Son of their order and nature. + +The original or first-born Michael has never experienced incarnation as a +material being, but seven times he passed through the experience of spiritual +creature ascent on the seven circuits of Havona, advancing from the outer +spheres to the innermost circuit of the central creation. The order of Michael +knows the grand universe from one end to the other; there is no essential +experience of any of the children of time and space in which the Michaels have +not personally participated; they are in fact partakers not only of the divine +nature but also of your nature, meaning all natures, from the highest to the +lowest. + +The original Michael is the presiding head of the primary Paradise Sons when +they assemble for conference at the center of all things. Not long since on +Uversa we recorded a universal broadcast of a conclave extraordinary on the +eternal Isle of one hundred fifty thousand Creator Sons assembled in the +parental presence and engaged in deliberations having to do with the progress +of the unification and stabilization of the universe of universes. This was a +selected group of Sovereign Michaels, sevenfold bestowal Sons. + +1. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF CREATOR SONS + +When the fullness of absolute spiritual ideation in the Eternal Son encounters +the fullness of absolute personality concept in the Universal Father, when such +a creative union is finally and fully attained, when such absolute identity of +spirit + + top of page - 235 + +and such infinite oneness of personality concept occur, then, right then and +there, without the loss of anything of personality or prerogative by either of +the infinite Deities, there flashes into full-fledged being a new and original +Creator Son, the only-begotten Son of the perfect ideal and the powerful idea +whose union produces this new creator personality of power and perfection. + +Each Creator Son is the only-begotten and only-begettable offspring of the +perfect union of the original concepts of the two infinite and eternal and +perfect minds of the ever-existent Creators of the universe of universes. There +never can be another such Son because each Creator Son is the unqualified, +finished, and final expression and embodiment of all of every phase of every +feature of every possibility of every divine reality that could, throughout all +eternity, ever be found in, expressed by, or evolved from, those divine +creative potentials which united to bring this Michael Son into existence. Each +Creator Son is the absolute of the united deity concepts which constitute his +divine origin. + +The divine natures of these Creator Sons are, in principle, derived equally +from the attributes of both Paradise parents. All partake of the fullness of +the divine nature of the Universal Father and of the creative prerogatives of +the Eternal Son, but as we observe the practical outworking of the Michael +functions in the universes, we discern apparent differences. Some Creator Sons +appear to be more like God the Father; others more like God the Son. For +example: The trend of administration in the universe of Nebadon suggests that +its Creator and ruling Son is one whose nature and character more resemble that +of the Eternal Mother Son. It should be further stated that some universes are +presided over by Paradise Michaels who appear equally to resemble God the +Father and God the Son. And these observations are in no sense implied +criticisms; they are simply a recording of fact. + +I do not know the exact number of Creator Sons in existence, but I have good +reasons for believing that there are more than seven hundred thousand. Now, we +know that there are exactly seven hundred thousand Unions of Days and no more +are being created. We also observe that the ordained plans of the present +universe age seem to indicate that one Union of Days is to be stationed in each +local universe as the counseling ambassador of the Trinity. We note further +that the constantly increasing number of Creator Sons already exceeds the +stationary number of the Unions of Days. But concerning the destiny of the +Michaels beyond seven hundred thousand, we have never been informed. + +2. THE CREATORS OF LOCAL UNIVERSES + +The Paradise Sons of the primary order are the designers, creators, builders, +and administrators of their respective domains, the local universes of time and +space, the basic creative units of the seven evolutionary superuniverses. A +Creator Son is permitted to choose the space site of his future cosmic +activity, but before he may begin even the physical organization of his +universe, he must spend a long period of observation devoted to the study of +the efforts of his older brothers in various creations located in the +superuniverse of his projected action. And prior to all this, the Michael Son +will have completed his long and unique experience of Paradise observation and +Havona training. + +When a Creator Son departs from Paradise to embark upon the adventure of +universe making, to become the head--virtually the God--of the local uni- + + top of page - 236 + +verse of his own organization, then, for the first time, he finds himself in +intimate contact with, and in many respects dependent upon, the Third Source +and Center. The Infinite Spirit, though abiding with the Father and the Son at +the center of all things, is destined to function as the actual and effective +helper of each Creator Son. Therefore is each Creator Son accompanied by a +Creative Daughter of the Infinite Spirit, that being who is destined to become +the Divine Minister, the Mother Spirit of the new local universe. + +The departure of a Michael Son on this occasion forever liberates his creator +prerogatives from the Paradise Sources and Centers, subject only to certain +limitations inherent in the pre-existence of these Sources and Centers and to +certain other antecedent powers and presences. Among these limitations to the +otherwise all-powerful creator prerogatives of a local universe Father are the +following: + +1. Energy-matter is dominated by the Infinite Spirit. Before any new forms of +things, great or small, may be created, before any new transformations of +energy-matter may be attempted, a Creator Son must secure the consent and +working co-operation of the Infinite Spirit. + +2. Creature designs and types are controlled by the Eternal Son. Before a +Creator Son may engage in the creation of any new type of being, any new design +of creature, he must secure the consent of the Eternal and Original Mother Son. + +3. Personality is designed and bestowed by the Universal Father. + +The types and patterns of mind are determined by the precreature factors of +being. After these have been associated to constitute a creature (personal or +otherwise), mind is the endowment of the Third Source and Center, the universal +source of mind ministry to all beings below the level of Paradise Creators. + +The control of spirit designs and types depends on the level of their +manifestation. In the last analysis, spiritual design is controlled by the +Trinity or by the pre-Trinity spirit endowments of the Trinity +personalities--Father, Son, and Spirit. + +When such a perfect and divine Son has taken possession of the space site of +his chosen universe; when the initial problems of universe materialization and +of gross equilibrium have been resolved; when he has formed an effective and +co-operative working union with the complemental Daughter of the Infinite +Spirit--then do this Universe Son and this Universe Spirit initiate that +liaison which is designed to give origin to the innumerable hosts of their +local universe children. In connection with this event the Creative Spirit +focalization of the Paradise Infinite Spirit becomes changed in nature, taking +on the personal qualities of the Mother Spirit of a local universe. + +Notwithstanding that all Creator Sons are divinely like their Paradise parents, +none exactly resembles another; each is unique, diverse, exclusive, and +original in nature as well as in personality. And since they are the architects +and makers of the life plans of their respective realms, this very diversity +insures that their domains will also be diverse in every form and phase of +Michael-derived living existence which may be created or subsequently evolved +therein. Hence the orders of creatures native to the local universes are quite +varied. No two are administered or inhabited by dual-origin native beings who +are in all respects identical. Within any superuniverse, one half of their +inherent attributes are quite alike, being derived from the uniform Creative +Spirits; the other half + + top of page - 237 + +vary, being derived from the diversified Creator Sons. But such diversity does +not characterize those creatures of sole origin in the Creative Spirit nor +those imported beings who are native to the central or superuniverses. + +When a Michael Son is absent from his universe, its government is directed by +the first-born native being, the Bright and Morning Star, the local universe +chief executive. The advice and counsel of the Union of Days is invaluable at +such times. During these absences a Creator Son is able to invest the +associated Mother Spirit with the overcontrol of his spiritual presence on the +inhabited worlds and in the hearts of his mortal children. And the Mother +Spirit of a local universe remains always at its headquarters, extending her +fostering care and spiritual ministry to the uttermost parts of such an +evolutionary domain. + +The personal presence of a Creator Son in his local universe is not necessary +to the smooth running of an established material creation. Such Sons may +journey to Paradise, and still their universes swing on through space. They may +lay down their lines of power to incarnate as the children of time; still their +realms whirl on about their respective centers. No material organization is +independent of the absolute-gravity grasp of Paradise or of the cosmic +overcontrol inherent in the space presence of the Unqualified Absolute. + +3. LOCAL UNIVERSE SOVEREIGNTY + +A Creator Son is given the range of a universe by the consent of the Paradise +Trinity and with the confirmation of the supervising Master Spirit of the +superuniverse concerned. Such action constitutes title of physical possession, +a cosmic leasehold. But the elevation of a Michael Son from this initial and +self-limited stage of rulership to the experiential supremacy of self-earned +sovereignty comes as a result of his own personal experiences in the work of +universe creation and incarnated bestowal. Until the achievement of +bestowal-earned sovereignty, he rules as vicegerent of the Universal Father. + +A Creator Son could assert full sovereignty over his personal creation at any +time, but he wisely chooses not to. If, prior to passing through the creature +bestowals, he assumed an unearned supreme sovereignty, the Paradise +personalities resident in his local universe would withdraw. But this has never +happened throughout all the creations of time and space. + +The fact of creatorship implies the fullness of sovereignty, but the Michaels +choose to experientially earn it, thereby retaining the full co-operation of +all Paradise personalities attached to the local universe administration. We +know of no Michael who ever did otherwise; but they all could, they are truly +freewill Sons. + +The sovereignty of a Creator Son in a local universe passes through six, +perhaps seven, stages of experiential manifestation. These appear in the +following order: + +1. Initial vicegerent sovereignty--the solitary provisional authority exercised +by a Creator Son before the acquirement of personal qualities by the associated +Creative Spirit. + +2. Conjoint vicegerent sovereignty--the joint rule of the Paradise pair +subsequent to the personality achievement of the Universe Mother Spirit. + + top of page - 238 + +3. Augmenting vicegerent sovereignty--the advancing authority of a Creator Son +during the period of his seven creature bestowals. + +4. Supreme sovereignty--the settled authority following the completion of the +seventh bestowal. In Nebadon, supreme sovereignty dates from the completion of +Michael's bestowal on Urantia. It has existed just slightly over nineteen +hundred years of your planetary time. + +5. Augmenting supreme sovereignty--the advanced relationship growing out of the +settling of a majority of the creature domains in light and life. This stage +pertains to the unachieved future of your local universe. + +6. Trinitarian sovereignty--exercised subsequent to the settling of the entire +local universe in light and life. + +7. Unrevealed sovereignty--the unknown relationships of a future universe age. + +In accepting the initial vicegerent sovereignty of a projected local universe, +a Creator Michael takes an oath to the Trinity not to assume supreme +sovereignty until the seven creature bestowals have been completed and +certified by the superuniverse rulers. But if a Michael Son could not, at will, +assert such unearned sovereignty, there would be no meaning in taking an oath +not to do so. + +Even in the prebestowal ages a Creator Son rules his domain well-nigh supremely +when there is no dissent in any of its parts. Limited rulership would hardly be +manifest if sovereignty were never challenged. The sovereignty exercised by a +prebestowal Creator Son in a universe without rebellion is no greater than in a +universe with rebellion; but in the first instance sovereignty limitations are +not apparent; in the second, they are. + +If ever the authority or administration of a Creator Son is challenged, +attacked, or jeopardized, he is eternally pledged to uphold, protect, defend, +and if necessary retrieve his personal creation. Such Sons can be troubled or +harassed only by the creatures of their own making or by higher beings of their +own choosing. It might be inferred that "higher beings," those of origin on +levels above a local universe, would be unlikely to trouble a Creator Son, and +this is true. But they could if they chose to. Virtue is volitional with +personality; righteousness is not automatic in freewill creatures. + +Before the completion of the bestowal career a Creator Son rules with certain +self-imposed limitations of sovereignty, but subsequent to his finished +bestowal service he rules by virtue of his actual experience in the form and +likeness of his manifold creatures. When a Creator has seven times sojourned +among his creatures, when the bestowal career is finished, then is he supremely +settled in universe authority; he has become a Master Son, a sovereign and +supreme ruler. + +The technique of obtaining supreme sovereignty over a local universe involves +the following seven experiential steps: + +1. Experientially to penetrate seven creature levels of being through the +technique of incarnated bestowal in the very likeness of the creatures on the +level concerned. + +2. To make an experiential consecration to each phase of the sevenfold will of +Paradise Deity as it is personified in the Seven Master Spirits. + + top of page - 239 + +3. To traverse each of the seven experiences on the creature levels +simultaneously with the execution of one of the seven consecrations to the will +of Paradise Deity. + +4. On each creature level, experientially to portray the acme of creature life +to Paradise Deity and to all universe intelligences. + +5. On each creature level, experientially to reveal one phase of the sevenfold +will of Deity to the bestowal level and to all the universe. + +6. Experientially to unify the sevenfold creature experience with the sevenfold +experience of consecration to the revelation of the nature and will of Deity. + +7. To achieve new and higher relationship with the Supreme Being. The +repercussion of the totality of this Creator-creature experience augments the +superuniverse reality of God the Supreme and the time-space sovereignty of the +Almighty Supreme and factualizes the supreme local universe sovereignty of a +Paradise Michael. + +In settling the question of sovereignty in a local universe, the Creator Son is +not only demonstrating his own fitness to rule but is also revealing the nature +and portraying the sevenfold attitude of the Paradise Deities. The finite +understanding and creature appreciation of the Father's primacy is concerned in +the adventure of a Creator Son when he condescends to take upon himself the +form and experiences of his creatures. These primary Paradise Sons are the real +revealers of the Father's loving nature and beneficent authority, the same +Father who, in association with the Son and the Spirit, is the universal head +of all power, personality, and government throughout all the universal realms. + +4. THE MICHAEL BESTOWALS + +There are seven groups of bestowal Creator Sons, and they are so classified in +accordance with the number of times they have bestowed themselves upon the +creatures of their realms. They range from the initial experience up through +five additional spheres of progressive bestowal until they attain the seventh +and final episode of creature-Creator experience. + +Avonal bestowals are always in the likeness of mortal flesh, but the seven +bestowals of a Creator Son involve his appearing on seven creature levels of +being and pertain to the revelation of the seven primary expressions of the +will and nature of Deity. Without exception, all Creator Sons pass through this +seven times giving of themselves to their created children before they assume +settled and supreme jurisdiction over the universes of their own creation. + +Though these seven bestowals vary in the different sectors and universes, they +always embrace the mortal-bestowal adventure. In the final bestowal a Creator +Son appears as a member of one of the higher mortal races on some inhabited +world, usually as a member of that racial group which contains the largest +hereditary legacy of the Adamic stock which has previously been imported to +upstep the physical status of the animal-origin peoples. Only once in his +sevenfold career as a bestowal Son is a Paradise Michael born of woman as you +have the record of the babe of Bethlehem. Only once does he live and die as a +member of the lowest order of evolutionary will creatures. + +After each of his bestowals a Creator Son proceeds to the "right hand of the +Father," there to gain the Father's acceptance of the bestowal and to receive + + top of page - 240 + +instruction preparatory to the next episode of universe service. Following the +seventh and final bestowal a Creator Son receives from the Universal Father +supreme authority and jurisdiction over his universe. + +It is of record that the divine Son of last appearance on your planet was a +Paradise Creator Son who had completed six phases of his bestowal career; +consequently, when he gave up the conscious grasp of the incarnated life on +Urantia, he could, and did, truly say, "It is finished"--it was literally +finished. His death on Urantia completed his bestowal career; it was the last +step in fulfilling the sacred oath of a Paradise Creator Son. And when this +experience has been acquired, such Sons are supreme universe sovereigns; no +longer do they rule as vicegerents of the Father but in their own right and +name as "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." With certain stated exceptions these +sevenfold bestowal Sons are unqualifiedly supreme in the universes of their +abode. Concerning his local universe, "all power in heaven and on earth" was +relegated to this triumphant and enthroned Master Son. + +Creator Sons, subsequent to the completion of their bestowal careers, are +reckoned as a separate order, sevenfold Master Sons. In person the Master Sons +are identical with the Creator Sons, but they have undergone such a unique +bestowal experience that they are commonly regarded as a different order. When +a Creator deigns to effect a bestowal, a real and permanent change is destined +to take place. True, the bestowal Son is still and none the less a Creator, but +he has added to his nature the experience of a creature, which forever removes +him from the divine level of a Creator Son and elevates him to the experiential +plane of a Master Son, one who has fully earned the right to rule a universe +and administer its worlds. Such beings embody all that can be secured from +divine parentage and embrace everything to be derived from perfected-creature +experience. Why should man bemoan his lowly origin and enforced evolutionary +career when the very Gods must pass through an equivalent experience before +they are accounted experientially worthy and competent finally and fully to +rule over their universe domains! + +5. RELATION OF MASTER SONS TO THE UNIVERSE + +The power of a Master Michael is unlimited because derived from experienced +association with the Paradise Trinity, is unquestioned because derived from +actual experience as the very creatures subject to such authority. The nature +of the sovereignty of a sevenfold Creator Son is supreme because it: + +1. Embraces the sevenfold viewpoint of Paradise Deity. + +2. Embodies a sevenfold attitude of time-space creatures. + +3. Perfectly synthesizes Paradise attitude and creature viewpoint. + +This experiential sovereignty is thus all-inclusive of the divinity of God the +Sevenfold culminating in the Supreme Being. And the personal sovereignty of a +sevenfold Son is like the future sovereignty of the sometime-to-be-completed +Supreme Being, embracing as it does the fullest possible content of the power +and authority of the Paradise Trinity manifestable within the time-space limits +concerned. + +With the achievement of supreme local universe sovereignty, there passes from a +Michael Son the power and opportunity to create entirely new types of + + top of page - 241 + +creature beings during the present universe age. But a Master Son's loss of +power to originate entirely new orders of beings in no way interferes with the +work of life elaboration already established and in process of unfoldment; this +vast program of universe evolution goes on without interruption or curtailment. +The acquirement of supreme sovereignty by a Master Son implies the +responsibility of personal devotion to the fostering and the administering of +that which has already been designed and created, and of that which will +subsequently be produced by those who have been thus designed and created. In +time there may develop an almost endless evolution of diverse beings, but no +entirely new pattern or type of intelligent creature will henceforth take +direct origin from a Master Son. This is the first step, the beginning, of a +settled administration in any local universe. + +The elevation of a sevenfold bestowal Son to the unquestioned sovereignty of +his universe means the beginning of the end of agelong uncertainty and relative +confusion. Subsequent to this event, that which cannot be sometime +spiritualized will eventually be disorganized; that which cannot be sometime +co-ordinated with cosmic reality will eventually be destroyed. When the +provisions of endless mercy and nameless patience have been exhausted in an +effort to win the loyalty and devotion of the will creatures of the realms, +justice and righteousness will prevail. That which mercy cannot rehabilitate +justice will eventually annihilate. + +The Master Michaels are supreme in their own local universes when once they +have been installed as sovereign rulers. The few limitations upon their rule +are those inherent in the cosmic pre-existence of certain forces and +personalities. Otherwise these Master Sons are supreme in authority, +responsibility, and administrative power in their respective universes; they +are as Creators and Gods, supreme in virtually all things. There is no +penetration beyond their wisdom regarding the functioning of a given universe. + +After his elevation to settled sovereignty in a local universe a Paradise +Michael is in full control of all other Sons of God functioning in his domain, +and he may freely rule in accordance with his concept of the needs of his +realms. A Master Son may at will vary the order of the spiritual adjudication +and evolutionary adjustment of the inhabited planets. And such Sons do make and +carry out the plans of their own choosing in all matters of special planetary +needs, in particular regarding the worlds of their creature sojourn and still +more concerning the realm of terminal bestowal, the planet of incarnation in +the likeness of mortal flesh. + +The Master Sons seem to be in perfect communication with their bestowal worlds, +not only the worlds of their personal sojourn but all worlds whereon a +Magisterial Son has bestowed himself. This contact is maintained by their own +spiritual presence, the Spirit of Truth, which they are able to "pour out upon +all flesh." These Master Sons also maintain an unbroken connection with the +Eternal Mother Son at the center of all things. They possess a sympathetic +reach which extends from the Universal Father on high to the lowly races of +planetary life in the realms of time. + +6. DESTINY OF THE MASTER MICHAELS + +No one may with finality of authority presume to discuss either the natures or +the destinies of the sevenfold Master Sovereigns of the local universes; never- + + top of page - 242 + +theless, we all speculate much regarding these matters. We are taught, and we +believe, that each Paradise Michael is the absolute of the dual deity concepts +of his origin; thus he embodies actual phases of the infinity of the Universal +Father and the Eternal Son. The Michaels must be partial in relation to total +infinity, but they are probably absolute in relation to that part of infinity +concerned in their origin. But as we observe their work in the present universe +age, we detect no action that is more than finite; any conjectured superfinite +capacities must be self-contained and as yet unrevealed. + +The completion of the creature-bestowal careers and the elevation to supreme +universe sovereignty must signify the completed liberation of a Michael's +finite-action capacities accompanied by the appearance of capacity for +more-than-finite service. For in this connection we note that such Master Sons +are then restricted in the production of new types of creature beings, a +restriction undoubtedly made necessary by the liberation of their superfinite +potentialities. + +It is highly probable that these undisclosed creator powers will remain +self-contained throughout the present universe age. But sometime in the +far-distant future, in the now mobilizing universes of outer space, we believe +that the liaison between a sevenfold Master Son and a seventh-stage Creative +Spirit may attain to absonite levels of service attended by the appearance of +new things, meanings, and values on transcendental levels of ultimate universe +significance. + +Just as the Deity of the Supreme is actualizing by virtue of experiential +service, so are the Creator Sons achieving the personal realization of the +Paradise-divinity potentials bound up in their unfathomable natures. When on +Urantia, Christ Michael once said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And +we believe that in eternity the Michaels are literally destined to be "the way, +the truth, and the life," ever blazing the path for all universe personalities +as it leads from supreme divinity through ultimate absonity to eternal deity +finality. + +[Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.] + + top of page - 243 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Paradise ³ The Trinitized ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ So... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p022.txt b/religious documents/p022.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..50412a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p022.txt @@ -0,0 +1,759 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 22 The Trinitized Sons Of God + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 22 The Trinitized Sons Of God + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THERE are three groups of beings who are called Sons of God. In addition to +descending and ascending orders of sonship there is a third group known as the +Trinitized Sons of God. The trinitized order of sonship is subdivided into +three primary divisions in accordance with the origins of its many types of +personalities, revealed and unrevealed. These primary divisions are: + +1. Deity-trinitized Sons. + +2. Trinity-embraced Sons. + +3. Creature-trinitized Sons. + +Irrespective of origin all Trinitized Sons of God have in common the experience +of trinitization, either as a part of their origin or as an experience of +Trinity embrace subsequently attained. The Deity-trinitized Sons are unrevealed +in these narratives; therefore will this presentation be confined to a +portrayal of the remaining two groups, more particularly the Trinity-embraced +sons of God. + +1. THE TRINITY-EMBRACED SONS + +All Trinity-embraced sons are originally of dual or single origin, but +subsequent to the Trinity embrace they are forever devoted to Trinity service +and assignment. This corps, as revealed and as organized for superuniverse +service, embraces seven orders of personalities: + +1. Mighty Messengers. + +2. Those High in Authority. + +3. Those without Name and Number. + +4. Trinitized Custodians. + +5. Trinitized Ambassadors. + +6. Celestial Guardians. + +7. High Son Assistants. + +These seven groups of personalities are further classified, according to +origin, nature, and function, into three major divisions: the Trinitized Sons +of Attainment, the Trinitized Sons of Selection, and the Trinitized Sons of +Perfection. + + top of page - 244 + +The Trinitized Sons of Attainment--the Mighty Messengers, Those High in +Authority, and Those without Name and Number--are all Adjuster-fused ascendant +mortals who have attained Paradise and the Corps of the Finality. But they are +not finaliters; when they have been Trinity embraced, their names are removed +from the finaliter roll call. The new sons of this order pass through specific +courses of training, for comparatively short periods, on the circuit +headquarters planets of the Havona circuits under the direction of the Eternals +of Days. Thereafter they are assigned to the services of the Ancients of Days +in the seven superuniverses. + +The Trinitized Sons of Selection embrace the Trinitized Custodians and the +Trinitized Ambassadors. They are recruited from certain of the evolutionary +seraphim and translated midway creatures who have traversed Havona and have +attained Paradise, as well as from certain of the Spirit-fused and the +Son-fused mortals who have likewise ascended to the central Isle of Light and +Life. Subsequent to their embrace by the Paradise Trinity and after a brief +training in Havona, the Trinitized Sons of Selection are assigned to the courts +of the Ancients of Days. + +The Trinitized Sons of Perfection. The Celestial Guardians and their +co-ordinates, the High Son Assistants, comprise a unique group of +twice-trinitized personalities. They are the creature-trinitized sons of +Paradise-Havona personalities or of perfected ascendant mortals who have long +distinguished themselves in the Corps of the Finality. Some of these +creature-trinitized sons, after service with the Supreme Executives of the +Seven Master Spirits and after serving under the Trinity Teacher Sons, are +retrinitized (embraced) by the Paradise Trinity and then commissioned to the +courts of the Ancients of Days as Celestial Guardians and as High Son +Assistants. Trinitized Sons of Perfection are assigned directly to the +superuniverse service without further training. + +Our Trinity-origin associates--Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine Counselors, and +Universal Censors--are of stationary numbers, but the Trinity-embraced sons are +constantly increasing. All seven orders of Trinity-embraced sons are +commissioned as members of one of the seven superuniverse governments, and the +number in the service of each superuniverse is exactly the same; not one has +ever been lost. Trinity-embraced beings have never gone astray; they may +stumble temporarily, but not one has ever been adjudged in contempt of the +superuniverse governments. The Sons of Attainment and the Sons of Selection +have never faltered in the service of Orvonton, but the Trinitized Sons of +Perfection have sometimes erred in judgment and thereby caused transient +confusion. + +Under the direction of the Ancients of Days all seven orders function very much +as self-governing groups. Their scope of service is far-flung; Trinitized Sons +of Perfection do not leave the superuniverse of assignment, but their +trinitized associates range the grand universe, journeying from the +evolutionary worlds of time and space to the eternal Isle of Paradise. They may +function in any of the superuniverses, but they do so always as members of the +supergovernment of original designation. + +Apparently the Trinity-embraced sons have been permanently assigned to the +service of the seven superuniverses; certainly this assignment is for the +duration of the present universe age, but we have never been informed that it +is to be eternal. + + top of page - 245 + +2. THE MIGHTY MESSENGERS + +Mighty Messengers belong to the ascendant group of the Trinitized Sons. They +are a class of perfected mortals who have been rebellion tested or otherwise +equally proved as to their personal loyalty; all have passed through some +definite test of universe allegiance. At some time in their Paradise ascent +they stood firm and loyal in the face of the disloyalty of their superiors, and +some did actively and loyally function in the places of such unfaithful +leaders. + +With such personal records of fidelity and devotion, these ascending mortals +pass on through Havona with the stream of the pilgrims of time, attain +Paradise, graduate therefrom, and are mustered into the Corps of the Finality. +Thereupon they are trinitized in the secret embrace of the Paradise Trinity and +subsequently are commissioned to become associated with the Ancients of Days in +the administration of the governments of the seven superuniverses. + +Every ascendant mortal of insurrectionary experience who functions loyally in +the face of rebellion is eventually destined to become a Mighty Messenger of +the superuniverse service. Likewise is any ascendant creature who effectively +prevents such upheavals of error, evil, or sin; for action designed to prevent +rebellion or to effect higher types of loyalty in a universe crisis is regarded +as of even greater value than loyalty in the face of actual rebellion. + +The senior Mighty Messengers were chosen from those ascendant mortals of time +and space who were among the earlier Paradise arrivals, many having traversed +Havona in the times of Grandfanda. But the first trinitizing of Mighty +Messengers was not effected until the candidate corps contained representatives +from each of the seven superuniverses. And the last group of this order to +qualify on Paradise embraced ascendant pilgrims from the local universe of +Nebadon. + +Mighty Messengers are embraced by the Paradise Trinity in classes of seven +hundred thousand, one hundred thousand for assignment to each superuniverse. +Almost one trillion Mighty Messengers are commissioned on Uversa, and there is +every reason to believe that the number serving in each of the seven +superuniverses is exactly the same. + +I am a Mighty Messenger, and it may interest Urantians to know that the +companion and associate of my mortal experience was also triumphant in the +great test, and that, though we were many times and for long periods separated +in the agelong inward ascent to Havona, we were embraced in the same +seven-hundred-thousand group, and that we spent our time passing through +Vicegerington in close and loving association. We were finally commissioned and +together assigned to Uversa of Orvonton, and we are often dispatched in company +for the execution of assignments requiring the services of two Messengers. + +Mighty Messengers, in common with all Trinity-embraced sons, are assigned to +all phases of superuniverse activities. They maintain constant connection with +their headquarters through the superuniverse reflectivity service. Mighty +Messengers serve in all sectors of a superuniverse and frequently execute +missions to the local universes and even to the individual worlds, as I do on +this occasion. + +In the superuniverse courts, Mighty Messengers act as defenders of both +individuals and planets when they come up for adjudication; they also assist +the Perfections of Days in the direction of the affairs of the major sectors. +As a + + top of page - 246 + +group, their chief assignment is that of superuniverse observers. They are +stationed on the various headquarters worlds and on individual planets of +importance as the official observers of the Ancients of Days. When so assigned, +they also serve as advisers to the authorities directing the affairs of the +spheres of their sojourn. The Messengers take active part in all phases of the +ascendant scheme of mortal progression. With their associates of mortal origin +they keep the supergovernments in close and personal touch with the status and +progression of the plans of the descending Sons of God. + +Mighty Messengers are fully conscious of their entire ascendant careers, and +that is why they are such useful and sympathetic ministers, understanding +messengers, for service on any world of space and to any creature of time. As +soon as you are delivered from the flesh, you will communicate freely and +understandingly with us since we spring from all the races on all the +evolutionary worlds of space, that is, from those mortal races that are indwelt +by, and subsequently fused with, Thought Adjusters. + +3. THOSE HIGH IN AUTHORITY + +Those High in Authority, the second group of the Trinitized Sons of Attainment, +are all Adjuster-fused beings of mortal origin. These are the perfected mortals +who have exhibited superior administrative ability and have shown extraordinary +executive genius throughout their long ascending careers. They are the cream of +governing ability derived from the surviving mortals of space. + +Seventy thousand of Those High in Authority are trinitized at each Trinity +liaison. Though the local universe of Nebadon is a comparatively young +creation, it has representatives among a recently trinitized class of this +order. There are now commissioned in Orvonton more than ten billion of these +skillful administrators. Like all separate orders of celestial beings, they +maintain their own headquarters on Uversa, and like the other Trinity-embraced +sons, their reserves on Uversa act as the central directing body of their order +in Orvonton. + +Those High in Authority are administrators without limitation. They are the +everywhere-present and always-efficient executives of the Ancients of Days. +They serve on any sphere, on any inhabited world, and in any phase of activity +in any of the seven superuniverses. + +Having superb administrative wisdom and unusual executive skill, these +brilliant beings assume to present the cause of justice in behalf of the +superuniverse tribunals; they foster the execution of justice and the +rectification of misadaptations in the evolutionary universes. Therefore, if +you should ever be cited for errors of judgment while you are ascending the +worlds and spheres of your ordained cosmic progression, it is hardly likely +that you would suffer injustice since your prosecutors would be onetime +ascendant creatures who are personally familiar with every step of the career +you have traversed and are traversing. + +4. THOSE WITHOUT NAME AND NUMBER + +Those without Name and Number constitute the third and last group of the +Trinitized Sons of Attainment; they are the ascendant souls who have developed +the ability to worship beyond the skill of all the sons and daughters of the +evolutionary races from the worlds of time and space. They have acquired a +spiritual + + top of page - 247 + +concept of the eternal purpose of the Universal Father which comparatively +transcends the comprehension of the evolutionary creatures of name or number; +therefore are they denominated Those without Name and Number. More strictly +translated, their name would be "Those above Name and Number." + +This order of sons is embraced by the Paradise Trinity in groups of seven +thousand. There are of record on Uversa over one hundred million of these sons +commissioned in Orvonton. + +Since Those without Name and Number are the superior spiritual minds of the +survival races, they are especially qualified to sit in judgment and to render +opinions when a spiritual viewpoint is desirable, and when experience in the +ascendant career is essential to an adequate comprehension of the questions +involved in the problem to be adjudicated. They are the supreme jurors of +Orvonton. A maladministered jury system may be more or less of a travesty of +justice on some worlds, but on Uversa and its extension tribunals we employ the +highest type of evolved spiritual mentality as juror-judges. Adjudication is +the highest function of any government, and those who are intrusted with +verdict rendering should be chosen from the highest and most noble types of the +most experienced and understanding individuals. + +The selection of candidates for the trinitization classes of Mighty Messengers, +Those High in Authority, and Those without Name and Number is inherent and +automatic. The selective techniques of Paradise are not in any sense arbitrary. +Personal experience and spiritual values determine the personnel of the +Trinitized Sons of Attainment. Such beings are equal in authority and uniform +in administrative status, but they all possess individuality and diverse +characters; they are not standardized beings. All are characteristically +different, depending on the differentials of their ascendant careers. + +In addition to these experiential qualifications, the Trinitized Sons of +Attainment have been trinitized in the divine embrace of the Paradise Deities. +Consequently they function as the co-ordinate associates of the Stationary Sons +of the Trinity, for the Trinity embrace does seem to precipitate out of the +stream of future time many of the unrealized potentials of creature beings. But +this is true concerning only that which pertains to the present universe age. + +This group of sons is chiefly, but not wholly, concerned with the services of +the ascendant career of the time-space mortals. If the viewpoint of a mortal +creature is ever in doubt, the question is settled by appeal to an ascendant +commission consisting of a Mighty Messenger, One High in Authority, and One +without Name and Number. + +You mortals who read this message may yourselves ascend to Paradise, attain the +Trinity embrace, and in remote future ages be attached to the service of the +Ancients of Days in one of the seven superuniverses, and sometime be assigned +to enlarge the revelation of truth to some evolving inhabited planet, even as I +am now functioning on Urantia. + +5. THE TRINITIZED CUSTODIANS + +The Trinitized Custodians are Trinitized Sons of Selection. Not only do you +races and other mortals of survival value traverse Havona, attain Paradise, and +sometimes find themselves destined to superuniverse service with the Stationary +Sons of the Trinity, but your faithful seraphic guardians and your equally +faith- + + top of page - 248 + +ful midway associates may also become candidates for the same Trinity +recognition and superb personality destiny. + +Trinitized Custodians are ascendant seraphim and translated midway creatures +who have passed through Havona and have attained Paradise and the Corps of the +Finality. Subsequently they were embraced by the Paradise Trinity and were +assigned to the service of the Ancients of Days. + +The candidates for the Trinity embrace from among the ascendant seraphim are +accorded this recognition because of their valiant co-operation with some +ascendant mortal who attained the Corps of the Finality and was subsequently +trinitized. My own seraphic guardian of the mortal career went through with me, +was later trinitized, and now is attached to the Uversa government as a +Trinitized Custodian. + +And so with the midway creatures; many are translated and achieve Paradise and, +along with the seraphim and for the same reasons, are Trinity embraced and +commissioned as Custodians in the superuniverses. + +The Trinitized Custodians are embraced by the Paradise Trinity in groups of +seventy thousand, and one seventh of each group is assigned to a superuniverse. +There are now in the service of Orvonton slightly over ten million of these +trusted and high Custodians. They serve on Uversa and on the major and minor +headquarters spheres. In their labors they are assisted by a corps of several +billion seconaphim and other able superuniverse personalities. + +The Trinitized Custodians start out their careers as custodians, and they +continue as such in the affairs of the supergovernments. In a way, they are +officers of their superuniverse governments, but they do not deal with +individuals, as do the Celestial Guardians. The Trinitized Custodians +administer group affairs and foster collective projects. They are the +custodians of records, plans, and institutions; they act as the trustees of +undertakings, personality groups, ascendant projects, morontia plans, universe +projections, and innumerable other enterprises. + +6. THE TRINITIZED AMBASSADORS + +Trinitized Ambassadors are the second order of the Trinitized Sons of Selection +and like their associates, the Custodians, are recruited from two types of +ascendant creatures. Not all ascending mortals are Adjuster or Father fused; +some are Spirit fused, some are Son fused. Certain of these Spirit- and +Son-fused mortals reach Havona and attain Paradise. From among these Paradise +ascenders, candidates are selected for the Trinity embrace, and from time to +time they are trinitized in classes of seven thousand. They are then +commissioned in the superuniverses as Trinitized Ambassadors of the Ancients of +Days. Almost one-half billion are registered on Uversa. + +Trinitized Ambassadors are selected for the Trinity embrace upon the advices of +their Havona teachers. They represent the superior minds of their respective +groups and are, therefore, best qualified to assist the superuniverse rulers in +understanding and in administering the interests of those worlds from which the +Spirit-fused mortals hail. The Son-fused Ambassadors are of great assistance in +our dealings with problems involving the Son-fused order of personality. + +Trinitized Ambassadors are the emissaries of the Ancients of Days for any and +all purposes, to any and all worlds or universes within the superuniverse of +their assignment. The render particular and important services on the head- + + top of page - 249 + +quarters of the minor sectors, and they perform the numberless miscellaneous +assignments of a superuniverse. They are the emergency or reserve corps of the +Trinitized Sons of the supergovernments, and they are therefore available for a +great range of duties. They engage in thousands upon thousands of undertakings +in superuniverse affairs which it is impossible to portray to human minds since +there is nothing transpiring on Urantia that is in any way analogous to these +activities. + +7. TECHNIQUE OF TRINITIZATION + +I cannot fully unfold to the material mind the experience of the supreme +creative performance of perfect and perfected spiritual beings--the act of +trinitization. The techniques of trinitization are among the secrets of +Vicegerington and Solitarington and are revealable to, and understandable by, +none save those who have passed through these unique experiences. Therefore is +it beyond the possibility of any being successfully to portray to the human +mind the nature and purport of this extraordinary transaction. + +Aside from the Deities, only Paradise-Havona personalities and certain members +of each of the finaliter corps engage in trinitization. Under specialized +conditions of Paradise perfection, these superb beings may embark upon the +unique adventure of concept-identity, and they are many times successful in the +production of a new being, a creature-trinitized son. + +The glorified creatures who engage in such adventures of trinitization may +participate in only one such experience, whereas with the Paradise Deities +there seems to be no limit to the continued enactment of trinitization +episodes. Deity seems to be limited in just one respect: There can be only one +Original and Infinite Spirit, only one infinite executive of the united will of +the Father-Son. + +The ascendant Adjuster-fused mortal finaliters who have attained certain levels +of Paradise culture and spiritual development are among those who can essay to +trinitize a creature being. Mortal-finaliter companies, when stationed on +Paradise, are granted a recess every millennium of Havona time. There are seven +different ways such finaliters may elect to spend this duty-free period, and +one of these is, in association with some fellow finaliter or some +Paradise-Havona personality, to attempt the enactment of creature +trinitization. + +If two mortal finaliters, on going before the Architects of the Master +Universe, demonstrate that they have independently chosen an identical concept +for trinitization, the Architects are empowered, on their own discretion, to +promulgate mandates permitting these glorified mortal ascenders to extend their +recess and to remove themselves for a time to the trinitizing sector of the +Paradise Citizens. At the end of this assigned retreat, if they report that +they have singly and jointly elected to make the paradisiacal effort to +spiritualize, idealize, and actualize a selected and original concept which has +not theretofore been trinitized, then does Master Spirit Number Seven issue +orders authorizing such an extraordinary undertaking. + +Unbelievably long periods of time are sometimes consumed in these adventures; +an age seems to pass before these faithful and determined onetime mortals--and +sometimes Paradise-Havona personalities--finally achieve their goal, really +succeed in bringing their chosen concept of universal truth into actual being. +And not always do these devoted couples meet with success; many times they +fail, and that through no discoverable error on their part. Candidates + + top of page - 250 + +for trinitization who thus fail are admitted to a special group of finaliters +who are designated as beings who have made the supreme effort and sustained the +supreme disappointment. When the Paradise Deities unite to trinitize, they +always succeed, but not so with a homogeneous pair of creatures, the attempted +union of two members of the same order of being. + +When a new and original being is trinitized by the Gods, the divine parents are +in deity potential unchanged; but when exalted creature beings enact such a +creative episode, one of the contracting and participating individuals +undergoes a unique personality modification. The two ancestors of a +creature-trinitized son become in a certain sense spiritually as one. We +believe that this status of bi-unification of certain spiritual phases of +personality will probably prevail until such time as the Supreme Being shall +have attained full and completed manifestation of personality in the grand +universe. + +Simultaneously with the appearance of a new creature-trinitized son, there +occurs this functional spiritual union of the two ancestors; the two +trinitizing parents become one on the ultimate functional level. No created +being in the universe can fully explain this amazing phenomenon; it is a +near-divine experience. When the Father and the Son united to eternalize the +Infinite Spirit, upon the accomplishment of their purpose they immediately +became as one and ever since have been one. And while the trinitization union +of two creatures is on the order of the infinite scope of the perfect Deity +union of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, the repercussions of +creature trinitization are not eternal in nature; they will terminate upon the +completed factualization of the experiential Deities. + +While these parents of creature-trinitized sons become as one in their universe +assignments, they continue to be reckoned as two personalities in the makeup +and roll calls of the Corps of the finality and of the Architects of the Master +Universe. During the current universe age, all trinitization-united parents are +inseparable in assignment and function; where one goes the other goes, what one +does the other does. If parental bi-unification involves a mortal (or other) +finaliter and a Paradise-Havona personality, the united parental beings +function neither with the Paradisers, Havoners, nor finaliters. Such mixed +unions forgather in a special corps made up of similar beings. And in all +trinitization unions, mixed or otherwise, the parental beings are conscious of, +and can communicate with, each other, and they can perform duties that neither +could have previously discharged. + +The Seven Master Spirits have authority to sanction the trinitizing union of +finaliters and Paradise-Havona personalities, and such mixed liaisons are +always successful. The resultant magnificent creature-trinitized sons are +representative of concepts unsuited to the comprehension of either the eternal +creatures of Paradise or the time creatures of space; hence they become the +wards of the Architects of the Master Universe. These trinitized sons of +destiny embody ideas, ideals, and experience which apparently pertain to a +future universe age and are therefore of no immediate practical value to either +the super- or central universe administrations. These unique sons of the +children of time and the citizens of eternity are all held in reserve on +Vicegerington, where they are engaged in the study of the concepts of time and +the realities of eternity in a special sector of the sphere occupied by the +secret colleges of the corps of the Creator Sons. + + top of page - 251 + +The Supreme Being is the unification of three phases of Deity reality: God the +Supreme, the spiritual unification of certain finite aspects of the Paradise +Trinity; the Almighty Supreme, the power unification of the grand universe +Creators; and the Supreme Mind, the individual contribution of the Third Source +and Center and his co-ordinates to the reality of the Supreme Being. In their +trinitization adventures the superb creatures of the central universe and +Paradise are engaged in a threefold exploration of the Deity of the Supreme +which results in the production of three orders of creature-trinitized sons: + +1. Ascender-trinitized Sons. In their creative efforts the finaliters are +attempting to trinitize certain conceptual realities of the Almighty Supreme +which they have experientially acquired in their ascension through time and +space to Paradise. + +2. Paradise-Havona-trinitized Sons. The creative efforts of the Paradise +Citizens and the Havoners result in the trinitization of certain high spiritual +aspects of the Supreme Being which they have experientially acquired on a +supersupreme background bordering on the Ultimate and the Eternal. + +3. Trinitized Sons of Destiny. But when a finaliter and a Paradise-Havoner +together trinitize a new creature, this conjoint effort repercusses in certain +phases of the Supreme-Ultimate Mind. The resulting creature-trinitized sons are +supercreational; they represent actualities of Supreme-Ultimate Deity which +have not been otherwise experientially attained, and which, therefore, +automatically fall within the province of the Architects of the Master +Universe, custodians of those things which transcend the creational limits of +the present universe age. The trinitized sons of destiny embody certain aspects +of the unrevealed master universe function of the Supreme-Ultimate. We do not +know a great deal about these conjoint children of time and eternity, but we +know much more than we are permitted to reveal. + +8. THE CREATURE-TRINITIZED SONS + +In addition to the creature-trinitized sons considered in this narrative, there +are numerous unrevealed orders of creature-trinitized beings--the diverse +progeny of the multiple liaisons of seven finaliter corps and Paradise-Havona +personalities. But all these creature-trinitized beings, revealed and +unrevealed, are endowed with personality by the Universal Father. + +When new ascender-trinitized and Paradise-Havona-trinitized sons are young and +untrained, they are usually dispatched for long periods of service on the seven +Paradise spheres of the Infinite Spirit, where they serve under the tutelage of +the Seven Supreme Executives. Subsequently they may be adopted for further +training in the local universes by the Trinity Teacher Sons. + +These adopted sons of high and glorified creature origin are the apprentices, +student helpers, of the Teacher Sons, and as regards classification they are +often temporarily numbered with these Sons. They may and do execute many noble +assignments in self-denial in behalf of their chosen realms of service. + +The Teacher Sons in the local universes may nominate their creature-trinitized +wards for embrace by the Paradise Trinity. Emerging from this embrace as +Trinitized Sons of Perfection, they enter the service of the Ancients of Days +in the seven superuniverses, that being the present known destiny of this +unique group of twice-trinitized beings. + + top of page - 252 + +Not all creature-trinitized sons are Trinity embraced; many become the +associates and ambassadors of the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise, of the +Reflective Spirits of the superuniverses, and of the Mother Spirits of the +local creations. Others may accept special assignments on the eternal Isle. +Still others may enter the special services on the secret worlds of the Father +and on the Paradise spheres of the Spirit. Eventually many find their way into +the conjoint corps of the Trinitized Sons on the inner circuit of Havona. + +Excepting the Trinitized Sons of Perfection and those who are forgathering on +Vicegerington, the supreme destiny of all creature-trinitized sons appears to +be entrance into the Corps of Trinitized Finaliters, one of the seven Paradise +Corps of the Finality. + +9. THE CELESTIAL GUARDIANS + +Creature-trinitized sons are embraced by the Paradise Trinity in classes of +seven thousand. These trinitized offspring of perfected humans and of +Paradise-Havona personalities are all equally embraced by the Deities, but they +are assigned to the superuniverses in accordance with the advice of their +former instructors, the Trinity Teacher Sons. Those of more acceptable service +are commissioned High Son Assistants; those of less distinguished performance +are designated Celestial Guardians. + +When these unique beings have been Trinity embraced, they become valuable +adjuncts to the superuniverse governments. They are versed in the affairs of +the ascendant career, not by personal ascension, but as a result of their +service with the Trinity Teacher Sons on the worlds of space. + +Almost one billion Celestial Guardians have been commissioned in Orvonton. They +are chiefly assigned to the administrations of the Perfections of Days on the +headquarters of the major sectors and are ably assisted by a corps of ascendant +Son-fused mortals. + +The Celestial Guardians are the officers of the courts of the Ancients of Days, +functioning as court messengers and as bearers of the summonses and decisions +of the various tribunals of the superuniverse governments. They are the +apprehending agents of the Ancients of Days; they go forth from Uversa to bring +back beings whose presence is required before the superuniverse judges; they +execute the mandates for the detention of any personality in the superuniverse. +They also accompany Spirit-fused mortals of the local universes when, for any +reason, their presence is required on Uversa. + +The Celestial Guardians and their associates, the High Son Assistants, have +never been indwelt by Adjusters. Neither are they Spirit nor Son fused. The +embrace of the Paradise Trinity does, however, compensate for the nonfused +status of the Trinitized Sons of Perfection. The Trinity embrace may act solely +upon the idea which is personified in a creature-trinitized son, leaving the +embraced son otherwise unchanged, but such a limitation occurs only when so +planned. + +These twice-trinitized sons are marvelous beings, but they are neither as +versatile nor dependable as their ascendant associates; they lack that +tremendous and profound personal experience which the rest of the sons +belonging to this group have acquired by actually climbing up to glory from the +dark do- + + top of page - 253 + +mains of space. We of the ascendant career love them and do all in our power to +compensate their deficiencies, but they make us ever grateful for our lowly +origin and our capacity for experience. Their willingness to recognize and +acknowledge their deficiencies in the experiencible realities of universe +ascension is transcendently beautiful and sometimes most touchingly pathetic. + +Trinitized Sons of Perfection are limited in contrast to other Trinity-embraced +sons because their experiential capacity is time-space inhibited. They are +experience-deficient, despite long training with the Supreme Executives and the +Teacher Sons, and if this were not the case, experiential saturation would +preclude their being left in reserve for acquiring experience in a future +universe age. There is simply nothing in all universal existence which can take +the place of actual personal experience, and these creature-trinitized sons are +held in reserve for experiential function in some future universe epoch. + +On the mansion worlds I have often seen these dignified officers of the high +courts of the superuniverse look so longingly and appealingly at even the +recent arrivals from the evolutionary worlds of space that one could not help +realizing that these possessors of nonexperiential trinitization really envied +their supposedly less fortunate brethren who ascend the universal path by steps +of bona fide experience and actual living. Notwithstanding their handicaps and +limitations they are a wonderfully useful and ever-willing corps of workers +when it comes to the execution of the complex administrative plans of the +superuniverse governments. + +10. HIGH SON ASSISTANTS + +The High Son Assistants are the superior group of the retrinitized trinitized +sons of glorified ascendant beings of the Mortal Corps of the Finality and of +their eternal associates, the Paradise-Havona personalities. They are assigned +to the superuniverse service and function as personal aids to the high sons of +the governments of the Ancients of Days. They might fittingly be denominated +private secretaries. They act, from time to time, as clerks for special +commissions and other group associations of the high sons. They serve +Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine Counselors, Universal Censors, Mighty Messengers, +Those High in Authority, and Those without Name and Number. + +If, in discussing the Celestial Guardians, I have seemed to call attention to +the limitations and handicaps of these twice-trinitized sons, let me now, in +all fairness, call attention to their one point of great strength, the +attribute which makes them almost invaluable to us. These beings owe their very +existence to the fact that they are the personification of a single and supreme +concept. They are the personality embodiment of some divine idea, some +universal ideal, as it has never before been conceived, expressed, or +trinitized. And they have subsequently been Trinity embraced; thus they show +forth and actually embody the very wisdom of the divine Trinity as concerns the +idea-ideal of their personality existence. As far as that particular concept is +revealable to the universes, these personalities embody all of everything that +any creature or Creator intelligence could possibly conceive, express, or +exemplify. They are that idea personified. + +Can you not see that such living concentrations of a single supreme concept of +universe reality would be of untold service to those who are intrusted with the +administration of the superuniverses? + + top of page - 254 + +Not long since I was directed to head a commission of six--one of each of the +high sons--assigned to the study of three problems pertaining to a group of new +universes in the south parts of Orvonton. I was made acutely aware of the value +of the High Son Assistants when I made requisition on the chief of their order +on Uversa for temporary assignment of such secretaries to my commission. The +first of our ideas was represented by a High Son Assistant on Uversa, who was +forthwith attached to our group. Our second problem was embodied in a High Son +Assistant assigned to superuniverse number three. We secured much help from +this source through the central universe clearinghouse for the co-ordination +and dissemination of essential knowledge, but nothing comparable to the +assistance afforded by the actual presence of a personality who is a concept +creature-trinitized in supremacy and Deity-trinitized in finality. Concerning +our third problem, the records of Paradise disclosed that such an idea had +never been creature trinitized. + +High Son Assistants are unique and original personalizations of tremendous +concepts and stupendous ideals. And as such they are able to impart +inexpressible illumination to our deliberations from time to time. When I am +acting on some remote assignment out in the universes of space, think what it +means, by way of assistance, if I am so fortunate as to have attached to my +mission a High Son Assistant who is the fullness of divine concept regarding +the very problem I have been sent to attack and solve; and I have repeatedly +had this very experience. The only difficulty with this plan is that no +superuniverse can have a complete edition of these trinitized ideas; we only +get one seventh of these beings; so it is only about one time in seven that we +enjoy the personal association of these beings even when the records indicate +that the idea has been trinitized. + +We could use to great advantage much larger numbers of these beings on Uversa. +Because of their value to the superuniverse administrations, we, in every way +possible, encourage the pilgrims of space and also the residents of Paradise to +attempt trinitization after they have contributed to one another those +experiential realities which are essential to the enactment of such creative +adventures. + +We now have in our superuniverse about one and a quarter million High Son +Assistants, and they serve on both the major and minor sectors, even as they +function on Uversa. They very often accompany us on our assignments to the +remote universes. High Son Assistants are not permanently assigned to any Son +or to any commission. They are in constant circulation, serving where the idea +or ideal which they are can best further the eternal purposes of the Paradise +Trinity, whose sons they have become. + +They are touchingly affectionate, superbly loyal, exquisitely intelligent, +supremely wise--regarding a single idea--and transcendently humble. While they +can impart to you the lore of the universe concerning their one idea or ideal, +it is well-nigh pathetic to observe them seeking knowledge and information on +hosts of other subjects, even from the ascending mortals. + +And this is the narrative of the origin, nature, and functioning of certain of +those who are called the Trinitized Sons of God, more particularly of those who +have passed through the divine embrace of the Paradise Trinity, and who have +then been assigned to the services of the superuniverses, there to give wise +and understanding co-operation with the administrators of the Ancients of Days +in + + top of page - 255 + +their untiring efforts to facilitate the inward progress of the ascending +mortals of time toward their immediate Havona destination and their eventual +Paradise goal. + +[Narrated by a Mighty Messenger of the revelatory corps of Orvonton.] + + top of page - 256 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Paradise ³ The Solitary ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Cr... ³ Me... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p023.txt b/religious documents/p023.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d51683 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p023.txt @@ -0,0 +1,476 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 23 The Solitary Messengers + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 23 The Solitary Messengers + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +SOLITARY Messengers are the personal and universal corps of the Conjoint +Creator; they are the first and senior order of the Higher Personalities of the +Infinite Spirit. They represent the initial creative action of the Infinite +Spirit in solitary function for the purpose of bringing into existence solitary +personality spirits. Neither the Father nor the Son directly participated in +this stupendous spiritualization. + +These spirit messengers were personalized in a single creative episode, and +their number is stationary. Although I have one of these extraordinary beings +associated with me on this present mission, I do not know how many such +personalities exist in the universe of universes. I only know, from time to +time, how many are of registry-record as functioning for the time being within +the jurisdiction of our superuniverse. From the last Uversa report I observe +that there were almost 7,690 trillion Solitary Messengers then operating within +the boundaries of Orvonton; and I conjecture that this is considerably less +than one seventh of their total number. + +1. NATURE AND ORIGIN OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS + +Immediately following the creation of the Seven Spirits of the Havona Circuits +the Infinite Spirit brought into being the vast corps of Solitary Messengers. +There is no part of the universal creation which is pre-existent to the +Solitary Messengers except Paradise and the Havona circuits; they have +functioned throughout the grand universe from near eternity. They are +fundamental to the divine technique of the Infinite Spirit for self-revelation +to, and personal contact with, the far-flung creations of time and space. + +Notwithstanding that these messengers are existent from the near times of +eternity, they are all aware of a beginning of selfhood. They are conscious of +time, being the first of the creation of the Infinite Spirit to possess such a +time consciousness. They are the first-born creatures of the Infinite Spirit to +be personalized in time and spiritualized in space. + +These solitary spirits came forth in the dawn of time as full-fledged and +perfectly endowed spirit beings. They are all equal, and there are no classes +or subdivisions founded on personal variation. Their classifications are based +wholly on the type of work to which they are assigned from time to time. + +Mortals start out as well-nigh material beings on the worlds of space and +ascend inward towards the Great Centers; these solitary spirits start out at +the center of all things and crave assignment to the remote creations, even to +the individual worlds of the outermost local universes and even on beyond. + +Though denominated Solitary Messengers, they are not lonesome spirits, for they +truly like to work alone. They are the only beings in all creation who can + + top of page - 257 + +and do enjoy a solitary existence, albeit they equally enjoy association with +the very few orders of universe intelligence with whom they can fraternize. + +Solitary Messengers are not isolated in their service; they are constantly in +touch with the wealth of the intellect of all creation as they are capable of +"listening in" on all the broadcasts of the realms of their sojourn. They can +also intercommunicate with members of their own immediate corps, those beings +doing the same kind of work in the same superuniverse. They could communicate +with others of their number, but they have been directed by the council of the +Seven Master Spirits not to do so, and they are a loyal group; they do not +disobey or default. There is no record that a Solitary Messenger ever stumbled +into darkness. + +The Solitary Messengers, like the Universe Power Directors, are among the very +few types of beings operating throughout the realms who are exempt from +apprehension or detention by the tribunals of time and space. They could be +cited to appear before no one except the Seven Master Spirits, but not in all +the annals of the master universe has this Paradise council ever been called +upon to adjudicate the case of a Solitary Messenger. + +These messengers of solitary assignment are a dependable, self-reliant, +versatile, thoroughly spiritual, and broadly sympathetic group of created +beings derived from the Third Source and Center; they operate by the authority +of the Infinite Spirit resident on the central Isle of Paradise and as +personalized on the headquarters spheres of the local universes. They are +constant partakers of the direct circuit emanating from the Infinite Spirit, +even when they function in the local creations under the immediate influence of +the local universe Mother Spirits. + +There is a technical reason why these Solitary Messengers must travel and work +alone. For short periods and when stationary, they can collaborate in a group, +but when thus ensembled, they are altogether cut off from the sustenance and +direction of their Paradise circuit; they are wholly isolated. When in transit, +or when operating in the circuits of space and the currents of time, if two or +more of this order are in close proximity, both or all are thrown out of +liaison with the higher circulating forces. They are "short circuited" as you +might describe it in illustrative symbols. Therefore they have inherent within +them a power of automatic alarm, a warning signal, which unerringly operates to +apprise them of approaching conflicts and unfailingly keeps them sufficiently +separated as not to interfere with their proper and effective functioning. They +also possess inherent and automatic powers which detect and indicate the +proximity of both the Inspired Trinity Spirits and the divine Thought +Adjusters. + +These messengers possess no power of personality extension or reproduction, but +there is practically no work of the universes in which they cannot engage, and +to which they cannot contribute something essential and helpful. Especially are +they the great timesavers for those who are concerned in the administration of +universe affairs; and they assist us all, from the highest to the lowest. + +2. ASSIGNMENTS OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS + +Solitary Messengers are not permanently attached to any individual or group of +celestial personalities. They are on duty, always by assignment, and during + + top of page - 258 + +such service they work under the immediate supervision of those who direct the +realms of their attachment. Among themselves they have neither organization nor +government of any kind; they are Solitary Messengers. + +Solitary Messengers are assigned by the Infinite Spirit to the following seven +divisions of service: + +1. Messengers of the Paradise Trinity. + +2. Messengers of the Havona Circuits. + +3. Messengers of the Superuniverses. + +4. Messengers of the Local Universes. + +5. Explorers of Undirected Assignment. + +6. Ambassadors and Emissaries of Special Assignment. + +7. Revelators of Truth. + +These spirit messengers are in every sense interchangeable from one type of +service to another; such transfers are constantly taking place. There are no +separate orders of Solitary Messengers; they are spiritually alike and in every +sense equal. While they are generally designated by number, they are known to +the Infinite Spirit by personal names. They are known to the rest of us by the +name or number designative of their current assignment. + +1. Messengers of the Paradise Trinity. I am not permitted to reveal much of the +work of the group of messengers assigned to the Trinity. They are the trusted +and secret servants of the Deities, and when intrusted with special messages +which involve the unrevealed policies and future conduct of the Gods, they have +never been known to divulge a secret or betray the confidence reposed in their +order. And all this is related in this connection, not to appear boastful of +their perfection, but rather to point out that the Deities can and do create +perfect beings. + +The confusion and turmoil of Urantia do not signify that the Paradise Rulers +lack either interest or ability to manage affairs differently. The Creators are +possessed of full power to make Urantia a veritable paradise, but such an Eden +would not contribute to the development of those strong, noble, and experienced +characters which the Gods are so surely forging out on your world between the +anvils of necessity and the hammers of anguish. Your anxieties and sorrows, +your trials and disappointments, are just as much a part of the divine plan on +your sphere as are the exquisite perfection and infinite adaptation of all +things to their supreme purpose on the worlds of the central and perfect +universe. + +2. Messengers of the Havona Circuits. Throughout the ascendant career you will +be vaguely, but increasingly, able to detect the presence of the Solitary +Messengers, but not until you reach Havona will you recognize them +unmistakably. The first of the messengers you will see face to face will be +those of the Havona circuits. + +Solitary Messengers enjoy special relations with the natives of the Havona +worlds. These messengers, who are so functionally handicapped when associating +with one another, can and do have a very close and personal communion with the +Havona natives. But it is quite impossible to convey to human minds the supreme +satisfactions consequent upon the contact of the minds of these divinely +perfect beings with the spirits of such near-transcendent personalities. + + top of page - 259 + +3. Messengers of the Superuniverses. The Ancients of Days, those personalities +of Trinity origin who preside over the destinies of the seven superuniverses, +those trios of divine power and administrative wisdom, are bountifully supplied +with Solitary Messengers. It is only through this order of messengers that the +triune rulers of one superuniverse can directly and personally communicate with +the rulers of another. Solitary Messengers are the only available type of +spirit intelligence--aside, possibly, from the Inspired Trinity Spirits--that +can be dispatched from the headquarters of one superuniverse directly to the +headquarters of another. All other personalities must make such excursions by +way of Havona and the executive worlds of the Master Spirits. + +There are some kinds of information which cannot be obtained either by Gravity +Messengers, reflectivity, or broadcast. And when the Ancients of Days would +certainly know these things, they must dispatch a Solitary Messenger to the +source of knowledge. Long before the presence of life on Urantia the messenger +now associated with me was assigned on a mission out of Uversa to the central +universe--was absent from the roll calls of Orvonton for almost a million years +but returned in due time with the desired information. + +There is no limitation upon the service of Solitary Messengers in the +superuniverses; they may function as executioners of the high tribunals or as +intelligence gatherers for the good of the realm. Of all the supercreations +they most delight to serve in Orvonton because here the need is greatest and +the opportunities for heroic effort are greatly multiplied. In the more needy +realms we all enjoy the satisfaction of a more replete function. + +4. Messengers of the Local Universes. In the services of a local universe there +is no limit upon the functioning of the Solitary Messengers. They are the +faithful revealers of the motives and intent of the local universe Mother +Spirit, although they are under the full jurisdiction of the reigning Master +Son. And this is true of all messengers operating in a local universe, whether +they are traveling out directly from universe headquarters, or whether they are +acting temporarily in liaison with Constellation Fathers, System Sovereigns, or +Planetary Princes. Before the concentration of all power in the hands of a +Creator Son at the time of his elevation as sovereign ruler of his universe, +these messengers of the local universes function under the general direction of +the Ancients of Days and are immediately responsible to their resident +representative, the Union of Days. + +5. Explorers of Undirected Assignment. When the reserve corps of the Solitary +Messengers is overrecruited, there issues from one of the Seven Supreme Power +Directors a call for exploration volunteers; and there is never a lack of +volunteers, for they delight to be dispatched as free and untrammeled +explorers, to experience the thrill of finding the organizing nucleuses of new +worlds and universes. + +They go forth to investigate the clues furnished by the space contemplators of +the realms. Undoubtedly the Paradise Deities know of the existence of these +undiscovered energy systems of space, but they never divulge such information. +If the Solitary Messengers did not explore and chart these newly organizing +energy centers, such phenomena would long remain unnoticed even by the +intelligences of adjacent realms. Solitary Messengers, as a class, are highly +sensitive to gravity; accordingly they can sometimes detect the probable +presence of very small dark planets, the very worlds which are best adapted to +life experiments. + + top of page - 260 + +These messenger-explorers of undirected assignment patrol the master universe. +They are constantly out on exploring expeditions to the uncharted regions of +all outer space. Very much of the information which we possess of transactions +in the realms of outer space, we owe to the explorations of the Solitary +Messengers as they often work and study with the celestial astronomers. + +6. Ambassadors and Emissaries of Special Assignment. Local universes situated +within the same superuniverse customarily exchange ambassadors selected from +their native orders of sonship. But to avoid delay, Solitary Messengers are +frequently asked to go as ambassadors from one local creation to another, to +represent and interpret one realm to another. For example: When a newly +inhabited realm is discovered, it may prove to be so remote in space that a +long time will pass before an enseraphimed ambassador can reach this +far-distant universe. An enseraphimed being cannot possibly exceed the velocity +of 558,840 Urantia miles in one second of your time. Massive stars, +crosscurrents, and detours, as well as attraction tangents, will all tend to +retard such speed so that on a long journey the velocity will average about +550,000 miles per second. + +When it develops that it will require hundreds of years for a native ambassador +to reach a far-distant local universe, a Solitary Messenger is often asked to +proceed there immediately to act as ambassador ad interim. Solitary Messengers +can go in very short order, not independently of time and space as do the +Gravity Messengers, but nearly so. They also serve in other circumstances as +emissaries of special assignment. + +7. Revelators of Truth. The Solitary Messengers regard the assignment to reveal +truth as the highest trust of their order. And they function ever and anon in +this capacity, from the superuniverses to the individual planets of space. They +are frequently attached to commissions which are sent to enlarge the revelation +of truth to the worlds and systems. + +3. TIME AND SPACE SERVICES OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS + +The Solitary Messengers are the highest type of perfect and confidential +personality available in all realms for the quick transmission of important and +urgent messages when it is inexpedient to utilize either the broadcast service +or the reflectivity mechanism. They serve in an endless variety of assignments, +helping out the spiritual and material beings of the realms, particularly where +the element of time is involved. Of all orders assigned to the services of the +superuniverse domains, they are the highest and most versatile personalized +beings who can come so near to defying time and space. + +The universe is well supplied with spirits who utilize gravity for purposes of +transit; they can go anywhere any time--instanter--but they are not persons. +Certain other gravity traversers are personal beings, such as Gravity +Messengers and Transcendental Recorders, but they are not available to the +super- and the local universe administrators. The worlds teem with angels and +men and other highly personal beings, but they are handicapped by time and +space: The limit of velocity for most nonenseraphimed beings is 186,280 miles +of your world per second of your time; the midway creatures and certain others +can, often do, attain double velocity--372,560 miles per second--while the +seraphim and others can traverse space at triple velocity, about 558,840 miles +per second. + + top of page - 261 + +There are, however, no transit or messenger personalities who function between +the instantaneous velocities of the gravity traversers and the comparatively +slow speeds of the seraphim, except the Solitary Messengers. + +Solitary Messengers are, therefore, generally used for dispatch and service in +those situations where personality is essential to the achievement of the +assignment, and where it is desired to avoid the loss of time which would be +occasioned by the sending of any other readily available type of personal +messenger. They are the only definitely personalized beings who can synchronize +with the combined universal currents of the grand universe. Their velocity in +traversing space is variable, depending on a great variety of interfering +influences, but the record shows that on the journey to fulfill this mission my +associate messenger proceeded at the rate of 841,621,642,000 of your miles per +second of your time. + +It is wholly beyond my ability to explain to the material type of mind how a +spirit can be a real person and at the same time traverse space at such +tremendous velocities. But these very Solitary Messengers actually come to, and +go from, Urantia at these incomprehensible speeds; indeed, the whole economy of +universal administration would be largely deprived of its personal element were +this not a fact. + +The Solitary Messengers are able to function as emergency lines of +communication throughout remote space regions, realms not embraced within the +established circuits of the grand universe. It develops that one messenger, +when so functioning, can transmit a message or send an impulse through space to +a fellow messenger about one hundred light-years away as Urantia astronomers +estimate stellar distances. + +Of the myriads of beings who co-operate with us in the conduct of the affairs +of the superuniverse, none are more important in practical helpfulness and +timesaving assistance. In the universes of space we must reckon with the +handicaps of time; hence the great service of the Solitary Messengers, who, by +means of their personal prerogatives of communication, are somewhat independent +of space and, by virtue of their tremendous transit velocities, are so nearly +independent of time. + +I am at a loss to explain to Urantia mortals how the Solitary Messengers can be +without form and yet possess real and definite personalities. Although they are +without that form which would naturally be associated with personality, they do +possess a spirit presence which is discernible by all higher types of spirit +beings. The Solitary Messengers are the only class of beings who seem to be +possessed of well-nigh all the advantages of a formless spirit coupled with all +the prerogatives of a full-fledged personality. They are true persons, yet +endowed with nearly all of the attributes of impersonal spirit manifestation. + +In the seven superuniverses, ordinarily--but not always--everything which tends +to increase any creature's liberation from the handicaps of time and space +proportionately diminishes personality prerogatives. Solitary Messengers are an +exception to this general law. They are in their activities all but +unrestricted in the utilization of any and all of the limitless avenues of +spiritual expression, divine service, personal ministry, and cosmic +communication. If you could view these extraordinary beings in the light of my +experience in universe administration, you would comprehend how difficult it +would be to co-ordinate superuniverse affairs were it not for their versatile +co-operation. + + top of page - 262 + +No matter how much the universe may enlarge, no more Solitary Messengers will +probably ever be created. As the universes grow, the expanded work of +administration must be increasingly borne by other types of spirit ministers +and by those beings who take origin in these new creations, such as the +creatures of the Sovereign Sons and the local universe Mother Spirits. + +4. SPECIAL MINISTRY OF SOLITARY MESSENGERS + +The Solitary Messengers seem to be personality co-ordinators for all types of +spirit beings. Their ministry helps to make all the personalities of the +far-flung spiritual world akin. They contribute much to the development, in all +spirit beings, of a consciousness of group identity. Every type of spirit being +is served by special groups of Solitary Messengers who foster the ability of +such beings to understand and fraternize with all other types and orders, +however dissimilar. + +The Solitary Messengers demonstrate such an amazing ability to co-ordinate all +types and orders of finite personality--even to make contact with the absonite +regime of the master universe overcontrollers--that some of us postulate that +the creation of these messengers by the Infinite Spirit is in some manner +related to the Conjoint Actor's bestowal of Supreme-Ultimate Mind. + +When a finaliter and a Paradise Citizen co-operate in the trinitization of a +"child of time and eternity"--a transaction involving the unrevealed mind +potentials of the Supreme-Ultimate--and when such an unclassified personality +is dispatched to Vicegerington, a Solitary Messenger (a conjectured personality +repercussion of the bestowal of such deity mind) is always assigned as +guardian-companion to such a creature-trinitized son. This messenger +accompanies the new son of destiny to the world of his assignment and nevermore +leaves Vicegerington. When thus attached to the destinies of a child of time +and eternity, a Solitary Messenger is forever transferred to the sole +supervision of the Architects of the Master Universe. What the future of such +an extraordinary association may be, we do not know. For ages these +partnerships of unique personalities have continued to forgather on +Vicegerington, but not even a single pair has ever gone forth therefrom. + +Solitary Messengers are of stationary numbers, but the trinitization of the +sons of destiny is apparently an unlimited technique. Since each trinitized son +of destiny has assigned to him a Solitary Messenger, it appears to us that at +some time in the remote future the supply of messengers will become exhausted. +Who will take up their work in the grand universe? Will their service be +assumed by some new development among the Inspired Trinity Spirits? Is the +grand universe at some remote period going to be more nearly administered by +Trinity-origin beings while the single- and dual-origin creatures move on into +the realms of outer space? If the messengers return to their former service, +will these sons of destiny accompany them? Will the trinitizations between +finaliters and Paradise-Havoners cease when the supply of Solitary Messengers +has been absorbed as guardian-companions of these sons of destiny? Are all our +efficient Solitary Messengers going to be concentrated on Vicegerington? Are +these extraordinary spirit personalities going to be eternally associated with +these trinitized sons of unrevealed destiny? What significance should we attach +to the fact that these couples forgathering on Vicegerington are under the +exclusive direction of those mighty mystery beings, the Architects of the +Master Universe? These + + top of page - 263 + +and many similar questions we ask ourselves, and ask numerous other orders of +celestial beings, but we do not know the answers. + +This transaction, together with many similar occurrences in universe +administration, unmistakably indicates that the personnel of the grand +universe, even that of Havona and Paradise, is undergoing a definite and +certain reorganization in co-ordination with, and with reference to, the vast +energy evolutions now taking place throughout the realms of outer space. + +We incline to the belief that the eternal future will witness phenomena of +universe evolution which will far transcend all that the eternal past has +experienced. And we anticipate such tremendous adventures, even as you should, +with keen relish and ever-heightening expectation. + +[Presented by a Divine Counselor from Uversa.] + + top of page - 264 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Trinitized ³ Higher ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ Personal... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p024.txt b/religious documents/p024.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc5d5d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p024.txt @@ -0,0 +1,528 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 24 Higher Personalities Of The Infinite Spirit + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 24 Higher Personalities Of The Infinite Spirit + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ON UVERSA we divide all personalities and entities of the Conjoint Creator into +three grand divisions: the Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit, the +Messenger Hosts of Space, and the Ministering Spirits of Time, those spirit +beings who are concerned with teaching and ministering to the will creatures of +the ascendant scheme of mortal progression. + +Those Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit that find mention in these +narratives function throughout the grand universe in seven divisions: + +1. Solitary Messengers. + +2. Universe Circuit Supervisors. + +3. Census Directors. + +4. Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit. + +5. Associate Inspectors. + +6. Assigned Sentinels. + +7. Graduate Guides. + +Solitary Messengers, Circuit Supervisors, Census Directors, and the Personal +Aids are characterized by the possession of tremendous endowments of +antigravity. The Solitary Messengers are without known general headquarters; +they roam the universe of universes. The Universe Circuit Supervisors and the +Census Directors maintain headquarters on the capitals of the superuniverses. +The Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit are stationed on the central Isle of +Light. The Associate Inspectors and the Assigned Sentinels are respectively +stationed on the capitals of the local universes and on the capitals of their +component systems. The Graduate Guides are resident in the Havona universe and +function on all its billion worlds. Most of these higher personalities have +stations in the local universes, but they are not organically attached to the +administrations of the evolutionary realms. + +Of the seven classes composing this group, only the Solitary Messengers and +perhaps the Personal Aids range the universe of universes. Solitary Messengers +are encountered from Paradise outward: through the Havona circuits to the +superuniverse capitals and thence out through the sectors and local universes, +with their subdivisions, and even to the inhabited worlds. Although Solitary +Messengers belong to the Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit, their +origin, nature, and service have been discussed in the preceding paper. + + top of page - 265 + +1. THE UNIVERSE CIRCUIT SUPERVISORS + +The vast power currents of space and the circuits of spirit energy may seem to +operate automatically; they may appear to function without let or hindrance, +but such is not the case. All these stupendous systems of energy are under +control; they are subject to intelligent supervision. Universe Circuit +Supervisors are concerned, not with the realms of purely physical or material +energy--the domain of the Universe Power Directors--but with the circuits of +relative spiritual energy and with those modified circuits which are essential +to the maintenance of both the highly developed spiritual beings and the +morontia or transition type of intelligent creatures. The supervisors do not +give origin to circuits of energy and superessence of divinity, but in general +they have to do with all higher spirit circuits of time and eternity and with +all relative spirit circuits concerned in the administration of the component +parts of the grand universe. They direct and manipulate all such spirit-energy +circuits outside the Isle of Paradise. + +Universe Circuit Supervisors are the exclusive creation of the Infinite Spirit, +and they function solely as the agents of the Conjoint Actor. They are +personalized for service in the following four orders: + +1. Supreme Circuit Supervisors. + +2. Associate Circuit Supervisors. + +3. Secondary Circuit Supervisors. + +4. Tertiary Circuit Supervisors. + +The supreme supervisors of Havona and the associate supervisors of the seven +superuniverses are of completed numbers; no more of these orders are being +created. The supreme supervisors are seven in number and are stationed on the +pilot worlds of the seven Havona circuits. The circuits of the seven +superuniverses are in the charge of a marvelous group of seven associate +supervisors, who maintain headquarters on the seven Paradise spheres of the +Infinite Spirit, the worlds of the Seven Supreme Executives. From here they +supervise and direct the circuits of the superuniverses of space. + +On these Paradise spheres of the Spirit the seven associate circuit supervisors +and the first order of the Supreme Power Centers effect a liaison which, under +the direction of the Supreme Executives, results in the sub-Paradise +co-ordination of all material and spiritual circuits passing out to the seven +superuniverses. + +On the headquarters worlds of each superuniverse are stationed the secondary +supervisors for the local universes of time and space. The major and minor +sectors are administrative divisions of the supergovernments but are not +concerned in these matters of spirit-energy supervision. I do not know how many +secondary circuit supervisors there are in the grand universe, but on Uversa +there are 84,691 of these beings. Secondary supervisors are being created right +along; from time to time they appear in groups of seventy on the worlds of the +Supreme Executives. We obtain them on requisition as we arrange for the +establishment of separate circuits of spirit energy and liaison power to the +newly evolving universes of our jurisdiction. + +A tertiary circuit supervisor functions on the headquarters world of every +local universe. This order, like the secondary supervisors, is of continuous +creation, being created in groups of seven hundred. They are assigned to the +local universes by the Ancients of Days. + + top of page - 266 + +Circuit supervisors are created for their specific tasks, and they eternally +serve in the groups of their original assignment. They are not rotated in +service and hence make an agelong study of the problems found in the realms of +their original assignment. For example: Tertiary circuit supervisor No. 572,842 +has functioned on Salvington since the early concept of your local universe, +and he is a member of the personal staff of Michael of Nebadon. + +Whether acting in the local or higher universes, circuit supervisors direct all +concerned as to the proper circuits to employ for the transmission of all +spirit messages and for the transit of all personalities. In their work of +circuit supervision these efficient beings utilize all agencies, forces, and +personalities in the universe of universes. They employ the unrevealed "high +spirit personalities of circuit control" and are ably assisted by numerous +staffs composed of personalities of the Infinite Spirit. It is they who would +isolate an evolutionary world if its Planetary Prince should rebel against the +Universal Father and his vicegerent Son. They are able to throw any world out +of certain universe circuits of the higher spiritual order, but they cannot +annul the material currents of the power directors. + +The Universe Circuit Supervisors have something of the same relationship to +spirit circuits that the Universe Power Directors have to material circuits. +The two orders are complemental, together having the oversight of all spirit +and all material circuits that are controllable and manipulatable by creatures. + +The circuit supervisors exercise certain oversight of those mind circuits which +are spirit associated much as the power directors have certain jurisdiction +over those phases of mind which are physical-energy associated--mechanical +mind. In general the functions of each order are expanded by liaison with the +other, but the circuits of pure mind are subject to the supervision of neither. +Neither are the two orders co-ordinate; in all their manifold labors the +Universe Circuit Supervisors are subject to the Seven Supreme Power Directors +and their subordinates. + +While the circuit supervisors are entirely alike within their respective +orders, they are all distinct individuals. They are truly personal beings, but +they possess a type of other-than-Father-endowed personality not encountered in +any other type of creature in all universal existence. + +Although you will recognize and know them as you journey inward towards +Paradise, you will have no personal relations with them. They are circuit +supervisors, and they attend strictly and efficiently to their business. They +deal solely with those personalities and entities having the oversight of those +activities which are concerned with the circuits subject to their supervision. + +2. THE CENSUS DIRECTORS + +Notwithstanding that the cosmic mind of the Universal Intelligence is cognizant +of the presence and whereabouts of all thinking creatures, there is operative +in the universe of universes an independent method of keeping count of all will +creatures. + +The Census Directors are a special and completed creation of the Infinite +Spirit, and they exist in numbers unknown to us. They are so created as to be +able to maintain perfect synchrony with the reflectivity technique of the +super- + + top of page - 267 + +universes, while at the same time they are personally sensitive and responsive +to intelligent will. These directors, by a not-fully-understood technique, are +made immediately aware of the birth of will in any part of the grand universe. +They are, therefore, always competent to give us the number, nature, and +whereabouts of all will creatures in any part of the central creation and the +seven superuniverses. But they do not function on Paradise; there is no need +for them there. On Paradise knowledge is inherent; the Deities know all things. + +Seven Census Directors operate in Havona, one being stationed on the pilot +world of each Havona circuit. Excepting these seven and the reserves of the +order on the Paradise worlds of the Spirit, all Census Directors function under +the jurisdiction of the Ancients of Days. + +One Census Director presides at the headquarters of each superuniverse, while +subject to such a chief director are thousands upon thousands, one on the +capital of every local universe. All personalities of this order are equal +excepting those on the Havona pilot worlds and the seven superuniverse chiefs. + +In the seventh superuniverse there are one hundred thousand Census Directors. +And this number consists entirely of those assignable to local universes; it +does not include the personal staff of Usatia, the superuniverse chief of all +Orvonton directors. Usatia, like the other superuniverse chiefs, is not +directly attuned to the registration of intelligent will. He is solely attuned +to his subordinates stationed in the Orvonton universes; thus he acts as a +magnificent totaling personality for their reports coming in from the capitals +of the local creations. + +From time to time the official recorders of Uversa place on their records the +status of the superuniverse as it is indicated by the registrations in and upon +the personality of Usatia. Such census data is indigenous to the +superuniverses; these reports are transmitted neither to Havona nor to +Paradise. + +The Census Directors are concerned with human beings--as with other will +creatures--only to the extent of recording the fact of will function. They are +not concerned with the records of your life and its doings; they are not in any +sense recording personalities. The Census Director of Nebadon, number 81,412 of +Orvonton, now stationed on Salvington, is at this very moment personally +conscious and aware of your living presence here on Urantia; and he will afford +the records confirmation of your death the moment you cease to function as a +will creature. + +Census Directors register the existence of a new will creature when the first +act of will is performed; they indicate the death of a will creature when the +last act of will takes place. The partial emergence of will observed in the +reactions of certain of the higher animals does not belong to the domain of the +Census Directors. They keep count of nothing but bona fide will creatures, and +they are responsive to nothing but will function. Exactly how they register the +function of will, we do not know. + +These beings always have been, and always will be, Census Directors. They would +be comparatively useless in any other division of universe labor. But they are +infallible in function; they never default, neither do they falsify. And +notwithstanding their marvelous powers and unbelievable prerogatives, they are +persons; they have recognizable spirit presence and form. + + top of page - 268 + +3. PERSONAL AIDS OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT + +We have no authentic knowledge as to the time or manner of the creation of the +Personal Aids. Their number must be legion, but it is not of record on Uversa. +From conservative deductions based on our knowledge of their work, I venture to +estimate that their number extends high into the trillions. We hold the opinion +that the Infinite Spirit is not limited as to numbers in the creation of these +Personal Aids. + +The Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit exist for the exclusive assistance of +the Paradise presence of the Third Person of Deity. Although attached directly +to the Infinite Spirit and located on Paradise, they flash to and fro to the +uttermost parts of creation. Wherever the circuits of the Conjoint Creator +extend, there these Personal Aids may appear for the purpose of executing the +bidding of the Infinite Spirit. They traverse space much as do the Solitary +Messengers but are not persons in the sense that the messengers are. + +The Personal Aids are all equal and identical; they disclose no differentiation +of individuality. Though the Conjoint Actor looks upon them as true +personalities, it is difficult for others to regard them as real persons; they +do not manifest a spirit presence to other spirit beings. Paradise-origin +beings are always aware of the proximity of these Aids; but we do not recognize +a personality presence. The lack of such a presence-form undoubtedly renders +them all the more serviceable to the Third Person of Deity. + +Of all the revealed orders of spirit beings taking origin in the Infinite +Spirit, the Personal Aids are about the only ones you will not encounter on +your inward ascent to Paradise. + +4. THE ASSOCIATE INSPECTORS + +The Seven Supreme Executives, on the seven Paradise spheres of the Infinite +Spirit, collectively function as the administrative board of supermanagers for +the seven superuniverses. The Associate Inspectors are the personal embodiment +of the authority of the Supreme Executives to the local universes of time and +space. These high observers of the affairs of the local creations are the joint +offspring of the Infinite Spirit and the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise. In +the near times of eternity seven hundred thousand were personalized, and their +reserve corps abides on Paradise. + +Associate Inspectors work under the direct supervision of the Seven Supreme +Executives, being their personal and powerful representatives to the local +universes of time and space. An inspector is stationed on the headquarters +sphere of each local creation and is a close associate of the resident Union of +Days. + +The Associate Inspectors receive reports and recommendations only from their +subordinates, the Assigned Sentinels, stationed on the capitals of the local +systems of inhabited worlds, while they make reports only to their immediate +superior, the Supreme Executive of the superuniverse concerned. + +5. THE ASSIGNED SENTINELS + +The Assigned Sentinels are co-ordinating personalities and liaison +representatives of the Seven Supreme Executives. They were personalized on +Paradise by + + top of page - 269 + +the Infinite Spirit and were created for the specific purposes of their +assignment. They are of stationary numbers, and there are exactly seven billion +in existence. + +Much as an Associate Inspector represents the Seven Supreme Executives to a +whole local universe, so in each of the ten thousand systems of that local +creation there is an Assigned Sentinel, who acts as the direct representative +of the far-distant and supreme board of supercontrol for the affairs of all +seven superuniverses. The sentinels on duty in the local system governments of +Orvonton are acting under the direct authority of Supreme Executive Number +Seven, the co-ordinator of the seventh superuniverse. But in their +administrative organization all sentinels commissioned in a local universe are +subordinate to the Associate Inspector stationed at universe headquarters. + +Within a local creation the Assigned Sentinels serve in rotation, being +transferred from system to system. They are usually changed every millennium of +local universe time. They are among the highest ranking personalities stationed +on a system capital, but they never participate in deliberations concerned with +system affairs. In the local systems they serve as the ex officio heads of the +four and twenty administrators hailing from the evolutionary worlds, but +otherwise, ascending mortals have little contact with them. The sentinels are +almost exclusively concerned in keeping the Associate Inspector of their +universe fully informed on all matters relating to the welfare and state of the +systems of their assignment. + +Assigned Sentinels and Associate Inspectors do not report to the Supreme +Executives through a superuniverse headquarters. They are responsible solely to +the Supreme Executive of the superuniverse concerned; their activities are +distinct from the administration of the Ancients of Days. + +The Supreme Executives, Associate Inspectors, and Assigned Sentinels, together +with the omniaphim and a host of unrevealed personalities, constitute an +efficient, direct, centralized, but far-flung system of advisory and +administrative co-ordination of all the grand universe of things and beings. + +6. THE GRADUATE GUIDES + +The Graduate Guides, as a group, sponsor and conduct the high university of +technical instruction and spiritual training which is so essential to mortal +attainment of the goal of the ages: God, rest, and then eternity of perfected +service. These highly personal beings take their name from the nature and +purpose of their work. They are exclusively devoted to the tasks of guiding the +mortal graduates from the superuniverses of time through the Havona course of +instruction and training which serves to prepare the ascending pilgrims for +admission to Paradise and the Corps of the Finality. + +I am not forbidden to undertake to tell you of the work of these Graduate +Guides, but it is so ultraspiritual that I despair of being able to adequately +portray to the material mind a concept of their manifold activities. On the +mansion worlds, after your vision range is extended and you are freed from the +fetters of material comparisons, you can begin to comprehend the meaning of +those realities which "eye cannot see nor ear hear, and which have never +entered the concept of human minds," even those things which "God has prepared +for those who love such eternal verities." You are not always to be so limited +in the range of your vision and spiritual comprehension. + + top of page - 270 + +The Graduate Guides are engaged in piloting the pilgrims of time through the +seven circuits of Havona worlds. The guide who greets you upon your arrival on +the receiving world of the outer Havona circuit will remain with you throughout +your entire career on the heavenly circuits. Though you will associate with +countless other personalities during your sojourn on a billion worlds, your +Graduate Guide will follow you to the end of your Havona progression and will +witness your entrance into the terminal slumber of time, the sleep of eternity +transit to the Paradise goal, where, upon awakening, you will be greeted by the +Paradise Companion assigned to welcome you and perhaps to remain with you until +you are initiated as a member of the Mortal Corps of the Finality. + +The number of Graduate Guides is beyond the power of human minds to grasp, and +they continue to appear. Their origin is something of a mystery. They have not +existed from eternity; they mysteriously appear as they are needed. There is no +record of a Graduate Guide in all the realms of the central universe until that +far-distant day when the first mortal pilgrim of all time made his way to the +outer belt of the central creation. The instant he arrived on the pilot world +of the outer circuit, he was met with friendly greetings by Malvorian, the +first of the Graduate Guides and now the chief of their supreme council and the +director of their vast educational organization. + +On the Paradise records of Havona, in the section denominated "Graduate +Guides," there appears this initial entry: + +"And Malvorian, the first of this order, did greet and instruct the pilgrim +discoverer of Havona and did conduct him from the outer circuits of initial +experience, step by step and circuit by circuit, until he stood in the very +presence of the Source and Destiny of all personality, subsequently crossing +the threshold of eternity to Paradise." + +At that far-distant time I was attached to the service of the Ancients of Days +on Uversa, and we all rejoiced in the assurance that, eventually, pilgrims from +our superuniverse would reach Havona. For ages we had been taught that the +evolutionary creatures of space would attain Paradise, and the thrill of all +time swept through the heavenly courts when the first pilgrim actually arrived. + +The name of this pilgrim discoverer of Havona is Grandfanda, and he hailed from +planet 341 of system 84 in constellation 62 of local universe 1,131 situated in +superuniverse number one. His arrival was the signal for the establishment of +the broadcast service of the universe of universes. Theretofore only the +broadcasts of the superuniverses and the local universes had been in operation, +but the announcement of the arrival of Grandfanda at the portals of Havona +signalized the inauguration of the "space reports of glory," so named because +the initial universe broadcast reported the Havona arrival of the first of the +evolutionary beings to attain entrance upon the goal of ascendant existence. + +Graduate Guides never leave the Havona worlds; they are dedicated to the +service of the graduate pilgrims of time and space. And you will sometime meet +these noble beings face to face if you do not reject the certain and +all-perfected plan designed to effect your survival and ascension. + +7. ORIGIN OF THE GRADUATE GUIDES + +Though evolution is not the order of the central universe, we believe that the +Graduate Guides are the perfected or more experienced members of another + + top of page - 271 + +order of central universe creatures, the Havona Servitals. Graduate Guides show +such a breadth of sympathy and such a capacity for understanding the ascendant +creatures that we are convinced they have gained this culture by actual service +in the superuniverse realms as the Havona Servitals of universal ministry. If +this view is not correct, how then can we account for the continuous +disappearance of the senior or more experienced servitals? + +A servital will be long absent from Havona on superuniverse assignment, having +been on many such missions previously, will return home, be granted the +privilege of "personal contact" with the Paradise Central Shining, will be +embraced by the Luminous Persons, and disappear from the recognition of his +spirit fellows, never more to reappear among those of his kind. + +On returning from superuniverse service, a Havona Servital may enjoy numerous +divine embraces and emerge therefrom merely an exalted servital. Experiencing +the luminous embrace does not necessarily signify that the servital must +translate into a Graduate Guide, but almost one quarter of those who achieve +the divine embrace never return to the service of the realms. + +There appears on the high records a succession of such entries as this: + +"And servital number 842,842,682,846,782 of Havona, named Sudna, came over from +the superuniverse service, was received on Paradise, knew the Father, entered +the divine embrace, and is not." + +When such an entry appears on the records, the career of such a servital is +closed. But in just three moments (a little less than three days of your time) +a newborn Graduate Guide "spontaneously" appears on the outer circuit of the +Havona universe. And the number of Graduate Guides, allowing for a slight +difference, due no doubt to those in transition, exactly equals the number of +vanished servitals. + +There is an additional reason for supposing the Graduate Guides to be evolved +Havona Servitals, and that is the unfailing tendency of these guides and their +associated servitals to form such extraordinary attachments. The manner in +which these supposedly separate orders of beings understand and sympathize with +one another is wholly inexplicable. It is refreshing and inspiring to witness +their mutual devotion. + +The Seven Master Spirits and the associated Seven Supreme Power Directors, +respectively, are the personal repositories of the mind potential and of the +power potential of the Supreme Being which he does not, as yet, operate +personally. And when these Paradise associates collaborate to create the Havona +Servitals, the latter are inherently involved in certain phases of Supremacy. +Havona Servitals are thus, in actuality, a reflection in the perfect central +universe of certain evolutionary potentialities of the time-space domains, all +of which is disclosed when a servital undergoes transformation and re-creation. +We believe that this transformation takes place in response to the will of the +Infinite Spirit, undoubtedly acting in behalf of the Supreme. Graduate Guides +are not created by the Supreme Being, but we all conjecture that experiential +Deity is in some way concerned in those transactions which bring these beings +into existence. + +The Havona now traversed by ascending mortals differs in many respects from the +central universe as it was before the times of Grandfanda. The arrival of +mortal ascenders on the Havona circuits inaugurated sweeping modifications + + top of page - 272 + +in the organization of the central and divine creation, modifications +undoubtedly initiated by the Supreme Being--the God of evolutionary +creatures--in response to the arrival of the first of his experiential children +from the seven superuniverses. The appearance of the Graduate Guides, together +with the creation of the tertiary supernaphim, is indicative of these +performances of God the Supreme. + +[Presented by a Divine Counselor of Uversa.] + + top of page - 273 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Solitary ³ The Messenger ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Me... ³ H... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p025.txt b/religious documents/p025.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40961b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p025.txt @@ -0,0 +1,737 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 25 The Messenger Hosts Of Space + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 25 The Messenger Hosts Of Space + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +RANKING intermediately in the family of the Infinite Spirit are the Messenger +Hosts of Space. These versatile beings function as the connecting links between +the higher personalities and the ministering spirits. The messenger hosts +include the following orders of celestial beings: + +1. Havona Servitals. + +2. Universal Conciliators. + +3. Technical Advisers. + +4. Custodians of Records on Paradise. + +5. Celestial Recorders. + +6. Morontia Companions. + +7. Paradise Companions. + +Of the seven groups enumerated, only three--servitals, conciliators, and +Morontia Companions--are created as such; the remaining four represent +attainment levels of the angelic orders. In accordance with inherent nature and +attained status, the messenger hosts variously serve in the universe of +universes but always subject to the direction of those who rule the realms of +their assignment. + +1. THE HAVONA SERVITALS + +Though denominated servitals, these "midway creatures" of the central universe +are not servants in any menial sense of the word. In the spiritual world there +is no such thing as menial work; all service is sacred and exhilarating; +neither do the higher orders of beings look down upon the lower orders of +existence. + +The Havona Servitals are the joint creative work of the Seven Master Spirits +and their associates, the Seven Supreme Power Directors. This creative +collaboration comes the nearest to being the pattern for the long list of +reproductions of the dual order in the evolutionary universes, extending from +the creation of a Bright and Morning Star by a Creator Son-Creative Spirit +liaison down to sex procreation on worlds like Urantia. + +The number of servitals is prodigious, and more are being created all the time. +They appear in groups of one thousand on the third moment following the +assembly of the Master Spirits and the Supreme Power Directors at their joint +area in the far northerly sector of Paradise. Every fourth servital is more +physical in type than the others; that is, out of each thousand, seven hundred +and fifty are apparently true to spirit type, but two hundred and fifty are +semi- + + top of page - 274 + +physical in nature. These fourth creatures are somewhat on the order of +material beings (material in the Havona sense), resembling the physical power +directors more than the Master Spirits. + +In personality relationships the spiritual is dominant over the material, even +though it does not now so appear on Urantia; and in the production of Havona +Servitals the law of spirit dominance prevails; the established ratio yields +three spiritual beings to one semiphysical. + +The newly created servitals, together with newly appearing Graduate Guides, all +pass through the courses of training which the senior guides continuously +conduct on each of the seven Havona circuits. Servitals are then assigned to +the activities for which they are best adapted, and since they are of two +types--spiritual and semiphysical--there are few limits to the range of work +these versatile beings can do. The higher or spirit groups are assigned +selectively to the services of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and to the +work of the Seven Master Spirits. In large numbers they are dispatched, from +time to time, to serve on the study worlds encircling the headquarters spheres +of the seven superuniverses, the worlds devoted to the final training and +spiritual culture of the ascending souls of time who are preparing for +advancement to the circuits of Havona. Both spirit servitals and their more +physical fellows are also designated assistants and associates of the Graduate +Guides in helping and instructing the various orders of ascending creatures who +have attained Havona, and who seek to attain Paradise. + +The Havona Servitals and the Graduate Guides manifest a transcendent devotion +to their work and a touching affection for one another, an affection which, +while spiritual, you could only understand by comparison with the phenomenon of +human love. There is divine pathos in the separation of the servitals from the +guides, as so often occurs when the servitals are dispatched on missions beyond +the limits of the central universe; but they go with joy and not with sorrow. +The satisfying joy of high duty is the eclipsing emotion of spiritual beings. +Sorrow cannot exist in the face of the consciousness of divine duty faithfully +performed. And when man's ascending soul stands before the Supreme Judge, the +decision of eternal import will not be determined by material successes or +quantitative achievements; the verdict reverberating through the high courts +declares: "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a +few essentials; you shall be made ruler over universe realities." + +On superuniverse service the Havona Servitals are always assigned to that +domain presided over by the Master Spirit whom they most resemble in general +and special spirit prerogatives. They serve only on the educational worlds +surrounding the capitals of the seven superuniverses, and the last report of +Uversa indicates that almost 138 billion servitals were ministering on its 490 +satellites. They engage in an endless variety of activities in connection with +the work of these educational worlds comprising the superuniversities of the +superuniverse of Orvonton. Here they are your companions; they have come down +from your next career to study you and to inspire you with the reality and +certainty of your eventual graduation from the universes of time to the realms +of eternity. And in these contacts the servitals gain that preliminary +experience of ministering to the ascending creatures of time which is so +helpful in their subsequent work on the Havona circuits as associates of the +Graduate Guides or--as translated servitals--as Graduate Guides themselves. + + top of page - 275 + +2. THE UNIVERSAL CONCILIATORS + +For every Havona Servital created, seven Universal Conciliators are brought +into being, one in each superuniverse. This creative enactment involves a +definite superuniverse technique of reflective response to transactions taking +place on Paradise. + +On the headquarters worlds of the seven superuniverses there function the seven +reflections of the Seven Master Spirits. It is difficult to undertake to +portray the natures of these Reflective Spirits to material minds. They are +true personalities; still each member of a superuniverse group is perfectly +reflective of just one of the Seven Master Spirits. And every time the Master +Spirits associate themselves with the power directors for the purpose of +creating a group of Havona Servitals, there is a simultaneous focalization upon +one of the Reflective Spirits in each of the superuniverse groups, and +forthwith and full-fledgedly an equal number of Universal Conciliators appear +on the headquarters worlds of the supercreations. If, in the creation of +servitals, Master Spirit Number Seven should take the initiative, none but the +Reflective Spirits of the seventh order would become pregnant with +conciliators; and concurrently with the creation of one thousand Orvontonlike +servitals, one thousand of the seventh-order conciliators would appear on each +superuniverse capital. Out of these episodes, reflecting the sevenfold nature +of the Master Spirits, arise the seven created orders of conciliators serving +in each superuniverse. + +Conciliators of pre-Paradise status do not serve interchangeably between +superuniverses, being restricted to their native segments of creation. Every +superuniverse corps, embracing one seventh of each created order, therefore +spends a very long time under the influence of one of the Master Spirits to the +exclusion of the others, for, while all seven are reflected on the +superuniverse capitals, only one is dominant in each supercreation. + +Each of the seven supercreations is actually pervaded by that one of the Master +Spirits who presides over its destinies. Each superuniverse thus becomes like a +gigantic mirror reflecting the nature and character of the supervising Master +Spirit, and all of this is further continued in every subsidiary local universe +by the presence and function of the Creative Mother Spirits. The effect of such +an environment upon evolutionary growth is so profound that in their +postsuperuniverse careers the conciliators collectively manifest forty-nine +experiential viewpoints, or insights, each angular--hence incomplete--but all +mutually compensatory and together tending to encompass the circle of +Supremacy. + +In each superuniverse the Universal Conciliators find themselves strangely and +innately segregated into groups of four, associations in which they continue to +serve. In each group, three are spirit personalities, and one, like the fourth +creatures of the servitals, is a semimaterial being. This quartet constitutes a +conciliating commission and is made up as follows: + +1. The Judge-Arbiter. The one unanimously designated by the other three as the +most competent and best qualified to act as judicial head of the group. + +2. The Spirit-Advocate. The one appointed by the judge-arbiter to present +evidence and to safeguard the rights of all personalities involved in any +matter assigned to the adjudication of the conciliating commission. + + top of page - 276 + +3. The Divine Executioner. The conciliator qualified by inherent nature to make +contact with the material beings of the realms and to execute the decisions of +the commission. Divine executioners, being fourth creatures--quasi-material +beings--are almost, but not quite, visible to the short-range vision of the +mortal races. + +4. The Recorder. The remaining member of the commission automatically becomes +the recorder, the clerk of the tribunal. He makes certain that all records are +properly prepared for the archives of the superuniverse and for the records of +the local universe. If the commission is serving on an evolutionary world, a +third report, with the assistance of the executioner, is prepared for the +physical records of the system government of jurisdiction. + +When in session a commission functions as a group of three since the advocate +is detached during adjudication and participates in the formulation of the +verdict only at the conclusion of the hearing. Hence these commissions are +sometimes called referee trios. + +The conciliators are of great value in keeping the universe of universes +running smoothly. Traversing space at the seraphic rate of triple velocity, +they serve as the traveling courts of the worlds, commissions devoted to the +quick adjudication of minor difficulties. Were it not for these mobile and +eminently fair commissions, the tribunals of the spheres would be hopelessly +overspread with the minor misunderstandings of the realms. + +These referee trios do not pass upon matters of eternal import; the soul, the +eternal prospects of a creature of time, is never placed in jeopardy by their +acts. Conciliators do not deal with questions extending beyond the temporal +existence and the cosmic welfare of the creatures of time. But when a +commission has once accepted jurisdiction of a problem, its rulings are final +and always unanimous; there is no appeal from the decision of the +judge-arbiter. + +3. THE FAR-REACHING SERVICE OF CONCILIATORS + +Conciliators maintain group headquarters on the capital of their superuniverse, +where their primary reserve corps is held. Their secondary reserves are +stationed on the capitals of the local universes. The younger and less +experienced commissioners begin their service on the lower worlds, worlds like +Urantia, and are advanced to the adjudication of greater problems after they +have acquired riper experience. + +The order of conciliators is wholly dependable; not one has ever gone astray. +Though not infallible in wisdom and judgment, they are of unquestioned +reliability and unerring in faithfulness. They take origin on the headquarters +of a superuniverse and eventually return thereto, advancing through the +following levels of universe service: + +1. Conciliators to the Worlds. Whenever the supervising personalities of the +individual worlds become greatly perplexed or actually deadlocked concerning +the proper procedure under existing circumstances, and if the matter is not of +sufficient importance to be brought before the regularly constituted tribunals +of the realm, then, upon the receipt of a petition of two personalities, one +from each contention, a conciliating commission will begin to function +forthwith. + + top of page - 277 + +When these administrative and jurisdictional difficulties have been placed in +the hands of the conciliators for study and adjudication, they are supreme in +authority. But they will not formulate a decision until all the evidence has +been heard, and there is absolutely no limit to their authority to call +witnesses from anywhere and everywhere. And while their decisions may not be +appealed, sometimes matters so develop that the commission closes its records +at a given point, concludes its opinions, and transfers the whole question to +the higher tribunals of the realm. + +The commissioners' decisions are placed on the planetary records and, if +necessary, are put into effect by the divine executioner. His power is very +great, and the range of his activities on an inhabited world is very wide. +Divine executioners are masterful manipulators of that which is in the +interests of that which ought to be. Their work is sometimes carried out for +the apparent welfare of the realm, and sometimes their acts on the worlds of +time and space are difficult of explanation. Though executing decrees in +defiance of neither natural law nor the ordained usages of the realm, they do +ofttimes effect their strange doings and enforce the mandates of the +conciliators in accordance with the higher laws of the system administration. + +2. Conciliators to the System Headquarters. From service on the evolutionary +worlds these commissions of four are advanced to duty on a system headquarters. +Here they have much work to do, and they prove to be the understanding friends +of men, angels, and other spirit beings. The referee trios are not so much +concerned with personal differences as with group contentions and with +misunderstandings arising between different orders of creatures; and on a +system headquarters there live both spiritual and material beings, as well as +the combined types, such as the Material Sons. + +The moment the Creators bring into existence evolving individuals with the +power of choice, that moment a departure is made from the smooth working of +divine perfection; misunderstandings are certain to arise, and provision for +the fair adjustment of these honest differences of viewpoint must be made. We +should all remember that the all-wise and all-powerful Creators could have made +the local universes just as perfect as Havona. No conciliating commissions need +function in the central universe. But the Creators did not choose in their +all-wisdom to do this. And while they have produced universes which abound in +differences and teem with difficulties, they have likewise provided the +mechanisms and the means for composing all these differences and for +harmonizing all this seeming confusion. + +3. The Constellation Conciliators. From service in the systems the conciliators +are promoted to the adjudication of the problems of a constellation, taking up +the minor difficulties arising between its one hundred systems of inhabited +worlds. Not many problems developing on the constellation headquarters fall +under their jurisdiction, but they are kept busy going from system to system +gathering evidence and preparing preliminary statements. If the contention is +honest, if the difficulties arise out of sincere differences of opinion and +honest diversity of viewpoints, no matter how few persons may be involved, no +matter how apparently trivial the misunderstanding, a conciliating commission +can always be had to pass upon the merits of the controversy. + +4. Conciliators to the Local Universes. In this larger work of a universe the +commissioners are of great assistance to both the Melchizedeks and the Magis- + + top of page - 278 + +terial Sons and to the constellation rulers and the hosts of personalities +concerned with the co-ordination and administration of the one hundred +constellations. The different orders of seraphim and other residents of the +headquarters spheres of a local universe also avail themselves of the help and +decisions of the referee trios. + +It is almost impossible to explain the nature of those differences which may +arise in the detailed affairs of a system, a constellation, or a universe. +Difficulties do develop, but they are very unlike the petty trials and travails +of material existence as it is lived on the evolutionary worlds. + +5. Conciliators to the Superuniverse Minor Sectors. From the problems of local +universes the commissioners are advanced to the study of questions arising in +the minor sectors of their superuniverse. The farther they ascend inward from +the individual planets, the fewer are the material duties of the divine +executioner; gradually he assumes a new role of mercy-justice interpreter, at +the same time--being quasi-material--keeping the commission as a whole in +sympathetic touch with the material aspects of its investigations. + +6. Conciliators to the Superuniverse Major Sectors. The character of the work +of the commissioners continues to change as they advance. There is less and +less of misunderstanding to adjudicate and more and more of mysterious +phenomena to explain and interpret. From stage to stage they are evolving from +arbiters of differences to explainers of mysteries--judges evolving into +interpretative teachers. Arbiters of those who through ignorance permit +difficulties and misunderstandings to arise, they once were; but they are now +becoming instructors of those who are sufficiently intelligent and tolerant to +avoid clashes of mind and wars of opinions. The higher a creature's education, +the more respect he has for the knowledge, experience, and opinions of others. + +7. Conciliators to the Superuniverse. Here the conciliators become +co-ordinate--four mutually understood and perfectly functioning +arbiter-teachers. The divine executioner is divested of retributive power and +becomes the physical voice of the spirit trio. By this time these counselors +and teachers have become expertly familiar with most of the actual problems and +difficulties encountered in the conduct of superuniverse affairs. Thus they +become wonderful advisers and wise teachers of the ascending pilgrims who are +in residence on the educational spheres surrounding the headquarters worlds of +the superuniverses. + +All conciliators serve under the general supervision of the Ancients of Days +and under the immediate direction of the Image Aids until such time as they are +advanced to Paradise. During the Paradise sojourn they report to the Master +Spirit who presides over the superuniverse of their origin. + +The superuniverse registries do not enumerate those conciliators who have +passed beyond their jurisdiction, and such commissions are widely scattered +through the grand universe. The last report of registry on Uversa gives the +number operating in Orvonton as almost eighteen trillion commissions--over +seventy trillion individuals. But these are only a very small fraction of the +multitude of conciliators that have been created in Orvonton; that number is of +an altogether higher magnitude and is the equivalent of the total number of +Havona Servitals, with allowances for the transmutation into Graduate Guides. + +From time to time, as the numbers of the superuniverse conciliators increase, +they are translated to the council of perfection on Paradise, from which + + top of page - 279 + +they subsequently emerge as the co-ordinating corps evolved by the Infinite +Spirit for the universe of universes, a marvelous group of beings which is +constantly increasing in numbers and efficiency. By experiential ascent and +Paradise training they have acquired a unique grasp of the emerging reality of +the Supreme Being, and they roam the universe of universes on special +assignment. + +The members of a conciliating commission are never separated. A group of four +forever serve together just as they were originally associated. Even in their +glorified service they continue to function as quartets of accumulated cosmic +experience and perfected experiential wisdom. They are eternally associated as +the embodiment of the supreme justice of time and space. + +4. TECHNICAL ADVISERS + +These legal and technical minds of the spirit world were not created as such. +From the early supernaphim and omniaphim, one million of the most orderly minds +were chosen by the Infinite Spirit as the nucleus of this vast and versatile +group. And ever since that far-distant time, actual experience in the +application of the laws of perfection to the plans of evolutionary creation has +been required of all who aspire to become Technical Advisers. + +The Technical Advisers are recruited from the ranks of the following +personality orders: + +1. The Supernaphim. + +2. The Seconaphim. + +3. The Tertiaphim. + +4. The Omniaphim. + +5. The Seraphim. + +6. Certain Types of Ascending Mortals. + +7. Certain Types of Ascending Midwayers. + +At the present time, not counting the mortals and midwayers who are all of +transient attachment, the number of Technical Advisers registered on Uversa and +operating in Orvonton is slightly in excess of sixty-one trillion. + +Technical Advisers frequently function as individuals but are organized for +service and maintain common headquarters on the spheres of assignment in groups +of seven. In each group at least five must be of permanent status, while two +may be of temporary association. Ascending mortals and ascending midway +creatures serve on these advisory commissions while pursuing the Paradise +ascent, but they do not enter the regular courses of training for Technical +Advisers, nor do they ever become permanent members of the order. + +Those mortals and midwayers who serve transiently with the advisers are chosen +for such work because of their expertness in the concept of universal law and +supreme justice. As you journey toward your Paradise goal, constantly acquiring +added knowledge and enhanced skill, you are continuously afforded the +opportunity to give out to others the wisdom and experience you have already +accumulated; all the way in to Havona you enact the role of a pupil-teacher. +You will work your way through the ascending levels of this vast experiential +university by imparting to those just below you the new-found knowledge of your +advancing career. In the universal regime you are not reckoned as having + + top of page - 280 + +possessed yourself of knowledge and truth until you have demonstrated your +ability and your willingness to impart this knowledge and truth to others. + +After long training and actual experience, any of the ministering spirits above +the status of cherubim are permitted to receive permanent appointment as +Technical Advisers. All candidates voluntarily enter this order of service; but +having once assumed such responsibilities, they may not relinquish them. Only +the Ancients of Days can transfer these advisers to other activities. + +The training of Technical Advisers, begun in the Melchizedek colleges of the +local universes, continues to the courts of the Ancients of Days. From this +superuniverse training they proceed to the "schools of the seven circles" +located on the pilot worlds of the Havona circuits. And from the pilot worlds +they are received into the "college of the ethics of law and the technique of +Supremacy," the Paradise training school for the perfecting of Technical +Advisers. + +These advisers are more than legal experts; they are students and teachers of +applied law, the laws of the universe applied to the lives and destinies of all +who inhabit the vast domains of the far-flung creation. As time passes, they +become the living law libraries of time and space, preventing endless trouble +and needless delays by instructing the personalities of time regarding the +forms and modes of procedure most acceptable to the rulers of eternity. They +are able so to counsel the workers of space as to enable them to function in +harmony with the requirements of Paradise; they are the teachers of all +creatures concerning the technique of the Creators. + +Such a living library of applied law could not be created; such beings must be +evolved by actual experience. The infinite Deities are existential, hence are +compensated for lack of experience; they know all even before they experience +all, but they do not impart this nonexperiential knowledge to their subordinate +creatures. + +Technical Advisers are dedicated to the work of preventing delay, facilitating +progress, and counseling achievement. There is always a best and right way to +do things; there is always the technique of perfection, a divine method, and +these advisers know how to direct us all in the finding of this better way. + +These exceedingly wise and practical beings are always closely associated with +the service and work of the Universal Censors. The Melchizedeks are provided +with an able corps. The rulers of the systems, constellations, universes, and +superuniverse sectors are all bountifully supplied with these technical or +legal reference minds of the spiritual world. A special group act as law +counselors to the Life Carriers, advising these Sons concerning the extent of +permissible departure from the established order of life propagation and +otherwise instructing them respecting their prerogatives and latitudes of +function. They are the advisers of all classes of beings regarding the proper +usages and techniques of all spirit-world transactions. But they do not +directly and personally deal with the material creatures of the realms. + +Besides counseling regarding legal usages, Technical Advisers are equally +devoted to the efficient interpretation of all laws concerning creature +beings--physical, mindal, and spiritual. They are available to the Universal +Conciliators and to all others who desire to know the truth of law; in other +words, to know how the Supremacy of Deity may be depended upon to react in a +given situation having factors of an established physical, mindal, and +spiritual order. They even essay to elucidate the technique of the Ultimate. + + top of page - 281 + +Technical Advisers are selected and tested beings; I have never known one of +them to go astray. We have no records on Uversa of their ever having been +adjudged in contempt of the divine laws they so effectively interpret and so +eloquently expound. There is no known limit to the domain of their service, +neither has any been placed upon their progress. They continue as advisers even +to the portals of Paradise; the whole universe of law and experience is open to +them. + +5. THE CUSTODIANS OF RECORDS ON PARADISE + +From among the tertiary supernaphim in Havona, certain of the senior chief +recorders are chosen as Custodians of Records, as keepers of the formal +archives of the Isle of Light, those archives which stand in contrast to the +living records of registry in the minds of the custodians of knowledge, +sometimes designated the "living library of Paradise." + +The recording angels of the inhabited planets are the source of all individual +records. Throughout the universes other recorders function regarding both +formal records and living records. From Urantia to Paradise, both recordings +are encountered: in a local universe, more of the written records and less of +the living; on Paradise, more of the living and less of the formal; on Uversa, +both are equally available. + +Every occurrence of significance in the organized and inhabited creation is a +matter of record. While events of no more than local importance find only a +local recording, those of wider significance are dealt with accordingly. From +the planets, systems, and constellations of Nebadon, everything of universe +import is posted on Salvington; and from such universe capitals those episodes +are advanced to higher recording which pertain to the affairs of the sector and +supergovernments. Paradise also has a relevant summary of superuniverse and +Havona data; and this historic and cumulative story of the universe of +universes is in the custody of these exalted tertiary supernaphim. + +While certain of these beings have been dispatched to the superuniverses to +serve as Chiefs of Records directing the activities of the Celestial Recorders, +not one has ever been transferred from the permanent roll call of their order. + +6. THE CELESTIAL RECORDERS + +These are the recorders who execute all records in duplicate, making an +original spirit recording and a semimaterial counterpart--what might be called +a carbon copy. This they can do because of their peculiar ability +simultaneously to manipulate both spiritual and material energy. Celestial +Recorders are not created as such; they are ascendant seraphim from the local +universes. They are received, classified, and assigned to their spheres of work +by the councils of the Chiefs of Records on the headquarters of the seven +superuniverses. There also are located the schools for training Celestial +Recorders. The school on Uversa is conducted by the Perfectors of Wisdom and +the Divine Counselors. + +As the recorders advance in universe service, they continue their system of +dual recording, thus making their records always available to all classes of +beings, from those of the material order to the high spirits of light. In your +transition experience, as you ascend from this material world, you will always +be able + + top of page - 282 + +to consult the records of, and to be otherwise conversant with, the history and +traditions of your status sphere. + +The recorders are a tested and tried corps. Never have I known of the defection +of a Celestial Recorder, and never has there been discovered a falsification in +their records. They are subjected to a dual inspection, their records being +scrutinized by their exalted fellows from Uversa and by the Mighty Messengers, +who certify to the correctness of the quasi-physical duplicates of the original +spirit records. + +While the advancing recorders stationed on the subordinate spheres of record in +the Orvonton universes number trillions upon trillions, those of attained +status on Uversa are not quite eight million in number. These senior or +graduate recorders are the superuniverse custodians and forwarders of the +sponsored records of time and space. Their permanent headquarters are in the +circular abodes surrounding the area of records on Uversa. They never leave the +custody of these records to others; as individuals they may be absent, but +never in large numbers. + +Like those supernaphim who have become Custodians of Records, the corps of +Celestial Recorders is of permanent assignment. Once seraphim and supernaphim +are mustered into these services, they will respectively remain Celestial +Recorders and Custodians of Records until the day of the new and modified +administration of the full personalization of God the Supreme. + +On Uversa these senior Celestial Recorders can show the records of everything +of cosmic import in all Orvonton since the far-distant times of the arrival of +the Ancients of Days, while on the eternal Isle the Custodians of Records guard +the archives of that realm which testify to the transactions of Paradise since +the times of the personification of the Infinite Spirit. + +7. THE MORONTIA COMPANIONS + +These children of the local universe Mother Spirits are the friends and +associates of all who live the ascending morontia life. They are not +indispensable to an ascender's real work of creature progression, neither do +they in any sense displace the work of the seraphic guardians who often +accompany their mortal associates on the Paradise journey. The Morontia +Companions are simply gracious hosts to those who are just beginning the long +inward ascent. They are also skillful play sponsors and are ably assisted in +this work by the reversion directors. + +Though you will have earnest and progressively difficult tasks to perform on +the morontia training worlds of Nebadon, you will always be provided with +regular seasons of rest and reversion. Throughout the journey to Paradise there +will always be time for rest and spirit play; and in the career of light and +life there is always time for worship and new achievement. + +These Morontia Companions are such friendly associates that, when you finally +leave the last phase of the morontia experience, as you prepare to embark upon +the superuniverse spirit adventure, you will truly regret that these +companionable creatures cannot accompany you, but they serve exclusively in the +local universes. At every stage of the ascending career all contactable +personalities will be friendly and companionable, but not until you meet the +Paradise Companions will you find another group so devoted to friendship and +companionship. + + top of page - 283 + +The work of the Morontia Companions is more fully depicted in those narratives +dealing with the affairs of your local universe. + +8. THE PARADISE COMPANIONS + +The Paradise Companions are a composite or assembled group recruited from the +ranks of the seraphim, seconaphim, supernaphim, and omniaphim. Though serving +for what you would regard as an extraordinary length of time, they are not of +permanent status. When this ministry has been completed, as a rule (but not +invariably) they return to those duties they performed when summoned to +Paradise service. + +Members of the angelic hosts are nominated for this service by the local +universe Mother Spirits, by the superuniverse Reflective Spirits, and by +Majeston of Paradise. They are summoned to the central Isle and are +commissioned as Paradise Companions by one of the Seven Master Spirits. Aside +from permanent status on Paradise, this temporary service of Paradise +companionship is the highest honor ever conferred upon the ministering spirits. + +These selected angels are dedicated to the service of companionship and are +assigned as associates to all classes of beings who may chance to be alone on +Paradise, chiefly to the ascendant mortals but also to all others who are alone +on the central Isle. Paradise Companions have nothing especial to accomplish in +behalf of those with whom they fraternize; they are simply companions. Almost +every other being you mortals will encounter during your Paradise +sojourn--aside from your fellow pilgrims--will have something definite to do +with you or for you; but these companions are assigned only to be with you and +to commune with you as personality associates. They are often assisted in their +ministry by the gracious and brilliant Paradise Citizens. + +Mortals come from races that are very social. The Creators well know that it is +"not good for man to be alone," and provision is accordingly made for +companionship, even on Paradise. + +If you, as an ascendant mortal, should reach Paradise in the company of the +companion or close associate of your earthly career, or if your seraphic +guardian of destiny should chance to arrive with you or were waiting for you, +then no permanent companion would be assigned you. But if you arrive alone, a +companion will certainly welcome you as you awaken on the Isle of Light from +the terminal sleep of time. Even if it is known that you will be accompanied by +someone of ascendant association, temporary companions will be designated to +welcome you to the eternal shores and to escort you to the reservation made +ready for the reception of you and your associates. You may be certain of being +warmly welcomed when you experience the resurrection into eternity on the +everlasting shores of Paradise. + +Reception companions are assigned during the terminal days of the ascenders' +sojourn on the last circuit of Havona, and they carefully examine the records +of mortal origin and eventful ascent through the worlds of space and the +circles of Havona. When they greet the mortals of time, they are already well +versed in the careers of these arriving pilgrims and immediately prove to be +sympathetic and intriguing companions. + +During your prefinaliter sojourn on Paradise, if for any reason you should be +temporarily separated from your associate of the ascending career--mortal + + top of page - 284 + +or seraphic--a Paradise Companion would be forthwith assigned for counsel and +companionship. When once assigned to an ascendant mortal of solitary residence +on Paradise, the companion remains with this person until he either is rejoined +by his ascendant associates or is duly mustered into the Corps of the Finality. + +Paradise Companions are assigned in order of waiting except that an ascender is +never placed in the charge of a companion whose nature is unlike his +superuniverse type. If a Urantia mortal were arriving on Paradise today, there +would be assigned to him the first waiting companion either of origin in +Orvonton or otherwise of the nature of the Seventh Master Spirit. Hence the +omniaphim serve not with the ascendant creatures from the seven superuniverses. + +Many additional services are performed by the Paradise Companions: If an +ascending mortal should reach the central universe alone and, while traversing +Havona, should fail in some phase of the Deity adventure, in due course he +would be remanded to the universes of time, and forthwith a call would be made +to the reserves of the Paradise Companions. One of this order would be assigned +to follow the defeated pilgrim, to be with him and to comfort and cheer him, +and to remain with him until he returned to the central universe to resume the +Paradise ascent. + +If an ascending pilgrim met defeat in the Deity adventure while traversing +Havona in the company of an ascending seraphim, the guardian angel of the +mortal career, she would elect to accompany her mortal associate. These +seraphim always volunteer and are permitted to accompany their long-time mortal +comrades back to the service of time and space. + +But not so with two closely associated mortal ascenders: If one attains God +while the other temporarily fails, the successful individual invariably chooses +to go back to the evolutionary creations with the disappointed personality, but +this is not permitted. Instead, a call is made to the reserves of the Paradise +Companions, and one of the volunteers is selected to accompany the disappointed +pilgrim. A volunteer Paradise Citizen then becomes associated with the +successful mortal, who tarries on the central Isle awaiting the Havona return +of the defeated comrade and in the meantime teaches in certain Paradise +schools, presenting the adventurous story of the evolutionary ascent. + +[Sponsored by One High in Authority from Uversa.] + + top of page - 285 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Higher ³ Ministering ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Personal... ³ Spi... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p026.txt b/religious documents/p026.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4bfe4d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p026.txt @@ -0,0 +1,793 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 26 Ministering Spirits Of The Central Universe + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 26 Ministering Spirits Of The Central Universe + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +SUPERNAPHIM are the ministering spirits of Paradise and the central universe; +they are the highest order of the lowest group of the children of the Infinite +Spirit--the angelic hosts. Such ministering spirits are to be encountered from +the Isle of Paradise to the worlds of time and space. No major part of the +organized and inhabited creation is without their services. + +1. THE MINISTERING SPIRITS + +Angels are the ministering-spirit associates of the evolutionary and ascending +will creatures of all space; they are also the colleagues and working +associates of the higher hosts of the divine personalities of the spheres. The +angels of all orders are distinct personalities and are highly individualized. +They all have a large capacity for appreciation of the ministrations of the +reversion directors. Together with the Messenger Hosts of Space, the +ministering spirits enjoy seasons of rest and change; they possess very social +natures and have an associative capacity far transcending that of human beings. + +The ministering spirits of the grand universe are classified as follows: + +1. Supernaphim. + +2. Seconaphim. + +3. Tertiaphim. + +4. Omniaphim. + +5. Seraphim. + +6. Cherubim and Sanobim. + +7. Midway Creatures. + +The individual members of the angelic orders are not altogether stationary as +to personal status in the universe. Angels of certain orders may become +Paradise Companions for a season; some become Celestial Recorders; others +ascend to the ranks of the Technical Advisers. Certain of the cherubim may +aspire to seraphic status and destiny, while evolutionary seraphim can achieve +the spiritual levels of the ascending Sons of God. + +The seven orders of ministering spirits, as revealed, are grouped for +presentation in accordance with their functions of greatest importance to +ascending creatures: + +1. The Ministering Spirits of the Central Universe. The three orders of +supernaphim serve in the Paradise-Havona system. Primary or Paradise +supernaphim are created by the Infinite Spirit. The secondary and tertiary +orders, + + top of page - 286 + +serving in Havona, are respectively the offspring of the Master Spirits and of +the Spirits of the Circuits. + +2. The Ministering Spirits of the Superuniverses--the seconaphim, the +tertiaphim, and the omniaphim. Seconaphim, the children of the Reflective +Spirits, variously serve in the seven superuniverses. Tertiaphim, of origin in +the Infinite Spirit, are eventually dedicated to the liaison service of the +Creator Sons and the Ancients of Days. Omniaphim are created concertedly by the +Infinite Spirit and the Seven Supreme Executives, and they are the exclusive +servants of the latter. The discussion of these three orders forms the subject +of a succeeding narrative in this series. + +3. The Ministering Spirits of the Local Universes embrace the seraphim and +their assistants, the cherubim. With these offspring of a Universe Mother +Spirit mortal ascenders have initial contact. The midway creatures, of nativity +on the inhabited worlds, are not really of the angelic orders proper, though +often functionally grouped with the ministering spirits. Their story, with an +account of the seraphim and cherubim, is presented in those papers dealing with +the affairs of your local universe. + +All orders of the angelic hosts are devoted to the various universe services, +and they minister in one way or another to the higher orders of celestial +beings; but it is the supernaphim, seconaphim, and seraphim who, in large +numbers, are employed in the furtherance of the ascending scheme of progressive +perfection for the children of time. Functioning in the central, super-, and +local universes, they form that unbroken chain of spirit ministers which has +been provided by the Infinite Spirit for the help and guidance of all who seek +to attain the Universal Father through the Eternal Son. + +Supernaphim are limited in "spirit polarity" regarding only one phase of +action, that with the Universal Father. They can work singly except when +directly employing the exclusive circuits of the Father. When they are in power +reception on the Father's direct ministry, supernaphim must voluntarily +associate in pairs to be able to function. Seconaphim are likewise limited and +in addition must work in pairs in order to synchronize with the circuits of the +Eternal Son. Seraphim can work singly as discrete and localized personalities, +but they are able to encircuit only when polarized as liaison pairs. When such +spirit beings are associated as pairs, the one is spoken of as complemental to +the other. Complemental relationships may be transient; they are not +necessarily of a permanent nature. + +These brilliant creatures of light are sustained directly by the intake of the +spiritual energy of the primary circuits of the universe. Urantia mortals must +obtain light-energy through the vegetative incarnation, but the angelic hosts +are encircuited; they "have food that you know not." They also partake of the +circulating teachings of the marvelous Trinity Teacher Sons; they have a +reception of knowledge and an intake of wisdom much resembling their technique +of assimilating the life energies. + +2. THE MIGHTY SUPERNAPHIM + +The supernaphim are the skilled ministers to all types of beings who sojourn on +Paradise and in the central universe. These high angels are created in three +major orders: primary, secondary, and tertiary. + + top of page - 287 + +Primary supernaphim are the exclusive offspring of the Conjoint Creator. They +divide their ministry about equally between certain groups of the Paradise +Citizens and the ever-enlarging corps of ascendant pilgrims. These angels of +the eternal Isle are highly efficacious in furthering the essential training of +both groups of Paradise dwellers. They contribute much that is helpful to the +mutual understanding of these two unique orders of universe creatures--the one +being the highest type of divine and perfect will creature, and the other, the +perfected evolution of the lowest type of will creature in all the universe of +universes. + +The work of the primary supernaphim is so unique and distinctive that it will +be separately considered in the succeeding narrative. + +Secondary supernaphim are the directors of the affairs of ascending beings on +the seven circuits of Havona. They are equally concerned in ministering to the +educational training of numerous orders of Paradise Citizens who sojourn for +long periods on the world circuits of the central creation, but we may not +discuss this phase of their service. + +There are seven types of these high angels, each of origin in one of the Seven +Master Spirits and in nature patterned accordingly. Collectively, the Seven +Master Spirits create many different groups of unique beings and entities, and +the individual members of each order are comparatively uniform in nature. But +when these same Seven Spirits create individually, the resulting orders are +always sevenfold in nature; the children of each Master Spirit partake of the +nature of their creator and are accordingly diverse from the others. Such is +the origin of the secondary supernaphim, and the angels of all seven created +types function in all channels of activity open to their entire order, chiefly +on the seven circuits of the central and divine universe. + +Each of the seven planetary circuits of Havona is under the direct supervision +of one of the Seven Spirits of the Circuits, themselves the collective--hence +uniform--creation of the Seven Master Spirits. Though partaking of the nature +of the Third Source and Center, these seven subsidiary Spirits of Havona were +not a part of the original pattern universe. They were in function after the +original (eternal) creation but long before the times of Grandfanda. They +undoubtedly appeared as a creative response of the Master Spirits to the +emerging purpose of the Supreme Being, and they were discovered in function +upon the organization of the grand universe. The Infinite Spirit and all his +creative associates, as universal co-ordinators, seem abundantly endowed with +the ability to make suitable creative responses to the simultaneous +developments in the experiential Deities and in the evolving universes. + +Tertiary supernaphim take origin in these Seven Spirits of the Circuits. Each +one of them, on the separate Havona circles, is empowered by the Infinite +Spirit to create a sufficient number of high superaphic ministers of the +tertiary order to meet the needs of the central universe. While the Circuit +Spirits produced comparatively few of these angelic ministers prior to the +arrival in Havona of the pilgrims of time, the Seven Master Spirits did not +even begin the creation of secondary supernaphim until the landing of +Grandfanda. As the older of the two orders, the tertiary supernaphim will +therefore receive first consideration. + + top of page - 288 + +3. THE TERTIARY SUPERNAPHIM + +These servants of the Seven Master Spirits are the angelic specialists of the +various circuits of Havona, and their ministry extends to both the ascending +pilgrims of time and the descending pilgrims of eternity. On the billion study +worlds of the perfect central creation, your superaphic associates of all +orders will be fully visible to you. There you will all be, in the highest +sense, fraternal and understanding beings of mutual contact and sympathy. You +will also fully recognize and exquisitely fraternize with the descending +pilgrims, the Paradise Citizens, who traverse these circuits from within +outward, entering Havona through the pilot world of the first circuit and +proceeding outward to the seventh. + +The ascending pilgrims from the seven superuniverses pass through Havona in the +opposite direction, entering by way of the pilot world of the seventh circuit +and proceeding inward. There is no time limit set on the progress of the +ascending creatures from world to world and from circuit to circuit, just as no +fixed span of time is arbitrarily assigned to residence on the morontia worlds. +But, whereas adequately developed individuals may be exempted from sojourn on +one or more of the local universe training worlds, no pilgrim may avoid passing +through all seven of the Havona circuits of progressive spiritualization. + +That corps of tertiary supernaphim which is chiefly assigned to the service of +the pilgrims of time is classified as follows: + +1. The Harmony Supervisors. It must be apparent that some sort of co-ordinating +influence would be required, even in perfect Havona, to maintain system and to +insure harmony in all the work of preparing the pilgrims of time for their +subsequent Paradise achievements. Such is the real mission of the harmony +supervisors--to keep everything moving along smoothly and expeditiously. +Originating on the first circuit, they serve throughout Havona, and their +presence on the circuits means that nothing can possibly go amiss. A great +ability to co-ordinate a diversity of activities involving personalities of +differing orders--even multiple levels--enables these supernaphim to give +assistance wherever and whenever required. They contribute enormously to the +mutual understanding of the pilgrims of time and the pilgrims of eternity. + +2. The Chief Recorders. These angels are created on the second circuit but +operate everywhere in the central universe. They record in triplicate, +executing records for the literal files of Havona, for the spiritual files of +their order, and for the formal records of Paradise. In addition they +automatically transmit the transactions of true-knowledge import to the living +libraries of Paradise, the custodians of knowledge of the primary order of +supernaphim. + +3. The Broadcasters. The children of the third Circuit Spirit function +throughout Havona, although their official station is located on planet number +seventy in the outermost circle. These master technicians are the broadcast +receivers and senders of the central creation and the directors of the space +reports of all Deity phenomena on Paradise. They can operate all of the basic +circuits of space. + +4. The Messengers take origin on circuit number four. They range the +Paradise-Havona system as bearers of all messages requiring personal transmis- + + top of page - 289 + +sion. They serve their fellows, the celestial personalities, the Paradise +pilgrims, and even the ascendant souls of time. + +5. The Intelligence Co-ordinators. These tertiary supernaphim, the children of +the fifth Circuit Spirit, are always the wise and sympathetic promoters of +fraternal association between the ascending and the descending pilgrims. They +minister to all the inhabitants of Havona, and especially to the ascenders, by +keeping them currently informed regarding the affairs of the universe of +universes. By virtue of personal contacts with the broadcasters and the +reflectors, these "living newspapers" of Havona are instantly conversant with +all information passing over the vast news circuits of the central universe. +They secure intelligence by the Havona graph method, which enables them +automatically to assimilate as much information in one hour of Urantia time as +would require a thousand years for your most rapid telegraphic technique to +record. + +6. The Transport Personalities. These beings, of origin on circuit number six, +usually operate from planet number forty in the outermost circuit. It is they +who take away the disappointed candidates who transiently fail in the Deity +adventure. They stand ready to serve all who must come and go in the service of +Havona, and who are not space traversers. + +7. The Reserve Corps. The fluctuations in the work with the ascendant beings, +the Paradise pilgrims, and other orders of beings sojourning in Havona, make it +necessary to maintain these reserves of supernaphim on the pilot world of the +seventh circle, where they take origin. They are created without special design +and are competent to take up service in the less exacting phases of any of the +duties of their superaphic associates of the tertiary order. + +4. THE SECONDARY SUPERNAPHIM + +The secondary supernaphim are ministers to the seven planetary circuits of the +central universe. Part are devoted to the service of the pilgrims of time, and +one half of the entire order is assigned to the training of the Paradise +pilgrims of eternity. These Paradise Citizens, in their pilgrimage through the +Havona circuits, are also attended by volunteers from the Mortal Finality +Corps, an arrangement that has prevailed since the completion of the first +finaliter group. + +According to their periodic assignment to the ministry of the ascending +pilgrims, secondary supernaphim work in the following seven groups: + +1. Pilgrim Helpers. + +2. Supremacy Guides. + +3. Trinity Guides. + +4. Son Finders. + +5. Father Guides. + +6. Counselors and Advisers. + +7. Complements of Rest. + +Each of these working groups contains angels of all seven created types, and a +pilgrim of space is always tutored by secondary supernaphim of origin in + + top of page - 290 + +the Master Spirit who presides over that pilgrim's superuniverse of nativity. +When you mortals of Urantia attain Havona, you will certainly be piloted by +supernaphim whose created natures--like your own evolved natures--are derived +from the Master Spirit of Orvonton. And since your tutors spring from the +Master Spirit of your own superuniverse, they are especially qualified to +understand, comfort, and assist you in all your efforts to attain Paradise +perfection. + +The pilgrims of time are transported past the dark gravity bodies of Havona to +the outer planetary circuit by the transport personalities of the primary order +of seconaphim, operating from the headquarters of the seven superuniverses. A +majority, but not all, of the seraphim of planetary and local universe service +who have been accredited for the Paradise ascent will part with their mortal +associates before the long flight to Havona and will at once begin a long and +intense training for supernal assignment, expecting to achieve, as seraphim, +perfection of existence and supremacy of service. And this they do, hoping to +rejoin the pilgrims of time, to be reckoned among those who forever follow the +course of such mortals as have attained the Universal Father and have received +assignment to the undisclosed service of the Corps of the Finality. + +The pilgrim lands on the receiving planet of Havona, the pilot world of the +seventh circuit, with only one endowment of perfection, perfection of purpose. +The Universal Father has decreed: "Be you perfect, even as I am perfect." That +is the astounding invitation-command broadcast to the finite children of the +worlds of space. The promulgation of that injunction has set all creation astir +in the co-operative effort of the celestial beings to assist in bringing about +the fulfillment and realization of that tremendous command of the First Great +Source and Center. + +When, through and by the ministry of all the helper hosts of the universal +scheme of survival, you are finally deposited on the receiving world of Havona, +you arrive with only one sort of perfection--perfection of purpose. Your +purpose has been thoroughly proved; your faith has been tested. You are known +to be disappointment proof. Not even the failure to discern the Universal +Father can shake the faith or seriously disturb the trust of an ascendant +mortal who has passed through the experience that all must traverse in order to +attain the perfect spheres of Havona. By the time you reach Havona, your +sincerity has become sublime. Perfection of purpose and divinity of desire, +with steadfastness of faith, have secured your entrance to the settled abodes +of eternity; your deliverance from the uncertainties of time is full and +complete; and now must you come face to face with the problems of Havona and +the immensities of Paradise, to meet which you have so long been in training in +the experiential epochs of time on the world schools of space. + +Faith has won for the ascendant pilgrim a perfection of purpose which admits +the children of time to the portals of eternity. Now must the pilgrim helpers +begin the work of developing that perfection of understanding and that +technique of comprehension which are so indispensable to Paradise perfection of +personality. + +Ability to comprehend is the mortal passport to Paradise. Willingness to +believe is the key to Havona. The acceptance of sonship, co-operation with the +indwelling Adjuster, is the price of evolutionary survival. + + top of page - 291 + +5. THE PILGRIM HELPERS + +The first of the seven groups of secondary supernaphim to be encountered are +the pilgrim helpers, those beings of quick understanding and broad sympathy who +welcome the much-traveled ascenders of space to the stabilized worlds and +settled economy of the central universe. Simultaneously these high ministers +begin their work for the Paradise pilgrims of eternity, the first of whom +arrived on the pilot world of the inner Havona circuit concomitantly with the +landing of Grandfanda on the pilot world of the outer circuit. Back in those +far-distant days the pilgrims from Paradise and the pilgrims of time first met +on the receiving world of circuit number four. + +These pilgrim helpers, functioning on the seventh circle of Havona worlds, +conduct their work for the ascending mortals in three major divisions: first, +the supreme understanding of the Paradise Trinity; second, the spiritual +comprehension of the Father-Son partnership; and third, the intellectual +recognition of the Infinite Spirit. Each of these phases of instruction is +divided into seven branches of twelve minor divisions of seventy subsidiary +groups; and each of these seventy subsidiary groupings of instruction is +presented in one thousand classifications. More detailed instruction is +provided on subsequent circles, but an outline of every Paradise requirement is +taught by the pilgrim helpers. + +That, then, is the primary or elementary course which confronts the +faith-tested and much-traveled pilgrims of space. But long before reaching +Havona, these ascendant children of time have learned to feast upon +uncertainty, to fatten upon disappointment, to enthuse over apparent defeat, to +invigorate in the presence of difficulties, to exhibit indomitable courage in +the face of immensity, and to exercise unconquerable faith when confronted with +the challenge of the inexplicable. Long since, the battle cry of these pilgrims +became: "In liaison with God, nothing--absolutely nothing--is impossible." + +There is a definite requirement of the pilgrims of time on each of the Havona +circles; and while every pilgrim continues under the tutelage of supernaphim by +nature adapted to helping that particular type of ascendant creature, the +course that must be mastered is fairly uniform for all ascenders who reach the +central universe. This course of achievement is quantitative, qualitative, and +experiential--intellectual, spiritual, and supreme. + +Time is of little consequence on the Havona circles. In a limited manner it +enters into the possibilities of advancement, but achievement is the final and +supreme test. The very moment your superaphic associate deems you to be +competent to pass inward to the next circle, you will be taken before the +twelve adjutants of the seventh Circuit Spirit. Here you will be required to +pass the tests of the circle determined by the superuniverse of your origin and +by the system of your nativity. The divinity attainment of this circle takes +place on the pilot world and consists in the spiritual recognition and +realization of the Master Spirit of the ascending pilgrim's superuniverse. + +When the work of the outer Havona circle is finished and the course presented +is mastered, the pilgrim helpers take their subjects to the pilot world of the +next circle and commit them to the care of the supremacy guides. The pilgrim +helpers always tarry for a season to assist in making the transfer both +pleasant and profitable. + + top of page - 292 + +6. THE SUPREMACY GUIDES + +Ascenders of space are designated "spiritual graduates" when translated from +the seventh to the sixth circle and are placed under the immediate supervision +of the supremacy guides. These guides should not be confused with the Graduate +Guides--belonging to the Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit--who, with +their servital associates, minister on all circuits of Havona to both ascending +and descending pilgrims. The supremacy guides function only on the sixth circle +of the central universe. + +It is in this circle that the ascenders achieve a new realization of Supreme +Divinity. Through their long careers in the evolutionary universes the pilgrims +of time have been experiencing a growing awareness of the reality of an +almighty overcontrol of the time-space creations. Here, on this Havona circuit, +they come near to encountering the central universe source of time-space +unity--the spiritual reality of God the Supreme. + +I am somewhat at a loss to explain what takes place on this circle. No +personalized presence of Supremacy is perceptible to the ascenders. In certain +respects, new relationships with the Seventh Master Spirit compensate this +noncontactability of the Supreme Being. But regardless of our inability to +grasp the technique, each ascending creature seems to undergo a transforming +growth, a new integration of consciousness, a new spiritualization of purpose, +a new sensitivity for divinity, which can hardly be satisfactorily explained +without assuming the unrevealed activity of the Supreme Being. To those of us +who have observed these mysterious transactions, it appears as if God the +Supreme were affectionately bestowing upon his experiential children, up to the +very limits of their experiential capacities, those enhancements of +intellectual grasp, of spiritual insight, and of personality outreach which +they will so need, in all their efforts at penetrating the divinity level of +the Trinity of Supremacy, to achieve the eternal and existential Deities of +Paradise. + +When the supremacy guides deem their pupils ripe for advancement, they bring +them before the commission of seventy, a mixed group serving as examiners on +the pilot world of circuit number six. After satisfying this commission as to +their comprehension of the Supreme Being and of the Trinity of Supremacy, the +pilgrims are certified for translation to the fifth circuit. + +7. THE TRINITY GUIDES + +Trinity guides are the tireless ministers of the fifth circle of the Havona +training of the advancing pilgrims of time and space. The spiritual graduates +are here designated "candidates for the Deity adventure" since it is on this +circle, under the direction of the Trinity guides, that the pilgrims receive +advanced instruction concerning the divine Trinity in preparation for the +attempt to achieve the personality recognition of the Infinite Spirit. And here +the ascending pilgrims discover what true study and real mental effort mean as +they begin to discern the nature of the still-more-taxing and far-more-arduous +spiritual exertion that will be required to meet the demands of the high goal +set for their achievement on the worlds of this circuit. + +Most faithful and efficient are the Trinity guides; and each pilgrim receives +the undivided attention, and enjoys the whole affection, of a secondary supern- + + top of page - 293 + +aphim belonging to this order. Never would a pilgrim of time find the first +approachable person of the Paradise Trinity were it not for the help and +assistance of these guides and the host of other spiritual beings engaged in +instructing the ascenders respecting the nature and technique of the +forthcoming Deity adventure. + +After the completion of the course of training on this circuit the Trinity +guides take their pupils to its pilot world and present them before one of the +many triune commissions functioning as examiners and certifiers of candidates +for the Deity adventure. These commissions consist of one fellow of the +finaliters, one of the directors of conduct of the order of primary +supernaphim, and either a Solitary Messenger of space or a Trinitized Son of +Paradise. + +When an ascendant soul actually starts for Paradise, he is accompanied only by +the transit trio: the superaphic circle associate, the Graduate Guide, and the +ever-present servital associate of the latter. These excursions from the Havona +circles to Paradise are trial trips; the ascenders are not yet of Paradise +status. They do not achieve residential status on Paradise until they have +passed through the terminal rest of time subsequent to the attainment of the +Universal Father and the final clearance of the Havona circuits. Not until +after the divine rest do they partake of the "essence of divinity" and the +"spirit of supremacy" and thus really begin to function in the circle of +eternity and in the presence of the Trinity. + +The ascender's companions of the transit trio are not required to enable him to +locate the geographic presence of the spiritual luminosity of the Trinity, +rather to afford all possible assistance to a pilgrim in his difficult task of +recognizing, discerning, and comprehending the Infinite Spirit sufficiently to +constitute personality recognition. Any ascendant pilgrim on Paradise can +discern the geographic or locational presence of the Trinity, the great +majority are able to contact the intellectual reality of the Deities, +especially the Third Person, but not all can recognize or even partially +comprehend the reality of the spiritual presence of the Father and the Son. +Still more difficult is even the minimum spiritual comprehension of the +Universal Father. + +Seldom does the quest for the Infinite Spirit fail of consummation, and when +their subjects have succeeded in this phase of the Deity adventure, the Trinity +guides prepare to transfer them to the ministry of the Son finders on the +fourth circle of Havona. + +8. THE SON FINDERS + +The fourth Havona circuit is sometimes called the "circuit of the Sons." From +the worlds of this circuit the ascending pilgrims go to Paradise to achieve an +understanding contact with the Eternal Son, while on the worlds of this circuit +the descending pilgrims achieve a new comprehension of the nature and mission +of the Creator Sons of time and space. There are seven worlds in this circuit +on which the reserve corps of the Paradise Michaels maintain special service +schools of mutual ministry to both the ascending and descending pilgrims; and +it is on these worlds of the Michael Sons that the pilgrims of time and the +pilgrims of eternity arrive at their first truly mutual understanding of one +another. In many respects the experiences of this circuit are the most +intriguing of the entire Havona sojourn. + + top of page - 294 + +The Son finders are the superaphic ministers to the ascending mortals of the +fourth circuit. In addition to the general work of preparing their candidates +for a realization of the Trinity relationships of the Eternal Son, these Son +finders must so fully instruct their subjects that they will be wholly +successful: first, in the adequate spiritual comprehension of the Son; second, +in the satisfactory personality recognition of the Son; and third, in the +proper differentiation of the Son from the personality of the Infinite Spirit. + +After the attainment of the Infinite Spirit, no more examinations are +conducted. The tests of the inner circles are the performances of the pilgrim +candidates when in the embrace of the enshroudment of the Deities. Advancement +is determined purely by the spirituality of the individual, and no one but the +Gods presumes to pass upon this possession. In the event of failure no reasons +are ever assigned, neither are the candidates themselves nor their various +tutors and guides ever chided or criticized. On Paradise, disappointment is +never regarded as defeat; postponement is never looked upon as disgrace; the +apparent failures of time are never confused with the significant delays of +eternity. + +Not many pilgrims experience the delay of seeming failure in the Deity +adventure. Nearly all attain the Infinite Spirit, though occasionally a pilgrim +from superuniverse number one does not succeed on the first attempt. The +pilgrims who attain the Spirit seldom fail in finding the Son; of those who do +fail on the first adventure, almost all hail from superuniverses three and +five. The great majority of those who fail on the first adventure to attain the +Father, after finding both the Spirit and the Son, hail from superuniverse +number six, though a few from numbers two and three are likewise unsuccessful. +And all this seems clearly to indicate that there is some good and sufficient +reason for these apparent failures; in reality, simply unescapable delays. + +The defeated candidates for the Deity adventure are placed under the +jurisdiction of the chiefs of assignment, a group of primary supernaphim, and +are remanded to the work of the realms of space for a period of not less than +one millennium. They never return to the superuniverse of their nativity, +always to that supercreation most propitious for their retraining in +preparation for the second Deity adventure. Following this service, on their +own motion, they return to the outer circle of Havona, are immediately escorted +to the circle of their interrupted career, and at once resume their +preparations for the Deity adventure. Never do the secondary supernaphim fail +to pilot their subjects successfully on the second attempt, and the same +superaphic ministers and other guides always attend these candidates during +this second adventure. + +9. THE FATHER GUIDES + +When the pilgrim soul attains the third circle of Havona, he comes under the +tutelage of the Father guides, the older, highly skilled, and most experienced +of the superaphic ministers. On the worlds of this circuit the Father guides +maintain schools of wisdom and colleges of technique wherein all the beings +inhabiting the central universe serve as teachers. Nothing is neglected which +would be of service to a creature of time in this transcendent adventure of +eternity attainment. + +The attainment of the Universal Father is the passport to eternity, +notwithstanding the remaining circuits to be traversed. It is therefore a +momentous oc- + + top of page - 295 + +casion on the pilot world of circle number three when the transit trio announce +that the last venture of time is about to ensue; that another creature of space +seeks entry to Paradise through the portals of eternity. + +The test of time is almost over; the race for eternity has been all but run. +The days of uncertainty are ending; the temptation to doubt is vanishing; the +injunction to be perfect has been obeyed. From the very bottom of intelligent +existence the creature of time and material personality has ascended the +evolutionary spheres of space, thus proving the feasibility of the ascension +plan while forever demonstrating the justice and righteousness of the command +of the Universal Father to his lowly creatures of the worlds: "Be you perfect, +even as I am perfect." + +Step by step, life by life, world by world, the ascendant career has been +mastered, and the goal of Deity has been attained. Survival is complete in +perfection, and perfection is replete in the supremacy of divinity. Time is +lost in eternity; space is swallowed up in worshipful identity and harmony with +the Universal Father. The broadcasts of Havona flash forth the space reports of +glory, the good news that in very truth the conscientious creatures of animal +nature and material origin have, through evolutionary ascension, become in +reality and eternally the perfected sons of God. + +10. THE COUNSELORS AND ADVISERS + +The superaphic counselors and advisers of the second circle are the instructors +of the children of time regarding the career of eternity. The attainment of +Paradise entails responsibilities of a new and higher order, and the sojourn on +the second circle affords ample opportunity to receive the helpful counsel of +these devoted supernaphim. + +Those who are unsuccessful in the first effort at Deity attainment are advanced +from the circle of failure directly to the second circle before they are +returned to superuniverse service. Thus the counselors and advisers also serve +as the counselors and comforters of these disappointed pilgrims. They have just +encountered their greatest disappointment, in no way differing from the long +list of such experiences whereon they climbed, as on a ladder, from chaos to +glory--except in its magnitude. These are they who have drained the +experiential cup to its dregs; and I have observed that they temporarily return +to the services of the superuniverses as the highest type of loving +ministrators to the children of time and temporal disappointments. + +After a long sojourn on circuit number two the subjects of disappointment are +examined by the councils of perfection sitting on the pilot world of this +circle and are certified as having passed the Havona test; and this, so far as +nonspiritual status is concerned, grants them the same standing in the +universes of time as if they had actually succeeded in the Deity adventure. The +spirit of such candidates was wholly acceptable; their failure was inherent in +some phase of the technique of approach or in some part of their experiential +background. + +They are then taken by the counselors of the circle before the chiefs of +assignment on Paradise and are remanded to the service of time on the worlds of +space; and they go with joy and gladness to the tasks of former days and ages. +In another day they will return to the circle of their greatest disappointment +and attempt anew the Deity adventure. + + top of page - 296 + +For the successful pilgrims on the second circuit the stimulus of evolutionary +uncertainty is over, but the adventure of the eternal assignment has not yet +begun; and while the sojourn on this circle is wholly pleasurable and highly +profitable, it lacks some of the anticipative enthusiasm of the former circles. +Many are the pilgrims who, at such a time, look back upon the long, long +struggle with a joyous envy, really wishing they might somehow go back to the +worlds of time and begin it all over again, just as you mortals, in approaching +advanced age, sometimes look back over the struggles of youth and early life +and truly wish you might live your lives over once again. + +But the traversal of the innermost circle lies just ahead, and soon thereafter +the last transit sleep will terminate, and the new adventure of the eternal +career will begin. The counselors and advisers on the second circle begin the +preparation of their subjects for this great and final rest, the inevitable +sleep which ever intervenes between the epochal stages of the ascendant career. + +When those ascendant pilgrims who have attained the Universal Father complete +the second-circle experience, their ever-attendant Graduate Guides issue the +order admitting them to the final circle. These guides personally pilot their +subjects to the inner circle and there place them in the custody of the +complements of rest, the last of those orders of secondary supernaphim assigned +to the ministry of the pilgrims of time on the world circuits of Havona. + +11. THE COMPLEMENTS OF REST + +Much of an ascender's time on the last circuit is devoted to a continuation of +the study of the impending problems of Paradise residence. A vast and diverse +host of beings, the majority unrevealed, are permanent and transient residents +of this inner ring of Havona worlds. And the commingling of these manifold +types provides the superaphic complements of rest with a rich situational +environment which they effectively utilize in furthering the education of the +ascending pilgrims, especially with regard to the problems of adjustment to the +many groups of beings soon to be encountered on Paradise. + +Among those who dwell on this inner circuit are the creature-trinitized sons. +The primary and the secondary supernaphim are the general custodians of the +conjoint corps of these sons, including the trinitized offspring of the mortal +finaliters and similar progeny of the Paradise Citizens. Certain of these sons +are Trinity embraced and commissioned in the supergovernments, others are +variously assigned, but the great majority are being gathered together in the +conjoint corps on the perfect worlds of the inner Havona circuit. Here, under +the supervision of the supernaphim, they are being prepared for some future +work by a special and unnamed corps of high Paradise Citizens who were, prior +to the times of Grandfanda, first executive assistants to the Eternals of Days. +There are many reasons for conjecturing that these two unique groups of +trinitized beings are going to work together in the remote future, not the +least of which is their common destiny in the reserves of the Paradise Corps of +Trinitized Finaliters. + +On this innermost circuit, both the ascending and the descending pilgrims +fraternize with each other and with the creature-trinitized sons. Like their +parents, these sons derive great benefits from interassociation, and it is the +special mission of the supernaphim to facilitate and to insure the +confraternity + + top of page - 297 + +of the trinitized sons of the mortal finaliters and the trinitized sons of the +Paradise Citizens. The superaphic complements of rest are not so much concerned +with their training as with promoting their understanding association with +diverse groups. + +Mortals have received the Paradise command: "Be you perfect, even as your +Paradise Father is perfect." To these trinitized sons of the conjoint corps the +supervising supernaphim never cease to proclaim: "Be you understanding of your +ascendant brethren, even as the Paradise Creator Sons know and love them." + +The mortal creature must find God. The Creator Son never stops until he finds +man--the lowest will creature. Beyond doubt, the Creator Sons and their mortal +children are preparing for some future and unknown universe service. Both +traverse the gamut of the experiential universe and so are educated and trained +for their eternal mission. Throughout the universes there is occurring this +unique blending of the human and the divine, the commingling of creature and +Creator. Unthinking mortals have referred to the manifestation of divine mercy +and tenderness, especially towards the weak and in behalf of the needy, as +indicative of an anthropomorphic God. What a mistake! Rather should such +manifestations of mercy and forbearance by human beings be taken as evidence +that mortal man is indwelt by the spirit of the living God; that the creature +is, after all, divinity motivated. + +Near the end of the first-circle sojourn the ascending pilgrims first meet the +instigators of rest of the primary order of supernaphim. These are the angels +of Paradise coming out to greet those who stand at the threshold of eternity +and to complete their preparation for the transition slumber of the last +resurrection. You are not really a child of Paradise until you have traversed +the inner circle and have experienced the resurrection of eternity from the +terminal sleep of time. The perfected pilgrims begin this rest, go to sleep, on +the first circle of Havona, but they awaken on the shores of Paradise. Of all +who ascend to the eternal Isle, only those who thus arrive are the children of +eternity; the others go as visitors, as guests without residential status. + +And now, at the culmination of the Havona career, as you mortals go to sleep on +the pilot world of the inner circuit, you go not alone to your rest as you did +on the worlds of your origin when you closed your eyes in the natural sleep of +mortal death, nor as you did when you entered the long transit trance +preparatory for the journey to Havona. Now, as you prepare for the attainment +rest, there moves over by your side your long-time associate of the first +circle, the majestic complement of rest, who prepares to enter the rest as one +with you, as the pledge of Havona that your transition is complete, and that +you await only the final touches of perfection. + +Your first transition was indeed death, the second an ideal sleep, and now the +third metamorphosis is the true rest, the relaxation of the ages. + +[Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.] + + top of page - 298 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Messenger ³ Ministry Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ H... ³ The... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p027.txt b/religious documents/p027.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..760fb64 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p027.txt @@ -0,0 +1,486 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 27 Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 27 Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +PRIMARY supernaphim are the supernal servants of the Deities on the eternal +Isle of Paradise. Never have they been known to depart from the paths of light +and righteousness. The roll calls are complete; from eternity not one of this +magnificent host has been lost. These high supernaphim are perfect beings, +supreme in perfection, but they are not absonite, neither are they absolute. +Being of the essence of perfection, these children of the Infinite Spirit work +interchangeably and at will in all phases of their manifold duties. They do not +function extensively outside Paradise, though they do participate in the +various millennial gatherings and group reunions of the central universe. They +also go forth as special messengers of the Deities, and in large numbers they +ascend to become Technical Advisers. + +Primary supernaphim are also placed in command of the seraphic hosts +ministering on worlds isolated because of rebellion. When a Paradise Son is +bestowed upon such a world, completes his mission, ascends to the Universal +Father, is accepted, and returns as the accredited deliverer of this isolated +world, a primary supernaphim is always designated by the chiefs of assignment +to assume command of the ministering spirits on duty in the newly reclaimed +sphere. Supernaphim in this special service are periodically rotated. On +Urantia the present "chief of seraphim" is the second of this order to be on +duty since the times of the bestowal of Christ Michael. + +From eternity the primary supernaphim have served on the Isle of Light and have +gone forth on missions of leadership to the worlds of space, but they have +functioned as now classified only since the arrival on Paradise of the Havona +pilgrims of time. These high angels now minister chiefly in the following seven +orders of service: + +1. Conductors of Worship. + +2. Masters of Philosophy. + +3. Custodians of Knowledge. + +4. Directors of Conduct. + +5. Interpreters of Ethics. + +6. Chiefs of Assignment. + +7. Instigators of Rest. + +Not until the ascending pilgrims actually attain Paradise residence do they +come under the direct influence of these supernaphim, and then they pass +through a training experience under the direction of these angels in the +reverse order of their naming. That is, you enter upon your Paradise career +under the + + top of page - 299 + +tutelage of the instigators of rest and, after successive seasons with the +intervening orders, finish this training period with the conductors of worship. +Thereupon are you ready to begin the endless career of a finaliter. + +1. INSTIGATORS OF REST + +The instigators of rest are the inspectors of Paradise who go forth from the +central Isle to the inner circuit of Havona, there to collaborate with their +colleagues, the complements of rest of the secondary order of supernaphim. The +one essential to the enjoyment of Paradise is rest, divine rest; and these +instigators of rest are the final instructors who make ready the pilgrims of +time for their introduction to eternity. They begin their work on the final +attainment circle of the central universe and continue it when the pilgrim +awakes from the last transition sleep, the slumber which graduates a creature +of space into the realm of the eternal. + +Rest is of a sevenfold nature: There is the rest of sleep and of play in the +lower life orders, discovery in the higher beings, and worship in the highest +type of spirit personality. There is also the normal rest of energy intake, the +recharging of beings with physical or with spiritual energy. And then there is +the transit sleep, the unconscious slumber when enseraphimed, when in passage +from one sphere to another. Entirely different from all of these is the deep +sleep of metamorphosis, the transition rest from one stage of being to another, +from one life to another, from one state of existence to another, the sleep +which ever attends transition from actual universe status in contrast to +evolution through various stages of any one status. + +But the last metamorphic sleep is something more than those previous transition +slumbers which have marked the successive status attainments of the ascendant +career; thereby do the creatures of time and space traverse the innermost +margins of the temporal and the spatial to attain residential status in the +timeless and spaceless abodes of Paradise. The instigators and the complements +of rest are just as essential to this transcending metamorphosis as are the +seraphim and associated beings to the mortal creature's survival of death. + +You enter the rest on the final Havona circuit and are eternally resurrected on +Paradise. And as you there spiritually repersonalize, you will immediately +recognize the instigator of rest who welcomes you to the eternal shores as the +very primary supernaphim who produced the final sleep on the innermost circuit +of Havona; and you will recall the last grand stretch of faith as you once +again made ready to commend the keeping of your identity into the hands of the +Universal Father. + +The last rest of time has been enjoyed; the last transition sleep has been +experienced; now you awake to life everlasting on the shores of the eternal +abode. "And there shall be no more sleep. The presence of God and his Son are +before you, and you are eternally his servants; you have seen his face, and his +name is your spirit. There shall be no night there; and they need no light of +the sun, for the Great Source and Center gives them light; they shall live +forever and ever. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; there +shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any +more pain, for the former things have passed away." + + top of page - 300 + +2. CHIEFS OF ASSIGNMENT + +This is the group designated from time to time by the chief supernaphim, "the +original pattern angel," to preside over the organization of all three orders +of these angels--primary, secondary, and tertiary. The supernaphim, as a body, +are wholly self-governing and self-regulatory except for the functions of their +mutual chief, the first angel of Paradise, who ever presides over all these +spirit personalities. + +The angels of assignment have much to do with glorified mortal residents of +Paradise before they are admitted to the Corps of the Finality. Study and +instruction are not the exclusive occupations of Paradise arrivals; service +also plays its essential part in the prefinaliter educational experiences of +Paradise. And I have observed that, when the ascendant mortals have periods of +leisure, they evince a predilection to fraternize with the reserve corps of the +superaphic chiefs of assignment. + +When you mortal ascenders attain Paradise, your societal relationships involve +a great deal more than contact with a host of exalted and divine beings and +with a familiar multitude of glorified fellow mortals. You must also fraternize +with upwards of three thousand different orders of Paradise Citizens, with the +various groups of the Transcendentalers, and with numerous other types of +Paradise inhabitants, permanent and transient, who have not been revealed on +Urantia. After sustained contact with these mighty intellects of Paradise, it +is very restful to visit with the angelic types of mind; they remind the +mortals of time of the seraphim with whom they have had such long contact and +such refreshing association. + +3. INTERPRETERS OF ETHICS + +The higher you ascend in the scale of life, the more attention must be paid to +universe ethics. Ethical awareness is simply the recognition by any individual +of the rights inherent in the existence of any and all other individuals. But +spiritual ethics far transcends the mortal and even the morontia concept of +personal and group relations. + +Ethics has been duly taught and adequately learned by the pilgrims of time in +their long ascent to the glories of Paradise. As this inward-ascending career +has unfolded from the nativity worlds of space, the ascenders have continued to +add group after group to their ever-widening circle of universe associates. +Every new group of colleagues met with adds one more level of ethics to be +recognized and complied with until, by the time the mortals of ascent reach +Paradise, they really need someone to provide helpful and friendly counsel +regarding ethical interpretations. They do not need to be taught ethics, but +they do need to have what they have so laboriously learned properly interpreted +to them as they are brought face to face with the extraordinary task of +contacting with so much that is new. + +The interpreters of ethics are of inestimable assistance to the Paradise +arrivals in helping them to adjust to numerous groups of majestic beings during +that eventful period extending from the attainment of residential status to +formal induction into the Corps of Mortal Finaliters. Many of the numerous +types of Paradise Citizens the ascendant pilgrims have already met on the seven + + top of page - 301 + +circuits of Havona. The glorified mortals have also enjoyed intimate contact +with the creature-trinitized sons of the conjoint corps on the inner Havona +circuit, where these beings are receiving much of their education. And on the +other circuits the ascending pilgrims have met numerous unrevealed residents of +the Paradise-Havona system who are there pursuing group training in preparation +for the unrevealed assignments of the future. + +All these celestial companionships are invariably mutual. As ascending mortals +you not only derive benefit from these successive universe companions and such +numerous orders of increasingly divine associates, but you also impart to each +of these fraternal beings something from your own personality and experience +which forever makes every one of them different and better for having been +associated with an ascending mortal from the evolutionary worlds of time and +space. + +4. DIRECTORS OF CONDUCT + +Having already been fully instructed in the ethics of Paradise +relationships--neither meaningless formalities nor the dictations of artificial +castes but rather the inherent proprieties--the ascendant mortals find it +helpful to receive the counsel of the superaphic directors of conduct, who +instruct the new members of Paradise society in the usages of the perfect +conduct of the high beings who sojourn on the central Isle of Light and Life. + +Harmony is the keynote of the central universe, and detectable order prevails +on Paradise. Proper conduct is essential to progress by way of knowledge, +through philosophy, to the spiritual heights of spontaneous worship. There is a +divine technique in the approach to Divinity; and the acquirement of this +technique must await the pilgrims' arrival on Paradise. The spirit of it has +been imparted on the circles of Havona, but the final touches of the training +of the pilgrims of time can be applied only after they actually attain the Isle +of Light. + +All Paradise conduct is wholly spontaneous, in every sense natural and free. +But there still is a proper and perfect way of doing things on the eternal +Isle, and the directors of conduct are ever by the side of the "strangers +within the gates" to instruct them and so guide their steps as to put them at +perfect ease and at the same time to enable the pilgrims to avoid that +confusion and uncertainty which would otherwise be inevitable. Only by such an +arrangement could endless confusion be avoided; and confusion never appears on +Paradise. + +These directors of conduct really serve as glorified teachers and guides. They +are chiefly concerned with instructing the new mortal residents regarding the +almost endless array of new situations and unfamiliar usages. Notwithstanding +all the long preparation therefor and the long journey thereto, Paradise is +still inexpressibly strange and unexpectedly new to those who finally attain +residential status. + +5. THE CUSTODIANS OF KNOWLEDGE + +The superaphic custodians of knowledge are the higher "living epistles" known +and read by all who dwell on Paradise. They are the divine records of truth, +the living books of real knowledge. You have heard about records in the "book +of life." The custodians of knowledge are just such living books, records of +perfection imprinted upon the eternal tablets of divine life and supreme + + top of page - 302 + +surety. They are in reality living, automatic libraries. The facts of the +universes are inherent in these primary supernaphim, actually recorded in these +angels; and it is also inherently impossible for an untruth to gain lodgment in +the minds of these perfect and replete repositories of the truth of eternity +and the intelligence of time. + +These custodians conduct informal courses of instruction for the residents of +the eternal Isle, but their chief function is that of reference and +verification. Any sojourner on Paradise may at will have by his side the living +repository of the particular fact or truth he may wish to know. At the northern +extremity of the Isle there are available the living finders of knowledge, who +will designate the director of the group holding the information sought, and +forthwith will appear the brilliant beings who are the very thing you wish to +know. No longer must you seek enlightenment from engrossed pages; you now +commune with living intelligence face to face. Supreme knowledge you thus +obtain from the living beings who are its final custodians. + +When you locate that supernaphim who is exactly what you desire to verify, you +will find available all the known facts of all universes, for these custodians +of knowledge are the final and living summaries of the vast network of the +recording angels, ranging from the seraphim and seconaphim of the local and +superuniverses to the chief recorders of the tertiary supernaphim in Havona. +And this living accumulation of knowledge is distinct from the formal records +of Paradise, the cumulative summary of universal history. + +The wisdom of truth takes origin in the divinity of the central universe, but +knowledge, experiential knowledge, largely has its beginnings in the domains of +time and space--therefore the necessity for the maintenance of the far-flung +superuniverse organizations of the recording seraphim and supernaphim sponsored +by the Celestial Recorders. + +These primary supernaphim who are inherently in possession of universe +knowledge are also responsible for its organization and classification. In +constituting themselves the living reference library of the universe of +universes, they have classified knowledge into seven grand orders, each having +about one million subdivisions. The facility with which the residents of +Paradise can consult this vast store of knowledge is solely due to the +voluntary and wise efforts of the custodians of knowledge. The custodians are +also the exalted teachers of the central universe, freely giving out their +living treasures to all beings on any of the Havona circuits, and they are +extensively, though indirectly, utilized by the courts of the Ancients of Days. +But this living library, which is available to the central and superuniverses, +is not accessible to the local creations. Only by indirection and reflectively +are the benefits of Paradise knowledge secured in the local universes. + +6. MASTERS OF PHILOSOPHY + +Next to the supreme satisfaction of worship is the exhilaration of philosophy. +Never do you climb so high or advance so far that there do not remain a +thousand mysteries which demand the employment of philosophy in an attempted +solution. + +The master philosophers of Paradise delight to lead the minds of its +inhabitants, both native and ascendant, in the exhilarating pursuit of +attempting to solve universe problems. These superaphic masters of philosophy +are the "wise + + top of page - 303 + +men of heaven," the beings of wisdom who make use of the truth of knowledge and +the facts of experience in their efforts to master the unknown. With them +knowledge attains to truth and experience ascends to wisdom. On Paradise the +ascendant personalities of space experience the heights of being: They have +knowledge; they know the truth; they may philosophize--think the truth; they +may even seek to encompass the concepts of the Ultimate and attempt to grasp +the techniques of the Absolutes. + +At the southern extremity of the vast Paradise domain the masters of philosophy +conduct elaborate courses in the seventy functional divisions of wisdom. Here +they discourse upon the plans and purposes of Infinity and seek to co-ordinate +the experiences, and to compose the knowledge, of all who have access to their +wisdom. They have developed a highly specialized attitude toward various +universe problems, but their final conclusions are always in uniform agreement. + +These Paradise philosophers teach by every possible method of instruction, +including the higher graph technique of Havona and certain Paradise methods of +communicating information. All of these higher techniques of imparting +knowledge and conveying ideas are utterly beyond the comprehension capacity of +even the most highly developed human mind. One hour's instruction on Paradise +would be the equivalent of ten thousand years of the word-memory methods of +Urantia. You cannot grasp such communication techniques, and there is simply +nothing in mortal experience with which they may be compared, nothing to which +they can be likened. + +The masters of philosophy take supreme pleasure in imparting their +interpretation of the universe of universes to those beings who have ascended +from the worlds of space. And while philosophy can never be as settled in its +conclusions as the facts of knowledge and the truths of experience, yet, when +you have listened to these primary supernaphim discourse upon the unsolved +problems of eternity and the performances of the Absolutes, you will feel a +certain and lasting satisfaction concerning these unmastered questions. + +These intellectual pursuits of Paradise are not broadcast; the philosophy of +perfection is available only to those who are personally present. The +encircling creations know of these teachings only from those who have passed +through this experience, and who have subsequently carried this wisdom out to +the universes of space. + +7. CONDUCTORS OF WORSHIP + +Worship is the highest privilege and the first duty of all created +intelligences. Worship is the conscious and joyous act of recognizing and +acknowledging the truth and fact of the intimate and personal relationships of +the Creators with their creatures. The quality of worship is determined by the +depth of creature perception; and as the knowledge of the infinite character of +the Gods progresses, the act of worship becomes increasingly all-encompassing +until it eventually attains the glory of the highest experiential delight and +the most exquisite pleasure known to created beings. + +While the Isle of Paradise contains certain places of worship, it is more +nearly one vast sanctuary of divine service. Worship is the first and dominant +passion of all who climb to its blissful shores--the spontaneous ebullition of +the + + top of page - 304 + +beings who have learned enough of God to attain his presence. Circle by circle, +during the inward journey through Havona, worship is a growing passion until on +Paradise it becomes necessary to direct and otherwise control its expression. + +The periodic, spontaneous, group, and other special outbursts of supreme +adoration and spiritual praise enjoyed on Paradise are conducted under the +leadership of a special corps of primary supernaphim. Under the direction of +these conductors of worship, such homage achieves the creature goal of supreme +pleasure and attains the heights of the perfection of sublime self-expression +and personal enjoyment. All primary supernaphim crave to be conductors of +worship; and all ascendant beings would enjoy forever remaining in the attitude +of worship did not the chiefs of assignment periodically disperse these +assemblages. But no ascendant being is ever required to enter upon the +assignments of eternal service until he has attained full satisfaction in +worship. + +It is the task of the conductors of worship so to teach the ascendant creatures +how to worship that they may be enabled to gain this satisfaction of +self-expression and at the same time be able to give attention to the essential +activities of the Paradise regime. Without improvement in the technique of +worship it would require hundreds of years for the average mortal who reaches +Paradise to give full and satisfactory expression to his emotions of +intelligent appreciation and ascendant gratitude. The conductors of worship +open up new and hitherto unknown avenues of expression so that these wonderful +children of the womb of space and the travail of time are enabled to gain the +full satisfactions of worship in much less time. + +All the arts of all the beings of the entire universe which are capable of +intensifying and exalting the abilities of self-expression and the conveyance +of appreciation, are employed to their highest capacity in the worship of the +Paradise Deities. Worship is the highest joy of Paradise existence; it is the +refreshing play of Paradise. What play does for your jaded minds on earth, +worship will do for your perfected souls on Paradise. The mode of worship on +Paradise is utterly beyond mortal comprehension, but the spirit of it you can +begin to appreciate even down here on Urantia, for the spirits of the Gods even +now indwell you, hover over you, and inspire you to true worship. + +There are appointed times and places for worship on Paradise, but these are not +adequate to accommodate the ever-increasing overflow of the spiritual emotions +of the growing intelligence and expanding divinity recognition of the brilliant +beings of experiential ascension to the eternal Isle. Never since the times of +Grandfanda have the supernaphim been able fully to accommodate the spirit of +worship on Paradise. Always is there an excess of worshipfulness as gauged by +the preparation therefor. And this is because personalities of inherent +perfection never can fully appreciate the tremendous reactions of the spiritual +emotions of beings who have slowly and laboriously made their way upward to +Paradise glory from the depths of the spiritual darkness of the lower worlds of +time and space. When such angels and mortals of time attain the presence of the +Powers of Paradise, there occurs the expression of the accumulated emotions of +the ages, a spectacle astounding to the angels of Paradise and productive of +the supreme joy of divine satisfaction in the Paradise Deities. + +Sometimes all Paradise becomes engulfed in a dominating tide of spiritual and +worshipful expression. Often the conductors of worship cannot control such +phenomena until the appearance of the threefold fluctuation of the light of the + + top of page - 305 + +Deity abode, signifying that the divine heart of the Gods has been fully and +completely satisfied by the sincere worship of the residents of Paradise, the +perfect citizens of glory and the ascendant creatures of time. What a triumph +of technique! What a fruition of the eternal plan and purpose of the Gods that +the intelligent love of the creature child should give full satisfaction to the +infinite love of the Creator Father! + +After the attainment of the supreme satisfaction of the fullness of worship, +you are qualified for admission to the Corps of the Finality. The ascendant +career is well-nigh finished, and the seventh jubilee prepares for celebration. +The first jubilee marked the mortal agreement with the Thought Adjuster when +the purpose to survive was sealed; the second was the awakening in the morontia +life; the third was the fusion with the Thought Adjuster; the fourth was the +awakening in Havona; the fifth celebrated the finding of the Universal Father; +and the sixth jubilee was the occasion of the Paradise awakening from the final +transit slumber of time. The seventh jubilee marks entrance into the mortal +finaliter corps and the beginning of the eternity service. The attainment of +the seventh stage of spirit realization by a finaliter will probably signalize +the celebration of the first of the jubilees of eternity. + +And thus ends the story of the Paradise supernaphim, the highest order of all +the ministering spirits, those beings who, as a universal class, ever attend +you from the world of your origin until you are finally bidden farewell by the +conductors of worship as you take the Trinity oath of eternity and are mustered +into the Mortal Corps of the Finality. + +The endless service of the Paradise Trinity is about to begin; and now the +finaliter is face to face with the challenge of God the Ultimate. + +[Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.] + + top of page - 306 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Ministering ³ Ministering ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Spi... ³ Spi... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p028.txt b/religious documents/p028.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a741497 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p028.txt @@ -0,0 +1,778 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 28 Ministering Spirits Of The SuperUniverses + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 28 Ministering Spirits Of The SuperUniverses + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AS THE supernaphim are the angelic hosts of the central universe and the +seraphim of the local universes, so are the seconaphim the ministering spirits +of the superuniverses. In degree of divinity and in potential of supremacy, +however, these children of the Reflective Spirits are much more like +supernaphim than seraphim. They serve not alone in the supercreations, and both +numerous and intriguing are the transactions sponsored by their unrevealed +associates. + +As presented in these narratives, the ministering spirits of the superuniverses +embrace the following three orders: + +1. The Seconaphim. + +2. The Tertiaphim. + +3. The Omniaphim. + +Since the latter two orders are not so directly concerned with the ascendant +scheme of mortal progression, they will be briefly discussed prior to the more +extended consideration of seconaphim. Technically, neither tertiaphim nor +omniaphim are ministering spirits of the superuniverses, though both serve as +spirit ministers in these domains. + +1. THE TERTIAPHIM + +These high angels are of record on the superuniverse headquarters, and despite +service in the local creations, technically they are residents of these +superuniverse capitals inasmuch as they are not native to the local universes. +Tertiaphim are children of the Infinite Spirit and are personalized on Paradise +in groups of one thousand. These supernal beings of divine originality and +near-supreme versatility are the gift of the Infinite Spirit to the Creator +Sons of God. + +When a Michael Son is detached from the parental regime of Paradise and is made +ready to go forth on the universe adventure of space, the Infinite Spirit is +delivered of a group of one thousand of these companion spirits. And these +majestic tertiaphim accompany this Creator Son when he embarks upon the +adventure of universe organization. + +Throughout the early times of universe building, these one thousand tertiaphim +are the only personal staff of a Creator Son. They acquire a mighty experience +as Son assistants during these stirring ages of universe assembling and other +astronomical manipulations. They serve by the side of the Creator Son until the +day of the personalization of the Bright and Morning Star, the first- + + top of page - 307 + +born of a local universe. Thereupon the formal resignations of the tertiaphim +are tendered and accepted. And with the appearance of the initial orders of +native angelic life, they retire from active service in the local universe and +become the liaison ministers between the Creator Son of former attachment and +the Ancients of Days of the superuniverse concerned. + +2. THE OMNIAPHIM + +Omniaphim are created by the Infinite Spirit in liaison with the Seven Supreme +Executives, and they are the exclusive servants and messengers of these same +Supreme Executives. Omniaphim are of grand universe assignment, and in Orvonton +their corps maintains headquarters in the northerly parts of Uversa, where they +reside as a special courtesy colony. They are not of registry on Uversa, nor +are they attached to our administration. Neither are they directly concerned +with the ascendant scheme of mortal progression. + +The omniaphim are wholly occupied with the oversight of the superuniverses in +the interests of administrative co-ordination from the viewpoint of the Seven +Supreme Executives. Our colony of omniaphim on Uversa receives instructions +from, and makes reports to, only the Supreme Executive of Orvonton, situated on +conjoint executive sphere number seven in the outer ring of Paradise +satellites. + +3. THE SECONAPHIM + +The secoraphic hosts are produced by the seven Reflective Spirits assigned to +the headquarters of each superuniverse. There is a definite Paradise-responsive +technique associated with the creation of these angels in groups of seven. In +each seven there are always one primary, three secondary, and three tertiary +seconaphim; they always personalize in this exact proportion. When seven such +seconaphim are created, one, the primary, becomes attached to the service of +the Ancients of Days. The three secondary angels are associated with three +groups of Paradise-origin administrators in the supergovernments: the Divine +Counselors, the Perfectors of Wisdom, and the Universal Censors. The three +tertiary angels are attached to the ascendant trinitized associates of the +superuniverse rulers: the Mighty Messengers, Those High in Authority, and Those +without Name and Number. + +These seconaphim of the superuniverses are the offspring of the Reflective +Spirits, and therefore reflectivity is inherent in their nature. They are +reflectively responsive to all of each phase of every creature of origin in the +Third Source and Center and the Paradise Creator Sons, but they are not +directly reflective of the beings and entities, personal or otherwise, of sole +origin in the First Source and Center. We possess many evidences of the +actuality of the universal intelligence circuits of the Infinite Spirit, but +even if we had no other proof, the reflective performances of the seconaphim +would be quite sufficient to demonstrate the reality of the universal presence +of the infinite mind of the Conjoint Actor. + +4. THE PRIMARY SECONAPHIM + +The primary seconaphim, of assignment to the Ancients of Days, are living +mirrors in the service of these triune rulers. Think what it means in the +economy + + top of page - 308 + +of a superuniverse to be able to turn, as it were, to a living mirror and +therein to see and therewith to hear the certain responses of another being a +thousand or a hundred thousand light-years distant and to do all this instantly +and unerringly. Records are essential to the conduct of the universes, +broadcasts are serviceable, the work of the Solitary and other messengers is +very helpful, but the Ancients of Days from their position midway between the +inhabited worlds and Paradise--between man and God--can instantly look both +ways, hear both ways, and know both ways. + +This ability--to hear and see, as it were, all things--can be perfectly +realized in the superuniverses only by the Ancients of Days and only on their +respective headquarters worlds. Even there limits are encountered: From Uversa, +such communication is limited to the worlds and universes of Orvonton, and +while inoperative between the superuniverses, this same reflective technique +keeps each one of them in close touch with the central universe and with +Paradise. The seven supergovernments, though individually segregated, are thus +perfectly reflective of the authority above and are wholly sympathetic, as well +as perfectly conversant, with the needs below. + +The primary seconaphim are found to incline by inherent nature towards seven +types of service, and it is befitting that the first serials of this order +should be so endowed as inherently to interpret the mind of the Spirit to the +Ancients of Days: + +1. The Voice of the Conjoint Actor. In each superuniverse the first primary +seconaphim and every seventh one of that order subsequently created exhibit a +high order of adaptability for understanding and interpreting the mind of the +Infinite Spirit to the Ancients of Days and their associates in the +supergovernments. This is of great value on the headquarters of the +superuniverses, for, unlike the local creations with their Divine Ministers, +the seat of a supergovernment does not have a specialized personalization of +the Infinite Spirit. Hence these secoraphic voices come the nearest to being +the personal representatives of the Third Source and Center on such a capital +sphere. True, the seven Reflective Spirits are there, but these mothers of the +secoraphic hosts are less truly and automatically reflective of the Conjoint +Actor than of the Seven Master Spirits. + +2. The Voice of the Seven Master Spirits. The second primary seconaphim and +every seventh one thereafter created incline towards portraying the collective +natures and reactions of the Seven Master Spirits. Though each Master Spirit is +already represented on a superuniverse capital by some one of the seven +Reflective Spirits of assignment, such representation is individual, not +collective. Collectively, they are only reflectively present; therefore do the +Master Spirits welcome the services of these highly personal angels, the second +serials of the primary seconaphim, who are so competent to represent them +before the Ancients of Days. + +3. The Voice of the Creator Sons. The Infinite Spirit must have had something +to do with the creation or training of the Paradise Sons of the order of +Michael, for the third primary seconaphim and every seventh serial thereafter +possess the remarkable gift of being reflective of the minds of these Creator +Sons. If the Ancients of Days would like to know--really know--the attitude of +Michael of Nebadon regarding some matter under consideration, they do not have +to call him on the lines of space; they need only call for the Chief of Neba- + + top of page - 309 + +don Voices, who, upon request, will present the Michael seconaphim of record; +and right then and there the Ancients of Days will perceive the voice of the +Master Son of Nebadon. + +No other order of sonship is thus "reflectible," and no other order of angel +can thus function. We do not fully understand just how this is accomplished, +and I doubt very much that the Creator Sons themselves fully understand it. But +of a certainty we know it works, and that it unfailingly works acceptably we +also know, for in all the history of Uversa the secoraphic voices have never +erred in their presentations. + +You are here beginning to see something of the manner in which divinity +encompasses the space of time and masters the time of space. You are here +obtaining one of your first fleeting glimpses of the technique of the eternity +cycle, divergent for the moment to assist the children of time in their tasks +of mastering the difficult handicaps of space. And these phenomena are +additional to the established universe technique of the Reflective Spirits. + +Though apparently deprived of the personal presence of the Master Spirits above +and of the Creator Sons below, the Ancients of Days have at their command +living beings attuned to cosmic mechanisms of reflective perfection and +ultimate precision whereby they may enjoy the reflective presence of all those +exalted beings whose personal presence is denied them. By and through these +means, and others unknown to you, God is potentially present on the +headquarters of the superuniverses. + +The Ancients of Days perfectly deduce the Father's will by equating the Spirit +voice-flash from above and the Michael voice-flashes from below. Thus may they +be unerringly certain in calculating the Father's will concerning the +administrative affairs of the local universes. But to deduce the will of one of +the Gods from a knowledge of the other two, the three Ancients of Days must act +together; two would not be able to achieve the answer. And for this reason, +even were there no others, the superuniverses are always presided over by three +Ancients of Days, and not by one or even two. + +4. The Voice of the Angelic Hosts. The fourth primary seconaphim and every +seventh serial prove to be angels peculiarly responsive to the sentiments of +all orders of angels, including the supernaphim above and the seraphim below. +Thus the attitude of any commanding or supervising angel is immediately +available for consideration at any council of the Ancients of Days. Never a day +passes on your world that the chief of seraphim on Urantia is not made +conscious of the phenomenon of reflective transference, of being drawn upon +from Uversa for some purpose; but unless forewarned by a Solitary Messenger, +she remains wholly ignorant of what is sought and of how it is secured. These +ministering spirits of time are constantly furnishing this sort of unconscious +and certainly, therefore, unprejudiced testimony concerning the endless array +of matters engaging the attention and counsel of the Ancients of Days and their +associates. + +5. Broadcast Receivers. There is a special class of broadcast messages which +are received only by these primary seconaphim. While they are not the regular +broadcasters of Uversa, they work in liaison with the angels of the reflective +voices for the purpose of synchronizing the reflective vision of the Ancients +of Days with certain actual messages coming in over the established circuits of +universe communication. Broadcast receivers are the fifth serials, the fifth +primary seconaphim to be created and every seventh one thereafter. + + top of page - 310 + +6. Transport Personalities. These are the seconaphim who carry the pilgrims of +time from the headquarters worlds of the superuniverses to the outer circle of +Havona. They are the transport corps of the superuniverses, operating inward to +Paradise and outward to the worlds of their respective sectors. This corps is +composed of the sixth primary seconaphim and every seventh one subsequently +created. + +7. The Reserve Corps. A very large group of seconaphim, the seventh primary +serials, are held in reserve for the unclassified duties and the emergency +assignments of the realms. Not being highly specialized, they can function +fairly well in any of the capacities of their diverse associates, but such +specialized work is undertaken only in emergencies. Their usual tasks are the +performance of those generalized duties of a superuniverse which do not fall +within the scope of the angels of specific assignment. + +5. THE SECONDARY SECONAPHIM + +Seconaphim of the secondary order are no less reflective than their primary +fellows. Being classed as primary, secondary, and tertiary does not indicate a +differential of status or function in the case of seconaphim; it merely denotes +orders of procedure. Identical qualities are exhibited by all three groups in +their activities. + +The seven reflective types of secondary seconaphim are assigned to the services +of the co-ordinate Trinity-origin associates of the Ancients of Days as +follows: + +To the Perfectors of Wisdom--the Voices of Wisdom, the Souls of Philosophy, and +the Unions of Souls. + +To the Divine Counselors--the Hearts of Counsel, the Joys of Existence, and the +Satisfactions of Service. + +To the Universal Censors--the Discerners of Spirits. + +Like the primary order, this group is created serially; that is, the first-born +was a Voice of Wisdom, and the seventh thereafter was similar, and so with the +six other types of these reflective angels. + +1. The Voice of Wisdom. Certain of these seconaphim are in perpetual liaison +with the living libraries of Paradise, the custodians of knowledge belonging to +the primary supernaphim. In specialized reflective service the Voices of Wisdom +are living, current, replete, and thoroughly reliable concentrations and +focalizations of the co-ordinated wisdom of the universe of universes. To the +well-nigh infinite volume of information circulating on the master circuits of +the superuniverses, these superb beings are so reflective and selective, so +sensitive, as to be able to segregate and receive the essence of wisdom and +unerringly to transmit these jewels of mentation to their superiors, the +Perfectors of Wisdom. And they so function that the Perfectors of Wisdom not +only hear the actual and original expressions of this wisdom but also +reflectively see the very beings, of high or lowly origin, who gave voice to +it. + +It is written, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask." On Uversa, when it +becomes necessary to arrive at the decisions of wisdom in the perplexing +situations of the complex affairs of the superuniverse government, when both +the wisdom of perfection and of practicability must be forthcoming, then do the +Perfectors + + top of page - 311 + +of Wisdom summon a battery of the Voices of Wisdom and, by the consummate skill +of their order, so attune and directionize these living receivers of the +enminded and circulating wisdom of the universe of universes that presently, +from these secoraphic voices, there ensues a stream of the wisdom of divinity +from the universe above and a flood of the wisdom of practicality from the +higher minds of the universes below. + +If confusion arises regarding the harmonization of these two versions of +wisdom, immediate appeal is made to the Divine Counselors, who forthwith rule +as to the proper combination of procedures. If there is any doubt as to the +authenticity of something coming in from realms where rebellion has been rife, +appeal is made to the Censors, who, with their Discerners of Spirits, are able +to rule immediately as to "what manner of spirit" actuated the adviser. So are +the wisdom of the ages and the intellect of the moment ever present with the +Ancients of Days, like an open book before their beneficent gaze. + +You can just faintly comprehend what all this means to those who are +responsible for the conduct of the superuniverse governments. The immensity and +the comprehensiveness of these transactions are quite beyond finite conception. +When you stand, as I repeatedly have, in the special receiving chambers of the +temple of wisdom on Uversa and see all this in actual operation, you will be +moved to adoration by the perfection of the complexity, and by the surety of +the working, of the interplanetary communications of the universes. You will +pay homage to the divine wisdom and goodness of the Gods, who plan and execute +with such superb technique. And these things actually happen just as I have +portrayed them. + +2. The Soul of Philosophy. These wonderful teachers are also attached to the +Perfectors of Wisdom and, when not otherwise directionized, remain in focal +synchrony with the masters of philosophy on Paradise. Think of stepping up to a +huge living mirror, as it were, but instead of beholding the likeness of your +finite and material self, of perceiving a reflection of the wisdom of divinity +and the philosophy of Paradise. And if it becomes desirable to "incarnate" this +philosophy of perfection, so to dilute it as to make it practical of +application to, and assimilation by, the lowly peoples of the lower worlds, +these living mirrors have only to turn their faces downward to reflect the +standards and needs of another world or universe. + +By these very techniques do the Perfectors of Wisdom adapt decisions and +recommendations to the real needs and actual status of the peoples and worlds +under consideration, and always do they act in concert with the Divine +Counselors and the Universal Censors. But the sublime repleteness of these +transactions is beyond even my ability to comprehend. + +3. The Union of Souls. Completing the triune staff of attachment to the +Perfectors of Wisdom, are these reflectors of the ideals and status of ethical +relationships. Of all the problems in the universe requiring an exercise of the +consummate wisdom of experience and adaptability, none are more important than +those arising out of the relationships and associations of intelligent beings. +Whether in human associations of commerce and trade, friendship and marriage, +or in the liaisons of the angelic hosts, there continue to arise petty +frictions, minor misunderstandings too trivial even to engage the attention of +conciliators but sufficiently irritating and disturbing to mar the smooth +working of the universe if they were allowed to multiply and continue. + + top of page - 312 + +Therefore do the Perfectors of Wisdom make available the wise experience of +their order as the "oil of reconciliation" for an entire superuniverse. In all +this work these wise men of the superuniverses are ably seconded by their +reflective associates, the Unions of Souls, who make available current +information regarding the status of the universe and concurrently portray the +Paradise ideal of the best adjustment of these perplexing problems. When not +specifically directionized elsewhere, these seconaphim remain in reflective +liaison with the interpreters of ethics on Paradise. + +These are the angels who foster and promote the teamwork of all Orvonton. One +of the most important lessons to be learned during your mortal career is +teamwork. The spheres of perfection are manned by those who have mastered this +art of working with other beings. Few are the duties in the universe for the +lone servant. The higher you ascend, the more lonely you become when +temporarily without the association of your fellows. + +4. The Heart of Counsel. This is the first group of these reflective geniuses +to be placed under the supervision of the Divine Counselors. Seconaphim of this +type are in possession of the facts of space, being selective for such data in +the circuits of time. Especially are they reflective of the superaphic +intelligence co-ordinators, but they are also selectively reflective of the +counsel of all beings, whether of high or low estate. Whenever the Divine +Counselors are called upon for important advice or decisions, they immediately +requisition an ensemble of the Hearts of Counsel, and presently there is handed +down a ruling which actually incorporates the co-ordinated wisdom and advice of +the most competent minds of the entire superuniverse, all of which has been +censored and revised in the light of the counsel of the high minds of Havona +and even of Paradise. + +5. The Joy of Existence. By nature these beings are reflectively attuned to the +superaphic harmony supervisors above and to certain of the seraphim below, but +it is difficult to explain just what the members of this interesting group +really do. Their principal activities are directed toward promoting reactions +of joy among the various orders of the angelic hosts and the lower will +creatures. The Divine Counselors, to whom they are attached, seldom use them +for specific joy finding. In a more general manner and in collaboration with +the reversion directors, they function as joy clearinghouses, seeking to upstep +the pleasure reactions of the realms while trying to improve the humor taste, +to develop a superhumor among mortals and angels. They endeavor to demonstrate +that there is inherent joy in freewill existence, independent of all extraneous +influences; and they are right, although they meet with great difficulty in +inculcating this truth in the minds of primitive men. The higher spirit +personalities and the angels are more quickly responsive to these educational +efforts. + +6. The Satisfaction of Service. These angels are highly reflective of the +attitude of the directors of conduct on Paradise, and functioning much as do +the Joys of Existence, they strive to enhance the value of service and to +augment the satisfactions to be derived therefrom. They have done much to +illuminate the deferred rewards inherent in unselfish service, service for the +extension of the kingdom of truth. + +The Divine Counselors, to whom this order is attached, utilize them to reflect +from one world to another the benefits to be derived from spiritual service. + + top of page - 313 + +And by using the performances of the best to inspire and encourage the +mediocre, these seconaphim contribute immensely to the quality of devoted +service in the superuniverses. Effective use is made of the fraternal +competitive spirit by circulating to any one world information about what the +others, particularly the best, are doing. A refreshing and wholesome rivalry is +promoted even among the seraphic hosts. + +7. The Discerner of Spirits. A special liaison exists between the counselors +and advisers of the second Havona circle and these reflective angels. They are +the only seconaphim attached to the Universal Censors but are probably the most +uniquely specialized of all their fellows. Regardless of the source or channel +of information, no matter how meager the evidence at hand, when it is subjected +to their reflective scrutiny, these discerners will forthwith inform us as to +the true motive, the actual purpose, and the real nature of its origin. I +marvel at the superb functioning of these angels, who so unerringly reflect the +actual moral and spiritual character of any individual concerned in a focal +exposure. + +The Discerners of Spirits carry on these intricate services by virtue of +inherent "spiritual insight," if I may use such words in an endeavor to convey +to the human mind the thought that these reflective angels thus function +intuitively, inherently, and unerringly. When the Universal Censors behold +these presentations, they are face to face with the naked soul of the reflected +individual; and this very certainty and perfection of portraiture in part +explains why the Censors can always function so justly as righteous judges. The +discerners always accompany the Censors on any mission away from Uversa, and +they are just as effective out in the universes as at their Uversa +headquarters. + +I assure you that all these transactions of the spirit world are real, that +they take place in accordance with established usages and in harmony with the +immutable laws of the universal domains. The beings of every newly created +order, immediately upon receiving the breath of life, are instantly reflected +on high; a living portrayal of the creature nature and potential is flashed to +the superuniverse headquarters. Thus, by means of the discerners, are the +Censors made fully cognizant of exactly "what manner of spirit" has been born +on the worlds of space. + +So it is with mortal man: The Mother Spirit of Salvington knows you fully, for +the Holy Spirit on your world "searches all things," and whatsoever the divine +Spirit knows of you is immediately available whenever the secoraphic discerners +reflect with the Spirit concerning the Spirit's knowledge of you. It should, +however, be mentioned that the knowledge and plans of the Father fragments are +not reflectible. The discerners can and do reflect the presence of the +Adjusters (and the Censors pronounce them divine), but they cannot decipher the +content of the mindedness of the Mystery Monitors. + +6. THE TERTIARY SECONAPHIM + +In the same manner as their fellows, these angels are created serially and in +seven reflective types, but these types are not assigned individually to the +separate services of the superuniverse administrators. All tertiary seconaphim +are collectively assigned to the Trinitized Sons of Attainment, and these +ascendant sons use them interchangeably; that is, the Mighty Messengers can and +do utilize any of the tertiary types, and so do their co-ordinates, Those High +in + + top of page - 314 + +Authority and Those without Name and Number. These seven types of tertiary +seconaphim are: + +1. The Significance of Origins. The ascendant Trinitized Sons of a +superuniverse government are charged with the responsibility of dealing with +all issues growing out of the origin of any individual, race, or world; and the +significance of origin is the paramount question in all our plans for the +cosmic advancement of the living creatures of the realm. All relationships and +the application of ethics grow out of the fundamental facts of origin. Origin +is the basis of the relational reaction of the Gods. Always does the Conjoint +Actor "take note of the man, in what manner he was born." + +With the higher descendant beings, origin is simply a fact to be ascertained; +but with the ascending beings, including the lower orders of angels, the nature +and circumstances of origin are not always so clear, though of equally vital +importance at almost every turn of universe affairs--hence the value of having +at our disposal a series of reflective seconaphim who can instantly portray +anything required respecting the genesis of any being in either the central +universe or throughout the entire realm of a superuniverse. + +The Significance of Origins are the living ready-reference genealogies of the +vast hosts of beings--men, angels, and others--who inhabit the seven +superuniverses. They are always ready to supply their superiors with an +up-to-date, replete, and trustworthy estimate of the ancestral factors and the +current actual status of any individual on any world of their respective +superuniverses; and their computation of possessed facts is always up to the +minute. + +2. The Memory of Mercy. These are the actual, full and replete, living records +of the mercy which has been extended to individuals and races by the tender +ministrations of the instrumentalities of the Infinite Spirit in the mission of +adapting the justice of righteousness to the status of the realms, as disclosed +by the portrayals of the Significance of Origins. The Memory of Mercy discloses +the moral debt of the children of mercy--their spiritual liabilities--to be set +down against their assets of the saving provision established by the Sons of +God. In revealing the Father's pre-existent mercy, the Sons of God establish +the necessary credit to insure the survival of all. And then, in accordance +with the findings of the Significance of Origins, a mercy credit is established +for the survival of each rational creature, a credit of lavish proportions and +one of sufficient grace to insure the survival of every soul who really desires +divine citizenship. + +The Memory of Mercy is a living trial balance, a current statement of your +account with the supernatural forces of the realms. These are the living +records of mercy ministration which are read into the testimony of the courts +of Uversa when each individual's right to unending life comes up for +adjudication, when "thrones are cast up and the Ancients of Days are seated. +The broadcasts of Uversa issue and come forth from before them; thousands upon +thousands minister to them, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before +them. The judgment is set, and the books are opened." And the books which are +opened on such a momentous occasion are the living records of the tertiary +seconaphim of the superuniverses. The formal records are on file to corroborate +the testimony of the Memories of Mercy if they are required. + +The Memory of Mercy must show that the saving credit established by the Sons of +God has been fully and faithfully paid out in the loving ministry of the + + top of page - 315 + +patient personalities of the Third Source and Center. But when mercy is +exhausted, when the "memory" thereof testifies to its depletion, then does +justice prevail and righteousness decree. For mercy is not to be thrust upon +those who despise it; mercy is not a gift to be trampled under foot by the +persistent rebels of time. Nevertheless, though mercy is thus precious and +dearly bestowed, your individual drawing credits are always far in excess of +your ability to exhaust the reserve if you are sincere of purpose and honest of +heart. + +The mercy reflectors, with their tertiary associates, engage in numerous +superuniverse ministries, including the teaching of the ascending creatures. +Among many other things the Significance of Origins teach these ascenders how +to apply spirit ethics, and following such training, the Memories of Mercy +teach them how to be truly merciful. While the spirit techniques of mercy +ministry are beyond your concept, you should even now understand that mercy is +a quality of growth. You should realize that there is a great reward of +personal satisfaction in being first just, next fair, then patient, then kind. +And then, on that foundation, if you choose and have it in your heart, you can +take the next step and really show mercy; but you cannot exhibit mercy in and +of itself. These steps must be traversed; otherwise there can be no genuine +mercy. There may be patronage, condescension, or charity--even pity--but not +mercy. True mercy comes only as the beautiful climax to these preceding +adjuncts to group understanding, mutual appreciation, fraternal fellowship, +spiritual communion, and divine harmony. + +3. The Import of Time. Time is the one universal endowment of all will +creatures; it is the "one talent" intrusted to all intelligent beings. You all +have time in which to insure your survival; and time is fatally squandered only +when it is buried in neglect, when you fail so to utilize it as to make certain +the survival of your soul. Failure to improve one's time to the fullest extent +possible does not impose fatal penalties; it merely retards the pilgrim of time +in his journey of ascent. If survival is gained, all other losses can be +retrieved. + +In the assignment of trusts the counsel of the Imports of Time is invaluable. +Time is a vital factor in everything this side of Havona and Paradise. In the +final judgment before the Ancients of Days, time is an element of evidence. The +Imports of Time must always afford testimony to show that every defendant has +had ample time for making decisions, achieving choice. + +These time evaluators are also the secret of prophecy; they portray the element +of time which will be required in the completion of any undertaking, and they +are just as dependable as indicators as are the frandalanks and chronoldeks of +other living orders. The Gods foresee, hence foreknow; but the ascendant +authorities of the universes of time must consult the Imports of Time to be +able to forecast events of the future. + +You will first encounter these beings on the mansion worlds, and they will +there instruct you in the advantageous use of that which you call "time," both +in its positive employment, work, and in its negative utilization, rest. Both +uses of time are important. + +4. The Solemnity of Trust. Trust is the crucial test of will creatures. +Trustworthiness is the true measure of self-mastery, character. These +seconaphim accomplish a double purpose in the economy of the superuniverses: +They portray to all will creatures the sense of the obligation, sacredness, and +solemnity of + + top of page - 316 + +trust. At the same time they unerringly reflect to the governing authorities +the exact trustworthiness of any candidate for confidence or trust. + +On Urantia, you grotesquely essay to read character and to estimate specific +abilities, but on Uversa we actually do these things in perfection. These +seconaphim weigh trustworthiness in the living scales of unerring character +appraisal, and when they have looked at you, we have only to look at them to +know the limitations of your ability to discharge responsibility, execute +trust, and fulfill missions. Your assets of trustworthiness are clearly set +forth alongside your liabilities of possible default or betrayal. + +It is the plan of your superiors to advance you by augmented trusts just as +fast as your character is sufficiently developed to gracefully bear these added +responsibilities, but to overload the individual only courts disaster and +insures disappointment. And the mistake of placing responsibility prematurely +upon either man or angel may be avoided by utilizing the ministry of these +infallible estimators of the trust capacity of the individuals of time and +space. These seconaphim ever accompany Those High in Authority, and never do +these executives make assignments until their candidates have been weighed in +the secoraphic balances and pronounced "not wanting." + +5. The Sanctity of Service. The privilege of service immediately follows the +discovery of trustworthiness. Nothing can stand between you and opportunity for +increased service except your own untrustworthiness, your lack of capacity for +appreciation of the solemnity of trust. + +Service--purposeful service, not slavery--is productive of the highest +satisfaction and is expressive of the divinest dignity. Service--more service, +increased service, difficult service, adventurous service, and at last divine +and perfect service--is the goal of time and the destination of space. But ever +will the play cycles of time alternate with the service cycles of progress. And +after the service of time there follows the superservice of eternity. During +the play of time you should envision the work of eternity, even as you will, +during the service of eternity, reminisce the play of time. + +The universal economy is based on intake and output; throughout the eternal +career you will never encounter monotony of inaction or stagnation of +personality. Progress is made possible by inherent motion, advancement grows +out of the divine capacity for action, and achievement is the child of +imaginative adventure. But inherent in this capacity for achievement is the +responsibility of ethics, the necessity for recognizing that the world and the +universe are filled with a multitude of differing types of beings. All of this +magnificent creation, including yourself, was not made just for you. This is +not an egocentric universe. The Gods have decreed, "It is more blessed to give +than to receive," and said your Master Son, "He who would be greatest among you +let him be server of all." + +The real nature of any service, be it rendered by man or angel, is fully +revealed in the faces of these secoraphic service indicators, the Sanctities of +Service. The full analysis of the true and of the hidden motives is clearly +shown. These angels are indeed the mind readers, heart searchers, and soul +revealers of the universe. Mortals may employ words to conceal their thoughts, +but these high seconaphim lay bare the deep motives of the human heart and of +the angelic mind. + + top of page - 317 + +6 and 7. The Secret of Greatness and the Soul of Goodness. The ascending +pilgrims having awakened to the import of time, the way is prepared for the +realization of the solemnity of trust and for the appreciation of the sanctity +of service. While these are the moral elements of greatness, there are also +secrets of greatness. When the spiritual tests of greatness are applied, the +moral elements are not disregarded, but the quality of unselfishness revealed +in disinterested labor for the welfare of one's earthly fellows, particularly +worthy beings in need and in distress, that is the real measure of planetary +greatness. And the manifestation of greatness on a world like Urantia is the +exhibition of self-control. The great man is not he who "takes a city" or +"overthrows a nation," but rather "he who subdues his own tongue." + +Greatness is synonymous with divinity. God is supremely great and good. +Greatness and goodness simply cannot be divorced. They are forever made one in +God. This truth is literally and strikingly illustrated by the reflective +interdependence of the Secret of Greatness and the Soul of Goodness, for +neither can function without the other. In reflecting other qualities of +divinity, the superuniverse seconaphim can and do act alone, but the reflective +estimates of greatness and of goodness appear to be inseparable. Hence, on any +world, in any universe, must these reflectors of greatness and of goodness work +together, always showing a dual and mutually dependent report of every being +upon whom they focalize. Greatness cannot be estimated without knowing the +content of goodness, while goodness cannot be portrayed without exhibiting its +inherent and divine greatness. + +The estimate of greatness varies from sphere to sphere. To be great is to be +Godlike. And since the quality of greatness is wholly determined by the content +of goodness, it follows that, even in your present human estate, if you can +through grace become good, you are thereby becoming great. The more steadfastly +you behold, and the more persistently you pursue, the concepts of divine +goodness, the more certainly will you grow in greatness, in true magnitude of +genuine survival character. + +7. MINISTRY OF THE SECONAPHIM + +The seconaphim have their origin and headquarters on the capitals of the +superuniverses, but with their liaison fellows they range from the shores of +Paradise to the evolutionary worlds of space. They serve as valued assistants +to the members of the deliberative assemblies of the supergovernments and are +of great help to the courtesy colonies of Uversa: the star students, millennial +tourists, celestial observers, and a host of others, including the ascendant +beings in waiting for Havona transport. The Ancients of Days take pleasure in +assigning certain of the primary seconaphim to assist the ascending creatures +domiciled on the four hundred ninety study worlds surrounding Uversa, and here +also do many of the secondary and tertiary orders serve as teachers. These +Uversa satellites are the finishing schools of the universes of time, +presenting the preparatory course for the seven-circuited university of Havona. + +Of the three orders of seconaphim, the tertiary group, attached to the +ascendant authorities, minister most extensively to the ascending creatures of +time. You will on occasion meet them soon after your departure from Urantia, +though you will not freely make use of their services until you reach the +tarrying worlds of + + top of page - 318 + +Orvonton. You will enjoy their companionship when you become fully acquainted +with them during your sojourn on the Uversa school worlds. + +These tertiary seconaphim are the timesavers, space abridgers, error detectors, +faithful teachers, and everlasting guideposts--living signs of divine +surety--in mercy placed at the crossroads of time, there to guide the feet of +anxious pilgrims in moments of great perplexity and spiritual uncertainty. Long +before attaining the portals of perfection, you will begin to gain access to +the tools of divinity and to make contact with the techniques of Deity. +Increasingly, from the time you arrive on the initial mansion world until you +close your eyes in the Havona sleep preparatory to your Paradise transit, you +will avail yourself of the emergency help of these marvelous beings, who are so +fully and freely reflective of the sure knowledge and certain wisdom of those +safe and dependable pilgrims who have preceded you on the long journey to the +portals of perfection. + +We are denied the full privilege of using these angels of the reflective order +on Urantia. They are frequent visitors on your world, accompanying assigned +personalities, but here they cannot freely function. This sphere is still under +partial spiritual quarantine, and some of the circuits essential to their +services are not here at present. When your world is once more restored to the +reflective circuits concerned, much of the work of interplanetary and +interuniverse communication will be greatly simplified and expedited. Celestial +workers on Urantia encounter many difficulties because of this functional +curtailment of their reflective associates. But we go on joyfully conducting +our affairs with the instrumentalities at hand, notwithstanding our local +deprivation of many of the services of these marvelous beings, the living +mirrors of space and the presence projectors of time. + +[Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger of Uversa.] + + top of page - 319 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Ministry Of ³ The Universe ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ The... ³ Po... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p029.txt b/religious documents/p029.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d46788 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p029.txt @@ -0,0 +1,701 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 29 The Universe Power Directors + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 29 The Universe Power Directors + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +OF ALL the universe personalities concerned in the regulation of interplanetary +and interuniverse affairs, the power directors and their associates have been +the least understood on Urantia. While your races have long known of the +existence of angels and similar orders of celestial beings, little information +concerning the controllers and regulators of the physical domain has ever been +imparted. Even now I am permitted fully to disclose only the last of the +following three groups of living beings having to do with force control and +energy regulation in the master universe: + +1. Primary Eventuated Master Force Organizers. + +2. Associate Transcendental Master Force Organizers. + +3. Universe Power Directors. + +Though I deem it impossible to portray the individuality of the various groups +of directors, centers, and controllers of universe power, I hope to be able to +explain something about the domain of their activities. They are a unique group +of living beings having to do with the intelligent regulation of energy +throughout the grand universe. Including the supreme directors, they embrace +the following major divisions: + +1. The Seven Supreme Power Directors. + +2. The Supreme Power Centers. + +3. The Master Physical Controllers. + +4. The Morontia Power Supervisors. + +The Supreme Power Directors and Centers have existed from the near times of +eternity, and as far as we know, no more beings of these orders have been +created. The Seven Supreme Directors were personalized by the Seven Master +Spirits, and then they collaborated with their parents in the production of +more than ten billion associates. Before the days of the power directors the +energy circuits of space outside of the central universe were under the +intelligent supervision of the Master Force Organizers of Paradise. + +Having knowledge about material creatures, you have at least a contrastive +conception of spiritual beings; but it is very difficult for the mortal mind to +envisage the power directors. In the scheme of ascendant progression to higher +levels of existence you have nothing directly to do with either the supreme +directors or the power centers. On certain rare occasions you will have +dealings with the physical controllers, and you will work freely with the +supervisors of morontia power upon reaching the mansion worlds. These Morontia +Power Supervisors function so exclusively in the morontia regime of the local +creations + + top of page - 320 + +that it is deemed best to narrate their activities in the section dealing with +the local universe. + +1. THE SEVEN SUPREME POWER DIRECTORS + +The Seven Supreme Power Directors are the physical-energy regulators of the +grand universe. Their creation by the Seven Master Spirits is the first +recorded instance of the derivation of semimaterial progeny from true spirit +ancestry. When the Seven Master Spirits create individually, they bring forth +highly spiritual personalities on the angelic order; when they create +collectively, they sometimes produce these high types of semimaterial beings. +But even these quasi-physical beings would be invisible to the short-range +vision of Urantia mortals. + +The Supreme Power Directors are seven in number, and they are identical in +appearance and function. One cannot be distinguished from another except by +that Master Spirit with whom each is in immediate association, and to whom each +is in complete functional subservience. Each of the Master Spirits is thus in +eternal union with one of their collective offspring. The same director is +always in association with the same Spirit, and their working partnership +results in a unique association of physical and spiritual energies, of a +semiphysical being and a spirit personality. + +The Seven Supreme Power Directors are stationed on peripheral Paradise, where +their slowly circulating presences indicate the whereabouts of the force-focal +headquarters of the Master Spirits. These power directors function singly in +the power-energy regulation of the superuniverses but collectively in the +administration of the central creation. They operate from Paradise but maintain +themselves as effective power centers in all divisions of the grand universe. + +These mighty beings are the physical ancestors of the vast host of the power +centers and, through them, of the physical controllers scattered throughout the +seven superuniverses. Such subordinate physical-control organisms are basically +uniform, identical except for the differential toning of each superuniverse +corps. In order to change in superuniverse service, they would merely have to +return to Paradise for retoning. The physical creation is fundamentally uniform +in administration. + +2. THE SUPREME POWER CENTERS + +The Seven Supreme Power Directors are not able, individually, to reproduce +themselves, but collectively, and in association with the Seven Master Spirits, +they can and do reproduce--create--other beings like themselves. Such is the +origin of the Supreme Power Centers of the grand universe, who function in the +following seven groups: + +1. Supreme Center Supervisors. + +2. Havona Centers. + +3. Superuniverse Centers. + +4. Local Universe Centers. + +5. Constellation Centers. + +6. System Centers. + +7. Unclassified Centers. + + top of page - 321 + +These power centers together with the Supreme Power Directors are beings of +high will freedom and action. They are all endowed with Third-Source +personality and disclose unquestioned volitional capacity of a high order. +These directing centers of the universe power system are the possessors of +exquisite intelligence endowment; they are the intellect of the power system of +the grand universe and the secret of the technique of the mind control of all +the vast network of the far-flung functions of the Master Physical Controllers +and the Morontia Power Supervisors. + +1. Supreme Center Supervisors. These seven co-ordinates and associates of the +Supreme Power Directors are the regulators of the master energy circuits of the +grand universe. Each center supervisor is headquartered on one of the special +worlds of the Seven Supreme Executives, and they work in close association with +these co-ordinators of general universe affairs. + +The Supreme Power Directors and the Supreme Center Supervisors function both as +individuals and conjointly with regard to all cosmic phenomena below the levels +of "gravity energy." When acting in liaison, these fourteen beings are to +universe power what the Seven Supreme Executives are to general universe +affairs, and what the Seven Master Spirits are to the cosmic mind. + +2. Havona Centers. Before the creation of the universes of time and space, +power centers were not required in Havona, but ever since these far-distant +times, one million have functioned in the central creation, each center having +the supervision of a thousand Havona worlds. Here in the divine universe there +is perfection of energy control, a condition not existing elsewhere. Perfection +of energy regulation is the ultimate goal of all the power centers and the +physical controllers of space. + +3. Superuniverse Centers. Occupying an enormous area on the capital sphere of +each of the seven superuniverses are one thousand power centers of the third +order. Three currents of primary energy of ten segregations each come in to +these power centers, but seven specialized and well-directed, though +imperfectly controlled, circuits of power go forth from their seat of united +action. This is the electronic organization of universe power. + +All energy is circuited in the Paradise cycle, but the Universe Power Directors +direct the force-energies of nether Paradise as they find them modified in the +space functions of the central and superuniverses, converting and directing +these energies into channels of useful and constructive application. There is a +difference between Havona energy and the energies of the superuniverses. The +power charge of a superuniverse consists of three phases of energy of ten +segregations each. This threefold energy charge spreads throughout the space of +the grand universe; it is like a vast moving ocean of energy which engulfs and +bathes the whole of each of the seven supercreations. + +The electronic organization of universe power functions in seven phases and +discloses varying response to local or linear gravity. This sevenfold circuit +proceeds from the superuniverse power centers and pervades each supercreation. +Such specialized currents of time and space are definite and localized energy +movements initiated and directed for specific purposes, much as the Gulf Stream +functions as a circumscribed phenomenon in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean. + +4. Local Universe Centers. On the headquarters of each local universe are +stationed one hundred power centers of the fourth order. They function to down- + + top of page - 322 + +step and otherwise to modify the seven power circuits emanating from +superuniverse headquarters, thus making them applicable to the services of the +constellations and systems. The local astronomical catastrophes of space are of +passing concern to these power centers; they are engaged in the orderly +dispatch of effective energy to the subsidiary constellations and systems. They +are of great assistance to the Creator Sons during the later times of universe +organization and energy mobilization. These centers are able to provide +intensified lanes of energy useful for interplanetary communication between +important inhabited points. Such a lane or line of energy, sometimes also +called an energy path, is a direct circuit of energy from one power center to +another power center or from one physical controller to another controller. It +is an individualized stream of power and stands in contrast to the free space +movements of undifferentiated energy. + +5. Constellation Centers. Ten of these living power centers are stationed in +each constellation, functioning as energy projectors to the one hundred +tributary local systems. From these beings there go forth the power lines for +communication and transport and for the energizing of those living creatures +who are dependent upon certain forms of physical energy for the maintenance of +life. But neither the power centers nor the subordinate physical controllers +are otherwise concerned with life as a functional organization. + +6. System Centers. One Supreme Power Center is permanently assigned to each +local system. These system centers dispatch the power circuits to the inhabited +worlds of time and space. They co-ordinate the activities of the subordinate +physical controllers and otherwise function to insure the satisfactory +distribution of power in the local system. The circuit relay between the +planets depends upon the perfect co-ordination of certain material energies and +upon the efficient regulation of physical power. + +7. Unclassified Centers. These are the centers who function in special local +situations but not on the inhabited planets. The individual worlds are in the +charge of Master Physical Controllers and receive the encircuited lines of +power dispatched by the power center of their system. Only those spheres of the +most extraordinary energy relationships have power centers of the seventh order +acting as universe balance wheels or energy governors. In every phase of +activity these power centers are the full equals of those who function on the +higher units of control, but not one space body in a million harbors such a +living power organization. + +3. THE DOMAIN OF POWER CENTERS + +The Supreme Power Centers distributed throughout the superuniverses number, +with their associates and subordinates, upward of ten billion. And they are all +in perfect synchrony and complete liaison with their Paradise progenitors, the +Seven Supreme Power Directors. The power control of the grand universe is thus +intrusted to the keeping and direction of the Seven Master Spirits, the +creators of the Seven Supreme Power Directors. + +The Supreme Power Directors and all their associates, assistants, and +subordinates are forever exempt from apprehension or interference by all the +tribunals of all space; neither are they subject to the administrative +direction either + + top of page - 323 + +of the superuniverse government of the Ancients of Days or of the local +universe administration of the Creator Sons. + +These power centers and directors are brought into being by the children of the +Infinite Spirit. They are not germane to the administration of the Sons of God, +though they affiliate with the Creator Sons during the later epochs of universe +material organization. But the power centers are in some way closely associated +with the cosmic overcontrol of the Supreme Being. + +Power centers and physical controllers undergo no training; they are all +created in perfection and are inherently perfect in action. Never do they pass +from one function to another; always do they serve as originally assigned. +There is no evolution in their ranks, and this is true of all seven divisions +of both orders. + +Having no ascendant past to revert to in memory, power centers and physical +controllers never play; they are thoroughly businesslike in all their actions. +They are always on duty; there is no provision in the universal scheme for the +interruption of the physical lines of energy; never for a fraction of a second +can these beings relinquish their direct supervision of the energy circuits of +time and space. + +The directors, centers, and controllers of power have nothing to do with +anything in all creation except power, material or semiphysical energy; they do +not originate it, but they do modify, manipulate, and directionize it. Neither +do they have anything whatever to do with physical gravity except to resist its +drawing power. Their relation to gravity is wholly negative. + +The power centers utilize vast mechanisms and co-ordinations of a material +order in liaison with the living mechanisms of the various segregated energy +concentrations. Each individual power center is constituted in exactly one +million units of functional control, and these energy-modifying units are not +stationary as are the vital organs of man's physical body; these "vital organs" +of power regulation are mobile and truly kaleidoscopic in associative +possibilities. + +It is utterly beyond my ability to explain the manner in which these living +beings encompass the manipulation and regulation of the master circuits of +universe energy. To undertake to inform you further concerning the size and +function of these gigantic and almost perfectly efficient power centers, would +only add to your confusion and consternation. They are both living and +"personal," but they are beyond your comprehension. + +Outside of Havona the Supreme Power Centers function only on especially +constructed (architectural) spheres or on otherwise suitably constituted space +bodies. The architectural worlds are so constructed that the living power +centers can act as selective switches to directionize, modify, and concentrate +the energies of space as they pour over these spheres. They could not so +function on an ordinary evolutionary sun or planet. Certain groups are also +concerned in the heating and other material necessities of these special +headquarters worlds. And though it is beyond the scope of Urantia knowledge, I +may state that these orders of living power personalities have much to do with +the distribution of the light that shines without heat. They do not produce +this phenomenon, but they are concerned with its dissemination and +directionization. + +The power centers and their subordinate controllers are assigned to the working +of all of the physical energies of organized space. They work with the three +basic currents of ten energies each. That is the energy charge of organized + + top of page - 324 + +space; and organized space is their domain. The Universe Power Directors have +nothing whatever to do with those tremendous actions of force which are now +taking place outside the present boundaries of the seven superuniverses. + +The power centers and controllers exert perfect control over only seven of the +ten forms of energy contained in each basic universe current; those forms which +are partly or wholly exempt from their control must represent the unpredictable +realms of energy manifestation dominated by the Unqualified Absolute. If they +exert an influence upon the primordial forces of this Absolute, we are not +cognizant of such functions, though there is some slight evidence which would +warrant the opinion that certain of the physical controllers are sometimes +automatically reactive to certain impulses of the Universal Absolute. + +These living power mechanisms are not consciously related to the master +universe energy overcontrol of the Unqualified Absolute, but we surmise that +their entire and almost perfect scheme of power direction is in some unknown +manner subordinated to this supergravity presence. In any local energy +situation the centers and controllers exert near-supremacy, but they are always +conscious of the superenergy presence and the unrecognizable performance of the +Unqualified Absolute. + +4. THE MASTER PHYSICAL CONTROLLERS + +These beings are the mobile subordinates of the Supreme Power Centers. The +physical controllers are endowed with capabilities of individuality +metamorphosis of such a nature that they can engage in a remarkable variety of +autotransport, being able to traverse local space at velocities approaching the +flight of Solitary Messengers. But like all other space traversers they require +the assistance of both their fellows and certain other types of beings in +overcoming the action of gravity and the resistance of inertia in departing +from a material sphere. + +The Master Physical Controllers serve throughout the grand universe. They are +directly governed from Paradise by the Seven Supreme Power Directors as far as +the headquarters of the superuniverses; from here they are directed and +distributed by the Council of Equilibrium, the high commissioners of power +dispatched by the Seven Master Spirits from the personnel of the Associate +Master Force Organizers. These high commissioners are empowered to interpret +the readings and registrations of the master frandalanks, those living +instruments which indicate the power pressure and the energy charge of an +entire superuniverse. + +While the presence of the Paradise Deities encircles the grand universe and +sweeps around the circle of eternity, the influence of any one of the Seven +Master Spirits is limited to a single superuniverse. There is a distinct +segregation of energy and a separation of the circuits of power between each of +the seven supercreations; hence individualized control methods must and do +prevail. + +The Master Physical Controllers are the direct offspring of the Supreme Power +Centers, and their numbers include the following: + +1. Associate Power Directors. + +2. Mechanical Controllers. + +3. Energy Transformers. + + top of page - 325 + +4. Energy Transmitters. + +5. Primary Associators. + +6. Secondary Dissociators. + +7. The Frandalanks and Chronoldeks. + +Not all of these orders are persons in the sense of possessing individual +powers of choice. Especially do the last four seem to be wholly automatic and +mechanical in response to the impulses of their superiors and in reaction to +existing energy conditions. But though such response appears wholly +mechanistic, it is not; they may seem to be automatons, but all of them +disclose the differential function of intelligence. + +Personality is not necessarily a concomitant of mind. Mind can think even when +deprived of all power of choice, as in numerous of the lower types of animals +and in certain of these subordinate physical controllers. Many of these more +automatic regulators of physical power are not persons in any sense of the +term. They are not endowed with will and independence of decision, being wholly +subservient to the mechanical perfection of design for the tasks of their +allotment. Nonetheless all of them are highly intelligent beings. + +The physical controllers are chiefly occupied in the adjustment of basic +energies undiscovered on Urantia. These unknown energies are very essential to +the interplanetary system of transport and to certain techniques of +communication. When we lay lines of energy for the purpose of conveying sound +equivalents or of extending vision, these undiscovered forms of energy are +utilized by the living physical controllers and their associates. These same +energies are also, on occasion, used by the midway creatures in their routine +work. + +1. Associate Power Directors. These marvelously efficient beings are intrusted +with the assignment and dispatch of all orders of the Master Physical +Controllers in accordance with the ever-shifting needs of the constantly +changing energy status of the realms. The vast reserves of the physical +controllers are maintained on the headquarters worlds of the minor sectors, and +from these concentration points they are periodically dispatched by the +associate power directors to the headquarters of the universes, constellations, +and systems, and to the individual planets. When thus assigned, the physical +controllers are provisionally subject to the orders of the divine executioners +of the conciliating commissions but are otherwise solely amenable to their +associate directors and to the Supreme Power Centers. + +Three million associate power directors are assigned to each of the Orvonton +minor sectors, making a total of three billion as the superuniverse quota of +these amazingly versatile beings. Their own reserves are maintained on these +same minor sector worlds, where they also serve as instructors of all who study +the sciences of the techniques of intelligent energy control and transmutation. + +These directors alternate periods of executive service in the minor sectors +with equal periods of inspection service to the realms of space. At least one +acting inspector is always present in each local system, maintaining +headquarters on its capital sphere. They keep the whole vast living energy +aggregation in harmonious synchrony. + +2. Mechanical Controllers. These are the exceedingly versatile and mobile +assistants of the associate power directors. Trillions upon trillions of them +are commissioned in Ensa, your minor sector. These beings are called mechanical + + top of page - 326 + +controllers because they are so completely dominated by their superiors, so +fully subservient to the will of the associate power directors. Nevertheless +they are, themselves, very intelligent, and their work, though mechanical and +matter-of-fact in nature, is skillfully performed. + +Of all the Master Physical Controllers assigned to the inhabited worlds, the +mechanical controllers are by far the most powerful. Possessing the living +endowment of antigravity in excess of all other beings, each controller has a +gravity resistance equaled only by enormous spheres revolving at tremendous +velocity. Ten of these controllers are now stationed on Urantia, and one of +their most important planetary activities is to facilitate the departure of +seraphic transports. In so functioning, all ten of the mechanical controllers +act in unison while a battery of one thousand energy transmitters provides the +initial momentum for the seraphic departure. + +The mechanical controllers are competent to directionize the flow of energy and +to facilitate its concentration into the specialized currents or circuits. +These mighty beings have much to do with the segregation, directionization, and +intensification of the physical energies and with the equalization of the +pressures of the interplanetary circuits. They are expert in the manipulation +of twenty-one of the thirty physical energies of space, constituting the power +charge of a superuniverse. They are also able to accomplish much towards the +management and control of six of the nine more subtle forms of physical energy. +By placing these controllers in proper technical relationship to each other and +to certain of the power centers, the associate power directors are enabled to +effect unbelievable changes in power adjustment and energy control. + +The Master Physical Controllers often function in batteries of hundreds, +thousands, and even millions and by varying their positions and formations are +able to effect energy control in a collective as well as an individual +capacity. As requirements vary, they can upstep and accelerate the energy +volume and movement or detain, condense, and retard the energy currents. They +influence energy and power transformations somewhat as so-called catalytic +agents augment chemical reactions. They function by inherent ability and in +co-operation with the Supreme Power Centers. + +3. Energy Transformers. The number of these beings in a superuniverse is +unbelievable. There are almost one million in Satania alone, and the usual +quota is one hundred for each inhabited world. + +The energy transformers are the conjoint creation of the Seven Supreme Power +Directors and the Seven Central Supervisors. They are among the more personal +orders of physical controllers, and except when an associate power director is +present on an inhabited world, the transformers are in command. They are the +planetary inspectors of all departing seraphic transports. All classes of +celestial life can utilize the less personal orders of the physical controllers +only by liaison with the more personal orders of the associate directors and +the energy transformers. + +These transformers are powerful and effective living switches, being able to +dispose themselves for or against a given power disposition or +directionization. They are also skillful in their efforts to insulate the +planets against the powerful energy streams passing between gigantic planetary +and starry neighbors. Their energy-transmutive attributes render them most +serviceable in the important task of maintaining universal energy balance, or +power equilibrium. At one + + top of page - 327 + +time they seem to consume or store energy; at other times they appear to exude +or liberate energy. The transformers are able to increase or to diminish the +"storage-battery" potential of the living and dead energies of their respective +realms. But they deal only with physical and semimaterial energies, they do not +directly function in the domain of life, neither do they change the forms of +living beings. + +In some respects the energy transformers are the most remarkable and mysterious +of all semimaterial living creatures. They are in some unknown manner +physically differentiated, and by varying their liaison relationships, they are +able to exert a profound influence upon the energy which passes through their +associated presences. The status of the physical realms seems to undergo a +transformation under their skillful manipulation. They can and do change the +physical form of the energies of space. With the aid of their fellow +controllers they are actually able to change the form and potential of +twenty-seven of the thirty physical energies of the superuniverse power charge. +That three of these energies are beyond their control proves that they are not +instrumentalities of the Unqualified Absolute. + +The remaining four groups of the Master Physical Controllers are hardly persons +within any acceptable definition of that word. These transmitters, associators, +dissociators, and frandalanks are wholly automatic in their reactions; +nevertheless they are in every sense intelligent. We are greatly limited in our +knowledge of these wonderful entities because we cannot communicate with them. +They appear to understand the language of the realm, but they cannot +communicate with us. They seem fully able to receive our communications but +quite powerless to make response. + +4. Energy Transmitters. These beings function chiefly, but not wholly, in an +intraplanetary capacity. They are marvelous dispatchers of energy as it is +manifested on the individual worlds. + +When energy is to be diverted to a new circuit, the transmitters deploy +themselves in a line along the desired energy path, and by virtue of their +unique attributes of energy-attraction, they can actually induce an increased +energy flow in the desired direction. This they do just as literally as certain +metallic circuits directionize the flow of certain forms of electric energy; +and they are living superconductors for more than half of the thirty forms of +physical energy. + +Transmitters form skillful liaisons which are effective in rehabilitating the +weakening currents of specialized energy passing from planet to planet and from +station to station on an individual planet. They can detect currents which are +much too feeble to be recognized by any other type of living being, and they +can so augment these energies that the accompanying message becomes perfectly +intelligible. Their services are invaluable to the broadcast receivers. + +Energy transmitters can function with regard to all forms of communicable +perception; they can render a distant scene "visible" as well as a distant +sound "audible." They provide the emergency lines of communication in the local +systems and on the individual planets. These services must be used by +practically all creatures for purposes of communication outside of the +regularly established circuits. + +These beings, together with the energy transformers, are indispensable to the +maintenance of mortal existence on those worlds having an impoverished + + top of page - 328 + +atmosphere, and they are an integral part of the technique of life on the +nonbreathing planets. + +5. Primary Associators. These interesting and invaluable entities are masterly +energy conservators and custodians. Somewhat as a plant stores solar light, so +do these living organisms store energy during times of plus manifestations. +They work on a gigantic scale, converting the energies of space into a physical +state not known on Urantia. They are also able to carry forward these +transformations to the point of producing some of the primitive units of +material existence. These beings simply act by their presence. They are in no +way exhausted or depleted by this function; they act like living catalytic +agents. + +During seasons of minus manifestations they are empowered to release these +accumulated energies. But your knowledge of energy and matter is not +sufficiently advanced to make it possible to explain the technique of this +phase of their work. They always labor in compliance with universal law, +handling and manipulating atoms, electrons, and ultimatons much as you maneuver +adjustable type to make the same alphabetical symbols tell vastly different +stories. + +The associators are the first group of life to appear on an organizing material +sphere, and they can function at physical temperatures which you would regard +as utterly incompatible with the existence of living beings. They represent an +order of life which is simply beyond the range of human imagination. Together +with their co-workers, the dissociators, they are the most slavish of all +intelligent creatures. + +6. Secondary Dissociators. Compared with the primary associators, these beings +of enormous antigravity endowment are the reverse workers. There is never any +danger that the special or modified forms of physical energy on the local +worlds or in the local systems will be exhausted, for these living +organizations are endowed with the unique power of evolving limitless supplies +of energy. They are chiefly concerned with the evolution of a form of energy +which is hardly known on Urantia from a form of matter which is recognized +still less. They are truly the alchemists of space and the wonder-workers of +time. But in all the wonders they work, they never transgress the mandates of +Cosmic Supremacy. + +7. The Frandalanks. These beings are the joint creation of all three orders of +energy-control beings: the primary and secondary force organizers and the power +directors. Frandalanks are the most numerous of all the Master Physical +Controllers; the number functioning in Satania alone is beyond your numerical +concept. They are stationed on all inhabited worlds and are always attached to +the higher orders of physical controllers. They function interchangeably in the +central and superuniverses and in the domains of outer space. + +The frandalanks are created in thirty divisions, one for each form of basic +universe force, and they function exclusively as living and automatic presence, +pressure, and velocity gauges. These living barometers are solely concerned +with the automatic and unerring registration of the status of all forms of +force-energy. They are to the physical universe what the vast reflectivity +mechanism is to the minded universe. The frandalanks that register time in +addition to quantitative and qualitative energy presence are called +chronoldeks. + +I recognize that the frandalanks are intelligent, but I cannot classify them as +other than living machines. About the only way I can help you to understand + + top of page - 329 + +these living mechanisms is to compare them to your own mechanical contrivances +which perform with almost intelligentlike precision and accuracy. Then if you +would conceive of these beings, draw upon your imagination to the extent of +recognizing that in the grand universe we actually have intelligent and living +mechanisms (entities) that can perform more intricate tasks involving more +stupendous computations with even greater delicacy of accuracy, even with +ultimacy of precision. + +5. THE MASTER FORCE ORGANIZERS + +The force organizers are resident on Paradise, but they function throughout the +master universe, more particularly in the domains of unorganized space. These +extraordinary beings are neither creators nor creatures, and they comprise two +grand divisions of service: + +1. Primary Eventuated Master Force Organizers. + +2. Associate Transcendental Master Force Organizers. + +These two mighty orders of primordial-force manipulators work exclusively under +the supervision of the Architects of the Master Universe, and at the present +time they do not function extensively within the boundaries of the grand +universe. + +Primary Master Force Organizers are the manipulators of the primordial or basic +space-forces of the Unqualified Absolute; they are nebulae creators. They are +the living instigators of the energy cyclones of space and the early organizers +and directionizers of these gigantic manifestations. These force organizers +transmute primordial force (pre-energy not responsive to direct Paradise +gravity) into primary or puissant energy, energy transmuting from the exclusive +grasp of the Unqualified Absolute to the gravity grasp of the Isle of Paradise. +They are thereupon succeeded by the associate force organizers, who continue +the process of energy transmutation from the primary through the secondary or +gravity-energy stage. + +Upon the completion of the plans for the creation of a local universe, +signalized by the arrival of a Creator Son, the Associate Master Force +Organizers give way to the orders of power directors acting in the +superuniverse of astronomic jurisdiction. But in the absence of such plans the +associate force organizers continue on indefinitely in charge of these material +creations, even as they now operate in outer space. + +The Master Force Organizers withstand temperatures and function under physical +conditions which would be intolerable even to the versatile power centers and +physical controllers of Orvonton. The only other types of revealed beings +capable of functioning in these realms of outer space are the Solitary +Messengers and the Inspired Trinity Spirits. + +[Sponsored by a Universal Censor acting by authority of the Ancients of Days on +Uversa.] + + top of page - 330 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Ministering ³ Personalities ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Spi... ³ O... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p030.txt b/religious documents/p030.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..881329c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p030.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1065 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 30 Personalities Of The Grand Universe + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 30 Personalities Of The Grand Universe + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE personalities and other-than-personal entities now functioning on Paradise +and in the grand universe constitute a well-nigh limitless number of living +beings. Even the number of major orders and types would stagger the human +imagination, let alone the countless subtypes and variations. It is, however, +desirable to present something of two basic classifications of living beings--a +suggestion of the Paradise classification and an abbreviation of the Uversa +Personality Register. + +It is not possible to formulate comprehensive and entirely consistent +classifications of the personalities of the grand universe because all of the +groups are not revealed. It would require numerous additional papers to cover +the further revelation required to systematically classify all groups. Such +conceptual expansion would hardly be desirable as it would deprive the thinking +mortals of the next thousand years of that stimulus to creative speculation +which these partially revealed concepts supply. It is best that man not have an +overrevelation; it stifles imagination. + +1. THE PARADISE CLASSIFICATION OF LIVING BEINGS + +Living beings are classified on Paradise in accordance with inherent and +attained relationship to the Paradise Deities. During the grand gatherings of +the central and superuniverses those present are often grouped in accordance +with origin: those of triune origin, or of Trinity attainment; those of dual +origin; and those of single origin. It is difficult to interpret the Paradise +classification of living beings to the mortal mind, but we are authorized to +present the following: + +I. TRIUNE-ORIGIN BEINGS. Beings created by all three Paradise Deities, either +as such or as the Trinity, together with the Trinitized Corps, which +designation refers to all groups of trinitized beings, revealed and unrevealed. + +A. The Supreme Spirits. + +1. The Seven Master Spirits. + +2. The Seven Supreme Executives. + +3. The Seven Orders of Reflective Spirits. + +B. The Stationary Sons of the Trinity. + +1. Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy. + +2. Eternals of Days. + +3. Ancients of Days. + +4. Perfections of Days. + + top of page - 331 + +5. Recents of Days. + +6. Unions of Days. + +7. Faithfuls of Days. + +8. Perfectors of Wisdom. + +9. Divine Counselors. + +10. Universal Censors. + +C. Trinity-origin and Trinitized Beings. + +1. Trinity Teacher Sons. + +2. Inspired Trinity Spirits. + +3. Havona Natives. + +4. Paradise Citizens. + +5. Unrevealed Trinity-origin Beings. + +6. Unrevealed Deity-trinitized Beings. + +7. Trinitized Sons of Attainment. + +8. Trinitized Sons of Selection. + +9. Trinitized Sons of Perfection. + +10. Creature-trinitized Sons. + +II. DUAL-ORIGIN BEINGS. Those of origin in any two of the Paradise Deities or +otherwise created by any two beings of direct or indirect descent from the +Paradise Deities. + +A. The Descending Orders. + +1. Creator Sons. + +2. Magisterial Sons. + +3. Bright and Morning Stars. + +4. Father Melchizedeks. + +5. The Melchizedeks. + +6. The Vorondadeks. + +7. The Lanonandeks. + +8. Brilliant Evening Stars. + +9. The Archangels. + +10. Life Carriers. + +11. Unrevealed Universe Aids. + +12. Unrevealed Sons of God. + +B. The Stationary Orders. + +1. Abandonters. + +2. Susatia. + +3. Univitatia. + +4. Spironga. + +5. Unrevealed Dual-origin Beings. + +C. The Ascending Orders. + +1. Adjuster-fused Mortals. + +2. Son-fused Mortals. + +3. Spirit-fused Mortals. + +4. Translated Midwayers. + +5. Unrevealed Ascenders. + + top of page - 332 + +III. SINGLE-ORIGIN BEINGS. Those of origin in any one of the Paradise Deities +or otherwise created by any one being of direct or indirect descent from the +Paradise Deities. + +A. The Supreme Spirits. + +1. Gravity Messengers. + +2. The Seven Spirits of the Havona Circuits. + +3. The Twelvefold Adjutants of the Havona Circuits. + +4. The Reflective Image Aids. + +5. Universe Mother Spirits. + +6. The Sevenfold Adjutant Mind-Spirits. + +7. Unrevealed Deity-origin Beings. + +B. The Ascending Orders. + +1. Personalized Adjusters. + +2. Ascending Material Sons. + +3. Evolutionary Seraphim. + +4. Evolutionary Cherubim. + +5. Unrevealed Ascenders. + +C. The Family of the Infinite Spirit. + +1. Solitary Messengers. + +2. Universe Circuit Supervisors. + +3. Census Directors. + +4. Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit. + +5. Associate Inspectors. + +6. Assigned Sentinels. + +7. Graduate Guides. + +8. Havona Servitals. + +9. Universal Conciliators. + +10. Morontia Companions. + +11. Supernaphim. + +12. Seconaphim. + +13. Tertiaphim. + +14. Omniaphim. + +15. Seraphim. + +16. Cherubim and Sanobim. + +17. Unrevealed Spirit-origin Beings. + +18. The Seven Supreme Power Directors. + +19. The Supreme Power Centers. + +20. The Master Physical Controllers. + +21. The Morontia Power Supervisors. + +IV. EVENTUATED TRANSCENDENTAL BEINGS. There is to be found on Paradise a vast +host of transcendental beings whose origin is not ordinarily disclosed to the +universes of time and space until they are settled in light and life. These +Transcendentalers are neither creators nor creatures; they are the eventuated +children of divinity, ultimacy, and eternity. These "eventuators" are neither +finite nor infinite--they are absonite; and absonity is neither infinity nor +absoluteness. + + top of page - 333 + +These uncreated noncreators are ever loyal to the Paradise Trinity and obedient +to the Ultimate. They are existent on four ultimate levels of personality +activity and are functional on the seven levels of the absonite in twelve grand +divisions consisting of one thousand major working groups of seven classes +each. These eventuated beings include the following orders: + +1. The Architects of the Master Universe. + +2. Transcendental Recorders. + +3. Other Transcendentalers. + +4. Primary Eventuated Master Force Organizers. + +5. Associate Transcendental Master Force Organizers. + +God, as a superperson, eventuates; God, as a person, creates; God, as a +preperson, fragments; and such an Adjuster fragment of himself evolves the +spirit soul upon the material and mortal mind in accordance with the freewill +choosing of the personality which has been bestowed upon such a mortal creature +by the parental act of God as a Father. + +V. FRAGMENTED ENTITIES OF DEITY. This order of living existence, originating in +the Universal Father, is best typified by the Thought Adjusters, though these +entities are by no means the only fragmentations of the prepersonal reality of +the First Source and Center. The functions of the other-than-Adjuster fragments +are manifold and little known. Fusion with an Adjuster or other such fragment +constitutes the creature a Father-fused being. + +The fragmentations of the premind spirit of the Third Source and Center, though +hardly comparable to the Father fragments, should be here recorded. Such +entities differ very greatly from Adjusters; they do not as such dwell on +Spiritington, nor do they as such traverse the mind-gravity circuits; neither +do they indwell mortal creatures during the life in the flesh. They are not +prepersonal in the sense that the Adjusters are, but such fragments of premind +spirit are bestowed upon certain of the surviving mortals, and fusion therewith +constitutes them Spirit-fused mortals in contradistinction to Adjuster-fused +mortals. + +Still more difficult of description is the individualized spirit of a Creator +Son, union with which constitutes the creature a Son-fused mortal. And there +are still other fragmentations of Deity. + +VI. SUPERPERSONAL BEINGS. There is a vast host of other-than-personal beings of +divine origin and of manifold service in the universe of universes. Certain of +these beings are resident on the Paradise worlds of the Son; others, like the +superpersonal representatives of the Eternal Son, are encountered elsewhere. +They are for the most part unmentioned in these narratives, and it would be +quite futile to attempt their description to personal creatures. + +VII. UNCLASSIFIED AND UNREVEALED ORDERS. During the present universe age it +would not be possible to place all beings, personal or otherwise, within +classifications pertaining to the present universe age; nor have all such +categories been revealed in these narratives; hence numerous orders have been +omitted from these lists. Consider the following: + +The Consummator of Universe Destiny. + +The Qualified Vicegerents of the Ultimate. + + top of page - 334 + +The Unqualified Supervisors of the Supreme. + +The Unrevealed Creative Agencies of the Ancients of Days. + +Majeston of Paradise. + +The Unnamed Reflectivator Liaisons of Majeston. + +The Midsonite Orders of the Local Universes. + +No especial significance need attach to the listing of these orders together +except that none of them appear in the Paradise classification as revealed +herein. These are the unclassified few; you have yet to learn of the unrevealed +many. + +There are spirits: spirit entities, spirit presences, personal spirits, +prepersonal spirits, superpersonal spirits, spirit existences, spirit +personalities--but neither mortal language nor mortal intellect are adequate. +We may however state that there are no personalities of "pure mind"; no entity +has personality unless he is endowed with it by God who is spirit. Any mind +entity that is not associated with either spiritual or physical energy is not a +personality. But in the same sense that there are spirit personalities who have +mind there are mind personalities who have spirit. Majeston and his associates +are fairly good illustrations of mind-dominated beings, but there are better +illustrations of this type of personality unknown to you. There are even whole +unrevealed orders of such mind personalities, but they are always spirit +associated. Certain other unrevealed creatures are what might be termed mindal- +and physical-energy personalities. This type of being is nonresponsive to +spirit gravity but is nonetheless a true personality--is within the Father's +circuit. + +These papers do not--cannot--even begin to exhaust the story of the living +creatures, creators, eventuators, and still-otherwise-existent beings who live +and worship and serve in the swarming universes of time and in the central +universe of eternity. You mortals are persons; hence we can describe beings who +are personalized, but how could an absonitized being ever be explained to you? + +2. THE UVERSA PERSONALITY REGISTER + +The divine family of living beings is registered on Uversa in seven grand +divisions: + +1. The Paradise Deities. + +2. The Supreme Spirits. + +3. The Trinity-origin Beings. + +4. The Sons of God. + +5. Personalities of the Infinite Spirit. + +6. The Universe Power Directors. + +7. The Corps of Permanent Citizenship. + +These groups of will creatures are divided into numerous classes and minor +subdivisions. The presentation of this classification of the personalities of +the grand universe is however chiefly concerned in setting forth those orders +of intelligent beings who have been revealed in these narratives, most of whom +will be encountered in the ascendant experience of the mortals of time on their +progressive climb to Paradise. The following listings make no mention of vast +orders of universe beings who carry forward their work apart from the mortal +ascension scheme. + + top of page - 335 + +1. The Universal Father. + +2. The Eternal Son. + +3. The Infinite Spirit. + +1. The Seven Master Spirits. + +2. The Seven Supreme Executives. + +3. The Seven Groups of Reflective Spirits. + +4. The Reflective Image Aids. + +5. The Seven Spirits of the Circuits. + +6. Local Universe Creative Spirits. + +7. Adjutant Mind-Spirits. + +1. Trinitized Secrets of Supremacy. + +2. Eternals of Days. + +3. Ancients of Days. + +4. Perfections of Days. + +5. Recents of Days. + +6. Unions of Days. + +7. Faithfuls of Days. + +8. Trinity Teacher Sons. + +9. Perfectors of Wisdom. + +10. Divine Counselors. + +11. Universal Censors. + +12. Inspired Trinity Spirits. + +13. Havona Natives. + +14. Paradise Citizens. + +A. Descending Sons. + +1. Creator Sons--Michaels. + +2. Magisterial Sons--Avonals. + +3. Trinity Teacher Sons--Daynals. + +4. Melchizedek Sons. + +5. Vorondadek Sons. + +6. Lanonandek Sons. + +7. Life Carrier Sons. + +B. Ascending Sons. + +1. Father-fused Mortals. + +2. Son-fused Mortals. + +3. Spirit-fused Mortals. + +4. Evolutionary Seraphim. + +5. Ascending Material Sons. + +6. Translated Midwayers. + +7. Personalized Adjusters. + + top of page - 336 + +C. Trinitized Sons. + +1. Mighty Messengers. + +2. Those High in Authority. + +3. Those without Name and Number. + +4. Trinitized Custodians. + +5. Trinitized Ambassadors. + +6. Celestial Guardians. + +7. High Son Assistants. + +8. Ascender-trinitized Sons. + +9. Paradise-Havona-trinitized Sons. + +10. Trinitized Sons of Destiny. + +A. Higher Personalities of the Infinite Spirit. + +1. Solitary Messengers. + +2. Universe Circuit Supervisors. + +3. Census Directors. + +4. Personal Aids of the Infinite Spirit. + +5. Associate Inspectors. + +6. Assigned Sentinels. + +7. Graduate Guides. + +B. The Messenger Hosts of Space. + +1. Havona Servitals. + +2. Universal Conciliators. + +3. Technical Advisers. + +4. Custodians of Records on Paradise. + +5. Celestial Recorders. + +6. Morontia Companions. + +7. Paradise Companions. + +C. The Ministering Spirits. + +1. Supernaphim. + +2. Seconaphim. + +3. Tertiaphim. + +4. Omniaphim. + +5. Seraphim. + +6. Cherubim and Sanobim. + +7. Midwayers. + +A. The Seven Supreme Power Directors. + +B. Supreme Power Centers. + +1. Supreme Center Supervisors. + +2. Havona Centers. + +3. Superuniverse Centers. + +4. Local Universe Centers. + +5. Constellation Centers. + +6. System Centers. + +7. Unclassified Centers. + + top of page - 337 + +C. Master Physical Controllers. + +1. Associate Power Directors. + +2. Mechanical Controllers. + +3. Energy Transformers. + +4. Energy Transmitters. + +5. Primary Associators. + +6. Secondary Dissociators. + +7. Frandalanks and Chronoldeks. + +D. Morontia Power Supervisors. + +1. Circuit Regulators. + +2. System Co-ordinators. + +3. Planetary Custodians. + +4. Combined Controllers. + +5. Liaison Stabilizers. + +6. Selective Assorters. + +7. Associate Registrars. + +1. The Planetary Midwayers. + +2. The Adamic Sons of the Systems. + +3. The Constellation Univitatia. + +4. The Local Universe Susatia. + +5. Spirit-fused Mortals of the Local Universes. + +6. The Superuniverse Abandonters. + +7. Son-fused Mortals of the Superuniverses. + +8. The Havona Natives. + +9. Natives of the Paradise Spheres of the Spirit. + +10. Natives of the Father's Paradise Spheres. + +11. The Created Citizens of Paradise. + +12. Adjuster-fused Mortal Citizens of Paradise. + +This is the working classification of the personalities of the universes as +they are of record on the headquarters world of Uversa. + +COMPOSITE PERSONALITY GROUPS. There are on Uversa the records of numerous +additional groups of intelligent beings, beings that are also closely related +to the organization and administration of the grand universe. Among such orders +are the following three composite personality groups: + +A. The Paradise Corps of the Finality. + +1. The Corps of Mortal Finaliters. + +2. The Corps of Paradise Finaliters. + +3. The Corps of Trinitized Finaliters. + +4. The Corps of Conjoint Trinitized Finaliters. + +5. The Corps of Havona Finaliters. + +6. The Corps of Transcendental Finaliters. + +7. The Corps of Unrevealed Sons of Destiny. + +The Mortal Corps of the Finality is dealt with in the next and final paper of +this series. + + top of page - 338 + +B. The Universe Aids. + +1. Bright and Morning Stars. + +2. Brilliant Evening Stars. + +3. Archangels. + +4. Most High Assistants. + +5. High Commissioners. + +6. Celestial Overseers. + +7. Mansion World Teachers. + +On all headquarters worlds of both local and superuniverses, provision is made +for these beings who are engaged in specific missions for the Creator Sons, the +local universe rulers. We welcome these Universe Aids on Uversa, but we have no +jurisdiction over them. Such emissaries prosecute their work and carry on their +observations under authority of the Creator Sons. Their activities are more +fully described in the narrative of your local universe. + +C. The Seven Courtesy Colonies. + +1. Star Students. + +2. Celestial Artisans. + +3. Reversion Directors. + +4. Extension-school Instructors. + +5. The Various Reserve Corps. + +6. Student Visitors. + +7. Ascending Pilgrims. + +These seven groups of beings will be found thus organized and governed on all +headquarters worlds from the local systems up to the capitals of the +superuniverses, particularly the latter. The capitals of the seven +superuniverses are the meeting places for almost all classes and orders of +intelligent beings. With the exception of numerous groups of Paradise-Havoners, +here the will creatures of every phase of existence may be observed and +studied. + +3. THE COURTESY COLONIES + +The seven courtesy colonies sojourn on the architectural spheres for a longer +or shorter time while engaged in the furtherance of their missions and in the +execution of their special assignments. Their work may be described as follows: + +1. The Star Students, the celestial astronomers, choose to work on spheres like +Uversa because such specially constructed worlds are unusually favorable for +their observations and calculations. Uversa is favorably situated for the work +of this colony, not only because of its central location, but also because +there are no gigantic living or dead suns near at hand to disturb the energy +currents. These students are not in any manner organically connected with the +affairs of the superuniverse; they are merely guests. + +The astronomical colony of Uversa contains individuals from many near-by +realms, from the central universe, and even from Norlatiadek. Any being on any +world in any system of any universe may become a star student, may aspire to +join some corps of celestial astronomers. The only requisites are: continuing +life and sufficient knowledge of the worlds of space, especially their physical +laws of evolution and control. Star students are not required to serve +eternally in this + + top of page - 339 + +corps, but no one admitted to this group may withdraw under one millennium of +Uversa time. + +The star-observer colony of Uversa now numbers over one million. These +astronomers come and go, though some remain for comparatively long periods. +They carry on their work with the aid of a multitude of mechanical instruments +and physical appliances; they are also greatly assisted by the Solitary +Messengers and other spirit explorers. These celestial astronomers make +constant use of the living energy transformers and transmitters, as well as of +the reflective personalities, in their work of star study and space survey. +They study all forms and phases of space material and energy manifestations, +and they are just as much interested in force function as in stellar phenomena; +nothing in all space escapes their scrutiny. + +Similar astronomer colonies are to be found on the sector headquarters worlds +of the superuniverse as well as on the architectural capitals of the local +universes and their administrative subdivisions. Except on Paradise, knowledge +is not inherent; understanding of the physical universe is largely dependent on +observation and research. + +2. The Celestial Artisans serve throughout the seven superuniverses. Ascending +mortals have their initial contact with these groups in the morontia career of +the local universe in connection with which these artisans will be more fully +discussed. + +3. The Reversion Directors are the promoters of relaxation and humor--reversion +to past memories. They are of great service in the practical operation of the +ascending scheme of mortal progression, especially during the earlier phases of +morontia transition and spirit experience. Their story belongs to the narrative +of the mortal career in the local universe. + +4. Extension-School Instructors. The next higher residential world of the +ascendant career always maintains a strong corps of teachers on the world just +below, a sort of preparatory school for the progressing residents of that +sphere; this is a phase of the ascendant scheme for advancing the pilgrims of +time. These schools, their methods of instruction and examinations, are wholly +unlike anything which you essay to conduct on Urantia. + +The entire ascendant plan of mortal progression is characterized by the +practice of giving out to other beings new truth and experience just as soon as +acquired. You work your way through the long school of Paradise attainment by +serving as teachers to those pupils just behind you in the scale of +progression. + +5. The Various Reserve Corps. Vast reserves of beings not under our immediate +supervision are mobilized on Uversa as the reserve-corps colony. There are +seventy primary divisions of this colony on Uversa, and it is a liberal +education to be permitted to spend a season with these extraordinary +personalities. Similar general reserves are maintained on Salvington and other +universe capitals; they are dispatched on active service on the requisition of +their respective group directors. + +6. The Student Visitors. From all the universe a constant stream of celestial +visitors pours through the various headquarters worlds. As individuals and as +classes these various types of beings flock in upon us as observers, exchange +pupils, and student helpers. On Uversa, at present, there are over one billion + + top of page - 340 + +persons in this courtesy colony. Some of these visitors may tarry a day, others +may remain a year, all dependent on the nature of their mission. This colony +contains almost every class of universe beings except Creator personalities and +morontia mortals. + +Morontia mortals are student visitors only within the confines of the local +universe of their origin. They may visit in a superuniverse capacity only after +they have attained spirit status. Fully one half of our visitor colony consists +of "stopovers," beings enroute elsewhere who pause to visit the Orvonton +capital. These personalities may be executing a universe assignment, or they +may be enjoying a period of leisure--freedom from assignment. The privilege of +intrauniverse travel and observation is a part of the career of all ascending +beings. The human desire to travel and observe new peoples and worlds will be +fully gratified during the long and eventful climb to Paradise through the +local, super-, and central universes. + +7. The Ascending Pilgrims. As the ascending pilgrims are assigned to various +services in connection with their Paradise progression, they are domiciled as a +courtesy colony on the various headquarters spheres. While functioning here and +there throughout a superuniverse, such groups are largely self-governing. They +are an ever-shifting colony embracing all orders of evolutionary mortals and +their ascending associates. + +4. THE ASCENDING MORTALS + +While the mortal survivors of time and space are denominated ascending pilgrims +when accredited for the progressive ascent to Paradise, these evolutionary +creatures occupy such an important place in these narratives that we here +desire to present a synopsis of the following seven stages of the ascending +universe career: + +1. Planetary Mortals. + +2. Sleeping Survivors. + +3. Mansion World Students. + +4. Morontia Progressors. + +5. Superuniverse Wards. + +6. Havona Pilgrims. + +7. Paradise Arrivals. + +The following narrative presents the universe career of an Adjuster-indwelt +mortal. The Son- and Spirit-fused mortals share portions of this career, but we +have elected to tell this story as it pertains to the Adjuster-fused mortals, +for such a destiny may be anticipated by all of the human races of Urantia. + +1. Planetary Mortals. Mortals are all animal-origin evolutionary beings of +ascendant potential. In origin, nature, and destiny these various groups and +types of human beings are not wholly unlike the Urantia peoples. The human +races of each world receive the same ministry of the Sons of God and enjoy the +presence of the ministering spirits of time. After natural death all types of +ascenders fraternize as one morontia family on the mansion worlds. + + top of page - 341 + +2. Sleeping Survivors. All mortals of survival status, in the custody of +personal guardians of destiny, pass through the portals of natural death and, +on the third period, personalize on the mansion worlds. Those accredited beings +who have, for any reason, been unable to attain that level of intelligence +mastery and endowment of spirituality which would entitle them to personal +guardians, cannot thus immediately and directly go to the mansion worlds. Such +surviving souls must rest in unconscious sleep until the judgment day of a new +epoch, a new dispensation, the coming of a Son of God to call the rolls of the +age and adjudicate the realm, and this is the general practice throughout all +Nebadon. It was said of Christ Michael that, when he ascended on high at the +conclusion of his work on earth, "He led a great multitude of captives." And +these captives were the sleeping survivors from the days of Adam to the day of +the Master's resurrection on Urantia. + +The passing of time is of no moment to sleeping mortals; they are wholly +unconscious and oblivious to the length of their rest. On reassembly of +personality at the end of an age, those who have slept five thousand years will +react no differently than those who have rested five days. Aside from this time +delay these survivors pass on through the ascension regime identically with +those who avoid the longer or shorter sleep of death. + +These dispensational classes of world pilgrims are utilized for group morontia +activities in the work of the local universes. There is a great advantage in +the mobilization of such enormous groups; they are thus kept together for long +periods of effective service. + +3. Mansion World Students. All surviving mortals who reawaken on the mansion +worlds belong to this class. + +The physical body of mortal flesh is not a part of the reassembly of the +sleeping survivor; the physical body has returned to dust. The seraphim of +assignment sponsors the new body, the morontia form, as the new life vehicle +for the immortal soul and for the indwelling of the returned Adjuster. The +Adjuster is the custodian of the spirit transcript of the mind of the sleeping +survivor. The assigned seraphim is the keeper of the surviving identity--the +immortal soul--as far as it has evolved. And when these two, the Adjuster and +the seraphim, reunite their personality trusts, the new individual constitutes +the resurrection of the old personality, the survival of the evolving morontia +identity of the soul. Such a reassociation of soul and Adjuster is quite +properly called a resurrection, a reassembly of personality factors; but even +this does not entirely explain the reappearance of the surviving personality. +Though you will probably never understand the fact of such an inexplicable +transaction, you will sometime experientially know the truth of it if you do +not reject the plan of mortal survival. + +The plan of initial mortal detention on seven worlds of progressive training is +nearly universal in Orvonton. In each local system of approximately one +thousand inhabited planets there are seven mansion worlds, usually satellites +or subsatellites of the system capital. They are the receiving worlds for the +majority of ascending mortals. + +Sometimes all training worlds of mortal residence are called universe +"mansions," and it was to such spheres that Jesus alluded when he said: "In my +Father's house are many mansions." From here on, within a given group of +spheres like the mansion worlds, ascenders will progress individually from one + + top of page - 342 + +sphere to another and from one phase of life to another, but they will always +advance from one stage of universe study to another in class formation. + +4. Morontia Progressors. From the mansion worlds on up through the spheres of +the system, constellation, and the universe, mortals are classed as morontia +progressors; they are traversing the transition spheres of mortal ascension. As +the ascending mortals progress from the lower to the higher of the morontia +worlds, they serve on countless assignments in association with their teachers +and in company with their more advanced and senior brethren. + +Morontia progression pertains to continuing advancement of intellect, spirit, +and personality form. Survivors are still three-natured beings. Throughout the +entire morontia experience they are wards of the local universe. The regime of +the superuniverse does not function until the spirit career begins. + +Mortals acquire real spirit identity just before they leave the local universe +headquarters for the receiving worlds of the minor sectors of the +superuniverse. Passing from the final morontia stage to the first or lowest +spirit status is but a slight transition. The mind, personality, and character +are unchanged by such an advance; only does the form undergo modification. But +the spirit form is just as real as the morontia body, and it is equally +discernible. + +Before departing from their native local universes for the superuniverse +receiving worlds, the mortals of time are recipients of spirit confirmation +from the Creator Son and the local universe Mother Spirit. From this point on, +the status of the ascending mortal is forever settled. Superuniverse wards have +never been known to go astray. Ascending seraphim are also advanced in angelic +standing at the time of their departure from the local universes. + +5. Superuniverse Wards. All ascenders arriving on the training worlds of the +superuniverses become the wards of the Ancients of Days; they have traversed +the morontia life of the local universe and are now accredited spirits. As +young spirits they begin the ascension of the superuniverse system of training +and culture, extending from the receiving spheres of their minor sector in +through the study worlds of the ten major sectors and on to the higher cultural +spheres of the superuniverse headquarters. + +There are three orders of student spirits in accordance with their sojourn upon +the minor sector, major sectors, and the superuniverse headquarters worlds of +spirit progression. As morontia ascenders studied and worked on the worlds of +the local universe, so spirit ascenders continue to master new worlds while +they practice at giving out to others that which they have imbibed at the +experiential founts of wisdom. But going to school as a spirit being in the +superuniverse career is very unlike anything that has ever entered the +imaginative realms of the material mind of man. + +Before leaving the superuniverse for Havona, these ascending spirits receive +the same thorough course in superuniverse management that they received during +their morontia experience in local universe supervision. Before spirit mortals +reach Havona, their chief study, but not exclusive occupation, is the mastery +of local and superuniverse administration. The reason for all of this +experience is not now fully apparent, but no doubt such training is wise and +necessary in view of their possible future destiny as members of the Corps of +the Finality. + +The superuniverse regime is not the same for all ascending mortals. They +receive the same general education, but special groups and classes are carried + + top of page - 343 + +through special courses of instruction and are put through specific courses of +training. + +6. Havona Pilgrims. When spirit development is complete, even though not +replete, then the surviving mortal prepares for the long flight to Havona, the +haven of evolutionary spirits. On earth you were a creature of flesh and blood; +through the local universe you were a morontia being; through the superuniverse +you were an evolving spirit; with your arrival on the receiving worlds of +Havona your spiritual education begins in reality and in earnest; your eventual +appearance on Paradise will be as a perfected spirit. + +The journey from the superuniverse headquarters to the Havona receiving spheres +is always made alone. From now on no more class or group instruction will be +administered. You are through with the technical and administrative training of +the evolutionary worlds of time and space. Now begins your personal education, +your individual spiritual training. From first to last, throughout all Havona, +the instruction is personal and threefold in nature: intellectual, spiritual, +and experiential. + +The first act of your Havona career will be to recognize and thank your +transport seconaphim for the long and safe journey. Then you are presented to +those beings who will sponsor your early Havona activities. Next you go to +register your arrival and prepare your message of thanksgiving and adoration +for dispatch to the Creator Son of your local universe, the universe Father who +made possible your sonship career. This concludes the formalities of the Havona +arrival; whereupon you are accorded a long period of leisure for free +observation, and this affords opportunity for looking up your friends, fellows, +and associates of the long ascension experience. You may also consult the +broadcasts to ascertain who of your fellow pilgrims have departed for Havona +since the time of your leaving Uversa. + +The fact of your arrival on the receiving worlds of Havona will be duly +transmitted to the headquarters of your local universe and personally conveyed +to your seraphic guardian, wherever that seraphim may chance to be. + +The ascendant mortals have been thoroughly trained in the affairs of the +evolutionary worlds of space; now they begin their long and profitable contact +with the created spheres of perfection. What a preparation for some future work +is afforded by this combined, unique, and extraordinary experience! But I +cannot tell you about Havona; you must see these worlds to appreciate their +glory or to understand their grandeur. + +7. Paradise Arrivals. On reaching Paradise with residential status, you begin +the progressive course in divinity and absonity. Your residence on Paradise +signifies that you have found God, and that you are to be mustered into the +Mortal Corps of the Finality. Of all the creatures of the grand universe, only +those who are Father fused are mustered into the Mortal Corps of the Finality. +Only such individuals take the finaliter oath. Other beings of Paradise +perfection or attainment may be temporarily attached to this finality corps, +but they are not of eternal assignment to the unknown and unrevealed mission of +this accumulating host of the evolutionary and perfected veterans of time and +space. + +Paradise arrivals are accorded a period of freedom, after which they begin +their associations with the seven groups of the primary supernaphim. They are +designated Paradise graduates when they have finished their course with the +conductors of worship and then, as finaliters, are assigned on observational +and + + top of page - 344 + +co-operative service to the ends of the far-flung creation. As yet there seems +to be no specific or settled employment for the Mortal Corps of Finaliters, +though they serve in many capacities on worlds settled in light and life. + +If there should be no future or unrevealed destiny for the Mortal Corps of the +Finality, the present assignment of these ascendant beings would be altogether +adequate and glorious. Their present destiny wholly justifies the universal +plan of evolutionary ascent. But the future ages of the evolution of the +spheres of outer space will undoubtedly further elaborate, and with more +repleteness divinely illuminate, the wisdom and loving-kindness of the Gods in +the execution of their divine plan of human survival and mortal ascension. + +This narrative, together with what has been revealed to you and with what you +may acquire in connection with instruction respecting your own world, presents +an outline of the career of an ascending mortal. The story varies considerably +in the different superuniverses, but this recital affords a glimpse of the +average plan of mortal progression as it is operative in the local universe of +Nebadon and in the seventh segment of the grand universe, the superuniverse of +Orvonton. + +[Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger from Uversa.] + + top of page - 345 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Universe ³ The Corps Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Po... ³ Th... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p031.txt b/religious documents/p031.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a2bb216 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p031.txt @@ -0,0 +1,651 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 31 The Corps Of The Finality + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 31 The Corps Of The Finality + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Corps of Mortal Finaliters represents the present known destination of the +ascending Adjuster-fused mortals of time. But there are other groups who are +also assigned to this corps. The primary finaliter corps is composed of the +following: + +1. Havona Natives. + +2. Gravity Messengers. + +3. Glorified Mortals. + +4. Adopted Seraphim. + +5. Glorified Material Sons. + +6. Glorified Midway Creatures. + +These six groups of glorified beings compose this unique body of eternal +destiny. We think we know their future work, but we are not certain. While the +Corps of the Mortal Finality is mobilizing on Paradise, and while they now so +extensively minister to the universes of space and administer the worlds +settled in light and life, their future destination must be the now-organizing +universes of outer space. At least that is the conjecture of Uversa. + +The corps is organized in accordance with the working associations of the +worlds of space and in keeping with the associative experience acquired +throughout the long and eventful ascendant career. All the ascendant creatures +admitted to this corps are received in equality, but this exalted equality in +no way abrogates individuality or destroys personal identity. We can +immediately discern, in communicating with a finaliter, whether he is an +ascendant mortal, Havona native, adopted seraphim, midway creature, or Material +Son. + +During the present universe age the finaliters return to serve in the universes +of time. They are assigned to labor successively in the different +superuniverses and never in their native superuniverses until after they have +served in all the other six supercreations. Thus may they acquire the sevenfold +concept of the Supreme Being. + +One or more companies of the mortal finaliters are constantly in service on +Urantia. There is no domain of universe service to which they are not assigned; +they function universally and with alternating and equal periods of assigned +duty and free service. + +We have no idea as to the nature of the future organization of this +extraordinary group, but the finaliters are now wholly a self-governing body. +They choose their own permanent, periodic, and assignment leaders and +directors. No outside influence can ever be brought to bear upon their +policies, and their oath of allegiance is only to the Paradise Trinity. + + top of page - 346 + +The finaliters maintain their own headquarters on Paradise, in the +superuniverses, in the local universes, and on all the divisional capitals. +They are a separate order of evolutionary creation. We do not directly manage +them or control them, and yet they are absolutely loyal and always co-operative +with all our plans. They are indeed the accumulating tried and true souls of +time and space--the evolutionary salt of the universe--and they are forever +proof against evil and secure against sin. + +1. THE HAVONA NATIVES + +Many of the Havona natives who serve as teachers in the pilgrim-training +schools of the central universe become greatly attached to the ascending +mortals and still more intrigued with the future work and destiny of the Corps +of Mortal Finaliters. On Paradise there is maintained, at the administrative +headquarters of the corps, a registry for Havona volunteers presided over by +the associate of Grandfanda. Today, you will find millions upon millions of +Havona natives upon this waiting list. These perfect beings of direct and +divine creation are of great assistance to the Mortal Corps of Finality, and +they will undoubtedly be of even greater service in the far-distant future. +They provide the viewpoint of one born in perfection and divine repleteness. +The finaliters thus embrace both phases of experiential existence--perfect and +perfected. + +Havona natives must achieve certain experiential developments in liaison with +evolutionary beings which will create reception capacity for the bestowal of a +fragment of the spirit of the Universal Father. The Mortal Finaliter Corps has +as permanent members only such beings as have been fused with the spirit of the +First Source and Center, or who, like the Gravity Messengers, innately embody +this spirit of God the Father. + +The inhabitants of the central universe are received into the corps in the +ratio of one in a thousand--a finaliter company. The corps is organized for +temporary service in companies of one thousand, the ascendant creatures +numbering 997 to one Havona native and one Gravity Messenger. Finaliters are +thus mobilized in companies, but the finality oath is administered +individually. It is an oath of sweeping implications and eternal import. The +Havona native takes the same oath and becomes forever attached to the corps. + +The Havona recruits follow the company of their assignment; wherever the group +goes, they go. And you should see their enthusiasm in the new work of the +finaliters. The possibility of attaining the Corps of the Finality is one of +the superb thrills of Havona; the possibility of becoming a finaliter is one of +the supreme adventures of these perfect races. + +The Havona natives are also received, in the same ratio, into the Corps of +Conjoint Trinitized Finaliters on Vicegerington and into the Corps of +Transcendental Finaliters on Paradise. The Havona citizens regard these three +destinies as constituting the supreme goals of their supernal careers, together +with their possible admission to the Corps of Havona Finaliters. + +2. GRAVITY MESSENGERS + +Wherever and whenever Gravity Messengers are functioning, the finaliters are in +command. All Gravity Messengers are under the exclusive jurisdiction of +Grandfanda, and they are assigned only to the primary Corps of the Finality. + + top of page - 347 + +They are invaluable to the finaliters even now, and they will be +all-serviceable in the eternal future. No other group of intelligent creatures +possesses such a personalized messenger corps able to transcend time and space. +Similar types of messenger-recorders attached to other finaliter corps are not +personalized; they are absonitized. + +Gravity Messengers hail from Divinington, and they are modified and +personalized Adjusters, but no one of our Uversa group will undertake to +explain the nature of one of these messengers. We know they are highly personal +beings, divine, intelligent, and touchingly understanding, but we do not +comprehend their timeless technique of traversing space. They seem to be +competent to utilize any and all energies, circuits, and even gravity. +Finaliters of the mortal corps cannot defy time and space, but they have +associated with them and subject to their command all but infinite spirit +personalities who can. We presume to call Gravity Messengers personalities, but +in reality they are superspirit beings, unlimited and boundless personalities. +They are of an entirely different order of personality as compared with +Solitary Messengers. + +Gravity Messengers may be attached to a finaliter company in unlimited numbers, +but only one messenger, the chief of his fellows, is mustered into the Mortal +Corps of the Finality. This chief however has assigned to him a permanent staff +of 999 fellow messengers, and as occasion may require, he may call upon the +reserves of the order for assistants in unlimited numbers. + +Gravity Messengers and glorified mortal finaliters achieve a touching and +profound affection for one another; they have much in common: One is a direct +personalization of a fragment of the Universal Father, the other a creature +personality existent in the surviving immortal soul fused with a fragment of +the same Universal Father, the spirit Thought Adjuster. + +3. GLORIFIED MORTALS + +Ascendant Adjuster-fused mortals compose the bulk of the primary Corps of the +Finality. Together with the adopted and glorified seraphim they usually +constitute 990 in each finaliter company. The proportion of mortals and angels +in any one group varies, though the mortals far outnumber the seraphim. The +Havona natives, glorified Material Sons, glorified midway creatures, the +Gravity Messengers, and the unknown and missing member make up only one per +cent of the corps; each company of one thousand finaliters has places for just +ten of these nonmortal and nonseraphic personalities. + +We of Uversa do not know the "finality destiny" of the ascendant mortals of +time. At present they reside on Paradise and temporarily serve in the Corps of +Light and Life, but such a tremendous course of ascendant training and such +lengthy universe discipline must be designed to qualify them for even greater +tests of trust and more sublime services of responsibility. + +Notwithstanding that these ascendant mortals have attained Paradise, have been +mustered into the Corps of the Finality, and have been sent back in large +numbers to participate in the conduct of local universes and to assist in the +administration of superuniverse affairs--in the face of even this apparent +destiny, there remains the significant fact that they are of record as only +sixth-stage spirits. There undoubtedly remains one more step in the career of +the Mortal + + top of page - 348 + +Corps of the Finality. We do not know the nature of that step, but we have +taken cognizance of, and here call attention to, three facts: + +1. We know from the records that mortals are spirits of the first order during +their sojourn in the minor sectors, and that they advance to the second order +when translated to the major sectors, and to the third when they go forward to +the central training worlds of the superuniverse. Mortals become quartan or +graduate spirits after reaching the sixth circle of Havona and become spirits +of the fifth order when they find the Universal Father. They subsequently +attain the sixth stage of spirit existence upon taking the oath that musters +them forever into the eternity assignment of the Corps of the Mortal Finality. + +We observe that spirit classification, or designation, has been determined by +actual advancement from one realm of universe service to another realm of +universe service or from one universe to another universe; and we surmise that +the bestowal of seventh-spirit classification upon the Mortal Corps of the +Finality will be simultaneous with their advancement to eternal assignment for +service on hitherto unrecorded and unrevealed spheres and concomitant with +their attainment of God the Supreme. But aside from these bold conjectures, we +really know no more about all this than you do; our knowledge of the mortal +career does not go beyond present Paradise destiny. + +2. The mortal finaliters have fully complied with the injunction of the ages, +"Be you perfect"; they have ascended the universal path of mortal attainment; +they have found God, and they have been duly inducted into the Corps of the +Finality. Such beings have attained the present limit of spirit progression but +not finality of ultimate spirit status. They have achieved the present limit of +creature perfection but not finality of creature service. They have experienced +the fullness of Deity worship but not finality of experiential Deity +attainment. + +3. The glorified mortals of the Paradise Corps of Finality are ascendant beings +in possession of experiential knowledge of every step of the actuality and +philosophy of the fullest possible life of intelligent existence, while during +the ages of this ascent from the lowest material worlds to the spiritual +heights of Paradise, these surviving creatures have been trained to the limits +of their capacity respecting every detail of every divine principle of the just +and efficient, as well as merciful and patient, administration of all the +universal creation of time and space. + +We deem that human beings are entitled to share our opinions, and that you are +free to conjecture with us respecting the mystery of the ultimate destiny of +the Paradise Corps of Finality. It seems evident to us that the present +assignments of the perfected evolutionary creatures partake of the nature of +postgraduate courses in universe understanding and superuniverse +administration; and we all ask, "Why should the Gods be so concerned in so +thoroughly training surviving mortals in the technique of universe management?" + +4. ADOPTED SERAPHIM + +Many of the faithful seraphic guardians of mortals are permitted to go through +the ascendant career with their human wards, and many of these guardian angels, +after becoming Father fused, join their subjects in taking the finaliter oath +of eternity and forever accept the destiny of their mortal associates. Angels +who pass through the ascending experience of mortal beings may share the + + top of page - 349 + +destiny of human nature; they may equally and eternally be mustered into this +Corps of the Finality. Large numbers of the adopted and glorified seraphim are +attached to the various nonmortal finaliter corps. + +5. GLORIFIED MATERIAL SONS + +There is provision in the universes of time and space whereby the Adamic +citizens of the local systems, when long delayed in receiving planetary +assignment, may initiate a petition for release from permanent-citizenship +status. And if granted, they join the ascending pilgrims on the universe +capitals and thence proceed onward to Paradise and the Corps of the Finality. + +When an advanced evolutionary world attains the later eras of the age of light +and life, the Material Sons, the Planetary Adam and Eve, may elect to humanize, +receive Adjusters, and embark upon the evolutionary course of universe ascent +leading to the Corps of Mortal Finaliters. Certain of these Material Sons have +partially failed or technically defaulted in their mission as biologic +accelerators, as Adam did on Urantia; and then are they compelled to take the +natural course of the peoples of the realm, receive Adjusters, pass through +death, and progress by faith through the ascendant regime, subsequently +attaining Paradise and the Corps of the Finality. + +These Material Sons are not to be found in many finaliter companies. Their +presence lends great potential to the possibilities of high service for such a +group, and they are invariably chosen as its leaders. If both of the Edenic +pair are attached to the same group, they are usually permitted to function +jointly, as one personality. Such ascendant pairs are far more successful in +the adventure of trinitizing than are the ascendant mortals. + +6. GLORIFIED MIDWAY CREATURES + +On many planets the midway creatures are produced in large numbers, but they +seldom tarry on their native world subsequent to its being settled in light and +life. Then, or soon thereafter, they are released from permanent-citizenship +status and start on the ascension to Paradise, passing through the morontia +worlds, the superuniverse, and Havona in company with the mortals of time and +space. + +The midway creatures from various universes differ greatly in origin and +nature, but they are all destined to one or another of the Paradise finality +corps. The secondary midwayers are all eventually Adjuster fused and are +mustered into the mortal corps. Many finaliter companies have one of these +glorified beings in their group. + +7. THE EVANGELS OF LIGHT + +At the present time every finaliter company numbers 999 personalities of oath +status, permanent members. The vacant place is occupied by the chief of +attached Evangels of Light assigned on any single mission. But these beings are +only transient members of the corps. + +Any celestial personality assigned to the service of any finaliter corps is +denominated an Evangel of Light. These beings do not take the finaliter oath, +and + + top of page - 350 + +though subject to the corps organization they are not of permanent attachment. +This group may embrace Solitary Messengers, supernaphim, seconaphim, Paradise +Citizens, or their trinitized offspring--any being required in the prosecution +of a transient finaliter assignment. Whether or not the corps is to have these +beings attached to the eternal mission, we do not know. At the conclusion of +attachment these Evangels of Light resume their former status. + +As the Mortal Corps of the Finality is at present constituted, there are just +six classes of permanent members. The finaliters, as might be expected, engage +in much speculation as to the identity of their future comrades, but there is +little agreement among them. + +We of Uversa often conjecture respecting the identity of the seventh group of +finaliters. We entertain many ideas, embracing possible assignment of some of +the accumulating corps of the numerous trinitized groups on Paradise, +Vicegerington, and the inner Havona circuit. It is even conjectured that the +Corps of the Finality may be permitted to trinitize many of their assistants in +the work of universe administration in the event they are destined to the +service of universes now in the making. + +One of us holds the opinion that this vacant place in the corps will be filled +by some type of being of origin in the new universe of their future service; +the other inclines to the belief that this place will be occupied by some type +of Paradise personality not yet created, eventuated, or trinitized. But we will +most likely await the entrance of the finaliters upon their seventh stage of +spirit attainment before we really know. + +8. THE TRANSCENDENTALERS + +Part of the perfected mortal's experience on Paradise as a finaliter consists +in the effort to achieve comprehension of the nature and function of more than +one thousand groups of the transcendental supercitizens of Paradise, eventuated +beings of absonite attributes. In their association with these +superpersonalities, the ascendant finaliters receive great assistance from the +helpful guidance of numerous orders of transcendental ministers who are +assigned to the task of introducing the evolved finaliters to their new +Paradise brethren. The entire order of the Transcendentalers live in the west +of Paradise in a vast area which they exclusively occupy. + +In the discussion of Transcendentalers we are restricted, not only by the +limitations of human comprehension, but also by the terms of the mandate +governing these disclosures concerning the personalities of Paradise. These +beings are in no way connected with the mortal ascent to Havona. The vast host +of the Paradise Transcendentalers have nothing whatever to do with the affairs +of either Havona or the seven superuniverses, being concerned only with the +superadministration of the affairs of the master universe. + +You, being a creature, can conceive of a Creator, but you can hardly comprehend +that there exists an enormous and diversified aggregation of intelligent beings +who are neither Creators nor creatures. These Transcendentalers create no +beings, neither were they ever created. In speaking of their origin, in order +to avoid using a new term--an arbitrary and meaningless designation--we deem it +best to say that Transcendentalers simply eventuate. The Deity Absolute may +well have been concerned in their origin and may be implicated in their +destiny, + + top of page - 351 + +but these unique beings are not now dominated by the Deity Absolute. They are +subject to God the Ultimate, and their present Paradise sojourn is in every way +Trinity supervised and directed. + +Although all mortals who attain Paradise frequently fraternize with the +Transcendentalers as they do with the Paradise Citizens, it develops that man's +first serious contact with a Transcendentaler occurs on that eventful occasion +when, as a member of a new finaliter group, the mortal ascender stands in the +finaliter receiving circle as the Trinity oath of eternity is administered by +the chief of Transcendentalers, the presiding head of the Architects of the +Master Universe. + +9. ARCHITECTS OF THE MASTER UNIVERSE + +The Architects of the Master Universe are the governing corps of the Paradise +Transcendentalers. This governing corps numbers 28,011 personalities possessing +master minds, superb spirits, and supernal absonites. The presiding officer of +this magnificent group, the senior Master Architect, is the co-ordinating head +of all Paradise intelligences below the level of Deity. + +The sixteenth proscription of the mandate authorizing these narratives says: +"If deemed wise, the existence of the Architects of the Master Universe and +their associates may be disclosed, but their origin, nature, and destiny may +not be fully revealed." We may, however, inform you that these Master +Architects exist in seven levels of the absonite. These seven groups are +classified as follows: + +1. The Paradise Level. Only the senior or first-eventuated Architect functions +on this highest level of the absonite. This ultimate personality--neither +Creator nor creature--eventuated in the dawn of eternity and now functions as +the exquisite co-ordinator of Paradise and its twenty-one worlds of associated +activities. + +2. The Havona Level. The second Architect eventuation yielded three master +planners and absonite administrators, and they have always been devoted to the +co-ordination of the one billion perfect spheres of the central universe. +Paradise tradition asserts that these three Architects, with the counsel of the +pre-eventuated senior Architect, contributed to the planning of Havona, but we +really do not know. + +3. The Superuniverse Level. The third absonite level embraces the seven Master +Architects of the seven superuniverses, who now, as a group, spend about equal +time in the company of the Seven Master Spirits on Paradise and with the Seven +Supreme Executives on the seven special worlds of the Infinite Spirit. They are +the superco-ordinators of the grand universe. + +4. The Primary Space Level. This group numbers seventy Architects, and we +conjecture that they are concerned with the ultimate plans for the first +universe of outer space, now mobilizing beyond the borders of the present seven +superuniverses. + +5. The Secondary Space Level. This fifth corps of Architects numbers 490, and +again we conjecture that they must be concerned with the second universe of +outer space, where already our physicists have detected definite energy +mobilizations. + + top of page - 352 + +6. The Tertiary Space Level. This sixth group of Master Architects numbers +3,430, and we likewise infer that they may be occupied with the gigantic plans +for the third universe of outer space. + +7. The Quartan Space Level. This, the final and largest corps, consists of +24,010 Master Architects, and if our former conjectures are valid, it must be +related to the fourth and last of the ever-increasing-sized universes of outer +space. + +These seven groups of Master Architects total 28,011 universe planners. On +Paradise there is a tradition that far back in eternity there was attempted the +eventuation of the 28,012th Master Architect, but that this being failed to +absonitize, experiencing personality seizure by the Universal Absolute. It is +possible that the ascending series of the Master Architects attained the limit +of absonity in the 28,011th Architect, and that the 28,012th attempt +encountered the mathematical level of the presence of the Absolute. In other +words, at the 28,012th eventuation level the quality of absonity equivalated to +the level of the Universal and attained the value of the Absolute. + +In their functional organization the three supervising Architects of Havona act +as associate assistants to the solitary Paradise Architect. The seven +Architects of the superuniverses act as co-ordinates of the three supervisors +of Havona. The seventy planners of the universes of the primary outer space +level are at present serving as associate assistants to the seven Architects of +the seven superuniverses. + +The Architects of the Master Universe have at their disposal numerous groups of +assistants and helpers, including two vast orders of force organizers, the +primary eventuated and the associate transcendental. These Master Force +Organizers are not to be confused with the power directors, who are germane to +the grand universe. + +All beings produced by the union of the children of time and eternity, such as +the trinitized offspring of the finaliters and the Paradise Citizens, become +wards of the Master Architects. But of all other creatures or entities revealed +as functioning in the present organized universes, only Solitary Messengers and +Inspired Trinity Spirits maintain any organic association with the +Transcendentalers and the Architects of the Master Universe. + +The Master Architects contribute technical approval of the assignment of the +Creator Sons to their space sites for the organization of the local universes. +There is a very close association between the Master Architects and the +Paradise Creator Sons, and while this relationship is unrevealed, you have been +informed of the association of the Architects and the grand universe Supreme +Creators in the relationship of the first experiential Trinity. These two +groups, together with the evolving and experiential Supreme Being, constitute +the Trinity Ultimate of transcendental values and master universe meanings. + +10. THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE + +The senior Master Architect has the oversight of the seven Corps of the +Finality, and they are: + +I. The Corps of Mortal Finaliters. + +2. The Corps of Paradise Finaliters. + +3. The Corps of Trinitized Finaliters. + + top of page - 353 + +4. The Corps of Conjoint Trinitized Finaliters. + +5. The Corps of Havona Finaliters. + +6. The Corps of Transcendental Finaliters. + +7. The Corps of Unrevealed Sons of Destiny. + +Each of these destiny corps has a presiding head, and the seven constitute the +Supreme Council of Destiny on Paradise; and during the present universe age +Grandfanda is the chief of this supreme body of universe assignment for the +children of ultimate destiny. + +The gathering together of these seven finaliter corps signifies reality +mobilization of potentials, personalities, minds, spirits, absonites, and +experiential actualities that probably transcend even the future master +universe functions of the Supreme Being. These seven finaliter corps probably +signify the present activity of the Ultimate Trinity engaged in mustering the +forces of the finite and the absonite in preparation for inconceivable +developments in the universes of outer space. Nothing like this mobilization +has taken place since the near times of eternity when the Paradise Trinity +similarly mobilized the then existing personalities of Paradise and Havona and +commissioned them as administrators and rulers of the projected seven +superuniverses of time and space. The seven finaliter corps represent the +divinity response of the grand universe to the future needs of the undeveloped +potentials in the outer universes of future-eternal activities. + +We venture the forecast of future and greater outer universes of inhabited +worlds, new spheres peopled with new orders of exquisite and unique beings, a +material universe sublime in its ultimacy, a vast creation lacking in only one +important detail--the presence of actual finite experience in the universal +life of ascendant existence. Such a universe will come into being under a +tremendous experiential handicap: the deprivation of participation in the +evolution of the Almighty Supreme. These outer universes will all enjoy the +matchless ministry and supernal overcontrol of the Supreme Being, but the very +fact of his active presence precludes their participation in the actualization +of the Supreme Deity. + +During the present universe age the evolving personalities of the grand +universe suffer many difficulties due to the incomplete actualization of the +sovereignty of God the Supreme, but we are all sharing the unique experience of +his evolution. We evolve in him and he evolves in us. Sometime in the eternal +future the evolution of Supreme Deity will become a completed fact of universe +history, and the opportunity to participate in this wonderful experience will +have passed from the stage of cosmic action. + +But those of us who have acquired this unique experience during the youth of +the universe will treasure it throughout all future eternity. And many of us +speculate that it may be the mission of the gradually accumulating reserves of +the ascendant and perfected mortals of the Corps of the Finality, in +association with the other six similarly recruiting corps, to administer these +outer universes in an effort to compensate their experiential deficiencies in +not having participated in the time-space evolution of the Supreme Being. + +These deficiencies are inevitable on all levels of universe existence. During +the present universe age we of the higher levels of spiritual existences now +come down to administer the evolutionary universes and minister to the +ascending mortals, thus endeavoring to atone for their deficiencies in the +realities of the higher spiritual experience. + + top of page - 354 + +But though we really know nothing about the plans of the Architects of the +Master Universe respecting these outer creations, nevertheless, of three things +we are certain: + +1. There actually is a vast and new system of universes gradually organizing in +the domains of outer space. New orders of physical creations, enormous and +gigantic circles of swarming universes upon universes far out beyond the +present bounds of the peopled and organized creations, are actually visible +through your telescopes. At present, these outer creations are wholly physical; +they are apparently uninhabited and seem to be devoid of creature +administration. + +2. For ages upon ages there continues the unexplained and wholly mysterious +Paradise mobilization of the perfected and ascendant beings of time and space, +in association with the six other finaliter corps. + +3. Concomitantly with these transactions the Supreme Person of Deity is +powerizing as the almighty sovereign of the supercreations. + +As we view this triune development, embracing creatures, universes, and Deity, +can we be criticized for anticipating that something new and unrevealed is +approaching culmination in the master universe? Is it not natural that we +should associate this agelong mobilization and organization of physical +universes on such a hitherto unknown scale and the personality emergence of the +Supreme Being with this stupendous scheme of upstepping the mortals of time to +divine perfection and with their subsequent mobilization on Paradise in the +Corps of the Finality--a designation and destiny enshrouded in universe +mystery? It is increasingly the belief of all Uversa that the assembling Corps +of the Finality are destined to some future service in the universes of outer +space, where we already are able to identify the clustering of at least seventy +thousand aggregations of matter, each of which is greater than any one of the +present superuniverses. + +Evolutionary mortals are born on the planets of space, pass through the +morontia worlds, ascend the spirit universes, traverse the Havona spheres, find +God, attain Paradise, and are mustered into the primary Corps of the Finality, +therein to await the next assignment of universe service. There are six other +assembling finality corps, but Grandfanda, the first mortal ascender, presides +as Paradise chief of all orders of finaliters. And as we view this sublime +spectacle, we all exclaim: What a glorious destiny for the animal-origin +children of time, the material sons of space! + +[Jointly sponsored by a Divine Counselor and One without Name and Number +authorized so to function by the Ancients of Days on Uversa.] + +* * * * * + +These thirty-one papers depicting the nature of Deity, + +the reality of Paradise, the organization and working + +of the central and superuniverses, the personalities of + +the grand universe, and the high destiny of + +evolutionary mortals, were sponsored, formulated, and + +put into English by a high commission consisting of + +twenty-four Orvonton administrators acting in + +accordance with a mandate issued by the Ancients of + +Days of Uversa directing that we should do this on + +Urantia, 606 of Satania, in Norlatiadek of Nebadon, in + +the year A.D. 1934. + + top of page - 355 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART I: The Central and Super + Universes : The Universal Father The Nature Of God The Attributes Of God God's + Relation To The Universe God's Relation To The Individual The Eternal Son +Relation Of The Eternal Son To The Universe The Infinite Spirit Relation Of The + Infinite Spirit To The Universe The Paradise Trinity The Eternal Isle Of + Paradise The Universe Of Universes The Sacred Spheres Of Paradise The Central +And Divine Universe The Seven Superuniverses The Seven Master Spirits The Seven + Supreme Spirit Groups The Supreme Trinity Personalities The Co-ordinate + Trinity-origin Beings The Paradise Sons Of God The Paradise Creator Sons The + Trinitized Sons Of God The Solitary Messengers Higher Personalities Of The +Infinite Spirit The Messenger Hosts Of Space Ministering Spirits Of The Central + Universe Ministry Of The Primary Supernaphim Ministering Spirits Of The +Superuniverses The Universe Power Directors Personalities Of The Grand Universe + The Corps Of The Finality + + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ + ³ Personalities O... ³ Urantia Book PA... ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p032.txt b/religious documents/p032.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8bd5de --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p032.txt @@ -0,0 +1,543 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 32 The Evolution Of Local Universes + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 32 The Evolution Of Local Universes + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +A LOCAL universe is the handiwork of a Creator Son of the Paradise order of +Michael. It comprises one hundred constellations, each embracing one hundred +systems of inhabited worlds. Each system will eventually contain approximately +one thousand inhabited spheres. + +These universes of time and space are all evolutionary. The creative plan of +the Paradise Michaels always proceeds along the path of gradual evolvement and +progressive development of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual natures +and capacities of the manifold creatures who inhabit the varied orders of +spheres comprising such a local universe. + +Urantia belongs to a local universe whose sovereign is the God-man of Nebadon, +Jesus of Nazareth and Michael of Salvington. And all of Michael's plans for +this local universe were fully approved by the Paradise Trinity before he ever +embarked upon the supreme adventure of space. + +The Sons of God may choose the realms of their creator activities, but these +material creations were originally projected and planned by the Paradise +Architects of the Master Universe. + +1. PHYSICAL EMERGENCE OF UNIVERSES + +The preuniverse manipulations of space-force and the primordial energies are +the work of the Paradise Master Force Organizers; but in the superuniverse +domains, when emergent energy becomes responsive to local or linear gravity, +they retire in favor of the power directors of the superuniverse concerned. + +These power directors function alone in the prematerial and postforce phases of +a local universe creation. There is no opportunity for a Creator Son to begin +universe organization until the power directors have effected the mobilization +of the space-energies sufficiently to provide a material foundation--literal +suns and material spheres--for the emerging universe. + +The local universes are all approximately of the same energy potential, though +they differ greatly in physical dimensions and may vary in visible-matter + + top of page - 358 + +content from time to time. The power charge and potential-matter endowment of a +local universe are determined by the manipulations of the power directors and +their predecessors as well as by the Creator Son's activities and by the +endowment of the inherent physical control possessed by his creative associate. + +The energy charge of a local universe is approximately one +one-hundred-thousandth of the force endowment of its superuniverse. In the case +of Nebadon, your local universe, the mass materialization is a trifle less. +Physically speaking, Nebadon possesses all of the physical endowment of energy +and matter that may be found in any of the Orvonton local creations. The only +physical limitation upon the developmental expansion of the Nebadon universe +consists in the quantitative charge of space-energy held captive by the gravity +control of the associated powers and personalities of the combined universe +mechanism. + +When energy-matter has attained a certain stage in mass materialization, a +Paradise Creator Son appears upon the scene, accompanied by a Creative Daughter +of the Infinite Spirit. Simultaneously with the arrival of the Creator Son, +work is begun upon the architectural sphere which is to become the headquarters +world of the projected local universe. For long ages such a local creation +evolves, suns become stabilized, planets form and swing into their orbits, +while the work of creating the architectural worlds which are to serve as +constellation headquarters and system capitals continues. + +2. UNIVERSE ORGANIZATION + +The Creator Sons are preceded in universe organization by the power directors +and other beings originating in the Third Source and Center. From the energies +of space, thus previously organized, Michael, your Creator Son, established the +inhabited realms of the universe of Nebadon and ever since has been +painstakingly devoted to their administration. From pre-existent energy these +divine Sons materialize visible matter, project living creatures, and with the +co-operation of the universe presence of the Infinite Spirit, create a diverse +retinue of spirit personalities. + +These power directors and energy controllers who long preceded the Creator Son +in the preliminary physical work of universe organization later serve in +magnificent liaison with this Universe Son, forever remaining in associated +control of those energies which they originally organized and circuitized. On +Salvington there now function the same one hundred power centers who +co-operated with your Creator Son in the original formation of this local +universe. + +The first completed act of physical creation in Nebadon consisted in the +organization of the headquarters world, the architectural sphere of Salvington, +with its satellites. From the time of the initial moves of the power centers +and physical controllers to the arrival of the living staff on the completed +spheres of Salvington, there intervened a little over one billion years of your +present planetary time. The construction of Salvington was immediately followed +by the creation of the one hundred headquarters worlds of the projected +constellations and the ten thousand headquarters spheres of the projected local +systems of planetary control and administration, together with their +architectural satellites. Such architectural worlds are designed to accommodate +both physical and spiritual personalities as well as the intervening morontia +or transition stages of being. + + top of page - 359 + +Salvington, the headquarters of Nebadon, is situated at the exact energy-mass +center of the local universe. But your local universe is not a single +astronomic system, though a large system does exist at its physical center. + +Salvington is the personal headquarters of Michael of Nebadon, but he will not +always be found there. While the smooth functioning of your local universe no +longer requires the fixed presence of the Creator Son at the capital sphere, +this was not true of the earlier epochs of physical organization. A Creator Son +is unable to leave his headquarters world until such a time as gravity +stabilization of the realm has been effected through the materialization of +sufficient energy to enable the various circuits and systems to counterbalance +one another by mutual material attraction. + +Presently, the physical plan of a universe is completed, and the Creator Son, +in association with the Creative Spirit, projects his plan of life creation; +whereupon does this representation of the Infinite Spirit begin her universe +function as a distinct creative personality. When this first creative act is +formulated and executed, there springs into being the Bright and Morning Star, +the personification of this initial creative concept of identity and ideal of +divinity. This is the chief executive of the universe, the personal associate +of the Creator Son, one like him in all aspects of character, though markedly +limited in the attributes of divinity. + +And now that the right-hand helper and chief executive of the Creator Son has +been provided, there ensues the bringing into existence of a vast and wonderful +array of diverse creatures. The sons and daughters of the local universe are +forthcoming, and soon thereafter the government of such a creation is provided, +extending from the supreme councils of the universe to the fathers of the +constellations and the sovereigns of the local systems--the aggregations of +those worlds which are designed subsequently to become the homes of the varied +mortal races of will creatures; and each of these worlds will be presided over +by a Planetary Prince. + +And then, when such a universe has been so completely organized and so +repletely manned, does the Creator Son enter into the Father's proposal to +create mortal man in their divine image. + +The organization of planetary abodes is still progressing in Nebadon, for this +universe is, indeed, a young cluster in the starry and planetary realms of +Orvonton. At the last registry there were 3,840,101 inhabited planets in +Nebadon, and Satania, the local system of your world, is fairly typical of +other systems. + +Satania is not a uniform physical system, a single astronomic unit or +organization. Its 619 inhabited worlds are located in over five hundred +different physical systems. Only five have more than two inhabited worlds, and +of these only one has four peopled planets, while there are forty-six having +two inhabited worlds. + +The Satania system of inhabited worlds is far removed from Uversa and that +great sun cluster which functions as the physical or astronomic center of the +seventh superuniverse. From Jerusem, the headquarters of Satania, it is over +two hundred thousand light-years to the physical center of the superuniverse of +Orvonton, far, far away in the dense diameter of the Milky Way. Satania is on +the periphery of the local universe, and Nebadon is now well out towards the +edge of Orvonton. From the outermost system of inhabited worlds to the center + + top of page - 360 + +of the superuniverse is a trifle less than two hundred and fifty thousand +light-years. + +The universe of Nebadon now swings far to the south and east in the +superuniverse circuit of Orvonton. The nearest neighboring universes are: +Avalon, Henselon, Sanselon, Portalon, Wolvering, Fanoving, and Alvoring. + +But the evolution of a local universe is a long narrative. Papers dealing with +the superuniverse introduce this subject, those of this section, treating of +the local creations, continue it, while those to follow, touching upon the +history and destiny of Urantia, complete the story. But you can adequately +comprehend the destiny of the mortals of such a local creation only by a +perusal of the narratives of the life and teachings of your Creator Son as he +once lived the life of man, in the likeness of mortal flesh, on your own +evolutionary world. + +3. THE EVOLUTIONARY IDEA + +The only creation that is perfectly settled is Havona, the central universe, +which was made directly by the thought of the Universal Father and the word of +the Eternal Son. Havona is an existential, perfect, and replete universe, +surrounding the home of the eternal Deities, the center of all things. The +creations of the seven superuniverses are finite, evolutionary, and +consistently progressive. + +The physical systems of time and space are all evolutionary in origin. They are +not even physically stabilized until they are swung into the settled circuits +of their superuniverses. Neither is a local universe settled in light and life +until its physical possibilities of expansion and development have been +exhausted, and until the spiritual status of all its inhabited worlds has been +forever settled and stabilized. + +Except in the central universe, perfection is a progressive attainment. In the +central creation we have a pattern of perfection, but all other realms must +attain that perfection by the methods established for the advancement of those +particular worlds or universes. And an almost infinite variety characterizes +the plans of the Creator Sons for organizing, evolving, disciplining, and +settling their respective local universes. + +With the exception of the deity presence of the Father, every local universe +is, in a certain sense, a duplication of the administrative organization of the +central or pattern creation. Although the Universal Father is personally +present in the residential universe, he does not indwell the minds of the +beings originating in that universe as he does literally dwell with the souls +of the mortals of time and space. There seems to be an all-wise compensation in +the adjustment and regulation of the spiritual affairs of the far-flung +creation. In the central universe the Father is personally present as such but +absent in the minds of the children of that perfect creation; in the universes +of space the Father is absent in person, being represented by his Sovereign +Sons, while he is intimately present in the minds of his mortal children, being +spiritually represented by the prepersonal presence of the Mystery Monitors +that reside in the minds of these will creatures. + +On the headquarters of a local universe there reside all those creator and +creative personalities who represent self-contained authority and +administrative autonomy except the personal presence of the Universal Father. +In the local + + top of page - 361 + +universe there are to be found something of everyone and someone of almost +every class of intelligent beings existing in the central universe except the +Universal Father. Although the Universal Father is not personally present in a +local universe, he is personally represented by its Creator Son, sometime +vicegerent of God and subsequently supreme and sovereign ruler in his own +right. + +The farther down the scale of life we go, the more difficult it becomes to +locate, with the eye of faith, the invisible Father. The lower creatures--and +sometimes even the higher personalities--find it difficult always to envisage +the Universal Father in his Creator Sons. And so, pending the time of their +spiritual exaltation, when perfection of development will enable them to see +God in person, they grow weary in progression, entertain spiritual doubts, +stumble into confusion, and thus isolate themselves from the progressive +spiritual aims of their time and universe. In this way they lose the ability to +see the Father when beholding the Creator Son. The surest safeguard for the +creature throughout the long struggle to attain the Father, during this time +when inherent conditions make such attainment impossible, is tenaciously to +hold on to the truth-fact of the Father's presence in his Sons. Literally and +figuratively, spiritually and personally, the Father and the Sons are one. It +is a fact: He who has seen a Creator Son has seen the Father. + +The personalities of a given universe are settled and dependable, at the start, +only in accordance with their degree of kinship to Deity. When creature origin +departs sufficiently far from the original and divine Sources, whether we are +dealing with the Sons of God or the creatures of ministry belonging to the +Infinite Spirit, there is an increase in the possibility of disharmony, +confusion, and sometimes rebellion--sin. + +Excepting perfect beings of Deity origin, all will creatures in the +superuniverses are of evolutionary nature, beginning in lowly estate and +climbing ever upward, in reality inward. Even highly spiritual personalities +continue to ascend the scale of life by progressive translations from life to +life and from sphere to sphere. And in the case of those who entertain the +Mystery Monitors, there is indeed no limit to the possible heights of their +spiritual ascent and universe attainment. + +The perfection of the creatures of time, when finally achieved, is wholly an +acquirement, a bona fide personality possession. While the elements of grace +are freely admixed, nevertheless, the creature attainments are the result of +individual effort and actual living, personality reaction to the existing +environment. + +The fact of animal evolutionary origin does not attach stigma to any +personality in the sight of the universe as that is the exclusive method of +producing one of the two basic types of finite intelligent will creatures. When +the heights of perfection and eternity are attained, all the more honor to +those who began at the bottom and joyfully climbed the ladder of life, round by +round, and who, when they do reach the heights of glory, will have gained a +personal experience which embodies an actual knowledge of every phase of life +from the bottom to the top. + +In all this is shown the wisdom of the Creators. It would be just as easy for +the Universal Father to make all mortals perfect beings, to impart perfection +by his divine word. But that would deprive them of the wonderful experience of +the adventure and training associated with the long and gradual inward climb, + + top of page - 362 + +an experience to be had only by those who are so fortunate as to begin at the +very bottom of living existence. + +In the universes encircling Havona there are provided only a sufficient number +of perfect creatures to meet the need for pattern teacher guides for those who +are ascending the evolutionary scale of life. The experiential nature of the +evolutionary type of personality is the natural cosmic complement of the +ever-perfect natures of the Paradise-Havona creatures. In reality, both perfect +and perfected creatures are incomplete as regards finite totality. But in the +complemental association of the existentially perfect creatures of the +Paradise-Havona system with the experientially perfected finaliters ascending +from the evolutionary universes, both types find release from inherent +limitations and thus may conjointly attempt to reach the sublime heights of the +ultimate of creature status. + +These creature transactions are the universe repercussions of actions and +reactions within the Sevenfold Deity, wherein the eternal divinity of the +Paradise Trinity is conjoined with the evolving divinity of the Supreme +Creators of the time-space universes in, by, and through the power-actualizing +Deity of the Supreme Being. + +The divinely perfect creature and the evolutionary perfected creature are equal +in degree of divinity potential, but they differ in kind. Each must depend on +the other to attain supremacy of service. The evolutionary superuniverses +depend on perfect Havona to provide the final training for their ascending +citizens, but so does the perfect central universe require the existence of the +perfecting superuniverses to provide for the full development of its descending +inhabitants. + +The two prime manifestations of finite reality, innate perfection and evolved +perfection, be they personalities or universes, are co-ordinate, dependent, and +integrated. Each requires the other to achieve completion of function, service, +and destiny. + +4. GOD'S RELATION TO A LOCAL UNIVERSE + +Do not entertain the idea that, since the Universal Father has delegated so +much of himself and his power to others, he is a silent or inactive member of +the Deity partnership. Aside from personality domains and Adjuster bestowal, he +is apparently the least active of the Paradise Deities in that he allows his +Deity co-ordinates, his Sons, and numerous created intelligences to perform so +much in the carrying out of his eternal purpose. He is the silent member of the +creative trio only in that he never does aught which any of his co-ordinate or +subordinate associates can do. + +God has full understanding of the need of every intelligent creature for +function and experience, and therefore, in every situation, be it concerned +with the destiny of a universe or the welfare of the humblest of his creatures, +God retires from activity in favor of the galaxy of creature and Creator +personalities who inherently intervene between himself and any given universe +situation or creative event. But notwithstanding this retirement, this +exhibition of infinite co-ordination, there is on God's part an actual, +literal, and personal participation in these events by and through these +ordained agencies and personalities. The Father is working in and through all +these channels for the welfare of all his far-flung creation. + + top of page - 363 + +As regards the policies, conduct, and administration of a local universe, the +Universal Father acts in the person of his Creator Son. In the +interrelationships of the Sons of God, in the group associations of the +personalities of origin in the Third Source and Center, or in the relationship +between any other creatures, such as human beings--as concerns such +associations the Universal Father never intervenes. The law of the Creator Son, +the rule of the Constellation Fathers, the System Sovereigns, and the Planetary +Princes--the ordained policies and procedures for that universe--always +prevail. There is no division of authority; never is there a cross working of +divine power and purpose. The Deities are in perfect and eternal unanimity. + +The Creator Son rules supreme in all matters of ethical associations, the +relations of any division of creatures to any other class of creatures or of +two or more individuals within any given group; but such a plan does not mean +that the Universal Father may not in his own way intervene and do aught that +pleases the divine mind with any individual creature throughout all creation, +as pertains to that individual's present status or future prospects and as +concerns the Father's eternal plan and infinite purpose. + +In the mortal will creatures the Father is actually present in the indwelling +Adjuster, a fragment of his prepersonal spirit; and the Father is also the +source of the personality of such a mortal will creature. + +These Thought Adjusters, the bestowals of the Universal Father, are +comparatively isolated; they indwell human minds but have no discernible +connection with the ethical affairs of a local creation. They are not directly +co-ordinated with the seraphic service nor with the administration of systems, +constellations, or a local universe, not even with the rule of a Creator Son, +whose will is the supreme law of his universe. + +The indwelling Adjusters are one of God's separate but unified modes of contact +with the creatures of his all but infinite creation. Thus does he who is +invisible to mortal man manifest his presence, and could he do so, he would +show himself to us in still other ways, but such further revelation is not +divinely possible. + +We can see and understand the mechanism whereby the Sons enjoy intimate and +complete knowledge regarding the universes of their jurisdiction; but we cannot +fully comprehend the methods whereby God is so fully and personally conversant +with the details of the universe of universes, although we at least can +recognize the avenue whereby the Universal Father can receive information +regarding, and manifest his presence to, the beings of his immense creation. +Through the personality circuit the Father is cognizant--has personal +knowledge--of all the thoughts and acts of all the beings in all the systems of +all the universes of all creation. Though we cannot fully grasp this technique +of God's communion with his children, we can be strengthened in the assurance +that the "Lord knows his children," and that of each one of us "he takes note +where we were born." + +In your universe and in your heart the Universal Father is present, spiritually +speaking, by one of the Seven Master Spirits of central abode and, +specifically, by the divine Adjuster who lives and works and waits in the +depths of the mortal mind. + +God is not a self-centered personality; the Father freely distributes himself +to his creation and to his creatures. He lives and acts, not only in the +Deities, + + top of page - 364 + +but also in his Sons, whom he intrusts with the doing of everything that it is +divinely possible for them to do. The Universal Father has truly divested +himself of every function which it is possible for another being to perform. +And this is just as true of mortal man as of the Creator Son who rules in God's +stead at the headquarters of a local universe. Thus we behold the outworking of +the ideal and infinite love of the Universal Father. + +In this universal bestowal of himself we have abundant proof of both the +magnitude and the magnanimity of the Father's divine nature. If God has +withheld aught of himself from the universal creation, then of that residue he +is in lavish generosity bestowing the Thought Adjusters upon the mortals of the +realms, the Mystery Monitors of time, who so patiently indwell the mortal +candidates for life everlasting. + +The Universal Father has poured out himself, as it were, to make all creation +rich in personality possession and potential spiritual attainment. God has +given us himself that we may be like him, and he has reserved for himself of +power and glory only that which is necessary for the maintenance of those +things for the love of which he has thus divested himself of all things else. + +5. THE ETERNAL AND DIVINE PURPOSE + +There is a great and glorious purpose in the march of the universes through +space. All of your mortal struggling is not in vain. We are all part of an +immense plan, a gigantic enterprise, and it is the vastness of the undertaking +that renders it impossible to see very much of it at any one time and during +any one life. We are all a part of an eternal project which the Gods are +supervising and outworking. The whole marvelous and universal mechanism moves +on majestically through space to the music of the meter of the infinite thought +and the eternal purpose of the First Great Source and Center. + +The eternal purpose of the eternal God is a high spiritual ideal. The events of +time and the struggles of material existence are but the transient scaffolding +which bridges over to the other side, to the promised land of spiritual reality +and supernal existence. Of course, you mortals find it difficult to grasp the +idea of an eternal purpose; you are virtually unable to comprehend the thought +of eternity, something never beginning and never ending. Everything familiar to +you has an end. + +As regards an individual life, the duration of a realm, or the chronology of +any connected series of events, it would seem that we are dealing with an +isolated stretch of time; everything seems to have a beginning and an end. And +it would appear that a series of such experiences, lives, ages, or epochs, when +successively arranged, constitutes a straightaway drive, an isolated event of +time flashing momentarily across the infinite face of eternity. But when we +look at all this from behind the scenes, a more comprehensive view and a more +complete understanding suggest that such an explanation is inadequate, +disconnected, and wholly unsuited properly to account for, and otherwise to +correlate, the transactions of time with the underlying purposes and basic +reactions of eternity. + +To me it seems more fitting, for purposes of explanation to the mortal mind, to +conceive of eternity as a cycle and the eternal purpose as an endless circle, a +cycle of eternity in some way synchronized with the transient material cycles +of time. As regards the sectors of time connected with, and forming a part of, + + top of page - 365 + +the cycle of eternity, we are forced to recognize that such temporary epochs +are born, live, and die just as the temporary beings of time are born, live, +and die. Most human beings die because, having failed to achieve the spirit +level of Adjuster fusion, the metamorphosis of death constitutes the only +possible procedure whereby they may escape the fetters of time and the bonds of +material creation, thereby being enabled to strike spiritual step with the +progressive procession of eternity. Having survived the trial life of time and +material existence, it becomes possible for you to continue on in touch with, +even as a part of, eternity, swinging on forever with the worlds of space +around the circle of the eternal ages. + +The sectors of time are like the flashes of personality in temporal form; they +appear for a season, and then they are lost to human sight, only to reappear as +new actors and continuing factors in the higher life of the endless swing +around the eternal circle. Eternity can hardly be conceived as a straightaway +drive, in view of our belief in a delimited universe moving over a vast, +elongated circle around the central dwelling place of the Universal Father. + +Frankly, eternity is incomprehensible to the finite mind of time. You simply +cannot grasp it; you cannot comprehend it. I do not completely visualize it, +and even if I did, it would be impossible for me to convey my concept to the +human mind. Nevertheless, I have done my best to portray something of our +viewpoint, to tell you somewhat of our understanding of things eternal. I am +endeavoring to aid you in the crystallization of your thoughts about these +values which are of infinite nature and eternal import. + +There is in the mind of God a plan which embraces every creature of all his +vast domains, and this plan is an eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, +unlimited progress, and endless life. And the infinite treasures of such a +matchless career are yours for the striving! + +The goal of eternity is ahead! The adventure of divinity attainment lies before +you! The race for perfection is on! whosoever will may enter, and certain +victory will crown the efforts of every human being who will run the race of +faith and trust, depending every step of the way on the leading of the +indwelling Adjuster and on the guidance of that good spirit of the Universe +Son, which so freely has been poured out upon all flesh. + +[Presented by a Mighty Messenger temporarily attached to the Supreme Council of +Nebadon and assigned to this mission by Gabriel of Salvington.] + + top of page - 366 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ + ³ Administration ... ³ Urantia Book PA... ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p033.txt b/religious documents/p033.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..92b50fb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p033.txt @@ -0,0 +1,502 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 33 Administration Of The Local Universe + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 33 Administration Of The Local Universe + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +WHILE the Universal Father most certainly rules over his vast creation, he +functions in a local universe administration through the person of the Creator +Son. The Father does not otherwise personally function in the administrative +affairs of a local universe. These matters are intrusted to the Creator Son and +to the local universe Mother Spirit and to their manifold children. The plans, +policies, and administrative acts of the local universe are formed and executed +by this Son, who, in conjunction with his Spirit associate, delegates executive +power to Gabriel and jurisdictional authority to the Constellation Fathers, +System Sovereigns, and Planetary Princes. + +1. MICHAEL OF NEBADON + +Our Creator Son is the personification of the 611,121st original concept of +infinite identity of simultaneous origin in the Universal Father and the +Eternal Son. The Michael of Nebadon is the "only-begotten Son" personalizing +this 611,121st universal concept of divinity and infinity. His headquarters is +in the threefold mansion of light on Salvington. And this dwelling is so +ordered because Michael has experienced the living of all three phases of +intelligent creature existence: spiritual, morontial, and material. Because of +the name associated with his seventh and final bestowal on Urantia, he is +sometimes spoken of as Christ Michael. + +Our Creator Son is not the Eternal Son, the existential Paradise associate of +the Universal Father and the Infinite Spirit. Michael of Nebadon is not a +member of the Paradise Trinity. Nevertheless our Master Son possesses in his +realm all of the divine attributes and powers that the Eternal Son himself +would manifest were he actually to be present on Salvington and functioning in +Nebadon. Michael possesses even additional power and authority, for he not only +personifies the Eternal Son but also fully represents and actually embodies the +personality presence of the Universal Father to and in this local universe. He +even represents the Father-Son. These relationships constitute a Creator Son +the most powerful, versatile, and influential of all divine beings who are +capable of direct administration of evolutionary universes and of personality +contact with immature creature beings. + +Our Creator Son exerts the same spiritual drawing power, spirit gravity, from +the headquarters of the local universe that the Eternal Son of Paradise would +exert if he were personally present on Salvington, and more; this Universe Son +is also the personification of the Universal Father to the universe of Nebadon. +Creator Sons are personality centers for the spiritual forces of the Para- + + top of page - 367 + +dise Father-Son. Creator Sons are the final power-personality focalizations of +the mighty time-space attributes of God the Sevenfold. + +The Creator Son is the vicegerent personalization of the Universal Father, the +divinity co-ordinate of the Eternal Son, and the creative associate of the +Infinite Spirit. To our universe and all its inhabited worlds the Sovereign Son +is, to all practical intents and purposes, God. He personifies all of the +Paradise Deities which evolving mortals can discerningly comprehend. This Son +and his Spirit associate are your creator parents. To you, Michael, the Creator +Son, is the supreme personality; to you, the Eternal Son is supersupreme--an +infinite Deity personality. + +In the person of the Creator Son we have a ruler and divine parent who is just +as mighty, efficient, and beneficent as would be the Universal Father and the +Eternal Son if both were present on Salvington and engaged in the +administration of the affairs of the universe of Nebadon. + + top of page - 368 + +2. THE SOVEREIGN OF NEBADON + +Observation of Creator Sons discloses that some resemble more the Father, some +the Son, while others are a blend of both their infinite parents. Our Creator +Son very definitely manifests traits and attributes which more resemble the +Eternal Son. + +Michael elected to organize this local universe, and herein he now reigns +supreme. His personal power is limited by the pre-existent gravity circuits +centering at Paradise and by the reservation on the part of the Ancients of +Days of the superuniverse government of all final executive judgments regarding +the extinction of personality. Personality is the sole bestowal of the Father, +but the Creator Sons, with the approval of the Eternal Son, do initiate new +creature designs, and with the working co-operation of their Spirit associates +they may attempt new transformations of energy-matter. + +Michael is the personification of the Paradise Father-Son to and in the local +universe of Nebadon; therefore, when the Creative Mother Spirit, the local +universe representation of the Infinite Spirit, subordinated herself to Christ +Michael upon the return from his final bestowal on Urantia, the Master Son +thereby acquired jurisdiction over "all power in heaven and on earth." + +This subordination of the Divine Ministers to the Creator Sons of the local +universes constitutes these Master Sons the personal repositories of the +finitely manifestable divinity of the Father, Son, and Spirit, while the +creature-bestowal experiences of the Michaels qualify them to portray the +experiential divinity of the Supreme Being. No other beings in the universes +have thus personally exhausted the potentials of present finite experience, and +no other beings in the universes possess such qualifications for solitary +sovereignty. + +Although Michael's headquarters is officially located on Salvington, the +capital of Nebadon, he spends much of his time visiting the constellation and +system headquarters and even the individual planets. Periodically he journeys +to Paradise and often to Uversa, where he counsels with the Ancients of Days. +When he is away from Salvington, his place is assumed by Gabriel, who then +functions as regent of the universe of Nebadon. + +3. THE UNIVERSE SON AND SPIRIT + +While pervading all the universes of time and space, the Infinite Spirit +functions from the headquarters of each local universe as a specialized +focalization acquiring full personality qualities by the technique of creative +co-operation with the Creator Son. As concerns a local universe, the +administrative authority of a Creator Son is supreme; the Infinite Spirit, as +the Divine Minister, is wholly co-operative though perfectly co-ordinate. + +The Universe Mother Spirit of Salvington, the associate of Michael in the +control and administration of Nebadon, is of the sixth group of Supreme +Spirits, being the 611,121st of that order. She volunteered to accompany +Michael on the occasion of his liberation from Paradise obligations and has +ever since functioned with him in creating and governing his universe. + +The Master Creator Son is the personal sovereign of his universe, but in all +the details of its management the Universe Spirit is codirector with the Son. +While the Spirit ever acknowledges the Son as sovereign and ruler, the Son +always accords the Spirit a co-ordinate position and equality of authority in +all the affairs of the realm. In all his work of love and life bestowal the +Creator Son is always and ever perfectly sustained and ably assisted by the +all-wise and ever-faithful Universe Spirit and by all of her diversified +retinue of angelic personalities. Such a Divine Minister is in reality the +mother of spirits and spirit personalities, the ever-present and all-wise +adviser of the Creator Son, a faithful and true manifestation of the Paradise +Infinite Spirit. + +The Son functions as a father in his local universe. The Spirit, as mortal +creatures would understand, enacts the role of a mother, always assisting the +Son and being everlastingly indispensable to the administration of the +universe. In the face of insurrection only the Son and his associated Sons can +function as deliverers. Never can the Spirit undertake to contest rebellion or +defend authority, but ever does the Spirit sustain the Son in all of everything +he may be required to experience in his efforts to stabilize government and +uphold authority on worlds tainted with evil or dominated by sin. Only a Son +can retrieve the work of their joint creation, but no Son could hope for final +success without the incessant co-operation of the Divine Minister and her vast +assemblage of spirit helpers, the daughters of God, who so faithfully and +valiantly struggle for the welfare of mortal men and the glory of their divine +parents. + +Upon the completion of the Creator Son's seventh and final creature bestowal, +the uncertainties of periodic isolation terminate for the Divine Minister, and +the Son's universe helper becomes forever settled in surety and control. It is +at the enthronement of the Creator Son as a Master Son, at the jubilee of +jubilees, that the Universe Spirit, before the assembled hosts, first makes +public and universal acknowledgment of subordination to the Son, pledging +fidelity and obedience. This event occurred in Nebadon at the time of Michael's +return to Salvington after the Urantian bestowal. Never before this momentous +occasion did the Universe Spirit acknowledge subordination to the Universe Son, +and not until after this voluntary relinquishment of power and authority by the +Spirit could it be truthfully proclaimed of the Son that "all power in heaven +and on earth has been committed to his hand." + + top of page - 369 + +After this pledge of subordination by the Creative Mother Spirit, Michael of +Nebadon nobly acknowledged his eternal dependence on his Spirit companion, +constituting the Spirit coruler of his universe domains and requiring all their +creatures to pledge themselves in loyalty to the Spirit as they had to the Son; +and there issued and went forth the final "Proclamation of Equality." Though he +was the sovereign of this local universe, the Son published to the worlds the +fact of the Spirit's equality with him in all endowments of personality and +attributes of divine character. And this becomes the transcendent pattern for +the family organization and government of even the lowly creatures of the +worlds of space. This is, in deed and in truth, the high ideal of the family +and the human institution of voluntary marriage. + +The Son and the Spirit now preside over the universe much as a father and +mother watch over, and minister to, their family of sons and daughters. It is +not altogether out of place to refer to the Universe Spirit as the creative +companion of the Creator Son and to regard the creatures of the realms as their +sons and daughters--a grand and glorious family but one of untold +responsibilities and endless watchcare. + +The Son initiates the creation of certain of the universe children, while the +Spirit is solely responsible for bringing into existence the numerous orders of +spirit personalities who minister and serve under the direction and guidance of +this selfsame Mother Spirit. In the creation of other types of universe +personalities, both the Son and the Spirit function together, and in no +creative act does the one do aught without the counsel and approval of the +other. + +4. GABRIEL--THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE + +The Bright and Morning Star is the personalization of the first concept of +identity and ideal of personality conceived by the Creator Son and the local +universe manifestation of the Infinite Spirit. Going back to the early days of +the local universe, before the union of the Creator Son and the Mother Spirit +in the bonds of creative association, back to the times before the beginning of +the creation of their versatile family of sons and daughters, the first +conjoint act of this early and free association of these two divine persons +results in the creation of the highest spirit personality of the Son and the +Spirit, the Bright and Morning Star. + +Only one such being of wisdom and majesty is brought forth in each local +universe. The Universal Father and the Eternal Son can, in fact do, create an +unlimited number of Sons in divinity equal to themselves; but such Sons, in +union with the Daughters of the Infinite Spirit, can create only one Bright and +Morning Star in each universe, a being like themselves and partaking freely of +their combined natures but not of their creative prerogatives. Gabriel of +Salvington is like the Universe Son in divinity of nature though considerably +limited in the attributes of Deity. + +This first-born of the parents of a new universe is a unique personality +possessing many wonderful traits not visibly present in either ancestor, a +being of unprecedented versatility and unimagined brilliance. This supernal +personality embraces the divine will of the Son combined with the creative +imagination of the Spirit. The thoughts and acts of the Bright and Morning Star +will ever be fully representative of both the Creator Son and the Creative +Spirit. Such a + + top of page - 370 + +being is also capable of a broad understanding of, and sympathetic contact +with, both the spiritual seraphic hosts and the material evolutionary will +creatures. + +The Bright and Morning Star is not a creator, but he is a marvelous +administrator, being the personal administrative representative of the Creator +Son. Aside from creation and life impartation the Son and the Spirit never +confer upon important universe procedures without Gabriel's presence. + +Gabriel of Salvington is the chief executive of the universe of Nebadon and the +arbiter of all executive appeals respecting its administration. This universe +executive was created fully endowed for his work, but he has gained experience +with the growth and evolution of our local creation. + +Gabriel is the chief officer of execution for superuniverse mandates relating +to nonpersonal affairs in the local universe. Most matters pertaining to mass +judgment and dispensational resurrections, adjudicated by the Ancients of Days, +are also delegated to Gabriel and his staff for execution. Gabriel is thus the +combined chief executive of both the super- and the local universe rulers. He +has at his command an able corps of administrative assistants, created for +their special work, who are unrevealed to evolutionary mortals. In addition to +these assistants, Gabriel may employ any and all of the orders of celestial +beings functioning in Nebadon, and he is also the commander in chief of "the +armies of heaven"--the celestial hosts. + +Gabriel and his staff are not teachers; they are administrators. They were +never known to depart from their regular work except when Michael was +incarnated on a creature bestowal. During such bestowals Gabriel was ever +attendant on the will of the incarnated Son, and with the collaboration of the +Union of Days, he became the actual director of universe affairs during the +later bestowals. Gabriel has been closely identified with the history and +development of Urantia ever since the mortal bestowal of Michael. + +Aside from meeting Gabriel on the bestowal worlds and at the times of general- +and special-resurrection roll calls, mortals will seldom encounter him as they +ascend through the local universe until they are inducted into the +administrative work of the local creation. As administrators, of whatever order +or degree, you will come under the direction of Gabriel. + +5. THE TRINITY AMBASSADORS + +The administration of Trinity-origin personalities ends with the government of +the superuniverses. The local universes are characterized by dual supervision, +the beginning of the father-mother concept. The universe father is the Creator +Son; the universe mother is the Divine Minister, the local universe Creative +Spirit. Every local universe is, however, blessed with the presence of certain +personalities from the central universe and Paradise. At the head of this +Paradise group in Nebadon is the ambassador of the Paradise Trinity--Immanuel +of Salvington--the Union of Days assigned to the local universe of Nebadon. In +a certain sense this high Trinity Son is also the personal representative of +the Universal Father to the court of the Creator Son; hence his name, Immanuel. + +Immanuel of Salvington, number 611,121 of the sixth order of Supreme Trinity +Personalities, is a being of sublime dignity and of such superb condescension +that he refuses the worship and adoration of all living creatures. He bears the +distinction of being the only personality in all Nebadon who has never + + top of page - 371 + +acknowledged subordination to his brother Michael. He functions as adviser to +the Sovereign Son but gives counsel only on request. In the absence of the +Creator Son he might preside over any high universe council but would not +otherwise participate in the executive affairs of the universe except as +requested. + +This ambassador of Paradise to Nebadon is not subject to the jurisdiction of +the local universe government. Neither does he exercise authoritative +jurisdiction in the executive affairs of an evolving local universe except in +the supervision of his liaison brethren, the Faithfuls of Days, serving on the +headquarters of the constellations. + +The Faithfuls of Days, like the Union of Days, never proffer advice or offer +assistance to the constellation rulers unless it is asked for. These Paradise +ambassadors to the constellations represent the final personal presence of the +Stationary Sons of the Trinity functioning in advisory roles in the local +universes. Constellations are more closely related to the superuniverse +administration than local systems, which are administered exclusively by +personalities native to the local universe. + +6. GENERAL ADMINISTRATION + +Gabriel is the chief executive and actual administrator of Nebadon. Michael's +absence from Salvington in no way interferes with the orderly conduct of +universe affairs. During the absence of Michael, as recently on the mission of +reunion of Orvonton Master Sons on Paradise, Gabriel is the regent of the +universe. At such times Gabriel always seeks the counsel of Immanuel of +Salvington regarding all major problems. + +The Father Melchizedek is Gabriel's first assistant. When the Bright and +Morning Star is absent from Salvington, his responsibilities are assumed by +this original Melchizedek Son. + +The various subadministrations of the universe have assigned to them certain +special domains of responsibility. While, in general, a system government looks +after the welfare of its planets, it is more particularly concerned with the +physical status of living beings, with biologic problems. In turn, the +constellation rulers pay especial attention to the social and governmental +conditions prevailing on the different planets and systems. A constellation +government is chiefly exercised over unification and stabilization. Still +higher up, the universe rulers are more occupied with the spiritual status of +the realms. + +Ambassadors are appointed by judicial decree and represent universes to other +universes. Consuls are representatives of constellations to one another and to +the universe headquarters; they are appointed by legislative decree and +function only within the confines of the local universe. Observers are +commissioned by executive decree of a System Sovereign to represent that system +to other systems and at the constellation capital, and they, too, function only +within the confines of the local universe. + +From Salvington, broadcasts are simultaneously directed to the constellation +headquarters, the system headquarters, and to individual planets. All higher +orders of celestial beings are able to utilize this service for communication +with their fellows scattered throughout the universe. The universe broadcast is +extended to all inhabited worlds regardless of their spiritual status. + + top of page - 372 + +Planetary intercommunication is denied only those worlds under spiritual +quarantine. + +Constellation broadcasts are periodically sent out from the headquarters of the +constellation by the chief of the Constellation Fathers. + +Chronology is reckoned, computed, and rectified by a special group of beings on +Salvington. The standard day of Nebadon is equal to eighteen days and six hours +of Urantia time, plus two and one-half minutes. The Nebadon year consists of a +segment of the time of universe swing in relation to the Uversa circuit and is +equal to one hundred days of standard universe time, about five years of +Urantia time. + +Nebadon time, broadcast from Salvington, is the standard for all constellations +and systems in this local universe. Each constellation conducts its affairs by +Nebadon time, but the systems maintain their own chronology, as do the +individual planets. + +The day in Satania, as reckoned on Jerusem, is a little less (1 hour, 4 +minutes, 15 seconds) than three days of Urantia time. These times are generally +known as Salvington or universe time, and Satania or system time. Standard time +is universe time. + +7. THE COURTS OF NEBADON + +The Master Son, Michael, is supremely concerned with but three things: +creation, sustenance, and ministry. He does not personally participate in the +judicial work of the universe. Creators never sit in judgment on their +creatures; that is the exclusive function of creatures of high training and +actual creature experience. + +The entire judicial mechanism of Nebadon is under the supervision of Gabriel. +The high courts, located on Salvington, are occupied with problems of general +universe import and with the appellate cases coming up from the system +tribunals. There are seventy branches of these universe courts, and they +function in seven divisions of ten sections each. In all matters of +adjudication there presides a dual magistracy consisting of one judge of +perfection antecedents and one magistrate of ascendant experience. + +As regards jurisdiction, the local universe courts are limited in the following +matters: + +1. The administration of the local universe is concerned with creation, +evolution, maintenance, and ministry. The universe tribunals are, therefore, +denied the right to pass upon those cases involving the question of eternal +life and death. This has no reference to natural death as it obtains on +Urantia, but if the question of the right of continued existence, life eternal, +comes up for adjudication, it must be referred to the tribunals of Orvonton, +and if decided adversely to the individual, all sentences of extinction are +carried out upon the orders, and through the agencies, of the rulers of the +supergovernment. + +2. The default or defection of any of the Local Universe Sons of God which +jeopardizes their status and authority as Sons is never adjudicated in the +tribunals of a Son; such a misunderstanding would be immediately carried to the +superuniverse courts. + +3. The question of the readmission of any constituent part of a local +universe--such as a local system--to the fellowship of full spiritual status in +the + + top of page - 373 + +local creation subsequent to spiritual isolation must be concurred in by the +high assembly of the superuniverse. + +In all other matters the courts of Salvington are final and supreme. There is +no appeal and no escape from their decisions and decrees. + +However unfairly human contentions may sometimes appear to be adjudicated on +Urantia, in the universe justice and divine equity do prevail. You are living +in a well-ordered universe, and sooner or later you may depend upon being dealt +with justly, even mercifully. + +8. THE LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS + +On Salvington, the headquarters of Nebadon, there are no true legislative +bodies. The universe headquarters worlds are concerned largely with +adjudication. The legislative assemblies of the local universe are located on +the headquarters of the one hundred constellations. The systems are chiefly +concerned with the executive and administrative work of the local creations. +The System Sovereigns and their associates enforce the legislative mandates of +the constellation rulers and execute the judicial decrees of the high courts of +the universe. + +While true legislation is not enacted at the universe headquarters, there do +function on Salvington a variety of advisory and research assemblies, variously +constituted and conducted in accordance with their scope and purpose. Some are +permanent; others disband upon the accomplishment of their objective. + +The supreme council of the local universe is made up of three members from each +system and seven representatives from each constellation. Systems in isolation +do not have representation in this assembly, but they are permitted to send +observers who attend and study all its deliberations. + +The one hundred councils of supreme sanction are also situated on Salvington. +The presidents of these councils constitute the immediate working cabinet of +Gabriel. + +All findings of the high universe advisory councils are referred either to the +Salvington judicial bodies or to the legislative assemblies of the +constellations. These high councils are without authority or power to enforce +their recommendations. If their advice is founded on the fundamental laws of +the universe, then will the Nebadon courts issue rulings of execution; but if +their recommendations have to do with local or emergency conditions, they must +pass down to the legislative assemblies of the constellation for deliberative +enactment and then to the system authorities for execution. These high councils +are, in reality, the universe superlegislatures, but they function without the +authority of enactment and without the power of execution. + +While we speak of universe administration in terms of "courts" and +"assemblies," it should be understood that these spiritual transactions are +very different from the more primitive and material activities of Urantia which +bear corresponding names. + +[Presented by the Chief of the Archangels of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 374 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Evolution ³ The Local ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ O... ³ Unive... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p034.txt b/religious documents/p034.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3ad351 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p034.txt @@ -0,0 +1,593 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 34 The Local Universe Mother Spirit + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 34 The Local Universe Mother Spirit + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +WHEN a Creator Son is personalized by the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, +then does the Infinite Spirit individualize a new and unique representation of +himself to accompany this Creator Son to the realms of space, there to be his +companion, first, in physical organization and, later, in creation and ministry +to the creatures of the newly projected universe. + +A Creative Spirit reacts to both physical and spiritual realities; so does a +Creator Son; and thus are they co-ordinate and associate in the administration +of a local universe of time and space. + +These Daughter Spirits are of the essence of the Infinite Spirit, but they +cannot function in the work of physical creation and spiritual ministry +simultaneously. In physical creation the Universe Son provides the pattern +while the Universe Spirit initiates the materialization of physical realities. +The Son operates in the power designs, but the Spirit transforms these energy +creations into physical substances. Although it is somewhat difficult to +portray this early universe presence of the Infinite Spirit as a person, +nevertheless, to the Creator Son the Spirit associate is personal and has +always functioned as a distinct individual. + +1. PERSONALIZATION OF THE CREATIVE SPIRIT + +After the completion of the physical organization of a starry and planetary +cluster and the establishment of the energy circuits by the superuniverse power +centers, subsequent to this preliminary work of creation by the agencies of the +Infinite Spirit, operating through, and under the direction of, his local +universe creative focalization, there goes forth the proclamation of the +Michael Son that life is next to be projected in the newly organized universe. +Upon the Paradise recognition of this declaration of intention, there occurs a +reaction of approval in the Paradise Trinity, followed by the disappearance in +the spiritual shining of the Deities of the Master Spirit in whose +superuniverse this new creation is organizing. Meanwhile the other Master +Spirits draw near this central lodgment of the Paradise Deities, and +subsequently, when the Deity-embraced Master Spirit emerges to the recognition +of his fellows, there occurs what is known as a "primary eruption." This is a +tremendous spiritual flash, a phenomenon clearly discernible as far away as the +headquarters of the superuniverse concerned; and simultaneously with this +little-understood Trinity manifestation there occurs a marked change in the +nature of the creative spirit presence and power of the Infinite Spirit +resident in the local universe concerned. In response to these Paradise +phenomena there immediately personalizes, in the very presence of the Creator +Son, a new personal representation of the Infinite Spirit. This is the + + top of page - 375 + +Divine Minister. The individualized Creative Spirit helper of the Creator Son +has become his personal creative associate, the local universe Mother Spirit. + +From and through this new personal segregation of the Conjoint Creator there +proceed the established currents and the ordained circuits of spirit power and +spiritual influence destined to pervade all the worlds and beings of that local +universe. In reality, this new and personal presence is but a transformation of +the pre-existent and less personal associate of the Son in his earlier work of +physical universe organization. + +This is the relation of a stupendous drama in few words, but it represents +about all that can be told regarding these momentous transactions. They are +instantaneous, inscrutable, and incomprehensible; the secret of the technique +and procedure resides in the bosom of the Paradise Trinity. Of only one thing +are we certain: The Spirit presence in the local universe during the time of +purely physical creation or organization was incompletely differentiated from +the spirit of the Paradise Infinite Spirit; whereas, after the reappearance of +the supervising Master Spirit from the secret embrace of the Gods and following +the flash of spiritual energy, the local universe manifestation of the Infinite +Spirit suddenly and completely changes to the personal likeness of that Master +Spirit who was in transmuting liaison with the Infinite Spirit. The local +universe Mother Spirit thus acquires a personal nature tinged by that of the +Master Spirit of the superuniverse of astronomic jurisdiction. + +This personalized presence of the Infinite Spirit, the Creative Mother Spirit +of the local universe, is known in Satania as the Divine Minister. To all +practical intents and spiritual purposes this manifestation of Deity is a +divine individual, a spirit person. And she is so recognized and regarded by +the Creator Son. It is through this localization and personalization of the +Third Source and Center in our local universe that the Spirit could +subsequently become so fully subject to the Creator Son that of this Son it was +truly said, "All power in heaven and on earth has been intrusted to him." + +2. NATURE OF THE DIVINE MINISTER + +Having undergone marked personality metamorphosis at the time of life creation, +the Divine Minister thereafter functions as a person and co-operates in a very +personal manner with the Creator Son in the planning and management of the +extensive affairs of their local creation. To many universe types of being, +even this representation of the Infinite Spirit may not appear to be wholly +personal during the ages preceding the final Michael bestowal; but subsequent +to the elevation of the Creator Son to the sovereign authority of a Master Son, +the Creative Mother Spirit becomes so augmented in personal qualities as to be +personally recognized by all contacting individuals. + +From the earliest association with the Creator Son the Universe Spirit +possesses all the physical-control attributes of the Infinite Spirit, including +the full endowment of antigravity. Upon the attainment of personal status the +Universe Spirit exerts just as full and complete control of mind gravity, in +the local universe, as would the Infinite Spirit if personally present. + +In each local universe the Divine Minister functions in accordance with the +nature and inherent characteristics of the Infinite Spirit as embodied in one +of the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise. While there is a basic uniformity of +char- + + top of page - 376 + +acter in all Universe Spirits, there is also a diversity of function, +determined by their origin through one of the Seven Master Spirits. This +differential of origin accounts for the diverse techniques in the function of +the local universe Mother Spirits in different superuniverses. But in all +essential spiritual attributes these Spirits are identical, equally spiritual +and wholly divine, irrespective of superuniverse differentiation. + +The Creative Spirit is coresponsible with the Creator Son in producing the +creatures of the worlds and never fails the Son in all efforts to uphold and +conserve these creations. Life is ministered and maintained through the agency +of the Creative Spirit. "You send forth your Spirit, and they are created. You +renew the face of the earth." + +In the creation of a universe of intelligent creatures the Creative Mother +Spirit functions first in the sphere of universe perfection, collaborating with +the Son in the production of the Bright and Morning Star. Subsequently the +offspring of the Spirit increasingly approach the order of created beings on +the planets, even as the Sons grade downward from the Melchizedeks to the +Material Sons, who actually contact with the mortals of the realms. In the +later evolution of mortal creatures the Life Carrier Sons provide the physical +body, fabricated out of the existing organized material of the realm, while the +Universe Spirit contributes the "breath of life." + +While the seventh segment of the grand universe may, in many respects, be tardy +in development, thoughtful students of our problems look forward to the +evolution of an extraordinarily well-balanced creation in the ages to come. We +predict this high degree of symmetry in Orvonton because the presiding Spirit +of this superuniverse is the chief of the Master Spirits on high, being a +spirit intelligence embodying the balanced union and perfect co-ordination of +the traits and character of all three of the eternal Deities. We are tardy and +backward in comparison with other sectors, but there undoubtedly awaits us a +transcendent development and an unprecedented achievement sometime in the +eternal ages of the future. + +3. THE SON AND SPIRIT IN TIME AND SPACE + +Neither the Eternal Son nor the Infinite Spirit is limited or conditioned by +either time or space, but most of their offspring are. + +The Infinite Spirit pervades all space and indwells the circle of eternity. +Still, in their personal contact with the children of time, the personalities +of the Infinite Spirit must often reckon with temporal elements, though not so +much with space. Many mind ministries ignore space but suffer a time lag in +effecting co-ordination of diverse levels of universe reality. A Solitary +Messenger is virtually independent of space except that time is actually +required in traveling from one location to another; and there are similar +entities unknown to you. + +In personal prerogatives a Creative Spirit is wholly and entirely independent +of space, but not of time. There is no specialized personal presence of such a +Universe Spirit on either the constellation or system headquarters. She is +equally and diffusely present throughout her entire local universe and is, +therefore, just as literally and personally present on one world as on any +other. + +Only as regards the element of time is a Creative Spirit ever limited in her +universe ministrations. A Creator Son acts instantaneously throughout his uni- + + top of page - 377 + +verse; but the Creative Spirit must reckon with time in the ministration of the +universal mind except as she consciously and designedly avails herself of the +personal prerogatives of the Universe Son. In pure-spirit function the Creative +Spirit also acts independently of time as well as in her collaboration with the +mysterious function of universe reflectivity. + +Though the spirit-gravity circuit of the Eternal Son operates independently of +both time and space, all functions of the Creator Sons are not exempt from +space limitations. If the transactions of the evolutionary worlds are excepted, +these Michael Sons seem to be able to operate relatively independent of time. A +Creator Son is not handicapped by time, but he is conditioned by space; he +cannot personally be in two places at the same time. Michael of Nebadon acts +timelessly within his own universe and by reflectivity practically so in the +superuniverse. He communicates timelessly with the Eternal Son directly. + +The Divine Minister is the understanding helper of the Creator Son, enabling +him to overcome and atone for his inherent limitations regarding space, for +when these two function in administrative union, they are practically +independent of time and space within the confines of their local creation. +Therefore, as practically observed throughout a local universe, the Creator Son +and the Creative Spirit usually function independently of both time and space +since there is always available to each the time and the space liberation of +the other. + +Only absolute beings are independent of time and space in the absolute sense. +The majority of the subordinate persons of both the Eternal Son and the +Infinite Spirit are subject to both time and space. + +When a Creative Spirit becomes "space conscious," she is preparing to recognize +a circumscribed "space domain" as hers, a realm in which to be space free in +contradistinction to all other space by which she would be conditioned. One is +free to choose and act only within the realm of one's consciousness. + +4. THE LOCAL UNIVERSE CIRCUITS + +There are three distinct spirit circuits in the local universe of Nebadon: + +1. The bestowal spirit of the Creator Son, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. + +2. The spirit circuit of the Divine Minister, the Holy Spirit. + +3. The intelligence-ministry circuit, including the more or less unified +activities but diverse functioning of the seven adjutant mind-spirits. + +The Creator Sons are endowed with a spirit of universe presence in many ways +analogous to that of the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise. This is the Spirit +of Truth which is poured out upon a world by a bestowal Son after he receives +spiritual title to such a sphere. This bestowed Comforter is the spiritual +force which ever draws all truth seekers towards Him who is the personification +of truth in the local universe. This spirit is an inherent endowment of the +Creator Son, emerging from his divine nature just as the master circuits of the +grand universe are derived from the personality presences of the Paradise +Deities. + +The Creator Son may come and go; his personal presence may be in the local +universe or elsewhere; yet the Spirit of Truth functions undisturbed, for + + top of page - 378 + +this divine presence, while derived from the personality of the Creator Son, is +functionally centered in the person of the Divine Minister. + +The Universe Mother Spirit, however, never leaves the local universe +headquarters world. The spirit of the Creator Son may and does function +independently of the personal presence of the Son, but not so with her personal +spirit. The Holy Spirit of the Divine Minister would become nonfunctional if +her personal presence should be removed from Salvington. Her spirit presence +seems to be fixed on the universe headquarters world, and it is this very fact +that enables the spirit of the Creator Son to function independently of the +whereabouts of the Son. The Universe Mother Spirit acts as the universe focus +and center of the Spirit of Truth as well as of her own personal influence, the +Holy Spirit. + +The Creator Father-Son and the Creative Mother Spirit both contribute variously +to the mind endowment of their local universe children. But the Creative Spirit +does not bestow mind until she is endowed with personal prerogatives. + +The superevolutionary orders of personality in a local universe are endowed +with the local universe type of the superuniverse pattern of mind. The human +and the subhuman orders of evolutionary life are endowed with the adjutant +spirit types of mind ministration. + +The seven adjutant mind-spirits are the creation of the Divine Minister of a +local universe. These mind-spirits are similar in character but diverse in +power, and all partake alike of the nature of the Universe Spirit, although +they are hardly regarded as personalities apart from their Mother Creator. The +seven adjutants have been given the following names: the spirit of wisdom, the +spirit of worship, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of knowledge, the spirit +of courage, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of intuition--of quick +perception. + +These are the "seven spirits of God," "like lamps burning before the throne," +which the prophet saw in the symbols of vision. But he did not see the seats of +the four and twenty sentinels about these seven adjutant mind-spirits. This +record represents the confusion of two presentations, one pertaining to the +universe headquarters and the other to the system capital. The seats of the +four and twenty elders are on Jerusem, the headquarters of your local system of +inhabited worlds. + +But it was of Salvington that John wrote: "And out of the throne proceeded +lightnings and thunderings and voices"--the universe broadcasts to the local +systems. He also envisaged the directional control creatures of the local +universe, the living compasses of the headquarters world. This directional +control in Nebadon is maintained by the four control creatures of Salvington, +who operate over the universe currents and are ably assisted by the first +functioning mind-spirit, the adjutant of intuition, the spirit of "quick +understanding." But the description of these four creatures--called beasts--has +been sadly marred; they are of unparalleled beauty and exquisite form. + +The four points of the compass are universal and inherent in the life of +Nebadon. All living creatures possess bodily units which are sensitive and +responsive to these directional currents. These creature creations are +duplicated on down through the universe to the individual planets and, in +conjunction with the magnetic forces of the worlds, so activate the hosts of +microscopic bodies + + top of page - 379 + +in the animal organism that these direction cells ever point north and south. +Thus is the sense of orientation forever fixed in the living beings of the +universe. This sense is not wholly wanting as a conscious possession by +mankind. These bodies were first observed on Urantia about the time of this +narration. + +5. THE MINISTRY OF THE SPIRIT + +The Divine Minister co-operates with the Creator Son in the formulation of life +and the creation of new orders of beings up to the time of his seventh bestowal +and, subsequently, after his elevation to the full sovereignty of the universe, +continues to collaborate with the Son and the Son's bestowed spirit in the +further work of world ministry and planetary progression. + +On the inhabited worlds the Spirit begins the work of evolutionary progression, +starting with the lifeless material of the realm, first endowing vegetable +life, then the animal organisms, then the first orders of human existence; and +each succeeding impartation contributes to the further unfolding of the +evolutionary potential of planetary life from the initial and primitive stages +to the appearance of will creatures. This labor of the Spirit is largely +effected through the seven adjutants, the spirits of promise, the unifying and +co-ordinating spirit-mind of the evolving planets, ever and unitedly leading +the races of men towards higher ideas and spiritual ideals. + +Mortal man first experiences the ministry of the Spirit in conjunction with +mind when the purely animal mind of evolutionary creatures develops reception +capacity for the adjutants of worship and of wisdom. This ministry of the sixth +and seventh adjutants indicates mind evolution crossing the threshold of +spiritual ministry. And immediately are such minds of worship- and +wisdom-function included in the spiritual circuits of the Divine Minister. + +When mind is thus endowed with the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it possesses +the capacity for (consciously or unconsciously) choosing the spiritual presence +of the Universal Father--the Thought Adjuster. But it is not until a bestowal +Son has liberated the Spirit of Truth for planetary ministry to all mortals +that all normal minds are automatically prepared for the reception of the +Thought Adjusters. The Spirit of Truth works as one with the presence of the +spirit of the Divine Minister. This dual spirit liaison hovers over the worlds, +seeking to teach truth and to spiritually enlighten the minds of men, to +inspire the souls of the creatures of the ascending races, and to lead the +peoples dwelling on the evolutionary planets ever towards their Paradise goal +of divine destiny. + +Though the Spirit of Truth is poured out upon all flesh, this spirit of the Son +is almost wholly limited in function and power by man's personal reception of +that which constitutes the sum and substance of the mission of the bestowal +Son. The Holy Spirit is partly independent of human attitude and partially +conditioned by the decisions and co-operation of the will of man. Nevertheless, +the ministry of the Holy Spirit becomes increasingly effective in the +sanctification and spiritualization of the inner life of those mortals who the +more fully obey the divine leadings. + +As individuals you do not personally possess a segregated portion or entity of +the spirit of the Creator Father-Son or the Creative Mother Spirit; these +ministries do not contact with, nor indwell, the thinking centers of the +individual's mind as do the Mystery Monitors. Thought Adjusters are definite +in- + + top of page - 380 + +dividualizations of the prepersonal reality of the Universal Father, actually +indwelling the mortal mind as a very part of that mind, and they ever work in +perfect harmony with the combined spirits of the Creator Son and Creative +Spirit. + +The presence of the Holy Spirit of the Universe Daughter of the Infinite +Spirit, of the Spirit of Truth of the Universe Son of the Eternal Son, and of +the Adjuster-spirit of the Paradise Father in or with an evolutionary mortal, +denotes symmetry of spiritual endowment and ministry and qualifies such a +mortal consciously to realize the faith-fact of sonship with God. + +6. THE SPIRIT IN MAN + +With the advancing evolution of an inhabited planet and the further +spiritualization of its inhabitants, additional spiritual influences may be +received by such mature personalities. As mortals progress in mind control and +spirit perception, these multiple spirit ministries become more and more +co-ordinate in function; they become increasingly blended with the overministry +of the Paradise Trinity. + +Although Divinity may be plural in manifestation, in human experience Deity is +singular, always one. Neither is spiritual ministry plural in human experience. +Regardless of plurality of origin, all spirit influences are one in function. +Indeed they are one, being the spirit ministry of God the Sevenfold in and to +the creatures of the grand universe; and as creatures grow in appreciation of, +and receptivity for, this unifying ministry of the spirit, it becomes in their +experience the ministry of God the Supreme. + +From the heights of eternal glory the divine Spirit descends, by a long series +of steps, to meet you as you are and where you are and then, in the partnership +of faith, lovingly to embrace the soul of mortal origin and to embark on the +sure and certain retracement of those steps of condescension, never stopping +until the evolutionary soul is safely exalted to the very heights of bliss from +which the divine Spirit originally sallied forth on this mission of mercy and +ministry. + +Spiritual forces unerringly seek and attain their own original levels. Having +gone out from the Eternal, they are certain to return thereto, bringing with +them all those children of time and space who have espoused the leading and +teaching of the indwelling Adjuster, those who have been truly "born of the +Spirit," the faith sons of God. + +The divine Spirit is the source of continual ministry and encouragement to the +children of men. Your power and achievement is "according to his mercy, through +the renewing of the Spirit." Spiritual life, like physical energy, is consumed. +Spiritual effort results in relative spiritual exhaustion. The whole ascendant +experience is real as well as spiritual; therefore, it is truly written, "It is +the Spirit that quickens." "The Spirit gives life." + +The dead theory of even the highest religious doctrines is powerless to +transform human character or to control mortal behavior. What the world of +today needs is the truth which your teacher of old declared: "Not in word only +but also in power and in the Holy Spirit." The seed of theoretical truth is +dead, the highest moral concepts without effect, unless and until the divine +Spirit breathes upon the forms of truth and quickens the formulas of +righteousness. + + top of page - 381 + +Those who have received and recognized the indwelling of God have been born of +the Spirit. "You are the temple of God, and the spirit of God dwells in you." +It is not enough that this spirit be poured out upon you; the divine Spirit +must dominate and control every phase of human experience. + +It is the presence of the divine Spirit, the water of life, that prevents the +consuming thirst of mortal discontent and that indescribable hunger of the +unspiritualized human mind. Spirit-motivated beings "never thirst, for this +spiritual water shall be in them a well of satisfaction springing up into life +everlasting." Such divinely watered souls are all but independent of material +environment as regards the joys of living and the satisfactions of earthly +existence. They are spiritually illuminated and refreshed, morally strengthened +and endowed. + +In every mortal there exists a dual nature: the inheritance of animal +tendencies and the high urge of spirit endowment. During the short life you +live on Urantia, these two diverse and opposing urges can seldom be fully +reconciled; they can hardly be harmonized and unified; but throughout your +lifetime the combined Spirit ever ministers to assist you in subjecting the +flesh more and more to the leading of the Spirit. Even though you must live +your material life through, even though you cannot escape the body and its +necessities, nonetheless, in purpose and ideals you are empowered increasingly +to subject the animal nature to the mastery of the Spirit. There truly exists +within you a conspiracy of spiritual forces, a confederation of divine powers, +whose exclusive purpose is to effect your final deliverance from material +bondage and finite handicaps. + +The purpose of all this ministration is, "That you may be strengthened with +power through His spirit in the inner man." And all this represents but the +preliminary steps to the final attainment of the perfection of faith and +service, that experience wherein you shall be "filled with all the fullness of +God," "for all those who are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God." + +The Spirit never drives, only leads. If you are a willing learner, if you want +to attain spirit levels and reach divine heights, if you sincerely desire to +reach the eternal goal, then the divine Spirit will gently and lovingly lead +you along the pathway of sonship and spiritual progress. Every step you take +must be one of willingness, intelligent and cheerful co-operation. The +domination of the Spirit is never tainted with coercion nor compromised by +compulsion. + +And when such a life of spirit guidance is freely and intelligently accepted, +there gradually develops within the human mind a positive consciousness of +divine contact and assurance of spirit communion; sooner or later "the Spirit +bears witness with your spirit (the Adjuster) that you are a child of God." +Already has your own Thought Adjuster told you of your kinship to God so that +the record testifies that the Spirit bears witness "with your spirit," not to +your spirit. + +The consciousness of the spirit domination of a human life is presently +attended by an increasing exhibition of the characteristics of the Spirit in +the life reactions of such a spirit-led mortal, "for the fruits of the spirit +are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, +and temperance." Such spirit-guided and divinely illuminated mortals, while +they yet tread the lowly paths of toil and in human faithfulness perform the +duties of their earthly assignments, have already begun to discern the lights +of eternal life as they glimmer on the faraway shores of another world; already +have they begun to + + top of page - 382 + +comprehend the reality of that inspiring and comforting truth, "The kingdom of +God is not meat and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy +Spirit." And throughout every trial and in the presence of every hardship, +spirit-born souls are sustained by that hope which transcends all fear because +the love of God is shed abroad in all hearts by the presence of the divine +Spirit. + +7. THE SPIRIT AND THE FLESH + +The flesh, the inherent nature derived from the animal-origin races, does not +naturally bear the fruits of the divine Spirit. When the mortal nature has been +upstepped by the addition of the nature of the Material Sons of God, as the +Urantia races were in a measure advanced by the bestowal of Adam, then is the +way better prepared for the Spirit of Truth to co-operate with the indwelling +Adjuster to bring forth the beautiful harvest of the character fruits of the +spirit. If you do not reject this spirit, even though eternity may be required +to fulfill the commission, "he will guide you into all truth." + +Evolutionary mortals inhabiting normal worlds of spiritual progress do not +experience the acute conflicts between the spirit and the flesh which +characterize the present-day Urantia races. But even on the most ideal planets, +pre-Adamic man must put forth positive efforts to ascend from the purely +animalistic plane of existence up through successive levels of increasingly +intellectual meanings and higher spiritual values. + +The mortals of a normal world do not experience constant warfare between their +physical and spiritual natures. They are confronted with the necessity of +climbing up from the animal levels of existence to the higher planes of +spiritual living, but this ascent is more like undergoing an educational +training when compared with the intense conflicts of Urantia mortals in this +realm of the divergent material and spiritual natures. + +The Urantia peoples are suffering the consequences of a double deprivation of +help in this task of progressive planetary spiritual attainment. The Caligastia +upheaval precipitated world-wide confusion and robbed all subsequent +generations of the moral assistance which a well-ordered society would have +provided. But even more disastrous was the Adamic default in that it deprived +the races of that superior type of physical nature which would have been more +consonant with spiritual aspirations. + +Urantia mortals are compelled to undergo such marked struggling between the +spirit and the flesh because their remote ancestors were not more fully +Adamized by the Edenic bestowal. It was the divine plan that the mortal races +of Urantia should have had physical natures more naturally spirit responsive. + +Notwithstanding this double disaster to man's nature and his environment, +present-day mortals would experience less of this apparent warfare between the +flesh and the spirit if they would enter the spirit kingdom, wherein the faith +sons of God enjoy comparative deliverance from the slave-bondage of the flesh +in the enlightened and liberating service of wholehearted devotion to doing the +will of the Father in heaven. Jesus showed mankind the new way of mortal living +whereby human beings may very largely escape the dire consequences of the +Caligastic rebellion and most effectively compensate for the deprivations +resulting from the Adamic default. "The spirit of the life of Christ Jesus + + top of page - 383 + +has made us free from the law of animal living and the temptations of evil and +sin." "This is the victory that overcomes the flesh, even your faith." + +Those God-knowing men and women who have been born of the Spirit experience no +more conflict with their mortal natures than do the inhabitants of the most +normal of worlds, planets which have never been tainted with sin nor touched by +rebellion. Faith sons work on intellectual levels and live on spiritual planes +far above the conflicts produced by unrestrained or unnatural physical desires. +The normal urges of animal beings and the natural appetites and impulses of the +physical nature are not in conflict with even the highest spiritual attainment +except in the minds of ignorant, mistaught, or unfortunately overconscientious +persons. + +Having started out on the way of life everlasting, having accepted the +assignment and received your orders to advance, do not fear the dangers of +human forgetfulness and mortal inconstancy, do not be troubled with doubts of +failure or by perplexing confusion, do not falter and question your status and +standing, for in every dark hour, at every crossroad in the forward struggle, +the Spirit of Truth will always speak, saying, "This is the way." + +[Presented by a Mighty Messenger temporarily assigned to service on Urantia.] + + top of page - 384 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Administration ³ The Local ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ Unive... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p035.txt b/religious documents/p035.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..600ba39 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p035.txt @@ -0,0 +1,700 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 35 The Local Universe Sons Of God + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 35 The Local Universe Sons Of God + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Sons of God previously introduced have had a Paradise origin. They are the +offspring of the divine Rulers of the universal domains. Of the first Paradise +order of sonship, the Creator Sons, there is in Nebadon only one, Michael, the +universe father and sovereign. Of the second order of Paradise sonship, the +Avonal or Magisterial Sons, Nebadon has its full quota--1,062. And these +"lesser Christs" are just as effective and all-powerful in their planetary +bestowals as was the Creator and Master Son on Urantia. The third order, being +of Trinity origin, do not register in a local universe, but I estimate there +are in Nebadon between fifteen and twenty thousand Trinity Teacher Sons +exclusive of 9,642 creature-trinitized assistants of record. These Paradise +Daynals are neither magistrates nor administrators; they are superteachers. + +The types of Sons about to be considered are of local universe origin; they are +the offspring of a Paradise Creator Son in varied association with the +complemental Universe Mother Spirit. The following orders of local universe +sonship find mention in these narratives: + +1. Melchizedek Sons. + +2. Vorondadek Sons. + +3. Lanonandek Sons. + +4. Life Carrier Sons. + +Triune Paradise Deity functions for the creation of three orders of sonship: +the Michaels, the Avonals, and the Daynals. Dual Deity in the local universe, +the Son and the Spirit, also functions in the creation of three high orders of +Sons: the Melchizedeks, the Vorondadeks, and the Lanonandeks; and having +achieved this threefold expression, they collaborate with the next level of God +the Sevenfold in the production of the versatile order of Life Carriers. These +beings are classified with the descending Sons of God, but they are a unique +and original form of universe life. Their consideration will occupy the whole +of the next paper. + +1. THE FATHER MELCHIZEDEK + +After bringing into existence the beings of personal aid, such as the Bright +and Morning Star and other administrative personalities, in accordance with the +divine purpose and creative plans of a given universe, there occurs a new form +of creative union between the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit, the local +universe Daughter of the Infinite Spirit. The personality offspring resulting +from this creative partnership is the original Melchizedek--the Father + + top of page - 385 + +Melchizedek--that unique being who subsequently collaborates with the Creator +Son and the Creative Spirit to bring into existence the entire group of that +name. + +In the universe of Nebadon the Father Melchizedek acts as the first executive +associate of the Bright and Morning Star. Gabriel is occupied more with +universe policies, Melchizedek with practical procedures. Gabriel presides over +the regularly constituted tribunals and councils of Nebadon, Melchizedek over +the special, extraordinary, and emergency commissions and advisory bodies. +Gabriel and the Father Melchizedek are never away from Salvington at the same +time, for in Gabriel's absence the Father Melchizedek functions as the chief +executive of Nebadon. + +The Melchizedeks of our universe were all created within one millennial period +of standard time by the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit in liaison with the +Father Melchizedek. Being an order of sonship wherein one of their own number +functioned as co-ordinate creator, Melchizedeks are in constitution partly of +self-origin and therefore candidates for the realization of a supernal type of +self-government. They periodically elect their own administrative chief for a +term of seven years of standard time and otherwise function as a +self-regulating order, though the original Melchizedek does exercise certain +inherent coparental prerogatives. From time to time this Father Melchizedek +designates certain individuals of his order to function as special Life +Carriers to the midsonite worlds, a type of inhabited planet not heretofore +revealed on Urantia. + +The Melchizedeks do not function extensively outside the local universe except +when they are called as witnesses in matters pending before the tribunals of +the superuniverse, and when designated special ambassadors, as they sometimes +are, representing one universe to another in the same superuniverse. The +original or first-born Melchizedek of each universe is always at liberty to +journey to the neighboring universes or to Paradise on missions having to do +with the interests and duties of his order. + +2. THE MELCHIZEDEK SONS + +The Melchizedeks are the first order of divine Sons to approach sufficiently +near the lower creature life to be able to function directly in the ministry of +mortal uplift, to serve the evolutionary races without the necessity of +incarnation. These Sons are naturally at the mid-point of the great personality +descent, by origin being just about midway between the highest Divinity and the +lowest creature life of will endowment. They thus become the natural +intermediaries between the higher and divine levels of living existence and the +lower, even the material, forms of life on the evolutionary worlds. The +seraphic orders, the angels, delight to work with the Melchizedeks; in fact, +all forms of intelligent life find in these Sons understanding friends, +sympathetic teachers, and wise counselors. + +The Melchizedeks are a self-governing order. With this unique group we +encounter the first attempt at self-determination on the part of local universe +beings and observe the highest type of true self-government. These Sons +organize their own machinery for their group and home-planet administration, as +well as that for the six associated spheres and their tributary worlds. And it +should be recorded that they have never abused their prerogatives; not once + + top of page - 386 + +throughout all the superuniverse of Orvonton have these Melchizedek Sons ever +betrayed their trust. They are the hope of every universe group which aspires +to self-government; they are the pattern and the teachers of self-government to +all the spheres of Nebadon. All orders of intelligent beings, superiors from +above and subordinates from below, are wholehearted in their praise of the +government of the Melchizedeks. + +The Melchizedek order of sonship occupies the position, and assumes the +responsibility, of the eldest son in a large family. Most of their work is +regular and somewhat routine, but much of it is voluntary and altogether +self-imposed. A majority of the special assemblies which, from time to time, +convene on Salvington are called on motion of the Melchizedeks. On their own +initiative these Sons patrol their native universe. They maintain an autonomous +organization devoted to universe intelligence, making periodical reports to the +Creator Son independent of all information coming up to universe headquarters +through the regular agencies concerned with the routine administration of the +realm. They are by nature unprejudiced observers; they have the full confidence +of all classes of intelligent beings. + +The Melchizedeks function as mobile and advisory review courts of the realms; +these universe Sons go in small groups to the worlds to serve as advisory +commissions, to take depositions, to receive suggestions, and to act as +counselors, thus helping to compose the major difficulties and settle the +serious differences which arise from time to time in the affairs of the +evolutionary domains. + +These eldest Sons of a universe are the chief aids of the Bright and Morning +Star in carrying out the mandates of the Creator Son. When a Melchizedek goes +to a remote world in the name of Gabriel, he may, for the purposes of that +particular mission, be deputized in the name of the sender and in that event +will appear on the planet of assignment with the full authority of the Bright +and Morning Star. Especially is this true on those spheres where a higher Son +has not yet appeared in the likeness of the creatures of the realm. + +When a Creator Son enters upon the bestowal career on an evolutionary world, he +goes alone; but when one of his Paradise brothers, an Avonal Son, enters upon a +bestowal, he is accompanied by the Melchizedek supporters, twelve in number, +who so efficiently contribute to the success of the bestowal mission. They also +support the Paradise Avonals on magisterial missions to the inhabited worlds, +and in these assignments the Melchizedeks are visible to mortal eyes if the +Avonal Son is also thus manifest. + +There is no phase of planetary spiritual need to which they do not minister. +They are the teachers who so often win whole worlds of advanced life to the +final and full recognition of the Creator Son and his Paradise Father. + +The Melchizedeks are well-nigh perfect in wisdom, but they are not infallible +in judgment. When detached and alone on planetary missions, they have sometimes +erred in minor matters, that is, they have elected to do certain things which +their supervisors did not subsequently approve. Such an error of judgment +temporarily disqualifies a Melchizedek until he goes to Salvington and, in +audience with the Creator Son, receives that instruction which effectually +purges him of the disharmony which caused disagreement with his fellows; and +then, following the correctional rest, reinstatement to service ensues on the +third day. But these minor misadaptations in Melchizedek function have rarely +occurred in Nebadon. + + top of page - 387 + +These Sons are not an increasing order; their number is stationary, although +varying in each local universe. The number of Melchizedeks of record on their +headquarters planet in Nebadon is upward of ten million. + +3. THE MELCHIZEDEK WORLDS + +The Melchizedeks occupy a world of their own near Salvington, the universe +headquarters. This sphere, by name Melchizedek, is the pilot world of the +Salvington circuit of seventy primary spheres, each of which is encircled by +six tributary spheres devoted to specialized activities. These marvelous +spheres--seventy primaries and 420 tributaries--are often spoken of as the +Melchizedek University. Ascending mortals from all the constellations of +Nebadon pass through training on all 490 worlds in the acquirement of +residential status on Salvington. But the education of ascenders is only one +phase of the manifold activities taking place on the Salvington cluster of +architectural spheres. + +The 490 spheres of the Salvington circuit are divided into ten groups, each +containing seven primary and forty-two tributary spheres. Each of these groups +is under the general supervision of some one of the major orders of universe +life. The first group, embracing the pilot world and the next six primary +spheres in the encircling planetary procession, is under the supervision of the +Melchizedeks. These Melchizedek worlds are: + +1. The pilot world--the home world of the Melchizedek Sons. + +2. The world of the physical-life schools and the laboratories of living +energies. + +3. The world of morontia life. + +4. The sphere of initial spirit life. + +5. The world of mid-spirit life. + +6. The sphere of advancing spirit life. + +7. The domain of co-ordinate and supreme self-realization. + +The six tributary worlds of each of these Melchizedek spheres are devoted to +activities germane to the work of the associated primary sphere. + +The pilot world, the sphere Melchizedek, is the common meeting ground for all +beings who are engaged in educating and spiritualizing the ascending mortals of +time and space. To an ascender this world is probably the most interesting +place in all Nebadon. All evolutionary mortals who graduate from their +constellation training are destined to land on Melchizedek, where they are +initiated into the regime of the disciplines and spirit progression of the +Salvington educational system. And never will you forget your reactions to the +first day of life on this unique world, not even after you have reached your +Paradise destination. + +Ascending mortals maintain residence on the Melchizedek world while pursuing +their training on the six encircling planets of specialized education. And this +same method is adhered to throughout their sojourn on the seventy cultural +worlds, the primary spheres of the Salvington circuit. + +Many diverse activities occupy the time of the numerous beings who reside on +the six tributary worlds of the Melchizedek sphere, but as concerns the as- + + top of page - 388 + +cending mortals, these satellites are devoted to the following special phases +of study: + +1. Sphere number one is occupied with the review of the initial planetary life +of the ascending mortals. This work is carried on in classes composed of those +who hail from a given world of mortal origin. Those from Urantia pursue such an +experiential review together. + +2. The special work of sphere number two consists in a similar review of the +experiences passed through on the mansion worlds encircling the premier +satellite of the local system headquarters. + +3. The reviews of this sphere pertain to the sojourn on the capital of the +local system and embrace the activities of the remainder of the architectural +worlds of the system headquarters cluster. + +4. The fourth sphere is occupied with a review of the experiences of the +seventy tributary worlds of the constellation and of their associated spheres. + +5. On the fifth sphere there is conducted the review of the ascendant sojourn +on the constellation headquarters world. + +6. The time on sphere number six is devoted to an attempt to correlate these +five epochs and thus achieve co-ordination of experience preparatory to +entering the Melchizedek primary schools of universe training. + +The schools of universe administration and spiritual wisdom are located on the +Melchizedek home world, where also are to be found those schools devoted to a +single line of research, such as energy, matter, organization, communication, +records, ethics, and comparative creature existence. + +In the Melchizedek College of Spiritual Endowment all orders--even the Paradise +orders--of the Sons of God co-operate with the Melchizedek and the seraphic +teachers in training the hosts who go forth as evangels of destiny, proclaiming +spiritual liberty and divine sonship even to the remote worlds of the universe. +This particular school of the Melchizedek University is an exclusive universe +institution; student visitors are not received from other realms. + +The highest course of training in universe administration is given by the +Melchizedeks on their home world. This College of High Ethics is presided over +by the original Father Melchizedek. It is to these schools that the various +universes send exchange students. While the young universe of Nebadon stands +low in the scale of universes as regards spiritual achievement and high ethical +development, nevertheless, our administrative troubles have so turned the whole +universe into a vast clinic for other near-by creations that the Melchizedek +colleges are thronged with student visitors and observers from other realms. +Besides the immense group of local registrants there are always upward of one +hundred thousand foreign students in attendance upon the Melchizedek schools, +for the order of Melchizedeks in Nebadon is renowned throughout all Splandon. + +4. SPECIAL WORK OF THE MELCHIZEDEKS + +A highly specialized branch of Melchizedek activities has to do with the +supervision of the progressive morontia career of the ascending mortals. Much +of this training is conducted by the patient and wise seraphic ministers, +assisted by mortals who have ascended to relatively higher levels of universe +attainment, + + top of page - 389 + +but all of this educational work is under the general supervision of the +Melchizedeks in association with the Trinity Teacher Sons. + +While the Melchizedek orders are chiefly devoted to the vast educational system +and experiential training regime of the local universe, they also function in +unique assignments and in unusual circumstances. In an evolving universe +eventually embracing approximately ten million inhabited worlds, many things +out of the ordinary are destined to happen, and it is in such emergencies that +the Melchizedeks act. On Edentia, your constellation headquarters, they are +known as emergency Sons. They are always ready to serve in all +exigencies--physical, intellectual, or spiritual--whether on a planet, in a +system, in a constellation, or in the universe. Whenever and wherever special +help is needed, there you will find one or more of the Melchizedek Sons. + +When failure of some feature of the Creator Son's plan is threatened, forthwith +will go a Melchizedek to render assistance. But not often are they summoned to +function in the presence of sinful rebellion, such as occurred in Satania. + +The Melchizedeks are the first to act in all emergencies of whatever nature on +all worlds where will creatures dwell. They sometimes act as temporary +custodians on wayward planets, serving as receivers of a defaulting planetary +government. In a planetary crisis these Melchizedek Sons serve in many unique +capacities. It is easily possible for such a Son to make himself visible to +mortal beings, and sometimes one of this order has even incarnated in the +likeness of mortal flesh. Seven times in Nebadon has a Melchizedek served on an +evolutionary world in the similitude of mortal flesh, and on numerous occasions +these Sons have appeared in the likeness of other orders of universe creatures. +They are indeed the versatile and volunteer emergency ministers to all orders +of universe intelligences and to all the worlds and systems of worlds. + +The Melchizedek who lived on Urantia during the time of Abraham was locally +known as Prince of Salem because he presided over a small colony of truth +seekers residing at a place called Salem. He volunteered to incarnate in the +likeness of mortal flesh and did so with the approval of the Melchizedek +receivers of the planet who feared that the light of life would become +extinguished during that period of increasing spiritual darkness. And he did +foster the truth of his day and safely pass it on to Abraham and his +associates. + +5. THE VORONDADEK SONS + +After the creation of the personal aids and the first group of the versatile +Melchizedeks, the Creator Son and the local universe Creative Spirit planned +for, and brought into existence, the second great and diverse order of universe +sonship, the Vorondadeks. They are more generally known as Constellation +Fathers because a Son of this order is uniformly found at the head of each +constellation government in every local universe. + +The number of Vorondadeks varies in each local universe, just one million being +the recorded number in Nebadon. These Sons, like their co-ordinates, the +Melchizedeks, possess no power of reproduction. There exists no known method +whereby they can increase their numbers. + +In many respects these Sons are a self-governing body; as individuals and as +groups, even as a whole, they are largely self-determinative, much as are the + + top of page - 390 + +Melchizedeks, but Vorondadeks do not function through such a wide range of +activities. They do not equal their Melchizedek brethren in brilliant +versatility, but they are even more reliable and efficient as rulers and +farseeing administrators. Neither are they quite the administrative peers of +their subordinates, the Lanonandek System Sovereigns, but they excel all orders +of universe sonship in stability of purpose and in divinity of judgment. + +Although the decisions and rulings of this order of Sons are always in +accordance with the spirit of divine sonship and in harmony with the policies +of the Creator Son, they have been cited for error to the Creator Son, and in +details of technique their decisions have sometimes been reversed on appeal to +the superior tribunals of the universe. But these Sons rarely fall into error, +and they have never gone into rebellion; never in all the history of Nebadon +has a Vorondadek been found in contempt of the universe government. + +The service of the Vorondadeks in the local universes is extensive and varied. +They serve as ambassadors to other universes and as consuls representing +constellations within their native universe. Of all orders of local universe +sonship they are the most often intrusted with the full delegation of sovereign +powers to be exercised in critical universe situations. + +On those worlds segregated in spiritual darkness, those spheres which have, +through rebellion and default, suffered planetary isolation, an observer +Vorondadek is usually present pending the restoration of normal status. In +certain emergencies this Most High observer could exercise absolute and +arbitrary authority over every celestial being assigned to that planet. It is +of record on Salvington that the Vorondadeks have sometimes exercised such +authority as Most High regents of such planets. And this has also been true +even of inhabited worlds that were untouched by rebellion. + +Often a corps of twelve or more Vorondadek Sons sits en banc as a high court of +review and appeal concerning special cases involving the status of a planet or +a system. But their work more largely pertains to the legislative functions +indigenous to the constellation governments. As a result of all these services, +the Vorondadek Sons have become the historians of the local universes; they are +personally familiar with all the political struggles and the social upheavals +of the inhabited worlds. + +6. THE CONSTELLATION FATHERS + +At least three Vorondadeks are assigned to the rulership of each of the one +hundred constellations of a local universe. These Sons are selected by the +Creator Son and are commissioned by Gabriel as the Most Highs of the +constellations for service during one dekamillennium--10,000 standard years, +about 50,000 years of Urantia time. The reigning Most High, the Constellation +Father, has two associates, a senior and a junior. At each change of +administration the senior associate becomes the head of the government, the +junior assumes the duties of the senior, while the unassigned Vorondadeks +resident on the Salvington worlds nominate one of their number as candidate for +selection to assume the responsibilities of junior associate. Thus each of the +Most High rulers, in accordance with present policy, has a period of service on +the headquarters of a constellation of three dekamillenniums, about 150,000 +Urantia years. + +The one hundred Constellation Fathers, the actual presiding heads of the +constellation governments, constitute the supreme advisory cabinet of the Crea- + + top of page - 391 + +tor Son. This council is in frequent session at universe headquarters and is +unlimited in the scope and range of its deliberations but is chiefly concerned +with the welfare of the constellations and with the unification of the +administration of the entire local universe. + +When a Constellation Father is in attendance upon duties at the universe +headquarters as he frequently is, the senior associate becomes acting director +of constellation affairs. The normal function of the senior associate is the +oversight of spiritual affairs, while the junior associate is personally +occupied with the physical welfare of the constellation. No major policy, +however, is ever carried out in a constellation unless all three of the Most +Highs are agreed upon all the details of its execution. + +The entire mechanism of spirit intelligence and communication channels is at +the disposal of the constellation Most Highs. They are in perfect touch with +their superiors on Salvington and with their direct subordinates, the +sovereigns of the local systems. They frequently convene in council with these +System Sovereigns to deliberate upon the state of the constellation. + +The Most Highs surround themselves with a corps of counselors, which varies in +number and personnel from time to time in accordance with the presence of the +various groups at constellation headquarters and also as the local requirements +vary. During times of stress they may ask for, and will quickly receive, +additional Sons of the Vorondadek order to assist with the administrative work. +Norlatiadek, your own constellation, is at present administered by twelve +Vorondadek Sons. + +7. THE VORONDADEK WORLDS + +The second group of seven worlds in the circuit of seventy primary spheres +surrounding Salvington comprise the Vorondadek planets. Each of these spheres, +with its six encircling satellites, is devoted to a special phase of Vorondadek +activities. On these forty-nine realms the ascending mortals secure the acme of +their education respecting universe legislation. + +The ascending mortals have observed the legislative assemblies as they +functioned on the headquarters worlds of the constellations, but here on these +Vorondadek worlds they participate in the enactment of the actual general +legislation of the local universe under the tutelage of the senior Vorondadeks. +Such enactments are designed to co-ordinate the varied pronouncements of the +autonomous legislative assemblies of the one hundred constellations. The +instruction to be had in the Vorondadek schools is unexcelled even on Uversa. +This training is progressive, extending from the first sphere, with +supplemental work on its six satellites, on up through the remaining six +primary spheres and their associated satellite groups. + +The ascending pilgrims will be introduced to numerous new activities on these +worlds of study and practical work. We are not forbidden to undertake the +revelation of these new and undreamed-of pursuits, but we despair of being able +to portray these undertakings to the material mind of mortal beings. We are +without words to convey the meanings of these supernal activities, and there +are no analogous human engagements which might be utilized as illustrations of +these new occupations of the ascending mortals as they pursue their studies on +these forty-nine worlds. And many other activities, not a part of the ascendant +regime, are centered on these Vorondadek worlds of the Salvington circuit. + + top of page - 392 + +8. THE LANONANDEK SONS + +After the creation of the Vorondadeks, the Creator Son and the Universe Mother +Spirit unite for the purpose of bringing into existence the third order of +universe sonship, the Lanonandeks. Although occupied with varied tasks +connected with the system administrations, they are best known as System +Sovereigns, the rulers of the local systems, and as Planetary Princes, the +administrative heads of the inhabited worlds. + +Being a later and lower--as concerns divinity levels--order of sonship +creation, these beings were required to pass through certain courses of +training on the Melchizedek worlds in preparation for subsequent service. They +were the first students in the Melchizedek University and were classified and +certified by their Melchizedek teachers and examiners according to ability, +personality, and attainment. + +The universe of Nebadon began its existence with exactly twelve million +Lanonandeks, and when they had passed through the Melchizedek sphere, they were +divided in the final tests into three classes: + +1. Primary Lanonandeks. Of the highest rank there were 709,841. These are the +Sons designated as System Sovereigns and assistants to the supreme councils of +the constellations and as counselors in the higher administrative work of the +universe. + +2. Secondary Lanonandeks. Of this order emerging from Melchizedek there were +10,234,601. They are assigned as Planetary Princes and to the reserves of that +order. + +3. Tertiary Lanonandeks. This group contained 1,055,558. These Sons function as +subordinate assistants, messengers, custodians, commissioners, observers, and +prosecute the miscellaneous duties of a system and its component worlds. + +It is not possible, as it is with evolutionary beings, for these Sons to +progress from one group to another. When subjected to the Melchizedek training, +when once tested and classified, they serve continuously in the rank assigned. +Neither do these Sons engage in reproduction; their number in the universe is +stationary. + +In round numbers the Lanonandek order of Sons is classified on Salvington as +follows: + +Universe Co-ordinators and Constellation Counselors .....100,000 + +System Sovereigns and Assistants ........................600,000 + +Planetary Princes and Reserves .......................10,000,000 + +Messenger Corps .........................................400,000 + +Custodians and Recorders ................................100,000 + +Reserve Corps ...........................................800,000 + +Since Lanonandeks are a somewhat lower order of sonship than the Melchizedeks +and the Vorondadeks, they are of even greater service in the subordinate units +of the universe, for they are capable of drawing nearer the lower creatures of +the intelligent races. They also stand in greater danger of going astray, of +departing from the acceptable technique of universe government. But these +Lanonandeks, especially the primary order, are the most able and versatile of + + top of page - 393 + +all local universe administrators. In executive ability they are excelled only +by Gabriel and his unrevealed associates. + +9. THE LANONANDEK RULERS + +The Lanonandeks are the continuous rulers of the planets and the rotating +sovereigns of the systems. Such a Son now rules on Jerusem, the headquarters of +your local system of inhabited worlds. + +The System Sovereigns rule in commissions of two or three on the headquarters +of each system of inhabited worlds. The Constellation Father names one of these +Lanonandeks as chief every dekamillennium. Sometimes no change in the head of +the trio is made, the matter being entirely optional with the constellation +rulers. System governments do not suddenly change in personnel unless a tragedy +of some sort occurs. + +When System Sovereigns or assistants are recalled, their places are filled by +selections made by the supreme council located on the constellation +headquarters from the reserves of that order, a group which is larger on +Edentia than the average indicated. + +The supreme Lanonandek councils are stationed on the various constellation +headquarters. Such a body is presided over by the senior Most High associate of +the Constellation Father, while the junior associate supervises the reserves of +the secondary order. + +The System Sovereigns are true to their names; they are well-nigh sovereign in +the local affairs of the inhabited worlds. They are almost paternal in their +direction of the Planetary Princes, the Material Sons, and the ministering +spirits. The personal grasp of the sovereign is all but complete. These rulers +are not supervised by Trinity observers from the central universe. They are the +executive division of the local universe, and as custodians of the enforcement +of legislative mandates and as executives for the application of judicial +verdicts, they present the one place in all universe administration where +personal disloyalty to the will of the Michael Son could most easily and +readily intrench itself and seek to assert itself. + +Our local universe has been unfortunate in that over seven hundred Sons of the +Lanonandek order have rebelled against the universe government, thus +precipitating confusion in several systems and on numerous planets. Of this +entire number of failures only three were System Sovereigns; practically all of +these Sons belonged to the second and third orders, Planetary Princes and +tertiary Lanonandeks. + +The large number of these Sons who have lapsed from integrity does not indicate +any fault in creatorship. They could have been made divinely perfect, but they +were so created that they might better understand, and draw near to, the +evolutionary creatures dwelling on the worlds of time and space. + +Of all the local universes in Orvonton, our universe has, with the exception of +Henselon, lost the largest number of this order of Sons. On Uversa it is the +consensus that we have had so much administrative trouble in Nebadon because +our Sons of the Lanonandek order have been created with such a large degree of +personal liberty in choosing and planning. I do not make this observation by +way of criticism. The Creator of our universe has full authority and power to +do this. It is the contention of our high rulers that, while such free-choosing + + top of page - 394 + +Sons make excessive trouble in the earlier ages of the universe, when things +are fully sifted and finally settled, the gains of higher loyalty and fuller +volitional service on the part of these thoroughly tested Sons will far more +than compensate for the confusion and tribulations of earlier times. + +In the event of rebellion on a system headquarters, a new sovereign is usually +installed within a comparatively short time, but not so on the individual +planets. They are the component units of the material creation, and creature +free will is a factor in the final adjudication of all such problems. Successor +Planetary Princes are designated for isolated worlds, planets whose princes of +authority may have gone astray, but they do not assume active rulership of such +worlds until the results of insurrection are partially overcome and removed by +the remedial measures adopted by the Melchizedeks and other ministering +personalities. Rebellion by a Planetary Prince instantly isolates his planet; +the local spiritual circuits are immediately severed. Only a bestowal Son can +re-establish interplanetary lines of communication on such a spiritually +isolated world. + +There exists a plan for saving these wayward and unwise Sons, and many have +availed themselves of this merciful provision; but never again may they +function in those positions wherein they defaulted. After rehabilitation they +are assigned to custodial duties and to departments of physical administration. + +10. THE LANONANDEK WORLDS + +The third group of seven worlds in the Salvington circuit of seventy planets, +with their respective forty-two satellites, constitute the Lanonandek cluster +of administrative spheres. On these realms the experienced Lanonandeks +belonging to the ex-System Sovereign corps officiate as administrative teachers +of the ascending pilgrims and the seraphic hosts. The evolutionary mortals +observe the system administrators at work on the system capitals, but here they +participate in the actual co-ordination of the administrative pronouncements of +the ten thousand local systems. + +These administrative schools of the local universe are supervised by a corps of +Lanonandek Sons who have had long experience as System Sovereigns and as +constellation counselors. These executive colleges are excelled only by the +administrative schools of Ensa. + +While serving as training spheres for ascending mortals, the Lanonandek worlds +are the centers for extensive undertakings having to do with the normal and +routine administrative operations of the universe. All the way in to Paradise +the ascending pilgrims pursue their studies in the practical schools of applied +knowledge--actual training in really doing the things they are being taught. +The universe educational system sponsored by the Melchizedeks is practical, +progressive, meaningful, and experiential. It embraces training in things +material, intellectual, morontial, and spiritual. + +It is in connection with these administrative spheres of the Lanonandeks that +most of the salvaged Sons of that order serve as custodians and directors of +planetary affairs. And these defaulting Planetary Princes and their associates +in rebellion who choose to accept the proffered rehabilitation will continue to +serve in these routine capacities, at least until the universe of Nebadon is +settled in light and life. + + top of page - 395 + +Many of the Lanonandek Sons in the older systems, however, have established +wonderful records of service, administration, and spiritual achievement. They +are a noble, faithful, and loyal group, notwithstanding their tendency to fall +into error through fallacies of personal liberty and fictions of +self-determination. + +[Sponsored by the Chief of Archangels acting by authority of Gabriel of +Salvington.] + + top of page - 396 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Local ³ The Life ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Unive... ³ Carrie... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p036.txt b/religious documents/p036.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16eefcf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p036.txt @@ -0,0 +1,580 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 36 The Life Carriers + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 36 The Life Carriers + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +LIFE does not originate spontaneously. Life is constructed according to plans +formulated by the (unrevealed) Architects of Being and appears on the inhabited +planets either by direct importation or as a result of the operations of the +Life Carriers of the local universes. These carriers of life are among the most +interesting and versatile of the diverse family of universe Sons. They are +intrusted with designing and carrying creature life to the planetary spheres. +And after planting this life on such new worlds, they remain there for long +periods to foster its development. + +1. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF LIFE CARRIERS + +Though the Life Carriers belong to the family of divine sonship, they are a +peculiar and distinct type of universe Sons, being the only group of +intelligent life in a local universe in whose creation the rulers of a +superuniverse participate. The Life Carriers are the offspring of three +pre-existent personalities: the Creator Son, the Universe Mother Spirit, and, +by designation, one of the three Ancients of Days presiding over the destinies +of the superuniverse concerned. These Ancients of Days, who alone can decree +the extinction of intelligent life, participate in the creation of the Life +Carriers, who are intrusted with establishing physical life on the evolving +worlds. + +In the universe of Nebadon we have on record the creation of one hundred +million Life Carriers. This efficient corps of life disseminators is not a +truly self-governing group. They are directed by the life-determining trio, +consisting of Gabriel, the Father Melchizedek, and Nambia, the original and +first-born Life Carrier of Nebadon. But in all phases of their divisional +administration they are self-governing. + +Life Carriers are graded into three grand divisions: The first division is the +senior Life Carriers, the second, assistants, and the third, custodians. The +primary division is subdivided into twelve groups of specialists in the various +forms of life manifestation. The segregation of these three divisions was +effected by the Melchizedeks, who conducted tests for such purposes on the Life +Carriers' headquarters sphere. The Melchizedeks have ever since been closely +associated with the Life Carriers and always accompany them when they go forth +to establish life on a new planet. + +When an evolutionary planet is finally settled in light and life, the Life +Carriers are organized into the higher deliberative bodies of advisory capacity +to assist in the further administration and development of the world and its +glorified beings. In the later and settled ages of an evolving universe these +Life Carriers are intrusted with many new duties. + + top of page - 397 + +2. THE LIFE CARRIER WORLDS + +The Melchizedeks have the general oversight of the fourth group of seven +primary spheres in the Salvington circuit. These worlds of the Life Carriers +are designated as follows: + +1. The Life Carrier headquarters. + +2. The life-planning sphere. + +3. The life-conservation sphere. + +4. The sphere of life evolution. + +5. The sphere of life associated with mind. + +6. The sphere of mind and spirit in living beings. + +7. The sphere of unrevealed life. + +Each of these primary spheres is surrounded by six satellites, on which the +special phases of all the Life Carrier activities in the universe are centered. + +World Number One, the headquarters sphere, together with its six tributary +satellites, is devoted to the study of universal life, life in all of its known +phases of manifestation. Here is located the college of life planning, wherein +function teachers and advisers from Uversa and Havona, even from Paradise. And +I am permitted to reveal that the seven central emplacements of the adjutant +mind-spirits are situated on this world of the Life Carriers. + +The number ten--the decimal system--is inherent in the physical universe but +not in the spiritual. The domain of life is characterized by three, seven, and +twelve or by multiples and combinations of these basic numbers. There are three +primal and essentially different life plans, after the order of the three +Paradise Sources and Centers, and in the universe of Nebadon these three basic +forms of life are segregated on three different types of planets. There were, +originally, twelve distinct and divine concepts of transmissible life. This +number twelve, with its subdivisions and multiples, runs throughout all basic +life patterns of all seven superuniverses. There are also seven architectural +types of life design, fundamental arrangements of the reproducing +configurations of living matter. The Orvonton life patterns are configured as +twelve inheritance carriers. The differing orders of will creatures are +configured as 12, 24, 48, 96, 192, 384, and 768. On Urantia there are +forty-eight units of pattern control--trait determiners--in the sex cells of +human reproduction. + +The Second World is the life-designing sphere; here all new modes of life +organization are worked out. While the original life designs are provided by +the Creator Son, the actual outworking of these plans is intrusted to the Life +Carriers and their associates. When the general life plans for a new world have +been formulated, they are transmitted to the headquarters sphere, where they +are minutely scrutinized by the supreme council of the senior Life Carriers in +collaboration with a corps of consulting Melchizedeks. If the plans are a +departure from previously accepted formulas, they must be passed upon, and +endorsed by, the Creator Son. The chief of Melchizedeks often represents the +Creator Son in these deliberations. + +Planetary life, therefore, while similar in some respects, differs in many ways +on each evolutionary world. Even in a uniform life series in a single family + + top of page - 398 + +of worlds, life is not exactly the same on any two planets; there is always a +planetary type, for the Life Carriers work constantly in an effort to improve +the vital formulas committed to their keeping. + +There are over one million fundamental or cosmic chemical formulas which +constitute the parent patterns and the numerous basic functional variations of +life manifestations. Satellite number one of the life-planning sphere is the +realm of the universe physicists and electrochemists who serve as technical +assistants to the Life Carriers in the work of capturing, organizing, and +manipulating the essential units of energy which are employed in building up +the material vehicles of life transmission, the so-called germ plasm. + +The planetary life-planning laboratories are situated on the second satellite +of this world number two. In these laboratories the Life Carriers and all their +associates collaborate with the Melchizedeks in the effort to modify and +possibly improve the life designed for implantation on the decimal planets of +Nebadon. The life now evolving on Urantia was planned and partially worked out +on this very world, for Urantia is a decimal planet, a life-experiment world. +On one world in each ten a greater variance in the standard life designs is +permitted than on the other (nonexperimental) worlds. + +World Number Three is devoted to the conservation of life. Here various modes +of life protection and preservation are studied and developed by the assistants +and custodians of the Life Carrier corps. The life plans for every new world +always provide for the early establishment of the life-conservation commission, +consisting of custodian specialists in the expert manipulation of the basic +life patterns. On Urantia there were twenty-four such custodian commissioners, +two for each fundamental or parent pattern of the architectural organization of +the life material. On planets such as yours the highest form of life is +reproduced by a life-carrying bundle which possesses twenty-four pattern units. +(And since the intellectual life grows out of, and upon the foundation of, the +physical, there come into existence the four and twenty basic orders of psychic +organization.) + +Sphere Number Four and its tributary satellites are devoted to the study of the +evolution of creature life in general and to the evolutionary antecedents of +any one life level in particular. The original life plasm of an evolutionary +world must contain the full potential for all future developmental variations +and for all subsequent evolutionary changes and modifications. The provision +for such far-reaching projects of life metamorphosis may require the appearance +of many apparently useless forms of animal and vegetable life. Such by-products +of planetary evolution, foreseen or unforeseen, appear upon the stage of action +only to disappear, but in and through all this long process there runs the +thread of the wise and intelligent formulations of the original designers of +the planetary life plan and species scheme. The manifold by-products of +biologic evolution are all essential to the final and full function of the +higher intelligent forms of life, notwithstanding that great outward disharmony +may prevail from time to time in the long upward struggle of the higher +creatures to effect the mastery of the lower forms of life, many of which are +sometimes so antagonistic to the peace and comfort of the evolving will +creatures. + +Number Five World is concerned wholly with life associated with mind. Each of +its satellites is devoted to the study of a single phase of creature mind + + top of page - 399 + +correlated with creature life. Mind such as man comprehends is an endowment of +the seven adjutant mind-spirits superimposed on the nonteachable or mechanical +levels of mind by the agencies of the Infinite Spirit. The life patterns are +variously responsive to these adjutants and to the different spirit ministries +operating throughout the universes of time and space. The capacity of material +creatures to effect spirit response is entirely dependent on the associated +mind endowment, which, in turn, has directionized the course of the biologic +evolution of these same mortal creatures. + +World Number Six is dedicated to the correlation of mind with spirit as they +are associated with living forms and organisms. This world and its six +tributaries embrace the schools of creature co-ordination, wherein teachers +from both the central universe and the superuniverse collaborate with the +Nebadon instructors in presenting the highest levels of creature attainment in +time and space. + +The Seventh Sphere of the Life Carriers is dedicated to the unrevealed domains +of evolutionary creature life as it is related to the cosmic philosophy of the +expanding factualization of the Supreme Being. + +3. LIFE TRANSPLANTATION + +Life does not spontaneously appear in the universes; the Life Carriers must +initiate it on the barren planets. They are the carriers, disseminators, and +guardians of life as it appears on the evolutionary worlds of space. All life +of the order and forms known on Urantia arises with these Sons, though not all +forms of planetary life are existent on Urantia. + +The corps of Life Carriers commissioned to plant life upon a new world usually +consists of one hundred senior carriers, one hundred assistants, and one +thousand custodians. The Life Carriers often carry actual life plasm to a new +world, but not always. They sometimes organize the life patterns after arriving +on the planet of assignment in accordance with formulas previously approved for +a new adventure in life establishment. Such was the origin of the planetary +life of Urantia. + +When, in accordance with approved formulas, the physical patterns have been +provided, then do the Life Carriers catalyze this lifeless material, imparting +through their persons the vital spirit spark; and forthwith do the inert +patterns become living matter. + +The vital spark--the mystery of life--is bestowed through the Life Carriers, +not by them. They do indeed supervise such transactions, they formulate the +life plasm itself, but it is the Universe Mother Spirit who supplies the +essential factor of the living plasm. From the Creative Daughter of the +Infinite Spirit comes that energy spark which enlivens the body and presages +the mind. + +In the bestowal of life the Life Carriers transmit nothing of their personal +natures, not even on those spheres where new orders of life are projected. At +such times they simply initiate and transmit the spark of life, start the +required revolutions of matter in accordance with the physical, chemical, and +electrical specifications of the ordained plans and patterns. Life Carriers are +living catalytic presences which agitate, organize, and vitalize the otherwise +inert elements of the material order of existence. + + top of page - 400 + +The Life Carriers of a planetary corps are given a certain period in which to +establish life on a new world, approximately one-half million years of the time +of that planet. At the termination of this period, indicated by certain +developmental attainments of the planetary life, they cease implantation +efforts, and they may not subsequently add anything new or supplemental to the +life of that planet. + +During the ages intervening between life establishment and the emergence of +human creatures of moral status, the Life Carriers are permitted to manipulate +the life environment and otherwise favorably directionize the course of +biologic evolution. And this they do for long periods of time. + +When the Life Carriers operating on a new world have once succeeded in +producing a being with will, with the power of moral decision and spiritual +choice, then and there their work terminates--they are through; they may +manipulate the evolving life no further. From this point forward the evolution +of living things must proceed in accordance with the endowment of the inherent +nature and tendencies which have already been imparted to, and established in, +the planetary life formulas and patterns. The Life Carriers are not permitted +to experiment or to interfere with will; they are not allowed to dominate or +arbitrarily influence moral creatures. + +Upon the arrival of a Planetary Prince they prepare to leave, though two of the +senior carriers and twelve custodians may volunteer, by taking temporary +renunciation vows, to remain indefinitely on the planet as advisers in the +matter of the further development and conservation of the life plasm. Two such +Sons and their twelve associates are now serving on Urantia. + +4. MELCHIZEDEK LIFE CARRIERS + +In every local system of inhabited worlds throughout Nebadon there is a single +sphere whereon the Melchizedeks have functioned as life carriers. These abodes +are known as the system midsonite worlds, and on each of them a materially +modified Melchizedek Son has mated with a selected Daughter of the material +order of sonship. The Mother Eves of such midsonite worlds are dispatched from +the system headquarters of jurisdiction, having been chosen by the designated +Melchizedek life carrier from among the numerous volunteers who respond to the +call of the System Sovereign addressed to the Material Daughters of his sphere. + +The progeny of a Melchizedek life carrier and a Material Daughter are known as +midsoniters. The Melchizedek father of such a race of supernal creatures +eventually leaves the planet of his unique life function, and the Mother Eve of +this special order of universe beings also departs upon the appearance of the +seventh generation of planetary offspring. The direction of such a world then +devolves upon her eldest son. + +The midsonite creatures live and function as reproducing beings on their +magnificent worlds until they are one thousand standard years of age; whereupon +they are translated by seraphic transport. Midsoniters are nonreproducing +beings thereafter because the technique of dematerialization which they pass +through in preparation for enseraphiming forever deprives them of reproductive +prerogatives. + +The present status of these beings can hardly be reckoned as either mortal or +immortal, neither can they be definitely classified as human or divine. These + + top of page - 401 + +creatures are not Adjuster indwelt, hence hardly immortal. But neither do they +seem to be mortal; no midsoniter has experienced death. All midsoniters ever +born in Nebadon are alive today, functioning on their native worlds, on some +intervening sphere, or on the Salvington midsonite sphere in the finaliters' +group of worlds. + +The Salvington Worlds of the Finaliters. The Melchizedek life carriers, as well +as the associated Mother Eves, go from the system midsonite spheres to the +finaliters' worlds of the Salvington circuit, where their offspring are also +destined to forgather. + +It should be explained in this connection that the fifth group of seven primary +worlds in the Salvington circuit are the Nebadon worlds of the finaliters. The +children of the Melchizedek life carriers and the Material Daughters are +domiciled on the seventh world of the finaliters, the Salvington midsonite +sphere. + +The satellites of the seven primary worlds of the finaliters are the rendezvous +of the personalities of the super- and central universes who may be executing +assignments in Nebadon. While the ascending mortals go about freely on all of +the cultural worlds and training spheres of the 490 worlds comprising the +Melchizedek University, there are certain special schools and numerous +restricted zones which they are not permitted to enter. This is especially true +of the forty-nine spheres under the jurisdiction of the finaliters. + +The purpose of the midsonite creatures is not at present known, but it would +appear that these personalities are forgathering on the seventh finaliter world +in preparation for some future eventuality in universe evolution. Our inquiries +concerning the midsonite races are always referred to the finaliters, and +always do the finaliters decline to discuss the destiny of their wards. +Regardless of our uncertainty as to the future of the midsoniters, we do know +that every local universe in Orvonton harbors such an accumulating corps of +these mysterious beings. It is the belief of the Melchizedek life carriers that +their midsonite children will some day be endowed with the transcendental and +eternal spirit of absonity by God the Ultimate. + +5. THE SEVEN ADJUTANT MIND-SPIRITS + +It is the presence of the seven adjutant mind-spirits on the primitive worlds +that conditions the course of organic evolution; that explains why evolution is +purposeful and not accidental. These adjutants represent that function of the +mind ministry of the Infinite Spirit which is extended to the lower orders of +intelligent life through the operations of a local universe Mother Spirit. The +adjutants are the children of the Universe Mother Spirit and constitute her +personal ministry to the material minds of the realms. Wherever and whenever +such mind is manifest, these spirits are variously functioning. + +The seven adjutant mind-spirits are called by names which are the equivalents +of the following designations: intuition, understanding, courage, knowledge, +counsel, worship, and wisdom. These mind-spirits send forth their influence +into all the inhabited worlds as a differential urge, each seeking receptivity +capacity for manifestation quite apart from the degree to which its fellows may +find reception and opportunity for function. + +The central lodgments of the adjutant spirits on the Life Carrier headquarters +world indicate to the Life Carrier supervisors the extent and quality of + + top of page - 402 + +the mind function of the adjutants on any world and in any given living +organism of intellect status. These life-mind emplacements are perfect +indicators of living mind function for the first five adjutants. But with +regard to the sixth and seventh adjutant spirits--worship and wisdom--these +central lodgments record only a qualitative function. The quantitative activity +of the adjutant of worship and the adjutant of wisdom is registered in the +immediate presence of the Divine Minister on Salvington, being a personal +experience of the Universe Mother Spirit. + +The seven adjutant mind-spirits always accompany the Life Carriers to a new +planet, but they should not be regarded as entities; they are more like +circuits. The spirits of the seven universe adjutants do not function as +personalities apart from the universe presence of the Divine Minister; they are +in fact a level of consciousness of the Divine Minister and are always +subordinate to the action and presence of their creative mother. + +We are handicapped for words adequately to designate these seven adjutant +mind-spirits. They are ministers of the lower levels of experiential mind, and +they may be described, in the order of evolutionary attainment, as follows: + +1. The spirit of intuition--quick perception, the primitive physical and +inherent reflex instincts, the directional and other self-preservative +endowments of all mind creations; the only one of the adjutants to function so +largely in the lower orders of animal life and the only one to make extensive +functional contact with the nonteachable levels of mechanical mind. + +2. The spirit of understanding--the impulse of co-ordination, the spontaneous +and apparently automatic association of ideas. This is the gift of the +co-ordination of acquired knowledge, the phenomenon of quick reasoning, rapid +judgment, and prompt decision. + +3. The spirit of courage--the fidelity endowment--in personal beings, the basis +of character acquirement and the intellectual root of moral stamina and +spiritual bravery. When enlightened by facts and inspired by truth, this +becomes the secret of the urge of evolutionary ascension by the channels of +intelligent and conscientious self-direction. + +4. The spirit of knowledge--the curiosity-mother of adventure and discovery, +the scientific spirit; the guide and faithful associate of the spirits of +courage and counsel; the urge to direct the endowments of courage into useful +and progressive paths of growth. + +5. The spirit of counsel--the social urge, the endowment of species +co-operation; the ability of will creatures to harmonize with their fellows; +the origin of the gregarious instinct among the more lowly creatures. + +6. The spirit of worship--the religious impulse, the first differential urge +separating mind creatures into the two basic classes of mortal existence. The +spirit of worship forever distinguishes the animal of its association from the +soulless creatures of mind endowment. Worship is the badge of +spiritual-ascension candidacy. + +7. The spirit of wisdom--the inherent tendency of all moral creatures towards +orderly and progressive evolutionary advancement. This is the highest of the +adjutants, the spirit co-ordinator and articulator of the work of all the + + top of page - 403 + +others. This spirit is the secret of that inborn urge of mind creatures which +initiates and maintains the practical and effective program of the ascending +scale of existence; that gift of living things which accounts for their +inexplicable ability to survive and, in survival, to utilize the co-ordination +of all their past experience and present opportunities for the acquisition of +all of everything that all of the other six mental ministers can mobilize in +the mind of the organism concerned. Wisdom is the acme of intellectual +performance. Wisdom is the goal of a purely mental and moral existence. + +The adjutant mind-spirits experientially grow, but they never become personal. +They evolve in function, and the function of the first five in the animal +orders is to a certain extent essential to the function of all seven as human +intellect. This animal relationship makes the adjutants more practically +effective as human mind; hence animals are to a certain extent indispensable to +man's intellectual as well as to his physical evolution. + +These mind-adjutants of a local universe Mother Spirit are related to creature +life of intelligence status much as the power centers and physical controllers +are related to the nonliving forces of the universe. They perform invaluable +service in the mind circuits on the inhabited worlds and are effective +collaborators with the Master Physical Controllers, who also serve as +controllers and directors of the preadjutant mind levels, the levels of +nonteachable or mechanical mind. + +Living mind, prior to the appearance of capacity to learn from experience, is +the ministry domain of the Master Physical Controllers. Creature mind, before +acquiring the ability to recognize divinity and worship Deity, is the exclusive +domain of the adjutant spirits. With the appearance of the spiritual response +of the creature intellect, such created minds at once become superminded, being +instantly encircuited in the spirit cycles of the local universe Mother Spirit. + +The adjutant mind-spirits are in no manner directly related to the diverse and +highly spiritual function of the spirit of the personal presence of the Divine +Minister, the Holy Spirit of the inhabited worlds; but they are functionally +antecedent to, and preparatory for, the appearance of this very spirit in +evolutionary man. The adjutants afford the Universe Mother Spirit a varied +contact with, and control over, the material living creatures of a local +universe, but they do not repercuss in the Supreme Being when acting on +prepersonality levels. + +Nonspiritual mind is either a spirit-energy manifestation or a physical-energy +phenomenon. Even human mind, personal mind, has no survival qualities apart +from spirit identification. Mind is a divinity bestowal, but it is not immortal +when it functions without spirit insight, and when it is devoid of the ability +to worship and crave survival. + +6. LIVING FORCES + +Life is both mechanistic and vitalistic--material and spiritual. Ever will +Urantia physicists and chemists progress in their understanding of the +protoplasmic forms of vegetable and animal life, but never will they be able to +produce living organisms. Life is something different from all energy +manifestations; even the material life of physical creatures is not inherent in +matter. + +Things material may enjoy an independent existence, but life springs only from +life. Mind can be derived only from pre-existent mind. Spirit takes origin + + top of page - 404 + +only from spirit ancestors. The creature may produce the forms of life, but +only a creator personality or a creative force can supply the activating living +spark. + +Life Carriers can organize the material forms, or physical patterns, of living +beings, but the Spirit provides the initial spark of life and bestows the +endowment of mind. Even the living forms of experimental life which the Life +Carriers organize on their Salvington worlds are always devoid of reproductive +powers. When the life formulas and the vital patterns are correctly assembled +and properly organized, the presence of a Life Carrier is sufficient to +initiate life, but all such living organisms are lacking in two essential +attributes--mind endowment and reproductive powers. Animal mind and human mind +are gifts of the local universe Mother Spirit, functioning through the seven +adjutant mind-spirits, while creature ability to reproduce is the specific and +personal impartation of the Universe Spirit to the ancestral life plasm +inaugurated by the Life Carriers. + +When the Life Carriers have designed the patterns of life, after they have +organized the energy systems, there must occur an additional phenomenon; the +"breath of life" must be imparted to these lifeless forms. The Sons of God can +construct the forms of life, but it is the Spirit of God who really contributes +the vital spark. And when the life thus imparted is spent, then again the +remaining material body becomes dead matter. When the bestowed life is +exhausted, the body returns to the bosom of the material universe from which it +was borrowed by the Life Carriers to serve as a transient vehicle for that life +endowment which they conveyed to such a visible association of energy-matter. + +The life bestowed upon plants and animals by the Life Carriers does not return +to the Life Carriers upon the death of plant or animal. The departing life of +such a living thing possesses neither identity nor personality; it does not +individually survive death. During its existence and the time of its sojourn in +the body of matter, it has undergone a change; it has undergone energy +evolution and survives only as a part of the cosmic forces of the universe; it +does not survive as individual life. The survival of mortal creatures is wholly +predicated on the evolvement of an immortal soul within the mortal mind. + +We speak of life as "energy" and as "force," but it is really neither. +Force-energy is variously gravity responsive; life is not. Pattern is also +nonresponsive to gravity, being a configuration of energies that have already +fulfilled all gravity-responsive obligations. Life, as such, constitutes the +animation of some pattern-configured or otherwise segregated system of +energy--material, mindal, or spiritual. + +There are some things connected with the elaboration of life on the +evolutionary planets which are not altogether clear to us. We fully comprehend +the physical organization of the electrochemical formulas of the Life Carriers, +but we do not wholly understand the nature and source of the life-activation +spark. We know that life flows from the Father through the Son and by the +Spirit. It is more than possible that the Master Spirits are the sevenfold +channel of the river of life which is poured out upon all creation. But we do +not comprehend the technique whereby the supervising Master Spirit participates +in the initial episode of life bestowal on a new planet. The Ancients of Days, +we are confident, also have some part in this inauguration of life on a new +world, but we are wholly ignorant of the nature thereof. We do know that the +Universe Mother Spirit actually vitalizes the lifeless patterns and imparts to +such activated plasm the + + top of page - 405 + +prerogatives of organismal reproduction. We observe that these three are the +levels of God the Sevenfold, sometimes designated as the Supreme Creators of +time and space; but otherwise we know little more than Urantia mortals--simply +that concept is inherent in the Father, expression in the Son, and life +realization in the Spirit. + +[Indited by a Vorondadek Son stationed on Urantia as an observer and acting in +this capacity by request of the Melchizedek Chief of the Supervising Revelatory +Corps.] + + top of page - 406 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Local ³ Personalities ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Unive... ³ O... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p037.txt b/religious documents/p037.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cbe707e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p037.txt @@ -0,0 +1,704 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 37 Personalities Of The Local Universe + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 37 Personalities Of The Local Universe + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AT THE head of all personality in Nebadon stands the Creator and Master Son, +Michael, the universe father and sovereign. Co-ordinate in divinity and +complemental in creative attributes is the local universe Mother Spirit, the +Divine Minister of Salvington. And these creators are in a very literal sense +the Father-Son and the Spirit-Mother of all the native creatures of Nebadon. + +Preceding papers have dealt with the created orders of sonship; succeeding +narratives will portray the ministering spirits and the ascending orders of +sonship. This paper is chiefly concerned with an intervening group, the +Universe Aids, but it will also give brief consideration to certain of the +higher spirits stationed in Nebadon and to certain of the orders of permanent +citizenship in the local universe. + +1. THE UNIVERSE AIDS + +Many of the unique orders generally grouped in this category are unrevealed, +but as presented in these papers, the Universe Aids include the following seven +orders: + +1. Bright and Morning Stars. + +2. Brilliant Evening Stars. + +3. Archangels. + +4. Most High Assistants. + +5. High Commissioners. + +6. Celestial Overseers. + +7. Mansion World Teachers. + +Of the first order of Universe Aids, the Bright and Morning Stars, there is +just one in each local universe, and he is the first-born of all creatures +native to a local universe. The Bright and Morning Star of our universe is +known as Gabriel of Salvington. He is the chief executive of all Nebadon, +functioning as the personal representative of the Sovereign Son and as +spokesman for his creative consort. + +During the earlier times of Nebadon, Gabriel worked quite alone with Michael +and the Creative Spirit. As the universe grew and administrative problems +multiplied, he was provided with a personal staff of unrevealed assistants, and +eventually this group was augmented by the creation of the Nebadon corps of +Evening Stars. + + top of page - 407 + +2. THE BRILLIANT EVENING STARS + +These brilliant creatures were planned by the Melchizedeks and were then +brought into being by the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit. They serve in +many capacities but chiefly as liaison officers of Gabriel, the local universe +chief executive. One or more of these beings function as his representatives at +the capital of every constellation and system in Nebadon. + +As chief executive of Nebadon, Gabriel is ex officio chairman of, or observer +at, most of the Salvington conclaves, and as many as one thousand of these are +often in session simultaneously. The Brilliant Evening Stars represent Gabriel +on these occasions; he cannot be in two places at the same time, and these +superangels compensate for this limitation. They perform an analogous service +for the corps of the Trinity Teacher Sons. + +Though personally occupied with administrative duties, Gabriel maintains +contact with all other phases of universe life and affairs through the +Brilliant Evening Stars. They always accompany him on his planetary tours and +frequently go on special missions to the individual planets as his personal +representatives. On such assignments they have sometimes been known as "the +angel of the Lord." They frequently go to Uversa to represent the Bright and +Morning Star before the courts and assemblies of the Ancients of Days, but they +seldom journey beyond the confines of Orvonton. + +The Brilliant Evening Stars are a unique twofold order, embracing some of +created dignity and others of attained service. The Nebadon corps of these +superangels now numbers 13,641. There are 4,832 of created dignity, while 8,809 +are ascendant spirits who have attained this goal of exalted service. Many of +these ascendant Evening Stars started their universe careers as seraphim; +others have ascended from unrevealed levels of creature life. As an attainment +goal this high corps is never closed to ascension candidates so long as a +universe is not settled in light and life. + +Both types of Brilliant Evening Stars are easily visible to morontia +personalities and certain types of supermortal material beings. The created +beings of this interesting and versatile order possess a spirit force which can +be manifested independently of their personal presence. + +The head of these superangels is Gavalia, the first-born of this order in +Nebadon. Since the return of Christ Michael from his triumphant bestowal on +Urantia, Gavalia has been assigned to the ascendant mortal ministry, and for +the last nineteen hundred Urantia years his associate, Galantia, has maintained +headquarters on Jerusem, where he spends about half of his time. Galantia is +the first of the ascendant superangels to attain this high estate. + +No grouping or company organization of the Brilliant Evening Stars exists other +than their customary association in pairs on many assignments. They are not +extensively assigned on missions pertaining to the ascendant career of mortals, +but when thus commissioned, they never function alone. They always work in +pairs--one a created being, the other an ascendant Evening Star. + +One of the high duties of the Evening Stars is to accompany the Avonal bestowal +Sons on their planetary missions, even as Gabriel accompanied Michael on his +Urantia bestowal. The two attending superangels are the ranking personalities +of such missions, serving as cocommanders of the archangels + + top of page - 408 + +and all others assigned to these undertakings. It is the senior of these +superangel commanders who, at the significant time and age, bids the Avonal +bestowal Son, "Be about your brother's business." + +Similar pairs of these superangels are assigned to the planetary corps of +Trinity Teacher Sons that functions to establish the postbestowal or dawning +spiritual age of an inhabited world. On such assignments the Evening Stars +serve as liaisons between the mortals of the realm and the invisible corps of +Teacher Sons. + +The Worlds of the Evening Stars. The sixth group of seven Salvington worlds and +their forty-two tributary satellites are assigned to the administration of the +Brilliant Evening Stars. The seven primary worlds are presided over by the +created orders of these superangels, while the tributary satellites are +administered by ascendant Evening Stars. + +The satellites of the first three worlds are devoted to the schools of the +Teacher Sons and the Evening Stars dedicated to the spirit personalities of the +local universe. The next three groups are occupied by similar joint schools +devoted to the training of ascending mortals. The seventh-world satellites are +reserved for the triune deliberations of the Teacher Sons, the Evening Stars, +and the finaliters. During recent times these superangels have been closely +identified with the local universe work of the Corps of the Finality, and they +have long been associated with the Teacher Sons. There exists a liaison of +tremendous power and import between the Evening Stars and the Gravity +Messengers attached to the finaliter working groups. The seventh primary world +itself is reserved for those unrevealed matters which pertain to the future +relationship that will obtain between the Teacher Sons, the finaliters, and the +Evening Stars consequent upon the completed emergence of the superuniverse +manifestation of the personality of God the Supreme. + +3. THE ARCHANGELS + +Archangels are the offspring of the Creator Son and the Universe Mother Spirit. +They are the highest type of high spirit being produced in large numbers in a +local universe, and at the time of the last registry there were almost eight +hundred thousand in Nebadon. + +Archangels are one of the few groups of local universe personalities who are +not normally under the jurisdiction of Gabriel. They are not in any manner +concerned with the routine administration of the universe, being dedicated to +the work of creature survival and to the furtherance of the ascending career of +the mortals of time and space. While not ordinarily subject to the direction of +the Bright and Morning Star, the archangels do sometimes function by his +authority. They also collaborate with others of the Universe Aids, such as the +Evening Stars, as is illustrated by certain transactions depicted in the +narrative of life transplantation on your world. + +The archangel corps of Nebadon is directed by the first-born of this order, and +in more recent times a divisional headquarters of the archangels has been +maintained on Urantia. It is this unusual fact that soon arrests the attention +of extra-Nebadon student visitors. Among their early observations of +intrauniverse transactions is the discovery that many ascendant activities of +the Brilliant Evening Stars are directed from the capital of a local system, +Satania. On + + top of page - 409 + +further examination they discover that certain archangel activities are +directed from a small and apparently insignificant inhabited world called +Urantia. And then ensues the revelation of Michael's bestowal on Urantia and +their immediately quickened interest in you and your lowly sphere. + +Do you grasp the significance of the fact that your lowly and confused planet +has become a divisional headquarters for the universe administration and +direction of certain archangel activities having to do with the Paradise +ascension scheme? This undoubtedly presages the future concentration of other +ascendant activities on the bestowal world of Michael and lends a tremendous +and solemn import to the Master's personal promise, "I will come again." + +In general, the archangels are assigned to the service and ministry of the +Avonal order of sonship, but not until they have passed through extensive +preliminary training in all phases of the work of the various ministering +spirits. A corps of one hundred accompanies every Paradise bestowal Son to an +inhabited world, being temporarily assigned to him for the duration of such a +bestowal. If the Magisterial Son should become temporary ruler of the planet, +these archangels would act as the directing heads of all celestial life on that +sphere. + +Two senior archangels are always assigned as the personal aids of a Paradise +Avonal on all planetary missions, whether involving judicial actions, +magisterial missions, or bestowal incarnations. When this Paradise Son has +finished the judgment of a realm and the dead are called to record (the +so-called resurrection), it is literally true that the seraphic guardians of +the slumbering personalities respond to "the voice of the archangel." The roll +call of a dispensation termination is promulgated by an attendant archangel. +This is the archangel of the resurrection, sometimes referred to as the +"archangel of Michael." + +The Worlds of the Archangels. The seventh group of the encircling Salvington +worlds, with their associated satellites, is assigned to the archangels. Sphere +number one and all of its six tributary satellites are occupied by the +personality record keepers. This enormous corps of recorders busy themselves +with keeping straight the record of each mortal of time from the moment of +birth up through the universe career until such an individual either leaves +Salvington for the superuniverse regime or is "blotted out of recorded +existence" by the mandate of the Ancients of Days. + +It is on these worlds that personality records and identification sureties are +classified, filed, and preserved during that time which intervenes between +mortal death and the hour of repersonalization, the resurrection from death. + +4. MOST HIGH ASSISTANTS + +The Most High Assistants are a group of volunteering beings, of origin outside +the local universe, who are temporarily assigned as central and superuniverse +representatives to, or observers of, the local creations. Their number varies +constantly but is always far up in the millions. + +From time to time we thus benefit from the ministry and assistance of such +Paradise-origin beings as Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine Counselors, Universal +Censors, Inspired Trinity Spirits, Trinitized Sons, Solitary Messengers, +supernaphim, seconaphim, tertiaphim, and other gracious ministers, who sojourn +with us for the purpose of helping our native personalities in the effort to +bring + + top of page - 410 + +all Nebadon into fuller harmony with the ideas of Orvonton and the ideals of +Paradise. + +Any of these beings may be voluntarily serving in Nebadon and hence be +technically outside our jurisdiction, but when functioning by assignment, such +personalities of the super- and central universes are not wholly exempt from +the regulations of the local universe of their sojourn, though they continue to +function as representatives of the higher universes and to work in accordance +with the instructions which constitute their mission in our realm. Their +general headquarters is situated in the Salvington sector of the Union of Days, +and they operate in Nebadon subject to the oversupervision of this ambassador +of the Paradise Trinity. When serving in unattached groups, these personalities +from the higher realms are usually self-directing, but when serving on request, +they often voluntarily place themselves wholly under the jurisdiction of the +supervising directors of the realms of assigned function. + +Most High Assistants serve in local universe and in constellation capacities +but are not directly attached to the system or planetary governments. They may, +however, function anywhere in the local universe and may be assigned to any +phase of Nebadon activity--administrative, executive, educational, and others. + +Most of this corps is enlisted in assisting the Nebadon Paradise +personalities--the Union of Days, the Creator Son, the Faithfuls of Days, the +Magisterial Sons, and the Trinity Teacher Sons. Now and then in the transaction +of the affairs of a local creation it becomes wise to withhold certain details, +temporarily, from the knowledge of practically all of the native personalities +of that local universe. Certain advanced plans and complex rulings are also +better grasped and more fully understood by the more mature and farseeing corps +of Most High Assistants, and it is in such situations, and many others, that +they are so highly serviceable to the universe rulers and administrators. + +5. HIGH COMMISSIONERS + +The High Commissioners are Spirit-fused ascendant mortals; they are not +Adjuster fused. You quite well understand about the universe-ascension career +of a mortal candidate for Adjuster fusion, that being the high destiny in +prospect for all Urantia mortals since the bestowal of Christ Michael. But this +is not the exclusive destiny of all mortals in the prebestowal ages of worlds +like yours, and there is another type of world whose inhabitants are never +permanently indwelt by Thought Adjusters. Such mortals are never permanently +joined in union with a Mystery Monitor of Paradise bestowal; nevertheless, the +Adjusters do transiently indwell them, serving as guides and patterns for the +duration of the life in the flesh. During this temporary sojourn they foster +the evolution of an immortal soul just as in those beings with whom they hope +to fuse, but when the mortal race is run, they take eternal leave of the +creatures of temporary association. + +Surviving souls of this order attain immortality by eternal fusion with an +individualized fragment of the spirit of the local universe Mother Spirit. They +are not a numerous group, at least not in Nebadon. On the mansion worlds you +will meet and fraternize with these Spirit-fused mortals as they ascend the +Paradise path with you as far as Salvington, where they stop. Some of them may +subsequently ascend to higher universe levels, but the majority will forever +re- + + top of page - 411 + +main in the service of the local universe; as a class they are not destined to +attain Paradise. + +Not being Adjuster fused, they never become finaliters, but they do eventually +become enrolled in the local universe Corps of Perfection. They have in spirit +obeyed the Father's command, "Be you perfect." + +After attaining the Nebadon Corps of Perfection, Spirit-fused ascenders may +accept assignment as Universe Aids, this being one of the avenues of continuing +experiential growth which is open to them. Thus do they become candidates for +commissions to the high service of interpreting the viewpoints of the evolving +creatures of the material worlds to the celestial authorities of the local +universe. + +The High Commissioners begin their service on the planets as race +commissioners. In this capacity they interpret the viewpoints and portray the +needs of the various human races. They are supremely devoted to the welfare of +the mortal races whose spokesmen they are, ever seeking to obtain for them +mercy, justice, and fair treatment in all relationships with other peoples. +Race commissioners function in an endless series of planetary crises and serve +as the articulate expression of whole groups of struggling mortals. + +After long experience in problem solving on the inhabited worlds, these race +commissioners are advanced to the higher levels of function, eventually +attaining the status of High Commissioners of and in the local universe. The +last registration recorded slightly over one and one-half billion of these High +Commissioners in Nebadon. These beings are not finaliters, but they are +ascendant beings of long experience and of great service to their native realm. + +We invariably find these commissioners in all the tribunals of justice, from +the lowest to the highest. Not that they participate in the proceedings of +justice, but they do act as friends of the court, advising the presiding +magistrates respecting the antecedents, environment, and inherent nature of +those concerned in the adjudication. + +High Commissioners are attached to the various messenger hosts of space and +always to the ministering spirits of time. They are encountered on the programs +of various universe assemblies, and these same mortal-wise commissioners are +always attached to the missions of the Sons of God to the worlds of space. + +Whenever fairness and justice require an understanding of how a contemplated +policy or procedure would affect the evolutionary races of time, these +commissioners are at hand to present their recommendations; they are always +present to speak for those who cannot be present to speak for themselves. + +The Worlds of the Spirit-fused Mortals. The eighth group of seven primary +worlds and tributary satellites in the Salvington circuit are the exclusive +possession of the Spirit-fused mortals of Nebadon. Ascending Adjuster-fused +mortals are not concerned with these worlds except to enjoy many pleasant and +profitable sojourns as the invited guests of the Spirit-fused residents. + +Except for those few who attain Uversa and Paradise, these worlds are the +permanent residence of the Spirit-fused survivors. Such designed limitation of +mortal ascent reacts to the good of the local universes by insuring the +retention of a permanent evolved population whose augmenting experience will +continue to enhance the future stabilization and diversification of the local +universe ad- + + top of page - 412 + +ministration. These beings may not attain Paradise, but they achieve an +experiential wisdom in the mastery of Nebadon problems that utterly surpasses +anything attained by the transient ascenders. And these surviving souls +continue as unique combinations of the human and the divine, being increasingly +able to unite the viewpoints of these two widely separate levels and to present +such a dual viewpoint with ever-heightening wisdom. + +6. CELESTIAL OVERSEERS + +The Nebadon educational system is jointly administered by the Trinity Teacher +Sons and the Melchizedek teaching corps, but much of the work designed to +effect its maintenance and upbuilding is carried on by the Celestial Overseers. +These beings are a recruited corps embracing all types of individuals connected +with the scheme of educating and training the ascending mortals. There are +upward of three million of them in Nebadon, and they are all volunteers who +have qualified by experience to serve as educational advisers to the entire +realm. From their headquarters on the Salvington worlds of the Melchizedeks, +these overseers range the local universe as inspectors of the Nebadon school +technique designed to effect the mind training and the spirit education of the +ascending creatures. + +This training of mind and education of spirit is carried on from the worlds of +human origin up through the system mansion worlds and the other spheres of +progress associated with Jerusem, on the seventy socializing realms attached to +Edentia, and on the four hundred and ninety spheres of spirit progress +encircling Salvington. On the universe headquarters itself are numerous +Melchizedek schools, the colleges of the Universe Sons, the seraphic +universities, and the schools of the Teacher Sons and the Union of Days. Every +possible provision is made to qualify the various personalities of the universe +for advancing service and improving function. The entire universe is one vast +school. + +The methods employed in many of the higher schools are beyond the human concept +of the art of teaching truth, but this is the keynote of the whole educational +system: character acquired by enlightened experience. The teachers provide the +enlightenment; the universe station and the ascender's status afford the +opportunity for experience; the wise utilization of these two augments +character. + +Fundamentally, the Nebadon educational system provides for your assignment to a +task and then affords you opportunity to receive instruction as to the ideal +and divine method of best performing that task. You are given a definite task +to perform, and at the same time you are provided with teachers who are +qualified to instruct you in the best method of executing your assignment. The +divine plan of education provides for the intimate association of work and +instruction. We teach you how best to execute the things we command you to do. + +The purpose of all this training and experience is to prepare you for admission +to the higher and more spiritual training spheres of the superuniverse. +Progress within a given realm is individual, but transition from one phase to +another is usually by classes. + +The progression of eternity does not consist solely in spiritual development. +Intellectual acquisition is also a part of universal education. The experience +of the mind is broadened equally with the expansion of the spiritual horizon. +Mind + + top of page - 413 + +and spirit are afforded like opportunities for training and advancement. But in +all this superb training of mind and spirit you are forever free from the +handicaps of mortal flesh. No longer must you constantly referee the +conflicting contentions of your divergent spiritual and material natures. At +last you are qualified to enjoy the unified urge of a glorified mind long since +divested of primitive animalistic trends towards things material. + +Before leaving the universe of Nebadon, most Urantia mortals will be afforded +opportunity to serve for a longer or shorter time as members of the Nebadon +corps of Celestial Overseers. + +7. MANSION WORLD TEACHERS + +The Mansion World Teachers are recruited and glorified cherubim. Like most +other instructors in Nebadon they are commissioned by the Melchizedeks. They +function in most of the educational enterprises of the morontia life, and their +number is quite beyond the comprehension of mortal mind. + +As an attainment level of cherubim and sanobim, the Mansion World Teachers will +receive further consideration in the next paper, while as teachers playing an +important part in the morontia life, they will be more extensively discussed in +the paper of that name. + +8. HIGHER SPIRIT ORDERS OF ASSIGNMENT + +Besides the power centers and the physical controllers, certain of the +higher-origin spirit beings of the family of the Infinite Spirit are of +permanent assignment to the local universe. Of the higher spirit orders of the +family of the Infinite Spirit the following are so assigned: + +The Solitary Messengers, when functionally attached to the local universe +administration, render invaluable service to us in our efforts to overcome the +handicaps of time and space. When they are not thus assigned, we of the local +universes have absolutely no authority over them, but even then these unique +beings are always willing to help us with the solution of our problems and with +the execution of our mandates. + +Andovontia is the name of the tertiary Universe Circuit Supervisor stationed +in our local universe. He is concerned only with spirit and morontia circuits, +not with those under the jurisdiction of the power directors. It was he who +isolated Urantia at the time of the Caligastia betrayal of the planet during +the testing seasons of the Lucifer rebellion. In sending greetings to the +mortals of Urantia, he expresses pleasure in the anticipation of your sometime +restoration to the universe circuits of his supervision. + +The Nebadon Census Director, Salsatia, maintains headquarters within the +Gabriel sector of Salvington. He is automatically cognizant of the birth and +death of will and currently registers the exact number of will creatures +functioning in the local universe. He works in close association with the +personality recorders domiciled on the record worlds of the archangels. + +An Associate Inspector is resident on Salvington. He is the personal +representative of the Supreme Executive of Orvonton. + + top of page - 414 + +His associates, the Assigned Sentinels in the local systems, are also +representatives of the Supreme Executive of Orvonton. + +The Universal Conciliators are the traveling courts of the universes of time +and space, functioning from the evolutionary worlds up through every section of +the local universe and on beyond. These referees are registered on Uversa; the +exact number operating in Nebadon is not of record, but I estimate that there +are in the neighborhood of one hundred million conciliating commissions in our +local universe. + +Of the Technical Advisers, the legal minds of the realm, we have our quota, +about one-half billion. These beings are the living and circulating +experiential law libraries of all space. + +Of the Celestial Recorders, the ascendant seraphim, we have in Nebadon +seventy-five. These are the senior or supervising recorders. The advancing +students of this order in training number almost four billion. + +The ministry of the seventy billion Morontia Companions in Nebadon is described +in those narratives dealing with the transition planets of the pilgrims of +time. + +Each universe has its own native angelic corps; nevertheless, there are +occasions on which it is very helpful to have the assistance of those higher +spirits of origin outside the local creation. Supernaphim perform certain rare +and unique services; the present chief of Urantia seraphim is a primary +supernaphim of Paradise. The reflective seconaphim are encountered wherever the +superuniverse personnel is functioning, and a great many tertiaphim are of +temporary service as Most High Assistants. + +9. PERMANENT CITIZENS OF THE LOCAL UNIVERSE + +As with the super- and central universes, the local universe has its orders of +permanent citizenship. These include the following created types: + +1. Susatia. + +2. Univitatia. + +3. Material Sons. + +4. Midway Creatures. + +These natives of the local creation, together with the Spirit-fused ascenders +and the spironga (who are otherwise classified), constitute a relatively +permanent citizenship. These orders of beings are by and large neither +ascending nor descending. They are all experiential creatures, but their +enlarging experience continues to be available to the universe on their level +of origin. While this is not wholly true of the Adamic Sons and midway +creatures, it is relatively true of these orders. + +The Susatia. These marvelous beings reside and function as permanent citizens +on Salvington, the headquarters of this local universe. They are the brilliant +offspring of the Creator Son and Creative Spirit and are closely associated +with the ascendant citizens of the local universe, the Spirit-fused mortals of +the Nebadon Corps of Perfection. + +The Univitatia. Each of the one hundred constellation headquarters clusters of +architectural spheres enjoys the continuous ministry of a residential order of +beings known as the univitatia. These children of the Creator Son and the + + top of page - 415 + +Creative Spirit constitute the permanent population of the constellation +headquarters worlds. They are nonreproducing beings existing on a plane of life +about halfway between the semimaterial status of the Material Sons domiciled on +the system headquarters and the more definitely spiritual plane of the +Spirit-fused mortals and the susatia of Salvington; but the univitatia are not +morontia beings. They accomplish for ascending mortals during the traversal of +the constellation spheres what the Havona natives contribute to the pilgrim +spirits passing through the central creation. + +The Material Sons of God. When a creative liaison between the Creator Son and +the universe representative of the Infinite Spirit, the Universe Mother Spirit, +has completed its cycle, when no more offspring of the combined nature are +forthcoming, then does the Creator Son personalize in dual form his last +concept of being, thus finally confirming his own and original dual origin. In +and of himself he then creates the beautiful and superb Sons and Daughters of +the material order of universe sonship. This is the origin of the original Adam +and Eve of each local system of Nebadon. They are a reproducing order of +sonship, being created male and female. Their progeny function as the +relatively permanent citizens of a system capital, though some are commissioned +as Planetary Adams. + +On a planetary mission the Material Son and Daughter are commissioned to found +the Adamic race of that world, a race designed eventually to amalgamate with +the mortal inhabitants of that sphere. Planetary Adams are both descending and +ascending Sons, but we ordinarily class them as ascending. + +The Midway Creatures. In the early days of most inhabited worlds, certain +superhuman but materialized beings are of assignment, but they usually retire +upon the arrival of the Planetary Adams. The transactions of such beings and +the efforts of the Material Sons to improve the evolutionary races often result +in the appearance of a limited number of creatures who are difficult to +classify. These unique beings are often midway between the Material Sons and +the evolutionary creatures; hence their designation, midway creatures. In a +comparative sense these midwayers are the permanent citizens of the +evolutionary worlds. From the early days of the arrival of a Planetary Prince +to the far-distant time of the settling of the planet in light and life, they +are the only group of intelligent beings to remain continuously on the sphere. +On Urantia the midway ministers are in reality the actual custodians of the +planet; they are, practically speaking, the citizens of Urantia. Mortals are +indeed the physical and material inhabitants of an evolutionary world, but you +are all so short-lived; you tarry on your nativity planet such a short time. +You are born, live, die, and pass on to other worlds of evolutionary +progression. Even the superhuman beings who serve on the planets as celestial +ministers are of transient assignment; few of them are long attached to a given +sphere. The midway creatures, however, provide continuity of planetary +administration in the face of ever-changing celestial ministries and constantly +shifting mortal inhabitants. Throughout all of this never-ceasing changing and +shifting, the midway creatures remain on the planet uninterruptedly carrying on +their work. + +In like manner, all divisions of the administrative organization of the local +universes and superuniverses have their more or less permanent populations, +inhabitants of citizenship status. As Urantia has its midwayers, Jerusem, your +system capital, has the Material Sons and Daughters; Edentia, your constella- + + top of page - 416 + +tion headquarters, has the univitatia, while the citizens of Salvington are +twofold, the created susatia and the evolved Spirit-fused mortals. The +administrative worlds of the minor and major sectors of the superuniverses do +not have permanent citizens. But the Uversa headquarters spheres are +continuously fostered by an amazing group of beings known as the abandonters, +the creation of the unrevealed agents of the Ancients of Days and the seven +Reflective Spirits resident on the capital of Orvonton. These residential +citizens on Uversa are at present administering the routine affairs of their +world under the immediate supervision of the Uversa corps of the Son-fused +mortals. Even Havona has its native beings, and the central Isle of Light and +Life is the home of the various groups of Paradise Citizens. + +10. OTHER LOCAL UNIVERSE GROUPS + +Besides the seraphic and mortal orders, who will be considered in later papers, +there are numerous additional beings concerned in the maintenance and +perfecting of such a gigantic organization as the universe of Nebadon, which +even now has more than three million inhabited worlds, with ten million in +prospect. The various Nebadon types of life are much too numerous to be +catalogued in this paper, but there are two unusual orders that function +extensively on the 647,591 architectural spheres of the local universe, that +may be mentioned. + +The Spironga are the spirit offspring of the Bright and Morning Star and the +Father Melchizedek. They are exempt from personality termination but are not +evolutionary or ascending beings. Neither are they functionally concerned with +the evolutionary ascension regime. They are the spirit helpers of the local +universe, executing the routine spirit tasks of Nebadon. + +The Spornagia. The architectural headquarters worlds of the local universe are +real worlds--physical creations. There is much work connected with their +physical upkeep, and herein we have the assistance of a group of physical +creatures called spornagia. They are devoted to the care and culture of the +material phases of these headquarters worlds, from Jerusem to Salvington. +Spornagia are neither spirits nor persons; they are an animal order of +existence, but if you could see them, you would agree that they seem to be +perfect animals. + +The various courtesy colonies are domiciled on Salvington and elsewhere. We +especially profit from the ministry of the celestial artisans on the +constellations and benefit from the activities of the reversion directors, who +operate chiefly on the capitals of the local systems. + +Always there is attached to the universe service a corps of ascending mortals, +including the glorified midway creatures. These ascenders, after attaining +Salvington, are used in an almost endless variety of activities in the conduct +of universe affairs. From each level of achievement these advancing mortals +reach back and down to extend a helping hand to their fellows who follow them +in the upward climb. Such mortals of temporary sojourn on Salvington are +assigned on requisition to practically all corps of celestial personalities as +helpers, students, observers, and teachers. + +There are still other types of intelligent life concerned with the +administration of a local universe, but the plan of this narrative does not +provide for the + + top of page - 417 + +further revelation of these orders of creation. Enough of the life and +administration of this universe is being herewith portrayed to afford the +mortal mind a grasp of the reality and grandeur of the survival existence. +Further experience in your advancing careers will increasingly reveal these +interesting and charming beings. This narrative cannot be more than a brief +outline of the nature and work of the manifold personalities who throng the +universes of space administering these creations as enormous training schools, +schools wherein the pilgrims of time advance from life to life and from world +to world until they are lovingly dispatched from the borders of the universe of +their origin to the higher educational regime of the superuniverse and thence +on to the spirit-training worlds of Havona and eventually to Paradise and the +high destiny of the finaliters--the eternal assignment on missions not yet +revealed to the universes of time and space. + +[Dictated by a Brilliant Evening Star of Nebadon, Number 1,146 of the Created +Corps.] + + top of page - 418 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Life ³ Ministering ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Carrie... ³ Spi... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p038.txt b/religious documents/p038.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c8202e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p038.txt @@ -0,0 +1,490 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 38 Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 38 Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THERE are three distinct orders of the personalities of the Infinite Spirit. +The impetuous apostle understood this when he wrote respecting Jesus, "who has +gone to heaven and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and +powers being made subject to him." Angels are the ministering spirits of time; +authorities, the messenger hosts of space; powers, the higher personalities of +the Infinite Spirit. + +As the supernaphim in the central universe and the seconaphim in a +superuniverse, so the seraphim, with the associated cherubim and sanobim, +constitute the angelic corps of a local universe. + +The seraphim are all fairly uniform in design. From universe to universe, +throughout all seven of the superuniverses, they show a minimum of variation; +they are the most nearly standard of all spirit types of personal beings. Their +various orders constitute the corps of the skilled and common ministers of the +local creations. + +1. ORIGIN OF SERAPHIM + +Seraphim are created by the Universe Mother Spirit and have been projected in +unit formation--41,472 at a time--ever since the creation of the "pattern +angels" and certain angelic archetypes in the early times of Nebadon. The +Creator Son and the universe representation of the Infinite Spirit collaborate +in the creation of a large number of Sons and other universe personalities. +Following the completion of this united effort, the Son engages in the creation +of the Material Sons, the first of the sex creatures, while the Universe Mother +Spirit concurrently engages in her initial solitary effort at spirit +reproduction. Thus begins the creation of the seraphic hosts of a local +universe. + +These angelic orders are projected at the time of planning for the evolution of +mortal will creatures. The creation of seraphim dates from the attainment of +relative personality by the Universe Mother Spirit, not as the later +co-ordinate of the Master Son, but as the early creative helper of the Creator +Son. Previous to this event the seraphim on duty in Nebadon were temporarily +loaned by a neighboring universe. + +Seraphim are still being periodically created; the universe of Nebadon is still +in the making. The Universe Mother Spirit never ceases creative activity in a +growing and perfecting universe. + + top of page - 419 + +2. ANGELIC NATURES + +Angels do not have material bodies, but they are definite and discrete beings; +they are of spirit nature and origin. Though invisible to mortals, they +perceive you as you are in the flesh without the aid of transformers or +translators; they intellectually understand the mode of mortal life, and they +share all of man's nonsensuous emotions and sentiments. They appreciate and +greatly enjoy your efforts in music, art, and real humor. They are fully +cognizant of your moral struggles and spiritual difficulties. They love human +beings, and only good can result from your efforts to understand and love them. + +Though seraphim are very affectionate and sympathetic beings, they are not +sex-emotion creatures. They are much as you will be on the mansion worlds, +where you will "neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be as the +angels of heaven." For all who "shall be accounted worthy to attain the mansion +worlds neither marry nor are given in marriage; neither do they die any more, +for they are equal to the angels." Nevertheless, in dealing with sex creatures +it is our custom to speak of those beings of more direct descent from the +Father and the Son as the sons of God, while referring to the children of the +Spirit as the daughters of God. Angels are, therefore, commonly designated by +feminine pronouns on the sex planets. + +The seraphim are so created as to function on both spiritual and literal +levels. There are few phases of morontia or spirit activity which are not open +to their ministrations. While in personal status angels are not so far removed +from human beings, in certain functional performances seraphim far transcend +them. They possess many powers far beyond human comprehension. For example: You +have been told that the "very hairs of your head are numbered," and it is true +they are, but a seraphim does not spend her time counting them and keeping the +number corrected up to date. Angels possess inherent and automatic (that is, +automatic as far as you could perceive) powers of knowing such things; you +would truly regard a seraphim as a mathematical prodigy. Therefore, numerous +duties which would be tremendous tasks for mortals are performed with exceeding +ease by seraphim. + +Angels are superior to you in spiritual status, but they are not your judges or +accusers. No matter what your faults, "the angels, although greater in power +and might, bring no accusation against you." Angels do not sit in judgment on +mankind, neither should individual mortals prejudge their fellow creatures. + +You do well to love them, but you should not adore them; angels are not objects +of worship. The great seraphim, Loyalatia, when your seer "fell down to worship +before the feet of the angel," said: "See that you do it not; I am a fellow +servant with you and with your races, who are all enjoined to worship God." + +In nature and personality endowment the seraphim are just a trifle ahead of +mortal races in the scale of creature existence. Indeed, when you are delivered +from the flesh, you become very much like them. On the mansion worlds you will +begin to appreciate the seraphim, on the constellation spheres to enjoy them, +while on Salvington they will share their places of rest and worship with you. +Throughout the whole morontia and subsequent spirit ascent, your fraternity +with the seraphim will be ideal; your companionship will be superb. + + top of page - 420 + +3. UNREVEALED ANGELS + +Numerous orders of spirit beings function throughout the domains of the local +universe that are unrevealed to mortals because they are in no manner connected +with the evolutionary plan of Paradise ascension. In this paper the word +"angel" is purposely limited to the designation of those seraphic and +associated offspring of the Universe Mother Spirit who are so largely concerned +with the operation of the plans of mortal survival. There serve in the local +universe six other orders of related beings, the unrevealed angels, who are not +in any specific manner connected with those universe activities pertaining to +the Paradise ascent of evolutionary mortals. These six groups of angelic +associates are never called seraphim, neither are they referred to as +ministering spirits. These personalities are wholly occupied with the +administrative and other affairs of Nebadon, engagements which are in no way +related to man's progressive career of spiritual ascent and perfection +attainment. + +4. THE SERAPHIC WORLDS + +The ninth group of seven primary spheres in the Salvington circuit are the +worlds of the seraphim. Each of these worlds has six tributary satellites, +whereon are the special schools devoted to all phases of seraphic training. +While the seraphim have access to all forty-nine worlds comprising this group +of Salvington spheres, they exclusively occupy only the first cluster of seven. +The remaining six clusters are occupied by the six orders of angelic associates +unrevealed on Urantia; each such group maintains headquarters on one of these +six primary worlds and carries on specialized activities on the six tributary +satellites. Each angelic order has free access to all the worlds of these seven +diverse groups. + +These headquarters worlds are among the magnificent realms of Nebadon; the +seraphic estates are characterized by both beauty and vastness. Here each +seraphim has a real home, and "home" means the domicile of two seraphim; they +live in pairs. + +Though not male and female as are the Material Sons and the mortal races, +seraphim are negative and positive. In the majority of assignments it requires +two angels to accomplish the task. When they are not encircuited, they can work +alone; neither do they require complements of being when stationary. Ordinarily +they retain their original complements of being, but not necessarily. Such +associations are primarily necessitated by function; they are not characterized +by sex emotion, though they are exceedingly personal and truly affectionate. + +Besides designated homes, seraphim also have group, company, battalion, and +unit headquarters. They forgather for reunions every millennium and are all +present in accordance with the time of their creation. If a seraphim bears +responsibilities which forbid absence from duty, she alternates attendance with +her complement, being relieved by a seraphim of another birth date. Each +seraphic partner is thereby present at least every other reunion. + +5. SERAPHIC TRAINING + +Seraphim spend their first millennium as noncommissioned observers on +Salvington and its associated world schools. The second millennium is spent on + + top of page - 421 + +the seraphic worlds of the Salvington circuit. Their central training school is +now presided over by the first one hundred thousand Nebadon seraphim, and at +their head is the original or first-born angel of this local universe. The +first created group of Nebadon seraphim were trained by a corps of one thousand +seraphim from Avalon; subsequently our angels have been taught by their own +seniors. The Melchizedeks also have a large part in the education and training +of all local universe angels--seraphim, cherubim, and sanobim. + +At the termination of this period of training on the seraphic worlds of +Salvington, seraphim are mobilized in the conventional groups and units of the +angelic organization and are assigned to some one of the constellations. They +are not yet commissioned as ministering spirits, although they have well +entered upon the precommissioned phases of angelic training. + +Seraphim are initiated as ministering spirits by serving as observers on the +lowest of the evolutionary worlds. After this experience they return to the +associate worlds of the headquarters of the assigned constellation to begin +their advanced studies and more definitely to prepare for service in some +particular local system. Following this general education they are advanced to +the service of some one of the local systems. On the architectural worlds +associated with the capital of some Nebadon system our seraphim complete their +training and are commissioned as ministering spirits of time. + +When once seraphim are commissioned, they may range all Nebadon, even Orvonton, +on assignment. Their work in the universe is without bounds and limitations; +they are closely associated with the material creatures of the worlds and are +ever in the service of the lower orders of spiritual personalities, making +contact between these beings of the spirit world and the mortals of the +material realms. + +6. SERAPHIC ORGANIZATION + +After the second millennium of sojourn at seraphic headquarters the seraphim +are organized under chiefs into groups of twelve (12 pairs, 24 seraphim), and +twelve such groups constitute a company (144 pairs, 288 seraphim), which is +commanded by a leader. Twelve companies under a commander constitute a +battalion (1,728 pairs or 3,456 seraphim), and twelve battalions under a +director equal a seraphic unit (20,736 pairs or 41,472 individuals), while +twelve units, subject to the command of a supervisor, constitute a legion +numbering 248,832 pairs or 497,664 individuals. Jesus alluded to such a group +of angels that night in the garden of Gethsemane when he said: "I can even now +ask my Father, and he will presently give me more than twelve legions of +angels." + +Twelve legions of angels comprise a host numbering 2,985,984 pairs or 5,971,968 +individuals, and twelve such hosts (35,831,808 pairs or 71,663,616 individuals) +make up the largest operating organization of seraphim, an angelic army. A +seraphic host is commanded by an archangel or by some other personality of +co-ordinate status, while the angelic armies are directed by the Brilliant +Evening Stars or by other immediate lieutenants of Gabriel. And Gabriel is the +"supreme commander of the armies of heaven," the chief executive of the +Sovereign of Nebadon, "the Lord God of hosts." + +Though serving under the direct supervision of the Infinite Spirit as +personalized on Salvington, since the bestowal of Michael on Urantia, seraphim +and all other local universe orders have become subject to the sovereignty of +the + + top of page - 422 + +Master Son. Even when Michael was born of the flesh on Urantia, there issued +the superuniverse broadcast to all Nebadon which proclaimed, "And let all the +angels worship him." All ranks of angels are subject to his sovereignty; they +are a part of that group which has been denominated "his mighty angels." + +7. CHERUBIM AND SANOBIM + +In all essential endowments cherubim and sanobim are similar to seraphim. They +have the same origin but not always the same destiny. They are wonderfully +intelligent, marvelously efficient, touchingly affectionate, and almost human. +They are the lowest order of angels, hence all the nearer of kin to the more +progressive types of human beings on the evolutionary worlds. + +Cherubim and sanobim are inherently associated, functionally united. One is an +energy positive personality; the other, energy negative. The right-hand +deflector, or positively charged angel, is the cherubim--the senior or +controlling personality. The left-hand deflector, or negatively charged angel, +is the sanobim--the complement of being. Each type of angel is very limited in +solitary function; hence they usually serve in pairs. When serving +independently of their seraphic directors, they are more than ever dependent on +mutual contact and always function together. + +Cherubim and sanobim are the faithful and efficient aids of the seraphic +ministers, and all seven orders of seraphim are provided with these subordinate +assistants. Cherubim and sanobim serve for ages in these capacities, but they +do not accompany seraphim on assignments beyond the confines of the local +universe. + +The cherubim and sanobim are the routine spirit workers on the individual +worlds of the systems. On a nonpersonal assignment and in an emergency, they +may serve in the place of a seraphic pair, but they never function, even +temporarily, as attending angels to human beings; that is an exclusive seraphic +privilege. + +When assigned to a planet, cherubim enter the local courses of training, +including a study of planetary usages and languages. The ministering spirits of +time are all bilingual, speaking the language of the local universe of their +origin and that of their native superuniverse. By study in the schools of the +realms they acquire additional tongues. Cherubim and sanobim, like seraphim and +all other orders of spirit beings, are continuously engaged in efforts at +self-improvement. Only such as the subordinate beings of power control and +energy direction are incapable of progression; all creatures having actual or +potential personality volition seek new achievements. + +Cherubim and sanobim are by nature very near the morontia level of existence, +and they prove to be most efficient in the borderland work of the physical, +morontial, and spiritual domains. These children of the local universe Mother +Spirit are characterized by "fourth creatures" much as are the Havona Servitals +and the conciliating commissions. Every fourth cherubim and every fourth +sanobim are quasi-material, very definitely resembling the morontia level of +existence. + +These angelic fourth creatures are of great assistance to the seraphim in the +more literal phases of their universe and planetary activities. Such morontia + + top of page - 423 + +cherubim also perform many indispensable borderline tasks on the morontia +training worlds and are assigned to the service of the Morontia Companions in +large numbers. They are to the morontia spheres about what the midway creatures +are to the evolutionary planets. On the inhabited worlds these morontia +cherubim frequently work in liaison with the midway creatures. Cherubim and +midway creatures are distinctly separate orders of beings; they have dissimilar +origins, but they disclose great similarity in nature and function. + +8. EVOLUTION OF CHERUBIM AND SANOBIM + +Numerous avenues of advancing service are open to cherubim and sanobim leading +to an enhancement of status, which may be still further augmented by the +embrace of the Divine Minister. There are three great classes of cherubim and +sanobim with regard to evolutionary potential: + +1. Ascension Candidates. These beings are by nature candidates for seraphic +status. Cherubim and sanobim of this order are brilliant, though not by +inherent endowment equal to the seraphim; but by application and experience it +is possible for them to attain full seraphic standing. + +2. Mid-phase Cherubim. All cherubim and sanobim are not equal in ascension +potential, and these are the inherently limited beings of the angelic +creations. Most of them will remain cherubim and sanobim, although the more +gifted individuals may achieve limited seraphic service. + +3. Morontia Cherubim. These "fourth creatures" of the angelic orders always +retain their quasi-material characteristics. They will continue on as cherubim +and sanobim, together with a majority of their mid-phase brethren, pending the +completed factualization of the Supreme Being. + +While the second and third groups are somewhat limited in growth potential, the +ascension candidates may attain the heights of universal seraphic service. Many +of the more experienced of these cherubim are attached to the seraphic +guardians of destiny and are thus placed in direct line for advancement to the +status of Mansion World Teachers when deserted by their seraphic seniors. +Guardians of destiny do not have cherubim and sanobim as helpers when their +mortal wards attain the morontia life. And when other types of evolutionary +seraphim are granted clearance for Seraphington and Paradise, they must forsake +their former subordinates when they pass out of the confines of Nebadon. Such +deserted cherubim and sanobim are usually embraced by the Universe Mother +Spirit, thus achieving a level equivalent to that of a Mansion World Teacher in +the attainment of seraphic status. + +When, as Mansion World Teachers, the once-embraced cherubim and sanobim have +long served on the morontia spheres, from the lowest to the highest, and when +their corps on Salvington is overrecruited, the Bright and Morning Star summons +these faithful servants of the creatures of time to appear in his presence. The +oath of personality transformation is administered; and thereupon, in groups of +seven thousand, these advanced and senior cherubim and sanobim are re-embraced +by the Universe Mother Spirit. From this second embrace they emerge as +full-fledged seraphim. Henceforth, the full and complete career of a seraphim, +with all of its Paradise possibilities, is open to such reborn cherubim and +sanobim. Such angels may be assigned as guardians of destiny + + top of page - 424 + +to some mortal being, and if the mortal ward attains survival, then do they +become eligible for advancement to Seraphington and the seven circles of +seraphic attainment, even to Paradise and the Corps of the Finality. + +9. THE MIDWAY CREATURES + +The midway creatures have a threefold classification: They are properly +classified with the ascending Sons of God; they are factually grouped with the +orders of permanent citizenship, while they are functionally reckoned with the +ministering spirits of time because of their intimate and effective association +with the angelic hosts in the work of serving mortal man on the individual +worlds of space. + +These unique creatures appear on the majority of the inhabited worlds and are +always found on the decimal or life-experiment planets, such as Urantia. +Midwayers are of two types--primary and secondary--and they appear by the +following techniques: + +1. Primary Midwayers, the more spiritual group, are a somewhat standardized +order of beings who are uniformly derived from the modified ascendant-mortal +staffs of the Planetary Princes. The number of primary midway creatures is +always fifty thousand, and no planet enjoying their ministry has a larger +group. + +2. Secondary Midwayers, the more material group of these creatures, vary +greatly in numbers on the different worlds, though the average is around fifty +thousand. They are variously derived from the planetary biologic uplifters, the +Adams and Eves, or from their immediate progeny. There are no less than +twenty-four diverse techniques involved in the production of these secondary +midway creatures on the evolutionary worlds of space. The mode of origin for +this group on Urantia was unusual and extraordinary. + +Neither of these groups is an evolutionary accident; both are essential +features in the predetermined plans of the universe architects, and their +appearance on the evolving worlds at the opportune juncture is in accordance +with the original designs and developmental plans of the supervising Life +Carriers. + +Primary midwayers are energized intellectually and spiritually by the angelic +technique and are uniform in intellectual status. The seven adjutant +mind-spirits make no contact with them; and only the sixth and the seventh, the +spirit of worship and the spirit of wisdom, are able to minister to the +secondary group. + +Secondary midwayers are physically energized by the Adamic technique, +spiritually encircuited by the seraphic, and intellectually endowed with the +morontia transition type of mind. They are divided into four physical types, +seven orders spiritually, and twelve levels of intellectual response to the +joint ministry of the last two adjutant spirits and the morontia mind. These +diversities determine their differential of activity and of planetary +assignment. + +Primary midwayers resemble angels more than mortals; the secondary orders are +much more like human beings. Each renders invaluable assistance to the other in +the execution of their manifold planetary assignments. The primary ministers +can achieve liaison co-operation with both morontia- and spirit-energy +controllers and mind circuiters. The secondary group can establish working +connections only with the physical controllers and the material-circuit +manipulators. But since each order of midwayer can establish perfect synchrony +of con- + + top of page - 425 + +tact with the other, either group is thereby able to achieve practical +utilization of the entire energy gamut extending from the gross physical power +of the material worlds up through the transition phases of universe energies to +the higher spirit-reality forces of the celestial realms. + +The gap between the material and spiritual worlds is perfectly bridged by the +serial association of mortal man, secondary midwayer, primary midwayer, +morontia cherubim, mid-phase cherubim, and seraphim. In the personal experience +of an individual mortal these diverse levels are undoubtedly more or less +unified and made personally meaningful by the unobserved and mysterious +operations of the divine Thought Adjuster. + +On normal worlds the primary midwayers maintain their service as the +intelligence corps and as celestial entertainers in behalf of the Planetary +Prince, while the secondary ministers continue their co-operation with the +Adamic regime of furthering the cause of progressive planetary civilization. In +case of the defection of the Planetary Prince and the failure of the Material +Son, as occurred on Urantia, the midway creatures become the wards of the +System Sovereign and serve under the directing guidance of the acting custodian +of the planet. But on only three other worlds in Satania do these beings +function as one group under unified leadership as do the united midway +ministers of Urantia. + +The planetary work of both primary and secondary midwayers is varied and +diverse on the numerous individual worlds of a universe, but on the normal and +average planets their activities are very different from the duties which +occupy their time on isolated spheres, such as Urantia. + +The primary midwayers are the planetary historians who, from the time of the +arrival of the Planetary Prince to the age of settled light and life, formulate +the pageants and design the portrayals of planetary history for the exhibits of +the planets on the system headquarters worlds. + +Midwayers remain for long periods on an inhabited world, but if faithful to +their trust, they will eventually and most certainly be recognized for their +agelong service in maintaining the sovereignty of the Creator Son; they will be +duly rewarded for their patient ministry to the material mortals on their world +of time and space. Sooner or later all accredited midway creatures will be +mustered into the ranks of the ascending Sons of God and will be duly initiated +into the long adventure of the Paradise ascent in company with those very +mortals of animal origin, their earth brethren, whom they so jealously guarded +and so effectively served during the long planetary sojourn. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek acting by request of the Chief of the Seraphic +Hosts of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 426 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Personalities ³ The Seraphic ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ O... ³ Ho... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p039.txt b/religious documents/p039.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e69c7c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p039.txt @@ -0,0 +1,991 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 39 The Seraphic Hosts + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 39 The Seraphic Hosts + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AS FAR as we are cognizant, the Infinite Spirit, as personalized on the local +universe headquarters, intends to produce uniformly perfect seraphim, but for +some unknown reason these seraphic offspring are very diverse. This diversity +may be a result of the unknown interposition of evolving experiential Deity; if +so, we cannot prove it. But we do observe that, when seraphim have been +subjected to educational tests and training discipline, they unfailingly and +distinctly classify into the following seven groups: + +1. Supreme Seraphim. + +2. Superior Seraphim. + +3. Supervisor Seraphim. + +4. Administrator Seraphim. + +5. Planetary Helpers. + +6. Transition Ministers. + +7. Seraphim of the Future. + +To say that any one seraphim is inferior to an angel of any other group would +hardly be true. Nevertheless every angel is at first service-limited to the +group of original and inherent classification. My seraphic associate in the +preparation of this statement, Manotia, is a supreme seraphim and onetime +functioned only as a supreme seraphim. By application and devoted service she +has, one by one, achieved all seven of the seraphic services, having functioned +in well-nigh every avenue of activity open to a seraphim, and now holds the +commission of associate chief of seraphim on Urantia. + +Human beings sometimes find it hard to understand that a created capacity for +higher-level ministry does not necessarily imply ability to function on +relatively lower service levels. Man begins life as a helpless infant; hence +every mortal attainment must embrace all experiential prerequisites; seraphim +have no such preadult life--no childhood. They are, however, experiential +creatures, and by experience and through additional education they can augment +their divine and inherent endowment of ability by the experiential acquirement +of functional skill in one or more of the seraphic services. + +After being commissioned, seraphim are assigned to the reserves of their +inherent group. Those of planetary and administrator status often serve for +long periods as originally classified, but the higher the inherent function +level, the more persistently do the angelic ministers seek assignment to the +lower orders of universe service. Especially do they desire assignment to the +reserves of the planetary helpers, and if successful they enroll in the +celestial schools attached + + top of page - 427 + +to the headquarters of the Planetary Prince of some evolutionary world. Here +they begin the study of the languages, history, and local habits of the races +of mankind. Seraphim must acquire knowledge and gain experience much as do +human beings. They are not far removed from you in certain personality +attributes. And they all crave to start at the bottom, on the lowest possible +level of ministry; thus may they hope to achieve the highest possible level of +experiential destiny. + +1. SUPREME SERAPHIM + +These seraphim are the highest of the seven revealed orders of local universe +angels. They function in seven groups, each of which is closely associated with +the angelic ministers of the Seraphic Corps of Completion. + +1. Son-Spirit Ministers. The first group of the supreme seraphim are assigned +to the service of the high Sons and Spirit-origin beings resident and +functioning in the local universe. This group of angelic ministers also serve +the Universe Son and the Universe Spirit and are closely affiliated with the +intelligence corps of the Bright and Morning Star, the universe chief executive +of the united wills of the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit. + +Being of assignment to the high Sons and Spirits, these seraphim are naturally +associated with the far-flung services of the Paradise Avonals, the divine +offspring of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. The Paradise Avonals are +always attended on all magisterial and bestowal missions by this high and +experienced order of seraphim, who are at such times devoted to organizing and +administering the special work connected with the termination of one planetary +dispensation and the inauguration of a new age. But they are not concerned in +the work of adjudication which might be incidental to such a change in +dispensations. + +Bestowal Attendants. Paradise Avonals, but not Creator Sons, when on a bestowal +mission are always accompanied by a corps of 144 bestowal attendants. These 144 +angels are the chiefs of all other Son-Spirit ministers who may be associated +with a bestowal mission. There might possibly be legions of angels subject to +the command of an incarnated Son of God on a planetary bestowal, but all these +seraphim would be organized and directed by the 144 bestowal attendants. Higher +orders of angels, supernaphim and seconaphim, might also form a part of the +attending host, and though their missions are distinct from those of the +seraphim, all these activities would be co-ordinated by the bestowal +attendants. + +These bestowal attendants are completion seraphim; they have all traversed the +circles of Seraphington and have attained the Seraphic Corps of Completion. And +they have been further especially trained to meet the difficulties and to cope +with the emergencies associated with the bestowals of the Sons of God for the +advancement of the children of time. Such seraphim have all achieved Paradise +and the personal embrace of the Second Source and Center, the Eternal Son. + +Seraphim equally crave assignment to the missions of the incarnated Sons and +attachment as destiny guardians to the mortals of the realms; the latter is the +surest seraphic passport to Paradise, while the bestowal attendants have +achieved the highest local universe service of the completion seraphim of +Paradise attainment. + + top of page - 428 + +2. Court Advisers. These are the seraphic advisers and helpers attached to all +orders of adjudication, from the conciliators up to the highest tribunals of +the realm. It is not the purpose of such tribunals to determine punitive +sentences but rather to adjudicate honest differences of opinion and to decree +the everlasting survival of ascending mortals. Herein lies the duty of the +court advisers: to see that all charges against mortal creatures are stated in +justice and adjudicated in mercy. In this work they are closely associated with +the High Commissioners, Spirit-fused ascendant mortals serving in the local +universe. + +The seraphic court advisers serve extensively as defenders of mortals. Not that +there ever exists any disposition to be unfair to the lowly creatures of the +realms, but while justice demands the adjudication of every default in the +climb towards divine perfection, mercy requires that every such misstep be +fairly adjudged in accordance with the creature nature and the divine purpose. +These angels are the exponents and exemplification of the element of mercy +inherent in divine justice--of fairness based on the knowledge of the +underlying facts of personal motives and racial tendencies. + +This order of angels serves from the councils of the Planetary Princes to the +highest tribunals of the local universe, while their associates of the Seraphic +Corps of Completion function in the higher realms of Orvonton, even to the +courts of the Ancients of Days on Uversa. + +3. Universe Orientators. These are the true friends and postgraduate counselors +of all those ascending creatures who are pausing for the last time on +Salvington, in their universe of origin, as they stand on the brink of the +spirit adventure stretching out before them in the vast superuniverse of +Orvonton. And at such a time many an ascender has a feeling which mortals could +understand only by comparison with the human emotion of nostalgia. Behind lie +the realms of achievement, realms grown familiar by long service and morontia +attainment; ahead lies the challenging mystery of a greater and vaster +universe. + +It is the task of the universe orientators to facilitate the passage of the +ascending pilgrims from the attained to the unattained level of universe +service, to help these pilgrims in making those kaleidoscopic adjustments in +the comprehension of meanings and values inherent in the realization that a +first-stage spirit being stands, not at the end and climax of the local +universe morontia ascent, but rather at the very bottom of the long ladder of +spiritual ascent to the Universal Father on Paradise. + +Many of the Seraphington graduates, members of the Seraphic Corps of Completion +who are associated with these seraphim, engage in extensive teaching in certain +Salvington schools concerned with the preparation of the creatures of Nebadon +for the relationships of the next universe age. + +4. The Teaching Counselors. These angels are the invaluable assistants of the +spiritual teaching corps of the local universe. Teaching counselors are +secretaries to all orders of teachers, from the Melchizedeks and the Trinity +Teacher Sons down to the morontia mortals who are assigned as helpers to those +of their kind who are just behind them in the scale of ascendant life. You will +first see these associate teaching seraphim on some one of the seven mansion +worlds surrounding Jerusem. + +These seraphim become associates of the division chiefs of the numerous +educational and training institutions of the local universes, and they are at- + + top of page - 429 + +tached in large numbers to the faculties of the seven training worlds of the +local systems and of the seventy educational spheres of the constellations. +These ministrations extend on down to the individual worlds. Even the true and +consecrated teachers of time are assisted, and often attended, by these +counselors of the supreme seraphim. + +The fourth creature bestowal of the Creator Son was in the likeness of a +teaching counselor of the supreme seraphim of Nebadon. + +5. Directors of Assignment. A body of 144 supreme seraphim is elected from time +to time by the angels serving on the evolutionary and on the architectural +spheres of creature habitation. This is the highest angelic council on any +sphere, and it co-ordinates the self-directed phases of seraphic service and +assignment. These angels preside over all seraphic assemblies pertaining to the +line of duty or the call to worship. + +6. The Recorders. These are the official recorders for the supreme seraphim. +Many of these high angels were born with their gifts fully developed; others +have qualified for their positions of trust and responsibility by diligent +application to study and faithful performance of similar duties while attached +to lower or less responsible orders. + +7. Unattached Ministers. Large numbers of unattached seraphim of the supreme +order are self-directed servers on the architectural spheres and on the +inhabited planets. Such ministers voluntarily meet the differential of demand +for the service of the supreme seraphim, thus constituting the general reserve +of this order. + +2. SUPERIOR SERAPHIM + +Superior seraphim receive their name, not because they are in any sense +qualitatively superior to other orders of angels, but because they are in +charge of the higher activities of a local universe. Very many of the first two +groups of this seraphic corps are attainment seraphim, angels who have served +in all phases of training and have returned to a glorified assignment as +directors of their kind in the spheres of their earlier activities. Being a +young universe, Nebadon does not have many of this order. + +The superior seraphim function in the following seven groups: + +1. The Intelligence Corps. These seraphim belong to the personal staff of +Gabriel, the Bright and Morning Star. They range the local universe gathering +the information of the realms for his guidance in the councils of Nebadon. They +are the intelligence corps of the mighty hosts over which Gabriel presides as +vicegerent of the Master Son. These seraphim are not directly affiliated with +either the systems or the constellations, and their information pours in direct +to Salvington upon a continuous, direct, and independent circuit. + +The intelligence corps of the various local universes can and do +intercommunicate but only within a given superuniverse. There is a differential +of energy which effectively segregates the business and transactions of the +various supergovernments. One superuniverse can ordinarily communicate with +another superuniverse only through the provisions and facilities of the +Paradise clearinghouse. + + top of page - 430 + +2. The Voice of Mercy. Mercy is the keynote of seraphic service and angelic +ministry. It is therefore fitting that there should be a corps of angels who, +in a special manner, portray mercy. These seraphim are the real mercy ministers +of the local universes. They are the inspired leaders who foster the higher +impulses and holier emotions of men and angels. The directors of these legions +are now always completion seraphim who are also graduate guardians of mortal +destiny; that is, each angelic pair has guided at least one soul of animal +origin during the life in the flesh and has subsequently traversed the circles +of Seraphington and has been mustered into the Seraphic Corps of Completion. + +3. Spirit Co-ordinators. The third group of superior seraphim are based on +Salvington but function in the local universe anywhere they can be of fruitful +service. While their tasks are essentially spiritual and therefore beyond the +real understanding of human minds, you will perhaps grasp something of their +ministry to mortals if it is explained that these angels are intrusted with the +task of preparing the ascendant sojourners on Salvington for their last +transition in the local universe--from the highest morontia level to the status +of newborn spirit beings. As the mind planners on the mansion worlds help the +surviving creature to adjust to, and make effective use of, the potentials of +morontia mind, so do these seraphim instruct the morontia graduates on +Salvington regarding the newly attained capacities of the mind of the spirit. +And they serve the ascendant mortals in many other ways. + +4. Assistant Teachers. The assistant teachers are the helpers and associates of +their fellow seraphim, the teaching counselors. They are also individually +connected with the extensive educational enterprises of the local universe, +especially with the sevenfold scheme of training operative on the mansion +worlds of the local systems. A marvelous corps of this order of seraphim +functions on Urantia for the purpose of fostering and furthering the cause of +truth and righteousness. + +5. The Transporters. All groups of ministering spirits have their transport +corps, angelic orders dedicated to the ministry of transporting those +personalities who are unable, of themselves, to journey from one sphere to +another. The fifth group of the superior seraphim are headquartered on +Salvington and serve as space traversers to and from the headquarters of the +local universe. Like other subdivisions of the superior seraphim, some were +created as such while others have risen from the lower or less endowed groups. + +The "energy range" of seraphim is wholly adequate for local universe and even +for superuniverse requirements, but they could never withstand the energy +demands entailed by such a long journey as that from Uversa to Havona. Such an +exhaustive journey requires the special powers of a primary seconaphim of +transport endowments. Transporters take on energy for flight while in transit +and recuperate personal power at the end of the journey. + +Even on Salvington ascending mortals do not possess personal transit forms. +Ascenders must depend upon seraphic transport in advancing from world to world +until after the last rest of sleep on the inner circle of Havona and the +eternal awakening on Paradise. Subsequently you will not be dependent on angels +for transport from universe to universe. + +The process of being enseraphimed is not unlike the experience of death or +sleep except that there is an automatic time element in the transit slumber. +You + + top of page - 431 + +are consciously unconscious during seraphic rest. But the Thought Adjuster is +wholly and fully conscious, in fact, exceptionally efficient since you are +unable to oppose, resist, or otherwise hinder creative and transforming work. + +When enseraphimed, you go to sleep for a specified time, and you will awake at +the designated moment. The length of a journey when in transit sleep is +immaterial. You are not directly aware of the passing of time. It is as if you +went to sleep on a transport vehicle in one city and, after resting in peaceful +slumber all night, awakened in another and distant metropolis. You journeyed +while you slumbered. And so you take flight through space, enseraphimed, while +you rest--sleep. The transit sleep is induced by the liaison between the +Adjusters and the seraphic transporters. + +The angels cannot transport combustion bodies--flesh and blood--such as you now +have, but they can transport all others, from the lowest morontia to the higher +spirit forms. They do not function in the event of natural death. When you +finish your earthly career, your body remains on this planet. Your Thought +Adjuster proceeds to the bosom of the Father, and these angels are not directly +concerned in your subsequent personality reassembly on the identification +mansion world. There your new body is a morontia form, one that can enseraphim. +You "sow a mortal body" in the grave; you "reap a morontia form" on the mansion +worlds. + +6. The Recorders. These personalities are especially concerned with the +reception, filing, and redispatch of the records of Salvington and its +associated worlds. They also serve as special recorders for resident groups of +superuniverse and higher personalities and as clerks of the courts of +Salvington and secretaries to the rulers thereof. + +Broadcasters--receivers and dispatchers--are a specialized subdivision of the +seraphic recorders, being concerned with the dispatch of records and with the +dissemination of essential information. Their work is of a high order, being so +multicircuited that 144,000 messages can simultaneously traverse the same lines +of energy. They adapt the higher ideographic techniques of the superaphic chief +recorders and with these common symbols maintain reciprocal contact with both +the intelligence co-ordinators of the tertiary supernaphim and the glorified +intelligence co-ordinators of the Seraphic Corps of Completion. + +Seraphic recorders of the superior order thus effect a close liaison with the +intelligence corps of their own order and with all subordinate recorders, while +the broadcasts enable them to maintain constant communication with the higher +recorders of the superuniverse and, through this channel, with the recorders of +Havona and the custodians of knowledge on Paradise. Many of the superior order +of recorders are seraphim ascended from similar duties in lower sections of the +universe. + +7. The Reserves. Large reserves of all types of the superior seraphim are held +on Salvington, instantly available for dispatch to the farthermost worlds of +Nebadon as they are requisitioned by the directors of assignment or upon the +request of the universe administrators. The reserves of superior +seraphim also furnish messenger aids upon requisition by the chief of the +Brilliant Evening Stars, who is intrusted with the custody and dispatch of all +personal communications. A local universe is fully provided with adequate means +of inter- + + top of page - 432 + +communication, but there is always a residue of messages which requires +dispatch by personal messengers. + +The basic reserves for the entire local universe are held on the seraphic +worlds of Salvington. This corps includes all types of all groups of angels. + +3. SUPERVISOR SERAPHIM + +This versatile order of universe angels is assigned to the exclusive service of +the constellations. These able ministers make their headquarters on the +constellation capitals but function throughout all Nebadon in the interests of +their assigned realms. + +1. Supervising Assistants. The first order of the supervising seraphim are +assigned to the collective work of the Constellation Fathers, and they are the +ever-efficient helpers of the Most Highs. These seraphim are primarily +concerned with the unification and stabilization of a whole constellation. + +2. Law Forecasters. The intellectual foundation of justice is law, and in a +local universe law originates in the legislative assemblies of the +constellations. These deliberative bodies codify and formally promulgate the +basic laws of Nebadon, laws designed to afford the greatest possible +co-ordination of a whole constellation consistent with the fixed policy of +noninfringement of the moral free will of personal creatures. It is the duty of +the second order of supervisor seraphim to place before the constellation +lawmakers a forecast of how any proposed enactment would affect the lives of +freewill creatures. This service they are well qualified to perform by virtue +of long experience in the local systems and on the inhabited worlds. These +seraphim seek no special favors for one group or another, but they do appear +before the celestial lawmakers to speak for those who cannot be present to +speak for themselves. Even mortal man may contribute to the evolution of +universe law, for these very seraphim do faithfully and fully portray, not +necessarily man's transient and conscious desires, but rather the true longings +of the inner man, the evolving morontia soul of the material mortal on the +worlds of space. + +3. Social Architects. From the individual planets up through the morontia +training worlds, these seraphim labor to enhance all sincere social contacts +and to further the social evolution of universe creatures. These are the angels +who seek to divest the associations of intelligent beings of all artificiality +while endeavoring to facilitate the interassociation of will creatures on a +basis of real self-understanding and genuine mutual appreciation. + +Social architects do everything within their province and power to bring +together suitable individuals that they may constitute efficient and agreeable +working groups on earth; and sometimes such groups have found themselves +reassociated on the mansion worlds for continued fruitful service. But not +always do these seraphim attain their ends; not always are they able to bring +together those who would form the most ideal group to achieve a given purpose +or to accomplish a certain task; under these conditions they must utilize the +best of the material available. + +These angels continue their ministry on the mansion and higher morontia worlds. +They are concerned with any undertaking having to do with progress on the +morontia worlds and which concerns three or more persons. Two beings + + top of page - 433 + +are regarded as operating on the mating, complemental, or partnership basis, +but when three or more are grouped for service, they constitute a social +problem and therefore fall within the jurisdiction of the social architects. +These efficient seraphim are organized in seventy divisions on Edentia, and +these divisions minister on the seventy morontia progress worlds encircling the +headquarters sphere. + +4. Ethical Sensitizers. It is the mission of these seraphim to foster and to +promote the growth of creature appreciation of the morality of interpersonal +relationships, for such is the seed and secret of the continued and purposeful +growth of society and government, human or superhuman. These enhancers of +ethical appreciation function anywhere and everywhere they may be of service, +as volunteer counselors to the planetary rulers and as exchange teachers on the +system training worlds. You will not, however, come under their full guidance +until you reach the brotherhood schools on Edentia, where they will quicken +your appreciation of those very truths of fraternity which you will even then +be so earnestly exploring by the actual experience of living with the +univitatia in the social laboratories of Edentia, the seventy satellites of the +Norlatiadek capital. + +5. The Transporters. The fifth group of supervisor seraphim operate as +personality transporters, carrying beings to and from the headquarters of the +constellations. Such transport seraphim, while in flight from one sphere to +another, are fully conscious of their velocity, direction, and astronomic +whereabouts. They are not traversing space as would an inanimate projectile. +They may pass near one another during space flight without the least danger of +collision. They are fully able to vary speed of progression and to alter +direction of flight, even to change destinations if their directors should so +instruct them at any space junction of the universe intelligence circuits. + +These transit personalities are so organized that they can simultaneously +utilize all three of the universally distributed lines of energy, each having a +clear space velocity of 186,280 miles per second. These transporters are thus +able to superimpose velocity of energy upon velocity of power until they attain +an average speed on their long journeys varying anywhere from 555,000 to almost +559,000 of your miles per second of your time. The velocity is affected by the +mass and proximity of neighboring matter and by the strength and direction of +the near-by main circuits of universe power. There are numerous types of +beings, similar to the seraphim, who are able to traverse space, and who also +are able to transport other beings who have been properly prepared. + +6. The Recorders. The sixth order of supervising seraphim act as the special +recorders of constellation affairs. A large and efficient corps functions on +Edentia, the headquarters of the constellation of Norlatiadek, to which your +system and planet belong. + +7. The Reserves. General reserves of the supervisor seraphim are held on the +headquarters of the constellations. Such angelic reservists are in no sense +inactive; many serve as messenger aids to the constellation rulers; others are +attached to the Salvington reserves of unassigned Vorondadeks; still others may +be attached to Vorondadek Sons on special assignment, such as the Vorondadek +observer, and sometimes Most High regent, of Urantia. + + top of page - 434 + +4. ADMINISTRATOR SERAPHIM + +The fourth order of seraphim are assigned to the administrative duties of the +local systems. They are indigenous to the system capitals but are stationed in +large numbers on the mansion and morontia spheres and on the inhabited worlds. +Fourth-order seraphim are by nature endowed with unusual administrative +ability. They are the able assistants of the directors of the lower divisions +of the universe government of a Creator Son and are mainly occupied with the +affairs of the local systems and their component worlds. They are organized for +service as follows: + +1. Administrative Assistants. These able seraphim are the immediate assistants +of a System Sovereign, a primary Lanonandek Son. They are invaluable aids in +the execution of the intricate details of the executive work of the system +headquarters. They also serve as the personal agents of the system rulers, +journeying back and forth in large numbers to the various transition worlds and +to the inhabited planets, executing many commissions for the welfare of the +system and in the physical and biologic interests of its inhabited worlds. + +These same seraphic administrators are also attached to the governments of the +world rulers, the Planetary Princes. The majority of planets in a given +universe are under the jurisdiction of a secondary Lanonandek Son, but on +certain worlds, such as Urantia, there has been a miscarriage of the divine +plan. In the event of the defection of a Planetary Prince, these seraphim +become attached to the Melchizedek receivers and their successors in planetary +authority. The present acting ruler of Urantia is assisted by a corps of one +thousand of this versatile order of seraphim. + +2. Justice Guides. These are the angels who present the summary of evidence +concerning the eternal welfare of men and angels when such matters come up for +adjudication in the tribunals of a system or a planet. They prepare the +statements for all preliminary hearings involving mortal survival, statements +which are subsequently carried with the records of such cases to the higher +tribunals of the universe and the superuniverse. The defense of all cases of +doubtful survival is prepared by these seraphim, who have a perfect +understanding of all the details of every feature of every count in the +indictments drawn by the administrators of universe justice. + +It is not the mission of these angels to defeat or to delay justice but rather +to insure that unerring justice is dealt out with generous mercy in fairness to +all creatures. These seraphim often function on the local worlds, commonly +appearing before the referee trios of the conciliating commissions--the courts +for minor misunderstandings. Many who at one time served as justice guides in +the lower realms later appear as Voices of Mercy in the higher spheres and on +Salvington. + +In the Lucifer rebellion in Satania very few of the justice guides were lost, +but more than one quarter of the other administrator seraphim and of the lower +orders of seraphic ministers were misled and deluded by the sophistries of +unbridled personal liberty. + +3. Interpreters of Cosmic Citizenship. When ascending mortals have completed +the mansion world training, the first student apprenticeship in the uni- + + top of page - 435 + +verse career, they are permitted to enjoy the transient satisfactions of +relative maturity--citizenship on the system capital. While the attainment of +each ascendant goal is a factual achievement, in the larger sense such goals +are simply milestones on the long ascending path to Paradise. But however +relative such successes may be, no evolutionary creature is ever denied the +full though transient satisfaction of goal attainment. Ever and anon there is a +pause in the Paradise ascent, a short breathing spell, during which universe +horizons stand still, creature status is stationary, and the personality tastes +the sweetness of goal fulfillment. + +The first of such periods in the career of a mortal ascender occurs on the +capital of a local system. During this pause you will, as a citizen of +Jerusem, attempt to express in creature life those things which you have +acquired during the eight preceding life experiences--embracing Urantia and the +seven mansion worlds. + +The seraphic interpreters of cosmic citizenship guide the new citizens of the +system capitals and quicken their appreciation of the responsibilities of +universe government. These seraphim are also closely associated with the +Material Sons in the system administration, while they portray the +responsibility and morality of cosmic citizenship to the material mortals on +the inhabited worlds. + +4. Quickeners of Morality. On the mansion worlds you begin to learn +self-government for the benefit of all concerned. Your mind learns +co-operation, learns how to plan with other and wiser beings. On the system +headquarters the seraphic teachers will further quicken your appreciation of +cosmic morality--of the interactions of liberty and loyalty. + +What is loyalty? It is the fruit of an intelligent appreciation of universe +brotherhood; one could not take so much and give nothing. As you ascend the +personality scale, first you learn to be loyal, then to love, then to be +filial, and then may you be free; but not until you are a finaliter, not until +you have attained perfection of loyalty, can you self-realize finality of +liberty. + +These seraphim teach the fruitfulness of patience: That stagnation is certain +death, but that overrapid growth is equally suicidal; that as a drop of water +from a higher level falls to a lower and, flowing onward, passes ever downward +through a succession of short falls, so ever upward is progress in the morontia +and spirit worlds--and just as slowly and by just such gradual stages. + +To the inhabited worlds the quickeners of morality portray mortal life as an +unbroken chain of many links. Your short sojourn on Urantia, on this sphere of +mortal infancy, is only a single link, the very first in the long chain that is +to stretch across universes and through the eternal ages. It is not so much +what you learn in this first life; it is the experience of living this life +that is important. Even the work of this world, paramount though it is, is not +nearly so important as the way in which you do this work. There is no material +reward for righteous living, but there is profound satisfaction--consciousness +of achievement--and this transcends any conceivable material reward. + +The keys of the kingdom of heaven are: sincerity, more sincerity, and more +sincerity. All men have these keys. Men use them--advance in spirit status--by +decisions, by more decisions, and by more decisions. The highest moral choice +is the choice of the highest possible value, and always--in any sphere, in all +of them--this is to choose to do the will of God. If man thus chooses, he + + top of page - 436 + +t, though he be the humblest citizen of Jerusem or even the least of mortals on +Urantia. + +5. The Transporters. These are the transport seraphim who function in the local +systems. In Satania, your system, they carry passengers back and forth from +Jerusem and otherwise serve as interplanetary transporters. Seldom does a day +pass in which a transport seraphim of Satania does not deposit some student +visitor or some other traveler of spirit or semispirit nature on the shores of +Urantia. These very space traversers will sometime carry you to and from the +various worlds of the system headquarters group, and when you have finished the +Jerusem assignment, they will carry you forward to Edentia. But under no +circumstances will they carry you backward to the world of human origin. A +mortal never returns to his native planet during the dispensation of his +temporal existence, and if he should return during a subsequent dispensation, +he would be escorted by a transport seraphim of the universe headquarters +group. + +6. The Recorders. These seraphim are the keepers of the threefold records of +the local systems. The temple of records on a system capital is a unique +structure, one third material, constructed of luminous metals and crystals; one +third morontial, fabricated of the liaison of spiritual and material energy but +beyond the range of mortal vision; and one third spiritual. The recorders of +this order preside over and maintain this threefold system of records. +Ascending mortals will at first consult the material archives, Material Sons +and the higher transition beings consult those of the morontia halls, while +seraphim and the higher spirit personalities of the realm peruse the records of +the spirit section. + +7. The Reserves. The reserve corps of administrator seraphim on Jerusem spend +much of their waiting time in visiting, as spirit companions, with the newly +arrived ascending mortals from the various worlds of the system--the accredited +graduates of the mansion worlds. One of the delights of your sojourn on Jerusem +will be to talk and visit, during recess periods, with these much-traveled and +many-experienced seraphim of the waiting reserve corps. + +It is just such friendly relationships as these that so endear a system capital +to the ascending mortals. On Jerusem you will find the first intermingling of +Material Sons, angels, and ascending pilgrims. Here fraternize beings who are +wholly spiritual and semispiritual and individuals just emerging from material +existence. Mortal forms are there so modified and human ranges of light +reaction so extended that all are able to enjoy mutual recognition and +sympathetic personality understanding. + +5. PLANETARY HELPERS + +These seraphim maintain headquarters on the system capitals and, though closely +associated with the resident Adamic citizens, are primarily assigned to the +service of the Planetary Adams, the biologic or physical uplifters of the +material races on the evolutionary worlds. The ministering work of angels +becomes of increasing interest as it nears the inhabited worlds, as it nears +the actual problems faced by the men and women of time who are preparing +themselves for the attempt to attain the goal of eternity. + + top of page - 437 + +On Urantia the majority of the planetary helpers were removed upon the collapse +of the Adamic regime, and the seraphic supervision of your world devolved to a +greater extent upon the administrators, the transition ministers, and the +guardians of destiny. But these seraphic aids of your defaulting Material Sons +still serve Urantia in the following groups: + +1. The Voices of the Garden. When the planetary course of human evolution is +attaining its highest biologic level, there always appear the Material Sons and +Daughters, the Adams and Eves, to augment the further evolution of the races by +an actual contribution of their superior life plasm. The planetary headquarters +of such an Adam and Eve is usually denominated the Garden of Eden, and their +personal seraphim are often known as the "voices of the Garden." These seraphim +are of invaluable service to the Planetary Adams in all their projects for the +physical and intellectual upstepping of the evolutionary races. After the +Adamic default on Urantia, some of these seraphim were left on the planet and +were assigned to Adam's successors in authority. + +2. The Spirits of Brotherhood. It should be apparent that, when an Adam and Eve +arrive on an evolutionary world, the task of achieving racial harmony and +social co-operation among its diverse races is one of considerable proportions. +Seldom do these races of different colors and varied natures take kindly to the +plan of human brotherhood. These primitive men only come to realize the wisdom +of peaceful interassociation as a result of ripened human experience and +through the faithful ministry of the seraphic spirits of brotherhood. Without +the work of these seraphim the efforts of the Material Sons to harmonize and +advance the races of an evolving world would be greatly delayed. And had your +Adam adhered to the original plan for the advancement of Urantia, by this time +these spirits of brotherhood would have worked unbelievable transformations in +the human race. In view of the Adamic default, it is indeed remarkable that +these seraphic orders have been able to foster and bring to realization even as +much of brotherhood as you now have on Urantia. + +3. The Souls of Peace. The early millenniums of the upward strivings of +evolutionary men are marked by many a struggle. Peace is not the natural state +of the material realms. The worlds first realize "peace on earth and good will +among men" through the ministry of the seraphic souls of peace. Although these +angels were largely thwarted in their early efforts on Urantia, Vevona, chief +of the souls of peace in Adam's day, was left on Urantia and is now attached to +the staff of the resident governor general. And it was this same Vevona who, +when Michael was born, heralded to the worlds, as the leader of the angelic +host, "Glory to God in Havona and on earth peace and good will among men." + +In the more advanced epochs of planetary evolution these seraphim are +instrumental in supplanting the atonement idea by the concept of divine +attunement as a philosophy of mortal survival. + +4. The Spirits of Trust. Suspicion is the inherent reaction of primitive men; +the survival struggles of the early ages do not naturally breed trust. Trust is +a new human acquisition brought about by the ministry of these planetary +seraphim of the Adamic regime. It is their mission to inculcate trust into the +minds of evolving men. The Gods are very trustful; the Universal Father is +willing freely to trust himself--the Adjuster--to man's association. + + top of page - 438 + +This entire group of seraphim was transferred to the new regime after the +Adamic miscarriage, and they have ever since continued their labors on Urantia. +And they have not been wholly unsuccessful since a civilization is now evolving +which embodies much of their ideals of confidence and trust. + +In the more advanced planetary ages these seraphim enhance man's appreciation +of the truth that uncertainty is the secret of contented continuity. They help +the mortal philosophers to realize that, when ignorance is essential to +success, it would be a colossal blunder for the creature to know the future. +They heighten man's taste for the sweetness of uncertainty, for the romance and +charm of the indefinite and unknown future. + +5. The Transporters. The planetary transporters serve the individual worlds. +The majority of enseraphimed beings brought to this planet are in transit; they +merely stop over; they are in custody of their own special seraphic +transporters; but there are a large number of such seraphim stationed on +Urantia. These are the transport personalities operating from the local +planets, as from Urantia to Jerusem. + +Your conventional idea of angels has been derived in the following way: During +moments just prior to physical death a reflective phenomenon sometimes occurs +in the human mind, and this dimming consciousness seems to visualize something +of the form of the attending angel, and this is immediately translated into +terms of the habitual concept of angels held in that individual's mind. + +The erroneous idea that angels possess wings is not wholly due to olden notions +that they must have wings to fly through the air. Human beings have sometimes +been permitted to observe seraphim that were being prepared for transport +service, and the traditions of these experiences have largely determined the +Urantian concept of angels. In observing a transport seraphim being made ready +to receive a passenger for interplanetary transit, there may be seen what are +apparently double sets of wings extending from the head to the foot of the +angel. In reality these wings are energy insulators--friction shields. + +When celestial beings are to be enseraphimed for transfer from one world to +another, they are brought to the headquarters of the sphere and, after due +registry, are inducted into the transit sleep. Meantime, the transport seraphim +moves into a horizontal position immediately above the universe energy pole of +the planet. While the energy shields are wide open, the sleeping personality is +skillfully deposited, by the officiating seraphic assistants, directly on top +of the transport angel. Then both the upper and lower pairs of shields are +carefully closed and adjusted. + +And now, under the influence of the transformers and the transmitters, a +strange metamorphosis begins as the seraphim is made ready to swing into the +energy currents of the universe circuits. To outward appearance the seraphim +grows pointed at both extremities and becomes so enshrouded in a queer light of +amber hue that very soon it is impossible to distinguish the enseraphimed +personality. When all is in readiness for departure, the chief of transport +makes the proper inspection of the carriage of life, carries out the routine +tests to ascertain whether or not the angel is properly encircuited, and then +announces that the traveler is properly enseraphimed, that the energies are +adjusted, that the angel is insulated, and that everything is in readiness for +the departing flash. + + top of page - 439 + +The mechanical controllers, two of them, next take their positions. By this +time the transport seraphim has become an almost transparent, vibrating, +torpedo-shaped outline of glistening luminosity. Now the transport dispatcher +of the realm summons the auxiliary batteries of the living energy transmitters, +usually one thousand in number; as he announces the destination of the +transport, he reaches out and touches the near point of the seraphic carriage, +which shoots forward with lightninglike speed, leaving a trail of celestial +luminosity as far as the planetary atmospheric investment extends. In less than +ten minutes the marvelous spectacle will be lost even to reinforced seraphic +vision. + +While planetary space reports are received at noon at the meridian of the +designated spiritual headquarters, the transporters are dispatched from this +same place at midnight. That is the most favorable time for departure and is +the standard hour when not otherwise specified. + +6. The Recorders. These are the custodians of the major affairs of the planet +as it functions as a part of the system, and as it is related to, and concerned +in, the universe government. They function in the recording of planetary +affairs but are not concerned with matters of individual life and existence. + +7. The Reserves. The Satania reserve corps of the planetary seraphim is +maintained on Jerusem in close association with the reserves of the Material +Sons. These abundant reserves repletely provide for every phase of the manifold +activities of this seraphic order. These angels are also the personal message +bearers of the local systems. They serve transition mortals, angels, and the +Material Sons as well as others domiciled on the system headquarters. While +Urantia is, at present, outside the spiritual circuits of Satania and +Norlatiadek, you are otherwise in intimate touch with interplanetary affairs, +for these messengers from Jerusem frequently come to this world as to all the +other spheres of the system. + +6. TRANSITION MINISTERS + +As their name might suggest, seraphim of transitional ministry serve wherever +they can contribute to creature transition from the material to the spiritual +estate. These angels serve from the inhabited worlds to the system capitals, +but those in Satania at present direct their greatest efforts toward the +education of the surviving mortals on the seven mansion worlds. This ministry +is diversified in accordance with the following seven orders of assignment: + +1. Seraphic Evangels. + +2. Racial Interpreters. + +3. Mind Planners. + +4. Morontia Counselors. + +5. Technicians. + +6. Recorder-Teachers. + +7. Ministering Reserves. + +More about these seraphic ministers to transitional ascenders you will learn in +connection with the narratives dealing with the mansion worlds and the morontia +life. + + top of page - 440 + +7. SERAPHIM OF THE FUTURE + +These angels do not minister extensively except in older realms and on the more +advanced planets of Nebadon. Large numbers of them are held in reserve on the +seraphic worlds near Salvington, where they are engaged in pursuits relevant to +the sometime dawning of the age of light and life in Nebadon. These seraphim do +function in connection with the ascendant-mortal career but minister almost +exclusively to those mortals who survive by some one of the modified orders of +ascension. + +Inasmuch as these angels are not now directly concerned with either Urantia or +Urantians, it is deemed best to withhold the description of their fascinating +activities. + +8. SERAPHIC DESTINY + +Seraphim are of origin in the local universes, and in these very realms of +their nativity some achieve service destiny. With the help and counsel of the +senior archangels some seraphim may be elevated to the exalted duties of +Brilliant Evening Stars, while others attain the status and service of the +unrevealed co-ordinates of the Evening Stars. Still other adventures in local +universe destiny may be attempted, but Seraphington ever remains the eternal +goal of all angels. Seraphington is the angelic threshold to Paradise and Deity +attainment, the transition sphere from the ministry of time to the exalted +service of eternity. + +Seraphim may attain Paradise in scores--hundreds--of ways, but the most +important as elaborated in these narratives are the following: + +1. To gain admission to the Paradise seraphic abode in a personal capacity by +achieving perfection of specialized service as a celestial artisan, a Technical +Adviser, or a Celestial Recorder. To become a Paradise Companion and, having +thus attained the center of all things, perhaps then to become an eternal +minister and adviser to the seraphic orders and others. + +2. To be summoned to Seraphington. Under certain conditions seraphim are +commanded on high; in other circumstances angels sometimes achieve Paradise in +a much shorter time than mortals. But no matter how fitted any seraphic pair +may be, they cannot initiate departure for Seraphington or elsewhere. None but +successful destiny guardians can be sure of proceeding to Paradise by a +progressive path of evolutionary ascent. All others must patiently await the +arrival of the Paradise messengers of the tertiary supernaphim who come with +the summons commanding them to appear on high. + +3. To attain Paradise by the evolutionary mortal technique. The supreme choice +of seraphim in the career of time is the post of guardian angel in order that +they may attain the career of finality and be qualified for assignment to the +eternal spheres of seraphic service. Such personal guides of the children of +time are called guardians of destiny, signifying that they guard mortal +creatures in the path of divine destiny, and that in so doing they are +determining their own high destiny. + +Guardians of destiny are drawn from the ranks of the more experienced angelic +personalities of all orders of seraphim who have qualified for this ser- + + top of page - 441 + +vice. All surviving mortals of Adjuster-fusion destiny have temporary guardians +assigned, and these associates may become permanently attached when mortal +survivors attain the requisite intellectual and spiritual development. Before +mortal ascenders leave the mansion worlds, they all have permanent seraphic +associates. This group of ministering spirits is discussed in connection with +the Urantia narratives. + +It is not possible for angels to attain God from the human level of origin, for +they are created a "little higher than you"; but it has been wisely arranged +that, while they cannot possibly start up from the very bottom, the spiritual +lowlands of mortal existence, they may go down to those who do start from the +bottom and pilot such creatures, step by step, world by world, to the portals +of Havona. When mortal ascenders leave Uversa to begin the circles of Havona, +those guardians of attachment subsequent to the life in the flesh will bid +their pilgrim associates a temporary farewell while they journey to +Seraphington, the angelic destination of the grand universe. Here will these +guardians attempt, and undoubtedly achieve, the seven circles of seraphic +light. + +Many, but not all, of those seraphim assigned as destiny guardians during the +material life accompany their mortal associates through the Havona circles, and +certain other seraphim pass through the circuits of the central universe in a +way that is wholly different from the mortal ascent. But irrespective of the +route of ascent, all evolutionary seraphim traverse Seraphington, and the +majority pass through this experience instead of the Havona circuits. + +Seraphington is the destiny sphere for angels, and their attainment of this +world is quite different from the experiences of the mortal pilgrims on +Ascendington. Angels are not absolutely sure of their eternal future until they +have attained Seraphington. No angel attaining Seraphington has ever been known +to go astray; sin will never find response in the heart of a seraphim of +completion. + +The graduates of Seraphington are variously assigned: Destiny guardians of +Havona-circle experience usually enter the Mortal Finaliter Corps. Other +guardians, having passed their Havona separation tests, frequently rejoin their +mortal associates on Paradise, and some become the everlasting associates of +the mortal finaliters, while others enter the various nonmortal finaliter +corps, and many are mustered into the Corps of Seraphic Completion. + +9. THE CORPS OF SERAPHIC COMPLETION + +After attainment of the Father of spirits and admission to the seraphic service +of completion, angels are sometimes assigned to the ministry of worlds settled +in light and life. They gain attachment to the high trinitized beings of the +universes and to the exalted services of Paradise and Havona. These seraphim of +the local universes have experientially compensated the differential in +divinity potential formerly setting them apart from the ministering spirits of +the central and superuniverses. Angels of the Seraphic Corps of Completion +serve as associates of the superuniverse seconaphim and as assistants to the +high Paradise-Havona orders of supernaphim. For such angels the career of time +is finished; henceforth and forever they are the servants of God, the consorts +of divine personalities, and the peers of the Paradise finaliters. + +Large numbers of the completion seraphim return to their native universes, +there to complement the ministry of divine endowment by the ministry of ex- + + top of page - 442 + +periential perfection. Nebadon is, comparatively speaking, one of the younger +universes and therefore does not have so many of these returned Seraphington +graduates as would be found in an older realm; nonetheless our local universe +is adequately supplied with the completion seraphim, for it is significant that +the evolutionary realms disclose increasing need for their services as they +near the status of light and life. Completion seraphim now serve more +extensively with the supreme orders of seraphim, but some serve with each of +the other angelic orders. Even your world enjoys the extensive ministry of +twelve specialized groups of the Seraphic Corps of Completion; these master +seraphim of planetary supervision accompany each newly commissioned Planetary +Prince to the inhabited worlds. + +Many fascinating avenues of ministry are open to the completion seraphim, but +just as they all craved assignment as destiny guardians in the pre-Paradise +days, so in the post-Paradise experience they most desire to serve as bestowal +attendants of the incarnated Paradise Sons. They are still supremely devoted to +that universal plan of starting the mortal creatures of the evolutionary worlds +out upon the long and enticing journey towards the Paradise goal of divinity +and eternity. Throughout the whole mortal adventure of finding God and of +achieving divine perfection, these spirit ministers of seraphic completion, +together with the faithful ministering spirits of time, are always and forever +your true friends and unfailing helpers. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek acting by request of the Chief of the Seraphic +Hosts of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 443 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Ministering ³ The Ascending ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Spi... ³ S... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p040.txt b/religious documents/p040.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d590c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p040.txt @@ -0,0 +1,719 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 40 The Ascending Sons Of God + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 40 The Ascending Sons Of God + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AS IN many of the major groups of universe beings, seven general classes of the +Ascending Sons of God have been revealed: + +1. Father-fused Mortals. + +2. Son-fused Mortals. + +3. Spirit-fused Mortals. + +4. Evolutionary Seraphim. + +5. Ascending Material Sons. + +6. Translated Midwayers. + +7. Personalized Adjusters. + +The story of these beings, from the lowly animal-origin mortals of the +evolutionary worlds to the Personalized Adjusters of the Universal Father, +presents a glorious recital of the unstinted bestowal of divine love and +gracious condescension throughout all time and in all universes of the +far-flung creation of the Paradise Deities. + +These presentations began with a description of the Deities, and group by +group, the narrative has descended the universal scale of living beings until +it has reached the lowest order of life endowed with the potential of +immortality; and now am I dispatched from Salvington--onetime a mortal of +origin on an evolutionary world of space--to elaborate and continue the recital +of the eternal purpose of the Gods respecting the ascending orders of sonship, +more particularly with regard to the mortal creatures of time and space. + +Since the greater part of this narrative will be devoted to a discussion of the +three basic orders of ascending mortals, consideration will first be given to +the nonmortal ascending orders of sonship--seraphic, Adamic, midwayer, and +Adjuster. + +1. EVOLUTIONARY SERAPHIM + +Mortal creatures of animal origin are not the only beings privileged to enjoy +sonship; the angelic hosts also share the supernal opportunity to attain +Paradise. Guardian seraphim, through experience and service with the ascending +mortals of time, also achieve the status of ascendant sonship. Such angels +attain Paradise through Seraphington, and many are even mustered into the Corps +of Mortal Finality. + +To climb to the supernal heights of finaliter sonship with God is a masterly +achievement for an angel, an accomplishment far transcending your attainment of +eternal survival through the plan of the Eternal Son and the ever-present help +of the indwelling Adjuster; but the guardian seraphim, and occasionally others, +do actually effect such ascensions. + + top of page - 444 + +2. ASCENDING MATERIAL SONS + +The Material Sons of God are created in the local universe along with the +Melchizedeks and their associates, who are all classified as descending Sons. +And indeed, the Planetary Adams--the Material Sons and Daughters of the +evolutionary worlds--are descending Sons, coming down to the inhabited worlds +from their spheres of origin, the capitals of the local systems. + +When such an Adam and Eve are wholly successful in their joint planetary +mission as biologic uplifters, they share the destiny of the inhabitants of +their world. When such a world is settled in the advanced stages of light and +life, this faithful Material Son and Daughter are permitted to resign all +planetary administrative duties, and after being thus liberated from the +descending adventure, they are permitted to register themselves as perfected +Material Sons on the records of the local universe. Likewise, when planetary +assignment is long delayed, may the Material Sons of stationary status--the +citizens of the local systems--withdraw from the activities of their status +spheres and similarly register as perfected Material Sons. After these +formalities such liberated Adams and Eves are accredited as ascending Sons of +God and may immediately begin the long journey to Havona and Paradise, starting +at the exact point of their then present status and spiritual attainment. And +they make this journey in company with the mortal and other ascending Sons, +continuing until they have found God and have achieved the Corps of Mortal +Finality in the eternal service of the Paradise Deities. + +3. TRANSLATED MIDWAYERS + +Although deprived of the immediate benefits of the planetary bestowals of the +descending Sons of God, though the Paradise ascent is long deferred, +nevertheless, soon after an evolutionary planet has attained the intermediate +epochs of light and life (if not before), both groups of midway creatures are +released from planetary duty. Sometimes the majority of them are translated, +along with their human cousins, on the day of the descent of the temple of +light and the elevation of the Planetary Prince to the dignity of Planetary +Sovereign. Upon being relieved of planetary service, both orders are registered +in the local universe as ascending Sons of God and immediately begin the long +Paradise ascent by the very routes ordained for the progression of the mortal +races of the material worlds. The primary group are destined to various +finaliter corps, but the secondary or Adamic midwayers are all routed for +enrollment in the Mortal Corps of Finality. + +4. PERSONALIZED ADJUSTERS + +When the mortals of time fail to achieve the eternal survival of their souls in +planetary association with the spirit gifts of the Universal Father, such +failure is never in any way due to neglect of duty, ministry, service, or +devotion on the part of the Adjuster. At mortal death, such deserted Monitors +return to Divinington, and subsequently, following the adjudication of the +nonsurvivor, they may be reassigned to the worlds of time and space. Sometimes, +after repeated services of this sort or following some unusual experience, such +as + + top of page - 445 + +functioning as the indwelling Adjuster of an incarnated bestowal Son, these +efficient Adjusters are personalized by the Universal Father. + +Personalized Adjusters are beings of a unique and unfathomable order. +Originally of existential prepersonal status, they have experientialized by +participation in the lives and careers of the lowly mortals of the material +worlds. And since the personality bestowed upon these experienced Thought +Adjusters takes origin, and has its wellspring, in the Universal Father's +personal and continuing ministry of the bestowals of experiential personality +upon his creature creation, these Personalized Adjusters are classified as +ascending Sons of God, the highest of all such orders of sonship. + +5. MORTALS OF TIME AND SPACE + +Mortals represent the last link in the chain of those beings who are called +sons of God. The personal touch of the Original and Eternal Son passes on down +through a series of decreasingly divine and increasingly human personalizations +until there arrives a being much like yourselves, one you can see, hear, and +touch. And then you are made spiritually aware of the great truth which your +faith may grasp--sonship with the eternal God! + +Likewise does the Original and Infinite Spirit, by a long series of +decreasingly divine and increasingly human orders, draw nearer and nearer to +the struggling creatures of the realms, reaching the limit of expression in the +angels--than whom you were created but a little lower--who personally guard and +guide you in the life journey of the mortal career of time. + +God the Father does not, cannot, thus downstep himself to make such near +personal contact with the almost limitless number of ascending creatures +throughout the universe of universes. But the Father is not deprived of +personal contact with his lowly creatures; you are not without the divine +presence. Although God the Father cannot be with you by direct personality +manifestation, he is in you and of you in the identity of the indwelling +Thought Adjusters, the divine Monitors. Thus does the Father, who is the +farthest from you in personality and in spirit, draw the nearest to you in the +personality circuit and in the spirit touch of inner communion with the very +souls of his mortal sons and daughters. + +Spirit identification constitutes the secret of personal survival and +determines the destiny of spiritual ascension. And since the Thought Adjusters +are the only spirits of fusion potential to be identified with man during the +life in the flesh, the mortals of time and space are primarily classified in +accordance with their relation to these divine gifts, the indwelling Mystery +Monitors. This classification is as follows: + +1. Mortals of the transient or experiential Adjuster sojourn. + +2. Mortals of the non-Adjuster-fusion types. + +3. Mortals of Adjuster-fusion potential. + +Series one--mortals of the transient or experiential Adjuster sojourn. This +series designation is temporary for any evolving planet, being used during the +early stages of all inhabited worlds except those of the second series. + +Mortals of series one inhabit the worlds of space during the earlier epochs of +the evolution of mankind and embrace the most primitive types of human minds. + + top of page - 446 + +On many worlds like pre-Adamic Urantia great numbers of the higher and more +advanced types of primitive men acquire survival capacity but fail to attain +Adjuster fusion. For ages upon ages, before man's ascent to the level of higher +spiritual volition, the Adjusters occupy the minds of these struggling +creatures during their short lives in the flesh, and the moment such will +creatures are indwelt by Adjusters, the group guardian angels begin to +function. While these mortals of the first series do not have personal +guardians, they do have group custodians. + +An experiential Adjuster remains with a primitive human being throughout his +entire lifetime in the flesh. The Adjusters contribute much to the advancement +of primitive men but are unable to form eternal unions with such mortals. This +transient ministry of the Adjusters accomplishes two things: First, they gain +valuable and actual experience in the nature and working of the evolutionary +intellect, an experience which will be invaluable in connection with later +contacts on other worlds with beings of higher development. Second, the +transient sojourn of the Adjusters contributes much towards preparing their +mortal subjects for possible subsequent Spirit fusion. All God-seeking souls of +this type achieve eternal life through the spiritual embrace of the Mother +Spirit of the local universe, thus becoming ascending mortals of the local +universe regime. Many persons from pre-Adamic Urantia were thus advanced to the +mansion worlds of Satania. + +The Gods who ordained that mortal man should climb to higher levels of +spiritual intelligence through long ages of evolutionary trials and +tribulations, take note of his status and needs at every stage of the ascent; +and always are they divinely fair and just, even charmingly merciful, in the +final judgments of these struggling mortals of the early days of the evolving +races. + +Series two--mortals of the non-Adjuster-fusion types. These are specialized +types of human beings who are not able to effect eternal union with their +indwelling Adjusters. Type classification among the one-, two-, and +three-brained races is not a factor in Adjuster fusion; all such mortals are +akin, but these non-Adjuster-fusion types are a wholly different and markedly +modified order of will creatures. Many of the nonbreathers belong to this +series, and there are numerous other groups who do not ordinarily fuse with +Adjusters. + +Like series number one, each member of this group enjoys the ministry of a +single Adjuster during lifetime in the flesh. During temporal life these +Adjusters do everything for their subjects of temporary indwelling that is done +on other worlds where the mortals are of fusion potential. The mortals of this +second series are often indwelt by virgin Adjusters, but the higher human types +are often in liaison with masterful and experienced Monitors. + +In the ascendant plan for upstepping the animal-origin creatures, these beings +enjoy the same devoted service of the Sons of God as is extended to the Urantia +type of mortals. Seraphic co-operation with Adjusters on the nonfusion planets +is just as fully provided as on the worlds of fusion potential; the guardians +of destiny minister on such spheres just as on Urantia and similarly function +at the time of mortal survival, at which time the surviving soul becomes Spirit +fused. + +When you encounter these modified mortal types on the mansion worlds, you will +find no difficulty in communicating with them. There they speak the same system +language but by a modified technique. These beings are identical with + + top of page - 447 + +your order of creature life in spirit and personality manifestations, differing +only in certain physical features and in the fact that they are nonfusible with +Thought Adjusters. + +As to just why this type of creature is never able to fuse with the Adjusters +of the Universal Father, I am unable to say. Some of us incline to the belief +that the Life Carriers, in their efforts to formulate beings capable of +maintaining existence in an unusual planetary environment, are confronted with +the necessity of making such radical modifications in the universe plan of +intelligent will creatures that it becomes inherently impossible to bring about +permanent union with the Adjusters. Often have we asked: Is this an intended or +an unintended part of the ascension plan? but we have not found the answer. + +Series three--mortals of Adjuster-fusion potential. All Father-fused mortals +are of animal origin, just like the Urantia races. They embrace mortals of the +one-brained, two-brained, and three-brained types of Adjuster-fusion potential. +Urantians are of the intermediate or two-brained type, being in many ways +humanly superior to the one-brained groups but definitely limited in comparison +with the three-brained orders. These three types of physical-brain endowment +are not factors in Adjuster bestowal, in seraphic service, or in any other +phase of spirit ministry. The intellectual and spiritual differential between +the three brain types characterizes individuals who are otherwise quite alike +in mind endowment and spiritual potential, being greatest in the temporal life +and tending to diminish as the mansion worlds are traversed one by one. From +the system headquarters on, the progression of these three types is the same, +and their eventual Paradise destiny is identical. + +The unnumbered series. These narratives cannot possibly embrace all of the +fascinating variations in the evolutionary worlds. You know that every tenth +world is a decimal or experimental planet, but you know nothing of the other +variables that punctuate the processional of the evolutionary spheres. There +are differences too numerous to narrate even between the revealed orders of +living creatures as between planets of the same group, but this presentation +makes clear the essential differences in relation to the ascension career. And +the ascension career is the most important factor in any consideration of the +mortals of time and space. + +As to the chances of mortal survival, let it be made forever clear: All souls +of every possible phase of mortal existence will survive provided they manifest +willingness to co-operate with their indwelling Adjusters and exhibit a desire +to find God and to attain divine perfection, even though these desires be but +the first faint flickers of the primitive comprehension of that "true light +which lights every man who comes into the world." + +6. THE FAITH SONS OF GOD + +The mortal races stand as the representatives of the lowest order of +intelligent and personal creation. You mortals are divinely beloved, and every +one of you may choose to accept the certain destiny of a glorious experience, +but you are not yet by nature of the divine order; you are wholly mortal. You +will be reckoned as ascending sons the instant fusion takes place, but the +status of the mortals of time and space is that of faith sons prior to the +event of the final + + top of page - 448 + +amalgamation of the surviving mortal soul with some type of eternal and +immortal spirit. + +It is a solemn and supernal fact that such lowly and material creatures as +Urantia human beings are the sons of God, faith children of the Highest. +"Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be +called the sons of God." "As many as received him, to them gave he the power to +recognize that they are the sons of God." While "it does not yet appear what +you shall be," even now "you are the faith sons of God"; "for you have not +received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit +of sonship, whereby you cry, `our Father.'" Spoke the prophet of old in the +name of the eternal God: "Even to them will I give in my house a place and a +name better than sons; I will give them an everlasting name, one that shall not +be cut off." "And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his +Son into your hearts." + +All evolutionary worlds of mortal habitation harbor these faith sons of God, +sons of grace and mercy, mortal beings belonging to the divine family and +accordingly called the sons of God. Urantia mortals are entitled to regard +themselves as being the sons of God because: + +1. You are sons of spiritual promise, faith sons; you have accepted the status +of sonship. You believe in the reality of your sonship, and thus does your +sonship with God become eternally real. + +2. A Creator Son of God became one of you; he is your elder brother in fact; +and if in spirit you become truly related brothers of Christ, the victorious +Michael, then in spirit must you also be sons of that Father which you have in +common--even the Universal Father of all. + +3. You are sons because the spirit of a Son has been poured out upon you, has +been freely and certainly bestowed upon all Urantia races. This spirit ever +draws you toward the divine Son, who is its source, and toward the Paradise +Father, who is the source of that divine Son. + +4. Of his divine free-willness, the Universal Father has given you your +creature personalities. You have been endowed with a measure of that divine +spontaneity of freewill action which God shares with all who may become his +sons. + +5. There dwells within you a fragment of the Universal Father, and you are thus +directly related to the divine Father of all the Sons of God. + +7. FATHER-FUSED MORTALS + +The sending of Adjusters, their indwelling, is indeed one of the unfathomable +mysteries of God the Father. These fragments of the divine nature of the +Universal Father carry with them the potential of creature immortality. +Adjusters are immortal spirits, and union with them confers eternal life upon +the soul of the fused mortal. + +Your own races of surviving mortals belong to this group of the ascending Sons +of God. You are now planetary sons, evolutionary creatures derived from the +Life Carrier implantations and modified by the Adamic-life infusion, hardly yet +ascending sons; but you are indeed sons of ascension potential--even to the +highest heights of glory and divinity attainment--and this spiritual status of +ascending sonship you may attain by faith and by freewill co-operation with the + + top of page - 449 + +spiritualizing activities of the indwelling Adjuster. When you and your +Adjuster are finally and forever fused, when you two are made one, even as in +Christ Michael the Son of God and the Son of Man are one, then in fact have you +become the ascending sons of God. + +The details of the Adjuster career of indwelling ministry on a probationary and +evolutionary planet are not a part of my assignment; the elaboration of this +great truth embraces your whole career. I include the mention of certain +Adjuster functions in order to make a replete statement regarding +Adjuster-fused mortals. These indwelling fragments of God are with your order +of being from the early days of physical existence through all of the ascending +career in Nebadon and Orvonton and on through Havona to Paradise itself. +Thereafter, in the eternal adventure, this same Adjuster is one with you and of +you. + +These are the mortals who have been commanded by the Universal Father, "Be you +perfect, even as I am perfect." The Father has bestowed himself upon you, +placed his own spirit within you; therefore does he demand ultimate perfection +of you. The narrative of human ascent from the mortal spheres of time to the +divine realms of eternity constitutes an intriguing recital not included in my +assignment, but this supernal adventure should be the supreme study of mortal +man. + +Fusion with a fragment of the Universal Father is equivalent to a divine +validation of eventual Paradise attainment, and such Adjuster-fused mortals are +the only class of human beings who all traverse the Havona circuits and find +God on Paradise. To the Adjuster-fused mortal the career of universal service +is wide open. What dignity of destiny and glory of attainment await every one +of you! Do you fully appreciate what has been done for you? Do you comprehend +the grandeur of the heights of eternal achievement which are spread out before +you?--even you who now trudge on in the lowly path of life through your +so-called "vale of tears"? + +8. SON-FUSED MORTALS + +While practically all surviving mortals are fused with their Adjusters on one +of the mansion worlds or immediately upon their arrival on the higher morontia +spheres, there are certain cases of delayed fusion, some not experiencing this +final surety of survival until they reach the last educational worlds of the +universe headquarters; and a few of these mortal candidates for never-ending +life utterly fail to attain identity fusion with their faithful Adjusters. + +Such mortals have been deemed worthy of survival by the adjudicational +authorities, and even their Adjusters, by returning from Divinington, have +concurred in their ascension to the mansion worlds. Such beings have ascended +through a system, a constellation, and through the educational worlds of the +Salvington circuit; they have enjoyed the "seventy times seven" opportunities +for fusion and still have been unable to attain oneness with their Adjusters. + +When it becomes apparent that some synchronizing difficulty is inhibiting +Father fusion, the survival referees of the Creator Son are convened. And when +this court of inquiry, sanctioned by a personal representative of the Ancients +of Days, finally determines that the ascending mortal is not guilty of any +discoverable cause for failure to attain fusion, they so certify on the records +of the local universe and duly transmit this finding to the Ancients of Days. +Thereupon does the indwelling Adjuster return forthwith to Divinington for con- + + top of page - 450 + +firmation by the Personalized Monitors, and upon this leave-taking the morontia +mortal is immediately fused with an individualized gift of the spirit of the +Creator Son. + +Much as the morontia spheres of Nebadon are shared with the Spirit-fused +mortals, so do these Son-fused creatures share the services of Orvonton with +their Adjuster-fused brethren who are journeying inward towards the far-distant +Isle of Paradise. They are truly your brethren, and you will greatly enjoy +their association as you pass through the training worlds of the superuniverse. + +Son-fused mortals are not a numerous group, there being less than one million +of them in the superuniverse of Orvonton. Aside from residential destiny on +Paradise they are in every way the equals of their Adjuster-fused associates. +They frequently journey to Paradise on superuniverse assignment but seldom +permanently reside there, being, as a class, confined to the superuniverse of +their nativity. + +9. SPIRIT-FUSED MORTALS + +Ascending Spirit-fused mortals are not Third Source personalities; they are +included in the Father's personality circuit, but they have fused with +individualizations of the premind spirit of the Third Source and Center. Such +Spirit fusion never occurs during the span of natural life; it takes place only +at the time of mortal reawakening in the morontia existence on the mansion +worlds. In the fusion experience there is no overlapping; the will creature is +either Spirit fused, Son fused, or Father fused. Those who are Adjuster or +Father fused are never Spirit or Son fused. + +The fact that these types of mortal creatures are not Adjuster-fusion +candidates does not prevent the Adjusters from indwelling them during the life +in the flesh. Adjusters do work in the minds of such beings during the span of +material life but never become everlastingly one with their pupil souls. During +this temporary sojourn the Adjusters effectively build up the same spirit +counterpart of mortal nature--the soul--that they do in the candidates for +Adjuster fusion. Up to the time of mortal death the work of the Adjusters is +wholly akin to their function in your own races, but upon mortal dissolution +the Adjusters take eternal leave of these Spirit-fusion candidates and, +proceeding directly to Divinington, the headquarters of all divine Monitors, +there await the new assignments of their order. + +When such sleeping survivors are repersonalized on the mansion worlds, the +place of the departed Adjuster is filled by an individualization of the spirit +of the Divine Minister, the representative of the Infinite Spirit in the local +universe concerned. This spirit infusion constitutes these surviving creatures +Spirit-fused mortals. Such beings are in every way your equals in mind and +spirit; and they are indeed your contemporaries, sharing the mansion and +morontia spheres in common with your order of fusion candidates and with those +who are to be Son fused. + +There is, however, one particular in which Spirit-fused mortals differ from +their ascendant brethren: Mortal memory of human experience on the material +worlds of origin survives death in the flesh because the indwelling Adjuster +has + + top of page - 451 + +acquired a spirit counterpart, or transcript, of those events of human life +which were of spiritual significance. But with Spirit-fused mortals there +exists no such mechanism whereby human memory may persist. The Adjuster +transcripts of memory are full and intact, but these acquisitions are +experiential possessions of the departed Adjusters and are not available to the +creatures of their former indwelling, who therefore awaken in the resurrection +halls of the morontia spheres of Nebadon as if they were newly created beings, +creatures without consciousness of former existence. + +Such children of the local universe are enabled to repossess themselves of much +of their former human memory experience through having it retold by the +associated seraphim and cherubim and by consulting the records of the mortal +career filed by the recording angels. This they can do with undoubted assurance +because the surviving soul, of experiential origin in the material and mortal +life, while having no memory of mortal events, does have a residual +experiential-recognition-response to these unremembered events of past +experience. + +When a Spirit-fused mortal is told about the events of the unremembered past +experience, there is an immediate response of experiential recognition within +the soul (identity) of such a survivor which instantly invests the narrated +event with the emotional tinge of reality and with the intellectual quality of +fact; and this dual response constitutes the reconstruction, recognition, and +validation of an unremembered facet of mortal experience. + +Even with Adjuster-fusion candidates, only those human experiences which were +of spiritual value are common possessions of the surviving mortal and the +returning Adjuster and hence are immediately remembered subsequent to mortal +survival. Concerning those happenings which were not of spiritual significance, +even these Adjuster-fusers must depend upon the attribute of +recognition-response in the surviving soul. And since any one event may have a +spiritual connotation to one mortal but not to another, it becomes possible for +a group of contemporary ascenders from the same planet to pool their store of +Adjuster-remembered events and thus to reconstruct any experience which they +had in common, and which was of spiritual value in the life of any one of them. + +While we understand such techniques of memory reconstruction fairly well, we do +not grasp the technique of personality recognition. Personalities of onetime +association mutually respond quite independently of the operation of memory, +albeit, memory itself and the techniques of its reconstruction are necessary to +invest such mutual personality response with the fullness of recognition. + +A Spirit-fused survivor is also able to learn much about the life he lived in +the flesh by revisiting his nativity world subsequent to the planetary +dispensation in which he lived. Such children of Spirit fusion are enabled to +enjoy these opportunities for investigating their human careers since they are +in general confined to the service of the local universe. They do not share +your high and exalted destiny in the Paradise Corps of the Finality; only +Adjuster-fused mortals or other especially embraced ascendant beings are +mustered into the ranks of those who await the eternal Deity adventure. +Spirit-fused mortals are the permanent citizens of the local universes; they +may aspire to Paradise destiny, but they cannot be sure of it. In Nebadon their +universe home is the eighth group of worlds encircling Salvington, a +destiny-heaven of nature and location much like the one envisioned by the +planetary traditions of Urantia. + + top of page - 452 + +10. ASCENDANT DESTINIES + +Spirit-fused mortals are, generally speaking, confined to a local universe; +Son-fused survivors are restricted to a superuniverse; Adjuster-fused mortals +are destined to penetrate the universe of universes. The spirits of mortal +fusion always ascend to the level of origin; such spirit entities unfailingly +return to the sphere of primal source. + +Spirit-fused mortals are of the local universe; they do not, ordinarily, ascend +beyond the confines of their native realm, beyond the boundaries of the space +range of the spirit that pervades them. Son-fused ascenders likewise rise to +the source of spirit endowment, for much as the Truth Spirit of a Creator Son +focalizes in the associated Divine Minister, so is his "fusion spirit" +implemented in the Reflective Spirits of the higher universes. Such spirit +relationship between the local and the superuniverse levels of God the +Sevenfold may be difficult of explanation but not of discernment, being +unmistakably revealed in those children of the Reflective Spirits--the +secoraphic Voices of the Creator Sons. The Thought Adjuster, hailing from the +Father on Paradise, never stops until the mortal son stands face to face with +the eternal God. + +The mysterious variable in associative technique whereby a mortal being does +not or cannot become eternally fused with the indwelling Thought Adjuster may +seem to disclose a flaw in the ascension scheme; Son and Spirit fusion do, +superficially, resemble compensations of unexplained failures in some detail of +the Paradise-attainment plan; but all such conclusions stand in error; we are +taught that all these happenings unfold in obedience to the established laws of +the Supreme Universe Rulers. + +We have analyzed this problem and have reached the undoubted conclusion that +the consignment of all mortals to an ultimate Paradise destiny would be unfair +to the time-space universes inasmuch as the courts of the Creator Sons and of +the Ancients of Days would then be wholly dependent on the services of those +who were in transit to higher realms. And it does seem to be no more than +fitting that the local and the superuniverse governments should each be +provided with a permanent group of ascendant citizenship; that the functions of +these administrations should be enriched by the efforts of certain groups of +glorified mortals who are of permanent status, evolutionary complements of the +abandonters and of the susatia. Now it is quite obvious that the present +ascension scheme effectively provides the time-space administrations with just +such groups of ascendant creatures; and we have many times wondered: Does all +this represent an intended part of the all-wise plans of the Architects of the +Master Universe designed to provide the Creator Sons and the Ancients of Days +with a permanent ascendant population? with evolved orders of citizenship that +will become increasingly competent to carry forward the affairs of these realms +in the universe ages to come? + +That mortal destinies do thus vary in no wise proves that one is necessarily +greater or lesser than another, merely that they differ. Adjuster-fused +ascenders do indeed have a grand and glorious career as finaliters spread out +before them in the eternal future, but this does not mean that they are +preferred above their ascendant brethren. There is no favoritism, nothing +arbitrary, in the selective operation of the divine plan of mortal survival. + + top of page - 453 + +While the Adjuster-fused finaliters obviously enjoy the widest service +opportunity of all, the attainment of this goal automatically shuts them off +from the chance to participate in the agelong struggle of some one universe or +superuniverse, from the earlier and less settled epochs to the later and +established eras of relative perfection attainment. Finaliters acquire a +marvelous and far-flung experience of transient service in all seven segments +of the grand universe, but they do not ordinarily acquire that intimate +knowledge of any one universe which even now characterizes the Spirit-fused +veterans of the Nebadon Corps of Completion. These individuals enjoy an +opportunity to witness the ascending processional of the planetary ages as they +unfold one by one on ten million inhabited worlds. And in the faithful service +of such local universe citizens, experience superimposes upon experience until +the fullness of time ripens that high quality of wisdom which is engendered by +focalized experience--authoritative wisdom--and this in itself is a vital +factor in the settling of any local universe. + +As it is with the Spirit fusers, so is it with those Son-fused mortals who have +achieved residential status on Uversa. Some of these beings hail from the +earliest epochs of Orvonton, and they represent a slowly accumulating body of +insight-deepening wisdom which is making ever-augmenting service contributions +to the welfare and eventual settlement of the seventh superuniverse. + +What the ultimate destiny of these stationary orders of local and of +superuniverse citizenship will be we do not know, but it is quite possible +that, when the Paradise finaliters are pioneering the expanding frontiers of +divinity in the planetary systems of the first outer space level, their Son- +and Spirit-fused brethren of the ascendant evolutionary struggle will be +acceptably contributing to the maintenance of the experiential equilibrium of +the perfected superuniverses while they stand ready to welcome the incoming +stream of Paradise pilgrims who may, at that distant day, pour in through +Orvonton and its sister creations as a vast spirit-questing torrent from these +now uncharted and uninhabited galaxies of outer space. + +While the majority of Spirit fusers serve permanently as citizens of the local +universes, all do not. If some phase of their universe ministry should require +their personal presence in the superuniverse, then would such transformations +of being be wrought in these citizens as would enable them to ascend to the +higher universe; and upon the arrival of the Celestial Guardians with orders to +present such Spirit-fused mortals at the courts of the Ancients of Days, they +would so ascend, never to return. They become wards of the superuniverse, +serving as assistants to the Celestial Guardians and permanently, save for +those few who are in turn summoned to the service of Paradise and Havona. + +Like their Spirit-fused brethren, the Son fusers neither traverse Havona nor +attain Paradise unless they have undergone certain modifying transformations. +For good and sufficient reasons, such changes have been wrought in certain +Son-fused survivors, and these beings are to be encountered ever and anon on +the seven circuits of the central universe. Thus it is that certain numbers of +both the Son- and the Spirit-fused mortals do actually ascend to Paradise, do +attain a goal in many ways equal to that which awaits the Father-fused mortals. + +Father-fused mortals are potential finaliters; their destination is the +Universal Father, and him they do attain, but within the purview of the present +uni- + + top of page - 454 + +verse age, finaliters, as such, are not destiny attainers. They remain +unfinished creatures--sixth-stage spirits--and hence nonactive in the +evolutionary domains of prelight-and-life status. + +When a mortal finaliter is Trinity embraced--becomes a Trinitized Son, such as +a Mighty Messenger--then has that finaliter attained destiny, at least for the +present universe age. Mighty Messengers and their fellows may not in the exact +sense be seventh-stage spirits, but in addition to other things the Trinity +embrace endows them with everything which a finaliter will sometime achieve as +a seventh-stage spirit. After Spirit-fused or Son-fused mortals are trinitized, +they pass through the Paradise experience with the Adjuster-fused ascenders, +with whom they are then identical in all matters pertaining to superuniverse +administration. These Trinitized Sons of Selection or of Attainment at least +for now are finished creatures, in contrast to the finaliters, who are at +present unfinished creatures. + +Thus, in the final analysis, it would be hardly proper to use the words +"greater" or "lesser" in contrasting the destinies of the ascending orders of +sonship. Every such son of God shares the fatherhood of God, and God loves each +of his creature sons alike; he is no more a respecter of ascendant destinies +than is he of the creatures who may attain such destinies. The Father loves +each of his sons, and that affection is not less than true, holy, divine, +unlimited, eternal, and unique--a love bestowed upon this son and upon that +son, individually, personally, and exclusively. And such a love utterly +eclipses all other facts. Sonship is the supreme relationship of the creature +to the Creator. + +As mortals you can now recognize your place in the family of divine sonship and +begin to sense the obligation to avail yourselves of the advantages so freely +provided in and by the Paradise plan for mortal survival, which plan has been +so enhanced and illuminated by the life experience of a bestowal Son. Every +facility and all power have been provided for insuring your ultimate attainment +of the Paradise goal of divine perfection. + +[Presented by a Mighty Messenger temporarily attached to the staff of Gabriel +of Salvington.] + + top of page - 455 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Seraphic ³ Physical ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Ho... ³ Aspect... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p041.txt b/religious documents/p041.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..57cf532 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p041.txt @@ -0,0 +1,724 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 41 Physical Aspects Of The Local Universe + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 41 Physical Aspects Of The Local Universe + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE characteristic space phenomenon which sets off each local creation from all +others is the presence of the Creative Spirit. All Nebadon is certainly +pervaded by the space presence of the Divine Minister of Salvington, and such +presence just as certainly terminates at the outer borders of our local +universe. That which is pervaded by our local universe Mother Spirit is +Nebadon; that which extends beyond her space presence is outside Nebadon, being +the extra-Nebadon space regions of the superuniverse of Orvonton--other local +universes. + +While the administrative organization of the grand universe discloses a +clear-cut division between the governments of the central, super-, and local +universes, and while these divisions are astronomically paralleled in the space +separation of Havona and the seven superuniverses, no such clear lines of +physical demarcation set off the local creations. Even the major and minor +sectors of Orvonton are (to us) clearly distinguishable, but it is not so easy +to identify the physical boundaries of the local universes. This is because +these local creations are administratively organized in accordance with certain +creative principles governing the segmentation of the total energy charge of a +superuniverse, whereas their physical components, the spheres of space--suns, +dark islands, planets, etc.--take origin primarily from nebulae, and these make +their astronomical appearance in accordance with certain precreative +(transcendental) plans of the Architects of the Master Universe. + +One or more--even many--such nebulae may be encompassed within the domain of a +single local universe even as Nebadon was physically assembled out of the +stellar and planetary progeny of Andronover and other nebulae. The spheres of +Nebadon are of diverse nebular ancestry, but they all had a certain minimum +commonness of space motion which was so adjusted by the intelligent efforts of +the power directors as to produce our present aggregation of space bodies, +which travel along together as a contiguous unit over the orbits of the +superuniverse. + +Such is the constitution of the local star cloud of Nebadon, which today swings +in an increasingly settled orbit about the Sagittarius center of that minor +sector of Orvonton to which our local creation belongs. + +1. THE NEBADON POWER CENTERS + +The spiral and other nebulae, the mother wheels of the spheres of space, are +initiated by Paradise force organizers; and following nebular evolution of +gravity response, they are superseded in superuniverse function by the power + + top of page - 456 + +centers and physical controllers, who thereupon assume full responsibility for +directing the physical evolution of the ensuing generations of stellar and +planetary offspring. This physical supervision of the Nebadon preuniverse was, +upon the arrival of our Creator Son, immediately co-ordinated with his plan for +universe organization. Within the domain of this Paradise Son of God the +Supreme Power Centers and the Master Physical Controllers collaborated with the +later appearing Morontia Power Supervisors and others to produce that vast +complex of communication lines, energy circuits, and power lanes which firmly +bind the manifold space bodies of Nebadon into one integrated administrative +unit. + +One hundred Supreme Power Centers of the fourth order are permanently assigned +to our local universe. These beings receive the incoming lines of power from +the third-order centers of Uversa and relay the down-stepped and modified +circuits to the power centers of our constellations and systems. These power +centers, in association, function to produce the living system of control and +equalization which operates to maintain the balance and distribution of +otherwise fluctuating and variable energies. Power centers are not, however, +concerned with transient and local energy upheavals, such as sun spots and +system electric disturbances; light and electricity are not the basic energies +of space; they are secondary and subsidiary manifestations. + +The one hundred local universe centers are stationed on Salvington, where they +function at the exact energy center of that sphere. Architectural spheres, such +as Salvington, Edentia, and Jerusem, are lighted, heated, and energized by +methods which make them quite independent of the suns of space. These spheres +were constructed--made to order--by the power centers and physical controllers +and were designed to exert a powerful influence over energy distribution. +Basing their activities on such focal points of energy control, the power +centers, by their living presences, directionize and channelize the physical +energies of space. And these energy circuits are basic to all physical-material +and morontia-spiritual phenomena. + +Ten Supreme Power Centers of the fifth order are assigned to each of Nebadon's +primary subdivisions, the one hundred constellations. In Norlatiadek, your +constellation, they are not stationed on the headquarters sphere but are +situated at the center of the enormous stellar system which constitutes the +physical core of the constellation. On Edentia there are ten associated +mechanical controllers and ten frandalanks who are in perfect and constant +liaison with the near-by power centers. + +One Supreme Power Center of the sixth order is stationed at the exact gravity +focus of each local system. In the system of Satania the assigned power center +occupies a dark island of space located at the astronomic center of the system. +Many of these dark islands are vast dynamos which mobilize and directionize +certain space-energies, and these natural circumstances are effectively +utilized by the Satania Power Center, whose living mass functions as a liaison +with the higher centers, directing the streams of more materialized power to +the Master Physical Controllers on the evolutionary planets of space. + +2. THE SATANIA PHYSICAL CONTROLLERS + +While the Master Physical Controllers serve with the power centers throughout +the grand universe, their functions in a local system, such as Satania, are +more easy of comprehension. Satania is one of one hundred local systems which + + top of page - 457 + +make up the administrative organization of the constellation of Norlatiadek, +having as immediate neighbors the systems of Sandmatia, Assuntia, Porogia, +Sortoria, Rantulia, and Glantonia. The Norlatiadek systems differ in many +respects, but all are evolutionary and progressive, very much like Satania. + +Satania itself is composed of over seven thousand astronomical groups, or +physical systems, few of which had an origin similar to that of your solar +system. The astronomic center of Satania is an enormous dark island of space +which, with its attendant spheres, is situated not far from the headquarters of +the system government. + +Except for the presence of the assigned power center, the supervision of the +entire physical-energy system of Satania is centered on Jerusem. A Master +Physical Controller, stationed on this headquarters sphere, works in +co-ordination with the system power center, serving as liaison chief of the +power inspectors headquartered on Jerusem and functioning throughout the local +system. + +The circuitizing and channelizing of energy is supervised by the five hundred +thousand living and intelligent energy manipulators scattered throughout +Satania. Through the action of such physical controllers the supervising power +centers are in complete and perfect control of a majority of the basic energies +of space, including the emanations of highly heated orbs and the dark +energy-charged spheres. This group of living entities can mobilize, transform, +transmute, manipulate, and transmit nearly all of the physical energies of +organized space. + +Life has inherent capacity for the mobilization and transmutation of universal +energy. You are familiar with the action of vegetable life in transforming the +material energy of light into the varied manifestations of the vegetable +kingdom. You also know something of the method whereby this vegetative energy +can be converted into the phenomena of animal activities, but you know +practically nothing of the technique of the power directors and the physical +controllers, who are endowed with ability to mobilize, transform, directionize, +and concentrate the manifold energies of space. + +These beings of the energy realms do not directly concern themselves with +energy as a component factor of living creatures, not even with the domain of +physiological chemistry. They are sometimes concerned with the physical +preliminaries of life, with the elaboration of those energy systems which may +serve as the physical vehicles for the living energies of elementary material +organisms. In a way the physical controllers are related to the preliving +manifestations of material energy as the adjutant mind-spirits are concerned +with the prespiritual functions of material mind. + +These intelligent creatures of power control and energy direction must adjust +their technique on each sphere in accordance with the physical constitution and +architecture of that planet. They unfailingly utilize the calculations and +deductions of their respective staffs of physicists and other technical +advisers regarding the local influence of highly heated suns and other types of +supercharged stars. Even the enormous cold and dark giants of space and the +swarming clouds of star dust must be reckoned with; all of these material +things are concerned in the practical problems of energy manipulation. + +The power-energy supervision of the evolutionary inhabited worlds is the +responsibility of the Master Physical Controllers, but these beings are not re- + + top of page - 458 + +sponsible for all energy misbehavior on Urantia. There are a number of reasons +for such disturbances, some of which are beyond the domain and control of the +physical custodians. Urantia is in the lines of tremendous energies, a small +planet in the circuit of enormous masses, and the local controllers sometimes +employ enormous numbers of their order in an effort to equalize these lines of +energy. They do fairly well with regard to the physical circuits of Satania but +have trouble insulating against the powerful Norlatiadek currents. + +3. OUR STARRY ASSOCIATES + +There are upward of two thousand brilliant suns pouring forth light and energy +in Satania, and your own sun is an average blazing orb. Of the thirty suns +nearest yours, only three are brighter. The Universe Power Directors initiate +the specialized currents of energy which play between the individual stars and +their respective systems. These solar furnaces, together with the dark giants +of space, serve the power centers and physical controllers as way stations for +the effective concentrating and directionizing of the energy circuits of the +material creations. + +The suns of Nebadon are not unlike those of other universes. The material +composition of all suns, dark islands, planets, and satellites, even meteors, +is quite identical. These suns have an average diameter of about one million +miles, that of your own solar orb being slightly less. The largest star in the +universe, the stellar cloud Antares, is four hundred and fifty times the +diameter of your sun and is sixty million times its volume. But there is +abundant space to accommodate all of these enormous suns. They have just as +much comparative elbow room in space as one dozen oranges would have if they +were circulating about throughout the interior of Urantia, and were the planet +a hollow globe. + +When suns that are too large are thrown off a nebular mother wheel, they soon +break up or form double stars. All suns are originally truly gaseous, though +they may later transiently exist in a semiliquid state. When your sun attained +this quasi-liquid state of supergas pressure, it was not sufficiently large to +split equatorially, this being one type of double star formation. + +When less than one tenth the size of your sun, these fiery spheres rapidly +contract, condense, and cool. When upwards of thirty times its size--rather +thirty times the gross content of actual material--suns readily split into two +separate bodies, either becoming the centers of new systems or else remaining +in each other's gravity grasp and revolving about a common center as one type +of double star. + +The most recent of the major cosmic eruptions in Orvonton was the extraordinary +double star explosion, the light of which reached Urantia in A.D. 1572. This +conflagration was so intense that the explosion was clearly visible in broad +daylight. + +Not all stars are solid, but many of the older ones are. Some of the reddish, +faintly glimmering stars have acquired a density at the center of their +enormous masses which would be expressed by saying that one cubic inch of such +a star, if on Urantia, would weigh six thousand pounds. The enormous pressure, +accompanied by loss of heat and circulating energy, has resulted in bringing +the orbits of the basic material units closer and closer together until they +now closely approach the status of electronic condensation. This process of +cooling and con- + + top of page - 459 + +traction may continue to the limiting and critical explosion point of +ultimatonic condensation. + +Most of the giant suns are relatively young; most of the dwarf stars are old, +but not all. The collisional dwarfs may be very young and may glow with an +intense white light, never having known an initial red stage of youthful +shining. Both very young and very old suns usually shine with a reddish glow. +The yellow tinge indicates moderate youth or approaching old age, but the +brilliant white light signifies robust and extended adult life. + +While all adolescent suns do not pass through a pulsating stage, at least not +visibly, when looking out into space you may observe many of these younger +stars whose gigantic respiratory heaves require from two to seven days to +complete a cycle. Your own sun still carries a diminishing legacy of the mighty +upswellings of its younger days, but the period has lengthened from the former +three and one-half day pulsations to the present eleven and one-half year +sunspot cycles. + +Stellar variables have numerous origins. In some double stars the tides caused +by rapidly changing distances as the two bodies swing around their orbits also +occasion periodic fluctuations of light. These gravity variations produce +regular and recurrent flares, just as the capture of meteors by the accretion +of energy-material at the surface would result in a comparatively sudden flash +of light which would speedily recede to normal brightness for that sun. +Sometimes a sun will capture a stream of meteors in a line of lessened gravity +opposition, and occasionally collisions cause stellar flare-ups, but the +majority of such phenomena are wholly due to internal fluctuations. + +In one group of variable stars the period of light fluctuation is directly +dependent on luminosity, and knowledge of this fact enables astronomers to +utilize such suns as universe lighthouses or accurate measuring points for the +further exploration of distant star clusters. By this technique it is possible +to measure stellar distances most precisely up to more than one million +light-years. Better methods of space measurement and improved telescopic +technique will sometime more fully disclose the ten grand divisions of the +superuniverse of Orvonton; you will at least recognize eight of these immense +sectors as enormous and fairly symmetrical star clusters. + +4. SUN DENSITY + +The mass of your sun is slightly greater than the estimate of your physicists, +who have reckoned it as about two octillion (2 X 10 27) tons. It now exists +about halfway between the most dense and the most diffuse stars, having about +one and one-half times the density of water. But your sun is neither a liquid +nor a solid--it is gaseous--and this is true notwithstanding the difficulty of +explaining how gaseous matter can attain this and even much greater densities. + +Gaseous, liquid, and solid states are matters of atomic-molecular +relationships, but density is a relationship of space and mass. Density varies +directly with the quantity of mass in space and inversely with the amount of +space in mass, the space between the central cores of matter and the particles +which whirl around these centers as well as the space within such material +particles. + +Cooling stars can be physically gaseous and tremendously dense at the same +time. You are not familiar with the solar supergases, but these and other +unusual + + top of page - 460 + +forms of matter explain how even nonsolid suns can attain a density equal to +iron--about the same as Urantia--and yet be in a highly heated gaseous state +and continue to function as suns. The atoms in these dense supergases are +exceptionally small; they contain few electrons. Such suns have also largely +lost their free ultimatonic stores of energy. + +One of your near-by suns, which started life with about the same mass as yours, +has now contracted almost to the size of Urantia, having become forty thousand +times as dense as your sun. The weight of this hot-cold gaseous-solid is about +one ton per cubic inch. And still this sun shines with a faint reddish glow, +the senile glimmer of a dying monarch of light. + +Most of the suns, however, are not so dense. One of your nearer neighbors has a +density exactly equal to that of your atmosphere at sea level. If you were in +the interior of this sun, you would be unable, to discern anything. And +temperature permitting, you could penetrate the majority of the suns which +twinkle in the night sky and notice no more matter than you perceive in the air +of your earthly living rooms. + +The massive sun of Veluntia, one of the largest in Orvonton, has a density only +one one-thousandth that of Urantia's atmosphere. Were it in composition similar +to your atmosphere and not superheated, it would be such a vacuum that human +beings would speedily suffocate if they were in or on it. + +Another of the Orvonton giants now has a surface temperature a trifle under +three thousand degrees. Its diameter is over three hundred million miles--ample +room to accommodate your sun and the present orbit of the earth. And yet, for +all this enormous size, over forty million times that of your sun, its mass is +only about thirty times greater. These enormous suns have an extending fringe +that reaches almost from one to the other. + +5. SOLAR RADIATION + +That the suns of space are not very dense is proved by the steady streams of +escaping light-energies. Too great a density would retain light by opacity +until the light-energy pressure reached the explosion point. There is a +tremendous light or gas pressure within a sun to cause it to shoot forth such a +stream of energy as to penetrate space for millions upon millions of miles to +energize, light, and heat the distant planets. Fifteen feet of surface of the +density of Urantia would effectually prevent the escape of all X rays and +light-energies from a sun until the rising internal pressure of accumulating +energies resulting from atomic dismemberment overcame gravity with a tremendous +outward explosion. + +Light, in the presence of the propulsive gases, is highly explosive when +confined at high temperatures by opaque retaining walls. Light is real. As you +value energy and power on your world, sunlight would be economical at a million +dollars a pound. + +The interior of your sun is a vast X-ray generator. The suns are supported from +within by the incessant bombardment of these mighty emanations. + +It requires more than one-half million years for an X-ray-stimulated electron +to work its way from the very center of an average sun up to the solar surface, +whence it starts out on its space adventure, maybe to warm an inhabited planet, +to be captured by a meteor, to participate in the birth of an atom, to be +attracted by a highly charged dark island of space, or to find its space flight +terminated by a final plunge into the surface of a sun similar to the one of +its origin. + + top of page - 461 + +The X rays of a sun's interior charge the highly heated and agitated electrons +with sufficient energy to carry them out through space, past the hosts of +detaining influences of intervening matter and, in spite of divergent gravity +attractions, on to the distant spheres of the remote systems. The great energy +of velocity required to escape the gravity clutch of a sun is sufficient to +insure that the sunbeam will travel on with unabated velocity until it +encounters considerable masses of matter; whereupon it is quickly transformed +into heat with the liberation of other energies. + +Energy, whether as light or in other forms, in its flight through space moves +straight forward. The actual particles of material existence traverse space +like a fusillade. They go in a straight and unbroken line or procession except +as they are acted on by superior forces, and except as they ever obey the +linear-gravity pull inherent in material mass and the circular-gravity presence +of the Isle of Paradise. + +Solar energy may seem to be propelled in waves, but that is due to the action +of coexistent and diverse influences. A given form of organized energy does not +proceed in waves but in direct lines. The presence of a second or a third form +of force-energy may cause the stream under observation to appear to travel in +wavy formation, just as, in a blinding rainstorm accompanied by a heavy wind, +the water sometimes appears to fall in sheets or to descend in waves. The +raindrops are coming down in a direct line of unbroken procession, but the +action of the wind is such as to give the visible appearance of sheets of water +and waves of raindrops. + +The action of certain secondary and other undiscovered energies present in the +space regions of your local universe is such that solar-light emanations appear +to execute certain wavy phenomena as well as to be chopped up into +infinitesimal portions of definite length and weight. And, practically +considered, that is exactly what happens. You can hardly hope to arrive at a +better understanding of the behavior of light until such a time as you acquire +a clearer concept of the interaction and interrelationship of the various +space-forces and solar energies operating in the space regions of Nebadon. Your +present confusion is also due to your incomplete grasp of this problem as it +involves the interassociated activities of the personal and nonpersonal control +of the master universe--the presences, the performances, and the co-ordination +of the Conjoint Actor and the Unqualified Absolute. + +6. CALCIUM--THE WANDERER OF SPACE + +In deciphering spectral phenomena, it should be remembered that space is not +empty; that light, in traversing space, is sometimes slightly modified by the +various forms of energy and matter which circulate in all organized space. Some +of the lines indicating unknown matter which appear in the spectra of your sun +are due to modifications of well-known elements which are floating throughout +space in shattered form, the atomic casualties of the fierce encounters of the +solar elemental battles. Space is pervaded by these wandering derelicts, +especially sodium and calcium. + +Calcium is, in fact, the chief element of the matter-permeation of space +throughout Orvonton. Our whole superuniverse is sprinkled with minutely pul- + + top of page - 462 + +verized stone. Stone is literally the basic building matter for the planets and +spheres of space. The cosmic cloud, the great space blanket, consists for the +most part of the modified atoms of calcium. The stone atom is one of the most +prevalent and persistent of the elements. It not only endures solar +ionization--splitting--but persists in an associative identity even after it +has been battered by the destructive X rays and shattered by the high solar +temperatures. Calcium possesses an individuality and a longevity excelling all +of the more common forms of matter. + +As your physicists have suspected, these mutilated remnants of solar calcium +literally ride the light beams for varied distances, and thus their widespread +dissemination throughout space is tremendously facilitated. The sodium atom, +under certain modifications, is also capable of light and energy locomotion. +The calcium feat is all the more remarkable since this element has almost twice +the mass of sodium. Local space-permeation by calcium is due to the fact that +it escapes from the solar photosphere, in modified form, by literally riding +the outgoing sunbeams. Of all the solar elements, calcium, notwithstanding its +comparative bulk--containing as it does twenty revolving electrons--is the most +successful in escaping from the solar interior to the realms of space. This +explains why there is a calcium layer, a gaseous stone surface, on the sun six +thousand miles thick; and this despite the fact that nineteen lighter elements, +and numerous heavier ones, are underneath. + +Calcium is an active and versatile element at solar temperatures. The stone +atom has two agile and loosely attached electrons in the two outer electronic +circuits, which are very close together. Early in the atomic struggle it loses +its outer electron; whereupon it engages in a masterful act of juggling the +nineteenth electron back and forth between the nineteenth and twentieth +circuits of electronic revolution. By tossing this nineteenth electron back and +forth between its own orbit and that of its lost companion more than +twenty-five thousand times a second, a mutilated stone atom is able partially +to defy gravity and thus successfully to ride the emerging streams of light and +energy, the sunbeams, to liberty and adventure. This calcium atom moves outward +by alternate jerks of forward propulsion, grasping and letting go the sunbeam +about twenty-five thousand times each second. And this is why stone is the +chief component of the worlds of space. Calcium is the most expert solar-prison +escaper. + +The agility of this acrobatic calcium electron is indicated by the fact that, +when tossed by the temperature-X-ray solar forces to the circle of the higher +orbit, it only remains in that orbit for about one one-millionth of a second; +but before the electric-gravity power of the atomic nucleus pulls it back into +its old orbit, it is able to complete one million revolutions about the atomic +center. + +Your sun has parted with an enormous quantity of its calcium, having lost +tremendous amounts during the times of its convulsive eruptions in connection +with the formation of the solar system. Much of the solar calcium is now in the +outer crust of the sun. + +It should be remembered that spectral analyses show only sun-surface +compositions. For example: Solar spectra exhibit many iron lines, but iron is +not the chief element in the sun. This phenomenon is almost wholly due to the +present temperature of the sun's surface, a little less than 6,000 degrees, +this temperature being very favorable to the registry of the iron spectrum. + + top of page - 463 + +7. SOURCES OF SOLAR ENERGY + +The internal temperature of many of the suns, even your own, is much higher +than is commonly believed. In the interior of a sun practically no whole atoms +exist; they are all more or less shattered by the intensive X-ray bombardment +which is indigenous to such high temperatures. Regardless of what material +elements may appear in the outer layers of a sun, those in the interior are +rendered very similar by the dissociative action of the disruptive X rays. X +ray is the great leveler of atomic existence. + +The surface temperature of your sun is almost 6,000 degrees, but it rapidly +increases as the interior is penetrated until it attains the unbelievable +height of about 35,000,000 degrees in the central regions. (All of these +temperatures refer to your Fahrenheit scale.) + +All of these phenomena are indicative of enormous energy expenditure, and the +sources of solar energy, named in the order of their importance, are: + +1. Annihilation of atoms and, eventually, of electrons. + +2. Transmutation of elements, including the radioactive group of energies thus +liberated. + +3. The accumulation and transmission of certain universal space-energies. + +4. Space matter and meteors which are incessantly diving into the blazing suns. + +5. Solar contraction; the cooling and consequent contraction of a sun yields +energy and heat sometimes greater than that supplied by space matter. + +6. Gravity action at high temperatures transforms certain circuitized power +into radiative energies. + +7. Recaptive light and other matter which are drawn back into the sun after +having left it, together with other energies having extrasolar origin. + +There exists a regulating blanket of hot gases (sometimes millions of degrees +in temperature) which envelops the suns, and which acts to stabilize heat loss +and otherwise prevent hazardous fluctuations of heat dissipation. During the +active life of a sun the internal temperature of 35,000,000 degrees remains +about the same quite regardless of the progressive fall of the external +temperature. + +You might try to visualize 35,000,000 degrees of heat, in association with +certain gravity pressures, as the electronic boiling point. Under such pressure +and at such temperature all atoms are degraded and broken up into their +electronic and other ancestral components; even the electrons and other +associations of ultimatons may be broken up, but the suns are not able to +degrade the ultimatons. + +These solar temperatures operate to enormously speed up the ultimatons and the +electrons, at least such of the latter as continue to maintain their existence +under these conditions. You will realize what high temperature means by way of +the acceleration of ultimatonic and electronic activities when you pause to +consider that one drop of ordinary water contains over one billion trillions of +atoms. This is the energy of more than one hundred horsepower exerted +continuously for two years. The total heat now given out by the solar system +sun + + top of page - 464 + +each second is sufficient to boil all the water in all the oceans on Urantia in +just one second of time. + +Only those suns which function in the direct channels of the main streams of +universe energy can shine on forever. Such solar furnaces blaze on +indefinitely, being able to replenish their material losses by the intake of +space-force and analogous circulating energy. But stars far removed from these +chief channels of recharging are destined to undergo energy +depletion--gradually cool off and eventually burn out. + +Such dead or dying suns can be rejuvenated by collisional impact or can be +recharged by certain nonluminous energy islands of space or through +gravity-robbery of near-by smaller suns or systems. The majority of dead suns +will experience revivification by these or other evolutionary techniques. Those +which are not thus eventually recharged are destined to undergo disruption by +mass explosion when the gravity condensation attains the critical level of +ultimatonic condensation of energy pressure. Such disappearing suns thus become +energy of the rarest form, admirably adapted to energize other more favorably +situated suns. + +8. SOLAR-ENERGY REACTIONS + +In those suns which are encircuited in the space-energy channels, solar energy +is liberated by various complex nuclear-reaction chains, the most common of +which is the hydrogen-carbon-helium reaction. In this metamorphosis, carbon +acts as an energy catalyst since it is in no way actually changed by this +process of converting hydrogen into helium. Under certain conditions of high +temperature the hydrogen penetrates the carbon nuclei. Since the carbon cannot +hold more than four such protons, when this saturation state is attained, it +begins to emit protons as fast as new ones arrive. In this reaction the ingoing +hydrogen particles come forth as a helium atom. + +Reduction of hydrogen content increases the luminosity of a sun. In the suns +destined to burn out, the height of luminosity is attained at the point of +hydrogen exhaustion. Subsequent to this point, brilliance is maintained by the +resultant process of gravity contraction. Eventually, such a star will become a +so-called white dwarf, a highly condensed sphere. + +In large suns--small circular nebulae--when hydrogen is exhausted and gravity +contraction ensues, if such a body is not sufficiently opaque to retain the +internal pressure of support for the outer gas regions, then a sudden collapse +occurs. The gravity-electric changes give origin to vast quantities of tiny +particles devoid of electric potential, and such particles readily escape from +the solar interior, thus bringing about the collapse of a gigantic sun within a +few days. It was such an emigration of these "runaway particles" that +occasioned the collapse of the giant nova of the Andromeda nebula about fifty +years ago. This vast stellar body collapsed in forty minutes of Urantia time. + +As a rule, the vast extrusion of matter continues to exist about the residual +cooling sun as extensive clouds of nebular gases. And all this explains the +origin of many types of irregular nebulae, such as the Crab nebula, which had +its origin about nine hundred years ago, and which still exhibits the mother +sphere as a lone star near the center of this irregular nebular mass. + + top of page - 465 + +9. SUN STABILITY + +The larger suns maintain such a gravity control over their electrons that light +escapes only with the aid of the powerful X rays. These helper rays penetrate +all space and are concerned in the maintenance of the basic ultimatonic +associations of energy. The great energy losses in the early days of a sun, +subsequent to its attainment of maximum temperature--upwards of 35,000,000 +degrees--are not so much due to light escape as to ultimatonic leakage. These +ultimaton energies escape out into space, to engage in the adventure of +electronic association and energy materialization, as a veritable energy blast +during adolescent solar times. + +Atoms and electrons are subject to gravity. The ultimatons are not subject to +local gravity, the interplay of material attraction, but they are fully +obedient to absolute or Paradise gravity, to the trend, the swing, of the +universal and eternal circle of the universe of universes. Ultimatonic energy +does not obey the linear or direct gravity attraction of near-by or remote +material masses, but it does ever swing true to the circuit of the great +ellipse of the far-flung creation. + +Your own solar center radiates almost one hundred billion tons of actual matter +annually, while the giant suns lose matter at a prodigious rate during their +earlier growth, the first billion years. A sun's life becomes stable after the +maximum of internal temperature is reached, and the subatomic energies begin to +be released. And it is just at this critical point that the larger suns are +given to convulsive pulsations. + +Sun stability is wholly dependent on the equilibrium between gravity-heat +contention--tremendous pressures counterbalanced by unimagined temperatures. +The interior gas elasticity of the suns upholds the overlying layers of varied +materials, and when gravity and heat are in equilibrium, the weight of the +outer materials exactly equals the temperature pressure of the underlying and +interior gases. In many of the younger stars continued gravity condensation +produces ever-heightening internal temperatures, and as internal heat +increases, the interior X-ray pressure of supergas winds becomes so great that, +in connection with the centrifugal motion, a sun begins to throw its exterior +layers off into space, thus redressing the imbalance between gravity and heat. + +Your own sun has long since attained relative equilibrium between its expansion +and contraction cycles, those disturbances which produce the gigantic +pulsations of many of the younger stars. Your sun is now passing out of its six +billionth year. At the present time it is functioning through the period of +greatest economy. It will shine on as of present efficiency for more than +twenty-five billion years. It will probably experience a partially efficient +period of decline as long as the combined periods of its youth and stabilized +function. + +10. ORIGIN OF INHABITED WORLDS + +Some of the variable stars, in or near the state of maximum pulsation, are in +process of giving origin to subsidiary systems, many of which will eventually +be much like your own sun and its revolving planets. Your sun was in just such +a state of mighty pulsation when the massive Angona system swung into near +approach, and the outer surface of the sun began to erupt veritable streams- + + top of page - 466 + +-continuous sheets--of matter. This kept up with ever-increasing violence until +nearest apposition, when the limits of solar cohesion were reached and a vast +pinnacle of matter, the ancestor of the solar system, was disgorged. In similar +circumstances the closest approach of the attracting body sometimes draws off +whole planets, even a quarter or third of a sun. These major extrusions form +certain peculiar cloud-bound types of worlds, spheres much like Jupiter and +Saturn. + +The majority of solar systems, however, had an origin entirely different from +yours, and this is true even of those which were produced by gravity-tidal +technique. But no matter what technique of world building obtains, gravity +always produces the solar system type of creation; that is, a central sun or +dark island with planets, satellites, subsatellites, and meteors. + +The physical aspects of the individual worlds are largely determined by mode of +origin, astronomical situation, and physical environment. Age, size, rate of +revolution, and velocity through space are also determining factors. Both the +gas-contraction and the solid-accretion worlds are characterized by mountains +and, during their earlier life, when not too small, by water and air. The +molten-split and collisional worlds are sometimes without extensive mountain +ranges. + +During the earlier ages of all these new worlds, earthquakes are frequent, and +they are all characterized by great physical disturbances; especially is this +true of the gas-contraction spheres, the worlds born of the immense nebular +rings which are left behind in the wake of the early condensation and +contraction of certain individual suns. Planets having a dual origin like +Urantia pass through a less violent and stormy youthful career. Even so, your +world experienced an early phase of mighty upheavals, characterized by +volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, and terrific storms. + +Urantia is comparatively isolated on the outskirts of Satania, your solar +system, with one exception, being the farthest removed from Jerusem, while +Satania itself is next to the outermost system of Norlatiadek, and this +constellation is now traversing the outer fringe of Nebadon. You were truly +among the least of all creation until Michael's bestowal elevated your planet +to a position of honor and great universe interest. Sometimes the last is +first, while truly the least becomes greatest. + +[Presented by an Archangel in collaboration with the Chief of Nebadon Power +Centers.] + + top of page - 467 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Ascending ³ Energy--mind ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ S... ³ An... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p042.txt b/religious documents/p042.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc0efca --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p042.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1066 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 42 Energy--mind And Matter + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 42 Energy--mind And Matter + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE foundation of the universe is material in the sense that energy is the +basis of all existence, and pure energy is controlled by the Universal Father. +Force, energy, is the one thing which stands as an everlasting monument +demonstrating and proving the existence and presence of the Universal Absolute. +This vast stream of energy proceeding from the Paradise Presences has never +lapsed, never failed; there has never been a break in the infinite upholding. + +The manipulation of universe energy is ever in accordance with the personal +will and the all-wise mandates of the Universal Father. This personal control +of manifested power and circulating energy is modified by the co-ordinate acts +and decisions of the Eternal Son, as well as by the united purposes of the Son +and the Father executed by the Conjoint Actor. These divine beings act +personally and as individuals; they also function in the persons and powers of +an almost unlimited number of subordinates, each variously expressive of the +eternal and divine purpose in the universe of universes. But these functional +and provisional modifications or transmutations of divine power in no way +lessen the truth of the statement that all force-energy is under the ultimate +control of a personal God resident at the center of all things. + +1. PARADISE FORCES AND ENERGIES + +The foundation of the universe is material, but the essence of life is spirit. +The Father of spirits is also the ancestor of universes; the eternal Father of +the Original Son is also the eternity-source of the original pattern, the Isle +of Paradise. + +Matter--energy--for they are but diverse manifestations of the same cosmic +reality, as a universe phenomenon is inherent in the Universal Father. "In him +all things consist." Matter may appear to manifest inherent energy and to +exhibit self-contained powers, but the lines of gravity involved in the +energies concerned in all these physical phenomena are derived from, and are +dependent on, Paradise. The ultimaton, the first measurable form of energy, has +Paradise as its nucleus. + +There is innate in matter and present in universal space a form of energy not +known on Urantia. When this discovery is finally made, then will physicists +feel that they have solved, almost at least, the mystery of matter. And so will +they have approached one step nearer the Creator; so will they have mastered +one more phase of the divine technique; but in no sense will they have found + + top of page - 468 + +God, neither will they have established the existence of matter or the +operation of natural laws apart from the cosmic technique of Paradise and the +motivating purpose of the Universal Father. + +Subsequent to even still greater progress and further discoveries, after +Urantia has advanced immeasurably in comparison with present knowledge, though +you should gain control of the energy revolutions of the electrical units of +matter to the extent of modifying their physical manifestations--even after all +such possible progress, forever will scientists be powerless to create one atom +of matter or to originate one flash of energy or ever to add to matter that +which we call life. + +The creation of energy and the bestowal of life are the prerogatives of the +Universal Father and his associate Creator personalities. The river of energy +and life is a continuous outpouring from the Deities, the universal and united +stream of Paradise force going forth to all space. This divine energy pervades +all creation. The force organizers initiate those changes and institute those +modifications of space-force which eventuate in energy; the power directors +transmute energy into matter; thus the material worlds are born. The Life +Carriers initiate those processes in dead matter which we call life, material +life. The Morontia Power Supervisors likewise perform throughout the transition +realms between the material and the spiritual worlds. The higher spirit +Creators inaugurate similar processes in divine forms of energy, and there +ensue the higher spirit forms of intelligent life. + +Energy proceeds from Paradise, fashioned after the divine order. Energy--pure +energy--partakes of the nature of the divine organization; it is fashioned +after the similitude of the three Gods embraced in one, as they function at the +headquarters of the universe of universes. And all force is circuited in +Paradise, comes from the Paradise Presences and returns thereto, and is in +essence a manifestation of the uncaused Cause--the Universal Father; and +without the Father would not anything exist that does exist. + +Force derived from self-existent Deity is in itself ever existent. Force-energy +is imperishable, indestructible; these manifestations of the Infinite may be +subject to unlimited transmutation, endless transformation, and eternal +metamorphosis; but in no sense or degree, not even to the slightest imaginable +extent, could they or ever shall they suffer extinction. But energy, though +springing from the Infinite, is not infinitely manifest; there are outer limits +to the presently conceived master universe. + +Energy is eternal but not infinite; it ever responds to the all-embracing grasp +of Infinity. Forever force and energy go on; having gone out from Paradise, +they must return thereto, even if age upon age be required for the completion +of the ordained circuit. That which is of Paradise Deity origin can have only a +Paradise destination or a Deity destiny. + +And all this confirms our belief in a circular, somewhat limited, but orderly +and far-flung universe of universes. If this were not true, then evidence of +energy depletion at some point would sooner or later appear. All laws, +organizations, administration, and the testimony of universe +explorers--everything points to the existence of an infinite God but, as yet, a +finite universe, a circularity of endless existence, well-nigh limitless but, +nevertheless, finite in contrast with infinity. + + top of page - 469 + +2. UNIVERSAL NONSPIRITUAL ENERGY SYSTEMS + +It is indeed difficult to find suitable words in the English language whereby +to designate and wherewith to describe the various levels of force and +energy--physical, mindal, or spiritual. These narratives cannot altogether +follow your accepted definitions of force, energy, and power. There is such +paucity of language that we must use these terms in multiple meanings. In this +paper, for example, the word energy is used to denote all phases and forms of +phenomenal motion, action, and potential, while force is applied to the +pregravity, and power to the postgravity, stages of energy. + +I will, however, endeavor to lessen conceptual confusion by suggesting the +advisability of adopting the following classification for cosmic force, +emergent energy, and universe power--physical energy: + +1. Space potency. This is the unquestioned free space presence of the +Unqualified Absolute. The extension of this concept connotes the universe +force-space potential inherent in the functional totality of the Unqualified +Absolute, while the intension of this concept implies the totality of cosmic +reality--universes--which emanated eternitywise from the never-beginning, +never-ending, never-moving, never-changing Isle of Paradise. + +The phenomena indigenous to the nether side of Paradise probably embrace three +zones of absolute force presence and performance: the fulcral zone of the +Unqualified Absolute, the zone of the Isle of Paradise itself, and the +intervening zone of certain unidentified equalizing and compensating agencies +or functions. These triconcentric zones are the centrum of the Paradise cycle +of cosmic reality. + +Space potency is a prereality; it is the domain of the Unqualified Absolute and +is responsive only to the personal grasp of the Universal Father, +notwithstanding that it is seemingly modifiable by the presence of the Primary +Master Force Organizers. + +On Uversa, space potency is spoken of as ABSOLUTA. + +2. Primordial force. This represents the first basic change in space potency +and may be one of the nether Paradise functions of the Unqualified Absolute. We +know that the space presence going out from nether Paradise is modified in some +manner from that which is incoming. But regardless of any such possible +relationships, the openly recognized transmutation of space potency into +primordial force is the primary differentiating function of the +tension-presence of the living Paradise force organizers. + +Passive and potential force becomes active and primordial in response to the +resistance afforded by the space presence of the Primary Eventuated Master +Force Organizers. Force is now emerging from the exclusive domain of the +Unqualified Absolute into the realms of multiple response--response to certain +primal motions initiated by the God of Action and thereupon to certain +compensating motions emanating from the Universal Absolute. Primordial force is +seemingly reactive to transcendental causation in proportion to absoluteness. + +Primordial force is sometimes spoken of as pure energy; on Uversa we refer to +it as SEGREGATA. + + top of page - 470 + +3. Emergent energies. The passive presence of the primary force organizers is +sufficient to transform space potency into primordial force, and it is upon +such an activated space field that these same force organizers begin their +initial and active operations. Primordial force is destined to pass through two +distinct phases of transmutation in the realms of energy manifestation before +appearing as universe power. These two levels of emerging energy are: + +a. Puissant energy. This is the powerful-directional, mass-movemented, +mighty-tensioned, and forcible-reacting energy--gigantic energy systems set in +motion by the activities of the primary force organizers. This primary or +puissant energy is not at first definitely responsive to the Paradise-gravity +pull though probably yielding an aggregate-mass or space-directional response +to the collective group of absolute influences operative from the nether side +of Paradise. When energy emerges to the level of initial response to the +circular and absolute-gravity grasp of Paradise, the primary force organizers +give way to the functioning of their secondary associates. + +b. Gravity energy. The now-appearing gravity-responding energy carries the +potential of universe power and becomes the active ancestor of all universe +matter. This secondary or gravity energy is the product of the energy +elaboration resulting from the pressure-presence and the tension-trends set up +by the Associate Transcendental Master Force Organizers. In response to the +work of these force manipulators, space-energy rapidly passes from the puissant +to the gravity stage, thus becoming directly responsive to the circular grasp +of Paradise (absolute) gravity while disclosing a certain potential for +sensitivity to the linear-gravity pull inherent in the soon appearing material +mass of the electronic and the postelectronic stages of energy and matter. Upon +the appearance of gravity response, the Associate Master Force Organizers may +retire from the energy cyclones of space provided the Universe Power Directors +are assignable to that field of action. + +We are quite uncertain regarding the exact causes of the early stages of force +evolution, but we recognize the intelligent action of the Ultimate in both +levels of emergent-energy manifestation. Puissant and gravity energies, when +regarded collectively, are spoken of on Uversa as ULTIMATA. + +4. Universe power. Space-force has been changed into space-energy and thence +into the energy of gravity control. Thus has physical energy been ripened to +that point where it can be directed into channels of power and made to serve +the manifold purposes of the universe Creators. This work is carried on by the +versatile directors, centers, and controllers of physical energy in the grand +universe--the organized and inhabited creations. These Universe Power Directors +assume the more or less complete control of twenty-one of the thirty phases of +energy constituting the present energy system of the seven superuniverses. This +domain of power-energy-matter is the realm of the intelligent activities of the +Sevenfold, functioning under the time-space overcontrol of the Supreme. + +On Uversa we refer to the realm of universe power as + +5. Havona energy. In concept this narrative has been moving Paradiseward as +transmuting space-force has been followed, level by level, to the working level +of the energy-power of the universes of time and space. Continuing +Paradiseward, there is next encountered a pre-existent phase of energy which is +characteristic of the central universe. Here the evolutionary cycle seems to + + top of page - 471 + +turn back upon itself; energy-power now seems to begin to swing back towards +force, but force of a nature very unlike that of space potency and primordial +force. Havona energy systems are not dual; they are triune. This is the +existential energy domain of the Conjoint Actor, functioning in behalf of the +Paradise Trinity. + +On Uversa these energies of Havona are known as TRIATA. + +6. Transcendental energy. This energy system operates on and from the upper +level of Paradise and only in connection with the absonite peoples. On Uversa +it is denominated TRANOSTA. + +7. Monota. Energy is close of kin to divinity when it is Paradise energy. We +incline to the belief that monota is the living, nonspirit energy of +Paradise--an eternity counterpart of the living, spirit energy of the Original +Son--hence the nonspiritual energy system of the Universal Father. + +We cannot differentiate the nature of Paradise spirit and Paradise monota; they +are apparently alike. They have different names, but you can hardly be told +very much about a reality whose spiritual and whose nonspiritual manifestations +are distinguishable only by name. + +We know that finite creatures can attain the worship experience of the +Universal Father through the ministry of God the Sevenfold and the Thought +Adjusters, but we doubt that any subabsolute personality, even power directors, +can comprehend the energy infinity of the First Great Source and Center. One +thing is certain: If the power directors are conversant with the technique of +the metamorphosis of space-force, they do not reveal the secret to the rest of +us. It is my opinion that they do not fully comprehend the function of the +force organizers. + +These power directors themselves are energy catalyzers; that is, they cause +energy to segment, organize, or assemble in unit formation by their presence. +And all this implies that there must be something inherent in energy which +causes it thus to function in the presence of these power entities. The Nebadon +Melchizedeks long since denominated the phenomenon of the transmutation of +cosmic force into universe power as one of the seven "infinities of divinity." +And that is as far as you will advance on this point during your local universe +ascension. + +Notwithstanding our inability fully to comprehend the origin, nature, and +transmutations of cosmic force, we are fully conversant with all phases of +emergent-energy behavior from the times of its direct and unmistakable response +to the action of Paradise gravity--about the time of the beginning of the +function of the superuniverse power directors. + +3. CLASSIFICATION OF MATTER + +Matter in all universes, excepting in the central universe, is identical. +Matter in its physical properties depends on the revolutionary rates of its +component members, the number and size of the revolving members, their distance +from the nuclear body or the space content of matter, as well as on the +presence of certain forces as yet undiscovered on Urantia. + +In the varied suns, planets, and space bodies there are ten grand divisions of +matter: + + top of page - 472 + +1. Ultimatonic matter--the prime physical units of material existence, the +energy particles which go to make up electrons. + +2. Subelectronic matter--the explosive and repellent stage of the solar +supergases. + +3. Electronic matter--the electrical stage of material +differentiation--electrons, protons, and various other units entering into the +varied constitution of the electronic groups. + +4. Subatomic matter--matter existing extensively in the interior of the hot +suns. + +5. Shattered atoms--found in the cooling suns and throughout space. + +6. Ionized matter--individual atoms stripped of their outer (chemically active) +electrons by electrical, thermal, or X-ray activities and by solvents. + +7. Atomic matter--the chemical stage of elemental organization, the component +units of molecular or visible matter. + +8. The molecular stage of matter--matter as it exists on Urantia in a state of +relatively stable materialization under ordinary conditions. + +9. Radioactive matter--the disorganizing tendency and activity of the heavier +elements under conditions of moderate heat and diminished gravity pressure. + +10. Collapsed matter--the relatively stationary matter found in the interior of +the cold or dead suns. This form of matter is not really stationary; there is +still some ultimatonic, even electronic activity, but these units are in very +close proximity, and their rates of revolution are greatly diminished. + +The foregoing classification of matter pertains to its organization rather than +to the forms of its appearance to created beings. Neither does it take into +account the pre-emergent stages of energy nor the eternal materializations on +Paradise and in the central universe. + +4. ENERGY AND MATTER TRANSMUTATIONS + +Light, heat, electricity, magnetism, chemism, energy, and matter are--in +origin, nature, and destiny--one and the same thing, together with other +material realities as yet undiscovered on Urantia. + +We do not fully comprehend the almost endless changes to which physical energy +may be subject. In one universe it appears as light, in another as light plus +heat, in another as forms of energy unknown on Urantia; in untold millions of +years it may reappear as some form of restless, surging electrical energy or +magnetic power; and still later on it may again appear in a subsequent universe +as some form of variable matter going through a series of metamorphoses, to be +followed by its outward physical disappearance in some great cataclysm of the +realms. And then, after countless ages and almost endless wandering through +numberless universes, again may this same energy re-emerge and many times +change its form and potential; and so do these transformations continue through +successive ages and throughout countless realms. Thus matter sweeps on, +undergoing the transmutations of time but swinging ever true to the circle of +eternity; even if long prevented from returning to its source, it is ever +responsive thereto, and it ever proceeds in the path ordained by the Infinite +Personality who sent it forth. + + top of page - 473 + +The power centers and their associates are much concerned in the work of +transmuting the ultimaton into the circuits and revolutions of the electron. +These unique beings control and compound power by their skillful manipulation +of the basic units of materialized energy, the ultimatons. They are masters of +energy as it circulates in this primitive state. In liaison with the physical +controllers they are able to effectively control and direct energy even after +it has transmuted to the electrical level, the so-called electronic stage. But +their range of action is enormously curtailed when electronically organized +energy swings into the whirls of the atomic systems. Upon such materialization, +these energies fall under the complete grasp of the drawing power of linear +gravity. + +Gravity acts positively on the power lanes and energy channels of the power +centers and the physical controllers, but these beings have only a negative +relation to gravity--the exercise of their antigravity endowments. + +Throughout all space, cold and other influences are at work creatively +organizing ultimatons into electrons. Heat is the measurement of electronic +activity, while cold merely signifies absence of heat--comparative energy +rest--the status of the universal force-charge of space provided neither +emergent energy nor organized matter were present and responding to gravity. + +Gravity presence and action is what prevents the appearance of the theoretical +absolute zero, for interstellar space does not have the temperature of absolute +zero. Throughout all organized space there are gravity-responding energy +currents, power circuits, and ultimatonic activities, as well as organizing +electronic energies. Practically speaking, space is not empty. Even the +atmosphere of Urantia thins out increasingly until at about three thousand +miles it begins to shade off into the average space matter in this section of +the universe. The most nearly empty space known in Nebadon would yield about +one hundred ultimatons--the equivalent of one electron--in each cubic inch. +Such scarcity of matter is regarded as practically empty space. + +Temperature--heat and cold--is secondary only to gravity in the realms of +energy and matter evolution. Ultimatons are humbly obedient to temperature +extremes. Low temperatures favor certain forms of electronic construction and +atomic assembly, while high temperatures facilitate all sorts of atomic breakup +and material disintegration. + +When subjected to the heat and pressure of certain internal solar states, all +but the most primitive associations of matter may be broken up. Heat can thus +largely overcome gravity stability. But no known solar heat or pressure can +convert ultimatons back into puissant energy. + +The blazing suns can transform matter into various forms of energy, but the +dark worlds and all outer space can slow down electronic and ultimatonic +activity to the point of converting these energies into the matter of the +realms. Certain electronic associations of a close nature, as well as many of +the basic associations of nuclear matter, are formed in the exceedingly low +temperatures of open space, being later augmented by association with larger +accretions of materializing energy. + +Throughout all of this never-ending metamorphosis of energy and matter we must +reckon with the influence of gravity pressure and with the antigravity behavior +of the ultimatonic energies under certain conditions of temperature, velocity, +and revolution. Temperature, energy currents, distance, and the presence of the +living force organizers and the power directors also have a bearing on all +transmutation phenomena of energy and matter. + + top of page - 474 + +The increase of mass in matter is equal to the increase of energy divided by +the square of the velocity of light. In a dynamic sense the work which resting +matter can perform is equal to the energy expended in bringing its parts +together from Paradise minus the resistance of the forces overcome in transit +and the attraction exerted by the parts of matter on one another. + +The existence of pre-electronic forms of matter is indicated by the two atomic +weights of lead. The lead of original formation weighs slightly more than that +produced through uranium disintegration by way of radium emanations; and this +difference in atomic weight represents the actual loss of energy in the atomic +breakup. + +The relative integrity of matter is assured by the fact that energy can be +absorbed or released only in those exact amounts which Urantia scientists have +designated quanta. This wise provision in the material realms serves to +maintain the universes as going concerns. + +The quantity of energy taken in or given out when electronic or other positions +are shifted is always a "quantum" or some multiple thereof, but the vibratory +or wavelike behavior of such units of energy is wholly determined by the +dimensions of the material structures concerned. Such wavelike energy ripples +are 860 times the diameters of the ultimatons, electrons, atoms, or other units +thus performing. The never-ending confusion attending the observation of the +wave mechanics of quantum behavior is due to the superimposition of energy +waves: Two crests can combine to make a double-height crest, while a crest and +a trough may combine, thus producing mutual cancellation. + +5. WAVE-ENERGY MANIFESTATIONS + +In the superuniverse of Orvonton there are one hundred octaves of wave energy. +Of these one hundred groups of energy manifestations, sixty-four are wholly or +partially recognized on Urantia. The sun's rays constitute four octaves in the +superuniverse scale, the visible rays embracing a single octave, number +forty-six in this series. The ultraviolet group comes next, while ten octaves +up are the X rays, followed by the gamma rays of radium. Thirty-two octaves +above the visible light of the sun are the outer-space energy rays so +frequently commingled with their associated highly energized minute particles +of matter. Next downward from visible sunlight appear the infrared rays, and +thirty octaves below are the radio transmission group. + +Wavelike energy manifestations--from the standpoint of twentieth-century +Urantia scientific enlightenment--may be classified into the following ten +groups: + +1. Infraultimatonic rays--the borderland revolutions of ultimatons as they +begin to assume definite form. This is the first stage of emergent energy in +which wavelike phenomena can be detected and measured. + +2. Ultimatonic rays. The assembly of energy into the minute spheres of the +ultimatons occasions vibrations in the content of space which are discernible +and measurable. And long before physicists ever discover the ultimaton, they +will undoubtedly detect the phenomena of these rays as they shower in upon +Urantia. These short and powerful rays represent the initial activity of the +ulti- + + top of page - 475 + +matons as they are slowed down to that point where they veer towards the +electronic organization of matter. As the ultimatons aggregate into electrons, +condensation occurs with a consequent storage of energy. + +3. The short space rays. These are the shortest of all purely electronic +vibrations and represent the preatomic stage of this form of matter. These rays +require extraordinarily high or low temperatures for their production. There +are two sorts of these space rays: one attendant upon the birth of atoms and +the other indicative of atomic disruption. They emanate in the largest +quantities from the densest plane of the superuniverse, the Milky Way, which is +also the densest plane of the outer universes. + +4. The electronic stage. This stage of energy is the basis of all +materialization in the seven superuniverses. When electrons pass from higher to +lower energy levels of orbital revolution, quanta are always given off. Orbital +shifting of electrons results in the ejection or the absorption of very +definite and uniform measurable particles of light-energy, while the individual +electron always gives up a particle of light-energy when subjected to +collision. Wavelike energy manifestations also attend upon the performances of +the positive bodies and the other members of the electronic stage. + +5. Gamma rays--those emanations which characterize the spontaneous dissociation +of atomic matter. The best illustration of this form of electronic activity is +in the phenomena associated with radium disintegration. + +6. The X-ray group. The next step in the slowing down of the electron yields +the various forms of solar X rays together with artificially generated X rays. +The electronic charge creates an electric field; movement gives rise to an +electric current; the current produces a magnetic field. When an electron is +suddenly stopped, the resultant electromagnetic commotion produces the X ray; +the X ray is that disturbance. The solar X rays are identical with those which +are mechanically generated for exploring the interior of the human body except +that they are a trifle longer. + +7. The ultraviolet or chemical rays of sunlight and the various mechanical +productions. + +8. The white light--the whole visible light of the suns. + +9. Infrared rays--the slowing down of electronic activity still nearer the +stage of appreciable heat. + +10. Hertzian waves--those energies utilized on Urantia for broadcasting. + +Of all these ten phases of wavelike energy activity, the human eye can react to +just one octave, the whole light of ordinary sunlight. + +The so-called ether is merely a collective name to designate a group of force +and energy activities occurring in space. Ultimatons, electrons, and other mass +aggregations of energy are uniform particles of matter, and in their transit +through space they really proceed in direct lines. Light and all other forms of +recognizable energy manifestations consist of a succession of definite energy +particles which proceed in direct lines except as modified by gravity and other +intervening forces. That these processions of energy particles appear as wave +phenomena when subjected to certain observations is due to the resistance of +the undifferentiated force blanket of all space, the hypothetical ether, and to + + top of page - 476 + +the intergravity tension of the associated aggregations of matter. The spacing +of the particle-intervals of matter, together with the initial velocity of the +energy beams, establishes the undulatory appearance of many forms of +energy-matter. + +The excitation of the content of space produces a wavelike reaction to the +passage of rapidly moving particles of matter, just as the passage of a ship +through water initiates waves of varying amplitude and interval. + +Primordial-force behavior does give rise to phenomena which are in many ways +analogous to your postulated ether. Space is not empty; the spheres of all +space whirl and plunge on through a vast ocean of outspread force-energy; +neither is the space content of an atom empty. Nevertheless there is no ether, +and the very absence of this hypothetical ether enables the inhabited planet to +escape falling into the sun and the encircling electron to resist falling into +the nucleus. + +6. ULTIMATONS, ELECTRONS, AND ATOMS + +While the space charge of universal force is homogeneous and undifferentiated, +the organization of evolved energy into matter entails the concentration of +energy into discrete masses of definite dimensions and established +weight--precise gravity reaction. + +Local or linear gravity becomes fully operative with the appearance of the +atomic organization of matter. Preatomic matter becomes slightly gravity +responsive when activated by X ray and other similar energies, but no +measurable linear-gravity pull is exerted on free, unattached, and uncharged +electronic-energy particles or on unassociated ultimatons. + +Ultimatons function by mutual attraction, responding only to the circular +Paradise-gravity pull. Without linear-gravity response they are thus held in +the universal space drift. Ultimatons are capable of accelerating revolutionary +velocity to the point of partial antigravity behavior, but they cannot, +independent of force organizers or power directors, attain the critical escape +velocity of deindividuation, return to the puissant-energy stage. In nature, +ultimatons escape the status of physical existence only when participating in +the terminal disruption of a cooled-off and dying sun. + +The ultimatons, unknown on Urantia, slow down through many phases of physical +activity before they attain the revolutionary-energy prerequisites to +electronic organization. Ultimatons have three varieties of motion: mutual +resistance to cosmic force, individual revolutions of antigravity potential, +and the intraelectronic positions of the one hundred mutually interassociated +ultimatons. + +Mutual attraction holds one hundred ultimatons together in the constitution of +the electron; and there are never more nor less than one hundred ultimatons in +a typical electron. The loss of one or more ultimatons destroys typical +electronic identity, thus bringing into existence one of the ten modified forms +of the electron. + +Ultimatons do not describe orbits or whirl about in circuits within the +electrons, but they do spread or cluster in accordance with their axial +revolutionary velocities, thus determining the differential electronic +dimensions. This same ultimatonic velocity of axial revolution also determines +the negative or positive reactions of the several types of electronic units. +The entire segregation and grouping of electronic matter, together with the +electric differentiation of neg- + + top of page - 477 + +ative and positive bodies of energy-matter, result from these various functions +of the component ultimatonic interassociation. + +Each atom is a trifle over 1/100,000,000th of an inch in diameter, while an +electron weighs a little more than 1/2,000th of the smallest atom, hydrogen. +The positive proton, characteristic of the atomic nucleus, while it may be no +larger than a negative electron, weighs almost two thousand times more. + +If the mass of matter should be magnified until that of an electron equaled one +tenth of an ounce, then were size to be proportionately magnified, the volume +of such an electron would become as large as that of the earth. If the volume +of a proton--eighteen hundred times as heavy as an electron--should be +magnified to the size of the head of a pin, then, in comparison, a pin's head +would attain a diameter equal to that of the earth's orbit around the sun. + +7. ATOMIC MATTER + +The formation of all matter is on the order of the solar system. There is at +the center of every minute universe of energy a relatively stable, +comparatively stationary, nuclear portion of material existence. This central +unit is endowed with a threefold possibility of manifestation. Surrounding this +energy center there whirl, in endless profusion but in fluctuating circuits, +the energy units which are faintly comparable to the planets encircling the sun +of some starry group like your own solar system. + +Within the atom the electrons revolve about the central proton with about the +same comparative room the planets have as they revolve about the sun in the +space of the solar system. There is the same relative distance, in comparison +with actual size, between the atomic nucleus and the inner electronic circuit +as exists between the inner planet, Mercury, and your sun. + +The electronic axial revolutions and their orbital velocities about the atomic +nucleus are both beyond the human imagination, not to mention the velocities of +their component ultimatons. The positive particles of radium fly off into space +at the rate of ten thousand miles a second, while the negative particles attain +a velocity approximating that of light. + +The local universes are of decimal construction. There are just one hundred +distinguishable atomic materializations of space-energy in a dual universe; +that is the maximum possible organization of matter in Nebadon. These one +hundred forms of matter consist of a regular series in which from one to one +hundred electrons revolve around a central and relatively compact nucleus. It +is this orderly and dependable association of various energies that constitutes +matter. + +Not every world will show one hundred recognizable elements at the surface, but +they are somewhere present, have been present, or are in process of evolution. +Conditions surrounding the origin and subsequent evolution of a planet +determine how many of the one hundred atomic types will be observable. The +heavier atoms are not found on the surface of many worlds. Even on Urantia the +known heavier elements manifest a tendency to fly to pieces, as is illustrated +by radium behavior. + +Stability of the atom depends on the number of electrically inactive neutrons +in the central body. Chemical behavior is wholly dependent on the activity of +the freely revolving electrons. + + top of page - 478 + +In Orvonton it has never been possible naturally to assemble over one hundred +orbital electrons in one atomic system. When one hundred and one have been +artificially introduced into the orbital field, the result has always been the +well-nigh instantaneous disruption of the central proton with the wild +dispersion of the electrons and other liberated energies. + +While atoms may contain from one to one hundred orbital electrons, only the +outer ten electrons of the larger atoms revolve about the central nucleus as +distinct and discrete bodies, intactly and compactly swinging around on precise +and definite orbits. The thirty electrons nearest the center are difficult of +observation or detection as separate and organized bodies. This same +comparative ratio of electronic behavior in relation to nuclear proximity +obtains in all atoms regardless of the number of electrons embraced. The nearer +the nucleus, the less there is of electronic individuality. The wavelike energy +extension of an electron may so spread out as to occupy the whole of the lesser +atomic orbits; especially is this true of the electrons nearest the atomic +nucleus. + +The thirty innermost orbital electrons have individuality, but their energy +systems tend to intermingle, extending from electron to electron and well-nigh +from orbit to orbit. The next thirty electrons constitute the second family, or +energy zone, and are of advancing individuality, bodies of matter exerting a +more complete control over their attendant energy systems. The next thirty +electrons, the third energy zone, are still more individualized and circulate +in more distinct and definite orbits. The last ten electrons, present in only +the ten heaviest elements, are possessed of the dignity of independence and +are, therefore, able to escape more or less freely from the control of the +mother nucleus. With a minimum variation in temperature and pressure, the +members of this fourth and outermost group of electrons will escape from the +grasp of the central nucleus, as is illustrated by the spontaneous disruption +of uranium and kindred elements. + +The first twenty-seven atoms, those containing from one to twenty-seven orbital +electrons, are more easy of comprehension than the rest. From twenty-eight +upward we encounter more and more of the unpredictability of the supposed +presence of the Unqualified Absolute. But some of this electronic +unpredictability is due to differential ultimatonic axial revolutionary +velocities and to the unexplained "huddling" proclivity of ultimatons. Other +influences--physical, electrical, magnetic, and gravitational--also operate to +produce variable electronic behavior. Atoms therefore are similar to persons as +to predictability. Statisticians may announce laws governing a large number of +either atoms or persons but not for a single individual atom or person. + +8. ATOMIC COHESION + +While gravity is one of several factors concerned in holding together a tiny +atomic energy system, there is also present in and among these basic physical +units a powerful and unknown energy, the secret of their basic constitution and +ultimate behavior, a force which remains to be discovered on Urantia. This +universal influence permeates all the space embraced within this tiny energy +organization. + +The interelectronic space of an atom is not empty. Throughout an atom this +interelectronic space is activated by wavelike manifestations which are +perfectly + + top of page - 479 + +synchronized with electronic velocity and ultimatonic revolutions. This force +is not wholly dominated by your recognized laws of positive and negative +attraction; its behavior is therefore sometimes unpredictable. This unnamed +influence seems to be a space-force reaction of the Unqualified Absolute. + +The charged protons and the uncharged neutrons of the nucleus of the atom are +held together by the reciprocating function of the mesotron, a particle of +matter 180 times as heavy as the electron. Without this arrangement the +electric charge carried by the protons would be disruptive of the atomic +nucleus. + +As atoms are constituted, neither electric nor gravitational forces could hold +the nucleus together. The integrity of the nucleus is maintained by the +reciprocal cohering function of the mesotron, which is able to hold charged and +uncharged particles together because of superior force-mass power and by the +further function of causing protons and neutrons constantly to change places. +The mesotron causes the electric charge of the nuclear particles to be +incessantly tossed back and forth between protons and neutrons. At one +infinitesimal part of a second a given nuclear particle is a charged proton and +the next an uncharged neutron. And these alternations of energy status are so +unbelievably rapid that the electric charge is deprived of all opportunity to +function as a disruptive influence. Thus does the mesotron function as an +"energy-carrier" particle which mightily contributes to the nuclear stability +of the atom. + +The presence and function of the mesotron also explains another atomic riddle. +When atoms perform radioactively, they emit far more energy than would be +expected. This excess of radiation is derived from the breaking up of the +mesotron "energy carrier," which thereby becomes a mere electron. The +mesotronic disintegration is also accompanied by the emission of certain small +uncharged particles. + +The mesotron explains certain cohesive properties of the atomic nucleus, but it +does not account for the cohesion of proton to proton nor for the adhesion of +neutron to neutron. The paradoxical and powerful force of atomic cohesive +integrity is a form of energy as yet undiscovered on Urantia. + +These mesotrons are found abundantly in the space rays which so incessantly +impinge upon your planet. + +9. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY + +Religion is not alone dogmatic; natural philosophy equally tends to dogmatize. +When a renowned religious teacher reasoned that the number seven was +fundamental to nature because there are seven openings in the human head, if he +had known more of chemistry, he might have advocated such a belief founded on a +true phenomenon of the physical world. There is in all the physical universes +of time and space, notwithstanding the universal manifestation of the decimal +constitution of energy, the ever-present reminder of the reality of the +sevenfold electronic organization of prematter. + +The number seven is basic to the central universe and the spiritual system of +inherent transmissions of character, but the number ten, the decimal system, is +inherent in energy, matter, and the material creation. Nevertheless the atomic +world does display a certain periodic characterization which recurs in groups +of seven--a birthmark carried by this material world indicative of its +far-distant spiritual origin. + + top of page - 480 + +This sevenfold persistence of creative constitution is exhibited in the +chemical domains as a recurrence of similar physical and chemical properties in +segregated periods of seven when the basic elements are arranged in the order +of their atomic weights. When the Urantia chemical elements are thus arranged +in a row, any given quality or property tends to recur by sevens. This periodic +change by sevens recurs diminishingly and with variations throughout the entire +chemical table, being most markedly observable in the earlier or lighter atomic +groupings. Starting from any one element, after noting some one property, such +a quality will change for six consecutive elements, but on reaching the eighth, +it tends to reappear, that is, the eighth chemically active element resembles +the first, the ninth the second, and so on. Such a fact of the physical world +unmistakably points to the sevenfold constitution of ancestral energy and is +indicative of the fundamental reality of the sevenfold diversity of the +creations of time and space. Man should also note that there are seven colors +in the natural spectrum. + +But not all the suppositions of natural philosophy are valid; for example, the +hypothetical ether, which represents an ingenious attempt of man to unify his +ignorance of space phenomena. The philosophy of the universe cannot be +predicated on the observations of so-called science. If such a metamorphosis +could not be seen, a scientist would be inclined to deny the possibility of +developing a butterfly out of a caterpillar. + +Physical stability associated with biologic elasticity is present in nature +only because of the well-nigh infinite wisdom possessed by the Master +Architects of creation. Nothing less than transcendental wisdom could ever +design units of matter which are at the same time so stable and so efficiently +flexible. + +10. UNIVERSAL NONSPIRITUAL ENERGY SYSTEMS + +The endless sweep of relative cosmic reality from the absoluteness of Paradise +monota to the absoluteness of space potency, is suggestive of certain +evolutions of relationship in the nonspiritual realities of the First Source +and Center--those realities which are concealed in space potency, revealed in +monota, and provisionally disclosed on intervening cosmic levels. This eternal +cycle of energy, being circuited in the Father of universes, is absolute and, +being absolute, is expansile in neither fact nor value; nevertheless the Primal +Father is even now--as always--self-realizing of an ever-expanding arena of +time-space, and of time-space-transcended, meanings, an arena of changing +relationships wherein energy-matter is being progressively subjected to the +overcontrol of living and divine spirit through the experiential striving of +living and personal mind. + +The universal nonspiritual energies are reassociated in the living systems of +non-Creator minds on various levels, certain of which may be depicted as +follows: + +1. Preadjutant-spirit minds. This level of mind is nonexperiencing and on the +inhabited worlds is ministered by the Master Physical Controllers. This is +mechanical mind, the nonteachable intellect of the most primitive forms of +material life, but the nonteachable mind functions on many levels beside that +of primitive planetary life. + + top of page - 481 + +2. Adjutant-spirit minds. This is the ministry of a local universe Mother +Spirit functioning through her seven adjutant mind-spirits on the teachable +(nonmechanical) level of material mind. On this level material mind is +experiencing: as subhuman (animal) intellect in the first five adjutants; as +human (moral) intellect in the seven adjutants; as superhuman (midwayer) +intellect in the last two adjutants. + +3. Evolving morontia minds--the expanding consciousness of evolving +personalities in the local universe ascending careers. This is the bestowal of +the local universe Mother Spirit in liaison with the Creator Son. This mind +level connotes the organization of the morontia type of life vehicle, a +synthesis of the material and the spiritual which is effected by the Morontia +Power Supervisors of a local universe. Morontia mind functions differentially +in response to the 570 levels of morontia life, disclosing increasing +associative capacity with the cosmic mind on the higher levels of attainment. +This is the evolutionary course of mortal creatures, but mind of a nonmorontia +order is also bestowed by a Universe Son and a Universe Spirit upon the +nonmorontia children of the local creations. + +The cosmic mind. This is the sevenfold diversified mind of time and space, one +phase of which is ministered by each of the Seven Master Spirits to one of the +seven superuniverses. The cosmic mind encompasses all finite-mind levels and +co-ordinates experientially with the evolutionary-deity levels of the Supreme +Mind and transcendentally with the existential levels of absolute mind--the +direct circuits of the Conjoint Actor. + +On Paradise, mind is absolute; in Havona, absonite; in Orvonton, finite. Mind +always connotes the presence-activity of living ministry plus varied energy +systems, and this is true of all levels and of all kinds of mind. But beyond +the cosmic mind it becomes increasingly difficult to portray the relationships +of mind to nonspiritual energy. Havona mind is subabsolute but +superevolutionary; being existential-experiential, it is nearer the absonite +than any other concept revealed to you. Paradise mind is beyond human +understanding; it is existential, nonspatial, and nontemporal. Nevertheless, +all of these levels of mind are overshadowed by the universal presence of the +Conjoint Actor--by the mind-gravity grasp of the God of mind on Paradise. + +11. UNIVERSE MECHANISMS + +In the evaluation and recognition of mind it should be remembered that the +universe is neither mechanical nor magical; it is a creation of mind and a +mechanism of law. But while in practical application the laws of nature operate +in what seems to be the dual realms of the physical and the spiritual, in +reality they are one. The First Source and Center is the primal cause of all +materialization and at the same time the first and final Father of all spirits. +The Paradise Father appears personally in the extra-Havona universes only as +pure energy and pure spirit--as the Thought Adjusters and other similar +fragmentations. + +Mechanisms do not absolutely dominate the total creation; the universe of +universes in toto is mind planned, mind made, and mind administered. But the +divine mechanism of the universe of universes is altogether too perfect for the +scientific methods of the finite mind of man to discern even a trace of the +dominance of the infinite mind. For this creating, controlling, and upholding +mind + + top of page - 482 + +is neither material mind nor creature mind; it is spirit-mind functioning on +and from creator levels of divine reality. + +The ability to discern and discover mind in universe mechanisms depends +entirely on the ability, scope, and capacity of the investigating mind engaged +in such a task of observation. Time-space minds, organized out of the energies +of time and space, are subject to the mechanisms of time and space. + +Motion and universe gravitation are twin facets of the impersonal time-space +mechanism of the universe of universes. The levels of gravity response for +spirit, mind, and matter are quite independent of time, but only true spirit +levels of reality are independent of space (nonspatial). The higher mind levels +of the universe--the spirit-mind levels--may also be nonspatial, but the levels +of material mind, such as human mind, are responsive to the interactions of +universe gravitation, losing this response only in proportion to spirit +identification. Spirit-reality levels are recognized by their spirit content, +and spirituality in time and space is measured inversely to the linear-gravity +response. + +Linear-gravity response is a quantitative measure of nonspirit energy. All +mass--organized energy--is subject to this grasp except as motion and mind act +upon it. Linear gravity is the short-range cohesive force of the macrocosmos +somewhat as the forces of intra-atomic cohesion are the short-range forces of +the microcosmos. Physical materialized energy, organized as so-called matter, +cannot traverse space without affecting linear-gravity response. Although such +gravity response is directly proportional to mass, it is so modified by +intervening space that the final result is no more than roughly approximated +when expressed as inversely according to the square of the distance. Space +eventually conquers linear gravitation because of the presence therein of the +antigravity influences of numerous supermaterial forces which operate to +neutralize gravity action and all responses thereto. + +Extremely complex and highly automatic-appearing cosmic mechanisms always tend +to conceal the presence of the originative or creative indwelling mind from any +and all intelligences very far below the universe levels of the nature and +capacity of the mechanism itself. Therefore is it inevitable that the higher +universe mechanisms must appear to be mindless to the lower orders of +creatures. The only possible exception to such a conclusion would be the +implication of mindedness in the amazing phenomenon of an apparently +self-maintaining universe--but that is a matter of philosophy rather than one +of actual experience. + +Since mind co-ordinates the universe, fixity of mechanisms is nonexistent. The +phenomenon of progressive evolution associated with cosmic self-maintenance is +universal. The evolutionary capacity of the universe is inexhaustible in the +infinity of spontaneity. Progress towards harmonious unity, a growing +experiential synthesis superimposed on an ever-increasing complexity of +relationships, could be effected only by a purposive and dominant mind. + +The higher the universe mind associated with any universe phenomenon, the more +difficult it is for the lower types of mind to discover it. And since the mind +of the universe mechanism is creative spirit-mind (even the mindedness of the +Infinite), it can never be discovered or discerned by the lower-level minds of +the universe, much less by the lowest mind of all, the human. The evolving +animal mind, while naturally God-seeking, is not alone and of itself inherently +God-knowing. + + top of page - 483 + +12. PATTERN AND FORM--MIND DOMINANCE + +The evolution of mechanisms implies and indicates the concealed presence and +dominance of creative mind. The ability of the mortal intellect to conceive, +design, and create automatic mechanisms demonstrates the superior, creative, +and purposive qualities of man's mind as the dominant influence on the planet. +Mind always reaches out towards: + +1. Creation of material mechanisms. + +2. Discovery of hidden mysteries. + +3. Exploration of remote situations. + +4. Formulation of mental systems. + +5. Attainment of wisdom goals. + +6. Achievement of spirit levels. + +7. The accomplishment of divine destinies--supreme, ultimate, and absolute. + +Mind is always creative. The mind endowment of an individual animal, mortal, +morontian, spirit ascender, or finality attainer is always competent to produce +a suitable and serviceable body for the living creature identity. But the +presence phenomenon of a personality or the pattern of an identity, as such, is +not a manifestation of energy, either physical, mindal, or spiritual. The +personality form is the pattern aspect of a living being; it connotes the +arrangement of energies, and this, plus life and motion, is the mechanism of +creature existence. + +Even spirit beings have form, and these spirit forms (patterns) are real. Even +the highest type of spirit personalities have forms--personality presences in +every sense analogous to Urantia mortal bodies. Nearly all beings encountered +in the seven superuniverses are possessed of forms. But there are a few +exceptions to this general rule: Thought Adjusters appear to be without form +until after fusion with the surviving souls of their mortal associates. +Solitary Messengers, Inspired Trinity Spirits, Personal Aids of the Infinite +Spirit, Gravity Messengers, Transcendental Recorders, and certain others are +also without discoverable form. But these are typical of the exceptional few; +the great majority have bona fide personality forms, forms which are +individually characteristic, and which are recognizable and personally +distinguishable. + +The liaison of the cosmic mind and the ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits +evolve a suitable physical tabernacle for the evolving human being. Likewise +does the morontia mind individualize the morontia form for all mortal +survivors. As the mortal body is personal and characteristic for every human +being, so will the morontia form be highly individual and adequately +characteristic of the creative mind which dominates it. No two morontia forms +are any more alike than any two human bodies. The Morontia Power Supervisors +sponsor, and the attending seraphim provide, the undifferentiated morontia +material wherewith the morontia life can begin to work. And after the morontia +life it will be found that spirit forms are equally diverse, personal, and +characteristic of their respective spirit-mind indwellers. + +On a material world you think of a body as having a spirit, but we regard the +spirit as having a body. The material eyes are truly the windows of the spirit- + + top of page - 484 + +born soul. The spirit is the architect, the mind is the builder, the body is +the material building. + +Physical, spiritual, and mindal energies, as such and in their pure states, do +not fully interact as actuals of the phenomenal universes. On Paradise the +three energies are co-ordinate, in Havona co-ordinated, while in the universe +levels of finite activities there must be encountered all ranges of material, +mindal, and spiritual dominance. In nonpersonal situations of time and space, +physical energy seems to predominate, but it also appears that the more nearly +spirit-mind function approaches divinity of purpose and supremacy of action, +the more nearly does the spirit phase become dominant; that on the ultimate +level spirit-mind may become all but completely dominant. On the absolute level +spirit certainly is dominant. And from there on out through the realms of time +and space, wherever a divine spirit reality is present, whenever a real +spirit-mind is functioning, there always tends to be produced a material or +physical counterpart of that spirit reality. + +The spirit is the creative reality; the physical counterpart is the time-space +reflection of the spirit reality, the physical repercussion of the creative +action of spirit-mind. + +Mind universally dominates matter, even as it is in turn responsive to the +ultimate overcontrol of spirit. And with mortal man, only that mind which +freely submits itself to the spirit direction can hope to survive the mortal +time-space existence as an immortal child of the eternal spirit world of the +Supreme, the Ultimate, and the Absolute: the Infinite. + +[Presented by a Mighty Messenger on duty in Nebadon and by the request of +Gabriel.] + + top of page - 485 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Physical ³ The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Aspect... ³ Constellati... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p043.txt b/religious documents/p043.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c7bd56 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p043.txt @@ -0,0 +1,700 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 43 The Constellations + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 43 The Constellations + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +URANTIA is commonly referred to as 606 of Satania in Norlatiadek of Nebadon, +meaning the six hundred sixth inhabited world in the local system of Satania, +situated in the constellation of Norlatiadek, one of the one hundred +constellations of the local universe of Nebadon. Constellations being the +primary divisions of a local universe, their rulers link the local systems of +inhabited worlds to the central administration of the local universe on +Salvington and by reflectivity to the superadministration of the Ancients of +Days on Uversa. + +The government of your constellation is situated in a cluster of 771 +architectural spheres, the centermost and largest of which is Edentia, the seat +of the administration of the Constellation Fathers, the Most Highs of +Norlatiadek. Edentia itself is approximately one hundred times as large as your +world. The seventy major spheres surrounding Edentia are about ten times the +size of Urantia, while the ten satellites which revolve around each of these +seventy worlds are about the size of Urantia. These 771 architectural spheres +are quite comparable in size to those of other constellations. + +Edentia time reckoning and distance measurement are those of Salvington, and +like the spheres of the universe capital, the constellation headquarters worlds +are fully supplied with all orders of celestial intelligences. In general, +these personalities are not very different from those described in connection +with the universe administration. + +The supervisor seraphim, the third order of local universe angels, are assigned +to the service of the constellations. They make their headquarters on the +capital spheres and minister extensively to the encircling morontia-training +worlds. In Norlatiadek the seventy major spheres, together with the seven +hundred minor satellites, are inhabited by the univitatia, the permanent +citizens of the constellation. All these architectural worlds are fully +administered by the various groups of native life, for the greater part +unrevealed but including the efficient spironga and the beautiful spornagia. +Being the mid-point in the morontia-training regime, as you might suspect, the +morontia life of the constellations is both typical and ideal. + +1. THE CONSTELLATION HEADQUARTERS + +Edentia abounds in fascinating highlands, extensive elevations of physical +matter crowned with morontia life and overspread with spiritual glory, but +there are no rugged mountain ranges such as appear on Urantia. There are tens +of thousands of sparkling lakes and thousands upon thousands of interconnecting + + top of page - 486 + +streams, but there are no great oceans nor torrential rivers. Only the +highlands are devoid of these surface streams. + +The water of Edentia and similar architectural spheres is no different from the +water of the evolutionary planets. The water systems of such spheres are both +surface and subterranean, and the moisture is in constant circulation. Edentia +can be circumnavigated via these various water routes, though the chief channel +of transportation is the atmosphere. Spirit beings would naturally travel above +the surface of the sphere, while the morontia and material beings make use of +material and semimaterial means to negotiate atmospheric passage. + +Edentia and its associated worlds have a true atmosphere, the usual three-gas +mixture which is characteristic of such architectural creations, and which +embodies the two elements of Urantian atmosphere plus that morontia gas +suitable for the respiration of morontia creatures. But while this atmosphere +is both material and morontial, there are no storms or hurricanes; neither is +there summer nor winter. This absence of atmospheric disturbances and of +seasonal variation makes it possible to embellish all outdoors on these +especially created worlds. + +The Edentia highlands are magnificent physical features, and their beauty is +enhanced by the endless profusion of life which abounds throughout their length +and breadth. Excepting a few rather isolated structures, these highlands +contain no work of creature hands. Material and morontial ornamentations are +limited to the dwelling areas. The lesser elevations are the sites of special +residences and are beautifully embellished with both biologic and morontia art. + +Situated on the summit of the seventh highland range are the resurrection halls +of Edentia, wherein awaken the ascending mortals of the secondary modified +order of ascension. These chambers of creature reassembly are under the +supervision of the Melchizedeks. The first of the receiving spheres of Edentia +(like the planet Melchizedek near Salvington) also has special resurrection +halls, wherein the mortals of the modified orders of ascension are reassembled. + +The Melchizedeks also maintain two special colleges on Edentia. One, the +emergency school, is devoted to the study of problems growing out of the +Satania rebellion. The other, the bestowal school, is dedicated to the mastery +of the new problems arising out of the fact that Michael made his final +bestowal on one of the worlds of Norlatiadek. This latter college was +established almost forty thousand years ago, immediately after the announcement +by Michael that Urantia had been selected as the world for his final bestowal. + +The sea of glass, the receiving area of Edentia, is near the administrative +center and is encircled by the headquarters amphitheater. Surrounding this area +are the governing centers for the seventy divisions of constellation affairs. +One half of Edentia is divided into seventy triangular sections, whose +boundaries converge at the headquarters buildings of their respective sectors. +The remainder of this sphere is one vast natural park, the gardens of God. + +During your periodic visits to Edentia, though the entire planet is open to +your inspection, most of your time will be spent in that administrative +triangle whose number corresponds to that of your current residential world. +You will always be welcome as an observer in the legislative assemblies. + +The morontia area assigned to ascending mortals resident on Edentia is located +in the mid-zone of the thirty-fifth triangle adjoining the headquarters of the +finaliters, situated in the thirty-sixth triangle. The general headquarters + + top of page - 487 + +of the univitatia occupies an enormous area in the mid-region of the +thirty-fourth triangle immediately adjoining the residential reservation of the +morontia citizens. From these arrangements it may be seen that provision is +made for the accommodation of at least seventy major divisions of celestial +life, and also that each of these seventy triangular areas is correlated with +some one of the seventy major spheres of morontia training. + +The Edentia sea of glass is one enormous circular crystal about one hundred +miles in circumference and about thirty miles in depth. This magnificent +crystal serves as the receiving field for all transport seraphim and other +beings arriving from points outside the sphere; such a sea of glass greatly +facilitates the landing of transport seraphim. + +A crystal field on this order is found on almost all architectural worlds; and +it serves many purposes aside from its decorative value, being utilized for +portraying superuniverse reflectivity to assembled groups and as a factor in +the energy-transformation technique for modifying the currents of space and for +adapting other incoming physical-energy streams. + +2. THE CONSTELLATION GOVERNMENT + +The constellations are the autonomous units of a local universe, each +constellation being administered according to its own legislative enactments. +When the courts of Nebadon sit in judgment on universe affairs, all internal +matters are adjudicated in accordance with the laws prevailing in the +constellation concerned. These judicial decrees of Salvington, together with +the legislative enactments of the constellations, are executed by the +administrators of the local systems. + +Constellations thus function as the legislative or lawmaking units, while the +local systems serve as the executive or enforcement units. The Salvington +government is the supreme judicial and co-ordinating authority. + +While the supreme judicial function rests with the central administration of a +local universe, there are two subsidiary but major tribunals at the +headquarters of each constellation, the Melchizedek council and the court of +the Most High. + +All judicial problems are first reviewed by the council of the Melchizedeks. +Twelve of this order who have had certain requisite experience on the +evolutionary planets and on the system headquarters worlds are empowered to +review evidence, digest pleas, and formulate provisional verdicts, which are +passed on to the court of the Most High, the reigning Constellation Father. The +mortal division of this latter tribunal consists of seven judges, all of whom +are ascendant mortals. The higher you ascend in the universe, the more certain +you are to be judged by those of your own kind. + +The constellation legislative body is divided into three groups. The +legislative program of a constellation originates in the lower house of +ascenders, a group presided over by a finaliter and consisting of one thousand +representative mortals. Each system nominates ten members to sit in this +deliberative assembly. On Edentia this body is not fully recruited at the +present time. + +The mid-chamber of legislators is composed of the seraphic hosts and their +associates, other children of the local universe Mother Spirit. This group +numbers one hundred and is nominated by the supervising personalities who +preside + + top of page - 488 + +over the various activities of such beings as they function within the +constellation. + +The advisory or highest body of constellation legislators consists of the house +of peers--the house of the divine Sons. This corps is chosen by the Most High +Fathers and numbers ten. Only Sons of special experience may serve in this +upper house. This is the fact-finding and timesaving group which very +effectively serves both of the lower divisions of the legislative assembly. + +The combined council of legislators consists of three members from each of +these separate branches of the constellation deliberative assembly and is +presided over by the reigning junior Most High. This group sanctions the final +form of all enactments and authorizes their promulgation by the broadcasters. +The approval of this supreme commission renders legislative enactments the law +of the realm; their acts are final. The legislative pronouncements of Edentia +constitute the fundamental law of all Norlatiadek. + +3. THE MOST HIGHS OF NORLATIADEK + +The rulers of the constellations are of the Vorondadek order of local universe +sonship. When commissioned to active duty in the universe as constellation +rulers or otherwise, these Sons are known as the Most Highs since they embody +the highest administrative wisdom, coupled with the most farseeing and +intelligent loyalty, of all the orders of the Local Universe Sons of God. Their +personal integrity and their group loyalty have never been questioned; no +disaffection of the Vorondadek Sons has ever occurred in Nebadon. + +At least three Vorondadek Sons are commissioned by Gabriel as the Most Highs of +each of the Nebadon constellations. The presiding member of this trio is known +as the Constellation Father and his two associates as the senior Most High and +the junior Most High. A Constellation Father reigns for ten thousand standard +years (about 50,000 Urantia years), having previously served as junior +associate and as senior associate for equal periods. + +The Psalmist knew that Edentia was ruled by three Constellation Fathers and +accordingly spoke of their abode in the plural: "There is a river, the streams +whereof shall make glad the city of God, the most holy place of the tabernacles +of the Most Highs." + +Down through the ages there has been great confusion on Urantia regarding the +various universe rulers. Many later teachers confused their vague and +indefinite tribal deities with the Most High Fathers. Still later, the Hebrews +merged all of these celestial rulers into a composite Deity. One teacher +understood that the Most Highs were not the Supreme Rulers, for he said, "He +who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of +the Almighty." In the Urantia records it is very difficult at times to know +exactly who is referred to by the term "Most High." But Daniel fully understood +these matters. He said, "The Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it +to whomsoever he will." + +The Constellation Fathers are little occupied with the individuals of an +inhabited planet, but they are closely associated with those legislative and +lawmaking functions of the constellations which so greatly concern every mortal +race and national group of the inhabited worlds. + + top of page - 489 + +Although the constellation regime stands between you and the universe +administration, as individuals you would ordinarily be little concerned with +the constellation government. Your great interest would normally center in the +local system, Satania; but temporarily, Urantia is closely related to the +constellation rulers because of certain system and planetary conditions growing +out of the Lucifer rebellion. + +The Edentia Most Highs seized certain phases of planetary authority on the +rebellious worlds at the time of the Lucifer secession. They have continued to +exercise this power, and the Ancients of Days long since confirmed this +assumption of control over these wayward worlds. They will no doubt continue to +exercise this assumed jurisdiction as long as Lucifer lives. Much of this +authority would ordinarily, in a loyal system, be invested in the System +Sovereign. + +But there is still another way in which Urantia became peculiarly related to +the Most Highs. When Michael, the Creator Son, was on his terminal bestowal +mission, since the successor of Lucifer was not in full authority in the local +system, all Urantia affairs which concerned the Michael bestowal were +immediately supervised by the Most Highs of Norlatiadek. + +4. MOUNT ASSEMBLY--THE FAITHFUL OF DAYS + +The most holy mount of assembly is the dwelling place of the Faithful of Days, +the representative of the Paradise Trinity who functions on Edentia. + +This Faithful of Days is a Trinity Son of Paradise and has been present on +Edentia as the personal representative of Immanuel since the creation of the +headquarters world. Ever the Faithful of Days stands at the right hand of the +Constellation Fathers to counsel them, but never does he proffer advice unless +it is asked for. The high Sons of Paradise never participate in the conduct of +the affairs of a local universe except upon the petition of the acting rulers +of such domains. But all that a Union of Days is to a Creator Son, a Faithful +of Days is to the Most Highs of a constellation. + +The residence of the Edentia Faithful of Days is the constellation center of +the Paradise system of extrauniverse communication and intelligence. These +Trinity Sons, with their staffs of Havona and Paradise personalities, in +liaison with the supervising Union of Days, are in direct and constant +communication with their order throughout all the universes, even to Havona and +Paradise. + +The most holy mount is exquisitely beautiful and marvelously appointed, but the +actual residence of the Paradise Son is modest in comparison with the central +abode of the Most Highs and the surrounding seventy structures comprising the +residential unit of the Vorondadek Sons. These appointments are exclusively +residential; they are entirely separate from the extensive administrative +headquarters buildings wherein the affairs of the constellation are transacted. + +The residence of the Faithful of Days on Edentia is located to the north of +these residences of the Most Highs and is known as the "mount of Paradise +assembly." On this consecrated highland the ascending mortals periodically +assemble to hear this Son of Paradise tell of the long and intriguing journey +of progressing mortals through the one billion perfection worlds of Havona and +on to the indescribable delights of Paradise. And it is at these special +gatherings on Mount Assembly that the morontia mortals become more fully +acquainted with the various groups of personalities of origin in the central +universe. + + top of page - 490 + +The traitorous Lucifer, onetime sovereign of Satania, in announcing his claims +to increased jurisdiction, sought to displace all superior orders of sonship in +the governmental plan of the local universe. He purposed in his heart, saying: +"I will exalt my throne above the Sons of God; I will sit upon the mount of +assembly in the north; I will be like the Most High." + +The one hundred System Sovereigns come periodically to the Edentia conclaves +which deliberate on the welfare of the constellation. After the Satania +rebellion the archrebels of Jerusem were wont to come up to these Edentia +councils just as they had on former occasions. And there was found no way to +stop this arrogant effrontery until after the bestowal of Michael on Urantia +and his subsequent assumption of unlimited sovereignty throughout all Nebadon. +Never, since that day, have these instigators of sin been permitted to sit in +the Edentia councils of the loyal System Sovereigns. + +That the teachers of olden times knew of these things is shown by the record: +"And there was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the +Most Highs, and Satan came also and presented himself among them." And this is +a statement of fact regardless of the connection in which it chances to appear. + +Since the triumph of Christ, all Norlatiadek is being cleansed of sin and +rebels. Sometime before Michael's death in the flesh the fallen Lucifer's +associate, Satan, sought to attend such an Edentia conclave, but the +solidification of sentiment against the archrebels had reached the point where +the doors of sympathy were so well-nigh universally closed that there could be +found no standing ground for the Satania adversaries. When there exists no open +door for the reception of evil, there exists no opportunity for the +entertainment of sin. The doors of the hearts of all Edentia closed against +Satan; he was unanimously rejected by the assembled System Sovereigns, and it +was at this time that the Son of Man "beheld Satan fall as lightning from +heaven." + +Since the Lucifer rebellion a new structure has been provided near the +residence of the Faithful of Days. This temporary edifice is the headquarters +of the Most High liaison, who functions in close touch with the Paradise Son as +adviser to the constellation government in all matters respecting the policy +and attitude of the order of Days toward sin and rebellion. + +5. THE EDENTIA FATHERS SINCE THE LUCIFER REBELLION + +The rotation of the Most Highs on Edentia was suspended at the time of the +Lucifer rebellion. We now have the same rulers who were on duty at that time. +We infer that no change in these rulers will be made until Lucifer and his +associates are finally disposed of. + +The present government of the constellation, however, has been expanded to +include twelve Sons of the Vorondadek order. These twelve are as follows: + +1. The Constellation Father. The present Most High ruler of Norlatiadek is +number 617,318 of the Vorondadek series of Nebadon. He saw service in many +constellations throughout our local universe before taking up his Edentia +responsibilities. + +2. The senior Most High associate. + + top of page - 491 + +3. The junior Most High associate. + +4. The Most High adviser, the personal representative of Michael since his +attainment of the status of a Master Son. + +5. The Most High executive, the personal representative of Gabriel stationed on +Edentia ever since the Lucifer rebellion. + +6. The Most High chief of planetary observers, the director of the Vorondadek +observers stationed on the isolated worlds of Satania. + +7. The Most High referee, the Vorondadek Son intrusted with the duty of +adjusting all difficulties consequential to rebellion within the constellation. + +8. The Most High emergency administrator, the Vorondadek Son charged with the +task of adapting the emergency enactments of the Norlatiadek legislature to the +rebellion-isolated worlds of Satania. + +9. The Most High mediator, the Vorondadek Son assigned to harmonize the special +bestowal adjustments on Urantia with the routine administration of the +constellation. The presence of certain archangel activities and numerous other +irregular ministrations on Urantia, together with the special activities of the +Brilliant Evening Stars on Jerusem, necessitates the functioning of this Son. + +10. The Most High judge-advocate, the head of the emergency tribunal devoted to +the adjustment of the special problems of Norlatiadek growing out of the +confusion consequent upon the Satania rebellion. + +11. The Most High liaison, the Vorondadek Son attached to the Edentia rulers +but commissioned as a special counselor with the Faithful of Days regarding the +best course to pursue in the management of problems pertaining to rebellion and +creature disloyalty. + +12. The Most High director, the president of the emergency council of Edentia. +All personalities assigned to Norlatiadek because of the Satania upheaval +constitute the emergency council, and their presiding officer is a Vorondadek +Son of extraordinary experience. + +And this takes no account of the numerous Vorondadeks, envoys of Nebadon +constellations, and others who are also resident on Edentia. + +Ever since the Lucifer rebellion the Edentia Fathers have exercised a special +care over Urantia and the other isolated worlds of Satania. Long ago the +prophet recognized the controlling hand of the Constellation Fathers in the +affairs of nations. "When the Most High divided to the nations their +inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the +people." + +Every quarantined or isolated world has a Vorondadek Son acting as an observer. +He does not participate in planetary administration except when ordered by the +Constellation Father to intervene in the affairs of the nations. Actually it is +this Most High observer who "rules in the kingdoms of men." Urantia is one of +the isolated worlds of Norlatiadek, and a Vorondadek observer has been +stationed on the planet ever since the Caligastia betrayal. When Machiventa +Melchizedek ministered in semimaterial form on Urantia, he paid respectful +homage to the Most High observer then on duty, as it is written, "And +Melchizedek, king of Salem, was the priest of the Most High." Melchizedek +revealed the relations of this Most High observer to Abraham when he said, "And +blessed be the Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand." + + top of page - 492 + +6. THE GARDENS OF GOD + +The system capitals are particularly beautified with material and mineral +constructions, while the universe headquarters is more reflective of spiritual +glory, but the capitals of the constellations are the acme of morontia +activities and living embellishments. On the constellation headquarters worlds +living embellishment is more generally utilized, and it is this preponderance +of life--botanic artistry--that causes these worlds to be called "the gardens +of God." + +About one half of Edentia is devoted to the exquisite gardens of the Most +Highs, and these gardens are among the most entrancing morontia creations of +the local universe. This explains why the extraordinarily beautiful places on +the inhabited worlds of Norlatiadek are so often called "the garden of Eden." + +Centrally located in this magnificent garden is the worship shrine of the Most +Highs. The Psalmist must have known something about these things, for he wrote: +"Who shall ascend the hill of the Most Highs? Who shall stand in this holy +place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul +to vanity nor sworn deceitfully." At this shrine the Most Highs, on every tenth +day of relaxation, lead all Edentia in the worshipful contemplation of God the +Supreme. + +The architectural worlds enjoy ten forms of life of the material order. On +Urantia there is plant and animal life, but on such a world as Edentia there +are ten divisions of the material orders of life. Were you to view these ten +divisions of Edentia life, you would quickly classify the first three as +vegetable and the last three as animal, but you would be utterly unable to +comprehend the nature of the intervening four groups of prolific and +fascinating forms of life. + +Even the distinctively animal life is very different from that of the +evolutionary worlds, so different that it is quite impossible to portray to +mortal minds the unique character and affectionate nature of these nonspeaking +creatures. There are thousands upon thousands of living creatures which your +imagination could not possibly picture. The whole animal creation is of an +entirely different order from the gross animal species of the evolutionary +planets. But all this animal life is most intelligent and exquisitely +serviceable, and all the various species are surprisingly gentle and touchingly +companionable. There are no carnivorous creatures on such architectural worlds; +there is nothing in all Edentia to make any living being afraid. + +The vegetable life is also very different from that of Urantia, consisting of +both material and morontia varieties. The material growths have a +characteristic green coloration, but the morontia equivalents of vegetative +life have a violet or orchid tinge of varying hue and reflection. Such morontia +vegetation is purely an energy growth; when eaten there is no residual portion. + +Being endowed with ten divisions of physical life, not to mention the morontia +variations, these architectural worlds provide tremendous possibilities for the +biologic beautification of the landscape and of the material and the morontia +structures. The celestial artisans direct the native spornagia in this +extensive work of botanic decoration and biologic embellishment. Whereas your +artists must resort to inert paint and lifeless marble to portray their +concepts, the celestial artisans and the univitatia more frequently utilize +living materials to represent their ideas and to capture their ideals. + + top of page - 493 + +If you enjoy the flowers, shrubs, and trees of Urantia, then will you feast +your eyes upon the botanical beauty and the floral grandeur of the supernal +gardens of Edentia. But it is beyond my powers of description to undertake to +convey to the mortal mind an adequate concept of these beauties of the heavenly +worlds. Truly, eye has not seen such glories as await your arrival on these +worlds of the mortal-ascension adventure. + +7. THE UNIVITATIA + +Univitatia are the permanent citizens of Edentia and its associated worlds, all +seven hundred seventy worlds surrounding the constellation headquarters being +under their supervision. These children of the Creator Son and the Creative +Spirit are projected on a plane of existence in between the material and the +spiritual, but they are not morontia creatures. The natives of each of the +seventy major spheres of Edentia possess different visible forms, and the +morontia mortals have their morontia forms attuned to correspond with the +ascending scale of the univitatia each time they change residence from one +Edentia sphere to another as they pass successively from world number one to +world number seventy. + +Spiritually, the univitatia are alike; intellectually, they vary as do mortals; +in form, they much resemble the morontia state of existence, and they are +created to function in seventy diverse orders of personality. Each of these +orders of univitatia exhibits ten major variations of intellectual activity, +and each of these varying intellectual types presides over the special training +and cultural schools of progressive occupational or practical socialization on +some one of the ten satellites which swing around each of the major Edentia +worlds. + +These seven hundred minor worlds are technical spheres of practical education +in the working of the entire local universe and are open to all classes of +intelligent beings. These training schools of special skill and technical +knowledge are not conducted exclusively for ascending mortals, although +morontia students constitute by far the largest group of all those who attend +these courses of training. When you are received on any one of the seventy +major worlds of social culture, you are immediately given clearance for each of +the ten surrounding satellites. + +In the various courtesy colonies, ascending morontia mortals predominate among +the reversion directors, but the univitatia represent the largest group +associated with the Nebadon corps of celestial artisans. In all Orvonton no +extra-Havona beings excepting the Uversa abandonters can equal the univitatia +in artistic skill, social adaptability, and co-ordinating cleverness. + +These citizens of the constellation are not actually members of the artisan +corps, but they freely work with all groups and contribute much to making the +constellation worlds the chief spheres for the realization of the magnificent +artistic possibilities of transition culture. They do not function beyond the +confines of the constellation headquarters worlds. + +8. THE EDENTIA TRAINING WORLDS + +The physical endowment of Edentia and its surrounding spheres is well-nigh +perfect; they could hardly equal the spiritual grandeur of the spheres of +Salvington, but they far surpass the glories of the training worlds of Jerusem. +All + + top of page - 494 + +these Edentia spheres are energized directly by the universal space currents, +and their enormous power systems, both material and morontial, are expertly +supervised and distributed by the constellation centers, assisted by a +competent corps of Master Physical Controllers and Morontia Power Supervisors. + +The time spent on the seventy training worlds of transition morontia culture +associated with the Edentia age of mortal ascension, is the most settled period +in an ascending mortal's career up to the status of a finaliter; this is really +the typical morontia life. While you are re-keyed each time you pass from one +major cultural world to another, you retain the same morontia body, and there +are no periods of personality unconsciousness. + +Your sojourn on Edentia and its associated spheres will be chiefly occupied +with the mastery of group ethics, the secret of pleasant and profitable +interrelationship between the various universe and superuniverse orders of +intelligent personalities. + +On the mansion worlds you completed the unification of the evolving mortal +personality; on the system capital you attained Jerusem citizenship and +achieved the willingness to submit the self to the disciplines of group +activities and co-ordinated undertakings; but now on the constellation training +worlds you are to achieve the real socialization of your evolving morontia +personality. This supernal cultural acquirement consists in learning how to: + +1. Live happily and work effectively with ten diverse fellow morontians, while +ten such groups are associated in companies of one hundred and then federated +in corps of one thousand. + +2. Abide joyfully and co-operate heartily with ten univitatia, who, though +similar intellectually to morontia beings, are very different in every other +way. And then must you function with this group of ten as it co-ordinates with +ten other families, which are in turn confederated into a corps of one thousand +univitatia. + +3. Achieve simultaneous adjustment to both fellow morontians and these host +univitatia. Acquire the ability voluntarily and effectively to co-operate with +your own order of beings in close working association with a somewhat +dissimilar group of intelligent creatures. + +4. While thus socially functioning with beings like and unlike yourself, +achieve intellectual harmony with, and make vocational adjustment to, both +groups of associates. + +5. While attaining satisfactory socialization of the personality on +intellectual and vocational levels, further perfect the ability to live in +intimate contact with similar and slightly dissimilar beings with +ever-lessening irritability and ever-diminishing resentment. The reversion +directors contribute much to this latter attainment through their group-play +activities. + +6. Adjust all of these various socialization techniques to the furtherance of +the progressive co-ordination of the Paradise-ascension career; augment +universe insight by enhancing the ability to grasp the eternal goal-meanings +concealed within these seemingly insignificant time-space activities. + +7. And then, climax all of these procedures of multisocialization with the +concurrent enhancement of spiritual insight as it pertains to the augmentation +of all phases of personal endowment through group spiritual association and +morontia co-ordination. Intellectually, socially, and spiritually two moral +crea- + + top of page - 495 + +tures do not merely double their personal potentials of universe achievement by +partnership technique; they more nearly quadruple their attainment and +accomplishment possibilities. + +We have portrayed Edentia socialization as an association of a morontia mortal +with a univitatia family group consisting of ten intellectually dissimilar +individuals concomitant with a similar association with ten fellow morontians. +But on the first seven major worlds only one ascending mortal lives with ten +univitatia. On the second group of seven major worlds two mortals abide with +each native group of ten, and so on up until, on the last group of seven major +spheres, ten morontia beings are domiciled with ten univitatia. As you learn +how better to socialize with the univitatia, you will practice such improved +ethics in your relations with your fellow morontia progressors. + +As ascending mortals you will enjoy your sojourn on the progress worlds of +Edentia, but you will not experience that personal thrill of satisfaction which +characterizes your initial contact with universe affairs on the system +headquarters or your farewell touch with these realities on the final worlds of +the universe capital. + +9. CITIZENSHIP ON EDENTIA + +After graduation from world number seventy, ascending mortals take up residence +on Edentia. Ascenders now, for the first time, attend the "assemblies of +Paradise" and hear the story of their far-flung career as it is depicted by the +Faithful of Days, the first of the Supreme Trinity-origin Personalities they +have met. + +This entire sojourn on the constellation training worlds, culminating in +Edentia citizenship, is a period of true and heavenly bliss for the morontia +progressors. Throughout your sojourn on the system worlds you were evolving +from a near-animal to a morontia creature; you were more material than +spiritual. On the Salvington spheres you will be evolving from a morontia being +to the status of a true spirit; you will be more spiritual than material. But +on Edentia, ascenders are midway between their former and their future estates, +midway in their passage from evolutionary animal to ascending spirit. During +your whole stay on Edentia and its worlds you are "as the angels"; you are +constantly progressing but all the while maintaining a general and a typical +morontia status. + +This constellation sojourn of an ascending mortal is the most uniform and +stabilized epoch in the entire career of morontia progression. This experience +constitutes the prespirit socialization training of the ascenders. It is +analogous to the prefinaliter spiritual experience of Havona and to the +preabsonite training on Paradise. + +Ascending mortals on Edentia are chiefly occupied with the assignments on the +seventy progressive univitatia worlds. They also serve in varied capacities on +Edentia itself, mainly in conjunction with the constellation program concerned +with group, racial, national, and planetary welfare. The Most Highs are not so +much engaged in fostering individual advancement on the inhabited worlds; they +rule in the kingdoms of men rather than in the hearts of individuals. + +And on that day when you are prepared to leave Edentia for the Salvington +career, you will pause and look back on one of the most beautiful and most re- + + top of page - 496 + +freshing of all your epochs of training this side of Paradise. But the glory of +it all augments as you ascend inward and achieve increased capacity for +enlarged appreciation of divine meanings and spiritual values. + +[Sponsored by Malavatia Melchizedek.] + + top of page - 497 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Energy--mind ³ The Celestial ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ An... ³ A... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p044.txt b/religious documents/p044.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee0e5e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p044.txt @@ -0,0 +1,745 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 44 The Celestial Artisans + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 44 The Celestial Artisans + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AMONG the courtesy colonies of the various divisional and universe headquarters +worlds may be found the unique order of composite personalities denominated the +celestial artisans. These beings are the master artists and artisans of the +morontia and lower spirit realms. They are the spirits and semispirits who are +engaged in morontia embellishment and in spiritual beautification. Such +artisans are distributed throughout the grand universe--on the headquarters +worlds of the superuniverses, the local universes, the constellations, and +systems, as well as on all spheres settled in light and life; but their chief +realm of activity is in the constellations and especially on the seven hundred +seventy worlds surrounding each headquarters sphere. + +Though their work may be almost incomprehensible to the material mind, it +should be understood that the morontia and spirit worlds are not without their +high arts and supernal cultures. + +The celestial artisans are not created as such; they are a selected and +recruited corps of beings composed of certain teacher personalities native to +the central universe and their volunteer pupils drawn from the ascending +mortals and numerous other celestial groups. The original teaching corps of +these artisans was sometime assigned by the Infinite Spirit in collaboration +with the Seven Master Spirits and consisted of seven thousand Havona +instructors, one thousand to each of the seven divisions of artisans. With such +a nucleus to start with, there has developed through the ages this brilliant +body of skillful workers in spirit and morontia affairs. + +Any morontia personality or spirit entity is eligible for admission to the +corps of the celestial artisans; that is, any being below the rank of inherent +divine sonship. Ascending sons of God from the evolutionary spheres may, after +their arrival on the morontia worlds, apply for admission to the artisan corps +and, if sufficiently gifted, may choose such a career for a longer or shorter +period. But no one may enlist with the celestial artisans for less than one +millennium, one thousand years of superuniverse time. + +All celestial artisans are registered on the superuniverse headquarters but are +directed by morontia supervisors on the local universe capitals. They are +commissioned in the following seven major divisions of activity by the central +corps of morontia supervisors functioning on the headquarters world of each +local universe: + +1. Celestial Musicians. + +2. Heavenly Reproducers. + +3. Divine Builders. + +4. Thought Recorders. + + top of page - 498 + +5. Energy Manipulators. + +6. Designers and Embellishers. + +7. Harmony Workers. + +The original teachers of these seven groups all hailed from the perfect worlds +of Havona, and Havona contains the patterns, the pattern studies, for all +phases and forms of spirit artistry. While it is a gigantic task to undertake +to transfer these arts of Havona to the worlds of space, the celestial artisans +have improved in technique and execution from age to age. As in all other +phases of the ascending career those who are most advanced in any line of +endeavor are required constantly to impart their superior knowledge and skill +to their less favored fellows. + +You will first begin to glimpse these transplanted arts of Havona on the +mansion worlds, and their beauty and your appreciation of their beauty will +heighten and brighten until you stand in the spirit halls of Salvington and +behold the inspiring masterpieces of the supernal artists of the spirit realms. + +All these activities of the morontia and spirit worlds are real. To spirit +beings the spirit world is a reality. To us the material world is the more +unreal. The higher forms of spirits freely pass through ordinary matter. High +spirits are reactive to nothing material excepting certain of the basic +energies. To material beings the spirit world is more or less unreal; to spirit +beings the material world is almost entirely unreal, being merely a shadow of +the substance of spirit realities. + +I cannot, with exclusive spirit vision, perceive the building in which this +narrative is being translated and recorded. A Divine Counselor from Uversa who +chances to stand by my side perceives still less of these purely material +creations. We discern how these material structures appear to you by viewing a +spirit counterpart presented to our minds by one of our attending energy +transformers. This material building is not exactly real to me, a spirit being, +but it is, of course, very real and very serviceable to material mortals. + +There are certain types of beings who are capable of discerning the reality of +the creatures of both the spirit and the material worlds. Belonging to this +class are the so-called fourth creatures of the Havona Servitals and the fourth +creatures of the conciliators. The angels of time and space are endowed with +the ability to discern both spirit and material beings as also are the +ascending mortals subsequent to deliverance from the life in the flesh. After +attainment of the higher spirit levels the ascenders are able to recognize +material, morontia, and spirit realities. + +There is also here with me a Mighty Messenger from Uversa, an ascendant +Adjuster-fused, onetime mortal being, and he perceives you as you are, and at +the same time he visualizes the Solitary Messenger, the supernaphim, and other +celestial beings present. Never in your long ascendancy will you lose the power +to recognize your associates of former existences. Always, as you ascend inward +in the scale of life, will you retain the ability to recognize and fraternize +with the fellow beings of your previous and lower levels of experience. Each +new translation or resurrection will add one more group of spirit beings to +your vision range without in the least depriving you of the ability to +recognize your friends and fellows of former estates. + +All this is made possible in the experience of ascending mortals by the action +of the indwelling Thought Adjusters. Through their retention of the duplicates + + top of page - 499 + +of your entire life's experiences, you are assured of never losing any true +attribute you once had; and these Adjusters are going through with you, as a +part of you, in reality, as you. + +But I almost despair of being able to convey to the material mind the nature of +the work of the celestial artisans. I am under the necessity of constantly +perverting thought and distorting language in an effort to unfold to the mortal +mind the reality of these morontia transactions and near-spirit phenomena. Your +comprehension is incapable of grasping, and your language is inadequate for +conveying, the meaning, value, and relationship of these semispirit activities. +And I proceed with this effort to enlighten the human mind concerning these +realities with the full understanding of the utter impossibility of my being +very successful in such an undertaking. + +I can do no more than attempt to sketch a crude parallelism between mortal +material activities and the manifold functions of the celestial artisans. If +the Urantia races were more advanced in art and other cultural accomplishments, +then could I go that much farther in an effort to project the human mind from +the things of matter to those of morontia. About all I can hope to accomplish +is to make emphatic the fact of the reality of these transactions of the +morontia and the spirit worlds. + +1. THE CELESTIAL MUSICIANS + +With the limited range of mortal hearing, you can hardly conceive of morontia +melodies. There is even a material range of beautiful sound unrecognized by the +human sense of hearing, not to mention the inconceivable scope of morontia and +spirit harmony. Spirit melodies are not material sound waves but spirit +pulsations received by the spirits of celestial personalities. There is a +vastness of range and a soul of expression, as well as a grandeur of execution, +associated with the melody of the spheres, that are wholly beyond human +comprehension. I have seen millions of enraptured beings held in sublime +ecstasy while the melody of the realm rolled in upon the spirit energy of the +celestial circuits. These marvelous melodies can be broadcast to the uttermost +parts of a universe. + +The celestial musicians are occupied with the production of celestial harmony +by the manipulation of the following spirit forces: + +1. Spiritual sound--spirit current interruptions. + +2. Spiritual light--the control and intensification of the light of the +morontia and spiritual realms. + +3. Energy impingements--melody produced by the skillful management of the +morontia and spirit energies. + +4. Color symphonies--melody of morontia color tones; this ranks among the +highest accomplishments of the celestial musicians. + +5. Harmony of associated spirits--the very arrangement and association of +different orders of morontia and spirit beings produce majestic melodies. + +6. Melody of thought--the thinking of spiritual thoughts can be so perfected as +to burst forth in the melodies of Havona. + +7. The music of space--by proper attunement the melodies of other spheres can +be picked up on the universe broadcast circuits. + + top of page - 500 + +There are over one hundred thousand different modes of sound, color, and energy +manipulation, techniques analogous to the human employment of musical +instruments. Your ensembles of dancing undoubtedly represent a crude and +grotesque attempt of material creatures to approach the celestial harmony of +being placement and personality arrangement. The other five forms of morontia +melody are unrecognized by the sensory mechanism of material bodies. + +Harmony, the music of the seven levels of melodious association, is the one +universal code of spirit communication. Music, such as Urantia mortals +understand, attains its highest expression in the schools of Jerusem, the +system headquarters, where semimaterial beings are taught the harmonies of +sound. Mortals do not react to the other forms of morontia melody and celestial +harmony. + +Appreciation of music on Urantia is both physical and spiritual; and your human +musicians have done much to elevate musical taste from the barbarous monotony +of your early ancestors to the higher levels of sound appreciation. The +majority of Urantia mortals react to music so largely with the material muscles +and so slightly with the mind and spirit; but there has been a steady +improvement in musical appreciation for more than thirty-five thousand years. + +Tuneful syncopation represents a transition from the musical monotony of +primitive man to the expressionful harmony and meaningful melodies of your +later-day musicians. These earlier types of rhythm stimulate the reaction of +the music-loving sense without entailing the exertion of the higher +intellectual powers of harmony appreciation and thus more generally appeal to +immature or spiritually indolent individuals. + +The best music of Urantia is just a fleeting echo of the magnificent strains +heard by the celestial associates of your musicians, who left but snatches of +these harmonies of morontia forces on record as the musical melodies of sound +harmonics. Spirit-morontia music not infrequently employs all seven modes of +expression and reproduction, so that the human mind is tremendously handicapped +in any attempt to reduce these melodies of the higher spheres to mere notes of +musical sound. Such an effort would be something like endeavoring to reproduce +the strains of a great orchestra by means of a single musical instrument. + +While you have assembled some beautiful melodies on Urantia, you have not +progressed musically nearly so far as many of your neighboring planets in +Satania. If Adam and Eve had only survived, then would you have had music in +reality; but the gift of harmony, so large in their natures, has been so +diluted by strains of unmusical tendencies that only once in a thousand mortal +lives is there any great appreciation of harmonics. But be not discouraged; +some day a real musician may appear on Urantia, and whole peoples will be +enthralled by the magnificent strains of his melodies. One such human being +could forever change the course of a whole nation, even the entire civilized +world. It is literally true, "melody has power a whole world to transform." +Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits. +Harmony is the speech of Havona. + +2. THE HEAVENLY REPRODUCERS + +Mortal man can hardly hope for more than a meager and distorted concept of the +functions of the heavenly reproducers, which I must attempt to illustrate + + top of page - 501 + +through the gross and limited symbolism of your material language. The +spirit-morontia world has a thousand and one things of supreme value, things +worthy of reproduction but unknown on Urantia, experiences that belong in the +category of the activities which have hardly "entered into the mind of man," +those realities which God has in waiting for those who survive the life in the +flesh. + +There are seven groups of the heavenly reproducers, and I will attempt to +illustrate their work by the following classification: + +1. The singers--harmonists who reiterate the specific harmonies of the past and +interpret the melodies of the present. But all of this is effected on the +morontia level. + +2. The color workers--those artists of light and shade you might call sketchers +and painters, artists who preserve passing scenes and transient episodes for +future morontia enjoyment. + +3. The light picturizers--the makers of the real semispirit-phenomena +preservations of which motion pictures would be a very crude illustration. + +4. The historic pageanteers--those who dramatically reproduce the crucial +events of universe records and history. + +5. The prophetic artists--those who project the meanings of history into the +future. + +6. The life-story tellers--those who perpetuate the meaning and significance of +life experience. The projection of present personal experiences into future +attainment values. + +7. The administrative enactors--those who depict the significance of +governmental philosophy and administrative technique, the celestial dramatists +of sovereignty. + +Very often and effectively the heavenly reproducers collaborate with the +reversion directors in combining memory recapitulation with certain forms of +mind rest and personality diversion. Before the morontia conclaves and spirit +assemblies these reproducers sometimes associate themselves in tremendous +dramatic spectacles representative of the purpose of such gatherings. I +recently witnessed such a stupendous presentation in which more than one +million actors produced a succession of one thousand scenes. + +The higher intellectual teachers and the transition ministers freely and +effectively utilize these various groups of reproducers in their morontia +educational activities. But not all of their efforts are devoted to transient +illustration; much, very much, of their work is of a permanent nature and will +forever remain as a legacy to all future time. So versatile are these artisans +that, when they function en masse, they are able to re-enact an age, and in +collaboration with the seraphic ministers they can actually portray the eternal +values of the spirit world to the mortal seers of time. + +3. THE DIVINE BUILDERS + +There are cities "whose builder and maker is God." In spirit counterpart we +have all that you mortals are familiar with and inexpressibly more. We have +homes, spirit comforts, and morontia necessities. For every material +satisfaction which humans are capable of enjoying, we have thousands of +spiritual realities + + top of page - 502 + +that serve to enrich and enlarge our existence. The divine builders function in +seven groups: + +1. The home designers and builders--those who construct and remodel the abodes +assigned to individuals and working groups. These morontia and spirit domiciles +are real. They would be invisible to your short-range vision, but they are very +real and beautiful to us. To a certain extent, all spirit beings may share with +the builders certain details of the planning and creation of their morontia or +spirit abodes. These homes are fitted up and embellished in accordance with the +needs of the morontia or of the spirit creatures who are to inhabit them. There +is abundant variety and ample opportunity for individual expression in all +these constructions. + +2. The vocation builders--those who function in designing and assembling the +abodes of the regular and routine workers of the spirit and morontia realms. +These builders are comparable to those who construct the Urantia workshops and +other industrial plants. The transition worlds have a necessary economy of +mutual ministry and specialized division of labor. We do not all do everything; +there is diversity of function among morontia beings and evolving spirits, and +these vocation builders not only build better workshops but also contribute to +the vocational enhancement of the worker. + +3. The play builders. Enormous edifices are utilized during the seasons of +rest, what mortals would call recreation and, in a certain sense, play. +Provision is made for a suitable setting for the reversion directors, the +humorists of the morontia worlds, those transition spheres whereon takes place +the training of ascendant beings but recently removed from the evolutionary +planets. Even the higher spirits engage in a certain form of reminiscent humor +during their periods of spiritual recharging. + +4. The worship builders--the experienced architects of the spirit and the +morontia temples. All the worlds of mortal ascent have temples of worship, and +they are the most exquisite creations of the morontia realms and the spirit +spheres. + +5. The education builders--those who build the headquarters of morontia +training and advanced spirit learning. Always is the way open to acquire more +knowledge, to gain additional information respecting one's present and future +work as well as universal cultural knowledge, information designed to make +ascending mortals more intelligent and effective citizens of the morontia and +spirit worlds. + +6. Morontia planners--those who build for the co-ordinate association of all +the personalities of all realms as they are at any one time present on any one +sphere. These planners collaborate with the Morontia Power Supervisors to +enrich the co-ordination of the progressive morontia life. + +7. The public builders--the artisans who plan and construct the designated +places of assembly other than those of worship. Great and magnificent are the +places of common assembly. + +While neither these structures nor their embellishment would be exactly real to +the sensory comprehension of material mortals, they are very real to us. You +would be unable to see these temples could you be there in the flesh; +nevertheless, all of these supermaterial creations are actually there, and we +clearly discern them and just as fully enjoy them. + + top of page - 503 + +4. THE THOUGHT RECORDERS + +These artisans are devoted to the preservation and reproduction of the superior +thought of the realms, and they function in seven groups: + +1. Thought preservers. These are the artisans dedicated to the preservation of +the higher thought of the realms. On the morontia worlds they truly treasure +the gems of mentation. Before first coming to Urantia, I saw records and heard +broadcasts of the ideation of some of the great minds of this planet. Thought +recorders preserve such noble ideas in the tongue of Uversa. + +Each superuniverse has its own language, a tongue spoken by its personalities +and prevailing throughout its sectors. This is known as the tongue of Uversa in +our superuniverse. Each local universe also has its own language. All of the +higher orders of Nebadon are bilingual, speaking both the language of Nebadon +and the tongue of Uversa. When two individuals from different local universes +meet, they communicate in the tongue of Uversa; if, however, one of them hails +from another superuniverse, they must have recourse to a translator. In the +central universe there is little need of a language; there exists perfect and +well-nigh complete understanding; there, only the Gods are not fully +comprehended. We are taught that a chance meeting on Paradise reveals more of +mutual understanding than could be communicated by a mortal language in a +thousand years. Even on Salvington we "know as we are known." + +The ability to translate thought into language in the morontia and spirit +spheres is beyond mortal comprehension. Our rate of reducing thought to a +permanent record can be so speeded up by the expert recorders that the +equivalent of over half a million words, or thought symbols, can be registered +in one minute of Urantia time. These universe languages are far more replete +than the speech of the evolving worlds. The concept symbols of Uversa embrace +more than a billion characters, although the basic alphabet contains only +seventy symbols. The language of Nebadon is not quite so elaborate, the basic +symbols, or alphabet, being forty-eight in number. + +2. Concept recorders. This second group of recorders are concerned with the +preservation of concept pictures, idea patterns. This is a form of permanent +recording unknown on the material realms, and by this method I could gain more +knowledge in one hour of your time than you could gain in one hundred years of +perusing ordinary written language. + +3. Ideograph recorders. We have the equivalent of both your written and spoken +word, but in preserving thought, we usually employ concept picturization and +ideograph techniques. Those who preserve ideographs are able to improve one +thousandfold upon the work of the concept recorders. + +4. Promoters of oratory. This group of recorders are occupied with the task of +preserving thought for reproduction by oratory. But in the language of Nebadon +we could, in a half hour's address, cover the subject matter of the entire +lifetime of a Urantia mortal. Your only hope of comprehending these +transactions is to pause and consider the technique of your disordered and +garbled dream life--how you can in a few seconds traverse years of experience +in these fantasies of the night season. + +The oratory of the spirit world is one of the rare treats which await you who +have heard only the crude and stumbling orations of Urantia. There is harmony + + top of page - 504 + +of music and euphony of expression in the orations of Salvington and Edentia +which are inspiring beyond description. These burning concepts are like gems of +beauty in diadems of glory. But I cannot do it! I cannot convey to the human +mind the breadth and depth of these realities of another world! + +5. The broadcast directors. The broadcasts of Paradise, the superuniverses, and +the local universes are under the general supervision of this group of thought +conservers. They serve as censors and editors as well as co-ordinators of the +broadcast material, making a superuniverse adaptation of all Paradise +broadcasts and adapting and translating the broadcasts of the Ancients of Days +into the individual tongues of the local universes. + +The local universe broadcasts must also be modified for reception by the +systems and the individual planets. The transmittal of these space reports is +carefully supervised, and there is always a back registry to insure the proper +reception of every report on every world in a given circuit. These broadcast +directors are technically expert in the utilization of the currents of space +for all purposes of intelligence communication. + +6. The rhythm recorders. Urantians would undoubtedly denominate these artisans +poets, although their work is very different from, and almost infinitely +transcends, your poetic productions. Rhythm is less exhausting to both morontia +and spirit beings, and so an effort is frequently made to increase efficiency, +as well as to augment pleasure, by executing numerous functions in rhythmic +form. I only wish you might be privileged to hear some of the poetic broadcasts +of the Edentia assemblies and to enjoy the richness of the color and tone of +the constellation geniuses who are masters of this exquisite form of +self-expression and social harmonization. + +7. The morontia recorders. I am at a loss to know how to depict to the material +mind the function of this important group of thought recorders assigned to the +work of preserving the ensemble pictures of the various groupings of morontia +affairs and spirit transactions; crudely illustrated, they are the group +photographers of the transition worlds. They save for the future the vital +scenes and associations of these progressive epochs, preserving them in the +archives of the morontia halls of records. + +5. THE ENERGY MANIPULATORS + +These interesting and effective artisans are concerned with every kind of +energy: physical, mindal, and spiritual. + +1. Physical-energy manipulators. The physical-energy manipulators serve for +long periods with the power directors and are experts in the manipulation and +control of many phases of physical energy. They are conversant with the three +basic currents and the thirty subsidiary energy segregations of the +superuniverses. These beings are of inestimable assistance to the Morontia +Power Supervisors of the transition worlds. They are the persistent students of +the cosmic projections of Paradise. + +2. Mind-energy manipulators. These are the experts of intercommunication +between morontia and other types of intelligent beings. This form of +communication between mortals is practically nonexistent on Urantia. These are + + top of page - 505 + +the specialists who promote the ability of the ascending morontia beings to +communicate with one another, and their work embraces numerous unique +adventures in intellect liaison which are far beyond my power to portray to the +material mind. These artisans are the keen students of the mind circuits of the +Infinite Spirit. + +3. Spiritual-energy manipulators. The manipulators of spiritual energy are an +intriguing group. Spiritual energy acts in accordance with established laws, +just as does physical energy. That is, spirit force, when studied, yields +dependable deductions and can be precisely dealt with, even as can the physical +energies. There are just as certain and reliable laws in the spirit world as +obtain in the material realms. During the last few millions of years many +improved techniques for the intake of spiritual energy have been effected by +these students of the fundamental laws of the Eternal Son governing spirit +energy as applied to the morontia and other orders of celestial beings +throughout the universes. + +4. The compound manipulators. This is the adventurous group of well-trained +beings who are dedicated to the functional association of the three original +phases of divine energy manifested throughout the universes as physical, +mindal, and spiritual energies. These are the keen personalities who are in +reality seeking to discover the universe presence of God the Supreme, for in +this Deity personality there must occur the experiential unification of all +grand universe divinity. And to a certain extent, these artisans have in recent +times met with some success. + +5. The transport advisers. This corps of technical advisers to the transport +seraphim are most proficient in collaborating with the star students in working +out routings and in otherwise assisting the chiefs of transport on the worlds +of space. They are the traffic supervisors of the spheres and are present on +all inhabited planets. Urantia is served by a corps of seventy transport +advisers. + +6. The experts of communication. Urantia, likewise, is served by twelve +technicians of interplanetary and interuniverse communication. These +long-experienced beings are expert in the knowledge of the laws of transmittal +and interference as applied to the communications of the realms. This corps is +concerned with all forms of space messages except those of Gravity and Solitary +Messengers. On Urantia much of their work must be accomplished over the +archangels' circuit. + +7. The teachers of rest. Divine rest is associated with the technique of +spiritual-energy intake. Morontia and spirit energy must be replenished just as +certainly as physical energy, but not for the same reasons. I am, perforce, +compelled to employ crude illustrations in my attempts to enlighten you; +nevertheless, we of the spirit world must stop our regular activities +periodically and betake ourselves to suitable places of rendezvous where we +enter the divine rest and thus recuperate our depleting energies. + +You will receive your first lessons in these matters when you reach the mansion +worlds after you have become morontia beings and have begun to experience the +technique of spirit affairs. You know of the innermost circle of Havona and +that, after the pilgrims of space have traversed the preceding circles, they +must be inducted into the long and revivifying rest of Paradise. This is not +only a technical requirement of transit from the career of time to the service +of eternity, but it is also a necessity, a form of rest required to replenish +the energy + + top of page - 506 + +losses incident to the final steps of the ascendant experience and to store +reserves of spirit power for the next stage of the endless career. + +These energy manipulators also function in hundreds of other ways too numerous +to catalogue, such as counseling with the seraphim, cherubim, and sanobim +regarding the most efficient modes of energy intake and as to the maintenance +of the most helpful balances of divergent forces between active cherubim and +passive sanobim. In many other ways do these experts lend assistance to +morontia and spirit creatures in their efforts to understand the divine rest, +which is so essential to the effective utilization of the basic energies of +space. + +6. THE DESIGNERS AND EMBELLISHERS + +How I wish I knew how to portray the exquisite work of these unique artisans! +Every attempt on my part to explain the work of spirit embellishment would only +recall to material minds your own pitiful but worthy efforts to do these things +on your world of mind and matter. + +This corps, while embracing over one thousand subdivisions of activity, is +grouped under the following seven major heads: + +1. The craftworkers of color. These are they who make the ten thousand color +tones of spirit reflection peal forth their exquisite messages of harmonious +beauty. Aside from color perception there is nothing in human experience to +which these activities may be compared. + +2. The sound designers. Spirit waves of diverse identity and morontia +appreciation are depicted by these designers of what you would call sound. +These impulses are in reality the superb reflections of the naked and glorious +spirit-souls of the celestial hosts. + +3. The emotion designers. These enhancers and conservators of feeling are those +who preserve the sentiments of morontia and the emotions of divinity for the +study and edification of the children of time and for the inspiration and +beautification of morontia progressors and advancing spirits. + +4. The artists of odor. This comparison of supernal spirit activities to the +physical recognition of chemical odors is, indeed, unfortunate, but Urantia +mortals could hardly recognize this ministry by any other name. These artisans +create their varied symphonies for the edification and delight of the advancing +children of light. You have nothing on earth to which this type of spiritual +grandeur can be even remotely compared. + +5. The presence embellishers. These artisans are not occupied with the arts of +self-adornment or the technique of creature beautification. They are devoted to +the production of multitudinous and joyous reactions in individual morontia and +spirit creatures by dramatizing the significance of relationship through the +positional values assigned to different morontia and spirit orders in the +composite ensembles of these diversified beings. These artists arrange +supermaterial beings as you would living musical notes, odors, sights, and then +blend them into the anthems of glory. + +6. The taste designers. And how can you be told of these artists! Faintly I +might suggest that they are improvers of morontia taste, and they also endeavor +to increase the appreciation of beauty through the sharpening of the evolving +spirit senses. + + top of page - 507 + +7. The morontia synthesizers. These are the master craftsmen who, when all +others have made their respective contributions, then add the culminating and +finishing touches to the morontia ensemble, thus achieving an inspiring +portrayal of the divinely beautiful, an enduring inspiration to spirit beings +and their morontia associates. But you must await your deliverance from the +animal body before you can begin to conceive of the artistic glories and +aesthetic beauties of the morontia and spirit worlds. + +7. THE HARMONY WORKERS + +These artists are not concerned with music, painting, or anything similar, as +you might be led to surmise. They are occupied with the manipulation and +organization of specialized forces and energies which are present in the spirit +world, but which are not recognized by mortals. If I had the least possible +basis for comparison, I would attempt to portray this unique field of spirit +achievement, but I despair--there is no hope of conveying to mortal minds this +sphere of celestial artistry. Nevertheless, that which cannot be described may +still be implied: + +Beauty, rhythm, and harmony are intellectually associated and spiritually akin. +Truth, fact, and relationship are intellectually inseparable and associated +with the philosophic concepts of beauty. Goodness, righteousness, and justice +are philosophically interrelated and spiritually bound up together with living +truth and divine beauty. + +Cosmic concepts of true philosophy, the portrayal of celestial artistry, or the +mortal attempt to depict the human recognition of divine beauty can never be +truly satisfying if such attempted creature progression is ununified. These +expressions of the divine urge within the evolving creature may be +intellectually true, emotionally beautiful, and spiritually good; but the real +soul of expression is absent unless these realities of truth, meanings of +beauty, and values of goodness are unified in the life experience of the +artisan, the scientist, or the philosopher. + +These divine qualities are perfectly and absolutely unified in God. And every +God-knowing man or angel possesses the potential of unlimited self-expression +on ever-progressive levels of unified self-realization by the technique of the +never-ending achievement of Godlikeness--the experiential blending in the +evolutionary experience of eternal truth, universal beauty, and divine +goodness. + +8. MORTAL ASPIRATIONS AND MORONTIA ACHIEVEMENTS + +Although celestial artisans do not personally work on material planets, such as +Urantia, they do come, from time to time, from the headquarters of the system +to proffer help to the naturally gifted individuals of the mortal races. When +thus assigned, these artisans temporarily work under the supervision of the +planetary angels of progress. The seraphic hosts co-operate with these artisans +in attempting to assist those mortal artists who possess inherent endowments, +and who also possess Adjusters of special and previous experience. + +There are three possible sources of special human ability: At the bottom always +there exists the natural or inherent aptitude. Special ability is never an +arbitrary gift of the Gods; there is always an ancestral foundation for every + + top of page - 508 + +outstanding talent. In addition to this natural ability, or rather supplemental +thereto, there may be contributed the leadings of the Thought Adjuster in those +individuals whose indwelling Adjusters may have had actual and bona fide +experiences along such lines on other worlds and in other mortal creatures. In +those cases where both the human mind and the indwelling Adjuster are unusually +skillful, the spirit artisans may be delegated to act as harmonizers of these +talents and otherwise to assist and inspire these mortals to seek for +ever-perfecting ideals and to attempt their enhanced portrayal for the +edification of the realm. + +There is no caste in the ranks of spirit artisans. No matter how lowly your +origin, if you have ability and the gift of expression, you will gain adequate +recognition and receive due appreciation as you ascend upward in the scale of +morontia experience and spiritual attainment. There can be no handicap of human +heredity or deprivation of mortal environment which the morontia career will +not fully compensate and wholly remove. And all such satisfactions of artistic +achievement and expressionful self-realization will be effected by your own +personal efforts in progressive advancement. At last the aspirations of +evolutionary mediocrity may be realized. While the Gods do not arbitrarily +bestow talents and ability upon the children of time, they do provide for the +attainment of the satisfaction of all their noble longings and for the +gratification of all human hunger for supernal self-expression. + +But every human being should remember: Many ambitions to excel which tantalize +mortals in the flesh will not persist with these same mortals in the morontia +and spirit careers. The ascending morontians learn to socialize their former +purely selfish longings and egoistic ambitions. Nevertheless, those things +which you so earnestly longed to do on earth and which circumstances so +persistently denied you, if, after acquiring true mota insight in the morontia +career, you still desire to do, then will you most certainly be granted every +opportunity fully to satisfy your long-cherished desires. + +Before ascending mortals leave the local universe to embark upon their spirit +careers, they will be satiated respecting every intellectual, artistic, and +social longing or true ambition which ever characterized their mortal or +morontia planes of existence. This is the achievement of equality of the +satisfaction of self-expression and self-realization but not the attainment of +identical experiential status nor the complete obliteration of characteristic +individuality in skill, technique, and expression. But the new spirit +differential of personal experiential attainment will not become thus leveled +off and equalized until after you have finished the last circle of the Havona +career. And then will the Paradise residents be confronted with the necessity +of adjusting to that absonite differential of personal experience which can be +leveled off only by the group attainment of the ultimate of creature +status--the seventh-stage-spirit destiny of the mortal finaliters. + +And this is the story of the celestial artisans, that cosmopolitan body of +exquisite workers who do so much to glorify the architectural spheres with the +artistic portrayals of the divine beauty of the Paradise Creators. + +[Indited by an Archangel of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 509 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The ³ The Local ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Constellati... ³ Syste... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p045.txt b/religious documents/p045.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ad60c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p045.txt @@ -0,0 +1,618 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 45 The Local System Administration + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 45 The Local System Administration + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE administrative center of Satania consists of a cluster of architectural +spheres, fifty-seven in number--Jerusem itself, the seven major satellites, and +the forty-nine subsatellites. Jerusem, the system capital, is almost one +hundred times the size of Urantia, although its gravity is a trifle less. +Jerusem's major satellites are the seven transition worlds, each of which is +about ten times as large as Urantia, while the seven subsatellites of these +transition spheres are just about the size of Urantia. + +The seven mansion worlds are the seven subsatellites of transition world number +one. + +This entire system of fifty-seven architectural worlds is independently +lighted, heated, watered, and energized by the co-ordination of the Satania +Power Center and the Master Physical Controllers in accordance with the +established technique of the physical organization and arrangement of these +specially created spheres. They are also physically cared for and otherwise +maintained by the native spornagia. + +1. TRANSITIONAL CULTURE WORLDS + +The seven major worlds swinging around Jerusem are generally known as the +transitional culture spheres. Their rulers are designated from time to time by +the Jerusem supreme executive council. These spheres are numbered and named as +follows: + +Number 1. The Finaliter World. This is the headquarters of the finaliter corps +of the local system and is surrounded by the receiving worlds, the seven +mansion worlds, dedicated so fully to the scheme of mortal ascension. The +finaliter world is accessible to the inhabitants of all seven mansion worlds. +Transport seraphim carry ascending personalities back and forth on these +pilgrimages, which are designed to cultivate their faith in the ultimate +destiny of transition mortals. Although the finaliters and their structures are +not ordinarily perceptible to morontia vision, you will be more than thrilled, +from time to time, when the energy transformers and the Morontia Power +Supervisors enable you momentarily to glimpse these high spirit personalities +who have actually completed the Paradise ascension, and who have returned to +the very worlds where you are beginning this long journey, as the pledge of +assurance that you may and can complete the stupendous undertaking. All mansion +world sojourners go to the finaliter sphere at least once a year for these +assemblies of finaliter visualization. + + top of page - 510 + +Number 2. The Morontia World. This planet is the headquarters of the +supervisors of morontia life and is surrounded by the seven spheres whereon the +morontia chiefs train their associates and helpers, both morontia beings and +ascending mortals. + +In passing through the seven mansion worlds, you will also progress through +these cultural and social spheres of increasing morontia contact. When you +advance from the first to the second mansion world, you will become eligible +for a visitor's permit to transitional headquarters number two, the morontia +world, and so on. And when present on any one of these six cultural spheres, +you may, on invitation, become a visitor and observer on any of the seven +surrounding worlds of associated group activities. + +Number 3. The Angelic World. This is the headquarters of all the seraphic hosts +engaged in system activities and is surrounded by the seven worlds of angelic +training and instruction. These are the seraphic social spheres. + +Number 4. The Superangel World. This sphere is the Satania home of the +Brilliant Evening Stars and a vast concourse of co-ordinate and +near-co-ordinate beings. The seven satellites of this world are assigned to the +seven major groups of these unnamed celestial beings. + +Number 5. The World of the Sons. This planet is the headquarters of the divine +Sons of all orders, including the creature-trinitized sons. The surrounding +seven worlds are devoted to certain individual groupings of these divinely +related sons. + +Number 6. The World of the Spirit. This sphere serves as the system rendezvous +of the high personalities of the Infinite Spirit. Its seven surrounding +satellites are assigned to individual groups of these diverse orders. But on +transition world number six there is no representation of the Spirit, neither +is such a presence to be observed on the system capitals; the Divine Minister +of Salvington is everywhere in Nebadon. + +Number 7. The World of the Father. This is the silent sphere of the system. No +group of beings is domiciled on it. The great temple of light occupies a +central place, but no one can be discerned therein. All beings of all the +system worlds are welcomed as worshipers. + +The seven satellites surrounding the Father's world are variously utilized in +the different systems. In Satania they are now used as the detention spheres +for the interned groups of the Lucifer rebellion. The constellation capital, +Edentia, has no analogous prison worlds; the few seraphim and cherubim who went +over to the rebels in the Satania rebellion have been long since confined on +these isolation worlds of Jerusem. + +As a sojourner on the seventh mansion world, you have access to the seventh +transition world, the sphere of the Universal Father, and are also permitted to +visit the Satania prison worlds surrounding this planet, whereon are now +confined Lucifer and the majority of those personalities who followed him in +rebellion against Michael. And this sad spectacle has been observable during +these recent ages and will continue to serve as a solemn warning to all Nebadon +until the Ancients of Days shall adjudicate the sin of Lucifer and his fallen +associates who rejected the salvation proffered by Michael, their universe +Father. + + top of page - 511 + +2. THE SYSTEM SOVEREIGN + +The chief executive of a local system of inhabited worlds is a primary +Lanonandek Son, the System Sovereign. In our local universe these sovereigns +are intrusted with large executive responsibilities, unusual personal +prerogatives. Not all universes, even in Orvonton, are so organized as to +permit the System Sovereigns to exercise such unusually wide powers of personal +discretion in the direction of system affairs. But in all the history of +Nebadon these untrammeled executives have exhibited disloyalty only three +times. The Lucifer rebellion in the system of Satania was the last and the most +widespread of all. + +In Satania, even after this disastrous upheaval, absolutely no changes have +been made in the technique of system administration. The present System +Sovereign possesses all the power and exercises all the authority that were +invested in his unworthy predecessor except for certain matters now under the +supervision of the Constellation Fathers which the Ancients of Days have not +yet fully restored to Lanaforge, the successor of Lucifer. + +The present head of Satania is a gracious and brilliant ruler, and he is a +rebellion-tested sovereign. When serving as an assistant System Sovereign, +Lanaforge was faithful to Michael in an earlier upheaval in the universe of +Nebadon. This mighty and brilliant Lord of Satania is a tried and tested +administrator. At the time of the second system rebellion in Nebadon, when the +System Sovereign stumbled and fell into darkness, Lanaforge, the first +assistant to the erring chief, seized the reins of government and so conducted +the affairs of the system that comparatively few personalities were lost either +on the headquarters worlds or on the inhabited planets of that unfortunate +system. Lanaforge bears the distinction of being the only primary Lanonandek +Son in all Nebadon who thus functioned loyally in the service of Michael and in +the very presence of the default of his brother of superior authority and +antecedent rank. Lanaforge will probably not be removed from Jerusem until all +the results of the former folly have been overcome and the products of +rebellion removed from Satania. + +While all the affairs of the isolated worlds of Satania have not been returned +to his jurisdiction, Lanaforge discloses great interest in their welfare, and +he is a frequent visitor on Urantia. As in other and normal systems, the +Sovereign presides over the system council of world rulers, the Planetary +Princes and the resident governors general of the isolated worlds. This +planetary council assembles from time to time on the headquarters of the +system--"When the Sons of God come together." + +Once a week, every ten days on Jerusem, the Sovereign holds a conclave with +some one group of the various orders of personalities domiciled on the +headquarters world. These are the charmingly informal hours of Jerusem, and +they are never-to-be-forgotten occasions. On Jerusem there exists the utmost +fraternity between all the various orders of beings and between each of these +groups and the System Sovereign. + +These unique assemblages occur on the sea of glass, the great gathering field +of the system capital. They are purely social and spiritual occasions; nothing +pertaining to the planetary administration or even to the ascendant plan is +ever discussed. Ascending mortals come together at these times merely to enjoy +themselves and to meet their fellow Jerusemites. Those groups which are not + + top of page - 512 + +being entertained by the Sovereign at these weekly relaxations meet at their +own headquarters. + +3. THE SYSTEM GOVERNMENT + +The chief executive of a local system, the System Sovereign, is always +supported by two or three Lanonandek Sons, who function as first and second +assistants. But at the present time the system of Satania is administered by a +staff of seven Lanonandeks: + +1. The System Sovereign--Lanaforge, number 2,709 of the primary order and +successor to the apostate Lucifer. + +2. The first assistant Sovereign--Mansurotia, number 17,841 of the tertiary +Lanonandeks. He was dispatched to Satania along with Lanaforge. + +3. The second assistant Sovereign--Sadib, number 271,402 of the tertiary order. +Sadib also came to Satania with Lanaforge. + +4. The custodian of the system--Holdant, number 19 of the tertiary corps, the +holder and controller of all interned spirits above the order of mortal +existence. Holdant likewise came to Satania with Lanaforge. + +5. The system recorder--Vilton, secretary of the Lanonandek ministry of +Satania, number 374 of the third order. Vilton was a member of the original +Lanaforge group. + +6. The bestowal director--Fortant, number 319,847 of the reserves of the +secondary Lanonandeks and temporary director of all universe activities +transplanted to Jerusem since Michael's bestowal on Urantia. Fortant has been +attached to the staff of Lanaforge for nineteen hundred years of Urantia time. + +7. The high counselor--Hanavard, number 67 of the primary Lanonandek Sons and a +member of the high corps of universe counselors and co-ordinators. He functions +as acting chairman of the executive council of Satania. Hanavard is the twelfth +of this order so to serve on Jerusem since the Lucifer rebellion. + +This executive group of seven Lanonandeks constitutes the expanded emergency +administration made necessary by the exigencies of the Lucifer rebellion. There +are only minor courts on Jerusem since the system is the unit of +administration, not adjudication, but the Lanonandek administration is +supported by the Jerusem executive council, the supreme advisory body of +Satania. This council consists of twelve members: + +1. Hanavard, the Lanonandek chairman. + +2. Lanaforge, the System Sovereign. + +3. Mansurotia, the first assistant Sovereign. + +4. The chief of Satania Melchizedeks. + +5. The acting director of the Satania Life Carriers. + +6. The chief of the Satania finaliters. + +7. The original Adam of Satania, the supervising head of the Material Sons. + +8. The director of the Satania seraphic hosts. + +9. The chief of the Satania physical controllers. + +10. The director of the system Morontia Power Supervisors. + + top of page - 513 + +11. The acting director of system midway creatures. + +12. The acting head of the corps of ascending mortals. + +This council periodically chooses three members to represent the local system +on the supreme council at universe headquarters, but this representation is +suspended by rebellion. Satania now has an observer at the headquarters of the +local universe, but since the bestowal of Michael the system has resumed the +election of ten members to the Edentia legislature. + +4. THE FOUR AND TWENTY COUNSELORS + +At the center of the seven angelic residential circles on Jerusem is located +the headquarters of the Urantia advisory council, the four and twenty +counselors. John the Revelator called them the four and twenty elders: "And +round about the throne were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats I saw +four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment." The throne in the +center of this group is the judgment seat of the presiding archangel, the +throne of the resurrection roll call of mercy and justice for all Satania. This +judgment seat has always been on Jerusem, but the twenty-four surrounding seats +were placed in position no more than nineteen hundred years ago, soon after +Christ Michael was elevated to the full sovereignty of Nebadon. These four and +twenty counselors are his personal agents on Jerusem, and they have authority +to represent the Master Son in all matters concerning the roll calls of Satania +and in many other phases of the scheme of mortal ascension on the isolated +worlds of the system. They are the designated agents for executing the special +requests of Gabriel and the unusual mandates of Michael. + +These twenty-four counselors have been recruited from the eight Urantia races, +and the last of this group were assembled at the time of the resurrection roll +call of Michael, nineteen hundred years ago. This Urantia advisory council is +made up of the following members: + +1. Onagar, the master mind of the pre-Planetary Prince age, who directed his +fellows in the worship of "The Breath Giver." + +2. Mansant, the great teacher of the post-Planetary Prince age on Urantia, who +pointed his fellows to the veneration of "The Great Light." + +3. Onamonalonton, a far-distant leader of the red man and the one who directed +this race from the worship of many gods to the veneration of "The Great +Spirit." + +4. Orlandof, a prince of the blue men and their leader in the recognition of +the divinity of "The Supreme Chief." + +5. Porshunta, the oracle of the extinct orange race and the leader of this +people in the worship of "The Great Teacher." + +6. Singlangton, the first of the yellow men to teach and lead his people in the +worship of "One Truth" instead of many. Thousands of years ago the yellow man +knew of the one God. + +7. Fantad, the deliverer of the green men from darkness and their leader in the +worship of "The One Source of Life." + +8. Orvonon, the enlightener of the indigo races and their leader in the onetime +service of "The God of Gods." + + top of page - 514 + +9. Adam, the discredited but rehabilitated planetary father of Urantia, a +Material Son of God who was relegated to the likeness of mortal flesh, but who +survived and was subsequently elevated to this position by the decree of +Michael. + +10. Eve, the mother of the violet race of Urantia, who suffered the penalty of +default with her mate and was also rehabilitated with him and assigned to serve +with this group of mortal survivors. + +11. Enoch, the first of the mortals of Urantia to fuse with the Thought +Adjuster during the mortal life in the flesh. + +12. Moses, the emancipator of a remnant of the submerged violet race and the +instigator of the revival of the worship of the Universal Father under the name +of "The God of Israel." + +13. Elijah, a translated soul of brilliant spiritual achievement during the +post-Material Son age. + +14. Machiventa Melchizedek, the only Son of this order to bestow himself upon +the Urantia races. While still numbered as a Melchizedek, he has become +"forever a minister of the Most Highs," eternally assuming the assignment of +service as a mortal ascender, having sojourned on Urantia in the likeness of +mortal flesh at Salem in the days of Abraham. This Melchizedek has latterly +been proclaimed vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia with headquarters on +Jerusem and authority to act in behalf of Michael, who is actually the +Planetary Prince of the world whereon he experienced his terminal bestowal in +human form. Notwithstanding this, Urantia is still supervised by successive +resident governors general, members of the four and twenty counselors. + +15. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Michael's mission on Urantia and, in +the flesh, distant cousin of the Son of Man. + +16. 1-2-3 the First, the leader of the loyal midway creatures in the service of +Gabriel at the time of the Caligastia betrayal, elevated to this position by +Michael soon after his entrance upon unconditioned sovereignty. + +These selected personalities are exempt from the ascension regime for the time +being, on Gabriel's request, and we have no idea how long they may serve in +this capacity. + +Seats numbers 17, 18, 19, and 20 are not permanently occupied. They are +temporarily filled by the unanimous consent of the sixteen permanent members, +being kept open for later assignment to ascending mortals from the present +post-bestowal Son age on Urantia. + +Numbers 21, 22, 23, and 24 are likewise temporarily filled while being held in +reserve for the great teachers of other and subsequent ages which undoubtedly +will follow the present age. Eras of the Magisterial Sons and Teacher Sons and +the ages of light and life are to be anticipated on Urantia, regardless of +unexpected visitations of divine Sons which may or may not occur. + +5. THE MATERIAL SONS + +The great divisions of celestial life have their headquarters and immense +preserves on Jerusem, including the various orders of divine Sons, high +spirits, superangels, angels, and midway creatures. The central abode of this +wonderful sector is the chief temple of the Material Sons. + + top of page - 515 + +The domain of the Adams is the center of attraction to all new arrivals on +Jerusem. It is an enormous area consisting of one thousand centers, although +each family of Material Sons and Daughters lives on an estate of its own up to +the time of the departure of its members for service on the evolutionary worlds +of space or until their embarkation upon the Paradise-ascension career. + +These Material Sons are the highest type of sex-reproducing beings to be found +on the training spheres of the evolving universes. And they are really +material; even the Planetary Adams and Eves are plainly visible to the mortal +races of the inhabited worlds. These Material Sons are the last and physical +link in the chain of personalities extending from divinity and perfection above +down to humanity and material existence below. These Sons provide the inhabited +worlds with a mutually contactable intermediary between the invisible Planetary +Prince and the material creatures of the realms. + +At the last millennial registration on Salvington there were of record in +Nebadon 161,432,840 Material Sons and Daughters of citizenship status on the +local system capitals. The number of Material Sons varies in the different +systems, and their number is being constantly increased by natural +reproduction. In the exercise of their reproductive functions they are not +guided wholly by the personal desires of the contacting personalities but also +by the higher governing bodies and advisory councils. + +These Material Sons and Daughters are the permanent inhabitants of Jerusem and +its associated worlds. They occupy vast estates on Jerusem and participate +liberally in the local management of the capital sphere, administering +practically all routine affairs with the assistance of the midwayers and the +ascenders. + +On Jerusem these reproducing Sons are permitted to experiment with the ideals +of self-government after the manner of the Melchizedeks, and they are achieving +a very high type of society. The higher orders of sonship reserve the veto +functions of the realm, but in nearly every respect the Jerusem Adamites govern +themselves by universal suffrage and representative government. Some time they +hope to be granted virtually complete autonomy. + +The character of the service of the Material Sons is largely determined by +their ages. While they are not eligible for admission to the Melchizedek +University of Salvington--being material and ordinarily limited to certain +planets--nevertheless, the Melchizedeks maintain strong faculties of teachers +on the headquarters of each system for the instruction of the younger +generations of Material Sons. The educational and spiritual training systems +provided for the development of the younger Material Sons and Daughters are the +acme of perfection in scope, technique, and practicability. + +6. ADAMIC TRAINING OF ASCENDERS + +The Material Sons and Daughters, together with their children, present an +engaging spectacle which never fails to arouse the curiosity and intrigue the +attention of all ascending mortals. They are so similar to your own material +sex races that you both find much of common interest to engage your thoughts +and occupy your seasons of fraternal contact. + +Mortal survivors spend much of their leisure on the system capital observing +and studying the life habits and conduct of these superior semiphysical sex + + top of page - 516 + +creatures, for these citizens of Jerusem are the immediate sponsors and mentors +of the mortal survivors from the time they attain citizenship on the +headquarters world until they take leave for Edentia. + +On the seven mansion worlds ascending mortals are afforded ample opportunities +for compensating any and all experiential deprivations suffered on their worlds +of origin, whether due to inheritance, environment, or unfortunate premature +termination of the career in the flesh. This is in every sense true except in +the mortal sex life and its attendant adjustments. Thousands of mortals reach +the mansion worlds without having benefited particularly from the disciplines +derived from fairly average sex relations on their native spheres. The mansion +world experience can provide little opportunity for compensating these very +personal deprivations. Sex experience in a physical sense is past for these +ascenders, but in close association with the Material Sons and Daughters, both +individually and as members of their families, these sex-deficient mortals are +enabled to compensate the social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual +aspects of their deficiency. Thus are all those humans whom circumstances or +bad judgment deprived of the benefits of advantageous sex association on the +evolutionary worlds, here on the system capitals afforded full opportunity to +acquire these essential mortal experiences in close and loving association with +the supernal Adamic sex creatures of permanent residence on the system +capitals. + +No surviving mortal, midwayer, or seraphim may ascend to Paradise, attain the +Father, and be mustered into the Corps of the Finality without having passed +through that sublime experience of achieving parental relationship to an +evolving child of the worlds or some other experience analogous and equivalent +thereto. The relationship of child and parent is fundamental to the essential +concept of the Universal Father and his universe children. Therefore does such +an experience become indispensable to the experiential training of all +ascenders. + +The ascending midway creatures and the evolutionary seraphim must pass through +this parenthood experience in association with the Material Sons and Daughters +of the system headquarters. Thus do such nonreproducing ascenders obtain the +experience of parenthood by assisting the Jerusem Adams and Eves in rearing and +training their progeny. + +All mortal survivors who have not experienced parenthood on the evolutionary +worlds must also obtain this necessary training while sojourning in the homes +of the Jerusem Material Sons and as parental associates of these superb fathers +and mothers. This is true except in so far as such mortals have been able to +compensate their deficiencies on the system nursery located on the first +transitional-culture world of Jerusem. + +This probation nursery of Satania is maintained by certain morontia +personalities on the finaliters' world, one half of the planet being devoted to +this work of child rearing. Here are received and reassembled certain children +of surviving mortals, such as those offspring who perished on the evolutionary +worlds before acquiring spiritual status as individuals. The ascension of +either of its natural parents insures that such a mortal child of the realms +will be accorded repersonalization on the system finaliter planet and there be +permitted to demonstrate by subsequent freewill choice whether or not it elects +to follow the parental path of mortal ascension. Children here appear as on the +nativity world except for the absence of sex differentiation. There is no +reproduction of mortal kind after the life experience on the inhabited worlds. + + top of page - 517 + +Mansion world students who have one or more children in the probationary +nursery on the finaliters' world, and who are deficient in essential parental +experience, may apply for a Melchizedek permit which will effect their +temporary transfer from ascension duties on the mansion worlds to the finaliter +world, where they are granted opportunity to function as associate parents to +their own and other children. This service of parental ministry may be later +accredited on Jerusem as the fulfillment of one half of the training which such +ascenders are required to undergo in the families of the Material Sons and +Daughters. + +The probation nursery itself is supervised by one thousand couples of Material +Sons and Daughters, volunteers from the Jerusem colony of their order. They are +immediately assisted by about an equal number of volunteer midsonite parental +groups who stop off here to render this service on their way from the midsonite +world of Satania to the unrevealed destiny on their special worlds of +reservation among the finaliter spheres of Salvington. + +7. THE MELCHIZEDEK SCHOOLS + +The Melchizedeks are the directors of that large corps of +instructors--partially spiritualized will creatures and others--who function so +acceptably on Jerusem and its associated worlds but especially on the seven +mansion worlds. These are the detention planets, where those mortals who fail +to achieve fusion with their indwelling Adjusters during the life in the flesh +are rehabilitated in transient form to receive further help and to enjoy +extended opportunity for continuing their strivings for spiritual attainment, +those very efforts which were prematurely interrupted by death. Or if, for any +other reason of hereditary handicap, unfavorable environment, or conspiracy of +circumstances, this soul attainment was not completed, no matter what the +reason, all who are true of purpose and worthy in spirit find themselves, as +themselves, present on the continuing planets, where they must learn to master +the essentials of the eternal career, to possess themselves of traits which +they could not, or did not, acquire during the lifetime in the flesh. + +The Brilliant Evening Stars (and their unnamed co-ordinates) frequently serve +as teachers in the various educational enterprises of the universe, including +those sponsored by the Melchizedeks. Also do the Trinity Teacher Sons +collaborate, and they impart the touches of Paradise perfection to these +progressive training schools. But all these activities are not exclusively +devoted to the advancement of ascending mortals; many are equally occupied with +the progressive training of the native spirit personalities of Nebadon. + +The Melchizedek Sons conduct upward of thirty different educational centers on +Jerusem. These training schools begin with the college of self-evaluation and +end with the schools of Jerusem citizenship, wherein the Material Sons and +Daughters join with the Melchizedeks and others in their supreme effort to +qualify the mortal survivors for the assumption of the high responsibilities of +representative government. The entire universe is organized and administered on +the representative plan. Representative government is the divine ideal of +self-government among nonperfect beings. + +Every one hundred years of universe time each system selects its ten +representatives to sit in the constellation legislature. They are chosen by the +Jerusem council of one thousand, an elective body charged with the duty of +representing the system groups in all such delegated or appointive matters. All +repre- + + top of page - 518 + +sentatives or other delegates are selected by the council of one thousand +electors, and they must be graduates of the highest school of the Melchizedek +College of Administration, as also are all of those who constitute this group +of one thousand electors. This school is fostered by the Melchizedeks, latterly +assisted by the finaliters. + +There are many elective bodies on Jerusem, and they are voted into authority +from time to time by three orders of citizenship--the Material Sons and +Daughters, the seraphim and their associates, including midway creatures, and +the ascending mortals. To receive nomination for representative honor a +candidate must have gained requisite recognition from the Melchizedek schools +of administration. + +Suffrage is universal on Jerusem among these three groups of citizenship, but +the vote is differentially cast in accordance with the recognized and duly +registered personal possession of mota--morontia wisdom. The vote cast at a +Jerusem election by any one personality has a value ranging from one up to one +thousand. Jerusem citizens are thus classified in accordance with their mota +achievement. + +From time to time Jerusem citizens present themselves to the Melchizedek +examiners, who certify to their attainment of morontia wisdom. Then they go +before the examining corps of the Brilliant Evening Stars or their designates, +who ascertain the degree of spirit insight. Next they appear in the presence of +the four and twenty counselors and their associates, who pass upon their status +of experiential attainment of socialization. These three factors are then +carried to the citizenship registrars of representative government, who quickly +compute the mota status and assign suffrage qualifications in accordance +therewith. + +Under the supervision of the Melchizedeks the ascending mortals, especially +those who are tardy in their personality unification on the new morontia +levels, are taken in hand by the Material Sons and are given intensive training +designed to rectify such deficiencies. No ascending mortal leaves the system +headquarters for the more extensive and varied socialization career of the +constellation until these Material Sons certify to the achievement of mota +personality--an individuality combining the completed mortal existence in +experiential association with the budding morontia career, both being duly +blended by the spiritual overcontrol of the Thought Adjuster. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of temporary assignment on Urantia.] + + top of page - 519 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Celestial ³ The Local ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ A... ³ Syste... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p046.txt b/religious documents/p046.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..334c119 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p046.txt @@ -0,0 +1,655 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 46 The Local System Headquarters + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 46 The Local System Headquarters + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +JERUSEM, the headquarters of Satania, is an average capital of a local system, +and aside from numerous irregularities occasioned by the Lucifer rebellion and +the bestowal of Michael on Urantia, it is typical of similar spheres. Your +local system has passed through some stormy experiences, but it is at present +being administered most efficiently, and as the ages pass, the results of +disharmony are being slowly but surely eradicated. Order and good will are +being restored, and the conditions on Jerusem are more and more approaching the +heavenly status of your traditions, for the system headquarters is truly the +heaven visualized by the majority of twentieth-century religious believers. + +1. PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF JERUSEM + +Jerusem is divided into one thousand latitudinal sectors and ten thousand +longitudinal zones. The sphere has seven major capitals and seventy minor +administrative centers. The seven sectional capitals are concerned with diverse +activities, and the System Sovereign is present in each at least once a year. + +The standard mile of Jerusem is equivalent to about seven Urantia miles. The +standard weight, the "gradant," is built up through the decimal system from the +mature ultimaton and represents almost exactly ten ounces of your weight. The +Satania day equals three days of Urantia time, less one hour, four minutes, and +fifteen seconds, that being the time of the axial revolution of Jerusem. The +system year consists of one hundred Jerusem days. The time of the system is +broadcast by the master chronoldeks. + +The energy of Jerusem is superbly controlled and circulates about the sphere in +the zone channels, which are directly fed from the energy charges of space and +expertly administered by the Master Physical Controllers. The natural +resistance to the passage of these energies through the physical channels of +conduction yields the heat required for the production of the equable +temperature of Jerusem. The full-light temperature is maintained at about 70 +degrees Fahrenheit, while during the period of light recession it falls to a +little lower than 50 degrees. + +The lighting system of Jerusem should not be so difficult for you to +comprehend. There are no days and nights, no seasons of heat and cold. The +power transformers maintain one hundred thousand centers from which rarefied +energies are projected upward through the planetary atmosphere, undergoing +certain changes, until they reach the electric air-ceiling of the sphere; and +then + + top of page - 520 + +these energies are reflected back and down as a gentle, sifting, and even light +of about the intensity of Urantia sunlight when the sun is shining overhead at +ten o'clock in the morning. + +Under such conditions of lighting, the light rays do not seem to come from one +place; they just sift out of the sky, emanating equally from all space +directions. This light is very similar to natural sunlight except that it +contains very much less heat. Thus it will be recognized that such headquarters +worlds are not luminous in space; if Jerusem were very near Urantia, it would +not be visible. + +The gases which reflect this light-energy from the Jerusem upper ionosphere +back to the ground are very similar to those in the Urantia upper air belts +which are concerned with the auroral phenomena of your so-called northern +lights, although these are produced by different causes. On Urantia it is this +same gas shield which prevents the escape of the terrestrial broadcast waves, +reflecting them earthward when they strike this gas belt in their direct +outward flight. In this way broadcasts are held near the surface as they +journey through the air around your world. + +This lighting of the sphere is uniformly maintained for seventy-five per cent +of the Jerusem day, and then there is a gradual recession until, at the time of +minimum illumination, the light is about that of your full moon on a clear +night. This is the quiet hour for all Jerusem. Only the broadcast-receiving +stations are in operation during this period of rest and rehabilitation. + +Jerusem receives faint light from several near-by suns--a sort of brilliant +starlight--but it is not dependent on them, worlds like Jerusem are not subject +to the vicissitudes of sun disturbances, neither are they confronted with the +problem of a cooling or dying sun. + +The seven transitional study worlds and their forty-nine satellites are heated, +lighted, energized, and watered by the Jerusem technique. + +2. PHYSICAL FEATURES OF JERUSEM + +On Jerusem you will miss the rugged mountain ranges of Urantia and other +evolved worlds since there are neither earthquakes nor rainfalls, but you will +enjoy the beauteous highlands and other unique variations of topography and +landscape. Enormous areas of Jerusem are preserved in a "natural state," and +the grandeur of such districts is quite beyond the powers of human imagination. + +There are thousands upon thousands of small lakes but no raging rivers nor +expansive oceans. There is no rainfall, neither storms nor blizzards, on any of +the architectural worlds, but there is the daily precipitation of the +condensation of moisture during the time of lowest temperature attending the +light recession. (The dew point is higher on a three-gas world than on a +two-gas planet like Urantia.) The physical plant life and the morontia world of +living things both require moisture, but this is largely supplied by the +subsoil system of circulation which extends all over the sphere, even up to the +very tops of the highlands. This water system is not entirely subsurface, for +there are many canals interconnecting the sparkling lakes of Jerusem. + +The atmosphere of Jerusem is a three-gas mixture. This air is very similar to +that of Urantia with the addition of a gas adapted to the respiration of the +morontia order of life. This third gas in no way unfits the air for the +respiration of animals or plants of the material orders. + + top of page - 521 + +The transportation system is allied with the circulatory streams of energy +movement, these main energy currents being located at ten-mile intervals. By +adjustment of physical mechanisms the material beings of the planet can proceed +at a pace varying from two to five hundred miles per hour. The transport birds +fly at about one hundred miles an hour. The air mechanisms of the Material Sons +travel around five hundred miles per hour. Material and early morontia beings +must utilize these mechanical means of transport, but spirit personalities +proceed by liaison with the superior forces and spirit sources of energy. + +Jerusem and its associated worlds are endowed with the ten standard divisions +of physical life characteristic of the architectural spheres of Nebadon. And +since there is no organic evolution on Jerusem, there are no conflicting forms +of life, no struggle for existence, no survival of the fittest. Rather is there +a creative adaptation which foreshadows the beauty, the harmony, and the +perfection of the eternal worlds of the central and divine universe. And in all +this creative perfection there is the most amazing intermingling of physical +and of morontia life, artistically contrasted by the celestial artisans and +their fellows. + +Jerusem is indeed a foretaste of paradisiacal glory and grandeur. But you can +never hope to gain an adequate idea of these glorious architectural worlds by +any attempted description. There is so little that can be compared with aught +on your world, and even then the things of Jerusem so transcend the things of +Urantia that the comparison is almost grotesque. Until you actually arrive on +Jerusem, you can hardly entertain anything like a true concept of the heavenly +worlds, but that is not so long a time in the future when your coming +experience on the system capital is compared with your sometime arrival on the +more remote training spheres of the universe, the superuniverse, and of Havona. + +The manufacturing or laboratory sector of Jerusem is an extensive domain, one +which Urantians would hardly recognize since it has no smoking chimneys; +nevertheless, there is an intricate material economy associated with these +special worlds, and there is a perfection of mechanical technique and physical +achievement which would astonish and even awe your most experienced chemists +and inventors. Pause to consider that this first world of detention in the +Paradise journey is far more material than spiritual. Throughout your stay on +Jerusem and its transition worlds you are far nearer your earth life of +material things than your later life of advancing spirit existence. + +Mount Seraph is the highest elevation on Jerusem, almost fifteen thousand feet, +and is the point of departure for all transport seraphim. Numerous mechanical +developments are used in providing initial energy for escaping the planetary +gravity and overcoming the air resistance. A seraphic transport departs every +three seconds of Urantia time throughout the light period and, sometimes, far +into the recession. The transporters take off at about twenty-five standard +miles per second of Urantia time and do not attain standard velocity until they +are over two thousand miles away from Jerusem. + +Transports arrive on the crystal field, the so-called sea of glass. Around this +area are the receiving stations for the various orders of beings who traverse +space by seraphic transport. Near the polar crystal receiving station for +student visitors you may ascend the pearly observatory and view the immense +relief map of the entire headquarters planet. + + top of page - 522 + +3. THE JERUSEM BROADCASTS + +The superuniverse and Paradise-Havona broadcasts are received on Jerusem in +liaison with Salvington and by a technique involving the polar crystal, the sea +of glass. In addition to provisions for the reception of these extra-Nebadon +communications, there are three distinct groups of receiving stations. These +separate but tricircular groups of stations are adjusted to the reception of +broadcasts from the local worlds, from the constellation headquarters, and from +the capital of the local universe. All these broadcasts are automatically +displayed so as to be discernible by all types of beings present in the central +broadcast amphitheater; of all preoccupations for an ascendant mortal on +Jerusem, none is more engaging and engrossing than that of listening in on the +never-ending stream of universe space reports. + +This Jerusem broadcast-receiving station is encircled by an enormous +amphitheater, constructed of scintillating materials largely unknown on Urantia +and seating over five billion beings--material and morontia--besides +accommodating innumerable spirit personalities. It is the favorite diversion +for all Jerusem to spend their leisure at the broadcast station, there to learn +of the welfare and state of the universe. And this is the only planetary +activity which is not slowed down during the recession of light. + +At this broadcast-receiving amphitheater the Salvington messages are coming in +continuously. Near by, the Edentia word of the Most High Constellation Fathers +is received at least once a day. Periodically the regular and special +broadcasts of Uversa are relayed through Salvington, and when Paradise messages +are in reception, the entire population is assembled around the sea of glass, +and the Uversa friends add the reflectivity phenomena to the technique of the +Paradise broadcast so that everything heard becomes visible. And it is in this +manner that continual foretastes of advancing beauty and grandeur are afforded +the mortal survivors as they journey inward on the eternal adventure. + +The Jerusem sending station is located at the opposite pole of the sphere. All +broadcasts to the individual worlds are relayed from the system capitals except +the Michael messages, which sometimes go direct to their destinations over the +archangels' circuit. + +4. RESIDENTIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE AREAS + +Considerable portions of Jerusem are assigned as residential areas, while other +portions of the system capital are given over to the necessary administrative +functions involving the supervision of the affairs of 619 inhabited spheres, 56 +transitional-culture worlds, and the system capital itself. On Jerusem and in +Nebadon these arrangements are designed as follows: + +1. The circles--the nonnative residential areas. + +2. The squares--the system executive-administrative areas. + +3. The rectangles--the rendezvous of the lower native life. + +4. The triangles--the local or Jerusem administrative areas. + +This arrangement of the system activities into circles, squares, rectangles, +and triangles is common to all the system capitals of Nebadon. In another uni- + + top of page - 523 + +verse an entirely different arrangement might prevail. These are matters +determined by the diverse plans of the Creator Sons. + +Our narrative of these residential and administrative areas takes no account of +the vast and beautiful estates of the Material Sons of God, the permanent +citizens of Jerusem, neither do we mention numerous other fascinating orders of +spirit and near-spirit creatures. For example: Jerusem enjoys the efficient +services of the spironga of design for system function. These beings are +devoted to spiritual ministry in behalf of the supermaterial residents and +visitors. They are a wonderful group of intelligent and beautiful beings who +are the transition servants of the higher morontia creatures and of the +morontia helpers who labor for the upkeep and embellishment of all morontia +creations. They are on Jerusem what the midway creatures are on Urantia, midway +helpers functioning between the material and the spiritual. + +The system capitals are unique in that they are the only worlds which exhibit +well-nigh perfectly all three phases of universe existence: the material, the +morontial, and the spiritual. Whether you are a material, morontia, or spirit +personality, you will feel at home on Jerusem; so also do the combined beings, +such as the midway creatures and the Material Sons. + +Jerusem has great buildings of both material and morontia types, while the +embellishment of the purely spiritual zones is no less exquisite and replete. +If I only had words to tell you of the morontia counterparts of the marvelous +physical equipment of Jerusem! If I could only go on to portray the sublime +grandeur and exquisite perfection of the spiritual appointments of this +headquarters world! Your most imaginative concept of perfection of beauty and +repleteness of appointment would hardly approach these grandeurs. And Jerusem +is but the first step on the way to the supernal perfection of Paradise beauty. + +5. THE JERUSEM CIRCLES + +The residential reservations assigned to the major groups of universe life are +designated the Jerusem circles. Those circle groups which find mention in these +narratives are the following: + +1. The circles of the Sons of God. + +2. The circles of the angels and higher spirits. + +3. The circles of the Universe Aids, including the creature-trinitized sons not +assigned to the Trinity Teacher Sons. + +4. The circles of the Master Physical Controllers. + +5. The circles of the assigned ascending mortals, including the midway +creatures. + +6. The circles of the courtesy colonies. + +7. The circles of the Corps of the Finality. + +Each of these residential groupings consists of seven concentric and +successively elevated circles. + + top of page - 524 + +They are all constructed along the same lines but are of different sizes and +are fashioned of differing materials. They are all surrounded by far-reaching +enclosures, which mount up to form extensive promenades entirely encompassing +every group of seven concentric circles. + +1. Circles of the Sons of God. Though the Sons of God possess a social planet +of their own, one of the transitional-culture worlds, they also occupy these +extensive domains on Jerusem. On their transitional-culture world the ascending +mortals freely mingle with all orders of divine sonship. There you will +personally know and love these Sons, but their social life is largely confined +to this special world and its satellites. In the Jerusem circles, however, +these various groups of sonship may be observed at work. And since morontia +vision is of enormous range, you can walk about on the Sons' promenades and +overlook the intriguing activities of their numerous orders. + +These seven circles of the Sons are concentric and successively elevated so +that each of the outer and larger circles overlooks the inner and smaller ones, +each being surrounded by a public promenade wall. These walls are constructed +of crystal gems of gleaming brightness and are so elevated as to overlook all +of their respective residential circles. The many gates--from fifty to one +hundred and fifty thousand--which penetrate each of these walls consist of +single pearly crystals. + +The first circle of the domain of the Sons is occupied by the Magisterial Sons +and their personal staffs. Here center all of the plans and immediate +activities of the bestowal and adjudicational services of these juridical Sons. +It is also through this center that the Avonals of the system maintain contact +with the universe. + +The second circle is occupied by the Trinity Teacher Sons. In this sacred +domain the Daynals and their associates carry forward the training of the newly +arrived primary Teacher Sons. And in all of this work they are ably assisted by +a division of certain co-ordinates of the Brilliant Evening Stars. The +creature-trinitized sons occupy a sector of the Daynal circle. The Trinity +Teacher Sons come the nearest to being the personal representatives of the +Universal Father in a local system; they are at least Trinity-origin beings. +This second circle is a domain of extraordinary interest to all the peoples of +Jerusem. + +The third circle is devoted to the Melchizedeks. Here the system chiefs reside +and supervise the almost endless activities of these versatile Sons. From the +first of the mansion worlds on through all the Jerusem career of ascending +mortals, the Melchizedeks are foster fathers and ever-present advisers. It +would not be amiss to say that they are the dominant influence on Jerusem aside +from the ever-present activities of the Material Sons and Daughters. + +The fourth circle is the home of the Vorondadeks and all other orders of the +visiting and observer Sons who are not otherwise provided for. The Most High +Constellation Fathers take up their abode in this circle when on visits of +inspection to the local system. Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine Counselors, and +Universal Censors all reside in this circle when on duty in the system. + +The fifth circle is the abode of the Lanonandeks, the sonship order of the +System Sovereigns and the Planetary Princes. The three groups mingle as one +when at home in this domain. The system reserves are held in this circle, while +the System Sovereign has a temple situated at the center of the governing group +of structures on administration hill. + +The sixth circle is the tarrying place of the system Life Carriers. All orders +of these Sons are here assembled, and from here they go forth on their world +assignments. + +The seventh circle is the rendezvous of the ascending sons, those assigned +mortals who may be temporarily functioning on the system headquarters, to- + + top of page - 525 + +gether with their seraphic consorts. All ex-mortals above the status of Jerusem +citizens and below that of finaliters are reckoned as belonging to the group +having its headquarters in this circle. + +These circular reservations of the Sons occupy an enormous area, and until +nineteen hundred years ago there existed a great open space at its center. This +central region is now occupied by the Michael memorial, completed some five +hundred years ago. Four hundred and ninety-five years ago, when this temple was +dedicated, Michael was present in person, and all Jerusem heard the touching +story of the Master Son's bestowal on Urantia, the least of Satania. The +Michael memorial is now the center of all activities embraced in the modified +management of the system occasioned by Michael's bestowal, including most of +the more recently transplanted Salvington activities. The memorial staff +consists of over one million personalities. + +2. The circles of the angels. Like the residential area of the Sons, these +circles of the angels consist of seven concentric and successively elevated +circles, each overlooking the inner areas. + +The first circle of the angels is occupied by the Higher Personalities of the +Infinite Spirit who may be stationed on the headquarters world--Solitary +Messengers and their associates. The second circle is dedicated to the +messenger hosts, Technical Advisers, companions, inspectors, and recorders as +they may chance to function on Jerusem from time to time. The third circle is +held by the ministering spirits of the higher orders and groupings. + +The fourth circle is held by the administrator seraphim, and the seraphim +serving in a local system like Satania are an "innumerable host of angels." The +fifth circle is occupied by the planetary seraphim, while the sixth is the home +of the transition ministers. The seventh circle is the tarrying sphere of +certain unrevealed orders of seraphim. The recorders of all these groups of +angels do not sojourn with their fellows, being domiciled in the Jerusem temple +of records. All records are preserved in triplicate in this threefold hall of +archives. On a system headquarters, records are always preserved in material, +in morontia, and in spirit form. + +These seven circles are surrounded by the exhibit panorama of Jerusem, five +thousand standard miles in circumference, which is devoted to the presentation +of the advancing status of the peopled worlds of Satania and is constantly +revised so as to truly represent up-to-date conditions on the individual +planets. I doubt not that this vast promenade overlooking the circles of the +angels will be the first sight of Jerusem to claim your attention when you are +permitted extended leisure on your earlier visits. + +These exhibits are in charge of the native life of Jerusem, but they are +assisted by the ascenders from the various Satania worlds who are tarrying on +Jerusem en route to Edentia. The portrayal of planetary conditions and world +progress is effected by many methods, some known to you, but mostly by +techniques unknown on Urantia. These exhibits occupy the outer edge of this +vast wall. The remainder of the promenade is almost entirely open, being highly +and magnificently embellished. + +3. The circles of the Universe Aids have the headquarters of the Evening Stars +situated in the enormous central space. Here is located the system headquarters +of Galantia, the associate head of this powerful group of superangels, + + top of page - 526 + +being the first commissioned of all the ascendant Evening Stars. This is one of +the most magnificent of all the administrative sectors of Jerusem, even though +it is among the more recent constructions. This center is fifty miles in +diameter. The Galantia headquarters is a monolithic cast crystal, wholly +transparent. These material-morontia crystals are greatly appreciated by both +morontia and material beings. The created Evening Stars exert their influence +all over Jerusem, being possessed of such extrapersonality attributes. The +entire world has been rendered spiritually fragrant since so many of their +activities were transferred here from Salvington. + +4. The circles of the Master Physical Controllers. The various orders of the +Master Physical Controllers are concentrically arranged around the vast temple +of power, wherein presides the power chief of the system in association with +the chief of the Morontia Power Supervisors. This temple of power is one of two +sectors on Jerusem where ascending mortals and midway creatures are not +permitted. The other one is the dematerializing sector in the area of the +Material Sons, a series of laboratories wherein the transport seraphim +transform material beings into a state quite like that of the morontia order of +existence. + +5. The circles of the ascending mortals. The central area of the circles of the +ascending mortals is occupied by a group of 619 planetary memorials +representative of the inhabited worlds of the system, and these structures +periodically undergo extensive changes. It is the privilege of the mortals from +each world to agree, from time to time, upon certain of the alterations or +additions to their planetary memorials. Many changes are even now being made in +the Urantia structures. The center of these 619 temples is occupied by a +working model of Edentia and its many worlds of ascendant culture. This model +is forty miles in diameter and is an actual reproduction of the Edentia system, +true to the original in every detail. + +Ascenders enjoy their Jerusem services and take pleasure in observing the +techniques of other groups. Everything done in these various circles is open to +the full observation of all Jerusem. + +The activities of such a world are of three distinct varieties: work, progress, +and play. Stated otherwise, they are: service, study, and relaxation. The +composite activities consist of social intercourse, group entertainment, and +divine worship. There is great educational value in mingling with diverse +groups of personalities, orders very different from one's own fellows. + +6. The circles of the courtesy colonies. The seven circles of the courtesy +colonies are graced by three enormous structures: the vast astronomic +observatory of Jerusem, the gigantic art gallery of Satania, and the immense +assembly hall of the reversion directors, the theater of morontia activities +devoted to rest and recreation. + +The celestial artisans direct the spornagia and provide the host of creative +decorations and monumental memorials which abound in every place of public +assembly. The studios of these artisans are among the largest and most +beautiful of all the matchless structures of this wonderful world. The other +courtesy colonies maintain extensive and beautiful headquarters. Many of these +buildings are constructed wholly of crystal gems. All the architectural worlds +abound in crystals and the so-called precious metals. + + top of page - 527 + +7. The circles of the finaliters have a unique structure at the center. And +this same vacant temple is found on every system headquarters world throughout +Nebadon. This edifice on Jerusem is sealed with the insignia of Michael, and it +bears this inscription: "Undedicated to the seventh stage of spirit--to the +eternal assignment." Gabriel placed the seal on this temple of mystery, and +none but Michael can or may break the seal of sovereignty affixed by the Bright +and Morning Star. Some day you shall look upon this silent temple, even though +you may not penetrate its mystery. + +Other Jerusem circles: In addition to these residential circles there are on +Jerusem numerous additional designated abodes. + +6. THE EXECUTIVE-ADMINISTRATIVE SQUARES + +The executive-administrative divisions of the system are located in the immense +departmental squares, one thousand in number. Each administrative unit is +divided into one hundred subdivisions of ten subgroups each. These one thousand +squares are clustered in ten grand divisions, thus constituting the following +ten administrative departments: + +1. Physical maintenance and material improvement, the domains of physical power +and energy. + +2. Arbitration, ethics, and administrative adjudication. + +3. Planetary and local affairs. + +4. Constellation and universe affairs. + +5. Education and other Melchizedek activities. + +6. Planetary and system physical progress, the scientific domains of Satania +activities. + +7. Morontia affairs. + +8. Pure spirit activities and ethics. + +9. Ascendant ministry. + +10. Grand universe philosophy. + +These structures are transparent; hence all system activities can be viewed +even by student visitors. + +7. THE RECTANGLES--THE SPORNAGIA + +The one thousand rectangles of Jerusem are occupied by the lower native life of +the headquarters planet, and at their center is situated the vast circular +headquarters of the spornagia. + +On Jerusem you will be amazed by the agricultural achievements of the wonderful +spornagia. There the land is cultivated largely for aesthetic and ornamental +effects. The spornagia are the landscape gardeners of the headquarters worlds, +and they are both original and artistic in their treatment of the open spaces +of Jerusem. They utilize both animals and numerous mechanical contrivances in +the culture of the soil. They are intelligently expert in the employment of the +power agencies of their realms as well as in the utilization of numerous orders +of their lesser brethren of the lower animal creations, many of + + top of page - 528 + +which are provided them on these special worlds. This order of animal life is +now largely directed by the ascending midway creatures from the evolutionary +spheres. + +Spornagia are not Adjuster indwelt. They do not possess survival souls, but +they do enjoy long lives, sometimes to the extent of forty to fifty thousand +standard years. Their number is legion, and they afford physical ministry to +all orders of universe personalities requiring material service. + +Although spornagia neither possess nor evolve survival souls, though they do +not have personality, nevertheless, they do evolve an individuality which can +experience reincarnation. When, with the passing of time, the physical bodies +of these unique creatures deteriorate from usage and age, their creators, in +collaboration with the Life Carriers, fabricate new bodies in which the old +spornagia re-establish their residences. + +Spornagia are the only creatures in all the universe of Nebadon who experience +this or any other sort of reincarnation. They are only reactive to the first +five of the adjutant mind-spirits; they are not responsive to the spirits of +worship and wisdom. But the five-adjutant mind equivalates to a totality or +sixth reality level, and it is this factor which persists as an experiential +identity. + +I am quite without comparisons in undertaking to describe these useful and +unusual creatures as there are no animals on the evolutionary worlds comparable +to them. They are not evolutionary beings, having been projected by the Life +Carriers in their present form and status. They are bisexual and procreate as +they are required to meet the needs of a growing population. + +Perhaps I can best suggest to Urantia minds something of the nature of these +beautiful and serviceable creatures by saying that they embrace the combined +traits of a faithful horse and an affectionate dog and manifest an intelligence +exceeding that of the highest type of chimpanzee. And they are very beautiful, +as judged by the physical standards of Urantia. They are most appreciative of +the attentions shown them by the material and semimaterial sojourners on these +architectural worlds. They have a vision which permits them to recognize--in +addition to material beings--the morontia creations, the lower angelic orders, +midway creatures, and some of the lower orders of spirit personalities. They do +not comprehend worship of the Infinite, nor do they grasp the import of the +Eternal, but they do, through affection for their masters, join in the outward +spiritual devotions of their realms. + +There are those who believe that, in a future universe age, these faithful +spornagia will escape from their animal level of existence and attain a worthy +evolutional destiny of progressive intellectual growth and even spiritual +achievement. + +8. THE JERUSEM TRIANGLES + +The purely local and routine affairs of Jerusem are directed from the one +hundred triangles. These units are clustered around the ten marvelous +structures domiciling the local administration of Jerusem. The triangles are +surrounded by the panoramic depiction of the system headquarters history. At +present there is an erasure of over two standard miles in this circular story. +This sector will be restored upon the readmission of Satania into the +constellation family. Every provision for this event has been made by the +decrees of + + top of page - 529 + +Michael, but the tribunal of the Ancients of Days has not yet finished the +adjudication of the affairs of the Lucifer rebellion. Satania may not come back +into the full fellowship of Norlatiadek so long as it harbors archrebels, high +created beings who have fallen from light into darkness. + +When Satania can return to the constellation fold, then will come up for +consideration the readmission of the isolated worlds into the system family of +inhabited planets, accompanied by their restoration to the spiritual communion +of the realms. But even if Urantia were restored to the system circuits, you +would still be embarrassed by the fact that your whole system rests under a +Norlatiadek quarantine partially segregating it from all other systems. + +But ere long, the adjudication of Lucifer and his associates will restore the +Satania system to the Norlatiadek constellation, and subsequently, Urantia and +the other isolated spheres will be restored to the Satania circuits, and again +will such worlds enjoy the privileges of interplanetary communication and +intersystem communion. + +There will come an end for rebels and rebellion. The Supreme Rulers are +merciful and patient, but the law of deliberately nourished evil is universally +and unerringly executed. "The wages of sin is death"--eternal obliteration. + +[Presented by an Archangel of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 530 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Local ³ The Seven ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Syste... ³ Mansi... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p047.txt b/religious documents/p047.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a64a77 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p047.txt @@ -0,0 +1,651 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 47 The Seven Mansion Worlds + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 47 The Seven Mansion Worlds + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Creator Son, when on Urantia, spoke of the "many mansions in the Father's +universe." In a certain sense, all fifty-six of the encircling worlds of +Jerusem are devoted to the transitional culture of ascending mortals, but the +seven satellites of world number one are more specifically known as the mansion +worlds. + +Transition world number one itself is quite exclusively devoted to ascendant +activities, being the headquarters of the finaliter corps assigned to Satania. +This world now serves as the headquarters for more than one hundred thousand +companies of finaliters, and there are one thousand glorified beings in each of +these groups. + +When a system is settled in light and life, and as the mansion worlds one by +one cease to serve as mortal-training stations, they are taken over by the +increasing finaliter population which accumulates in these older and more +highly perfected systems. + +The seven mansion worlds are in the charge of the morontia supervisors and the +Melchizedeks. There is an acting governor on each world who is directly +responsible to the Jerusem rulers. The Uversa conciliators maintain +headquarters on each of the mansion worlds, while adjoining is the local +rendezvous of the Technical Advisers. The reversion directors and celestial +artisans maintain group headquarters on each of these worlds. The spironga +function from mansion world number two onward, while all seven, in common with +the other transitional-culture planets and the headquarters world, are +abundantly provided with spornagia of standard creation. + +1. THE FINALITERS' WORLD + +Although only finaliters and certain groups of salvaged children and their +caretakers are resident on transitional world number one, provision is made for +the entertainment of all classes of spirit beings, transition mortals, and +student visitors. The spornagia, who function on all of these worlds, are +hospitable hosts to all beings whom they can recognize. They have a vague +feeling concerning the finaliters but cannot visualize them. They must regard +them much as you do the angels in your present physical state. + +Though the finaliter world is a sphere of exquisite physical beauty and +extraordinary morontia embellishment, the great spirit abode located at the +center of activities, the temple of the finaliters, is not visible to the +unaided material or early morontia vision. But the energy transformers are able +to visualize many of these realities to ascending mortals, and from time to +time they do thus function, as on the occasions of the class assemblies of the +mansion world students on this cultural sphere. + + top of page - 531 + +All through the mansion world experience you are in a way spiritually aware of +the presence of your glorified brethren of Paradise attainment, but it is very +refreshing, now and then, actually to perceive them as they function in their +headquarters abodes. You will not spontaneously visualize finaliters until you +acquire true spirit vision. + +On the first mansion world all survivors must pass the requirements of the +parental commission from their native planets. The present Urantia commission +consists of twelve parental couples, recently arrived, who have had mortal +experience in rearing three or more children to the pubescent age. Service on +this commission is rotational and is for only ten years as a rule. All who fail +to satisfy these commissioners as to their parental experience must further +qualify by service in the homes of the Material Sons on Jerusem or in part in +the probationary nursery on the finaliters' world. + +But irrespective of parental experience, mansion world parents who have growing +children in the probation nursery are given every opportunity to collaborate +with the morontia custodians of such children regarding their instruction and +training. These parents are permitted to journey there for visits as often as +four times a year. And it is one of the most touchingly beautiful scenes of all +the ascending career to observe the mansion world parents embrace their +material offspring on the occasions of their periodic pilgrimages to the +finaliter world. While one or both parents may leave a mansion world ahead of +the child, they are quite often contemporary for a season. + +No ascending mortal can escape the experience of rearing children--their own or +others--either on the material worlds or subsequently on the finaliter world or +on Jerusem. Fathers must pass through this essential experience just as +certainly as mothers. It is an unfortunate and mistaken notion of modern +peoples on Urantia that child culture is largely the task of mothers. Children +need fathers as well as mothers, and fathers need this parental experience as +much as do mothers. + +2. THE PROBATIONARY NURSERY + +The infant-receiving schools of Satania are situated on the finaliter world, +the first of the Jerusem transition-culture spheres. These infant-receiving +schools are enterprises devoted to the nurture and training of the children of +time, including those who have died on the evolutionary worlds of space before +the acquirement of individual status on the universe records. In the event of +the survival of either or both of such a child's parents, the guardian of +destiny deputizes her associated cherubim as the custodian of the child's +potential identity, charging the cherubim with the responsibility of delivering +this undeveloped soul into the hands of the Mansion World Teachers in the +probationary nurseries of the morontia worlds. + +It is these same deserted cherubim who, as Mansion World Teachers, under the +supervision of the Melchizedeks, maintain such extensive educational facilities +for the training of the probationary wards of the finaliters. These wards of +the finaliters, these infants of ascending mortals, are always personalized as +of their exact physical status at the time of death except for reproductive +potential. This awakening occurs at the exact time of the parental arrival on +the first mansion world. And then are these children given every opportunity, +as they + + top of page - 532 + +are, to choose the heavenly way just as they would have made such a choice on +the worlds where death so untimely terminated their careers. + +On the nursery world, probationary creatures are grouped according to whether +or not they have Adjusters, for the Adjusters come to indwell these material +children just as on the worlds of time. Children of pre-Adjuster ages are cared +for in families of five, ranging in ages from one year and under up to +approximately five years, or that age when the Adjuster arrives. + +All children on the evolving worlds who have Thought Adjusters, but who before +death had not made a choice concerning the Paradise career, are also +repersonalized on the finaliter world of the system, where they likewise grow +up in the families of the Material Sons and their associates as do those little +ones who arrived without Adjusters, but who will subsequently receive the +Mystery Monitors after attaining the requisite age of moral choice. + +The Adjuster-indwelt children and youths on the finaliter world are also reared +in families of five, ranging in ages from six to fourteen; approximately, these +families consist of children whose ages are six, eight, ten, twelve, and +fourteen. Any time after sixteen, if final choice has been made, they translate +to the first mansion world and begin their Paradise ascent. Some make a choice +before this age and go on to the ascension spheres, but very few children under +sixteen years of age, as reckoned by Urantia standards, will be found on the +mansion worlds. + +The guardian seraphim attend these youths in the probationary nursery on the +finaliter world just as they spiritually minister to mortals on the +evolutionary planets, while the faithful spornagia minister to their physical +necessities. And so do these children grow up on the transition world until +such time as they make their final choice. + +When material life has run its course, if no choice has been made for the +ascendant life, or if these children of time definitely decide against the +Havona adventure, death automatically terminates their probationary careers. +There is no adjudication of such cases; there is no resurrection from such a +second death. They simply become as though they had not been. + +But if they choose the Paradise path of perfection, they are immediately made +ready for translation to the first mansion world, where many of them arrive in +time to join their parents in the Havona ascent. After passing through Havona +and attaining the Deities, these salvaged souls of mortal origin constitute the +permanent ascendant citizenship of Paradise. These children who have been +deprived of the valuable and essential evolutionary experience on the worlds of +mortal nativity are not mustered into the Corps of the Finality. + +3. THE FIRST MANSION WORLD + +On the mansion worlds the resurrected mortal survivors resume their lives just +where they left off when overtaken by death. When you go from Urantia to the +first mansion world, you will notice considerable change, but if you had come +from a more normal and progressive sphere of time, you would hardly notice the +difference except for the fact that you were in possession of a different body; +the tabernacle of flesh and blood has been left behind on the world of +nativity. + +The very center of all activities on the first mansion world is the +resurrection hall, the enormous temple of personality assembly. This gigantic +structure consists of the central rendezvous of the seraphic destiny guardians, +the Thought + + top of page - 533 + +Adjusters, and the archangels of the resurrection. The Life Carriers also +function with these celestial beings in the resurrection of the dead. + +The mortal-mind transcripts and the active creature-memory patterns as +transformed from the material levels to the spiritual are the individual +possession of the detached Thought Adjusters; these spiritized factors of mind, +memory, and creature personality are forever a part of such Adjusters. The +creature mind-matrix and the passive potentials of identity are present in the +morontia soul intrusted to the keeping of the seraphic destiny guardians. And +it is the reuniting of the morontia-soul trust of the seraphim and the +spirit-mind trust of the Adjuster that reassembles creature personality and +constitutes resurrection of a sleeping survivor. + +If a transitory personality of mortal origin should never be thus reassembled, +the spirit elements of the nonsurviving mortal creature would forever continue +as an integral part of the individual experiential endowment of the onetime +indwelling Adjuster. + +From the Temple of New Life there extend seven radial wings, the resurrection +halls of the mortal races. Each of these structures is devoted to the assembly +of one of the seven races of time. There are one hundred thousand personal +resurrection chambers in each of these seven wings terminating in the circular +class assembly halls, which serve as the awakening chambers for as many as one +million individuals. These halls are surrounded by the personality assembly +chambers of the blended races of the normal post-Adamic worlds. Regardless of +the technique which may be employed on the individual worlds of time in +connection with special or dispensational resurrections, the real and conscious +reassembly of actual and complete personality takes place in the resurrection +halls of mansonia number one. Throughout all eternity you will recall the +profound memory impressions of your first witnessing of these resurrection +mornings. + +From the resurrection halls you proceed to the Melchizedek sector, where you +are assigned permanent residence. Then you enter upon ten days of personal +liberty. You are free to explore the immediate vicinity of your new home and to +familiarize yourself with the program which lies immediately ahead. You also +have time to gratify your desire to consult the registry and call upon your +loved ones and other earth friends who may have preceded you to these worlds. +At the end of your ten-day period of leisure you begin the second step in the +Paradise journey, for the mansion worlds are actual training spheres, not +merely detention planets. + +On mansion world number one (or another in case of advanced status) you will +resume your intellectual training and spiritual development at the exact level +whereon they were interrupted by death. Between the time of planetary death or +translation and resurrection on the mansion world, mortal man gains absolutely +nothing aside from experiencing the fact of survival. You begin over there +right where you leave off down here. + +Almost the entire experience of mansion world number one pertains to deficiency +ministry. Survivors arriving on this first of the detention spheres present so +many and such varied defects of creature character and deficiencies of mortal +experience that the major activities of the realm are occupied with the +correction and cure of these manifold legacies of the life in the flesh on the +material evolutionary worlds of time and space. + + top of page - 534 + +The sojourn on mansion world number one is designed to develop mortal survivors +at least up to the status of the post-Adamic dispensation on the normal +evolutionary worlds. Spiritually, of course, the mansion world students are far +in advance of such a state of mere human development. + +If you are not to be detained on mansion world number one, at the end of ten +days you will enter the translation sleep and proceed to world number two, and +every ten days thereafter you will thus advance until you arrive on the world +of your assignment. + +The center of the seven major circles of the first mansion world administration +is occupied by the temple of the Morontia Companions, the personal guides +assigned to ascending mortals. These companions are the offspring of the local +universe Mother Spirit, and there are several million of them on the morontia +worlds of Satania. Aside from those assigned as group companions, you will have +much to do with the interpreters and translators, the building custodians, and +the excursion supervisors. And all of these companions are most co-operative +with those who have to do with developing your personality factors of mind and +spirit within the morontia body. + +As you start out on the first mansion world, one Morontia Companion is assigned +to each company of one thousand ascending mortals, but you will encounter +larger numbers as you progress through the seven mansion spheres. These +beautiful and versatile beings are companionable associates and charming +guides. They are free to accompany individuals or selected groups to any of the +transition-culture spheres, including their satellite worlds. They are the +excursion guides and leisure associates of all ascending mortals. They often +accompany survivor groups on periodic visits to Jerusem, and on any day you are +there, you can go to the registry sector of the system capital and meet +ascending mortals from all seven of the mansion worlds since they freely +journey back and forth between their residential abodes and the system +headquarters. + +4. THE SECOND MANSION WORLD + +It is on this sphere that you are more fully inducted into the mansonia life. +The groupings of the morontia life begin to take form; working groups and +social organizations start to function, communities take on formal proportions, +and the advancing mortals inaugurate new social orders and governmental +arrangements. + +Spirit-fused survivors occupy the mansion worlds in common with the +Adjuster-fused ascending mortals. While the various orders of celestial life +differ, they are all friendly and fraternal. In all the worlds of ascension you +will find nothing comparable to human intolerance and the discriminations of +inconsiderate caste systems. + +As you ascend the mansion worlds one by one, they become more crowded with the +morontia activities of advancing survivors. As you go forward, you will +recognize more and more of the Jerusem features added to the mansion worlds. +The sea of glass makes its appearance on the second mansonia. + +A newly developed and suitably adjusted morontia body is acquired at the time +of each advance from one mansion world to another. You go to sleep with the +seraphic transport and awake with the new but undeveloped body in the +resurrection halls, much as when you first arrived on mansion world number + + top of page - 535 + +one except that the Thought Adjuster does not leave you during these transit +sleeps between the mansion worlds. Your personality remains intact after you +once pass from the evolutionary worlds to the initial mansion world. + +Your Adjuster memory remains fully intact as you ascend the morontia life. +Those mental associations that were purely animalistic and wholly material +naturally perished with the physical brain, but everything in your mental life +which was worth while, and which had survival value, was counterparted by the +Adjuster and is retained as a part of personal memory all the way through the +ascendant career. You will be conscious of all your worth-while experiences as +you advance from one mansion world to another and from one section of the +universe to another--even to Paradise. + +Though you have morontia bodies, you continue, through all seven of these +worlds, to eat, drink, and rest. You partake of the morontia order of food, a +kingdom of living energy unknown on the material worlds. Both food and water +are fully utilized in the morontia body; there is no residual waste. Pause to +consider: Mansonia number one is a very material sphere, presenting the early +beginnings of the morontia regime. You are still a near human and not far +removed from the limited viewpoints of mortal life, but each world discloses +definite progress. From sphere to sphere you grow less material, more +intellectual, and slightly more spiritual. The spiritual progress is greatest +on the last three of these seven progressive worlds. + +Biological deficiencies were largely made up on the first mansion world. There +defects in planetary experiences pertaining to sex life, family association, +and parental function were either corrected or were projected for future +rectification among the Material Son families on Jerusem. + +Mansonia number two more specifically provides for the removal of all phases of +intellectual conflict and for the cure of all varieties of mental disharmony. +The effort to master the significance of morontia mota, begun on the first +mansion world, is here more earnestly continued. The development on mansonia +number two compares with the intellectual status of the post-Magisterial Son +culture of the ideal evolutionary worlds. + +5. THE THIRD MANSION WORLD + +Mansonia the third is the headquarters of the Mansion World Teachers. Though +they function on all seven of the mansion spheres, they maintain their group +headquarters at the center of the school circles of world number three. There +are millions of these instructors on the mansion and higher morontia worlds. +These advanced and glorified cherubim serve as morontia teachers all the way up +from the mansion worlds to the last sphere of local universe ascendant +training. They will be among the last to bid you an affectionate adieu when the +farewell time draws near, the time when you bid good-bye--at least for a few +ages--to the universe of your origin, when you enseraphim for transit to the +receiving worlds of the minor sector of the superuniverse. + +When sojourning on the first mansion world, you have permission to visit the +first of the transition worlds, the headquarters of the finaliters and the +system probationary nursery for the nurture of undeveloped evolutionary +children. When you arrive on mansonia number two, you receive permission +periodically to visit transition world number two, where are located the +morontia supervisor headquarters for all Satania and the training schools for +the various + + top of page - 536 + +morontia orders. When you reach mansion world number three, you are immediately +granted a permit to visit the third transition sphere, the headquarters of the +angelic orders and the home of their various system training schools. Visits to +Jerusem from this world are increasingly profitable and are of ever-heightening +interest to the advancing mortals. + +Mansonia the third is a world of great personal and social achievement for all +who have not made the equivalent of these circles of culture prior to release +from the flesh on the mortal nativity worlds. On this sphere more positive +educational work is begun. The training of the first two mansion worlds is +mostly of a deficiency nature--negative--in that it has to do with +supplementing the experience of the life in the flesh. On this third mansion +world the survivors really begin their progressive morontia culture. The chief +purpose of this training is to enhance the understanding of the correlation of +morontia mota and mortal logic, the co-ordination of morontia mota and human +philosophy. Surviving mortals now gain practical insight into true metaphysics. +This is the real introduction to the intelligent comprehension of cosmic +meanings and universe interrelationships. The culture of the third mansion +world partakes of the nature of the postbestowal Son age of a normal inhabited +planet. + +6. THE FOURTH MANSION WORLD + +When you arrive on the fourth mansion world, you have well entered upon the +morontia career; you have progressed a long way from the initial material +existence. Now are you given permission to make visits to transition world +number four, there to become familiar with the headquarters and training +schools of the superangels, including the Brilliant Evening Stars. Through the +good offices of these superangels of the fourth transition world the morontia +visitors are enabled to draw very close to the various orders of the Sons of +God during the periodic visits to Jerusem, for new sectors of the system +capital are gradually opening up to the advancing mortals as they make these +repeated visits to the headquarters world. New grandeurs are progressively +unfolding to the expanding minds of these ascenders. + +On the fourth mansonia the individual ascender more fittingly finds his place +in the group working and class functions of the morontia life. Ascenders here +develop increased appreciation of the broadcasts and other phases of local +universe culture and progress. + +It is during the period of training on world number four that the ascending +mortals are really first introduced to the demands and delights of the true +social life of morontia creatures. And it is indeed a new experience for +evolutionary creatures to participate in social activities which are predicated +neither on personal aggrandizement nor on self-seeking conquest. A new social +order is being introduced, one based on the understanding sympathy of mutual +appreciation, the unselfish love of mutual service, and the overmastering +motivation of the realization of a common and supreme destiny--the Paradise +goal of worshipful and divine perfection. Ascenders are all becoming +self-conscious of God-knowing, God-revealing, God-seeking, and God-finding. + +The intellectual and social culture of this fourth mansion world is comparable +to the mental and social life of the post-Teacher Son age on the planets of +normal evolution. The spiritual status is much in advance of such a mortal +dispensation. + + top of page - 537 + +7. THE FIFTH MANSION WORLD + +Transport to the fifth mansion world represents a tremendous forward step in +the life of a morontia progressor. The experience on this world is a real +foretaste of Jerusem life. Here you begin to realize the high destiny of the +loyal evolutionary worlds since they may normally progress to this stage during +their natural planetary development. The culture of this mansion world +corresponds in general to that of the early era of light and life on the +planets of normal evolutionary progress. And from this you can understand why +it is so arranged that the highly cultured and progressive types of beings who +sometimes inhabit these advanced evolutionary worlds are exempt from passing +through one or more, or even all, of the mansion spheres. + +Having mastered the local universe language before leaving the fourth mansion +world, you now devote more time to the perfection of the tongue of Uversa to +the end that you may be proficient in both languages before arriving on Jerusem +with residential status. All ascending mortals are bilingual from the system +headquarters up to Havona. And then it is only necessary to enlarge the +superuniverse vocabulary, still additional enlargement being required for +residence on Paradise. + +Upon arrival on mansonia number five the pilgrim is given permission to visit +the transition world of corresponding number, the Sons' headquarters. Here the +ascendant mortal becomes personally familiar with the various groups of divine +sonship. He has heard of these superb beings and has already met them on +Jerusem, but now he comes really to know them. + +On the fifth mansonia you begin to learn of the constellation study worlds. +Here you meet the first of the instructors who begin to prepare you for the +subsequent constellation sojourn. More of this preparation continues on worlds +six and seven, while the finishing touches are supplied in the sector of the +ascending mortals on Jerusem. + +A real birth of cosmic consciousness takes place on mansonia number five. You +are becoming universe minded. This is indeed a time of expanding horizons. It +is beginning to dawn upon the enlarging minds of the ascending mortals that +some stupendous and magnificent, some supernal and divine, destiny awaits all +who complete the progressive Paradise ascension, which has been so laboriously +but so joyfully and auspiciously begun. At about this point the average mortal +ascender begins to manifest bona fide experiential enthusiasm for the Havona +ascent. Study is becoming voluntary, unselfish service natural, and worship +spontaneous. A real morontia character is budding; a real morontia creature is +evolving. + +8. THE SIXTH MANSION WORLD + +Sojourners on this sphere are permitted to visit transition world number six, +where they learn more about the high spirits of the superuniverse, although +they are not able to visualize many of these celestial beings. Here they also +receive their first lessons in the prospective spirit career which so +immediately follows graduation from the morontia training of the local +universe. + +The assistant System Sovereign makes frequent visits to this world, and the +initial instruction is here begun in the technique of universe administration. +The first lessons embracing the affairs of a whole universe are now imparted. + + top of page - 538 + +This is a brilliant age for ascending mortals and usually witnesses the perfect +fusion of the human mind and the divine Adjuster. In potential, this fusion may +have occurred previously, but the actual working identity many times is not +achieved until the time of the sojourn on the fifth mansion world or even the +sixth. + +The union of the evolving immortal soul with the eternal and divine Adjuster is +signalized by the seraphic summoning of the supervising superangel for +resurrected survivors and of the archangel of record for those going to +judgment on the third day; and then, in the presence of such a survivor's +morontia associates, these messengers of confirmation speak: "This is a beloved +son in whom I am well pleased." This simple ceremony marks the entrance of an +ascending mortal upon the eternal career of Paradise service. + +Immediately upon the confirmation of Adjuster fusion the new morontia being is +introduced to his fellows for the first time by his new name and is granted the +forty days of spiritual retirement from all routine activities wherein to +commune with himself and to choose some one of the optional routes to Havona +and to select from the differential techniques of Paradise attainment. + +But still are these brilliant beings more or less material; they are far from +being true spirits; they are more like supermortals, spiritually speaking, +still a little lower than the angels. But they are truly becoming marvelous +creatures. + +During the sojourn on world number six the mansion world students achieve a +status which is comparable with the exalted development characterizing those +evolutionary worlds which have normally progressed beyond the initial stage of +light and life. The organization of society on this mansonia is of a high +order. The shadow of the mortal nature grows less and less as these worlds are +ascended one by one. You are becoming more and more adorable as you leave +behind the coarse vestiges of planetary animal origin. "Coming up through great +tribulation" serves to make glorified mortals very kind and understanding, very +sympathetic and tolerant. + +9. THE SEVENTH MANSION WORLD + +The experience on this sphere is the crowning achievement of the immediate +postmortal career. During your sojourn here you will receive the instruction of +many teachers, all of whom will co-operate in the task of preparing you for +residence on Jerusem. Any discernible differences between those mortals hailing +from the isolated and retarded worlds and those survivors from the more +advanced and enlightened spheres are virtually obliterated during the sojourn +on the seventh mansion world. Here you will be purged of all the remnants of +unfortunate heredity, unwholesome environment, and unspiritual planetary +tendencies. The last remnants of the "mark of the beast" are here eradicated. + +While sojourning on mansonia number seven, permission is granted to visit +transition world number seven, the world of the Universal Father. Here you +begin a new and more spiritual worship of the unseen Father, a habit you will +increasingly pursue all the way up through your long ascending career. You find +the Father's temple on this world of transitional culture, but you do not see +the Father. + +Now begins the formation of classes for graduation to Jerusem. You have gone +from world to world as individuals, but now you prepare to depart for + + top of page - 539 + +Jerusem in groups, although, within certain limits, an ascender may elect to +tarry on the seventh mansion world for the purpose of enabling a tardy member +of his earthly or mansonia working group to catch up with him. + +The personnel of the seventh mansonia assemble on the sea of glass to witness +your departure for Jerusem with residential status. Hundreds or thousands of +times you may have visited Jerusem, but always as a guest; never before have +you proceeded toward the system capital in the company of a group of your +fellows who were bidding an eternal farewell to the whole mansonia career as +ascending mortals. You will soon be welcomed on the receiving field of the +headquarters world as Jerusem citizens. + +You will greatly enjoy your progress through the seven dematerializing worlds; +they are really demortalizing spheres. You are mostly human on the first +mansion world, just a mortal being minus a material body, a human mind housed +in a morontia form--a material body of the morontia world but not a mortal +house of flesh and blood. You really pass from the mortal state to the immortal +status at the time of Adjuster fusion, and by the time you have finished the +Jerusem career, you will be full-fledged morontians. + +10. JERUSEM CITIZENSHIP + +The reception of a new class of mansion world graduates is the signal for all +Jerusem to assemble as a committee of welcome. Even the spornagia enjoy the +arrival of these triumphant ascenders of evolutionary origin, those who have +run the planetary race and finished the mansion world progression. Only the +physical controllers and Morontia Power Supervisors are absent from these +occasions of rejoicing. + +John the Revelator saw a vision of the arrival of a class of advancing mortals +from the seventh mansion world to their first heaven, the glories of Jerusem. +He recorded: "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and those +who had gained the victory over the beast that was originally in them and over +the image that persisted through the mansion worlds and finally over the last +mark and trace, standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, and +singing the song of deliverance from mortal fear and death." (Perfected space +communication is to be had on all these worlds; and your anywhere reception of +such communications is made possible by carrying the "harp of God," a morontia +contrivance compensating for the inability to directly adjust the immature +morontia sensory mechanism to the reception of space communications.) + +Paul also had a view of the ascendant-citizen corps of perfecting mortals on +Jerusem, for he wrote: "But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the +living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to +the grand assembly of Michael, and to the spirits of just men being made +perfect." + +After mortals have attained residence on the system headquarters, no more +literal resurrections will be experienced. The morontia form granted you on +departure from the mansion world career is such as will see you through to the +end of the local universe experience. Changes will be made from time to time, +but you will retain this same form until you bid it farewell when you emerge as +first-stage spirits preparatory for transit to the superuniverse worlds of +ascending culture and spirit training. + + top of page - 540 + +Seven times do those mortals who pass through the entire mansonia career +experience the adjustment sleep and the resurrection awakening. But the last +resurrection hall, the final awakening chamber, was left behind on the seventh +mansion world. No more will a form-change necessitate the lapse of +consciousness or a break in the continuity of personal memory. + +The mortal personality initiated on the evolutionary worlds and tabernacled in +the flesh--indwelt by the Mystery Monitors and invested by the Spirit of +Truth--is not fully mobilized, realized, and unified until that day when such a +Jerusem citizen is given clearance for Edentia and proclaimed a true member of +the morontia corps of Nebadon--an immortal survivor of Adjuster association, a +Paradise ascender, a personality of morontia status, and a true child of the +Most Highs. + +Mortal death is a technique of escape from the material life in the flesh; and +the mansonia experience of progressive life through seven worlds of corrective +training and cultural education represents the introduction of mortal survivors +to the morontia career, the transition life which intervenes between the +evolutionary material existence and the higher spirit attainment of the +ascenders of time who are destined to achieve the portals of eternity. + +[Sponsored by a Brilliant Evening Star.] + + top of page - 541 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Local ³ The Morontia ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Syste... ³ Li... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p048.txt b/religious documents/p048.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2f7b4a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p048.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1084 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 48 The Morontia Life + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 48 The Morontia Life + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Gods cannot--at least they do not--transform a creature of gross animal +nature into a perfected spirit by some mysterious act of creative magic. When +the Creators desire to produce perfect beings, they do so by direct and +original creation, but they never undertake to convert animal-origin and +material creatures into beings of perfection in a single step. + +The morontia life, extending as it does over the various stages of the local +universe career, is the only possible approach whereby material mortals could +attain the threshold of the spirit world. What magic could death, the natural +dissolution of the material body, hold that such a simple step should instantly +transform the mortal and material mind into an immortal and perfected spirit? +Such beliefs are but ignorant superstitions and pleasing fables. + +Always this morontia transition intervenes between the mortal estate and the +subsequent spirit status of surviving human beings. This intermediate state of +universe progress differs markedly in the various local creations, but in +intent and purpose they are all quite similar. The arrangement of the mansion +and higher morontia worlds in Nebadon is fairly typical of the morontia +transition regimes in this part of Orvonton. + +1. MORONTIA MATERIALS + +The morontia realms are the local universe liaison spheres between the material +and spiritual levels of creature existence. This morontia life has been known +on Urantia since the early days of the Planetary Prince. From time to time this +transition state has been taught to mortals, and the concept, in distorted +form, has found a place in present-day religions. + +The morontia spheres are the transition phases of mortal ascension through the +progression worlds of the local universe. Only the seven worlds surrounding the +finaliters' sphere of the local systems are called mansion worlds, but all +fifty-six of the system transition abodes, in common with the higher spheres +around the constellations and the universe headquarters, are called morontia +worlds. These creations partake of the physical beauty and the morontia +grandeur of the local universe headquarters spheres. + +All of these worlds are architectural spheres, and they have just double the +number of elements of the evolved planets. Such made-to-order worlds not only +abound in the heavy metals and crystals, having one hundred physical elements, +but likewise have exactly one hundred forms of a unique energy organization +called morontia material. The Master Physical Controllers and the Morontia +Power Supervisors are able so to modify the revolutions of the primary units + + top of page - 542 + +of matter and at the same time so to transform these associations of energy as +to create this new substance. + +The early morontia life in the local systems is very much like that of your +present material world, becoming less physical and more truly morontial on the +constellation study worlds. And as you advance to the Salvington spheres, you +increasingly attain spiritual levels. + +The Morontia Power Supervisors are able to effect a union of material and of +spiritual energies, thereby organizing a morontia form of materialization which +is receptive to the superimposition of a controlling spirit. When you traverse +the morontia life of Nebadon, these same patient and skillful Morontia Power +Supervisors will successively provide you with 570 morontia bodies, each one a +phase of your progressive transformation. From the time of leaving the material +worlds until you are constituted a first-stage spirit on Salvington, you will +undergo just 570 separate and ascending morontia changes. Eight of these occur +in the system, seventy-one in the constellation, and 491 during the sojourn on +the spheres of Salvington. + +In the days of the mortal flesh the divine spirit indwells you, almost as a +thing apart--in reality an invasion of man by the bestowed spirit of the +Universal Father. But in the morontia life the spirit will become a real part +of your personality, and as you successively pass through the 570 progressive +transformations, you ascend from the material to the spiritual estate of +creature life. + +Paul learned of the existence of the morontia worlds and of the reality of +morontia materials, for he wrote, "They have in heaven a better and more +enduring substance." And these morontia materials are real, literal, even as in +"the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God." And each of +these marvelous spheres is "a better country, that is, a heavenly one." + +2. MORONTIA POWER SUPERVISORS + +These unique beings are exclusively concerned with the supervision of those +activities which represent a working combination of spiritual and physical or +semimaterial energies. They are exclusively devoted to the ministry of morontia +progression. Not that they so much minister to mortals during the transition +experience, but they rather make possible the transition environment for the +progressing morontia creatures. They are the channels of morontia power which +sustain and energize the morontia phases of the transition worlds. + +Morontia Power Supervisors are the offspring of a local universe Mother Spirit. +They are fairly standard in design though differing slightly in nature in the +various local creations. They are created for their specific function and +require no training before entering upon their responsibilities. + +The creation of the first Morontia Power Supervisors is simultaneous with the +arrival of the first mortal survivor on the shores of some one of the first +mansion worlds in a local universe. They are created in groups of one thousand, +classified as follows: + +1. Circuit Regulators 400 + +2. System Co-ordinators 200 + +3. Planetary Custodians 100 + + top of page - 543 + +4. Combined Controllers 100 + +5. Liaison Stabilizers 100 + +6. Selective Assorters 50 + +7. Associate Registrars 50 + +The power supervisors always serve in their native universe. They are directed +exclusively by the joint spirit activity of the Universe Son and the Universe +Spirit but are otherwise a wholly self-governing group. They maintain +headquarters on each of the first mansion worlds of the local systems, where +they work in close association with both the physical controllers and the +seraphim but function in a world of their own as regards energy manifestation +and spirit application. + +They also sometimes work in connection with supermaterial phenomena on the +evolutionary worlds as ministers of temporary assignment. But they rarely serve +on the inhabited planets; neither do they work on the higher training worlds of +the superuniverse, being chiefly devoted to the transition regime of morontia +progression in a local universe. + +1. Circuit Regulators. These are the unique beings who co-ordinate physical and +spiritual energy and regulate its flow into the segregated channels of the +morontia spheres, and these circuits are exclusively planetary, limited to a +single world. The morontia circuits are distinct from, and supplementary to, +both physical and spiritual circuits on the transition worlds, and it requires +millions of these regulators to energize even a system of mansion worlds like +that of Satania. + +Circuit regulators initiate those changes in material energies which render +them subject to the control and regulation of their associates. These beings +are morontia power generators as well as circuit regulators. Much as a dynamo +apparently generates electricity out of the atmosphere, so do these living +morontia dynamos seem to transform the everywhere energies of space into those +materials which the morontia supervisors weave into the bodies and life +activities of the ascending mortals. + +2. System Co-ordinators. Since each morontia world has a separate order of +morontia energy, it is exceedingly difficult for humans to visualize these +spheres. But on each successive transition sphere, mortals will find the plant +life and everything else pertaining to the morontia existence progressively +modified to correspond with the advancing spiritization of the ascending +survivor. And since the energy system of each world is thus individualized, +these co-ordinators operate to harmonize and blend such differing power systems +into a working unit for the associated spheres of any particular group. + +Ascending mortals gradually progress from the physical to the spiritual as they +advance from one morontia world to another; hence the necessity for providing +an ascending scale of morontia spheres and an ascending scale of morontia +forms. + +When mansion world ascenders pass from one sphere to another, they are +delivered by the transport seraphim to the receivers of the system +co-ordinators on the advanced world. Here in those unique temples at the center +of the seventy radiating wings wherein are the chambers of transition similar +to the resurrection halls on the initial world of reception for earth-origin +mortals, the necessary changes in creature form are skillfully effected by the +system co-ordinators. + + top of page - 544 + +These early morontia-form changes require about seven days of standard time for +their accomplishment. + +3. Planetary Custodians. Each morontia world, from the mansion spheres up to +the universe headquarters, is in the custody--as regards morontia affairs--of +seventy guardians. They constitute the local planetary council of supreme +morontia authority. This council grants material for morontia forms to all +ascending creatures who land on the spheres and authorizes those changes in +creature form which make it possible for an ascender to proceed to the +succeeding sphere. After the mansion worlds have been traversed, you will +translate from one phase of morontia life to another without having to +surrender consciousness. Unconsciousness attends only the earlier metamorphoses +and the later transitions from one universe to another and from Havona to +Paradise. + +4. Combined Controllers. One of these highly mechanical beings is always +stationed at the center of each administrative unit of a morontia world. A +combined controller is sensitive to, and functional with, physical, spiritual, +and morontial energies; and with this being there are always associated two +system co-ordinators, four circuit regulators, one planetary custodian, one +liaison stabilizer, and either an associate registrar or a selective assorter. + +5. Liaison Stabilizers. These are the regulators of the morontia energy in +association with the physical and spirit forces of the realm. They make +possible the conversion of morontia energy into morontia material. The whole +morontia organization of existence is dependent on the stabilizers. They slow +down the energy revolutions to that point where physicalization can occur. But +I have no terms with which I can compare or illustrate the ministry of such +beings. It is quite beyond human imagination. + +6. Selective Assorters. As you progress from one class or phase of a morontia +world to another, you must be re-keyed or advance-tuned, and it is the task of +the selective assorters to keep you in progressive synchrony with the morontia +life. + +While the basic morontia forms of life and matter are identical from the first +mansion world to the last universe transition sphere, there is a functional +progression which gradually extends from the material to the spiritual. Your +adaptation to this basically uniform but successively advancing and spiritizing +creation is effected by this selective re-keying. Such an adjustment in the +mechanism of personality is tantamount to a new creation, notwithstanding that +you retain the same morontia form. + +You may repeatedly subject yourself to the test of these examiners, and as soon +as you register adequate spiritual achievement, they will gladly certify you +for advanced standing. These progressive changes result in altered reactions to +the morontia environment, such as modifications in food requirements and +numerous other personal practices. + +The selective assorters are also of great service in the grouping of morontia +personalities for purposes of study, teaching, and other projects. They +naturally indicate those who will best function in temporary association. + +7. Associate Registrars. The morontia world has its own recorders, who serve in +association with the spirit recorders in the supervision and custody of + + top of page - 545 + +the records and other data indigenous to the morontia creations. The morontia +records are available to all orders of personalities. + +All morontia transition realms are accessible alike to material and spirit +beings. As morontia progressors you will remain in full contact with the +material world and with material personalities, while you will increasingly +discern and fraternize with spirit beings; and by the time of departure from +the morontia regime, you will have seen all orders of spirits with the +exception of a few of the higher types, such as Solitary Messengers. + +3. MORONTIA COMPANIONS + +These hosts of the mansion and morontia worlds are the offspring of a local +universe Mother Spirit. They are created from age to age in groups of one +hundred thousand, and in Nebadon there are at present over seventy billion of +these unique beings. + +Morontia Companions are trained for service by the Melchizedeks on a special +planet near Salvington; they do not pass through the central Melchizedek +schools. In service they range from the lowest mansion worlds of the systems to +the highest study spheres of Salvington, but they are seldom encountered on the +inhabited worlds. They serve under the general supervision of the Sons of God +and under the immediate direction of the Melchizedeks. + +The Morontia Companions maintain ten thousand headquarters in a local +universe--on each of the first mansion worlds of the local systems. They are +almost wholly a self-governing order and are, in general, an intelligent and +loyal group of beings; but every now and then, in connection with certain +unfortunate celestial upheavals, they have been known to go astray. Thousands +of these useful creatures were lost during the times of the Lucifer rebellion +in Satania. Your local system now has its full quota of these beings, the loss +of the Lucifer rebellion having only recently been made up. + +There are two distinct types of Morontia Companions; one type is aggressive, +the other retiring, but otherwise they are equal in status. They are not sex +creatures, but they manifest a touchingly beautiful affection for one another. +And while they are hardly companionate in the material (human) sense, they are +very close of kin to the human races in the order of creature existence. The +midway creatures of the worlds are your nearest of kin; then come the morontia +cherubim, and after them the Morontia Companions. + +These companions are touchingly affectionate and charmingly social beings. They +possess distinct personalities, and when you meet them on the mansion worlds, +after learning to recognize them as a class, you will soon discern their +individuality. Mortals all resemble one another; at the same time each of you +possesses a distinct and recognizable personality. + +Something of an idea of the nature of the work of these Morontia Companions may +be derived from the following classification of their activities in a local +system: + +1. Pilgrim Guardians are not assigned to specific duties in their association +with the morontia progressors. These companions are responsible for the whole +of the morontia career and are therefore the co-ordinators of the work of all +other morontia and transition ministers. + + top of page - 546 + +2. Pilgrim Receivers and Free Associators. These are the social companions of +the new arrivals on the mansion worlds. One of them will certainly be on hand +to welcome you when you awaken on the initial mansion world from the first +transit sleep of time, when you experience the resurrection from the death of +the flesh into the morontia life. And from the time you are thus formally +welcomed on awakening to that day when you leave the local universe as a +first-stage spirit, these Morontia Companions are ever with you. + +Companions are not assigned permanently to individuals. An ascending mortal on +one of the mansion or higher worlds might have a different companion on each of +several successive occasions and again might go for long periods without one. +It would all depend on the requirements and also on the supply of companions +available. + +3. Hosts to Celestial Visitors. These gracious creatures are dedicated to the +entertainment of the superhuman groups of student visitors and other celestials +who may chance to sojourn on the transition worlds. You will have ample +opportunity to visit within any realm you have experientially attained. Student +visitors are allowed on all inhabited planets, even those in isolation. + +4. Co-ordinators and Liaison Directors. These companions are dedicated to the +facilitation of morontia intercourse and to the prevention of confusion. They +are the instructors of social conduct and morontia progress, sponsoring classes +and other group activities among the ascending mortals. They maintain extensive +areas wherein they assemble their pupils and from time to time make requisition +on the celestial artisans and the reversion directors for the embellishment of +their programs. As you progress, you will come in intimate contact with these +companions, and you will grow exceedingly fond of both groups. It is a matter +of chance as to whether you will be associated with an aggressive or a retiring +type of companion. + +5. Interpreters and Translators. During the early mansonia career you will have +frequent recourse to the interpreters and the translators. They know and speak +all the tongues of a local universe; they are the linguists of the realms. + +You will not acquire new languages automatically; you will learn a language +over there much as you do down here, and these brilliant beings will be your +language teachers. The first study on the mansion worlds will be the tongue of +Satania and then the language of Nebadon. And while you are mastering these new +tongues, the Morontia Companions will be your efficient interpreters and +patient translators. You will never encounter a visitor on any of these worlds +but that some one of the Morontia Companions will be able to officiate as +interpreter. + +6. Excursion and Reversion Supervisors. These companions will accompany you on +the longer trips to the headquarters sphere and to the surrounding worlds of +transition culture. They plan, conduct, and supervise all such individual and +group tours about the system worlds of training and culture. + +7. Area and Building Custodians. Even the material and morontia structures +increase in perfection and grandeur as you advance in the mansonia career. As +individuals and as groups you are permitted to make certain changes in the +abodes assigned as headquarters for your sojourn on the different mansion + + top of page - 547 + +worlds. Many of the activities of these spheres take place in the open +enclosures of the variously designated circles, squares, and triangles. The +majority of the mansion world structures are roofless, being enclosures of +magnificent construction and exquisite embellishment. The climatic and other +physical conditions prevailing on the architectural worlds make roofs wholly +unnecessary. + +These custodians of the transition phases of ascendant life are supreme in the +management of morontia affairs. They were created for this work, and pending +the factualization of the Supreme Being, always will they remain Morontia +Companions; never do they perform other duties. + +As systems and universes are settled in light and life, the mansion worlds +increasingly cease to function as transition spheres of morontia training. More +and more the finaliters institute their new training regime, which appears to +be designed to translate the cosmic consciousness from the present level of the +grand universe to that of the future outer universes. The Morontia Companions +are destined to function increasingly in association with the finaliters and in +numerous other realms not at present revealed on Urantia. + +You can forecast that these beings are probably going to contribute much to +your enjoyment of the mansion worlds, whether your sojourn is to be long or +short. And you will continue to enjoy them all the way up to Salvington. They +are not, technically, essential to any part of your survival experience. You +could reach Salvington without them, but you would greatly miss them. They are +the personality luxury of your ascending career in the local universe. + +4. THE REVERSION DIRECTORS + +Joyful mirth and the smile-equivalent are as universal as music. There is a +morontial and a spiritual equivalent of mirth and laughter. The ascendant life +is about equally divided between work and play--freedom from assignment. + +Celestial relaxation and superhuman humor are quite different from their human +analogues, but we all actually indulge in a form of both; and they really +accomplish for us, in our state, just about what ideal humor is able to do for +you on Urantia. The Morontia Companions are skillful play sponsors, and they +are most ably supported by the reversion directors. + +You would probably best understand the work of the reversion directors if they +were likened to the higher types of humorists on Urantia, though that would be +an exceedingly crude and somewhat unfortunate way in which to try to convey an +idea of the function of these directors of change and relaxation, these +ministers of the exalted humor of the morontia and spirit realms. + +In discussing spirit humor, first let me tell you what it is not. Spirit jest +is never tinged with the accentuation of the misfortunes of the weak and +erring. Neither is it ever blasphemous of the righteousness and glory of +divinity. Our humor embraces three general levels of appreciation: + +1. Reminiscent jests. Quips growing out of the memories of past episodes in +one's experience of combat, struggle, and sometimes fearfulness, and ofttimes +foolish and childish anxiety. To us, this phase of humor derives from the +deep-seated and abiding ability to draw upon the past for memory material with +which pleasantly to flavor and otherwise lighten the heavy loads of the +present. + + top of page - 548 + +2. Current humor. The senselessness of much that so often causes us serious +concern, the joy at discovering the unimportance of much of our serious +personal anxiety. We are most appreciative of this phase of humor when we are +best able to discount the anxieties of the present in favor of the certainties +of the future. + +3. Prophetic joy. It will perhaps be difficult for mortals to envisage this +phase of humor, but we do get a peculiar satisfaction out of the assurance +"that all things work together for good"--for spirits and morontians as well as +for mortals. This aspect of celestial humor grows out of our faith in the +loving overcare of our superiors and in the divine stability of our Supreme +Directors. + +But the reversion directors of the realms are not concerned exclusively with +depicting the high humor of the various orders of intelligent beings; they are +also occupied with the leadership of diversion, spiritual recreation and +morontia entertainment. And in this connection they have the hearty +co-operation of the celestial artisans. + +The reversion directors themselves are not a created group; they are a +recruited corps embracing beings ranging from the Havona natives down through +the messenger hosts of space and the ministering spirits of time to the +morontia progressors from the evolutionary worlds. All are volunteers, giving +themselves to the work of assisting their fellows in the achievement of thought +change and mind rest, for such attitudes are most helpful in recuperating +depleted energies. + +When partially exhausted by the efforts of attainment, and while awaiting the +reception of new energy charges, there is agreeable pleasure in living over +again the enactments of other days and ages. The early experiences of the race +or the order are restful to reminisce. And that is exactly why these artists +are called reversion directors--they assist in reverting the memory to a former +state of development or to a less experienced status of being. + +All beings enjoy this sort of reversion except those who are inherent Creators, +hence automatic self-rejuvenators, and certain highly specialized types of +creatures, such as the power centers and the physical controllers, who are +always and eternally thoroughly businesslike in all their reactions. These +periodic releases from the tension of functional duty are a regular part of +life on all worlds throughout the universe of universes but not on the Isle of +Paradise. Beings indigenous to the central abode are incapable of depletion and +are not, therefore, subject to re-energizing. And with such beings of eternal +Paradise perfection there can be no such reversion to evolutionary experiences. + +Most of us have come up through lower stages of existence or through +progressive levels of our orders, and it is refreshing and in a measure amusing +to look back upon certain episodes of our early experience. There is a +restfulness in the contemplation of that which is old to one's order, and which +lingers as a memory possession of the mind. The future signifies struggle and +advancement; it bespeaks work, effort, and achievement; but the past savors of +things already mastered and achieved; contemplation of the past permits of +relaxation and such a carefree review as to provoke spirit mirth and a morontia +state of mind verging on merriment. + +Even mortal humor becomes most hearty when it depicts episodes affecting those +just a little beneath one's present developmental state, or when it portrays +one's supposed superiors falling victim to the experiences which are commonly + + top of page - 549 + +associated with supposed inferiors. You of Urantia have allowed much that is at +once vulgar and unkind to become confused with your humor, but on the whole, +you are to be congratulated on a comparatively keen sense of humor. Some of +your races have a rich vein of it and are greatly helped in their earthly +careers thereby. Apparently you received much in the way of humor from your +Adamic inheritance, much more than was secured of either music or art. + +All Satania, during times of play, those times when its inhabitants +refreshingly resurrect the memories of a lower stage of existence, is edified +by the pleasant humor of a corps of reversion directors from Urantia. The sense +of celestial humor we have with us always, even when engaged in the most +difficult of assignments. It helps to avoid an overdevelopment of the notion of +one's self-importance. But we do not give rein to it freely, as you might say, +"have fun," except when we are in recess from the serious assignments of our +respective orders. + +When we are tempted to magnify our self-importance, if we stop to contemplate +the infinity of the greatness and grandeur of our Makers, our own +self-glorification becomes sublimely ridiculous, even verging on the humorous. +One of the functions of humor is to help all of us take ourselves less +seriously. Humor is the divine antidote for exaltation of ego. + +The need for the relaxation and diversion of humor is greatest in those orders +of ascendant beings who are subjected to sustained stress in their upward +struggles. The two extremes of life have little need for humorous diversions. +Primitive men have no capacity therefor, and beings of Paradise perfection have +no need thereof. The hosts of Havona are naturally a joyous and exhilarating +assemblage of supremely happy personalities. On Paradise the quality of worship +obviates the necessity for reversion activities. But among those who start +their careers far below the goal of Paradise perfection, there is a large place +for the ministry of the reversion directors. + +The higher the mortal species, the greater the stress and the greater the +capacity for humor as well as the necessity for it. In the spirit world the +opposite is true: The higher we ascend, the less the need for the diversions of +reversion experiences. But proceeding down the scale of spirit life from +Paradise to the seraphic hosts, there is an increasing need for the mission of +mirth and the ministry of merriment. Those beings who most need the refreshment +of periodic reversion to the intellectual status of previous experiences are +the higher types of the human species, the morontians, angels, and the Material +Sons, together with all similar types of personality. + +Humor should function as an automatic safety valve to prevent the building up +of excessive pressures due to the monotony of sustained and serious +self-contemplation in association with the intense struggle for developmental +progress and noble achievement. Humor also functions to lessen the shock of the +unexpected impact of fact or of truth, rigid unyielding fact and flexible +ever-living truth. The mortal personality, never sure as to which will next be +encountered, through humor swiftly grasps--sees the point and achieves +insight--the unexpected nature of the situation be it fact or be it truth. + +While the humor of Urantia is exceedingly crude and most inartistic, it does +serve a valuable purpose both as a health insurance and as a liberator of +emotional pressure, thus preventing injurious nervous tension and overserious +self-contemplation. Humor and play--relaxation--are never reactions of progres- + + top of page - 550 + +sive exertion; always are they the echoes of a backward glance, a reminiscence +of the past. Even on Urantia and as you now are, you always find it +rejuvenating when for a short time you can suspend the exertions of the newer +and higher intellectual efforts and revert to the more simple engagements of +your ancestors. + +The principles of Urantian play life are philosophically sound and continue to +apply on up through your ascending life, through the circuits of Havona to the +eternal shores of Paradise. As ascendant beings you are in possession of +personal memories of all former and lower existences, and without such identity +memories of the past there would be no basis for the humor of the present, +either mortal laughter or morontia mirth. It is this recalling of past +experiences that provides the basis for present diversion and amusement. And so +you will enjoy the celestial equivalents of your earthly humor all the way up +through your long morontia, and then increasingly spiritual, careers. And that +part of God (the Adjuster) which becomes an eternal part of the personality of +an ascendant mortal contributes the overtones of divinity to the joyous +expressions, even spiritual laughter, of the ascending creatures of time and +space. + +5. THE MANSION WORLD TEACHERS + +The Mansion World Teachers are a corps of deserted but glorified cherubim and +sanobim. When a pilgrim of time advances from a trial world of space to the +mansion and associated worlds of morontia training, he is accompanied by his +personal or group seraphim, the guardian of destiny. In the worlds of mortal +existence the seraphim is ably assisted by cherubim and sanobim; but when her +mortal ward is delivered from the bonds of the flesh and starts out on the +ascendant career, when the postmaterial or morontia life begins, the attending +seraphim has no further need of the ministrations of her former lieutenants, +the cherubim and sanobim. + +These deserted assistants of the ministering seraphim are often summoned to +universe headquarters, where they pass into the intimate embrace of the +Universe Mother Spirit and then go forth to the system training spheres as +Mansion World Teachers. These teachers often visit the material worlds and +function from the lowest mansion worlds on up to the highest of the educational +spheres connected with the universe headquarters. Upon their own motion they +may return to their former associative work with the ministering seraphim. + +There are billions upon billions of these teachers in Satania, and their +numbers constantly increase because, in the majority of instances, when a +seraphim proceeds inward with an Adjuster-fused mortal, both a cherubim and a +sanobim are left behind. + +Mansion World Teachers, like most of the other instructors, are commissioned by +the Melchizedeks. They are generally supervised by the Morontia Companions, but +as individuals and as teachers they are supervised by the acting heads of the +schools or spheres wherein they may be functioning as instructors. + +These advanced cherubim usually work in pairs as they did when attached to the +seraphim. They are by nature very near the morontia type of existence, and they +are inherently sympathetic teachers of the ascending mortals and most +efficiently conduct the program of the mansion world and morontia educational +system. + + top of page - 551 + +In the schools of the morontia life these teachers engage in individual, group, +class, and mass teaching. On the mansion worlds such schools are organized in +three general groups of one hundred divisions each: the schools of thinking, +the schools of feeling, and the schools of doing. When you reach the +constellation, there are added the schools of ethics, the schools of +administration, and the schools of social adjustment. On the universe +headquarters worlds you will enter the schools of philosophy, divinity, and +pure spirituality. + +Those things which you might have learned on earth, but which you failed to +learn, must be acquired under the tutelage of these faithful and patient +teachers. There are no royal roads, short cuts, or easy paths to Paradise. +Irrespective of the individual variations of the route, you master the lessons +of one sphere before you proceed to another; at least this is true after you +once leave the world of your nativity. + +One of the purposes of the morontia career is to effect the permanent +eradication from the mortal survivors of such animal vestigial traits as +procrastination, equivocation, insincerity, problem avoidance, unfairness, and +ease seeking. The mansonia life early teaches the young morontia pupils that +postponement is in no sense avoidance. After the life in the flesh, time is no +longer available as a technique of dodging situations or of circumventing +disagreeable obligations. + +Beginning service on the lowest of the tarrying spheres, the Mansion World +Teachers advance, with experience, through the educational spheres of the +system and the constellation to the training worlds of Salvington. They are +subjected to no special discipline either before or after their embrace by the +Universe Mother Spirit. They have already been trained for their work while +serving as seraphic associates on the worlds native to their pupils of mansion +world sojourn. They have had actual experience with these advancing mortals on +the inhabited worlds. They are practical and sympathetic teachers, wise and +understanding instructors, able and efficient guides. They are entirely +familiar with the ascendant plans and thoroughly experienced in the initial +phases of the progression career. + +Many of the older of these teachers, those who have long served on the worlds +of the Salvington circuit, are re-embraced by the Universe Mother Spirit, and +from this second embrace these cherubim and sanobim emerge with the status of +seraphim. + +6. MORONTIA WORLD SERAPHIM--TRANSITION MINISTERS + +While all orders of angels, from the planetary helpers to the supreme seraphim, +minister on the morontia worlds, the transition ministers are more exclusively +assigned to these activities. These angels are of the sixth order of seraphic +servers, and their ministry is devoted to facilitating the transit of material +and mortal creatures from the temporal life in the flesh on into the early +stages of morontia existence on the seven mansion worlds. + +You should understand that the morontia life of an ascending mortal is really +initiated on the inhabited worlds at the conception of the soul, at that moment +when the creature mind of moral status is indwelt by the spirit Adjuster. And +from that moment on, the mortal soul has potential capacity for supermortal +function, even for recognition on the higher levels of the morontia spheres of +the local universe. + + top of page - 552 + +You will not, however, be conscious of the ministry of the transition seraphim +until you attain the mansion worlds, where they labor untiringly for the +advancement of their mortal pupils, being assigned for service in the following +seven divisions: + +1. Seraphic Evangels. The moment you consciousize on the mansion worlds, you +are classified as evolving spirits in the records of the system. True, you are +not yet spirits in reality, but you are no longer mortal or material beings; +you have embarked upon the prespirit career and have been duly admitted to the +morontia life. + +On the mansion worlds the seraphic evangels will help you to choose wisely +among the optional routes to Edentia, Salvington, Uversa, and Havona. If there +are a number of equally advisable routes, these will be put before you, and you +will be permitted to select the one that most appeals to you. These seraphim +then make recommendations to the four and twenty advisers on Jerusem concerning +that course which would be most advantageous for each ascending soul. + +You are not given unrestricted choice as to your future course; but you may +choose within the limits of that which the transition ministers and their +superiors wisely determine to be most suitable for your future spirit +attainment. The spirit world is governed on the principle of respecting your +freewill choice provided the course you may choose is not detrimental to you or +injurious to your fellows. + +These seraphic evangels are dedicated to the proclamation of the gospel of +eternal progression, the triumph of perfection attainment. On the mansion +worlds they proclaim the great law of the conservation and dominance of +goodness: No act of good is ever wholly lost; it may be long thwarted but never +wholly annulled, and it is eternally potent in proportion to the divinity of +its motivation. + +Even on Urantia they counsel the human teachers of truth and righteousness to +adhere to the preaching of "the goodness of God, which leads to repentance," to +proclaim "the love of God, which casts out all fear." Even so have these truths +been declared on your world: + +The Gods are my caretakers; I shall not stray; + +Side by side they lead me in the beautiful paths and glorious refreshing of +life everlasting. + +I shall not, in this Divine Presence, want for food nor thirst for water. + +Though I go down into the valley of uncertainty or ascend up into the worlds of +doubt, + +Though I move in loneliness or with the fellows of my kind, + +Though I triumph in the choirs of light or falter in the solitary places of the +spheres, + +Your good spirit shall minister to me, and your glorious angel will comfort me. + +Though I descend into the depths of darkness and death itself, + +I shall not doubt you nor fear you, + +For I know that in the fullness of time and the glory of your name + +You will raise me up to sit with you on the battlements on high. + + top of page - 553 + +That is the story whispered in the night season to the shepherd boy. He could +not retain it word for word, but to the best of his memory he gave it much as +it is recorded today. + +These seraphim are also the evangels of the gospel of perfection attainment for +the whole system as well as for the individual ascender. Even now in the young +system of Satania their teachings and plans encompass provisions for the future +ages when the mansion worlds will no longer serve the mortal ascenders as +steppingstones to the spheres on high. + +2. Racial Interpreters. All races of mortal beings are not alike. True, there +is a planetary pattern running through the physical, mental, and spiritual +natures and tendencies of the various races of a given world; but there are +also distinct racial types, and very definite social tendencies characterize +the offspring of these different basic types of human beings. On the worlds of +time the seraphic racial interpreters further the efforts of the race +commissioners to harmonize the varied viewpoints of the races, and they +continue to function on the mansion worlds, where these same differences tend +to persist in a measure. On a confused planet, such as Urantia, these brilliant +beings have hardly had a fair opportunity to function, but they are the +skillful sociologists and the wise ethnic advisers of the first heaven. + +You should consider the statement about "heaven" and the "heaven of heavens." +The heaven conceived by most of your prophets was the first of the mansion +worlds of the local system. When the apostle spoke of being "caught up to the +third heaven," he referred to that experience in which his Adjuster was +detached during sleep and in this unusual state made a projection to the third +of the seven mansion worlds. Some of your wise men saw the vision of the +greater heaven, "the heaven of heavens," of which the sevenfold mansion world +experience was but the first; the second being Jerusem; the third, Edentia and +its satellites; the fourth, Salvington and the surrounding educational spheres; +the fifth, Uversa; the sixth, Havona; and the seventh, Paradise. + +3. Mind Planners. These seraphim are devoted to the effective grouping of +morontia beings and to organizing their teamwork on the mansion worlds. They +are the psychologists of the first heaven. The majority of this particular +division of seraphic ministers have had previous experience as guardian angels +to the children of time, but their wards, for some reason, failed to +personalize on the mansion worlds or else survived by the technique of Spirit +fusion. + +It is the task of the mind planners to study the nature, experience, and status +of the Adjuster souls in transit through the mansion worlds and to facilitate +their grouping for assignment and advancement. But these mind planners do not +scheme, manipulate, or otherwise take advantage of the ignorance or other +limitations of mansion world students. They are wholly fair and eminently just. +They respect your newborn morontia will; they regard you as independent +volitional beings, and they seek to encourage your speedy development and +advancement. Here you are face to face with true friends and understanding +counselors, angels who are really able to help you "to see yourself as others +see you" and "to know yourself as angels know you." + +Even on Urantia, these seraphim teach the everlasting truth: If your own mind +does not serve you well, you can exchange it for the mind of Jesus of Nazareth, +who always serves you well. + + top of page - 554 + +4. Morontia Counselors. These ministers receive their name because they are +assigned to teach, direct, and counsel the surviving mortals from the worlds of +human origin, souls in transit to the higher schools of the system +headquarters. They are the teachers of those who seek insight into the +experiential unity of divergent life levels, those who are attempting the +integration of meanings and the unification of values. This is the function of +philosophy in mortal life, of mota on the morontia spheres. + +Mota is more than a superior philosophy; it is to philosophy as two eyes are to +one; it has a stereoscopic effect on meanings and values. Material man sees the +universe, as it were, with but one eye--flat. Mansion world students achieve +cosmic perspective depth--by superimposing the perceptions of the morontia life +upon the perceptions of the physical life. And they are enabled to bring these +material and morontial viewpoints into true focus largely through the untiring +ministry of their seraphic counselors, who so patiently teach the mansion world +students and the morontia progressors. Many of the teaching counselors of the +supreme order of seraphim began their careers as advisers of the newly +liberated souls of the mortals of time. + +5. Technicians. These are the seraphim who help new ascenders adjust themselves +to the new and comparatively strange environment of the morontia spheres. Life +on the transition worlds entails real contact with the energies and materials +of both the physical and morontia levels and to a certain extent with spiritual +realities. Ascenders must acclimatize to every new morontia level, and in all +of this they are greatly helped by the seraphic technicians. These seraphim act +as liaisons with the Morontia Power Supervisors and with the Master Physical +Controllers and function extensively as instructors of the ascending pilgrims +concerning the nature of those energies which are utilized on the transition +spheres. They serve as emergency space traversers and perform numerous other +regular and special duties. + +6. Recorder-Teachers. These seraphim are the recorders of the borderland +transactions of the spiritual and the physical, of the relationships of men and +angels, of the morontia transactions of the lower universe realms. They also +serve as instructors regarding the efficient and effective techniques of fact +recording. There is an artistry in the intelligent assembly and co-ordination +of related data, and this art is heightened in collaboration with the celestial +artisans, and even the ascending mortals become thus affiliated with the +recording seraphim. + +The recorders of all the seraphic orders devote a certain amount of time to the +education and training of the morontia progressors. These angelic custodians of +the facts of time are the ideal instructors of all fact seekers. Before leaving +Jerusem, you will become quite familiar with the history of Satania and its 619 +inhabited worlds, and much of this story will be imparted by the seraphic +recorders. + +These angels are all in the chain of recorders extending from the lowest to the +highest custodians of the facts of time and the truths of eternity. Some day +they will teach you to seek truth as well as fact, to expand your soul as well +as your mind. Even now you should learn to water the garden of your heart as +well as to seek for the dry sands of knowledge. Forms are valueless when +lessons are learned. No chick may be had without the shell, and no shell is of +any worth after the chick is hatched. But sometimes error is so great that its +recti- + + top of page - 555 + +fication by revelation would be fatal to those slowly emerging truths which are +essential to its experiential overthrow. When children have their ideals, do +not dislodge them; let them grow. And while you are learning to think as men, +you should also be learning to pray as children. + +Law is life itself and not the rules of its conduct. Evil is a transgression of +law, not a violation of the rules of conduct pertaining to life, which is the +law. Falsehood is not a matter of narration technique but something +premeditated as a perversion of truth. The creation of new pictures out of old +facts, the restatement of parental life in the lives of offspring--these are +the artistic triumphs of truth. The shadow of a hair's turning, premeditated +for an untrue purpose, the slightest twisting or perversion of that which is +principle--these constitute falseness. But the fetish of factualized truth, +fossilized truth, the iron band of so-called unchanging truth, holds one +blindly in a closed circle of cold fact. One can be technically right as to +fact and everlastingly wrong in the truth. + +7. Ministering Reserves. A large corps of all orders of the transition seraphim +is held on the first mansion world. Next to the destiny guardians, these +transition ministers draw the nearest to humans of all orders of seraphim, and +many of your leisure moments will be spent with them. Angels take delight in +service and, when unassigned, often minister as volunteers. The soul of many an +ascending mortal has for the first time been kindled by the divine fire of the +will-to-service through personal friendship with the volunteer servers of the +seraphic reserves. + +From them you will learn to let pressure develop stability and certainty; to be +faithful and earnest and, withal, cheerful; to accept challenges without +complaint and to face difficulties and uncertainties without fear. They will +ask: If you fail, will you rise indomitably to try anew? If you succeed, will +you maintain a well-balanced poise--a stabilized and spiritualized +attitude--throughout every effort in the long struggle to break the fetters of +material inertia, to attain the freedom of spirit existence? + +Even as mortals, so have these angels been father to many disappointments, and +they will point out that sometimes your most disappointing disappointments have +become your greatest blessings. Sometimes the planting of a seed necessitates +its death, the death of your fondest hopes, before it can be reborn to bear the +fruits of new life and new opportunity. And from them you will learn to suffer +less through sorrow and disappointment, first, by making fewer personal plans +concerning other personalities, and then, by accepting your lot when you have +faithfully performed your duty. + +You will learn that you increase your burdens and decrease the likelihood of +success by taking yourself too seriously. Nothing can take precedence over the +work of your status sphere--this world or the next. Very important is the work +of preparation for the next higher sphere, but nothing equals the importance of +the work of the world in which you are actually living. But though the work is +important, the self is not. When you feel important, you lose energy to the +wear and tear of ego dignity so that there is little energy left to do the +work. Self-importance, not work-importance, exhausts immature creatures; it is +the self element that exhausts, not the effort to achieve. You can do important +work if you do not become self-important; you can do several things as easily +as one if you leave yourself out. Variety is restful; monotony is what wears +and exhausts. Day after day is alike--just life or the alternative of death. + + top of page - 556 + +7. MORONTIA MOTA + +The lower planes of morontia mota join directly with the higher levels of human +philosophy. On the first mansion world it is the practice to teach the less +advanced students by the parallel technique; that is, in one column are +presented the more simple concepts of mota meanings, and in the opposite column +citation is made of analogous statements of mortal philosophy. + +Not long since, while executing an assignment on the first mansion world of +Satania, I had occasion to observe this method of teaching; and though I may +not undertake to present the mota content of the lesson, I am permitted to +record the twenty-eight statements of human philosophy which this morontia +instructor was utilizing as illustrative material designed to assist these new +mansion world sojourners in their early efforts to grasp the significance and +meaning of mota. These illustrations of human philosophy were: + +1. A display of specialized skill does not signify possession of spiritual +capacity. Cleverness is not a substitute for true character. + +2. Few persons live up to the faith which they really have. Unreasoned fear is +a master intellectual fraud practiced upon the evolving mortal soul. + +3. Inherent capacities cannot be exceeded; a pint can never hold a quart. The +spirit concept cannot be mechanically forced into the material memory mold. + +4. Few mortals ever dare to draw anything like the sum of personality credits +established by the combined ministries of nature and grace. The majority of +impoverished souls are truly rich, but they refuse to believe it. + +5. Difficulties may challenge mediocrity and defeat the fearful, but they only +stimulate the true children of the Most Highs. + +6. To enjoy privilege without abuse, to have liberty without license, to +possess power and steadfastly refuse to use it for self-aggrandizement--these +are the marks of high civilization. + +7. Blind and unforeseen accidents do not occur in the cosmos. Neither do the +celestial beings assist the lower being who refuses to act upon his light of +truth. + +8. Effort does not always produce joy, but there is no happiness without +intelligent effort. + +9. Action achieves strength; moderation eventuates in charm. + +10. Righteousness strikes the harmony chords of truth, and the melody vibrates +throughout the cosmos, even to the recognition of the Infinite. + +11. The weak indulge in resolutions, but the strong act. Life is but a day's +work--do it well. The act is ours; the consequences God's. + +12. The greatest affliction of the cosmos is never to have been afflicted. +Mortals only learn wisdom by experiencing tribulation. + +13. Stars are best discerned from the lonely isolation of experiential depths, +not from the illuminated and ecstatic mountain tops. + +14. Whet the appetites of your associates for truth; give advice only when it +is asked for. + + top of page - 557 + +15. Affectation is the ridiculous effort of the ignorant to appear wise, the +attempt of the barren soul to appear rich. + +16. You cannot perceive spiritual truth until you feelingly experience it, and +many truths are not really felt except in adversity. + +17. Ambition is dangerous until it is fully socialized. You have not truly +acquired any virtue until your acts make you worthy of it. + +18. Impatience is a spirit poison; anger is like a stone hurled into a hornet's +nest. + +19. Anxiety must be abandoned. The disappointments hardest to bear are those +which never come. + +20. Only a poet can discern poetry in the commonplace prose of routine +existence. + +21. The high mission of any art is, by its illusions, to foreshadow a higher +universe reality, to crystallize the emotions of time into the thought of +eternity. + +22. The evolving soul is not made divine by what it does, but by what it +strives to do. + +23. Death added nothing to the intellectual possession or to the spiritual +endowment, but it did add to the experiential status the consciousness of +survival. + +24. The destiny of eternity is determined moment by moment by the achievements +of the day by day living. The acts of today are the destiny of tomorrow. + +25. Greatness lies not so much in possessing strength as in making a wise and +divine use of such strength. + +26. Knowledge is possessed only by sharing; it is safeguarded by wisdom and +socialized by love. + +27. Progress demands development of individuality; mediocrity seeks +perpetuation in standardization. + +28. The argumentative defense of any proposition is inversely proportional to +the truth contained. + +Such is the work of the beginners on the first mansion world while the more +advanced pupils on the later worlds are mastering the higher levels of cosmic +insight and morontia mota. + +8. THE MORONTIA PROGRESSORS + +From the time of graduation from the mansion worlds to the attainment of spirit +status in the superuniverse career, ascending mortals are denominated morontia +progressors. Your passage through this wonderful borderland life will be an +unforgettable experience, a charming memory. It is the evolutionary portal to +spirit life and the eventual attainment of creature perfection by which +ascenders achieve the goal of time--the finding of God on Paradise. + +There is a definite and divine purpose in all this morontia and subsequent +spirit scheme of mortal progression, this elaborate universe training school +for ascending creatures. It is the design of the Creators to afford the +creatures of time a graduated opportunity to master the details of the +operation and adminis- + + top of page - 558 + +tration of the grand universe, and this long course of training is best carried +forward by having the surviving mortal climb up gradually and by actual +participation in every step of the ascent. + +The mortal-survival plan has a practical and serviceable objective; you are not +the recipients of all this divine labor and painstaking training only that you +may survive just to enjoy endless bliss and eternal ease. There is a goal of +transcendent service concealed beyond the horizon of the present universe age. +If the Gods designed merely to take you on one long and eternal joy excursion, +they certainly would not so largely turn the whole universe into one vast and +intricate practical training school, requisition a substantial part of the +celestial creation as teachers and instructors, and then spend ages upon ages +piloting you, one by one, through this gigantic universe school of experiential +training. The furtherance of the scheme of mortal progression seems to be one +of the chief businesses of the present organized universe, and the majority of +innumerable orders of created intelligences are either directly or indirectly +engaged in advancing some phase of this progressive perfection plan. + +In traversing the ascending scale of living existence from mortal man to the +Deity embrace, you actually live the very life of every possible phase and +stage of perfected creature existence within the limits of the present universe +age. From mortal man to Paradise finaliter embraces all that now can +be--encompasses everything presently possible to the living orders of +intelligent, perfected finite creature beings. If the future destiny of the +Paradise finaliters is service in new universes now in the making, it is +assured that in this new and future creation there will be no created orders of +experiential beings whose lives will be wholly different from those which +mortal finaliters have lived on some world as a part of their ascending +training, as one of the stages of their agelong progress from animal to angel +and from angel to spirit and from spirit to God. + +[Presented by an Archangel of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 559 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Seven ³ The Inhabited ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Mansi... ³ W... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p049.txt b/religious documents/p049.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4a8ab7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p049.txt @@ -0,0 +1,772 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 49 The Inhabited Worlds + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 49 The Inhabited Worlds + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ALL mortal-inhabited worlds are evolutionary in origin and nature. These +spheres are the spawning ground, the evolutionary cradle, of the mortal races +of time and space. Each unit of the ascendant life is a veritable training +school for the stage of existence just ahead, and this is true of every stage +of man's progressive Paradise ascent; just as true of the initial mortal +experience on an evolutionary planet as of the final universe headquarters +school of the Melchizedeks, a school which is not attended by ascending mortals +until just before their translation to the regime of the superuniverse and the +attainment of first-stage spirit existence. + +All inhabited worlds are basically grouped for celestial administration into +the local systems, and each of these local systems is limited to about one +thousand evolutionary worlds. This limitation is by the decree of the Ancients +of Days, and it pertains to actual evolutionary planets whereon mortals of +survival status are living. Neither worlds finally settled in light and life +nor planets in the prehuman stage of life development are reckoned in this +group. + +Satania itself is an unfinished system containing only 619 inhabited worlds. +Such planets are numbered serially in accordance with their registration as +inhabited worlds, as worlds inhabited by will creatures. Thus was Urantia given +the number 606 of Satania, meaning the 606th world in this local system on +which the long evolutionary life process culminated in the appearance of human +beings. There are thirty-six uninhabited planets nearing the life-endowment +stage, and several are now being made ready for the Life Carriers. There are +nearly two hundred spheres which are evolving so as to be ready for life +implantation within the next few million years. + +Not all planets are suited to harbor mortal life. Small ones having a high rate +of axial revolution are wholly unsuited for life habitats. In several of the +physical systems of Satania the planets revolving around the central sun are +too large for habitation, their great mass occasioning oppressive gravity. Many +of these enormous spheres have satellites, sometimes a half dozen or more, and +these moons are often in size very near that of Urantia, so that they are +almost ideal for habitation. + +The oldest inhabited world of Satania, world number one, is Anova, one of the +forty-four satellites revolving around an enormous dark planet but exposed to +the differential light of three neighboring suns. Anova is in an advanced stage +of progressive civilization. + +1. THE PLANETARY LIFE + +The universes of time and space are gradual in development; the progression of +life--terrestrial or celestial--is neither arbitrary nor magical. + + top of page - 560 + +Cosmic evolution may not always be understandable (predictable), but it is +strictly nonaccidental. + +The biologic unit of material life is the protoplasmic cell, the communal +association of chemical, electrical, and other basic energies. The chemical +formulas differ in each system, and the technique of living cell reproduction +is slightly different in each local universe, but the Life Carriers are always +the living catalyzers who initiate the primordial reactions of material life; +they are the instigators of the energy circuits of living matter. + +All the worlds of a local system disclose unmistakable physical kinship; +nevertheless, each planet has its own scale of life, no two worlds being +exactly alike in plant and animal endowment. These planetary variations in the +system life types result from the decisions of the Life Carriers. But these +beings are neither capricious nor whimsical; the universes are conducted in +accordance with law and order. The laws of Nebadon are the divine mandates of +Salvington, and the evolutionary order of life in Satania is in consonance with +the evolutionary pattern of Nebadon. + +Evolution is the rule of human development, but the process itself varies +greatly on different worlds. Life is sometimes initiated in one center, +sometimes in three, as it was on Urantia. On the atmospheric worlds it usually +has a marine origin, but not always; much depends on the physical status of a +planet. The Life Carriers have great latitude in their function of life +initiation. + +In the development of planetary life the vegetable form always precedes the +animal and is quite fully developed before the animal patterns differentiate. +All animal types are developed from the basic patterns of the preceding +vegetable kingdom of living things; they are not separately organized. + +The early stages of life evolution are not altogether in conformity with your +present-day views. Mortal man is not an evolutionary accident. There is a +precise system, a universal law, which determines the unfolding of the +planetary life plan on the spheres of space. Time and the production of large +numbers of a species are not the controlling influences. Mice reproduce much +more rapidly than elephants, yet elephants evolve more rapidly than mice. + +The process of planetary evolution is orderly and controlled. The development +of higher organisms from lower groupings of life is not accidental. Sometimes +evolutionary progress is temporarily delayed by the destruction of certain +favorable lines of life plasm carried in a selected species. It often requires +ages upon ages to recoup the damage occasioned by the loss of a single superior +strain of human heredity. These selected and superior strains of living +protoplasm should be jealously and intelligently guarded when once they make +their appearance. And on most of the inhabited worlds these superior potentials +of life are valued much more highly than on Urantia. + +2. PLANETARY PHYSICAL TYPES + +There is a standard and basic pattern of vegetable and animal life in each +system. But the Life Carriers are oftentimes confronted with the necessity of +modifying these basic patterns to conform to the varying physical conditions +which confront them on numerous worlds of space. They foster a generalized +system type of mortal creature, but there are seven distinct physical types as +well as thousands upon thousands of minor variants of these seven outstanding +differentiations: + + top of page - 561 + +1. Atmospheric types. + +2. Elemental types. + +3. Gravity types. + +4. Temperature types. + +5. Electric types. + +6. Energizing types. + +7. Unnamed types. + +The Satania system contains all of these types and numerous intermediate +groups, although some are very sparingly represented. + +1. The atmospheric types. The physical differences of the worlds of mortal +habitation are chiefly determined by the nature of the atmosphere; other +influences which contribute to the planetary differentiation of life are +relatively minor. + +The present atmospheric status of Urantia is almost ideal for the support of +the breathing type of man, but the human type can be so modified that it can +live on both the superatmospheric and the subatmospheric planets. Such +modifications also extend to the animal life, which differs greatly on the +various inhabited spheres. There is a very great modification of animal orders +on both the sub- and the superatmospheric worlds. + +Of the atmospheric types in Satania, about two and one-half per cent are +subbreathers, about five per cent superbreathers, and over ninety-one per cent +are mid-breathers, altogether accounting for ninety-eight and one-half per cent +of the Satania worlds. + +Beings such as the Urantia races are classified as mid-breathers; you represent +the average or typical breathing order of mortal existence. If intelligent +creatures should exist on a planet with an atmosphere similar to that of your +near neighbor, Venus, they would belong to the superbreather group, while those +inhabiting a planet with an atmosphere as thin as that of your outer neighbor, +Mars, would be denominated subbreathers. + +If mortals should inhabit a planet devoid of air, like your moon, they would +belong to the separate order of nonbreathers. This type represents a radical or +extreme adjustment to the planetary environment and is separately considered. +Nonbreathers account for the remaining one and one-half per cent of Satania +worlds. + +2. The elemental types. These differentiations have to do with the relation of +mortals to water, air, and land, and there are four distinct species of +intelligent life as they are related to these habitats. The Urantia races are +of the land order. + +It is quite impossible for you to envisage the environment which prevails +during the early ages of some worlds. These unusual conditions make it +necessary for the evolving animal life to remain in its marine nursery habitat +for longer periods than on those planets which very early provide a hospitable +land-and-atmosphere environment. Conversely, on some worlds of the +superbreathers, when the planet is not too large, it is sometimes expedient to +provide for a mortal type which can readily negotiate atmospheric passage. +These air navigators sometimes intervene between the water and land groups, and +they always live in a measure upon the ground, eventually evolving into land +dwellers. + + top of page - 562 + +But on some worlds, for ages they continue to fly even after they have become +land-type beings. + +It is both amazing and amusing to observe the early civilization of a primitive +race of human beings taking shape, in one case, in the air and treetops and, in +another, midst the shallow waters of sheltered tropic basins, as well as on the +bottom, sides, and shores of these marine gardens of the dawn races of such +extraordinary spheres. Even on Urantia there was a long age during which +primitive man preserved himself and advanced his primitive civilization by +living for the most part in the treetops as did his earlier arboreal ancestors. +And on Urantia you still have a group of diminutive mammals (the bat family) +that are air navigators, and your seals and whales, of marine habitat, are also +of the mammalian order. + +In Satania, of the elemental types, seven per cent are water, ten per cent air, +seventy per cent land, and thirteen per cent combined land-and-air types. But +these modifications of early intelligent creatures are neither human fishes nor +human birds. They are of the human and prehuman types, neither superfishes nor +glorified birds but distinctly mortal. + +3. The gravity types. By modification of creative design, intelligent beings +are so constructed that they can freely function on spheres both smaller and +larger than Urantia, thus being, in measure, accommodated to the gravity of +those planets which are not of ideal size and density. + +The various planetary types of mortals vary in height, the average in Nebadon +being a trifle under seven feet. Some of the larger worlds are peopled with +beings who are only about two and one-half feet in height. Mortal stature +ranges from here on up through the average heights on the average-sized planets +to around ten feet on the smaller inhabited spheres. In Satania there is only +one race under four feet in height. Twenty per cent of the Satania inhabited +worlds are peopled with mortals of the modified gravity types occupying the +larger and the smaller planets. + +4. The temperature types. It is possible to create living beings who can +withstand temperatures both much higher and much lower than the life range of +the Urantia races. There are five distinct orders of beings as they are +classified with reference to heat-regulating mechanisms. In this scale the +Urantia races are number three. Thirty per cent of Satania worlds are peopled +with races of modified temperature types. Twelve per cent belong to the higher +temperature ranges, eighteen per cent to the lower, as compared with Urantians, +who function in the mid-temperature group. + +5. The electric types. The electric, magnetic, and electronic behavior of the +worlds varies greatly. There are ten designs of mortal life variously fashioned +to withstand the differential energy of the spheres. These ten varieties also +react in slightly different ways to the chemical rays of ordinary sunlight. But +these slight physical variations in no way affect the intellectual or the +spiritual life. + +Of the electric groupings of mortal life, almost twenty-three per cent belong +to class number four, the Urantia type of existence. These types are +distributed as follows: number 1, one per cent; number 2, two per cent; number +3, five per cent; number 4, twenty-three per cent; number 5, twenty-seven per +cent; + + top of page - 563 + +number 6, twenty-four per cent; number 7, eight per cent; number 8, five per +cent; number 9, three per cent; number 10, two per cent--in whole percentages. + +6. The energizing types. Not all worlds are alike in the manner of taking in +energy. Not all inhabited worlds have an atmospheric ocean suited to +respiratory exchange of gases, such as is present on Urantia. During the +earlier and the later stages of many planets, beings of your present order +could not exist; and when the respiratory factors of a planet are very high or +very low, but when all other prerequisites to intelligent life are adequate, +the Life Carriers often establish on such worlds a modified form of mortal +existence, beings who are competent to effect their life-process exchanges +directly by means of light-energy and the firsthand power transmutations of the +Master Physical Controllers. + +There are six differing types of animal and mortal nutrition: The subbreathers +employ the first type of nutrition, the marine dwellers the second, the +mid-breathers the third, as on Urantia. The superbreathers employ the fourth +type of energy intake, while the nonbreathers utilize the fifth order of +nutrition and energy. The sixth technique of energizing is limited to the +midway creatures. + +7. The unnamed types. There are numerous additional physical variations in +planetary life, but all of these differences are wholly matters of anatomical +modification, physiologic differentiation, and electrochemical adjustment. Such +distinctions do not concern the intellectual or the spiritual life. + +3. WORLDS OF THE NONBREATHERS + +The majority of inhabited planets are peopled with the breathing type of +intelligent beings. But there are also orders of mortals who are able to live +on worlds with little or no air. Of the Orvonton inhabited worlds this type +amounts to less than seven per cent. In Nebadon this percentage is less than +three. In all Satania there are only nine such worlds. + +There are so very few of the nonbreather type of inhabited worlds in Satania +because this more recently organized section of Norlatiadek still abounds in +meteoric space bodies; and worlds without a protective friction atmosphere are +subject to incessant bombardment by these wanderers. Even some of the comets +consist of meteor swarms, but as a rule they are disrupted smaller bodies of +matter. + +Millions upon millions of meteorites enter the atmosphere of Urantia daily +coming in at the rate of almost two hundred miles a second. On the nonbreathing +worlds the advanced races must do much to protect themselves from meteor damage +by making electrical installations which operate to consume or shunt the +meteors. Great danger confronts them when they venture beyond these protected +zones. These worlds are also subject to disastrous electrical storms of a +nature unknown on Urantia. During such times of tremendous energy fluctuation +the inhabitants must take refuge in their special structures of protective +insulation. + +Life on the worlds of the nonbreathers is radically different from what it is +on Urantia. The nonbreathers do not eat food or drink water as do the Urantia +races. The reactions of the nervous system, the heat-regulating mechanism, and +the metabolism of these specialized peoples are radically different from such + + top of page - 564 + +functions of Urantia mortals. Almost every act of living, aside from +reproduction, differs, and even the methods of procreation are somewhat +different. + +On the nonbreathing worlds the animal species are radically unlike those found +on the atmospheric planets. The nonbreathing plan of life varies from the +technique of existence on an atmospheric world; even in survival their peoples +differ, being candidates for Spirit fusion. Nevertheless, these beings enjoy +life and carry forward the activities of the realm with the same relative +trials and joys that are experienced by the mortals living on atmospheric +worlds. In mind and character the nonbreathers do not differ from other mortal +types. + +You would be more than interested in the planetary conduct of this type of +mortal because such a race of beings inhabits a sphere in close proximity to +Urantia. + +4. EVOLUTIONARY WILL CREATURES + +There are great differences between the mortals of the different worlds, even +among those belonging to the same intellectual and physical types, but all +mortals of will dignity are erect animals, bipeds. + +There are six basic evolutionary races: three primary--red, yellow, and blue; +and three secondary--orange, green, and indigo. Most inhabited worlds have all +of these races, but many of the three-brained planets harbor only the three +primary types. Some local systems also have only these three races. + +The average special physical-sense endowment of human beings is twelve, though +the special senses of the three-brained mortals are extended slightly beyond +those of the one- and two-brained types; they can see and hear considerably +more than the Urantia races. + +Young are usually born singly, multiple births being the exception, and the +family life is fairly uniform on all types of planets. Sex equality prevails on +all advanced worlds; male and female are equal in mind endowment and spiritual +status. We do not regard a planet as having emerged from barbarism so long as +one sex seeks to tyrannize over the other. This feature of creature experience +is always greatly improved after the arrival of a Material Son and Daughter. + +Seasons and temperature variations occur on all sunlighted and sun-heated +planets. Agriculture is universal on all atmospheric worlds; tilling the soil +is the one pursuit that is common to the advancing races of all such planets. + +Mortals all have the same general struggles with microscopic foes in their +early days, such as you now experience on Urantia, though perhaps not so +extensive. The length of life varies on the different planets from twenty-five +years on the primitive worlds to near five hundred on the more advanced and +older spheres. + +Human beings are all gregarious, both tribal and racial. These group +segregations are inherent in their origin and constitution. Such tendencies can +be modified only by advancing civilization and by gradual spiritualization. The +social, economic, and governmental problems of the inhabited worlds vary in +accordance with the age of the planets and the degree to which they have been +influenced by the successive sojourns of the divine Sons. + +Mind is the bestowal of the Infinite Spirit and functions quite the same in +diverse environments. The mind of mortals is akin, regardless of certain +structural and chemical differences which characterize the physical natures of +the + + top of page - 565 + +will creatures of the local systems. Regardless of personal or physical +planetary differences, the mental life of all these various orders of mortals +is very similar, and their immediate careers after death are very much alike. + +But mortal mind without immortal spirit cannot survive. The mind of man is +mortal; only the bestowed spirit is immortal. Survival is dependent on +spiritualization by the ministry of the Adjuster--on the birth and evolution of +the immortal soul; at least, there must not have developed an antagonism +towards the Adjuster's mission of effecting the spiritual transformation of the +material mind. + +5. THE PLANETARY SERIES OF MORTALS + +It will be somewhat difficult to make an adequate portrayal of the planetary +series of mortals because you know so little about them, and because there are +so many variations. Mortal creatures may, however, be studied from numerous +viewpoints, among which are the following: + +1. Adjustment to planetary environment. + +2. Brain-type series. + +3. Spirit-reception series. + +4. Planetary-mortal epochs. + +5. Creature-kinship serials. + +6. Adjuster-fusion series. + +7. Techniques of terrestrial escape. + +The inhabited spheres of the seven superuniverses are peopled with mortals who +simultaneously classify in some one or more categories of each of these seven +generalized classes of evolutionary creature life. But even these general +classifications make no provision for such beings as midsoniters nor for +certain other forms of intelligent life. The inhabited worlds, as they have +been presented in these narratives, are peopled with evolutionary mortal +creatures, but there are other life forms. etary environment. +There are three general groups of inhabited worlds from the standpoint of the +adjustment of creature life to the planetary environment: the normal adjustment +group, the radical adjustment group, and the experimental group. + +Normal adjustments to planetary conditions follow the general physical patterns +previously considered. The worlds of the nonbreathers typify the radical or +extreme adjustment, but other types are also included in this group. +Experimental worlds are usually ideally adapted to the typical life forms, and +on these decimal planets the Life Carriers attempt to produce beneficial +variations in the standard life designs. Since your world is an experimental +planet, it differs markedly from its sister spheres in Satania; many forms of +life have appeared on Urantia that are not found elsewhere; likewise are many +common species absent from your planet. + +In the universe of Nebadon, all the life-modification worlds are serially +linked together and constitute a special domain of universe affairs which is +given attention by designated administrators; and all of these experimental +worlds are periodically inspected by a corps of universe directors whose chief +is the veteran finaliter known in Satania as Tabamantia. + + top of page - 566 + +2. Brain-type series. The one physical uniformity of mortals is the brain and +nervous system; nevertheless, there are three basic organizations of the brain +mechanism: the one-, the two-, and the three-brained types. Urantians are of +the two-brained type, somewhat more imaginative, adventurous, and philosophical +than the one-brained mortals but somewhat less spiritual, ethical, and +worshipful than the three-brained orders. These brain differences characterize +even the prehuman animal existences. + +From the two-hemisphere type of the Urantian cerebral cortex you can, by +analogy, grasp something of the one-brained type. The third brain of the +three-brained orders is best conceived as an evolvement of your lower or +rudimentary form of brain, which is developed to the point where it functions +chiefly in control of physical activities, leaving the two superior brains free +for higher engagements: one for intellectual functions and the other for the +spiritual-counterparting activities of the Thought Adjuster. + +While the terrestrial attainments of the one-brained races are slightly limited +in comparison with the two-brained orders, the older planets of the +three-brained group exhibit civilizations that would astound Urantians, and +which would somewhat shame yours by comparison. In mechanical development and +material civilization, even in intellectual progress, the two-brained mortal +worlds are able to equal the three-brained spheres. But in the higher control +of mind and development of intellectual and spiritual reciprocation, you are +somewhat inferior. + +All such comparative estimates concerning the intellectual progress or the +spiritual attainments of any world or group of worlds should in fairness +recognize planetary age; much, very much, depends on age, the help of the +biologic uplifters, and the subsequent missions of the various orders of the +divine Sons. + +While the three-brained peoples are capable of a slightly higher planetary +evolution than either the one- or two-brained orders, all have the same type of +life plasm and carry on planetary activities in very similar ways, much as do +human beings on Urantia. These three types of mortals are distributed +throughout the worlds of the local systems. In the majority of cases planetary +conditions had very little to do with the decisions of the Life Carriers to +project these varied orders of mortals on the different worlds; it is a +prerogative of the Life Carriers thus to plan and execute. + +These three orders stand on an equal footing in the ascension career. Each must +traverse the same intellectual scale of development, and each must master the +same spiritual tests of progression. The system administration and the +constellation overcontrol of these different worlds are uniformly free from +discrimination; even the regimes of the Planetary Princes are identical. + +3. Spirit-reception series. There are three groups of mind design as related to +contact with spirit affairs. This classification does not refer to the one-, +two-, and three-brained orders of mortals; it refers primarily to gland +chemistry, more particularly to the organization of certain glands comparable +to the pituitary bodies. The races on some worlds have one gland, on others +two, as do Urantians, while on still other spheres the races have three of +these unique bodies. The inherent imagination and spiritual receptivity is +definitely influenced by this differential chemical endowment. + +Of the spirit-reception types, sixty-five per cent are of the second group, +like the Urantia races. Twelve per cent are of the first type, naturally less +receptive, + + top of page - 567 + +while twenty-three per cent are more spiritually inclined during terrestrial +life. But such distinctions do not survive natural death; all of these racial +differences pertain only to the life in the flesh. + +4. Planetary-mortal epochs. This classification recognizes the succession of +temporal dispensations as they affect man's terrestrial status and his +reception of celestial ministry. + +Life is initiated on the planets by the Life Carriers, who watch over its +development until sometime after the evolutionary appearance of mortal man. +Before the Life Carriers leave a planet, they duly install a Planetary Prince +as ruler of the realm. With this ruler there arrives a full quota of +subordinate auxiliaries and ministering helpers, and the first adjudication of +the living and the dead is simultaneous with his arrival. + +With the emergence of human groupings, this Planetary Prince arrives to +inaugurate human civilization and to focalize human society. Your world of +confusion is no criterion of the early days of the reign of the Planetary +Princes, for it was near the beginning of such an administration on Urantia +that your Planetary Prince, Caligastia, cast his lot with the rebellion of the +System Sovereign, Lucifer. Your planet has pursued a stormy course ever since. + +On a normal evolutionary world, racial progress attains its natural biologic +peak during the regime of the Planetary Prince, and shortly thereafter the +System Sovereign dispatches a Material Son and Daughter to that planet. These +imported beings are of service as biologic uplifters; their default on Urantia +further complicated your planetary history. + +When the intellectual and ethical progress of a human race has reached the +limits of evolutionary development, there comes an Avonal Son of Paradise on a +magisterial mission; and later on, when the spiritual status of such a world is +nearing its limit of natural attainment, the planet is visited by a Paradise +bestowal Son. The chief mission of a bestowal Son is to establish the planetary +status, release the Spirit of Truth for planetary function, and thus effect the +universal coming of the Thought Adjusters. + +Here, again, Urantia deviates: There has never been a magisterial mission on +your world, neither was your bestowal Son of the Avonal order; your planet +enjoyed the signal honor of becoming the mortal home planet of the Sovereign +Son, Michael of Nebadon. + +As a result of the ministry of all the successive orders of divine sonship, the +inhabited worlds and their advancing races begin to approach the apex of +planetary evolution. Such worlds now become ripe for the culminating mission, +the arrival of the Trinity Teacher Sons. This epoch of the Teacher Sons is the +vestibule to the final planetary age--evolutionary utopia--the age of light and +life. + +This classification of human beings will receive particular attention in a +succeeding paper. + +5. Creature-kinship serials. Planets are not only organized vertically into +systems, constellations, and so on, but the universe administration also +provides for horizontal groupings according to type, series, and other +relationships. This lateral administration of the universe pertains more +particularly to the co-ordination of activities of a kindred nature which have +been independently fostered on different spheres. These related classes of +universe creatures are + + top of page - 568 + +periodically inspected by certain composite corps of high personalities +presided over by long-experienced finaliters. + +These kinship factors are manifest on all levels, for kinship serials exist +among nonhuman personalities as well as among mortal creatures--even between +human and superhuman orders. Intelligent beings are vertically related in +twelve great groups of seven major divisions each. The co-ordination of these +uniquely related groups of living beings is probably effected by some not fully +comprehended technique of the Supreme Being. + +6. Adjuster-fusion series. The spiritual classification or grouping of all +mortals during their prefusion experience is wholly determined by the relation +of the personality status to the indwelling Mystery Monitor. Almost ninety per +cent of the inhabited worlds of Nebadon are peopled with Adjuster-fusion +mortals in contrast with a near-by universe where scarcely more than one half +of the worlds harbor beings who are Adjuster-indwelt candidates for eternal +fusion. + +7. Techniques of terrestrial escape. There is fundamentally only one way in +which individual human life can be initiated on the inhabited worlds, and that +is through creature procreation and natural birth; but there are numerous +techniques whereby man escapes his terrestrial status and gains access to the +inward moving stream of Paradise ascenders. + +6. TERRESTRIAL ESCAPE + +All of the differing physical types and planetary series of mortals alike enjoy +the ministry of Thought Adjusters, guardian angels, and the various orders of +the messenger hosts of the Infinite Spirit. All alike are liberated from the +bonds of flesh by the emancipation of natural death, and all alike go thence to +the morontia worlds of spiritual evolution and mind progress. + +From time to time, on motion of the planetary authorities or the system rulers, +special resurrections of the sleeping survivors are conducted. Such +resurrections occur at least every millennium of planetary time, when not all +but "many of those who sleep in the dust awake." These special resurrections +are the occasion for mobilizing special groups of ascenders for specific +service in the local universe plan of mortal ascension. There are both +practical reasons and sentimental associations connected with these special +resurrections. + +Throughout the earlier ages of an inhabited world, many are called to the +mansion spheres at the special and the millennial resurrections, but most +survivors are repersonalized at the inauguration of a new dispensation +associated with the advent of a divine Son of planetary service. + +1. Mortals of the dispensational or group order of survival. With the arrival +of the first Adjuster on an inhabited world the guardian seraphim also make +their appearance; they are indispensable to terrestrial escape. Throughout the +life-lapse period of the sleeping survivors the spiritual values and eternal +realities of their newly evolved and immortal souls are held as a sacred trust +by the personal or by the group guardian seraphim. + +The group guardians of assignment to the sleeping survivors always function +with the judgment Sons on their world advents. "He shall send his angels, + + top of page - 569 + +and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds." With each +seraphim of assignment to the repersonalization of a sleeping mortal there +functions the returned Adjuster, the same immortal Father fragment that lived +in him during the days in the flesh, and thus is identity restored and +personality resurrected. During the sleep of their subjects these waiting +Adjusters serve on Divinington; they never indwell another mortal mind in this +interim. + +While the older worlds of mortal existence harbor those highly developed and +exquisitely spiritual types of human beings who are virtually exempt from the +morontia life, the earlier ages of the animal-origin races are characterized by +primitive mortals who are so immature that fusion with their Adjusters is +impossible. The reawakening of these mortals is accomplished by the guardian +seraphim in conjunction with an individualized portion of the immortal spirit +of the Third Source and Center. + +Thus are the sleeping survivors of a planetary age repersonalized in the +dispensational roll calls. But with regard to the nonsalvable personalities of +a realm, no immortal spirit is present to function with the group guardians of +destiny, and this constitutes cessation of creature existence. While some of +your records have pictured these events as taking place on the planets of +mortal death, they all really occur on the mansion worlds. + +2. Mortals of the individual orders of ascension. The individual progress of +human beings is measured by their successive attainment and traversal (mastery) +of the seven cosmic circles. These circles of mortal progression are levels of +associated intellectual, social, spiritual, and cosmic-insight values. Starting +out in the seventh circle, mortals strive for the first, and all who have +attained the third immediately have personal guardians of destiny assigned to +them. These mortals may be repersonalized in the morontia life independent of +dispensational or other adjudications. + +Throughout the earlier ages of an evolutionary world, few mortals go to +judgment on the third day. But as the ages pass, more and more the personal +guardians of destiny are assigned to the advancing mortals, and thus increasing +numbers of these evolving creatures are repersonalized on the first mansion +world on the third day after natural death. On such occasions the return of the +Adjuster signalizes the awakening of the human soul, and this is the +repersonalization of the dead just as literally as when the en masse roll is +called at the end of a dispensation on the evolutionary worlds. + +There are three groups of individual ascenders: The less advanced land on the +initial or first mansion world. The more advanced group may take up the +morontia career on any of the intermediate mansion worlds in accordance with +previous planetary progression. The most advanced of these orders really begin +their morontia experience on the seventh mansion world. + +3. Mortals of the probationary-dependent orders of ascension. The arrival of an +Adjuster constitutes identity in the eyes of the universe, and all indwelt +beings are on the roll calls of justice. But temporal life on the evolutionary +worlds is uncertain, and many die in youth before choosing the Paradise career. +Such Adjuster-indwelt children and youths follow the parent of most advanced +spiritual status, thus going to the system finaliter world (the probationary +nursery) on the third day, at a special resurrection, or at the regular +millennial and dispensational roll calls. + + top of page - 570 + +Children who die when too young to have Thought Adjusters are repersonalized on +the finaliter world of the local systems concomitant with the arrival of either +parent on the mansion worlds. A child acquires physical entity at mortal birth, +but in the matter of survival all Adjusterless children are reckoned as still +attached to their parents. + +In due course Thought Adjusters come to indwell these little ones, while the +seraphic ministry to both groups of the probationary-dependent orders of +survival is in general similar to that of the more advanced parent or is +equivalent to that of the parent in case only one survives. Those attaining the +third circle, regardless of the status of their parents, are accorded personal +guardians. + +Similar probation nurseries are maintained on the finaliter spheres of the +constellation and the universe headquarters for the Adjusterless children of +the primary and secondary modified orders of ascenders. + +4. Mortals of the secondary modified orders of ascension. These are the +progressive human beings of the intermediate evolutionary worlds. As a rule +they are not immune to natural death, but they are exempt from passing through +the seven mansion worlds. + +The less perfected group reawaken on the headquarters of their local system, +passing by only the mansion worlds. The intermediate group go to the +constellation training worlds; they pass by the entire morontia regime of the +local system. Still farther on in the planetary ages of spiritual striving, +many survivors awaken on the constellation headquarters and there begin the +Paradise ascent. + +But before any of these groups may go forward, they must journey back as +instructors to the worlds they missed, gaining many experiences as teachers in +those realms which they passed by as students. They all subsequently proceed to +Paradise by the ordained routes of mortal progression. + +5. Mortals of the primary modified order of ascension. These mortals belong to +the Adjuster-fused type of evolutionary life, but they are most often +representative of the final phases of human development on an evolving world. +These glorified beings are exempt from passing through the portals of death; +they are submitted to Son seizure; they are translated from among the living +and appear immediately in the presence of the Sovereign Son on the headquarters +of the local universe. + +These are the mortals who fuse with their Adjusters during mortal life, and +such Adjuster-fused personalities traverse space freely before being clothed +with morontia forms. These fused souls go by direct Adjuster transit to the +resurrection halls of the higher morontia spheres, where they receive their +initial morontia investiture just as do all other mortals arriving from the +evolutionary worlds. + +This primary modified order of mortal ascension may apply to individuals in any +of the planetary series from the lowest to the highest stages of the +Adjuster-fusion worlds, but it more frequently functions on the older of these +spheres after they have received the benefits of numerous sojourns of the +divine Sons. + +With the establishment of the planetary era of light and life, many go to the +universe morontia worlds by the primary modified order of translation. Further +along in the advanced stages of settled existence, when the majority + + top of page - 571 + +of the mortals leaving a realm are embraced in this class, the planet is +regarded as belonging to this series. Natural death becomes decreasingly +frequent on these spheres long settled in light and life. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of the Jerusem School of Planetary Administration.] + + top of page - 572 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Morontia ³ The Planetary ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Li... ³ P... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p050.txt b/religious documents/p050.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..653fe01 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p050.txt @@ -0,0 +1,465 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 50 The Planetary Princes + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 50 The Planetary Princes + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +WHILE belonging to the order of Lanonandek Sons, the Planetary Princes are so +specialized in service that they are commonly regarded as a distinct group. +After their Melchizedek certification as secondary Lanonandeks, these local +universe Sons are assigned to the reserves of their order on the constellation +headquarters. From here they are assigned to various duties by the System +Sovereign and eventually commissioned as Planetary Princes and sent forth to +rule the evolving inhabited worlds. + +The signal for a System Sovereign to act in the matter of assigning a ruler to +a given planet is the reception of a request from the Life Carriers for the +dispatch of an administrative head to function on this planet whereon they have +established life and developed intelligent evolutionary beings. All planets +which are inhabited by evolutionary mortal creatures have assigned to them a +planetary ruler of this order of sonship. + +1. MISSION OF THE PRINCES + +The Planetary Prince and his assistant brethren represent the nearest +personalized approach (aside from incarnation) that the Eternal Son of Paradise +can make to the lowly creatures of time and space. True, the Creator Son +touches the creatures of the realms through his spirit, but the Planetary +Prince is the last of the orders of personal Sons extending out from Paradise +to the children of men. The Infinite Spirit comes very near in the persons of +the guardians of destiny and other angelic beings; the Universal Father lives +in man by the prepersonal presence of the Mystery Monitors; but the Planetary +Prince represents the last effort of the Eternal Son and his Sons to draw near +you. On a newly inhabited world the Planetary Prince is the sole representative +of complete divinity, springing from the Creator Son (the offspring of the +Universal Father and the Eternal Son) and the Divine Minister (the universe +Daughter of the Infinite Spirit). + +The prince of a newly inhabited world is surrounded by a loyal corps of helpers +and assistants and by large numbers of the ministering spirits. But the +directing corps of such new worlds must be of the lower orders of the +administrators of a system in order to be innately sympathetic with, and +understanding of, the planetary problems and difficulties. And all of this +effort to provide sympathetic rulership for the evolutionary worlds entails the +increased liability that these near-human personalities may be led astray by +the exaltation of their own minds over and above the will of the Supreme +Rulers. + +Being quite alone as representatives of divinity on the individual planets, +these Sons are tested severely, and Nebadon has suffered the misfortune of sev- + + top of page - 573 + +eral rebellions. In the creation of the System Sovereigns and the Planetary +Princes there occurs the personalization of a concept that has been getting +farther and farther away from the Universal Father and the Eternal Son, and +there is an increasing danger of losing the sense of proportion as to one's +self-importance and a greater likelihood of failure to keep a proper grasp of +the values and relationships of the numerous orders of divine beings and their +gradations of authority. That the Father is not personally present in the local +universe also imposes a certain test of faith and loyalty on all these Sons. + +But not often do these world princes fail in their missions of organizing and +administering the inhabited spheres, and their success greatly facilitates the +subsequent missions of the Material Sons, who come to engraft the higher forms +of creature life on the primitive men of the worlds. Their rule also does much +to prepare the planets for the Paradise Sons of God, who subsequently come to +judge the worlds and to inaugurate successive dispensations. + +2. PLANETARY ADMINISTRATION + +All Planetary Princes are under the universe administrative jurisdiction of +Gabriel, the chief executive of Michael, while in immediate authority they are +subject to the executive mandates of the System Sovereigns. + +The Planetary Princes may at any time seek the counsel of the Melchizedeks, +their former instructors and sponsors, but they are not arbitrarily required to +ask for such assistance, and if such aid is not voluntarily requested, the +Melchizedeks do not interfere with the planetary administration. These world +rulers may also avail themselves of the advice of the four and twenty +counselors, assembled from the bestowal worlds of the system. In Satania these +counselors are at present all natives of Urantia. And there is an analogous +council of seventy at the constellation headquarters also selected from the +evolutionary beings of the realms. + +The rule of the evolutionary planets in their early and unsettled careers is +largely autocratic. The Planetary Princes organize their specialized groups of +assistants from among their corps of planetary aids. They usually surround +themselves with a supreme council of twelve, but this is variously chosen and +diversely constituted on the different worlds. A Planetary Prince may also have +as assistants one or more of the third order of his own group of sonship and +sometimes, on certain worlds, one of his own order, a secondary Lanonandek +associate. + +The entire staff of a world ruler consists of personalities of the Infinite +Spirit and certain types of higher evolved beings and ascending mortals from +other worlds. Such a staff averages about one thousand, and as the planet +progresses, this corps of helpers may be increased up to one hundred thousand +or more. At any time need is felt for more helpers, the Planetary Princes have +only to make request of their brothers, the System Sovereigns, and the petition +is granted forthwith. + +Planets vary greatly in nature and organization and in administration, but all +provide for tribunals of justice. The judicial system of the local universe has +its beginnings in the tribunals of a Planetary Prince, which are presided over +by a member of his personal staff; the decrees of such courts reflect a highly +fatherly and discretionary attitude. All problems involving more than the +regulation of the planetary inhabitants are subject to appeal to the higher +tribunals, + + top of page - 574 + +but the affairs of his world domain are largely adjusted in accordance with the +personal discretion of the prince. + +The roving commissions of conciliators serve and supplement the planetary +tribunals, and both spirit and physical controllers are subject to the findings +of these conciliators. But no arbitrary execution is ever carried out without +the consent of the Constellation Father, for the "Most Highs rule in the +kingdoms of men." + +The controllers and transformers of planetary assignment are also able to +collaborate with angels and other orders of celestial beings in rendering these +latter personalities visible to mortal creatures. On special occasions the +seraphic helpers and even the Melchizedeks can and do make themselves visible +to the inhabitants of the evolutionary worlds. The principal reason for +bringing mortal ascenders from the system capital as a part of the staff of the +Planetary Prince is to facilitate communication with the inhabitants of the +realm. + +3. THE PRINCE'S CORPOREAL STAFF + +On going to a young world, a Planetary Prince usually takes with him a group of +volunteer ascending beings from the local system headquarters. These ascenders +accompany the prince as advisers and helpers in the work of early race +improvement. This corps of material helpers constitutes the connecting link +between the prince and the world races. The Urantia Prince, Caligastia, had a +corps of one hundred such helpers. + +Such volunteer assistants are citizens of a system capital, and none of them +have fused with their indwelling Adjusters. The status of the Adjusters of such +volunteer servers remains as of the residential standing on the system +headquarters while these morontia progressors temporarily revert to a former +material state. + +The Life Carriers, the architects of form, provide such volunteers with new +physical bodies, which they occupy for the periods of their planetary sojourn. +These personality forms, while exempt from the ordinary diseases of the realms, +are, like the early morontia bodies, subject to certain accidents of a +mechanical nature. + +The prince's corporeal staff are usually removed from the planet in connection +with the next adjudication at the time of the second Son's arrival on the +sphere. Before leaving, they customarily assign their various duties to their +mutual offspring and to certain superior native volunteers. On those worlds +where these helpers of the prince have been permitted to mate with the superior +groups of the native races, such offspring usually succeed them. + +These assistants to the Planetary Prince seldom mate with the world races, but +they do always mate among themselves. Two classes of beings result from these +unions: the primary type of midway creatures and certain high types of material +beings who remain attached to the prince's staff after their parents have been +removed from the planet at the time of the arrival of Adam and Eve. These +children do not mate with the mortal races except in certain emergencies and +then only by direction of the Planetary Prince. In such an event, their +children--the grandchildren of the corporeal staff--are in status as of the +superior races of their day and generation. All the offspring of these +semimaterial assistants of the Planetary Prince are Adjuster indwelt. + + top of page - 575 + +At the end of the prince's dispensation, when the time comes for this +"reversion staff" to be returned to the system headquarters for the resumption +of the Paradise career, these ascenders present themselves to the Life Carriers +for the purpose of yielding up their material bodies. They enter the transition +slumber and awaken delivered from their mortal investment and clothed with +morontia forms, ready for seraphic transportation back to the system capital, +where their detached Adjusters await them. They are a whole dispensation behind +their Jerusem class, but they have gained a unique and extraordinary +experience, a rare chapter in the career of an ascending mortal. + +4. THE PLANETARY HEADQUARTERS AND SCHOOLS + +The prince's corporeal staff early organize the planetary schools of training +and culture, wherein the cream of the evolutionary races are instructed and +then sent forth to teach these better ways to their people. These schools of +the prince are located at the material headquarters of the planet. + +Much of the physical work connected with the establishment of this headquarters +city is performed by the corporeal staff. Such headquarters cities, or +settlements, of the early times of the Planetary Prince are very different from +what a Urantia mortal might imagine. They are, in comparison with later ages, +simple, being characterized by mineral embellishment and by relatively advanced +material construction. And all of this stands in contrast with the Adamic +regime centering around a garden headquarters, from which their work in behalf +of the races is prosecuted during the second dispensation of the universe Sons. + +In the headquarters settlement on your world every human habitation was +provided with abundance of land. Although the remote tribes continued in +hunting and food foraging, the students and teachers in the Prince's schools +were all agriculturists and horticulturists. The time was about equally divided +between the following pursuits: + +1. Physical labor. Cultivation of the soil, associated with home building and +embellishment. + +2. Social activities. Play performances and cultural social groupings. + +3. Educational application. Individual instruction in connection with +family-group teaching, supplemented by specialized class training. + +4. Vocational training. Schools of marriage and homemaking, the schools of art +and craft training, and the classes for the training of teachers--secular, +cultural, and religious. + +5. Spiritual culture. The teacher brotherhood, the enlightenment of childhood +and youth groups, and the training of adopted native children as missionaries +to their people. + +A Planetary Prince is not visible to mortal beings; it is a test of faith to +believe the representations of the semimaterial beings of his staff. But these +schools of culture and training are well adapted to the needs of each planet, +and there soon develops a keen and laudatory rivalry among the races of men in +their efforts to gain entrance to these various institutions of learning. + +From such a world center of culture and achievement there gradually radiates to +all peoples an uplifting and civilizing influence which slowly and cer- + + top of page - 576 + +tainly transforms the evolutionary races. Meantime the educated and +spiritualized children of the surrounding peoples who have been adopted and +trained in the prince's schools are returning to their native groups and, to +the best of their ability, are there establishing new and potent centers of +learning and culture which they carry on according to the plan of the prince's +schools. + +On Urantia these plans for planetary progress and cultural advancement were +well under way, proceeding most satisfactorily, when the whole enterprise was +brought to a rather sudden and most inglorious end by Caligastia's adherence to +the Lucifer rebellion. + +It was one of the most profoundly shocking episodes of this rebellion for me to +learn of the callous perfidy of one of my own order of sonship, Caligastia, +who, in deliberation and with malice aforethought, systematically perverted the +instruction and poisoned the teaching provided in all the Urantia planetary +schools in operation at that time. The wreck of these schools was speedy and +complete. + +Many of the offspring of the ascenders of the Prince's materialized staff +remained loyal, deserting the ranks of Caligastia. These loyalists were +encouraged by the Melchizedek receivers of Urantia, and in later times their +descendants did much to uphold the planetary concepts of truth and +righteousness. The work of these loyal evangels helped to prevent the total +obliteration of spiritual truth on Urantia. These courageous souls and their +descendants kept alive some knowledge of the Father's rule and preserved for +the world races the concept of the successive planetary dispensations of the +various orders of divine Sons. + +5. PROGRESSIVE CIVILIZATION + +The loyal princes of the inhabited worlds are permanently attached to the +planets of their original assignment. Paradise Sons and their dispensations may +come and go, but a successful Planetary Prince continues on as the ruler of his +realm. His work is quite independent of the missions of the higher Sons, being +designed to foster the development of planetary civilization. + +The progress of civilization is hardly alike on any two planets. The details of +the unfoldment of mortal evolution are very different on numerous dissimilar +worlds. Notwithstanding these many diversifications of planetary development +along physical, intellectual, and social lines, all evolutionary spheres +progress in certain well-defined directions. + +Under the benign rule of a Planetary Prince, augmented by the Material Sons and +punctuated by the periodic missions of the Paradise Sons, the mortal races on +an average world of time and space will successively pass through the following +seven developmental epochs: + +1. The nutrition epoch. The prehuman creatures and the dawn races of primitive +man are chiefly concerned with food problems. These evolving beings spend their +waking hours either in seeking food or in fighting, offensively or defensively. +The food quest is paramount in the minds of these early ancestors of subsequent +civilization. + +2. The security age. Just as soon as the primitive hunter can spare any time +from the search for food, he turns this leisure to augmenting his security. + + top of page - 577 + +More and more attention is devoted to the technique of war. Homes are +fortified, and the clans are solidified by mutual fear and by the inculcation +of hate for foreign groups. Self-preservation is a pursuit which always follows +self-maintenance. + +3. The material-comfort era. After food problems have been partially solved and +some degree of security has been attained, the additional leisure is utilized +to promote personal comfort. Luxury vies with necessity in occupying the center +of the stage of human activities. Such an age is all too often characterized by +tyranny, intolerance, gluttony, and drunkenness. The weaker elements of the +races incline towards excesses and brutality. Gradually these pleasure-seeking +weaklings are subjugated by the more strong and truth-loving elements of the +advancing civilization. + +4. The quest for knowledge and wisdom. Food, security, pleasure, and leisure +provide the foundation for the development of culture and the spread of +knowledge. The effort to execute knowledge results in wisdom, and when a +culture has learned how to profit and improve by experience, civilization has +really arrived. Food, security, and material comfort still dominate society, +but many forward-looking individuals are hungering for knowledge and thirsting +for wisdom. Every child is provided an opportunity to learn by doing; education +is the watchword of these ages. + +5. The epoch of philosophy and brotherhood. When mortals learn to think and +begin to profit by experience, they become philosophical--they start out to +reason within themselves and to exercise discriminative judgment. The society +of this age becomes ethical, and the mortals of such an era are truly becoming +moral beings. Wise moral beings are capable of establishing human brotherhood +on such a progressing world. Ethical and moral beings can learn how to live in +accordance with the golden rule. + +6. The age of spiritual striving. When evolving mortals have passed through the +physical, intellectual, and social stages of development, sooner or later they +attain those levels of personal insight which impel them to seek for spiritual +satisfactions and cosmic understandings. Religion is completing the ascent from +the emotional domains of fear and superstition to the high levels of cosmic +wisdom and personal spiritual experience. Education aspires to the attainment +of meanings, and culture grasps at cosmic relationships and true values. Such +evolving mortals are genuinely cultured, truly educated, and exquisitely +God-knowing. + +7. The era of light and life. This is the flowering of the successive ages of +physical security, intellectual expansion, social culture, and spiritual +achievement. These human accomplishments are now blended, associated, and +co-ordinated in cosmic unity and unselfish service. Within the limitations of +finite nature and material endowments there are no bounds set upon the +possibilities of evolutionary attainment by the advancing generations who +successively live upon these supernal and settled worlds of time and space. + +After serving their spheres through successive dispensations of world history +and the progressing epochs of planetary progress, the Planetary Princes are +elevated to the position of Planetary Sovereigns upon the inauguration of the +era of light and life. + + top of page - 578 + +6. PLANETARY CULTURE + +The isolation of Urantia renders it impossible to undertake the presentation of +many details of the life and environment of your Satania neighbors. In these +presentations we are limited by the planetary quarantine and by the system +isolation. We must be guided by these restrictions in all our efforts to +enlighten Urantia mortals, but in so far as is permissible, you have been +instructed in the progress of an average evolutionary world, and you are able +to compare such a world's career with the present state of Urantia. + +The development of civilization on Urantia has not differed so greatly from +that of other worlds which have sustained the misfortune of spiritual +isolation. But when compared with the loyal worlds of the universe, your planet +seems most confused and greatly retarded in all phases of intellectual progress +and spiritual attainment. + +Because of your planetary misfortunes, Urantians are prevented from +understanding very much about the culture of normal worlds. But you should not +envisage the evolutionary worlds, even the most ideal, as spheres whereon life +is a flowery bed of ease. The initial life of the mortal races is always +attended by struggle. Effort and decision are an essential part of the +acquirement of survival values. + +Culture presupposes quality of mind; culture cannot be enhanced unless mind is +elevated. Superior intellect will seek a noble culture and find some way to +attain such a goal. Inferior minds will spurn the highest culture even when +presented to them ready-made. Much depends, also, upon the successive missions +of the divine Sons and upon the extent to which enlightenment is received by +the ages of their respective dispensations. + +You should not forget that for two hundred thousand years all the worlds of +Satania have rested under the spiritual ban of Norlatiadek in consequence of +the Lucifer rebellion. And it will require age upon age to retrieve the +resultant handicaps of sin and secession. Your world still continues to pursue +an irregular and checkered career as a result of the double tragedy of a +rebellious Planetary Prince and a defaulting Material Son. Even the bestowal of +Christ Michael on Urantia did not immediately set aside the temporal +consequences of these serious blunders in the earlier administration of the +world. + +7. THE REWARDS OF ISOLATION + +On first thought it might appear that Urantia and its associated isolated +worlds are most unfortunate in being deprived of the beneficent presence and +influence of such superhuman personalities as a Planetary Prince and a Material +Son and Daughter. But isolation of these spheres affords their races a unique +opportunity for the exercise of faith and for the development of a peculiar +quality of confidence in cosmic reliability which is not dependent on sight or +any other material consideration. It may turn out, eventually, that mortal +creatures hailing from the worlds quarantined in consequence of rebellion are +extremely fortunate. We have discovered that such ascenders are very early +intrusted with numerous special assignments to cosmic undertakings where +unquestioned faith and sublime confidence are essential to achievement. + + top of page - 579 + +On Jerusem the ascenders from these isolated worlds occupy a residential sector +by themselves and are known as the agondonters, meaning evolutionary will +creatures who can believe without seeing, persevere when isolated, and triumph +over insuperable difficulties even when alone. This functional grouping of the +agondonters persists throughout the ascension of the local universe and the +traversal of the superuniverse; it disappears during the sojourn in Havona but +promptly reappears upon the attainment of Paradise and definitely persists in +the Corps of the Mortal Finality. Tabamantia is an agondonter of finaliter +status, having survived from one of the quarantined spheres involved in the +first rebellion ever to take place in the universes of time and space. + +All through the Paradise career, reward follows effort as the result of causes. +Such rewards set off the individual from the average, provide a differential of +creature experience, and contribute to the versatility of ultimate performances +in the collective body of the finaliters. + +[Presented by a Secondary Lanonandek Son of the Reserve Corps.] + + top of page - 580 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Inhabited ³ The Planetary ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ W... ³ A... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p051.txt b/religious documents/p051.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55c005f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p051.txt @@ -0,0 +1,546 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 51 The Planetary Adams + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 51 The Planetary Adams + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +DURING the dispensation of a Planetary Prince, primitive man reaches the limit +of natural evolutionary development, and this biologic attainment signals the +System Sovereign to dispatch to such a world the second order of sonship, the +biologic uplifters. These Sons, for there are two of them--the Material Son and +Daughter--are usually known on a planet as Adam and Eve. The original Material +Son of Satania is Adam, and those who go to the system worlds as biologic +uplifters always carry the name of this first and original Son of their unique +order. + +These Sons are the material gift of the Creator Son to the inhabited worlds. +Together with the Planetary Prince, they remain on their planet of assignment +throughout the evolutionary course of such a sphere. Such an adventure on a +world having a Planetary Prince is not much of a hazard, but on an apostate +planet, a realm without a spiritual ruler and deprived of interplanetary +communication, such a mission is fraught with grave danger. + +Although you cannot hope to know all about the work of these Sons on all the +worlds of Satania and other systems, other papers depict more fully the life +and experiences of the interesting pair, Adam and Eve, who came from the corps +of the biologic uplifters of Jerusem to upstep the Urantia races. While there +was a miscarriage of the ideal plans for improving your native races, still, +Adam's mission was not in vain; Urantia has profited immeasurably from the gift +of Adam and Eve, and among their fellows and in the councils on high their work +is not reckoned as a total loss. + +1. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE MATERIAL SONS OF GOD + +The material or sex Sons and Daughters are the offspring of the Creator Son; +the Universe Mother Spirit does not participate in the production of these +beings who are destined to function as physical uplifters on the evolutionary +worlds. + +The material order of sonship is not uniform throughout the local universe. The +Creator Son produces only one pair of these beings in each local system; these +original pairs are diverse in nature, being attuned to the life pattern of +their respective systems. This is a necessary provision since otherwise the +reproductive potential of the Adams would be nonfunctional with that of the +evolving mortal beings of the worlds of any one particular system. The Adam and +Eve who came to Urantia were descended from the original Satania pair of +Material Sons. + +Material Sons vary in height from eight to ten feet, and their bodies glow with +the brilliance of radiant light of a violet hue. While material blood circu- + + top of page - 581 + +lates through their material bodies, they are also surcharged with divine +energy and saturated with celestial light. These Material Sons (the Adams) and +Material Daughters (the Eves) are equal to each other, differing only in +reproductive nature and in certain chemical endowments. They are equal but +differential, male and female--hence complemental--and are designed to serve on +almost all assignments in pairs. + +The Material Sons enjoy a dual nutrition; they are really dual in nature and +constitution, partaking of materialized energy much as do the physical beings +of the realm, while their immortal existence is fully maintained by the direct +and automatic intake of certain sustaining cosmic energies. Should they fail on +some mission of assignment or even consciously and deliberately rebel, this +order of Sons becomes isolated, cut off from connection with the universe +source of light and life. Thereupon they become practically material beings, +destined to take the course of material life on the world of their assignment +and compelled to look to the universe magistrates for adjudication. Material +death will eventually terminate the planetary career of such an unfortunate and +unwise Material Son or Daughter. + +An original or directly created Adam and Eve are immortal by inherent endowment +just as are all other orders of local universe sonship, but a diminution of +immortality potential characterizes their sons and daughters. This original +couple cannot transmit unconditioned immortality to their procreated sons and +daughters. Their progeny are dependent for continuing life on unbroken +intellectual synchrony with the mind-gravity circuit of the Spirit. Since the +inception of the system of Satania, thirteen Planetary Adams have been lost in +rebellion and default and 681,204 in the subordinate positions of trust. Most +of these defections occurred at the time of the Lucifer rebellion. + +While living as permanent citizens on the system capitals, even when +functioning on descending missions to the evolutionary planets, the Material +Sons do not possess Thought Adjusters, but it is through these very services +that they acquire experiential capacity for Adjuster indwellment and the +Paradise ascension career. These unique and wonderfully useful beings are the +connecting links between the spiritual and physical worlds. They are +concentrated on the system headquarters, where they reproduce and carry on as +material citizens of the realm, and whence they are dispatched to the +evolutionary worlds. + +Unlike the other created Sons of planetary service, the material order of +sonship is not, by nature, invisible to material creatures like the inhabitants +of Urantia. These Sons of God can be seen, understood, and can, in turn, +actually mingle with the creatures of time, could even procreate with them, +though this role of biologic upliftment usually falls to the progeny of the +Planetary Adams. + +On Jerusem the loyal children of any Adam and Eve are immortal, but the +offspring of a Material Son and Daughter procreated subsequent to their arrival +on an evolutionary planet are not thus immune to natural death. There occurs a +change in the life-transmitting mechanism when these Sons are rematerialized +for reproductive function on an evolutionary world. The Life Carriers +designedly deprive the Planetary Adams and Eves of the power of begetting +undying sons and daughters. If they do not default, an Adam and Eve on a +planetary mission can live on indefinitely, but within certain limits their +children experience decreasing longevity with each succeeding generation. + + top of page - 582 + +2. TRANSIT OF THE PLANETARY ADAMS + +Upon receipt of the news that another inhabited world has attained the height +of physical evolution, the System Sovereign convenes the corps of Material Sons +and Daughters on the system capital; and following the discussion of the needs +of such an evolutionary world, two of the volunteering group--an Adam and an +Eve of the senior corps of Material Sons--are selected to undertake the +adventure, to submit to the deep sleep preparatory to being enseraphimed and +transported from their home of associated service to the new realm of new +opportunities and new dangers. + +Adams and Eves are semimaterial creatures and, as such, are not transportable +by seraphim. They must undergo dematerialization on the system capital before +they can be enseraphimed for transport to the world of assignment. The +transport seraphim are able to effect such changes in the Material Sons and in +other semimaterial beings as enable them to be enseraphimed and thus to be +transported through space from one world or system to another. About three days +of standard time are consumed in this transport preparation, and it requires +the co-operation of a Life Carrier to restore such a dematerialized creature to +normal existence upon arrival at the end of the seraphic-transport journey. + +While there is this dematerializing technique for preparing the Adams for +transit from Jerusem to the evolutionary worlds, there is no equivalent method +for taking them away from such worlds unless the entire planet is to be +emptied, in which event emergency installation of the dematerialization +technique is made for the entire salvable population. If some physical +catastrophe should doom the planetary residence of an evolving race, the +Melchizedeks and the Life Carriers would install the technique of +dematerialization for all survivors, and by seraphic transport these beings +would be carried away to the new world prepared for their continuing existence. +The evolution of a human race, once initiated on a world of space, must proceed +quite independently of the physical survival of that planet, but during the +evolutionary ages it is not otherwise intended that a Planetary Adam or Eve +shall leave their chosen world. + +Upon arrival at their planetary destination the Material Son and Daughter are +rematerialized under the direction of the Life Carriers. This entire process +takes ten to twenty-eight days of Urantia time. The unconsciousness of the +seraphic slumber continues throughout this entire period of reconstruction. +When the reassembly of the physical organism is completed, these Material Sons +and Daughters stand in their new homes and on their new worlds to all intents +and purposes just as they were before submitting to the dematerializing process +on Jerusem. + +3. THE ADAMIC MISSIONS + +On the inhabited worlds the Material Sons and Daughters construct their own +garden homes, soon being assisted by their own children. Usually the site of +the garden has been selected by the Planetary Prince, and his corporeal staff +do much of the preliminary work of preparation with the help of many of the +higher types of native races. + + top of page - 583 + +These Gardens of Eden are so named in honor of Edentia, the constellation +capital, and because they are patterned after the botanic grandeur of the +headquarters world of the Most High Fathers. Such garden homes are usually +located in a secluded section and in a near-tropic zone. They are wonderful +creations on an average world. You can judge nothing of these beautiful centers +of culture by the fragmentary account of the aborted development of such an +undertaking on Urantia. + +A Planetary Adam and Eve are, in potential, the full gift of physical grace to +the mortal races. The chief business of such an imported pair is to multiply +and to uplift the children of time. But there is no immediate interbreeding +between the people of the garden and those of the world; for many generations +Adam and Eve remain biologically segregated from the evolutionary mortals while +they build up a strong race of their order. This is the origin of the violet +race on the inhabited worlds. + +The plans for race upstepping are prepared by the Planetary Prince and his +staff and are executed by Adam and Eve. And this was where your Material Son +and his companion were placed at great disadvantage when they arrived on +Urantia. Caligastia offered crafty and effective opposition to the Adamic +mission; and notwithstanding that the Melchizedek receivers of Urantia had duly +warned both Adam and Eve concerning the planetary dangers inherent in the +presence of the rebellious Planetary Prince, this archrebel, by a wily +stratagem, outmaneuvered the Edenic pair and entrapped them into a violation of +the covenant of their trusteeship as the visible rulers of your world. The +traitorous Planetary Prince did succeed in compromising your Adam and Eve, but +he failed in his effort to involve them in the Lucifer rebellion. + +The fifth order of angels, the planetary helpers, are attached to the Adamic +mission, always accompanying the Planetary Adams on their world adventures. The +corps of initial assignment is usually about one hundred thousand. When the +work of the Urantia Adam and Eve was prematurely launched, when they departed +from the ordained plan, it was one of the seraphic Voices of the Garden who +remonstrated with them concerning their reprehensible conduct. And your +narrative of this occurrence well illustrates the manner in which your +planetary traditions have tended to ascribe everything supernatural to the Lord +God. Because of this, Urantians have often become confused concerning the +nature of the Universal Father since the words and acts of all his associates +and subordinates have been so generally attributed to him. In the case of Adam +and Eve, the angel of the Garden was none other than the chief of the planetary +helpers then on duty. This seraphim, Solonia, proclaimed the miscarriage of the +divine plan and requisitioned the return of the Melchizedek receivers to +Urantia. + +The secondary midway creatures are indigenous to the Adamic missions. As with +the corporeal staff of the Planetary Prince, the descendants of the Material +Sons and Daughters are of two orders: their physical children and the secondary +order of midway creatures. These material but ordinarily invisible planetary +ministers contribute much to the advancement of civilization and even to the +subjection of insubordinate minorities who may seek to subvert social +development and spiritual progress. + +The secondary midwayers should not be confused with the primary order, who date +from the near times of the arrival of the Planetary Prince. On Urantia a +majority of these earlier midway creatures went into rebellion with Cali- + + top of page - 584 + +gastia and have, since Pentecost, been interned. Many of the Adamic group who +did not remain loyal to the planetary administration are likewise interned. + +On the day of Pentecost the loyal primary and the secondary midwayers effected +a voluntary union and have functioned as one unit in world affairs ever since. +They serve under the leadership of loyal midwayers alternately chosen from the +two groups. + +Your world has been visited by four orders of sonship: Caligastia, the +Planetary Prince; Adam and Eve of the Material Sons of God; Machiventa +Melchizedek, the "sage of Salem" in the days of Abraham; and Christ Michael, +who came as the Paradise bestowal Son. How much more effective and beautiful it +would have been had Michael, the supreme ruler of the universe of Nebadon, been +welcomed to your world by a loyal and efficient Planetary Prince and a devoted +and successful Material Son, both of whom could have done so much to enhance +the lifework and mission of the bestowal Son! But not all worlds have been so +unfortunate as Urantia, neither has the mission of the Planetary Adams always +been so difficult or so hazardous. When they are successful, they contribute to +the development of a great people, continuing as the visible heads of planetary +affairs even far into the age when such a world is settled in light and life. + +4. THE SIX EVOLUTIONARY RACES + +The race of dominance during the early ages of the inhabited worlds is the red +man, who ordinarily is the first to attain human levels of development. But +while the red man is the senior race of the planets, the succeeding colored +peoples begin to make their appearances very early in the age of mortal +emergence. + +The earlier races are somewhat superior to the later; the red man stands far +above the indigo--black race. The Life Carriers impart the full bestowal of the +living energies to the initial or red race, and each succeeding evolutionary +manifestation of a distinct group of mortals represents variation at the +expense of the original endowment. Even mortal stature tends to decrease from +the red man down to the indigo race, although on Urantia unexpected strains of +giantism appeared among the green and orange peoples. + +On those worlds having all six evolutionary races the superior peoples are the +first, third, and fifth races--the red, the yellow, and the blue. The +evolutionary races thus alternate in capacity for intellectual growth and +spiritual development, the second, fourth, and sixth being somewhat less +endowed. These secondary races are the peoples that are missing on certain +worlds; they are the ones that have been exterminated on many others. It is a +misfortune on Urantia that you so largely lost your superior blue men, except +as they persist in your amalgamated "white race." The loss of your orange and +green stocks is not of such serious concern. + +The evolution of six--or of three--colored races, while seeming to deteriorate +the original endowment of the red man, provides certain very desirable +variations in mortal types and affords an otherwise unattainable expression of +diverse human potentials. These modifications are beneficial to the progress of +mankind as a whole provided they are subsequently upstepped by the imported +Adamic or violet race. On Urantia this usual plan of amalgamation was not +extensively carried out, and this failure to execute the plan of race evolution +makes it impossible for you to understand very much about the status of these +peoples + + top of page - 585 + +on an average inhabited planet by observing the remnants of these early races +on your world. + +In the early days of racial development there is a slight tendency for the red, +the yellow, and the blue men to interbreed; there is a similar tendency for the +orange, green, and indigo races to intermingle. + +The more backward humans are usually employed as laborers by the more +progressive races. This accounts for the origin of slavery on the planets +during the early ages. The orange men are usually subdued by the red and +reduced to the status of servants--sometimes exterminated. The yellow and red +men often fraternize, but not always. The yellow race usually enslaves the +green, while the blue man subdues the indigo. These races of primitive men +think no more of utilizing the services of their backward fellows in compulsory +labor than Urantians would of buying and selling horses and cattle. + +On most normal worlds involuntary servitude does not survive the dispensation +of the Planetary Prince, although mental defectives and social delinquents are +often still compelled to perform involuntary labor. But on all normal spheres +this sort of primitive slavery is abolished soon after the arrival of the +imported violet or Adamic race. + +These six evolutionary races are destined to be blended and exalted by +amalgamation with the progeny of the Adamic uplifters. But before these peoples +are blended, the inferior and unfit are largely eliminated. The Planetary +Prince and the Material Son, with other suitable planetary authorities, pass +upon the fitness of the reproducing strains. The difficulty of executing such a +radical program on Urantia consists in the absence of competent judges to pass +upon the biologic fitness or unfitness of the individuals of your world races. +Notwithstanding this obstacle, it seems that you ought to be able to agree upon +the biologic disfellowshiping of your more markedly unfit, defective, +degenerate, and antisocial stocks. + +5. RACIAL AMALGAMATION-- + +When a Planetary Adam and Eve arrive on an inhabited world, they have been +fully instructed by their superiors as to the best way to effect the +improvement of the existing races of intelligent beings. The plan of procedure +is not uniform; much is left to the judgment of the ministering pair, and +mistakes are not infrequent, especially on disordered, insurrectionary worlds, +such as Urantia. + +Usually the violet peoples do not begin to amalgamate with the planetary +natives until their own group numbers over one million. But in the meantime the +staff of the Planetary Prince proclaims that the children of the Gods have come +down, as it were, to be one with the races of men; and the people eagerly look +forward to the day when announcement will be made that those who have qualified +as belonging to the superior racial strains may proceed to the Garden of Eden +and be there chosen by the sons and daughters of Adam as the evolutionary +fathers and mothers of the new and blended order of mankind. + +On normal worlds the Planetary Adam and Eve never mate with the evolutionary +races. This work of biologic betterment is a function of the Adamic progeny. +But these Adamites do not go out among the races; the prince's staff bring to +the Garden of Eden the superior men and women for voluntary mating + + top of page - 586 + +with the Adamic offspring. And on most worlds it is considered the highest +honor to be selected as a candidate for mating with the sons and daughters of +the garden. + +For the first time the racial wars and other tribal struggles are diminished, +while the world races increasingly strive to qualify for recognition and +admission to the garden. You can at best have but a very meager idea of how +this competitive struggle comes to occupy the center of all activities on a +normal planet. This whole scheme of race improvement was early wrecked on +Urantia. + +The violet race is a monogamous people, and every evolutionary man or woman +uniting with the Adamic sons and daughters pledges not to take other mates and +to instruct his or her children in single-matedness. The children of each of +these unions are educated and trained in the schools of the Planetary Prince +and then are permitted to go forth to the race of their evolutionary parent, +there to marry among the selected groups of superior mortals. + +When this strain of the Material Sons is added to the evolving races of the +worlds, a new and greater era of evolutionary progress is initiated. Following +this procreative outpouring of imported ability and superevolutionary traits +there ensues a succession of rapid strides in civilization and racial +development; in one hundred thousand years more progress is made than in a +million years of former struggle. In your world, even in the face of the +miscarriage of the ordained plans, great progress has been made since the gift +to your peoples of Adam's life plasm. + +But while the pure-line children of a planetary Garden of Eden can bestow +themselves upon the superior members of the evolutionary races and thereby +upstep the biologic level of mankind, it would not prove beneficial for the +higher strains of Urantia mortals to mate with the lower races; such an unwise +procedure would jeopardize all civilization on your world. Having failed to +achieve race harmonization by the Adamic technique, you must now work out your +planetary problem of race improvement by other and largely human methods of +adaptation and control. + +6. THE EDENIC REGIME + +On most of the inhabited worlds the Gardens of Eden remain as superb cultural +centers and continue to function as the social patterns of planetary conduct +and usage age after age. Even in early times when the violet peoples are +relatively segregated, their schools receive suitable candidates from among the +world races, while the industrial developments of the garden open up new +channels of commercial intercourse. Thus do the Adams and Eves and their +progeny contribute to the sudden expansion of culture and to the rapid +improvement of the evolutionary races of their worlds. And all of these +relationships are augmented and sealed by the amalgamation of the evolutionary +races and the sons of Adam, resulting in the immediate upstepping of biologic +status, the quickening of intellectual potential, and the enhancement of +spiritual receptivity. + +On normal worlds the garden headquarters of the violet race becomes the second +center of world culture and, jointly with the headquarters city of the +Planetary Prince, sets the pace for the development of civilization. For +centuries the city headquarters schools of the Planetary Prince and the garden +schools of Adam and Eve are contemporary. They are usually not very far apart, +and they work together in harmonious co-operation. + + top of page - 587 + +Think what it would mean on your world if somewhere in the Levant there were a +world center of civilization, a great planetary university of culture, which +had functioned uninterruptedly for 37,000 years. And again, pause to consider +how the moral authority of even such an ancient center would be reinforced were +there situated not far distant still another and older headquarters of +celestial ministry whose traditions would exert a cumulative force of 500,000 +years of integrated evolutionary influence. It is custom which eventually +spreads the ideals of Eden to a whole world. + +The schools of the Planetary Prince are primarily concerned with philosophy, +religion, morals, and the higher intellectual and artistic achievements. The +garden schools of Adam and Eve are usually devoted to practical arts, +fundamental intellectual training, social culture, economic development, trade +relations, physical efficiency, and civil government. Eventually these world +centers amalgamate, but this actual affiliation sometimes does not occur until +the times of the first Magisterial Son. + +The continuing existence of the Planetary Adam and Eve, together with the +pure-line nucleus of the violet race, imparts that stability of growth to +Edenic culture by virtue of which it comes to act upon the civilization of a +world with the compelling force of tradition. In these immortal Material Sons +and Daughters we encounter the last and the indispensable link connecting God +with man, bridging the almost infinite gulf between the eternal Creator and the +lowest finite personalities of time. Here is a being of high origin who is +physical, material, even a sex creature like Urantia mortals, one who can see +and comprehend the invisible Planetary Prince and interpret him to the mortal +creatures of the realm, for the Material Sons and Daughters are able to see all +of the lower orders of spirit beings; they visualize the Planetary Prince and +his entire staff, visible and invisible. + +With the passing of centuries, through the amalgamation of their progeny with +the races of men, this same Material Son and Daughter become accepted as the +common ancestors of mankind, the common parents of the now blended descendants +of the evolutionary races. It is intended that mortals who start out from an +inhabited world have the experience of recognizing seven fathers: + +1. The biologic father--the father in the flesh. + +2. The father of the realm--the Planetary Adam. + +3. The father of the spheres--the System Sovereign. + +4. The Most High Father--the Constellation Father. + +5. The universe Father--the Creator Son and supreme ruler of the local +creations. + +6. The super-Fathers--the Ancients of Days who govern the superuniverse. + +7. The spirit or Havona Father--the Universal Father, who dwells on Paradise +and bestows his spirit to live and work in the minds of the lowly creatures who +inhabit the universe of universes. + +7. UNITED ADMINISTRATION + +From time to time the Avonal Sons of Paradise come to the inhabited worlds for +judicial actions, but the first Avonal to arrive on a magisterial mission +inaug- + + top of page - 588 + +urates the fourth dispensation of an evolutionary world of time and space. On +some planets where this Magisterial Son is universally accepted, he remains for +one age; and thus the planet prospers under the joint rulership of three Sons: +the Planetary Prince, the Material Son, and the Magisterial Son, the latter two +being visible to all the inhabitants of the realm. + +Before the first Magisterial Son concludes his mission on a normal evolutionary +world, there has been effected the union of the educational and administrative +work of the Planetary Prince and the Material Son. This amalgamation of the +dual supervision of a planet brings into existence a new and effective order of +world administration. Upon the retirement of the Magisterial Son the Planetary +Adam assumes the outward direction of the sphere. The Material Son and Daughter +thus act jointly as planetary administrators until the settling of the world in +the era of light and life; whereupon the Planetary Prince is elevated to the +position of Planetary Sovereign. During this age of advanced evolution, Adam +and Eve become what might be called joint prime ministers of the glorified +realm. + +As soon as the new and consolidated capital of the evolving world has become +well established, and just as fast as competent subordinate administrators can +be properly trained, subcapitals are founded on remote land bodies and among +the different peoples. Before the arrival of another dispensational Son, from +fifty to one hundred of these subcenters will have been organized. + +The Planetary Prince and his staff still foster the spiritual and philosophic +domains of activity. Adam and Eve pay particular attention to the physical, +scientific, and economic status of the realm. Both groups equally devote their +energies to the promotion of the arts, social relations, and intellectual +achievements. + +By the time of the inauguration of the fifth dispensation of world affairs, a +magnificent administration of planetary activities has been achieved. Mortal +existence on such a well-managed sphere is indeed stimulating and profitable. +And if Urantians could only observe life on such a planet, they would +immediately appreciate the value of those things which their world has lost +through embracing evil and participating in rebellion. + +[Presented by a Secondary Lanonandek Son of the Reserve Corps.] + + top of page - 589 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Planetary ³ Planetary ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ P... ³ Morta... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p052.txt b/religious documents/p052.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2081b72 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p052.txt @@ -0,0 +1,727 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 52 Planetary Mortal Epochs + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 52 Planetary Mortal Epochs + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +FROM the inception of life on an evolutionary planet to the time of its final +flowering in the era of light and life, there appear upon the stage of world +action at least seven epochs of human life. These successive ages are +determined by the planetary missions of the divine Sons, and on an average +inhabited world these epochs appear in the following order: + +1. Pre-Planetary Prince Man. + +2. Post-Planetary Prince Man. + +3. Post-Adamic Man. + +4. Post-Magisterial Son Man. + +5. Post-Bestowal Son Man. + +6. Post-Teacher Son Man. + +7. The Era of Light and Life. + +The worlds of space, as soon as they are physically suitable for life, are +placed on the registry of the Life Carriers, and in due time these Sons are +dispatched to such planets for the purpose of initiating life. The entire +period from life initiation to the appearance of man is designated the prehuman +era and precedes the successive mortal epochs considered in this narrative. + +1. PRIMITIVE MAN + +From the time of man's emergence from the animal level--when he can choose to +worship the Creator--to the arrival of the Planetary Prince, mortal will +creatures are called primitive men. There are six basic types or races of +primitive men, and these early peoples successively appear in the order of the +spectrum colors, beginning with the red. The length of time consumed in this +early life evolution varies greatly on the different worlds, ranging from one +hundred and fifty thousand years to over one million years of Urantia time. + +The evolutionary races of color--red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and +indigo--begin to appear about the time that primitive man is developing a +simple language and is beginning to exercise the creative imagination. By this +time man is well accustomed to standing erect. + +Primitive men are mighty hunters and fierce fighters. The law of this age is +the physical survival of the fittest; the government of these times is wholly +tribal. During the early racial struggles on many worlds some of the +evolutionary races are obliterated, as occurred on Urantia. Those who survive +are usually subsequently blended with the later imported violet race, the +Adamic peoples. + +In the light of subsequent civilization, this era of primitive man is a long, +dark, and bloody chapter. The ethics of the jungle and the morals of the pri- + + top of page - 590 + +meval forests are not in keeping with the standards of later dispensations of +revealed religion and higher spiritual development. On normal and +nonexperimental worlds this epoch is very different from the prolonged and +extraordinarily brutal struggles which characterized this age on Urantia. When +you have emerged from your first world experience, you will begin to see why +this long and painful struggle on the evolutionary worlds occurs, and as you go +forward in the Paradise path, you will increasingly understand the wisdom of +these apparently strange doings. But notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of +the early ages of human emergence, the performances of primitive man represent +a splendid, even a heroic, chapter in the annals of an evolutionary world of +time and space. + +Early evolutionary man is not a colorful creature. In general, these primitive +mortals are cave dwellers or cliff residents. They also build crude huts in the +large trees. Before they acquire a high order of intelligence, the planets are +sometimes overrun with the larger types of animals. But early in this era +mortals learn to kindle and maintain fire, and with the increase of inventive +imagination and the improvement in tools, evolving man soon vanquishes the +larger and more unwieldy animals. The early races also make extensive use of +the larger flying animals. These enormous birds are able to carry one or two +average-sized men for a nonstop flight of over five hundred miles. On some +planets these birds are of great service since they possess a high order of +intelligence, often being able to speak many words of the languages of the +realm. These birds are most intelligent, very obedient, and unbelievably +affectionate. Such passenger birds have been long extinct on Urantia, but your +early ancestors enjoyed their services. + +Man's acquirement of ethical judgment, moral will, is usually coincident with +the appearance of early language. Upon attaining the human level, after this +emergence of mortal will, these beings become receptive to the temporary +indwelling of the divine Adjusters, and upon death many are duly elected as +survivors and sealed by the archangels for subsequent resurrection and Spirit +fusion. The archangels always accompany the Planetary Princes, and a +dispensational adjudication of the realm is simultaneous with the prince's +arrival. + +All mortals who are indwelt by Thought Adjusters are potential worshipers; they +have been "lighted by the true light," and they possess capacity for seeking +reciprocal contact with divinity. Nevertheless, the early or biologic religion +of primitive man is largely a persistence of animal fear coupled with ignorant +awe and tribal superstition. The survival of superstition in the Urantia races +is hardly complimentary to your evolutionary development nor compatible with +your otherwise splendid achievements in material progress. But this early fear +religion serves a very valuable purpose in subduing the fiery tempers of these +primitive creatures. It is the forerunner of civilization and the soil for the +subsequent planting of the seeds of revealed religion by the Planetary Prince +and his ministers. + +Within one hundred thousand years from the time man acquires erect posture, the +Planetary Prince usually arrives, having been dispatched by the System +Sovereign upon the report of the Life Carriers that will is functioning, even +though comparatively few individuals have thus developed. Primitive mortals +usually welcome the Planetary Prince and his visible staff; in fact, they often +look upon them with awe and reverence, almost with worshipfulness, if they are +not restrained. + + top of page - 591 + +2. POST-PLANETARY PRINCE MAN + +With the arrival of the Planetary Prince a new dispensation begins. Government +appears on earth, and the advanced tribal epoch is attained. Great social +strides are made during a few thousand years of this regime. Under normal +conditions mortals attain a high state of civilization during this age. They do +not struggle so long in barbarism as did the Urantia races. But life on an +inhabited world is so changed by rebellion that you can have little or no idea +of such a regime on a normal planet. + +The average length of this dispensation is around five hundred thousand years, +some longer, some shorter. During this era the planet is established in the +circuits of the system, and a full quota of seraphic and other celestial +helpers is assigned to its administration. The Thought Adjusters come in +increasing numbers, and the seraphic guardians amplify their regime of mortal +supervision. + +When the Planetary Prince arrives on a primitive world, the evolved religion of +fear and ignorance prevails. The prince and his staff make the first +revelations of higher truth and universe organization. These initial +presentations of revealed religion are very simple, and they usually pertain to +the affairs of the local system. Religion is wholly an evolutionary process +prior to the arrival of the Planetary Prince. Subsequently, religion progresses +by graduated revelation as well as by evolutionary growth. Each dispensation, +each mortal epoch, receives an enlarged presentation of spiritual truth and +religious ethics. The evolution of the religious capacity of receptivity in the +inhabitants of a world largely determines their rate of spiritual advancement +and the extent of religious revelation. + +This dispensation witnesses a spiritual dawn, and the different races and their +various tribes tend to develop specialized systems of religious and philosophic +thought. There uniformly run through all of these racial religions two strains: +the early fears of primitive men and the later revelations of the Planetary +Prince. In some respects Urantians do not seem to have wholly emerged from this +stage of planetary evolution. As you pursue this study, you will the more +clearly discern how far your world departs from the average course of +evolutionary progress and development. + +But the Planetary Prince is not "the Prince of Peace." Racial struggles and +tribal wars continue over into this dispensation but with diminishing frequency +and severity. This is the great age of racial dispersion, and it culminates in +a period of intense nationalism. Color is the basis of tribal and national +groupings, and the different races often develop separate languages. Each +expanding group of mortals tends to seek isolation. This segregation is favored +by the existence of many languages. Before the unification of the several races +their relentless warfare sometimes results in the obliteration of whole +peoples; the orange and green men are particularly subject to such extinction. + +On average worlds, during the latter part of the prince's rule, national life +begins to replace tribal organization or rather to be superimposed upon the +existing tribal groupings. But the great social achievement of the prince's +epoch is the emergence of family life. Heretofore, human relationships have +been chiefly tribal; now, the home begins to materialize. + +This is the dispensation of the realization of sex equality. On some planets +the male may rule the female; on others the reverse prevails. During this age + + top of page - 592 + +normal worlds establish full equality of the sexes, this being preliminary to +the fuller realization of the ideals of home life. This is the dawn of the +golden age of the home. The idea of tribal rule gradually gives way to the dual +concept of national life and family life. + +During this age agriculture makes its appearance. The growth of the family idea +is incompatible with the roving and unsettled life of the hunter. Gradually the +practices of settled habitations and the cultivation of the soil become +established. The domestication of animals and the development of home arts +proceed apace. Upon reaching the apex of biologic evolution, a high level of +civilization has been attained, but there is little development of a mechanical +order; invention is the characteristic of the succeeding age. + +The races are purified and brought up to a high state of physical perfection +and intellectual strength before the end of this era. The early development of +a normal world is greatly helped by the plan of promoting the increase of the +higher types of mortals with proportionate curtailment of the lower. And it is +the failure of your early peoples to thus discriminate between these types that +accounts for the presence of so many defective and degenerate individuals among +the present-day Urantia races. + +One of the great achievements of the age of the prince is this restriction of +the multiplication of mentally defective and socially unfit individuals. Long +before the times of the arrival of the second Sons, the Adams, most worlds +seriously address themselves to the tasks of race purification, something which +the Urantia peoples have not even yet seriously undertaken. + +This problem of race improvement is not such an extensive undertaking when it +is attacked at this early date in human evolution. The preceding period of +tribal struggles and rugged competition in race survival has weeded out most of +the abnormal and defective strains. An idiot does not have much chance of +survival in a primitive and warring tribal social organization. It is the false +sentiment of your partially perfected civilizations that fosters, protects, and +perpetuates the hopelessly defective strains of evolutionary human stocks. + +It is neither tenderness nor altruism to bestow futile sympathy upon +degenerated human beings, unsalvable abnormal and inferior mortals. There exist +on even the most normal of the evolutionary worlds sufficient differences +between individuals and between numerous social groups to provide for the full +exercise of all those noble traits of altruistic sentiment and unselfish mortal +ministry without perpetuating the socially unfit and the morally degenerate +strains of evolving humanity. There is abundant opportunity for the exercise of +tolerance and the function of altruism in behalf of those unfortunate and needy +individuals who have not irretrievably lost their moral heritage and forever +destroyed their spiritual birthright. + +3. POST-ADAMIC MAN + +When the original impetus of evolutionary life has run its biologic course, +when man has reached the apex of animal development, there arrives the second +order of sonship, and the second dispensation of grace and ministry is +inaugurated. This is true on all evolutionary worlds. When the highest possible +level of evolutionary life has been attained, when primitive man has ascended +as far as possible in the biologic scale, a Material Son and Daughter always +appear on the planet, having been dispatched by the System Sovereign. + + top of page - 593 + +Thought Adjusters are increasingly bestowed upon the post-Adamic men, and in +constantly augmented numbers these mortals attain capacity for subsequent +Adjuster fusion. While functioning as descending Sons, the Adams do not possess +Adjusters, but their planetary offspring--direct and mixed--become legitimate +candidates for the reception, in due time, of the Mystery Monitors. By the +termination of the post-Adamic age the planet is in possession of its full +quota of celestial ministers; only the fusion Adjusters are not yet universally +bestowed. + +It is the prime purpose of the Adamic regime to influence evolving man to +complete the transit from the hunter and herder stage of civilization to that +of the agriculturist and horticulturist, to be later supplemented by the +appearance of the urban and industrial adjuncts to civilization. Ten thousand +years of this dispensation of the biologic uplifters is sufficient to effect a +marvelous transformation. Twenty-five thousand years of such an administration +of the conjoint wisdom of the Planetary Prince and the Material Sons usually +ripens the sphere for the advent of a Magisterial Son. + +This age usually witnesses the completion of the elimination of the unfit and +the still further purification of the racial strains; on normal worlds the +defective bestial tendencies are very nearly eliminated from the reproducing +stocks of the realm. + +The Adamic progeny never amalgamate with the inferior strains of the +evolutionary races. Neither is it the divine plan for the Planetary Adam or Eve +to mate, personally, with the evolutionary peoples. This race-improvement +project is the task of their progeny. But the offspring of the Material Son and +Daughter are mobilized for generations before the racial-amalgamation ministry +is inaugurated. + +The result of the gift of the Adamic life plasm to the mortal races is an +immediate upstepping of intellectual capacity and an acceleration of spiritual +progress. There is usually some physical improvement also. On an average world +the post-Adamic dispensation is an age of great invention, energy control, and +mechanical development. This is the era of the appearance of multiform +manufacture and the control of natural forces; it is the golden age of +exploration and the final subduing of the planet. Much of the material progress +of a world occurs during this time of the inauguration of the development of +the physical sciences, just such an epoch as Urantia is now experiencing. Your +world is a full dispensation and more behind the average planetary schedule. + +By the end of the Adamic dispensation on a normal planet the races are +practically blended, so that it can be truly proclaimed that "God has made of +one blood all the nations," and that his Son "has made of one color all +peoples." The color of such an amalgamated race is somewhat of an olive shade +of the violet hue, the racial "white" of the spheres. + +Primitive man is for the most part carnivorous; the Material Sons and Daughters +do not eat meat, but their offspring within a few generations usually gravitate +to the omnivorous level, although whole groups of their descendants sometimes +remain nonflesh eaters. This double origin of the post-Adamic races explains +how such blended human stocks exhibit anatomic vestiges belonging to both the +herbivorous and carnivorous animal groups. + +Within ten thousand years of racial amalgamation the resultant stocks show +varying degrees of anatomic blend, some strains carrying more of the marks + + top of page - 594 + +of the nonflesh-eating ancestry, others exhibiting more of the distinguishing +traits and physical characteristics of their carnivorous evolutionary +progenitors. The majority of these world races soon become omnivorous, +subsisting upon a wide range of viands from both the animal and vegetable +kingdoms. + +The post-Adamic epoch is the dispensation of internationalism. With the near +completion of the task of race blending, nationalism wanes, and the brotherhood +of man really begins to materialize. Representative government begins to take +the place of the monarchial or paternal form of rulership. The educational +system becomes world-wide, and gradually the languages of the races give way to +the tongue of the violet people. Universal peace and co-operation are seldom +attained until the races are fairly well blended, and until they speak a common +language. + +During the closing centuries of the post-Adamic age there develops new interest +in art, music, and literature, and this world-wide awakening is the signal for +the appearance of a Magisterial Son. The crowning development of this era is +the universal interest in intellectual realities, true philosophy. Religion +becomes less nationalistic, becomes more and more a planetary affair. New +revelations of truth characterize these ages, and the Most Highs of the +constellations begin to rule in the affairs of men. Truth is revealed up to the +administration of the constellations. + +Great ethical advancement characterizes this era; the brotherhood of man is the +goal of its society. World-wide peace--the cessation of race conflict and +national animosity--is the indicator of planetary ripeness for the advent of +the third order of sonship, the Magisterial Son. + +4. POST-MAGISTERIAL SON MAN + +On normal and loyal planets this age opens with the mortal races blended and +biologically fit. There are no race or color problems; literally all nations +and races are of one blood. The brotherhood of man flourishes, and the nations +are learning to live on earth in peace and tranquillity. Such a world stands on +the eve of a great and culminating intellectual development. + +When an evolutionary world becomes thus ripe for the magisterial age, one of +the high order of Avonal Sons makes his appearance on a magisterial mission. +The Planetary Prince and the Material Sons are of local universe origin; the +Magisterial Son hails from Paradise. + +When the Paradise Avonals come to the mortal spheres on judicial actions, +solely as dispensation adjudicators, they are never incarnated. But when they +come on magisterial missions, at least the initial one, they are always +incarnated, though they do not experience birth, neither do they die the death +of the realm. They may live on for generations in those cases where they remain +as rulers on certain planets. When their missions are concluded, they yield up +their planetary lives and return to their former status of divine sonship. + +Each new dispensation extends the horizon of revealed religion, and the +Magisterial Sons extend the revelation of truth to portray the affairs of the +local universe and all its tributaries. + +After the initial visitation of a Magisterial Son the races soon effect their +economic liberation. The daily work required to sustain one's independence +would be represented by two and one-half hours of your time. It is perfectly + + top of page - 595 + +safe to liberate such ethical and intelligent mortals. Such refined peoples +well know how to utilize leisure for self-improvement and planetary +advancement. This age witnesses the further purification of the racial stocks +by the restriction of reproduction among the less fit and poorly endowed +individuals. + +The political government and social administration of the races continue to +improve, self-government being fairly well established by the end of this age. +By self-government we refer to the highest type of representative government. +Such worlds advance and honor only those leaders and rulers who are most fit to +bear social and political responsibilities. + +During this epoch the majority of the world mortals are Adjuster indwelt. But +even yet the bestowal of divine Monitors is not always universal. The Adjusters +of fusion destiny are not yet bestowed upon all planetary mortals; it is still +necessary for the will creatures to choose the Mystery Monitors. + +During the closing ages of this dispensation, society begins to return to more +simplified forms of living. The complex nature of an advancing civilization is +running its course, and mortals are learning to live more naturally and +effectively. And this trend increases with each succeeding epoch. This is the +age of the flowering of art, music, and higher learning. The physical sciences +have already reached their height of development. The termination of this age, +on an ideal world, witnesses the fullness of a great religious awakening, a +world-wide spiritual enlightenment. And this extensive arousal of the spiritual +natures of the races is the signal for the arrival of the bestowal Son and for +the inauguration of the fifth mortal epoch. + +On many worlds it develops that the planet is not made ready for a bestowal Son +by one magisterial mission; in that event there will be a second, even a +succession of Magisterial Sons, each of whom will advance the races from one +dispensation to another until the planet is made ready for the gift of the +bestowal Son. On the second and subsequent missions the Magisterial Sons may or +may not be incarnated. But no matter how many Magisterial Sons may appear--and +they may also come as such after the bestowal Son--the advent of each one marks +the end of one dispensation and the beginning of another. + +These dispensations of the Magisterial Sons cover anywhere from twenty-five +thousand to fifty thousand years of Urantia time. Sometimes such an epoch is +much shorter and in rare instances even longer. But in the fullness of time one +of these same Magisterial Sons will be born as the Paradise bestowal Son. + +5. POST-BESTOWAL SON MAN + +When a certain standard of intellectual and spiritual development is attained +on an inhabited world, a Paradise bestowal Son always arrives. On normal worlds +he does not appear in the flesh until the races have ascended to the highest +levels of intellectual development and ethical attainment. But on Urantia the +bestowal Son, even your own Creator Son, appeared at the close of the Adamic +dispensation, but that is not the usual order of events on the worlds of space. + +When the worlds have become ripe for spiritualization, the bestowal Son +arrives. These Sons always belong to the Magisterial or Avonal order except in +that case, once in each local universe, when the Creator Son prepares for his +terminal bestowal on some evolutionary world, as occurred when Michael of + + top of page - 596 + +Nebadon appeared on Urantia to bestow himself upon your mortal races. Only one +world in near ten million can enjoy such a gift; all other worlds are +spiritually advanced by the bestowal of a Paradise Son of the Avonal order. + +The bestowal Son arrives on a world of high educational culture and encounters +a race spiritually trained and prepared to assimilate advanced teachings and to +appreciate the bestowal mission. This is an age characterized by the world-wide +pursuit of moral culture and spiritual truth. The mortal passion of this +dispensation is the penetration of cosmic reality and communion with spiritual +reality. The revelations of truth are extended to include the superuniverse. +Entirely new systems of education and government grow up to supplant the crude +regimes of former times. The joy of living takes on new color, and the +reactions of life are exalted to heavenly heights of tone and timbre. + +The bestowal Son lives and dies for the spiritual uplift of the mortal races of +a world. He establishes the "new and living way"; his life is an incarnation of +Paradise truth in mortal flesh, that very truth--even the Spirit of Truth--in +the knowledge of which men shall be free. + +On Urantia the establishment of this "new and living way" was a matter of fact +as well as of truth. The isolation of Urantia in the Lucifer rebellion had +suspended the procedure whereby mortals can pass, upon death, directly to the +shores of the mansion worlds. Before the days of Christ Michael on Urantia all +souls slept on until the dispensational or special millennial resurrections. +Even Moses was not permitted to go over to the other side until the occasion of +a special resurrection, the fallen Planetary Prince, Caligastia, contesting +such a deliverance. But ever since the day of Pentecost, Urantia mortals again +may proceed directly to the morontia spheres. + +Upon the resurrection of a bestowal Son, on the third day after yielding up his +incarnated life, he ascends to the right hand of the Universal Father, receives +the assurance of the acceptance of the bestowal mission, and returns to the +Creator Son at the headquarters of the local universe. Thereupon the bestowal +Avonal and the Creator Michael send their joint spirit, the Spirit of Truth, +into the bestowal world. This is the occasion when the "spirit of the +triumphant Son is poured out upon all flesh." The Universe Mother Spirit also +participates in this bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, and concomitant therewith +there issues the bestowal edict of the Thought Adjusters. Thereafter all +normal-minded will creatures of that world will receive Adjusters as soon as +they attain the age of moral responsibility, of spiritual choice. + +If such a bestowal Avonal should return to a world after the bestowal mission, +he would not incarnate but would come "in glory with the seraphic hosts." + +The postbestowal Son age may extend from ten thousand to a hundred thousand +years. There is no arbitrary time allotted to any of these dispensational eras. +This is a time of great ethical and spiritual progress. Under the spiritual +influence of these ages, human character undergoes tremendous transformations +and experiences phenomenal development. It becomes possible to put the golden +rule into practical operation. The teachings of Jesus are really applicable to +a mortal world which has had the preliminary training of the prebestowal Sons +with their dispensations of character ennoblement and culture augmentation. + +During this era the problems of disease and delinquency are virtually solved. +Degeneracy has already been largely eliminated by selective reproduction. +Disease has been practically mastered through the high resistant qualities of +the + + top of page - 597 + +Adamic strains and by the intelligent and world-wide application of the +discoveries of the physical sciences of preceding ages. The average length of +life, during this period, climbs well above the equivalent of three hundred +years of Urantia time. + +Throughout this epoch there is a gradual lessening of governmental supervision. +True self-government is beginning to function; fewer and fewer restrictive laws +are necessary. The military branches of national resistance are passing away; +the era of international harmony is really arriving. There are many nations, +mostly determined by land distribution, but only one race, one language, and +one religion. Mortal affairs are almost, but not quite, utopian. This truly is +a great and glorious age! + +6. URANTIA'S POSTBESTOWAL AGE + +The bestowal Son is the Prince of Peace. He arrives with the message, "Peace on +earth and good will among men." On normal worlds this is a dispensation of +world-wide peace; the nations no more learn war. But such salutary influences +did not attend the coming of your bestowal Son, Christ Michael. Urantia is not +proceeding in the normal order. Your world is out of step in the planetary +procession. Your Master, when on earth, warned his disciples that his advent +would not bring the usual reign of peace on Urantia. He distinctly told them +that there would be "wars and rumors of wars," and that nation would rise +against nation. At another time he said, "Think not that I have come to bring +peace upon earth." + +Even on normal evolutionary worlds the realization of the world-wide +brotherhood of man is not an easy accomplishment. On a confused and disordered +planet like Urantia such an achievement requires a much longer time and +necessitates far greater effort. Unaided social evolution can hardly achieve +such happy results on a spiritually isolated sphere. Religious revelation is +essential to the realization of brotherhood on Urantia. While Jesus has shown +the way to the immediate attainment of spiritual brotherhood, the realization +of social brotherhood on your world depends much on the achievement of the +following personal transformations and planetary adjustments: + +1. Social fraternity. Multiplication of international and interracial social +contacts and fraternal associations through travel, commerce, and competitive +play. Development of a common language and the multiplication of +multilinguists. The racial and national interchange of students, teachers, +industrialists, and religious philosophers. + +2. Intellectual cross-fertilization. Brotherhood is impossible on a world whose +inhabitants are so primitive that they fail to recognize the folly of +unmitigated selfishness. There must occur an exchange of national and racial +literature. Each race must become familiar with the thought of all races; each +nation must know the feelings of all nations. Ignorance breeds suspicion, and +suspicion is incompatible with the essential attitude of sympathy and love. + +3. Ethical awakening. Only ethical consciousness can unmask the immorality of +human intolerance and the sinfulness of fratricidal strife. Only a moral +conscience can condemn the evils of national envy and racial jealousy. Only +moral beings will ever seek for that spiritual insight which is essential to +living the golden rule. + + top of page - 598 + +4. Political wisdom. Emotional maturity is essential to self-control. Only +emotional maturity will insure the substitution of international techniques of +civilized adjudication for the barbarous arbitrament of war. Wise statesmen +will sometime work for the welfare of humanity even while they strive to +promote the interest of their national or racial groups. Selfish political +sagacity is ultimately suicidal--destructive of all those enduring qualities +which insure planetary group survival. + +5. Spiritual insight. The brotherhood of man is, after all, predicated on the +recognition of the fatherhood of God. The quickest way to realize the +brotherhood of man on Urantia is to effect the spiritual transformation of +present-day humanity. The only technique for accelerating the natural trend of +social evolution is that of applying spiritual pressure from above, thus +augmenting moral insight while enhancing the soul capacity of every mortal to +understand and love every other mortal. Mutual understanding and fraternal love +are transcendent civilizers and mighty factors in the world-wide realization of +the brotherhood of man. + +If you could be transplanted from your backward and confused world to some +normal planet now in the postbestowal Son age, you would think you had been +translated to the heaven of your traditions. You would hardly believe that you +were observing the normal evolutionary workings of a mortal sphere of human +habitation. These worlds are in the spiritual circuits of their realm, and they +enjoy all the advantages of the universe broadcasts and the reflectivity +services of the superuniverse. + +7. POST-TEACHER SON MAN + +The Sons of the next order to arrive on the average evolutionary world are the +Trinity Teacher Sons, the divine Sons of the Paradise Trinity. Again we find +Urantia out of step with its sister spheres in that your Jesus has promised to +return. That promise he will certainly fulfill, but no one knows whether his +second coming will precede or follow the appearances of Magisterial or Teacher +Sons on Urantia. + +The Teacher Sons come in groups to the spiritualizing worlds. A planetary +Teacher Son is assisted and supported by seventy primary Sons, twelve secondary +Sons, and three of the highest and most experienced of the supreme order of +Daynals. This corps will remain for some time on the world, long enough to +effect the transition from the evolutionary ages to the era of light and +life--not less than one thousand years of planetary time and often considerably +longer. This mission is a Trinity contribution to the antecedent efforts of all +the divine personalities who have ministered to an inhabited world. + +The revelation of truth is now extended to the central universe and to +Paradise. The races are becoming highly spiritual. A great people has evolved +and a great age is approaching. The educational, economic, and administrative +systems of the planet are undergoing radical transformations. New values and +relationships are being established. The kingdom of heaven is appearing on +earth, and the glory of God is being shed abroad in the world. + +This is the dispensation when many mortals are translated from among the +living. As the era of Trinity Teacher Sons progresses, the spiritual allegiance +of the mortals of time becomes more and more universal. Natural death becomes + + top of page - 599 + +less frequent as the Adjusters increasingly fuse with their subjects during the +lifetime in the flesh. The planet eventually is classed as of the primary +modified order of mortal ascension. + +Life during this era is pleasant and profitable. Degeneracy and the antisocial +end products of the long evolutionary struggle have been virtually obliterated. +The length of life approaches five hundred Urantia years, and the reproductive +rate of racial increase is intelligently controlled. An entirely new order of +society has arrived. There are still great differences among mortals, but the +state of society more nearly approaches the ideals of social brotherhood and +spiritual equality. Representative government is vanishing, and the world is +passing under the rule of individual self-control. The function of government +is chiefly directed to collective tasks of social administration and economic +co-ordination. The golden age is coming on apace; the temporal goal of the long +and intense planetary evolutionary struggle is in sight. The reward of the ages +is soon to be realized; the wisdom of the Gods is about to be manifested. + +The physical administration of a world during this age requires about one hour +each day on the part of every adult individual; that is, the equivalent of one +Urantia hour. The planet is in close touch with universe affairs, and its +people scan the latest broadcasts with the same keen interest you now manifest +in the latest editions of your daily newspapers. These races are occupied with +a thousand things of interest unknown on your world. + +Increasingly, true planetary allegiance to the Supreme Being grows. Generation +after generation, more and more of the race step into line with those who +practice justice and live mercy. Slowly but surely the world is being won to +the joyous service of the Sons of God. The physical difficulties and material +problems have been largely solved; the planet is ripening for advanced life and +a more settled existence. + +From time to time throughout their dispensation, Teacher Sons continue to come +to these peaceful worlds. They do not leave a world until they observe that the +evolutionary plan, as it concerns that planet, is working smoothly. A +Magisterial Son of judgment usually accompanies the Teacher Sons on their +successive missions, while another such Son functions at the time of their +departure, and these judicial actions continue from age to age throughout the +duration of the mortal regime of time and space. + +Each recurring mission of the Trinity Teacher Sons successively exalts such a +supernal world to ever-ascending heights of wisdom, spirituality, and cosmic +illumination. But the noble natives of such a sphere are still finite and +mortal. Nothing is perfect; nevertheless, there is evolving a quality of near +perfection in the operation of an imperfect world and in the lives of its human +inhabitants. + +The Trinity Teacher Sons may return many times to the same world. But sooner or +later, in connection with the termination of one of their missions, the +Planetary Prince is elevated to the position of Planetary Sovereign, and the +System Sovereign appears to proclaim the entrance of such a world upon the era +of light and life. + +It was of the conclusion of the terminal mission of the Teacher Sons (at least +that would be the chronology on a normal world) that John wrote: "I saw a new +heaven and a new earth and the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of +heaven, prepared as a princess adorned for the prince." + + top of page - 600 + +This is the same renovated earth, the advanced planetary stage, that the olden +seer envisioned when he wrote: "`For, as the new heavens and the new earth, +which I will make, shall remain before me, so shall you and your children +survive; and it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from +one Sabbath to another all flesh shall come to worship before me,' says the +Lord." + +It is the mortals of such an age who are described as "a chosen generation, a +royal priesthood, a holy nation, an exalted people; and you shall show forth +the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into this marvelous +light." + +No matter what the special natural history of an individual planet may be, no +difference whether a realm has been wholly loyal, tainted with evil, or cursed +by sin--no matter what the antecedents may be--sooner or later the grace of God +and the ministry of angels will usher in the day of the advent of the Trinity +Teacher Sons; and their departure, following their final mission, will +inaugurate this superb era of light and life. + +All the worlds of Satania can join in the hope of the one who wrote: +"Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for a new heaven and a new +earth, wherein dwells righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look +for such things, be diligent that you may be found by Him in peace, without +spot and blameless." + +The departure of the Teacher Son corps, at the end of their first or some +subsequent reign, ushers in the dawn of the era of light and life--the +threshold of the transition from time to the vestibule of eternity. The +planetary realization of this era of light and life far more than equals the +fondest expectations of Urantia mortals who have entertained no more farseeing +concepts of the future life than those embraced within religious beliefs which +depict heaven as the immediate destiny and final dwelling place of surviving +mortals. + +[Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily attached to the staff of Gabriel.] + + top of page - 601 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Planetary ³ The Lucifer ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ A... ³ Reb... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p053.txt b/religious documents/p053.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f64f57d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p053.txt @@ -0,0 +1,684 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 53 The Lucifer Rebellion + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 53 The Lucifer Rebellion + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +LUCIFER was a brilliant primary Lanonandek Son of Nebadon. He had experienced +service in many systems, had been a high counselor of his group, and was +distinguished for wisdom, sagacity, and efficiency. Lucifer was number 37 of +his order, and when commissioned by the Melchizedeks, he was designated as one +of the one hundred most able and brilliant personalities in more than seven +hundred thousand of his kind. From such a magnificent beginning, through evil +and error, he embraced sin and now is numbered as one of three System +Sovereigns in Nebadon who have succumbed to the urge of self and surrendered to +the sophistry of spurious personal liberty--rejection of universe allegiance +and disregard of fraternal obligations, blindness to cosmic relationships. + +In the universe of Nebadon, the domain of Christ Michael, there are ten +thousand systems of inhabited worlds. In all the history of Lanonandek Sons, in +all their work throughout these thousands of systems and at the universe +headquarters, only three System Sovereigns have ever been found in contempt of +the government of the Creator Son. + +1. THE LEADERS OF REBELLION + +Lucifer was not an ascendant being; he was a created Son of the local universe, +and of him it was said: "You were perfect in all your ways from the day you +were created till unrighteousness was found in you." Many times had he been in +counsel with the Most Highs of Edentia. And Lucifer reigned "upon the holy +mountain of God," the administrative mount of Jerusem, for he was the chief +executive of a great system of 607 inhabited worlds. + +Lucifer was a magnificent being, a brilliant personality; he stood next to the +Most High Fathers of the constellations in the direct line of universe +authority. Notwithstanding Lucifer's transgression, subordinate intelligences +refrained from showing him disrespect and disdain prior to Michael's bestowal +on Urantia. Even the archangel of Michael, at the time of Moses' resurrection, +"did not bring against him an accusing judgment but simply said, `the Judge +rebuke you.'" Judgment in such matters belongs to the Ancients of Days, the +rulers of the superuniverse. + +Lucifer is now the fallen and deposed Sovereign of Satania. Self-contemplation +is most disastrous, even to the exalted personalities of the celestial world. +Of Lucifer it was said: "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you +corrupted your wisdom because of your brightness." Your olden prophet saw his +sad estate when he wrote: "How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of +the morning! How are you cast down, you who dared to confuse the worlds!" + + top of page - 602 + +Very little was heard of Lucifer on Urantia owing to the fact that he assigned +his first lieutenant, Satan, to advocate his cause on your planet. Satan was a +member of the same primary group of Lanonandeks but had never functioned as a +System Sovereign; he entered fully into the Lucifer insurrection. The "devil" +is none other than Caligastia, the deposed Planetary Prince of Urantia and a +Son of the secondary order of Lanonandeks. At the time Michael was on Urantia +in the flesh, Lucifer, Satan, and Caligastia were leagued together to effect +the miscarriage of his bestowal mission. But they signally failed. + +Abaddon was the chief of the staff of Caligastia. He followed his master into +rebellion and has ever since acted as chief executive of the Urantia rebels. +Beelzebub was the leader of the disloyal midway creatures who allied themselves +with the forces of the traitorous Caligastia. + +The dragon eventually became the symbolic representation of all these evil +personages. Upon the triumph of Michael, "Gabriel came down from Salvington and +bound the dragon (all the rebel leaders) for an age." Of the Jerusem seraphic +rebels it is written: "And the angels who kept not their first estate but left +their own habitation, he has reserved in sure chains of darkness to the +judgment of the great day." + +2. THE CAUSES OF REBELLION + +Lucifer and his first assistant, Satan, had reigned on Jerusem for more than +five hundred thousand years when in their hearts they began to array themselves +against the Universal Father and his then vicegerent Son, Michael. + +There were no peculiar or special conditions in the system of Satania which +suggested or favored rebellion. It is our belief that the idea took origin and +form in Lucifer's mind, and that he might have instigated such a rebellion no +matter where he might have been stationed. Lucifer first announced his plans to +Satan, but it required several months to corrupt the mind of his able and +brilliant associate. However, when once converted to the rebel theories, he +became a bold and earnest advocate of "self-assertion and liberty." + +No one ever suggested rebellion to Lucifer. The idea of self-assertion in +opposition to the will of Michael and to the plans of the Universal Father, as +they are represented in Michael, had its origin in his own mind. His relations +with the Creator Son had been intimate and always cordial. At no time prior to +the exaltation of his own mind did Lucifer openly express dissatisfaction about +the universe administration. Notwithstanding his silence, for more than one +hundred years of standard time the Union of Days on Salvington had been +reflectivating to Uversa that all was not at peace in Lucifer's mind. This +information was also communicated to the Creator Son and the Constellation +Fathers of Norlatiadek. + +Throughout this period Lucifer became increasingly critical of the entire plan +of universe administration but always professed wholehearted loyalty to the +Supreme Rulers. His first outspoken disloyalty was manifested on the occasion +of a visit of Gabriel to Jerusem just a few days before the open proclamation +of the Lucifer Declaration of Liberty. Gabriel was so profoundly impressed with +the certainty of the impending outbreak that he went direct to Edentia to +confer with the Constellation Fathers regarding the measures to be employed in +case of open rebellion. + + top of page - 603 + +It is very difficult to point out the exact cause or causes which finally +culminated in the Lucifer rebellion. We are certain of only one thing, and that +is: Whatever these first beginnings were, they had their origin in Lucifer's +mind. There must have been a pride of self that nourished itself to the point +of self-deception, so that Lucifer for a time really persuaded himself that his +contemplation of rebellion was actually for the good of the system, if not of +the universe. By the time his plans had developed to the point of +disillusionment, no doubt he had gone too far for his original and +mischief-making pride to permit him to stop. At some point in this experience +he became insincere, and evil evolved into deliberate and willful sin. That +this happened is proved by the subsequent conduct of this brilliant executive. +He was long offered opportunity for repentance, but only some of his +subordinates ever accepted the proffered mercy. The Faithful of Days of +Edentia, on the request of the Constellation Fathers, in person presented the +plan of Michael for the saving of these flagrant rebels, but always was the +mercy of the Creator Son rejected and rejected with increasing contempt and +disdain. + +3. THE LUCIFER MANIFESTO + +Whatever the early origins of trouble in the hearts of Lucifer and Satan, the +final outbreak took form as the Lucifer Declaration of Liberty. The cause of +the rebels was stated under three heads: + +1. The reality of the Universal Father. Lucifer charged that the Universal +Father did not really exist, that physical gravity and space-energy were +inherent in the universe, and that the Father was a myth invented by the +Paradise Sons to enable them to maintain the rule of the universes in the +Father's name. He denied that personality was a gift of the Universal Father. +He even intimated that the finaliters were in collusion with the Paradise Sons +to foist fraud upon all creation since they never brought back a very clear-cut +idea of the Father's actual personality as it is discernible on Paradise. He +traded on reverence as ignorance. The charge was sweeping, terrible, and +blasphemous. It was this veiled attack upon the finaliters that no doubt +influenced the ascendant citizens then on Jerusem to stand firm and remain +steadfast in resistance to all the rebel's proposals. + +2. The universe government of the Creator Son--Michael. Lucifer contended that +the local systems should be autonomous. He protested against the right of +Michael, the Creator Son, to assume sovereignty of Nebadon in the name of a +hypothetical Paradise Father and require all personalities to acknowledge +allegiance to this unseen Father. He asserted that the whole plan of worship +was a clever scheme to aggrandize the Paradise Sons. He was willing to +acknowledge Michael as his Creator-father but not as his God and rightful +ruler. + +Most bitterly did he attack the right of the Ancients of Days--"foreign +potentates"--to interfere in the affairs of the local systems and universes. +These rulers he denounced as tyrants and usurpers. He exhorted his followers to +believe that none of these rulers could do aught to interfere with the +operation of complete home rule if men and angels only had the courage to +assert themselves and boldly claim their rights. + +He contended that the executioners of the Ancients of Days could be debarred +from functioning in the local systems if the native beings would only + + top of page - 604 + +assert their independence. He maintained that immortality was inherent in the +system personalities, that resurrection was natural and automatic, and that all +beings would live eternally except for the arbitrary and unjust acts of the +executioners of the Ancients of Days. + +3. The attack upon the universal plan of ascendant mortal training. Lucifer +maintained that far too much time and energy were expended upon the scheme of +so thoroughly training ascending mortals in the principles of universe +administration, principles which he alleged were unethical and unsound. He +protested against the agelong program for preparing the mortals of space for +some unknown destiny and pointed to the presence of the finaliter corps on +Jerusem as proof that these mortals had spent ages of preparation for some +destiny of pure fiction. With derision he pointed out that the finaliters had +encountered a destiny no more glorious than to be returned to humble spheres +similar to those of their origin. He intimated that they had been debauched by +overmuch discipline and prolonged training, and that they were in reality +traitors to their mortal fellows since they were now co-operating with the +scheme of enslaving all creation to the fictions of a mythical eternal destiny +for ascending mortals. He advocated that ascenders should enjoy the liberty of +individual self-determination. He challenged and condemned the entire plan of +mortal ascension as sponsored by the Paradise Sons of God and supported by the +Infinite Spirit. + +And it was with such a Declaration of Liberty that Lucifer launched his orgy of +darkness and death. + +4. OUTBREAK OF THE REBELLION + +The Lucifer manifesto was issued at the annual conclave of Satania on the sea +of glass, in the presence of the assembled hosts of Jerusem, on the last day of +the year, about two hundred thousand years ago, Urantia time. Satan proclaimed +that worship could be accorded the universal forces--physical, intellectual, +and spiritual--but that allegiance could be acknowledged only to the actual and +present ruler, Lucifer, the "friend of men and angels" and the "God of +liberty." + +Self-assertion was the battle cry of the Lucifer rebellion. One of his chief +arguments was that, if self-government was good and right for the Melchizedeks +and other groups, it was equally good for all orders of intelligence. He was +bold and persistent in the advocacy of the "equality of mind" and "the +brotherhood of intelligence." He maintained that all government should be +limited to the local planets and their voluntary confederation into the local +systems. All other supervision he disallowed. He promised the Planetary Princes +that they should rule the worlds as supreme executives. He denounced the +location of legislative activities on the constellation headquarters and the +conduct of judicial affairs on the universe capital. He contended that all +these functions of government should be concentrated on the system capitals and +proceeded to set up his own legislative assembly and organized his own +tribunals under the jurisdiction of Satan. And he directed that the princes on +the apostate worlds do the same. + +The entire administrative cabinet of Lucifer went over in a body and were sworn +in publicly as the officers of the administration of the new head of "the +liberated worlds and systems." + + top of page - 605 + +While there had been two previous rebellions in Nebadon, they were in distant +constellations. Lucifer held that these insurrections were unsuccessful because +the majority of the intelligences failed to follow their leaders. He contended +that "majorities rule," that "mind is infallible." The freedom allowed him by +the universe rulers apparently sustained many of his nefarious contentions. He +defied all his superiors; yet they apparently took no note of his doings. He +was given a free hand to prosecute his seductive plan without let or hindrance. + +All the merciful delays of justice Lucifer pointed to as evidence of the +inability of the government of the Paradise Sons to stop the rebellion. He +would openly defy and arrogantly challenge Michael, Immanuel, and the Ancients +of Days and then point to the fact that no action ensued as positive evidence +of the impotency of the universe and the superuniverse governments. + +Gabriel was personally present throughout all these disloyal proceedings and +only announced that he would, in due time, speak for Michael, and that all +beings would be left free and unmolested in their choice; that the "government +of the Sons for the Father desired only that loyalty and devotion which was +voluntary, wholehearted, and sophistry-proof." + +Lucifer was permitted fully to establish and thoroughly to organize his rebel +government before Gabriel made any effort to contest the right of secession or +to counterwork the rebel propaganda. But the Constellation Fathers immediately +confined the action of these disloyal personalities to the system of Satania. +Nevertheless, this period of delay was a time of great trial and testing to the +loyal beings of all Satania. All was chaotic for a few years, and there was +great confusion on the mansion worlds. + +5. NATURE OF THE CONFLICT + +Upon the outbreak of the Satania rebellion, Michael took counsel of his +Paradise brother, Immanuel. Following this momentous conference, Michael +announced that he would pursue the same policy which had characterized his +dealings with similar upheavals in the past, an attitude of noninterference. + +At the time of this rebellion and the two which preceded it there was no +absolute and personal sovereign authority in the universe of Nebadon. Michael +ruled by divine right, as vicegerent of the Universal Father, but not yet in +his own personal right. He had not completed his bestowal career; he had not +yet been vested with "all power in heaven and on earth." + +From the outbreak of rebellion to the day of his enthronement as sovereign +ruler of Nebadon, Michael never interfered with the rebel forces of Lucifer; +they were allowed to run a free course for almost two hundred thousand years of +Urantia time. Christ Michael now has ample power and authority to deal +promptly, even summarily, with such outbreaks of disloyalty, but we doubt that +this sovereign authority would lead him to act differently if another such +upheaval should occur. + +Since Michael elected to remain aloof from the actual warfare of the Lucifer +rebellion, Gabriel called his personal staff together on Edentia and, in +counsel with the Most Highs, elected to assume command of the loyal hosts of +Satania. Michael remained on Salvington while Gabriel proceeded to Jerusem, and +establishing himself on the sphere dedicated to the Father--the same Universal + + top of page - 606 + +Father whose personality Lucifer and Satan had questioned--in the presence of +the forgathered hosts of loyal personalities, he displayed the banner of +Michael, the material emblem of the Trinity government of all creation, the +three azure blue concentric circles on a white background. + +The Lucifer emblem was a banner of white with one red circle, in the center of +which a black solid circle appeared. + +"There was war in heaven; Michael's commander and his angels fought against the +dragon (Lucifer, Satan, and the apostate princes); and the dragon and his +rebellious angels fought but prevailed not." This "war in heaven" was not a +physical battle as such a conflict might be conceived on Urantia. In the early +days of the struggle Lucifer held forth continuously in the planetary +amphitheater. Gabriel conducted an unceasing exposure of the rebel sophistries +from his headquarters taken up near at hand. The various personalities present +on the sphere who were in doubt as to their attitude would journey back and +forth between these discussions until they arrived at a final decision. + +But this war in heaven was very terrible and very real. While displaying none +of the barbarities so characteristic of physical warfare on the immature +worlds, this conflict was far more deadly; material life is in jeopardy in +material combat, but the war in heaven was fought in terms of life eternal. + +6. A LOYAL SERAPHIC COMMANDER + +There were many noble and inspiring acts of devotion and loyalty which were +performed by numerous personalities during the interim between the outbreak of +hostilities and the arrival of the new system ruler and his staff. But the most +thrilling of all these daring feats of devotion was the courageous conduct of +Manotia, the second in command of the Satania headquarters' seraphim. + +At the outbreak of rebellion on Jerusem the head of the seraphic hosts joined +the Lucifer cause. This no doubt explains why such a large number of the fourth +order, the system administrator seraphim, went astray. The seraphic leader was +spiritually blinded by the brilliant personality of Lucifer; his charming ways +fascinated the lower orders of celestial beings. They simply could not +comprehend that it was possible for such a dazzling personality to go wrong. + +Not long since, in describing the experiences associated with the onset of the +Lucifer rebellion, Manotia said: "But my most exhilarating moment was the +thrilling adventure connected with the Lucifer rebellion when, as second +seraphic commander, I refused to participate in the projected insult to +Michael; and the powerful rebels sought my destruction by means of the liaison +forces they had arranged. There was a tremendous upheaval on Jerusem, but not a +single loyal seraphim was harmed. + +"Upon the default of my immediate superior it devolved upon me to assume +command of the angelic hosts of Jerusem as the titular director of the confused +seraphic affairs of the system. I was morally upheld by the Melchizedeks, ably +assisted by a majority of the Material Sons, deserted by a tremendous group of +my own order, but magnificently supported by the ascendant mortals on Jerusem. + +"Having been automatically thrown out of the constellation circuits by the +secession of Lucifer, we were dependent on the loyalty of our intelligence +corps, who forwarded calls for help to Edentia from the near-by system of +Rantulia; and we found that the kingdom of order, the intellect of loyalty, and +the spirit + + top of page - 607 + +of truth were inherently triumphant over rebellion, self-assertion, and +so-called personal liberty; we were able to carry on until the arrival of the +new System Sovereign, the worthy successor of Lucifer. And immediately +thereafter I was assigned to the corps of the Melchizedek receivership of +Urantia, assuming jurisdiction over the loyal seraphic orders on the world of +the traitorous Caligastia, who had proclaimed his sphere a member of the newly +projected system of `liberated worlds and emancipated personalities' proposed +in the infamous Declaration of Liberty issued by Lucifer in his call to the +`liberty-loving, freethinking, and forward-looking intelligences of the +misruled and maladministered worlds of Satania.'" + +This angel is still in service on Urantia, functioning as associate chief of +seraphim. + +7. HISTORY OF THE REBELLION + +The Lucifer rebellion was system wide. Thirty-seven seceding Planetary Princes +swung their world administrations largely to the side of the archrebel. Only on +Panoptia did the Planetary Prince fail to carry his people with him. On this +world, under the guidance of the Melchizedeks, the people rallied to the +support of Michael. Ellanora, a young woman of that mortal realm, grasped the +leadership of the human races, and not a single soul on that strife-torn world +enlisted under the Lucifer banner. And ever since have these loyal Panoptians +served on the seventh Jerusem transition world as the caretakers and builders +on the Father's sphere and its surrounding seven detention worlds. The +Panoptians not only act as the literal custodians of these worlds, but they +also execute the personal orders of Michael for the embellishment of these +spheres for some future and unknown use. They do this work as they tarry en +route to Edentia. + +Throughout this period Caligastia was advocating the cause of Lucifer on +Urantia. The Melchizedeks ably opposed the apostate Planetary Prince, but the +sophistries of unbridled liberty and the delusions of self-assertion had every +opportunity for deceiving the primitive peoples of a young and undeveloped +world. + +All secession propaganda had to be carried on by personal effort because the +broadcast service and all other avenues of interplanetary communication were +suspended by the action of the system circuit supervisors. Upon the actual +outbreak of the insurrection the entire system of Satania was isolated in both +the constellation and the universe circuits. During this time all incoming and +outgoing messages were dispatched by seraphic agents and Solitary Messengers. +The circuits to the fallen worlds were also cut off, so that Lucifer could not +utilize this avenue for the furtherance of his nefarious scheme. And these +circuits will not be restored so long as the archrebel lives within the +confines of Satania. + +This was a Lanonandek rebellion. The higher orders of local universe sonship +did not join the Lucifer secession, although a few of the Life Carriers +stationed on the rebel planets were somewhat influenced by the rebellion of the +disloyal princes. None of the Trinitized Sons went astray. The Melchizedeks, +archangels, and the Brilliant Evening Stars were all loyal to Michael and, with +Gabriel, valiantly contended for the Father's will and the Son's rule. + + top of page - 608 + +No beings of Paradise origin were involved in disloyalty. Together with the +Solitary Messengers they took up headquarters on the world of the Spirit and +remained under the leadership of the Faithful of Days of Edentia. None of the +conciliators apostatized, nor did a single one of the Celestial Recorders go +astray. But a heavy toll was taken of the Morontia Companions and the Mansion +World Teachers. + +Of the supreme order of seraphim, not an angel was lost, but a considerable +group of the next order, the superior, were deceived and ensnared. Likewise a +few of the third or supervisor order of angels were misled. But the terrible +breakdown came in the fourth group, the administrator angels, those seraphim +who are normally assigned to the duties of the system capitals. Manotia saved +almost two thirds of them, but slightly over one third followed their chief +into the rebel ranks. One third of all the Jerusem cherubim attached to the +administrator angels were lost with their disloyal seraphim. + +Of the planetary angelic helpers, those assigned to the Material Sons, about +one third were deceived, and almost ten per cent of the transition ministers +were ensnared. In symbol John saw this when he wrote of the great red dragon, +saying: "And his tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them +down in darkness." + +The greatest loss occurred in the angelic ranks, but most of the lower orders +of intelligence were involved in disloyalty. Of the 681,217 Material Sons lost +in Satania, ninety-five per cent were casualties of the Lucifer rebellion. +Large numbers of midway creatures were lost on those individual planets whose +Planetary Princes joined the Lucifer cause. + +In many respects this rebellion was the most widespread and disastrous of all +such occurrences in Nebadon. More personalities were involved in this +insurrection than in both of the others. And it is to their everlasting +dishonor that the emissaries of Lucifer and Satan spared not the +infant-training schools on the finaliter cultural planet but rather sought to +corrupt these developing minds in mercy salvaged from the evolutionary worlds. + +The ascending mortals were vulnerable, but they withstood the sophistries of +rebellion better than the lower spirits. While many on the lower mansion +worlds, those who had not attained final fusion with their Adjusters, fell, it +is recorded to the glory of the wisdom of the ascension scheme that not a +single member of the Satania ascendant citizenship resident on Jerusem +participated in the Lucifer rebellion. + +Hour by hour and day by day the broadcast stations of all Nebadon were thronged +by the anxious watchers of every imaginable class of celestial intelligence, +who intently perused the bulletins of the Satania rebellion and rejoiced as the +reports continuously narrated the unswerving loyalty of the ascending mortals +who, under their Melchizedek leadership, successfully withstood the combined +and protracted efforts of all the subtle evil forces which so swiftly gathered +around the banners of secession and sin. + +It was over two years of system time from the beginning of the "war in heaven" +until the installation of Lucifer's successor. But at last the new Sovereign +came, landing on the sea of glass with his staff. I was among the reserves +mobilized on Edentia by Gabriel, and I well remember the first message of +Lanaforge to the Constellation Father of Norlatiadek. It read: "Not a single +Jerusem citizen was lost. Every ascendant mortal survived the fiery trial and +emerged + + top of page - 609 + +from the crucial test triumphant and altogether victorious." And on to +Salvington, Uversa, and Paradise went this message of assurance that the +survival experience of mortal ascension is the greatest security against +rebellion and the surest safeguard against sin. This noble Jerusem band of +faithful mortals numbered just 187,432,811. + +With the arrival of Lanaforge the archrebels were dethroned and shorn of all +governing powers, though they were permitted freely to go about Jerusem, the +morontia spheres, and even to the individual inhabited worlds. They continued +their deceptive and seductive efforts to confuse and mislead the minds of men +and angels. But as concerned their work on the administrative mount of Jerusem, +"their place was found no more." + +While Lucifer was deprived of all administrative authority in Satania, there +then existed no local universe power nor tribunal which could detain or destroy +this wicked rebel; at that time Michael was not a sovereign ruler. The Ancients +of Days sustained the Constellation Fathers in their seizure of the system +government, but they have never handed down any subsequent decisions in the +many appeals still pending with regard to the present status and future +disposition of Lucifer, Satan, and their associates. + +Thus were these archrebels allowed to roam the entire system to seek further +penetration for their doctrines of discontent and self-assertion. But in almost +two hundred thousand Urantia years they have been unable to deceive another +world. No Satania worlds have been lost since the fall of the thirty-seven, not +even those younger worlds peopled since that day of rebellion. + +8. THE SON OF MAN ON URANTIA + +Lucifer and Satan freely roamed the Satania system until the completion of the +bestowal mission of Michael on Urantia. They were last on your world together +during the time of their combined assault upon the Son of Man. + +Formerly, when the Planetary Princes, the "Sons of God," were periodically +assembled, "Satan came also," claiming that he represented all of the isolated +worlds of the fallen Planetary Princes. But he has not been accorded such +liberty on Jerusem since Michael's terminal bestowal. Subsequent to their +effort to corrupt Michael when in the bestowal flesh, all sympathy for Lucifer +and Satan has perished throughout all Satania, that is, outside the isolated +worlds of sin. + +The bestowal of Michael terminated the Lucifer rebellion in all Satania aside +from the planets of the apostate Planetary Princes. And this was the +significance of Jesus' personal experience, just before his death in the flesh, +when he one day exclaimed to his disciples, "And I beheld Satan fall as +lightning from heaven." He had come with Lucifer to Urantia for the last +crucial struggle. + +The Son of Man was confident of success, and he knew that his triumph on your +world would forever settle the status of his agelong enemies, not only in +Satania but also in the other two systems where sin had entered. There was +survival for mortals and security for angels when your Master, in reply to the +Lucifer proposals, calmly and with divine assurance replied, "Get you behind +me, Satan." That was, in principle, the real end of the Lucifer rebellion. +True, the Uversa tribunals have not yet rendered the executive decision +regarding the + + top of page - 610 + +appeal of Gabriel praying for the destruction of the rebels, but such a decree +will, no doubt, be forthcoming in the fullness of time since the first step in +the hearing of this case has already been taken. + +Caligastia was recognized by the Son of Man as the technical Prince of Urantia +up to near the time of his death. Said Jesus: "Now is the judgment of this +world; now shall the prince of this world be cast down." And then still nearer +the completion of his lifework he announced, "The prince of this world is +judged." And it is this same dethroned and discredited Prince who was once +termed "God of Urantia." + +The last act of Michael before leaving Urantia was to offer mercy to Caligastia +and Daligastia, but they spurned his tender proffer. Caligastia, your apostate +Planetary Prince, is still free on Urantia to prosecute his nefarious designs, +but he has absolutely no power to enter the minds of men, neither can he draw +near to their souls to tempt or corrupt them unless they really desire to be +cursed with his wicked presence. + +Before the bestowal of Michael these rulers of darkness sought to maintain +their authority on Urantia, and they persistently withstood the minor and +subordinate celestial personalities. But since the day of Pentecost this +traitorous Caligastia and his equally contemptible associate, Daligastia, are +servile before the divine majesty of the Paradise Thought Adjusters and the +protective Spirit of Truth, the spirit of Michael, which has been poured out +upon all flesh. + +But even so, no fallen spirit ever did have the power to invade the minds or to +harass the souls of the children of God. Neither Satan nor Caligastia could +ever touch or approach the faith sons of God; faith is an effective armor +against sin and iniquity. It is true: "He who is born of God keeps himself, and +the wicked one touches him not." + +In general, when weak and dissolute mortals are supposed to be under the +influence of devils and demons, they are merely being dominated by their own +inherent and debased tendencies, being led away by their own natural +propensities. The devil has been given a great deal of credit for evil which +does not belong to him. Caligastia has been comparatively impotent since the +cross of Christ. + +9. PRESENT STATUS OF THE REBELLION + +Early in the days of the Lucifer rebellion, salvation was offered all rebels by +Michael. To all who would show proof of sincere repentance, he offered, upon +his attainment of complete universe sovereignty, forgiveness and reinstatement +in some form of universe service. None of the leaders accepted this merciful +proffer. But thousands of the angels and the lower orders of celestial beings, +including hundreds of the Material Sons and Daughters, accepted the mercy +proclaimed by the Panoptians and were given rehabilitation at the time of +Jesus' resurrection nineteen hundred years ago. These beings have since been +transferred to the Father's world of Jerusem, where they must be held, +technically, until the Uversa courts hand down a decision in the matter of +Gabriel vs. Lucifer. But no one doubts that, when the annihilation verdict is +issued, these repentant and salvaged personalities will be exempted from the +decree of extinction. These probationary souls now labor with the Panoptians in +the work of caring for the Father's world. + + top of page - 611 + +The archdeceiver has never been on Urantia since the days when he sought to +turn back Michael from the purpose to complete the bestowal and to establish +himself finally and securely as the unqualified ruler of Nebadon. Upon +Michael's becoming the settled head of the universe of Nebadon, Lucifer was +taken into custody by the agents of the Uversa Ancients of Days and has since +been a prisoner on satellite number one of the Father's group of the transition +spheres of Jerusem. And here the rulers of other worlds and systems behold the +end of the unfaithful Sovereign of Satania. Paul knew of the status of these +rebellious leaders following Michael's bestowal, for he wrote of Caligastia's +chiefs as "spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." + +Michael, upon assuming the supreme sovereignty of Nebadon, petitioned the +Ancients of Days for authority to intern all personalities concerned in the +Lucifer rebellion pending the rulings of the superuniverse tribunals in the +case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer, placed on the records of the Uversa supreme court +almost two hundred thousand years ago, as you reckon time. Concerning the +system capital group, the Ancients of Days granted the Michael petition with +but a single exception: Satan was allowed to make periodic visits to the +apostate princes on the fallen worlds until another Son of God should be +accepted by such apostate worlds, or until such time as the courts of Uversa +should begin the adjudication of the case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer. + +Satan could come to Urantia because you had no Son of standing in +residence--neither Planetary Prince nor Material Son. Machiventa Melchizedek +has since been proclaimed vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia, and the +opening of the case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer has signalized the inauguration of +temporary planetary regimes on all the isolated worlds. It is true that Satan +did periodically visit Caligastia and others of the fallen princes right up to +the time of the presentation of these revelations, when there occurred the +first hearing of Gabriel's plea for the annihilation of the archrebels. Satan +is now unqualifiedly detained on the Jerusem prison worlds. + +Since Michael's final bestowal no one in all Satania has desired to go to the +prison worlds to minister to the interned rebels. And no more beings have been +won to the deceiver's cause. For nineteen hundred years the status has been +unchanged. + +We do not look for a removal of the present Satania restrictions until the +Ancients of Days make final disposition of the archrebels. The system circuits +will not be reinstated so long as Lucifer lives. Meantime, he is wholly +inactive. + +The rebellion has ended on Jerusem. It ends on the fallen worlds as fast as +divine Sons arrive. We believe that all rebels who will ever accept mercy have +done so. We await the flashing broadcast that will deprive these traitors of +personality existence. We anticipate the verdict of Uversa will be announced by +the executionary broadcast which will effect the annihilation of these interned +rebels. Then will you look for their places, but they shall not be found. "And +they who know you among the worlds will be astonished at you; you have been a +terror, but never shall you be any more." And thus shall all of these unworthy +traitors "become as though they had not been." All await the Uversa decree. + +But for ages the seven prison worlds of spiritual darkness in Satania have +constituted a solemn warning to all Nebadon, eloquently and effectively +proclaiming the great truth "that the way of the transgressor is hard"; "that +within + + top of page - 612 + +every sin is concealed the seed of its own destruction"; that "the wages of sin +is death." + +[Presented by Manovandet Melchizedek, onetime attached to the receivership of +Urantia.] + + top of page - 613 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Planetary ³ Problems Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Morta... ³ The... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p054.txt b/religious documents/p054.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0358d9c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p054.txt @@ -0,0 +1,478 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 54 Problems Of The Lucifer Rebellion + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 54 Problems Of The Lucifer Rebellion + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +EVOLUTIONARY man finds it difficult fully to comprehend the significance and to +grasp the meanings of evil, error, sin, and iniquity. Man is slow to perceive +that contrastive perfection and imperfection produce potential evil; that +conflicting truth and falsehood create confusing error; that the divine +endowment of freewill choice eventuates in the divergent realms of sin and +righteousness; that the persistent pursuit of divinity leads to the kingdom of +God as contrasted with its continuous rejection, which leads to the domains of +iniquity. + +The Gods neither create evil nor permit sin and rebellion. Potential evil is +time-existent in a universe embracing differential levels of perfection +meanings and values. Sin is potential in all realms where imperfect beings are +endowed with the ability to choose between good and evil. The very conflicting +presence of truth and untruth, fact and falsehood, constitutes the potentiality +of error. The deliberate choice of evil constitutes sin; the willful rejection +of truth is error; the persistent pursuit of sin and error is iniquity. + +1. TRUE AND FALSE LIBERTY + +Of all the perplexing problems growing out of the Lucifer rebellion, none has +occasioned more difficulty than the failure of immature evolutionary mortals to +distinguish between true and false liberty. + +True liberty is the quest of the ages and the reward of evolutionary progress. +False liberty is the subtle deception of the error of time and the evil of +space. Enduring liberty is predicated on the reality of justice--intelligence, +maturity, fraternity, and equity. + +Liberty is a self-destroying technique of cosmic existence when its motivation +is unintelligent, unconditioned, and uncontrolled. True liberty is +progressively related to reality and is ever regardful of social equity, cosmic +fairness, universe fraternity, and divine obligations. + +Liberty is suicidal when divorced from material justice, intellectual fairness, +social forbearance, moral duty, and spiritual values. Liberty is nonexistent +apart from cosmic reality, and all personality reality is proportional to its +divinity relationships. + +Unbridled self-will and unregulated self-expression equal unmitigated +selfishness, the acme of ungodliness. Liberty without the associated and +ever-increasing conquest of self is a figment of egoistic mortal imagination. +Self-motivated liberty is a conceptual illusion, a cruel deception. License +masquerading in the garments of liberty is the forerunner of abject bondage. + + top of page - 614 + +True liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the +consort of self-admiration. True liberty is the fruit of self-control; false +liberty, the assumption of self-assertion. Self-control leads to altruistic +service; self-admiration tends towards the exploitation of others for the +selfish aggrandizement of such a mistaken individual as is willing to sacrifice +righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow +beings. + +Even wisdom is divine and safe only when it is cosmic in scope and spiritual in +motivation. + +There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads +intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the +purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule +of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, +and unrighteousness. Only true and genuine liberty is compatible with the reign +of love and the ministry of mercy. + +How dare the self-willed creature encroach upon the rights of his fellows in +the name of personal liberty when the Supreme Rulers of the universe stand back +in merciful respect for these prerogatives of will and potentials of +personality! No being, in the exercise of his supposed personal liberty, has a +right to deprive any other being of those privileges of existence conferred by +the Creators and duly respected by all their loyal associates, subordinates, +and subjects. + +Evolutionary man may have to contend for his material liberties with tyrants +and oppressors on a world of sin and iniquity or during the early times of a +primitive evolving sphere, but not so on the morontia worlds or on the spirit +spheres. War is the heritage of early evolutionary man, but on worlds of normal +advancing civilization physical combat as a technique of adjusting racial +misunderstandings has long since fallen into disrepute. + +2. THE THEFT OF LIBERTY + +With the Son and in the Spirit did God project eternal Havona, and ever since +has there obtained the eternal pattern of co-ordinate participation in +creation--sharing. This pattern of sharing is the master design for every one +of the Sons and Daughters of God who go out into space to engage in the attempt +to duplicate in time the central universe of eternal perfection. + +Every creature of every evolving universe who aspires to do the Father's will +is destined to become the partner of the time-space Creators in this +magnificent adventure of experiential perfection attainment. Were this not +true, the Father would have hardly endowed such creatures with creative free +will, neither would he indwell them, actually go into partnership with them by +means of his own spirit. + +Lucifer's folly was the attempt to do the nondoable, to short-circuit time in +an experiential universe. Lucifer's crime was the attempted creative +disenfranchisement of every personality in Satania, the unrecognized abridgment +of the creature's personal participation--freewill participation--in the long +evolutionary struggle to attain the status of light and life both individually +and collectively. In so doing this onetime Sovereign of your system set the +temporal purpose of his own will directly athwart the eternal purpose of God's +will as it + + top of page - 615 + +is revealed in the bestowal of free will upon all personal creatures. The +Lucifer rebellion thus threatened the maximum possible infringement of the +freewill choice of the ascenders and servers of the system of Satania--a threat +forevermore to deprive every one of these beings of the thrilling experience of +contributing something personal and unique to the slowly erecting monument to +experiential wisdom which will sometime exist as the perfected system of +Satania. Thus does the Lucifer manifesto, masquerading in the habiliments of +liberty, stand forth in the clear light of reason as a monumental threat to +consummate the theft of personal liberty and to do it on a scale that has been +approached only twice in all the history of Nebadon. + +In short, what God had given men and angels Lucifer would have taken away from +them, that is, the divine privilege of participating in the creation of their +own destinies and of the destiny of this local system of inhabited worlds. + +No being in all the universe has the rightful liberty to deprive any other +being of true liberty, the right to love and be loved, the privilege of +worshiping God and of serving his fellows. + +3. THE TIME LAG OF JUSTICE + +The moral will creatures of the evolutionary worlds are always bothered with +the unthinking question as to why the all-wise Creators permit evil and sin. +They fail to comprehend that both are inevitable if the creature is to be truly +free. The free will of evolving man or exquisite angel is not a mere +philosophic concept, a symbolic ideal. Man's ability to choose good or evil is +a universe reality. This liberty to choose for oneself is an endowment of the +Supreme Rulers, and they will not permit any being or group of beings to +deprive a single personality in the wide universe of this divinely bestowed +liberty--not even to satisfy such misguided and ignorant beings in the +enjoyment of this misnamed personal liberty. + +Although conscious and wholehearted identification with evil (sin) is the +equivalent of nonexistence (annihilation), there must always intervene between +the time of such personal identification with sin and the execution of the +penalty--the automatic result of such a willful embrace of evil--a period of +time of sufficient length to allow for such an adjudication of such an +individual's universe status as will prove entirely satisfactory to all related +universe personalities, and which will be so fair and just as to win the +approval of the sinner himself. + +But if this universe rebel against the reality of truth and goodness refuses to +approve the verdict, and if the guilty one knows in his heart the justice of +his condemnation but refuses to make such confession, then must the execution +of sentence be delayed in accordance with the discretion of the Ancients of +Days. And the Ancients of Days refuse to annihilate any being until all moral +values and all spiritual realities are extinct, both in the evildoer and in all +related supporters and possible sympathizers. + +4. THE MERCY TIME LAG + +Another problem somewhat difficult of explanation in the constellation of +Norlatiadek pertains to the reasons for permitting Lucifer, Satan, and the +fallen + + top of page - 616 + +princes to work mischief so long before being apprehended, interned, and +adjudicated. + +Parents, those who have borne and reared children, are better able to +understand why Michael, a Creator-father, might be slow to condemn and destroy +his own Sons. Jesus' story of the prodigal son well illustrates how a loving +father can long wait for the repentance of an erring child. + +The very fact that an evil-doing creature can actually choose to do +wrong--commit sin--establishes the fact of free-willness and fully justifies +any length delay in the execution of justice provided the extended mercy might +conduce to repentance and rehabilitation. + +Most of the liberties which Lucifer sought he already had; others he was to +receive in the future. All these precious endowments were lost by giving way to +impatience and yielding to a desire to possess what one craves now and to +possess it in defiance of all obligation to respect the rights and liberties of +all other beings composing the universe of universes. Ethical obligations are +innate, divine, and universal. + +There are many reasons known to us why the Supreme Rulers did not immediately +destroy or intern the leaders of the Lucifer rebellion. There are no doubt +still other and possibly better reasons unknown to us. The mercy features of +this delay in the execution of justice were extended personally by Michael of +Nebadon. Except for the affection of this Creator-father for his erring Sons, +the supreme justice of the superuniverse would have acted. If such an episode +as the Lucifer rebellion had occurred in Nebadon while Michael was incarnated +on Urantia, the instigators of such evil might have been instantly and +absolutely annihilated. + +Supreme justice can act instantly when not restrained by divine mercy. But the +ministry of mercy to the children of time and space always provides for this +time lag, this saving interval between seedtime and harvest. If the seed sowing +is good, this interval provides for the testing and upbuilding of character; if +the seed sowing is evil, this merciful delay provides time for repentance and +rectification. This time delay in the adjudication and execution of evildoers +is inherent in the mercy ministry of the seven superuniverses. This restraint +of justice by mercy proves that God is love, and that such a God of love +dominates the universes and in mercy controls the fate and judgment of all his +creatures. + +The mercy delays of time are by the mandate of the free will of the Creators. +There is good to be derived in the universe from this technique of patience in +dealing with sinful rebels. While it is all too true that good cannot come of +evil to the one who contemplates and performs evil, it is equally true that all +things (including evil, potential and manifest) work together for good to all +beings who know God, love to do his will, and are ascending Paradiseward +according to his eternal plan and divine purpose. + +But these mercy delays are not interminable. Notwithstanding the long delay (as +time is reckoned on Urantia) in adjudicating the Lucifer rebellion, we may +record that, during the time of effecting this revelation, the first hearing in +the pending case of Gabriel vs. Lucifer was held on Uversa, and soon thereafter +there issued the mandate of the Ancients of Days directing that Satan be +henceforth confined to the prison world with Lucifer. This ends the ability of +Satan to pay further visits to any of the fallen worlds of Satania. Justice in +a mercy-dominated universe may be slow, but it is certain. + + top of page - 617 + +5. THE WISDOM OF DELAY + +Of the many reasons known to me as to why Lucifer and his confederates were not +sooner interned or adjudicated, I am permitted to recite the following: + +1. Mercy requires that every wrongdoer have sufficient time in which to +formulate a deliberate and fully chosen attitude regarding his evil thoughts +and sinful acts. + +2. Supreme justice is dominated by a Father's love; therefore will justice +never destroy that which mercy can save. Time to accept salvation is vouchsafed +every evildoer. + +3. No affectionate father is ever precipitate in visiting punishment upon an +erring member of his family. Patience cannot function independently of time. + +4. While wrongdoing is always deleterious to a family, wisdom and love admonish +the upright children to bear with an erring brother during the time granted by +the affectionate father in which the sinner may see the error of his way and +embrace salvation. + +5. Regardless of Michael's attitude toward Lucifer, notwithstanding his being +Lucifer's Creator-father, it was not in the province of the Creator Son to +exercise summary jurisdiction over the apostate System Sovereign because he had +not then completed his bestowal career, thereby attaining unqualified +sovereignty of Nebadon. + +6. The Ancients of Days could have immediately annihilated these rebels, but +they seldom execute wrongdoers without a full hearing. In this instance they +refused to overrule the Michael decisions. + +7. It is evident that Immanuel counseled Michael to remain aloof from the +rebels and allow rebellion to pursue a natural course of self-obliteration. And +the wisdom of the Union of Days is the time reflection of the united wisdom of +the Paradise Trinity. + +8. The Faithful of Days on Edentia advised the Constellation Fathers to allow +the rebels free course to the end that all sympathy for these evildoers should +be the sooner uprooted in the hearts of every present and future citizen of +Norlatiadek--every mortal, morontia, or spirit creature. + +9. On Jerusem the personal representative of the Supreme Executive of Orvonton +counseled Gabriel to foster full opportunity for every living creature to +mature a deliberate choice in those matters involved in the Lucifer Declaration +of Liberty. The issues of rebellion having been raised, the Paradise emergency +adviser of Gabriel portrayed that, if such full and free opportunity were not +given all Norlatiadek creatures, then would the Paradise quarantine against all +such possible halfhearted or doubt-stricken creatures be extended in +self-protection against the entire constellation. To keep open the Paradise +doors of ascension to the beings of Norlatiadek, it was necessary to provide +for the full development of rebellion and to insure the complete determination +of attitude on the part of all beings in any way concerned therewith. + +10. The Divine Minister of Salvington issued as her third independent +proclamation a mandate directing that nothing be done to half cure, cowardly +suppress, or otherwise hide the hideous visage of rebels and rebellion. The + + top of page - 618 + +angelic hosts were directed to work for full disclosure and unlimited +opportunity for sin-expression as the quickest technique of achieving the +perfect and final cure of the plague of evil and sin. + +11. An emergency council of ex-mortals consisting of Mighty Messengers, +glorified mortals who had had personal experience with like situations, +together with their colleagues, was organized on Jerusem. They advised Gabriel +that at least three times the number of beings would be led astray if arbitrary +or summary methods of suppression were attempted. The entire Uversa corps of +counselors concurred in advising Gabriel to permit the rebellion to take its +full and natural course, even if it should require a million years to wind up +the consequences. + +12. Time, even in a universe of time, is relative: If a Urantia mortal of +average length of life should commit a crime which precipitated world-wide +pandemonium, and if he were apprehended, tried, and executed within two or +three days of the commission of the crime, would it seem a long time to you? +And yet that would be nearer a comparison with the length of Lucifer's life +even if his adjudication, now begun, should not be completed for a hundred +thousand Urantia years. The relative lapse of time from the viewpoint of +Uversa, where the litigation is pending, could be indicated by saying that the +crime of Lucifer was being brought to trial within two and a half seconds of +its commission. From the Paradise viewpoint the adjudication is simultaneous +with the enactment. + +There are an equal number of reasons for not arbitrarily stopping the Lucifer +rebellion which would be partially comprehensible to you, but which I am not +permitted to narrate. I may inform you that on Uversa we teach forty-eight +reasons for permitting evil to run the full course of its own moral bankruptcy +and spiritual extinction. I doubt not that there are just as many additional +reasons not known to me. + +6. THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE + +Whatever the difficulties evolutionary mortals may encounter in their efforts +to understand the Lucifer rebellion, it should be clear to all reflective +thinkers that the technique of dealing with the rebels is a vindication of +divine love. The loving mercy extended to the rebels does seem to have involved +many innocent beings in trials and tribulations, but all these distraught +personalities may securely depend upon the all-wise Judges to adjudicate their +destinies in mercy as well as justice. + +In all their dealings with intelligent beings, both the Creator Son and his +Paradise Father are love dominated. It is impossible to comprehend many phases +of the attitude of the universe rulers toward rebels and rebellion--sin and +sinners--unless it be remembered that God as a Father takes precedence over all +other phases of Deity manifestation in all the dealings of divinity with +humanity. It should also be recalled that the Paradise Creator Sons are all +mercy motivated. + +If an affectionate father of a large family chooses to show mercy to one of his +children guilty of grievous wrongdoing, it may well be that the extension of +mercy to this misbehaving child will work a temporary hardship upon all the + + top of page - 619 + +other and well-behaved children. Such eventualities are inevitable; such a risk +is inseparable from the reality situation of having a loving parent and of +being a member of a family group. Each member of a family profits by the +righteous conduct of every other member; likewise must each member suffer the +immediate time-consequences of the misconduct of every other member. Families, +groups, nations, races, worlds, systems, constellations, and universes are +relationships of association which possess individuality; and therefore does +every member of any such group, large or small, reap the benefits and suffer +the consequences of the rightdoing and the wrongdoing of all other members of +the group concerned. + +But one thing should be made clear: If you are made to suffer the evil +consequences of the sin of some member of your family, some fellow citizen or +fellow mortal, even rebellion in the system or elsewhere--no matter what you +may have to endure because of the wrongdoing of your associates, fellows, or +superiors--you may rest secure in the eternal assurance that such tribulations +are transient afflictions. None of these fraternal consequences of misbehavior +in the group can ever jeopardize your eternal prospects or in the least degree +deprive you of your divine right of Paradise ascension and God attainment. + +And there is compensation for these trials, delays, and disappointments which +invariably accompany the sin of rebellion. Of the many valuable repercussions +of the Lucifer rebellion which might be named, I will only call attention to +the enhanced careers of those mortal ascenders, the Jerusem citizens, who, by +withstanding the sophistries of sin, placed themselves in line for becoming +future Mighty Messengers, fellows of my own order. Every being who stood the +test of that evil episode thereby immediately advanced his administrative +status and enhanced his spiritual worth. + +At first the Lucifer upheaval appeared to be an unmitigated calamity to the +system and to the universe. Gradually benefits began to accrue. With the +passing of twenty-five thousand years of system time (twenty thousand years of +Urantia time), the Melchizedeks began to teach that the good resulting from +Lucifer's folly had come to equal the evil incurred. The sum of evil had by +that time become almost stationary, continuing to increase only on certain +isolated worlds, while the beneficial repercussions continued to multiply and +extend out through the universe and superuniverse, even to Havona. The +Melchizedeks now teach that the good resulting from the Satania rebellion is +more than a thousand times the sum of all the evil. + +But such an extraordinary and beneficent harvest of wrongdoing could only be +brought about by the wise, divine, and merciful attitude of all of Lucifer's +superiors, extending from the Constellation Fathers on Edentia to the Universal +Father on Paradise. The passing of time has enhanced the consequential good to +be derived from the Lucifer folly; and since the evil to be penalized was quite +fully developed within a comparatively short time, it is apparent that the +all-wise and farseeing universe rulers would be certain to extend the time in +which to reap increasingly beneficial results. Regardless of the many +additional reasons for delaying the apprehension and adjudication of the +Satania rebels, this one gain would have been enough to explain why these +sinners were not sooner interned, and why they have not been adjudicated and +destroyed. + +Shortsighted and time-bound mortal minds should be slow to criticize the time +delays of the farseeing and all-wise administrators of universe affairs. + + top of page - 620 + +One error of human thinking respecting these problems consists in the idea that +all evolutionary mortals on an evolving planet would choose to enter upon the +Paradise career if sin had not cursed their world. The ability to decline +survival does not date from the times of the Lucifer rebellion. Mortal man has +always possessed the endowment of freewill choice regarding the Paradise +career. + +As you ascend in the survival experience, you will broaden your universe +concepts and extend your horizon of meanings and values; and thus will you be +able the better to understand why such beings as Lucifer and Satan are +permitted to continue in rebellion. You will also better comprehend how +ultimate (if not immediate) good can be derived from time-limited evil. After +you attain Paradise, you will really be enlightened and comforted when you +listen to the superaphic philosophers discuss and explain these profound +problems of universe adjustment. But even then, I doubt that you will be fully +satisfied in your own minds. At least I was not even when I had thus attained +the acme of universe philosophy. I did not achieve a full comprehension of +these complexities until after I had been assigned to administrative duties in +the superuniverse, where by actual experience I have acquired conceptual +capacity adequate for the comprehension of such many-sided problems in cosmic +equity and spiritual philosophy. As you ascend Paradiseward, you will +increasingly learn that many problematic features of universe administration +can only be comprehended subsequent to the acquirement of increased +experiential capacity and to the achievement of enhanced spiritual insight. +Cosmic wisdom is essential to the understanding of cosmic situations. + +[Presented by a Mighty Messenger of experiential survival in the first system +rebellion in the universes of time now attached to the superuniverse government +of Orvonton and acting in this matter by request of Gabriel of Salvington.] + + top of page - 621 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Lucifer ³ The Spheres Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Reb... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p055.txt b/religious documents/p055.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..38ba079 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p055.txt @@ -0,0 +1,997 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 55 The Spheres Of Light And Life + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 55 The Spheres Of Light And Life + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE age of light and life is the final evolutionary attainment of a world of +time and space. From the early times of primitive man, such an inhabited world +has passed through the successive planetary ages--the pre- and the +post-Planetary Prince ages, the post-Adamic age, the post-Magisterial Son age, +and the postbestowal Son age. And then is such a world made ready for the +culminating evolutionary attainment, the settled status of light and life, by +the ministry of the successive planetary missions of the Trinity Teacher Sons +with their ever-advancing revelations of divine truth and cosmic wisdom. In +these endeavors the Teacher Sons enjoy the assistance of the Brilliant Evening +Stars always, and the Melchizedeks sometimes, in establishing the final +planetary age. + +This era of light and life, inaugurated by the Teacher Sons at the conclusion +of their final planetary mission, continues indefinitely on the inhabited +worlds. Each advancing stage of settled status may be segregated by the +judicial actions of the Magisterial Sons into a succession of dispensations; +but all such judicial actions are purely technical, in no way modifying the +course of planetary events. + +Only those planets which attain existence in the main circuits of the +superuniverse are assured of continuous survival, but as far as we know, these +worlds settled in light and life are destined to go on throughout the eternal +ages of all future time. + +There are seven stages in the unfoldment of the era of light and life on an +evolutionary world, and in this connection it should be noted that the worlds +of the Spirit-fused mortals evolve along lines identical with those of the +Adjuster-fusion series. These seven stages of light and life are: + +1. The first or planetary stage. + +2. The second or system stage. + +3. The third or constellation stage. + +4. The fourth or local universe stage. + +5. The fifth or minor sector stage. + +6. The sixth or major sector stage. + +7. The seventh or superuniverse stage. + +At the conclusion of this narrative these stages of advancing development are +described as they relate to the universe organization, but the planetary values +of any stage may be attained by any world quite independent of the development +of other worlds or of the superplanetary levels of universe administration. + + top of page - 622 + +1. THE MORONTIA TEMPLE + +The presence of a morontia temple at the capital of an inhabited world is the +certificate of the admission of such a sphere to the settled ages of light and +life. Before the Teacher Sons leave a world at the conclusion of their terminal +mission, they inaugurate this final epoch of evolutionary attainment; they +preside on that day when the "holy temple comes down upon earth." This event, +signalizing the dawn of the era of light and life, is always honored by the +personal presence of the Paradise bestowal Son of that planet, who comes to +witness this great day. There in this temple of unparalleled beauty, this +bestowal Son of Paradise proclaims the long-time Planetary Prince as the new +Planetary Sovereign and invests such a faithful Lanonandek Son with new powers +and extended authority over planetary affairs. The System Sovereign is also +present and speaks in confirmation of these pronouncements. + +A morontia temple has three parts: Centermost is the sanctuary of the Paradise +bestowal Son. On the right is the seat of the former Planetary Prince, now +Planetary Sovereign; and when present in the temple, this Lanonandek Son is +visible to the more spiritual individuals of the realm. On the left is the seat +of the acting chief of finaliters attached to the planet. + +Although the planetary temples have been spoken of as "coming down from +heaven," in reality no actual material is transported from the system +headquarters. The architecture of each is worked out in miniature on the system +capital, and the Morontia Power Supervisors subsequently bring these approved +plans to the planet. Here, in association with the Master Physical Controllers, +they proceed to build the morontia temple according to specifications. + +The average morontia temple seats about three hundred thousand spectators. +These edifices are not used for worship, play, or for receiving broadcasts; +they are devoted to the special ceremonies of the planet, such as: +communications with the System Sovereign or with the Most Highs, special +visualization ceremonies designed to reveal the personality presence of spirit +beings, and silent cosmic contemplation. The schools of cosmic philosophy here +conduct their graduation exercises, and here also do the mortals of the realm +receive planetary recognition for achievements of high social service and for +other outstanding attainments. + +Such a morontia temple also serves as the place of assembly for witnessing the +translation of living mortals to the morontia existence. It is because the +translation temple is composed of morontia material that it is not destroyed by +the blazing glory of the consuming fire which so completely obliterates the +physical bodies of those mortals who therein experience final fusion with their +divine Adjusters. On a large world these departure flares are almost +continuous, and as the number of translations increases, subsidiary morontia +life shrines are provided in different areas of the planet. Not long since I +sojourned on a world in the far north whereon twenty-five morontia shrines were +functioning. + +On presettled worlds, planets without morontia temples, these fusion flashes +many times occur in the planetary atmosphere, where the material body of a +translation candidate is elevated by the midway creatures and the physical +controllers. + + top of page - 623 + +2. DEATH AND TRANSLATION + +Natural, physical death is not a mortal inevitability. The majority of advanced +evolutionary beings, citizens on worlds existing in the final era of light and +life, do not die; they are translated directly from the life in the flesh to +the morontia existence. + +This experience of translation from the material life to the morontia +state--fusion of the immortal soul with the indwelling Adjuster--increases in +frequency commensurate with the evolutionary progress of the planet. At first +only a few mortals in each age attain translation levels of spiritual progress, +but with the onset of the successive ages of the Teacher Sons, more and more +Adjuster fusions occur before the termination of the lengthening lives of these +progressing mortals; and by the time of the terminal mission of the Teacher +Sons, approximately one quarter of these superb mortals are exempt from natural +death. + +Farther along in the era of light and life the midway creatures or their +associates sense the approaching status of probable soul-Adjuster union and +signify this to the destiny guardians, who in turn communicate these matters to +the finaliter group under whose jurisdiction this mortal may be functioning; +then there is issued the summons of the Planetary Sovereign for such a mortal +to resign all planetary duties, bid farewell to the world of his origin, and +repair to the inner temple of the Planetary Sovereign, there to await morontia +transit, the translation flash, from the material domain of evolution to the +morontia level of prespirit progression. + +When the family, friends, and working group of such a fusion candidate have +forgathered in the morontia temple, they are distributed around the central +stage whereon the fusion candidates are resting, meantime freely conversing +with their assembled friends. A circle of intervening celestial personalities +is arranged to protect the material mortals from the action of the energies +manifest at the instant of the "life flash" which delivers the ascension +candidate from the bonds of material flesh, thereby doing for such an +evolutionary mortal everything that natural death does for those who are +thereby delivered from the flesh. + +Many fusion candidates may be assembled in the spacious temple at the same +time. And what a beautiful occasion when mortals thus forgather to witness the +ascension of their loved ones in spiritual flames, and what a contrast to those +earlier ages when mortals must commit their dead to the embrace of the +terrestrial elements! The scenes of weeping and wailing characteristic of +earlier epochs of human evolution are now replaced by ecstatic joy and the +sublimest enthusiasm as these God-knowing mortals bid their loved ones a +transient farewell as they are removed from their material associations by the +spiritual fires of consuming grandeur and ascending glory. On worlds settled in +light and life, "funerals" are occasions of supreme joy, profound satisfaction, +and inexpressible hope. + +The souls of these progressing mortals are increasingly filled with faith, +hope, and assurance. The spirit permeating those gathered around the +translation shrine resembles that of the joyful friends and relatives who might +assemble at a graduating exercise for one of their group, or who might come +together to + + top of page - 624 + +witness the conferring of some great honor upon one of their number. And it +would be decidedly helpful if less advanced mortals could only learn to view +natural death with something of this same cheerfulness and lightheartedness. + +Mortal observers can see nothing of their translated associates subsequent to +the fusion flash. Such translated souls proceed by Adjuster transit direct to +the resurrection hall of the appropriate morontia-training world. These +transactions concerned with the translation of living human beings to the +morontia world are supervised by an archangel who was assigned to such a world +on the day when it was first settled in light and life. + +By the time a world attains the fourth stage of light and life, more than half +the mortals leave the planet by translation from among the living. Such +diminishment of death continues on and on, but I know of no system whose +inhabited worlds, even though long settled in life, are entirely free from +natural death as the technique of escape from the bonds of flesh. And until +such a high state of planetary evolution is uniformly attained, the +morontia-training worlds of the local universe must continue in service as +educational and cultural spheres for the evolving morontia progressors. The +elimination of death is theoretically possible, but it has not yet occurred +according to my observation. Perhaps such a status may be attained during the +faraway stretches of the succeeding epochs of the seventh stage of settled +planetary life. + +The translated souls of the flowering ages of the settled spheres do not pass +through the mansion worlds. Neither do they sojourn, as students, on the +morontia worlds of the system or constellation. They do not pass through any of +the earlier phases of morontia life. They are the only ascending mortals who so +nearly escape the morontia transition from material existence to semispirit +status. The initial experience of such Son-seized mortals in the ascension +career is in the services of the progression worlds of the universe +headquarters. And from these study worlds of Salvington they go back as +teachers to the very worlds they passed by, subsequently going on inward to +Paradise by the established route of mortal ascension. + +Could you but visit a planet in an advanced stage of development, you would +quickly grasp the reasons for providing for the differential reception of +ascending mortals on the mansion and higher morontia worlds. You would readily +understand that beings passing on from such highly evolved spheres are prepared +to resume their Paradise ascent far in advance of the average mortal arriving +from a disordered and backward world like Urantia. + +No matter from what level of planetary attainment human beings may ascend to +the morontia worlds, the seven mansion spheres afford them ample opportunity to +gain in experience as teacher-students all of everything which they failed to +pass through because of the advanced status of their native planets. + +The universe is unfailing in the application of these equalizing techniques +designed to insure that no ascender shall be deprived of aught which is +essential to his ascension experience. + +3. THE GOLDEN AGES + +During this age of light and life the world increasingly prospers under the +fatherly rule of the Planetary Sovereign. By this time the worlds are +progressing under the momentum of one language, one religion, and, on normal +spheres, + + top of page - 625 + +one race. But this age is not perfect. These worlds still have well-appointed +hospitals, homes for the care of the sick. There still remain the problems of +caring for accidental injuries and the inescapable infirmities attendant upon +the decrepitude of old age and the disorders of senility. Disease has not been +entirely vanquished, neither have the earth animals been subdued in perfection; +but such worlds are like Paradise in comparison with the early times of +primitive man during the pre-Planetary Prince age. You would instinctively +describe such a realm--could you be suddenly transported to a planet in this +stage of development--as heaven on earth. + +Human government in the conduct of material affairs continues to function +throughout this age of relative progress and perfection. The public activities +of a world in the first stage of light and life which I recently visited were +financed by the tithing technique. Every adult worker--and all able-bodied +citizens worked at something--paid ten per cent of his income or increase to +the public treasury, and it was disbursed as follows: + +1. Three per cent was expended in the promotion of truth--science, education, +and philosophy. + +2. Three per cent was devoted to beauty--play, social leisure, and art. + +3. Three per cent was dedicated to goodness--social service, altruism, and +religion. + +4. One per cent was assigned to the insurance reserves against the risk of +incapacity for labor resultant from accident, disease, old age, or +unpreventable disasters. + +The natural resources of this planet were administered as social possessions, +community property. + +On this world the highest honor conferred upon a citizen was the order of +"supreme service," being the only degree of recognition ever to be granted in +the morontia temple. This recognition was bestowed upon those who had long +distinguished themselves in some phase of supermaterial discovery or planetary +social service. + +The majority of social and administrative posts were held jointly by men and +women. Most of the teaching was also done jointly; likewise all judicial trusts +were discharged by similar associated couples. + +On these superb worlds the childbearing period is not greatly prolonged. It is +not best for too many years to intervene between the ages of a family of +children. When close together in age, children are able to contribute much more +to their mutual training. And on these worlds they are magnificently trained by +the competitive systems of keen striving in the advanced domains and divisions +of diverse achievement in the mastery of truth, beauty, and goodness. Never +fear but that even such glorified spheres present plenty of evil, real and +potential, which is stimulative of the choosing between truth and error, good +and evil, sin and righteousness. + +Nevertheless, there is a certain, inevitable penalty attaching to mortal +existence on such advanced evolutionary planets. When a settled world +progresses beyond the third stage of light and life, all ascenders are +destined, before attaining the minor sector, to receive some sort of transient +assignment on a planet passing through the earlier stages of evolution. + + top of page - 626 + +Each of these successive ages represents advancing achievements in all phases +of planetary attainment. In the initial age of light the revelation of truth +was enlarged to embrace the workings of the universe of universes, while the +Deity study of the second age is the attempt to master the protean concept of +the nature, mission, ministry, associations, origin, and destiny of the Creator +Sons, the first level of God the Sevenfold. + +A planet the size of Urantia, when fairly well settled, would have about one +hundred subadministrative centers. These subordinate centers would be presided +over by one of the following groups of qualified administrators: + +1. Young Material Sons and Daughters brought from the system headquarters to +act as assistants to the ruling Adam and Eve. + +2. The progeny of the semimortal staff of the Planetary Prince who were +procreated on certain worlds for this and other similar responsibilities. + +3. The direct planetary progeny of Adam and Eve. + +4. Materialized and humanized midway creatures. + +5. Mortals of Adjuster-fusion status who, upon their own petition, are +temporarily exempted from translation by the order of the Personalized Adjuster +of universe chieftainship in order that they may continue on the planet in +certain important administrative posts. + +6. Specially trained mortals of the planetary schools of administration who +have also received the order of supreme service of the morontia temple. + +7. Certain elective commissions of three properly qualified citizens who are +sometimes chosen by the citizenry by direction of the Planetary Sovereign in +accordance with their special ability to accomplish some definite task which is +needful in that particular planetary sector. + +The great handicap confronting Urantia in the matter of attaining the high +planetary destiny of light and life is embraced in the problems of disease, +degeneracy, war, multicolored races, and multilingualism. + +No evolutionary world can hope to progress beyond the first stage of +settledness in light until it has achieved one language, one religion, and one +philosophy. Being of one race greatly facilitates such achievement, but the +many peoples of Urantia do not preclude the attainment of higher stages. + +4. ADMINISTRATIVE READJUSTMENTS + +In the successive stages of settled existence the inhabited worlds make +marvelous progress under the wise and sympathetic administration of the +volunteer Corps of the Finality, ascenders of Paradise attainment who have come +back to minister to their brethren in the flesh. These finaliters are active in +co-operation with the Trinity Teacher Sons, but they do not begin their real +participation in world affairs until the morontia temple appears on earth. + +Upon the formal inauguration of the planetary ministry of the Corps of the +Finality, the majority of the celestial hosts withdraw. But the seraphic +guardians of destiny continue their personal ministry to the progressing +mortals in light; indeed such angels come in ever-increasing numbers throughout +the settled ages since larger and larger groups of human beings reach the third +cosmic circle of co-ordinate mortal attainment during the planetary life span. + + top of page - 627 + +This is merely the first of the successive administrative adjustments which +attend the unfolding of the successive ages of increasingly brilliant +attainment on the inhabited worlds as they pass from the first to the seventh +stage of settled existence. + +1. The first stage of light and life. A world in this initial settled stage is +being administered by three rulers: + +a. The Planetary Sovereign, presently to be advised by a counseling Trinity +Teacher Son, in all probability the chief of the terminal corps of such Sons to +function on the planet. + +b. The chief of the planetary corps of finaliters. + +c. Adam and Eve, who function jointly as the unifiers of the dual leadership of +the Prince-Sovereign and the chief of finaliters. + +Acting as interpreters for the seraphic guardians and the finaliters are the +exalted and liberated midway creatures. One of the last acts of the Trinity +Teacher Sons on their terminal mission is to liberate the midwayers of the +realm and to promote (or restore) them to advanced planetary status, assigning +them to responsible places in the new administration of the settled sphere. +Such changes have already been made in the range of human vision as enable +mortals to recognize these heretofore invisible cousins of the early Adamic +regime. This is made possible by the final discoveries of physical science in +liaison with the enlarged planetary functions of the Master Physical +Controllers. + +The System Sovereign has authority to release midway creatures any time after +the first settled stage so that they may humanize in the morontia by the aid of +the Life Carriers and the physical controllers and, after receiving Thought +Adjusters, start out on their Paradise ascension. + +In the third and subsequent stages, some of the midwayers are still +functioning, chiefly as contact personalities for the finaliters, but as each +stage of light and life is entered, new orders of liaison ministers largely +replace the midwayers; very few of them ever remain beyond the fourth stage of +light. The seventh stage will witness the coming of the first absonite +ministers from Paradise to serve in the places of certain universe creatures. + +2. The second stage of light and life. This epoch is signalized on the worlds +by the arrival of a Life Carrier who becomes the volunteer adviser of the +planetary rulers regarding the further efforts to purify and stabilize the +mortal race. Thus do the Life Carriers actively participate in the further +evolution of the human race--physically, socially, and economically. And then +they extend their supervision to the further purification of the mortal stock +by the drastic elimination of the retarded and persisting remnants of inferior +potential of an intellectual, philosophic, cosmic, and spiritual nature. Those +who design and plant life on an inhabited world are fully competent to advise +the Material Sons and Daughters, who have full and unquestioned authority to +purge the evolving race of all detrimental influences. + +From the second stage on throughout the career of a settled planet the Teacher +Sons serve as counselors to the finaliters. During such missions they serve as +volunteers and not by assignment; and they serve exclusively with the finaliter +corps except that, upon the consent of the System Sovereign, they may be had as +advisers to the Planetary Adam and Eve. + + top of page - 628 + +3. The third stage of light and life. During this epoch the inhabited worlds +arrive at a new appreciation of the Ancients of Days, the second phase of God +the Sevenfold, and the representatives of these superuniverse rulers enter into +new relationships with the planetary administration. + +In each succeeding age of settled existence the finaliters function in +ever-increasing capacities. There exists a close working connection between the +finaliters, the Evening Stars (the superangels), and the Trinity Teacher Sons. + +During this or the following age a Teacher Son, assisted by the +ministering-spirit quartette, becomes attached to the elective mortal chief +executive, who now becomes associated with the Planetary Sovereign as joint +administrator of world affairs. These mortal chief executives serve for +twenty-five years of planetary time, and it is this new development that makes +it easy for the Planetary Adam and Eve to secure release from their world of +long-time assignment during the following ages. + +The ministering-spirit quartettes consist of: the seraphic chief of the sphere, +the superuniverse secoraphic counselor, the archangel of translations, and the +omniaphim who functions as the personal representative of the Assigned Sentinel +stationed on the system headquarters. But these advisers never proffer counsel +unless it is asked for. + +4. The fourth stage of light and life. On the worlds the Trinity Teacher Sons +appear in new roles. Assisted by the creature-trinitized sons so long +associated with their order, they now come to the worlds as volunteer +counselors and advisers to the Planetary Sovereign and his associates. Such +couples--Paradise-Havona-trinitized sons and ascender-trinitized +sons--represent differing universe viewpoints and diverse personal experiences +which are highly serviceable to the planetary rulers. + +At any time after this age the Planetary Adam and Eve can petition the +Sovereign Creator Son for release from planetary duties in order to begin their +Paradise ascent; or they can remain on the planet as directors of the newly +appearing order of increasingly spiritual society composed of advanced mortals +striving to comprehend the philosophic teachings of the finaliters portrayed by +the Brilliant Evening Stars, who are now assigned to these worlds to +collaborate in pairs with the seconaphim from the headquarters of the +superuniverse. + +The finaliters are chiefly engaged in initiating the new and supermaterial +activities of society--social, cultural, philosophic, cosmic, and spiritual. As +far as we can discern, they will continue this ministry far into the seventh +epoch of evolutionary stability, when, possibly, they may go forth to minister +in outer space; whereupon we conjecture their places may be taken by absonite +beings from Paradise. + +5. The fifth stage of light and life. The readjustments of this stage of +settled existence pertain almost entirely to the physical domains and are of +primary concern to the Master Physical Controllers. + +6. The sixth stage of light and life witnesses the development of new functions +of the mind circuits of the realm. Cosmic wisdom seems to become constitutive +in the universe ministry of mind. + +7. The seventh stage of light and life. Early in the seventh epoch the Trinity +Teacher counselor of the Planetary Sovereign is joined by a volunteer ad- + + top of page - 629 + +viser sent by the Ancients of Days, and later on they will be augmented by a +third counselor coming from the superuniverse Supreme Executive. + +During this epoch, if not before, Adam and Eve are always relieved of planetary +duties. If there is a Material Son in the finaliter corps, he may become +associated with the mortal chief executive, and sometimes it is a Melchizedek +who volunteers to function in this capacity. If a midwayer is among the +finaliters, all of that order remaining on the planet are immediately released. + +Upon obtaining release from their agelong assignment, a Planetary Adam and Eve +may select careers as follows: + +1. They can secure planetary release and from the universe headquarters start +out immediately on the Paradise career, receiving Thought Adjusters at the +conclusion of the morontia experience. + +2. Very often a Planetary Adam and Eve will receive Adjusters while yet serving +on a world settled in light concomitant with the receiving of Adjusters by some +of their imported pure-line children who have volunteered for a term of +planetary service. Subsequently they may all go to universe headquarters and +there begin the Paradise career. + +3. A Planetary Adam and Eve may elect--as do Material Sons and Daughters from +the system capital--to go direct to the midsonite world for a brief sojourn, +there to receive their Adjusters. + +4. They may decide to return to the system headquarters, there for a time to +occupy seats on the supreme court, after which service they will receive +Adjusters and begin the Paradise ascent. + +5. They may choose to go from their administrative duties back to their native +world to serve as teachers for a season and to become Adjuster indwelt at the +time of transfer to the universe headquarters. + +Throughout all of these epochs the imported assisting Material Sons and +Daughters exert a tremendous influence on the progressing social and economic +orders. They are potentially immortal, at least until such time as they elect +to humanize, receive Adjusters, and start for Paradise. + +On the evolutionary worlds a being must humanize to receive a Thought Adjuster. +All ascendant members of the Mortal Corps of Finaliters have been Adjuster +indwelt and fused except seraphim, and they are Father indwelt by another type +of spirit at the time of being mustered into this corps. + +5. THE ACME OF MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT + +Mortal creatures living on a sin-stricken, evil-dominated, self-seeking, +isolated world, such as Urantia, can hardly conceive of the physical +perfection, the intellectual attainment, and the spiritual development which +characterize these advanced epochs of evolution on a sinless sphere. + +The advanced stages of a world settled in light and life represent the acme of +evolutionary material development. On these cultured worlds, gone are the +idleness and friction of the earlier primitive ages. Poverty and social +inequality have all but vanished, degeneracy has disappeared, and delinquency +is rarely observed. Insanity has practically ceased to exist, and +feeble-mindedness is a rarity. + +The economic, social, and administrative status of these worlds is of a high +and perfected order. Science, art, and industry flourish, and society is a +smoothly + + top of page - 630 + +working mechanism of high material, intellectual, and cultural achievement. +Industry has been largely diverted to serving the higher aims of such a superb +civilization. The economic life of such a world has become ethical. + +War has become a matter of history, and there are no more armies or police +forces. Government is gradually disappearing. Self-control is slowly rendering +laws of human enactment obsolete. The extent of civil government and statutory +regulation, in an intermediate state of advancing civilization, is in inverse +proportion to the morality and spirituality of the citizenship. + +Schools are vastly improved and are devoted to the training of mind and the +expansion of soul. The art centers are exquisite and the musical organizations +superb. The temples of worship with their associated schools of philosophy and +experiential religion are creations of beauty and grandeur. The open-air arenas +of worship assembly are equally sublime in the simplicity of their artistic +appointment. + +The provisions for competitive play, humor, and other phases of personal and +group achievement are ample and appropriate. A special feature of the +competitive activities on such a highly cultured world concerns the efforts of +individuals and groups to excel in the sciences and philosophies of cosmology. +Literature and oratory flourish, and language is so improved as to be symbolic +of concepts as well as to be expressive of ideas. Life is refreshingly simple; +man has at last co-ordinated a high state of mechanical development with an +inspiring intellectual attainment and has overshadowed both with an exquisite +spiritual achievement. The pursuit of happiness is an experience of joy and +satisfaction. + +6. THE INDIVIDUAL MORTAL + +As worlds advance in the settled status of light and life, society becomes +increasingly peaceful. The individual, while no less independent and devoted to +his family, has become more altruistic and fraternal. + +On Urantia, and as you are, you can have little appreciation of the advanced +status and progressive nature of the enlightened races of these perfected +worlds. These people are the flowering of the evolutionary races. But such +beings are still mortal; they continue to breathe, eat, sleep, and drink. This +great evolution is not heaven, but it is a sublime foreshadowing of the divine +worlds of the Paradise ascent. + +On a normal world the biologic fitness of the mortal race was long since +brought up to a high level during the post-Adamic epochs; and now, from age to +age throughout the settled eras the physical evolution of man continues. Both +vision and hearing are extended. By now the population has become stationary in +numbers. Reproduction is regulated in accordance with planetary requirements +and innate hereditary endowments: The mortals on a planet during this age are +divided into from five to ten groups, and the lower groups are permitted to +produce only one half as many children as the higher. The continued improvement +of such a magnificent race throughout the era of light and life is largely a +matter of the selective reproduction of those racial strains which exhibit +superior qualities of a social, philosophic, cosmic, and spiritual nature. + +The Adjusters continue to come as in former evolutionary eras, and as the +epochs pass, these mortals are increasingly able to commune with the indwell- + + top of page - 631 + +ing Father fragment. During the embryonic and prespiritual stages of +development the adjutant mind-spirits are still functioning. The Holy Spirit +and the ministry of angels are even more effective as the successive epochs of +settled life are experienced. In the fourth stage of light and life the +advanced mortals seem to experience considerable conscious contact with the +spirit presence of the Master Spirit of superuniverse jurisdiction, while the +philosophy of such a world is focused upon the attempt to comprehend the new +revelations of God the Supreme. More than one half of the human inhabitants on +planets of this advanced status experience translation to the morontia state +from among the living. Even so, "old things are passing away; behold, all +things are becoming new." + +We conceive that physical evolution will have attained its full development by +the end of the fifth epoch of the light-and-life era. We observe that the upper +limits of spiritual development associated with evolving human mind are +determined by the Adjuster-fusion level of conjoint morontia values and cosmic +meanings. But concerning wisdom: While we do not really know, we conjecture +that there can never be a limit to intellectual evolution and the attainment of +wisdom. On a seventh-stage world, wisdom can exhaust the material potentials, +enter upon mota insight, and eventually even taste of absonite grandeur. + +We observe that on these highly evolved and long seventh-stage worlds human +beings fully learn the local universe language before they are translated; and +I have visited a few very old planets where abandonters were teaching the older +mortals the tongue of the superuniverse. And on these worlds I have observed +the technique whereby the absonite personalities reveal the presence of the +finaliters in the morontia temple. + +This is the story of the magnificent goal of mortal striving on the +evolutionary worlds; and it all takes place even before human beings enter upon +their morontia careers; all of this splendid development is attainable by +material mortals on the inhabited worlds, the very first stage of that endless +and incomprehensible career of Paradise ascension and divinity attainment. + +But can you possibly imagine what sort of evolutionary mortals are now coming +up from worlds long existing in the seventh epoch of settled light and life? It +is such as these who go on to the morontia worlds of the local universe capital +to begin their ascension careers. + +If the mortals of distraught Urantia could only view one of these more advanced +worlds long settled in light and life, they would nevermore question the wisdom +of the evolutionary scheme of creation. Were there no future of eternal +creature progression, still the superb evolutionary attainments of the mortal +races on such settled worlds of perfected achievement would amply justify man's +creation on the worlds of time and space. + +We often ponder: If the grand universe should be settled in light and life, +would the ascending exquisite mortals still be destined to the Corps of the +Finality? But we do not know. + +7. THE FIRST OR PLANETARY STAGE + +This epoch extends from the appearance of the morontia temple at the new +planetary headquarters to the time of the settling of the entire system in +light and life. This age is inaugurated by the Trinity Teacher Sons at the +close of their + + top of page - 632 + +successive world missions when the Planetary Prince is elevated to the status +of Planetary Sovereign by the mandate and personal presence of the Paradise +bestowal Son of that sphere. Concomitant therewith the finaliters inaugurate +their active participation in planetary affairs. + +To outward and visible appearances the actual rulers, or directors, of such a +world settled in light and life are the Material Son and Daughter, the +Planetary Adam and Eve. The finaliters are invisible, as also is the +Prince-Sovereign except when in the morontia temple. The actual and literal +heads of the planetary regime are therefore the Material Son and Daughter. It +is the knowledge of these arrangements that has given prestige to the idea of +kings and queens throughout the universe realms. And kings and queens are a +great success under these ideal circumstances, when a world can command such +high personalities to act in behalf of still higher but invisible rulers. + +When such an era is attained on your world, no doubt Machiventa Melchizedek, +now the vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia, will occupy the seat of the +Planetary Sovereign; and it has long been conjectured on Jerusem that he will +be accompanied by a son and daughter of the Urantia Adam and Eve who are now +held on Edentia as wards of the Most Highs of Norlatiadek. These children of +Adam might so serve on Urantia in association with the Melchizedek-Sovereign +since they were deprived of procreative powers almost 37,000 years ago at the +time they gave up their material bodies on Urantia in preparation for transit +to Edentia. + +This settled age continues on and on until every inhabited planet in the system +attains the era of stabilization; and then, when the youngest world--the last +to achieve light and life--has experienced such settledness for one millennium +of system time, the entire system enters the stabilized status, and the +individual worlds are ushered into the system epoch of the era of light and +life. + +8. THE SECOND OR SYSTEM STAGE + +When an entire system becomes settled in life, a new order of government is +inaugurated. The Planetary Sovereigns become members of the system conclave, +and this new administrative body, subject to the veto of the Constellation +Fathers, is supreme in authority. Such a system of inhabited worlds becomes +virtually self-governing. The system legislative assembly is constituted on the +headquarters world, and each planet sends its ten representatives thereto. +Courts are now established on the system capitals, and only appeals are taken +to the universe headquarters. + +With the settling of the system the Assigned Sentinel, representative of the +superuniverse Supreme Executive, becomes the volunteer adviser to the system +supreme court and actual presiding officer of the new legislative assembly. + +After the settling of an entire system in light and life the System Sovereigns +will no more come and go. Such a sovereign remains perpetually at the head of +his system. The assistant sovereigns continue to change as in former ages. + +During this epoch of stabilization, for the first time midsoniters come from +the universe headquarters worlds of their sojourn to act as counselors to the +legislative assemblies and advisers to the adjudicational tribunals. These +midsoniters also carry on certain efforts to inculcate new mota meanings of +supreme value into the teaching enterprises which they sponsor jointly with the +finaliters. + + top of page - 633 + +What the Material Sons did for the mortal races biologically, the midsonite +creatures now do for these unified and glorified humans in the ever-advancing +realms of philosophy and spiritualized thinking. + +On the inhabited worlds the Teacher Sons become voluntary collaborators with +the finaliters, and these same Teacher Sons also accompany the finaliters to +the mansion worlds when those spheres are no longer to be utilized as +differential receiving worlds after an entire system is settled in light and +life; at least this is true by the time the entire constellation has thus +evolved. But there are no groups that far advanced in Nebadon. + +We are not permitted to reveal the nature of the work of the finaliters who +will supervise such rededicated mansion worlds. You have, however, been +informed that there are throughout the universes various types of intelligent +creatures who have not been portrayed in these narratives. + +And now, as the systems one by one become settled in light by virtue of the +progress of their component worlds, the time comes when the last system in a +given constellation attains stabilization, and the universe administrators--the +Master Son, the Union of Days, and the Bright and Morning Star--arrive on the +capital of the constellation to proclaim the Most Highs the unqualified rulers +of the newly perfected family of one hundred settled systems of inhabited +worlds. + +9. THE THIRD OR CONSTELLATION STAGE + +The unification of a whole constellation of settled systems is attended by new +distributions of executive authority and additional readjustments of universe +administration. This epoch witnesses advanced attainment on every inhabited +world but is particularly characterized by readjustments on the constellation +headquarters, with marked modification of relationships with both the system +supervision and the local universe government. During this age many +constellation and universe activities are transferred to the system capitals, +and the representatives of the superuniverse assume new and more intimate +relations with the planetary, system, and universe rulers. Concomitant with +these new associations, certain superuniverse administrators establish +themselves on the constellation capitals as volunteer advisers to the Most High +Fathers. + +When a constellation is thus settled in light, the legislative function ceases, +and the house of System Sovereigns, presided over by the Most Highs, functions +instead. Now, for the first time, such administrative groups deal directly with +the superuniverse government in matters pertaining to Havona and Paradise +relationships. Otherwise the constellation remains related to the local +universe as before. From stage to stage in the settled life the univitatia +continue to administer the constellation morontia worlds. + +As the ages pass, the Constellation Fathers take over more and more of the +detailed administrative or supervising functions which were formerly centered +on the universe headquarters. By the attainment of the sixth stage of +stabilization these unified constellations will have reached the position of +well-nigh complete autonomy. Entrance upon the seventh stage of settledness +will no doubt witness the exaltation of these rulers to the true dignity +signified by their names, the Most Highs. To all intents and purposes the +constellations will then deal directly with the superuniverse rulers, while the +local universe government will expand to grasp the responsibilities of new +grand universe obligations. + + top of page - 634 + +10. THE FOURTH OR LOCAL UNIVERSE STAGE + +When a universe becomes settled in light and life, it soon swings into the +established superuniverse circuits, and the Ancients of Days proclaim the +establishment of the supreme council of unlimited authority. This new governing +body consists of the one hundred Faithfuls of Days, presided over by the Union +of Days, and the first act of this supreme council is to acknowledge the +continued sovereignty of the Master Creator Son. + +The universe administration, as far as concerns Gabriel and the Father +Melchizedek, is quite unchanged. This council of unlimited authority is chiefly +concerned with the new problems and the new conditions arising out of the +advanced status of light and life. + +The Associate Inspector now mobilizes all Assigned Sentinels to constitute the +stabilization corps of the local universe and asks the Father Melchizedek to +share its supervision with him. And now, for the first time, a corps of the +Inspired Trinity Spirits are assigned to the service of the Union of Days. + +The settling of an entire local universe in light and life inaugurates profound +readjustments in the entire scheme of administration, from the individual +inhabited worlds to the universe headquarters. New relationships extend down to +the constellations and systems. The local universe Mother Spirit experiences +new liaison relations with the Master Spirit of the superuniverse, and Gabriel +establishes direct contact with the Ancients of Days to be effective when and +as the Master Son may be absent from the headquarters world. + +During this and subsequent ages the Magisterial Sons continue to function as +dispensational adjudicators, while one hundred of these Avonal Sons of Paradise +constitute the new high council of the Bright and Morning Star on the universe +capital. Later on, and as requested by the System Sovereigns, one of these +Magisterial Sons will become the supreme counselor stationed on the +headquarters world of each local system until the seventh stage of unity is +attained. + +During this epoch the Trinity Teacher Sons are volunteer advisers, not only to +the Planetary Sovereigns, but in groups of three they similarly serve the +Constellation Fathers. And at last these Sons find their place in the local +universe, for at this time they are removed from the jurisdiction of the local +creation and are assigned to the service of the supreme council of unlimited +authority. + +The finaliter corps now, for the first time, acknowledges the jurisdiction of +an extra-Paradise authority, the supreme council. Heretofore the finaliters +have recognized no supervision this side of Paradise. + +The Creator Sons of such settled universes spend much of their time on Paradise +and its associated worlds and in counseling the numerous finaliter groups +serving throughout the local creation. In this way the man of Michael will find +a fuller fraternity of association with the glorified finaliter mortals. + +Speculation concerning the function of these Creator Sons in connection with +the outer universes now in process of preliminary assembly is wholly futile. +But we all engage in such postulations from time to time. On attaining this +fourth stage of development the Creator Son becomes administratively free; the +Divine Minister is progressively blending her ministry with that of the +superuniverse Master Spirit and the Infinite Spirit. There seems to be evolving +a new and sub- + + top of page - 635 + +lime relationship between the Creator Son, the Creative Spirit, the Evening +Stars, the Teacher Sons, and the ever-increasing finaliter corps. + +If Michael should ever leave Nebadon, Gabriel would undoubtedly become chief +administrator with the Father Melchizedek as his associate. At the same time +new status would be imparted to all orders of permanent citizenship, such as +Material Sons, univitatia, midsoniters, susatia, and Spirit-fused mortals. But +as long as evolution continues, the seraphim and the archangels will be +required in universe administration. + +We are, however, satisfied regarding two features of our speculations: If the +Creator Sons are destined to the outer universes, the Divine Ministers will +undoubtedly accompany them. We are equally sure that the Melchizedeks are to +remain with the universes of their origin. We hold that the Melchizedeks are +destined to play ever-increasingly responsible parts in local universe +government and administration. + +11. THE MINOR AND MAJOR SECTOR STAGES + +Minor and major sectors of the superuniverse do not figure directly in the plan +of being settled in light and life. Such an evolutionary progression pertains +primarily to the local universe as a unit and concerns only the components of a +local universe. A superuniverse is settled in light and life when all of its +component local universes are thus perfected. But not one of the seven +superuniverses has attained a level of progression even approaching this. + +The minor sector age. As far as observations can penetrate, the fifth or minor +sector stage of stabilization has exclusively to do with physical status and +with the co-ordinate settling of the one hundred associated local universes in +the established circuits of the superuniverse. Apparently none but the power +centers and their associates are concerned in these realignments of the +material creation. + +The major sector age. Concerning the sixth stage, or major sector +stabilization, we can only conjecture since none of us have witnessed such an +event. Nevertheless, we can postulate much concerning the administrative and +other readjustments which would probably accompany such an advanced status of +inhabited worlds and their universe groupings. + +Since the minor sector status has to do with co-ordinate physical equilibrium, +we infer that major sector unification will be concerned with certain new +intellectual levels of attainment, possibly some advanced achievements in the +supreme realization of cosmic wisdom. + +We arrive at conclusions regarding the readjustments which would probably +attend the realization of hitherto unattained levels of evolutionary progress +by observing the results of such achievements on the individual worlds and in +the experiences of individual mortals living on these older and highly +developed spheres. + +Let it be made clear that the administrative mechanisms and governmental +techniques of a universe or a superuniverse cannot in any manner limit or +retard the evolutionary development or spiritual progress of an individual +inhabited planet or of any individual mortal on such a sphere. + +In some of the older universes we find worlds settled in the fifth and the +sixth stages of light and life--even far extended into the seventh epoch--whose +local systems are not yet settled in light. Younger planets may delay system +unifica- + + top of page - 636 + +tion, but this does not in the least handicap the progress of an older and +advanced world. Neither can environmental limitations, even on an isolated +world, thwart the personal attainment of the individual mortal; Jesus of +Nazareth, as a man among men, personally achieved the status of light and life +over nineteen hundred years ago on Urantia. + +It is by observing what takes place on long-settled worlds that we arrive at +fairly reliable conclusions as to what will happen when a whole superuniverse +is settled in light, even if we cannot safely postulate the event of the +stabilization of the seven superuniverses. + +12. THE SEVENTH OR SUPERUNIVERSE STAGE + +We cannot positively forecast what would occur when a superuniverse became +settled in light because such an event has never factualized. From the +teachings of the Melchizedeks, which have never been contradicted, we infer +that sweeping changes would be made in the entire organization and +administration of every unit of the creations of time and space extending from +the inhabited worlds to the superuniverse headquarters. + +It is generally believed that large numbers of the otherwise unattached +creature-trinitized sons are to be assembled on the headquarters and divisional +capitals of the settled superuniverses. This may be in anticipation of the +sometime arrival of outer-spacers on their way in to Havona and Paradise; but +we really do not know. + +If and when a superuniverse should be settled in light and life, we believe +that the now advisory Unqualified Supervisors of the Supreme would become the +high administrative body on the headquarters world of the superuniverse. These +are the personalities who are able to contact directly with the absonite +administrators, who will forthwith become active in the settled superuniverse. +Although these Unqualified Supervisors have long functioned as advisers and +counselors in advanced evolutionary units of creation, they do not assume +administrative responsibilities until the authority of the Supreme Being +becomes sovereign. + +The Unqualified Supervisors of the Supreme, who function more extensively +during this epoch, are not finite, absonite, ultimate, or infinite; they ere +supremacy and only represent God the Supreme. They are the personalization of +time-space supremacy and therefore do not function in Havona. They function +only as supreme unifiers. They may possibly be involved in the technique of +universe reflectivity, but we are not certain. + +None of us entertains a satisfactory concept of what will happen when the grand +universe (the seven superuniverses as dependent on Havona) becomes entirely +settled in light and life. That event will undoubtedly be the most profound +occurrence in the annals of eternity since the appearance of the central +universe. There are those who hold that the Supreme Being himself will emerge +from the Havona mystery enshrouding his spirit person and will become +residential on the headquarters of the seventh superuniverse as the almighty +and experiential sovereign of the perfected creations of time and space. But we +really do not know. + +[Presented by a Mighty Messenger temporarily assigned to the Archangel Council +on Urantia.] + + top of page - 637 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Problems Of ³ Universal Unity ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ The... ³ ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p056.txt b/religious documents/p056.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ea4d77 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p056.txt @@ -0,0 +1,716 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 56 Universal Unity + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 56 Universal Unity + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +GOD is unity. Deity is universally co-ordinated. The universe of universes is +one vast integrated mechanism which is absolutely controlled by one infinite +mind. The physical, intellectual, and spiritual domains of universal creation +are divinely correlated. The perfect and imperfect are truly interrelated, and +therefore may the finite evolutionary creature ascend to Paradise in obedience +to the Universal Father's mandate: "Be you perfect, even as I am perfect." + +The diverse levels of creation are all unified in the plans and administration +of the Architects of the Master Universe. To the circumscribed minds of +time-space mortals the universe may present many problems and situations which +apparently portray disharmony and indicate absence of effective co-ordination; +but those of us who are able to observe wider stretches of universal phenomena, +and who are more experienced in this art of detecting the basic unity which +underlies creative diversity and of discovering the divine oneness which +overspreads all this functioning of plurality, better perceive the divine and +single purpose exhibited in all these manifold manifestations of universal +creative energy. + +1. PHYSICAL CO-ORDINATION + +The physical or material creation is not infinite, but it is perfectly +co-ordinated. There are force, energy, and power, but they are all one in +origin. The seven superuniverses are seemingly dual; the central universe, +triune; but Paradise is of single constitution. And Paradise is the actual +source of all material universes--past, present, and future. But this cosmic +derivation is an eternity event; at no time--past, present, or future--does +either space or the material cosmos come forth from the nuclear Isle of Light. +As the cosmic source, Paradise functions prior to space and before time; hence +would its derivations seem to be orphaned in time and space did they not emerge +through the Unqualified Absolute, their ultimate repository in space and their +revealer and regulator in time. + +The Unqualified Absolute upholds the physical universe, while the Deity +Absolute motivates the exquisite overcontrol of all material reality; and both +Absolutes are functionally unified by the Universal Absolute. This cohesive +correlation of the material universe is best understood by all +personalities--material, morontia, absonite, or spiritual--by the observation +of the gravity + + top of page - 638 + +response of all bona fide material reality to the gravity centering on nether +Paradise. + +Gravity unification is universal and unvarying; pure-energy response is +likewise universal and inescapable. Pure energy (primordial force) and pure +spirit are wholly preresponsive to gravity. These primal forces, inhering in +the Absolutes, are personally controlled by the Universal Father; hence does +all gravity center in the personal presence of the Paradise Father of pure +energy and pure spirit and in his supermaterial abode. + +Pure energy is the ancestor of all relative, nonspirit functional realities, +while pure spirit is the potential of the divine and directive overcontrol of +all basic energy systems. And these realities, so diverse as manifested +throughout space and as observed in the motions of time, are both centered in +the person of the Paradise Father. In him they are one--must be +unified--because God is one. The Father's personality is absolutely unified. + +In the infinite nature of God the Father there could not possibly exist duality +of reality, such as physical and spiritual; but the instant we look aside from +the infinite levels and absolute reality of the personal values of the Paradise +Father, we observe the existence of these two realities and recognize that they +are fully responsive to his personal presence; in him all things consist. + +The moment you depart from the unqualified concept of the infinite personality +of the Paradise Father, you must postulate MIND as the inevitable technique of +unifying the ever-widening divergence of these dual universe manifestations of +the original monothetic Creator personality, the First Source and Center--the + +2. INTELLECTUAL UNITY + +The Thought-Father realizes spirit expression in the Word-Son and attains +reality expansion through Paradise in the far-flung material universes. The +spiritual expressions of the Eternal Son are correlated with the material +levels of creation by the functions of the Infinite Spirit, by whose +spirit-responsive ministry of mind, and in whose physical-directive acts of +mind, the spiritual realities of Deity and the material repercussions of Deity +are correlated the one with the other. + +Mind is the functional endowment of the Infinite Spirit, therefore infinite in +potential and universal in bestowal. The primal thought of the Universal Father +eternalizes in dual expression: the Isle of Paradise and his Deity equal, the +spiritual and Eternal Son. Such duality of eternal reality renders the mind +God, the Infinite Spirit, inevitable. Mind is the indispensable channel of +communication between spiritual and material realities. The material +evolutionary creature can conceive and comprehend the indwelling spirit only by +the ministry of mind. + +This infinite and universal mind is ministered in the universes of time and +space as the cosmic mind; and though extending from the primitive ministry of +the adjutant spirits up to the magnificent mind of the chief executive of a +universe, even this cosmic mind is adequately unified in the supervision of the +Seven Master Spirits, who are in turn co-ordinated with the Supreme Mind of +time and space and perfectly correlated with the all-embracing mind of the +Infinite Spirit. + + top of page - 639 + +3. SPIRITUAL UNIFICATION + +As the universal mind gravity is centered in the Paradise personal presence of +the Infinite Spirit, so does the universal spirit gravity center in the +Paradise personal presence of the Eternal Son. The Universal Father is one, but +to time-space he is revealed in the dual phenomena of pure energy and pure +spirit. + +Paradise spirit realities are likewise one, but in all time-space situations +and relations this single spirit is revealed in the dual phenomena of the +spirit personalities and emanations of the Eternal Son and the spirit +personalities and influences of the Infinite Spirit and associated creations; +and there is yet a third--pure-spirit fragmentations--the Father's bestowal of +the Thought Adjusters and other spirit entities which are prepersonal. + +No matter on what level of universe activities you may encounter spiritual +phenomena or contact with spirit beings, you may know that they are all derived +from the God who is spirit by the ministry of the Spirit Son and the Infinite +Mind Spirit. And this far-flung spirit functions as a phenomenon on the +evolutionary worlds of time as it is directed from the headquarters of the +local universes. From these capitals of the Creator Sons come the Holy Spirit +and the Spirit of Truth, together with the ministry of the adjutant +mind-spirits, to the lower and evolving levels of material minds. + +While mind is more unified on the level of the Master Spirits in association +with the Supreme Being and as the cosmic mind in subordination to the Absolute +Mind, the spirit ministry to the evolving worlds is more directly unified in +the personalities resident on the headquarters of the local universes and in +the persons of the presiding Divine Ministers, who are in turn well-nigh +perfectly correlated with the Paradise gravity circuit of the Eternal Son, +wherein occurs final unification of all time-space spirit manifestations. + +Perfected creature existence can be attained, sustained, and eternalized by the +fusion of self-conscious mind with a fragment of the pre-Trinity spirit +endowment of some one of the persons of the Paradise Trinity. The mortal mind +is the creation of the Sons and Daughters of the Eternal Son and the Infinite +Spirit and, when fused with the Thought Adjuster from the Father, partakes of +the threefold spirit endowment of the evolutionary realms. But these three +spirit expressions become perfectly unified in the finaliters, even as they +were in eternity so unified in the Universal I AM ere he ever became the +Universal Father of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. + +Spirit must always and ultimately become threefold in expression and +Trinity-unified in final realization. Spirit originates from one source through +a threefold expression; and in finality it must and does attain its full +realization in that divine unification which is experienced in finding +God--oneness with divinity--in eternity, and by means of the ministry of the +cosmic mind of the infinite expression of the eternal word of the Father's +universal thought. + +4. PERSONALITY UNIFICATION + +The Universal Father is a divinely unified personality; hence will all his +ascendant children who are carried to Paradise by the rebound momentum of the +Thought Adjusters, who went forth from Paradise to indwell material mortals + + top of page - 640 + +in obedience to the Father's mandate, likewise be fully unified personalities +ere they reach Havona. + +Personality inherently reaches out to unify all constituent realities. The +infinite personality of the First Source and Center, the Universal Father, +unifies all seven constituent Absolutes of Infinity; and the personality of +mortal man, being an exclusive and direct bestowal of the Universal Father, +likewise possesses the potential of unifying the constituent factors of the +mortal creature. Such unifying creativity of all creature personality is a +birthmark of its high and exclusive source and is further evidential of its +unbroken contact with this same source through the personality circuit, by +means of which the personality of the creature maintains direct and sustaining +contact with the Father of all personality on Paradise. + +Notwithstanding that God is manifest from the domains of the Sevenfold up +through supremacy and ultimacy to God the Absolute, the personality circuit, +centering on Paradise and in the person of God the Father, provides for the +complete and perfect unification of all these diverse expressions of divine +personality so far as concerns all creature personalities on all levels of +intelligent existence and in all the realms of the perfect, perfected, and +perfecting universes. + +While God is to and in the universes all that we have portrayed, nevertheless, +to you and to all other God-knowing creatures he is one, your Father and their +Father. To personality God cannot be plural. God is Father to each of his +creatures, and it is literally impossible for any child to have more than one +father. + +Philosophically, cosmically, and with reference to differential levels and +locations of manifestation, you may and perforce must conceive of the +functioning of plural Deities and postulate the existence of plural Trinities; +but in the worshipful experience of the personal contact of every worshiping +personality throughout the master universe, God is one; and that unified and +personal Deity is our Paradise parent, God the Father, the bestower, +conservator, and Father of all personalities from mortal man on the inhabited +worlds to the Eternal Son on the central Isle of Light. + +5. DEITY UNITY + +The oneness, the indivisibility, of Paradise Deity is existential and absolute. +There are three eternal personalizations of Deity--the Universal Father, the +Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit--but in the Paradise Trinity they are +actually one Deity, undivided and indivisible. + +From the original Paradise-Havona level of existential reality, two subabsolute +levels have differentiated, and thereon have the Father, Son, and Spirit +engaged in the creation of numerous personal associates and subordinates. And +while it is inappropriate in this connection to undertake the consideration of +absonite deity unification on transcendental levels of ultimacy, it is feasible +to look at some features of the unifying function of the various Deity +personalizations in whom divinity is functionally manifest to the diverse +sectors of creation and to the different orders of intelligent beings. + +The present functioning of divinity in the superuniverses is actively manifest +in the operations of the Supreme Creators--the local universe Creator Sons and +Spirits, the superuniverse Ancients of Days, and the Seven Master Spirits of +Paradise. These beings constitute the first three levels of God the Sevenfold + + top of page - 641 + +leading inward to the Universal Father, and this entire domain of God the +Sevenfold is co-ordinating on the first level of experiential deity in the +evolving Supreme Being. + +On Paradise and in the central universe, Deity unity is a fact of existence. +Throughout the evolving universes of time and space, Deity unity is an +achievement. + +6. UNIFICATION OF EVOLUTIONARY DEITY + +When the three eternal persons of Deity function as undivided Deity in the +Paradise Trinity, they achieve perfect unity; likewise, when they create, +either associatively or severally, their Paradise progeny exhibit the +characteristic unity of divinity. And this divinity of purpose manifested by +the Supreme Creators and Rulers of the time-space domains eventuates in the +unifying power potential of the sovereignty of experiential supremacy which, in +the presence of the impersonal energy unity of the universe, constitutes a +reality tension that can be resolved only through adequate unification with the +experiential personality realities of experiential Deity. + +The personality realities of the Supreme Being come forth from the Paradise +Deities and on the pilot world of the outer Havona circuit unify with the power +prerogatives of the Almighty Supreme coming up from the Creator divinities of +the grand universe. God the Supreme as a person existed in Havona before the +creation of the seven superuniverses, but he functioned only on spiritual +levels. The evolution of the Almighty power of Supremacy by diverse divinity +synthesis in the evolving universes eventuated in a new power presence of Deity +which co-ordinated with the spiritual person of the Supreme in Havona by means +of the Supreme Mind, which concomitantly translated from the potential resident +in the infinite mind of the Infinite Spirit to the active functional mind of +the Supreme Being. + +The material-minded creatures of the evolutionary worlds of the seven +superuniverses can comprehend Deity unity only as it is evolving in this +power-personality synthesis of the Supreme Being. On any level of existence God +cannot exceed the conceptual capacity of the beings who live on such a level. +Mortal man must, through the recognition of truth, the appreciation of beauty, +and the worship of goodness, evolve the recognition of a God of love and then +progress through ascending deity levels to the comprehension of the Supreme. +Deity, having been thus grasped as unified in power, can then be personalized +in spirit to creature understanding and attainment. + +While ascending mortals achieve power comprehension of the Almighty on the +capitals of the superuniverses and personality comprehension of the Supreme on +the outer circuits of Havona, they do not actually find the Supreme Being as +they are destined to find the Paradise Deities. Even the finaliters, +sixth-stage spirits, have not found the Supreme Being, nor are they likely to +until they have achieved seventh-stage-spirit status, and until the Supreme has +become actually functional in the activities of the future outer universes. + +But when ascenders find the Universal Father as the seventh level of God the +Sevenfold, they have attained the personality of the First Person of all deity +levels of personal relationships with universe creatures. + + top of page - 642 + +7. UNIVERSAL EVOLUTIONARY REPERCUSSIONS + +The steady progress of evolution in the time-space universes is accompanied by +ever-enlarging revelations of Deity to all intelligent creatures. The +attainment of the height of evolutionary progress on a world, in a system, +constellation, universe, superuniverse, or in the grand universe signalizes +corresponding enlargements of deity function to and in these progressive units +of creation. And every such local enhancement of divinity realization is +accompanied by certain well-defined repercussions of enlarged deity +manifestation to all other sectors of creation. Extending outward from +Paradise, each new domain of realized and attained evolution constitutes a new +and enlarged revelation of experiential Deity to the universe of universes. + +As the components of a local universe are progressively settled in light and +life, God the Sevenfold is increasingly made manifest. Time-space evolution +begins on a planet with the first expression of God the Sevenfold--the Creator +Son-Creative Spirit association--in control. With the settling of a system in +light, this Son-Spirit liaison attains the fullness of function; and when an +entire constellation is thus settled, the second phase of God the Sevenfold +becomes more active throughout such a realm. The completed administrative +evolution of a local universe is attended by new and more direct ministrations +of the superuniverse Master Spirits; and at this point there also begins that +ever-expanding revelation and realization of God the Supreme which culminates +in the ascender's comprehension of the Supreme Being while passing through the +worlds of the sixth Havona circuit. + +The Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit are existential +deity manifestations to intelligent creatures and are not, therefore, similarly +expanded in personality relations with the mind and spirit creatures of all +creation. + +It should be noted that ascending mortals may experience the impersonal +presence of successive levels of Deity long before they become sufficiently +spiritual and adequately educated to attain experiential personal recognition +of, and contact with, these Deities as personal beings. + +Each new evolutionary attainment within a sector of creation, as well as every +new invasion of space by divinity manifestations, is attended by simultaneous +expansions of Deity functional-revelation within the then existing and +previously organized units of all creation. This new invasion of the +administrative work of the universes and their component units may not always +appear to be executed exactly in accordance with the technique herewith +outlined because it is the practice to send forth advance groups of +administrators to prepare the way for the subsequent and successive eras of new +administrative overcontrol. Even God the Ultimate foreshadows his +transcendental overcontrol of the universes during the later stages of a local +universe settled in light and life. + +It is a fact that, as the creations of time and space are progressively settled +in evolutionary status, there is observed a new and fuller functioning of God +the Supreme concomitant with a corresponding withdrawing of the first three +manifestations of God the Sevenfold. If and when the grand universe becomes +settled in light and life, what then will be the future function of the +Creator-Creative + + top of page - 643 + +manifestations of God the Sevenfold if God the Supreme assumes direct control +of these creations of time and space? Are these organizers and pioneers of the +time-space universes to be liberated for similar activities in outer space? We +do not know, but we speculate much concerning these and related matters. + +As the frontiers of experiential Deity are extended out into the domains of the +Unqualified Absolute, we envision the activity of God the Sevenfold during the +earlier evolutionary epochs of these creations of the future. We are not all in +agreement respecting the future status of the Ancients of Days and the +superuniverse Master Spirits. Neither do we know whether or not the Supreme +Being will therein function as in the seven superuniverses. But we all +conjecture that the Michaels, the Creator Sons, are destined to function in +these outer universes. Some hold that the future ages will witness some closer +form of union between the associated Creator Sons and Divine Ministers; it is +even possible that such a creator union might eventuate in some new expression +of associate-creator identity of an ultimate nature. But we really know nothing +about these possibilities of the unrevealed future. + +We do know, however, that in the universes of time and space, God the Sevenfold +provides a progressive approach to the Universal Father, and that this +evolutionary approach is experientially unified in God the Supreme. We might +conjecture that such a plan must prevail in the outer universes; on the other +hand the new orders of beings that may sometime inhabit these universes may be +able to approach Deity on ultimate levels and by absonite techniques. In short, +we have not the slightest concept of what technique of deity approach may +become operative in the future universes of outer space. + +Nevertheless, we deem that the perfected superuniverses will in some way become +a part of the Paradise-ascension careers of those beings who may inhabit these +outer creations. It is quite possible that in that future age we may witness +outer-spacers approaching Havona through the seven superuniverses, administered +by God the Supreme with or without the collaboration of the Seven Master +Spirits. + +8. THE SUPREME UNIFIER + +The Supreme Being has a threefold function in the experience of mortal man: +First, he is the unifier of time-space divinity, God the Sevenfold; second, he +is the maximum of Deity which finite creatures can actually comprehend; third, +he is mortal man's only avenue of approach to the transcendental experience of +consorting with absonite mind, eternal spirit, and Paradise personality. + +Ascendant finaliters, having been born in the local universes, nurtured in the +superuniverses, and trained in the central universe, embrace in their personal +experiences the full potential of the comprehension of the time-space divinity +of God the Sevenfold unifying in the Supreme. Finaliters serve successively in +superuniverses other than those of nativity, thereby superimposing experience +upon experience until the fullness of the sevenfold diversity of possible +creature experience has been encompassed. Through the ministry of the +indwelling Adjusters the finaliters are enabled to find the Universal Father, +but it is by these techniques of experience that such finaliters come really to +know the Supreme Being, and they are destined to the service and the revelation +of this Supreme Deity in and to the future universes of outer space. + + top of page - 644 + +Bear in mind, all that God the Father and his Paradise Sons do for us, we in +turn and in spirit have the opportunity to do for and in the emerging Supreme +Being. The experience of love, joy, and service in the universe is mutual. God +the Father does not need that his sons should return to him all that he bestows +upon them, but they do (or may) in turn bestow all of this upon their fellows +and upon the evolving Supreme Being. + +All creational phenomena are reflective of antecedent creator-spirit +activities. Said Jesus, and it is literally true, "The Son does only those +things which he sees the Father do." In time you mortals may begin the +revelation of the Supreme to your fellows, and increasingly may you augment +this revelation as you ascend Paradiseward. In eternity you may be permitted to +make increasing revelations of this God of evolutionary creatures on supreme +levels--even ultimate--as seventh-stage finaliters. + +9. UNIVERSAL ABSOLUTE UNITY + +The Unqualified Absolute and the Deity Absolute are unified in the Universal +Absolute. The Absolutes are co-ordinated in the Ultimate, conditioned in the +Supreme, and time-space modified in God the Sevenfold. On subinfinite levels +there are three Absolutes, but in infinity they appear to be one. On Paradise +there are three personalizations of Deity, but in the Trinity they are one. + +The major philosophic proposition of the master universe is this: Did the +Absolute (the three Absolutes as one in infinity) exist before the Trinity? and +is the Absolute ancestral to the Trinity? or is the Trinity antecedent to the +Absolute? + +Is the Unqualified Absolute a force presence independent of the Trinity? Does +the presence of the Deity Absolute connote the unlimited function of the +Trinity? and is the Universal Absolute the final function of the Trinity, even +a Trinity of Trinities? + +On first thought, a concept of the Absolute as ancestor to all things--even the +Trinity--seems to afford transitory satisfaction of consistency gratification +and philosophic unification, but any such conclusion is invalidated by the +actuality of the eternity of the Paradise Trinity. We are taught, and we +believe, that the Universal Father and his Trinity associates are eternal in +nature and existence. There is, then, but one consistent philosophic +conclusion, and that is: The Absolute is, to all universe intelligences, the +impersonal and co-ordinate reaction of the Trinity (of Trinities) to all basic +and primary space situations, intrauniversal and extrauniversal. To all +personality intelligences of the grand universe the Paradise Trinity forever +stands in finality, eternity, supremacy, and ultimacy and, for all practical +purposes of personal comprehension and creature realization, as absolute. + +As creature minds may view this problem, they are led to the final postulate of +the Universal I AM as the primal cause and the unqualified source of both the +Trinity and the Absolute. When, therefore, we crave to entertain a personal +concept of the Absolute, we revert to our ideas and ideals of the Paradise +Father. When we desire to facilitate comprehension or to augment consciousness +of this otherwise impersonal Absolute, we revert to the fact that the Universal +Father is the existential Father of absolute personality; the Eternal Son is +the Absolute Person, though not, in the experiential sense, the personalization +of the Absolute. + + top of page - 645 + +And then we go on to envisage the experiential Trinities as culminating in the +experiential personalization of the Deity Absolute, while conceiving the +Universal Absolute as constituting the universe and the extrauniverse phenomena +of the manifest presence of the impersonal activities of the unified and +co-ordinated Deity associations of supremacy, ultimacy, and infinity--the +Trinity of Trinities. + +God the Father is discernible on all levels from the finite to the infinite, +and though his creatures from Paradise to the evolutionary worlds have +variously perceived him, only the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit know him +as an infinity. + +Spiritual personality is absolute only on Paradise, and the concept of the +Absolute is unqualified only in infinity. Deity presence is absolute only on +Paradise, and the revelation of God must always be partial, relative, and +progressive until his power becomes experientially infinite in the space +potency of the Unqualified Absolute, while his personality manifestation +becomes experientially infinite in the manifest presence of the Deity Absolute, +and while these two potentials of infinity become reality-unified in the +Universal Absolute. + +But beyond subinfinite levels the three Absolutes are one, and thereby is +infinity Deity-realized regardless of whether any other order of existence ever +self-realizes consciousness of infinity. + +Existential status in eternity implies existential self-consciousness of +infinity, even though another eternity may be required to experience +self-realization of the experiential potentialities inherent in an infinity +eternity--an eternal infinity. + +And God the Father is the personal source of all manifestations of Deity and +reality to all intelligent creatures and spirit beings throughout all the +universe of universes. As personalities, now or in the successive universe +experiences of the eternal future, no matter if you achieve the attainment of +God the Sevenfold, comprehend God the Supreme, find God the Ultimate, or +attempt to grasp the concept of God the Absolute, you will discover to your +eternal satisfaction that in the consummation of each adventure you have, on +new experiential levels, rediscovered the eternal God--the Paradise Father of +all universe personalities. + +The Universal Father is the explanation of universal unity as it must be +supremely, even ultimately, realized in the postultimate unity of absolute +values and meanings--unqualified Reality. + +The Master Force Organizers go out into space and mobilize its energies to +become gravity responsive to the Paradise pull of the Universal Father; and +subsequently there come the Creator Sons, who organize these gravity-responding +forces into inhabited universes and therein evolve intelligent creatures who +receive unto themselves the spirit of the Paradise Father and subsequently +ascend to the Father to become like him in all possible divinity attributes. + +The ceaseless and expanding march of the Paradise creative forces through space +seems to presage the ever-extending domain of the gravity grasp of the +Universal Father and the never-ending multiplication of varied types of +intelligent creatures who are able to love God and be loved by him, and who, by +thus becoming God-knowing, may choose to be like him, may elect to attain +Paradise and find God. + + top of page - 646 + +The universe of universes is altogether unified. God is one in power and +personality. There is co-ordination of all levels of energy and all phases of +personality. Philosophically and experientially, in concept and in reality, all +things and beings center in the Paradise Father. God is all and in all, and no +things or beings exist without him. + +10. TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS + +As the worlds settled in life and light progress from the initial stage to the +seventh epoch, they successively grasp for the realization of the reality of +God the Sevenfold, ranging from the adoration of the Creator Son to the worship +of his Paradise Father. Throughout the continuing seventh stage of such a +world's history the ever-progressing mortals grow in the knowledge of God the +Supreme, while they vaguely discern the reality of the overshadowing ministry +of God the Ultimate. + +Throughout this glorious age the chief pursuit of the ever-advancing mortals is +the quest for a better understanding and a fuller realization of the +comprehensible elements of Deity--truth, beauty, and goodness. This represents +man's effort to discern God in mind, matter, and spirit. And as the mortal +pursues this quest, he finds himself increasingly absorbed in the experiential +study of philosophy, cosmology, and divinity. + +Philosophy you somewhat grasp, and divinity you comprehend in worship, social +service, and personal spiritual experience, but the pursuit of +beauty--cosmology--you all too often limit to the study of man's crude artistic +endeavors. Beauty, art, is largely a matter of the unification of contrasts. +Variety is essential to the concept of beauty. The supreme beauty, the height +of finite art, is the drama of the unification of the vastness of the cosmic +extremes of Creator and creature. Man finding God and God finding man--the +creature becoming perfect as is the Creator--that is the supernal achievement +of the supremely beautiful, the attainment of the apex of cosmic art. + +Hence materialism, atheism, is the maximation of ugliness, the climax of the +finite antithesis of the beautiful. Highest beauty consists in the panorama of +the unification of the variations which have been born of pre-existent +harmonious reality. + +The attainment of cosmologic levels of thought includes: + +1. Curiosity. Hunger for harmony and thirst for beauty. Persistent attempts to +discover new levels of harmonious cosmic relationships. + +2. Aesthetic appreciation. Love of the beautiful and ever-advancing +appreciation of the artistic touch of all creative manifestations on all levels +of reality. + +3. Ethic sensitivity. Through the realization of truth the appreciation of +beauty leads to the sense of the eternal fitness of those things which impinge +upon the recognition of divine goodness in Deity relations with all beings; and +thus even cosmology leads to the pursuit of divine reality values--to +God-consciousness. + +The worlds settled in light and life are so fully concerned with the +comprehension of truth, beauty, and goodness because these quality values +embrace the revelation of Deity to the realms of time and space. The meanings +of eternal + + top of page - 647 + +truth make a combined appeal to the intellectual and spiritual natures of +mortal man. Universal beauty embraces the harmonious relations and rhythms of +the cosmic creation; this is more distinctly the intellectual appeal and leads +towards unified and synchronous comprehension of the material universe. Divine +goodness represents the revelation of infinite values to the finite mind, +therein to be perceived and elevated to the very threshold of the spiritual +level of human comprehension. + +Truth is the basis of science and philosophy, presenting the intellectual +foundation of religion. Beauty sponsors art, music, and the meaningful rhythms +of all human experience. Goodness embraces the sense of ethics, morality, and +religion--experiential perfection-hunger. + +The existence of beauty implies the presence of appreciative creature mind just +as certainly as the fact of progressive evolution indicates the dominance of +the Supreme Mind. Beauty is the intellectual recognition of the harmonious +time-space synthesis of the far-flung diversification of phenomenal reality, +all of which stems from pre-existent and eternal oneness. + +Goodness is the mental recognition of the relative values of the diverse levels +of divine perfection. The recognition of goodness implies a mind of moral +status, a personal mind with ability to discriminate between good and evil. But +the possession of goodness, greatness, is the measure of real divinity +attainment. + +The recognition of true relations implies a mind competent to discriminate +between truth and error. The bestowal Spirit of Truth which invests the human +minds of Urantia is unerringly responsive to truth--the living spirit +relationship of all things and all beings as they are co-ordinated in the +eternal ascent Godward. + +Every impulse of every electron, thought, or spirit is an acting unit in the +whole universe. Only sin is isolated and evil gravity resisting on the mental +and spiritual levels. The universe is a whole; no thing or being exists or +lives in isolation. Self-realization is potentially evil if it is antisocial. +It is literally true: "No man lives by himself." Cosmic socialization +constitutes the highest form of personality unification. Said Jesus: "He who +would be greatest among you, let him become server of all." + +Even truth, beauty, and goodness--man's intellectual approach to the universe +of mind, matter, and spirit--must be combined into one unified concept of a +divine and supreme ideal. As mortal personality unifies the human experience +with matter, mind, and spirit, so does this divine and supreme ideal become +power-unified in Supremacy and then personalized as a God of fatherly love. + +All insight into the relations of the parts to any given whole requires an +understanding grasp of the relation of all parts to that whole; and in the +universe this means the relation of created parts to the Creative Whole. Deity +thus becomes the transcendental, even the infinite, goal of universal and +eternal attainment. + +Universal beauty is the recognition of the reflection of the Isle of Paradise +in the material creation, while eternal truth is the special ministry of the +Paradise Sons who not only bestow themselves upon the mortal races but even +pour out their Spirit of Truth upon all peoples. Divine goodness is more fully +shown forth in the loving ministry of the manifold personalities of the +Infinite Spirit. + + top of page - 648 + +But love, the sum total of these three qualities, is man's perception of God as +his spirit Father. + +Physical matter is the time-space shadow of the Paradise energy-shining of the +absolute Deities. Truth meanings are the mortal-intellect repercussions of the +eternal word of Deity--the time-space comprehension of supreme concepts. The +goodness values of divinity are the merciful ministries of the spirit +personalities of the Universal, the Eternal, and the Infinite to the time-space +finite creatures of the evolutionary spheres. + +These meaningful reality values of divinity are blended in the Father's +relation with each personal creature as divine love. They are co-ordinated in +the Son and his Sons as divine mercy. They manifest their qualities through the +Spirit and his spirit children as divine ministry, the portrayal of loving +mercy to the children of time. These three divinities are primarily manifested +by the Supreme Being as power-personality synthesis. They are variously shown +forth by God the Sevenfold in seven differing associations of divine meanings +and values on seven ascending levels. + +To finite man truth, beauty, and goodness embrace the full revelation of +divinity reality. As this love-comprehension of Deity finds spiritual +expression in the lives of God-knowing mortals, there are yielded the fruits of +divinity: intellectual peace, social progress, moral satisfaction, spiritual +joy, and cosmic wisdom. The advanced mortals on a world in the seventh stage of +light and life have learned that love is the greatest thing in the +universe--and they know that God is love. + +Love is the desire to do good to others. + +[Presented by a Mighty Messenger visiting on Urantia, by request of the Nebadon +Revelatory Corps and in collaboration with a certain Melchizedek, the +vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia.] + +* * * * * + +This paper on Universal Unity is the twenty-fifth of a series of presentations +by various authors, having been sponsored as a group by a commission of Nebadon +personalities numbering twelve and acting under the direction of Mantutia +Melchizedek. We indited these narratives and put them in the English language, +by a technique authorized by our superiors, in the year 1934 of Urantia time. + + top of page - 649 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART II: The Local Universe : +The Evolution Of Local Universes Administration Of The Local Universe The Local + Universe Mother Spirit The Local Universe Sons Of God The Life Carriers + Personalities Of The Local Universe Ministering Spirits Of The Local Universe + The Seraphic Hosts The Ascending Sons Of God Physical Aspects Of The Local + Universe Energy--mind And Matter The Constellations The Celestial Artisans The + Local System Administration The Local System Headquarters The Seven Mansion + Worlds The Morontia Life The Inhabited Worlds The Planetary Princes The + Planetary Adams Planetary Mortal Epochs The Lucifer Rebellion Problems Of The + Lucifer Rebellion The Spheres Of Light And Life Universal Unity + + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ + ³ The Spheres Of ... ³ Urantia Book PA... ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p062.txt b/religious documents/p062.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e16dbc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p062.txt @@ -0,0 +1,533 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 62 The Dawn Races Of Early Man + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 62 The Dawn Races Of Early Man + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ABOUT one million years ago the immediate ancestors of mankind made their +appearance by three successive and sudden mutations stemming from early stock +of the lemur type of placental mammal. The dominant factors of these early +lemurs were derived from the western or later American group of the evolving +life plasm. But before establishing the direct line of human ancestry, this +strain was reinforced by contributions from the central life implantation +evolved in Africa. The eastern life group contributed little or nothing to the +actual production of the human species. + +1. THE EARLY LEMUR TYPES + +The early lemurs concerned in the ancestry of the human species were not +directly related to the pre-existent tribes of gibbons and apes then living in +Eurasia and northern Africa, whose progeny have survived to the present time. +Neither were they the offspring of the modern type of lemur, though springing +from an ancestor common to both but long since extinct. + +While these early lemurs evolved in the Western Hemisphere, the establishment +of the direct mammalian ancestry of mankind took place in southwestern Asia, in +the original area of the central life implantation but on the borders of the +eastern regions. Several million years ago the North American type lemurs had +migrated westward over the Bering land bridge and had slowly made their way +southwestward along the Asiatic coast. These migrating tribes finally reached +the salubrious region lying between the then expanded Mediterranean Sea and the +elevating mountainous regions of the Indian peninsula. In these lands to the +west of India they united with other and favorable strains, thus establishing +the ancestry of the human race. + +With the passing of time the seacoast of India southwest of the mountains +gradually submerged, completely isolating the life of this region. There was no +avenue of approach to, or escape from, this Mesopotamian or Persian peninsula +except to the north, and that was repeatedly cut off by the southern invasions +of the glaciers. And it was in this then almost paradisiacal area, and from the +superior descendants of this lemur type of mammal, that there sprang two great +groups, the simian tribes of modern times and the present-day human species. + +2. THE DAWN MAMMALS + +A little more than one million years ago the Mesopotamian dawn mammals, the +direct descendants of the North American lemur type of placental mammal, + + top of page - 704 + +suddenly appeared. They were active little creatures, almost three feet tall; +and while they did not habitually walk on their hind legs, they could easily +stand erect. They were hairy and agile and chattered in monkeylike fashion, but +unlike the simian tribes, they were flesh eaters. They had a primitive +opposable thumb as well as a highly useful grasping big toe. From this point +onward the prehuman species successively developed the opposable thumb while +they progressively lost the grasping power of the great toe. The later ape +tribes retained the grasping big toe but never developed the human type of +thumb. + +These dawn mammals attained full growth when three or four years of age, having +a potential life span, on the average, of about twenty years. As a rule +offspring were born singly, although twins were occasional. + +The members of this new species had the largest brains for their size of any +animal that had theretofore existed on earth. They experienced many of the +emotions and shared numerous instincts which later characterized primitive man, +being highly curious and exhibiting considerable elation when successful at any +undertaking. Food hunger and sex craving were well developed, and a definite +sex selection was manifested in a crude form of courtship and choice of mates. +They would fight fiercely in defense of their kindred and were quite tender in +family associations, possessing a sense of self-abasement bordering on shame +and remorse. They were very affectionate and touchingly loyal to their mates, +but if circumstances separated them, they would choose new partners. + +Being small of stature and having keen minds to realize the dangers of their +forest habitat, they developed an extraordinary fear which led to those wise +precautionary measures that so enormously contributed to survival, such as +their construction of crude shelters in the high treetops which eliminated many +of the perils of ground life. The beginning of the fear tendencies of mankind +more specifically dates from these days. + +These dawn mammals developed more of a tribal spirit than had ever been +previously exhibited. They were, indeed, highly gregarious but nevertheless +exceedingly pugnacious when in any way disturbed in the ordinary pursuit of +their routine life, and they displayed fiery tempers when their anger was fully +aroused. Their bellicose natures, however, served a good purpose; superior +groups did not hesitate to make war on their inferior neighbors, and thus, by +selective survival, the species was progressively improved. They very soon +dominated the life of the smaller creatures of this region, and very few of the +older noncarnivorous monkeylike tribes survived. + +These aggressive little animals multiplied and spread over the Mesopotamian +peninsula for more than one thousand years, constantly improving in physical +type and general intelligence. And it was just seventy generations after this +new tribe had taken origin from the highest type of lemur ancestor that the +next epoch-making development occurred--the sudden differentiation of the +ancestors of the next vital step in the evolution of human beings on Urantia. + +3. THE MID-MAMMALS + +Early in the career of the dawn mammals, in the treetop abode of a superior +pair of these agile creatures, twins were born, one male and one female. +Compared with their ancestors, they were really handsome little creatures. They +had little hair on their bodies, but this was no disability as they lived in a +warm and equable climate. + + top of page - 705 + +These children grew to be a little over four feet in height. They were in every +way larger than their parents, having longer legs and shorter arms. They had +almost perfectly opposable thumbs, just about as well adapted for diversified +work as the present human thumb. They walked upright, having feet almost as +well suited for walking as those of the later human races. + +Their brains were inferior to, and smaller than, those of human beings but very +superior to, and comparatively much larger than, those of their ancestors. The +twins early displayed superior intelligence and were soon recognized as the +heads of the whole tribe of dawn mammals, really instituting a primitive form +of social organization and a crude economic division of labor. This brother and +sister mated and soon enjoyed the society of twenty-one children much like +themselves, all more than four feet tall and in every way superior to the +ancestral species. This new group formed the nucleus of the mid-mammals. + +When the numbers of this new and superior group grew great, war, relentless +war, broke out; and when the terrible struggle was over, not a single +individual of the pre-existent and ancestral race of dawn mammals remained +alive. The less numerous but more powerful and intelligent offshoot of the +species had survived at the expense of their ancestors. + +And now, for almost fifteen thousand years (six hundred generations), this +creature became the terror of this part of the world. All of the great and +vicious animals of former times had perished. The large beasts native to these +regions were not carnivorous, and the larger species of the cat family, lions +and tigers, had not yet invaded this peculiarly sheltered nook of the earth's +surface. Therefore did these mid-mammals wax valiant and subdue the whole of +their corner of creation. + +Compared with the ancestral species, the mid-mammals were an improvement in +every way. Even their potential life span was longer, being about twenty-five +years. A number of rudimentary human traits appeared in this new species. In +addition to the innate propensities exhibited by their ancestors, these +mid-mammals were capable of showing disgust in certain repulsive situations. +They further possessed a well-defined hoarding instinct; they would hide food +for subsequent use and were greatly given to the collection of smooth round +pebbles and certain types of round stones suitable for defensive and offensive +ammunition. + +These mid-mammals were the first to exhibit a definite construction propensity, +as shown in their rivalry in the building of both treetop homes and their +many-tunneled subterranean retreats; they were the first species of mammals +ever to provide for safety in both arboreal and underground shelters. They +largely forsook the trees as places of abode, living on the ground during the +day and sleeping in the treetops at night. + +As time passed, the natural increase in numbers eventually resulted in serious +food competition and sex rivalry, all of which culminated in a series of +internecine battles that nearly destroyed the entire species. These struggles +continued until only one group of less than one hundred individuals was left +alive. But peace once more prevailed, and this lone surviving tribe built anew +its treetop bedrooms and once again resumed a normal and semipeaceful +existence. + +You can hardly realize by what narrow margins your prehuman ancestors missed +extinction from time to time. Had the ancestral frog of all humanity jumped two +inches less on a certain occasion, the whole course of evolution + + top of page - 706 + +would have been markedly changed. The immediate lemurlike mother of the +dawn-mammal species escaped death no less than five times by mere hairbreadth +margins before she gave birth to the father of the new and higher mammalian +order. But the closest call of all was when lightning struck the tree in which +the prospective mother of the Primates twins was sleeping. Both of these +mid-mammal parents were severely shocked and badly burned; three of their seven +children were killed by this bolt from the skies. These evolving animals were +almost superstitious. This couple whose treetop home had been struck were +really the leaders of the more progressive group of the mid-mammal species; and +following their example, more than half the tribe, embracing the more +intelligent families, moved about two miles away from this locality and began +the construction of new treetop abodes and new ground shelters--their transient +retreats in time of sudden danger. + +Soon after the completion of their home, this couple, veterans of so many +struggles, found themselves the proud parents of twins, the most interesting +and important animals ever to have been born into the world up to that time, +for they were the first of the new species of Primates constituting the next +vital step in prehuman evolution. + +Contemporaneously with the birth of these Primates twins, another couple--a +peculiarly retarded male and female of the mid-mammal tribe, a couple that were +both mentally and physically inferior--also gave birth to twins. These twins, +one male and one female, were indifferent to conquest; they were concerned only +with obtaining food and, since they would not eat flesh, soon lost all interest +in seeking prey. These retarded twins became the founders of the modern simian +tribes. Their descendants sought the warmer southern regions with their mild +climates and an abundance of tropical fruits, where they have continued much as +of that day except for those branches which mated with the earlier types of +gibbons and apes and have greatly deteriorated in consequence. + +And so it may be readily seen that man and the ape are related only in that +they sprang from the mid-mammals, a tribe in which there occurred the +contemporaneous birth and subsequent segregation of two pairs of twins: the +inferior pair destined to produce the modern types of monkey, baboon, +chimpanzee, and gorilla; the superior pair destined to continue the line of +ascent which evolved into man himself. + +Modern man and the simians did spring from the same tribe and species but not +from the same parents. Man's ancestors are descended from the superior strains +of the selected remnant of this mid-mammal tribe, whereas the modern simians +(excepting certain pre-existent types of lemurs, gibbons, apes, and other +monkeylike creatures) are the descendants of the most inferior couple of this +mid-mammal group, a couple who only survived by hiding themselves in a +subterranean food-storage retreat for more than two weeks during the last +fierce battle of their tribe, emerging only after the hostilities were well +over. + +4. THE PRIMATES + +Going back to the birth of the superior twins, one male and one female, to the +two leading members of the mid-mammal tribe: These animal babies were of an +unusual order; they had still less hair on their bodies than their parents + + top of page - 707 + +and, when very young, insisted on walking upright. Their ancestors had always +learned to walk on their hind legs, but these Primates twins stood erect from +the beginning. They attained a height of over five feet, and their heads grew +larger in comparison with others among the tribe. While early learning to +communicate with each other by means of signs and sounds, they were never able +to make their people understand these new symbols. + +When about fourteen years of age, they fled from the tribe, going west to raise +their family and establish the new species of Primates. And these new creatures +are very properly denominated Primates since they were the direct and immediate +animal ancestors of the human family itself. + +Thus it was that the Primates came to occupy a region on the west coast of the +Mesopotamian peninsula as it then projected into the southern sea, while the +less intelligent and closely related tribes lived around the peninsula point +and up the eastern shore line. + +The Primates were more human and less animal than their mid-mammal +predecessors. The skeletal proportions of this new species were very similar to +those of the primitive human races. The human type of hand and foot had fully +developed, and these creatures could walk and even run as well as any of their +later-day human descendants. They largely abandoned tree life, though +continuing to resort to the treetops as a safety measure at night, for like +their earlier ancestors, they were greatly subject to fear. The increased use +of their hands did much to develop inherent brain power, but they did not yet +possess minds that could really be called human. + +Although in emotional nature the Primates differed little from their forebears, +they exhibited more of a human trend in all of their propensities. They were, +indeed, splendid and superior animals, reaching maturity at about ten years of +age and having a natural life span of about forty years. That is, they might +have lived that long had they died natural deaths, but in those early days very +few animals ever died a natural death; the struggle for existence was +altogether too intense. + +And now, after almost nine hundred generations of development, covering about +twenty-one thousand years from the origin of the dawn mammals, the Primates +suddenly gave birth to two remarkable creatures, the first true human beings. + +Thus it was that the dawn mammals, springing from the North American lemur +type, gave origin to the mid-mammals, and these mid-mammals in turn produced +the superior Primates, who became the immediate ancestors of the primitive +human race. The Primates tribes were the last vital link in the evolution of +man, but in less than five thousand years not a single individual of these +extraordinary tribes was left. + +5. THE FIRST HUMAN BEINGS + +From the year A.D. 1934 back to the birth of the first two human beings is just +993,419 years. + +These two remarkable creatures were true human beings. They possessed perfect +human thumbs, as had many of their ancestors, while they had just as perfect +feet as the present-day human races. They were walkers and runners, not +climbers; the grasping function of the big toe was absent, completely absent. + + top of page - 708 + +When danger drove them to the treetops, they climbed just like the humans of +today would. They would climb up the trunk of a tree like a bear and not as +would a chimpanzee or a gorilla, swinging up by the branches. + +These first human beings (and their descendants) reached full maturity at +twelve years of age and possessed a potential life span of about seventy-five +years. + +Many new emotions early appeared in these human twins. They experienced +admiration for both objects and other beings and exhibited considerable vanity. +But the most remarkable advance in emotional development was the sudden +appearance of a new group of really human feelings, the worshipful group, +embracing awe, reverence, humility, and even a primitive form of gratitude. +Fear, joined with ignorance of natural phenomena, is about to give birth to +primitive religion. + +Not only were such human feelings manifested in these primitive humans, but +many more highly evolved sentiments were also present in rudimentary form. They +were mildly cognizant of pity, shame, and reproach and were acutely conscious +of love, hate, and revenge, being also susceptible to marked feelings of +jealousy. + +These first two humans--the twins--were a great trial to their Primates +parents. They were so curious and adventurous that they nearly lost their lives +on numerous occasions before they were eight years old. As it was, they were +rather well scarred up by the time they were twelve. + +Very early they learned to engage in verbal communication; by the age of ten +they had worked out an improved sign and word language of almost half a hundred +ideas and had greatly improved and expanded the crude communicative technique +of their ancestors. But try as hard as they might, they were able to teach only +a few of their new signs and symbols to their parents. + +When about nine years of age, they journeyed off down the river one bright day +and held a momentous conference. Every celestial intelligence stationed on +Urantia, including myself, was present as an observer of the transactions of +this noontide tryst. On this eventful day they arrived at an understanding to +live with and for each other, and this was the first of a series of such +agreements which finally culminated in the decision to flee from their inferior +animal associates and to journey northward, little knowing that they were thus +to found the human race. + +While we were all greatly concerned with what these two little savages were +planning, we were powerless to control the working of their minds; we did +not--could not--arbitrarily influence their decisions. But within the +permissible limits of planetary function, we, the Life Carriers, together with +our associates, all conspired to lead the human twins northward and far from +their hairy and partially tree-dwelling people. And so, by reason of their own +intelligent choice, the twins did migrate, and because of our supervision they +migrated northward to a secluded region where they escaped the possibility of +biologic degradation through admixture with their inferior relatives of the +Primates tribes. + +Shortly before their departure from the home forests they lost their mother in +a gibbon raid. While she did not possess their intelligence, she did have a +worthy mammalian affection of a high order for her offspring, and she +fearlessly gave her life in the attempt to save the wonderful pair. Nor was her +sacrifice in vain, for she held off the enemy until the father arrived with +reinforcements and put the invaders to rout. + + top of page - 709 + +Soon after this young couple forsook their associates to found the human race, +their Primates father became disconsolate--he was heartbroken. He refused to +eat, even when food was brought to him by his other children. His brilliant +offspring having been lost, life did not seem worth living among his ordinary +fellows; so he wandered off into the forest, was set upon by hostile gibbons +and beaten to death. + +6. EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN MIND + +We, the Life Carriers on Urantia, had passed through the long vigil of watchful +waiting since the day we first planted the life plasm in the planetary waters, +and naturally the appearance of the first really intelligent and volitional +beings brought to us great joy and supreme satisfaction. + +We had been watching the twins develop mentally through our observation of the +functioning of the seven adjutant mind-spirits assigned to Urantia at the time +of our arrival on the planet. Throughout the long evolutionary development of +planetary life, these tireless mind ministers had ever registered their +increasing ability to contact with the successively expanding brain capacities +of the progressively superior animal creatures. + +At first only the spirit of intuition could function in the instinctive and +reflex behavior of the primordial animal life. With the differentiation of +higher types, the spirit of understanding was able to endow such creatures with +the gift of spontaneous association of ideas. Later on we observed the spirit +of courage in operation; evolving animals really developed a crude form of +protective self-consciousness. Subsequent to the appearance of the mammalian +groups, we beheld the spirit of knowledge manifesting itself in increased +measure. And the evolution of the higher mammals brought the function of the +spirit of counsel, with the resulting growth of the herd instinct and the +beginnings of primitive social development. + +Increasingly, on down through the dawn mammals, the mid-mammals, and the +Primates, we had observed the augmented service of the first five adjutants. +But never had the remaining two, the highest mind ministers, been able to +function in the Urantia type of evolutionary mind. + +Imagine our joy one day--the twins were about ten years old--when the spirit of +worship made its first contact with the mind of the female twin and shortly +thereafter with the male. We knew that something closely akin to human mind was +approaching culmination; and when, about a year later, they finally resolved, +as a result of meditative thought and purposeful decision, to flee from home +and journey north, then did the spirit of wisdom begin to function on Urantia +and in these two now recognized human minds. + +There was an immediate and new order of mobilization of the seven adjutant +mind-spirits. We were alive with expectation; we realized that the +long-waited-for hour was approaching; we knew we were upon the threshold of the +realization of our protracted effort to evolve will creatures on Urantia. + +7. RECOGNITION AS AN INHABITED WORLD + +We did not have to wait long. At noon, the day after the runaway of the twins, +there occurred the initial test flash of the universe circuit signals at the +planetary reception-focus of Urantia. We were, of course, all astir with the + + top of page - 710 + +realization that a great event was impending; but since this world was a +life-experiment station, we had not the slightest idea of just how we would be +apprised of the recognition of intelligent life on the planet. But we were not +long in suspense. On the third day after the elopement of the twins, and before +the Life Carrier corps departed, there arrived the Nebadon archangel of initial +planetary circuit establishment. + +It was an eventful day on Urantia when our small group gathered about the +planetary pole of space communication and received the first message from +Salvington over the newly established mind circuit of the planet. And this +first message, dictated by the chief of the archangel corps, said: + +"To the Life Carriers on Urantia--Greetings! We transmit assurance of great +pleasure on Salvington, Edentia, and Jerusem in honor of the registration on +the headquarters of Nebadon of the signal of the existence on Urantia of mind +of will dignity. The purposeful decision of the twins to flee northward and +segregate their offspring from their inferior ancestors has been noted. This is +the first decision of mind--the human type of mind--on Urantia and +automatically establishes the circuit of communication over which this initial +message of acknowledgment is transmitting." + +Next over this new circuit came the greetings of the Most Highs of Edentia, +containing instructions for the resident Life Carriers forbidding us to +interfere with the pattern of life we had established. We were directed not to +intervene in the affairs of human progress. It should not be inferred that Life +Carriers ever arbitrarily and mechanically interfere with the natural +outworking of the planetary evolutionary plans, for we do not. But up to this +time we had been permitted to manipulate the environment and shield the life +plasm in a special manner, and it was this extraordinary, but wholly natural, +supervision that was to be discontinued. + +And no sooner had the Most Highs left off speaking than the beautiful message +of Lucifer, then sovereign of the Satania system, began to planetize. Now the +Life Carriers heard the welcome words of their own chief and received his +permission to return to Jerusem. This message from Lucifer contained the +official acceptance of the Life Carriers' work on Urantia and absolved us from +all future criticism of any of our efforts to improve the life patterns of +Nebadon as established in the Satania system. + +These messages from Salvington, Edentia, and Jerusem formally marked the +termination of the Life Carriers' agelong supervision of the planet. For ages +we had been on duty, assisted only by the seven adjutant mind-spirits and the +Master Physical Controllers. And now, will, the power of choosing to worship +and to ascend, having appeared in the evolutionary creatures of the planet, we +realized that our work was finished, and our group prepared to depart. Urantia +being a life-modification world, permission was granted to leave behind two +senior Life Carriers with twelve assistants, and I was chosen as one of this +group and have ever since been on Urantia. + +It is just 993,408 years ago (from the year A.D. 1934) that Urantia was +formally recognized as a planet of human habitation in the universe of Nebadon. +Biologic evolution had once again achieved the human levels of will dignity; +man had arrived on planet 606 of Satania. + +[Sponsored by a Life Carrier of Nebadon resident on Urantia.] + + top of page - 711 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Mammalian ³ The First ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ E... ³ Human... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p063.txt b/religious documents/p063.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce7b295 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p063.txt @@ -0,0 +1,463 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 63 The First Human Family + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 63 The First Human Family + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +URANTIA was registered as an inhabited world when the first two human +beings--the twins--were eleven years old, and before they had become the +parents of the first-born of the second generation of actual human beings. And +the archangel message from Salvington, on this occasion of formal planetary +recognition, closed with these words: + +"Man-mind has appeared on 606 of Satania, and these parents of the new race +shall be called Andon and Fonta. And all archangels pray that these creatures +may speedily be endowed with the personal indwelling of the gift of the spirit +of the Universal Father." + +Andon is the Nebadon name which signifies "the first Fatherlike creature to +exhibit human perfection hunger." Fonta signifies "the first Sonlike creature +to exhibit human perfection hunger." Andon and Fonta never knew these names +until they were bestowed upon them at the time of fusion with their Thought +Adjusters. Throughout their mortal sojourn on Urantia they called each other +Sonta-an and Sonta-en, Sonta-an meaning "loved by mother," Sonta-en signifying +"loved by father." They gave themselves these names, and the meanings are +significant of their mutual regard and affection. + +1. ANDON AND FONTA + +In many respects, Andon and Fonta were the most remarkable pair of human beings +that have ever lived on the face of the earth. This wonderful pair, the actual +parents of all mankind, were in every way superior to many of their immediate +descendants, and they were radically different from all of their ancestors, +both immediate and remote. + +The parents of this first human couple were apparently little different from +the average of their tribe, though they were among its more intelligent +members, that group which first learned to throw stones and to use clubs in +fighting. They also made use of sharp spicules of stone, flint, and bone. + +While still living with his parents, Andon had fastened a sharp piece of flint +on the end of a club, using animal tendons for this purpose, and on no less +than a dozen occasions he made good use of such a weapon in saving both his own +life and that of his equally adventurous and inquisitive sister, who +unfailingly accompanied him on all of his tours of exploration. + +The decision of Andon and Fonta to flee from the Primates tribes implies a +quality of mind far above the baser intelligence which characterized so many of +their later descendants who stooped to mate with their retarded cousins of the +simian tribes. But their vague feeling of being something more than mere +animals was due to the possession of personality and was augmented by the +indwelling presence of the Thought Adjusters. + + top of page - 712 + +2. THE FLIGHT OF THE TWINS + +After Andon and Fonta had decided to flee northward, they succumbed to their +fears for a time, especially the fear of displeasing their father and immediate +family. They envisaged being set upon by hostile relatives and thus recognized +the possibility of meeting death at the hands of their already jealous +tribesmen. As youngsters, the twins had spent most of their time in each +other's company and for this reason had never been overly popular with their +animal cousins of the Primates tribe. Nor had they improved their standing in +the tribe by building a separate, and a very superior, tree home. + +And it was in this new home among the treetops, one night after they had been +awakened by a violent storm, and as they held each other in fearful and fond +embrace, that they finally and fully made up their minds to flee from the +tribal habitat and the home treetops. + +They had already prepared a crude treetop retreat some half-day's journey to +the north. This was their secret and safe hiding place for the first day away +from the home forests. Notwithstanding that the twins shared the Primates' +deathly fear of being on the ground at nighttime, they sallied forth shortly +before nightfall on their northern trek. While it required unusual courage for +them to undertake this night journey, even with a full moon, they correctly +concluded that they were less likely to be missed and pursued by their +tribesmen and relatives. And they safely made their previously prepared +rendezvous shortly after midnight. + +On their northward journey they discovered an exposed flint deposit and, +finding many stones suitably shaped for various uses, gathered up a supply for +the future. In attempting to chip these flints so that they would be better +adapted for certain purposes, Andon discovered their sparking quality and +conceived the idea of building fire. But the notion did not take firm hold of +him at the time as the climate was still salubrious and there was little need +of fire. + +But the autumn sun was getting lower in the sky, and as they journeyed +northward, the nights grew cooler and cooler. Already they had been forced to +make use of animal skins for warmth. Before they had been away from home one +moon, Andon signified to his mate that he thought he could make fire with the +flint. They tried for two months to utilize the flint spark for kindling a fire +but only met with failure. Each day this couple would strike the flints and +endeavor to ignite the wood. Finally, one evening about the time of the setting +of the sun, the secret of the technique was unraveled when it occurred to Fonta +to climb a near-by tree to secure an abandoned bird's nest. The nest was dry +and highly inflammable and consequently flared right up into a full blaze the +moment the spark fell upon it. They were so surprised and startled at their +success that they almost lost the fire, but they saved it by the addition of +suitable fuel, and then began the first search for firewood by the parents of +all mankind. + +This was one of the most joyous moments in their short but eventful lives. All +night long they sat up watching their fire burn, vaguely realizing that they +had made a discovery which would make it possible for them to defy climate and +thus forever to be independent of their animal relatives of the southern lands. +After three days' rest and enjoyment of the fire, they journeyed on. + +The Primates ancestors of Andon had often replenished fire which had been +kindled by lightning, but never before had the creatures of earth possessed + + top of page - 713 + +a method of starting fire at will. But it was a long time before the twins +learned that dry moss and other materials would kindle fire just as well as +birds' nests. + +3. ANDON'S FAMILY + +It was almost two years from the night of the twins' departure from home before +their first child was born. They named him Sontad; and Sontad was the first +creature to be born on Urantia who was wrapped in protective coverings at the +time of birth. The human race had begun, and with this new evolution there +appeared the instinct properly to care for the increasingly enfeebled infants +which would characterize the progressive development of mind of the +intellectual order as contrasted with the more purely animal type. + +Andon and Fonta had nineteen children in all, and they lived to enjoy the +association of almost half a hundred grandchildren and half a dozen +great-grandchildren. The family was domiciled in four adjoining rock shelters, +or semicaves, three of which were interconnected by hallways which had been +excavated in the soft limestone with flint tools devised by Andon's children. + +These early Andonites evinced a very marked clannish spirit; they hunted in +groups and never strayed very far from the homesite. They seemed to realize +that they were an isolated and unique group of living beings and should +therefore avoid becoming separated. This feeling of intimate kinship was +undoubtedly due to the enhanced mind ministry of the adjutant spirits. + +Andon and Fonta labored incessantly for the nurture and uplift of the clan. +They lived to the age of forty-two, when both were killed at the time of an +earthquake by the falling of an overhanging rock. Five of their children and +eleven grandchildren perished with them, and almost a score of their +descendants suffered serious injuries. + +Upon the death of his parents, Sontad, despite a seriously injured foot, +immediately assumed the leadership of the clan and was ably assisted by his +wife, his eldest sister. Their first task was to roll up stones to effectively +entomb their dead parents, brothers, sisters, and children. Undue significance +should not attach to this act of burial. Their ideas of survival after death +were very vague and indefinite, being largely derived from their fantastic and +variegated dream life. + +This family of Andon and Fonta held together until the twentieth generation, +when combined food competition and social friction brought about the beginning +of dispersion. + +4. THE ANDONIC CLANS + +Primitive man--the Andonites--had black eyes and a swarthy complexion, +something of a cross between yellow and red. Melanin is a coloring substance +which is found in the skins of all human beings. It is the original Andonic +skin pigment. In general appearance and skin color these early Andonites more +nearly resembled the present-day Eskimo than any other type of living human +beings. They were the first creatures to use the skins of animals as a +protection against cold; they had little more hair on their bodies than +present-day humans. + +The tribal life of the animal ancestors of these early men had foreshadowed the +beginnings of numerous social conventions, and with the expanding emotions + + top of page - 714 + +and augmented brain powers of these beings, there was an immediate development +in social organization and a new division of clan labor. They were exceedingly +imitative, but the play instinct was only slightly developed, and the sense of +humor was almost entirely absent. Primitive man smiled occasionally, but he +never indulged in hearty laughter. Humor was the legacy of the later Adamic +race. These early human beings were not so sensitive to pain nor so reactive to +unpleasant situations as were many of the later evolving mortals. Childbirth +was not a painful or distressing ordeal to Fonta and her immediate progeny. + +They were a wonderful tribe. The males would fight heroically for the safety of +their mates and their offspring; the females were affectionately devoted to +their children. But their patriotism was wholly limited to the immediate clan. +They were very loyal to their families; they would die without question in +defense of their children, but they were not able to grasp the idea of trying +to make the world a better place for their grandchildren. Altruism was as yet +unborn in the human heart, notwithstanding that all of the emotions essential +to the birth of religion were already present in these Urantia aborigines. + +These early men possessed a touching affection for their comrades and certainly +had a real, although crude, idea of friendship. It was a common sight in later +times, during their constantly recurring battles with the inferior tribes, to +see one of these primitive men valiantly fighting with one hand while he +struggled on, trying to protect and save an injured fellow warrior. Many of the +most noble and highly human traits of subsequent evolutionary development were +touchingly foreshadowed in these primitive peoples. + +The original Andonic clan maintained an unbroken line of leadership until the +twenty-seventh generation, when, no male offspring appearing among Sontad's +direct descendants, two rival would-be rulers of the clan fell to fighting for +supremacy. + +Before the extensive dispersion of the Andonic clans a well-developed language +had evolved from their early efforts to intercommunicate. This language +continued to grow, and almost daily additions were made to it because of the +new inventions and adaptations to environment which were developed by these +active, restless, and curious people. And this language became the word of +Urantia, the tongue of the early human family, until the later appearance of +the colored races. + +As time passed, the Andonic clans grew in number, and the contact of the +expanding families developed friction and misunderstandings. Only two things +came to occupy the minds of these peoples: hunting to obtain food and fighting +to avenge themselves against some real or supposed injustice or insult at the +hands of the neighboring tribes. + +Family feuds increased, tribal wars broke out, and serious losses were +sustained among the very best elements of the more able and advanced groups. +Some of these losses were irreparable; some of the most valuable strains of +ability and intelligence were forever lost to the world. This early race and +its primitive civilization were threatened with extinction by this incessant +warfare of the clans. + +It is impossible to induce such primitive beings long to live together in +peace. Man is the descendant of fighting animals, and when closely associated, +uncultured people irritate and offend each other. The Life Carriers know this + + top of page - 715 + +tendency among evolutionary creatures and accordingly make provision for the +eventual separation of developing human beings into at least three, and more +often six, distinct and separate races. + +5. DISPERSION OF THE ANDONITES + +The early Andon races did not penetrate very far into Asia, and they did not at +first enter Africa. The geography of those times pointed them north, and +farther and farther north these people journeyed until they were hindered by +the slowly advancing ice of the third glacier. + +Before this extensive ice sheet reached France and the British Isles, the +descendants of Andon and Fonta had pushed on westward over Europe and had +established more than one thousand separate settlements along the great rivers +leading to the then warm waters of the North Sea. + +These Andonic tribes were the early river dwellers of France; they lived along +the river Somme for tens of thousands of years. The Somme is the one river +unchanged by the glaciers, running down to the sea in those days much as it +does today. And that explains why so much evidence of the Andonic descendants +is found along the course of this river valley. + +These aborigines of Urantia were not tree dwellers, though in emergencies they +still betook themselves to the treetops. They regularly dwelt under the shelter +of overhanging cliffs along the rivers and in hillside grottoes which afforded +a good view of the approaches and sheltered them from the elements. They could +thus enjoy the comfort of their fires without being too much inconvenienced by +the smoke. They were not really cave dwellers either, though in subsequent +times the later ice sheets came farther south and drove their descendants to +the caves. They preferred to camp near the edge of a forest and beside a +stream. + +They very early became remarkably clever in disguising their partially +sheltered abodes and showed great skill in constructing stone sleeping +chambers, dome-shaped stone huts, into which they crawled at night. The +entrance to such a hut was closed by rolling a stone in front of it, a large +stone which had been placed inside for this purpose before the roof stones were +finally put in place. + +The Andonites were fearless and successful hunters and, with the exception of +wild berries and certain fruits of the trees, lived exclusively on flesh. As +Andon had invented the stone ax, so his descendants early discovered and made +effective use of the throwing stick and the harpoon. At last a tool-creating +mind was functioning in conjunction with an implement-using hand, and these +early humans became highly skillful in the fashioning of flint tools. They +traveled far and wide in search of flint, much as present-day humans journey to +the ends of the earth in quest of gold, platinum, and diamonds. + +And in many other ways these Andon tribes manifested a degree of intelligence +which their retrogressing descendants did not attain in half a million years, +though they did again and again rediscover various methods of kindling fire. + +6. ONAGAR--THE FIRST TRUTH TEACHER + +As the Andonic dispersion extended, the cultural and spiritual status of the +clans retrogressed for nearly ten thousand years until the days of Onagar, who +assumed the leadership of these tribes, brought peace among them, and for the + + top of page - 716 + +first time, led all of them in the worship of the "Breath Giver to men and +animals." + +Andon's philosophy had been most confused; he had barely escaped becoming a +fire worshiper because of the great comfort derived from his accidental +discovery of fire. Reason, however, directed him from his own discovery to the +sun as a superior and more awe-inspiring source of heat and light, but it was +too remote, and so he failed to become a sun worshiper. + +The Andonites early developed a fear of the elements--thunder, lightning, rain, +snow, hail, and ice. But hunger was the constantly recurring urge of these +early days, and since they largely subsisted on animals, they eventually +evolved a form of animal worship. To Andon, the larger food animals were +symbols of creative might and sustaining power. From time to time it became the +custom to designate various of these larger animals as objects of worship. +During the vogue of a particular animal, crude outlines of it would be drawn on +the walls of the caves, and later on, as continued progress was made in the +arts, such an animal god was engraved on various ornaments. + +Very early the Andonic peoples formed the habit of refraining from eating the +flesh of the animal of tribal veneration. Presently, in order more suitably to +impress the minds of their youths, they evolved a ceremony of reverence which +was carried out about the body of one of these venerated animals; and still +later on, this primitive performance developed into the more elaborate +sacrificial ceremonies of their descendants. And this is the origin of +sacrifices as a part of worship. This idea was elaborated by Moses in the +Hebrew ritual and was preserved, in principle, by the Apostle Paul as the +doctrine of atonement for sin by "the shedding of blood." + +That food was the all-important thing in the lives of these primitive human +beings is shown by the prayer taught these simple folks by Onagar, their great +teacher. And this prayer was: + +"O Breath of Life, give us this day our daily food, deliver us from the curse +of the ice, save us from our forest enemies, and with mercy receive us into the +Great Beyond." + +Onagar maintained headquarters on the northern shores of the ancient +Mediterranean in the region of the present Caspian Sea at a settlement called +Oban, the tarrying place on the westward turning of the travel trail leading up +northward from the Mesopotamian southland. From Oban he sent out teachers to +the remote settlements to spread his new doctrines of one Deity and his concept +of the hereafter, which he called the Great Beyond. These emissaries of Onagar +were the world's first missionaries; they were also the first human beings to +cook meat, the first regularly to use fire in the preparation of food. They +cooked flesh on the ends of sticks and also on hot stones; later on they +roasted large pieces in the fire, but their descendants almost entirely +reverted to the use of raw flesh. + +Onagar was born 983,323 years ago (from A.D. 1934), and he lived to be +sixty-nine years of age. The record of the achievements of this master mind and +spiritual leader of the pre-Planetary Prince days is a thrilling recital of the +organization of these primitive peoples into a real society. He instituted an +efficient tribal government, the like of which was not attained by succeeding +generations in many millenniums. Never again, until the arrival of the +Planetary Prince, was there such a high spiritual civilization on earth. These +simple people + + top of page - 717 + +had a real though primitive religion, but it was subsequently lost to their +deteriorating descendants. + +Although both Andon and Fonta had received Thought Adjusters, as had many of +their descendants, it was not until the days of Onagar that the Adjusters and +guardian seraphim came in great numbers to Urantia. This was, indeed, the +golden age of primitive man. + +7. THE SURVIVAL OF ANDON AND FONTA + +Andon and Fonta, the splendid founders of the human race, received recognition +at the time of the adjudication of Urantia upon the arrival of the Planetary +Prince, and in due time they emerged from the regime of the mansion worlds with +citizenship status on Jerusem. Although they have never been permitted to +return to Urantia, they are cognizant of the history of the race they founded. +They grieved over the Caligastia betrayal, sorrowed because of the Adamic +failure, but rejoiced exceedingly when announcement was received that Michael +had selected their world as the theater for his final bestowal. + +On Jerusem both Andon and Fonta were fused with their Thought Adjusters, as +also were several of their children, including Sontad, but the majority of even +their immediate descendants only achieved Spirit fusion. + +Andon and Fonta, shortly after their arrival on Jerusem, received permission +from the System Sovereign to return to the first mansion world to serve with +the morontia personalities who welcome the pilgrims of time from Urantia to the +heavenly spheres. And they have been assigned indefinitely to this service. +They sought to send greetings to Urantia in connection with these revelations, +but this request was wisely denied them. + +And this is the recital of the most heroic and fascinating chapter in all the +history of Urantia, the story of the evolution, life struggles, death, and +eternal survival of the unique parents of all mankind. + +[Presented by a Life Carrier resident on Urantia.] + + top of page - 718 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Dawn Races ³ The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ Evolutionar... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p064.txt b/religious documents/p064.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e149a4c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p064.txt @@ -0,0 +1,734 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 64 The Evolutionary Races Of Color + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 64 The Evolutionary Races Of Color + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THIS is the story of the evolutionary races of Urantia from the days of Andon +and Fonta, almost one million years ago, down through the times of the +Planetary Prince to the end of the ice age. + +The human race is almost one million years old, and the first half of its story +roughly corresponds to the pre-Planetary Prince days of Urantia. The latter +half of the history of mankind begins at the time of the arrival of the +Planetary Prince and the appearance of the six colored races and roughly +corresponds to the period commonly regarded as the Old Stone Age. + +1. THE ANDONIC ABORIGINES + +Primitive man made his evolutionary appearance on earth a little less than one +million years ago, and he had a vigorous experience. He instinctively sought to +escape the danger of mingling with the inferior simian tribes. But he could not +migrate eastward because of the arid Tibetan land elevations, 30,000 feet above +sea level; neither could he go south nor west because of the expanded +Mediterranean Sea, which then extended eastward to the Indian Ocean; and as he +went north, he encountered the advancing ice. But even when further migration +was blocked by the ice, and though the dispersing tribes became increasingly +hostile, the more intelligent groups never entertained the idea of going +southward to live among their hairy tree-dwelling cousins of inferior +intellect. + +Many of man's earliest religious emotions grew out of his feeling of +helplessness in the shut-in environment of this geographic situation--mountains +to the right, water to the left, and ice in front. But these progressive +Andonites would not turn back to their inferior tree-dwelling relatives in the +south. + +These Andonites avoided the forests in contrast with the habits of their +nonhuman relatives. In the forests man has always deteriorated; human evolution +has made progress only in the open and in the higher latitudes. The cold and +hunger of the open lands stimulate action, invention, and resourcefulness. +While these Andonic tribes were developing the pioneers of the present human +race amidst the hardships and privations of these rugged northern climes, their +backward cousins were luxuriating in the southern tropical forests of the land +of their early common origin. + +These events occurred during the times of the third glacier, the first +according to the reckoning of geologists. The first two glaciers were not +extensive in northern Europe. + +During most of the ice age England was connected by land with France, while +later on Africa was joined to Europe by the Sicilian land bridge. At the + + top of page - 719 + +time of the Andonic migrations there was a continuous land path from England in +the west on through Europe and Asia to Java in the east; but Australia was +again isolated, which further accentuated the development of its own peculiar +fauna. + +950,000 years ago the descendants of Andon and Fonta had migrated far to the +east and to the west. To the west they passed over Europe to France and +England. In later times they penetrated eastward as far as Java, where their +bones were so recently found--the so-called Java man--and then journeyed on to +Tasmania. + +The groups going west became less contaminated with the backward stocks of +mutual ancestral origin than those going east, who mingled so freely with their +retarded animal cousins. These unprogressive individuals drifted southward and +presently mated with the inferior tribes. Later on, increasing numbers of their +mongrel descendants returned to the north to mate with the rapidly expanding +Andonic peoples, and such unfortunate unions unfailingly deteriorated the +superior stock. Fewer and fewer of the primitive settlements maintained the +worship of the Breath Giver. This early dawn civilization was threatened with +extinction. + +And thus it has ever been on Urantia. Civilizations of great promise have +successively deteriorated and have finally been extinguished by the folly of +allowing the superior freely to procreate with the inferior. + +2. THE FOXHALL PEOPLES + +900,000 years ago the arts of Andon and Fonta and the culture of Onagar were +vanishing from the face of the earth; culture, religion, and even flintworking +were at their lowest ebb. + +These were the times when large numbers of inferior mongrel groups were +arriving in England from southern France. These tribes were so largely mixed +with the forest apelike creatures that they were scarcely human. They had no +religion but were crude flintworkers and possessed sufficient intelligence to +kindle fire. + +They were followed in Europe by a somewhat superior and prolific people, whose +descendants soon spread over the entire continent from the ice in the north to +the Alps and Mediterranean in the south. These tribes are the so-called +Heidelberg race. + +During this long period of cultural decadence the Foxhall peoples of England +and the Badonan tribes northwest of India continued to hold on to some of the +traditions of Andon and certain remnants of the culture of Onagar. + +The Foxhall peoples were farthest west and succeeded in retaining much of the +Andonic culture; they also preserved their knowledge of flintworking, which +they transmitted to their descendants, the ancient ancestors of the Eskimos. + +Though the remains of the Foxhall peoples were the last to be discovered in +England, these Andonites were really the first human beings to live in those +regions. At that time the land bridge still connected France with England; and +since most of the early settlements of the Andon descendants were located along +the rivers and seashores of that early day, they are now under the waters of +the English Channel and the North Sea, but some three or four are still above +water on the English coast. + + top of page - 720 + +Many of the more intelligent and spiritual of the Foxhall peoples maintained +their racial superiority and perpetuated their primitive religious customs. And +these people, as they were later admixed with subsequent stocks, journeyed on +west from England after a later ice visitation and have survived as the +present-day Eskimos. + +3. THE BADONAN TRIBES + +Besides the Foxhall peoples in the west, another struggling center of culture +persisted in the east. This group was located in the foothills of the +northwestern Indian highlands among the tribes of Badonan, a +great-great-grandson of Andon. These people were the only descendants of Andon +who never practiced human sacrifice. + +These highland Badonites occupied an extensive plateau surrounded by forests, +traversed by streams, and abounding in game. Like some of their cousins in +Tibet, they lived in crude stone huts, hillside grottoes, and semiunderground +passages. + +While the tribes of the north grew more and more to fear the ice, those living +near the homeland of their origin became exceedingly fearful of the water. They +observed the Mesopotamian peninsula gradually sinking into the ocean, and +though it emerged several times, the traditions of these primitive races grew +up around the dangers of the sea and the fear of periodic engulfment. And this +fear, together with their experience with river floods, explains why they +sought out the highlands as a safe place in which to live. + +To the east of the Badonan peoples, in the Siwalik Hills of northern India, may +be found fossils that approach nearer to transition types between man and the +various prehuman groups than any others on earth. + +850,000 years ago the superior Badonan tribes began a warfare of extermination +directed against their inferior and animalistic neighbors. In less than one +thousand years most of the borderland animal groups of these regions had been +either destroyed or driven back to the southern forests. This campaign for the +extermination of inferiors brought about a slight improvement in the hill +tribes of that age. And the mixed descendants of this improved Badonite stock +appeared on the stage of action as an apparently new people--the Neanderthal +race. + +4. THE NEANDERTHAL RACES + +The Neanderthalers were excellent fighters, and they traveled extensively. They +gradually spread from the highland centers in northwest India to France on the +west, China on the east, and even down into northern Africa. They dominated the +world for almost half a million years until the times of the migration of the +evolutionary races of color. + +800,000 years ago game was abundant; many species of deer, as well as elephants +and hippopotamuses, roamed over Europe. Cattle were plentiful; horses and +wolves were everywhere. The Neanderthalers were great hunters, and the tribes +in France were the first to adopt the practice of giving the most successful +hunters the choice of women for wives. + + top of page - 721 + +The reindeer was highly useful to these Neanderthal peoples, serving as food, +clothing, and for tools, since they made various uses of the horns and bones. +They had little culture, but they greatly improved the work in flint until it +almost reached the levels of the days of Andon. Large flints attached to wooden +handles came back into use and served as axes and picks. + +750,000 years ago the fourth ice sheet was well on its way south. With their +improved implements the Neanderthalers made holes in the ice covering the +northern rivers and thus were able to spear the fish which came up to these +vents. Ever these tribes retreated before the advancing ice, which at this time +made its most extensive invasion of Europe. + +In these times the Siberian glacier was making its southernmost march, +compelling early man to move southward, back toward the lands of his origin. +But the human species had so differentiated that the danger of further mingling +with its nonprogressive simian relatives was greatly lessened. + +700,000 years ago the fourth glacier, the greatest of all in Europe, was in +recession; men and animals were returning north. The climate was cool and +moist, and primitive man again thrived in Europe and western Asia. Gradually +the forests spread north over land which had been so recently covered by the +glacier. + +Mammalian life had been little changed by the great glacier. These animals +persisted in that narrow belt of land lying between the ice and the Alps and, +upon the retreat of the glacier, again rapidly spread out over all Europe. +There arrived from Africa, over the Sicilian land bridge, straight-tusked +elephants, broad-nosed rhinoceroses, hyenas, and African lions, and these new +animals virtually exterminated the saber-toothed tigers and the hippopotamuses. + +650,000 years ago witnessed the continuation of the mild climate. By the middle +of the interglacial period it had become so warm that the Alps were almost +denuded of ice and snow. + +600,000 years ago the ice had reached its then northernmost point of retreat +and, after a pause of a few thousand years, started south again on its fifth +excursion. But there was little modification of climate for fifty thousand +years. Man and the animals of Europe were little changed. The slight aridity of +the former period lessened, and the alpine glaciers descended far down the +river valleys. + +550,000 years ago the advancing glacier again pushed man and the animals south. +But this time man had plenty of room in the wide belt of land stretching +northeast into Asia and lying between the ice sheet and the then greatly +expanded Black Sea extension of the Mediterranean. + +These times of the fourth and fifth glaciers witnessed the further spread of +the crude culture of the Neanderthal races. But there was so little progress +that it truly appeared as though the attempt to produce a new and modified type +of intelligent life on Urantia was about to fail. For almost a quarter of a +million years these primitive peoples drifted on, hunting and fighting, by +spells improving in certain directions, but, on the whole, steadily +retrogressing as compared with their superior Andonic ancestors. + +During these spiritually dark ages the culture of superstitious mankind reached +its lowest levels. The Neanderthalers really had no religion beyond a + + top of page - 722 + +shameful superstition. They were deathly afraid of clouds, more especially of +mists and fogs. A primitive religion of the fear of natural forces gradually +developed, while animal worship declined as improvement in tools, with +abundance of game, enabled these people to live with lessened anxiety about +food; the sex rewards of the chase tended greatly to improve hunting skill. +This new religion of fear led to attempts to placate the invisible forces +behind these natural elements and culminated, later on, in the sacrificing of +humans to appease these invisible and unknown physical forces. And this +terrible practice of human sacrifice has been perpetuated by the more backward +peoples of Urantia right on down to the twentieth century. + +These early Neanderthalers could hardly be called sun worshipers. They rather +lived in fear of the dark; they had a mortal dread of nightfall. As long as the +moon shone a little, they managed to get along, but in the dark of the moon +they grew panicky and began the sacrifice of their best specimens of manhood +and womanhood in an effort to induce the moon again to shine. The sun, they +early learned, would regularly return, but the moon they conjectured only +returned because they sacrificed their fellow tribesmen. As the race advanced, +the object and purpose of sacrifice progressively changed, but the offering of +human sacrifice as a part of religious ceremonial long persisted. + +5. ORIGIN OF THE COLORED RACES + +500,000 years ago the Badonan tribes of the northwestern highlands of India +became involved in another great racial struggle. For more than one hundred +years this relentless warfare raged, and when the long fight was finished, only +about one hundred families were left. But these survivors were the most +intelligent and desirable of all the then living descendants of Andon and +Fonta. + +And now, among these highland Badonites there was a new and strange occurrence. +A man and woman living in the northeastern part of the then inhabited highland +region began suddenly to produce a family of unusually intelligent children. +This was the Sangik family, the ancestors of all of the six colored races of +Urantia. + +These Sangik children, nineteen in number, were not only intelligent above +their fellows, but their skins manifested a unique tendency to turn various +colors upon exposure to sunlight. Among these nineteen children were five red, +two orange, four yellow, two green, four blue, and two indigo. These colors +became more pronounced as the children grew older, and when these youths later +mated with their fellow tribesmen, all of their offspring tended toward the +skin color of the Sangik parent. + +And now I interrupt the chronological narrative, after calling attention to the +arrival of the Planetary Prince at about this time, while we separately +consider the six Sangik races of Urantia. + +6. THE SIX SANGIK RACES OF URANTIA + +On an average evolutionary planet the six evolutionary races of color appear +one by one; the red man is the first to evolve, and for ages he roams the world +before the succeeding colored races make their appearance. The simultaneous +emergence of all six races on Urantia, and in one family, was most unusual. + + top of page - 723 + +The appearance of the earlier Andonites on Urantia was also something new in +Satania. On no other world in the local system has such a race of will +creatures evolved in advance of the evolutionary races of color. + +1. The red man. These peoples were remarkable specimens of the human race, in +many ways superior to Andon and Fonta. They were a most intelligent group and +were the first of the Sangik children to develop a tribal civilization and +government. They were always monogamous; even their mixed descendants seldom +practiced plural mating. + +In later times they had serious and prolonged trouble with their yellow +brethren in Asia. They were aided by their early invention of the bow and +arrow, but they had unfortunately inherited much of the tendency of their +ancestors to fight among themselves, and this so weakened them that the yellow +tribes were able to drive them off the Asiatic continent. + +About eighty-five thousand years ago the comparatively pure remnants of the red +race went en masse across to North America, and shortly thereafter the Bering +land isthmus sank, thus isolating them. No red man ever returned to Asia. But +throughout Siberia, China, central Asia, India, and Europe they left behind +much of their stock blended with the other colored races. + +When the red man crossed over into America, he brought along much of the +teachings and traditions of his early origin. His immediate ancestors had been +in touch with the later activities of the world headquarters of the Planetary +Prince. But in a short time after reaching the Americas, the red men began to +lose sight of these teachings, and there occurred a great decline in +intellectual and spiritual culture. Very soon these people again fell to +fighting so fiercely among themselves that it appeared that these tribal wars +would result in the speedy extinction of this remnant of the comparatively pure +red race. + +Because of this great retrogression the red men seemed doomed when, about +sixty-five thousand years ago, Onamonalonton appeared as their leader and +spiritual deliverer. He brought temporary peace among the American red men and +revived their worship of the "Great Spirit." Onamonalonton lived to be +ninety-six years of age and maintained his headquarters among the great redwood +trees of California. Many of his later descendants have come down to modern +times among the Blackfoot Indians. + +As time passed, the teachings of Onamonalonton became hazy traditions. +Internecine wars were resumed, and never after the days of this great teacher +did another leader succeed in bringing universal peace among them. Increasingly +the more intelligent strains perished in these tribal struggles; otherwise a +great civilization would have been built upon the North American continent by +these able and intelligent red men. + +After crossing over to America from China, the northern red man never again +came in contact with other world influences (except the Eskimo) until he was +later discovered by the white man. It was most unfortunate that the red man +almost completely missed his opportunity of being upstepped by the admixture of +the later Adamic stock. As it was, the red man could not rule the white man, +and he would not willingly serve him. In such a circumstance, if the two races +do not blend, one or the other is doomed. + +2. The orange man. The outstanding characteristic of this race was their +peculiar urge to build, to build anything and everything, even to the piling up + + top of page - 724 + +of vast mounds of stone just to see which tribe could build the largest mound. +Though they were not a progressive people, they profited much from the schools +of the Prince and sent delegates there for instruction. + +The orange race was the first to follow the coast line southward toward Africa +as the Mediterranean Sea withdrew to the west. But they never secured a +favorable footing in Africa and were wiped out of existence by the later +arriving green race. + +Before the end came, this people lost much cultural and spiritual ground. But +there was a great revival of higher living as a result of the wise leadership +of Porshunta, the master mind of this unfortunate race, who ministered to them +when their headquarters was at Armageddon some three hundred thousand years +ago. + +The last great struggle between the orange and the green men occurred in the +region of the lower Nile valley in Egypt. This long-drawn-out battle was waged +for almost one hundred years, and at its close very few of the orange race were +left alive. The shattered remnants of these people were absorbed by the green +and by the later arriving indigo men. But as a race the orange man ceased to +exist about one hundred thousand years ago. + +3. The yellow man. The primitive yellow tribes were the first to abandon the +chase, establish settled communities, and develop a home life based on +agriculture. Intellectually they were somewhat inferior to the red man, but +socially and collectively they proved themselves superior to all of the Sangik +peoples in the matter of fostering racial civilization. Because they developed +a fraternal spirit, the various tribes learning to live together in relative +peace, they were able to drive the red race before them as they gradually +expanded into Asia. + +They traveled far from the influences of the spiritual headquarters of the +world and drifted into great darkness following the Caligastia apostasy; but +there occurred one brilliant age among this people when Singlangton, about one +hundred thousand years ago, assumed the leadership of these tribes and +proclaimed the worship of the "One Truth." + +The survival of comparatively large numbers of the yellow race is due to their +intertribal peacefulness. From the days of Singlangton to the times of modern +China, the yellow race has been numbered among the more peaceful of the nations +of Urantia. This race received a small but potent legacy of the later imported +Adamic stock. + +4. The green man. The green race was one of the less able groups of primitive +men, and they were greatly weakened by extensive migrations in different +directions. Before their dispersion these tribes experienced a great revival of +culture under the leadership of Fantad, some three hundred and fifty thousand +years ago. + +The green race split into three major divisions: The northern tribes were +subdued, enslaved, and absorbed by the yellow and blue races. The eastern group +were amalgamated with the Indian peoples of those days, and remnants still +persist among them. The southern nation entered Africa, where they destroyed +their almost equally inferior orange cousins. + +In many ways both groups were evenly matched in this struggle since each +carried strains of the giant order, many of their leaders being eight and nine + + top of page - 725 + +feet in height. These giant strains of the green man were mostly confined to +this southern or Egyptian nation. + +The remnants of the victorious green men were subsequently absorbed by the +indigo race, the last of the colored peoples to develop and emigrate from the +original Sangik center of race dispersion. + +5. The blue man. The blue men were a great people. They early invented the +spear and subsequently worked out the rudiments of many of the arts of modern +civilization. The blue man had the brain power of the red man associated with +the soul and sentiment of the yellow man. The Adamic descendants preferred them +to all of the later persisting colored races. + +The early blue men were responsive to the persuasions of the teachers of Prince +Caligastia's staff and were thrown into great confusion by the subsequent +perverted teachings of those traitorous leaders. Like other primitive races +they never fully recovered from the turmoil produced by the Caligastia +betrayal, nor did they ever completely overcome their tendency to fight among +themselves. + +About five hundred years after Caligastia's downfall a widespread revival of +learning and religion of a primitive sort--but none the less real and +beneficial--occurred. Orlandof became a great teacher among the blue race and +led many of the tribes back to the worship of the true God under the name of +the "Supreme Chief." This was the greatest advance of the blue man until those +later times when this race was so greatly upstepped by the admixture of the +Adamic stock. + +The European researches and explorations of the Old Stone Age have largely to +do with unearthing the tools, bones, and artcraft of these ancient blue men, +for they persisted in Europe until recent times. The so-called white races of +Urantia are the descendants of these blue men as they were first modified by +slight mixture with yellow and red, and as they were later greatly upstepped by +assimilating the greater portion of the violet race. + +6. The indigo race. As the red men were the most advanced of all the Sangik +peoples, so the black men were the least progressive. They were the last to +migrate from their highland homes. They journeyed to Africa, taking possession +of the continent, and have ever since remained there except when they have been +forcibly taken away, from age to age, as slaves. + +Isolated in Africa, the indigo peoples, like the red man, received little or +none of the race elevation which would have been derived from the infusion of +the Adamic stock. Alone in Africa, the indigo race made little advancement +until the days of Orvonon, when they experienced a great spiritual awakening. +While they later almost entirely forgot the "God of Gods" proclaimed by +Orvonon, they did not entirely lose the desire to worship the Unknown; at least +they maintained a form of worship up to a few thousand years ago. + +Notwithstanding their backwardness, these indigo peoples have exactly the same +standing before the celestial powers as any other earthly race. + +These were ages of intense struggles between the various races, but near the +headquarters of the Planetary Prince the more enlightened and more recently +taught groups lived together in comparative harmony, though no great cultural +conquest of the world races had been achieved up to the time of the serious +disruption of this regime by the outbreak of the Lucifer rebellion. + + top of page - 726 + +From time to time all of these different peoples experienced cultural and +spiritual revivals. Mansant was a great teacher of the post-Planetary Prince +days. But mention is made only of those outstanding leaders and teachers who +markedly influenced and inspired a whole race. With the passing of time, many +lesser teachers arose in different regions; and in the aggregate they +contributed much to the sum total of those saving influences which prevented +the total collapse of cultural civilization, especially during the long and +dark ages between the Caligastia rebellion and the arrival of Adam. + +There are many good and sufficient reasons for the plan of evolving either +three or six colored races on the worlds of space. Though Urantia mortals may +not be in a position fully to appreciate all of these reasons, we would call +attention to the following: + +1. Variety is indispensable to opportunity for the wide functioning of natural +selection, differential survival of superior strains. + +2. Stronger and better races are to be had from the interbreeding of diverse +peoples when these different races are carriers of superior inheritance +factors. And the Urantia races would have benefited by such an early +amalgamation provided such a conjoint people could have been subsequently +effectively upstepped by a thoroughgoing admixture with the superior Adamic +stock. The attempt to execute such an experiment on Urantia under present +racial conditions would be highly disastrous. + +3. Competition is healthfully stimulated by diversification of races. + +4. Differences in status of the races and of groups within each race are +essential to the development of human tolerance and altruism. + +5. Homogeneity of the human race is not desirable until the peoples of an +evolving world attain comparatively high levels of spiritual development. + +7. DISPERSION OF THE COLORED RACES + +When the colored descendants of the Sangik family began to multiply, and as +they sought opportunity for expansion into adjacent territory, the fifth +glacier, the third of geologic count, was well advanced on its southern drift +over Europe and Asia. These early colored races were extraordinarily tested by +the rigors and hardships of the glacial age of their origin. This glacier was +so extensive in Asia that for thousands of years migration to eastern Asia was +cut off. And not until the later retreat of the Mediterranean Sea, consequent +upon the elevation of Arabia, was it possible for them to reach Africa. + +Thus it was that for almost one hundred thousand years these Sangik peoples +spread out around the foothills and mingled together more or less, +notwithstanding the peculiar but natural antipathy which early manifested +itself between the different races. + +Between the times of the Planetary Prince and Adam, India became the home of +the most cosmopolitan population ever to be found on the face of the earth. But +it was unfortunate that this mixture came to contain so much of the green, +orange, and indigo races. These secondary Sangik peoples found existence more +easy and agreeable in the southlands, and many of them subsequently migrated to +Africa. The primary Sangik peoples, the superior races, + + top of page - 727 + +avoided the tropics, the red man going northeast to Asia, closely followed by +the yellow man, while the blue race moved northwest into Europe. + +The red men early began to migrate to the northeast, on the heels of the +retreating ice, passing around the highlands of India and occupying all of +northeastern Asia. They were closely followed by the yellow tribes, who +subsequently drove them out of Asia into North America. + +When the relatively pure-line remnants of the red race forsook Asia, there were +eleven tribes, and they numbered a little over seven thousand men, women, and +children. These tribes were accompanied by three small groups of mixed +ancestry, the largest of these being a combination of the orange and blue +races. These three groups never fully fraternized with the red man and early +journeyed southward to Mexico and Central America, where they were later joined +by a small group of mixed yellows and reds. These peoples all intermarried and +founded a new and amalgamated race, one which was much less warlike than the +pure-line red men. Within five thousand years this amalgamated race broke up +into three groups, establishing the civilizations respectively of Mexico, +Central America, and South America. The South American offshoot did receive a +faint touch of the blood of Adam. + +To a certain extent the early red and yellow men mingled in Asia, and the +offspring of this union journeyed on to the east and along the southern +seacoast and, eventually, were driven by the rapidly increasing yellow race +onto the peninsulas and near-by islands of the sea. They are the present-day +brown men. + +The yellow race has continued to occupy the central regions of eastern Asia. Of +all the six colored races they have survived in greatest numbers. While the +yellow men now and then engaged in racial war, they did not carry on such +incessant and relentless wars of extermination as were waged by the red, green, +and orange men. These three races virtually destroyed themselves before they +were finally all but annihilated by their enemies of other races. + +Since the fifth glacier did not extend so far south in Europe, the way was +partially open for these Sangik peoples to migrate to the northwest; and upon +the retreat of the ice the blue men, together with a few other small racial +groups, migrated westward along the old trails of the Andon tribes. They +invaded Europe in successive waves, occupying most of the continent. + +In Europe they soon encountered the Neanderthal descendants of their early and +common ancestor, Andon. These older European Neanderthalers had been driven +south and east by the glacier and thus were in position quickly to encounter +and absorb their invading cousins of the Sangik tribes. + +In general and to start with, the Sangik tribes were more intelligent than, and +in most ways far superior to, the deteriorated descendants of the early Andonic +plainsmen; and the mingling of these Sangik tribes with the Neanderthal peoples +led to the immediate improvement of the older race. It was this infusion of +Sangik blood, more especially that of the blue man, which produced that marked +improvement in the Neanderthal peoples exhibited by the successive waves of +increasingly intelligent tribes that swept over Europe from the east. + +During the following interglacial period this new Neanderthal race extended +from England to India. The remnant of the blue race left in the old Persian +peninsula later amalgamated with certain others, primarily the yellow; and the +resultant blend, subsequently somewhat upstepped by the violet race of Adam, +has persisted as the swarthy nomadic tribes of modern Arabs. + + top of page - 728 + +All efforts to identify the Sangik ancestry of modern peoples must take into +account the later improvement of the racial strains by the subsequent admixture +of Adamic blood. + +The superior races sought the northern or temperate climes, while the orange, +green, and indigo races successively gravitated to Africa over the newly +elevated land bridge which separated the westward retreating Mediterranean from +the Indian Ocean. + +The last of the Sangik peoples to migrate from their center of race origin was +the indigo man. About the time the green man was killing off the orange race in +Egypt and greatly weakening himself in so doing, the great black exodus started +south through Palestine along the coast; and later, when these physically +strong indigo peoples overran Egypt, they wiped the green man out of existence +by sheer force of numbers. These indigo races absorbed the remnants of the +orange man and much of the stock of the green man, and certain of the indigo +tribes were considerably improved by this racial amalgamation. + +And so it appears that Egypt was first dominated by the orange man, then by the +green, followed by the indigo (black) man, and still later by a mongrel race of +indigo, blue, and modified green men. But long before Adam arrived, the blue +men of Europe and the mixed races of Arabia had driven the indigo race out of +Egypt and far south on the African continent. + +As the Sangik migrations draw to a close, the green and orange races are gone, +the red man holds North America, the yellow man eastern Asia, the blue man +Europe, and the indigo race has gravitated to Africa. India harbors a blend of +the secondary Sangik races, and the brown man, a blend of the red and yellow, +holds the islands off the Asiatic coast. An amalgamated race of rather superior +potential occupies the highlands of South America. The purer Andonites live in +the extreme northern regions of Europe and in Iceland, Greenland, and +northeastern North America. + +During the periods of farthest glacial advance the westernmost of the Andon +tribes came very near being driven into the sea. They lived for years on a +narrow southern strip of the present island of England. And it was the +tradition of these repeated glacial advances that drove them to take to the sea +when the sixth and last glacier finally appeared. They were the first marine +adventurers. They built boats and started in search of new lands which they +hoped might be free from the terrifying ice invasions. And some of them reached +Iceland, others Greenland, but the vast majority perished from hunger and +thirst on the open sea. + +A little more than eighty thousand years ago, shortly after the red man entered +northwestern North America, the freezing over of the north seas and the advance +of local ice fields on Greenland drove these Eskimo descendants of the Urantia +aborigines to seek a better land, a new home; and they were successful, safely +crossing the narrow straits which then separated Greenland from the +northeastern land masses of North America. They reached the continent about +twenty-one hundred years after the red man arrived in Alaska. Subsequently some +of the mixed stock of the blue man journeyed westward and amalgamated with the +later-day Eskimos, and this union was slightly beneficial to the Eskimo tribes. + +About five thousand years ago a chance meeting occurred between an Indian tribe +and a lone Eskimo group on the southeastern shores of Hudson Bay. + + top of page - 729 + +These two tribes found it difficult to communicate with each other, but very +soon they intermarried with the result that these Eskimos were eventually +absorbed by the more numerous red men. And this represents the only contact of +the North American red man with any other human stock down to about one +thousand years ago, when the white man first chanced to land on the Atlantic +coast. + +The struggles of these early ages were characterized by courage, bravery, and +even heroism. And we all regret that so many of those sterling and rugged +traits of your early ancestors have been lost to the later-day races. While we +appreciate the value of many of the refinements of advancing civilization, we +miss the magnificent persistency and superb devotion of your early ancestors, +which oftentimes bordered on grandeur and sublimity. + +[Presented by a Life Carrier resident on Urantia.] + + top of page - 730 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The First ³ The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Human... ³ Overcontrol... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p065.txt b/religious documents/p065.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dcbe6c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p065.txt @@ -0,0 +1,681 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 65 The Overcontrol Of Evolution + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 65 The Overcontrol Of Evolution + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +BASIC evolutionary material life--premind life--is the formulation of the +Master Physical Controllers and the life-impartation ministry of the Seven +Master Spirits in conjunction with the active ministration of the ordained Life +Carriers. As a result of the co-ordinate function of this threefold creativity +there develops organismal physical capacity for mind--material mechanisms for +intelligent reaction to external environmental stimuli and, later on, to +internal stimuli, influences taking origin in the organismal mind itself. + +There are, then, three distinct levels of life production and evolution: + +1. The physical-energy domain--mind-capacity production. + +2. The mind ministry of the adjutant spirits--impinging upon spirit capacity. + +3. The spirit endowment of mortal mind--culminating in Thought Adjuster +bestowal. + +The mechanical-nonteachable levels of organismal environmental response are the +domains of the physical controllers. The adjutant mind-spirits activate and +regulate the adaptative or nonmechanical-teachable types of mind--those +response mechanisms of organisms capable of learning from experience. And as +the spirit adjutants thus manipulate mind potentials, so do the Life Carriers +exercise considerable discretionary control over the environmental aspects of +evolutionary processes right up to the time of the appearance of human +will--the ability to know God and the power of choosing to worship him. + +It is the integrated functioning of the Life Carriers, the physical +controllers, and the spirit adjutants that conditions the course of organic +evolution on the inhabited worlds. And this is why evolution--on Urantia or +elsewhere--is always purposeful and never accidental. + +1. LIFE CARRIER FUNCTIONS + +The Life Carriers are endowed with potentials of personality metamorphosis +which but few orders of creatures possess. These Sons of the local universe are +capable of functioning in three diverse phases of being. They ordinarily +perform their duties as mid-phase Sons, that being the state of their origin. +But a Life Carrier in such a stage of existence could not possibly function in +the electrochemical domains as a fabricator of physical energies and material +particles into units of living existence. + +Life Carriers are able to function and do function on the following three +levels: + +1. The physical level of electrochemistry. + +2. The usual mid-phase of quasi-morontial existence. + +3. The advanced semispiritual level. + + top of page - 731 + +When the Life Carriers make ready to engage in life implantation, and after +they have selected the sites for such an undertaking, they summon the archangel +commission of Life Carrier transmutation. This group consists of ten orders of +diverse personalities, including the physical controllers and their associates, +and is presided over by the chief of archangels, who acts in this capacity by +the mandate of Gabriel and with the permission of the Ancients of Days. When +these beings are properly encircuited, they can effect such modifications in +the Life Carriers as will enable them immediately to function on the physical +levels of electrochemistry. + +After the life patterns have been formulated and the material organizations +have been duly completed, the supermaterial forces concerned in life +propagation become forthwith active, and life is existent. Whereupon the Life +Carriers are immediately returned to their normal mid-phase of personality +existence, in which estate they can manipulate the living units and maneuver +the evolving organisms, even though they are shorn of all ability to +organize--create--new patterns of living matter. + +After organic evolution has run a certain course and free will of the human +type has appeared in the highest evolving organisms, the Life Carriers must +either leave the planet or take renunciation vows; that is, they must pledge +themselves to refrain from all attempts further to influence the course of +organic evolution. And when such vows are voluntarily taken by those Life +Carriers who choose to remain on the planet as future advisers to those who +shall be intrusted with the fostering of the newly evolved will creatures, +there is summoned a commission of twelve, presided over by the chief of the +Evening Stars, acting by authority of the System Sovereign and with permission +of Gabriel; and forthwith these Life Carriers are transmuted to the third phase +of personality existence--the semispiritual level of being. And I have +functioned on Urantia in this third phase of existence ever since the times of +Andon and Fonta. + +We look forward to a time when the universe may be settled in light and life, +to a possible fourth stage of being wherein we shall be wholly spiritual, but +it has never been revealed to us by what technique we may attain this desirable +and advanced estate. + +2. THE EVOLUTIONARY PANORAMA + +The story of man's ascent from seaweed to the lordship of earthly creation is +indeed a romance of biologic struggle and mind survival. Man's primordial +ancestors were literally the slime and ooze of the ocean bed in the sluggish +and warm-water bays and lagoons of the vast shore lines of the ancient inland +seas, those very waters in which the Life Carriers established the three +independent life implantations on Urantia. + +Very few species of the early types of marine vegetation that participated in +those epochal changes which resulted in the animallike borderland organisms are +in existence today. The sponges are the survivors of one of these early midway +types, those organisms through which the gradual transition from the vegetable +to the animal took place. These early transition forms, while not identical +with modern sponges, were much like them; they were true borderline +organisms--neither vegetable nor animal--but they eventually led to the +development of the true animal forms of life. + + top of page - 732 + +The bacteria, simple vegetable organisms of a very primitive nature, are very +little changed from the early dawn of life; they even exhibit a degree of +retrogression in their parasitic behavior. Many of the fungi also represent a +retrograde movement in evolution, being plants which have lost their +chlorophyll-making ability and have become more or less parasitic. The majority +of disease-causing bacteria and their auxiliary virus bodies really belong to +this group of renegade parasitic fungi. During the intervening ages all of the +vast kingdom of plant life has evolved from ancestors from which the bacteria +have also descended. + +The higher protozoan type of animal life soon appeared, and appeared suddenly. +And from these far-distant times the ameba, the typical single-celled animal +organism, has come on down but little modified. He disports himself today much +as he did when he was the last and greatest achievement in life evolution. This +minute creature and his protozoan cousins are to the animal creation what +bacteria are to the plant kingdom; they represent the survival of the first +early evolutionary steps in life differentiation together with failure of +subsequent development. + +Before long the early single-celled animal types associated themselves in +communities, first on the plan of the Volvox and presently along the lines of +the Hydra and jellyfish. Still later there evolved the starfish, stone lilies, +sea urchins, sea cucumbers, centipedes, insects, spiders, crustaceans, and the +closely related groups of earthworms and leeches, soon followed by the +mollusks--the oyster, octopus, and snail. Hundreds upon hundreds of species +intervened and perished; mention is made only of those which survived the long, +long struggle. Such nonprogressive specimens, together with the later appearing +fish family, today represent the stationary types of early and lower animals, +branches of the tree of life which failed to progress. + +The stage was thus set for the appearance of the first backboned animals, the +fishes. From this fish family there sprang two unique modifications, the frog +and the salamander. And it was the frog which began that series of progressive +differentiations in animal life that finally culminated in man himself. + +The frog is one of the earliest of surviving human-race ancestors, but it also +failed to progress, persisting today much as in those remote times. The frog is +the only species ancestor of the early dawn races now living on the face of the +earth. The human race has no surviving ancestry between the frog and the +Eskimo. + +The frogs gave rise to the Reptilia, a great animal family which is virtually +extinct, but which, before passing out of existence, gave origin to the whole +bird family and the numerous orders of mammals. + +Probably the greatest single leap of all prehuman evolution was executed when +the reptile became a bird. The bird types of today--eagles, ducks, pigeons, and +ostriches--all descended from the enormous reptiles of long, long ago. + +The kingdom of reptiles, descended from the frog family, is today represented +by four surviving divisions: two nonprogressive, snakes and lizards, together +with their cousins, alligators and turtles; one partially progressive, the bird +family, and the fourth the ancestors of mammals and the direct line of descent +of the human species. But though long departed, the massiveness of the passing +Reptilia found echo in the elephant and mastodon, while their peculiar forms +were perpetuated in the leaping kangaroos. + + top of page - 733 + +Only fourteen phyla have appeared on Urantia, the fishes being the last, and no +new classes have developed since birds and mammals. + +It was from an agile little reptilian dinosaur of carnivorous habits but having +a comparatively large brain that the placental mammals suddenly sprang. These +mammals developed rapidly and in many different ways, not only giving rise to +the common modern varieties but also evolving into marine types, such as whales +and seals, and into air navigators like the bat family. + +Man thus evolved from the higher mammals derived principally from the western +implantation of life in the ancient east-west sheltered seas. The eastern and +central groups of living organisms were early progressing favorably toward the +attainment of prehuman levels of animal existence. But as the ages passed, the +eastern focus of life emplacement failed to attain a satisfactory level of +intelligent prehuman status, having suffered such repeated and irretrievable +losses of its highest types of germ plasm that it was forever shorn of the +power to rehabilitate human potentialities. + +Since the quality of the mind capacity for development in this eastern group +was so definitely inferior to that of the other two groups, the Life Carriers, +with the consent of their superiors, so manipulated the environment as further +to circumscribe these inferior prehuman strains of evolving life. To all +outward appearances the elimination of these inferior groups of creatures was +accidental, but in reality it was altogether purposeful. + +Later in the evolutionary unfolding of intelligence, the lemur ancestors of the +human species were far more advanced in North America than in other regions; +and they were therefore led to migrate from the arena of western life +implantation over the Bering land bridge and down the coast to southwestern +Asia, where they continued to evolve and to benefit by the addition of certain +strains of the central life group. Man thus evolved out of certain western and +central life strains but in the central to near-eastern regions. + +In this way the life that was planted on Urantia evolved until the ice age, +when man himself first appeared and began his eventful planetary career. And +this appearance of primitive man on earth during the ice age was not just an +accident; it was by design. The rigors and climatic severity of the glacial era +were in every way adapted to the purpose of fostering the production of a hardy +type of human being with tremendous survival endowment. + +3. THE FOSTERING OF EVOLUTION + +It will hardly be possible to explain to the present-day human mind many of the +queer and apparently grotesque occurrences of early evolutionary progress. A +purposeful plan was functioning throughout all of these seemingly strange +evolutions of living things, but we are not allowed arbitrarily to interfere +with the development of the life patterns after they have once been set in +operation. + +Life Carriers may employ every possible natural resource and may utilize any +and all fortuitous circumstances which will enhance the developmental progress +of the life experiment, but we are not permitted mechanically to intervene in, +or arbitrarily to manipulate the conduct and course of, either plant or animal +evolution. + +You have been informed that Urantia mortals evolved by way of primitive frog +development, and that this ascending strain, carried in potential in a single + + top of page - 734 + +frog, narrowly escaped extinction on a certain occasion. But it should not be +inferred that the evolution of mankind would have been terminated by an +accident at this juncture. At that very moment we were observing and fostering +no less than one thousand different and remotely situated mutating strains of +life which could have been directed into various different patterns of prehuman +development. This particular ancestral frog represented our third selection, +the two prior life strains having perished in spite of all our efforts toward +their conservation. + +Even the loss of Andon and Fonta before they had offspring, though delaying +human evolution, would not have prevented it. Subsequent to the appearance of +Andon and Fonta and before the mutating human potentials of animal life were +exhausted, there evolved no less than seven thousand favorable strains which +could have achieved some sort of human type of development. And many of these +better stocks were subsequently assimilated by the various branches of the +expanding human species. + +Long before the Material Son and Daughter, the biologic uplifters, arrive on a +planet, the human potentials of the evolving animal species have been +exhausted. This biologic status of animal life is disclosed to the Life +Carriers by the phenomenon of the third phase of adjutant spirit mobilization, +which automatically occurs concomitantly with the exhaustion of the capacity of +all animal life to give origin to the mutant potentials of prehuman +individuals. + +Mankind on Urantia must solve its problems of mortal development with the human +stocks it has--no more races will evolve from prehuman sources throughout all +future time. But this fact does not preclude the possibility of the attainment +of vastly higher levels of human development through the intelligent fostering +of the evolutionary potentials still resident in the mortal races. That which +we, the Life Carriers, do toward fostering and conserving the life strains +before the appearance of human will, man must do for himself after such an +event and subsequent to our retirement from active participation in evolution. +In a general way, man's evolutionary destiny is in his own hands, and +scientific intelligence must sooner or later supersede the random functioning +of uncontrolled natural selection and chance survival. + +And in discussing the fostering of evolution, it would not be amiss to point +out that, in the long future ahead, when you may sometime be attached to a +corps of Life Carriers, you will have abundant and ample opportunity to offer +suggestions and make any possible improvements in the plans and technique of +life management and transplantation. Be patient! If you have good ideas, if +your minds are fertile with better methods of administration for any part of +the universal domains, you are certainly going to have an opportunity to +present them to your associates and fellow administrators in the ages to come. + +4. THE URANTIA ADVENTURE + +Do not overlook the fact that Urantia was assigned to us as a life-experiment +world. On this planet we made our sixtieth attempt to modify and, if possible, +improve the Satania adaptation of the Nebadon life designs, and it is of record +that we achieved numerous beneficial modifications of the standard life +patterns. To be specific, on Urantia we worked out and have satisfactorily +demonstrated + + top of page - 735 + +not less than twenty-eight features of life modification which will be of +service to all Nebadon throughout all future time. + +But the establishment of life on no world is ever experimental in the sense +that something untried and unknown is attempted. The evolution of life is a +technique ever progressive, differential, and variable, but never haphazard, +uncontrolled, nor wholly experimental, in the accidental sense. + +Many features of human life afford abundant evidence that the phenomenon of +mortal existence was intelligently planned, that organic evolution is not a +mere cosmic accident. When a living cell is injured, it possesses the ability +to elaborate certain chemical substances which are empowered so to stimulate +and activate the neighboring normal cells that they immediately begin the +secretion of certain substances which facilitate healing processes in the +wound; and at the same time these normal and uninjured cells begin to +proliferate--they actually start to work creating new cells to replace any +fellow cells which may have been destroyed by the accident. + +This chemical action and reaction concerned in wound healing and cell +reproduction represents the choice of the Life Carriers of a formula embracing +over one hundred thousand phases and features of possible chemical reactions +and biologic repercussions. More than half a million specific experiments were +made by the Life Carriers in their laboratories before they finally settled +upon this formula for the Urantia life experiment. + +When Urantia scientists know more of these healing chemicals, they will become +more efficient in the treatment of injuries, and indirectly they will know more +about controlling certain serious diseases. + +Since life was established on Urantia, the Life Carriers have improved this +healing technique as it has been introduced on another Satania world, in that +it affords more pain relief and exercises better control over the proliferation +capacity of the associated normal cells. + +There were many unique features of the Urantia life experiment, but the two +outstanding episodes were the appearance of the Andonic race prior to the +evolution of the six colored peoples and the later simultaneous appearance of +the Sangik mutants in a single family. Urantia is the first world in Satania +where the six colored races sprang from the same human family. They ordinarily +arise in diversified strains from independent mutations within the prehuman +animal stock and usually appear on earth one at a time and successively over +long periods of time, beginning with the red man and passing on down through +the colors to indigo. + +Another outstanding variation of procedure was the late arrival of the +Planetary Prince. As a rule, the prince appears on a planet about the time of +will development; and if such a plan had been followed, Caligastia might have +come to Urantia even during the lifetimes of Andon and Fonta instead of almost +five hundred thousand years later, simultaneously with the appearance of the +six Sangik races. + +On an ordinary inhabited world a Planetary Prince would have been granted on +the request of the Life Carriers at, or sometime after, the appearance of Andon +and Fonta. But Urantia having been designated a life-modification planet, it +was by preagreement that the Melchizedek observers, twelve in number, were sent +as advisers to the Life Carriers and as overseers of the planet until + + top of page - 736 + +the subsequent arrival of the Planetary Prince. These Melchizedeks came at the +time Andon and Fonta made the decisions which enabled Thought Adjusters to +indwell their mortal minds. + +On Urantia the endeavors of the Life Carriers to improve the Satania life +patterns necessarily resulted in the production of many apparently useless +forms of transition life. But the gains already accrued are sufficient to +justify the Urantia modifications of the standard life designs. + +It was our intention to produce an early manifestation of will in the +evolutionary life of Urantia, and we succeeded. Ordinarily, will does not +emerge until the colored races have long been in existence, usually first +appearing among the superior types of the red man. Your world is the only +planet in Satania where the human type of will has appeared in a precolored +race. + +But in our effort to provide for that combination and association of +inheritance factors which finally gave rise to the mammalian ancestors of the +human race, we were confronted with the necessity of permitting hundreds and +thousands of other and comparatively useless combinations and associations of +inheritance factors to take place. Many of these seemingly strange by-products +of our efforts are certain to meet your gaze as you dig back into the planetary +past, and I can well understand how puzzling some of these things must be to +the limited human viewpoint. + +5. LIFE-EVOLUTION VICISSITUDES + +It was a source of regret to the Life Carriers that our special efforts to +modify intelligent life on Urantia should have been so handicapped by tragic +perversions beyond our control: the Caligastia betrayal and the Adamic default. + +But throughout all of this biologic adventure our greatest disappointment grew +out of the reversion of certain primitive plant life to the prechlorophyll +levels of parasitic bacteria on such an extensive and unexpected scale. This +eventuality in plant-life evolution caused many distressful diseases in the +higher mammals, particularly in the more vulnerable human species. When we were +confronted with this perplexing situation, we somewhat discounted the +difficulties involved because we knew that the subsequent admixture of the +Adamic life plasm would so reinforce the resisting powers of the resulting +blended race as to make it practically immune to all diseases produced by the +vegetable type of organism. But our hopes were doomed to disappointment owing +to the misfortune of the Adamic default. + +The universe of universes, including this small world called Urantia, is not +being managed merely to meet our approval nor just to suit our convenience, +much less to gratify our whims and satisfy our curiosity. The wise and +all-powerful beings who are responsible for universe management undoubtedly +know exactly what they are about; and so it becomes Life Carriers and behooves +mortal minds to enlist in patient waiting and hearty co-operation with the rule +of wisdom, the reign of power, and the march of progress. + +There are, of course, certain compensations for tribulation, such as Michael's +bestowal on Urantia. But irrespective of all such considerations, the later +celestial supervisors of this planet express complete confidence in the +ultimate evolutionary triumph of the human race and in the eventual vindication +of our original plans and life patterns. + + top of page - 737 + +6. EVOLUTIONARY TECHNIQUES OF LIFE + +It is impossible accurately to determine, simultaneously, the exact location +and the velocity of a moving object; any attempt at measurement of either +inevitably involves change in the other. The same sort of a paradox confronts +mortal man when he undertakes the chemical analysis of protoplasm. The chemist +can elucidate the chemistry of dead protoplasm, but he cannot discern either +the physical organization or the dynamic performance of living protoplasm. Ever +will the scientist come nearer and nearer the secrets of life, but never will +he find them and for no other reason than that he must kill protoplasm in order +to analyze it. Dead protoplasm weighs the same as living protoplasm, but it is +not the same. + +There is original endowment of adaptation in living things and beings. In every +living plant or animal cell, in every living organism--material or +spiritual--there is an insatiable craving for the attainment of ever-increasing +perfection of environmental adjustment, organismal adaptation, and augmented +life realization. These interminable efforts of all living things evidence the +existence within them of an innate striving for perfection. + +The most important step in plant evolution was the development of +chlorophyll-making ability, and the second greatest advance was the evolution +of the spore into the complex seed. The spore is most efficient as a +reproductive agent, but it lacks the potentials of variety and versatility +inherent in the seed. + +One of the most serviceable and complex episodes in the evolution of the higher +types of animals consisted in the development of the ability of the iron in the +circulating blood cells to perform in the double role of oxygen carrier and +carbon dioxide remover. And this performance of the red blood cells illustrates +how evolving organisms are able to adapt their functions to varying or changing +environment. The higher animals, including man, oxygenate their tissues by the +action of the iron of the red blood cells, which carries oxygen to the living +cells and just as efficiently removes the carbon dioxide. But other metals can +be made to serve the same purpose. The cuttlefish employs copper for this +function, and the sea squirt utilizes vanadium. + +The continuation of such biologic adjustments is illustrated by the evolution +of teeth in the higher Urantia mammals; these attained to thirty-six in man's +remote ancestors, and then began an adaptative readjustment toward thirty-two +in the dawn man and his near relatives. Now the human species is slowly +gravitating toward twenty-eight. The process of evolution is still actively and +adaptatively in progress on this planet. + +But many seemingly mysterious adjustments of living organisms are purely +chemical, wholly physical. At any moment of time, in the blood stream of any +human being there exists the possibility of upward of 15,000,000 chemical +reactions between the hormone output of a dozen ductless glands. + +The lower forms of plant life are wholly responsive to physical, chemical, and +electrical environment. But as the scale of life ascends, one by one the mind +ministries of the seven adjutant spirits become operative, and the mind becomes +increasingly adjustive, creative, co-ordinative, and dominative. The ability of +animals to adapt themselves to air, water, and land is not a supernatural +endowment, but it is a superphysical adjustment. + + top of page - 738 + +Physics and chemistry alone cannot explain how a human being evolved out of the +primeval protoplasm of the early seas. The ability to learn, memory and +differential response to environment, is the endowment of mind. The laws of +physics are not responsive to training; they are immutable and unchanging. The +reactions of chemistry are not modified by education; they are uniform and +dependable. Aside from the presence of the Unqualified Absolute, electrical and +chemical reactions are predictable. But mind can profit from experience, can +learn from reactive habits of behavior in response to repetition of stimuli. + +Preintelligent organisms react to environmental stimuli, but those organisms +which are reactive to mind ministry can adjust and manipulate the environment +itself. + +The physical brain with its associated nervous system possesses innate capacity +for response to mind ministry just as the developing mind of a personality +possesses a certain innate capacity for spirit receptivity and therefore +contains the potentials of spiritual progress and attainment. Intellectual, +social, moral, and spiritual evolution are dependent on the mind ministry of +the seven adjutant spirits and their superphysical associates. + +7. EVOLUTIONARY MIND LEVELS + +The seven adjutant mind-spirits are the versatile mind ministers to the lower +intelligent existences of a local universe. This order of mind is ministered +from the local universe headquarters or from some world connected therewith, +but there is influential direction of lower-mind function from the system +capitals. + +On an evolutionary world much, very much, depends on the work of these seven +adjutants. But they are mind ministers; they are not concerned in physical +evolution, the domain of the Life Carriers. Nevertheless, the perfect +integration of these spirit endowments with the ordained and natural procedure +of the unfolding and inherent regime of the Life Carriers is responsible for +the mortal inability to discern, in the phenomenon of mind, aught but the hand +of nature and the outworking of natural processes, albeit you are occasionally +somewhat perplexed in explaining all of everything connected with the natural +reactions of mind as it is associated with matter. And if Urantia were +operating more in accordance with the original plans, you would observe even +less to arrest your attention in the phenomenon of mind. + +The seven adjutant spirits are more circuitlike than entitylike, and on +ordinary worlds they are encircuited with other adjutant functionings +throughout the local universe. On life-experiment planets, however, they are +relatively isolated. And on Urantia, owing to the unique nature of the life +patterns, the lower adjutants experienced far more difficulty in contacting +with the evolutionary organisms than would have been the case in a more +standardized type of life endowment. + +Again, on an average evolutionary world the seven adjutant spirits are far +better synchronized with the advancing stages of animal development than they +were on Urantia. With but a single exception, the adjutants experienced the +greatest difficulty in contacting with the evolving minds of Urantia organisms +that they had ever had in all their functioning throughout the universe of +Nebadon. On this world there developed many forms of border +phenomena--confusional combinations of the mechanical-nonteachable and the +nonmechanical-teachable types of organismal response. + + top of page - 739 + +The seven adjutant spirits do not make contact with the purely mechanical +orders of organismal environmental response. Such preintelligent responses of +living organisms pertain purely to the energy domains of the power centers, the +physical controllers, and their associates. + +The acquisition of the potential of the ability to learn from experience marks +the beginning of the functioning of the adjutant spirits, and they function +from the lowliest minds of primitive and invisible existences up to the highest +types in the evolutionary scale of human beings. They are the source and +pattern for the otherwise more or less mysterious behavior and incompletely +understood quick reactions of mind to the material environment. Long must these +faithful and always dependable influences carry forward their preliminary +ministry before the animal mind attains the human levels of spirit receptivity. + +The adjutants function exclusively in the evolution of experiencing mind up to +the level of the sixth phase, the spirit of worship. At this level there occurs +that inevitable overlapping of ministry--the phenomenon of the higher reaching +down to co-ordinate with the lower in anticipation of subsequent attainment of +advanced levels of development. And still additional spirit ministry +accompanies the action of the seventh and last adjutant, the spirit of wisdom. +Throughout the ministry of the spirit world the individual never experiences +abrupt transitions of spirit co-operation; always are these changes gradual and +reciprocal. + +Always should the domains of the physical (electrochemical) and the mental +response to environmental stimuli be differentiated, and in turn must they all +be recognized as phenomena apart from spiritual activities. The domains of +physical, mental, and spiritual gravity are distinct realms of cosmic reality, +notwithstanding their intimate interrelations. + +8. EVOLUTION IN TIME AND SPACE + +Time and space are indissolubly linked; there is an innate association. The +delays of time are inevitable in the presence of certain space conditions. + +If spending so much time in effecting the evolutionary changes of life +development occasions perplexity, I would say that we cannot time the life +processes to unfold any faster than the physical metamorphoses of a planet will +permit. We must wait upon the natural, physical development of a planet; we +have absolutely no control over geologic evolution. If the physical conditions +would allow, we could arrange for the completed evolution of life in +considerably less than one million years. But we are all under the jurisdiction +of the Supreme Rulers of Paradise, and time is nonexistent on Paradise. + +The individual's yardstick for time measurement is the length of his life. All +creatures are thus time conditioned, and therefore do they regard evolution as +being a long-drawn-out process. To those of us whose life span is not limited +by a temporal existence, evolution does not seem to be such a protracted +transaction. On Paradise, where time is nonexistent, these things are all +present in the mind of Infinity and the acts of Eternity. + +As mind evolution is dependent on, and delayed by, the slow development of +physical conditions, so is spiritual progress dependent on mental expansion and +unfailingly delayed by intellectual retardation. But this does not mean that +spiritual evolution is dependent on education, culture, or wisdom. The soul may +evolve regardless of mental culture but not in the absence of mental capacity + + top of page - 740 + +and desire--the choice of survival and the decision to achieve ever-increasing +perfection--to do the will of the Father in heaven. Although survival may not +depend on the possession of knowledge and wisdom, progression most certainly +does. + +In the cosmic evolutionary laboratories mind is always dominant over matter, +and spirit is ever correlated with mind. Failure of these diverse endowments to +synchronize and co-ordinate may cause time delays, but if the individual really +knows God and desires to find him and become like him, then survival is assured +regardless of the handicaps of time. Physical status may handicap mind, and +mental perversity may delay spiritual attainment, but none of these obstacles +can defeat the whole-souled choice of will. + +When physical conditions are ripe, sudden mental evolutions may take place; +when mind status is propitious, sudden spiritual transformations may occur; +when spiritual values receive proper recognition, then cosmic meanings become +discernible, and increasingly the personality is released from the handicaps of +time and delivered from the limitations of space. + +[Sponsored by a Life Carrier of Nebadon resident on Urantia.] + + top of page - 741 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The ³ The Planetary ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Evolutionar... ³ P... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p067.txt b/religious documents/p067.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6dd8b7b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p067.txt @@ -0,0 +1,568 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 67 The Planetary Rebellion + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 67 The Planetary Rebellion + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE problems associated with human existence on Urantia are impossible of +understanding without a knowledge of certain great epochs of the past, notably +the occurrence and consequences of the planetary rebellion. Although this +upheaval did not seriously interfere with the progress of organic evolution, it +did markedly modify the course of social evolution and of spiritual +development. The entire superphysical history of the planet was profoundly +influenced by this devastating calamity. + +1. THE CALIGASTIA BETRAYAL + +For three hundred thousand years Caligastia had been in charge of Urantia when +Satan, Lucifer's assistant, made one of his periodic inspection calls. And when +Satan arrived on the planet, his appearance in no way resembled your +caricatures of his nefarious majesty. He was, and still is, a Lanonandek Son of +great brilliance. "And no marvel, for Satan himself is a brilliant creature of +light." + +In the course of this inspection Satan informed Caligastia of Lucifer's then +proposed "Declaration of Liberty," and as we now know, the Prince agreed to +betray the planet upon the announcement of the rebellion. The loyal universe +personalities look with peculiar disdain upon Prince Caligastia because of this +premeditated betrayal of trust. The Creator Son voiced this contempt when he +said: "You are like your leader, Lucifer, and you have sinfully perpetuated his +iniquity. He was a falsifier from the beginning of his self-exaltation because +he abode not in the truth." + +In all the administrative work of a local universe no high trust is deemed more +sacred than that reposed in a Planetary Prince who assumes responsibility for +the welfare and guidance of the evolving mortals on a newly inhabited world. +And of all forms of evil, none are more destructive of personality status than +betrayal of trust and disloyalty to one's confiding friends. In committing this +deliberate sin, Caligastia so completely distorted his personality that his +mind has never since been able fully to regain its equilibrium. + +There are many ways of looking at sin, but from the universe philosophic +viewpoint sin is the attitude of a personality who is knowingly resisting +cosmic reality. Error might be regarded as a misconception or distortion of +reality. Evil is a partial realization of, or maladjustment to, universe +realities. But sin is a purposeful resistance to divine reality--a conscious +choosing to oppose spiritual progress--while iniquity consists in an open and +persistent defiance of recognized reality and signifies such a degree of +personality disintegration as to border on cosmic insanity. + + top of page - 755 + +Error suggests lack of intellectual keenness; evil, deficiency of wisdom; sin, +abject spiritual poverty; but iniquity is indicative of vanishing personality +control. + +And when sin has so many times been chosen and so often been repeated, it may +become habitual. Habitual sinners can easily become iniquitous, become +wholehearted rebels against the universe and all of its divine realities. While +all manner of sins may be forgiven, we doubt whether the established iniquiter +would ever sincerely experience sorrow for his misdeeds or accept forgiveness +for his sins. + +2. THE OUTBREAK OF REBELLION + +Shortly after Satan's inspection and when the planetary administration was on +the eve of the realization of great things on Urantia, one day, midwinter of +the northern continents, Caligastia held a prolonged conference with his +associate, Daligastia, after which the latter called the ten councils of +Urantia in session extraordinary. This assembly was opened with the statement +that Prince Caligastia was about to proclaim himself absolute sovereign of +Urantia and demanded that all administrative groups abdicate by resigning all +of their functions and powers into the hands of Daligastia as trustee, pending +the reorganization of the planetary government and the subsequent +redistribution of these offices of administrative authority. + +The presentation of this astounding demand was followed by the masterly appeal +of Van, chairman of the supreme council of co-ordination. This distinguished +administrator and able jurist branded the proposed course of Caligastia as an +act bordering on planetary rebellion and appealed to his conferees to abstain +from all participation until an appeal could be taken to Lucifer, the System +Sovereign of Satania; and he won the support of the entire staff. Accordingly, +appeal was taken to Jerusem, and forthwith came back the orders designating +Caligastia as supreme sovereign on Urantia and commanding absolute and +unquestioning allegiance to his mandates. And it was in reply to this amazing +message that the noble Van made his memorable address of seven hours' length in +which he formally drew his indictment of Daligastia, Caligastia, and Lucifer as +standing in contempt of the sovereignty of the universe of Nebadon; and he +appealed to the Most Highs of Edentia for support and confirmation. + +Meantime the system circuits had been severed; Urantia was isolated. Every +group of celestial life on the planet found itself suddenly and without warning +isolated, utterly cut off from all outside counsel and advice. + +Daligastia formally proclaimed Caligastia "God of Urantia and supreme over +all." With this proclamation before them, the issues were clearly drawn; and +each group drew off by itself and began deliberations, discussions destined +eventually to determine the fate of every superhuman personality on the planet. + +Seraphim and cherubim and other celestial beings were involved in the decisions +of this bitter struggle, this long and sinful conflict. Many superhuman groups +that chanced to be on Urantia at the time of its isolation were detained here +and, like the seraphim and their associates, were compelled to choose between +sin and righteousness--between the ways of Lucifer and the will of the unseen +Father. + + top of page - 756 + +For more than seven years this struggle continued. Not until every personality +concerned had made a final decision, would or did the authorities of Edentia +interfere or intervene. Not until then did Van and his loyal associates receive +vindication and release from their prolonged anxiety and intolerable suspense. + +3. THE SEVEN CRUCIAL YEARS + +The outbreak of rebellion on Jerusem, the capital of Satania, was broadcast by +the Melchizedek council. The emergency Melchizedeks were immediately dispatched +to Jerusem, and Gabriel volunteered to act as the representative of the Creator +Son, whose authority had been challenged. With this broadcast of the fact of +rebellion in Satania the system was isolated, quarantined, from her sister +systems. There was "war in heaven," the headquarters of Satania, and it spread +to every planet in the local system. + +On Urantia forty members of the corporeal staff of one hundred (including Van) +refused to join the insurrection. Many of the staff's human assistants +(modified and otherwise) were also brave and noble defenders of Michael and his +universe government. There was a terrible loss of personalities among seraphim +and cherubim. Almost one half of the administrator and transition seraphim +assigned to the planet joined their leader and Daligastia in support of the +cause of Lucifer. Forty thousand one hundred and nineteen of the primary midway +creatures joined hands with Caligastia, but the remainder of these beings +remained true to their trust. + +The traitorous Prince marshaled the disloyal midway creatures and other groups +of rebel personalities and organized them to execute his bidding, while Van +assembled the loyal midwayers and other faithful groups and began the great +battle for the salvation of the planetary staff and other marooned celestial +personalities. + +During the times of this struggle the loyalists dwelt in an unwalled and poorly +protected settlement a few miles to the east of Dalamatia, but their dwellings +were guarded day and night by the alert and ever-watchful loyal midway +creatures, and they had possession of the priceless tree of life. + +Upon the outbreak of rebellion, loyal cherubim and seraphim, with the aid of +three faithful midwayers, assumed the custody of the tree of life and permitted +only the forty loyalists of the staff and their associated modified mortals to +partake of the fruit and leaves of this energy plant. There were fifty-six of +these modified Andonite associates of the staff, sixteen of the Andonite +attendants of the disloyal staff refusing to go into rebellion with their +masters. + +Throughout the seven crucial years of the Caligastia rebellion, Van was wholly +devoted to the work of ministry to his loyal army of men, midwayers, and +angels. The spiritual insight and moral steadfastness which enabled Van to +maintain such an unshakable attitude of loyalty to the universe government was +the product of clear thinking, wise reasoning, logical judgment, sincere +motivation, unselfish purpose, intelligent loyalty, experiential memory, +disciplined character, and the unquestioning dedication of his personality to +the doing of the will of the Father in Paradise. + +This seven years of waiting was a time of heart searching and soul discipline. +Such crises in the affairs of a universe demonstrate the tremendous influence +of mind as a factor in spiritual choosing. Education, training, and experience +are + + top of page - 757 + +factors in most of the vital decisions of all evolutionary moral creatures. But +it is entirely possible for the indwelling spirit to make direct contact with +the decision-determining powers of the human personality so as to empower the +fully consecrated will of the creature to perform amazing acts of loyal +devotion to the will and the way of the Father in Paradise. And this is just +what occurred in the experience of Amadon, the modified human associate of Van. + +Amadon is the outstanding human hero of the Lucifer rebellion. This male +descendant of Andon and Fonta was one of the one hundred who contributed life +plasm to the Prince's staff, and ever since that event he had been attached to +Van as his associate and human assistant. Amadon elected to stand with his +chief throughout the long and trying struggle. And it was an inspiring sight to +behold this child of the evolutionary races standing unmoved by the sophistries +of Daligastia while throughout the seven-year struggle he and his loyal +associates resisted with unyielding fortitude all of the deceptive teachings of +the brilliant Caligastia. + +Caligastia, with a maximum of intelligence and a vast experience in universe +affairs, went astray--embraced sin. Amadon, with a minimum of intelligence and +utterly devoid of universe experience, remained steadfast in the service of the +universe and in loyalty to his associate. Van utilized both mind and spirit in +a magnificent and effective combination of intellectual determination and +spiritual insight, thereby achieving an experiential level of personality +realization of the highest attainable order. Mind and spirit, when fully +united, are potential for the creation of superhuman values, even morontia +realities. + +There is no end to the recital of the stirring events of these tragic days. But +at last the final decision of the last personality was made, and then, but only +then, did a Most High of Edentia arrive with the emergency Melchizedeks to +seize authority on Urantia. The Caligastia panoramic reign-records on Jerusem +were obliterated, and the probationary era of planetary rehabilitation was +inaugurated. + +4. THE CALIGASTIA ONE HUNDRED AFTER REBELLION + +When the final roll was called, the corporeal members of the Prince's staff +were found to have aligned themselves as follows: Van and his entire court of +co-ordination had remained loyal. Ang and three members of the food council had +survived. The board of animal husbandry were all swept into rebellion as were +all of the animal-conquest advisers. Fad and five members of the educational +faculty were saved. Nod and all of the commission on industry and trade joined +Caligastia. Hap and the entire college of revealed religion remained loyal with +Van and his noble band. Lut and the whole board of health were lost. The +council of art and science remained loyal in its entirety, but Tut and the +commission on tribal government all went astray. Thus were forty out of the one +hundred saved, later to be transferred to Jerusem, where they resumed their +Paradise journey. + +The sixty members of the planetary staff who went into rebellion chose Nod as +their leader. They worked wholeheartedly for the rebel Prince but soon +discovered that they were deprived of the sustenance of the system life +circuits. They awakened to the fact that they had been degraded to the status +of mortal beings. They were indeed superhuman but, at the same time, material +and mortal. In an effort to increase their numbers, Daligastia ordered +immediate resort to + + top of page - 758 + +sexual reproduction, knowing full well that the original sixty and their +forty-four modified Andonite associates were doomed to suffer extinction by +death, sooner or later. After the fall of Dalamatia the disloyal staff migrated +to the north and the east. Their descendants were long known as the Nodites, +and their dwelling place as "the land of Nod." + +The presence of these extraordinary supermen and superwomen, stranded by +rebellion and presently mating with the sons and daughters of earth, easily +gave origin to those traditional stories of the gods coming down to mate with +mortals. And thus originated the thousand and one legends of a mythical nature, +but founded on the facts of the postrebellion days, which later found a place +in the folk tales and traditions of the various peoples whose ancestors had +participated in these contacts with the Nodites and their descendants. + +The staff rebels, deprived of spiritual sustenance, eventually died a natural +death. And much of the subsequent idolatry of the human races grew out of the +desire to perpetuate the memory of these highly honored beings of the days of +Caligastia. + +When the staff of one hundred came to Urantia, they were temporarily detached +from their Thought Adjusters. Immediately upon the arrival of the Melchizedek +receivers the loyal personalities (except Van) were returned to Jerusem and +were reunited with their waiting Adjusters. We know not the fate of the sixty +staff rebels; their Adjusters still tarry on Jerusem. Matters will undoubtedly +rest as they now are until the entire Lucifer rebellion is finally adjudicated +and the fate of all participants decreed. + +It was very difficult for such beings as angels and midwayers to conceive of +brilliant and trusted rulers like Caligastia and Daligastia going +astray--committing traitorous sin. Those beings who fell into sin--they did not +deliberately or premeditatedly enter upon rebellion--were misled by their +superiors, deceived by their trusted leaders. It was likewise easy to win the +support of the primitive-minded evolutionary mortals. + +The vast majority of all human and superhuman beings who were victims of the +Lucifer rebellion on Jerusem and the various misled planets have long since +heartily repented of their folly; and we truly believe that all such sincere +penitents will in some manner be rehabilitated and restored to some phase of +universe service when the Ancients of Days finally complete the adjudication of +the affairs of the Satania rebellion, which they have so recently begun. + +5. IMMEDIATE RESULTS OF REBELLION + +Great confusion reigned in Dalamatia and thereabout for almost fifty years +after the instigation of rebellion. The complete and radical reorganization of +the whole world was attempted; revolution displaced evolution as the policy of +cultural advancement and racial improvement. Among the superior and partially +trained sojourners in and near Dalamatia there appeared a sudden advancement in +cultural status, but when these new and radical methods were attempted on the +outlying peoples, indescribable confusion and racial pandemonium was the +immediate result. Liberty was quickly translated into license by the +half-evolved primitive men of those days. + +Very soon after the rebellion the entire staff of sedition were engaged in +energetic defense of the city against the hordes of semisavages who besieged +its + + top of page - 759 + +walls as a result of the doctrines of liberty which had been prematurely taught +them. And years before the beautiful headquarters went down beneath the +southern waves, the misled and mistaught tribes of the Dalamatia hinterland had +already swept down in semisavage assault on the splendid city, driving the +secession staff and their associates northward. + +The Caligastia scheme for the immediate reconstruction of human society in +accordance with his ideas of individual freedom and group liberties, proved a +swift and more or less complete failure. Society quickly sank back to its old +biologic level, and the forward struggle began all over, starting not very far +in advance of where it was at the beginning of the Caligastia regime, this +upheaval having left the world in confusion worse confounded. + +One hundred and sixty-two years after the rebellion a tidal wave swept up over +Dalamatia, and the planetary headquarters sank beneath the waters of the sea, +and this land did not again emerge until almost every vestige of the noble +culture of those splendid ages had been obliterated. + +When the first capital of the world was engulfed, it harbored only the lowest +types of the Sangik races of Urantia, renegades who had already converted the +Father's temple into a shrine dedicated to Nog, the false god of light and +fire. + +6. VAN--THE STEADFAST + +The followers of Van early withdrew to the highlands west of India, where they +were exempt from attacks by the confused races of the lowlands, and from which +place of retirement they planned for the rehabilitation of the world as their +early Badonite predecessors had once all unwittingly worked for the welfare of +mankind just before the days of the birth of the Sangik tribes. + +Before the arrival of the Melchizedek receivers, Van placed the administration +of human affairs in the hands of ten commissions of four each, groups identical +with those of the Prince's regime. The senior resident Life Carriers assumed +temporary leadership of this council of forty, which functioned throughout the +seven years of waiting. Similar groups of Amadonites assumed these +responsibilities when the thirty-nine loyal staff members returned to Jerusem. + +These Amadonites were derived from the group of 144 loyal Andonites to which +Amadon belonged, and who have become known by his name. This group comprised +thirty-nine men and one hundred and five women. Fifty-six of this number were +of immortality status, and all (except Amadon) were translated along with the +loyal members of the staff. The remainder of this noble band continued on earth +to the end of their mortal days under the leadership of Van and Amadon. They +were the biologic leaven which multiplied and continued to furnish leadership +for the world down through the long dark ages of the postrebellion era. + +Van was left on Urantia until the time of Adam, remaining as titular head of +all superhuman personalities functioning on the planet. He and Amadon were +sustained by the technique of the tree of life in conjunction with the +specialized life ministry of the Melchizedeks for over one hundred and fifty +thousand years. + +The affairs of Urantia were for a long time administered by a council of +planetary receivers, twelve Melchizedeks, confirmed by the mandate of the +senior constellation ruler, the Most High Father of Norlatiadek. Associated +with the Melchizedek receivers was an advisory council consisting of: one of + + top of page - 760 + +the loyal aids of the fallen Prince, the two resident Life Carriers, a +Trinitized Son in apprenticeship training, a volunteer Teacher Son, a Brilliant +Evening Star of Avalon (periodically), the chiefs of seraphim and cherubim, +advisers from two neighboring planets, the director general of subordinate +angelic life, and Van, the commander in chief of the midway creatures. And thus +was Urantia governed and administered until the arrival of Adam. It is not +strange that the courageous and loyal Van was assigned a place on the council +of planetary receivers which for so long administered the affairs of Urantia. + +The twelve Melchizedek receivers of Urantia did heroic work. They preserved the +remnants of civilization, and their planetary policies were faithfully executed +by Van. Within one thousand years after the rebellion he had more than three +hundred and fifty advanced groups scattered abroad in the world. These outposts +of civilization consisted largely of the descendants of the loyal Andonites +slightly admixed with the Sangik races, particularly the blue men, and with the +Nodites. + +Notwithstanding the terrible setback of rebellion there were many good strains +of biologic promise on earth. Under the supervision of the Melchizedek +receivers, Van and Amadon continued the work of fostering the natural evolution +of the human race, carrying forward the physical evolution of man until it +reached that culminating attainment which warranted the dispatch of a Material +Son and Daughter to Urantia. + +Van and Amadon remained on earth until shortly after the arrival of Adam and +Eve. Some years thereafter they were translated to Jerusem, where Van was +reunited with his waiting Adjuster. Van now serves in behalf of Urantia while +awaiting the order to go forward on the long, long trail to Paradise perfection +and the unrevealed destiny of the assembling Corps of Mortal Finality. + +It should be recorded that, when Van appealed to the Most Highs of Edentia +after Lucifer had sustained Caligastia on Urantia, the Constellation Fathers +dispatched an immediate decision sustaining Van on every point of his +contention. This verdict failed to reach him because the planetary circuits of +communication were severed while it was in transit. Only recently was this +actual ruling discovered lodged in the possession of a relay energy transmitter +where it had been marooned ever since the isolation of Urantia. Without this +discovery, made as the result of the investigations of the Urantia midwayers, +the release of this decision would have awaited the restoration of Urantia to +the constellation circuits. And this apparent accident of interplanetary +communication was possible because energy transmitters can receive and transmit +intelligence, but they cannot initiate communication. + +The technical status of Van on the legal records of Satania was not actually +and finally settled until this ruling of the Edentia Fathers was recorded on +Jerusem. + +7. REMOTE REPERCUSSIONS OF SIN + +The personal (centripetal) consequences of the creature's willful and +persistent rejection of light are both inevitable and individual and are of +concern only to Deity and to that personal creature. Such a soul-destroying +harvest of iniquity is the inner reaping of the iniquitous will creature. + + top of page - 761 + +But not so with the external repercussions of sin: The impersonal (centrifugal) +consequences of embraced sin are both inevitable and collective, being of +concern to every creature functioning within the affect-range of such events. + +By fifty thousand years after the collapse of the planetary administration, +earthly affairs were so disorganized and retarded that the human race had +gained very little over the general evolutionary status existing at the time of +Caligastia's arrival three hundred and fifty thousand years previously. In +certain respects progress had been made; in other directions much ground had +been lost. + +Sin is never purely local in its effects. The administrative sectors of the +universes are organismal; the plight of one personality must to a certain +extent be shared by all. Sin, being an attitude of the person toward reality, +is destined to exhibit its inherent negativistic harvest upon any and all +related levels of universe values. But the full consequences of erroneous +thinking, evil-doing, or sinful planning are experienced only on the level of +actual performance. The transgression of universe law may be fatal in the +physical realm without seriously involving the mind or impairing the spiritual +experience. Sin is fraught with fatal consequences to personality survival only +when it is the attitude of the whole being, when it stands for the choosing of +the mind and the willing of the soul. + +Evil and sin visit their consequences in material and social realms and may +sometimes even retard spiritual progress on certain levels of universe reality, +but never does the sin of any being rob another of the realization of the +divine right of personality survival. Eternal survival can be jeopardized only +by the decisions of the mind and the choice of the soul of the individual +himself. + +Sin on Urantia did very little to delay biologic evolution, but it did operate +to deprive the mortal races of the full benefit of the Adamic inheritance. Sin +enormously retards intellectual development, moral growth, social progress, and +mass spiritual attainment. But it does not prevent the highest spiritual +achievement by any individual who chooses to know God and sincerely do his +divine will. + +Caligastia rebelled, Adam and Eve did default, but no mortal subsequently born +on Urantia has suffered in his personal spiritual experience because of these +blunders. Every mortal born on Urantia since Caligastia's rebellion has been in +some manner time-penalized, but the future welfare of such souls has never been +in the least eternity-jeopardized. No person is ever made to suffer vital +spiritual deprivation because of the sin of another. Sin is wholly personal as +to moral guilt or spiritual consequences, notwithstanding its far-flung +repercussions in administrative, intellectual, and social domains. + +While we cannot fathom the wisdom that permits such catastrophes, we can always +discern the beneficial outworking of these local disturbances as they are +reflected out upon the universe at large. + +8. THE HUMAN HERO OF THE REBELLION + +The Lucifer rebellion was withstood by many courageous beings on the various +worlds of Satania; but the records of Salvington portray Amadon as the +outstanding character of the entire system in his glorious rejection of the +flood tides of sedition and in his unswerving devotion to Van--they stood +together unmoved in their loyalty to the supremacy of the invisible Father and +his Son Michael. + + top of page - 762 + +At the time of these momentous transactions I was stationed on Edentia, and I +am still conscious of the exhilaration I experienced as I perused the +Salvington broadcasts which told from day to day of the unbelievable +steadfastness, the transcendent devotion, and the exquisite loyalty of this +onetime semisavage springing from the experimental and original stock of the +Andonic race. + +From Edentia up through Salvington and even on to Uversa, for seven long years +the first inquiry of all subordinate celestial life regarding the Satania +rebellion, ever and always, was: "What of Amadon of Urantia, does he still +stand unmoved?" + +If the Lucifer rebellion has handicapped the local system and its fallen +worlds, if the loss of this Son and his misled associates has temporarily +hampered the progress of the constellation of Norlatiadek, then weigh the +effect of the far-flung presentation of the inspiring performance of this one +child of nature and his determined band of 143 comrades in standing steadfast +for the higher concepts of universe management and administration in the face +of such tremendous and adverse pressure exerted by his disloyal superiors. And +let me assure you, this has already done more good in the universe of Nebadon +and the superuniverse of Orvonton than can ever be outweighed by the sum total +of all the evil and sorrow of the Lucifer rebellion. + +And all this is a beautifully touching and superbly magnificent illumination of +the wisdom of the Father's universal plan for mobilizing the Corps of Mortal +Finality on Paradise and for recruiting this vast group of mysterious servants +of the future largely from the common clay of the mortals of ascending +progression--just such mortals as the impregnable Amadon. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 763 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Planetary ³ The Dawn Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ P... ³ Civ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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The superior qualities of +civilization--scientific, philosophic, and religious--are not transmitted from +one generation to another by direct inheritance. These cultural achievements +are preserved only by the enlightened conservation of social inheritance. + +Social evolution of the co-operative order was initiated by the Dalamatia +teachers, and for three hundred thousand years mankind was nurtured in the idea +of group activities. The blue man most of all profited by these early social +teachings, the red man to some extent, and the black man least of all. In more +recent times the yellow race and the white race have presented the most +advanced social development on Urantia. + +1. PROTECTIVE SOCIALIZATION + +When brought closely together, men often learn to like one another, but +primitive man was not naturally overflowing with the spirit of brotherly +feeling and the desire for social contact with his fellows. Rather did the +early races learn by sad experience that "in union there is strength"; and it +is this lack of natural brotherly attraction that now stands in the way of +immediate realization of the brotherhood of man on Urantia. + +Association early became the price of survival. The lone man was helpless +unless he bore a tribal mark which testified that he belonged to a group which +would certainly avenge any assault made upon him. Even in the days of Cain it +was fatal to go abroad alone without some mark of group association. +Civilization has become man's insurance against violent death, while the +premiums are paid by submission to society's numerous law demands. + +Primitive society was thus founded on the reciprocity of necessity and on the +enhanced safety of association. And human society has evolved in agelong cycles +as a result of this isolation fear and by means of reluctant co-operation. + +Primitive human beings early learned that groups are vastly greater and +stronger than the mere sum of their individual units. One hundred men united +and working in unison can move a great stone; a score of well-trained guardians +of the peace can restrain an angry mob. And so society was born, not of mere + + top of page - 764 + +association of numbers, but rather as a result of the organization of +intelligent co-operators. But co-operation is not a natural trait of man; he +learns to co-operate first through fear and then later because he discovers it +is most beneficial in meeting the difficulties of time and guarding against the +supposed perils of eternity. + +The peoples who thus early organized themselves into a primitive society became +more successful in their attacks on nature as well as in defense against their +fellows; they possessed greater survival possibilities; hence has civilization +steadily progressed on Urantia, notwithstanding its many setbacks. And it is +only because of the enhancement of survival value in association that man's +many blunders have thus far failed to stop or destroy human civilization. + +That contemporary cultural society is a rather recent phenomenon is well shown +by the present-day survival of such primitive social conditions as characterize +the Australian natives and the Bushmen and Pygmies of Africa. Among these +backward peoples may be observed something of the early group hostility, +personal suspicion, and other highly antisocial traits which were so +characteristic of all primitive races. These miserable remnants of the +nonsocial peoples of ancient times bear eloquent testimony to the fact that the +natural individualistic tendency of man cannot successfully compete with the +more potent and powerful organizations and associations of social progression. +These backward and suspicious antisocial races that speak a different dialect +every forty or fifty miles illustrate what a world you might now be living in +but for the combined teaching of the corporeal staff of the Planetary Prince +and the later labors of the Adamic group of racial uplifters. + +The modern phrase, "back to nature," is a delusion of ignorance, a belief in +the reality of the onetime fictitious "golden age." The only basis for the +legend of the golden age is the historic fact of Dalamatia and Eden. But these +improved societies were far from the realization of utopian dreams. + +2. FACTORS IN SOCIAL PROGRESSION + +Civilized society is the result of man's early efforts to overcome his dislike +of isolation. But this does not necessarily signify mutual affection, and the +present turbulent state of certain primitive groups well illustrates what the +early tribes came up through. But though the individuals of a civilization may +collide with each other and struggle against one another, and though +civilization itself may appear to be an inconsistent mass of striving and +struggling, it does evidence earnest striving, not the deadly monotony of +stagnation. + +While the level of intelligence has contributed considerably to the rate of +cultural progress, society is essentially designed to lessen the risk element +in the individual's mode of living, and it has progressed just as fast as it +has succeeded in lessening pain and increasing the pleasure element in life. +Thus does the whole social body push on slowly toward the goal of +destiny--extinction or survival--depending on whether that goal is +self-maintenance or self-gratification. Self-maintenance originates society, +while excessive self-gratification destroys civilization. + +Society is concerned with self-perpetuation, self-maintenance, and +self-gratification, but human self-realization is worthy of becoming the +immediate goal of many cultural groups. + + top of page - 765 + +The herd instinct in natural man is hardly sufficient to account for the +development of such a social organization as now exists on Urantia. Though this +innate gregarious propensity lies at the bottom of human society, much of man's +sociability is an acquirement. Two great influences which contributed to the +early association of human beings were food hunger and sex love; these +instinctive urges man shares with the animal world. Two other emotions which +drove human beings together and held them together were vanity and fear, more +particularly ghost fear. + +History is but the record of man's agelong food struggle. Primitive man only +thought when he was hungry; food saving was his first self-denial, +self-discipline. With the growth of society, food hunger ceased to be the only +incentive for mutual association. Numerous other sorts of hunger, the +realization of various needs, all led to the closer association of mankind. But +today society is top-heavy with the overgrowth of supposed human needs. +Occidental civilization of the twentieth century groans wearily under the +tremendous overload of luxury and the inordinate multiplication of human +desires and longings. Modern society is enduring the strain of one of its most +dangerous phases of far-flung interassociation and highly complicated +interdependence. + +Hunger, vanity, and ghost fear were continuous in their social pressure, but +sex gratification was transient and spasmodic. The sex urge alone did not impel +primitive men and women to assume the heavy burdens of home maintenance. The +early home was founded upon the sex restlessness of the male when deprived of +frequent gratification and upon that devoted mother love of the human female, +which in measure she shares with the females of all the higher animals. The +presence of a helpless baby determined the early differentiation of male and +female activities; the woman had to maintain a settled residence where she +could cultivate the soil. And from earliest times, where woman was has always +been regarded as the home. + +Woman thus early became indispensable to the evolving social scheme, not so +much because of the fleeting sex passion as in consequence of food requirement; +she was an essential partner in self-maintenance. She was a food provider, a +beast of burden, and a companion who would stand great abuse without violent +resentment, and in addition to all of these desirable traits, she was an +ever-present means of sex gratification. + +Almost everything of lasting value in civilization has its roots in the family. +The family was the first successful peace group, the man and woman learning how +to adjust their antagonisms while at the same time teaching the pursuits of +peace to their children. + +The function of marriage in evolution is the insurance of race survival, not +merely the realization of personal happiness; self-maintenance and +self-perpetuation are the real objects of the home. Self-gratification is +incidental and not essential except as an incentive insuring sex association. +Nature demands survival, but the arts of civilization continue to increase the +pleasures of marriage and the satisfactions of family life. + +If vanity be enlarged to cover pride, ambition, and honor, then we may discern +not only how these propensities contribute to the formation of human +associations, but how they also hold men together, since such emotions are +futile without an audience to parade before. Soon vanity associated with itself +other emotions + + top of page - 766 + +and impulses which required a social arena wherein they might exhibit and +gratify themselves. This group of emotions gave origin to the early beginnings +of all art, ceremonial, and all forms of sportive games and contests. + +Vanity contributed mightily to the birth of society; but at the time of these +revelations the devious strivings of a vainglorious generation threaten to +swamp and submerge the whole complicated structure of a highly specialized +civilization. Pleasure-want has long since superseded hunger-want; the +legitimate social aims of self-maintenance are rapidly translating themselves +into base and threatening forms of self-gratification. Self-maintenance builds +society; unbridled self-gratification unfailingly destroys civilization. + +3. SOCIALIZING INFLUENCE OF GHOST FEAR + +Primitive desires produced the original society, but ghost fear held it +together and imparted an extrahuman aspect to its existence. Common fear was +physiological in origin: fear of physical pain, unsatisfied hunger, or some +earthly calamity; but ghost fear was a new and sublime sort of terror. + +Probably the greatest single factor in the evolution of human society was the +ghost dream. Although most dreams greatly perturbed the primitive mind, the +ghost dream actually terrorized early men, driving these superstitious dreamers +into each other's arms in willing and earnest association for mutual protection +against the vague and unseen imaginary dangers of the spirit world. The ghost +dream was one of the earliest appearing differences between the animal and +human types of mind. Animals do not visualize survival after death. + +Except for this ghost factor, all society was founded on fundamental needs and +basic biologic urges. But ghost fear introduced a new factor in civilization, a +fear which reaches out and away from the elemental needs of the individual, and +which rises far above even the struggles to maintain the group. The dread of +the departed spirits of the dead brought to light a new and amazing form of +fear, an appalling and powerful terror, which contributed to whipping the loose +social orders of early ages into the more thoroughly disciplined and better +controlled primitive groups of ancient times. This senseless superstition, some +of which still persists, prepared the minds of men, through superstitious fear +of the unreal and the supernatural, for the later discovery of "the fear of the +Lord which is the beginning of wisdom." The baseless fears of evolution are +designed to be supplanted by the awe for Deity inspired by revelation. The +early cult of ghost fear became a powerful social bond, and ever since that +far-distant day mankind has been striving more or less for the attainment of +spirituality. + +Hunger and love drove men together; vanity and ghost fear held them together. +But these emotions alone, without the influence of peace-promoting revelations, +are unable to endure the strain of the suspicions and irritations of human +interassociations. Without help from superhuman sources the strain of society +breaks down upon reaching certain limits, and these very influences of social +mobilization--hunger, love, vanity, and fear--conspire to plunge mankind into +war and bloodshed. + +The peace tendency of the human race is not a natural endowment; it is derived +from the teachings of revealed religion, from the accumulated experience of the +progressive races, but more especially from the teachings of Jesus, the Prince +of Peace. + + top of page - 767 + +4. EVOLUTION OF THE MORES + +All modern social institutions arise from the evolution of the primitive +customs of your savage ancestors; the conventions of today are the modified and +expanded customs of yesterday. What habit is to the individual, custom is to +the group; and group customs develop into folkways or tribal traditions--mass +conventions. From these early beginnings all of the institutions of present-day +human society take their humble origin. + +It must be borne in mind that the mores originated in an effort to adjust group +living to the conditions of mass existence; the mores were man's first social +institution. And all of these tribal reactions grew out of the effort to avoid +pain and humiliation while at the same time seeking to enjoy pleasure and +power. The origin of folkways, like the origin of languages, is always +unconscious and unintentional and therefore always shrouded in mystery. + +Ghost fear drove primitive man to envision the supernatural and thus securely +laid the foundations for those powerful social influences of ethics and +religion which in turn preserved inviolate the mores and customs of society +from generation to generation. The one thing which early established and +crystallized the mores was the belief that the dead were jealous of the ways by +which they had lived and died; therefore would they visit dire punishment upon +those living mortals who dared to treat with careless disdain the rules of +living which they had honored when in the flesh. All this is best illustrated +by the present reverence of the yellow race for their ancestors. Later +developing primitive religion greatly reinforced ghost fear in stabilizing the +mores, but advancing civilization has increasingly liberated mankind from the +bondage of fear and the slavery of superstition. + +Prior to the liberating and liberalizing instruction of the Dalamatia teachers, +ancient man was held a helpless victim of the ritual of the mores; the +primitive savage was hedged about by an endless ceremonial. Everything he did +from the time of awakening in the morning to the moment he fell asleep in his +cave at night had to be done just so--in accordance with the folkways of the +tribe. He was a slave to the tyranny of usage; his life contained nothing free, +spontaneous, or original. There was no natural progress toward a higher mental, +moral, or social existence. + +Early man was mightily gripped by custom; the savage was a veritable slave to +usage; but there have arisen ever and anon those variations from type who have +dared to inaugurate new ways of thinking and improved methods of living. +Nevertheless, the inertia of primitive man constitutes the biologic safety +brake against precipitation too suddenly into the ruinous maladjustment of a +too rapidly advancing civilization. + +But these customs are not an unmitigated evil; their evolution should continue. +It is nearly fatal to the continuance of civilization to undertake their +wholesale modification by radical revolution. Custom has been the thread of +continuity which has held civilization together. The path of human history is +strewn with the remnants of discarded customs and obsolete social practices; +but no civilization has endured which abandoned its mores except for the +adoption of better and more fit customs. + +The survival of a society depends chiefly on the progressive evolution of its +mores. The process of custom evolution grows out of the desire for experimen- + + top of page - 768 + +tation; new ideas are put forward--competition ensues. A progressing +civilization embraces the progressive idea and endures; time and circumstance +finally select the fitter group for survival. But this does not mean that each +separate and isolated change in the composition of human society has been for +the better. No! indeed no! for there have been many, many retrogressions in the +long forward struggle of Urantia civilization. + +5. LAND TECHNIQUES--MAINTENANCE ARTS + +Land is the stage of society; men are the actors. And man must ever adjust his +performances to conform to the land situation. The evolution of the mores is +always dependent on the land-man ratio. This is true notwithstanding the +difficulty of its discernment. Man's land technique, or maintenance arts, plus +his standards of living, equal the sum total of the folkways, the mores. And +the sum of man's adjustment to the life demands equals his cultural +civilization. + +The earliest human cultures arose along the rivers of the Eastern Hemisphere, +and there were four great steps in the forward march of civilization. They +were: + +1. The collection stage. Food coercion, hunger, led to the first form of +industrial organization, the primitive food-gathering lines. Sometimes such a +line of hunger march would be ten miles long as it passed over the land +gleaning food. This was the primitive nomadic stage of culture and is the mode +of life now followed by the African Bushmen. + +2. The hunting stage. The invention of weapon tools enabled man to become a +hunter and thus to gain considerable freedom from food slavery. A thoughtful +Andonite who had severely bruised his fist in a serious combat rediscovered the +idea of using a long stick for his arm and a piece of hard flint, bound on the +end with sinews, for his fist. Many tribes made independent discoveries of this +sort, and these various forms of hammers represented one of the great forward +steps in human civilization. Today some Australian natives have progressed +little beyond this stage. + +The blue men became expert hunters and trappers; by fencing the rivers they +caught fish in great numbers, drying the surplus for winter use. Many forms of +ingenious snares and traps were employed in catching game, but the more +primitive races did not hunt the larger animals. + +3. The pastoral stage. This phase of civilization was made possible by the +domestication of animals. The Arabs and the natives of Africa are among the +more recent pastoral peoples. + +Pastoral living afforded further relief from food slavery; man learned to live +on the interest of his capital, the increase in his flocks; and this provided +more leisure for culture and progress. + +Prepastoral society was one of sex co-operation, but the spread of animal +husbandry reduced women to the depths of social slavery. In earlier times it +was man's duty to secure the animal food, woman's business to provide the +vegetable edibles. Therefore, when man entered the pastoral era of his +existence, woman's dignity fell greatly. She must still toil to produce the +vegetable necessities of life, whereas the man need only go to his herds to +provide an abundance of animal food. Man thus became relatively independent of +woman; throughout the entire pastoral age woman's status steadily declined. By +the close of this + + top of page - 769 + +era she had become scarcely more than a human animal, consigned to work and to +bear human offspring, much as the animals of the herd were expected to labor +and bring forth young. The men of the pastoral ages had great love for their +cattle; all the more pity they could not have developed a deeper affection for +their wives. + +4. The agricultural stage. This era was brought about by the domestication of +plants, and it represents the highest type of material civilization. Both +Caligastia and Adam endeavored to teach horticulture and agriculture. Adam and +Eve were gardeners, not shepherds, and gardening was an advanced culture in +those days. The growing of plants exerts an ennobling influence on all races of +mankind. + +Agriculture more than quadrupled the land-man ratio of the world. It may be +combined with the pastoral pursuits of the former cultural stage. When the +three stages overlap, men hunt and women till the soil. + +There has always been friction between the herders and the tillers of the soil. +The hunter and herder were militant, warlike; the agriculturist is a more +peace-loving type. Association with animals suggests struggle and force; +association with plants instills patience, quiet, and peace. Agriculture and +industrialism are the activities of peace. But the weakness of both, as world +social activities, is that they lack excitement and adventure. + +Human society has evolved from the hunting stage through that of the herders to +the territorial stage of agriculture. And each stage of this progressive +civilization was accompanied by less and less of nomadism; more and more man +began to live at home. + +And now is industry supplementing agriculture, with consequently increased +urbanization and multiplication of nonagricultural groups of citizenship +classes. But an industrial era cannot hope to survive if its leaders fail to +recognize that even the highest social developments must ever rest upon a sound +agricultural basis. + +6. EVOLUTION OF CULTURE + +Man is a creature of the soil, a child of nature; no matter how earnestly he +may try to escape from the land, in the last reckoning he is certain to fail. +"Dust you are and to dust shall you return" is literally true of all mankind. +The basic struggle of man was, and is, and ever shall be, for land. The first +social associations of primitive human beings were for the purpose of winning +these land struggles. The land-man ratio underlies all social civilization. + +Man's intelligence, by means of the arts and sciences, increased the land +yield; at the same time the natural increase in offspring was somewhat brought +under control, and thus was provided the sustenance and leisure to build a +cultural civilization. + +Human society is controlled by a law which decrees that the population must +vary directly in accordance with the land arts and inversely with a given +standard of living. Throughout these early ages, even more than at present, the +law of supply and demand as concerned men and land determined the estimated +value of both. During the times of plentiful land--unoccupied territory--the +need for men was great, and therefore the value of human life was much +enhanced; hence the loss of life was more horrifying. During periods of land +scarcity and as- + + top of page - 770 + +sociated overpopulation, human life became comparatively cheapened so that war, +famine, and pestilence were regarded with less concern. + +When the land yield is reduced or the population is increased, the inevitable +struggle is renewed; the very worst traits of human nature are brought to the +surface. The improvement of the land yield, the extension of the mechanical +arts, and the reduction of population all tend to foster the development of the +better side of human nature. + +Frontier society develops the unskilled side of humanity; the fine arts and +true scientific progress, together with spiritual culture, have all thrived +best in the larger centers of life when supported by an agricultural and +industrial population slightly under the land-man ratio. Cities always multiply +the power of their inhabitants for either good or evil. + +The size of the family has always been influenced by the standards of living. +The higher the standard the smaller the family, up to the point of established +status or gradual extinction. + +All down through the ages the standards of living have determined the quality +of a surviving population in contrast with mere quantity. Local class standards +of living give origin to new social castes, new mores. When standards of living +become too complicated or too highly luxurious, they speedily become suicidal. +Caste is the direct result of the high social pressure of keen competition +produced by dense populations. + +The early races often resorted to practices designed to restrict population; +all primitive tribes killed deformed and sickly children. Girl babies were +frequently killed before the times of wife purchase. Children were sometimes +strangled at birth, but the favorite method was exposure. The father of twins +usually insisted that one be killed since multiple births were believed to be +caused either by magic or by infidelity. As a rule, however, twins of the same +sex were spared. While these taboos on twins were once well-nigh universal, +they were never a part of the Andonite mores; these peoples always regarded +twins as omens of good luck. + +Many races learned the technique of abortion, and this practice became very +common after the establishment of the taboo on childbirth among the unmarried. +It was long the custom for a maiden to kill her offspring, but among more +civilized groups these illegitimate children became the wards of the girl's +mother. Many primitive clans were virtually exterminated by the practice of +both abortion and infanticide. But regardless of the dictates of the mores, +very few children were ever destroyed after having once been suckled--maternal +affection is too strong. + +Even in the twentieth century there persist remnants of these primitive +population controls. There is a tribe in Australia whose mothers refuse to rear +more than two or three children. Not long since, one cannibalistic tribe ate +every fifth child born. In Madagascar some tribes still destroy all children +born on certain unlucky days, resulting in the death of about twenty-five per +cent of all babies. + +From a world standpoint, overpopulation has never been a serious problem in the +past, but if war is lessened and science increasingly controls human diseases, +it may become a serious problem in the near future. At such a time the great +test of the wisdom of world leadership will present itself. Will Urantia rulers +have the insight and courage to foster the multiplication of the average + + top of page - 771 + +or stabilized human being instead of the extremes of the supernormal and the +enormously increasing groups of the subnormal? The normal man should be +fostered; he is the backbone of civilization and the source of the mutant +geniuses of the race. The subnormal man should be kept under society's control; +no more should be produced than are required to administer the lower levels of +industry, those tasks requiring intelligence above the animal level but making +such low-grade demands as to prove veritable slavery and bondage for the higher +types of mankind. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek sometime stationed on Urantia.] + + top of page - 772 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Planetary ³ Primitive ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ R... ³ Human... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p069.txt b/religious documents/p069.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a6b4f3e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p069.txt @@ -0,0 +1,697 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 69 Primitive Human Institutions + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 69 Primitive Human Institutions + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +EMOTIONALLY, man transcends his animal ancestors in his ability to appreciate +humor, art, and religion. Socially, man exhibits his superiority in that he is +a toolmaker, a communicator, and an institution builder. + +When human beings long maintain social groups, such aggregations always result +in the creation of certain activity trends which culminate in +institutionalization. Most of man's institutions have proved to be laborsaving +while at the same time contributing something to the enhancement of group +security. + +Civilized man takes great pride in the character, stability, and continuity of +his established institutions, but all human institutions are merely the +accumulated mores of the past as they have been conserved by taboos and +dignified by religion. Such legacies become traditions, and traditions +ultimately metamorphose into conventions. + +1. BASIC HUMAN INSTITUTIONS + +All human institutions minister to some social need, past or present, +notwithstanding that their overdevelopment unfailingly detracts from the +worthwhileness of the individual in that personality is overshadowed and +initiative is diminished. Man should control his institutions rather than +permit himself to be dominated by these creations of advancing civilization. + +Human institutions are of three general classes: + +1. The institutions of self-maintenance. These institutions embrace those +practices growing out of food hunger and its associated instincts of +self-preservation. They include industry, property, war for gain, and all the +regulative machinery of society. Sooner or later the fear instinct fosters the +establishment of these institutions of survival by means of taboo, convention, +and religious sanction. But fear, ignorance, and superstition have played a +prominent part in the early origin and subsequent development of all human +institutions. + +2. The institutions of self-perpetuation. These are the establishments of +society growing out of sex hunger, maternal instinct, and the higher tender +emotions of the races. They embrace the social safeguards of the home and the +school, of family life, education, ethics, and religion. They include marriage +customs, war for defense, and home building. + +3. The institutions of self-gratification. These are the practices growing out +of vanity proclivities and pride emotions; and they embrace customs in dress +and personal adornment, social usages, war for glory, dancing, amusement, +games, and other phases of sensual gratification. But civilization has never +evolved distinctive institutions of self-gratification. + + top of page - 773 + +These three groups of social practices are intimately interrelated and minutely +interdependent the one upon the other. On Urantia they represent a complex +organization which functions as a single social mechanism. + +2. THE DAWN OF INDUSTRY + +Primitive industry slowly grew up as an insurance against the terrors of +famine. Early in his existence man began to draw lessons from some of the +animals that, during a harvest of plenty, store up food against the days of +scarcity. + +Before the dawn of early frugality and primitive industry the lot of the +average tribe was one of destitution and real suffering. Early man had to +compete with the whole animal world for his food. Competition-gravity ever +pulls man down toward the beast level; poverty is his natural and tyrannical +estate. Wealth is not a natural gift; it results from labor, knowledge, and +organization. + +Primitive man was not slow to recognize the advantages of association. +Association led to organization, and the first result of organization was +division of labor, with its immediate saving of time and materials. These +specializations of labor arose by adaptation to pressure--pursuing the paths of +lessened resistance. Primitive savages never did any real work cheerfully or +willingly. With them conformity was due to the coercion of necessity. + +Primitive man disliked hard work, and he would not hurry unless confronted by +grave danger. The time element in labor, the idea of doing a given task within +a certain time limit, is entirely a modern notion. The ancients were never +rushed. It was the double demands of the intense struggle for existence and of +the ever-advancing standards of living that drove the naturally inactive races +of early man into avenues of industry. + +Labor, the efforts of design, distinguishes man from the beast, whose exertions +are largely instinctive. The necessity for labor is man's paramount blessing. +The Prince's staff all worked; they did much to ennoble physical labor on +Urantia. Adam was a gardener; the God of the Hebrews labored--he was the +creator and upholder of all things. The Hebrews were the first tribe to put a +supreme premium on industry; they were the first people to decree that "he who +does not work shall not eat." But many of the religions of the world reverted +to the early ideal of idleness. Jupiter was a reveler, and Buddha became a +reflective devotee of leisure. + +The Sangik tribes were fairly industrious when residing away from the tropics. +But there was a long, long struggle between the lazy devotees of magic and the +apostles of work--those who exercised foresight. + +The first human foresight was directed toward the preservation of fire, water, +and food. But primitive man was a natural-born gambler; he always wanted to get +something for nothing, and all too often during these early times the success +which accrued from patient practice was attributed to charms. Magic was slow to +give way before foresight, self-denial, and industry. + +3. THE SPECIALIZATION OF LABOR + +The divisions of labor in primitive society were determined first by natural, +and then by social, circumstances. The early order of specialization in labor +was: + + top of page - 774 + +1. Specialization based on sex. Woman's work was derived from the selective +presence of the child; women naturally love babies more than men do. Thus woman +became the routine worker, while man became the hunter and fighter, engaging in +accentuated periods of work and rest. + +All down through the ages the taboos have operated to keep woman strictly in +her own field. Man has most selfishly chosen the more agreeable work, leaving +the routine drudgery to woman. Man has always been ashamed to do woman's work, +but woman has never shown any reluctance to doing man's work. But strange to +record, both men and women have always worked together in building and +furnishing the home. + +2. Modification consequent upon age and disease. These differences determined +the next division of labor. The old men and cripples were early set to work +making tools and weapons. They were later assigned to building irrigation +works. + +3. Differentiation based on religion. The medicine men were the first human +beings to be exempted from physical toil; they were the pioneer professional +class. The smiths were a small group who competed with the medicine men as +magicians. Their skill in working with metals made the people afraid of them. +The "white smiths" and the "black smiths" gave origin to the early beliefs in +white and black magic. And this belief later became involved in the +superstition of good and bad ghosts, good and bad spirits. + +Smiths were the first nonreligious group to enjoy special privileges. They were +regarded as neutrals during war, and this extra leisure led to their becoming, +as a class, the politicians of primitive society. But through gross abuse of +these privileges the smiths became universally hated, and the medicine men lost +no time in fostering hatred for their competitors. In this first contest +between science and religion, religion (superstition) won. After being driven +out of the villages, the smiths maintained the first inns, public +lodginghouses, on the outskirts of the settlements. + +4. Master and slave. The next differentiation of labor grew out of the +relations of the conqueror to the conquered, and that meant the beginning of +human slavery. + +5. Differentiation based on diverse physical and mental endowments. Further +divisions of labor were favored by the inherent differences in men; all human +beings are not born equal. + +The early specialists in industry were the flint flakers and stonemasons; next +came the smiths. Subsequently group specialization developed; whole families +and clans dedicated themselves to certain sorts of labor. The origin of one of +the earliest castes of priests, apart from the tribal medicine men, was due to +the superstitious exaltation of a family of expert swordmakers. + +The first group specialists in industry were rock salt exporters and potters. +Women made the plain pottery and men the fancy. Among some tribes sewing and +weaving were done by women, in others by the men. + +The early traders were women; they were employed as spies, carrying on commerce +as a side line. Presently trade expanded, the women acting as +intermediaries--jobbers. Then came the merchant class, charging a commission, +profit, for their services. Growth of group barter developed into commerce; and +following the exchange of commodities came the exchange of skilled labor. + + top of page - 775 + +4. THE BEGINNINGS OF TRADE + +Just as marriage by contract followed marriage by capture, so trade by barter +followed seizure by raids. But a long period of piracy intervened between the +early practices of silent barter and the later trade by modern exchange +methods. + +The first barter was conducted by armed traders who would leave their goods on +a neutral spot. Women held the first markets; they were the earliest traders, +and this was because they were the burden bearers; the men were warriors. Very +early the trading counter was developed, a wall wide enough to prevent the +traders reaching each other with weapons. + +A fetish was used to stand guard over the deposits of goods for silent barter. +Such market places were secure against theft; nothing would be removed except +by barter or purchase; with a fetish on guard the goods were always safe. The +early traders were scrupulously honest within their own tribes but regarded it +as all right to cheat distant strangers. Even the early Hebrews recognized a +separate code of ethics in their dealings with the gentiles. + +For ages silent barter continued before men would meet, unarmed, on the sacred +market place. These same market squares became the first places of sanctuary +and in some countries were later known as "cities of refuge." Any fugitive +reaching the market place was safe and secure against attack. + +The first weights were grains of wheat and other cereals. The first medium of +exchange was a fish or a goat. Later the cow became a unit of barter. + +Modern writing originated in the early trade records; the first literature of +man was a trade-promotion document, a salt advertisement. Many of the earlier +wars were fought over natural deposits, such as flint, salt, and metals. The +first formal tribal treaty concerned the intertribalizing of a salt deposit. +These treaty spots afforded opportunity for friendly and peaceful interchange +of ideas and the intermingling of various tribes. + +Writing progressed up through the stages of the "message stick," knotted cords, +picture writing, hieroglyphics, and wampum belts, to the early symbolic +alphabets. Message sending evolved from the primitive smoke signal up through +runners, animal riders, railroads, and airplanes, as well as telegraph, +telephone, and wireless communication. + +New ideas and better methods were carried around the inhabited world by the +ancient traders. Commerce, linked with adventure, led to exploration and +discovery. And all of these gave birth to transportation. Commerce has been the +great civilizer through promoting the cross-fertilization of culture. + +5. THE BEGINNINGS OF CAPITAL + +Capital is labor applied as a renunciation of the present in favor of the +future. Savings represent a form of maintenance and survival insurance. Food +hoarding developed self-control and created the first problems of capital and +labor. The man who had food, provided he could protect it from robbers, had a +distinct advantage over the man who had no food. + +The early banker was the valorous man of the tribe. He held the group treasures +on deposit, while the entire clan would defend his hut in event of + + top of page - 776 + +attack. Thus the accumulation of individual capital and group wealth +immediately led to military organization. At first such precautions were +designed to defend property against foreign raiders, but later on it became the +custom to keep the military organization in practice by inaugurating raids on +the property and wealth of neighboring tribes. + +The basic urges which led to the accumulation of capital were: + +1. Hunger--associated with foresight. Food saving and preservation meant power +and comfort for those who possessed sufficient foresight thus to provide for +future needs. Food storage was adequate insurance against famine and disaster. +And the entire body of primitive mores was really designed to help man +subordinate the present to the future. + +2. Love of family--desire to provide for their wants. Capital represents the +saving of property in spite of the pressure of the wants of today in order to +insure against the demands of the future. A part of this future need may have +to do with one's posterity. + +3. Vanity--longing to display one's property accumulations. Extra clothing was +one of the first badges of distinction. Collection vanity early appealed to the +pride of man. + +4. Position--eagerness to buy social and political prestige. There early sprang +up a commercialized nobility, admission to which depended on the performance of +some special service to royalty or was granted frankly for the payment of +money. + +5. Power--the craving to be master. Treasure lending was carried on as a means +of enslavement, one hundred per cent a year being the loan rate of these +ancient times. The moneylenders made themselves kings by creating a standing +army of debtors. Bond servants were among the earliest form of property to be +accumulated, and in olden days debt slavery extended even to the control of the +body after death. + +6. Fear of the ghosts of the dead--priest fees for protection. Men early began +to give death presents to the priests with a view to having their property used +to facilitate their progress through the next life. The priesthoods thus became +very rich; they were chief among ancient capitalists. + +7. Sex urge--the desire to buy one or more wives. Man's first form of trading +was woman exchange; it long preceded horse trading. But never did the barter in +sex slaves advance society; such traffic was and is a racial disgrace, for at +one and the same time it hindered the development of family life and polluted +the biologic fitness of superior peoples. + +8. Numerous forms of self-gratification. Some sought wealth because it +conferred power; others toiled for property because it meant ease. Early man +(and some later-day ones) tended to squander his resources on luxury. +Intoxicants and drugs intrigued the primitive races. + +As civilization developed, men acquired new incentives for saving; new wants +were rapidly added to the original food hunger. Poverty became so abhorred that +only the rich were supposed to go direct to heaven when they died. Property +became so highly valued that to give a pretentious feast would wipe a dishonor +from one's name. + + top of page - 777 + +Accumulations of wealth early became the badge of social distinction. +Individuals in certain tribes would accumulate property for years just to +create an impression by burning it up on some holiday or by freely distributing +it to fellow tribesmen. This made them great men. Even modern peoples revel in +the lavish distribution of Christmas gifts, while rich men endow great +institutions of philanthropy and learning. Man's technique varies, but his +disposition remains quite unchanged. + +But it is only fair to record that many an ancient rich man distributed much of +his fortune because of the fear of being killed by those who coveted his +treasures. Wealthy men commonly sacrificed scores of slaves to show disdain for +wealth. + +Though capital has tended to liberate man, it has greatly complicated his +social and industrial organization. The abuse of capital by unfair capitalists +does not destroy the fact that it is the basis of modern industrial society. +Through capital and invention the present generation enjoys a higher degree of +freedom than any that ever preceded it on earth. This is placed on record as a +fact and not in justification of the many misuses of capital by thoughtless and +selfish custodians. + +6. FIRE IN RELATION TO CIVILIZATION + +Primitive society with its four divisions--industrial, regulative, religious, +and military--rose through the instrumentality of fire, animals, slaves, and +property. + +Fire building, by a single bound, forever separated man from animal; it is the +basic human invention, or discovery. Fire enabled man to stay on the ground at +night as all animals are afraid of it. Fire encouraged eventide social +intercourse; it not only protected against cold and wild beasts but was also +employed as security against ghosts. It was at first used more for light than +heat; many backward tribes refuse to sleep unless a flame burns all night. + +Fire was a great civilizer, providing man with his first means of being +altruistic without loss by enabling him to give live coals to a neighbor +without depriving himself. The household fire, which was attended by the mother +or eldest daughter, was the first educator, requiring watchfulness and +dependability. The early home was not a building but the family gathered about +the fire, the family hearth. When a son founded a new home, he carried a +firebrand from the family hearth. + +Though Andon, the discoverer of fire, avoided treating it as an object of +worship, many of his descendants regarded the flame as a fetish or as a spirit. +They failed to reap the sanitary benefits of fire because they would not burn +refuse. Primitive man feared fire and always sought to keep it in good humor, +hence the sprinkling of incense. Under no circumstances would the ancients spit +in a fire, nor would they ever pass between anyone and a burning fire. Even the +iron pyrites and flints used in striking fire were held sacred by early +mankind. + +It was a sin to extinguish a flame; if a hut caught fire, it was allowed to +burn. The fires of the temples and shrines were sacred and were never permitted +to go out except that it was the custom to kindle new flames annually or after +some calamity. Women were selected as priests because they were custodians of +the home fires. + + top of page - 778 + +The early myths about how fire came down from the gods grew out of the +observations of fire caused by lightning. These ideas of supernatural origin +led directly to fire worship, and fire worship led to the custom of "passing +through fire," a practice carried on up to the times of Moses. And there still +persists the idea of passing through fire after death. The fire myth was a +great bond in early times and still persists in the symbolism of the Parsees. + +Fire led to cooking, and "raw eaters" became a term of derision. And cooking +lessened the expenditure of vital energy necessary for the digestion of food +and so left early man some strength for social culture, while animal husbandry, +by reducing the effort necessary to secure food, provided time for social +activities. + +It should be remembered that fire opened the doors to metalwork and led to the +subsequent discovery of steam power and the present-day uses of electricity. + +7. THE UTILIZATION OF ANIMALS + +To start with, the entire animal world was man's enemy; human beings had to +learn to protect themselves from the beasts. First, man ate the animals but +later learned to domesticate and make them serve him. + +The domestication of animals came about accidentally. The savage would hunt +herds much as the American Indians hunted the bison. By surrounding the herd +they could keep control of the animals, thus being able to kill them as they +were required for food. Later, corrals were constructed, and entire herds would +be captured. + +It was easy to tame some animals, but like the elephant, many of them would not +reproduce in captivity. Still further on it was discovered that certain species +of animals would submit to man's presence, and that they would reproduce in +captivity. The domestication of animals was thus promoted by selective +breeding, an art which has made great progress since the days of Dalamatia. + +The dog was the first animal to be domesticated, and the difficult experience +of taming it began when a certain dog, after following a hunter around all day, +actually went home with him. For ages dogs were used for food, hunting, +transportation, and companionship. At first dogs only howled, but later on they +learned to bark. The dog's keen sense of smell led to the notion it could see +spirits, and thus arose the dog-fetish cults. The employment of watchdogs made +it first possible for the whole clan to sleep at night. It then became the +custom to employ watchdogs to protect the home against spirits as well as +material enemies. When the dog barked, man or beast approached, but when the +dog howled, spirits were near. Even now many still believe that a dog's howling +at night betokens death. + +When man was a hunter, he was fairly kind to woman, but after the domestication +of animals, coupled with the Caligastia confusion, many tribes shamefully +treated their women. They treated them altogether too much as they treated +their animals. Man's brutal treatment of woman constitutes one of the darkest +chapters of human history. + +8. SLAVERY AS A FACTOR IN CIVILIZATION + +Primitive man never hesitated to enslave his fellows. Woman was the first +slave, a family slave. Pastoral man enslaved woman as his inferior sex partner. + + top of page - 779 + +This sort of sex slavery grew directly out of man's decreased dependence upon +woman. + +Not long ago enslavement was the lot of those military captives who refused to +accept the conqueror's religion. In earlier times captives were either eaten, +tortured to death, set to fighting each other, sacrificed to spirits, or +enslaved. Slavery was a great advancement over massacre and cannibalism. + +Enslavement was a forward step in the merciful treatment of war captives. The +ambush of Ai, with the wholesale slaughter of men, women, and children, only +the king being saved to gratify the conqueror's vanity, is a faithful picture +of the barbaric slaughter practiced by even supposedly civilized peoples. The +raid upon Og, the king of Bashan, was equally brutal and effective. The Hebrews +"utterly destroyed" their enemies, taking all their property as spoils. They +put all cities under tribute on pain of the "destruction of all males." But +many of the contemporary tribes, those having less tribal egotism, had long +since begun to practice the adoption of superior captives. + +The hunter, like the American red man, did not enslave. He either adopted or +killed his captives. Slavery was not prevalent among the pastoral peoples, for +they needed few laborers. In war the herders made a practice of killing all men +captives and taking as slaves only the women and children. The Mosaic code +contained specific directions for making wives of these women captives. If not +satisfactory, they could be sent away, but the Hebrews were not allowed to sell +such rejected consorts as slaves--that was at least one advance in +civilization. Though the social standards of the Hebrews were crude, they were +far above those of the surrounding tribes. + +The herders were the first capitalists; their herds represented capital, and +they lived on the interest--the natural increase. And they were disinclined to +trust this wealth to the keeping of either slaves or women. But later on they +took male prisoners and forced them to cultivate the soil. This is the early +origin of serfdom--man attached to the land. The Africans could easily be +taught to till the soil; hence they became the great slave race. + +Slavery was an indispensable link in the chain of human civilization. It was +the bridge over which society passed from chaos and indolence to order and +civilized activities; it compelled backward and lazy peoples to work and thus +provide wealth and leisure for the social advancement of their superiors. + +The institution of slavery compelled man to invent the regulative mechanism of +primitive society; it gave origin to the beginnings of government. Slavery +demands strong regulation and during the European Middle Ages virtually +disappeared because the feudal lords could not control the slaves. The backward +tribes of ancient times, like the native Australians of today, never had +slaves. + +True, slavery was oppressive, but it was in the schools of oppression that man +learned industry. Eventually the slaves shared the blessings of a higher +society which they had so unwillingly helped create. Slavery creates an +organization of culture and social achievement but soon insidiously attacks +society internally as the gravest of all destructive social maladies. + +Modern mechanical invention rendered the slave obsolete. Slavery, like +polygamy, is passing because it does not pay. But it has always proved +disastrous suddenly to liberate great numbers of slaves; less trouble ensues +when they are gradually emancipated. + + top of page - 780 + +Today, men are not social slaves, but thousands allow ambition to enslave them +to debt. Involuntary slavery has given way to a new and improved form of +modified industrial servitude. + +While the ideal of society is universal freedom, idleness should never be +tolerated. All able-bodied persons should be compelled to do at least a +self-sustaining amount of work. + +Modern society is in reverse. Slavery has nearly disappeared; domesticated +animals are passing. Civilization is reaching back to fire--the inorganic +world--for power. Man came up from savagery by way of fire, animals, and +slavery; today he reaches back, discarding the help of slaves and the +assistance of animals, while he seeks to wrest new secrets and sources of +wealth and power from the elemental storehouse of nature. + +9. PRIVATE PROPERTY + +While primitive society was virtually communal, primitive man did not adhere to +the modern doctrines of communism. The communism of these early times was not a +mere theory or social doctrine; it was a simple and practical automatic +adjustment. Communism prevented pauperism and want; begging and prostitution +were almost unknown among these ancient tribes. + +Primitive communism did not especially level men down, nor did it exalt +mediocrity, but it did put a premium on inactivity and idleness, and it did +stifle industry and destroy ambition. Communism was indispensable scaffolding +in the growth of primitive society, but it gave way to the evolution of a +higher social order because it ran counter to four strong human proclivities: + +1. The family. Man not only craves to accumulate property; he desires to +bequeath his capital goods to his progeny. But in early communal society a +man's capital was either immediately consumed or distributed among the group at +his death. There was no inheritance of property--the inheritance tax was one +hundred per cent. The later capital-accumulation and property-inheritance mores +were a distinct social advance. And this is true notwithstanding the subsequent +gross abuses attendant upon the misuse of capital. + +2. Religious tendencies. Primitive man also wanted to save up property as a +nucleus for starting life in the next existence. This motive explains why it +was so long the custom to bury a man's personal belongings with him. The +ancients believed that only the rich survived death with any immediate pleasure +and dignity. The teachers of revealed religion, more especially the Christian +teachers, were the first to proclaim that the poor could have salvation on +equal terms with the rich. + +3. The desire for liberty and leisure. In the earlier days of social evolution +the apportionment of individual earnings among the group was virtually a form +of slavery; the worker was made slave to the idler. This was the suicidal +weakness of communism: The improvident habitually lived off the thrifty. Even +in modern times the improvident depend on the state (thrifty taxpayers) to take +care of them. Those who have no capital still expect those who have to feed +them. + +4. The urge for security and power. Communism was finally destroyed by the +deceptive practices of progressive and successful individuals who resorted to + + top of page - 781 + +diverse subterfuges in an effort to escape enslavement to the shiftless idlers +of their tribes. But at first all hoarding was secret; primitive insecurity +prevented the outward accumulation of capital. And even at a later time it was +most dangerous to amass too much wealth; the king would be sure to trump up +some charge for confiscating a rich man's property, and when a wealthy man +died, the funeral was held up until the family donated a large sum to public +welfare or to the king, an inheritance tax. + +In earliest times women were the property of the community, and the mother +dominated the family. The early chiefs owned all the land and were proprietors +of all the women; marriage required the consent of the tribal ruler. With the +passing of communism, women were held individually, and the father gradually +assumed domestic control. Thus the home had its beginning, and the prevailing +polygamous customs were gradually displaced by monogamy. (Polygamy is the +survival of the female-slavery element in marriage. Monogamy is the slave-free +ideal of the matchless association of one man and one woman in the exquisite +enterprise of home building, offspring rearing, mutual culture, and +self-improvement.) + +At first, all property, including tools and weapons, was the common possession +of the tribe. Private property first consisted of all things personally +touched. If a stranger drank from a cup, the cup was henceforth his. Next, any +place where blood was shed became the property of the injured person or group. + +Private property was thus originally respected because it was supposed to be +charged with some part of the owner's personality. Property honesty rested +safely on this type of superstition; no police were needed to guard personal +belongings. There was no stealing within the group, though men did not hesitate +to appropriate the goods of other tribes. Property relations did not end with +death; early, personal effects were burned, then buried with the dead, and +later, inherited by the surviving family or by the tribe. + +The ornamental type of personal effects originated in the wearing of charms. +Vanity plus ghost fear led early man to resist all attempts to relieve him of +his favorite charms, such property being valued above necessities. + +Sleeping space was one of man's earliest properties. Later, homesites were +assigned by the tribal chiefs, who held all real estate in trust for the group. +Presently a fire site conferred ownership; and still later, a well constituted +title to the adjacent land. + +Water holes and wells were among the first private possessions. The whole +fetish practice was utilized to guard water holes, wells, trees, crops, and +honey. Following the loss of faith in the fetish, laws were evolved to protect +private belongings. But game laws, the right to hunt, long preceded land laws. +The American red man never understood private ownership of land; he could not +comprehend the white man's view. + +Private property was early marked by family insignia, and this is the early +origin of family crests. Real estate could also be put under the watchcare of +spirits. The priests would "consecrate" a piece of land, and it would then rest +under the protection of the magic taboos erected thereon. Owners thereof were +said to have a "priest's title." The Hebrews had great respect for these family +landmarks: "Cursed be he who removes his neighbor's landmark." These stone +markers bore the priest's initials. Even trees, when initialed, became private +property. + + top of page - 782 + +In early days only the crops were private, but successive crops conferred +title; agriculture was thus the genesis of the private ownership of land. +Individuals were first given only a life tenureship; at death land reverted to +the tribe. The very first land titles granted by tribes to individuals were +graves--family burying grounds. In later times land belonged to those who +fenced it. But the cities always reserved certain lands for public pasturage +and for use in case of siege; these "commons" represent the survival of the +earlier form of collective ownership. + +Eventually the state assigned property to the individual, reserving the right +of taxation. Having made secure their titles, landlords could collect rents, +and land became a source of income--capital. Finally land became truly +negotiable, with sales, transfers, mortgages, and foreclosures. + +Private ownership brought increased liberty and enhanced stability; but private +ownership of land was given social sanction only after communal control and +direction had failed, and it was soon followed by a succession of slaves, +serfs, and landless classes. But improved machinery is gradually setting men +free from slavish toil. + +The right to property is not absolute; it is purely social. But all government, +law, order, civil rights, social liberties, conventions, peace, and happiness, +as they are enjoyed by modern peoples, have grown up around the private +ownership of property. + +The present social order is not necessarily right--not divine or sacred--but +mankind will do well to move slowly in making changes. That which you have is +vastly better than any system known to your ancestors. Make certain that when +you change the social order you change for the better. Do not be persuaded to +experiment with the discarded formulas of your forefathers. Go forward, not +backward! Let evolution proceed! Do not take a backward step. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 783 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Dawn Of ³ The Evolution ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Civ... ³ O... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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The development of +industry demanded law, order, and social adjustment; private property +necessitated government. + +On an evolutionary world, antagonisms are natural; peace is secured only by +some sort of social regulative system. Social regulation is inseparable from +social organization; association implies some controlling authority. Government +compels the co-ordination of the antagonisms of the tribes, clans, families, +and individuals. + +Government is an unconscious development; it evolves by trial and error. It +does have survival value; therefore it becomes traditional. Anarchy augmented +misery; therefore government, comparative law and order, slowly emerged or is +emerging. The coercive demands of the struggle for existence literally drove +the human race along the progressive road to civilization. + +1. THE GENESIS OF WAR + +War is the natural state and heritage of evolving man; peace is the social +yardstick measuring civilization's advancement. Before the partial +socialization of the advancing races man was exceedingly individualistic, +extremely suspicious, and unbelievably quarrelsome. Violence is the law of +nature, hostility the automatic reaction of the children of nature, while war +is but these same activities carried on collectively. And wherever and whenever +the fabric of civilization becomes stressed by the complications of society's +advancement, there is always an immediate and ruinous reversion to these early +methods of violent adjustment of the irritations of human interassociations. + +War is an animalistic reaction to misunderstandings and irritations; peace +attends upon the civilized solution of all such problems and difficulties. The +Sangik races, together with the later deteriorated Adamites and Nodites, were +all belligerent. The Andonites were early taught the golden rule, and, even +today, their Eskimo descendants live very much by that code; custom is strong +among them, and they are fairly free from violent antagonisms. + +Andon taught his children to settle disputes by each beating a tree with a +stick, meanwhile cursing the tree; the one whose stick broke first was the +victor. The later Andonites used to settle disputes by holding a public show at +which the disputants made fun of and ridiculed each other, while the audience +decided the winner by its applause. + +But there could be no such phenomenon as war until society had evolved +sufficiently far to actually experience periods of peace and to sanction +warlike practices. The very concept of war implies some degree of organization. + + top of page - 784 + +With the emergence of social groupings, individual irritations began to be +submerged in the group feelings, and this promoted intratribal tranquillity but +at the expense of intertribal peace. Peace was thus first enjoyed by the +in-group, or tribe, who always disliked and hated the out-group, foreigners. +Early man regarded it a virtue to shed alien blood. + +But even this did not work at first. When the early chiefs would try to iron +out misunderstandings, they often found it necessary, at least once a year, to +permit the tribal stone fights. The clan would divide up into two groups and +engage in an all-day battle. And this for no other reason than just the fun of +it; they really enjoyed fighting. + +Warfare persists because man is human, evolved from an animal, and all animals +are bellicose. Among the early causes of war were: + +1. Hunger, which led to food raids. Scarcity of land has always brought on war, +and during these struggles the early peace tribes were practically +exterminated. + +2. Woman scarcity--an attempt to relieve a shortage of domestic help. Woman +stealing has always caused war. + +3. Vanity--the desire to exhibit tribal prowess. Superior groups would fight to +impose their mode of life upon inferior peoples. + +4. Slaves--need of recruits for the labor ranks. + +5. Revenge was the motive for war when one tribe believed that a neighboring +tribe had caused the death of a fellow tribesman. Mourning was continued until +a head was brought home. The war for vengeance was in good standing right on +down to comparatively modern times. + +6. Recreation--war was looked upon as recreation by the young men of these +early times. If no good and sufficient pretext for war arose, when peace became +oppressive, neighboring tribes were accustomed to go out in semifriendly combat +to engage in a foray as a holiday, to enjoy a sham battle. + +7. Religion--the desire to make converts to the cult. The primitive religions +all sanctioned war. Only in recent times has religion begun to frown upon war. +The early priesthoods were, unfortunately, usually allied with the military +power. One of the great peace moves of the ages has been the attempt to +separate church and state. + +Always these olden tribes made war at the bidding of their gods, at the behest +of their chiefs or medicine men. The Hebrews believed in such a "God of +battles"; and the narrative of their raid on the Midianites is a typical +recital of the atrocious cruelty of the ancient tribal wars; this assault, with +its slaughter of all the males and the later killing of all male children and +all women who were not virgins, would have done honor to the mores of a tribal +chieftain of two hundred thousand years ago. And all this was executed in the +"name of the Lord God of Israel." + +This is a narrative of the evolution of society--the natural outworking of the +problems of the races--man working out his own destiny on earth. Such +atrocities are not instigated by Deity, notwithstanding the tendency of man to +place the responsibility on his gods. + +Military mercy has been slow in coming to mankind. Even when a woman, Deborah, +ruled the Hebrews, the same wholesale cruelty persisted. Her general + + top of page - 785 + +in his victory over the gentiles caused "all the host to fall upon the sword; +there was not one left." + +Very early in the history of the race, poisoned weapons were used. All sorts of +mutilations were practiced. Saul did not hesitate to require one hundred +Philistine foreskins as the dowry David should pay for his daughter Michal. + +Early wars were fought between tribes as a whole, but in later times, when two +individuals in different tribes had a dispute, instead of both tribes fighting, +the two disputants engaged in a duel. It also became a custom for two armies to +stake all on the outcome of a contest between a representative chosen from each +side, as in the instance of David and Goliath. + +The first refinement of war was the taking of prisoners. Next, women were +exempted from hostilities, and then came the recognition of noncombatants. +Military castes and standing armies soon developed to keep pace with the +increasing complexity of combat. Such warriors were early prohibited from +associating with women, and women long ago ceased to fight, though they have +always fed and nursed the soldiers and urged them on to battle. + +The practice of declaring war represented great progress. Such declarations of +intention to fight betokened the arrival of a sense of fairness, and this was +followed by the gradual development of the rules of "civilized" warfare. Very +early it became the custom not to fight near religious sites and, still later, +not to fight on certain holy days. Next came the general recognition of the +right of asylum; political fugitives received protection. + +Thus did warfare gradually evolve from the primitive man hunt to the somewhat +more orderly system of the later-day "civilized" nations. But only slowly does +the social attitude of amity displace that of enmity. + +2. THE SOCIAL VALUE OF WAR + +In past ages a fierce war would institute social changes and facilitate the +adoption of new ideas such as would not have occurred naturally in ten thousand +years. The terrible price paid for these certain war advantages was that +society was temporarily thrown back into savagery; civilized reason had to +abdicate. War is strong medicine, very costly and most dangerous; while often +curative of certain social disorders, it sometimes kills the patient, destroys +the society. + +The constant necessity for national defense creates many new and advanced +social adjustments. Society, today, enjoys the benefit of a long list of useful +innovations which were at first wholly military and is even indebted to war for +the dance, one of the early forms of which was a military drill. + +War has had a social value to past civilizations because it: + +1. Imposed discipline, enforced co-operation. + +2. Put a premium on fortitude and courage. + +3. Fostered and solidified nationalism. + +4. Destroyed weak and unfit peoples. + +5. Dissolved the illusion of primitive equality and selectively stratified +society. + +War has had a certain evolutionary and selective value, but like slavery, it +must sometime be abandoned as civilization slowly advances. Olden wars promoted +travel and cultural intercourse; these ends are now better served by + + top of page - 786 + +modern methods of transport and communication. Olden wars strengthened nations, +but modern struggles disrupt civilized culture. Ancient warfare resulted in the +decimation of inferior peoples; the net result of modern conflict is the +selective destruction of the best human stocks. Early wars promoted +organization and efficiency, but these have now become the aims of modern +industry. During past ages war was a social ferment which pushed civilization +forward; this result is now better attained by ambition and invention. Ancient +warfare supported the concept of a God of battles, but modern man has been told +that God is love. War has served many valuable purposes in the past, it has +been an indispensable scaffolding in the building of civilization, but it is +rapidly becoming culturally bankrupt--incapable of producing dividends of +social gain in any way commensurate with the terrible losses attendant upon its +invocation. + +At one time physicians believed in bloodletting as a cure for many diseases, +but they have since discovered better remedies for most of these disorders. And +so must the international bloodletting of war certainly give place to the +discovery of better methods for curing the ills of nations. + +The nations of Urantia have already entered upon the gigantic struggle between +nationalistic militarism and industrialism, and in many ways this conflict is +analogous to the agelong struggle between the herder-hunter and the farmer. But +if industrialism is to triumph over militarism, it must avoid the dangers which +beset it. The perils of budding industry on Urantia are: + +1. The strong drift toward materialism, spiritual blindness. + +2. The worship of wealth-power, value distortion. + +3. The vices of luxury, cultural immaturity. + +4. The increasing dangers of indolence, service insensitivity. + +5. The growth of undesirable racial softness, biologic deterioration. + +6. The threat of standardized industrial slavery, personality stagnation. Labor +is ennobling but drudgery is benumbing. + +Militarism is autocratic and cruel--savage. It promotes social organization +among the conquerors but disintegrates the vanquished. Industrialism is more +civilized and should be so carried on as to promote initiative and to encourage +individualism. Society should in every way possible foster originality. + +Do not make the mistake of glorifying war; rather discern what it has done for +society so that you may the more accurately visualize what its substitutes must +provide in order to continue the advancement of civilization. And if such +adequate substitutes are not provided, then you may be sure that war will long +continue. + +Man will never accept peace as a normal mode of living until he has been +thoroughly and repeatedly convinced that peace is best for his material +welfare, and until society has wisely provided peaceful substitutes for the +gratification of that inherent tendency periodically to let loose a collective +drive designed to liberate those ever-accumulating emotions and energies +belonging to the self-preservation reactions of the human species. + +But even in passing, war should be honored as the school of experience which +compelled a race of arrogant individualists to submit themselves to highly +concentrated authority--a chief executive. Old-fashioned war did select the +innately great men for leadership, but modern war no longer does this. To +discover leaders society must now turn to the conquests of peace: industry, +science, and social achievement. + + top of page - 787 + +3. EARLY HUMAN ASSOCIATIONS + +In the most primitive society the horde is everything; even children are its +common property. The evolving family displaced the horde in child rearing, +while the emerging clans and tribes took its place as the social unit. + +Sex hunger and mother love establish the family. But real government does not +appear until superfamily groups have begun to form. In the prefamily days of +the horde, leadership was provided by informally chosen individuals. The +African Bushmen have never progressed beyond this primitive stage; they do not +have chiefs in the horde. + +Families became united by blood ties in clans, aggregations of kinsmen; and +these subsequently evolved into tribes, territorial communities. Warfare and +external pressure forced the tribal organization upon the kinship clans, but it +was commerce and trade that held these early and primitive groups together with +some degree of internal peace. + +The peace of Urantia will be promoted far more by international trade +organizations than by all the sentimental sophistry of visionary peace +planning. Trade relations have been facilitated by development of language and +by improved methods of communication as well as by better transportation. + +The absence of a common language has always impeded the growth of peace groups, +but money has become the universal language of modern trade. Modern society is +largely held together by the industrial market. The gain motive is a mighty +civilizer when augmented by the desire to serve. + +In the early ages each tribe was surrounded by concentric circles of increasing +fear and suspicion; hence it was once the custom to kill all strangers, later +on, to enslave them. The old idea of friendship meant adoption into the clan; +and clan membership was believed to survive death--one of the earliest concepts +of eternal life. + +The ceremony of adoption consisted in drinking each other's blood. In some +groups saliva was exchanged in the place of blood drinking, this being the +ancient origin of the practice of social kissing. And all ceremonies of +association, whether marriage or adoption, were always terminated by feasting. + +In later times, blood diluted with red wine was used, and eventually wine alone +was drunk to seal the adoption ceremony, which was signified in the touching of +the wine cups and consummated by the swallowing of the beverage. The Hebrews +employed a modified form of this adoption ceremony. Their Arab ancestors made +use of the oath taken while the hand of the candidate rested upon the +generative organ of the tribal native. The Hebrews treated adopted aliens +kindly and fraternally. "The stranger that dwells with you shall be as one born +among you, and you shall love him as yourself." + +"Guest friendship" was a relation of temporary hospitality. When visiting +guests departed, a dish would be broken in half, one piece being given the +departing friend so that it would serve as a suitable introduction for a third +party who might arrive on a later visit. It was customary for guests to pay +their way by telling tales of their travels and adventures. The storytellers of +olden times became so popular that the mores eventually forbade their +functioning during either the hunting or harvest seasons. + + top of page - 788 + +The first treaties of peace were the "blood bonds." The peace ambassadors of +two warring tribes would meet, pay their respects, and then proceed to prick +the skin until it bled; whereupon they would suck each other's blood and +declare peace. + +The earliest peace missions consisted of delegations of men bringing their +choice maidens for the sex gratification of their onetime enemies, the sex +appetite being utilized in combating the war urge. The tribe so honored would +pay a return visit, with its offering of maidens; whereupon peace would be +firmly established. And soon intermarriages between the families of the chiefs +were sanctioned. + +4. CLANS AND TRIBES + +The first peace group was the family, then the clan, the tribe, and later on +the nation, which eventually became the modern territorial state. The fact that +the present-day peace groups have long since expanded beyond blood ties to +embrace nations is most encouraging, despite the fact that Urantia nations are +still spending vast sums on war preparations. + +The clans were blood-tie groups within the tribe, and they owed their existence +to certain common interests, such as: + +1. Tracing origin back to a common ancestor. + +2. Allegiance to a common religious totem. + +3. Speaking the same dialect. + +4. Sharing a common dwelling place. + +5. Fearing the same enemies. + +6. Having had a common military experience. + +The clan headmen were always subordinate to the tribal chief, the early tribal +governments being a loose confederation of clans. The native Australians never +developed a tribal form of government. + +The clan peace chiefs usually ruled through the mother line; the tribal war +chiefs established the father line. The courts of the tribal chiefs and early +kings consisted of the headmen of the clans, whom it was customary to invite +into the king's presence several times a year. This enabled him to watch them +and the better secure their co-operation. The clans served a valuable purpose +in local self-government, but they greatly delayed the growth of large and +strong nations. + +5. THE BEGINNINGS OF GOVERNMENT + +Every human institution had a beginning, and civil government is a product of +progressive evolution just as much as are marriage, industry, and religion. +From the early clans and primitive tribes there gradually developed the +successive orders of human government which have come and gone right on down to +those forms of social and civil regulation that characterize the second third +of the twentieth century. + +With the gradual emergence of the family units the foundations of government +were established in the clan organization, the grouping of consanguineous +families. The first real governmental body was the council of the elders. This +regulative group was composed of old men who had distinguished themselves in +some efficient manner. Wisdom and experience were early appreciated even + + top of page - 789 + +by barbaric man, and there ensued a long age of the domination of the elders. +This reign of the oligarchy of age gradually grew into the patriarchal idea. + +In the early council of the elders there resided the potential of all +governmental functions: executive, legislative, and judicial. When the council +interpreted the current mores, it was a court; when establishing new modes of +social usage, it was a legislature; to the extent that such decrees and +enactments were enforced, it was the executive. The chairman of the council was +one of the forerunners of the later tribal chief. + +Some tribes had female councils, and from time to time many tribes had women +rulers. Certain tribes of the red man preserved the teaching of Onamonalonton +in following the unanimous rule of the "council of seven." + +It has been hard for mankind to learn that neither peace nor war can be run by +a debating society. The primitive "palavers" were seldom useful. The race early +learned that an army commanded by a group of clan heads had no chance against a +strong one-man army. War has always been a kingmaker. + +At first the war chiefs were chosen only for military service, and they would +relinquish some of their authority during peacetimes, when their duties were of +a more social nature. But gradually they began to encroach upon the peace +intervals, tending to continue to rule from one war on through to the next. +They often saw to it that one war was not too long in following another. These +early war lords were not fond of peace. + +In later times some chiefs were chosen for other than military service, being +selected because of unusual physique or outstanding personal abilities. The red +men often had two sets of chiefs--the sachems, or peace chiefs, and the +hereditary war chiefs. The peace rulers were also judges and teachers. + +Some early communities were ruled by medicine men, who often acted as chiefs. +One man would act as priest, physician, and chief executive. Quite often the +early royal insignias had originally been the symbols or emblems of priestly +dress. + +And it was by these steps that the executive branch of government gradually +came into existence. The clan and tribal councils continued in an advisory +capacity and as forerunners of the later appearing legislative and judicial +branches. In Africa, today, all these forms of primitive government are in +actual existence among the various tribes. + +6. MONARCHIAL GOVERNMENT + +Effective state rule only came with the arrival of a chief with full executive +authority. Man found that effective government could be had only by conferring +power on a personality, not by endowing an idea. + +Rulership grew out of the idea of family authority or wealth. When a +patriarchal kinglet became a real king, he was sometimes called "father of his +people." Later on, kings were thought to have sprung from heroes. And still +further on, rulership became hereditary, due to belief in the divine origin of +kings. + +Hereditary kingship avoided the anarchy which had previously wrought such havoc +between the death of a king and the election of a successor. The family had a +biologic head; the clan, a selected natural leader; the tribe and later state +had no natural leader, and this was an additional reason for making the + + top of page - 790 + +chief-kings hereditary. The idea of royal families and aristocracy was also +based on the mores of "name ownership" in the clans. + +The succession of kings was eventually regarded as supernatural, the royal +blood being thought to extend back to the times of the materialized staff of +Prince Caligastia. Thus kings became fetish personalities and were inordinately +feared, a special form of speech being adopted for court usage. Even in recent +times it was believed that the touch of kings would cure disease, and some +Urantia peoples still regard their rulers as having had a divine origin. + +The early fetish king was often kept in seclusion; he was regarded as too +sacred to be viewed except on feast days and holy days. Ordinarily a +representative was chosen to impersonate him, and this is the origin of prime +ministers. The first cabinet officer was a food administrator; others shortly +followed. Rulers soon appointed representatives to be in charge of commerce and +religion; and the development of a cabinet was a direct step toward +depersonalization of executive authority. These assistants of the early kings +became the accepted nobility, and the king's wife gradually rose to the dignity +of queen as women came to be held in higher esteem. + +Unscrupulous rulers gained great power by the discovery of poison. Early court +magic was diabolical; the king's enemies soon died. But even the most despotic +tyrant was subject to some restrictions; he was at least restrained by the +ever-present fear of assassination. The medicine men, witch doctors, and +priests have always been a powerful check on the kings. Subsequently, the +landowners, the aristocracy, exerted a restraining influence. And ever and anon +the clans and tribes would simply rise up and overthrow their despots and +tyrants. Deposed rulers, when sentenced to death, were often given the option +of committing suicide, which gave origin to the ancient social vogue of suicide +in certain circumstances. + +7. PRIMITIVE CLUBS AND SECRET SOCIETIES + +Blood kinship determined the first social groups; association enlarged the +kinship clan. Intermarriage was the next step in group enlargement, and the +resultant complex tribe was the first true political body. The next advance in +social development was the evolution of religious cults and the political +clubs. These first appeared as secret societies and originally were wholly +religious; subsequently they became regulative. At first they were men's clubs; +later women's groups appeared. Presently they became divided into two classes: +sociopolitical and religio-mystical. + +There were many reasons for the secrecy of these societies, such as: + +1. Fear of incurring the displeasure of the rulers because of the violation of +some taboo. + +2. In order to practice minority religious rites. + +3. For the purpose of preserving valuable "spirit" or trade secrets. + +4. For the enjoyment of some special charm or magic. + +The very secrecy of these societies conferred on all members the power of +mystery over the rest of the tribe. Secrecy also appeals to vanity; the +initiates were the social aristocracy of their day. After initiation the boys +hunted with + + top of page - 791 + +the men; whereas before they had gathered vegetables with the women. And it was +the supreme humiliation, a tribal disgrace, to fail to pass the puberty tests +and thus be compelled to remain outside the men's abode with the women and +children, to be considered effeminate. Besides, noninitiates were not allowed +to marry. + +Primitive people very early taught their adolescent youths sex control. It +became the custom to take boys away from parents from puberty to marriage, +their education and training being intrusted to the men's secret societies. And +one of the chief functions of these clubs was to keep control of adolescent +young men, thus preventing illegitimate children. + +Commercialized prostitution began when these men's clubs paid money for the use +of women from other tribes. But the earlier groups were remarkably free from +sex laxity. + +The puberty initiation ceremony usually extended over a period of five years. +Much self-torture and painful cutting entered into these ceremonies. +Circumcision was first practiced as a rite of initiation into one of these +secret fraternities. The tribal marks were cut on the body as a part of the +puberty initiation; the tattoo originated as such a badge of membership. Such +torture, together with much privation, was designed to harden these youths, to +impress them with the reality of life and its inevitable hardships. This +purpose is better accomplished by the later appearing athletic games and +physical contests. + +But the secret societies did aim at the improvement of adolescent morals; one +of the chief purposes of the puberty ceremonies was to impress upon the boy +that he must leave other men's wives alone. + +Following these years of rigorous discipline and training and just before +marriage, the young men were usually released for a short period of leisure and +freedom, after which they returned to marry and to submit to lifelong +subjection to the tribal taboos. And this ancient custom has continued down to +modern times as the foolish notion of "sowing wild oats." + +Many later tribes sanctioned the formation of women's secret clubs, the purpose +of which was to prepare adolescent girls for wifehood and motherhood. After +initiation girls were eligible for marriage and were permitted to attend the +"bride show," the coming-out party of those days. Women's orders pledged +against marriage early came into existence. + +Presently nonsecret clubs made their appearance when groups of unmarried men +and groups of unattached women formed their separate organizations. These +associations were really the first schools. And while men's and women's clubs +were often given to persecuting each other, some advanced tribes, after contact +with the Dalamatia teachers, experimented with coeducation, having boarding +schools for both sexes. + +Secret societies contributed to the building up of social castes chiefly by the +mysterious character of their initiations. The members of these societies first +wore masks to frighten the curious away from their mourning rites--ancestor +worship. Later this ritual developed into a pseudo seance at which ghosts were +reputed to have appeared. The ancient societies of the "new birth" used signs +and employed a special secret language; they also forswore certain foods and +drinks. They acted as night police and otherwise functioned in a wide range of +social activities. + + top of page - 792 + +All secret associations imposed an oath, enjoined confidence, and taught the +keeping of secrets. These orders awed and controlled the mobs; they also acted +as vigilance societies, thus practicing lynch law. They were the first spies +when the tribes were at war and the first secret police during times of peace. +Best of all they kept unscrupulous kings on the anxious seat. To offset them, +the kings fostered their own secret police. + +These societies gave rise to the first political parties. The first party +government was "the strong" vs. "the weak." In ancient times a change of +administration only followed civil war, abundant proof that the weak had become +strong. + +These clubs were employed by merchants to collect debts and by rulers to +collect taxes. Taxation has been a long struggle, one of the earliest forms +being the tithe, one tenth of the hunt or spoils. Taxes were originally levied +to keep up the king's house, but it was found that they were easier to collect +when disguised as an offering for the support of the temple service. + +By and by these secret associations grew into the first charitable +organizations and later evolved into the earlier religious societies--the +forerunners of churches. Finally some of these societies became intertribal, +the first international fraternities. + +8. SOCIAL CLASSES + +The mental and physical inequality of human beings insures that social classes +will appear. The only worlds without social strata are the most primitive and +the most advanced. A dawning civilization has not yet begun the differentiation +of social levels, while a world settled in light and life has largely effaced +these divisions of mankind, which are so characteristic of all intermediate +evolutionary stages. + +As society emerged from savagery to barbarism, its human components tended to +become grouped in classes for the following general reasons: + +1. Natural--contact, kinship, and marriage; the first social distinctions were +based on sex, age, and blood--kinship to the chief. + +2. Personal--the recognition of ability, endurance, skill, and fortitude; soon +followed by the recognition of language mastery, knowledge, and general +intelligence. + +3. Chance--war and emigration resulted in the separating of human groups. Class +evolution was powerfully influenced by conquest, the relation of the victor to +the vanquished, while slavery brought about the first general division of +society into free and bond. + +4. Economic--rich and poor. Wealth and the possession of slaves was a genetic +basis for one class of society. + +5. Geographic--classes arose consequent upon urban or rural settlement. City +and country have respectively contributed to the differentiation of the +herder-agriculturist and the trader-industrialist, with their divergent +viewpoints and reactions. + +6. Social--classes have gradually formed according to popular estimate of the +social worth of different groups. Among the earliest divisions of this sort +were the demarcations between priest-teachers, ruler-warriors, capitalist- + + top of page - 793 + +traders, common laborers, and slaves. The slave could never become a +capitalist, though sometimes the wage earner could elect to join the +capitalistic ranks. + +7. Vocational--as vocations multiplied, they tended to establish castes and +guilds. Workers divided into three groups: the professional classes, including +the medicine men, then the skilled workers, followed by the unskilled laborers. + +8. Religious--the early cult clubs produced their own classes within the clans +and tribes, and the piety and mysticism of the priests have long perpetuated +them as a separate social group. + +9. Racial--the presence of two or more races within a given nation or +territorial unit usually produces color castes. The original caste system of +India was based on color, as was that of early Egypt. + +10. Age--youth and maturity. Among the tribes the boy remained under the +watchcare of his father as long as the father lived, while the girl was left in +the care of her mother until married. + +Flexible and shifting social classes are indispensable to an evolving +civilization, but when class becomes caste, when social levels petrify, the +enhancement of social stability is purchased by diminishment of personal +initiative. Social caste solves the problem of finding one's place in industry, +but it also sharply curtails individual development and virtually prevents +social co-operation. + +Classes in society, having naturally formed, will persist until man gradually +achieves their evolutionary obliteration through intelligent manipulation of +the biologic, intellectual, and spiritual resources of a progressing +civilization, such as: + +1. Biologic renovation of the racial stocks--the selective elimination of +inferior human strains. This will tend to eradicate many mortal inequalities. + +2. Educational training of the increased brain power which will arise out of +such biologic improvement. + +3. Religious quickening of the feelings of mortal kinship and brotherhood. + +But these measures can bear their true fruits only in the distant millenniums +of the future, although much social improvement will immediately result from +the intelligent, wise, and patient manipulation of these acceleration factors +of cultural progress. Religion is the mighty lever that lifts civilization from +chaos, but it is powerless apart from the fulcrum of sound and normal mind +resting securely on sound and normal heredity. + +9. HUMAN RIGHTS + +Nature confers no rights on man, only life and a world in which to live it. +Nature does not even confer the right to live, as might be deduced by +considering what would likely happen if an unarmed man met a hungry tiger face +to face in the primitive forest. Society's prime gift to man is security. + +Gradually society asserted its rights and, at the present time, they are: + +1. Assurance of food supply. + +2. Military defense--security through preparedness. + +3. Internal peace preservation--prevention of personal violence and social +disorder. + + top of page - 794 + +4. Sex control--marriage, the family institution. + +5. Property--the right to own. + +6. Fostering of individual and group competition. + +7. Provision for educating and training youth. + +8. Promotion of trade and commerce--industrial development. + +9. Improvement of labor conditions and rewards. + +10. The guarantee of the freedom of religious practices to the end that all of +these other social activities may be exalted by becoming spiritually motivated. + +When rights are old beyond knowledge of origin, they are often called natural +rights. But human rights are not really natural; they are entirely social. They +are relative and ever changing, being no more than the rules of the +game--recognized adjustments of relations governing the ever-changing phenomena +of human competition. + +What may be regarded as right in one age may not be so regarded in another. The +survival of large numbers of defectives and degenerates is not because they +have any natural right thus to encumber twentieth-century civilization, but +simply because the society of the age, the mores, thus decrees. + +Few human rights were recognized in the European Middle Ages; then every man +belonged to someone else, and rights were only privileges or favors granted by +state or church. And the revolt from this error was equally erroneous in that +it led to the belief that all men are born equal. + +The weak and the inferior have always contended for equal rights; they have +always insisted that the state compel the strong and superior to supply their +wants and otherwise make good those deficiencies which all too often are the +natural result of their own indifference and indolence. + +But this equality ideal is the child of civilization; it is not found in +nature. Even culture itself demonstrates conclusively the inherent inequality +of men by their very unequal capacity therefor. The sudden and nonevolutionary +realization of supposed natural equality would quickly throw civilized man back +to the crude usages of primitive ages. Society cannot offer equal rights to +all, but it can promise to administer the varying rights of each with fairness +and equity. It is the business and duty of society to provide the child of +nature with a fair and peaceful opportunity to pursue self-maintenance, +participate in self-perpetuation, while at the same time enjoying some measure +of self-gratification, the sum of all three constituting human happiness. + +10. EVOLUTION OF JUSTICE + +Natural justice is a man-made theory; it is not a reality. In nature, justice +is purely theoretic, wholly a fiction. Nature provides but one kind of +justice--inevitable conformity of results to causes. + +Justice, as conceived by man, means getting one's rights and has, therefore, +been a matter of progressive evolution. The concept of justice may well be +constitutive in a spirit-endowed mind, but it does not spring full-fledgedly +into existence on the worlds of space. + +Primitive man assigned all phenomena to a person. In case of death the savage +asked, not what killed him, but who? Accidental murder was not therefore +recognized, and in the punishment of crime the motive of the criminal + + top of page - 795 + +was wholly disregarded; judgment was rendered in accordance with the injury +done. + +In the earliest primitive society public opinion operated directly; officers of +law were not needed. There was no privacy in primitive life. A man's neighbors +were responsible for his conduct; therefore their right to pry into his +personal affairs. Society was regulated on the theory that the group membership +should have an interest in, and some degree of control over, the behavior of +each individual. + +It was very early believed that ghosts administered justice through the +medicine men and priests; this constituted these orders the first crime +detectors and officers of the law. Their early methods of detecting crime +consisted in conducting ordeals of poison, fire, and pain. These savage ordeals +were nothing more than crude techniques of arbitration; they did not +necessarily settle a dispute justly. For example: When poison was administered, +if the accused vomited, he was innocent. + +The Old Testament records one of these ordeals, a marital guilt test: If a man +suspected his wife of being untrue to him, he took her to the priest and stated +his suspicions, after which the priest would prepare a concoction consisting of +holy water and sweepings from the temple floor. After due ceremony, including +threatening curses, the accused wife was made to drink the nasty potion. If she +was guilty, "the water that causes the curse shall enter into her and become +bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thighs shall rot, and the woman +shall be accursed among her people." If, by any chance, any woman could quaff +this filthy draught and not show symptoms of physical illness, she was +acquitted of the charges made by her jealous husband. + +These atrocious methods of crime detection were practiced by almost all the +evolving tribes at one time or another. Dueling is a modern survival of the +trial by ordeal. + +It is not to be wondered that the Hebrews and other semicivilized tribes +practiced such primitive techniques of justice administration three thousand +years ago, but it is most amazing that thinking men would subsequently retain +such a relic of barbarism within the pages of a collection of sacred writings. +Reflective thinking should make it clear that no divine being ever gave mortal +man such unfair instructions regarding the detection and adjudication of +suspected marital unfaithfulness. + +Society early adopted the paying-back attitude of retaliation: an eye for an +eye, a life for a life. The evolving tribes all recognized this right of blood +vengeance. Vengeance became the aim of primitive life, but religion has since +greatly modified these early tribal practices. The teachers of revealed +religion have always proclaimed, "`Vengeance is mine,' says the Lord." +Vengeance killing in early times was not altogether unlike present-day murders +under the pretense of the unwritten law. + +Suicide was a common mode of retaliation. If one were unable to avenge himself +in life, he died entertaining the belief that, as a ghost, he could return and +visit wrath upon his enemy. And since this belief was very general, the threat +of suicide on an enemy's doorstep was usually sufficient to bring him to terms. +Primitive man did not hold life very dear; suicide over trifles was common, but +the teachings of the Dalamatians greatly lessened this custom, while in more +recent times leisure, comforts, religion, and philosophy have united to make + + top of page - 796 + +life sweeter and more desirable. Hunger strikes are, however, a modern analogue +of this old-time method of retaliation. + +One of the earliest formulations of advanced tribal law had to do with the +taking over of the blood feud as a tribal affair. But strange to relate, even +then a man could kill his wife without punishment provided he had fully paid +for her. The Eskimos of today, however, still leave the penalty for a crime, +even for murder, to be decreed and administered by the family wronged. + +Another advance was the imposition of fines for taboo violations, the provision +of penalties. These fines constituted the first public revenue. The practice of +paying "blood money" also came into vogue as a substitute for blood vengeance. +Such damages were usually paid in women or cattle; it was a long time before +actual fines, monetary compensation, were assessed as punishment for crime. And +since the idea of punishment was essentially compensation, everything, +including human life, eventually came to have a price which could be paid as +damages. The Hebrews were the first to abolish the practice of paying blood +money. Moses taught that they should "take no satisfaction for the life of a +murderer, who is guilty of death; he shall surely be put to death." + +Justice was thus first meted out by the family, then by the clan, and later on +by the tribe. The administration of true justice dates from the taking of +revenge from private and kin groups and lodging it in the hands of the social +group, the state. + +Punishment by burning alive was once a common practice. It was recognized by +many ancient rulers, including Hammurabi and Moses, the latter directing that +many crimes, particularly those of a grave sex nature, should be punished by +burning at the stake. If "the daughter of a priest" or other leading citizen +turned to public prostitution, it was the Hebrew custom to "burn her with +fire." + +Treason--the "selling out" or betrayal of one's tribal associates--was the +first capital crime. Cattle stealing was universally punished by summary death, +and even recently horse stealing has been similarly punished. But as time +passed, it was learned that the severity of the punishment was not so valuable +a deterrent to crime as was its certainty and swiftness. + +When society fails to punish crimes, group resentment usually asserts itself as +lynch law; the provision of sanctuary was a means of escaping this sudden group +anger. Lynching and dueling represent the unwillingness of the individual to +surrender private redress to the state. + +11. LAWS AND COURTS + +It is just as difficult to draw sharp distinctions between mores and laws as to +indicate exactly when, at the dawning, night is succeeded by day. Mores are +laws and police regulations in the making. When long established, the undefined +mores tend to crystallize into precise laws, concrete regulations, and +well-defined social conventions. + +Law is always at first negative and prohibitive; in advancing civilizations it +becomes increasingly positive and directive. Early society operated negatively, +granting the individual the right to live by imposing upon all others the +command, "you shall not kill." Every grant of rights or liberty to the +individual involves curtailment of the liberties of all others, and this is +effected by the taboo, primitive law. The whole idea of the taboo is inherently +negative, for primitive + + top of page - 797 + +society was wholly negative in its organization, and the early administration +of justice consisted in the enforcement of the taboos. But originally these +laws applied only to fellow tribesmen, as is illustrated by the later-day +Hebrews, who had a different code of ethics for dealing with the gentiles. + +The oath originated in the days of Dalamatia in an effort to render testimony +more truthful. Such oaths consisted in pronouncing a curse upon oneself. +Formerly no individual would testify against his native group. + +Crime was an assault upon the tribal mores, sin was the transgression of those +taboos which enjoyed ghost sanction, and there was long confusion due to the +failure to segregate crime and sin. + +Self-interest established the taboo on killing, society sanctified it as +traditional mores, while religion consecrated the custom as moral law, and thus +did all three conspire in rendering human life more safe and sacred. Society +could not have held together during early times had not rights had the sanction +of religion; superstition was the moral and social police force of the long +evolutionary ages. The ancients all claimed that their olden laws, the taboos, +had been given to their ancestors by the gods. + +Law is a codified record of long human experience, public opinion crystallized +and legalized. The mores were the raw material of accumulated experience out of +which later ruling minds formulated the written laws. The ancient judge had no +laws. When he handed down a decision, he simply said, "It is the custom." + +Reference to precedent in court decisions represents the effort of judges to +adapt written laws to the changing conditions of society. This provides for +progressive adaptation to altering social conditions combined with the +impressiveness of traditional continuity. + +Property disputes were handled in many ways, such as: + +1. By destroying the disputed property. + +2. By force--the contestants fought it out. + +3. By arbitration--a third party decided. + +4. By appeal to the elders--later to the courts. + +The first courts were regulated fistic encounters; the judges were merely +umpires or referees. They saw to it that the fight was carried on according to +approved rules. On entering a court combat, each party made a deposit with the +judge to pay the costs and fine after one had been defeated by the other. +"Might was still right." Later on, verbal arguments were substituted for +physical blows. + +The whole idea of primitive justice was not so much to be fair as to dispose of +the contest and thus prevent public disorder and private violence. But +primitive man did not so much resent what would now be regarded as an +injustice; it was taken for granted that those who had power would use it +selfishly. Nevertheless, the status of any civilization may be very accurately +determined by the thoroughness and equity of its courts and by the integrity of +its judges. + +12. ALLOCATION OF CIVIL AUTHORITY + +The great struggle in the evolution of government has concerned the +concentration of power. The universe administrators have learned from +experience that the evolutionary peoples on the inhabited worlds are best +regulated by + + top of page - 798 + +the representative type of civil government when there is maintained proper +balance of power between the well-co-ordinated executive, legislative, and +judicial branches. + +While primitive authority was based on strength, physical power, the ideal +government is the representative system wherein leadership is based on ability, +but in the days of barbarism there was entirely too much war to permit +representative government to function effectively. In the long struggle between +division of authority and unity of command, the dictator won. The early and +diffuse powers of the primitive council of elders were gradually concentrated +in the person of the absolute monarch. After the arrival of real kings the +groups of elders persisted as quasi-legislative-judicial advisory bodies; later +on, legislatures of co-ordinate status made their appearance, and eventually +supreme courts of adjudication were established separate from the legislatures. + +The king was the executor of the mores, the original or unwritten law. Later he +enforced the legislative enactments, the crystallization of public opinion. A +popular assembly as an expression of public opinion, though slow in appearing, +marked a great social advance. + +The early kings were greatly restricted by the mores--by tradition or public +opinion. In recent times some Urantia nations have codified these mores into +documentary bases for government. + +Urantia mortals are entitled to liberty; they should create their systems of +government; they should adopt their constitutions or other charters of civil +authority and administrative procedure. And having done this, they should +select their most competent and worthy fellows as chief executives. For +representatives in the legislative branch they should elect only those who are +qualified intellectually and morally to fulfill such sacred responsibilities. +As judges of their high and supreme tribunals only those who are endowed with +natural ability and who have been made wise by replete experience should be +chosen. + +If men would maintain their freedom, they must, after having chosen their +charter of liberty, provide for its wise, intelligent, and fearless +interpretation to the end that there may be prevented: + +1. Usurpation of unwarranted power by either the executive or legislative +branches. + +2. Machinations of ignorant and superstitious agitators. + +3. Retardation of scientific progress. + +4. Stalemate of the dominance of mediocrity. + +5. Domination by vicious minorities. + +6. Control by ambitious and clever would-be dictators. + +7. Disastrous disruption of panics. + +8. Exploitation by the unscrupulous. + +9. Taxation enslavement of the citizenry by the state. + +10. Failure of social and economic fairness. + +11. Union of church and state. + +12. Loss of personal liberty. + +These are the purposes and aims of constitutional tribunals acting as governors +upon the engines of representative government on an evolutionary world. + + top of page - 799 + +Mankind's struggle to perfect government on Urantia has to do with perfecting +channels of administration, with adapting them to ever-changing current needs, +with improving power distribution within government, and then with selecting +such administrative leaders as are truly wise. While there is a divine and +ideal form of government, such cannot be revealed but must be slowly and +laboriously discovered by the men and women of each planet throughout the +universes of time and space. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 800 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Primitive ³ Development Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Human... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p071.txt b/religious documents/p071.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7775848 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p071.txt @@ -0,0 +1,552 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 71 Development Of The State + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 71 Development Of The State + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE state is a useful evolution of civilization; it represents society's net +gain from the ravages and sufferings of war. Even statecraft is merely the +accumulated technique for adjusting the competitive contest of force between +the struggling tribes and nations. + +The modern state is the institution which survived in the long struggle for +group power. Superior power eventually prevailed, and it produced a creature of +fact--the state--together with the moral myth of the absolute obligation of the +citizen to live and die for the state. But the state is not of divine genesis; +it was not even produced by volitionally intelligent human action; it is purely +an evolutionary institution and was wholly automatic in origin. + +1. THE EMBRYONIC STATE + +The state is a territorial social regulative organization, and the strongest, +most efficient, and enduring state is composed of a single nation whose people +have a common language, mores, and institutions. + +The early states were small and were all the result of conquest. They did not +originate in voluntary associations. Many were founded by conquering nomads, +who would swoop down on peaceful herders or settled agriculturists to overpower +and enslave them. Such states, resulting from conquest, were, perforce, +stratified; classes were inevitable, and class struggles have ever been +selective. + +The northern tribes of the American red men never attained real statehood. They +never progressed beyond a loose confederation of tribes, a very primitive form +of state. Their nearest approach was the Iroquois federation, but this group of +six nations never quite functioned as a state and failed to survive because of +the absence of certain essentials to modern national life, such as: + +1. Acquirement and inheritance of private property. + +2. Cities plus agriculture and industry. + +3. Helpful domestic animals. + +4. Practical family organization. These red men clung to the mother-family and +nephew inheritance. + +5. Definite territory. + +6. A strong executive head. + +7. Enslavement of captives--they either adopted or massacred them. + +8. Decisive conquests. + +The red men were too democratic; they had a good government, but it failed. +Eventually they would have evolved a state had they not prematurely en + + top of page - 801 + +countered the more advanced civilization of the white man, who was pursuing the +governmental methods of the Greeks and the Romans. + +The successful Roman state was based on: + +1. The father-family. + +2. Agriculture and the domestication of animals. + +3. Condensation of population--cities. + +4. Private property and land. + +5. Slavery--classes of citizenship. + +6. Conquest and reorganization of weak and backward peoples. + +7. Definite territory with roads. + +8. Personal and strong rulers. + +The great weakness in Roman civilization, and a factor in the ultimate collapse +of the empire, was the supposed liberal and advanced provision for the +emancipation of the boy at twenty-one and the unconditional release of the girl +so that she was at liberty to marry a man of her own choosing or to go abroad +in the land to become immoral. The harm to society consisted not in these +reforms themselves but rather in the sudden and extensive manner of their +adoption. The collapse of Rome indicates what may be expected when a state +undergoes too rapid extension associated with internal degeneration. + +The embryonic state was made possible by the decline of the blood bond in favor +of the territorial, and such tribal federations were usually firmly cemented by +conquest. While a sovereignty that transcends all minor struggles and group +differences is the characteristic of the true state, still, many classes and +castes persist in the later state organizations as remnants of the clans and +tribes of former days. The later and larger territorial states had a long and +bitter struggle with these smaller consanguineous clan groups, the tribal +government proving a valuable transition from family to state authority. During +later times many clans grew out of trades and other industrial associations. + +Failure of state integration results in retrogression to prestate conditions of +governmental techniques, such as the feudalism of the European Middle Ages. +During these dark ages the territorial state collapsed, and there was a +reversion to the small castle groups, the reappearance of the clan and tribal +stages of development. Similar semistates even now exist in Asia and Africa, +but not all of them are evolutionary reversions; many are the embryonic +nucleuses of states of the future. + +2. THE EVOLUTION OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT + +Democracy, while an ideal, is a product of civilization, not of evolution. Go +slowly! select carefully! for the dangers of democracy are: + +1. Glorification of mediocrity. + +2. Choice of base and ignorant rulers. + +3. Failure to recognize the basic facts of social evolution. + +4. Danger of universal suffrage in the hands of uneducated and indolent +majorities. + +5. Slavery to public opinion; the majority is not always right. + + top of page - 802 + +Public opinion, common opinion, has always delayed society; nevertheless, it is +valuable, for, while retarding social evolution, it does preserve civilization. +Education of public opinion is the only safe and true method of accelerating +civilization; force is only a temporary expedient, and cultural growth will +increasingly accelerate as bullets give way to ballots. Public opinion, the +mores, is the basic and elemental energy in social evolution and state +development, but to be of state value it must be nonviolent in expression. + +The measure of the advance of society is directly determined by the degree to +which public opinion can control personal behavior and state regulation through +nonviolent expression. The really civilized government had arrived when public +opinion was clothed with the powers of personal franchise. Popular elections +may not always decide things rightly, but they represent the right way even to +do a wrong thing. Evolution does not at once produce superlative perfection but +rather comparative and advancing practical adjustment. + +There are ten steps, or stages, to the evolution of a practical and efficient +form of representative government, and these are: + +1. Freedom of the person. Slavery, serfdom, and all forms of human bondage must +disappear. + +2. Freedom of the mind. Unless a free people are educated--taught to think +intelligently and plan wisely--freedom usually does more harm than good. + +3. The reign of law. Liberty can be enjoyed only when the will and whims of +human rulers are replaced by legislative enactments in accordance with accepted +fundamental law. + +4. Freedom of speech. Representative government is unthinkable without freedom +of all forms of expression for human aspirations and opinions. + +5. Security of property. No government can long endure if it fails to provide +for the right to enjoy personal property in some form. Man craves the right to +use, control, bestow, sell, lease, and bequeath his personal property. + +6. The right of petition. Representative government assumes the right of +citizens to be heard. The privilege of petition is inherent in free +citizenship. + +7. The right to rule. It is not enough to be heard; the power of petition must +progress to the actual management of the government. + +8. Universal suffrage. Representative government presupposes an intelligent, +efficient, and universal electorate. The character of such a government will +ever be determined by the character and caliber of those who compose it. As +civilization progresses, suffrage, while remaining universal for both sexes, +will be effectively modified, regrouped, and otherwise differentiated. + +9. Control of public servants. No civil government will be serviceable and +effective unless the citizenry possess and use wise techniques of guiding and +controlling officeholders and public servants. + +10. Intelligent and trained representation. The survival of democracy is +dependent on successful representative government; and that is conditioned upon +the practice of electing to public offices only those individuals who are +technically trained, intellectually competent, socially loyal, and morally fit. +Only by such provisions can government of the people, by the people, and for +the people be preserved. + + top of page - 803 + +3. THE IDEALS OF STATEHOOD + +The political or administrative form of a government is of little consequence +provided it affords the essentials of civil progress--liberty, security, +education, and social co-ordination. It is not what a state is but what it does +that determines the course of social evolution. And after all, no state can +transcend the moral values of its citizenry as exemplified in their chosen +leaders. Ignorance and selfishness will insure the downfall of even the highest +type of government. + +Much as it is to be regretted, national egotism has been essential to social +survival. The chosen people doctrine has been a prime factor in tribal welding +and nation building right on down to modern times. But no state can attain +ideal levels of functioning until every form of intolerance is mastered; it is +everlastingly inimical to human progress. And intolerance is best combated by +the co-ordination of science, commerce, play, and religion. + +The ideal state functions under the impulse of three mighty and co-ordinated +drives: + +1. Love loyalty derived from the realization of human brotherhood. + +2. Intelligent patriotism based on wise ideals. + +3. Cosmic insight interpreted in terms of planetary facts, needs, and goals. + +The laws of the ideal state are few in number, and they have passed out of the +negativistic taboo age into the era of the positive progress of individual +liberty consequent upon enhanced self-control. The exalted state not only +compels its citizens to work but also entices them into profitable and +uplifting utilization of the increasing leisure which results from toil +liberation by the advancing machine age. Leisure must produce as well as +consume. + +No society has progressed very far when it permits idleness or tolerates +poverty. But poverty and dependence can never be eliminated if the defective +and degenerate stocks are freely supported and permitted to reproduce without +restraint. + +A moral society should aim to preserve the self-respect of its citizenry and +afford every normal individual adequate opportunity for self-realization. Such +a plan of social achievement would yield a cultural society of the highest +order. Social evolution should be encouraged by governmental supervision which +exercises a minimum of regulative control. That state is best which +co-ordinates most while governing least. + +The ideals of statehood must be attained by evolution, by the slow growth of +civic consciousness, the recognition of the obligation and privilege of social +service. At first men assume the burdens of government as a duty, following the +end of the administration of political spoilsmen, but later on they seek such +ministry as a privilege, as the greatest honor. The status of any level of +civilization is faithfully portrayed by the caliber of its citizens who +volunteer to accept the responsibilities of statehood. + +In a real commonwealth the business of governing cities and provinces is +conducted by experts and is managed just as are all other forms of economic and +commercial associations of people. + +In advanced states, political service is esteemed as the highest devotion of +the citizenry. The greatest ambition of the wisest and noblest of citizens is +to + + top of page - 804 + +gain civil recognition, to be elected or appointed to some position of +governmental trust, and such governments confer their highest honors of +recognition for service upon their civil and social servants. Honors are next +bestowed in the order named upon philosophers, educators, scientists, +industrialists, and militarists. Parents are duly rewarded by the excellency of +their children, and purely religious leaders, being ambassadors of a spiritual +kingdom, receive their real rewards in another world. + +4. PROGRESSIVE CIVILIZATION + +Economics, society, and government must evolve if they are to remain. Static +conditions on an evolutionary world are indicative of decay; only those +institutions which move forward with the evolutionary stream persist. + +The progressive program of an expanding civilization embraces: + +1. Preservation of individual liberties. + +2. Protection of the home. + +3. Promotion of economic security. + +4. Prevention of disease. + +5. Compulsory education. + +6. Compulsory employment. + +7. Profitable utilization of leisure. + +8. Care of the unfortunate. + +9. Race improvement. + +10. Promotion of science and art. + +11. Promotion of philosophy--wisdom. + +12. Augmentation of cosmic insight--spirituality. + +And this progress in the arts of civilization leads directly to the realization +of the highest human and divine goals of mortal endeavor--the social +achievement of the brotherhood of man and the personal status of +God-consciousness, which becomes revealed in the supreme desire of every +individual to do the will of the Father in heaven. + +The appearance of genuine brotherhood signifies that a social order has arrived +in which all men delight in bearing one another's burdens; they actually desire +to practice the golden rule. But such an ideal society cannot be realized when +either the weak or the wicked lie in wait to take unfair and unholy advantage +of those who are chiefly actuated by devotion to the service of truth, beauty, +and goodness. In such a situation only one course is practical: The "golden +rulers" may establish a progressive society in which they live according to +their ideals while maintaining an adequate defense against their benighted +fellows who might seek either to exploit their pacific predilections or to +destroy their advancing civilization. + +Idealism can never survive on an evolving planet if the idealists in each +generation permit themselves to be exterminated by the baser orders of +humanity. And here is the great test of idealism: Can an advanced society +maintain that military preparedness which renders it secure from all attack by +its war-loving neighbors without yielding to the temptation to employ this +military + + top of page - 805 + +strength in offensive operations against other peoples for purposes of selfish +gain or national aggrandizement? National survival demands preparedness, and +religious idealism alone can prevent the prostitution of preparedness into +aggression. Only love, brotherhood, can prevent the strong from oppressing the +weak. + +5. THE EVOLUTION OF COMPETITION + +Competition is essential to social progress, but competition, unregulated, +breeds violence. In current society, competition is slowly displacing war in +that it determines the individual's place in industry, as well as decreeing the +survival of the industries themselves. (Murder and war differ in their status +before the mores, murder having been outlawed since the early days of society, +while war has never yet been outlawed by mankind as a whole.) + +The ideal state undertakes to regulate social conduct only enough to take +violence out of individual competition and to prevent unfairness in personal +initiative. Here is a great problem in statehood: How can you guarantee peace +and quiet in industry, pay the taxes to support state power, and at the same +time prevent taxation from handicapping industry and keep the state from +becoming parasitical or tyrannical? + +Throughout the earlier ages of any world, competition is essential to +progressive civilization. As the evolution of man progresses, co-operation +becomes increasingly effective. In advanced civilizations co-operation is more +efficient than competition. Early man is stimulated by competition. Early +evolution is characterized by the survival of the biologically fit, but later +civilizations are the better promoted by intelligent co-operation, +understanding fraternity, and spiritual brotherhood. + +True, competition in industry is exceedingly wasteful and highly ineffective, +but no attempt to eliminate this economic lost motion should be countenanced if +such adjustments entail even the slightest abrogation of any of the basic +liberties of the individual. + +6. THE PROFIT MOTIVE + +Present-day profit-motivated economics is doomed unless profit motives can be +augmented by service motives. Ruthless competition based on narrow-minded +self-interest is ultimately destructive of even those things which it seeks to +maintain. Exclusive and self-serving profit motivation is incompatible with +Christian ideals--much more incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. + +In economics, profit motivation is to service motivation what fear is to love +in religion. But the profit motive must not be suddenly destroyed or removed; +it keeps many otherwise slothful mortals hard at work. It is not necessary, +however, that this social energy arouser be forever selfish in its objectives. + +The profit motive of economic activities is altogether base and wholly unworthy +of an advanced order of society; nevertheless, it is an indispensable factor +throughout the earlier phases of civilization. Profit motivation must not be +taken away from men until they have firmly possessed themselves of superior +types of nonprofit motives for economic striving and social serving--the +transcendent urges of superlative wisdom, intriguing brotherhood, and +excellency of spiritual attainment. + + top of page - 806 + +7. EDUCATION + +The enduring state is founded on culture, dominated by ideals, and motivated by +service. The purpose of education should be acquirement of skill, pursuit of +wisdom, realization of selfhood, and attainment of spiritual values. + +In the ideal state, education continues throughout life, and philosophy +sometimes becomes the chief pursuit of its citizens. The citizens of such a +commonwealth pursue wisdom as an enhancement of insight into the significance +of human relations, the meanings of reality, the nobility of values, the goals +of living, and the glories of cosmic destiny. + +Urantians should get a vision of a new and higher cultural society. Education +will jump to new levels of value with the passing of the purely +profit-motivated system of economics. Education has too long been localistic, +militaristic, ego exalting, and success seeking; it must eventually become +world-wide, idealistic, self-realizing, and cosmic grasping. + +Education recently passed from the control of the clergy to that of lawyers and +businessmen. Eventually it must be given over to the philosophers and the +scientists. Teachers must be free beings, real leaders, to the end that +philosophy, the search for wisdom, may become the chief educational pursuit. + +Education is the business of living; it must continue throughout a lifetime so +that mankind may gradually experience the ascending levels of mortal wisdom, +which are: + +1. The knowledge of things. + +2. The realization of meanings. + +3. The appreciation of values. + +4. The nobility of work--duty. + +5. The motivation of goals--morality. + +6. The love of service--character. + +7. Cosmic insight--spiritual discernment. + +And then, by means of these achievements, many will ascend to the mortal +ultimate of mind attainment, God-consciousness. + +8. THE CHARACTER OF STATEHOOD + +The only sacred feature of any human government is the division of statehood +into the three domains of executive, legislative, and judicial functions. The +universe is administered in accordance with such a plan of segregation of +functions and authority. Aside from this divine concept of effective social +regulation or civil government, it matters little what form of state a people +may elect to have provided the citizenry is ever progressing toward the goal of +augmented self-control and increased social service. The intellectual keenness, +economic wisdom, social cleverness, and moral stamina of a people are all +faithfully reflected in statehood. + +The evolution of statehood entails progress from level to level, as follows: + +1. The creation of a threefold government of executive, legislative, and +judicial branches. + +2. The freedom of social, political, and religious activities. + + top of page - 807 + +3. The abolition of all forms of slavery and human bondage. + +4. The ability of the citizenry to control the levying of taxes. + +5. The establishment of universal education--learning extended from the cradle +to the grave. + +6. The proper adjustment between local and national governments. + +7. The fostering of science and the conquest of disease. + +8. The due recognition of sex equality and the co-ordinated functioning of men +and women in the home, school, and church, with specialized service of women in +industry and government. + +9. The elimination of toiling slavery by machine invention and the subsequent +mastery of the machine age. + +10. The conquest of dialects--the triumph of a universal language. + +11. The ending of war--international adjudication of national and racial +differences by continental courts of nations presided over by a supreme +planetary tribunal automatically recruited from the periodically retiring heads +of the continental courts. The continental courts are authoritative; the world +court is advisory--moral. + +12. The world-wide vogue of the pursuit of wisdom--the exaltation of +philosophy. The evolution of a world religion, which will presage the entrance +of the planet upon the earlier phases of settlement in light and life. + +These are the prerequisites of progressive government and the earmarks of ideal +statehood. Urantia is far from the realization of these exalted ideals, but the +civilized races have made a beginning--mankind is on the march toward higher +evolutionary destinies. + +[Sponsored by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 808 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Evolution ³ Government On ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ O... ³ A... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p072.txt b/religious documents/p072.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..10834ed --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p072.txt @@ -0,0 +1,815 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 72 Government On A Neighboring Planet + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 72 Government On A Neighboring Planet + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +BY PERMISSION of Lanaforge and with the approval of the Most Highs of Edentia, +I am authorized to narrate something of the social, moral, and political life +of the most advanced human race living on a not far-distant planet belonging to +the Satania system. + +Of all the Satania worlds which became isolated because of participation in the +Lucifer rebellion, this planet has experienced a history most like that of +Urantia. The similarity of the two spheres undoubtedly explains why permission +to make this extraordinary presentation was granted, for it is most unusual for +the system rulers to consent to the narration on one planet of the affairs of +another. + +This planet, like Urantia, was led astray by the disloyalty of its Planetary +Prince in connection with the Lucifer rebellion. It received a Material Son +shortly after Adam came to Urantia, and this Son also defaulted, leaving the +sphere isolated, since a Magisterial Son has never been bestowed upon its +mortal races. + +1. THE CONTINENTAL NATION + +Notwithstanding all these planetary handicaps a very superior civilization is +evolving on an isolated continent about the size of Australia. This nation +numbers about 140 million. Its people are a mixed race, predominantly blue and +yellow, having a slightly greater proportion of violet than the so-called white +race of Urantia. These different races are not yet fully blended, but they +fraternize and socialize very acceptably. The average length of life on this +continent is now ninety years, fifteen per cent higher than that of any other +people on the planet. + +The industrial mechanism of this nation enjoys a certain great advantage +derived from the unique topography of the continent. The high mountains, on +which heavy rains fall eight months in the year, are situated at the very +center of the country. This natural arrangement favors the utilization of water +power and greatly facilitates the irrigation of the more arid western quarter +of the continent. + +These people are self-sustaining, that is, they can live indefinitely without +importing anything from the surrounding nations. Their natural resources are +replete, and by scientific techniques they have learned how to compensate for +their deficiencies in the essentials of life. They enjoy a brisk domestic +commerce but have little foreign trade owing to the universal hostility of +their less progressive neighbors. + +This continental nation, in general, followed the evolutionary trend of the +planet: The development from the tribal stage to the appearance of strong + + top of page - 809 + +rulers and kings occupied thousands of years. The unconditional monarchs were +succeeded by many different orders of government--abortive republics, communal +states, and dictators came and went in endless profusion. This growth continued +until about five hundred years ago when, during a politically fermenting +period, one of the nation's powerful dictator-triumvirs had a change of heart. +He volunteered to abdicate upon condition that one of the other rulers, the +baser of the remaining two, also vacate his dictatorship. Thus was the +sovereignty of the continent placed in the hands of one ruler. The unified +state progressed under strong monarchial rule for over one hundred years, +during which there evolved a masterful charter of liberty. + +The subsequent transition from monarchy to a representative form of government +was gradual, the kings remaining as mere social or sentimental figureheads, +finally disappearing when the male line of descent ran out. The present +republic has now been in existence just two hundred years, during which time +there has been a continuous progression toward the governmental techniques +about to be narrated, the last developments in industrial and political realms +having been made within the past decade. + +2. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION + +This continental nation now has a representative government with a centrally +located national capital. The central government consists of a strong +federation of one hundred comparatively free states. These states elect their +governors and legislators for ten years, and none are eligibLe for re-election. +State judges are appointed for life by the governors and confirmed by their +legislatures, which consist of one representative for each one hundred thousand +citizens. + +There are five different types of metropolitan government, depending on the +size of the city, but no city is permitted to have more than one million +inhabitants. On the whole, these municipal governing schemes are very simple, +direct, and economical. The few offices of city administration are keenly +sought by the highest types of citizens. + +The federal government embraces three co-ordinate divisions: executive, +legislative, and judicial. The federal chief executive is elected every six +years by universal territorial suffrage. He is not eligible for re-election +except upon the petition of at least seventy-five state legislatures concurred +in by the respective state governors, and then but for one term. He is advised +by a supercabinet composed of all living ex-chief executives. + +The legislative division embraces three houses: + +1. The upper house is elected by industrial, professional, agricultural, and +other groups of workers, balloting in accordance with economic function. + +2. The lower house is elected by certain organizations of society embracing the +social, political, and philosophic groups not included in industry or the +professions. All citizens in good standing participate in the election of both +classes of representatives, but they are differently grouped, depending on +whether the election pertains to the upper or lower house. + +3. The third house--the elder statesmen--embraces the veterans of civic service +and includes many distinguished persons nominated by the chief execu- + + top of page - 810 + +tive, by the regional (subfederal) executives, by the chief of the supreme +tribunal, and by the presiding officers of either of the other legislative +houses. This group is limited to one hundred, and its members are elected by +the majority action of the elder statesmen themselves. Membership is for life, +and when vacancies occur, the person receiving the largest ballot among the +list of nominees is thereby duly elected. The scope of this body is purely +advisory, but it is a mighty regulator of public opinion and exerts a powerful +influence upon all branches of the government. + +Very much of the federal administrative work is carried on by the ten regional +(subfederal) authorities, each consisting of the association of ten states. +These regional divisions are wholly executive and administrative, having +neither legislative nor judicial functions. The ten regional executives are the +personal appointees of the federal chief executive, and their term of office is +concurrent with his--six years. The federal supreme tribunal approves the +appointment of these ten regional executives, and while they may not be +reappointed, the retiring executive automatically becomes the associate and +adviser of his successor. Otherwise, these regional chiefs choose their own +cabinets of administrative officials. + +This nation is adjudicated by two major court systems--the law courts and the +socioeconomic courts. The law courts function on the following three levels: + +1. Minor courts of municipal and local jurisdiction, whose decisions may be +appealed to the high state tribunals. + +2. State supreme courts, whose decisions are final in all matters not involving +the federal government or jeopardy of citizenship rights and liberties. The +regional executives are empowered to bring any case at once to the bar of the +federal supreme court. + +3. Federal supreme court--the high tribunal for the adjudication of national +contentions and the appellate cases coming up from the state courts. This +supreme tribunal consists of twelve men over forty and under seventy-five years +of age who have served two or more years on some state tribunal, and who have +been appointed to this high position by the chief executive with the majority +approval of the supercabinet and the third house of the legislative assembly. +All decisions of this supreme judicial body are by at least a two-thirds vote. + +The socioeconomic courts function in the following three divisions: + +1. Parental courts, associated with the legislative and executive divisions of +the home and social system. + +2. Educational courts--the juridical bodies connected with the state and +regional school systems and associated with the executive and legislative +branches of the educational administrative mechanism. + +3. Industrial courts--the jurisdictional tribunals vested with full authority +for the settlement of all economic misunderstandings. + +The federal supreme court does not pass upon socioeconomic cases except upon +the three-quarters vote of the third legislative branch of the national +government, the house of elder statesmen. Otherwise, all decisions of the +parental, educational, and industrial high courts are final. + + top of page - 811 + +3. THE HOME LIFE + +On this continent it is against the law for two families to live under the same +roof. And since group dwellings have been outlawed, most of the tenement type +of buildings have been demolished. But the unmarried still live in clubs, +hotels, and other group dwellings. The smallest homesite permitted must provide +fifty thousand square feet of land. All land and other property used for home +purposes are free from taxation up to ten times the minimum homesite allotment. + +The home life of this people has greatly improved during the last century. +Attendance of parents, both fathers and mothers, at the parental schools of +child culture is compulsory. Even the agriculturists who reside in small +country settlements carry on this work by correspondence, going to the near-by +centers for oral instruction once in ten days--every two weeks, for they +maintain a five-day week. + +The average number of children in each family is five, and they are under the +full control of their parents or, in case of the demise of one or both, under +that of the guardians designated by the parental courts. It is considered a +great honor for any family to be awarded the guardianship of a full orphan. +Competitive examinations are held among parents, and the orphan is awarded to +the home of those displaying the best parental qualifications. + +These people regard the home as the basic institution of their civilization. It +is expected that the most valuable part of a child's education and character +training will be secured from his parents and at home, and fathers devote +almost as much attention to child culture as do mothers. + +All sex instruction is administered in the home by parents or by legal +guardians. Moral instruction is offered by teachers during the rest periods in +the school shops, but not so with religious training, which is deemed to be the +exclusive privilege of parents, religion being looked upon as an integral part +of home life. Purely religious instruction is given publicly only in the +temples of philosophy, no such exclusively religious institutions as the +Urantia churches having developed among this people. In their philosophy, +religion is the striving to know God and to manifest love for one's fellows +through service for them, but this is not typical of the religious status of +the other nations on this planet. Religion is so entirely a family matter among +these people that there are no public places devoted exclusively to religious +assembly. Politically, church and state, as Urantians are wont to say, are +entirely separate, but there is a strange overlapping of religion and +philosophy. + +Until twenty years ago the spiritual teachers (comparable to Urantia pastors), +who visit each family periodically to examine the children to ascertain if they +have been properly instructed by their parents, were under governmental +supervision. These spiritual advisers and examiners are now under the direction +of the newly created Foundation of Spiritual Progress, an institution supported +by voluntary contributions. Possibly this institution may not further evolve +until after the arrival of a Paradise Magisterial Son. + +Children remain legally subject to their parents until they are fifteen, when +the first initiation into civic responsibility is held. Thereafter, every five +years for five successive periods similar public exercises are held for such +age groups + + top of page - 812 + +at which their obligations to parents are lessened, while new civic and social +responsibilities to the state are assumed. Suffrage is conferred at twenty, the +right to marry without parental consent is not bestowed until twenty-five, and +children must leave home on reaching the age of thirty. + +Marriage and divorce laws are uniform throughout the nation. Marriage before +twenty--the age of civil enfranchisement--is not permitted. Permission to marry +is only granted after one year's notice of intention, and after both bride and +groom present certificates showing that they have been duly instructed in the +parental schools regarding the responsibilities of married life. + +Divorce regulations are somewhat lax, but decrees of separation, issued by the +parental courts, may not be had until one year after application therefor has +been recorded, and the year on this planet is considerably longer than on +Urantia. Notwithstanding their easy divorce laws, the present rate of divorces +is only one tenth that of the civilized races of Urantia. + +4. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM + +The educational system of this nation is compulsory and coeducational in the +precollege schools that the student attends from the ages of five to eighteen. +These schools are vastly different from those of Urantia. There are no +classrooms, only one study is pursued at a time, and after the first three +years all pupils become assistant teachers, instructing those below them. Books +are used only to secure information that will assist in solving the problems +arising in the school shops and on the school farms. Much of the furniture used +on the continent and the many mechanical contrivances--this is a great age of +invention and mechanization--are produced in these shops. Adjacent to each shop +is a working library where the student may consult the necessary reference +books. Agriculture and horticulture are also taught throughout the entire +educational period on the extensive farms adjoining every local school. + +The feeble-minded are trained only in agriculture and animal husbandry, and are +committed for life to special custodial colonies where they are segregated by +sex to prevent parenthood, which is denied all subnormals. These restrictive +measures have been in operation for seventy-five years; the commitment decrees +are handed down by the parental courts. + +Everyone takes one month's vacation each year. The precollege schools are +conducted for nine months out of the year of ten, the vacation being spent with +parents or friends in travel. This travel is a part of the adult-education +program and is continued throughout a lifetime, the funds for meeting such +expenses being accumulated by the same methods as those employed in old-age +insurance. + +One quarter of the school time is devoted to play--competitive athletics--the +pupils progressing in these contests from the local, through the state and +regional, and on to the national trials of skill and prowess. Likewise, the +oratorical and musical contests, as well as those in science and philosophy, +occupy the attention of students from the lower social divisions on up to the +contests for national honors. + +The school government is a replica of the national government with its three +correlated branches, the teaching staff functioning as the third or advisory +legislative division. The chief object of education on this continent is to +make every pupil a self-supporting citizen. + + top of page - 813 + +Every child graduating from the precollege school system at eighteen is a +skilled artisan. Then begins the study of books and the pursuit of special +knowledge, either in the adult schools or in the colleges. When a brilliant +student completes his work ahead of schedule, he is granted an award of time +and means wherewith he may execute some pet project of his own devising. The +entire educational system is designed to adequately train the individual. + +5. INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION + +The industrial situation among this people is far from their ideals; capital +and labor still have their troubles, but both are becoming adjusted to the plan +of sincere co-operation. On this unique continent the workers are increasingly +becoming shareholders in all industrial concerns; every intelligent laborer is +slowly becoming a small capitalist. + +Social antagonisms are lessening, and good will is growing apace. No grave +economic problems have arisen out of the abolition of slavery (over one hundred +years ago) since this adjustment was effected gradually by the liberation of +two per cent each year. Those slaves who satisfactorily passed mental, moral, +and physical tests were granted citizenship; many of these superior slaves were +war captives or children of such captives. Some fifty years ago they deported +the last of their inferior slaves, and still more recently they are addressing +themselves to the task of reducing the numbers of their degenerate and vicious +classes. + +These people have recently developed new techniques for the adjustment of +industrial misunderstandings and for the correction of economic abuses which +are marked improvements over their older methods of settling such problems. +Violence has been outlawed as a procedure in adjusting either personal or +industrial differences. Wages, profits, and other economic problems are not +rigidly regulated, but they are in general controlled by the industrial +legislatures, while all disputes arising out of industry are passed upon by the +industrial courts. + +The industrial courts are only thirty years old but are functioning very +satisfactorily. The most recent development provides that hereafter the +industrial courts shall recognize legal compensation as falling in three +divisions: + +1. Legal rates of interest on invested capital. + +2. Reasonable salary for skill employed in industrial operations. + +3. Fair and equitable wages for labor. + +These shall first be met in accordance with contract, or in the face of +decreased earnings they shall share proportionally in transient reduction. And +thereafter all earnings in excess of these fixed charges shall be regarded as +dividends and shall be prorated to all three divisions: capital, skill, and +labor. + +Every ten years the regional executives adjust and decree the lawful hours of +daily gainful toil. Industry now operates on a five-day week, working four and +playing one. These people labor six hours each working day and, like students, +nine months in the year of ten. Vacation is usually spent in travel, and new +methods of transportation having been so recently developed, the whole nation +is travel bent. The climate favors travel about eight months in the year, and +they are making the most of their opportunities. + +Two hundred years ago the profit motive was wholly dominant in industry, but +today it is being rapidly displaced by other and higher driving forces. Com + + top of page - 814 + +petition is keen on this continent, but much of it has been transferred from +industry to play, skill, scientific achievement, and intellectual attainment. +It is most active in social service and governmental loyalty. Among this people +public service is rapidly becoming the chief goal of ambition. The richest man +on the continent works six hours a day in the office of his machine shop and +then hastens over to the local branch of the school of statesmanship, where he +seeks to qualify for public service. + +Labor is becoming more honorable on this continent, and all able-bodied +citizens over eighteen work either at home and on farms, at some recognized +industry, on the public works where the temporarily unemployed are absorbed, or +else in the corps of compulsory laborers in the mines. + +These people are also beginning to foster a new form of social disgust--disgust +for both idleness and unearned wealth. Slowly but certainly they are conquering +their machines. Once they, too, struggled for political liberty and +subsequently for economic freedom. Now are they entering upon the enjoyment of +both while in addition they are beginning to appreciate their well-earned +leisure, which can be devoted to increased self-realization. + +6. OLD-AGE INSURANCE + +This nation is making a determined effort to replace the +self-respect-destroying type of charity by dignified government-insurance +guarantees of security in old age. This nation provides every child an +education and every man a job; therefore can it successfully carry out such an +insurance scheme for the protection of the infirm and aged. + +Among this people all persons must retire from gainful pursuit at sixty-five +unless they secure a permit from the state labor commissioner which will +entitle them to remain at work until the age of seventy. This age limit does +not apply to government servants or philosophers. The physically disabled or +permanently crippled can be placed on the retired list at any age by court +order countersigned by the pension commissioner of the regional government. + +The funds for old-age pensions are derived from four sources: + +1. One day's earnings each month are requisitioned by the federal government +for this purpose, and in this country everybody works. + +2. Bequests--many wealthy citizens leave funds for this purpose. + +3. The earnings of compulsory labor in the state mines. After the conscript +workers support themselves and set aside their own retirement contributions, +all excess profits on their labor are turned over to this pension fund. + +4. The income from natural resources. All natural wealth on the continent is +held as a social trust by the federal government, and the income therefrom is +utilized for social purposes, such as disease prevention, education of +geniuses, and expenses of especially promising individuals in the statesmanship +schools. One half of the income from natural resources goes to the old-age +pension fund. + +Although state and regional actuarial foundations supply many forms of +protective insurance, old-age pensions are solely administered by the federal +government through the ten regional departments. + +These government funds have long been honestly administered. Next to treason +and murder, the heaviest penalties meted out by the courts are attached + + top of page - 815 + +to betrayal of public trust. Social and political disloyalty are now looked +upon as being the most heinous of all crimes. + +7. TAXATION + +The federal government is paternalistic only in the administration of old-age +pensions and in the fostering of genius and creative originality; the state +governments are slightly more concerned with the individual citizen, while the +local governments are much more paternalistic or socialistic. The city (or some +subdivision thereof) concerns itself with such matters as health, sanitation, +building regulations, beautification, water supply, lighting, heating, +recreation, music, and communication. + +In all industry first attention is paid to health; certain phases of physical +well-being are regarded as industrial and community prerogatives, but +individual and family health problems are matters of personal concern only. In +medicine, as in all other purely personal matters, it is increasingly the plan +of government to refrain from interfering. + +Cities have no taxing power, neither can they go in debt. They receive per +capita allowances from the state treasury and must supplement such revenue from +the earnings of their socialistic enterprises and by licensing various +commercial activities. + +The rapid-transit facilities, which make it practical greatly to extend the +city boundaries, are under municipal control. The city fire departments are +supported by the fire-prevention and insurance foundations, and all buildings, +in city or country, are fireproof--have been for over seventy-five years. + +There are no municipally appointed peace officers; the police forces are +maintained by the state governments. This department is recruited almost +entirely from the unmarried men between twenty-five and fifty. Most of the +states assess a rather heavy bachelor tax, which is remitted to all men joining +the state police. In the average state the police force is now only one tenth +as large as it was fifty years ago. + +There is little or no uniformity among the taxation schemes of the one hundred +comparatively free and sovereign states as economic and other conditions vary +greatly in different sections of the continent. Every state has ten basic +constitutional provisions which cannot be modified except by consent of the +federal supreme court, and one of these articles prevents levying a tax of more +than one per cent on the value of any property in any one year, homesites, +whether in city or country, being exempted. + +The federal government cannot go in debt, and a three-fourths referendum is +required before any state can borrow except for purposes of war. Since the +federal government cannot incur debt, in the event of war the National Council +of Defense is empowered to assess the states for money, as well as for men and +materials, as it may be required. But no debt may run for more than twenty-five +years. + +Income to support the federal government is derived from the following five +sources: + +1. Import duties. All imports are subject to a tariff designed to protect the +standard of living on this continent, which is far above that of any other + + top of page - 816 + +nation on the planet. These tariffs are set by the highest industrial court +after both houses of the industrial congress have ratified the recommendations +of the chief executive of economic affairs, who is the joint appointee of these +two legislative bodies. The upper industrial house is elected by labor, the +lower by capital. + +2. Royalties. The federal government encourages invention and original +creations in the ten regional laboratories, assisting all types of +geniuses--artists, authors, and scientists--and protecting their patents. In +return the government takes one half the profits realized from all such +inventions and creations, whether pertaining to machines, books, artistry, +plants, or animals. + +3. Inheritance tax. The federal government levies a graduated inheritance tax +ranging from one to fifty per cent, depending on the size of an estate as well +as on other conditions. + +4. Military equipment. The government earns a considerable sum from the leasing +of military and naval equipment for commercial and recreational usages. + +5. Natural resources. The income from natural resources, when not fully +required for the specific purposes designated in the charter of federal +statehood, is turned into the national treasury. + +Federal appropriations, except war funds assessed by the National Council of +Defense, are originated in the upper legislative house, concurred in by the +lower house, approved by the chief executive, and finally validated by the +federal budget commission of one hundred. The members of this commission are +nominated by the state governors and elected by the state legislatures to serve +for twenty-four years, one quarter being elected every six years. Every six +years this body, by a three-fourths ballot, chooses one of its number as chief, +and he thereby becomes director-controller of the federal treasury. + +8. THE SPECIAL COLLEGES + +In addition to the basic compulsory education program extending from the ages +of five to eighteen, special schools are maintained as follows: + +1. Statesmanship schools. These schools are of three classes: national, +regional, and state. The public offices of the nation are grouped in four +divisions. The first division of public trust pertains principally to the +national administration, and all officeholders of this group must be graduates +of both regional and national schools of statesmanship. Individuals may accept +political, elective, or appointive office in the second division upon +graduating from any one of the ten regional schools of statesmanship; their +trusts concern responsibilities in the regional administration and the state +governments. Division three includes state responsibilities, and such officials +are only required to have state degrees of statesmanship. The fourth and last +division of officeholders are not required to hold statesmanship degrees, such +offices being wholly appointive. They represent minor positions of +assistantship, secretaryships, and technical trusts which are discharged by the +various learned professions functioning in governmental administrative +capacities. + +Judges of the minor and state courts hold degrees from the state schools of +statesmanship. Judges of the jurisdictional tribunals of social, educational, + + top of page - 817 + +and industrial matters hold degrees from the regional schools. Judges of the +federal supreme court must hold degrees from all these schools of +statesmanship. + +2. Schools of philosophy. These schools are affiliated with the temples of +philosophy and are more or less associated with religion as a public function. + +3. Institutions of science. These technical schools are co-ordinated with +industry rather than with the educational system and are administered under +fifteen divisions. + +4. Professional training schools. These special institutions provide the +technical training for the various learned professions, twelve in number. + +5. Military and naval schools. Near the national headquarters and at the +twenty-five coastal military centers are maintained those institutions devoted +to the military training of volunteer citizens from eighteen to thirty years of +age. Parental consent is required before twenty-five in order to gain entrance +to these schools. + +9. THE PLAN OF UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE + +Although candidates for all public offices are restricted to graduates of the +state, regional, or federal schools of statesmanship, the progressive leaders +of this nation discovered a serious weakness in their plan of universal +suffrage and about fifty years ago made constitutional provision for a modified +scheme of voting which embraces the following features: + +1. Every man and woman of twenty years and over has one vote. Upon attaining +this age, all citizens must accept membership in two voting groups: They will +join the first in accordance with their economic function--industrial, +professional, agricultural, or trade; they will enter the second group +according to their political, philosophic, and social inclinations. All workers +thus belong to some economic franchise group, and these guilds, like the +noneconomic associations, are regulated much as is the national government with +its threefold division of powers. Registration in these groups cannot be +changed for twelve years. + +2. Upon nomination by the state governors or by the regional executives and by +the mandate of the regional supreme councils, individuals who have rendered +great service to society, or who have demonstrated extraordinary wisdom in +government service, may have additional votes conferred upon them not oftener +than every five years and not to exceed nine such superfranchises. The maximum +suffrage of any multiple voter is ten. Scientists, inventors, teachers, +philosophers, and spiritual leaders are also thus recognized and honored with +augmented political power. These advanced civic privileges are conferred by the +state and regional supreme councils much as degrees are bestowed by the special +colleges, and the recipients are proud to attach the symbols of such civic +recognition, along with their other degrees, to their lists of personal +achievements. + +3. All individuals sentenced to compulsory labor in the mines and all +governmental servants supported by tax funds are, for the periods of such +services, disenfranchised. This does not apply to aged persons who may be +retired on pensions at sixty-five. + +4. There are five brackets of suffrage reflecting the average yearly taxes paid +for each half-decade period. Heavy taxpayers are permitted extra votes + + top of page - 818 + +up to five. This grant is independent of all other recognition, but in no case +can any person cast over ten ballots. + +5. At the time this franchise plan was adopted, the territorial method of +voting was abandoned in favor of the economic or functional system. All +citizens now vote as members of industrial, social, or professional groups, +regardless of their residence. Thus the electorate consists of solidified, +unified, and intelligent groups who elect only their best members to positions +of governmental trust and responsibility. There is one exception to this scheme +of functional or group suffrage: The election of a federal chief executive +every six years is by nation-wide ballot, and no citizen casts over one vote. + +Thus, except in the election of the chief executive, suffrage is exercised by +economic, professional, intellectual, and social groupings of the citizenry. +The ideal state is organic, and every free and intelligent group of citizens +represents a vital and functioning organ within the larger governmental +organism. + +The schools of statesmanship have power to start proceedings in the state +courts looking toward the disenfranchisement of any defective, idle, +indifferent, or criminal individual. These people recognize that, when fifty +per cent of a nation is inferior or defective and possesses the ballot, such a +nation is doomed. They believe the dominance of mediocrity spells the downfall +of any nation. Voting is compulsory, heavy fines being assessed against all who +fail to cast their ballots. + +10. DEALING WITH CRIME + +The methods of this people in dealing with crime, insanity, and degeneracy, +while in some ways pleasing, will, no doubt, in others prove shocking to most +Urantians. Ordinary criminals and the defectives are placed, by sexes, in +different agricultural colonies and are more than self-supporting. The more +serious habitual criminals and the incurably insane are sentenced to death in +the lethal gas chambers by the courts. Numerous crimes aside from murder, +including betrayal of governmental trust, also carry the death penalty, and the +visitation of justice is sure and swift. + +These people are passing out of the negative into the positive era of law. +Recently they have gone so far as to attempt the prevention of crime by +sentencing those who are believed to be potential murderers and major criminals +to life service in the detention colonies. If such convicts subsequently +demonstrate that they have become more normal, they may be either paroled or +pardoned. The homicide rate on this continent is only one per cent of that +among the other nations. + +Efforts to prevent the breeding of criminals and defectives were begun over one +hundred years ago and have already yielded gratifying results. There are no +prisons or hospitals for the insane. For one reason, there are only about ten +per cent as many of these groups as are found on Urantia. + +11. MILITARY PREPAREDNESS + +Graduates of the federal military schools may be commissioned as "guardians of +civilization" in seven ranks, in accordance with ability and experience, by the +president of the National Council of Defense. This council consists of twenty- + + top of page - 819 + +five members, nominated by the highest parental, educational, and industrial +tribunals, confirmed by the federal supreme court, and presided over ex officio +by the chief of staff of co-ordinated military affairs. Such members serve +until they are seventy years of age. + +The courses pursued by such commissioned officers are four years in length and +are invariably correlated with the mastery of some trade or profession. +Military training is never given without this associated industrial, +scientific, or professional schooling. When military training is finished, the +individual has, during his four years' course, received one half of the +education imparted in any of the special schools where the courses are likewise +four years in length. In this way the creation of a professional military class +is avoided by providing this opportunity for a large number of men to support +themselves while securing the first half of a technical or professional +training. + +Military service during peacetime is purely voluntary, and the enlistments in +all branches of the service are for four years, during which every man pursues +some special line of study in addition to the mastery of military tactics. +Training in music is one of the chief pursuits of the central military schools +and of the twenty-five training camps distributed about the periphery of the +continent. During periods of industrial slackness many thousands of unemployed +are automatically utilized in upbuilding the military defenses of the continent +on land and sea and in the air. + +Although these people maintain a powerful war establishment as a defense +against invasion by the surrounding hostile peoples, it may be recorded to +their credit that they have not in over one hundred years employed these +military resources in an offensive war. They have become civilized to that +point where they can vigorously defend civilization without yielding to the +temptation to utilize their war powers in aggression. There have been no civil +wars since the establishment of the united continental state, but during the +last two centuries these people have been called upon to wage nine fierce +defensive conflicts, three of which were against mighty confederations of world +powers. Although this nation maintains adequate defense against attack by +hostile neighbors, it pays far more attention to the training of statesmen, +scientists, and philosophers. + +When at peace with the world, all mobile defense mechanisms are quite fully +employed in trade, commerce, and recreation. When war is declared, the entire +nation is mobilized. Throughout the period of hostilities military pay obtains +in all industries, and the chiefs of all military departments become members of +the chief executive's cabinet. + +12. THE OTHER NATIONS + +Although the society and government of this unique people are in many respects +superior to those of the Urantia nations, it should be stated that on the other +continents (there are eleven on this planet) the governments are decidedly +inferior to the more advanced nations of Urantia. + +Just now this superior government is planning to establish ambassadorial +relations with the inferior peoples, and for the first time a great religious +leader has arisen who advocates the sending of missionaries to these +surrounding nations. We fear they are about to make the mistake that so many +others have made when they have endeavored to force a superior culture and +religion upon + + top of page - 820 + +other races. What a wonderful thing could be done on this world if this +continental nation of advanced culture would only go out and bring to itself +the best of the neighboring peoples and then, after educating them, send them +back as emissaries of culture to their benighted brethren! Of course, if a +Magisterial Son should soon come to this advanced nation, great things could +quickly happen on this world. + +This recital of the affairs of a neighboring planet is made by special +permission with the intent of advancing civilization and augmenting +governmental evolution on Urantia. Much more could be narrated that would no +doubt interest and intrigue Urantians, but this disclosure covers the limits of +our permissive mandate. + +Urantians should, however, take note that their sister sphere in the Satania +family has benefited by neither magisterial nor bestowal missions of the +Paradise Sons. Neither are the various peoples of Urantia set off from each +other by such disparity of culture as separates the continental nation from its +planetary fellows. + +The pouring out of the Spirit of Truth provides the spiritual foundation for +the realization of great achievements in the interests of the human race of the +bestowal world. Urantia is therefore far better prepared for the more immediate +realization of a planetary government with its laws, mechanisms, symbols, +conventions, and language--all of which could contribute so mightily to the +establishment of world-wide peace under law and could lead to the sometime +dawning of a real age of spiritual striving; and such an age is the planetary +threshold to the utopian ages of light and life. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 821 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Development Of ³ The Garden Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ E... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p073.txt b/religious documents/p073.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9473a50 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p073.txt @@ -0,0 +1,451 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 73 The Garden Of Eden + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 73 The Garden Of Eden + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE cultural decadence and spiritual poverty resulting from the Caligastia +downfall and consequent social confusion had little effect on the physical or +biologic status of the Urantia peoples. Organic evolution proceeded apace, +quite regardless of the cultural and moral setback which so swiftly followed +the disaffection of Caligastia and Daligastia. And there came a time in the +planetary history, almost forty thousand years ago, when the Life Carriers on +duty took note that, from a purely biologic standpoint, the developmental +progress of the Urantia races was nearing its apex. The Melchizedek receivers, +concurring in this opinion, readily agreed to join the Life Carriers in a +petition to the Most Highs of Edentia asking that Urantia be inspected with a +view to authorizing the dispatch of biologic uplifters, a Material Son and +Daughter. + +This request was addressed to the Most Highs of Edentia because they had +exercised direct jurisdiction over many of Urantia's affairs ever since +Caligastia's downfall and the temporary vacation of authority on Jerusem. + +Tabamantia, sovereign supervisor of the series of decimal or experimental +worlds, came to inspect the planet and, after his survey of racial progress, +duly recommended that Urantia be granted Material Sons. In a little less than +one hundred years from the time of this inspection, Adam and Eve, a Material +Son and Daughter of the local system, arrived and began the difficult task of +attempting to untangle the confused affairs of a planet retarded by rebellion +and resting under the ban of spiritual isolation. + +1. THE NODITES AND THE AMADONITES + +On a normal planet the arrival of the Material Son would ordinarily herald the +approach of a great age of invention, material progress, and intellectual +enlightenment. The post-Adamic era is the great scientific age of most worlds, +but not so on Urantia. Though the planet was peopled by races physically fit, +the tribes languished in the depths of savagery and moral stagnation. + +Ten thousand years after the rebellion practically all the gains of the +Prince's administration had been effaced; the races of the world were little +better off than if this misguided Son had never come to Urantia. Only among the +Nodites and the Amadonites was there persistence of the traditions of Dalamatia +and the culture of the Planetary Prince. + +The Nodites were the descendants of the rebel members of the Prince's staff, +their name deriving from their first leader, Nod, onetime chairman of the +Dalamatia commission on industry and trade. The Amadonites were the descendants +of those Andonites who chose to remain loyal with Van and Amadon. + + top of page - 822 + +"Amadonite" is more of a cultural and religious designation than a racial term; +racially considered the Amadonites were essentially Andonites. "Nodite" is both +a cultural and racial term, for the Nodites themselves constituted the eighth +race of Urantia. + +There existed a traditional enmity between the Nodites and the Amadonites. This +feud was constantly coming to the surface whenever the offspring of these two +groups would try to engage in some common enterprise. Even later, in the +affairs of Eden, it was exceedingly difficult for them to work together in +peace. + +Shortly after the destruction of Dalamatia the followers of Nod became divided +into three major groups. The central group remained in the immediate vicinity +of their original home near the headwaters of the Persian Gulf. The eastern +group migrated to the highland regions of Elam just east of the Euphrates +valley. The western group was situated on the northeastern Syrian shores of the +Mediterranean and in adjacent territory. + +These Nodites had freely mated with the Sangik races and had left behind an +able progeny. And some of the descendants of the rebellious Dalamatians +subsequently joined Van and his loyal followers in the lands north of +Mesopotamia. Here, in the vicinity of Lake Van and the southern Caspian Sea +region, the Nodites mingled and mixed with the Amadonites, and they were +numbered among the "mighty men of old." + +Prior to the arrival of Adam and Eve these groups--Nodites and Amadonites--were +the most advanced and cultured races on earth. + +2. PLANNING FOR THE GARDEN + +For almost one hundred years prior to Tabamantia's inspection, Van and his +associates, from their highland headquarters of world ethics and culture, had +been preaching the advent of a promised Son of God, a racial uplifter, a +teacher of truth, and the worthy successor of the traitorous Caligastia. Though +the majority of the world's inhabitants of those days exhibited little or no +interest in such a prediction, those who were in immediate contact with Van and +Amadon took such teaching seriously and began to plan for the actual reception +of the promised Son. + +Van told his nearest associates the story of the Material Sons on Jerusem; what +he had known of them before ever he came to Urantia. He well knew that these +Adamic Sons always lived in simple but charming garden homes and proposed, +eighty-three years before the arrival of Adam and Eve, that they devote +themselves to the proclamation of their advent and to the preparation of a +garden home for their reception. + +From their highland headquarters and from sixty-one far-scattered settlements, +Van and Amadon recruited a corps of over three thousand willing and +enthusiastic workers who, in solemn assembly, dedicated themselves to this +mission of preparing for the promised--at least expected--Son. + +Van divided his volunteers into one hundred companies with a captain over each +and an associate who served on his personal staff as a liaison officer, keeping +Amadon as his own associate. These commissions all began in earnest their +preliminary work, and the committee on location for the Garden sallied forth in +search of the ideal spot. + +Although Caligastia and Daligastia had been deprived of much of their power for +evil, they did everything possible to frustrate and hamper the work + + top of page - 823 + +of preparing the Garden. But their evil machinations were largely offset by the +faithful activities of the almost ten thousand loyal midway creatures who so +tirelessly labored to advance the enterprise. + +3. THE GARDEN SITE + +The committee on location was absent for almost three years. It reported +favorably concerning three possible locations: The first was an island in the +Persian Gulf; the second, the river location subsequently occupied as the +second garden; the third, a long narrow peninsula--almost an island--projecting +westward from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. + +The committee almost unanimously favored the third selection. This site was +chosen, and two years were occupied in transferring the world's cultural +headquarters, including the tree of life, to this Mediterranean peninsula. All +but a single group of the peninsula dwellers peaceably vacated when Van and his +company arrived. + +This Mediterranean peninsula had a salubrious climate and an equable +temperature; this stabilized weather was due to the encircling mountains and to +the fact that this area was virtually an island in an inland sea. While it +rained copiously on the surrounding highlands, it seldom rained in Eden proper. +But each night, from the extensive network of artificial irrigation channels, a +"mist would go up" to refresh the vegetation of the Garden. + +The coast line of this land mass was considerably elevated, and the neck +connecting with the mainland was only twenty-seven miles wide at the narrowest +point. The great river that watered the Garden came down from the higher lands +of the peninsula and flowed east through the peninsular neck to the mainland +and thence across the lowlands of Mesopotamia to the sea beyond. It was fed by +four tributaries which took origin in the coastal hills of the Edenic +peninsula, and these are the "four heads" of the river which "went out of +Eden," and which later became confused with the branches of the rivers +surrounding the second garden. + +The mountains surrounding the Garden abounded in precious stones and metals, +though these received very little attention. The dominant idea was to be the +glorification of horticulture and the exaltation of agriculture. + +The site chosen for the Garden was probably the most beautiful spot of its kind +in all the world, and the climate was then ideal. Nowhere else was there a +location which could have lent itself so perfectly to becoming such a paradise +of botanic expression. In this rendezvous the cream of the civilization of +Urantia was forgathering. Without and beyond, the world lay in darkness, +ignorance, and savagery. Eden was the one bright spot on Urantia; it was +naturally a dream of loveliness, and it soon became a poem of exquisite and +perfected landscape glory. + +4. ESTABLISHING THE GARDEN + +When Material Sons, the biologic uplifters, begin their sojourn on an +evolutionary world, their place of abode is often called the Garden of Eden +because it is characterized by the floral beauty and the botanic grandeur of +Edentia, the constellation capital. Van well knew of these customs and +accordingly provided that the entire peninsula be given over to the Garden. +Pasturage and animal husbandry were projected for the adjoining mainland. Of +animal life, only the + + top of page - 824 + +birds and the various domesticated species were to be found in the park. Van's +instructions were that Eden was to be a garden, and only a garden. No animals +were ever slaughtered within its precincts. All flesh eaten by the Garden +workers throughout all the years of construction was brought in from the herds +maintained under guard on the mainland. + +The first task was the building of the brick wall across the neck of the +peninsula. This once completed, the real work of landscape beautification and +home building could proceed unhindered. + +A zoological garden was created by building a smaller wall just outside the +main wall; the intervening space, occupied by all manner of wild beasts, served +as an additional defense against hostile attacks. This menagerie was organized +in twelve grand divisions, and walled paths led between these groups to the +twelve gates of the Garden, the river and its adjacent pastures occupying the +central area. + +In the preparation of the Garden only volunteer laborers were employed; no +hirelings were ever used. They cultivated the Garden and tended their herds for +support; contributions of food were also received from near-by believers. And +this great enterprise was carried through to completion in spite of the +difficulties attendant upon the confused status of the world during these +troublous times. + +But it was a cause for great disappointment when Van, not knowing how soon the +expected Son and Daughter might come, suggested that the younger generation +also be trained in the work of carrying on the enterprise in case their arrival +should be delayed. This seemed like an admission of lack of faith on Van's part +and made considerable trouble, caused many desertions; but Van went forward +with his plan of preparedness, meantime filling the places of the deserters +with younger volunteers. + +5. THE GARDEN HOME + +At the center of the Edenic peninsula was the exquisite stone temple of the +Universal Father, the sacred shrine of the Garden. To the north the +administrative headquarters was established; to the south were built the homes +for the workers and their families; to the west was provided the allotment of +ground for the proposed schools of the educational system of the expected Son, +while in the "east of Eden" were built the domiciles intended for the promised +Son and his immediate offspring. The architectural plans for Eden provided +homes and abundant land for one million human beings. + +At the time of Adam's arrival, though the Garden was only one-fourth finished, +it had thousands of miles of irrigation ditches and more than twelve thousand +miles of paved paths and roads. There were a trifle over five thousand brick +buildings in the various sectors, and the trees and plants were almost beyond +number. Seven was the largest number of houses composing any one cluster in the +park. And though the structures of the Garden were simple, they were most +artistic. The roads and paths were well built, and the landscaping was +exquisite. + +The sanitary arrangements of the Garden were far in advance of anything that +had been attempted theretofore on Urantia. The drinking water of Eden was kept +wholesome by the strict observance of the sanitary regulations designed to +conserve its purity. During these early times much trouble came about from + + top of page - 825 + +neglect of these rules, but Van gradually impressed upon his associates the +importance of allowing nothing to fall into the water supply of the Garden. + +Before the later establishment of a sewage-disposal system the Edenites +practiced the scrupulous burial of all waste or decomposing material. Amadon's +inspectors made their rounds each day in search for possible causes of +sickness. Urantians did not again awaken to the importance of the prevention of +human diseases until the later times of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. +Before the disruption of the Adamic regime a covered brick-conduit disposal +system had been constructed which ran beneath the walls and emptied into the +river of Eden almost a mile beyond the outer or lesser wall of the Garden. + +By the time of Adam's arrival most of the plants of that section of the world +were growing in Eden. Already had many of the fruits, cereals, and nuts been +greatly improved. Many modern vegetables and cereals were first cultivated +here, but scores of varieties of food plants were subsequently lost to the +world. + +About five per cent of the Garden was under high artificial cultivation, +fifteen per cent partially cultivated, the remainder being left in a more or +less natural state pending the arrival of Adam, it being thought best to finish +the park in accordance with his ideas. + +And so was the Garden of Eden made ready for the reception of the promised Adam +and his consort. And this Garden would have done honor to a world under +perfected administration and normal control. Adam and Eve were well pleased +with the general plan of Eden, though they made many changes in the furnishings +of their own personal dwelling. + +Although the work of embellishment was hardly finished at the time of Adam's +arrival, the place was already a gem of botanic beauty; and during the early +days of his sojourn in Eden the whole Garden took on new form and assumed new +proportions of beauty and grandeur. Never before this time nor after has +Urantia harbored such a beautiful and replete exhibition of horticulture and +agriculture. + +6. THE TREE OF LIFE + +In the center of the Garden temple Van planted the long-guarded tree of life, +whose leaves were for the "healing of the nations," and whose fruit had so long +sustained him on earth. Van well knew that Adam and Eve would also be dependent +on this gift of Edentia for their life maintenance after they once appeared on +Urantia in material form. + +The Material Sons on the system capitals do not require the tree of life for +sustenance. Only in the planetary repersonalization are they dependent on this +adjunct to physical immortality. + +The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" may be a figure of speech, a +symbolic designation covering a multitude of human experiences, but the "tree +of life" was not a myth; it was real and for a long time was present on +Urantia. When the Most Highs of Edentia approved the commission of Caligastia +as Planetary Prince of Urantia and those of the one hundred Jerusem citizens as +his administrative staff, they sent to the planet, by the Melchizedeks, a shrub +of Edentia, and this plant grew to be the tree of life on Urantia. This form of +nonintelligent life is native to the constellation headquarters spheres, being +also found on the headquarters worlds of the local and superuniverses as well +as on the Havona spheres, but not on the system capitals. + + top of page - 826 + +This superplant stored up certain space-energies which were antidotal to the +age-producing elements of animal existence. The fruit of the tree of life was +like a superchemical storage battery, mysteriously releasing the life-extension +force of the universe when eaten. This form of sustenance was wholly useless to +the ordinary evolutionary beings on Urantia, but specifically it was +serviceable to the one hundred materialized members of Caligastia's staff and +to the one hundred modified Andonites who had contributed of their life plasm +to the Prince's staff, and who, in return, were made possessors of that +complement of life which made it possible for them to utilize the fruit of the +tree of life for an indefinite extension of their otherwise mortal existence. + +During the days of the Prince's rule the tree was growing from the earth in the +central and circular courtyard of the Father's temple. Upon the outbreak of the +rebellion it was regrown from the central core by Van and his associates in +their temporary camp. This Edentia shrub was subsequently taken to their +highland retreat, where it served both Van and Amadon for more than one hundred +and fifty thousand years. + +When Van and his associates made ready the Garden for Adam and Eve, they +transplanted the Edentia tree to the Garden of Eden, where, once again, it grew +in a central, circular courtyard of another temple to the Father. And Adam and +Eve periodically partook of its fruit for the maintenance of their dual form of +physical life. + +When the plans of the Material Son went astray, Adam and his family were not +permitted to carry the core of the tree away from the Garden. When the Nodites +invaded Eden, they were told that they would become as "gods if they partook of +the fruit of the tree." Much to their surprise they found it unguarded. They +ate freely of the fruit for years, but it did nothing for them; they were all +material mortals of the realm; they lacked that endowment which acted as a +complement to the fruit of the tree. They became enraged at their inability to +benefit from the tree of life, and in connection with one of their internal +wars, the temple and the tree were both destroyed by fire; only the stone wall +stood until the Garden was subsequently submerged. This was the second temple +of the Father to perish. + +And now must all flesh on Urantia take the natural course of life and death. +Adam, Eve, their children, and their children's children, together with their +associates, all perished in the course of time, thus becoming subject to the +ascension scheme of the local universe wherein mansion world resurrection +follows material death. + +7. THE FATE OF EDEN + +After the first garden was vacated by Adam, it was occupied variously by the +Nodites, Cutites, and the Suntites. It later became the dwelling place of the +northern Nodites who opposed co-operation with the Adamites. The peninsula had +been overrun by these lower-grade Nodites for almost four thousand years after +Adam left the Garden when, in connection with the violent activity of the +surrounding volcanoes and the submergence of the Sicilian land bridge to +Africa, the eastern floor of the Mediterranean Sea sank, carrying down beneath +the waters the whole of the Edenic peninsula. Concomitant with this vast +submergence the coast line of the eastern Mediterranean was greatly elevated. +And this + + top of page - 827 + +was the end of the most beautiful natural creation that Urantia has ever +harbored. The sinking was not sudden, several hundred years being required +completely to submerge the entire peninsula. + +We cannot regard this disappearance of the Garden as being in any way a result +of the miscarriage of the divine plans or as a result of the mistakes of Adam +and Eve. We do not regard the submergence of Eden as anything but a natural +occurrence, but it does seem to us that the sinking of the Garden was timed to +occur at just about the date of the accumulation of the reserves of the violet +race for undertaking the work of rehabilitating the world peoples. + +The Melchizedeks counseled Adam not to initiate the program of racial uplift +and blending until his own family had numbered one-half million. It was never +intended that the Garden should be the permanent home of the Adamites. They +were to become emissaries of a new life to all the world; they were to mobilize +for unselfish bestowal upon the needy races of earth. + +The instructions given Adam by the Melchizedeks implied that he was to +establish racial, continental, and divisional headquarters to be in charge of +his immediate sons and daughters, while he and Eve were to divide their time +among these various world capitals as advisers and co-ordinators of the +world-wide ministry of biologic uplift, intellectual advancement, and moral +rehabilitation. + +[Presented by Solonia, the seraphic "voice in the Garden."] + + top of page - 828 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Government On A... ³ Adam And Eve ³ Urantia Book PA... ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p074.txt b/religious documents/p074.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2a5369 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p074.txt @@ -0,0 +1,710 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 74 Adam And Eve + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 74 Adam And Eve + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ADAM AND EVE arrived on Urantia, from the year A.D. 1934, 37,848 years ago. It +was in midseason when the Garden was in the height of bloom that they arrived. +At high noon and unannounced, the two seraphic transports, accompanied by the +Jerusem personnel intrusted with the transportation of the biologic uplifters +to Urantia, settled slowly to the surface of the revolving planet in the +vicinity of the temple of the Universal Father. All the work of rematerializing +the bodies of Adam and Eve was carried on within the precincts of this newly +created shrine. And from the time of their arrival ten days passed before they +were re-created in dual human form for presentation as the world's new rulers. +They regained consciousness simultaneously. The Material Sons and Daughters +always serve together. It is the essence of their service at all times and in +all places never to be separated. They are designed to work in pairs; seldom do +they function alone. + +1. ADAM AND EVE ON JERUSEM + +The Planetary Adam and Eve of Urantia were members of the senior corps of +Material Sons on Jerusem, being jointly number 14,311. They belonged to the +third physical series and were a little more than eight feet in height. + +At the time Adam was chosen to come to Urantia, he was employed, with his mate, +in the trial-and-testing physical laboratories of Jerusem. For more than +fifteen thousand years they had been directors of the division of experimental +energy as applied to the modification of living forms. Long before this they +had been teachers in the citizenship schools for new arrivals on Jerusem. And +all this should be borne in mind in connection with the narration of their +subsequent conduct on Urantia. + +When the proclamation was issued calling for volunteers for the mission of +Adamic adventure on Urantia, the entire senior corps of Material Sons and +Daughters volunteered. The Melchizedek examiners, with the approval of +Lanaforge and the Most Highs of Edentia, finally selected the Adam and Eve who +subsequently came to function as the biologic uplifters of Urantia. + +Adam and Eve had remained loyal to Michael during the Lucifer rebellion; +nevertheless, the pair were called before the System Sovereign and his entire +cabinet for examination and instruction. The details of Urantia affairs were +fully presented; they were exhaustively instructed as to the plans to be +pursued in accepting the responsibilities of rulership on such a strife-torn +world. They were put under joint oaths of allegiance to the Most Highs of +Edentia and to Michael of Salvington. And they were duly advised to regard +themselves as sub- + + top of page - 829 + +ject to the Urantia corps of Melchizedek receivers until that governing body +should see fit to relinquish rule on the world of their assignment. + +This Jerusem pair left behind them on the capital of Satania and elsewhere, one +hundred offspring--fifty sons and fifty daughters--magnificent creatures who +had escaped the pitfalls of progression, and who were all in commission as +faithful stewards of universe trust at the time of their parents' departure for +Urantia. And they were all present in the beautiful temple of the Material Sons +attendant upon the farewell exercises associated with the last ceremonies of +the bestowal acceptance. These children accompanied their parents to the +dematerialization headquarters of their order and were the last to bid them +farewell and divine speed as they fell asleep in the personality lapse of +consciousness which precedes the preparation for seraphic transport. The +children spent some time together at the family rendezvous rejoicing that their +parents were soon to become the visible heads, in reality the sole rulers, of +planet 606 in the system of Satania. + +And thus did Adam and Eve leave Jerusem amidst the acclaim and well-wishing of +its citizens. They went forth to their new responsibilities adequately equipped +and fully instructed concerning every duty and danger to be encountered on +Urantia. + +2. ARRIVAL OF ADAM AND EVE + +Adam and Eve fell asleep on Jerusem, and when they awakened in the Father's +temple on Urantia in the presence of the mighty throng assembled to welcome +them, they were face to face with two beings of whom they had heard much, Van +and his faithful associate Amadon. These two heroes of the Caligastia secession +were the first to welcome them in their new garden home. + +The tongue of Eden was an Andonic dialect as spoken by Amadon. Van and Amadon +had markedly improved this language by creating a new alphabet of twenty-four +letters, and they had hoped to see it become the tongue of Urantia as the +Edenic culture would spread throughout the world. Adam and Eve had fully +mastered this human dialect before they departed from Jerusem so that this son +of Andon heard the exalted ruler of his world address him in his own tongue. + +And on that day there was great excitement and joy throughout Eden as the +runners went in great haste to the rendezvous of the carrier pigeons assembled +from near and far, shouting: "Let loose the birds; let them carry the word that +the promised Son has come." Hundreds of believer settlements had faithfully, +year after year, kept up the supply of these home-reared pigeons for just such +an occasion. + +As the news of Adam's arrival spread abroad, thousands of the near-by tribesmen +accepted the teachings of Van and Amadon, while for months and months pilgrims +continued to pour into Eden to welcome Adam and Eve and to do homage to their +unseen Father. + +Soon after their awakening, Adam and Eve were escorted to the formal reception +on the great mound to the north of the temple. This natural hill had been +enlarged and made ready for the installation of the world's new rulers. Here, +at noon, the Urantia reception committee welcomed this Son and Daughter of the +system of Satania. Amadon was chairman of this committee, which con- + + top of page - 830 + +sisted of twelve members embracing a representative of each of the six Sangik +races; the acting chief of the midwayers; Annan, a loyal daughter and spokesman +for the Nodites; Noah, the son of the architect and builder of the Garden and +executive of his deceased father's plans; and the two resident Life Carriers. + +The next act was the delivery of the charge of planetary custody to Adam and +Eve by the senior Melchizedek, chief of the council of receivership on Urantia. +The Material Son and Daughter took the oath of allegiance to the Most Highs of +Norlatiadek and to Michael of Nebadon and were proclaimed rulers of Urantia by +Van, who thereby relinquished the titular authority which for over one hundred +and fifty thousand years he had held by virtue of the action of the Melchizedek +receivers. + +And Adam and Eve were invested with kingly robes on this occasion, the time of +their formal induction into world rulership. Not all of the arts of Dalamatia +had been lost to the world; weaving was still practiced in the days of Eden. + +Then was heard the archangels' proclamation, and the broadcast voice of Gabriel +decreed the second judgment roll call of Urantia and the resurrection of the +sleeping survivors of the second dispensation of grace and mercy on 606 of +Satania. The dispensation of the Prince has passed, the age of Adam, the third +planetary epoch, opens amidst scenes of simple grandeur; and the new rulers of +Urantia start their reign under seemingly favorable conditions, notwithstanding +the world-wide confusion occasioned by lack of the co-operation of their +predecessor in authority on the planet. + +3. ADAM AND EVE LEARN ABOUT THE PLANET + +And now, after their formal installation, Adam and Eve became painfully aware +of their planetary isolation. Silent were the familiar broadcasts, and absent +were all the circuits of extraplanetary communication. Their Jerusem fellows +had gone to worlds running along smoothly with a well-established Planetary +Prince and an experienced staff ready to receive them and competent to +co-operate with them during their early experience on such worlds. But on +Urantia rebellion had changed everything. Here the Planetary Prince was very +much present, and though shorn of most of his power to work evil, he was still +able to make the task of Adam and Eve difficult and to some extent hazardous. +It was a serious and disillusioned Son and Daughter of Jerusem who walked that +night through the Garden under the shining of the full moon, discussing plans +for the next day. + +Thus ended the first day of Adam and Eve on isolated Urantia, the confused +planet of the Caligastia betrayal; and they walked and talked far into the +night, their first night on earth--and it was so lonely. + +Adam's second day on earth was spent in session with the planetary receivers +and the advisory council. From the Melchizedeks, and their associates, Adam and +Eve learned more about the details of the Caligastia rebellion and the result +of that upheaval upon the world's progress. And it was, on the whole, a +disheartening story, this long recital of the mismanagement of world affairs. +They learned all the facts regarding the utter collapse of the Caligastia +scheme for accelerating the process of social evolution. They also arrived at a +full realization of the folly of attempting to achieve planetary advancement +independently + + top of page - 831 + +of the divine plan of progression. And thus ended a sad but enlightening +day--their second on Urantia. + +The third day was devoted to an inspection of the Garden. From the large +passenger birds--the fandors--Adam and Eve looked down upon the vast stretches +of the Garden while being carried through the air over this, the most beautiful +spot on earth. This day of inspection ended with an enormous banquet in honor +of all who had labored to create this garden of Edenic beauty and grandeur. And +again, late into the night of their third day, the Son and his mate walked in +the Garden and talked about the immensity of their problems. + +On the fourth day Adam and Eve addressed the Garden assembly. From the +inaugural mount they spoke to the people concerning their plans for the +rehabilitation of the world and outlined the methods whereby they would seek to +redeem the social culture of Urantia from the low levels to which it had fallen +as a result of sin and rebellion. This was a great day, and it closed with a +feast for the council of men and women who had been selected to assume +responsibilities in the new administration of world affairs. Take note! women +as well as men were in this group, and that was the first time such a thing had +occurred on earth since the days of Dalamatia. It was an astounding innovation +to behold Eve, a woman, sharing the honors and responsibilities of world +affairs with a man. And thus ended the fourth day on earth. + +The fifth day was occupied with the organization of the temporary government, +the administration which was to function until the Melchizedek receivers should +leave Urantia. + +The sixth day was devoted to an inspection of the numerous types of men and +animals. Along the walls eastward in Eden, Adam and Eve were escorted all day, +viewing the animal life of the planet and arriving at a better understanding as +to what must be done to bring order out of the confusion of a world inhabited +by such a variety of living creatures. + +It greatly surprised those who accompanied Adam on this trip to observe how +fully he understood the nature and function of the thousands upon thousands of +animals shown him. The instant he glanced at an animal, he would indicate its +nature and behavior. Adam could give names descriptive of the origin, nature, +and function of all material creatures on sight. Those who conducted him on +this tour of inspection did not know that the world's new ruler was one of the +most expert anatomists of all Satania; and Eve was equally proficient. Adam +amazed his associates by describing hosts of living things too small to be seen +by human eyes. + +When the sixth day of their sojourn on earth was over, Adam and Eve rested for +the first time in their new home in "the east of Eden." The first six days of +the Urantia adventure had been very busy, and they looked forward with great +pleasure to an entire day of freedom from all activities. + +But circumstances dictated otherwise. The experience of the day just past in +which Adam had so intelligently and so exhaustively discussed the animal life +of Urantia, together with his masterly inaugural address and his charming +manner, had so won the hearts and overcome the intellects of the Garden +dwellers that they were not only wholeheartedly disposed to accept the newly +arrived Son and Daughter of Jerusem as rulers, but the majority were about +ready to fall down and worship them as gods. + + top of page - 832 + +4. THE FIRST UPHEAVAL + +That night, the night following the sixth day, while Adam and Eve slumbered, +strange things were transpiring in the vicinity of the Father's temple in the +central sector of Eden. There, under the rays of the mellow moon, hundreds of +enthusiastic and excited men and women listened for hours to the impassioned +pleas of their leaders. They meant well, but they simply could not understand +the simplicity of the fraternal and democratic manner of their new rulers. And +long before daybreak the new and temporary administrators of world affairs +reached a virtually unanimous conclusion that Adam and his mate were altogether +too modest and unassuming. They decided that Divinity had descended to earth in +bodily form, that Adam and Eve were in reality gods or else so near such an +estate as to be worthy of reverent worship. + +The amazing events of the first six days of Adam and Eve on earth were entirely +too much for the unprepared minds of even the world's best men; their heads +were in a whirl; they were swept along with the proposal to bring the noble +pair up to the Father's temple at high noon in order that everyone might bow +down in respectful worship and prostrate themselves in humble submission. And +the Garden dwellers were really sincere in all of this. + +Van protested. Amadon was absent, being in charge of the guard of honor which +had remained behind with Adam and Eve overnight. But Van's protest was swept +aside. He was told that he was likewise too modest, too unassuming; that he was +not far from a god himself, else how had he lived so long on earth, and how had +he brought about such a great event as the advent of Adam? And as the excited +Edenites were about to seize him and carry him up to the mount for adoration, +Van made his way out through the throng and, being able to communicate with the +midwayers, sent their leader in great haste to Adam. + +It was near the dawn of their seventh day on earth that Adam and Eve heard the +startling news of the proposal of these well-meaning but misguided mortals; and +then, even while the passenger birds were swiftly winging to bring them to the +temple, the midwayers, being able to do such things, transported Adam and Eve +to the Father's temple. It was early on the morning of this seventh day and +from the mount of their so recent reception that Adam held forth in explanation +of the orders of divine sonship and made clear to these earth minds that only +the Father and those whom he designates may be worshiped. Adam made it plain +that he would accept any honor and receive all respect, but worship never! + +It was a momentous day, and just before noon, about the time of the arrival of +the seraphic messenger bearing the Jerusem acknowledgment of the installation +of the world's rulers, Adam and Eve, moving apart from the throng, pointed to +the Father's temple and said: "Go you now to the material emblem of the +Father's invisible presence and bow down in worship of him who made us all and +who keeps us living. And let this act be the sincere pledge that you never will +again be tempted to worship anyone but God." They all did as Adam directed. The +Material Son and Daughter stood alone on the mount with bowed heads while the +people prostrated themselves about the temple. + +And this was the origin of the Sabbath-day tradition. Always in Eden the +seventh day was devoted to the noontide assembly at the temple; long it was the +custom to devote this day to self-culture. The forenoon was devoted to physical +improvement, the noontime to spiritual worship, the afternoon to mind culture, + + top of page - 833 + +while the evening was spent in social rejoicing. This was never the law in +Eden, but it was the custom as long as the Adamic administration held sway on +earth. + +5. ADAM'S ADMINISTRATION + +For almost seven years after Adam's arrival the Melchizedek receivers remained +on duty, but the time finally came when they turned the administration of world +affairs over to Adam and returned to Jerusem. + +The farewell of the receivers occupied the whole of a day, and during the +evening the individual Melchizedeks gave Adam and Eve their parting advice and +best wishes. Adam had several times requested his advisers to remain on earth +with him, but always were these petitions denied. The time had come when the +Material Sons must assume full responsibility for the conduct of world affairs. +And so, at midnight, the seraphic transports of Satania left the planet with +fourteen beings for Jerusem, the translation of Van and Amadon occurring +simultaneously with the departure of the twelve Melchizedeks. + +All went fairly well for a time on Urantia, and it appeared that Adam would, +eventually, be able to develop some plan for promoting the gradual extension of +the Edenic civilization. Pursuant to the advice of the Melchizedeks, he began +to foster the arts of manufacture with the idea of developing trade relations +with the outside world. When Eden was disrupted, there were over one hundred +primitive manufacturing plants in operation, and extensive trade relations with +the near-by tribes had been established. + +For ages Adam and Eve had been instructed in the technique of improving a world +in readiness for their specialized contributions to the advancement of +evolutionary civilization; but now they were face to face with pressing +problems, such as the establishment of law and order in a world of savages, +barbarians, and semicivilized human beings. Aside from the cream of the earth's +population, assembled in the Garden, only a few groups, here and there, were at +all ready for the reception of the Adamic culture. + +Adam made a heroic and determined effort to establish a world government, but +he met with stubborn resistance at every turn. Adam had already put in +operation a system of group control throughout Eden and had federated all of +these companies into the Edenic league. But trouble, serious trouble, ensued +when he went outside the Garden and sought to apply these ideas to the outlying +tribes. The moment Adam's associates began to work outside the Garden, they met +the direct and well-planned resistance of Caligastia and Daligastia. The fallen +Prince had been deposed as world ruler, but he had not been removed from the +planet. He was still present on earth and able, at least to some extent, to +resist all of Adam's plans for the rehabilitation of human society. Adam tried +to warn the races against Caligastia, but the task was made very difficult +because his archenemy was invisible to the eyes of mortals. + +Even among the Edenites there were those confused minds that leaned toward the +Caligastia teaching of unbridled personal liberty; and they caused Adam no end +of trouble; always were they upsetting the best-laid plans for orderly +progression and substantial development. He was finally compelled to withdraw +his program for immediate socialization; he fell back on Van's method of +organization, dividing the Edenites into companies of one hundred with captains +over each and with lieutenants in charge of groups of ten. + + top of page - 834 + +Adam and Eve had come to institute representative government in the place of +monarchial, but they found no government worthy of the name on the face of the +whole earth. For the time being Adam abandoned all effort to establish +representative government, and before the collapse of the Edenic regime he +succeeded in establishing almost one hundred outlying trade and social centers +where strong individuals ruled in his name. Most of these centers had been +organized aforetime by Van and Amadon. + +The sending of ambassadors from one tribe to another dates from the times of +Adam. This was a great forward step in the evolution of government. + +6. HOME LIFE OF ADAM AND EVE + +The Adamic family grounds embraced a little over five square miles. Immediately +surrounding this homesite, provision had been made for the care of more than +three hundred thousand of the pure-line offspring. But only the first unit of +the projected buildings was ever constructed. Before the size of the Adamic +family outgrew these early provisions, the whole Edenic plan had been disrupted +and the Garden vacated. + +Adamson was the first-born of the violet race of Urantia, being followed by his +sister and Eveson, the second son of Adam and Eve. Eve was the mother of five +children before the Melchizedeks left--three sons and two daughters. The next +two were twins. She bore sixty-three children, thirty-two daughters and +thirty-one sons, before the default. When Adam and Eve left the Garden, their +family consisted of four generations numbering 1,647 pure-line descendants. +They had forty-two children after leaving the Garden besides the two offspring +of joint parentage with the mortal stock of earth. And this does not include +the Adamic parentage to the Nodite and evolutionary races. + +The Adamic children did not take milk from animals when they ceased to nurse +the mother's breast at one year of age. Eve had access to the milk of a great +variety of nuts and to the juices of many fruits, and knowing full well the +chemistry and energy of these foods, she suitably combined them for the +nourishment of her children until the appearance of teeth. + +While cooking was universally employed outside of the immediate Adamic sector +of Eden, there was no cooking in Adam's household. They found their +foods--fruits, nuts, and cereals--ready prepared as they ripened. They ate once +a day, shortly after noontime. Adam and Eve also imbibed "light and energy" +direct from certain space emanations in conjunction with the ministry of the +tree of life. + +The bodies of Adam and Eve gave forth a shimmer of light, but they always wore +clothing in conformity with the custom of their associates. Though wearing very +little during the day, at eventide they donned night wraps. The origin of the +traditional halo encircling the heads of supposed pious and holy men dates back +to the days of Adam and Eve. Since the light emanations of their bodies were so +largely obscured by clothing, only the radiating glow from their heads was +discernible. The descendants of Adamson always thus portrayed their concept of +individuals believed to be extraordinary in spiritual development. + +Adam and Eve could communicate with each other and with their immediate +children over a distance of about fifty miles. This thought exchange was +effected by means of the delicate gas chambers located in close proximity to +their brain + + top of page - 835 + +structures. By this mechanism they could send and receive thought oscillations. +But this power was instantly suspended upon the mind's surrender to the discord +and disruption of evil. + +The Adamic children attended their own schools until they were sixteen, the +younger being taught by the elder. The little folks changed activities every +thirty minutes, the older every hour. And it was certainly a new sight on +Urantia to observe these children of Adam and Eve at play, joyous and +exhilarating activity just for the sheer fun of it. The play and humor of the +present-day races are largely derived from the Adamic stock. The Adamites all +had a great appreciation of music as well as a keen sense of humor. + +The average age of betrothal was eighteen, and these youths then entered upon a +two years' course of instruction in preparation for the assumption of marital +responsibilities. At twenty they were eligible for marriage; and after marriage +they began their lifework or entered upon special preparation therefor. + +The practice of some subsequent nations of permitting the royal families, +supposedly descended from the gods, to marry brother to sister, dates from the +traditions of the Adamic offspring--mating, as they must needs, with one +another. The marriage ceremonies of the first and second generations of the +Garden were always performed by Adam and Eve. + +7. LIFE IN THE GARDEN + +The children of Adam, except for four years' attendance at the western schools, +lived and worked in the "east of Eden." They were trained intellectually until +they were sixteen in accordance with the methods of the Jerusem schools. From +sixteen to twenty they were taught in the Urantia schools at the other end of +the Garden, serving there also as teachers in the lower grades. + +The entire purpose of the western school system of the Garden was +socialization. The forenoon periods of recess were devoted to practical +horticulture and agriculture, the afternoon periods to competitive play. The +evenings were employed in social intercourse and the cultivation of personal +friendships. Religious and sexual training were regarded as the province of the +home, the duty of parents. + +The teaching in these schools included instruction regarding: + +1. Health and the care of the body. + +2. The golden rule, the standard of social intercourse. + +3. The relation of individual rights to group rights and community obligations. + +4. History and culture of the various earth races. + +5. Methods of advancing and improving world trade. + +6. Co-ordination of conflicting duties and emotions. + +7. The cultivation of play, humor, and competitive substitutes for physical +fighting. + +The schools, in fact every activity of the Garden, were always open to +visitors. Unarmed observers were freely admitted to Eden for short visits. To +sojourn in the Garden a Urantian had to be "adopted." He received instructions +in the plan and purpose of the Adamic bestowal, signified his intention to +adhere + + top of page - 836 + +to this mission, and then made declaration of loyalty to the social rule of +Adam and the spiritual sovereignty of the Universal Father. + +The laws of the Garden were based on the older codes of Dalamatia and were +promulgated under seven heads: + +1. The laws of health and sanitation. + +2. The social regulations of the Garden. + +3. The code of trade and commerce. + +4. The laws of fair play and competition. + +5. The laws of home life. + +6. The civil codes of the golden rule. + +7. The seven commands of supreme moral rule. + +The moral law of Eden was little different from the seven commandments of +Dalamatia. But the Adamites taught many additional reasons for these commands; +for instance, regarding the injunction against murder, the indwelling of the +Thought Adjuster was presented as an additional reason for not destroying human +life. They taught that "whoso sheds man's blood by man shall his blood be shed, +for in the image of God made he man." + +The public worship hour of Eden was noon; sunset was the hour of family +worship. Adam did his best to discourage the use of set prayers, teaching that +effective prayer must be wholly individual, that it must be the "desire of the +soul"; but the Edenites continued to use the prayers and forms handed down from +the times of Dalamatia. Adam also endeavored to substitute the offerings of the +fruit of the land for the blood sacrifices in the religious ceremonies but had +made little progress before the disruption of the Garden. + +Adam endeavored to teach the races sex equality. The way Eve worked by the side +of her husband made a profound impression upon all dwellers in the Garden. Adam +definitely taught them that the woman, equally with the man, contributes those +life factors which unite to form a new being. Theretofore, mankind had presumed +that all procreation resided in the "loins of the father." They had looked upon +the mother as being merely a provision for nurturing the unborn and nursing the +newborn. + +Adam taught his contemporaries all they could comprehend, but that was not very +much, comparatively speaking. Nevertheless, the more intelligent of the races +of earth looked forward eagerly to the time when they would be permitted to +intermarry with the superior children of the violet race. And what a different +world Urantia would have become if this great plan of uplifting the races had +been carried out! Even as it was, tremendous gains resulted from the small +amount of the blood of this imported race which the evolutionary peoples +incidentally secured. + +And thus did Adam work for the welfare and uplift of the world of his sojourn. +But it was a difficult task to lead these mixed and mongrel peoples in the +better way. + +8. THE LEGEND OF CREATION + +The story of the creation of Urantia in six days was based on the tradition +that Adam and Eve had spent just six days in their initial survey of the +Garden. This circumstance lent almost sacred sanction to the time period of the +week, + + top of page - 837 + +which had been originally introduced by the Dalamatians. Adam's spending six +days inspecting the Garden and formulating preliminary plans for organization +was not prearranged; it was worked out from day to day. The choosing of the +seventh day for worship was wholly incidental to the facts herewith narrated. + +The legend of the making of the world in six days was an afterthought, in fact, +more than thirty thousand years afterwards. One feature of the narrative, the +sudden appearance of the sun and moon, may have taken origin in the traditions +of the onetime sudden emergence of the world from a dense space cloud of minute +matter which had long obscured both sun and moon. + +The story of creating Eve out of Adam's rib is a confused condensation of the +Adamic arrival and the celestial surgery connected with the interchange of +living substances associated with the coming of the corporeal staff of the +Planetary Prince more than four hundred and fifty thousand years previously. + +The majority of the world's peoples have been influenced by the tradition that +Adam and Eve had physical forms created for them upon their arrival on Urantia. +The belief in man's having been created from clay was well-nigh universal in +the Eastern Hemisphere; this tradition can be traced from the Philippine +Islands around the world to Africa. And many groups accepted this story of +man's clay origin by some form of special creation in the place of the earlier +beliefs in progressive creation--evolution. + +Away from the influences of Dalamatia and Eden, mankind tended toward the +belief in the gradual ascent of the human race. The fact of evolution is not a +modern discovery; the ancients understood the slow and evolutionary character +of human progress. The early Greeks had clear ideas of this despite their +proximity to Mesopotamia. Although the various races of earth became sadly +mixed up in their notions of evolution, nevertheless, many of the primitive +tribes believed and taught that they were the descendants of various animals. +Primitive peoples made a practice of selecting for their "totems" the animals +of their supposed ancestry. Certain North American Indian tribes believed they +originated from beavers and coyotes. Certain African tribes teach that they are +descended from the hyena, a Malay tribe from the lemur, a New Guinea group from +the parrot. + +The Babylonians, because of immediate contact with the remnants of the +civilization of the Adamites, enlarged and embellished the story of man's +creation; they taught that he had descended directly from the gods. They held +to an aristocratic origin for the race which was incompatible with even the +doctrine of creation out of clay. + +The Old Testament account of creation dates from long after the time of Moses; +he never taught the Hebrews such a distorted story. But he did present a simple +and condensed narrative of creation to the Israelites, hoping thereby to +augment his appeal to worship the Creator, the Universal Father, whom he called +the Lord God of Israel. + +In his early teachings, Moses very wisely did not attempt to go back of Adam's +time, and since Moses was the supreme teacher of the Hebrews, the stories of +Adam became intimately associated with those of creation. That the earlier +traditions recognized pre-Adamic civilization is clearly shown by the fact that +later editors, intending to eradicate all reference to human affairs before +Adam's time, neglected to remove the telltale reference to Cain's emigration to +the "land of Nod," where he took himself a wife. + + top of page - 838 + +The Hebrews had no written language in general usage for a long time after they +reached Palestine. They learned the use of an alphabet from the neighboring +Philistines, who were political refugees from the higher civilization of Crete. +The Hebrews did little writing until about 900 B.C., and having no written +language until such a late date, they had several different stories of creation +in circulation, but after the Babylonian captivity they inclined more toward +accepting a modified Mesopotamian version. + +Jewish tradition became crystallized about Moses, and because he endeavored to +trace the lineage of Abraham back to Adam, the Jews assumed that Adam was the +first of all mankind. Yahweh was the creator, and since Adam was supposed to be +the first man, he must have made the world just prior to making Adam. And then +the tradition of Adam's six days got woven into the story, with the result that +almost a thousand years after Moses' sojourn on earth the tradition of creation +in six days was written out and subsequently credited to him. + +When the Jewish priests returned to Jerusalem, they had already completed the +writing of their narrative of the beginning of things. Soon they made claims +that this recital was a recently discovered story of creation written by Moses. +But the contemporary Hebrews of around 500 B.C. did not consider these writings +to be divine revelations; they looked upon them much as later peoples regard +mythological narratives. + +This spurious document, reputed to be the teachings of Moses, was brought to +the attention of Ptolemy, the Greek king of Egypt, who had it translated into +Greek by a commission of seventy scholars for his new library at Alexandria. +And so this account found its place among those writings which subsequently +became a part of the later collections of the "sacred scriptures" of the Hebrew +and Christian religions. And through identification with these theological +systems, such concepts for a long time profoundly influenced the philosophy of +many Occidental peoples. + +The Christian teachers perpetuated the belief in the fiat creation of the human +race, and all this led directly to the formation of the hypothesis of a +one-time golden age of utopian bliss and the theory of the fall of man or +superman which accounted for the nonutopian condition of society. These +outlooks on life and man's place in the universe were at best discouraging +since they were predicated upon a belief in retrogression rather than +progression, as well as implying a vengeful Deity, who had vented wrath upon +the human race in retribution for the errors of certain onetime planetary +administrators. + +The "golden age" is a myth, but Eden was a fact, and the Garden civilization +was actually overthrown. Adam and Eve carried on in the Garden for one hundred +and seventeen years when, through the impatience of Eve and the errors of +judgment of Adam, they presumed to turn aside from the ordained way, speedily +bringing disaster upon themselves and ruinous retardation upon the +developmental progression of all Urantia. + +[Narrated by Solonia, the seraphic "voice in the Garden."] + + top of page - 839 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Garden Of ³ The Default Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ E... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p075.txt b/religious documents/p075.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a18c9f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p075.txt @@ -0,0 +1,531 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 75 The Default Of Adam And Eve + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 75 The Default Of Adam And Eve + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AFTER more than one hundred years of effort on Urantia, Adam was able to see +very little progress outside the Garden; the world at large did not seem to be +improving much. The realization of race betterment appeared to be a long way +off, and the situation seemed so desperate as to demand something for relief +not embraced in the original plans. At least that is what often passed through +Adam's mind, and he so expressed himself many times to Eve. Adam and his mate +were loyal, but they were isolated from their kind, and they were sorely +distressed by the sorry plight of their world. + +1. THE URANTIA PROBLEM + +The Adamic mission on experimental, rebellion-seared, and isolated Urantia was +a formidable undertaking. And the Material Son and Daughter early became aware +of the difficulty and complexity of their planetary assignment. Nevertheless, +they courageously set about the task of solving their manifold problems. But +when they addressed themselves to the all-important work of eliminating the +defectives and degenerates from among the human strains, they were quite +dismayed. They could see no way out of the dilemma, and they could not take +counsel with their superiors on either Jerusem or Edentia. Here they were, +isolated and day by day confronted with some new and complicated tangle, some +problem that seemed to be unsolvable. + +Under normal conditions the first work of a Planetary Adam and Eve would be the +co-ordination and blending of the races. But on Urantia such a project seemed +just about hopeless, for the races, while biologically fit, had never been +purged of their retarded and defective strains. + +Adam and Eve found themselves on a sphere wholly unprepared for the +proclamation of the brotherhood of man, a world groping about in abject +spiritual darkness and cursed with confusion worse confounded by the +miscarriage of the mission of the preceding administration. Mind and morals +were at a low level, and instead of beginning the task of effecting religious +unity, they must begin all anew the work of converting the inhabitants to the +most simple forms of religious belief. Instead of finding one language ready +for adoption, they were confronted by the world-wide confusion of hundreds upon +hundreds of local dialects. No Adam of the planetary service was ever set down +on a more difficult world; the obstacles seemed insuperable and the problems +beyond creature solution. + +They were isolated, and the tremendous sense of loneliness which bore down upon +them was all the more heightened by the early departure of the Melchizedek +receivers. Only indirectly, by means of the angelic orders, could they communi- + + top of page - 840 + +cate with any being off the planet. Slowly their courage weakened, their +spirits drooped, and sometimes their faith almost faltered. + +And this is the true picture of the consternation of these two noble souls as +they pondered the tasks which confronted them. They were both keenly aware of +the enormous undertaking involved in the execution of their planetary +assignment. + +Probably no Material Sons of Nebadon were ever faced with such a difficult and +seemingly hopeless task as confronted Adam and Eve in the sorry plight of +Urantia. But they would have sometime met with success had they been more +farseeing and patient. Both of them, especially Eve, were altogether too +impatient; they were not willing to settle down to the long, long endurance +test. They wanted to see some immediate results, and they did, but the results +thus secured proved most disastrous both to themselves and to their world. + +2. CALIGASTIA'S PLOT + +Caligastia paid frequent visits to the Garden and held many conferences with +Adam and Eve, but they were adamant to all his suggestions of compromise and +short-cut adventures. They had before them enough of the results of rebellion +to produce effective immunity against all such insinuating proposals. Even the +young offspring of Adam were uninfluenced by the overtures of Daligastia. And +of course neither Caligastia nor his associate had power to influence any +individual against his will, much less to persuade the children of Adam to do +wrong. + +It must be remembered that Caligastia was still the titular Planetary Prince of +Urantia, a misguided but nevertheless high Son of the local universe. He was +not finally deposed until the times of Christ Michael on Urantia. + +But the fallen Prince was persistent and determined. He soon gave up working on +Adam and decided to try a wily flank attack on Eve. The evil one concluded that +the only hope for success lay in the adroit employment of suitable persons +belonging to the upper strata of the Nodite group, the descendants of his +onetime corporeal-staff associates. And the plans were accordingly laid for +entrapping the mother of the violet race. + +It was farthest from Eve's intention ever to do anything which would militate +against Adam's plans or jeopardize their planetary trust. Knowing the tendency +of woman to look upon immediate results rather than to plan farsightedly for +more remote effects, the Melchizedeks, before departing, had especially +enjoined Eve as to the peculiar dangers besetting their isolated position on +the planet and had in particular warned her never to stray from the side of her +mate, that is, to attempt no personal or secret methods of furthering their +mutual undertakings. Eve had most scrupulously carried out these instructions +for more than one hundred years, and it did not occur to her that any danger +would attach to the increasingly private and confidential visits she was +enjoying with a certain Nodite leader named Serapatatia. The whole affair +developed so gradually and naturally that she was taken unawares. + +The Garden dwellers had been in contact with the Nodites since the early days +of Eden. From these mixed descendants of the defaulting members of Caligastia's +staff they had received much valuable help and co-operation, and through them +the Edenic regime was now to meet its complete undoing and final overthrow. + + top of page - 841 + +3. THE TEMPTATION OF EVE + +Adam had just finished his first one hundred years on earth when Serapatatia, +upon the death of his father, came to the leadership of the western or Syrian +confederation of the Nodite tribes. Serapatatia was a brown-tinted man, a +brilliant descendant of the onetime chief of the Dalamatia commission on health +mated with one of the master female minds of the blue race of those distant +days. All down through the ages this line had held authority and wielded a +great influence among the western Nodite tribes. + +Serapatatia had made several visits to the Garden and had become deeply +impressed with the righteousness of Adam's cause. And shortly after assuming +the leadership of the Syrian Nodites, he announced his intention of +establishing an affiliation with the work of Adam and Eve in the Garden. The +majority of his people joined him in this program, and Adam was cheered by the +news that the most powerful and the most intelligent of all the neighboring +tribes had swung over almost bodily to the support of the program for world +improvement; it was decidedly heartening. And shortly after this great event, +Serapatatia and his new staff were entertained by Adam and Eve in their own +home. + +Serapatatia became one of the most able and efficient of all of Adam's +lieutenants. He was entirely honest and thoroughly sincere in all of his +activities; he was never conscious, even later on, that he was being used as a +circumstantial tool of the wily Caligastia. + +Presently, Serapatatia became the associate chairman of the Edenic commission +on tribal relations, and many plans were laid for the more vigorous prosecution +of the work of winning the remote tribes to the cause of the Garden. + +He held many conferences with Adam and Eve--especially with Eve--and they +talked over many plans for improving their methods. One day, during a talk with +Eve, it occurred to Serapatatia that it would be very helpful if, while +awaiting the recruiting of large numbers of the violet race, something could be +done in the meantime immediately to advance the needy waiting tribes. +Serapatatia contended that, if the Nodites, as the most progressive and +co-operative race, could have a leader born to them of part origin in the +violet stock, it would constitute a powerful tie binding these peoples more +closely to the Garden. And all of this was soberly and honestly considered to +be for the good of the world since this child, to be reared and educated in the +Garden, would exert a great influence for good over his father's people. + +It should again be emphasized that Serapatatia was altogether honest and wholly +sincere in all that he proposed. He never once suspected that he was playing +into the hands of Caligastia and Daligastia. Serapatatia was entirely loyal to +the plan of building up a strong reserve of the violet race before attempting +the world-wide upstepping of the confused peoples of Urantia. But this would +require hundreds of years to consummate, and he was impatient; he wanted to see +some immediate results--something in his own lifetime. He made it clear to Eve +that Adam was oftentimes discouraged by the little that had been accomplished +toward uplifting the world. + +For more than five years these plans were secretly matured. At last they had +developed to the point where Eve consented to have a secret conference with + + top of page - 842 + +Cano, the most brilliant mind and active leader of the near-by colony of +friendly Nodites. Cano was very sympathetic with the Adamic regime; in fact, he +was the sincere spiritual leader of those neighboring Nodites who favored +friendly relations with the Garden. + +The fateful meeting occurred during the twilight hours of the autumn evening, +not far from the home of Adam. Eve had never before met the beautiful and +enthusiastic Cano--and he was a magnificent specimen of the survival of the +superior physique and outstanding intellect of his remote progenitors of the +Prince's staff. And Cano also thoroughly believed in the righteousness of the +Serapatatia project. (Outside of the Garden, multiple mating was a common +practice.) + +Influenced by flattery, enthusiasm, and great personal persuasion, Eve then and +there consented to embark upon the much-discussed enterprise, to add her own +little scheme of world saving to the larger and more far-reaching divine plan. + + top of page - 843 + +Before she quite realized what was transpiring, the fatal step had been taken. +It was done. + +4. THE REALIZATION OF DEFAULT + +The celestial life of the planet was astir. Adam recognized that something was +wrong, and he asked Eve to come aside with him in the Garden. And now, for the +first time, Adam heard the entire story of the long-nourished plan for +accelerating world improvement by operating simultaneously in two directions: +the prosecution of the divine plan concomitantly with the execution of the +Serapatatia enterprise. + +And as the Material Son and Daughter thus communed in the moonlit Garden, "the +voice in the Garden" reproved them for disobedience. And that voice was none +other than my own announcement to the Edenic pair that they had transgressed +the Garden covenant; that they had disobeyed the instructions of the +Melchizedeks; that they had defaulted in the execution of their oaths of trust +to the sovereign of the universe. + +Eve had consented to participate in the practice of good and evil. Good is the +carrying out of the divine plans; sin is a deliberate transgression of the +divine will; evil is the misadaptation of plans and the maladjustment of +techniques resulting in universe disharmony and planetary confusion. + +Every time the Garden pair had partaken of the fruit of the tree of life, they +had been warned by the archangel custodian to refrain from yielding to the +suggestions of Caligastia to combine good and evil. They had been thus +admonished: "In the day that you commingle good and evil, you shall surely +become as the mortals of the realm; you shall surely die." + +Eve had told Cano of this oft-repeated warning on the fateful occasion of their +secret meeting, but Cano, not knowing the import or significance of such +admonitions, had assured her that men and women with good motives and true +intentions could do no evil; that she should surely not die but rather live +anew in the person of their offspring, who would grow up to bless and stabilize +the world. + +Even though this project of modifying the divine plan had been conceived and +executed with entire sincerity and with only the highest motives concerning the +welfare of the world, it constituted evil because it represented the wrong way +to achieve righteous ends, because it departed from the right way, the divine +plan. + +True, Eve had found Cano pleasant to the eyes, and she realized all that her +seducer promised by way of "new and increased knowledge of human affairs and +quickened understanding of human nature as supplemental to the comprehension of +the Adamic nature." + +I talked to the father and mother of the violet race that night in the Garden +as became my duty under the sorrowful circumstances. I listened fully to the +recital of all that led up to the default of Mother Eve and gave both of them +advice and counsel concerning the immediate situation. Some of this advice they +followed; some they disregarded. This conference appears in your records as +"the Lord God calling to Adam and Eve in the Garden and asking, `Where are +you?'" It was the practice of later generations to attribute everything unusual +and extraordinary, whether natural or spiritual, directly to the personal +intervention of the Gods. + +5. REPERCUSSIONS OF DEFAULT + +Eve's disillusionment was truly pathetic. Adam discerned the whole predicament +and, while heartbroken and dejected, entertained only pity and sympathy for his +erring mate. + +It was in the despair of the realization of failure that Adam, the day after +Eve's misstep, sought out Laotta, the brilliant Nodite woman who was head of +the western schools of the Garden, and with premeditation committed the folly +of Eve. But do not misunderstand; Adam was not beguiled; he knew exactly what +he was about; he deliberately chose to share the fate of Eve. He loved his mate +with a supermortal affection, and the thought of the possibility of a lonely +vigil on Urantia without her was more than he could endure. + +When they learned what had happened to Eve, the infuriated inhabitants of the +Garden became unmanageable; they declared war on the near-by Nodite settlement. +They swept out through the gates of Eden and down upon these unprepared people, +utterly destroying them--not a man, woman, or child was spared. And Cano, the +father of Cain yet unborn, also perished. + +Upon the realization of what had happened, Serapatatia was overcome with +consternation and beside himself with fear and remorse. The next day he drowned +himself in the great river. + +The children of Adam sought to comfort their distracted mother while their +father wandered in solitude for thirty days. At the end of that time judgment +asserted itself, and Adam returned to his home and began to plan for their +future course of action. + +The consequences of the follies of misguided parents are so often shared by +their innocent children. The upright and noble sons and daughters of Adam and +Eve were overwhelmed by the inexplicable sorrow of the unbelievable tragedy +which had been so suddenly and so ruthlessly thrust upon them. Not in fifty +years did the older of these children recover from the sorrow and sadness of +those tragic days, especially the terror of that period of thirty days during +which their father was absent from home while their distracted mother was in +complete ignorance of his whereabouts or fate. + +And those same thirty days were as long years of sorrow and suffering to Eve. +Never did this noble soul fully recover from the effects of that excruciating +period of mental suffering and spiritual sorrow. No feature of their subsequent +deprivations and material hardships ever began to compare in Eve's memory + + top of page - 844 + +with those terrible days and awful nights of loneliness and unbearable +uncertainty. She learned of the rash act of Serapatatia and did not know +whether her mate had in sorrow destroyed himself or had been removed from the +world in retribution for her misstep. And when Adam returned, Eve experienced a +satisfaction of joy and gratitude that never was effaced by their long and +difficult life partnership of toiling service. + +Time passed, but Adam was not certain of the nature of their offense until +seventy days after the default of Eve, when the Melchizedek receivers returned +to Urantia and assumed jurisdiction over world affairs. And then he knew they +had failed. + +But still more trouble was brewing: The news of the annihilation of the Nodite +settlement near Eden was not slow in reaching the home tribes of Serapatatia to +the north, and presently a great host was assembling to march on the Garden. +And this was the beginning of a long and bitter warfare between the Adamites +and the Nodites, for these hostilities kept up long after Adam and his +followers emigrated to the second garden in the Euphrates valley. There was +intense and lasting "enmity between that man and the woman, between his seed +and her seed." + +6. ADAM AND EVE LEAVE THE GARDEN + +When Adam learned that the Nodites were on the march, he sought the counsel of +the Melchizedeks, but they refused to advise him, only telling him to do as he +thought best and promising their friendly co-operation, as far as possible, in +any course he might decide upon. The Melchizedeks had been forbidden to +interfere with the personal plans of Adam and Eve. + +Adam knew that he and Eve had failed; the presence of the Melchizedek receivers +told him that, though he still knew nothing of their personal status or future +fate. He held an all-night conference with some twelve hundred loyal followers +who pledged themselves to follow their leader, and the next day at noon these +pilgrims went forth from Eden in quest of new homes. Adam had no liking for war +and accordingly elected to leave the first garden to the Nodites unopposed. + +The Edenic caravan was halted on the third day out from the Garden by the +arrival of the seraphic transports from Jerusem. And for the first time Adam +and Eve were informed of what was to become of their children. While the +transports stood by, those children who had arrived at the age of choice +(twenty years) were given the option of remaining on Urantia with their parents +or of becoming wards of the Most Highs of Norlatiadek. Two thirds chose to go +to Edentia; about one third elected to remain with their parents. All children +of prechoice age were taken to Edentia. No one could have beheld the sorrowful +parting of this Material Son and Daughter and their children without realizing +that the way of the transgressor is hard. These offspring of Adam and Eve are +now on Edentia; we do not know what disposition is to be made of them. + +It was a sad, sad caravan that prepared to journey on. Could anything have been +more tragic! To have come to a world in such high hopes, to have been so +auspiciously received, and then to go forth in disgrace from Eden, only to lose +more than three fourths of their children even before finding a new abiding +place! + + top of page - 845 + +7. DEGRADATION OF ADAM AND EVE + +It was while the Edenic caravan was halted that Adam and Eve were informed of +the nature of their transgressions and advised concerning their fate. Gabriel +appeared to pronounce judgment. And this was the verdict: The Planetary Adam +and Eve of Urantia are adjudged in default; they have violated the covenant of +their trusteeship as the rulers of this inhabited world. + +While downcast by the sense of guilt, Adam and Eve were greatly cheered by the +announcement that their judges on Salvington had absolved them from all charges +of standing in "contempt of the universe government." They had not been held +guilty of rebellion. + +The Edenic pair were informed that they had degraded themselves to the status +of the mortals of the realm; that they must henceforth conduct themselves as +man and woman of Urantia, looking to the future of the world races for their +future. + +Long before Adam and Eve left Jerusem, their instructors had fully explained to +them the consequences of any vital departure from the divine plans. I had +personally and repeatedly warned them, both before and after they arrived on +Urantia, that reduction to the status of mortal flesh would be the certain +result, the sure penalty, which would unfailingly attend default in the +execution of their planetary mission. But a comprehension of the immortality +status of the material order of sonship is essential to a clear understanding +of the consequences attendant upon the default of Adam and Eve. + +1. Adam and Eve, like their fellows on Jerusem, maintained immortal status +through intellectual association with the mind-gravity circuit of the Spirit. +When this vital sustenance is broken by mental disjunction, then, regardless of +the spiritual level of creature existence, immortality status is lost. Mortal +status followed by physical dissolution was the inevitable consequence of the +intellectual default of Adam and Eve. + +2. The Material Son and Daughter of Urantia, being also personalized in the +similitude of the mortal flesh of this world, were further dependent on the +maintenance of a dual circulatory system, the one derived from their physical +natures, the other from the superenergy stored in the fruit of the tree of +life. Always had the archangel custodian admonished Adam and Eve that default +of trust would culminate in degradation of status, and access to this source of +energy was denied them subsequent to their default. + +Caligastia did succeed in trapping Adam and Eve, but he did not accomplish his +purpose of leading them into open rebellion against the universe government. +What they had done was indeed evil, but they were never guilty of contempt for +truth, neither did they knowingly enlist in rebellion against the righteous +rule of the Universal Father and his Creator Son. + +8. THE SO-CALLED FALL OF MAN + +Adam and Eve did fall from their high estate of material sonship down to the +lowly status of mortal man. But that was not the fall of man. The human race +has been uplifted despite the immediate consequences of the Adamic default. +Although the divine plan of giving the violet race to the Urantia peoples +miscarried, the mortal races have profited enormously from the limited +contribution which Adam and his descendants made to the Urantia races. + + top of page - 846 + +There has been no "fall of man." The history of the human race is one of +progressive evolution, and the Adamic bestowal left the world peoples greatly +improved over their previous biologic condition. The more superior stocks of +Urantia now contain inheritance factors derived from as many as four separate +sources: Andonite, Sangik, Nodite, and Adamic. + +Adam should not be regarded as the cause of a curse on the human race. While he +did fail in carrying forward the divine plan, while he did transgress his +covenant with Deity, while he and his mate were most certainly degraded in +creature status, notwithstanding all this, their contribution to the human race +did much to advance civilization on Urantia. + +In estimating the results of the Adamic mission on your world, justice demands +the recognition of the condition of the planet. Adam was confronted with a +well-nigh hopeless task when, with his beautiful mate, he was transported from +Jerusem to this dark and confused planet. But had they been guided by the +counsel of the Melchizedeks and their associates, and had they been more +patient, they would have eventually met with success. But Eve listened to the +insidious propaganda of personal liberty and planetary freedom of action. She +was led to experiment with the life plasm of the material order of sonship in +that she allowed this life trust to become prematurely commingled with that of +the then mixed order of the original design of the Life Carriers which had been +previously combined with that of the reproducing beings once attached to the +staff of the Planetary Prince. + +Never, in all your ascent to Paradise, will you gain anything by impatiently +attempting to circumvent the established and divine plan by short cuts, +personal inventions, or other devices for improving on the way of perfection, +to perfection, and for eternal perfection. + +All in all, there probably never was a more disheartening miscarriage of wisdom +on any planet in all Nebadon. But it is not surprising that these missteps +occur in the affairs of the evolutionary universes. We are a part of a gigantic +creation, and it is not strange that everything does not work in perfection; +our universe was not created in perfection. Perfection is our eternal goal, not +our origin. + +If this were a mechanistic universe, if the First Great Source and Center were +only a force and not also a personality, if all creation were a vast +aggregation of physical matter dominated by precise laws characterized by +unvarying energy actions, then might perfection obtain, even despite the +incompleteness of universe status. There would be no disagreement; there would +be no friction. But in our evolving universe of relative perfection and +imperfection we rejoice that disagreement and misunderstanding are possible, +for thereby is evidenced the fact and the act of personality in the universe. +And if our creation is an existence dominated by personality, then can you be +assured of the possibilities of personality survival, advancement, and +achievement; we can be confident of personality growth, experience, and +adventure. What a glorious universe, in that it is personal and progressive, +not merely mechanical or even passively perfect! + +[Presented by Solonia, the seraphic "voice in the Garden."] + + top of page - 847 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ + ³ Adam And Eve ³ The Second ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ + ³ ³ Gard... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p076.txt b/religious documents/p076.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f69654 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p076.txt @@ -0,0 +1,488 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 76 The Second Garden + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 76 The Second Garden + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +WHEN Adam elected to leave the first garden to the Nodites unopposed, he and +his followers could not go west, for the Edenites had no boats suitable for +such a marine adventure. They could not go north; the northern Nodites were +already on the march toward Eden. They feared to go south; the hills of that +region were infested with hostile tribes. The only way open was to the east, +and so they journeyed eastward toward the then pleasant regions between the +Tigris and Euphrates rivers. And many of those who were left behind later +journeyed eastward to join the Adamites in their new valley home. + +Cain and Sansa were both born before the Adamic caravan had reached its +destination between the rivers in Mesopotamia. Laotta, the mother of Sansa, +perished at the birth of her daughter; Eve suffered much but survived, owing to +superior strength. Eve took Sansa, the child of Laotta, to her bosom, and she +was reared along with Cain. Sansa grew up to be a woman of great ability. She +became the wife of Sargan, the chief of the northern blue race, and contributed +to the advancement of the blue men of those times. + +1. THE EDENITES ENTER MESOPOTAMIA + +It required almost a full year for the caravan of Adam to reach the Euphrates +River. Finding it in flood tide, they remained camped on the plains west of the +stream almost six weeks before they made their way across to the land between +the rivers which was to become the second garden. + +When word had reached the dwellers in the land of the second garden that the +king and high priest of the Garden of Eden was marching on them, they had fled +in haste to the eastern mountains. Adam found all of the desired territory +vacated when he arrived. And here in this new location Adam and his helpers set +themselves to work to build new homes and establish a new center of culture and +religion. + +This site was known to Adam as one of the three original selections of the +committee assigned to choose possible locations for the Garden proposed by Van +and Amadon. The two rivers themselves were a good natural defense in those +days, and a short way north of the second garden the Euphrates and Tigris came +close together so that a defense wall extending fifty-six miles could be built +for the protection of the territory to the south and between the rivers. + +After getting settled in the new Eden, it became necessary to adopt crude +methods of living; it seemed entirely true that the ground had been cursed. +Nature was once again taking its course. Now were the Adamites compelled + + top of page - 848 + +to wrest a living from unprepared soil and to cope with the realities of life +in the face of the natural hostilities and incompatibilities of mortal +existence. They found the first garden partially prepared for them, but the +second had to be created by the labor of their own hands and in the "sweat of +their faces." + +2. CAIN AND ABEL + +Less than two years after Cain's birth, Abel was born, the first child of Adam +and Eve to be born in the second garden. When Abel grew up to the age of twelve +years, he elected to be a herder; Cain had chosen to follow agriculture. + +Now, in those days it was customary to make offerings to the priesthood of the +things at hand. Herders would bring of their flocks, farmers of the fruits of +the fields; and in accordance with this custom, Cain and Abel likewise made +periodic offerings to the priests. The two boys had many times argued about the +relative merits of their vocations, and Abel was not slow to note that +preference was shown for his animal sacrifices. In vain did Cain appeal to the +traditions of the first Eden, to the former preference for the fruits of the +fields. But this Abel would not allow, and he taunted his older brother in his +discomfiture. + +In the days of the first Eden Adam had indeed sought to discourage the offering +of animal sacrifice so that Cain had a justifiable precedent for his +contentions. It was, however, difficult to organize the religious life of the +second Eden. Adam was burdened with a thousand and one details associated with +the work of building, defense, and agriculture. Being much depressed +spiritually, he intrusted the organization of worship and education to those of +Nodite extraction who had served in these capacities in the first garden; and +in even so short a time the officiating Nodite priests were reverting to the +standards and rulings of pre-Adamic times. + +The two boys never got along well, and this matter of sacrifices further +contributed to the growing hatred between them. Abel knew he was the son of +both Adam and Eve and never failed to impress upon Cain that Adam was not his +father. Cain was not pure violet as his father was of the Nodite race later +admixed with the blue and the red man and with the aboriginal Andonic stock. +And all of this, with Cain's natural bellicose inheritance, caused him to +nourish an ever-increasing hatred for his younger brother. + +The boys were respectively eighteen and twenty years of age when the tension +between them was finally resolved, one day, when Abel's taunts so infuriated +his bellicose brother that Cain turned upon him in wrath and slew him. + +The observation of Abel's conduct establishes the value of environment and +education as factors in character development. Abel had an ideal inheritance, +and heredity lies at the bottom of all character; but the influence of an +inferior environment virtually neutralized this magnificent inheritance. Abel, +especially during his younger years, was greatly influenced by his unfavorable +surroundings. He would have become an entirely different person had he lived to +be twenty-five or thirty; his superb inheritance would then have shown itself. +While a good environment cannot contribute much toward really overcoming the +character handicaps of a base heredity, a bad environment can very effectively +spoil an excellent inheritance, at least during the younger years of life. Good +social environment and proper education are indispensable soil and atmosphere +for getting the most out of a good inheritance. + + top of page - 849 + +The death of Abel became known to his parents when his dogs brought the flocks +home without their master. To Adam and Eve, Cain was fast becoming the grim +reminder of their folly, and they encouraged him in his decision to leave the +garden. + +Cain's life in Mesopotamia had not been exactly happy since he was in such a +peculiar way symbolic of the default. It was not that his associates were +unkind to him, but he had not been unaware of their subconscious resentment of +his presence. But Cain knew that, since he bore no tribal mark, he would be +killed by the first neighboring tribesmen who might chance to meet him. Fear, +and some remorse, led him to repent. Cain had never been indwelt by an +Adjuster, had always been defiant of the family discipline and disdainful of +his father's religion. But he now went to Eve, his mother, and asked for +spiritual help and guidance, and when he honestly sought divine assistance, an +Adjuster indwelt him. And this Adjuster, dwelling within and looking out, gave +Cain a distinct advantage of superiority which classed him with the greatly +feared tribe of Adam. + +And so Cain departed for the land of Nod, east of the second Eden. He became a +great leader among one group of his father's people and did, to a certain +degree, fulfill the predictions of Serapatatia, for he did promote peace +between this division of the Nodites and the Adamites throughout his lifetime. +Cain married Remona, his distant cousin, and their first son, Enoch, became the +head of the Elamite Nodites. And for hundreds of years the Elamites and the +Adamites continued to be at peace. + +3. LIFE IN MESOPOTAMIA + +As time passed in the second garden, the consequences of default became +increasingly apparent. Adam and Eve greatly missed their former home of beauty +and tranquillity as well as their children who had been deported to Edentia. It +was indeed pathetic to observe this magnificent couple reduced to the status of +the common flesh of the realm; but they bore their diminished estate with grace +and fortitude. + +Adam wisely spent most of the time training his children and their associates +in civil administration, educational methods, and religious devotions. Had it +not been for this foresight, pandemonium would have broken loose upon his +death. As it was, the death of Adam made little difference in the conduct of +the affairs of his people. But long before Adam and Eve passed away, they +recognized that their children and followers had gradually learned to forget +the days of their glory in Eden. And it was better for the majority of their +followers that they did forget the grandeur of Eden; they were not so likely to +experience undue dissatisfaction with their less fortunate environment. + +The civil rulers of the Adamites were derived hereditarily from the sons of the +first garden. Adam's first son, Adamson (Adam ben Adam), founded a secondary +center of the violet race to the north of the second Eden. Adam's second son, +Eveson, became a masterly leader and administrator; he was the great helper of +his father. Eveson lived not quite so long as Adam, and his eldest son, Jansad, +became the successor of Adam as the head of the Adamite tribes. + +The religious rulers, or priesthood, originated with Seth, the eldest surviving +son of Adam and Eve born in the second garden. He was born one hundred and + + top of page - 850 + +twenty-nine years after Adam's arrival on Urantia. Seth became absorbed in the +work of improving the spiritual status of his father's people, becoming the +head of the new priesthood of the second garden. His son, Enos, founded the new +order of worship, and his grandson, Kenan, instituted the foreign missionary +service to the surrounding tribes, near and far. + +The Sethite priesthood was a threefold undertaking, embracing religion, health, +and education. The priests of this order were trained to officiate at religious +ceremonies, to serve as physicians and sanitary inspectors, and to act as +teachers in the schools of the garden. + +Adam's caravan had carried the seeds and bulbs of hundreds of plants and +cereals of the first garden with them to the land between the rivers; they also +had brought along extensive herds and some of all the domesticated animals. +Because of this they possessed great advantages over the surrounding tribes. +They enjoyed many of the benefits of the previous culture of the original +Garden. + +Up to the time of leaving the first garden, Adam and his family had always +subsisted on fruits, cereals, and nuts. On the way to Mesopotamia they had, for +the first time, partaken of herbs and vegetables. The eating of meat was early +introduced into the second garden, but Adam and Eve never partook of flesh as a +part of their regular diet. Neither did Adamson nor Eveson nor the other +children of the first generation of the first garden become flesh eaters. + +The Adamites greatly excelled the surrounding peoples in cultural achievement +and intellectual development. They produced the third alphabet and otherwise +laid the foundations for much that was the forerunner of modern art, science, +and literature. Here in the lands between the Tigris and Euphrates they +maintained the arts of writing, metalworking, pottery making, and weaving and +produced a type of architecture that was not excelled in thousands of years. + +The home life of the violet peoples was, for their day and age, ideal. Children +were subjected to courses of training in agriculture, craftsmanship, and animal +husbandry or else were educated to perform the threefold duty of a Sethite: to +be priest, physician, and teacher. + +And when thinking of the Sethite priesthood, do not confuse those high-minded +and noble teachers of health and religion, those true educators, with the +debased and commercial priesthoods of the later tribes and surrounding nations. +Their religious concepts of Deity and the universe were advanced and more or +less accurate, their health provisions were, for their time, excellent, and +their methods of education have never since been surpassed. + +4. THE VIOLET RACE + +Adam and Eve were the founders of the violet race of men, the ninth human race +to appear on Urantia. Adam and his offspring had blue eyes, and the violet +peoples were characterized by fair complexions and light hair color--yellow, +red, and brown. + +Eve did not suffer pain in childbirth; neither did the early evolutionary +races. Only the mixed races produced by the union of evolutionary man with the +Nodites and later with the Adamites suffered the severe pangs of childbirth. + + top of page - 851 + +Adam and Eve, like their brethren on Jerusem, were energized by dual nutrition, +subsisting on both food and light, supplemented by certain superphysical +energies unrevealed on Urantia. Their Urantia offspring did not inherit the +parental endowment of energy intake and light circulation. They had a single +circulation, the human type of blood sustenance. They were designedly mortal +though long-lived, albeit longevity gravitated toward the human norm with each +succeeding generation. + +Adam and Eve and their first generation of children did not use the flesh of +animals for food. They subsisted wholly upon "the fruits of the trees." After +the first generation all of the descendants of Adam began to partake of dairy +products, but many of them continued to follow a nonflesh diet. Many of the +southern tribes with whom they later united were also nonflesh eaters. Later +on, most of these vegetarian tribes migrated to the east and survived as now +admixed in the peoples of India. + +Both the physical and spiritual visions of Adam and Eve were far superior to +those of the present-day peoples. Their special senses were much more acute, +and they were able to see the midwayers and the angelic hosts, the +Melchizedeks, and the fallen Prince Caligastia, who several times came to +confer with his noble successor. They retained the ability to see these +celestial beings for over one hundred years after the default. These special +senses were not so acutely present in their children and tended to diminish +with each succeeding generation. + +The Adamic children were usually Adjuster indwelt since they all possessed +undoubted survival capacity. These superior offspring were not so subject to +fear as the children of evolution. So much of fear persists in the present-day +races of Urantia because your ancestors received so little of Adam's life +plasm, owing to the early miscarriage of the plans for racial physical uplift. + +The body cells of the Material Sons and their progeny are far more resistant to +disease than are those of the evolutionary beings indigenous to the planet. The +body cells of the native races are akin to the living disease-producing +microscopic and ultramicroscopic organisms of the realm. These facts explain +why the Urantia peoples must do so much by way of scientific effort to +withstand so many physical disorders. You would be far more disease resistant +if your races carried more of the Adamic life. + +After becoming established in the second garden on the Euphrates, Adam elected +to leave behind as much of his life plasm as possible to benefit the world +after his death. Accordingly, Eve was made the head of a commission of twelve +on race improvement, and before Adam died this commission had selected 1,682 of +the highest type of women on Urantia, and these women were impregnated with the +Adamic life plasm. Their children all grew up to maturity except 112, so that +the world, in this way, was benefited by the addition of 1,570 superior men and +women. Though these candidate mothers were selected from all the surrounding +tribes and represented most of the races on earth, the majority were chosen +from the highest strains of the Nodites, and they constituted the early +beginnings of the mighty Andite race. These children were born and reared in +the tribal surroundings of their respective mothers. + +5. DEATH OF ADAM AND EVE + +Not long after the establishment of the second Eden, Adam and Eve were duly +informed that their repentance was acceptable, and that, while they were + + top of page - 852 + +doomed to suffer the fate of the mortals of their world, they should certainly +become eligible for admission to the ranks of the sleeping survivors of +Urantia. They fully believed this gospel of resurrection and rehabilitation +which the Melchizedeks so touchingly proclaimed to them. Their transgression +had been an error of judgment and not the sin of conscious and deliberate +rebellion. + +Adam and Eve did not, as citizens of Jerusem, have Thought Adjusters, nor were +they Adjuster indwelt when they functioned on Urantia in the first garden. But +shortly after their reduction to mortal status they became conscious of a new +presence within them and awakened to the realization that human status coupled +with sincere repentance had made it possible for Adjusters to indwell them. It +was this knowledge of being Adjuster indwelt that greatly heartened Adam and +Eve throughout the remainder of their lives; they knew that they had failed as +Material Sons of Satania, but they also knew that the Paradise career was still +open to them as ascending sons of the universe. + +Adam knew about the dispensational resurrection which occurred simultaneously +with his arrival on the planet, and he believed that he and his companion would +probably be repersonalized in connection with the advent of the next order of +sonship. He did not know that Michael, the sovereign of this universe was so +soon to appear on Urantia; he expected that the next Son to arrive would be of +the Avonal order. Even so, it was always a comfort to Adam and Eve, as well as +something difficult for them to understand, to ponder the only personal message +they ever received from Michael. This message, among other expressions of +friendship and comfort, said: "I have given consideration to the circumstances +of your default, I have remembered the desire of your hearts ever to be loyal +to my Father's will, and you will be called from the embrace of mortal slumber +when I come to Urantia if the subordinate Sons of my realm do not send for you +before that time." + +And this was a great mystery to Adam and Eve. They could comprehend the veiled +promise of a possible special resurrection in this message, and such a +possibility greatly cheered them, but they could not grasp the meaning of the +intimation that they might rest until the time of a resurrection associated +with Michael's personal appearance on Urantia. And so the Edenic pair always +proclaimed that a Son of God would sometime come, and they communicated to +their loved ones the belief, at least the longing hope, that the world of their +blunders and sorrows might possibly be the realm whereon the ruler of this +universe would elect to function as the Paradise bestowal Son. It seemed too +good to be true, but Adam did entertain the thought that strife-torn Urantia +might, after all, turn out to be the most fortunate world in the system of +Satania, the envied planet of all Nebadon. + +Adam lived for 530 years; he died of what might be termed old age. His physical +mechanism simply wore out; the process of disintegration gradually gained on +the process of repair, and the inevitable end came. Eve had died nineteen years +previously of a weakened heart. They were both buried in the center of the +temple of divine service which had been built in accordance with their plans +soon after the wall of the colony had been completed. And this was the origin +of the practice of burying noted and pious men and women under the floors of +the places of worship. + +The supermaterial government of Urantia, under the direction of the +Melchizedeks, continued, but direct physical contact with the evolutionary +races had + + top of page - 853 + +been severed. From the distant days of the arrival of the corporeal staff of +the Planetary Prince, down through the times of Van and Amadon to the arrival +of Adam and Eve, physical representatives of the universe government had been +stationed on the planet. But with the Adamic default this regime, extending +over a period of more than four hundred and fifty thousand years, came to an +end. In the spiritual spheres, angelic helpers continued to struggle in +conjunction with the Thought Adjusters, both working heroically for the salvage +of the individual; but no comprehensive plan for far-reaching world welfare was +promulgated to the mortals of earth until the arrival of Machiventa +Melchizedek, in the times of Abraham, who, with the power, patience, and +authority of a Son of God, did lay the foundations for the further uplift and +spiritual rehabilitation of unfortunate Urantia. + +Misfortune has not, however, been the sole lot of Urantia; this planet has also +been the most fortunate in the local universe of Nebadon. Urantians should +count it all gain if the blunders of their ancestors and the mistakes of their +early world rulers so plunged the planet into such a hopeless state of +confusion, all the more confounded by evil and sin, that this very background +of darkness should so appeal to Michael of Nebadon that he selected this world +as the arena wherein to reveal the loving personality of the Father in heaven. +It is not that Urantia needed a Creator Son to set its tangled affairs in +order; it is rather that the evil and sin on Urantia afforded the Creator Son a +more striking background against which to reveal the matchless love, mercy, and +patience of the Paradise Father. + +6. SURVIVAL OF ADAM AND EVE + +Adam and Eve went to their mortal rest with strong faith in the promises made +to them by the Melchizedeks that they would sometime awake from the sleep of +death to resume life on the mansion worlds, worlds all so familiar to them in +the days preceding their mission in the material flesh of the violet race on +Urantia. + +They did not long rest in the oblivion of the unconscious sleep of the mortals +of the realm. On the third day after Adam's death, the second following his +reverent burial, the orders of Lanaforge, sustained by the acting Most High of +Edentia and concurred in by the Union of Days on Salvington, acting for +Michael, were placed in Gabriel's hands, directing the special roll call of the +distinguished survivors of the Adamic default on Urantia. And in accordance +with this mandate of special resurrection, number twenty-six of the Urantia +series, Adam and Eve were repersonalized and reassembled in the resurrection +halls of the mansion worlds of Satania together with 1,316 of their associates +in the experience of the first garden. Many other loyal souls had already been +translated at the time of Adam's arrival, which was attended by a +dispensational adjudication of both the sleeping survivors and of the living +qualified ascenders. + +Adam and Eve quickly passed through the worlds of progressive ascension until +they attained citizenship on Jerusem, once again to be residents of the planet +of their origin but this time as members of a different order of universe +personalities. They left Jerusem as permanent citizens--Sons of God; they +returned as ascendant citizens--sons of man. They were immediately attached to +the Urantia service on the system capital, later being assigned membership + + top of page - 854 + +among the four and twenty counselors who constitute the present +advisory-control body of Urantia. + +And thus ends the story of the Planetary Adam and Eve of Urantia, a story of +trial, tragedy, and triumph, at least personal triumph for your well-meaning +but deluded Material Son and Daughter and undoubtedly, in the end, a story of +ultimate triumph for their world and its rebellion-tossed and evil-harassed +inhabitants. When all is summed up, Adam and Eve made a mighty contribution to +the speedy civilization and accelerated biologic progress of the human race. +They left a great culture on earth, but it was not possible for such an +advanced civilization to survive in the face of the early dilution and the +eventual submergence of the Adamic inheritance. It is the people who make a +civilization; civilization does not make the people. + +[Presented by Solonia, the seraphic "voice in the Garden."] + + top of page - 855 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Default Of ³ The Midway ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ Crea... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p077.txt b/religious documents/p077.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f26069b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p077.txt @@ -0,0 +1,796 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 77 The Midway Creatures + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 77 The Midway Creatures + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +MOST of the inhabited worlds of Nebadon harbor one or more groups of unique +beings existing on a life-functioning level about midway between those of the +mortals of the realms and of the angelic orders; hence are they called midway +creatures. They appear to be an accident of time, but they occur so +widespreadly and are so valuable as helpers that we have all long since +accepted them as one of the essential orders of our combined planetary +ministry. + +On Urantia there function two distinct orders of midwayers: the primary or +senior corps, who came into being back in the days of Dalamatia, and the +secondary or younger group, whose origin dates from the times of Adam. + +1. THE PRIMARY MIDWAYERS + +The primary midwayers have their genesis in a unique interassociation of the +material and the spiritual on Urantia. We know of the existence of similar +creatures on other worlds and in other systems, but they originated by +dissimilar techniques. + +It is well always to bear in mind that the successive bestowals of the Sons of +God on an evolving planet produce marked changes in the spiritual economy of +the realm and sometimes so modify the workings of the interassociation of +spiritual and material agencies on a planet as to create situations indeed +difficult of understanding. The status of the one hundred corporeal members of +Prince Caligastia's staff illustrates just such a unique interassociation: As +ascendant morontia citizens of Jerusem they were supermaterial creatures +without reproductive prerogatives. As descendant planetary ministers on Urantia +they were material sex creatures capable of procreating material offspring (as +some of them later did). What we cannot satisfactorily explain is how these one +hundred could function in the parental role on a supermaterial level, but that +is exactly what happened. A supermaterial (nonsexual) liaison of a male and a +female member of the corporeal staff resulted in the appearance of the +first-born of the primary midwayers. + +It was immediately discovered that a creature of this order, midway between the +mortal and angelic levels, would be of great service in carrying on the affairs +of the Prince's headquarters, and each couple of the corporeal staff was +accordingly granted permission to produce a similar being. This effort resulted +in the first group of fifty midway creatures. + +After a year of observing the work of this unique group, the Planetary Prince +authorized the reproduction of midwayers without restriction. This plan was +carried out as long as the power to create continued, and the original corps of +50,000 was accordingly brought into being. + + top of page - 856 + +A period of one-half year intervened between the production of each midwayer, +and when one thousand such beings had been born to each couple, no more were +ever forthcoming. And there is no explanation available as to why this power +was exhausted upon the appearance of the one thousandth offspring. No amount of +further experimentation ever resulted in anything but failure. + +These creatures constituted the intelligence corps of the Prince's +administration. They ranged far and wide, studying and observing the world +races and rendering other invaluable services to the Prince and his staff in +the work of influencing human society remote from the planetary headquarters. + +This regime continued until the tragic days of the planetary rebellion, which +ensnared a little over four fifths of the primary midwayers. The loyal corps +entered the service of the Melchizedek receivers, functioning under the titular +leadership of Van until the days of Adam. + +2. THE NODITE RACE + +While this is the narrative of the origin, nature, and function of the midway +creatures of Urantia, the kinship between the two orders--primary and +secondary--makes it necessary to interrupt the story of the primary midwayers +at this point in order to follow out the line of descent from the rebel members +of the corporeal staff of Prince Caligastia from the days of the planetary +rebellion to the times of Adam. It was this line of inheritance which, in the +early days of the second garden, furnished one half of the ancestry for the +secondary order of midway creatures. + +The physical members of the Prince's staff had been constituted sex creatures +for the purpose of participating in the plan of procreating offspring embodying +the combined qualities of their special order united with those of the selected +stock of the Andon tribes, and all of this was in anticipation of the +subsequent appearance of Adam. The Life Carriers had planned a new type of +mortal embracing the union of the conjoint offspring of the Prince's staff with +the first-generation offspring of Adam and Eve. They had thus projected a plan +envisioning a new order of planetary creatures whom they hoped would become the +teacher-rulers of human society. Such beings were designed for social +sovereignty, not civil sovereignty. But since this project almost completely +miscarried, we shall never know what an aristocracy of benign leadership and +matchless culture Urantia was thus deprived of. For when the corporeal staff +later reproduced, it was subsequent to the rebellion and after they had been +deprived of their connection with the life currents of the system. + +The postrebellion era on Urantia witnessed many unusual happenings. A great +civilization--the culture of Dalamatia--was going to pieces. "The Nephilim +(Nodites) were on earth in those days, and when these sons of the gods went in +to the daughters of men and they bore to them, their children were the `mighty +men of old,' the `men of renown."' While hardly "sons of the gods," the staff +and their early descendants were so regarded by the evolutionary mortals of +those distant days; even their stature came to be magnified by tradition. This, +then, is the origin of the well-nigh universal folk tale of the gods who came +down to earth and there with the daughters of men begot an ancient race of +heroes. And all this legend became further confused with the race mixtures of +the later appearing Adamites in the second garden. + + top of page - 857 + +Since the one hundred corporeal members of the Prince's staff carried germ +plasm of the Andonic human strains, it would naturally be expected that, if +they engaged in sexual reproduction, their progeny would altogether resemble +the offspring of other Andonite parents. But when the sixty rebels of the +staff, the followers of Nod, actually engaged in sexual reproduction, their +children proved to be far superior in almost every way to both the Andonite and +the Sangik peoples. This unexpected excellence characterized not only physical +and intellectual qualities but also spiritual capacities. + +These mutant traits appearing in the first Nodite generation resulted from +certain changes which had been wrought in the configuration and in the chemical +constituents of the inheritance factors of the Andonic germ plasm. These +changes were caused by the presence in the bodies of the staff members of the +powerful life-maintenance circuits of the Satania system. These life circuits +caused the chromosomes of the specialized Urantia pattern to reorganize more +after the patterns of the standardized Satania specialization of the ordained +Nebadon life manifestation. The technique of this germ plasm metamorphosis by +the action of the system life currents is not unlike those procedures whereby +Urantia scientists modify the germ plasm of plants and animals by the use of X +rays. + +Thus did the Nodite peoples arise out of certain peculiar and unexpected +modifications occurring in the life plasm which had been transferred from the +bodies of the Andonite contributors to those of the corporeal staff members by +the Avalon surgeons. + +It will be recalled that the one hundred Andonite germ plasm contributors were +in turn made possessors of the organic complement of the tree of life so that +the Satania life currents likewise invested their bodies. The forty-four +modified Andonites who followed the staff into rebellion also mated among +themselves and made a great contribution to the better strains of the Nodite +people. + +These two groups, embracing 104 individuals who carried the modified Andonite +germ plasm, constitute the ancestry of the Nodites, the eighth race to appear +on Urantia. And this new feature of human life on Urantia represents another +phase of the outworking of the original plan of utilizing this planet as a +life-modification world, except that this was one of the unforeseen +developments. + +The pure-line Nodites were a magnificent race, but they gradually mingled with +the evolutionary peoples of earth, and before long great deterioration had +occurred. Ten thousand years after the rebellion they had lost ground to the +point where their average length of life was little more than that of the +evolutionary races. + +When archaeologists dig up the clay-tablet records of the later-day Sumerian +descendants of the Nodites, they discover lists of Sumerian kings running back +for several thousand years; and as these records go further back, the reigns of +the individual kings lengthen from around twenty-five or thirty years up to one +hundred and fifty years and more. This lengthening of the reigns of these older +kings signifies that some of the early Nodite rulers (immediate descendants of +the Prince's staff) did live longer than their later-day successors and also +indicates an effort to stretch the dynasties back to Dalamatia. + +The records of such long-lived individuals are also due to the confusion of +months and years as time periods. This may also be observed in the Biblical +genealogy of Abraham and in the early records of the Chinese. The confusion of + + top of page - 858 + +the twenty-eight-day month, or season, with the later introduced year of more +than three hundred and fifty days is responsible for the traditions of such +long human lives. There are records of a man who lived over nine hundred +"years." This period represents not quite seventy years, and such lives were +regarded for ages as very long, "threescore years and ten" as such a life span +was later designated. + +The reckoning of time by the twenty-eight-day month persisted long after the +days of Adam. But when the Egyptians undertook to reform the calendar, about +seven thousand years ago, they did it with great accuracy, introducing the year +of 365 days. + +3. THE TOWER OF BABEL + +After the submergence of Dalamatia the Nodites moved north and east, presently +founding the new city of Dilmun as their racial and cultural headquarters. And +about fifty thousand years after the death of Nod, when the offspring of the +Prince's staff had become too numerous to find subsistence in the lands +immediately surrounding their new city of Dilmun, and after they had reached +out to intermarry with the Andonite and Sangik tribes adjoining their borders, +it occurred to their leaders that something should be done to preserve their +racial unity. Accordingly a council of the tribes was called, and after much +deliberation the plan of Bablot, a descendant of Nod, was indorsed. + +Bablot proposed to erect a pretentious temple of racial glorification at the +center of their then occupied territory. This temple was to have a tower the +like of which the world had never seen. It was to be a monumental memorial to +their passing greatness. There were many who wished to have this monument +erected in Dilmun, but others contended that such a great structure should be +placed a safe distance from the dangers of the sea, remembering the traditions +of the engulfment of their first capital, Dalamatia. + +Bablot planned that the new buildings should become the nucleus of the future +center of the Nodite culture and civilization. His counsel finally prevailed, +and construction was started in accordance with his plans. The new city was to +be named Bablot after the architect and builder of the tower. This location +later became known as Bablod and eventually as Babel. + +But the Nodites were still somewhat divided in sentiment as to the plans and +purposes of this undertaking. Neither were their leaders altogether agreed +concerning either construction plans or usage of the buildings after they +should be completed. After four and one-half years of work a great dispute +arose about the object and motive for the erection of the tower. The +contentions became so bitter that all work stopped. The food carriers spread +the news of the dissension, and large numbers of the tribes began to forgather +at the building site. Three differing views were propounded as to the purpose +of building the tower. + +1. The largest group, almost one half, desired to see the tower built as a +memorial of Nodite history and racial superiority. They thought it ought to be +a great and imposing structure which would challenge the admiration of all +future generations. + +2. The next largest faction wanted the tower designed to commemorate the Dilmun +culture. They foresaw that Bablot would become a great center of commerce, art, +and manufacture. + + top of page - 859 + +3. The smallest and minority contingent held that the erection of the tower +presented an opportunity for making atonement for the folly of their +progenitors in participating in the Caligastia rebellion. They maintained that +the tower should be devoted to the worship of the Father of all, that the whole +purpose of the new city should be to take the place of Dalamatia--to function +as the cultural and religious center for the surrounding barbarians. + +The religious group were promptly voted down. The majority rejected the +teaching that their ancestors had been guilty of rebellion; they resented such +a racial stigma. Having disposed of one of the three angles to the dispute and +failing to settle the other two by debate, they fell to fighting. The +religionists, the noncombatants, fled to their homes in the south, while their +fellows fought until well-nigh obliterated. + +About twelve thousand years ago a second attempt to erect the tower of Babel +was made. The mixed races of the Andites (Nodites and Adamites) undertook to +raise a new temple on the ruins of the first structure, but there was not +sufficient support for the enterprise; it fell of its own pretentious weight. +This region was long known as the land of Babel. + +4. NODITE CENTERS OF CIVILIZATION + +The dispersion of the Nodites was an immediate result of the internecine +conflict over the tower of Babel. This internal war greatly reduced the numbers +of the purer Nodites and was in many ways responsible for their failure to +establish a great pre-Adamic civilization. From this time on Nodite culture +declined for over one hundred and twenty thousand years until it was upstepped +by Adamic infusion. But even in the times of Adam the Nodites were still an +able people. Many of their mixed descendants were numbered among the Garden +builders, and several of Van's group captains were Nodites. Some of the most +capable minds serving on Adam's staff were of this race. + +Three out of the four great Nodite centers were established immediately +following the Bablot conflict: + +1. The western or Syrian Nodites. The remnants of the nationalistic or racial +memorialists journeyed northward, uniting with the Andonites to found the later +Nodite centers to the northwest of Mesopotamia. This was the largest group of +the dispersing Nodites, and they contributed much to the later appearing +Assyrian stock. + +2. The eastern or Elamite Nodites. The culture and commerce advocates migrated +in large numbers eastward into Elam and there united with the mixed Sangik +tribes. The Elamites of thirty to forty thousand years ago had become largely +Sangik in nature, although they continued to maintain a civilization superior +to that of the surrounding barbarians. + +After the establishment of the second garden it was customary to allude to this +near-by Nodite settlement as "the land of Nod"; and during the long period of +relative peace between this Nodite group and the Adamites, the two races were +greatly blended, for it became more and more the custom for the Sons of God +(the Adamites) to intermarry with the daughters of men (the Nodites). + + top of page - 860 + +3. The central or pre-Sumerian Nodites. A small group at the mouth of the +Tigris and Euphrates rivers maintained more of their racial integrity. They +persisted for thousands of years and eventually furnished the Nodite ancestry +which blended with the Adamites to found the Sumerian peoples of historic +times. + +And all this explains how the Sumerians appeared so suddenly and mysteriously +on the stage of action in Mesopotamia. Investigators will never be able to +trace out and follow these tribes back to the beginning of the Sumerians, who +had their origin two hundred thousand years ago after the submergence of +Dalamatia. Without a trace of origin elsewhere in the world, these ancient +tribes suddenly loom upon the horizon of civilization with a full-grown and +superior culture, embracing temples, metalwork, agriculture, animals, pottery, +weaving, commercial law, civil codes, religious ceremonial, and an old system +of writing. At the beginning of the historical era they had long since lost the +alphabet of Dalamatia, having adopted the peculiar writing system originating +in Dilmun. The Sumerian language, though virtually lost to the world, was not +Semitic; it had much in common with the so-called Aryan tongues. + +The elaborate records left by the Sumerians describe the site of a remarkable +settlement which was located on the Persian Gulf near the earlier city of +Dilmun. The Egyptians called this city of ancient glory Dilmat, while the later +Adamized Sumerians confused both the first and second Nodite cities with +Dalamatia and called all three Dilmun. And already have archaeologists found +these ancient Sumerian clay tablets which tell of this earthly paradise "where +the Gods first blessed mankind with the example of civilized and cultured +life." And these tablets, descriptive of Dilmun, the paradise of men and God, +are now silently resting on the dusty shelves of many museums. + +The Sumerians well knew of the first and second Edens but, despite extensive +intermarriage with the Adamites, continued to regard the garden dwellers to the +north as an alien race. Sumerian pride in the more ancient Nodite culture led +them to ignore these later vistas of glory in favor of the grandeur and +paradisiacal traditions of the city of Dilmun. + +4. The northern Nodites and Amadonites--the Vanites. This group arose prior to +the Bablot conflict. These northernmost Nodites were descendants of those who +had forsaken the leadership of Nod and his successors for that of Van and +Amadon. + +Some of the early associates of Van subsequently settled about the shores of +the lake which still bears his name, and their traditions grew up about this +locality. Ararat became their sacred mountain, having much the same meaning to +later-day Vanites that Sinai had to the Hebrews. Ten thousand years ago the +Vanite ancestors of the Assyrians taught that their moral law of seven +commandments had been given to Van by the Gods upon Mount Ararat. They firmly +believed that Van and his associate Amadon were taken alive from the planet +while they were up on the mountain engaged in worship. + +Mount Ararat was the sacred mountain of northern Mesopotamia, and since much of +your tradition of these ancient times was acquired in connection with the +Babylonian story of the flood, it is not surprising that Mount Ararat and its +region were woven into the later Jewish story of Noah and the universal flood. + +About 35,000 B.C. Adamson visited one of the easternmost of the old Vanite +settlements to found his center of civilization. + + top of page - 861 + +5. ADAMSON AND RATTA + +Having delineated the Nodite antecedents of the ancestry of the secondary +midwayers, this narrative should now give consideration to the Adamic half of +their ancestry, for the secondary midwayers are also the grandchildren of +Adamson, the first-born of the violet race of Urantia. + +Adamson was among that group of the children of Adam and Eve who elected to +remain on earth with their father and mother. Now this eldest son of Adam had +often heard from Van and Amadon the story of their highland home in the north, +and sometime after the establishment of the second garden he determined to go +in search of this land of his youthful dreams. + +Adamson was 120 years old at this time and had been the father of thirty-two +pure-line children of the first garden. He wanted to remain with his parents +and assist them in upbuilding the second garden, but he was greatly disturbed +by the loss of his mate and their children, who had all elected to go to +Edentia along with those other Adamic children who chose to become wards of the +Most Highs. + +Adamson would not desert his parents on Urantia, he was disinclined to flee +from hardship or danger, but he found the associations of the second garden far +from satisfying. He did much to forward the early activities of defense and +construction but decided to leave for the north at the earliest opportunity. +And though his departure was wholly pleasant, Adam and Eve were much grieved to +lose their eldest son, to have him go out into a strange and hostile world, as +they feared, never to return. + +A company of twenty-seven followed Adamson northward in quest of these people +of his childhood fantasies. In a little over three years Adamson's party +actually found the object of their adventure, and among these people he +discovered a wonderful and beautiful woman, twenty years old, who claimed to be +the last pure-line descendant of the Prince's staff. This woman, Ratta, said +that her ancestors were all descendants of two of the fallen staff of the +Prince. She was the last of her race, having no living brothers or sisters. She +had about decided not to mate, had about made up her mind to die without issue, +but she lost her heart to the majestic Adamson. And when she heard the story of +Eden, how the predictions of Van and Amadon had really come to pass, and as she +listened to the recital of the Garden default, she was encompassed with but a +single thought--to marry this son and heir of Adam. And quickly the idea grew +upon Adamson. In a little more than three months they were married. + +Adamson and Ratta had a family of sixty-seven children. They gave origin to a +great line of the world's leadership, but they did something more. It should be +remembered that both of these beings were really superhuman. Every fourth child +born to them was of a unique order. It was often invisible. Never in the +world's history had such a thing occurred. Ratta was greatly perturbed--even +superstitious--but Adamson well knew of the existence of the primary midwayers, +and he concluded that something similar was transpiring before his eyes. When +the second strangely behaving offspring arrived, he decided to mate them, since +one was male and the other female, and this is the origin of the secondary +order of midwayers. Within one hundred years, before this phenomenon ceased, +almost two thousand were brought into being. + + top of page - 862 + +Adamson lived for 396 years. Many times he returned to visit his father and +mother. Every seven years he and Ratta journeyed south to the second garden, +and meanwhile the midwayers kept him informed regarding the welfare of his +people. During Adamson's life they did great service in upbuilding a new and +independent world center for truth and righteousness. + +Adamson and Ratta thus had at their command this corps of marvelous helpers, +who labored with them throughout their long lives to assist in the propagation +of advanced truth and in the spread of higher standards of spiritual, +intellectual, and physical living. And the results of this effort at world +betterment never did become fully eclipsed by subsequent retrogressions. + +The Adamsonites maintained a high culture for almost seven thousand years from +the times of Adamson and Ratta. Later on they became admixed with the +neighboring Nodites and Andonites and were also included among the "mighty men +of old." And some of the advances of that age persisted to become a latent part +of the cultural potential which later blossomed into European civilization. + +This center of civilization was situated in the region east of the southern end +of the Caspian Sea, near the Kopet Dagh. A short way up in the foothills of +Turkestan are the vestiges of what was onetime the Adamsonite headquarters of +the violet race. In these highland sites, situated in a narrow and ancient +fertile belt lying in the lower foothills of the Kopet range, there +successively arose at various periods four diverse cultures respectively +fostered by four different groups of Adamson's descendants. It was the second +of these groups which migrated westward to Greece and the islands of the +Mediterranean. The residue of Adamson's descendants migrated north and west to +enter Europe with the blended stock of the last Andite wave coming out of +Mesopotamia, and they were also numbered among the Andite-Aryan invaders of +India. + +6. THE SECONDARY MIDWAYERS + +While the primary midwayers had a well-nigh superhuman origin, the secondary +order are the offspring of the pure Adamic stock united with a humanized +descendant of ancestors common to the parentage of the senior corps. + +Among the children of Adamson there were just sixteen of the peculiar +progenitors of the secondary midwayers. These unique children were equally +divided as regards sex, and each couple was capable of producing a secondary +midwayer every seventy days by a combined technique of sex and nonsex liaison. +And such a phenomenon was never possible on earth before that time, nor has it +ever occurred since. + +These sixteen children lived and died (except for their peculiarities) as +mortals of the realm, but their electrically energized offspring live on and +on, not being subject to the limitations of mortal flesh. + +Each of the eight couples eventually produced 248 midwayers, and thus did the +original secondary corps--1,984 in number--come into existence. There are eight +subgroups of secondary midwayers. They are designated as A-B-C the first, +second, third, and so on. And then there are D-E-F the first, second, and so +on. + +After the default of Adam the primary midwayers returned to the service of the +Melchizedek receivers, while the secondary group were attached to the Adamson +center until his death. Thirty-three of these secondary midwayers, the + + top of page - 863 + +chiefs of their organization at the death of Adamson, endeavored to swing the +whole order over to the service of the Melchizedeks, thus effecting a liaison +with the primary corps. But failing to accomplish this, they deserted their +companions and went over in a body to the service of the planetary receivers. + +After the death of Adamson the remainder of the secondary midwayers became a +strange, unorganized, and unattached influence on Urantia. From that time to +the days of Machiventa Melchizedek they led an irregular and unorganized +existence. They were partially brought under control by this Melchizedek but +were still productive of much mischief up to the days of Christ Michael. And +during his sojourn on earth they all made final decisions as to their future +destiny, the loyal majority then enlisting under the leadership of the primary +midwayers. + +7. THE REBEL MIDWAYERS + +The majority of the primary midwayers went into sin at the time of the Lucifer +rebellion. When the devastation of the planetary rebellion was reckoned up, +among other losses it was discovered that of the original 50,000, 40,119 had +joined the Caligastia secession. + +The original number of secondary midwayers was 1,984, and of these 873 failed +to align themselves with the rule of Michael and were duly interned in +connection with the planetary adjudication of Urantia on the day of Pentecost. +No one can forecast the future of these fallen creatures. + +Both groups of rebel midwayers are now held in custody awaiting the final +adjudication of the affairs of the system rebellion. But they did many strange +things on earth prior to the inauguration of the present planetary +dispensation. + +These disloyal midwayers were able to reveal themselves to mortal eyes under +certain circumstances, and especially was this true of the associates of +Beelzebub, the leader of the apostate secondary midwayers. But these unique +creatures must not be confused with certain of the rebel cherubim and seraphim +who also were on earth up to the time of Christ's death and resurrection. Some +of the older writers designated these rebellious midway creatures as evil +spirits and demons, and the apostate seraphim as evil angels. + +On no world can evil spirits possess any mortal mind subsequent to the life of +a Paradise bestowal Son. But before the days of Christ Michael on +Urantia--before the universal coming of the Thought Adjusters and the pouring +out of the Master's spirit upon all flesh--these rebel midwayers were actually +able to influence the minds of certain inferior mortals and somewhat to control +their actions. This was accomplished in much the same way as the loyal midway +creatures function when they serve as efficient contact guardians of the human +minds of the Urantia reserve corps of destiny at those times when the Adjuster +is, in effect, detached from the personality during a season of contact with +superhuman intelligences. + +It is no mere figure of speech when the record states: "And they brought to Him +all sorts of sick peoples, those who were possessed by devils and those who +were lunatics." Jesus knew and recognized the difference between insanity and +demoniacal possession, although these states were greatly confused in the minds +of those who lived in his day and generation. + +Even prior to Pentecost no rebel spirit could dominate a normal human mind, and +since that day even the weak minds of inferior mortals are free from + + top of page - 864 + +such possibilities. The supposed casting out of devils since the arrival of the +Spirit of Truth has been a matter of confounding a belief in demoniacal +possession with hysteria, insanity, and feeble-mindedness. But just because +Michael's bestowal has forever liberated all human minds on Urantia from the +possibility of demoniacal possession, do not imagine that such was not a +reality in former ages. + +The entire group of rebel midwayers is at present held prisoner by order of the +Most Highs of Edentia. No more do they roam this world on mischief bent. +Regardless of the presence of the Thought Adjusters, the pouring out of the +Spirit of Truth upon all flesh forever made it impossible for disloyal spirits +of any sort or description ever again to invade even the most feeble of human +minds. Since the day of Pentecost there never again can be such a thing as +demoniacal possession. + +8. THE UNITED MIDWAYERS + +At the last adjudication of this world, when Michael removed the slumbering +survivors of time, the midway creatures were left behind, left to assist in the +spiritual and semispiritual work on the planet. They now function as a single +corps, embracing both orders and numbering 10,992. The United Midwayers of +Urantia are at present governed alternately by the senior member of each order. +This regime has obtained since their amalgamation into one group shortly after +Pentecost. + +The members of the older or primary order are generally known by numerals; they +are often given names such as 1-2-3 the first, 4-5-6 the first, and so on. On +Urantia the Adamic midwayers are designated alphabetically in order to +distinguish them from the numerical designation of the primary midwayers. + +Both orders are nonmaterial beings as regards nutrition and energy intake, but +they partake of many human traits and are able to enjoy and follow your humor +as well as your worship. When attached to mortals, they enter into the spirit +of human work, rest, and play. But midwayers do not sleep, neither do they +possess powers of procreation. In a certain sense the secondary group are +differentiated along the lines of maleness and femaleness, often being spoken +of as "he" or "she." They often work together in such pairs. + +Midwayers are not men, neither are they angels, but secondary midwayers are, in +nature, nearer man than angel; they are, in a way, of your races and are, +therefore, very understanding and sympathetic in their contact with human +beings; they are invaluable to the seraphim in their work for and with the +various races of mankind, and both orders are indispensable to the seraphim who +serve as personal guardians to mortals. + +The United Midwayers of Urantia are organized for service with the planetary +seraphim in accordance with innate endowments and acquired skills, in the +following groups: + +1. Midway messengers. This group bear names; they are a small corps and are of +great assistance on an evolutionary world in the service of quick and reliable +personal communication. + +2. Planetary sentinels. Midwayers are the guardians, the sentinels, of the +worlds of space. They perform the important duties of observers for all the +numerous phenomena and types of communication which are of import to the + + top of page - 865 + +supernatural beings of the realm. They patrol the invisible spirit realm of the +planet. + +3. Contact personalities. In the contacts made with the mortal beings of the +material worlds, such as with the subject through whom these communications +were transmitted, the midway creatures are always employed. They are an +essential factor in such liaisons of the spiritual and the material levels. + +4. Progress helpers. These are the more spiritual of the midway creatures, and +they are distributed as assistants to the various orders of seraphim who +function in special groups on the planet. + +Midwayers vary greatly in their abilities to make contact with the seraphim +above and with their human cousins below. It is exceedingly difficult, for +instance, for the primary midwayers to make direct contact with material +agencies. They are considerably nearer the angelic type of being and are +therefore usually assigned to working with, and ministering to, the spiritual +forces resident on the planet. They act as companions and guides for celestial +visitors and student sojourners, whereas the secondary creatures are almost +exclusively attached to the ministry of the material beings of the realm. + +The 1,111 loyal secondary midwayers are engaged in important missions on earth. +As compared with their primary associates, they are decidedly material. They +exist just outside the range of mortal vision and possess sufficient latitude +of adaptation to make, at will, physical contact with what humans call +"material things." These unique creatures have certain definite powers over the +things of time and space, not excepting the beasts of the realm. + +Many of the more literal phenomena ascribed to angels have been performed by +the secondary midway creatures. When the early teachers of the gospel of Jesus +were thrown into prison by the ignorant religious leaders of that day, an +actual "angel of the Lord" "by night opened the prison doors and brought them +forth." But in the case of Peter's deliverance after the killing of James by +Herod's order, it was a secondary midwayer who performed the work ascribed to +an angel. + +Their chief work today is that of unperceived personal-liaison associates of +those men and women who constitute the planetary reserve corps of destiny. It +was the work of this secondary group, ably seconded by certain of the primary +corps, that brought about the co-ordination of personalities and circumstances +on Urantia which finally induced the planetary celestial supervisors to +initiate those petitions that resulted in the granting of the mandates making +possible the series of revelations of which this presentation is a part. But it +should be made clear that the midway creatures are not involved in the sordid +performances taking place under the general designation of "spiritualism." The +midwayers at present on Urantia, all of whom are of honorable standing, are not +connected with the phenomena of so-called "mediumship"; and they do not, +ordinarily, permit humans to witness their sometimes necessary physical +activities or other contacts with the material world, as they are perceived by +human senses. + +9. THE PERMANENT CITIZENS OF URANTIA + +Midwayers may be regarded as the first group of the permanent inhabitants to be +found on the various orders of worlds throughout the universes in contrast + + top of page - 866 + +with evolutionary ascenders like the mortal creatures and the angelic hosts. +Such permanent citizens are encountered at various points in the Paradise +ascent. + +Unlike the various orders of celestial beings who are assigned to ministeron a +planet, the midwayers live on an inhabited world. The seraphim come and go, but +the midway creatures remain and will remain, albeit they are nonetheless +ministers for being natives of the planet, and they provide the one continuing +regime which harmonizes and connects the changing administrations of the +seraphic hosts. + +As actual citizens of Urantia, the midwayers have a kinship interest in the +destiny of this sphere. They are a determined association, persistently working +for the progress of their native planet. Their determination is suggested by +the motto of their order: "What the United Midwayers undertake, the United +Midwayers do." + +Although their ability to traverse the energy circuits makes planetary +departure feasible to any midwayer, they have individually pledged themselves +not to leave the planet prior to their sometime release by the universe +authorities. Midwayers are anchored on a planet until the ages of settled light +and life. With the exception of 1-2-3 the first, no loyal midway creatures have +ever departed from Urantia. + +1-2-3 the first, the eldest of the primary order, was released from immediate +planetary duties shortly after Pentecost. This noble midwayer stood steadfast +with Van and Amadon during the tragic days of the planetary rebellion, and his +fearless leadership was instrumental in reducing the casualties in his order. +He serves at present on Jerusem as a member of the twenty-four counselors, +having already functioned as governor general of Urantia once since Pentecost. + +Midwayers are planet bound, but much as mortals talk with travelers from afar +and thus learn about remote places on the planet, so do midwayers converse with +celestial travelers to learn about the far places of the universe. So do they +become conversant with this system and universe, even with Orvonton and its +sister creations, and so do they prepare themselves for citizenship on the +higher levels of creature existence. + +While the midwayers were brought into existence fully developed--experiencing +no period of growth or development from immaturity--they never cease to grow in +wisdom and experience. Like mortals they are evolutionary creatures, and they +have a culture which is a bona fide evolutionary attainment. There are many +great minds and mighty spirits among the Urantia midway corps. + +In the larger aspect the civilization of Urantia is the joint product of the +Urantia mortals and the Urantia midwayers, and this is true despite the present +differential between the two levels of culture, a differential which will not +be compensated prior to the ages of light and life. + +The midway culture, being the product of an immortal planetary citizenry, is +relatively immune to those temporal vicissitudes which beset human +civilization. The generations of men forget; the corps of midwayers remembers, +and that memory is the treasure house of the traditions of your inhabited +world. Thus does the culture of a planet remain ever present on that planet, +and in proper circumstances such treasured memories of past events are made +available, even as the story of the life and teachings of Jesus has been given +by the midwayers of Urantia to their cousins in the flesh. + + top of page - 867 + +Midwayers are the skillful ministers who compensate that gap between the +material and spiritual affairs of Urantia which appeared upon the death of Adam +and Eve. They are likewise your elder brethren, comrades in the long struggle +to attain a settled status of light and life on Urantia. The United Midwayers +are a rebellion-tested corps, and they will faithfully enact their part in +planetary evolution until this world attains the goal of the ages, until that +distant day when in fact peace does reign on earth and in truth is there good +will in the hearts of men. + +Because of the valuable work performed by these midwayers, we have concluded +that they are a truly essential part of the spirit economy of the realms. And +where rebellion has not marred a planet's affairs, they are of still greater +assistance to the seraphim. + +The entire organization of high spirits, angelic hosts, and midway fellows is +enthusiastically devoted to the furtherance of the Paradise plan for the +progressive ascension and perfection attainment of evolutionary mortals, one of +the supernal businesses of the universe--the superb survival plan of bringing +God down to man and then, by a sublime sort of partnership, carrying man up to +God and on to eternity of service and divinity of attainment--alike for mortal +and midwayer. + +[Presented by an Archangel of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 868 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Second ³ The Violet ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Gard... ³ Race... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p078.txt b/religious documents/p078.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac18d4a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p078.txt @@ -0,0 +1,617 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 78 The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 78 The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE second Eden was the cradle of civilization for almost thirty thousand +years. Here in Mesopotamia the Adamic peoples held forth, sending out their +progeny to the ends of the earth, and latterly, as amalgamated with the Nodite +and Sangik tribes, were known as the Andites. From this region went those men +and women who initiated the doings of historic times and who have so enormously +accelerated cultural progress on Urantia. + +This paper depicts the planetary history of the violet race, beginning soon +after the default of Adam, about 35,000 B.C., and extending down through its +amalgamation with the Nodite and Sangik races, about 15,000 B.C., to form the +Andite peoples and on to its final disappearance from the Mesopotamian +homelands, about 2000 B.C. + +1. RACIAL AND CULTURAL DISTRIBUTION + +Although the minds and morals of the races were at a low level at the time of +Adam's arrival, physical evolution had gone on quite unaffected by the +exigencies of the Caligastia rebellion. Adam's contribution to the biologic +status of the races, notwithstanding the partial failure of the undertaking, +enormously upstepped the people of Urantia. + +Adam and Eve also contributed much that was of value to the social, moral, and +intellectual progress of mankind; civilization was immensely quickened by the +presence of their offspring. But thirty-five thousand years ago the world at +large possessed little culture. Certain centers of civilization existed here +and there, but most of Urantia languished in savagery. Racial and cultural +distribution was as follows: + +1. The violet race--Adamites and Adamsonites. The chief center of Adamite +culture was in the second garden, located in the triangle of the Tigris and +Euphrates rivers; this was indeed the cradle of Occidental and Indian +civilizations. The secondary or northern center of the violet race was the +Adamsonite headquarters, situated east of the southern shore of the Caspian Sea +near the Kopet mountains. From these two centers there went forth to the +surrounding lands the culture and life plasm which so immediately quickened all +the races. + +2. Pre-Sumerians and other Nodites. There were also present in Mesopotamia, +near the mouth of the rivers, remnants of the ancient culture of the days of +Dalamatia. With the passing millenniums, this group became thoroughly admixed +with the Adamites to the north, but they never entirely lost their Nodite +traditions. Various other Nodite groups that had settled in the Levant were, in +general, absorbed by the later expanding violet race. + + top of page - 869 + +3. The Andonites maintained five or six fairly representative settlements to +the north and east of the Adamson headquarters. They were also scattered +throughout Turkestan, while isolated islands of them persisted throughout +Eurasia, especially in mountainous regions. These aborigines still held the +northlands of the Eurasian continent, together with Iceland and Greenland, but +they had long since been driven from the plains of Europe by the blue man and +from the river valleys of farther Asia by the expanding yellow race. + +4. The red man occupied the Americas, having been driven out of Asia over fifty +thousand years before the arrival of Adam. + +5. The yellow race. The Chinese peoples were well established in control of +eastern Asia. Their most advanced settlements were situated to the northwest of +modern China in regions bordering on Tibet. + +6. The blue race. The blue men were scattered all over Europe, but their better +centers of culture were situated in the then fertile valleys of the +Mediterranean basin and in northwestern Europe. Neanderthal absorption had +greatly retarded the culture of the blue man, but he was otherwise the most +aggressive, adventurous, and exploratory of all the evolutionary peoples of +Eurasia. + +7. Pre-Dravidian India. The complex mixture of races in India--embracing every +race on earth, but especially the green, orange, and black--maintained a +culture slightly above that of the outlying regions. + +8. The Sahara civilization. The superior elements of the indigo race had their +most progressive settlements in what is now the great Sahara desert. This +indigo-black group carried extensive strains of the submerged orange and green +races. + +9. The Mediterranean basin. The most highly blended race outside of India +occupied what is now the Mediterranean basin. Here blue men from the north and +Saharans from the south met and mingled with Nodites and Adamites from the +east. + +This was the picture of the world prior to the beginnings of the great +expansions of the violet race, about twenty-five thousand years ago. The hope +of future civilization lay in the second garden between the rivers of +Mesopotamia. Here in southwestern Asia there existed the potential of a great +civilization, the possibility of the spread to the world of the ideas and +ideals which had been salvaged from the days of Dalamatia and the times of +Eden. + +Adam and Eve had left behind a limited but potent progeny, and the celestial +observers on Urantia waited anxiously to find out how these descendants of the +erring Material Son and Daughter would acquit themselves. + +2. THE ADAMITES IN THE SECOND GARDEN + +For thousands of years the sons of Adam labored along the rivers of +Mesopotamia, working out their irrigation and flood-control problems to the +south, perfecting their defenses to the north, and attempting to preserve their +traditions of the glory of the first Eden. + +The heroism displayed in the leadership of the second garden constitutes one of +the amazing and inspiring epics of Urantia's history. These splendid souls +never wholly lost sight of the purpose of the Adamic mission, and therefore did +they valiantly fight off the influences of the surrounding and inferior tribes + + top of page - 870 + +while they willingly sent forth their choicest sons and daughters in a steady +stream as emissaries to the races of earth. Sometimes this expansion was +depleting to the home culture, but always these superior peoples would +rehabilitate themselves. + +The civilization, society, and cultural status of the Adamites were far above +the general level of the evolutionary races of Urantia. Only among the old +settlements of Van and Amadon and the Adamsonites was there a civilization in +any way comparable. But the civilization of the second Eden was an artificial +structure--it had not been evolved--and was therefore doomed to deteriorate +until it reached a natural evolutionary level. + +Adam left a great intellectual and spiritual culture behind him, but it was not +advanced in mechanical appliances since every civilization is limited by +available natural resources, inherent genius, and sufficient leisure to insure +inventive fruition. The civilization of the violet race was predicated on the +presence of Adam and on the traditions of the first Eden. After Adam's death +and as these traditions grew dim through the passing millenniums, the cultural +level of the Adamites steadily deteriorated until it reached a state of +reciprocal balance with the status of the surrounding peoples and the naturally +evolving cultural capacities of the violet race. + +But the Adamites were a real nation around 19,000 B.C., numbering four and a +half million, and already they had poured forth millions of their progeny into +the surrounding peoples. + +3. EARLY EXPANSIONS OF THE ADAMITES + +The violet race retained the Edenic traditions of peacefulness for many +millenniums, which explains their long delay in making territorial conquests. +When they suffered from population pressure, instead of making war to secure +more territory, they sent forth their excess inhabitants as teachers to the +other races. The cultural effect of these earlier migrations was not enduring, +but the absorption of the Adamite teachers, traders, and explorers was +biologically invigorating to the surrounding peoples. + +Some of the Adamites early journeyed westward to the valley of the Nile; others +penetrated eastward into Asia, but these were a minority. The mass movement of +the later days was extensively northward and thence westward. It was, in the +main, a gradual but unremitting northward push, the greater number making their +way north and then circling westward around the Caspian Sea into Europe. + +About twenty-five thousand years ago many of the purer elements of the Adamites +were well on their northern trek. And as they penetrated northward, they became +less and less Adamic until, by the times of their occupation of Turkestan, they +had become thoroughly admixed with the other races, particularly the Nodites. +Very few of the pure-line violet peoples ever penetrated far into Europe or +Asia. + +From about 30,000 to 10,000 B.C. epoch-making racial mixtures were taking place +throughout southwestern Asia. The highland inhabitants of Turkestan were a +virile and vigorous people. To the northwest of India much of the culture of +the days of Van persisted. Still to the north of these settlements the best of +the early Andonites had been preserved. And both of these superior races of +culture and character were absorbed by the northward-moving Adamites. This + + top of page - 871 + +amalgamation led to the adoption of many new ideas; it facilitated the progress +of civilization and greatly advanced all phases of art, science, and social +culture. + +As the period of the early Adamic migrations ended, about 15,000 B.C., there +were already more descendants of Adam in Europe and central Asia than anywhere +else in the world, even than in Mesopotamia. The European blue races had been +largely infiltrated. The lands now called Russia and Turkestan were occupied +throughout their southern stretches by a great reservoir of the Adamites mixed +with Nodites, Andonites, and red and yellow Sangiks. Southern Europe and the +Mediterranean fringe were occupied by a mixed race of Andonite and Sangik +peoples--orange, green, and indigo--with a sprinkling of the Adamite stock. +Asia Minor and the central-eastern European lands were held by tribes that were +predominantly Andonite. + +A blended colored race, about this time greatly reinforced by arrivals from +Mesopotamia, held forth in Egypt and prepared to take over the disappearing +culture of the Euphrates valley. The black peoples were moving farther south in +Africa and, like the red race, were virtually isolated. + +The Saharan civilization had been disrupted by drought and that of the +Mediterranean basin by flood. The blue races had, as yet, failed to develop an +advanced culture. The Andonites were still scattered over the Arctic and +central Asian regions. The green and orange races had been exterminated as +such. The indigo race was moving south in Africa, there to begin its slow but +long-continued racial deterioration. + +The peoples of India lay stagnant, with a civilization that was unprogressing; +the yellow man was consolidating his holdings in central Asia; the brown man +had not yet begun his civilization on the near-by islands of the Pacific. + +These racial distributions, associated with extensive climatic changes, set the +world stage for the inauguration of the Andite era of Urantia civilization. +These early migrations extended over a period of ten thousand years, from +25,000 to 15,000 B.C. The later or Andite migrations extended from about 15,000 +to 6000 B.C. + +It took so long for the earlier waves of Adamites to pass over Eurasia that +their culture was largely lost in transit. Only the later Andites moved with +sufficient speed to retain the Edenic culture at any great distance from +Mesopotamia. + +4. THE ANDITES + +The Andite races were the primary blends of the pure-line violet race and the +Nodites plus the evolutionary peoples. In general, Andites should be thought of +as having a far greater percentage of Adamic blood than the modern races. In +the main, the term Andite is used to designate those peoples whose racial +inheritance was from one-eighth to one-sixth violet. Modern Urantians, even the +northern white races, contain much less than this percentage of the blood of +Adam. + +The earliest Andite peoples took origin in the regions adjacent to Mesopotamia +more than twenty-five thousand years ago and consisted of a blend of the +Adamites and Nodites. The second garden was surrounded by concentric circles of +diminishing violet blood, and it was on the periphery of this racial melting +pot that the Andite race was born. Later on, when the migrating Adamites + + top of page - 872 + +and Nodites entered the then fertile regions of Turkestan, they soon blended +with the superior inhabitants, and the resultant race mixture extended the +Andite type northward. + +The Andites were the best all-round human stock to appear on Urantia since the +days of the pure-line violet peoples. They embraced most of the highest types +of the surviving remnants of the Adamite and Nodite races and, later, some of +the best strains of the yellow, blue, and green men. + +These early Andites were not Aryan; they were pre-Aryan. They were not white; +they were pre-white. They were neither an Occidental nor an Oriental people. +But it is Andite inheritance that gives to the polyglot mixture of the +so-called white races that generalized homogeneity which has been called +Caucasoid. + +The purer strains of the violet race had retained the Adamic tradition of +peace-seeking, which explains why the earlier race movements had been more in +the nature of peaceful migrations. But as the Adamites united with the Nodite +stocks, who were by this time a belligerent race, their Andite descendants +became, for their day and age, the most skillful and sagacious militarists ever +to live on Urantia. Thenceforth the movements of the Mesopotamians grew +increasingly military in character and became more akin to actual conquests. + +These Andites were adventurous; they had roving dispositions. An increase of +either Sangik or Andonite stock tended to stabilize them. But even so, their +later descendants never stopped until they had circumnavigated the globe and +discovered the last remote continent. + +5. THE ANDITE MIGRATIONS + +For twenty thousand years the culture of the second garden persisted, but it +experienced a steady decline until about 15,000 B.C., when the regeneration of +the Sethite priesthood and the leadership of Amosad inaugurated a brilliant +era. The massive waves of civilization which later spread over Eurasia +immediately followed the great renaissance of the Garden consequent upon the +extensive union of the Adamites with the surrounding mixed Nodites to form the +Andites. + +These Andites inaugurated new advances throughout Eurasia and North Africa. +From Mesopotamia through Sinkiang the Andite culture was dominant, and the +steady migration toward Europe was continuously offset by new arrivals from +Mesopotamia. But it is hardly correct to speak of the Andites as a race in +Mesopotamia proper until near the beginning of the terminal migrations of the +mixed descendants of Adam. By this time even the races in the second garden had +become so blended that they could no longer be considered Adamites. + +The civilization of Turkestan was constantly being revived and refreshed by the +newcomers from Mesopotamia, especially by the later Andite cavalrymen. The +so-called Aryan mother tongue was in process of formation in the highlands of +Turkestan; it was a blend of the Andonic dialect of that region with the +language of the Adamsonites and later Andites. Many modern languages are +derived from this early speech of these central Asian tribes who conquered +Europe, India, and the upper stretches of the Mesopotamian plains. This ancient +language gave the Occidental tongues all of that similarity which is called +Aryan. + +By 12,000 B.C. three quarters of the Andite stock of the world was resident in +northern and eastern Europe, and when the later and final exodus from + + top of page - 873 + +Mesopotamia took place, sixty-five per cent of these last waves of emigration +entered Europe. + +The Andites not only migrated to Europe but to northern China and India, while +many groups penetrated to the ends of the earth as missionaries, teachers, and +traders. They contributed considerably to the northern groups of the Saharan +Sangik peoples. But only a few teachers and traders ever penetrated farther +south in Africa than the headwaters of the Nile. Later on, mixed Andites and +Egyptians followed down both the east and west coasts of Africa well below the +equator, but they did not reach Madagascar. + +These Andites were the so-called Dravidian and later Aryan conquerors of India; +and their presence in central Asia greatly upstepped the ancestors of the +Turanians. Many of this race journeyed to China by way of both Sinkiang and +Tibet and added desirable qualities to the later Chinese stocks. From time to +time small groups made their way into Japan, Formosa, the East Indies, and +southern China, though very few entered southern China by the coastal route. + +One hundred and thirty-two of this race, embarking in a fleet of small boats +from Japan, eventually reached South America and by intermarriage with the +natives of the Andes established the ancestry of the later rulers of the Incas. +They crossed the Pacific by easy stages, tarrying on the many islands they +found along the way. The islands of the Polynesian group were both more +numerous and larger then than now, and these Andite sailors, together with some +who followed them, biologically modified the native groups in transit. Many +flourishing centers of civilization grew up on these now submerged lands as a +result of Andite penetration. Easter Island was long a religious and +administrative center of one of these lost groups. But of the Andites who +navigated the Pacific of long ago none but the one hundred and thirty-two ever +reached the mainland of the Americas. + +The migratory conquests of the Andites continued on down to their final +dispersions, from 8000 to 6000 B.C. As they poured out of Mesopotamia, they +continuously depleted the biologic reserves of their homelands while markedly +strengthening the surrounding peoples. And to every nation to which they +journeyed, they contributed humor, art, adventure, music, and manufacture. They +were skillful domesticators of animals and expert agriculturists. For the time +being, at least, their presence usually improved the religious beliefs and +moral practices of the older races. And so the culture of Mesopotamia quietly +spread out over Europe, India, China, northern Africa, and the Pacific Islands. + +6. THE LAST ANDITE DISPERSIONS + +The last three waves of Andites poured out of Mesopotamia between 8000 and 6000 +B.C. These three great waves of culture were forced out of Mesopotamia by the +pressure of the hill tribes to the east and the harassment of the plainsmen of +the west. The inhabitants of the Euphrates valley and adjacent territory went +forth in their final exodus in several directions: + +Sixty-five per cent entered Europe by the Caspian Sea route to conquer and +amalgamate with the newly appearing white races--the blend of the blue men and +the earlier Andites. + +Ten per cent, including a large group of the Sethite priests, moved eastward +through the Elamite highlands to the Iranian plateau and Turkestan. Many of + + top of page - 874 + +their descendants were later driven into India with their Aryan brethren from +the regions to the north. + +Ten per cent of the Mesopotamians turned eastward in their northern trek, +entering Sinkiang, where they blended with the Andite-yellow inhabitants. The +majority of the able offspring of this racial union later entered China and +contributed much to the immediate improvement of the northern division of the +yellow race. + +Ten per cent of these fleeing Andites made their way across Arabia and entered +Egypt. + +Five per cent of the Andites, the very superior culture of the coastal district +about the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates who had kept themselves free from +intermarriage with the inferior neighboring tribesmen, refused to leave their +homes. This group represented the survival of many superior Nodite and Adamite +strains. + +The Andites had almost entirely evacuated this region by 6000 B.C., though +their descendants, largely mixed with the surrounding Sangik races and the +Andonites of Asia Minor, were there to give battle to the northern and eastern +invaders at a much later date. + +The cultural age of the second garden was terminated by the increasing +infiltration of the surrounding inferior stocks. Civilization moved westward to +the Nile and the Mediterranean islands, where it continued to thrive and +advance long after its fountainhead in Mesopotamia had deteriorated. And this +unchecked influx of inferior peoples prepared the way for the later conquest of +all Mesopotamia by the northern barbarians who drove out the residual strains +of ability. Even in later years the cultured residue still resented the +presence of these ignorant and uncouth invaders. + +7. THE FLOODS IN MESOPOTAMIA + +The river dwellers were accustomed to rivers overflowing their banks at certain +seasons; these periodic floods were annual events in their lives. But new +perils threatened the valley of Mesopotamia as a result of progressive geologic +changes to the north. + +For thousands of years after the submergence of the first Eden the mountains +about the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and those to the northwest and +northeast of Mesopotamia continued to rise. This elevation of the highlands was +greatly accelerated about 5000 B.C., and this, together with greatly increased +snowfall on the northern mountains, caused unprecedented floods each spring +throughout the Euphrates valley. These spring floods grew increasingly worse so +that eventually the inhabitants of the river regions were driven to the eastern +highlands. For almost a thousand years scores of cities were practically +deserted because of these extensive deluges. + +Almost five thousand years later, as the Hebrew priests in Babylonian captivity +sought to trace the Jewish people back to Adam, they found great difficulty in +piecing the story together; and it occurred to one of them to abandon the +effort, to let the whole world drown in its wickedness at the time of Noah's +flood, and thus to be in a better position to trace Abraham right back to one +of the three surviving sons of Noah. + + top of page - 875 + +The traditions of a time when water covered the whole of the earth's surface +are universal. Many races harbor the story of a world-wide flood some time +during past ages. The Biblical story of Noah, the ark, and the flood is an +invention of the Hebrew priesthood during the Babylonian captivity. There has +never been a universal flood since life was established on Urantia. The only +time the surface of the earth was completely covered by water was during those +Archeozoic ages before the land had begun to appear. + +But Noah really lived; he was a wine maker of Aram, a river settlement near +Erech. He kept a written record of the days of the river's rise from year to +year. He brought much ridicule upon himself by going up and down the river +valley advocating that all houses be built of wood, boat fashion, and that the +family animals be put on board each night as the flood season approached. He +would go to the neighboring river settlements every year and warn them that in +so many days the floods would come. Finally a year came in which the annual +floods were greatly augmented by unusually heavy rainfall so that the sudden +rise of the waters wiped out the entire village; only Noah and his immediate +family were saved in their houseboat. + +These floods completed the disruption of Andite civilization. With the ending +of this period of deluge, the second garden was no more. Only in the south and +among the Sumerians did any trace of the former glory remain. + +The remnants of this, one of the oldest civilizations, are to be found in these +regions of Mesopotamia and to the northeast and northwest. But still older +vestiges of the days of Dalamatia exist under the waters of the Persian Gulf, +and the first Eden lies submerged under the eastern end of the Mediterranean +Sea. + +8. THE SUMERIANS--LAST OF THE ANDITES + +When the last Andite dispersion broke the biologic backbone of Mesopotamian +civilization, a small minority of this superior race remained in their homeland +near the mouths of the rivers. These were the Sumerians, and by 6000 B.C. they +had become largely Andite in extraction, though their culture was more +exclusively Nodite in character, and they clung to the ancient traditions of +Dalamatia. Nonetheless, these Sumerians of the coastal regions were the last of +the Andites in Mesopotamia. But the races of Mesopotamia were already +thoroughly blended by this late date, as is evidenced by the skull types found +in the graves of this era. + +It was during the floodtimes that Susa so greatly prospered. The first and +lower city was inundated so that the second or higher town succeeded the lower +as the headquarters for the peculiar artcrafts of that day. With the later +diminution of these floods, Ur became the center of the pottery industry. About +seven thousand years ago Ur was on the Persian Gulf, the river deposits having +since built up the land to its present limits. These settlements suffered less +from the floods because of better controlling works and the widening mouths of +the rivers. + +The peaceful grain growers of the Euphrates and Tigris valleys had long been +harassed by the raids of the barbarians of Turkestan and the Iranian plateau. +But now a concerted invasion of the Euphrates valley was brought about by the +increasing drought of the highland pastures. And this invasion was all the + + top of page - 876 + +more serious because these surrounding herdsmen and hunters possessed large +numbers of tamed horses. It was the possession of horses which gave them a +tremendous military advantage over their rich neighbors to the south. In a +short time they overran all Mesopotamia, driving forth the last waves of +culture which spread out over all of Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa. + +These conquerors of Mesopotamia carried in their ranks many of the better +Andite strains of the mixed northern races of Turkestan, including some of the +Adamson stock. These less advanced but more vigorous tribes from the north +quickly and willingly assimilated the residue of the civilization of +Mesopotamia and presently developed into those mixed peoples found in the +Euphrates valley at the beginning of historic annals. They quickly revived many +phases of the passing civilization of Mesopotamia, adopting the arts of the +valley tribes and much of the culture of the Sumerians. They even sought to +build a third tower of Babel and later adopted the term as their national name. + +When these barbarian cavalrymen from the northeast overran the whole Euphrates +valley, they did not conquer the remnants of the Andites who dwelt about the +mouth of the river on the Persian Gulf. These Sumerians were able to defend +themselves because of superior intelligence, better weapons, and their +extensive system of military canals, which were an adjunct to their irrigation +scheme of interconnecting pools. They were a united people because they had a +uniform group religion. They were thus able to maintain their racial and +national integrity long after their neighbors to the northwest were broken up +into isolated city-states. No one of these city groups was able to overcome the +united Sumerians. + +And the invaders from the north soon learned to trust and prize these +peace-loving Sumerians as able teachers and administrators. They were greatly +respected and sought after as teachers of art and industry, as directors of +commerce, and as civil rulers by all peoples to the north and from Egypt in the +west to India in the east. + +After the breakup of the early Sumerian confederation the later city-states +were ruled by the apostate descendants of the Sethite priests. Only when these +priests made conquests of the neighboring cities did they call themselves +kings. The later city kings failed to form powerful confederations before the +days of Sargon because of deity jealousy. Each city believed its municipal god +to be superior to all other gods, and therefore they refused to subordinate +themselves to a common leader. + +The end of this long period of the weak rule of the city priests was terminated +by Sargon, the priest of Kish, who proclaimed himself king and started out on +the conquest of the whole of Mesopotamia and adjoining lands. And for the time, +this ended the city-states, priest-ruled and priest-ridden, each city having +its own municipal god and its own ceremonial practices. + +After the breakup of this Kish confederation there ensued a long period of +constant warfare between these valley cities for supremacy. And the rulership +variously shifted between Sumer, Akkad, Kish, Erech, Ur, and Susa. + +About 2500 B.C. the Sumerians suffered severe reverses at the hands of the +northern Suites and Guites. Lagash, the Sumerian capital built on flood mounds, +fell. Erech held out for thirty years after the fall of Akkad. By the time of +the establishment of the rule of Hammurabi the Sumerians had become absorbed +into the ranks of the northern Semites, and the Mesopotamian Andites passed +from the pages of history. + + top of page - 877 + +From 2500 to 2000 B.C. the nomads were on a rampage from the Atlantic to the +Pacific. The Nerites constituted the final eruption of the Caspian group of the +Mesopotamian descendants of the blended Andonite and Andite races. What the +barbarians failed to do to effect the ruination of Mesopotamia, subsequent +climatic changes succeeded in accomplishing. + +And this is the story of the violet race after the days of Adam and of the fate +of their homeland between the Tigris and Euphrates. Their ancient civilization +finally fell due to the emigration of superior peoples and the immigration of +their inferior neighbors. But long before the barbarian cavalrymen conquered +the valley, much of the Garden culture had spread to Asia, Africa, and Europe, +there to produce the ferments which have resulted in the twentieth-century +civilization of Urantia. + +[Presented by an Archangel of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 878 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Midway ³ Andite ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Crea... ³ Expansio... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p079.txt b/religious documents/p079.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..170ce97 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p079.txt @@ -0,0 +1,711 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 79 Andite Expansion In The Orient + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 79 Andite Expansion In The Orient + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ASIA is the homeland of the human race. It was on a southern peninsula of this +continent that Andon and Fonta were born; in the highlands of what is now +Afghanistan, their descendant Badonan founded a primitive center of culture +that persisted for over one-half million years. Here at this eastern focus of +the human race the Sangik peoples differentiated from the Andonic stock, and +Asia was their first home, their first hunting ground, their first battlefield. +Southwestern Asia witnessed the successive civilizations of Dalamatians, +Nodites, Adamites, and Andites, and from these regions the potentials of modern +civilization spread to the world. + +1. THE ANDITES OF TURKESTAN + +For over twenty-five thousand years, on down to nearly 2000 B.C., the heart of +Eurasia was predominantly, though diminishingly, Andite. In the lowlands of +Turkestan the Andites made the westward turning around the inland lakes into +Europe, while from the highlands of this region they infiltrated eastward. +Eastern Turkestan (Sinkiang) and, to a lesser extent, Tibet were the ancient +gateways through which these peoples of Mesopotamia penetrated the mountains to +the northern lands of the yellow men. The Andite infiltration of India +proceeded from the Turkestan highlands into the Punjab and from the Iranian +grazing lands through Baluchistan. These earlier migrations were in no sense +conquests; they were, rather, the continual drifting of the Andite tribes into +western India and China. + +For almost fifteen thousand years centers of mixed Andite culture persisted in +the basin of the Tarim River in Sinkiang and to the south in the highland +regions of Tibet, where the Andites and Andonites had extensively mingled. The +Tarim valley was the easternmost outpost of the true Andite culture. Here they +built their settlements and entered into trade relations with the progressive +Chinese to the east and with the Andonites to the north. In those days the +Tarim region was a fertile land; the rainfall was plentiful. To the east the +Gobi was an open grassland where the herders were gradually turning to +agriculture. This civilization perished when the rain winds shifted to the +southeast, but in its day it rivaled Mesopotamia itself. + +By 8000 B.C. the slowly increasing aridity of the highland regions of central +Asia began to drive the Andites to the river bottoms and the seashores. This +increasing drought not only drove them to the valleys of the Nile, Euphrates, +Indus, and Yellow rivers, but it produced a new development in Andite +civilization. A new class of men, the traders, began to appear in large +numbers. + + top of page - 879 + +When climatic conditions made hunting unprofitable for the migrating Andites, +they did not follow the evolutionary course of the older races by becoming +herders. Commerce and urban life made their appearance. From Egypt through +Mesopotamia and Turkestan to the rivers of China and India, the more highly +civilized tribes began to assemble in cities devoted to manufacture and trade. +Adonia became the central Asian commercial metropolis, being located near the +present city of Ashkhabad. Commerce in stone, metal, wood, and pottery was +accelerated on both land and water. + +But ever-increasing drought gradually brought about the great Andite exodus +from the lands south and east of the Caspian Sea. The tide of migration began +to veer from northward to southward, and the Babylonian cavalrymen began to +push into Mesopotamia. + +Increasing aridity in central Asia further operated to reduce population and to +render these people less warlike; and when the diminishing rainfall to the +north forced the nomadic Andonites southward, there was a tremendous exodus of +Andites from Turkestan. This is the terminal movement of the so-called Aryans +into the Levant and India. It culminated that long dispersal of the mixed +descendants of Adam during which every Asiatic and most of the island peoples +of the Pacific were to some extent improved by these superior races. + +Thus, while they dispersed over the Eastern Hemisphere, the Andites were +dispossessed of their homelands in Mesopotamia and Turkestan, for it was this +extensive southward movement of Andonites that diluted the Andites in central +Asia nearly to the vanishing point. + +But even in the twentieth century after Christ there are traces of Andite blood +among the Turanian and Tibetan peoples, as is witnessed by the blond types +occasionally found in these regions. The early Chinese annals record the +presence of the red-haired nomads to the north of the peaceful settlements of +the Yellow River, and there still remain paintings which faithfully record the +presence of both the blond-Andite and the brunet-Mongolian types in the Tarim +basin of long ago. + +The last great manifestation of the submerged military genius of the central +Asiatic Andites was in A.D. 1200, when the Mongols under Genghis Khan began the +conquest of the greater portion of the Asiatic continent. And like the Andites +of old, these warriors proclaimed the existence of "one God in heaven." The +early breakup of their empire long delayed cultural intercourse between +Occident and Orient and greatly handicapped the growth of the monotheistic +concept in Asia. + +2. THE ANDITE CONQUEST OF INDIA + +India is the only locality where all the Urantia races were blended, the Andite +invasion adding the last stock. In the highlands northwest of India the Sangik +races came into existence, and without exception members of each penetrated the +subcontinent of India in their early days, leaving behind them the most +heterogeneous race mixture ever to exist on Urantia. Ancient India acted as a +catch basin for the migrating races. The base of the peninsula was formerly +somewhat narrower than now, much of the deltas of the Ganges and Indus being +the work of the last fifty thousand years. + +The earliest race mixtures in India were a blending of the migrating red and +yellow races with the aboriginal Andonites. This group was later weakened by + + top of page - 880 + +absorbing the greater portion of the extinct eastern green peoples as well as +large numbers of the orange race, was slightly improved through limited +admixture with the blue man, but suffered exceedingly through assimilation of +large numbers of the indigo race. But the so-called aborigines of India are +hardly representative of these early people; they are rather the most inferior +southern and eastern fringe, which was never fully absorbed by either the early +Andites or their later appearing Aryan cousins. + +By 20,000 B.C. the population of western India had already become tinged with +the Adamic blood, and never in the history of Urantia did any one people +combine so many different races. But it was unfortunate that the secondary +Sangik strains predominated, and it was a real calamity that both the blue and +the red man were so largely missing from this racial melting pot of long ago; +more of the primary Sangik strains would have contributed very much toward the +enhancement of what might have been an even greater civilization. As it +developed, the red man was destroying himself in the Americas, the blue man was +disporting himself in Europe, and the early descendants of Adam (and most of +the later ones) exhibited little desire to admix with the darker colored +peoples, whether in India, Africa, or elsewhere. + +About 15,000 B.C. increasing population pressure throughout Turkestan and Iran +occasioned the first really extensive Andite movement toward India. For over +fifteen centuries these superior peoples poured in through the highlands of +Baluchistan, spreading out over the valleys of the Indus and Ganges and slowly +moving southward into the Deccan. This Andite pressure from the northwest drove +many of the southern and eastern inferiors into Burma and southern China but +not sufficiently to save the invaders from racial obliteration. + +The failure of India to achieve the hegemony of Eurasia was largely a matter of +topography; population pressure from the north only crowded the majority of the +people southward into the decreasing territory of the Deccan, surrounded on all +sides by the sea. Had there been adjacent lands for emigration, then would the +inferiors have been crowded out in all directions, and the superior stocks +would have achieved a higher civilization. + +As it was, these earlier Andite conquerors made a desperate attempt to preserve +their identity and stem the tide of racial engulfment by the establishment of +rigid restrictions regarding intermarriage. Nonetheless, the Andites had become +submerged by 10,000 B.C., but the whole mass of the people had been markedly +improved by this absorption. + +Race mixture is always advantageous in that it favors versatility of culture +and makes for a progressive civilization, but if the inferior elements of +racial stocks predominate, such achievements will be short-lived. A polyglot +culture can be preserved only if the superior stocks reproduce themselves in a +safe margin over the inferior. Unrestrained multiplication of inferiors, with +decreasing reproduction of superiors, is unfailingly suicidal of cultural +civilization. + +Had the Andite conquerors been in numbers three times what they were, or had +they driven out or destroyed the least desirable third of the mixed +orange-green-indigo inhabitants, then would India have become one of the +world's leading centers of cultural civilization and undoubtedly would have +attracted more of the later waves of Mesopotamians that flowed into Turkestan +and thence northward to Europe. + + top of page - 881 + +3. DRAVIDIAN INDIA + +The blending of the Andite conquerors of India with the native stock eventually +resulted in that mixed people which has been called Dravidian. The earlier and +purer Dravidians possessed a great capacity for cultural achievement, which was +continuously weakened as their Andite inheritance became progressively +attenuated. And this is what doomed the budding civilization of India almost +twelve thousand years ago. But the infusion of even this small amount of the +blood of Adam produced a marked acceleration in social development. This +composite stock immediately produced the most versatile civilization then on +earth. + +Not long after conquering India, the Dravidian Andites lost their racial and +cultural contact with Mesopotamia, but the later opening up of the sea lanes +and the caravan routes re-established these connections; and at no time within +the last ten thousand years has India ever been entirely out of touch with +Mesopotamia on the west and China to the east, although the mountain barriers +greatly favored western intercourse. + +The superior culture and religious leanings of the peoples of India date from +the early times of Dravidian domination and are due, in part, to the fact that +so many of the Sethite priesthood entered India, both in the earlier Andite and +in the later Aryan invasions. The thread of monotheism running through the +religious history of India thus stems from the teachings of the Adamites in the +second garden. + +As early as 16,000 B.C. a company of one hundred Sethite priests entered India +and very nearly achieved the religious conquest of the western half of that +polyglot people. But their religion did not persist. Within five thousand years +their doctrines of the Paradise Trinity had degenerated into the triune symbol +of the fire god. + +But for more than seven thousand years, down to the end of the Andite +migrations, the religious status of the inhabitants of India was far above that +of the world at large. During these times India bid fair to produce the leading +cultural, religious, philosophic, and commercial civilization of the world. And +but for the complete submergence of the Andites by the peoples of the south, +this destiny would probably have been realized. + +The Dravidian centers of culture were located in the river valleys, principally +of the Indus and Ganges, and in the Deccan along the three great rivers flowing +through the Eastern Ghats to the sea. The settlements along the seacoast of the +Western Ghats owed their prominence to maritime relationships with Sumeria. + +The Dravidians were among the earliest peoples to build cities and to engage in +an extensive export and import business, both by land and sea. By 7000 B.C. +camel trains were making regular trips to distant Mesopotamia; Dravidian +shipping was pushing coastwise across the Arabian Sea to the Sumerian cities of +the Persian Gulf and was venturing on the waters of the Bay of Bengal as far as +the East Indies. An alphabet, together with the art of writing, was imported +from Sumeria by these seafarers and merchants. + +These commercial relationships greatly contributed to the further +diversification of a cosmopolitan culture, resulting in the early appearance of +many of the refinements and even luxuries of urban life. When the later +appearing Aryans + + top of page - 882 + +entered India, they did not recognize in the Dravidians their Andite cousins +submerged in the Sangik races, but they did find a well-advanced civilization. +Despite biologic limitations, the Dravidians founded a superior civilization. +It was well diffused throughout all India and has survived on down to modern +times in the Deccan. + +4. THE ARYAN INVASION OF INDIA + +The second Andite penetration of India was the Aryan invasion during a period +of almost five hundred years in the middle of the third millennium before +Christ. This migration marked the terminal exodus of the Andites from their +homelands in Turkestan. + +The early Aryan centers were scattered over the northern half of India, notably +in the northwest. These invaders never completed the conquest of the country +and subsequently met their undoing in this neglect since their lesser numbers +made them vulnerable to absorption by the Dravidians of the south, who +subsequently overran the entire peninsula except the Himalayan provinces. + +The Aryans made very little racial impression on India except in the northern +provinces. In the Deccan their influence was cultural and religious more than +racial. The greater persistence of the so-called Aryan blood in northern India +is not only due to their presence in these regions in greater numbers but also +because they were reinforced by later conquerors, traders, and missionaries. +Right on down to the first century before Christ there was a continuous +infiltration of Aryan blood into the Punjab, the last influx being attendant +upon the campaigns of the Hellenistic peoples. + +On the Gangetic plain Aryan and Dravidian eventually mingled to produce a high +culture, and this center was later reinforced by contributions from the +northeast, coming from China. + +In India many types of social organizations flourished from time to time, from +the semidemocratic systems of the Aryans to despotic and monarchial forms of +government. But the most characteristic feature of society was the persistence +of the great social castes that were instituted by the Aryans in an effort to +perpetuate racial identity. This elaborate caste system has been preserved on +down to the present time. + +Of the four great castes, all but the first were established in the futile +effort to prevent racial amalgamation of the Aryan conquerors with their +inferior subjects. But the premier caste, the teacher-priests, stems from the +Sethites; the Brahmans of the twentieth century after Christ are the lineal +cultural descendants of the priests of the second garden, albeit their +teachings differ greatly from those of their illustrious predecessors. + +When the Aryans entered India, they brought with them their concepts of Deity +as they had been preserved in the lingering traditions of the religion of the +second garden. But the Brahman priests were never able to withstand the pagan +momentum built up by the sudden contact with the inferior religions of the +Deccan after the racial obliteration of the Aryans. Thus the vast majority of +the population fell into the bondage of the enslaving superstitions of inferior +religions; and so it was that India failed to produce the high civilization +which had been foreshadowed in earlier times. + +The spiritual awakening of the sixth century before Christ did not persist in +India, having died out even before the Mohammedan invasion. But someday + + top of page - 883 + +a greater Gautama may arise to lead all India in the search for the living God, +and then the world will observe the fruition of the cultural potentialities of +a versatile people so long comatose under the benumbing influence of an +unprogressing spiritual vision. + +Culture does rest on a biologic foundation, but caste alone could not +perpetuate the Aryan culture, for religion, true religion, is the indispensable +source of that higher energy which drives men to establish a superior +civilization based on human brotherhood. + +5. RED MAN AND YELLOW MAN + +While the story of India is that of Andite conquest and eventual submergence in +the older evolutionary peoples, the narrative of eastern Asia is more properly +that of the primary Sangiks, particularly the red man and the yellow man. These +two races largely escaped that admixture with the debased Neanderthal strain +which so greatly retarded the blue man in Europe, thus preserving the superior +potential of the primary Sangik type. + +While the early Neanderthalers were spread out over the entire breadth of +Eurasia, the eastern wing was the more contaminated with debased animal +strains. These subhuman types were pushed south by the fifth glacier, the same +ice sheet which so long blocked Sangik migration into eastern Asia. And when +the red man moved northeast around the highlands of India, he found +northeastern Asia free from these subhuman types. The tribal organization of +the red races was formed earlier than that of any other peoples, and they were +the first to migrate from the central Asian focus of the Sangiks. The inferior +Neanderthal strains were destroyed or driven off the mainland by the later +migrating yellow tribes. But the red man had reigned supreme in eastern Asia +for almost one hundred thousand years before the yellow tribes arrived. + +More than three hundred thousand years ago the main body of the yellow race +entered China from the south as coastwise migrants. Each millennium they +penetrated farther and farther inland, but they did not make contact with their +migrating Tibetan brethren until comparatively recent times. + +Growing population pressure caused the northward-moving yellow race to begin to +push into the hunting grounds of the red man. This encroachment, coupled with +natural racial antagonism, culminated in increasing hostilities, and thus began +the crucial struggle for the fertile lands of farther Asia. + +The story of this agelong contest between the red and yellow races is an epic +of Urantia history. For over two hundred thousand years these two superior +races waged bitter and unremitting warfare. In the earlier struggles the red +men were generally successful, their raiding parties spreading havoc among the +yellow settlements. But the yellow man was an apt pupil in the art of warfare, +and he early manifested a marked ability to live peaceably with his +compatriots; the Chinese were the first to learn that in union there is +strength. The red tribes continued their internecine conflicts, and presently +they began to suffer repeated defeats at the aggressive hands of the relentless +Chinese, who continued their inexorable march northward. + +One hundred thousand years ago the decimated tribes of the red race were +fighting with their backs to the retreating ice of the last glacier, and when +the land passage to the east, over the Bering isthmus, became passable, these +tribes + + top of page - 884 + +were not slow in forsaking the inhospitable shores of the Asiatic continent. It +is eighty-five thousand years since the last of the pure red men departed from +Asia, but the long struggle left its genetic imprint upon the victorious yellow +race. The northern Chinese peoples, together with the Andonite Siberians, +assimilated much of the red stock and were in considerable measure benefited +thereby. + +The North American Indians never came in contact with even the Andite offspring +of Adam and Eve, having been dispossessed of their Asiatic homelands some fifty +thousand years before the coming of Adam. During the age of Andite migrations +the pure red strains were spreading out over North America as nomadic tribes, +hunters who practiced agriculture to a small extent. These races and cultural +groups remained almost completely isolated from the remainder of the world from +their arrival in the Americas down to the end of the first millennium of the +Christian era, when they were discovered by the white races of Europe. Up to +that time the Eskimos were the nearest to white men the northern tribes of red +men had ever seen. + +The red and the yellow races are the only human stocks that ever achieved a +high degree of civilization apart from the influences of the Andites. The +oldest Amerindian culture was the Onamonalonton center in California, but this +had long since vanished by 35,000 B.C. In Mexico, Central America, and in the +mountains of South America the later and more enduring civilizations were +founded by a race predominantly red but containing a considerable admixture of +the yellow, orange, and blue. + +These civilizations were evolutionary products of the Sangiks, notwithstanding +that traces of Andite blood reached Peru. Excepting the Eskimos in North +America and a few Polynesian Andites in South America, the peoples of the +Western Hemisphere had no contact with the rest of the world until the end of +the first millennium after Christ. In the original Melchizedek plan for the +improvement of the Urantia races it had been stipulated that one million of the +pure-line descendants of Adam should go to upstep the red men of the Americas. + +6. DAWN OF CHINESE CIVILIZATION + +Sometime after driving the red man across to North America, the expanding +Chinese cleared the Andonites from the river valleys of eastern Asia, pushing +them north into Siberia and west into Turkestan, where they were soon to come +in contact with the superior culture of the Andites. + +In Burma and the peninsula of Indo-China the cultures of India and China mixed +and blended to produce the successive civilizations of those regions. Here the +vanished green race has persisted in larger proportion than anywhere else in +the world. + +Many different races occupied the islands of the Pacific. In general, the +southern and then more extensive islands were occupied by peoples carrying a +heavy percentage of green and indigo blood. The northern islands were held by +Andonites and, later on, by races embracing large proportions of the yellow and +red stocks. The ancestors of the Japanese people were not driven off the +mainland until 12,000 B.C., when they were dislodged by a powerful +southern-coastwise thrust of the northern Chinese tribes. Their final exodus +was not so much due to population pressure as to the initiative of a chieftain +whom they came to regard as a divine personage. + + top of page - 885 + +Like the peoples of India and the Levant, victorious tribes of the yellow man +established their earliest centers along the coast and up the rivers. The +coastal settlements fared poorly in later years as the increasing floods and +the shifting courses of the rivers made the lowland cities untenable. + +Twenty thousand years ago the ancestors of the Chinese had built up a dozen +strong centers of primitive culture and learning, especially along the Yellow +River and the Yangtze. And now these centers began to be reinforced by the +arrival of a steady stream of superior blended peoples from Sinkiang and Tibet. +The migration from Tibet to the Yangtze valley was not so extensive as in the +north, neither were the Tibetan centers so advanced as those of the Tarim +basin. But both movements carried a certain amount of Andite blood eastward to +the river settlements. + +The superiority of the ancient yellow race was due to four great factors: + +1. Genetic. Unlike their blue cousins in Europe, both the red and yellow races +had largely escaped mixture with debased human stocks. The northern Chinese, +already strengthened by small amounts of the superior red and Andonic strains, +were soon to benefit by a considerable influx of Andite blood. The southern +Chinese did not fare so well in this regard, and they had long suffered from +absorption of the green race, while later on they were to be further weakened +by the infiltration of the swarms of inferior peoples crowded out of India by +the Dravidian-Andite invasion. And today in China there is a definite +difference between the northern and southern races. + +2. Social. The yellow race early learned the value of peace among themselves. +Their internal peaceableness so contributed to population increase as to insure +the spread of their civilization among many millions. From 25,000 to 5000 B.C. +the highest mass civilization on Urantia was in central and northern China. The +yellow man was first to achieve a racial solidarity--the first to attain a +large-scale cultural, social, and political civilization. + +The Chinese of 15,000 B.C. were aggressive militarists; they had not been +weakened by an overreverence for the past, and numbering less than twelve +million, they formed a compact body speaking a common language. During this age +they built up a real nation, much more united and homogeneous than their +political unions of historic times. + +3. Spiritual. During the age of Andite migrations the Chinese were among the +more spiritual peoples of earth. Long adherence to the worship of the One Truth +proclaimed by Singlangton kept them ahead of most of the other races. The +stimulus of a progressive and advanced religion is often a decisive factor in +cultural development; as India languished, so China forged ahead under the +invigorating stimulus of a religion in which truth was enshrined as the supreme +Deity. + +This worship of truth was provocative of research and fearless exploration of +the laws of nature and the potentials of mankind. The Chinese of even six +thousand years ago were still keen students and aggressive in their pursuit of +truth. + +4. Geographic. China is protected by the mountains to the west and the Pacific +to the east. Only in the north is the way open to attack, and from the days of +the red man to the coming of the later descendants of the Andites, the north +was not occupied by any aggressive race. + + top of page - 886 + +And but for the mountain barriers and the later decline in spiritual culture, +the yellow race undoubtedly would have attracted to itself the larger part of +the Andite migrations from Turkestan and unquestionably would have quickly +dominated world civilization. + +7. THE ANDITES ENTER CHINA + +About fifteen thousand years ago the Andites, in considerable numbers, were +traversing the pass of Ti Tao and spreading out over the upper valley of the +Yellow River among the Chinese settlements of Kansu. Presently they penetrated +eastward to Honan, where the most progressive settlements were situated. This +infiltration from the west was about half Andonite and half Andite. + +The northern centers of culture along the Yellow River had always been more +progressive than the southern settlements on the Yangtze. Within a few thousand +years after the arrival of even the small numbers of these superior mortals, +the settlements along the Yellow River had forged ahead of the Yangtze villages +and had achieved an advanced position over their brethren in the south which +has ever since been maintained. + +It was not that there were so many of the Andites, nor that their culture was +so superior, but amalgamation with them produced a more versatile stock. The +northern Chinese received just enough of the Andite strain to mildly stimulate +their innately able minds but not enough to fire them with the restless, +exploratory curiosity so characteristic of the northern white races. This more +limited infusion of Andite inheritance was less disturbing to the innate +stability of the Sangik type. + +The later waves of Andites brought with them certain of the cultural advances +of Mesopotamia; this is especially true of the last waves of migration from the +west. They greatly improved the economic and educational practices of the +northern Chinese; and while their influence upon the religious culture of the +yellow race was short-lived, their later descendants contributed much to a +subsequent spiritual awakening. But the Andite traditions of the beauty of Eden +and Dalamatia did influence Chinese traditions; early Chinese legends place +"the land of the gods" in the west. + +The Chinese people did not begin to build cities and engage in manufacture +until after 10,000 B.C., subsequent to the climatic changes in Turkestan and +the arrival of the later Andite immigrants. The infusion of this new blood did +not add so much to the civilization of the yellow man as it stimulated the +further and rapid development of the latent tendencies of the superior Chinese +stocks. From Honan to Shensi the potentials of an advanced civilization were +coming to fruit. Metalworking and all the arts of manufacture date from these +days. + +The similarities between certain of the early Chinese and Mesopotamian methods +of time reckoning, astronomy, and governmental administration were due to the +commercial relationships between these two remotely situated centers. Chinese +merchants traveled the overland routes through Turkestan to Mesopotamia even in +the days of the Sumerians. Nor was this exchange one-sided--the valley of the +Euphrates benefited considerably thereby, as did the peoples of the Gangetic +plain. But the climatic changes and the nomadic invasions of the third +millennium before Christ greatly reduced the volume of trade passing over the +caravan trails of central Asia. + + top of page - 887 + +8. LATER CHINESE CIVILIZATION + +While the red man suffered from too much warfare, it is not altogether amiss to +say that the development of statehood among the Chinese was delayed by the +thoroughness of their conquest of Asia. They had a great potential of racial +solidarity, but it failed properly to develop because the continuous driving +stimulus of the ever-present danger of external aggression was lacking. + +With the completion of the conquest of eastern Asia the ancient military state +gradually disintegrated--past wars were forgotten. Of the epic struggle with +the red race there persisted only the hazy tradition of an ancient contest with +the archer peoples. The Chinese early turned to agricultural pursuits, which +contributed further to their pacific tendencies, while a population well below +the land-man ratio for agriculture still further contributed to the growing +peacefulness of the country. + +Consciousness of past achievements (somewhat diminished in the present), the +conservatism of an overwhelmingly agricultural people, and a well-developed +family life equaled the birth of ancestor veneration, culminating in the custom +of so honoring the men of the past as to border on worship. A very similar +attitude prevailed among the white races in Europe for some five hundred years +following the disruption of Graeco-Roman civilization. + +The belief in, and worship of, the "One Truth" as taught by Singlangton never +entirely died out; but as time passed, the search for new and higher truth +became overshadowed by a growing tendency to venerate that which was already +established. Slowly the genius of the yellow race became diverted from the +pursuit of the unknown to the preservation of the known. And this is the reason +for the stagnation of what had been the world's most rapidly progressing +civilization. + +Between 4000 and 500 B.C. the political reunification of the yellow race was +consummated, but the cultural union of the Yangtze and Yellow river centers had +already been effected. This political reunification of the later tribal groups +was not without conflict, but the societal opinion of war remained low; +ancestor worship, increasing dialects, and no call for military action for +thousands upon thousands of years had rendered this people ultrapeaceful. + +Despite failure to fulfill the promise of an early development of advanced +statehood, the yellow race did progressively move forward in the realization of +the arts of civilization, especially in the realms of agriculture and +horticulture. The hydraulic problems faced by the agriculturists in Shensi and +Honan demanded group co-operation for solution. Such irrigation and +soil-conservation difficulties contributed in no small measure to the +development of interdependence with the consequent promotion of peace among +farming groups. + +Soon developments in writing, together with the establishment of schools, +contributed to the dissemination of knowledge on a previously unequaled scale. +But the cumbersome nature of the ideographic writing system placed a numerical +limit upon the learned classes despite the early appearance of printing. And +above all else, the process of social standardization and religio-philosophic +dogmatization continued apace. The religious development of ancestor veneration +became further complicated by a flood of superstitions involving nature +worship, but lingering vestiges of a real concept of God remained preserved in +the imperial worship of Shang-ti. + + top of page - 888 + +The great weakness of ancestor veneration is that it promotes a +backward-looking philosophy. However wise it may be to glean wisdom from the +past, it is folly to regard the past as the exclusive source of truth. Truth is +relative and expanding; it lives always in the present, achieving new +expression in each generation of men--even in each human life. + +The great strength in a veneration of ancestry is the value that such an +attitude places upon the family. The amazing stability and persistence of +Chinese culture is a consequence of the paramount position accorded the family, +for civilization is directly dependent on the effective functioning of the +family; and in China the family attained a social importance, even a religious +significance, approached by few other peoples. + +The filial devotion and family loyalty exacted by the growing cult of ancestor +worship insured the building up of superior family relationships and of +enduring family groups, all of which facilitated the following factors in the +preservation of civilization: + +1. Conservation of property and wealth. + +2. Pooling of the experience of more than one generation. + +3. Efficient education of children in the arts and sciences of the past. + +4. Development of a strong sense of duty, the enhancement of morality, and the +augmentation of ethical sensitivity. + +The formative period of Chinese civilization, opening with the coming of the +Andites, continues on down to the great ethical, moral, and semireligious +awakening of the sixth century before Christ. And Chinese tradition preserves +the hazy record of the evolutionary past; the transition from mother- to +father-family, the establishment of agriculture, the development of +architecture, the initiation of industry--all these are successively narrated. +And this story presents, with greater accuracy than any other similar account, +the picture of the magnificent ascent of a superior people from the levels of +barbarism. During this time they passed from a primitive agricultural society +to a higher social organization embracing cities, manufacture, metalworking, +commercial exchange, government, writing, mathematics, art, science, and +printing. + +And so the ancient civilization of the yellow race has persisted down through +the centuries. It is almost forty thousand years since the first important +advances were made in Chinese culture, and though there have been many +retrogressions, the civilization of the sons of Han comes the nearest of all to +presenting an unbroken picture of continual progression right on down to the +times of the twentieth century. The mechanical and religious developments of +the white races have been of a high order, but they have never excelled the +Chinese in family loyalty, group ethics, or personal morality. + +This ancient culture has contributed much to human happiness; millions of human +beings have lived and died, blessed by its achievements. For centuries this +great civilization has rested upon the laurels of the past, but it is even now +reawakening to envision anew the transcendent goals of mortal existence, once +again to take up the unremitting struggle for never-ending progress. + +[Presented by an Archangel of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 889 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Violet ³ Andite ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Race... ³ Expansio... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p080.txt b/religious documents/p080.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b4a433 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p080.txt @@ -0,0 +1,683 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 80 Andite Expansion In The Occident + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 80 Andite Expansion In The Occident + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ALTHOUGH the European blue man did not of himself achieve a great cultural +civilization, he did supply the biologic foundation which, when its Adamized +strains were blended with the later Andite invaders, produced one of the most +potent stocks for the attainment of aggressive civilization ever to appear on +Urantia since the times of the violet race and their Andite successors. + +The modern white peoples incorporate the surviving strains of the Adamic stock +which became admixed with the Sangik races, some red and yellow but more +especially the blue. There is a considerable percentage of the original +Andonite stock in all the white races and still more of the early Nodite +strains. + +1. THE ADAMITES ENTER EUROPE + +Before the last Andites were driven out of the Euphrates valley, many of their +brethren had entered Europe as adventurers, teachers, traders, and warriors. +During the earlier days of the violet race the Mediterranean trough was +protected by the Gibraltar isthmus and the Sicilian land bridge. Some of man's +very early maritime commerce was established on these inland lakes, where blue +men from the north and the Saharans from the south met Nodites and Adamites +from the east. + +In the eastern trough of the Mediterranean the Nodites had established one of +their most extensive cultures and from these centers had penetrated somewhat +into southern Europe but more especially into northern Africa. The broad-headed +Nodite-Andonite Syrians very early introduced pottery and agriculture in +connection with their settlements on the slowly rising Nile delta. They also +imported sheep, goats, cattle, and other domesticated animals and brought in +greatly improved methods of metalworking, Syria then being the center of that +industry. + +For more than thirty thousand years Egypt received a steady stream of +Mesopotamians, who brought along their art and culture to enrich that of the +Nile valley. But the ingress of large numbers of the Sahara peoples greatly +deteriorated the early civilization along the Nile so that Egypt reached its +lowest cultural level some fifteen thousand years ago. + +But during earlier times there was little to hinder the westward migration of +the Adamites. The Sahara was an open grazing land overspread by herders and +agriculturists. These Saharans never engaged in manufacture, nor were they city +builders. They were an indigo-black group which carried extensive strains of +the extinct green and orange races. But they received a very limited amount of +the violet inheritance before the upthrust of land and the shifting water-laden +winds dispersed the remnants of this prosperous and peaceful civilization. + + top of page - 890 + +Adam's blood has been shared with most of the human races, but some secured +more than others. The mixed races of India and the darker peoples of Africa +were not attractive to the Adamites. They would have mixed freely with the red +man had he not been far removed in the Americas, and they were kindly disposed +toward the yellow man, but he was likewise difficult of access in faraway Asia. +Therefore, when actuated by either adventure or altruism, or when driven out of +the Euphrates valley, they very naturally chose union with the blue races of +Europe. + +The blue men, then dominant in Europe, had no religious practices which were +repulsive to the earlier migrating Adamites, and there was great sex attraction +between the violet and the blue races. The best of the blue men deemed it a +high honor to be permitted to mate with the Adamites. Every blue man +entertained the ambition of becoming so skillful and artistic as to win the +affection of some Adamite woman, and it was the highest aspiration of a +superior blue woman to receive the attentions of an Adamite. + +Slowly these migrating sons of Eden united with the higher types of the blue +race, invigorating their cultural practices while ruthlessly exterminating the +lingering strains of Neanderthal stock. This technique of race blending, +combined with the elimination of inferior strains, produced a dozen or more +virile and progressive groups of superior blue men, one of which you have +denominated the Cro-Magnons. + +For these and other reasons, not the least of which was more favorable paths of +migration, the early waves of Mesopotamian culture made their way almost +exclusively to Europe. And it was these circumstances that determined the +antecedents of modern European civilization. + +2. CLIMATIC AND GEOLOGIC CHANGES + +The early expansion of the violet race into Europe was cut short by certain +rather sudden climatic and geologic changes. With the retreat of the northern +ice fields the water-laden winds from the west shifted to the north, gradually +turning the great open pasture regions of Sahara into a barren desert. This +drought dispersed the smaller-statured brunets, dark-eyed but long-headed +dwellers of the great Sahara plateau. + +The purer indigo elements moved southward to the forests of central Africa, +where they have ever since remained. The more mixed groups spread out in three +directions: The superior tribes to the west migrated to Spain and thence to +adjacent parts of Europe, forming the nucleus of the later Mediterranean +long-headed brunet races. The least progressive division to the east of the +Sahara plateau migrated to Arabia and thence through northern Mesopotamia and +India to faraway Ceylon. The central group moved north and east to the Nile +valley and into Palestine. + +It is this secondary Sangik substratum that suggests a certain degree of +kinship among the modern peoples scattered from the Deccan through Iran, +Mesopotamia, and along both shores of the Mediterranean Sea. + +About the time of these climatic changes in Africa, England separated from the +continent, and Denmark arose from the sea, while the isthmus of Gibraltar, +protecting the western basin of the Mediterranean, gave way as the result of an +earthquake, quickly raising this inland lake to the level of the Atlantic +Ocean. + + top of page - 891 + +Presently the Sicilian land bridge submerged, creating one sea of the +Mediterranean and connecting it with the Atlantic Ocean. This cataclysm of +nature flooded scores of human settlements and occasioned the greatest loss of +life by flood in all the world's history. + +This engulfment of the Mediterranean basin immediately curtailed the westward +movements of the Adamites, while the great influx of Saharans led them to seek +outlets for their increasing numbers to the north and east of Eden. As the +descendants of Adam journeyed northward from the valleys of the Tigris and +Euphrates, they encountered mountainous barriers and the then expanded Caspian +Sea. And for many generations the Adamites hunted, herded, and tilled the soil +around their settlements scattered throughout Turkestan. Slowly this +magnificent people extended their territory into Europe. But now the Adamites +enter Europe from the east and find the culture of the blue man thousands of +years behind that of Asia since this region has been almost entirely out of +touch with Mesopotamia. + +3. THE CRO-MAGNOID BLUE MAN + +The ancient centers of the culture of the blue man were located along all the +rivers of Europe, but only the Somme now flows in the same channel which it +followed during preglacial times. + +While we speak of the blue man as pervading the European continent, there were +scores of racial types. Even thirty-five thousand years ago the European blue +races were already a highly blended people carrying strains of both red and +yellow, while on the Atlantic coastlands and in the regions of present-day +Russia they had absorbed a considerable amount of Andonite blood and to the +south were in contact with the Saharan peoples. But it would be fruitless to +attempt to enumerate the many racial groups. + +The European civilization of this early post-Adamic period was a unique blend +of the vigor and art of the blue men with the creative imagination of the +Adamites. The blue men were a race of great vigor, but they greatly +deteriorated the cultural and spiritual status of the Adamites. It was very +difficult for the latter to impress their religion upon the Cro-Magnoids +because of the tendency of so many to cheat and to debauch the maidens. For ten +thousand years religion in Europe was at a low ebb as compared with the +developments in India and Egypt. + +The blue men were perfectly honest in all their dealings and were wholly free +from the sexual vices of the mixed Adamites. They respected maidenhood, only +practicing polygamy when war produced a shortage of males. + +These Cro-Magnon peoples were a brave and farseeing race. They maintained an +efficient system of child culture. Both parents participated in these labors, +and the services of the older children were fully utilized. Each child was +carefully trained in the care of the caves, in art, and in flint making. At an +early age the women were well versed in the domestic arts and in crude +agriculture, while the men were skilled hunters and courageous warriors. + +The blue men were hunters, fishers, and food gatherers; they were expert +boatbuilders. They made stone axes, cut down trees, erected log huts, partly +below ground and roofed with hides. And there are peoples who still build +similar huts in Siberia. The southern Cro-Magnons generally lived in caves and +grottoes. + + top of page - 892 + +It was not uncommon during the rigors of winter for their sentinels standing on +night guard at cave entrances to freeze to death. They had courage, but above +all they were artists; the Adamic mixture suddenly accelerated creative +imagination. The height of the blue man's art was about fifteen thousand years +ago, before the days when the darker-skinned races came north from Africa +through Spain. + +About fifteen thousand years ago the Alpine forests were spreading extensively. +The European hunters were being driven to the river valleys and to the +seashores by the same climatic coercion that had turned the world's happy +hunting grounds into dry and barren deserts. As the rain winds shifted to the +north, the great open grazing lands of Europe became covered by forests. These +great and relatively sudden climatic modifications drove the races of Europe to +change from open-space hunters to herders, and in some measure to fishers and +tillers of the soil. + +These changes, while resulting in cultural advances, produced certain biologic +retrogressions. During the previous hunting era the superior tribes had +intermarried with the higher types of war captives and had unvaryingly +destroyed those whom they deemed inferior. But as they commenced to establish +settlements and engage in agriculture and commerce, they began to save many of +the mediocre captives as slaves. And it was the progeny of these slaves that +subsequently so greatly deteriorated the whole Cro-Magnon type. This +retrogression of culture continued until it received a fresh impetus from the +east when the final and en masse invasion of the Mesopotamians swept over +Europe, quickly absorbing the Cro-Magnon type and culture and initiating the +civilization of the white races. + +4. THE ANDITE INVASIONS OF EUROPE + +While the Andites poured into Europe in a steady stream, there were seven major +invasions, the last arrivals coming on horseback in three great waves. Some +entered Europe by way of the islands of the Aegean and up the Danube valley, +but the majority of the earlier and purer strains migrated to northwestern +Europe by the northern route across the grazing lands of the Volga and the Don. + +Between the third and fourth invasions a horde of Andonites entered Europe from +the north, having come from Siberia by way of the Russian rivers and the +Baltic. They were immediately assimilated by the northern Andite tribes. + +The earlier expansions of the purer violet race were far more pacific than were +those of their later semimilitary and conquest-loving Andite descendants. The +Adamites were pacific; the Nodites were belligerent. The union of these stocks, +as later mingled with the Sangik races, produced the able, aggressive Andites +who made actual military conquests. + +But the horse was the evolutionary factor which determined the dominance of the +Andites in the Occident. The horse gave the dispersing Andites the hitherto +nonexistent advantage of mobility, enabling the last groups of Andite +cavalrymen to progress quickly around the Caspian Sea to overrun all of Europe. +All previous waves of Andites had moved so slowly that they tended to +disintegrate at any great distance from Mesopotamia. But these later waves +moved so rapidly that they reached Europe as coherent groups, still retaining +some measure of higher culture. + + top of page - 893 + +The whole inhabited world, outside of China and the Euphrates region, had made +very limited cultural progress for ten thousand years when the hard-riding +Andite horsemen made their appearance in the sixth and seventh millenniums +before Christ. As they moved westward across the Russian plains, absorbing the +best of the blue man and exterminating the worst, they became blended into one +people. These were the ancestors of the so-called Nordic races, the forefathers +of the Scandinavian, German, and Anglo-Saxon peoples. + +It was not long before the superior blue strains had been fully absorbed by the +Andites throughout all northern Europe. Only in Lapland (and to a certain +extent in Brittany) did the older Andonites retain even a semblance of +identity. + +5. THE ANDITE CONQUEST OF NORTHERN EUROPE + +The tribes of northern Europe were being continuously reinforced and upstepped +by the steady stream of migrants from Mesopotamia through the Turkestan-south +Russian regions, and when the last waves of Andite cavalry swept over Europe, +there were already more men with Andite inheritance in that region than were to +be found in all the rest of the world. + +For three thousand years the military headquarters of the northern Andites was +in Denmark. From this central point there went forth the successive waves of +conquest, which grew decreasingly Andite and increasingly white as the passing +centuries witnessed the final blending of the Mesopotamian conquerors with the +conquered peoples. + +While the blue man had been absorbed in the north and eventually succumbed to +the white cavalry raiders who penetrated the south, the advancing tribes of the +mixed white race met with stubborn and protracted resistance from the +Cro-Magnons, but superior intelligence and ever-augmenting biologic reserves +enabled them to wipe the older race out of existence. + +The decisive struggles between the white man and the blue man were fought out +in the valley of the Somme. Here, the flower of the blue race bitterly +contested the southward-moving Andites, and for over five hundred years these +Cro-Magnoids successfully defended their territories before succumbing to the +superior military strategy of the white invaders. Thor, the victorious +commander of the armies of the north in the final battle of the Somme, became +the hero of the northern white tribes and later on was revered as a god by some +of them. + +The strongholds of the blue man which persisted longest were in southern +France, but the last great military resistance was overcome along the Somme. +The later conquest progressed by commercial penetration, population pressure +along the rivers, and by continued intermarriage with the superiors, coupled +with the ruthless extermination of the inferiors. + +When the tribal council of the Andite elders had adjudged an inferior captive +to be unfit, he was, by elaborate ceremony, committed to the shaman priests, +who escorted him to the river and administered the rites of initiation to the +"happy hunting grounds"--lethal submergence. In this way the white invaders of +Europe exterminated all peoples encountered who were not quickly absorbed into +their own ranks, and thus did the blue man come to an end--and quickly. + +The Cro-Magnoid blue man constituted the biologic foundation for the modern +European races, but they have survived only as absorbed by the later + + top of page - 894 + +and virile conquerors of their homelands. The blue strain contributed many +sturdy traits and much physical vigor to the white races of Europe, but the +humor and imagination of the blended European peoples were derived from the +Andites. This Andite-blue union, resulting in the northern white races, +produced an immediate lapse of Andite civilization, a retardation of a +transient nature. Eventually, the latent superiority of these northern +barbarians manifested itself and culminated in present-day European +civilization. + +By 5000 B.C. the evolving white races were dominant throughout all of northern +Europe, including northern Germany, northern France, and the British Isles. +Central Europe was for some time controlled by the blue man and the +round-headed Andonites. The latter were mainly situated in the Danube valley +and were never entirely displaced by the Andites. + +6. THE ANDITES ALONG THE NILE + +From the times of the terminal Andite migrations, culture declined in the +Euphrates valley, and the immediate center of civilization shifted to the +valley of the Nile. Egypt became the successor of Mesopotamia as the +headquarters of the most advanced group on earth. + +The Nile valley began to suffer from floods shortly before the Mesopotamian +valleys but fared much better. This early setback was more than compensated by +the continuing stream of Andite immigrants, so that the culture of Egypt, +though really derived from the Euphrates region, seemed to forge ahead. But in +5000 B.C., during the flood period in Mesopotamia, there were seven distinct +groups of human beings in Egypt; all of them, save one, came from Mesopotamia. + +When the last exodus from the Euphrates valley occurred, Egypt was fortunate in +gaining so many of the most skillful artists and artisans. These Andite +artisans found themselves quite at home in that they were thoroughly familiar +with river life, its floods, irrigations, and dry seasons. They enjoyed the +sheltered position of the Nile valley; they were there much less subject to +hostile raids and attacks than along the Euphrates. And they added greatly to +the metalworking skill of the Egyptians. Here they worked iron ores coming from +Mount Sinai instead of from the Black Sea regions. + +The Egyptians very early assembled their municipal deities into an elaborate +national system of gods. They developed an extensive theology and had an +equally extensive but burdensome priesthood. Several different leaders sought +to revive the remnants of the early religious teachings of the Sethites, but +these endeavors were short-lived. The Andites built the first stone structures +in Egypt. The first and most exquisite of the stone pyramids was erected by +Imhotep, an Andite architectural genius, while serving as prime minister. +Previous buildings had been constructed of brick, and while many stone +structures had been erected in different parts of the world, this was the first +in Egypt. But the art of building steadily declined from the days of this great +architect. + +This brilliant epoch of culture was cut short by internal warfare along the +Nile, and the country was soon overrun, as Mesopotamia had been, by the +inferior tribes from inhospitable Arabia and by the blacks from the south. As a +result, social progress steadily declined for more than five hundred years. + + top of page - 895 + +7. ANDITES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN ISLES + +During the decline of culture in Mesopotamia there persisted for some time a +superior civilization on the islands of the eastern Mediterranean. + +About 12,000 B.C. a brilliant tribe of Andites migrated to Crete. This was the +only island settled so early by such a superior group, and it was almost two +thousand years before the descendants of these mariners spread to the +neighboring isles. This group were the narrow-headed, smaller-statured Andites +who had intermarried with the Vanite division of the northern Nodites. They +were all under six feet in height and had been literally driven off the +mainland by their larger and inferior fellows. These emigrants to Crete were +highly skilled in textiles, metals, pottery, plumbing, and the use of stone for +building material. They engaged in writing and carried on as herders and +agriculturists. + +Almost two thousand years after the settlement of Crete a group of the tall +descendants of Adamson made their way over the northern islands to Greece, +coming almost directly from their highland home north of Mesopotamia. These +progenitors of the Greeks were led westward by Sato, a direct descendant of +Adamson and Ratta. + +The group which finally settled in Greece consisted of three hundred and +seventy-five of the selected and superior people comprising the end of the +second civilization of the Adamsonites. These later sons of Adamson carried the +then most valuable strains of the emerging white races. They were of a high +intellectual order and, physically regarded, the most beautiful of men since +the days of the first Eden. + +Presently Greece and the Aegean Islands region succeeded Mesopotamia and Egypt +as the Occidental center of trade, art, and culture. But as it was in Egypt, so +again practically all of the art and science of the Aegean world was derived +from Mesopotamia except for the culture of the Adamsonite forerunners of the +Greeks. All the art and genius of these latter people is a direct legacy of the +posterity of Adamson, the first son of Adam and Eve, and his extraordinary +second wife, a daughter descended in an unbroken line from the pure Nodite +staff of Prince Caligastia. No wonder the Greeks had mythological traditions +that they were directly descended from gods and superhuman beings. + +The Aegean region passed through five distinct cultural stages, each less +spiritual than the preceding, and erelong the last glorious era of art perished +beneath the weight of the rapidly multiplying mediocre descendants of the +Danubian slaves who had been imported by the later generations of Greeks. + +It was during this age in Crete that the mother cult of the descendants of Cain +attained its greatest vogue. This cult glorified Eve in the worship of the +"great mother." Images of Eve were everywhere. Thousands of public shrines were +erected throughout Crete and Asia Minor. And this mother cult persisted on down +to the times of Christ, becoming later incorporated in the early Christian +religion under the guise of the glorification and worship of Mary the earth +mother of Jesus. + +By about 6500 B.C. there had occurred a great decline in the spiritual heritage +of the Andites. The descendants of Adam were widespreadly dispersed and had +been virtually swallowed up in the older and more numerous human races. And +this decadence of Andite civilization, together with the disappearance of + + top of page - 896 + +their religious standards, left the spiritually impoverished races of the world +in a deplorable condition. + +By 5000 B.C. the three purest strains of Adam's descendants were in Sumeria, +northern Europe, and Greece. The whole of Mesopotamia was being slowly +deteriorated by the stream of mixed and darker races which filtered in from +Arabia. And the coming of these inferior peoples contributed further to the +scattering abroad of the biologic and cultural residue of the Andites. From all +over the fertile crescent the more adventurous peoples poured westward to the +islands. These migrants cultivated both grain and vegetables, and they brought +domesticated animals with them. + +About 5000 B.C. a mighty host of progressive Mesopotamians moved out of the +Euphrates valley and settled upon the island of Cyprus; this civilization was +wiped out about two thousand years subsequently by the barbarian hordes from +the north. + +Another great colony settled on the Mediterranean near the later site of +Carthage. And from north Africa large numbers of Andites entered Spain and +later mingled in Switzerland with their brethren who had earlier come to Italy +from the Aegean Islands. + +When Egypt followed Mesopotamia in cultural decline, many of the more able and +advanced families fled to Crete, thus greatly augmenting this already advanced +civilization. And when the arrival of inferior groups from Egypt later +threatened the civilization of Crete, the more cultured families moved on west +to Greece. + +The Greeks were not only great teachers and artists, they were also the world's +greatest traders and colonizers. Before succumbing to the flood of inferiority +which eventually engulfed their art and commerce, they succeeded in planting so +many outposts of culture to the west that a great many of the advances in early +Greek civilization persisted in the later peoples of southern Europe, and many +of the mixed descendants of these Adamsonites became incorporated in the tribes +of the adjacent mainlands. + +8. THE DANUBIAN ANDONITES + +The Andite peoples of the Euphrates valley migrated north to Europe to mingle +with the blue men and west into the Mediterranean regions to mix with the +remnants of the commingled Saharans and the southern blue men. And these two +branches of the white race were, and now are, widely separated by the +broad-headed mountain survivors of the earlier Andonite tribes which had long +inhabited these central regions. + +These descendants of Andon were dispersed through most of the mountainous +regions of central and southeastern Europe. They were often reinforced by +arrivals from Asia Minor, which region they occupied in considerable strength. +The ancient Hittites stemmed directly from the Andonite stock; their pale skins +and broad heads were typical of that race. This strain was carried in Abraham's +ancestry and contributed much to the characteristic facial appearance of his +later Jewish descendants who, while having a culture and religion derived from +the Andites, spoke a very different language. Their tongue was distinctly +Andonite. + + top of page - 897 + +The tribes that dwelt in houses erected on piles or log piers over the lakes of +Italy, Switzerland, and southern Europe were the expanding fringes of the +African, Aegean, and, more especially, the Danubian migrations. + +The Danubians were Andonites, farmers and herders who had entered Europe +through the Balkan peninsula and were moving slowly northward by way of the +Danube valley. They made pottery and tilled the land, preferring to live in the +valleys. The most northerly settlement of the Danubians was at Liege in +Belgium. These tribes deteriorated rapidly as they moved away from the center +and source of their culture. The best pottery is the product of the earlier +settlements. + +The Danubians became mother worshipers as the result of the work of the +missionaries from Crete. These tribes later amalgamated with groups of Andonite +sailors who came by boats from the coast of Asia Minor, and who were also +mother worshipers. Much of central Europe was thus early settled by these mixed +types of the broad-headed white races which practiced mother worship and the +religious rite of cremating the dead, for it was the custom of the mother +cultists to burn their dead in stone huts. + +9. THE THREE WHITE RACES + +The racial blends in Europe toward the close of the Andite migrations became +generalized into the three white races as follows: + +1. The northern white race. This so-called Nordic race consisted primarily of +the blue man plus the Andite but also contained a considerable amount of +Andonite blood, together with smaller amounts of the red and yellow Sangik. The +northern white race thus encompassed these four most desirable human stocks. +But the largest inheritance was from the blue man. The typical early Nordic was +long-headed, tall, and blond. But long ago this race became thoroughly mixed +with all of the branches of the white peoples. + +The primitive culture of Europe, which was encountered by the invading Nordics, +was that of the retrograding Danubians blended with the blue man. The +Nordic-Danish and the Danubian-Andonite cultures met and mingled on the Rhine +as is witnessed by the existence of two racial groups in Germany today. + +The Nordics continued the trade in amber from the Baltic coast, building up a +great commerce with the broadheads of the Danube valley via the Brenner Pass. +This extended contact with the Danubians led these northerners into mother +worship, and for several thousands of years cremation of the dead was almost +universal throughout Scandinavia. This explains why remains of the earlier +white races, although buried all over Europe, are not to be found--only their +ashes in stone and clay urns. These white men also built dwellings; they never +lived in caves. And again this explains why there are so few evidences of the +white man's early culture, although the preceding Cro-Magnon type is well +preserved where it has been securely sealed up in caves and grottoes. As it +were, one day in northern Europe there is a primitive culture of the +retrogressing Danubians and the blue man and the next that of a suddenly +appearing and vastly superior white man. + +2. The central white race. While this group includes strains of blue, yellow, +and Andite, it is predominantly Andonite. These people are broad-headed, +swarthy, and stocky. They are driven like a wedge between the Nordic and + + top of page - 898 + +Mediterranean races, with the broad base resting in Asia and the apex +penetrating eastern France. + +For almost twenty thousand years the Andonites had been pushed farther and +farther to the north of central Asia by the Andites. By 3000 B.C. increasing +aridity was driving these Andonites back into Turkestan. This Andonite push +southward continued for over a thousand years and, splitting around the Caspian +and Black seas, penetrated Europe by way of both the Balkans and the Ukraine. +This invasion included the remaining groups of Adamson's descendants and, +during the latter half of the invasion period, carried with it considerable +numbers of the Iranian Andites as well as many of the descendants of the +Sethite priests. + +By 2500 B.C. the westward thrust of the Andonites reached Europe. And this +overrunning of all Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and the Danube basin by the +barbarians of the hills of Turkestan constituted the most serious and lasting +of all cultural setbacks up to that time. These invaders definitely Andonized +the character of the central European races, which have ever since remained +characteristically Alpine. + +3. The southern white race. This brunet Mediterranean race consisted of a blend +of the Andite and the blue man, with a smaller Andonite strain than in the +north. This group also absorbed a considerable amount of secondary Sangik blood +through the Saharans. In later times this southern division of the white race +was infused by strong Andite elements from the eastern Mediterranean. + +The Mediterranean coastlands did not, however, become permeated by the Andites +until the times of the great nomadic invasions of 2500 B.C. Land traffic and +trade were nearly suspended during these centuries when the nomads invaded the +eastern Mediterranean districts. This interference with land travel brought +about the great expansion of sea traffic and trade; Mediterranean sea-borne +commerce was in full swing about forty-five hundred years ago. And this +development of marine traffic resulted in the sudden expansion of the +descendants of the Andites throughout the entire coastal territory of the +Mediterranean basin. + +These racial mixtures laid the foundations for the southern European race, the +most highly mixed of all. And since these days this race has undergone still +further admixture, notably with the blue-yellow-Andite peoples of Arabia. This +Mediterranean race is, in fact, so freely admixed with the surrounding peoples +as to be virtually indiscernible as a separate type, but in general its members +are short, long-headed, and brunet. + +In the north the Andites, through warfare and marriage, obliterated the blue +men, but in the south they survived in greater numbers. The Basques and the +Berbers represent the survival of two branches of this race, but even these +peoples have been thoroughly admixed with the Saharans. + +This was the picture of race mixture presented in central Europe about 3000 +B.C. In spite of the partial Adamic default, the higher types did blend. + +These were the times of the New Stone Age overlapping the oncoming Bronze Age. +In Scandinavia it was the Bronze Age associated with mother worship. In +southern France and Spain it was the New Stone Age associated with sun worship. +This was the time of the building of the circular and roofless sun temples. The +European white races were energetic builders, delighting to set up great stones +as tokens to the sun, much as did their later-day descendants at Stonehenge. +The vogue of sun worship indicates that this was a great period of agriculture +in southern Europe. + + top of page - 899 + +The superstitions of this comparatively recent sun-worshiping era even now +persist in the folkways of Brittany. Although Christianized for over fifteen +hundred years, these Bretons still retain charms of the New Stone Age for +warding off the evil eye. They still keep thunderstones in the chimney as +protection against lightning. The Bretons never mingled with the Scandinavian +Nordics. They are survivors of the original Andonite inhabitants of western +Europe, mixed with the Mediterranean stock. + +But it is a fallacy to presume to classify the white peoples as Nordic, Alpine, +and Mediterranean. There has been altogether too much blending to permit such a +grouping. At one time there was a fairly well-defined division of the white +race into such classes, but widespread intermingling has since occurred, and it +is no longer possible to identify these distinctions with any clarity. Even in +3000 B.C. the ancient social groups were no more of one race than are the +present inhabitants of North America. + +This European culture for five thousand years continued to grow and to some +extent intermingle. But the barrier of language prevented the full +reciprocation of the various Occidental nations. During the past century this +culture has been experiencing its best opportunity for blending in the +cosmopolitan population of North America; and the future of that continent will +be determined by the quality of the racial factors which are permitted to enter +into its present and future populations, as well as by the level of the social +culture which is maintained. + +[Presented by an Archangel of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 900 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Andite ³ Development Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Expansio... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p081.txt b/religious documents/p081.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8798d7e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p081.txt @@ -0,0 +1,798 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 81 Development Of Modern Civilization + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 81 Development Of Modern Civilization + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +REGARDLESS of the ups and downs of the miscarriage of the plans for world +betterment projected in the missions of Caligastia and Adam, the basic organic +evolution of the human species continued to carry the races forward in the +scale of human progress and racial development. Evolution can be delayed but it +cannot be stopped. + +The influence of the violet race, though in numbers smaller than had been +planned, produced an advance in civilization which, since the days of Adam, has +far exceeded the progress of mankind throughout its entire previous existence +of almost a million years. + +1. THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION + +For about thirty-five thousand years after the days of Adam, the cradle of +civilization was in southwestern Asia, extending from the Nile valley eastward +and slightly to the north across northern Arabia, through Mesopotamia, and on +into Turkestan. And climate was the decisive factor in the establishment of +civilization in that area. + +It was the great climatic and geologic changes in northern Africa and western +Asia that terminated the early migrations of the Adamites, barring them from +Europe by the expanded Mediterranean and diverting the stream of migration +north and east into Turkestan. By the time of the completion of these land +elevations and associated climatic changes, about 15,000 B.C., civilization had +settled down to a world-wide stalemate except for the cultural ferments and +biologic reserves of the Andites still confined by mountains to the east in +Asia and by the expanding forests in Europe to the west. + +Climatic evolution is now about to accomplish what all other efforts had failed +to do, that is, to compel Eurasian man to abandon hunting for the more advanced +callings of herding and farming. Evolution may be slow, but it is terribly +effective. + +Since slaves were so generally employed by the earlier agriculturists, the +farmer was formerly looked down on by both the hunter and the herder. For ages +it was considered menial to till the soil; wherefore the idea that soil toil is +a curse, whereas it is the greatest of all blessings. Even in the days of Cain +and Abel the sacrifices of the pastoral life were held in greater esteem than +the offerings of agriculture. + +Man ordinarily evolved into a farmer from a hunter by transition through the +era of the herder, and this was also true among the Andites, but more often the +evolutionary coercion of climatic necessity would cause whole tribes to pass + + top of page - 901 + +directly from hunters to successful farmers. But this phenomenon of passing +immediately from hunting to agriculture only occurred in those regions where +there was a high degree of race mixture with the violet stock. + +The evolutionary peoples (notably the Chinese) early learned to plant seeds and +to cultivate crops through observation of the sprouting of seeds accidentally +moistened or which had been put in graves as food for the departed. But +throughout southwest Asia, along the fertile river bottoms and adjacent plains, +the Andites were carrying out the improved agricultural techniques inherited +from their ancestors, who had made farming and gardening the chief pursuits +within the boundaries of the second garden. + +For thousands of years the descendants of Adam had grown wheat and barley, as +improved in the Garden, throughout the highlands of the upper border of +Mesopotamia. The descendants of Adam and Adamson here met, traded, and socially +mingled. + +It was these enforced changes in living conditions which caused such a large +proportion of the human race to become omnivorous in dietetic practice. And the +combination of the wheat, rice, and vegetable diet with the flesh of the herds +marked a great forward step in the health and vigor of these ancient peoples. + +2. THE TOOLS OF CIVILIZATION + +The growth of culture is predicated upon the development of the tools of +civilization. And the tools which man utilized in his ascent from savagery were +effective just to the extent that they released man power for the +accomplishment of higher tasks. + +You who now live amid latter-day scenes of budding culture and beginning +progress in social affairs, who actually have some little spare time in which +to think about society and civilization, must not overlook the fact that your +early ancestors had little or no leisure which could be devoted to thoughtful +reflection and social thinking. + +The first four great advances in human civilization were: + +1. The taming of fire. + +2. The domestication of animals. + +3. The enslavement of captives. + +4. Private property. + +While fire, the first great discovery, eventually unlocked the doors of the +scientific world, it was of little value in this regard to primitive man. He +refused to recognize natural causes as explanations for commonplace phenomena. + +When asked where fire came from, the simple story of Andon and the flint was +soon replaced by the legend of how some Prometheus stole it from heaven. The +ancients sought a supernatural explanation for all natural phenomena not within +the range of their personal comprehension; and many moderns continue to do +this. The depersonalization of so-called natural phenomena has required ages, +and it is not yet completed. But the frank, honest, and fearless search for +true causes gave birth to modern science: It turned astrology into astronomy, +alchemy into chemistry, and magic into medicine. + +In the premachine age the only way in which man could accomplish work without +doing it himself was to use an animal. Domestication of animals placed + + top of page - 902 + +in his hands living tools, the intelligent use of which prepared the way for +both agriculture and transportation. And without these animals man could not +have risen from his primitive estate to the levels of subsequent civilization. + +Most of the animals best suited to domestication were found in Asia, especially +in the central to southwest regions. This was one reason why civilization +progressed faster in that locality than in other parts of the world. Many of +these animals had been twice before domesticated, and in the Andite age they +were retamed once again. But the dog had remained with the hunters ever since +being adopted by the blue man long, long before. + +The Andites of Turkestan were the first peoples to extensively domesticate the +horse, and this is another reason why their culture was for so long +predominant. By 5000 B.C. the Mesopotamian, Turkestan, and Chinese farmers had +begun the raising of sheep, goats, cows, camels, horses, fowls, and elephants. +They employed as beasts of burden the ox, camel, horse, and yak. Man was +himself at one time the beast of burden. One ruler of the blue race once had +one hundred thousand men in his colony of burden bearers. + +The institutions of slavery and private ownership of land came with +agriculture. Slavery raised the master's standard of living and provided more +leisure for social culture. + +The savage is a slave to nature, but scientific civilization is slowly +conferring increasing liberty on mankind. Through animals, fire, wind, water, +electricity, and other undiscovered sources of energy, man has liberated, and +will continue to liberate, himself from the necessity for unremitting toil. +Regardless of the transient trouble produced by the prolific invention of +machinery, the ultimate benefits to be derived from such mechanical inventions +are inestimable. Civilization can never flourish, much less be established, +until man has leisure to think, to plan, to imagine new and better ways of +doing things. + +Man first simply appropriated his shelter, lived under ledges or dwelt in +caves. Next he adapted such natural materials as wood and stone to the creation +of family huts. Lastly he entered the creative stage of home building, learned +to manufacture brick and other building materials. + +The peoples of the Turkestan highlands were the first of the more modern races +to build their homes of wood, houses not at all unlike the early log cabins of +the American pioneer settlers. Throughout the plains human dwellings were made +of brick; later on, of burned bricks. + +The older river races made their huts by setting tall poles in the ground in a +circle; the tops were then brought together, making the skeleton frame for the +hut, which was interlaced with transverse reeds, the whole creation resembling +a huge inverted basket. This structure could then be daubed over with clay and, +after drying in the sun, would make a very serviceable weatherproof habitation. + +It was from these early huts that the subsequent idea of all sorts of basket +weaving independently originated. Among one group the idea of making pottery +arose from observing the effects of smearing these pole frameworks with moist +clay. The practice of hardening pottery by baking was discovered when one of +these clay-covered primitive huts accidentally burned. The arts of olden days +were many times derived from the accidental occurrences attendant upon the +daily life of early peoples. At least, this was almost wholly true of the +evolutionary progress of mankind up to the coming of Adam. + + top of page - 903 + +While pottery had been first introduced by the staff of the Prince about +one-half million years ago, the making of clay vessels had practically ceased +for over one hundred and fifty thousand years. Only the gulf coast pre-Sumerian +Nodites continued to make clay vessels. The art of pottery making was revived +during Adam's time. The dissemination of this art was simultaneous with the +extension of the desert areas of Africa, Arabia, and central Asia, and it +spread in successive waves of improving technique from Mesopotamia out over the +Eastern Hemisphere. + +These civilizations of the Andite age cannot always be traced by the stages of +their pottery or other arts. The smooth course of human evolution was +tremendously complicated by the regimes of both Dalamatia and Eden. It often +occurs that the later vases and implements are inferior to the earlier products +of the purer Andite peoples. + +3. CITIES, MANUFACTURE, AND COMMERCE + +The climatic destruction of the rich, open grassland hunting and grazing +grounds of Turkestan, beginning about 12,000 B.C., compelled the men of those +regions to resort to new forms of industry and crude manufacturing. Some turned +to the cultivation of domesticated flocks, others became agriculturists or +collectors of water-borne food, but the higher type of Andite intellects chose +to engage in trade and manufacture. It even became the custom for entire tribes +to dedicate themselves to the development of a single industry. From the valley +of the Nile to the Hindu Kush and from the Ganges to the Yellow River, the +chief business of the superior tribes became the cultivation of the soil, with +commerce as a side line. + +The increase in trade and in the manufacture of raw materials into various +articles of commerce was directly instrumental in producing those early and +semipeaceful communities which were so influential in spreading the culture and +the arts of civilization. Before the era of extensive world trade, social +communities were tribal--expanded family groups. Trade brought into fellowship +different sorts of human beings, thus contributing to a more speedy +cross-fertilization of culture. + +About twelve thousand years ago the era of the independent cities was dawning. +And these primitive trading and manufacturing cities were always surrounded by +zones of agriculture and cattle raising. While it is true that industry was +promoted by the elevation of the standards of living, you should have no +misconception regarding the refinements of early urban life. The early races +were not overly neat and clean, and the average primitive community rose from +one to two feet every twenty-five years as the result of the mere accumulation +of dirt and trash. Certain of these olden cities also rose above the +surrounding ground very quickly because their unbaked mud huts were +short-lived, and it was the custom to build new dwellings directly on top of +the ruins of the old. + +The widespread use of metals was a feature of this era of the early industrial +and trading cities. You have already found a bronze culture in Turkestan dating +before 9000 B.C., and the Andites early learned to work in iron, gold, and +copper, as well. But conditions were very different away from the more advanced +centers of civilization. There were no distinct periods, such as the Stone, +Bronze, and Iron Ages; all three existed at the same time in different +localities. + + top of page - 904 + +Gold was the first metal to be sought by man; it was easy to work and, at +first, was used only as an ornament. Copper was next employed but not +extensively until it was admixed with tin to make the harder bronze. The +discovery of mixing copper and tin to make bronze was made by one of the +Adamsonites of Turkestan whose highland copper mine happened to be located +alongside a tin deposit. + +With the appearance of crude manufacture and beginning industry, commerce +quickly became the most potent influence in the spread of cultural +civilization. The opening up of the trade channels by land and by sea greatly +facilitated travel and the mixing of cultures as well as the blending of +civilizations. By 5000 B.C. the horse was in general use throughout civilized +and semicivilized lands. These later races not only had the domesticated horse +but also various sorts of wagons and chariots. Ages before, the wheel had been +used, but now vehicles so equipped became universally employed both in commerce +and war. + +The traveling trader and the roving explorer did more to advance historic +civilization than all other influences combined. Military conquests, +colonization, and missionary enterprises fostered by the later religions were +also factors in the spread of culture; but these were all secondary to the +trading relations, which were ever accelerated by the rapidly developing arts +and sciences of industry. + +Infusion of the Adamic stock into the human races not only quickened the pace +of civilization, but it also greatly stimulated their proclivities toward +adventure and exploration to the end that most of Eurasia and northern Africa +was presently occupied by the rapidly multiplying mixed descendants of the +Andites. + +4. THE MIXED RACES + +As contact is made with the dawn of historic times, all of Eurasia, northern +Africa, and the Pacific Islands is overspread with the composite races of +mankind. And these races of today have resulted from a blending and reblending +of the five basic human stocks of Urantia. + +Each of the Urantia races was identified by certain distinguishing physical +characteristics. The Adamites and Nodites were long-headed; the Andonites were +broad-headed. The Sangik races were medium-headed, with the yellow and blue men +tending to broad-headedness. The blue races, when mixed with the Andonite +stock, were decidedly broad-headed. The secondary Sangiks were medium- to +long-headed. + +Although these skull dimensions are serviceable in deciphering racial origins, +the skeleton as a whole is far more dependable. In the early development of the +Urantia races there were originally five distinct types of skeletal structure: + +1. Andonic, Urantia aborigines. + +2. Primary Sangik, red, yellow, and blue. + +3. Secondary Sangik, orange, green, and indigo. + +4. Nodites, descendants of the Dalamatians. + +5. Adamites, the violet race. + +As these five great racial groups extensively intermingled, continual mixture +tended to obscure the Andonite type by Sangik hereditary dominance. The + + top of page - 905 + +Lapps and the Eskimos are blends of Andonite and Sangik-blue races. Their +skeletal structures come the nearest to preserving the aboriginal Andonic type. +But the Adamites and the Nodites have become so admixed with the other races +that they can be detected only as a generalized Caucasoid order. + +In general, therefore, as the human remains of the last twenty thousand years +are unearthed, it will be impossible clearly to distinguish the five original +types. Study of such skeletal structures will disclose that mankind is now +divided into approximately three classes: + +1. The Caucasoid--the Andite blend of the Nodite and Adamic stocks, further +modified by primary and (some) secondary Sangik admixture and by considerable +Andonic crossing. The Occidental white races, together with some Indian and +Turanian peoples, are included in this group. The unifying factor in this +division is the greater or lesser proportion of Andite inheritance. + +2. The Mongoloid--the primary Sangik type, including the original red, yellow, +and blue races. The Chinese and Amerinds belong to this group. In Europe the +Mongoloid type has been modified by secondary Sangik and Andonic mixture; still +more by Andite infusion. The Malayan and other Indonesian peoples are included +in this classification, though they contain a high percentage of secondary +Sangik blood. + +3. The Negroid--the secondary Sangik type, which originally included the +orange, green, and indigo races. This is the type best illustrated by the +Negro, and it will be found through Africa, India, and Indonesia wherever the +secondary Sangik races located. + +In North China there is a certain blending of Caucasoid and Mongoloid types; in +the Levant the Caucasoid and Negroid have intermingled; in India, as in South +America, all three types are represented. And the skeletal characteristics of +the three surviving types still persist and help to identify the later ancestry +of present-day human races. + +5. CULTURAL SOCIETY + +Biologic evolution and cultural civilization are not necessarily correlated; +organic evolution in any age may proceed unhindered in the very midst of +cultural decadence. But when lengthy periods of human history are surveyed, it +will be observed that eventually evolution and culture become related as cause +and effect. Evolution may advance in the absence of culture, but cultural +civilization does not flourish without an adequate background of antecedent +racial progression. Adam and Eve introduced no art of civilization foreign to +the progress of human society, but the Adamic blood did augment the inherent +ability of the races and did accelerate the pace of economic development and +industrial progression. Adam's bestowal improved the brain power of the races, +thereby greatly hastening the processes of natural evolution. + +Through agriculture, animal domestication, and improved architecture, mankind +gradually escaped the worst of the incessant struggle to live and began to cast +about to find wherewith to sweeten the process of living; and this was the +beginning of the striving for higher and ever higher standards of material +comfort. Through manufacture and industry man is gradually augmenting the +pleasure content of mortal life. + + top of page - 906 + +But cultural society is no great and beneficent club of inherited privilege +into which all men are born with free membership and entire equality. Rather is +it an exalted and ever-advancing guild of earth workers, admitting to its ranks +only the nobility of those toilers who strive to make the world a better place +in which their children and their children's children may live and advance in +subsequent ages. And this guild of civilization exacts costly admission fees, +imposes strict and rigorous disciplines, visits heavy penalties on all +dissenters and nonconformists, while it confers few personal licenses or +privileges except those of enhanced security against common dangers and racial +perils. + +Social association is a form of survival insurance which human beings have +learned is profitable; therefore are most individuals willing to pay those +premiums of self-sacrifice and personal-liberty curtailment which society +exacts from its members in return for this enhanced group protection. In short, +the present-day social mechanism is a trial-and-error insurance plan designed +to afford some degree of assurance and protection against a return to the +terrible and antisocial conditions which characterized the early experiences of +the human race. + +Society thus becomes a co-operative scheme for securing civil freedom through +institutions, economic freedom through capital and invention, social liberty +through culture, and freedom from violence through police regulation. + +Might does not make right, but it does enforce the commonly recognized rights +of each succeeding generation. The prime mission of government is the +definition of the right, the just and fair regulation of class differences, and +the enforcement of equality of opportunity under the rules of law. Every human +right is associated with a social duty; group privilege is an insurance +mechanism which unfailingly demands the full payment of the exacting premiums +of group service. And group rights, as well as those of the individual, must be +protected, including the regulation of the sex propensity. + +Liberty subject to group regulation is the legitimate goal of social evolution. +Liberty without restrictions is the vain and fanciful dream of unstable and +flighty human minds. + +6. THE MAINTENANCE OF CIVILIZATION + +While biologic evolution has proceeded ever upward, much of cultural evolution +went out from the Euphrates valley in waves, which successively weakened as +time passed until finally the whole of the pure-line Adamic posterity had gone +forth to enrich the civilizations of Asia and Europe. The races did not fully +blend, but their civilizations did to a considerable extent mix. Culture did +slowly spread throughout the world. And this civilization must be maintained +and fostered, for there exist today no new sources of culture, no Andites to +invigorate and stimulate the slow progress of the evolution of civilization. + +The civilization which is now evolving on Urantia grew out of, and is +predicated on, the following factors: + +1. Natural circumstances. The nature and extent of a material civilization is +in large measure determined by the natural resources available. Climate, +weather, and numerous physical conditions are factors in the evolution of +culture. + + top of page - 907 + +At the opening of the Andite era there were only two extensive and fertile open +hunting areas in all the world. One was in North America and was overspread by +the Amerinds; the other was to the north of Turkestan and was partly occupied +by an Andonic-yellow race. The decisive factors in the evolution of a superior +culture in southwestern Asia were race and climate. The Andites were a great +people, but the crucial factor in determining the course of their civilization +was the increasing aridity of Iran, Turkestan, and Sinkiang, which forced them +to invent and adopt new and advanced methods of wresting a livelihood from +their decreasingly fertile lands. + +The configuration of continents and other land-arrangement situations are very +influential in determining peace or war. Very few Urantians have ever had such +a favorable opportunity for continuous and unmolested development as has been +enjoyed by the peoples of North America--protected on practically all sides by +vast oceans. + +2. Capital goods. Culture is never developed under conditions of poverty; +leisure is essential to the progress of civilization. Individual character of +moral and spiritual value may be acquired in the absence of material wealth, +but a cultural civilization is only derived from those conditions of material +prosperity which foster leisure combined with ambition. + +During primitive times life on Urantia was a serious and sober business. And it +was to escape this incessant struggle and interminable toil that mankind +constantly tended to drift toward the salubrious climate of the tropics. While +these warmer zones of habitation afforded some remission from the intense +struggle for existence, the races and tribes who thus sought ease seldom +utilized their unearned leisure for the advancement of civilization. Social +progress has invariably come from the thoughts and plans of those races that +have, by their intelligent toil, learned how to wrest a living from the land +with lessened effort and shortened days of labor and thus have been able to +enjoy a well-earned and profitable margin of leisure. + +3. Scientific knowledge. The material aspects of civilization must always await +the accumulation of scientific data. It was a long time after the discovery of +the bow and arrow and the utilization of animals for power purposes before man +learned how to harness wind and water, to be followed by the employment of +steam and electricity. But slowly the tools of civilization improved. Weaving, +pottery, the domestication of animals, and metalworking were followed by an age +of writing and printing. + +Knowledge is power. Invention always precedes the acceleration of cultural +development on a world-wide scale. Science and invention benefited most of all +from the printing press, and the interaction of all these cultural and +inventive activities has enormously accelerated the rate of cultural +advancement. + +Science teaches man to speak the new language of mathematics and trains his +thoughts along lines of exacting precision. And science also stabilizes +philosophy through the elimination of error, while it purifies religion by the +destruction of superstition. + +4. Human resources. Man power is indispensable to the spread of civilization. +All things equal, a numerous people will dominate the civilization of a smaller +race. Hence failure to increase in numbers up to a certain point prevents the +full realization of national destiny, but there comes a point in popula- + + top of page - 908 + +tion increase where further growth is suicidal. Multiplication of numbers +beyond the optimum of the normal man-land ratio means either a lowering of the +standards of living or an immediate expansion of territorial boundaries by +peaceful penetration or by military conquest, forcible occupation. + +You are sometimes shocked at the ravages of war, but you should recognize the +necessity for producing large numbers of mortals so as to afford ample +opportunity for social and moral development; with such planetary fertility +there soon occurs the serious problem of overpopulation. Most of the inhabited +worlds are small. Urantia is average, perhaps a trifle undersized. The optimum +stabilization of national population enhances culture and prevents war. And it +is a wise nation which knows when to cease growing. + +But the continent richest in natural deposits and the most advanced mechanical +equipment will make little progress if the intelligence of its people is on the +decline. Knowledge can be had by education, but wisdom, which is indispensable +to true culture, can be secured only through experience and by men and women +who are innately intelligent. Such a people are able to learn from experience; +they may become truly wise. + +5. Effectiveness of material resources. Much depends on the wisdom displayed in +the utilization of natural resources, scientific knowledge, capital goods, and +human potentials. The chief factor in early civilization was the force exerted +by wise social masters; primitive man had civilization literally thrust upon +him by his superior contemporaries. Well-organized and superior minorities have +largely ruled this world. + +Might does not make right, but might does make what is and what has been in +history. Only recently has Urantia reached that point where society is willing +to debate the ethics of might and right. + +6. Effectiveness of language. The spread of civilization must wait upon +language. Live and growing languages insure the expansion of civilized thinking +and planning. During the early ages important advances were made in language. +Today, there is great need for further linguistic development to facilitate the +expression of evolving thought. + +Language evolved out of group associations, each local group developing its own +system of word exchange. Language grew up through gestures, signs, cries, +imitative sounds, intonation, and accent to the vocalization of subsequent +alphabets. Language is man's greatest and most serviceable thinking tool, but +it never flourished until social groups acquired some leisure. The tendency to +play with language develops new words--slang. If the majority adopt the slang, +then usage constitutes it language. The origin of dialects is illustrated by +the indulgence in "baby talk" in a family group. + +Language differences have ever been the great barrier to the extension of +peace. The conquest of dialects must precede the spread of a culture throughout +a race, over a continent, or to a whole world. A universal language promotes +peace, insures culture, and augments happiness. Even when the tongues of a +world are reduced to a few, the mastery of these by the leading cultural +peoples mightily influences the achievement of world-wide peace and prosperity. + +While very little progress has been made on Urantia toward developing an +international language, much has been accomplished by the establishment of +international commercial exchange. And all these international relations should + + top of page - 909 + +be fostered, whether they involve language, trade, art, science, competitive +play, or religion. + +7. Effectiveness of mechanical devices. The progress of civilization is +directly related to the development and possession of tools, machines, and +channels of distribution. Improved tools, ingenious and efficient machines, +determine the survival of contending groups in the arena of advancing +civilization. + +In the early days the only energy applied to land cultivation was man power. It +was a long struggle to substitute oxen for men since this threw men out of +employment. Latterly, machines have begun to displace men, and every such +advance is directly contributory to the progress of society because it +liberates man power for the accomplishment of more valuable tasks. + +Science, guided by wisdom, may become man's great social liberator. A +mechanical age can prove disastrous only to a nation whose intellectual level +is too low to discover those wise methods and sound techniques for successfully +adjusting to the transition difficulties arising from the sudden loss of +employment by large numbers consequent upon the too rapid invention of new +types of laborsaving machinery. + +8. Character of torchbearers. Social inheritance enables man to stand on the +shoulders of all who have preceded him, and who have contributed aught to the +sum of culture and knowledge. In this work of passing on the cultural torch to +the next generation, the home will ever be the basic institution. The play and +social life comes next, with the school last but equally indispensable in a +complex and highly organized society. + +Insects are born fully educated and equipped for life--indeed, a very narrow +and purely instinctive existence. The human baby is born without an education; +therefore man possesses the power, by controlling the educational training of +the younger generation, greatly to modify the evolutionary course of +civilization. + +The greatest twentieth-century influences contributing to the furtherance of +civilization and the advancement of culture are the marked increase in world +travel and the unparalleled improvements in methods of communication. But the +improvement in education has not kept pace with the expanding social structure; +neither has the modern appreciation of ethics developed in correspondence with +growth along more purely intellectual and scientific lines. And modern +civilization is at a standstill in spiritual development and the safeguarding +of the home institution. + +9. The racial ideals. The ideals of one generation carve out the channels of +destiny for immediate posterity. The quality of the social torchbearers will +determine whether civilization goes forward or backward. The homes, churches, +and schools of one generation predetermine the character trend of the +succeeding generation. The moral and spiritual momentum of a race or a nation +largely determines the cultural velocity of that civilization. + +Ideals elevate the source of the social stream. And no stream will rise any +higher than its source no matter what technique of pressure or directional +control may be employed. The driving power of even the most material aspects of +a cultural civilization is resident in the least material of society's +achievements. Intelligence may control the mechanism of civilization, wisdom +may direct it, + + top of page - 910 + +but spiritual idealism is the energy which really uplifts and advances human +culture from one level of attainment to another. + +At first life was a struggle for existence; now, for a standard of living; next +it will be for quality of thinking, the coming earthly goal of human existence. + +10. Co-ordination of specialists. Civilization has been enormously advanced by +the early division of labor and by its later corollary of specialization. +Civilization is now dependent on the effective co-ordination of specialists. As +society expands, some method of drawing together the various specialists must +be found. + +Social, artistic, technical, and industrial specialists will continue to +multiply and increase in skill and dexterity. And this diversification of +ability and dissimilarity of employment will eventually weaken and disintegrate +human society if effective means of co-ordination and co-operation are not +developed. But the intelligence which is capable of such inventiveness and such +specialization should be wholly competent to devise adequate methods of control +and adjustment for all problems resulting from the rapid growth of invention +and the accelerated pace of cultural expansion. + +11. Place-finding devices. The next age of social development will be embodied +in a better and more effective co-operation and co-ordination of +ever-increasing and expanding specialization. And as labor more and more +diversifies, some technique for directing individuals to suitable employment +must be devised. Machinery is not the only cause for unemployment among the +civilized peoples of Urantia. Economic complexity and the steady increase of +industrial and professional specialism add to the problems of labor placement. + +It is not enough to train men for work; in a complex society there must also be +provided efficient methods of place finding. Before training citizens in the +highly specialized techniques of earning a living, they should be trained in +one or more methods of commonplace labor, trades or callings which could be +utilized when they were transiently unemployed in their specialized work. No +civilization can survive the long-time harboring of large classes of +unemployed. In time, even the best of citizens will become distorted and +demoralized by accepting support from the public treasury. Even private charity +becomes pernicious when long extended to able-bodied citizens. + +Such a highly specialized society will not take kindly to the ancient communal +and feudal practices of olden peoples. True, many common services can be +acceptably and profitably socialized, but highly trained and ultraspecialized +human beings can best be managed by some technique of intelligent co-operation. +Modernized co-ordination and fraternal regulation will be productive of +longer-lived co-operation than will the older and more primitive methods of +communism or dictatorial regulative institutions based on force. + +12. The willingness to co-operate. One of the great hindrances to the progress +of human society is the conflict between the interests and welfare of the +larger, more socialized human groups and of the smaller, contrary-minded +asocial associations of mankind, not to mention antisocially-minded single +individuals. + +No national civilization long endures unless its educational methods and +religious ideals inspire a high type of intelligent patriotism and national +devo- + + top of page - 911 + +tion. Without this sort of intelligent patriotism and cultural solidarity, all +nations tend to disintegrate as a result of provincial jealousies and local +self-interests. + +The maintenance of world-wide civilization is dependent on human beings +learning how to live together in peace and fraternity. Without effective +co-ordination, industrial civilization is jeopardized by the dangers of +ultraspecialization: monotony, narrowness, and the tendency to breed distrust +and jealousy. + +13. Effective and wise leadership. In civilization much, very much, depends on +an enthusiastic and effective load-pulling spirit. Ten men are of little more +value than one in lifting a great load unless they lift together--all at the +same moment. And such teamwork--social co-operation--is dependent on +leadership. The cultural civilizations of the past and the present have been +based upon the intelligent co-operation of the citizenry with wise and +progressive leaders; and until man evolves to higher levels, civilization will +continue to be dependent on wise and vigorous leadership. + +High civilizations are born of the sagacious correlation of material wealth, +intellectual greatness, moral worth, social cleverness, and cosmic insight. + +14. Social changes. Society is not a divine institution; it is a phenomenon of +progressive evolution; and advancing civilization is always delayed when its +leaders are slow in making those changes in the social organization which are +essential to keeping pace with the scientific developments of the age. For all +that, things must not be despised just because they are old, neither should an +idea be unconditionally embraced just because it is novel and new. + +Man should be unafraid to experiment with the mechanisms of society. But always +should these adventures in cultural adjustment be controlled by those who are +fully conversant with the history of social evolution; and always should these +innovators be counseled by the wisdom of those who have had practical +experience in the domains of contemplated social or economic experiment. No +great social or economic change should be attempted suddenly. Time is essential +to all types of human adjustment--physical, social, or economic. Only moral and +spiritual adjustments can be made on the spur of the moment, and even these +require the passing of time for the full outworking of their material and +social repercussions. The ideals of the race are the chief support and +assurance during the critical times when civilization is in transit from one +level to another. + +15. The prevention of transitional breakdown. Society is the offspring of age +upon age of trial and error; it is what survived the selective adjustments and +readjustments in the successive stages of mankind's agelong rise from animal to +human levels of planetary status. The great danger to any civilization--at any +one moment--is the threat of breakdown during the time of transition from the +established methods of the past to those new and better, but untried, +procedures of the future. + +Leadership is vital to progress. Wisdom, insight, and foresight are +indispensable to the endurance of nations. Civilization is never really +jeopardized until able leadership begins to vanish. And the quantity of such +wise leadership has never exceeded one per cent of the population. + +And it was by these rungs on the evolutionary ladder that civilization climbed +to that place where those mighty influences could be initiated which + + top of page - 912 + +have culminated in the rapidly expanding culture of the twentieth century. And +only by adherence to these essentials can man hope to maintain his present-day +civilizations while providing for their continued development and certain +survival. + +This is the gist of the long, long struggle of the peoples of earth to +establish civilization since the age of Adam. Present-day culture is the net +result of this strenuous evolution. Before the discovery of printing, progress +was relatively slow since one generation could not so rapidly benefit from the +achievements of its predecessors. But now human society is plunging forward +under the force of the accumulated momentum of all the ages through which +civilization has struggled. + +[Sponsored by an Archangel of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 913 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Andite ³ The Evolution ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Expansio... ³ O... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p082.txt b/religious documents/p082.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..429fccf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p082.txt @@ -0,0 +1,542 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 82 The Evolution Of Marriage + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 82 The Evolution Of Marriage + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +MARRIAGE--mating--grows out of bisexuality. Marriage is man's reactional +adjustment to such bisexuality, while the family life is the sum total +resulting from all such evolutionary and adaptative adjustments. Marriage is +enduring; it is not inherent in biologic evolution, but it is the basis of all +social evolution and is therefore certain of continued existence in some form. +Marriage has given mankind the home, and the home is the crowning glory of the +whole long and arduous evolutionary struggle. + +While religious, social, and educational institutions are all essential to the +survival of cultural civilization, the family is the master civilizer. A child +learns most of the essentials of life from his family and the neighbors. + +The humans of olden times did not possess a very rich social civilization, but +such as they had they faithfully and effectively passed on to the next +generation. And you should recognize that most of these civilizations of the +past continued to evolve with a bare minimum of other institutional influences +because the home was effectively functioning. Today the human races possess a +rich social and cultural heritage, and it should be wisely and effectively +passed on to succeeding generations. The family as an educational institution +must be maintained. + +1. THE MATING INSTINCT + +Notwithstanding the personality gulf between men and women, the sex urge is +sufficient to insure their coming together for the reproduction of the species. +This instinct operated effectively long before humans experienced much of what +was later called love, devotion, and marital loyalty. Mating is an innate +propensity, and marriage is its evolutionary social repercussion. + +Sex interest and desire were not dominating passions in primitive peoples; they +simply took them for granted. The entire reproductive experience was free from +imaginative embellishment. The all-absorbing sex passion of the more highly +civilized peoples is chiefly due to race mixtures, especially where the +evolutionary nature has been stimulated by the associative imagination and +beauty appreciation of the Nodites and Adamites. But this Andite inheritance +was absorbed by the evolutionary races in such limited amounts as to fail to +provide sufficient self-control for the animal passions thus quickened and +aroused by the endowment of keener sex consciousness and stronger mating urges. +Of the evolutionary races, the red man had the highest sex code. + +The regulation of sex in relation to marriage indicates: + +1. The relative progress of civilization. Civilization has increasingly +demanded that sex be gratified in useful channels and in accordance with the +mores. + + top of page - 914 + +2. The amount of Andite stock in any people. Among such groups sex has become +expressive of both the highest and the lowest in both the physical and +emotional natures. + +The Sangik races had normal animal passion, but they displayed little +imagination or appreciation of the beauty and physical attractiveness of the +opposite sex. What is called sex appeal is virtually absent even in present-day +primitive races; these unmixed peoples have a definite mating instinct but +insufficient sex attraction to create serious problems requiring social +control. + +The mating instinct is one of the dominant physical driving forces of human +beings; it is the one emotion which, in the guise of individual gratification, +effectively tricks selfish man into putting race welfare and perpetuation high +above individual ease and personal freedom from responsibility. + +As an institution, marriage, from its early beginnings down to modern times, +pictures the social evolution of the biologic propensity for self-perpetuation. +The perpetuation of the evolving human species is made certain by the presence +of this racial mating impulse, an urge which is loosely called sex attraction. +This great biologic urge becomes the impulse hub for all sorts of associated +instincts, emotions, and usages--physical, intellectual, moral, and social. + +With the savage, the food supply was the impelling motivation, but when +civilization insures plentiful food, the sex urge many times becomes a dominant +impulse and therefore ever stands in need of social regulation. In animals, +instinctive periodicity checks the mating propensity, but since man is so +largely a self-controlled being, sex desire is not altogether periodic; +therefore does it become necessary for society to impose self-control upon the +individual. + +No human emotion or impulse, when unbridled and overindulged, can produce so +much harm and sorrow as this powerful sex urge. Intelligent submission of this +impulse to the regulations of society is the supreme test of the actuality of +any civilization. Self-control, more and more self-control, is the +ever-increasing demand of advancing mankind. Secrecy, insincerity, and +hypocrisy may obscure sex problems, but they do not provide solutions, nor do +they advance ethics. + +2. THE RESTRICTIVE TABOOS + +The story of the evolution of marriage is simply the history of sex control +through the pressure of social, religious, and civil restrictions. Nature +hardly recognizes individuals; it takes no cognizance of so-called morals; it +is only and exclusively interested in the reproduction of the species. Nature +compellingly insists on reproduction but indifferently leaves the consequential +problems to be solved by society, thus creating an ever-present and major +problem for evolutionary mankind. This social conflict consists in the unending +war between basic instincts and evolving ethics. + +Among the early races there was little or no regulation of the relations of the +sexes. Because of this sex license, no prostitution existed. Today, the Pygmies +and other backward groups have no marriage institution; a study of these +peoples reveals the simple mating customs followed by primitive races. But all +ancient peoples should always be studied and judged in the light of the moral +standards of the mores of their own times. + + top of page - 915 + +Free love, however, has never been in good standing above the scale of rank +savagery. The moment societal groups began to form, marriage codes and marital +restrictions began to develop. Mating has thus progressed through a multitude +of transitions from a state of almost complete sex license to the +twentieth-century standards of relatively complete sex restriction. + +In the earliest stages of tribal development the mores and restrictive taboos +were very crude, but they did keep the sexes apart--this favored quiet, order, +and industry--and the long evolution of marriage and the home had begun. The +sex customs of dress, adornment, and religious practices had their origin in +these early taboos which defined the range of sex liberties and thus eventually +created concepts of vice, crime, and sin. But it was long the practice to +suspend all sex regulations on high festival days, especially May Day. + +Women have always been subject to more restrictive taboos than men. The early +mores granted the same degree of sex liberty to unmarried women as to men, but +it has always been required of wives that they be faithful to their husbands. +Primitive marriage did not much curtail man's sex liberties, but it did render +further sex license taboo to the wife. Married women have always borne some +mark which set them apart as a class by themselves, such as hairdress, +clothing, veil, seclusion, ornamentation, and rings. + +3. EARLY MARRIAGE MORES + +Marriage is the institutional response of the social organism to the +ever-present biologic tension of man's unremitting urge to +reproduction--self-propagation. Mating is universally natural, and as society +evolved from the simple to the complex, there was a corresponding evolution of +the mating mores, the genesis of the marital institution. Wherever social +evolution has progressed to the stage at which mores are generated, marriage +will be found as an evolving institution. + +There always have been and always will be two distinct realms of marriage: the +mores, the laws regulating the external aspects of mating, and the otherwise +secret and personal relations of men and women. Always has the individual been +rebellious against the sex regulations imposed by society; and this is the +reason for this agelong sex problem: Self-maintenance is individual but is +carried on by the group; self-perpetuation is social but is secured by +individual impulse. + +The mores, when respected, have ample power to restrain and control the sex +urge, as has been shown among all races. Marriage standards have always been a +true indicator of the current power of the mores and the functional integrity +of the civil government. But the early sex and mating mores were a mass of +inconsistent and crude regulations. Parents, children, relatives, and society +all had conflicting interests in the marriage regulations. But in spite of all +this, those races which exalted and practiced marriage naturally evolved to +higher levels and survived in increased numbers. + +In primitive times marriage was the price of social standing; the possession of +a wife was a badge of distinction. The savage looked upon his wedding day as +marking his entrance upon responsibility and manhood. In one age, marriage has +been looked upon as a social duty; in another, as a religious obligation; and +in still another, as a political requirement to provide citizens for the state. + + top of page - 916 + +Many early tribes required feats of stealing as a qualification for marriage; +later peoples substituted for such raiding forays, athletic contests and +competitive games. The winners in these contests were awarded the first +prize--choice of the season's brides. Among the head-hunters a youth might not +marry until he possessed at least one head, although such skulls were sometimes +purchasable. As the buying of wives declined, they were won by riddle contests, +a practice that still survives among many groups of the black man. + +With advancing civilization, certain tribes put the severe marriage tests of +male endurance in the hands of the women; they thus were able to favor the men +of their choice. These marriage tests embraced skill in hunting, fighting, and +ability to provide for a family. The groom was long required to enter the +bride's family for at least one year, there to live and labor and prove that he +was worthy of the wife he sought. + +The qualifications of a wife were the ability to perform hard work and to bear +children. She was required to execute a certain piece of agricultural work +within a given time. And if she had borne a child before marriage, she was all +the more valuable; her fertility was thus assured. + +The fact that ancient peoples regarded it as a disgrace, or even a sin, not to +be married, explains the origin of child marriages; since one must be married, +the earlier the better. It was also a general belief that unmarried persons +could not enter spiritland, and this was a further incentive to child marriages +even at birth and sometimes before birth, contingent upon sex. The ancients +believed that even the dead must be married. The original matchmakers were +employed to negotiate marriages for deceased individuals. One parent would +arrange for these intermediaries to effect the marriage of a dead son with a +dead daughter of another family. + +Among later peoples, puberty was the common age of marriage, but this has +advanced in direct proportion to the progress of civilization. Early in social +evolution peculiar and celibate orders of both men and women arose; they were +started and maintained by individuals more or less lacking normal sex urge. + +Many tribes allowed members of the ruling group to have sex relations with the +bride just before she was to be given to her husband. Each of these men would +give the girl a present, and this was the origin of the custom of giving +wedding presents. Among some groups it was expected that a young woman would +earn her dowry, which consisted of the presents received in reward for her sex +service in the bride's exhibition hall. + +Some tribes married the young men to the widows and older women and then, when +they were subsequently left widowers, would allow them to marry the young +girls, thus insuring, as they expressed it, that both parents would not be +fools, as they conceived would be the case if two youths were allowed to mate. +Other tribes limited mating to similar age groups. It was the limitation of +marriage to certain age groups that first gave origin to ideas of incest. (In +India there are even now no age restrictions on marriage.) + +Under certain mores widowhood was greatly to be feared, widows being either +killed or allowed to commit suicide on their husbands' graves, for they were +supposed to go over into spiritland with their spouses. The surviving widow was +almost invariably blamed for her husband's death. Some tribes burned them +alive. If a widow continued to live, her life was one of continuous mourning +and unbearable social restriction since remarriage was generally disapproved. + + top of page - 917 + +In olden days many practices now regarded as immoral were encouraged. Primitive +wives not infrequently took great pride in their husbands' affairs with other +women. Chastity in girls was a great hindrance to marriage; the bearing of a +child before marriage greatly increased a girl's desirability as a wife since +the man was sure of having a fertile companion. + +Many primitive tribes sanctioned trial marriage until the woman became +pregnant, when the regular marriage ceremony would be performed; among other +groups the wedding was not celebrated until the first child was born. If a wife +was barren, she had to be redeemed by her parents, and the marriage was +annulled. The mores demanded that every pair have children. + +These primitive trial marriages were entirely free from all semblance of +license; they were simply sincere tests of fecundity. The contracting +individuals married permanently just as soon as fertility was established. When +modern couples marry with the thought of convenient divorce in the background +of their minds if they are not wholly pleased with their married life, they are +in reality entering upon a form of trial marriage and one that is far beneath +the status of the honest adventures of their less civilized ancestors. + +4. MARRIAGE UNDER THE PROPERTY MORES + +Marriage has always been closely linked with both property and religion. +Property has been the stabilizer of marriage; religion, the moralizer. + +Primitive marriage was an investment, an economic speculation; it was more a +matter of business than an affair of flirtation. The ancients married for the +advantage and welfare of the group; wherefore their marriages were planned and +arranged by the group, their parents and elders. And that the property mores +were effective in stabilizing the marriage institution is borne out by the fact +that marriage was more permanent among the early tribes than it is among many +modern peoples. + +As civilization advanced and private property gained further recognition in the +mores, stealing became the great crime. Adultery was recognized as a form of +stealing, an infringement of the husband's property rights; it is not therefore +specifically mentioned in the earlier codes and mores. Woman started out as the +property of her father, who transferred his title to her husband, and all +legalized sex relations grew out of these pre-existent property rights. The Old +Testament deals with women as a form of property; the Koran teaches their +inferiority. Man had the right to lend his wife to a friend or guest, and this +custom still obtains among certain peoples. + +Modern sex jealousy is not innate; it is a product of the evolving mores. +Primitive man was not jealous of his wife; he was just guarding his property. +The reason for holding the wife to stricter sex account than the husband was +because her marital infidelity involved descent and inheritance. Very early in +the march of civilization the illegitimate child fell into disrepute. At first +only the woman was punished for adultery; later on, the mores also decreed the +chastisement of her partner, and for long ages the offended husband or the +protector father had the full right to kill the male trespasser. Modern peoples +retain these mores, which allow so-called crimes of honor under the unwritten +law. + +Since the chastity taboo had its origin as a phase of the property mores, it +applied at first to married women but not to unmarried girls. In later years, + + top of page - 918 + +chastity was more demanded by the father than by the suitor; a virgin was a +commercial asset to the father--she brought a higher price. As chastity came +more into demand, it was the practice to pay the father a bride fee in +recognition of the service of properly rearing a chaste bride for the +husband-to-be. When once started, this idea of female chastity took such hold +on the races that it became the practice literally to cage up girls, actually +to imprison them for years, in order to assure their virginity. And so the more +recent standards and virginity tests automatically gave origin to the +professional prostitute classes; they were the rejected brides, those women who +were found by the grooms' mothers not to be virgins. + +5. ENDOGAMY AND EXOGAMY + +Very early the savage observed that race mixture improved the quality of the +offspring. It was not that inbreeding was always bad, but that outbreeding was +always comparatively better; therefore the mores tended to crystallize in +restriction of sex relations among near relatives. It was recognized that +outbreeding greatly increased the selective opportunity for evolutionary +variation and advancement. The outbred individuals were more versatile and had +greater ability to survive in a hostile world; the inbreeders, together with +their mores, gradually disappeared. This was all a slow development; the savage +did not consciously reason about such problems. But the later and advancing +peoples did, and they also made the observation that general weakness sometimes +resulted from excessive inbreeding. + +While the inbreeding of good stock sometimes resulted in the upbuilding of +strong tribes, the spectacular cases of the bad results of the inbreeding of +hereditary defectives more forcibly impressed the mind of man, with the result +that the advancing mores increasingly formulated taboos against all marriages +among near relatives. + +Religion has long been an effective barrier against outmarriage; many religious +teachings have proscribed marriage outside the faith. Woman has usually favored +the practice of in-marriage; man, outmarriage. Property has always influenced +marriage, and sometimes, in an effort to conserve property within a clan, mores +have arisen compelling women to choose husbands within their fathers' tribes. +Rulings of this sort led to a great multiplication of cousin marriages. +In-mating was also practiced in an effort to preserve craft secrets; skilled +workmen sought to keep the knowledge of their craft within the family. + +Superior groups, when isolated, always reverted to consanguineous mating. The +Nodites for over one hundred and fifty thousand years were one of the great +in-marriage groups. The later-day in-marriage mores were tremendously +influenced by the traditions of the violet race, in which, at first, matings +were, perforce, between brother and sister. And brother and sister marriages +were common in early Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and throughout the lands once +occupied by the Andites. The Egyptians long practiced brother and sister +marriages in an effort to keep the royal blood pure, a custom which persisted +even longer in Persia. Among the Mesopotamians, before the days of Abraham, +cousin marriages were obligatory; cousins had prior marriage rights to cousins. +Abraham himself married his half sister, but such unions were not allowed under +the later mores of the Jews. + + top of page - 919 + +The first move away from brother and sister marriages came about under the +plural-wife mores because the sister-wife would arrogantly dominate the other +wife or wives. Some tribal mores forbade marriage to a dead brother's widow but +required the living brother to beget children for his departed brother. There +is no biologic instinct against any degree of in-marriage; such restrictions +are wholly a matter of taboo. + +Outmarriage finally dominated because it was favored by the man; to get a wife +from the outside insured greater freedom from in-laws. Familiarity breeds +contempt; so, as the element of individual choice began to dominate mating, it +became the custom to choose partners from outside the tribe. + +Many tribes finally forbade marriages within the clan; others limited mating to +certain castes. The taboo against marriage with a woman of one's own totem gave +impetus to the custom of stealing women from neighboring tribes. Later on, +marriages were regulated more in accordance with territorial residence than +with kinship. There were many steps in the evolution of in-marriage into the +modern practice of outmarriage. Even after the taboo rested upon in-marriages +for the common people, chiefs and kings were permitted to marry those of close +kin in order to keep the royal blood concentrated and pure. The mores have +usually permitted sovereign rulers certain licenses in sex matters. + +The presence of the later Andite peoples had much to do with increasing the +desire of the Sangik races to mate outside their own tribes. But it was not +possible for out-mating to become prevalent until neighboring groups had +learned to live together in relative peace. + +Outmarriage itself was a peace promoter; marriages between the tribes lessened +hostilities. Outmarriage led to tribal co-ordination and to military alliances; +it became dominant because it provided increased strength; it was a nation +builder. Outmarriage was also greatly favored by increasing trade contacts; +adventure and exploration contributed to the extension of the mating bounds and +greatly facilitated the cross-fertilization of racial cultures. + +The otherwise inexplicable inconsistencies of the racial marriage mores are +largely due to this outmarriage custom with its accompanying wife stealing and +buying from foreign tribes, all of which resulted in a compounding of the +separate tribal mores. That these taboos respecting in-marriage were +sociologic, not biologic, is well illustrated by the taboos on kinship +marriages, which embraced many degrees of in-law relationships, cases +representing no blood relation whatsoever. + +6. RACIAL MIXTURES + +There are no pure races in the world today. The early and original evolutionary +peoples of color have only two representative races persisting in the world, +the yellow man and the black man; and even these two races are much admixed +with the extinct colored peoples. While the so-called white race is +predominantly descended from the ancient blue man, it is admixed more or less +with all other races much as is the red man of the Americas. + +Of the six colored Sangik races, three were primary and three were secondary. +Though the primary races--blue, red, and yellow--were in many respects superior +to the three secondary peoples, it should be remembered that these secondary +races had many desirable traits which would have considerably enhanced the +primary peoples if their better strains could have been absorbed. + + top of page - 920 + +Present-day prejudice against "half-castes," "hybrids," and "mongrels" arises +because modern racial crossbreeding is, for the greater part, between the +grossly inferior strains of the races concerned. You also get unsatisfactory +offspring when the degenerate strains of the same race intermarry. + +If the present-day races of Urantia could be freed from the curse of their +lowest strata of deteriorated, antisocial, feeble-minded, and outcast +specimens, there would be little objection to a limited race amalgamation. And +if such racial mixtures could take place between the highest types of the +several races, still less objection could be offered. + +Hybridization of superior and dissimilar stocks is the secret of the creation +of new and more vigorous strains. And this is true of plants, animals, and the +human species. Hybridization augments vigor and increases fertility. Race +mixtures of the average or superior strata of various peoples greatly increase +creative potential, as is shown in the present population of the United States +of North America. When such matings take place between the lower or inferior +strata, creativity is diminished, as is shown by the present-day peoples of +southern India. + +Race blending greatly contributes to the sudden appearance of new +characteristics, and if such hybridization is the union of superior strains, +then these new characteristics will also be superior traits. + +As long as present-day races are so overloaded with inferior and degenerate +strains, race intermingling on a large scale would be most detrimental, but +most of the objections to such experiments rest on social and cultural +prejudices rather than on biological considerations. Even among inferior +stocks, hybrids often are an improvement on their ancestors. Hybridization +makes for species improvement because of the role of the dominant genes. Racial +intermixture increases the likelihood of a larger number of the desirable +dominants being present in the hybrid. + +For the past hundred years more racial hybridization has been taking place on +Urantia than has occurred in thousands of years. The danger of gross +disharmonies as a result of crossbreeding of human stocks has been greatly +exaggerated. The chief troubles of "half-breeds" are due to social prejudices. + +The Pitcairn experiment of blending the white and Polynesian races turned out +fairly well because the white men and the Polynesian women were of fairly good +racial strains. Interbreeding between the highest types of the white, red, and +yellow races would immediately bring into existence many new and biologically +effective characteristics. These three peoples belong to the primary Sangik +races. Mixtures of the white and black races are not so desirable in their +immediate results, neither are such mulatto offspring so objectionable as +social and racial prejudice would seek to make them appear. Physically, such +white-black hybrids are excellent specimens of humanity, notwithstanding their +slight inferiority in some other respects. + +When a primary Sangik race amalgamates with a secondary Sangik race, the latter +is considerably improved at the expense of the former. And on a small +scale--extending over long periods of time--there can be little serious +objection to such a sacrificial contribution by the primary races to the +betterment of the secondary groups. Biologically considered, the secondary +Sangiks were in some respects superior to the primary races. + + top of page - 921 + +After all, the real jeopardy of the human species is to be found in the +unrestrained multiplication of the inferior and degenerate strains of the +various civilized peoples rather than in any supposed danger of their racial +interbreeding. + +[Presented by the Chief of Seraphim stationed on Urantia.] + + top of page - 922 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Development Of ³ The Marriage ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ In... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p083.txt b/religious documents/p083.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b439f36 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p083.txt @@ -0,0 +1,586 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 83 The Marriage Institution + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 83 The Marriage Institution + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THIS is the recital of the early beginnings of the institution of marriage. It +has progressed steadily from the loose and promiscuous matings of the herd +through many variations and adaptations, even to the appearance of those +marriage standards which eventually culminated in the realization of pair +matings, the union of one man and one woman to establish a home of the highest +social order. + +Marriage has been many times in jeopardy, and the marriage mores have drawn +heavily on both property and religion for support; but the real influence which +forever safeguards marriage and the resultant family is the simple and innate +biologic fact that men and women positively will not live without each other, +be they the most primitive savages or the most cultured mortals. + +It is because of the sex urge that selfish man is lured into making something +better than an animal out of himself. The self-regarding and self-gratifying +sex relationship entails the certain consequences of self-denial and insures +the assumption of altruistic duties and numerous race-benefiting home +responsibilities. Herein has sex been the unrecognized and unsuspected +civilizer of the savage; for this same sex impulse automatically and unerringly +compels man to think and eventually leads him to love. + +1. MARRIAGE AS A SOCIETAL INSTITUTION + +Marriage is society's mechanism designed to regulate and control those many +human relations which arise out of the physical fact of bisexuality. As such an +institution, marriage functions in two directions: + +1. In the regulation of personal sex relations. + +2. In the regulation of descent, inheritance, succession, and social order, +this being its older and original function. + +The family, which grows out of marriage, is itself a stabilizer of the marriage +institution together with the property mores. Other potent factors in marriage +stability are pride, vanity, chivalry, duty, and religious convictions. But +while marriages may be approved or disapproved on high, they are hardly made in +heaven. The human family is a distinctly human institution, an evolutionary +development. Marriage is an institution of society, not a department of the +church. True, religion should mightily influence it but should not undertake +exclusively to control and regulate it. + +Primitive marriage was primarily industrial; and even in modern times it is +often a social or business affair. Through the influence of the mixture of the +Andite stock and as a result of the mores of advancing civilization, marriage +is slowly becoming mutual, romantic, parental, poetical, affectionate, ethical, +and even idealistic. Selection and so-called romantic love, however, were at + + top of page - 923 + +a minimum in primitive mating. During early times husband and wife were not +much together; they did not even eat together very often. But among the +ancients, personal affection was not strongly linked to sex attraction; they +became fond of one another largely because of living and working together. + +2. COURTSHIP AND BETROTHAL + +Primitive marriages were always planned by the parents of the boy and girl. The +transition stage between this custom and the times of free choosing was +occupied by the marriage broker or professional matchmaker. These matchmakers +were at first the barbers; later, the priests. Marriage was originally a group +affair; then a family matter; only recently has it become an individual +adventure. + +Coercion, not attraction, was the approach to primitive marriage. In early +times woman had no sex aloofness, only sex inferiority as inculcated by the +mores. As raiding preceded trading, so marriage by capture preceded marriage by +contract. Some women would connive at capture in order to escape the domination +of the older men of their tribe; they preferred to fall into the hands of men +of their own age from another tribe. This pseudo elopement was the transition +stage between capture by force and subsequent courtship by charming. + +An early type of wedding ceremony was the mimic flight, a sort of elopement +rehearsal which was once a common practice. Later, mock capture became a part +of the regular wedding ceremony. A modern girl's pretensions to resist +"capture," to be reticent toward marriage, are all relics of olden customs. The +carrying of the bride over the threshold is reminiscent of a number of ancient +practices, among others, of the days of wife stealing. + +Woman was long denied full freedom of self-disposal in marriage, but the more +intelligent women have always been able to circumvent this restriction by the +clever exercise of their wits. Man has usually taken the lead in courtship, but +not always. Woman sometimes formally, as well as covertly, initiates marriage. +And as civilization has progressed, women have had an increasing part in all +phases of courtship and marriage. + +Increasing love, romance, and personal selection in premarital courtship are an +Andite contribution to the world races. The relations between the sexes are +evolving favorably; many advancing peoples are gradually substituting somewhat +idealized concepts of sex attraction for those older motives of utility and +ownership. Sex impulse and feelings of affection are beginning to displace cold +calculation in the choosing of life partners. + +The betrothal was originally equivalent to marriage; and among early peoples +sex relations were conventional during the engagement. In recent times, +religion has established a sex taboo on the period between betrothal and +marriage. + +3. PURCHASE AND DOWRY + +The ancients mistrusted love and promises; they thought that abiding unions +must be guaranteed by some tangible security, property. For this reason, the +purchase price of a wife was regarded as a forfeit or deposit which the husband +was doomed to lose in case of divorce or desertion. Once the purchase price of +a bride had been paid, many tribes permitted the husband's brand to be burned +upon her. Africans still buy their wives. A love wife, or a white man's wife, +they compare to a cat because she costs nothing. + + top of page - 924 + +The bride shows were occasions for dressing up and decorating daughters for +public exhibition with the idea of their bringing higher prices as wives. But +they were not sold as animals--among the later tribes such a wife was not +transferable. Neither was her purchase always just a cold-blooded money +transaction; service was equivalent to cash in the purchase of a wife. If an +otherwise desirable man could not pay for his wife, he could be adopted as a +son by the girl's father and then could marry. And if a poor man sought a wife +and could not meet the price demanded by a grasping father, the elders would +often bring pressure to bear upon the father which would result in a +modification of his demands, or else there might be an elopement. + +As civilization progressed, fathers did not like to appear to sell their +daughters, and so, while continuing to accept the bride purchase price, they +initiated the custom of giving the pair valuable presents which about equaled +the purchase money. And upon the later discontinuance of payment for the bride, +these presents became the bride's dowry. + +The idea of a dowry was to convey the impression of the bride's independence, +to suggest far removal from the times of slave wives and property companions. A +man could not divorce a dowered wife without paying back the dowry in full. +Among some tribes a mutual deposit was made with the parents of both bride and +groom to be forfeited in case either deserted the other, in reality a marriage +bond. During the period of transition from purchase to dowry, if the wife were +purchased, the children belonged to the father; if not, they belonged to the +wife's family. + +4. THE WEDDING CEREMONY + +The wedding ceremony grew out of the fact that marriage was originally a +community affair, not just the culmination of a decision of two individuals. +Mating was of group concern as well as a personal function. + +Magic, ritual, and ceremony surrounded the entire life of the ancients, and +marriage was no exception. As civilization advanced, as marriage became more +seriously regarded, the wedding ceremony became increasingly pretentious. Early +marriage was a factor in property interests, even as it is today, and therefore +required a legal ceremony, while the social status of subsequent children +demanded the widest possible publicity. Primitive man had no records; therefore +must the marriage ceremony be witnessed by many persons. + +At first the wedding ceremony was more on the order of a betrothal and +consisted only in public notification of intention of living together; later it +consisted in formal eating together. Among some tribes the parents simply took +their daughter to the husband; in other cases the only ceremony was the formal +exchange of presents, after which the bride's father would present her to the +groom. Among many Levantine peoples it was the custom to dispense with all +formality, marriage being consummated by sex relations. The red man was the +first to develop the more elaborate celebration of weddings. + +Childlessness was greatly dreaded, and since barrenness was attributed to +spirit machinations, efforts to insure fecundity also led to the association of +marriage with certain magical or religious ceremonials. And in this effort to +insure a happy and fertile marriage, many charms were employed; even the +astrologers were consulted to ascertain the birth stars of the contracting +parties. + + top of page - 925 + +At one time the human sacrifice was a regular feature of all weddings among +well-to-do people. + +Lucky days were sought out, Thursday being most favorably regarded, and +weddings celebrated at the full of the moon were thought to be exceptionally +fortunate. It was the custom of many Near Eastern peoples to throw grain upon +the newlyweds; this was a magical rite which was supposed to insure fecundity. +Certain Oriental peoples used rice for this purpose. + +Fire and water were always considered the best means of resisting ghosts and +evil spirits; hence altar fires and lighted candles, as well as the baptismal +sprinkling of holy water, were usually in evidence at weddings. For a long time +it was customary to set a false wedding day and then suddenly postpone the +event so as to put the ghosts and spirits off the track. + +The teasing of newlyweds and the pranks played upon honeymooners are all relics +of those far-distant days when it was thought best to appear miserable and ill +at ease in the sight of the spirits so as to avoid arousing their envy. The +wearing of the bridal veil is a relic of the times when it was considered +necessary to disguise the bride so that ghosts might not recognize her and also +to hide her beauty from the gaze of the otherwise jealous and envious spirits. +The bride's feet must never touch the ground just prior to the ceremony. Even +in the twentieth century it is still the custom under the Christian mores to +stretch carpets from the carriage landing to the church altar. + +One of the most ancient forms of the wedding ceremony was to have a priest +bless the wedding bed to insure the fertility of the union; this was done long +before any formal wedding ritual was established. During this period in the +evolution of the marriage mores the wedding guests were expected to file +through the bedchamber at night, thus constituting legal witness to the +consummation of marriage. + + top of page - 926 + +The luck element, that in spite of all premarital tests certain marriages +turned out bad, led primitive man to seek insurance protection against marriage +failure; led him to go in quest of priests and magic. And this movement +culminated directly in modern church weddings. But for a long time marriage was +generally recognized as consisting in the decisions of the contracting +parents--later of the pair while for the last five hundred years church and +state have assumed jurisdiction and now presume to make pronouncements of +marriage. + +5. PLURAL MARRIAGES + +In the early history of marriage the unmarried women belonged to the men of the +tribe. Later on, a woman had only one husband at a time. This practice of +one-man-at-a-time was the first step away from the promiscuity of the herd. +While a woman was allowed but one man, her husband could sever such temporary +relationships at will. But these loosely regulated associations were the first +step toward living pairwise in distinction to living herdwise. In this stage of +marriage development children usually belonged to the mother. + +The next step in mating evolution was the group marriage. This communal phase +of marriage had to intervene in the unfolding of family life because the +marriage mores were not yet strong enough to make pair associations permanent. +The brother and sister marriages belonged to this group; five brothers of one +family would marry five sisters of another. All over the world the looser forms +of communal marriage gradually evolved into various types of group marriage. +And these group associations were largely regulated by the totem mores. Family +life slowly and surely developed because sex and marriage regulation favored +the survival of the tribe itself by insuring the survival of larger numbers of +children. + +Group marriages gradually gave way before the emerging practices of +polygamy--polygyny and polyandry--among the more advanced tribes. But polyandry +was never general, being usually limited to queens and rich women; furthermore, +it was customarily a family affair, one wife for several brothers. Caste and +economic restrictions sometimes made it necessary for several men to content +themselves with one wife. Even then, the woman would marry only one, the others +being loosely tolerated as "uncles" of the joint progeny. + +The Jewish custom requiring that a man consort with his deceased brother's +widow for the purpose of "raising up seed for his brother," was the custom of +more than half the ancient world. This was a relic of the time when marriage +was a family affair rather than an individual association. + +The institution of polygyny recognized, at various times, four sorts of wives: + +1. The ceremonial or legal wives. + + top of page - 927 + +2. Wives of affection and permission. + +3. Concubines, contractual wives. + +4. Slave wives. + +True polygyny, where all the wives are of equal status and all the children +equal, has been very rare. Usually, even with plural marriages, the home was +dominated by the head wife, the status companion. She alone had the ritual +wedding ceremony, and only the children of such a purchased or dowered spouse +could inherit unless by special arrangement with the status wife. + +The status wife was not necessarily the love wife; in early times she usually +was not. The love wife, or sweetheart, did not appear until the races were +considerably advanced, more particularly after the blending of the evolutionary +tribes with the Nodites and Adamites. + +The taboo wife--one wife of legal status--created the concubine mores. Under +these mores a man might have only one wife, but he could maintain sex relations +with any number of concubines. Concubinage was the steppingstone to monogamy, +the first move away from frank polygyny. The concubines of the Jews, Romans, +and Chinese were very frequently the handmaidens of the wife. Later on, as +among the Jews, the legal wife was looked upon as the mother of all children +born to the husband. + +The olden taboos on sex relations with a pregnant or nursing wife tended +greatly to foster polygyny. Primitive women aged very early because of frequent +childbearing coupled with hard work. (Such overburdened wives only managed to +exist by virtue of the fact that they were put in isolation one week out of +each month when they were not heavy with child.) Such a wife often grew tired +of bearing children and would request her husband to take a second and younger +wife, one able to help with both childbearing and the domestic work. The new +wives were therefore usually hailed with delight by the older spouses; there +existed nothing on the order of sex jealousy. + +The number of wives was only limited by the ability of the man to provide for +them. Wealthy and able men wanted large numbers of children, and since the +infant mortality was very high, it required an assembly of wives to recruit a +large family. Many of these plural wives were mere laborers, slave wives. + +Human customs evolve, but very slowly. The purpose of a harem was to build up a +strong and numerous body of blood kin for the support of the throne. A certain +chief was once convinced that he should not have a harem, that he should be +contented with one wife; so he promptly dismissed his harem. The dissatisfied +wives went to their homes, and their offended relatives swept down on the chief +in wrath and did away with him then and there. + +6. TRUE MONOGAMY--PAIR MARRIAGE + +Monogamy is monopoly; it is good for those who attain this desirable state, but +it tends to work a biologic hardship on those who are not so fortunate. But +quite regardless of the effect on the individual, monogamy is decidedly best +for the children. + +The earliest monogamy was due to force of circumstances, poverty. Monogamy is +cultural and societal, artificial and unnatural, that is, unnatural to +evolutionary man. It was wholly natural to the purer Nodites and Adamites and +has been of great cultural value to all advanced races. + +The Chaldean tribes recognized the right of a wife to impose a premarital +pledge upon her spouse not to take a second wife or concubine; both the Greeks +and the Romans favored monogamous marriage. Ancestor worship has always +fostered monogamy, as has the Christian error of regarding marriage as a +sacrament. Even the elevation of the standard of living has consistently +militated against plural wives. By the time of Michael's advent on Urantia +practically all of the civilized world had attained the level of theoretical +monogamy. But this passive monogamy did not mean that mankind had become +habituated to the practice of real pair marriage. + +While pursuing the monogamic goal of the ideal pair marriage, which is, after +all, something of a monopolistic sex association, society must not overlook the +unenviable situation of those unfortunate men and women who fail to find a +place in this new and improved social order, even when having done their best +to co-operate with, and enter into, its requirements. Failure to gain mates in +the social arena of competition may be due to insurmountable difficulties or +multitudinous restrictions which the current mores have imposed. Truly, +monogamy is ideal for those who are in, but it must inevitably work great +hardship on those who are left out in the cold of solitary existence. + +Always have the unfortunate few had to suffer that the majority might advance +under the developing mores of evolving civilization; but always should the +favored majority look with kindness and consideration on their less fortunate +fellows who must pay the price of failure to attain membership in the ranks of +those ideal sex partnerships which afford the satisfaction of all biologic +urges under the sanction of the highest mores of advancing social evolution. + +Monogamy always has been, now is, and forever will be the idealistic goal of +human sex evolution. This ideal of true pair marriage entails self-denial, and +therefore does it so often fail just because one or both of the contracting +parties are deficient in that acme of all human virtues, rugged self-control. + +Monogamy is the yardstick which measures the advance of social civilization as +distinguished from purely biologic evolution. Monogamy is not necessarily +biologic or natural, but it is indispensable to the immediate maintenance and + + top of page - 928 + +further development of social civilization. It contributes to a delicacy of +sentiment, a refinement of moral character, and a spiritual growth which are +utterly impossible in polygamy. A woman never can become an ideal mother when +she is all the while compelled to engage in rivalry for her husband's +affections. + +Pair marriage favors and fosters that intimate understanding and effective +co-operation which is best for parental happiness, child welfare, and social +efficiency. Marriage, which began in crude coercion, is gradually evolving into +a magnificent institution of self-culture, self-control, self-expression, and +self-perpetuation. + +7. THE DISSOLUTION OF WEDLOCK + +In the early evolution of the marital mores, marriage was a loose union which +could be terminated at will, and the children always followed the mother; the +mother-child bond is instinctive and has functioned regardless of the +developmental stage of the mores. + +Among primitive peoples only about one half the marriages proved satisfactory. +The most frequent cause for separation was barrenness, which was always blamed +on the wife; and childless wives were believed to become snakes in the spirit +world. Under the more primitive mores, divorce was had at the option of the man +alone, and these standards have persisted to the twentieth century among some +peoples. + +As the mores evolved, certain tribes developed two forms of marriage: the +ordinary, which permitted divorce, and the priest marriage, which did not allow +for separation. The inauguration of wife purchase and wife dowry, by +introducing a property penalty for marriage failure, did much to lessen +separation. And, indeed, many modern unions are stabilized by this ancient +property factor. + +The social pressure of community standing and property privileges has always +been potent in the maintenance of the marriage taboos and mores. Down through +the ages marriage has made steady progress and stands on advanced ground in the +modern world, notwithstanding that it is threateningly assailed by widespread +dissatisfaction among those peoples where individual choice--a new +liberty--figures most largely. While these upheavals of adjustment appear among +the more progressive races as a result of suddenly accelerated social +evolution, among the less advanced peoples marriage continues to thrive and +slowly improve under the guidance of the older mores. + +The new and sudden substitution of the more ideal but extremely individualistic +love motive in marriage for the older and long-established property motive, has +unavoidably caused the marriage institution to become temporarily unstable. +Man's marriage motives have always far transcended actual marriage morals, and +in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Occidental ideal of marriage has +suddenly far outrun the self-centered and but partially controlled sex impulses +of the races. The presence of large numbers of unmarried persons in any society +indicates the temporary breakdown or the transition of the mores. + +The real test of marriage, all down through the ages, has been that continuous +intimacy which is inescapable in all family life. Two pampered and spoiled +youths, educated to expect every indulgence and full gratification of vanity +and ego, can hardly hope to make a great success of marriage and home +building--a life-long partnership of self-effacement, compromise, devotion, and +unselfish dedication to child culture. + + top of page - 929 + +The high degree of imagination and fantastic romance entering into courtship is +largely responsible for the increasing divorce tendencies among modern +Occidental peoples, all of which is further complicated by woman's greater +personal freedom and increased economic liberty. Easy divorce, when the result +of lack of self-control or failure of normal personality adjustment, only leads +directly back to those crude societal stages from which man has emerged so +recently and as the result of so much personal anguish and racial suffering. + +But just so long as society fails to properly educate children and youths, so +long as the social order fails to provide adequate premarital training, and so +long as unwise and immature youthful idealism is to be the arbiter of the +entrance upon marriage, just so long will divorce remain prevalent. And in so +far as the social group falls short of providing marriage preparation for +youths, to that extent must divorce function as the social safety valve which +prevents still worse situations during the ages of the rapid growth of the +evolving mores. + +The ancients seem to have regarded marriage just about as seriously as some +present-day people do. And it does not appear that many of the hasty and +unsuccessful marriages of modern times are much of an improvement over the +ancient practices of qualifying young men and women for mating. The great +inconsistency of modern society is to exalt love and to idealize marriage while +disapproving of the fullest examination of both. + +8. THE IDEALIZATION OF MARRIAGE + +Marriage which culminates in the home is indeed man's most exalted institution, +but it is essentially human; it should never have been called a sacrament. The +Sethite priests made marriage a religious ritual; but for thousands of years +after Eden, mating continued as a purely social and civil institution. + +The likening of human associations to divine associations is most unfortunate. +The union of husband and wife in the marriage-home relationship is a material +function of the mortals of the evolutionary worlds. True, indeed, much +spiritual progress may accrue consequent upon the sincere human efforts of +husband and wife to progress, but this does not mean that marriage is +necessarily sacred. Spiritual progress is attendant upon sincere application to +other avenues of human endeavor. + +Neither can marriage be truly compared to the relation of the Adjuster to man +nor to the fraternity of Christ Michael and his human brethren. At scarcely any +point are such relationships comparable to the association of husband and wife. +And it is most unfortunate that the human misconception of these relationships +has produced so much confusion as to the status of marriage. + +It is also unfortunate that certain groups of mortals have conceived of +marriage as being consummated by divine action. Such beliefs lead directly to +the concept of the indissolubility of the marital state regardless of the +circumstances or wishes of the contracting parties. But the very fact of +marriage dissolution itself indicates that Deity is not a conjoining party to +such unions. If God has once joined any two things or persons together, they +will remain thus joined until such a time as the divine will decrees their +separation. But, regarding marriage, which is a human institution, who shall +presume to sit in judgment, to say which marriages are unions that might be +approved by the universe supervisors in contrast with those which are purely +human in nature and origin? + + top of page - 930 + +Nevertheless, there is an ideal of marriage on the spheres on high. On the +capital of each local system the Material Sons and Daughters of God do portray +the height of the ideals of the union of man and woman in the bonds of marriage +and for the purpose of procreating and rearing offspring. After all, the ideal +mortal marriage is humanly sacred. + +Marriage always has been and still is man's supreme dream of temporal ideality. +Though this beautiful dream is seldom realized in its entirety, it endures as a +glorious ideal, ever luring progressing mankind on to greater strivings for +human happiness. But young men and women should be taught something of the +realities of marriage before they are plunged into the exacting demands of the +interassociations of family life; youthful idealization should be tempered with +some degree of premarital disillusionment. + +The youthful idealization of marriage should not, however, be discouraged; such +dreams are the visualization of the future goal of family life. This attitude +is both stimulating and helpful providing it does not produce an insensitivity +to the realization of the practical and commonplace requirements of marriage +and subsequent family life. + +The ideals of marriage have made great progress in recent times; among some +peoples woman enjoys practically equal rights with her consort. In concept, at +least, the family is becoming a loyal partnership for rearing offspring, +accompanied by sexual fidelity. But even this newer version of marriage need +not presume to swing so far to the extreme as to confer mutual monopoly of all +personality and individuality. Marriage is not just an individualistic ideal; +it is the evolving social partnership of a man and a woman, existing and +functioning under the current mores, restricted by the taboos, and enforced by +the laws and regulations of society. + +Twentieth-century marriages stand high in comparison with those of past ages, +notwithstanding that the home institution is now undergoing a serious testing +because of the problems so suddenly thrust upon the social organization by the +precipitate augmentation of woman's liberties, rights so long denied her in the +tardy evolution of the mores of past generations. + +[Presented by the Chief of Seraphim stationed on Urantia.] + + top of page - 931 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Evolution ³ Marriage And ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ O... ³ Fa... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p084.txt b/religious documents/p084.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee6520b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p084.txt @@ -0,0 +1,799 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 84 Marriage And Family Life + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 84 Marriage And Family Life + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +MATERIAL necessity founded marriage, sex hunger embellished it, religion +sanctioned and exalted it, the state demanded and regulated it, while in later +times evolving love is beginning to justify and glorify marriage as the +ancestor and creator of civilization's most useful and sublime institution, the +home. And home building should be the center and essence of all educational +effort. + +Mating is purely an act of self-perpetuation associated with varying degrees of +self-gratification; marriage, home building, is largely a matter of +self-maintenance, and it implies the evolution of society. Society itself is +the aggregated structure of family units. Individuals are very temporary as +planetary factors--only families are continuing agencies in social evolution. +The family is the channel through which the river of culture and knowledge +flows from one generation to another. + +The home is basically a sociologic institution. Marriage grew out of +co-operation in self-maintenance and partnership in self-perpetuation, the +element of self-gratification being largely incidental. Nevertheless, the home +does embrace all three of the essential functions of human existence, while +life propagation makes it the fundamental human institution, and sex sets it +off from all other social activities. + +1. PRIMITIVE PAIR ASSOCIATIONS + +Marriage was not founded on sex relations; they were incidental thereto. +Marriage was not needed by primitive man, who indulged his sex appetite freely +without encumbering himself with the responsibilities of wife, children, and +home. + +Woman, because of physical and emotional attachment to her offspring, is +dependent on co-operation with the male, and this urges her into the sheltering +protection of marriage. But no direct biologic urge led man into marriage--much +less held him in. It was not love that made marriage attractive to man, but +food hunger which first attracted savage man to woman and the primitive shelter +shared by her children. + +Marriage was not even brought about by the conscious realization of the +obligations of sex relations. Primitive man comprehended no connection between +sex indulgence and the subsequent birth of a child. It was once universally +believed that a virgin could become pregnant. The savage early conceived the +idea that babies were made in spiritland; pregnancy was believed to be the +result of a woman's being entered by a spirit, an evolving ghost. Both diet and +the evil eye were also believed to be capable of causing pregnancy in a virgin +or un- + + top of page - 932 + +married woman, while later beliefs connected the beginnings of life with the +breath and with sunlight. + +Many early peoples associated ghosts with the sea; hence virgins were greatly +restricted in their bathing practices; young women were far more afraid of +bathing in the sea at high tide than of having sex relations. Deformed or +premature babies were regarded as the young of animals which had found their +way into a woman's body as a result of careless bathing or through malevolent +spirit activity. Savages, of course, thought nothing of strangling such +offspring at birth. + +The first step in enlightenment came with the belief that sex relations opened +up the way for the impregnating ghost to enter the female. Man has since +discovered that father and mother are equal contributors of the living +inheritance factors which initiate offspring. But even in the twentieth century +many parents still endeavor to keep their children in more or less ignorance as +to the origin of human life. + +A family of some simple sort was insured by the fact that the reproductive +function entails the mother-child relationship. Mother love is instinctive; it +did not originate in the mores as did marriage. All mammalian mother love is +the inherent endowment of the adjutant mind-spirits of the local universe and +is in strength and devotion always directly proportional to the length of the +helpless infancy of the species. + +The mother and child relation is natural, strong, and instinctive, and one +which, therefore, constrained primitive women to submit to many strange +conditions and to endure untold hardships. This compelling mother love is the +handicapping emotion which has always placed woman at such a tremendous +disadvantage in all her struggles with man. Even at that, maternal instinct in +the human species is not overpowering; it may be thwarted by ambition, +selfishness, and religious conviction. + +While the mother-child association is neither marriage nor home, it was the +nucleus from which both sprang. The great advance in the evolution of mating +came when these temporary partnerships lasted long enough to rear the resultant +offspring, for that was homemaking. + +Regardless of the antagonisms of these early pairs, notwithstanding the +looseness of the association, the chances for survival were greatly improved by +these male-female partnerships. A man and a woman, co-operating, even aside +from family and offspring, are vastly superior in most ways to either two men +or two women. This pairing of the sexes enhanced survival and was the very +beginning of human society. The sex division of labor also made for comfort and +increased happiness. + +2. THE EARLY MOTHER-FAMILY + +The woman's periodic hemorrhage and her further loss of blood at childbirth +early suggested blood as the creator of the child (even as the seat of the +soul) and gave origin to the blood-bond concept of human relationships. In +early times all descent was reckoned in the female line, that being the only +part of inheritance which was at all certain. + +The primitive family, growing out of the instinctive biologic blood bond of +mother and child, was inevitably a mother-family; and many tribes long held + + top of page - 933 + +to this arrangement. The mother-family was the only possible transition from +the stage of group marriage in the horde to the later and improved home life of +the polygamous and monogamous father-families. The mother-family was natural +and biologic; the father-family is social, economic, and political. The +persistence of the mother-family among the North American red men is one of the +chief reasons why the otherwise progressive Iroquois never became a real state. + +Under the mother-family mores the wife's mother enjoyed virtually supreme +authority in the home; even the wife's brothers and their sons were more active +in family supervision than was the husband. Fathers were often renamed after +their own children. + +The earliest races gave little credit to the father, looking upon the child as +coming altogether from the mother. They believed that children resembled the +father as a result of association, or that they were "marked" in this manner +because the mother desired them to look like the father. Later on, when the +switch came from the mother-family to the father-family, the father took all +credit for the child, and many of the taboos on a pregnant woman were +subsequently extended to include her husband. The prospective father ceased +work as the time of delivery approached, and at childbirth he went to bed, +along with the wife, remaining at rest from three to eight days. The wife might +arise the next day and engage in hard labor, but the husband remained in bed to +receive congratulations; this was all a part of the early mores designed to +establish the father's right to the child. + +At first, it was the custom for the man to go to his wife's people, but in +later times, after a man had paid or worked out the bride price, he could take +his wife and children back to his own people. The transition from the +mother-family to the father-family explains the otherwise meaningless +prohibitions of some types of cousin marriages while others of equal kinship +are approved. + +With the passing of the hunter mores, when herding gave man control of the +chief food supply, the mother-family came to a speedy end. It failed simply +because it could not successfully compete with the newer father-family. Power +lodged with the male relatives of the mother could not compete with power +concentrated in the husband-father. Woman was not equal to the combined tasks +of childbearing and of exercising continuous authority and increasing domestic +power. The oncoming of wife stealing and later wife purchase hastened the +passing of the mother-family. + +The stupendous change from the mother-family to the father-family is one of the +most radical and complete right-about-face adjustments ever executed by the +human race. This change led at once to greater social expression and increased +family adventure. + +3. THE FAMILY UNDER FATHER DOMINANCE + +It may be that the instinct of motherhood led woman into marriage, but it was +man's superior strength, together with the influence of the mores, that +virtually compelled her to remain in wedlock. Pastoral living tended to create +a new system of mores, the patriarchal type of family life; and the basis of +family unity under the herder and early agricultural mores was the unquestioned +and arbitrary authority of the father. All society, whether national or +familial, passed through the stage of the autocratic authority of a patriarchal +order. + + top of page - 934 + +The scant courtesy paid womankind during the Old Testament era is a true +reflection of the mores of the herdsmen. The Hebrew patriarchs were all +herdsmen, as is witnessed by the saying, "The Lord is my Shepherd." + +But man was no more to blame for his low opinion of woman during past ages than +was woman herself. She failed to get social recognition during primitive times +because she did not function in an emergency; she was not a spectacular or +crisis hero. Maternity was a distinct disability in the existence struggle; +mother love handicapped women in the tribal defense. + +Primitive women also unintentionally created their dependence on the male by +their admiration and applause for his pugnacity and virility. This exaltation +of the warrior elevated the male ego while it equally depressed that of the +female and made her more dependent; a military uniform still mightily stirs the +feminine emotions. + +Among the more advanced races, women are not so large or so strong as men. +Woman, being the weaker, therefore became the more tactful; she early learned +to trade upon her sex charms. She became more alert and conservative than man, +though slightly less profound. Man was woman's superior on the battlefield and +in the hunt; but at home woman has usually outgeneraled even the most primitive +of men. + +The herdsman looked to his flocks for sustenance, but throughout these pastoral +ages woman must still provide the vegetable food. Primitive man shunned the +soil; it was altogether too peaceful, too unadventuresome. There was also an +old superstition that women could raise better plants; they were mothers. In +many backward tribes today, the men cook the meat, the women the vegetables, +and when the primitive tribes of Australia are on the march, the women never +attack game, while a man would not stoop to dig a root. + +Woman has always had to work; at least right up to modern times the female has +been a real producer. Man has usually chosen the easier path, and this +inequality has existed throughout the entire history of the human race. Woman +has always been the burden bearer, carrying the family property and tending the +children, thus leaving the man's hands free for fighting or hunting. + +Woman's first liberation came when man consented to till the soil, consented to +do what had theretofore been regarded as woman's work. It was a great step +forward when male captives were no longer killed but were enslaved as +agriculturists. This brought about the liberation of woman so that she could +devote more time to homemaking and child culture. + +The provision of milk for the young led to earlier weaning of babies, hence to +the bearing of more children by the mothers thus relieved of their sometimes +temporary barrenness, while the use of cow's milk and goat's milk greatly +reduced infant mortality. Before the herding stage of society, mothers used to +nurse their babies until they were four and five years old. + +Decreasing primitive warfare greatly lessened the disparity between the +division of labor based on sex. But women still had to do the real work while +men did picket duty. No camp or village could be left unguarded day or night, +but even this task was alleviated by the domestication of the dog. In general, +the coming of agriculture has enhanced woman's prestige and social standing; at +least this was true up to the time man himself turned agriculturist. And as +soon as man addressed himself to the tilling of the soil, there immediately +ensued great improvement in methods of agriculture, extending on down through +succes- + + top of page - 935 + +sive generations. In hunting and war man had learned the value of organization, +and he introduced these techniques into industry and later, when taking over +much of woman's work, greatly improved on her loose methods of labor. + +4. WOMAN'S STATUS IN EARLY SOCIETY + +Generally speaking, during any age woman's status is a fair criterion of the +evolutionary progress of marriage as a social institution, while the progress +of marriage itself is a reasonably accurate gauge registering the advances of +human civilization. + +Woman's status has always been a social paradox; she has always been a shrewd +manager of men; she has always capitalized man's stronger sex urge for her own +interests and to her own advancement. By trading subtly upon her sex charms, +she has often been able to exercise dominant power over man, even when held by +him in abject slavery. + +Early woman was not to man a friend, sweetheart, lover, and partner but rather +a piece of property, a servant or slave and, later on, an economic partner, +plaything, and childbearer. Nonetheless, proper and satisfactory sex relations +have always involved the element of choice and co-operation by woman, and this +has always given intelligent women considerable influence over their immediate +and personal standing, regardless of their social position as a sex. But man's +distrust and suspicion were not helped by the fact that women were all along +compelled to resort to shrewdness in the effort to alleviate their bondage. + +The sexes have had great difficulty in understanding each other. Man found it +hard to understand woman, regarding her with a strange mixture of ignorant +mistrust and fearful fascination, if not with suspicion and contempt. Many +tribal and racial traditions relegate trouble to Eve, Pandora, or some other +representative of womankind. These narratives were always distorted so as to +make it appear that the woman brought evil upon man; and all this indicates the +onetime universal distrust of woman. Among the reasons cited in support of a +celibate priesthood, the chief was the baseness of woman. The fact that most +supposed witches were women did not improve the olden reputation of the sex. + +Men have long regarded women as peculiar, even abnormal. They have even +believed that women did not have souls; therefore were they denied names. +During early times there existed great fear of the first sex relation with a +woman; hence it became the custom for a priest to have initial intercourse with +a virgin. Even a woman's shadow was thought to be dangerous. + +Childbearing was once generally looked upon as rendering a woman dangerous and +unclean. And many tribal mores decreed that a mother must undergo extensive +purification ceremonies subsequent to the birth of a child. Except among those +groups where the husband participated in the lying-in, the expectant mother was +shunned, left alone. The ancients even avoided having a child born in the +house. Finally, the old women were permitted to attend the mother during labor, +and this practice gave origin to the profession of midwifery. During labor, +scores of foolish things were said and done in an effort to facilitate +delivery. It was the custom to sprinkle the newborn with holy water to prevent +ghost interference. + +Among the unmixed tribes, childbirth was comparatively easy, occupying only two +or three hours; it is seldom so easy among the mixed races. If a woman + + top of page - 936 + +died in childbirth, especially during the delivery of twins, she was believed +to have been guilty of spirit adultery. Later on, the higher tribes looked upon +death in childbirth as the will of heaven; such mothers were regarded as having +perished in a noble cause. + +The so-called modesty of women respecting their clothing and the exposure of +the person grew out of the deadly fear of being observed at the time of a +menstrual period. To be thus detected was a grievous sin, the violation of a +taboo. Under the mores of olden times, every woman, from adolescence to the end +of the childbearing period, was subjected to complete family and social +quarantine one full week each month. Everything she might touch, sit upon, or +lie upon was "defiled." It was for long the custom to brutally beat a girl +after each monthly period in an effort to drive the evil spirit out of her +body. But when a woman passed beyond the childbearing age, she was usually +treated more considerately, being accorded more rights and privileges. In view +of all this it was not strange that women were looked down upon. Even the +Greeks held the menstruating woman as one of the three great causes of +defilement, the other two being pork and garlic. + +However foolish these olden notions were, they did some good since they gave +overworked females, at least when young, one week each month for welcome rest +and profitable meditation. Thus could they sharpen their wits for dealing with +their male associates the rest of the time. This quarantine of women also +protected men from over-sex indulgence, thereby indirectly contributing to the +restriction of population and to the enhancement of self-control. + +A great advance was made when a man was denied the right to kill his wife at +will. Likewise, it was a forward step when a woman could own the wedding gifts. +Later, she gained the legal right to own, control, and even dispose of +property, but she was long deprived of the right to hold office in either +church or state. Woman has always been treated more or less as property, right +up to and in the twentieth century after Christ. She has not yet gained +world-wide freedom from seclusion under man's control. Even among advanced +peoples, man's attempt to protect woman has always been a tacit assertion of +superiority. + +But primitive women did not pity themselves as their more recently liberated +sisters are wont to do. They were, after all, fairly happy and contented; they +did not dare to envision a better or different mode of existence. + +5. WOMAN UNDER THE DEVELOPING MORES + +In self-perpetuation woman is man's equal, but in the partnership of +self-maintenance she labors at a decided disadvantage, and this handicap of +enforced maternity can only be compensated by the enlightened mores of +advancing civilization and by man's increasing sense of acquired fairness. + +As society evolved, the sex standards rose higher among women because they +suffered more from the consequences of the transgression of the sex mores. +Man's sex standards are only tardily improving as a result of the sheer sense +of that fairness which civilization demands. Nature knows nothing of +fairness--makes woman alone suffer the pangs of childbirth. + +The modern idea of sex equality is beautiful and worthy of an expanding +civilization, but it is not found in nature. When might is right, man lords it +over woman; when more justice, peace, and fairness prevail, she gradually + + top of page - 937 + +emerges from slavery and obscurity. Woman's social position has generally +varied inversely with the degree of militarism in any nation or age. + +But man did not consciously nor intentionally seize woman's rights and then +gradually and grudgingly give them back to her; all this was an unconscious and +unplanned episode of social evolution. When the time really came for woman to +enjoy added rights, she got them, and all quite regardless of man's conscious +attitude. Slowly but surely the mores change so as to provide for those social +adjustments which are a part of the persistent evolution of civilization. The +advancing mores slowly provided increasingly better treatment for females; +those tribes which persisted in cruelty to them did not survive. + +The Adamites and Nodites accorded women increased recognition, and those groups +which were influenced by the migrating Andites have tended to be influenced by +the Edenic teachings regarding women's place in society. + +The early Chinese and the Greeks treated women better than did most surrounding +peoples. But the Hebrews were exceedingly distrustful of them. In the Occident +woman has had a difficult climb under the Pauline doctrines which became +attached to Christianity, although Christianity did advance the mores by +imposing more stringent sex obligations upon man. Woman's estate is little +short of hopeless under the peculiar degradation which attaches to her in +Mohammedanism, and she fares even worse under the teachings of several other +Oriental religions. + +Science, not religion, really emancipated woman; it was the modern factory +which largely set her free from the confines of the home. Man's physical +abilities became no longer a vital essential in the new maintenance mechanism; +science so changed the conditions of living that man power was no longer so +superior to woman power. + +These changes have tended toward woman's liberation from domestic slavery and +have brought about such a modification of her status that she now enjoys a +degree of personal liberty and sex determination that practically equals man's. +Once a woman's value consisted in her food-producing ability, but invention and +wealth have enabled her to create a new world in which to function--spheres of +grace and charm. Thus has industry won its unconscious and unintended fight for +woman's social and economic emancipation. And again has evolution succeeded in +doing what even revelation failed to accomplish. + +The reaction of enlightened peoples from the inequitable mores governing +woman's place in society has indeed been pendulumlike in its extremeness. Among +industrialized races she has received almost all rights and enjoys exemption +from many obligations, such as military service. Every easement of the struggle +for existence has redounded to the liberation of woman, and she has directly +benefited from every advance toward monogamy. The weaker always makes +disproportionate gains in every adjustment of the mores in the progressive +evolution of society. + +In the ideals of pair marriage, woman has finally won recognition, dignity, +independence, equality, and education; but will she prove worthy of all this +new and unprecedented accomplishment? Will modern woman respond to this great +achievement of social liberation with idleness, indifference, barrenness, and +infidelity? Today, in the twentieth century, woman is undergoing the crucial +test of her long world existence! + + top of page - 938 + +Woman is man's equal partner in race reproduction, hence just as important in +the unfolding of racial evolution; therefore has evolution increasingly worked +toward the realization of women's rights. But women's rights are by no means +men's rights. Woman cannot thrive on man's rights any more than man can prosper +on woman's rights. + +Each sex has its own distinctive sphere of existence, together with its own +rights within that sphere. If woman aspires literally to enjoy all of man's +rights, then, sooner or later, pitiless and emotionless competition will +certainly replace that chivalry and special consideration which many women now +enjoy, and which they have so recently won from men. + +Civilization never can obliterate the behavior gulf between the sexes. From age +to age the mores change, but instinct never. Innate maternal affection will +never permit emancipated woman to become man's serious rival in industry. +Forever each sex will remain supreme in its own domain, domains determined by +biologic differentiation and by mental dissimilarity. + +Each sex will always have its own special sphere, albeit they will ever and +anon overlap. Only socially will men and women compete on equal terms. + +6. THE PARTNERSHIP OF MAN AND WOMAN + +The reproductive urge unfailingly brings men and women together for +self-perpetuation but, alone, does not insure their remaining together in +mutual co-operation--the founding of a home. + +Every successful human institution embraces antagonisms of personal interest +which have been adjusted to practical working harmony, and homemaking is no +exception. Marriage, the basis of home building, is the highest manifestation +of that antagonistic co-operation which so often characterizes the contacts of +nature and society. The conflict is inevitable. Mating is inherent; it is +natural. But marriage is not biologic; it is sociologic. Passion insures that +man and woman will come together, but the weaker parental instinct and the +social mores hold them together. + +Male and female are, practically regarded, two distinct varieties of the same +species living in close and intimate association. Their viewpoints and entire +life reactions are essentially different; they are wholly incapable of full and +real comprehension of each other. Complete understanding between the sexes is +not attainable. + +Women seem to have more intuition than men, but they also appear to be somewhat +less logical. Woman, however, has always been the moral standard-bearer and the +spiritual leader of mankind. The hand that rocks the cradle still fraternizes +with destiny. + +The differences of nature, reaction, viewpoint, and thinking between men and +women, far from occasioning concern, should be regarded as highly beneficial to +mankind, both individually and collectively. Many orders of universe creatures +are created in dual phases of personality manifestation. Among mortals, +Material Sons, and midsoniters, this difference is described as male and +female; among seraphim, cherubim, and Morontia Companions, it has been +denominated positive or aggressive and negative or retiring. Such dual +associations greatly multiply versatility and overcome inherent limitations, +even as do certain triune associations in the Paradise-Havona system. + + top of page - 939 + +Men and women need each other in their morontial and spiritual as well as in +their mortal careers. The differences in viewpoint between male and female +persist even beyond the first life and throughout the local and superuniverse +ascensions. And even in Havona, the pilgrims who were once men and women will +still be aiding each other in the Paradise ascent. Never, even in the Corps of +the Finality, will the creature metamorphose so far as to obliterate the +personality trends that humans call male and female; always will these two +basic variations of humankind continue to intrigue, stimulate, encourage, and +assist each other; always will they be mutually dependent on co-operation in +the solution of perplexing universe problems and in the overcoming of manifold +cosmic difficulties. + +While the sexes never can hope fully to understand each other, they are +effectively complementary, and though co-operation is often more or less +personally antagonistic, it is capable of maintaining and reproducing society. +Marriage is an institution designed to compose sex differences, meanwhile +effecting the continuation of civilization and insuring the reproduction of the +race. + +Marriage is the mother of all human institutions, for it leads directly to home +founding and home maintenance, which is the structural basis of society. The +family is vitally linked to the mechanism of self-maintenance; it is the sole +hope of race perpetuation under the mores of civilization, while at the same +time it most effectively provides certain highly satisfactory forms of +self-gratification. The family is man's greatest purely human achievement, +combining as it does the evolution of the biologic relations of male and female +with the social relations of husband and wife. + +7. THE IDEALS OF FAMILY LIFE + +Sex mating is instinctive, children are the natural result, and the family thus +automatically comes into existence. As are the families of the race or nation, +so is its society. If the families are good, the society is likewise good. The +great cultural stability of the Jewish and of the Chinese peoples lies in the +strength of their family groups. + +Woman's instinct to love and care for children conspired to make her the +interested party in promoting marriage and primitive family life. Man was only +forced into home building by the pressure of the later mores and social +conventions; he was slow to take an interest in the establishment of marriage +and home because the sex act imposes no biologic consequences upon him. + +Sex association is natural, but marriage is social and has always been +regulated by the mores. The mores (religious, moral, and ethical), together +with property, pride, and chivalry, stabilize the institutions of marriage and +family. Whenever the mores fluctuate, there is fluctuation in the stability of +the home-marriage institution. Marriage is now passing out of the property +stage into the personal era. Formerly man protected woman because she was his +chattel, and she obeyed for the same reason. Regardless of its merits this +system did provide stability. Now, woman is no longer regarded as property, and +new mores are emerging designed to stabilize the marriage-home institution: + +1. The new role of religion--the teaching that parental experience is +essential, the idea of procreating cosmic citizens, the enlarged understanding +of the privilege of procreation--giving sons to the Father. + + top of page - 940 + +2. The new role of science--procreation is becoming more and more voluntary, +subject to man's control. In ancient times lack of understanding insured the +appearance of children in the absence of all desire therefor. + +3. The new function of pleasure lures--this introduces a new factor into racial +survival; ancient man exposed undesired children to die; moderns refuse to bear +them. + +4. The enhancement of parental instinct. Each generation now tends to eliminate +from the reproductive stream of the race those individuals in whom parental +instinct is insufficiently strong to insure the procreation of children, the +prospective parents of the next generation. + +But the home as an institution, a partnership between one man and one woman, +dates more specifically from the days of Dalamatia, about one-half million +years ago, the monogamous practices of Andon and his immediate descendants +having been abandoned long before. Family life, however, was not much to boast +of before the days of the Nodites and the later Adamites. Adam and Eve exerted +a lasting influence on all mankind; for the first time in the history of the +world men and women were observed working side by side in the Garden. The +Edenic ideal, the whole family as gardeners, was a new idea on Urantia. + +The early family embraced a related working group, including the slaves, all +living in one dwelling. Marriage and family life have not always been identical +but have of necessity been closely associated. Woman always wanted the +individual family, and eventually she had her way. + +Love of offspring is almost universal and is of distinct survival value. The +ancients always sacrificed the mother's interests for the welfare of the child; +an Eskimo mother even yet licks her baby in lieu of washing. But primitive +mothers only nourished and cared for their children when very young; like the +animals, they discarded them as soon as they grew up. Enduring and continuous +human associations have never been founded on biologic affection alone. The +animals love their children; man--civilized man--loves his children's children. +The higher the civilization, the greater the joy of parents in the children's +advancement and success; thus the new and higher realization of name pride +comes into existence. + +The large families among ancient peoples were not necessarily affectional. Many +children were desired because: + +1. They were valuable as laborers. + +2. They were old-age insurance. + +3. Daughters were salable. + +4. Family pride required extension of name. + +5. Sons afforded protection and defense. + +6. Ghost fear produced a dread of being alone. + +7. Certain religions required offspring. + +Ancestor worshipers view the failure to have sons as the supreme calamity for +all time and eternity. They desire above all else to have sons to officiate in +the post-mortem feasts, to offer the required sacrifices for the ghost's +progress through spiritland. + + top of page - 941 + +Among ancient savages, discipline of children was begun very early; and the +child early realized that disobedience meant failure or even death just as it +did to the animals. It is civilization's protection of the child from the +natural consequences of foolish conduct that contributes so much to modern +insubordination. + +Eskimo children thrive on so little discipline and correction simply because +they are naturally docile little animals; the children of both the red and the +yellow men are almost equally tractable. But in races containing Andite +inheritance, children are not so placid; these more imaginative and adventurous +youths require more training and discipline. Modern problems of child culture +are rendered increasingly difficult by: + +1. The large degree of race mixture. + +2. Artificial and superficial education. + +3. Inability of the child to gain culture by imitating parents--the parents are +absent from the family picture so much of the time. + +The olden ideas of family discipline were biologic, growing out of the +realization that parents were creators of the child's being. The advancing +ideals of family life are leading to the concept that bringing a child into the +world, instead of conferring certain parental rights, entails the supreme +responsibility of human existence. + +Civilization regards the parents as assuming all duties, the child as having +all the rights. Respect of the child for his parents arises, not in knowledge +of the obligation implied in parental procreation, but naturally grows as a +result of the care, training, and affection which are lovingly displayed in +assisting the child to win the battle of life. The true parent is engaged in a +continuous service-ministry which the wise child comes to recognize and +appreciate. + +In the present industrial and urban era the marriage institution is evolving +along new economic lines. Family life has become more and more costly, while +children, who used to be an asset, have become economic liabilities. But the +security of civilization itself still rests on the growing willingness of one +generation to invest in the welfare of the next and future generations. And any +attempt to shift parental responsibility to state or church will prove suicidal +to the welfare and advancement of civilization. + +Marriage, with children and consequent family life, is stimulative of the +highest potentials in human nature and simultaneously provides the ideal avenue +for the expression of these quickened attributes of mortal personality. The +family provides for the biologic perpetuation of the human species. The home is +the natural social arena wherein the ethics of blood brotherhood may be grasped +by the growing children. The family is the fundamental unit of fraternity in +which parents and children learn those lessons of patience, altruism, +tolerance, and forbearance which are so essential to the realization of +brotherhood among all men. + +Human society would be greatly improved if the civilized races would more +generally return to the family-council practices of the Andites. They did not +maintain the patriarchal or autocratic form of family government. They were +very brotherly and associative, freely and frankly discussing every proposal +and regulation of a family nature. They were ideally fraternal in all their +family + + top of page - 942 + +government. In an ideal family filial and parental affection are both augmented +by fraternal devotion. + +Family life is the progenitor of true morality, the ancestor of the +consciousness of loyalty to duty. The enforced associations of family life +stabilize personality and stimulate its growth through the compulsion of +necessitous adjustment to other and diverse personalities. But even more, a +true family--a good family--reveals to the parental procreators the attitude of +the Creator to his children, while at the same time such true parents portray +to their children the first of a long series of ascending disclosures of the +love of the Paradise parent of all universe children. + +8. DANGERS OF SELF-GRATIFICATION + +The great threat against family life is the menacing rising tide of +self-gratification, the modern pleasure mania. The prime incentive to marriage +used to be economic; sex attraction was secondary. Marriage, founded on +self-maintenance, led to self-perpetuation and concomitantly provided one of +the most desirable forms of self-gratification. It is the only institution of +human society which embraces all three of the great incentives for living. + +Originally, property was the basic institution of self-maintenance, while +marriage functioned as the unique institution of self-perpetuation. Although +food satisfaction, play, and humor, along with periodic sex indulgence, were +means of self-gratification, it remains a fact that the evolving mores have +failed to build any distinct institution of self-gratification. And it is due +to this failure to evolve specialized techniques of pleasurable enjoyment that +all human institutions are so completely shot through with this pleasure +pursuit. Property accumulation is becoming an instrument for augmenting all +forms of self-gratification, while marriage is often viewed only as a means of +pleasure. And this overindulgence, this widely spread pleasure mania, now +constitutes the greatest threat that has ever been leveled at the social +evolutionary institution of family life, the home. + +The violet race introduced a new and only imperfectly realized characteristic +into the experience of humankind--the play instinct coupled with the sense of +humor. It was there in measure in the Sangiks and Andonites, but the Adamic +strain elevated this primitive propensity into the potential of pleasure, a new +and glorified form of self-gratification. The basic type of self-gratification, +aside from appeasing hunger, is sex gratification, and this form of sensual +pleasure was enormously heightened by the blending of the Sangiks and the +Andites. + +There is real danger in the combination of restlessness, curiosity, adventure, +and pleasure-abandon characteristic of the post-Andite races. The hunger of the +soul cannot be satisfied with physical pleasures; the love of home and children +is not augmented by the unwise pursuit of pleasure. Though you exhaust the +resources of art, color, sound, rhythm, music, and adornment of person, you +cannot hope thereby to elevate the soul or to nourish the spirit. Vanity and +fashion cannot minister to home building and child culture; pride and rivalry +are powerless to enhance the survival qualities of succeeding generations. + +Advancing celestial beings all enjoy rest and the ministry of the reversion +directors. All efforts to obtain wholesome diversion and to engage in uplifting +play are sound; refreshing sleep, rest, recreation, and all pastimes which +prevent the boredom of monotony are worth while. Competitive games, +storytelling, + + top of page - 943 + +and even the taste of good food may serve as forms of self-gratification. (When +you use salt to savor food, pause to consider that, for almost a million years, +man could obtain salt only by dipping his food in ashes.) + +Let man enjoy himself; let the human race find pleasure in a thousand and one +ways; let evolutionary mankind explore all forms of legitimate +self-gratification, the fruits of the long upward biologic struggle. Man has +well earned some of his present-day joys and pleasures. But look you well to +the goal of destiny! Pleasures are indeed suicidal if they succeed in +destroying property, which has become the institution of self-maintenance; and +self-gratifications have indeed cost a fatal price if they bring about the +collapse of marriage, the decadence of family life, and the destruction of the +home--man's supreme evolutionary acquirement and civilization's only hope of +survival. + +[Presented by the Chief of Seraphim stationed on Urantia.] + + top of page - 944 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Marriage ³ The Origins Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ In... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p085.txt b/religious documents/p085.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2474075 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p085.txt @@ -0,0 +1,378 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 85 The Origins Of Worship + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 85 The Origins Of Worship + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +PRIMITIVE religion had a biologic origin, a natural evolutionary development, +aside from moral associations and apart from all spiritual influences. The +higher animals have fears but no illusions, hence no religion. Man creates his +primitive religions out of his fears and by means of his illusions. + +In the evolution of the human species, worship in its primitive manifestations +appears long before the mind of man is capable of formulating the more complex +concepts of life now and in the hereafter which deserve to be called religion. +Early religion was wholly intellectual in nature and was entirely predicated on +associational circumstances. The objects of worship were altogether suggestive; +they consisted of the things of nature which were close at hand, or which +loomed large in the commonplace experience of the simple-minded primitive +Urantians. + +When religion once evolved beyond nature worship, it acquired roots of spirit +origin but was nevertheless always conditioned by the social environment. As +nature worship developed, man's concepts envisioned a division of labor in the +supermortal world; there were nature spirits for lakes, trees, waterfalls, +rain, and hundreds of other ordinary terrestrial phenomena. + +At one time or another mortal man has worshiped everything on the face of the +earth, including himself. He has also worshiped about everything imaginable in +the sky and beneath the surface of the earth. Primitive man feared all +manifestations of power; he worshiped every natural phenomenon he could not +comprehend. The observation of powerful natural forces, such as storms, floods, +earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, fire, heat, and cold, greatly impressed the +expanding mind of man. The inexplicable things of life are still termed "acts +of God" and "mysterious dispensations of Providence." + +1. WORSHIP OF STONES AND HILLS + +The first object to be worshiped by evolving man was a stone. Today the Kateri +people of southern India still worship a stone, as do numerous tribes in +northern India. Jacob slept on a stone because he venerated it; he even +anointed it. Rachel concealed a number of sacred stones in her tent. + +Stones first impressed early man as being out of the ordinary because of the +manner in which they would so suddenly appear on the surface of a cultivated +field or pasture. Men failed to take into account either erosion or the results +of the overturning of soil. Stones also greatly impressed early peoples because +of their frequent resemblance to animals. The attention of civilized man is +arrested by numerous stone formations in the mountains which so much resemble +the faces of animals and even men. But the most profound influence was exerted +by meteoric stones which primitive humans beheld hurtling through the +atmosphere in flaming grandeur. The shooting star was awesome to early man, and +he easily + + top of page - 945 + +believed that such blazing streaks marked the passage of a spirit on its way to +earth. No wonder men were led to worship such phenomena, especially when they +subsequently discovered the meteors. And this led to greater reverence for all +other stones. In Bengal many worship a meteor which fell to earth in A.D. 1880. + +All ancient clans and tribes had their sacred stones, and most modern peoples +manifest a degree of veneration for certain types of stones--their jewels. A +group of five stones was reverenced in India; in Greece it was a cluster of +thirty; among the red men it was usually a circle of stones. The Romans always +threw a stone into the air when invoking Jupiter. In India even to this day a +stone can be used as a witness. In some regions a stone may be employed as a +talisman of the law, and by its prestige an offender can be haled into court. +But simple mortals do not always identify Deity with an object of reverent +ceremony. Such fetishes are many times mere symbols of the real object of +worship. + +The ancients had a peculiar regard for holes in stones. Such porous rocks were +supposed to be unusually efficacious in curing diseases. Ears were not +perforated to carry stones, but the stones were put in to keep the ear holes +open. Even in modern times superstitious persons make holes in coins. In Africa +the natives make much ado over their fetish stones. In fact, among all backward +tribes and peoples stones are still held in superstitious veneration. Stone +worship is even now widespread over the world. The tombstone is a surviving +symbol of images and idols which were carved in stone in connection with +beliefs in ghosts and the spirits of departed fellow beings. + +Hill worship followed stone worship, and the first hills to be venerated were +large stone formations. It presently became the custom to believe that the gods +inhabited the mountains, so that high elevations of land were worshiped for +this additional reason. As time passed, certain mountains were associated with +certain gods and therefore became holy. The ignorant and superstitious +aborigines believed that caves led to the underworld, with its evil spirits and +demons, in contrast with the mountains, which were identified with the later +evolving concepts of good spirits and deities. + +2. WORSHIP OF PLANTS AND TREES + +Plants were first feared and then worshiped because of the intoxicating liquors +which were derived therefrom. Primitive man believed that intoxication rendered +one divine. There was supposed to be something unusual and sacred about such an +experience. Even in modern times alcohol is known as "spirits." + +Early man looked upon sprouting grain with dread and superstitious awe. The +Apostle Paul was not the first to draw profound spiritual lessons from, and +predicate religious beliefs on, the sprouting grain. + +The cults of tree worship are among the oldest religious groups. All early +marriages were held under the trees, and when women desired children, they +would sometimes be found out in the forest affectionately embracing a sturdy +oak. Many plants and trees were venerated because of their real or fancied +medicinal powers. The savage believed that all chemical effects were due to the +direct activity of supernatural forces. + +Ideas about tree spirits varied greatly among different tribes and races. Some +trees were indwelt by kindly spirits; others harbored the deceptive and cruel. +The Finns believed that most trees were occupied by kind spirits. The Swiss +long mistrusted the trees, believing they contained tricky spirits. The +inhabitants of + + top of page - 946 + +India and eastern Russia regard the tree spirits as being cruel. The +Patagonians still worship trees, as did the early Semites. Long after the +Hebrews ceased tree worship, they continued to venerate their various deities +in the groves. Except in China, there once existed a universal cult of the tree +of life. + +The belief that water or precious metals beneath the earth's surface can be +detected by a wooden divining rod is a relic of the ancient tree cults. The +Maypole, the Christmas tree, and the superstitious practice of rapping on wood +perpetuate certain of the ancient customs of tree worship and the later-day +tree cults. + +Many of these earliest forms of nature veneration became blended with the later +evolving techniques of worship, but the earliest mind-adjutant-activated types +of worship were functioning long before the newly awakening religious nature of +mankind became fully responsive to the stimulus of spiritual influences. + +3. THE WORSHIP OF ANIMALS + +Primitive man had a peculiar and fellow feeling for the higher animals. His +ancestors had lived with them and even mated with them. In southern Asia it was +early believed that the souls of men came back to earth in animal form. This +belief was a survival of the still earlier practice of worshiping animals. + +Early men revered the animals for their power and their cunning. They thought +the keen scent and the farseeing eyes of certain creatures betokened spirit +guidance. The animals have all been worshiped by one race or another at one +time or another. Among such objects of worship were creatures that were +regarded as half human and half animal, such as centaurs and mermaids. + +The Hebrews worshiped serpents down to the days of King Hezekiah, and the +Hindus still maintain friendly relations with their house snakes. The Chinese +worship of the dragon is a survival of the snake cults. The wisdom of the +serpent was a symbol of Greek medicine and is still employed as an emblem by +modern physicians. The art of snake charming has been handed down from the days +of the female shamans of the snake love cult, who, as the result of daily snake +bites, became immune, in fact, became genuine venom addicts and could not get +along without this poison. + +The worship of insects and other animals was promoted by a later +misinterpretation of the golden rule--doing to others (every form of life) as +you would be done by. The ancients once believed that all winds were produced +by the wings of birds and therefore both feared and worshiped all winged +creatures. The early Nordics thought that eclipses were caused by a wolf that +devoured a portion of the sun or moon. The Hindus often show Vishnu with a +horse's head. Many times an animal symbol stands for a forgotten god or a +vanished cult. Early in evolutionary religion the lamb became the typical +sacrificial animal and the dove the symbol of peace and love. + +In religion, symbolism may be either good or bad just to the extent that the +symbol does or does not displace the original worshipful idea. And symbolism +must not be confused with direct idolatry wherein the material object is +directly and actually worshiped. + +4. WORSHIP OF THE ELEMENTS + +Mankind has worshiped earth, air, water, and fire. The primitive races +venerated springs and worshiped rivers. Even now in Mongolia there flourishes +an + + top of page - 947 + +influential river cult. Baptism became a religious ceremonial in Babylon, and +the Greeks practiced the annual ritual bath. It was easy for the ancients to +imagine that the spirits dwelt in the bubbling springs, gushing fountains, +flowing rivers, and raging torrents. Moving waters vividly impressed these +simple minds with beliefs of spirit animation and supernatural power. Sometimes +a drowning man would be refused succor for fear of offending some river god. + +Many things and numerous events have functioned as religious stimuli to +different peoples in different ages. A rainbow is yet worshiped by many of the +hill tribes of India. In both India and Africa the rainbow is thought to be a +gigantic celestial snake; Hebrews and Christians regard it as "the bow of +promise." Likewise, influences regarded as beneficent in one part of the world +may be looked upon as malignant in other regions. The east wind is a god in +South America, for it brings rain; in India it is a devil because it brings +dust and causes drought. The ancient Bedouins believed that a nature spirit +produced the sand whirls, and even in the times of Moses belief in nature +spirits was strong enough to insure their perpetuation in Hebrew theology as +angels of fire, water, and air. + +Clouds, rain, and hail have all been feared and worshiped by numerous primitive +tribes and by many of the early nature cults. Windstorms with thunder and +lightning overawed early man. He was so impressed with these elemental +disturbances that thunder was regarded as the voice of an angry god. The +worship of fire and the fear of lightning were linked together and were +widespread among many early groups. + +Fire was mixed up with magic in the minds of primitive fear-ridden mortals. A +devotee of magic will vividly remember one positive chance result in the +practice of his magic formulas, while he nonchalantly forgets a score of +negative results, out-and-out failures. Fire reverence reached its height in +Persia, where it long persisted. Some tribes worshiped fire as a deity itself; +others revered it as the flaming symbol of the purifying and purging spirit of +their venerated deities. Vestal virgins were charged with the duty of watching +sacred fires, and in the twentieth century candles still burn as a part of the +ritual of many religious services. + +5. WORSHIP OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES + +The worship of rocks, hills, trees, and animals naturally developed up through +fearful veneration of the elements to the deification of the sun, moon, and +stars. In India and elsewhere the stars were regarded as the glorified souls of +great men who had departed from the life in the flesh. The Chaldean star +cultists considered themselves to be the children of the sky father and the +earth mother. + +Moon worship preceded sun worship. Veneration of the moon was at its height +during the hunting era, while sun worship became the chief religious ceremony +of the subsequent agricultural ages. Solar worship first took extensive root in +India, and there it persisted the longest. In Persia sun veneration gave rise +to the later Mithraic cult. Among many peoples the sun was regarded as the +ancestor of their kings. The Chaldeans put the sun in the center of "the seven +circles of the universe." Later civilizations honored the sun by giving its +name to the first day of the week. + +The sun god was supposed to be the mystic father of the virgin-born sons of +destiny who ever and anon were thought to be bestowed as saviors upon favored +races. These supernatural infants were always put adrift upon some sacred river + + top of page - 948 + +to be rescued in an extraordinary manner, after which they would grow up to +become miraculous personalities and the deliverers of their peoples. + +6. WORSHIP OF MAN + +Having worshiped everything else on the face of the earth and in the heavens +above, man has not hesitated to honor himself with such adoration. The +simple-minded savage makes no clear distinction between beasts, men, and gods. + +Early man regarded all unusual persons as superhuman, and he so feared such +beings as to hold them in reverential awe; to some degree he literally +worshiped them. Even having twins was regarded as being either very lucky or +very unlucky. Lunatics, epileptics, and the feeble-minded were often worshiped +by their normal-minded fellows, who believed that such abnormal beings were +indwelt by the gods. Priests, kings, and prophets were worshiped; the holy men +of old were looked upon as inspired by the deities. + +Tribal chiefs died and were deified. Later, distinguished souls passed on and +were sainted. Unaided evolution never originated gods higher than the +glorified, exalted, and evolved spirits of deceased humans. In early evolution +religion creates its own gods. In the course of revelation the Gods formulate +religion. Evolutionary religion creates its gods in the image and likeness of +mortal man; revelatory religion seeks to evolve and transform mortal man into +the image and likeness of God. + +The ghost gods, who are of supposed human origin, should be distinguished from +the nature gods, for nature worship did evolve a pantheon--nature spirits +elevated to the position of gods. The nature cults continued to develop along +with the later appearing ghost cults, and each exerted an influence upon the +other. Many religious systems embraced a dual concept of deity, nature gods and +ghost gods; in some theologies these concepts are confusingly intertwined, as +is illustrated by Thor, a ghost hero who was also master of the lightning. + +But the worship of man by man reached its height when temporal rulers commanded +such veneration from their subjects and, in substantiation of such demands, +claimed to have descended from deity. + +7. THE ADJUTANTS OF WORSHIP AND WISDOM + +Nature worship may seem to have arisen naturally and spontaneously in the minds +of primitive men and women, and so it did; but there was operating all this +time in these same primitive minds the sixth adjutant spirit, which had been +bestowed upon these peoples as a directing influence of this phase of human +evolution. And this spirit was constantly stimulating the worship urge of the +human species, no matter how primitive its first manifestations might be. The +spirit of worship gave definite origin to the human impulse to worship, +notwithstanding that animal fear motivated the expression of worshipfulness, +and that its early practice became centered upon objects of nature. + +You must remember that feeling, not thinking, was the guiding and controlling +influence in all evolutionary development. To the primitive mind there is +little difference between fearing, shunning, honoring, and worshiping. + +When the worship urge is admonished and directed by wisdom--meditative and +experiential thinking--it then begins to develop into the phenomenon of real +religion. When the seventh adjutant spirit, the spirit of wisdom, achieves +effective + + top of page - 949 + +ministration, then in worship man begins to turn away from nature and natural +objects to the God of nature and to the eternal Creator of all things natural. + +[Presented by a Brilliant Evening Star of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 950 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Marriage And ³ Early ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Fa... ³ Evolution... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p086.txt b/religious documents/p086.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2adbac4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p086.txt @@ -0,0 +1,507 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 86 Early Evolution Of Religion + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 86 Early Evolution Of Religion + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE evolution of religion from the preceding and primitive worship urge is not +dependent on revelation. The normal functioning of the human mind under the +directive influence of the sixth and seventh mind-adjutants of universal spirit +bestowal is wholly sufficient to insure such development. + +Man's earliest prereligious fear of the forces of nature gradually became +religious as nature became personalized, spiritized, and eventually deified in +human consciousness. Religion of a primitive type was therefore a natural +biologic consequence of the psychologic inertia of evolving animal minds after +such minds had once entertained concepts of the supernatural. + +1. CHANCE: GOOD LUCK AND BAD LUCK + +Aside from the natural worship urge, early evolutionary religion had its roots +of origin in the human experiences of chance--so-called luck, commonplace +happenings. Primitive man was a food hunter. The results of hunting must ever +vary, and this gives certain origin to those experiences which man interprets +as good luck and bad luck. Mischance was a great factor in the lives of men and +women who lived constantly on the ragged edge of a precarious and harassed +existence. + +The limited intellectual horizon of the savage so concentrates the attention +upon chance that luck becomes a constant factor in his life. Primitive +Urantians struggled for existence, not for a standard of living; they lived +lives of peril in which chance played an important role. The constant dread of +unknown and unseen calamity hung over these savages as a cloud of despair which +effectively eclipsed every pleasure; they lived in constant dread of doing +something that would bring bad luck. Superstitious savages always feared a run +of good luck; they viewed such good fortune as a certain harbinger of calamity. + +This ever-present dread of bad luck was paralyzing. Why work hard and reap bad +luck--nothing for something--when one might drift along and encounter good +luck--something for nothing? Unthinking men forget good luck--take it for +granted--but they painfully remember bad luck. + +Early man lived in uncertainty and in constant fear of chance--bad luck. Life +was an exciting game of chance; existence was a gamble. It is no wonder that +partially civilized people still believe in chance and evince lingering +predispositions to gambling. Primitive man alternated between two potent +interests: the passion of getting something for nothing and the fear of getting +nothing for something. And this gamble of existence was the main interest and +the supreme fascination of the early savage mind. + + top of page - 951 + +The later herders held the same views of chance and luck, while the still later +agriculturists were increasingly conscious that crops were immediately +influenced by many things over which man had little or no control. The farmer +found himself the victim of drought, floods, hail, storms, pests, and plant +diseases, as well as heat and cold. And as all of these natural influences +affected individual prosperity, they were regarded as good luck or bad luck. + +This notion of chance and luck strongly pervaded the philosophy of all ancient +peoples. Even in recent times in the Wisdom of Solomon it is said: "I returned +and saw that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, +neither bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men +of skill; but fate and chance befall them all. For man knows not his fate; as +fishes are taken in an evil net, and as birds are caught in a snare, so are the +sons of men snared in an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them." + +2. THE PERSONIFICATION OF CHANCE + +Anxiety was a natural state of the savage mind. When men and women fall victims +to excessive anxiety, they are simply reverting to the natural estate of their +far-distant ancestors; and when anxiety becomes actually painful, it inhibits +activity and unfailingly institutes evolutionary changes and biologic +adaptations. Pain and suffering are essential to progressive evolution. + +The struggle for life is so painful that certain backward tribes even yet howl +and lament over each new sunrise. Primitive man constantly asked, "Who is +tormenting me?" Not finding a material source for his miseries, he settled upon +a spirit explanation. And so was religion born of the fear of the mysterious, +the awe of the unseen, and the dread of the unknown. Nature fear thus became a +factor in the struggle for existence first because of chance and then because +of mystery. + +The primitive mind was logical but contained few ideas for intelligent +association; the savage mind was uneducated, wholly unsophisticated. If one +event followed another, the savage considered them to be cause and effect. What +civilized man regards as superstition was just plain ignorance in the savage. +Mankind has been slow to learn that there is not necessarily any relationship +between purposes and results. Human beings are only just beginning to realize +that the reactions of existence appear between acts and their consequences. The +savage strives to personalize everything intangible and abstract, and thus both +nature and chance become personalized as ghosts--spirits--and later on as gods. + +Man naturally tends to believe that which he deems best for him, that which is +in his immediate or remote interest; self-interest largely obscures logic. The +difference between the minds of savage and civilized men is more one of content +than of nature, of degree rather than of quality. + +But to continue to ascribe things difficult of comprehension to supernatural +causes is nothing less than a lazy and convenient way of avoiding all forms of +intellectual hard work. Luck is merely a term coined to cover the inexplicable +in any age of human existence; it designates those phenomena which men are +unable or unwilling to penetrate. Chance is a word which signifies that man is +too ignorant or too indolent to determine causes. Men regard a natural +occurrence as an accident or as bad luck only when they are destitute of +curiosity and imagination, when the races lack initiative and adventure. +Exploration of the + + top of page - 952 + +phenomena of life sooner or later destroys man's belief in chance, luck, and +so-called accidents, substituting therefor a universe of law and order wherein +all effects are preceded by definite causes. Thus is the fear of existence +replaced by the joy of living. + +The savage looked upon all nature as alive, as possessed by something. +Civilized man still kicks and curses those inanimate objects which get in his +way and bump him. Primitive man never regarded anything as accidental; always +was everything intentional. To primitive man the domain of fate, the function +of luck, the spirit world, was just as unorganized and haphazard as was +primitive society. Luck was looked upon as the whimsical and temperamental +reaction of the spirit world; later on, as the humor of the gods. + +But all religions did not develop from animism. Other concepts of the +supernatural were contemporaneous with animism, and these beliefs also led to +worship. Naturalism is not a religion--it is the offspring of religion. + +3. DEATH--THE INEXPLICABLE + +Death was the supreme shock to evolving man, the most perplexing combination of +chance and mystery. Not the sanctity of life but the shock of death inspired +fear and thus effectively fostered religion. Among savage peoples death was +ordinarily due to violence, so that nonviolent death became increasingly +mysterious. Death as a natural and expected end of life was not clear to the +consciousness of primitive people, and it has required age upon age for man to +realize its inevitability. + +Early man accepted life as a fact, while he regarded death as a visitation of +some sort. All races have their legends of men who did not die, vestigial +traditions of the early attitude toward death. Already in the human mind there +existed the nebulous concept of a hazy and unorganized spirit world, a domain +whence came all that is inexplicable in human life, and death was added to this +long list of unexplained phenomena. + +All human disease and natural death was at first believed to be due to spirit +influence. Even at the present time some civilized races regard disease as +having been produced by "the enemy" and depend upon religious ceremonies to +effect healing. Later and more complex systems of theology still ascribe death +to the action of the spirit world, all of which has led to such doctrines as +original sin and the fall of man. + +It was the realization of impotency before the mighty forces of nature, +together with the recognition of human weakness before the visitations of +sickness and death, that impelled the savage to seek for help from the +supermaterial world, which he vaguely visualized as the source of these +mysterious vicissitudes of life. + +4. THE DEATH-SURVIVAL CONCEPT + +The concept of a supermaterial phase of mortal personality was born of the +unconscious and purely accidental association of the occurrences of everyday +life plus the ghost dream. The simultaneous dreaming about a departed chief by +several members of his tribe seemed to constitute convincing evidence that the +old chief had really returned in some form. It was all very real to the savage +who would awaken from such dreams reeking with sweat, trembling, and screaming. + + top of page - 953 + +The dream origin of the belief in a future existence explains the tendency +always to imagine unseen things in the terms of things seen. And presently this +new dream-ghost-future-life concept began effectively to antidote the death +fear associated with the biologic instinct of self-preservation. + +Early man was also much concerned about his breath, especially in cold +climates, where it appeared as a cloud when exhaled. The breath of life was +regarded as the one phenomenon which differentiated the living and the dead. He +knew the breath could leave the body, and his dreams of doing all sorts of +queer things while asleep convinced him that there was something immaterial +about a human being. The most primitive idea of the human soul, the ghost, was +derived from the breath-dream idea-system. + +Eventually the savage conceived of himself as a double--body and breath. The +breath minus the body equaled a spirit, a ghost. While having a very definite +human origin, ghosts, or spirits, were regarded as superhuman. And this belief +in the existence of disembodied spirits seemed to explain the occurrence of the +unusual, the extraordinary, the infrequent, and the inexplicable. + +The primitive doctrine of survival after death was not necessarily a belief in +immortality. Beings who could not count over twenty could hardly conceive of +infinity and eternity; they rather thought of recurring incarnations. + +The orange race was especially given to belief in transmigration and +reincarnation. This idea of reincarnation originated in the observance of +hereditary and trait resemblance of offspring to ancestors. The custom of +naming children after grandparents and other ancestors was due to belief in +reincarnation. Some later-day races believed that man died from three to seven +times. This belief (residual from the teachings of Adam about the mansion +worlds), and many other remnants of revealed religion, can be found among the +otherwise absurd doctrines of twentieth-century barbarians. + +Early man entertained no ideas of hell or future punishment. The savage looked +upon the future life as just like this one, minus all ill luck. Later on, a +separate destiny for good ghosts and bad ghosts--heaven and hell--was +conceived. But since many primitive races believed that man entered the next +life just as he left this one, they did not relish the idea of becoming old and +decrepit. The aged much preferred to be killed before becoming too infirm. + +Almost every group had a different idea regarding the destiny of the ghost +soul. The Greeks believed that weak men must have weak souls; so they invented +Hades as a fit place for the reception of such anemic souls; these unrobust +specimens were also supposed to have shorter shadows. The early Andites thought +their ghosts returned to the ancestral homelands. The Chinese and Egyptians +once believed that soul and body remained together. Among the Egyptians this +led to careful tomb construction and efforts at body preservation. Even modern +peoples seek to arrest the decay of the dead. The Hebrews conceived that a +phantom replica of the individual went down to Sheol; it could not return to +the land of the living. They did make that important advance in the doctrine of +the evolution of the soul. + +5. THE GHOST-SOUL CONCEPT + +The nonmaterial part of man has been variously termed ghost, spirit, shade, +phantom, specter, and latterly soul. The soul was early man's dream double; it + + top of page - 954 + +was in every way exactly like the mortal himself except that it was not +responsive to touch. The belief in dream doubles led directly to the notion +that all things animate and inanimate had souls as well as men. This concept +tended long to perpetuate the nature-spirit beliefs; the Eskimos still conceive +that everything in nature has a spirit. + +The ghost soul could be heard and seen, but not touched. Gradually the dream +life of the race so developed and expanded the activities of this evolving +spirit world that death was finally regarded as "giving up the ghost." All +primitive tribes, except those little above animals, have developed some +concept of the soul. As civilization advances, this superstitious concept of +the soul is destroyed, and man is wholly dependent on revelation and personal +religious experience for his new idea of the soul as the joint creation of the +God-knowing mortal mind and its indwelling divine spirit, the Thought Adjuster. + +Early mortals usually failed to differentiate the concepts of an indwelling +spirit and a soul of evolutionary nature. The savage was much confused as to +whether the ghost soul was native to the body or was an external agency in +possession of the body. The absence of reasoned thought in the presence of +perplexity explains the gross inconsistencies of the savage view of souls, +ghosts, and spirits. + +The soul was thought of as being related to the body as the perfume to the +flower. The ancients believed that the soul could leave the body in various +ways, as in: + +1. Ordinary and transient fainting. + +2. Sleeping, natural dreaming. + +3. Coma and unconsciousness associated with disease and accidents. + +4. Death, permanent departure. + +The savage looked upon sneezing as an abortive attempt of the soul to escape +from the body. Being awake and on guard, the body was able to thwart the soul's +attempted escape. Later on, sneezing was always accompanied by some religious +expression, such as "God bless you!" + +Early in evolution sleep was regarded as proving that the ghost soul could be +absent from the body, and it was believed that it could be called back by +speaking or shouting the sleeper's name. In other forms of unconsciousness the +soul was thought to be farther away, perhaps trying to escape for +good--impending death. Dreams were looked upon as the experiences of the soul +during sleep while temporarily absent from the body. The savage believes his +dreams to be just as real as any part of his waking experience. The ancients +made a practice of awaking sleepers gradually so that the soul might have time +to get back into the body. + +All down through the ages men have stood in awe of the apparitions of the night +season, and the Hebrews were no exception. They truly believed that God spoke +to them in dreams, despite the injunctions of Moses against this idea. And +Moses was right, for ordinary dreams are not the methods employed by the +personalities of the spiritual world when they seek to communicate with +material beings. + +The ancients believed that souls could enter animals or even inanimate objects. +This culminated in the werewolf ideas of animal identification. A person could +be a law-abiding citizen by day, but when he fell asleep, his soul could enter +a wolf or some other animal to prowl about on nocturnal depredations. + + top of page - 955 + +Primitive men thought that the soul was associated with the breath, and that +its qualities could be imparted or transferred by the breath. The brave chief +would breathe upon the newborn child, thereby imparting courage. Among early +Christians the ceremony of bestowing the Holy Spirit was accompanied by +breathing on the candidates. Said the Psalmist: "By the word of the Lord were +the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." It was +long the custom of the eldest son to try to catch the last breath of his dying +father. + +The shadow came, later on, to be feared and revered equally with the breath. +The reflection of oneself in the water was also sometimes looked upon as proof +of the double self, and mirrors were regarded with superstitious awe. Even now +many civilized persons turn the mirror to the wall in the event of death. Some +backward tribes still believe that the making of pictures, drawings, models, or +images removes all or a part of the soul from the body; hence such are +forbidden. + +The soul was generally thought of as being identified with the breath, but it +was also located by various peoples in the head, hair, heart, liver, blood, and +fat. The "crying out of Abel's blood from the ground" is expressive of the +onetime belief in the presence of the ghost in the blood. The Semites taught +that the soul resided in the bodily fat, and among many the eating of animal +fat was taboo. Head hunting was a method of capturing an enemy's soul, as was +scalping. In recent times the eyes have been regarded as the windows of the +soul. + +Those who held the doctrine of three or four souls believed that the loss of +one soul meant discomfort, two illness, three death. One soul lived in the +breath, one in the head, one in the hair, one in the heart. The sick were +advised to stroll about in the open air with the hope of recapturing their +strayed souls. The greatest of the medicine men were supposed to exchange the +sick soul of a diseased person for a new one, the "new birth." + +The children of Badonan developed a belief in two souls, the breath and the +shadow. The early Nodite races regarded man as consisting of two persons, soul +and body. This philosophy of human existence was later reflected in the Greek +viewpoint. The Greeks themselves believed in three souls; the vegetative +resided in the stomach, the animal in the heart, the intellectual in the head. +The Eskimos believe that man has three parts: body, soul, and name. + +6. THE GHOST-SPIRIT ENVIRONMENT + +Man inherited a natural environment, acquired a social environment, and +imagined a ghost environment. The state is man's reaction to his natural +environment, the home to his social environment, the church to his illusory +ghost environment. + +Very early in the history of mankind the realities of the imaginary world of +ghosts and spirits became universally believed, and this newly imagined spirit +world became a power in primitive society. The mental and moral life of all +mankind was modified for all time by the appearance of this new factor in human +thinking and acting. + +Into this major premise of illusion and ignorance, mortal fear has packed all +of the subsequent superstition and religion of primitive peoples. This was +man's only religion up to the times of revelation, and today many of the +world's races have only this crude religion of evolution. + +As evolution progressed, good luck became associated with good spirits and bad +luck with bad spirits. The discomfort of enforced adaptation to a changing + + top of page - 956 + +environment was regarded as ill luck, the displeasure of the spirit ghosts. +Primitive man slowly evolved religion out of his innate worship urge and his +misconception of chance. Civilized man provides schemes of insurance to +overcome these chance occurrences; modern science puts an actuary with +mathematical reckoning in the place of fictitious spirits and whimsical gods. + +Each passing generation smiles at the foolish superstitions of its ancestors +while it goes on entertaining those fallacies of thought and worship which will +give cause for further smiling on the part of enlightened posterity. + +But at last the mind of primitive man was occupied with thoughts which +transcended all of his inherent biologic urges; at last man was about to evolve +an art of living based on something more than response to material stimuli. The +beginnings of a primitive philosophic life policy were emerging. A supernatural +standard of living was about to appear, for, if the spirit ghost in anger +visits ill luck and in pleasure good fortune, then must human conduct be +regulated accordingly. The concept of right and wrong had at last evolved; and +all of this long before the times of any revelation on earth. + +With the emergence of these concepts, there was initiated the long and wasteful +struggle to appease the ever-displeased spirits, the slavish bondage to +evolutionary religious fear, that long waste of human effort upon tombs, +temples, sacrifices, and priesthoods. It was a terrible and frightful price to +pay, but it was worth all it cost, for man therein achieved a natural +consciousness of relative right and wrong; human ethics was born! + +7. THE FUNCTION OF PRIMITIVE RELIGION + +The savage felt the need of insurance, and he therefore willingly paid his +burdensome premiums of fear, superstition, dread, and priest gifts toward his +policy of magic insurance against ill luck. Primitive religion was simply the +payment of premiums on insurance against the perils of the forests; civilized +man pays material premiums against the accidents of industry and the exigencies +of modern modes of living. + +Modern society is removing the business of insurance from the realm of priests +and religion, placing it in the domain of economics. Religion is concerning +itself increasingly with the insurance of life beyond the grave. Modern men, at +least those who think, no longer pay wasteful premiums to control luck. +Religion is slowly ascending to higher philosophic levels in contrast with its +former function as a scheme of insurance against bad luck. + +But these ancient ideas of religion prevented men from becoming fatalistic and +hopelessly pessimistic; they believed they could at least do something to +influence fate. The religion of ghost fear impressed upon men that they must +regulate their conduct, that there was a supermaterial world which was in +control of human destiny. + +Modern civilized races are just emerging from ghost fear as an explanation of +luck and the commonplace inequalities of existence. Mankind is achieving +emancipation from the bondage of the ghost-spirit explanation of ill luck. But +while men are giving up the erroneous doctrine of a spirit cause of the +vicissitudes of life, they exhibit a surprising willingness to accept an almost +equally fallacious teaching which bids them attribute all human inequalities to +political misadaptation, social injustice, and industrial competition. But new +legislation, increasing + + top of page - 957 + +philanthropy, and more industrial reorganization, however good in and of +themselves, will not remedy the facts of birth and the accidents of living. +Only comprehension of facts and wise manipulation within the laws of nature +will enable man to get what he wants and to avoid what he does not want. +Scientific knowledge, leading to scientific action, is the only antidote for +so-called accidental ills. + +Industry, war, slavery, and civil government arose in response to the social +evolution of man in his natural environment; religion similarly arose as his +response to the illusory environment of the imaginary ghost world. Religion was +an evolutionary development of self-maintenance, and it has worked, +notwithstanding that it was originally erroneous in concept and utterly +illogical. + +Primitive religion prepared the soil of the human mind, by the powerful and +awesome force of false fear, for the bestowal of a bona fide spiritual force of +supernatural origin, the Thought Adjuster. And the divine Adjusters have ever +since labored to transmute God-fear into God-love. Evolution may be slow, but +it is unerringly effective. + +[Presented by an Evening Star of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 958 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Origins Of ³ The Ghost Cults ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p088.txt b/religious documents/p088.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a3ed24 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p088.txt @@ -0,0 +1,450 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 88 Fetishes, Charms, And Magic + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 88 Fetishes, Charms, And Magic + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE concept of a spirit's entering into an inanimate object, an animal, or a +human being, is a very ancient and honorable belief, having prevailed since the +beginning of the evolution of religion. This doctrine of spirit possession is +nothing more nor less than fetishism. The savage does not necessarily worship +the fetish; he very logically worships and reverences the spirit resident +therein. + +At first, the spirit of a fetish was believed to be the ghost of a dead man; +later on, the higher spirits were supposed to reside in fetishes. And so the +fetish cult eventually incorporated all of the primitive ideas of ghosts, +souls, spirits, and demon possession. + +1. BELIEF IN FETISHES + +Primitive man always wanted to make anything extraordinary into a fetish; +chance therefore gave origin to many. A man is sick, something happens, and he +gets well. The same thing is true of the reputation of many medicines and the +chance methods of treating disease. Objects connected with dreams were likely +to be converted into fetishes. Volcanoes, but not mountains, became fetishes; +comets, but not stars. Early man regarded shooting stars and meteors as +indicating the arrival on earth of special visiting spirits. + +The first fetishes were peculiarly marked pebbles, and "sacred stones" have +ever since been sought by man; a string of beads was once a collection of +sacred stones, a battery of charms. Many tribes had fetish stones, but few have +survived as have the Kaaba and the Stone of Scone. Fire and water were also +among the early fetishes, and fire worship, together with belief in holy water, +still survives. + +Tree fetishes were a later development, but among some tribes the persistence +of nature worship led to belief in charms indwelt by some sort of nature +spirit. When plants and fruits became fetishes, they were taboo as food. The +apple was among the first to fall into this category; it was never eaten by the +Levantine peoples. + +If an animal ate human flesh, it became a fetish. In this way the dog came to +be the sacred animal of the Parsees. If the fetish is an animal and the ghost +is permanently resident therein, then fetishism may impinge on reincarnation. +In many ways the savages envied the animals; they did not feel superior to them +and were often named after their favorite beasts. + +When animals became fetishes, there ensued the taboos on eating the flesh of +the fetish animal. Apes and monkeys, because of resemblance to man, early +became fetish animals; later, snakes, birds, and swine were also similarly +regarded. + + top of page - 968 + +At one time the cow was a fetish, the milk being taboo while the excreta were +highly esteemed. The serpent was revered in Palestine, especially by the +Phoenicians, who, along with the Jews, considered it to be the mouthpiece of +evil spirits. Even many moderns believe in the charm powers of reptiles. From +Arabia on through India to the snake dance of the Moqui tribe of red men the +serpent has been revered. + +Certain days of the week were fetishes. For ages Friday has been regarded as an +unlucky day and the number thirteen as an evil numeral. The lucky numbers three +and seven came from later revelations; four was the lucky number of primitive +man and was derived from the early recognition of the four points of the +compass. It was held unlucky to count cattle or other possessions; the ancients +always opposed the taking of a census, "numbering the people." + +Primitive man did not make an undue fetish out of sex; the reproductive +function received only a limited amount of attention. The savage was natural +minded, not obscene or prurient. + +Saliva was a potent fetish; devils could be driven out by spitting on a person. +For an elder or superior to spit on one was the highest compliment. Parts of +the human body were looked upon as potential fetishes, particularly the hair +and nails. The long-growing fingernails of the chiefs were highly prized, and +the trimmings thereof were a powerful fetish. Belief in skull fetishes accounts +for much of later-day head-hunting. The umbilical cord was a highly prized +fetish; even today it is so regarded in Africa. Mankind's first toy was a +preserved umbilical cord. Set with pearls, as was often done, it was man's +first necklace. + +Hunchbacked and crippled children were regarded as fetishes; lunatics were +believed to be moon-struck. Primitive man could not distinguish between genius +and insanity; idiots were either beaten to death or revered as fetish +personalities. Hysteria increasingly confirmed the popular belief in +witchcraft; epileptics often were priests and medicine men. Drunkenness was +looked upon as a form of spirit possession; when a savage went on a spree, he +put a leaf in his hair for the purpose of disavowing responsibility for his +acts. Poisons and intoxicants became fetishes; they were deemed to be +possessed. + +Many people looked upon geniuses as fetish personalities possessed by a wise +spirit. And these talented humans soon learned to resort to fraud and trickery +for the advancement of their selfish interests. A fetish man was thought to be +more than human; he was divine, even infallible. Thus did chiefs, kings, +priests, prophets, and church rulers eventually wield great power and exercise +unbounded authority. + +2. EVOLUTION OF THE FETISH + +It was a supposed preference of ghosts to indwell some object which had +belonged to them when alive in the flesh. This belief explains the efficacy of +many modern relics. The ancients always revered the bones of their leaders, and +the skeletal remains of saints and heroes are still regarded with superstitious +awe by many. Even today, pilgrimages are made to the tombs of great men. + +Belief in relics is an outgrowth of the ancient fetish cult. The relics of +modern religions represent an attempt to rationalize the fetish of the savage +and thus elevate it to a place of dignity and respectability in the modern +religious systems. It is heathenish to believe in fetishes and magic but +supposedly all right to accept relics and miracles. + + top of page - 969 + +The hearth--fireplace--became more or less of a fetish, a sacred spot. The +shrines and temples were at first fetish places because the dead were buried +there. The fetish hut of the Hebrews was elevated by Moses to that place where +it harbored a superfetish, the then existent concept of the law of God. But the +Israelites never gave up the peculiar Canaanite belief in the stone altar: "And +this stone which I have set up as a pillar shall be God's house." They truly +believed that the spirit of their God dwelt in such stone altars, which were in +reality fetishes. + +The earliest images were made to preserve the appearance and memory of the +illustrious dead; they were really monuments. Idols were a refinement of +fetishism. The primitives believed that a ceremony of consecration caused the +spirit to enter the image; likewise, when certain objects were blessed, they +became charms. + +Moses, in the addition of the second commandment to the ancient Dalamatian +moral code, made an effort to control fetish worship among the Hebrews. He +carefully directed that they should make no sort of image that might become +consecrated as a fetish. He made it plain, "You shall not make a graven image +or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, +or in the waters of the earth." While this commandment did much to retard art +among the Jews, it did lessen fetish worship. But Moses was too wise to attempt +suddenly to displace the olden fetishes, and he therefore consented to the +putting of certain relics alongside the law in the combined war altar and +religious shrine which was the ark. + +Words eventually became fetishes, more especially those which were regarded as +God's words; in this way the sacred books of many religions have become +fetishistic prisons incarcerating the spiritual imagination of man. Moses' very +effort against fetishes became a supreme fetish; his commandment was later used +to stultify art and to retard the enjoyment and adoration of the beautiful. + +In olden times the fetish word of authority was a fear-inspiring doctrine, the +most terrible of all tyrants which enslave men. A doctrinal fetish will lead +mortal man to betray himself into the clutches of bigotry, fanaticism, +superstition, intolerance, and the most atrocious of barbarous cruelties. +Modern respect for wisdom and truth is but the recent escape from the +fetish-making tendency up to the higher levels of thinking and reasoning. +Concerning the accumulated fetish writings which various religionists hold as +sacred books, it is not only believed that what is in the book is true, but +also that every truth is contained in the book. If one of these sacred books +happens to speak of the earth as being flat, then, for long generations, +otherwise sane men and women will refuse to accept positive evidence that the +planet is round. + +The practice of opening one of these sacred books to let the eye chance upon a +passage, the following of which may determine important life decisions or +projects, is nothing more nor less than arrant fetishism. To take an oath on a +"holy book" or to swear by some object of supreme veneration is a form of +refined fetishism. + +But it does represent real evolutionary progress to advance from the fetish +fear of a savage chief's fingernail trimmings to the adoration of a superb +collection of letters, laws, legends, allegories, myths, poems, and chronicles +which, after all, reflect the winnowed moral wisdom of many centuries, at least +up to the time and event of their being assembled as a "sacred book." + + top of page - 970 + +To become fetishes, words had to be considered inspired, and the invocation of +supposed divinely inspired writings led directly to the establishment of the +authority of the church, while the evolution of civil forms led to the fruition +of the authority of the state. + +3. TOTEMISM + +Fetishism ran through all the primitive cults from the earliest belief in +sacred stones, through idolatry, cannibalism, and nature worship, to totemism. + +Totemism is a combination of social and religious observances. Originally it +was thought that respect for the totem animal of supposed biologic origin +insured the food supply. Totems were at one and the same time symbols of the +group and their god. Such a god was the clan personified. Totemism was one +phase of the attempted socialization of otherwise personal religion. The totem +eventually evolved into the flag, or national symbol, of the various modern +peoples. + +A fetish bag, a medicine bag, was a pouch containing a reputable assortment of +ghost-impregnated articles, and the medicine man of old never allowed his bag, +the symbol of his power, to touch the ground. Civilized peoples in the +twentieth century see to it that their flags, emblems of national +consciousness, likewise never touch the ground. + +The insignia of priestly and kingly office were eventually regarded as +fetishes, and the fetish of the state supreme has passed through many stages of +development, from clans to tribes, from suzerainty to sovereignty, from totems +to flags. Fetish kings have ruled by "divine right," and many other forms of +government have obtained. Men have also made a fetish of democracy, the +exaltation and adoration of the common man's ideas when collectively called +"public opinion." One man's opinion, when taken by itself, is not regarded as +worth much, but when many men are collectively functioning as a democracy, this +same mediocre judgment is held to be the arbiter of justice and the standard of +righteousness. + +4. MAGIC + +Civilized man attacks the problems of a real environment through his science; +savage man attempted to solve the real problems of an illusory ghost +environment by magic. Magic was the technique of manipulating the conjectured +spirit environment whose machinations endlessly explained the inexplicable; it +was the art of obtaining voluntary spirit co-operation and of coercing +involuntary spirit aid through the use of fetishes or other and more powerful +spirits. + +The object of magic, sorcery, and necromancy was twofold: + +1. To secure insight into the future. + +2. Favorably to influence environment. + +The objects of science are identical with those of magic. Mankind is +progressing from magic to science, not by meditation and reason, but rather +through long experience, gradually and painfully. Man is gradually backing into +the truth, beginning in error, progressing in error, and finally attaining the +threshold of truth. Only with the arrival of the scientific method has he faced +forward. But primitive man had to experiment or perish. + +The fascination of early superstition was the mother of the later scientific +curiosity. There was progressive dynamic emotion--fear plus curiosity--in these + + top of page - 971 + +primitive superstitions; there was progressive driving power in the olden +magic. These superstitions represented the emergence of the human desire to +know and to control planetary environment. + +Magic gained such a strong hold upon the savage because he could not grasp the +concept of natural death. The later idea of original sin helped much to weaken +the grip of magic on the race in that it accounted for natural death. It was at +one time not at all uncommon for ten innocent persons to be put to death +because of supposed responsibility for one natural death. This is one reason +why ancient peoples did not increase faster, and it is still true of some +African tribes. The accused individual usually confessed guilt, even when +facing death. + +Magic is natural to a savage. He believes that an enemy can actually be killed +by practicing sorcery on his shingled hair or fingernail trimmings. The +fatality of snake bites was attributed to the magic of the sorcerer. The +difficulty in combating magic arises from the fact that fear can kill. +Primitive peoples so feared magic that it did actually kill, and such results +were sufficient to substantiate this erroneous belief. In case of failure there +was always some plausible explanation; the cure for defective magic was more +magic. + +5. MAGICAL CHARMS + +Since anything connected with the body could become a fetish, the earliest +magic had to do with hair and nails. Secrecy attendant upon body elimination +grew up out of fear that an enemy might get possession of something derived +from the body and employ it in detrimental magic; all excreta of the body were +therefore carefully buried. Public spitting was refrained from because of the +fear that saliva would be used in deleterious magic; spittle was always +covered. Even food remnants, clothing, and ornaments could become instruments +of magic. The savage never left any remnants of his meal on the table. And all +this was done through fear that one's enemies might use these things in magical +rites, not from any appreciation of the hygienic value of such practices. + +Magical charms were concocted from a great variety of things: human flesh, +tiger claws, crocodile teeth, poison plant seeds, snake venom, and human hair. +The bones of the dead were very magical. Even the dust from footprints could be +used in magic. The ancients were great believers in love charms. Blood and +other forms of bodily secretions were able to insure the magic influence of +love. + +Images were supposed to be effective in magic. Effigies were made, and when +treated ill or well, the same effects were believed to rest upon the real +person. When making purchases, superstitious persons would chew a bit of hard +wood in order to soften the heart of the seller. + +The milk of a black cow was highly magical; so also were black cats. The staff +or wand was magical, along with drums, bells, and knots. All ancient objects +were magical charms. The practices of a new or higher civilization were looked +upon with disfavor because of their supposedly evil magical nature. Writing, +printing, and pictures were long so regarded. + +Primitive man believed that names must be treated with respect, especially +names of the gods. The name was regarded as an entity, an influence distinct +from the physical personality; it was esteemed equally with the soul and the +shadow. Names were pawned for loans; a man could not use his name until it had +been redeemed by payment of the loan. Nowadays one signs his name to a note. An +individual's name soon became important in magic. The savage had two + + top of page - 972 + +names; the important one was regarded as too sacred to use on ordinary +occasions, hence the second or everyday name--a nickname. He never told his +real name to strangers. Any experience of an unusual nature caused him to +change his name; sometimes it was in an effort to cure disease or to stop bad +luck. The savage could get a new name by buying it from the tribal chief; men +still invest in titles and degrees. But among the most primitive tribes, such +as the African Bushmen, individual names do not exist. + +6. THE PRACTICE OF MAGIC + +Magic was practiced through the use of wands, "medicine" ritual, and +incantations, and it was customary for the practitioner to work unclothed. +Women outnumbered the men among primitive magicians. In magic, "medicine" means +mystery, not treatment. The savage never doctored himself; he never used +medicines except on the advice of the specialists in magic. And the voodoo +doctors of the twentieth century are typical of the magicians of old. + +There was both a public and a private phase to magic. That performed by the +medicine man, shaman, or priest was supposed to be for the good of the whole +tribe. Witches, sorcerers, and wizards dispensed private magic, personal and +selfish magic which was employed as a coercive method of bringing evil on one's +enemies. The concept of dual spiritism, good and bad spirits, gave rise to the +later beliefs in white and black magic. And as religion evolved, magic was the +term applied to spirit operations outside one's own cult, and it also referred +to older ghost beliefs. + +Word combinations, the ritual of chants and incantations, were highly magical. +Some early incantations finally evolved into prayers. Presently, imitative +magic was practiced; prayers were acted out; magical dances were nothing but +dramatic prayers. Prayer gradually displaced magic as the associate of +sacrifice. + +Gesture, being older than speech, was the more holy and magical, and mimicry +was believed to have strong magical power. The red men often staged a buffalo +dance in which one of their number would play the part of a buffalo and, in +being caught, would insure the success of the impending hunt. The sex +festivities of May Day were simply imitative magic, a suggestive appeal to the +sex passions of the plant world. The doll was first employed as a magic +talisman by the barren wife. + +Magic was the branch off the evolutionary religious tree which eventually bore +the fruit of a scientific age. Belief in astrology led to the development of +astronomy; belief in a philosopher's stone led to the mastery of metals, while +belief in magic numbers founded the science of mathematics. + +But a world so filled with charms did much to destroy all personal ambition and +initiative. The fruits of extra labor or of diligence were looked upon as +magical. If a man had more grain in his field than his neighbor, he might be +haled before the chief and charged with enticing this extra grain from the +indolent neighbor's field. Indeed, in the days of barbarism it was dangerous to +know very much; there was always the chance of being executed as a black +artist. + +Gradually science is removing the gambling element from life. But if modern +methods of education should fail, there would be an almost immediate reversion +to the primitive beliefs in magic. These superstitions still linger in the +minds of many so-called civilized people. Language contains many fossils which +testify + + top of page - 973 + +that the race has long been steeped in magical superstition, such words as +spellbound, ill-starred, possessions, inspiration, spirit away, ingenuity, +entrancing, thunderstruck, and astonished. And intelligent human beings still +believe in good luck, evil eye, and astrology. + +Ancient magic was the cocoon of modern science, indispensable in its time but +now no longer useful. And so the phantasms of ignorant superstition agitated +the primitive minds of men until the concepts of science could be born. Today, +Urantia is in the twilight zone of this intellectual evolution. One half the +world is grasping eagerly for the light of truth and the facts of scientific +discovery, while the other half languishes in the arms of ancient superstition +and but thinly disguised magic. + +[Presented by a Brilliant Evening Star of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 974 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Ghost Cults ³ Sin, ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ³ Sacrifice,... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p089.txt b/religious documents/p089.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32794bb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p089.txt @@ -0,0 +1,731 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 89 Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 89 Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +PRIMITIVE man regarded himself as being in debt to the spirits, as standing in +need of redemption. As the savages looked at it, in justice the spirits might +have visited much more bad luck upon them. As time passed, this concept +developed into the doctrine of sin and salvation. The soul was looked upon as +coming into the world under forfeit--original sin. The soul must be ransomed; a +scapegoat must be provided. The head-hunter, in addition to practicing the cult +of skull worship, was able to provide a substitute for his own life, a +scapeman. + +The savage was early possessed with the notion that spirits derive supreme +satisfaction from the sight of human misery, suffering, and humiliation. At +first, man was only concerned with sins of commission, but later he became +exercised over sins of omission. And the whole subsequent sacrificial system +grew up around these two ideas. This new ritual had to do with the observance +of the propitiation ceremonies of sacrifice. Primitive man believed that +something special must be done to win the favor of the gods; only advanced +civilization recognizes a consistently even-tempered and benevolent God. +Propitiation was insurance against immediate ill luck rather than investment in +future bliss. And the rituals of avoidance, exorcism, coercion, and +propitiation all merge into one another. + +1. THE TABOO + +Observance of a taboo was man's effort to dodge ill luck, to keep from +offending the spirit ghosts by the avoidance of something. The taboos were at +first nonreligious, but they early acquired ghost or spirit sanction, and when +thus reinforced, they became lawmakers and institution builders. The taboo is +the source of ceremonial standards and the ancestor of primitive self-control. +It was the earliest form of societal regulation and for a long time the only +one; it is still a basic unit of the social regulative structure. + +The respect which these prohibitions commanded in the mind of the savage +exactly equaled his fear of the powers who were supposed to enforce them. +Taboos first arose because of chance experience with ill luck; later they were +proposed by chiefs and shamans--fetish men who were thought to be directed by a +spirit ghost, even by a god. The fear of spirit retribution is so great in the +mind of a primitive that he sometimes dies of fright when he has violated a +taboo, and this dramatic episode enormously strengthens the hold of the taboo +on the minds of the survivors. + +Among the earliest prohibitions were restrictions on the appropriation of women +and other property. As religion began to play a larger part in the evolu- + + top of page - 975 + +tion of the taboo, the article resting under ban was regarded as unclean, +subsequently as unholy. The records of the Hebrews are full of the mention of +things clean and unclean, holy and unholy, but their beliefs along these lines +were far less cumbersome and extensive than were those of many other peoples. + +The seven commandments of Dalamatia and Eden, as well as the ten injunctions of +the Hebrews, were definite taboos, all expressed in the same negative form as +were the most ancient prohibitions. But these newer codes were truly +emancipating in that they took the place of thousands of pre-existent taboos. +And more than this, these later commandments definitely promised something in +return for obedience. + +The early food taboos originated in fetishism and totemism. The swine was +sacred to the Phoenicians, the cow to the Hindus. The Egyptian taboo on pork +has been perpetuated by the Hebraic and Islamic faiths. A variant of the food +taboo was the belief that a pregnant woman could think so much about a certain +food that the child, when born, would be the echo of that food. Such viands +would be taboo to the child. + +Methods of eating soon became taboo, and so originated ancient and modern table +etiquette. Caste systems and social levels are vestigial remnants of olden +prohibitions. The taboos were highly effective in organizing society, but they +were terribly burdensome; the negative-ban system not only maintained useful +and constructive regulations but also obsolete, outworn, and useless taboos. + +There would, however, be no civilized society to sit in criticism upon +primitive man except for these far-flung and multifarious taboos, and the taboo +would never have endured but for the upholding sanctions of primitive religion. +Many of the essential factors in man's evolution have been highly expensive, +have cost vast treasure in effort, sacrifice, and self-denial, but these +achievements of self-control were the real rungs on which man climbed +civilization's ascending ladder. + +2. THE CONCEPT OF SIN + +The fear of chance and the dread of bad luck literally drove man into the +invention of primitive religion as supposed insurance against these calamities. +From magic and ghosts, religion evolved through spirits and fetishes to taboos. +Every primitive tribe had its tree of forbidden fruit, literally the apple but +figuratively consisting of a thousand branches hanging heavy with all sorts of +taboos. And the forbidden tree always said, "Thou shalt not." + +As the savage mind evolved to that point where it envisaged both good and bad +spirits, and when the taboo received the solemn sanction of evolving religion, +the stage was all set for the appearance of the new conception of sin. The idea +of sin was universally established in the world before revealed religion ever +made its entry. It was only by the concept of sin that natural death became +logical to the primitive mind. Sin was the transgression of taboo, and death +was the penalty of sin. + +Sin was ritual, not rational; an act, not a thought. And this entire concept of +sin was fostered by the lingering traditions of Dilmun and the days of a little +paradise on earth. The tradition of Adam and the Garden of Eden also lent +substance to the dream of a onetime "golden age" of the dawn of the races. And +all this confirmed the ideas later expressed in the belief that man had his +origin in a special creation, that he started his career in perfection, and +that transgression of the taboos--sin--brought him down to his later sorry +plight. + + top of page - 976 + +The habitual violation of a taboo became a vice; primitive law made vice a +crime; religion made it a sin. Among the early tribes the violation of a taboo +was a combined crime and sin. Community calamity was always regarded as +punishment for tribal sin. To those who believed that prosperity and +righteousness went together, the apparent prosperity of the wicked occasioned +so much worry that it was necessary to invent hells for the punishment of taboo +violators; the numbers of these places of future punishment have varied from +one to five. + +The idea of confession and forgiveness early appeared in primitive religion. +Men would ask forgiveness at a public meeting for sins they intended to commit +the following week. Confession was merely a rite of remission, also a public +notification of defilement, a ritual of crying "unclean, unclean!" Then +followed all the ritualistic schemes of purification. All ancient peoples +practiced these meaningless ceremonies. Many apparently hygienic customs of the +early tribes were largely ceremonial. + +3. RENUNCIATION AND HUMILIATION + +Renunciation came as the next step in religious evolution; fasting was a common +practice. Soon it became the custom to forego many forms of physical pleasure, +especially of a sexual nature. The ritual of the fast was deeply rooted in many +ancient religions and has been handed down to practically all modern theologic +systems of thought. + +Just about the time barbarian man was recovering from the wasteful practice of +burning and burying property with the dead, just as the economic structure of +the races was beginning to take shape, this new religious doctrine of +renunciation appeared, and tens of thousands of earnest souls began to court +poverty. Property was regarded as a spiritual handicap. These notions of the +spiritual dangers of material possession were widespreadly entertained in the +times of Philo and Paul, and they have markedly influenced European philosophy +ever since. + +Poverty was just a part of the ritual of the mortification of the flesh which, +unfortunately, became incorporated into the writings and teachings of many +religions, notably Christianity. Penance is the negative form of this ofttimes +foolish ritual of renunciation. But all this taught the savage self-control, +and that was a worth-while advancement in social evolution. Self-denial and +self-control were two of the greatest social gains from early evolutionary +religion. Self-control gave man a new philosophy of life; it taught him the art +of augmenting life's fraction by lowering the denominator of personal demands +instead of always attempting to increase the numerator of selfish +gratification. + +These olden ideas of self-discipline embraced flogging and all sorts of +physical torture. The priests of the mother cult were especially active in +teaching the virtue of physical suffering, setting the example by submitting +themselves to castration. The Hebrews, Hindus, and Buddhists were earnest +devotees of this doctrine of physical humiliation. + +All through the olden times men sought in these ways for extra credits on the +self-denial ledgers of their gods. It was once customary, when under some +emotional stress, to make vows of self-denial and self-torture. In time these +vows assumed the form of contracts with the gods and, in that sense, +represented true evolutionary progress in that the gods were supposed to do +something definite in return for this self-torture and mortification of the +flesh. Vows were both nega- + + top of page - 977 + +tive and positive. Pledges of this harmful and extreme nature are best observed +today among certain groups in India. + +It was only natural that the cult of renunciation and humiliation should have +paid attention to sexual gratification. The continence cult originated as a +ritual among soldiers prior to engaging in battle; in later days it became the +practice of "saints." This cult tolerated marriage only as an evil lesser than +fornication. Many of the world's great religions have been adversely influenced +by this ancient cult, but none more markedly than Christianity. The Apostle +Paul was a devotee of this cult, and his personal views are reflected in the +teachings which he fastened onto Christian theology: "It is good for a man not +to touch a woman." "I would that all men were even as I myself." "I say, +therefore, to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them to abide even as +I." Paul well knew that such teachings were not a part of Jesus' gospel, and +his acknowledgment of this is illustrated by his statement, "I speak this by +permission and not by commandment." But this cult led Paul to look down upon +women. And the pity of it all is that his personal opinions have long +influenced the teachings of a great world religion. If the advice of the +tentmaker-teacher were to be literally and universally obeyed, then would the +human race come to a sudden and inglorious end. Furthermore, the involvement of +a religion with the ancient continence cult leads directly to a war against +marriage and the home, society's veritable foundation and the basic institution +of human progress. And it is not to be wondered at that all such beliefs +fostered the formation of celibate priesthoods in the many religions of various +peoples. + +Someday man should learn how to enjoy liberty without license, nourishment +without gluttony, and pleasure without debauchery. Self-control is a better +human policy of behavior regulation than is extreme self-denial. Nor did Jesus +ever teach these unreasonable views to his followers. + +4. ORIGINS OF SACRIFICE + +Sacrifice as a part of religious devotions, like many other worshipful rituals, +did not have a simple and single origin. The tendency to bow down before power +and to prostrate oneself in worshipful adoration in the presence of mystery is +foreshadowed in the fawning of the dog before its master. It is but one step +from the impulse of worship to the act of sacrifice. Primitive man gauged the +value of his sacrifice by the pain which he suffered. When the idea of +sacrifice first attached itself to religious ceremonial, no offering was +contemplated which was not productive of pain. The first sacrifices were such +acts as plucking hair, cutting the flesh, mutilations, knocking out teeth, and +cutting off fingers. As civilization advanced, these crude concepts of +sacrifice were elevated to the level of the rituals of self-abnegation, +asceticism, fasting, deprivation, and the later Christian doctrine of +sanctification through sorrow, suffering, and the mortification of the flesh. + +Early in the evolution of religion there existed two conceptions of the +sacrifice: the idea of the gift sacrifice, which connoted the attitude of +thanksgiving, and the debt sacrifice, which embraced the idea of redemption. +Later there developed the notion of substitution. + +Man still later conceived that his sacrifice of whatever nature might function +as a message bearer to the gods; it might be as a sweet savor in the nostrils +of + + top of page - 978 + +deity. This brought incense and other aesthetic features of sacrificial rituals +which developed into sacrificial feasting, in time becoming increasingly +elaborate and ornate. + +As religion evolved, the sacrificial rites of conciliation and propitiation +replaced the older methods of avoidance, placation, and exorcism. + +The earliest idea of the sacrifice was that of a neutrality assessment levied +by ancestral spirits; only later did the idea of atonement develop. As man got +away from the notion of the evolutionary origin of the race, as the traditions +of the days of the Planetary Prince and the sojourn of Adam filtered down +through time, the concept of sin and of original sin became widespread, so that +sacrifice for accidental and personal sin evolved into the doctrine of +sacrifice for the atonement of racial sin. The atonement of the sacrifice was a +blanket insurance device which covered even the resentment and jealousy of an +unknown god. + +Surrounded by so many sensitive spirits and grasping gods, primitive man was +face to face with such a host of creditor deities that it required all the +priests, ritual, and sacrifices throughout an entire lifetime to get him out of +spiritual debt. The doctrine of original sin, or racial guilt, started every +person out in serious debt to the spirit powers. + +Gifts and bribes are given to men; but when tendered to the gods, they are +described as being dedicated, made sacred, or are called sacrifices. +Renunciation was the negative form of propitiation; sacrifice became the +positive form. The act of propitiation included praise, glorification, +flattery, and even entertainment. And it is the remnants of these positive +practices of the olden propitiation cult that constitute the modern forms of +divine worship. Present-day forms of worship are simply the ritualization of +these ancient sacrificial techniques of positive propitiation. + +Animal sacrifice meant much more to primitive man than it could ever mean to +modern races. These barbarians regarded the animals as their actual and near +kin. As time passed, man became shrewd in his sacrificing, ceasing to offer up +his work animals. At first he sacrificed the best of everything, including his +domesticated animals. + +It was no empty boast that a certain Egyptian ruler made when he stated that he +had sacrificed: 113,433 slaves, 493,386 head of cattle, 88 boats, 2,756 golden +images, 331,702 jars of honey and oil, 228,380 jars of wine, 680,714 geese, +6,744,428 loaves of bread, and 5,740,352 sacks of coin. And in order to do this +he must needs have sorely taxed his toiling subjects. + +Sheer necessity eventually drove these semisavages to eat the material part of +their sacrifices, the gods having enjoyed the soul thereof. And this custom +found justification under the pretense of the ancient sacred meal, a communion +service according to modern usage. + +5. SACRIFICES AND CANNIBALISM + +Modern ideas of early cannibalism are entirely wrong; it was a part of the +mores of early society. While cannibalism is traditionally horrible to modern +civilization, it was a part of the social and religious structure of primitive +society. Group interests dictated the practice of cannibalism. It grew up +through the urge of necessity and persisted because of the slavery of +superstition and ignorance. It was a social, economic, religious, and military +custom. + + top of page - 979 + +Early man was a cannibal; he enjoyed human flesh, and therefore he offered it +as a food gift to the spirits and his primitive gods. Since ghost spirits were +merely modified men, and since food was man's greatest need, then food must +likewise be a spirit's greatest need. + +Cannibalism was once well-nigh universal among the evolving races. The Sangiks +were all cannibalistic, but originally the Andonites were not, nor were the +Nodites and Adamites; neither were the Andites until after they had become +grossly admixed with the evolutionary races. + +The taste for human flesh grows. Having been started through hunger, +friendship, revenge, or religious ritual, the eating of human flesh goes on to +habitual cannibalism. Man-eating has arisen through food scarcity, though this +has seldom been the underlying reason. The Eskimos and early Andonites, +however, seldom were cannibalistic except in times of famine. The red men, +especially in Central America, were cannibals. It was once a general practice +for primitive mothers to kill and eat their own children in order to renew the +strength lost in childbearing, and in Queensland the first child is still +frequently thus killed and devoured. In recent times cannibalism has been +deliberately resorted to by many African tribes as a war measure, a sort of +frightfulness with which to terrorize their neighbors. + +Some cannibalism resulted from the degeneration of once superior stocks, but it +was mostly prevalent among the evolutionary races. Man-eating came on at a time +when men experienced intense and bitter emotions regarding their enemies. +Eating human flesh became part of a solemn ceremony of revenge; it was believed +that an enemy's ghost could, in this way, be destroyed or fused with that of +the eater. It was once a widespread belief that wizards attained their powers +by eating human flesh. + +Certain groups of man-eaters would consume only members of their own tribes, a +pseudospiritual inbreeding which was supposed to accentuate tribal solidarity. +But they also ate enemies for revenge with the idea of appropriating their +strength. It was considered an honor to the soul of a friend or fellow +tribesman if his body were eaten, while it was no more than just punishment to +an enemy thus to devour him. The savage mind made no pretensions to being +consistent. + +Among some tribes aged parents would seek to be eaten by their children; among +others it was customary to refrain from eating near relations; their bodies +were sold or exchanged for those of strangers. There was considerable commerce +in women and children who had been fattened for slaughter. When disease or war +failed to control population, the surplus was unceremoniously eaten. + +Cannibalism has been gradually disappearing because of the following +influences: + +1. It sometimes became a communal ceremony, the assumption of collective +responsibility for inflicting the death penalty upon a fellow tribesman. The +blood guilt ceases to be a crime when participated in by all, by society. The +last of cannibalism in Asia was this eating of executed criminals. + +2. It very early became a religious ritual, but the growth of ghost fear did +not always operate to reduce man-eating. + +3. Eventually it progressed to the point where only certain parts or organs of +the body were eaten, those parts supposed to contain the soul or portions of + + top of page - 980 + +the spirit. Blood drinking became common, and it was customary to mix the +"edible" parts of the body with medicines. + +4. It became limited to men; women were forbidden to eat human flesh. + +5. It was next limited to the chiefs, priests, and shamans. + +6. Then it became taboo among the higher tribes. The taboo on man-eating +originated in Dalamatia and slowly spread over the world. The Nodites +encouraged cremation as a means of combating cannibalism since it was once a +common practice to dig up buried bodies and eat them. + +7. Human sacrifice sounded the death knell of cannibalism. Human flesh having +become the food of superior men, the chiefs, it was eventually reserved for the +still more superior spirits; and thus the offering of human sacrifices +effectively put a stop to cannibalism, except among the lowest tribes. When +human sacrifice was fully established, man-eating became taboo; human flesh was +food only for the gods; man could eat only a small ceremonial bit, a sacrament. + +Finally animal substitutes came into general use for sacrificial purposes, and +even among the more backward tribes dog-eating greatly reduced man-eating. The +dog was the first domesticated animal and was held in high esteem both as such +and as food. + +6. EVOLUTION OF HUMAN SACRIFICE + +Human sacrifice was an indirect result of cannibalism as well as its cure. +Providing spirit escorts to the spirit world also led to the lessening of +man-eating as it was never the custom to eat these death sacrifices. No race +has been entirely free from the practice of human sacrifice in some form and at +some time, even though the Andonites, Nodites, and Adamites were the least +addicted to cannibalism. + +Human sacrifice has been virtually universal; it persisted in the religious +customs of the Chinese, Hindus, Egyptians, Hebrews, Mesopotamians, Greeks, +Romans, and many other peoples, even on to recent times among the backward +African and Australian tribes. The later American Indians had a civilization +emerging from cannibalism and, therefore, steeped in human sacrifice, +especially in Central and South America. The Chaldeans were among the first to +abandon the sacrificing of humans for ordinary occasions, substituting therefor +animals. About two thousand years ago a tenderhearted Japanese emperor +introduced clay images to take the place of human sacrifices, but it was less +than a thousand years ago that these sacrifices died out in northern Europe. +Among certain backward tribes, human sacrifice is still carried on by +volunteers, a sort of religious or ritual suicide. A shaman once ordered the +sacrifice of a much respected old man of a certain tribe. The people revolted; +they refused to obey. Whereupon the old man had his own son dispatch him; the +ancients really believed in this custom. + +There is no more tragic and pathetic experience on record, illustrative of the +heart-tearing contentions between ancient and time-honored religious customs +and the contrary demands of advancing civilization, than the Hebrew narrative +of Jephthah and his only daughter. As was common custom, this well-meaning man +had made a foolish vow, had bargained with the "god of battles," agreeing to +pay a certain price for victory over his enemies. And this price was to make a + + top of page - 981 + +sacrifice of that which first came out of his house to meet him when he +returned to his home. Jephthah thought that one of his trusty slaves would thus +be on hand to greet him, but it turned out that his daughter and only child +came out to welcome him home. And so, even at that late date and among a +supposedly civilized people, this beautiful maiden, after two months to mourn +her fate, was actually offered as a human sacrifice by her father, and with the +approval of his fellow tribesmen. And all this was done in the face of Moses' +stringent rulings against the offering of human sacrifice. But men and women +are addicted to making foolish and needless vows, and the men of old held all +such pledges to be highly sacred. + +In olden times, when a new building of any importance was started, it was +customary to slay a human being as a "foundation sacrifice." This provided a +ghost spirit to watch over and protect the structure. When the Chinese made +ready to cast a bell, custom decreed the sacrifice of at least one maiden for +the purpose of improving the tone of the bell; the girl chosen was thrown alive +into the molten metal. + +It was long the practice of many groups to build slaves alive into important +walls. In later times the northern European tribes substituted the walling in +of the shadow of a passerby for this custom of entombing living persons in the +walls of new buildings. The Chinese buried in a wall those workmen who died +while constructing it. + +A petty king in Palestine, in building the walls of Jericho, "laid the +foundation thereof in Abiram, his first-born, and set up the gates thereof in +his youngest son, Segub." At that late date, not only did this father put two +of his sons alive in the foundation holes of the city's gates, but his action +is also recorded as being "according to the word of the Lord." Moses had +forbidden these foundation sacrifices, but the Israelites reverted to them soon +after his death. The twentieth-century ceremony of depositing trinkets and +keepsakes in the cornerstone of a new building is reminiscent of the primitive +foundation sacrifices. + +It was long the custom of many peoples to dedicate the first fruits to the +spirits. And these observances, now more or less symbolic, are all survivals of +the early ceremonies involving human sacrifice. The idea of offering the +first-born as a sacrifice was widespread among the ancients, especially among +the Phoenicians, who were the last to give it up. It used to be said upon +sacrificing, "life for life." Now you say at death, "dust to dust." + +The spectacle of Abraham constrained to sacrifice his son Isaac, while shocking +to civilized susceptibilities, was not a new or strange idea to the men of +those days. It was long a prevalent practice for fathers, at times of great +emotional stress, to sacrifice their first-born sons. Many peoples have a +tradition analogous to this story, for there once existed a world-wide and +profound belief that it was necessary to offer a human sacrifice when anything +extraordinary or unusual happened. + +7. MODIFICATIONS OF HUMAN SACRIFICE + +Moses attempted to end human sacrifices by inaugurating the ransom as a +substitute. He established a systematic schedule which enabled his people to +escape the worst results of their rash and foolish vows. Lands, properties, and +children could be redeemed according to the established fees, which were +payable + + top of page - 982 + +to the priests. Those groups which ceased to sacrifice their first-born soon +possessed great advantages over less advanced neighbors who continued these +atrocious acts. Many such backward tribes were not only greatly weakened by +this loss of sons, but even the succession of leadership was often broken. + +An outgrowth of the passing child sacrifice was the custom of smearing blood on +the house doorposts for the protection of the first-born. This was often done +in connection with one of the sacred feasts of the year, and this ceremony once +obtained over most of the world from Mexico to Egypt. + +Even after most groups had ceased the ritual killing of children, it was the +custom to put an infant away by itself, off in the wilderness or in a little +boat on the water. If the child survived, it was thought that the gods had +intervened to preserve him, as in the traditions of Sargon, Moses, Cyrus, and +Romulus. Then came the practice of dedicating the first-born sons as sacred or +sacrificial, allowing them to grow up and then exiling them in lieu of death; +this was the origin of colonization. The Romans adhered to this custom in their +scheme of colonization. + +Many of the peculiar associations of sex laxity with primitive worship had +their origin in connection with human sacrifice. In olden times, if a woman met +head-hunters, she could redeem her life by sexual surrender. Later, a maiden +consecrated to the gods as a sacrifice might elect to redeem her life by +dedicating her body for life to the sacred sex service of the temple; in this +way she could earn her redemption money. The ancients regarded it as highly +elevating to have sex relations with a woman thus engaged in ransoming her +life. It was a religious ceremony to consort with these sacred maidens, and in +addition, this whole ritual afforded an acceptable excuse for commonplace +sexual gratification. This was a subtle species of self-deception which both +the maidens and their consorts delighted to practice upon themselves. The mores +always drag behind in the evolutionary advance of civilization, thus providing +sanction for the earlier and more savagelike sex practices of the evolving +races. + +Temple harlotry eventually spread throughout southern Europe and Asia. The +money earned by the temple prostitutes was held sacred among all peoples--a +high gift to present to the gods. The highest types of women thronged the +temple sex marts and devoted their earnings to all kinds of sacred services and +works of public good. Many of the better classes of women collected their +dowries by temporary sex service in the temples, and most men preferred to have +such women for wives. + +8. REDEMPTION AND COVENANTS + +Sacrificial redemption and temple prostitution were in reality modifications of +human sacrifice. Next came the mock sacrifice of daughters. This ceremony +consisted in bloodletting, with dedication to life-long virginity, and was a +moral reaction to the older temple harlotry. In more recent times virgins +dedicated themselves to the service of tending the sacred temple fires. + +Men eventually conceived the idea that the offering of some part of the body +could take the place of the older and complete human sacrifice. Physical +mutilation was also considered to be an acceptable substitute. Hair, nails, +blood, and even fingers and toes were sacrificed. The later and well-nigh +universal ancient rite of circumcision was an outgrowth of the cult of partial +sacrifice; it was purely + + top of page - 983 + +sacrificial, no thought of hygiene being attached thereto. Men were +circumcised; women had their ears pierced. + +Subsequently it became the custom to bind fingers together instead of cutting +them off. Shaving the head and cutting the hair were likewise forms of +religious devotion. The making of eunuchs was at first a modification of the +idea of human sacrifice. Nose and lip piercing is still practiced in Africa, +and tattooing is an artistic evolution of the earlier crude scarring of the +body. + +The custom of sacrifice eventually became associated, as a result of advancing +teachings, with the idea of the covenant. At last, the gods were conceived of +as entering into real agreements with man; and this was a major step in the +stabilization of religion. Law, a covenant, takes the place of luck, fear, and +superstition. + +Man could never even dream of entering into a contract with Deity until his +concept of God had advanced to the level whereon the universe controllers were +envisioned as dependable. And man's early idea of God was so anthropomorphic +that he was unable to conceive of a dependable Deity until he himself became +relatively dependable, moral, and ethical. + +But the idea of making a covenant with the gods did finally arrive. +Evolutionary man eventually acquired such moral dignity that he dared to +bargain with his gods. And so the business of offering sacrifices gradually +developed into the game of man's philosophic bargaining with God. And all this +represented a new device for insuring against bad luck or, rather, an enhanced +technique for the more definite purchase of prosperity. Do not entertain the +mistaken idea that these early sacrifices were a free gift to the gods, a +spontaneous offering of gratitude or thanksgiving; they were not expressions of +true worship. + +Primitive forms of prayer were nothing more nor less than bargaining with the +spirits, an argument with the gods. It was a kind of bartering in which +pleading and persuasion were substituted for something more tangible and +costly. The developing commerce of the races had inculcated the spirit of trade +and had developed the shrewdness of barter; and now these traits began to +appear in man's worship methods. And as some men were better traders than +others, so some were regarded as better prayers than others. The prayer of a +just man was held in high esteem. A just man was one who had paid all accounts +to the spirits, had fully discharged every ritual obligation to the gods. + +Early prayer was hardly worship; it was a bargaining petition for health, +wealth, and life. And in many respects prayers have not much changed with the +passing of the ages. They are still read out of books, recited formally, and +written out for emplacement on wheels and for hanging on trees, where the +blowing of the winds will save man the trouble of expending his own breath. + +9. SACRIFICES AND SACRAMENTS + +The human sacrifice, throughout the course of the evolution of Urantian +rituals, has advanced from the bloody business of man-eating to higher and more +symbolic levels. The early rituals of sacrifice bred the later ceremonies of +sacrament. In more recent times the priest alone would partake of a bit of the +cannibalistic sacrifice or a drop of human blood, and then all would partake of +the animal substitute. These early ideas of ransom, redemption, and covenants +have + + top of page - 984 + +evolved into the later-day sacramental services. And all this ceremonial +evolution has exerted a mighty socializing influence. + +In connection with the Mother of God cult, in Mexico and elsewhere, a sacrament +of cakes and wine was eventually utilized in lieu of the flesh and blood of the +older human sacrifices. The Hebrews long practiced this ritual as a part of +their Passover ceremonies, and it was from this ceremonial that the later +Christian version of the sacrament took its origin. + +The ancient social brotherhoods were based on the rite of blood drinking; the +early Jewish fraternity was a sacrificial blood affair. Paul started out to +build a new Christian cult on "the blood of the everlasting covenant." And +while he may have unnecessarily encumbered Christianity with teachings about +blood and sacrifice, he did once and for all make an end of the doctrines of +redemption through human or animal sacrifices. His theologic compromises +indicate that even revelation must submit to the graduated control of +evolution. According to Paul, Christ became the last and all-sufficient human +sacrifice; the divine Judge is now fully and forever satisfied. + +And so, after long ages the cult of the sacrifice has evolved into the cult of +the sacrament. Thus are the sacraments of modern religions the legitimate +successors of those shocking early ceremonies of human sacrifice and the still +earlier cannibalistic rituals. Many still depend upon blood for salvation, but +it has at least become figurative, symbolic, and mystic. + +10. FORGIVENESS OF SIN + +Ancient man only attained consciousness of favor with God through sacrifice. +Modern man must develop new techniques of achieving the self-consciousness of +salvation. The consciousness of sin persists in the mortal mind, but the +thought patterns of salvation therefrom have become outworn and antiquated. The +reality of the spiritual need persists, but intellectual progress has destroyed +the olden ways of securing peace and consolation for mind and soul. + +Sin must be redefined as deliberate disloyalty to Deity. There are degrees of +disloyalty: the partial loyalty of indecision; the divided loyalty of +confliction; the dying loyalty of indifference; and the death of loyalty +exhibited in devotion to godless ideals. + +The sense or feeling of guilt is the consciousness of the violation of the +mores; it is not necessarily sin. There is no real sin in the absence of +conscious disloyalty to Deity. + +The possibility of the recognition of the sense of guilt is a badge of +transcendent distinction for mankind. It does not mark man as mean but rather +sets him apart as a creature of potential greatness and ever-ascending glory. +Such a sense of unworthiness is the initial stimulus that should lead quickly +and surely to those faith conquests which translate the mortal mind to the +superb levels of moral nobility, cosmic insight, and spiritual living; thus are +all the meanings of human existence changed from the temporal to the eternal, +and all values are elevated from the human to the divine. + +The confession of sin is a manful repudiation of disloyalty, but it in no wise +mitigates the time-space consequences of such disloyalty. But +confession--sincere recognition of the nature of sin--is essential to religious +growth and spiritual progress. + + top of page - 985 + +The forgiveness of sin by Deity is the renewal of loyalty relations following a +period of the human consciousness of the lapse of such relations as the +consequence of conscious rebellion. The forgiveness does not have to be sought, +only received as the consciousness of re-establishment of loyalty relations +between the creature and the Creator. And all the loyal sons of God are happy, +service-loving, and ever-progressive in the Paradise ascent. + +[Presented by a Brilliant Evening Star of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 986 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Fetishes, ³ Shamanism--medi.. ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Charm... ³ . ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p090.txt b/religious documents/p090.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7167d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p090.txt @@ -0,0 +1,493 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 90 Shamanism--medicine Men And Priests + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 90 Shamanism--medicine Men And Priests + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE evolution of religious observances progressed from placation, avoidance, +exorcism, coercion, conciliation, and propitiation to sacrifice, atonement, and +redemption. The technique of religious ritual passed from the forms of the +primitive cult through fetishes to magic and miracles; and as ritual became +more complex in response to man's increasingly complex concept of the +supermaterial realms, it was inevitably dominated by medicine men, shamans, and +priests. + +In the advancing concepts of primitive man the spirit world was eventually +regarded as being unresponsive to the ordinary mortal. Only the exceptional +among humans could catch the ear of the gods; only the extraordinary man or +woman would be heard by the spirits. Religion thus enters upon a new phase, a +stage wherein it gradually becomes secondhanded; always does a medicine man, a +shaman, or a priest intervene between the religionist and the object of +worship. And today most Urantia systems of organized religious belief are +passing through this level of evolutionary development. + +Evolutionary religion is born of a simple and all-powerful fear, the fear which +surges through the human mind when confronted with the unknown, the +inexplicable, and the incomprehensible. Religion eventually achieves the +profoundly simple realization of an all-powerful love, the love which sweeps +irresistibly through the human soul when awakened to the conception of the +limitless affection of the Universal Father for the sons of the universe. But +in between the beginning and the consummation of religious evolution, there +intervene the long ages of the shamans, who presume to stand between man and +God as intermediaries, interpreters, and intercessors. + +1. THE FIRST SHAMANS--THE MEDICINE MEN + +The shaman was the ranking medicine man, the ceremonial fetishman, and the +focus personality for all the practices of evolutionary religion. In many +groups the shaman outranked the war chief, marking the beginning of the church +domination of the state. The shaman sometimes functioned as a priest and even +as a priest-king. Some of the later tribes had both the earlier shaman-medicine +men (seers) and the later appearing shaman-priests. And in many cases the +office of shaman became hereditary. + +Since in olden times anything abnormal was ascribed to spirit possession, any +striking mental or physical abnormality constituted qualification for being a +medicine man. Many of these men were epileptic, many of the women hysteric, and +these two types accounted for a good deal of ancient inspiration as well as +spirit and devil possession. Quite a few of these earliest of priests were of a +class which has since been denominated paranoiac. + + top of page - 987 + +While they may have practiced deception in minor matters, the great majority of +the shamans believed in the fact of their spirit possession. Women who were +able to throw themselves into a trance or a cataleptic fit became powerful +shamanesses; later, such women became prophets and spirit mediums. Their +cataleptic trances usually involved alleged communications with the ghosts of +the dead. Many female shamans were also professional dancers. + +But not all shamans were self-deceived; many were shrewd and able tricksters. +As the profession developed, a novice was required to serve an apprenticeship +of ten years of hardship and self-denial to qualify as a medicine man. The +shamans developed a professional mode of dress and affected a mysterious +conduct. They frequently employed drugs to induce certain physical states which +would impress and mystify the tribesmen. Sleight-of-hand feats were regarded as +supernatural by the common folk, and ventriloquism was first used by shrewd +priests. Many of the olden shamans unwittingly stumbled onto hypnotism; others +induced autohypnosis by prolonged staring at their navels. + +While many resorted to these tricks and deceptions, their reputation as a +class, after all, stood on apparent achievement. When a shaman failed in his +undertakings, if he could not advance a plausible alibi, he was either demoted +or killed. Thus the honest shamans early perished; only the shrewd actors +survived. + +It was shamanism that took the exclusive direction of tribal affairs out of the +hands of the old and the strong and lodged it in the hands of the shrewd, the +clever, and the farsighted. + +2. SHAMANISTIC PRACTICES + +Spirit conjuring was a very precise and highly complicated procedure, +comparable to present-day church rituals conducted in an ancient tongue. The +human race very early sought for superhuman help, for revelation; and men +believed that the shaman actually received such revelations. While the shamans +utilized the great power of suggestion in their work, it was almost invariably +negative suggestion; only in very recent times has the technique of positive +suggestion been employed. In the early development of their profession the +shamans began to specialize in such vocations as rain making, disease healing, +and crime detecting. To heal diseases was not, however, the chief function of a +shamanic medicine man; it was, rather, to know and to control the hazards of +living. + +Ancient black art, both religious and secular, was called white art when +practiced by either priests, seers, shamans, or medicine men. The practitioners +of the black art were called sorcerers, magicians, wizards, witches, +enchanters, necromancers, conjurers, and soothsayers. As time passed, all such +purported contact with the supernatural was classified either as witchcraft or +shamancraft. + +Witchcraft embraced the magic performed by earlier, irregular, and unrecognized +spirits; shamancraft had to do with miracles performed by regular spirits and +recognized gods of the tribe. In later times the witch became associated with +the devil, and thus was the stage set for the many comparatively recent +exhibitions of religious intolerance. Witchcraft was a religion with many +primitive tribes. + +The shamans were great believers in the mission of chance as revelatory of the +will of the spirits; they frequently cast lots to arrive at decisions. Modern +survivals of this proclivity for casting lots are illustrated, not only in the +many + + top of page - 988 + +games of chance, but also in the well-known "counting-out" rhymes. Once, the +person counted out must die; now, he is only it in some childish game. That +which was serious business to primitive man has survived as a diversion of the +modern child. + +The medicine men put great trust in signs and omens, such as, "When you hear +the sound of a rustling in the tops of the mulberry trees, then shall you +bestir yourself." Very early in the history of the race the shamans turned +their attention to the stars. Primitive astrology was a world-wide belief and +practice; dream interpreting also became widespread. All this was soon followed +by the appearance of those temperamental shamanesses who professed to be able +to communicate with the spirits of the dead. + +Though of ancient origin, the rain makers, or weather shamans, have persisted +right on down through the ages. A severe drought meant death to the early +agriculturists; weather control was the object of much ancient magic. Civilized +man still makes the weather the common topic of conversation. The olden peoples +all believed in the power of the shaman as a rain maker, but it was customary +to kill him when he failed, unless he could offer a plausible excuse to account +for the failure. + +Again and again did the Caesars banish the astrologers, but they invariably +returned because of the popular belief in their powers. They could not be +driven out, and even in the sixteenth century after Christ the directors of +Occidental church and state were the patrons of astrology. Thousands of +supposedly intelligent people still believe that one may be born under the +domination of a lucky or an unlucky star; that the juxtaposition of the +heavenly bodies determines the outcome of various terrestrial adventures. +Fortunetellers are still patronized by the credulous. + +The Greeks believed in the efficacy of oracular advice, the Chinese used magic +as protection against demons, shamanism flourished in India, and it still +openly persists in central Asia. It is an only recently abandoned practice +throughout much of the world. + +Ever and anon, true prophets and teachers arose to denounce and expose +shamanism. Even the vanishing red man had such a prophet within the past +hundred years, the Shawnee Tenskwatawa, who predicted the eclipse of the sun in +1808 and denounced the vices of the white man. Many true teachers have appeared +among the various tribes and races all through the long ages of evolutionary +history. And they will ever continue to appear to challenge the shamans or +priests of any age who oppose general education and attempt to thwart +scientific progress. + +In many ways and by devious methods the olden shamans established their +reputations as voices of God and custodians of providence. They sprinkled the +newborn with water and conferred names upon them; they circumcised the males. +They presided over all burial ceremonies and made due announcement of the safe +arrival of the dead in spiritland. + +The shamanic priests and medicine men often became very wealthy through the +accretion of their various fees which were ostensibly offerings to the spirits. +Not infrequently a shaman would accumulate practically all the material wealth +of his tribe. Upon the death of a wealthy man it was customary to divide his +property equally with the shaman and some public enterprise or charity. This +practice still obtains in some parts of Tibet, where one half the male +population belongs to this class of nonproducers. + + top of page - 989 + +The shamans dressed well and usually had a number of wives; they were the +original aristocracy, being exempt from all tribal restrictions. They were very +often of low-grade mind and morals. They suppressed their rivals by +denominating them witches or sorcerers and very frequently rose to such +positions of influence and power that they were able to dominate the chiefs or +kings. + +Primitive man regarded the shaman as a necessary evil; he feared him but did +not love him. Early man respected knowledge; he honored and rewarded wisdom. +The shaman was mostly fraud, but the veneration for shamanism well illustrates +the premium put upon wisdom in the evolution of the race. + +3. THE SHAMANIC THEORY OF DISEASE AND DEATH + +Since ancient man regarded himself and his material environment as being +directly responsive to the whims of the ghosts and the fancies of the spirits, +it is not strange that his religion should have been so exclusively concerned +with material affairs. Modern man attacks his material problems directly; he +recognizes that matter is responsive to the intelligent manipulation of mind. +Primitive man likewise desired to modify and even to control the life and +energies of the physical domains; and since his limited comprehension of the +cosmos led him to the belief that ghosts, spirits, and gods were personally and +immediately concerned with the detailed control of life and matter, he +logically directed his efforts to winning the favor and support of these +superhuman agencies. + +Viewed in this light, much of the inexplicable and irrational in the ancient +cults is understandable. The ceremonies of the cult were primitive man's +attempt to control the material world in which he found himself. And many of +his efforts were directed to the end of prolonging life and insuring health. +Since all diseases and death itself were originally regarded as spirit +phenomena, it was inevitable that the shamans, while functioning as medicine +men and priests, should also have labored as doctors and surgeons. + +The primitive mind may be handicapped by lack of facts, but it is for all that +logical. When thoughtful men observe disease and death, they set about to +determine the causes of these visitations, and in accordance with their +understanding, the shamans and the scientists have propounded the following +theories of affliction: + +1. Ghosts--direct spirit influences. The earliest hypothesis advanced in +explanation of disease and death was that spirits caused disease by enticing +the soul out of the body; if it failed to return, death ensued. The ancients so +feared the malevolent action of disease-producing ghosts that ailing +individuals would often be deserted without even food or water. Regardless of +the erroneous basis for these beliefs, they did effectively isolate afflicted +individuals and prevent the spread of contagious disease. + +2. Violence--obvious causes. The causes for some accidents and deaths were so +easy to identify that they were early removed from the category of ghost +action. Fatalities and wounds attendant upon war, animal combat, and other +readily identifiable agencies were considered as natural occurrences. But it +was long believed that the spirits were still responsible for delayed healing +or for the infection of wounds of even "natural" causation. If no observable +natural agent could be discovered, the spirit ghosts were still held +responsible for disease and death. + + top of page - 990 + +Today, in Africa and elsewhere may be found primitive peoples who kill someone +every time a nonviolent death occurs. Their medicine men indicate the guilty +parties. If a mother dies in childbirth, the child is immediately strangled--a +life for a life. + +3. Magic--the influence of enemies. Much sickness was thought to be caused by +bewitchment, the action of the evil eye and the magic pointing bow. At one time +it was really dangerous to point a finger at anyone; it is still regarded as +ill-mannered to point. In cases of obscure disease and death the ancients would +hold a formal inquest, dissect the body, and settle upon some finding as the +cause of death; otherwise the death would be laid to witchcraft, thus +necessitating the execution of the witch responsible therefor. These ancient +coroner's inquests saved many a supposed witch's life. Among some it was +believed that a tribesman could die as a result of his own witchcraft, in which +event no one was accused. + +4. Sin--punishment for taboo violation. In comparatively recent times it has +been believed that sickness is a punishment for sin, personal or racial. Among +peoples traversing this level of evolution the prevailing theory is that one +cannot be afflicted unless one has violated a taboo. To regard sickness and +suffering as "arrows of the Almighty within them" is typical of such beliefs. +The Chinese and Mesopotamians long regarded disease as the result of the action +of evil demons, although the Chaldeans also looked upon the stars as the cause +of suffering. This theory of disease as a consequence of divine wrath is still +prevalent among many reputedly civilized groups of Urantians. + +5. Natural causation. Mankind has been very slow to learn the material secrets +of the interrelationship of cause and effect in the physical domains of energy, +matter, and life. The ancient Greeks, having preserved the traditions of +Adamson's teachings, were among the first to recognize that all disease is the +result of natural causes. Slowly and certainly the unfolding of a scientific +era is destroying man's age-old theories of sickness and death. Fever was one +of the first human ailments to be removed from the category of supernatural +disorders, and progressively the era of science has broken the fetters of +ignorance which so long imprisoned the human mind. An understanding of old age +and contagion is gradually obliterating man's fear of ghosts, spirits, and gods +as the personal perpetrators of human misery and mortal suffering. + +Evolution unerringly achieves its end: It imbues man with that superstitious +fear of the unknown and dread of the unseen which is the scaffolding for the +God concept. And having witnessed the birth of an advanced comprehension of +Deity, through the co-ordinate action of revelation, this same technique of +evolution then unerringly sets in motion those forces of thought which will +inexorably obliterate the scaffolding, which has served its purpose. + +4. MEDICINE UNDER THE SHAMANS + +The entire life of ancient men was prophylactic; their religion was in no small +measure a technique for disease prevention. And regardless of the error in +their theories, they were wholehearted in putting them into effect; they had + + top of page - 991 + +unbounded faith in their methods of treatment, and that, in itself, is a +powerful remedy. + +The faith required to get well under the foolish ministrations of one of these +ancient shamans was, after all, not materially different from that which is +required to experience healing at the hands of some of his later-day successors +who engage in the nonscientific treatment of disease. + +The more primitive tribes greatly feared the sick, and for long ages they were +carefully avoided, shamefully neglected. It was a great advance in +humanitarianism when the evolution of shamancraft produced priests and medicine +men who consented to treat disease. Then it became customary for the entire +clan to crowd into the sickroom to assist the shaman in howling the disease +ghosts away. It was not uncommon for a woman to be the diagnosing shaman, while +a man would administer treatment. The usual method of diagnosing disease was to +examine the entrails of an animal. + +Disease was treated by chanting, howling, laying on of hands, breathing on the +patient, and many other techniques. In later times the resort to temple sleep, +during which healing supposedly took place, became widespread. The medicine men +eventually essayed actual surgery in connection with temple slumber; among the +first operations was that of trephining the skull to allow a headache spirit to +escape. The shamans learned to treat fractures and dislocations, to open boils +and abscesses; the shamanesses became adept at midwifery. + +It was a common method of treatment to rub something magical on an infected or +blemished spot on the body, throw the charm away, and supposedly experience a +cure. If anyone should chance to pick up the discarded charm, it was believed +he would immediately acquire the infection or blemish. It was a long time +before herbs and other real medicines were introduced. Massage was developed in +connection with incantation, rubbing the spirit out of the body, and was +preceded by efforts to rub medicine in, even as moderns attempt to rub +liniments in. Cupping and sucking the affected parts, together with +bloodletting, were thought to be of value in getting rid of a disease-producing +spirit. + +Since water was a potent fetish, it was utilized in the treatment of many +ailments. For long it was believed that the spirit causing the sickness could +be eliminated by sweating. Vapor baths were highly regarded; natural hot +springs soon blossomed as primitive health resorts. Early man discovered that +heat would relieve pain; he used sunlight, fresh animal organs, hot clay, and +hot stones, and many of these methods are still employed. Rhythm was practiced +in an effort to influence the spirits; the tom-toms were universal. + +Among some people disease was thought to be caused by a wicked conspiracy +between spirits and animals. This gave rise to the belief that there existed a +beneficent plant remedy for every animal-caused disease. The red men were +especially devoted to the plant theory of universal remedies; they always put a +drop of blood in the root hole left when the plant was pulled up. + +Fasting, dieting, and counterirritants were often used as remedial measures. +Human secretions, being definitely magical, were highly regarded; blood and +urine were thus among the earliest medicines and were soon augmented by roots +and various salts. The shamans believed that disease spirits could be driven +out of the body by foul-smelling and bad-tasting medicines. Purging very early +became a routine treatment, and the values of raw cocoa and quinine were among +the earliest pharmaceutical discoveries. + + top of page - 992 + +The Greeks were the first to evolve truly rational methods of treating the +sick. Both the Greeks and the Egyptians received their medical knowledge from +the Euphrates valley. Oil and wine was a very early medicine for treating +wounds; castor oil and opium were used by the Sumerians. Many of these ancient +and effective secret remedies lost their power when they became known; secrecy +has always been essential to the successful practice of fraud and superstition. +Only facts and truth court the full light of comprehension and rejoice in the +illumination and enlightenment of scientific research. + +5. PRIESTS AND RITUALS + +The essence of the ritual is the perfection of its performance; among savages +it must be practiced with exact precision. It is only when the ritual has been +correctly carried out that the ceremony possesses compelling power over the +spirits. If the ritual is faulty, it only arouses the anger and resentment of +the gods. Therefore, since man's slowly evolving mind conceived that the +technique of ritual was the decisive factor in its efficacy, it was inevitable +that the early shamans should sooner or later evolve into a priesthood trained +to direct the meticulous practice of the ritual. And so for tens of thousands +of years endless rituals have hampered society and cursed civilization, have +been an intolerable burden to every act of life, every racial undertaking. + +Ritual is the technique of sanctifying custom; ritual creates and perpetuates +myths as well as contributing to the preservation of social and religious +customs. Again, ritual itself has been fathered by myths. Rituals are often at +first social, later becoming economic and finally acquiring the sanctity and +dignity of religious ceremonial. Ritual may be personal or group in +practice--or both--as illustrated by prayer, dancing, and drama. + +Words become a part of ritual, such as the use of terms like amen and selah. +The habit of swearing, profanity, represents a prostitution of former +ritualistic repetition of holy names. The making of pilgrimages to sacred +shrines is a very ancient ritual. The ritual next grew into elaborate +ceremonies of purification, cleansing, and sanctification. The initiation +ceremonies of the primitive tribal secret societies were in reality a crude +religious rite. The worship technique of the olden mystery cults was just one +long performance of accumulated religious ritual. Ritual finally developed into +the modern types of social ceremonials and religious worship, services +embracing prayer, song, responsive reading, and other individual and group +spiritual devotions. + +The priests evolved from shamans up through oracles, diviners, singers, +dancers, weathermakers, guardians of religious relics, temple custodians, and +foretellers of events, to the status of actual directors of religious worship. +Eventually the office became hereditary; a continuous priestly caste arose. + +As religion evolved, priests began to specialize according to their innate +talents or special predilections. Some became singers, others prayers, and +still others sacrificers; later came the orators--preachers. And when religion +became institutionalized, these priests claimed to "hold the keys of heaven." + +The priests have always sought to impress and awe the common people by +conducting the religious ritual in an ancient tongue and by sundry magical +passes so to mystify the worshipers as to enhance their own piety and +authority. The great danger in all this is that the ritual tends to become a +substitute for religion. + + top of page - 993 + +The priesthoods have done much to delay scientific development and to hinder +spiritual progress, but they have contributed to the stabilization of +civilization and to the enhancement of certain kinds of culture. But many +modern priests have ceased to function as directors of the ritual of the +worship of God, having turned their attention to theology--the attempt to +define God. + +It is not denied that the priests have been a millstone about the neck of the +races, but the true religious leaders have been invaluable in pointing the way +to higher and better realities. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 994 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Sin, ³ The Evolution ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Sacrifice,... ³ O... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p091.txt b/religious documents/p091.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..39b385e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p091.txt @@ -0,0 +1,602 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 91 The Evolution Of Prayer + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 91 The Evolution Of Prayer + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +PRAYER, as an agency of religion, evolved from previous nonreligious monologue +and dialogue expressions. With the attainment of self-consciousness by +primitive man there occurred the inevitable corollary of other-consciousness, +the dual potential of social response and God recognition. + +The earliest prayer forms were not addressed to Deity. These expressions were +much like what you would say to a friend as you entered upon some important +undertaking, "Wish me luck." Primitive man was enslaved to magic; luck, good +and bad, entered into all the affairs of life. At first, these luck petitions +were monologues--just a kind of thinking out loud by the magic server. Next, +these believers in luck would enlist the support of their friends and families, +and presently some form of ceremony would be performed which included the whole +clan or tribe. + +When the concepts of ghosts and spirits evolved, these petitions became +superhuman in address, and with the consciousness of gods, such expressions +attained to the levels of genuine prayer. As an illustration of this, among +certain Australian tribes primitive religious prayers antedated their belief in +spirits and superhuman personalities. + +The Toda tribe of India now observes this practice of praying to no one in +particular, just as did the early peoples before the times of religious +consciousness. Only, among the Todas, this represents a regression of their +degenerating religion to this primitive level. The present-day rituals of the +dairymen priests of the Todas do not represent a religious ceremony since these +impersonal prayers do not contribute anything to the conservation or +enhancement of any social, moral, or spiritual values. + +Prereligious praying was part of the mana practices of the Melanesians, the +oudah beliefs of the African Pygmies, and the manitou superstitions of the +North American Indians. The Baganda tribes of Africa have only recently emerged +from the mana level of prayer. In this early evolutionary confusion men pray to +gods--local and national--to fetishes, amulets, ghosts, rulers, and to ordinary +people. + +1. PRIMITIVE PRAYER + +The function of early evolutionary religion is to conserve and augment the +essential social, moral, and spiritual values which are slowly taking form. +This mission of religion is not consciously observed by mankind, but it is +chiefly effected by the function of prayer. The practice of prayer represents +the unintended, but nonetheless personal and collective, effort of any group to +secure (to + + top of page - 995 + +actualize) this conservation of higher values. But for the safeguarding of +prayer, all holy days would speedily revert to the status of mere holidays. + +Religion and its agencies, the chief of which is prayer, are allied only with +those values which have general social recognition, group approval. Therefore, +when primitive man attempted to gratify his baser emotions or to achieve +unmitigated selfish ambitions, he was deprived of the consolation of religion +and the assistance of prayer. If the individual sought to accomplish anything +antisocial, he was obliged to seek the aid of nonreligious magic, resort to +sorcerers, and thus be deprived of the assistance of prayer. Prayer, therefore, +very early became a mighty promoter of social evolution, moral progress, and +spiritual attainment. + +But the primitive mind was neither logical nor consistent. Early men did not +perceive that material things were not the province of prayer. These +simple-minded souls reasoned that food, shelter, rain, game, and other material +goods enhanced the social welfare, and therefore they began to pray for these +physical blessings. While this constituted a perversion of prayer, it +encouraged the effort to realize these material objectives by social and +ethical actions. Such a prostitution of prayer, while debasing the spiritual +values of a people, nevertheless directly elevated their economic, social, and +ethical mores. + +Prayer is only monologuous in the most primitive type of mind. It early becomes +a dialogue and rapidly expands to the level of group worship. Prayer signifies +that the premagical incantations of primitive religion have evolved to that +level where the human mind recognizes the reality of beneficent powers or +beings who are able to enhance social values and to augment moral ideals, and +further, that these influences are superhuman and distinct from the ego of the +self-conscious human and his fellow mortals. True prayer does not, therefore, +appear until the agency of religious ministry is visualized as personal. + +Prayer is little associated with animism, but such beliefs may exist alongside +emerging religious sentiments. Many times, religion and animism have had +entirely separate origins. + +With those mortals who have not been delivered from the primitive bondage of +fear, there is a real danger that all prayer may lead to a morbid sense of sin, +unjustified convictions of guilt, real or fancied. But in modern times it is +not likely that many will spend sufficient time at prayer to lead to this +harmful brooding over their unworthiness or sinfulness. The dangers attendant +upon the distortion and perversion of prayer consist in ignorance, +superstition, crystallization, devitalization, materialism, and fanaticism. + +2. EVOLVING PRAYER + +The first prayers were merely verbalized wishes, the expression of sincere +desires. Prayer next became a technique of achieving spirit co-operation. And +then it attained to the higher function of assisting religion in the +conservation of all worth-while values. + +Both prayer and magic arose as a result of man's adjustive reactions to +Urantian environment. But aside from this generalized relationship, they have +little in common. Prayer has always indicated positive action by the praying +ego; it has been always psychic and sometimes spiritual. Magic has + + top of page - 996 + +usually signified an attempt to manipulate reality without affecting the ego of +the manipulator, the practitioner of magic. Despite their independent origins, +magic and prayer often have been interrelated in their later stages of +development. Magic has sometimes ascended by goal elevation from formulas +through rituals and incantations to the threshold of true prayer. Prayer has +sometimes become so materialistic that it has degenerated into a pseudomagical +technique of avoiding the expenditure of that effort which is requisite for the +solution of Urantian problems. + +When man learned that prayer could not coerce the gods, then it became more of +a petition, favor seeking. But the truest prayer is in reality a communion +between man and his Maker. + +The appearance of the sacrifice idea in any religion unfailingly detracts from +the higher efficacy of true prayer in that men seek to substitute the offerings +of material possessions for the offering of their own consecrated wills to the +doing of the will of God. + +When religion is divested of a personal God, its prayers translate to the +levels of theology and philosophy. When the highest God concept of a religion +is that of an impersonal Deity, such as in pantheistic idealism, although +affording the basis for certain forms of mystic communion, it proves fatal to +the potency of true prayer, which always stands for man's communion with a +personal and superior being. + +During the earlier times of racial evolution and even at the present time, in +the day-by-day experience of the average mortal, prayer is very much a +phenomenon of man's intercourse with his own subconscious. But there is also a +domain of prayer wherein the intellectually alert and spiritually progressing +individual attains more or less contact with the superconscious levels of the +human mind, the domain of the indwelling Thought Adjuster. In addition, there +is a definite spiritual phase of true prayer which concerns its reception and +recognition by the spiritual forces of the universe, and which is entirely +distinct from all human and intellectual association. + +Prayer contributes greatly to the development of the religious sentiment of an +evolving human mind. It is a mighty influence working to prevent isolation of +personality. + +Prayer represents one technique associated with the natural religions of racial +evolution which also forms a part of the experiential values of the higher +religions of ethical excellence, the religions of revelation. + +3. PRAYER AND THE ALTER EGO + +Children, when first learning to make use of language, are prone to think out +loud, to express their thoughts in words, even if no one is present to hear +them. With the dawn of creative imagination they evince a tendency to converse +with imaginary companions. In this way a budding ego seeks to hold communion +with a fictitious alter ego. By this technique the child early learns to +convert his monologue conversations into pseudo dialogues in which this alter +ego makes replies to his verbal thinking and wish expression. Very much of an +adult's thinking is mentally carried on in conversational form. + +The early and primitive form of prayer was much like the semimagical +recitations of the present-day Toda tribe, prayers that were not addressed to +anyone + + top of page - 997 + +in particular. But such techniques of praying tend to evolve into the dialogue +type of communication by the emergence of the idea of an alter ego. In time the +alter-ego concept is exalted to a superior status of divine dignity, and prayer +as an agency of religion has appeared. Through many phases and during long ages +this primitive type of praying is destined to evolve before attaining the level +of intelligent and truly ethical prayer. + +As it is conceived by successive generations of praying mortals, the alter ego +evolves up through ghosts, fetishes, and spirits to polytheistic gods, and +eventually to the One God, a divine being embodying the highest ideals and the +loftiest aspirations of the praying ego. And thus does prayer function as the +most potent agency of religion in the conservation of the highest values and +ideals of those who pray. From the moment of the conceiving of an alter ego to +the appearance of the concept of a divine and heavenly Father, prayer is always +a socializing, moralizing, and spiritualizing practice. + +The simple prayer of faith evidences a mighty evolution in human experience +whereby the ancient conversations with the fictitious symbol of the alter ego +of primitive religion have become exalted to the level of communion with the +spirit of the Infinite and to that of a bona fide consciousness of the reality +of the eternal God and Paradise Father of all intelligent creation. + +Aside from all that is superself in the experience of praying, it should be +remembered that ethical prayer is a splendid way to elevate one's ego and +reinforce the self for better living and higher attainment. Prayer induces the +human ego to look both ways for help: for material aid to the subconscious +reservoir of mortal experience, for inspiration and guidance to the +superconscious borders of the contact of the material with the spiritual, with +the Mystery Monitor. + +Prayer ever has been and ever will be a twofold human experience: a psychologic +procedure interassociated with a spiritual technique. And these two functions +of prayer can never be fully separated. + +Enlightened prayer must recognize not only an external and personal God but +also an internal and impersonal Divinity, the indwelling Adjuster. It is +altogether fitting that man, when he prays, should strive to grasp the concept +of the Universal Father on Paradise; but the more effective technique for most +practical purposes will be to revert to the concept of a near-by alter ego, +just as the primitive mind was wont to do, and then to recognize that the idea +of this alter ego has evolved from a mere fiction to the truth of God's +indwelling mortal man in the factual presence of the Adjuster so that man can +talk face to face, as it were, with a real and genuine and divine alter ego +that indwells him and is the very presence and essence of the living God, the +Universal Father. + +4. ETHICAL PRAYING + +No prayer can be ethical when the petitioner seeks for selfish advantage over +his fellows. Selfish and materialistic praying is incompatible with the ethical +religions which are predicated on unselfish and divine love. All such unethical +praying reverts to the primitive levels of pseudo magic and is unworthy of +advancing civilizations and enlightened religions. Selfish praying transgresses +the spirit of all ethics founded on loving justice. + +Prayer must never be so prostituted as to become a substitute for action. All +ethical prayer is a stimulus to action and a guide to the progressive striving +for idealistic goals of superself-attainment. + + top of page - 998 + +In all your praying be fair; do not expect God to show partiality, to love you +more than his other children, your friends, neighbors, even enemies. But the +prayer of the natural or evolved religions is not at first ethical, as it is in +the later revealed religions. All praying, whether individual or communal, may +be either egoistic or altruistic. That is, the prayer may be centered upon the +self or upon others. When the prayer seeks nothing for the one who prays nor +anything for his fellows, then such attitudes of the soul tend to the levels of +true worship. Egoistic prayers involve confessions and petitions and often +consist in requests for material favors. Prayer is somewhat more ethical when +it deals with forgiveness and seeks wisdom for enhanced self-control. + +While the nonselfish type of prayer is strengthening and comforting, +materialistic praying is destined to bring disappointment and disillusionment +as advancing scientific discoveries demonstrate that man lives in a physical +universe of law and order. The childhood of an individual or a race is +characterized by primitive, selfish, and materialistic praying. And, to a +certain extent, all such petitions are efficacious in that they unvaryingly +lead to those efforts and exertions which are contributory to achieving the +answers to such prayers. The real prayer of faith always contributes to the +augmentation of the technique of living, even if such petitions are not worthy +of spiritual recognition. But the spiritually advanced person should exercise +great caution in attempting to discourage the primitive or immature mind +regarding such prayers. + +Remember, even if prayer does not change God, it very often effects great and +lasting changes in the one who prays in faith and confident expectation. Prayer +has been the ancestor of much peace of mind, cheerfulness, calmness, courage, +self-mastery, and fair-mindedness in the men and women of the evolving races. + +5. SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS OF PRAYER + +In ancestor worship, prayer leads to the cultivation of ancestral ideals. But +prayer, as a feature of Deity worship, transcends all other such practices +since it leads to the cultivation of divine ideals. As the concept of the alter +ego of prayer becomes supreme and divine, so are man's ideals accordingly +elevated from mere human toward supernal and divine levels, and the result of +all such praying is the enhancement of human character and the profound +unification of human personality. + +But prayer need not always be individual. Group or congregational praying is +very effective in that it is highly socializing in its repercussions. When a +group engages in community prayer for moral enhancement and spiritual uplift, +such devotions are reactive upon the individuals composing the group; they are +all made better because of participation. Even a whole city or an entire nation +can be helped by such prayer devotions. Confession, repentance, and prayer have +led individuals, cities, nations, and whole races to mighty efforts of reform +and courageous deeds of valorous achievement. + +If you truly desire to overcome the habit of criticizing some friend, the +quickest and surest way of achieving such a change of attitude is to establish +the habit of praying for that person every day of your life. But the social +repercussions of such prayers are dependent largely on two conditions: + +1. The person who is prayed for should know that he is being prayed for. + + top of page - 999 + +2. The person who prays should come into intimate social contact with the +person for whom he is praying. + +Prayer is the technique whereby, sooner or later, every religion becomes +institutionalized. And in time prayer becomes associated with numerous +secondary agencies, some helpful, others decidedly deleterious, such as +priests, holy books, worship rituals, and ceremonials. + +But the minds of greater spiritual illumination should be patient with, and +tolerant of, those less endowed intellects that crave symbolism for the +mobilization of their feeble spiritual insight. The strong must not look with +disdain upon the weak. Those who are God-conscious without symbolism must not +deny the grace-ministry of the symbol to those who find it difficult to worship +Deity and to revere truth, beauty, and goodness without form and ritual. In +prayerful worship, most mortals envision some symbol of the object-goal of +their devotions. + +6. THE PROVINCE OF PRAYER + +Prayer, unless in liaison with the will and actions of the personal spiritual +forces and material supervisors of a realm, can have no direct effect upon +one's physical environment. While there is a very definite limit to the +province of the petitions of prayer, such limits do not equally apply to the +faith of those who pray. + +Prayer is not a technique for curing real and organic diseases, but it has +contributed enormously to the enjoyment of abundant health and to the cure of +numerous mental, emotional, and nervous ailments. And even in actual bacterial +disease, prayer has many times added to the efficacy of other remedial +procedures. Prayer has turned many an irritable and complaining invalid into a +paragon of patience and made him an inspiration to all other human sufferers. + +No matter how difficult it may be to reconcile the scientific doubtings +regarding the efficacy of prayer with the ever-present urge to seek help and +guidance from divine sources, never forget that the sincere prayer of faith is +a mighty force for the promotion of personal happiness, individual +self-control, social harmony, moral progress, and spiritual attainment. + +Prayer, even as a purely human practice, a dialogue with one's alter ego, +constitutes a technique of the most efficient approach to the realization of +those reserve powers of human nature which are stored and conserved in the +unconscious realms of the human mind. Prayer is a sound psychologic practice, +aside from its religious implications and its spiritual significance. It is a +fact of human experience that most persons, if sufficiently hard pressed, will +pray in some way to some source of help. + +Do not be so slothful as to ask God to solve your difficulties, but never +hesitate to ask him for wisdom and spiritual strength to guide and sustain you +while you yourself resolutely and courageously attack the problems at hand. + +Prayer has been an indispensable factor in the progress and preservation of +religious civilization, and it still has mighty contributions to make to the +further enhancement and spiritualization of society if those who pray will only +do so in the light of scientific facts, philosophic wisdom, intellectual +sincerity, and spiritual faith. Pray as Jesus taught his disciples--honestly, +unselfishly, with fairness, and without doubting. + + top of page - 1000 + +But the efficacy of prayer in the personal spiritual experience of the one who +prays is in no way dependent on such a worshiper's intellectual understanding, +philosophic acumen, social level, cultural status, or other mortal +acquirements. The psychic and spiritual concomitants of the prayer of faith are +immediate, personal, and experiential. There is no other technique whereby +every man, regardless of all other mortal accomplishments, can so effectively +and immediately approach the threshold of that realm wherein he can communicate +with his Maker, where the creature contacts with the reality of the Creator, +with the indwelling Thought Adjuster. + +7. MYSTICISM, ECSTASY, AND INSPIRATION + +Mysticism, as the technique of the cultivation of the consciousness of the +presence of God, is altogether praiseworthy, but when such practices lead to +social isolation and culminate in religious fanaticism, they are all but +reprehensible. Altogether too frequently that which the overwrought mystic +evaluates as divine inspiration is the uprisings of his own deep mind. The +contact of the mortal mind with its indwelling Adjuster, while often favored by +devoted meditation, is more frequently facilitated by wholehearted and loving +service in unselfish ministry to one's fellow creatures. + +The great religious teachers and the prophets of past ages were not extreme +mystics. They were God-knowing men and women who best served their God by +unselfish ministry to their fellow mortals. Jesus often took his apostles away +by themselves for short periods to engage in meditation and prayer, but for the +most part he kept them in service-contact with the multitudes. The soul of man +requires spiritual exercise as well as spiritual nourishment. + +Religious ecstasy is permissible when resulting from sane antecedents, but such +experiences are more often the outgrowth of purely emotional influences than a +manifestation of deep spiritual character. Religious persons must not regard +every vivid psychologic presentiment and every intense emotional experience as +a divine revelation or a spiritual communication. Genuine spiritual ecstasy is +usually associated with great outward calmness and almost perfect emotional +control. But true prophetic vision is a superpsychologic presentiment. Such +visitations are not pseudo hallucinations, neither are they trancelike +ecstasies. + +The human mind may perform in response to so-called inspiration when it is +sensitive either to the uprisings of the subconscious or to the stimulus of the +superconscious. In either case it appears to the individual that such +augmentations of the content of consciousness are more or less foreign. +Unrestrained mystical enthusiasm and rampant religious ecstasy are not the +credentials of inspiration, supposedly divine credentials. + +The practical test of all these strange religious experiences of mysticism, +ecstasy, and inspiration is to observe whether these phenomena cause an +individual: + +1. To enjoy better and more complete physical health. + +2. To function more efficiently and practically in his mental life. + +3. More fully and joyfully to socialize his religious experience. + +4. More completely to spiritualize his day-by-day living while faithfully +discharging the commonplace duties of routine mortal existence. + + top of page - 1001 + +5. To enhance his love for, and appreciation of, truth, beauty, and goodness. + +6. To conserve currently recognized social, moral, ethical, and spiritual +values. + +7. To increase his spiritual insight--God-consciousness. + +But prayer has no real association with these exceptional religious +experiences. When prayer becomes overmuch aesthetic, when it consists almost +exclusively in beautiful and blissful contemplation of paradisiacal divinity, +it loses much of its socializing influence and tends toward mysticism and the +isolation of its devotees. There is a certain danger associated with overmuch +private praying which is corrected and prevented by group praying, community +devotions. + +8. PRAYING AS A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE + +There is a truly spontaneous aspect to prayer, for primitive man found himself +praying long before he had any clear concept of a God. Early man was wont to +pray in two diverse situations: When in dire need, he experienced the impulse +to reach out for help; and when jubilant, he indulged the impulsive expression +of joy. + +Prayer is not an evolution of magic; they each arose independently. Magic was +an attempt to adjust Deity to conditions; prayer is the effort to adjust the +personality to the will of Deity. True prayer is both moral and religious; +magic is neither. + +Prayer may become an established custom; many pray because others do. Still +others pray because they fear something direful may happen if they do not offer +their regular supplications. + +To some individuals prayer is the calm expression of gratitude; to others, a +group expression of praise, social devotions; sometimes it is the imitation of +another's religion, while in true praying it is the sincere and trusting +communication of the spiritual nature of the creature with the anywhere +presence of the spirit of the Creator. + +Prayer may be a spontaneous expression of God-consciousness or a meaningless +recitation of theologic formulas. It may be the ecstatic praise of a +God-knowing soul or the slavish obeisance of a fear-ridden mortal. It is +sometimes the pathetic expression of spiritual craving and sometimes the +blatant shouting of pious phrases. Prayer may be joyous praise or a humble plea +for forgiveness. + +Prayer may be the childlike plea for the impossible or the mature entreaty for +moral growth and spiritual power. A petition may be for daily bread or may +embody a wholehearted yearning to find God and to do his will. It may be a +wholly selfish request or a true and magnificent gesture toward the realization +of unselfish brotherhood. + +Prayer may be an angry cry for vengeance or a merciful intercession for one's +enemies. It may be the expression of a hope of changing God or the powerful +technique of changing one's self. It may be the cringing plea of a lost sinner +before a supposedly stern Judge or the joyful expression of a liberated son of +the living and merciful heavenly Father. + +Modern man is perplexed by the thought of talking things over with God in a +purely personal way. Many have abandoned regular praying; they only pray + + top of page - 1002 + +when under unusual pressure--in emergencies. Man should be unafraid to talk to +God, but only a spiritual child would undertake to persuade, or presume to +change, God. + +But real praying does attain reality. Even when the air currents are ascending, +no bird can soar except by outstretched wings. Prayer elevates man because it +is a technique of progressing by the utilization of the ascending spiritual +currents of the universe. + +Genuine prayer adds to spiritual growth, modifies attitudes, and yields that +satisfaction which comes from communion with divinity. It is a spontaneous +outburst of God-consciousness. + +God answers man's prayer by giving him an increased revelation of truth, an +enhanced appreciation of beauty, and an augmented concept of goodness. Prayer +is a subjective gesture, but it contacts with mighty objective realities on the +spiritual levels of human experience; it is a meaningful reach by the human for +superhuman values. It is the most potent spiritual-growth stimulus. + +Words are irrelevant to prayer; they are merely the intellectual channel in +which the river of spiritual supplication may chance to flow. The word value of +a prayer is purely autosuggestive in private devotions and sociosuggestive in +group devotions. God answers the soul's attitude, not the words. + +Prayer is not a technique of escape from conflict but rather a stimulus to +growth in the very face of conflict. Pray only for values, not things; for +growth, not for gratification. + +9. CONDITIONS OF EFFECTIVE PRAYER + +If you would engage in effective praying, you should bear in mind the laws of +prevailing petitions: + +1. You must qualify as a potent prayer by sincerely and courageously facing the +problems of universe reality. You must possess cosmic stamina. + +2. You must have honestly exhausted the human capacity for human adjustment. +You must have been industrious. + +3. You must surrender every wish of mind and every craving of soul to the +transforming embrace of spiritual growth. You must have experienced an +enhancement of meanings and an elevation of values. + +4. You must make a wholehearted choice of the divine will. You must obliterate +the dead center of indecision. + +5. You not only recognize the Father's will and choose to do it, but you have +effected an unqualified consecration, and a dynamic dedication, to the actual +doing of the Father's will. + +6. Your prayer will be directed exclusively for divine wisdom to solve the +specific human problems encountered in the Paradise ascension--the attainment +of divine perfection. + +7. And you must have faith--living faith. + +[Presented by the Chief of the Urantia Midwayers.] + + top of page - 1003 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Shamanism--medi. ³ The Later ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ .. ³ Evolu... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p092.txt b/religious documents/p092.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0974814 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p092.txt @@ -0,0 +1,707 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 92 The Later Evolution Of Religion + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 92 The Later Evolution Of Religion + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +MAN possessed a religion of natural origin as a part of his evolutionary +experience long before any systematic revelations were made on Urantia. But +this religion of natural origin was, in itself, the product of man's +superanimal endowments. Evolutionary religion arose slowly throughout the +millenniums of mankind's experiential career through the ministry of the +following influences operating within, and impinging upon, savage, barbarian, +and civilized man: + +1. The adjutant of worship--the appearance in animal consciousness of +superanimal potentials for reality perception. This might be termed the +primordial human instinct for Deity. + +2. The adjutant of wisdom--the manifestation in a worshipful mind of the +tendency to direct its adoration in higher channels of expression and toward +ever-expanding concepts of Deity reality. + +3. The Holy Spirit--this is the initial supermind bestowal, and it unfailingly +appears in all bona fide human personalities. This ministry to a +worship-craving and wisdom-desiring mind creates the capacity to self-realize +the postulate of human survival, both in theologic concept and as an actual and +factual personality experience. + +The co-ordinate functioning of these three divine ministrations is quite +sufficient to initiate and prosecute the growth of evolutionary religion. These +influences are later augmented by Thought Adjusters, seraphim, and the Spirit +of Truth, all of which accelerate the rate of religious development. These +agencies have long functioned on Urantia, and they will continue here as long +as this planet remains an inhabited sphere. Much of the potential of these +divine agencies has never yet had opportunity for expression; much will be +revealed in the ages to come as mortal religion ascends, level by level, toward +the supernal heights of morontia value and spirit truth. + +1. THE EVOLUTIONARY NATURE OF RELIGION + +The evolution of religion has been traced from early fear and ghosts down +through many successive stages of development, including those efforts first to +coerce and then to cajole the spirits. Tribal fetishes grew into totems and +tribal gods; magic formulas became modern prayers. Circumcision, at first a +sacrifice, became a hygienic procedure. + +Religion progressed from nature worship up through ghost worship to fetishism +throughout the savage childhood of the races. With the dawn of civilization + + top of page - 1004 + +the human race espoused the more mystic and symbolic beliefs, while now, with +approaching maturity, mankind is ripening for the appreciation of real +religion, even a beginning of the revelation of truth itself. + +Religion arises as a biologic reaction of mind to spiritual beliefs and the +environment; it is the last thing to perish or change in a race. Religion is +society's adjustment, in any age, to that which is mysterious. As a social +institution it embraces rites, symbols, cults, scriptures, altars, shrines, and +temples. Holy water, relics, fetishes, charms, vestments, bells, drums, and +priesthoods are common to all religions. And it is impossible entirely to +divorce purely evolved religion from either magic or sorcery. + +Mystery and power have always stimulated religious feelings and fears, while +emotion has ever functioned as a powerful conditioning factor in their +development. Fear has always been the basic religious stimulus. Fear fashions +the gods of evolutionary religion and motivates the religious ritual of the +primitive believers. As civilization advances, fear becomes modified by +reverence, admiration, respect, and sympathy and is then further conditioned by +remorse and repentance. + +One Asiatic people taught that "God is a great fear"; that is the outgrowth of +purely evolutionary religion. Jesus, the revelation of the highest type of +religious living, proclaimed that "God is love." + +2. RELIGION AND THE MORES + +Religion is the most rigid and unyielding of all human institutions, but it +does tardily adjust to changing society. Eventually, evolutionary religion does +reflect the changing mores, which, in turn, may have been affected by revealed +religion. Slowly, surely, but grudgingly, does religion (worship) follow in the +wake of wisdom--knowledge directed by experiential reason and illuminated by +divine revelation. + +Religion clings to the mores; that which was is ancient and supposedly sacred. +For this reason and no other, stone implements persisted long into the age of +bronze and iron. This statement is of record: "And if you will make me an altar +of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone, for, if you use your tools in +making it, you have polluted it." Even today, the Hindus kindle their altar +fires by using a primitive fire drill. In the course of evolutionary religion, +novelty has always been regarded as sacrilege. The sacrament must consist, not +of new and manufactured food, but of the most primitive of viands: "The flesh +roasted with fire and unleavened bread served with bitter herbs." All types of +social usage and even legal procedures cling to the old forms. + +When modern man wonders at the presentation of so much in the scriptures of +different religions that may be regarded as obscene, he should pause to +consider that passing generations have feared to eliminate what their ancestors +deemed to be holy and sacred. A great deal that one generation might look upon +as obscene, preceding generations have considered a part of their accepted +mores, even as approved religious rituals. A considerable amount of religious +controversy has been occasioned by the never-ending attempts to reconcile olden +but reprehensible practices with newly advanced reason, to find plausible +theories in justification of creedal perpetuation of ancient and outworn +customs. + +But it is only foolish to attempt the too sudden acceleration of religious +growth. A race or nation can only assimilate from any advanced religion that + + top of page - 1005 + +which is reasonably consistent and compatible with its current evolutionary +status, plus its genius for adaptation. Social, climatic, political, and +economic conditions are all influential in determining the course and progress +of religious evolution. Social morality is not determined by religion, that is, +by evolutionary religion; rather are the forms of religion dictated by the +racial morality. + +Races of men only superficially accept a strange and new religion; they +actually adjust it to their mores and old ways of believing. This is well +illustrated by the example of a certain New Zealand tribe whose priests, after +nominally accepting Christianity, professed to have received direct revelations +from Gabriel to the effect that this selfsame tribe had become the chosen +people of God and directing that they be permitted freely to indulge in loose +sex relations and numerous other of their olden and reprehensible customs. And +immediately all of the new-made Christians went over to this new and less +exacting version of Christianity. + +Religion has at one time or another sanctioned all sorts of contrary and +inconsistent behavior, has at some time approved of practically all that is now +regarded as immoral or sinful. Conscience, untaught by experience and unaided +by reason, never has been, and never can be, a safe and unerring guide to human +conduct. Conscience is not a divine voice speaking to the human soul. It is +merely the sum total of the moral and ethical content of the mores of any +current stage of existence; it simply represents the humanly conceived ideal of +reaction in any given set of circumstances. + +3. THE NATURE OF EVOLUTIONARY RELIGION + +The study of human religion is the examination of the fossil-bearing social +strata of past ages. The mores of the anthropomorphic gods are a truthful +reflection of the morals of the men who first conceived such deities. Ancient +religions and mythology faithfully portray the beliefs and traditions of +peoples long since lost in obscurity. These olden cult practices persist +alongside newer economic customs and social evolutions and, of course, appear +grossly inconsistent. The remnants of the cult present a true picture of the +racial religions of the past. Always remember, the cults are formed, not to +discover truth, but rather to promulgate their creeds. + +Religion has always been largely a matter of rites, rituals, observances, +ceremonies, and dogmas. It has usually become tainted with that persistently +mischief-making error, the chosen-people delusion. The cardinal religious ideas +of incantation, inspiration, revelation, propitiation, repentance, atonement, +intercession, sacrifice, prayer, confession, worship, survival after death, +sacrament, ritual, ransom, salvation, redemption, covenant, uncleanness, +purification, prophecy, original sin--they all go back to the early times of +primordial ghost fear. + +Primitive religion is nothing more nor less than the struggle for material +existence extended to embrace existence beyond the grave. The observances of +such a creed represented the extension of the self-maintenance struggle into +the domain of an imagined ghost-spirit world. But when tempted to criticize +evolutionary religion, be careful. Remember, that is what happened; it is a +historical fact. And further recall that the power of any idea lies, not in its +certainty or truth, but rather in the vividness of its human appeal. + + top of page - 1006 + +Evolutionary religion makes no provision for change or revision; unlike +science, it does not provide for its own progressive correction. Evolved +religion commands respect because its followers believe it is The Truth; "the +faith once delivered to the saints" must, in theory, be both final and +infallible. The cult resists development because real progress is certain to +modify or destroy the cult itself; therefore must revision always be forced +upon it. + +Only two influences can modify and uplift the dogmas of natural religion: the +pressure of the slowly advancing mores and the periodic illumination of epochal +revelation. And it is not strange that progress was slow; in ancient days, to +be progressive or inventive meant to be killed as a sorcerer. The cult advances +slowly in generation epochs and agelong cycles. But it does move forward. +Evolutionary belief in ghosts laid the foundation for a philosophy of revealed +religion which will eventually destroy the superstition of its origin. + +Religion has handicapped social development in many ways, but without religion +there would have been no enduring morality nor ethics, no worth-while +civilization. Religion enmothered much nonreligious culture: Sculpture +originated in idol making, architecture in temple building, poetry in +incantations, music in worship chants, drama in the acting for spirit guidance, +and dancing in the seasonal worship festivals. + +But while calling attention to the fact that religion was essential to the +development and preservation of civilization, it should be recorded that +natural religion has also done much to cripple and handicap the very +civilization which it otherwise fostered and maintained. Religion has hampered +industrial activities and economic development; it has been wasteful of labor +and has squandered capital; it has not always been helpful to the family; it +has not adequately fostered peace and good will; it has sometimes neglected +education and retarded science; it has unduly impoverished life for the +pretended enrichment of death. Evolutionary religion, human religion, has +indeed been guilty of all these and many more mistakes, errors, and blunders; +nevertheless, it did maintain cultural ethics, civilized morality, and social +coherence, and made it possible for later revealed religion to compensate for +these many evolutionary shortcomings. + +Evolutionary religion has been man's most expensive but incomparably effective +institution. Human religion can be justified only in the light of evolutionary +civilization. If man were not the ascendant product of animal evolution, then +would such a course of religious development stand without justification. + +Religion facilitated the accumulation of capital; it fostered work of certain +kinds; the leisure of the priests promoted art and knowledge; the race, in the +end, gained much as a result of all these early errors in ethical technique. +The shamans, honest and dishonest, were terribly expensive, but they were worth +all they cost. The learned professions and science itself emerged from the +parasitical priesthoods. Religion fostered civilization and provided societal +continuity; it has been the moral police force of all time. Religion provided +that human discipline and self-control which made wisdom possible. Religion is +the efficient scourge of evolution which ruthlessly drives indolent and +suffering humanity from its natural state of intellectual inertia forward and +upward to the higher levels of reason and wisdom. + +And this sacred heritage of animal ascent, evolutionary religion, must ever +continue to be refined and ennobled by the continuous censorship of revealed +religion and by the fiery furnace of genuine science. + + top of page - 1007 + +4. THE GIFT OF REVELATION + +Revelation is evolutionary but always progressive. Down through the ages of a +world's history, the revelations of religion are ever-expanding and +successively more enlightening. It is the mission of revelation to sort and +censor the successive religions of evolution. But if revelation is to exalt and +upstep the religions of evolution, then must such divine visitations portray +teachings which are not too far removed from the thought and reactions of the +age in which they are presented. Thus must and does revelation always keep in +touch with evolution. Always must the religion of revelation be limited by +man's capacity of receptivity. + +But regardless of apparent connection or derivation, the religions of +revelation are always characterized by a belief in some Deity of final value +and in some concept of the survival of personality identity after death. + +Evolutionary religion is sentimental, not logical. It is man's reaction to +belief in a hypothetical ghost-spirit world--the human belief--reflex, excited +by the realization and fear of the unknown. Revelatory religion is propounded +by the real spiritual world; it is the response of the superintellectual cosmos +to the mortal hunger to believe in, and depend upon, the universal Deities. +Evolutionary religion pictures the circuitous gropings of humanity in quest of +truth; revelatory religion is that very truth. + +There have been many events of religious revelation but only five of epochal +significance. These were as follows: + +1. The Dalamatian teachings. The true concept of the First Source and Center +was first promulgated on Urantia by the one hundred corporeal members of Prince +Caligastia's staff. This expanding revelation of Deity went on for more than +three hundred thousand years until it was suddenly terminated by the planetary +secession and the disruption of the teaching regime. Except for the work of +Van, the influence of the Dalamatian revelation was practically lost to the +whole world. Even the Nodites had forgotten this truth by the time of Adam's +arrival. Of all who received the teachings of the one hundred, the red men held +them longest, but the idea of the Great Spirit was but a hazy concept in +Amerindian religion when contact with Christianity greatly clarified and +strengthened it. + +2. The Edenic teachings. Adam and Eve again portrayed the concept of the Father +of all to the evolutionary peoples. The disruption of the first Eden halted the +course of the Adamic revelation before it had ever fully started. But the +aborted teachings of Adam were carried on by the Sethite priests, and some of +these truths have never been entirely lost to the world. The entire trend of +Levantine religious evolution was modified by the teachings of the Sethites. +But by 2500 B.C. mankind had largely lost sight of the revelation sponsored in +the days of Eden. + +3. Melchizedek of Salem. This emergency Son of Nebadon inaugurated the third +revelation of truth on Urantia. The cardinal precepts of his teachings were +trust and faith. He taught trust in the omnipotent beneficence of God and +proclaimed that faith was the act by which men earned God's favor. His +teachings gradually commingled with the beliefs and practices of various +evolutionary re- + + top of page - 1008 + +ligions and finally developed into those theologic systems present on Urantia +at the opening of the first millennium after Christ. + +4. Jesus of Nazareth. Christ Michael presented for the fourth time to Urantia +the concept of God as the Universal Father, and this teaching has generally +persisted ever since. The essence of his teaching was love and service, the +loving worship which a creature son voluntarily gives in recognition of, and +response to, the loving ministry of God his Father; the freewill service which +such creature sons bestow upon their brethren in the joyous realization that in +this service they are likewise serving God the Father. + +5. The Urantia Papers. The papers, of which this is one, constitute the most +recent presentation of truth to the mortals of Urantia. These papers differ +from all previous revelations, for they are not the work of a single universe +personality but a composite presentation by many beings. But no revelation +short of the attainment of the Universal Father can ever be complete. All other +celestial ministrations are no more than partial, transient, and practically +adapted to local conditions in time and space. While such admissions as this +may possibly detract from the immediate force and authority of all revelations, +the time has arrived on Urantia when it is advisable to make such frank +statements, even at the risk of weakening the future influence and authority of +this, the most recent of the revelations of truth to the mortal races of +Urantia. + +5. THE GREAT RELIGIOUS LEADERS + +In evolutionary religion, the gods are conceived to exist in the likeness of +man's image; in revelatory religion, men are taught that they are God's +sons--even fashioned in the finite image of divinity; in the synthesized +beliefs compounded from the teachings of revelation and the products of +evolution, the God concept is a blend of: + +1. The pre-existent ideas of the evolutionary cults. + +2. The sublime ideals of revealed religion. + +3. The personal viewpoints of the great religious leaders, the prophets and +teachers of mankind. + +Most great religious epochs have been inaugurated by the life and teachings of +some outstanding personality; leadership has originated a majority of the +worth-while moral movements of history. And men have always tended to venerate +the leader, even at the expense of his teachings; to revere his personality, +even though losing sight of the truths which he proclaimed. And this is not +without reason; there is an instinctive longing in the heart of evolutionary +man for help from above and beyond. This craving is designed to anticipate the +appearance on earth of the Planetary Prince and the later Material Sons. On +Urantia man has been deprived of these superhuman leaders and rulers, and +therefore does he constantly seek to make good this loss by enshrouding his +human leaders with legends pertaining to supernatural origins and miraculous +careers. + +Many races have conceived of their leaders as being born of virgins; their +careers are liberally sprinkled with miraculous episodes, and their return is +always expected by their respective groups. In central Asia the tribesmen still +look for the return of Genghis Khan; in Tibet, China, and India it is Buddha; +in Islam it is Mohammed; among the Amerinds it was Hesunanin Onamonalon- + + top of page - 1009 + +ton; with the Hebrews it was, in general, Adam's return as a material ruler. In +Babylon the god Marduk was a perpetuation of the Adam legend, the son-of-God +idea, the connecting link between man and God. Following the appearance of Adam +on earth, so-called sons of God were common among the world races. + +But regardless of the superstitious awe in which they were often held, it +remains a fact that these teachers were the temporal personality fulcrums on +which the levers of revealed truth depended for the advancement of the +morality, philosophy, and religion of mankind. + +There have been hundreds upon hundreds of religious leaders in the million-year +human history of Urantia from Onagar to Guru Nanak. During this time there have +been many ebbs and flows of the tide of religious truth and spiritual faith, +and each renaissance of Urantian religion has, in the past, been identified +with the life and teachings of some religious leader. In considering the +teachers of recent times, it may prove helpful to group them into the seven +major religious epochs of post-Adamic Urantia: + +1. The Sethite period. The Sethite priests, as regenerated under the leadership +of Amosad, became the great post-Adamic teachers. They functioned throughout +the lands of the Andites, and their influence persisted longest among the +Greeks, Sumerians, and Hindus. Among the latter they have continued to the +present time as the Brahmans of the Hindu faith. The Sethites and their +followers never entirely lost the Trinity concept revealed by Adam. + +2. Era of the Melchizedek missionaries. Urantia religion was in no small +measure regenerated by the efforts of those teachers who were commissioned by +Machiventa Melchizedek when he lived and taught at Salem almost two thousand +years before Christ. These missionaries proclaimed faith as the price of favor +with God, and their teachings, though unproductive of any immediately appearing +religions, nevertheless formed the foundations on which later teachers of truth +were to build the religions of Urantia. + +3. The post-Melchizedek era. Though Amenemope and Ikhnaton both taught in this +period, the outstanding religious genius of the post-Melchizedek era was the +leader of a group of Levantine Bedouins and the founder of the Hebrew +religion--Moses. Moses taught monotheism. Said he: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord +our God is one God." "The Lord he is God. There is none beside him." He +persistently sought to uproot the remnants of the ghost cult among his people, +even prescribing the death penalty for its practitioners. The monotheism of +Moses was adulterated by his successors, but in later times they did return to +many of his teachings. The greatness of Moses lies in his wisdom and sagacity. +Other men have had greater concepts of God, but no one man was ever so +successful in inducing large numbers of people to adopt such advanced beliefs. + +4. The sixth century before Christ. Many men arose to proclaim truth in this, +one of the greatest centuries of religious awakening ever witnessed on Urantia. +Among these should be recorded Gautama, Confucius, Lao-tse, Zoroaster, and the +Jainist teachers. The teachings of Gautama have become widespread in Asia, and +he is revered as the Buddha by millions. Confucius was to Chinese morality what +Plato was to Greek philosophy, and while there were religious repercussions to +the teachings of both, strictly speaking, neither was a religious teacher; +Lao-tse envisioned more of God in Tao than did Confucius in humanity or Plato +in idealism. Zoroaster, while much affected by the prevalent + + top of page - 1010 + +concept of dual spiritism, the good and the bad, at the same time definitely +exalted the idea of one eternal Deity and of the ultimate victory of light over +darkness. + +5. The first century after Christ. As a religious teacher, Jesus of Nazareth +started out with the cult which had been established by John the Baptist and +progressed as far as he could away from fasts and forms. Aside from Jesus, Paul +of Tarsus and Philo of Alexandria were the greatest teachers of this era. Their +concepts of religion have played a dominant part in the evolution of that faith +which bears the name of Christ. + +6. The sixth century after Christ. Mohammed founded a religion which was +superior to many of the creeds of his time. His was a protest against the +social demands of the faiths of foreigners and against the incoherence of the +religious life of his own people. + +7. The fifteenth century after Christ. This period witnessed two religious +movements: the disruption of the unity of Christianity in the Occident and the +synthesis of a new religion in the Orient. In Europe institutionalized +Christianity had attained that degree of inelasticity which rendered further +growth incompatible with unity. In the Orient the combined teachings of Islam, +Hinduism, and Buddhism were synthesized by Nanak and his followers into +Sikhism, one of the most advanced religions of Asia. + +The future of Urantia will doubtless be characterized by the appearance of +teachers of religious truth--the Fatherhood of God and the fraternity of all +creatures. But it is to be hoped that the ardent and sincere efforts of these +future prophets will be directed less toward the strengthening of +interreligious barriers and more toward the augmentation of the religious +brotherhood of spiritual worship among the many followers of the differing +intellectual theologies which so characterize Urantia of Satania. + +6. THE COMPOSITE RELIGIONS + +Twentieth-century Urantia religions present an interesting study of the social +evolution of man's worship impulse. Many faiths have progressed very little +since the days of the ghost cult. The Pygmies of Africa have no religious +reactions as a class, although some of them believe slightly in a spirit +environment. They are today just where primitive man was when the evolution of +religion began. The basic belief of primitive religion was survival after +death. The idea of worshiping a personal God indicates advanced evolutionary +development, even the first stage of revelation. The Dyaks have evolved only +the most primitive religious practices. The comparatively recent Eskimos and +Amerinds had very meager concepts of God; they believed in ghosts and had an +indefinite idea of survival of some sort after death. Present-day native +Australians have only a ghost fear, dread of the dark, and a crude ancestor +veneration. The Zulus are just evolving a religion of ghost fear and sacrifice. +Many African tribes, except through missionary work of Christians and +Mohammedans, are not yet beyond the fetish stage of religious evolution. But +some groups have long held to the idea of monotheism, like the onetime +Thracians, who also believed in immortality. + +On Urantia, evolutionary and revelatory religion are progressing side by side +while they blend and coalesce into the diversified theologic systems found + + top of page - 1011 + +in the world in the times of the inditement of these papers. These religions, +the religions of twentieth-century Urantia, may be enumerated as follows: + +1. Hinduism--the most ancient. + +2. The Hebrew religion. + +3. Buddhism. + +4. The Confucian teachings. + +5. The Taoist beliefs. + +6. Zoroastrianism. + +7. Shinto. + +8. Jainism. + +9. Christianity. + +10. Islam. + +11. Sikhism--the most recent. + +The most advanced religions of ancient times were Judaism and Hinduism, and +each respectively has greatly influenced the course of religious development in +Orient and Occident. Both Hindus and Hebrews believed that their religions were +inspired and revealed, and they believed all others to be decadent forms of the +one true faith. + +India is divided among Hindu, Sikh, Mohammedan, and Jain, each picturing God, +man, and the universe as these are variously conceived. China follows the +Taoist and the Confucian teachings; Shinto is revered in Japan. + +The great international, interracial faiths are the Hebraic, Buddhist, +Christian, and Islamic. Buddhism stretches from Ceylon and Burma through Tibet +and China to Japan. It has shown an adaptability to the mores of many peoples +that has been equaled only by Christianity. + +The Hebrew religion encompasses the philosophic transition from polytheism to +monotheism; it is an evolutionary link between the religions of evolution and +the religions of revelation. The Hebrews were the only western people to follow +their early evolutionary gods straight through to the God of revelation. But +this truth never became widely accepted until the days of Isaiah, who once +again taught the blended idea of a racial deity combined with a Universal +Creator: "O Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, you are God, even you alone; you have +made heaven and earth." At one time the hope of the survival of Occidental +civilization lay in the sublime Hebraic concepts of goodness and the advanced +Hellenic concepts of beauty. + +The Christian religion is the religion about the life and teachings of Christ +based upon the theology of Judaism, modified further through the assimilation +of certain Zoroastrian teachings and Greek philosophy, and formulated primarily +by three individuals: Philo, Peter, and Paul. It has passed through many phases +of evolution since the time of Paul and has become so thoroughly Occidentalized +that many non-European peoples very naturally look upon Christianity as a +strange revelation of a strange God and for strangers. + +Islam is the religio-cultural connective of North Africa, the Levant, and +southeastern Asia. It was Jewish theology in connection with the later +Christian teachings that made Islam monotheistic. The followers of Mohammed +stumbled at the advanced teachings of the Trinity; they could not comprehend +the doctrine of three divine personalities and one Deity. It is always +difficult to induce evolu + + top of page - 1012 + +tionary minds to accept advanced revealed truth. Man is an evolutionary +creature and in the main must get his religion by evolutionary techniques. + +Ancestor worship onetime constituted a decided advance in religious evolution, +but it is both amazing and regrettable that this primitive concept persists in +China, Japan, and India amidst so much that is relatively more advanced, such +as Buddhism and Hinduism. In the Occident, ancestor worship developed into the +veneration of national gods and respect for racial heroes. In the twentieth +century this hero-venerating nationalistic religion makes its appearance in the +various radical and nationalistic secularisms which characterize many races and +nations of the Occident. Much of this same attitude is also found in the great +universities and the larger industrial communities of the English-speaking +peoples. Not very different from these concepts is the idea that religion is +but "a shared quest of the good life." The "national religions" are nothing +more than a reversion to the early Roman emperor worship and to Shinto--worship +of the state in the imperial family. + +7. THE FURTHER EVOLUTION OF RELIGION + +Religion can never become a scientific fact. Philosophy may, indeed, rest on a +scientific basis, but religion will ever remain either evolutionary or +revelatory, or a possible combination of both, as it is in the world today. + +New religions cannot be invented; they are either evolved, or else they are +suddenly revealed. All new evolutionary religions are merely advancing +expressions of the old beliefs, new adaptations and adjustments. The old does +not cease to exist; it is merged with the new, even as Sikhism budded and +blossomed out of the soil and forms of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and other +contemporary cults. Primitive religion was very democratic; the savage was +quick to borrow or lend. Only with revealed religion did autocratic and +intolerant theologic egotism appear. + +The many religions of Urantia are all good to the extent that they bring man to +God and bring the realization of the Father to man. It is a fallacy for any +group of religionists to conceive of their creed as The Truth; such attitudes +bespeak more of theological arrogance than of certainty of faith. There is not +a Urantia religion that could not profitably study and assimilate the best of +the truths contained in every other faith, for all contain truth. Religionists +would do better to borrow the best in their neighbors' living spiritual faith +rather than to denounce the worst in their lingering superstitions and outworn +rituals. + +All these religions have arisen as a result of man's variable intellectual +response to his identical spiritual leading. They can never hope to attain a +uniformity of creeds, dogmas, and rituals--these are intellectual; but they +can, and some day will, realize a unity in true worship of the Father of all, +for this is spiritual, and it is forever true, in the spirit all men are equal. + +Primitive religion was largely a material-value consciousness, but civilization +elevates religious values, for true religion is the devotion of the self to the +service of meaningful and supreme values. As religion evolves, ethics becomes +the philosophy of morals, and morality becomes the discipline of self by the +standards of highest meanings and supreme values--divine and spiritual ideals. +And thus religion becomes a spontaneous and exquisite devotion, the living +experience of the loyalty of love. + + top of page - 1013 + +The quality of a religion is indicated by: + +1. Level values--loyalties. + +2. Depth of meanings--the sensitization of the individual to the idealistic +appreciation of these highest values. + +3. Consecration intensity--the degree of devotion to these divine values. + +4. The unfettered progress of the personality in this cosmic path of idealistic +spiritual living, realization of sonship with God and never-ending progressive +citizenship in the universe. + +Religious meanings progress in self-consciousness when the child transfers his +ideas of omnipotence from his parents to God. And the entire religious +experience of such a child is largely dependent on whether fear or love has +dominated the parent-child relationship. Slaves have always experienced great +difficulty in transferring their master-fear into concepts of God-love. +Civilization, science, and advanced religions must deliver mankind from those +fears born of the dread of natural phenomena. And so should greater +enlightenment deliver educated mortals from all dependence on intermediaries in +communion with Deity. + +These intermediate stages of idolatrous hesitation in the transfer of +veneration from the human and the visible to the divine and invisible are +inevitable, but they should be shortened by the consciousness of the +facilitating ministry of the indwelling divine spirit. Nevertheless, man has +been profoundly influenced, not only by his concepts of Deity, but also by the +character of the heroes whom he has chosen to honor. It is most unfortunate +that those who have come to venerate the divine and risen Christ should have +overlooked the man--the valiant and courageous hero--Joshua ben Joseph. + +Modern man is adequately self-conscious of religion, but his worshipful customs +are confused and discredited by his accelerated social metamorphosis and +unprecedented scientific developments. Thinking men and women want religion +redefined, and this demand will compel religion to re-evaluate itself. + +Modern man is confronted with the task of making more readjustments of human +values in one generation than have been made in two thousand years. And this +all influences the social attitude toward religion, for religion is a way of +living as well as a technique of thinking. + +True religion must ever be, at one and the same time, the eternal foundation +and the guiding star of all enduring civilizations. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1014 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Evolution ³ Machiventa ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ O... ³ Melc... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p093.txt b/religious documents/p093.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1e5223 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p093.txt @@ -0,0 +1,787 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 93 Machiventa Melchizedek + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 93 Machiventa Melchizedek + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Melchizedeks are widely known as emergency Sons, for they engage in an +amazing range of activities on the worlds of a local universe. When any +extraordinary problem arises, or when something unusual is to be attempted, it +is quite often a Melchizedek who accepts the assignment. The ability of the +Melchizedek Sons to function in emergencies and on widely divergent levels of +the universe, even on the physical level of personality manifestation, is +peculiar to their order. Only the Life Carriers share to any degree this +metamorphic range of personality function. + +The Melchizedek order of universe sonship has been exceedingly active on +Urantia. A corps of twelve served in conjunction with the Life Carriers. A +later corps of twelve became receivers for your world shortly after the +Caligastia secession and continued in authority until the time of Adam and Eve. +These twelve Melchizedeks returned to Urantia upon the default of Adam and Eve, +and they continued thereafter as planetary receivers on down to the day when +Jesus of Nazareth, as the Son of Man, became the titular Planetary Prince of +Urantia. + +1. THE MACHIVENTA INCARNATION + +Revealed truth was threatened with extinction during the millenniums which +followed the miscarriage of the Adamic mission on Urantia. Though making +progress intellectually, the human races were slowly losing ground spiritually. +About 3000 B.C. the concept of God had grown very hazy in the minds of men. + +The twelve Melchizedek receivers knew of Michael's impending bestowal on their +planet, but they did not know how soon it would occur; therefore they convened +in solemn council and petitioned the Most Highs of Edentia that some provision +be made for maintaining the light of truth on Urantia. This plea was dismissed +with the mandate that "the conduct of affairs on 606 of Satania is fully in the +hands of the Melchizedek custodians." The receivers then appealed to the Father +Melchizedek for help but only received word that they should continue to uphold +truth in the manner of their own election "until the arrival of a bestowal +Son," who "would rescue the planetary titles from forfeiture and uncertainty." + +And it was in consequence of having been thrown so completely on their own +resources that Machiventa Melchizedek, one of the twelve planetary receivers, +volunteered to do that which had been done only six times in all the history of +Nebadon: to personalize on earth as a temporary man of the realm, to bestow +himself as an emergency Son of world ministry. Permission was granted for this +adventure by the Salvington authorities, and the actual incarnation of Machi- + + top of page - 1015 + +venta Melchizedek was consummated near what was to become the city of Salem, in +Palestine. The entire transaction of the materialization of this Melchizedek +Son was completed by the planetary receivers with the co-operation of the Life +Carriers, certain of the Master Physical Controllers, and other celestial +personalities resident on Urantia. + +2. THE SAGE OF SALEM + +It was 1,973 years before the birth of Jesus that Machiventa was bestowed upon +the human races of Urantia. His coming was unspectacular; his materialization +was not witnessed by human eyes. He was first observed by mortal man on that +eventful day when he entered the tent of Amdon, a Chaldean herder of Sumerian +extraction. And the proclamation of his mission was embodied in the simple +statement which he made to this shepherd, "I am Melchizedek, priest of El +Elyon, the Most High, the one and only God." + +When the herder had recovered from his astonishment, and after he had plied +this stranger with many questions, he asked Melchizedek to sup with him, and +this was the first time in his long universe career that Machiventa had +partaken of material food, the nourishment which was to sustain him throughout +his ninety-four years of life as a material being. + +And that night, as they talked out under the stars, Melchizedek began his +mission of the revelation of the truth of the reality of God when, with a sweep +of his arm, he turned to Amdon, saying, "El Elyon, the Most High, is the divine +creator of the stars of the firmament and even of this very earth on which we +live, and he is also the supreme God of heaven." + +Within a few years Melchizedek had gathered around himself a group of pupils, +disciples, and believers who formed the nucleus of the later community of +Salem. He was soon known throughout Palestine as the priest of El Elyon, the +Most High, and as the sage of Salem. Among some of the surrounding tribes he +was often referred to as the sheik, or king, of Salem. Salem was the site which +after the disappearance of Melchizedek became the city of Jebus, subsequently +being called Jerusalem. + +In personal appearance, Melchizedek resembled the then blended Nodite and +Sumerian peoples, being almost six feet in height and possessing a commanding +presence. He spoke Chaldean and a half dozen other languages. He dressed much +as did the Canaanite priests except that on his breast he wore an emblem of +three concentric circles, the Satania symbol of the Paradise Trinity. In the +course of his ministry this insignia of three concentric circles became +regarded as so sacred by his followers that they never dared to use it, and it +was soon forgotten with the passing of a few generations. + +Though Machiventa lived after the manner of the men of the realm, he never +married, nor could he have left offspring on earth. His physical body, while +resembling that of the human male, was in reality on the order of those +especially constructed bodies used by the one hundred materialized members of +Prince Caligastia's staff except that it did not carry the life plasm of any +human race. Nor was there available on Urantia the tree of life. Had Machiventa +remained for any long period on earth, his physical mechanism would have +gradually deteriorated; as it was, he terminated his bestowal mission in +ninety-four years long before his material body had begun to disintegrate. + + top of page - 1016 + +This incarnated Melchizedek received a Thought Adjuster, who indwelt his +superhuman personality as the monitor of time and the mentor of the flesh, thus +gaining that experience and practical introduction to Urantian problems and to +the technique of indwelling an incarnated Son which enabled this spirit of the +Father to function so valiantly in the human mind of the later Son of God, +Michael, when he appeared on earth in the likeness of mortal flesh. And this is +the only Thought Adjuster who ever functioned in two minds on Urantia, but both +minds were divine as well as human. + +During the incarnation in the flesh, Machiventa was in full contact with his +eleven fellows of the corps of planetary custodians, but he could not +communicate with other orders of celestial personalities. Aside from the +Melchizedek receivers, he had no more contact with superhuman intelligences +than a human being. + +3. MELCHIZEDEK'S TEACHINGS + +With the passing of a decade, Melchizedek organized his schools at Salem, +patterning them on the olden system which had been developed by the early +Sethite priests of the second Eden. Even the idea of a tithing system, which +was introduced by his later convert Abraham, was also derived from the +lingering traditions of the methods of the ancient Sethites. + +Melchizedek taught the concept of one God, a universal Deity, but he allowed +the people to associate this teaching with the Constellation Father of +Norlatiadek, whom he termed El Elyon--the Most High. Melchizedek remained all +but silent as to the status of Lucifer and the state of affairs on Jerusem. +Lanaforge, the System Sovereign, had little to do with Urantia until after the +completion of Michael's bestowal. To a majority of the Salem students Edentia +was heaven and the Most High was God. + +The symbol of the three concentric circles, which Melchizedek adopted as the +insignia of his bestowal, a majority of the people interpreted as standing for +the three kingdoms of men, angels, and God. And they were allowed to continue +in that belief; very few of his followers ever knew that these three circles +were emblematic of the infinity, eternity, and universality of the Paradise +Trinity of divine maintenance and direction; even Abraham rather regarded this +symbol as standing for the three Most Highs of Edentia, as he had been +instructed that the three Most Highs functioned as one. To the extent that +Melchizedek taught the Trinity concept symbolized in his insignia, he usually +associated it with the three Vorondadek rulers of the constellation of +Norlatiadek. + +To the rank and file of his followers he made no effort to present teaching +beyond the fact of the rulership of the Most Highs of Edentia--Gods of Urantia. +But to some, Melchizedek taught advanced truth, embracing the conduct and +organization of the local universe, while to his brilliant disciple Nordan the +Kenite and his band of earnest students he taught the truths of the +superuniverse and even of Havona. + +The members of the family of Katro, with whom Melchizedek lived for more than +thirty years, knew many of these higher truths and long perpetuated them in +their family, even to the days of their illustrious descendant Moses, who thus +had a compelling tradition of the days of Melchizedek handed down to him on +this, his father's side, as well as through other sources on his mother's side. + +Melchizedek taught his followers all they had capacity to receive and +assimilate. Even many modern religious ideas about heaven and earth, of man, +God, + + top of page - 1017 + +and angels, are not far removed from these teachings of Melchizedek. But this +great teacher subordinated everything to the doctrine of one God, a universe +Deity, a heavenly Creator, a divine Father. Emphasis was placed upon this +teaching for the purpose of appealing to man's adoration and of preparing the +way for the subsequent appearance of Michael as the Son of this same Universal +Father. + +Melchizedek taught that at some future time another Son of God would come in +the flesh as he had come, but that he would be born of a woman; and that is why +numerous later teachers held that Jesus was a priest, or minister, "forever +after the order of Melchizedek." + +And thus did Melchizedek prepare the way and set the monotheistic stage of +world tendency for the bestowal of an actual Paradise Son of the one God, whom +he so vividly portrayed as the Father of all, and whom he represented to +Abraham as a God who would accept man on the simple terms of personal faith. +And Michael, when he appeared on earth, confirmed all that Melchizedek had +taught concerning the Paradise Father. + +4. THE SALEM RELIGION + +The ceremonies of the Salem worship were very simple. Every person who signed +or marked the clay-tablet rolls of the Melchizedek church committed to memory, +and subscribed to, the following belief: + +1. I believe in El Elyon, the Most High God, the only Universal Father and +Creator of all things. + +2. I accept the Melchizedek covenant with the Most High, which bestows the +favor of God on my faith, not on sacrifices and burnt offerings. + +3. I promise to obey the seven commandments of Melchizedek and to tell the good +news of this covenant with the Most High to all men. + +And that was the whole of the creed of the Salem colony. But even such a short +and simple declaration of faith was altogether too much and too advanced for +the men of those days. They simply could not grasp the idea of getting divine +favor for nothing--by faith. They were too deeply confirmed in the belief that +man was born under forfeit to the gods. Too long and too earnestly had they +sacrificed and made gifts to the priests to be able to comprehend the good news +that salvation, divine favor, was a free gift to all who would believe in the +Melchizedek covenant. But Abraham did believe halfheartedly, and even that was +"counted for righteousness." + +The seven commandments promulgated by Melchizedek were patterned along the +lines of the ancient Dalamatian supreme law and very much resembled the seven +commands taught in the first and second Edens. These commands of the Salem +religion were: + +1. You shall not serve any God but the Most High Creator of heaven and earth. + +2. You shall not doubt that faith is the only requirement for eternal +salvation. + +3. You shall not bear false witness. + +4. You shall not kill. + +5. You shall not steal. + + top of page - 1018 + +6. You shall not commit adultery. + +7. You shall not show disrespect for your parents and elders. + +While no sacrifices were permitted within the colony, Melchizedek well knew how +difficult it is to suddenly uproot long-established customs and accordingly had +wisely offered these people the substitute of a sacrament of bread and wine for +the older sacrifice of flesh and blood. It is of record, "Melchizedek, king of +Salem, brought forth bread and wine." But even this cautious innovation was not +altogether successful; the various tribes all maintained auxiliary centers on +the outskirts of Salem where they offered sacrifices and burnt offerings. Even +Abraham resorted to this barbarous practice after his victory over +Chedorlaomer; he simply did not feel quite at ease until he had offered a +conventional sacrifice. And Melchizedek never did succeed in fully eradicating +this proclivity to sacrifice from the religious practices of his followers, +even of Abraham. + +Like Jesus, Melchizedek attended strictly to the fulfillment of the mission of +his bestowal. He did not attempt to reform the mores, to change the habits of +the world, nor to promulgate even advanced sanitary practices or scientific +truths. He came to achieve two tasks: to keep alive on earth the truth of the +one God and to prepare the way for the subsequent mortal bestowal of a Paradise +Son of that Universal Father. + +Melchizedek taught elementary revealed truth at Salem for ninety-four years, +and during this time Abraham attended the Salem school three different times. +He finally became a convert to the Salem teachings, becoming one of +Melchizedek's most brilliant pupils and chief supporters. + +5. THE SELECTION OF ABRAHAM + +Although it may be an error to speak of "chosen people," it is not a mistake to +refer to Abraham as a chosen individual. Melchizedek did lay upon Abraham the +responsibility of keeping alive the truth of one God as distinguished from the +prevailing belief in plural deities. + +The choice of Palestine as the site for Machiventa's activities was in part +predicated upon the desire to establish contact with some human family +embodying the potentials of leadership. At the time of the incarnation of +Melchizedek there were many families on earth just as well prepared to receive +the doctrine of Salem as was that of Abraham. There were equally endowed +families among the red men, the yellow men, and the descendants of the Andites +to the west and north. But, again, none of these localities were so favorably +situated for Michael's subsequent appearance on earth as was the eastern shore +of the Mediterranean Sea. The Melchizedek mission in Palestine and the +subsequent appearance of Michael among the Hebrew people were in no small +measure determined by geography, by the fact that Palestine was centrally +located with reference to the then existent trade, travel, and civilization of +the world. + +For some time the Melchizedek receivers had been observing the ancestors of +Abraham, and they confidently expected offspring in a certain generation who +would be characterized by intelligence, initiative, sagacity, and sincerity. +The children of Terah, the father of Abraham, in every way met these +expectations. It was this possibility of contact with these versatile children +of Terah that had considerable to do with the appearance of Machiventa at +Salem, rather than in Egypt, China, India, or among the northern tribes. + + top of page - 1019 + +Terah and his whole family were halfhearted converts to the Salem religion, +which had been preached in Chaldea; they learned of Melchizedek through the +preaching of Ovid, a Phoenician teacher who proclaimed the Salem doctrines in +Ur. They left Ur intending to go directly through to Salem, but Nahor, +Abraham's brother, not having seen Melchizedek, was lukewarm and persuaded them +to tarry at Haran. And it was a long time after they arrived in Palestine +before they were willing to destroy all of the household gods they had brought +with them; they were slow to give up the many gods of Mesopotamia for the one +God of Salem. + +A few weeks after the death of Abraham's father, Terah, Melchizedek sent one of +his students, Jaram the Hittite, to extend this invitation to both Abraham and +Nahor: "Come to Salem, where you shall hear our teachings of the truth of the +eternal Creator, and in the enlightened offspring of you two brothers shall all +the world be blessed." Now Nahor had not wholly accepted the Melchizedek +gospel; he remained behind and built up a strong city-state which bore his +name; but Lot, Abraham's nephew, decided to go with his uncle to Salem. + +Upon arriving at Salem, Abraham and Lot chose a hilly fastness near the city +where they could defend themselves against the many surprise attacks of +northern raiders. At this time the Hittites, Assyrians, Philistines, and other +groups were constantly raiding the tribes of central and southern Palestine. +From their stronghold in the hills Abraham and Lot made frequent pilgrimages to +Salem. + +Not long after they had established themselves near Salem, Abraham and Lot +journeyed to the valley of the Nile to obtain food supplies as there was then a +drought in Palestine. During his brief sojourn in Egypt Abraham found a distant +relative on the Egyptian throne, and he served as the commander of two very +successful military expeditions for this king. During the latter part of his +sojourn on the Nile he and his wife, Sarah, lived at court, and when leaving +Egypt, he was given a share of the spoils of his military campaigns. + +It required great determination for Abraham to forego the honors of the +Egyptian court and return to the more spiritual work sponsored by Machiventa. +But Melchizedek was revered even in Egypt, and when the full story was laid +before Pharaoh, he strongly urged Abraham to return to the execution of his +vows to the cause of Salem. + +Abraham had kingly ambitions, and on the way back from Egypt he laid before Lot +his plan to subdue all Canaan and bring its people under the rule of Salem. Lot +was more bent on business; so, after a later disagreement, he went to Sodom to +engage in trade and animal husbandry. Lot liked neither a military nor a +herder's life. + +Upon returning with his family to Salem, Abraham began to mature his military +projects. He was soon recognized as the civil ruler of the Salem territory and +had confederated under his leadership seven near-by tribes. Indeed, it was with +great difficulty that Melchizedek restrained Abraham, who was fired with a zeal +to go forth and round up the neighboring tribes with the sword that they might +thus more quickly be brought to a knowledge of the Salem truths. + +Melchizedek maintained peaceful relations with all the surrounding tribes; he +was not militaristic and was never attacked by any of the armies as they moved +back and forth. He was entirely willing that Abraham should formulate a +defensive policy for Salem such as was subsequently put into effect, but he +would not + + top of page - 1020 + +approve of his pupil's ambitious schemes for conquest; so there occurred a +friendly severance of relationship, Abraham going over to Hebron to establish +his military capital. + +Abraham, because of his close connection with the illustrious Melchizedek, +possessed great advantage over the surrounding petty kings; they all revered +Melchizedek and unduly feared Abraham. Abraham knew of this fear and only +awaited an opportune occasion to attack his neighbors, and this excuse came +when some of these rulers presumed to raid the property of his nephew Lot, who +dwelt in Sodom. Upon hearing of this, Abraham, at the head of his seven +confederated tribes, moved on the enemy. His own bodyguard of 318 officered the +army, numbering more than 4,000, which struck at this time. + +When Melchizedek heard of Abraham's declaration of war, he went forth to +dissuade him but only caught up with his former disciple as he returned +victorious from the battle. Abraham insisted that the God of Salem had given +him victory over his enemies and persisted in giving a tenth of his spoils to +the Salem treasury. The other ninety per cent he removed to his capital at +Hebron. + +After this battle of Siddim, Abraham became leader of a second confederation of +eleven tribes and not only paid tithes to Melchizedek but saw to it that all +others in that vicinity did the same. His diplomatic dealings with the king of +Sodom, together with the fear in which he was so generally held, resulted in +the king of Sodom and others joining the Hebron military confederation; Abraham +was really well on the way to establishing a powerful state in Palestine. + +6. MELCHIZEDEK'S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM + +Abraham envisaged the conquest of all Canaan. His determination was only +weakened by the fact that Melchizedek would not sanction the undertaking. But +Abraham had about decided to embark upon the enterprise when the thought that +he had no son to succeed him as ruler of this proposed kingdom began to worry +him. He arranged another conference with Melchizedek; and it was in the course +of this interview that the priest of Salem, the visible Son of God, persuaded +Abraham to abandon his scheme of material conquest and temporal rule in favor +of the spiritual concept of the kingdom of heaven. + +Melchizedek explained to Abraham the futility of contending with the Amorite +confederation but made it equally clear that these backward clans were +certainly committing suicide by their foolish practices so that in a few +generations they would be so weakened that the descendants of Abraham, +meanwhile greatly increased, could easily overcome them. + +And Melchizedek made a formal covenant with Abraham at Salem. Said he to +Abraham: "Look now up to the heavens and number the stars if you are able; so +numerous shall your seed be." And Abraham believed Melchizedek, "and it was +counted to him for righteousness." And then Melchizedek told Abraham the story +of the future occupation of Canaan by his offspring after their sojourn in +Egypt. + +This covenant of Melchizedek with Abraham represents the great Urantian +agreement between divinity and humanity whereby God agrees to do everything; +man only agrees to believe God's promises and follow his instructions. +Heretofore it had been believed that salvation could be secured only by +works--sacrifices and offerings; now, Melchizedek again brought to Urantia the +good + + top of page - 1021 + +news that salvation, favor with God, is to be had by faith. But this gospel of +simple faith in God was too advanced; the Semitic tribesmen subsequently +preferred to go back to the older sacrifices and atonement for sin by the +shedding of blood. + +It was not long after the establishment of this covenant that Isaac, the son of +Abraham, was born in accordance with the promise of Melchizedek. After the +birth of Isaac, Abraham took a very solemn attitude toward his covenant with +Melchizedek, going over to Salem to have it stated in writing. It was at this +public and formal acceptance of the covenant that he changed his name from +Abram to Abraham. + +Most of the Salem believers had practiced circumcision, though it had never +been made obligatory by Melchizedek. Now Abraham had always so opposed +circumcision that on this occasion he decided to solemnize the event by +formally accepting this rite in token of the ratification of the Salem +covenant. + +It was following this real and public surrender of his personal ambitions in +behalf of the larger plans of Melchizedek that the three celestial beings +appeared to him on the plains of Mamre. This was an appearance of fact, +notwithstanding its association with the subsequently fabricated narratives +relating to the natural destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And these legends of +the happenings of those days indicate how retarded were the morals and ethics +of even so recent a time. + +Upon the consummation of the solemn covenant, the reconciliation between +Abraham and Melchizedek was complete. Abraham again assumed the civil and +military leadership of the Salem colony, which at its height carried over one +hundred thousand regular tithe payers on the rolls of the Melchizedek +brotherhood. Abraham greatly improved the Salem temple and provided new tents +for the entire school. He not only extended the tithing system but also +instituted many improved methods of conducting the business of the school, +besides contributing greatly to the better handling of the department of +missionary propaganda. He also did much to effect improvement of the herds and +the reorganization of the Salem dairying projects. Abraham was a shrewd and +efficient business man, a wealthy man for his day; he was not overly pious, but +he was thoroughly sincere, and he did believe in Machiventa Melchizedek. + +7. THE MELCHIZEDEK MISSIONARIES + +Melchizedek continued for some years to instruct his students and to train the +Salem missionaries, who penetrated to all the surrounding tribes, especially to +Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. And as the decades passed, these teachers +journeyed farther and farther from Salem, carrying with them Machiventa's +gospel of belief and faith in God. + +The descendants of Adamson, clustered about the shores of the lake of Van, were +willing listeners to the Hittite teachers of the Salem cult. From this onetime +Andite center, teachers were dispatched to the remote regions of both Europe +and Asia. Salem missionaries penetrated all Europe, even to the British Isles. +One group went by way of the Faroes to the Andonites of Iceland, while another +traversed China and reached the Japanese of the eastern islands. The lives and +experiences of the men and women who ventured forth from Salem, Mesopotamia, +and Lake Van to enlighten the tribes of the Eastern Hemisphere present a heroic +chapter in the annals of the human race. + + top of page - 1022 + +But the task was so great and the tribes were so backward that the results were +vague and indefinite. From one generation to another the Salem gospel found +lodgment here and there, but except in Palestine, never was the idea of one God +able to claim the continued allegiance of a whole tribe or race. Long before +the coming of Jesus the teachings of the early Salem missionaries had become +generally submerged in the older and more universal superstitions and beliefs. +The original Melchizedek gospel had been almost wholly absorbed in the beliefs +in the Great Mother, the Sun, and other ancient cults. + +You who today enjoy the advantages of the art of printing little understand how +difficult it was to perpetuate truth during these earlier times; how easy it +was to lose sight of a new doctrine from one generation to another. There was +always a tendency for the new doctrine to become absorbed into the older body +of religious teaching and magical practice. A new revelation is always +contaminated by the older evolutionary beliefs. + +8. DEPARTURE OF MELCHIZEDEK + +It was shortly after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah that Machiventa +decided to end his emergency bestowal on Urantia. Melchizedek's decision to +terminate his sojourn in the flesh was influenced by numerous conditions, chief +of which was the growing tendency of the surrounding tribes, and even of his +immediate associates, to regard him as a demigod, to look upon him as a +supernatural being, which indeed he was; but they were beginning to reverence +him unduly and with a highly superstitious fear. In addition to these reasons, +Melchizedek wanted to leave the scene of his earthly activities a sufficient +length of time before Abraham's death to insure that the truth of the one and +only God would become strongly established in the minds of his followers. +Accordingly Machiventa retired one night to his tent at Salem, having said good +night to his human companions, and when they went to call him in the morning, +he was not there, for his fellows had taken him. + +9. AFTER MELCHIZEDEK'S DEPARTURE + +It was a great trial for Abraham when Melchizedek so suddenly disappeared. +Although he had fully warned his followers that he must sometime go as he had +come, they were not reconciled to the loss of their wonderful leader. The great +organization built up at Salem nearly disappeared, though the traditions of +these days were what Moses built upon when he led the Hebrew slaves out of +Egypt. + +The loss of Melchizedek produced a sadness in the heart of Abraham that he +never fully overcame. Hebron he had abandoned when he gave up the ambition of +building a material kingdom; and now, upon the loss of his associate in the +building of the spiritual kingdom, he departed from Salem, going south to live +near his interests at Gerar. + +Abraham became fearful and timid immediately after the disappearance of +Melchizedek. He withheld his identity upon arrival at Gerar, so that Abimelech +appropriated his wife. (Shortly after his marriage to Sarah, Abraham one night +had overheard a plot to murder him in order to get his brilliant wife. This +dread became a terror to the otherwise brave and daring leader; all his life he +feared + + top of page - 1023 + +that someone would kill him secretly in order to get Sarah. And this explains +why, on three separate occasions, this brave man exhibited real cowardice.) + +But Abraham was not long to be deterred in his mission as the successor of +Melchizedek. Soon he made converts among the Philistines and of Abimelech's +people, made a treaty with them, and, in turn, became contaminated with many of +their superstitions, particularly with their practice of sacrificing first-born +sons. Thus did Abraham again become a great leader in Palestine. He was held in +reverence by all groups and honored by all kings. He was the spiritual leader +of all the surrounding tribes, and his influence continued for some time after +his death. During the closing years of his life he once more returned to +Hebron, the scene of his earlier activities and the place where he had worked +in association with Melchizedek. Abraham's last act was to send trusty servants +to the city of his brother, Nahor, on the border of Mesopotamia, to secure a +woman of his own people as a wife for his son Isaac. It had long been the +custom of Abraham's people to marry their cousins. And Abraham died confident +in that faith in God which he had learned from Melchizedek in the vanished +schools of Salem. + +It was hard for the next generation to comprehend the story of Melchizedek; +within five hundred years many regarded the whole narrative as a myth. Isaac +held fairly well to the teachings of his father and nourished the gospel of the +Salem colony, but it was harder for Jacob to grasp the significance of these +traditions. Joseph was a firm believer in Melchizedek and was, largely because +of this, regarded by his brothers as a dreamer. Joseph's honor in Egypt was +chiefly due to the memory of his great-grandfather Abraham. Joseph was offered +military command of the Egyptian armies, but being such a firm believer in the +traditions of Melchizedek and the later teachings of Abraham and Isaac, he +elected to serve as a civil administrator, believing that he could thus better +labor for the advancement of the kingdom of heaven. + +The teaching of Melchizedek was full and replete, but the records of these days +seemed impossible and fantastic to the later Hebrew priests, although many had +some understanding of these transactions, at least up to the times of the en +masse editing of the Old Testament records in Babylon. + +What the Old Testament records describe as conversations between Abraham and +God were in reality conferences between Abraham and Melchizedek. Later scribes +regarded the term Melchizedek as synonymous with God. The record of so many +contacts of Abraham and Sarah with "the angel of the Lord" refers to their +numerous visits with Melchizedek. + +The Hebrew narratives of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are far more reliable than +those about Abraham, although they also contain many diversions from the facts, +alterations made intentionally and unintentionally at the time of the +compilation of these records by the Hebrew priests during the Babylonian +captivity. Keturah was not a wife of Abraham; like Hagar, she was merely a +concubine. All of Abraham's property went to Isaac, the son of Sarah, the +status wife. Abraham was not so old as the records indicate, and his wife was +much younger. These ages were deliberately altered in order to provide for the +subsequent alleged miraculous birth of Isaac. + +The national ego of the Jews was tremendously depressed by the Babylonian +captivity. In their reaction against national inferiority they swung to the +other extreme of national and racial egotism, in which they distorted and +perverted their traditions with the view of exalting themselves above all races +as the chosen + + top of page - 1024 + +people of God; and hence they carefully edited all their records for the +purpose of raising Abraham and their other national leaders high up above all +other persons, not excepting Melchizedek himself. The Hebrew scribes therefore +destroyed every record of these momentous times which they could find, +preserving only the narrative of the meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek after +the battle of Siddim, which they deemed reflected great honor upon Abraham. + +And thus, in losing sight of Melchizedek, they also lost sight of the teaching +of this emergency Son regarding the spiritual mission of the promised bestowal +Son; lost sight of the nature of this mission so fully and completely that very +few of their progeny were able or willing to recognize and receive Michael when +he appeared on earth and in the flesh as Machiventa had foretold. + +But one of the writers of the Book of Hebrews understood the mission of +Melchizedek, for it is written: "This Melchizedek, priest of the Most High, was +also king of peace; without father, without mother, without pedigree, having +neither beginning of days nor end of life but made like a Son of God, he abides +a priest continually." This writer designated Melchizedek as a type of the +later bestowal of Michael, affirming that Jesus was "a minister forever on the +order of Melchizedek." While this comparison was not altogether fortunate, it +was literally true that Christ did receive provisional title to Urantia "upon +the orders of the twelve Melchizedek receivers" on duty at the time of his +world bestowal. + +10. PRESENT STATUS OF MACHIVENTA MELCHIZEDEK + +During the years of Machiventa's incarnation the Urantia Melchizedek receivers +functioned as eleven. When Machiventa considered that his mission as an +emergency Son was finished, he signalized this fact to his eleven associates, +and they immediately made ready the technique whereby he was to be released +from the flesh and safely restored to his original Melchizedek status. And on +the third day after his disappearance from Salem he appeared among his eleven +fellows of the Urantia assignment and resumed his interrupted career as one of +the planetary receivers of 606 of Satania. + +Machiventa terminated his bestowal as a creature of flesh and blood just as +suddenly and unceremoniously as he had begun it. Neither his appearance nor +departure were accompanied by any unusual announcement or demonstration; +neither resurrection roll call nor ending of planetary dispensation marked his +appearance on Urantia; his was an emergency bestowal. But Machiventa did not +end his sojourn in the flesh of human beings until he had been duly released by +the Father Melchizedek and had been informed that his emergency bestowal had +received the approval of the chief executive of Nebadon, Gabriel of Salvington. + +Machiventa Melchizedek continued to take a great interest in the affairs of the +descendants of those men who had believed in his teachings when he was in the +flesh. But the progeny of Abraham through Isaac as intermarried with the +Kenites were the only line which long continued to nourish any clear concept of +the Salem teachings. + +This same Melchizedek continued to collaborate throughout the nineteen +succeeding centuries with the many prophets and seers, thus endeavoring to keep +alive the truths of Salem until the fullness of the time for Michael's +appearance on earth. + + top of page - 1025 + +Machiventa continued as a planetary receiver up to the times of the triumph of +Michael on Urantia. Subsequently, he was attached to the Urantia service on +Jerusem as one of the four and twenty directors, only just recently having been +elevated to the position of personal ambassador on Jerusem of the Creator Son, +bearing the title Vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia. It is our belief +that, as long as Urantia remains an inhabited planet, Machiventa Melchizedek +will not be fully returned to the duties of his order of sonship but will +remain, speaking in the terms of time, forever a planetary minister +representing Christ Michael. + +As his was an emergency bestowal on Urantia, it does not appear from the +records what Machiventa's future may be. It may develop that the Melchizedek +corps of Nebadon have sustained the permanent loss of one of their number. +Recent rulings handed down from the Most Highs of Edentia, and later confirmed +by the Ancients of Days of Uversa, strongly suggest that this bestowal +Melchizedek is destined to take the place of the fallen Planetary Prince, +Caligastia. If our conjectures in this respect are correct, it is altogether +possible that Machiventa Melchizedek may again appear in person on Urantia and +in some modified manner resume the role of the dethroned Planetary Prince, or +else appear on earth to function as vicegerent Planetary Prince representing +Christ Michael, who now actually holds the title of Planetary Prince of +Urantia. While it is far from clear to us as to what Machiventa's destiny may +be, nevertheless, events which have so recently taken place strongly suggest +that the foregoing conjectures are probably not far from the truth. + +We well understand how, by his triumph on Urantia, Michael became the successor +of both Caligastia and Adam; how he became the planetary Prince of Peace and +the second Adam. And now we behold the conferring upon this Melchizedek of the +title Vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia. Will he also be constituted +Vicegerent Material Son of Urantia? Or is there a possibility that an +unexpected and unprecedented event is to take place, the sometime return to the +planet of Adam and Eve or certain of their progeny as representatives of +Michael with the titles vicegerents of the second Adam of Urantia? + +And all these speculations associated with the certainty of future appearances +of both Magisterial and Trinity Teacher Sons, in conjunction with the explicit +promise of the Creator Son to return sometime, make Urantia a planet of future +uncertainty and render it one of the most interesting and intriguing spheres in +all the universe of Nebadon. It is altogether possible that, in some future age +when Urantia is approaching the era of light and life, after the affairs of the +Lucifer rebellion and the Caligastia secession have been finally adjudicated, +we may witness the presence on Urantia, simultaneously, of Machiventa, Adam, +Eve, and Christ Michael, as well as either a Magisterial Son or even Trinity +Teacher Sons. + +It has long been the opinion of our order that Machiventa's presence on the +Jerusem corps of Urantia directors, the four and twenty counselors, is +sufficient evidence to warrant the belief that he is destined to follow the +mortals of Urantia on through the universe scheme of progression and ascension +even to the Paradise Corps of the Finality. We know that Adam and Eve are thus +destined to accompany their earth fellows on the Paradise adventure when +Urantia has become settled in light and life. + +Less than a thousand years ago this same Machiventa Melchizedek, the onetime +sage of Salem, was invisibly present on Urantia for a period of one + + top of page - 1026 + +hundred years, acting as resident governor general of the planet; and if the +present system of directing planetary affairs should continue, he will be due +to return in the same capacity in a little over one thousand years. + +This is the story of Machiventa Melchizedek, one of the most unique of all +characters ever to become connected with the history of Urantia and a +personality who may be destined to play an important role in the future +experience of your irregular and unusual world. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1027 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Later ³ The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Evolu... ³ Melchizedek... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p094.txt b/religious documents/p094.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..83ae749 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p094.txt @@ -0,0 +1,943 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 94 The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 94 The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE early teachers of the Salem religion penetrated to the remotest tribes of +Africa and Eurasia, ever preaching Machiventa's gospel of man's faith and trust +in the one universal God as the only price of obtaining divine favor. +Melchizedek's covenant with Abraham was the pattern for all the early +propaganda that went out from Salem and other centers. Urantia has never had +more enthusiastic and aggressive missionaries of any religion than these noble +men and women who carried the teachings of Melchizedek over the entire Eastern +Hemisphere. These missionaries were recruited from many peoples and races, and +they largely spread their teachings through the medium of native converts. They +established training centers in different parts of the world where they taught +the natives the Salem religion and then commissioned these pupils to function +as teachers among their own people. + +1. THE SALEM TEACHINGS IN VEDIC INDIA + +In the days of Melchizedek, India was a cosmopolitan country which had recently +come under the political and religious dominance of the Aryan-Andite invaders +from the north and west. At this time only the northern and western portions of +the peninsula had been extensively permeated by the Aryans. These Vedic +newcomers had brought along with them their many tribal deities. Their +religious forms of worship followed closely the ceremonial practices of their +earlier Andite forebears in that the father still functioned as a priest and +the mother as a priestess, and the family hearth was still utilized as an +altar. + +The Vedic cult was then in process of growth and metamorphosis under the +direction of the Brahman caste of teacher-priests, who were gradually assuming +control over the expanding ritual of worship. The amalgamation of the onetime +thirty-three Aryan deities was well under way when the Salem missionaries +penetrated the north of India. + +The polytheism of these Aryans represented a degeneration of their earlier +monotheism occasioned by their separation into tribal units, each tribe having +its venerated god. This devolution of the original monotheism and +trinitarianism of Andite Mesopotamia was in process of resynthesis in the early +centuries of the second millennium before Christ. The many gods were organized +into a pantheon under the triune leadership of Dyaus pitar, the lord of heaven; +Indra, the tempestuous lord of the atmosphere; and Agni, the three-headed fire +god, lord of the earth and the vestigial symbol of an earlier Trinity concept. + +Definite henotheistic developments were paving the way for an evolved +monotheism. Agni, the most ancient deity, was often exalted as the father-head +of the + + top of page - 1028 + +entire pantheon. The deity-father principle, sometimes called Prajapati, +sometimes termed Brahma, was submerged in the theologic battle which the +Brahman priests later fought with the Salem teachers. The Brahman was conceived +as the energy-divinity principle activating the entire Vedic pantheon. + +The Salem missionaries preached the one God of Melchizedek, the Most High of +heaven. This portrayal was not altogether disharmonious with the emerging +concept of the Father-Brahma as the source of all gods, but the Salem doctrine +was nonritualistic and hence ran directly counter to the dogmas, traditions, +and teachings of the Brahman priesthood. Never would the Brahman priests accept +the Salem teaching of salvation through faith, favor with God apart from +ritualistic observances and sacrificial ceremonials. + +The rejection of the Melchizedek gospel of trust in God and salvation through +faith marked a vital turning point for India. The Salem missionaries had +contributed much to the loss of faith in all the ancient Vedic gods, but the +leaders, the priests of Vedism, refused to accept the Melchizedek teaching of +one God and one simple faith. + +The Brahmans culled the sacred writings of their day in an effort to combat the +Salem teachers, and this compilation, as later revised, has come on down to +modern times as the Rig-Veda, one of the most ancient of sacred books. The +second, third, and fourth Vedas followed as the Brahmans sought to crystallize, +formalize, and fix their rituals of worship and sacrifice upon the peoples of +those days. Taken at their best, these writings are the equal of any other body +of similar character in beauty of concept and truth of discernment. But as this +superior religion became contaminated with the thousands upon thousands of +superstitions, cults, and rituals of southern India, it progressively +metamorphosed into the most variegated system of theology ever developed by +mortal man. An examination of the Vedas will disclose some of the highest and +some of the most debased concepts of Deity ever to be conceived. + +2. BRAHMANISM + +As the Salem missionaries penetrated southward into the Dravidian Deccan, they +encountered an increasing caste system, the scheme of the Aryans to prevent +loss of racial identity in the face of a rising tide of the secondary Sangik +peoples. Since the Brahman priest caste was the very essence of this system, +this social order greatly retarded the progress of the Salem teachers. This +caste system failed to save the Aryan race, but it did succeed in perpetuating +the Brahmans, who, in turn, have maintained their religious hegemony in India +to the present time. + +And now, with the weakening of Vedism through the rejection of higher truth, +the cult of the Aryans became subject to increasing inroads from the Deccan. In +a desperate effort to stem the tide of racial extinction and religious +obliteration, the Brahman caste sought to exalt themselves above all else. They +taught that the sacrifice to deity in itself was all-efficacious, that it was +all-compelling in its potency. They proclaimed that, of the two essential +divine principles of the universe, one was Brahman the deity, and the other was +the Brahman priesthood. Among no other Urantia peoples did the priests presume +to exalt themselves above even their gods, to relegate to themselves the honors +due their gods. But they went so absurdly far with these presumptuous claims +that the whole + + top of page - 1029 + +precarious system collapsed before the debasing cults which poured in from the +surrounding and less advanced civilizations. The vast Vedic priesthood itself +floundered and sank beneath the black flood of inertia and pessimism which +their own selfish and unwise presumption had brought upon all India. + +The undue concentration on self led certainly to a fear of the nonevolutionary +perpetuation of self in an endless round of successive incarnations as man, +beast, or weeds. And of all the contaminating beliefs which could have become +fastened upon what may have been an emerging monotheism, none was so +stultifying as this belief in transmigration--the doctrine of the reincarnation +of souls--which came from the Dravidian Deccan. This belief in the weary and +monotonous round of repeated transmigrations robbed struggling mortals of their +long-cherished hope of finding that deliverance and spiritual advancement in +death which had been a part of the earlier Vedic faith. + +This philosophically debilitating teaching was soon followed by the invention +of the doctrine of the eternal escape from self by submergence in the universal +rest and peace of absolute union with Brahman, the oversoul of all creation. +Mortal desire and human ambition were effectually ravished and virtually +destroyed. For more than two thousand years the better minds of India have +sought to escape from all desire, and thus was opened wide the door for the +entrance of those later cults and teachings which have virtually shackled the +souls of many Hindu peoples in the chains of spiritual hopelessness. Of all +civilizations, the Vedic-Aryan paid the most terrible price for its rejection +of the Salem gospel. + +Caste alone could not perpetuate the Aryan religio-cultural system, and as the +inferior religions of the Deccan permeated the north, there developed an age of +despair and hopelessness. It was during these dark days that the cult of taking +no life arose, and it has ever since persisted. Many of the new cults were +frankly atheistic, claiming that such salvation as was attainable could come +only by man's own unaided efforts. But throughout a great deal of all this +unfortunate philosophy, distorted remnants of the Melchizedek and even the +Adamic teachings can be traced. + +These were the times of the compilation of the later scriptures of the Hindu +faith, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. Having rejected the teachings of +personal religion through the personal faith experience with the one God, and +having become contaminated with the flood of debasing and debilitating cults +and creeds from the Deccan, with their anthropomorphisms and reincarnations, +the Brahmanic priesthood experienced a violent reaction against these vitiating +beliefs; there was a definite effort to seek and to find true reality. The +Brahmans set out to deanthropomorphize the Indian concept of deity, but in so +doing they stumbled into the grievous error of depersonalizing the concept of +God, and they emerged, not with a lofty and spiritual ideal of the Paradise +Father, but with a distant and metaphysical idea of an all-encompassing +Absolute. + +In their efforts at self-preservation the Brahmans had rejected the one God of +Melchizedek, and now they found themselves with the hypothesis of Brahman, that +indefinite and illusive philosophic self, that impersonal and impotent it which +has left the spiritual life of India helpless and prostrate from that +unfortunate day to the twentieth century. + +It was during the times of the writing of the Upanishads that Buddhism arose in +India. But despite its successes of a thousand years, it could not compete with + + top of page - 1030 + +later Hinduism; despite a higher morality, its early portrayal of God was even +less well-defined than was that of Hinduism, which provided for lesser and +personal deities. Buddhism finally gave way in northern India before the +onslaught of a militant Islam with its clear-cut concept of Allah as the +supreme God of the universe. + +3. BRAHMANIC PHILOSOPHY + +While the highest phase of Brahmanism was hardly a religion, it was truly one +of the most noble reaches of the mortal mind into the domains of philosophy and +metaphysics. Having started out to discover final reality, the Indian mind did +not stop until it had speculated about almost every phase of theology excepting +the essential dual concept of religion: the existence of the Universal Father +of all universe creatures and the fact of the ascending experience in the +universe of these very creatures as they seek to attain the eternal Father, who +has commanded them to be perfect, even as he is perfect. + +In the concept of Brahman the minds of those days truly grasped at the idea of +some all-pervading Absolute, for this postulate was at one and the same time +identified as creative energy and cosmic reaction. Brahman was conceived to be +beyond all definition, capable of being comprehended only by the successive +negation of all finite qualities. It was definitely a belief in an absolute, +even an infinite, being, but this concept was largely devoid of personality +attributes and was therefore not experiencible by individual religionists. + +Brahman-Narayana was conceived as the Absolute, the infinite IT IS, the +primordial creative potency of the potential cosmos, the Universal Self +existing static and potential throughout all eternity. Had the philosophers of +those days been able to make the next advance in deity conception, had they +been able to conceive of the Brahman as associative and creative, as a +personality approachable by created and evolving beings, then might such a +teaching have become the most advanced portraiture of Deity on Urantia since it +would have encompassed the first five levels of total deity function and might +possibly have envisioned the remaining two. + +In certain phases the concept of the One Universal Oversoul as the totality of +the summation of all creature existence led the Indian philosophers very close +to the truth of the Supreme Being, but this truth availed them naught because +they failed to evolve any reasonable or rational personal approach to the +attainment of their theoretic monotheistic goal of Brahman-Narayana. + +The karma principle of causality continuity is, again, very close to the truth +of the repercussional synthesis of all time-space actions in the Deity presence +of the Supreme; but this postulate never provided for the co-ordinate personal +attainment of Deity by the individual religionist, only for the ultimate +engulfment of all personality by the Universal Oversoul. + +The philosophy of Brahmanism also came very near to the realization of the +indwelling of the Thought Adjusters, only to become perverted through the +misconception of truth. The teaching that the soul is the indwelling of the +Brahman would have paved the way for an advanced religion had not this concept +been completely vitiated by the belief that there is no human individuality +apart from this indwelling of the Universal One. + +In the doctrine of the merging of the self-soul with the Oversoul, the +theologians of India failed to provide for the survival of something human, +something + + top of page - 1031 + +new and unique, something born of the union of the will of man and the will of +God. The teaching of the soul's return to the Brahman is closely parallel to +the truth of the Adjuster's return to the bosom of the Universal Father, but +there is something distinct from the Adjuster which also survives, the +morontial counterpart of mortal personality. And this vital concept was fatally +absent from Brahmanic philosophy. + +Brahmanic philosophy has approximated many of the facts of the universe and has +approached numerous cosmic truths, but it has all too often fallen victim to +the error of failing to differentiate between the several levels of reality, +such as absolute, transcendental, and finite. It has failed to take into +account that what may be finite-illusory on the absolute level may be +absolutely real on the finite level. And it has also taken no cognizance of the +essential personality of the Universal Father, who is personally contactable on +all levels from the evolutionary creature's limited experience with God on up +to the limitless experience of the Eternal Son with the Paradise Father. + +4. THE HINDU RELIGION + +With the passing of the centuries in India, the populace returned in measure to +the ancient rituals of the Vedas as they had been modified by the teachings of +the Melchizedek missionaries and crystallized by the later Brahman priesthood. +This, the oldest and most cosmopolitan of the world's religions, has undergone +further changes in response to Buddhism and Jainism and to the later appearing +influences of Mohammedanism and Christianity. But by the time the teachings of +Jesus arrived, they had already become so Occidentalized as to be a "white +man's religion," hence strange and foreign to the Hindu mind. + +Hindu theology, at present, depicts four descending levels of deity and +divinity: + +1. The Brahman, the Absolute, the Infinite One, the IT IS. + +2. The Trimurti, the supreme trinity of Hinduism. In this association Brahma, +the first member, is conceived as being self-created out of the +Brahman--infinity. Were it not for close identification with the pantheistic +Infinite One, Brahma could constitute the foundation for a concept of the +Universal Father. Brahma is also identified with fate. + +The worship of the second and third members, Siva and Vishnu, arose in the +first millennium after Christ. Siva is lord of life and death, god of +fertility, and master of destruction. Vishnu is extremely popular due to the +belief that he periodically incarnates in human form. In this way, Vishnu +becomes real and living in the imaginations of the Indians. Siva and Vishnu are +each regarded by some as supreme over all. + +3. Vedic and post-Vedic deities. Many of the ancient gods of the Aryans, such +as Agni, Indra, Soma, have persisted as secondary to the three members of the +Trimurti. Numerous additional gods have arisen since the early days of Vedic +India, and these have also been incorporated into the Hindu pantheon. + +4. The demigods: supermen, semigods, heroes, demons, ghosts, evil spirits, +sprites, monsters, goblins, and saints of the later-day cults. + +While Hinduism has long failed to vivify the Indian people, at the same time it +has usually been a tolerant religion. Its great strength lies in the fact that +it + + top of page - 1032 + +has proved to be the most adaptive, amorphic religion to appear on Urantia. It +is capable of almost unlimited change and possesses an unusual range of +flexible adjustment from the high and semimonotheistic speculations of the +intellectual Brahman to the arrant fetishism and primitive cult practices of +the debased and depressed classes of ignorant believers. + +Hinduism has survived because it is essentially an integral part of the basic +social fabric of India. It has no great hierarchy which can be disturbed or +destroyed; it is interwoven into the life pattern of the people. It has an +adaptability to changing conditions that excels all other cults, and it +displays a tolerant attitude of adoption toward many other religions, Gautama +Buddha and even Christ himself being claimed as incarnations of Vishnu. + +Today, in India, the great need is for the portrayal of the Jesusonian +gospel--the Fatherhood of God and the sonship and consequent brotherhood of all +men, which is personally realized in loving ministry and social service. In +India the philosophical framework is existent, the cult structure is present; +all that is needed is the vitalizing spark of the dynamic love portrayed in the +original gospel of the Son of Man, divested of the Occidental dogmas and +doctrines which have tended to make Michael's life bestowal a white man's +religion. + +5. THE STRUGGLE FOR TRUTH IN CHINA + +As the Salem missionaries passed through Asia, spreading the doctrine of the +Most High God and salvation through faith, they absorbed much of the philosophy +and religious thought of the various countries traversed. But the teachers +commissioned by Melchizedek and his successors did not default in their trust; +they did penetrate to all peoples of the Eurasian continent, and it was in the +middle of the second millennium before Christ that they arrived in China. At +See Fuch, for more than one hundred years, the Salemites maintained their +headquarters, there training Chinese teachers who taught throughout all the +domains of the yellow race. + +It was in direct consequence of this teaching that the earliest form of Taoism +arose in China, a vastly different religion than the one which bears that name +today. Early or proto-Taoism was a compound of the following factors: + +1. The lingering teachings of Singlangton, which persisted in the concept of +Shang-ti, the God of Heaven. In the times of Singlangton the Chinese people +became virtually monotheistic; they concentrated their worship on the One +Truth, later known as the Spirit of Heaven, the universe ruler. And the yellow +race never fully lost this early concept of Deity, although in subsequent +centuries many subordinate gods and spirits insidiously crept into their +religion. + +2. The Salem religion of a Most High Creator Deity who would bestow his favor +upon mankind in response to man's faith. But it is all too true that, by the +time the Melchizedek missionaries had penetrated to the lands of the yellow +race, their original message had become considerably changed from the simple +doctrines of Salem in the days of Machiventa. + +3. The Brahman-Absolute concept of the Indian philosophers, coupled with the +desire to escape all evil. Perhaps the greatest extraneous influence in the +eastward spread of the Salem religion was exerted by the Indian teachers of the +Vedic faith, who injected their conception of the Brahman--the Absolute--into +the salvationistic thought of the Salemites. + + top of page - 1033 + +This composite belief spread through the lands of the yellow and brown races as +an underlying influence in religio-philosophic thought. In Japan this +proto-Taoism was known as Shinto, and in this country, far distant from Salem +of Palestine, the peoples learned of the incarnation of Machiventa Melchizedek, +who dwelt upon earth that the name of God might not be forgotten by mankind. + +In China all of these beliefs were later confused and compounded with the +ever-growing cult of ancestor worship. But never since the time of Singlangton +have the Chinese fallen into helpless slavery to priestcraft. The yellow race +was the first to emerge from barbaric bondage into orderly civilization because +it was the first to achieve some measure of freedom from the abject fear of the +gods, not even fearing the ghosts of the dead as other races feared them. China +met her defeat because she failed to progress beyond her early emancipation +from priests; she fell into an almost equally calamitous error, the worship of +ancestors. + +But the Salemites did not labor in vain. It was upon the foundations of their +gospel that the great philosophers of sixth-century China built their +teachings. The moral atmosphere and the spiritual sentiments of the times of +Lao-tse and Confucius grew up out of the teachings of the Salem missionaries of +an earlier age. + +6. LAO-TSE AND CONFUCIUS + +About six hundred years before the arrival of Michael, it seemed to +Melchizedek, long since departed from the flesh, that the purity of his +teaching on earth was being unduly jeopardized by general absorption into the +older Urantia beliefs. It appeared for a time that his mission as a forerunner +of Michael might be in danger of failing. And in the sixth century before +Christ, through an unusual co-ordination of spiritual agencies, not all of +which are understood even by the planetary supervisors, Urantia witnessed a +most unusual presentation of manifold religious truth. Through the agency of +several human teachers the Salem gospel was restated and revitalized, and as it +was then presented, much has persisted to the times of this writing. + +This unique century of spiritual progress was characterized by great religious, +moral, and philosophic teachers all over the civilized world. In China, the two +outstanding teachers were Lao-tse and Confucius. + +Lao-tse built directly upon the concepts of the Salem traditions when he +declared Tao to be the One First Cause of all creation. Lao was a man of great +spiritual vision. He taught that "man's eternal destiny was everlasting union +with Tao, Supreme God and Universal King." His comprehension of ultimate +causation was most discerning, for he wrote: "Unity arises out of the Absolute +Tao, and from Unity there appears cosmic Duality, and from such Duality, +Trinity springs forth into existence, and Trinity is the primal source of all +reality." "All reality is ever in balance between the potentials and the +actuals of the cosmos, and these are eternally harmonized by the spirit of +divinity." + +Lao-tse also made one of the earliest presentations of the doctrine of +returning good for evil: "Goodness begets goodness, but to the one who is truly +good, evil also begets goodness." + +He taught the return of the creature to the Creator and pictured life as the +emergence of a personality from the cosmic potentials, while death was like the + + top of page - 1034 + +returning home of this creature personality. His concept of true faith was +unusual, and he too likened it to the "attitude of a little child." + +His understanding of the eternal purpose of God was clear, for he said: "The +Absolute Deity does not strive but is always victorious; he does not coerce +mankind but always stands ready to respond to their true desires; the will of +God is eternal in patience and eternal in the inevitability of its expression." +And of the true religionist he said, in expressing the truth that it is more +blessed to give than to receive: "The good man seeks not to retain truth for +himself but rather attempts to bestow these riches upon his fellows, for that +is the realization of truth. The will of the Absolute God always benefits, +never destroys; the purpose of the true believer is always to act but never to +coerce." + +Lao's teaching of nonresistance and the distinction which he made between +action and coercion became later perverted into the beliefs of "seeing, doing, +and thinking nothing." But Lao never taught such error, albeit his presentation +of nonresistance has been a factor in the further development of the pacific +predilections of the Chinese peoples. + +But the popular Taoism of twentieth-century Urantia has very little in common +with the lofty sentiments and the cosmic concepts of the old philosopher who +taught the truth as he perceived it, which was: That faith in the Absolute God +is the source of that divine energy which will remake the world, and by which +man ascends to spiritual union with Tao, the Eternal Deity and Creator Absolute +of the universes. + +Confucius (Kung Fu-tze) was a younger contemporary of Lao in sixth-century +China. Confucius based his doctrines upon the better moral traditions of the +long history of the yellow race, and he was also somewhat influenced by the +lingering traditions of the Salem missionaries. His chief work consisted in the +compilation of the wise sayings of ancient philosophers. He was a rejected +teacher during his lifetime, but his writings and teachings have ever since +exerted a great influence in China and Japan. Confucius set a new pace for the +shamans in that he put morality in the place of magic. But he built too well; +he made a new fetish out of order and established a respect for ancestral +conduct that is still venerated by the Chinese at the time of this writing. + +The Confucian preachment of morality was predicated on the theory that the +earthly way is the distorted shadow of the heavenly way; that the true pattern +of temporal civilization is the mirror reflection of the eternal order of +heaven. The potential God concept in Confucianism was almost completely +subordinated to the emphasis placed upon the Way of Heaven, the pattern of the +cosmos. + +The teachings of Lao have been lost to all but a few in the Orient, but the +writings of Confucius have ever since constituted the basis of the moral fabric +of the culture of almost a third of Urantians. These Confucian precepts, while +perpetuating the best of the past, were somewhat inimical to the very Chinese +spirit of investigation that had produced those achievements which were so +venerated. The influence of these doctrines was unsuccessfully combated both by +the imperial efforts of Ch'in Shih Huang Ti and by the teachings of Mo Ti, who +proclaimed a brotherhood founded not on ethical duty but on the love of God. He +sought to rekindle the ancient quest for new truth, but his teachings failed +before the vigorous opposition of the disciples of Confucius. + +Like many other spiritual and moral teachers, both Confucius and Lao-tse were +eventually deified by their followers in those spiritually dark ages of China + + top of page - 1035 + +which intervened between the decline and perversion of the Taoist faith and the +coming of the Buddhist missionaries from India. During these spiritually +decadent centuries the religion of the yellow race degenerated into a pitiful +theology wherein swarmed devils, dragons, and evil spirits, all betokening the +returning fears of the unenlightened mortal mind. And China, once at the head +of human society because of an advanced religion, then fell behind because of +temporary failure to progress in the true path of the development of that +God-consciousness which is indispensable to the true progress, not only of the +individual mortal, but also of the intricate and complex civilizations which +characterize the advance of culture and society on an evolutionary planet of +time and space. + +7. GAUTAMA SIDDHARTHA + +Contemporary with Lao-tse and Confucius in China, another great teacher of +truth arose in India. Gautama Siddhartha was born in the sixth century before +Christ in the north Indian province of Nepal. His followers later made it +appear that he was the son of a fabulously wealthy ruler, but, in truth, he was +the heir apparent to the throne of a petty chieftain who ruled by sufferance +over a small and secluded mountain valley in the southern Himalayas. + +Gautama formulated those theories which grew into the philosophy of Buddhism +after six years of the futile practice of Yoga. Siddhartha made a determined +but unavailing fight against the growing caste system. There was a lofty +sincerity and a unique unselfishness about this young prophet prince that +greatly appealed to the men of those days. He detracted from the practice of +seeking individual salvation through physical affliction and personal pain. And +he exhorted his followers to carry his gospel to all the world. + +Amid the confusion and extreme cult practices of India, the saner and more +moderate teachings of Gautama came as a refreshing relief. He denounced gods, +priests, and their sacrifices, but he too failed to perceive the personality of +the One Universal. Not believing in the existence of individual human souls, +Gautama, of course, made a valiant fight against the time-honored belief in +transmigration of the soul. He made a noble effort to deliver men from fear, to +make them feel at ease and at home in the great universe, but he failed to show +them the pathway to that real and supernal home of ascending +mortals--Paradise--and to the expanding service of eternal existence. + +Gautama was a real prophet, and had he heeded the instruction of the hermit +Godad, he might have aroused all India by the inspiration of the revival of the +Salem gospel of salvation by faith. Godad was descended through a family that +had never lost the traditions of the Melchizedek missionaries. + +At Benares Gautama founded his school, and it was during its second year that a +pupil, Bautan, imparted to his teacher the traditions of the Salem missionaries +about the Melchizedek covenant with Abraham; and while Siddhartha did not have +a very clear concept of the Universal Father, he took an advanced stand on +salvation through faith--simple belief. He so declared himself before his +followers and began sending his students out in groups of sixty to proclaim to +the people of India "the glad tidings of free salvation; that all men, high and +low, can attain bliss by faith in righteousness and justice." + +Gautama's wife believed her husband's gospel and was the founder of an order of +nuns. His son became his successor and greatly extended the cult; he + + top of page - 1036 + +grasped the new idea of salvation through faith but in his later years wavered +regarding the Salem gospel of divine favor through faith alone, and in his old +age his dying words were, "Work out your own salvation." + +When proclaimed at its best, Gautama's gospel of universal salvation, free from +sacrifice, torture, ritual, and priests, was a revolutionary and amazing +doctrine for its time. And it came surprisingly near to being a revival of the +Salem gospel. It brought succor to millions of despairing souls, and +notwithstanding its grotesque perversion during later centuries, it still +persists as the hope of millions of human beings. + +Siddhartha taught far more truth than has survived in the modern cults bearing +his name. Modern Buddhism is no more the teachings of Gautama Siddhartha than +is Christianity the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. + +8. THE BUDDHIST FAITH + +To become a Buddhist, one merely made public profession of the faith by +reciting the Refuge: "I take my refuge in the Buddha; I take my refuge in the +Doctrine; I take my refuge in the Brotherhood." + +Buddhism took origin in a historic person, not in a myth. Gautama's followers +called him Sasta, meaning master or teacher. While he made no superhuman claims +for either himself or his teachings, his disciples early began to call him the +enlightened one, the Buddha; later on, Sakyamuni Buddha. + +The original gospel of Gautama was based on the four noble truths: + +1. The noble truths of suffering. + +2. The origins of suffering. + +3. The destruction of suffering. + +4. The way to the destruction of suffering. + +Closely linked to the doctrine of suffering and the escape therefrom was the +philosophy of the Eightfold Path: right views, aspirations, speech, conduct, +livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and contemplation. It was not Gautama's +intention to attempt to destroy all effort, desire, and affection in the escape +from suffering; rather was his teaching designed to picture to mortal man the +futility of pinning all hope and aspirations entirely on temporal goals and +material objectives. It was not so much that love of one's fellows should be +shunned as that the true believer should also look beyond the associations of +this material world to the realities of the eternal future. + +The moral commandments of Gautama's preachment were five in number: + +1. You shall not kill. + +2. You shall not steal. + +3. You shall not be unchaste. + +4. You shall not lie. + +5. You shall not drink intoxicating liquors. + +There were several additional or secondary commandments, whose observance was +optional with believers. + +Siddhartha hardly believed in the immortality of the human personality; his +philosophy only provided for a sort of functional continuity. He never clearly + + top of page - 1037 + +defined what he meant to include in the doctrine of Nirvana. The fact that it +could theoretically be experienced during mortal existence would indicate that +it was not viewed as a state of complete annihilation. It implied a condition +of supreme enlightenment and supernal bliss wherein all fetters binding man to +the material world had been broken; there was freedom from the desires of +mortal life and deliverance from all danger of ever again experiencing +incarnation. + +According to the original teachings of Gautama, salvation is achieved by human +effort, apart from divine help; there is no place for saving faith or prayers +to superhuman powers. Gautama, in his attempt to minimize the superstitions of +India, endeavored to turn men away from the blatant claims of magical +salvation. And in making this effort, he left the door wide open for his +successors to misinterpret his teaching and to proclaim that all human striving +for attainment is distasteful and painful. His followers overlooked the fact +that the highest happiness is linked with the intelligent and enthusiastic +pursuit of worthy goals, and that such achievements constitute true progress in +cosmic self-realization. + +The great truth of Siddhartha's teaching was his proclamation of a universe of +absolute justice. He taught the best godless philosophy ever invented by mortal +man; it was the ideal humanism and most effectively removed all grounds for +superstition, magical rituals, and fear of ghosts or demons. + +The great weakness in the original gospel of Buddhism was that it did not +produce a religion of unselfish social service. The Buddhistic brotherhood was, +for a long time, not a fraternity of believers but rather a community of +student teachers. Gautama forbade their receiving money and thereby sought to +prevent the growth of hierarchal tendencies. Gautama himself was highly social; +indeed, his life was much greater than his preachment. + +9. THE SPREAD OF BUDDHISM + +Buddhism prospered because it offered salvation through belief in the Buddha, +the enlightened one. It was more representative of the Melchizedek truths than +any other religious system to be found throughout eastern Asia. But Buddhism +did not become widespread as a religion until it was espoused in +self-protection by the low-caste monarch Asoka, who, next to Ikhnaton in Egypt, +was one of the most remarkable civil rulers between Melchizedek and Michael. +Asoka built a great Indian empire through the propaganda of his Buddhist +missionaries. During a period of twenty-five years he trained and sent forth +more than seventeen thousand missionaries to the farthest frontiers of all the +known world. In one generation he made Buddhism the dominant religion of one +half the world. It soon became established in Tibet, Kashmir, Ceylon, Burma, +Java, Siam, Korea, China, and Japan. And generally speaking, it was a religion +vastly superior to those which it supplanted or upstepped. + +The spread of Buddhism from its homeland in India to all of Asia is one of the +thrilling stories of the spiritual devotion and missionary persistence of +sincere religionists. The teachers of Gautama's gospel not only braved the +perils of the overland caravan routes but faced the dangers of the China Seas +as they pursued their mission over the Asiatic continent, bringing to all +peoples the message of their faith. But this Buddhism was no longer the simple +doctrine of Gautama; it was the miraculized gospel which made him a god. And +the farther Buddhism spread from its highland home in India, the more unlike +the teachings of Gautama it became, and the more like the religions it +supplanted, it grew to be. + + top of page - 1038 + +Buddhism, later on, was much affected by Taoism in China, Shinto in Japan, and +Christianity in Tibet. After a thousand years, in India Buddhism simply +withered and expired. It became Brahmanized and later abjectly surrendered to +Islam, while throughout much of the rest of the Orient it degenerated into a +ritual which Gautama Siddhartha would never have recognized. + +In the south the fundamentalist stereotype of the teachings of Siddhartha +persisted in Ceylon, Burma, and the Indo-China peninsula. This is the Hinayana +division of Buddhism which clings to the early or asocial doctrine. + +But even before the collapse in India, the Chinese and north Indian groups of +Gautama's followers had begun the development of the Mahayana teaching of the +"Great Road" to salvation in contrast with the purists of the south who held to +the Hinayana, or "Lesser Road." And these Mahayanists cast loose from the +social limitations inherent in the Buddhist doctrine, and ever since has this +northern division of Buddhism continued to evolve in China and Japan. + +Buddhism is a living, growing religion today because it succeeds in conserving +many of the highest moral values of its adherents. It promotes calmness and +self-control, augments serenity and happiness, and does much to prevent sorrow +and mourning. Those who believe this philosophy live better lives than many who +do not. + +10. RELIGION IN TIBET + +In Tibet may be found the strangest association of the Melchizedek teachings +combined with Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Christianity. When the Buddhist +missionaries entered Tibet, they encountered a state of primitive savagery very +similar to that which the early Christian missionaries found among the northern +tribes of Europe. + +These simple-minded Tibetans would not wholly give up their ancient magic and +charms. Examination of the religious ceremonials of present-day Tibetan rituals +reveals an overgrown brotherhood of priests with shaven heads who practice an +elaborate ritual embracing bells, chants, incense, processionals, rosaries, +images, charms, pictures, holy water, gorgeous vestments, and elaborate choirs. +They have rigid dogmas and crystallized creeds, mystic rites and special fasts. +Their hierarchy embraces monks, nuns, abbots, and the Grand Lama. They pray to +angels, saints, a Holy Mother, and the gods. They practice confessions and +believe in purgatory. Their monasteries are extensive and their cathedrals +magnificent. They keep up an endless repetition of sacred rituals and believe +that such ceremonials bestow salvation. Prayers are fastened to a wheel, and +with its turning they believe the petitions become efficacious. Among no other +people of modern times can be found the observance of so much from so many +religions; and it is inevitable that such a cumulative liturgy would become +inordinately cumbersome and intolerably burdensome. + +The Tibetans have something of all the leading world religions except the +simple teachings of the Jesusonian gospel: sonship with God, brotherhood with +man, and ever-ascending citizenship in the eternal universe. + +11. BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY + +Buddhism entered China in the first millennium after Christ, and it fitted well +into the religious customs of the yellow race. In ancestor worship they had + + top of page - 1039 + +long prayed to the dead; now they could also pray for them. Buddhism soon +amalgamated with the lingering ritualistic practices of disintegrating Taoism. +This new synthetic religion with its temples of worship and definite religious +ceremonial soon became the generally accepted cult of the peoples of China, +Korea, and Japan. + +While in some respects it is unfortunate that Buddhism was not carried to the +world until after Gautama's followers had so perverted the traditions and +teachings of the cult as to make of him a divine being, nonetheless this myth +of his human life, embellished as it was with a multitude of miracles, proved +very appealing to the auditors of the northern or Mahayana gospel of Buddhism. + +Some of his later followers taught that Sakyamuni Buddha's spirit returned +periodically to earth as a living Buddha, thus opening the way for an +indefinite perpetuation of Buddha images, temples, rituals, and impostor +"living Buddhas." Thus did the religion of the great Indian protestant +eventually find itself shackled with those very ceremonial practices and +ritualistic incantations against which he had so fearlessly fought, and which +he had so valiantly denounced. + +The great advance made in Buddhist philosophy consisted in its comprehension of +the relativity of all truth. Through the mechanism of this hypothesis Buddhists +have been able to reconcile and correlate the divergencies within their own +religious scriptures as well as the differences between their own and many +others. It was taught that the small truth was for little minds, the large +truth for great minds. + +This philosophy also held that the Buddha (divine) nature resided in all men; +that man, through his own endeavors, could attain to the realization of this +inner divinity. And this teaching is one of the clearest presentations of the +truth of the indwelling Adjusters ever to be made by a Urantian religion. + +But a great limitation in the original gospel of Siddhartha, as it was +interpreted by his followers, was that it attempted the complete liberation of +the human self from all the limitations of the mortal nature by the technique +of isolating the self from objective reality. True cosmic self-realization +results from identification with cosmic reality and with the finite cosmos of +energy, mind, and spirit, bounded by space and conditioned by time. + +But though the ceremonies and outward observances of Buddhism became grossly +contaminated with those of the lands to which it traveled, this degeneration +was not altogether the case in the philosophical life of the great thinkers +who, from time to time, embraced this system of thought and belief. Through +more than two thousand years, many of the best minds of Asia have concentrated +upon the problem of ascertaining absolute truth and the truth of the Absolute. + +The evolution of a high concept of the Absolute was achieved through many +channels of thought and by devious paths of reasoning. The upward ascent of +this doctrine of infinity was not so clearly defined as was the evolution of +the God concept in Hebrew theology. Nevertheless, there were certain broad +levels which the minds of the Buddhists reached, tarried upon, and passed +through on their way to the envisioning of the Primal Source of universes: + +1. The Gautama legend. At the base of the concept was the historic fact of the +life and teachings of Siddhartha, the prophet prince of India. This legend grew +in myth as it traveled through the centuries and across the broad lands of Asia +until it surpassed the status of the idea of Gautama as the enlightened one and +began to take on additional attributes. + + top of page - 1040 + +2. The many Buddhas. It was reasoned that, if Gautama had come to the peoples +of India, then, in the remote past and in the remote future, the races of +mankind must have been, and undoubtedly would be, blessed with other teachers +of truth. This gave rise to the teaching that there were many Buddhas, an +unlimited and infinite number, even that anyone could aspire to become one--to +attain the divinity of a Buddha. + + top of page - 1041 + +3. The Absolute Buddha. By the time the number of Buddhas was approaching +infinity, it became necessary for the minds of those days to reunify this +unwieldy concept. Accordingly it began to be taught that all Buddhas were but +the manifestation of some higher essence, some Eternal One of infinite and +unqualified existence, some Absolute Source of all reality. From here on, the +Deity concept of Buddhism, in its highest form, becomes divorced from the human +person of Gautama Siddhartha and casts off from the anthropomorphic limitations +which have held it in leash. This final conception of the Buddha Eternal can +well be identified as the Absolute, sometimes even as the infinite I AM. + +While this idea of Absolute Deity never found great popular favor with the +peoples of Asia, it did enable the intellectuals of these lands to unify their +philosophy and to harmonize their cosmology. The concept of the Buddha Absolute +is at times quasi-personal, at times wholly impersonal--even an infinite +creative force. Such concepts, though helpful to philosophy, are not vital to +religious development. Even an anthropomorphic Yahweh is of greater religious +value than an infinitely remote Absolute of Buddhism or Brahmanism. + +At times the Absolute was even thought of as contained within the infinite I +AM. But these speculations were chill comfort to the hungry multitudes who +craved to hear words of promise, to hear the simple gospel of Salem, that faith +in God would assure divine favor and eternal survival. + +12. THE GOD CONCEPT OF BUDDHISM + +The great weakness in the cosmology of Buddhism was twofold: its contamination +with many of the superstitions of India and China and its sublimation of +Gautama, first as the enlightened one, and then as the Eternal Buddha. Just as +Christianity has suffered from the absorption of much erroneous human +philosophy, so does Buddhism bear its human birthmark. But the teachings of +Gautama have continued to evolve during the past two and one-half millenniums. +The concept of Buddha, to an enlightened Buddhist, is no more the human +personality of Gautama than the concept of Jehovah is identical with the spirit +demon of Horeb to an enlightened Christian. Paucity of terminology, together +with the sentimental retention of olden nomenclature, is often provocative of +the failure to understand the true significance of the evolution of religious +concepts. + +Gradually the concept of God, as contrasted with the Absolute, began to appear +in Buddhism. Its sources are back in the early days of this differentiation of +the followers of the Lesser Road and the Greater Road. It was among the latter +division of Buddhism that the dual conception of God and the Absolute finally +matured. Step by step, century by century, the God concept has evolved until, +with the teachings of Ryonin, Honen Shonin, and Shinran in Japan, this concept +finally came to fruit in the belief in Amida Buddha. + +Among these believers it is taught that the soul, upon experiencing death, may +elect to enjoy a sojourn in Paradise prior to entering Nirvana, the ultimate of +existence. It is proclaimed that this new salvation is attained by faith in the +divine mercies and loving care of Amida, God of the Paradise in the west. In +their philosophy, the Amidists hold to an Infinite Reality which is beyond all +finite mortal comprehension; in their religion, they cling to faith in the +all-merciful Amida, who so loves the world that he will not suffer one mortal +who calls on his name in true faith and with a pure heart to fail in the +attainment of the supernal happiness of Paradise. + +The great strength of Buddhism is that its adherents are free to choose truth +from all religions; such freedom of choice has seldom characterized a Urantian +faith. In this respect the Shin sect of Japan has become one of the most +progressive religious groups in the world; it has revived the ancient +missionary spirit of Gautama's followers and has begun to send teachers to +other peoples. This willingness to appropriate truth from any and all sources +is indeed a commendable tendency to appear among religious believers during the +first half of the twentieth century after Christ. + +Buddhism itself is undergoing a twentieth-century renaissance. Through contact +with Christianity the social aspects of Buddhism have been greatly enhanced. +The desire to learn has been rekindled in the hearts of the monk priests of the +brotherhood, and the spread of education throughout this faith will be +certainly provocative of new advances in religious evolution. + +At the time of this writing, much of Asia rests its hope in Buddhism. Will this +noble faith, that has so valiantly carried on through the dark ages of the +past, once again receive the truth of expanded cosmic realities even as the +disciples of the great teacher in India once listened to his proclamation of +new truth? Will this ancient faith respond once more to the invigorating +stimulus of the presentation of new concepts of God and the Absolute for which +it has so long searched? + +All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of +Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen +centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is +striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the +peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual +reality of the gospel of Jesus. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1042 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Machiventa ³ The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Melc... ³ Melchizedek... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p095.txt b/religious documents/p095.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..59a6269 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p095.txt @@ -0,0 +1,632 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 95 The Melchizedek Teachings In The Levant + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 95 The Melchizedek Teachings In The Levant + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AS INDIA gave rise to many of the religions and philosophies of eastern Asia, +so the Levant was the homeland of the faiths of the Occidental world. The Salem +missionaries spread out all over southwestern Asia, through Palestine, +Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran, and Arabia, everywhere proclaiming the good news of +the gospel of Machiventa Melchizedek. In some of these lands their teachings +bore fruit; in others they met with varying success. Sometimes their failures +were due to lack of wisdom, sometimes to circumstances beyond their control. + +1. THE SALEM RELIGION IN MESOPOTAMIA + +By 2000 B.C. the religions of Mesopotamia had just about lost the teachings of +the Sethites and were largely under the influence of the primitive beliefs of +two groups of invaders, the Bedouin Semites who had filtered in from the +western desert and the barbarian horsemen who had come down from the north. + +But the custom of the early Adamite peoples in honoring the seventh day of the +week never completely disappeared in Mesopotamia. Only, during the Melchizedek +era, the seventh day was regarded as the worst of bad luck. It was +taboo-ridden; it was unlawful to go on a journey, cook food, or make a fire on +the evil seventh day. The Jews carried back to Palestine many of the +Mesopotamian taboos which they had found resting on the Babylonian observance +of the seventh day, the Shabattum. + +Although the Salem teachers did much to refine and uplift the religions of +Mesopotamia, they did not succeed in bringing the various peoples to the +permanent recognition of one God. Such teaching gained the ascendency for more +than one hundred and fifty years and then gradually gave way to the older +belief in a multiplicity of deities. + +The Salem teachers greatly reduced the number of the gods of Mesopotamia, at +one time bringing the chief deities down to seven: Bel, Shamash, Nabu, Anu, Ea, +Marduk, and Sin. At the height of the new teaching they exalted three of these +gods to supremacy over all others, the Babylonian triad: Bel, Ea, and Anu, the +gods of earth, sea, and sky. Still other triads grew up in different +localities, all reminiscent of the trinity teachings of the Andites and the +Sumerians and based on the belief of the Salemites in Melchizedek's insignia of +the three circles. + +Never did the Salem teachers fully overcome the popularity of Ishtar, the +mother of gods and the spirit of sex fertility. They did much to refine the +worship of this goddess, but the Babylonians and their neighbors had never +completely outgrown their disguised forms of sex worship. It had become a +universal practice throughout Mesopotamia for all women to submit, at least +once in early life, to + + top of page - 1043 + +the embrace of strangers; this was thought to be a devotion required by Ishtar, +and it was believed that fertility was largely dependent on this sex sacrifice. + +The early progress of the Melchizedek teaching was highly gratifying until +Nabodad, the leader of the school at Kish, decided to make a concerted attack +upon the prevalent practices of temple harlotry. But the Salem missionaries +failed in their effort to bring about this social reform, and in the wreck of +this failure all their more important spiritual and philosophic teachings went +down in defeat. + +This defeat of the Salem gospel was immediately followed by a great increase in +the cult of Ishtar, a ritual which had already invaded Palestine as Ashtoreth, +Egypt as Isis, Greece as Aphrodite, and the northern tribes as Astarte. And it +was in connection with this revival of the worship of Ishtar that the +Babylonian priests turned anew to stargazing; astrology experienced its last +great Mesopotamian revival, fortunetelling became the vogue, and for centuries +the priesthood increasingly deteriorated. + +Melchizedek had warned his followers to teach about the one God, the Father and +Maker of all, and to preach only the gospel of divine favor through faith +alone. But it has often been the error of the teachers of new truth to attempt +too much, to attempt to supplant slow evolution by sudden revolution. The +Melchizedek missionaries in Mesopotamia raised a moral standard too high for +the people; they attempted too much, and their noble cause went down in defeat. +They had been commissioned to preach a definite gospel, to proclaim the truth +of the reality of the Universal Father, but they became entangled in the +apparently worthy cause of reforming the mores, and thus was their great +mission sidetracked and virtually lost in frustration and oblivion. + +In one generation the Salem headquarters at Kish came to an end, and the +propaganda of the belief in one God virtually ceased throughout Mesopotamia. +But remnants of the Salem schools persisted. Small bands scattered here and +there continued their belief in the one Creator and fought against the idolatry +and immorality of the Mesopotamian priests. + +It was the Salem missionaries of the period following the rejection of their +teaching who wrote many of the Old Testament Psalms, inscribing them on stone, +where later-day Hebrew priests found them during the captivity and subsequently +incorporated them among the collection of hymns ascribed to Jewish authorship. +These beautiful psalms from Babylon were not written in the temples of +Bel-Marduk; they were the work of the descendants of the earlier Salem +missionaries, and they are a striking contrast to the magical conglomerations +of the Babylonian priests. The Book of Job is a fairly good reflection of the +teachings of the Salem school at Kish and throughout Mesopotamia. + +Much of the Mesopotamian religious culture found its way into Hebrew literature +and liturgy by way of Egypt through the work of Amenemope and Ikhnaton. The +Egyptians remarkably preserved the teachings of social obligation derived from +the earlier Andite Mesopotamians and so largely lost by the later Babylonians +who occupied the Euphrates valley. + +2. EARLY EGYPTIAN RELIGION + +The original Melchizedek teachings really took their deepest root in Egypt, +from where they subsequently spread to Europe. The evolutionary religion of + + top of page - 1044 + +the Nile valley was periodically augmented by the arrival of superior strains +of Nodite, Adamite, and later Andite peoples of the Euphrates valley. From time +to time, many of the Egyptian civil administrators were Sumerians. As India in +these days harbored the highest mixture of the world races, so Egypt fostered +the most thoroughly blended type of religious philosophy to be found on +Urantia, and from the Nile valley it spread to many parts of the world. The +Jews received much of their idea of the creation of the world from the +Babylonians, but they derived the concept of divine Providence from the +Egyptians. + +It was political and moral, rather than philosophic or religious, tendencies +that rendered Egypt more favorable to the Salem teaching than Mesopotamia. Each +tribal leader in Egypt, after fighting his way to the throne, sought to +perpetuate his dynasty by proclaiming his tribal god the original deity and +creator of all other gods. In this way the Egyptians gradually got used to the +idea of a supergod, a steppingstone to the later doctrine of a universal +creator Deity. The idea of monotheism wavered back and forth in Egypt for many +centuries, the belief in one God always gaining ground but never quite +dominating the evolving concepts of polytheism. + +For ages the Egyptian peoples had been given to the worship of nature gods; +more particularly did each of the twoscore separate tribes have a special group +god, one worshiping the bull, another the lion, a third the ram, and so on. +Still earlier they had been totem tribes, very much like the Amerinds. + +In time the Egyptians observed that dead bodies placed in brickless graves were +preserved--embalmed--by the action of the soda-impregnated sand, while those +buried in brick vaults decayed. These observations led to those experiments +which resulted in the later practice of embalming the dead. The Egyptians +believed that preservation of the body facilitated one's passage through the +future life. That the individual might properly be identified in the distant +future after the decay of the body, they placed a burial statue in the tomb +along with the corpse, carving a likeness on the coffin. The making of these +burial statues led to great improvement in Egyptian art. + +For centuries the Egyptians placed their faith in tombs as the safeguard of the +body and of consequent pleasurable survival after death. The later evolution of +magical practices, while burdensome to life from the cradle to the grave, most +effectually delivered them from the religion of the tombs. The priests would +inscribe the coffins with charm texts which were believed to be protection +against a "man's having his heart taken away from him in the nether world." +Presently a diverse assortment of these magical texts was collected and +preserved as The Book of the Dead. But in the Nile valley magical ritual early +became involved with the realms of conscience and character to a degree not +often attained by the rituals of those days. And subsequently these ethical and +moral ideals, rather than elaborate tombs, were depended upon for salvation. + +The superstitions of these times are well illustrated by the general belief in +the efficacy of spittle as a healing agent, an idea which had its origin in +Egypt and spread therefrom to Arabia and Mesopotamia. In the legendary battle +of Horus with Set the young god lost his eye, but after Set was vanquished, +this eye was restored by the wise god Thoth, who spat upon the wound and healed +it. + +The Egyptians long believed that the stars twinkling in the night sky +represented the survival of the souls of the worthy dead; other survivors they +thought were absorbed into the sun. During a certain period, solar veneration +became a + + top of page - 1045 + +species of ancestor worship. The sloping entrance passage of the great pyramid +pointed directly toward the Pole Star so that the soul of the king, when +emerging from the tomb, could go straight to the stationary and established +constellations of the fixed stars, the supposed abode of the kings. + +When the oblique rays of the sun were observed penetrating earthward through an +aperture in the clouds, it was believed that they betokened the letting down of +a celestial stairway whereon the king and other righteous souls might ascend. +"King Pepi has put down his radiance as a stairway under his feet whereon to +ascend to his mother." + +When Melchizedek appeared in the flesh, the Egyptians had a religion far above +that of the surrounding peoples. They believed that a disembodied soul, if +properly armed with magic formulas, could evade the intervening evil spirits +and make its way to the judgment hall of Osiris, where, if innocent of "murder, +robbery, falsehood, adultery, theft, and selfishness," it would be admitted to +the realms of bliss. If this soul were weighed in the balances and found +wanting, it would be consigned to hell, to the Devouress. And this was, +relatively, an advanced concept of a future life in comparison with the beliefs +of many surrounding peoples. + +The concept of judgment in the hereafter for the sins of one's life in the +flesh on earth was carried over into Hebrew theology from Egypt. The word +judgment appears only once in the entire Book of Hebrew Psalms, and that +particular psalm was written by an Egyptian. + +3. EVOLUTION OF MORAL CONCEPTS + +Although the culture and religion of Egypt were chiefly derived from Andite +Mesopotamia and largely transmitted to subsequent civilizations through the +Hebrews and Greeks, much, very much, of the social and ethical idealism of the +Egyptians arose in the valley of the Nile as a purely evolutionary development. +Notwithstanding the importation of much truth and culture of Andite origin, +there evolved in Egypt more of moral culture as a purely human development than +appeared by similar natural techniques in any other circumscribed area prior to +the bestowal of Michael. + +Moral evolution is not wholly dependent on revelation. High moral concepts can +be derived from man's own experience. Man can even evolve spiritual values and +derive cosmic insight from his personal experiential living because a divine +spirit indwells him. Such natural evolutions of conscience and character were +also augmented by the periodic arrival of teachers of truth, in ancient times +from the second Eden, later on from Melchizedek's headquarters at Salem. + +Thousands of years before the Salem gospel penetrated to Egypt, its moral +leaders taught justice, fairness, and the avoidance of avarice. Three thousand +years before the Hebrew scriptures were written, the motto of the Egyptians +was: "Established is the man whose standard is righteousness; who walks +according to its way." They taught gentleness, moderation, and discretion. The +message of one of the great teachers of this epoch was: "Do right and deal +justly with all." The Egyptian triad of this age was +Truth-Justice-Righteousness. Of all the purely human religions of Urantia none +ever surpassed the social ideals and the moral grandeur of this onetime +humanism of the Nile valley. + +In the soil of these evolving ethical ideas and moral ideals the surviving +doctrines of the Salem religion flourished. The concepts of good and evil found + + top of page - 1046 + +ready response in the hearts of a people who believed that "Life is given to +the peaceful and death to the guilty." "The peaceful is he who does what is +loved; the guilty is he who does what is hated." For centuries the inhabitants +of the Nile valley had lived by these emerging ethical and social standards +before they ever entertained the later concepts of right and wrong--good and +bad. + +Egypt was intellectual and moral but not overly spiritual. In six thousand +years only four great prophets arose among the Egyptians. Amenemope they +followed for a season; Okhban they murdered; Ikhnaton they accepted but +halfheartedly for one short generation; Moses they rejected. Again was it +political rather than religious circumstances that made it easy for Abraham +and, later on, for Joseph to exert great influence throughout Egypt in behalf +of the Salem teachings of one God. But when the Salem missionaries first +entered Egypt, they encountered this highly ethical culture of evolution +blended with the modified moral standards of Mesopotamian immigrants. These +early Nile valley teachers were the first to proclaim conscience as the mandate +of God, the voice of Deity. + +4. THE TEACHINGS OF AMENEMOPE + +In due time there grew up in Egypt a teacher called by many the "son of man" +and by others Amenemope. This seer exalted conscience to its highest pinnacle +of arbitrament between right and wrong, taught punishment for sin, and +proclaimed salvation through calling upon the solar deity. + +Amenemope taught that riches and fortune were the gift of God, and this concept +thoroughly colored the later appearing Hebrew philosophy. This noble teacher +believed that God-consciousness was the determining factor in all conduct; that +every moment should be lived in the realization of the presence of, and +responsibility to, God. The teachings of this sage were subsequently translated +into Hebrew and became the sacred book of that people long before the Old +Testament was reduced to writing. The chief preachment of this good man had to +do with instructing his son in uprightness and honesty in governmental +positions of trust, and these noble sentiments of long ago would do honor to +any modern statesman. + +This wise man of the Nile taught that "riches take themselves wings and fly +away"--that all things earthly are evanescent. His great prayer was to be +"saved from fear." He exhorted all to turn away from "the words of men" to "the +acts of God." In substance he taught: Man proposes but God disposes. His +teachings, translated into Hebrew, determined the philosophy of the Old +Testament Book of Proverbs. Translated into Greek, they gave color to all +subsequent Hellenic religious philosophy. The later Alexandrian philosopher, +Philo, possessed a copy of the Book of Wisdom. + +Amenemope functioned to conserve the ethics of evolution and the morals of +revelation and in his writings passed them on both to the Hebrews and to the +Greeks. He was not the greatest of the religious teachers of this age, but he +was the most influential in that he colored the subsequent thought of two vital +links in the growth of Occidental civilization--the Hebrews, among whom evolved +the acme of Occidental religious faith, and the Greeks, who developed pure +philosophic thought to its greatest European heights. + +In the Book of Hebrew Proverbs, chapters fifteen, seventeen, twenty, and +chapter twenty-two, verse seventeen, to chapter twenty-four, verse twenty-two, + + top of page - 1047 + +are taken almost verbatim from Amenemope's Book of Wisdom. The first psalm of +the Hebrew Book of Psalms was written by Amenemope and is the heart of the +teachings of Ikhnaton. + +5. THE REMARKABLE IKHNATON + +The teachings of Amenemope were slowly losing their hold on the Egyptian mind +when, through the influence of an Egyptian Salemite physician, a woman of the +royal family espoused the Melchizedek teachings. This woman prevailed upon her +son, Ikhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt, to accept these doctrines of One God. + +Since the disappearance of Melchizedek in the flesh, no human being up to that +time had possessed such an amazingly clear concept of the revealed religion of +Salem as Ikhnaton. In some respects this young Egyptian king is one of the most +remarkable persons in human history. During this time of increasing spiritual +depression in Mesopotamia, he kept alive the doctrine of El Elyon, the One God, +in Egypt, thus maintaining the philosophic monotheistic channel which was vital +to the religious background of the then future bestowal of Michael. And it was +in recognition of this exploit, among other reasons, that the child Jesus was +taken to Egypt, where some of the spiritual successors of Ikhnaton saw him and +to some extent understood certain phases of his divine mission to Urantia. + +Moses, the greatest character between Melchizedek and Jesus, was the joint gift +to the world of the Hebrew race and the Egyptian royal family; and had Ikhnaton +possessed the versatility and ability of Moses, had he manifested a political +genius to match his surprising religious leadership, then would Egypt have +become the great monotheistic nation of that age; and if this had happened, it +is barely possible that Jesus might have lived the greater portion of his +mortal life in Egypt. + +Never in all history did any king so methodically proceed to swing a whole +nation from polytheism to monotheism as did this extraordinary Ikhnaton. With +the most amazing determination this young ruler broke with the past, changed +his name, abandoned his capital, built an entirely new city, and created a + + top of page - 1048 + +new art and literature for a whole people. But he went too fast; he built too +much, more than could stand when he had gone. Again, he failed to provide for +the material stability and prosperity of his people, all of which reacted +unfavorably against his religious teachings when the subsequent floods of +adversity and oppression swept over the Egyptians. + +Had this man of amazingly clear vision and extraordinary singleness of purpose +had the political sagacity of Moses, he would have changed the whole history of +the evolution of religion and the revelation of truth in the Occidental world. +During his lifetime he was able to curb the activities of the priests, whom he +generally discredited, but they maintained their cults in secret and sprang +into action as soon as the young king passed from power; and they were not slow +to connect all of Egypt's subsequent troubles with the establishment of +monotheism during his reign. + +Very wisely Ikhnaton sought to establish monotheism under the guise of the +sun-god. This decision to approach the worship of the Universal Father by +absorbing all gods into the worship of the sun was due to the counsel of the +Salemite physician. Ikhnaton took the generalized doctrines of the then +existent Aton faith regarding the fatherhood and motherhood of Deity and +created a religion which recognized an intimate worshipful relation between man +and God. + +Ikhnaton was wise enough to maintain the outward worship of Aton, the sun-god, +while he led his associates in the disguised worship of the One God, creator of +Aton and supreme Father of all. This young teacher-king was a prolific writer, +being author of the exposition entitled "The One God," a book of thirty-one +chapters, which the priests, when returned to power, utterly destroyed. +Ikhnaton also wrote one hundred and thirty-seven hymns, twelve of which are now +preserved in the Old Testament Book of Psalms, credited to Hebrew authorship. + +The supreme word of Ikhnaton's religion in daily life was "righteousness," and +he rapidly expanded the concept of right doing to embrace international as well +as national ethics. This was a generation of amazing personal piety and was +characterized by a genuine aspiration among the more intelligent men and women +to find God and to know him. In those days social position or wealth gave no +Egyptian any advantage in the eyes of the law. The family life of Egypt did +much to preserve and augment moral culture and was the inspiration of the later +superb family life of the Jews in Palestine. + +The fatal weakness of Ikhnaton's gospel was its greatest truth, the teaching +that Aton was not only the creator of Egypt but also of the "whole world, man +and beasts, and all the foreign lands, even Syria and Kush, besides this land +of Egypt. He sets all in their place and provides all with their needs." These +concepts of Deity were high and exalted, but they were not nationalistic. Such +sentiments of internationality in religion failed to augment the morale of the +Egyptian army on the battlefield, while they provided effective weapons for the +priests to use against the young king and his new religion. He had a Deity +concept far above that of the later Hebrews, but it was too advanced to serve +the purposes of a nation builder. + +Though the monotheistic ideal suffered with the passing of Ikhnaton, the idea +of one God persisted in the minds of many groups. The son-in law of Ikhnaton +went along with the priests, back to the worship of the old gods, changing his +name to Tutankhamen. The capital returned to Thebes, and the priests waxed fat +upon the land, eventually gaining possession of one seventh of all Egypt; and +presently one of this same order of priests made bold to seize the crown. + +But the priests could not fully overcome the monotheistic wave. Increasingly +they were compelled to combine and hyphenate their gods; more and more the +family of gods contracted. Ikhnaton had associated the flaming disc of the +heavens with the creator God, and this idea continued to flame up in the hearts +of men, even of the priests, long after the young reformer had passed on. Never +did the concept of monotheism die out of the hearts of men in Egypt and in the +world. It persisted even to the arrival of the Creator Son of that same divine +Father, the one God whom Ikhnaton had so zealously proclaimed for the worship +of all Egypt. + +The weakness of Ikhnaton's doctrine lay in the fact that he proposed such an +advanced religion that only the educated Egyptians could fully comprehend his +teachings. The rank and file of the agricultural laborers never really grasped +his gospel and were, therefore, ready to return with the priests to the +old-time worship of Isis and her consort Osiris, who was supposed to have been +miraculously resurrected from a cruel death at the hands of Set, the god of +darkness and evil. + + top of page - 1049 + +The teaching of immortality for all men was too advanced for the Egyptians. +Only kings and the rich were promised a resurrection; therefore did they so +carefully embalm and preserve their bodies in tombs against the day of +judgment. But the democracy of salvation and resurrection as taught by Ikhnaton +eventually prevailed, even to the extent that the Egyptians later believed in +the survival of dumb animals. + +Although the effort of this Egyptian ruler to impose the worship of one God +upon his people appeared to fail, it should be recorded that the repercussions +of his work persisted for centuries both in Palestine and Greece, and that +Egypt thus became the agent for transmitting the combined evolutionary culture +of the Nile and the revelatory religion of the Euphrates to all of the +subsequent peoples of the Occident. + +The glory of this great era of moral development and spiritual growth in the +Nile valley was rapidly passing at about the time the national life of the +Hebrews was beginning, and consequent upon their sojourn in Egypt these +Bedouins carried away much of these teachings and perpetuated many of +Ikhnaton's doctrines in their racial religion. + +6. THE SALEM DOCTRINES IN IRAN + +From Palestine some of the Melchizedek missionaries passed on through +Mesopotamia and to the great Iranian plateau. For more than five hundred years +the Salem teachers made headway in Iran, and the whole nation was swinging to +the Melchizedek religion when a change of rulers precipitated a bitter +persecution which practically ended the monotheistic teachings of the Salem +cult. The doctrine of the Abrahamic covenant was virtually extinct in Persia +when, in that great century of moral renaissance, the sixth before Christ, +Zoroaster appeared to revive the smouldering embers of the Salem gospel. + +This founder of a new religion was a virile and adventurous youth, who, on his +first pilgrimage to Ur in Mesopotamia, had learned of the traditions of the +Caligastia and the Lucifer rebellion--along with many other traditions--all of +which had made a strong appeal to his religious nature. Accordingly, as the +result of a dream while in Ur, he settled upon a program of returning to his +northern home to undertake the remodeling of the religion of his people. He had +imbibed the Hebraic idea of a God of justice, the Mosaic concept of divinity. +The idea of a supreme God was clear in his mind, and he set down all other gods +as devils, consigned them to the ranks of the demons of which he had heard in +Mesopotamia. He had learned of the story of the Seven Master Spirits as the +tradition lingered in Ur, and, accordingly, he created a galaxy of seven +supreme gods with Ahura-Mazda at its head. These subordinate gods he associated +with the idealization of Right Law, Good Thought, Noble Government, Holy +Character, Health, and Immortality. + +And this new religion was one of action--work--not prayers and rituals. Its God +was a being of supreme wisdom and the patron of civilization; it was a militant +religious philosophy which dared to battle with evil, inaction, and +backwardness. + +Zoroaster did not teach the worship of fire but sought to utilize the flame as +a symbol of the pure and wise Spirit of universal and supreme dominance. (All +too true, his later followers did both reverence and worship this symbolic +fire.) + + top of page - 1050 + +Finally, upon the conversion of an Iranian prince, this new religion was spread +by the sword. And Zoroaster heroically died in battle for that which he +believed was the "truth of the Lord of light." + +Zoroastrianism is the only Urantian creed that perpetuates the Dalamatian and +Edenic teachings about the Seven Master Spirits. While failing to evolve the +Trinity concept, it did in a certain way approach that of God the Sevenfold. +Original Zoroastrianism was not a pure dualism; though the early teachings did +picture evil as a time co-ordinate of goodness, it was definitely +eternity-submerged in the ultimate reality of the good. Only in later times did +the belief gain credence that good and evil contended on equal terms. + +The Jewish traditions of heaven and hell and the doctrine of devils as recorded +in the Hebrew scriptures, while founded on the lingering traditions of Lucifer +and Caligastia, were principally derived from the Zoroastrians during the times +when the Jews were under the political and cultural dominance of the Persians. +Zoroaster, like the Egyptians, taught the "day of judgment," but he connected +this event with the end of the world. + +Even the religion which succeeded Zoroastrianism in Persia was markedly +influenced by it. When the Iranian priests sought to overthrow the teachings of +Zoroaster, they resurrected the ancient worship of Mithra. And Mithraism spread +throughout the Levant and Mediterranean regions, being for some time a +contemporary of both Judaism and Christianity. The teachings of Zoroaster thus +came successively to impress three great religions: Judaism and Christianity +and, through them, Mohammedanism. + +But it is a far cry from the exalted teachings and noble psalms of Zoroaster to +the modern perversions of his gospel by the Parsees with their great fear of +the dead, coupled with the entertainment of beliefs in sophistries which +Zoroaster never stooped to countenance. + +This great man was one of that unique group that sprang up in the sixth century +before Christ to keep the light of Salem from being fully and finally +extinguished as it so dimly burned to show man in his darkened world the path +of light leading to everlasting life. + +7. THE SALEM TEACHINGS IN ARABIA + +The Melchizedek teachings of the one God became established in the Arabian +desert at a comparatively recent date. As in Greece, so in Arabia the Salem +missionaries failed because of their misunderstanding of Machiventa's +instructions regarding overorganization. But they were not thus hindered by +their interpretation of his admonition against all efforts to extend the gospel +through military force or civil compulsion. + +Not even in China or Rome did the Melchizedek teachings fail more completely +than in this desert region so very near Salem itself. Long after the majority +of the peoples of the Orient and Occident had become respectively Buddhist and +Christian, the desert of Arabia continued as it had for thousands of years. +Each tribe worshiped its olden fetish, and many individual families had their +own household gods. Long the struggle continued between Babylonian Ishtar, +Hebrew Yahweh, Iranian Ahura, and Christian Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. +Never was one concept able fully to displace the others. + + top of page - 1051 + +Here and there throughout Arabia were families and clans that held on to the +hazy idea of the one God. Such groups treasured the traditions of Melchizedek, +Abraham, Moses, and Zoroaster. There were numerous centers that might have +responded to the Jesusonian gospel, but the Christian missionaries of the +desert lands were an austere and unyielding group in contrast with the +compromisers and innovators who functioned as missionaries in the Mediterranean +countries. Had the followers of Jesus taken more seriously his injunction to +"go into all the world and preach the gospel," and had they been more gracious +in that preaching, less stringent in collateral social requirements of their +own devising, then many lands would gladly have received the simple gospel of +the carpenter's son, Arabia among them. + +Despite the fact that the great Levantine monotheisms failed to take root in +Arabia, this desert land was capable of producing a faith which, though less +demanding in its social requirements, was nonetheless monotheistic. + +There was only one factor of a tribal, racial, or national nature about the +primitive and unorganized beliefs of the desert, and that was the peculiar and +general respect which almost all Arabian tribes were willing to pay to a +certain black stone fetish in a certain temple at Mecca. This point of common +contact and reverence subsequently led to the establishment of the Islamic +religion. What Yahweh, the volcano spirit, was to the Jewish Semites, the Kaaba +stone became to their Arabic cousins. + +The strength of Islam has been its clear-cut and well-defined presentation of +Allah as the one and only Deity; its weakness, the association of military +force with its promulgation, together with its degradation of woman. But it has +steadfastly held to its presentation of the One Universal Deity of all, "who +knows the invisible and the visible. He is the merciful and the compassionate." +"Truly God is plenteous in goodness to all men." "And when I am sick, it is he +who heals me." "For whenever as many as three speak together, God is present as +a fourth," for is he not "the first and the last, also the seen and the +hidden"? + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1052 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The ³ Yahweh--god Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Melchizedek... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p096.txt b/religious documents/p096.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29eada6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p096.txt @@ -0,0 +1,596 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 96 Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 96 Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +IN CONCEIVING of Deity, man first includes all gods, then subordinates all +foreign gods to his tribal deity, and finally excludes all but the one God of +final and supreme value. The Jews synthesized all gods into their more sublime +concept of the Lord God of Israel. The Hindus likewise combined their +multifarious deities into the "one spirituality of the gods" portrayed in the +Rig-Veda, while the Mesopotamians reduced their gods to the more centralized +concept of Bel-Marduk. These ideas of monotheism matured all over the world not +long after the appearance of Machiventa Melchizedek at Salem in Palestine. But +the Melchizedek concept of Deity was unlike that of the evolutionary philosophy +of inclusion, subordination, and exclusion; it was based exclusively on +creative power and very soon influenced the highest deity concepts of +Mesopotamia, India, and Egypt. + +The Salem religion was revered as a tradition by the Kenites and several other +Canaanite tribes. And this was one of the purposes of Melchizedek's +incarnation: That a religion of one God should be so fostered as to prepare the +way for the earth bestowal of a Son of that one God. Michael could hardly come +to Urantia until there existed a people believing in the Universal Father among +whom he could appear. + +The Salem religion persisted among the Kenites in Palestine as their creed, and +this religion as it was later adopted by the Hebrews was influenced, first, by +Egyptian moral teachings; later, by Babylonian theologic thought; and lastly, +by Iranian conceptions of good and evil. Factually the Hebrew religion is +predicated upon the covenant between Abraham and Machiventa Melchizedek, +evolutionally it is the outgrowth of many unique situational circumstances, but +culturally it has borrowed freely from the religion, morality, and philosophy +of the entire Levant. It is through the Hebrew religion that much of the +morality and religious thought of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Iran was transmitted +to the Occidental peoples. + +1. DEITY CONCEPTS AMONG THE SEMITES + +The early Semites regarded everything as being indwelt by a spirit. There were +spirits of the animal and vegetable worlds; annual spirits, the lord of +progeny; spirits of fire, water, and air; a veritable pantheon of spirits to be +feared and worshiped. And the teaching of Melchizedek regarding a Universal +Creator never fully destroyed the belief in these subordinate spirits or nature +gods. + +The progress of the Hebrews from polytheism through henotheism to monotheism +was not an unbroken and continuous conceptual development. They + + top of page - 1053 + +experienced many retrogressions in the evolution of their Deity concepts, while +during any one epoch there existed varying ideas of God among different groups +of Semite believers. From time to time numerous terms were applied to their +concepts of God, and in order to prevent confusion these various Deity titles +will be defined as they pertain to the evolution of Jewish theology: + +1. Yahweh was the god of the southern Palestinian tribes, who associated this +concept of deity with Mount Horeb, the Sinai volcano. Yahweh was merely one of +the hundreds and thousands of nature gods which held the attention and claimed +the worship of the Semitic tribes and peoples. + +2. El Elyon. For centuries after Melchizedek's sojourn at Salem his doctrine of +Deity persisted in various versions but was generally connoted by the term El +Elyon, the Most High God of heaven. Many Semites, including the immediate +descendants of Abraham, at various times worshiped both Yahweh and El Elyon. + +3. El Shaddai. It is difficult to explain what El Shaddai stood for. This idea +of God was a composite derived from the teachings of Amenemope's Book of Wisdom +modified by Ikhnaton's doctrine of Aton and further influenced by Melchizedek's +teachings embodied in the concept of El Elyon. But as the concept of El Shaddai +permeated the Hebrew mind, it became thoroughly colored with the Yahweh beliefs +of the desert. + +One of the dominant ideas of the religion of this era was the Egyptian concept +of divine Providence, the teaching that material prosperity was a reward for +serving El Shaddai. + +4. El. Amid all this confusion of terminology and haziness of concept, many +devout believers sincerely endeavored to worship all of these evolving ideas of +divinity, and there grew up the practice of referring to this composite Deity +as El. And this term included still other of the Bedouin nature gods. + +5. Elohim. In Kish and Ur there long persisted Sumerian-Chaldean groups who +taught a three-in-one God concept founded on the traditions of the days of Adam +and Melchizedek. This doctrine was carried to Egypt, where this Trinity was +worshiped under the name of Elohim, or in the singular as Eloah. The +philosophic circles of Egypt and later Alexandrian teachers of Hebraic +extraction taught this unity of pluralistic Gods, and many of Moses' advisers +at the time of the exodus believed in this Trinity. But the concept of the +trinitarian Elohim never became a real part of Hebrew theology until after they +had come under the political influence of the Babylonians. + +6. Sundry names. The Semites disliked to speak the name of their Deity, and +they therefore resorted to numerous appellations from time to time, such as: +The Spirit of God, The Lord, The Angel of the Lord, The Almighty, The Holy One, +The Most High, Adonai, The Ancient of Days, The Lord God of Israel, The Creator +of Heaven and Earth, Kyrios, Jah, The Lord of Hosts, and The Father in Heaven. + +Jehovah is a term which in recent times has been employed to designate the +completed concept of Yahweh which finally evolved in the long Hebrew +experience. But the name Jehovah did not come into use until fifteen hundred +years after the times of Jesus. + + top of page - 1054 + +Up to about 2000 B.C., Mount Sinai was intermittently active as a volcano, +occasional eruptions occurring as late as the time of the sojourn of the +Israelites in this region. The fire and smoke, together with the thunderous +detonations associated with the eruptions of this volcanic mountain, all +impressed and awed the Bedouins of the surrounding regions and caused them +greatly to fear Yahweh. This spirit of Mount Horeb later became the god of the +Hebrew Semites, and they eventually believed him to be supreme over all other +gods. + +The Canaanites had long revered Yahweh, and although many of the Kenites +believed more or less in El Elyon, the supergod of the Salem religion, a +majority of the Canaanites held loosely to the worship of the old tribal +deities. They were hardly willing to abandon their national deities in favor of +an international, not to say an interplanetary, God. They were not +universal-deity minded, and therefore these tribes continued to worship their +tribal deities, including Yahweh and the silver and golden calves which +symbolized the Bedouin herders' concept of the spirit of the Sinai volcano. + +The Syrians, while worshiping their gods, also believed in Yahweh of the +Hebrews, for their prophets said to the Syrian king: "Their gods are gods of +the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them +on the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they." + +As man advances in culture, the lesser gods are subordinated to a supreme +deity; the great Jove persists only as an exclamation. The monotheists keep +their subordinate gods as spirits, demons, fates, Nereids, fairies, brownies, +dwarfs, banshees, and the evil eye. The Hebrews passed through henotheism and +long believed in the existence of gods other than Yahweh, but they increasingly +held that these foreign deities were subordinate to Yahweh. They conceded the +actuality of Chemosh, god of the Amorites, but maintained that he was +subordinate to Yahweh. + +The idea of Yahweh has undergone the most extensive development of all the +mortal theories of God. Its progressive evolution can only be compared with the +metamorphosis of the Buddha concept in Asia, which in the end led to the +concept of the Universal Absolute even as the Yahweh concept finally led to the +idea of the Universal Father. But as a matter of historic fact, it should be +understood that, while the Jews thus changed their views of Deity from the +tribal god of Mount Horeb to the loving and merciful Creator Father of later +times, they did not change his name; they continued all the way along to call +this evolving concept of Deity, Yahweh. + +2. THE SEMITIC PEOPLES + +The Semites of the East were well-organized and well-led horsemen who invaded +the eastern regions of the fertile crescent and there united with the +Babylonians. The Chaldeans near Ur were among the most advanced of the eastern +Semites. The Phoenicians were a superior and well-organized group of mixed +Semites who held the western section of Palestine, along the Mediterranean +coast. Racially the Semites were among the most blended of Urantia peoples, +containing hereditary factors from almost all of the nine world races. + +Again and again the Arabian Semites fought their way into the northern Promised +Land, the land that "flowed with milk and honey," but just as often were they +ejected by the better-organized and more highly civilized northern Semites and +Hittites. Later, during an unusually severe famine, these roving Bed- + + top of page - 1055 + +ouins entered Egypt in large numbers as contract laborers on the Egyptian +public works, only to find themselves undergoing the bitter experience of +enslavement at the hard daily toil of the common and downtrodden laborers of +the Nile valley. + +It was only after the days of Machiventa Melchizedek and Abraham that certain +tribes of Semites, because of their peculiar religious beliefs, were called the +children of Israel and later on Hebrews, Jews, and the "chosen people." Abraham +was not the racial father of all the Hebrews; he was not even the progenitor of +all the Bedouin Semites who were held captive in Egypt. True, his offspring, +coming up out of Egypt, did form the nucleus of the later Jewish people, but +the vast majority of the men and women who became incorporated into the clans +of Israel had never sojourned in Egypt. They were merely fellow nomads who +chose to follow the leadership of Moses as the children of Abraham and their +Semite associates from Egypt journeyed through northern Arabia. + +The Melchizedek teaching concerning El Elyon, the Most High, and the covenant +of divine favor through faith, had been largely forgotten by the time of the +Egyptian enslavement of the Semite peoples who were shortly to form the Hebrew +nation. But throughout this period of captivity these Arabian nomads maintained +a lingering traditional belief in Yahweh as their racial deity. + +Yahweh was worshiped by more than one hundred separate Arabian tribes, and +except for the tinge of the El Elyon concept of Melchizedek which persisted +among the more educated classes of Egypt, including the mixed Hebrew and +Egyptian stocks, the religion of the rank and file of the Hebrew captive slaves +was a modified version of the old Yahweh ritual of magic and sacrifice. + +3. THE MATCHLESS MOSES + +The beginning of the evolution of the Hebraic concepts and ideals of a Supreme +Creator dates from the departure of the Semites from Egypt under that great +leader, teacher, and organizer, Moses. His mother was of the royal family of +Egypt; his father was a Semitic liaison officer between the government and the +Bedouin captives. Moses thus possessed qualities derived from superior racial +sources; his ancestry was so highly blended that it is impossible to classify +him in any one racial group. Had he not been of this mixed type, he would never +have displayed that unusual versatility and adaptability which enabled him to +manage the diversified horde which eventually became associated with those +Bedouin Semites who fled from Egypt to the Arabian Desert under his leadership. + +Despite the enticements of the culture of the Nile kingdom, Moses elected to +cast his lot with the people of his father. At the time this great organizer +was formulating his plans for the eventual freeing of his father's people, the +Bedouin captives hardly had a religion worthy of the name; they were virtually +without a true concept of God and without hope in the world. + +No leader ever undertook to reform and uplift a more forlorn, downcast, +dejected, and ignorant group of human beings. But these slaves carried latent +possibilities of development in their hereditary strains, and there were a +sufficient number of educated leaders who had been coached by Moses in +preparation for the day of revolt and the strike for liberty to constitute a +corps of efficient organizers. These superior men had been employed as native +overseers of their people; they had received some education because of Moses' +influence with the Egyptian rulers. + + top of page - 1056 + +Moses endeavored to negotiate diplomatically for the freedom of his fellow +Semites. He and his brother entered into a compact with the king of Egypt +whereby they were granted permission peaceably to leave the valley of the Nile +for the Arabian Desert. They were to receive a modest payment of money and +goods in token of their long service in Egypt. The Hebrews for their part +entered into an agreement to maintain friendly relations with the Pharaohs and +not to join in any alliance against Egypt. But the king later saw fit to +repudiate this treaty, giving as his reason the excuse that his spies had +discovered disloyalty among the Bedouin slaves. He claimed they sought freedom +for the purpose of going into the desert to organize the nomads against Egypt. + +But Moses was not discouraged; he bided his time, and in less than a year, when +the Egyptian military forces were fully occupied in resisting the simultaneous +onslaughts of a strong Libyan thrust from the south and a Greek naval invasion +from the north, this intrepid organizer led his compatriots out of Egypt in a +spectacular night flight. This dash for liberty was carefully planned and +skillfully executed. And they were successful, notwithstanding that they were +hotly pursued by Pharaoh and a small body of Egyptians, who all fell before the +fugitives' defense, yielding much booty, all of which was augmented by the loot +of the advancing host of escaping slaves as they marched on toward their +ancestral desert home. + +4. THE PROCLAMATION OF YAHWEH + +The evolution and elevation of the Mosaic teaching has influenced almost one +half of all the world, and still does even in the twentieth century. While +Moses comprehended the more advanced Egyptian religious philosophy, the Bedouin +slaves knew little about such teachings, but they had never entirely forgotten +the god of Mount Horeb, whom their ancestors had called Yahweh. + +Moses had heard of the teachings of Machiventa Melchizedek from both his father +and his mother, their commonness of religious belief being the explanation for +the unusual union between a woman of royal blood and a man from a captive race. +Moses' father-in-law was a Kenite worshiper of El Elyon, but the emancipator's +parents were believers in El Shaddai. Moses thus was educated an El Shaddaist; +through the influence of his father-in-law he became an El Elyonist; and by the +time of the Hebrew encampment about Mount Sinai after the flight from Egypt, he +had formulated a new and enlarged concept of Deity (derived from all his former +beliefs), which he wisely decided to proclaim to his people as an expanded +concept of their olden tribal god, Yahweh. + +Moses had endeavored to teach these Bedouins the idea of El Elyon, but before +leaving Egypt, he had become convinced they would never fully comprehend this +doctrine. Therefore he deliberately determined upon the compromise adoption of +their tribal god of the desert as the one and only god of his followers. Moses +did not specifically teach that other peoples and nations might not have other +gods, but he did resolutely maintain that Yahweh was over and above all, +especially to the Hebrews. But always was he plagued by the awkward predicament +of trying to present his new and higher idea of Deity to these ignorant slaves +under the guise of the ancient term Yahweh, which had always been symbolized by +the golden calf of the Bedouin tribes. + +The fact that Yahweh was the god of the fleeing Hebrews explains why they +tarried so long before the holy mountain of Sinai, and why they there received + + top of page - 1057 + +the Ten Commandments which Moses promulgated in the name of Yahweh, the god of +Horeb. During this lengthy sojourn before Sinai the religious ceremonials of +the newly evolving Hebrew worship were further perfected. + +It does not appear that Moses would ever have succeeded in the establishment of +his somewhat advanced ceremonial worship and in keeping his followers intact +for a quarter of a century had it not been for the violent eruption of Horeb +during the third week of their worshipful sojourn at its base. "The mountain of +Yahweh was consumed in fire, and the smoke ascended like the smoke of a +furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly." In view of this cataclysm it +is not surprising that Moses could impress upon his brethren the teaching that +their God was "mighty, terrible, a devouring fire, fearful, and all-powerful." + +Moses proclaimed that Yahweh was the Lord God of Israel, who had singled out +the Hebrews as his chosen people; he was building a new nation, and he wisely +nationalized his religious teachings, telling his followers that Yahweh was a +hard taskmaster, a "jealous God." But none the less he sought to enlarge their +concept of divinity when he taught them that Yahweh was the "God of the spirits +of all flesh," and when he said, "The eternal God is your refuge, and +underneath are the everlasting arms." Moses taught that Yahweh was a +covenant-keeping God; that he "will not forsake you, neither destroy you, nor +forget the covenant of your fathers because the Lord loves you and will not +forget the oath by which he swore to your fathers." + +Moses made a heroic effort to uplift Yahweh to the dignity of a supreme Deity +when he presented him as the "God of truth and without iniquity, just and right +in all his ways." And yet, despite this exalted teaching, the limited +understanding of his followers made it necessary to speak of God as being in +man's image, as being subject to fits of anger, wrath, and severity, even that +he was vengeful and easily influenced by man's conduct. + +Under the teachings of Moses this tribal nature god, Yahweh, became the Lord +God of Israel, who followed them through the wilderness and even into exile, +where he presently was conceived of as the God of all peoples. The later +captivity that enslaved the Jews in Babylon finally liberated the evolving +concept of Yahweh to assume the monotheistic role of the God of all nations. + +The most unique and amazing feature of the religious history of the Hebrews +concerns this continuous evolution of the concept of Deity from the primitive +god of Mount Horeb up through the teachings of their successive spiritual +leaders to the high level of development depicted in the Deity doctrines of the +Isaiahs, who proclaimed that magnificent concept of the loving and merciful +Creator Father. + +5. THE TEACHINGS OF MOSES + +Moses was an extraordinary combination of military leader, social organizer, +and religious teacher. He was the most important individual world teacher and +leader between the times of Machiventa and Jesus. Moses attempted to introduce +many reforms in Israel of which there is no record. In the space of one man's +life he led the polyglot horde of so-called Hebrews out of slavery and +uncivilized roaming while he laid the foundation for the subsequent birth of a +nation and the perpetuation of a race. + +There is so little on record of the great work of Moses because the Hebrews had +no written language at the time of the exodus. The record of the times and + + top of page - 1058 + +doings of Moses was derived from the traditions extant more than one thousand +years after the death of the great leader. + +Many of the advances which Moses made over and above the religion of the +Egyptians and the surrounding Levantine tribes were due to the Kenite +traditions of the time of Melchizedek. Without the teaching of Machiventa to +Abraham and his contemporaries, the Hebrews would have come out of Egypt in +hopeless darkness. Moses and his father-in-law, Jethro, gathered up the residue +of the traditions of the days of Melchizedek, and these teachings, joined to +the learning of the Egyptians, guided Moses in the creation of the improved +religion and ritual of the Israelites. Moses was an organizer; he selected the +best in the religion and mores of Egypt and Palestine and, associating these +practices with the traditions of the Melchizedek teachings, organized the +Hebrew ceremonial system of worship. + +Moses was a believer in Providence; he had become thoroughly tainted with the +doctrines of Egypt concerning the supernatural control of the Nile and the +other elements of nature. He had a great vision of God, but he was thoroughly +sincere when he taught the Hebrews that, if they would obey God, "He will love +you, bless you, and multiply you. He will multiply the fruit of your womb and +the fruit of your land--the corn, wine, oil, and your flocks. You shall be +prospered above all people, and the Lord your God will take away from you all +sickness and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt upon you." He even +said: "Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get +wealth." "You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. You shall +reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you." + +But it was truly pitiful to watch this great mind of Moses trying to adapt his +sublime concept of El Elyon, the Most High, to the comprehension of the +ignorant and illiterate Hebrews. To his assembled leaders he thundered, "The +Lord your God is one God; there is none beside him"; while to the mixed +multitude he declared, "Who is like your God among all the gods?" Moses made a +brave and partly successful stand against fetishes and idolatry, declaring, +"You saw no similitude on the day that your God spoke to you at Horeb out of +the midst of the fire." He also forbade the making of images of any sort. + +Moses feared to proclaim the mercy of Yahweh, preferring to awe his people with +the fear of the justice of God, saying: "The Lord your God is God of Gods, and +Lord of Lords, a great God, a mighty and terrible God, who regards not man." +Again he sought to control the turbulent clans when he declared that "your God +kills when you disobey him; he heals and gives life when you obey him." But +Moses taught these tribes that they would become the chosen people of God only +on condition that they "kept all his commandments and obeyed all his statutes." + +Little of the mercy of God was taught the Hebrews during these early times. +They learned of God as "the Almighty; the Lord is a man of war, God of battles, +glorious in power, who dashes in pieces his enemies." "The Lord your God walks +in the midst of the camp to deliver you." The Israelites thought of their God +as one who loved them, but who also "hardened Pharaoh's heart" and "cursed +their enemies." + +While Moses presented fleeting glimpses of a universal and beneficent Deity to +the children of Israel, on the whole, their day-by-day concept of Yahweh was + + top of page - 1059 + +that of a God but little better than the tribal gods of the surrounding +peoples. Their concept of God was primitive, crude, and anthropomorphic; when +Moses passed on, these Bedouin tribes quickly reverted to the semibarbaric +ideas of their olden gods of Horeb and the desert. The enlarged and more +sublime vision of God which Moses every now and then presented to his leaders +was soon lost to view, while most of the people turned to the worship of their +fetish golden calves, the Palestinian herdsman's symbol of Yahweh. + +When Moses turned over the command of the Hebrews to Joshua, he had already +gathered up thousands of the collateral descendants of Abraham, Nahor, Lot, and +other of the related tribes and had whipped them into a self-sustaining and +partially self-regulating nation of pastoral warriors. + +6. THE GOD CONCEPT AFTER MOSES' DEATH + +Upon the death of Moses his lofty concept of Yahweh rapidly deteriorated. +Joshua and the leaders of Israel continued to harbor the Mosaic traditions of +the all-wise, beneficent, and almighty God, but the common people rapidly +reverted to the older desert idea of Yahweh. And this backward drift of the +concept of Deity continued increasingly under the successive rule of the +various tribal sheiks, the so-called Judges. + +The spell of the extraordinary personality of Moses had kept alive in the +hearts of his followers the inspiration of an increasingly enlarged concept of +God; but when they once reached the fertile lands of Palestine, they quickly +evolved from nomadic herders into settled and somewhat sedate farmers. And this +evolution of life practices and change of religious viewpoint demanded a more +or less complete change in the character of their conception of the nature of +their God, Yahweh. During the times of the beginning of the transmutation of +the austere, crude, exacting, and thunderous desert god of Sinai into the later +appearing concept of a God of love, justice, and mercy, the Hebrews almost lost +sight of Moses' lofty teachings. They came near losing all concept of +monotheism; they nearly lost their opportunity of becoming the people who would +serve as a vital link in the spiritual evolution of Urantia, the group who +would conserve the Melchizedek teaching of one God until the times of the +incarnation of a bestowal Son of that Father of all. + +Desperately Joshua sought to hold the concept of a supreme Yahweh in the minds +of the tribesmen, causing it to be proclaimed: "As I was with Moses, so will I +be with you; I will not fail you nor forsake you." Joshua found it necessary to +preach a stern gospel to his disbelieving people, people all too willing to +believe their old and native religion but unwilling to go forward in the +religion of faith and righteousness. The burden of Joshua's teaching became: +"Yahweh is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your +transgressions nor your sins." The highest concept of this age pictured Yahweh +as a "God of power, judgment, and justice." + +But even in this dark age, every now and then a solitary teacher would arise +proclaiming the Mosaic concept of divinity: "You children of wickedness cannot +serve the Lord, for he is a holy God." "Shall mortal man be more just than God? +shall a man be more pure than his Maker?" "Can you by searching find out God? +Can you find out the Almighty to perfection? Behold, God is great and we know +him not. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out." + + top of page - 1060 + +7. PSALMS AND THE BOOK OF JOB + +Under the leadership of their sheiks and priests the Hebrews became loosely +established in Palestine. But they soon drifted back into the benighted beliefs +of the desert and became contaminated with the less advanced Canaanite +religious practices. They became idolatrous and licentious, and their idea of +Deity fell far below the Egyptian and Mesopotamian concepts of God that were +maintained by certain surviving Salem groups, and which are recorded in some of +the Psalms and in the so-called Book of Job. + +The Psalms are the work of a score or more of authors; many were written by +Egyptian and Mesopotamian teachers. During these times when the Levant +worshiped nature gods, there were still a goodly number who believed in the +supremacy of El Elyon, the Most High. + +No collection of religious writings gives expression to such a wealth of +devotion and inspirational ideas of God as the Book of Psalms. And it would be +very helpful if, in the perusal of this wonderful collection of worshipful +literature, consideration could be given to the source and chronology of each +separate hymn of praise and adoration, bearing in mind that no other single +collection covers such a great range of time. This Book of Psalms is the record +of the varying concepts of God entertained by the believers of the Salem +religion throughout the Levant and embraces the entire period from Amenemope to +Isaiah. In the Psalms God is depicted in all phases of conception, from the +crude idea of a tribal deity to the vastly expanded ideal of the later Hebrews, +wherein Yahweh is pictured as a loving ruler and merciful Father. + +And when thus regarded, this group of Psalms constitutes the most valuable and +helpful assortment of devotional sentiments ever assembled by man up to the +times of the twentieth century. The worshipful spirit of this collection of +hymns transcends that of all other sacred books of the world. + +The variegated picture of Deity presented in the Book of Job was the product of +more than a score of Mesopotamian religious teachers extending over a period of +almost three hundred years. And when you read the lofty concept of divinity +found in this compilation of Mesopotamian beliefs, you will recognize that it +was in the neighborhood of Ur of Chaldea that the idea of a real God was best +preserved during the dark days in Palestine. + +In Palestine the wisdom and all-pervasiveness of God was often grasped but +seldom his love and mercy. The Yahweh of these times "sends evil spirits to +dominate the souls of his enemies"; he prospers his own and obedient children, +while he curses and visits dire judgments upon all others. "He disappoints the +devices of the crafty; he takes the wise in their own deceit." + +Only at Ur did a voice arise to cry out the mercy of God, saying: "He shall +pray to God and shall find favor with him and shall see his face with joy, for +God will give to man divine righteousness." Thus from Ur there is preached +salvation, divine favor, by faith: "He is gracious to the repentant and says, +`Deliver him from going down in the pit, for I have found a ransom.' If any +say, `I have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it profited me +not,' God will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and he shall see the +light." Not since the times of Melchizedek had the Levantine world heard such a +ringing and cheering + + top of page - 1061 + +message of human salvation as this extraordinary teaching of Elihu, the prophet +of Ur and priest of the Salem believers, that is, the remnant of the onetime +Melchizedek colony in Mesopotamia. + +And thus did the remnants of the Salem missionaries in Mesopotamia maintain the +light of truth during the period of the disorganization of the Hebrew peoples +until the appearance of the first of that long line of the teachers of Israel +who never stopped as they built, concept upon concept, until they had achieved +the realization of the ideal of the Universal and Creator Father of all, the +acme of the evolution of the Yahweh concept. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1062 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The ³ Evolution Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Melchizedek... ³ Th... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p097.txt b/religious documents/p097.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40ffe67 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p097.txt @@ -0,0 +1,932 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 97 Evolution Of The God Concept Among The Hebrews + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 97 Evolution Of The God Concept Among The Hebrews + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE spiritual leaders of the Hebrews did what no others before them had ever +succeeded in doing--they deanthropomorphized their God concept without +converting it into an abstraction of Deity comprehensible only to philosophers. +Even common people were able to regard the matured concept of Yahweh as a +Father, if not of the individual, at least of the race. + +The concept of the personality of God, while clearly taught at Salem in the +days of Melchizedek, was vague and hazy at the time of the flight from Egypt +and only gradually evolved in the Hebraic mind from generation to generation in +response to the teaching of the spiritual leaders. The perception of Yahweh's +personality was much more continuous in its progressive evolution than was that +of many other of the Deity attributes. From Moses to Malachi there occurred an +almost unbroken ideational growth of the personality of God in the Hebrew mind, +and this concept was eventually heightened and glorified by the teachings of +Jesus about the Father in heaven. + +1. SAMUEL--FIRST OF THE HEBREW PROPHETS + +Hostile pressure of the surrounding peoples in Palestine soon taught the Hebrew +sheiks they could not hope to survive unless they confederated their tribal +organizations into a centralized government. And this centralization of +administrative authority afforded a better opportunity for Samuel to function +as a teacher and reformer. + +Samuel sprang from a long line of the Salem teachers who had persisted in +maintaining the truths of Melchizedek as a part of their worship forms. This +teacher was a virile and resolute man. Only his great devotion, coupled with +his extraordinary determination, enabled him to withstand the almost universal +opposition which he encountered when he started out to turn all Israel back to +the worship of the supreme Yahweh of Mosaic times. And even then he was only +partially successful; he won back to the service of the higher concept of +Yahweh only the more intelligent half of the Hebrews; the other half continued +in the worship of the tribal gods of the country and in the baser conception of +Yahweh. + +Samuel was a rough-and-ready type of man, a practical reformer who could go out +in one day with his associates and overthrow a score of Baal sites. The +progress he made was by sheer force of compulsion; he did little preaching, +less teaching, but he did act. One day he was mocking the priest of Baal; the +next, chopping in pieces a captive king. He devotedly believed in the one God, +and he had a clear concept of that one God as creator of heaven and earth: "The +pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he has set the world upon them." + + top of page - 1063 + +But the great contribution which Samuel made to the development of the concept +of Deity was his ringing pronouncement that Yahweh was changeless, forever the +same embodiment of unerring perfection and divinity. In these times Yahweh was +conceived to be a fitful God of jealous whims, always regretting that he had +done thus and so; but now, for the first time since the Hebrews sallied forth +from Egypt, they heard these startling words, "The Strength of Israel will not +lie nor repent, for he is not a man, that he should repent." Stability in +dealing with Divinity was proclaimed. Samuel reiterated the Melchizedek +covenant with Abraham and declared that the Lord God of Israel was the source +of all truth, stability, and constancy. Always had the Hebrews looked upon +their God as a man, a superman, an exalted spirit of unknown origin; but now +they heard the onetime spirit of Horeb exalted as an unchanging God of creator +perfection. Samuel was aiding the evolving God concept to ascend to heights +above the changing state of men's minds and the vicissitudes of mortal +existence. Under his teaching, the God of the Hebrews was beginning the ascent +from an idea on the order of the tribal gods to the ideal of an all-powerful +and changeless Creator and Supervisor of all creation. + +And he preached anew the story of God's sincerity, his covenant-keeping +reliability. Said Samuel: "The Lord will not forsake his people." "He has made +with us an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure." And so, +throughout all Palestine, there sounded the call back to the worship of the +supreme Yahweh. Ever this energetic teacher proclaimed, "You are great, O Lord +God, for there is none like you, neither is there any God beside you." + +Theretofore the Hebrews had regarded the favor of Yahweh mainly in terms of +material prosperity. It was a great shock to Israel, and almost cost Samuel his +life, when he dared to proclaim: "The Lord enriches and impoverishes; he +debases and exalts. He raises the poor out of the dust and lifts up the beggars +to set them among princes to make them inherit the throne of glory." Not since +Moses had such comforting promises for the humble and the less fortunate been +proclaimed, and thousands of despairing among the poor began to take hope that +they could improve their spiritual status. + +But Samuel did not progress very far beyond the concept of a tribal god. He +proclaimed a Yahweh who made all men but was occupied chiefly with the Hebrews, +his chosen people. Even so, as in the days of Moses, once more the God concept +portrayed a Deity who is holy and upright. "There is none as holy as the Lord. +Who can be compared to this holy Lord God?" + +As the years passed, the grizzled old leader progressed in the understanding of +God, for he declared: "The Lord is a God of knowledge, and actions are weighed +by him. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, showing mercy to the +merciful, and with the upright man he will also be upright." Even here is the +dawn of mercy, albeit it is limited to those who are merciful. Later he went +one step further when, in their adversity, he exhorted his people: "Let us fall +now into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are great." "There is no +restraint upon the Lord to save many or few." + +And this gradual development of the concept of the character of Yahweh +continued under the ministry of Samuel's successors. They attempted to present +Yahweh as a covenant-keeping God but hardly maintained the pace set by Samuel; +they failed to develop the idea of the mercy of God as Samuel had later +conceived it. There was a steady drift back toward the recognition of other +gods, + + top of page - 1064 + +despite the maintenance that Yahweh was above all. "Yours is the kingdom, O +Lord, and you are exalted as head above all." + +The keynote of this era was divine power; the prophets of this age preached a +religion designed to foster the king upon the Hebrew throne. "Yours, O Lord, is +the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. In +your hand is power and might, and you are able to make great and to give +strength to all." And this was the status of the God concept during the time of +Samuel and his immediate successors. + +2. ELIJAH AND ELISHA + +In the tenth century before Christ the Hebrew nation became divided into two +kingdoms. In both of these political divisions many truth teachers endeavored +to stem the reactionary tide of spiritual decadence that had set in, and which +continued disastrously after the war of separation. But these efforts to +advance the Hebraic religion did not prosper until that determined and fearless +warrior for righteousness, Elijah, began his teaching. Elijah restored to the +northern kingdom a concept of God comparable with that held in the days of +Samuel. Elijah had little opportunity to present an advanced concept of God; he +was kept busy, as Samuel had been before him, overthrowing the altars of Baal +and demolishing the idols of false gods. And he carried forward his reforms in +the face of the opposition of an idolatrous monarch; his task was even more +gigantic and difficult than that which Samuel had faced. + +When Elijah was called away, Elisha, his faithful associate, took up his work +and, with the invaluable assistance of the little-known Micaiah, kept the light +of truth alive in Palestine. + +But these were not times of progress in the concept of Deity. Not yet had the +Hebrews ascended even to the Mosaic ideal. The era of Elijah and Elisha closed +with the better classes returning to the worship of the supreme Yahweh and +witnessed the restoration of the idea of the Universal Creator to about that +place where Samuel had left it. + +3. YAHWEH AND BAAL + +The long-drawn-out controversy between the believers in Yahweh and the +followers of Baal was a socioeconomic clash of ideologies rather than a +difference in religious beliefs. + +The inhabitants of Palestine differed in their attitude toward private +ownership of land. The southern or wandering Arabian tribes (the Yahwehites) +looked upon land as an inalienable--as a gift of Deity to the clan. They held +that land could not be sold or mortgaged. "Yahweh spoke, saying, `The land +shall not be sold, for the land is mine.'" + +The northern and more settled Canaanites (the Baalites) freely bought, sold, +and mortgaged their lands. The word Baal means owner. The Baal cult was founded +on two major doctrines: First, the validation of property exchange, contracts, +and covenants--the right to buy and sell land. Second, Baal was supposed to +send rain--he was a god of fertility of the soil. Good crops depended on the +favor of Baal. The cult was largely concerned with land, its ownership and +fertility. + + top of page - 1065 + +In general, the Baalites owned houses, lands, and slaves. They were the +aristocratic landlords and lived in the cities. Each Baal had a sacred place, a +priesthood, and the "holy women," the ritual prostitutes. + +Out of this basic difference in the regard for land, there evolved the bitter +antagonisms of social, economic, moral, and religious attitudes exhibited by +the Canaanites and the Hebrews. This socioeconomic controversy did not become a +definite religious issue until the times of Elijah. From the days of this +aggressive prophet the issue was fought out on more strictly religious +lines--Yahweh vs. Baal--and it ended in the triumph of Yahweh and the +subsequent drive toward monotheism. + +Elijah shifted the Yahweh-Baal controversy from the land issue to the religious +aspect of Hebrew and Canaanite ideologies. When Ahab murdered the Naboths in +the intrigue to get possession of their land, Elijah made a moral issue out of +the olden land mores and launched his vigorous campaign against the Baalites. +This was also a fight of the country folk against domination by the cities. It +was chiefly under Elijah that Yahweh became Elohim. The prophet began as an +agrarian reformer and ended up by exalting Deity. Baals were many, Yahweh was +one--monotheism won over polytheism. + +4. AMOS AND HOSEA + +A great step in the transition of the tribal god--the god who had so long been +served with sacrifices and ceremonies, the Yahweh of the earlier Hebrews--to a +God who would punish crime and immorality among even his own people, was taken +by Amos, who appeared from among the southern hills to denounce the +criminality, drunkenness, oppression, and immorality of the northern tribes. +Not since the times of Moses had such ringing truths been proclaimed in +Palestine. + +Amos was not merely a restorer or reformer; he was a discoverer of new concepts +of Deity. He proclaimed much about God that had been announced by his +predecessors and courageously attacked the belief in a Divine Being who would +countenance sin among his so-called chosen people. For the first time since the +days of Melchizedek the ears of man heard the denunciation of the double +standard of national justice and morality. For the first time in their history +Hebrew ears heard that their own God, Yahweh, would no more tolerate crime and +sin in their lives than he would among any other people. Amos envisioned the +stern and just God of Samuel and Elijah, but he also saw a God who thought no +differently of the Hebrews than of any other nation when it came to the +punishment of wrongdoing. This was a direct attack on the egoistic doctrine of +the "chosen people," and many Hebrews of those days bitterly resented it. + +Said Amos: "He who formed the mountains and created the wind, seek him who +formed the seven stars and Orion, who turns the shadow of death into the +morning and makes the day dark as night." And in denouncing his half-religious, +timeserving, and sometimes immoral fellows, he sought to portray the inexorable +justice of an unchanging Yahweh when he said of the evildoers: "Though they dig +into hell, thence shall I take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence +will I bring them down." "And though they go into captivity before their +enemies, thence will I direct the sword of justice, and it shall slay them." +Amos further startled his hearers when, pointing a reproving and accusing +finger at them, he declared in the name of Yahweh: "Surely I will never forget +any of your works." "And I will sift the house of Israel among all nations as +wheat is sifted in a sieve." + + top of page - 1066 + +Amos proclaimed Yahweh the "God of all nations" and warned the Israelites that +ritual must not take the place of righteousness. And before this courageous +teacher was stoned to death, he had spread enough leaven of truth to save the +doctrine of the supreme Yahweh; he had insured the further evolution of the +Melchizedek revelation. + +Hosea followed Amos and his doctrine of a universal God of justice by the +resurrection of the Mosaic concept of a God of love. Hosea preached forgiveness +through repentance, not by sacrifice. He proclaimed a gospel of loving-kindness +and divine mercy, saying: "I will betroth you to me forever; yes, I will +betroth you to me in righteousness and judgment and in loving-kindness and in +mercies. I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness." "I will love them +freely, for my anger is turned away." + +Hosea faithfully continued the moral warnings of Amos, saying of God, "It is my +desire that I chastise them." But the Israelites regarded it as cruelty +bordering on treason when he said: "I will say to those who were not my people, +`you are my people'; and they will say, `you are our God."' He continued to +preach repentance and forgiveness, saying, "I will heal their backsliding; I +will love them freely, for my anger is turned away." Always Hosea proclaimed +hope and forgiveness. The burden of his message ever was: "I will have mercy +upon my people. They shall know no God but me, for there is no savior beside +me." + +Amos quickened the national conscience of the Hebrews to the recognition that +Yahweh would not condone crime and sin among them because they were supposedly +the chosen people, while Hosea struck the opening notes in the later merciful +chords of divine compassion and loving-kindness which were so exquisitely sung +by Isaiah and his associates. + +5. THE FIRST ISAIAH + +These were the times when some were proclaiming threatenings of punishment +against personal sins and national crime among the northern clans while others +predicted calamity in retribution for the transgressions of the southern +kingdom. It was in the wake of this arousal of conscience and consciousness in +the Hebrew nations that the first Isaiah made his appearance. + +Isaiah went on to preach the eternal nature of God, his infinite wisdom, his +unchanging perfection of reliability. He represented the God of Israel as +saying: "Judgment also will I lay to the line and righteousness to the +plummet." "The Lord will give you rest from your sorrow and from your fear and +from the hard bondage wherein man has been made to serve." "And your ears shall +hear a word behind you, saying, `this is the way, walk in it.'" "Behold God is +my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord is my strength and +my song." "`Come now and let us reason together,' says the Lord, `though your +sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like the +crimson, they shall be as wool.'" + +Speaking to the fear-ridden and soul-hungry Hebrews, this prophet said: "Arise +and shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon +you." "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach +good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to +proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are +bound." "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, + + top of page - 1067 + +for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and has covered me with +his robe of righteousness." "In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the +angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed +them." + +This Isaiah was followed by Micah and Obadiah, who confirmed and embellished +his soul-satisfying gospel. And these two brave messengers boldly denounced the +priest-ridden ritual of the Hebrews and fearlessly attacked the whole +sacrificial system. + +Micah denounced "the rulers who judge for reward and the priests who teach for +hire and the prophets who divine for money." He taught of a day of freedom from +superstition and priestcraft, saying: "But every man shall sit under his own +vine, and no one shall make him afraid, for all people will live, each one +according to his understanding of God." + +Ever the burden of Micah's message was: "Shall I come before God with burnt +offerings? Will the Lord be pleased with a thousand rams or with ten thousand +rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my +body for the sin of my soul? He has shown me, O man, what is good; and what +does the Lord require of you but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk +humbly with your God." And it was a great age; these were indeed stirring times +when mortal man heard, and some even believed, such emancipating messages more +than two and a half millenniums ago. And but for the stubborn resistance of the +priests, these teachers would have overthrown the whole bloody ceremonial of +the Hebrew ritual of worship. + +6. JEREMIAH THE FEARLESS + +While several teachers continued to expound the gospel of Isaiah, it remained +for Jeremiah to take the next bold step in the internationalization of Yahweh, +God of the Hebrews. + +Jeremiah fearlessly declared that Yahweh was not on the side of the Hebrews in +their military struggles with other nations. He asserted that Yahweh was God of +all the earth, of all nations and of all peoples. Jeremiah's teaching was the +crescendo of the rising wave of the internationalization of the God of Israel; +finally and forever did this intrepid preacher proclaim that Yahweh was God of +all nations, and that there was no Osiris for the Egyptians, Bel for the +Babylonians, Ashur for the Assyrians, or Dagon for the Philistines. And thus +did the religion of the Hebrews share in that renaissance of monotheism +throughout the world at about and following this time; at last the concept of +Yahweh had ascended to a Deity level of planetary and even cosmic dignity. But +many of Jeremiah's associates found it difficult to conceive of Yahweh apart +from the Hebrew nation. + +Jeremiah also preached of the just and loving God described by Isaiah, +declaring: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with +loving-kindness have I drawn you." "For he does not afflict willingly the +children of men." + +Said this fearless prophet: "Righteous is our Lord, great in counsel and mighty +in work. His eyes are open upon all the ways of all the sons of men, to give +every one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings." But +it was considered blasphemous treason when, during the siege of Jerusalem, he +said: "And now have I given these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, + + top of page - 1068 + +the king of Babylon, my servant." And when Jeremiah counseled the surrender of +the city, the priests and civil rulers cast him into the miry pit of a dismal +dungeon. + +7. THE SECOND ISAIAH + +The destruction of the Hebrew nation and their captivity in Mesopotamia would +have proved of great benefit to their expanding theology had it not been for +the determined action of their priesthood. Their nation had fallen before the +armies of Babylon, and their nationalistic Yahweh had suffered from the +international preachments of the spiritual leaders. It was resentment of the +loss of their national god that led the Jewish priests to go to such lengths in +the invention of fables and the multiplication of miraculous appearing events +in Hebrew history in an effort to restore the Jews as the chosen people of even +the new and expanded idea of an internationalized God of all nations. + +During the captivity the Jews were much influenced by Babylonian traditions and +legends, although it should be noted that they unfailingly improved the moral +tone and spiritual significance of the Chaldean stories which they adopted, +notwithstanding that they invariably distorted these legends to reflect honor +and glory upon the ancestry and history of Israel. + +These Hebrew priests and scribes had a single idea in their minds, and that was +the rehabilitation of the Jewish nation, the glorification of Hebrew +traditions, and the exaltation of their racial history. If there is resentment +of the fact that these priests have fastened their erroneous ideas upon such a +large part of the Occidental world, it should be remembered that they did not +intentionally do this; they did not claim to be writing by inspiration; they +made no profession to be writing a sacred book. They were merely preparing a +textbook designed to bolster up the dwindling courage of their fellows in +captivity. They were definitely aiming at improving the national spirit and +morale of their compatriots. It remained for later-day men to assemble these +and other writings into a guide book of supposedly infallible teachings. + +The Jewish priesthood made liberal use of these writings subsequent to the +captivity, but they were greatly hindered in their influence over their fellow +captives by the presence of a young and indomitable prophet, Isaiah the second, +who was a full convert to the elder Isaiah's God of justice, love, +righteousness, and mercy. He also believed with Jeremiah that Yahweh had become +the God of all nations. He preached these theories of the nature of God with +such telling effect that he made converts equally among the Jews and their +captors. And this young preacher left on record his teachings, which the +hostile and unforgiving priests sought to divorce from all association with +him, although sheer respect for their beauty and grandeur led to their +incorporation among the writings of the earlier Isaiah. And thus may be found +the writings of this second Isaiah in the book of that name, embracing chapters +forty to fifty-five inclusive. + +No prophet or religious teacher from Machiventa to the time of Jesus attained +the high concept of God that Isaiah the second proclaimed during these days of +the captivity. It was no small, anthropomorphic, man-made God that this +spiritual leader proclaimed. "Behold he takes up the isles as a very little +thing." "And as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher +than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." + + top of page - 1069 + +At last Machiventa Melchizedek beheld human teachers proclaiming a real God to +mortal man. Like Isaiah the first, this leader preached a God of universal +creation and upholding. "I have made the earth and put man upon it. I have +created it not in vain; I formed it to be inhabited." "I am the first and the +last; there is no God beside me." Speaking for the Lord God of Israel, this new +prophet said: "The heavens may vanish and the earth wax old, but my +righteousness shall endure forever and my salvation from generation to +generation." "Fear you not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your +God." "There is no God beside me--a just God and a Savior." + +And it comforted the Jewish captives, as it has thousands upon thousands ever +since, to hear such words as: "Thus says the Lord, `I have created you, I have +redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are mine.'" "When you pass +through the waters, I will be with you since you are precious in my sight." +"Can a woman forget her suckling child that she should not have compassion on +her son? Yes, she may forget, yet will I not forget my children, for behold I +have graven them upon the palms of my hands; I have even covered them with the +shadow of my hands." "Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man +his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, +and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." + +Listen again to the gospel of this new revelation of the God of Salem: "He +shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs in his arms and +carry them in his bosom. He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no +might he increases strength. Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their +strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be +weary; they shall walk and not faint." + +This Isaiah conducted a far-flung propaganda of the gospel of the enlarging +concept of a supreme Yahweh. He vied with Moses in the eloquence with which he +portrayed the Lord God of Israel as the Universal Creator. He was poetic in his +portrayal of the infinite attributes of the Universal Father. No more beautiful +pronouncements about the heavenly Father have ever been made. Like the Psalms, +the writings of Isaiah are among the most sublime and true presentations of the +spiritual concept of God ever to greet the ears of mortal man prior to the +arrival of Michael on Urantia. Listen to his portrayal of Deity: "I am the high +and lofty one who inhabits eternity." "I am the first and the last, and beside +me there is no other God." "And the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot +save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear." And it was a new doctrine in +Jewry when this benign but commanding prophet persisted in the preachment of +divine constancy, God's faithfulness. He declared that "God would not forget, +would not forsake." + +This daring teacher proclaimed that man was very closely related to God, +saying: "Every one who is called by my name I have created for my glory, and +they shall show forth my praise. I, even I, am he who blots out their +transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember their sins." + +Hear this great Hebrew demolish the concept of a national God while in glory he +proclaims the divinity of the Universal Father, of whom he says, "The heavens +are my throne, and the earth is my footstool." And Isaiah's God was none the +less holy, majestic, just, and unsearchable. The concept of the angry, +vengeful, and jealous Yahweh of the desert Bedouins has almost vanished. A new +concept of the supreme and universal Yahweh has appeared in the mind of mortal +man, never to be lost to human view. The realization of divine justice has + + top of page - 1070 + +begun the destruction of primitive magic and biologic fear. At last, man is +introduced to a universe of law and order and to a universal God of dependable +and final attributes. + +And this preacher of a supernal God never ceased to proclaim this God of love. +"I dwell in the high and holy place, also with him who is of a contrite and +humble spirit." And still further words of comfort did this great teacher speak +to his contemporaries: "And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy +your soul. You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring whose waters +fail not. And if the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord +will lift up a defense against him." And once again did the fear-destroying +gospel of Melchizedek and the trust-breeding religion of Salem shine forth for +the blessing of mankind. + +The farseeing and courageous Isaiah effectively eclipsed the nationalistic +Yahweh by his sublime portraiture of the majesty and universal omnipotence of +the supreme Yahweh, God of love, ruler of the universe, and affectionate Father +of all mankind. Ever since those eventful days the highest God concept in the +Occident has embraced universal justice, divine mercy, and eternal +righteousness. In superb language and with matchless grace this great teacher +portrayed the all-powerful Creator as the all-loving Father. + +This prophet of the captivity preached to his people and to those of many +nations as they listened by the river in Babylon. And this second Isaiah did +much to counteract the many wrong and racially egoistic concepts of the mission +of the promised Messiah. But in this effort he was not wholly successful. Had +the priests not dedicated themselves to the work of building up a misconceived +nationalism, the teachings of the two Isaiahs would have prepared the way for +the recognition and reception of the promised Messiah. + +8. SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY + +The custom of looking upon the record of the experiences of the Hebrews as +sacred history and upon the transactions of the rest of the world as profane +history is responsible for much of the confusion existing in the human mind as +to the interpretation of history. And this difficulty arises because there is +no secular history of the Jews. After the priests of the Babylonian exile had +prepared their new record of God's supposedly miraculous dealings with the +Hebrews, the sacred history of Israel as portrayed in the Old Testament, they +carefully and completely destroyed the existing records of Hebrew affairs--such +books as "The Doings of the Kings of Israel" and "The Doings of the Kings of +Judah," together with several other more or less accurate records of Hebrew +history. + +In order to understand how the devastating pressure and the inescapable +coercion of secular history so terrorized the captive and alien-ruled Jews that +they attempted the complete rewriting and recasting of their history, we should +briefly survey the record of their perplexing national experience. It must be +remembered that the Jews failed to evolve an adequate nontheologic philosophy +of life. They struggled with their original and Egyptian concept of divine +rewards for righteousness coupled with dire punishments for sin. The drama of +Job was something of a protest against this erroneous philosophy. The frank +pessimism of Ecclesiastes was a worldly wise reaction to these overoptimistic +beliefs in Providence. + + top of page - 1071 + +But five hundred years of the overlordship of alien rulers was too much for +even the patient and long-suffering Jews. The prophets and priests began to +cry: "How long, O Lord, how long?" As the honest Jew searched the Scriptures, +his confusion became worse confounded. An olden seer promised that God would +protect and deliver his "chosen people." Amos had threatened that God would +abandon Israel unless they re-established their standards of national +righteousness. The scribe of Deuteronomy had portrayed the Great Choice--as +between the good and the evil, the blessing and the curse. Isaiah the first had +preached a beneficent king-deliverer. Jeremiah had proclaimed an era of inner +righteousness--the covenant written on the tablets of the heart. The second +Isaiah talked about salvation by sacrifice and redemption. Ezekiel proclaimed +deliverance through the service of devotion, and Ezra promised prosperity by +adherence to the law. But in spite of all this they lingered on in bondage, and +deliverance was deferred. Then Daniel presented the drama of the impending +"crisis"--the smiting of the great image and the immediate establishment of the +everlasting reign of righteousness, the Messianic kingdom. + +And all of this false hope led to such a degree of racial disappointment and +frustration that the leaders of the Jews were so confused they failed to +recognize and accept the mission and ministry of a divine Son of Paradise when +he presently came to them in the likeness of mortal flesh--incarnated as the +Son of Man. + +All modern religions have seriously blundered in the attempt to put a +miraculous interpretation on certain epochs of human history. While it is true +that God has many times thrust a Father's hand of providential intervention +into the stream of human affairs, it is a mistake to regard theologic dogmas +and religious superstition as a supernatural sedimentation appearing by +miraculous action in this stream of human history. The fact that the "Most +Highs rule in the kingdoms of men" does not convert secular history into +so-called sacred history. + +New Testament authors and later Christian writers further complicated the +distortion of Hebrew history by their well-meant attempts to transcendentalize +the Jewish prophets. Thus has Hebrew history been disastrously exploited by +both Jewish and Christian writers. Secular Hebrew history has been thoroughly +dogmatized. It has been converted into a fiction of sacred history and has +become inextricably bound up with the moral concepts and religious teachings of +the so-called Christian nations. + +A brief recital of the high points in Hebrew history will illustrate how the +facts of the record were so altered in Babylon by the Jewish priests as to turn +the everyday secular history of their people into a fictitious and sacred +history. + +9. HEBREW HISTORY + +There never were twelve tribes of the Israelites--only three or four tribes +settled in Palestine. The Hebrew nation came into being as the result of the +union of the so-called Israelites and the Canaanites. "And the children of +Israel dwelt among the Canaanites. And they took their daughters to be their +wives and gave their daughters to the sons of the Canaanites." The Hebrews +never drove the Canaanites out of Palestine, notwithstanding that the priests' +record of these things unhesitatingly declared that they did. + +The Israelitish consciousness took origin in the hill country of Ephraim; the +later Jewish consciousness originated in the southern clan of Judah. The Jews + + top of page - 1072 + +(Judahites) always sought to defame and blacken the record of the northern +Israelites (Ephraimites). + +Pretentious Hebrew history begins with Saul's rallying the northern clans to +withstand an attack by the Ammonites upon their fellow tribesmen--the +Gileadites--east of the Jordan. With an army of a little more than three +thousand he defeated the enemy, and it was this exploit that led the hill +tribes to make him king. When the exiled priests rewrote this story, they +raised Saul's army to 330,000 and added "Judah" to the list of tribes +participating in the battle. + +Immediately following the defeat of the Ammonites, Saul was made king by +popular election by his troops. No priest or prophet participated in this +affair. But the priests later on put it in the record that Saul was crowned +king by the prophet Samuel in accordance with divine directions. This they did +in order to establish a "divine line of descent" for David's Judahite kingship. + +The greatest of all distortions of Jewish history had to do with David. After +Saul's victory over the Ammonites (which he ascribed to Yahweh) the Philistines +became alarmed and began attacks on the northern clans. David and Saul never +could agree. David with six hundred men entered into a Philistine alliance and +marched up the coast to Esdraelon. At Gath the Philistines ordered David off +the field; they feared he might go over to Saul. David retired; the Philistines +attacked and defeated Saul. They could not have done this had David been loyal +to Israel. David's army was a polyglot assortment of malcontents, being for the +most part made up of social misfits and fugitives from justice. + +Saul's tragic defeat at Gilboa by the Philistines brought Yahweh to a low point +among the gods in the eyes of the surrounding Canaanites. Ordinarily, Saul's +defeat would have been ascribed to apostasy from Yahweh, but this time the +Judahite editors attributed it to ritual errors. They required the tradition of +Saul and Samuel as a background for the kingship of David. + +David with his small army made his headquarters at the non-Hebrew city of +Hebron. Presently his compatriots proclaimed him king of the new kingdom of +Judah. Judah was made up mostly of non-Hebrew elements--Kenites, Calebites, +Jebusites, and other Canaanites. They were nomads--herders--and so were devoted +to the Hebrew idea of land ownership. They held the ideologies of the desert +clans. + +The difference between sacred and profane history is well illustrated by the +two differing stories concerning making David king as they are found in the Old +Testament. A part of the secular story of how his immediate followers (his +army) made him king was inadvertently left in the record by the priests who +subsequently prepared the lengthy and prosaic account of the sacred history +wherein is depicted how the prophet Samuel, by divine direction, selected David +from among his brethren and proceeded formally and by elaborate and solemn +ceremonies to anoint him king over the Hebrews and then to proclaim him Saul's +successor. + +So many times did the priests, after preparing their fictitious narratives of +God's miraculous dealings with Israel, fail fully to delete the plain and +matter-of-fact statements which already rested in the records. + +David sought to build himself up politically by first marrying Saul's daughter, +then the widow of Nabal the rich Edomite, and then the daughter of Talmai, the +king of Geshur. He took six wives from the women of Jebus, not to mention +Bathsheba, the wife of the Hittite. + + top of page - 1073 + +And it was by such methods and out of such people that David built up the +fiction of a divine kingdom of Judah as the successor of the heritage and +traditions of the vanishing northern kingdom of Ephraimite Israel. David's +cosmopolitan tribe of Judah was more gentile than Jewish; nevertheless the +oppressed elders of Ephraim came down and "anointed him king of Israel." After +a military threat, David then made a compact with the Jebusites and established +his capital of the united kingdom at Jebus (Jerusalem), which was a +strong-walled city midway between Judah and Israel. The Philistines were +aroused and soon attacked David. After a fierce battle they were defeated, and +once more Yahweh was established as "The Lord God of Hosts." + +But Yahweh must, perforce, share some of this glory with the Canaanite gods, +for the bulk of David's army was non-Hebrew. And so there appears in your +record (overlooked by the Judahite editors) this telltale statement: "Yahweh +has broken my enemies before me. Therefore he called the name of the place +Baal-Perazim." And they did this because eighty per cent of David's soldiers +were Baalites. + +David explained Saul's defeat at Gilboa by pointing out that Saul had attacked +a Canaanite city, Gibeon, whose people had a peace treaty with the Ephraimites. +Because of this, Yahweh forsook him. Even in Saul's time David had defended the +Canaanite city of Keilah against the Philistines, and then he located his +capital in a Canaanite city. In keeping with the policy of compromise with the +Canaanites, David turned seven of Saul's descendants over to the Gibeonites to +be hanged. + +After the defeat of the Philistines, David gained possession of the "ark of +Yahweh," brought it to Jerusalem, and made the worship of Yahweh official for +his kingdom. He next laid heavy tribute on the neighboring tribes--the +Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Syrians. + +David's corrupt political machine began to get personal possession of land in +the north in violation of the Hebrew mores and presently gained control of the +caravan tariffs formerly collected by the Philistines. And then came a series +of atrocities climaxed by the murder of Uriah. All judicial appeals were +adjudicated at Jerusalem; no longer could "the elders" mete out justice. No +wonder rebellion broke out. Today, Absalom might be called a demagogue; his +mother was a Canaanite. There were a half dozen contenders for the throne +besides the son of Bathsheba--Solomon. + +After David's death Solomon purged the political machine of all northern +influences but continued all of the tyranny and taxation of his father's +regime. Solomon bankrupted the nation by his lavish court and by his elaborate +building program: There was the house of Lebanon, the palace of Pharaoh's +daughter, the temple of Yahweh, the king's palace, and the restoration of the +walls of many cities. Solomon created a vast Hebrew navy, operated by Syrian +sailors and trading with all the world. His harem numbered almost one thousand. + +By this time Yahweh's temple at Shiloh was discredited, and all the worship of +the nation was centered at Jebus in the gorgeous royal chapel. The northern +kingdom returned more to the worship of Elohim. They enjoyed the favor of the +Pharaohs, who later enslaved Judah, putting the southern kingdom under tribute. + +There were ups and downs--wars between Israel and Judah. After four years of +civil war and three dynasties, Israel fell under the rule of city despots who +began to trade in land. Even King Omri attempted to buy Shemer's estate. + + top of page - 1074 + +But the end drew on apace when Shalmaneser III decided to control the +Mediterranean coast. King Ahab of Ephraim gathered ten other groups and +resisted at Karkar; the battle was a draw. The Assyrian was stopped but the +allies were decimated. This great fight is not even mentioned in the Old +Testament. + +New trouble started when King Ahab tried to buy land from Naboth. His +Phoenician wife forged Ahab's name to papers directing that Naboth's land be +confiscated on the charge that he had blasphemed the names of "Elohim and the +king." He and his sons were promptly executed. The vigorous Elijah appeared on +the scene denouncing Ahab for the murder of the Naboths. Thus Elijah, one of +the greatest of the prophets, began his teaching as a defender of the old land +mores as against the land-selling attitude of the Baalim, against the attempt +of the cities to dominate the country. But the reform did not succeed until the +country landlord Jehu joined forces with the gypsy chieftain Jehonadab to +destroy the prophets (real estate agents) of Baal at Samaria. + +New life appeared as Jehoash and his son Jeroboam delivered Israel from its +enemies. But by this time there ruled in Samaria a gangster-nobility whose +depredations rivaled those of the Davidic dynasty of olden days. State and +church went along hand in hand. The attempt to suppress freedom of speech led +Elijah, Amos, and Hosea to begin their secret writing, and this was the real +beginning of the Jewish and Christian Bibles. + +But the northern kingdom did not vanish from history until the king of Israel +conspired with the king of Egypt and refused to pay further tribute to Assyria. +Then began the three years' siege followed by the total dispersion of the +northern kingdom. Ephraim (Israel) thus vanished. Judah--the Jews, the "remnant +of Israel"--had begun the concentration of land in the hands of the few, as +Isaiah said, "Adding house to house and field to field." Presently there was in +Jerusalem a temple of Baal alongside the temple of Yahweh. This reign of terror +was ended by a monotheistic revolt led by the boy king Joash, who crusaded for +Yahweh for thirty-five years. + +The next king, Amaziah, had trouble with the revolting tax-paying Edomites and +their neighbors. After a signal victory he turned to attack his northern +neighbors and was just as signally defeated. Then the rural folk revolted; they +assassinated the king and put his sixteen-year-old son on the throne. This was +Azariah, called Uzziah by Isaiah. After Uzziah, things went from bad to worse, +and Judah existed for a hundred years by paying tribute to the kings of +Assyria. Isaiah the first told them that Jerusalem, being the city of Yahweh, +would never fall. But Jeremiah did not hesitate to proclaim its downfall. + +The real undoing of Judah was effected by a corrupt and rich ring of +politicians operating under the rule of a boy king, Manasseh. The changing +economy favored the return of the worship of Baal, whose private land dealings +were against the ideology of Yahweh. The fall of Assyria and the ascendency of +Egypt brought deliverance to Judah for a time, and the country folk took over. +Under Josiah they destroyed the Jerusalem ring of corrupt politicians. + +But this era came to a tragic end when Josiah presumed to go out to intercept +Necho's mighty army as it moved up the coast from Egypt for the aid of Assyria +against Babylon. He was wiped out, and Judah went under tribute to Egypt. The +Baal political party returned to power in Jerusalem, and thus began the real +Egyptian bondage. Then ensued a period in which the Baalim politicians +controlled both the courts and the priesthood. Baal worship was an economic and + + top of page - 1075 + +social system dealing with property rights as well as having to do with soil +fertility. + +With the overthrow of Necho by Nebuchadnezzar, Judah fell under the rule of +Babylon and was given ten years of grace, but soon rebelled. When +Nebuchadnezzar came against them, the Judahites started social reforms, such as +releasing slaves, to influence Yahweh. When the Babylonian army temporarily +withdrew, the Hebrews rejoiced that their magic of reform had delivered them. +It was during this period that Jeremiah told them of the impending doom, and +presently Nebuchadnezzar returned. + +And so the end of Judah came suddenly. The city was destroyed, and the people +were carried away into Babylon. The Yahweh-Baal struggle ended with the +captivity. And the captivity shocked the remnant of Israel into monotheism. + +In Babylon the Jews arrived at the conclusion that they could not exist as a +small group in Palestine, having their own peculiar social and economic +customs, and that, if their ideologies were to prevail, they must convert the +gentiles. Thus originated their new concept of destiny--the idea that the Jews +must become the chosen servants of Yahweh. The Jewish religion of the Old +Testament really evolved in Babylon during the captivity. + +The doctrine of immortality also took form at Babylon. The Jews had thought +that the idea of the future life detracted from the emphasis of their gospel of +social justice. Now for the first time theology displaced sociology and +economics. Religion was taking shape as a system of human thought and conduct +more and more to be separated from politics, sociology, and economics. + +And so does the truth about the Jewish people disclose that much which has been +regarded as sacred history turns out to be little more than the chronicle of +ordinary profane history. Judaism was the soil out of which Christianity grew, +but the Jews were not a miraculous people. + +10. THE HEBREW RELIGION + +Their leaders had taught the Israelites that they were a chosen people, not for +special indulgence and monopoly of divine favor, but for the special service of +carrying the truth of the one God over all to every nation. And they had +promised the Jews that, if they would fulfill this destiny, they would become +the spiritual leaders of all peoples, and that the coming Messiah would reign +over them and all the world as the Prince of Peace. + +When the Jews had been freed by the Persians, they returned to Palestine only +to fall into bondage to their own priest-ridden code of laws, sacrifices, and +rituals. And as the Hebrew clans rejected the wonderful story of God presented +in the farewell oration of Moses for the rituals of sacrifice and penance, so +did these remnants of the Hebrew nation reject the magnificent concept of the +second Isaiah for the rules, regulations, and rituals of their growing +priesthood. + +National egotism, false faith in a misconceived promised Messiah, and the +increasing bondage and tyranny of the priesthood forever silenced the voices of +the spiritual leaders (excepting Daniel, Ezekiel, Haggai, and Malachi); and +from that day to the time of John the Baptist all Israel experienced an +increasing spiritual retrogression. But the Jews never lost the concept of the +Universal Father; even to the twentieth century after Christ they have +continued to follow this Deity conception. + + top of page - 1076 + +From Moses to John the Baptist there extended an unbroken line of faithful +teachers who passed the monotheistic torch of light from one generation to +another while they unceasingly rebuked unscrupulous rulers, denounced +commercializing priests, and ever exhorted the people to adhere to the worship +of the supreme Yahweh, the Lord God of Israel. + +As a nation the Jews eventually lost their political identity, but the Hebrew +religion of sincere belief in the one and universal God continues to live in +the hearts of the scattered exiles. And this religion survives because it has +effectively functioned to conserve the highest values of its followers. The +Jewish religion did preserve the ideals of a people, but it failed to foster +progress and encourage philosophic creative discovery in the realms of truth. +The Jewish religion had many faults--it was deficient in philosophy and almost +devoid of aesthetic qualities--but it did conserve moral values; therefore it +persisted. The supreme Yahweh, as compared with other concepts of Deity, was +clear-cut, vivid, personal, and moral. + +The Jews loved justice, wisdom, truth, and righteousness as have few peoples, +but they contributed least of all peoples to the intellectual comprehension and +to the spiritual understanding of these divine qualities. Though Hebrew +theology refused to expand, it played an important part in the development of +two other world religions, Christianity and Mohammedanism. + +The Jewish religion persisted also because of its institutions. It is difficult +for religion to survive as the private practice of isolated individuals. This +has ever been the error of the religious leaders: Seeing the evils of +institutionalized religion, they seek to destroy the technique of group +functioning. In place of destroying all ritual, they would do better to reform +it. In this respect Ezekiel was wiser than his contemporaries; though he joined +with them in insisting on personal moral responsibility, he also set about to +establish the faithful observance of a superior and purified ritual. + +And thus the successive teachers of Israel accomplished the greatest feat in +the evolution of religion ever to be effected on Urantia: the gradual but +continuous transformation of the barbaric concept of the savage demon Yahweh, +the jealous and cruel spirit god of the fulminating Sinai volcano, to the later +exalted and supernal concept of the supreme Yahweh, creator of all things and +the loving and merciful Father of all mankind. And this Hebraic concept of God +was the highest human visualization of the Universal Father up to that time +when it was further enlarged and so exquisitely amplified by the personal +teachings and life example of his Son, Michael of Nebadon. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1077 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Yahweh--god Of ³ The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ Melchizedek... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p098.txt b/religious documents/p098.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98de434 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p098.txt @@ -0,0 +1,550 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 98 The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 98 The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Melchizedek teachings entered Europe along many routes, but chiefly they +came by way of Egypt and were embodied in Occidental philosophy after being +thoroughly Hellenized and later Christianized. The ideals of the Western world +were basically Socratic, and its later religious philosophy became that of +Jesus as it was modified and compromised through contact with evolving +Occidental philosophy and religion, all of which culminated in the Christian +church. + +For a long time in Europe the Salem missionaries carried on their activities, +becoming gradually absorbed into many of the cults and ritual groups which +periodically arose. Among those who maintained the Salem teachings in the +purest form must be mentioned the Cynics. These preachers of faith and trust in +God were still functioning in Roman Europe in the first century after Christ, +being later incorporated into the newly forming Christian religion. + +Much of the Salem doctrine was spread in Europe by the Jewish mercenary +soldiers who fought in so many of the Occidental military struggles. In ancient +times the Jews were famed as much for military valor as for theologic +peculiarities. + +The basic doctrines of Greek philosophy, Jewish theology, and Christian ethics +were fundamentally repercussions of the earlier Melchizedek teachings. + +1. THE SALEM RELIGION AMONG THE GREEKS + +The Salem missionaries might have built up a great religious structure among +the Greeks had it not been for their strict interpretation of their oath of +ordination, a pledge imposed by Machiventa which forbade the organization of +exclusive congregations for worship, and which exacted the promise of each +teacher never to function as a priest, never to receive fees for religious +service, only food, clothing, and shelter. When the Melchizedek teachers +penetrated to pre-Hellenic Greece, they found a people who still fostered the +traditions of Adamson and the days of the Andites, but these teachings had +become greatly adulterated with the notions and beliefs of the hordes of +inferior slaves that had been brought to the Greek shores in increasing +numbers. This adulteration produced a reversion to a crude animism with bloody +rites, the lower classes even making ceremonial out of the execution of +condemned criminals. + +The early influence of the Salem teachers was nearly destroyed by the so-called +Aryan invasion from southern Europe and the East. These Hellenic invaders +brought along with them anthropomorphic God concepts similar to those which +their Aryan fellows had carried to India. This importation inaugu- + + top of page - 1078 + +rated the evolution of the Greek family of gods and goddesses. This new +religion was partly based on the cults of the incoming Hellenic barbarians, but +it also shared in the myths of the older inhabitants of Greece. + +The Hellenic Greeks found the Mediterranean world largely dominated by the +mother cult, and they imposed upon these peoples their man-god, Dyaus-Zeus, who +had already become, like Yahweh among the henotheistic Semites, head of the +whole Greek pantheon of subordinate gods. And the Greeks would have eventually +achieved a true monotheism in the concept of Zeus except for their retention of +the overcontrol of Fate. A God of final value must, himself, be the arbiter of +fate and the creator of destiny. + +As a consequence of these factors in religious evolution, there presently +developed the popular belief in the happy-go-lucky gods of Mount Olympus, gods +more human than divine, and gods which the intelligent Greeks never did regard +very seriously. They neither greatly loved nor greatly feared these divinities +of their own creation. They had a patriotic and racial feeling for Zeus and his +family of half men and half gods, but they hardly reverenced or worshiped them. + +The Hellenes became so impregnated with the antipriestcraft doctrines of the +earlier Salem teachers that no priesthood of any importance ever arose in +Greece. Even the making of images to the gods became more of a work in art than +a matter of worship. + +The Olympian gods illustrate man's typical anthropomorphism. But the Greek +mythology was more aesthetic than ethic. The Greek religion was helpful in that +it portrayed a universe governed by a deity group. But Greek morals, ethics, +and philosophy presently advanced far beyond the god concept, and this +imbalance between intellectual and spiritual growth was as hazardous to Greece +as it had proved to be in India. + +2. GREEK PHILOSOPHIC THOUGHT + +A lightly regarded and superficial religion cannot endure, especially when it +has no priesthood to foster its forms and to fill the hearts of the devotees +with fear and awe. The Olympian religion did not promise salvation, nor did it +quench the spiritual thirst of its believers; therefore was it doomed to +perish. Within a millennium of its inception it had nearly vanished, and the +Greeks were without a national religion, the gods of Olympus having lost their +hold upon the better minds. + +This was the situation when, during the sixth century before Christ, the Orient +and the Levant experienced a revival of spiritual consciousness and a new +awakening to the recognition of monotheism. But the West did not share in this +new development; neither Europe nor northern Africa extensively participated in +this religious renaissance. The Greeks, however, did engage in a magnificent +intellectual advancement. They had begun to master fear and no longer sought +religion as an antidote therefor, but they did not perceive that true religion +is the cure for soul hunger, spiritual disquiet, and moral despair. They sought +for the solace of the soul in deep thinking--philosophy and metaphysics. They +turned from the contemplation of self-preservation--salvation--to +self-realization and self-understanding. + +By rigorous thought the Greeks attempted to attain that consciousness of +security which would serve as a substitute for the belief in survival, but they + + top of page - 1079 + +utterly failed. Only the more intelligent among the higher classes of the +Hellenic peoples could grasp this new teaching; the rank and file of the +progeny of the slaves of former generations had no capacity for the reception +of this new substitute for religion. + +The philosophers disdained all forms of worship, notwithstanding that they +practically all held loosely to the background of a belief in the Salem +doctrine of "the Intelligence of the universe," "the idea of God," and "the +Great Source." In so far as the Greek philosophers gave recognition to the +divine and the superfinite, they were frankly monotheistic; they gave scant +recognition to the whole galaxy of Olympian gods and goddesses. + +The Greek poets of the fifth and sixth centuries, notably Pindar, attempted the +reformation of Greek religion. They elevated its ideals, but they were more +artists than religionists. They failed to develop a technique for fostering and +conserving supreme values. + +Xenophanes taught one God, but his deity concept was too pantheistic to be a +personal Father to mortal man. Anaxagoras was a mechanist except that he did +recognize a First Cause, an Initial Mind. Socrates and his successors, Plato +and Aristotle, taught that virtue is knowledge; goodness, health of the soul; +that it is better to suffer injustice than to be guilty of it, that it is wrong +to return evil for evil, and that the gods are wise and good. Their cardinal +virtues were: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. + +The evolution of religious philosophy among the Hellenic and Hebrew peoples +affords a contrastive illustration of the function of the church as an +institution in the shaping of cultural progress. In Palestine, human thought +was so priest-controlled and scripture-directed that philosophy and aesthetics +were entirely submerged in religion and morality. In Greece, the almost +complete absence of priests and "sacred scriptures" left the human mind free +and unfettered, resulting in a startling development in depth of thought. But +religion as a personal experience failed to keep pace with the intellectual +probings into the nature and reality of the cosmos. + +In Greece, believing was subordinated to thinking; in Palestine, thinking was +held subject to believing. Much of the strength of Christianity is due to its +having borrowed heavily from both Hebrew morality and Greek thought. + +In Palestine, religious dogma became so crystallized as to jeopardize further +growth; in Greece, human thought became so abstract that the concept of God +resolved itself into a misty vapor of pantheistic speculation not at all unlike +the impersonal Infinity of the Brahman philosophers. + +But the average men of these times could not grasp, nor were they much +interested in, the Greek philosophy of self-realization and an abstract Deity; +they rather craved promises of salvation, coupled with a personal God who could +hear their prayers. They exiled the philosophers, persecuted the remnants of +the Salem cult, both doctrines having become much blended, and made ready for +that terrible orgiastic plunge into the follies of the mystery cults which were +then overspreading the Mediterranean lands. The Eleusinian mysteries grew up +within the Olympian pantheon, a Greek version of the worship of fertility; +Dionysus nature worship flourished; the best of the cults was the Orphic +brotherhood, whose moral preachments and promises of salvation made a great +appeal to many. + + top of page - 1080 + +All Greece became involved in these new methods of attaining salvation, these +emotional and fiery ceremonials. No nation ever attained such heights of +artistic philosophy in so short a time; none ever created such an advanced +system of ethics practically without Deity and entirely devoid of the promise +of human salvation; no nation ever plunged so quickly, deeply, and violently +into such depths of intellectual stagnation, moral depravity, and spiritual +poverty as these same Greek peoples when they flung themselves into the mad +whirl of the mystery cults. + +Religions have long endured without philosophical support, but few +philosophies, as such, have long persisted without some identification with +religion. Philosophy is to religion as conception is to action. But the ideal +human estate is that in which philosophy, religion, and science are welded into +a meaningful unity by the conjoined action of wisdom, faith, and experience. + +3. THE MELCHIZEDEK TEACHINGS IN ROME + +Having grown out of the earlier religious forms of worship of the family gods +into the tribal reverence for Mars, the god of war, it was natural that the +later religion of the Latins was more of a political observance than were the +intellectual systems of the Greeks and Brahmans or the more spiritual religions +of several other peoples. + +In the great monotheistic renaissance of Melchizedek's gospel during the sixth +century before Christ, too few of the Salem missionaries penetrated Italy, and +those who did were unable to overcome the influence of the rapidly spreading +Etruscan priesthood with its new galaxy of gods and temples, all of which +became organized into the Roman state religion. This religion of the Latin +tribes was not trivial and venal like that of the Greeks, neither was it +austere and tyrannical like that of the Hebrews; it consisted for the most part +in the observance of mere forms, vows, and taboos. + +Roman religion was greatly influenced by extensive cultural importations from +Greece. Eventually most of the Olympian gods were transplanted and incorporated +into the Latin pantheon. The Greeks long worshiped the fire of the family +hearth--Hestia was the virgin goddess of the hearth; Vesta was the Roman +goddess of the home. Zeus became Jupiter; Aphrodite, Venus; and so on down +through the many Olympian deities. + +The religious initiation of Roman youths was the occasion of their solemn +consecration to the service of the state. Oaths and admissions to citizenship +were in reality religious ceremonies. The Latin peoples maintained temples, +altars, and shrines and, in a crisis, would consult the oracles. They preserved +the bones of heroes and later on those of the Christian saints. + +This formal and unemotional form of pseudoreligious patriotism was doomed to +collapse, even as the highly intellectual and artistic worship of the Greeks +had gone down before the fervid and deeply emotional worship of the mystery +cults. The greatest of these devastating cults was the mystery religion of the +Mother of God sect, which had its headquarters, in those days, on the exact +site of the present church of St. Peter's in Rome. + +The emerging Roman state conquered politically but was in turn conquered by the +cults, rituals, mysteries, and god concepts of Egypt, Greece, and the Levant. +These imported cults continued to flourish throughout the Roman state + + top of page - 1081 + +up to the time of Augustus, who, purely for political and civic reasons, made a +heroic and somewhat successful effort to destroy the mysteries and revive the +older political religion. + +One of the priests of the state religion told Augustus of the earlier attempts +of the Salem teachers to spread the doctrine of one God, a final Deity +presiding over all supernatural beings; and this idea took such a firm hold on +the emperor that he built many temples, stocked them well with beautiful +images, reorganized the state priesthood, re-established the state religion, +appointed himself acting high priest of all, and as emperor did not hesitate to +proclaim himself the supreme god. + +This new religion of Augustus worship flourished and was observed throughout +the empire during his lifetime except in Palestine, the home of the Jews. And +this era of the human gods continued until the official Roman cult had a roster +of more than twoscore self-elevated human deities, all claiming miraculous +births and other superhuman attributes. + +The last stand of the dwindling band of Salem believers was made by an earnest +group of preachers, the Cynics, who exhorted the Romans to abandon their wild +and senseless religious rituals and return to a form of worship embodying +Melchizedek's gospel as it had been modified and contaminated through contact +with the philosophy of the Greeks. But the people at large rejected the Cynics; +they preferred to plunge into the rituals of the mysteries, which not only +offered hopes of personal salvation but also gratified the desire for +diversion, excitement, and entertainment. + +4. THE MYSTERY CULTS + +The majority of people in the Greco-Roman world, having lost their primitive +family and state religions and being unable or unwilling to grasp the meaning +of Greek philosophy, turned their attention to the spectacular and emotional +mystery cults from Egypt and the Levant. The common people craved promises of +salvation--religious consolation for today and assurances of hope for +immortality after death. + +The three mystery cults which became most popular were: + +1. The Phrygian cult of Cybele and her son Attis. + +2. The Egyptian cult of Osiris and his mother Isis. + +3. The Iranian cult of the worship of Mithras as the savior and redeemer of +sinful mankind. + +The Phrygian and Egyptian mysteries taught that the divine son (respectively +Attis and Osiris) had experienced death and had been resurrected by divine +power, and further that all who were properly initiated into the mystery, and +who reverently celebrated the anniversary of the god's death and resurrection, +would thereby become partakers of his divine nature and his immortality. + +The Phrygian ceremonies were imposing but degrading; their bloody festivals +indicate how degraded and primitive these Levantine mysteries became. The most +holy day was Black Friday, the "day of blood," commemorating the self-inflicted +death of Attis. After three days of the celebration of the sacrifice and death +of Attis the festival was turned to joy in honor of his resurrection. + + top of page - 1082 + +The rituals of the worship of Isis and Osiris were more refined and impressive +than were those of the Phrygian cult. This Egyptian ritual was built around the +legend of the Nile god of old, a god who died and was resurrected, which +concept was derived from the observation of the annually recurring stoppage of +vegetation growth followed by the springtime restoration of all living plants. +The frenzy of the observance of these mystery cults and the orgies of their +ceremonials, which were supposed to lead up to the "enthusiasm" of the +realization of divinity, were sometimes most revolting. + +5. THE CULT OF MITHRAS + +The Phrygian and Egyptian mysteries eventually gave way before the greatest of +all the mystery cults, the worship of Mithras. The Mithraic cult made its +appeal to a wide range of human nature and gradually supplanted both of its +predecessors. Mithraism spread over the Roman Empire through the propagandizing +of Roman legions recruited in the Levant, where this religion was the vogue, +for they carried this belief wherever they went. And this new religious ritual +was a great improvement over the earlier mystery cults. + +The cult of Mithras arose in Iran and long persisted in its homeland despite +the militant opposition of the followers of Zoroaster. But by the time +Mithraism reached Rome, it had become greatly improved by the absorption of +many of Zoroaster's teachings. It was chiefly through the Mithraic cult that +Zoroaster's religion exerted an influence upon later appearing Christianity. + +The Mithraic cult portrayed a militant god taking origin in a great rock, +engaging in valiant exploits, and causing water to gush forth from a rock +struck with his arrows. There was a flood from which one man escaped in a +specially built boat and a last supper which Mithras celebrated with the +sun-god before he ascended into the heavens. This sun-god, or Sol Invictus, was +a degeneration of the Ahura-Mazda deity concept of Zoroastrianism. Mithras was +conceived as the surviving champion of the sun-god in his struggle with the god +of darkness. And in recognition of his slaying the mythical sacred bull, +Mithras was made immortal, being exalted to the station of intercessor for the +human race among the gods on high. + +The adherents of this cult worshiped in caves and other secret places, chanting +hymns, mumbling magic, eating the flesh of the sacrificial animals, and +drinking the blood. Three times a day they worshiped, with special weekly +ceremonials on the day of the sun-god and with the most elaborate observance of +all on the annual festival of Mithras, December twenty-fifth. It was believed +that the partaking of the sacrament ensured eternal life, the immediate +passing, after death, to the bosom of Mithras, there to tarry in bliss until +the judgment day. On the judgment day the Mithraic keys of heaven would unlock +the gates of Paradise for the reception of the faithful; whereupon all the +unbaptized of the living and the dead would be annihilated upon the return of +Mithras to earth. It was taught that, when a man died, he went before Mithras +for judgment, and that at the end of the world Mithras would summon all the +dead from their graves to face the last judgment. The wicked would be destroyed +by fire, and the righteous would reign with Mithras forever. + +At first it was a religion only for men, and there were seven different orders +into which believers could be successively initiated. Later on, the wives and + + top of page - 1083 + +daughters of believers were admitted to the temples of the Great Mother, which +adjoined the Mithraic temples. The women's cult was a mixture of Mithraic +ritual and the ceremonies of the Phrygian cult of Cybele, the mother of Attis. + +6. MITHRAISM AND CHRISTIANITY + +Prior to the coming of the mystery cults and Christianity, personal religion +hardly developed as an independent institution in the civilized lands of North +Africa and Europe; it was more of a family, city-state, political, and imperial +affair. The Hellenic Greeks never evolved a centralized worship system; the +ritual was local; they had no priesthood and no "sacred book." Much as the +Romans, their religious institutions lacked a powerful driving agency for the +preservation of higher moral and spiritual values. While it is true that the +institutionalization of religion has usually detracted from its spiritual +quality, it is also a fact that no religion has thus far succeeded in surviving +without the aid of institutional organization of some degree, greater or +lesser. + +Occidental religion thus languished until the days of the Skeptics, Cynics, +Epicureans, and Stoics, but most important of all, until the times of the great +contest between Mithraism and Paul's new religion of Christianity. + +During the third century after Christ, Mithraic and Christian churches were +very similar both in appearance and in the character of their ritual. A +majority of such places of worship were underground, and both contained altars +whose backgrounds variously depicted the sufferings of the savior who had +brought salvation to a sin-cursed human race. + +Always had it been the practice of Mithraic worshipers, on entering the temple, +to dip their fingers in holy water. And since in some districts there were +those who at one time belonged to both religions, they introduced this custom +into the majority of the Christian churches in the vicinity of Rome. Both +religions employed baptism and partook of the sacrament of bread and wine. The +one great difference between Mithraism and Christianity, aside from the +characters of Mithras and Jesus, was that the one encouraged militarism while +the other was ultrapacific. Mithraism's tolerance for other religions (except +later Christianity) led to its final undoing. But the deciding factor in the +struggle between the two was the admission of women into the full fellowship of +the Christian faith. + +In the end the nominal Christian faith dominated the Occident. Greek philosophy +supplied the concepts of ethical value; Mithraism, the ritual of worship +observance; and Christianity, as such, the technique for the conservation of +moral and social values. + +7. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION + +A Creator Son did not incarnate in the likeness of mortal flesh and bestow +himself upon the humanity of Urantia to reconcile an angry God but rather to +win all mankind to the recognition of the Father's love and to the realization +of their sonship with God. After all, even the great advocate of the atonement +doctrine realized something of this truth, for he declared that "God was in +Christ reconciling the world to himself." + + top of page - 1084 + +It is not the province of this paper to deal with the origin and dissemination +of the Christian religion. Suffice it to say that it is built around the person +of Jesus of Nazareth, the humanly incarnate Michael Son of Nebadon, known to +Urantia as the Christ, the anointed one. Christianity was spread throughout the +Levant and Occident by the followers of this Galilean, and their missionary +zeal equaled that of their illustrious predecessors, the Sethites and +Salemites, as well as that of their earnest Asiatic contemporaries, the +Buddhist teachers. + +The Christian religion, as a Urantian system of belief, arose through the +compounding of the following teachings, influences, beliefs, cults, and +personal individual attitudes: + +1. The Melchizedek teachings, which are a basic factor in all the religions of +Occident and Orient that have arisen in the last four thousand years. + +2. The Hebraic system of morality, ethics, theology, and belief in both +Providence and the supreme Yahweh. + +3. The Zoroastrian conception of the struggle between cosmic good and evil, +which had already left its imprint on both Judaism and Mithraism. Through +prolonged contact attendant upon the struggles between Mithraism and +Christianity, the doctrines of the Iranian prophet became a potent factor in +determining the theologic and philosophic cast and structure of the dogmas, +tenets, and cosmology of the Hellenized and Latinized versions of the teachings +of Jesus. + +4. The mystery cults, especially Mithraism but also the worship of the Great +Mother in the Phrygian cult. Even the legends of the birth of Jesus on Urantia +became tainted with the Roman version of the miraculous birth of the Iranian +savior-hero, Mithras, whose advent on earth was supposed to have been witnessed +by only a handful of gift-bearing shepherds who had been informed of this +impending event by angels. + +5. The historic fact of the human life of Joshua ben Joseph, the reality of +Jesus of Nazareth as the glorified Christ, the Son of God. + +6. The personal viewpoint of Paul of Tarsus. And it should be recorded that +Mithraism was the dominant religion of Tarsus during his adolescence. Paul +little dreamed that his well-intentioned letters to his converts would someday +be regarded by still later Christians as the "word of God." Such well-meaning +teachers must not be held accountable for the use made of their writings by +later-day successors. + +7. The philosophic thought of the Hellenistic peoples, from Alexandria and +Antioch through Greece to Syracuse and Rome. The philosophy of the Greeks was +more in harmony with Paul's version of Christianity than with any other current +religious system and became an important factor in the success of Christianity +in the Occident. Greek philosophy, coupled with Paul's theology, still forms +the basis of European ethics. + +As the original teachings of Jesus penetrated the Occident, they became +Occidentalized, and as they became Occidentalized, they began to lose their +potentially universal appeal to all races and kinds of men. Christianity, +today, has become a religion well adapted to the social, economic, and +political mores of the white races. It has long since ceased to be the religion +of Jesus, although it still valiantly portrays a beautiful religion about Jesus +to such individuals as + + top of page - 1085 + +sincerely seek to follow in the way of its teaching. It has glorified Jesus as +the Christ, the Messianic anointed one from God, but has largely forgotten the +Master's personal gospel: the Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood +of all men. + +And this is the long story of the teachings of Machiventa Melchizedek on +Urantia. It is nearly four thousand years since this emergency Son of Nebadon +bestowed himself on Urantia, and in that time the teachings of the "priest of +El Elyon, the Most High God," have penetrated to all races and peoples. And +Machiventa was successful in achieving the purpose of his unusual bestowal; +when Michael made ready to appear on Urantia, the God concept was existent in +the hearts of men and women, the same God concept that still flames anew in the +living spiritual experience of the manifold children of the Universal Father as +they live their intriguing temporal lives on the whirling planets of space. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1086 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Evolution Of ³ The Social ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Th... ³ Prob... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p099.txt b/religious documents/p099.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..363cfb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p099.txt @@ -0,0 +1,510 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 99 The Social Problems Of Religion + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 99 The Social Problems Of Religion + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +RELIGION achieves its highest social ministry when it has least connection with +the secular institutions of society. In past ages, since social reforms were +largely confined to the moral realms, religion did not have to adjust its +attitude to extensive changes in economic and political systems. The chief +problem of religion was the endeavor to replace evil with good within the +existing social order of political and economic culture. Religion has thus +indirectly tended to perpetuate the established order of society, to foster the +maintenance of the existent type of civilization. + +But religion should not be directly concerned either with the creation of new +social orders or with the preservation of old ones. True religion does oppose +violence as a technique of social evolution, but it does not oppose the +intelligent efforts of society to adapt its usages and adjust its institutions +to new economic conditions and cultural requirements. + +Religion did approve the occasional social reforms of past centuries, but in +the twentieth century it is of necessity called upon to face adjustment to +extensive and continuing social reconstruction. Conditions of living alter so +rapidly that institutional modifications must be greatly accelerated, and +religion must accordingly quicken its adaptation to this new and ever-changing +social order. + +1. RELIGION AND SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION + +Mechanical inventions and the dissemination of knowledge are modifying +civilization; certain economic adjustments and social changes are imperative if +cultural disaster is to be avoided. This new and oncoming social order will not +settle down complacently for a millennium. The human race must become +reconciled to a procession of changes, adjustments, and readjustments. Mankind +is on the march toward a new and unrevealed planetary destiny. + +Religion must become a forceful influence for moral stability and spiritual +progression functioning dynamically in the midst of these ever-changing +conditions and never-ending economic adjustments. + +Urantia society can never hope to settle down as in past ages. The social ship +has steamed out of the sheltered bays of established tradition and has begun +its cruise upon the high seas of evolutionary destiny; and the soul of man, as +never before in the world's history, needs carefully to scrutinize its charts +of morality and painstakingly to observe the compass of religious guidance. The +paramount mission of religion as a social influence is to stabilize the ideals +of mankind during these dangerous times of transition from one phase of +civilization to another, from one level of culture to another. + + top of page - 1087 + +Religion has no new duties to perform, but it is urgently called upon to +function as a wise guide and experienced counselor in all of these new and +rapidly changing human situations. Society is becoming more mechanical, more +compact, more complex, and more critically interdependent. Religion must +function to prevent these new and intimate interassociations from becoming +mutually retrogressive or even destructive. Religion must act as the cosmic +salt which prevents the ferments of progression from destroying the cultural +savor of civilization. These new social relations and economic upheavals can +result in lasting brotherhood only by the ministry of religion. + +A godless humanitarianism is, humanly speaking, a noble gesture, but true +religion is the only power which can lastingly increase the responsiveness of +one social group to the needs and sufferings of other groups. In the past, +institutional religion could remain passive while the upper strata of society +turned a deaf ear to the sufferings and oppression of the helpless lower +strata, but in modern times these lower social orders are no longer so abjectly +ignorant nor so politically helpless. + +Religion must not become organically involved in the secular work of social +reconstruction and economic reorganization. But it must actively keep pace with +all these advances in civilization by making clear-cut and vigorous +restatements of its moral mandates and spiritual precepts, its progressive +philosophy of human living and transcendent survival. The spirit of religion is +eternal, but the form of its expression must be restated every time the +dictionary of human language is revised. + +2. WEAKNESS OF INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION + +Institutional religion cannot afford inspiration and provide leadership in this +impending world-wide social reconstruction and economic reorganization because +it has unfortunately become more or less of an organic part of the social order +and the economic system which is destined to undergo reconstruction. Only the +real religion of personal spiritual experience can function helpfully and +creatively in the present crisis of civilization. + +Institutional religion is now caught in the stalemate of a vicious circle. It +cannot reconstruct society without first reconstructing itself; and being so +much an integral part of the established order, it cannot reconstruct itself +until society has been radically reconstructed. + +Religionists must function in society, in industry, and in politics as +individuals, not as groups, parties, or institutions. A religious group which +presumes to function as such, apart from religious activities, immediately +becomes a political party, an economic organization, or a social institution. +Religious collectivism must confine its efforts to the furtherance of religious +causes. + +Religionists are of no more value in the tasks of social reconstruction than +nonreligionists except in so far as their religion has conferred upon them +enhanced cosmic foresight and endowed them with that superior social wisdom +which is born of the sincere desire to love God supremely and to love every man +as a brother in the heavenly kingdom. An ideal social order is that in which +every man loves his neighbor as he loves himself. + +The institutionalized church may have appeared to serve society in the past by +glorifying the established political and economic orders, but it must speedily + + top of page - 1088 + +cease such action if it is to survive. Its only proper attitude consists in the +teaching of nonviolence, the doctrine of peaceful evolution in the place of +violent revolution--peace on earth and good will among all men. + +Modern religion finds it difficult to adjust its attitude toward the rapidly +shifting social changes only because it has permitted itself to become so +thoroughly traditionalized, dogmatized, and institutionalized. The religion of +living experience finds no difficulty in keeping ahead of all these social +developments and economic upheavals, amid which it ever functions as a moral +stabilizer, social guide, and spiritual pilot. True religion carries over from +one age to another the worth-while culture and that wisdom which is born of the +experience of knowing God and striving to be like him. + +3. RELIGION AND THE RELIGIONIST + +Early Christianity was entirely free from all civil entanglements, social +commitments, and economic alliances. Only did later institutionalized +Christianity become an organic part of the political and social structure of +Occidental civilization. + +The kingdom of heaven is neither a social nor economic order; it is an +exclusively spiritual brotherhood of God-knowing individuals. True, such a +brotherhood is in itself a new and amazing social phenomenon attended by +astounding political and economic repercussions. + +The religionist is not unsympathetic with social suffering, not unmindful of +civil injustice, not insulated from economic thinking, neither insensible to +political tyranny. Religion influences social reconstruction directly because +it spiritualizes and idealizes the individual citizen. Indirectly, cultural +civilization is influenced by the attitude of these individual religionists as +they become active and influential members of various social, moral, economic, +and political groups. + +The attainment of a high cultural civilization demands, first, the ideal type +of citizen and, then, ideal and adequate social mechanisms wherewith such a +citizenry may control the economic and political institutions of such an +advanced human society. + +The church, because of overmuch false sentiment, has long ministered to the +underprivileged and the unfortunate, and this has all been well, but this same +sentiment has led to the unwise perpetuation of racially degenerate stocks +which have tremendously retarded the progress of civilization. + +Many individual social reconstructionists, while vehemently repudiating +institutionalized religion, are, after all, zealously religious in the +propagation of their social reforms. And so it is that religious motivation, +personal and more or less unrecognized, is playing a great part in the +present-day program of social reconstruction. + +The great weakness of all this unrecognized and unconscious type of religious +activity is that it is unable to profit from open religious criticism and +thereby attain to profitable levels of self-correction. It is a fact that +religion does not grow unless it is disciplined by constructive criticism, +amplified by philosophy, purified by science, and nourished by loyal +fellowship. + +There is always the great danger that religion will become distorted and +perverted into the pursuit of false goals, as when in times of war each +contending + + top of page - 1089 + +nation prostitutes its religion into military propaganda. Loveless zeal is +always harmful to religion, while persecution diverts the activities of +religion into the achievement of some sociologic or theologic drive. + +Religion can be kept free from unholy secular alliances only by: + +1. A critically corrective philosophy. + +2. Freedom from all social, economic, and political alliances. + +3. Creative, comforting, and love-expanding fellowships. + +4. Progressive enhancement of spiritual insight and the appreciation of cosmic +values. + +5. Prevention of fanaticism by the compensations of the scientific mental +attitude. + +Religionists, as a group, must never concern themselves with anything but +religion, albeit any one such religionist, as an individual citizen, may become +the outstanding leader of some social, economic, or political reconstruction +movement. + +It is the business of religion to create, sustain, and inspire such a cosmic +loyalty in the individual citizen as will direct him to the achievement of +success in the advancement of all these difficult but desirable social +services. + +4. TRANSITION DIFFICULTIES + +Genuine religion renders the religionist socially fragrant and creates insights +into human fellowship. But the formalization of religious groups many times +destroys the very values for the promotion of which the group was organized. +Human friendship and divine religion are mutually helpful and significantly +illuminating if the growth in each is equalized and harmonized. Religion puts +new meaning into all group associations--families, schools, and clubs. It +imparts new values to play and exalts all true humor. + +Social leadership is transformed by spiritual insight; religion prevents all +collective movements from losing sight of their true objectives. Together with +children, religion is the great unifier of family life, provided it is a living +and growing faith. Family life cannot be had without children; it can be lived +without religion, but such a handicap enormously multiplies the difficulties of +this intimate human association. During the early decades of the twentieth +century, family life, next to personal religious experience, suffers most from +the decadence consequent upon the transition from old religious loyalties to +the emerging new meanings and values. + +True religion is a meaningful way of living dynamically face to face with the +commonplace realities of everyday life. But if religion is to stimulate +individual development of character and augment integration of personality, it +must not be standardized. If it is to stimulate evaluation of experience and +serve as a value-lure, it must not be stereotyped. If religion is to promote +supreme loyalties, it must not be formalized. + +No matter what upheavals may attend the social and economic growth of +civilization, religion is genuine and worth while if it fosters in the +individual an experience in which the sovereignty of truth, beauty, and +goodness prevails, for such is the true spiritual concept of supreme reality. +And through love and worship this becomes meaningful as fellowship with man and +sonship with God. + + top of page - 1090 + +After all, it is what one believes rather than what one knows that determines +conduct and dominates personal performances. Purely factual knowledge exerts +very little influence upon the average man unless it becomes emotionally +activated. But the activation of religion is superemotional, unifying the +entire human experience on transcendent levels through contact with, and +release of, spiritual energies in the mortal life. + +During the psychologically unsettled times of the twentieth century, amid the +economic upheavals, the moral crosscurrents, and the sociologic rip tides of +the cyclonic transitions of a scientific era, thousands upon thousands of men +and women have become humanly dislocated; they are anxious, restless, fearful, +uncertain, and unsettled; as never before in the world's history they need the +consolation and stabilization of sound religion. In the face of unprecedented +scientific achievement and mechanical development there is spiritual stagnation +and philosophic chaos. + +There is no danger in religion's becoming more and more of a private matter--a +personal experience--provided it does not lose its motivation for unselfish and +loving social service. Religion has suffered from many secondary influences: +sudden mixing of cultures, intermingling of creeds, diminution of +ecclesiastical authority, changing of family life, together with urbanization +and mechanization. + +Man's greatest spiritual jeopardy consists in partial progress, the predicament +of unfinished growth: forsaking the evolutionary religions of fear without +immediately grasping the revelatory religion of love. Modern science, +particularly psychology, has weakened only those religions which are so largely +dependent upon fear, superstition, and emotion. + +Transition is always accompanied by confusion, and there will be little +tranquillity in the religious world until the great struggle between the three +contending philosophies of religion is ended: + +1. The spiritistic belief (in a providential Deity) of many religions. + +2. The humanistic and idealistic belief of many philosophies. + +3. The mechanistic and naturalistic conceptions of many sciences. + +And these three partial approaches to the reality of the cosmos must eventually +become harmonized by the revelatory presentation of religion, philosophy, and +cosmology which portrays the triune existence of spirit, mind, and energy +proceeding from the Trinity of Paradise and attaining time-space unification +within the Deity of the Supreme. + +5. SOCIAL ASPECTS OF RELIGION + +While religion is exclusively a personal spiritual experience--knowing God as a +Father--the corollary of this experience--knowing man as a brother--entails the +adjustment of the self to other selves, and that involves the social or group +aspect of religious life. Religion is first an inner or personal adjustment, +and then it becomes a matter of social service or group adjustment. The fact of +man's gregariousness perforce determines that religious groups will come into +existence. What happens to these religious groups depends very much on +intelligent leadership. In primitive society the religious group is not always +very + + top of page - 1091 + +different from economic or political groups. Religion has always been a +conservator of morals and a stabilizer of society. And this is still true, +notwithstanding the contrary teaching of many modern socialists and humanists. + +Always keep in mind: True religion is to know God as your Father and man as +your brother. Religion is not a slavish belief in threats of punishment or +magical promises of future mystical rewards. + +The religion of Jesus is the most dynamic influence ever to activate the human +race. Jesus shattered tradition, destroyed dogma, and called mankind to the +achievement of its highest ideals in time and eternity--to be perfect, even as +the Father in heaven is perfect. + +Religion has little chance to function until the religious group becomes +separated from all other groups--the social association of the spiritual +membership of the kingdom of heaven. + +The doctrine of the total depravity of man destroyed much of the potential of +religion for effecting social repercussions of an uplifting nature and of +inspirational value. Jesus sought to restore man's dignity when he declared +that all men are the children of God. + +Any religious belief which is effective in spiritualizing the believer is +certain to have powerful repercussions in the social life of such a +religionist. Religious experience unfailingly yields the "fruits of the spirit" +in the daily life of the spirit-led mortal. + +Just as certainly as men share their religious beliefs, they create a religious +group of some sort which eventually creates common goals. Someday religionists +will get together and actually effect co-operation on the basis of unity of +ideals and purposes rather than attempting to do so on the basis of +psychological opinions and theological beliefs. Goals rather than creeds should +unify religionists. Since true religion is a matter of personal spiritual +experience, it is inevitable that each individual religionist must have his own +and personal interpretation of the realization of that spiritual experience. +Let the term "faith" stand for the individual's relation to God rather than for +the creedal formulation of what some group of mortals have been able to agree +upon as a common religious attitude. "Have you faith? Then have it to +yourself." + +That faith is concerned only with the grasp of ideal values is shown by the New +Testament definition which declares that faith is the substance of things hoped +for and the evidence of things not seen. + +Primitive man made little effort to put his religious convictions into words. +His religion was danced out rather than thought out. Modern men have thought +out many creeds and created many tests of religious faith. Future religionists +must live out their religion, dedicate themselves to the wholehearted service +of the brotherhood of man. It is high time that man had a religious experience +so personal and so sublime that it could be realized and expressed only by +"feelings that lie too deep for words." + +Jesus did not require of his followers that they should periodically assemble +and recite a form of words indicative of their common beliefs. He only ordained +that they should gather together to actually do something--partake of the +communal supper of the remembrance of his bestowal life on Urantia. + +What a mistake for Christians to make when, in presenting Christ as the supreme +ideal of spiritual leadership, they dare to require God-conscious men and + + top of page - 1092 + +women to reject the historic leadership of the God-knowing men who have +contributed to their particular national or racial illumination during past +ages. + +6. INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION + +Sectarianism is a disease of institutional religion, and dogmatism is an +enslavement of the spiritual nature. It is far better to have a religion +without a church than a church without religion. The religious turmoil of the +twentieth century does not, in and of itself, betoken spiritual decadence. +Confusion goes before growth as well as before destruction. + +There is a real purpose in the socialization of religion. It is the purpose of +group religious activities to dramatize the loyalties of religion; to magnify +the lures of truth, beauty, and goodness; to foster the attractions of supreme +values; to enhance the service of unselfish fellowship; to glorify the +potentials of family life; to promote religious education; to provide wise +counsel and spiritual guidance; and to encourage group worship. And all live +religions encourage human friendship, conserve morality, promote neighborhood +welfare, and facilitate the spread of the essential gospel of their respective +messages of eternal salvation. + +But as religion becomes institutionalized, its power for good is curtailed, +while the possibilities for evil are greatly multiplied. The dangers of +formalized religion are: fixation of beliefs and crystallization of sentiments; +accumulation of vested interests with increase of secularization; tendency to +standardize and fossilize truth; diversion of religion from the service of God +to the service of the church; inclination of leaders to become administrators +instead of ministers; tendency to form sects and competitive divisions; +establishment of oppressive ecclesiastical authority; creation of the +aristocratic "chosen-people" attitude; fostering of false and exaggerated ideas +of sacredness; the routinizing of religion and the petrification of worship; +tendency to venerate the past while ignoring present demands; failure to make +up-to-date interpretations of religion; entanglement with functions of secular +institutions; it creates the evil discrimination of religious castes; it +becomes an intolerant judge of orthodoxy; it fails to hold the interest of +adventurous youth and gradually loses the saving message of the gospel of +eternal salvation. + +Formal religion restrains men in their personal spiritual activities instead of +releasing them for heightened service as kingdom builders. + +7. RELIGION'S CONTRIBUTION + +Though churches and all other religious groups should stand aloof from all +secular activities, at the same time religion must do nothing to hinder or +retard the social co-ordination of human institutions. Life must continue to +grow in meaningfulness; man must go on with his reformation of philosophy and +his clarification of religion. + +Political science must effect the reconstruction of economics and industry by +the techniques it learns from the social sciences and by the insights and +motives supplied by religious living. In all social reconstruction religion +provides a stabilizing loyalty to a transcendent object, a steadying goal +beyond and above the immediate and temporal objective. In the midst of the +confusions of a rapidly changing environment mortal man needs the sustenance of +a far-flung cosmic perspective. + + top of page - 1093 + +Religion inspires man to live courageously and joyfully on the face of the +earth; it joins patience with passion, insight to zeal, sympathy with power, +and ideals with energy. + +Man can never wisely decide temporal issues or transcend the selfishness of +personal interests unless he meditates in the presence of the sovereignty of +God and reckons with the realities of divine meanings and spiritual values. + +Economic interdependence and social fraternity will ultimately conduce to +brotherhood. Man is naturally a dreamer, but science is sobering him so that +religion can presently activate him with far less danger of precipitating +fanatical reactions. Economic necessities tie man up with reality, and personal +religious experience brings this same man face to face with the eternal +realities of an ever-expanding and progressing cosmic citizenship. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1094 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The ³ Religion In ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Melchizedek... ³ Hum... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p100.txt b/religious documents/p100.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..598841c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p100.txt @@ -0,0 +1,653 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 100 Religion In Human Experience + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 100 Religion In Human Experience + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE experience of dynamic religious living transforms the mediocre individual +into a personality of idealistic power. Religion ministers to the progress of +all through fostering the progress of each individual, and the progress of each +is augmented through the achievement of all. + +Spiritual growth is mutually stimulated by intimate association with other +religionists. Love supplies the soil for religious growth--an objective lure in +the place of subjective gratification--yet it yields the supreme subjective +satisfaction. And religion ennobles the commonplace drudgery of daily living. + +1. RELIGIOUS GROWTH + +While religion produces growth of meanings and enhancement of values, evil +always results when purely personal evaluations are elevated to the levels of +absolutes. A child evaluates experience in accordance with the content of +pleasure; maturity is proportional to the substitution of higher meanings for +personal pleasure, even loyalties to the highest concepts of diversified life +situations and cosmic relations. + +Some persons are too busy to grow and are therefore in grave danger of +spiritual fixation. Provision must be made for growth of meanings at differing +ages, in successive cultures, and in the passing stages of advancing +civilization. The chief inhibitors of growth are prejudice and ignorance. + +Give every developing child a chance to grow his own religious experience; do +not force a ready-made adult experience upon him. Remember, year-by-year +progress through an established educational regime does not necessarily mean +intellectual progress, much less spiritual growth. Enlargement of vocabulary +does not signify development of character. Growth is not truly indicated by +mere products but rather by progress. Real educational growth is indicated by +enhancement of ideals, increased appreciation of values, new meanings of +values, and augmented loyalty to supreme values. + +Children are permanently impressed only by the loyalties of their adult +associates; precept or even example is not lastingly influential. Loyal persons +are growing persons, and growth is an impressive and inspiring reality. Live +loyally today--grow--and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a +tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole. + +The soil essential for religious growth presupposes a progressive life of +self-realization, the co-ordination of natural propensities, the exercise of +curiosity and the enjoyment of reasonable adventure, the experiencing of +feelings of satisfaction, the functioning of the fear stimulus of attention and +awareness, the wonder-lure, and a normal consciousness of smallness, humility. +Growth is also + + top of page - 1095 + +predicated on the discovery of selfhood accompanied by +self-criticism--conscience, for conscience is really the criticism of oneself +by one's own value-habits, personal ideals. + +Religious experience is markedly influenced by physical health, inherited +temperament, and social environment. But these temporal conditions do not +inhibit inner spiritual progress by a soul dedicated to the doing of the will +of the Father in heaven. There are present in all normal mortals certain innate +drives toward growth and self-realization which function if they are not +specifically inhibited. The certain technique of fostering this constitutive +endowment of the potential of spiritual growth is to maintain an attitude of +wholehearted devotion to supreme values. + +Religion cannot be bestowed, received, loaned, learned, or lost. It is a +personal experience which grows proportionally to the growing quest for final +values. Cosmic growth thus attends on the accumulation of meanings and the +ever-expanding elevation of values. But nobility itself is always an +unconscious growth. + +Religious habits of thinking and acting are contributory to the economy of +spiritual growth. One can develop religious predispositions toward favorable +reaction to spiritual stimuli, a sort of conditioned spiritual reflex. Habits +which favor religious growth embrace cultivated sensitivity to divine values, +recognition of religious living in others, reflective meditation on cosmic +meanings, worshipful problem solving, sharing one's spiritual life with one's +fellows, avoidance of selfishness, refusal to presume on divine mercy, living +as in the presence of God. The factors of religious growth may be intentional, +but the growth itself is unvaryingly unconscious. + +The unconscious nature of religious growth does not, however, signify that it +is an activity functioning in the supposed subconscious realms of human +intellect; rather does it signify creative activities in the superconscious +levels of mortal mind. The experience of the realization of the reality of +unconscious religious growth is the one positive proof of the functional +existence of the superconsciousness. + +2. SPIRITUAL GROWTH + +Spiritual development depends, first, on the maintenance of a living spiritual +connection with true spiritual forces and, second, on the continuous bearing of +spiritual fruit: yielding the ministry to one's fellows of that which has been +received from one's spiritual benefactors. Spiritual progress is predicated on +intellectual recognition of spiritual poverty coupled with the +self-consciousness of perfection-hunger, the desire to know God and be like +him, the wholehearted purpose to do the will of the Father in heaven. + +Spiritual growth is first an awakening to needs, next a discernment of +meanings, and then a discovery of values. The evidence of true spiritual +development consists in the exhibition of a human personality motivated by +love, activated by unselfish ministry, and dominated by the wholehearted +worship of the perfection ideals of divinity. And this entire experience +constitutes the reality of religion as contrasted with mere theological +beliefs. + +Religion can progress to that level of experience whereon it becomes an +enlightened and wise technique of spiritual reaction to the universe. Such a +glorified religion can function on three levels of human personality: the +intellectual, the + + top of page - 1096 + +morontial, and the spiritual; upon the mind, in the evolving soul, and with the +indwelling spirit. + +Spirituality becomes at once the indicator of one's nearness to God and the +measure of one's usefulness to fellow beings. Spirituality enhances the ability +to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, and discover +goodness in values. Spiritual development is determined by capacity therefor +and is directly proportional to the elimination of the selfish qualities of +love. + +Actual spiritual status is the measure of Deity attainment, Adjuster +attunement. The achievement of finality of spirituality is equivalent to the +attainment of the maximum of reality, the maximum of Godlikeness. Eternal life +is the endless quest for infinite values. + +The goal of human self-realization should be spiritual, not material. The only +realities worth striving for are divine, spiritual, and eternal. Mortal man is +entitled to the enjoyment of physical pleasures and to the satisfaction of +human affections; he is benefited by loyalty to human associations and temporal +institutions; but these are not the eternal foundations upon which to build the +immortal personality which must transcend space, vanquish time, and achieve the +eternal destiny of divine perfection and finaliter service. + +Jesus portrayed the profound surety of the God-knowing mortal when he said: "To +a God-knowing kingdom believer, what does it matter if all things earthly +crash?" Temporal securities are vulnerable, but spiritual sureties are +impregnable. When the flood tides of human adversity, selfishness, cruelty, +hate, malice, and jealousy beat about the mortal soul, you may rest in the +assurance that there is one inner bastion, the citadel of the spirit, which is +absolutely unassailable; at least this is true of every human being who has +dedicated the keeping of his soul to the indwelling spirit of the eternal God. + +After such spiritual attainment, whether secured by gradual growth or specific +crisis, there occurs a new orientation of personality as well as the +development of a new standard of values. Such spirit-born individuals are so +remotivated in life that they can calmly stand by while their fondest ambitions +perish and their keenest hopes crash; they positively know that such +catastrophes are but the redirecting cataclysms which wreck one's temporal +creations preliminary to the rearing of the more noble and enduring realities +of a new and more sublime level of universe attainment. + +3. CONCEPTS OF SUPREME VALUE + +Religion is not a technique for attaining a static and blissful peace of mind; +it is an impulse for organizing the soul for dynamic service. It is the +enlistment of the totality of selfhood in the loyal service of loving God and +serving man. Religion pays any price essential to the attainment of the supreme +goal, the eternal prize. There is a consecrated completeness in religious +loyalty which is superbly sublime. And these loyalties are socially effective +and spiritually progressive. + +To the religionist the word God becomes a symbol signifying the approach to +supreme reality and the recognition of divine value. Human likes and dislikes +do not determine good and evil; moral values do not grow out of wish +fulfillment or emotional frustration. + +In the contemplation of values you must distinguish between that which is value +and that which has value. You must recognize the relation between + + top of page - 1097 + +pleasurable activities and their meaningful integration and enhanced +realization on ever progressively higher and higher levels of human experience. + +Meaning is something which experience adds to value; it is the appreciative +consciousness of values. An isolated and purely selfish pleasure may connote a +virtual devaluation of meanings, a meaningless enjoyment bordering on relative +evil. Values are experiential when realities are meaningful and mentally +associated, when such relationships are recognized and appreciated by mind. + +Values can never be static; reality signifies change, growth. Change without +growth, expansion of meaning and exaltation of value, is valueless--is +potential evil. The greater the quality of cosmic adaptation, the more of +meaning any experience possesses. Values are not conceptual illusions; they are +real, but always they depend on the fact of relationships. Values are always +both actual and potential--not what was, but what is and is to be. + +The association of actuals and potentials equals growth, the experiential +realization of values. But growth is not mere progress. Progress is always +meaningful, but it is relatively valueless without growth. The supreme value of +human life consists in growth of values, progress in meanings, and realization +of the cosmic interrelatedness of both of these experiences. And such an +experience is the equivalent of God-consciousness. Such a mortal, while not +supernatural, is truly becoming superhuman; an immortal soul is evolving. + +Man cannot cause growth, but he can supply favorable conditions. Growth is +always unconscious, be it physical, intellectual, or spiritual. Love thus +grows; it cannot be created, manufactured, or purchased; it must grow. +Evolution is a cosmic technique of growth. Social growth cannot be secured by +legislation, and moral growth is not had by improved administration. Man may +manufacture a machine, but its real value must be derived from human culture +and personal appreciation. Man's sole contribution to growth is the +mobilization of the total powers of his personality--living faith. + +4. PROBLEMS OF GROWTH + +Religious living is devoted living, and devoted living is creative living, +original and spontaneous. New religious insights arise out of conflicts which +initiate the choosing of new and better reaction habits in the place of older +and inferior reaction patterns. New meanings only emerge amid conflict; and +conflict persists only in the face of refusal to espouse the higher values +connoted in superior meanings. + +Religious perplexities are inevitable; there can be no growth without psychic +conflict and spiritual agitation. The organization of a philosophic standard of +living entails considerable commotion in the philosophic realms of the mind. +Loyalties are not exercised in behalf of the great, the good, the true, and the +noble without a struggle. Effort is attendant upon clarification of spiritual +vision and enhancement of cosmic insight. And the human intellect protests +against being weaned from subsisting upon the nonspiritual energies of temporal +existence. The slothful animal mind rebels at the effort required to wrestle +with cosmic problem solving. + +But the great problem of religious living consists in the task of unifying the +soul powers of the personality by the dominance of LOVE. Health, mental +efficiency, and happiness arise from the unification of physical systems, mind + + top of page - 1098 + +systems, and spirit systems. Of health and sanity man understands much, but of +happiness he has truly realized very little. The highest happiness is +indissolubly linked with spiritual progress. Spiritual growth yields lasting +joy, peace which passes all understanding. + +In physical life the senses tell of the existence of things; mind discovers the +reality of meanings; but the spiritual experience reveals to the individual the +true values of life. These high levels of human living are attained in the +supreme love of God and in the unselfish love of man. If you love your fellow +men, you must have discovered their values. Jesus loved men so much because he +placed such a high value upon them. You can best discover values in your +associates by discovering their motivation. If some one irritates you, causes +feelings of resentment, you should sympathetically seek to discern his +viewpoint, his reasons for such objectionable conduct. If once you understand +your neighbor, you will become tolerant, and this tolerance will grow into +friendship and ripen into love. + +In the mind's eye conjure up a picture of one of your primitive ancestors of +cave-dwelling times--a short, misshapen, filthy, snarling hulk of a man +standing, legs spread, club upraised, breathing hate and animosity as he looks +fiercely just ahead. Such a picture hardly depicts the divine dignity of man. +But allow us to enlarge the picture. In front of this animated human crouches a +saber-toothed tiger. Behind him, a woman and two children. Immediately you +recognize that such a picture stands for the beginnings of much that is fine +and noble in the human race, but the man is the same in both pictures. Only in +the second sketch you are favored with a widened horizon. You therein discern +the motivation of this evolving mortal. His attitude becomes praiseworthy +because you understand him. If you could only fathom the motives of your +associates, how much better you would understand them. If you could only know +your fellows, you would eventually fall in love with them. + +You cannot truly love your fellows by a mere act of the will. Love is only born +of thoroughgoing understanding of your neighbor's motives and sentiments. It is +not so important to love all men today as it is that each day you learn to love +one more human being. If each day or each week you achieve an understanding of +one more of your fellows, and if this is the limit of your ability, then you +are certainly socializing and truly spiritualizing your personality. Love is +infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more +catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. If +each mortal could only become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus +of love would soon pervade the sentimental emotion-stream of humanity to such +an extent that all civilization would be encompassed by love, and that would be +the realization of the brotherhood of man. + +5. CONVERSION AND MYSTICISM + +The world is filled with lost souls, not lost in the theologic sense but lost +in the directional meaning, wandering about in confusion among the isms and +cults of a frustrated philosophic era. Too few have learned how to install a +philosophy of living in the place of religious authority. (The symbols of +socialized religion are not to be despised as channels of growth, albeit the +river bed is not the river.) + +The progression of religious growth leads from stagnation through conflict to +co-ordination, from insecurity to undoubting faith, from confusion of cosmic + + top of page - 1099 + +consciousness to unification of personality, from the temporal objective to the +eternal, from the bondage of fear to the liberty of divine sonship. + +It should be made clear that professions of loyalty to the supreme ideals--the +psychic, emotional, and spiritual awareness of God-consciousness--may be a +natural and gradual growth or may sometimes be experienced at certain +junctures, as in a crisis. The Apostle Paul experienced just such a sudden and +spectacular conversion that eventful day on the Damascus road. Gautama +Siddhartha had a similar experience the night he sat alone and sought to +penetrate the mystery of final truth. Many others have had like experiences, +and many true believers have progressed in the spirit without sudden +conversion. + +Most of the spectacular phenomena associated with so-called religious +conversions are entirely psychologic in nature, but now and then there do occur +experiences which are also spiritual in origin. When the mental mobilization is +absolutely total on any level of the psychic upreach toward spirit attainment, +when there exists perfection of the human motivation of loyalties to the divine +idea, then there very often occurs a sudden down-grasp of the indwelling spirit +to synchronize with the concentrated and consecrated purpose of the +superconscious mind of the believing mortal. And it is such experiences of +unified intellectual and spiritual phenomena that constitute the conversion +which consists in factors over and above purely psychologic involvement. + +But emotion alone is a false conversion; one must have faith as well as +feeling. To the extent that such psychic mobilization is partial, and in so far +as such human-loyalty motivation is incomplete, to that extent will the +experience of conversion be a blended intellectual, emotional, and spiritual +reality. + +If one is disposed to recognize a theoretical subconscious mind as a practical +working hypothesis in the otherwise unified intellectual life, then, to be +consistent, one should postulate a similar and corresponding realm of ascending +intellectual activity as the superconscious level, the zone of immediate +contact with the indwelling spirit entity, the Thought Adjuster. The great +danger in all these psychic speculations is that visions and other so-called +mystic experiences, along with extraordinary dreams, may be regarded as divine +communications to the human mind. In times past, divine beings have revealed +themselves to certain God-knowing persons, not because of their mystic trances +or morbid visions, but in spite of all these phenomena. + +In contrast with conversion-seeking, the better approach to the morontia zones +of possible contact with the Thought Adjuster would be through living faith and +sincere worship, wholehearted and unselfish prayer. Altogether too much of the +uprush of the memories of the unconscious levels of the human mind has been +mistaken for divine revelations and spirit leadings. + +There is great danger associated with the habitual practice of religious +daydreaming; mysticism may become a technique of reality avoidance, albeit it +has sometimes been a means of genuine spiritual communion. Short seasons of +retreat from the busy scenes of life may not be seriously dangerous, but +prolonged isolation of personality is most undesirable. Under no circumstances +should the trancelike state of visionary consciousness be cultivated as a +religious experience. + +The characteristics of the mystical state are diffusion of consciousness with +vivid islands of focal attention operating on a comparatively passive +intellect. + + top of page - 1100 + +All of this gravitates consciousness toward the subconscious rather than in the +direction of the zone of spiritual contact, the superconscious. Many mystics +have carried their mental dissociation to the level of abnormal mental +manifestations. + +The more healthful attitude of spiritual meditation is to be found in +reflective worship and in the prayer of thanksgiving. The direct communion with +one's Thought Adjuster, such as occurred in the later years of Jesus' life in +the flesh, should not be confused with these so-called mystical experiences. +The factors which contribute to the initiation of mystic communion are +indicative of the danger of such psychic states. The mystic status is favored +by such things as: physical fatigue, fasting, psychic dissociation, profound +aesthetic experiences, vivid sex impulses, fear, anxiety, rage, and wild +dancing. Much of the material arising as a result of such preliminary +preparation has its origin in the subconscious mind. + +However favorable may have been the conditions for mystic phenomena, it should +be clearly understood that Jesus of Nazareth never resorted to such methods for +communion with the Paradise Father. Jesus had no subconscious delusions or +superconscious illusions. + +6. MARKS OF RELIGIOUS LIVING + +Evolutionary religions and revelatory religions may differ markedly in method, +but in motive there is great similarity. Religion is not a specific function of +life; rather is it a mode of living. True religion is a wholehearted devotion +to some reality which the religionist deems to be of supreme value to himself +and for all mankind. And the outstanding characteristics of all religions are: +unquestioning loyalty and wholehearted devotion to supreme values. This +religious devotion to supreme values is shown in the relation of the supposedly +irreligious mother to her child and in the fervent loyalty of nonreligionists +to an espoused cause. + +The accepted supreme value of the religionist may be base or even false, but it +is nevertheless religious. A religion is genuine to just the extent that the +value which is held to be supreme is truly a cosmic reality of genuine +spiritual worth. + +The marks of human response to the religious impulse embrace the qualities of +nobility and grandeur. The sincere religionist is conscious of universe +citizenship and is aware of making contact with sources of superhuman power. He +is thrilled and energized with the assurance of belonging to a superior and +ennobled fellowship of the sons of God. The consciousness of self-worth has +become augmented by the stimulus of the quest for the highest universe +objectives--supreme goals. + +The self has surrendered to the intriguing drive of an all-encompassing +motivation which imposes heightened self-discipline, lessens emotional +conflict, and makes mortal life truly worth living. The morbid recognition of +human limitations is changed to the natural consciousness of mortal +shortcomings, associated with moral determination and spiritual aspiration to +attain the highest universe and superuniverse goals. And this intense striving +for the attainment of supermortal ideals is always characterized by increasing +patience, forbearance, fortitude, and tolerance. + +But true religion is a living love, a life of service. The religionist's +detachment from much that is purely temporal and trivial never leads to social +isolation, and it should not destroy the sense of humor. Genuine religion takes +nothing + + top of page - 1101 + +away from human existence, but it does add new meanings to all of life; it +generates new types of enthusiasm, zeal, and courage. It may even engender the +spirit of the crusader, which is more than dangerous if not controlled by +spiritual insight and loyal devotion to the commonplace social obligations of +human loyalties. + +One of the most amazing earmarks of religious living is that dynamic and +sublime peace, that peace which passes all human understanding, that cosmic +poise which betokens the absence of all doubt and turmoil. Such levels of +spiritual stability are immune to disappointment. Such religionists are like +the Apostle Paul, who said: "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor +angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, +nor height, nor depth, nor anything else shall be able to separate us from the +love of God." + +There is a sense of security, associated with the realization of triumphing +glory, resident in the consciousness of the religionist who has grasped the +reality of the Supreme, and who pursues the goal of the Ultimate. + +Even evolutionary religion is all of this in loyalty and grandeur because it is +a genuine experience. But revelatory religion is excellent as well as genuine. +The new loyalties of enlarged spiritual vision create new levels of love and +devotion, of service and fellowship; and all this enhanced social outlook +produces an enlarged consciousness of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood +of man. + +The characteristic difference between evolved and revealed religion is a new +quality of divine wisdom which is added to purely experiential human wisdom. +But it is experience in and with the human religions that develops the capacity +for subsequent reception of increased bestowals of divine wisdom and cosmic +insight. + +7. THE ACME OF RELIGIOUS LIVING + +Although the average mortal of Urantia cannot hope to attain the high +perfection of character which Jesus of Nazareth acquired while sojourning in +the flesh, it is altogether possible for every mortal believer to develop a +strong and unified personality along the perfected lines of the Jesus +personality. The unique feature of the Master's personality was not so much its +perfection as its symmetry, its exquisite and balanced unification. The most +effective presentation of Jesus consists in following the example of the one +who said, as he gestured toward the Master standing before his accusers, +"Behold the man!" + +The unfailing kindness of Jesus touched the hearts of men, but his stalwart +strength of character amazed his followers. He was truly sincere; there was +nothing of the hypocrite in him. He was free from affectation; he was always so +refreshingly genuine. He never stooped to pretense, and he never resorted to +shamming. He lived the truth, even as he taught it. He was the truth. He was +constrained to proclaim saving truth to his generation, even though such +sincerity sometimes caused pain. He was unquestioningly loyal to all truth. + +But the Master was so reasonable, so approachable. He was so practical in all +his ministry, while all his plans were characterized by such sanctified common +sense. He was so free from all freakish, erratic, and eccentric tendencies. He +was never capricious, whimsical, or hysterical. In all his teaching and in +everything he did there was always an exquisite discrimination associated with +an extraordinary sense of propriety. + + top of page - 1102 + +The Son of Man was always a well-poised personality. Even his enemies +maintained a wholesome respect for him; they even feared his presence. Jesus +was unafraid. He was surcharged with divine enthusiasm, but he never became +fanatical. He was emotionally active but never flighty. He was imaginative but +always practical. He frankly faced the realities of life, but he was never dull +or prosaic. He was courageous but never reckless; prudent but never cowardly. +He was sympathetic but not sentimental; unique but not eccentric. He was pious +but not sanctimonious. And he was so well-poised because he was so perfectly +unified. + +Jesus' originality was unstifled. He was not bound by tradition or handicapped +by enslavement to narrow conventionality. He spoke with undoubted confidence +and taught with absolute authority. But his superb originality did not cause +him to overlook the gems of truth in the teachings of his predecessors and +contemporaries. And the most original of his teachings was the emphasis of love +and mercy in the place of fear and sacrifice. + +Jesus was very broad in his outlook. He exhorted his followers to preach the +gospel to all peoples. He was free from all narrow-mindedness. His sympathetic +heart embraced all mankind, even a universe. Always his invitation was, +"Whosoever will, let him come." + +Of Jesus it was truly said, "He trusted God." As a man among men he most +sublimely trusted the Father in heaven. He trusted his Father as a little child +trusts his earthly parent. His faith was perfect but never presumptuous. No +matter how cruel nature might appear to be or how indifferent to man's welfare +on earth, Jesus never faltered in his faith. He was immune to disappointment +and impervious to persecution. He was untouched by apparent failure. + +He loved men as brothers, at the same time recognizing how they differed in +innate endowments and acquired qualities. "He went about doing good." + +Jesus was an unusually cheerful person, but he was not a blind and unreasoning +optimist. His constant word of exhortation was, "Be of good cheer." He could +maintain this confident attitude because of his unswerving trust in God and his +unshakable confidence in man. He was always touchingly considerate of all men +because he loved them and believed in them. Still he was always true to his +convictions and magnificently firm in his devotion to the doing of his Father's +will. + +The Master was always generous. He never grew weary of saying, "It is more +blessed to give than to receive." Said he, "Freely you have received, freely +give." And yet, with all of his unbounded generosity, he was never wasteful or +extravagant. He taught that you must believe to receive salvation. "For every +one who seeks shall receive." + +He was candid, but always kind. Said he, "If it were not so, I would have told +you." He was frank, but always friendly. He was outspoken in his love for the +sinner and in his hatred for sin. But throughout all this amazing frankness he +was unerringly fair. + +Jesus was consistently cheerful, notwithstanding he sometimes drank deeply of +the cup of human sorrow. He fearlessly faced the realities of existence, yet +was he filled with enthusiasm for the gospel of the kingdom. But he controlled +his enthusiasm; it never controlled him. He was unreservedly dedicated to "the +Father's business." This divine enthusiasm led his unspiritual brethren to +think he was beside himself, but the onlooking universe appraised him as the +model of sanity and the pattern of supreme mortal devotion to the + + top of page - 1103 + +high standards of spiritual living. And his controlled enthusiasm was +contagious; his associates were constrained to share his divine optimism. + +This man of Galilee was not a man of sorrows; he was a soul of gladness. Always +was he saying, "Rejoice and be exceedingly glad." But when duty required, he +was willing to walk courageously through the "valley of the shadow of death." +He was gladsome but at the same time humble. + +His courage was equaled only by his patience. When pressed to act prematurely, +he would only reply, "My hour has not yet come." He was never in a hurry; his +composure was sublime. But he was often indignant at evil, intolerant of sin. +He was often mightily moved to resist that which was inimical to the welfare of +his children on earth. But his indignation against sin never led to anger at +the sinner. + +His courage was magnificent, but he was never foolhardy. His watchword was, +"Fear not." His bravery was lofty and his courage often heroic. But his courage +was linked with discretion and controlled by reason. It was courage born of +faith, not the recklessness of blind presumption. He was truly brave but never +audacious. + +The Master was a pattern of reverence. The prayer of even his youth began, "Our +Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name." He was even respectful of the +faulty worship of his fellows. But this did not deter him from making attacks +on religious traditions or assaulting errors of human belief. He was +reverential of true holiness, and yet he could justly appeal to his fellows, +saying, "Who among you convicts me of sin?" + +Jesus was great because he was good, and yet he fraternized with the little +children. He was gentle and unassuming in his personal life, and yet he was the +perfected man of a universe. His associates called him Master unbidden. + +Jesus was the perfectly unified human personality. And today, as in Galilee, he +continues to unify mortal experience and to co-ordinate human endeavors. He +unifies life, ennobles character, and simplifies experience. He enters the +human mind to elevate, transform, and transfigure it. It is literally true: "If +any man has Christ Jesus within him, he is a new creature; old things are +passing away; behold, all things are becoming new." + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1104 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Social ³ The Real ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Prob... ³ Nature... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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But religion, as such, is not merely a moral movement, albeit +the outward and social manifestations of religion are mightily influenced by +the ethical and moral momentum of human society. Always is religion the +inspiration of man's evolving nature, but it is not the secret of that +evolution. + +Religion, the conviction-faith of the personality, can always triumph over the +superficially contradictory logic of despair born in the unbelieving material +mind. There really is a true and genuine inner voice, that "true light which +lights every man who comes into the world." And this spirit leading is distinct +from the ethical prompting of human conscience. The feeling of religious +assurance is more than an emotional feeling. The assurance of religion +transcends the reason of the mind, even the logic of philosophy. Religion is +faith, trust, and assurance. + +1. TRUE RELIGION + +True religion is not a system of philosophic belief which can be reasoned out +and substantiated by natural proofs, neither is it a fantastic and mystic +experience of indescribable feelings of ecstasy which can be enjoyed only by +the romantic devotees of mysticism. Religion is not the product of reason, but +viewed from within, it is altogether reasonable. Religion is not derived from +the logic of human philosophy, but as a mortal experience it is altogether +logical. Religion is the experiencing of divinity in the consciousness of a +moral being of evolutionary origin; it represents true experience with eternal +realities in time, the realization of spiritual satisfactions while yet in the +flesh. + +The Thought Adjuster has no special mechanism through which to gain +self-expression; there is no mystic religious faculty for the reception or +expression of religious emotions. These experiences are made available through +the naturally ordained mechanism of mortal mind. And therein lies one +explanation of the Adjuster's difficulty in engaging in direct communication +with the material mind of its constant indwelling. + +The divine spirit makes contact with mortal man, not by feelings or emotions, +but in the realm of the highest and most spiritualized thinking. It is your + + top of page - 1105 + +, not your feelings, that lead you Godward. The divine nature may be perceived +only with the eyes of the mind. But the mind that really discerns God, hears +the indwelling Adjuster, is the pure mind. "Without holiness no man may see the +Lord." All such inner and spiritual communion is termed spiritual insight. Such +religious experiences result from the impress made upon the mind of man by the +combined operations of the Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth as they function +amid and upon the ideas, ideals, insights, and spirit strivings of the evolving +sons of God. + +Religion lives and prospers, then, not by sight and feeling, but rather by +faith and insight. It consists not in the discovery of new facts or in the +finding of a unique experience, but rather in the discovery of new and +spiritual meanings in facts already well known to mankind. The highest +religious experience is not dependent on prior acts of belief, tradition, and +authority; neither is religion the offspring of sublime feelings and purely +mystical emotions. It is, rather, a profoundly deep and actual experience of +spiritual communion with the spirit influences resident within the human mind, +and as far as such an experience is definable in terms of psychology, it is +simply the experience of experiencing the reality of believing in God as the +reality of such a purely personal experience. + +While religion is not the product of the rationalistic speculations of a +material cosmology, it is, nonetheless, the creation of a wholly rational +insight which originates in man's mind-experience. Religion is born neither of +mystic meditations nor of isolated contemplations, albeit it is ever more or +less mysterious and always indefinable and inexplicable in terms of purely +intellectual reason and philosophic logic. The germs of true religion originate +in the domain of man's moral consciousness, and they are revealed in the growth +of man's spiritual insight, that faculty of human personality which accrues as +a consequence of the presence of the God-revealing Thought Adjuster in the +God-hungry mortal mind. + +Faith unites moral insight with conscientious discriminations of values, and +the pre-existent evolutionary sense of duty completes the ancestry of true +religion. The experience of religion eventually results in the certain +consciousness of God and in the undoubted assurance of the survival of the +believing personality. + +Thus it may be seen that religious longings and spiritual urges are not of such +a nature as would merely lead men to want to believe in God, but rather are +they of such nature and power that men are profoundly impressed with the +conviction that they ought to believe in God. The sense of evolutionary duty +and the obligations consequent upon the illumination of revelation make such a +profound impression upon man's moral nature that he finally reaches that +position of mind and that attitude of soul where he concludes that he has no +right not to believe in God. The higher and superphilosophic wisdom of such +enlightened and disciplined individuals ultimately instructs them that to doubt +God or distrust his goodness would be to prove untrue to the realest and +deepest thing within the human mind and soul--the divine Adjuster. + +2. THE FACT OF RELIGION + +The fact of religion consists wholly in the religious experience of rational +and average human beings. And this is the only sense in which religion can ever + + top of page - 1106 + +be regarded as scientific or even psychological. The proof that revelation is +revelation is this same fact of human experience: the fact that revelation does +synthesize the apparently divergent sciences of nature and the theology of +religion into a consistent and logical universe philosophy, a co-ordinated and +unbroken explanation of both science and religion, thus creating a harmony of +mind and satisfaction of spirit which answers in human experience those +questionings of the mortal mind which craves to know how the Infinite works out +his will and plans in matter, with minds, and on spirit. + +Reason is the method of science; faith is the method of religion; logic is the +attempted technique of philosophy. Revelation compensates for the absence of +the morontia viewpoint by providing a technique for achieving unity in the +comprehension of the reality and relationships of matter and spirit by the +mediation of mind. And true revelation never renders science unnatural, +religion unreasonable, or philosophy illogical. + +Reason, through the study of science, may lead back through nature to a First +Cause, but it requires religious faith to transform the First Cause of science +into a God of salvation; and revelation is further required for the validation +of such a faith, such spiritual insight. + +There are two basic reasons for believing in a God who fosters human survival: + +1. Human experience, personal assurance, the somehow registered hope and trust +initiated by the indwelling Thought Adjuster. + +2. The revelation of truth, whether by direct personal ministry of the Spirit +of Truth, by the world bestowal of divine Sons, or through the revelations of +the written word. + +Science ends its reason-search in the hypothesis of a First Cause. Religion +does not stop in its flight of faith until it is sure of a God of salvation. +The discriminating study of science logically suggests the reality and +existence of an Absolute. Religion believes unreservedly in the existence and +reality of a God who fosters personality survival. What metaphysics fails +utterly in doing, and what even philosophy fails partially in doing, revelation +does; that is, affirms that this First Cause of science and religion's God of +salvation are one and the same Deity. + +Reason is the proof of science, faith the proof of religion, logic the proof of +philosophy, but revelation is validated only by human experience. Science +yields knowledge; religion yields happiness; philosophy yields unity; +revelation confirms the experiential harmony of this triune approach to +universal reality. + +The contemplation of nature can only reveal a God of nature, a God of motion. +Nature exhibits only matter, motion, and animation--life. Matter plus energy, +under certain conditions, is manifested in living forms, but while natural life +is thus relatively continuous as a phenomenon, it is wholly transient as to +individualities. Nature does not afford ground for logical belief in +human-personality survival. The religious man who finds God in nature has +already and first found this same personal God in his own soul. + +Faith reveals God in the soul. Revelation, the substitute for morontia insight +on an evolutionary world, enables man to see the same God in nature that faith +exhibits in his soul. Thus does revelation successfully bridge the gulf between + + top of page - 1107 + +the material and the spiritual, even between the creature and the Creator, +between man and God. + +The contemplation of nature does logically point in the direction of +intelligent guidance, even living supervision, but it does not in any +satisfactory manner reveal a personal God. On the other hand, nature discloses +nothing which would preclude the universe from being looked upon as the +handiwork of the God of religion. God cannot be found through nature alone, but +man having otherwise found him, the study of nature becomes wholly consistent +with a higher and more spiritual interpretation of the universe. + +Revelation as an epochal phenomenon is periodic; as a personal human experience +it is continuous. Divinity functions in mortal personality as the Adjuster gift +of the Father, as the Spirit of Truth of the Son, and as the Holy Spirit of the +Universe Spirit, while these three supermortal endowments are unified in human +experiential evolution as the ministry of the Supreme. + +True religion is an insight into reality, the faith-child of the moral +consciousness, and not a mere intellectual assent to any body of dogmatic +doctrines. True religion consists in the experience that "the Spirit itself +bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." Religion +consists not in theologic propositions but in spiritual insight and the +sublimity of the soul's trust. + +Your deepest nature--the divine Adjuster--creates within you a hunger and +thirst for righteousness, a certain craving for divine perfection. Religion is +the faith act of the recognition of this inner urge to divine attainment; and +thus is brought about that soul trust and assurance of which you become +conscious as the way of salvation, the technique of the survival of personality +and all those values which you have come to look upon as being true and good. + +The realization of religion never has been, and never will be, dependent on +great learning or clever logic. It is spiritual insight, and that is just the +reason why some of the world's greatest religious teachers, even the prophets, +have sometimes possessed so little of the wisdom of the world. Religious faith +is available alike to the learned and the unlearned. + +Religion must ever be its own critic and judge; it can never be observed, much +less understood, from the outside. Your only assurance of a personal God +consists in your own insight as to your belief in, and experience with, things +spiritual. To all of your fellows who have had a similar experience, no +argument about the personality or reality of God is necessary, while to all +other men who are not thus sure of God no possible argument could ever be truly +convincing. + +Psychology may indeed attempt to study the phenomena of religious reactions to +the social environment, but never can it hope to penetrate to the real and +inner motives and workings of religion. Only theology, the province of faith +and the technique of revelation, can afford any sort of intelligent account of +the nature and content of religious experience. + +3. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF RELIGION + +Religion is so vital that it persists in the absence of learning. It lives in +spite of its contamination with erroneous cosmologies and false philosophies; +it survives even the confusion of metaphysics. In and through all the historic +vicissitudes of religion there ever persists that which is indispensable to +human progress and survival: the ethical conscience and the moral +consciousness. + + top of page - 1108 + +Faith-insight, or spiritual intuition, is the endowment of the cosmic mind in +association with the Thought Adjuster, which is the Father's gift to man. +Spiritual reason, soul intelligence, is the endowment of the Holy Spirit, the +Creative Spirit's gift to man. Spiritual philosophy, the wisdom of spirit +realities, is the endowment of the Spirit of Truth, the combined gift of the +bestowal Sons to the children of men. And the co-ordination and +interassociation of these spirit endowments constitute man a spirit personality +in potential destiny. + +It is this same spirit personality, in primitive and embryonic form, the +Adjuster possession of which survives the natural death in the flesh. This +composite entity of spirit origin in association with human experience is +enabled, by means of the living way provided by the divine Sons, to survive (in +Adjuster custody) the dissolution of the material self of mind and matter when +such a transient partnership of the material and the spiritual is divorced by +the cessation of vital motion. + +Through religious faith the soul of man reveals itself and demonstrates the +potential divinity of its emerging nature by the characteristic manner in which +it induces the mortal personality to react to certain trying intellectual and +testing social situations. Genuine spiritual faith (true moral consciousness) +is revealed in that it: + +1. Causes ethics and morals to progress despite inherent and adverse +animalistic tendencies. + +2. Produces a sublime trust in the goodness of God even in the face of bitter +disappointment and crushing defeat. + +3. Generates profound courage and confidence despite natural adversity and +physical calamity. + +4. Exhibits inexplicable poise and sustaining tranquillity notwithstanding +baffling diseases and even acute physical suffering. + +5. Maintains a mysterious poise and composure of personality in the face of +maltreatment and the rankest injustice. + +6. Maintains a divine trust in ultimate victory in spite of the cruelties of +seemingly blind fate and the apparent utter indifference of natural forces to +human welfare. + +7. Persists in the unswerving belief in God despite all contrary demonstrations +of logic and successfully withstands all other intellectual sophistries. + +8. Continues to exhibit undaunted faith in the soul's survival regardless of +the deceptive teachings of false science and the persuasive delusions of +unsound philosophy. + +9. Lives and triumphs irrespective of the crushing overload of the complex and +partial civilizations of modern times. + +10. Contributes to the continued survival of altruism in spite of human +selfishness, social antagonisms, industrial greeds, and political +maladjustments. + +11. Steadfastly adheres to a sublime belief in universe unity and divine +guidance regardless of the perplexing presence of evil and sin. + +12. Goes right on worshiping God in spite of anything and everything. Dares to +declare, "Even though he slay me, yet will I serve him." + +We know, then, by three phenomena, that man has a divine spirit or spirits +dwelling within him: first, by personal experience--religious faith; second, by + + top of page - 1109 + +revelation--personal and racial; and third, by the amazing exhibition of such +extraordinary and unnatural reactions to his material environment as are +illustrated by the foregoing recital of twelve spiritlike performances in the +presence of the actual and trying situations of real human existence. And there +are still others. + +And it is just such a vital and vigorous performance of faith in the domain of +religion that entitles mortal man to affirm the personal possession and +spiritual reality of that crowning endowment of human nature, religious +experience. + +4. THE LIMITATIONS OF REVELATION + +Because your world is generally ignorant of origins, even of physical origins, +it has appeared to be wise from time to time to provide instruction in +cosmology. And always has this made trouble for the future. The laws of +revelation hamper us greatly by their proscription of the impartation of +unearned or premature knowledge. Any cosmology presented as a part of revealed +religion is destined to be outgrown in a very short time. Accordingly, future +students of such a revelation are tempted to discard any element of genuine +religious truth it may contain because they discover errors on the face of the +associated cosmologies therein presented. + +Mankind should understand that we who participate in the revelation of truth +are very rigorously limited by the instructions of our superiors. We are not at +liberty to anticipate the scientific discoveries of a thousand years. +Revelators must act in accordance with the instructions which form a part of +the revelation mandate. We see no way of overcoming this difficulty, either now +or at any future time. We full well know that, while the historic facts and +religious truths of this series of revelatory presentations will stand on the +records of the ages to come, within a few short years many of our statements +regarding the physical sciences will stand in need of revision in consequence +of additional scientific developments and new discoveries. These new +developments we even now foresee, but we are forbidden to include such humanly +undiscovered facts in the revelatory records. Let it be made clear that +revelations are not necessarily inspired. The cosmology of these revelations is +not inspired. It is limited by our permission for the co-ordination and sorting +of present-day knowledge. While divine or spiritual insight is a gift, human +wisdom must evolve. + +Truth is always a revelation: autorevelation when it emerges as a result of the +work of the indwelling Adjuster; epochal revelation when it is presented by the +function of some other celestial agency, group, or personality. + +In the last analysis, religion is to be judged by its fruits, according to the +manner and the extent to which it exhibits its own inherent and divine +excellence. + +Truth may be but relatively inspired, even though revelation is invariably a +spiritual phenomenon. While statements with reference to cosmology are never +inspired, such revelations are of immense value in that they at least +transiently clarify knowledge by: + +1. The reduction of confusion by the authoritative elimination of error. + +2. The co-ordination of known or about-to-be-known facts and observations. + + top of page - 1110 + +3. The restoration of important bits of lost knowledge concerning epochal +transactions in the distant past. + +4. The supplying of information which will fill in vital missing gaps in +otherwise earned knowledge. + +5. Presenting cosmic data in such a manner as to illuminate the spiritual +teachings contained in the accompanying revelation. + +5. RELIGION EXPANDED BY REVELATION + +Revelation is a technique whereby ages upon ages of time are saved in the +necessary work of sorting and sifting the errors of evolution from the truths +of spirit acquirement. + +Science deals with facts; religion is concerned only with values. Through +enlightened philosophy the mind endeavors to unite the meanings of both facts +and values, thereby arriving at a concept of complete reality. Remember that +science is the domain of knowledge, philosophy the realm of wisdom, and +religion the sphere of the faith experience. But religion, nonetheless, +presents two phases of manifestation: + +1. Evolutionary religion. The experience of primitive worship, the religion +which is a mind derivative. + +2. Revealed religion. The universe attitude which is a spirit derivative; the +assurance of, and belief in, the conservation of eternal realities, the +survival of personality, and the eventual attainment of the cosmic Deity, whose +purpose has made all this possible. It is a part of the plan of the universe +that, sooner or later, evolutionary religion is destined to receive the +spiritual expansion of revelation. + +Both science and religion start out with the assumption of certain generally +accepted bases for logical deductions. So, also, must philosophy start its +career upon the assumption of the reality of three things: + +1. The material body. + +2. The supermaterial phase of the human being, the soul or even the indwelling +spirit. + +3. The human mind, the mechanism for intercommunication and interassociation +between spirit and matter, between the material and the spiritual. + +Scientists assemble facts, philosophers co-ordinate ideas, while prophets exalt +ideals. Feeling and emotion are invariable concomitants of religion, but they +are not religion. Religion may be the feeling of experience, but it is hardly +the experience of feeling. Neither logic (rationalization) nor emotion +(feeling) is essentially a part of religious experience, although both may +variously be associated with the exercise of faith in the furtherance of +spiritual insight into reality, all according to the status and temperamental +tendency of the individual mind. + +Evolutionary religion is the outworking of the endowment of the local universe +mind adjutant charged with the creation and fostering of the worship trait in +evolving man. Such primitive religions are directly concerned with ethics and +morals, the sense of human duty. Such religions are predicated on the assurance +of conscience and result in the stabilization of relatively ethical +civilizations. + + top of page - 1111 + +Personally revealed religions are sponsored by the bestowal spirits +representing the three persons of the Paradise Trinity and are especially +concerned with the expansion of truth. Evolutionary religion drives home to the +individual the idea of personal duty; revealed religion lays increasing +emphasis on loving, the golden rule. + +Evolved religion rests wholly on faith. Revelation has the additional assurance +of its expanded presentation of the truths of divinity and reality and the +still more valuable testimony of the actual experience which accumulates in +consequence of the practical working union of the faith of evolution and the +truth of revelation. Such a working union of human faith and divine truth +constitutes the possession of a character well on the road to the actual +acquirement of a morontial personality. + +Evolutionary religion provides only the assurance of faith and the confirmation +of conscience; revelatory religion provides the assurance of faith plus the +truth of a living experience in the realities of revelation. The third step in +religion, or the third phase of the experience of religion, has to do with the +morontia state, the firmer grasp of mota. Increasingly in the morontia +progression the truths of revealed religion are expanded; more and more you +will know the truth of supreme values, divine goodnesses, universal +relationships, eternal realities, and ultimate destinies. + +Increasingly throughout the morontia progression the assurance of truth +replaces the assurance of faith. When you are finally mustered into the actual +spirit world, then will the assurances of pure spirit insight operate in the +place of faith and truth or, rather, in conjunction with, and superimposed +upon, these former techniques of personality assurance. + +6. PROGRESSIVE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE + +The morontia phase of revealed religion has to do with the experience of +survival, and its great urge is the attainment of spirit perfection. There also +is present the higher urge of worship, associated with an impelling call to +increased ethical service. Morontia insight entails an ever-expanding +consciousness of the Sevenfold, the Supreme, and even the Ultimate. + +Throughout all religious experience, from its earliest inception on the +material level up to the time of the attainment of full spirit status, the +Adjuster is the secret of the personal realization of the reality of the +existence of the Supreme; and this same Adjuster also holds the secrets of your +faith in the transcendental attainment of the Ultimate. The experiential +personality of evolving man, united to the Adjuster essence of the existential +God, constitutes the potential completion of supreme existence and is +inherently the basis for the superfinite eventuation of transcendental +personality. + +Moral will embraces decisions based on reasoned knowledge, augmented by wisdom, +and sanctioned by religious faith. Such choices are acts of moral nature and +evidence the existence of moral personality, the forerunner of morontia +personality and eventually of true spirit status. + +The evolutionary type of knowledge is but the accumulation of protoplasmic +memory material; this is the most primitive form of creature consciousness. +Wisdom embraces the ideas formulated from protoplasmic memory in process of +association and recombination, and such phenomena differentiate human + + top of page - 1112 + +mind from mere animal mind. Animals have knowledge, but only man possesses +wisdom capacity. Truth is made accessible to the wisdom-endowed individual by +the bestowal on such a mind of the spirits of the Father and the Sons, the +Thought Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth. + +Christ Michael, when bestowed on Urantia, lived under the reign of evolutionary +religion up to the time of his baptism. From that moment up to and including +the event of his crucifixion he carried forward his work by the combined +guidance of evolutionary and revealed religion. From the morning of his +resurrection until his ascension he traversed the manifold phases of the +morontia life of mortal transition from the world of matter to that of spirit. +After his ascension Michael became master of the experience of Supremacy, the +realization of the Supreme; and being the one person in Nebadon possessed of +unlimited capacity to experience the reality of the Supreme, he forthwith +attained to the status of the sovereignty of supremacy in and to his local +universe. + +With man, the eventual fusion and resultant oneness with the indwelling +Adjuster--the personality synthesis of man and the essence of God--constitute +him, in potential, a living part of the Supreme and insure for such a onetime +mortal being the eternal birthright of the endless pursuit of finality of +universe service for and with the Supreme. + +Revelation teaches mortal man that, to start such a magnificent and intriguing +adventure through space by means of the progression of time, he should begin by +the organization of knowledge into idea-decisions; next, mandate wisdom to +labor unremittingly at its noble task of transforming self-possessed ideas into +increasingly practical but nonetheless supernal ideals, even those concepts +which are so reasonable as ideas and so logical as ideals that the Adjuster +dares so to combine and spiritize them as to render them available for such +association in the finite mind as will constitute them the actual human +complement thus made ready for the action of the Truth Spirit of the Sons, the +time-space manifestations of Paradise truth--universal truth. The co-ordination +of idea-decisions, logical ideals, and divine truth constitutes the possession +of a righteous character, the prerequisite for mortal admission to the +ever-expanding and increasingly spiritual realities of the morontia worlds. + +The teachings of Jesus constituted the first Urantian religion which so fully +embraced a harmonious co-ordination of knowledge, wisdom, faith, truth, and +love as completely and simultaneously to provide temporal tranquillity, +intellectual certainty, moral enlightenment, philosophic stability, ethical +sensitivity, God-consciousness, and the positive assurance of personal +survival. The faith of Jesus pointed the way to finality of human salvation, to +the ultimate of mortal universe attainment, since it provided for: + +1. Salvation from material fetters in the personal realization of sonship with +God, who is spirit. + +2. Salvation from intellectual bondage: man shall know the truth, and the truth +shall set him free. + +3. Salvation from spiritual blindness, the human realization of the fraternity +of mortal beings and the morontian awareness of the brotherhood of all universe +creatures; the service-discovery of spiritual reality and the +ministry-revelation of the goodness of spirit values. + + top of page - 1113 + +4. Salvation from incompleteness of self through the attainment of the spirit +levels of the universe and through the eventual realization of the harmony of +Havona and the perfection of Paradise. + +5. Salvation from self, deliverance from the limitations of self-consciousness +through the attainment of the cosmic levels of the Supreme mind and by +co-ordination with the attainments of all other self-conscious beings. + +6. Salvation from time, the achievement of an eternal life of unending +progression in God-recognition and God-service. + +7. Salvation from the finite, the perfected oneness with Deity in and through +the Supreme by which the creature attempts the transcendental discovery of the +Ultimate on the postfinaliter levels of the absonite. + +Such a sevenfold salvation is the equivalent of the completeness and perfection +of the realization of the ultimate experience of the Universal Father. And all +this, in potential, is contained within the reality of the faith of the human +experience of religion. And it can be so contained since the faith of Jesus was +nourished by, and was revelatory of, even realities beyond the ultimate; the +faith of Jesus approached the status of a universe absolute in so far as such +is possible of manifestation in the evolving cosmos of time and space. + +Through the appropriation of the faith of Jesus, mortal man can foretaste in +time the realities of eternity. Jesus made the discovery, in human experience, +of the Final Father, and his brothers in the flesh of mortal life can follow +him along this same experience of Father discovery. They can even attain, as +they are, the same satisfaction in this experience with the Father as did Jesus +as he was. New potentials were actualized in the universe of Nebadon consequent +upon the terminal bestowal of Michael, and one of these was the new +illumination of the path of eternity that leads to the Father of all, and which +can be traversed even by the mortals of material flesh and blood in the initial +life on the planets of space. Jesus was and is the new and living way whereby +man can come into the divine inheritance which the Father has decreed shall be +his for but the asking. In Jesus there is abundantly demonstrated both the +beginnings and endings of the faith experience of humanity, even of divine +humanity. + +7. A PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION + +An idea is only a theoretical plan for action, while a positive decision is a +validated plan of action. A stereotype is a plan of action accepted without +validation. The materials out of which to build a personal philosophy of +religion are derived from both the inner and the environmental experience of +the individual. The social status, economic conditions, educational +opportunities, moral trends, institutional influences, political developments, +racial tendencies, and the religious teachings of one's time and place all +become factors in the formulation of a personal philosophy of religion. Even +the inherent temperament and intellectual bent markedly determine the pattern +of religious philosophy. Vocation, marriage, and kindred all influence the +evolution of one's personal standards of life. + +A philosophy of religion evolves out of a basic growth of ideas plus +experimental living as both are modified by the tendency to imitate associates. +The soundness of philosophic conclusions depends on keen, honest, and +discriminating thinking in connection with sensitivity to meanings and accuracy +of evalua- + + top of page - 1114 + +tion. Moral cowards never achieve high planes of philosophic thinking; it +requires courage to invade new levels of experience and to attempt the +exploration of unknown realms of intellectual living. + +Presently new systems of values come into existence; new formulations of +principles and standards are achieved; habits and ideals are reshaped; some +idea of a personal God is attained, followed by enlarging concepts of +relationship thereto. + +The great difference between a religious and a nonreligious philosophy of +living consists in the nature and level of recognized values and in the object +of loyalties. There are four phases in the evolution of religious philosophy: +Such an experience may become merely conformative, resigned to submission to +tradition and authority. Or it may be satisfied with slight attainments, just +enough to stabilize the daily living, and therefore becomes early arrested on +such an adventitious level. Such mortals believe in letting well enough alone. +A third group progress to the level of logical intellectuality but there +stagnate in consequence of cultural slavery. It is indeed pitiful to behold +giant intellects held so securely within the cruel grasp of cultural bondage. +It is equally pathetic to observe those who trade their cultural bondage for +the materialistic fetters of a science, falsely so called. The fourth level of +philosophy attains freedom from all conventional and traditional handicaps and +dares to think, act, and live honestly, loyally, fearlessly, and truthfully. + +The acid test for any religious philosophy consists in whether or not it +distinguishes between the realities of the material and the spiritual worlds +while at the same moment recognizing their unification in intellectual striving +and in social serving. A sound religious philosophy does not confound the +things of God with the things of Caesar. Neither does it recognize the +aesthetic cult of pure wonder as a substitute for religion. + +Philosophy transforms that primitive religion which was largely a fairy tale of +conscience into a living experience in the ascending values of cosmic reality. + +8. FAITH AND BELIEF + +Belief has attained the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the +mode of living. The acceptance of a teaching as true is not faith; that is mere +belief. Neither is certainty nor conviction faith. A state of mind attains to +faith levels only when it actually dominates the mode of living. Faith is a +living attribute of genuine personal religious experience. One believes truth, +admires beauty, and reverences goodness, but does not worship them; such an +attitude of saving faith is centered on God alone, who is all of these +personified and infinitely more. + +Belief is always limiting and binding; faith is expanding and releasing. Belief +fixates, faith liberates. But living religious faith is more than the +association of noble beliefs; it is more than an exalted system of philosophy; +it is a living experience concerned with spiritual meanings, divine ideals, and +supreme values; it is God-knowing and man-serving. Beliefs may become group +possessions, but faith must be personal. Theologic beliefs can be suggested to +a group, but faith can rise up only in the heart of the individual religionist. + +Faith has falsified its trust when it presumes to deny realities and to confer +upon its devotees assumed knowledge. Faith is a traitor when it fosters +betrayal + + top of page - 1115 + +of intellectual integrity and belittles loyalty to supreme values and divine +ideals. Faith never shuns the problem-solving duty of mortal living. Living +faith does not foster bigotry, persecution, or intolerance. + +Faith does not shackle the creative imagination, neither does it maintain an +unreasoning prejudice toward the discoveries of scientific investigation. Faith +vitalizes religion and constrains the religionist heroically to live the golden +rule. The zeal of faith is according to knowledge, and its strivings are the +preludes to sublime peace. + +9. RELIGION AND MORALITY + +No professed revelation of religion could be regarded as authentic if it failed +to recognize the duty demands of ethical obligation which had been created and +fostered by preceding evolutionary religion. Revelation unfailingly enlarges +the ethical horizon of evolved religion while it simultaneously and unfailingly +expands the moral obligations of all prior revelations. + +When you presume to sit in critical judgment on the primitive religion of man +(or on the religion of primitive man), you should remember to judge such +savages and to evaluate their religious experience in accordance with their +enlightenment and status of conscience. Do not make the mistake of judging +another's religion by your own standards of knowledge and truth. + +True religion is that sublime and profound conviction within the soul which +compellingly admonishes man that it would be wrong for him not to believe in +those morontial realities which constitute his highest ethical and moral +concepts, his highest interpretation of life's greatest values and the +universe's deepest realities. And such a religion is simply the experience of +yielding intellectual loyalty to the highest dictates of spiritual +consciousness. + +The search for beauty is a part of religion only in so far as it is ethical and +to the extent that it enriches the concept of the moral. Art is only religious +when it becomes diffused with purpose which has been derived from high +spiritual motivation. + +The enlightened spiritual consciousness of civilized man is not concerned so +much with some specific intellectual belief or with any one particular mode of +living as with discovering the truth of living, the good and right technique of +reacting to the ever-recurring situations of mortal existence. Moral +consciousness is just a name applied to the human recognition and awareness of +those ethical and emerging morontial values which duty demands that man shall +abide by in the day-by-day control and guidance of conduct. + +Though recognizing that religion is imperfect, there are at least two practical +manifestations of its nature and function: + +1. The spiritual urge and philosophic pressure of religion tend to cause man to +project his estimation of moral values directly outward into the affairs of his +fellows--the ethical reaction of religion. + +2. Religion creates for the human mind a spiritualized consciousness of divine +reality based on, and by faith derived from, antecedent concepts of moral +values and co-ordinated with superimposed concepts of spiritual values. +Religion thereby becomes a censor of mortal affairs, a form of glorified moral +trust and confidence in reality, the enhanced realities of time and the more +enduring realities of eternity. + + top of page - 1116 + +Faith becomes the connection between moral consciousness and the spiritual +concept of enduring reality. Religion becomes the avenue of man's escape from +the material limitations of the temporal and natural world to the supernal +realities of the eternal and spiritual world by and through the technique of +salvation, the progressive morontia transformation. + +10. RELIGION AS MAN'S LIBERATOR + +Intelligent man knows that he is a child of nature, a part of the material +universe; he likewise discerns no survival of individual personality in the +motions and tensions of the mathematical level of the energy universe. Nor can +man ever discern spiritual reality through the examination of physical causes +and effects. + +A human being is also aware that he is a part of the ideational cosmos, but +though concept may endure beyond a mortal life span, there is nothing inherent +in concept which indicates the personal survival of the conceiving personality. +Nor will the exhaustion of the possibilities of logic and reason ever reveal to +the logician or to the reasoner the eternal truth of the survival of +personality. + +The material level of law provides for causality continuity, the unending +response of effect to antecedent action; the mind level suggests the +perpetuation of ideational continuity, the unceasing flow of conceptual +potentiality from pre-existent conceptions. But neither of these levels of the +universe discloses to the inquiring mortal an avenue of escape from partiality +of status and from the intolerable suspense of being a transient reality in the +universe, a temporal personality doomed to be extinguished upon the exhaustion +of the limited life energies. + +It is only through the morontial avenue leading to spiritual insight that man +can ever break the fetters inherent in his mortal status in the universe. +Energy and mind do lead back to Paradise and Deity, but neither the energy +endowment nor the mind endowment of man proceeds directly from such Paradise +Deity. Only in the spiritual sense is man a child of God. And this is true +because it is only in the spiritual sense that man is at present endowed and +indwelt by the Paradise Father. Mankind can never discover divinity except +through the avenue of religious experience and by the exercise of true faith. +The faith acceptance of the truth of God enables man to escape from the +circumscribed confines of material limitations and affords him a rational hope +of achieving safe conduct from the material realm, whereon is death, to the +spiritual realm, wherein is life eternal. + +The purpose of religion is not to satisfy curiosity about God but rather to +afford intellectual constancy and philosophic security, to stabilize and enrich +human living by blending the mortal with the divine, the partial with the +perfect, man and God. It is through religious experience that man's concepts of +ideality are endowed with reality. + +Never can there be either scientific or logical proofs of divinity. Reason +alone can never validate the values and goodnesses of religious experience. But +it will always remain true: Whosoever wills to do the will of God shall +comprehend the validity of spiritual values. This is the nearest approach that +can be made on the mortal level to offering proofs of the reality of religious +experience. Such faith affords the only escape from the mechanical clutch of +the material + + top of page - 1117 + +world and from the error distortion of the incompleteness of the intellectual +world; it is the only discovered solution to the impasse in mortal thinking +regarding the continuing survival of the individual personality. It is the only +passport to completion of reality and to eternity of life in a universal +creation of love, law, unity, and progressive Deity attainment. + +Religion effectually cures man's sense of idealistic isolation or spiritual +loneliness; it enfranchises the believer as a son of God, a citizen of a new +and meaningful universe. Religion assures man that, in following the gleam of +righteousness discernible in his soul, he is thereby identifying himself with +the plan of the Infinite and the purpose of the Eternal. Such a liberated soul +immediately begins to feel at home in this new universe, his universe. + +When you experience such a transformation of faith, you are no longer a slavish +part of the mathematical cosmos but rather a liberated volitional son of the +Universal Father. No longer is such a liberated son fighting alone against the +inexorable doom of the termination of temporal existence; no longer does he +combat all nature, with the odds hopelessly against him; no longer is he +staggered by the paralyzing fear that, perchance, he has put his trust in a +hopeless phantasm or pinned his faith to a fanciful error. + +Now, rather, are the sons of God enlisted together in fighting the battle of +reality's triumph over the partial shadows of existence. At last all creatures +become conscious of the fact that God and all the divine hosts of a well-nigh +limitless universe are on their side in the supernal struggle to attain +eternity of life and divinity of status. Such faith-liberated sons have +certainly enlisted in the struggles of time on the side of the supreme forces +and divine personalities of eternity; even the stars in their courses are now +doing battle for them; at last they gaze upon the universe from within, from +God's viewpoint, and all is transformed from the uncertainties of material +isolation to the sureties of eternal spiritual progression. Even time itself +becomes but the shadow of eternity cast by Paradise realities upon the moving +panoply of space. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1118 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Religion In ³ The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Hum... ³ Foundations... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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His +hopes of survival are strung on a figment of mortal imagination; his fears, +loves, longings, and beliefs are but the reaction of the incidental +juxtaposition of certain lifeless atoms of matter. No display of energy nor +expression of trust can carry him beyond the grave. The devotional labors and +inspirational genius of the best of men are doomed to be extinguished by death, +the long and lonely night of eternal oblivion and soul extinction. Nameless +despair is man's only reward for living and toiling under the temporal sun of +mortal existence. Each day of life slowly and surely tightens the grasp of a +pitiless doom which a hostile and relentless universe of matter has decreed +shall be the crowning insult to everything in human desire which is beautiful, +noble, lofty, and good. + +But such is not man's end and eternal destiny; such a vision is but the cry of +despair uttered by some wandering soul who has become lost in spiritual +darkness, and who bravely struggles on in the face of the mechanistic +sophistries of a material philosophy, blinded by the confusion and distortion +of a complex learning. And all this doom of darkness and all this destiny of +despair are forever dispelled by one brave stretch of faith on the part of the +most humble and unlearned of God's children on earth. + +This saving faith has its birth in the human heart when the moral consciousness +of man realizes that human values may be translated in mortal experience from +the material to the spiritual, from the human to the divine, from time to +eternity. + +1. ASSURANCES OF FAITH + +The work of the Thought Adjuster constitutes the explanation of the translation +of man's primitive and evolutionary sense of duty into that higher and more +certain faith in the eternal realities of revelation. There must be perfection +hunger in man's heart to insure capacity for comprehending the faith paths to +supreme attainment. If any man chooses to do the divine will, he shall know the +way of truth. It is literally true, "Human things must be known in order to be +loved, but divine things must be loved in order to be known." But honest doubts +and sincere questionings are not sin; such attitudes merely spell delay in the +progressive journey toward perfection attainment. Childlike trust secures man's +entrance into the kingdom of heavenly ascent, but progress is wholly dependent +on the vigorous exercise of the robust and confident faith of the full-grown +man. + + top of page - 1119 + +The reason of science is based on the observable facts of time; the faith of +religion argues from the spirit program of eternity. What knowledge and reason +cannot do for us, true wisdom admonishes us to allow faith to accomplish +through religious insight and spiritual transformation. + +Owing to the isolation of rebellion, the revelation of truth on Urantia has all +too often been mixed up with the statements of partial and transient +cosmologies. Truth remains unchanged from generation to generation, but the +associated teachings about the physical world vary from day to day and from +year to year. Eternal truth should not be slighted because it chances to be +found in company with obsolete ideas regarding the material world. The more of +science you know, the less sure you can be; the more of religion you have, the +more certain you are. + +The certainties of science proceed entirely from the intellect; the certitudes +of religion spring from the very foundations of the entire personality. Science +appeals to the understanding of the mind; religion appeals to the loyalty and +devotion of the body, mind, and spirit, even to the whole personality. + +God is so all real and absolute that no material sign of proof or no +demonstration of so-called miracle may be offered in testimony of his reality. +Always will we know him because we trust him, and our belief in him is wholly +based on our personal participation in the divine manifestations of his +infinite reality. + +The indwelling Thought Adjuster unfailingly arouses in man's soul a true and +searching hunger for perfection together with a far-reaching curiosity which +can be adequately satisfied only by communion with God, the divine source of +that Adjuster. The hungry soul of man refuses to be satisfied with anything +less than the personal realization of the living God. Whatever more God may be +than a high and perfect moral personality, he cannot, in our hungry and finite +concept, be anything less. + +2. RELIGION AND REALITY + +Observing minds and discriminating souls know religion when they find it in the +lives of their fellows. Religion requires no definition; we all know its +social, intellectual, moral, and spiritual fruits. And this all grows out of +the fact that religion is the property of the human race; it is not a child of +culture. True, one's perception of religion is still human and therefore +subject to the bondage of ignorance, the slavery of superstition, the +deceptions of sophistication, and the delusions of false philosophy. + +One of the characteristic peculiarities of genuine religious assurance is that, +notwithstanding the absoluteness of its affirmations and the stanchness of its +attitude, the spirit of its expression is so poised and tempered that it never +conveys the slightest impression of self-assertion or egoistic exaltation. The +wisdom of religious experience is something of a paradox in that it is both +humanly original and Adjuster derivative. Religious force is not the product of +the individual's personal prerogatives but rather the outworking of that +sublime partnership of man and the everlasting source of all wisdom. Thus do +the words and acts of true and undefiled religion become compellingly +authoritative for all enlightened mortals. + +It is difficult to identify and analyze the factors of a religious experience, +but it is not difficult to observe that such religious practitioners live and +carry + + top of page - 1120 + +on as if already in the presence of the Eternal. Believers react to this +temporal life as if immortality already were within their grasp. In the lives +of such mortals there is a valid originality and a spontaneity of expression +that forever segregate them from those of their fellows who have imbibed only +the wisdom of the world. Religionists seem to live in effective emancipation +from harrying haste and the painful stress of the vicissitudes inherent in the +temporal currents of time; they exhibit a stabilization of personality and a +tranquillity of character not explained by the laws of physiology, psychology, +and sociology. + +Time is an invariable element in the attainment of knowledge; religion makes +its endowments immediately available, albeit there is the important factor of +growth in grace, definite advancement in all phases of religious experience. +Knowledge is an eternal quest; always are you learning, but never are you able +to arrive at the full knowledge of absolute truth. In knowledge alone there can +never be absolute certainty, only increasing probability of approximation; but +the religious soul of spiritual illumination knows, and knows now. And yet this +profound and positive certitude does not lead such a sound-minded religionist +to take any less interest in the ups and downs of the progress of human wisdom, +which is bound up on its material end with the developments of slow-moving +science. + +Even the discoveries of science are not truly real in the consciousness of +human experience until they are unraveled and correlated, until their relevant +facts actually become meaning through encircuitment in the thought streams of +mind. Mortal man views even his physical environment from the mind level, from +the perspective of its psychological registry. It is not, therefore, strange +that man should place a highly unified interpretation upon the universe and +then seek to identify this energy unity of his science with the spirit unity of +his religious experience. Mind is unity; mortal consciousness lives on the mind +level and perceives the universal realities through the eyes of the mind +endowment. The mind perspective will not yield the existential unity of the +source of reality, the First Source and Center, but it can and sometime will +portray to man the experiential synthesis of energy, mind, and spirit in and as +the Supreme Being. But mind can never succeed in this unification of the +diversity of reality unless such mind is firmly aware of material things, +intellectual meanings, and spiritual values; only in the harmony of the +triunity of functional reality is there unity, and only in unity is there the +personality satisfaction of the realization of cosmic constancy and +consistency. + +Unity is best found in human experience through philosophy. And while the body +of philosophic thought must ever be founded on material facts, the soul and +energy of true philosophic dynamics is mortal spiritual insight. + +Evolutionary man does not naturally relish hard work. To keep pace in his life +experience with the impelling demands and the compelling urges of a growing +religious experience means incessant activity in spiritual growth, intellectual +expansion, factual enlargement, and social service. There is no real religion +apart from a highly active personality. Therefore do the more indolent of men +often seek to escape the rigors of truly religious activities by a species of +ingenious self-deception through resorting to a retreat to the false shelter of +stereotyped religious doctrines and dogmas. But true religion is alive. +Intellectual crystallization of religious concepts is the equivalent of +spiritual death. You cannot conceive of religion without ideas, but when +religion once becomes + + top of page - 1121 + +reduced only to an idea, it is no longer religion; it has become merely a +species of human philosophy. + +Again, there are other types of unstable and poorly disciplined souls who would +use the sentimental ideas of religion as an avenue of escape from the +irritating demands of living. When certain vacillating and timid mortals +attempt to escape from the incessant pressure of evolutionary life, religion, +as they conceive it, seems to present the nearest refuge, the best avenue of +escape. But it is the mission of religion to prepare man for bravely, even +heroically, facing the vicissitudes of life. Religion is evolutionary man's +supreme endowment, the one thing which enables him to carry on and "endure as +seeing Him who is invisible." Mysticism, however, is often something of a +retreat from life which is embraced by those humans who do not relish the more +robust activities of living a religious life in the open arenas of human +society and commerce. True religion must act. Conduct will be the result of +religion when man actually has it, or rather when religion is permitted truly +to possess the man. Never will religion be content with mere thinking or +unacting feeling. + +We are not blind to the fact that religion often acts unwisely, even +irreligiously, but it acts. Aberrations of religious conviction have led to +bloody persecutions, but always and ever religion does something; it is +dynamic! + +3. KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, AND INSIGHT + +Intellectual deficiency or educational poverty unavoidably handicaps higher +religious attainment because such an impoverished environment of the spiritual +nature robs religion of its chief channel of philosophic contact with the world +of scientific knowledge. The intellectual factors of religion are important, +but their overdevelopment is likewise sometimes very handicapping and +embarrassing. Religion must continually labor under a paradoxical necessity: +the necessity of making effective use of thought while at the same time +discounting the spiritual serviceableness of all thinking. + +Religious speculation is inevitable but always detrimental; speculation +invariably falsifies its object. Speculation tends to translate religion into +something material or humanistic, and thus, while directly interfering with the +clarity of logical thought, it indirectly causes religion to appear as a +function of the temporal world, the very world with which it should +everlastingly stand in contrast. Therefore will religion always be +characterized by paradoxes, the paradoxes resulting from the absence of the +experiential connection between the material and the spiritual levels of the +universe--morontia mota, the superphilosophic sensitivity for truth discernment +and unity perception. + +Material feelings, human emotions, lead directly to material actions, selfish +acts. Religious insights, spiritual motivations, lead directly to religious +actions, unselfish acts of social service and altruistic benevolence. + +Religious desire is the hunger quest for divine reality. Religious experience +is the realization of the consciousness of having found God. And when a human +being does find God, there is experienced within the soul of that being such an +indescribable restlessness of triumph in discovery that he is impelled to seek +loving service-contact with his less illuminated fellows, not to disclose that +he has found God, but rather to allow the overflow of the welling-up of eternal +goodness within his own soul to refresh and ennoble his fellows. Real religion +leads to increased social service. + + top of page - 1122 + +Science, knowledge, leads to fact consciousness; religion, experience, leads to +value consciousness; philosophy, wisdom, leads to co-ordinate consciousness; +revelation (the substitute for morontia mota) leads to the consciousness of +true reality; while the co-ordination of the consciousness of fact, value, and +true reality constitutes awareness of personality reality, maximum of being, +together with the belief in the possibility of the survival of that very +personality. + +Knowledge leads to placing men, to originating social strata and castes. +Religion leads to serving men, thus creating ethics and altruism. Wisdom leads +to the higher and better fellowship of both ideas and one's fellows. Revelation +liberates men and starts them out on the eternal adventure. + +Science sorts men; religion loves men, even as yourself; wisdom does justice to +differing men; but revelation glorifies man and discloses his capacity for +partnership with God. + +Science vainly strives to create the brotherhood of culture; religion brings +into being the brotherhood of the spirit. Philosophy strives for the +brotherhood of wisdom; revelation portrays the eternal brotherhood, the +Paradise Corps of the Finality. + +Knowledge yields pride in the fact of personality; wisdom is the consciousness +of the meaning of personality; religion is the experience of cognizance of the +value of personality; revelation is the assurance of personality survival. + +Science seeks to identify, analyze, and classify the segmented parts of the +limitless cosmos. Religion grasps the idea-of-the-whole, the entire cosmos. +Philosophy attempts the identification of the material segments of science with +the spiritual-insight concept of the whole. Wherein philosophy fails in this +attempt, revelation succeeds, affirming that the cosmic circle is universal, +eternal, absolute, and infinite. This cosmos of the Infinite I AM is therefore +endless, limitless, and all-inclusive--timeless, spaceless, and unqualified. +And we bear testimony that the Infinite I AM is also the Father of Michael of +Nebadon and the God of human salvation. + +Science indicates Deity as a fact; philosophy presents the idea of an Absolute; +religion envisions God as loving spiritual personality.Revelation affirms the +unity of the fact of Deity, the idea of the Absolute, and the spiritual +personality of God and, further, presents this concept as our Father--the +universal fact of existence, the eternal idea of mind, and the infinite spirit +of life. + +The pursuit of knowledge constitutes science; the search for wisdom is +philosophy; the love for God is religion; the hunger for truth is a revelation. +But it is the indwelling Thought Adjuster that attaches the feeling of reality +to man's spiritual insight into the cosmos. + +In science, the idea precedes the expression of its realization; in religion, +the experience of realization precedes the expression of the idea. There is a +vast difference between the evolutionary will-to-believe and the the product of +enlightened reason, religious insight, and revelation--the will that believes. + +In evolution, religion often leads to man's creating his concepts of God; +revelation exhibits the phenomenon of God's evolving man himself, while in the +earth life of Christ Michael we behold the phenomenon of God's revealing +himself to man. Evolution tends to make God manlike; revelation tends to make +man Godlike. + +Science is only satisfied with first causes, religion with supreme personality, +and philosophy with unity. Revelation affirms that these three are one, and + + top of page - 1123 + +that all are good. The eternal real is the good of the universe and not the +time illusions of space evil. In the spiritual experience of all personalities, +always is it true that the real is the good and the good is the real. + +4. THE FACT OF EXPERIENCE + +Because of the presence in your minds of the Thought Adjuster, it is no more of +a mystery for you to know the mind of God than for you to be sure of the +consciousness of knowing any other mind, human or superhuman. Religion and +social consciousness have this in common: They are predicated on the +consciousness of other-mindness. The technique whereby you can accept another's +idea as yours is the same whereby you may "let the mind which was in Christ be +also in you." + +What is human experience? It is simply any interplay between an active and +questioning self and any other active and external reality. The mass of +experience is determined by depth of concept plus totality of recognition of +the reality of the external. The motion of experience equals the force of +expectant imagination plus the keenness of the sensory discovery of the +external qualities of contacted reality. The fact of experience is found in +self-consciousness plus other-existences--other-thingness, other-mindness, and +other-spiritness. + +Man very early becomes conscious that he is not alone in the world or the +universe. There develops a natural spontaneous self-consciousness of +other-mindness in the environment of selfhood. Faith translates this natural +experience into religion, the recognition of God as the reality--source, +nature, and destiny--of other-mindness. But such a knowledge of God is ever and +always a reality of personal experience. If God were not a personality, he +could not become a living part of the real religious experience of a human +personality. + +The element of error present in human religious experience is directly +proportional to the content of materialism which contaminates the spiritual +concept of the Universal Father. Man's prespirit progression in the universe +consists in the experience of divesting himself of these erroneous ideas of the +nature of God and of the reality of pure and true spirit. Deity is more than +spirit but the spiritual approach is the only one possible to ascending man. + +Prayer is indeed a part of religious experience, but it has been wrongly +emphasized by modern religions, much to the neglect of the more essential +communion of worship. The reflective powers of the mind are deepened and +broadened by worship. Prayer may enrich the life, but worship illuminates +destiny. + +Revealed religion is the unifying element of human existence. Revelation +unifies history, co-ordinates geology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, +sociology, and psychology. Spiritual experience is the real soul of man's +cosmos. + +5. THE SUPREMACY OF PURPOSIVE POTENTIAL + +Although the establishment of the fact of belief is not equivalent to +establishing the fact of that which is believed, nevertheless, the evolutionary +progression of simple life to the status of personality does demonstrate the +fact of the existence of the potential of personality to start with. And in the +time universes, + + top of page - 1124 + +potential is always supreme over the actual. In the evolving cosmos the +potential is what is to be, and what is to be is the unfolding of the purposive +mandates of Deity. + +This same purposive supremacy is shown in the evolution of mind ideation when +primitive animal fear is transmuted into the constantly deepening reverence for +God and into increasing awe of the universe. Primitive man had more religious +fear than faith, and the supremacy of spirit potentials over mind actuals is +demonstrated when this craven fear is translated into living faith in spiritual +realities. + +You can psychologize evolutionary religion but not the personal-experience +religion of spiritual origin. Human morality may recognize values, but only +religion can conserve, exalt, and spiritualize such values. But notwithstanding +such actions, religion is something more than emotionalized morality. Religion +is to morality as love is to duty, as sonship is to servitude, as essence is to +substance. Morality discloses an almighty Controller, a Deity to be served; +religion discloses an all-loving Father, a God to be worshiped and loved. And +again this is because the spiritual potentiality of religion is dominant over +the duty actuality of the morality of evolution. + +6. THE CERTAINTY OF RELIGIOUS FAITH + +The philosophic elimination of religious fear and the steady progress of +science add greatly to the mortality of false gods; and even though these +casualties of man-made deities may momentarily befog the spiritual vision, they +eventually destroy that ignorance and superstition which so long obscured the +living God of eternal love. The relation between the creature and the Creator +is a living experience, a dynamic religious faith, which is not subject to +precise definition. To isolate part of life and call it religion is to +disintegrate life and to distort religion. And this is just why the God of +worship claims all allegiance or none. + +The gods of primitive men may have been no more than shadows of themselves; the +living God is the divine light whose interruptions constitute the creation +shadows of all space. + +The religionist of philosophic attainment has faith in a personal God of +personal salvation, something more than a reality, a value, a level of +achievement, an exalted process, a transmutation, the ultimate of time-space, +an idealization, the personalization of energy, the entity of gravity, a human +projection, the idealization of self, nature's upthrust, the inclination to +goodness, the forward impulse of evolution, or a sublime hypothesis. The +religionist has faith in a God of love. Love is the essence of religion and the +wellspring of superior civilization. + +Faith transforms the philosophic God of probability into the saving God of +certainty in the personal religious experience. Skepticism may challenge the +theories of theology, but confidence in the dependability of personal +experience affirms the truth of that belief which has grown into faith. + +Convictions about God may be arrived at through wise reasoning, but the +individual becomes God-knowing only by faith, through personal experience. In +much that pertains to life, probability must be reckoned with, but when +contacting with cosmic reality, certainty may be experienced when such meanings +and values are approached by living faith. The God-knowing soul dares to say, + + top of page - 1125 + +"I know," even when this knowledge of God is questioned by the unbeliever who +denies such certitude because it is not wholly supported by intellectual logic. +To every such doubter the believer only replies, "How do you know that I do not +know?" + +Though reason can always question faith, faith can always supplement both +reason and logic. Reason creates the probability which faith can transform into +a moral certainty, even a spiritual experience. God is the first truth and the +last fact; therefore does all truth take origin in him, while all facts exist +relative to him. God is absolute truth. As truth one may know God, but to +understand--to explain--God, one must explore the fact of the universe of +universes. The vast gulf between the experience of the truth of God and +ignorance as to the fact of God can be bridged only by living faith. Reason +alone cannot achieve harmony between infinite truth and universal fact. + +Belief may not be able to resist doubt and withstand fear, but faith is always +triumphant over doubting, for faith is both positive and living. The positive +always has the advantage over the negative, truth over error, experience over +theory, spiritual realities over the isolated facts of time and space. The +convincing evidence of this spiritual certainty consists in the social fruits +of the spirit which such believers, faithers, yield as a result of this genuine +spiritual experience. Said Jesus: "If you love your fellows as I have loved +you, then shall all men know that you are my disciples." + +To science God is a possibility, to psychology a desirability, to philosophy a +probability, to religion a certainty, an actuality of religious experience. +Reason demands that a philosophy which cannot find the God of probability +should be very respectful of that religious faith which can and does find the +God of certitude. Neither should science discount religious experience on +grounds of credulity, not so long as it persists in the assumption that man's +intellectual and philosophic endowments emerged from increasingly lesser +intelligences the further back they go, finally taking origin in primitive life +which was utterly devoid of all thinking and feeling. + +The facts of evolution must not be arrayed against the truth of the reality of +the certainty of the spiritual experience of the religious living of the +God-knowing mortal. Intelligent men should cease to reason like children and +should attempt to use the consistent logic of adulthood, logic which tolerates +the concept of truth alongside the observation of fact. Scientific materialism +has gone bankrupt when it persists, in the face of each recurring universe +phenomenon, in refunding its current objections by referring what is admittedly +higher back into that which is admittedly lower. Consistency demands the +recognition of the activities of a purposive Creator. + +Organic evolution is a fact; purposive or progressive evolution is a truth +which makes consistent the otherwise contradictory phenomena of the +ever-ascending achievements of evolution. The higher any scientist progresses +in his chosen science, the more will he abandon the theories of materialistic +fact in favor of the cosmic truth of the dominance of the Supreme Mind. +Materialism cheapens human life; the gospel of Jesus tremendously enhances and +supernally exalts every mortal. Mortal existence must be visualized as +consisting in the intriguing and fascinating experience of the realization of +the reality of the meeting of the human upreach and the divine and saving +downreach. + + top of page - 1126 + +7. THE CERTITUDE OF THE DIVINE + +The Universal Father, being self-existent, is also self-explanatory; he +actually lives in every rational mortal. But you cannot be sure about God +unless you know him; sonship is the only experience which makes fatherhood +certain. The universe is everywhere undergoing change. A changing universe is a +dependent universe; such a creation cannot be either final or absolute. A +finite universe is wholly dependent on the Ultimate and the Absolute. The +universe and God are not identical; one is cause, the other effect. The cause +is absolute, infinite, eternal, and changeless; the effect, time-space and +transcendental but ever changing, always growing. + +God is the one and only self-caused fact in the universe. He is the secret of +the order, plan, and purpose of the whole creation of things and beings. The +everywhere-changing universe is regulated and stabilized by absolutely +unchanging laws, the habits of an unchanging God. The fact of God, the divine +law, is changeless; the truth of God, his relation to the universe, is a +relative revelation which is ever adaptable to the constantly evolving +universe. + +Those who would invent a religion without God are like those who would gather +fruit without trees, have children without parents. You cannot have effects +without causes; only the I AM is causeless. The fact of religious experience +implies God, and such a God of personal experience must be a personal Deity. +You cannot pray to a chemical formula, supplicate a mathematical equation, +worship a hypothesis, confide in a postulate, commune with a process, serve an +abstraction, or hold loving fellowship with a law. + +True, many apparently religious traits can grow out of nonreligious roots. Man +can, intellectually, deny God and yet be morally good, loyal, filial, honest, +and even idealistic. Man may graft many purely humanistic branches onto his +basic spiritual nature and thus apparently prove his contentions in behalf of a +godless religion, but such an experience is devoid of survival values, +God-knowingness and God-ascension. In such a mortal experience only social +fruits are forthcoming, not spiritual. The graft determines the nature of the +fruit, notwithstanding that the living sustenance is drawn from the roots of +original divine endowment of both mind and spirit. + +The intellectual earmark of religion is certainty; the philosophical +characteristic is consistency; the social fruits are love and service. + +The God-knowing individual is not one who is blind to the difficulties or +unmindful of the obstacles which stand in the way of finding God in the maze of +superstition, tradition, and materialistic tendencies of modern times. He has +encountered all these deterrents and triumphed over them, surmounted them by +living faith, and attained the highlands of spiritual experience in spite of +them. But it is true that many who are inwardly sure about God fear to assert +such feelings of certainty because of the multiplicity and cleverness of those +who assemble objections and magnify difficulties about believing in God. It +requires no great depth of intellect to pick flaws, ask questions, or raise +objections. But it does require brilliance of mind to answer these questions +and solve these difficulties; faith certainty is the greatest technique for +dealing with all such superficial contentions. + + top of page - 1127 + +If science, philosophy, or sociology dares to become dogmatic in contending +with the prophets of true religion, then should God-knowing men reply to such +unwarranted dogmatism with that more farseeing dogmatism of the certainty of +personal spiritual experience, "I know what I have experienced because I am a +son of I AM." If the personal experience of a faither is to be challenged by +dogma, then this faith-born son of the experiencible Father may reply with that +unchallengeable dogma, the statement of his actual sonship with the Universal +Father. + +Only an unqualified reality, an absolute, could dare consistently to be +dogmatic. Those who assume to be dogmatic must, if consistent, sooner or later +be driven into the arms of the Absolute of energy, the Universal of truth, and +the Infinite of love. + +If the nonreligious approaches to cosmic reality presume to challenge the +certainty of faith on the grounds of its unproved status, then the spirit +experiencer can likewise resort to the dogmatic challenge of the facts of +science and the beliefs of philosophy on the grounds that they are likewise +unproved; they are likewise experiences in the consciousness of the scientist +or the philosopher. + +Of God, the most inescapable of all presences, the most real of all facts, the +most living of all truths, the most loving of all friends, and the most divine +of all values, we have the right to be the most certain of all universe +experiences. + +8. THE EVIDENCES OF RELIGION + +The highest evidence of the reality and efficacy of religion consists in the +fact of human experience; namely, that man, naturally fearful and suspicious, +innately endowed with a strong instinct of self-preservation and craving +survival after death, is willing fully to trust the deepest interests of his +present and future to the keeping and direction of that power and person +designated by his faith as God. That is the one central truth of all religion. +As to what that power or person requires of man in return for this watchcare +and final salvation, no two religions agree; in fact, they all more or less +disagree. + +Regarding the status of any religion in the evolutionary scale, it may best be +judged by its moral judgments and its ethical standards. The higher the type of +any religion, the more it encourages and is encouraged by a constantly +improving social morality and ethical culture. We cannot judge religion by the +status of its accompanying civilization; we had better estimate the real nature +of a civilization by the purity and nobility of its religion. Many of the +world's most notable religious teachers have been virtually unlettered. The +wisdom of the world is not necessary to an exercise of saving faith in eternal +realities. + +The difference in the religions of various ages is wholly dependent on the +difference in man's comprehension of reality and on his differing recognition +of moral values, ethical relationships, and spirit realities. + +Ethics is the eternal social or racial mirror which faithfully reflects the +otherwise unobservable progress of internal spiritual and religious +developments. Man has always thought of God in the terms of the best he knew, +his deepest ideas and highest ideals. Even historic religion has always created +its God conceptions out of its highest recognized values. Every intelligent +creature gives the name of God to the best and highest thing he knows. + + top of page - 1128 + +Religion, when reduced to terms of reason and intellectual expression, has +always dared to criticize civilization and evolutionary progress as judged by +its own standards of ethical culture and moral progress. + +While personal religion precedes the evolution of human morals, it is +regretfully recorded that institutional religion has invariably lagged behind +the slowly changing mores of the human races. Organized religion has proved to +be conservatively tardy. The prophets have usually led the people in religious +development; the theologians have usually held them back. Religion, being a +matter of inner or personal experience, can never develop very far in advance +of the intellectual evolution of the races. + +But religion is never enhanced by an appeal to the so-called miraculous. The +quest for miracles is a harking back to the primitive religions of magic. True +religion has nothing to do with alleged miracles, and never does revealed +religion point to miracles as proof of authority. Religion is ever and always +rooted and grounded in personal experience. And your highest religion, the life +of Jesus, was just such a personal experience: man, mortal man, seeking God and +finding him to the fullness during one short life in the flesh, while in the +same human experience there appeared God seeking man and finding him to the +full satisfaction of the perfect soul of infinite supremacy. And that is +religion, even the highest yet revealed in the universe of Nebadon--the earth +life of Jesus of Nazareth. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1129 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Real ³ The Reality Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Nature... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p103.txt b/religious documents/p103.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c37fc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p103.txt @@ -0,0 +1,867 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 103 The Reality Of Religious Experience + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 103 The Reality Of Religious Experience + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ALL of man's truly religious reactions are sponsored by the early ministry of +the adjutant of worship and are censored by the adjutant of wisdom. Man's first +supermind endowment is that of personality encircuitment in the Holy Spirit of +the Universe Creative Spirit; and long before either the bestowals of the +divine Sons or the universal bestowal of the Adjusters, this influence +functions to enlarge man's viewpoint of ethics, religion, and spirituality. +Subsequent to the bestowals of the Paradise Sons the liberated Spirit of Truth +makes mighty contributions to the enlargement of the human capacity to perceive +religious truths. As evolution advances on an inhabited world, the Thought +Adjusters increasingly participate in the development of the higher types of +human religious insight. The Thought Adjuster is the cosmic window through +which the finite creature may faith-glimpse the certainties and divinities of +limitless Deity, the Universal Father. + +The religious tendencies of the human races are innate; they are universally +manifested and have an apparently natural origin; primitive religions are +always evolutionary in their genesis. As natural religious experience continues +to progress, periodic revelations of truth punctuate the otherwise slow-moving +course of planetary evolution. + +On Urantia, today, there are four kinds of religion: + +1. Natural or evolutionary religion. + +2. Supernatural or revelatory religion. + +3. Practical or current religion, varying degrees of the admixture of natural +and supernatural religions. + +4. Philosophic religions, man-made or philosophically thought-out theologic +doctrines and reason-created religions. + +1. PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION + +The unity of religious experience among a social or racial group derives from +the identical nature of the God fragment indwelling the individual. It is this +divine in man that gives origin to his unselfish interest in the welfare of +other men. But since personality is unique--no two mortals being alike--it +inevitably follows that no two human beings can similarly interpret the +leadings and urges of the spirit of divinity which lives within their minds. A +group of mortals can experience spiritual unity, but they can never attain +philosophic uniformity. And this diversity of the interpreta- + + top of page - 1130 + +tion of religious thought and experience is shown by the fact that +twentieth-century theologians and philosophers have formulated upward of five +hundred different definitions of religion. In reality, every human being +defines religion in the terms of his own experiential interpretation of the +divine impulses emanating from the God spirit that indwells him, and therefore +must such an interpretation be unique and wholly different from the religious +philosophy of all other human beings. + +When one mortal is in full agreement with the religious philosophy of a fellow +mortal, that phenomenon indicates that these two beings have had a similar +religious experience touching the matters concerned in their similarity of +philosophic religious interpretation. + +While your religion is a matter of personal experience, it is most important +that you should be exposed to the knowledge of a vast number of other religious +experiences (the diverse interpretations of other and diverse mortals) to the +end that you may prevent your religious life from becoming +egocentric--circumscribed, selfish, and unsocial. + +Rationalism is wrong when it assumes that religion is at first a primitive +belief in something which is then followed by the pursuit of values. Religion +is primarily a pursuit of values, and then there formulates a system of +interpretative beliefs. It is much easier for men to agree on religious +values--goals--than on beliefs--interpretations. And this explains how religion +can agree on values and goals while exhibiting the confusing phenomenon of +maintaining a belief in hundreds of conflicting beliefs--creeds. This also +explains why a given person can maintain his religious experience in the face +of giving up or changing many of his religious beliefs. Religion persists in +spite of revolutionary changes in religious beliefs. Theology does not produce +religion; it is religion that produces theologic philosophy. + +That religionists have believed so much that was false does not invalidate +religion because religion is founded on the recognition of values and is +validated by the faith of personal religious experience. Religion, then, is +based on experience and religious thought; theology, the philosophy of +religion, is an honest attempt to interpret that experience. Such +interpretative beliefs may be right or wrong, or a mixture of truth and error. + +The realization of the recognition of spiritual values is an experience which +is superideational. There is no word in any human language which can be +employed to designate this "sense," "feeling," "intuition," or "experience" +which we have elected to call God-consciousness. The spirit of God that dwells +in man is not personal--the Adjuster is prepersonal--but this Monitor presents +a value, exudes a flavor of divinity, which is personal in the highest and +infinite sense. If God were not at least personal, he could not be conscious, +and if not conscious, then would he be infrahuman. + +2. RELIGION AND THE INDIVIDUAL + +Religion is functional in the human mind and has been realized in experience +prior to its appearance in human consciousness. A child has been in existence +about nine months before it experiences birth. But the "birth" of religion is +not sudden; it is rather a gradual emergence. Nevertheless, sooner or later +there is a "birth day." You do not enter the kingdom of heaven unless you have +been "born again"--born of the Spirit. Many spiritual births are accompanied by +much anguish of spirit and marked psychological perturbations, as many physical +births are characterized by a "stormy labor" and other abnormalities of +"delivery." Other spiritual births are a natural and normal growth of the +recognition of supreme values with an enhancement of spiritual experience, +albeit no + + top of page - 1131 + +religious development occurs without conscious effort and positive and +individual determinations. Religion is never a passive experience, a negative +attitude. What is termed the "birth of religion" is not directly associated +with so-called conversion experiences which usually characterize religious +episodes occurring later in life as a result of mental conflict, emotional +repression, and temperamental upheavals. + +But those persons who were so reared by their parents that they grew up in the +consciousness of being children of a loving heavenly Father, should not look +askance at their fellow mortals who could only attain such consciousness of +fellowship with God through a psychological crisis, an emotional upheaval. + +The evolutionary soil in the mind of man in which the seed of revealed religion +germinates is the moral nature that so early gives origin to a social +consciousness. The first promptings of a child's moral nature have not to do +with sex, guilt, or personal pride, but rather with impulses of justice, +fairness, and urges to kindness--helpful ministry to one's fellows. And when +such early moral awakenings are nurtured, there occurs a gradual development of +the religious life which is comparatively free from conflicts, upheavals, and +crises. + +Every human being very early experiences something of a conflict between his +self-seeking and his altruistic impulses, and many times the first experience +of God-consciousness may be attained as the result of seeking for superhuman +help in the task of resolving such moral conflicts. + +The psychology of a child is naturally positive, not negative. So many mortals +are negative because they were so trained. When it is said that the child is +positive, reference is made to his moral impulses, those powers of mind whose +emergence signals the arrival of the Thought Adjuster. + +In the absence of wrong teaching, the mind of the normal child moves +positively, in the emergence of religious consciousness, toward moral +righteousness and social ministry, rather than negatively, away from sin and +guilt. There may or may not be conflict in the development of religious +experience, but there are always present the inevitable decisions, effort, and +function of the human will. + +Moral choosing is usually accompanied by more or less moral conflict. And this +very first conflict in the child mind is between the urges of egoism and the +impulses of altruism. The Thought Adjuster does not disregard the personality +values of the egoistic motive but does operate to place a slight preference +upon the altruistic impulse as leading to the goal of human happiness and to +the joys of the kingdom of heaven. + +When a moral being chooses to be unselfish when confronted by the urge to be +selfish, that is primitive religious experience. No animal can make such a +choice; such a decision is both human and religious. It embraces the fact of +God-consciousness and exhibits the impulse of social service, the basis of the +brotherhood of man. When mind chooses a right moral judgment by an act of the +free will, such a decision constitutes a religious experience. + +But before a child has developed sufficiently to acquire moral capacity and +therefore to be able to choose altruistic service, he has already developed a +strong and well-unified egoistic nature. And it is this factual situation that +gives rise to the theory of the struggle between the "higher" and the "lower" +natures, between the "old man of sin" and the "new nature" of grace. Very early +in life the normal child begins to learn that it is "more blessed to give than +to receive." + +Man tends to identify the urge to be self-serving with his ego--himself. In +contrast he is inclined to identify the will to be altruistic with some +influence + + top of page - 1132 + +outside himself--God. And indeed is such a judgment right, for all such nonself +desires do actually have their origin in the leadings of the indwelling Thought +Adjuster, and this Adjuster is a fragment of God. The impulse of the spirit +Monitor is realized in human consciousness as the urge to be altruistic, +fellow-creature minded. At least this is the early and fundamental experience +of the child mind. When the growing child fails of personality unification, the +altruistic drive may become so overdeveloped as to work serious injury to the +welfare of the self. A misguided conscience can become responsible for much +conflict, worry, sorrow, and no end of human unhappiness. + +3. RELIGION AND THE HUMAN RACE + +While the belief in spirits, dreams, and diverse other superstitions all played +a part in the evolutionary origin of primitive religions, you should not +overlook the influence of the clan or tribal spirit of solidarity. In the group +relationship there was presented the exact social situation which provided the +challenge to the egoistic-altruistic conflict in the moral nature of the early +human mind. In spite of their belief in spirits, primitive Australians still +focus their religion upon the clan. In time, such religious concepts tend to +personalize, first, as animals, and later, as a superman or as a God. Even such +inferior races as the African Bushmen, who are not even totemic in their +beliefs, do have a recognition of the difference between the self-interest and +the group-interest, a primitive distinction between the values of the secular +and the sacred. But the social group is not the source of religious experience. +Regardless of the influence of all these primitive contributions to man's early +religion, the fact remains that the true religious impulse has its origin in +genuine spirit presences activating the will to be unselfish. + +Later religion is foreshadowed in the primitive belief in natural wonders and +mysteries, the impersonal mana. But sooner or later the evolving religion +requires that the individual should make some personal sacrifice for the good +of his social group, should do something to make other people happier and +better. Ultimately, religion is destined to become the service of God and of +man. + +Religion is designed to change man's environment, but much of the religion +found among mortals today has become helpless to do this. Environment has all +too often mastered religion. + +Remember that in the religion of all ages the experience which is paramount is +the feeling regarding moral values and social meanings, not the thinking +regarding theologic dogmas or philosophic theories. Religion evolves favorably +as the element of magic is replaced by the concept of morals. + +Man evolved through the superstitions of mana, magic, nature worship, spirit +fear, and animal worship to the various ceremonials whereby the religious +attitude of the individual became the group reactions of the clan. And then +these ceremonies became focalized and crystallized into tribal beliefs, and +eventually these fears and faiths became personalized into gods. But in all of +this religious evolution the moral element was never wholly absent. The impulse +of the God within man was always potent. And these powerful influences--one +human and the other divine--insured the survival of religion throughout the +vicissitudes of the ages and that notwithstanding it was so often threatened +with extinction by a thousand subversive tendencies and hostile antagonisms. + + top of page - 1133 + +4. SPIRITUAL COMMUNION + +The characteristic difference between a social occasion and a religious +gathering is that in contrast with the secular the religious is pervaded by the +atmosphere of communion. In this way human association generates a feeling of +fellowship with the divine, and this is the beginning of group worship. +Partaking of a common meal was the earliest type of social communion, and so +did early religions provide that some portion of the ceremonial sacrifice +should be eaten by the worshipers. Even in Christianity the Lord's Supper +retains this mode of communion. The atmosphere of the communion provides a +refreshing and comforting period of truce in the conflict of the self-seeking +ego with the altruistic urge of the indwelling spirit Monitor. And this is the +prelude to true worship--the practice of the presence of God which eventuates +in the emergence of the brotherhood of man. + +When primitive man felt that his communion with God had been interrupted, he +resorted to sacrifice of some kind in an effort to make atonement, to restore +friendly relationship. The hunger and thirst for righteousness leads to the +discovery of truth, and truth augments ideals, and this creates new problems +for the individual religionists, for our ideals tend to grow by geometrical +progression, while our ability to live up to them is enhanced only by +arithmetical progression. + +The sense of guilt (not the consciousness of sin) comes either from interrupted +spiritual communion or from the lowering of one's moral ideals. Deliverance +from such a predicament can only come through the realization that one's +highest moral ideals are not necessarily synonymous with the will of God. Man +cannot hope to live up to his highest ideals, but he can be true to his purpose +of finding God and becoming more and more like him. + +Jesus swept away all of the ceremonials of sacrifice and atonement. He +destroyed the basis of all this fictitious guilt and sense of isolation in the +universe by declaring that man is a child of God; the creature-Creator +relationship was placed on a child-parent basis. God becomes a loving Father to +his mortal sons and daughters. All ceremonials not a legitimate part of such an +intimate family relationship are forever abrogated. + +God the Father deals with man his child on the basis, not of actual virtue or +worthiness, but in recognition of the child's motivation--the creature purpose +and intent. The relationship is one of parent-child association and is actuated +by divine love. + +5. THE ORIGIN OF IDEALS + +The early evolutionary mind gives origin to a feeling of social duty and moral +obligation derived chiefly from emotional fear. The more positive urge of +social service and the idealism of altruism are derived from the direct impulse +of the divine spirit indwelling the human mind. + +This idea-ideal of doing good to others--the impulse to deny the ego something +for the benefit of one's neighbor--is very circumscribed at first. Primitive +man regards as neighbor only those very close to him, those who treat him +neighborly; as religious civilization advances, one's neighbor expands in +concept to embrace the clan, the tribe, the nation. And then Jesus enlarged the + + top of page - 1134 + +neighbor scope to embrace the whole of humanity, even that we should love our +enemies. And there is something inside of every normal human being that tells +him this teaching is moral--right. Even those who practice this ideal least, +admit that it is right in theory. + +All men recognize the morality of this universal human urge to be unselfish and +altruistic. The humanist ascribes the origin of this urge to the natural +working of the material mind; the religionist more correctly recognizes that +the truly unselfish drive of mortal mind is in response to the inner spirit +leadings of the Thought Adjuster. + +But man's interpretation of these early conflicts between the ego-will and the +other-than-self-will is not always dependable. Only a fairly well unified +personality can arbitrate the multiform contentions of the ego cravings and the +budding social consciousness. The self has rights as well as one's neighbors. +Neither has exclusive claims upon the attention and service of the individual. +Failure to resolve this problem gives origin to the earliest type of human +guilt feelings. + +Human happiness is achieved only when the ego desire of the self and the +altruistic urge of the higher self (divine spirit) are co-ordinated and +reconciled by the unified will of the integrating and supervising personality. +The mind of evolutionary man is ever confronted with the intricate problem of +refereeing the contest between the natural expansion of emotional impulses and +the moral growth of unselfish urges predicated on spiritual insight--genuine +religious reflection. + +The attempt to secure equal good for the self and for the greatest number of +other selves presents a problem which cannot always be satisfactorily resolved +in a time-space frame. Given an eternal life, such antagonisms can be worked +out, but in one short human life they are incapable of solution. Jesus referred +to such a paradox when he said: "Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, +but whosoever shall lose his life for the sake of the kingdom, shall find it." + +The pursuit of the ideal--the striving to be Godlike--is a continuous effort +before death and after. The life after death is no different in the essentials +than the mortal existence. Everything we do in this life which is good +contributes directly to the enhancement of the future life. Real religion does +not foster moral indolence and spiritual laziness by encouraging the vain hope +of having all the virtues of a noble character bestowed upon one as a result of +passing through the portals of natural death. True religion does not belittle +man's efforts to progress during the mortal lease on life. Every mortal gain is +a direct contribution to the enrichment of the first stages of the immortal +survival experience. + +It is fatal to man's idealism when he is taught that all of his altruistic +impulses are merely the development of his natural herd instincts. But he is +ennobled and mightily energized when he learns that these higher urges of his +soul emanate from the spiritual forces that indwell his mortal mind. + +It lifts man out of himself and beyond himself when he once fully realizes that +there lives and strives within him something which is eternal and divine. And +so it is that a living faith in the superhuman origin of our ideals validates +our belief that we are the sons of God and makes real our altruistic +convictions, the feelings of the brotherhood of man. + +Man, in his spiritual domain, does have a free will. Mortal man is neither a +helpless slave of the inflexible sovereignty of an all-powerful God nor the +victim + + top of page - 1135 + +of the hopeless fatality of a mechanistic cosmic determinism. Man is most truly +the architect of his own eternal destiny. + +But man is not saved or ennobled by pressure. Spirit growth springs from within +the evolving soul. Pressure may deform the personality, but it never stimulates +growth. Even educational pressure is only negatively helpful in that it may aid +in the prevention of disastrous experiences. Spiritual growth is greatest where +all external pressures are at a minimum. "Where the spirit of the Lord is, +there is freedom." Man develops best when the pressures of home, community, +church, and state are least. But this must not be construed as meaning that +there is no place in a progressive society for home, social institutions, +church, and state. + +When a member of a social religious group has complied with the requirements of +such a group, he should be encouraged to enjoy religious liberty in the full +expression of his own personal interpretation of the truths of religious belief +and the facts of religious experience. The security of a religious group +depends on spiritual unity, not on theological uniformity. A religious group +should be able to enjoy the liberty of freethinking without having to become +"freethinkers." There is great hope for any church that worships the living +God, validates the brotherhood of man, and dares to remove all creedal pressure +from its members. + +6. PHILOSOPHIC CO-ORDINATION + +Theology is the study of the actions and reactions of the human spirit; it can +never become a science since it must always be combined more or less with +psychology in its personal expression and with philosophy in its systematic +portrayal. Theology is always the study of your religion; the study of +another's religion is psychology. + +When man approaches the study and examination of his universe from the outside, +he brings into being the various physical sciences; when he approaches the +research of himself and the universe from the inside, he gives origin to +theology and metaphysics. The later art of philosophy develops in an effort to +harmonize the many discrepancies which are destined at first to appear between +the findings and teachings of these two diametrically opposite avenues of +approaching the universe of things and beings. + +Religion has to do with the spiritual viewpoint, the awareness of the +insideness of human experience. Man's spiritual nature affords him the +opportunity of turning the universe outside in. It is therefore true that, +viewed exclusively from the insideness of personality experience, all creation +appears to be spiritual in nature. + +When man analytically inspects the universe through the material endowments of +his physical senses and associated mind perception, the cosmos appears to be +mechanical and energy-material. Such a technique of studying reality consists +in turning the universe inside out. + +A logical and consistent philosophic concept of the universe cannot be built up +on the postulations of either materialism or spiritism, for both of these +systems of thinking, when universally applied, are compelled to view the cosmos +in distortion, the former contacting with a universe turned inside out, the +latter realizing the nature of a universe turned outside in. Never, then, can +either science or religion, in and of themselves, standing alone, hope to gain +an adequate under + + top of page - 1136 + +standing of universal truths and relationships without the guidance of human +philosophy and the illumination of divine revelation. + +Always must man's inner spirit depend for its expression and self-realization +upon the mechanism and technique of the mind. Likewise must man's outer +experience of material reality be predicated on the mind consciousness of the +experiencing personality. Therefore are the spiritual and the material, the +inner and the outer, human experiences always correlated with the mind function +and conditioned, as to their conscious realization, by the mind activity. Man +experiences matter in his mind; he experiences spiritual reality in the soul +but becomes conscious of this experience in his mind. The intellect is the +harmonizer and the ever-present conditioner and qualifier of the sum total of +mortal experience. Both energy-things and spirit values are colored by their +interpretation through the mind media of consciousness. + +Your difficulty in arriving at a more harmonious co-ordination between science +and religion is due to your utter ignorance of the intervening domain of the +morontia world of things and beings. The local universe consists of three +degrees, or stages, of reality manifestation: matter, morontia, and spirit. The +morontia angle of approach erases all divergence between the findings of the +physical sciences and the functioning of the spirit of religion. Reason is the +understanding technique of the sciences; faith is the insight technique of +religion; mota is the technique of the morontia level. Mota is a supermaterial +reality sensitivity which is beginning to compensate incomplete growth, having +for its substance knowledge-reason and for its essence faith-insight. Mota is a +superphilosophical reconciliation of divergent reality perception which is +nonattainable by material personalities; it is predicated, in part, on the +experience of having survived the material life of the flesh. But many mortals +have recognized the desirability of having some method of reconciling the +interplay between the widely separated domains of science and religion; and +metaphysics is the result of man's unavailing attempt to span this +well-recognized chasm. But human metaphysics has proved more confusing than +illuminating. Metaphysics stands for man's well-meant but futile effort to +compensate for the absence of the mota of morontia. + +Metaphysics has proved a failure; mota, man cannot perceive. Revelation is the +only technique which can compensate for the absence of the truth sensitivity of +mota in a material world. Revelation authoritatively clarifies the muddle of +reason-developed metaphysics on an evolutionary sphere. + +Science is man's attempted study of his physical environment, the world of +energy-matter; religion is man's experience with the cosmos of spirit values; +philosophy has been developed by man's mind effort to organize and correlate +the findings of these widely separated concepts into something like a +reasonable and unified attitude toward the cosmos. Philosophy, clarified by +revelation, functions acceptably in the absence of mota and in the presence of +the breakdown and failure of man's reason substitute for mota--metaphysics. + +Early man did not differentiate between the energy level and the spirit level. +It was the violet race and their Andite successors who first attempted to +divorce the mathematical from the volitional. Increasingly has civilized man +followed in the footsteps of the earliest Greeks and the Sumerians who +distinguished between the inanimate and the animate. And as civilization +progresses, philosophy will have to bridge ever-widening gulfs between the +spirit concept and + + top of page - 1137 + +the energy concept. But in the time of space these divergencies are at one in +the Supreme. + +Science must always be grounded in reason, although imagination and conjecture +are helpful in the extension of its borders. Religion is forever dependent on +faith, albeit reason is a stabilizing influence and a helpful handmaid. And +always there have been, and ever will be, misleading interpretations of the +phenomena of both the natural and the spiritual worlds, sciences and religions +falsely so called. + +Out of his incomplete grasp of science, his faint hold upon religion, and his +abortive attempts at metaphysics, man has attempted to construct his +formulations of philosophy. And modern man would indeed build a worthy and +engaging philosophy of himself and his universe were it not for the breakdown +of his all-important and indispensable metaphysical connection between the +worlds of matter and spirit, the failure of metaphysics to bridge the morontia +gulf between the physical and the spiritual. Mortal man lacks the concept of +morontia mind and material; and revelation is the only technique for atoning +for this deficiency in the conceptual data which man so urgently needs in order +to construct a logical philosophy of the universe and to arrive at a satisfying +understanding of his sure and settled place in that universe. + +Revelation is evolutionary man's only hope of bridging the morontia gulf. Faith +and reason, unaided by mota, cannot conceive and construct a logical universe. +Without the insight of mota, mortal man cannot discern goodness, love, and +truth in the phenomena of the material world. + +When the philosophy of man leans heavily toward the world of matter, it becomes +rationalistic or naturalistic. When philosophy inclines particularly toward the +spiritual level, it becomes idealistic or even mystical. When philosophy is so +unfortunate as to lean upon metaphysics, it unfailingly becomes skeptical, +confused. In past ages, most of man's knowledge and intellectual evaluations +have fallen into one of these three distortions of perception. Philosophy dare +not project its interpretations of reality in the linear fashion of logic; it +must never fail to reckon with the elliptic symmetry of reality and with the +essential curvature of all relation concepts. + +The highest attainable philosophy of mortal man must be logically based on the +reason of science, the faith of religion, and the truth insight afforded by +revelation. By this union man can compensate somewhat for his failure to +develop an adequate metaphysics and for his inability to comprehend the mota of +the morontia. + +7. SCIENCE AND RELIGION + +Science is sustained by reason, religion by faith. Faith, though not predicated +on reason, is reasonable; though independent of logic, it is nonetheless +encouraged by sound logic. Faith cannot be nourished even by an ideal +philosophy; indeed, it is, with science, the very source of such a philosophy. +Faith, human religious insight, can be surely instructed only by revelation, +can be surely elevated only by personal mortal experience with the spiritual +Adjuster presence of the God who is spirit. + +True salvation is the technique of the divine evolution of the mortal mind from +matter identification through the realms of morontia liaison to the high + + top of page - 1138 + +universe status of spiritual correlation. And as material intuitive instinct +precedes the appearance of reasoned knowledge in terrestrial evolution, so does +the manifestation of spiritual intuitive insight presage the later appearance +of morontia and spirit reason and experience in the supernal program of +celestial evolution, the business of transmuting the potentials of man the +temporal into the actuality and divinity of man the eternal, a Paradise +finaliter. + +But as ascending man reaches inward and Paradiseward for the God experience, he +will likewise be reaching outward and spaceward for an energy understanding of +the material cosmos. The progression of science is not limited to the +terrestrial life of man; his universe and superuniverse ascension experience +will to no small degree be the study of energy transmutation and material +metamorphosis. God is spirit, but Deity is unity, and the unity of Deity not +only embraces the spiritual values of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son +but is also cognizant of the energy facts of the Universal Controller and the +Isle of Paradise, while these two phases of universal reality are perfectly +correlated in the mind relationships of the Conjoint Actor and unified on the +finite level in the emerging Deity of the Supreme Being. + +The union of the scientific attitude and the religious insight by the mediation +of experiential philosophy is part of man's long Paradise-ascension experience. +The approximations of mathematics and the certainties of insight will always +require the harmonizing function of mind logic on all levels of experience +short of the maximum attainment of the Supreme. + +But logic can never succeed in harmonizing the findings of science and the +insights of religion unless both the scientific and the religious aspects of a +personality are truth dominated, sincerely desirous of following the truth +wherever it may lead regardless of the conclusions which it may reach. + +Logic is the technique of philosophy, its method of expression. Within the +domain of true science, reason is always amenable to genuine logic; within the +domain of true religion, faith is always logical from the basis of an inner +viewpoint, even though such faith may appear to be quite unfounded from the +inlooking viewpoint of the scientific approach. From outward, looking within, +the universe may appear to be material; from within, looking out, the same +universe appears to be wholly spiritual. Reason grows out of material +awareness, faith out of spiritual awareness, but through the mediation of a +philosophy strengthened by revelation, logic may confirm both the inward and +the outward view, thereby effecting the stabilization of both science and +religion. Thus, through common contact with the logic of philosophy, may both +science and religion become increasingly tolerant of each other, less and less +skeptical. + +What both developing science and religion need is more searching and fearless +self-criticism, a greater awareness of incompleteness in evolutionary status. +The teachers of both science and religion are often altogether too +self-confident and dogmatic. Science and religion can only be self-critical of +their facts. The moment departure is made from the stage of facts, reason +abdicates or else rapidly degenerates into a consort of false logic. + +The truth--an understanding of cosmic relationships, universe facts, and +spiritual values--can best be had through the ministry of the Spirit of Truth +and can best be criticized by revelation. But revelation originates neither a +science nor a religion; its function is to co-ordinate both science and +religion with the truth of reality. Always, in the absence of revelation or in +the failure to accept or + + top of page - 1139 + +grasp it, has mortal man resorted to his futile gesture of metaphysics, that +being the only human substitute for the revelation of truth or for the mota of +morontia personality. + +The science of the material world enables man to control, and to some extent +dominate, his physical environment. The religion of the spiritual experience is +the source of the fraternity impulse which enables men to live together in the +complexities of the civilization of a scientific age. Metaphysics, but more +certainly revelation, affords a common meeting ground for the discoveries of +both science and religion and makes possible the human attempt logically to +correlate these separate but interdependent domains of thought into a +well-balanced philosophy of scientific stability and religious certainty. + +In the mortal state, nothing can be absolutely proved; both science and +religion are predicated on assumptions. On the morontia level, the postulates +of both science and religion are capable of partial proof by mota logic. On the +spiritual level of maximum status, the need for finite proof gradually vanishes +before the actual experience of and with reality; but even then there is much +beyond the finite that remains unproved. + +All divisions of human thought are predicated on certain assumptions which are +accepted, though unproved, by the constitutive reality sensitivity of the mind +endowment of man. Science starts out on its vaunted career of reasoning by +assuming the reality of three things: matter, motion, and life. Religion starts +out with the assumption of the validity of three things: mind, spirit, and the +universe--the Supreme Being. + +Science becomes the thought domain of mathematics, of the energy and material +of time in space. Religion assumes to deal not only with finite and temporal +spirit but also with the spirit of eternity and supremacy. Only through a long +experience in mota can these two extremes of universe perception be made to +yield analogous interpretations of origins, functions, relations, realities, +and destinies. The maximum harmonization of the energy-spirit divergence is in +the encircuitment of the Seven Master Spirits; the first unification thereof, +in the Deity of the Supreme; the finality unity thereof, in the infinity of the +First Source and Center, the I AM. + +Reason is the act of recognizing the conclusions of consciousness with regard +to the experience in and with the physical world of energy and matter. Faith is +the act of recognizing the validity of spiritual consciousness--something which +is incapable of other mortal proof. Logic is the synthetic truth-seeking +progression of the unity of faith and reason and is founded on the constitutive +mind endowments of mortal beings, the innate recognition of things, meanings, +and values. + +There is a real proof of spiritual reality in the presence of the Thought +Adjuster, but the validity of this presence is not demonstrable to the external +world, only to the one who thus experiences the indwelling of God. The +consciousness of the Adjuster is based on the intellectual reception of truth, +the supermind perception of goodness, and the personality motivation to love. + +Science discovers the material world, religion evaluates it, and philosophy +endeavors to interpret its meanings while co-ordinating the scientific material +viewpoint with the religious spiritual concept. But history is a realm in which +science and religion may never fully agree. + + top of page - 1140 + +8. PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION + +Although both science and philosophy may assume the probability of God by their +reason and logic, only the personal religious experience of a spirit-led man +can affirm the certainty of such a supreme and personal Deity. By the technique +of such an incarnation of living truth the philosophic hypothesis of the +probability of God becomes a religious reality. + +The confusion about the experience of the certainty of God arises out of the +dissimilar interpretations and relations of that experience by separate +individuals and by different races of men. The experiencing of God may be +wholly valid, but the discourse about God, being intellectual and +philosophical, is divergent and oftentimes confusingly fallacious. + +A good and noble man may be consummately in love with his wife but utterly +unable to pass a satisfactory written examination on the psychology of marital +love. Another man, having little or no love for his spouse, might pass such an +examination most acceptably. The imperfection of the lover's insight into the +true nature of the beloved does not in the least invalidate either the reality +or sincerity of his love. + +If you truly believe in God--by faith know him and love him--do not permit the +reality of such an experience to be in any way lessened or detracted from by +the doubting insinuations of science, the caviling of logic, the postulates of +philosophy, or the clever suggestions of well-meaning souls who would create a +religion without God. + +The certainty of the God-knowing religionist should not be disturbed by the +uncertainty of the doubting materialist; rather should the uncertainty of the +unbeliever be mightily challenged by the profound faith and unshakable +certainty of the experiential believer. + +Philosophy, to be of the greatest service to both science and religion, should +avoid the extremes of both materialism and pantheism. Only a philosophy which +recognizes the reality of personality--permanence in the presence of +change--can be of moral value to man, can serve as a liaison between the +theories of material science and spiritual religion. Revelation is a +compensation for the frailties of evolving philosophy. + +9. THE ESSENCE OF RELIGION + +Theology deals with the intellectual content of religion, metaphysics +(revelation) with the philosophic aspects. Religious experience is the +spiritual content of religion. Notwithstanding the mythologic vagaries and the +psychologic illusions of the intellectual content of religion, the metaphysical +assumptions of error and the techniques of self-deception, the political +distortions and the socioeconomic perversions of the philosophic content of +religion, the spiritual experience of personal religion remains genuine and +valid. + +Religion has to do with feeling, acting, and living, not merely with thinking. +Thinking is more closely related to the material life and should be in the +main, but not altogether, dominated by reason and the facts of science and, in +its nonmaterial reaches toward the spirit realms, by truth. No matter how +illusory + + top of page - 1141 + +and erroneous one's theology, one's religion may be wholly genuine and +everlastingly true. + +Buddhism in its original form is one of the best religions without a God which +has arisen throughout all the evolutionary history of Urantia, although, as +this faith developed, it did not remain godless. Religion without faith is a +contradiction; without God, a philosophic inconsistency and an intellectual +absurdity. + +The magical and mythological parentage of natural religion does not invalidate +the reality and truth of the later revelational religions and the consummate +saving gospel of the religion of Jesus. Jesus' life and teachings finally +divested religion of the superstitions of magic, the illusions of mythology, +and the bondage of traditional dogmatism. But this early magic and mythology +very effectively prepared the way for later and superior religion by assuming +the existence and reality of supermaterial values and beings. + +Although religious experience is a purely spiritual subjective phenomenon, such +an experience embraces a positive and living faith attitude toward the highest +realms of universe objective reality. The ideal of religious philosophy is such +a faith-trust as would lead man unqualifiedly to depend upon the absolute love +of the infinite Father of the universe of universes. Such a genuine religious +experience far transcends the philosophic objectification of idealistic desire; +it actually takes salvation for granted and concerns itself only with learning +and doing the will of the Father in Paradise. The earmarks of such a religion +are: faith in a supreme Deity, hope of eternal survival, and love, especially +of one's fellows. + +When theology masters religion, religion dies; it becomes a doctrine instead of +a life. The mission of theology is merely to facilitate the self-consciousness +of personal spiritual experience. Theology constitutes the religious effort to +define, clarify, expound, and justify the experiential claims of religion, +which, in the last analysis, can be validated only by living faith. In the +higher philosophy of the universe, wisdom, like reason, becomes allied to +faith. Reason, wisdom, and faith are man's highest human attainments. Reason +introduces man to the world of facts, to things; wisdom introduces him to a +world of truth, to relationships; faith initiates him into a world of divinity, +spiritual experience. + +Faith most willingly carries reason along as far as reason can go and then goes +on with wisdom to the full philosophic limit; and then it dares to launch out +upon the limitless and never-ending universe journey in the sole company of +TRUTH. + +Science (knowledge) is founded on the inherent (adjutant spirit) assumption +that reason is valid, that the universe can be comprehended. Philosophy +(co-ordinate comprehension) is founded on the inherent (spirit of wisdom) +assumption that wisdom is valid, that the material universe can be co-ordinated +with the spiritual. Religion (the truth of personal spiritual experience) is +founded on the inherent (Thought Adjuster) assumption that faith is valid, that +God can be known and attained. + +The full realization of the reality of mortal life consists in a progressive +willingness to believe these assumptions of reason, wisdom, and faith. Such a +life is one motivated by truth and dominated by love; and these are the ideals +of objective cosmic reality whose existence cannot be materially demonstrated. + + top of page - 1142 + +When reason once recognizes right and wrong, it exhibits wisdom; when wisdom +chooses between right and wrong, truth and error, it demonstrates spirit +leading. And thus are the functions of mind, soul, and spirit ever closely +united and functionally interassociated. Reason deals with factual knowledge; +wisdom, with philosophy and revelation; faith, with living spiritual +experience. Through truth man attains beauty and by spiritual love ascends to +goodness. + +Faith leads to knowing God, not merely to a mystical feeling of the divine +presence. Faith must not be overmuch influenced by its emotional consequences. +True religion is an experience of believing and knowing as well as a +satisfaction of feeling. + +There is a reality in religious experience that is proportional to the +spiritual content, and such a reality is transcendent to reason, science, +philosophy, wisdom, and all other human achievements. The convictions of such +an experience are unassailable; the logic of religious living is +incontrovertible; the certainty of such knowledge is superhuman; the +satisfactions are superbly divine, the courage indomitable, the devotions +unquestioning, the loyalties supreme, and the destinies final--eternal, +ultimate, and universal. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1143 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The ³ Growth Of The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Foundations... ³ T... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p104.txt b/religious documents/p104.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5401f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p104.txt @@ -0,0 +1,612 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 104 Growth Of The Trinity Concept + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 104 Growth Of The Trinity Concept + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Trinity concept of revealed religion must not be confused with the triad +beliefs of evolutionary religions. The ideas of triads arose from many +suggestive relationships but chiefly because of the three joints of the +fingers, because three legs were the fewest which could stabilize a stool, +because three support points could keep up a tent; furthermore, primitive man, +for a long time, could not count beyond three. + +Aside from certain natural couplets, such as past and present, day and night, +hot and cold, and male and female, man generally tends to think in triads: +yesterday, today, and tomorrow; sunrise, noon, and sunset; father, mother, and +child. Three cheers are given the victor. The dead are buried on the third day, +and the ghost is placated by three ablutions of water. + +As a consequence of these natural associations in human experience, the triad +made its appearance in religion, and this long before the Paradise Trinity of +Deities, or even any of their representatives, had been revealed to mankind. +Later on, the Persians, Hindus, Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians, Romans, and +Scandinavians all had triad gods, but these were still not true trinities. +Triad deities all had a natural origin and have appeared at one time or another +among most of the intelligent peoples of Urantia. Sometimes the concept of an +evolutionary triad has become mixed with that of a revealed Trinity; in these +instances it is often impossible to distinguish one from the other. + +1. URANTIAN TRINITY CONCEPTS + +The first Urantian revelation leading to the comprehension of the Paradise +Trinity was made by the staff of Prince Caligastia about one-half million years +ago. This earliest Trinity concept was lost to the world in the unsettled times +following the planetary rebellion. + +The second presentation of the Trinity was made by Adam and Eve in the first +and second gardens. These teachings had not been wholly obliterated even in the +times of Machiventa Melchizedek about thirty-five thousand years later, for the +Trinity concept of the Sethites persisted in both Mesopotamia and Egypt but +more especially in India, where it was long perpetuated in Agni, the Vedic +three-headed fire god. + +The third presentation of the Trinity was made by Machiventa Melchizedek, and +this doctrine was symbolized by the three concentric circles which the sage of +Salem wore on his breast plate. But Machiventa found it very difficult to teach +the Palestinian Bedouins about the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the +Infinite Spirit. Most of his disciples thought that the Trinity consisted of +the three Most Highs of Norlatiadek; a few conceived of the Trinity as the + + top of page - 1144 + +System Sovereign, the Constellation Father, and the local universe Creator +Deity; still fewer even remotely grasped the idea of the Paradise association +of the Father, Son, and Spirit. + +Through the activities of the Salem missionaries the Melchizedek teachings of +the Trinity gradually spread throughout much of Eurasia and northern Africa. It +is often difficult to distinguish between the triads and the trinities in the +later Andite and the post-Melchizedek ages, when both concepts to a certain +extent intermingled and coalesced. + +Among the Hindus the trinitarian concept took root as Being, Intelligence, and +Joy. (A later Indian conception was Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu.) While the +earlier Trinity portrayals were brought to India by the Sethite priests, the +later ideas of the Trinity were imported by the Salem missionaries and were +developed by the native intellects of India through a compounding of these +doctrines with the evolutionary triad conceptions. + +The Buddhist faith developed two doctrines of a trinitarian nature: The earlier +was Teacher, Law, and Brotherhood; that was the presentation made by Gautama +Siddhartha. The later idea, developing among the northern branch of the +followers of Buddha, embraced Supreme Lord, Holy Spirit, and Incarnate Savior. + +And these ideas of the Hindus and Buddhists were real trinitarian postulates, +that is, the idea of a threefold manifestation of a monotheistic God. A true +trinity conception is not just a grouping together of three separate gods. + +The Hebrews knew about the Trinity from the Kenite traditions of the days of +Melchizedek, but their monotheistic zeal for the one God, Yahweh, so eclipsed +all such teachings that by the time of Jesus' appearance the Elohim doctrine +had been practically eradicated from Jewish theology. The Hebrew mind could not +reconcile the trinitarian concept with the monotheistic belief in the One Lord, +the God of Israel. + +The followers of the Islamic faith likewise failed to grasp the idea of the +Trinity. It is always difficult for an emerging monotheism to tolerate +trinitarianism when confronted by polytheism. The trinity idea takes best hold +of those religions which have a firm monotheistic tradition coupled with +doctrinal elasticity. The great monotheists, the Hebrews and Mohammedans, found +it difficult to distinguish between worshiping three gods, polytheism, and +trinitarianism, the worship of one Deity existing in a triune manifestation of +divinity and personality. + +Jesus taught his apostles the truth regarding the persons of the Paradise +Trinity, but they thought he spoke figuratively and symbolically. Having been +nurtured in Hebraic monotheism, they found it difficult to entertain any belief +that seemed to conflict with their dominating concept of Yahweh. And the early +Christians inherited the Hebraic prejudice against the Trinity concept. + +The first Trinity of Christianity was proclaimed at Antioch and consisted of +God, his Word, and his Wisdom. Paul knew of the Paradise Trinity of Father, +Son, and Spirit, but he seldom preached about it and made mention thereof in +only a few of his letters to the newly forming churches. Even then, as did his +fellow apostles, Paul confused Jesus, the Creator Son of the local universe, +with the Second Person of Deity, the Eternal Son of Paradise. + +The Christian concept of the Trinity, which began to gain recognition near the +close of the first century after Christ, was comprised of the Universal Father, + + top of page - 1145 + +the Creator Son of Nebadon, and the Divine Minister of Salvington--Mother +Spirit of the local universe and creative consort of the Creator Son. + +Not since the times of Jesus has the factual identity of the Paradise Trinity +been known on Urantia (except by a few individuals to whom it was especially +revealed) until its presentation in these revelatory disclosures. But though +the Christian concept of the Trinity erred in fact, it was practically true +with respect to spiritual relationships. Only in its philosophic implications +and cosmological consequences did this concept suffer embarrassment: It has +been difficult for many who are cosmic minded to believe that the Second Person +of Deity, the second member of an infinite Trinity, once dwelt on Urantia; and +while in spirit this is true, in actuality it is not a fact. The Michael +Creators fully embody the divinity of the Eternal Son, but they are not the +absolute personality. + +2. TRINITY UNITY AND DEITY PLURALITY + +Monotheism arose as a philosophic protest against the inconsistency of +polytheism. It developed first through pantheon organizations with the +departmentalization of supernatural activities, then through the henotheistic +exaltation of one god above the many, and finally through the exclusion of all +but the One God of final value. + +Trinitarianism grows out of the experiential protest against the impossibility +of conceiving the oneness of a deanthropomorphized solitary Deity of unrelated +universe significance. Given a sufficient time, philosophy tends to abstract +the personal qualities from the Deity concept of pure monotheism, thus reducing +this idea of an unrelated God to the status of a pantheistic Absolute. It has +always been difficult to understand the personal nature of a God who has no +personal relationships in equality with other and co-ordinate personal beings. +Personality in Deity demands that such Deity exist in relation to other and +equal personal Deity. + +Through the recognition of the Trinity concept the mind of man can hope to +grasp something of the interrelationship of love and law in the time-space +creations. Through spiritual faith man gains insight into the love of God but +soon discovers that this spiritual faith has no influence on the ordained laws +of the material universe. Irrespective of the firmness of man's belief in God +as his Paradise Father, expanding cosmic horizons demand that he also give +recognition to the reality of Paradise Deity as universal law, that he +recognize the Trinity sovereignty extending outward from Paradise and +overshadowing even the evolving local universes of the Creator Sons and +Creative Daughters of the three eternal persons whose deity union is the fact +and reality and eternal indivisibility of the Paradise Trinity. + +And this selfsame Paradise Trinity is a real entity--not a personality but +nonetheless a true and absolute reality; not a personality but nonetheless +compatible with coexistent personalities--the personalities of the Father, the +Son, and the Spirit. The Trinity is a supersummative Deity reality eventuating +out of the conjoining of the three Paradise Deities. The qualities, +characteristics, and functions of the Trinity are not the simple sum of the +attributes of the three Paradise Deities; Trinity functions are something +unique, original, and not wholly predictable from an analysis of the attributes +of Father, Son, and Spirit. + + top of page - 1146 + +For example: The Master, when on earth, admonished his followers that justice +is never a personal act; it is always a group function. Neither do the Gods, as +persons, administer justice. But they perform this very function as a +collective whole, as the Paradise Trinity. + +The conceptual grasp of the Trinity association of Father, Son, and Spirit +prepares the human mind for the further presentation of certain other threefold +relationships. Theological reason may be fully satisfied by the concept of the +Paradise Trinity, but philosophical and cosmological reason demand the +recognition of the other triune associations of the First Source and Center, +those triunities in which the Infinite functions in various non-Father +capacities of universal manifestation--the relationships of the God of force, +energy, power, causation, reaction, potentiality, actuality, gravity, tension, +pattern, principle, and unity. + +3. TRINITIES AND TRIUNITIES + +While mankind has sometimes grasped at an understanding of the Trinity of the +three persons of Deity, consistency demands that the human intellect perceive +that there are certain relationships between all seven Absolutes. But all that +which is true of the Paradise Trinity is not necessarily true of a triunity, +for a triunity is something other than a trinity. In certain functional aspects +a triunity may be analogous to a trinity, but it is never homologous in nature +with a trinity. + +Mortal man is passing through a great age of expanding horizons and enlarging +concepts on Urantia, and his cosmic philosophy must accelerate in evolution to +keep pace with the expansion of the intellectual arena of human thought. As the +cosmic consciousness of mortal man expands, he perceives the interrelatedness +of all that he finds in his material science, intellectual philosophy, and +spiritual insight. Still, with all this belief in the unity of the cosmos, man +perceives the diversity of all existence. In spite of all concepts concerning +the immutability of Deity, man perceives that he lives in a universe of +constant change and experiential growth. Regardless of the realization of the +survival of spiritual values, man has ever to reckon with the mathematics and +premathematics of force, energy, and power. + +In some manner the eternal repleteness of infinity must be reconciled with the +time-growth of the evolving universes and with the incompleteness of the +experiential inhabitants thereof. In some way the conception of total +infinitude must be so segmented and qualified that the mortal intellect and the +morontia soul can grasp this concept of final value and spiritualizing +significance. + +While reason demands a monotheistic unity of cosmic reality, finite experience +requires the postulate of plural Absolutes and of their co-ordination in cosmic +relationships. Without co-ordinate existences there is no possibility for the +appearance of diversity of absolute relationships, no chance for the operation +of differentials, variables, modifiers, attenuators, qualifiers, or +diminishers. + +In these papers total reality (infinity) has been presented as it exists in the +seven Absolutes: + +1. The Universal Father. + +2. The Eternal Son. + +3. The Infinite Spirit. + + top of page - 1147 + +4. The Isle of Paradise. + +5. The Deity Absolute. + +6. The Universal Absolute. + +7. The Unqualified Absolute. + +The First Source and Center, who is Father to the Eternal Son, is also Pattern +to the Paradise Isle. He is personality unqualified in the Son but personality +potentialized in the Deity Absolute. The Father is energy revealed in +Paradise-Havona and at the same time energy concealed in the Unqualified +Absolute. The Infinite is ever disclosed in the ceaseless acts of the Conjoint +Actor while he is eternally functioning in the compensating but enshrouded +activities of the Universal Absolute. Thus is the Father related to the six +co-ordinate Absolutes, and thus do all seven encompass the circle of infinity +throughout the endless cycles of eternity. + +It would seem that triunity of absolute relationships is inevitable. +Personality seeks other personality association on absolute as well as on all +other levels. And the association of the three Paradise personalities +eternalizes the first triunity, the personality union of the Father, the Son, +and the Spirit. For when these three persons, as persons, conjoin for united +function, they thereby constitute a triunity of functional unity, not a +trinity--an organic entity--but nonetheless a triunity, a threefold functional +aggregate unanimity. + +The Paradise Trinity is not a triunity; it is not a functional unanimity; +rather is it undivided and indivisible Deity. The Father, Son, and Spirit (as +persons) can sustain a relationship to the Paradise Trinity, for the Trinity is +their undivided Deity. The Father, Son, and Spirit sustain no such personal +relationship to the first triunity, for that is their functional union as three +persons. Only as the Trinity--as undivided Deity--do they collectively sustain +an external relationship to the triunity of their personal aggregation. + +Thus does the Paradise Trinity stand unique among absolute relationships, there +are several existential triunities but only one existential Trinity. A triunity +is not an entity. It is functional rather than organic. Its members are +partners rather than corporative. The components of the triunities may be +entities, but a triunity itself is an association. + +There is, however, one point of comparison between trinity and triunity: Both +eventuate in functions that are something other than the discernible sum of the +attributes of the component members. But while they are thus comparable from a +functional standpoint, they otherwise exhibit no categorical relationship. They +are roughly related as the relation of function to structure. But the function +of the triunity association is not the function of the trinity structure or +entity. + +The triunities are nonetheless real; they are very real. In them is total +reality functionalized, and through them does the Universal Father exercise +immediate and personal control over the master functions of infinity. + +4. THE SEVEN TRIUNITIES + +In attempting the description of seven triunities, attention is directed to the +fact that the Universal Father is the primal member of each. He is, was, and +ever will be: the First Universal Father-Source, Absolute Center, Primal + + top of page - 1148 + +Cause, Universal Controller, Limitless Energizer, Original Unity, Unqualified +Upholder, First Person of Deity, Primal Cosmic Pattern, and Essence of +Infinity. The Universal Father is the personal cause of the Absolutes; he is +the absolute of Absolutes. + +The nature and meaning of the seven triunities may be suggested as: + +The First Triunity--the personal-purposive triunity. This is the grouping of +the three Deity personalities: + +1. The Universal Father. + +2. The Eternal Son. + +3. The Infinite Spirit. + +This is the threefold union of love, mercy, and ministry--the purposive and +personal association of the three eternal Paradise personalities. This is the +divinely fraternal, creature-loving, fatherly-acting, and ascension-promoting +association. The divine personalities of this first triunity are +personality-bequeathing, spirit-bestowing, and mind-endowing Gods. + +This is the triunity of infinite volition; it acts throughout the eternal +present and in all of the past-present-future flow of time. This association +yields volitional infinity and provides the mechanisms whereby personal Deity +becomes self-revelatory to the creatures of the evolving cosmos. + +The Second Triunity--the power-pattern triunity. Whether it be a tiny +ultimaton, a blazing star, or a whirling nebula, even the central or +superuniverses, from the smallest to the largest material organizations, always +is the physical pattern--the cosmic configuration--derived from the function of +this triunity. This association consists of: + +1. The Father-Son. + +2. The Paradise Isle. + +3. The Conjoint Actor. + +Energy is organized by the cosmic agents of the Third Source and Center; energy +is fashioned after the pattern of Paradise, the absolute materialization; but +behind all of this ceaseless manipulation is the presence of the Father-Son, +whose union first activated the Paradise pattern in the appearance of Havona +concomitant with the birth of the Infinite Spirit, the Conjoint Actor. + +In religious experience, creatures make contact with the God who is love, but +such spiritual insight must never eclipse the intelligent recognition of the +universe fact of the pattern which is Paradise. The Paradise personalities +enlist the freewill adoration of all creatures by the compelling power of +divine love and lead all such spirit-born personalities into the supernal +delights of the unending service of the finaliter sons of God. The second +triunity is the architect of the space stage whereon these transactions unfold; +it determines the patterns of cosmic configuration. + +Love may characterize the divinity of the first triunity, but pattern is the +galactic manifestation of the second triunity. What the first triunity is to +evolving personalities, the second triunity is to the evolving universes. +Pattern and personality are two of the great manifestations of the acts of the +First Source and Center; and no matter how difficult it may be to comprehend, +it + + top of page - 1149 + +is nonetheless true that the power-pattern and the loving person are one and +the same universal reality; the Paradise Isle and the Eternal Son are +co-ordinate but antipodal revelations of the unfathomable nature of the +Universal Father-Force. + +The Third Triunity--the spirit-evolutional triunity. The entirety of spiritual +manifestation has its beginning and end in this association, consisting of: + +1. The Universal Father. + +2. The Son-Spirit. + +3. The Deity Absolute. + +From spirit potency to Paradise spirit, all spirit finds reality expression in +this triune association of the pure spirit essence of the Father, the active +spirit values of the Son-Spirit, and the unlimited spirit potentials of the +Deity Absolute. The existential values of spirit have their primordial genesis, +complete manifestation, and final destiny in this triunity. + +The Father exists before spirit; the Son-Spirit functions as active creative +spirit; the Deity Absolute exists as all-encompassing spirit, even beyond +spirit. + +The Fourth Triunity--the triunity of energy infinity. Within this triunity +there eternalizes the beginnings and the endings of all energy reality, from +space potency to monota. This grouping embraces the following: + +1. The Father-Spirit. + +2. The Paradise Isle. + +3. The Unqualified Absolute. + +Paradise is the center of the force-energy activation of the cosmos--the +universe position of the First Source and Center, the cosmic focal point of the +Unqualified Absolute, and the source of all energy. Existentially present +within this triunity is the energy potential of the cosmos-infinite, of which +the grand universe and the master universe are only partial manifestations. + +The fourth triunity absolutely controls the fundamental units of cosmic energy +and releases them from the grasp of the Unqualified Absolute in direct +proportion to the appearance in the experiential Deities of subabsolute +capacity to control and stabilize the metamorphosing cosmos. + +This triunity is force and energy. The endless possibilities of the Unqualified +Absolute are centered around the absolutum of the Isle of Paradise, whence +emanate the unimaginable agitations of the otherwise static quiescence of the +Unqualified. And the endless throbbing of the material Paradise heart of the +infinite cosmos beats in harmony with the unfathomable pattern and the +unsearchable plan of the Infinite Energizer, the First Source and Center. + +The Fifth Triunity--the triunity of reactive infinity. This association +consists of: + +1. The Universal Father. + +2. The Universal Absolute. + +3. The Unqualified Absolute. + +This grouping yields the eternalization of the functional infinity realization +of all that is actualizable within the domains of nondeity reality. This +triunity + + top of page - 1150 + +manifests unlimited reactive capacity to the volitional, causative, tensional, +and patternal actions and presences of the other triunities. + +The Sixth Triunity--the triunity of cosmic-associated Deity. This grouping +consists of: + +1. The Universal Father. + +2. The Deity Absolute. + +3. The Universal Absolute. + +This is the association of Deity-in-the-cosmos, the immanence of Deity in +conjunction with the transcendence of Deity. This is the last outreach of +divinity on the levels of infinity toward those realities which lie outside the +domain of deified reality. + +The Seventh Triunity--the triunity of infinite unity. This is the unity of +infinity functionally manifest in time and eternity, the co-ordinate +unification of actuals and potentials. This group consists of: + +1. The Universal Father. + +2. The Conjoint Actor. + +3. The Universal Absolute. + +The Conjoint Actor universally integrates the varying functional aspects of all +actualized reality on all levels of manifestation, from finites through +transcendentals and on to absolutes. The Universal Absolute perfectly +compensates the differentials inherent in the varying aspects of all incomplete +reality, from the limitless potentialities of active-volitional and causative +Deity reality to the boundless possibilities of static, reactive, nondeity +reality in the incomprehensible domains of the Unqualified Absolute. + +As they function in this triunity, the Conjoint Actor and the Universal +Absolute are alike responsive to Deity and to nondeity presences, as also is +the First Source and Center, who in this relationship is to all intents and +purposes conceptually indistinguishable from the I AM. + +These approximations are sufficient to elucidate the concept of the triunities. +Not knowing the ultimate level of the triunities, you cannot fully comprehend +the first seven. While we do not deem it wise to attempt any further +elaboration, we may state that there are fifteen triune associations of the +First Source and Center, eight of which are unrevealed in these papers. These +unrevealed associations are concerned with realities, actualities, and +potentialities which are beyond the experiential level of supremacy. + +The triunities are the functional balance wheel of infinity, the unification of +the uniqueness of the Seven Infinity Absolutes. It is the existential presence +of the triunities that enables the Father-I AM to experience functional +infinity unity despite the diversification of infinity into seven Absolutes. +The First Source and Center is the unifying member of all triunities; in him +all things have their unqualified beginnings, eternal existences, and infinite +destinies--"in him all things consist." + +Although these associations cannot augment the infinity of the Father-I AM, +they do appear to make possible the subinfinite and subabsolute manifestations +of his reality. The seven triunities multiply versatility, eternalize + + top of page - 1151 + +new depths, deitize new values, disclose new potentialities, reveal new +meanings; and all these diversified manifestations in time and space and in the +eternal cosmos are existent in the hypothetical stasis of the original infinity +of the I AM. + +5. TRIODITIES + +There are certain other triune relationships which are non-Father in +constitution, but they are not real triunities, and they are always +distinguished from the Father triunities. They are called variously, associate +triunities, co-ordinate triunities, and triodities. They are consequential to +the existence of the triunities. Two of these associations are constituted as +follows: + +The Triodity of Actuality. This triodity consists in the interrelationship of +the three absolute actuals: + +1. The Eternal Son. + +2. The Paradise Isle. + +3. The Conjoint Actor. + +The Eternal Son is the absolute of spirit reality, the absolute personality. +The Paradise Isle is the absolute of cosmic reality, the absolute pattern. The +Conjoint Actor is the absolute of mind reality, the co-ordinate of absolute +spirit reality, and the existential Deity synthesis of personality and power. +This triune association eventuates the co-ordination of the sum total of +actualized reality--spirit, cosmic, or mindal. It is unqualified in actuality. + +The Triodity of Potentiality. This triodity consists in the association of the +three Absolutes of potentiality: + +1. The Deity Absolute. + +2. The Universal Absolute. + +3. The Unqualified Absolute. + +Thus are interassociated the infinity reservoirs of all latent energy +reality--spirit, mindal, or cosmic. This association yields the integration of +all latent energy reality. It is infinite in potential. + +As the triunities are primarily concerned with the functional unification of +infinity, so are triodities involved in the cosmic appearance of experiential +Deities. The triunities are indirectly concerned, but the triodities are +directly concerned, in the experiential Deities--Supreme, Ultimate, and +Absolute. They appear in the emerging power-personality synthesis of the +Supreme Being. And to the time creatures of space the Supreme Being is a +revelation of the unity of the I AM. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1152 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Reality Of ³ Deity And ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ Reali... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p105.txt b/religious documents/p105.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc88390 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p105.txt @@ -0,0 +1,612 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 105 Deity And Reality + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 105 Deity And Reality + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +TO EVEN high orders of universe intelligences infinity is only partially +comprehensible, and the finality of reality is only relatively understandable. +The human mind, as it seeks to penetrate the eternity-mystery of the origin and +destiny of all that is called real, may helpfully approach the problem by +conceiving eternity-infinity as an almost limitless ellipse which is produced +by one absolute cause, and which functions throughout this universal circle of +endless diversification, ever seeking some absolute and infinite potential of +destiny. + +When the mortal intellect attempts to grasp the concept of reality totality, +such a finite mind is face to face with infinity-reality; reality totality is +infinity and therefore can never be fully comprehended by any mind that is +subinfinite in concept capacity. + +The human mind can hardly form an adequate concept of eternity existences, and +without such comprehension it is impossible to portray even our concepts of +reality totality. Nevertheless, we may attempt such a presentation, although we +are fully aware that our concepts must be subjected to profound distortion in +the process of translation-modification to the comprehension level of mortal +mind. + +1. THE PHILOSOPHIC CONCEPT OF THE I AM + +Absolute primal causation in infinity the philosophers of the universes +attribute to the Universal Father functioning as the infinite, the eternal, and +the absolute I AM. + +There are many elements of danger attendant upon the presentation to the mortal +intellect of this idea of an infinite I AM since this concept is so remote from +human experiential understanding as to involve serious distortion of meanings +and misconception of values. Nevertheless, the philosophic concept of the I AM +does afford finite beings some basis for an attempted approach to the partial +comprehension of absolute origins and infinite destinies. But in all our +attempts to elucidate the genesis and fruition of reality, let it be made clear +that this concept of the I AM is, in all personality meanings and values, +synonymous with the First Person of Deity, the Universal Father of all +personalities. But this postulate of the I AM is not so clearly identifiable in +undeified realms of universal reality. + +The I AM is the Infinite; the I AM is also infinity. From the sequential, time +viewpoint, all reality has its origin in the infinite I AM, whose solitary +existence in past infinite eternity must be a finite creature's premier +philosophic + + top of page - 1153 + +postulate. The concept of the I AM connotes unqualified infinity, the +undifferentiated reality of all that could ever be in all of an infinite +eternity. + +As an existential concept the I AM is neither deified nor undeified, neither +actual nor potential, neither personal nor impersonal, neither static nor +dynamic. No qualification can be applied to the Infinite except to state that +the I AM is. The philosophic postulate of the I AM is one universe concept +which is somewhat more difficult of comprehension than that of the Unqualified +Absolute. + +To the finite mind there simply must be a beginning, and though there never was +a real beginning to reality, still there are certain source relationships which +reality manifests to infinity. The prereality, primordial, eternity situation +may be thought of something like this: At some infinitely distant, +hypothetical, past-eternity moment, the I AM may be conceived as both thing and +no thing, as both cause and effect, as both volition and response. At this +hypothetical eternity moment there is no differentiation throughout all +infinity. Infinity is filled by the Infinite; the Infinite encompasses +infinity. This is the hypothetical static moment of eternity; actuals are still +contained within their potentials, and potentials have not yet appeared within +the infinity of the I AM. But even in this conjectured situation we must assume +the existence of the possibility of self-will. + +Ever remember that man's comprehension of the Universal Father is a personal +experience. God, as your spiritual Father, is comprehensible to you and to all +other mortals; but your experiential worshipful concept of the Universal Father +must always be less than your philosophic postulate of the infinity of the +First Source and Center, the I AM. When we speak of the Father, we mean God as +he is understandable by his creatures both high and low, but there is much more +of Deity which is not comprehensible to universe creatures. God, your Father +and my Father, is that phase of the Infinite which we perceive in our +personalities as an actual experiential reality, but the I AM ever remains as +our hypothesis of all that we feel is unknowable of the First Source and +Center. And even that hypothesis probably falls far short of the unfathomed +infinity of original reality. + +The universe of universes, with its innumerable host of inhabiting +personalities, is a vast and complex organism, but the First Source and Center +is infinitely more complex than the universes and personalities which have +become real in response to his willful mandates. When you stand in awe of the +magnitude of the master universe, pause to consider that even this +inconceivable creation can be no more than a partial revelation of the +Infinite. + +Infinity is indeed remote from the experience level of mortal comprehension, +but even in this age on Urantia your concepts of infinity are growing, and they +will continue to grow throughout your endless careers stretching onward into +future eternity. Unqualified infinity is meaningless to the finite creature, +but infinity is capable of self-limitation and is susceptible of reality +expression to all levels of universe existences. And the face which the +Infinite turns toward all universe personalities is the face of a Father, the +Universal Father of love. + +2. THE I AM AS TRIUNE AND AS SEVENFOLD + +In considering the genesis of reality, ever bear in mind that all absolute +reality is from eternity and is without beginning of existence. By absolute + + top of page - 1154 + +reality we refer to the three existential persons of Deity, the Isle of +Paradise, and the three Absolutes. These seven realities are co-ordinately +eternal, notwithstanding that we resort to time-space language in presenting +their sequential origins to human beings. + +In following the chronological portrayal of the origins of reality, there must +be a postulated theoretical moment of "first" volitional expression and "first" +repercussional reaction within the I AM. In our attempts to portray the genesis +and generation of reality, this stage may be conceived as the +self-differentiation of The Infinite One from The Infinitude, but the +postulation of this dual relationship must always be expanded to a triune +conception by the recognition of the eternal continuum of The Infinity, the I +AM. + +This self-metamorphosis of the I AM culminates in the multiple differentiation +of deified reality and of undeified reality, of potential and actual reality, +and of certain other realities that can hardly be so classified. These +differentiations of the theoretical monistic I AM are eternally integrated by +simultaneous relationships arising within the same I AM--the prepotential, +preactual, prepersonal, monothetic prereality which, though infinite, is +revealed as absolute in the presence of the First Source and Center and as +personality in the limitless love of the Universal Father. + +By these internal metamorphoses the I AM is establishing the basis for a +sevenfold self-relationship. The philosophic (time) concept of the solitary I +AM and the transitional (time) concept of the I AM as triune can now be +enlarged to encompass the I AM as sevenfold. This sevenfold--or seven +phase--nature may be best suggested in relation to the Seven Absolutes of +Infinity: + +1. The Universal Father. I AM father of the Eternal Son. This is the primal +personality relationship of actualities. The absolute personality of the Son +makes absolute the fact of God's fatherhood and establishes the potential +sonship of all personalities. This relationship establishes the personality of +the Infinite and consummates its spiritual revelation in the personality of the +Original Son. This phase of the I AM is partially experiencible on spiritual +levels even by mortals who, while yet in the flesh, may worship our Father. + +2. The Universal Controller. I AM cause of eternal Paradise. This is the primal +impersonal relationship of actualities, the original nonspiritual association. +The Universal Father is God-as-love; the Universal Controller is +God-as-pattern. This relationship establishes the potential of +form--configuration--and determines the master pattern of impersonal and +nonspiritual relationship--the master pattern from which all copies are made. + +3. The Universal Creator. I AM one with the Eternal Son. This union of the +Father and the Son (in the presence of Paradise) initiates the creative cycle, +which is consummated in the appearance of conjoint personality and the eternal +universe. From the finite mortal's viewpoint, reality has its true beginnings +with the eternity appearance of the Havona creation. This creative act of Deity +is by and through the God of Action, who is in essence the unity of the +Father-Son manifested on and to all levels of the actual. Therefore is divine +creativity unfailingly characterized by unity, and this unity is the outward +reflection of the absolute oneness of the duality of the Father-Son and of the +Trinity of the Father-Son-Spirit. + + top of page - 1155 + +4. The Infinite Upholder. I AM self-associative. This is the primordial +association of the statics and potentials of reality. In this relationship, all +qualifieds and unqualifieds are compensated. This phase of the I AM is best +understood as the Universal Absolute--the unifier of the Deity and the +Unqualified Absolutes. + +5. The Infinite Potential. I AM self-qualified. This is the infinity bench mark +bearing eternal witness to the volitional self-limitation of the I AM by virtue +of which there was achieved threefold self-expression and self-revelation. This +phase of the I AM is usually understood as the Deity Absolute. + +6. The Infinite Capacity. I AM static-reactive. This is the endless matrix, the +possibility for all future cosmic expansion. This phase of the I AM is perhaps +best conceived as the supergravity presence of the Unqualified Absolute. + +7. The Universal One of Infinity. I AM as I AM. This is the stasis or +self-relationship of Infinity, the eternal fact of infinity-reality and the +universal truth of reality-infinity. In so far as this relationship is +discernible as personality, it is revealed to the universes in the divine +Father of all personality--even of absolute personality. In so far as this +relationship is impersonally expressible, it is contacted by the universe as +the absolute coherence of pure energy and of pure spirit in the presence of the +Universal Father. In so far as this relationship is conceivable as an absolute, +it is revealed in the primacy of the First Source and Center; in him we all +live and move and have our being, from the creatures of space to the citizens +of Paradise; and this is just as true of the master universe as of the +infinitesimal ultimaton, just as true of what is to be as of that which is and +of what has been. + +3. THE SEVEN ABSOLUTES OF INFINITY + +The seven prime relationships within the I AM eternalize as the Seven Absolutes +of Infinity. But though we may portray reality origins and infinity +differentiation by a sequential narrative, in fact all seven Absolutes are +unqualifiedly and co-ordinately eternal. It may be necessary for mortal minds +to conceive of their beginnings, but always should this conception be +overshadowed by the realization that the seven Absolutes had no beginning; they +are eternal and as such have always been. The seven Absolutes are the premise +of reality. They have been described in these papers as follows: + +1. The First Source and Center. First Person of Deity and primal nondeity +pattern, God, the Universal Father, creator, controller, and upholder; +universal love, eternal spirit, and infinite energy; potential of all +potentials and source of all actuals; stability of all statics and dynamism of +all change; source of pattern and Father of persons. Collectively, all seven +Absolutes equivalate to infinity, but the Universal Father himself actually is +infinite. + +2. The Second Source and Center. Second Person of Deity, the Eternal and +Original Son; the absolute personality realities of the I AM and the basis for +the realization-revelation of "I AM personality." No personality can hope to +attain the Universal Father except through his Eternal Son; neither can + + top of page - 1156 + +personality attain to spirit levels of existence apart from the action and aid +of this absolute pattern for all personalities. In the Second Source and Center +spirit is unqualified while personality is absolute. + +3. The Paradise Source and Center. Second nondeity pattern, the eternal Isle of +Paradise; the basis for the realization-revelation of "I AM force" and the +foundation for the establishment of gravity control throughout the universes. +Regarding all actualized, nonspiritual, impersonal, and nonvolitional reality, +Paradise is the absolute of patterns. Just as spirit energy is related to the +Universal Father through the absolute personality of the Mother-Son, so is all +cosmic energy grasped in the gravity control of the First Source and Center +through the absolute pattern of the Paradise Isle. Paradise is not in space; +space exists relative to Paradise, and the chronicity of motion is determined +through Paradise relationship. The eternal Isle is absolutely at rest; all +other organized and organizing energy is in eternal motion; in all space, only +the presence of the Unqualified Absolute is quiescent, and the Unqualified is +co-ordinate with Paradise. Paradise exists at the focus of space, the +Unqualified pervades it, and all relative existence has its being within this +domain. + +4. The Third Source and Center. Third Person of Deity, the Conjoint Actor; +infinite integrator of Paradise cosmic energies with the spirit energies of the +Eternal Son; perfect co-ordinator of the motives of will and the mechanics of +force; unifier of all actual and actualizing reality. Through the ministrations +of his manifold children the Infinite Spirit reveals the mercy of the Eternal +Son while at the same time functioning as the infinite manipulator, forever +weaving the pattern of Paradise into the energies of space. This selfsame +Conjoint Actor, this God of Action, is the perfect expression of the limitless +plans and purposes of the Father-Son while functioning himself as the source of +mind and the bestower of intellect upon the creatures of a far-flung cosmos. + +5. The Deity Absolute. The causational, potentially personal possibilities of +universal reality, the totality of all Deity potential. The Deity Absolute is +the purposive qualifier of the unqualified, absolute, and nondeity realities. +The Deity Absolute is the qualifier of the absolute and the absolutizer of the +qualified--the destiny inceptor. + +6. The Unqualified Absolute. Static, reactive, and abeyant; the unrevealed +cosmic infinity of the I AM; totality of nondeified reality and finality of all +nonpersonal potential. Space limits the function of the Unqualified, but the +presence of the Unqualified is without limit, infinite. There is a concept +periphery to the master universe, but the presence of the Unqualified is +limitless; even eternity cannot exhaust the boundless quiescence of this +nondeity Absolute. + +7. The Universal Absolute. Unifier of the deified and the undeified; correlator +of the absolute and the relative. The Universal Absolute (being static, +potential, and associative) compensates the tension between the ever-existent +and the uncompleted. + +The Seven Absolutes of Infinity constitute the beginnings of reality. As mortal +minds would regard it, the First Source and Center would appear to be +antecedent to all absolutes. But such a postulate, however helpful, is +invalidated + + top of page - 1157 + +by the eternity co-existence of the Son, the Spirit, the three Absolutes, and +the Paradise Isle. + +It is a truth that the Absolutes are manifestations of the I AM-First Source +and Center; it is a fact that these Absolutes never had a beginning but are +co-ordinate eternals with the First Source and Center. The relationships of +absolutes in eternity cannot always be presented without involving paradoxes in +the language of time and in the concept patterns of space. But regardless of +any confusion concerning the origin of the Seven Absolutes of Infinity, it is +both fact and truth that all reality is predicated upon their eternity +existence and infinity relationships. + +4. UNITY, DUALITY, AND TRIUNITY + +The universe philosophers postulate the eternity existence of the I AM as the +primal source of all reality. And concomitant therewith they postulate the +self-segmentation of the I AM into the primary self-relationships--the seven +phases of infinity. And simultaneous with this assumption is the third +postulate--the eternity appearance of the Seven Absolutes of Infinity and the +eternalization of the duality association of the seven phases of the I AM and +these seven Absolutes. + +The self-revelation of the I AM thus proceeds from static self through +self-segmentation and self-relationship to absolute relationships, +relationships with self-derived Absolutes. Duality becomes thus existent in the +eternal association of the Seven Absolutes of Infinity with the sevenfold +infinity of the self-segmented phases of the self-revealing I AM. These dual +relationships, eternalizing to the universes as the seven Absolutes, eternalize +the basic foundations for all universe reality. + +It has been sometime stated that unity begets duality, that duality begets +triunity, and that triunity is the eternal ancestor of all things. There are, +indeed, three great classes of primordial relationships, and they are: + +1. Unity relationships. Relations existent within the I AM as the unity thereof +is conceived as a threefold and then as a sevenfold self-differentiation. + +2. Duality relationships. Relations existent between the I AM as sevenfold and +the Seven Absolutes of Infinity. + +3. Triunity relationships. These are the functional associations of the Seven +Absolutes of Infinity. + +Triunity relationships arise upon duality foundations because of the +inevitability of Absolute interassociation. Such triunity associations +eternalize the potential of all reality; they encompass both deified and +undeified reality. + +The I AM is unqualified infinity as unity. The dualities eternalize reality +foundations. The triunities eventuate the realization of infinity as universal +function. + +Pre-existentials become existential in the seven Absolutes, and existentials +become functional in the triunities, the basic association of Absolutes. And +concomitant with the eternalization of the triunities the universe stage is +set--the potentials are. existent and the actuals are present--and the fullness +of eternity witnesses the diversification of cosmic energy, the outspreading of +Paradise spirit, and the endowment of mind together with the bestowal of +personality, by virtue of which all of these Deity and Paradise derivatives are +unified + + top of page - 1158 + +in experience on the creature level and by other techniques on the +supercreature level. + +5. PROMULGATION OF FINITE REALITY + +Just as the original diversification of the I AM must be attributed to inherent +and self-contained volition, so must the promulgation of finite reality be +ascribed to the volitional acts of Paradise Deity and to the repercussional +adjustments of the functional triunities. + +Prior to the deitization of the finite, it would appear that all reality +diversification took place on absolute levels; but the volitional act +promulgating finite reality connotes a qualification of absoluteness and +implies the appearance of relativities. + +While we present this narrative as a sequence and portray the historic +appearance of the finite as a direct derivative of the absolute, it should be +borne in mind that transcendentals both preceded and succeeded all that is +finite. Transcendental ultimates are, in relation to the finite, both causal +and consummational. + +Finite possibility is inherent in the Infinite, but the transmutation of +possibility to probability and inevitability must be attributed to the +self-existent free will of the First Source and Center, activating all triunity +associations. Only the infinity of the Father's will could ever have so +qualified the absolute level of existence as to eventuate an ultimate or to +create a finite. + +With the appearance of relative and qualified reality there comes into being a +new cycle of reality--the growth cycle--a majestic downsweep from the heights +of infinity to the domain of the finite, forever swinging inward to Paradise +and Deity, always seeking those high destinies commensurate with an infinity +source. + +These inconceivable transactions mark the beginning of universe history, mark +the coming into existence of time itself. To a creature, the beginning of the +finite is the genesis of reality; as viewed by creature mind, there is no +actuality conceivable prior to the finite. This newly appearing finite reality +exists in two original phases: + +1. Primary maximums, the supremely perfect reality, the Havona type of universe +and creature. + +2. Secondary maximums, the supremely perfected reality, the superuniverse type +of creature and creation. + +These, then, are the two original manifestations: the constitutively perfect +and the evolutionally perfected. The two are co-ordinate in eternity +relationships, but within the limits of time they are seemingly different. A +time factor means growth to that which grows; secondary finites grow; hence +those that are growing must appear as incomplete in time. But these +differences, which are so important this side of Paradise, are nonexistent in +eternity. + +We speak of the perfect and the perfected as primary and secondary maximums, +but there is still another type: Trinitizing and other relationships between +the primaries and the secondaries result in the appearance of tertiary +maximums--things, meanings, and values that are neither perfect nor perfected +yet are co-ordinate with both ancestral factors. + + top of page - 1159 + +6. REPERCUSSIONS OF FINITE REALITY + +The entire promulgation of finite existences represents a transference from +potentials to actuals within the absolute associations of functional infinity. +Of the many repercussions to creative actualization of the finite, there may be +cited: + +1. The deity response, the appearance of the three levels of experiential +supremacy: the actuality of personal-spirit supremacy in Havona, the potential +for personal-power supremacy in the grand universe to be, and the capacity for +some unknown function of experiential mind acting on some level of supremacy in +the future master universe. + +2. The universe response involved an activation of the architectural plans for +the superuniverse space level, and this evolution is still progressing +throughout the physical organization of the seven superuniverses. + +3. The creature repercussion to finite-reality promulgation resulted in the +appearance of perfect beings on the order of the eternal inhabitants of Havona +and of perfected evolutionary ascenders from the seven superuniverses. But to +attain perfection as an evolutionary (time-creative) experience implies +something other-than-perfection as a point of departure. Thus arises +imperfection in the evolutionary creations. And this is the origin of potential +evil. Misadaptation, disharmony, and conflict, all these things are inherent in +evolutionary growth, from physical universes to personal creatures. + +4. The divinity response to the imperfection inherent in the time lag of +evolution is disclosed in the compensating presence of God the Sevenfold, by +whose activities that which is perfecting is integrated with both the perfect +and the perfected. This time lag is inseparable from evolution, which is +creativity in time. Because of it, as well as for other reasons, the almighty +power of the Supreme is predicated on the divinity successes of God the +Sevenfold. This time lag makes possible creature participation in divine +creation by permitting creature personalities to become partners with Deity in +the attainment of maximum development. Even the material mind of the mortal +creature thus becomes partner with the divine Adjuster in the dualization of +the immortal soul. God the Sevenfold also provides techniques of compensation +for the experiential limitations of inherent perfection as well as compensating +the preascension limitations of imperfection. + +7. EVENTUATION OF TRANSCENDENTALS + +Transcendentals are subinfinite and subabsolute but superfinite and +supercreatural. Transcendentals eventuate as an integrating level correlating +the supervalues of absolutes with the maximum values of finites. From the +creature standpoint, that which is transcendental would appear to have +eventuated as a consequence of the finite; from the eternity viewpoint, in +anticipation of the finite; and there are those who have considered it as a +"pre-echo" of the finite. + +That which is transcendental is not necessarily nondevelopmental, but it is +superevolutional in the finite sense; neither is it nonexperiential, but it is +superexperience as such is meaningful to creatures. Perhaps the best +illustration of + + top of page - 1160 + +such a paradox is the central universe of perfection: It is hardly +absolute--only the Paradise Isle is truly absolute in the "materialized" sense. +Neither is it a finite evolutionary creation as are the seven superuniverses. +Havona is eternal but not changeless in the sense of being a universe of +nongrowth. It is inhabited by creatures (Havona natives) who never were +actually created, for they are eternally existent. Havona thus illustrates +something which is not exactly finite nor yet absolute. Havona further acts as +a buffer between absolute Paradise and finite creations, still further +illustrating the function of transcendentals. But Havona itself is not a +transcendental--it is Havona. + +As the Supreme is associated with finites, so the Ultimate is identified with +transcendentals. But though we thus compare Supreme and Ultimate, they differ +by something more than degree; the difference is also a matter of quality. The +Ultimate is something more than a super-Supreme projected on the transcendental +level. The Ultimate is all of that, but more: The Ultimate is an eventuation of +new Deity realities, the qualification of new phases of the theretofore +unqualified. + +Among those realities which are associated with the transcendental level are +the following: + +1. The Deity presence of the Ultimate. + +2. The concept of the master universe. + +3. The Architects of the Master Universe. + +4. The two orders of Paradise force organizers. + +5. Certain modifications in space potency. + +6. Certain values of spirit. + +7. Certain meanings of mind. + +8. Absonite qualities and realities. + +9. Omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. + +10. Space. + +The universe in which we now live may be thought of as existing on finite, +transcendental, and absolute levels. This is the cosmic stage on which is +enacted the endless drama of personality performance and energy metamorphosis. + +And all of these manifold realities are unified absolutely by the several +triunities, functionally by the Architects of the Master Universe, and +relatively by the Seven Master Spirits, the subsupreme co-ordinators of the +divinity of God the Sevenfold. + +God the Sevenfold represents the personality and divinity revelation of the +Universal Father to creatures of both maximum and submaximum status, but there +are other sevenfold relationships of the First Source and Center which do not +pertain to the manifestation of the divine spiritual ministry of the God who is +spirit. + +In the eternity of the past the forces of the Absolutes, the spirits of the +Deities, and the personalities of the Gods stirred in response to the +primordial self-will of self-existent self-will. In this universe age we are +all witnessing the stupendous repercussions of the far-flung cosmic panorama of +the subabsolute manifestations of the limitless potentials of all these +realities. And it is altogether possible that the continued diversification of +the original reality of the First Source and + + top of page - 1161 + +Center may proceed onward and outward throughout age upon age, on and on, into +the faraway and inconceivable stretches of absolute infinity. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1162 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Growth Of The ³ Universe ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ T... ³ Levels... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p106.txt b/religious documents/p106.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9b0ecd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p106.txt @@ -0,0 +1,857 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 106 Universe Levels Of Reality + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 106 Universe Levels Of Reality + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +IT IS not enough that the ascending mortal should know something of the +relations of Deity to the genesis and manifestations of cosmic reality; he +should also comprehend something of the relationships existing between himself +and the numerous levels of existential and experiential realities, of potential +and actual realities. Man's terrestrial orientation, his cosmic insight, and +his spiritual directionization are all enhanced by a better comprehension of +universe realities and their techniques of interassociation, integration, and +unification. + +The present grand universe and the emerging master universe are made up of many +forms and phases of reality which, in turn, are existent on several levels of +functional activity. These manifold existents and latents have been previously +suggested in these papers, and they are now grouped for conceptual convenience +in the following categories: + +1. Incomplete finites. This is the present status of the ascending creatures of +the grand universe, the present status of Urantia mortals. This level embraces +creature existence from the planetary human up to, but not including, destiny +attainers. It pertains to universes from early physical beginnings up to, but +not including, settlement in light and life. This level constitutes the present +periphery of creative activity in time and space. It appears to be moving +outward from Paradise, for the closing of the present universe age, which will +witness the grand universe attainment of light and life, will also and surely +witness the appearance of some new order of developmental growth in the first +outer space level. + +2. Maximum finites. This is the present status of all experiential creatures +who have attained destiny--destiny as revealed within the scope of the present +universe age. Even universes can attain to the maximum of status, both +spiritually and physically. But the term "maximum" is itself a relative +term--maximum in relation to what? And that which is maximum, seemingly final, +in the present universe age may be no more than a real beginning in terms of +the ages to come. Some phases of Havona appear to be on the maximum order. + +3. Transcendentals. This superfinite level (antecedently) follows finite +progression. It implies the prefinite genesis of finite beginnings and the +postfinite significance of all apparent finite endings or destinies. Much of +Paradise-Havona appears to be on the transcendental order. + +4. Ultimates. This level encompasses that which is of master universe +significance and impinges on the destiny level of the completed master +universe. Paradise-Havona (especially the circuit of the Father's worlds) is in +many respects of ultimate significance. + + top of page - 1163 + +5. Coabsolutes. This level implies the projection of experientials upon a +supermaster universe field of creative expression. + +6. Absolutes. This level connotes the eternity presence of the seven +existential Absolutes. It may also involve some degree of associative +experiential attainment, but if so, we do not understand how, perhaps through +the contact potential of personality. + +7. Infinity. This level is pre-existential and postexperiential. Unqualified +unity of infinity is a hypothetical reality before all beginnings and after all +destinies. + +These levels of reality are convenient compromise symbolizations of the present +universe age and for the mortal perspective. There are a number of other ways +of looking at reality from other-than-mortal perspective and from the +standpoint of other universe ages. Thus it should be recognized that the +concepts herewith presented are entirely relative, relative in the sense of +being conditioned and limited by: + +1. The limitations of mortal language. + +2. The limitations of the mortal mind. + +3. The limited development of the seven superuniverses. + +4. Your ignorance of the six prime purposes of superuniverse development which +do not pertain to the mortal ascent to Paradise. + +5. Your inability to grasp even a partial eternity viewpoint. + +6. The impossibility of depicting cosmic evolution and destiny in relation to +all universe ages, not just in regard to the present age of the evolutionary +unfolding of the seven superuniverses. + +7. The inability of any creature to grasp what is really meant by +pre-existentials or by postexperientials--that which lies before beginnings and +after destinies. + +Reality growth is conditioned by the circumstances of the successive universe +ages. The central universe underwent no evolutionary change in the Havona age, +but in the present epochs of the superuniverse age it is undergoing certain +progressive changes induced by co-ordination with the evolutionary +superuniverses. The seven superuniverses, now evolving, will sometime attain +the settled status of light and life, will attain the growth limit for the +present universe age. But beyond doubt, the next age, the age of the first +outer space level, will release the superuniverses from the destiny limitations +of the present age. Repletion is continually being superimposed upon +completion. + +These are some of the limitations which we encounter in attempting to present a +unified concept of the cosmic growth of things, meanings, and values and of +their synthesis on ever-ascending levels of reality. + +1. PRIMARY ASSOCIATION OF FINITE FUNCTIONALS + +The primary or spirit-origin phases of finite reality find immediate expression +on creature levels as perfect personalities and on universe levels as the +perfect Havona creation. Even experiential Deity is thus expressed in the +spirit + + top of page - 1164 + +person of God the Supreme in Havona. But the secondary, evolutionary, +time-and-matter-conditioned phases of the finite become cosmically integrated +only as a result of growth and attainment. Eventually all secondary or +perfecting finites are to attain a level equal to that of primary perfection, +but such destiny is subject to a time delay, a constitutive superuniverse +qualification which is not genetically found in the central creation. (We know +of the existence of tertiary finites, but the technique of their integration is +as yet unrevealed.) + +This superuniverse time lag, this obstacle to perfection attainment, provides +for creature participation in evolutionary growth. It thus makes it possible +for the creature to enter into partnership with the Creator in the evolution of +that selfsame creature. And during these times of expanding growth the +incomplete is correlated with the perfect through the ministry of God the +Sevenfold. + +God the Sevenfold signifies the recognition by Paradise Deity of the barriers +of time in the evolutionary universes of space. No matter how remote from +Paradise, how deep in space, a material survival personality may take origin, +God the Sevenfold will be found there present and engaged in the loving and +merciful ministry of truth, beauty, and goodness to such an incomplete, +struggling, and evolutionary creature. The divinity ministry of the Sevenfold +reaches inward through the Eternal Son to the Paradise Father and outward +through the Ancients of Days to the universe Fathers--the Creator Sons. + +Man, being personal and ascending by spiritual progression, finds the personal +and spiritual divinity of the Sevenfold Deity; but there are other phases of +the Sevenfold which are not concerned with the progression of personality. The +divinity aspects of this Deity grouping are at present integrated in the +liaison between the Seven Master Spirits and the Conjoint Actor, but they are +destined to be eternally unified in the emerging personality of the Supreme +Being. The other phases of the Sevenfold Deity are variously integrated in the +present universe age, but all are likewise destined to be unified in the +Supreme. The Sevenfold, in all phases, is the source of the relative unity of +the functional reality of the present grand universe. + +2. SECONDARY SUPREME FINITE INTEGRATION + +As God the Sevenfold functionally co-ordinates finite evolution, so does the +Supreme Being eventually synthesize destiny attainment. The Supreme Being is +the deity culmination of grand universe evolution--physical evolution around a +spirit nucleus and eventual dominance of the spirit nucleus over the encircling +and whirling domains of physical evolution. And all of this takes place in +accordance with the mandates of personality: Paradise personality in the +highest sense, Creator personality in the universe sense, mortal personality in +the human sense, Supreme personality in the culminating or experiential +totaling sense. + +The concept of the Supreme must provide for the differential recognition of +spirit person, evolutionary power, and power-personality synthesis--the +unification of evolutionary power with, and its dominance by, spirit +personality. + +Spirit, in the last analysis, comes from Paradise through Havona. Energy-matter +seemingly evolves in the depths of space and is organized as power by the +children of the Infinite Spirit in conjunction with the Creator Sons of God. +And all of this is experiential; it is a transaction in time and space +involving a wide range of living beings including even Creator divinities and +evolutionary crea- + + top of page - 1165 + +tures. The power mastery of the Creator divinities in the grand universe slowly +expands to encompass the evolutionary settling and stabilizing of the +time-space creations, and this is the flowering of the experiential power of +God the Sevenfold. It encompasses the whole gamut of divinity attainment in +time and space from the Adjuster bestowals of the Universal Father to the life +bestowals of the Paradise Sons. This is earned power, demonstrated power, +experiential power; it stands in contrast to the eternity power, the +unfathomable power, the existential power of the Paradise Deities. + +This experiential power arising out of the divinity achievements of God the +Sevenfold itself manifests the cohesive qualities of divinity by +synthesizing--totalizing--as the almighty power of the attained experiential +mastery of the evolving creations. And this almighty power in turn finds +spirit-personality cohesion on the pilot sphere of the outer belt of Havona +worlds in union with the spirit personality of the Havona presence of God the +Supreme. Thus does experiential Deity culminate the long evolutionary struggle +by investing the power product of time and space with the spirit presence and +divine personality resident in the central creation. + +Thus does the Supreme Being eventually attain to the embrace of all of +everything evolving in time and space while investing these qualities with +spirit personality. Since creatures, even mortals, are personality participants +in this majestic transaction, so do they certainly attain the capacity to know +the Supreme and to perceive the Supreme as true children of such an +evolutionary Deity. + +Michael of Nebadon is like the Paradise Father because he shares his Paradise +perfection; so will evolutionary mortals sometime attain to kinship with the +experiential Supreme, for they will truly share his evolutionary perfection. + +God the Supreme is experiential; therefore is he completely experiencible. The +existential realities of the seven Absolutes are not perceivable by the +technique of experience; only the personality realities of the Father, Son, and +Spirit can be grasped by the personality of the finite creature in the +prayer-worship attitude. + +Within the completed power-personality synthesis of the Supreme Being there +will be associated all of the absoluteness of the several triodities which +could be so associated, and this majestic personality of evolution will be +experientially attainable and understandable by all finite personalities. When +ascenders attain the postulated seventh stage of spirit existence, they will +therein experience the realization of a new meaning-value of the absoluteness +and infinity of the triodities as such is revealed on subabsolute levels in the +Supreme Being, who is experiencible. But the attainment of these stages of +maximum development will probably await the co-ordinate settling of the entire +grand universe in light and life. + +3. TRANSCENDENTAL TERTIARY REALITY ASSOCIATION + +The absonite architects eventuate the plan; the Supreme Creators bring it into +existence; the Supreme Being will consummate its fullness as it was time +created by the Supreme Creators, and as it was space forecast by the Master +Architects. + +During the present universe age the administrative co-ordination of the master +universe is the function of the Architects of the Master Universe. But + + top of page - 1166 + +the appearance of the Almighty Supreme at the termination of the present +universe age will signify that the evolutionary finite has attained the first +stage of experiential destiny. This happening will certainly lead to the +completed function of the first experiential Trinity--the union of the Supreme +Creators, the Supreme Being, and the Architects of the Master Universe. This +Trinity is destined to effect the further evolutionary integration of the +master creation. + +The Paradise Trinity is truly one of infinity, and no Trinity can possibly be +infinite that does not include this original Trinity. But the original Trinity +is an eventuality of the exclusive association of absolute Deities; subabsolute +beings had nothing to do with this primal association. The subsequently +appearing and experiential Trinities embrace the contributions of even creature +personalities. Certainly this is true of the Trinity Ultimate, wherein the very +presence of the Master Creator Sons among the Supreme Creator members thereof +betokens the concomitant presence of actual and bona fide creature experience +within this Trinity association. + +The first experiential Trinity provides for group attainment of ultimate +eventualities. Group associations are enabled to anticipate, even to transcend, +individual capacities; and this is true even beyond the finite level. In the +ages to come, after the seven superuniverses have been settled in light and +life, the Corps of the Finality will doubtless be promulgating the purposes of +the Paradise Deities as they are dictated by the Trinity Ultimate, and as they +are power-personality unified in the Supreme Being. + +Throughout all the gigantic universe developments of past and future eternity, +we detect the expansion of the comprehensible elements of the Universal Father. +As the I AM, we philosophically postulate his permeation of total infinity, but +no creature is able experientially to encompass such a postulate. As the +universes expand, and as gravity and love reach out into time-organizing space, +we are able to understand more and more of the First Source and Center. We +observe gravity action penetrating the space presence of the Unqualified +Absolute, and we detect spirit creatures evolving and expanding within the +divinity presence of the Deity Absolute while both cosmic and spirit evolution +are by mind and experience unifying on finite deity levels as the Supreme Being +and are co-ordinating on transcendental levels as the Trinity Ultimate. + +4. ULTIMATE QUARTAN INTEGRATION + +The Paradise Trinity certainly co-ordinates in the ultimate sense but functions +in this respect as a self-qualified absolute; the experiential Trinity Ultimate +co-ordinates the transcendental as a transcendental. In the eternal future this +experiential Trinity will, through augmenting unity, further activate the +eventuating presence of Ultimate Deity. + +While the Trinity Ultimate is destined to co-ordinate the master creation, God +the Ultimate is the transcendental power-personalization of the +directionization of the entire master universe. The completed eventuation of +the Ultimate implies the completion of the master creation and connotes the +full emergence of this transcendental Deity. + +What changes will be inaugurated by the full emergence of the Ultimate we do +not know. But as the Supreme is now spiritually and personally present in +Havona, so also is the Ultimate there present but in the absonite and super- + + top of page - 1167 + +personal sense. And you have been informed of the existence of the Qualified +Vicegerents of the Ultimate, though you have not been informed of their present +whereabouts or function. + +But irrespective of the administrative repercussions attendant upon the +emergence of Ultimate Deity, the personal values of his transcendental divinity +will be experiencible by all personalities who have been participants in the +actualization of this Deity level. Transcendence of the finite can lead only to +ultimate attainment. God the Ultimate exists in transcendence of time and space +but is nonetheless subabsolute notwithstanding inherent capacity for functional +association with absolutes. + +5. COABSOLUTE OR FIFTH-PHASE ASSOCIATION + +The Ultimate is the apex of transcendental reality even as the Supreme is the +capstone of evolutionary-experiential reality. And the actual emergence of +these two experiential Deities lays the foundation for the second experiential +Trinity. This is the Trinity Absolute, the union of God the Supreme, God the +Ultimate, and the unrevealed Consummator of Universe Destiny. And this Trinity +has theoretical capacity to activate the Absolutes of potentiality--Deity, +Universal, and Unqualified. But the completed formation of this Trinity +Absolute could take place only after the completed evolution of the entire +master universe, from Havona to the fourth and outermost space level. + +It should be made clear that these experiential Trinities are correlative, not +only of the personality qualities of experiential Divinity, but also of all the +other-than-personal qualities which characterize their attained Deity unity. +While this presentation deals primarily with the personal phases of the +unification of the cosmos, it is nonetheless true that the impersonal aspects +of the universe of universes are likewise destined to undergo unification as is +illustrated by the power-personality synthesis now going on in connection with +the evolution of the Supreme Being. The spirit-personal qualities of the +Supreme are inseparable from the power prerogatives of the Almighty, and both +are complemented by the unknown potential of Supreme mind. Neither can God the +Ultimate as a person be considered apart from the other-than-personal aspects +of Ultimate Deity. And on the absolute level the Deity and the Unqualified +Absolutes are inseparable and indistinguishable in the presence of the +Universal Absolute. + +Trinities are, in and of themselves, not personal, but neither do they +contravene personality. Rather do they encompass it and correlate it, in a +collective sense, with impersonal functions. Trinities are, then, always deity +reality but never personality reality. The personality aspects of a trinity are +inherent in its individual members, and as individual persons they are not that +trinity. Only as a collective are they trinity; that is trinity. But always is +trinity inclusive of all encompassed deity; trinity is deity unity. + +The three Absolutes--Deity, Universal, and Unqualified--are not trinity, for +all are not deity. Only the deified can become trinity; all other associations +are triunities or triodities. + +6. ABSOLUTE OR SIXTH-PHASE INTEGRATION + +The present potential of the master universe is hardly absolute, though it may +well be near-ultimate, and we deem it impossible to achieve the full revela- + + top of page - 1168 + +tion of absolute meaning-values within the scope of a subabsolute cosmos. We +therefore encounter considerable difficulty in attempting to conceive of a +total expression of the limitless possibilities of the three Absolutes or even +in attempting to visualize the experiential personalization of God the Absolute +on the now impersonal level of the Deity Absolute. + +The space-stage of the master universe seems to be adequate for the +actualization of the Supreme Being, for the formation and full function of the +Trinity Ultimate, for the eventuation of God the Ultimate, and even for the +inception of the Trinity Absolute. But our concepts regarding the full function +of this second experiential Trinity seem to imply something beyond even the +wide-spreading master universe. + +If we assume a cosmos-infinite--some illimitable cosmos on beyond the master +universe--and if we conceive that the final developments of the Absolute +Trinity will take place out on such a superultimate stage of action, then it +becomes possible to conjecture that the completed function of the Trinity +Absolute will achieve final expression in the creations of infinity and will +consummate the absolute actualization of all potentials. The integration and +association of ever-enlarging segments of reality will approach absoluteness of +status proportional to the inclusion of all reality within the segments thus +associated. + +Stated otherwise: The Trinity Absolute, as its name implies, is really absolute +in total function. We do not know how an absolute function can achieve total +expression on a qualified, limited, or otherwise restricted basis. Hence we +must assume that any such totality function will be unconditioned (in +potential). And it would also appear that the unconditioned would also be +unlimited, at least from a qualitative standpoint, though we are not so sure +regarding quantitative relationships. + +Of this, however, we are certain: While the existential Paradise Trinity is +infinite, and while the experiential Trinity Ultimate is subinfinite, the +Trinity Absolute is not so easy to classify. Though experiential in genesis and +constitution, it definitely impinges upon the existential Absolutes of +potentiality. + +While it is hardly profitable for the human mind to seek to grasp such faraway +and superhuman concepts, we would suggest that the eternity action of the +Trinity Absolute may be thought of as culminating in some kind of +experientialization of the Absolutes of potentiality. This would appear to be a +reasonable conclusion with respect to the Universal Absolute, if not the +Unqualified Absolute; at least we know that the Universal Absolute is not only +static and potential but also associative in the total Deity sense of those +words. But in regard to the conceivable values of divinity and personality, +these conjectured happenings imply the personalization of the Deity Absolute +and the appearance of those superpersonal values and those ultrapersonal +meanings inherent in the personality completion of God the Absolute--the third +and last of the experiential Deities. + +7. FINALITY OF DESTINY + +Some of the difficulties in forming concepts of infinite reality integration +are inherent in the fact that all such ideas embrace something of the finality +of universal development, some kind of an experiential realization of all that +could ever be. And it is inconceivable that quantitative infinity could ever be +completely realized in finality. Always there must remain unexplored +possibilities in the + + top of page - 1169 + +three potential Absolutes which no quantity of experiential development could +ever exhaust. Eternity itself, though absolute, is not more than absolute. + +Even a tentative concept of final integration is inseparable from the fruitions +of unqualified eternity and is, therefore, practically nonrealizable at any +conceivable future time. + +Destiny is established by the volitional act of the Deities who constitute the +Paradise Trinity; destiny is established in the vastness of the three great +potentials whose absoluteness encompasses the possibilities of all future +development; destiny is probably consummated by the act of the Consummator of +Universe Destiny, and this act is probably involved with the Supreme and the +Ultimate in the Trinity Absolute. Any experiential destiny can be at least +partially comprehended by experiencing creatures; but a destiny which impinges +on infinite existentials is hardly comprehensible. Finality destiny is an +existential-experiential attainment which appears to involve the Deity +Absolute. But the Deity Absolute stands in eternity relationship with the +Unqualified Absolute by virtue of the Universal Absolute. And these three +Absolutes, experiential in possibility, are actually existential and more, +being limitless, timeless, spaceless, boundless, and measureless--truly +infinite. + +The improbability of goal attainment does not, however, prevent philosophical +theorizing about such hypothetical destinies. The actualization of the Deity +Absolute as an attainable absolute God may be practically impossible of +realization; nevertheless, such a finality fruition remains a theoretical +possibility. The involvement of the Unqualified Absolute in some inconceivable +cosmos-infinite may be measurelessly remote in the futurity of endless +eternity, but such a hypothesis is nonetheless valid. Mortals, morontians, +spirits, finaliters, Transcendentalers, and others, together with the universes +themselves and all other phases of reality, certainly do have a potentially +final destiny that is absolute in value; but we doubt that any being or +universe will ever completely attain all of the aspects of such a destiny. + +No matter how much you may grow in Father comprehension, your mind will always +be staggered by the unrevealed infinity of the Father-I AM, the unexplored +vastness of which will always remain unfathomable and incomprehensible +throughout all the cycles of eternity. No matter how much of God you may +attain, there will always remain much more of him, the existence of which you +will not even suspect. And we believe that this is just as true on +transcendental levels as it is in the domains of finite existence. The quest +for God is endless! + +Such inability to attain God in a final sense should in no manner discourage +universe creatures; indeed, you can and do attain Deity levels of the +Sevenfold, the Supreme, and the Ultimate, which mean to you what the infinite +realization of God the Father means to the Eternal Son and to the Conjoint +Actor in their absolute status of eternity existence. Far from harassing the +creature, the infinity of God should be the supreme assurance that throughout +all endless futurity an ascending personality will have before him the +possibilities of personality development and Deity association which even +eternity will neither exhaust nor terminate. + +To finite creatures of the grand universe the concept of the master universe +seems to be well-nigh infinite, but doubtless the absonite architects thereof +perceive its relatedness to future and unimagined developments within the un + + top of page - 1170 + +ending I AM. Even space itself is but an ultimate condition, a condition of +qualification within the relative absoluteness of the quiet zones of midspace. + +At the inconceivably distant future eternity moment of the final completion of +the entire master universe, no doubt we will all look back upon its entire +history as only the beginning, simply the creation of certain finite and +transcendental foundations for even greater and more enthralling metamorphoses +in uncharted infinity. At such a future eternity moment the master universe +will still seem youthful; indeed, it will be always young in the face of the +limitless possibilities of never-ending eternity. + +The improbability of infinite destiny attainment does not in the least prevent +the entertainment of ideas about such destiny, and we do not hesitate to say +that, if the three absolute potentials could ever become completely actualized, +it would be possible to conceive of the final integration of total reality. +This developmental realization is predicated on the completed actualization of +the Unqualified, Universal, and Deity Absolutes, the three potentialities whose +union constitutes the latency of the I AM, the suspended realities of eternity, +the abeyant possibilities of all futurity, and more. + +Such eventualities are rather remote to say the least; nevertheless, in the +mechanisms, personalities, and associations of the three Trinities we believe +we detect the theoretical possibility of the reuniting of the seven absolute +phases of the Father-I AM. And this brings us face to face with the concept of +the threefold Trinity encompassing the Paradise Trinity of existential status +and the two subsequently appearing Trinities of experiential nature and origin. + +8. THE TRINITY OF TRINITIES + +The nature of the Trinity of Trinities is difficult to portray to the human +mind; it is the actual summation of the entirety of experiential infinity as +such is manifested in a theoretical infinity of eternity realization. In the +Trinity of Trinities the experiential infinite attains to identity with the +existential infinite, and both are as one in the pre-experiential, +pre-existential I AM. The Trinity of Trinities is the final expression of all +that is implied in the fifteen triunities and associated triodities. Finalities +are difficult for relative beings to comprehend, be they existential or +experiential; therefore must they always be presented as relativities. + +The Trinity of Trinities exists in several phases. It contains possibilities, +probabilities, and inevitabilities that stagger the imaginations of beings far +above the human level. It has implications that are probably unsuspected by the +celestial philosophers, for its implications are in the triunities, and the +triunities are, in the last analysis, unfathomable. + +There are a number of ways in which the Trinity of Trinities can be portrayed. +We elect to present the three-level concept, which is as follows: + +1. The level of the three Trinities. + +2. The level of experiential Deity. + +3. The level of the I AM. + +These are levels of increasing unification. Actually the Trinity of Trinities +is the first level, while the second and third levels are +unification-derivatives of the first. + + top of page - 1171 + +THE FIRST LEVEL: On this initial level of association it is believed that the +three Trinities function as perfectly synchronized, though distinct, groupings +of Deity personalities. + +1. The Paradise Trinity, the association of the three Paradise Deities--Father, +Son, and Spirit. It should be remembered that the Paradise Trinity implies a +threefold function--an absolute function, a transcendental function (Trinity of +Ultimacy), and a finite function (Trinity of Supremacy). The Paradise Trinity +is any and all of these at any and all times. + +2. The Ultimate Trinity. This is the deity association of the Supreme Creators, +God the Supreme, and the Architects of the Master Universe. While this is an +adequate presentation of the divinity aspects of this Trinity, it should be +recorded that there are other phases of this Trinity, which, however, appear to +be perfectly co-ordinating with the divinity aspects. + +3. The Absolute Trinity. This is the grouping of God the Supreme, God the +Ultimate, and the Consummator of Universe Destiny in regard to all divinity +values. Certain other phases of this triune grouping have to do with +other-than-divinity values in the expanding cosmos. But these are unifying with +the divinity phases just as the power and the personality aspects of the +experiential Deities are now in process of experiential synthesis. + +The association of these three Trinities in the Trinity of Trinities provides +for a possible unlimited integration of reality. This grouping contains causes, +intermediates, and finals; inceptors, realizers, and consummators; beginnings, +existences, and destinies. The Father-Son partnership has become Son-Spirit and +then Spirit-Supreme and on to Supreme-Ultimate and Ultimate-Absolute, even to +Absolute and Father-Infinite--the completion of the cycle of reality. Likewise, +in other phases not so immediately concerned with divinity and personality, +does the First Great Source and Center self-realize the limitlessness of +reality around the circle of eternity, from the absoluteness of self-existence, +through the endlessness of self-revelation, to the finality of +self-realization--from the absolute of existentials to the finality of +experientials. + +THE SECOND LEVEL: The co-ordination of the three Trinities inevitably involves +the associative union of the experiential Deities, who are genetically +associated with these Trinities. The nature of this second level has been +sometimes presented as: + +1. The Supreme. This is the deity consequence of the unity of the Paradise +Trinity in experiential liaison with the Creator-Creative children of the +Paradise Deities. The Supreme is the deity embodiment of the completion of the +first stage of finite evolution. + +2. The Ultimate. This is the deity consequence of the eventuated unity of the +second Trinity, the transcendental and absonite personification of divinity. +The Ultimate consists in a variably regarded unity of many qualities, and the +human conception thereof would do well to include at least those phases of +ultimacy which are control directing, personally experiencible, and tensionally +unifying, but there are many other unrevealed aspects of the eventuated Deity. +While the Ultimate and the Supreme are comparable, they are not identical, +neither is the Ultimate merely an amplification of the Supreme. + + top of page - 1172 + +3. The Absolute. There are many theories held as to the character of the third +member of the second level of the Trinity of Trinities. God the Absolute is +undoubtedly involved in this association as the personality consequence of the +final function of the Trinity Absolute, yet the Deity Absolute is an +existential reality of eternity status. + +The concept difficulty regarding this third member is inherent in the fact that +the presupposition of such a membership really implies just one Absolute. +Theoretically, if such an event could take place, we should witness the +experiential unification of the three Absolutes as one. And we are taught that, +in infinity and existentially, there is one Absolute. While it is least clear +as to who this third member can be, it is often postulated that such may +consist of the Deity, Universal, and Unqualified Absolutes in some form of +unimagined liaison and cosmic manifestation. Certainly, the Trinity of +Trinities could hardly attain to complete function short of the full +unification of the three Absolutes, and the three Absolutes can hardly be +unified short of the complete realization of all infinite potentials. + +It will probably represent a minimum distortion of truth if the third member of +the Trinity of Trinities is conceived as the Universal Absolute, provided this +conception envisions the Universal not only as static and potential but also as +associative. But we still do not perceive the relationship to the creative and +evolutional aspects of the function of total Deity. + +Though a completed concept of the Trinity of Trinities is difficult to form, a +qualified concept is not so difficult. If the second level of the Trinity of +Trinities is conceived as essentially personal, it becomes quite possible to +postulate the union of God the Supreme, God the Ultimate, and God the Absolute +as the personal repercussion of the union of the personal Trinities who are +ancestral to these experiential Deities. We venture the opinion that these +three experiential Deities will certainly unify on the second level as the +direct consequence of the growing unity of their ancestral and causative +Trinities who constitute the first level. + +The first level consists of three Trinities; the second level exists as the +personality association of experiential-evolved, experiential-eventuated, and +experiential-existential Deity personalities. And regardless of any conceptual +difficulty in understanding the complete Trinity of Trinities, the personal +association of these three Deities on the second level has become manifest to +our own universe age in the phenomenon of the deitization of Majeston, who was +actualized on this second level by the Deity Absolute, acting through the +Ultimate and in response to the initial creative mandate of the Supreme Being. + +THE THIRD LEVEL: In an unqualified hypothesis of the second level of the +Trinity of Trinities, there is embraced the correlation of every phase of every +kind of reality that is, or was, or could be in the entirety of infinity. The +Supreme Being is not only spirit but also mind and power and experience. The +Ultimate is all this and much more, while, in the conjoined concept of the +oneness of the Deity, Universal, and Unqualified Absolutes, there is included +the absolute finality of all reality realization. + +In the union of the Supreme, Ultimate, and the complete Absolute, there could +occur the functional reassembly of those aspects of infinity which were +originally segmentalized by the I AM, and which resulted in the appearance of +the Seven + + top of page - 1173 + +Absolutes of Infinity. Though the universe philosophers deem this to be a most +remote probability, still, we often ask this question: If the second level of +the Trinity of Trinities could ever achieve trinity unity, what then would +transpire as a consequence of such deity unity? We do not know, but we are +confident that it would lead directly to the realization of the I AM as an +experiential attainable. From the standpoint of personal beings it could mean +that the unknowable I AM had become experiencible as the Father-Infinite. What +these absolute destinies might mean from a nonpersonal standpoint is another +matter and one which only eternity could possibly clarify. But as we view these +remote eventualities as personal creatures, we deduce that the final destiny of +all personalities is the final knowing of the Universal Father of these +selfsame personalities. + +As we philosophically conceive of the I AM in past eternity, he is alone, there +is none beside him. Looking forward into future eternity, we do not see that +the I AM could possibly change as an existential, but we are inclined to +forecast a vast experiential difference. Such a concept of the I AM implies +full self-realization--it embraces that limitless galaxy of personalities who +have become volitional participants in the self-revelation of the I AM, and who +will remain eternally as absolute volitional parts of the totality of infinity, +final sons of the absolute Father. + +9. EXISTENTIAL INFINITE UNIFICATION + +In the concept of the Trinity of Trinities we postulate the possible +experiential unification of limitless reality, and we sometimes theorize that +all this may happen in the utter remoteness of far-distant eternity. But there +is nonetheless an actual and present unification of infinity in this very age +as in all past and future universe ages; such unification is existential in the +Paradise Trinity. Infinity unification as an experiential reality is +unthinkably remote, but an unqualified unity of infinity now dominates the +present moment of universe existence and unites the divergencies of all reality +with an existential majesty that is absolute. + +When finite creatures attempt to conceive of infinite unification on the +finality levels of consummated eternity, they are face to face with intellect +limitations inherent in their finite existences. Time, space, and experience +constitute barriers to creature concept; and yet, without time, apart from +space, and except for experience, no creature could achieve even a limited +comprehension of universe reality. Without time sensitivity, no evolutionary +creature could possibly perceive the relations of sequence. Without space +perception, no creature could fathom the relations of simultaneity. Without +experience, no evolutionary creature could even exist; only the Seven Absolutes +of Infinity really transcend experience, and even these may be experiential in +certain phases. + +Time, space, and experience are man's greatest aids to relative reality +perception and yet his most formidable obstacles to complete reality +perception. Mortals and many other universe creatures find it necessary to +think of potentials as being actualized in space and evolving to fruition in +time, but this entire process is a time-space phenomenon which does not +actually take place on Paradise and in eternity. On the absolute level there is +neither time nor space; all potentials may be there perceived as actuals. + +The concept of the unification of all reality, be it in this or any other +universe age, is basically twofold: existential and experiential. Such a unity +is in process + + top of page - 1174 + +of experiential realization in the Trinity of Trinities, but the degree of the +apparent actualization of this threefold Trinity is directly proportional to +the disappearance of the qualifications and imperfections of reality in the +cosmos. But total integration of reality is unqualifiedly and eternally and +existentially present in the Paradise Trinity, within which, at this very +universe moment, infinite reality is absolutely unified. + +The paradox created by the experiential and the existential viewpoints is +inevitable and is predicated in part on the fact that the Paradise Trinity and +the Trinity of Trinities are each an eternity relationship which mortals can +only perceive as a time-space relativity. The human concept of the gradual +experiential actualization of the Trinity of Trinities--the time +viewpoint--must be supplemented by the additional postulate that this is +already a factualization--the eternity viewpoint. But how can these two +viewpoints be reconciled? To finite mortals we suggest the acceptance of the +truth that the Paradise Trinity is the existential unification of infinity, and +that the inability to detect the actual presence and completed manifestation of +the experiential Trinity of Trinities is in part due to reciprocal distortion +because of: + +1. The limited human viewpoint, the inability to grasp the concept of +unqualified eternity. + +2. The imperfect human status, the remoteness from the absolute level of +experientials. + +3. The purpose of human existence, the fact that mankind is designed to evolve +by the technique of experience and, therefore, must be inherently and +constitutively dependent on experience. Only an Absolute can be both +existential and experiential. + +The Universal Father in the Paradise Trinity is the I AM of the Trinity of +Trinities, and the failure to experience the Father as infinite is due to +finite limitations. The concept of the existential, solitary, pre-Trinity +nonattainable I AM and the postulate of the experiential post-Trinity of +Trinities and attainable I AM are one and the same hypothesis; no actual change +has taken place in the Infinite; all apparent developments are due to increased +capacities for reality reception and cosmic appreciation. + +The I AM, in the final analysis, must exist before all existentials and after +all experientials. While these ideas may not clarify the paradoxes of eternity +and infinity in the human mind, they should at least stimulate such finite +intellects to grapple anew with these never-ending problems, problems which +will continue to intrigue you on Salvington and later as finaliters and on +throughout the unending future of your eternal careers in the wide-spreading +universes. + +Sooner or later all universe personalities begin to realize that the final +quest of eternity is the endless exploration of infinity, the never-ending +voyage of discovery into the absoluteness of the First Source and Center. +Sooner or later we all become aware that all creature growth is proportional to +Father identification. We arrive at the understanding that living the will of +God is the eternal passport to the endless possibility of infinity itself. +Mortals will sometime realize that success in the quest of the Infinite is +directly proportional to the achievement of Fatherlikeness, and that in this +universe age the realities of the Father are revealed within the qualities of +divinity. And these qualities of divinity are + + top of page - 1175 + +personally appropriated by universe creatures in the experience of living +divinely, and to live divinely means actually to live the will of God. + +To material, evolutionary, finite creatures, a life predicated on the living of +the Father's will leads directly to the attainment of spirit supremacy in the +personality arena and brings such creatures one step nearer the comprehension +of the Father-Infinite. Such a Father life is one predicated on truth, +sensitive to beauty, and dominated by goodness. Such a God-knowing person is +inwardly illuminated by worship and outwardly devoted to the wholehearted +service of the universal brotherhood of all personalities, a service ministry +which is filled with mercy and motivated by love, while all these life +qualities are unified in the evolving personality on ever-ascending levels of +cosmic wisdom, self-realization, God-finding, and Father worship. + +[Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.] + + top of page - 1176 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Deity And ³ Origin And ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Reali... ³ Natu... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p107.txt b/religious documents/p107.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..270c945 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p107.txt @@ -0,0 +1,556 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 107 Origin And Nature Of Thought Adjusters + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 107 Origin And Nature Of Thought Adjusters + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ALTHOUGH the Universal Father is personally resident on Paradise, at the very +center of the universes, he is also actually present on the worlds of space in +the minds of his countless children of time, for he indwells them as the +Mystery Monitors. The eternal Father is at one and the same time farthest +removed from, and most intimately associated with, his planetary mortal sons. + +The Adjusters are the actuality of the Father's love incarnate in the souls of +men; they are the veritable promise of man's eternal career imprisoned within +the mortal mind; they are the essence of man's perfected finaliter personality, +which he can foretaste in time as he progressively masters the divine technique +of achieving the living of the Father's will, step by step, through the +ascension of universe upon universe until he actually attains the divine +presence of his Paradise Father. + +God, having commanded man to be perfect, even as he is perfect, has descended +as the Adjuster to become man's experiential partner in the achievement of the +supernal destiny which has been thus ordained. The fragment of God which +indwells the mind of man is the absolute and unqualified assurance that man can +find the Universal Father in association with this divine Adjuster, which came +forth from God to find man and sonship him even in the days of the flesh. + +Any mortal who has seen a Creator Son has seen the Universal Father, and he who +is indwelt by a divine Adjuster is indwelt by the Paradise Father. Every mortal +who is consciously or unconsciously following the leading of his indwelling +Adjuster is living in accordance with the will of God. Consciousness of +Adjuster presence is consciousness of God's presence. Eternal fusion of the +Adjuster with the evolutionary soul of man is the factual experience of eternal +union with God as a universe associate of Deity. + +It is the Adjuster who creates within man that unquenchable yearning and +incessant longing to be like God, to attain Paradise, and there before the +actual person of Deity to worship the infinite source of the divine gift. The +Adjuster is the living presence which actually links the mortal son with his +Paradise Father and draws him nearer and nearer to the Father. The Adjuster is +our compensatory equalization of the enormous universe tension which is created +by the distance of man's removal from God and by the degree of his partiality +in contrast with the universality of the eternal Father. + +The Adjuster is an absolute essence of an infinite being imprisoned within the +mind of a finite creature which, depending on the choosing of such a mortal, +can eventually consummate this temporary union of God and man and veritably + + top of page - 1177 + +actualize a new order of being for unending universe service. The Adjuster is +the divine universe reality which factualizes the truth that God is man's +Father. The Adjuster is man's infallible cosmic compass, always and unerringly +pointing the soul Godward. + +On the evolutionary worlds, will creatures traverse three general developmental +stages of being: From the arrival of the Adjuster to comparative full growth, +about twenty years of age on Urantia, the Monitors are sometimes designated +Thought Changers. From this time to the attainment of the age of discretion, +about forty years, the Mystery Monitors are called Thought Adjusters. From the +attainment of discretion to deliverance from the flesh, they are often referred +to as Thought Controllers. These three phases of mortal life have no connection +with the three stages of Adjuster progress in mind duplication and soul +evolution. + +1. ORIGIN OF THOUGHT ADJUSTERS + +Since Thought Adjusters are of the essence of original Deity, no one may +presume to discourse authoritatively upon their nature and origin; I can only +impart the traditions of Salvington and the beliefs of Uversa; I can only +explain how we regard these Mystery Monitors and their associated entities +throughout the grand universe. + +Though there are diverse opinions regarding the mode of the bestowal of Thought +Adjusters, there exist no such differences concerning their origin; all are +agreed that they proceed direct from the Universal Father, the First Source and +Center. They are not created beings; they are fragmentized entities +constituting the factual presence of the infinite God. Together with their many +unrevealed associates, the Adjusters are undiluted and unmixed divinity, +unqualified and unattenuated parts of Deity; they are of God, and as far as we +are able to discern, they are God. + +As to the time of their beginning separate existences apart from the +absoluteness of the First Source and Center, we do not know; neither do we know +their number. We know very little concerning their careers until they arrive on +the planets of time to indwell human minds, but from that time on we are more +or less familiar with their cosmic progressions up to and including the +consummation of their triune destinies: attainment of personality by fusion +with some mortal ascender, attainment of personality by fiat of the Universal +Father, or liberation from the known assignments of Thought Adjusters. + +Although we do not know, we presume that Adjusters are being constantly +individualized as the universe enlarges, and as the candidates for Adjuster +fusion increase in numbers. But it may be equally possible that we are in error +in attempting to assign a numerical magnitude to the Adjusters; like God +himself, these fragments of his unfathomable nature may be existentially +infinite. + +The technique of the origin of the Thought Adjusters is one of the unrevealed +functions of the Universal Father. We have every reason to believe that none of +the other absolute associates of the First Source and Center have aught to do +with the production of Father fragments. Adjusters are simply and eternally the +divine gifts; they are of God and from God, and they are like God. + +In their relationship to fusion creatures they reveal a supernal love and +spiritual ministry that is profoundly confirmative of the declaration that God + + top of page - 1178 + +is spirit. But there is much that takes place in addition to this transcendent +ministry that has never been revealed to Urantia mortals. Neither do we fully +understand just what really transpires when the Universal Father gives of +himself to be a part of the personality of a creature of time. Nor has the +ascending progression of the Paradise finaliters as yet disclosed the full +possibilities inherent in this supernal partnership of man and God. In the last +analysis, the Father fragments must be the gift of the absolute God to those +creatures whose destiny encompasses the possibility of the attainment of God as +absolute. + +As the Universal Father fragmentizes his prepersonal Deity, so does the +Infinite Spirit individuate portions of his premind spirit to indwell and +actually to fuse with the evolutionary souls of the surviving mortals of the +spirit-fusion series. But the nature of the Eternal Son is not thus +fragmentable; the spirit of the Original Son is either diffuse or discretely +personal. Son-fused creatures are united with individualized bestowals of the +spirit of the Creator Sons of the Eternal Son. + +2. CLASSIFICATION OF ADJUSTERS + +Adjusters are individuated as virgin entities, and all are destined to become +either liberated, fused, or Personalized Monitors. We understand that there are +seven orders of Thought Adjusters, although we do not altogether comprehend +these divisions. We often refer to the different orders as follows: + +1. Virgin Adjusters, those serving on their initial assignment in the minds of +evolutionary candidates for eternal survival. Mystery Monitors are eternally +uniform in divine nature. They are also uniform in experiential nature as they +first go out from Divinington; subsequent experiential differentiation is the +result of actual experience in universe ministry. + +2. Advanced Adjusters, those who have served one or more seasons with will +creatures on worlds where the final fusion takes place between the identity of +the creature of time and an individualized portion of the spirit of the local +universe manifestation of the Third Source and Center. + +3. Supreme Adjusters, those Monitors that have served in the adventure of time +on the evolutionary worlds, but whose human partners for some reason declined +eternal survival, and those that have been subsequently assigned to other +adventures in other mortals on other evolving worlds. A supreme Adjuster, +though no more divine than a virgin Monitor, has had more experience, can do +things in the human mind which a less experienced Adjuster could not do. + +4. Vanished Adjusters. Here occurs a break in our efforts to follow the careers +of the Mystery Monitors. There is a fourth stage of service about which we are +not sure. The Melchizedeks teach that the fourth-stage Adjusters are on +detached assignments, roaming the universe of universes. The Solitary +Messengers are inclined to believe that they are at one with the First Source +and Center, enjoying a period of refreshing association with the Father +himself. And it is entirely possible that an Adjuster could be roaming the +master universe simultaneously with being at one with the omnipresent Father. + +5. Liberated Adjusters, those Mystery Monitors that have been eternally +liberated from the service of time for the mortals of the evolving spheres. +What functions may be theirs, we do not know. + + top of page - 1179 + +6. Fused Adjusters--finaliters--those who have become one with the ascending +creatures of the superuniverses, the eternity partners of the time ascenders of +the Paradise Corps of the Finality. Thought Adjusters ordinarily become fused +with the ascending mortals of time, and with such surviving mortals they are +registered in and out of Ascendington; they follow the course of ascendant +beings. Upon fusion with the ascending evolutionary soul, it appears that the +Adjuster translates from the absolute existential level of the universe to the +finite experiential level of functional association with an ascending +personality. While retaining all of the character of the existential divine +nature, a fused Adjuster becomes indissolubly linked with the ascending career +of a surviving mortal. + +7. Personalized Adjusters, those who have served with the incarnated Paradise +Sons, together with many who have achieved unusual distinction during the +mortal indwelling, but whose subjects rejected survival. We have reasons for +believing that such Adjusters are personalized on the recommendations of the +Ancients of Days of the superuniverse of their assignment. + +There are many ways in which these mysterious God fragments can be classified: +according to universe assignment, by the measure of success in the indwelling +of an individual mortal, or even by the racial ancestry of the mortal candidate +for fusion. + +3. THE DIVININGTON HOME OF ADJUSTERS + +All universe activities related to the dispatch, management, direction, and +return of the Mystery Monitors from service in all of the seven superuniverses +seem to be centered on the sacred sphere of Divinington. As far as I know, none +but Adjusters and other entities of the Father have been on that sphere. It +seems likely that numerous unrevealed prepersonal entities share Divinington as +a home sphere with the Adjusters. We conjecture that these fellow entities may +in some manner be associated with the present and future ministry of the +Mystery Monitors. But we really do not know. + +When Thought Adjusters return to the Father, they go back to the realm of +supposed origin, Divinington; and probably as a part of this experience, there +is actual contact with the Father's Paradise personality as well as with the +specialized manifestation of the Father's divinity which is reported to be +situated on this secret sphere. + +Although we know something of all the seven secret spheres of Paradise, we know +less of Divinington than of the others. Beings of high spiritual orders receive +only three divine injunctions, and they are: + +1. Always to show adequate respect for the experience and endowments of their +seniors and superiors. + +2. Always to be considerate of the limitations and inexperience of their +juniors and subordinates. + +3. Never to attempt a landing on the shores of Divinington. + +I have often reflected that it would be quite useless for me to go to +Divinington; I probably should be unable to see any resident beings except such +as the Personalized Adjusters, and I have seen them elsewhere. I am very sure + + top of page - 1180 + +there is nothing on Divinington of real value or profit to me, nothing +essential to my growth and development, or I should not have been forbidden to +go there. + +Since we can learn little or nothing of the nature and origin of Adjusters from +Divinington, we are compelled to gather information from a thousand and one +different sources, and it is necessary to assemble, associate, and correlate +this accumulated data in order that such knowledge may be informative. + +The valor and wisdom exhibited by Thought Adjusters suggest that they have +undergone a training of tremendous scope and range. Since they are not +personalities, this training must be imparted in the educational institutions +of Divinington. The unique Personalized Adjusters no doubt constitute the +personnel of the Adjuster training schools of Divinington. And we do know that +this central and supervising corps is presided over by the now Personalized +Adjuster of the first Paradise Son of the Michael order to complete his +sevenfold bestowal upon the races and peoples of his universe realms. + +We really know very little about the nonpersonalized Adjusters; we only contact +and communicate with the personalized orders. These are christened on +Divinington and are always known by name and not by number. The Personalized +Adjusters are permanently domiciled on Divinington; that sacred sphere is their +home. They go out from that abode only by the will of the Universal Father. +Very few are found in the domains of the local universes, but larger numbers +are present in the central universe. + +4. NATURE AND PRESENCE OF ADJUSTERS + +To say that a Thought Adjuster is divine is merely to recognize the nature of +origin. It is highly probable that such purity of divinity embraces the essence +of the potential of all attributes of Deity which can be contained within such +a fragment of the absolute essence of the universal presence of the eternal and +infinite Paradise Father. + +The actual source of the Adjuster must be infinite, and before fusion with the +immortal soul of an evolving mortal, the reality of the Adjuster must border on +absoluteness. Adjusters are not absolutes in the universal sense, in the Deity +sense, but they are probably true absolutes within the potentialities of their +fragmented nature. They are qualified as to universality but not as to nature; +in extensiveness they are limited, but in intensiveness of meaning, value, and +fact they are absolute. For this reason we sometimes denominate the divine +gifts as the qualified absolute fragments of the Father. + +No Adjuster has ever been disloyal to the Paradise Father; the lower orders of +personal creatures may sometimes have to contend with disloyal fellows, but +never the Adjusters; they are supreme and infallible in their supernal sphere +of creature ministry and universe function. + +Nonpersonalized Adjusters are visible only to Personalized Adjusters. My order, +the Solitary Messengers, together with Inspired Trinity Spirits, can detect the +presence of Adjusters by means of spiritual reactive phenomena; and even +seraphim can sometimes discern the spirit luminosity of supposed association +with the presence of Monitors in the material minds of men; but none of us are +able actually to discern the real presence of Adjusters, not unless they have +been personalized, albeit their natures are perceivable in union with the fused +personalities of the ascending mortals from the evolutionary worlds. + + top of page - 1181 + +The universal invisibility of the Adjusters is strongly suggestive of their +high and exclusive divine origin and nature. + +There is a characteristic light, a spirit luminosity, which accompanies this +divine presence, and which has become generally associated with Thought +Adjusters. In the universe of Nebadon this Paradise luminosity is widespreadly +known as the "pilot light"; on Uversa it is called the "light of life." On +Urantia this phenomenon has sometimes been referred to as that "true light +which lights every man who comes into the world." + +To all beings who have attained the Universal Father, the Personalized Thought +Adjusters are visible. Adjusters of all stages, together with all other beings, +entities, spirits, personalities, and spirit manifestations, are always +discernible by those Supreme Creator Personalities who originate in the +Paradise Deities, and who preside over the major governments of the grand +universe. + +Can you really realize the true significance of the Adjuster's indwelling? Do +you really fathom what it means to have an absolute fragment of the absolute +and infinite Deity, the Universal Father, indwelling and fusing with your +finite mortal natures? When mortal man fuses with an actual fragment of the +existential Cause of the total cosmos, no limit can ever be placed upon the +destiny of such an unprecedented and unimaginable partnership. In eternity, man +will be discovering not only the infinity of the objective Deity but also the +unending potentiality of the subjective fragment of this same God. Always will +the Adjuster be revealing to the mortal personality the wonder of God, and +never can this supernal revelation come to an end, for the Adjuster is of God +and as God to mortal man. + +5. ADJUSTER MINDEDNESS + +Evolutionary mortals are prone to look upon mind as a cosmic mediation between +spirit and matter, for that is indeed the principal ministry of mind as +discernible by you. Hence it is quite difficult for humans to perceive that +Thought Adjusters have minds, for Adjusters are fragmentations of God on an +absolute level of reality which is not only prepersonal but also prior to all +energy and spirit divergence. On a monistic level antecedent to energy and +spirit differentiation there could be no mediating function of mind, for there +are no divergencies to be mediated. + +Since Adjusters can plan, work, and love, they must have powers of selfhood +which are commensurate with mind. They are possessed of unlimited ability to +communicate with each other, that is, all forms of Monitors above the first or +virgin groups. As to the nature and purport of their intercommunications, we +can reveal very little, for we do not know. And we further know that they must +be minded in some manner else they could never be personalized. + +The mindedness of the Thought Adjuster is like the mindedness of the Universal +Father and the Eternal Son--that which is ancestral to the minds of the +Conjoint Actor. + +The type of mind postulated in an Adjuster must be similar to the mind +endowment of numerous other orders of prepersonal entities which presumably +likewise originate in the First Source and Center. Though many of these orders +have not been revealed on Urantia, they all disclose minded qualities. It is +also possible for these individuations of original Deity to become unified with + + top of page - 1182 + +numerous evolving types of nonmortal beings and even with a limited number of +nonevolutionary beings who have developed capacity for fusion with such Deity +fragments. + +When a Thought Adjuster is fused with the evolving immortal morontia soul of +the surviving human, the mind of the Adjuster can only be identified as +persisting apart from the creature's mind until the ascending mortal attains +spirit levels of universe progression. + +Upon the attainment of the finaliter levels of ascendant experience, these +spirits of the sixth stage appear to transmute some mind factor representing a +union of certain phases of the mortal and Adjuster minds which had previously +functioned as liaison between the divine and human phases of such ascending +personalities. This experiential mind quality probably "supremacizes" and +subsequently augments the experiential endowment of evolutionary Deity--the +Supreme Being. + +6. ADJUSTERS AS PURE SPIRITS + +As Thought Adjusters are encountered in creature experience, they disclose the +presence and leading of a spirit influence. The Adjuster is indeed a spirit, +pure spirit, but spirit plus. We have never been able satisfactorily to +classify Mystery Monitors; all that can certainly be said of them is that they +are truly Godlike. + +The Adjuster is man's eternity possibility; man is the Adjuster's personality +possibility. Your individual Adjusters work to spiritize you in the hope of +eternalizing your temporal identity. The Adjusters are saturated with the +beautiful and self-bestowing love of the Father of spirits. They truly and +divinely love you; they are the prisoners of spirit hope confined within the +minds of men. They long for the divinity attainment of your mortal minds that +their loneliness may end, that they may be delivered with you from the +limitations of material investiture and the habiliments of time. + +Your path to Paradise is the path of spirit attainment, and the Adjuster nature +will faithfully unfold the revelation of the spiritual nature of the Universal +Father. Beyond the Paradise ascent and in the postfinaliter stages of the +eternal career, the Adjuster may possibly contact with the onetime human +partner in other than spirit ministry; but the Paradise ascent and the +finaliter career are the partnership between the God-knowing spiritualizing +mortal and the spiritual ministry of the God-revealing Adjuster. + +We know that Thought Adjusters are spirits, pure spirits, presumably absolute +spirits. But the Adjuster must also be something more than exclusive spirit +reality. In addition to conjectured mindedness, factors of pure energy are also +present. If you will remember that God is the source of pure energy and of pure +spirit, it will not be so difficult to perceive that his fragments would be +both. It is a fact that the Adjusters traverse space over the instantaneous and +universal gravity circuits of the Paradise Isle. + +That the Mystery Monitors are thus associated with the material circuits of the +universe of universes is indeed puzzling. But it remains a fact that they flash +throughout the entire grand universe over the material-gravity circuits. It is +entirely possible that they may even penetrate the outer space levels; they +certainly could follow the gravity presence of Paradise into these regions, + + top of page - 1183 + +and though my order of personality can traverse the mind circuits of the +Conjoint Actor also beyond the confines of the grand universe, we have never +been sure of detecting the presence of Adjusters in the uncharted regions of +outer space. + +And yet, while the Adjusters utilize the material-gravity circuits, they are +not subject thereto as is material creation. The Adjusters are fragments of the +ancestor of gravity, not the consequentials of gravity; they have segmentized +on a universe level of existence which is hypothetically antecedent to gravity +appearance. + +Thought Adjusters have no relaxation from the time of their bestowal until the +day of their release to start for Divinington upon the natural death of their +mortal subjects. And those whose subjects do not pass through the portals of +natural death do not even experience this temporary respite. Thought Adjusters +do not require energy intake; they are energy, energy of the highest and most +divine order. + +7. ADJUSTERS AND PERSONALITY + +Thought Adjusters are not personalities, but they are real entities; they are +truly and perfectly individualized, although they are never, while indwelling +mortals, actually personalized. Thought Adjusters are not true personalities; +they are true realities, realities of the purest order known in the universe of +universes--they are the divine presence. Though not personal, these marvelous +fragments of the Father are commonly referred to as beings and sometimes, in +view of the spiritual phases of their present ministry to mortals, as spirit +entities. + +If Thought Adjusters are not personalities having prerogatives of will and +powers of choice, how then can they select mortal subjects and volunteer to +indwell these creatures of the evolutionary worlds? This is a question easy to +ask, but probably no being in the universe of universes has ever found the +exact answer. Even my order of personality, the Solitary Messengers, does not +fully understand the endowment of will, choice, and love in entities that are +not personal. + +We have often speculated that Thought Adjusters must have volition on all +prepersonal levels of choice. They volunteer to indwell human beings, they lay +plans for man's eternal career, they adapt, modify, and substitute in +accordance with circumstances, and these activities connote genuine volition. +They have affection for mortals, they function in universe crises, they are +always waiting to act decisively in accordance with human choice, and all these +are highly volitional reactions. In all situations not concerned with the +domain of the human will, they unquestionably exhibit conduct which betokens +the exercise of powers in every sense the equivalent of will, maximated +decision. + +Why then, if Thought Adjusters possess volition, are they subservient to the +mortal will? We believe it is because Adjuster volition, though absolute in +nature, is prepersonal in manifestation. Human will functions on the +personality level of universe reality, and throughout the cosmos the +impersonal--the nonpersonal, the subpersonal, and the prepersonal--is ever +responsive to the will and acts of existent personality. + +Throughout a universe of created beings and nonpersonal energies we do not +observe will, volition, choice, and love manifested apart from personality. +Except in the Adjusters and other similar entities we do not witness these at- + + top of page - 1184 + +tributes of personality functioning in association with impersonal realities. +It would not be correct to designate an Adjuster as subpersonal, neither would +it be proper to allude to such an entity as superpersonal, but it would be +entirely permissible to term such a being prepersonal. + +To our orders of being these fragments of Deity are known as the divine gifts. +We recognize that the Adjusters are divine in origin, and that they constitute +the probable proof and demonstration of a reservation by the Universal Father +of the possibility of direct and unlimited communication with any and all +material creatures throughout his virtually infinite realms, and all of this +quite apart from his presence in the personalities of his Paradise Sons or +through his indirect ministrations in the personalities of the Infinite Spirit. + +There are no created beings that would not delight to be hosts to the Mystery +Monitors, but no orders of beings are thus indwelt excepting evolutionary will +creatures of finaliter destiny. + +[Presented by a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton.] + + top of page - 1185 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Universe ³ Mission And ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Levels... ³ Min... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p108.txt b/religious documents/p108.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..77c20e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p108.txt @@ -0,0 +1,595 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 108 Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 108 Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE mission of the Thought Adjusters to the human races is to represent, to be, +the Universal Father to the mortal creatures of time and space; that is the +fundamental work of the divine gifts. Their mission is also that of elevating +the mortal minds and of translating the immortal souls of men up to the divine +heights and spiritual levels of Paradise perfection. And in the experience of +thus transforming the human nature of the temporal creature into the divine +nature of the eternal finaliter, the Adjusters bring into existence a unique +type of being, a being consisting in the eternal union of the perfect Adjuster +and the perfected creature which it would be impossible to duplicate by any +other universe technique. + +Nothing in the entire universe can substitute for the fact of experience on +nonexistential levels. The infinite God is, as always, replete and complete, +infinitely inclusive of all things except evil and creature experience. God +cannot do wrong; he is infallible. God cannot experientially know what he has +never personally experienced; God's preknowledge is existential. Therefore does +the spirit of the Father descend from Paradise to participate with finite +mortals in every bona fide experience of the ascending career; it is only by +such a method that the existential God could become in truth and in fact man's +experiential Father. The infinity of the eternal God encompasses the potential +for finite experience, which indeed becomes actual in the ministry of the +Adjuster fragments that actually share the life vicissitude experiences of +human beings. + +1. SELECTION AND ASSIGNMENT + +When Adjusters are dispatched for mortal service from Divinington, they are +identical in the endowment of existential divinity, but they vary in +experiential qualities proportional to previous contact in and with +evolutionary creatures. We cannot explain the basis of Adjuster assignment, but +we conjecture that these divine gifts are bestowed in accordance with some wise +and efficient policy of eternal fitness of adaptation to the indwelt +personality. We do observe that the more experienced Adjuster is often the +indweller of the higher type of human mind; human inheritance must therefore be +a considerable factor in determining selection and assignment. + +Although we do not definitely know, we firmly believe that all Thought +Adjusters are volunteers. But before ever they volunteer, they are in +possession of full data respecting the candidate for indwelling. The seraphic +drafts of ancestry and projected patterns of life conduct are transmitted via +Paradise + + top of page - 1186 + +to the reserve corps of Adjusters on Divinington by the reflectivity technique +extending inward from the capitals of the local universes to the headquarters +of the superuniverses. This forecast covers not only the hereditary antecedents +of the mortal candidate but also the estimate of probable intellectual +endowment and spiritual capacity. The Adjusters thus volunteer to indwell minds +of whose intimate natures they have been fully apprised. + +The volunteering Adjuster is particularly interested in three qualifications of +the human candidate: + +1. Intellectual capacity. Is the mind normal? What is the intellectual +potential, the intelligence capacity? Can the individual develop into a bona +fide will creature? Will wisdom have an opportunity to function? + +2. Spiritual perception. The prospects of reverential development, the birth +and growth of the religious nature. What is the potential of soul, the probable +spiritual capacity of receptivity? + +3. Combined intellectual and spiritual powers. The degree to which these two +endowments may possibly be associated, combined, so as to produce strength of +human character and contribute to the certain evolution of an immortal soul of +survival value. + +With these facts before them, it is our belief that the Monitors freely +volunteer for assignment. Probably more than one Adjuster volunteers; perhaps +the supervising personalized orders select from this group of volunteering +Adjusters the one best suited to the task of spiritualizing and eternalizing +the personality of the mortal candidate. (In the assignment and service of the +Adjusters the sex of the creature is of no consideration.) + +The short time intervening between the volunteering and the actual dispatch of +the Adjuster is presumably spent in the Divinington schools of the Personalized +Monitors where a working pattern of the waiting mortal mind is utilized in +instructing the assigned Adjuster as to the most effective plans for +personality approach and mind spiritization. This mind model is formulated +through a combination of data supplied by the superuniverse reflectivity +service. At least this is our understanding, a belief which we hold as the +result of putting together information secured by contact with many +Personalized Adjusters throughout the long universe careers of the Solitary +Messengers. + +When once the Adjusters are actually dispatched from Divinington, practically +no time intervenes between that moment and the hour of their appearance in the +minds of their chosen subjects. The average transit time of an Adjuster from +Divinington to Urantia is 117 hours, 42 minutes, and 7 seconds. Virtually all +of this time is occupied with registration on Uversa. + +2. PREREQUISITES OF ADJUSTER INDWELLING + +Though the Adjusters volunteer for service as soon as the personality forecasts +have been relayed to Divinington, they are not actually assigned until the +human subjects make their first moral personality decision. The first moral +choice of the human child is automatically indicated in the seventh +mind-adjutant and registers instantly, by way of the local universe Creative +Spirit, over the universal mind-gravity circuit of the Conjoint Actor in the +presence of the Master Spirit of superuniverse jurisdiction, who forthwith +dispatches this intelligence to Divinington. Adjusters reach their human +subjects on + + top of page - 1187 + +Urantia, on the average, just prior to the sixth birthday. In the present +generation it is running five years, ten months, and four days; that is, on the +2,134th day of terrestrial life. + +The Adjusters cannot invade the mortal mind until it has been duly prepared by +the indwelling ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits and encircuited in the +Holy Spirit. And it requires the co-ordinate function of all seven adjutants to +thus qualify the human mind for the reception of an Adjuster. Creature mind +must exhibit the worship outreach and indicate wisdom function by exhibiting +the ability to choose between the emerging values of good and evil--moral +choice. + +Thus is the stage of the human mind set for the reception of Adjusters, but as +a general rule they do not immediately appear to indwell such minds except on +those worlds where the Spirit of Truth is functioning as a spiritual +co-ordinator of these different spirit ministries. If this spirit of the +bestowal Sons is present, the Adjusters unfailingly come the instant the +seventh adjutant mind-spirit begins to function and signalizes to the Universe +Mother Spirit that it has achieved in potential the co-ordination of the +associated six adjutants of prior ministry to such a mortal intellect. +Therefore have the divine Adjusters been universally bestowed upon all normal +minds of moral status on Urantia ever since the day of Pentecost. + +Even with a Spirit of Truth endowed mind, the Adjusters cannot arbitrarily +invade the mortal intellect prior to the appearance of moral decision. But when +such a moral decision has been made, this spirit helper assumes jurisdiction +direct from Divinington. There are no intermediaries or other intervening +authorities or powers functioning between the divine Adjusters and their human +subjects; God and man are directly related. + +Before the times of the pouring out of the Spirit of Truth upon the inhabitants +of an evolutionary world, the Adjusters' bestowal appears to be determined by +many spirit influences and personality attitudes. We do not fully comprehend +the laws governing such bestowals; we do not understand just what determines +the release of the Adjusters who have volunteered to indwell such evolving +minds. But we do observe numerous influences and conditions which appear to be +associated with the arrival of the Adjusters in such minds prior to the +bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, and they are: + +1. The assignment of personal seraphic guardians. If a mortal has not been +previously indwelt by an Adjuster, the assignment of a personal guardian brings +the Adjuster forthwith. There exists some very definite but unknown relation +between the ministry of Adjusters and the ministry of personal seraphic +guardians. + +2. The attainment of the third circle of intellectual achievement and spiritual +attainment. I have observed Adjusters arrive in mortal minds upon the conquest +of the third circle even before such an accomplishment could be signalized to +the local universe personalities concerned with such matters. + +3. Upon the making of a supreme decision of unusual spiritual import. Such +human behavior in a personal planetary crisis usually is attended by the +immediate arrival of the waiting Adjuster. + +4. The spirit of brotherhood. Regardless of the attainment of the psychic +circles and the assignment of personal guardians--in the absence of anything + + top of page - 1188 + +resembling a crisis decision--when an evolving mortal becomes dominated by the +love of his fellows and consecrated to unselfish ministry to his brethren in +the flesh, the waiting Adjuster unvaryingly descends to indwell the mind of +such a mortal minister. + +5. Declaration of intention to do the will of God. We observe that many mortals +on the worlds of space may be apparently in readiness to receive Adjusters, and +yet the Monitors do not appear. We go on watching such creatures as they live +from day to day, and presently they quietly, almost unconsciously, arrive at +the decision to begin the pursuit of the doing of the will of the Father in +heaven. And then we observe the immediate dispatch of the Thought Adjusters. + +6. Influence of the Supreme Being. On worlds where the Adjusters do not fuse +with the evolving souls of the mortal inhabitants, we observe Adjusters +sometimes bestowed in response to influences which are wholly beyond our +comprehension. We conjecture that such bestowals are determined by some cosmic +reflex action originating in the Supreme Being. As to why these Adjusters can +not or do not fuse with these certain types of evolving mortal minds we do not +know. Such transactions have never been revealed to us. + +3. ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION + +As far as we know, Adjusters are organized as an independent working unit in +the universe of universes and are apparently administered directly from +Divinington. They are uniform throughout the seven superuniverses, all local +universes being served by identical types of Mystery Monitors. We do know from +observation that there are numerous series of Adjusters involving a serial +organization that extends through races, over dispensations, and to worlds, +systems, and universes. It is, however, exceedingly difficult to keep track of +these divine gifts since they function interchangeably throughout the grand +universe. + +Adjusters are of complete record (outside of Divinington) only on the +headquarters of the seven superuniverses. The number and order of each Adjuster +indwelling each ascending creature are reported out by the Paradise authorities +to the headquarters of the superuniverse, and from there are communicated to +the headquarters of the local universe concerned and relayed to the particular +planet involved. But the local universe records do not disclose the full number +of the Thought Adjusters; the Nebadon records contain only the local universe +assignment number as designated by the representatives of the Ancients of Days. +The real significance of the Adjuster's complete number is known only on +Divinington. + +Human subjects are often known by the numbers of their Adjusters; mortals do +not receive real universe names until after Adjuster fusion, which union is +signalized by the bestowal of the new name upon the new creature by the destiny +guardian. + +Though we have the records of Thought Adjusters in Orvonton, and though we have +absolutely no authority over them or administrative connection with them, we +firmly believe that there is a very close administrative connection between the +individual worlds of the local universes and the central lodgment of the divine +gifts on Divinington. We do know that, following the appearance + + top of page - 1189 + +of a Paradise bestowal Son, an evolutionary world has a Personalized Adjuster +assigned to it as the planetary supervisor of Adjusters. + +It is interesting to note that local universe inspectors always address +themselves, when carrying out a planetary examination, to the planetary chief +of Thought Adjusters, just as they deliver charges to the chiefs of seraphim +and to the leaders of other orders of beings attached to the administration of +an evolving world. Not long since, Urantia underwent such a periodic inspection +by Tabamantia, the sovereign supervisor of all life-experiment planets in the +universe of Nebadon. And the records reveal that, in addition to his +admonitions and indictments delivered to the various chiefs of superhuman +personalities, he also delivered the following acknowledgment to the chief of +Adjusters, whether located on the planet, on Salvington, Uversa, or +Divinington, we do not definitely know, but he said: + +"Now to you, superiors far above me, I come as one placed in temporary +authority over the experimental planetary series; and I come to express +admiration and profound respect for this magnificent group of celestial +ministers, the Mystery Monitors, who have volunteered to serve on this +irregular sphere. No matter how trying the crises, you never falter. Not on the +records of Nebadon nor before the commissions of Orvonton has there ever been +offered an indictment of a divine Adjuster. You have been true to your trusts; +you have been divinely faithful. You have helped to adjust the mistakes and to +compensate for the shortcomings of all who labor on this confused planet. You +are marvelous beings, guardians of the good in the souls of this backward +realm. I pay you respect even while you are apparently under my jurisdiction as +volunteer ministers. I bow before you in humble recognition of your exquisite +unselfishness, your understanding ministry, and your impartial devotion. You +deserve the name of the Godlike servers of the mortal inhabitants of this +strife-torn, grief-stricken, and disease-afflicted world. I honor you! I all +but worship you!" + +As a result of many suggestive lines of evidence, we believe that the Adjusters +are thoroughly organized, that there exists a profoundly intelligent and +efficient directive administration of these divine gifts from some far-distant +and central source, probably Divinington. We know that they come from +Divinington to the worlds, and undoubtedly they return thereto upon the deaths +of their subjects. + +Among the higher spirit orders it is exceedingly difficult to discover the +mechanisms of administration. My order of personalities, while engaged in the +prosecution of our specific duties, is undoubtedly unconsciously participating +with numerous other personal and impersonal sub-Deity groups who unitedly are +functioning as far-flung universe correlators. We suspect that we are thus +serving because we are the only group of personalized creatures (aside from +Personalized Adjusters) who are uniformly conscious of the presence of numerous +orders of the prepersonal entities. + +We are aware of the presence of the Adjusters, who are fragments of the +prepersonal Deity of the First Source and Center. We sense the presence of the +Inspired Trinity Spirits, who are superpersonal expressions of the Paradise +Trinity. We likewise unfailingly detect the spirit presence of certain +unrevealed orders springing from the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. And +we are not wholly unresponsive to still other entities unrevealed to you. + + top of page - 1190 + +The Melchizedeks of Nebadon teach that the Solitary Messengers are the +personality co-ordinators of these various influences as they register in the +expanding Deity of the evolutionary Supreme Being. It is very possible that we +may be participants in the experiential unification of many of the unexplained +phenomena of time, but we are not consciously certain of thus functioning. + +4. RELATION TO OTHER SPIRITUAL INFLUENCES + +Apart from possible co-ordination with other Deity fragments, the Adjusters are +quite alone in their sphere of activity in the mortal mind. The Mystery +Monitors eloquently bespeak the fact that, though the Father may have +apparently resigned the exercise of all direct personal power and authority +throughout the grand universe, notwithstanding this act of abnegation in behalf +of the Supreme Creator children of the Paradise Deities, the Father has +certainly reserved to himself the unchallengeable right to be present in the +minds and souls of his evolving creatures to the end that he may so act as to +draw all creature creation to himself, co-ordinately with the spiritual gravity +of the Paradise Sons. Said your Paradise bestowal Son when yet on Urantia, "I, +if I am lifted up, will draw all men." This spiritual drawing power of the +Paradise Sons and their creative associates we recognize and understand, but we +do not so fully comprehend the methods of the all-wise Father's functioning in +and through these Mystery Monitors that live and work so valiantly within the +human mind. + +While not subordinate to, co-ordinate with, or apparently related to, the work +of the universe of universes, though acting independently in the minds of the +children of men, unceasingly do these mysterious presences urge the creatures +of their indwelling toward divine ideals, always luring them upward toward the +purposes and aims of a future and better life. These Mystery Monitors are +continually assisting in the establishment of the spiritual dominion of Michael +throughout the universe of Nebadon while mysteriously contributing to the +stabilization of the sovereignty of the Ancients of Days in Orvonton. The +Adjusters are the will of God, and since the Supreme Creator children of God +also personally embody that same will, it is inevitable that the actions of +Adjusters and the sovereignty of the universe rulers should be mutually +interdependent. Though apparently unconnected, the Father presence of the +Adjusters and the Father sovereignty of Michael of Nebadon must be diverse +manifestations of the same divinity. + +Thought Adjusters appear to come and go quite independent of any and all other +spiritual presences; they seem to function in accordance with universe laws +quite apart from those which govern and control the performances of all other +spirit influences. But regardless of such apparent independence, long-range +observation unquestionably discloses that they function in the human mind in +perfect synchrony and co-ordination with all other spirit ministries, including +adjutant mind-spirits, Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth, and other influences. + +When a world is isolated by rebellion, when a planet is cut off from all +outside encircuited communication, as was Urantia after the Caligastia +upheaval, aside from personal messengers there remains but one possibility of +direct interplanetary or universe communication, and that is through the +liaison + + top of page - 1191 + +of the Adjusters of the spheres. No matter what happens on a world or in a +universe, the Adjusters are never directly concerned. The isolation of a planet +in no way affects the Adjusters and their ability to communicate with any part +of the local universe, superuniverse, or the central universe. And this is the +reason why contacts with the supreme and the self-acting Adjusters of the +reserve corps of destiny are so frequently made on quarantined worlds. Recourse +is had to such a technique as a means of circumventing the handicaps of +planetary isolation. In recent years the archangels' circuit has functioned on +Urantia, but that means of communication is largely limited to the transactions +of the archangel corps itself. + +We are cognizant of many spirit phenomena in the far-flung universe which we +are at a loss fully to understand. We are not yet masters of all that is +transpiring about us; and I believe that much of this inscrutable work is +wrought by the Gravity Messengers and certain types of Mystery Monitors. I do +not believe that Adjusters are devoted solely to the remaking of mortal minds. +I am persuaded that the Personalized Monitors and other orders of unrevealed +prepersonal spirits are representative of the Universal Father's direct and +unexplained contact with the creatures of the realms. + +5. THE ADJUSTER'S MISSION + +The Adjusters accept a difficult assignment when they volunteer to indwell such +composite beings as live on Urantia. But they have assumed the task of existing +in your minds, there to receive the admonitions of the spiritual intelligences +of the realms and then to undertake to redictate or translate these spiritual +messages to the material mind; they are indispensable to the Paradise +ascension. + +What the Thought Adjuster cannot utilize in your present life, those truths +which he cannot successfully transmit to the man of his betrothal, he will +faithfully preserve for use in the next stage of existence, just as he now +carries over from circle to circle those items which he fails to register in +the experience of the human subject, owing to the creature's inability, or +failure, to give a sufficient degree of co-operation. + +One thing you can depend upon: The Adjusters will never lose anything committed +to their care; never have we known these spirit helpers to default. Angels and +other high types of spirit beings, not excepting the local universe type of +Sons, may occasionally embrace evil, may sometimes depart from the divine way, +but Adjusters never falter. They are absolutely dependable, and this is equally +true of all seven groups. + +Your Adjuster is the potential of your new and next order of existence, the +advance bestowal of your eternal sonship with God. By and with the consent of +your will, the Adjuster has the power to subject the creature trends of the +material mind to the transforming actions of the motivations and purposes of +the emerging morontial soul. + +The Mystery Monitors are not thought helpers; they are thought adjusters. They +labor with the material mind for the purpose of constructing, by adjustment and +spiritualization, a new mind for the new worlds and the new name of your future +career. Their mission chiefly concerns the future life, not this life. They are +called heavenly helpers, not earthly helpers. They are not + + top of page - 1192 + +interested in making the mortal career easy; rather are they concerned in +making your life reasonably difficult and rugged, so that decisions will be +stimulated and multiplied. The presence of a great Thought Adjuster does not +bestow ease of living and freedom from strenuous thinking, but such a divine +gift should confer a sublime peace of mind and a superb tranquillity of spirit. + +Your transient and ever-changing emotions of joy and sorrow are in the main +purely human and material reactions to your internal psychic climate and to +your external material environment. Do not, therefore, look to the Adjuster for +selfish consolation and mortal comfort. It is the business of the Adjuster to +prepare you for the eternal adventure, to assure your survival. It is not the +mission of the Mystery Monitor to smooth your ruffled feelings or to minister +to your injured pride; it is the preparation of your soul for the long +ascending career that engages the attention and occupies the time of the +Adjuster. + +I doubt that I am able to explain to you just what the Adjusters do in your +minds and for your souls. I do not know that I am fully cognizant of what is +really going on in the cosmic association of a divine Monitor and a human mind. +It is all somewhat of a mystery to us, not as to the plan and purpose but as to +the actual mode of accomplishment. And this is just why we are confronted with +such difficulty in finding an appropriate name for these supernal gifts to +mortal men. + +The Thought Adjusters would like to change your feelings of fear to convictions +of love and confidence; but they cannot mechanically and arbitrarily do such +things; that is your task. In executing those decisions which deliver you from +the fetters of fear, you literally supply the psychic fulcrum on which the +Adjuster may subsequently apply a spiritual lever of uplifting and advancing +illumination. + +When it comes to the sharp and well-defined conflicts between the higher and +lower tendencies of the races, between what really is right or wrong (not +merely what you may call right and wrong), you can depend upon it that the +Adjuster will always participate in some definite and active manner in such +experiences. The fact that such Adjuster activity may be unconscious to the +human partner does not in the least detract from its value and reality. + +If you have a personal guardian of destiny and should fail of survival, that +guardian angel must be adjudicated in order to receive vindication as to the +faithful execution of her trust. But Thought Adjusters are not thus subjected +to examination when their subjects fail to survive. We all know that, while an +angel might possibly fall short of the perfection of ministry, Thought +Adjusters work in the manner of Paradise perfection; their ministry is +characterized by a flawless technique which is beyond the possibility of +criticism by any being outside of Divinington. You have perfect guides; +therefore is the goal of perfection certainly attainable. + +6. GOD IN MAN + +It is indeed a marvel of divine condescension for the exalted and perfect +Adjusters to offer themselves for actual existence in the minds of material +creatures, such as the mortals of Urantia, really to consummate a probationary +union with the animal-origin beings of earth. + + top of page - 1193 + +No matter what the previous status of the inhabitants of a world, subsequent to +the bestowal of a divine Son and after the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth upon +all humans, the Adjusters flock to such a world to indwell the minds of all +normal will creatures. Following the completion of the mission of a Paradise +bestowal Son, these Monitors truly become the "kingdom of heaven within you." +Through the bestowal of the divine gifts the Father makes the closest possible +approach to sin and evil, for it is literally true that the Adjuster must +coexist in the mortal mind even in the very midst of human unrighteousness. The +indwelling Adjusters are particularly tormented by those thoughts which are +purely sordid and selfish; they are distressed by irreverence for that which is +beautiful and divine, and they are virtually thwarted in their work by many of +man's foolish animal fears and childish anxieties. + +The Mystery Monitors are undoubtedly the bestowal of the Universal Father, the +reflection of the image of God abroad in the universe. A great teacher once +admonished men that they should be renewed in the spirit of their minds; that +they become new men who, like God, are created in righteousness and in the +completion of truth. The Adjuster is the mark of divinity, the presence of God. +The "image of God" does not refer to physical likeness nor to the circumscribed +limitations of material creature endowment but rather to the gift of the spirit +presence of the Universal Father in the supernal bestowal of the Thought +Adjusters upon the humble creatures of the universes. + +The Adjuster is the wellspring of spiritual attainment and the hope of divine +character within you. He is the power, privilege, and the possibility of +survival, which so fully and forever distinguishes you from mere animal +creatures. He is the higher and truly internal spiritual stimulus of thought in +contrast with the external and physical stimulus, which reaches the mind over +the nerve-energy mechanism of the material body. + +These faithful custodians of the future career unfailingly duplicate every +mental creation with a spiritual counterpart; they are thus slowly and surely +re-creating you as you really are (only spiritually) for resurrection on the +survival worlds. And all of these exquisite spirit re-creations are being +preserved in the emerging reality of your evolving and immortal soul, your +morontia self. These realities are actually there, notwithstanding that the +Adjuster is seldom able to exalt these duplicate creations sufficiently to +exhibit them to the light of consciousness. + +And as you are the human parent, so is the Adjuster the divine parent of the +real you, your higher and advancing self, your better morontial and future +spiritual self. And it is this evolving morontial soul that the judges and +censors discern when they decree your survival and pass you upward to new +worlds and never-ending existence in eternal liaison with your faithful +partner--God, the Adjuster. + +The Adjusters are the eternal ancestors, the divine originals, of your evolving +immortal souls; they are the unceasing urge that leads man to attempt the +mastery of the material and present existence in the light of the spiritual and +future career. The Monitors are the prisoners of undying hope, the founts of +everlasting progression. And how they do enjoy communicating with their +subjects in more or less direct channels! How they rejoice when they can +dispense with symbols and other methods of indirection and flash their messages +straight to the intellects of their human partners! + + top of page - 1194 + +You humans have begun an endless unfolding of an almost infinite panorama, a +limitless expanding of never-ending, ever-widening spheres of opportunity for +exhilarating service, matchless adventure, sublime uncertainty, and boundless +attainment. When the clouds gather overhead, your faith should accept the fact +of the presence of the indwelling Adjuster, and thus you should be able to look +beyond the mists of mortal uncertainty into the clear shining of the sun of +eternal righteousness on the beckoning heights of the mansion worlds of +Satania. + +[Presented by a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton.] + + top of page - 1195 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Origin And ³ Relation Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Natu... ³ Adj... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p109.txt b/religious documents/p109.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..da23d41 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p109.txt @@ -0,0 +1,496 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 109 Relation Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 109 Relation Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Thought Adjusters are the children of the universe career, and indeed the +virgin Adjusters must gain experience while mortal creatures grow and develop. +As the personality of the human child expands for the struggles of evolutionary +existence, so does the Adjuster wax great in the rehearsals of the next stage +of ascending life. As the child acquires adaptative versatility for his adult +activities through the social and play life of early childhood, so does the +indwelling Adjuster achieve skill for the next stage of cosmic life by virtue +of the preliminary mortal planning and rehearsing of those activities which +have to do with the morontia career. Human existence constitutes a period of +practice which is effectively utilized by the Adjuster in preparing for the +increased responsibilities and the greater opportunities of a future life. But +the Adjuster's efforts, while living within you, are not so much concerned with +the affairs of temporal life and planetary existence. Today, the Thought +Adjusters are, as it were, rehearsing the realities of the universe career in +the evolving minds of human beings. + +1. DEVELOPMENT OF ADJUSTERS + +There must be a comprehensive and elaborate plan for the training and +development of virgin Adjusters before they are sent forth from Divinington, +but we really do not know very much about it. There undoubtedly also exists an +extensive system for retraining Adjusters of indwelling experience before they +embark upon new missions of mortal association, but, again, we do not actually +know. + +I have been told by Personalized Adjusters that every time a Monitor-indwelt +mortal fails of survival, when the Adjuster returns to Divinington, an extended +course of training is engaged in. This additional training is made possible by +the experience of having indwelt a human being, and it is always imparted +before the Adjuster is remanded to the evolutionary worlds of time. + +Actual living experience has no cosmic substitute. The perfection of the +divinity of a newly formed Thought Adjuster does not in any manner endow this +Mystery Monitor with experienced ministrative ability. Experience is +inseparable from a living existence; it is the one thing which no amount of +divine endowment can absolve you from the necessity of securing by actual +living. Therefore, in common with all beings living and functioning within the +present sphere of the Supreme, Thought Adjusters must acquire experience; they +must evolve from the lower, inexperienced, to the higher, more experienced, +groups. + + top of page - 1196 + +Adjusters pass through a definite developmental career in the mortal mind; they +achieve a reality of attainment which is eternally theirs. They progressively +acquire Adjuster skill and ability as a result of any and all contacts with the +material races, regardless of the survival or nonsurvival of their particular +mortal subjects. They are also equal partners of the human mind in fostering +the evolution of the immortal soul of survival capacity. + +The first stage of Adjuster evolution is attained in fusion with the surviving +soul of a mortal being. Thus, while you are in nature evolving inward and +upward from man to God, the Adjusters are in nature evolving outward and +downward from God to man; and so will the final product of this union of +divinity and humanity eternally be the son of man and the son of God. + +2. SELF-ACTING ADJUSTERS + +You have been informed of the classification of Adjusters in relation to +experience--virgin, advanced, and supreme. You should also recognize a certain +functional classification--the self-acting Adjusters. A self-acting Adjuster is +one who: + +1. Has had certain requisite experience in the evolving life of a will +creature, either as a temporary indweller on a type of world where Adjusters +are only loaned to mortal subjects or on an actual fusion planet where the +human failed of survival. Such a Monitor is either an advanced or a supreme +Adjuster. + +2. Has acquired the balance of spiritual power in a human who has made the +third psychic circle and has had assigned to him a personal seraphic guardian. + +3. Has a subject who has made the supreme decision, has entered into a solemn +and sincere betrothal with the Adjuster. The Adjuster looks beforehand to the +time of actual fusion and reckons the union as an event of fact. + +4. Has a subject who has been mustered into one of the reserve corps of destiny +on an evolutionary world of mortal ascension. + +5. At some time, during human sleep, has been temporarily detached from the +mind of mortal incarceration to perform some exploit of liaison, contact, +reregistration, or other extrahuman service associated with the spiritual +administration of the world of assignment. + +6. Has served in a time of crisis in the experience of some human being who was +the material complement of a spirit personality intrusted with the enactment of +some cosmic achievement essential to the spiritual economy of the planet. + +Self-acting Adjusters seem to possess a marked degree of will in all matters +not involving the human personalities of their immediate indwelling, as is +indicated by their numerous exploits both within and without the mortal +subjects of attachment. Such Adjusters participate in numerous activities of +the realm, but more frequently they function as undetected indwellers of the +earthly tabernacles of their own choosing. + +Undoubtedly these higher and more experienced types of Adjusters can +communicate with those in other realms. But while self-acting Adjusters do thus +intercommunicate, they do so only on the levels of their mutual work and for +the purpose of preserving custodial data essential to the Adjuster ministry + + top of page - 1197 + +of the realms of their sojourn, though on occasions they have been known to +function in interplanetary matters during times of crisis. + +Supreme and self-acting Adjusters can leave the human body at will. The +indwellers are not an organic or biologic part of mortal life; they are divine +superimpositions thereon. In the original life plans they were provided for, +but they are not indispensable to material existence. Nevertheless it should be +recorded that they very rarely, even temporarily, leave their mortal +tabernacles after they once take up their indwelling. + +The superacting Adjusters are those who have achieved the conquest of their +intrusted tasks and only await the dissolution of the material-life vehicle or +the translation of the immortal soul. + +3. RELATION OF ADJUSTERS TO MORTAL TYPES + +The character of the detailed work of Mystery Monitors varies in accordance +with the nature of their assignments, as to whether or not they are liaison or +fusion Adjusters. Some Adjusters are merely loaned for the temporal lifetimes +of their subjects; others are bestowed as personality candidates with +permission for everlasting fusion if their subjects survive. There is also a +slight variation in their work among the different planetary types as well as +in different systems and universes. But, on the whole, their labors are +remarkably uniform, more so than are the duties of any of the created orders of +celestial beings. + +On certain primitive worlds (the series one group) the Adjuster indwells the +mind of the creature as an experiential training, chiefly for self-culture and +progressive development. Virgin Adjusters are usually sent to such worlds +during the earlier times when primitive men are arriving in the valley of +decision, but when comparatively few will elect to ascend the moral heights +beyond the hills of self-mastery and character acquirement to attain the higher +levels of emerging spirituality. (Many, however, who fail of Adjuster fusion do +survive as Spirit-fused ascenders.) The Adjusters receive valuable training and +acquire wonderful experience in transient association with primitive minds, and +they are able subsequently to utilize this experience for the benefit of +superior beings on other worlds. Nothing of survival value is ever lost in all +the wide universe. + +On another type of world (the series two group) the Adjusters are merely loaned +to mortal beings. Here the Monitors can never attain fusion personality through +such indwelling, but they do afford great help to their human subjects during +the mortal lifetime, far more than they are able to give to Urantia mortals. +The Adjusters are here loaned to the mortal creatures for a single life span as +patterns for their higher spiritual attainment, temporary helpers in the +intriguing task of perfecting a survival character. The Adjusters do not return +after natural death; these surviving mortals attain eternal life through Spirit +fusion. + +On worlds such as Urantia (the series three group) there is a real betrothal +with the divine gifts, a life and death engagement. If you survive, there is to +be an eternal union, an everlasting fusion, the making of man and Adjuster one +being. + +In the three-brained mortals of this series of worlds, the Adjusters are able +to gain far more actual contact with their subjects during the temporal life +than in the one- and two-brained types. But in the career after death, the +three-brained type proceed just as do the one-brained type and the two-brained +peoples--the Urantia races. + + top of page - 1198 + +On the two-brain worlds, subsequent to the sojourn of a Paradise bestowal Son, +virgin Adjusters are seldom assigned to persons who have unquestioned capacity +for survival. It is our belief that on such worlds practically all Adjusters +indwelling intelligent men and women of survival capacity belong to the +advanced or to the supreme type. + +In many of the early evolutionary races of Urantia, three groups of beings +existed. There were those who were so animalistic that they were utterly +lacking in Adjuster capacity. There were those who exhibited undoubted capacity +for Adjusters and promptly received them when the age of moral responsibility +was attained. There was a third class who occupied a borderline position; they +had capacity for Adjuster reception, but the Monitors could only indwell the +mind on the personal petition of the individual. + +But with those beings who are virtually disqualified for survival by +disinheritance through the agency of unfit and inferior ancestors, many a +virgin Adjuster has served a valuable preliminary experience in contacting +evolutionary mind and thus has become better qualified for a subsequent +assignment to a higher type of mind on some other world. + +4. ADJUSTERS AND HUMAN PERSONALITY + +The higher forms of intelligent intercommunication between human beings are +greatly helped by the indwelling Adjusters. Animals do have fellow feelings, +but they do not communicate concepts to each other; they can express emotions +but not ideas and ideals. Neither do men of animal origin experience a high +type of intellectual intercourse or spiritual communion with their fellows +until the Thought Adjusters have been bestowed, albeit, when such evolutionary +creatures develop speech, they are on the highroad to receiving Adjusters. + +Animals do, in a crude way, communicate with each other, but there is little or +no personality in such primitive contact. Adjusters are not personality; they +are prepersonal beings. But they do hail from the source of personality, and +their presence does augment the qualitative manifestations of human +personality; especially is this true if the Adjuster has had previous +experience. + +The type of Adjuster has much to do with the potential for expression of the +human personality. On down through the ages, many of the great intellectual and +spiritual leaders of Urantia have exerted their influence chiefly because of +the superiority and previous experience of their indwelling Adjusters. + +The indwelling Adjusters have in no small measure co-operated with other +spiritual influences in transforming and humanizing the descendants of the +primitive men of olden ages. If the Adjusters indwelling the minds of the +inhabitants of Urantia were to be withdrawn, the world would slowly return to +many of the scenes and practices of the men of primitive times; the divine +Monitors are one of the real potentials of advancing civilization. + +I have observed a Thought Adjuster indwelling a mind on Urantia who has, +according to the records on Uversa, indwelt fifteen minds previously in +Orvonton. We do not know whether this Monitor has had similar experiences in +other superuniverses, but I suspect so. This is a marvelous Adjuster and one of +the most useful and potent forces on Urantia during this present age. What +others have lost, in that they refused to survive, this human being (and your +whole + + top of page - 1199 + +world) now gains. From him who has not survival qualities, shall be taken away +even that experienced Adjuster which he now has, while to him who has survival +prospects, shall be given even the pre-experienced Adjuster of a slothful +deserter. + +In a sense the Adjusters may be fostering a certain degree of planetary +cross-fertilization in the domains of truth, beauty, and goodness. But they are +seldom given two indwelling experiences on the same planet; there is no +Adjuster now serving on Urantia who has been on this world previously. I know +whereof I speak since we have their numbers and records in the archives of +Uversa. + +5. MATERIAL HANDICAPS TO ADJUSTER INDWELLING + +Supreme and self-acting Adjusters are often able to contribute factors of +spiritual import to the human mind when it flows freely in the liberated but +controlled channels of creative imagination. At such times, and sometimes +during sleep, the Adjuster is able to arrest the mental currents, to stay the +flow, and then to divert the idea procession; and all this is done in order to +effect deep spiritual transformations in the higher recesses of the +superconsciousness. Thus are the forces and energies of mind more fully +adjusted to the key of the contactual tones of the spiritual level of the +present and the future. + +It is sometimes possible to have the mind illuminated, to hear the divine voice +that continually speaks within you, so that you may become partially conscious +of the wisdom, truth, goodness, and beauty of the potential personality +constantly indwelling you. + +But your unsteady and rapidly shifting mental attitudes often result in +thwarting the plans and interrupting the work of the Adjusters. Their work is +not only interfered with by the innate natures of the mortal races, but this +ministry is also greatly retarded by your own preconceived opinions, settled +ideas, and long-standing prejudices. Because of these handicaps, many times +only their unfinished creations emerge into consciousness, and confusion of +concept is inevitable. Therefore, in scrutinizing mental situations, safety +lies only in the prompt recognition of each and every thought and experience +for just what it actually and fundamentally is, disregarding entirely what it +might have been. + +The great problem of life is the adjustment of the ancestral tendencies of +living to the demands of the spiritual urges initiated by the divine presence +of the Mystery Monitor. While in the universe and superuniverse careers no man +can serve two masters, in the life you now live on Urantia every man must +perforce serve two masters. He must become adept in the art of a continuous +human temporal compromise while he yields spiritual allegiance to but one +master; and this is why so many falter and fail, grow weary and succumb to the +stress of the evolutionary struggle. + +While the hereditary legacy of cerebral endowment and that of electrochemical +overcontrol both operate to delimit the sphere of efficient Adjuster activity, +no hereditary handicap (in normal minds) ever prevents eventual spiritual +achievement. Heredity may interfere with the rate of personality conquest, but +it does not prevent eventual consummation of the ascendant adventure. If you +will co-operate with your Adjuster, the divine gift will, sooner or later, +evolve the immortal morontia soul and, subsequent to fusion therewith, will +present the new creature to the sovereign Master Son of the local universe and +eventually to the Father of Adjusters on Paradise. + + top of page - 1200 + +6. THE PERSISTENCE OF TRUE VALUES + +Adjusters never fail; nothing worth surviving is ever lost; every meaningful +value in every will creature is certain of survival, irrespective of the +survival or nonsurvival of the meaning-discovering or evaluating personality. +And so it is, a mortal creature may reject survival; still the life experience +is not wasted; the eternal Adjuster carries the worth-while features of such an +apparent life of failure over into some other world and there bestows these +surviving meanings and values upon some higher type of mortal mind, one of +survival capacity. No worth-while experience ever happens in vain; no true +meaning or real value ever perishes. + +As related to fusion candidates, if a Mystery Monitor is deserted by the mortal +associate, if the human partner declines to pursue the ascending career, when +released by natural death (or prior thereto), the Adjuster carries away +everything of survival value which has evolved in the mind of that nonsurviving +creature. If an Adjuster should repeatedly fail to attain fusion personality +because of the nonsurvival of successive human subjects, and if this Monitor +should subsequently be personalized, all the acquired experience of having +indwelt and mastered all these mortal minds would become the actual possession +of such a newly Personalized Adjuster, an endowment to be enjoyed and utilized +throughout all future ages. A Personalized Adjuster of this order is a +composite assembly of all the survival traits of all his former creature hosts. + +When Adjusters of long universe experience volunteer to indwell divine Sons on +bestowal missions, they full well know that personality attainment can never be +achieved through this service. But often does the Father of spirits grant +personality to these volunteers and establish them as directors of their kind. +These are the personalities honored with authority on Divinington. And their +unique natures embody the mosaic humanity of their multiple experiences of +mortal indwelling and also the spirit transcript of the human divinity of the +Paradise bestowal Son of the terminal indwelling experience. + + top of page - 1201 + +The activities of Adjusters in your local universe are directed by the +Personalized Adjuster of Michael of Nebadon, that very Monitor who guided him +step by step when he lived his human life in the flesh of Joshua ben Joseph. +Faithful to his trust was this extraordinary Adjuster, and wisely did this +valiant Monitor direct the human nature, ever guiding the mortal mind of the +Paradise Son in the choosing of the path of the Father's perfect will. This +Adjuster had previously served with Machiventa Melchizedek in the days of +Abraham and had engaged in tremendous exploits both previous to this indwelling +and between these bestowal experiences. + +This Adjuster did indeed triumph in Jesus' human mind--that mind which in each +of life's recurring situations maintained a consecrated dedication to the +Father's will, saying, "Not my will, but yours, be done." Such decisive +consecration constitutes the true passport from the limitations of human nature +to the finality of divine attainment. + +This same Adjuster now reflects in the inscrutable nature of his mighty +personality the prebaptismal humanity of Joshua ben Joseph, the eternal and +living transcript of the eternal and living values which the greatest of all +Urantians created out of the humble circumstances of a commonplace life as it +was lived to the complete exhaustion of the spiritual values attainable in +mortal experience. + +Everything of permanent value which is intrusted to an Adjuster is assured +eternal survival. In certain instances the Monitor holds these possessions for +bestowal on a mortal mind of future indwelling; in others, and upon +personalization, these surviving and conserved realities are held in trust for +future utilization in the service of the Architects of the Master Universe. + +7. DESTINY OF PERSONALIZED ADJUSTERS + +We cannot state whether or not non-Adjuster Father fragments are +personalizable, but you have been informed that personality is the sovereign +freewill bestowal of the Universal Father. As far as we know, the Adjuster type +of Father fragment attains personality only by the acquirement of personal +attributes through service-ministry to a personal being. These Personalized +Adjusters are at home on Divinington, where they instruct and direct their +prepersonal associates. + +Personalized Thought Adjusters are the untrammeled, unassigned, and sovereign +stabilizers and compensators of the far-flung universe of universes. They +combine the Creator and creature experience--existential and experiential. They +are conjoint time and eternity beings. They associate the prepersonal and the +personal in universe administration. + +Personalized Adjusters are the all-wise and powerful executives of the +Architects of the Master Universe. They are the personal agents of the full +ministry of the Universal Father--personal, prepersonal, and superpersonal. +They are the personal ministers of the extraordinary, the unusual, and the +unexpected throughout all the realms of the transcendental absonite spheres of +the domain of God the Ultimate, even to the levels of God the Absolute. + +They are the exclusive beings of the universes who embrace within their being +all the known relationships of personality; they are omnipersonal--they are +before personality, they are personality, and they are after personality. They +minister the personality of the Universal Father as in the eternal past, the +eternal present, and the eternal future. + +Existential personality on the order of the infinite and absolute, the Father +bestowed upon the Eternal Son, but he chose to reserve for his own ministry the +experiential personality of the type of the Personalized Adjuster bestowed upon +the existential prepersonal Adjuster; and they are thus both destined to the +future eternal superpersonality of the transcendental ministry of the absonite +realms of the Ultimate, the Supreme-Ultimate, even to the levels of the +Ultimate-Absolute. + +Seldom are the Personalized Adjusters seen at large in the universes. +Occasionally they consult with the Ancients of Days, and sometimes the +Personalized Adjusters of the sevenfold Creator Sons come to the headquarters +worlds of the constellations to confer with the Vorondadek rulers. + +When the planetary Vorondadek observer of Urantia--the Most High custodian who +not long since assumed an emergency regency of your world--asserted his +authority in the presence of the resident governor general, he began his +emergency administration of Urantia with a full staff of his own choosing. He +immediately assigned to all his associates and assistants their planetary +duties. But he did not choose the three Personalized Adjusters who appeared in +his presence the instant he assumed the regency. He did not even know they +would + + top of page - 1202 + +thus appear, for they did not so manifest their divine presence at the time of +a previous regency. And the Most High regent did not assign service or +designate duties for these volunteer Personalized Adjusters. Nevertheless, +these three omnipersonal beings were among the most active of the numerous +orders of celestial beings then serving on Urantia. + +Personalized Adjusters perform a wide range of services for numerous orders of +universe personalities, but we are not permitted to discuss these ministries +with Adjuster-indwelt evolutionary creatures. These extraordinary human +divinities are among the most remarkable personalities of the entire grand +universe, and no one dares to predict what their future missions may be. + +[Presented by a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton.] + + top of page - 1203 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Mission And ³ Relation Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Min... ³ Adj... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p110.txt b/religious documents/p110.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb983c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p110.txt @@ -0,0 +1,732 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 110 Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 110 Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE endowment of imperfect beings with freedom entails inevitable tragedy, and +it is the nature of the perfect ancestral Deity to universally and +affectionately share these sufferings in loving companionship. + +As far as I am conversant with the affairs of a universe, I regard the love and +devotion of a Thought Adjuster as the most truly divine affection in all +creation. The love of the Sons in their ministry to the races is superb, but +the devotion of an Adjuster to the individual is touchingly sublime, divinely +Fatherlike. The Paradise Father has apparently reserved this form of personal +contact with his individual creatures as an exclusive Creator prerogative. And +there is nothing in all the universe of universes exactly comparable to the +marvelous ministry of these impersonal entities that so fascinatingly indwell +the children of the evolutionary planets. + +1. INDWELLING THE MORTAL MIND + +Adjusters should not be thought of as living in the material brains of human +beings. They are not organic parts of the physical creatures of the realms. The +Thought Adjuster may more properly be envisaged as indwelling the mortal mind +of man rather than as existing within the confines of a single physical organ. +And indirectly and unrecognized the Adjuster is constantly communicating with +the human subject, especially during those sublime experiences of the +worshipful contact of mind with spirit in the superconsciousness. + +I wish it were possible for me to help evolving mortals to achieve a better +understanding and attain a fuller appreciation of the unselfish and superb work +of the Adjusters living within them, who are so devoutly faithful to the task +of fostering man's spiritual welfare. These Monitors are efficient ministers to +the higher phases of men's minds; they are wise and experienced manipulators of +the spiritual potential of the human intellect. These heavenly helpers are +dedicated to the stupendous task of guiding you safely inward and upward to the +celestial haven of happiness. These tireless toilers are consecrated to the +future personification of the triumph of divine truth in your life everlasting. +They are the watchful workers who pilot the God-conscious human mind away from +the shoals of evil while expertly guiding the evolving soul of man toward the +divine harbors of perfection on far-distant and eternal shores. The Adjusters +are loving leaders, your safe and sure guides through the dark and uncertain +mazes of your short earthly career; they are the patient teachers who so +constantly urge their subjects forward in the paths of progressive perfection. +They are the careful custodians of the sublime values of creature character. I +wish you could love them more, co-operate with them more fully, and cherish +them more affectionately. + + top of page - 1204 + +Although the divine indwellers are chiefly concerned with your spiritual +preparation for the next stage of the never-ending existence, they are also +deeply interested in your temporal welfare and in your real achievements on +earth. They are delighted to contribute to your health, happiness, and true +prosperity. They are not indifferent to your success in all matters of +planetary advancement which are not inimical to your future life of eternal +progress. + +Adjusters are interested in, and concerned with, your daily doings and the +manifold details of your life just to the extent that these are influential in +the determination of your significant temporal choices and vital spiritual +decisions and, hence, are factors in the solution of your problem of soul +survival and eternal progress. The Adjuster, while passive regarding purely +temporal welfare, is divinely active concerning all the affairs of your eternal +future. + +The Adjuster remains with you in all disaster and through every sickness which +does not wholly destroy the mentality. But how unkind knowingly to defile or +otherwise deliberately to pollute the physical body, which must serve as the +earthly tabernacle of this marvelous gift from God. All physical poisons +greatly retard the efforts of the Adjuster to exalt the material mind, while +the mental poisons of fear, anger, envy, jealousy, suspicion, and intolerance +likewise tremendously interfere with the spiritual progress of the evolving +soul. + +Today you are passing through the period of the courtship of your Adjuster; and +if you only prove faithful to the trust reposed in you by the divine spirit who +seeks your mind and soul in eternal union, there will eventually ensue that +morontia oneness, that supernal harmony, that cosmic co-ordination, that divine +attunement, that celestial fusion, that never-ending blending of identity, that +oneness of being which is so perfect and final that even the most experienced +personalities can never segregate or recognize as separate identities the +fusion partners--mortal man and divine Adjuster. + +2. ADJUSTERS AND HUMAN WILL + +When Thought Adjusters indwell human minds, they bring with them the model +careers, the ideal lives, as determined and foreordained by themselves and the +Personalized Adjusters of Divinington, which have been certified by the +Personalized Adjuster of Urantia. Thus they begin work with a definite and +predetermined plan for the intellectual and spiritual development of their +human subjects, but it is not incumbent upon any human being to accept this +plan. You are all subjects of predestination, but it is not foreordained that +you must accept this divine predestination; you are at full liberty to reject +any part or all of the Thought Adjusters' program. It is their mission to +effect such mind changes and to make such spiritual adjustments as you may +willingly and intelligently authorize, to the end that they may gain more +influence over the personality directionization; but under no circumstances do +these divine Monitors ever take advantage of you or in any way arbitrarily +influence you in your choices and decisions. The Adjusters respect your +sovereignty of personality; they are always subservient to your will. + +They are persistent, ingenious, and perfect in their methods of work, but they +never do violence to the volitional selfhood of their hosts. No human being +will ever be spiritualized by a divine Monitor against his will; survival is a +gift of the Gods which must be desired by the creatures of time. In the final +analysis, + + top of page - 1205 + +whatever the Adjuster has succeeded in doing for you, the records will show +that the transformation has been accomplished with your co-operative consent; +you will have been a willing partner with the Adjuster in the attainment of +every step of the tremendous transformation of the ascension career. + +The Adjuster is not trying to control your thinking, as such, but rather to +spiritualize it, to eternalize it. Neither angels nor Adjusters are devoted +directly to influencing human thought; that is your exclusive personality +prerogative. The Adjusters are dedicated to improving, modifying, adjusting, +and co-ordinating your thinking processes; but more especially and specifically +they are devoted to the work of building up spiritual counterparts of your +careers, morontia transcripts of your true advancing selves, for survival +purposes. + +Adjusters work in the spheres of the higher levels of the human mind, +unceasingly seeking to produce morontia duplicates of every concept of the +mortal intellect. There are, therefore, two realities which impinge upon, and +are centered in, the human mind circuits: one, a mortal self evolved from the +original plans of the Life Carriers, the other, an immortal entity from the +high spheres of Divinington, an indwelling gift from God. But the mortal self +is also a personal self; it has personality. + +You as a personal creature have mind and will. The Adjuster as a prepersonal +creature has premind and prewill. If you so fully conform to the Adjuster's +mind that you see eye to eye, then your minds become one, and you receive the +reinforcement of the Adjuster's mind. Subsequently, if your will orders and +enforces the execution of the decisions of this new or combined mind, the +Adjuster's prepersonal will attains to personality expression through your +decision, and as far as that particular project is concerned, you and the +Adjuster are one. Your mind has attained to divinity attunement, and the +Adjuster's will has achieved personality expression. + +To the extent that this identity is realized, you are mentally approaching the +morontia order of existence. Morontia mind is a term signifying the substance +and sum total of the co-operating minds of diversely material and spiritual +natures. Morontia intellect, therefore, connotes a dual mind in the local +universe dominated by one will. And with mortals this is a will, human in +origin, which is becoming divine through man's identification of the human mind +with the mindedness of God. + +3. CO-OPERATION WITH THE ADJUSTER + +Adjusters are playing the sacred and superb game of the ages; they are engaged +in one of the supreme adventures of time in space. And how happy they are when +your co-operation permits them to lend assistance in your short struggles of +time as they continue to prosecute their larger tasks of eternity. But usually, +when your Adjuster attempts to communicate with you, the message is lost in the +material currents of the energy streams of human mind; only occasionally do you +catch an echo, a faint and distant echo, of the divine voice. + +The success of your Adjuster in the enterprise of piloting you through the +mortal life and bringing about your survival depends not so much on the +theories of your beliefs as upon your decisions, determinations, and steadfast +faith. All these movements of personality growth become powerful influences +aiding in your advancement because they help you to co-operate with the +Adjuster; they assist you in ceasing to resist. Thought Adjusters succeed or +apparently fail in + + top of page - 1206 + +their terrestrial undertakings just in so far as mortals succeed or fail to +co-operate with the scheme whereby they are to be advanced along the ascending +path of perfection attainment. The secret of survival is wrapped up in the +supreme human desire to be Godlike and in the associated willingness to do and +be any and all things which are essential to the final attainment of that +overmastering desire. + +When we speak of an Adjuster's success or failure, we are speaking in terms of +human survival. Adjusters never fail; they are of the divine essence, and they +always emerge triumphant in each of their undertakings. + +I cannot but observe that so many of you spend so much time and thought on mere +trifles of living, while you almost wholly overlook the more essential +realities of everlasting import, those very accomplishments which are concerned +with the development of a more harmonious working agreement between you and +your Adjusters. The great goal of human existence is to attune to the divinity +of the indwelling Adjuster; the great achievement of mortal life is the +attainment of a true and understanding consecration to the eternal aims of the +divine spirit who waits and works within your mind. But a devoted and +determined effort to realize eternal destiny is wholly compatible with a +light-hearted and joyous life and with a successful and honorable career on +earth. Co-operation with the Thought Adjuster does not entail self-torture, +mock piety, or hypocritical and ostentatious self-abasement; the ideal life is +one of loving service rather than an existence of fearful apprehension. + +Confusion, being puzzled, even sometimes discouraged and distracted, does not +necessarily signify resistance to the leadings of the indwelling Adjuster. Such +attitudes may sometimes connote lack of active co-operation with the divine +Monitor and may, therefore, somewhat delay spiritual progress, but such +intellectual emotional difficulties do not in the least interfere with the +certain survival of the God-knowing soul. Ignorance alone can never prevent +survival; neither can confusional doubts nor fearful uncertainty. Only +conscious resistance to the Adjuster's leading can prevent the survival of the +evolving immortal soul. + +You must not regard co-operation with your Adjuster as a particularly conscious +process, for it is not; but your motives and your decisions, your faithful +determinations and your supreme desires, do constitute real and effective +co-operation. You can consciously augment Adjuster harmony by: + +1. Choosing to respond to divine leading; sincerely basing the human life on +the highest consciousness of truth, beauty, and goodness, and then +co-ordinating these qualities of divinity through wisdom, worship, faith, and +love. + +2. Loving God and desiring to be like him--genuine recognition of the divine +fatherhood and loving worship of the heavenly Parent. + +3. Loving man and sincerely desiring to serve him--wholehearted recognition of +the brotherhood of man coupled with an intelligent and wise affection for each +of your fellow mortals. + +4. Joyful acceptance of cosmic citizenship--honest recognition of your +progressive obligations to the Supreme Being, awareness of the interdependence +of evolutionary man and evolving Deity. This is the birth of cosmic morality +and the dawning realization of universal duty. + + top of page - 1207 + +4. THE ADJUSTER'S WORK IN THE MIND + +Adjusters are able to receive the continuous stream of cosmic intelligence +coming in over the master circuits of time and space; they are in full touch +with the spirit intelligence and energy of the universes. But these mighty +indwellers are unable to transmit very much of this wealth of wisdom and truth +to the minds of their mortal subjects because of the lack of commonness of +nature and the absence of responsive recognition. + +The Thought Adjuster is engaged in a constant effort so to spiritualize your +mind as to evolve your morontia soul; but you yourself are mostly unconscious +of this inner ministry. You are quite incapable of distinguishing the product +of your own material intellect from that of the conjoint activities of your +soul and the Adjuster. + +Certain abrupt presentations of thoughts, conclusions, and other pictures of +mind are sometimes the direct or indirect work of the Adjuster; but far more +often they are the sudden emergence into consciousness of ideas which have been +grouping themselves together in the submerged mental levels, natural and +everyday occurrences of normal and ordinary psychic function inherent in the +circuits of the evolving animal mind. (In contrast with these subconscious +emanations, the revelations of the Adjuster appear through the realms of the +superconscious.) + +Trust all matters of mind beyond the dead level of consciousness to the custody +of the Adjusters. In due time, if not in this world then on the mansion worlds, +they will give good account of their stewardship, and eventually will they +bring forth those meanings and values intrusted to their care and keeping. They +will resurrect every worthy treasure of the mortal mind if you survive. + +There exists a vast gulf between the human and the divine, between man and God. +The Urantia races are so largely electrically and chemically controlled, so +highly animallike in their common behavior, so emotional in their ordinary +reactions, that it becomes exceedingly difficult for the Monitors to guide and +direct them. You are so devoid of courageous decisions and consecrated +co-operation that your indwelling Adjusters find it next to impossible to +communicate directly with the human mind. Even when they do find it possible to +flash a gleam of new truth to the evolving mortal soul, this spiritual +revelation often so blinds the creature as to precipitate a convulsion of +fanaticism or to initiate some other intellectual upheaval which results +disastrously. Many a new religion and strange "ism" has arisen from the +aborted, imperfect, misunderstood, and garbled communications of the Thought +Adjusters. + +For many thousands of years, so the records of Jerusem show, in each generation +there have lived fewer and fewer beings who could function safely with +self-acting Adjusters. This is an alarming picture, and the supervising +personalities of Satania look with favor upon the proposals of some of your +more immediate planetary supervisors who advocate the inauguration of measures +designed to foster and conserve the higher spiritual types of the Urantia +races. + +5. ERRONEOUS CONCEPTS OF ADJUSTER GUIDANCE + +Do not confuse and confound the mission and influence of the Adjuster with what +is commonly called conscience; they are not directly related. Conscience + + top of page - 1208 + +is a human and purely psychic reaction. It is not to be despised, but it is +hardly the voice of God to the soul, which indeed the Adjuster's would be if +such a voice could be heard. Conscience, rightly, admonishes you to do right; +but the Adjuster, in addition, endeavors to tell you what truly is right; that +is, when and as you are able to perceive the Monitor's leading. + +Man's dream experiences, that disordered and disconnected parade of the +un-co-ordinated sleeping mind, present adequate proof of the failure of the +Adjusters to harmonize and associate the divergent factors of the mind of man. +The Adjusters simply cannot, in a single lifetime, arbitrarily co-ordinate and +synchronize two such unlike and diverse types of thinking as the human and the +divine. When they do, as they sometimes have, such souls are translated +directly to the mansion worlds without the necessity of passing through the +experience of death. + +During the slumber season the Adjuster attempts to achieve only that which the +will of the indwelt personality has previously fully approved by the decisions +and choosings which were made during times of fully wakeful consciousness, and +which have thereby become lodged in the realms of the supermind, the liaison +domain of human and divine interrelationship. + +While their mortal hosts are asleep, the Adjusters try to register their +creations in the higher levels of the material mind, and some of your grotesque +dreams indicate their failure to make efficient contact. The absurdities of +dream life not only testify to pressure of unexpressed emotions but also bear +witness to the horrible distortion of the representations of the spiritual +concepts presented by the Adjusters. Your own passions, urges, and other innate +tendencies translate themselves into the picture and substitute their +unexpressed desires for the divine messages which the indwellers are +endeavoring to put into the psychic records during unconscious sleep. + +It is extremely dangerous to postulate as to the Adjuster content of the dream +life. The Adjusters do work during sleep, but your ordinary dream experiences +are purely physiologic and psychologic phenomena. Likewise, it is hazardous to +attempt the differentiation of the Adjusters' concept registry from the more or +less continuous and conscious reception of the dictations of mortal conscience. +These are problems which will have to be solved through individual +discrimination and personal decision. But a human being would do better to err +in rejecting an Adjuster's expression through believing it to be a purely human +experience than to blunder into exalting a reaction of the mortal mind to the +sphere of divine dignity. Remember, the influence of a Thought Adjuster is for +the most part, though not wholly, a superconscious experience. + +In varying degrees and increasingly as you ascend the psychic circles, +sometimes directly, but more often indirectly, you do communicate with your +Adjusters. But it is dangerous to entertain the idea that every new concept +originating in the human mind is the dictation of the Adjuster. More often, in +beings of your order, that which you accept as the Adjuster's voice is in +reality the emanation of your own intellect. This is dangerous ground, and +every human being must settle these problems for himself in accordance with his +natural human wisdom and superhuman insight. + +The Adjuster of the human being through whom this communication is being made +enjoys such a wide scope of activity chiefly because of this human's almost +complete indifference to any outward manifestations of the Adjuster's inner + + top of page - 1209 + +presence; it is indeed fortunate that he remains consciously quite unconcerned +about the entire procedure. He holds one of the highly experienced Adjusters of +his day and generation, and yet his passive reaction to, and inactive concern +toward, the phenomena associated with the presence in his mind of this +versatile Adjuster is pronounced by the guardian of destiny to be a rare and +fortuitous reaction. And all this constitutes a favorable co-ordination of +influences, favorable both to the Adjuster in the higher sphere of action and +to the human partner from the standpoints of health, efficiency, and +tranquillity. + +6. THE SEVEN PSYCHIC CIRCLES + +The sum total of personality realization on a material world is contained +within the successive conquest of the seven psychic circles of mortal +potentiality. Entrance upon the seventh circle marks the beginning of true +human personality function. Completion of the first circle denotes the relative +maturity of the mortal being. Though the traversal of the seven circles of +cosmic growth does not equal fusion with the Adjuster, the mastery of these +circles marks the attainment of those steps which are preliminary to Adjuster +fusion. + +The Adjuster is your equal partner in the attainment of the seven circles--the +achievement of comparative mortal maturity. The Adjuster ascends the circles +with you from the seventh to the first but progresses to the status of +supremacy and self-activity quite independent of the active co-operation of the +mortal mind. + +The psychic circles are not exclusively intellectual, neither are they wholly +morontial; they have to do with personality status, mind attainment, soul +growth, and Adjuster attunement. The successful traversal of these levels +demands the harmonious functioning of the entire personality, not merely of +some one phase thereof. The growth of the parts does not equal the true +maturation of the whole; the parts really grow in proportion to the expansion +of the entire self--the whole self--material, intellectual, and spiritual. + +When the development of the intellectual nature proceeds faster than that of +the spiritual, such a situation renders communication with the Thought Adjuster +both difficult and dangerous. Likewise, overspiritual development tends to +produce a fanatical and perverted interpretation of the spirit leadings of the +divine indweller. Lack of spiritual capacity makes it very difficult to +transmit to such a material intellect the spiritual truths resident in the +higher superconsciousness. It is to the mind of perfect poise, housed in a body +of clean habits, stabilized neural energies, and balanced chemical +function--when the physical, mental, and spiritual powers are in triune harmony +of development--that a maximum of light and truth can be imparted with a +minimum of temporal danger or risk to the real welfare of such a being. By such +a balanced growth does man ascend the circles of planetary progression one by +one, from the seventh to the first. + +The Adjusters are always near you and of you, but rarely can they speak +directly, as another being, to you. Circle by circle your intellectual +decisions, moral choosings, and spiritual development add to the ability of the +Adjuster to function in your mind; circle by circle you thereby ascend from the +lower stages of Adjuster association and mind attunement, so that the Adjuster +is increasingly enabled to register his picturizations of destiny with +augmenting vividness and conviction upon the evolving consciousness of this +God-seeking mind-soul. + + top of page - 1210 + +Every decision you make either impedes or facilitates the function of the +Adjuster; likewise do these very decisions determine your advancement in the +circles of human achievement. It is true that the supremacy of a decision, its +crisis relationship, has a great deal to do with its circle-making influence; +nevertheless, numbers of decisions, frequent repetitions, persistent +repetitions, are also essential to the habit-forming certainty of such +reactions. + +It is difficult precisely to define the seven levels of human progression, for +the reason that these levels are personal; they are variable for each +individual and are apparently determined by the growth capacity of each human +being. The conquest of these levels of cosmic evolution is reflected in three +ways: + +1. Adjuster attunement. The spiritizing mind nears the Adjuster presence +proportional to circle attainment. + +2. Soul evolution. The emergence of the morontia soul indicates the extent and +depth of circle mastery. + +3. Personality reality. The degree of selfhood reality is directly determined +by circle conquest. Persons become more real as they ascend from the seventh to +the first level of mortal existence. + +As the circles are traversed, the child of material evolution is growing into +the mature human of immortal potentiality. The shadowy reality of the embryonic +nature of a seventh circler is giving way to the clearer manifestation of the +emerging morontia nature of a local universe citizen. + +While it is impossible precisely to define the seven levels, or psychic +circles, of human growth, it is permissible to suggest the minimum and maximum +limits of these stages of maturity realization: + +The seventh circle. This level is entered when human beings develop the powers +of personal choice, individual decision, moral responsibility, and the capacity +for the attainment of spiritual individuality. This signifies the united +function of the seven adjutant mind-spirits under the direction of the spirit +of wisdom, the encircuitment of the mortal creature in the influence of the +Holy Spirit, and, on Urantia, the first functioning of the Spirit of Truth, +together with the reception of a Thought Adjuster in the mortal mind. Entrance +upon the seventh circle constitutes a mortal creature a truly potential citizen +of the local universe. + +The third circle. The Adjuster's work is much more effective after the human +ascender attains the third circle and receives a personal seraphic guardian of +destiny. While there is no apparent concert of effort between the Adjuster and +the seraphic guardian, nonetheless there is to be observed an unmistakable +improvement in all phases of cosmic achievement and spiritual development +subsequent to the assignment of the personal seraphic attendant. When the third +circle is attained, the Adjuster endeavors to morontiaize the mind of man +during the remainder of the mortal life span, to make the remaining circles, +and achieve the final stage of the divine-human association before natural +death dissolves the unique partnership. + +The first circle. The Adjuster cannot, ordinarily, speak directly and +immediately with you until you attain the first and final circle of progressive +mortal achievement. This level represents the highest possible realization of +mind-Adjuster relationship in the human experience prior to the liberation of +the evolving morontia soul from the habiliments of the material body. +Concerning mind, + + top of page - 1211 + +emotions, and cosmic insight, this achievement of the first psychic circle is +the nearest possible approach of material mind and spirit Adjuster in human +experience. + +Perhaps these psychic circles of mortal progression would be better denominated +cosmic levels--actual meaning grasps and value realizations of progressive +approach to the morontia consciousness of initial relationship of the +evolutionary soul with the emerging Supreme Being. And it is this very +relationship that makes it forever impossible fully to explain the significance +of the cosmic circles to the material mind. These circle attainments are only +relatively related to God-consciousness. A seventh or sixth circler can be +almost as truly God-knowing--sonship conscious--as a second or first circler, +but such lower circle beings are far less conscious of experiential relation to +the Supreme Being, universe citizenship. The attainment of these cosmic circles +will become a part of the ascenders' experience on the mansion worlds if they +fail of such achievement before natural death. + +The motivation of faith makes experiential the full realization of man's +sonship with God, but action, completion of decisions, is essential to the +evolutionary attainment of consciousness of progressive kinship with the cosmic +actuality of the Supreme Being. Faith transmutes potentials to actuals in the +spiritual world, but potentials become actuals in the finite realms of the +Supreme only by and through the realization of choice-experience. But choosing +to do the will of God joins spiritual faith to material decisions in +personality action and thus supplies a divine and spiritual fulcrum for the +more effective functioning of the human and material leverage of God-hunger. +Such a wise co-ordination of material and spiritual forces greatly augments +both cosmic realization of the Supreme and morontia comprehension of the +Paradise Deities. + +The mastery of the cosmic circles is related to the quantitative growth of the +morontia soul, the comprehension of supreme meanings. But the qualitative +status of this immortal soul is wholly dependent on the grasp of living faith +upon the Paradise-potential fact-value that mortal man is a son of the eternal +God. Therefore does a seventh circler go on to the mansion worlds to attain +further quantitative realization of cosmic growth just as does a second or even +a first circler. + +There is only an indirect relation between cosmic-circle attainment and actual +spiritual religious experience; such attainments are reciprocal and therefore +mutually beneficial. Purely spiritual development may have little to do with +planetary material prosperity, but circle attainment always augments the +potential of human success and mortal achievement. + +From the seventh to the third circle there occurs increased and unified action +of the seven adjutant mind-spirits in the task of weaning the mortal mind from +its dependence on the realities of the material life mechanisms preparatory to +increased introduction to morontia levels of experience. From the third circle +onward the adjutant influence progressively diminishes. + +The seven circles embrace mortal experience extending from the highest purely +animal level to the lowest actual contactual morontia level of +self-consciousness as a personality experience. The mastery of the first cosmic +circle signalizes the attainment of premorontia mortal maturity and marks the +termination of the conjoint ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits as an +exclusive influence of mind action in the human personality. Beyond the first +circle, mind + + top of page - 1212 + +becomes increasingly akin to the intelligence of the morontia stage of +evolution, the conjoined ministry of the cosmic mind and the superadjutant +endowment of the Creative Spirit of a local universe. + +The great days in the individual careers of Adjusters are: first, when the +human subject breaks through into the third psychic circle, thus insuring the +Monitor's self-activity and increased range of function (provided the indweller +was not already self-acting); then, when the human partner attains the first +psychic circle, and they are thereby enabled to intercommunicate, at least to +some degree; and last, when they are finally and eternally fused. + +7. THE ATTAINMENT OF IMMORTALITY + +The achievement of the seven cosmic circles does not equal Adjuster fusion. +There are many mortals living on Urantia who have attained their circles; but +fusion depends on yet other greater and more sublime spiritual achievements, +upon the attainment of a final and complete attunement of the mortal will with +the will of God as it is resident in the Thought Adjuster. + +When a human being has completed the circles of cosmic achievement, and +further, when the final choosing of the mortal will permits the Adjuster to +complete the association of human identity with the morontial soul during +evolutionary and physical life, then do such consummated liaisons of soul and +Adjuster go on independently to the mansion worlds, and there is issued the +mandate from Uversa which provides for the immediate fusion of the Adjuster and +the morontial soul. This fusion during physical life instantly consumes the +material body; the human beings who might witness such a spectacle would only +observe the translating mortal disappear "in chariots of fire." + +Most Adjusters who have translated their subjects from Urantia were highly +experienced and of record as previous indwellers of numerous mortals on other +spheres. Remember, Adjusters gain valuable indwelling experience on planets of +the loan order; it does not follow that Adjusters only gain experience for +advanced work in those mortal subjects who fail to survive. + +Subsequent to mortal fusion the Adjusters share your destiny and experience; +they are you. After the fusion of the immortal morontia soul and the associated +Adjuster, all of the experience and all of the values of the one eventually +become the possession of the other, so that the two are actually one entity. In +a certain sense, this new being is of the eternal past as well as for the +eternal future. All that was once human in the surviving soul and all that is +experientially divine in the Adjuster now become the actual possession of the +new and ever-ascending universe personality. But on each universe level the +Adjuster can endow the new creature only with those attributes which are +meaningful and of value on that level. An absolute oneness with the divine +Monitor, a complete exhaustion of the endowment of an Adjuster, can only be +achieved in eternity subsequent to the final attainment of the Universal +Father, the Father of spirits, ever the source of these divine gifts. + +When the evolving soul and the divine Adjuster are finally and eternally fused, +each gains all of the experiencible qualities of the other. This co-ordinate +personality possesses all of the experiential memory of survival once held by +the ancestral mortal mind and then resident in the morontia soul, and in +addition thereto this potential finaliter embraces all the experiential memory +of the + + top of page - 1213 + +Adjuster throughout the mortal indwellings of all time. But it will require an +eternity of the future for an Adjuster ever completely to endow the personality +partnership with the meanings and values which the divine Monitor carries +forward from the eternity of the past. + +But with the vast majority of Urantians the Adjuster must patiently await the +arrival of death deliverance; must await the liberation of the emerging soul +from the well-nigh complete domination of the energy patterns and chemical +forces inherent in your material order of existence. The chief difficulty you +experience in contacting with your Adjusters consists in this very inherent +material nature. So few mortals are real thinkers; you do not spiritually +develop and discipline your minds to the point of favorable liaison with the +divine Adjusters. The ear of the human mind is almost deaf to the spiritual +pleas which the Adjuster translates from the manifold messages of the universal +broadcasts of love proceeding from the Father of mercies. The Adjuster finds it +almost impossible to register these inspiring spirit leadings in an animal mind +so completely dominated by the chemical and electrical forces inherent in your +physical natures. + +Adjusters rejoice to make contact with the mortal mind; but they must be +patient through the long years of silent sojourn during which they are unable +to break through animal resistance and directly communicate with you. The +higher the Thought Adjusters ascend in the scale of service, the more efficient +they become. But never can they greet you, in the flesh, with the same full, +sympathetic, and expressionful affection as they will when you discern them +mind to mind on the mansion worlds. + +During mortal life the material body and mind separate you from your Adjuster +and prevent free communication; subsequent to death, after the eternal fusion, +you and the Adjuster are one--you are not distinguishable as separate +beings--and thus there exists no need for communication as you would understand +it. + +While the voice of the Adjuster is ever within you, most of you will hear it +seldom during a lifetime. Human beings below the third and second circles of +attainment rarely hear the Adjuster's direct voice except in moments of supreme +desire, in a supreme situation, and consequent upon a supreme decision. + +During the making and breaking of a contact between the mortal mind of a +destiny reservist and the planetary supervisors, sometimes the indwelling +Adjuster is so situated that it becomes possible to transmit a message to the +mortal partner. Not long since, on Urantia, such a message was transmitted by a +self-acting Adjuster to the human associate, a member of the reserve corps of +destiny. This message was introduced by these words: "And now, without injury +or jeopardy to the subject of my solicitous devotion and without intent to +overchastise or discourage, for me, make record of this my plea to him." Then +followed a beautifully touching and appealing admonition. Among other things, +the Adjuster pleaded "that he more faithfully give me his sincere co-operation, +more cheerfully endure the tasks of my emplacement, more faithfully carry out +the program of my arrangement, more patiently go through the trials of my +selection, more persistently and cheerfully tread the path of my choosing, more +humbly receive credit that may accrue as a result of my ceaseless +endeavors--thus transmit my admonition to the man of my indwell- + + top of page - 1214 + +ing. Upon him I bestow the supreme devotion and affection of a divine spirit. +And say further to my beloved subject that I will function with wisdom and +power until the very end, until the last earth struggle is over; I will be true +to my personality trust. And I exhort him to survival, not to disappoint me, +not to deprive me of the reward of my patient and intense struggle. On the +human will our achievement of personality depends. Circle by circle I have +patiently ascended this human mind, and I have testimony that I am meeting the +approval of the chief of my kind. Circle by circle I am passing on to judgment. +I await with pleasure and without apprehension the roll call of destiny; I am +prepared to submit all to the tribunals of the Ancients of Days." + +[Presented by a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton.] + + top of page - 1215 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Relation Of ³ The Adjuster ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Adj... ³ An... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p111.txt b/religious documents/p111.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d09d2a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p111.txt @@ -0,0 +1,625 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 111 The Adjuster And The Soul + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 111 The Adjuster And The Soul + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE presence of the divine Adjuster in the human mind makes it forever +impossible for either science or philosophy to attain a satisfactory +comprehension of the evolving soul of the human personality. The morontia soul +is the child of the universe and may be really known only through cosmic +insight and spiritual discovery. + +The concept of a soul and of an indwelling spirit is not new to Urantia; it has +frequently appeared in the various systems of planetary beliefs. Many of the +Oriental as well as some of the Occidental faiths have perceived that man is +divine in heritage as well as human in inheritance. The feeling of the inner +presence in addition to the external omnipresence of Deity has long formed a +part of many Urantian religions. Men have long believed that there is something +growing within the human nature, something vital that is destined to endure +beyond the short span of temporal life. + +Before man realized that his evolving soul was fathered by a divine spirit, it +was thought to reside in different physical organs--the eye, liver, kidney, +heart, and later, the brain. The savage associated the soul with blood, breath, +shadows and with reflections of the self in water. + +In the conception of the atman the Hindu teachers really approximated an +appreciation of the nature and presence of the Adjuster, but they failed to +distinguish the copresence of the evolving and potentially immortal soul. The +Chinese, however, recognized two aspects of a human being, the yang and the +yin, the soul and the spirit. The Egyptians and many African tribes also +believed in two factors, the ka and the ba; the soul was not usually believed +to be pre-existent, only the spirit. + +The inhabitants of the Nile valley believed that each favored individual had +bestowed upon him at birth, or soon thereafter, a protecting spirit which they +called the ka. They taught that this guardian spirit remained with the mortal +subject throughout life and passed before him into the future estate. On the +walls of a temple at Luxor, where is depicted the birth of Amenhotep III, the +little prince is pictured on the arm of the Nile god, and near him is another +child, in appearance identical with the prince, which is a symbol of that +entity which the Egyptians called the ka. This sculpture was completed in the +fifteenth century before Christ. + +The ka was thought to be a superior spirit genius which desired to guide the +associated mortal soul into the better paths of temporal living but more +especially to influence the fortunes of the human subject in the hereafter. +When an Egyptian of this period died, it was expected that his ka would be +waiting for him on the other side of the Great River. At first, only kings were +supposed to have kas, but presently all righteous men were believed to possess +them. + + top of page - 1216 + +One Egyptian ruler, speaking of the ka within his heart, said: "I did not +disregard its speech; I feared to transgress its guidance. I prospered thereby +greatly; I was thus successful by reason of that which it caused me to do; I +was distinguished by its guidance." Many believed that the ka was "an oracle +from God in everybody." Many believed that they were to "spend eternity in +gladness of heart in the favor of the God that is in you." + +Every race of evolving Urantia mortals has a word equivalent to the concept of +soul. Many primitive peoples believed the soul looked out upon the world +through human eyes; therefore did they so cravenly fear the malevolence of the +evil eye. They have long believed that "the spirit of man is the lamp of the +Lord." The Rig-Veda says: "My mind speaks to my heart." + +1. THE MIND ARENA OF CHOICE + +Though the work of Adjusters is spiritual in nature, they must, perforce, do +all their work upon an intellectual foundation. Mind is the human soil from +which the spirit Monitor must evolve the morontia soul with the co-operation of +the indwelt personality. + +There is a cosmic unity in the several mind levels of the universe of +universes. Intellectual selves have their origin in the cosmic mind much as +nebulae take origin in the cosmic energies of universe space. On the human +(hence personal) level of intellectual selves the potential of spirit evolution +becomes dominant, with the assent of the mortal mind, because of the spiritual +endowments of the human personality together with the creative presence of an +entity-point of absolute value in such human selves. But such a spirit +dominance of the material mind is conditioned upon two experiences: This mind +must have evolved up through the ministry of the seven adjutant mind-spirits, +and the material (personal) self must choose to co-operate with the indwelling +Adjuster in creating and fostering the morontia self, the evolutionary and +potentially immortal soul. + +Material mind is the arena in which human personalities live, are +self-conscious, make decisions, choose God or forsake him, eternalize or +destroy themselves. + +Material evolution has provided you a life machine, your body; the Father +himself has endowed you with the purest spirit reality known in the universe, +your Thought Adjuster. But into your hands, subject to your own decisions, has +been given mind, and it is by mind that you live or die. It is within this mind +and with this mind that you make those moral decisions which enable you to +achieve Adjusterlikeness, and that is Godlikeness. + +Mortal mind is a temporary intellect system loaned to human beings for use +during a material lifetime, and as they use this mind, they are either +accepting or rejecting the potential of eternal existence. Mind is about all +you have of universe reality that is subject to your will, and the soul--the +morontia self--will faithfully portray the harvest of the temporal decisions +which the mortal self is making. Human consciousness rests gently upon the +electrochemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-morontia +energy system above. Of neither of these two systems is the human being ever +completely conscious in his mortal life; therefore must he work in mind, of +which he is conscious. And it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind + + top of page - 1217 + +desires to comprehend that insures survival; it is not so much what mind is +like as what mind is striving to be like that constitutes spirit +identification. It is not so much that man is conscious of God as that man +yearns for God that results in universe ascension. What you are today is not so +important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity. + +Mind is the cosmic instrument on which the human will can play the discords of +destruction, or upon which this same human will can bring forth the exquisite +melodies of God identification and consequent eternal survival. The Adjuster +bestowed upon man is, in the last analysis, impervious to evil and incapable of +sin, but mortal mind can actually be twisted, distorted, and rendered evil and +ugly by the sinful machinations of a perverse and self-seeking human will. +Likewise can this mind be made noble, beautiful, true, and good--actually +great--in accordance with the spirit-illuminated will of a God-knowing human +being. + +Evolutionary mind is only fully stable and dependable when manifesting itself +upon the two extremes of cosmic intellectuality--the wholly mechanized and the +entirely spiritualized. Between the intellectual extremes of pure mechanical +control and true spirit nature there intervenes that enormous group of evolving +and ascending minds whose stability and tranquillity are dependent upon +personality choice and spirit identification. + +But man does not passively, slavishly, surrender his will to the Adjuster. +Rather does he actively, positively, and co-operatively choose to follow the +Adjuster's leading when and as such leading consciously differs from the +desires and impulses of the natural mortal mind. The Adjusters manipulate but +never dominate man's mind against his will; to the Adjusters the human will is +supreme. And they so regard and respect it while they strive to achieve the +spiritual goals of thought adjustment and character transformation in the +almost limitless arena of the evolving human intellect. + +Mind is your ship, the Adjuster is your pilot, the human will is captain. The +master of the mortal vessel should have the wisdom to trust the divine pilot to +guide the ascending soul into the morontia harbors of eternal survival. Only by +selfishness, slothfulness, and sinfulness can the will of man reject the +guidance of such a loving pilot and eventually wreck the mortal career upon the +evil shoals of rejected mercy and upon the rocks of embraced sin. With your +consent, this faithful pilot will safely carry you across the barriers of time +and the handicaps of space to the very source of the divine mind and on beyond, +even to the Paradise Father of Adjusters. + +2. NATURE OF THE SOUL + +Throughout the mind functions of cosmic intelligence, the totality of mind is +dominant over the parts of intellectual function. Mind, in its essence, is +functional unity; therefore does mind never fail to manifest this constitutive +unity, even when hampered and hindered by the unwise actions and choices of a +misguided self. And this unity of mind invariably seeks for spirit +co-ordination on all levels of its association with selves of will dignity and +ascension prerogatives. + +The material mind of mortal man is the cosmic loom that carries the morontia +fabrics on which the indwelling Thought Adjuster threads the spirit patterns + + top of page - 1218 + +of a universe character of enduring values and divine meanings--a surviving +soul of ultimate destiny and unending career, a potential finaliter. + +The human personality is identified with mind and spirit held together in +functional relationship by life in a material body. This functioning +relationship of such mind and spirit does not result in some combination of the +qualities or attributes of mind and spirit but rather in an entirely new, +original, and unique universe value of potentially eternal endurance, the soul. + +There are three and not two factors in the evolutionary creation of such an +immortal soul. These three antecedents of the morontia human soul are: + +1. The human mind and all cosmic influences antecedent thereto and impinging +thereon. + +2. The divine spirit indwelling this human mind and all potentials inherent in +such a fragment of absolute spirituality together with all associated spiritual +influences and factors in human life. + +3. The relationship between material mind and divine spirit, which connotes a +value and carries a meaning not found in either of the contributing factors to +such an association. The reality of this unique relationship is neither +material nor spiritual but morontial. It is the soul. + +The midway creatures have long denominated this evolving soul of man the +mid-mind in contradistinction to the lower or material mind and the higher or +cosmic mind. This mid-mind is really a morontia phenomenon since it exists in +the realm between the material and the spiritual. The potential of such a +morontia evolution is inherent in the two universal urges of mind: the impulse +of the finite mind of the creature to know God and attain the divinity of the +Creator, and the impulse of the infinite mind of the Creator to know man and +attain the experience of the creature. + +This supernal transaction of evolving the immortal soul is made possible +because the mortal mind is first personal and second is in contact with +superanimal realities; it possesses a supermaterial endowment of cosmic +ministry which insures the evolution of a moral nature capable of making moral +decisions, thereby effecting a bona fide creative contact with the associated +spiritual ministries and with the indwelling Thought Adjuster. + +The inevitable result of such a contactual spiritualization of the human mind +is the gradual birth of a soul, the joint offspring of an adjutant mind +dominated by a human will that craves to know God, working in liaison with the +spiritual forces of the universe which are under the overcontrol of an actual +fragment of the very God of all creation--the Mystery Monitor. And thus does +the material and mortal reality of the self transcend the temporal limitations +of the physical-life machine and attain a new expression and a new +identification in the evolving vehicle for selfhood continuity, the morontia +and immortal soul. + +3. THE EVOLVING SOUL + +The mistakes of mortal mind and the errors of human conduct may markedly delay +the evolution of the soul, although they cannot inhibit such a morontia +phenomenon when once it has been initiated by the indwelling Adjuster with the +consent of the creature will. But at any time prior to mortal death this same +material and human will is empowered to rescind such a choice and to reject +survival. Even after survival the ascending mortal still retains this +prerogative + + top of page - 1219 + +of choosing to reject eternal life; at any time before fusion with the Adjuster +the evolving and ascending creature can choose to forsake the will of the +Paradise Father. Fusion with the Adjuster signalizes the fact that the +ascending mortal has eternally and unreservedly chosen to do the Father's will. + +During the life in the flesh the evolving soul is enabled to reinforce the +supermaterial decisions of the mortal mind. The soul, being supermaterial, does +not of itself function on the material level of human experience. Neither can +this subspiritual soul, without the collaboration of some spirit of Deity, such +as the Adjuster, function above the morontia level. Neither does the soul make +final decisions until death or translation divorces it from material +association with the mortal mind except when and as this material mind +delegates such authority freely and willingly to such a morontia soul of +associated function. During life the mortal will, the personality power of +decision-choice, is resident in the material mind circuits; as terrestrial +mortal growth proceeds, this self, with its priceless powers of choice, becomes +increasingly identified with the emerging morontia-soul entity; after death and +following the mansion world resurrection, the human personality is completely +identified with the morontia self. The soul is thus the embryo of the future +morontia vehicle of personality identity. + +This immortal soul is at first wholly morontia in nature, but it possesses such +a capacity for development that it invariably ascends to the true spirit levels +of fusion value with the spirits of Deity, usually with the same spirit of the +Universal Father that initiated such a creative phenomenon in the creature +mind. + +Both the human mind and the divine Adjuster are conscious of the presence and +differential nature of the evolving soul--the Adjuster fully, the mind +partially. The soul becomes increasingly conscious of both the mind and the +Adjuster as associated identities, proportional to its own evolutionary growth. +The soul partakes of the qualities of both the human mind and the divine spirit +but persistently evolves toward augmentation of spirit control and divine +dominance through the fostering of a mind function whose meanings seek to +co-ordinate with true spirit value. + +The mortal career, the soul's evolution, is not so much a probation as an +education. Faith in the survival of supreme values is the core of religion; +genuine religious experience consists in the union of supreme values and cosmic +meanings as a realization of universal reality. + +Mind knows quantity, reality, meanings. But quality--values--is felt. That +which feels is the mutual creation of mind, which knows, and the associated +spirit, which reality-izes. + +In so far as man's evolving morontia soul becomes permeated by truth, beauty, +and goodness as the value-realization of God-consciousness, such a resultant +being becomes indestructible. If there is no survival of eternal values in the +evolving soul of man, then mortal existence is without meaning, and life itself +is a tragic illusion. But it is forever true: What you begin in time you will +assuredly finish in eternity--if it is worth finishing. + +4. THE INNER LIFE + +Recognition is the intellectual process of fitting the sensory impressions +received from the external world into the memory patterns of the individual. + + top of page - 1220 + +Understanding connotes that these recognized sensory impressions and their +associated memory patterns have become integrated or organized into a dynamic +network of principles. + +Meanings are derived from a combination of recognition and understanding. +Meanings are nonexistent in a wholly sensory or material world. Meanings and +values are only perceived in the inner or supermaterial spheres of human +experience. + +The advances of true civilization are all born in this inner world of mankind. +It is only the inner life that is truly creative. Civilization can hardly +progress when the majority of the youth of any generation devote their +interests and energies to the materialistic pursuits of the sensory or outer +world. + +The inner and the outer worlds have a different set of values. Any civilization +is in jeopardy when three quarters of its youth enter materialistic professions +and devote themselves to the pursuit of the sensory activities of the outer +world. Civilization is in danger when youth neglect to interest themselves in +ethics, sociology, eugenics, philosophy, the fine arts, religion, and +cosmology. + +Only in the higher levels of the superconscious mind as it impinges upon the +spirit realm of human experience can you find those higher concepts in +association with effective master patterns which will contribute to the +building of a better and more enduring civilization. Personality is inherently +creative, but it thus functions only in the inner life of the individual. + +Snow crystals are always hexagonal in form, but no two are ever alike. Children +conform to types, but no two are exactly alike, even in the case of twins. +Personality follows types but is always unique. + +Happiness and joy take origin in the inner life. You cannot experience real joy +all by yourself. A solitary life is fatal to happiness. Even families and +nations will enjoy life more if they share it with others. + +You cannot completely control the external world--environment. It is the +creativity of the inner world that is most subject to your direction because +there your personality is so largely liberated from the fetters of the laws of +antecedent causation. There is associated with personality a limited +sovereignty of will. + +Since this inner life of man is truly creative, there rests upon each person +the responsibility of choosing as to whether this creativity shall be +spontaneous and wholly haphazard or controlled, directed, and constructive. How +can a creative imagination produce worthy children when the stage whereon it +functions is already preoccupied by prejudice, hate, fears, resentments, +revenge, and bigotries? + +Ideas may take origin in the stimuli of the outer world, but ideals are born +only in the creative realms of the inner world. Today the nations of the world +are directed by men who have a superabundance of ideas, but they are +poverty-stricken in ideals. That is the explanation of poverty, divorce, war, +and racial hatreds. + +This is the problem: If freewill man is endowed with the powers of creativity +in the inner man, then must we recognize that freewill creativity embraces the +potential of freewill destructivity. And when creativity is turned to +destructivity, you are face to face with the devastation of evil and +sin--oppression, war, and destruction. Evil is a partiality of creativity which +tends toward + + top of page - 1221 + +disintegration and eventual destruction. All conflict is evil in that it +inhibits the creative function of the inner life--it is a species of civil war +in the personality. + +Inner creativity contributes to ennoblement of character through personality +integration and selfhood unification. It is forever true: The past is +unchangeable; only the future can be changed by the ministry of the present +creativity of the inner self. + +5. THE CONSECRATION OF CHOICE + +The doing of the will of God is nothing more or less than an exhibition of +creature willingness to share the inner life with God--with the very God who +has made such a creature life of inner meaning-value possible. Sharing is +Godlike--divine. God shares all with the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, +while they, in turn, share all things with the divine Sons and spirit Daughters +of the universes. + +The imitation of God is the key to perfection; the doing of his will is the +secret of survival and of perfection in survival. + +Mortals live in God, and so God has willed to live in mortals. As men trust +themselves to him, so has he--and first--trusted a part of himself to be with +men; has consented to live in men and to indwell men subject to the human will. + +Peace in this life, survival in death, perfection in the next life, service in +eternity--all these are achieved (in spirit) now when the creature personality +consents--chooses--to subject the creature will to the Father's will. And +already has the Father chosen to make a fragment of himself subject to the will +of the creature personality. + +Such a creature choice is not a surrender of will. It is a consecration of +will, an expansion of will, a glorification of will, a perfecting of will; and +such choosing raises the creature will from the level of temporal significance +to that higher estate wherein the personality of the creature son communes with +the personality of the spirit Father. + +This choosing of the Father's will is the spiritual finding of the spirit +Father by mortal man, even though an age must pass before the creature son may +actually stand in the factual presence of God on Paradise. This choosing does +not so much consist in the negation of creature will--"Not my will but yours be +done"--as it consists in the creature's positive affirmation: "It is my will +that your will be done." And if this choice is made, sooner or later will the +God-choosing son find inner union (fusion) with the indwelling God fragment, +while this same perfecting son will find supreme personality satisfaction in +the worship communion of the personality of man and the personality of his +Maker, two personalities whose creative attributes have eternally joined in +self-willed mutuality of expression--the birth of another eternal partnership +of the will of man and the will of God. + +6. THE HUMAN PARADOX + +Many of the temporal troubles of mortal man grow out of his twofold relation to +the cosmos. Man is a part of nature--he exists in nature--and yet he is able to +transcend nature. Man is finite, but he is indwelt by a spark of infinity. Such +a dual situation not only provides the potential for evil but also engenders + + top of page - 1222 + +many social and moral situations fraught with much uncertainty and not a little +anxiety. + +The courage required to effect the conquest of nature and to transcend one's +self is a courage that might succumb to the temptations of self-pride. The +mortal who can transcend self might yield to the temptation to deify his own +self-consciousness. The mortal dilemma consists in the double fact that man is +in bondage to nature while at the same time he possesses a unique +liberty--freedom of spiritual choice and action. On material levels man finds +himself subservient to nature, while on spiritual levels he is triumphant over +nature and over all things temporal and finite. Such a paradox is inseparable +from temptation, potential evil, decisional errors, and when self becomes proud +and arrogant, sin may evolve. + +The problem of sin is not self-existent in the finite world. The fact of +finiteness is not evil or sinful. The finite world was made by an infinite +Creator--it is the handiwork of his divine Sons--and therefore it must be good. +It is the misuse, distortion, and perversion of the finite that gives origin to +evil and sin. + +The spirit can dominate mind; so mind can control energy. But mind can control +energy only through its own intelligent manipulation of the metamorphic +potentials inherent in the mathematical level of the causes and effects of the +physical domains. Creature mind does not inherently control energy; that is a +Deity prerogative. But creature mind can and does manipulate energy just in so +far as it has become master of the energy secrets of the physical universe. + +When man wishes to modify physical reality, be it himself or his environment, +he succeeds to the extent that he has discovered the ways and means of +controlling matter and directing energy. Unaided mind is impotent to influence +anything material save its own physical mechanism, with which it is inescapably +linked. But through the intelligent use of the body mechanism, mind can create +other mechanisms, even energy relationships and living relationships, by the +utilization of which this mind can increasingly control and even dominate its +physical level in the universe. + +Science is the source of facts, and mind cannot operate without facts. They are +the building blocks in the construction of wisdom which are cemented together +by life experience. Man can find the love of God without facts, and man can +discover the laws of God without love, but man can never begin to appreciate +the infinite symmetry, the supernal harmony, the exquisite repleteness of the +all-inclusive nature of the First Source and Center until he has found divine +law and divine love and has experientially unified these in his own evolving +cosmic philosophy. + +The expansion of material knowledge permits a greater intellectual appreciation +of the meanings of ideas and the values of ideals. A human being can find truth +in his inner experience, but he needs a clear knowledge of facts to apply his +personal discovery of truth to the ruthlessly practical demands of everyday +life. + +It is only natural that mortal man should be harassed by feelings of insecurity +as he views himself inextricably bound to nature while he possesses spiritual +powers wholly transcendent to all things temporal and finite. Only religious +confidence--living faith--can sustain man amid such difficult and perplexing +problems. + + top of page - 1223 + +Of all the dangers which beset man's mortal nature and jeopardize his spiritual +integrity, pride is the greatest. Courage is valorous, but egotism is +vainglorious and suicidal. Reasonable self-confidence is not to be deplored. +Man's ability to transcend himself is the one thing which distinguishes him +from the animal kingdom. + +Pride is deceitful, intoxicating, and sin-breeding whether found in an +individual, a group, a race, or a nation. It is literally true, "Pride goes +before a fall." + +7. THE ADJUSTER'S PROBLEM + +Uncertainty with security is the essence of the Paradise adventure--uncertainty +in time and in mind, uncertainty as to the events of the unfolding Paradise +ascent; security in spirit and in eternity, security in the unqualified trust +of the creature son in the divine compassion and infinite love of the Universal +Father; uncertainty as an inexperienced citizen of the universe; security as an +ascending son in the universe mansions of an all-powerful, all-wise, and +all-loving Father. + +May I admonish you to heed the distant echo of the Adjuster's faithful call to +your soul? The indwelling Adjuster cannot stop or even materially alter your +career struggle of time; the Adjuster cannot lessen the hardships of life as +you journey on through this world of toil. The divine indweller can only +patiently forbear while you fight the battle of life as it is lived on your +planet; but you could, if you only would--as you work and worry, as you fight +and toil--permit the valiant Adjuster to fight with you and for you. You could +be so comforted and inspired, so enthralled and intrigued, if you would only +allow the Adjuster constantly to bring forth the pictures of the real motive, +the final aim, and the eternal purpose of all this difficult, uphill struggle +with the commonplace problems of your present material world. + +Why do you not aid the Adjuster in the task of showing you the spiritual +counterpart of all these strenuous material efforts? Why do you not allow the +Adjuster to strengthen you with the spiritual truths of cosmic power while you +wrestle with the temporal difficulties of creature existence? Why do you not +encourage the heavenly helper to cheer you with the clear vision of the eternal +outlook of universal life as you gaze in perplexity at the problems of the +passing hour? Why do you refuse to be enlightened and inspired by the universe +viewpoint while you toil amidst the handicaps of time and flounder in the maze +of uncertainties which beset your mortal life journey? Why not allow the +Adjuster to spiritualize your thinking, even though your feet must tread the +material paths of earthly endeavor? + +The higher human races of Urantia are complexly admixed; they are a blend of +many races and stocks of different origin. This composite nature renders it +exceedingly difficult for the Monitors to work efficiently during life and adds +definitely to the problems of both the Adjuster and the guardian seraphim after +death. Not long since I was present on Salvington and heard a guardian of +destiny present a formal statement in extenuation of the difficulties of +ministering to her mortal subject. This seraphim said: + +"Much of my difficulty was due to the unending conflict between the two natures +of my subject: the urge of ambition opposed by animal indolence; + + top of page - 1224 + +the ideals of a superior people crossed by the instincts of an inferior race; +the high purposes of a great mind antagonized by the urge of a primitive +inheritance; the long-distance view of a far-seeing Monitor counteracted by the +nearsightedness of a creature of time; the progressive plans of an ascending +being modified by the desires and longings of a material nature; the flashes of +universe intelligence cancelled by the chemical-energy mandates of the evolving +race; the urge of angels opposed by the emotions of an animal; the training of +an intellect annulled by the tendencies of instinct; the experience of the +individual opposed by the accumulated propensities of the race; the aims of the +best overshadowed by the drift of the worst; the flight of genius neutralized +by the gravity of mediocrity; the progress of the good retarded by the inertia +of the bad; the art of the beautiful besmirched by the presence of evil; the +buoyancy of health neutralized by the debility of disease; the fountain of +faith polluted by the poisons of fear; the spring of joy embittered by the +waters of sorrow; the gladness of anticipation disillusioned by the bitterness +of realization; the joys of living ever threatened by the sorrows of death. +Such a life on such a planet! And yet, because of the ever-present help and +urge of the Thought Adjuster, this soul did achieve a fair degree of happiness +and success and has even now ascended to the judgment halls of mansonia." + +[Presented by a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton.] + + top of page - 1225 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Relation Of ³ Personality ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Adj... ³ Sur... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p112.txt b/religious documents/p112.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1a14a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p112.txt @@ -0,0 +1,977 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 112 Personality Survival + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... Personality Survival +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 112 Personality Survival + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE evolutionary planets are the spheres of human origin, the initial worlds of +the ascending mortal career. Urantia is your starting point; here you and your +divine Thought Adjuster are joined in temporary union. You have been endowed +with a perfect guide; therefore, if you will sincerely run the race of time and +gain the final goal of faith, the reward of the ages shall be yours; you will +be eternally united with your indwelling Adjuster. Then will begin your real +life, the ascending life, to which your present mortal state is but the +vestibule. Then will begin your exalted and progressive mission as finaliters +in the eternity which stretches out before you. And throughout all of these +successive ages and stages of evolutionary growth, there is one part of you +that remains absolutely unaltered, and that is personality--permanence in the +presence of change. + +While it would be presumptuous to attempt the definition of personality, it may +prove helpful to recount some of the things which are known about personality: + +1. Personality is that quality in reality which is bestowed by the Universal +Father himself or by the Conjoint Actor, acting for the Father. + +2. It may be bestowed upon any living energy system which includes mind or +spirit. + +3. It is not wholly subject to the fetters of antecedent causation. It is +relatively creative or cocreative. + +4. When bestowed upon evolutionary material creatures, it causes spirit to +strive for the mastery of energy-matter through the mediation of mind. + +5. Personality, while devoid of identity, can unify the identity of any living +energy system. + +6. It discloses only qualitative response to the personality circuit in +contradistinction to the three energies which show both qualitative and +quantitative response to gravity. + +7. Personality is changeless in the presence of change. + +8. It can make a gift to God--dedication of the free will to the doing of the +will of God. + +9. It is characterized by morality--awareness of relativity of relationship +with other persons. It discerns conduct levels and choosingly discriminates +between them. + +10. Personality is unique, absolutely unique: It is unique in time and space; +it is unique in eternity and on Paradise; it is unique when bestowed--there are + + top of page - 1226 + +no duplicates; it is unique during every moment of existence; it is unique in +relation to God--he is no respecter of persons, but neither does he add them +together, for they are nonaddable--they are associable but nontotalable. + +11. Personality responds directly to other-personality presence. + +12. It is one thing which can be added to spirit, thus illustrating the primacy +of the Father in relation to the Son. (Mind does not have to be added to +spirit.) + +13. Personality may survive mortal death with identity in the surviving soul. +The Adjuster and the personality are changeless; the relationship between them +(in the soul) is nothing but change, continuing evolution; and if this change +(growth) ceased, the soul would cease. + +14. Personality is uniquely conscious of time, and this is something other than +the time perception of mind or spirit. + +1. PERSONALITY AND REALITY + +Personality is bestowed by the Universal Father upon his creatures as a +potentially eternal endowment. Such a divine gift is designed to function on +numerous levels and in successive universe situations ranging from the lowly +finite to the highest absonite, even to the borders of the absolute. +Personality thus performs on three cosmic planes or in three universe phases: + +1. Position status. Personality functions equally efficiently in the local +universe, in the superuniverse, and in the central universe. + +2. Meaning status. Personality performs effectively on the levels of the +finite, the absonite, and even as impinging upon the absolute. + +3. Value status. Personality can be experientially realized in the progressive +realms of the material, the morontial, and the spiritual. + +Personality has a perfected range of cosmic dimensional performance. The +dimensions of finite personality are three, and they are roughly functional as +follows: + +1. Length represents direction and nature of progression--movement through +space and according to time--evolution. + +2. Vertical depth embraces the organismal drives and attitudes, the varying +levels of self-realization and the general phenomenon of reaction to +environment. + +3. Breadth embraces the domain of co-ordination, association, and selfhood +organization. + +The type of personality bestowed upon Urantia mortals has a potentiality of +seven dimensions of self-expression or person-realization. These dimensional +phenomena are realizable as three on the finite level, three on the absonite +level, and one on the absolute level. On subabsolute levels this seventh or +totality dimension is experiencible as the fact of personality. This supreme +dimension is an associable absolute and, while not infinite, is dimensionally +potential for subinfinite penetration of the absolute. + +The finite dimensions of personality have to do with cosmic length, depth, and +breadth. Length denotes meaning; depth signifies value; breadth embraces +insight--the capacity to experience unchallengeable consciousness of cosmic +reality. + + top of page - 1227 + +On the morontia level all of these finite dimensions of the material level are +greatly enhanced, and certain new dimensional values are realizable. All these +enlarged dimensional experiences of the morontia level are marvelously +articulated with the supreme or personality dimension through the influence of +mota and also because of the contribution of morontia mathematics. + +Much trouble experienced by mortals in their study of human personality could +be avoided if the finite creature would remember that dimensional levels and +spiritual levels are not co-ordinated in experiential personality realization. + +Life is really a process which takes place between the organism (selfhood) and +its environment. The personality imparts value of identity and meanings of +continuity to this organismal-environmental association. Thus it will be +recognized that the phenomenon of stimulus-response is not a mere mechanical +process since the personality functions as a factor in the total situation. It +is ever true that mechanisms are innately passive; organisms, inherently +active. + +Physical life is a process taking place not so much within the organism as +between the organism and the environment. And every such process tends to +create and establish organismal patterns of reaction to such an environment. +And all such directive patterns are highly influential in goal choosing. + +It is through the mediation of mind that the self and the environment establish +meaningful contact. The ability and willingness of the organism to make such +significant contacts with environment (response to a drive) represents the +attitude of the whole personality. + +Personality cannot very well perform in isolation. Man is innately a social +creature; he is dominated by the craving of belongingness. It is literally +true, "No man lives unto himself." + +But the concept of the personality as the meaning of the whole of the living +and functioning creature means much more than the integration of relationships; +it signifies the unification of all factors of reality as well as co-ordination +of relationships. Relationships exist between two objects, but three or more +objects eventuate a system, and such a system is much more than just an +enlarged or complex relationship. This distinction is vital, for in a cosmic +system the individual members are not connected with each other except in +relation to the whole and through the individuality of the whole. + +In the human organism the summation of its parts constitutes +selfhood--individuality--but such a process has nothing whatever to do with +personality, which is the unifier of all these factors as related to cosmic +realities. + +In aggregations parts are added; in systems parts are arranged. Systems are +significant because of organization--positional values. In a good system all +factors are in cosmic position. In a bad system something is either missing or +displaced--deranged. In the human system it is the personality which unifies +all activities and in turn imparts the qualities of identity and creativity. + +2. THE SELF + +It would be helpful in the study of selfhood to remember: + +1. That physical systems are subordinate. + +2. That intellectual systems are co-ordinate. + +3. That personality is superordinate. + +4. That the indwelling spiritual force is potentially directive. + + top of page - 1228 + +In all concepts of selfhood it should be recognized that the fact of life comes +first, its evaluation or interpretation later. The human child first lives and +subsequently thinks about his living. In the cosmic economy insight precedes +foresight. + +The universe fact of God's becoming man has forever changed all meanings and +altered all values of human personality. In the true meaning of the word, love +connotes mutual regard of whole personalities, whether human or divine or human +and divine. Parts of the self may function in numerous ways--thinking, feeling, +wishing--but only the co-ordinated attributes of the whole personality are +focused in intelligent action; and all of these powers are associated with the +spiritual endowment of the mortal mind when a human being sincerely and +unselfishly loves another being, human or divine. + +All mortal concepts of reality are based on the assumption of the actuality of +human personality; all concepts of superhuman realities are based on the +experience of the human personality with and in the cosmic realities of certain +associated spiritual entities and divine personalities. Everything nonspiritual +in human experience, excepting personality, is a means to an end. Every true +relationship of mortal man with other persons--human or divine--is an end in +itself. And such fellowship with the personality of Deity is the eternal goal +of universe ascension. + +The possession of personality identifies man as a spiritual being since the +unity of selfhood and the self-consciousness of personality are endowments of +the supermaterial world. The very fact that a mortal materialist can deny the +existence of supermaterial realities in and of itself demonstrates the +presence, and indicates the working, of spirit synthesis and cosmic +consciousness in his human mind. + +There exists a great cosmic gulf between matter and thought, and this gulf is +immeasurably greater between material mind and spiritual love. Consciousness, +much less self-consciousness, cannot be explained by any theory of mechanistic +electronic association or materialistic energy phenomena. + +As mind pursues reality to its ultimate analysis, matter vanishes to the +material senses but may still remain real to mind. When spiritual insight +pursues that reality which remains after the disappearance of matter and +pursues it to an ultimate analysis, it vanishes to mind, but the insight of +spirit can still perceive cosmic realities and supreme values of a spiritual +nature. Accordingly does science give way to philosophy, while philosophy must +surrender to the conclusions inherent in genuine spiritual experience. Thinking +surrenders to wisdom, and wisdom is lost in enlightened and reflective worship. + +In science the human self observes the material world; philosophy is the +observation of this observation of the material world; religion, true spiritual +experience, is the experiential realization of the cosmic reality of the +observation of the observation of all this relative synthesis of the energy +materials of time and space. To build a philosophy of the universe on an +exclusive materialism is to ignore the fact that all things material are +initially conceived as real in the experience of human consciousness. The +observer cannot be the thing observed; evaluation demands some degree of +transcendence of the thing which is evaluated. + +In time, thinking leads to wisdom and wisdom leads to worship; in eternity, +worship leads to wisdom, and wisdom eventuates in the finality of thought. + + top of page - 1229 + +The possibility of the unification of the evolving self is inherent in the +qualities of its constitutive factors: the basic energies, the master tissues, +the fundamental chemical overcontrol, the supreme ideas, the supreme motives, +the supreme goals, and the divine spirit of Paradise bestowal--the secret of +the self-consciousness of man's spiritual nature. + +The purpose of cosmic evolution is to achieve unity of personality through +increasing spirit dominance, volitional response to the teaching and leading of +the Thought Adjuster. Personality, both human and superhuman, is characterized +by an inherent cosmic quality which may be called "the evolution of dominance," +the expansion of the control of both itself and its environment. + +An ascending onetime human personality passes through two great phases of +increasing volitional dominance over the self and in the universe: + +1. The prefinaliter or God-seeking experience of augmenting the +self-realization through a technique of identity expansion and actualization +together with cosmic problem solving and consequent universe mastery. + +2. The postfinaliter or God-revealing experience of the creative expansion of +self-realization through revealing the Supreme Being of experience to the +God-seeking intelligences who have not yet attained the divine levels of +Godlikeness. + +Descending personalities attain analogous experiences through their various +universe adventures as they seek for enlarged capacity for ascertaining and +executing the divine wills of the Supreme, Ultimate, and Absolute Deities. + +The material self, the ego-entity of human identity, is dependent during the +physical life on the continuing function of the material life vehicle, on the +continued existence of the unbalanced equilibrium of energies and intellect +which, on Urantia, has been given the name life. But selfhood of survival +value, selfhood that can transcend the experience of death, is only evolved by +establishing a potential transfer of the seat of the identity of the evolving +personality from the transient life vehicle--the material body--to the more +enduring and immortal nature of the morontia soul and on beyond to those levels +whereon the soul becomes infused with, and eventually attains the status of, +spirit reality. This actual transfer from material association to morontia +identification is effected by the sincerity, persistence, and steadfastness of +the God-seeking decisions of the human creature. + +3. THE PHENOMENON OF DEATH + +Urantians generally recognize only one kind of death, the physical cessation of +life energies; but concerning personality survival there are really three +kinds: + +1. Spiritual (soul) death. If and when mortal man has finally rejected +survival, when he has been pronounced spiritually insolvent, morontially +bankrupt, in the conjoint opinion of the Adjuster and the surviving seraphim, +when such co-ordinate advice has been recorded on Uversa, and after the Censors +and their reflective associates have verified these findings, thereupon do the +rulers of Orvonton order the immediate release of the indwelling Monitor. But +this release of the Adjuster in no way affects the duties of the personal or +group + + top of page - 1230 + +seraphim concerned with that Adjuster-abandoned individual. This kind of death +is final in its significance irrespective of the temporary continuation of the +living energies of the physical and mind mechanisms. From the cosmic standpoint +the mortal is already dead; the continuing life merely indicates the +persistence of the material momentum of cosmic energies. + +2. Intellectual (mind) death. When the vital circuits of higher adjutant +ministry are disrupted through the aberrations of intellect or because of the +partial destruction of the mechanism of the brain, and if these conditions pass +a certain critical point of irreparability, the indwelling Adjuster is +immediately released to depart for Divinington. On the universe records a +mortal personality is considered to have met with death whenever the essential +mind circuits of human will-action have been destroyed. And again, this is +death, irrespective of the continuing function of the living mechanism of the +physical body. The body minus the volitional mind is no longer human, but +according to the prior choosing of the human will, the soul of such an +individual may survive. + +3. Physical (body and mind) death. When death overtakes a human being, the +Adjuster remains in the citadel of the mind until it ceases to function as an +intelligent mechanism, about the time that the measurable brain energies cease +their rhythmic vital pulsations. Following this dissolution the Adjuster takes +leave of the vanishing mind, just as unceremoniously as entry was made years +before, and proceeds to Divinington by way of Uversa. + +After death the material body returns to the elemental world from which it was +derived, but two nonmaterial factors of surviving personality persist: The +pre-existent Thought Adjuster, with the memory transcription of the mortal +career, proceeds to Divinington; and there also remains, in the custody of the +destiny guardian, the immortal morontia soul of the deceased human. These +phases and forms of soul, these once kinetic but now static formulas of +identity, are essential to repersonalization on the morontia worlds; and it is +the reunion of the Adjuster and the soul that reassembles the surviving +personality, that reconsciousizes you at the time of the morontia awakening. + +For those who do not have personal seraphic guardians, the group custodians +faithfully and efficiently perform the same service of identity safekeeping and +personality resurrection. The seraphim are indispensable to the reassembly of +personality. + +Upon death the Thought Adjuster temporarily loses personality, but not +identity; the human subject temporarily loses identity, but not personality; on +the mansion worlds both reunite in eternal manifestation. Never does a departed +Thought Adjuster return to earth as the being of former indwelling; never is +personality manifested without the human will; and never does a dis-Adjustered +human being after death manifest active identity or in any manner establish +communication with the living beings of earth. Such dis-Adjustered souls are +wholly and absolutely unconscious during the long or short sleep of death. +There can be no exhibition of any sort of personality or ability to engage in +communications with other personalities until after completion of survival. +Those who go to the mansion worlds are not permitted to send messages back to +their loved ones. It is the policy throughout the universes to forbid such +communication during the period of a current dispensation. + + top of page - 1231 + +4. ADJUSTERS AFTER DEATH + +When death of a material, intellectual, or spiritual nature occurs, the +Adjuster bids farewell to the mortal host and departs for Divinington. From the +headquarters of the local universe and the superuniverse a reflective contact +is made with the supervisors of both governments, and the Monitor is registered +out by the same number that recorded entry into the domains of time. + +In some way not fully understood, the Universal Censors are able to gain +possession of an epitome of the human life as it is embodied in the Adjuster's +duplicate transcription of the spiritual values and morontia meanings of the +indwelt mind. The Censors are able to appropriate the Adjuster's version of the +deceased human's survival character and spiritual qualities, and all this data, +together with the seraphic records, is available for presentation at the time +of the adjudication of the individual concerned. This information is also used +to confirm those superuniverse mandates which make it possible for certain +ascenders immediately to begin their morontia careers, upon mortal dissolution +to proceed to the mansion worlds ahead of the formal termination of a planetary +dispensation. + +Subsequent to physical death, except in individuals translated from among the +living, the released Adjuster goes immediately to the home sphere of +Divinington. The details of what transpires on that world during the time of +awaiting the factual reappearance of the surviving mortal depend chiefly on +whether the human being ascends to the mansion worlds in his own individual +right or awaits a dispensational summoning of the sleeping survivors of a +planetary age. + +If the mortal associate belongs to a group that will be repersonalized at the +end of a dispensation, the Adjuster will not immediately return to the mansion +world of the former system of service but will, according to choice, enter upon +one of the following temporary assignments: + +1. Be mustered into the ranks of vanished Monitors for undisclosed service. + +2. Be assigned for a period to the observation of the Paradise regime. + +3. Be enrolled in one of the many training schools of Divinington. + +4. Be stationed for a time as a student observer on one of the other six sacred +spheres which constitute the Father's circuit of Paradise worlds. + +5. Be assigned to the messenger service of the Personalized Adjusters. + +6. Become an associate instructor in the Divinington schools devoted to the +training of Monitors belonging to the virgin group. + +7. Be assigned to select a group of possible worlds on which to serve in the +event that there is reasonable cause for believing that the human partner may +have rejected survival. + +If, when death overtakes you, you have attained the third circle or a higher +realm and therefore have had assigned to you a personal guardian of destiny, +and if the final transcript of the summary of survival character submitted by +the Adjuster is unconditionally certified by the destiny guardian--if both +seraphim and Adjuster essentially agree in every item of their life records and +recommendations--if the Universal Censors and their reflective associates + + top of page - 1232 + +on Uversa confirm this data and do so without equivocation or reservation, in +that event the Ancients of Days flash forth the mandate of advanced standing +over the communication circuits to Salvington, and, thus released, the +tribunals of the Sovereign of Nebadon will decree the immediate passage of the +surviving soul to the resurrection halls of the mansion worlds. + +If the human individual survives without delay, the Adjuster, so I am +instructed, registers at Divinington, proceeds to the Paradise presence of the +Universal Father, returns immediately and is embraced by the Personalized +Adjusters of the superuniverse and local universe of assignment, receives the +recognition of the chief Personalized Monitor of Divinington, and then, at +once, passes into the "realization of identity transition," being summoned +therefrom on the third period and on the mansion world in the actual +personality form made ready for the reception of the surviving soul of the +earth mortal as that form has been projected by the guardian of destiny. + +5. SURVIVAL OF THE HUMAN SELF + +Selfhood is a cosmic reality whether material, morontial, or spiritual. The +actuality of the personal is the bestowal of the Universal Father acting in and +of himself or through his manifold universe agencies. To say that a being is +personal is to recognize the relative individuation of such a being within the +cosmic organism. The living cosmos is an all but infinitely integrated +aggregation of real units, all of which are relatively subject to the destiny +of the whole. But those that are personal have been endowed with the actual +choice of destiny acceptance or of destiny rejection. + +That which comes from the Father is like the Father eternal, and this is just +as true of personality, which God gives by his own freewill choice, as it is of +the divine Thought Adjuster, an actual fragment of God. Man's personality is +eternal but with regard to identity a conditioned eternal reality. Having +appeared in response to the Father's will, personality will attain Deity +destiny, but man must choose whether or not he will be present at the +attainment of such destiny. In default of such choice, personality attains +experiential Deity directly, becoming a part of the Supreme Being. The cycle is +foreordained, but man's participation therein is optional, personal, and +experiential. + +Mortal identity is a transient time-life condition in the universe; it is real +only in so far as the personality elects to become a continuing universe +phenomenon. This is the essential difference between man and an energy system: +The energy system must continue, it has no choice; but man has everything to do +with determining his own destiny. The Adjuster is truly the path to Paradise, +but man himself must pursue that path by his own deciding, his freewill +choosing. + +Human beings possess identity only in the material sense. Such qualities of the +self are expressed by the material mind as it functions in the energy system of +the intellect. When it is said that man has identity, it is recognized that he +is in possession of a mind circuit which has been placed in subordination to +the acts and choosing of the will of the human personality. But this is a +material and purely temporary manifestation, just as the human embryo is a +transient parasitic stage of human life. Human beings, from a cosmic +perspective, are born, live, and die in a relative instant of time; they are +not enduring. But mortal personality, through its own choosing, possesses the + + top of page - 1233 + +power of transferring its seat of identity from the passing material-intellect +system to the higher morontia-soul system which, in association with the +Thought Adjuster, is created as a new vehicle for personality manifestation. + +And it is this very power of choice, the universe insignia of freewill +creaturehood, that constitutes man's greatest opportunity and his supreme +cosmic responsibility. Upon the integrity of the human volition depends the +eternal destiny of the future finaliter; upon the sincerity of the mortal free +will the divine Adjuster depends for eternal personality; upon the faithfulness +of mortal choice the Universal Father depends for the realization of a new +ascending son; upon the steadfastness and wisdom of decision-actions the +Supreme Being depends for the actuality of experiential evolution. + +Though the cosmic circles of personality growth must eventually be attained, +if, through no fault of your own, the accidents of time and the handicaps of +material existence prevent your mastering these levels on your native planet, +if your intentions and desires are of survival value, there are issued the +decrees of probation extension. You will be afforded additional time in which +to prove yourself. + +If ever there is doubt as to the advisability of advancing a human identity to +the mansion worlds, the universe governments invariably rule in the personal +interests of that individual; they unhesitatingly advance such a soul to the +status of a transitional being, while they continue their observations of the +emerging morontia intent and spiritual purpose. Thus divine justice is certain +of achievement, and divine mercy is accorded further opportunity for extending +its ministry. + +The governments of Orvonton and Nebadon do not claim absolute perfection for +the detail working of the universal plan of mortal repersonalization, but they +do claim to, and actually do, manifest patience, tolerance, understanding, and +merciful sympathy. We had rather assume the risk of a system rebellion than to +court the hazard of depriving one struggling mortal from any evolutionary world +of the eternal joy of pursuing the ascending career. + +This does not mean that human beings are to enjoy a second opportunity in the +face of the rejection of a first, not at all. But it does signify that all will +creatures are to experience one true opportunity to make one undoubted, +self-conscious, and final choice. The sovereign Judges of the universes will +not deprive any being of personality status who has not finally and fully made +the eternal choice; the soul of man must and will be given full and ample +opportunity to reveal its true intent and real purpose. + +When the more spiritually and cosmically advanced mortals die, they proceed +immediately to the mansion worlds; in general, this provision operates with +those who have had assigned to them personal seraphic guardians. Other mortals +may be detained until such time as the adjudication of their affairs has been +completed, after which they may proceed to the mansion worlds, or they may be +assigned to the ranks of the sleeping survivors who will be repersonalized en +masse at the end of the current planetary dispensation. + +There are two difficulties that hamper my efforts to explain just what happens +to you in death, the surviving you which is distinct from the departing +Adjuster. One of these consists in the impossibility of conveying to your level +of comprehension an adequate description of a transaction on the borderland of +the physical and morontia realms. The other is brought about by the restric- + + top of page - 1234 + +tions placed upon my commission as a revelator of truth by the celestial +governing authorities of Urantia. There are many interesting details which +might be presented, but I withhold them upon the advice of your immediate +planetary supervisors. But within the limits of my permission I can say this +much: + +There is something real, something of human evolution, something additional to +the Mystery Monitor, which survives death. This newly appearing entity is the +soul, and it survives the death of both your physical body and your material +mind. This entity is the conjoint child of the combined life and efforts of the +human you in liaison with the divine you, the Adjuster. This child of human and +divine parentage constitutes the surviving element of terrestrial origin; it is +the morontia self, the immortal soul. + +This child of persisting meaning and surviving value is wholly unconscious +during the period from death to repersonalization and is in the keeping of the +seraphic destiny guardian throughout this season of waiting. You will not +function as a conscious being, following death, until you attain the new +consciousness of morontia on the mansion worlds of Satania. + +At death the functional identity associated with the human personality is +disrupted through the cessation of vital motion. Human personality, while +transcending its constituent parts, is dependent on them for functional +identity. The stoppage of life destroys the physical brain patterns for mind +endowment, and the disruption of mind terminates mortal consciousness. The +consciousness of that creature cannot subsequently reappear until a cosmic +situation has been arranged which will permit the same human personality again +to function in relationship with living energy. + +During the transit of surviving mortals from the world of origin to the mansion +worlds, whether they experience personality reassembly on the third period or +ascend at the time of a group resurrection, the record of personality +constitution is faithfully preserved by the archangels on their worlds of +special activities. These beings are not the custodians of personality (as the +guardian seraphim are of the soul), but it is nonetheless true that every +identifiable factor of personality is effectually safeguarded in the custody of +these dependable trustees of mortal survival. As to the exact whereabouts of +mortal personality during the time intervening between death and survival, we +do not know. + +The situation which makes repersonalization possible is brought about in the +resurrection halls of the morontia receiving planets of a local universe. Here +in these life-assembly chambers the supervising authorities provide that +relationship of universe energy--morontial, mindal, and spiritual--which makes +possible the reconsciousizing of the sleeping survivor. The reassembly of the +constituent parts of a onetime material personality involves: + +1. The fabrication of a suitable form, a morontia energy pattern, in which the +new survivor can make contact with nonspiritual reality, and within which the +morontia variant of the cosmic mind can be encircuited. + +2. The return of the Adjuster to the waiting morontia creature. The Adjuster is +the eternal custodian of your ascending identity; your Monitor is the absolute +assurance that you yourself and not another will occupy the morontia form +created for your personality awakening. And the Adjuster will be present at +your personality reassembly to take up once more the role of Paradise guide to +your surviving self. + + top of page - 1235 + +3. When these prerequisites of repersonalization have been assembled, the +seraphic custodian of the potentialities of the slumbering immortal soul, with +the assistance of numerous cosmic personalities, bestows this morontia entity +upon and in the awaiting morontia mind-body form while committing this +evolutionary child of the Supreme to eternal association with the waiting +Adjuster. And this completes the repersonalization, reassembly of memory, +insight, and consciousness--identity. + +The fact of repersonalization consists in the seizure of the encircuited +morontia phase of the newly segregated cosmic mind by the awakening human self. +The phenomenon of personality is dependent on the persistence of the identity +of selfhood reaction to universe environment; and this can only be effected +through the medium of mind. Selfhood persists in spite of a continuous change +in all the factor components of self; in the physical life the change is +gradual; at death and upon repersonalization the change is sudden. The true +reality of all selfhood (personality) is able to function responsively to +universe conditions by virtue of the unceasing changing of its constituent +parts; stagnation terminates in inevitable death. Human life is an endless +change of the factors of life unified by the stability of the unchanging +personality. + +And when you thus awaken on the mansion worlds of Jerusem, you will be so +changed, the spiritual transformation will be so great that, were it not for +your Thought Adjuster and the destiny guardian, who so fully connect up your +new life in the new worlds with your old life in the first world, you would at +first have difficulty in connecting the new morontia consciousness with the +reviving memory of your previous identity. Notwithstanding the continuity of +personal selfhood, much of the mortal life would at first seem to be a vague +and hazy dream. But time will clarify many mortal associations. + +The Thought Adjuster will recall and rehearse for you only those memories and +experiences which are a part of, and essential to, your universe career. If the +Adjuster has been a partner in the evolution of aught in the human mind, then +will these worth-while experiences survive in the eternal consciousness of the +Adjuster. But much of your past life and its memories, having neither spiritual +meaning nor morontia value, will perish with the material brain; much of +material experience will pass away as onetime scaffolding which, having bridged +you over to the morontia level, no longer serves a purpose in the universe. But +personality and the relationships between personalities are never scaffolding; +mortal memory of personality relationships has cosmic value and will persist. +On the mansion worlds you will know and be known, and more, you will remember, +and be remembered by, your onetime associates in the short but intriguing life +on Urantia. + +6. THE MORONTIA SELF + +Just as a butterfly emerges from the caterpillar stage, so will the true +personalities of human beings emerge on the mansion worlds, for the first time +revealed apart from their onetime enshroudment in the material flesh. The +morontia career in the local universe has to do with the continued elevation of +the personality mechanism from the beginning morontia level of soul existence +up to the final morontia level of progressive spirituality. + +It is difficult to instruct you regarding your morontia personality forms for +the local universe career. You will be endowed with morontia patterns of per- + + top of page - 1236 + +sonality manifestability, and these are investments which, in the last +analysis, are beyond your comprehension. Such forms, while entirely real, are +not energy patterns of the material order which you now understand. They do, +however, serve the same purpose on the local universe worlds as do your +material bodies on the planets of human nativity. + +To a certain extent, the appearance of the material body-form is responsive to +the character of the personality identity; the physical body does, to a limited +degree, reflect something of the inherent nature of the personality. Still more +so does the morontia form. In the physical life, mortals may be outwardly +beautiful though inwardly unlovely; in the morontia life, and increasingly on +its higher levels, the personality form will vary directly in accordance with +the nature of the inner person. On the spiritual level, outward form and inner +nature begin to approximate complete identification, which grows more and more +perfect on higher and higher spirit levels. + +In the morontia estate the ascending mortal is endowed with the Nebadon +modification of the cosmic-mind endowment of the Master Spirit of Orvonton. The +mortal intellect, as such, has perished, has ceased to exist as a focalized +universe entity apart from the undifferentiated mind circuits of the Creative +Spirit. But the meanings and values of the mortal mind have not perished. +Certain phases of mind are continued in the surviving soul; certain +experiential values of the former human mind are held by the Adjuster; and +there persist in the local universe the records of the human life as it was +lived in the flesh, together with certain living registrations in the numerous +beings who are concerned with the final evaluation of the ascending mortal, +beings extending in range from seraphim to Universal Censors and probably on +beyond to the Supreme. + +Creature volition cannot exist without mind, but it does persist in spite of +the loss of the material intellect. During the times immediately following +survival, the ascending personality is in great measure guided by the character +patterns inherited from the human life and by the newly appearing action of +morontia mota. And these guides to mansonia conduct function acceptably in the +early stages of the morontia life and prior to the emergence of morontia will +as a full-fledged volitional expression of the ascending personality. + +There are no influences in the local universe career comparable to the seven +adjutant mind-spirits of human existence. The morontia mind must evolve by +direct contact with cosmic mind, as this cosmic mind has been modified and +translated by the creative source of local universe intellect--the Divine +Minister. + +Mortal mind, prior to death, is self-consciously independent of the Adjuster +presence; adjutant mind needs only the associated material-energy pattern to +enable it to operate. But the morontia soul, being superadjutant, does not +retain self-consciousness without the Adjuster when deprived of the +material-mind mechanism. This evolving soul does, however, possess a continuing +character derived from the decisions of its former associated adjutant mind, +and this character becomes active memory when the patterns thereof are +energized by the returning Adjuster. + +The persistence of memory is proof of the retention of the identity of original +selfhood; it is essential to complete self-consciousness of personality +continuity and expansion. Those mortals who ascend without Adjusters are +dependent on the instruction of seraphic associates for the reconstruction of +human memory; otherwise the morontia souls of the Spirit-fused mortals are not +limited. The + + top of page - 1237 + +pattern of memory persists in the soul, but this pattern requires the presence +of the former Adjuster to become immediately self-realizable as continuing +memory. Without the Adjuster, it requires considerable time for the mortal +survivor to re-explore and relearn, to recapture, the memory consciousness of +the meanings and values of a former existence. + +The soul of survival value faithfully reflects both the qualitative and the +quantitative actions and motivations of the material intellect, the former seat +of the identity of selfhood. In the choosing of truth, beauty, and goodness, +the mortal mind enters upon its premorontia universe career under the tutelage +of the seven adjutant mind-spirits unified under the direction of the spirit of +wisdom. Subsequently, upon the completion of the seven circles of premorontia +attainment, the superimposition of the endowment of morontia mind upon adjutant +mind initiates the prespiritual or morontia career of local universe +progression. + +When a creature leaves his native planet, he leaves the adjutant ministry +behind and becomes solely dependent on morontia intellect. When an ascender +leaves the local universe, he has attained the spiritual level of existence, +having passed beyond the morontia level. This newly appearing spirit entity +then becomes attuned to the direct ministry of the cosmic mind of Orvonton. + +7. ADJUSTER FUSION + +Thought Adjuster fusion imparts eternal actualities to personality which were +previously only potential. Among these new endowments may be mentioned: +fixation of divinity quality, past-eternity experience and memory, immortality, +and a phase of qualified potential absoluteness. + +When your earthly course in temporary form has been run, you are to awaken on +the shores of a better world, and eventually you will be united with your +faithful Adjuster in an eternal embrace. And this fusion constitutes the +mystery of making God and man one, the mystery of finite creature evolution, +but it is eternally true. Fusion is the secret of the sacred sphere of +Ascendington, and no creature, save those who have experienced fusion with the +spirit of Deity, can comprehend the true meaning of the actual values which are +conjoined when the identity of a creature of time becomes eternally one with +the spirit of Paradise Deity. + +Fusion with the Adjuster is usually effected while the ascender is resident +within his local system. It may occur on the planet of nativity as a +transcendence of natural death; it may take place on any one of the mansion +worlds or on the headquarters of the system; it may even be delayed until the +time of the constellation sojourn; or, in special instances, it may not be +consummated until the ascender is on the local universe capital. + +When fusion with the Adjuster has been effected, there can be no future danger +to the eternal career of such a personality. Celestial beings are tested +throughout a long experience, but mortals pass through a relatively short and +intensive testing on the evolutionary and morontia worlds. + +Fusion with the Adjuster never occurs until the mandates of the superuniverse +have pronounced that the human nature has made a final and irrevocable choice +for the eternal career. This is the at-onement authorization, which, when +issued, constitutes the clearance authority for the fused personality +eventually to leave the confines of the local universe to proceed sometime to +the headquarters + + top of page - 1238 + +of the superuniverse, from which point the pilgrim of time will, in the distant +future, enseconaphim for the long flight to the central universe of Havona and +the Deity adventure. + +On the evolutionary worlds, selfhood is material; it is a thing in the universe +and as such is subject to the laws of material existence. It is a fact in time +and is responsive to the vicissitudes thereof. Survival decisions must here be +formulated. In the morontia state the self has become a new and more enduring +universe reality, and its continuing growth is predicated on its increasing +attunement to the mind and spirit circuits of the universes. Survival decisions +are now being confirmed. When the self attains the spiritual level, it has +become a secure value in the universe, and this new value is predicated upon +the fact that survival decisions have been made, which fact has been witnessed +by eternal fusion with the Thought Adjuster. And having achieved the status of +a true universe value, the creature becomes liberated in potential for the +seeking of the highest universe value--God. + +Such fused beings are twofold in their universe reactions: They are discrete +morontia individuals not altogether unlike seraphim, and they are also beings +in potential on the order of the Paradise finaliters. + +But the fused individual is really one personality, one being, whose unity +defies all attempts at analysis by any intelligence of the universes. And so, +having passed the tribunals of the local universe from the lowest to the +highest, none of which have been able to identify man or Adjuster, the one +apart from the other, you shall finally be taken before the Sovereign of +Nebadon, your local universe Father. And there, at the hand of the very being +whose creative fatherhood in this universe of time has made possible the fact +of your life, you will be granted those credentials which entitle you +eventually to proceed upon your superuniverse career in quest of the Universal +Father. + +Has the triumphant Adjuster won personality by the magnificent service to +humanity, or has the valiant human acquired immortality through sincere efforts +to achieve Adjusterlikeness? It is neither; but they together have achieved the +evolution of a member of one of the unique orders of the ascending +personalities of the Supreme, one who will ever be found serviceable, faithful, +and efficient, a candidate for further growth and development, ever ranging +upward and never ceasing the supernal ascent until the seven circuits of Havona +have been traversed and the onetime soul of earthly origin stands in worshipful +recognition of the actual personality of the Father on Paradise. + +Throughout all this magnificent ascent the Thought Adjuster is the divine +pledge of the future and full spiritual stabilization of the ascending mortal. +Meanwhile the presence of the mortal free will affords the Adjuster an eternal +channel for the liberation of the divine and infinite nature. Now have these +two identities become one; no event of time or of eternity can ever separate +man and Adjuster; they are inseparable, eternally fused. + +On the Adjuster-fusion worlds the destiny of the Mystery Monitor is identical +with that of the ascending mortal the Paradise Corps of the Finality. And +neither Adjuster nor mortal can attain that unique goal without the full +co-operation and faithful help of the other. This extraordinary partnership is +one of the most engrossing and amazing of all the cosmic phenomena of this +universe age. + + top of page - 1239 + +From the time of Adjuster fusion the status of the ascender is that of the +evolutionary creature. The human member was the first to enjoy personality and, +therefore, outranks the Adjuster in all matters concerned with the recognition +of personality. The Paradise headquarters of this fused being is Ascendington, +not Divinington, and this unique combination of God and man ranks as an +ascending mortal all the way up to the Corps of the Finality. + +When once an Adjuster fuses with an ascending mortal, the number of that +Adjuster is stricken from the records of the superuniverse. What happens on the +records of Divinington, I do not know, but I surmise that the registry of that +Adjuster is removed to the secret circles of the inner courts of Grandfanda, +the acting head of the Corps of the Finality. + +With Adjuster fusion the Universal Father has completed his promise of the gift +of himself to his material creatures; he has fulfilled the promise, and +consummated the plan, of the eternal bestowal of divinity upon humanity. Now +begins the human attempt to realize and to actualize the limitless +possibilities that are inherent in the supernal partnership with God which has +thus factualized. + +The present known destiny of surviving mortals is the Paradise Corps of the +Finality; this is also the goal of destiny for all Thought Adjusters who become +joined in eternal union with their mortal companions. At present the Paradise +finaliters are working throughout the grand universe in many undertakings, but +we all conjecture that they will have other and even more supernal tasks to +perform in the distant future after the seven superuniverses have become +settled in light and life, and when the finite God has finally emerged from the +mystery which now surrounds this Supreme Deity. + +You have been instructed to a certain extent about the organization and +personnel of the central universe, the superuniverses, and the local universes; +you have been told something about the character and origin of some of the +various personalities who now rule these far-flung creations. You have also +been informed that there are in process of organization vast galaxies of +universes far out beyond the periphery of the grand universe, in the first +outer space level. It has also been intimated in the course of these narratives +that the Supreme Being is to disclose his unrevealed tertiary function in these +now uncharted regions of outer space; and you have also been told that the +finaliters of the Paradise corps are the experiential children of the Supreme. + +We believe that the mortals of Adjuster fusion, together with their finaliter +associates, are destined to function in some manner in the administration of +the universes of the first outer space level. We have not the slightest doubt +that in due time these enormous galaxies will become inhabited universes. And +we are equally convinced that among the administrators thereof will be found +the Paradise finaliters whose natures are the cosmic consequence of the +blending of creature and Creator. + +What an adventure! What a romance! A gigantic creation to be administered by +the children of the Supreme, these personalized and humanized Adjusters, these +Adjusterized and eternalized mortals, these mysterious combinations and eternal +associations of the highest known manifestation of the essence of the First +Source and Center and the lowest form of intelligent life capable of +comprehending and attaining the Universal Father. We conceive that such +amalgamated beings, such partnerships of Creator and creature, will become +superb rulers, matchless administrators, and understanding and sympathetic + + top of page - 1240 + +directors of any and all forms of intelligent life which may come into +existence throughout these future universes of the first outer space level. + +True it is, you mortals are of earthly, animal origin; your frame is indeed +dust. But if you actually will, if you really desire, surely the heritage of +the ages is yours, and you shall someday serve throughout the universes in your +true characters--children of the Supreme God of experience and divine sons of +the Paradise Father of all personalities. + +[Presented by a Solitary Messenger of Orvonton.] + + top of page - 1241 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Adjuster ³ Seraphic ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ An... ³ Guardi... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p113.txt b/religious documents/p113.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1661276 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p113.txt @@ -0,0 +1,561 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 113 Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 113 Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +HAVING presented the narratives of the Ministering Spirits of Time and the +Messenger Hosts of Space, we come to the consideration of the guardian angels, +seraphim devoted to the ministry to individual mortals, for whose elevation and +perfection all of the vast survival scheme of spiritual progression has been +provided. In past ages on Urantia, these destiny guardians were about the only +group of angels that had recognition. The planetary seraphim are indeed +ministering spirits sent forth to do service for those who shall survive. These +attending seraphim have functioned as the spiritual helpers of mortal man in +all the great events of the past and the present. In many a revelation "the +word was spoken by angels"; many of the mandates of heaven have been "received +by the ministry of angels." + +Seraphim are the traditional angels of heaven; they are the ministering spirits +who live so near you and do so much for you. They have ministered on Urantia +since the earliest times of human intelligence. + +1. THE GUARDIAN ANGELS + +The teaching about guardian angels is not a myth; certain groups of human +beings do actually have personal angels. It was in recognition of this that +Jesus, in speaking of the children of the heavenly kingdom, said: "Take heed +that you despise not one of these little ones, for I say to you, their angels +do always behold the presence of the spirit of my Father." + +Originally, the seraphim were definitely assigned to the separate Urantia +races. But since the bestowal of Michael, they are assigned in accordance with +human intelligence, spirituality, and destiny. Intellectually, mankind is +divided into three classes: + +1. The subnormal minded--those who do not exercise normal will power; those who +do not make average decisions. This class embraces those who cannot comprehend +God; they lack capacity for the intelligent worship of Deity. The subnormal +beings of Urantia have a corps of seraphim, one company, with one battalion of +cherubim, assigned to minister to them and to witness that justice and mercy +are extended to them in the life struggles of the sphere. + +2. The average, normal type of human mind. From the standpoint of seraphic +ministry, most men and women are grouped in seven classes in accordance with +their status in making the circles of human progress and spiritual development. + +3. The supernormal minded--those of great decision and undoubted potential of +spiritual achievement; men and women who enjoy more or less con- + + top of page - 1242 + +tact with their indwelling Adjusters; members of the various reserve corps of +destiny. No matter in what circle a human happens to be, if such an individual +becomes enrolled in any of the several reserve corps of destiny, right then and +there, personal seraphim are assigned, and from that time until the earthly +career is finished, that mortal will enjoy the continuous ministry and +unceasing watchcare of a guardian angel. Also, when any human being makes the +supreme decision, when there is a real betrothal with the Adjuster, a personal +guardian is immediately assigned to that soul. + +In the ministry to so-called normal beings, seraphic assignments are made in +accordance with the human attainment of the circles of intellectuality and +spirituality. You start out in your mind of mortal investment in the seventh +circle and journey inward in the task of self-understanding, self-conquest, and +self-mastery; and circle by circle you advance until (if natural death does not +terminate your career and transfer your struggles to the mansion worlds) you +reach the first or inner circle of relative contact and communion with the +indwelling Adjuster. + +Human beings in the initial or seventh circle have one guardian angel with one +company of assisting cherubim assigned to the watchcare and custody of one +thousand mortals. In the sixth circle, a seraphic pair with one company of +cherubim is assigned to guide these ascending mortals in groups of five +hundred. When the fifth circle is attained, human beings are grouped in +companies of approximately one hundred, and a pair of guardian seraphim with a +group of cherubim is placed in charge. Upon attainment of the fourth circle, +mortal beings are assembled in groups of ten, and again charge is given to a +pair of seraphim, assisted by one company of cherubim. + +When a mortal mind breaks through the inertia of animal legacy and attains the +third circle of human intellectuality and acquired spirituality, a personal +angel (in reality two) will henceforth be wholly and exclusively devoted to +this ascending mortal. And thus these human souls, in addition to the +ever-present and increasingly efficient indwelling Thought Adjusters, receive +the undivided assistance of these personal guardians of destiny in all their +efforts to finish the third circle, traverse the second, and attain the first. + +2. THE DESTINY GUARDIANS + +Seraphim are not known as guardians of destiny until such time as they are +assigned to the association of a human soul who has realized one or more of +three achievements: has made a supreme decision to become Godlike, has entered +the third circle, or has been mustered into one of the reserve corps of +destiny. + +In the evolution of races a guardian of destiny is assigned to the very first +being who attains the requisite circle of conquest. On Urantia the first mortal +to secure a personal guardian was Rantowoc, a wise man of the red race of long +ago. + +All angelic assignments are made from a group of volunteering seraphim, and +these appointments are always in accordance with human needs and with regard to +the status of the angelic pair--in the light of seraphic experience, skill, and +wisdom. Only seraphim of long service, the more experienced and tested types, +are assigned as destiny guards. Many guardians have gained much valuable + + top of page - 1243 + +experience on those worlds which are of the non-Adjuster fusion series. Like +the Adjusters, the seraphim attend these beings for a single lifetime and then +are liberated for new assignment. Many guardians on Urantia have had this +previous practical experience on other worlds. + +When human beings fail to survive, their personal or group guardians may +repeatedly serve in similar capacities on the same planet. The seraphim develop +a sentimental regard for individual worlds and entertain a special affection +for certain races and types of mortal creatures with whom they have been so +closely and intimately associated. + +The angels develop an abiding affection for their human associates; and you +would, if you could only visualize the seraphim, develop a warm affection for +them. Divested of material bodies, given spirit forms, you would be very near +the angels in many attributes of personality. They share most of your emotions +and experience some additional ones. The only emotion actuating you which is +somewhat difficult for them to comprehend is the legacy of animal fear that +bulks so large in the mental life of the average inhabitant of Urantia. The +angels really find it hard to understand why you will so persistently allow +your higher intellectual powers, even your religious faith, to be so dominated +by fear, so thoroughly demoralized by the thoughtless panic of dread and +anxiety. + +All seraphim have individual names, but in the records of assignment to world +service they are frequently designated by their planetary numbers. At the +universe headquarters they are registered by name and number. The destiny +guardian of the human subject used in this contactual communication is number 3 +of group 17, of company 126, of battalion 4, of unit 384, of legion 6, of host +37, of the 182,314th seraphic army of Nebadon. The current planetary assignment +number of this seraphim on Urantia and to this human subject is 3,641,852. + +In the ministry of personal guardianship, the assignment of angels as destiny +guardians, seraphim always volunteer their services. In the city of this +visitation a certain mortal was recently admitted to the reserve corps of +destiny, and since all such humans are personally attended by guardian angels, +more than one hundred qualified seraphim sought the assignment. The planetary +director selected twelve of the more experienced individuals and subsequently +appointed the seraphim whom they selected as best adapted to guide this human +being through his life journey. That is, they selected a certain pair of +equally qualified seraphim; one of this seraphic pair will always be on duty. + +Seraphic tasks may be unremitting, but either of the angelic pair can discharge +all ministering responsibilities. Like cherubim, seraphim usually serve in +pairs, but unlike their less advanced associates, the seraphim sometimes work +singly. In practically all their contacts with human beings they can function +as individuals. Both angels are required only for communication and service on +the higher circuits of the universes. + +When a seraphic pair accept guardian assignment, they serve for the remainder +of the life of that human being. The complement of being (one of the two +angels) becomes the recorder of the undertaking. These complemental seraphim +are the recording angels of the mortals of the evolutionary worlds. The records +are kept by the pair of cherubim (a cherubim and a sanobim) who are always +associated with the seraphic guardians, but these records are always sponsored +by one of the seraphim. + + top of page - 1244 + +For purposes of rest and recharging with the life energy of the universe +circuits, the guardian is periodically relieved by her complement, and during +her absence the associated cherubim functions as the recorder, as is also the +case when the complemental seraphim is similarly absent. + +3. RELATION TO OTHER SPIRIT INFLUENCES + +One of the most important things a destiny guardian does for her mortal subject +is to effect a personal co-ordination of the numerous impersonal spirit +influences which indwell, surround, and impinge upon the mind and soul of the +evolving material creature. Human beings are personalities, and it is +exceedingly difficult for nonpersonal spirits and prepersonal entities to make +direct contact with such highly material and discretely personal minds. In the +ministry of the guarding angel all of these influences are more or less unified +and made more nearly appreciable by the expanding moral nature of the evolving +human personality. + +More especially can and does this seraphic guardian correlate the manifold +agencies and influences of the Infinite Spirit, ranging from the domains of the +physical controllers and the adjutant mind-spirits up to the Holy Spirit of the +Divine Minister and to the Omnipresent Spirit presence of the Paradise Third +Source and Center. Having thus unified and made more personal these vast +ministries of the Infinite Spirit, the seraphim then undertakes to correlate +this integrated influence of the Conjoint Actor with the spirit presences of +the Father and the Son. + +The Adjuster is the presence of the Father; the Spirit of Truth, the presence +of the Sons. These divine endowments are unified and co-ordinated on the lower +levels of human spiritual experience by the ministry of the guardian seraphim. +The angelic servers are gifted in combining the love of the Father and the +mercy of the Son in their ministry to mortal creatures. + +And herein is revealed the reason why the seraphic guardian eventually becomes +the personal custodian of the mind patterns, memory formulas, and soul +realities of the mortal survivor during that interval between physical death +and morontia resurrection. None but the ministering children of the Infinite +Spirit could thus function in behalf of the human creature during this phase of +transition from one level of the universe to another and higher level. Even +when you engage in your terminal transition slumber, when you pass from time to +eternity, a high supernaphim likewise shares the transit with you as the +custodian of creature identity and the surety of personal integrity. + +On the spiritual level, seraphim make personal many otherwise impersonal and +prepersonal ministries of the universe; they are co-ordinators. On the +intellectual level they are the correlators of mind and morontia; they are +interpreters. And on the physical level they manipulate terrestrial environment +through their liaison with the Master Physical Controllers and through the +co-operative ministry of the midway creatures. + +This is a recital of the manifold and intricate function of an attending +seraphim; but how does such a subordinate angelic personality, created but a +little above the universe level of humanity, do such difficult and complex +things? We do not really know, but we conjecture that this phenomenal ministry +is in some undisclosed manner facilitated by the unrecognized and unrevealed +working of the Supreme Being, the actualizing Deity of the evolving universes +of time and + + top of page - 1245 + +space. Throughout the entire realm of progressive survival in and through the +Supreme Being, seraphim are an essential part of continuing mortal progression. + +4. SERAPHIC DOMAINS OF ACTION + +The guardian seraphim are not mind, though they do spring from the same source +that also gives origin to mortal mind, the Creative Spirit. Seraphim are mind +stimulators; they continually seek to promote circle-making decisions in human +mind. They do this, not as does the Adjuster, operating from within and through +the soul, but rather from the outside inward, working through the social, +ethical, and moral environment of human beings. Seraphim are not the divine +Adjuster lure of the Universal Father, but they do function as the personal +agency of the ministry of the Infinite Spirit. + +Mortal man, subject to Adjuster leading, is also amenable to seraphic guidance. +The Adjuster is the essence of man's eternal nature; the seraphim is the +teacher of man's evolving nature--in this life the mortal mind, in the next the +morontia soul. On the mansion worlds you will be conscious and aware of +seraphic instructors, but in the first life men are usually unaware of them. + +Seraphim function as teachers of men by guiding the footsteps of the human +personality into paths of new and progressive experiences. To accept the +guidance of a seraphim rarely means attaining a life of ease. In following this +leading you are sure to encounter, and if you have the courage, to traverse, +the rugged hills of moral choosing and spiritual progress. + +The impulse of worship largely originates in the spirit promptings of the +higher mind adjutants, reinforced by the leadings of the Adjuster. But the urge +to pray so often experienced by God-conscious mortals very often arises as the +result of seraphic influence. The guarding seraphim is constantly manipulating +the mortal environment for the purpose of augmenting the cosmic insight of the +human ascender to the end that such a survival candidate may acquire enhanced +realization of the presence of the indwelling Adjuster and thus be enabled to +yield increased co-operation with the spiritual mission of the divine presence. + +While there is apparently no communication between the indwelling Adjusters and +the encompassing seraphim, they always seem to work in perfect harmony and +exquisite accord. The guardians are most active at those times when the +Adjusters are least active, but their ministry is in some manner strangely +correlated. Such superb co-operation could hardly be either accidental or +incidental. + +The ministering personality of the guardian seraphim, the God presence of the +indwelling Adjuster, the encircuited action of the Holy Spirit, and the +Son-consciousness of the Spirit of Truth are all divinely correlated into a +meaningful unity of spiritual ministry in and to a mortal personality. Though +hailing from different sources and different levels, these celestial influences +are all integrated in the enveloping and evolving presence of the Supreme +Being. + +5. SERAPHIC MINISTRY TO MORTALS + +Angels do not invade the sanctity of the human mind; they do not manipulate the +will of mortals; neither do they directly contact with the indwelling +Adjusters. The guardian of destiny influences you in every possible manner +consistent with the dignity of your personality; under no circumstances do +these + + top of page - 1246 + +angels interfere with the free action of the human will. Neither angels nor any +other order of universe personality have power or authority to curtail or +abridge the prerogatives of human choosing. + +Angels are so near you and care so feelingly for you that they figuratively +"weep because of your willful intolerance and stubbornness." Seraphim do not +shed physical tears; they do not have physical bodies; neither do they possess +wings. But they do have spiritual emotions, and they do experience feelings and +sentiments of a spiritual nature which are in certain ways comparable to human +emotions. + +The seraphim act in your behalf quite independent of your direct appeals; they +are executing the mandates of their superiors, and thus they function +regardless of your passing whims or changing moods. This does not imply that +you may not make their tasks either easier or more difficult, but rather that +angels are not directly concerned with your appeals or with your prayers. + +In the life of the flesh the intelligence of angels is not directly available +to mortal men. They are not overlords or directors; they are simply guardians. +The seraphim guard you; they do not seek directly to influence you; you must +chart your own course, but these angels then act to make the best possible use +of the course you have chosen. They do not (ordinarily) arbitrarily intervene +in the routine affairs of human life. But when they receive instructions from +their superiors to perform some unusual exploit, you may rest assured that +these guardians will find some means of carrying out these mandates. They do +not, therefore, intrude into the picture of human drama except in emergencies +and then usually on the direct orders of their superiors. They are the beings +who are going to follow you for many an age, and they are thus receiving an +introduction to their future work and personality association. + +Seraphim are able to function as material ministers to human beings under +certain circumstances, but their action in this capacity is very rare. They are +able, with the assistance of the midway creatures and the physical controllers, +to function in a wide range of activities in behalf of human beings, even to +make actual contact with mankind, but such occurrences are very unusual. In +most instances the circumstances of the material realm proceed unaltered by +seraphic action, although occasions have arisen, involving jeopardy to vital +links in the chain of human evolution, in which seraphic guardians have acted, +and properly, on their own initiative. + +6. GUARDIAN ANGELS AFTER DEATH + +Having told you something of the ministry of seraphim during natural life, I +will endeavor to inform you about the conduct of the guardians of destiny at +the time of the mortal dissolution of their human associates. Upon your death, +your records, identity specifications, and the morontia entity of the human +soul--conjointly evolved by the ministry of mortal mind and the divine +Adjuster--are faithfully conserved by the destiny guardian together with all +other values related to your future existence, everything that constitutes you, +the real you, except the identity of continuing existence represented by the +departing Adjuster and the actuality of personality. + +The instant the pilot light in the human mind disappears, the spirit luminosity +which seraphim associate with the presence of the Adjuster, the attending angel + + top of page - 1247 + +reports in person to the commanding angels, successively, of the group, +company, battalion, unit, legion, and host; and after being duly registered for +the final adventure of time and space, such an angel receives certification by +the planetary chief of seraphim for reporting to the Evening Star (or other +lieutenant of Gabriel) in command of the seraphic army of this candidate for +universe ascension. And upon being granted permission from the commander of +this highest organizational unit, such a guardian of destiny proceeds to the +first mansion world and there awaits the consciousizing of her former ward in +the flesh. + +In case the human soul fails of survival after having received the assignment +of a personal angel, the attending seraphim must proceed to the headquarters of +the local universe, there to witness to the complete records of her complement +as previously reported. Next she goes before the tribunals of the archangels, +to be absolved from blame in the matter of the survival failure of her subject; +and then she goes back to the worlds, again to be assigned to another mortal of +ascending potentiality or to some other division of seraphic ministry. + +But angels minister to evolutionary creatures in many ways aside from the +services of personal and group guardianship. Personal guardians whose subjects +do not go immediately to the mansion worlds do not tarry there in idleness +awaiting the dispensational roll calls of judgment; they are reassigned to +numerous ministering missions throughout the universe. + +The guardian seraphim is the custodial trustee of the survival values of mortal +man's slumbering soul as the absent Adjuster is the identity of such an +immortal universe being. When these two collaborate in the resurrection halls +of mansonia in conjunction with the newly fabricated morontia form, there +occurs the reassembly of the constituent factors of the personality of the +mortal ascender. + +The Adjuster will identify you; the guardian seraphim will repersonalize you +and then re-present you to the faithful Monitor of your earth days. + +And even so, when a planetary age ends, when those in the lower circles of +mortal achievement are forgathered, it is their group guardians who reassemble +them in the resurrection halls of the mansion spheres, even as your record +tells: "And he shall send his angels with a great voice and shall gather +together his elect from one end of the realm to another." + +The technique of justice demands that personal or group guardians shall respond +to the dispensational roll call in behalf of all nonsurviving personalities. +The Adjusters of such nonsurvivors do not return, and when the rolls are +called, the seraphim respond, but the Adjusters make no answer. This +constitutes the "resurrection of the unjust," in reality the formal recognition +of the cessation of creature existence. This roll call of justice always +immediately follows the roll call of mercy, the resurrection of the sleeping +survivors. But these are matters which are of concern to none but the supreme +and all-knowing Judges of survival values. Such problems of adjudication do not +really concern us. + +Group guardians may serve on a planet age after age and eventually become +custodians of the slumbering souls of thousands upon thousands of sleeping +survivors. They can so serve on many different worlds in a given system since +the resurrection response occurs on the mansion worlds. + +All personal and group guardians in the system of Satania who went astray in +the Lucifer rebellion, notwithstanding that many sincerely repented of their + + top of page - 1248 + +folly, are to be detained on Jerusem until the final adjudication of the +rebellion. Already have the Universal Censors arbitrarily taken from these +disobedient and unfaithful guardians all aspects of their soul trusts and +lodged these morontia realities for safekeeping in the custody of volunteer +seconaphim. + +7. SERAPHIM AND THE ASCENDANT CAREER + +It is indeed an epoch in the career of an ascending mortal, this first +awakening on the shores of the mansion world; there, for the first time, +actually to see your long-loved and ever-present angelic companions of earth +days; there also to become truly conscious of the identity and presence of the +divine Monitor who so long indwelt your mind on earth. Such an experience +constitutes a glorious awakening, a real resurrection. + +On the morontia spheres the attending seraphim (there are two of them) are your +open companions. These angels not only consort with you as you progress through +the career of the transition worlds, in every way possible assisting you in the +acquirement of morontia and spirit status, but they also avail themselves of +the opportunity to advance by study in the extension schools for evolutionary +seraphim maintained on the mansion worlds. + +The human race was created just a little lower than the more simple types of +the angelic orders. Therefore will your first assignment of the morontia life +be as assistants to the seraphim in the immediate work awaiting at the time you +attain personality consciousness subsequent to your liberation from the bonds +of the flesh. + +Before leaving the mansion worlds, all mortals will have permanent seraphic +associates or guardians. And as you ascend the morontia spheres, eventually it +is the seraphic guardians who witness and certify the decrees of your eternal +union with the Thought Adjusters. Together they have established your +personality identities as children of the flesh from the worlds of time. Then, +with your attainment of the mature morontia estate, they accompany you through +Jerusem and the associated worlds of system progress and culture. After that +they go with you to Edentia and its seventy spheres of advanced socialization, +and subsequently will they pilot you to the Melchizedeks and follow you through +the superb career of the universe headquarters worlds. And when you have +learned the wisdom and culture of the Melchizedeks, they will take you on to +Salvington, where you will stand face to face with the Sovereign of all +Nebadon. And still will these seraphic guides follow you through the minor and +major sectors of the superuniverse and on to the receiving worlds of Uversa, +remaining with you until you finally enseconaphim for the long Havona flight. + +Some of the destiny guardians of attachment during the mortal career follow the +course of the ascending pilgrims through Havona. The others bid their long-time +mortal associates a temporary farewell, and then, while these mortals traverse +the circles of the central universe, these guardians of destiny achieve the +circles of Seraphington. And they will be in waiting on the shores of Paradise +when their mortal associates awaken from the last transit sleep of time into +the new experiences of eternity. Such ascending seraphim subsequently enter +upon divergent services in the finaliter corps and in the Seraphic Corps of +Completion. + +Man and angel may or may not be reunited in eternal service, but wherever +seraphic assignment may take them, the seraphim are always in communication +with their former wards of the evolutionary worlds, the ascendant mortals of + + top of page - 1249 + +time. The intimate associations and the affectionate attachments of the realms +of human origin are never forgotten nor ever completely severed. In the eternal +ages men and angels will co-operate in the divine service as they did in the +career of time. + +For seraphim, the surest way of achieving the Paradise Deities is by +successfully guiding a soul of evolutionary origin to the portals of Paradise. +Therefore is the assignment of guardian of destiny the most highly prized +seraphic duty. + +Only destiny guardians are mustered into the primary or mortal Corps of the +Finality, and such pairs have engaged in the supreme adventure of identity +at-oneness; the two beings have achieved spiritual bi-unification on +Seraphington prior to their reception into the finaliter corps. In this +experience the two angelic natures, so complemental in all universe functions, +achieve ultimate spirit two-in-oneness, repercussing in a new capacity for the +reception of, and fusion with, a non-Adjuster fragment of the Paradise Father. +And so do some of your loving seraphic associates in time also become your +finaliter associates in eternity, children of the Supreme and perfected sons of +the Paradise Father. + +[Presented by the Chief of Seraphim stationed on Urantia.] + + top of page - 1250 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Personality ³ Seraphic ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Sur... ³ Planet... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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Seraphic Planetary Government +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 114 Seraphic Planetary Government + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men through many celestial forces and +agencies but chiefly through the ministry of seraphim. + +At noon today the roll call of planetary angels, guardians, and others on +Urantia was 501,234,619 pairs of seraphim. There were assigned to my command +two hundred seraphic hosts--597,196,800 pairs of seraphim, or 1,194,393,600 +individual angels. The registry, however, shows 1,002,469,238 individuals; it +follows therefore that 191,924,362 angels were absent from this world on +transport, messenger, and death duty. (On Urantia there are about the same +number of cherubim as seraphim, and they are similarly organized.) + +Seraphim and their associated cherubim have much to do with the details of the +superhuman government of a planet, especially of worlds which have been +isolated by rebellion. The angels, ably assisted by the midwayers, function on +Urantia as the actual supermaterial ministers who execute the mandates of the +resident governor general and all his associates and subordinates. Seraphim as +a class are occupied with many assignments other than those of personal and +group guardianship. + +Urantia is not without proper and effective supervision from the system, +constellation, and universe rulers. But the planetary government is unlike that +of any other world in the Satania system, even in all Nebadon. This uniqueness +in your plan of supervision is due to a number of unusual circumstances: + +1. The life modification status of Urantia. + +2. The exigencies of the Lucifer rebellion. + +3. The disruptions of the Adamic default. + +4. The irregularities growing out of the fact that Urantia was one of the +bestowal worlds of the Universe Sovereign. Michael of Nebadon is the Planetary +Prince of Urantia. + +5. The special function of the twenty-four planetary directors. + +6. The location on the planet of an archangels' circuit. + +7. The more recent designation of the onetime incarnated Machiventa Melchizedek +as vicegerent Planetary Prince. + +1. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF URANTIA + +The original sovereignty of Urantia was held in trust by the sovereign of the +Satania system. It was first delegated by him to a joint commission of +Melchizedeks and Life Carriers, and this group functioned on Urantia until the +arrival of a regularly constituted Planetary Prince. Subsequent to the downfall + + top of page - 1251 + +of Prince Caligastia, at the time of the Lucifer rebellion, Urantia had no sure +and settled relationship with the local universe and its administrative +divisions until the completion of Michael's bestowal in the flesh, when he was +proclaimed, by the Union of Days, Planetary Prince of Urantia. Such a +proclamation in surety and in principle forever settled the status of your +world, but in practice the Sovereign Creator Son made no gesture of personal +administration of the planet aside from the establishment of the Jerusem +commission of twenty-four former Urantians with authority to represent him in +the government of Urantia and all other quarantined planets in the system. One +of this council is now always resident on Urantia as resident governor general. + +Vicegerent authority to act for Michael as Planetary Prince has been recently +vested in Machiventa Melchizedek, but this Son of the local universe has made +not the slightest move toward modifying the present planetary regime of the +successive administrations of the resident governors general. + +There is little likelihood that any marked change will be made in the +government of Urantia during the present dispensation unless the vicegerent +Planetary Prince should arrive to assume his titular responsibilities. It +appears to certain of our associates that at some time in the near future the +plan of sending one of the twenty-four counselors to Urantia to act as governor +general will be superseded by the formal arrival of Machiventa Melchizedek with +the vicegerent mandate of the sovereignty of Urantia. As acting Planetary +Prince he would undoubtedly continue in charge of the planet until the final +adjudication of the Lucifer rebellion and probably on into the distant future +of planetary settlement in light and life. + +Some believe that Machiventa will not come to take personal direction of +Urantian affairs until the end of the current dispensation. Others hold that +the vicegerent Prince may not come, as such, until Michael sometime returns to +Urantia as he promised when still in the flesh. Still others, including this +narrator, look for Melchizedek's appearance any day or hour. + +2. THE BOARD OF PLANETARY SUPERVISORS + +Since the times of Michael's bestowal on your world the general management of +Urantia has been intrusted to a special group on Jerusem of twenty-four +one-time Urantians. Qualification for membership on this commission is unknown +to us, but we have observed that those who have been thus commissioned have all +been contributors to the enlarging sovereignty of the Supreme in the system of +Satania. By nature they were all real leaders when they functioned on Urantia, +and (excepting Machiventa Melchizedek) these qualities of leadership have been +further augmented by mansion world experience and supplemented by the training +of Jerusem citizenship. Members are nominated to the twenty-four by the cabinet +of Lanaforge, seconded by the Most Highs of Edentia, approved by the Assigned +Sentinel of Jerusem, and appointed by Gabriel of Salvington in accordance with +the mandate of Michael. The temporary appointees function just as fully as do +the permanent members of this commission of special supervisors. + +This board of planetary directors is especially concerned with the supervision +of those activities on this world which result from the fact that Michael here +experienced his terminal bestowal. + + top of page - 1252 + +They are kept in close and immediate touch with Michael by the liaison +activities of a certain Brilliant Evening Star, the identical being who +attended upon Jesus throughout the mortal bestowal. + +At the present time one John, known to you as "the Baptist," is chairman of +this council when it is in session on Jerusem. But the ex officio head of this +council is the Assigned Sentinel of Satania, the direct and personal +representative of the Associate Inspector on Salvington and of the Supreme +Executive of Orvonton. + +The members of this same commission of former Urantians also act as advisory +supervisors of the thirty-six other rebellion-isolated worlds of the system; +they perform a very valuable service in keeping Lanaforge, the System +Sovereign, in close and sympathetic touch with the affairs of these planets, +which still remain more or less under the overcontrol of the Constellation +Fathers of Norlatiadek. These twenty-four counselors make frequent trips as +individuals to each of the quarantined planets, especially to Urantia. + +Each of the other isolated worlds is advised by similar and varying sized +commissions of its onetime inhabitants, but these other commissions are +subordinate to the Urantian group of twenty-four. While the members of the +latter commission are thus actively interested in every phase of human progress +on each quarantined world in Satania, they are especially and particularly +concerned with the welfare and advancement of the mortal races of Urantia, for +they immediately and directly supervise the affairs of none of the planets +except Urantia, and even here their authority is not complete excepting in +certain domains concerned with mortal survival. + +No one knows how long these twenty-four Urantia counselors will continue in +their present status, detached from the regular program of universe activities. +They will no doubt continue to serve in their present capacities until some +change in planetary status ensues, such as the end of a dispensation, the +assumption of full authority by Machiventa Melchizedek, the final adjudication +of the Lucifer rebellion, or the reappearance of Michael on the world of his +final bestowal. The present resident governor general of Urantia seems inclined +to the opinion that all but Machiventa may be released for Paradise ascension +the moment the system of Satania is restored to the constellation circuits. But +other opinions are also current. + +3. THE RESIDENT GOVERNOR GENERAL + +Every one hundred years of Urantia time, the Jerusem corps of twenty-four +planetary supervisors designate one of their number to sojourn on your world to +act as their executive representative, as resident governor general. During the +times of the preparation of these narratives this executive officer was +changed, the nineteenth so to serve being succeeded by the twentieth. The name +of the current planetary supervisor is withheld from you only because mortal +man is so prone to venerate, even to deify, his extraordinary compatriots and +superhuman superiors. + +The resident governor general has no actual personal authority in the +management of world affairs except as the representative of the twenty-four +Jerusem counselors. He acts as the co-ordinator of superhuman administration +and is the respected head and universally recognized leader of the celestial +beings functioning on Urantia. All orders of angelic hosts regard him as their +co-ordinating director, while the united midwayers, since the departure of +1-2-3 the first to become one of the twenty-four counselors, really look upon +the successive governors general as their planetary fathers. + + top of page - 1253 + +Although the governor general does not possess actual and personal authority on +the planet, he hands down scores of rulings and decisions each day which are +accepted as final by all personalities concerned. He is much more of a fatherly +adviser than a technical ruler. In certain ways he functions as would a +Planetary Prince, but his administration much more closely resembles that of +the Material Sons. + +The Urantia government is represented in the councils of Jerusem in accordance +with an arrangement whereby the returning governor general sits as a temporary +member of the System Sovereign's cabinet of Planetary Princes. It was expected, +when Machiventa was designated vicegerent Prince, that he would immediately +assume his place in the council of the Planetary Princes of Satania, but thus +far he has made no gesture in this direction. + +The supermaterial government of Urantia does not maintain a very close organic +relationship with the higher units of the local universe. In a way, the +resident governor general represents Salvington as well as Jerusem since he +acts on behalf of the twenty-four counselors, who are directly representative +of Michael and Gabriel. And being a Jerusem citizen, the planetary governor can +function as a spokesman for the System Sovereign. The constellation authorities +are represented directly by a Vorondadek Son, the Edentia observer. + +4. THE MOST HIGH OBSERVER + +The sovereignty of Urantia is further complicated by the onetime arbitrary +seizure of planetary authority by the government of Norlatiadek shortly after +the planetary rebellion. There is still resident on Urantia a Vorondadek Son, +an observer for the Most Highs of Edentia and, in the absence of direct action +by Michael, trustee of planetary sovereignty. The present Most High observer +(and sometime regent) is the twenty-third thus to serve on Urantia. + +There are certain groups of planetary problems which are still under the +control of the Most Highs of Edentia, jurisdiction over them having been seized +at the time of the Lucifer rebellion. Authority in these matters is exercised +by a Vorondadek Son, the Norlatiadek observer, who maintains very close +advisory relations with the planetary supervisors. The race commissioners are +very active on Urantia, and their various group chiefs are informally attached +to the resident Vorondadek observer, who acts as their advisory director. + +In a crisis the actual and sovereign head of the government, excepting in +certain purely spiritual matters, would be this Vorondadek Son of Edentia now +on observation duty. (In these exclusively spiritual problems and in certain +purely personal matters, the supreme authority seems to be vested in the +commanding archangel attached to the divisional headquarters of that order +which was recently established on Urantia.) + +A Most High observer is empowered, at his discretion, to seize the planetary +government in times of grave planetary crises, and it is of record that this +has happened thirty-three times in the history of Urantia. At such times the +Most High observer functions as the Most High regent, exercising unquestioned +authority over all ministers and administrators resident on the planet +excepting only the divisional organization of the archangels. + +Vorondadek regencies are not peculiar to rebellion-isolated planets, for the +Most Highs may intervene at any time in the affairs of the inhabited worlds, + + top of page - 1254 + +interposing the superior wisdom of the constellation rulers in the affairs of +the kingdoms of men. + +5. THE PLANETARY GOVERNMENT + +The actual administration of Urantia is indeed difficult to describe. There +exists no formal government along the lines of universe organization, such as +separate legislative, executive, and judicial departments. The twenty-four +counselors come the nearest to being the legislative branch of the planetary +government. The governor general is a provisional and advisory chief executive +with the veto power resident in the Most High observer. And there are no +absolutely authoritative judicial powers operative on the planet--only the +conciliating commissions. + +A majority of the problems involving seraphim and midwayers are, by mutual +consent, decided by the governor general. But except when voicing the mandates +of the twenty-four counselors, his rulings are all subject to appeal to +conciliating commissions, to local authorities constituted for planetary +function, or even to the System Sovereign of Satania. + +The absence of the corporeal staff of a Planetary Prince and the material +regime of an Adamic Son and Daughter is partially compensated by the special +ministry of seraphim and by the unusual services of the midway creatures. The +absence of the Planetary Prince is effectively compensated by the triune +presence of the archangels, the Most High observer, and the governor general. + +This rather loosely organized and somewhat personally administered planetary +government is more than expectedly effective because of the timesaving +assistance of the archangels and their ever-ready circuit, which is so +frequently utilized in planetary emergencies and administrative difficulties. +Technically, the planet is still spiritually isolated in the Norlatiadek +circuits, but in an emergency this handicap can now be circumvented through +utilization of the archangels' circuit. Planetary isolation is, of course, of +little concern to individual mortals since the pouring out of the Spirit of +Truth upon all flesh nineteen hundred years ago. + +Each administrative day on Urantia begins with a consultative conference, which +is attended by the governor general, the planetary chief of archangels, the +Most High observer, the supervising supernaphim, the chief of resident Life +Carriers, and invited guests from among the high Sons of the universe or from +among certain of the student visitors who may chance to be sojourning on the +planet. + +The direct administrative cabinet of the governor general consists of twelve +seraphim, the acting chiefs of the twelve groups of special angels functioning +as the immediate superhuman directors of planetary progress and stability. + +6. THE MASTER SERAPHIM OF PLANETARY SUPERVISION + +When the first governor general arrived on Urantia, concurrent with the +outpouring of the Spirit of Truth, he was accompanied by twelve corps of +special seraphim, Seraphington graduates, who were immediately assigned to +certain special planetary services. These exalted angels are known as the +master seraphim of planetary supervision and are, aside from the overcontrol of +the planetary + + top of page - 1255 + +Most High observer, under the immediate direction of the resident governor +general. + +These twelve groups of angels, while functioning under the general supervision +of the resident governor general, are immediately directed by the seraphic +council of twelve, the acting chiefs of each group. This council also serves as +the volunteer cabinet of the resident governor general. + +As planetary chief of seraphim, I preside over this council of seraphic chiefs, +and I am a volunteer supernaphim of the primary order serving on Urantia as the +successor of the onetime chief of the angelic hosts of the planet who defaulted +at the time of the Caligastia secession. + +The twelve corps of the master seraphim of planetary supervision are functional +on Urantia as follows: + +1. The epochal angels. These are the angels of the current age, the +dispensational group. These celestial ministers are intrusted with the +oversight and direction of the affairs of each generation as they are designed +to fit into the mosaic of the age in which they occur. The present corps of +epochal angels serving on Urantia is the third group assigned to the planet +during the current dispensation. + +2. The progress angels. These seraphim are intrusted with the task of +initiating the evolutionary progress of the successive social ages. They foster +the development of the inherent progressive trend of evolutionary creatures; +they labor incessantly to make things what they ought to be. The group now on +duty is the second to be assigned to the planet. + +3. The religious guardians. These are the "angels of the churches," the earnest +contenders for that which is and has been. They endeavor to maintain the ideals +of that which has survived for the sake of the safe transit of moral values +from one epoch to another. They are the checkmates of the angels of progress, +all the while seeking to translate from one generation to another the +imperishable values of the old and passing forms into the new and therefore +less stabilized patterns of thought and conduct. These angels do contend for +spiritual forms, but they are not the source of ultrasectarianism and +meaningless controversial divisions of professed religionists. The corps now +functioning on Urantia is the fifth thus to serve. + +4. The angels of nation life. These are the "angels of the trumpets," directors +of the political performances of Urantia national life. The group now +functioning in the overcontrol of international relations is the fourth corps +to serve on the planet. It is particularly through the ministry of this +seraphic division that "the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men." + +5. The angels of the races. Those who work for the conservation of the +evolutionary races of time, regardless of their political entanglements and +religious groupings. On Urantia there are remnants of nine human races which +have commingled and combined into the people of modern times. These seraphim +are closely associated with the ministry of the race commissioners, and the +group now on Urantia is the original corps assigned to the planet soon after +the day of Pentecost. + +6. The angels of the future. These are the projection angels, who forecast a +future age and plan for the realization of the better things of a new and ad- + + top of page - 1256 + +vancing dispensation; they are the architects of the successive eras. The group +now on the planet has thus functioned since the beginning of the current +dispensation. + +7. The angels of enlightenment. Urantia is now receiving the help of the third +corps of seraphim dedicated to the fostering of planetary education. These +angels are occupied with mental and moral training as it concerns individuals, +families, groups, schools, communities, nations, and whole races. + +8. The angels of health. These are the seraphic ministers assigned to the +assistance of those mortal agencies dedicated to the promotion of health and +the prevention of disease. The present corps is the sixth group to serve during +this dispensation. + +9. The home seraphim. Urantia now enjoys the services of the fifth group of +angelic ministers dedicated to the preservation and advancement of the home, +the basic institution of human civilization. + +10. The angels of industry. This seraphic group is concerned with fostering +industrial development and improving economic conditions among the Urantia +peoples. This corps has been seven times changed since the bestowal of Michael. + +11. The angels of diversion. These are the seraphim who foster the values of +play, humor, and rest. They ever seek to uplift man's recreational diversions +and thus to promote the more profitable utilization of human leisure. The +present corps is the third of that order to minister on Urantia. + +12. The angels of superhuman ministry. These are the angels of the angels, +those seraphim who are assigned to the ministry of all other superhuman life on +the planet, temporary or permanent. This corps has served since the beginning +of the current dispensation. + +When these groups of master seraphim disagree in matters of planetary policy or +procedure, their differences are usually composed by the governor general, but +all his rulings are subject to appeal in accordance with the nature and gravity +of the issues involved in the disagreement. + +None of these angelic groups exercise direct or arbitrary control over the +domains of their assignment. They cannot fully control the affairs of their +respective realms of action, but they can and do so manipulate planetary +conditions and so associate circumstances as favorably to influence the spheres +of human activity to which they are attached. + +The master seraphim of planetary supervision utilize many agencies for the +prosecution of their missions. They function as ideational clearinghouses, mind +focalizers, and project promoters. While unable to inject new and higher +conceptions into human minds, they often act to intensify some higher ideal +which has already appeared within a human intellect. + +But aside from these many means of positive action, the master seraphim insure +planetary progress against vital jeopardy through the mobilization, training, +and maintenance of the reserve corps of destiny. The chief function of these +reservists is to insure against breakdown of evolutionary progress; they are +the provisions which the celestial forces have made against surprise; they are +the guarantees against disaster. + + top of page - 1257 + +7. THE RESERVE CORPS OF DESTINY + +The reserve corps of destiny consists of living men and women who have been +admitted to the special service of the superhuman administration of world +affairs. This corps is made up of the men and women of each generation who are +chosen by the spirit directors of the realm to assist in the conduct of the +ministry of mercy and wisdom to the children of time on the evolutionary +worlds. It is the general practice in the conduct of the affairs of the +ascension plans to begin this liaison utilization of mortal will creatures +immediately they are competent and trustworthy to assume such responsibilities. +Accordingly, as soon as men and women appear on the stage of temporal action +with sufficient mental capacity, adequate moral status, and requisite +spirituality, they are quickly assigned to the appropriate celestial group of +planetary personalities as human liaisons, mortal assistants. + +When human beings are chosen as protectors of planetary destiny, when they +become pivotal individuals in the plans which the world administrators are +prosecuting, at that time the planetary chief of seraphim confirms their +temporal attachment to the seraphic corps and appoints personal destiny +guardians to serve with these mortal reservists. All reservists have +self-conscious Adjusters, and most of them function in the higher cosmic +circles of intellectual achievement and spiritual attainment. + +Mortals of the realm are chosen for service in the reserve corps of destiny on +the inhabited worlds because of: + +1. Special capacity for being secretly rehearsed for numerous possible +emergency missions in the conduct of various activities of world affairs. + +2. Wholehearted dedication to some special social, economic, political, +spiritual, or other cause, coupled with willingness to serve without human +recognition and rewards. + +3. The possession of a Thought Adjuster of extraordinary versatility and +probable pre-Urantia experience in coping with planetary difficulties and +contending with impending world emergency situations. + +Each division of planetary celestial service is entitled to a liaison corps of +these mortals of destiny standing. The average inhabited world employs seventy +separate corps of destiny, which are intimately connected with the superhuman +current conduct of world affairs. On Urantia there are twelve reserve corps of +destiny, one for each of the planetary groups of seraphic supervision. + +The twelve groups of Urantia destiny reservists are composed of mortal +inhabitants of the sphere who have been rehearsed for numerous crucial +positions on earth and are held in readiness to act in possible planetary +emergencies. This combined corps now consists of 962 persons. The smallest +corps numbers 41 and the largest 172. With the exception of less than a score +of contact personalities, the members of this unique group are wholly +unconscious of their preparation for possible function in certain planetary +crises. These mortal reservists are chosen by the corps to which they are +respectively attached and are likewise trained and rehearsed in the deep mind +by the combined technique of Thought Adjuster and seraphic guardian ministry. +Many times numerous other celestial personalities participate in this +unconscious training, and in all this special preparation the midwayers perform +valuable and indispensable services. + + top of page - 1258 + +On many worlds the better adapted secondary midway creatures are able to attain +varying degrees of contact with the Thought Adjusters of certain favorably +constituted mortals through the skillful penetration of the minds of the +latters' indwelling. (And it was by just such a fortuitous combination of +cosmic adjustments that these revelations were materialized in the English +language on Urantia.) Such potential contact mortals of the evolutionary worlds +are mobilized in the numerous reserve corps, and it is, to a certain extent, +through these small groups of forward-looking personalities that spiritual +civilization is advanced and the Most Highs are able to rule in the kingdoms of +men. The men and women of these reserve corps of destiny thus have various +degrees of contact with their Adjusters through the intervening ministry of the +midway creatures; but these same mortals are little known to their fellows +except in those rare social emergencies and spiritual exigencies wherein these +reserve personalities function for the prevention of the breakdown of +evolutionary culture or the extinction of the light of living truth. On Urantia +these reservists of destiny have seldom been emblazoned on the pages of human +history. + +The reservists unconsciously act as conservators of essential planetary +information. Many times, upon the death of a reservist, a transfer of certain +vital data from the mind of the dying reservist to a younger successor is made +by a liaison of the two Thought Adjusters. The Adjusters undoubtedly function +in many other ways unknown to us, in connection with these reserve corps. + +On Urantia the reserve corps of destiny, though having no permanent head, does +have its own permanent councils which constitute its governing organization. +These embrace the judiciary council, the historicity council, the council on +political sovereignty, and many others. From time to time, in accordance with +the corps organization, titular (mortal) heads of the whole reserve corps have +been commissioned by these permanent councils for specific function. The tenure +of such reservist chiefs is usually a matter of a few hours' duration, being +limited to the accomplishment of some specific task at hand. + +The Urantia reserve corps had its largest membership in the days of the +Adamites and Andites, steadily declining with the dilution of the violet blood +and reaching its low point around the time of Pentecost, since which time +reserve corps membership has steadily increased. + +(The cosmic reserve corps of universe-conscious citizens on Urantia now numbers +over one thousand mortals whose insight of cosmic citizenship far transcends +the sphere of their terrestrial abode, but I am forbidden to reveal the real +nature of the function of this unique group of living human beings.) + +Urantia mortals should not allow the comparative spiritual isolation of their +world from certain of the local universe circuits to produce a feeling of +cosmic desertion or planetary orphanage. There is operative on the planet a +very definite and effective superhuman supervision of world affairs and human +destinies. + +But it is true that you can have, at best, only a meager idea of an ideal +planetary government. Since the early times of the Planetary Prince, Urantia +has suffered from the miscarriage of the divine plan of world growth and racial +development. The loyal inhabited worlds of Satania are not governed as is +Urantia. Nevertheless, compared with the other isolated worlds, your planetary +governments have not been so inferior; only one or two worlds may be said to be +worse, and a few may be slightly better, but the majority are on a plane of +equality with you. + + top of page - 1259 + +No one in the local universe seems to know when the unsettled status of the +planetary administration will terminate. The Nebadon Melchizedeks are inclined +to the opinion that little change will occur in the planetary government and +administration until Michael's second personal arrival on Urantia. Undoubtedly +at this time, if not before, sweeping changes will be effected in planetary +management. But as to the nature of such modifications of world administration, +no one seems to be able even to conjecture. There is no precedent for such an +episode in all the history of the inhabited worlds of the universe of Nebadon. +Among the many things difficult to understand concerning the future government +of Urantia, a prominent one is the location on the planet of a circuit and +divisional headquarters of the archangels. + +Your isolated world is not forgotten in the counsels of the universe. Urantia +is not a cosmic orphan stigmatized by sin and shut away from divine watchcare +by rebellion. From Uversa to Salvington and on down to Jerusem, even in Havona +and on Paradise, they all know we are here; and you mortals now dwelling on +Urantia are just as lovingly cherished and just as faithfully watched over as +if the sphere had never been betrayed by a faithless Planetary Prince, even +more so. It is eternally true, "the Father himself loves you." + +[Presented by the Chief of Seraphim stationed on Urantia.] + + top of page - 1260 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Seraphic ³ The Supreme ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Guardi... ³ Bei... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p115.txt b/religious documents/p115.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..917df07 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p115.txt @@ -0,0 +1,499 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 115 The Supreme Being + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... The Supreme Being +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 115 The Supreme Being + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +WITH God the Father, sonship is the great relationship. With God the Supreme, +achievement is the prerequisite to status--one must do something as well as be +something. + +1. RELATIVITY OF CONCEPT FRAMES + +Partial, incomplete, and evolving intellects would be helpless in the master +universe, would be unable to form the first rational thought pattern, were it +not for the innate ability of all mind, high or low, to form a universe frame +in which to think. If mind cannot fathom conclusions, if it cannot penetrate to +true origins, then will such mind unfailingly postulate conclusions and invent +origins that it may have a means of logical thought within the frame of these +mind-created postulates. And while such universe frames for creature thought +are indispensable to rational intellectual operations, they are, without +exception, erroneous to a greater or lesser degree. + +Conceptual frames of the universe are only relatively true; they are +serviceable scaffolding which must eventually give way before the expansions of +enlarging cosmic comprehension. The understandings of truth, beauty, and +goodness, morality, ethics, duty, love, divinity, origin, existence, purpose, +destiny, time, space, even Deity, are only relatively true. God is much, much +more than a Father, but the Father is man's highest concept of God; +nonetheless, the Father-Son portrayal of Creator-creature relationship will be +augmented by those supermortal conceptions of Deity which will be attained in +Orvonton, in Havona, and on Paradise. Man must think in a mortal universe +frame, but that does not mean that he cannot envision other and higher frames +within which thought can take place. + +In order to facilitate mortal comprehension of the universe of universes, the +diverse levels of cosmic reality have been designated as finite, absonite, and +absolute. Of these only the absolute is unqualifiedly eternal, truly +existential. Absonites and finites are derivatives, modifications, +qualifications, and attenuations of the original and primordial absolute +reality of infinity. + +The realms of the finite exist by virtue of the eternal purpose of God. Finite +creatures, high and low, may propound theories, and have done so, as to the +necessity of the finite in the cosmic economy, but in the last analysis it +exists because God so willed. The universe cannot be explained, neither can a +finite creature offer a rational reason for his own individual existence +without appealing to the prior acts and pre-existent volition of ancestral +beings, Creators or procreators. + + top of page - 1261 + +2. THE ABSOLUTE BASIS FOR SUPREMACY + +From the existential standpoint, nothing new can happen throughout the +galaxies, for the completion of infinity inherent in the I AM is eternally +present in the seven Absolutes, is functionally associated in the triunities, +and is transmitively associated in the triodities. But the fact that infinity +is thus existentially present in these absolute associations in no way makes it +impossible to realize new cosmic experientials. From a finite creature's +viewpoint, infinity contains much that is potential, much that is on the order +of a future possibility rather than a present actuality. + +Value is a unique element in universe reality. We do not comprehend how the +value of anything infinite and divine could possibly be increased. But we +discover that meanings can be modified if not augmented even in the relations +of infinite Deity. To the experiential universes even divine values are +increased as actualities by enlarged comprehension of reality meanings. + +The entire scheme of universal creation and evolution on all experiencing +levels is apparently a matter of the conversion of potentialities into +actualities; and this transmutation has to do equally with the realms of space +potency, mind potency, and spirit potency. + +The apparent method whereby the possibilities of the cosmos are brought into +actual existence varies from level to level, being experiential evolution in +the finite and experiential eventuation in the absonite. Existential infinity +is indeed unqualified in all-inclusiveness, and this very all-inclusiveness +must, perforce, encompass even the possibility for evolutionary finite +experiencing. And the possibility for such experiential growth becomes a +universe actuality through triodity relationships impinging upon and in the +Supreme. + +3. ORIGINAL, ACTUAL, AND POTENTIAL + +The absolute cosmos is conceptually without limit; to define the extent and +nature of this primal reality is to place qualifications upon infinity and to +attenuate the pure concept of eternity. The idea of the infinite-eternal, the +eternal-infinite, is unqualified in extent and absolute in fact. There is no +language in the past, present, or future of Urantia adequate to express the +reality of infinity or the infinity of reality. Man, a finite creature in an +infinite cosmos, must content himself with distorted reflections and attenuated +conceptions of that limitless, boundless, never-beginning, never-ending +existence the comprehension of which is really beyond his ability. + +Mind can never hope to grasp the concept of an Absolute without attempting +first to break the unity of such a reality. Mind is unifying of all +divergencies, but in the very absence of such divergencies, mind finds no basis +upon which to attempt to formulate understanding concepts. + +The primordial stasis of infinity requires segmentation prior to human attempts +at comprehension. There is a unity in infinity which has been expressed in +these papers as the I AM--the premier postulate of the creature mind. But never +can a creature understand how it is that this unity becomes duality, triunity, +and diversity while yet remaining an unqualified unity. Man encounters a +similar problem when he pauses to contemplate the undivided Deity of Trinity +alongside the plural personalization of God. + + top of page - 1262 + +It is only man's distance from infinity that causes this concept to be +expressed as one word. While infinity is on the one hand UNITY, on the other it +is DIVERSITY without end or limit. Infinity, as it is observed by finite +intelligences, is the maximum paradox of creature philosophy and finite +metaphysics. Though man's spiritual nature reaches up in the worship experience +to the Father who is infinite, man's intellectual comprehension capacity is +exhausted by the maximum conception of the Supreme Being. Beyond the Supreme, +concepts are increasingly names; less and less are they true designations of +reality; more and more do they become the creature's projection of finite +understanding toward the superfinite. + +One basic conception of the absolute level involves a postulate of three +phases: + +1. The Original. The unqualified concept of the First Source and Center, that +source manifestation of the I AM from which all reality takes origin. + +2. The Actual. The union of the three Absolutes of actuality, the Second, +Third, and Paradise Sources and Centers. This triodity of the Eternal Son, the +Infinite Spirit, and the Paradise Isle constitutes the actual revelation of the +originality of the First Source and Center. + +3. The Potential. The union of the three Absolutes of potentiality, the Deity, +Unqualified, and Universal Absolutes. This triodity of existential potentiality +constitutes the potential revelation of the originality of the First Source and +Center. + +The interassociation of the Original, the Actual, and the Potential yields the +tensions within infinity which result in the possibility for all universe +growth; and growth is the nature of the Sevenfold, the Supreme, and the +Ultimate. + +In the association of the Deity, Universal, and Unqualified Absolutes, +potentiality is absolute while actuality is emergent; in the association of the +Second, Third, and Paradise Sources and Centers, actuality is absolute while +potentiality is emergent; in the originality of the First Source and Center, we +cannot say that either actuality or potentiality is either existent or +emergent--the Father is. + +From the time viewpoint, the Actual is that which was and is; the Potential is +that which is becoming and will be; the Original is that which is. From the +eternity viewpoint, the differences between the Original, the Actual, and the +Potential are not thus apparent. These triune qualities are not so +distinguished on Paradise-eternity levels. In eternity all is--only has all not +yet been revealed in time and space. + +From a creature's viewpoint, actuality is substance, potentiality is capacity. +Actuality exists centermost and expands therefrom into peripheral infinity; +potentiality comes inward from the infinity periphery and converges at the +center of all things. Originality is that which first causes and then balances +the dual motions of the cycle of reality metamorphosis from potentials to +actuals and the potentializing of existing actuals. + +The three Absolutes of potentiality are operative on the purely eternal level +of the cosmos, hence never function as such on subabsolute levels. On the +descending levels of reality the triodity of potentiality is manifest with the +Ultimate and upon the Supreme. The potential may fail to time-actualize with +respect to a part on some subabsolute level, but never in the aggregate. The +will of God does + + top of page - 1263 + +ultimately prevail, not always concerning the individual but invariably +concerning the total. + +It is in the triodity of actuality that the existents of the cosmos have their +center; be it spirit, mind, or energy, all center in this association of the +Son, the Spirit, and Paradise. The personality of the spirit Son is the master +pattern for all personality throughout all universes. The substance of the +Paradise Isle is the master pattern of which Havona is a perfect, and the +superuniverses are a perfecting, revelation. The Conjoint Actor is at one and +the same time the mind activation of cosmic energy, the conceptualization of +spirit purpose, and the integration of the mathematical causes and effects of +the material levels with the volitional purposes and motives of the spiritual +level. In and to a finite universe the Son, Spirit, and Paradise function in +and upon the Ultimate as he is conditioned and qualified in the Supreme. + +Actuality (of Deity) is what man seeks in the Paradise ascent. Potentiality (of +human divinity) is what man evolves in that search. The Original is what makes +possible the coexistence and integration of man the actual, man the potential, +and man the eternal. + +The final dynamics of the cosmos have to do with the continual transfer of +reality from potentiality to actuality. In theory, there may be an end to this +metamorphosis, but in fact, such is impossible since the Potential and the +Actual are both encircuited in the Original (the I AM), and this identification +makes it forever impossible to place a limit on the developmental progression +of the universe. Whatsoever is identified with the I AM can never find an end +to progression since the actuality of the potentials of the I AM is absolute, +and the potentiality of the actuals of the I AM is also absolute. Always will +actuals be opening up new avenues of the realization of hitherto impossible +potentials--every human decision not only actualizes a new reality in human +experience but also opens up a new capacity for human growth. The man lives in +every child, and the morontia progressor is resident in the mature God-knowing +man. + +Statics in growth can never appear in the total cosmos since the basis for +growth--the absolute actuals--is unqualified, and since the possibilities for +growth--the absolute potentials--are unlimited. From a practical viewpoint the +philosophers of the universe have come to the conclusion that there is no such +thing as an end. + +From a circumscribed view there are, indeed, many ends, many terminations of +activities, but from a larger viewpoint on a higher universe level, there are +no endings, merely transitions from one phase of development to another. The +major chronicity of the master universe is concerned with the several universe +ages, the Havona, the superuniverse, and the outer universe ages. But even +these basic divisions of sequence relationships cannot be more than relative +landmarks on the unending highway of eternity. + +The final penetration of the truth, beauty, and goodness of the Supreme Being +could only open up to the progressing creature those absonite qualities of +ultimate divinity which lie beyond the concept levels of truth, beauty, and +goodness. + +4. SOURCES OF SUPREME REALITY + +Any consideration of the origins of God the Supreme must begin with the +Paradise Trinity, for the Trinity is original Deity while the Supreme is +derived + + top of page - 1264 + +Deity. Any consideration of the growth of the Supreme must give consideration +to the existential triodities, for they encompass all absolute actuality and +all infinite potentiality (in conjunction with the First Source and Center). +And the evolutionary Supreme is the culminating and personally volitional focus +of the transmutation--the transformation--of potentials to actuals in and on +the finite level of existence. The two triodities, actual and potential, +encompass the totality of the interrelationships of growth in the universes. + +The source of the Supreme is in the Paradise Trinity--eternal, actual, and +undivided Deity. The Supreme is first of all a spirit person, and this spirit +person stems from the Trinity. But the Supreme is secondly a Deity of +growth--evolutionary growth--and this growth derives from the two triodities, +actual and potential. + +If it is difficult to comprehend that the infinite triodities can function on +the finite level, pause to consider that their very infinity must in itself +contain the potentiality of the finite; infinity encompasses all things ranging +from the lowest and most qualified finite existence to the highest and +unqualifiedly absolute realities. + +It is not so difficult to comprehend that the infinite does contain the finite +as it is to understand just how this infinite actually is manifest to the +finite. But the Thought Adjusters indwelling mortal man are one of the eternal +proofs that even the absolute God (as absolute) can and does actually make +direct contact with even the lowest and least of all universe will creatures. + +The triodities which collectively encompass the actual and the potential are +manifest on the finite level in conjunction with the Supreme Being. The +technique of such manifestation is both direct and indirect: direct in so far +as triodity relations repercuss directly in the Supreme and indirect in so far +as they are derived through the eventuated level of the absonite. + +Supreme reality, which is total finite reality, is in process of dynamic growth +between the unqualified potentials of outer space and the unqualified actuals +at the center of all things. The finite domain thus factualizes through the +co-operation of the absonite agencies of Paradise and the Supreme Creator +Personalities of time. The act of maturing the qualified possibilities of the +three great potential Absolutes is the absonite function of the Architects of +the Master Universe and their transcendental associates. And when these +eventualities have attained to a certain point of maturation, the Supreme +Creator Personalities emerge from Paradise to engage in the agelong task of +bringing the evolving universes into factual being. + +The growth of Supremacy derives from the triodities; the spirit person of the +Supreme, from the Trinity; but the power prerogatives of the Almighty are +predicated on the divinity successes of God the Sevenfold, while the conjoining +of the power prerogatives of the Almighty Supreme with the spirit person of God +the Supreme takes place by virtue of the ministry of the Conjoint Actor, who +bestowed the mind of the Supreme as the conjoining factor in this evolutionary +Deity. + +5. RELATION OF THE SUPREME TO THE PARADISE + +The Supreme Being is absolutely dependent on the existence and action of the +Paradise Trinity for the reality of his personal and spirit nature. While the + + top of page - 1265 + +growth of the Supreme is a matter of triodity relationship, the spirit +personality of God the Supreme is dependent upon, and is derived from, the +Paradise Trinity, which ever remains as the absolute center-source of perfect +and infinite stability around which the evolutionary growth of the Supreme +progressively unfolds. + +The function of the Trinity is related to the function of the Supreme, for the +Trinity is functional on all (total) levels, including the level of the +function of Supremacy. But as the age of Havona gives way to the age of the +superuniverses, so does the discernible action of the Trinity as immediate +creator give way to the creative acts of the children of the Paradise Deities. + +6. RELATION OF THE SUPREME TO THE TRIODITIES + +The triodity of actuality continues to function directly in the post-Havona +epochs; Paradise gravity grasps the basic units of material existence, the +spirit gravity of the Eternal Son operates directly upon the fundamental values +of spirit existence, and the mind gravity of the Conjoint Actor unerringly +clutches all vital meanings of intellectual existence. + +But as each stage of creative activity proceeds out through uncharted space, it +functions and exists farther and farther removed from direct action by the +creative forces and divine personalities of central emplacement--the absolute +Isle of Paradise and the infinite Deities resident thereon. These successive +levels of cosmic existence become, therefore, increasingly dependent upon +developments within the three Absolute potentialities of infinity. + +The Supreme Being embraces possibilities for cosmic ministry that are not +apparently manifested in the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, or the +nonpersonal realities of the Isle of Paradise. This statement is made with due +regard for the absoluteness of these three basic actualities, but the growth of +the Supreme is not only predicated on these actualities of Deity and Paradise +but is also involved in developments within the Deity, Universal, and +Unqualified Absolutes. + +The Supreme not only grows as the Creators and creatures of the evolving +universes attain to Godlikeness, but this finite Deity also experiences growth +as a result of the creature and Creator mastery of the finite possibilities of +the grand universe. The motion of the Supreme is twofold: intensively toward +Paradise and Deity and extensively toward the limitlessness of the Absolutes of +potential. + +In the present universe age this dual motion is revealed in the descending and +ascending personalities of the grand universe. The Supreme Creator +Personalities and all their divine associates are reflective of the outward, +diverging motion of the Supreme, while the ascending pilgrims from the seven +superuniverses are indicative of the inward, converging trend of Supremacy. + +Always is the finite Deity seeking for dual correlation, inward toward Paradise +and the Deities thereof and outward toward infinity and the Absolutes therein. +The mighty eruption of the Paradise-creative divinity personalizing in the +Creator Sons and powerizing in the power controllers, signifies the vast +outsurge of Supremacy into the domains of potentiality, while the endless +procession of the ascending creatures of the grand universe witnesses the +mighty insurge of Supremacy toward unity with Paradise Deity. + +Human beings have learned that the motion of the invisible may sometimes be +discerned by observing its effects on the visible; and we in the universes have + + top of page - 1266 + +long since learned to detect the movements and trends of Supremacy by observing +the repercussions of such evolutions in the personalities and patterns of the +grand universe. + +Though we are not sure, we believe that, as a finite reflection of Paradise +Deity, the Supreme is engaged in an eternal progression into outer space; but +as a qualification of the three Absolute potentials of outer space, this +Supreme Being is forever seeking for Paradise coherence. And these dual motions +seem to account for most of the basic activities in the presently organized +universes. + +7. THE NATURE OF THE SUPREME + +In the Deity of the Supreme the Father-I AM has achieved relatively complete +liberation from the limitations inherent in infinity of status, eternity of +being, and absoluteness of nature. But God the Supreme has been freed from all +existential limitations only by having become subject to experiential +qualifications of universal function. In attaining capacity for experience, the +finite God also becomes subject to the necessity therefor; in achieving +liberation from eternity, the Almighty encounters the barriers of time; and the +Supreme could only know growth and development as a consequence of partiality +of existence and incompleteness of nature, nonabsoluteness of being. + +All this must be according to the Father's plan, which has predicated finite +progress upon effort, creature achievement upon perseverance, and personality +development upon faith. By thus ordaining the experience-evolution of the +Supreme, the Father has made it possible for finite creatures to exist in the +universes and, by experiential progression, sometime to attain the divinity of +Supremacy. + +Including the Supreme and even the Ultimate, all reality, excepting the +unqualified values of the seven Absolutes, is relative. The fact of Supremacy +is predicated on Paradise power, Son personality, and Conjoint action, but the +growth of the Supreme is involved in the Deity Absolute, the Unqualified +Absolute, and the Universal Absolute. And this synthesizing and unifying +Deity--God the Supreme--is the personification of the finite shadow cast +athwart the grand universe by the infinite unity of the unsearchable nature of +the Paradise Father, the First Source and Center. + +To the extent that the triodities are directly operative on the finite level, +they impinge upon the Supreme, who is the Deity focalization and cosmic +summation of the finite qualifications of the natures of the Absolute Actual +and the Absolute Potential. + +The Paradise Trinity is considered to be the absolute inevitability; the Seven +Master Spirits are apparently Trinity inevitabilities; the +power-mind-spirit-personality actualization of the Supreme must be the +evolutionary inevitability. + +God the Supreme does not appear to have been inevitable in unqualified +infinity, but he seems to be on all relativity levels. He is the indispensable +focalizer, summarizer, and encompasser of evolutionary experience, effectively +unifying the results of this mode of reality perception in his Deity nature. +And all this he appears to do for the purpose of contributing to the appearance +of the inevitable eventuation, the superexperience and superfinite +manifestation of God the Ultimate. + + top of page - 1267 + +The Supreme Being cannot be fully appreciated without taking into consideration +source, function, and destiny: relationship to the originating Trinity, the +universe of activity, and the Trinity Ultimate of immediate destiny. + +By the process of summating evolutionary experience the Supreme connects the +finite with the absonite, even as the mind of the Conjoint Actor integrates the +divine spirituality of the personal Son with the immutable energies of the +Paradise pattern, and as the presence of the Universal Absolute unifies Deity +activation with the Unqualified reactivity. And this unity must be a revelation +of the undetected working of the original unity of the First Father-Cause and +Source-Pattern of all things and all beings. + +[Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning on Urantia.] + + top of page - 1268 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Seraphic ³ The Almighty ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Planet... ³ Su... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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The Almighty Supreme +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 116 The Almighty Supreme + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +IF MAN recognized that his Creators--his immediate supervisors--while being +divine were also finite, and that the God of time and space was an evolving and +nonabsolute Deity, then would the inconsistencies of temporal inequalities +cease to be profound religious paradoxes. No longer would religious faith be +prostituted to the promotion of social smugness in the fortunate while serving +only to encourage stoical resignation in the unfortunate victims of social +deprivation. + +When viewing the exquisitely perfect spheres of Havona, it is both reasonable +and logical to believe they were made by a perfect, infinite, and absolute +Creator. But that same reason and logic would compel any honest being, when +viewing the turmoil, imperfections, and inequities of Urantia, to conclude that +your world had been made by, and was being managed by, Creators who were +subabsolute, preinfinite, and other than perfect. + +Experiential growth implies creature-Creator partnership--God and man in +association. Growth is the earmark of experiential Deity: Havona did not grow; +Havona is and always has been; it is existential like the everlasting Gods who +are its source. But growth characterizes the grand universe. + +The Almighty Supreme is a living and evolving Deity of power and personality. +His present domain, the grand universe, is also a growing realm of power and +personality. His destiny is perfection, but his present experience encompasses +the elements of growth and incomplete status. + +The Supreme Being functions primarily in the central universe as a spirit +personality; secondarily in the grand universe as God the Almighty, a +personality of power. The tertiary function of the Supreme in the master +universe is now latent, existing only as an unknown mind potential. No one +knows just what this third development of the Supreme Being will disclose. Some +believe that, when the superuniverses are settled in light and life, the +Supreme will become functional from Uversa as the almighty and experiential +sovereign of the grand universe while expanding in power as the superalmighty +of the outer universes. Others speculate that the third stage of Supremacy will +involve the third level of Deity manifestation. But none of us really know. + +1. THE SUPREME MIND + +The experience of every evolving creature personality is a phase of the +experience of the Almighty Supreme. The intelligent subjugation of every +physical segment of the superuniverses is a part of the growing control of the + + top of page - 1269 + +Almighty Supreme. The creative synthesis of power and personality is a part of +the creative urge of the Supreme Mind and is the very essence of the +evolutionary growth of unity in the Supreme Being. + +The union of the power and personality attributes of Supremacy is the function +of Supreme Mind; and the completed evolution of the Almighty Supreme will +result in one unified and personal Deity--not in any loosely co-ordinated +association of divine attributes. From the broader perspective, there will be +no Almighty apart from the Supreme, no Supreme apart from the Almighty. + +Throughout the evolutionary ages the physical power potential of the Supreme is +vested in the Seven Supreme Power Directors, and the mind potential reposes in +the Seven Master Spirits. The Infinite Mind is the function of the Infinite +Spirit; the cosmic mind, the ministry of the Seven Master Spirits; the Supreme +Mind is in process of actualizing in the co-ordination of the grand universe +and in functional association with the revelation and attainment of God the +Sevenfold. + +The time-space mind, the cosmic mind, is differently functioning in the seven +superuniverses, but it is co-ordinated by some unknown associative technique in +the Supreme Being. The Almighty overcontrol of the grand universe is not +exclusively physical and spiritual. In the seven superuniverses it is primarily +material and spiritual, but there are also present phenomena of the Supreme +which are both intellectual and spiritual. + +We really know less about the mind of Supremacy than about any other aspect of +this evolving Deity. It is unquestionably active throughout the grand universe +and is believed to have a potential destiny of master universe function which +is of vast extent. But this we do know: Whereas physique may attain completed +growth, and whereas spirit may achieve perfection of development, mind never +ceases to progress--it is the experiential technique of endless progress. The +Supreme is an experiential Deity and therefore never achieves completion of +mind attainment. + +2. THE ALMIGHTY AND GOD THE SEVENFOLD + +The appearance of the universe power presence of the Almighty is concomitant +with the appearance on the stage of cosmic action of the high creators and +controllers of the evolutionary superuniverses. + +God the Supreme derives his spirit and personality attributes from the Paradise +Trinity, but he is power-actualizing in the doings of the Creator Sons, the +Ancients of Days, and the Master Spirits, whose collective acts are the source +of his growing power as almighty sovereign to and in the seven superuniverses. + +Unqualified Paradise Deity is incomprehensible to the evolving creatures of +time and space. Eternity and infinity connote a level of deity reality which +time-space creatures cannot comprehend. Infinity of deity and absoluteness of +sovereignty are inherent in the Paradise Trinity, and the Trinity is a reality +which lies somewhat beyond the understanding of mortal man. Time-space +creatures must have origins, relativities, and destinies in order to grasp +universe relationships and to understand the meaning values of divinity. +Therefore does Paradise Deity attenuate and otherwise qualify the +extra-Paradise personalizations of divinity, thus bringing into existence the +Supreme Creators and their + + top of page - 1270 + +associates, who ever carry the light of life farther and farther from its +Paradise source until it finds its most distant and beautiful expression in the +earth lives of the bestowal Sons on the evolutionary worlds. + +And this is the origin of God the Sevenfold, whose successive levels are +encountered by mortal man in the following order: + +1. The Creator Sons (and Creative Spirits). + +2. The Ancients of Days. + +3. The Seven Master Spirits. + +4. The Supreme Being. + +5. The Conjoint Actor. + +6. The Eternal Son. + +7. The Universal Father. + +The first three levels are the Supreme Creators; the last three levels are the +Paradise Deities. The Supreme ever intervenes as the experiential spirit +personalization of the Paradise Trinity and as the experiential focus of the +evolutionary almighty power of the creator children of the Paradise Deities. +The Supreme Being is the maximum revelation of Deity to the seven +superuniverses and for the present universe age. + +By the technique of mortal logic it might be inferred that the experiential +reunification of the collective acts of the first three levels of God the +Sevenfold would equivalate to the level of Paradise Deity, but such is not the +case. Paradise Deity is existential Deity. The Supreme Creators, in their +divine unity of power and personality, are constitutive and expressive of a new +power potential of experiential Deity. And this power potential of experiential +origin finds inevitable and inescapable union with the experiential Deity of +Trinity origin--the Supreme Being. + +God the Supreme is not the Paradise Trinity, neither is he any one or all of +those superuniverse Creators whose functional activities actually synthesize +his evolving almighty power. God the Supreme, while of origin in the Trinity, +becomes manifest to evolutionary creatures as a personality of power only +through the co-ordinated functions of the first three levels of God the +Sevenfold. The Almighty Supreme is now factualizing in time and space through +the activities of the Supreme Creator Personalities, even as in eternity the +Conjoint Actor flashed into being by the will of the Universal Father and the +Eternal Son. These beings of the first three levels of God the Sevenfold are +the very nature and source of the power of the Almighty Supreme; therefore must +they ever accompany and sustain his administrative acts. + +3. THE ALMIGHTY AND PARADISE DEITY + +The Paradise Deities not only act directly in their gravity circuits throughout +the grand universe, but they also function through their various agencies and +other manifestations, such as: + +1. The mind focalizations of the Third Source and Center. The finite domains of +energy and spirit are literally held together by the mind presences of the +Conjoint Actor. This is true from the Creative Spirit in a local universe +through the Reflective Spirits of a superuniverse to the Master Spirits in the + + top of page - 1271 + +grand universe. The mind circuits emanating from these varied intelligence +focuses represent the cosmic arena of creature choice. Mind is the flexible +reality which creatures and Creators can so readily manipulate; it is the vital +link connecting matter and spirit. The mind bestowal of the Third Source and +Center unifies the spirit person of God the Supreme with the experiential power +of the evolutionary Almighty. + +2. The personality revelations of the Second Source and Center. The mind +presences of the Conjoint Actor unify the spirit of divinity with the pattern +of energy. The bestowal incarnations of the Eternal Son and his Paradise Sons +unify, actually fuse, the divine nature of a Creator with the evolving nature +of a creature. The Supreme is both creature and creator; the possibility of his +being such is revealed in the bestowal actions of the Eternal Son and his +co-ordinate and subordinate Sons. The bestowal orders of sonship, the Michaels +and the Avonals, actually augment their divine natures with bona fide creature +natures which have become theirs by the living of the actual creature life on +the evolutionary worlds. When divinity becomes like humanity, inherent in this +relationship is the possibility that humanity can become divine. + +3. The indwelling presences of the First Source and Center. Mind unifies spirit +causations with energy reactions; bestowal ministry unifies divinity +descensions with creature ascensions; and the indwelling fragments of the +Universal Father actually unify the evolving creatures with God on Paradise. +There are many such presences of the Father which indwell numerous orders of +personalities, and in mortal man these divine fragments of God are the Thought +Adjusters. The Mystery Monitors are to human beings what the Paradise Trinity +is to the Supreme Being. The Adjusters are absolute foundations, and upon +absolute foundations freewill choice can cause to be evolved the divine reality +of an eternaliter nature, finaliter nature in the case of man, Deity nature in +God the Supreme. + +The creature bestowals of the Paradise orders of sonship enable these divine +Sons to enrich their personalities by the acquisition of the actual nature of +universe creatures, while such bestowals unfailingly reveal to the creatures +themselves the Paradise path of divinity attainment. The Adjuster bestowals of +the Universal Father enable him to draw the personalities of the volitional +will creatures to himself. And throughout all these relationships in the finite +universes the Conjoint Actor is the ever-present source of the mind ministry by +virtue of which these activities take place. + +In these and many other ways do the Paradise Deities participate in the +evolutions of time as they unfold on the circling planets of space, and as they +culminate in the emergence of the Supreme personality consequence of all +evolution. + +4. THE ALMIGHTY AND THE SUPREME CREATORS + +The unity of the Supreme Whole is dependent on the progressive unification of +the finite parts; the actualization of the Supreme is resultant from, and +productive of, these very unifications of the factors of supremacy--the +creators, creatures, intelligences, and energies of the universes. + + top of page - 1272 + +During those ages in which the sovereignty of Supremacy is undergoing its time +development, the almighty power of the Supreme is dependent on the divinity +acts of God the Sevenfold, while there seems to be a particularly close +relationship between the Supreme Being and the Conjoint Actor together with his +primary personalities, the Seven Master Spirits. The Infinite Spirit as the +Conjoint Actor functions in many ways which compensate the incompletion of +evolutionary Deity and sustains very close relations to the Supreme. This +closeness of relationship is shared in measure by all of the Master Spirits but +especially by Master Spirit Number Seven, who speaks for the Supreme. This +Master Spirit knows--is in personal contact with--the Supreme. + +Early in the projection of the superuniverse scheme of creation, the Master +Spirits joined with the ancestral Trinity in the cocreation of the forty-nine +Reflective Spirits, and concomitantly the Supreme Being functioned creatively +as the culminator of the conjoined acts of the Paradise Trinity and the +creative children of Paradise Deity. Majeston appeared and ever since has +focalized the cosmic presence of the Supreme Mind, while the Master Spirits +continue as source-centers for the far-flung ministry of the cosmic mind. + +But the Master Spirits continue in supervision of the Reflective Spirits. The +Seventh Master Spirit is (in his overall supervision of Orvonton from the +central universe) in personal contact with (and has overcontrol of) the seven +Reflective Spirits located on Uversa. In his inter- and intrasuperuniverse +controls and administrations he is in reflective contact with the Reflective +Spirits of his own type located on each superuniverse capital. + +These Master Spirits are not only the supporters and augmenters of the +sovereignty of Supremacy, but they are in turn affected by the creative +purposes of the Supreme. Ordinarily, the collective creations of the Master +Spirits are of the quasi-material order (power directors, etc.), while their +individual creations are of the spiritual order (supernaphim, etc.). But when +the Master Spirits collectively produced the Seven Circuit Spirits in response +to the will and purpose of the Supreme Being, it is to be noted that the +offspring of this creative act are spiritual, not material or quasi-material. + +And as it is with the Master Spirits of the superuniverses, so is it with the +triune rulers of these supercreations--the Ancients of Days. These +personifications of Trinity justice-judgment in time and space are the field +fulcrums for the mobilizing almighty power of the Supreme, serving as the +sevenfold focal points for the evolution of trinitarian sovereignty in the +domains of time and space. From their vantage point midway between Paradise and +the evolving worlds, these Trinity-origin sovereigns see both ways, know both +ways, and co-ordinate both ways. + +But the local universes are the real laboratories in which are worked out the +mind experiments, galactic adventures, divinity unfoldings, and personality +progressions which, when cosmically totaled, constitute the actual foundation +upon which the Supreme is achieving deity evolution in and by experience. + +In the local universes even the Creators evolve: The presence of the Conjoint +Actor evolves from a living power focus to the status of the divine personality +of a Universe Mother Spirit; the Creator Son evolves from the nature of +existential Paradise divinity to the experiential nature of supreme +sovereignty. The local universes are the starting points of true evolution, the +spawning + + top of page - 1273 + +grounds of bona fide imperfect personalities endowed with the freewill choice +of becoming cocreators of themselves as they are to be. + +The Magisterial Sons in their bestowals upon the evolutionary worlds eventually +acquire natures expressive of Paradise divinity in experiential unification +with the highest spiritual values of material human nature. And through these +and other bestowals the Michael Creators likewise acquire the natures and +cosmic viewpoints of their actual local universe children. Such Master Creator +Sons approximate the completion of subsupreme experience; and when their local +universe sovereignty is enlarged to embrace the associated Creative Spirits, it +may be said to approximate the limits of supremacy within the present +potentials of the evolutionary grand universe. + +When the bestowal Sons reveal new ways for man to find God, they are not +creating these paths of divinity attainment; rather are they illuminating the +everlasting highways of progression which lead through the presence of the +Supreme to the person of the Paradise Father. + +The local universe is the starting place for those personalities who are +farthest from God, and who can therefore experience the greatest degree of +spiritual ascent in the universe, can achieve the maximum of experiential +participation in the cocreation of themselves. These same local universes +likewise provide the greatest possible depth of experience for the descending +personalities, who thereby achieve something which is to them just as +meaningful as the Paradise ascent is to an evolving creature. + +Mortal man appears to be necessary to the full function of God the Sevenfold as +this divinity grouping culminates in the actualizing Supreme. There are many +other orders of universe personalities who are equally necessary to the +evolution of the almighty power of the Supreme, but this portrayal is presented +for the edification of human beings, hence is largely limited to those factors +operating in the evolution of God the Sevenfold which are related to mortal +man. + +5. THE ALMIGHTY AND THE SEVENFOLD CONTROLLERS + +You have been instructed in the relationship of God the Sevenfold to the +Supreme Being, and you should now recognize that the Sevenfold encompasses the +controllers as well as the creators of the grand universe. These sevenfold +controllers of the grand universe embrace the following: + +1. The Master Physical Controllers. + +2. The Supreme Power Centers. + +3. The Supreme Power Directors. + +4. The Almighty Supreme. + +5. The God of Action--the Infinite Spirit. + +6. The Isle of Paradise. + +7. The Source of Paradise--the Universal Father. + +These seven groups are functionally inseparable from God the Sevenfold and +constitute the physical-control level of this Deity association. + +The bifurcation of energy and spirit (stemming from the conjoint presence of +the Eternal Son and the Paradise Isle) was symbolized in the superuniverse + + top of page - 1274 + +sense when the Seven Master Spirits unitedly engaged in their first act of +collective creation. This episode witnessed the appearance of the Seven Supreme +Power Directors. Concomitant therewith the spiritual circuits of the Master +Spirits contrastively differentiated from the physical activities of power +director supervision, and immediately did the cosmic mind appear as a new +factor co-ordinating matter and spirit. + +The Almighty Supreme is evolving as the overcontroller of the physical power of +the grand universe. In the present universe age this potential of physical +power appears to be centered in the Seven Supreme Power Directors, who operate +through the fixed locations of the power centers and through the mobile +presences of the physical controllers. + +The time universes are not perfect; that is their destiny. The struggle for +perfection pertains not only to the intellectual and the spiritual levels but +also to the physical level of energy and mass. The settlement of the seven +superuniverses in light and life presupposes their attainment of physical +stability. And it is conjectured that the final attainment of material +equilibrium will signify the completed evolution of the physical control of the +Almighty. + +In the early days of universe building even the Paradise Creators are primarily +concerned with material equilibrium. The pattern of a local universe takes +shape not only as a result of the activities of the power centers but also +because of the space presence of the Creative Spirit. And throughout these +early epochs of local universe building the Creator Son exhibits a +little-understood attribute of material control, and he does not leave his +capital planet until the gross equilibrium of the local universe has been +established. + +In the final analysis, all energy responds to mind, and the physical +controllers are the children of the mind God, who is the activator of Paradise +pattern. The intelligence of the power directors is unremittingly devoted to +the task of bringing about material control. Their struggle for physical +dominance over the relationships of energy and the motions of mass never ceases +until they achieve finite victory over the energies and masses which constitute +their perpetual domains of activity. + +The spirit struggles of time and space have to do with the evolution of spirit +dominance over matter by the mediation of (personal) mind; the physical +(nonpersonal) evolution of the universes has to do with bringing cosmic energy +into harmony with the equilibrium concepts of mind subject to the overcontrol +of spirit. The total evolution of the entire grand universe is a matter of the +personality unification of the energy-controlling mind with the +spirit-co-ordinated intellect and will be revealed in the full appearance of +the almighty power of the Supreme. + +The difficulty in arriving at a state of dynamic equilibrium is inherent in the +fact of the growing cosmos. The established circuits of physical creation are +being continually jeopardized by the appearance of new energy and new mass. A +growing universe is an unsettled uni- + + top of page - 1275 + +verse; hence no part of the cosmic whole can find real stability until the +fullness of time witnesses the material completion of the seven superuniverses. + +In the settled universes of light and life there are no unexpected physical +events of major importance. Relatively complete control over the material +creation has been achieved; still the problems of the relationship of the +settled universes to the evolving universes continue to challenge the skill of +the Universe Power Directors. But these problems will gradually vanish with the +diminution of new creative activity as the grand universe approaches +culmination of evolutionary expression. + +6. SPIRIT DOMINANCE + +In the evolutionary superuniverses energy-matter is dominant except in +personality, where spirit through the mediation of mind is struggling for the +mastery. The goal of the evolutionary universes is the subjugation of +energy-matter by mind, the co-ordination of mind with spirit, and all of this +by virtue of the creative and unifying presence of personality. Thus, in +relation to personality, do physical systems become subordinate; mind systems, +co-ordinate; and spirit systems, directive. + +This union of power and personality is expressive on deity levels in and as the +Supreme. But the actual evolution of spirit dominance is a growth which is +predicated on the freewill acts of the Creators and creatures of the grand +universe. + +On absolute levels, energy and spirit are one. But the moment departure is made +from such absolute levels, difference appears, and as energy and spirit move +spaceward from Paradise, the gulf between them widens until in the local +universes they have become quite divergent. They are no longer identical, +neither are they alike, and mind must intervene to interrelate them. + +That energy can be directionized by the action of controller personalities +discloses the responsiveness of energy to mind action. That mass can be +stabilized through the action of these same controlling entities indicates the +responsiveness of mass to the order-producing presence of mind. And that spirit +itself in volitional personality can strive through mind for the mastery of +energy-matter discloses the potential unity of all finite creation. + +There is an interdependence of all forces and personalities throughout the +universe of universes. Creator Sons and Creative Spirits depend on the +co-operative function of the power centers and physical controllers in the +organization of universes; the Supreme Power Directors are incomplete without +the overcontrol of the Master Spirits. In a human being the mechanism of +physical life is responsive, in part, to the dictates of (personal) mind. This +very mind may, in turn, become dominated by the leadings of purposive spirit, +and the result of such evolutionary development is the production of a new +child of the Supreme, a new personal unification of the several kinds of cosmic +reality. + +And as it is with the parts, so it is with the whole; the spirit person of +Supremacy requires the evolutionary power of the Almighty to achieve completion +of Deity and to attain destiny of Trinity association. The effort is made by +the personalities of time and space, but the culmination and consummation of +this effort is the act of the Almighty Supreme. And while the growth of the +whole is thus a totalizing of the collective growth of the parts, it equally +follows that the evolution of the parts is a segmented reflection of the +purposive growth of the whole. + +On Paradise, monota and spirit are as one--indistinguishable except by name. In +Havona, matter and spirit, while distinguishably different, are at the + + top of page - 1276 + +same time innately harmonious. In the seven superuniverses, however, there is +great divergence; there is a wide gulf between cosmic energy and divine spirit; +therefore is there a greater experiential potential for mind action in +harmonizing and eventually unifying physical pattern with spiritual purposes. +In the time-evolving universes of space there is greater divinity attenuation, +more difficult problems to be solved, and larger opportunity to acquire +experience in their solution. And this entire superuniverse situation brings +into being a larger arena of evolutionary existence in which the possibility of +cosmic experience is made available alike to creature and Creator--even to +Supreme Deity. + +The dominance of spirit, which is existential on absolute levels, becomes an +evolutionary experience on finite levels and in the seven superuniverses. And +this experience is shared alike by all, from mortal man to the Supreme Being. +All strive, personally strive, in the achievement; all participate, personally +participate, in the destiny. + +7. THE LIVING ORGANISM OF THE GRAND UNIVERSE + +The grand universe is not only a material creation of physical grandeur, spirit +sublimity, and intellectual magnitude, it is also a magnificent and responsive +living organism. There is actual life pulsating throughout the mechanism of the +vast creation of the vibrant cosmos. The physical reality of the universes is +symbolic of the perceivable reality of the Almighty Supreme; and this material +and living organism is penetrated by intelligence circuits, even as the human +body is traversed by a network of neural sensation paths. This physical +universe is permeated by energy lanes which effectively activate material +creation, even as the human body is nourished and energized by the circulatory +distribution of the assimilable energy products of nourishment. The vast +universe is not without those co-ordinating centers of magnificent overcontrol +which might be compared to the delicate chemical-control system of the human +mechanism. But if you only knew something about the physique of a power center, +we could, by analogy, tell you so much more about the physical universe. + +Much as mortals look to solar energy for life maintenance, so does the grand +universe depend upon the unfailing energies emanating from nether Paradise to +sustain the material activities and cosmic motions of space. + +Mind has been given to mortals wherewith they may become self-conscious of +identity and personality; and mind--even a Supreme Mind--has been bestowed upon +the totality of the finite whereby the spirit of this emerging personality of +the cosmos ever strives for the mastery of energy-matter. + +Mortal man is responsive to spirit guidance, even as the grand universe +responds to the far-flung spirit-gravity grasp of the Eternal Son, the +universal supermaterial cohesion of the eternal spiritual values of all the +creations of the finite cosmos of time and space. + +Human beings are capable of making an everlasting self-identification with +total and indestructible universe reality--fusion with the indwelling Thought +Adjuster. Likewise does the Supreme everlastingly depend on the absolute +stability of Original Deity, the Paradise Trinity. + +Man's urge for Paradise perfection, his striving for God-attainment, creates a +genuine divinity tension in the living cosmos which can only be resolved by the +evolution of an immortal soul; this is what happens in the experience of a +single mortal creature. But when all creatures and all Creators in the grand + + top of page - 1277 + +universe likewise strive for God-attainment and divine perfection, there is +built up a profound cosmic tension which can only find resolution in the +sublime synthesis of almighty power with the spirit person of the evolving God +of all creatures, the Supreme Being. + +[Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning on Urantia.] + + top of page - 1278 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Supreme ³ God The Supreme ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Bei... ³ ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p117.txt b/religious documents/p117.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..415ccd3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p117.txt @@ -0,0 +1,983 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 117 God The Supreme + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... God The Supreme +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 117 God The Supreme + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +TO THE extent that we do the will of God in whatever universe station we may +have our existence, in that measure the almighty potential of the Supreme +becomes one step more actual. The will of God is the purpose of the First +Source and Center as it is potentialized in the three Absolutes, personalized +in the Eternal Son, conjoined for universe action in the Infinite Spirit, and +eternalized in the everlasting patterns of Paradise. And God the Supreme is +becoming the highest finite manifestation of the total will of God. + +If all grand universers should ever relatively achieve the full living of the +will of God, then would the time-space creations be settled in light and life, +and then would the Almighty, the deity potential of Supremacy, become factual +in the emergence of the divine personality of God the Supreme. + +When an evolving mind becomes attuned to the circuits of cosmic mind, when an +evolving universe becomes stabilized after the pattern of the central universe, +when an advancing spirit contacts the united ministry of the Master Spirits, +when an ascending mortal personality finally attunes to the divine leading of +the indwelling Adjuster, then has the actuality of the Supreme become real by +one more degree in the universes; then has the divinity of Supremacy advanced +one more step toward cosmic realization. + +The parts and individuals of the grand universe evolve as a reflection of the +total evolution of the Supreme, while in turn the Supreme is the synthetic +cumulative total of all grand universe evolution. From the mortal viewpoint +both are evolutionary and experiential reciprocals. + +1. NATURE OF THE SUPREME BEING + +The Supreme is the beauty of physical harmony, the truth of intellectual +meaning, and the goodness of spiritual value. He is the sweetness of true +success and the joy of everlasting achievement. He is the oversoul of the grand +universe, the consciousness of the finite cosmos, the completion of finite +reality, and the personification of Creator-creature experience. Throughout all +future eternity God the Supreme will voice the reality of volitional experience +in the trinity relationships of Deity. + +In the persons of the Supreme Creators the Gods have descended from Paradise to +the domains of time and space, there to create and to evolve creatures with +Paradise-attainment capacity who can ascend thereto in quest of the Father. +This universe procession of descending God-revealing Creators and ascending +God-seeking creatures is revelatory of the Deity evolution of the Supreme, in +whom + + top of page - 1279 + +both descenders and ascenders achieve mutuality of understanding, the discovery +of eternal and universal brotherhood. The Supreme Being thus becomes the finite +synthesis of the experience of the perfect-Creator cause and the +perfecting-creature response. + +The grand universe contains the possibility of, and ever seeks for, complete +unification, and this grows out of the fact that this cosmic existence is a +consequence of the creative acts and the power mandates of the Paradise +Trinity, which is unqualified unity. This very trinitarian unity is expressed +in the finite cosmos in the Supreme, whose reality becomes increasingly +apparent as the universes attain to the maximum level of Trinity +identification. + +The will of the Creator and the will of the creature are qualitatively +different, but they are also experientially akin, for creature and Creator can +collaborate in the achievement of universe perfection. Man can work in liaison +with God and thereby cocreate an eternal finaliter. God can work even as +humanity in the incarnations of his Sons, who thereby achieve the supremacy of +creature experience. + +In the Supreme Being, Creator and creature are united in one Deity whose will +is expressive of one divine personality. And this will of the Supreme is +something more than the will of either creature or Creator, even as the +sovereign will of the Master Son of Nebadon is now something more than a +combination of the will of divinity and humanity. The union of Paradise +perfection and time-space experience yields a new meaning value on deity levels +of reality. + +The evolving divine nature of the Supreme is becoming a faithful portrayal of +the matchless experience of all creatures and of all Creators in the grand +universe. In the Supreme, creatorship and creaturehood are at one; they are +forever united by that experience which was born of the vicissitudes attendant +upon the solution of the manifold problems which beset all finite creation as +it pursues the eternal path in quest of perfection and liberation from the +fetters of incompleteness. + +Truth, beauty, and goodness are correlated in the ministry of the Spirit, the +grandeur of Paradise, the mercy of the Son, and the experience of the Supreme. +God the Supreme is truth, beauty, and goodness, for these concepts of divinity +represent finite maximums of ideational experience. The eternal sources of +these triune qualities of divinity are on superfinite levels, but a creature +could only conceive of such sources as supertruth, superbeauty, and +supergoodness. + +Michael, a creator, revealed the divine love of the Creator Father for his +terrestrial children. And having discovered and received this divine affection, +men can aspire to reveal this love to their brethren in the flesh. Such +creature affection is a true reflection of the love of the Supreme. + +The Supreme is symmetrically inclusive. The First Source and Center is +potential in the three great Absolutes, is actual in Paradise, in the Son, and +in the Spirit; but the Supreme is both actual and potential, a being of +personal supremacy and of almighty power, responsive alike to creature effort +and Creator purpose; self-acting upon the universe and self-reactive to the sum +total of the universe; and at one and the same time the supreme creator and the +supreme creature. The Deity of Supremacy is thus expressive of the sum total of +the entire finite. + + top of page - 1280 + +2. THE SOURCE OF EVOLUTIONARY GROWTH + +The Supreme is God-in-time; his is the secret of creature growth in time; his +also is the conquest of the incomplete present and the consummation of the +perfecting future. And the final fruits of all finite growth are: power +controlled through mind by spirit by virtue of the unifying and creative +presence of personality. The culminating consequence of all this growth is the +Supreme Being. + +To mortal man, existence is equivalent to growth. And so indeed it would seem +to be, even in the larger universe sense, for spirit-led existence does seem to +result in experiential growth--augmentation of status. We have long held, +however, that the present growth which characterizes creature existence in the +present universe age is a function of the Supreme. We equally hold that this +kind of growth is peculiar to the age of the growth of the Supreme, and that it +will terminate with the completion of the growth of the Supreme. + +Consider the status of the creature-trinitized sons: They are born and live in +the present universe age; they have personalities, together with mind and +spirit endowments. They have experiences and the memory thereof, but they do +not grow as do ascenders. It is our belief and understanding that these +creature-trinitized sons, while they are in the present universe age, are +really of the next universe age--the age which will follow the completion of +the growth of the Supreme. Hence they are not in the Supreme as of his present +status of incompleteness and consequent growth. Thus they are nonparticipating +in the experiential growth of the present universe age, being held in reserve +for the next universe age. + +My own order, the Mighty Messengers, being Trinity embraced, are +nonparticipating in the growth of the present universe age. In a sense we are +in status as of the preceding universe age as in fact are the Stationary Sons +of the Trinity. One thing is certain: Our status is fixed by the Trinity +embrace, and experience no longer eventuates in growth. + +This is not true of the finaliters nor of any other of the evolutionary and +experiential orders which are participants in the growth process of the +Supreme. You mortals now living on Urantia who may aspire to Paradise +attainment and finaliter status should understand that such a destiny is only +realizable because you are in and of the Supreme, hence are participants in the +cycle of the growth of the Supreme. + +There will come an end sometime to the growth of the Supreme; his status will +achieve completion (in the energy-spirit sense). This termination of the +evolution of the Supreme will also witness the ending of creature evolution as +a part of Supremacy. What kind of growth may characterize the universes of +outer space, we do not know. But we are very sure that it will be something +very different from anything that has been seen in the present age of the +evolution of the seven superuniverses. It will undoubtedly be the function of +the evolutionary citizens of the grand universe to compensate the outer-spacers +for this deprivation of the growth of Supremacy. + +As existent upon the consummation of the present universe age, the Supreme +Being will function as an experiential sovereign in the grand universe. +Outer-spacers--citizens of the next universe age--will have a postsuperuniverse +growth potential, a capacity for evolutionary attainment presupposing the + + top of page - 1281 + +sovereignty of the Almighty Supreme, hence excluding creature participation in +the power-personality synthesis of the present universe age. + +Thus may the incompleteness of the Supreme be regarded as a virtue since it +makes possible the evolutionary growth of the creature-creation of the present +universes. Emptiness does have its virtue, for it may become experientially +filled. + +One of the most intriguing questions in finite philosophy is this: Does the +Supreme Being actualize in response to the evolution of the grand universe, or +does this finite cosmos progressively evolve in response to the gradual +actualization of the Supreme? Or is it possible that they are mutually +interdependent for their development? that they are evolutionary reciprocals, +each initiating the growth of the other? Of this we are certain: Creatures and +universes, high and low, are evolving within the Supreme, and as they evolve, +there is appearing the unified summation of the entire finite activity of this +universe age. And this is the appearance of the Supreme Being, to all +personalities the evolution of the almighty power of God the Supreme. + +3. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUPREME TO UNIVERSE + +The cosmic reality variously designated as the Supreme Being, God the Supreme, +and the Almighty Supreme, is the complex and universal synthesis of the +emerging phases of all finite realities. The far-flung diversification of +eternal energy, divine spirit, and universal mind attains finite culmination in +the evolution of the Supreme, who is the sum total of all finite growth, +self-realized on deity levels of finite maximum completion. + +The Supreme is the divine channel through which flows the creative infinity of +the triodities that crystallizes into the galactic panorama of space, against +which takes place the magnificent personality drama of time: the spirit +conquest of energy-matter through the mediation of mind. + +Said Jesus: "I am the living way," and so he is the living way from the +material level of self-consciousness to the spiritual level of +God-consciousness. And even as he is this living way of ascension from the self +to God, so is the Supreme the living way from finite consciousness to +transcendence of consciousness, even to the insight of absonity. + +Your Creator Son can actually be such a living channel from humanity to +divinity since he has personally experienced the fullness of the traversal of +this universe path of progression, from the true humanity of Joshua ben Joseph, +the Son of Man, to the Paradise divinity of Michael of Nebadon, the Son of the +infinite God. Similarly can the Supreme Being function as the universe approach +to the transcendence of finite limitations, for he is the actual embodiment and +personal epitome of all creature evolution, progression, and spiritualization. +Even the grand universe experiences of the descending personalities from +Paradise are that part of his experience which is complemental to his summation +of the ascending experiences of the pilgrims of time. + +Mortal man is more than figuratively made in the image of God. From a physical +standpoint this statement is hardly true, but with reference to certain +universe potentialities it is an actual fact. In the human race, something of + + top of page - 1282 + +the same drama of evolutionary attainment is being unfolded as takes place, on +a vastly larger scale, in the universe of universes. Man, a volitional +personality, becomes creative in liaison with an Adjuster, an impersonal +entity, in the presence of the finite potentialities of the Supreme, and the +result is the flowering of an immortal soul. In the universes the Creator +personalities of time and space function in liaison with the impersonal spirit +of the Paradise Trinity and become thereby creative of a new power potential of +Deity reality. + +Mortal man, being a creature, is not exactly like the Supreme Being, who is +deity, but man's evolution does in some ways resemble the growth of the +Supreme. Man consciously grows from the material toward the spiritual by the +strength, power, and persistency of his own decisions; he also grows as his +Thought Adjuster develops new techniques for reaching down from the spiritual +to the morontial soul levels; and once the soul comes into being, it begins to +grow in and of itself. + +This is somewhat like the way in which the Supreme Being expands. His +sovereignty grows in and out of the acts and achievements of the Supreme +Creator Personalities; that is the evolution of the majesty of his power as the +ruler of the grand universe. His deity nature is likewise dependent on the +pre-existent unity of the Paradise Trinity. But there is still another aspect +to the evolution of God the Supreme: He is not only Creator-evolved and +Trinity-derived; he is also self-evolved and self-derived. God the Supreme is +himself a volitional, creative participant in his own deity actualization. The +human morontial soul is likewise a volitional, cocreative partner in its own +immortalization. + +The Father collaborates with the Conjoint Actor in manipulating the energies of +Paradise and in rendering these responsive to the Supreme. The Father +collaborates with the Eternal Son in the production of Creator personalities +whose acts will sometime culminate in the sovereignty of the Supreme. The +Father collaborates with both Son and Spirit in the creation of Trinity +personalities to function as rulers of the grand universe until such time as +the completed evolution of the Supreme qualifies him to assume that +sovereignty. The Father co-operates with his Deity and non-Deity co-ordinates +in these and many other ways in the furtherance of the evolution of Supremacy, +but he also functions alone in these matters. And his solitary function is +probably best revealed in the ministry of the Thought Adjusters and their +associated entities. + +Deity is unity, existential in the Trinity, experiential in the Supreme, and, +in mortals, creature-realized in Adjuster fusion. The presence of the Thought +Adjusters in mortal man reveals the essential unity of the universe, for man, +the lowest possible type of universe personality, contains within himself an +actual fragment of the highest and eternal reality, even the original Father of +all personalities. + +The Supreme Being evolves by virtue of his liaison with the Paradise Trinity +and in consequence of the divinity successes of the creator and administrator +children of that Trinity. Man's immortal soul evolves its own eternal destiny +by association with the divine presence of the Paradise Father and in +accordance with the personality decisions of the human mind. What the Trinity +is to God the Supreme, the Adjuster is to evolving man. + +During the present universe age the Supreme Being is apparently unable to +function directly as a creator except in those instances where the finite pos- + + top of page - 1283 + +sibilities of action have been exhausted by the creative agencies of time and +space. Thus far in universe history this has transpired but once; when the +possibilities of finite action in the matter of universe reflectivity had been +exhausted, then did the Supreme function as the creative culminator of all +antecedent creator actions. And we believe he will again function as a +culminator in future ages whenever antecedent creatorship has completed an +appropriate cycle of creative activity. + +The Supreme Being did not create man, but man was literally created out of, his +very life was derived from, the potentiality of the Supreme. Nor does he evolve +man; yet is the Supreme himself the very essence of evolution. From the finite +standpoint, we actually live, move, and have our being within the immanence of +the Supreme. + +The Supreme apparently cannot initiate original causation but appears to be the +catalyzer of all universe growth and is seemingly destined to provide totality +culmination as regards the destiny of all experiential-evolutionary beings. The +Father originates the concept of a finite cosmos; the Creator Sons factualize +this idea in time and space with the consent and co-operation of the Creative +Spirits; the Supreme culminates the total finite and establishes its +relationship with the destiny of the absonite. + +4. THE FINITE GOD + +As we view the ceaseless struggles of the creature creation for perfection of +status and divinity of being, we cannot but believe that these unending efforts +bespeak the unceasing struggle of the Supreme for divine self-realization. God +the Supreme is the finite Deity, and he must cope with the problems of the +finite in the total sense of that word. Our struggles with the vicissitudes of +time in the evolutions of space are reflections of his efforts to achieve +reality of self and completion of sovereignty within the sphere of action which +his evolving nature is expanding to the outermost limits of possibility. + +Throughout the grand universe the Supreme struggles for expression. His divine +evolution is in measure predicated on the wisdom-action of every personality in +existence. When a human being chooses eternal survival, he is co-creating +destiny; and in the life of this ascending mortal the finite God finds an +increased measure of personality self-realization and an enlargement of +experiential sovereignty. But if a creature rejects the eternal career, that +part of the Supreme which was dependent on this creature's choice experiences +inescapable delay, a deprivation which must be compensated by substitutional or +collateral experience; as for the personality of the nonsurvivor, it is +absorbed into the oversoul of creation, becoming a part of the Deity of the +Supreme. + +God is so trusting, so loving, that he gives a portion of his divine nature +into the hands of even human beings for safekeeping and self-realization. The +Father nature, the Adjuster presence, is indestructible regardless of the +choice of the mortal being. The child of the Supreme, the evolving self, can be +destroyed notwithstanding that the potentially unifying personality of such a +misguided self will persist as a factor of the Deity of Supremacy. + +The human personality can truly destroy individuality of creaturehood, and +though all that was worth while in the life of such a cosmic suicide will +persist, these qualities will not persist as an individual creature. The +Supreme will again find expression in the creatures of the universes but never +again as that par- + + top of page - 1284 + +ticular person; the unique personality of a nonascender returns to the Supreme +as a drop of water returns to the sea. + +Any isolated action of the personal parts of the finite is comparatively +irrelevant to the eventual appearance of the Supreme Whole, but the whole is +nonetheless dependent on the total acts of the manifold parts. The personality +of the individual mortal is insignificant in the face of the total of +Supremacy, but the personality of each human being represents an irreplaceable +meaning-value in the finite; personality, having once been expressed, never +again finds identical expression except in the continuing existence of that +living personality. + +And so, as we strive for self-expression, the Supreme is striving in us, and +with us, for deity expression. As we find the Father, so has the Supreme again +found the Paradise Creator of all things. As we master the problems of +self-realization, so is the God of experience achieving almighty supremacy in +the universes of time and space. + +Mankind does not ascend effortlessly in the universe, neither does the Supreme +evolve without purposeful and intelligent action. Creatures do not attain +perfection by mere passivity, nor can the spirit of Supremacy factualize the +power of the Almighty without unceasing service ministry to the finite +creation. + +The temporal relation of man to the Supreme is the foundation for cosmic +morality, the universal sensitivity to, and acceptance of, duty. This is a +morality which transcends the temporal sense of relative right and wrong; it is +a morality directly predicated on the self-conscious creature's appreciation of +experiential obligation to experiential Deity. Mortal man and all other finite +creatures are created out of the living potential of energy, mind, and spirit +existent in the Supreme. It is upon the Supreme that the Adjuster-mortal +ascender draws for the creation of the immortal and divine character of a +finaliter. It is out of the very reality of the Supreme that the Adjuster, with +the consent of the human will, weaves the patterns of the eternal nature of an +ascending son of God. + +The evolution of Adjuster progress in the spiritualizing and eternalizing of a +human personality is directly productive of an enlargement of the sovereignty +of the Supreme. Such achievements in human evolution are at the same time +achievements in the evolutionary actualization of the Supreme. While it is true +that creatures could not evolve without the Supreme, it is probably also true +that the evolution of the Supreme can never be fully attained independent of +the completed evolution of all creatures. Herein lies the great cosmic +responsibility of self-conscious personalities: That Supreme Deity is in a +certain sense dependent on the choosing of the mortal will. And the mutual +progression of creature evolution and of Supreme evolution is faithfully and +fully indicated to the Ancients of Days over the inscrutable mechanisms of +universe reflectivity. + +The great challenge that has been given to mortal man is this: Will you decide +to personalize the experiencible value meanings of the cosmos into your own +evolving selfhood? or by rejecting survival, will you allow these secrets of +Supremacy to lie dormant, awaiting the action of another creature at some other +time who will in his way attempt a creature contribution to the evolution of +the finite God? But that will be his contribution to the Supreme, not yours. + +The great struggle of this universe age is between the potential and the +actual--the seeking for actualization by all that is as yet unexpressed. If +mortal + + top of page - 1285 + +man proceeds upon the Paradise adventure, he is following the motions of time, +which flow as currents within the stream of eternity; if mortal man rejects the +eternal career, he is moving counter to the stream of events in the finite +universes. The mechanical creation moves on inexorably in accordance with the +unfolding purpose of the Paradise Father, but the volitional creation has the +choice of accepting or of rejecting the role of personality participation in +the adventure of eternity. Mortal man cannot destroy the supreme values of +human existence, but he can very definitely prevent the evolution of these +values in his own personal experience. To the extent that the human self thus +refuses to take part in the Paradise ascent, to just that extent is the Supreme +delayed in achieving divinity expression in the grand universe. + +Into the keeping of mortal man has been given not only the Adjuster presence of +the Paradise Father but also control over the destiny of an infinitesimal +fraction of the future of the Supreme. For as man attains human destiny, so +does the Supreme achieve destiny on deity levels. + +And so the decision awaits each of you as it once awaited each of us: Will you +fail the God of time, who is so dependent upon the decisions of the finite +mind? will you fail the Supreme personality of the universes by the +slothfulness of animalistic retrogression? will you fail the great brother of +all creatures, who is so dependent on each creature? can you allow yourself to +pass into the realm of the unrealized when before you lies the enchanting vista +of the universe career--the divine discovery of the Paradise Father and the +divine participation in the search for, and the evolution of, the God of +Supremacy? + +God's gifts--his bestowal of reality--are not divorcements from himself; he +does not alienate creation from himself, but he has set up tensions in the +creations circling Paradise. God first loves man and confers upon him the +potential of immortality--eternal reality. And as man loves God, so does man +become eternal in actuality. And here is mystery: The more closely man +approaches God through love, the greater the reality--actuality--of that man. +The more man withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches +nonreality--cessation of existence. When man consecrates his will to the doing +of the Father's will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make +that man more than he is. + +5. THE OVERSOUL OF CREATION + +The great Supreme is the cosmic oversoul of the grand universe. In him the +qualities and quantities of the cosmos do find their deity reflection; his +deity nature is the mosaic composite of the total vastness of all +creature-Creator nature throughout the evolving universes. And the Supreme is +also an actualizing Deity embodying a creative will which embraces an evolving +universe purpose. + +The intellectual, potentially personal selves of the finite emerge from the +Third Source and Center and achieve finite time-space Deity synthesis in the +Supreme. When the creature submits to the will of the Creator, he does not +submerge or surrender his personality; the individual personality participants +in the actualization of the finite God do not lose their volitional selfhood by +so functioning. Rather are such personalities progressively augmented by +participation in this great Deity adventure; by such union with divinity man +exalts, + + top of page - 1286 + +enriches, spiritualizes, and unifies his evolving self to the very threshold of +supremacy. + +The evolving immortal soul of man, the joint creation of the material mind and +the Adjuster, ascends as such to Paradise and subsequently, when mustered into +the Corps of the Finality, becomes allied in some new way with the +spirit-gravity circuit of the Eternal Son by a technique of experience known as +finaliter transcendation. Such finaliters thus become acceptable candidates for +experiential recognition as personalities of God the Supreme. And when these +mortal intellects in the unrevealed future assignments of the Corps of the +Finality attain the seventh stage of spirit existence, such dual minds will +become triune. These two attuned minds, the human and the divine, will become +glorified in union with the experiential mind of the then actualized Supreme +Being. + +In the eternal future, God the Supreme will be actualized--creatively expressed +and spiritually portrayed--in the spiritualized mind, the immortal soul, of +ascendant man, even as the Universal Father was so revealed in the earth life +of Jesus. + +Man does not unite with the Supreme and submerge his personal identity, but the +universe repercussions of the experience of all men do thus form a part of the +divine experiencing of the Supreme. "The act is ours, the consequences God's." + +The progressing personality leaves a trail of actualized reality as it passes +through the ascending levels of the universes. Be they mind, spirit, or energy, +the growing creations of time and space are modified by the progression of +personality through their domains. When man acts, the Supreme reacts, and this +transaction constitutes the fact of progression. + +The great circuits of energy, mind, and spirit are never the permanent +possessions of ascending personality; these ministries remain forever a part of +Supremacy. In the mortal experience the human intellect resides in the rhythmic +pulsations of the adjutant mind-spirits and effects its decisions within the +arena produced by encircuitment within this ministry. Upon mortal death the +human self is everlastingly divorced from the adjutant circuit. While these +adjutants never seem to transmit experience from one personality to another, +they can and do transmit the impersonal repercussions of decision-action +through God the Sevenfold to God the Supreme. (At least this is true of the +adjutants of worship and wisdom.) + +And so it is with the spiritual circuits: Man utilizes these in his ascent +through the universes, but he never possesses them as a part of his eternal +personality. But these circuits of spiritual ministry, whether Spirit of Truth, +Holy Spirit, or superuniverse spirit presences, are receptive and reactive to +the emerging values in ascending personality, and these values are faithfully +transmitted through the Sevenfold to the Supreme. + +While such spiritual influences as the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth are +local universe ministrations, their guidance is not wholly confined to the +geographic limitations of a given local creation. As the ascending mortal +passes beyond the boundaries of his local universe of origin, he is not +entirely deprived of the ministry of the Spirit of Truth which has so +constantly taught and guided him through the philosophic mazes of the material +and morontial worlds, in every crisis of ascension unfailingly directing the +Paradise pilgrim, ever saying: + + top of page - 1287 + +"This is the way." When you leave the domains of the local universe, through +the ministry of the spirit of the emerging Supreme Being and through the +provisions of superuniverse reflectivity, you will still be guided in your +Paradise ascent by the comforting directive spirit of the Paradise bestowal +Sons of God. + +How do these manifold circuits of cosmic ministry register the meanings, +values, and facts of evolutionary experience in the Supreme? We are not exactly +certain, but we believe that this registry takes place through the persons of +the Supreme Creators of Paradise origin who are the immediate bestowers of +these circuits of time and space. The mind-experience accumulations of the +seven adjutant mind-spirits, in their ministry to the physical level of +intellect, are a part of the local universe experience of the Divine Minister, +and through this Creative Spirit they probably find registry in the mind of +Supremacy. Likewise are mortal experiences with the Spirit of Truth and the +Holy Spirit probably registered by similar techniques in the person of +Supremacy. + +Even the experience of man and Adjuster must find echo in the divinity of God +the Supreme, for, as the Adjusters experience, they are like the Supreme, and +the evolving soul of mortal man is created out of the pre-existent possibility +for such experience within the Supreme. + +In this manner do the manifold experiences of all creation become a part of the +evolution of Supremacy. Creatures merely utilize the qualities and quantities +of the finite as they ascend to the Father; the impersonal consequences of such +utilization remain forever a part of the living cosmos, the Supreme person. + +What man himself takes with him as a personality possession are the character +consequences of the experience of having used the mind and spirit circuits of +the grand universe in his Paradise ascent. When man decides, and when he +consummates this decision in action, man experiences, and the meanings and the +values of this experience are forever a part of his eternal character on all +levels, from the finite to the final. Cosmically moral and divinely spiritual +character represents the creature's capital accumulation of personal decisions +which have been illuminated by sincere worship, glorified by intelligent love, +and consummated in brotherly service. + +The evolving Supreme will eventually compensate finite creatures for their +inability ever to achieve more than limited experience contact with the +universe of universes. Creatures can attain the Paradise Father, but their +evolutionary minds, being finite, are incapable of really understanding the +infinite and absolute Father. But since all creature experiencing registers in, +and is a part of, the Supreme, when all creatures attain the final level of +finite existence, and after total universe development makes possible their +attainment of God the Supreme as an actual divinity presence, then, inherent in +the fact of such contact, is contact with total experience. The finite of time +contains within itself the seeds of eternity; and we are taught that, when the +fullness of evolution witnesses the exhaustion of the capacity for cosmic +growth, the total finite will embark upon the absonite phases of the eternal +career in quest of the Father as Ultimate. + +6. THE QUEST FOR THE SUPREME + +We seek the Supreme in the universes, but we find him not. "He is the within +and the without of all things and beings, moving and quiescent. Unrecog- + + top of page - 1288 + +nizable in his mystery, though distant, yet is he near." The Almighty Supreme +is "the form of the yet unformed, the pattern of the yet uncreated." The +Supreme is your universe home, and when you find him, it will be like returning +home. He is your experiential parent, and even as in the experience of human +beings, so has he grown in the experience of divine parenthood. He knows you +because he is creaturelike as well as creatorlike. + +If you truly desire to find God, you cannot help having born in your minds the +consciousness of the Supreme. As God is your divine Father, so is the Supreme +your divine Mother, in whom you are nurtured throughout your lives as universe +creatures. "How universal is the Supreme--he is on all sides! The limitless +things of creation depend on his presence for life, and none are refused." + +What Michael is to Nebadon, the Supreme is to the finite cosmos; his Deity is +the great avenue through which the love of the Father flows outward to all +creation, and he is the great avenue through which finite creatures pass inward +in their quest of the Father, who is love. Even Thought Adjusters are related +to him; in original nature and divinity they are like the Father, but when they +experience the transactions of time in the universes of space, they become like +the Supreme. + +The act of the creature's choosing to do the will of the Creator is a cosmic +value and has a universe meaning which is immediately reacted to by some +unrevealed but ubiquitous force of co-ordination, probably the functioning of +the ever-enlarging action of the Supreme Being. + +The morontia soul of an evolving mortal is really the son of the Adjuster +action of the Universal Father and the child of the cosmic reaction of the +Supreme Being, the Universal Mother. The mother influence dominates the human +personality throughout the local universe childhood of the growing soul. The +influence of the Deity parents becomes more equal after the Adjuster fusion and +during the superuniverse career, but when the creatures of time begin the +traversal of the central universe of eternity, the Father nature becomes +increasingly manifest, attaining its height of finite manifestation upon the +recognition of the Universal Father and the admission into the Corps of the +Finality. + +In and through the experience of finaliter attainment the experiential mother +qualities of the ascending self become tremendously affected by contact and +infusion with the spirit presence of the Eternal Son and the mind presence of +the Infinite Spirit. Then, throughout the realms of finaliter activity in the +grand universe, there appears a new awakening of the latent mother potential of +the Supreme, a new realization of experiential meanings, and a new synthesis of +experiential values of the entire ascension career. It appears that this +realization of self will continue in the universe careers of the sixth-stage +finaliters until the mother inheritance of the Supreme attains to finite +synchrony with the Adjuster inheritance of the Father. This intriguing period +of grand universe function represents the continuing adult career of the +ascendant and perfected mortal. + +Upon the completion of the sixth stage of existence and the entrance upon the +seventh and final stage of spirit status, there will probably ensue the +advancing ages of enriching experience, ripening wisdom, and divinity +realization. In the nature of the finaliter this will probably equal the +completed attainment of the mind struggle for spirit self-realization, the +completion of the co-ordination of the ascendant man-nature with the divine +Adjuster-nature within the limits + + top of page - 1289 + +of finite possibilities. Such a magnificent universe self thus becomes the +eternal finaliter son of the Paradise Father as well as the eternal universe +child of the Mother Supreme, a universe self qualified to represent both the +Father and Mother of universes and personalities in any activity or undertaking +pertaining to the finite administration of created, creating, or evolving +things and beings. + +All soul-evolving humans are literally the evolutionary sons of God the Father +and God the Mother, the Supreme Being. But until such time as mortal man +becomes soul-conscious of his divine heritage, this assurance of Deity kinship +must be faith realized. Human life experience is the cosmic cocoon in which the +universe endowments of the Supreme Being and the universe presence of the +Universal Father (none of which are personalities) are evolving the morontia +soul of time and the human-divine finaliter character of universe destiny and +eternal service. + +Men all too often forget that God is the greatest experience in human +existence. Other experiences are limited in their nature and content, but the +experience of God has no limits save those of the creature's comprehension +capacity, and this very experience is in itself capacity enlarging. When men +search for God, they are searching for everything. When they find God, they +have found everything. The search for God is the unstinted bestowal of love +attended by amazing discoveries of new and greater love to be bestowed. + +All true love is from God, and man receives the divine affection as he himself +bestows this love upon his fellows. Love is dynamic. It can never be captured; +it is alive, free, thrilling, and always moving. Man can never take the love of +the Father and imprison it within his heart. The Father's love can become real +to mortal man only by passing through that man's personality as he in turn +bestows this love upon his fellows. The great circuit of love is from the +Father, through sons to brothers, and hence to the Supreme. The love of the +Father appears in the mortal personality by the ministry of the indwelling +Adjuster. Such a God-knowing son reveals this love to his universe brethren, +and this fraternal affection is the essence of the love of the Supreme. + +There is no approach to the Supreme except through experience, and in the +current epochs of creation there are only three avenues of creature approach to +Supremacy: + +1. The Paradise Citizens descend from the eternal Isle through Havona, where +they acquire capacity for Supremacy comprehension through observation of the +Paradise-Havona reality differential and by exploratory discovery of the +manifold activities of the Supreme Creator Personalities, ranging from the +Master Spirits to the Creator Sons. + +2. The time-space ascenders coming up from the evolutionary universes of the +Supreme Creators make close approach to the Supreme in the traversal of Havona +as a preliminary to the augmenting appreciation of the unity of the Paradise +Trinity. + +3. The Havona natives acquire a comprehension of the Supreme through contacts +with descending pilgrims from Paradise and ascending pilgrims from the seven +superuniverses. Havona natives are inherently in position to harmonize the +essentially different viewpoints of the citizens of the eternal Isle and the +citizens of the evolutionary universes. + + top of page - 1290 + +To evolutionary creatures there are seven great approaches to the Universal +Father, and each of these Paradise ascensions passes through the divinity of +one of the Seven Master Spirits; and each such approach is made possible by an +enlargement of experience receptivity consequent upon the creature's having +served in the superuniverse reflective of the nature of that Master Spirit. The +sum total of these seven experiences constitutes the present-known limits of a +creature's consciousness of the reality and actuality of God the Supreme. + +It is not only man's own limitations which prevent him from finding the finite +God; it is also the incompletion of the universe; even the incompletion of all +creatures--past, present, and future--makes the Supreme inaccessible. God the +Father can be found by any individual who has attained the divine level of +Godlikeness, but God the Supreme will never be personally discovered by any one +creature until that far-distant time when, through the universal attainment of +perfection, all creatures will simultaneously find him. + +Despite the fact that you cannot, in this universe age, personally find him as +you can and will find the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, nevertheless, the +Paradise ascent and subsequent universe career will gradually create in your +consciousness the recognition of the universe presence and the cosmic action of +the God of all experience. The fruits of the spirit are the substance of the +Supreme as he is realizable in human experience. + +Man's sometime attainment of the Supreme is consequent upon his fusion with the +spirit of Paradise Deity. With Urantians this spirit is the Adjuster presence +of the Universal Father; and though the Mystery Monitor is from the Father and +like the Father, we doubt that even such a divine gift can achieve the +impossible task of revealing the nature of the infinite God to a finite +creature. We suspect that what the Adjusters will reveal to future +seventh-stage finaliters will be the divinity and nature of God the Supreme. +And this revelation will be to a finite creature what the revelation of the +Infinite would be to an absolute being. + +The Supreme is not infinite, but he probably embraces all of infinity that a +finite creature can ever really comprehend. To understand more than the Supreme +is to be more than finite! + +All experiential creations are interdependent in their realization of destiny. +Only existential reality is self-contained and self-existent. Havona and the +seven superuniverses require each other to achieve the maximum of finite +attainment; likewise will they be sometime dependent on the future universes of +outer space for finite transcendence. + +A human ascender can find the Father; God is existential and therefore real, +irrespective of the status of experience in the total universe. But no single +ascender will ever find the Supreme until all ascenders have reached that +maximum universe maturity which qualifies them simultaneously to participate in +this discovery. + +The Father is no respecter of persons; he treats each of his ascending sons as +cosmic individuals. The Supreme likewise is no respecter of persons; he treats +his experiential children as a single cosmic total. + +Man can discover the Father in his heart, but he will have to search for the +Supreme in the hearts of all other men; and when all creatures perfectly reveal +the love of the Supreme, then will he become a universe actuality to all +creatures. And that is just another way of saying that the universes will be +settled in light and life. + + top of page - 1291 + +The attainment of perfected self-realization by all personalities plus the +attainment of perfected equilibrium throughout the universes equals the +attainment of the Supreme and witnesses the liberation of all finite reality +from the limitations of incomplete existence. Such an exhaustion of all finite +potentials yields the completed attainment of the Supreme and may be otherwise +defined as the completed evolutionary actualization of the Supreme Being +himself. + +Men do not find the Supreme suddenly and spectacularly as an earthquake tears +chasms into the rocks, but they find him slowly and patiently as a river +quietly wears away the soil beneath. + +When you find the Father, you will find the great cause of your spiritual +ascent in the universes; when you find the Supreme, you will discover the great +result of your career of Paradise progression. + +But no God-knowing mortal can ever be lonely in his journey through the cosmos, +for he knows that the Father walks beside him each step of the way, while the +very way that he is traversing is the presence of the Supreme. + +7. THE FUTURE OF THE SUPREME + +The completed realization of all finite potentials equals the completion of the +realization of all evolutionary experience. This suggests the final emergence +of the Supreme as an almighty Deity presence in the universes. We believe that +the Supreme, in this stage of development, will be as discretely personalized +as is the Eternal Son, as concretely powerized as is the Isle of Paradise, as +completely unified as is the Conjoint Actor, and all of this within the +limitations of the finite possibilities of Supremacy at the culmination of the +present universe age. + +While this is an entirely proper concept of the future of the Supreme, we would +call attention to certain problems inherent in this concept: + +1. The Unqualified Supervisors of the Supreme could hardly be deitized at any +stage prior to his completed evolution, and yet these same supervisors even now +qualifiedly exercise the sovereignty of supremacy concerning the universes +settled in light and life. + +2. The Supreme could hardly function in the Trinity Ultimate until he had +attained complete actuality of universe status, and yet the Trinity Ultimate is +even now a qualified reality, and you have been informed of the existence of +the Qualified Vicegerents of the Ultimate. + +3. The Supreme is not completely real to universe creatures, but there are many +reasons for deducing that he is quite real to the Sevenfold Deity, extending +from the Universal Father on Paradise to the Creator Sons and the Creative +Spirits of the local universes. + +It may be that on the upper limits of the finite, where time conjoins +transcended time, there is some sort of blurring and blending of sequence. It +may be that the Supreme is able to forecast his universe presence onto these +supertime levels and then to a limited degree anticipate future evolution by +reflecting this future forecast back to the created levels as the Immanence of +the Projected Incomplete. Such phenomena may be observed wherever finite makes +contact with superfinite, as in the experiences of human beings who are indwelt + + top of page - 1292 + +by Thought Adjusters that are veritable predictions of man's future universe +attainments throughout all eternity. + +When mortal ascenders are admitted to the finaliter corps of Paradise, they +take an oath to the Paradise Trinity, and in taking this oath of allegiance, +they are thereby pledging eternal fidelity to God the Supreme, who is the +Trinity as comprehended by all finite creature personalities. Subsequently, as +the finaliter companies function throughout the evolving universes, they are +solely amenable to the mandates of Paradise origin until the eventful times of +the settling of local universes in light and life. As the new governmental +organizations of these perfected creations begin to be reflective of the +emerging sovereignty of the Supreme, we observe that the outlying finaliter +companies then acknowledge the jurisdictional authority of such new +governments. It appears that God the Supreme is evolving as the unifier of the +evolutionary Corps of the Finality, but it is highly probable that the eternal +destiny of these seven corps will be directed by the Supreme as a member of the +Ultimate Trinity. + +The Supreme Being contains three superfinite possibilities for universe +manifestation: + +1. Absonite collaboration in the first experiential Trinity. + +2. Coabsolute relationship in the second experiential Trinity. + +3. Coinfinite participation in the Trinity of Trinities, but we have no +satisfactory concept as to what this really means. + +This is one of the generally accepted hypotheses of the future of the Supreme, +but there are also many speculations concerning his relations to the present +grand universe subsequent to its attainment of the status of light and life. + +The present goal of the superuniverses is to become, as they are and within +their potentials, perfect, even as is Havona. This perfection pertains to +physical and spiritual attainment, even to administrative, governmental, and +fraternal development. It is believed that, in the ages to come, the +possibilities for disharmony, maladjustment, and misadaptation will be +eventually exhausted in the superuniverses. The energy circuits will be in +perfect balance and in complete subjugation to mind, while spirit, in the +presence of personality, will have achieved the dominance of mind. + +It is conjectured that at this far-distant time the spirit person of the +Supreme and attained power of the Almighty will have achieved co-ordinate +development, and that both, as unified in and by the Supreme Mind, will +factualize as the Supreme Being, a completed actuality in the universes--an +actuality which will be observable by all creature intelligences, reacted to by +all created energies, co-ordinated in all spiritual entities, and experienced +by all universe personalities. + +This concept implies the actual sovereignty of the Supreme in the grand +universe. It is altogether likely that the present Trinity administrators will +continue as his vicegerents, but we believe that the present demarcations +between the seven superuniverses will gradually disappear, and that the entire +grand universe will function as a perfected whole. + +It is possible that the Supreme may then be personally resident on Uversa, the +headquarters of Orvonton, from which he will direct the administration of the +time creations, but this is really only a conjecture. Certainly, though, the +personality of the Supreme Being will be definitely contactable at some +specific + + top of page - 1293 + +locality, although the ubiquity of his Deity presence will probably continue to +permeate the universe of universes. What the relation of the superuniverse +citizens of that age will be to the Supreme we do not know, but it may be +something like the present relationship between the Havona natives and the +Paradise Trinity. + +The perfected grand universe of those future days will be vastly different from +what it is at present. Gone will be the thrilling adventures of the +organization of the galaxies of space, the planting of life on the uncertain +worlds of time, and the evolving of harmony out of chaos, beauty out of +potentials, truth out of meanings, and goodness out of values. The time +universes will have achieved the fulfillment of finite destiny! And perhaps for +a space there will be rest, relaxation from the agelong struggle for +evolutionary perfection. But not for long! Certainly, surely, and inexorably +the enigma of the emerging Deity of God the Ultimate will challenge these +perfected citizens of the settled universes just as their struggling +evolutionary forebears were once challenged by the quest for God the Supreme. +The curtain of cosmic destiny will draw back to reveal the transcendent +grandeur of the alluring absonite quest for the attainment of the Universal +Father on those new and higher levels revealed in the ultimate of creature +experience. + +[Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning on Urantia.] + + top of page - 1294 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Almighty ³ Supreme And ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Su... ³ Ult... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p118.txt b/religious documents/p118.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3936a64 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p118.txt @@ -0,0 +1,866 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 118 Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + ... Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 118 Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +CONCERNING the several natures of Deity, it may be said: + +1. The Father is self-existent self. + +2. The Son is coexistent self. + +3. The Spirit is conjoint-existent self. + +4. The Supreme is evolutionary-experiential self. + +5. The Sevenfold is self-distributive divinity. + +6. The Ultimate is transcendental-experiential self. + +7. The Absolute is existential-experiential self. + +While God the Sevenfold is indispensable to the evolutionary attainment of the +Supreme, the Supreme is also indispensable to the eventual emergence of the +Ultimate. And the dual presence of the Supreme and the Ultimate constitutes the +basic association of subabsolute and derived Deity, for they are +interdependently complemental in the attainment of destiny. Together they +constitute the experiential bridge linking the beginnings and the completions +of all creative growth in the master universe. + +Creative growth is unending but ever satisfying, endless in extent but always +punctuated by those personality-satisfying moments of transient goal attainment +which serve so effectively as the mobilization preludes to new adventures in +cosmic growth, universe exploration, and Deity attainment. + +While the domain of mathematics is beset with qualitative limitations, it does +provide the finite mind with a conceptual basis of contemplating infinity. +There is no quantitative limitation to numbers, even in the comprehension of +the finite mind. No matter how large the number conceived, you can always +envisage one more being added. And also, you can comprehend that that is short +of infinity, for no matter how many times you repeat this addition to number, +still always one more can be added. + +At the same time, the infinite series can be totaled at any given point, and +this total (more properly, a subtotal) provides the fullness of the sweetness +of goal attainment for a given person at a given time and status. But sooner or +later, this same person begins to hunger and yearn for new and greater goals, +and such adventures in growth will be forever forthcoming in the fullness of +time and the cycles of eternity. + +Each successive universe age is the antechamber of the following era of cosmic +growth, and each universe epoch provides immediate destiny for all preceding +stages. Havona, in and of itself, is a perfect, but perfection-limited, +creation; Havona perfection, expanding out into the evolutionary +superuniverses, finds not only cosmic destiny but also liberation from the +limitations of pre-evolutionary existence. + + top of page - 1295 + +1. TIME AND ETERNITY + +It is helpful to man's cosmic orientation to attain all possible comprehension +of Deity's relation to the cosmos. While absolute Deity is eternal in nature, +the Gods are related to time as an experience in eternity. In the evolutionary +universes eternity is temporal everlastingness--the everlasting now. + +The personality of the mortal creature may eternalize by self-identification +with the indwelling spirit through the technique of choosing to do the will of +the Father. Such a consecration of will is tantamount to the realization of +eternity-reality of purpose. This means that the purpose of the creature has +become fixed with regard to the succession of moments; stated otherwise, that +the succession of moments will witness no change in creature purpose. A million +or a billion moments makes no difference. Number has ceased to have meaning +with regard to the creature's purpose. Thus does creature choice plus God's +choice eventuate in the eternal realities of the never-ending union of the +spirit of God and the nature of man in the everlasting service of the children +of God and of their Paradise Father. + +There is a direct relationship between maturity and the unit of time +consciousness in any given intellect. The time unit may be a day, a year, or a +longer period, but inevitably it is the criterion by which the conscious self +evaluates the circumstances of life, and by which the conceiving intellect +measures and evaluates the facts of temporal existence. + +Experience, wisdom, and judgment are the concomitants of the lengthening of the +time unit in mortal experience. As the human mind reckons backward into the +past, it is evaluating past experience for the purpose of bringing it to bear +on a present situation. As mind reaches out into the future, it is attempting +to evaluate the future significance of possible action. And having thus +reckoned with both experience and wisdom, the human will exercises +judgment-decision in the present, and the plan of action thus born of the past +and the future becomes existent. + +In the maturity of the developing self, the past and future are brought +together to illuminate the true meaning of the present. As the self matures, it +reaches further and further back into the past for experience, while its wisdom +forecasts seek to penetrate deeper and deeper into the unknown future. And as +the conceiving self extends this reach ever further into both past and future, +so does judgment become less and less dependent on the momentary present. In +this way does decision-action begin to escape from the fetters of the moving +present, while it begins to take on the aspects of past-future significance. + +Patience is exercised by those mortals whose time units are short; true +maturity transcends patience by a forbearance born of real understanding. + +To become mature is to live more intensely in the present, at the same time +escaping from the limitations of the present. The plans of maturity, founded on +past experience, are coming into being in the present in such manner as to +enhance the values of the future. + +The time unit of immaturity concentrates meaning-value into the present moment +in such a way as to divorce the present of its true relationship to the + + top of page - 1296 + +not-present--the past-future. The time unit of maturity is proportioned so to +reveal the co-ordinate relationship of past-present-future that the self begins +to gain insight into the wholeness of events, begins to view the landscape of +time from the panoramic perspective of broadened horizons, begins perhaps to +suspect the nonbeginning, nonending eternal continuum, the fragments of which +are called time. + +On the levels of the infinite and the absolute the moment of the present +contains all of the past as well as all of the future. I AM signifies also I +WAS and I WILL BE. And this represents our best concept of eternity and the +eternal. + +On the absolute and eternal level, potential reality is just as meaningful as +actual reality. Only on the finite level and to time-bound creatures does there +appear to be such a vast difference. To God, as absolute, an ascending mortal +who has made the eternal decision is already a Paradise finaliter. But the +Universal Father, through the indwelling Thought Adjuster, is not thus limited +in awareness but can also know of, and participate in, every temporal struggle +with the problems of the creature ascent from animallike to Godlike levels of +existence. + +2. OMNIPRESENCE AND UBIQUITY + +The ubiquity of Deity must not be confused with the ultimacy of the divine +omnipresence. It is volitional with the Universal Father that the Supreme, the +Ultimate, and the Absolute should compensate, co-ordinate, and unify his +time-space ubiquity and his time-space-transcended omnipresence with his +timeless and spaceless universal and absolute presence. And you should remember +that, while Deity ubiquity may be so often space associated, it is not +necessarily time conditioned. + +As mortal and morontia ascenders you progressively discern God through the +ministry of God the Sevenfold. Through Havona you discover God the Supreme. On +Paradise you find him as a person, and then as finaliters you will presently +attempt to know him as Ultimate. Being finaliters, there would seem to be but +one course to pursue after having attained the Ultimate, and that would be to +begin the quest of the Absolute. No finaliter will be disturbed by the +uncertainties of the attainment of the Deity Absolute since at the end of the +supreme and ultimate ascensions he encountered God the Father. Such finaliters +will no doubt believe that, even if they should be successful in finding God +the Absolute, they would only be discovering the same God, the Paradise Father +manifesting himself on more nearly infinite and universal levels. Undoubtedly +the attainment of God in absolute would reveal the Primal Ancestor of universes +as well as the Final Father of personalities. + +God the Supreme may not be a demonstration of the time-space omnipresence of +Deity, but he is literally a manifestation of divine ubiquity. Between the +spiritual presence of the Creator and the material manifestations of creation +there exists a vast domain of the ubiquitous becoming--the universe emergence +of evolutionary Deity. + +If God the Supreme ever assumes direct control of the universes of time and +space, we are confident such a Deity administration will function under the +overcontrol of the Ultimate. In such an event God the Ultimate would begin to +become manifest to the universes of time as the transcendental Al- + + top of page - 1297 + +mighty (the Omnipotent) exercising the overcontrol of supertime and transcended +space concerning the administrative functions of the Almighty Supreme. + +The mortal mind may ask, even as we do: If the evolution of God the Supreme to +administrative authority in the grand universe is attended by augmented +manifestations of God the Ultimate, will a corresponding emergence of God the +Ultimate in the postulated universes of outer space be attended by similar and +enhanced revelations of God the Absolute? But we really do not know. + +3. TIME-SPACE RELATIONSHIPS + +Only by ubiquity could Deity unify time-space manifestations to the finite +conception, for time is a succession of instants while space is a system of +associated points. You do, after all, perceive time by analysis and space by +synthesis. You co-ordinate and associate these two dissimilar conceptions by +the integrating insight of personality. Of all the animal world only man +possesses this time-space perceptibility. To an animal, motion has a meaning, +but motion exhibits value only to a creature of personality status. + +Things are time conditioned, but truth is timeless. The more truth you know, +the more truth you are, the more of the past you can understand and of the +future you can comprehend. + +Truth is inconcussible--forever exempt from all transient vicissitudes, albeit +never dead and formal, always vibrant and adaptable--radiantly alive. But when +truth becomes linked with fact, then both time and space condition its meanings +and correlate its values. Such realities of truth wedded to fact become +concepts and are accordingly relegated to the domain of relative cosmic +realities. + +The linking of the absolute and eternal truth of the Creator with the factual +experience of the finite and temporal creature eventuates a new and emerging +value of the Supreme. The concept of the Supreme is essential to the +co-ordination of the divine and unchanging overworld with the finite and +ever-changing underworld. + +Space comes the nearest of all nonabsolute things to being absolute. Space is +apparently absolutely ultimate. The real difficulty we have in understanding +space on the material level is due to the fact that, while material bodies +exist in space, space also exists in these same material bodies. While there is +much about space that is absolute, that does not mean that space is absolute. + +It may help to an understanding of space relationships if you would conjecture +that, relatively speaking, space is after all a property of all material +bodies. Hence, when a body moves through space, it also takes all its +properties with it, even the space which is in and of such a moving body. + +All patterns of reality occupy space on the material levels, but spirit +patterns only exist in relation to space; they do not occupy or displace space, +neither do they contain it. But to us the master riddle of space pertains to +the pattern of an idea. When we enter the mind domain, we encounter many a +puzzle. Does the pattern--the reality--of an idea occupy space? We really do +not know, albeit we are sure that an idea pattern does not contain space. But +it would hardly be safe to postulate that the immaterial is always nonspatial. + + top of page - 1298 + +4. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY CAUSATION + +Many of the theologic difficulties and the metaphysical dilemmas of mortal man +are due to man's mislocation of Deity personality and consequent assignment of +infinite and absolute attributes to subordinate Divinity and to evolutionary +Deity. You must not forget that, while there is indeed a true First Cause, +there are also a host of co-ordinate and subordinate causes, both associate and +secondary causes. + +The vital distinction between first causes and second causes is that first +causes produce original effects which are free from inheritance of any factor +derived from any antecedent causation. Secondary causes yield effects which +invariably exhibit inheritance from other and preceding causation. + +The purely static potentials inherent in the Unqualified Absolute are reactive +to those causations of the Deity Absolute which are produced by the actions of +the Paradise Trinity. In the presence of the Universal Absolute these +causative-impregnated static potentials forthwith become active and responsive +to the influence of certain transcendental agencies whose actions result in the +transmutation of these activated potentials to the status of true universe +possibilities for development, actualized capacities for growth. It is upon +such matured potentials that the creators and controllers of the grand universe +enact the never-ending drama of cosmic evolution. + +Causation, disregarding existentials, is threefold in its basic constitution. +As it operates in this universe age and concerning the finite level of the +seven superuniverses, it may be conceived as follows: + +1. Activation of static potentials. The establishment of destiny in the +Universal Absolute by the actions of the Deity Absolute, operating in and upon +the Unqualified Absolute and in consequence of the volitional mandates of the +Paradise Trinity. + +2. Eventuation of universe capacities. This involves the transformation of +undifferentiated potentials into segregated and defined plans. This is the act +of the Ultimacy of Deity and of the manifold agencies of the transcendental +level. Such acts are in perfect anticipation of the future needs of the entire +master universe. It is in connection with the segregation of potentials that +the Architects of the Master Universe exist as the veritable embodiments of the +Deity concept of the universes. Their plans appear to be ultimately space +limited in extent by the concept periphery of the master universe, but as plans +they are not otherwise conditioned by time or space. + +3. Creation and evolution of universe actuals. It is upon a cosmos impregnated +by the capacity-producing presence of the Ultimacy of Deity that the Supreme +Creators operate to effect the time transmutations of matured potentials into +experiential actuals. Within the master universe all actualization of potential +reality is limited by ultimate capacity for development and is time-space +conditioned in the final stages of emergence. The Creator Sons going out from +Paradise are, in actuality, transformative creators in the cosmic sense. But +this in no manner invalidates man's concept of them as creators; from the +finite viewpoint they certainly can and do create. + + top of page - 1299 + +5. OMNIPOTENCE AND COMPOSSIBILITY + +The omnipotence of Deity does not imply the power to do the nondoable. Within +the time-space frame and from the intellectual reference point of mortal +comprehension, even the infinite God cannot create square circles or produce +evil that is inherently good. God cannot do the ungodlike thing. Such a +contradiction of philosophic terms is the equivalent of nonentity and implies +that nothing is thus created. A personality trait cannot at the same time be +Godlike and ungodlike. Compossibility is innate in divine power. And all of +this is derived from the fact that omnipotence not only creates things with a +nature but also gives origin to the nature of all things and beings. + +In the beginning the Father does all, but as the panorama of eternity unfolds +in response to the will and mandates of the Infinite, it becomes increasingly +apparent that creatures, even men, are to become God's partners in the +realization of finality of destiny. And this is true even in the life in the +flesh; when man and God enter into partnership, no limitation can be placed +upon the future possibilities of such a partnership. When man realizes that the +Universal Father is his partner in eternal progression, when he fuses with the +indwelling Father presence, he has, in spirit, broken the fetters of time and +has already entered upon the progressions of eternity in the quest for the +Universal Father. + +Mortal consciousness proceeds from the fact, to the meaning, and then to the +value. Creator consciousness proceeds from the thought-value, through the +word-meaning, to the fact of action. Always must God act to break the deadlock +of the unqualified unity inherent in existential infinity. Always must Deity +provide the pattern universe, the perfect personalities, the original truth, +beauty, and goodness for which all subdeity creations strive. Always must God +first find man that man may later find God. Always must there be a Universal +Father before there can ever be universal sonship and consequent universal +brotherhood. + +6. OMNIPOTENCE AND OMNIFICENCE + +God is truly omnipotent, but he is not omnificent--he does not personally do +all that is done. Omnipotence embraces the power-potential of the Almighty +Supreme and the Supreme Being, but the volitional acts of God the Supreme are +not the personal doings of God the Infinite. + +To advocate the omnificence of primal Deity would be equal to disenfranchising +well-nigh a million Creator Sons of Paradise, not to mention the innumerable +hosts of various other orders of concurring creative assistants. There is but +one uncaused Cause in the whole universe. All other causes are derivatives of +this one First Great Source and Center. And none of this philosophy does any +violence to the freewillness of the myriads of the children of Deity scattered +through a vast universe. + +Within a local frame, volition may appear to function as an uncaused cause, but +it unfailingly exhibits inheritance factors which establish relationship with +the unique, original, and absolute First Causes. + +All volition is relative. In the originating sense, only the Father-I AM +possesses finality of volition; in the absolute sense, only the Father, the +Son, and the Spirit exhibit the prerogatives of volition unconditioned by time +and un- + + top of page - 1300 + +limited by space. Mortal man is endowed with free will, the power of choice, +and though such choosing is not absolute, nevertheless, it is relatively final +on the finite level and concerning the destiny of the choosing personality. + +Volition on any level short of the absolute encounters limitations which are +constitutive in the very personality exercising the power of choice. Man cannot +choose beyond the range of that which is choosable. He cannot, for instance, +choose to be other than a human being except that he can elect to become more +than a man; he can choose to embark upon the voyage of universe ascension, but +this is because the human choice and the divine will happen to be coincident +upon this point. And what a son desires and the Father wills will certainly +come to pass. + +In the mortal life, paths of differential conduct are continually opening and +closing, and during the times when choice is possible the human personality is +constantly deciding between these many courses of action. Temporal volition is +linked to time, and it must await the passing of time to find opportunity for +expression. Spiritual volition has begun to taste liberation from the fetters +of time, having achieved partial escape from time sequence, and that is because +spiritual volition is self-identifying with the will of God. + +Volition, the act of choosing, must function within the universe frame which +has actualized in response to higher and prior choosing. The entire range of +human will is strictly finite-limited except in one particular: When man +chooses to find God and to be like him, such a choice is superfinite; only +eternity can disclose whether this choice is also superabsonite. + +To recognize Deity omnipotence is to enjoy security in your experience of +cosmic citizenship, to possess assurance of safety in the long journey to +Paradise. But to accept the fallacy of omnificence is to embrace the colossal +error of Pantheism. + +7. OMNISCIENCE AND PREDESTINATION + +The function of Creator will and creature will, in the grand universe, operates +within the limits, and in accordance with the possibilities, established by the +Master Architects. This foreordination of these maximum limits does not, +however, in the least abridge the sovereignty of creature will within these +boundaries. Neither does ultimate foreknowledge--full allowance for all finite +choice--constitute an abrogation of finite volition. A mature and farseeing +human being might be able to forecast the decision of some younger associate +most accurately, but this foreknowledge takes nothing away from the freedom and +genuineness of the decision itself. The Gods have wisely limited the range of +the action of immature will, but it is true will, nonetheless, within these +defined limits. + +Even the supreme correlation of all past, present, and future choice does not +invalidate the authenticity of such choosings. It rather indicates the +foreordained trend of the cosmos and suggests foreknowledge of those volitional +beings who may, or may not, elect to become contributory parts of the +experiential actualization of all reality. + +Error in finite choosing is time bound and time limited. It can exist only in +time and within the evolving presence of the Supreme Being. Such mistaken +choosing is time possible and indicates (besides the incompleteness of the +Supreme) that certain range of choice with which immature creatures must be en- + + top of page - 1301 + +dowed in order to enjoy universe progression by making freewill contact with +reality. + +Sin in time-conditioned space clearly proves the temporal liberty--even +license--of the finite will. Sin depicts immaturity dazzled by the freedom of +the relatively sovereign will of personality while failing to perceive the +supreme obligations and duties of cosmic citizenship. + +Iniquity in the finite domains reveals the transient reality of all +God-unidentified selfhood. Only as a creature becomes God-identified, does he +become truly real in the universes. Finite personality is not self-created, but +in the superuniverse arena of choice it does self-determine destiny. + +The bestowal of life renders material-energy systems capable of +self-perpetuation, self-propagation, and self-adaptation. The bestowal of +personality imparts to living organisms the further prerogatives of +self-determination, self-evolution, and self-identification with a fusion +spirit of Deity. + +Subpersonal living things indicate mind activating energy-matter, first as +physical controllers, and then as adjutant mind-spirits. Personality endowment +comes from the Father and imparts unique prerogatives of choice to the living +system. But if personality has the prerogative of exercising volitional choice +of reality identification, and if this is a true and free choice, then must +evolving personality also have the possible choice of becoming self-confusing, +self-disrupting, and self-destroying. The possibility of cosmic +self-destruction cannot be avoided if the evolving personality is to be truly +free in the exercise of finite will. + +Therefore is there increased safety in narrowing the limits of personality +choice throughout the lower levels of existence. Choice becomes increasingly +liberated as the universes are ascended; choice eventually approximates divine +freedom when the ascending personality achieves divinity of status, supremacy +of consecration to the purposes of the universe, completion of cosmic-wisdom +attainment, and finality of creature identification with the will and the way +of God. + +8. CONTROL AND OVERCONTROL + +In the time-space creations, free will is hedged about with restraints, with +limitations. Material-life evolution is first mechanical, then mind activated, +and (after the bestowal of personality) it may become spirit directed. Organic +evolution on the inhabited worlds is physically limited by the potentials of +the original physical-life implantations of the Life Carriers. + +Mortal man is a machine, a living mechanism; his roots are truly in the +physical world of energy. Many human reactions are mechanical in nature; much +of life is machinelike. But man, a mechanism, is much more than a machine; he +is mind endowed and spirit indwelt; and though he can never throughout his +material life escape the chemical and electrical mechanics of his existence, he +can increasingly learn how to subordinate this physical-life machine to the +directive wisdom of experience by the process of consecrating the human mind to +the execution of the spiritual urges of the indwelling Thought Adjuster. + +The spirit liberates, and the mechanism limits, the function of will. Imperfect +choice, uncontrolled by mechanism, unidentified with spirit, is dangerous and +unstable. Mechanical dominance insures stability at the expense of progress; +spirit alliance liberates choice from the physical level and at the same time + + top of page - 1302 + +assures the divine stability produced by augmented universe insight and +increased cosmic comprehension. + +The great danger that besets the creature is that, in achieving liberation from +the fetters of the life mechanism, he will fail to compensate this loss of +stability by effecting a harmonious working liaison with spirit. Creature +choice, when relatively liberated from mechanical stability, may attempt +further self-liberation independent of greater spirit identification. + +The whole principle of biologic evolution makes it impossible for primitive man +to appear on the inhabited worlds with any large endowment of self-restraint. +Therefore does the same creative design which purposed evolution likewise +provide those external restraints of time and space, hunger and fear, which +effectively circumscribe the subspiritual choice range of such uncultured +creatures. As man's mind successfully overstrides increasingly difficult +barriers, this same creative design has also provided for the slow accumulation +of the racial heritage of painfully garnered experiential wisdom--in other +words, for the maintenance of a balance between the diminishing external +restraints and the augmenting internal restraints. + +The slowness of evolution, of human cultural progress, testifies to the +effectiveness of that brake--material inertia--which so efficiently operates to +retard dangerous velocities of progress. Thus does time itself cushion and +distribute the otherwise lethal results of premature escape from the +next-encompassing barriers to human action. For when culture advances overfast, +when material achievement outruns the evolution of worship-wisdom, then does +civilization contain within itself the seeds of retrogression; and unless +buttressed by the swift augmentation of experiential wisdom, such human +societies will recede from high but premature levels of attainment, and the +"dark ages" of the interregnum of wisdom will bear witness to the inexorable +restoration of the imbalance between self-liberty and self-control. + +The iniquity of Caligastia was the by-passing of the time governor of +progressive human liberation--the gratuitous destruction of restraining +barriers, barriers which the mortal minds of those times had not experientially +overridden. + +That mind which can effect a partial abridgment of time and space, by this very +act proves itself possessed of the seeds of wisdom which can effectively serve +in lieu of the transcended barrier of restraint. + +Lucifer similarly sought to disrupt the time governor operating in restraint of +the premature attainment of certain liberties in the local system. A local +system settled in light and life has experientially achieved those viewpoints +and insights which make feasible the operation of many techniques that would be +disruptive and destructive in the presettled eras of that very realm. + +As man shakes off the shackles of fear, as he bridges continents and oceans +with his machines, generations and centuries with his records, he must +substitute for each transcended restraint a new and voluntarily assumed +restraint in accordance with the moral dictates of expanding human wisdom. +These self-imposed restraints are at once the most powerful and the most +tenuous of all the factors of human civilization--concepts of justice and +ideals of brotherhood. Man even qualifies himself for the restraining garments +of mercy when he dares to love his fellow men, while he achieves the beginnings +of spiritual brotherhood when he elects to mete out to them that treatment +which he himself would be accorded, even that treatment which he conceives that +God would accord them. + + top of page - 1303 + +An automatic universe reaction is stable and, in some form, continuing in the +cosmos. A personality who knows God and desires to do his will, who has spirit +insight, is divinely stable and eternally existent. Man's great universe +adventure consists in the transit of his mortal mind from the stability of +mechanical statics to the divinity of spiritual dynamics, and he achieves this +transformation by the force and constancy of his own personality decisions, in +each of life's situations declaring, "It is my will that your will be done." + +9. UNIVERSE MECHANISMS + +Time and space are a conjoined mechanism of the master universe. They are the +devices whereby finite creatures are enabled to coexist in the cosmos with the +Infinite. Finite creatures are effectively insulated from the absolute levels +by time and space. But these insulating media, without which no mortal could +exist, operate directly to limit the range of finite action. Without them no +creature could act, but by them the acts of every creature are definitely +limited. + +Mechanisms produced by higher minds function to liberate their creative sources +but to some degree unvaryingly limit the action of all subordinate +intelligences. To the creatures of the universes this limitation becomes +apparent as the mechanism of the universes. Man does not have unfettered free +will; there are limits to his range of choice, but within the radius of this +choice his will is relatively sovereign. + +The life mechanism of the mortal personality, the human body, is the product of +supermortal creative design; therefore it can never be perfectly controlled by +man himself. Only when ascending man, in liaison with the fused Adjuster, +self-creates the mechanism for personality expression, will he achieve +perfected control thereof. + +The grand universe is mechanism as well as organism, mechanical and living--a +living mechanism activated by a Supreme Mind, co-ordinating with a Supreme +Spirit, and finding expression on maximum levels of power and personality +unification as the Supreme Being. But to deny the mechanism of the finite +creation is to deny fact and to disregard reality. + +Mechanisms are the products of mind, creative mind acting on and in cosmic +potentials. Mechanisms are the fixed crystallizations of Creator thought, and +they ever function true to the volitional concept that gave them origin. But +the purposiveness of any mechanism is in its origin, not in its function. + +These mechanisms should not be thought of as limiting the action of Deity; +rather is it true that in these very mechanics Deity has achieved one phase of +eternal expression. The basic universe mechanisms have come into existence in +response to the absolute will of the First Source and Center, and they will +therefore eternally function in perfect harmony with the plan of the Infinite; +they are, indeed, the nonvolitional patterns of that very plan. + +We understand something of how the mechanism of Paradise is correlated with the +personality of the Eternal Son; this is the function of the Conjoint Actor. And +we have theories regarding the operations of the Universal Absolute with +respect to the theoretical mechanisms of the Unqualified and the potential +person of the Deity Absolute. But in the evolving Deities of Supreme and +Ultimate we observe that certain impersonal phases are being actually united +with their volitional counterparts, and thus there is evolving a new +relationship between pattern and person. + + top of page - 1304 + +In the eternity of the past the Father and the Son found union in the unity of +the expression of the Infinite Spirit. If, in the eternity of the future, the +Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits of the local universes of time and space +should attain creative union in the realms of outer space, what would their +unity create as the combined expression of their divine natures? It may well be +that we are to witness a hitherto unrevealed manifestation of Ultimate Deity, a +new type of superadministrator. Such beings would embrace unique prerogatives +of personality, being the union of personal Creator, impersonal Creative +Spirit, mortal-creature experience, and progressive personalization of the +Divine Minister. Such beings could be ultimate in that they would embrace +personal and impersonal reality, while they would combine the experiences of +Creator and creature. Whatever the attributes of such third persons of these +postulated functioning trinities of the creations of outer space, they will +sustain something of the same relation to their Creator Fathers and their +Creative Mothers that the Infinite Spirit does to the Universal Father and the +Eternal Son. + +God the Supreme is the personalization of all universe experience, the +focalization of all finite evolution, the maximation of all creature reality, +the consummation of cosmic wisdom, the embodiment of the harmonious beauties of +the galaxies of time, the truth of cosmic mind meanings, and the goodness of +supreme spirit values. And God the Supreme will, in the eternal future, +synthesize these manifold finite diversities into one experientially meaningful +whole, even as they are now existentially united on absolute levels in the +Paradise Trinity. + +10. FUNCTIONS OF PROVIDENCE + +Providence does not mean that God has decided all things for us and in advance. +God loves us too much to do that, for that would be nothing short of cosmic +tyranny. Man does have relative powers of choice. Neither is the divine love +that shortsighted affection which would pamper and spoil the children of men. + +The Father, Son, and Spirit--as the Trinity--are not the Almighty Supreme, but +the supremacy of the Almighty can never be manifest without them. The growth of +the Almighty is centered on the Absolutes of actuality and predicated on the +Absolutes of potentiality. But the functions of the Almighty Supreme are +related to the functions of the Paradise Trinity. + +It would appear that, in the Supreme Being, all phases of universe activity are +being partially reunited by the personality of this experiential Deity. When, +therefore, we desire to view the Trinity as one God, and if we limit this +concept to the present known and organized grand universe, we discover that the +evolving Supreme Being is the partial portraiture of the Paradise Trinity. And +we further find that this Supreme Deity is evolving as the personality +synthesis of finite matter, mind, and spirit in the grand universe. + +The Gods have attributes but the Trinity has functions, and like the Trinity, +providence is a function, the composite of the other-than-personal overcontrol +of the universe of universes, extending from the evolutionary levels of the +Sevenfold synthesizing in the power of the Almighty on up through the +transcendental realms of the Ultimacy of Deity. + +God loves each creature as a child, and that love overshadows each creature +throughout all time and eternity. Providence functions with regard to the total + + top of page - 1305 + +and deals with the function of any creature as such function is related to the +total. Providential intervention with regard to any being is indicative of the +importance of the function of that being as concerns the evolutionary growth of +some total; such total may be the total race, the total nation, the total +planet, or even a higher total. It is the importance of the function of the +creature that occasions providential intervention, not the importance of the +creature as a person. + +Nevertheless, the Father as a person may at any time interpose a fatherly hand +in the stream of cosmic events all in accordance with the will of God and in +consonance with the wisdom of God and as motivated by the love of God. + +But what man calls providence is all too often the product of his own +imagination, the fortuitous juxtaposition of the circumstances of chance. There +is, however, a real and emerging providence in the finite realm of universe +existence, a true and actualizing correlation of the energies of space, the +motions of time, the thoughts of intellect, the ideals of character, the +desires of spiritual natures, and the purposive volitional acts of evolving +personalities. The circumstances of the material realms find final finite +integration in the interlocking presences of the Supreme and the Ultimate. + +As the mechanisms of the grand universe are perfected to a point of final +precision through the overcontrol of mind, and as creature mind ascends to the +perfection of divinity attainment through perfected integration with spirit, +and as the Supreme consequently emerges as an actual unifier of all these +universe phenomena, so does providence become increasingly discernible. + +Some of the amazingly fortuitous conditions occasionally prevailing on the +evolutionary worlds may be due to the gradually emerging presence of the +Supreme, the foretasting of his future universe activities. Most of what a +mortal would call providential is not; his judgment of such matters is very +handicapped by lack of farsighted vision into the true meanings of the +circumstances of life. Much of what a mortal would call good luck might really +be bad luck; the smile of fortune that bestows unearned leisure and undeserved +wealth may be the greatest of human afflictions; the apparent cruelty of a +perverse fate that heaps tribulation upon some suffering mortal may in reality +be the tempering fire that is transmuting the soft iron of immature personality +into the tempered steel of real character. + +There is a providence in the evolving universes, and it can be discovered by +creatures to just the extent that they have attained capacity to perceive the +purpose of the evolving universes. Complete capacity to discern universe +purposes equals the evolutionary completion of the creature and may otherwise +be expressed as the attainment of the Supreme within the limits of the present +state of the incomplete universes. + +The love of the Father operates directly in the heart of the individual, +independent of the actions or reactions of all other individuals; the +relationship is personal--man and God. The impersonal presence of Deity +(Almighty Supreme and Paradise Trinity) manifests regard for the whole, not for +the part. The providence of the overcontrol of Supremacy becomes increasingly +apparent as the successive parts of the universe progress in the attainment of +finite destinies. As the systems, constellations, universes, and superuniverses +become settled in light and life, the Supreme increasingly emerges as the +meaningful correlator of all that is transpiring, while the Ultimate gradually +emerges as the transcendental unifier of all things. + + top of page - 1306 + +In the beginnings on an evolutionary world the natural occurrences of the +material order and the personal desires of human beings often appear to be +antagonistic. Much that takes place on an evolving world is rather hard for +mortal man to understand--natural law is so often apparently cruel, heartless, +and indifferent to all that is true, beautiful, and good in human +comprehension. But as humanity progresses in planetary development, we observe +that this viewpoint is modified by the following factors: + +1. Man's augmenting vision--his increased understanding of the world in which +he lives; his enlarging capacity for the comprehension of the material facts of +time, the meaningful ideas of thought, and the valuable ideals of spiritual +insight. As long as men measure only by the yardstick of the things of a +physical nature, they can never hope to find unity in time and space. + +2. Man's increasing control--the gradual accumulation of the knowledge of the +laws of the material world, the purposes of spiritual existence, and the +possibilities of the philosophic co-ordination of these two realities. Man, the +savage, was helpless before the onslaughts of natural forces, was slavish +before the cruel mastery of his own inner fears. Semicivilized man is beginning +to unlock the storehouse of the secrets of the natural realms, and his science +is slowly but effectively destroying his superstitions while at the same time +providing a new and enlarged factual basis for the comprehension of the +meanings of philosophy and the values of true spiritual experience. Man, the +civilized, will someday achieve relative mastery of the physical forces of his +planet; the love of God in his heart will be effectively outpoured as love for +his fellow men, while the values of human existence will be nearing the limits +of mortal capacity. + +3. Man's universe integration--the increase of human insight plus the increase +of human experiential achievement brings him into closer harmony with the +unifying presences of Supremacy--Paradise Trinity and Supreme Being. And this +is what establishes the sovereignty of the Supreme on the worlds long settled +in light and life. Such advanced planets are indeed poems of harmony, pictures +of the beauty of achieved goodness attained through the pursuit of cosmic +truth. And if such things can happen to a planet, then even greater things can +happen to a system and the larger units of the grand universe as they too +achieve a settledness indicating the exhaustion of the potentials for finite +growth. + +On a planet of this advanced order, providence has become an actuality, the +circumstances of life are correlated, but this is not only because man has come +to dominate the material problems of his world; it is also because he has begun +to live according to the trend of the universes; he is following the pathway of +Supremacy to the attainment of the Universal Father. + +The kingdom of God is in the hearts of men, and when this kingdom becomes +actual in the heart of every individual on a world, then God's rule has become +actual on that planet; and this is the attained sovereignty of the Supreme +Being. + +To realize providence in time, man must accomplish the task of achieving +perfection. But man can even now foretaste this providence in its eternity +meanings as he ponders the universe fact that all things, be they good or evil, +work together for the advancement of God-knowing mortals in their quest for the +Father of all. + +Providence becomes increasingly discernible as men reach upward from the +material to the spiritual. The attainment of completed spiritual insight +enables + + top of page - 1307 + +the ascending personality to detect harmony in what was theretofore chaos. Even +morontia mota represents a real advance in this direction. + +Providence is in part the overcontrol of the incomplete Supreme manifested in +the incomplete universes, and it must therefore ever be: + +1. Partial--due to the incompleteness of the actualization of the Supreme +Being, and + +2. Unpredictable--due to the fluctuations in creature attitude, which ever +varies from level to level, thus causing apparently variable reciprocal +response in the Supreme. + +When men pray for providential intervention in the circumstances of life, many +times the answer to their prayer is their own changed attitudes toward life. +But providence is not whimsical, neither is it fantastic nor magical. It is the +slow and sure emergence of the mighty sovereign of the finite universes, whose +majestic presence the evolving creatures occasionally detect in their universe +progressions. Providence is the sure and certain march of the galaxies of space +and the personalities of time toward the goals of eternity, first in the +Supreme, then in the Ultimate, and perhaps in the Absolute. And in infinity we +believe there is the same providence, and this is the will, the actions, the +purpose of the Paradise Trinity thus motivating the cosmic panorama of +universes upon universes. + +[Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning on Urantia.] + + top of page - 1308 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ God The Supreme ³ The Bestowals ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ³ O... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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The Bestowals Of Christ Michael +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 119 The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +CHIEF of the Evening Stars of Nebadon, I am assigned to Urantia by Gabriel on +the mission of revealing the story of the seven bestowals of the Universe +Sovereign, Michael of Nebadon, and my name is Gavalia. In making this +presentation, I will adhere strictly to the limitations imposed by my +commission. + +The attribute of bestowal is inherent in the Paradise Sons of the Universal +Father. In their desire to come close to the life experiences of their +subordinate living creatures, the various orders of the Paradise Sons are +reflecting the divine nature of their Paradise parents. The Eternal Son of the +Paradise Trinity led the way in this practice, having seven times bestowed +himself upon the seven circuits of Havona during the times of the ascension of +Grandfanda and the first of the pilgrims from time and space. And the Eternal +Son continues to bestow himself upon the local universes of space in the +persons of his representatives, the Michael and Avonal Sons. + +When the Eternal Son bestows a Creator Son upon a projected local universe, +that Creator Son assumes full responsibility for the completion, control, and +composure of that new universe, including the solemn oath to the eternal +Trinity not to assume full sovereignty of the new creation until his seven +creature bestowals shall have been successfully completed and certified by the +Ancients of Days of the superuniverse of jurisdiction. This obligation is +assumed by every Michael Son who volunteers to go out from Paradise to engage +in universe organization and creation. + +The purpose of these creature incarnations is to enable such Creators to become +wise, sympathetic, just, and understanding sovereigns. These divine Sons are +innately just, but they become understandingly merciful as a result of these +successive bestowal experiences; they are naturally merciful, but these +experiences make them merciful in new and additional ways. These bestowals are +the last steps in their education and training for the sublime tasks of ruling +the local universes in divine righteousness and by just judgment. + +Though numerous incidental benefits accrue to the various worlds, systems, and +constellations, as well as to the different orders of universe intelligences +affected and benefited by these bestowals, still they are primarily designed to +complete the personal training and universe education of a Creator Son himself. +These bestowals are not essential to the wise, just, and efficient management +of a local universe, but they are absolutely necessary to a fair, merciful, and +understanding administration of such a creation, teeming with its varied forms +of life and its myriads of intelligent but imperfect creatures. + +The Michael Sons begin their work of universe organization with a full and just +sympathy for the various orders of beings whom they have created. They + + top of page - 1309 + +have vast stores of mercy for all these differing creatures, even pity for +those who err and flounder in the selfish mire of their own production. But +such endowments of justice and righteousness will not suffice in the estimate +of the Ancients of Days. These triune rulers of the superuniverses will never +certify a Creator Son as Universe Sovereign until he has really acquired the +viewpoint of his own creatures by actual experience in the environment of their +existence and as these very creatures themselves. In this way such Sons become +intelligent and understanding rulers; they come to know the various groups over +which they rule and exercise universe authority. By living experience they +possess themselves of practical mercy, fair judgment, and the patience born of +experiential creature existence. + +The local universe of Nebadon is now ruled by a Creator Son who has completed +his service of bestowal; he reigns in just and merciful supremacy over all the +vast realms of his evolving and perfecting universe. Michael of Nebadon is the +611,121st bestowal of the Eternal Son upon the universes of time and space, and +he began the organization of your local universe about four hundred billion +years ago. Michael made ready for his first bestowal adventure about the time +Urantia was taking on its present form, one billion years ago. His bestowals +have occurred about one hundred and fifty million years apart, the last taking +place on Urantia nineteen hundred years ago. I will now proceed to unfold the +nature and character of these bestowals as fully as my commission permits. + +1. THE FIRST BESTOWAL + +It was a solemn occasion on Salvington almost one billion years ago when the +assembled directors and chiefs of the universe of Nebadon heard Michael +announce that his elder brother, Immanuel, would presently assume authority in +Nebadon while he (Michael) would be absent on an unexplained mission. No other +announcement was made about this transaction except that the farewell broadcast +to the Constellation Fathers, among other instructions, said: "And for this +period I place you under the care and keeping of Immanuel while I go to do the +bidding of my Paradise Father." + +After sending this farewell broadcast, Michael appeared on the dispatching +field of Salvington, just as on many previous occasions when preparing for +departure to Uversa or Paradise except that he came alone. He concluded his +statement of departure with these words: "I leave you but for a short season. +Many of you, I know, would go with me, but whither I go you cannot come. That +which I am about to do, you cannot do. I go to do the will of the Paradise +Deities, and when I have finished my mission and have acquired this experience, +I will return to my place among you." And having thus spoken, Michael of +Nebadon vanished from the sight of all those assembled and did not reappear for +twenty years of standard time. In all Salvington, only the Divine Minister and +Immanuel knew what was taking place, and the Union of Days shared his secret +only with the chief executive of the universe, Gabriel, the Bright and Morning +Star. + +All the inhabitants of Salvington and those dwelling on the constellation and +system headquarters worlds assembled about their respective receiving stations +for universe intelligence, hoping to get some word of the mission and +whereabouts of the Creator Son. Not until the third day after Michael's +departure was any message of possible significance received. On this day a +communication was + + top of page - 1310 + +registered on Salvington from the Melchizedek sphere, the headquarters of that +order in Nebadon, which simply recorded this extraordinary and +never-before-heard-of transaction: "At noon today there appeared on the +receiving field of this world a strange Melchizedek Son, not of our number but +wholly like our order. He was accompanied by a solitary omniaphim who bore +credentials from Uversa and presented orders addressed to our chief, derived +from the Ancients of Days and concurred in by Immanuel of Salvington, directing +that this new Melchizedek Son be received into our order and assigned to the +emergency service of the Melchizedeks of Nebadon. And it has been so ordered; +it has been done." + +And this is about all that appears on the records of Salvington regarding the +first Michael bestowal. Nothing more appears until after one hundred years of +Urantia time, when there was recorded the fact of Michael's return and +unannounced resumption of the direction of universe affairs. But a strange +record is to be found on the Melchizedek world, a recital of the service of +this unique Melchizedek Son of the emergency corps of that age. This record is +preserved in a simple temple which now occupies the foreground of the home of +the Father Melchizedek, and it comprises the narration of the service of this +transitory Melchizedek Son in connection with his assignment to twenty-four +missions of universe emergency. And this record, which I have so recently +reviewed, ends thus: + +"And at noon on this day, without previous announcement and witnessed by only +three of our brotherhood, this visiting Son of our order disappeared from our +world as he came, accompanied only by a solitary omniaphim; and this record is +now closed with the certification that this visitor lived as a Melchizedek, in +the likeness of a Melchizedek he worked as a Melchizedek, and he faithfully +performed all of his assignments as an emergency Son of our order. By universal +consent he has become chief of Melchizedeks, having earned our love and +adoration by his matchless wisdom, supreme love, and superb devotion to duty. +He loved us, understood us, and served with us, and forever we are his loyal +and devoted fellow Melchizedeks, for this stranger on our world has now +eternally become a universe minister of Melchizedek nature." + +And that is all I am permitted to tell you of the first bestowal of Michael. +We, of course, fully understand that this strange Melchizedek who so +mysteriously served with the Melchizedeks a billion years ago was none other +than the incarnated Michael on the mission of his first bestowal. The records +do not specifically state that this unique and efficient Melchizedek was +Michael, but it is universally believed that he was. Probably the actual +statement of that fact cannot be found outside of the records of Sonarington, +and the records of that secret world are not open to us. Only on this sacred +world of the divine Sons are the mysteries of incarnation and bestowal fully +known. We all know of the facts of the Michael bestowals, but we do not +understand how they are effected. We do not know how the ruler of a universe, +the creator of the Melchizedeks, can so suddenly and mysteriously become one of +their number and, as one of them, live among them and work as a Melchizedek Son +for one hundred years. But it so happened. + +2. THE SECOND BESTOWAL + +For almost one hundred and fifty million years after the Melchizedek bestowal +of Michael, all went well in the universe of Nebadon, when trouble began + + top of page - 1311 + +to brew in system 11 of constellation 37. This trouble involved a +misunderstanding by a Lanonandek Son, a System Sovereign, which had been +adjudicated by the Constellation Fathers and approved by the Faithful of Days, +the Paradise counselor to that constellation, but the protesting System +Sovereign was not fully reconciled to the verdict. After more than one hundred +years of dissatisfaction he led his associates in one of the most widespread +and disastrous rebellions against the sovereignty of the Creator Son ever +instigated in the universe of Nebadon, a rebellion long since adjudicated and +ended by the action of the Ancients of Days on Uversa. + +This rebel System Sovereign, Lutentia, reigned supreme on his headquarters +planet for more than twenty years of standard Nebadon time; whereupon, the Most +Highs, with approval from Uversa, ordered his segregation and requisitioned the +Salvington rulers for the designation of a new System Sovereign to assume +direction of that strife-torn and confused system of inhabited worlds. + +Simultaneously with the reception of this request on Salvington, Michael +initiated the second of those extraordinary proclamations of intention to be +absent from the universe headquarters for the purpose of "doing the bidding of +my Paradise Father," promising to "return in due season" and concentrating all +authority in the hands of his Paradise brother, Immanuel, the Union of Days. + +And then, by the same technique observed at the time of his departure in +connection with the Melchizedek bestowal, Michael again took leave of his +headquarters sphere. Three days after this unexplained leave-taking there +appeared among the reserve corps of the primary Lanonandek Sons of Nebadon, a +new and unknown member. This new Son appeared at noon, unannounced and +accompanied by a lone tertiaphim who bore credentials from the Uversa Ancients +of Days, certified by Immanuel of Salvington, directing that this new Son be +assigned to system 11 of constellation 37 as the successor of the deposed +Lutentia and with full authority as acting System Sovereign pending the +appointment of a new sovereign. + +For more than seventeen years of universe time this strange and unknown +temporary ruler administered the affairs and wisely adjudicated the +difficulties of this confused and demoralized local system. No System Sovereign +was ever more ardently loved or more widespreadly honored and respected. In +justice and mercy this new ruler set the turbulent system in order while he +painstakingly ministered to all his subjects, even offering his rebellious +predecessor the privilege of sharing the system throne of authority if he would +only apologize to Immanuel for his indiscretions. But Lutentia spurned these +overtures of mercy, well knowing that this new and strange System Sovereign was +none other than Michael, the very universe ruler whom he had so recently +defied. But millions of his misguided and deluded followers accepted the +forgiveness of this new ruler, known in that age as the Savior Sovereign of the +system of Palonia. + +And then came that eventful day on which there arrived the newly appointed +System Sovereign, designated by the universe authorities as the permanent +successor of the deposed Lutentia, and all Palonia mourned the departure of the +most noble and the most benign system ruler that Nebadon had ever known. He was +beloved by all the system and adored by his fellows of all groups of the +Lanonandek Sons. His departure was not unceremonious; a great celebration was +arranged when he left the system headquarters. Even his erring predecessor sent +this message: "Just and righteous are you in all your ways. While I con- + + top of page - 1312 + +tinue in rejection of the Paradise rule, I am compelled to confess that you are +a just and merciful administrator." + +And then did this transient ruler of a rebellious system take leave of the +planet of his short administrative sojourn, while on the third day thereafter +Michael appeared on Salvington and resumed the direction of the universe of +Nebadon. There soon followed the third Uversa proclamation of the advancing +jurisdiction of the sovereignty and authority of Michael. The first +proclamation was made at the time of his arrival in Nebadon, the second was +issued soon after the completion of the Melchizedek bestowal, and now the third +follows upon the termination of the second or Lanonandek mission. + +3. THE THIRD BESTOWAL + +The supreme council on Salvington had just finished the consideration of the +call of the Life Carriers on planet 217 in system 87 in constellation 61 for +the dispatch to their assistance of a Material Son. Now this planet was +situated in a system of inhabited worlds where another System Sovereign had +gone astray, the second such rebellion in all Nebadon up to that time. + +Upon the request of Michael, action on the petition of the Life Carriers of +this planet was deferred pending its consideration by Immanuel and his report +thereon. This was an irregular procedure, and I well remember how we all +anticipated something unusual, and we were not long held in suspense. Michael +proceeded to place universe direction in the hands of Immanuel, while he +intrusted command of the celestial forces to Gabriel, and having thus disposed +of his administrative responsibilities, he took leave of the Universe Mother +Spirit and vanished from the dispatching field of Salvington precisely as he +had done on two previous occasions. + +And, as might have been expected, on the third day thereafter there appeared, +unannounced, on the headquarters world of system 87 in constellation 61, a +strange Material Son, accompanied by a lone seconaphim, accredited by the +Uversa Ancients of Days, and certified by Immanuel of Salvington. Immediately +the acting System Sovereign appointed this new and mysterious Material Son +acting Planetary Prince of world 217, and this designation was at once +confirmed by the Most Highs of constellation 61. + +Thus did this unique Material Son begin his difficult career on a quarantined +world of secession and rebellion, located in a beleaguered system without any +direct communication with the outside universe, working alone for one whole +generation of planetary time. This emergency Material Son effected the +repentance and reclamation of the defaulting Planetary Prince and his entire +staff and witnessed the restoration of the planet to the loyal service of the +Paradise rule as established in the local universes. In due time a Material Son +and Daughter arrived on this rejuvenated and redeemed world, and when they had +been duly installed as visible planetary rulers, the transitory or emergency +Planetary Prince took formal leave, disappearing at noon one day. On the third +day thereafter, Michael appeared in his accustomed place on Salvington, and +very soon the superuniverse broadcasts carried the fourth proclamation of the +Ancients of Days announcing the further advancement of the sovereignty of +Michael in Nebadon. + +I regret that I do not have permission to narrate the patience, fortitude, and +skill with which this Material Son met the trying situations on this confused + + top of page - 1313 + +planet. The reclamation of this isolated world is one of the most beautifully +touching chapters in the annals of salvation throughout Nebadon. By the end of +this mission it had become evident to all Nebadon as to why their beloved ruler +chose to engage in these repeated bestowals in the likeness of some subordinate +order of intelligent being. + +The bestowals of Michael as a Melchizedek Son, then as a Lanonandek Son, and +next as a Material Son are all equally mysterious and beyond explanation. In +each instance he appeared suddenly and as a fully developed individual of the +bestowal group. The mystery of such incarnations will never be known except to +those who have access to the inner circle of the records on the sacred sphere +of Sonarington. + +Never, since this marvelous bestowal as the Planetary Prince of a world in +isolation and rebellion, have any of the Material Sons or Daughters in Nebadon +been tempted to complain of their assignments or to find fault with the +difficulties of their planetary missions. For all time the Material Sons know +that in the Creator Son of the universe they have an understanding sovereign +and a sympathetic friend, one who has in "all points been tried and tested," +even as they must also be tried and tested. + +Each of these missions was followed by an age of increasing service and loyalty +among all celestial intelligences of universe origin, while each succeeding +bestowal age was characterized by advancement and improvement in all methods of +universe administration and in all techniques of government. Since this +bestowal no Material Son or Daughter has ever knowingly joined in rebellion +against Michael; they love and honor him too devotedly ever consciously to +reject him. Only through deception and sophistry have the Adams of recent times +been led astray by higher types of rebel personalities. + +4. THE FOURTH BESTOWAL + +It was at the end of one of the periodic millennial roll calls of Uversa that +Michael proceeded to place the government of Nebadon in the hands of Immanuel +and Gabriel; and, of course, recalling what had happened in times past +following such action, we all prepared to witness Michael's disappearance on +his fourth mission of bestowal, and we were not long kept waiting, for he +shortly went out upon the Salvington dispatching field and was lost to our +view. + +On the third day after this bestowal disappearance we observed, in the universe +broadcasts to Uversa, this significant news item from the seraphic headquarters +of Nebadon: "Reporting the unannounced arrival of an unknown seraphim, +accompanied by a solitary supernaphim and Gabriel of Salvington. This +unregistered seraphim qualifies as of the Nebadon order and bears credentials +from the Uversa Ancients of Days, certified by Immanuel of Salvington. This +seraphim tests out as belonging to the supreme order of the angels of a local +universe and has already been assigned to the corps of the teaching +counselors." + +Michael was absent from Salvington during this, the seraphic bestowal, for a +period of over forty standard universe years. During this time he was attached +as a seraphic teaching counselor, what you might denominate a private +secretary, to twenty-six different master teachers, functioning on twenty-two +different worlds. His last or terminal assignment was as counselor and helper + + top of page - 1314 + +attached to a bestowal mission of a Trinity Teacher Son on world 462 in system +84 of constellation 3 in the universe of Nebadon. + +Never, throughout the seven years of this assignment, was this Trinity Teacher +Son wholly persuaded as to the identity of his seraphic associate. True, all +seraphim during that age were regarded with peculiar interest and scrutiny. +Full well we all knew that our beloved Sovereign was abroad in the universe, +disguised as a seraphim, but never could we be certain of his identity. Never +was he positively identified until the time of his attachment to the bestowal +mission of this Trinity Teacher Son. But always throughout this era were the +supreme seraphim regarded with special solicitude, lest any of us should find +that we had unawares been host to the Sovereign of the universe on a mission of +creature bestowal. And so it has become forever true, concerning angels, that +their Creator and Ruler has been "in all points tried and tested in the +likeness of seraphic personality." + +As these successive bestowals partook increasingly of the nature of the lower +forms of universe life, Gabriel became more and more an associate of these +incarnation adventures, functioning as the universe liaison between the +bestowed Michael and the acting universe ruler, Immanuel. + +Now has Michael passed through the bestowal experience of three orders of his +created universe Sons: the Melchizedeks, the Lanonandeks, and the Material +Sons. Next he condescends to personalize in the likeness of angelic life as a +supreme seraphim before turning his attention to the various phases of the +ascending careers of his lowest form of will creatures, the evolutionary +mortals of time and space. + +5. THE FIFTH BESTOWAL + +A little over three hundred million years ago, as time is reckoned on Urantia, +we witnessed another of those transfers of universe authority to Immanuel and +observed the preparations of Michael for departure. This occasion was different +from the previous ones in that he announced that his destination was Uversa, +headquarters of the superuniverse of Orvonton. In due time our Sovereign +departed, but the broadcasts of the superuniverse never made mention of +Michael's arrival at the courts of the Ancients of Days. Shortly after his +departure from Salvington there did appear in the Uversa broadcasts this +significant statement: "There arrived today an unannounced and unnumbered +ascendant pilgrim of mortal origin from the universe of Nebadon, certified by +Immanuel of Salvington and accompanied by Gabriel of Nebadon. This unidentified +being presents the status of a true spirit and has been received into our +fellowship." + +If you should visit Uversa today, you would hear the recounting of the days +when Eventod sojourned there, this particular and unknown pilgrim of time and +space being known on Uversa by that name. And this ascending mortal, at least a +superb personality in the exact likeness of the spirit stage of the ascending +mortals, lived and functioned on Uversa for a period of eleven years of +Orvonton standard time. This being received the assignments and performed the +duties of a spirit mortal in common with his fellows from the various local +universes of Orvonton. In "all points he was tested and tried, even as his +fellows," and on all occasions he proved worthy of the confidence and trust of +his superiors, while he unfailingly commanded the respect and loyal admiration +of his fellow spirits. + + top of page - 1315 + +On Salvington we followed the career of this spirit pilgrim with consummate +interest, knowing full well, by the presence of Gabriel, that this unassuming +and unnumbered pilgrim spirit was none other than the bestowed ruler of our +local universe. This first appearance of Michael incarnated in the role of one +stage of mortal evolution was an event which thrilled and enthralled all +Nebadon. We had heard of such things but now we beheld them. He appeared on +Uversa as a fully developed and perfectly trained spirit mortal and, as such, +continued his career up to the occasion of the advancement of a group of +ascending mortals to Havona; whereupon he held converse with the Ancients of +Days and immediately, in the company of Gabriel, took sudden and unceremonious +leave of Uversa, appearing shortly thereafter in his accustomed place on +Salvington. + +Not until the completion of this bestowal did it finally dawn upon us that +Michael was probably going to incarnate in the likeness of his various orders +of universe personalities, from the highest Melchizedeks right on down to the +mortals of flesh and blood on the evolutionary worlds of time and space. About +this time the Melchizedek colleges began to teach the probability of Michael's +sometime incarnating as a mortal of the flesh, and there occurred much +speculation as to the possible technique of such an inexplicable bestowal. That +Michael had in person performed in the role of an ascending mortal lent new and +added interest to the whole scheme of creature progression all the way up +through both the local universe and the superuniverse. + +Still, the technique of these successive bestowals remained a mystery. Even +Gabriel confesses that he does not comprehend the method whereby this Paradise +Son and universe Creator could, at will, assume the personality and live the +life of one of his own subordinate creatures. + +6. THE SIXTH BESTOWAL + +Now that all Salvington was familiar with the preliminaries of an impending +bestowal, Michael called the sojourners on the headquarters planet together +and, for the first time, unfolded the remainder of the incarnation plan, +announcing that he was soon to leave Salvington for the purpose of assuming the +career of a morontia mortal at the courts of the Most High Fathers on the +headquarters planet of the fifth constellation. And then we heard for the first +time the announcement that his seventh and final bestowal would be made on some +evolutionary world in the likeness of mortal flesh. + +Before leaving Salvington for the sixth bestowal, Michael addressed the +assembled inhabitants of the sphere and departed in full view of everyone, +accompanied by a lone seraphim and the Bright and Morning Star of Nebadon. +While the direction of the universe had again been intrusted to Immanuel, there +was a wider distribution of administrative responsibilities. + +Michael appeared on the headquarters of constellation five as a full-fledged +morontia mortal of ascending status. I regret that I am forbidden to reveal the +details of this unnumbered morontia mortal's career, for it was one of the most +extraordinary and amazing epochs in Michael's bestowal experience, not even +excepting his dramatic and tragic sojourn on Urantia. But among the many +restrictions imposed upon me in accepting this commission is one which forbids +my undertaking to unfold the details of this wonderful career of Michael as the +morontia mortal of Endantum. + + top of page - 1316 + +When Michael returned from this morontia bestowal, it was apparent to all of us +that our Creator had become a fellow creature, that the Universe Sovereign was +also the friend and sympathetic helper of even the lowest form of created +intelligence in his realms. We had noted this progressive acquirement of the +creature's viewpoint in universe administration before this, for it had been +gradually appearing, but it became more apparent after the completion of the +morontia mortal bestowal, even still more so after his return from the career +of the carpenter's son on Urantia. + +We were informed in advance by Gabriel of the time of Michael's release from +the morontia bestowal, and accordingly we arranged a suitable reception on +Salvington. Millions upon millions of beings were assembled from the +constellation headquarters worlds of Nebadon, and a majority of the sojourners +on the worlds adjacent to Salvington were gathered together to welcome him back +to the rulership of his universe. In response to our many addresses of welcome +and expressions of appreciation of a Sovereign so vitally interested in his +creatures, he only replied: "I have simply been about my Father's business. I +am only doing the pleasure of the Paradise Sons who love and crave to +understand their creatures." + +But from that day down to the hour when Michael embarked upon his Urantia +adventure as the Son of Man, all Nebadon continued to discuss the many exploits +of their Sovereign Ruler as he functioned on Endantum as the bestowal +incarnation of a morontia mortal of evolutionary ascension, being in all points +tested like his fellows assembled from the material worlds of the entire +constellation of his sojourn. + +7. THE SEVENTH AND FINAL BESTOWAL + +For tens of thousands of years we all looked forward to the seventh and final +bestowal of Michael. Gabriel had taught us that this terminal bestowal would be +made in the likeness of mortal flesh, but we were wholly ignorant of the time, +place, and manner of this culminating adventure. + +The public announcement that Michael had selected Urantia as the theater for +his final bestowal was made shortly after we learned about the default of Adam +and Eve. And thus, for more than thirty-five thousand years, your world +occupied a very conspicuous place in the councils of the entire universe. There +was no secrecy (aside from the incarnation mystery) connected with any step in +the Urantia bestowal. From first to last, up to the final and triumphant return +of Michael to Salvington as supreme Universe Sovereign, there was the fullest +universe publicity of all that transpired on your small but highly honored +world. + +While we believed that this would be the method, we never knew, until the time +of the event itself, that Michael would appear on earth as a helpless infant of +the realm. Theretofore had he always appeared as a fully developed individual +of the personality group of the bestowal selection, and it was a thrilling +announcement which was broadcast from Salvington telling that the babe of +Bethlehem had been born on Urantia. + +We then not only realized that our Creator and friend was taking the most +precarious step in all his career, apparently risking his position and +authority on this bestowal as a helpless infant, but we also understood that +his experience + + top of page - 1317 + +in this final and mortal bestowal would eternally enthrone him as the +undisputed and supreme sovereign of the universe of Nebadon. For a third of a +century of earth time all eyes in all parts of this local universe were focused +on Urantia. All intelligences realized that the last bestowal was in progress, +and as we had long known of the Lucifer rebellion in Satania and of the +Caligastia disaffection on Urantia, we well understood the intensity of the +struggle which would ensue when our ruler condescended to incarnate on Urantia +in the humble form and likeness of mortal flesh. + +Joshua ben Joseph, the Jewish baby, was conceived and was born into the world +just as all other babies before and since except that this particular baby was +the incarnation of Michael of Nebadon, a divine Son of Paradise and the creator +of all this local universe of things and beings. And this mystery of the +incarnation of Deity within the human form of Jesus, otherwise of natural +origin on the world, will forever remain unsolved. Even in eternity you will +never know the technique and method of the incarnation of the Creator in the +form and likeness of his creatures. That is the secret of Sonarington, and such +mysteries are the exclusive possession of those divine Sons who have passed +through the bestowal experience. + +Certain wise men of earth knew of Michael's impending arrival. Through the +contacts of one world with another, these wise men of spiritual insight learned +of the forthcoming bestowal of Michael on Urantia. And the seraphim did, +through the midway creatures, make announcement to a group of Chaldean priests +whose leader was Ardnon. These men of God visited the newborn child in the +manger. The only supernatural event associated with the birth of Jesus was this +announcement to Ardnon and his associates by the seraphim of former attachment +to Adam and Eve in the first garden. + +Jesus' human parents were average people of their day and generation, and this +incarnated Son of God was thus born of woman and was reared in the ordinary +manner of the children of that race and age. + +The story of Michael's sojourn on Urantia, the narrative of the mortal bestowal +of the Creator Son on your world, is a matter beyond the scope and purpose of +this narrative. + +8. MICHAEL'S POSTBESTOWAL STATUS + +After Michael's final and successful bestowal on Urantia he was not only +accepted by the Ancients of Days as sovereign ruler of Nebadon, but he was also +recognized by the Universal Father as the established director of the local +universe of his own creation. Upon his return to Salvington this Michael, the +Son of Man and the Son of God, was proclaimed the settled ruler of Nebadon. +From Uversa came the eighth proclamation of Michael's sovereignty, while from +Paradise came the joint pronouncement of the Universal Father and the Eternal +Son constituting this union of God and man sole head of the universe and +directing the Union of Days stationed on Salvington to signify his intention of +withdrawing to Paradise. The Faithfuls of Days on the constellation +headquarters were also instructed to retire from the councils of the Most +Highs. But Michael would not consent to the withdrawal of the Trinity Sons of +counsel and co-operation. He assembled them on Salvington and personally +requested them forever to remain on duty in Nebadon. They signified their +desire to comply + + top of page - 1318 + +with this request to their directors on Paradise, and shortly thereafter there +were issued those mandates of Paradise divorcement which forever attached these +Sons of the central universe to the court of Michael of Nebadon. + +It required almost one billion years of Urantia time to complete the bestowal +career of Michael and to effect the final establishment of his supreme +authority in the universe of his own creation. Michael was born a creator, +educated an administrator, trained an executive, but he was required to earn +his sovereignty by experience. And thus has your little world become known +throughout all Nebadon as the arena wherein Michael completed the experience +which is required of every Paradise Creator Son before he is given unlimited +control and direction of the universe of his own making. As you ascend the +local universe, you will learn more about the ideals of the personalities +concerned in Michael's previous bestowals. + +In completing his creature bestowals, Michael was not only establishing his own +sovereignty but also was augmenting the evolving sovereignty of God the +Supreme. In the course of these bestowals the Creator Son not only engaged in a +descending exploration of the various natures of creature personality, but he +also achieved the revelation of the variously diversified wills of the Paradise +Deities, whose synthetic unity, as revealed by the Supreme Creators, is +revelatory of the will of the Supreme Being. + +These various will aspects of the Deities are eternally personalized in the +differing natures of the Seven Master Spirits, and each of Michael's bestowals +was peculiarly revelatory of one of these divinity manifestations. On his +Melchizedek bestowal he manifested the united will of the Father, Son, and +Spirit, on his Lanonandek bestowal the will of the Father and the Son; on the +Adamic bestowal he revealed the will of the Father and the Spirit, on the +seraphic bestowal the will of the Son and the Spirit; on the Uversa mortal +bestowal he portrayed the will of the Conjoint Actor, on the morontia mortal +bestowal the will of the Eternal Son; and on the Urantia material bestowal he +lived the will of the Universal Father, even as a mortal of flesh and blood. + +The completion of these seven bestowals resulted in the liberation of Michael's +supreme sovereignty and also in the creation of the possibility for the +sovereignty of the Supreme in Nebadon. On none of Michael's bestowals did he +reveal God the Supreme, but the sum total of all seven bestowals is a new +Nebadon revelation of the Supreme Being. + +In the experience of descending from God to man, Michael was concomitantly +experiencing the ascent from partiality of manifestability to supremacy of +finite action and finality of the liberation of his potential for absonite +function. Michael, a Creator Son, is a time-space creator, but Michael, a +sevenfold Master Son, is a member of one of the divine corps constituting the +Trinity Ultimate. + +In passing through the experience of revealing the Seven Master Spirit wills of +the Trinity, the Creator Son has passed through the experience of revealing the +will of the Supreme. In functioning as a revelator of the will of Supremacy, +Michael, together with all other Master Sons, has identified himself eternally +with the Supreme. In this universe age he reveals the Supreme and participates +in the actualization of the sovereignty of Supremacy. But in the next universe +age we believe he will be collaborating with the Supreme Being in the first +experiential Trinity for and in the universes of outer space. + + top of page - 1319 + +Urantia is the sentimental shrine of all Nebadon, the chief of ten million +inhabited worlds, the mortal home of Christ Michael, sovereign of all Nebadon, +a Melchizedek minister to the realms, a system savior, an Adamic redeemer, a +seraphic fellow, an associate of ascending spirits, a morontia progressor, a +Son of Man in the likeness of mortal flesh, and the Planetary Prince of +Urantia. And your record tells the truth when it says that this same Jesus has +promised some time to return to the world of his terminal bestowal, the World +of the Cross. + +[This paper, depicting the seven bestowals of Christ Michael, is the +sixty-third of a series of presentations, sponsored by numerous personalities, +narrating the history of Urantia down to the time of Michael's appearance on +earth in the likeness of mortal flesh. These papers were authorized by a +Nebadon commission of twelve acting under the direction of Mantutia +Melchizedek. We indited these narratives and put them in the English language, +by a technique authorized by our superiors, in the year A.D. 1935 of Urantia +time.] + + top of page - 1320 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia + : The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On +Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The + Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color + The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary + Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution +Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet + The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden +The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In + The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization +The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The + Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes, + Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And + Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa + Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings +In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The + Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of + Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The + Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of + The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And + Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation + Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals + The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny + Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The + Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael + + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ + ³ Supreme And Ult... ³ Urantia Book PA... ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p121.txt b/religious documents/p121.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb32916 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p121.txt @@ -0,0 +1,770 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 121 The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 121 The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ACTING under the supervision of a commission of twelve members of the United +Brotherhood of Urantia Midwayers, conjointly sponsored by the presiding head of +our order and the Melchizedek of record, I am the secondary midwayer of onetime +attachment to the Apostle Andrew, and I am authorized to place on record the +narrative of the life transactions of Jesus of Nazareth as they were observed +by my order of earth creatures, and as they were subsequently partially +recorded by the human subject of my temporal guardianship. Knowing how his +Master so scrupulously avoided leaving written records behind him, Andrew +steadfastly refused to multiply copies of his written narrative. A similar +attitude on the part of the other apostles of Jesus greatly delayed the writing +of the Gospels. + +1. THE OCCIDENT OF THE FIRST CENTURY AFTER CHRIST + +Jesus did not come to this world during an age of spiritual decadence; at the +time of his birth Urantia was experiencing such a revival of spiritual thinking +and religious living as it had not known in all its previous post-Adamic +history nor has experienced in any era since. When Michael incarnated on +Urantia, the world presented the most favorable condition for the Creator Son's +bestowal that had ever previously prevailed or has since obtained. In the +centuries just prior to these times Greek culture and the Greek language had +spread over Occident and near Orient, and the Jews, being a Levantine race, in +nature part Occidental and part Oriental, were eminently fitted to utilize such +cultural and linguistic settings for the effective spread of a new religion to +both East and West. These most favorable circumstances were further enhanced by +the tolerant political rule of the Mediterranean world by the Romans. + +This entire combination of world influences is well illustrated by the +activities of Paul, who, being in religious culture a Hebrew of the Hebrews, +proclaimed the gospel of a Jewish Messiah in the Greek tongue, while he himself +was a Roman citizen. + +Nothing like the civilization of the times of Jesus has been seen in the +Occident before or since those days. European civilization was unified and +co-ordinated under an extraordinary threefold influence: + +1. The Roman political and social systems. + +2. The Grecian language and culture--and philosophy to a certain extent. + +3. The rapidly spreading influence of Jewish religious and moral teachings. + +When Jesus was born, the entire Mediterranean world was a unified empire. Good +roads, for the first time in the world's history, interconnected many major + + top of page - 1333 + +centers. The seas were cleared of pirates, and a great era of trade and travel +was rapidly advancing. Europe did not again enjoy another such period of travel +and trade until the nineteenth century after Christ. + +Notwithstanding the internal peace and superficial prosperity of the +Greco-Roman world, a majority of the inhabitants of the empire languished in +squalor and poverty. The small upper class was rich; a miserable and +impoverished lower class embraced the rank and file of humanity. There was no +happy and prosperous middle class in those days; it had just begun to make its +appearance in Roman society. + +The first struggles between the expanding Roman and Parthian states had been +concluded in the then recent past, leaving Syria in the hands of the Romans. In +the times of Jesus, Palestine and Syria were enjoying a period of prosperity, +relative peace, and extensive commercial intercourse with the lands to both the +East and the West. + +2. THE JEWISH PEOPLE + +The Jews were a part of the older Semitic race, which also included the +Babylonians, the Phoenicians, and the more recent enemies of Rome, the +Carthaginians. During the fore part of the first century after Christ, the Jews +were the most influential group of the Semitic peoples, and they happened to +occupy a peculiarly strategic geographic position in the world as it was at +that time ruled and organized for trade. + +Many of the great highways joining the nations of antiquity passed through +Palestine, which thus became the meeting place, or crossroads, of three +continents. The travel, trade, and armies of Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Syria, +Greece, Parthia, and Rome successively swept over Palestine. From time +immemorial, many caravan routes from the Orient passed through some part of +this region to the few good seaports of the eastern end of the Mediterranean, +whence ships carried their cargoes to all the maritime Occident. And more than +half of this caravan traffic passed through or near the little town of Nazareth +in Galilee. + +Although Palestine was the home of Jewish religious culture and the birthplace +of Christianity, the Jews were abroad in the world, dwelling in many nations +and trading in every province of the Roman and Parthian states. + +Greece provided a language and a culture, Rome built the roads and unified an +empire, but the dispersion of the Jews, with their more than two hundred +synagogues and well-organized religious communities scattered hither and yon +throughout the Roman world, provided the cultural centers in which the new +gospel of the kingdom of heaven found initial reception, and from which it +subsequently spread to the uttermost parts of the world. + +Each Jewish synagogue tolerated a fringe of gentile believers, "devout" or +"God-fearing" men, and it was among this fringe of proselytes that Paul made +the bulk of his early converts to Christianity. Even the temple at Jerusalem +possessed its ornate court of the gentiles. There was very close connection +between the culture, commerce, and worship of Jerusalem and Antioch. In Antioch +Paul's disciples were first called "Christians." + +The centralization of the Jewish temple worship at Jerusalem constituted alike +the secret of the survival of their monotheism and the promise of the nurture +and sending forth to the world of a new and enlarged concept of that one + + top of page - 1334 + +God of all nations and Father of all mortals. The temple service at Jerusalem +represented the survival of a religious cultural concept in the face of the +downfall of a succession of gentile national overlords and racial persecutors. + +The Jewish people of this time, although under Roman suzerainty, enjoyed a +considerable degree of self-government and, remembering the then only recent +heroic exploits of deliverance executed by Judas Maccabee and his immediate +successors, were vibrant with the expectation of the immediate appearance of a +still greater deliverer, the long-expected Messiah. + +The secret of the survival of Palestine, the kingdom of the Jews, as a +semi-independent state was wrapped up in the foreign policy of the Roman +government, which desired to maintain control of the Palestinian highway of +travel between Syria and Egypt as well as the western terminals of the caravan +routes between the Orient and the Occident. Rome did not wish any power to +arise in the Levant which might curb her future expansion in these regions. The +policy of intrigue which had for its object the pitting of Seleucid Syria and +Ptolemaic Egypt against each other necessitated fostering Palestine as a +separate and independent state. Roman policy, the degeneration of Egypt, and +the progressive weakening of the Seleucids before the rising power of Parthia, +explain why it was that for several generations a small and unpowerful group of +Jews was able to maintain its independence against both Seleucidae to the north +and Ptolemies to the south. This fortuitous liberty and independence of the +political rule of surrounding and more powerful peoples the Jews attributed to +the fact that they were the "chosen people," to the direct interposition of +Yahweh. Such an attitude of racial superiority made it all the harder for them +to endure Roman suzerainty when it finally fell upon their land. But even in +that sad hour the Jews refused to learn that their world mission was spiritual, +not political. + +The Jews were unusually apprehensive and suspicious during the times of Jesus +because they were then ruled by an outsider, Herod the Idumean, who had seized +the overlordship of Judea by cleverly ingratiating himself with the Roman +rulers. And though Herod professed loyalty to the Hebrew ceremonial +observances, he proceeded to build temples for many strange gods. + +The friendly relations of Herod with the Roman rulers made the world safe for +Jewish travel and thus opened the way for increased Jewish penetration even of +distant portions of the Roman Empire and of foreign treaty nations with the new +gospel of the kingdom of heaven. Herod's reign also contributed much toward the +further blending of Hebrew and Hellenistic philosophies. + +Herod built the harbor of Caesarea, which further aided in making Palestine the +crossroads of the civilized world. He died in 4 B.C., and his son Herod Antipas +governed Galilee and Perea during Jesus' youth and ministry to A.D. 39. +Antipas, like his father, was a great builder. He rebuilt many of the cities of +Galilee, including the important trade center of Sepphoris. + +The Galileans were not regarded with full favor by the Jerusalem religious +leaders and rabbinical teachers. Galilee was more gentile than Jewish when +Jesus was born. + +3. AMONG THE GENTILES + +Although the social and economic condition of the Roman state was not of the +highest order, the widespread domestic peace and prosperity was propitious + + top of page - 1335 + +for the bestowal of Michael. In the first century after Christ the society of +the Mediterranean world consisted of five well-defined strata: + +1. The aristocracy. The upper classes with money and official power, the +privileged and ruling groups. + +2. The business groups. The merchant princes and the bankers, the traders--the +big importers and exporters--the international merchants. + +3. The small middle class. Although this group was indeed small, it was very +influential and provided the moral backbone of the early Christian church, +which encouraged these groups to continue in their various crafts and trades. +Among the Jews many of the Pharisees belonged to this class of tradesmen. + +4. The free proletariat. This group had little or no social standing. Though +proud of their freedom, they were placed at great disadvantage because they +were forced to compete with slave labor. The upper classes regarded them +disdainfully, allowing that they were useless except for "breeding purposes." + +5. The slaves. Half the population of the Roman state were slaves; many were +superior individuals and quickly made their way up among the free proletariat +and even among the tradesmen. The majority were either mediocre or very +inferior. + +Slavery, even of superior peoples, was a feature of Roman military conquest. +The power of the master over his slave was unqualified. The early Christian +church was largely composed of the lower classes and these slaves. + +Superior slaves often received wages and by saving their earnings were able to +purchase their freedom. Many such emancipated slaves rose to high positions in +state, church, and the business world. And it was just such possibilities that +made the early Christian church so tolerant of this modified form of slavery. + +There was no widespread social problem in the Roman Empire in the first century +after Christ. The major portion of the populace regarded themselves as +belonging in that group into which they chanced to be born. There was always +the open door through which talented and able individuals could ascend from the +lower to the higher strata of Roman society, but the people were generally +content with their social rank. They were not class conscious, neither did they +look upon these class distinctions as being unjust or wrong. Christianity was +in no sense an economic movement having for its purpose the amelioration of the +miseries of the depressed classes. + +Although woman enjoyed more freedom throughout the Roman Empire than in her +restricted position in Palestine, the family devotion and natural affection of +the Jews far transcended that of the gentile world. + +4. GENTILE PHILOSOPHY + +The gentiles were, from a moral standpoint, somewhat inferior to the Jews, but +there was present in the hearts of the nobler gentiles abundant soil of natural +goodness and potential human affection in which it was possible for the seed of +Christianity to sprout and bring forth an abundant harvest of moral character +and spiritual achievement. The gentile world was then dominated by four great +philosophies, all more or less derived from the earlier Platonism of the +Greeks. These schools of philosophy were: + +1. The Epicurean. This school of thought was dedicated to the pursuit of +happiness. The better Epicureans were not given to sensual excesses. At least + + top of page - 1336 + +this doctrine helped to deliver the Romans from a more deadly form of fatalism; +it taught that men could do something to improve their terrestrial status. It +did effectually combat ignorant superstition. + +2. The Stoic. Stoicism was the superior philosophy of the better classes. The +Stoics believed that a controlling Reason-Fate dominated all nature. They +taught that the soul of man was divine; that it was imprisoned in the evil body +of physical nature. Man's soul achieved liberty by living in harmony with +nature, with God; thus virtue came to be its own reward. Stoicism ascended to a +sublime morality, ideals never since transcended by any purely human system of +philosophy. While the Stoics professed to be the "offspring of God," they +failed to know him and therefore failed to find him. Stoicism remained a +philosophy; it never became a religion. Its followers sought to attune their +minds to the harmony of the Universal Mind, but they failed to envisage +themselves as the children of a loving Father. Paul leaned heavily toward +Stoicism when he wrote, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to +be content." + +3. The Cynic. Although the Cynics traced their philosophy to Diogenes of +Athens, they derived much of their doctrine from the remnants of the teachings +of Machiventa Melchizedek. Cynicism had formerly been more of a religion than a +philosophy. At least the Cynics made their religio-philosophy democratic. In +the fields and in the market places they continually preached their doctrine +that "man could save himself if he would." They preached simplicity and virtue +and urged men to meet death fearlessly. These wandering Cynic preachers did +much to prepare the spiritually hungry populace for the later Christian +missionaries. Their plan of popular preaching was much after the pattern, and +in accordance with the style, of Paul's Epistles. + +4. The Skeptic. Skepticism asserted that knowledge was fallacious, and that +conviction and assurance were impossible. It was a purely negative attitude and +never became widespread. + +These philosophies were semireligious; they were often invigorating, ethical, +and ennobling but were usually above the common people. With the possible +exception of Cynicism, they were philosophies for the strong and the wise, not +religions of salvation for even the poor and the weak. + +5. THE GENTILE RELIGIONS + +Throughout preceding ages religion had chiefly been an affair of the tribe or +nation; it had not often been a matter of concern to the individual. Gods were +tribal or national, not personal. Such religious systems afforded little +satisfaction for the individual spiritual longings of the average person. + +In the times of Jesus the religions of the Occident included: + +1. The pagan cults. These were a combination of Hellenic and Latin mythology, +patriotism, and tradition. + +2. Emperor worship. This deification of man as the symbol of the state was very +seriously resented by the Jews and the early Christians and led directly to the +bitter persecutions of both churches by the Roman government. + + top of page - 1337 + +3. Astrology. This pseudo science of Babylon developed into a religion +throughout the Greco-Roman Empire. Even in the twentieth century man has not +been fully delivered from this superstitious belief. + +4. The mystery religions. Upon such a spiritually hungry world a flood of +mystery cults had broken, new and strange religions from the Levant, which had +enamored the common people and had promised them individual salvation. These +religions rapidly became the accepted belief of the lower classes of the +Greco-Roman world. And they did much to prepare the way for the rapid spread of +the vastly superior Christian teachings, which presented a majestic concept of +Deity, associated with an intriguing theology for the intelligent and a +profound proffer of salvation for all, including the ignorant but spiritually +hungry average man of those days. + +The mystery religions spelled the end of national beliefs and resulted in the +birth of the numerous personal cults. The mysteries were many but were all +characterized by: + +1. Some mythical legend, a mystery--whence their name. As a rule this mystery +pertained to the story of some god's life and death and return to life, as +illustrated by the teachings of Mithraism, which, for a time, were contemporary +with, and a competitor of, Paul's rising cult of Christianity. + +2. The mysteries were nonnational and interracial. They were personal and +fraternal, giving rise to religious brotherhoods and numerous sectarian +societies. + +3. They were, in their services, characterized by elaborate ceremonies of +initiation and impressive sacraments of worship. Their secret rites and rituals +were sometimes gruesome and revolting. + +4. But no matter what the nature of their ceremonies or the degree of their +excesses, these mysteries invariably promised their devotees salvation, +"deliverance from evil, survival after death, and enduring life in blissful +realms beyond this world of sorrow and slavery." + +But do not make the mistake of confusing the teachings of Jesus with the +mysteries. The popularity of the mysteries reveals man's quest for survival, +thus portraying a real hunger and thirst for personal religion and individual +righteousness. Although the mysteries failed adequately to satisfy this +longing, they did prepare the way for the subsequent appearance of Jesus, who +truly brought to this world the bread of life and the water thereof. + +Paul, in an effort to utilize the widespread adherence to the better types of +the mystery religions, made certain adaptations of the teachings of Jesus so as +to render them more acceptable to a larger number of prospective converts. But +even Paul's compromise of Jesus' teachings (Christianity) was superior to the +best in the mysteries in that: + +1. Paul taught a moral redemption, an ethical salvation. Christianity pointed +to a new life and proclaimed a new ideal. Paul forsook magic rites and +ceremonial enchantments. + +2. Christianity presented a religion which grappled with final solutions of the +human problem, for it not only offered salvation from sorrow and even from +death, but it also promised deliverance from sin followed by the endowment of a +righteous character of eternal survival qualities. + + top of page - 1338 + +3. The mysteries were built upon myths. Christianity, as Paul preached it, was +founded upon a historic fact: the bestowal of Michael, the Son of God, upon +mankind. + +Morality among the gentiles was not necessarily related to either philosophy or +religion. Outside of Palestine it not always occurred to people that a priest +of religion was supposed to lead a moral life. Jewish religion and subsequently +the teachings of Jesus and later the evolving Christianity of Paul were the +first European religions to lay one hand upon morals and the other upon ethics, +insisting that religionists pay some attention to both. + +Into such a generation of men, dominated by such incomplete systems of +philosophy and perplexed by such complex cults of religion, Jesus was born in +Palestine. And to this same generation he subsequently gave his gospel of +personal religion--sonship with God. + +6. THE HEBREW RELIGION + +By the close of the first century before Christ the religious thought of +Jerusalem had been tremendously influenced and somewhat modified by Greek +cultural teachings and even by Greek philosophy. In the long contest between +the views of the Eastern and Western schools of Hebrew thought, Jerusalem and +the rest of the Occident and the Levant in general adopted the Western Jewish +or modified Hellenistic viewpoint. + +In the days of Jesus three languages prevailed in Palestine: The common people +spoke some dialect of Aramaic; the priests and rabbis spoke Hebrew; the +educated classes and the better strata of Jews in general spoke Greek. The +early translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek at Alexandria was +responsible in no small measure for the subsequent predominance of the Greek +wing of Jewish culture and theology. And the writings of the Christian teachers +were soon to appear in the same language. The renaissance of Judaism dates from +the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. This was a vital influence +which later determined the drift of Paul's Christian cult toward the West +instead of toward the East. + +Though the Hellenized Jewish beliefs were very little influenced by the +teachings of the Epicureans, they were very materially affected by the +philosophy of Plato and the self-abnegation doctrines of the Stoics. The great +inroad of Stoicism is exemplified by the Fourth Book of the Maccabees; the +penetration of both Platonic philosophy and Stoic doctrines is exhibited in the +Wisdom of Solomon. The Hellenized Jews brought to the Hebrew scriptures such an +allegorical interpretation that they found no difficulty in conforming Hebrew +theology with their revered Aristotelian philosophy. But this all led to +disastrous confusion until these problems were taken in hand by Philo of +Alexandria, who proceeded to harmonize and systemize Greek philosophy and +Hebrew theology into a compact and fairly consistent system of religious belief +and practice. And it was this later teaching of combined Greek philosophy and +Hebrew theology that prevailed in Palestine when Jesus lived and taught, and +which Paul utilized as the foundation on which to build his more advanced and +enlightening cult of Christianity. + +Philo was a great teacher; not since Moses had there lived a man who exerted +such a profound influence on the ethical and religious thought of the +Occidental world. In the matter of the combination of the better elements in +contemporane- + + top of page - 1339 + +ous systems of ethical and religious teachings, there have been seven +outstanding human teachers: Sethard, Moses, Zoroaster, Lao-tse, Buddha, Philo, +and Paul. + +Many, but not all, of Philo's inconsistencies resulting from an effort to +combine Greek mystical philosophy and Roman Stoic doctrines with the legalistic +theology of the Hebrews, Paul recognized and wisely eliminated from his +pre-Christian basic theology. Philo led the way for Paul more fully to restore +the concept of the Paradise Trinity, which had long been dormant in Jewish +theology. In only one matter did Paul fail to keep pace with Philo or to +transcend the teachings of this wealthy and educated Jew of Alexandria, and +that was the doctrine of the atonement; Philo taught deliverance from the +doctrine of forgiveness only by the shedding of blood. He also possibly +glimpsed the reality and presence of the Thought Adjusters more clearly than +did Paul. But Paul's theory of original sin, the doctrines of hereditary guilt +and innate evil and redemption therefrom, was partially Mithraic in origin, +having little in common with Hebrew theology, Philo's philosophy, or Jesus' +teachings. Some phases of Paul's teachings regarding original sin and the +atonement were original with himself. + +The Gospel of John, the last of the narratives of Jesus' earth life, was +addressed to the Western peoples and presents its story much in the light of +the viewpoint of the later Alexandrian Christians, who were also disciples of +the teachings of Philo. + +At about the time of Christ a strange reversion of feeling toward the Jews +occurred in Alexandria, and from this former Jewish stronghold there went forth +a virulent wave of persecution, extending even to Rome, from which many +thousands were banished. But such a campaign of misrepresentation was +short-lived; very soon the imperial government fully restored the curtailed +liberties of the Jews throughout the empire. + +Throughout the whole wide world, no matter where the Jews found themselves +dispersed by commerce or oppression, all with one accord kept their hearts +centered on the holy temple at Jerusalem. Jewish theology did survive as it was +interpreted and practiced at Jerusalem, notwithstanding that it was several +times saved from oblivion by the timely intervention of certain Babylonian +teachers. + +As many as two and one-half million of these dispersed Jews used to come to +Jerusalem for the celebration of their national religious festivals. And no +matter what the theologic or philosophic differences of the Eastern +(Babylonian) and the Western (Hellenic) Jews, they were all agreed on Jerusalem +as the center of their worship and in ever looking forward to the coming of the +Messiah. + +7. JEWS AND GENTILES + +By the times of Jesus the Jews had arrived at a settled concept of their +origin, history, and destiny. They had built up a rigid wall of separation +between themselves and the gentile world; they looked upon all gentile ways +with utter contempt. They worshiped the letter of the law and indulged a form +of self-righteousness based upon the false pride of descent. They had formed +preconceived notions regarding the promised Messiah, and most of these +expectations envisaged a Messiah who would come as a part of their national and +racial history. To the Hebrews of those days Jewish theology was irrevocably +settled, forever fixed. + +The teachings and practices of Jesus regarding tolerance and kindness ran +counter to the long-standing attitude of the Jews toward other peoples whom + + top of page - 1340 + +they considered heathen. For generations the Jews had nourished an attitude +toward the outside world which made it impossible for them to accept the +Master's teachings about the spiritual brotherhood of man. They were unwilling +to share Yahweh on equal terms with the gentiles and were likewise unwilling to +accept as the Son of God one who taught such new and strange doctrines. + +The scribes, the Pharisees, and the priesthood held the Jews in a terrible +bondage of ritualism and legalism, a bondage far more real than that of the +Roman political rule. The Jews of Jesus' time were not only held in subjugation +to the law but were equally bound by the slavish demands of the traditions, +which involved and invaded every domain of personal and social life. These +minute regulations of conduct pursued and dominated every loyal Jew, and it is +not strange that they promptly rejected one of their number who presumed to +ignore their sacred traditions, and who dared to flout their long-honored +regulations of social conduct. They could hardly regard with favor the +teachings of one who did not hestitate to clash with dogmas which they regarded +as having been ordained by Father Abraham himself. Moses had given them their +law and they would not compromise. + +By the time of the first century after Christ the spoken interpretation of the +law by the recognized teachers, the scribes, had become a higher authority than +the written law itself. And all this made it easier for certain religious +leaders of the Jews to array the people against the acceptance of a new gospel. + +These circumstances rendered it impossible for the Jews to fulfill their divine +destiny as messengers of the new gospel of religious freedom and spiritual +liberty. They could not break the fetters of tradition. Jeremiah had told of +the "law to be written in men's hearts," Ezekiel had spoken of a "new spirit to +live in man's soul," and the Psalmist had prayed that God would "create a clean +heart within and renew a right spirit." But when the Jewish religion of good +works and slavery to law fell victim to the stagnation of traditionalistic +inertia, the motion of religious evolution passed westward to the European +peoples. + +And so a different people were called upon to carry an advancing theology to +the world, a system of teaching embodying the philosophy of the Greeks, the law +of the Romans, the morality of the Hebrews, and the gospel of personality +sanctity and spiritual liberty formulated by Paul and based on the teachings of +Jesus. + +Paul's cult of Christianity exhibited its morality as a Jewish birthmark. The +Jews viewed history as the providence of God--Yahweh at work. The Greeks +brought to the new teaching clearer concepts of the eternal life. Paul's +doctrines were influenced in theology and philosophy not only by Jesus' +teachings but also by Plato and Philo. In ethics he was inspired not only by +Christ but also by the Stoics. + +The gospel of Jesus, as it was embodied in Paul's cult of Antioch Christianity, +became blended with the following teachings: + +1. The philosophic reasoning of the Greek proselytes to Judaism, including some +of their concepts of the eternal life. + +2. The appealing teachings of the prevailing mystery cults, especially the +Mithraic doctrines of redemption, atonement, and salvation by the sacrifice +made by some god. + +3. The sturdy morality of the established Jewish religion. + + top of page - 1341 + +The Mediterranean Roman Empire, the Parthian kingdom, and the adjacent peoples +of Jesus' time all held crude and primitive ideas regarding the geography of +the world, astronomy, health, and disease; and naturally they were amazed by +the new and startling pronouncements of the carpenter of Nazareth. The ideas of +spirit possession, good and bad, applied not merely to human beings, but every +rock and tree was viewed by many as being spirit possessed. This was an +enchanted age, and everybody believed in miracles as commonplace occurrences. + +8. PREVIOUS WRITTEN RECORDS + +As far as possible, consistent with our mandate, we have endeavored to utilize +and to some extent co-ordinate the existing records having to do with the life +of Jesus on Urantia. Although we have enjoyed access to the lost record of the +Apostle Andrew and have benefited from the collaboration of a vast host of +celestial beings who were on earth during the times of Michael's bestowal +(notably his now Personalized Adjuster), it has been our purpose also to make +use of the so-called Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. + +These New Testament records had their origin in the following circumstances: + +1. The Gospel by Mark. John Mark wrote the earliest (excepting the notes of +Andrew), briefest, and most simple record of Jesus' life. He presented the +Master as a minister, as man among men. Although Mark was a lad lingering about +many of the scenes which he depicts, his record is in reality the Gospel +according to Simon Peter. He was early associated with Peter; later with Paul. +Mark wrote this record at the instigation of Peter and on the earnest petition +of the church at Rome. Knowing how consistently the Master refused to write out +his teachings when on earth and in the flesh, Mark, like the apostles and other +leading disciples, was hesitant to put them in writing. But Peter felt the +church at Rome required the assistance of such a written narrative, and Mark +consented to undertake its preparation. He made many notes before Peter died in +A.D. 67, and in accordance with the outline approved by Peter and for the +church at Rome, he began his writing soon after Peter's death. The Gospel was +completed near the end of A.D. 68. Mark wrote entirely from his own memory and +Peter's memory. The record has since been considerably changed, numerous +passages having been taken out and some later matter added at the end to +replace the latter one fifth of the original Gospel, which was lost from the +first manuscript before it was ever copied. This record by Mark, in conjunction +with Andrew's and Matthew's notes, was the written basis of all subsequent +Gospel narratives which sought to portray the life and teachings of Jesus. + +2. The Gospel of Matthew. The so-called Gospel according to Matthew is the +record of the Master's life which was written for the edification of Jewish +Christians. The author of this record constantly seeks to show in Jesus' life +that much which he did was that "it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the +prophet." Matthew's Gospel portrays Jesus as a son of David, picturing him as +showing great respect for the law and the prophets. + +The Apostle Matthew did not write this Gospel. It was written by Isador, one of +his disciples, who had as a help in his work not only Matthew's personal + + top of page - 1342 + +remembrance of these events but also a certain record which the latter had made +of the sayings of Jesus directly after the crucifixion. This record by Matthew +was written in Aramaic; Isador wrote in Greek. There was no intent to deceive +in accrediting the production to Matthew. It was the custom in those days for +pupils thus to honor their teachers. + +Matthew's original record was edited and added to in A.D. 40 just before he +left Jerusalem to engage in evangelistic preaching. It was a private record, +the last copy having been destroyed in the burning of a Syrian monastery in +A.D. 416. + +Isador escaped from Jerusalem in A.D. 70 after the investment of the city by +the armies of Titus, taking with him to Pella a copy of Matthew's notes. In the +year 71, while living at Pella, Isador wrote the Gospel according to Matthew. +He also had with him the first four fifths of Mark's narrative. + +3. The Gospel by Luke. Luke, the physician of Antioch in Pisidia, was a gentile +convert of Paul, and he wrote quite a different story of the Master's life. He +began to follow Paul and learn of the life and teachings of Jesus in A.D. 47. +Luke preserves much of the "grace of the Lord Jesus Christ" in his record as he +gathered up these facts from Paul and others. Luke presents the Master as "the +friend of publicans and sinners." He did not formulate his many notes into the +Gospel until after Paul's death. Luke wrote in the year 82 in Achaia. He +planned three books dealing with the history of Christ and Christianity but +died in A.D. 90 just before he finished the second of these works, the "Acts of +the Apostles." + +As material for the compilation of his Gospel, Luke first depended upon the +story of Jesus' life as Paul had related it to him. Luke's Gospel is, +therefore, in some ways the Gospel according to Paul. But Luke had other +sources of information. He not only interviewed scores of eyewitnesses to the +numerous episodes of Jesus' life which he records, but he also had with him a +copy of Mark's Gospel, that is, the first four fifths, Isador's narrative, and +a brief record made in the year A.D. 78 at Antioch by a believer named Cedes. +Luke also had a mutilated and much-edited copy of some notes purported to have +been made by the Apostle Andrew. + +4. The Gospel of John. The Gospel according to John relates much of Jesus' work +in Judea and around Jerusalem which is not contained in the other records. This +is the so-called Gospel according to John the son of Zebedee, and though John +did not write it, he did inspire it. Since its first writing it has several +times been edited to make it appear to have been written by John himself. When +this record was made, John had the other Gospels, and he saw that much had been +omitted; accordingly, in the year A.D. 101 he encouraged his associate, Nathan, +a Greek Jew from Caesarea, to begin the writing. John supplied his material +from memory and by reference to the three records already in existence. He had +no written records of his own. The Epistle known as "First John" was written by +John himself as a covering letter for the work which Nathan executed under his +direction. + +All these writers presented honest pictures of Jesus as they saw, remembered, +or had learned of him, and as their concepts of these distant events were +affected by their subsequent espousal of Paul's theology of Christianity. And +these records, imperfect as they are, have been sufficient to change the course +of the history of Urantia for almost two thousand years. + + top of page - 1343 + +[Acknowledgment: In carrying out my commission to restate the teachings and +retell the doings of Jesus of Nazareth, I have drawn freely upon all sources of +record and planetary information. My ruling motive has been to prepare a record +which will not only be enlightening to the generation of men now living, but +which may also be helpful to all future generations. From the vast store of +information made available to me, I have chosen that which is best suited to +the accomplishment of this purpose. As far as possible I have derived my +information from purely human sources. Only when such sources failed, have I +resorted to those records which are superhuman. When ideas and concepts of +Jesus' life and teachings have been acceptably expressed by a human mind, I +invariably gave preference to such apparently human thought patterns. Although +I have sought to adjust the verbal expression the better to conform to our +concept of the real meaning and the true import of the Master's life and +teachings, as far as possible, I have adhered to the actual human concept and +thought pattern in all my narratives. I well know that those concepts which +have had origin in the human mind will prove more acceptable and helpful to all +other human minds. When unable to find the necessary concepts in the human +records or in human expressions, I have next resorted to the memory resources +of my own order of earth creatures, the midwayers. And when that secondary +source of information proved inadequate, I have unhesitatingly resorted to the +superplanetary sources of information. + +The memoranda which I have collected, and from which I have prepared this +narrative of the life and teachings of Jesus--aside from the memory of the +record of the Apostle Andrew--embrace thought gems and superior concepts of +Jesus' teachings assembled from more than two thousand human beings who have +lived on earth from the days of Jesus down to the time of the inditing of these +revelations, more correctly restatements. The revelatory permission has been +utilized only when the human record and human concepts failed to supply an +adequate thought pattern. My revelatory commission forbade me to resort to +extrahuman sources of either information or expression until such a time as I +could testify that I had failed in my efforts to find the required conceptual +expression in purely human sources. + +While I, with the collaboration of my eleven associate fellow midwayers and +under the supervision of the Melchizedek of record, have portrayed this +narrative in accordance with my concept of its effective arrangement and in +response to my choice of immediate expression, nevertheless, the majority of +the ideas and even some of the effective expressions which I have thus utilized +had their origin in the minds of the men of many races who have lived on earth +during the intervening generations, right on down to those who are still alive +at the time of this undertaking. In many ways I have served more as a collector +and editor than as an original narrator. I have unhesitatingly appropriated +those ideas and concepts, preferably human, which would enable me to create the +most effective portraiture of Jesus' life, and which would qualify me to +restate his matchless teachings in the most strikingly helpful and universally +uplifting phraseology. In behalf of the Brotherhood of the United Midwayers of +Urantia, I most gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to all sources of +record and concept which have been hereinafter utilized in the further +elaboration of our restatement of Jesus' life on earth.] + + top of page - 1344 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Bestowal ³ Birth And ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Of... ³ Infan... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p122.txt b/religious documents/p122.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d9ce2b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p122.txt @@ -0,0 +1,705 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 122 Birth And Infancy Of Jesus + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 122 Birth And Infancy Of Jesus + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +IT WILL hardly be possible fully to explain the many reasons which led to the +selection of Palestine as the land for Michael's bestowal, and especially as to +just why the family of Joseph and Mary should have been chosen as the immediate +setting for the appearance of this Son of God on Urantia. + +After a study of the special report on the status of segregated worlds prepared +by the Melchizedeks, in counsel with Gabriel, Michael finally chose Urantia as +the planet whereon to enact his final bestowal. Subsequent to this decision +Gabriel made a personal visit to Urantia, and, as a result of his study of +human groups and his survey of the spiritual, intellectual, racial, and +geographic features of the world and its peoples, he decided that the Hebrews +possessed those relative advantages which warranted their selection as the +bestowal race. Upon Michael's approval of this decision, Gabriel appointed and +dispatched to Urantia the Family Commission of Twelve--selected from among the +higher orders of universe personalities--which was intrusted with the task of +making an investigation of Jewish family life. When this commission ended its +labors, Gabriel was present on Urantia and received the report nominating three +prospective unions as being, in the opinion of the commission, equally +favorable as bestowal families for Michael's projected incarnation. + +From the three couples nominated, Gabriel made the personal choice of Joseph +and Mary, subsequently making his personal appearance to Mary, at which time he +imparted to her the glad tidings that she had been selected to become the earth +mother of the bestowal child. + +1. JOSEPH AND MARY + +Joseph, the human father of Jesus (Joshua ben Joseph), was a Hebrew of the +Hebrews, albeit he carried many non-Jewish racial strains which had been added +to his ancestral tree from time to time by the female lines of his progenitors. +The ancestry of the father of Jesus went back to the days of Abraham and +through this venerable patriarch to the earlier lines of inheritance leading to +the Sumerians and Nodites and, through the southern tribes of the ancient blue +man, to Andon and Fonta. David and Solomon were not in the direct line of +Joseph's ancestry, neither did Joseph's lineage go directly back to Adam. +Joseph's immediate ancestors were mechanics--builders, carpenters, masons, and +smiths. Joseph himself was a carpenter and later a contractor. His family +belonged to a long and illustrious line of the nobility of the common people, +accentuated ever and anon by the appearance of unusual individuals who had +distinguished themselves in connection with the evolution of religion on +Urantia. + + top of page - 1345 + +Mary, the earth mother of Jesus, was a descendant of a long line of unique +ancestors embracing many of the most remarkable women in the racial history of +Urantia. Although Mary was an average woman of her day and generation, +possessing a fairly normal temperament, she reckoned among her ancestors such +well-known women as Annon, Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba, Ansie, Cloa, Eve, Enta, and +Ratta. No Jewish woman of that day had a more illustrious lineage of common +progenitors or one extending back to more auspicious beginnings. Mary's +ancestry, like Joseph's, was characterized by the predominance of strong but +average individuals, relieved now and then by numerous outstanding +personalities in the march of civilization and the progressive evolution of +religion. Racially considered, it is hardly proper to regard Mary as a Jewess. +In culture and belief she was a Jew, but in hereditary endowment she was more a +composite of Syrian, Hittite, Phoenician, Greek, and Egyptian stocks, her +racial inheritance being more general than that of Joseph. + +Of all couples living in Palestine at about the time of Michael's projected +bestowal, Joseph and Mary possessed the most ideal combination of widespread +racial connections and superior average of personality endowments. It was the +plan of Michael to appear on earth as an average man, that the common people +might understand him and receive him; wherefore Gabriel selected just such +persons as Joseph and Mary to become the bestowal parents. + +2. GABRIEL APPEARS TO ELIZABETH + +Jesus' lifework on Urantia was really begun by John the Baptist. Zacharias, +John's father, belonged to the Jewish priesthood, while his mother, Elizabeth, +was a member of the more prosperous branch of the same large family group to +which Mary the mother of Jesus also belonged. Zacharias and Elizabeth, though +they had been married many years, were childless. + +It was late in the month of June, 8 B.C., about three months after the marriage +of Joseph and Mary, that Gabriel appeared to Elizabeth at noontide one day, +just as he later made his presence known to Mary. Said Gabriel: + +"While your husband, Zacharias, stands before the altar in Jerusalem, and while +the assembled people pray for the coming of a deliverer, I, Gabriel, have come +to announce that you will shortly bear a son who shall be the forerunner of +this divine teacher, and you shall call your son John. He will grow up +dedicated to the Lord your God, and when he has come to full years, he will +gladden your heart because he will turn many souls to God, and he will also +proclaim the coming of the soul-healer of your people and the spirit-liberator +of all mankind. Your kinswoman Mary shall be the mother of this child of +promise, and I will also appear to her." + +This vision greatly frightened Elizabeth. After Gabriel's departure she turned +this experience over in her mind, long pondering the sayings of the majestic +visitor, but did not speak of the revelation to anyone save her husband until +her subsequent visit with Mary in early February of the following year. + +For five months, however, Elizabeth withheld her secret even from her husband. +Upon her disclosure of the story of Gabriel's visit, Zacharias was very +skeptical and for weeks doubted the entire experience, only consenting +halfheartedly to believe in Gabriel's visit to his wife when he could no longer +question that she was expectant with child. Zacharias was very much perplexed +re- + + top of page - 1346 + +garding the prospective motherhood of Elizabeth, but he did not doubt the +integrity of his wife, notwithstanding his own advanced age. It was not until +about six weeks before John's birth that Zacharias, as the result of an +impressive dream, became fully convinced that Elizabeth was to become the +mother of a son of destiny, one who was to prepare the way for the coming of +the Messiah. + +Gabriel appeared to Mary about the middle of November, 8 B.C., while she was at +work in her Nazareth home. Later on, after Mary knew without doubt that she was +to become a mother, she persuaded Joseph to let her journey to the City of +Judah, four miles west of Jerusalem, in the hills, to visit Elizabeth. Gabriel +had informed each of these mothers-to-be of his appearance to the other. +Naturally they were anxious to get together, compare experiences, and talk over +the probable futures of their sons. Mary remained with her distant cousin for +three weeks. Elizabeth did much to strengthen Mary's faith in the vision of +Gabriel, so that she returned home more fully dedicated to the call to mother +the child of destiny whom she was so soon to present to the world as a helpless +babe, an average and normal infant of the realm. + +John was born in the City of Judah, March 25, 7 B.C. Zacharias and Elizabeth +rejoiced greatly in the realization that a son had come to them as Gabriel had +promised, and when on the eighth day they presented the child for circumcision, +they formally christened him John, as they had been directed aforetime. Already +had a nephew of Zacharias departed for Nazareth, carrying the message of +Elizabeth to Mary proclaiming that a son had been born to her and that his name +was to be John. + +From his earliest infancy John was judiciously impressed by his parents with +the idea that he was to grow up to become a spiritual leader and religious +teacher. And the soil of John's heart was ever responsive to the sowing of such +suggestive seeds. Even as a child he was found frequently at the temple during +the seasons of his father's service, and he was tremendously impressed with the +significance of all that he saw. + +3. GABRIEL'S ANNOUNCEMENT TO MARY + +One evening about sundown, before Joseph had returned home, Gabriel appeared to +Mary by the side of a low stone table and, after she had recovered her +composure, said: "I come at the bidding of one who is my Master and whom you +shall love and nurture. To you, Mary, I bring glad tidings when I announce that +the conception within you is ordained by heaven, and that in due time you will +become the mother of a son; you shall call him Joshua, and he shall inaugurate +the kingdom of heaven on earth and among men. Speak not of this matter save to +Joseph and to Elizabeth, your kinswoman, to whom I have also appeared, and who +shall presently also bear a son, whose name shall be John, and who will prepare +the way for the message of deliverance which your son shall proclaim to men +with great power and deep conviction. And doubt not my word, Mary, for this +home has been chosen as the mortal habitat of the child of destiny. My +benediction rests upon you, the power of the Most Highs will strengthen you, +and the Lord of all the earth shall overshadow you." + +Mary pondered this visitation secretly in her heart for many weeks until of a +certainty she knew she was with child, before she dared to disclose these un- + + top of page - 1347 + +usual events to her husband. When Joseph heard all about this, although he had +great confidence in Mary, he was much troubled and could not sleep for many +nights. At first Joseph had doubts about the Gabriel visitation. Then when he +became well-nigh persuaded that Mary had really heard the voice and beheld the +form of the divine messenger, he was torn in mind as he pondered how such +things could be. How could the offspring of human beings be a child of divine +destiny? Never could Joseph reconcile these conflicting ideas until, after +several weeks of thought, both he and Mary reached the conclusion that they had +been chosen to become the parents of the Messiah, though it had hardly been the +Jewish concept that the expected deliverer was to be of divine nature. Upon +arriving at this momentous conclusion, Mary hastened to depart for a visit with +Elizabeth. + +Upon her return, Mary went to visit her parents, Joachim and Hannah. Her two +brothers and two sisters, as well as her parents, were always very skeptical +about the divine mission of Jesus, though, of course, at this time they knew +nothing of the Gabriel visitation. But Mary did confide to her sister Salome +that she thought her son was destined to become a great teacher. + +Gabriel's announcement to Mary was made the day following the conception of +Jesus and was the only event of supernatural occurrence connected with her +entire experience of carrying and bearing the child of promise. + +4. JOSEPH'S DREAM + +Joseph did not become reconciled to the idea that Mary was to become the mother +of an extraordinary child until after he had experienced a very impressive +dream. In this dream a brilliant celestial messenger appeared to him and, among +other things, said: "Joseph, I appear by command of Him who now reigns on high, +and I am directed to instruct you concerning the son whom Mary shall bear, and +who shall become a great light in the world. In him will be life, and his life +shall become the light of mankind. He shall first come to his own people, but +they will hardly receive him; but to as many as shall receive him to them will +he reveal that they are the children of God." After this experience Joseph +never again wholly doubted Mary's story of Gabriel's visit and of the promise +that the unborn child was to become a divine messenger to the world. + +In all these visitations nothing was said about the house of David. Nothing was +ever intimated about Jesus' becoming a "deliverer of the Jews," not even that +he was to be the long-expected Messiah. Jesus was not such a Messiah as the +Jews had anticipated, but he was the world's deliverer. His mission was to all +races and peoples, not to any one group. + +Joseph was not of the line of King David. Mary had more of the Davidic ancestry +than Joseph. True, Joseph did go to the City of David, Bethlehem, to be +registered for the Roman census, but that was because, six generations +previously, Joseph's paternal ancestor of that generation, being an orphan, was +adopted by one Zadoc, who was a direct descendant of David; hence was Joseph +also accounted as of the "house of David." + +Most of the so-called Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament were made to +apply to Jesus long after his life had been lived on earth. For centuries the +Hebrew prophets had proclaimed the coming of a deliverer, and these promises +had been construed by successive generations as referring to a new Jewish ruler +who would sit upon the throne of David and, by the reputed miraculous methods + + top of page - 1348 + +of Moses, proceed to establish the Jews in Palestine as a powerful nation, free +from all foreign domination. Again, many figurative passages found throughout +the Hebrew scriptures were subsequently misapplied to the life mission of +Jesus. Many Old Testament sayings were so distorted as to appear to fit some +episode of the Master's earth life. Jesus himself onetime publicly denied any +connection with the royal house of David. Even the passage, "a maiden shall +bear a son," was made to read, "a virgin shall bear a son." This was also true +of the many genealogies of both Joseph and Mary which were constructed +subsequent to Michael's career on earth. Many of these lineages contain much of +the Master's ancestry, but on the whole they are not genuine and may not be +depended upon as factual. The early followers of Jesus all too often succumbed +to the temptation to make all the olden prophetic utterances appear to find +fulfillment in the life of their Lord and Master. + +5. JESUS' EARTH PARENTS + +Joseph was a mild-mannered man, extremely conscientious, and in every way +faithful to the religious conventions and practices of his people. He talked +little but thought much. The sorry plight of the Jewish people caused Joseph +much sadness. As a youth, among his eight brothers and sisters, he had been +more cheerful, but in the earlier years of married life (during Jesus' +childhood) he was subject to periods of mild spiritual discouragement. These +temperamental manifestations were greatly improved just before his untimely +death and after the economic condition of his family had been enhanced by his +advancement from the rank of carpenter to the role of a prosperous contractor. + +Mary's temperament was quite opposite to that of her husband. She was usually +cheerful, was very rarely downcast, and possessed an ever-sunny disposition. +Mary indulged in free and frequent expression of her emotional feelings and was +never observed to be sorrowful until after the sudden death of Joseph. And she +had hardly recovered from this shock when she had thrust upon her the anxieties +and questionings aroused by the extraordinary career of her eldest son, which +was so rapidly unfolding before her astonished gaze. But throughout all this +unusual experience Mary was composed, courageous, and fairly wise in her +relationship with her strange and little-understood first-born son and his +surviving brothers and sisters. + +Jesus derived much of his unusual gentleness and marvelous sympathetic +understanding of human nature from his father; he inherited his gift as a great +teacher and his tremendous capacity for righteous indignation from his mother. +In emotional reactions to his adult-life environment, Jesus was at one time +like his father, meditative and worshipful, sometimes characterized by apparent +sadness; but more often he drove forward in the manner of his mother's +optimistic and determined disposition. All in all, Mary's temperament tended to +dominate the career of the divine Son as he grew up and swung into the +momentous strides of his adult life. In some particulars Jesus was a blending +of his parents' traits; in other respects he exhibited the traits of one in +contrast with those of the other. + +From Joseph Jesus secured his strict training in the usages of the Jewish +ceremonials and his unusual acquaintance with the Hebrew scriptures; from Mary +he derived a broader viewpoint of religious life and a more liberal concept of +personal spiritual freedom. + + top of page - 1349 + +The families of both Joseph and Mary were well educated for their time. Joseph +and Mary were educated far above the average for their day and station in life. +He was a thinker; she was a planner, expert in adaptation and practical in +immediate execution. Joseph was a black-eyed brunet; Mary, a brown-eyed +well-nigh blond type. + +Had Joseph lived, he undoubtedly would have become a firm believer in the +divine mission of his eldest son. Mary alternated between believing and +doubting, being greatly influenced by the position taken by her other children +and by her friends and relatives, but always was she steadied in her final +attitude by the memory of Gabriel's appearance to her immediately after the +child was conceived. + +Mary was an expert weaver and more than averagely skilled in most of the +household arts of that day; she was a good housekeeper and a superior +homemaker. Both Joseph and Mary were good teachers, and they saw to it that +their children were well versed in the learning of that day. + +When Joseph was a young man, he was employed by Mary's father in the work of +building an addition to his house, and it was when Mary brought Joseph a cup of +water, during a noontime meal, that the courtship of the pair who were destined +to become the parents of Jesus really began. + +Joseph and Mary were married, in accordance with Jewish custom, at Mary's home +in the environs of Nazareth when Joseph was twenty-one years old. This marriage +concluded a normal courtship of almost two years' duration. Shortly thereafter +they moved into their new home in Nazareth, which had been built by Joseph with +the assistance of two of his brothers. The house was located near the foot of +the near-by elevated land which so charmingly overlooked the surrounding +countryside. In this home, especially prepared, these young and expectant +parents had thought to welcome the child of promise, little realizing that this +momentous event of a universe was to transpire while they would be absent from +home in Bethlehem of Judea. + +The larger part of Joseph's family became believers in the teachings of Jesus, +but very few of Mary's people ever believed in him until after he departed from +this world. Joseph leaned more toward the spiritual concept of the expected +Messiah, but Mary and her family, especially her father, held to the idea of +the Messiah as a temporal deliverer and political ruler. Mary's ancestors had +been prominently identified with the Maccabean activities of the then but +recent times. + +Joseph held vigorously to the Eastern, or Babylonian, views of the Jewish +religion; Mary leaned strongly toward the more liberal and broader Western, or +Hellenistic, interpretation of the law and the prophets. + +6. THE HOME AT NAZARETH + +The home of Jesus was not far from the high hill in the northerly part of +Nazareth, some distance from the village spring, which was in the eastern +section of the town. Jesus' family dwelt in the outskirts of the city, and this +made it all the easier for him subsequently to enjoy frequent strolls in the +country and to make trips up to the top of this near-by highland, the highest +of all the hills of southern Galilee save the Mount Tabor range to the east and +the hill of Nain, + + top of page - 1350 + +which was about the same height. Their home was located a little to the south +and east of the southern promontory of this hill and about midway between the +base of this elevation and the road leading out of Nazareth toward Cana. Aside +from climbing the hill, Jesus' favorite stroll was to follow a narrow trail +winding about the base of the hill in a northeasterly direction to a point +where it joined the road to Sepphoris. + +The home of Joseph and Mary was a one-room stone structure with a flat roof and +an adjoining building for housing the animals. The furniture consisted of a low +stone table, earthenware and stone dishes and pots, a loom, a lampstand, +several small stools, and mats for sleeping on the stone floor. In the back +yard, near the animal annex, was the shelter which covered the oven and the +mill for grinding grain. It required two persons to operate this type of mill, +one to grind and another to feed the grain. As a small boy Jesus often fed +grain to this mill while his mother turned the grinder. + +In later years, as the family grew in size, they would all squat about the +enlarged stone table to enjoy their meals, helping themselves from a common +dish, or pot, of food. During the winter, at the evening meal the table would +be lighted by a small, flat clay lamp, which was filled with olive oil. After +the birth of Martha, Joseph built an addition to this house, a large room, +which was used as a carpenter shop during the day and as a sleeping room at +night. + +7. THE TRIP TO BETHLEHEM + +In the month of March, 8 B.C. (the month Joseph and Mary were married), Caesar +Augustus decreed that all inhabitants of the Roman Empire should be numbered, +that a census should be made which could be used for effecting better taxation. +The Jews had always been greatly prejudiced against any attempt to "number the +people," and this, in connection with the serious domestic difficulties of +Herod, King of Judea, had conspired to cause the postponement of the taking of +this census in the Jewish kingdom for one year. Throughout all the Roman Empire +this census was registered in the year 8 B.C., except in the Palestinian +kingdom of Herod, where it was taken in 7 B.C., one year later. + +It was not necessary that Mary should go to Bethlehem for enrollment--Joseph +was authorized to register for his family--but Mary, being an adventurous and +aggressive person, insisted on accompanying him. She feared being left alone +lest the child be born while Joseph was away, and again, Bethlehem being not +far from the City of Judah, Mary foresaw a possible pleasurable visit with her +kinswoman Elizabeth. + +Joseph virtually forbade Mary to accompany him, but it was of no avail; when +the food was packed for the trip of three or four days, she prepared double +rations and made ready for the journey. But before they actually set forth, +Joseph was reconciled to Mary's going along, and they cheerfully departed from +Nazareth at the break of day. + +Joseph and Mary were poor, and since they had only one beast of burden, Mary, +being large with child, rode on the animal with the provisions while Joseph +walked, leading the beast. The building and furnishing of a home had been a +great drain on Joseph since he had also to contribute to the support of his +parents, as his father had been recently disabled. And so this Jewish couple +went forth from their humble home early on the morning of August 18, 7 B.C., on +their journey to Bethlehem. + + top of page - 1351 + +Their first day of travel carried them around the foothills of Mount Gilboa, +where they camped for the night by the river Jordan and engaged in many +speculations as to what sort of a son would be born to them, Joseph adhering to +the concept of a spiritual teacher and Mary holding to the idea of a Jewish + + top of page - 1352 + +Messiah, a deliverer of the Hebrew nation. + +Bright and early the morning of August 19, Joseph and Mary were again on their +way. They partook of their noontide meal at the foot of Mount Sartaba, +overlooking the Jordan valley, and journeyed on, making Jericho for the night, +where they stopped at an inn on the highway in the outskirts of the city. +Following the evening meal and after much discussion concerning the +oppressiveness of Roman rule, Herod, the census enrollment, and the comparative +influence of Jerusalem and Alexandria as centers of Jewish learning and +culture, the Nazareth travelers retired for the night's rest. Early in the +morning of August 20 they resumed their journey, reaching Jerusalem before +noon, visiting the temple, and going on to their destination, arriving at +Bethlehem in midafternoon. + +The inn was overcrowded, and Joseph accordingly sought lodgings with distant +relatives, but every room in Bethlehem was filled to overflowing. On returning +to the courtyard of the inn, he was informed that the caravan stables, hewn out +of the side of the rock and situated just below the inn, had been cleared of +animals and cleaned up for the reception of lodgers. Leaving the donkey in the +courtyard, Joseph shouldered their bags of clothing and provisions and with +Mary descended the stone steps to their lodgings below. They found themselves +located in what had been a grain storage room to the front of the stalls and +mangers. Tent curtains had been hung, and they counted themselves fortunate to +have such comfortable quarters. + +Joseph had thought to go out at once and enroll, but Mary was weary; she was +considerably distressed and besought him to remain by her side, which he did. + +8. THE BIRTH OF JESUS + +All that night Mary was restless so that neither of them slept much. By the +break of day the pangs of childbirth were well in evidence, and at noon, August +21, 7 B.C., with the help and kind ministrations of women fellow travelers, +Mary was delivered of a male child. Jesus of Nazareth was born into the world, +was wrapped in the clothes which Mary had brought along for such a possible +contingency, and laid in a near-by manger. + +In just the same manner as all babies before that day and since have come into +the world, the promised child was born; and on the eighth day, according to the +Jewish practice, he was circumcised and formally named Joshua (Jesus). + +The next day after the birth of Jesus, Joseph made his enrollment. Meeting a +man they had talked with two nights previously at Jericho, Joseph was taken by +him to a well-to-do friend who had a room at the inn, and who said he would +gladly exchange quarters with the Nazareth couple. That afternoon they moved up +to the inn, where they lived for almost three weeks until they found lodgings +in the home of a distant relative of Joseph. + +The second day after the birth of Jesus, Mary sent word to Elizabeth that her +child had come and received word in return inviting Joseph up to Jerusalem to +talk over all their affairs with Zacharias. The following week Joseph went to +Jerusalem to confer with Zacharias. Both Zacharias and Elizabeth had become +possessed with the sincere conviction that Jesus was indeed to become the +Jewish deliverer, the Messiah, and that their son John was to be his chief of +aides, his right-hand man of destiny. And since Mary held these same ideas, it +was not difficult to prevail upon Joseph to remain in Bethlehem, the City of +David, so that Jesus might grow up to become the successor of David on the +throne of all Israel. Accordingly, they remained in Bethlehem more than a year, +Joseph meantime working some at his carpenter's trade. + +At the noontide birth of Jesus the seraphim of Urantia, assembled under their +directors, did sing anthems of glory over the Bethlehem manger, but these +utterances of praise were not heard by human ears. No shepherds nor any other +mortal creatures came to pay homage to the babe of Bethlehem until the day of +the arrival of certain priests from Ur, who were sent down from Jerusalem by +Zacharias. + +These priests from Mesopotamia had been told sometime before by a strange +religious teacher of their country that he had had a dream in which he was +informed that "the light of life" was about to appear on earth as a babe and +among the Jews. And thither went these three teachers looking for this "light +of life." After many weeks of futile search in Jerusalem, they were about to +return to Ur when Zacharias met them and disclosed his belief that Jesus was +the object of their quest and sent them on to Bethlehem, where they found the +babe and left their gifts with Mary, his earth mother. The babe was almost +three weeks old at the time of their visit. + +These wise men saw no star to guide them to Bethlehem. The beautiful legend of +the star of Bethlehem originated in this way: Jesus was born August 21 at noon, +7 B.C. On May 29, 7 B.C., there occurred an extraordinary conjunction of +Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces. And it is a remarkable +astronomic fact that similar conjunctions occurred on September 29 and December +5 of the same year. Upon the basis of these extraordinary but wholly natural +events the well-meaning zealots of the succeeding generation constructed the +appealing legend of the star of Bethlehem and the adoring Magi led thereby to +the manger, where they beheld and worshiped the newborn babe. Oriental and +near-Oriental minds delight in fairy stories, and they are continually spinning +such beautiful myths about the lives of their religious leaders and political +heroes. In the absence of printing, when most human knowledge was passed by +word of mouth from one generation to another, it was very easy for myths to +become traditions and for traditions eventually to become accepted as facts. + +9. THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE + +Moses had taught the Jews that every first-born son belonged to the Lord, and +that, in lieu of his sacrifice as was the custom among the heathen nations, +such a son might live provided his parents would redeem him by the payment of +five shekels to any authorized priest. There was also a Mosaic ordinance which +directed that a mother, after the passing of a certain period of time, should +present herself (or have someone make the proper sacrifice for her) at the +temple for purification. It was customary to perform both of these ceremonies +at the same time. Accordingly, Joseph and Mary went up to the temple at +Jerusalem in person to present Jesus to the priests and effect his redemption +and also to make the proper sacrifice to insure Mary's ceremonial purification +from the alleged uncleanness of childbirth. + + top of page - 1353 + +There lingered constantly about the courts of the temple two remarkable +characters, Simeon a singer and Anna a poetess. Simeon was a Judean, but Anna +was a Galilean. This couple were frequently in each other's company, and both +were intimates of the priest Zacharias, who had confided the secret of John and +Jesus to them. Both Simeon and Anna longed for the coming of the Messiah, and +their confidence in Zacharias led them to believe that Jesus was the expected +deliverer of the Jewish people. + +Zacharias knew the day Joseph and Mary were expected to appear at the temple +with Jesus, and he had prearranged with Simeon and Anna to indicate, by the +salute of his upraised hand, which one in the procession of first-born children +was Jesus. + +For this occasion Anna had written a poem which Simeon proceeded to sing, much +to the astonishment of Joseph, Mary, and all who were assembled in the temple +courts. And this was their hymn of the redemption of the first-born son: + +Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, + +For he has visited us and wrought redemption for his people; + +He has raised up a horn of salvation for all of us + +In the house of his servant David. + +Even as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets-- + +Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; + +To show mercy to our fathers, and remember his holy covenant-- + +The oath which he swore to Abraham our father, + +To grant us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, + +Should serve him without fear, + +In holiness and righteousness before him all our days. + +Yes, and you, child of promise, shall be called the prophet of the Most +High; + +For you shall go before the face of the Lord to establish his kingdom; + +To give knowledge of salvation to his people + +In the remission of their sins. + +Rejoice in the tender mercy of our God because the dayspring from on high +has now visited us + +To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; + +To guide our feet into ways of peace. + +And now let your servant depart in peace, O Lord, according to your word, + +For my eyes have seen your salvation, + +Which you have prepared before the face of all peoples; + +A light for even the unveiling of the gentiles + +And the glory of your people Israel. + +On the way back to Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary were silent--confused and +overawed. Mary was much disturbed by the farewell salutation of Anna, the aged +poetess, and Joseph was not in harmony with this premature effort to make Jesus +out to be the expected Messiah of the Jewish people. + +10. HEROD ACTS + +But the watchers for Herod were not inactive. When they reported to him the +visit of the priests of Ur to Bethlehem, Herod summoned these Chaldeans to ap- + + top of page - 1354 + +pear before him. He inquired diligently of these wise men about the new "king +of the Jews," but they gave him little satisfaction, explaining that the babe +had been born of a woman who had come down to Bethlehem with her husband for +the census enrollment. Herod, not being satisfied with this answer, sent them +forth with a purse and directed that they should find the child so that he too +might come and worship him, since they had declared that his kingdom was to be +spiritual, not temporal. But when the wise men did not return, Herod grew +suspicious. As he turned these things over in his mind, his informers returned +and made full report of the recent occurrences in the temple, bringing him a +copy of parts of the Simeon song which had been sung at the redemption +ceremonies of Jesus. But they had failed to follow Joseph and Mary, and Herod +was very angry with them when they could not tell him whither the pair had +taken the babe. He then dispatched searchers to locate Joseph and Mary. Knowing +Herod pursued the Nazareth family, Zacharias and Elizabeth remained away from +Bethlehem. The boy baby was secreted with Joseph's relatives. + +Joseph was afraid to seek work, and their small savings were rapidly +disappearing. Even at the time of the purification ceremonies at the temple, +Joseph deemed himself sufficiently poor to warrant his offering for Mary two +young pigeons as Moses had directed for the purification of mothers among the +poor. + +When, after more than a year of searching, Herod's spies had not located Jesus, +and because of the suspicion that the babe was still concealed in Bethlehem, he +prepared an order directing that a systematic search be made of every house in +Bethlehem, and that all boy babies under two years of age should be killed. In +this manner Herod hoped to make sure that this child who was to become "king of +the Jews" would be destroyed. And thus perished in one day sixteen boy babies +in Bethlehem of Judea. But intrigue and murder, even in his own immediate +family, were common occurrences at the court of Herod. + + top of page - 1355 + +The massacre of these infants took place about the middle of October, 6 B.C., +when Jesus was a little over one year of age. But there were believers in the +coming Messiah even among Herod's court attaches, and one of these, learning of +the order to slaughter the Bethlehem boy babies, communicated with Zacharias, +who in turn dispatched a messenger to Joseph; and the night before the massacre +Joseph and Mary departed from Bethlehem with the babe for Alexandria in Egypt. +In order to avoid attracting attention, they journeyed alone to Egypt with +Jesus. They went to Alexandria on funds provided by Zacharias, and there Joseph +worked at his trade while Mary and Jesus lodged with well-to-do relatives of +Joseph's family. They sojourned in Alexandria two full years, not returning to +Bethlehem until after the death of Herod. + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Times Of ³ The Early ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Mi... ³ Child... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p123.txt b/religious documents/p123.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8c5f85 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p123.txt @@ -0,0 +1,701 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 123 The Early Childhood Of Jesus + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 123 The Early Childhood Of Jesus + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +OWING to the uncertainties and anxieties of their sojourn in Bethlehem, Mary +did not wean the babe until they had arrived safely in Alexandria, where the +family was able to settle down to a normal life. They lived with kinsfolk, and +Joseph was well able to support his family as he secured work shortly after +their arrival. He was employed as a carpenter for several months and then +elevated to the position of foreman of a large group of workmen employed on one +of the public buildings then in process of construction. This new experience +gave him the idea of becoming a contractor and builder after their return to +Nazareth. + +All through these early years of Jesus' helpless infancy, Mary maintained one +long and constant vigil lest anything befall her child which might jeopardize +his welfare or in any way interfere with his future mission on earth; no mother +was ever more devoted to her child. In the home where Jesus chanced to be there +were two other children about his age, and among the near neighbors there were +six others whose ages were sufficiently near his own to make them acceptable +play-fellows. At first Mary was disposed to keep Jesus close by her side. She +feared something might happen to him if he were allowed to play in the garden +with the other children, but Joseph, with the assistance of his kinsfolk, was +able to convince her that such a course would deprive Jesus of the helpful +experience of learning how to adjust himself to children of his own age. And +Mary, realizing that such a program of undue sheltering and unusual protection +might tend to make him self-conscious and somewhat self-centered, finally gave +assent to the plan of permitting the child of promise to grow up just like any +other child; and though she was obedient to this decision, she made it her +business always to be on watch while the little folks were at play about the +house or in the garden. Only an affectionate mother can know the burden that +Mary carried in her heart for the safety of her son during these years of his +infancy and early childhood. + +Throughout the two years of their sojourn at Alexandria, Jesus enjoyed good +health and continued to grow normally. Aside from a few friends and relatives +no one was told about Jesus' being a "child of promise." One of Joseph's +relatives revealed this to a few friends in Memphis, descendants of the distant +Ikhnaton, and they, with a small group of Alexandrian believers, assembled at +the palatial home of Joseph's relative-benefactor a short time before the +return to Palestine to wish the Nazareth family well and to pay their respects +to the child. On this occasion the assembled friends presented Jesus with a +complete copy of the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. But this copy +of the Jewish sacred writings was not placed in Joseph's hands until both he +and Mary had finally declined the invitation of their Memphis and Alexandrian +friends to remain in Egypt. These believers insisted that the child of destiny +would be able to exert a far greater world influence as a resident of +Alexandria than of any designated place in Pales- + + top of page - 1356 + +tine. These persuasions delayed their departure for Palestine for some time +after they received the news of Herod's death. + +Joseph and Mary finally took leave of Alexandria on a boat belonging to their +friend Ezraeon, bound for Joppa, arriving at that port late in August of the +year 4 B.C. They went directly to Bethlehem, where they spent the entire month +of September in counsel with their friends and relatives concerning whether +they should remain there or return to Nazareth. + +Mary had never fully given up the idea that Jesus ought to grow up in +Bethlehem, the City of David. Joseph did not really believe that their son was +to become a kingly deliverer of Israel. Besides, he knew that he himself was +not really a descendant of David; that his being reckoned among the offspring +of David was due to the adoption of one of his ancestors into the Davidic line +of descent. Mary, of course, thought the City of David the most appropriate +place in which the new candidate for David's throne could be reared, but Joseph +preferred to take chances with Herod Antipas rather than with his brother +Archelaus. He entertained great fears for the child's safety in Bethlehem or in +any other city in Judea, and surmised that Archelaus would be more likely to +pursue the menacing policies of his father, Herod, than would Antipas in +Galilee. And besides all these reasons, Joseph was outspoken in his preference +for Galilee as a better place in which to rear and educate the child, but it +required three weeks to overcome Mary's objections. + +By the first of October Joseph had convinced Mary and all their friends that it +was best for them to return to Nazareth. Accordingly, early in October, 4 B.C., +they departed from Bethlehem for Nazareth, going by way of Lydda and +Scythopolis. They started out early one Sunday morning, Mary and the child +riding on their newly acquired beast of burden, while Joseph and five +accompanying kinsmen proceeded on foot; Joseph's relatives refused to permit +them to make the trip to Nazareth alone. They feared to go to Galilee by +Jerusalem and the Jordan valley, and the western routes were not altogether +safe for two lone travelers with a child of tender years. + +1. BACK IN NAZARETH + +On the fourth day of the journey the party reached its destination in safety. +They arrived unannounced at the Nazareth home, which had been occupied for more +than three years by one of Joseph's married brothers, who was indeed surprised +to see them; so quietly had they gone about their business that neither the +family of Joseph nor that of Mary knew they had even left Alexandria. The next +day Joseph's brother moved his family, and Mary, for the first time since +Jesus' birth, settled down with her little family to enjoy life in their own +home. In less than a week Joseph secured work as a carpenter, and they were +supremely happy. + +Jesus was about three years and two months old at the time of their return to +Nazareth. He had stood all these travels very well and was in excellent health +and full of childish glee and excitement at having premises of his own to run +about in and to enjoy. But he greatly missed the association of his Alexandrian +playmates. + +On the way to Nazareth Joseph had persuaded Mary that it would be unwise to +spread the word among their Galilean friends and relatives that Jesus was a +child of promise. They agreed to refrain from all mention of these matters to +anyone. And they were both very faithful in keeping this promise. + + top of page - 1357 + +Jesus' entire fourth year was a period of normal physical development and of +unusual mental activity. Meantime he had formed a very close attachment for a +neighbor boy about his own age named Jacob. Jesus and Jacob were always happy +in their play, and they grew up to be great friends and loyal companions. + +The next important event in the life of this Nazareth family was the birth of +the second child, James, in the early morning hours of April 2, 3 B.C. Jesus +was thrilled by the thought of having a baby brother, and he would stand around +by the hour just to observe the baby's early activities. + +It was midsummer of this same year that Joseph built a small workshop close to +the village spring and near the caravan tarrying lot. After this he did very +little carpenter work by the day. He had as associates two of his brothers and +several other mechanics, whom he sent out to work while he remained at the shop +making yokes and plows and doing other woodwork. He also did some work in +leather and with rope and canvas. And Jesus, as he grew up, when not at school, +spent his time about equally between helping his mother with home duties and +watching his father work at the shop, meanwhile listening to the conversation +and gossip of the caravan conductors and passengers from the four corners of +the earth. + +In July of this year, one month before Jesus was four years old, an outbreak of +malignant intestinal trouble spread over all Nazareth from contact with the +caravan travelers. Mary became so alarmed by the danger of Jesus being exposed +to this epidemic of disease that she bundled up both her children and fled to +the country home of her brother, several miles south of Nazareth on the Megiddo +road near Sarid. They did not return to Nazareth for more than two months; +Jesus greatly enjoyed this, his first experience on a farm. + +2. THE FIFTH YEAR (2 B.C.) + +In something more than a year after the return to Nazareth the boy Jesus +arrived at the age of his first personal and wholehearted moral decision; and +there came to abide with him a Thought Adjuster, a divine gift of the Paradise +Father, which had aforetime served with Machiventa Melchizedek, thus gaining +the experience of functioning in connection with the incarnation of a +supermortal being living in the likeness of mortal flesh. This event occurred +on February 11, 2 B.C. Jesus was no more aware of the coming of the divine +Monitor than are the millions upon millions of other children who, before and +since that day, have likewise received these Thought Adjusters to indwell their +minds and work for the ultimate spiritualization of these minds and the eternal +survival of their evolving immortal souls. + +On this day in February the direct and personal supervision of the Universe +Rulers, as it was related to the integrity of the childlike incarnation of +Michael, terminated. From that time on throughout the human unfolding of the +incarnation, the guardianship of Jesus was destined to rest in the keeping of +this indwelling Adjuster and the associated seraphic guardians, supplemented +from time to time by the ministry of midway creatures assigned for the +performance of certain definite duties in accordance with the instruction of +their planetary superiors. + +Jesus was five years old in August of this year, and we will, therefore, refer +to this as his fifth (calendar) year of life. In this year, 2 B.C., a little +more than one month before his fifth birthday anniversary, Jesus was made very +happy by the coming of his sister Miriam, who was born on the night of July 11. +During + + top of page - 1358 + +the evening of the following day Jesus had a long talk with his father +concerning the manner in which various groups of living things are born into +the world as separate individuals. The most valuable part of Jesus' early +education was secured from his parents in answer to his thoughtful and +searching inquiries. Joseph never failed to do his full duty in taking pains +and spending time answering the boy's numerous questions. From the time Jesus +was five years old until he was ten, he was one continuous question mark. While +Joseph and Mary could not always answer his questions, they never failed fully +to discuss his inquiries and in every other possible way to assist him in his +efforts to reach a satisfactory solution of the problem which his alert mind +had suggested. + +Since returning to Nazareth, theirs had been a busy household, and Joseph had +been unusually occupied building his new shop and getting his business started +again. So fully was he occupied that he had found no time to build a cradle for +James, but this was corrected long before Miriam came, so that she had a very +comfortable crib in which to nestle while the family admired her. And the child +Jesus heartily entered into all these natural and normal home experiences. He +greatly enjoyed his little brother and his baby sister and was of great help to +Mary in their care. + +There were few homes in the gentile world of those days that could give a child +a better intellectual, moral, and religious training than the Jewish homes of +Galilee. These Jews had a systematic program for rearing and educating their +children. They divided a child's life into seven stages: + +1. The newborn child, the first to the eighth day. + +2. The suckling child. + +3. The weaned child. + +4. The period of dependence on the mother, lasting up to the end of the fifth +year. + +5. The beginning independence of the child and, with sons, the father assuming +responsibility for their education. + +6. The adolescent youths and maidens. + +7. The young men and the young women. + +It was the custom of the Galilean Jews for the mother to bear the +responsibility for a child's training until the fifth birthday, and then, if +the child were a boy, to hold the father responsible for the lad's education +from that time on. This year, therefore, Jesus entered upon the fifth stage of +a Galilean Jewish child's career, and accordingly on August 21, 2 B.C., Mary +formally turned him over to Joseph for further instruction. + +Though Joseph was now assuming the direct responsibility for Jesus' +intellectual and religious education, his mother still interested herself in +his home training. She taught him to know and care for the vines and flowers +growing about the garden walls which completely surrounded the home plot. She +also provided on the roof of the house (the summer bedroom) shallow boxes of +sand in which Jesus worked out maps and did much of his early practice at +writing Aramaic, Greek, and later on, Hebrew, for in time he learned to read, +write, and speak, fluently, all three languages. + +Jesus appeared to be a well-nigh perfect child physically and continued to make +normal progress mentally and emotionally. He experienced a mild digestive +upset, his first minor illness, in the latter part of this, his fifth +(calendar) year. + + top of page - 1359 + +Though Joseph and Mary often talked about the future of their eldest child, had +you been there, you would only have observed the growing up of a normal, +healthy, carefree, but exceedingly inquisitive child of that time and place. + +3. EVENTS OF THE SIXTH YEAR (1 B.C.) + +Already, with his mother's help, Jesus had mastered the Galilean dialect of the +Aramaic tongue; and now his father began teaching him Greek. Mary spoke little +Greek, but Joseph was a fluent speaker of both Aramaic and Greek. The textbook +for the study of the Greek language was the copy of the Hebrew scriptures--a +complete version of the law and the prophets, including the Psalms--which had +been presented to them on leaving Egypt. There were only two complete copies of +the Scriptures in Greek in all Nazareth, and the possession of one of them by +the carpenter's family made Joseph's home a much-sought place and enabled +Jesus, as he grew up, to meet an almost endless procession of earnest students +and sincere truth seekers. Before this year ended, Jesus had assumed custody of +this priceless manuscript, having been told on his sixth birthday that the +sacred book had been presented to him by Alexandrian friends and relatives. And +in a very short time he could read it readily. + +The first great shock of Jesus' young life occurred when he was not quite six +years old. It had seemed to the lad that his father--at least his father and +mother together--knew everything. Imagine, therefore, the surprise of this +inquiring child, when he asked his father the cause of a mild earthquake which +had just occurred, to hear Joseph say, "My son, I really do not know." Thus +began that long and disconcerting disillusionment in the course of which Jesus +found out that his earthly parents were not all-wise and all-knowing. + +Joseph's first thought was to tell Jesus that the earthquake had been caused by +God, but a moment's reflection admonished him that such an answer would +immediately be provocative of further and still more embarrassing inquiries. +Even at an early age it was very difficult to answer Jesus' questions about +physical or social phenomena by thoughtlessly telling him that either God or +the devil was responsible. In harmony with the prevailing belief of the Jewish +people, Jesus was long willing to accept the doctrine of good spirits and evil +spirits as the possible explanation of mental and spiritual phenomena, but he +very early became doubtful that such unseen influences were responsible for the +physical happenings of the natural world. + +Before Jesus was six years of age, in the early summer of 1 B.C., Zacharias and +Elizabeth and their son John came to visit the Nazareth family. Jesus and John +had a happy time during this, their first visit within their memories. Although +the visitors could remain only a few days, the parents talked over many things, +including the future plans for their sons. While they were thus engaged, the +lads played with blocks in the sand on top of the house and in many other ways +enjoyed themselves in true boyish fashion. + +Having met John, who came from near Jerusalem, Jesus began to evince an unusual +interest in the history of Israel and to inquire in great detail as to the +meaning of the Sabbath rites, the synagogue sermons, and the recurring feasts +of commemoration. His father explained to him the meaning of all these seasons. +The first was the midwinter festive illumination, lasting eight days, + + top of page - 1360 + +starting out with one candle the first night and adding one each successive +night; this commemorated the dedication of the temple after the restoration of +the Mosaic services by Judas Maccabee. Next came the early springtime +celebration of Purim, the feast of Esther and Israel's deliverance through her. +Then followed the solemn Passover, which the adults celebrated in Jerusalem +whenever possible, while at home the children would remember that no leavened +bread was to be eaten for the whole week. Later came the feast of the +first-fruits, the harvest ingathering; and last, the most solemn of all, the +feast of the new year, the day of atonement. While some of these celebrations +and observances were difficult for Jesus' young mind to understand, he pondered +them seriously and then entered fully into the joy of the feast of tabernacles, +the annual vacation season of the whole Jewish people, the time when they +camped out in leafy booths and gave themselves up to mirth and pleasure. + +During this year Joseph and Mary had trouble with Jesus about his prayers. He +insisted on talking to his heavenly Father much as he would talk to Joseph, his +earthly father. This departure from the more solemn and reverent modes of +communication with Deity was a bit disconcerting to his parents, especially to +his mother, but there was no persuading him to change; he would say his prayers +just as he had been taught, after which he insisted on having "just a little +talk with my Father in heaven." + +In June of this year Joseph turned the shop in Nazareth over to his brothers +and formally entered upon his work as a builder. Before the year was over, the +family income had more than trebled. Never again, until after Joseph's death, +did the Nazareth family feel the pinch of poverty. The family grew larger and +larger, and they spent much money on extra education and travel, but always +Joseph's increasing income kept pace with the growing expenses. + +The next few years Joseph did considerable work at Cana, Bethlehem (of +Galilee), Magdala, Nain, Sepphoris, Capernaum, and Endor, as well as much +building in and near Nazareth. As James grew up to be old enough to help his +mother with the housework and care of the younger children, Jesus made frequent +trips away from home with his father to these surrounding towns and villages. +Jesus was a keen observer and gained much practical knowledge from these trips +away from home; he was assiduously storing up knowledge regarding man and the +way he lived on earth. + +This year Jesus made great progress in adjusting his strong feelings and +vigorous impulses to the demands of family co-operation and home discipline. +Mary was a loving mother but a fairly strict disciplinarian. In many ways, +however, Joseph exerted the greater control over Jesus as it was his practice +to sit down with the boy and fully explain the real and underlying reasons for +the necessity of disciplinary curtailment of personal desires in deference to +the welfare and tranquillity of the entire family. When the situation had been +explained to Jesus, he was always intelligently and willingly co-operative with +parental wishes and family regulations. + +Much of his spare time--when his mother did not require his help about the +house--was spent studying the flowers and plants by day and the stars by night. +He evinced a troublesome penchant for lying on his back and gazing wonderingly +up into the starry heavens long after his usual bedtime in this well-ordered +Nazareth household. + + top of page - 1361 + +4. THE SEVENTH YEAR (A.D. 1) + +This was, indeed, an eventful year in Jesus' life. Early in January a great +snowstorm occurred in Galilee. Snow fell two feet deep, the heaviest snowfall +Jesus saw during his lifetime and one of the deepest at Nazareth in a hundred +years. + +The play life of Jewish children in the times of Jesus was rather +circumscribed; all too often the children played at the more serious things +they observed their elders doing. They played much at weddings and funerals, +ceremonies which they so frequently saw and which were so spectacular. They +danced and sang but had few organized games, such as children of later days so +much enjoy. + +Jesus, in company with a neighbor boy and later his brother James, delighted to +play in the far corner of the family carpenter shop, where they had great fun +with the shavings and the blocks of wood. It was always difficult for Jesus to +comprehend the harm of certain sorts of play which were forbidden on the +Sabbath, but he never failed to conform to his parents' wishes. He had a +capacity for humor and play which was afforded little opportunity for +expression in the environment of his day and generation, but up to the age of +fourteen he was cheerful and lighthearted most of the time. + +Mary maintained a dovecote on top of the animal house adjoining the home, and +they used the profits from the sale of doves as a special charity fund, which +Jesus administered after he deducted the tithe and turned it over to the +officer of the synagogue. + +The only real accident Jesus had up to this time was a fall down the back-yard +stone stairs which led up to the canvas-roofed bedroom. It happened during an +unexpected July sandstorm from the east. The hot winds, carrying blasts of fine +sand, usually blew during the rainy season, especially in March and April. It +was extraordinary to have such a storm in July. When the storm came up, Jesus +was on the housetop playing, as was his habit, for during much of the dry +season this was his accustomed playroom. He was blinded by the sand when +descending the stairs and fell. After this accident Joseph built a balustrade +up both sides of the stairway. + +There was no way in which this accident could have been prevented. It was not +chargeable to neglect by the midway temporal guardians, one primary and one +secondary midwayer having been assigned to the watchcare of the lad; neither +was it chargeable to the guardian seraphim. It simply could not have been +avoided. But this slight accident, occurring while Joseph was absent in Endor, +caused such great anxiety to develop in Mary's mind that she unwisely tried to +keep Jesus very close to her side for some months. + +Material accidents, commonplace occurrences of a physical nature, are not +arbitrarily interfered with by celestial personalities. Under ordinary +circumstances only midway creatures can intervene in material conditions to +safeguard the persons of men and women of destiny, and even in special +situations these beings can so act only in obedience to the specific mandates +of their superiors. + +And this was but one of a number of such minor accidents which subsequently +befell this inquisitive and adventurous youth. If you envisage the average +childhood and youth of an aggressive boy, you will have a fairly good idea of +the youthful career of Jesus, and you will be able to imagine just about how +much anxiety he caused his parents, particularly his mother. + + top of page - 1362 + +The fourth member of the Nazareth family, Joseph, was born Wednesday morning, +March 16, A.D. 1. + +5. SCHOOL DAYS IN NAZARETH + +Jesus was now seven years old, the age when Jewish children were supposed to +begin their formal education in the synagogue schools. Accordingly, in August +of this year he entered upon his eventful school life at Nazareth. Already this +lad was a fluent reader, writer, and speaker of two languages, Aramaic and +Greek. He was now to acquaint himself with the task of learning to read, write, +and speak the Hebrew language. And he was truly eager for the new school life +which was ahead of him. + +For three years--until he was ten--he attended the elementary school of the +Nazareth synagogue. For these three years he studied the rudiments of the Book +of the Law as it was recorded in the Hebrew tongue. For the following three +years he studied in the advanced school and committed to memory, by the method +of repeating aloud, the deeper teachings of the sacred law. He graduated from +this school of the synagogue during his thirteenth year and was turned over to +his parents by the synagogue rulers as an educated "son of the +commandment"--henceforth a responsible citizen of the commonwealth of Israel, +all of which entailed his attendance at the Passovers in Jerusalem; +accordingly, he attended his first Passover that year in company with his +father and mother. + +At Nazareth the pupils sat on the floor in a semicircle, while their teacher, +the chazan, an officer of the synagogue, sat facing them. Beginning with the +Book of Leviticus, they passed on to the study of the other books of the law, +followed by the study of the Prophets and the Psalms. The Nazareth synagogue +possessed a complete copy of the Scriptures in Hebrew. Nothing but the +Scriptures was studied prior to the twelfth year. In the summer months the +hours for school were greatly shortened. + +Jesus early became a master of Hebrew, and as a young man, when no visitor of +prominence happened to be sojourning in Nazareth, he would often be asked to +read the Hebrew scriptures to the faithful assembled in the synagogue at the +regular Sabbath services. + +These synagogue schools, of course, had no textbooks. In teaching, the chazan +would utter a statement while the pupils would in unison repeat it after him. +When having access to the written books of the law, the student learned his +lesson by reading aloud and by constant repetition. + +Next, in addition to his more formal schooling, Jesus began to make contact +with human nature from the four quarters of the earth as men from many lands +passed in and out of his father's repair shop. When he grew older, he mingled +freely with the caravans as they tarried near the spring for rest and +nourishment. Being a fluent speaker of Greek, he had little trouble in +conversing with the majority of the caravan travelers and conductors. + +Nazareth was a caravan way station and crossroads of travel and largely gentile +in population; at the same time it was widely known as a center of liberal +interpretation of Jewish traditional law. In Galilee the Jews mingled more +freely with the gentiles than was their practice in Judea. And of all the +cities of Galilee, the Jews of Nazareth were most liberal in their +interpretation of the social restrictions based on the fears of contamination +as a result of contact with + + top of page - 1363 + +the gentiles. And these conditions gave rise to the common saying in Jerusalem, +"Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" + +Jesus received his moral training and spiritual culture chiefly in his own +home. He secured much of his intellectual and theological education from the +chazan. But his real education--that equipment of mind and heart for the actual +test of grappling with the difficult problems of life--he obtained by mingling +with his fellow men. It was this close association with his fellow men, young +and old, Jew and gentile, that afforded him the opportunity to know the human +race. Jesus was highly educated in that he thoroughly understood men and +devotedly loved them. + +Throughout his years at the synagogue he was a brilliant student, possessing a +great advantage since he was conversant with three languages. The Nazareth +chazan, on the occasion of Jesus' finishing the course in his school, remarked +to Joseph that he feared he "had learned more from Jesus' searching questions" +than he had "been able to teach the lad." + +Throughout his course of study Jesus learned much and derived great inspiration +from the regular Sabbath sermons in the synagogue. It was customary to ask +distinguished visitors, stopping over the Sabbath in Nazareth, to address the +synagogue. As Jesus grew up, he heard many great thinkers of the entire Jewish +world expound their views, and many also who were hardly orthodox Jews since +the synagogue of Nazareth was an advanced and liberal center of Hebrew thought +and culture. + +When entering school at seven years (at this time the Jews had just inaugurated +a compulsory education law), it was customary for the pupils to choose their +"birthday text," a sort of golden rule to guide them throughout their studies, +one upon which they often expatiated at their graduation when thirteen years +old. The text which Jesus chose was from the Prophet Isaiah: "The spirit of the +Lord God is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good +news to the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the +captives, and to set the spiritual prisoners free." + +Nazareth was one of the twenty-four priest centers of the Hebrew nation. But +the Galilean priesthood was more liberal in the interpretation of the +traditional laws than were the Judean scribes and rabbis. And at Nazareth they +were also more liberal regarding the observance of the Sabbath. It was +therefore the custom for Joseph to take Jesus out for walks on Sabbath +afternoons, one of their favorite jaunts being to climb the high hill near +their home, from which they could obtain a panoramic view of all Galilee. To +the northwest, on clear days, they could see the long ridge of Mount Carmel +running down to the sea; and many times Jesus heard his father relate the story +of Elijah, one of the first of that long line of Hebrew prophets, who reproved +Ahab and exposed the priests of Baal. To the north Mount Hermon raised its +snowy peak in majestic splendor and monopolized the skyline, almost 3,000 feet +of the upper slopes glistening white with perpetual snow. Far to the east they +could discern the Jordan valley and far beyond lay the rocky hills of Moab. +Also to the south and the east, when the sun shone upon their marble walls, +they could see the Greco-Roman cities of the Decapolis, with their +amphitheaters and pretentious temples. And when they lingered toward the going +down of the sun, to the west they could make out the sailing vessels on the +distant Mediterranean. + + top of page - 1364 + +From four directions Jesus could observe the caravan trains as they wended +their way in and out of Nazareth, and to the south he could overlook the broad +and fertile plain country of Esdraelon, stretching off toward Mount Gilboa and +Samaria. + +When they did not climb the heights to view the distant landscape, they +strolled through the countryside and studied nature in her various moods in +accordance with the seasons. Jesus' earliest training, aside from that of the +home hearth, had to do with a reverent and sympathetic contact with nature. + +Before he was eight years of age, he was known to all the mothers and young +women of Nazareth, who had met him and talked with him at the spring, which was +not far from his home, and which was one of the social centers of contact and +gossip for the entire town. This year Jesus learned to milk the family cow and +care for the other animals. During this and the following year he also learned +to make cheese and to weave. When he was ten years of age, he was an expert +loom operator. It was about this time that Jesus and the neighbor boy Jacob +became great friends of the potter who worked near the flowing spring; and as +they watched Nathan's deft fingers mold the clay on the potter's wheel, many +times both of them determined to be potters when they grew up. Nathan was very +fond of the lads and often gave them clay to play with, seeking to stimulate +their creative imaginations by suggesting competitive efforts in modeling +various objects and animals. + +6. HIS EIGHTH YEAR (A.D. 2) + +This was an interesting year at school. Although Jesus was not an unusual +student, he was a diligent pupil and belonged to the more progressive third of +the class, doing his work so well that he was excused from attendance one week +out of each month. This week he usually spent either with his fisherman uncle +on the shores of the Sea of Galilee near Magdala or on the farm of another +uncle (his mother's brother) five miles south of Nazareth. + +Although his mother had become unduly anxious about his health and safety, she +gradually became reconciled to these trips away from home. Jesus' uncles and +aunts were all very fond of him, and there ensued a lively competition among +them to secure his company for these monthly visits throughout this and +immediately subsequent years. His first week's sojourn on his uncle's farm +(since infancy) was in January of this year; the first week's fishing +experience on the Sea of Galilee occurred in the month of May. + +About this time Jesus met a teacher of mathematics from Damascus, and learning +some new techniques of numbers, he spent much time on mathematics for several +years. He developed a keen sense of numbers, distances, and proportions. + +Jesus began to enjoy his brother James very much and by the end of this year +had begun to teach him the alphabet. + +This year Jesus made arrangements to exchange dairy products for lessons on the +harp. He had an unusual liking for everything musical. Later on he did much to +promote an interest in vocal music among his youthful associates. By the time +he was eleven years of age, he was a skillful harpist and greatly enjoyed +entertaining both family and friends with his extraordinary interpretations and +able improvisations. + + top of page - 1365 + +While Jesus continued to make enviable progress at school, all did not run +smoothly for either parents or teachers. He persisted in asking many +embarrassing questions concerning both science and religion, particularly +regarding geography and astronomy. He was especially insistent on finding out +why there was a dry season and a rainy season in Palestine. Repeatedly he +sought the explanation for the great difference between the temperatures of +Nazareth and the Jordan valley. He simply never ceased to ask such intelligent +but perplexing questions. + +His third brother, Simon, was born on Friday evening, April 14, of this year, +A.D. 2. + +In February, Nahor, one of the teachers in a Jerusalem academy of the rabbis, +came to Nazareth to observe Jesus, having been on a similar mission to +Zacharias's home near Jerusalem. He came to Nazareth at the instigation of +John's father. While at first he was somewhat shocked by Jesus' frankness and +unconventional manner of relating himself to things religious, he attributed it +to the remoteness of Galilee from the centers of Hebrew learning and culture +and advised Joseph and Mary to allow him to take Jesus back with him to +Jerusalem, where he could have the advantages of education and training at the +center of Jewish culture. Mary was half persuaded to consent; she was convinced +her eldest son was to become the Messiah, the Jewish deliverer; Joseph +hesitated; he was equally persuaded that Jesus was to grow up to become a man +of destiny, but what that destiny would prove to be he was profoundly +uncertain. But he never really doubted that his son was to fulfill some great +mission on earth. The more he thought about Nahor's advice, the more he +questioned the wisdom of the proposed sojourn in Jerusalem. + +Because of this difference of opinion between Joseph and Mary, Nahor requested +permission to lay the whole matter before Jesus. Jesus listened attentively, +talked with Joseph, Mary, and a neighbor, Jacob the stone mason, whose son was +his favorite playmate, and then, two days later, reported that since there was +such a difference of opinion among his parents and advisers, and since he did +not feel competent to assume the responsibility for such a decision, not +feeling strongly one way or the other, in view of the whole situation, he had +finally decided to "talk with my Father who is in heaven"; and while he was not +perfectly sure about the answer, he rather felt he should remain at home "with +my father and mother," adding, "they who love me so much should be able to do +more for me and guide me more safely than strangers who can only view my body +and observe my mind but can hardly truly know me." They all marveled, and Nahor +went his way, back to Jerusalem. And it was many years before the subject of +Jesus' going away from home again came up for consideration. + + top of page - 1366 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Birth And ³ The Later ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Infan... ³ Child... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p124.txt b/religious documents/p124.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c239935 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p124.txt @@ -0,0 +1,698 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 124 The Later Childhood Of Jesus + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 124 The Later Childhood Of Jesus + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ALTHOUGH Jesus might have enjoyed a better opportunity for schooling at +Alexandria than in Galilee, he could not have had such a splendid environment +for working out his own life problems with a minimum of educational guidance, +at the same time enjoying the great advantage of constantly contacting with +such a large number of all classes of men and women hailing from every part of +the civilized world. Had he remained at Alexandria, his education would have +been directed by Jews and along exclusively Jewish lines. At Nazareth he +secured an education and received a training which more acceptably prepared him +to understand the gentiles, and which gave him a better and more balanced idea +of the relative merits of the Eastern, or Babylonian, and the Western, or +Hellenic, views of Hebrew theology. + +1. JESUS' NINTH YEAR (A.D. 3) + +Though it could hardly be said that Jesus was ever seriously ill, he did have +some of the minor ailments of childhood this year, along with his brothers and +baby sister. + +School went on and he was still a favored pupil, having one week each month at +liberty, and he continued to divide his time about equally between trips to +neighboring cities with his father, sojourns on his uncle's farm south of +Nazareth, and fishing excursions out from Magdala. + +The most serious trouble as yet to come up at school occurred in late winter +when Jesus dared to challenge the chazan regarding the teaching that all +images, pictures, and drawings were idolatrous in nature. Jesus delighted in +drawing landscapes as well as in modeling a great variety of objects in +potter's clay. Everything of that sort was strictly forbidden by Jewish law, +but up to this time he had managed to disarm his parents' objection to such an +extent that they had permitted him to continue in these activities. + +But trouble was again stirred up at school when one of the more backward pupils +discovered Jesus drawing a charcoal picture of the teacher on the floor of the +schoolroom. There it was, plain as day, and many of the elders had viewed it +before the committee went to call on Joseph to demand that something be done to +suppress the lawlessness of his eldest son. And though this was not the first +time complaints had come to Joseph and Mary about the doings of their versatile +and aggressive child, this was the most serious of all the accusations which +had thus far been lodged against him. Jesus listened to the indictment of his +artistic efforts for some time, being seated on a large stone just outside the +back door. He resented their blaming his father for his alleged misdeeds; so in +he marched, fearlessly confronting his accusers. The elders were thrown into +confusion. Some + + top of page - 1367 + +were inclined to view the episode humorously, while one or two seemed to think +the boy was sacrilegious if not blasphemous. Joseph was nonplused, Mary +indignant, but Jesus insisted on being heard. He had his say, courageously +defended his viewpoint, and with consummate self-control announced that he +would abide by the decision of his father in this as in all other matters +controversial. And the committee of elders departed in silence. + +Mary endeavored to influence Joseph to permit Jesus to model in clay at home, +provided he promised not to carry on any of these questionable activities at +school, but Joseph felt impelled to rule that the rabbinical interpretation of +the second commandment should prevail. And so Jesus no more drew or modeled the +likeness of anything from that day as long as he lived in his father's house. +But he was unconvinced of the wrong of what he had done, and to give up such a +favorite pastime constituted one of the great trials of his young life. + +In the latter part of June, Jesus, in company with his father, first climbed to +the summit of Mount Tabor. It was a clear day and the view was superb. It +seemed to this nine-year-old lad that he had really gazed upon the entire world +excepting India, Africa, and Rome. + +Jesus' second sister, Martha, was born Thursday night, September 13. Three +weeks after the coming of Martha, Joseph, who was home for awhile, started the +building of an addition to their house, a combined workshop and bedroom. A +small workbench was built for Jesus, and for the first time he possessed tools +of his own. At odd times for many years he worked at this bench and became +highly expert in the making of yokes. + +This winter and the next were the coldest in Nazareth for many decades. Jesus +had seen snow on the mountains, and several times it had fallen in Nazareth, +remaining on the ground only a short time; but not until this winter had he +seen ice. The fact that water could be had as a solid, a liquid, and a +vapor--he had long pondered over the escaping steam from the boiling +pots--caused the lad to think a great deal about the physical world and its +constitution; and yet the personality embodied in this growing youth was all +this while the actual creator and organizer of all these things throughout a +far-flung universe. + +The climate of Nazareth was not severe. January was the coldest month, the +temperature averaging around 500 F. During July and August, the hottest months, +the temperature would vary from 750 to 900 F. From the mountains to the Jordan +and the Dead Sea valley the climate of Palestine ranged from the frigid to the +torrid. And so, in a way, the Jews were prepared to live in about any and all +of the world's varying climates. + +Even during the warmest summer months a cool sea breeze usually blew from the +west from 10:00 A.M. until about 10:00 P.M. But every now and then terrific hot +winds from the eastern desert would blow across all Palestine. These hot blasts +usually came in February and March, near the end of the rainy season. In those +days the rain fell in refreshing showers from November to April, but it did not +rain steadily. There were only two seasons in Palestine, summer and winter, the +dry and rainy seasons. In January the flowers began to bloom, and by the end of +April the whole land was one vast flower garden. + +In May of this year, on his uncle's farm, Jesus for the first time helped with +the harvest of the grain. Before he was thirteen, he had managed to find out +something about practically everything that men and women worked at around +Naza- + + top of page - 1368 + +reth except metal working, and he spent several months in a smith's shop when +older, after the death of his father. + +When work and caravan travel were slack, Jesus made many trips with his father +on pleasure or business to nearby Cana, Endor, and Nain. Even as a lad he +frequently visited Sepphoris, only a little over three miles from Nazareth to +the northwest, and from 4 B.C. to about A.D. 25 the capital of Galilee and one +of the residences of Herod Antipas. + +Jesus continued to grow physically, intellectually, socially, and spiritually. +His trips away from home did much to give him a better and more generous +understanding of his own family, and by this time even his parents were +beginning to learn from him as well as to teach him. Jesus was an original +thinker and a skillful teacher, even in his youth. He was in constant collision +with the so-called "oral law," but he always sought to adapt himself to the +practices of his family. He got along fairly well with the children of his age, +but he often grew discouraged with their slow-acting minds. Before he was ten +years old, he had become the leader of a group of seven lads who formed +themselves into a society for promoting the acquirements of manhood--physical, +intellectual, and religious. Among these boys Jesus succeeded in introducing +many new games and various improved methods of physical recreation. + +2. THE TENTH YEAR (A.D. 4) + +It was the fifth of July, the first Sabbath of the month, when Jesus, while +strolling through the countryside with his father, first gave expression to +feelings and ideas which indicated that he was becoming self-conscious of the +unusual nature of his life mission. Joseph listened attentively to the +momentous words of his son but made few comments; he volunteered no +information. The next day Jesus had a similar but longer talk with his mother. +Mary likewise listened to the pronouncements of the lad, but neither did she +volunteer any information. It was almost two years before Jesus again spoke to +his parents concerning this increasing revelation within his own consciousness +regarding the nature of his personality and the character of his mission on +earth. + +He entered the advanced school of the synagogue in August. At school he was +constantly creating trouble by the questions he persisted in asking. +Increasingly he kept all Nazareth in more or less of a hubbub. His parents were +loath to forbid his asking these disquieting questions, and his chief teacher +was greatly intrigued by the lad's curiosity, insight, and hunger for +knowledge. + +Jesus' playmates saw nothing supernatural in his conduct; in most ways he was +altogether like themselves. His interest in study was somewhat above the +average but not wholly unusual. He did ask more questions at school than others +in his class. + +Perhaps his most unusual and outstanding trait was his unwillingness to fight +for his rights. Since he was such a well-developed lad for his age, it seemed +strange to his playfellows that he was disinclined to defend himself even from +injustice or when subjected to personal abuse. As it happened, he did not +suffer much on account of this trait because of the friendship of Jacob, a +neighbor boy, who was one year older. He was the son of the stone mason, a +business associate of Joseph. Jacob was a great admirer of Jesus and made it +his business to see that no one was permitted to impose upon Jesus because of +his aversion + + top of page - 1369 + +to physical combat. Several times older and uncouth youths attacked Jesus, +relying upon his reputed docility, but they always suffered swift and certain +retribution at the hands of his self-appointed champion and ever-ready +defender, Jacob the stone mason's son. + +Jesus was the generally accepted leader of the Nazareth lads who stood for the +higher ideals of their day and generation. He was really loved by his youthful +associates, not only because he was fair, but also because he possessed a rare +and understanding sympathy that betokened love and bordered on discreet +compassion. + +This year he began to show a marked preference for the company of older +persons. He delighted in talking over things cultural, educational, social, +economic, political, and religious with older minds, and his depth of reasoning +and keenness of observation so charmed his adult associates that they were +always more than willing to visit with him. Until he became responsible for the +support of the home, his parents were constantly seeking to influence him to +associate with those of his own age, or more nearly his age, rather than with +older and better-informed individuals for whom he evinced such a preference. + +Late this year he had a fishing experience of two months with his uncle on the +Sea of Galilee, and he was very successful. Before attaining manhood, he had +become an expert fisherman. + +His physical development continued; he was an advanced and privileged pupil at +school; he got along fairly well at home with his younger brothers and sisters, +having the advantage of being three and one-half years older than the oldest of +the other children. He was well thought of in Nazareth except by the parents of +some of the duller children, who often spoke of Jesus as being too pert, as +lacking in proper humility and youthful reserve. He manifested a growing +tendency to direct the play activities of his youthful associates into more +serious and thoughtful channels. He was a born teacher and simply could not +refrain from so functioning, even when supposedly engaged in play. + +Joseph early began to instruct Jesus in the diverse means of gaining a +livelihood, explaining the advantages of agriculture over industry and trade. +Galilee was a more beautiful and prosperous district than Judea, and it cost +only about one fourth as much to live there as in Jerusalem and Judea. It was a +province of agricultural villages and thriving industrial cities, containing +more than two hundred towns of over five thousand population and thirty of over +fifteen thousand. + +When on his first trip with his father to observe the fishing industry on the +lake of Galilee, Jesus had just about made up his mind to become a fisherman; +but close association with his father's vocation later on influenced him to +become a carpenter, while still later a combination of influences led him to +the final choice of becoming a religious teacher of a new order. + +3. THE ELEVENTH YEAR (A.D. 5) + +Throughout this year the lad continued to make trips away from home with his +father, but he also frequently visited his uncle's farm and occasionally went +over to Magdala to engage in fishing with the uncle who made his headquarters +near that city. + +Joseph and Mary were often tempted to show some special favoritism for Jesus or +otherwise to betray their knowledge that he was a child of promise, a + + top of page - 1370 + +son of destiny. But both of his parents were extraordinarily wise and sagacious +in all these matters. The few times they did in any manner exhibit any +preference for him, even in the slightest degree, the lad was quick to refuse +all such special consideration. + +Jesus spent considerable time at the caravan supply shop, and by conversing +with the travelers from all parts of the world, he acquired a store of +information about international affairs that was amazing, considering his age. +This was the last year in which he enjoyed much free play and youthful +joyousness. From this time on difficulties and responsibilities rapidly +multiplied in the life of this youth. + +On Wednesday evening, June 24, A.D. 5, Jude was born. Complications attended +the birth of this, the seventh child. Mary was so very ill for several weeks +that Joseph remained at home. Jesus was very much occupied with errands for his +father and with many duties occasioned by his mother's serious illness. Never +again did this youth find it possible to return to the childlike attitude of +his earlier years. From the time of his mother's illness--just before he was +eleven years old--he was compelled to assume the responsibilities of the +first-born son and to do all this one or two full years before these burdens +should normally have fallen on his shoulders. + +The chazan spent one evening each week with Jesus, helping him to master the +Hebrew scriptures. He was greatly interested in the progress of his promising +pupil; therefore was he willing to assist him in many ways. This Jewish +pedagogue exerted a great influence upon this growing mind, but he was never +able to comprehend why Jesus was so indifferent to all his suggestions +regarding the prospects of going to Jerusalem to continue his education under +the learned rabbis. + +About the middle of May the lad accompanied his father on a business trip to +Scythopolis, the chief Greek city of the Decapolis, the ancient Hebrew city of +Beth-shean. On the way Joseph recounted much of the olden history of King Saul, +the Philistines, and the subsequent events of Israel's turbulent history. Jesus +was tremendously impressed with the clean appearance and well-ordered +arrangement of this so-called heathen city. He marveled at the open-air theater +and admired the beautiful marble temple dedicated to the worship of the +"heathen" gods. Joseph was much perturbed by the lad's enthusiasm and sought to +counteract these favorable impressions by extolling the beauty and grandeur of +the Jewish temple at Jerusalem. Jesus had often gazed curiously upon this +magnificent Greek city from the hill of Nazareth and had many times inquired +about its extensive public works and ornate buildings, but his father had +always sought to avoid answering these questions. Now they were face to face +with the beauties of this gentile city, and Joseph could not gracefully ignore +Jesus' inquiries. + +It so happened that just at this time the annual competitive games and public +demonstrations of physical prowess between the Greek cities of the Decapolis +were in progress at the Scythopolis amphitheater, and Jesus was insistent that +his father take him to see the games, and he was so insistent that Joseph +hesitated to deny him. The boy was thrilled with the games and entered most +heartily into the spirit of the demonstrations of physical development and +athletic skill. Joseph was inexpressibly shocked to observe his son's +enthusiasm as he beheld these exhibitions of "heathen" vaingloriousness. After +the games were finished, + + top of page - 1371 + +Joseph received the surprise of his life when he heard Jesus express his +approval of them and suggest that it would be good for the young men of +Nazareth if they could be thus benefited by wholesome outdoor physical +activities. Joseph talked earnestly and long with Jesus concerning the evil +nature of such practices, but he well knew that the lad was unconvinced. + +The only time Jesus ever saw his father angry with him was that night in their +room at the inn when, in the course of their discussions, the boy so far forgot +the trends of Jewish thought as to suggest that they go back home and work for +the building of an amphitheater at Nazareth. When Joseph heard his first-born +son express such un-Jewish sentiments, he forgot his usual calm demeanor and, +seizing Jesus by the shoulder, angrily exclaimed, "My son, never again let me +hear you give utterance to such an evil thought as long as you live." Jesus was +startled by his father's display of emotion; he had never before been made to +feel the personal sting of his father's indignation and was astonished and +shocked beyond expression. He only replied, "Very well, my father, it shall be +so." And never again did the boy even in the slightest manner allude to the +games and other athletic activities of the Greeks as long as his father lived. + +Later on, Jesus saw the Greek amphitheater at Jerusalem and learned how hateful +such things were from the Jewish point of view. Nevertheless, throughout his +life he endeavored to introduce the idea of wholesome recreation into his +personal plans and, as far as Jewish practice would permit, into the later +program of regular activities for his twelve apostles. + +At the end of this eleventh year Jesus was a vigorous, well-developed, +moderately humorous, and fairly lighthearted youth, but from this year on he +was more and more given to peculiar seasons of profound meditation and serious +contemplation. He was much given to thinking about how he was to carry out his +obligations to his family and at the same time be obedient to the call of his +mission to the world; already he had conceived that his ministry was not to be +limited to the betterment of the Jewish people. + +4. THE TWELFTH YEAR (A.D. 6) + +This was an eventful year in Jesus' life. He continued to make progress at +school and was indefatigable in his study of nature, while increasingly he +prosecuted his study of the methods whereby men make a living. He began doing +regular work in the home carpenter shop and was permitted to manage his own +earnings, a very unusual arrangement to obtain in a Jewish family. This year he +also learned the wisdom of keeping such matters a secret in the family. He was +becoming conscious of the way in which he had caused trouble in the village, +and henceforth he became increasingly discreet in concealing everything which +might cause him to be regarded as different from his fellows. + +Throughout this year he experienced many seasons of uncertainty, if not actual +doubt, regarding the nature of his mission. His naturally developing human mind +did not yet fully grasp the reality of his dual nature. The fact that he had a +single personality rendered it difficult for his consciousness to recognize the +double origin of those factors which composed the nature associated with that +selfsame personality. + +From this time on he became more successful in getting along with his brothers +and sisters. He was increasingly tactful, always compassionate and considerate +of their welfare and happiness, and enjoyed good relations with them + + top of page - 1372 + +up to the beginning of his public ministry. To be more explicit: He got along +with James, Miriam, and the two younger (as yet unborn) children, Amos and +Ruth, most excellently. He always got along with Martha fairly well. What +trouble he had at home largely arose out of friction with Joseph and Jude, +particularly the latter. + +It was a trying experience for Joseph and Mary to undertake the rearing of this +unprecedented combination of divinity and humanity, and they deserve great +credit for so faithfully and successfully discharging their parental +responsibilities. Increasingly Jesus' parents realized that there was something +superhuman resident within this eldest son, but they never even faintly dreamed +that this son of promise was indeed and in truth the actual creator of this +local universe of things and beings. Joseph and Mary lived and died without +ever learning that their son Jesus really was the Universe Creator incarnate in +mortal flesh. + +This year Jesus paid more attention than ever to music, and he continued to +teach the home school for his brothers and sisters. It was at about this time +that the lad became keenly conscious of the difference between the viewpoints +of Joseph and Mary regarding the nature of his mission. He pondered much over +his parents' differing opinions, often hearing their discussions when they +thought he was sound asleep. More and more he inclined to the view of his +father, so that his mother was destined to be hurt by the realization that her +son was gradually rejecting her guidance in matters having to do with his life +career. And, as the years passed, this breach of understanding widened. Less +and less did Mary comprehend the significance of Jesus' mission, and +increasingly was this good mother hurt by the failure of her favorite son to +fulfill her fond expectations. + +Joseph entertained a growing belief in the spiritual nature of Jesus' mission. +And but for other and more important reasons it does seem unfortunate that he +could not have lived to see the fulfillment of his concept of Jesus' bestowal +on earth. + +During his last year at school, when he was twelve years old, Jesus +remonstrated with his father about the Jewish custom of touching the bit of +parchment nailed upon the doorpost each time on going into, or coming out of, +the house and then kissing the finger that touched the parchment. As a part of +this ritual it was customary to say, "The Lord shall preserve our going out and +our coming in, from this time forth and even forevermore." Joseph and Mary had +repeatedly instructed Jesus as to the reasons for not making images or drawing +pictures, explaining that such creations might be used for idolatrous purposes. +Though Jesus failed fully to grasp their proscriptions against images and +pictures, he possessed a high concept of consistency and therefore pointed out +to his father the essentially idolatrous nature of this habitual obeisance to +the doorpost parchment. And Joseph removed the parchment after Jesus had thus +remonstrated with him. + +As time passed, Jesus did much to modify their practice of religious forms, +such as the family prayers and other customs. And it was possible to do many +such things at Nazareth, for its synagogue was under the influence of a liberal +school of rabbis, exemplified by the renowned Nazareth teacher, Jose. + +Throughout this and the two following years Jesus suffered great mental +distress as the result of his constant effort to adjust his personal views of +religious practices and social amenities to the established beliefs of his +parents. He was distraught by the conflict between the urge to be loyal to his +own convictions + + top of page - 1373 + +and the conscientious admonition of dutiful submission to his parents; his +supreme conflict was between two great commands which were uppermost in his +youthful mind. The one was: "Be loyal to the dictates of your highest +convictions of truth and righteousness." The other was: "Honor your father and +mother, for they have given you life and the nurture thereof." However, he +never shirked the responsibility of making the necessary daily adjustments +between these realms of loyalty to one's personal convictions and duty toward +one's family, and he achieved the satisfaction of effecting an increasingly +harmonious blending of personal convictions and family obligations into a +masterful concept of group solidarity based upon loyalty, fairness, tolerance, +and love. + +5. HIS THIRTEENTH YEAR (A.D. 7) + +In this year the lad of Nazareth passed from boyhood to the beginning of young +manhood; his voice began to change, and other features of mind and body gave +evidence of the oncoming status of manhood. + +On Sunday night, January 9, A.D. 7, his baby brother, Amos, was born. Jude was +not yet two years of age, and the baby sister, Ruth, was yet to come; so it may +be seen that Jesus had a sizable family of small children left to his watchcare +when his father met his accidental death the following year. + +It was about the middle of February that Jesus became humanly assured that he +was destined to perform a mission on earth for the enlightenment of man and the +revelation of God. Momentous decisions, coupled with far-reaching plans, were +formulating in the mind of this youth, who was, to outward appearances, an +average Jewish lad of Nazareth. The intelligent life of all Nebadon looked on +with fascination and amazement as all this began to unfold in the thinking and +acting of the now adolescent carpenter's son. + +On the first day of the week, March 20, A.D. 7, Jesus graduated from the course +of training in the local school connected with the Nazareth synagogue. This was +a great day in the life of any ambitious Jewish family, the day when the +first-born son was pronounced a "son of the commandment" and the ransomed +first-born of the Lord God of Israel, a "child of the Most High" and servant of +the Lord of all the earth. + +Friday of the week before, Joseph had come over from Sepphoris, where he was in +charge of the work on a new public building, to be present on this glad +occasion. Jesus' teacher confidently believed that his alert and diligent pupil +was destined to some outstanding career, some distinguished mission. The +elders, notwithstanding all their trouble with Jesus' nonconformist tendencies, +were very proud of the lad and had already begun laying plans which would +enable him to go to Jerusalem to continue his education in the renowned Hebrew +academies. + +As Jesus heard these plans discussed from time to time, he became increasingly +sure that he would never go to Jerusalem to study with the rabbis. But he +little dreamed of the tragedy, so soon to occur, which would insure the +abandonment of all such plans by causing him to assume the responsibility for +the support and direction of a large family, presently to consist of five +brothers and three sisters as well as his mother and himself. Jesus had a +larger and longer experience rearing this family than was accorded to Joseph, +his father; and he did measure up to the standard which he subsequently set for +himself: to become a wise, + + top of page - 1374 + +patient, understanding, and effective teacher and eldest brother to this +family--his family--so suddenly sorrow-stricken and so unexpectedly bereaved. + +6. THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM + +Jesus, having now reached the threshold of young manhood and having been +formally graduated from the synagogue schools, was qualified to proceed to +Jerusalem with his parents to participate with them in the celebration of his +first Passover. The Passover feast of this year fell on Saturday, April 9, A.D. +7. A considerable company (103) made ready to depart from Nazareth early Monday +morning, April 4, for Jerusalem. They journeyed south toward Samaria, but on +reaching Jezreel, they turned east, going around Mount Gilboa into the Jordan +valley in order to avoid passing through Samaria. Joseph and his family would +have enjoyed going down through Samaria by way of Jacob's well and Bethel, but +since the Jews disliked to deal with the Samaritans, they decided to go with +their neighbors by way of the Jordan valley. + +The much-dreaded Archelaus had been deposed, and they had little to fear in +taking Jesus to Jerusalem. Twelve years had passed since the first Herod had +sought to destroy the babe of Bethlehem, and no one would now think of +associating that affair with this obscure lad of Nazareth. + +Before reaching the Jezreel junction, and as they journeyed on, very soon, on +the left, they passed the ancient village of Shunem, and Jesus heard again +about the most beautiful maiden of all Israel who once lived there and also +about the wonderful works Elisha performed there. In passing by Jezreel, Jesus' +parents recounted the doings of Ahab and Jezebel and the exploits of Jehu. In +passing around Mount Gilboa, they talked much about Saul, who took his life on +the slopes of this mountain, King David, and the associations of this historic +spot. + +As they rounded the base of Gilboa, the pilgrims could see the Greek city of +Scythopolis on the right. They gazed upon the marble structures from a distance +but went not near the gentile city lest they so defile themselves that they +could not participate in the forthcoming solemn and sacred ceremonies of the +Passover at Jerusalem. Mary could not understand why neither Joseph nor Jesus +would speak of Scythopolis. She did not know about their controversy of the +previous year as they had never revealed this episode to her. + +The road now led immediately down into the tropical Jordan valley, and soon +Jesus was to have exposed to his wondering gaze the crooked and ever-winding +Jordan with its glistening and rippling waters as it flowed down toward the +Dead Sea. They laid aside their outer garments as they journeyed south in this +tropical valley, enjoying the luxurious fields of grain and the beautiful +oleanders laden with their pink blossoms, while massive snow-capped Mount +Hermon stood far to the north, in majesty looking down on the historic valley. +A little over three hours' travel from opposite Scythopolis they came upon a +bubbling spring, and here they camped for the night, out under the starlit +heavens. + +On their second day's journey they passed by where the Jabbok, from the east, +flows into the Jordan, and looking east up this river valley, they recounted +the days of Gideon, when the Midianites poured into this region to overrun the +land. Toward the end of the second day's journey they camped near the base of +the highest mountain overlooking the Jordan valley, Mount Sartaba, whose + + top of page - 1375 + +summit was occupied by the Alexandrian fortress where Herod had imprisoned one +of his wives and buried his two strangled sons. + +The third day they passed by two villages which had been recently built by +Herod and noted their superior architecture and their beautiful palm gardens. +By nightfall they reached Jericho, where they remained until the morrow. That +evening Joseph, Mary, and Jesus walked a mile and a half to the site of the +ancient Jericho, where Joshua, for whom Jesus was named, had performed his +renowned exploits, according to Jewish tradition. + +By the fourth and last day's journey the road was a continuous procession of +pilgrims. They now began to climb the hills leading up to Jerusalem. As they +neared the top, they could look across the Jordan to the mountains beyond and +south over the sluggish waters of the Dead Sea. About halfway up to Jerusalem, +Jesus gained his first view of the Mount of Olives (the region to be so much a +part of his subsequent life), and Joseph pointed out to him that the Holy City +lay just beyond this ridge, and the lad's heart beat fast with joyous +anticipation of soon beholding the city and house of his heavenly Father. + +On the eastern slopes of Olivet they paused for rest in the borders of a little +village called Bethany. The hospitable villagers poured forth to minister to +the pilgrims, and it happened that Joseph and his family had stopped near the +house of one Simon, who had three children about the same age as Jesus--Mary, +Martha, and Lazarus. They invited the Nazareth family in for refreshment, and a +lifelong friendship sprang up between the two families. Many times afterward, +in his eventful life, Jesus stopped in this home. + +They pressed on, soon standing on the brink of Olivet, and Jesus saw for the +first time (in his memory) the Holy City, the pretentious palaces, and the +inspiring temple of his Father. At no time in his life did Jesus ever +experience such a purely human thrill as that which at this time so completely +enthralled him as he stood there on this April afternoon on the Mount of +Olives, drinking in his first view of Jerusalem. And in after years, on this +same spot he stood and wept over the city which was about to reject another +prophet, the last and the greatest of her heavenly teachers. + +But they hurried on to Jerusalem. It was now Thursday afternoon. On reaching +the city, they journeyed past the temple, and never had Jesus beheld such +throngs of human beings. He meditated deeply on how these Jews had assembled +here from the uttermost parts of the known world. + +Soon they reached the place prearranged for their accommodation during the +Passover week, the large home of a well-to-do relative of Mary's, one who knew +something of the early history of both John and Jesus, through Zacharias. The +following day, the day of preparation, they made ready for the appropriate +celebration of the Passover Sabbath. + +While all Jerusalem was astir in preparation for the Passover, Joseph found +time to take his son around to visit the academy where it had been arranged for +him to resume his education two years later, as soon as he reached the required +age of fifteen. Joseph was truly puzzled when he observed how little interest +Jesus evinced in all these carefully laid plans. + +Jesus was profoundly impressed by the temple and all the associated services +and other activities. For the first time since he was four years old, he was +too much preoccupied with his own meditations to ask many questions. He did, +however, ask his father several embarrassing questions (as he had on previous +occasions) as to why the heavenly Father required the slaughter of so many + + top of page - 1376 + +innocent and helpless animals. And his father well knew from the expression on +the lad's face that his answers and attempts at explanation were unsatisfactory +to his deep-thinking and keen-reasoning son. + +On the day before the Passover Sabbath, flood tides of spiritual illumination +swept through the mortal mind of Jesus and filled his human heart to +overflowing with affectionate pity for the spiritually blind and morally +ignorant multitudes assembled for the celebration of the ancient Passover +commemoration. This was one of the most extraordinary days that the Son of God +spent in the flesh; and during the night, for the first time in his earth +career, there appeared to him an assigned messenger from Salvington, +commissioned by Immanuel, who said: "The hour has come. It is time that you +began to be about your Father's business." + +And so, even ere the heavy responsibilities of the Nazareth family descended +upon his youthful shoulders, there now arrived the celestial messenger to +remind this lad, not quite thirteen years of age, that the hour had come to +begin the resumption of the responsibilities of a universe. This was the first +act of a long succession of events which finally culminated in the completion +of the Son's bestowal on Urantia and the replacing of "the government of a +universe on his human-divine shoulders." + +As time passed, the mystery of the incarnation became, to all of us, more and +more unfathomable. We could hardly comprehend that this lad of Nazareth was the +creator of all Nebadon. Neither do we nowadays understand how the spirit of +this same Creator Son and the spirit of his Paradise Father are associated with +the souls of mankind. With the passing of time, we could see that his human +mind was increasingly discerning that, while he lived his life in the flesh, in +spirit on his shoulders rested the responsibility of a universe. + +Thus ends the career of the Nazareth lad, and begins the narrative of that +adolescent youth--the increasingly self-conscious divine human--who now begins +the contemplation of his world career as he strives to integrate his expanding +life purpose with the desires of his parents and his obligations to his family +and the society of his day and age. + + top of page - 1377 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Early ³ Jesus At ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Child... ³ Jerusa... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p125.txt b/religious documents/p125.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0163e17 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p125.txt @@ -0,0 +1,549 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 125 Jesus At Jerusalem + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 125 Jesus At Jerusalem + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +NO INCIDENT in all Jesus' eventful earth career was more engaging, more humanly +thrilling, than this, his first remembered visit to Jerusalem. He was +especially stimulated by the experience of attending the temple discussions by +himself, and it long stood out in his memory as the great event of his later +childhood and early youth. This was his first opportunity to enjoy a few days +of independent living, the exhilaration of going and coming without restraint +and restrictions. This brief period of undirected living, during the week +following the Passover, was the first complete freedom from responsibility he +had ever enjoyed. And it was many years subsequent to this before he again had +a like period of freedom from all sense of responsibility, even for a short +time. + +Women seldom went to the Passover feast at Jerusalem; they were not required to +be present. Jesus, however, virtually refused to go unless his mother would +accompany them. And when his mother decided to go, many other Nazareth women +were led to make the journey, so that the Passover company contained the +largest number of women, in proportion to men, ever to go up to the Passover +from Nazareth. Ever and anon, on the way to Jerusalem, they chanted the one +hundred and thirtieth Psalm. + +From the time they left Nazareth until they reached the summit of the Mount of +Olives, Jesus experienced one long stress of expectant anticipation. All +through a joyful childhood he had reverently heard of Jerusalem and its temple; +now he was soon to behold them in reality. From the Mount of Olives and from +the outside, on closer inspection, the temple had been all and more than Jesus +had expected; but when he once entered its sacred portals, the great +disillusionment began. + +In company with his parents Jesus passed through the temple precincts on his +way to join that group of new sons of the law who were about to be consecrated +as citizens of Israel. He was a little disappointed by the general demeanor of +the temple throngs, but the first great shock of the day came when his mother +took leave of them on her way to the women's gallery. It had never occurred to +Jesus that his mother was not to accompany him to the consecration ceremonies, +and he was thoroughly indignant that she was made to suffer from such unjust +discrimination. While he strongly resented this, aside from a few remarks of +protest to his father, he said nothing. But he thought, and thought deeply, as +his questions to the scribes and teachers a week later disclosed. + +He passed through the consecration rituals but was disappointed by their +perfunctory and routine natures. He missed that personal interest which +characterized the ceremonies of the synagogue at Nazareth. He then returned to +greet his mother and prepared to accompany his father on his first trip about +the + + top of page - 1378 + +temple and its various courts, galleries, and corridors. The temple precincts +could accommodate over two hundred thousand worshipers at one time, and while +the vastness of these buildings--in comparison with any he had ever +seen--greatly impressed his mind, he was more intrigued by the contemplation of +the spiritual significance of the temple ceremonies and their associated +worship. + +Though many of the temple rituals very touchingly impressed his sense of the +beautiful and the symbolic, he was always disappointed by the explanation of +the real meanings of these ceremonies which his parents would offer in answer +to his many searching inquiries. Jesus simply would not accept explanations of +worship and religious devotion which involved belief in the wrath of God or the +anger of the Almighty. In further discussion of these questions, after the +conclusion of the temple visit, when his father became mildly insistent that he +acknowledge acceptance of the orthodox Jewish beliefs, Jesus turned suddenly +upon his parents and, looking appealingly into the eyes of his father, said: +"My father, it cannot be true--the Father in heaven cannot so regard his erring +children on earth. The heavenly Father cannot love his children less than you +love me. And I well know, no matter what unwise thing I might do, you would +never pour out wrath upon me nor vent anger against me. If you, my earthly +father, possess such human reflections of the Divine, how much more must the +heavenly Father be filled with goodness and overflowing with mercy. I refuse to +believe that my Father in heaven loves me less than my father on earth." + +When Joseph and Mary heard these words of their first-born son, they held their +peace. And never again did they seek to change his mind about the love of God +and the mercifulness of the Father in heaven. + +1. JESUS VIEWS THE TEMPLE + +Everywhere Jesus went throughout the temple courts, he was shocked and sickened +by the spirit of irreverence which he observed. He deemed the conduct of the +temple throngs to be inconsistent with their presence in "his Father's house." +But he received the shock of his young life when his father escorted him into +the court of the gentiles with its noisy jargon, loud talking and cursing, +mingled indiscriminately with the bleating of sheep and the babble of noises +which betrayed the presence of the money-changers and the vendors of +sacrificial animals and sundry other commercial commodities. + +But most of all was his sense of propriety outraged by the sight of the +frivolous courtesans parading about within this precinct of the temple, just +such painted women as he had so recently seen when on a visit to Sepphoris. +This profanation of the temple fully aroused all his youthful indignation, and +he did not hesitate to express himself freely to Joseph. + +Jesus admired the sentiment and service of the temple, but he was shocked by +the spiritual ugliness which he beheld on the faces of so many of the +unthinking worshipers. + +They now passed down to the priests' court beneath the rock ledge in front of +the temple, where the altar stood, to observe the killing of the droves of +animals and the washing away of the blood from the hands of the officiating +slaughter priests at the bronze fountain. The bloodstained pavement, the gory +hands of the priests, and the sounds of the dying animals were more than this +nature-loving lad could stand. The terrible sight sickened this boy of +Nazareth; he clutched his father's arm and begged to be taken away. They walked +back + + top of page - 1379 + +through the court of the gentiles, and even the coarse laughter and profane +jesting which he there heard were a relief from the sights he had just beheld. + +Joseph saw how his son had sickened at the sight of the temple rites and wisely +led him around to view the "gate beautiful," the artistic gate made of +Corinthian bronze. But Jesus had had enough for his first visit at the temple. +They returned to the upper court for Mary and walked about in the open air and +away from the crowds for an hour, viewing the Asmonean palace, the stately home +of Herod, and the tower of the Roman guards. During this stroll Joseph +explained to Jesus that only the inhabitants of Jerusalem were permitted to +witness the daily sacrifices in the temple, and that the dwellers in Galilee +came up only three times a year to participate in the temple worship: at the +Passover, at the feast of Pentecost (seven weeks after Passover), and at the +feast of tabernacles in October. These feasts were established by Moses. They +then discussed the two later established feasts of the dedication and of Purim. +Afterward they went to their lodgings and made ready for the celebration of the +Passover. + +2. JESUS AND THE PASSOVER + +Five Nazareth families were guests of, or associates with, the family of Simon +of Bethany in the celebration of the Passover, Simon having purchased the +paschal lamb for the company. It was the slaughter of these lambs in such +enormous numbers that had so affected Jesus on his temple visit. It had been +the plan to eat the Passover with Mary's relatives, but Jesus persuaded his +parents to accept the invitation to go to Bethany. + +That night they assembled for the Passover rites, eating the roasted flesh with +unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Jesus, being a new son of the covenant, was +asked to recount the origin of the Passover, and this he well did, but he +somewhat disconcerted his parents by the inclusion of numerous remarks mildly +reflecting the impressions made on his youthful but thoughtful mind by the +things which he had so recently seen and heard. This was the beginning of the +seven-day ceremonies of the feast of the Passover. + +Even at this early date, though he said nothing about such matters to his +parents, Jesus had begun to turn over in his mind the propriety of celebrating +the Passover without the slaughtered lamb. He felt assured in his own mind that +the Father in heaven was not pleased with this spectacle of sacrificial +offerings, and as the years passed, he became increasingly determined someday +to establish the celebration of a bloodless Passover. + +Jesus slept very little that night. His rest was greatly disturbed by revolting +dreams of slaughter and suffering. His mind was distraught and his heart torn +by the inconsistencies and absurdities of the theology of the whole Jewish +ceremonial system. His parents likewise slept little. They were greatly +disconcerted by the events of the day just ended. They were completely upset in +their own hearts by the lad's, to them, strange and determined attitude. Mary +became nervously agitated during the fore part of the night, but Joseph +remained calm, though he was equally puzzled. Both of them feared to talk +frankly with the lad about these problems, though Jesus would gladly have +talked with his parents if they had dared to encourage him. + +The next day's services at the temple were more acceptable to Jesus and did +much to relieve the unpleasant memories of the previous day. The following + + top of page - 1380 + +morning young Lazarus took Jesus in hand, and they began a systematic +exploration of Jerusalem and its environs. Before the day was over, Jesus +discovered the various places about the temple where teaching and question +conferences were in progress; and aside from a few visits to the holy of holies +to gaze in wonder as to what really was behind the veil of separation, he spent +most of his time about the temple at these teaching conferences. + +Throughout the Passover week, Jesus kept his place among the new sons of the +commandment, and this meant that he must seat himself outside the rail which +segregated all persons who were not full citizens of Israel. Being thus made +conscious of his youth, he refrained from asking the many questions which +surged back and forth in his mind; at least he refrained until the Passover +celebration had ended and these restrictions on the newly consecrated youths +were lifted. + +On Wednesday of the Passover week, Jesus was permitted to go home with Lazarus +to spend the night at Bethany. This evening, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary heard +Jesus discuss things temporal and eternal, human and divine, and from that +night on they all three loved him as if he had been their own brother. + +By the end of the week, Jesus saw less of Lazarus since he was not eligible for +admission to even the outer circle of the temple discussions, though he +attended some of the public talks delivered in the outer courts. Lazarus was +the same age as Jesus, but in Jerusalem youths were seldom admitted to the +consecration of sons of the law until they were a full thirteen years of age. + +Again and again, during the Passover week, his parents would find Jesus sitting +off by himself with his youthful head in his hands, profoundly thinking. They +had never seen him behave like this, and not knowing how much he was confused +in mind and troubled in spirit by the experience through which he was passing, +they were sorely perplexed; they did not know what to do. They welcomed the +passing of the days of the Passover week and longed to have their strangely +acting son safely back in Nazareth. + +Day by day Jesus was thinking through his problems. By the end of the week he +had made many adjustments; but when the time came to return to Nazareth, his +youthful mind was still swarming with perplexities and beset by a host of +unanswered questions and unsolved problems. + +Before Joseph and Mary left Jerusalem, in company with Jesus' Nazareth teacher +they made definite arrangements for Jesus to return when he reached the age of +fifteen to begin his long course of study in one of the best-known academies of +the rabbis. Jesus accompanied his parents and teacher on their visits to the +school, but they were all distressed to observe how indifferent he seemed to +all they said and did. Mary was deeply pained at his reactions to the Jerusalem +visit, and Joseph was profoundly perplexed at the lad's strange remarks and +unusual conduct. + +After all, Passover week had been a great event in Jesus' life. He had enjoyed +the opportunity of meeting scores of boys about his own age, fellow candidates +for the consecration, and he utilized such contacts as a means of learning how +people lived in Mesopotamia, Turkestan, and Parthia, as well as in the +Far-Western provinces of Rome. He was already fairly conversant with the way in +which the youth of Egypt and other regions near Palestine grew up. There were +thousands of young people in Jerusalem at this time, and the Nazareth lad +personally met, and more or less extensively interviewed, more than one hundred +and fifty. He was particularly interested in those who hailed from the Far- + + top of page - 1381 + +Eastern and the remote Western countries. As a result of these contacts the lad +began to entertain a desire to travel about the world for the purpose of +learning how the various groups of his fellow men toiled for their livelihood. + +3. DEPARTURE OF JOSEPH AND MARY + +It had been arranged that the Nazareth party should gather in the region of the +temple at midforenoon on the first day of the week after the Passover festival +had ended. This they did and started out on the return journey to Nazareth. +Jesus had gone into the temple to listen to the discussions while his parents +awaited the assembly of their fellow travelers. Presently the company prepared +to depart, the men going in one group and the women in another as was their +custom in journeying to and from the Jerusalem festivals. Jesus had gone up to +Jerusalem in company with his mother and the women. Being now a young man of +the consecration, he was supposed to journey back to Nazareth in company with +his father and the men. But as the Nazareth party moved on toward Bethany, +Jesus was completely absorbed in the discussion of angels, in the temple, being +wholly unmindful of the passing of the time for the departure of his parents. +And he did not realize that he had been left behind until the noontime +adjournment of the temple conferences. + +The Nazareth travelers did not miss Jesus because Mary surmised he journeyed +with the men, while Joseph thought he traveled with the women since he had gone +up to Jerusalem with the women, leading Mary's donkey. They did not discover +his absence until they reached Jericho and prepared to tarry for the night. +After making inquiry of the last of the party to reach Jericho and learning +that none of them had seen their son, they spent a sleepless night, turning +over in their minds what might have happened to him, recounting many of his +unusual reactions to the events of Passover week, and mildly chiding each other +for not seeing to it that he was in the group before they left Jerusalem. + +4. FIRST AND SECOND DAYS IN THE TEMPLE + +In the meantime, Jesus had remained in the temple throughout the afternoon, +listening to the discussions and enjoying the more quiet and decorous +atmosphere, the great crowds of Passover week having about disappeared. At the +conclusion of the afternoon discussions, in none of which Jesus participated, +he betook himself to Bethany, arriving just as Simon's family made ready to +partake of their evening meal. The three youngsters were overjoyed to greet +Jesus, and he remained in Simon's house for the night. He visited very little +during the evening, spending much of the time alone in the garden meditating. + +Early next day Jesus was up and on his way to the temple. On the brow of Olivet +he paused and wept over the sight his eyes beheld--a spiritually impoverished +people, tradition bound and living under the surveillance of the Roman legions. +Early forenoon found him in the temple with his mind made up to take part in +the discussions. Meanwhile, Joseph and Mary also had arisen with the early dawn +with the intention of retracing their steps to Jerusalem. First, they hastened +to the house of their relatives, where they had lodged as a family during the +Passover week, but inquiry elicited the fact that no one had seen Jesus. After +searching all day and finding no trace of him, they returned to their relatives +for the night. + + top of page - 1382 + +At the second conference Jesus had made bold to ask questions, and in a very +amazing way he participated in the temple discussions but always in a manner +consistent with his youth. Sometimes his pointed questions were somewhat +embarrassing to the learned teachers of the Jewish law, but he evinced such a +spirit of candid fairness, coupled with an evident hunger for knowledge, that +the majority of the temple teachers were disposed to treat him with every +consideration. But when he presumed to question the justice of putting to death +a drunken gentile who had wandered outside the court of the gentiles and +unwittingly entered the forbidden and reputedly sacred precincts of the temple, +one of the more intolerant teachers grew impatient with the lad's implied +criticisms and, glowering down upon him, asked how old he was. Jesus replied, +"thirteen years lacking a trifle more than four months." "Then," rejoined the +now irate teacher, "why are you here, since you are not of age as a son of the +law?" And when Jesus explained that he had received consecration during the +Passover, and that he was a finished student of the Nazareth schools, the +teachers with one accord derisively replied, "We might have known; he is from +Nazareth." But the leader insisted that Jesus was not to be blamed if the +rulers of the synagogue at Nazareth had graduated him, technically, when he was +twelve instead of thirteen; and notwithstanding that several of his detractors +got up and left, it was ruled that the lad might continue undisturbed as a +pupil of the temple discussions. + +When this, his second day in the temple, was finished, again he went to Bethany +for the night. And again he went out in the garden to meditate and pray. It was +apparent that his mind was concerned with the contemplation of weighty +problems. + +5. THE THIRD DAY IN THE TEMPLE + +Jesus' third day with the scribes and teachers in the temple witnessed the +gathering of many spectators who, having heard of this youth from Galilee, came +to enjoy the experience of seeing a lad confuse the wise men of the law. Simon +also came down from Bethany to see what the boy was up to. Throughout this day +Joseph and Mary continued their anxious search for Jesus, even going several +times into the temple but never thinking to scrutinize the several discussion +groups, although they once came almost within hearing distance of his +fascinating voice. + +Before the day had ended, the entire attention of the chief discussion group of +the temple had become focused upon the questions being asked by Jesus. Among +his many questions were: + +1. What really exists in the holy of holies, behind the veil? + +2. Why should mothers in Israel be segregated from the male temple worshipers? + +3. If God is a father who loves his children, why all this slaughter of animals +to gain divine favor--has the teaching of Moses been misunderstood? + +4. Since the temple is dedicated to the worship of the Father in heaven, is it +consistent to permit the presence of those who engage in secular barter and +trade? + +5. Is the expected Messiah to become a temporal prince to sit on the throne of +David, or is he to function as the light of life in the establishment of a +spiritual kingdom? + + top of page - 1383 + +And all the day through, those who listened marveled at these questions, and +none was more astonished than Simon. For more than four hours this Nazareth +youth plied these Jewish teachers with thought-provoking and heart-searching +questions. He made few comments on the remarks of his elders. He conveyed his +teaching by the questions he would ask. By the deft and subtle phrasing of a +question he would at one and the same time challenge their teaching and suggest +his own. In the manner of his asking a question there was an appealing +combination of sagacity and humor which endeared him even to those who more or +less resented his youthfulness. He was always eminently fair and considerate in +the asking of these penetrating questions. On this eventful afternoon in the +temple he exhibited that same reluctance to take unfair advantage of an +opponent which characterized his entire subsequent public ministry. As a youth, +and later on as a man, he seemed to be utterly free from all egoistic desire to +win an argument merely to experience logical triumph over his fellows, being +interested supremely in just one thing: to proclaim everlasting truth and thus +effect a fuller revelation of the eternal God. + +When the day was over, Simon and Jesus wended their way back to Bethany. For +most of the distance both the man and the boy were silent. Again Jesus paused +on the brow of Olivet, but as he viewed the city and its temple, he did not +weep; he only bowed his head in silent devotion. + +After the evening meal at Bethany he again declined to join the merry circle +but instead went to the garden, where he lingered long into the night, vainly +endeavoring to think out some definite plan of approach to the problem of his +lifework and to decide how best he might labor to reveal to his spiritually +blinded countrymen a more beautiful concept of the heavenly Father and so set +them free from their terrible bondage to law, ritual, ceremonial, and musty +tradition. But the clear light did not come to the truth-seeking lad. + +6. THE FOURTH DAY IN THE TEMPLE + +Jesus was strangely unmindful of his earthly parents; even at breakfast, when +Lazarus's mother remarked that his parents must be about home by that time, +Jesus did not seem to comprehend that they would be somewhat worried about his +having lingered behind. + +Again he journeyed to the temple, but he did not pause to meditate at the brow +of Olivet. In the course of the morning's discussions much time was devoted to +the law and the prophets, and the teachers were astonished that Jesus was so +familiar with the Scriptures, in Hebrew as well as Greek. But they were amazed +not so much by his knowledge of truth as by his youth. + +At the afternoon conference they had hardly begun to answer his question +relating to the purpose of prayer when the leader invited the lad to come +forward and, sitting beside him, bade him state his own views regarding prayer +and worship. + +The evening before, Jesus' parents had heard about this strange youth who so +deftly sparred with the expounders of the law, but it had not occurred to them +that this lad was their son. They had about decided to journey out to the home +of Zacharias as they thought Jesus might have gone thither to see Elizabeth and +John. Thinking Zacharias might perhaps be at the temple, they stopped there on +their way to the City of Judah. As they strolled through the courts of the + + top of page - 1384 + +temple, imagine their surprise and amazement when they recognized the voice of +the missing lad and beheld him seated among the temple teachers. + +Joseph was speechless, but Mary gave vent to her long-pent-up fear and anxiety +when, rushing up to the lad, now standing to greet his astonished parents, she +said: "My child, why have you treated us like this? It is now more than three +days that your father and I have searched for you sorrowing. Whatever possessed +you to desert us?" It was a tense moment. All eyes were turned on Jesus to hear +what he would say. His father looked reprovingly at him but said nothing. + +It should be remembered that Jesus was supposed to be a young man. He had +finished the regular schooling of a child, had been recognized as a son of the +law, and had received consecration as a citizen of Israel. And yet his mother +more than mildly upbraided him before all the people assembled, right in the +midst of the most serious and sublime effort of his young life, thus bringing +to an inglorious termination one of the greatest opportunities ever to be +granted him to function as a teacher of truth, a preacher of righteousness, a +revealer of the loving character of his Father in heaven. + +But the lad was equal to the occasion. When you take into fair consideration +all the factors which combined to make up this situation, you will be better +prepared to fathom the wisdom of the boy's reply to his mother's unintended +rebuke. After a moment's thought, Jesus answered his mother, saying: "Why is it +that you have so long sought me? Would you not expect to find me in my Father's +house since the time has come when I should be about my Father's business?" + +Everyone was astonished at the lad's manner of speaking. Silently they all +withdrew and left him standing alone with his parents. Presently the young man +relieved the embarrassment of all three when he quietly said: "Come, my +parents, none has done aught but that which he thought best. Our Father in +heaven has ordained these things; let us depart for home." + +In silence they started out, arriving at Jericho for the night. Only once did +they pause, and that on the brow of Olivet, when the lad raised his staff aloft +and, quivering from head to foot under the surging of intense emotion, said: "O +Jerusalem, Jerusalem, and the people thereof, what slaves you are--subservient +to the Roman yoke and victims of your own traditions--but I will return to +cleanse yonder temple and deliver my people from this bondage!" + +On the three days' journey to Nazareth Jesus said little; neither did his +parents say much in his presence. They were truly at a loss to understand the +conduct of their first-born son, but they did treasure in their hearts his +sayings, even though they could not fully comprehend their meanings. + +Upon reaching home, Jesus made a brief statement to his parents, assuring them +of his affection and implying that they need not fear he would again give any +occasion for their suffering anxiety because of his conduct. He concluded this +momentous statement by saying: "While I must do the will of my Father in +heaven, I will also be obedient to my father on earth. I will await my hour." + +Though Jesus, in his mind, would many times refuse to consent to the +well-intentioned but misguided efforts of his parents to dictate the course of +his thinking or to establish the plan of his work on earth, still, in every +manner consistent with his dedication to the doing of his Paradise Father's +will, he did most gracefully conform to the desires of his earthly father and +to the usages of his family + + top of page - 1385 + +in the flesh. Even when he could not consent, he would do everything possible +to conform. He was an artist in the matter of adjusting his dedication to duty +to his obligations of family loyalty and social service. + +Joseph was puzzled, but Mary, as she reflected on these experiences, gained +comfort, eventually viewing his utterance on Olivet as prophetic of the +Messianic mission of her son as Israel's deliverer. She set to work with +renewed energy to mold his thoughts into patriotic and nationalistic channels +and enlisted the efforts of her brother, Jesus' favorite uncle; and in every +other way did the mother of Jesus address herself to the task of preparing her +first-born son to assume the leadership of those who would restore the throne +of David and forever cast off the gentile yoke of political bondage. + + top of page - 1386 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Later ³ The Two ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Child... ³ Crucial... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p126.txt b/religious documents/p126.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bcab5b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p126.txt @@ -0,0 +1,548 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 126 The Two Crucial Years + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 126 The Two Crucial Years + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +OF ALL Jesus' earth-life experiences, the fourteenth and fifteenth years were +the most crucial. These two years, after he began to be self-conscious of +divinity and destiny, and before he achieved a large measure of communication +with his indwelling Adjuster, were the most trying of his eventful life on +Urantia. It is this period of two years which should be called the great test, +the real temptation. No human youth, in passing through the early confusions +and adjustment problems of adolescence, ever experienced a more crucial testing +than that which Jesus passed through during his transition from childhood to +young manhood. + +This important period in Jesus' youthful development began with the conclusion +of the Jerusalem visit and with his return to Nazareth. At first Mary was happy +in the thought that she had her boy back once more, that Jesus had returned +home to be a dutiful son--not that he was ever anything else--and that he would +henceforth be more responsive to her plans for his future life. But she was not +for long to bask in this sunshine of maternal delusion and unrecognized family +pride; very soon she was to be more completely disillusioned. More and more the +boy was in the company of his father; less and less did he come to her with his +problems, while increasingly both his parents failed to comprehend his frequent +alternation between the affairs of this world and the contemplation of his +relation to his Father's business. Frankly, they did not understand him, but +they did truly love him. + +As he grew older, Jesus' pity and love for the Jewish people deepened, but with +the passing years, there developed in his mind a growing righteous resentment +of the presence in the Father's temple of the politically appointed priests. +Jesus had great respect for the sincere Pharisees and the honest scribes, but +he held the hypocritical Pharisees and the dishonest theologians in great +contempt; he looked with disdain upon all those religious leaders who were not +sincere. When he scrutinized the leadership of Israel, he was sometimes tempted +to look with favor on the possibility of his becoming the Messiah of Jewish +expectation, but he never yielded to such a temptation. + +The story of his exploits among the wise men of the temple in Jerusalem was +gratifying to all Nazareth, especially to his former teachers in the synagogue +school. For a time his praise was on everybody's lips. All the village +recounted his childhood wisdom and praiseworthy conduct and predicted that he +was destined to become a great leader in Israel; at last a really great teacher +was to come out of Nazareth in Galilee. And they all looked forward to the time +when he + + top of page - 1387 + +would be fifteen years of age so that he might be permitted regularly to read +the Scriptures in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. + +1. HIS FOURTEENTH YEAR (A.D. 8) + +This is the calendar year of his fourteenth birthday. He had become a good yoke +maker and worked well with both canvas and leather. He was also rapidly +developing into an expert carpenter and cabinetmaker. This summer he made +frequent trips to the top of the hill to the northwest of Nazareth for prayer +and meditation. He was gradually becoming more self-conscious of the nature of +his bestowal on earth. + +This hill, a little more than one hundred years previously, had been the "high +place of Baal," and now it was the site of the tomb of Simeon, a reputed holy +man of Israel. From the summit of this hill of Simeon, Jesus looked out over +Nazareth and the surrounding country. He would gaze upon Megiddo and recall the +story of the Egyptian army winning its first great victory in Asia; and how, +later on, another such army defeated the Judean king Josiah. Not far away he +could look upon Taanach, where Deborah and Barak defeated Sisera. In the +distance he could view the hills of Dothan, where he had been taught Joseph's +brethren sold him into Egyptian slavery. He then would shift his gaze over to +Ebal and Gerizim and recount to himself the traditions of Abraham, Jacob, and +Abimelech. And thus he recalled and turned over in his mind the historic and +traditional events of his father Joseph's people. + +He continued to carry on his advanced courses of reading under the synagogue +teachers, and he also continued with the home education of his brothers and +sisters as they grew up to suitable ages. + +Early this year Joseph arranged to set aside the income from his Nazareth and +Capernaum property to pay for Jesus' long course of study at Jerusalem, it +having been planned that he should go to Jerusalem in August of the following +year when he would be fifteen years of age. + +By the beginning of this year both Joseph and Mary entertained frequent doubts +about the destiny of their first-born son. He was indeed a brilliant and +lovable child, but he was so difficult to understand, so hard to fathom, and +again, nothing extraordinary or miraculous ever happened. Scores of times had +his proud mother stood in breathless anticipation, expecting to see her son +engage in some superhuman or miraculous performance, but always were her hopes +dashed down in cruel disappointment. And all this was discouraging, even +disheartening. The devout people of those days truly believed that prophets and +men of promise always demonstrated their calling and established their divine +authority by performing miracles and working wonders. But Jesus did none of +these things; wherefore was the confusion of his parents steadily increased as +they contemplated his future. + +The improved economic condition of the Nazareth family was reflected in many +ways about the home and especially in the increased number of smooth white +boards which were used as writing slates, the writing being done with charcoal. +Jesus was also permitted to resume his music lessons; he was very fond of +playing the harp. + +Throughout this year it can truly be said that Jesus "grew in favor with man +and with God." The prospects of the family seemed good; the future was bright. + + top of page - 1388 + +2. THE DEATH OF JOSEPH + +All did go well until that fateful day of Tuesday, September 25, when a runner +from Sepphoris brought to this Nazareth home the tragic news that Joseph had +been severely injured by the falling of a derrick while at work on the +governor's residence. The messenger from Sepphoris had stopped at the shop on +the way to Joseph's home, informing Jesus of his father's accident, and they +went together to the house to break the sad news to Mary. Jesus desired to go +immediately to his father, but Mary would hear to nothing but that she must +hasten to her husband's side. She directed that James, then ten years of age, +should accompany her to Sepphoris while Jesus remained home with the younger +children until she should return, as she did not know how seriously Joseph had +been injured. But Joseph died of his injuries before Mary arrived. They brought +him to Nazareth, and on the following day he was laid to rest with his fathers. + +Just at the time when prospects were good and the future looked bright, an +apparently cruel hand struck down the head of this Nazareth household, the +affairs of this home were disrupted, and every plan for Jesus and his future +education was demolished. This carpenter lad, now just past fourteen years of +age, awakened to the realization that he had not only to fulfill the commission +of his heavenly Father to reveal the divine nature on earth and in the flesh, +but that his young human nature must also shoulder the responsibility of caring +for his widowed mother and seven brothers and sisters--and another yet to be +born. This lad of Nazareth now became the sole support and comfort of this so +suddenly bereaved family. Thus were permitted those occurrences of the natural +order of events on Urantia which would force this young man of destiny so early +to assume these heavy but highly educational and disciplinary responsibilities +attendant upon becoming the head of a human family, of becoming father to his +own brothers and sisters, of supporting and protecting his mother, of +functioning as guardian of his father's home, the only home he was to know +while on this world. + +Jesus cheerfully accepted the responsibilities so suddenly thrust upon him, and +he carried them faithfully to the end. At least one great problem and +anticipated difficulty in his life had been tragically solved--he would not now +be expected to go to Jerusalem to study under the rabbis. It remained always +true that Jesus "sat at no man's feet." He was ever willing to learn from even +the humblest of little children, but he never derived authority to teach truth +from human sources. + +Still he knew nothing of the Gabriel visit to his mother before his birth; he +only learned of this from John on the day of his baptism, at the beginning of +his public ministry. + +As the years passed, this young carpenter of Nazareth increasingly measured +every institution of society and every usage of religion by the unvarying test: +What does it do for the human soul? does it bring God to man? does it bring man +to God? While this youth did not wholly neglect the recreational and social +aspects of life, more and more he devoted his time and energies to just two +purposes: the care of his family and the preparation to do his Father's +heavenly will on earth. + + top of page - 1389 + +This year it became the custom for the neighbors to drop in during the winter +evenings to hear Jesus play upon the harp, to listen to his stories (for the +lad was a master storyteller), and to hear him read from the Greek scriptures. + +The economic affairs of the family continued to run fairly smoothly as there +was quite a sum of money on hand at the time of Joseph's death. Jesus early +demonstrated the possession of keen business judgment and financial sagacity. +He was liberal but frugal; he was saving but generous. He proved to be a wise +and efficient administrator of his father's estate. + +But in spite of all that Jesus and the Nazareth neighbors could do to bring +cheer into the home, Mary, and even the children, were overcast with sadness. +Joseph was gone. Joseph was an unusual husband and father, and they all missed +him. And it seemed all the more tragic to think that he died ere they could +speak to him or hear his farewell blessing. + +3. THE FIFTEENTH YEAR (A.D. 9) + +By the middle of this fifteenth year--and we are reckoning time in accordance +with the twentieth-century calendar, not by the Jewish year--Jesus had taken a +firm grasp upon the management of his family. Before this year had passed, +their savings had about disappeared, and they were face to face with the +necessity of disposing of one of the Nazareth houses which Joseph and his +neighbor Jacob owned in partnership. + +On Wednesday evening, April 17, A.D. 9, Ruth, the baby of the family, was born, +and to the best of his ability Jesus endeavored to take the place of his father +in comforting and ministering to his mother during this trying and peculiarly +sad ordeal. For almost a score of years (until he began his public ministry) no +father could have loved and nurtured his daughter any more affectionately and +faithfully than Jesus cared for little Ruth. And he was an equally good father +to all the other members of his family. + +During this year Jesus first formulated the prayer which he subsequently taught +to his apostles, and which to many has become known as "The Lord's Prayer." In +a way it was an evolution of the family altar; they had many forms of praise +and several formal prayers. After his father's death Jesus tried to teach the +older children to express themselves individually in prayer--much as he so +enjoyed doing--but they could not grasp his thought and would invariably fall +back upon their memorized prayer forms. It was in this effort to stimulate his +older brothers and sisters to say individual prayers that Jesus would endeavor +to lead them along by suggestive phrases, and presently, without intention on +his part, it developed that they were all using a form of prayer which was +largely built up from these suggestive lines which Jesus had taught them. + +At last Jesus gave up the idea of having each member of the family formulate +spontaneous prayers, and one evening in October he sat down by the little squat +lamp on the low stone table, and, on a piece of smooth cedar board about +eighteen inches square, with a piece of charcoal he wrote out the prayer which +became from that time on the standard family petition. + +This year Jesus was much troubled with confused thinking. Family responsibility +had quite effectively removed all thought of immediately carrying out any plan +for responding to the Jerusalem visitation directing him to "be about his +Father's business." Jesus rightly reasoned that the watchcare of his earthly + + top of page - 1390 + +father's family must take precedence of all duties; that the support of his +family must become his first obligation. + +In the course of this year Jesus found a passage in the so-called Book of Enoch +which influenced him in the later adoption of the term "Son of Man" as a +designation for his bestowal mission on Urantia. He had thoroughly considered +the idea of the Jewish Messiah and was firmly convinced that he was not to be +that Messiah. He longed to help his father's people, but he never expected to +lead Jewish armies in overthrowing the foreign domination of Palestine. He knew +he would never sit on the throne of David at Jerusalem. Neither did he believe +that his mission was that of a spiritual deliverer or moral teacher solely to +the Jewish people. In no sense, therefore, could his life mission be the +fulfillment of the intense longings and supposed Messianic prophecies of the +Hebrew scriptures; at least, not as the Jews understood these predictions of +the prophets. Likewise he was certain he was never to appear as the Son of Man +depicted by the Prophet Daniel. + +But when the time came for him to go forth as a world teacher, what would he +call himself? What claim should he make concerning his mission? By what name +would he be called by the people who would become believers in his teachings? + +While turning all these problems over in his mind, he found in the synagogue +library at Nazareth, among the apocalyptic books which he had been studying, +this manuscript called "The Book of Enoch"; and though he was certain that it +had not been written by Enoch of old, it proved very intriguing to him, and he +read and reread it many times. There was one passage which particularly +impressed him, a passage in which this term "Son of Man" appeared. The writer +of this so-called Book of Enoch went on to tell about this Son of Man, +describing the work he would do on earth and explaining that this Son of Man, +before coming down on this earth to bring salvation to mankind, had walked +through the courts of heavenly glory with his Father, the Father of all; and +that he had turned his back upon all this grandeur and glory to come down on +earth to proclaim salvation to needy mortals. As Jesus would read these +passages (well understanding that much of the Eastern mysticism which had +become admixed with these teachings was erroneous), he responded in his heart +and recognized in his mind that of all the Messianic predictions of the Hebrew +scriptures and of all the theories about the Jewish deliverer, none was so near +the truth as this story tucked away in this only partially accredited Book of +Enoch; and he then and there decided to adopt as his inaugural title "the Son +of Man." And this he did when he subsequently began his public work. Jesus had +an unerring ability for the recognition of truth, and truth he never hesitated +to embrace, no matter from what source it appeared to emanate. + +By this time he had quite thoroughly settled many things about his forthcoming +work for the world, but he said nothing of these matters to his mother, who +still held stoutly to the idea of his being the Jewish Messiah. + +The great confusion of Jesus' younger days now arose. Having settled something +about the nature of his mission on earth, "to be about his Father's +business"--to show forth his Father's loving nature to all mankind--he began to +ponder anew the many statements in the Scriptures referring to the coming of a +national deliverer, a Jewish teacher or king. To what event did these +prophecies refer? Was not he a Jew? or was he? Was he or was he not of the +house of David? His + + top of page - 1391 + +mother averred he was; his father had ruled that he was not. He decided he was +not. But had the prophets confused the nature and mission of the Messiah? + +After all, could it be possible that his mother was right? In most matters, +when differences of opinion had arisen in the past, she had been right. If he +were a new teacher and not the Messiah, then how should he recognize the Jewish +Messiah if such a one should appear in Jerusalem during the time of his earth +mission; and, further, what should be his relation to this Jewish Messiah? And +what should be his relation, after embarking on his life mission, to his +family? to the Jewish commonwealth and religion? to the Roman Empire? to the +gentiles and their religions? Each of these momentous problems this young +Galilean turned over in his mind and seriously pondered while he continued to +work at the carpenter's bench, laboriously making a living for himself, his +mother, and eight other hungry mouths. + +Before the end of this year Mary saw the family funds diminishing. She turned +the sale of doves over to James. Presently they bought a second cow, and with +the aid of Miriam they began the sale of milk to their Nazareth neighbors. + +His profound periods of meditation, his frequent journeys to the hilltop for +prayer, and the many strange ideas which Jesus advanced from time to time, +thoroughly alarmed his mother. Sometimes she thought the lad was beside +himself, and then she would steady her fears, remembering that he was, after +all, a child of promise and in some manner different from other youths. + +But Jesus was learning not to speak of all his thoughts, not to present all his +ideas to the world, not even to his own mother. From this year on, Jesus' +disclosures about what was going on in his mind steadily diminished; that is, +he talked less about those things which an average person could not grasp, and +which would lead to his being regarded as peculiar or different from ordinary +folks. To all appearances he became commonplace and conventional, though he did +long for someone who could understand his problems. He craved a trustworthy and +confidential friend, but his problems were too complex for his human associates +to comprehend. The uniqueness of the unusual situation compelled him to bear +his burdens alone. + +4. FIRST SERMON IN THE SYNAGOGUE + +With the coming of his fifteenth birthday, Jesus could officially occupy the +synagogue pulpit on the Sabbath day. Many times before, in the absence of +speakers, Jesus had been asked to read the Scriptures, but now the day had come +when, according to law, he could conduct the service. Therefore on the first +Sabbath after his fifteenth birthday the chazan arranged for Jesus to conduct +the morning service of the synagogue. And when all the faithful in Nazareth had +assembled, the young man, having made his selection of Scriptures, stood up and +began to read: + +"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me; he has +sent me to bring good news to the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to +proclaim liberty to the captives, and to set the spiritual prisoners free; to +proclaim the year of God's favor and the day of our God's reckoning; to comfort +all mourners, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy in the place of +mourning, a song of praise instead of the spirit of sorrow, that they may be +called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, wherewith he may be +glorified. + + top of page - 1392 + +"Seek good and not evil that you may live, and so the Lord, the God of hosts, +shall be with you. Hate the evil and love the good; establish judgment in the +gate. Perhaps the Lord God will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. + +"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from +before my eyes; cease to do evil and learn to do good; seek justice, relieve +the oppressed. Defend the fatherless and plead for the widow. + +"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, to bow myself before the Lord of all +the earth? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year +old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousands of sheep, +or with rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the +fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? No! for the Lord has showed us, O men, +what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to deal justly, love +mercy, and walk humbly with your God? + +"To whom, then, will you liken God who sits upon the circle of the earth? Lift +up your eyes and behold who has created all these worlds, who brings forth +their host by number and calls them all by their names. He does all these +things by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not +one fails. He gives power to the weak, and to those who are weary he increases +strength. Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I +will strengthen you and I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right +hand of my righteousness, for I am the Lord your God. And I will hold your +right hand, saying to you, fear not, for I will help you. + +"And you are my witness, says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen that +all may know and believe me and understand that I am the Eternal. I, even I, am +the Lord, and beside me there is no savior." + +And when he had thus read, he sat down, and the people went to their homes, +pondering over the words which he had so graciously read to them. Never had his +townspeople seen him so magnificently solemn; never had they heard his voice so +earnest and so sincere; never had they observed him so manly and decisive, so +authoritative. + +This Sabbath afternoon Jesus climbed the Nazareth hill with James and, when +they returned home, wrote out the Ten Commandments in Greek on two smooth +boards in charcoal. Subsequently Martha colored and decorated these boards, and +for long they hung on the wall over James's small workbench. + +5. THE FINANCIAL STRUGGLE + +Gradually Jesus and his family returned to the simple life of their earlier +years. Their clothes and even their food became simpler. They had plenty of +milk, butter, and cheese. In season they enjoyed the produce of their garden, +but each passing month necessitated the practice of greater frugality. Their +breakfasts were very plain; they saved their best food for the evening meal. +However, among these Jews lack of wealth did not imply social inferiority. + +Already had this youth well-nigh encompassed the comprehension of how men lived +in his day. And how well he understood life in the home, field, and workshop is +shown by his subsequent teachings, which so repletely reveal his intimate +contact with all phases of human experience. + +The Nazareth chazan continued to cling to the belief that Jesus was to become a +great teacher, probably the successor of the renowned Gamaliel at Jerusalem. + + top of page - 1393 + +Apparently all Jesus' plans for a career were thwarted. The future did not look +bright as matters now developed. But he did not falter; he was not discouraged. +He lived on, day by day, doing well the present duty and faithfully discharging +the immediate responsibilities of his station in life. Jesus' life is the +everlasting comfort of all disappointed idealists. + +The pay of a common day-laboring carpenter was slowly diminishing. By the end +of this year Jesus could earn, by working early and late, only the equivalent +of about twenty-five cents a day. By the next year they found it difficult to +pay the civil taxes, not to mention the synagogue assessments and the temple +tax of one-half shekel. During this year the tax collector tried to squeeze +extra revenue out of Jesus, even threatening to take his harp. + +Fearing that the copy of the Greek scriptures might be discovered and +confiscated by the tax collectors, Jesus, on his fifteenth birthday, presented +it to the Nazareth synagogue library as his maturity offering to the Lord. + +The great shock of his fifteenth year came when Jesus went over to Sepphoris to +receive the decision of Herod regarding the appeal taken to him in the dispute +about the amount of money due Joseph at the time of his accidental death. Jesus +and Mary had hoped for the receipt of a considerable sum of money when the +treasurer at Sepphoris had offered them a paltry amount. Joseph's brothers had +taken an appeal to Herod himself, and now Jesus stood in the palace and heard +Herod decree that his father had nothing due him at the time of his death. And +for such an unjust decision Jesus never again trusted Herod Antipas. It is not +surprising that he once alluded to Herod as "that fox." + +The close work at the carpenter's bench during this and subsequent years +deprived Jesus of the opportunity of mingling with the caravan passengers. The +family supply shop had already been taken over by his uncle, and Jesus worked +altogether in the home shop, where he was near to help Mary with the family. +About this time he began sending James up to the camel lot to gather +information about world events, and thus he sought to keep in touch with the +news of the day. + +As he grew up to manhood, he passed through all those conflicts and confusions +which the average young persons of previous and subsequent ages have undergone. +And the rigorous experience of supporting his family was a sure safeguard +against his having overmuch time for idle meditation or the indulgence of +mystic tendencies. + +This was the year that Jesus rented a considerable piece of land just to the +north of their home, which was divided up as a family garden plot. Each of the +older children had an individual garden, and they entered into keen competition +in their agricultural efforts. Their eldest brother spent some time with them +in the garden each day during the season of vegetable cultivation. As Jesus +worked with his younger brothers and sisters in the garden, he many times +entertained the wish that they were all located on a farm out in the country +where they could enjoy the liberty and freedom of an unhampered life. But they +did not find themselves growing up in the country; and Jesus, being a +thoroughly practical youth as well as an idealist, intelligently and vigorously +attacked his problem just as he found it, and did everything within his power +to adjust himself and his family to the realities of their situation and to +adapt their condition to the highest possible satisfaction of their individual +and collective longings. + +At one time Jesus faintly hoped that he might be able to gather up sufficient +means, provided they could collect the considerable sum of money due his father + + top of page - 1394 + +for work on Herod's palace, to warrant undertaking the purchase of a small +farm. He had really given serious thought to this plan of moving his family out +into the country. But when Herod refused to pay them any of the funds due +Joseph, they gave up the ambition of owning a home in the country. As it was, +they contrived to enjoy much of the experience of farm life as they now had +three cows, four sheep, a flock of chickens, a donkey, and a dog, in addition +to the doves. Even the little tots had their regular duties to perform in the +well-regulated scheme of management which characterized the home life of this +Nazareth family. + +With the close of this fifteenth year Jesus completed the traversal of that +dangerous and difficult period in human existence, that time of transition +between the more complacent years of childhood and the consciousness of +approaching manhood with its increased responsibilities and opportunities for +the acquirement of advanced experience in the development of a noble character. +The growth period for mind and body had ended, and now began the real career of +this young man of Nazareth. + + top of page - 1395 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Jesus At ³ The Adolescent ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Jerusa... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p127.txt b/religious documents/p127.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4edaa9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p127.txt @@ -0,0 +1,734 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 127 The Adolescent Years + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 127 The Adolescent Years + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AS JESUS entered upon his adolescent years, he found himself the head and sole +support of a large family. Within a few years after his father's death all +their property was gone. As time passed, he became increasingly conscious of +his pre-existence; at the same time he began more fully to realize that he was +present on earth and in the flesh for the express purpose of revealing his +Paradise Father to the children of men. + +No adolescent youth who has lived or ever will live on this world or any other +world has had or ever will have more weighty problems to resolve or more +intricate difficulties to untangle. No youth of Urantia will ever be called +upon to pass through more testing conflicts or more trying situations than +Jesus himself endured during those strenuous years from fifteen to twenty. + +Having thus tasted the actual experience of living these adolescent years on a +world beset by evil and distraught by sin, the Son of Man became possessed of +full knowledge about the life experience of the youth of all the realms of +Nebadon, and thus forever he became the understanding refuge for the distressed +and perplexed adolescents of all ages and on all worlds throughout the local +universe. + +Slowly, but certainly and by actual experience, this divine Son is earning the +right to become sovereign of his universe, the unquestioned and supreme ruler +of all created intelligences on all local universe worlds, the understanding +refuge of the beings of all ages and of all degrees of personal endowment and +experience. + +1. THE SIXTEENTH YEAR (A.D. 10) + +The incarnated Son passed through infancy and experienced an uneventful +childhood. Then he emerged from that testing and trying transition stage +between childhood and young manhood--he became the adolescent Jesus. + +This year he attained his full physical growth. He was a virile and comely +youth. He became increasingly sober and serious, but he was kind and +sympathetic. His eye was kind but searching; his smile was always engaging and +reassuring. His voice was musical but authoritative; his greeting cordial but +unaffected. Always, even in the most commonplace of contacts, there seemed to +be in evidence the touch of a twofold nature, the human and the divine. Ever he +displayed this combination of the sympathizing friend and the authoritative +teacher. And these personality traits began early to become manifest, even in +these adolescent years. + +This physically strong and robust youth also acquired the full growth of his +human intellect, not the full experience of human thinking but the fullness of +capacity for such intellectual development. He possessed a healthy and +well-proportioned body, a keen and analytical mind, a kind and sympathetic dis- + + top of page - 1396 + +position, a somewhat fluctuating but aggressive temperament, all of which were +becoming organized into a strong, striking, and attractive personality. + +As time went on, it became more difficult for his mother and his brothers and +sisters to understand him; they stumbled over his sayings and misinterpreted +his doings. They were all unfitted to comprehend their eldest brother's life +because their mother had given them to understand that he was destined to +become the deliverer of the Jewish people. After they had received from Mary +such intimations as family secrets, imagine their confusion when Jesus would +make frank denials of all such ideas and intentions. + +This year Simon started to school, and they were compelled to sell another +house. James now took charge of the teaching of his three sisters, two of whom +were old enough to begin serious study. As soon as Ruth grew up, she was taken +in hand by Miriam and Martha. Ordinarily the girls of Jewish families received +little education, but Jesus maintained (and his mother agreed) that girls +should go to school the same as boys, and since the synagogue school would not +receive them, there was nothing to do but conduct a home school especially for +them. + +Throughout this year Jesus was closely confined to the workbench. Fortunately +he had plenty of work; his was of such a superior grade that he was never idle +no matter how slack work might be in that region. At times he had so much to do +that James would help him. + +By the end of this year he had just about made up his mind that he would, after +rearing his family and seeing them married, enter publicly upon his work as a +teacher of truth and as a revealer of the heavenly Father to the world. He knew +he was not to become the expected Jewish Messiah, and he concluded that it was +next to useless to discuss these matters with his mother; he decided to allow +her to entertain whatever ideas she might choose since all he had said in the +past had made little or no impression upon her and he recalled that his father +had never been able to say anything that would change her mind. From this year +on he talked less and less with his mother, or anyone else, about these +problems. His was such a peculiar mission that no one living on earth could +give him advice concerning its prosecution. + +He was a real though youthful father to the family; he spent every possible +hour with the youngsters, and they truly loved him. His mother grieved to see +him work so hard; she sorrowed that he was day by day toiling at the +carpenter's bench earning a living for the family instead of being, as they had +so fondly planned, at Jerusalem studying with the rabbis. While there was much +about her son that Mary could not understand, she did love him, and she most +thoroughly appreciated the willing manner in which he shouldered the +responsibility of the home. + +2. THE SEVENTEENTH YEAR (A.D. 11) + +At about this time there was considerable agitation, especially at Jerusalem +and in Judea, in favor of rebellion against the payment of taxes to Rome. There +was coming into existence a strong nationalist party, presently to be called +the Zealots. The Zealots, unlike the Pharisees, were not willing to await the +coming of the Messiah. They proposed to bring things to a head through +political revolt. + +A group of organizers from Jerusalem arrived in Galilee and were making good +headway until they reached Nazareth. When they came to see Jesus, he + + top of page - 1397 + +listened carefully to them and asked many questions but refused to join the +party. He declined fully to disclose his reasons for not enlisting, and his +refusal had the effect of keeping out many of his youthful fellows in Nazareth. + +Mary did her best to induce him to enlist, but she could not budge him. She +went so far as to intimate that his refusal to espouse the nationalist cause at +her behest was insubordination, a violation of his pledge made upon their +return from Jerusalem that he would be subject to his parents; but in answer to +this insinuation he only laid a kindly hand on her shoulder and, looking into +her face, said: "My mother, how could you?" And Mary withdrew her statement. + +One of Jesus' uncles (Mary's brother Simon) had already joined this group, +subsequently becoming an officer in the Galilean division. And for several +years there was something of an estrangement between Jesus and his uncle. + +But trouble began to brew in Nazareth. Jesus' attitude in these matters had +resulted in creating a division among the Jewish youths of the city. About half +had joined the nationalist organization, and the other half began the formation +of an opposing group of more moderate patriots, expecting Jesus to assume the +leadership. They were amazed when he refused the honor offered him, pleading as +an excuse his heavy family responsibilities, which they all allowed. But the +situation was still further complicated when, presently, a wealthy Jew, Isaac, +a moneylender to the gentiles, came forward agreeing to support Jesus' family +if he would lay down his tools and assume leadership of these Nazareth +patriots. + +Jesus, then scarcely seventeen years of age, was confronted with one of the +most delicate and difficult situations of his early life. Patriotic issues, +especially when complicated by tax-gathering foreign oppressors, are always +difficult for spiritual leaders to relate themselves to, and it was doubly so +in this case since the Jewish religion was involved in all this agitation +against Rome. + +Jesus' position was made more difficult because his mother and uncle, and even +his younger brother James, all urged him to join the nationalist cause. All the +better Jews of Nazareth had enlisted, and those young men who had not joined +the movement would all enlist the moment Jesus changed his mind. He had but one +wise counselor in all Nazareth, his old teacher, the chazan, who counseled him +about his reply to the citizens' committee of Nazareth when they came to ask +for his answer to the public appeal which had been made. In all Jesus' young +life this was the very first time he had consciously resorted to public +strategy. Theretofore, always had he depended upon a frank statement of truth +to clarify the situation, but now he could not declare the full truth. He could +not intimate that he was more than a man; he could not disclose his idea of the +mission which awaited his attainment of a riper manhood. Despite these +limitations his religious fealty and national loyalty were directly challenged. +His family was in a turmoil, his youthful friends in division, and the entire +Jewish contingent of the town in a hubbub. And to think that he was to blame +for it all! And how innocent he had been of all intention to make trouble of +any kind, much less a disturbance of this sort. + +Something had to be done. He must state his position, and this he did bravely +and diplomatically to the satisfaction of many, but not all. He adhered to the +terms of his original plea, maintaining that his first duty was to his family, +that a widowed mother and eight brothers and sisters needed something more than +mere money could buy--the physical necessities of life--that they were entitled +to a father's watchcare and guidance, and that he could not in clear conscience +release himself from the obligation which a cruel accident had thrust upon him. + + top of page - 1398 + +He paid compliment to his mother and eldest brother for being willing to +release him but reiterated that loyalty to a dead father forbade his leaving +the family no matter how much money was forthcoming for their material support, +making his never-to-be-forgotten statement that "money cannot love." In the +course of this address Jesus made several veiled references to his "life +mission" but explained that, regardless of whether or not it might be +inconsistent with the military idea, it, along with everything else in his +life, had been given up in order that he might be able to discharge faithfully +his obligation to his family. Everyone in Nazareth well knew he was a good +father to his family, and this was a matter so near the heart of every noble +Jew that Jesus' plea found an appreciative response in the hearts of many of +his hearers; and some of those who were not thus minded were disarmed by a +speech made by James, which, while not on the program, was delivered at this +time. That very day the chazan had rehearsed James in his speech, but that was +their secret. + +James stated that he was sure Jesus would help to liberate his people if he +(James) were only old enough to assume responsibility for the family, and that, +if they would only consent to allow Jesus to remain "with us, to be our father +and teacher, then you will have not just one leader from Joseph's family, but +presently you will have five loyal nationalists, for are there not five of us +boys to grow up and come forth from our brother-father's guidance to serve our +nation?" And thus did the lad bring to a fairly happy ending a very tense and +threatening situation. + +The crisis for the time being was over, but never was this incident forgotten +in Nazareth. The agitation persisted; not again was Jesus in universal favor; +the division of sentiment was never fully overcome. And this, augmented by +other and subsequent occurrences, was one of the chief reasons why he moved to +Capernaum in later years. Henceforth Nazareth maintained a division of +sentiment regarding the Son of Man. + +James graduated at school this year and began full-time work at home in the +carpenter shop. He had become a clever worker with tools and now took over the +making of yokes and plows while Jesus began to do more house finishing and +expert cabinet work. + +This year Jesus made great progress in the organization of his mind. Gradually +he had brought his divine and human natures together, and he accomplished all +this organization of intellect by the force of his own decisions and with only +the aid of his indwelling Monitor, just such a Monitor as all normal mortals on +all postbestowal-Son worlds have within their minds. So far, nothing +supernatural had happened in this young man's career except the visit of a +messenger, dispatched by his elder brother Immanuel, who once appeared to him +during the night at Jerusalem. + +3. THE EIGHTEENTH YEAR (A.D. 12) + +In the course of this year all the family property, except the home and garden, +was disposed of. The last piece of Capernaum property (except an equity in one +other), already mortgaged, was sold. The proceeds were used for taxes, to buy +some new tools for James, and to make a payment on the old family supply and +repair shop near the caravan lot, which Jesus now proposed to buy back since +James was old enough to work at the house shop and help Mary about the home. + + top of page - 1399 + +With the financial pressure thus eased for the time being, Jesus decided to +take James to the Passover. They went up to Jerusalem a day early, to be alone, +going by way of Samaria. They walked, and Jesus told James about the historic +places en route as his father had taught him on a similar journey five years +before. + +In passing through Samaria, they saw many strange sights. On this journey they +talked over many of their problems, personal, family, and national. James was a +very religious type of lad, and while he did not fully agree with his mother +regarding the little he knew of the plans concerning Jesus' lifework, he did +look forward to the time when he would be able to assume responsibility for the +family so that Jesus could begin his mission. He was very appreciative of +Jesus' taking him up to the Passover, and they talked over the future more +fully than ever before. + +Jesus did much thinking as they journeyed through Samaria, particularly at +Bethel and when drinking from Jacob's well. He and his brother discussed the +traditions of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He did much to prepare James for what +he was about to witness at Jerusalem, thus seeking to lessen the shock such as +he himself had experienced on his first visit to the temple. But James was not +so sensitive to some of these sights. He commented on the perfunctory and +heartless manner in which some of the priests performed their duties but on the +whole greatly enjoyed his sojourn at Jerusalem. + +Jesus took James to Bethany for the Passover supper. Simon had been laid to +rest with his fathers, and Jesus presided over this household as the head of +the Passover family, having brought the paschal lamb from the temple. + +After the Passover supper Mary sat down to talk with James while Martha, +Lazarus, and Jesus talked together far into the night. The next day they +attended the temple services, and James was received into the commonwealth of +Israel. That morning, as they paused on the brow of Olivet to view the temple, +while James exclaimed in wonder, Jesus gazed on Jerusalem in silence. James +could not comprehend his brother's demeanor. That night they again returned to +Bethany and would have departed for home the next day, but James was insistent +on their going back to visit the temple, explaining that he wanted to hear the +teachers. And while this was true, secretly in his heart he wanted to hear +Jesus participate in the discussions, as he had heard his mother tell about. +Accordingly, they went to the temple and heard the discussions, but Jesus asked +no questions. It all seemed so puerile and insignificant to this awakening mind +of man and God--he could only pity them. James was disappointed that Jesus said +nothing. To his inquiries Jesus only made reply, "My hour has not yet come." + +The next day they journeyed home by Jericho and the Jordan valley, and Jesus +recounted many things by the way, including his former trip over this road when +he was thirteen years old. + +Upon returning to Nazareth, Jesus began work in the old family repair shop and +was greatly cheered by being able to meet so many people each day from all +parts of the country and surrounding districts. Jesus truly loved people--just +common folks. Each month he made his payments on the shop and, with James's +help, continued to provide for the family. + +Several times a year, when visitors were not present thus to function, Jesus +continued to read the Sabbath scriptures at the synagogue and many times +offered comments on the lesson, but usually he so selected the passages that +comment was unnecessary. He was skillful, so arranging the order of the reading + + top of page - 1400 + +of the various passages that the one would illuminate the other. He never +failed, weather permitting, to take his brothers and sisters out on Sabbath +afternoons for their nature strolls. + +About this time the chazan inaugurated a young men's club for philosophic +discussion which met at the homes of different members and often at his own +home, and Jesus became a prominent member of this group. By this means he was +enabled to regain some of the local prestige which he had lost at the time of +the recent nationalistic controversies. + +His social life, while restricted, was not wholly neglected. He had many warm +friends and stanch admirers among both the young men and the young women of +Nazareth. + +In September, Elizabeth and John came to visit the Nazareth family. John, +having lost his father, intended to return to the Judean hills to engage in +agriculture and sheep raising unless Jesus advised him to remain in Nazareth to +take up carpentry or some other line of work. They did not know that the +Nazareth family was practically penniless. The more Mary and Elizabeth talked +about their sons, the more they became convinced that it would be good for the +two young men to work together and see more of each other. + +Jesus and John had many talks together; and they talked over some very intimate +and personal matters. When they had finished this visit, they decided not again +to see each other until they should meet in their public service after "the +heavenly Father should call" them to their work. John was tremendously +impressed by what he saw at Nazareth that he should return home and labor for +the support of his mother. He became convinced that he was to be a part of +Jesus' life mission, but he saw that Jesus was to occupy many years with the +rearing of his family; so he was much more content to return to his home and +settle down to the care of their little farm and to minister to the needs of +his mother. And never again did John and Jesus see each other until that day by +the Jordan when the Son of Man presented himself for baptism. + +On Saturday afternoon, December 3, of this year, death for the second time +struck at this Nazareth family. Little Amos, their baby brother, died after a +week's illness with a high fever. After passing through this time of sorrow +with her first-born son as her only support, Mary at last and in the fullest +sense recognized Jesus as the real head of the family; and he was truly a +worthy head. + +For four years their standard of living had steadily declined; year by year +they felt the pinch of increasing poverty. By the close of this year they faced +one of the most difficult experiences of all their uphill struggles. James had +not yet begun to earn much, and the expenses of a funeral on top of everything +else staggered them. But Jesus would only say to his anxious and grieving +mother: "Mother-Mary, sorrow will not help us; we are all doing our best, and +mother's smile, perchance, might even inspire us to do better. Day by day we +are strengthened for these tasks by our hope of better days ahead." His sturdy +and practical optimism was truly contagious; all the children lived in an +atmosphere of anticipation of better times and better things. And this hopeful +courage contributed mightily to the development of strong and noble characters, +in spite of the depressiveness of their poverty. + +Jesus possessed the ability effectively to mobilize all his powers of mind, +soul, and body on the task immediately in hand. He could concentrate his +deep-thinking mind on the one problem which he wished to solve, and this, in +connection + + top of page - 1401 + +with his untiring patience, enabled him serenely to endure the trials of a +difficult mortal existence--to live as if he were "seeing Him who is +invisible." + +4. THE NINETEENTH YEAR (A.D. 13) + +By this time Jesus and Mary were getting along much better. She regarded him +less as a son; he had become to her more a father to her children. Each day's +life swarmed with practical and immediate difficulties. Less frequently they +spoke of his lifework, for, as time passed, all their thought was mutually +devoted to the support and upbringing of their family of four boys and three +girls. + +By the beginning of this year Jesus had fully won his mother to the acceptance +of his methods of child training--the positive injunction to do good in the +place of the older Jewish method of forbidding to do evil. In his home and +throughout his public-teaching career Jesus invariably employed the positive +form of exhortation. Always and everywhere did he say, "You shall do this--you +ought to do that." Never did he employ the negative mode of teaching derived +from the ancient taboos. He refrained from placing emphasis on evil by +forbidding it, while he exalted the good by commanding its performance. Prayer +time in this household was the occasion for discussing anything and everything +relating to the welfare of the family. + +Jesus began wise discipline upon his brothers and sisters at such an early age +that little or no punishment was ever required to secure their prompt and +wholehearted obedience. The only exception was Jude, upon whom on sundry +occasions Jesus found it necessary to impose penalties for his infractions of +the rules of the home. On three occasions when it was deemed wise to punish +Jude for self-confessed and deliberate violations of the family rules of +conduct, his punishment was fixed by the unanimous decree of the older children +and was assented to by Jude himself before it was inflicted. + +While Jesus was most methodical and systematic in everything he did, there was +also in all his administrative rulings a refreshing elasticity of +interpretation and an individuality of adaptation that greatly impressed all +the children with the spirit of justice which actuated their father-brother. He +never arbitrarily disciplined his brothers and sisters, and such uniform +fairness and personal consideration greatly endeared Jesus to all his family. + +James and Simon grew up trying to follow Jesus' plan of placating their +bellicose and sometimes irate playmates by persuasion and nonresistance, and +they were fairly successful; but Joseph and Jude, while assenting to such +teachings at home, made haste to defend themselves when assailed by their +comrades; in particular was Jude guilty of violating the spirit of these +teachings. But nonresistance was not a rule of the family. No penalty was +attached to the violation of personal teachings. + +In general, all of the children, particularly the girls, would consult Jesus +about their childhood troubles and confide in him just as they would have in an +affectionate father. + +James was growing up to be a well-balanced and even-tempered youth, but he was +not so spiritually inclined as Jesus. He was a much better student than Joseph, +who, while a faithful worker, was even less spiritually minded. Joseph was a +plodder and not up to the intellectual level of the other children. Simon was a +well-meaning boy but too much of a dreamer. He was slow in getting settled down +in life and was the cause of considerable anxiety to Jesus and Mary. But he + + top of page - 1402 + +was always a good and well-intentioned lad. Jude was a firebrand. He had the +highest of ideals, but he was unstable in temperament. He had all and more of +his mother's determination and aggressiveness, but he lacked much of her sense +of proportion and discretion. + +Miriam was a well-balanced and level-headed daughter with a keen appreciation +of things noble and spiritual. Martha was slow in thought and action but a very +dependable and efficient child. Baby Ruth was the sunshine of the home; though +thoughtless of speech, she was most sincere of heart. She just about worshiped +her big brother and father. But they did not spoil her. She was a beautiful +child but not quite so comely as Miriam, who was the belle of the family, if +not of the city. + +As time passed, Jesus did much to liberalize and modify the family teachings +and practices related to Sabbath observance and many other phases of religion, +and to all these changes Mary gave hearty assent. By this time Jesus had become +the unquestioned head of the house. + +This year Jude started to school, and it was necessary for Jesus to sell his +harp in order to defray these expenses. Thus disappeared the last of his +recreational pleasures. He much loved to play the harp when tired in mind and +weary in body, but he comforted himself with the thought that at least the harp +was safe from seizure by the tax collector. + +5. REBECCA, THE DAUGHTER OF EZRA + +Although Jesus was poor, his social standing in Nazareth was in no way +impaired. He was one of the foremost young men of the city and very highly +regarded by most of the young women. Since Jesus was such a splendid specimen +of robust and intellectual manhood, and considering his reputation as a +spiritual leader, it was not strange that Rebecca, the eldest daughter of Ezra, +a wealthy merchant and trader of Nazareth, should discover that she was slowly +falling in love with this son of Joseph. She first confided her affection to +Miriam, Jesus' sister, and Miriam in turn talked all this over with her mother. +Mary was intensely aroused. Was she about to lose her son, now become the +indispensable head of the family? Would troubles never cease? What next could +happen? And then she paused to contemplate what effect marriage would have upon +Jesus' future career; not often, but at least sometimes, did she recall the +fact that Jesus was a "child of promise." After she and Miriam had talked this +matter over, they decided to make an effort to stop it before Jesus learned +about it, by going direct to Rebecca, laying the whole story before her, and +honestly telling her about their belief that Jesus was a son of destiny; that +he was to become a great religious leader, perhaps the Messiah. + +Rebecca listened intently; she was thrilled with the recital and more than ever +determined to cast her lot with this man of her choice and to share his career +of leadership. She argued (to herself) that such a man would all the more need +a faithful and efficient wife. She interpreted Mary's efforts to dissuade her +as a natural reaction to the dread of losing the head and sole support of her +family; but knowing that her father approved of her attraction for the +carpenter's son, she rightly reckoned that he would gladly supply the family +with sufficient income fully to compensate for the loss of Jesus' earnings. +When her father agreed to such a plan, Rebecca had further conferences with +Mary and Miriam, and when she + + top of page - 1403 + +failed to win their support, she made bold to go directly to Jesus. This she +did with the co-operation of her father, who invited Jesus to their home for +the celebration of Rebecca's seventeenth birthday. + +Jesus listened attentively and sympathetically to the recital of these things, +first by the father, then by Rebecca herself. He made kindly reply to the +effect that no amount of money could take the place of his obligation +personally to rear his father's family, to "fulfill the most sacred of all +human trusts--loyalty to one's own flesh and blood." Rebecca's father was +deeply touched by Jesus' words of family devotion and retired from the +conference. His only remark to Mary, his wife, was: "We can't have him for a +son; he is too noble for us." + +Then began that eventful talk with Rebecca. Thus far in his life, Jesus had +made little distinction in his association with boys and girls, with young men +and young women. His mind had been altogether too much occupied with the +pressing problems of practical earthly affairs and the intriguing contemplation +of his eventual career "about his Father's business" ever to have given serious +consideration to the consummation of personal love in human marriage. But now +he was face to face with another of those problems which every average human +being must confront and decide. Indeed was he "tested in all points like as you +are." + +After listening attentively, he sincerely thanked Rebecca for her expressed +admiration, adding, "it shall cheer and comfort me all the days of my life." He +explained that he was not free to enter into relations with any woman other +than those of simple brotherly regard and pure friendship. He made it clear +that his first and paramount duty was the rearing of his father's family, that +he could not consider marriage until that was accomplished; and then he added: +"If I am a son of destiny, I must not assume obligations of lifelong duration +until such a time as my destiny shall be made manifest." + +Rebecca was heartbroken. She refused to be comforted and importuned her father +to leave Nazareth until he finally consented to move to Sepphoris. In after +years, to the many men who sought her hand in marriage, Rebecca had but one +answer. She lived for only one purpose--to await the hour when this, to her, +the greatest man who ever lived would begin his career as a teacher of living +truth. And she followed him devotedly through his eventful years of public +labor, being present (unobserved by Jesus) that day when he rode triumphantly +into Jerusalem; and she stood "among the other women" by the side of Mary on +that fateful and tragic afternoon when the Son of Man hung upon the cross, to +her, as well as to countless worlds on high, "the one altogether lovely and the +greatest among ten thousand." + +6. HIS TWENTIETH YEAR (A.D. 14) + +The story of Rebecca's love for Jesus was whispered about Nazareth and later on +at Capernaum, so that, while in the years to follow many women loved Jesus even +as men loved him, not again did he have to reject the personal proffer of +another good woman's devotion. From this time on human affection for Jesus +partook more of the nature of worshipful and adoring regard. Both men and women +loved him devotedly and for what he was, not with any tinge of +self-satisfaction or desire for affectionate possession. But for many years, +whenever the story of Jesus' human personality was recited, the devotion of +Rebecca was recounted. + + top of page - 1404 + +Miriam, knowing fully about the affair of Rebecca and knowing how her brother +had forsaken even the love of a beautiful maiden (not realizing the factor of +his future career of destiny), came to idealize Jesus and to love him with a +touching and profound affection as for a father as well as for a brother. + +Although they could hardly afford it, Jesus had a strange longing to go up to +Jerusalem for the Passover. His mother, knowing of his recent experience with +Rebecca, wisely urged him to make the journey. He was not markedly conscious of +it, but what he most wanted was an opportunity to talk with Lazarus and to +visit with Martha and Mary. Next to his own family he loved these three most of +all. + +In making this trip to Jerusalem, he went by way of Megiddo, Antipatris, and +Lydda, in part covering the same route traversed when he was brought back to +Nazareth on the return from Egypt. He spent four days going up to the Passover +and thought much about the past events which had transpired in and around +Megiddo, the international battlefield of Palestine. + +Jesus passed on through Jerusalem, only pausing to look upon the temple and the +gathering throngs of visitors. He had a strange and increasing aversion to this +Herod-built temple with its politically appointed priesthood. He wanted most of +all to see Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. Lazarus was the same age as Jesus and now +head of the house; by the time of this visit Lazarus's mother had also been +laid to rest. Martha was a little over one year older than Jesus, while Mary +was two years younger. And Jesus was the idolized ideal of all three of them. + +On this visit occurred one of those periodic outbreaks of rebellion against +tradition--the expression of resentment for those ceremonial practices which +Jesus deemed misrepresentative of his Father in heaven. Not knowing Jesus was +coming, Lazarus had arranged to celebrate the Passover with friends in an +adjoining village down the Jericho road. Jesus now proposed that they celebrate +the feast where they were, at Lazarus's house. "But," said Lazarus, "we have no +paschal lamb." And then Jesus entered upon a prolonged and convincing +dissertation to the effect that the Father in heaven was not truly concerned +with such childlike and meaningless rituals. After solemn and fervent prayer +they rose, and Jesus said: "Let the childlike and darkened minds of my people +serve their God as Moses directed; it is better that they do, but let us who +have seen the light of life no longer approach our Father by the darkness of +death. Let us be free in the knowledge of the truth of our Father's eternal +love." + +That evening about twilight these four sat down and partook of the first +Passover feast ever to be celebrated by devout Jews without the paschal lamb. +The unleavened bread and the wine had been made ready for this Passover, and +these emblems, which Jesus termed "the bread of life" and "the water of life," +he served to his companions, and they ate in solemn conformity with the +teachings just imparted. It was his custom to engage in this sacramental ritual +whenever he paid subsequent visits to Bethany. When he returned home, he told +all this to his mother. She was shocked at first but came gradually to see his +viewpoint; nevertheless, she was greatly relieved when Jesus assured her that +he did not intend to introduce this new idea of the Passover in their family. +At home with the children he continued, year by year, to eat the Passover +"according to the law of Moses." + +It was during this year that Mary had a long talk with Jesus about marriage. +She frankly asked him if he would get married if he were free from his family + + top of page - 1405 + +responsibilities. Jesus explained to her that, since immediate duty forbade his +marriage, he had given the subject little thought. He expressed himself as +doubting that he would ever enter the marriage state; he said that all such +things must await "my hour," the time when "my Father's work must begin." +Having settled already in his mind that he was not to become the father of +children in the flesh, he gave very little thought to the subject of human +marriage. + +This year he began anew the task of further weaving his mortal and divine +natures into a simple and effective human individuality. And he continued to +grow in moral status and spiritual understanding. + +Although all their Nazareth property (except their home) was gone, this year +they received a little financial help from the sale of an equity in a piece of +property in Capernaum. This was the last of Joseph's entire estate. This real +estate deal in Capernaum was with a boatbuilder named Zebedee. + +Joseph graduated at the synagogue school this year and prepared to begin work +at the small bench in the home carpenter shop. Although the estate of their +father was exhausted, there were prospects that they would successfully fight +off poverty since three of them were now regularly at work. + +Jesus is rapidly becoming a man, not just a young man but an adult. He has +learned well to bear responsibility. He knows how to carry on in the face of +disappointment. He bears up bravely when his plans are thwarted and his +purposes temporarily defeated. He has learned how to be fair and just even in +the face of injustice. He is learning how to adjust his ideals of spiritual +living to the practical demands of earthly existence. He is learning how to +plan for the achievement of a higher and distant goal of idealism while he +toils earnestly for the attainment of a nearer and immediate goal of necessity. +He is steadily acquiring the art of adjusting his aspirations to the +commonplace demands of the human occasion. He has very nearly mastered the +technique of utilizing the energy of the spiritual drive to turn the mechanism +of material achievement. He is slowly learning how to live the heavenly life +while he continues on with the earthly existence. More and more he depends upon +the ultimate guidance of his heavenly Father while he assumes the fatherly role +of guiding and directing the children of his earth family. He is becoming +experienced in the skillful wresting of victory from the very jaws of defeat; +he is learning how to transform the difficulties of time into the triumphs of +eternity. + +And so, as the years pass, this young man of Nazareth continues to experience +life as it is lived in mortal flesh on the worlds of time and space. He lives a +full, representative, and replete + + top of page - 1406 + +life on Urantia. He left this world ripe in the experience which his creatures +pass through during the short and strenuous years of their first life, the life +in the flesh. And all this human experience is an eternal possession of the +Universe Sovereign. He is our understanding brother, sympathetic friend, +experienced sovereign, and merciful father. + +As a child he accumulated a vast body of knowledge; as a youth he sorted, +classified, and correlated this information; and now as a man of the realm he +begins to organize these mental possessions preparatory to utilization in his +subsequent teaching, ministry, and service in behalf of his fellow mortals on +this world and on all other spheres of habitation throughout the entire +universe of Nebadon. + +Born into the world a babe of the realm, he has lived his childhood life and +passed through the successive stages of youth and young manhood; he now stands +on the threshold of full manhood, rich in the experience of human living, +replete in the understanding of human nature, and full of sympathy for the +frailties of human nature. He is becoming expert in the divine art of revealing +his Paradise Father to all ages and stages of mortal creatures. + +And now as a full-grown man--an adult of the realm--he prepares to continue his +supreme mission of revealing God to men and leading men to God. + + top of page - 1407 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Two ³ Jesus' Early ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Crucial... ³ Ma... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p128.txt b/religious documents/p128.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3bf5de --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p128.txt @@ -0,0 +1,761 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 128 Jesus' Early Manhood + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 128 Jesus' Early Manhood + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AS JESUS of Nazareth entered upon the early years of his adult life, he had +lived, and continued to live, a normal and average human life on earth. Jesus +came into this world just as other children come; he had nothing to do with +selecting his parents. He did choose this particular world as the planet +whereon to carry out his seventh and final bestowal, his incarnation in the +likeness of mortal flesh, but otherwise he entered the world in a natural +manner, growing up as a child of the realm and wrestling with the vicissitudes +of his environment just as do other mortals on this and on similar worlds. + +Always be mindful of the twofold purpose of Michael's bestowal on Urantia: + +1. The mastering of the experience of living the full life of a human creature +in mortal flesh, the completion of his sovereignty in Nebadon. + +2. The revelation of the Universal Father to the mortal dwellers on the worlds +of time and space and the more effective leading of these same mortals to a +better understanding of the Universal Father. + +All other creature benefits and universe advantages were incidental and +secondary to these major purposes of the mortal bestowal. + +1. THE TWENTY-FIRST YEAR (A.D. 15) + +With the attainment of adult years Jesus began in earnest and with full +self-consciousness the task of completing the experience of mastering the +knowledge of the life of his lowest form of intelligent creatures, thereby +finally and fully earning the right of unqualified rulership of his +self-created universe. He entered upon this stupendous task fully realizing his +dual nature. But he had already effectively combined these two natures into +one--Jesus of Nazareth. + +Joshua ben Joseph knew full well that he was a man, a mortal man, born of +woman. This is shown in the selection of his first title, the Son of Man. He +was truly a partaker of flesh and blood, and even now, as he presides in +sovereign authority over the destinies of a universe, he still bears among his +numerous well-earned titles that of Son of Man. It is literally true that the +creative Word--the Creator Son--of the Universal Father was "made flesh and +dwelt as a man of the realm on Urantia." He labored, grew weary, rested, and +slept. He hungered and satisfied such cravings with food; he thirsted and +quenched his thirst with water. He experienced the full gamut of human feelings +and emotions; he was "in all things tested, even as you are," and he suffered +and died. + +He obtained knowledge, gained experience, and combined these into wisdom, just +as do other mortals of the realm. Until after his baptism he availed himself + + top of page - 1408 + +of no supernatural power. He employed no agency not a part of his human +endowment as a son of Joseph and Mary. + +As to the attributes of his prehuman existence, he emptied himself. Prior to +the beginning of his public work his knowledge of men and events was wholly +self-limited. He was a true man among men. + +It is forever and gloriously true: "We have a high ruler who can be touched +with the feeling of our infirmities. We have a Sovereign who was in all points +tested and tempted like as we are, yet without sin." And since he himself has +suffered, being tested and tried, he is abundantly able to understand and +minister to those who are confused and distressed. + +The Nazareth carpenter now fully understood the work before him, but he chose +to live his human life in the channel of its natural flowing. And in some of +these matters he is indeed an example to his mortal creatures, even as it is +recorded: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being +of the nature of God, thought it not strange to be equal with God. But he made +himself to be of little import and, taking upon himself the form of a creature, +was born in the likeness of mankind. And being thus fashioned as a man, he +humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross." + +He lived his mortal life just as all others of the human family may live +theirs, "who in the days of the flesh so frequently offered up prayers and +supplications, even with strong feelings and tears, to Him who is able to save +from all evil, and his prayers were effective because he believed." Wherefore +it behooved him in every respect to be made like his brethren that he might +become a merciful and understanding sovereign ruler over them. + +Of his human nature he was never in doubt; it was self-evident and always +present in his consciousness. But of his divine nature there was always room +for doubt and conjecture, at least this was true right up to the event of his +baptism. The self-realization of divinity was a slow and, from the human +standpoint, a natural evolutionary revelation. This revelation and +self-realization of divinity began in Jerusalem when he was not quite thirteen +years old with the first supernatural occurrence of his human existence; and +this experience of effecting the self-realization of his divine nature was +completed at the time of his second supernatural experience while in the flesh, +the episode attendant upon his baptism by John in the Jordan, which event +marked the beginning of his public career of ministry and teaching. + +Between these two celestial visitations, one in his thirteenth year and the +other at his baptism, there occurred nothing supernatural or superhuman in the +life of this incarnated Creator Son. Notwithstanding this, the babe of +Bethlehem, the lad, youth, and man of Nazareth, was in reality the incarnated +Creator of a universe; but he never once used aught of this power, nor did he +utilize the guidance of celestial personalities, aside from that of his +guardian seraphim, in the living of his human life up to the day of his baptism +by John. And we who thus testify know whereof we speak. + +And yet, throughout all these years of his life in the flesh he was truly +divine. He was actually a Creator Son of the Paradise Father. When once he had +espoused his public career, subsequent to the technical completion of his +purely mortal experience of sovereignty acquirement, he did not hesitate +publicly to admit that he was the Son of God. He did not hesitate to declare, +"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." He +made no protest in later + + top of page - 1409 + +years when he was called Lord of Glory, Ruler of a Universe, the Lord God of +all creation, the Holy One of Israel, the Lord of all, our Lord and our God, +God with us, having a name above every name and on all worlds, the Omnipotence +of a universe, the Universe Mind of this creation, the One in whom are hid all +treasures of wisdom and knowledge, the fullness of Him who fills all things, +the eternal Word of the eternal God, the One who was before all things and in +whom all things consist, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Upholder +of a universe, the Judge of all the earth, the Giver of life eternal, the True +Shepherd, the Deliverer of the worlds, and the Captain of our salvation. + +He never objected to any of these titles as they were applied to him subsequent +to the emergence from his purely human life into the later years of his +self-consciousness of the ministry of divinity in humanity, and for humanity, +and to humanity on this world and for all other worlds. Jesus objected to but +one title as applied to him: When he was once called Immanuel, he merely +replied, "Not I, that is my elder brother." + +Always, even after his emergence into the larger life on earth, Jesus was +submissively subject to the will of the Father in heaven. + +After his baptism he thought nothing of permitting his sincere believers and +grateful followers to worship him. Even while he wrestled with poverty and +toiled with his hands to provide the necessities of life for his family, his +awareness that he was a Son of God was growing; he knew that he was the maker +of the heavens and this very earth whereon he was now living out his human +existence. And the hosts of celestial beings throughout the great and onlooking +universe likewise knew that this man of Nazareth was their beloved Sovereign +and Creator-father. A profound suspense pervaded the universe of Nebadon +throughout these years; all celestial eyes were continuously focused on +Urantia--on Palestine. + +This year Jesus went up to Jerusalem with Joseph to celebrate the Passover. +Having taken James to the temple for consecration, he deemed it his duty to +take Joseph. Jesus never exhibited any degree of partiality in dealing with his +family. He went with Joseph to Jerusalem by the usual Jordan valley route, but +he returned to Nazareth by the east Jordan way, which led through Amathus. +Going down the Jordan, Jesus narrated Jewish history to Joseph and on the +return trip told him about the experiences of the reputed tribes of Ruben, Gad, +and Gilead that traditionally had dwelt in these regions east of the river. + +Joseph asked Jesus many leading questions concerning his life mission, but to +most of these inquiries Jesus would only reply, "My hour has not yet come." +However, in these intimate discussions many words were dropped which Joseph +remembered during the stirring events of subsequent years. Jesus, with Joseph, +spent this Passover with his three friends at Bethany, as was his custom when +in Jerusalem attending these festival commemorations. + +2. THE TWENTY-SECOND YEAR (A.D. 16) + +This was one of several years during which Jesus' brothers and sisters were +facing the trials and tribulations peculiar to the problems and readjustments +of adolescence. Jesus now had brothers and sisters ranging in ages from seven +to eighteen, and he was kept busy helping them to adjust themselves to the new +awakenings of their intellectual and emotional lives. He had thus to grapple +with + + top of page - 1410 + +the problems of adolescence as they became manifest in the lives of his younger +brothers and sisters. + +This year Simon graduated from school and began work with Jesus' old boyhood +playmate and ever-ready defender, Jacob the stone mason. As a result of several +family conferences it was decided that it was unwise for all the boys to take +up carpentry. It was thought that by diversifying their trades they would be +prepared to take contracts for putting up entire buildings. Again, they had not +all kept busy since three of them had been working as full-time carpenters. + +Jesus continued this year at house finishing and cabinetwork but spent most of +his time at the caravan repair shop. James was beginning to alternate with him +in attendance at the shop. The latter part of this year, when carpenter work +was slack about Nazareth, Jesus left James in charge of the repair shop and +Joseph at the home bench while he went over to Sepphoris to work with a smith. +He worked six months with metals and acquired considerable skill at the anvil. + +Before taking up his new employment at Sepphoris, Jesus held one of his +periodic family conferences and solemnly installed James, then just past +eighteen years old, as acting head of the family. He promised his brother +hearty support and full co-operation and exacted formal promises of obedience +to James from each member of the family. From this day James assumed full +financial responsibility for the family, Jesus making his weekly payments to +his brother. Never again did Jesus take the reins out of James's hands. While +working at Sepphoris he could have walked home every night if necessary, but he +purposely remained away, assigning weather and other reasons, but his true +motive was to train James and Joseph in the bearing of the family +responsibility. He had begun the slow process of weaning his family. Each +Sabbath Jesus returned to Nazareth, and sometimes during the week when occasion +required, to observe the working of the new plan, to give advice and offer +helpful suggestions. + +Living much of the time in Sepphoris for six months afforded Jesus a new +opportunity to become better acquainted with the gentile viewpoint of life. He +worked with gentiles, lived with gentiles, and in every possible manner did he +make a close and painstaking study of their habits of living and of the gentile +mind. + +The moral standards of this home city of Herod Antipas were so far below those +of even the caravan city of Nazareth that after six months' sojourn at +Sepphoris Jesus was not averse to finding an excuse for returning to Nazareth. +The group he worked for were to become engaged on public work in both Sepphoris +and the new city of Tiberias, and Jesus was disinclined to have anything to do +with any sort of employment under the supervision of Herod Antipas. And there +were still other reasons which made it wise, in the opinion of Jesus, for him +to go back to Nazareth. When he returned to the repair shop, he did not again +assume the personal direction of family affairs. He worked in association with +James at the shop and as far as possible permitted him to continue oversight of +the home. James's management of family expenditures and his administration of +the home budget were undisturbed. + +It was by just such wise and thoughtful planning that Jesus prepared the way +for his eventual withdrawal from active participation in the affairs of his +family. When James had had two years' experience as acting head of the +family--and two full years before he (James) was to be married--Joseph was +placed in charge of the household funds and intrusted with the general +management of the home. + + top of page - 1411 + +3. THE TWENTY-THIRD YEAR (A.D. 17) + +This year the financial pressure was slightly relaxed as four were at work. +Miriam earned considerable by the sale of milk and butter; Martha had become an +expert weaver. The purchase price of the repair shop was over one third paid. +The situation was such that Jesus stopped work for three weeks to take Simon to +Jerusalem for the Passover, and this was the longest period away from daily +toil he had enjoyed since the death of his father. + +They journeyed to Jerusalem by way of the Decapolis and through Pella, Gerasa, +Philadelphia, Heshbon, and Jericho. They returned to Nazareth by the coast +route, touching Lydda, Joppa, Caesarea, thence around Mount Carmel to Ptolemais +and Nazareth. This trip fairly well acquainted Jesus with the whole of +Palestine north of the Jerusalem district. + +At Philadelphia Jesus and Simon became acquainted with a merchant from Damascus +who developed such a great liking for the Nazareth couple that he insisted they +stop with him at his Jerusalem headquarters. While Simon gave attendance at the +temple, Jesus spent much of his time talking with this well-educated and +much-traveled man of world affairs. This merchant owned over four thousand +caravan camels; he had interests all over the Roman world and was now on his +way to Rome. He proposed that Jesus come to Damascus to enter his Oriental +import business, but Jesus explained that he did not feel justified in going so +far away from his family just then. But on the way back home he thought much +about these distant cities and the even more remote countries of the Far West +and the Far East, countries he had so frequently heard spoken of by the caravan +passengers and conductors. + +Simon greatly enjoyed his visit to Jerusalem. He was duly received into the +commonwealth of Israel at the Passover consecration of the new sons of the +commandment. While Simon attended the Passover ceremonies, Jesus mingled with +the throngs of visitors and engaged in many interesting personal conferences +with numerous gentile proselytes. + +Perhaps the most notable of all these contacts was the one with a young +Hellenist named Stephen. This young man was on his first visit to Jerusalem and +chanced to meet Jesus on Thursday afternoon of Passover week. While they both +strolled about viewing the Asmonean palace, Jesus began the casual conversation +that resulted in their becoming interested in each other, and which led to a +four-hour discussion of the way of life and the true God and his worship. +Stephen was tremendously impressed with what Jesus said; he never forgot his +words. + +And this was the same Stephen who subsequently became a believer in the +teachings of Jesus, and whose boldness in preaching this early gospel resulted +in his being stoned to death by irate Jews. Some of Stephen's extraordinary +boldness in proclaiming his view of the new gospel was the direct result of +this earlier interview with Jesus. But Stephen never even faintly surmised that +the Galilean he had talked with some fifteen years previously was the very same +person whom he later proclaimed the world's Savior, and for whom he was so soon +to die, thus becoming the first martyr of the newly evolving Christian faith. +When Stephen yielded up his life as the price of his attack upon the Jewish +temple and its traditional practices, there stood by one named Saul, a citizen +of Tarsus. And when Saul saw how this Greek could die for his faith, there were +aroused in his heart those emotions which eventually led him to espouse the +cause for which Stephen + + top of page - 1412 + +died; later on he became the aggressive and indomitable Paul, the philosopher, +if not the sole founder, of the Christian religion. + +On the Sunday after Passover week Simon and Jesus started on their way back to +Nazareth. Simon never forgot what Jesus taught him on this trip. He had always +loved Jesus, but now he felt that he had begun to know his father-brother. They +had many heart-to-heart talks as they journeyed through the country and +prepared their meals by the wayside. They arrived home Thursday noon, and Simon +kept the family up late that night relating his experiences. + +Mary was much upset by Simon's report that Jesus spent most of the time when in +Jerusalem "visiting with the strangers, especially those from the far +countries." Jesus' family never could comprehend his great interest in people, +his urge to visit with them, to learn about their way of living, and to find +out what they were thinking about. + +More and more the Nazareth family became engrossed with their immediate and +human problems; not often was mention made of the future mission of Jesus, and +very seldom did he himself speak of his future career. His mother rarely +thought about his being a child of promise. She was slowly giving up the idea +that Jesus was to fulfill any divine mission on earth, yet at times her faith +was revived when she paused to recall the Gabriel visitation before the child +was born. + +4. THE DAMASCUS EPISODE + +The last four months of this year Jesus spent in Damascus as the guest of the +merchant whom he first met at Philadelphia when on his way to Jerusalem. A +representative of this merchant had sought out Jesus when passing through +Nazareth and escorted him to Damascus. This part-Jewish merchant proposed to +devote an extraordinary sum of money to the establishment of a school of +religious philosophy at Damascus. He planned to create a center of learning +which would out-rival Alexandria. And he proposed that Jesus should immediately +begin a long tour of the world's educational centers preparatory to becoming +the head of this new project. This was one of the greatest temptations that +Jesus ever faced in the course of his purely human career. + +Presently this merchant brought before Jesus a group of twelve merchants and +bankers who agreed to support this newly projected school. Jesus manifested +deep interest in the proposed school, helped them plan for its organization, +but always expressed the fear that his other and unstated but prior obligations +would prevent his accepting the direction of such a pretentious enterprise. His +would-be benefactor was persistent, and he profitably employed Jesus at his +home doing some translating while he, his wife, and their sons and daughters +sought to prevail upon Jesus to accept the proffered honor. But he would not +consent. He well knew that his mission on earth was not to be supported by +institutions of learning; he knew that he must not obligate himself in the +least to be directed by the "councils of men," no matter how well-intentioned. + +He who was rejected by the Jerusalem religious leaders, even after he had +demonstrated his leadership, was recognized and hailed as a master teacher by +the businessmen and bankers of Damascus, and all this when he was an obscure +and unknown carpenter of Nazareth. + +He never spoke about this offer to his family, and the end of this year found +him back in Nazareth going about his daily duties just as if he had never been + + top of page - 1413 + +tempted by the flattering propositions of his Damascus friends. Neither did +these men of Damascus ever associate the later citizen of Capernaum who turned +all Jewry upside down with the former carpenter of Nazareth who had dared to +refuse the honor which their combined wealth might have procured. + +Jesus most cleverly and intentionally contrived to detach various episodes of +his life so that they never became, in the eyes of the world, associated +together as the doings of a single individual. Many times in subsequent years +he listened to the recital of this very story of the strange Galilean who +declined the opportunity of founding a school in Damascus to compete with +Alexandria. + +One purpose which Jesus had in mind, when he sought to segregate certain +features of his earthly experience, was to prevent the building up of such a +versatile and spectacular career as would cause subsequent generations to +venerate the teacher in place of obeying the truth which he had lived and +taught. Jesus did not want to build up such a human record of achievement as +would attract attention from his teaching. Very early he recognized that his +followers would be tempted to formulate a religion about him which might become +a competitor of the gospel of the kingdom that he intended to proclaim to the +world. Accordingly, he consistently sought to suppress everything during his +eventful career which he thought might be made to serve this natural human +tendency to exalt the teacher in place of proclaiming his teachings. + +This same motive also explains why he permitted himself to be known by +different titles during various epochs of his diversified life on earth. Again, +he did not want to bring any undue influence to bear upon his family or others +which would lead them to believe in him against their honest convictions. He +always refused to take undue or unfair advantage of the human mind. He did not +want men to believe in him unless their hearts were responsive to the spiritual +realities revealed in his teachings. + +By the end of this year the Nazareth home was running fairly smoothly. The +children were growing up, and Mary was becoming accustomed to Jesus' being away +from home. He continued to turn over his earnings to James for the support of +the family, retaining only a small portion for his immediate personal expenses. + +As the years passed, it became more difficult to realize that this man was a +Son of God on earth. He seemed to become quite like an individual of the realm, +just another man among men. And it was ordained by the Father in heaven that +the bestowal should unfold in this very way. + +5. THE TWENTY-FOURTH YEAR (A.D. 18) + +This was Jesus' first year of comparative freedom from family responsibility. +James was very successful in managing the home with Jesus' help in counsel and +finances. + +The week following the Passover of this year a young man from Alexandria came +down to Nazareth to arrange for a meeting, later in the year, between Jesus and +a group of Alexandrian Jews at some point on the Palestinian coast. This +conference was set for the middle of June, and Jesus went over to Caesarea to +meet with five prominent Jews of Alexandria, who besought him to establish +himself in their city as a religious teacher, offering as an inducement to +begin with, the position of assistant to the chazan in their chief synagogue. + + top of page - 1414 + +The spokesmen for this committee explained to Jesus that Alexandria was +destined to become the headquarters of Jewish culture for the entire world; +that the Hellenistic trend of Jewish affairs had virtually outdistanced the +Babylonian school of thought. They reminded Jesus of the ominous rumblings of +rebellion in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine and assured him that any +uprising of the Palestinian Jews would be equivalent to national suicide, that +the iron hand of Rome would crush the rebellion in three months, and that +Jerusalem would be destroyed and the temple demolished, that not one stone +would be left upon another. + +Jesus listened to all they had to say, thanked them for their confidence, and, +in declining to go to Alexandria, in substance said, "My hour has not yet +come." They were nonplused by his apparent indifference to the honor they had +sought to confer upon him. Before taking leave of Jesus, they presented him +with a purse in token of the esteem of his Alexandrian friends and in +compensation for the time and expense of coming over to Caesarea to confer with +them. But he likewise refused the money, saying: "The house of Joseph has never +received alms, and we cannot eat another's bread as long as I have strong arms +and my brothers can labor." + +His friends from Egypt set sail for home, and in subsequent years, when they +heard rumors of the Capernaum boatbuilder who was creating such a commotion in +Palestine, few of them surmised that he was the babe of Bethlehem grown up and +the same strange-acting Galilean who had so unceremoniously declined the +invitation to become a great teacher in Alexandria. + +Jesus returned to Nazareth. The remainder of this year was the most uneventful +six months of his whole career. He enjoyed this temporary respite from the +usual program of problems to solve and difficulties to surmount. He communed +much with his Father in heaven and made tremendous progress in the mastery of +his human mind. + +But human affairs on the worlds of time and space do not run smoothly for long. +In December James had a private talk with Jesus, explaining that he was much in +love with Esta, a young woman of Nazareth, and that they would sometime like to +be married if it could be arranged. He called attention to the fact that Joseph +would soon be eighteen years old, and that it would be a good experience for +him to have a chance to serve as the acting head of the family. Jesus gave +consent for James's marriage two years later, provided he had, during the +intervening time, properly trained Joseph to assume direction of the home. + +And now things began to happen--marriage was in the air. James's success in +gaining Jesus' assent to his marriage emboldened Miriam to approach her +brother-father with her plans. Jacob, the younger stone mason, onetime +self-appointed champion of Jesus, now business associate of James and Joseph, +had long sought to gain Miriam's hand in marriage. After Miriam had laid her +plans before Jesus, he directed that Jacob should come to him making formal +request for her and promised his blessing for the marriage just as soon as she +felt that Martha was competent to assume her duties as eldest daughter. + +When at home, he continued to teach the evening school three times a week, read +the Scriptures often in the synagogue on the Sabbath, visited with his mother, +taught the children, and in general conducted himself as a worthy and respected +citizen of Nazareth in the commonwealth of Israel. + + top of page - 1415 + +6. THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR (A.D. 19) + +This year began with the Nazareth family all in good health and witnessed the +finishing of the regular schooling of all the children with the exception of +certain work which Martha must do for Ruth. + +Jesus was one of the most robust and refined specimens of manhood to appear on +earth since the days of Adam. His physical development was superb. His mind was +active, keen, and penetrating--compared with the average mentality of his +contemporaries, it had developed gigantic proportions--and his spirit was +indeed humanly divine. + +The family finances were in the best condition since the disappearance of +Joseph's estate. The final payments had been made on the caravan repair shop; +they owed no man and for the first time in years had some funds ahead. This +being true, and since he had taken his other brothers to Jerusalem for their +first Passover ceremonies, Jesus decided to accompany Jude (who had just +graduated from the synagogue school) on his first visit to the temple. + +They went up to Jerusalem and returned by the same route, the Jordan valley, as +Jesus feared trouble if he took his young brother through Samaria. Already at +Nazareth Jude had got into slight trouble several times because of his hasty +disposition, coupled with his strong patriotic sentiments. + +They arrived at Jerusalem in due time and were on their way for a first visit +to the temple, the very sight of which had stirred and thrilled Jude to the +very depths of his soul, when they chanced to meet Lazarus of Bethany. While +Jesus talked with Lazarus and sought to arrange for their joint celebration of +the Passover, Jude started up real trouble for them all. Close at hand stood a +Roman guard who made some improper remarks regarding a Jewish girl who was +passing. Jude flushed with fiery indignation and was not slow in expressing his +resentment of such an impropriety directly to and within hearing of the +soldier. Now the Roman legionnaires were very sensitive to anything bordering +on Jewish disrespect; so the guard promptly placed Jude under arrest. This was +too much for the young patriot, and before Jesus could caution him by a warning +glance, he had delivered himself of a voluble denunciation of pent-up +anti-Roman feelings, all of which only made a bad matter worse. Jude, with +Jesus by his side, was taken at once to the military prison. + +Jesus endeavored to obtain either an immediate hearing for Jude or else his +release in time for the Passover celebration that evening, but he failed in +these attempts. Since the next day was a "holy convocation" in Jerusalem, even +the Romans would not presume to hear charges against a Jew. Accordingly, Jude +remained in confinement until the morning of the second day after his arrest, +and Jesus stayed at the prison with him. They were not present in the temple at +the ceremony of receiving the sons of the law into the full citizenship of +Israel. Jude did not pass through this formal ceremony for several years, until +he was next in Jerusalem at a Passover and in connection with his propaganda +work in behalf of the Zealots, the patriotic organization to which he belonged +and in which he was very active. + +The morning following their second day in prison Jesus appeared before the +military magistrate in behalf of Jude. By making apologies for his brother's +youth and by a further explanatory but judicious statement with reference to +the pro- + + top of page - 1416 + +vocative nature of the episode which had led up to the arrest of his brother, +Jesus so handled the case that the magistrate expressed the opinion that the +young Jew might have had some possible excuse for his violent outburst. After +warning Jude not to allow himself again to be guilty of such rashness, he said +to Jesus in dismissing them: "You had better keep your eye on the lad; he's +liable to make a lot of trouble for all of you." And the Roman judge spoke the +truth. Jude did make considerable trouble for Jesus, and always was the trouble +of this same nature--clashes with the civil authorities because of his +thoughtless and unwise patriotic outbursts. + +Jesus and Jude walked over to Bethany for the night, explaining why they had +failed to keep their appointment for the Passover supper, and set out for +Nazareth the following day. Jesus did not tell the family about his young +brother's arrest at Jerusalem, but he had a long talk with Jude about this +episode some three weeks after their return. After this talk with Jesus Jude +himself told the family. He never forgot the patience and forbearance his +brother-father manifested throughout the whole of this trying experience. + +This was the last Passover Jesus attended with any member of his own family. +Increasingly the Son of Man was to become separated from close association with +his own flesh and blood. + +This year his seasons of deep meditation were often broken into by Ruth and her +playmates. And always was Jesus ready to postpone the contemplation of his +future work for the world and the universe that he might share in the childish +joy and youthful gladness of these youngsters, who never tired of listening to +Jesus relate the experiences of his various trips to Jerusalem. They also +greatly enjoyed his stories about animals and nature. + +The children were always welcome at the repair shop. Jesus provided sand, +blocks, and stones by the side of the shop, and bevies of youngsters flocked +there to amuse themselves. When they tired of their play, the more intrepid +ones would peek into the shop, and if its keeper were not busy, they would make +bold to go in and say, "Uncle Joshua, come out and tell us a big story." Then +they would lead him out by tugging at his hands until he was seated on the +favorite rock by the corner of the shop, with the children on the ground in a +semicircle before him. And how the little folks did enjoy their Uncle Joshua. +They were learning to laugh, and to laugh heartily. It was customary for one or +two of the smallest of the children to climb upon his knees and sit there, +looking up in wonderment at his expressive features as he told his stories. The +children loved Jesus, and Jesus loved the children. + +It was difficult for his friends to comprehend the range of his intellectual +activities, how he could so suddenly and so completely swing from the profound +discussion of politics, philosophy, or religion to the lighthearted and joyous +playfulness of these tots of from five to ten years of age. As his own brothers +and sisters grew up, as he gained more leisure, and before the grandchildren +arrived, he paid a great deal of attention to these little ones. But he did not +live on earth long enough to enjoy the grandchildren very much. + +7. THE TWENTY-SIXTH YEAR (A.D. 20) + +As this year began, Jesus of Nazareth became strongly conscious that he +possessed a wide range of potential power. But he was likewise fully persuaded + + top of page - 1417 + +that this power was not to be employed by his personality as the Son of Man, at +least not until his hour should come. + +At this time he thought much but said little about the relation of himself to +his Father in heaven. And the conclusion of all this thinking was expressed +once in his prayer on the hilltop, when he said: "Regardless of who I am and +what power I may or may not wield, I always have been, and always will be, +subject to the will of my Paradise Father." And yet, as this man walked about +Nazareth to and from his work, it was literally true--as concerned a vast +universe--that "in him were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." + +All this year the family affairs ran smoothly except for Jude. For years James +had trouble with his youngest brother, who was not inclined to settle down to +work nor was he to be depended upon for his share of the home expenses. While +he would live at home, he was not conscientious about earning his share of the +family upkeep. + +Jesus was a man of peace, and ever and anon was he embarrassed by Jude's +belligerent exploits and numerous patriotic outbursts. James and Joseph were in +favor of casting him out, but Jesus would not consent. When their patience +would be severely tried, Jesus would only counsel: "Be patient. Be wise in your +counsel and eloquent in your lives, that your young brother may first know the +better way and then be constrained to follow you in it." The wise and loving +counsel of Jesus prevented a break in the family; they remained together. But +Jude never was brought to his sober senses until after his marriage. + + top of page - 1418 + +Mary seldom spoke of Jesus' future mission. Whenever this subject was referred +to, Jesus only replied, "My hour has not yet come." Jesus had about completed +the difficult task of weaning his family from dependence on the immediate +presence of his personality. He was rapidly preparing for the day when he could +consistently leave this Nazareth home to begin the more active prelude to his +real ministry for men. + +Never lose sight of the fact that the prime mission of Jesus in his seventh +bestowal was the acquirement of creature experience, the achievement of the +sovereignty of Nebadon. And in the gathering of this very experience he made +the supreme revelation of the Paradise Father to Urantia and to his entire +local universe. Incidental to these purposes he also undertook to untangle the +complicated affairs of this planet as they were related to the Lucifer +rebellion. + +This year Jesus enjoyed more than usual leisure, and he devoted much time to +training James in the management of the repair shop and Joseph in the direction +of home affairs. Mary sensed that he was making ready to leave them. Leave them +to go where? To do what? She had about given up the thought that Jesus was the +Messiah. She could not understand him; she simply could not fathom her +first-born son. + +Jesus spent a great deal of time this year with the individual members of his +family. He would take them for long and frequent strolls up the hill and +through the countryside. Before harvest he took Jude to the farmer uncle south +of Nazareth, but Jude did not remain long after the harvest. He ran away, and +Simon later found him with the fishermen at the lake. When Simon brought him +back home, Jesus talked things over with the runaway lad and, since he wanted +to be a fisherman, went over to Magdala with him and put him in the care of a +relative, a fisherman; and Jude worked fairly well and regularly from that time +on until his marriage, and he continued as a fisherman after his marriage. + +At last the day had come when all Jesus' brothers had chosen, and were +established in, their lifework. The stage was being set for Jesus' departure +from home. + +In November a double wedding occurred. James and Esta, and Miriam and Jacob +were married. It was truly a joyous occasion. Even Mary was once more happy +except every now and then when she realized that Jesus was preparing to go +away. She suffered under the burden of a great uncertainty: If Jesus would only +sit down and talk it all over freely with her as he had done when he was a boy, +but he was consistently uncommunicative; he was profoundly silent about the +future. + +James and his bride, Esta, moved into a neat little home on the west side of +town, the gift of her father. While James continued his support of his mother's +home, his quota was cut in half because of his marriage, and Joseph was +formally installed by Jesus as head of the family. Jude was now very faithfully +sending his share of funds home each month. The weddings of James and Miriam +had a very beneficial influence on Jude, and when he left for the fishing +grounds, the day after the double wedding, he assured Joseph that he could +depend on him "to do my full duty, and more if it is needed." And he kept his +promise. + +Miriam lived next door to Mary in the home of Jacob, Jacob the elder having +been laid to rest with his fathers. Martha took Miriam's place in the home, and +the new organization was working smoothly before the year ended. + +The day after this double wedding Jesus held an important conference with +James. He told James, confidentially, that he was preparing to leave home. He +presented full title to the repair shop to James, formally and solemnly +abdicated as head of Joseph's house, and most touchingly established his +brother James as "head and protector of my father's house." He drew up, and +they both signed, a secret compact in which it was stipulated that, in return +for the gift of the repair shop, James would henceforth assume full financial +responsibility for the family, thus releasing Jesus from all further +obligations in these matters. After the contract was signed, after the budget +was so arranged that the actual expenses of the family would be met without any +contribution from Jesus, Jesus said to James: "But, my son, I will continue to +send you something each month until my hour shall have come, but what I send +shall be used by you as the occasion demands. Apply my funds to the family +necessities or pleasures as you see fit. Use them in case of sickness or apply +them to meet the unexpected emergencies which may befall any individual member +of the family." + +And thus did Jesus make ready to enter upon the second and home-detached phase +of his adult life before the public entrance upon his Father's business. + + top of page - 1419 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Adolescent ³ The Later ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ Adult... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p129.txt b/religious documents/p129.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf20030 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p129.txt @@ -0,0 +1,500 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 129 The Later Adult Life Of Jesus + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 129 The Later Adult Life Of Jesus + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +JESUS had fully and finally separated himself from the management of the +domestic affairs of the Nazareth family and from the immediate direction of its +individuals. He continued, right up to the event of his baptism, to contribute +to the family finances and to take a keen personal interest in the spiritual +welfare of every one of his brothers and sisters. And always was he ready to do +everything humanly possible for the comfort and happiness of his widowed +mother. + +The Son of Man had now made every preparation for detaching himself permanently +from the Nazareth home; and this was not easy for him to do. Jesus naturally +loved his people; he loved his family, and this natural affection had been +tremendously augmented by his extraordinary devotion to them. The more fully we +bestow ourselves upon our fellows, the more we come to love them; and since +Jesus had given himself so fully to his family, he loved them with a great and +fervent affection. + +All the family had slowly awakened to the realization that Jesus was making +ready to leave them. The sadness of the anticipated separation was only +tempered by this graduated method of preparing them for the announcement of his +intended departure. For more than four years they discerned that he was +planning for this eventual separation. + +1. THE TWENTY-SEVENTH YEAR (A.D. 21) + +In January of this year, A.D. 21, on a rainy Sunday morning, Jesus took +unceremonious leave of his family, only explaining that he was going over to +Tiberias and then on a visit to other cities about the Sea of Galilee. And thus +he left them, never again to be a regular member of that household. + +He spent one week at Tiberias, the new city which was soon to succeed Sepphoris +as the capital of Galilee; and finding little to interest him, he passed on +successively through Magdala and Bethsaida to Capernaum, where he stopped to +pay a visit to his father's friend Zebedee. Zebedee's sons were fishermen; he +himself was a boatbuilder. Jesus of Nazareth was an expert in both designing +and building; he was a master at working with wood; and Zebedee had long known +of the skill of the Nazareth craftsman. For a long time Zebedee had +contemplated making improved boats; he now laid his plans before Jesus and +invited the visiting carpenter to join him in the enterprise, and Jesus readily +consented. + +Jesus worked with Zebedee only a little more than one year, but during that +time he created a new style of boat and established entirely new methods of +boatmaking. By superior technique and greatly improved methods of steaming the + + top of page - 1420 + +boards, Jesus and Zebedee began to build boats of a very superior type, craft +which were far more safe for sailing the lake than were the older types. For +several years Zebedee had more work, turning out these new-style boats, than +his small establishment could handle; in less than five years practically all +the craft on the lake had been built in the shop of Zebedee at Capernaum. Jesus +became well known to the Galilean fisherfolk as the designer of the new boats. + +Zebedee was a moderately well-to-do man; his boatbuilding shops were on the +lake to the south of Capernaum, and his home was situated down the lake shore +near the fishing headquarters of Bethsaida. Jesus lived in the home of Zebedee +during the year and more he remained at Capernaum. He had long worked alone in +the world, that is, without a father, and greatly enjoyed this period of +working with a father-partner. + +Zebedee's wife, Salome, was a relative of Annas, onetime high priest at +Jerusalem and still the most influential of the Sadducean group, having been +deposed only eight years previously. Salome became a great admirer of Jesus. +She loved him as she loved her own sons, James, John, and David, while her four +daughters looked upon Jesus as their elder brother. Jesus often went out +fishing with James, John, and David, and they learned that he was an +experienced fisherman as well as an expert boatbuilder. + +All this year Jesus sent money each month to James. He returned to Nazareth in +October to attend Martha's wedding, and he was not again in Nazareth for over +two years, when he returned shortly before the double wedding of Simon and +Jude. + +Throughout this year Jesus built boats and continued to observe how men lived +on earth. Frequently he would go down to visit at the caravan station, +Capernaum being on the direct travel route from Damascus to the south. +Capernaum was a strong Roman military post, and the garrison's commanding +officer was a gentile believer in Yahweh, "a devout man," as the Jews were wont +to designate such proselytes. This officer belonged to a wealthy Roman family, +and he took it upon himself to build a beautiful synagogue in Capernaum, which +had been presented to the Jews a short time before Jesus came to live with +Zebedee. Jesus conducted the services in this new synagogue more than half the +time this year, and some of the caravan people who chanced to attend remembered +him as the carpenter from Nazareth. + +When it came to the payment of taxes, Jesus registered himself as a "skilled +craftsman of Capernaum." From this day on to the end of his earth life he was +known as a resident of Capernaum. He never claimed any other legal residence, +although he did, for various reasons, permit others to assign his residence to +Damascus, Bethany, Nazareth, and even Alexandria. + +At the Capernaum synagogue he found many new books in the library chests, and +he spent at least five evenings a week at intense study. One evening he devoted +to social life with the older folks, and one evening he spent with the young +people. There was something gracious and inspiring about the personality of +Jesus which invariably attracted young people. He always made them feel at ease +in his presence. Perhaps his great secret in getting along with them consisted +in the twofold fact that he was always interested in what they were doing, +while he seldom offered them advice unless they asked for it. + +The Zebedee family almost worshiped Jesus, and they never failed to attend the +conferences of questions and answers which he conducted each evening after + + top of page - 1421 + +supper before he departed for the synagogue to study. The youthful neighbors +also came in frequently to attend these after-supper meetings. To these little +gatherings Jesus gave varied and advanced instruction, just as advanced as they +could comprehend. He talked quite freely with them, expressing his ideas and +ideals about politics, sociology, science, and philosophy, but never presumed +to speak with authoritative finality except when discussing religion--the +relation of man to God. + +Once a week Jesus held a meeting with the entire household, shop, and shore +helpers, for Zebedee had many employees. And it was among these workers that +Jesus was first called "the Master." They all loved him. He enjoyed his labors +with Zebedee in Capernaum, but he missed the children playing out by the side +of the Nazareth carpenter shop. + +Of the sons of Zebedee, James was the most interested in Jesus as a teacher, as +a philosopher. John cared most for his religious teaching and opinions. David +respected him as a mechanic but took little stock in his religious views and +philosophic teachings. + +Frequently Jude came over on the Sabbath to hear Jesus talk in the synagogue +and would tarry to visit with him. And the more Jude saw of his eldest brother, +the more he became convinced that Jesus was a truly great man. + +This year Jesus made great advances in the ascendant mastery of his human mind +and attained new and high levels of conscious contact with his indwelling +Thought Adjuster. + +This was the last year of his settled life. Never again did Jesus spend a whole +year in one place or at one undertaking. The days of his earth pilgrimages were +rapidly approaching. Periods of intense activity were not far in the future, +but there were now about to intervene between his simple but intensely active +life of the past and his still more intense and strenuous public ministry, a +few years of extensive travel and highly diversified personal activity. His +training as a man of the realm had to be completed before he could enter upon +his career of teaching and preaching as the perfected God-man of the divine and +posthuman phases of his Urantia bestowal. + +2. THE TWENTY-EIGHTH YEAR (A.D. 22) + +In March, A.D. 22, Jesus took leave of Zebedee and of Capernaum. He asked for a +small sum of money to defray his expenses to Jerusalem. While working with +Zebedee he had drawn only small sums of money, which each month he would send +to the family at Nazareth. One month Joseph would come down to Capernaum for +the money; the next month Jude would come over to Capernaum, get the money from +Jesus, and take it up to Nazareth. Jude's fishing headquarters was only a few +miles south of Capernaum. + +When Jesus took leave of Zebedee's family, he agreed to remain in Jerusalem +until Passover time, and they all promised to be present for that event. They +even arranged to celebrate the Passover supper together. They all sorrowed when +Jesus left them, especially the daughters of Zebedee. + +Before leaving Capernaum, Jesus had a long talk with his new-found friend and +close companion, John Zebedee. He told John that he contemplated traveling +extensively until "my hour shall come" and asked John to act in his stead in +the matter of sending some money to the family at Nazareth each month until + + top of page - 1422 + +the funds due him should be exhausted. And John made him this promise: "My +Teacher, go about your business, do your work in the world; I will act for you +in this or any other matter, and I will watch over your family even as I would +foster my own mother and care for my own brothers and sisters. I will disburse +your funds which my father holds as you have directed and as they may be +needed, and when your money has been expended, if I do not receive more from +you, and if your mother is in need, then will I share my own earnings with her. +Go your way in peace. I will act in your stead in all these matters." + +Therefore, after Jesus had departed for Jerusalem, John consulted with his +father, Zebedee, regarding the money due Jesus, and he was surprised that it +was such a large sum. As Jesus had left the matter so entirely in their hands, +they agreed that it would be the better plan to invest these funds in property +and use the income for assisting the family at Nazareth; and since Zebedee knew +of a little house in Capernaum which carried a mortgage and was for sale, he +directed John to buy this house with Jesus' money and hold the title in trust +for his friend. And John did as his father advised him. For two years the rent +of this house was applied on the mortgage, and this, augmented by a certain +large fund which Jesus presently sent up to John to be used as needed by the +family, almost equaled the amount of this obligation; and Zebedee supplied the +difference, so that John paid up the remainder of the mortgage when it fell +due, thereby securing clear title to this two-room house. In this way Jesus +became the owner of a house in Capernaum, but he had not been told about it. + +When the family at Nazareth heard that Jesus had departed from Capernaum, they, +not knowing of this financial arrangement with John, believed the time had come +for them to get along without any further help from Jesus. James remembered his +contract with Jesus and, with the help of his brothers, forthwith assumed full +responsibility for the care of the family. + +But let us go back to observe Jesus in Jerusalem. For almost two months he +spent the greater part of his time listening to the temple discussions with +occasional visits to the various schools of the rabbis. Most of the Sabbath +days he spent at Bethany. + +Jesus had carried with him to Jerusalem a letter from Salome, Zebedee's wife, +introducing him to the former high priest, Annas, as "one, the same as my own +son." Annas spent much time with him, personally taking him to visit the many +academies of the Jerusalem religious teachers. While Jesus thoroughly inspected +these schools and carefully observed their methods of teaching, he never so +much as asked a single question in public. Although Annas looked upon Jesus as +a great man, he was puzzled as to how to advise him. He recognized the +foolishness of suggesting that he enter any of the schools of Jerusalem as a +student, and yet he well knew Jesus would never be accorded the status of a +regular teacher inasmuch as he had never been trained in these schools. + +Presently the time of the Passover drew near, and along with the throngs from +every quarter there arrived at Jerusalem from Capernaum, Zebedee and his entire +family. They all stopped at the spacious home of Annas, where they celebrated +the Passover as one happy family. + +Before the end of this Passover week, by apparent chance, Jesus met a wealthy +traveler and his son, a young man about seventeen years of age. These travelers +hailed from India, and being on their way to visit Rome and various other +points on the Mediterranean, they had arranged to arrive in Jerusalem + + top of page - 1423 + +during the Passover, hoping to find someone whom they could engage as +interpreter for both and tutor for the son. The father was insistent that Jesus +consent to travel with them. Jesus told him about his family and that it was +hardly fair to go away for almost two years, during which time they might find +themselves in need. Whereupon, this traveler from the Orient proposed to +advance to Jesus the wages of one year so that he could intrust such funds to +his friends for the safeguarding of his family against want. And Jesus agreed +to make the trip. + +Jesus turned this large sum over to John the son of Zebedee. And you have been +told how John applied this money toward the liquidation of the mortgage on the +Capernaum property. Jesus took Zebedee fully into his confidence regarding this +Mediterranean journey, but he enjoined him to tell no man, not even his own +flesh and blood, and Zebedee never did disclose his knowledge of Jesus' +whereabouts during this long period of almost two years. Before Jesus' return +from this trip the family at Nazareth had just about given him up as dead. Only +the assurances of Zebedee, who went up to Nazareth with his son John on several +occasions, kept hope alive in Mary's heart. + +During this time the Nazareth family got along very well; Jude had considerably +increased his quota and kept up this extra contribution until he was married. +Notwithstanding that they required little assistance, it was the practice of +John Zebedee to take presents each month to Mary and Ruth, as Jesus had +instructed him. + +3. THE TWENTY-NINTH YEAR (A.D. 23) + +The whole of Jesus' twenty-ninth year was spent finishing up the tour of the +Mediterranean world. The main events, as far as we have permission to reveal +these experiences, constitute the subjects of the narratives which immediately +follow this paper. + +Throughout this tour of the Roman world, for many reasons, Jesus was known as +the Damascus scribe. At Corinth and other stops on the return trip he was, +however, known as the Jewish tutor. + +This was an eventful period in Jesus' life. While on this journey he made many +contacts with his fellow men, but this experience is a phase of his life which +he never revealed to any member of his family nor to any of the apostles. Jesus +lived out his life in the flesh and departed from this world without anyone +(save Zebedee of Bethsaida) knowing that he had made this extensive trip. Some +of his friends thought he had returned to Damascus; others thought he had gone +to India. His own family inclined to the belief that he was in Alexandria, as +they knew that he had once been invited to go there for the purpose of becoming +an assistant chazan. + +When Jesus returned to Palestine, he did nothing to change the opinion of his +family that he had gone from Jerusalem to Alexandria; he permitted them to +continue in the belief that all the time he had been absent from Palestine had +been spent in that city of learning and culture. Only Zebedee the boatbuilder +of Bethsaida knew the facts about these matters, and Zebedee told no one. + +In all your efforts to decipher the meaning of Jesus' life on Urantia, you must +be mindful of the motivation of the Michael bestowal. If you would comprehend +the meaning of many of his apparently strange doings, you must discern the +purpose of his sojourn on your world. He was consistently careful not to build + + top of page - 1424 + +up an overattractive and attention-consuming personal career. He wanted to make +no unusual or overpowering appeals to his fellow men. He was dedicated to the +work of revealing the heavenly Father to his fellow mortals and at the same +time was consecrated to the sublime task of living his mortal earth life all +the while subject to the will of the same Paradise Father. + +It will also always be helpful in understanding Jesus' life on earth if all +mortal students of this divine bestowal will remember that, while he lived this +life of incarnation on Urantia, he lived it for his entire universe. There was +something special and inspiring associated with the life he lived in the flesh +of mortal nature for every single inhabited sphere throughout all the universe +of Nebadon. The same is also true of all those worlds which have become +habitable since the eventful times of his sojourn on Urantia. And it will +likewise be equally true of all worlds which may become inhabited by will +creatures in all the future history of this local universe. + +The Son of Man, during the time and through the experiences of this tour of the +Roman world, practically completed his educational contact-training with the +diversified peoples of the world of his day and generation. By the time of his +return to Nazareth, through the medium of this travel-training he had just +about learned how man lived and wrought out his existence on Urantia. + +The real purpose of his trip around the Mediterranean basin was to know men. He +came very close to hundreds of humankind on this journey. He met and loved all +manner of men, rich and poor, high and low, black and white, educated and +uneducated, cultured and uncultured, animalistic and spiritual, religious and +irreligious, moral and immoral. + +On this Mediterranean journey Jesus made great advances in his human task of +mastering the material and mortal mind, and his indwelling Adjuster made great +progress in the ascension and spiritual conquest of this same human intellect. +By the end of this tour Jesus virtually knew--with all human certainty--that he +was a Son of God, a Creator Son of the Universal Father. The Adjuster more and +more was able to bring up in the mind of the Son of Man shadowy memories of his +Paradise experience in association with his divine Father ere he ever came to +organize and administer this local universe of Nebadon. Thus did the Adjuster, +little by little, bring to Jesus' human consciousness those necessary memories +of his former and divine existence in the various epochs of the well-nigh +eternal past. The last episode of his prehuman experience to be brought forth +by the Adjuster was his farewell conference with Immanuel of Salvington just +before his surrender of conscious personality to embark upon the Urantia +incarnation. And this final memory picture of prehuman existence was made clear +in Jesus' consciousness on the very day of his baptism by John in the Jordan. + +4. THE HUMAN JESUS + +To the onlooking celestial intelligences of the local universe, this +Mediterranean trip was the most enthralling of all Jesus' earth experiences, at +least of all his career right up to the event of his crucifixion and mortal +death. This was the fascinating period of his personal ministry in contrast +with the soon-following epoch of public ministry. This unique episode was all +the more engrossing because he was at this time still the carpenter of +Nazareth, the boatbuilder of Capernaum, the scribe of Damascus; he was still +the Son of Man. He had not yet + + top of page - 1425 + +achieved the complete mastery of his human mind; the Adjuster had not fully +mastered and counterparted the mortal identity. He was still a man among men. + +The purely human religious experience--the personal spiritual growth--of the +Son of Man well-nigh reached the apex of attainment during this, the +twenty-ninth year. This experience of spiritual development was a consistently +gradual growth from the moment of the arrival of his Thought Adjuster until the +day of the completion and confirmation of that natural and normal human +relationship between the material mind of man and the mind-endowment of the +spirit--the phenomenon of the making of these two minds one, the experience +which the Son of Man attained in completion and finality, as an incarnated +mortal of the realm, on the day of his baptism in the Jordan. + +Throughout these years, while he did not appear to engage in so many seasons of +formal communion with his Father in heaven, he perfected increasingly effective +methods of personal communication with the indwelling spirit presence of the +Paradise Father. He lived a real life, a full life, and a truly normal, +natural, and average life in the flesh. He knows from personal experience the +equivalent of the actuality of the entire sum and substance of the living of +the life of human beings on the material worlds of time and space. + +The Son of Man experienced those wide ranges of human emotion which reach from +superb joy to profound sorrow. He was a child of joy and a being of rare good +humor; likewise was he a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." In a +spiritual sense, he did live through the mortal life from the bottom to the +top, from the beginning to the end. From a material point of view, he might +appear to have escaped living through both social extremes of human existence, +but intellectually he became wholly familiar with the entire and complete +experience of humankind. + +Jesus knows about the thoughts and feelings, the urges and impulses, of the +evolutionary and ascendant mortals of the realms, from birth to death. He has +lived the human life from the beginnings of physical, intellectual, and +spiritual selfhood up through infancy, childhood, youth, and adulthood--even to +the human experience of death. He not only passed through these usual and +familiar human periods of intellectual and spiritual advancement, but he also +fully experienced those higher and more advanced phases of human and Adjuster +reconciliation which so few Urantia mortals ever attain. And thus he +experienced the full life of mortal man, not only as it is lived on your world, +but also as it is lived on all other evolutionary worlds of time and space, +even on the highest and most advanced of all the worlds settled in light and +life. + +Although this perfect life which he lived in the likeness of mortal flesh may +not have received the unqualified and universal approval of his fellow mortals, +those who chanced to be his contemporaries on earth, still, the life which +Jesus of Nazareth lived in the flesh and on Urantia did receive full and +unqualified acceptance by the Universal Father as constituting at one and the +same time, and in one and the same personality-life, the fullness of the +revelation of the eternal God to mortal man and the presentation of perfected +human personality to the satisfaction of the Infinite Creator. + +And this was his true and supreme purpose. He did not come down to live on +Urantia as the perfect and detailed example for any child or adult, any man or +woman, in that age or any other. True it is, indeed, that in his full, rich, +beautiful, and noble life we may all find much that is exquisitely exemplary, +divinely inspiring, but this is because he lived a true and genuinely human +life. Jesus did + + top of page - 1426 + +not live his life on earth in order to set an example for all other human +beings to copy. He lived this life in the flesh by the same mercy ministry that +you all may live your lives on earth; and as he lived his mortal life in his +day and as he was, so did he thereby set the example for all of us thus to live +our lives in our day and as we are. You may not aspire to live his life, but +you can resolve to live your lives even as, and by the same means that, he +lived his. Jesus may not be the technical and detailed example for all the +mortals of all ages on all the realms of this local universe, but he is +everlastingly the inspiration and guide of all Paradise pilgrims from the +worlds of initial ascension up through a universe of universes and on through +Havona to Paradise. Jesus is the new and living way from man to God, from the +partial to the perfect, from the earthly to the heavenly, from time to +eternity. + +By the end of the twenty-ninth year Jesus of Nazareth had virtually finished +the living of the life required of mortals as sojourners in the flesh. He came +on earth the fullness of God to be manifest to man; he had now become well-nigh +the perfection of man awaiting the occasion to become manifest to God. And he +did all of this before he was thirty years of age. + + top of page - 1427 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Jesus' Early ³ On The Way To ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Ma... ³ R... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p130.txt b/religious documents/p130.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8203b58 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p130.txt @@ -0,0 +1,888 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 130 On The Way To Rome + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 130 On The Way To Rome + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE tour of the Roman world consumed most of the twenty-eighth and the entire +twenty-ninth year of Jesus' life on earth. Jesus and the two natives from +India--Gonod and his son Ganid--left Jerusalem on a Sunday morning, April 26, +A.D. 22. They made their journey according to schedule, and Jesus said good-bye +to the father and son in the city of Charax on the Persian Gulf on the tenth +day of December the following year, + +From Jerusalem they went to Caesarea by way of Joppa. At Caesarea they took a +boat for Alexandria. From Alexandria they sailed for Lasea in Crete. From Crete +they sailed for Carthage, touching at Cyrene. At Carthage they took a boat for +Naples, stopping at Malta, Syracuse, and Messina. From Naples they went to +Capua, whence they traveled by the Appian Way to Rome. + +After their stay in Rome they went overland to Tarentum, where they set sail +for Athens in Greece, stopping at Nicopolis and Corinth. From Athens they went +to Ephesus by way of Troas. From Ephesus they sailed for Cyprus, putting in at +Rhodes on the way. They spent considerable time visiting and resting on Cyprus +and then sailed for Antioch in Syria. From Antioch they journeyed south to +Sidon and then went over to Damascus. From there they traveled by caravan to +Mesopotamia, passing through Thapsacus and Larissa. They spent some time in +Babylon, visited Ur and other places, and then went to Susa. From Susa they +journeyed to Charax, from which place Gonod and Ganid embarked for India. + +It was while working four months at Damascus that Jesus had picked up the +rudiments of the language spoken by Gonod and Ganid. While there he had labored +much of the time on translations from Greek into one of the languages of India, +being assisted by a native of Gonod's home district. + +On this Mediterranean tour Jesus spent about half of each day teaching Ganid +and acting as interpreter during Gonod's business conferences and social +contacts. The remainder of each day, which was at his disposal, he devoted to +making those close personal contacts with his fellow men, those intimate +associations with the mortals of the realm, which so characterized his +activities during these years that just preceded his public ministry. + +From firsthand observation and actual contact Jesus acquainted himself with the +higher material and intellectual civilization of the Occident and the Levant; +from Gonod and his brilliant son he learned a great deal about the civilization +and culture of India and China, for Gonod, himself a citizen of India, had made +three extensive trips to the empire of the yellow race. + +Ganid, the young man, learned much from Jesus during this long and intimate +association. They developed a great affection for each other, and the lad's +father + + top of page - 1428 + +many times tried to persuade Jesus to return with them to India, but Jesus +always declined, pleading the necessity for returning to his family in +Palestine. + +1. AT JOPPA--DISCOURSE ON JONAH + +During their stay in Joppa, Jesus met Gadiah, a Philistine interpreter who +worked for one Simon a tanner. Gonod's agents in Mesopotamia had transacted +much business with this Simon; so Gonod and his son desired to pay him a visit +on their way to Caesarea. While they tarried at Joppa, Jesus and Gadiah became +warm friends. This young Philistine was a truth seeker. Jesus was a truth +giver; he was the truth for that generation on Urantia. When a great truth +seeker and a great truth giver meet, the result is a great and liberating +enlightenment born of the experience of new truth. + +One day after the evening meal Jesus and the young Philistine strolled down by +the sea, and Gadiah, not knowing that this "scribe of Damascus" was so well +versed in the Hebrew traditions, pointed out to Jesus the ship landing from +which it was reputed that Jonah had embarked on his ill-fated voyage to +Tarshish. And when he had concluded his remarks, he asked Jesus this question: +"But do you suppose the big fish really did swallow Jonah?" Jesus perceived +that this young man's life had been tremendously influenced by this tradition, +and that its contemplation had impressed upon him the folly of trying to run +away from duty; Jesus therefore said nothing that would suddenly destroy the +foundations of Gadiah's present motivation for practical living. In answering +this question, Jesus said: "My friend, we are all Jonahs with lives to live in +accordance with the will of God, and at all times when we seek to escape the +present duty of living by running away to far-off enticements, we thereby put +ourselves in the immediate control of those influences which are not directed +by the powers of truth and the forces of righteousness. The flight from duty is +the sacrifice of truth. The escape from the service of light and life can only +result in those distressing conflicts with the difficult whales of selfishness +which lead eventually to darkness and death unless such God-forsaking Jonahs +shall turn their hearts, even when in the very depths of despair, to seek after +God and his goodness. And when such disheartened souls sincerely seek for +God--hunger for truth and thirst for righteousness--there is nothing that can +hold them in further captivity. No matter into what great depths they may have +fallen, when they seek the light with a whole heart, the spirit of the Lord God +of heaven will deliver them from their captivity; the evil circumstances of +life will spew them out upon the dry land of fresh opportunities for renewed +service and wiser living." + +Gadiah was mightily moved by Jesus' teaching, and they talked long into the +night by the seaside, and before they went to their lodgings, they prayed +together and for each other. This was the same Gadiah who listened to the later +preaching of Peter, became a profound believer in Jesus of Nazareth, and held a +memorable argument with Peter one evening at the home of Dorcas. And Gadiah had +very much to do with the final decision of Simon, the wealthy leather merchant, +to embrace Christianity. + +(In this narrative of the personal work of Jesus with his fellow mortals on +this tour of the Mediterranean, we shall, in accordance with our permission, +freely translate his words into modern phraseology current on Urantia at the +time of this presentation.) + + top of page - 1429 + +Jesus' last visit with Gadiah had to do with a discussion of good and evil. +This young Philistine was much troubled by a feeling of injustice because of +the presence of evil in the world alongside the good. He said: "How can God, if +he is infinitely good, permit us to suffer the sorrows of evil; after all, who +creates evil? " It was still believed by many in those days that God creates +both good and evil, but Jesus never taught such error. In answering this +question, Jesus said: "My brother, God is love; therefore he must be good, and +his goodness is so great and real that it cannot contain the small and unreal +things of evil. God is so positively good that there is absolutely no place in +him for negative evil. Evil is the immature choosing and the unthinking misstep +of those who are resistant to goodness, rejectful of beauty, and disloyal to +truth. Evil is only the misadaptation of immaturity or the disruptive and +distorting influence of ignorance. Evil is the inevitable darkness which +follows upon the heels of the unwise rejection of light. Evil is that which is +dark and untrue, and which, when consciously embraced and willfully endorsed, +becomes sin. + +"Your Father in heaven, by endowing you with the power to choose between truth +and error, created the potential negative of the positive way of light and +life; but such errors of evil are really nonexistent until such a time as an +intelligent creature wills their existence by mischoosing the way of life. And +then are such evils later exalted into sin by the knowing and deliberate choice +of such a willful and rebellious creature. This is why our Father in heaven +permits the good and the evil to go along together until the end of life, just +as nature allows the wheat and the tares to grow side by side until the +harvest." Gadiah was fully satisfied with Jesus' answer to his question after +their subsequent discussion had made clear to his mind the real meaning of +these momentous statements. + +2. AT CAESAREA + +Jesus and his friends tarried in Caesarea beyond the time expected because one +of the huge steering paddles of the vessel on which they intended to embark was +discovered to be in danger of cleaving. The captain decided to remain in port +while a new one was being made. There was a shortage of skilled woodworkers for +this task, so Jesus volunteered to assist. During the evenings Jesus and his +friends strolled about on the beautiful wall which served as a promenade around +the port. Ganid greatly enjoyed Jesus' explanation of the water system of the +city and the technique whereby the tides were utilized to flush the city's +streets and sewers. This youth of India was much impressed with the temple of +Augustus, situated upon an elevation and surmounted by a colossal statue of the +Roman emperor. The second afternoon of their stay the three of them attended a +performance in the enormous amphitheater which could seat twenty thousand +persons, and that night they went to a Greek play at the theater. These were +the first exhibitions of this sort Ganid had ever witnessed, and he asked Jesus +many questions about them. On the morning of the third day they paid a formal +visit to the governor's palace, for Caesarea was the capital of Palestine and +the residence of the Roman procurator. + +At their inn there also lodged a merchant from Mongolia, and since this +Far-Easterner talked Greek fairly well, Jesus had several long visits with him. +This man was much impressed with Jesus' philosophy of life and never forgot his +words of wisdom regarding "the living of the heavenly life while on earth + + top of page - 1430 + +by means of daily submission to the will of the heavenly Father." This merchant +was a Taoist, and he had thereby become a strong believer in the doctrine of a +universal Deity. When he returned to Mongolia, he began to teach these advanced +truths to his neighbors and to his business associates, and as a direct result +of such activities, his eldest son decided to become a Taoist priest. This +young man exerted a great influence in behalf of advanced truth throughout his +lifetime and was followed by a son and a grandson who likewise were devotedly +loyal to the doctrine of the One God--the Supreme Ruler of Heaven. + +While the eastern branch of the early Christian church, having its headquarters +at Philadelphia, held more faithfully to the teachings of Jesus than did the +Jerusalem brethren, it was regrettable that there was no one like Peter to go +into China, or like Paul to enter India, where the spiritual soil was then so +favorable for planting the seed of the new gospel of the kingdom. These very +teachings of Jesus, as they were held by the Philadelphians, would have made +just such an immediate and effective appeal to the minds of the spiritually +hungry Asiatic peoples as did the preaching of Peter and Paul in the West. + +One of the young men who worked with Jesus one day on the steering paddle +became much interested in the words which he dropped from hour to hour as they +toiled in the shipyard. When Jesus intimated that the Father in heaven was +interested in the welfare of his children on earth, this young Greek, Anaxand, +said: "If the Gods are interested in me, then why do they not remove the cruel +and unjust foreman of this workshop?" He was startled when Jesus replied, +"Since you know the ways of kindness and value justice, perhaps the Gods have +brought this erring man near that you may lead him into this better way. Maybe +you are the salt which is to make this brother more agreeable to all other men; +that is, if you have not lost your savor. As it is, this man is your master in +that his evil ways unfavorably influence you. Why not assert your mastery of +evil by virtue of the power of goodness and thus become the master of all +relations between the two of you? I predict that the good in you could overcome +the evil in him if you gave it a fair and living chance. There is no adventure +in the course of mortal existence more enthralling than to enjoy the +exhilaration of becoming the material life partner with spiritual energy and +divine truth in one of their triumphant struggles with error and evil. It is a +marvelous and transforming experience to become the living channel of spiritual +light to the mortal who sits in spiritual darkness. If you are more blessed +with truth than is this man, his need should challenge you. Surely you are not +the coward who could stand by on the seashore and watch a fellow man who could +not swim perish! How much more of value is this man's soul floundering in +darkness compared to his body drowning in water!" + +Anaxand was mightily moved by Jesus' words. Presently he told his superior what +Jesus had said, and that night they both sought Jesus' advice as to the welfare +of their souls. And later on, after the Christian message had been proclaimed +in Caesarea, both of these men, one a Greek and the other a Roman, believed +Philip's preaching and became prominent members of the church which he founded. +Later this young Greek was appointed the steward of a Roman centurion, +Cornelius, who became a believer through Peter's ministry. Anaxand continued to +minister light to those who sat in darkness until the days of Paul's +imprisonment at Caesarea, when he perished, by accident, in the great slaughter +of twenty thousand Jews while he ministered to the suffering and dying. + + top of page - 1431 + +Ganid was, by this time, beginning to learn how his tutor spent his leisure in +this unusual personal ministry to his fellow men, and the young Indian set +about to find out the motive for these incessant activities. He asked, "Why do +you occupy yourself so continuously with these visits with strangers? " And +Jesus answered: "Ganid, no man is a stranger to one who knows God. In the +experience of finding the Father in heaven you discover that all men are your +brothers, and does it seem strange that one should enjoy the exhilaration of +meeting a newly discovered brother? To become acquainted with one's brothers +and sisters, to know their problems and to learn to love them, is the supreme +experience of living." + +This was a conference which lasted well into the night, in the course of which +the young man requested Jesus to tell him the difference between the will of +God and that human mind act of choosing which is also called will. In substance +Jesus said: The will of God is the way of God, partnership with the choice of +God in the face of any potential alternative. To do the will of God, therefore, +is the progressive experience of becoming more and more like God, and God is +the source and destiny of all that is good and beautiful and true. The will of +man is the way of man, the sum and substance of that which the mortal chooses +to be and do. Will is the deliberate choice of a self-conscious being which +leads to decision-conduct based on intelligent reflection. + +That afternoon Jesus and Ganid had both enjoyed playing with a very intelligent +shepherd dog, and Ganid wanted to know whether the dog had a soul, whether it +had a will, and in response to his questions Jesus said: "The dog has a mind +which can know material man, his master, but cannot know God, who is spirit; +therefore the dog does not possess a spiritual nature and cannot enjoy a +spiritual experience. The dog may have a will derived from nature and augmented +by training, but such a power of mind is not a spiritual force, neither is it +comparable to the human will, inasmuch as it is not reflective--it is not the +result of discriminating higher and moral meanings or choosing spiritual and +eternal values. It is the possession of such powers of spiritual discrimination +and truth choosing that makes mortal man a moral being, a creature endowed with +the attributes of spiritual responsibility and the potential of eternal +survival." Jesus went on to explain that it is the absence of such mental +powers in the animal which makes it forever impossible for the animal world to +develop language in time or to experience anything equivalent to personality +survival in eternity. As a result of this day's instruction Ganid never again +entertained belief in the transmigration of the souls of men into the bodies of +animals. + +The next day Ganid talked all this over with his father, and it was in answer +to Gonod's question that Jesus explained that "human wills which are fully +occupied with passing only upon temporal decisions having to do with the +material problems of animal existence are doomed to perish in time. Those who +make wholehearted moral decisions and unqualified spiritual choices are thus +progressively identified with the indwelling and divine spirit, and thereby are +they increasingly transformed into the values of eternal survival--unending +progression of divine service." + +It was on this same day that we first heard that momentous truth which, stated +in modern terms, would signify: "Will is that manifestation of the human mind +which enables the subjective consciousness to express itself objectively and to +experience the phenomenon of aspiring to be Godlike." And it is in this same + + top of page - 1432 + +sense that every reflective and spiritually minded human being can become +creative. + +3. AT ALEXANDRIA + +It had been an eventful visit at Caesarea, and when the boat was ready, Jesus +and his two friends departed at noon one day for Alexandria in Egypt. + +The three enjoyed a most pleasant passage to Alexandria. Ganid was delighted +with the voyage and kept Jesus busy answering questions. As they approached the +city's harbor, the young man was thrilled by the great lighthouse of Pharos, +located on the island which Alexander had joined by a mole to the mainland, +thus creating two magnificent harbors and thereby making Alexandria the +maritime commercial crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe. This great +lighthouse was one of the seven wonders of the world and was the forerunner of +all subsequent lighthouses. They arose early in the morning to view this +splendid lifesaving device of man, and amidst the exclamations of Ganid Jesus +said: "And you, my son, will be like this lighthouse when you return to India, +even after your father is laid to rest; you will become like the light of life +to those who sit about you in darkness, showing all who so desire the way to +reach the harbor of salvation in safety." And as Ganid squeezed Jesus' hand, he +said, "I will." + +And again we remark that the early teachers of the Christian religion made a +great mistake when they so exclusively turned their attention to the western +civilization of the Roman world. The teachings of Jesus, as they were held by +the Mesopotamian believers of the first century, would have been readily +received by the various groups of Asiatic religionists. + +By the fourth hour after landing they were settled near the eastern end of the +long and broad avenue, one hundred feet wide and five miles long, which +stretched on out to the western limits of this city of one million people. +After the first survey of the city's chief attractions--university (museum), +library, the royal mausoleum of Alexander, the palace, temple of Neptune, +theater, and gymnasium--Gonod addressed himself to business while Jesus and +Ganid went to the library, the greatest in the world. Here were assembled +nearly a million manuscripts from all the civilized world: Greece, Rome, +Palestine, Parthia, India, China, and even Japan. In this library Ganid saw the +largest collection of Indian literature in all the world; and they spent some +time here each day throughout their stay in Alexandria. Jesus told Ganid about +the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek at this place. And they +discussed again and again all the religions of the world, Jesus endeavoring to +point out to this young mind the truth in each, always adding: "But Yahweh is +the God developed from the revelations of Melchizedek and the covenant of +Abraham. The Jews were the offspring of Abraham and subsequently occupied the +very land wherein Melchizedek had lived and taught, and from which he sent +teachers to all the world; and their religion eventually portrayed a clearer +recognition of the Lord God of Israel as the Universal Father in heaven than +any other world religion." + +Under Jesus' direction Ganid made a collection of the teachings of all those +religions of the world which recognized a Universal Deity, even though they +might also give more or less recognition to subordinate deities. After much +discussion Jesus and Ganid decided that the Romans had no real God in their +religion, that their religion was hardly more than emperor worship. The Greeks, + + top of page - 1433 + +they concluded, had a philosophy but hardly a religion with a personal God. The +mystery cults they discarded because of the confusion of their multiplicity, +and because their varied concepts of Deity seemed to be derived from other and +older religions. + +Although these translations were made at Alexandria, Ganid did not finally +arrange these selections and add his own personal conclusions until near the +end of their sojourn in Rome. He was much surprised to discover that the best +of the authors of the world's sacred literature all more or less clearly +recognized the existence of an eternal God and were much in agreement with +regard to his character and his relationship with mortal man. + +Jesus and Ganid spent much time in the museum during their stay in Alexandria. +This museum was not a collection of rare objects but rather a university of +fine art, science, and literature. Learned professors here gave daily lectures, +and in those times this was the intellectual center of the Occidental world. +Day by day Jesus interpreted the lectures to Ganid; one day during the second +week the young man exclaimed: "Teacher Joshua, you know more than these +professors; you should stand up and tell them the great things you have told +me; they are befogged by much thinking. I shall speak to my father and have him +arrange it." Jesus smiled, saying: "You are an admiring pupil, but these +teachers are not minded that you and I should instruct them. The pride of +unspiritualized learning is a treacherous thing in human experience. The true +teacher maintains his intellectual integrity by ever remaining a learner." + +Alexandria was the city of the blended culture of the Occident and next to Rome +the largest and most magnificent in the world. Here was located the largest +Jewish synagogue in the world, the seat of government of the Alexandria +Sanhedrin, the seventy ruling elders. + +Among the many men with whom Gonod transacted business was a certain Jewish +banker, Alexander, whose brother, Philo, was a famous religious philosopher of +that time. Philo was engaged in the laudable but exceedingly difficult task of +harmonizing Greek philosophy and Hebrew theology. Ganid and Jesus talked much +about Philo's teachings and expected to attend some of his lectures, but +throughout their stay at Alexandria this famous Hellenistic Jew lay sick abed. + +Jesus commended to Ganid much in the Greek philosophy and the Stoic doctrines, +but he impressed upon the lad the truth that these systems of belief, like the +indefinite teachings of some of his own people, were religions only in the +sense that they led men to find God and enjoy a living experience in knowing +the Eternal. + +4. DISCOURSE ON REALITY + +The night before they left Alexandria Ganid and Jesus had a long visit with one +of the government professors at the university who lectured on the teachings of +Plato. Jesus interpreted for the learned Greek teacher but injected no teaching +of his own in refutation of the Greek philosophy. Gonod was away on business +that evening; so, after the professor had departed, the teacher and his pupil +had a long and heart-to-heart talk about Plato's doctrines. While Jesus gave +qualified approval of some of the Greek teachings which had to do with the +theory that the material things of the world are shadowy reflections of +invisible but more substantial spiritual realities, he sought to lay a more +trustworthy foundation + + top of page - 1434 + +for the lad's thinking; so he began a long dissertation concerning the nature +of reality in the universe. In substance and in modern phraseology Jesus said +to Ganid: + +The source of universe reality is the Infinite. The material things of finite +creation are the time-space repercussions of the Paradise Pattern and the +Universal Mind of the eternal God. Causation in the physical world, +self-consciousness in the intellectual world, and progressing selfhood in the +spirit world--these realities, projected on a universal scale, combined in +eternal relatedness, and experienced with perfection of quality and divinity of +value--constitute the reality of the Supreme. But in an ever-changing universe +the Original Personality of causation, intelligence, and spirit experience is +changeless, absolute. All things, even in an eternal universe of limitless +values and divine qualities, may, and oftentimes do, change except the +Absolutes and that which has attained the physical status, intellectual +embrace, or spiritual identity which is absolute. + +The highest level to which a finite creature can progress is the recognition of +the Universal Father and the knowing of the Supreme. And even then such beings +of finality destiny go on experiencing change in the motions of the physical +world and in its material phenomena. Likewise do they remain aware of selfhood +progression in their continuing ascension of the spiritual universe and of +growing consciousness in their deepening appreciation of, and response to, the +intellectual cosmos. Only in the perfection, harmony, and unanimity of will can +the creature become as one with the Creator; and such a state of divinity is +attained and maintained only by the creature's continuing to live in time and +eternity by consistently conforming his finite personal will to the divine will +of the Creator. Always must the desire to do the Father's will be supreme in +the soul and dominant over the mind of an ascending son of God. + +A one-eyed person can never hope to visualize depth of perspective. Neither can +single-eyed material scientists nor single-eyed spiritual mystics and +allegorists correctly visualize and adequately comprehend the true depths of +universe reality. All true values of creature experience are concealed in depth +of recognition. + +Mindless causation cannot evolve the refined and complex from the crude and the +simple, neither can spiritless experience evolve the divine characters of +eternal survival from the material minds of the mortals of time. The one +attribute of the universe which so exclusively characterizes the infinite Deity +is this unending creative bestowal of personality which can survive in +progressive Deity attainment. + +Personality is that cosmic endowment, that phase of universal reality, which +can coexist with unlimited change and at the same time retain its identity in +the very presence of all such changes, and forever afterward. + +Life is an adaptation of the original cosmic causation to the demands and +possibilities of universe situations, and it comes into being by the action of +the Universal Mind and the activation of the spirit spark of the God who is +spirit. The meaning of life is its adaptability; the value of life is its +progressability--even to the heights of God-consciousness. + +Misadaptation of self-conscious life to the universe results in cosmic +disharmony. Final divergence of personality will from the trend of the +universes terminates in intellectual isolation, personality segregation. Loss +of the indwell- + + top of page - 1435 + +ing spirit pilot supervenes in spiritual cessation of existence. Intelligent +and progressing life becomes then, in and of itself, an incontrovertible proof +of the existence of a purposeful universe expressing the will of a divine +Creator. And this life, in the aggregate, struggles toward higher values, +having for its final goal the Universal Father. + +Only in degree does man possess mind above the animal level aside from the +higher and quasi-spiritual ministrations of intellect. Therefore animals (not +having worship and wisdom) cannot experience superconsciousness, consciousness +of consciousness. The animal mind is only conscious of the objective universe. + +Knowledge is the sphere of the material or fact-discerning mind. Truth is the +domain of the spiritually endowed intellect that is conscious of knowing God. +Knowledge is demonstrable; truth is experienced. Knowledge is a possession of +the mind; truth an experience of the soul, the progressing self. Knowledge is a +function of the nonspiritual level; truth is a phase of the mind-spirit level +of the universes. The eye of the material mind perceives a world of factual +knowledge; the eye of the spiritualized intellect discerns a world of true +values. These two views, synchronized and harmonized, reveal the world of +reality, wherein wisdom interprets the phenomena of the universe in terms of +progressive personal experience. + +Error (evil) is the penalty of imperfection. The qualities of imperfection or +facts of misadaptation are disclosed on the material level by critical +observation and by scientific analysis; on the moral level, by human +experience. The presence of evil constitutes proof of the inaccuracies of mind +and the immaturity of the evolving self. Evil is, therefore, also a measure of +imperfection in universe interpretation. The possibility of making mistakes is +inherent in the acquisition of wisdom, the scheme of progressing from the +partial and temporal to the complete and eternal, from the relative and +imperfect to the final and perfected. Error is the shadow of relative +incompleteness which must of necessity fall across man's ascending universe +path to Paradise perfection. Error (evil) is not an actual universe quality; it +is simply the observation of a relativity in the relatedness of the +imperfection of the incomplete finite to the ascending levels of the Supreme +and Ultimate. + +Although Jesus told all this to the lad in language best suited to his +comprehension, at the end of the discussion Ganid was heavy of eye and was soon +lost in slumber. They rose early the next morning to go aboard the boat bound +for Lasea on the island of Crete. But before they embarked, the lad had still +further questions to ask about evil, to which Jesus replied: + +Evil is a relativity concept. It arises out of the observation of the +imperfections which appear in the shadow cast by a finite universe of things +and beings as such a cosmos obscures the living light of the universal +expression of the eternal realities of the Infinite One. + +Potential evil is inherent in the necessary incompleteness of the revelation of +God as a time-space-limited expression of infinity and eternity. The fact of +the partial in the presence of the complete constitutes relativity of reality, +creates necessity for intellectual choosing, and establishes value levels of +spirit recognition and response. The incomplete and finite concept of the +Infinite which is held by the temporal and limited creature mind is, in and of +itself, potential evil. But the augmenting error of unjustified deficiency in +reasonable spiritual rectifi- + + top of page - 1436 + +cation of these originally inherent intellectual disharmonies and spiritual +insufficiencies, is equivalent to the realization of actual evil. + +All static, dead, concepts are potentially evil. The finite shadow of relative +and living truth is continually moving. Static concepts invariably retard +science, politics, society, and religion. Static concepts may represent a +certain knowledge, but they are deficient in wisdom and devoid of truth. But do +not permit the concept of relativity so to mislead you that you fail to +recognize the co-ordination of the universe under the guidance of the cosmic +mind, and its stabilized control by the energy and spirit of the Supreme. + +5. ON THE ISLAND OF CRETE + +The travelers had but one purpose in going to Crete, and that was to play, to +walk about over the island, and to climb the mountains. The Cretans of that +time did not enjoy an enviable reputation among the surrounding peoples. +Nevertheless, Jesus and Ganid won many souls to higher levels of thinking and +living and thus laid the foundation for the quick reception of the later gospel +teachings when the first preachers from Jerusalem arrived. Jesus loved these +Cretans, notwithstanding the harsh words which Paul later spoke concerning them +when he subsequently sent Titus to the island to reorganize their churches. + +On the mountainside in Crete Jesus had his first long talk with Gonod regarding +religion. And the father was much impressed, saying: "No wonder the boy +believes everything you tell him, but I never knew they had such a religion +even in Jerusalem, much less in Damascus." It was during the island sojourn +that Gonod first proposed to Jesus that he go back to India with them, and +Ganid was delighted with the thought that Jesus might consent to such an +arrangement. + +One day when Ganid asked Jesus why he had not devoted himself to the work of a +public teacher, he said: "My son, everything must await the coming of its time. +You are born into the world, but no amount of anxiety and no manifestation of +impatience will help you to grow up. You must, in all such matters, wait upon +time. Time alone will ripen the green fruit upon the tree. Season follows +season and sundown follows sunrise only with the passing of time. I am now on +the way to Rome with you and your father, and that is sufficient for today. My +tomorrow is wholly in the hands of my Father in heaven." And then he told Ganid +the story of Moses and the forty years of watchful waiting and continued +preparation. + +One thing happened on a visit to Fair Havens which Ganid never forgot; the +memory of this episode always caused him to wish he might do something to +change the caste system of his native India. A drunken degenerate was attacking +a slave girl on the public highway. When Jesus saw the plight of the girl, he +rushed forward and drew the maiden away from the assault of the madman. While +the frightened child clung to him, he held the infuriated man at a safe +distance by his powerful extended right arm until the poor fellow had exhausted +himself beating the air with his angry blows. Ganid felt a strong impulse to +help Jesus handle the affair, but his father forbade him. Though they could not +speak the girl's language, she could understand their act of mercy and gave +token of her heartfelt appreciation as they all three escorted her home. This +was probably as near a personal encounter with his fellows as Jesus ever had +throughout his entire life in the flesh. But he had a difficult task that +evening trying to explain to + + top of page - 1437 + +Ganid why he did not smite the drunken man. Ganid thought this man should have +been struck at least as many times as he had struck the girl. + +6. THE YOUNG MAN WHO WAS AFRAID + +While they were up in the mountains, Jesus had a long talk with a young man who +was fearful and downcast. Failing to derive comfort and courage from +association with his fellows, this youth had sought the solitude of the hills; +he had grown up with a feeling of helplessness and inferiority. These natural +tendencies had been augmented by numerous difficult circumstances which the lad +had encountered as he grew up, notably, the loss of his father when he was +twelve years of age. As they met, Jesus said: "Greetings, my friend! why so +downcast on such a beautiful day? If something has happened to distress you, +perhaps I can in some manner assist you. At any rate it affords me real +pleasure to proffer my services." + +The young man was disinclined to talk, and so Jesus made a second approach to +his soul, saying: "I understand you come up in these hills to get away from +folks; so, of course, you do not want to talk with me, but I would like to know +whether you are familiar with these hills; do you know the direction of the +trails? and, perchance, could you inform me as to the best route to Phenix?" +Now this youth was very familiar with these mountains, and he really became +much interested in telling Jesus the way to Phenix, so much so that he marked +out all the trails on the ground and fully explained every detail. But he was +startled and made curious when Jesus, after saying good-bye and making as if he +were taking leave, suddenly turned to him, saying: "I well know you wish to be +left alone with your disconsolation; but it would be neither kind nor fair for +me to receive such generous help from you as to how best to find my way to +Phenix and then unthinkingly to go away from you without making the least +effort to answer your appealing request for help and guidance regarding the +best route to the goal of destiny which you seek in your heart while you tarry +here on the mountainside. As you so well know the trails to Phenix, having +traversed them many times, so do I well know the way to the city of your +disappointed hopes and thwarted ambitions. And since you have asked me for +help, I will not disappoint you." The youth was almost overcome, but he managed +to stammer out, "But--I did not ask you for anything--" And Jesus, laying a +gentle hand on his shoulder, said: "No, son, not with words but with longing +looks did you appeal to my heart. My boy, to one who loves his fellows there is +an eloquent appeal for help in your countenance of discouragement and despair. +Sit down with me while I tell you of the service trails and happiness highways +which lead from the sorrows of self to the joys of loving activities in the +brotherhood of men and in the service of the God of heaven." + +By this time the young man very much desired to talk with Jesus, and he knelt +at his feet imploring Jesus to help him, to show him the way of escape from his +world of personal sorrow and defeat. Said Jesus: "My friend, arise! Stand up +like a man! You may be surrounded with small enemies and be retarded by many +obstacles, but the big things and the real things of this world and the +universe are on your side. The sun rises every morning to salute you just as it +does the most powerful and prosperous man on earth. Look--you have a strong +body and powerful muscles--your physical equipment is better than the average. +Of course, it is just about useless while you sit out here on the mountainside +and + + top of page - 1438 + +grieve over your misfortunes, real and fancied. But you could do great things +with your body if you would hasten off to where great things are waiting to be +done. You are trying to run away from your unhappy self, but it cannot be done. +You and your problems of living are real; you cannot escape them as long as you +live. But look again, your mind is clear and capable. Your strong body has an +intelligent mind to direct it. Set your mind at work to solve its problems; +teach your intellect to work for you; refuse longer to be dominated by fear +like an unthinking animal. Your mind should be your courageous ally in the +solution of your life problems rather than your being, as you have been, its +abject fear-slave and the bond-servant of depression and defeat. But most +valuable of all, your potential of real achievement is the spirit which lives +within you, and which will stimulate and inspire your mind to control itself +and activate the body if you will release it from the fetters of fear and thus +enable your spiritual nature to begin your deliverance from the evils of +inaction by the power-presence of living faith. And then, forthwith, will this +faith vanquish fear of men by the compelling presence of that new and +all-dominating love of your fellows which will so soon fill your soul to +overflowing because of the consciousness which has been born in your heart that +you are a child of God. + +"This day, my son, you are to be reborn, re-established as a man of faith, +courage, and devoted service to man, for God's sake. And when you become so +readjusted to life within yourself, you become likewise readjusted to the +universe; you have been born again--born of the spirit--and henceforth will +your whole life become one of victorious accomplishment. Trouble will +invigorate you; disappointment will spur you on; difficulties will challenge +you; and obstacles will stimulate you. Arise, young man! Say farewell to the +life of cringing fear and fleeing cowardice. Hasten back to duty and live your +life in the flesh as a son of God, a mortal dedicated to the ennobling service +of man on earth and destined to the superb and eternal service of God in +eternity." + +And this youth, Fortune, subsequently became the leader of the Christians in +Crete and the close associate of Titus in his labors for the uplift of the +Cretan believers. + +The travelers were truly rested and refreshed when they made ready about noon +one day to sail for Carthage in northern Africa, stopping for two days at +Cyrene. It was here that Jesus and Ganid gave first aid to a lad named Rufus, +who had been injured by the breakdown of a loaded oxcart. They carried him home +to his mother, and his father, Simon, little dreamed that the man whose cross +he subsequently bore by orders of a Roman soldier was the stranger who once +befriended his son. + +7. AT CARTHAGE--DISCOURSE ON TIME AND SPACE + +Most of the time en route to Carthage Jesus talked with his fellow travelers +about things social, political, and commercial; hardly a word was said about +religion. For the first time Gonod and Ganid discovered that Jesus was a good +storyteller, and they kept him busy telling tales about his early life in +Galilee. They also learned that he was reared in Galilee and not in either +Jerusalem or Damascus. + +When Ganid inquired what one could do to make friends, having noticed that the +majority of persons whom they chanced to meet were attracted to Jesus, his + + top of page - 1439 + +teacher said: "Become interested in your fellows; learn how to love them and +watch for the opportunity to do something for them which you are sure they want +done," and then he quoted the olden Jewish proverb--"A man who would have +friends must show himself friendly." + +At Carthage Jesus had a long and memorable talk with a Mithraic priest about +immortality, about time and eternity. This Persian had been educated at +Alexandria, and he really desired to learn from Jesus. Put into the words of +today, in substance Jesus said in answer to his many questions: + +Time is the stream of flowing temporal events perceived by creature +consciousness. Time is a name given to the succession-arrangement whereby +events are recognized and segregated. The universe of space is a time-related +phenomenon as it is viewed from any interior position outside of the fixed +abode of Paradise. The motion of time is only revealed in relation to something +which does not move in space as a time phenomenon. In the universe of universes +Paradise and its Deities transcend both time and space. On the inhabited +worlds, human personality (indwelt and oriented by the Paradise Father's +spirit) is the only physically related reality which can transcend the material +sequence of temporal events. + +Animals do not sense time as does man, and even to man, because of his +sectional and circumscribed view, time appears as a succession of events; but +as man ascends, as he progresses inward, the enlarging view of this event +procession is such that it is discerned more and more in its wholeness. That +which formerly appeared as a succession of events then will be viewed as a +whole and perfectly related cycle; in this way will circular simultaneity +increasingly displace the onetime consciousness of the linear sequence of +events. + +There are seven different conceptions of space as it is conditioned by time. +Space is measured by time, not time by space. The confusion of the scientist +grows out of failure to recognize the reality of space. Space is not merely an +intellectual concept of the variation in relatedness of universe objects. Space +is not empty, and the only thing man knows which can even partially transcend +space is mind. Mind can function independently of the concept of the +space-relatedness of material objects. Space is relatively and comparatively +finite to all beings of creature status. The nearer consciousness approaches +the awareness of seven cosmic dimensions, the more does the concept of +potential space approach ultimacy. But the space potential is truly ultimate +only on the absolute level. + +It must be apparent that universal reality has an expanding and always relative +meaning on the ascending and perfecting levels of the cosmos. Ultimately, +surviving mortals achieve identity in a seven-dimensional universe. + +The time-space concept of a mind of material origin is destined to undergo +successive enlargements as the conscious and conceiving personality ascends the +levels of the universes. When man attains the mind intervening between the +material and the spiritual planes of existence, his ideas of time-space will be +enormously expanded both as to quality of perception and quantity of +experience. The enlarging cosmic conceptions of an advancing spirit personality +are due to augmentations of both depth of insight and scope of consciousness. +And as personality passes on, upward and inward, to the transcendental levels +of Deity-likeness, the time-space concept will increasingly approximate the +timeless and spaceless concepts of the Absolutes. Relatively, and in accordance +with tran- + + top of page - 1440 + +scendental attainment, these concepts of the absolute level are to be +envisioned by the children of ultimate destiny. + +8. ON THE WAY TO NAPLES AND ROME + +The first stop on the way to Italy was at the island of Malta. Here Jesus had a +long talk with a downhearted and discouraged young man named Claudus. This +fellow had contemplated taking his life, but when he had finished talking with +the scribe of Damascus, he said: "I will face life like a man; I am through +playing the coward. I will go back to my people and begin all over again." +Shortly he became an enthusiastic preacher of the Cynics, and still later on he +joined hands with Peter in proclaiming Christianity in Rome and Naples, and +after the death of Peter he went on to Spain preaching the gospel. But he never +knew that the man who inspired him in Malta was the Jesus whom he subsequently +proclaimed the world's Deliverer. + +At Syracuse they spent a full week. The notable event of their stop here was +the rehabilitation of Ezra, the backslidden Jew, who kept the tavern where +Jesus and his companions stopped. Ezra was charmed by Jesus' approach and asked +him to help him come back to the faith of Israel. He expressed his hopelessness +by saying, "I want to be a true son of Abraham, but I cannot find God." Said +Jesus: "If you truly want to find God, that desire is in itself evidence that +you have already found him. Your trouble is not that you cannot find God, for +the Father has already found you; your trouble is simply that you do not know +God. Have you not read in the Prophet Jeremiah, `You shall seek me and find me +when you shall search for me with all your heart'? And again, does not this +same prophet say: `And I will give you a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, +and you shall belong to my people, and I will be your God'? And have you not +also read in the Scriptures where it says: `He looks down upon men, and if any +will say: I have sinned and perverted that which was right, and it profited me +not, then will God deliver that man's soul from darkness, and he shall see the +light?'" And Ezra found God and to the satisfaction of his soul. Later, this +Jew, in association with a well-to-do Greek proselyte, built the first +Christian church in Syracuse. + +At Messina they stopped for only one day, but that was long enough to change +the life of a small boy, a fruit vendor, of whom Jesus bought fruit and in turn +fed with the bread of life. The lad never forgot the words of Jesus and the +kindly look which went with them when, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder, +he said: "Farewell, my lad, be of good courage as you grow up to manhood and +after you have fed the body learn how also to feed the soul. And my Father in +heaven will be with you and go before you." The lad became a devotee of the +Mithraic religion and later on turned to the Christian faith. + +At last they reached Naples and felt they were not far from their destination, +Rome. Gonod had much business to transact in Naples, and aside from the time +Jesus was required as interpreter, he and Ganid spent their leisure visiting +and exploring the city. Ganid was becoming adept at sighting those who appeared +to be in need. They found much poverty in this city and distributed many alms. +But Ganid never understood the meaning of Jesus' words when, after he had given +a coin to a street beggar, he refused to pause and speak comfortingly to the +man. Said Jesus: "Why waste words upon one who cannot perceive the + + top of page - 1441 + +meaning of what you say? The spirit of the Father cannot teach and save one who +has no capacity for sonship." What Jesus meant was that the man was not of +normal mind; that he lacked the ability to respond to spirit leading. + +There was no outstanding experience in Naples; Jesus and the young man +thoroughly canvassed the city and spread good cheer with many smiles upon +hundreds of men, women, and children. + +From here they went by way of Capua to Rome, making a stop of three days at +Capua. By the Appian Way they journeyed on beside their pack animals toward +Rome, all three being anxious to see this mistress of empire and the greatest +city in all the world. + + top of page - 1442 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Later ³ The World's ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Adult... ³ Rel... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p131.txt b/religious documents/p131.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8f50c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p131.txt @@ -0,0 +1,828 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 131 The World's Religions + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 131 The World's Religions + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +DURING the Alexandrian sojourn of Jesus, Gonod, and Ganid, the young man spent +much of his time and no small sum of his father's money making a collection of +the teachings of the world's religions about God and his relations with mortal +man. Ganid employed more than threescore learned translators in the making of +this abstract of the religious doctrines of the world concerning the Deities. +And it should be made plain in this record that all these teachings portraying +monotheism were largely derived, directly or indirectly, from the preachments +of the missionaries of Machiventa Melchizedek, who went forth from their Salem +headquarters to spread the doctrine of one God--the Most High--to the ends of +the earth. + +There is presented herewith an abstract of Ganid's manuscript, which he +prepared at Alexandria and Rome, and which was preserved in India for hundreds +of years after his death. He collected this material under ten heads, as +follows: + +1. CYNICISM + +The residual teachings of the disciples of Melchizedek, excepting those which +persisted in the Jewish religion, were best preserved in the doctrines of the +Cynics. Ganid's selection embraced the following: + +"God is supreme; he is the Most High of heaven and earth. God is the perfected +circle of eternity, and he rules the universe of universes. He is the sole +maker of the heavens and the earth. When he decrees a thing, that thing is. Our +God is one God, and he is compassionate and merciful. Everything that is high, +holy, true, and beautiful is like our God. The Most High is the light of heaven +and earth; he is the God of the east, the west, the north, and the south. + +"Even if the earth should pass away, the resplendent face of the Supreme would +abide in majesty and glory. The Most High is the first and the last, the +beginning and the end of everything. There is but this one God, and his name is +Truth. God is self-existent, and he is devoid of all anger and enmity; he is +immortal and infinite. Our God is omnipotent and bounteous. While he has many +manifestations, we worship only God himself. God knows all--our secrets and our +proclamations; he also knows what each of us deserves. His might is equal to +all things. + +"God is a peace giver and a faithful protector of all who fear and trust him. +He gives salvation to all who serve him. All creation exists in the power of +the Most High. His divine love springs forth from the holiness of his power, +and + + top of page - 1443 + +affection is born of the might of his greatness. The Most High has decreed the +union of body and soul and has endowed man with his own spirit. What man does +must come to an end, but what the Creator does goes on forever. We gain +knowledge from the experience of man, but we derive wisdom from the +contemplation of the Most High. + +"God pours rain upon the earth, he causes the sun to shine upon the sprouting +grain, and he gives us the abundant harvest of the good things of this life and +eternal salvation in the world to come. Our God enjoys great authority; his +name is Excellent and his nature is unfathomable. When you are sick, it is the +Most High who heals you. God is full of goodness toward all men; we have no +friend like the Most High. His mercy fills all places and his goodness +encompasses all souls. The Most High is changeless; and he is our helper in +every time of need. Wherever you turn to pray, there is the face of the Most +High and the open ear of our God. You may hide yourself from men, but not from +God. God is not a great distance from us; he is omnipresent. God fills all +places and lives in the heart of the man who fears his holy name. Creation is +in the Creator and the Creator in his creation. We search for the Most High and +then find him in our hearts. You go in quest of a dear friend, and then you +discover him within your soul. + +"The man who knows God looks upon all men as equal; they are his brethren. +Those who are selfish, those who ignore their brothers in the flesh, have only +weariness as their reward. Those who love their fellows and who have pure +hearts shall see God. God never forgets sincerity. He will guide the honest of +heart into the truth, for God is truth. + +"In your lives overthrow error and overcome evil by the love of the living +truth. In all your relations with men do good for evil. The Lord God is +merciful and loving; he is forgiving. Let us love God, for he first loved us. +By God's love and through his mercy we shall be saved. Poor men and rich men +are brothers. God is their Father. The evil you would not have done you, do not +to others. + +"At all times call upon his name, and as you believe in his name, so shall your +prayer be heard. What a great honor it is to worship the Most High! All the +worlds and the universes worship the Most High. And with all your prayers give +thanks--ascend to worship. Prayerful worship shuns evil and forbids sin. At all +times let us praise the name of the Most High. The man who takes shelter in the +Most High conceals his defects from the universe. When you stand before God +with a clean heart, you become fearless of all creation. The Most High is like +a loving father and mother; he really loves us, his children on earth. Our God +will forgive us and guide our footsteps into the ways of salvation. He will +take us by the hand and lead us to himself. God saves those who trust him; he +does not compel man to serve his name. + +"If the faith of the Most High has entered your heart, then shall you abide +free from fear throughout all the days of your life. Fret not yourself because +of the prosperity of the ungodly; fear not those who plot evil; let the soul +turn away from sin and put your whole trust in the God of salvation. The weary +soul of the wandering mortal finds eternal rest in the arms of the Most High; +the wise man hungers for the divine embrace; the earth child longs for the +security of the arms of the Universal Father. The noble man seeks for that high +estate wherein the soul of the mortal blends with the spirit of the Supreme. +God is just: What fruit we receive not from our plantings in this world we +shall receive in the next." + + top of page - 1444 + +2. JUDAISM + +The Kenites of Palestine salvaged much of the teaching of Melchizedek, and from +these records, as preserved and modified by the Jews, Jesus and Ganid made the +following selection: + +"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and all things therein. +And, behold, all he created was very good. The Lord, he is God; there is none +beside him in heaven above or upon the earth beneath. Therefore shall you love +the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your +might. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover +the sea. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his +handiwork. Day after day utters speech; night after night shows knowledge. +There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. The Lord's work +is great, and in wisdom has he made all things; the greatness of the Lord is +unsearchable. He knows the number of the stars; he calls them all by their +names. + +"The power of the Lord is great and his understanding infinite. Says the Lord: +`As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your +ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.' God reveals the deep and +secret things because the light dwells with him. The Lord is merciful and +gracious; he is long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. The Lord is +good and upright; the meek will he guide in judgment. Taste and see that the +Lord is good! Blessed is the man who trusts God. God is our refuge and +strength, a very present help in trouble. + +"The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear +him and his righteousness even to our children's children. The Lord is gracious +and full of compassion. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are +over all his creation; he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. +Whither shall I go from God's spirit? whither shall I flee from the divine +presence? Thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is +Holy: `I dwell in the high and holy place; also with him who is of a contrite +heart and a humble spirit!' None can hide himself from our God, for he fills +heaven and earth. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let all +nations say: The Lord reigns! Give thanks to God, for his mercy endures +forever. + +"The heavens declare God's righteousness, and all the people have seen his +glory. It is God who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, the +sheep of his pasture. His mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all +generations. Our God is governor among the nations. Let the earth be filled +with his glory! O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his +wonderful gifts to the children of men! + +"God has made man a little less than divine and has crowned him with love and +mercy. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly +shall perish. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; the knowledge of +the Supreme is understanding. Says the Almighty God: `Walk before me and be +perfect.' Forget not that pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit +before a fall. He who rules his own spirit is mightier than he who takes a +city. Says the Lord God, the Holy One: `In returning to your spiritual rest +shall you be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.' They +who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with +wings like eagles. They shall + + top of page - 1445 + +run and not be weary; they shall walk and not be faint. The Lord shall give you +rest from your fear. Says the Lord: `Fear not, for I am with you. Be not +dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; yes, I +will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.' + +"God is our Father; the Lord is our redeemer. God has created the universal +hosts, and he preserves them all. His righteousness is like the mountains and +his judgment like the great deep. He causes us to drink of the river of his +pleasures, and in his light we shall see light. It is good to give thanks to +the Lord and to sing praises to the Most High; to show forth loving-kindness in +the morning and the divine faithfulness every night. God's kingdom is an +everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures throughout all generations. The +Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green +pastures; he leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in +the paths of righteousness. Yes, even though I walk through the valley of the +shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for God is with me. Surely goodness and +mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house +of the Lord forever. + +"Yahweh is the God of my salvation; therefore in the divine name will I put my +trust. I will trust in the Lord with all my heart; I will lean not upon my own +understanding. In all my ways I will acknowledge him, and he shall direct my +paths. The Lord is faithful; he keeps his word with those who serve him; the +just shall live by his faith. If you do not well, it is because sin lies at the +door; men reap the evil they plough and the sin they sow. Fret not yourself +because of evildoers. If you regard iniquity in your heart, the Lord will not +hear you; if you sin against God, you also wrong your own soul. God will bring +every man's work to judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or +evil. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. + +"The Lord is near all who call upon him in sincerity and in truth. Weeping may +endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. A merry heart does good like +a medicine. No good thing will God withhold from those who walk uprightly. Fear +God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Thus says the +Lord who created the heavens and who formed the earth: `There is no God beside +me, a just God and a savior. Look to me and be saved, all the ends of the +earth. If you seek me, you shall find me if you search for me with all your +heart.' The meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the +abundance of peace. Whoever sows iniquity shall reap calamity; they who sow the +wind shall reap the whirlwind. + +"`Come now, let us reason together,' says the Lord, `Though your sins be as +scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they +shall be as wool.' But there is no peace for the wicked; it is your own sins +which have withheld the good things from you. God is the health of my +countenance and the joy of my soul. The eternal God is my strength; he is our +dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. The Lord is near to +those who are brokenhearted; he saves all who have a childlike spirit. Many are +the afflictions of the righteous man, but the Lord delivers him out of them +all. Commit your way to the Lord--trust him--and he will bring it to pass. He +who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of +the Almighty. + +"Love your neighbor as yourself; bear a grudge against no man. Whatsoever you +hate do to no man. Love your brother, for the Lord has said: `I will love my +children freely.' The path of the just is as a shining light which shines more +and more until the perfect day. They who are wise shall shine as the brightness +of + + top of page - 1446 + +the firmament and they who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and +ever. Let the wicked forsake his evil way and the unrighteous man his +rebellious thoughts. Says the Lord: `Let them return to me, and I will have +mercy on them; I will abundantly pardon.' + +"Says God, the creator of heaven and earth: `Great peace have they who love my +law. My commandments are: You shall love me with all your heart; you shall have +no gods before me; you shall not take my name in vain; remember the Sabbath day +to keep it holy; honor your father and mother; you shall not kill; you shall +not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you +shall not covet.' + +"And to all who love the Lord supremely and their neighbors like themselves, +the God of heaven says: `I will ransom you from the grave; I will redeem you +from death. I will be merciful to your children, as well as just. Have I not +said of my creatures on earth, you are the sons of the living God? And have I +not loved you with an everlasting love? Have I not called you to become like me +and to dwell forever with me in Paradise?'" + +3. BUDDHISM + +Ganid was shocked to discover how near Buddhism came to being a great and +beautiful religion without God, without a personal and universal Deity. +However, he did find some record of certain earlier beliefs which reflected +something of the influence of the teachings of the Melchizedek missionaries who +continued their work in India even to the times of Buddha. Jesus and Ganid +collected the following statements from the Buddhist literature: + +"Out of a pure heart shall gladness spring forth to the Infinite; all my being +shall be at peace with this supermortal rejoicing. My soul is filled with +content, and my heart overflows with the bliss of peaceful trust. I have no +fear; I am free from anxiety. I dwell in security, and my enemies cannot alarm +me. I am satisfied with the fruits of my confidence. I have found the approach +to the Immortal easy of access. I pray for faith to sustain me on the long +journey; I know that faith from beyond will not fail me. I know my brethren +will prosper if they become imbued with the faith of the Immortal, even the +faith that creates modesty, uprightness, wisdom, courage, knowledge, and +perseverance. Let us forsake sorrow and disown fear. By faith let us lay hold +upon true righteousness and genuine manliness. Let us learn to meditate on +justice and mercy. Faith is man's true wealth; it is the endowment of virtue +and glory. + +"Unrighteousness is contemptible; sin is despicable. Evil is degrading, whether +held in thought or wrought out in deeds. Pain and sorrow follow in the path of +evil as the dust follows the wind. Happiness and peace of mind follow pure +thinking and virtuous living as the shadow follows the substance of material +things. Evil is the fruit of wrongly directed thinking. It is evil to see sin +where there is no sin; to see no sin where there is sin. Evil is the path of +false doctrines. Those who avoid evil by seeing things as they are gain joy by +thus embracing the truth. Make an end of your misery by loathing sin. When you +look up to the Noble One, turn away from sin with a whole heart. Make no +apology for evil; make no excuse for sin. By your efforts to make amends for +past sins you acquire strength to resist future tendencies thereto. Restraint +is born of repentance. Leave no fault unconfessed to the Noble One. + + top of page - 1447 + +"Cheerfulness and gladness are the rewards of deeds well done and to the glory +of the Immortal. No man can rob you of the liberty of your own mind. When the +faith of your religion has emancipated your heart, when the mind, like a +mountain, is settled and immovable, then shall the peace of the soul flow +tranquilly like a river of waters. Those who are sure of salvation are forever +free from lust, envy, hatred, and the delusions of wealth. While faith is the +energy of the better life, nevertheless, must you work out your own salvation +with perseverance. If you would be certain of your final salvation, then make +sure that you sincerely seek to fulfill all righteousness. Cultivate the +assurance of the heart which springs from within and thus come to enjoy the +ecstasy of eternal salvation. + +"No religionist may hope to attain the enlightenment of immortal wisdom who +persists in being slothful, indolent, feeble, idle, shameless, and selfish. But +whoso is thoughtful, prudent, reflective, fervent, and earnest--even while he +yet lives on earth--may attain the supreme enlightenment of the peace and +liberty of divine wisdom. Remember, every act shall receive its reward. Evil +results in sorrow and sin ends in pain. Joy and happiness are the outcome of a +good life. Even the evildoer enjoys a season of grace before the time of the +full ripening of his evil deeds, but inevitably there must come the full +harvest of evil-doing. Let no man think lightly of sin, saying in his heart: +`The penalty of wrongdoing shall not come near me.' What you do shall be done +to you, in the judgment of wisdom. Injustice done to your fellows shall come +back upon you. The creature cannot escape the destiny of his deeds. + +"The fool has said in his heart, `Evil shall not overtake me'; but safety is +found only when the soul craves reproof and the mind seeks wisdom. The wise man +is a noble soul who is friendly in the midst of his enemies, tranquil among the +turbulent, and generous among the grasping. Love of self is like weeds in a +goodly field. Selfishness leads to grief; perpetual care kills. The tamed mind +yields happiness. He is the greatest of warriors who overcomes and subdues +himself. Restraint in all things is good. He alone is a superior person who +esteems virtue and is observant of his duty. Let not anger and hate master you. +Speak harshly of no one. Contentment is the greatest wealth. What is given +wisely is well saved. Do not to others those things you would not wish done to +you. Pay good for evil; overcome evil with the good. + +"A righteous soul is more to be desired than the sovereignty of all the earth. +Immortality is the goal of sincerity; death, the end of thoughtless living. +Those who are earnest die not; the thoughtless are dead already. Blessed are +they who have insight into the deathless state. Those who torture the living +will hardly find happiness after death. The unselfish go to heaven, where they +rejoice in the bliss of infinite liberality and continue to increase in noble +generosity. Every mortal who thinks righteously, speaks nobly, and acts +unselfishly shall not only enjoy virtue here during this brief life but shall +also, after the dissolution of the body, continue to enjoy the delights of +heaven." + +4. HINDUISM + +The missionaries of Melchizedek carried the teachings of the one God with them +wherever they journeyed. Much of this monotheistic doctrine, together with +other and previous concepts, became embodied in the subsequent teachings of +Hinduism. Jesus and Ganid made the following excerpts: + + top of page - 1448 + +"He is the great God, in every way supreme. He is the Lord who encompasses all +things. He is the creator and controller of the universe of universes. God is +one God; he is alone and by himself; he is the only one. And this one God is +our Maker and the last destiny of the soul. The Supreme One is brilliant beyond +description; he is the Light of Lights. Every heart and every world is +illuminated by this divine light. God is our protector--he stands by the side +of his creatures--and those who learn to know him become immortal. God is the +great source of energy; he is the Great Soul. He exercises universal lordship +over all. This one God is loving, glorious, and adorable. Our God is supreme in +power and abides in the supreme abode. This true Person is eternal and divine; +he is the primal Lord of heaven. All the prophets have hailed him, and he has +revealed himself to us. We worship him. O Supreme Person, source of beings, +Lord of creation, and ruler of the universe, reveal to us, your creatures, the +power whereby you abide immanent! God has made the sun and the stars; he is +bright, pure, and self-existent. His eternal knowledge is divinely wise. The +Eternal is unpenetrated by evil. Inasmuch as the universe sprang from God, he +does rule it appropriately. He is the cause of creation, and hence are all +things established in him. + +"God is the sure refuge of every good man when in need; the Immortal One cares +for all mankind. God's salvation is strong and his kindness is gracious. He is +a loving protector, a blessed defender. Says the Lord: `I dwell within their +own souls as a lamp of wisdom. I am the splendor of the splendid and the +goodness of the good. Where two or three gather together, there am I also.' The +creature cannot escape the presence of the Creator. The Lord even counts the +ceaseless winking of every mortal's eyes; and we worship this divine Being as +our inseparable companion. He is all-prevailing, bountiful, omnipresent, and +infinitely kind. The Lord is our ruler, shelter, and supreme controller, and +his primeval spirit dwells within the mortal soul. The Eternal Witness to vice +and virtue dwells within man's heart. Let us long meditate on the adorable and +divine Vivifier; let his spirit fully direct our thoughts. From this unreal +world lead us to the real! From darkness lead us to the light! From death guide +us to immortality! + +"With our hearts purged of all hate, let us worship the Eternal. Our God is the +Lord of prayer; he hears the cry of his children. Let all men submit their +wills to him, the Resolute. Let us delight in the liberality of the Lord of +prayer. Make prayer your inmost friend and worship your soul's support. `If you +will but worship me in love,' says the Eternal, `I will give you the wisdom to +attain me, for my worship is the virtue common to all creatures.' God is the +illuminator of the gloomy and the power of those who are faint. Since God is +our strong friend, we have no more fear. We praise the name of the +never-conquered Conqueror. We worship him because he is man's faithful and +eternal helper. God is our sure leader and unfailing guide. He is the great +parent of heaven and earth, possessed of unlimited energy and infinite wisdom. +His splendor is sublime and his beauty divine. He is the supreme refuge of the +universe and the changeless guardian of everlasting law. Our God is the Lord of +life and the Comforter of all men; he is the lover of mankind and the helper of +those who are distressed. He is our life giver and the Good Shepherd of the +human flocks. God is our father, brother, and friend. And we long to know this +God in our inner being. + +"We have learned to win faith by the yearning of our hearts. We have attained +wisdom by the restraint of our senses, and by wisdom we have experienced peace +in the Supreme. He who is full of faith worships truly when his inner self is +intent upon God. Our God wears the heavens as a mantle; he also inhabits the +other + + top of page - 1449 + +six wide-spreading universes. He is supreme over all and in all. We crave +forgiveness from the Lord for all of our trespasses against our fellows; and we +would release our friend from the wrong he has done us. Our spirit loathes all +evil; therefore, O Lord, free us from all taint of sin. We pray to God as a +comforter, protector, and savior--one who loves us. + +"The spirit of the Universe Keeper enters the soul of the simple creature. That +man is wise who worships the One God. Those who strive for perfection must +indeed know the Lord Supreme. He never fears who knows the blissful security of +the Supreme, for the Supreme says to those who serve him, `Fear not, for I am +with you.' The God of providence is our Father. God is truth. And it is the +desire of God that his creatures should understand him--come fully to know the +truth. Truth is eternal; it sustains the universe. Our supreme desire shall be +union with the Supreme. The Great Controller is the generator of all +things--all evolves from him. And this is the sum of duty: Let no man do to +another what would be repugnant to himself; cherish no malice, smite not him +who smites you, conquer anger with mercy, and vanquish hate by benevolence. And +all this we should do because God is a kind friend and a gracious father who +remits all our earthly offenses. + +"God is our Father, the earth our mother, and the universe our birthplace. +Without God the soul is a prisoner; to know God releases the soul. By +meditation on God, by union with him, there comes deliverance from the +illusions of evil and ultimate salvation from all material fetters. When man +shall roll up space as a piece of leather, then will come the end of evil +because man has found God. O God, save us from the threefold ruin of +hell--lust, wrath, and avarice! O soul, gird yourself for the spirit struggle +of immortality! When the end of mortal life comes, hesitate not to forsake this +body for a more fit and beautiful form and to awake in the realms of the +Supreme and Immortal, where there is no fear, sorrow, hunger, thirst, or death. +To know God is to cut the cords of death. The God-knowing soul rises in the +universe like the cream appears on top of the milk. We worship God, the +all-worker, the Great Soul, who is ever seated in the heart of his creatures. +And they who know that God is enthroned in the human heart are destined to +become like him--immortal. Evil must be left behind in this world, but virtue +follows the soul to heaven. + +"It is only the wicked who say: The universe has neither truth nor a ruler; it +was only designed for our lusts. Such souls are deluded by the smallness of +their intellects. They thus abandon themselves to the enjoyment of their lusts +and deprive their souls of the joys of virtue and the pleasures of +righteousness. What can be greater than to experience salvation from sin? The +man who has seen the Supreme is immortal. Man's friends of the flesh cannot +survive death; virtue alone walks by man's side as he journeys ever onward +toward the gladsome and sunlit fields of Paradise." + +5. ZOROASTRIANISM + +Zoroaster was himself directly in contact with the descendants of the earlier +Melchizedek missionaries, and their doctrine of the one God became a central +teaching in the religion which he founded in Persia. Aside from Judaism, no +religion of that day contained more of these Salem teachings. From the records +of this religion Ganid made the following excerpts: + + top of page - 1450 + +"All things come from, and belong to, the One God--all-wise, good, righteous, +holy, resplendent, and glorious. This, our God, is the source of all +luminosity. He is the Creator, the God of all good purposes, and the protector +of the justice of the universe. The wise course in life is to act in consonance +with the spirit of truth. God is all-seeing, and he beholds both the evil deeds +of the wicked and the good works of the righteous; our God observes all things +with a flashing eye. His touch is the touch of healing. The Lord is an +all-powerful benefactor. God stretches out his beneficent hand to both the +righteous and the wicked God established the world and ordained the rewards for +good and for evil. The all-wise God has promised immortality to the pious souls +who think purely and act righteously. As you supremely desire, so shall you be. +The light of the sun is as wisdom to those who discern God in the universe. + +"Praise God by seeking the pleasure of the Wise One. Worship the God of light +by joyfully walking in the paths ordained by his revealed religion. There is +but one Supreme God, the Lord of Lights. We worship him who made the waters, +plants, animals, the earth, and the heavens. Our God is Lord, most beneficent. +We worship the most beauteous, the bountiful Immortal, endowed with eternal +light. God is farthest from us and at the same time nearest to us in that he +dwells within our souls. Our God is the divine and holiest Spirit of Paradise, +and yet he is more friendly to man than the most friendly of all creatures. God +is most helpful to us in this greatest of all businesses, the knowing of +himself. God is our most adorable and righteous friend; he is our wisdom, life, +and vigor of soul and body. Through our good thinking the wise Creator will +enable us to do his will, thereby attaining the realization of all that is +divinely perfect. + +"Lord, teach us how to live this life in the flesh while preparing for the next +life of the spirit. Speak to us, Lord, and we will do your bidding. Teach us +the good paths, and we will go right. Grant us that we may attain union with +you. We know that the religion is right which leads to union with +righteousness. God is our wise nature, best thought, and righteous act. May God +grant us unity with the divine spirit and immortality in himself! + +"This religion of the Wise One cleanses the believer from every evil thought +and sinful deed. I bow before the God of heaven in repentance if I have +offended in thought, word, or act--intentionally or unintentionally--and I +offer prayers for mercy and praise for forgiveness. I know when I make +confession, if I purpose not to do again the evil thing, that sin will be +removed from my soul. I know that forgiveness takes away the bonds of sin. +Those who do evil shall receive punishment, but those who follow truth shall +enjoy the bliss of an eternal salvation. Through grace lay hold upon us and +minister saving power to our souls. We claim mercy because we aspire to attain +perfection; we would be like God." + +6. SUDUANISM (JAINISM) + +The third group of religious believers who preserved the doctrine of one God in +India--the survival of the Melchizedek teaching--were known in those days as +the Suduanists. Latterly these believers have become known as followers of +Jainism. They taught: + +"The Lord of Heaven is supreme. Those who commit sin will not ascend on high, +but those who walk in the paths of righteousness shall find a place in heaven. +We are assured of the life hereafter if we know truth. The soul of man may +ascend + + top of page - 1451 + +to the highest heaven, there to develop its true spiritual nature, to attain +perfection. The estate of heaven delivers man from the bondage of sin and +introduces him to the final beatitudes; the righteous man has already +experienced an end of sin and all its associated miseries. Self is man's +invincible foe, and self is manifested as man's four greatest passions: anger, +pride, deceit, and greed. Man's greatest victory is the conquest of himself. +When man looks to God for forgiveness, and when he makes bold to enjoy such +liberty, he is thereby delivered from fear. Man should journey through life +treating his fellow creatures as he would like to be treated." + +7. SHINTO + +Only recently had the manuscripts of this Far-Eastern religion been lodged in +the Alexandrian library. It was the one world religion of which Ganid had never +heard. This belief also contained remnants of the earlier Melchizedek teachings +as is shown by the following abstracts: + +"Says the Lord: `You are all recipients of my divine power; all men enjoy my +ministry of mercy. I derive great pleasure in the multiplication of righteous +men throughout the land. In both the beauties of nature and the virtues of men +does the Prince of Heaven seek to reveal himself and to show forth his +righteous nature. Since the olden people did not know my name, I manifested +myself by being born into the world as a visible existence and endured such +abasement even that man should not forget my name. I am the maker of heaven and +earth; the sun and the moon and all the stars obey my will. I am the ruler of +all creatures on land and in the four seas. Although I am great and supreme, +still I have regard for the prayer of the poorest man. If any creature will +worship me, I will hear his prayer and grant the desire of his heart.' + +"`Every time man yields to anxiety, he takes one step away from the leading of +the spirit of his heart.' Pride obscures God. If you would obtain heavenly +help, put away your pride; every hair of pride shuts off saving light, as it +were, by a great cloud. If you are not right on the inside, it is useless to +pray for that which is on the outside. `If I hear your prayers, it is because +you come before me with a clean heart, free from falsehood and hypocrisy, with +a soul which reflects truth like a mirror. If you would gain immortality, +forsake the world and come to me.'" + +8. TAOISM + +The messengers of Melchizedek penetrated far into China, and the doctrine of +one God became a part of the earlier teachings of several Chinese religions; +the one persisting the longest and containing most of the monotheistic truth +was Taoism, and Ganid collected the following from the teachings of its +founder: + +"How pure and tranquil is the Supreme One and yet how powerful and mighty, how +deep and unfathomable! This God of heaven is the honored ancestor of all +things. If you know the Eternal, you are enlightened and wise. If you know not +the Eternal, then does ignorance manifest itself as evil, and thus do the +passions of sin arise. This wondrous Being existed before the heavens and the +earth were. He is truly spiritual; he stands alone and changes not. He is +indeed the world's mother, and all creation moves around him. This Great One +imparts himself to + + top of page - 1452 + +men and thereby enables them to excel and to survive. Even if one has but a +little knowledge, he can still walk in the ways of the Supreme; he can conform +to the will of heaven. + +"All good works of true service come from the Supreme. All things depend on the +Great Source for life. The Great Supreme seeks no credit for his bestowals. He +is supreme in power, yet he remains hidden from our gaze. He unceasingly +transmutes his attributes while perfecting his creatures. The heavenly Reason +is slow and patient in his designs but sure of his accomplishments. The Supreme +overspreads the universe and sustains it all. How great and mighty are his +overflowing influence and drawing power! True goodness is like water in that it +blesses everything and harms nothing. And like water, true goodness seeks the +lowest places, even those levels which others avoid, and that is because it is +akin to the Supreme. The Supreme creates all things, in nature nourishing them +and in spirit perfecting them. And it is a mystery how the Supreme fosters, +protects, and perfects the creature without compelling him. He guides and +directs, but without self-assertion. He ministers progression, but without +domination. + +"The wise man universalizes his heart. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. +Those who aspire to greatness must learn to humble themselves. In creation the +Supreme became the world's mother. To know one's mother is to recognize one's +sonship. He is a wise man who regards all parts from the point of view of the +whole. Relate yourself to every man as if you were in his place. Recompense +injury with kindness. If you love people, they will draw near you--you will +have no difficulty in winning them. + +"The Great Supreme is all-pervading; he is on the left hand and on the right; +he supports all creation and indwells all true beings. You cannot find the +Supreme, neither can you go to a place where he is not. If a man recognizes the +evil of his ways and repents of sin from the heart, then may he seek +forgiveness; he may escape the penalty; he may change calamity into blessing. +The Supreme is the secure refuge for all creation; he is the guardian and +savior of mankind. If you seek for him daily, you shall find him. Since he can +forgive sins, he is indeed most precious to all men. Always remember that God +does not reward man for what he does but for what he is; therefore should you +extend help to your fellows without the thought of rewards. Do good without +thought of benefit to the self. + +"They who know the laws of the Eternal are wise. Ignorance of the divine law is +misery and disaster. They who know the laws of God are liberal minded. If you +know the Eternal, even though your body perish, your soul shall survive in +spirit service. You are truly wise when you recognize your insignificance. If +you abide in the light of the Eternal, you shall enjoy the enlightenment of the +Supreme. Those who dedicate their persons to the service of the Supreme are +joyous in this pursuit of the Eternal. When man dies, the spirit begins to wing +its long flight on the great home journey." + +9. CONFUCIANISM + +Even the least God-recognizing of the world's great religions acknowledged the +monotheism of the Melchizedek missionaries and their persistent successors. +Ganid's summary of Confucianism was: + +"What Heaven appoints is without error. Truth is real and divine. Everything +originates in Heaven, and the Great Heaven makes no mistakes. Heaven has +appointed many subordinates to assist in the instruction and uplifting of the + + top of page - 1453 + +inferior creatures. Great, very great, is the One God who rules man from on +high. God is majestic in power and awful in judgment. But this Great God has +conferred a moral sense even on many inferior people. Heaven's bounty never +stops. Benevolence is Heaven's choicest gift to men. Heaven has bestowed its +nobility upon the soul of man; the virtues of man are the fruit of this +endowment of Heaven's nobility. The Great Heaven is all-discerning and goes +with man in all his doings. And we do well when we call the Great Heaven our +Father and our Mother. If we are thus servants of our divine ancestors, then +may we in confidence pray to Heaven. At all times and in everything let us +stand in awe of the majesty of Heaven. We acknowledge, O God, the Most High and +sovereign Potentate, that judgment rests with you, and that all mercy proceeds +from the divine heart. + +"God is with us; therefore we have no fear in our hearts. If there be found any +virtue in me, it is the manifestation of Heaven who abides with me. But this +Heaven within me often makes hard demands on my faith. If God is with me, I +have determined to have no doubt in my heart. Faith must be very near the truth +of things, and I do not see how a man can live without this good faith. Good +and evil do not befall men without cause. Heaven deals with man's soul in +accordance with its purpose. When you find yourself in the wrong, do not +hesitate to confess your error and be quick to make amends. + +"A wise man is occupied with the search for truth, not in seeking for a mere +living. To attain the perfection of Heaven is the goal of man. The superior man +is given to self-adjustment, and he is free from anxiety and fear. God is with +you; have no doubt in your heart. Every good deed has its recompense. The +superior man murmurs not against Heaven nor holds a grudge against men. What +you do not like when done to yourself, do not to others. Let compassion be a +part of all punishment; in every way endeavor to make punishment a blessing. +Such is the way of Great Heaven. While all creatures must die and return to the +earth, the spirit of the noble man goes forth to be displayed on high and to +ascend to the glorious light of final brightness." + +10. "OUR RELIGION" + +After the arduous labor of effecting this compilation of the teachings of the +world religions concerning the Paradise Father, Ganid set himself to the task +of formulating what he deemed to be a summary of the belief he had arrived at +regarding God as a result of Jesus' teaching. This young man was in the habit +of referring to such beliefs as "our religion." This was his record: + +"The Lord our God is one Lord, and you should love him with all your mind and +heart while you do your very best to love all his children as you love +yourself. This one God is our heavenly Father, in whom all things consist, and +who dwells, by his spirit, in every sincere human soul. And we who are the +children of God should learn how to commit the keeping of our souls to him as +to a faithful Creator. With our heavenly Father all things are possible. Since +he is the Creator, having made all things and all beings, it could not be +otherwise. Though we cannot see God, we can know him. And by daily living the +will of the Father in heaven, we can reveal him to our fellow men. + +"The divine riches of God's character must be infinitely deep and eternally +wise. We cannot search out God by knowledge, but we can know him in our hearts +by personal experience. While his justice may be past finding out, his mercy +may be received by the humblest being on earth. While the Father fills the +universe, + + top of page - 1454 + +he also lives in our hearts. The mind of man is human, mortal, but the spirit +of man is divine, immortal. God is not only all-powerful but also all-wise. If +our earth parents, being of evil tendency, know how to love their children and +bestow good gifts on them, how much more must the good Father in heaven know +how wisely to love his children on earth and to bestow suitable blessings upon +them. + +"The Father in heaven will not suffer a single child on earth to perish if that +child has a desire to find the Father and truly longs to be like him. Our +Father even loves the wicked and is always kind to the ungrateful. If more +human beings could only know about the goodness of God, they would certainly be +led to repent of their evil ways and forsake all known sin. All good things +come down from the Father of light, in whom there is no variableness neither +shadow of changing. The spirit of the true God is in man's heart. He intends +that all men should be brothers. When men begin to feel after God, that is +evidence that God has found them, and that they are in quest of knowledge about +him. We live in God and God dwells in us. + +"I will no longer be satisfied to believe that God is the Father of all my +people; I will henceforth believe that he is also my Father. Always will I try +to worship God with the help of the Spirit of Truth, which is my helper when I +have become really God-knowing. But first of all I am going to practice +worshiping God by learning how to do the will of God on earth; that is, I am +going to do my best to treat each of my fellow mortals just as I think God +would like to have him treated. And when we live this sort of a life in the +flesh, we may ask many things of God, and he will give us the desire of our +hearts that we may be the better prepared to serve our fellows. And all of this +loving service of the children of God enlarges our capacity to receive and +experience the joys of heaven, the high pleasures of the ministry of the spirit +of heaven. + +"I will every day thank God for his unspeakable gifts; I will praise him for +his wonderful works to the children of men. To me he is the Almighty, the +Creator, the Power, and the Mercy, but best of all, he is my spirit Father, and +as his earth child I am sometime going forth to see him. And my tutor has said +that by searching for him I shall become like him. By faith in God I have +attained peace with him. This new religion of ours is very full of joy, and it +generates an enduring happiness. I am confident that I shall be faithful even +to death, and that I will surely receive the crown of eternal life. + +"I am learning to prove all things and adhere to that which is good. Whatsoever +I would that men should do to me, that I will do to my fellows. By this new +faith I know that man may become the son of God, but it sometimes terrifies me +when I stop to think that all men are my brothers, but it must be true. I do +not see how I can rejoice in the fatherhood of God while I refuse to accept the +brotherhood of man. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. +If that is true, then all men must be my brothers. + +"Henceforth will I do my good deeds in secret; I will also pray most when by +myself. I will judge not that I may not be unfair to my fellows. I am going to +learn to love my enemies; I have not truly mastered this practice of being +Godlike. Though I see God in these other religions, I find him in `our +religion' as being more beautiful, loving, merciful, personal, and positive. +But most of all, this great and glorious Being is my spiritual Father; I am his +child. And by no other means than my honest desire to be like him, I am +eventually to find him and eternally to serve him. At last I have a religion +with a God, a marvelous God, and he is a God of eternal salvation." + + top of page - 1455 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ On The Way To ³ The Sojourn At ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ R... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p132.txt b/religious documents/p132.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c58726f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p132.txt @@ -0,0 +1,804 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 132 The Sojourn At Rome + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 132 The Sojourn At Rome + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +SINCE Gonod carried greetings from the princes of India to Tiberius, the Roman +ruler, on the third day after their arrival in Rome the two Indians and Jesus +appeared before him. The morose emperor was unusually cheerful on this day and +chatted long with the trio. And when they had gone from his presence, the +emperor, referring to Jesus, remarked to the aide standing on his right, "If I +had that fellow's kingly bearing and gracious manner, I would be a real +emperor, eh?" + +While at Rome, Ganid had regular hours for study and for visiting places of +interest about the city. His father had much business to transact, and desiring +that his son grow up to become a worthy successor in the management of his vast +commercial interests, he thought the time had come to introduce the boy to the +business world. There were many citizens of India in Rome, and often one of +Gonod's own employees would accompany him as interpreter so that Jesus would +have whole days to himself; this gave him time in which to become thoroughly +acquainted with this city of two million inhabitants. He was frequently to be +found in the forum, the center of political, legal, and business life. He often +went up to the Capitolium and pondered the bondage of ignorance in which these +Romans were held as he beheld this magnificent temple dedicated to Jupiter, +Juno, and Minerva. He also spent much time on Palatine hill, where were located +the emperor's residence, the temple of Apollo, and the Greek and Latin +libraries. + +At this time the Roman Empire included all of southern Europe, Asia Minor, +Syria, Egypt, and northwest Africa; and its inhabitants embraced the citizens +of every country of the Eastern Hemisphere. His desire to study and mingle with +this cosmopolitan aggregation of Urantia mortals was the chief reason why Jesus +consented to make this journey. + +Jesus learned much about men while in Rome, but the most valuable of all the +manifold experiences of his six months' sojourn in that city was his contact +with, and influence upon, the religious leaders of the empire's capital. Before +the end of the first week in Rome Jesus had sought out, and had made the +acquaintance of, the worth-while leaders of the Cynics, the Stoics, and the +mystery cults, in particular the Mithraic group. Whether or not it was apparent +to Jesus that the Jews were going to reject his mission, he most certainly +foresaw that his messengers were presently coming to Rome to proclaim the +kingdom of heaven; and he therefore set about, in the most amazing manner, to +prepare the way for the better and more certain reception of their message. He +selected five of the leading Stoics, eleven of the Cynics, and sixteen of the +mystery-cult leaders and + + top of page - 1456 + +spent much of his spare time for almost six months in intimate association with +these religious teachers. And this was his method of instruction: Never once +did he attack their errors or even mention the flaws in their teachings. In +each case he would select the truth in what they taught and then proceed so to +embellish and illuminate this truth in their minds that in a very short time +this enhancement of the truth effectively crowded out the associated error; and +thus were these Jesus-taught men and women prepared for the subsequent +recognition of additional and similar truths in the teachings of the early +Christian missionaries. It was this early acceptance of the teachings of the +gospel preachers which gave that powerful impetus to the rapid spread of +Christianity in Rome and from there throughout the empire. + +The significance of this remarkable doing can the better be understood when we +record the fact that, out of this group of thirty-two Jesus-taught religious +leaders in Rome, only two were unfruitful; the thirty became pivotal +individuals in the establishment of Christianity in Rome, and certain of them +also aided in turning the chief Mithraic temple into the first Christian church +of that city. We who view human activities from behind the scenes and in the +light of nineteen centuries of time recognize just three factors of paramount +value in the early setting of the stage for the rapid spread of Christianity +throughout Europe, and they are: + +1. The choosing and holding of Simon Peter as an apostle. + +2. The talk in Jerusalem with Stephen, whose death led to the winning of Saul +of Tarsus. + +3. The preliminary preparation of these thirty Romans for the subsequent +leadership of the new religion in Rome and throughout the empire. + +Through all their experiences, neither Stephen nor the thirty chosen ones ever +realized that they had once talked with the man whose name became the subject +of their religious teaching. Jesus' work in behalf of the original thirty-two +was entirely personal. In his labors for these individuals the scribe of +Damascus never met more than three of them at one time, seldom more than two, +while most often he taught them singly. And he could do this great work of +religious training because these men and women were not tradition bound; they +were not victims of a settled preconception as to all future religious +developments. + +Many were the times in the years so soon to follow that Peter, Paul, and the +other Christian teachers in Rome heard about this scribe of Damascus who had +preceded them, and who had so obviously (and as they supposed unwittingly) +prepared the way for their coming with the new gospel. Though Paul never really +surmised the identity of this scribe of Damascus, he did, a short time before +his death, because of the similarity of personal descriptions, reach the +conclusion that the "tentmaker of Antioch" was also the "scribe of Damascus." +On one occasion, while preaching in Rome, Simon Peter, on listening to a +description of the Damascus scribe, surmised that this individual might have +been Jesus but quickly dismissed the idea, knowing full well (so he thought) +that the Master had never been in Rome. + +1. TRUE VALUES + +It was with Angamon, the leader of the Stoics, that Jesus had an all-night talk +early during his sojourn in Rome. This man subsequently became a great + + top of page - 1457 + +friend of Paul and proved to be one of the strong supporters of the Christian +church at Rome. In substance, and restated in modern phraseology, Jesus taught +Angamon: + +The standard of true values must be looked for in the spiritual world and on +divine levels of eternal reality. To an ascending mortal all lower and material +standards must be recognized as transient, partial, and inferior. The +scientist, as such, is limited to the discovery of the relatedness of material +facts. Technically, he has no right to assert that he is either materialist or +idealist, for in so doing he has assumed to forsake the attitude of a true +scientist since any and all such assertions of attitude are the very essence of +philosophy. + +Unless the moral insight and the spiritual attainment of mankind are +proportionately augmented, the unlimited advancement of a purely materialistic +culture may eventually become a menace to civilization. A purely materialistic +science harbors within itself the potential seed of the destruction of all +scientific striving, for this very attitude presages the ultimate collapse of a +civilization which has abandoned its sense of moral values and has repudiated +its spiritual goal of attainment. + +The materialistic scientist and the extreme idealist are destined always to be +at loggerheads. This is not true of those scientists and idealists who are in +possession of a common standard of high moral values and spiritual test levels. +In every age scientists and religionists must recognize that they are on trial +before the bar of human need. They must eschew all warfare between themselves +while they strive valiantly to justify their continued survival by enhanced +devotion to the service of human progress. If the so-called science or religion +of any age is false, then must it either purify its activities or pass away +before the emergence of a material science or spiritual religion of a truer and +more worthy order. + +2. GOOD AND EVIL + +Mardus was the acknowledged leader of the Cynics of Rome, and he became a great +friend of the scribe of Damascus. Day after day he conversed with Jesus, and +night upon night he listened to his supernal teaching. Among the more important +discussions with Mardus was the one designed to answer this sincere Cynic's +question about good and evil. In substance, and in twentieth-century +phraseology, Jesus said: + +My brother, good and evil are merely words symbolizing relative levels of human +comprehension of the observable universe. If you are ethically lazy and +socially indifferent, you can take as your standard of good the current social +usages. If you are spiritually indolent and morally unprogressive, you may take +as your standards of good the religious practices and traditions of your +contemporaries. But the soul that survives time and emerges into eternity must +make a living and personal choice between good and evil as they are determined +by the true values of the spiritual standards established by the divine spirit +which the Father in heaven has sent to dwell within the heart of man. This +indwelling spirit is the standard of personality survival. + +Goodness, like truth, is always relative and unfailingly evil-contrasted. It is +the perception of these qualities of goodness and truth that enables the evolv- + + top of page - 1458 + +ing souls of men to make those personal decisions of choice which are essential +to eternal survival. + +The spiritually blind individual who logically follows scientific dictation, +social usage, and religious dogma stands in grave danger of sacrificing his +moral freedom and losing his spiritual liberty. Such a soul is destined to +become an intellectual parrot, a social automaton, and a slave to religious +authority. + +Goodness is always growing toward new levels of the increasing liberty of moral +self-realization and spiritual personality attainment--the discovery of, and +identification with, the indwelling Adjuster. An experience is good when it +heightens the appreciation of beauty, augments the moral will, enhances the +discernment of truth, enlarges the capacity to love and serve one's fellows, +exalts the spiritual ideals, and unifies the supreme human motives of time with +the eternal plans of the indwelling Adjuster, all of which lead directly to an +increased desire to do the Father's will, thereby fostering the divine passion +to find God and to be more like him. + +As you ascend the universe scale of creature development, you will find +increasing goodness and diminishing evil in perfect accordance with your +capacity for goodness-experience and truth-discernment. The ability to +entertain error or experience evil will not be fully lost until the ascending +human soul achieves final spirit levels. + +Goodness is living, relative, always progressing, invariably a personal +experience, and everlastingly correlated with the discernment of truth and +beauty. Goodness is found in the recognition of the positive truth-values of +the spiritual level, which must, in human experience, be contrasted with the +negative counterpart--the shadows of potential evil. + +Until you attain Paradise levels, goodness will always be more of a quest than +a possession, more of a goal than an experience of attainment. But even as you +hunger and thirst for righteousness, you experience increasing satisfaction in +the partial attainment of goodness. The presence of goodness and evil in the +world is in itself positive proof of the existence and reality of man's moral +will, the personality, which thus identifies these values and is also able to +choose between them. + +By the time of the attainment of Paradise the ascending mortal's capacity for +identifying the self with true spirit values has become so enlarged as to +result in the attainment of the perfection of the possession of the light of +life. Such a perfected spirit personality becomes so wholly, divinely, and +spiritually unified with the positive and supreme qualities of goodness, +beauty, and truth that there remains no possibility that such a righteous +spirit would cast any negative shadow of potential evil when exposed to the +searching luminosity of the divine light of the infinite Rulers of Paradise. In +all such spirit personalities, goodness is no longer partial, contrastive, and +comparative; it has become divinely complete and spiritually replete; it +approaches the purity and perfection of the Supreme. + +The possibility of evil is necessary to moral choosing, but not the actuality +thereof. A shadow is only relatively real. Actual evil is not necessary as a +personal experience. Potential evil acts equally well as a decision stimulus in +the realms of moral progress on the lower levels of spiritual development. Evil +becomes a reality of personal experience only when a moral mind makes evil its +choice. + + top of page - 1459 + +3. TRUTH AND FAITH + +Nabon was a Greek Jew and foremost among the leaders of the chief mystery cult +in Rome, the Mithraic. While this high priest of Mithraism held many +conferences with the Damascus scribe, he was most permanently influenced by +their discussion of truth and faith one evening. Nabon had thought to make a +convert of Jesus and had even suggested that he return to Palestine as a +Mithraic teacher. He little realized that Jesus was preparing him to become one +of the early converts to the gospel of the kingdom. Restated in modern +phraseology, the substance of Jesus' teaching was: + +Truth cannot be defined with words, only by living. Truth is always more than +knowledge. Knowledge pertains to things observed, but truth transcends such +purely material levels in that it consorts with wisdom and embraces such +imponderables as human experience, even spiritual and living realities. +Knowledge originates in science; wisdom, in true philosophy; truth, in the +religious experience of spiritual living. Knowledge deals with facts; wisdom, +with relationships; truth, with reality values. + +Man tends to crystallize science, formulate philosophy, and dogmatize truth +because he is mentally lazy in adjusting to the progressive struggles of +living, while he is also terribly afraid of the unknown. Natural man is slow to +initiate changes in his habits of thinking and in his techniques of living. + +Revealed truth, personally discovered truth, is the supreme delight of the +human soul; it is the joint creation of the material mind and the indwelling +spirit. The eternal salvation of this truth-discerning and beauty-loving soul +is assured by that hunger and thirst for goodness which leads this mortal to +develop a singleness of purpose to do the Father's will, to find God and to +become like him. There is never conflict between true knowledge and truth. +There may be conflict between knowledge and human beliefs, beliefs colored with +prejudice, distorted by fear, and dominated by the dread of facing new facts of +material discovery or spiritual progress. + +But truth can never become man's possession without the exercise of faith. This +is true because man's thoughts, wisdom, ethics, and ideals will never rise +higher than his faith, his sublime hope. And all such true faith is predicated +on profound reflection, sincere self-criticism, and uncompromising moral +consciousness. Faith is the inspiration of the spiritized creative imagination. + +Faith acts to release the superhuman activities of the divine spark, the +immortal germ, that lives within the mind of man, and which is the potential of +eternal survival. Plants and animals survive in time by the technique of +passing on from one generation to another identical particles of themselves. +The human soul (personality) of man survives mortal death by identity +association with this indwelling spark of divinity, which is immortal, and +which functions to perpetuate the human personality upon a continuing and +higher level of progressive universe existence. The concealed seed of the human +soul is an immortal spirit. The second generation of the soul is the first of a +succession of personality manifestations of spiritual and progressing +existences, terminating only when this divine entity attains the source of its +existence, the personal source of all existence, God, the Universal Father. + +Human life continues--survives--because it has a universe function, the task of +finding God. The faith-activated soul of man cannot stop short of the + + top of page - 1460 + +attainment of this goal of destiny; and when it does once achieve this divine +goal, it can never end because it has become like God--eternal. + +Spiritual evolution is an experience of the increasing and voluntary choice of +goodness attended by an equal and progressive diminution of the possibility of +evil. With the attainment of finality of choice for goodness and of completed +capacity for truth appreciation, there comes into existence a perfection of +beauty and holiness whose righteousness eternally inhibits the possibility of +the emergence of even the concept of potential evil. Such a God-knowing soul +casts no shadow of doubting evil when functioning on such a high spirit level +of divine goodness. + +The presence of the Paradise spirit in the mind of man constitutes the +revelation promise and the faith pledge of an eternal existence of divine +progression for every soul seeking to achieve identity with this immortal and +indwelling spirit fragment of the Universal Father. + +Universe progress is characterized by increasing personality freedom because it +is associated with the progressive attainment of higher and higher levels of +self-understanding and consequent voluntary self-restraint. The attainment of +perfection of spiritual self-restraint equals completeness of universe freedom +and personal liberty. Faith fosters and maintains man's soul in the midst of +the confusion of his early orientation in such a vast universe, whereas prayer +becomes the great unifier of the various inspirations of the creative +imagination and the faith urges of a soul trying to identify itself with the +spirit ideals of the indwelling and associated divine presence. + +Nabon was greatly impressed by these words, as he was by each of his talks with +Jesus. These truths continued to burn within his heart, and he was + + top of page - 1461 + +of great assistance to the later arriving preachers of Jesus' gospel. + + top of page - 1462 + +4. PERSONAL MINISTRY + +Jesus did not devote all his leisure while in Rome to this work of preparing +men and women to become future disciples in the oncoming kingdom. He spent much +time gaining an intimate knowledge of all races and classes of men who lived in +this, the largest and most cosmopolitan city of the world. In each of these +numerous human contacts Jesus had a double purpose: He desired to learn their +reactions to the life they were living in the flesh, and he was also minded to +say or do something to make that life richer and more worth while. His +religious teachings during these weeks were no different than those which +characterized his later life as teacher of the twelve and preacher to the +multitudes. + +Always the burden of his message was: the fact of the heavenly Father's love +and the truth of his mercy, coupled with the good news that man is a faith-son +of this same God of love. Jesus' usual technique of social contact was to draw +people out and into talking with him by asking them questions. The interview +would usually begin by his asking them questions and end by their asking him +questions. He was equally adept in teaching by either asking or answering +questions. As a rule, to those he taught the most, he said the least. Those who +derived most benefit from his personal ministry were overburdened, anxious, and +dejected mortals who gained much relief because of the opportunity to unburden +their souls to a sympathetic and understanding listener, and he was all that +and more. And when these maladjusted human beings had told Jesus about their +troubles, always was he able to offer practical and immediately helpful +suggestions looking toward the correction of their real difficulties, albeit he +did not neglect to speak words of present comfort and immediate consolation. +And invariably would he tell these distressed mortals about the love of God and +impart the information, by various and sundry methods, that they were the +children of this loving Father in heaven. + +In this manner, during the sojourn in Rome, Jesus personally came into +affectionate and uplifting contact with upward of five hundred mortals of the +realm. He thus gained a knowledge of the different races of mankind which he +could never have acquired in Jerusalem and hardly even in Alexandria. He always +regarded this six months as one of the richest and most informative of any like +period of his earth life. + +As might have been expected, such a versatile and aggressive man could not thus +function for six months in the world's metropolis without being approached by +numerous persons who desired to secure his services in connection with some +business or, more often, for some project of teaching, social reform, or +religious movement. More than a dozen such proffers were made, and he utilized +each one as an opportunity for imparting some thought of spiritual ennoblement +by well-chosen words or by some obliging service. Jesus was very fond of doing +things--even little things--for all sorts of people. + +He talked with a Roman senator on politics and statesmanship, and this one +contact with Jesus made such an impression on this legislator that he spent the +rest of his life vainly trying to induce his colleagues to change the course of +the ruling policy from the idea of the government supporting and feeding the +people to that of the people supporting the government. Jesus spent one evening +with a wealthy slaveholder, talked about man as a son of God, and the next day +this man, Claudius, gave freedom to one hundred and seventeen slaves. He +visited at dinner with a Greek physician, telling him that his patients had +minds and souls as well as bodies, and thus led this able doctor to attempt a +more far-reaching ministry to his fellow men. He talked with all sorts of +people in every walk of life. The only place in Rome he did not visit was the +public baths. He refused to accompany his friends to the baths because of the +sex promiscuity which there prevailed. + +To a Roman soldier, as they walked along the Tiber, he said: "Be brave of heart +as well as of hand. Dare to do justice and be big enough to show mercy. Compel +your lower nature to obey your higher nature as you obey your superiors. Revere +goodness and exalt truth. Choose the beautiful in place of the ugly. Love your +fellows and reach out for God with a whole heart, for God is your Father in +heaven." + +To the speaker at the forum he said: "Your eloquence is pleasing, your logic is +admirable, your voice is pleasant, but your teaching is hardly true. If you +could only enjoy the inspiring satisfaction of knowing God as your spiritual +Father, then you might employ your powers of speech to liberate your fellows +from the bondage of darkness and from the slavery of ignorance." This was the +Marcus who heard Peter preach in Rome and became his successor. When they +crucified Simon Peter, it was this man who defied the Roman persecutors and +boldly continued to preach the new gospel. + +Meeting a poor man who had been falsely accused, Jesus went with him before the +magistrate and, having been granted special permission to appear in his behalf, +made that superb address in the course of which he said: "Justice makes a +nation great, and the greater a nation the more solicitous will it be to see +that injustice shall not befall even its most humble citizen. Woe upon any +nation when only those who possess money and influence can secure ready justice +before its courts! It is the sacred duty of a magistrate to acquit the innocent +as well as to punish the guilty. Upon the impartiality, fairness, and integrity +of its courts the endurance of a nation depends. Civil government is founded on +justice, even as true religion is founded on mercy." The judge reopened the +case, and when the evidence had been sifted, he discharged the prisoner. Of all +Jesus' activities during these days of personal ministry, this came the nearest +to being a public appearance. + +5. COUNSELING THE RICH MAN + +A certain rich man, a Roman citizen and a Stoic, became greatly interested in +Jesus' teaching, having been introduced by Angamon. After many intimate +conferences this wealthy citizen asked Jesus what he would do with wealth if he +had it, and Jesus answered him: "I would bestow material wealth for the +enhancement of material life, even as I would minister knowledge, wisdom, and +spiritual service for the enrichment of the intellectual life, the ennoblement +of the social life, and the advancement of the spiritual life. I would +administer material wealth as a wise and effective trustee of the resources of +one generation for the benefit and ennoblement of the next and succeeding +generations." + +But the rich man was not fully satisfied with Jesus' answer. He made bold to +ask again: "But what do you think a man in my position should do with his +wealth? Should I keep it, or should I give it away?" And when Jesus perceived +that he really desired to know more of the truth about his loyalty to God and +his duty to men, he further answered: "My good friend, I discern that you are a +sincere seeker after wisdom and an honest lover of truth; therefore am I minded +to lay before you my view of the solution of your problems having to do with +the responsibilities of wealth. I do this because you have asked for my +counsel, and in giving you this advice, I am not concerned with the wealth of +any other rich man; I am offering advice only to you and for your personal +guidance. If you honestly desire to regard your wealth as a trust, if you +really wish to become a wise and efficient steward of your accumulated wealth, +then would I counsel you to make the following analysis of the sources of your +riches: Ask yourself, and do your best to find the honest answer, whence came +this wealth? And as a help in the study of the sources of your great fortune, I +would suggest that you bear in mind the following ten different methods of +amassing material wealth: + +"1. Inherited wealth--riches derived from parents and other ancestors. + +"2. Discovered wealth--riches derived from the uncultivated resources of mother +earth. + +"3. Trade wealth--riches obtained as a fair profit in the exchange and barter +of material goods. + +"4. Unfair wealth--riches derived from the unfair exploitation or the +enslavement of one's fellows. + + top of page - 1463 + +"5. Interest wealth--income derived from the fair and just earning +possibilities of invested capital. + +"6. Genius wealth--riches accruing from the rewards of the creative and +inventive endowments of the human mind. + +"7. Accidental wealth--riches derived from the generosity of one's fellows or +taking origin in the circumstances of life. + +"8. Stolen wealth--riches secured by unfairness, dishonesty, theft, or fraud. + +"9. Trust funds--wealth lodged in your hands by your fellows for some specific +use, now or in the future. + +"10. Earned wealth--riches derived directly from your own personal labor, the +fair and just reward of your own daily efforts of mind and body. + +"And so, my friend, if you would be a faithful and just steward of your large +fortune, before God and in service to men, you must approximately divide your +wealth into these ten grand divisions, and then proceed to administer each +portion in accordance with the wise and honest interpretation of the laws of +justice, equity, fairness, and true efficiency; albeit, the God of heaven would +not condemn you if sometimes you erred, in doubtful situations, on the side of +merciful and unselfish regard for the distress of the suffering victims of the +unfortunate circumstances of mortal life. When in honest doubt about the equity +and justice of material situations, let your decisions favor those who are in +need, favor those who suffer the misfortune of undeserved hardships." + +After discussing these matters for several hours and in response to the rich +man's request for further and more detailed instruction, Jesus went on to +amplify his advice, in substance saying: "While I offer further suggestions +concerning your attitude toward wealth, I would admonish you to receive my +counsel as given only to you and for your personal guidance. I speak only for +myself and to you as an inquiring friend. I adjure you not to become a dictator +as to how other rich men shall regard their wealth. I would advise you: + +"1. As steward of inherited wealth you should consider its sources. You are +under moral obligation to represent the past generation in the honest +transmittal of legitimate wealth to succeeding generations after subtracting a +fair toll for the benefit of the present generation. But you are not obligated +to perpetuate any dishonesty or injustice involved in the unfair accumulation +of wealth by your ancestors. Any portion of your inherited wealth which turns +out to have been derived through fraud or unfairness, you may disburse in +accordance with your convictions of justice, generosity, and restitution. The +remainder of your legitimate inherited wealth you may use in equity and +transmit in security as the trustee of one generation for another. Wise +discrimination and sound judgment should dictate your decisions regarding the +bequest of riches to your successors. + +"2. Everyone who enjoys wealth as a result of discovery should remember that +one individual can live on earth but a short season and should, therefore, make +adequate provision for the sharing of these discoveries in helpful ways by the +largest possible number of his fellow men. While the discoverer should not be +denied all reward for efforts of discovery, neither should he selfishly presume +to lay claim to all of the advantages and blessings to be derived from the +uncovering of nature's hoarded resources. + + top of page - 1464 + +"3. As long as men choose to conduct the world's business by trade and barter, +they are entitled to a fair and legitimate profit. Every tradesman deserves +wages for his services; the merchant is entitled to his hire. The fairness of +trade and the honest treatment accorded one's fellows in the organized business +of the world create many different sorts of profit wealth, and all these +sources of wealth must be judged by the highest principles of justice, honesty, +and fairness. The honest trader should not hesitate to take the same profit +which he would gladly accord his fellow trader in a similar transaction. While +this sort of wealth is not identical with individually earned income when +business dealings are conducted on a large scale, at the same time, such +honestly accumulated wealth endows its possessor with a considerable equity as +regards a voice in its subsequent distribution. + +"4. No mortal who knows God and seeks to do the divine will can stoop to engage +in the oppressions of wealth. No noble man will strive to accumulate riches and +amass wealth-power by the enslavement or unfair exploitation of his brothers in +the flesh. Riches are a moral curse and a spiritual stigma when they are +derived from the sweat of oppressed mortal man. All such wealth should be +restored to those who have thus been robbed or to their children and their +children's children. An enduring civilization cannot be built upon the practice +of defrauding the laborer of his hire. + +"5. Honest wealth is entitled to interest. As long as men borrow and lend, that +which is fair interest may be collected provided the capital lent was +legitimate wealth. First cleanse your capital before you lay claim to the +interest. Do not become so small and grasping that you would stoop to the +practice of usury. Never permit yourself to be so selfish as to employ +money-power to gain unfair advantage over your struggling fellows. Yield not to +the temptation to take usury from your brother in financial distress. + +"6. If you chance to secure wealth by flights of genius, if your riches are +derived from the rewards of inventive endowment, do not lay claim to an unfair +portion of such rewards. The genius owes something to both his ancestors and +his progeny; likewise is he under obligation to the race, nation, and +circumstances of his inventive discoveries; he should also remember that it was +as man among men that he labored and wrought out his inventions. It would be +equally unjust to deprive the genius of all his increment of wealth. And it +will ever be impossible for men to establish rules and regulations applicable +equally to all these problems of the equitable distribution of wealth. You must +first recognize man as your brother, and if you honestly desire to do by him as +you would have him do by you, the commonplace dictates of justice, honesty, and +fairness will guide you in the just and impartial settlement of every recurring +problem of economic rewards and social justice. + +"7. Except for the just and legitimate fees earned in administration, no man +should lay personal claim to that wealth which time and chance may cause to +fall into his hands. Accidental riches should be regarded somewhat in the light +of a trust to be expended for the benefit of one's social or economic group. +The possessors of such wealth should be accorded the major voice in the +determination of the wise and effective distribution of such unearned +resources. Civilized man will not always look upon all that he controls as his +personal and private possession. + + top of page - 1465 + +"8. If any portion of your fortune has been knowingly derived from fraud; if +aught of your wealth has been accumulated by dishonest practices or unfair +methods; if your riches are the product of unjust dealings with your fellows, +make haste to restore all these ill-gotten gains to the rightful owners. Make +full amends and thus cleanse your fortune of all dishonest riches. + +"9. The trusteeship of the wealth of one person for the benefit of others is a +solemn and sacred responsibility. Do not hazard or jeopardize such a trust. +Take for yourself of any trust only that which all honest men would allow. + +"10. That part of your fortune which represents the earnings of your own mental +and physical efforts--if your work has been done in fairness and equity--is +truly your own. No man can gainsay your right to hold and use such wealth as +you may see fit provided your exercise of this right does not work harm upon +your fellows." + +When Jesus had finished counseling him, this wealthy Roman arose from his couch +and, in saying farewell for the night, delivered himself of this promise: "My +good friend, I perceive you are a man of great wisdom and goodness, and +tomorrow I will begin the administration of all my wealth in accordance with +your counsel." + +6. SOCIAL MINISTRY + +Here in Rome also occurred that touching incident in which the Creator of a +universe spent several hours restoring a lost child to his anxious mother. This +little boy had wandered away from his home, and Jesus found him crying in +distress. He and Ganid were on their way to the libraries, but they devoted +themselves to getting the child back home. Ganid never forgot Jesus' comment: +"You know, Ganid, most human beings are like the lost child. They spend much of +their time crying in fear and suffering in sorrow when, in very truth, they are +but a short distance from safety and security, even as this child was only a +little way from home. And all those who know the way of truth and enjoy the +assurance of knowing God should esteem it a privilege, not a duty, to offer +guidance to their fellows in their efforts to find the satisfactions of living. +Did we not supremely enjoy this ministry of restoring the child to his mother? +So do those who lead men to God experience the supreme satisfaction of human +service." And from that day forward, for the remainder of his natural life, +Ganid was continually on the lookout for lost children whom he might restore to +their homes. + +There was the widow with five children whose husband had been accidentally +killed. Jesus told Ganid about the loss of his own father by an accident, and +they went repeatedly to comfort this mother and her children, while Ganid +sought money from his father to provide food and clothing. They did not cease +their efforts until they had found a position for the eldest boy so that he +could help in the care of the family. + +That night, as Gonod listened to the recital of these experiences, he said to +Jesus, good-naturedly: "I propose to make a scholar or a businessman of my son, +and now you start out to make a philosopher or philanthropist of him." And +Jesus smilingly replied: "Perhaps we will make him all four; then can he enjoy +a fourfold satisfaction in life as his ear for the recognition of human melody +will be able to recognize four tones instead of one." Then said Gonod: "I +perceive + + top of page - 1466 + +that you really are a philosopher. You must write a book for future +generations." And Jesus replied: "Not a book--my mission is to live a life in +this generation and for all generations. I--" but he stopped, saying to Ganid, +"My son, it is time to retire." + +7. TRIPS ABOUT ROME + +Jesus, Gonod, and Ganid made five trips away from Rome to points of interest in +the surrounding territory. On their visit to the northern Italian lakes Jesus +had the long talk with Ganid concerning the impossibility of teaching a man +about God if the man does not desire to know God. They had casually met a +thoughtless pagan while on their journey up to the lakes, and Ganid was +surprised that Jesus did not follow out his usual practice of enlisting the man +in conversation which would naturally lead up to the discussion of spiritual +questions. When Ganid asked his teacher why he evinced so little interest in +this pagan, Jesus answered: + +"Ganid, the man was not hungry for truth. He was not dissatisfied with himself. +He was not ready to ask for help, and the eyes of his mind were not open to +receive light for the soul. That man was not ripe for the harvest of salvation; +he must be allowed more time for the trials and difficulties of life to prepare +him for the reception of wisdom and higher learning. Or, if we could have him +live with us, we might by our lives show him the Father in heaven, and thus +would he become so attracted by our lives as sons of God that he would be +constrained to inquire about our Father. You cannot reveal God to those who do +not seek for him; you cannot lead unwilling souls into the joys of salvation. +Man must become hungry for truth as a result of the experiences of living, or +he must desire to know God as the result of contact with the lives of those who +are acquainted with the divine Father before another human being can act as the +means of leading such a fellow mortal to the Father in heaven. If we know God, +our real business on earth is so to live as to permit the Father to reveal +himself in our lives, and thus will all God-seeking persons see the Father and +ask for our help in finding out more about the God who in this manner finds +expression in our lives." + +It was on the visit to Switzerland, up in the mountains, that Jesus had an +all-day talk with both father and son about Buddhism. Many times Ganid had +asked Jesus direct questions about Buddha, but he had always received more or +less evasive replies. Now, in the presence of the son, the father asked Jesus a +direct question about Buddha, and he received a direct reply. Said Gonod: "I +would really like to know what you think of Buddha." And Jesus answered: + +"Your Buddha was much better than your Buddhism. Buddha was a great man, even a +prophet to his people, but he was an orphan prophet; by that I mean that he +early lost sight of his spiritual Father, the Father in heaven. His experience +was tragic. He tried to live and teach as a messenger of God, but without God. +Buddha guided his ship of salvation right up to the safe harbor, right up to +the entrance to the haven of mortal salvation, and there, because of faulty +charts of navigation, the good ship ran aground. There it has rested these many +generations, motionless and almost hopelessly stranded. And thereon have many +of your people remained all these years. They live within hailing distance of +the safe waters of rest, but they refuse to enter because the noble craft of +the good Buddha met the misfortune of grounding just outside the harbor. And +the Bud- + + top of page - 1467 + +dhist peoples never will enter this harbor unless they abandon the philosophic +craft of their prophet and seize upon his noble spirit. Had your people +remained true to the spirit of Buddha, you would have long since entered your +haven of spirit tranquillity, soul rest, and assurance of salvation. + +"You see, Gonod, Buddha knew God in spirit but failed clearly to discover him +in mind; the Jews discovered God in mind but largely failed to know him in +spirit. Today, the Buddhists flounder about in a philosophy without God, while +my people are piteously enslaved to the fear of a God without a saving +philosophy of life and liberty. You have a philosophy without a God; the Jews +have a God but are largely without a philosophy of living as related thereto. +Buddha, failing to envision God as a spirit and as a Father, failed to provide +in his teaching the moral energy and the spiritual driving power which a +religion must possess if it is to change a race and exalt a nation." + +Then exclaimed Ganid: "Teacher, let's you and I make a new religion, one good +enough for India and big enough for Rome, and maybe we can trade it to the Jews +for Yahweh." And Jesus replied: "Ganid, religions are not made. The religions +of men grow up over long periods of time, while the revelations of God flash +upon earth in the lives of the men who reveal God to their fellows." But they +did not comprehend the meaning of these prophetic words. + +That night after they had retired, Ganid could not sleep. He talked a long time +with his father and finally said, "You know, father, I sometimes think Joshua +is a prophet." And his father only sleepily replied, "My son, there are +others--" + +From this day, for the remainder of his natural life, Ganid continued to evolve +a religion of his own. He was mightily moved in his own mind by Jesus' +broadmindedness, fairness, and tolerance. In all their discussions of +philosophy and religion this youth never experienced feelings of resentment or +reactions of antagonism. + +What a scene for the celestial intelligences to behold, this spectacle of the +Indian lad proposing to the Creator of a universe that they make a new +religion! And though the young man did not know it, they were making a new and +everlasting religion right then and there--this new way of salvation, the +revelation of God to man through, and in, Jesus. That which the lad wanted most +to do he was unconsciously actually doing. And it was, and is, ever thus. That +which the enlightened and reflective human imagination of spiritual teaching +and leading wholeheartedly and unselfishly wants to do and be, becomes +measurably creative in accordance with the degree of mortal dedication to the +divine doing of the Father's will. When man goes in partnership with God, great +things may, and do, happen. + + top of page - 1468 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The World's ³ The Return ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Rel... ³ From... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p133.txt b/religious documents/p133.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1bf491e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p133.txt @@ -0,0 +1,897 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 133 The Return From Rome + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 133 The Return From Rome + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +WHEN preparing to leave Rome, Jesus said good-bye to none of his friends. The +scribe of Damascus appeared in Rome without announcement and disappeared in +like manner. It was a full year before those who knew and loved him gave up +hope of seeing him again. Before the end of the second year small groups of +those who had known him found themselves drawn together by their common +interest in his teachings and through mutual memory of their good times with +him. And these small groups of Stoics, Cynics, and mystery cultists continued +to hold these irregular and informal meetings right up to the time of the +appearance in Rome of the first preachers of the Christian religion. + +Gonod and Ganid had purchased so many things in Alexandria and Rome that they +sent all their belongings on ahead by pack train to Tarentum, while the three +travelers walked leisurely across Italy over the great Appian Way. On this +journey they encountered all sorts of human beings. Many noble Roman citizens +and Greek colonists lived along this road, but already the progeny of great +numbers of inferior slaves were beginning to make their appearance. + +One day while resting at lunch, about halfway to Tarentum, Ganid asked Jesus a +direct question as to what he thought of India's caste system. Said Jesus: +"Though human beings differ in many ways, the one from another, before God and +in the spiritual world all mortals stand on an equal footing. There are only +two groups of mortals in the eyes of God: those who desire to do his will and +those who do not. As the universe looks upon an inhabited world, it likewise +discerns two great classes: those who know God and those who do not. Those who +cannot know God are reckoned among the animals of any given realm. Mankind can +appropriately be divided into many classes in accordance with differing +qualifications, as they may be viewed physically, mentally, socially, +vocationally, or morally, but as these different classes of mortals appear +before the judgment bar of God, they stand on an equal footing; God is truly no +respecter of persons. Although you cannot escape the recognition of +differential human abilities and endowments in matters intellectual, social, +and moral, you should make no such distinctions in the spiritual brotherhood of +men when assembled for worship in the presence of God." + +1. MERCY AND JUSTICE + +A very interesting incident occurred one afternoon by the roadside as they +neared Tarentum. They observed a rough and bullying youth brutally attacking a +smaller lad. Jesus hastened to the assistance of the assaulted youth, and when +he had rescued him, he tightly held on to the offender until the smaller lad + + top of page - 1469 + +had made his escape. The moment Jesus released the little bully, Ganid pounced +upon the boy and began soundly to thrash him, and to Ganid's astonishment Jesus +promptly interfered. After he had restrained Ganid and permitted the frightened +boy to escape, the young man, as soon as he got his breath, excitedly +exclaimed: "I cannot understand you, Teacher. If mercy requires that you rescue +the smaller lad, does not justice demand the punishment of the larger and +offending youth?" In answering, Jesus said: + +"Ganid, it is true, you do not understand. Mercy ministry is always the work of +the individual, but justice punishment is the function of the social, +governmental, or universe administrative groups. As an individual I am beholden +to show mercy; I must go to the rescue of the assaulted lad, and in all +consistency I may employ sufficient force to restrain the aggressor. And that +is just what I did. I achieved the deliverance of the assaulted lad; that was +the end of mercy ministry. Then I forcibly detained the aggressor a sufficient +length of time to enable the weaker party to the dispute to make his escape, +after which I withdrew from the affair. I did not proceed to sit in judgment on +the aggressor, thus to pass upon his motive--to adjudicate all that entered +into his attack upon his fellow--and then undertake to execute the punishment +which my mind might dictate as just recompense for his wrongdoing. Ganid, mercy +may be lavish, but justice is precise. Cannot you discern that no two persons +are likely to agree as to the punishment which would satisfy the demands of +justice? One would impose forty lashes, another twenty, while still another +would advise solitary confinement as a just punishment. Can you not see that on +this world such responsibilities had better rest upon the group or be +administered by chosen representatives of the group? In the universe, judgment +is vested in those who fully know the antecedents of all wrongdoing as well as +its motivation. In civilized society and in an organized universe the +administration of justice presupposes the passing of just sentence consequent +upon fair judgment, and such prerogatives are vested in the juridical groups of +the worlds and in the all-knowing administrators of the higher universes of all +creation." + +For days they talked about this problem of manifesting mercy and administering +justice. And Ganid, at least to some extent, understood why Jesus would not +engage in personal combat. But Ganid asked one last question, to which he never +received a fully satisfactory answer; and that question was: "But, Teacher, if +a stronger and ill-tempered creature should attack you and threaten to destroy +you, what would you do? Would you make no effort to defend yourself?" Although +Jesus could not fully and satisfactorily answer the lad's question, inasmuch as +he was not willing to disclose to him that he (Jesus) was living on earth as +the exemplification of the Paradise Father's love to an onlooking universe, he +did say this much: + +"Ganid, I can well understand how some of these problems perplex you, and I +will endeavor to answer your question. First, in all attacks which might be +made upon my person, I would determine whether or not the aggressor was a son +of God--my brother in the flesh--and if I thought such a creature did not +possess moral judgment and spiritual reason, I would unhesitatingly defend +myself to the full capacity of my powers of resistance, regardless of +consequences to the attacker. But I would not thus assault a fellow man of +sonship status, even in self-defense. That is, I would not punish him in +advance and without judgment for his assault upon me. I would by every possible +artifice seek to prevent and dissuade him from making such an attack and to +mitigate it in case of my failure + + top of page - 1470 + +to abort it. Ganid, I have absolute confidence in my heavenly Father's +overcare; I am consecrated to doing the will of my Father in heaven. I do not +believe that real harm can befall me; I do not believe that my lifework can +really be jeopardized by anything my enemies might wish to visit upon me, and +surely we have no violence to fear from our friends. I am absolutely assured +that the entire universe is friendly to me--this all-powerful truth I insist on +believing with a wholehearted trust in spite of all appearances to the +contrary." + +But Ganid was not fully satisfied. Many times they talked over these matters, +and Jesus told him some of his boyhood experiences and also about Jacob the +stone mason's son. On learning how Jacob appointed himself to defend Jesus, +Ganid said: "Oh, I begin to see! In the first place very seldom would any +normal human being want to attack such a kindly person as you, and even if any +one should be so unthinking as to do such a thing, there is pretty sure to be +near at hand some other mortal who will fly to your assistance, even as you +always go to the rescue of any person you observe to be in distress. In my +heart, Teacher, I agree with you, but in my head I still think that if I had +been Jacob, I would have enjoyed punishing those rude fellows who presumed to +attack you just because they thought you would not defend yourself. I presume +you are fairly safe in your journey through life since you spend much of your +time helping others and ministering to your fellows in distress--well, most +likely there'll always be someone on hand to defend you." And Jesus replied: +"That test has not yet come, Ganid, and when it does, we will have to abide by +the Father's will." And that was about all the lad could get his teacher to say +on this difficult subject of self-defense and nonresistance. On another +occasion he did draw from Jesus the opinion that organized society had every +right to employ force in the execution of its just mandates. + +2. EMBARKING AT TARENTUM + +While tarrying at the ship landing, waiting for the boat to unload cargo, the +travelers observed a man mistreating his wife. As was his custom, Jesus +intervened in behalf of the person subjected to attack. He stepped up behind +the irate husband and, tapping him gently on the shoulder, said: "My friend, +may I speak with you in private for a moment?" The angry man was nonplused by +such an approach and, after a moment of embarrassing hesitation, stammered +out--"er--why--yes, what do you want with me?" When Jesus had led him to one +side, he said: "My friend, I perceive that something terrible must have +happened to you; I very much desire that you tell me what could happen to such +a strong man to lead him to attack his wife, the mother of his children, and +that right out here before all eyes. I am sure you must feel that you have some +good reason for this assault. What did the woman do to deserve such treatment +from her husband? As I look upon you, I think I discern in your face the love +of justice if not the desire to show mercy. I venture to say that, if you found +me out by the wayside, attacked by robbers, you would unhesitatingly rush to my +rescue. I dare say you have done many such brave things in the course of your +life. Now, my friend, tell me what is the matter? Did the woman do something +wrong, or did you foolishly lose your head and thoughtlessly assault her?" It +was not so much what he said that touched this man's heart as the kindly look +and the sympathetic smile which Jesus bestowed upon him at the conclusion of +his remarks. Said the man: "I perceive you are a priest of the Cynics, and I am +thankful you restrained + + top of page - 1471 + +me. My wife has done no great wrong; she is a good woman, but she irritates me +by the manner in which she picks on me in public, and I lose my temper. I am +sorry for my lack of self-control, and I promise to try to live up to my former +pledge to one of your brothers who taught me the better way many years ago. I +promise you." + +And then, in bidding him farewell, Jesus said: "My brother, always remember +that man has no rightful authority over woman unless the woman has willingly +and voluntarily given him such authority. Your wife has engaged to go through +life with you, to help you fight its battles, and to assume the far greater +share of the burden of bearing and rearing your children; and in return for +this special service it is only fair that she receive from you that special +protection which man can give to woman as the partner who must carry, bear, and +nurture the children. The loving care and consideration which a man is willing +to bestow upon his wife and their children are the measure of that man's +attainment of the higher levels of creative and spiritual self-consciousness. +Do you not know that men and women are partners with God in that they +co-operate to create beings who grow up to possess themselves of the potential +of immortal souls? The Father in heaven treats the Spirit Mother of the +children of the universe as one equal to himself. It is Godlike to share your +life and all that relates thereto on equal terms with the mother partner who so +fully shares with you that divine experience of reproducing yourselves in the +lives of your children. If you can only love your children as God loves you, +you will love and cherish your wife as the Father in heaven honors and exalts +the Infinite Spirit, the mother of all the spirit children of a vast universe." + +As they went on board the boat, they looked back upon the scene of the +teary-eyed couple standing in silent embrace. Having heard the latter half of +Jesus' message to the man, Gonod was all day occupied with meditations thereon, +and he resolved to reorganize his home when he returned to India. + +The journey to Nicopolis was pleasant but slow as the wind was not favorable. +The three spent many hours recounting their experiences in Rome and reminiscing +about all that had happened to them since they first met in Jerusalem. Ganid +was becoming imbued with the spirit of personal ministry. He began work on the +steward of the ship, but on the second day, when he got into deep religious +water, he called on Joshua to help him out. + +They spent several days at Nicopolis, the city which Augustus had founded some +fifty years before as the "city of victory" in commemoration of the battle of +Actium, this site being the land whereon he camped with his army before the +battle. They lodged in the home of one Jeramy, a Greek proselyte of the Jewish +faith, whom they had met on shipboard. The Apostle Paul spent all winter with +the son of Jeramy in the same house in the course of his third missionary +journey. From Nicopolis they sailed on the same boat for Corinth, the capital +of the Roman province of Achaia. + +3. AT CORINTH + +By the time they reached Corinth, Ganid was becoming very much interested in +the Jewish religion, and so it was not strange that, one day as they passed the +synagogue and saw the people going in, he requested Jesus to take him to the +service. That day they heard a learned rabbi discourse on the "Destiny of +Israel," and after the service they met one Crispus, the chief ruler of this +synagogue. + + top of page - 1472 + +Many times they went back to the synagogue services, but chiefly to meet +Crispus. Ganid grew to be very fond of Crispus, his wife, and their family of +five children. He much enjoyed observing how a Jew conducted his family life. + +While Ganid studied family life, Jesus was teaching Crispus the better ways of +religious living. Jesus held more than twenty sessions with this +forward-looking Jew; and it is not surprising, years afterward, when Paul was +preaching in this very synagogue, and when the Jews had rejected his message +and had voted to forbid his further preaching in the synagogue, and when he +then went to the gentiles, that Crispus with his entire family embraced the new +religion, and that he became one of the chief supports of the Christian church +which Paul subsequently organized at Corinth. + +During the eighteen months Paul preached in Corinth, being later joined by +Silas and Timothy, he met many others who had been taught by the "Jewish tutor +of the son of an Indian merchant." + +At Corinth they met people of every race hailing from three continents. Next to +Alexandria and Rome, it was the most cosmopolitan city of the Mediterranean +empire. There was much to attract one's attention in this city, and Ganid never +grew weary of visiting the citadel which stood almost two thousand feet above +the sea. He also spent a great deal of his spare time about the synagogue and +in the home of Crispus. He was at first shocked, and later on charmed, by the +status of woman in the Jewish home; it was a revelation to this young Indian. + +Jesus and Ganid were often guests in another Jewish home, that of Justus, a +devout merchant, who lived alongside the synagogue. And many times, +subsequently, when the Apostle Paul sojourned in this home, did he listen to +the recounting of these visits with the Indian lad and his Jewish tutor, while +both Paul and Justus wondered whatever became of such a wise and brilliant +Hebrew teacher. + +When in Rome, Ganid observed that Jesus refused to accompany them to the public +baths. Several times afterward the young man sought to induce Jesus further to +express himself in regard to the relations of the sexes. Though he would answer +the lad's questions, he never seemed disposed to discuss these subjects at +great length. One evening as they strolled about Corinth out near where the +wall of the citadel ran down to the sea, they were accosted by two public +women. Ganid had imbibed the idea, and rightly, that Jesus was a man of high +ideals, and that he abhorred everything which partook of uncleanness or savored +of evil; accordingly he spoke sharply to these women and rudely motioned them +away. When Jesus saw this, he said to Ganid: "You mean well, but you should not +presume thus to speak to the children of God, even though they chance to be his +erring children. Who are we that we should sit in judgment on these women? Do +you happen to know all of the circumstances which led them to resort to such +methods of obtaining a livelihood? Stop here with me while we talk about these +matters." The courtesans were astonished at what he said even more than was +Ganid. + +As they stood there in the moonlight, Jesus went on to say: "There lives within +every human mind a divine spirit, the gift of the Father in heaven. This good +spirit ever strives to lead us to God, to help us to find God and to know God; +but also within mortals there are many natural physical tendencies which the +Creator put there to serve the well-being of the individual and the race. Now, +oftentimes, men and women become confused in their efforts to understand +themselves and to grapple with the manifold difficulties of making a living in +a world + + top of page - 1473 + +so largely dominated by selfishness and sin. I perceive, Ganid, that neither of +these women is willfully wicked. I can tell by their faces that they have +experienced much sorrow; they have suffered much at the hands of an apparently +cruel fate; they have not intentionally chosen this sort of life; they have, in +discouragement bordering on despair, surrendered to the pressure of the hour +and accepted this distasteful means of obtaining a livelihood as the best way +out of a situation that to them appeared hopeless. Ganid, some people are +really wicked at heart; they deliberately choose to do mean things, but, tell +me, as you look into these now tear-stained faces, do you see anything bad or +wicked?" And as Jesus paused for his reply, Ganid's voice choked up as he +stammered out his answer: "No, Teacher, I do not. And I apologize for my +rudeness to them--I crave their forgiveness." Then said Jesus: "And I bespeak +for them that they have forgiven you as I speak for my Father in heaven that he +has forgiven them. Now all of you come with me to a friend's house where we +will seek refreshment and plan for the new and better life ahead." Up to this +time the amazed women had not uttered a word; they looked at each other and +silently followed as the men led the way. + +Imagine the surprise of Justus' wife when, at this late hour, Jesus appeared +with Ganid and these two strangers, saying: "You will forgive us for coming at +this hour, but Ganid and I desire a bite to eat, and we would share it with +these our new-found friends, who are also in need of nourishment; and besides +all this, we come to you with the thought that you will be interested in +counseling with us as to the best way to help these women get a new start in +life. They can tell you their story, but I surmise they have had much trouble, +and their very presence here in your house testifies how earnestly they crave +to know good people, and how willingly they will embrace the opportunity to +show all the world--and even the angels of heaven--what brave and noble women +they can become." + +When Martha, Justus' wife, had spread the food on the table, Jesus, taking +unexpected leave of them, said: "As it is getting late, and since the young +man's father will be awaiting us, we pray to be excused while we leave you here +together--three women--the beloved children of the Most High. And I will pray +for your spiritual guidance while you make plans for a new and better life on +earth and eternal life in the great beyond." + +Thus did Jesus and Ganid take leave of the women. So far the two courtesans had +said nothing; likewise was Ganid speechless. And for a few moments so was +Martha, but presently she rose to the occasion and did everything for these +strangers that Jesus had hoped for. The elder of these two women died a short +time thereafter, with bright hopes of eternal survival, and the younger woman +worked at Justus' place of business and later became a lifelong member of the +first Christian church in Corinth. + +Several times in the home of Crispus, Jesus and Ganid met one Gaius, who +subsequently became a loyal supporter of Paul. During these two months in +Corinth they held intimate conversations with scores of worth-while +individuals, and as a result of all these apparently casual contacts more than +half of the individuals so affected became members of the subsequent Christian +community. + +When Paul first went to Corinth, he had not intended to make a prolonged visit. +But he did not know how well the Jewish tutor had prepared the way for his +labors. And further, he discovered that great interest had already been aroused +by Aquila and Priscilla, Aquila being one of the Cynics with whom Jesus had +come in contact when in Rome. This couple were Jewish refugees from Rome, + + top of page - 1474 + +and they quickly embraced Paul's teachings. He lived with them and worked with +them, for they were also tentmakers. It was because of these circumstances that +Paul prolonged his stay in Corinth. + +4. PERSONAL WORK IN CORINTH + +Jesus and Ganid had many more interesting experiences in Corinth. They had +close converse with a great number of persons who greatly profited by the +instruction received from Jesus. + +The miller he taught about grinding up the grains of truth in the mill of +living experience so as to render the difficult things of divine life readily +receivable by even the weak and feeble among one's fellow mortals. Said Jesus: +"Give the milk of truth to those who are babes in spiritual perception. In your +living and loving ministry serve spiritual food in attractive form and suited +to the capacity of receptivity of each of your inquirers." + +To the Roman centurion he said: "Render unto Caesar the things which are +Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's. The sincere service of God +and the loyal service of Caesar do not conflict unless Caesar should presume to +arrogate to himself that homage which alone can be claimed by Deity. Loyalty to +God, if you should come to know him, would render you all the more loyal and +faithful in your devotion to a worthy emperor." + +To the earnest leader of the Mithraic cult he said: "You do well to seek for a +religion of eternal salvation, but you err to go in quest of such a glorious +truth among man-made mysteries and human philosophies. Know you not that the +mystery of eternal salvation dwells within your own soul? Do you not know that +the God of heaven has sent his spirit to live within you, and that this spirit +will lead all truth-loving and God-serving mortals out of this life and through +the portals of death up to the eternal heights of light where God waits to +receive his children? And never forget: You who know God are the sons of God if +you truly yearn to be like him." + +To the Epicurean teacher he said: "You do well to choose the best and esteem +the good, but are you wise when you fail to discern the greater things of +mortal life which are embodied in the spirit realms derived from the +realization of the presence of God in the human heart? The great thing in all +human experience is the realization of knowing the God whose spirit lives +within you and seeks to lead you forth on that long and almost endless journey +of attaining the personal presence of our common Father, the God of all +creation, the Lord of universes." + +To the Greek contractor and builder he said: "My friend, as you build the +material structures of men, grow a spiritual character in the similitude of the +divine spirit within your soul. Do not let your achievement as a temporal +builder outrun your attainment as a spiritual son of the kingdom of heaven. +While you build the mansions of time for another, neglect not to secure your +title to the mansions of eternity for yourself. Ever remember, there is a city +whose foundations are righteousness and truth, and whose builder and maker is +God." + +To the Roman judge he said: "As you judge men, remember that you yourself will +also some day come to judgment before the bar of the Rulers of a uni- + + top of page - 1475 + +verse. Judge justly, even mercifully, even as you shall some day thus crave +merciful consideration at the hands of the Supreme Arbiter. Judge as you would +be judged under similar circumstances, thus being guided by the spirit of the +law as well as by its letter. And even as you accord justice dominated by +fairness in the light of the need of those who are brought before you, so shall +you have the right to expect justice tempered by mercy when you sometime stand +before the Judge of all the earth." + +To the mistress of the Greek inn he said: "Minister your hospitality as one who +entertains the children of the Most High. Elevate the drudgery of your daily +toil to the high levels of a fine art through the increasing realization that +you minister to God in the persons whom he indwells by his spirit which has +descended to live within the hearts of men, thereby seeking to transform their +minds and lead their souls to the knowledge of the Paradise Father of all these +bestowed gifts of the divine spirit." + +Jesus had many visits with a Chinese merchant. In saying good-bye, he +admonished him: "Worship only God, who is your true spirit ancestor. Remember +that the Father's spirit ever lives within you and always points your +soul-direction heavenward. If you follow the unconscious leadings of this +immortal spirit, you are certain to continue on in the uplifted way of finding +God. And when you do attain the Father in heaven, it will be because by seeking +him you have become more and more like him. And so farewell, Chang, but only +for a season, for we shall meet again in the worlds of light where the Father +of spirit souls has provided many delightful stopping-places for those who are +Paradise-bound." + +To the traveler from Britain he said: "My brother, I perceive you are seeking +for truth, and I suggest that the spirit of the Father of all truth may chance +to dwell within you. Did you ever sincerely endeavor to talk with the spirit of +your own soul? Such a thing is indeed difficult and seldom yields consciousness +of success; but every honest attempt of the material mind to communicate with +its indwelling spirit meets with certain success, notwithstanding that the +majority of all such magnificent human experiences must long remain as +superconscious registrations in the souls of such God-knowing mortals." + +To the runaway lad Jesus said: "Remember, there are two things you cannot run +away from--God and yourself. Wherever you may go, you take with you yourself +and the spirit of the heavenly Father which lives within your heart. My son, +stop trying to deceive yourself; settle down to the courageous practice of +facing the facts of life; lay firm hold on the assurances of sonship with God +and the certainty of eternal life, as I have instructed you. From this day on +purpose to be a real man, a man determined to face life bravely and +intelligently." + +To the condemned criminal he said at the last hour: "My brother, you have +fallen on evil times. You lost your way; you became entangled in the meshes of +crime. From talking to you, I well know you did not plan to do the thing which +is about to cost you your temporal life. But you did do this evil, and your +fellows have adjudged you guilty; they have determined that you shall die. You +or I may not deny the state this right of self-defense in the manner of its own +choosing. There seems to be no way of humanly escaping the penalty of your +wrong-doing. Your fellows must judge you by what you did, but there is a Judge +to whom you may appeal for forgiveness, and who will judge you by your real +motives + + top of page - 1476 + +and better intentions. You need not fear to meet the judgment of God if your +repentance is genuine and your faith sincere. The fact that your error carries +with it the death penalty imposed by man does not prejudice the chance of your +soul to obtain justice and enjoy mercy before the heavenly courts." + +Jesus enjoyed many intimate talks with a large number of hungry souls, too many +to find a place in this record. The three travelers enjoyed their sojourn in +Corinth. Excepting Athens, which was more renowned as an educational center, +Corinth was the most important city in Greece during these Roman times, and +their two months' stay in this thriving commercial center afforded opportunity +for all three of them to gain much valuable experience. Their sojourn in this +city was one of the most interesting of all their stops on the way back from +Rome. + +Gonod had many interests in Corinth, but finally his business was finished, and +they prepared to sail for Athens. They traveled on a small boat which could be +carried overland on a land track from one of Corinth's harbors to the other, a +distance of ten miles. + +5. AT ATHENS--DISCOURSE ON SCIENCE + +They shortly arrived at the olden center of Greek science and learning, and +Ganid was thrilled with the thought of being in Athens, of being in Greece, the +cultural center of the onetime Alexandrian empire, which had extended its +borders even to his own land of India. There was little business to transact; +so Gonod spent most of his time with Jesus and Ganid, visiting the many points +of interest and listening to the interesting discussions of the lad and his +versatile teacher. + +A great university still thrived in Athens, and the trio made frequent visits +to its halls of learning. Jesus and Ganid had thoroughly discussed the +teachings of Plato when they attended the lectures in the museum at Alexandria. +They all enjoyed the art of Greece, examples of which were still to be found +here and there about the city. + +Both the father and the son greatly enjoyed the discussion on science which +Jesus had at their inn one evening with a Greek philosopher. After this pedant +had talked for almost three hours, and when he had finished his discourse, +Jesus, in terms of modern thought, said: + +Scientists may some day measure the energy, or force manifestations, of +gravitation, light, and electricity, but these same scientists can never +(scientifically) tell you what these universe phenomena are. Science deals with +physical-energy activities; religion deals with eternal values. True philosophy +grows out of the wisdom which does its best to correlate these quantitative and +qualitative observations. There always exists the danger that the purely +physical scientist may become afflicted with mathematical pride and statistical +egotism, not to mention spiritual blindness. + +Logic is valid in the material world, and mathematics is reliable when limited +in its application to physical things; but neither is to be regarded as wholly +dependable or infallible when applied to life problems. Life embraces phenomena +which are not wholly material. Arithmetic says that, if one man could shear a +sheep in ten minutes, ten men could shear it in one minute. That is sound +mathematics, but it is not true, for the ten men could not so do it; they would +get in one another's way so badly that the work would be greatly delayed. + + top of page - 1477 + +Mathematics asserts that, if one person stands for a certain unit of +intellectual and moral value, ten persons would stand for ten times this value. +But in dealing with human personality it would be nearer the truth to say that +such a personality association is a sum equal to the square of the number of +personalities concerned in the equation rather than the simple arithmetical +sum. A social group of human beings in co-ordinated working harmony stands for +a force far greater than the simple sum of its parts. + +Quantity may be identified as a fact, thus becoming a scientific uniformity. +Quality, being a matter of mind interpretation, represents an estimate of +values, and must, therefore, remain an experience of the individual. When both +science and religion become less dogmatic and more tolerant of criticism, +philosophy will then begin to achieve unity in the intelligent comprehension of +the universe. + +There is unity in the cosmic universe if you could only discern its workings in +actuality. The real universe is friendly to every child of the eternal God. The +real problem is: How can the finite mind of man achieve a logical, true, and +corresponding unity of thought? This universe-knowing state of mind can be had +only by conceiving that the quantitative fact and the qualitative value have a +common causation in the Paradise Father. Such a conception of reality yields a +broader insight into the purposeful unity of universe phenomena; it even +reveals a spiritual goal of progressive personality achievement. And this is a +concept of unity which can sense the unchanging background of a living universe +of continually changing impersonal relations and evolving personal +relationships. + +Matter and spirit and the state intervening between them are three interrelated +and interassociated levels of the true unity of the real universe. Regardless +of how divergent the universe phenomena of fact and value may appear to be, +they are, after all, unified in the Supreme. + +Reality of material existence attaches to unrecognized energy as well as to +visible matter. When the energies of the universe are so slowed down that they +acquire the requisite degree of motion, then under favorable conditions, these +same energies become mass. And forget not, the mind which can alone perceive +the presence of apparent realities is itself also real. And the fundamental +cause of this universe of energy-mass, mind, and spirit, is eternal--it exists +and consists in the nature and reactions of the Universal Father and his +absolute co-ordinates. + +They were all more than astounded at the words of Jesus, and when the Greek +took leave of them, he said: "At last my eyes have beheld a Jew who thinks +something besides racial superiority and talks something besides religion." And +they retired for the night. + +The sojourn in Athens was pleasant and profitable, but it was not particularly +fruitful in its human contacts. Too many of the Athenians of that day were +either intellectually proud of their reputation of another day or mentally +stupid and ignorant, being the offspring of the inferior slaves of those +earlier periods when there was glory in Greece and wisdom in the minds of its +people. Even then, there were still many keen minds to be found among the +citizens of Athens. + +6. AT EPHESUS--DISCOURSE ON THE SOUL + +On leaving Athens, the travelers went by way of Troas to Ephesus, the capital +of the Roman province of Asia. They made many trips out to the famous temple of +Artemis of the Ephesians, about two miles from the city. Artemis was the most + + top of page - 1478 + +famous goddess of all Asia Minor and a perpetuation of the still earlier mother +goddess of ancient Anatolian times. The crude idol exhibited in the enormous +temple dedicated to her worship was reputed to have fallen from heaven. Not all +of Ganid's early training to respect images as symbols of divinity had been +eradicated, and he thought it best to purchase a little silver shrine in honor +of this fertility goddess of Asia Minor. That night they talked at great length +about the worship of things made with human hands. + +On the third day of their stay they walked down by the river to observe the +dredging of the harbor's mouth. At noon they talked with a young Phoenician who +was homesick and much discouraged; but most of all he was envious of a certain +young man who had received promotion over his head. Jesus spoke comforting +words to him and quoted the olden Hebrew proverb: "A man's gift makes room for +him and brings him before great men." + +Of all the large cities they visited on this tour of the Mediterranean, they +here accomplished the least of value to the subsequent work of the Christian +missionaries. Christianity secured its start in Ephesus largely through the +efforts of Paul, who resided here more than two years, making tents for a +living and conducting lectures on religion and philosophy each night in the +main audience chamber of the school of Tyrannus. + +There was a progressive thinker connected with this local school of philosophy, +and Jesus had several profitable sessions with him. In the course of these +talks Jesus had repeatedly used the word "soul." This learned Greek finally +asked him what he meant by "soul," and he replied: + +"The soul is the self-reflective, truth-discerning, and spirit-perceiving part +of man which forever elevates the human being above the level of the animal +world. Self-consciousness, in and of itself, is not the soul. Moral +self-consciousness is true human self-realization and constitutes the +foundation of the human soul, and the soul is that part of man which represents +the potential survival value of human experience. Moral choice and spiritual +attainment, the ability to know God and the urge to be like him, are the +characteristics of the soul. The soul of man cannot exist apart from moral +thinking and spiritual activity. A stagnant soul is a dying soul. But the soul +of man is distinct from the divine spirit which dwells within the mind. The +divine spirit arrives simultaneously with the first moral activity of the human +mind, and that is the occasion of the birth of the soul. + +"The saving or losing of a soul has to do with whether or not the moral +consciousness attains survival status through eternal alliance with its +associated immortal spirit endowment. Salvation is the spiritualization of the +self-realization of the moral consciousness, which thereby becomes possessed of +survival value. All forms of soul conflict consist in the lack of harmony +between the moral, or spiritual, self-consciousness and the purely intellectual +self-consciousness. + +"The human soul, when matured, ennobled, and spiritualized, approaches the +heavenly status in that it comes near to being an entity intervening between +the material and the spiritual, the material self and the divine spirit. The +evolving soul of a human being is difficult of description and more difficult +of demonstration because it is not discoverable by the methods of either +material investigation or spiritual proving. Material science cannot +demonstrate the existence of a soul, neither can pure spirit-testing. +Notwithstanding the failure of both material science and spiritual standards to +discover the existence of the human soul, every + + top of page - 1479 + +morally conscious mortal the existence of his soul as a real and actual +personal experience." + +7. THE SOJOURN AT CYPRUS--DISCOURSE ON MIND + +Shortly the travelers set sail for Cyprus, stopping at Rhodes. They enjoyed the +long water voyage and arrived at their island destination much rested in body +and refreshed in spirit. + +It was their plan to enjoy a period of real rest and play on this visit to +Cyprus as their tour of the Mediterranean was drawing to a close. They landed +at Paphos and at once began the assembly of supplies for their sojourn of +several weeks in the near-by mountains. On the third day after their arrival +they started for the hills with their well-loaded pack animals. + +For two weeks the trio greatly enjoyed themselves, and then, without warning, +young Ganid was suddenly taken grievously ill. For two weeks he suffered from a +raging fever, oftentimes becoming delirious; both Jesus and Gonod were kept +busy attending the sick boy. Jesus skillfully and tenderly cared for the lad, +and the father was amazed by both the gentleness and adeptness manifested in +all his ministry to the afflicted youth. They were far from human habitations, +and the boy was too ill to be moved; so they prepared as best they could to +nurse him back to health right there in the mountains. + +During Ganid's convalescence of three weeks Jesus told him many interesting +things about nature and her various moods. And what fun they had as they +wandered over the mountains, the boy asking questions, Jesus answering them, +and the father marveling at the whole performance. + +The last week of their sojourn in the mountains Jesus and Ganid had a long talk +on the functions of the human mind. After several hours of discussion the lad +asked this question: "But, Teacher, what do you mean when you say that man +experiences a higher form of self-consciousness than do the higher animals?" +And as restated in modern phraseology, Jesus answered: + +My son, I have already told you much about the mind of man and the divine +spirit that lives therein, but now let me emphasize that self-consciousness is +a reality. When any animal becomes self-conscious, it becomes a primitive man. +Such an attainment results from a co-ordination of function between impersonal +energy and spirit-conceiving mind, and it is this phenomenon which warrants the +bestowal of an absolute focal point for the human personality, the spirit of +the Father in heaven. + +Ideas are not simply a record of sensations; ideas are sensations plus the +reflective interpretations of the personal self; and the self is more than the +sum of one's sensations. There begins to be something of an approach to unity +in an evolving selfhood, and that unity is derived from the indwelling presence +of a part of absolute unity which spiritually activates such a self-conscious +animal-origin mind. + +No mere animal could possess a time self-consciousness. Animals possess a +physiological co-ordination of associated sensation-recognition and memory +thereof, but none experience a meaningful recognition of sensation or exhibit a +purposeful association of these combined physical experiences such as is +manifested in the conclusions of intelligent and reflective human +interpretations. And this fact of self-conscious existence, associated with the +reality of his subsequent + + top of page - 1480 + +spiritual experience, constitutes man a potential son of the universe and +foreshadows his eventual attainment of the Supreme Unity of the universe. + +Neither is the human self merely the sum of the successive states of +consciousness. Without the effective functioning of a consciousness sorter and +associater there would not exist sufficient unity to warrant the designation of +a selfhood. Such an ununified mind could hardly attain conscious levels of +human status. If the associations of consciousness were just an accident, the +minds of all men would then exhibit the uncontrolled and random associations of +certain phases of mental madness. + +A human mind, built up solely out of the consciousness of physical sensations, +could never attain spiritual levels; this kind of material mind would be +utterly lacking in a sense of moral values and would be without a guiding sense +of spiritual dominance which is so essential to achieving harmonious +personality unity in time, and which is inseparable from personality survival +in eternity. + +The human mind early begins to manifest qualities which are supermaterial; the +truly reflective human intellect is not altogether bound by the limits of time. +That individuals so differ in their life performances indicates, not only the +varying endowments of heredity and the different influences of the environment, +but also the degree of unification with the indwelling spirit of the Father +which has been achieved by the self, the measure of the identification of the +one with the other. + +The human mind does not well stand the conflict of double allegiance. It is a +severe strain on the soul to undergo the experience of an effort to serve both +good and evil. The supremely happy and efficiently unified mind is the one +wholly dedicated to the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. Unresolved +conflicts destroy unity and may terminate in mind disruption. But the survival +character of a soul is not fostered by attempting to secure peace of mind at +any price, by the surrender of noble aspirations, and by the compromise of +spiritual ideals; rather is such peace attained by the stalwart assertion of +the triumph of that which is true, and this victory is achieved in the +overcoming of evil with the potent force of good. + +The next day they departed for Salamis, where they embarked for Antioch on the +Syrian coast. + +8. AT ANTIOCH + +Antioch was the capital of the Roman province of Syria, and here the imperial +governor had his residence. Antioch had half a million inhabitants; it was the +third city of the empire in size and the first in wickedness and flagrant +immorality. Gonod had considerable business to transact; so Jesus and Ganid +were much by themselves. They visited everything about this polyglot city +except the grove of Daphne. Gonod and Ganid visited this notorious shrine of +shame, but Jesus declined to accompany them. Such scenes were not so shocking +to Indians, but they were repellent to an idealistic Hebrew. + +Jesus became sober and reflective as he drew nearer Palestine and the end of +their journey. He visited with few people in Antioch; he seldom went about in +the city. After much questioning as to why his teacher manifested so little +interest in Antioch, Ganid finally induced Jesus to say: "This city is not far +from Palestine; maybe I shall come back here sometime." + + top of page - 1481 + +Ganid had a very interesting experience in Antioch. This young man had proved +himself an apt pupil and already had begun to make practical use of some of +Jesus' teachings. There was a certain Indian connected with his father's +business in Antioch who had become so unpleasant and disgruntled that his +dismissal had been considered. When Ganid heard this, he betook himself to his +father's place of business and held a long conference with his fellow +countryman. This man felt he had been put at the wrong job. Ganid told him +about the Father in heaven and in many ways expanded his views of religion. But +of all that Ganid said, the quotation of a Hebrew proverb did the most good, +and that word of wisdom was: "Whatsoever your hand finds to do, do that with +all your might." + +After preparing their luggage for the camel caravan, they passed on down to +Sidon and thence over to Damascus, and after three days they made ready for the +long trek across the desert sands. + +9. IN MESOPOTAMIA + +The caravan trip across the desert was not a new experience for these +much-traveled men. After Ganid had watched his teacher help with the loading of +their twenty camels and observed him volunteer to drive their own animal, he +exclaimed, "Teacher, is there anything that you cannot do?" Jesus only smiled, +saying, "The teacher surely is not without honor in the eyes of a diligent +pupil." And so they set forth for the ancient city of Ur. + +Jesus was much interested in the early history of Ur, the birthplace of +Abraham, and he was equally fascinated with the ruins and traditions of Susa, +so much so that Gonod and Ganid extended their stay in these parts three weeks +in order to afford Jesus more time to conduct his investigations and also to +provide the better opportunity to persuade him to go back to India with them. + +It was at Ur that Ganid had a long talk with Jesus regarding the difference +between knowledge, wisdom, and truth. And he was greatly charmed with the +saying of the Hebrew wise man: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get +wisdom. With all your quest for knowledge, get understanding. Exalt wisdom and +she will promote you. She will bring you to honor if you will but embrace her." + +At last the day came for the separation. They were all brave, especially the +lad, but it was a trying ordeal. They were tearful of eye but courageous of +heart. In bidding his teacher farewell, Ganid said: "Farewell, Teacher, but not +forever. When I come again to Damascus, I will look for you. I love you, for I +think the Father in heaven must be something like you; at least I know you are +much like what you have told me about him. I will remember your teaching, but +most of all, I will never forget you." Said the father, "Farewell to a great +teacher, one who has made us better and helped us to know God." And Jesus +replied, "Peace be upon you, and may the blessing of the Father in heaven ever +abide with you." And Jesus stood on the shore and watched as the small boat +carried them out to their anchored ship. Thus the Master left his friends from +India at Charax, never to see them again in this world; nor were they, in this +world, ever to know that the man who later appeared as Jesus of Nazareth was +this same friend they had just taken leave of--Joshua their teacher. + +In India, Ganid grew up to become an influential man, a worthy successor of his +eminent father, and he spread abroad many of the noble truths which he had + + top of page - 1482 + +learned from Jesus, his beloved teacher. Later on in life, when Ganid heard of +the strange teacher in Palestine who terminated his career on a cross, though +he recognized the similarity between the gospel of this Son of Man and the +teachings of his Jewish tutor, it never occurred to him that these two were +actually the same person. + +Thus ended that chapter in the life of the Son of Man which might be termed: +The mission of Joshua the teacher. + + top of page - 1483 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Sojourn At ³ The Transition ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p134.txt b/religious documents/p134.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9ccee4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p134.txt @@ -0,0 +1,836 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 134 The Transition Years + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 134 The Transition Years + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +DURING the Mediterranean journey Jesus had carefully studied the people he met +and the countries through which he passed, and at about this time he reached +his final decision as to the remainder of his life on earth. He had fully +considered and now finally approved the plan which provided that he be born of +Jewish parents in Palestine, and he therefore deliberately returned to Galilee +to await the beginning of his lifework as a public teacher of truth; he began +to lay plans for a public career in the land of his father Joseph's people, and +he did this of his own free will. + +Jesus had found out through personal and human experience that Palestine was +the best place in all the Roman world wherein to set forth the closing +chapters, and to enact the final scenes, of his life on earth. For the first +time he became fully satisfied with the program of openly manifesting his true +nature and of revealing his divine identity among the Jews and gentiles of his +native Palestine. He definitely decided to finish his life on earth and to +complete his career of mortal existence in the same land in which he entered +the human experience as a helpless babe. His Urantia career began among the +Jews in Palestine, and he chose to terminate his life in Palestine and among +the Jews. + +1. THE THIRTIETH YEAR (A.D. 24) + +After taking leave of Gonod and Ganid at Charax (in December of A.D. 23), Jesus +returned by way of Ur to Babylon, where he joined a desert caravan that was on +its way to Damascus. From Damascus he went to Nazareth, stopping only a few +hours at Capernaum, where he paused to call on Zebedee's family. There he met +his brother James, who had sometime previously come over to work in his place +in Zebedee's boatshop. After talking with James and Jude (who also chanced to +be in Capernaum) and after turning over to his brother James the little house +which John Zebedee had managed to buy, Jesus went on to Nazareth. + +At the end of his Mediterranean journey Jesus had received sufficient money to +meet his living expenses almost up to the time of the beginning of his public +ministry. But aside from Zebedee of Capernaum and the people whom he met on +this extraordinary trip, the world never knew that he made this journey. His +family always believed that he spent this time in study at Alexandria. Jesus +never confirmed these beliefs, neither did he make open denial of such +misunderstandings. + +During his stay of a few weeks at Nazareth, Jesus visited with his family and +friends, spent some time at the repair shop with his brother Joseph, but +devoted most of his attention to Mary and Ruth. Ruth was then nearly fifteen + + top of page - 1484 + +years old, and this was Jesus' first opportunity to have long talks with her +since she had become a young woman. + +Both Simon and Jude had for some time wanted to get married, but they had +disliked to do this without Jesus' consent; accordingly they had postponed +these events, hoping for their eldest brother's return. Though they all +regarded James as the head of the family in most matters, when it came to +getting married, they wanted the blessing of Jesus. So Simon and Jude were +married at a double wedding in early March of this year, A.D. 24. All the older +children were now married; only Ruth, the youngest, remained at home with Mary. + +Jesus visited with the individual members of his family quite normally and +naturally, but when they were all together, he had so little to say that they +remarked about it among themselves. Mary especially was disconcerted by this +unusually peculiar behavior of her first-born son. + +About the time Jesus was preparing to leave Nazareth, the conductor of a large +caravan which was passing through the city was taken violently ill, and Jesus, +being a linguist, volunteered to take his place. Since this trip would +necessitate his absence for a year, and inasmuch as all his brothers were +married and his mother was living at home with Ruth, Jesus called a family +conference at which he proposed that his mother and Ruth go to Capernaum to +live in the home which he had so recently given to James. Accordingly, a few +days after Jesus left with the caravan, Mary and Ruth moved to Capernaum, where +they lived for the rest of Mary's life in the home that Jesus had provided. +Joseph and his family moved into the old Nazareth home. + +This was one of the more unusual years in the inner experience of the Son of +Man; great progress was made in effecting working harmony between his human +mind and the indwelling Adjuster. The Adjuster had been actively engaged in +reorganizing the thinking and in rehearsing the mind for the great events which +were in the not then distant future. The personality of Jesus was preparing for +his great change in attitude toward the world. These were the in-between times, +the transition stage of that being who began life as God appearing as man, and +who was now making ready to complete his earth career as man appearing as God. + +2. THE CARAVAN TRIP TO THE CASPIAN + +It was the first of April, A.D. 24, when Jesus left Nazareth on the caravan +trip to the Caspian Sea region. The caravan which Jesus joined as its conductor +was going from Jerusalem by way of Damascus and Lake Urmia through Assyria, +Media, and Parthia to the southeastern Caspian Sea region. It was a full year +before he returned from this journey. + +For Jesus this caravan trip was another adventure of exploration and personal +ministry. He had an interesting experience with his caravan family--passengers, +guards, and camel drivers. Scores of men, women, and children residing along +the route followed by the caravan lived richer lives as a result of their +contact with Jesus, to them, the extraordinary conductor of a commonplace +caravan. Not all who enjoyed these occasions of his personal ministry profited +thereby, but the vast majority of those who met and talked with him were made +better for the remainder of their natural lives. + +Of all his world travels this Caspian Sea trip carried Jesus nearest to the +Orient and enabled him to gain a better understanding of the Far-Eastern + + top of page - 1485 + +peoples. He made intimate and personal contact with every one of the surviving +races of Urantia excepting the red. He equally enjoyed his personal ministry to +each of these varied races and blended peoples, and all of them were receptive +to the living truth which he brought them. The Europeans from the Far West and +the Asiatics from the Far East alike gave attention to his words of hope and +eternal life and were equally influenced by the life of loving service and +spiritual ministry which he so graciously lived among them. + +The caravan trip was successful in every way. This was a most interesting +episode in the human life of Jesus, for he functioned during this year in an +executive capacity, being responsible for the material intrusted to his charge +and for the safe conduct of the travelers making up the caravan party. And he +most faithfully, efficiently, and wisely discharged his multiple duties. + +On the return from the Caspian region, Jesus gave up the direction of the +caravan at Lake Urmia, where he tarried for slightly over two weeks. He +returned as a passenger with a later caravan to Damascus, where the owners of +the camels besought him to remain in their service. Declining this offer, he +journeyed on with the caravan train to Capernaum, arriving the first of April, +A.D. 25. No longer did he regard Nazareth as his home. Capernaum had become the +home of Jesus, James, Mary, and Ruth. But Jesus never again lived with his +family; when in Capernaum he made his home with the Zebedees. + +3. THE URMIA LECTURES + +On the way to the Caspian Sea, Jesus had stopped several days for rest and +recuperation at the old Persian city of Urmia on the western shores of Lake +Urmia. On the largest of a group of islands situated a short distance offshore +near Urmia was located a large building--a lecture amphitheater--dedicated to +the "spirit of religion." This structure was really a temple of the philosophy +of religions. + +This temple of religion had been built by a wealthy merchant citizen of Urmia +and his three sons. This man was Cymboyton, and he numbered among his ancestors +many diverse peoples. + +The lectures and discussions in this school of religion began at 10:00 o'clock +every morning in the week. The afternoon sessions started at 3:00 o'clock, and +the evening debates opened at 8:00 o'clock. Cymboyton or one of his three sons +always presided at these sessions of teaching, discussion, and debate. The +founder of this unique school of religions lived and died without ever +revealing his personal religious beliefs. + +On several occasions Jesus participated in these discussions, and before he +left Urmia, Cymboyton arranged with Jesus to sojourn with them for two weeks on +his return trip and give twenty-four lectures on "The Brotherhood of Men," and +to conduct twelve evening sessions of questions, discussions, and debates on +his lectures in particular and on the brotherhood of men in general. + +In accordance with this arrangement, Jesus stopped off on the return trip and +delivered these lectures. This was the most systematic and formal of all the +Master's teaching on Urantia. Never before or after did he say so much on one +subject as was contained in these lectures and discussions on the brotherhood +of men. In reality these lectures were on the "Kingdom of God" and the +"Kingdoms of Men." + + top of page - 1486 + +More than thirty religions and religious cults were represented on the faculty +of this temple of religious philosophy. These teachers were chosen, supported, +and fully accredited by their respective religious groups. At this time there +were about seventy-five teachers on the faculty, and they lived in cottages +each accommodating about a dozen persons. Every new moon these groups were +changed by the casting of lots. Intolerance, a contentious spirit, or any other +disposition to interfere with the smooth running of the community would bring +about the prompt and summary dismissal of the offending teacher. He would be +unceremoniously dismissed, and his alternate in waiting would be immediately +installed in his place. + +These teachers of the various religions made a great effort to show how similar +their religions were in regard to the fundamental things of this life and the +next. There was but one doctrine which had to be accepted in order to gain a +seat on this faculty--every teacher must represent a religion which recognized +God--some sort of supreme Deity. There were five independent teachers on the +faculty who did not represent any organized religion, and it was as such an +independent teacher that Jesus appeared before them. + +[When we, the midwayers, first prepared the summary of Jesus' teachings at +Urmia, there arose a disagreement between the seraphim of the churches and the +seraphim of progress as to the wisdom of including these teachings in the +Urantia Revelation. Conditions of the twentieth century, prevailing in both +religion and human governments, are so different from those prevailing in +Jesus' day that it was indeed difficult to adapt the Master's teachings at +Urmia to the problems of the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men as these +world functions are existent in the twentieth century. We were never able to +formulate a statement of the Master's teachings which was acceptable to both +groups of these seraphim of planetary government. Finally, the Melchizedek +chairman of the revelatory commission appointed a commission of three of our +number to prepare our view of the Master's Urmia teachings as adapted to +twentieth-century religious and political conditions on Urantia. Accordingly, +we three secondary midwayers completed such an adaptation of Jesus' teachings, +restating his pronouncements as we would apply them to present-day world +conditions, and we now present these statements as they stand after having been +edited by the Melchizedek chairman of the revelatory commission.] + +4. SOVEREIGNTY--DIVINE AND HUMAN + +The brotherhood of men is founded on the fatherhood of God. The family of God +is derived from the love of God--God is love. God the Father divinely loves his +children, all of them. + +The kingdom of heaven, the divine government, is founded on the fact of divine +sovereignty--God is spirit. Since God is spirit, this kingdom is spiritual. The +kingdom of heaven is neither material nor merely intellectual; it is a +spiritual relationship between God and man. + +If different religions recognize the spirit sovereignty of God the Father, then +will all such religions remain at peace. Only when one religion assumes that it +is in some way superior to all others, and that it possesses exclusive +authority over other religions, will such a religion presume to be intolerant +of other religions or dare to persecute other religious believers. + + top of page - 1487 + +Religious peace--brotherhood--can never exist unless all religions are willing +to completely divest themselves of all ecclesiastical authority and fully +surrender all concept of spiritual sovereignty. God alone is spirit sovereign. + +You cannot have equality among religions (religious liberty) without having +religious wars unless all religions consent to the transfer of all religious +sovereignty to some superhuman level, to God himself. + +The kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men will create religious unity (not +necessarily uniformity) because any and all religious groups composed of such +religious believers will be free from all notions of ecclesiastical +authority--religious sovereignty. + +God is spirit, and God gives a fragment of his spirit self to dwell in the +heart of man. Spiritually, all men are equal. The kingdom of heaven is free +from castes, classes, social levels, and economic groups. You are all brethren. + +But the moment you lose sight of the spirit sovereignty of God the Father, some +one religion will begin to assert its superiority over other religions; and +then, instead of peace on earth and good will among men, there will start +dissensions, recriminations, even religious wars, at least wars among +religionists. + +Freewill beings who regard themselves as equals, unless they mutually +acknowledge themselves as subject to some supersovereignty, some authority over +and above themselves, sooner or later are tempted to try out their ability to +gain power and authority over other persons and groups. The concept of equality +never brings peace except in the mutual recognition of some overcontrolling +influence of supersovereignty. + +The Urmia religionists lived together in comparative peace and tranquillity +because they had fully surrendered all their notions of religious sovereignty. +Spiritually, they all believed in a sovereign God; socially, full and +unchallengeable authority rested in their presiding head--Cymboyton. They well +knew what would happen to any teacher who assumed to lord it over his fellow +teachers. There can be no lasting religious peace on Urantia until all +religious groups freely surrender all their notions of divine favor, chosen +people, and religious sovereignty. Only when God the Father becomes supreme +will men become religious brothers and live together in religious peace on +earth. + +5. POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY + +[While the Master's teaching concerning the sovereignty of God is a truth--only +complicated by the subsequent appearance of the religion about him among the +world's religions--his presentations concerning political sovereignty are +vastly complicated by the political evolution of nation life during the last +nineteen hundred years and more. In the times of Jesus there were only two +great world powers--the Roman Empire in the West and the Han Empire in the +East--and these were widely separated by the Parthian kingdom and other +intervening lands of the Caspian and Turkestan regions. We have, therefore, in +the following presentation departed more widely from the substance of the +Master's teachings at Urmia concerning political sovereignty, at the same time +attempting to depict the import of such teachings as they are applicable to the +peculiarly critical stage of the evolution of political sovereignty in the +twentieth century after Christ.] + +War on Urantia will never end so long as nations cling to the illusive notions +of unlimited national sovereignty. There are only two levels of relative sover- + + top of page - 1488 + +eignty on an inhabited world: the spiritual free will of the individual mortal +and the collective sovereignty of mankind as a whole. Between the level of the +individual human being and the level of the total of mankind, all groupings and +associations are relative, transitory, and of value only in so far as they +enhance the welfare, well-being, and progress of the individual and the +planetary grand total--man and mankind. + +Religious teachers must always remember that the spiritual sovereignty of God +overrides all intervening and intermediate spiritual loyalties. Someday civil +rulers will learn that the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men. + +This rule of the Most Highs in the kingdoms of men is not for the especial +benefit of any especially favored group of mortals. There is no such thing as a +"chosen people." The rule of the Most Highs, the overcontrollers of political +evolution, is a rule designed to foster the greatest good to the greatest +number of all men and for the greatest length of time. + +Sovereignty is power and it grows by organization. This growth of the +organization of political power is good and proper, for it tends to encompass +ever-widening segments of the total of mankind. But this same growth of +political organizations creates a problem at every intervening stage between +the initial and natural organization of political power--the family--and the +final consummation of political growth--the government of all mankind, by all +mankind, and for all mankind. + +Starting out with parental power in the family group, political sovereignty +evolves by organization as families overlap into consanguineous clans which +become united, for various reasons, into tribal units--superconsanguineous +political groupings. And then, by trade, commerce, and conquest, tribes become +unified as a nation, while nations themselves sometimes become unified by +empire. + +As sovereignty passes from smaller groups to larger groups, wars are lessened. +That is, minor wars between smaller nations are lessened, but the potential for +greater wars is increased as the nations wielding sovereignty become larger and +larger. Presently, when all the world has been explored and occupied, when +nations are few, strong, and powerful, when these great and supposedly +sovereign nations come to touch borders, when only oceans separate them, then +will the stage be set for major wars, world-wide conflicts. So-called sovereign +nations cannot rub elbows without generating conflicts and eventuating wars. + +The difficulty in the evolution of political sovereignty from the family to all +mankind, lies in the inertia-resistance exhibited on all intervening levels. +Families have, on occasion, defied their clan, while clans and tribes have +often been subversive of the sovereignty of the territorial state. Each new and +forward evolution of political sovereignty is (and has always been) embarrassed +and hampered by the "scaffolding stages" of the previous developments in +political organization. And this is true because human loyalties, once +mobilized, are hard to change. The same loyalty which makes possible the +evolution of the tribe, makes difficult the evolution of the supertribe--the +territorial state. And the same loyalty (patriotism) which makes possible the +evolution of the territorial state, vastly complicates the evolutionary +development of the government of all mankind. + +Political sovereignty is created out of the surrender of self-determinism, +first by the individual within the family and then by the families and clans in +relation to the tribe and larger groupings. This progressive transfer of +self-determination from the smaller to ever larger political organizations has +generally proceeded unabated in the East since the establishment of the Ming +and the + + top of page - 1489 + +Mogul dynasties. In the West it obtained for more than a thousand years right +on down to the end of the World War, when an unfortunate retrograde movement +temporarily reversed this normal trend by re-establishing the submerged +political sovereignty of numerous small groups in Europe. + +Urantia will not enjoy lasting peace until the so-called sovereign nations +intelligently and fully surrender their sovereign powers into the hands of the +brotherhood of men--mankind government. Internationalism--Leagues of +Nations--can never bring permanent peace to mankind. World-wide confederations +of nations will effectively prevent minor wars and acceptably control the +smaller nations, but they will not prevent world wars nor control the three, +four, or five most powerful governments. In the face of real conflicts, one of +these world powers will withdraw from the League and declare war. You cannot +prevent nations going to war as long as they remain infected with the +delusional virus of national sovereignty. Internationalism is a step in the +right direction. An international police force will prevent many minor wars, +but it will not be effective in preventing major wars, conflicts between the +great military governments of earth. + +As the number of truly sovereign nations (great powers) decreases, so do both +opportunity and need for mankind government increase. When there are only a few +really sovereign (great) powers, either they must embark on the life and death +struggle for national (imperial) supremacy, or else, by voluntary surrender of +certain prerogatives of sovereignty, they must create the essential nucleus of +supernational power which will serve as the beginning of the real sovereignty +of all mankind. + +Peace will not come to Urantia until every so-called sovereign nation +surrenders its power to make war into the hands of a representative government +of all mankind. Political sovereignty is innate with the peoples of the world. +When all the peoples of Urantia create a world government, they have the right +and the power to make such a government SOVEREIGN; and when such a +representative or democratic world power controls the world's land, air, and +naval forces, peace on earth and good will among men can prevail--but not until +then. + +To use an important nineteenth- and twentieth-century illustration: The +forty-eight states of the American Federal Union have long enjoyed peace. They +have no more wars among themselves. They have surrendered their sovereignty to +the federal government, and through the arbitrament of war, they have abandoned +all claims to the delusions of self-determination. While each state regulates +its internal affairs, it is not concerned with foreign relations, tariffs, +immigration, military affairs, or interstate commerce. Neither do the +individual states concern themselves with matters of citizenship. The +forty-eight states suffer the ravages of war only when the federal government's +sovereignty is in some way jeopardized. + +These forty-eight states, having abandoned the twin sophistries of sovereignty +and self-determination, enjoy interstate peace and tranquillity. So will the +nations of Urantia begin to enjoy peace when they freely surrender their +respective sovereignties into the hands of a global government--the sovereignty +of the brotherhood of men. In this world state the small nations will be as +powerful as the great, even as the small state of Rhode Island has its two +senators in the American Congress just the same as the populous state of New +York or the large state of Texas. + + top of page - 1490 + +The limited (state) sovereignty of these forty-eight states was created by men +and for men. The superstate (national) sovereignty of the American Federal +Union was created by the original thirteen of these states for their own +benefit and for the benefit of men. Sometime the supernational sovereignty of +the planetary government of mankind will be similarly created by nations for +their own benefit and for the benefit of all men. + +Citizens are not born for the benefit of governments; governments are +organizations created and devised for the benefit of men. There can be no end +to the evolution of political sovereignty short of the appearance of the +government of the sovereignty of all men. All other sovereignties are relative +in value, intermediate in meaning, and subordinate in status. + +With scientific progress, wars are going to become more and more devastating +until they become almost racially suicidal. How many world wars must be fought +and how many leagues of nations must fail before men will be willing to +establish the government of mankind and begin to enjoy the blessings of +permanent peace and thrive on the tranquillity of good will--world-wide good +will--among men? + +6. LAW, LIBERTY, AND SOVEREIGNTY + +If one man craves freedom--liberty--he must remember that all other men long +for the same freedom. Groups of such liberty-loving mortals cannot live +together in peace without becoming subservient to such laws, rules, and +regulations as will grant each person the same degree of freedom while at the +same time safeguarding an equal degree of freedom for all of his fellow +mortals. If one man is to be absolutely free, then another must become an +absolute slave. And the relative nature of freedom is true socially, +economically, and politically. Freedom is the gift of civilization made +possible by the enforcement of LAW. + +Religion makes it spiritually possible to realize the brotherhood of men, but +it will require mankind government to regulate the social, economic, and +political problems associated with such a goal of human happiness and +efficiency. + +There shall be wars and rumors of wars--nation will rise against nation--just +as long as the world's political sovereignty is divided up and unjustly held by +a group of nation-states. England, Scotland, and Wales were always fighting +each other until they gave up their respective sovereignties, reposing them in +the United Kingdom. + +Another world war will teach the so-called sovereign nations to form some sort +of federation, thus creating the machinery for preventing small wars, wars +between the lesser nations. But global wars will go on until the government of +mankind is created. Global sovereignty will prevent global wars--nothing else +can. + +The forty-eight American free states live together in peace. There are among +the citizens of these forty-eight states all of the various nationalities and +races that live in the ever-warring nations of Europe. These Americans +represent almost all the religions and religious sects and cults of the whole +wide world, and yet here in North America they live together in peace. And all +this is made possible because these forty-eight states have surrendered their +sovereignty and have abandoned all notions of the supposed rights of +self-determination. + +It is not a question of armaments or disarmament. Neither does the question of +conscription or voluntary military service enter into these problems of main- + + top of page - 1491 + +taining world-wide peace. If you take every form of modern mechanical armaments +and all types of explosives away from strong nations, they will fight with +fists, stones, and clubs as long as they cling to their delusions of the divine +right of national sovereignty. + +War is not man's great and terrible disease; war is a symptom, a result. The +real disease is the virus of national sovereignty. + +Urantia nations have not possessed real sovereignty; they never have had a +sovereignty which could protect them from the ravages and devastations of world +wars. In the creation of the global government of mankind, the nations are not +giving up sovereignty so much as they are actually creating a real, bona fide, +and lasting world sovereignty which will henceforth be fully able to protect +them from all war. Local affairs will be handled by local governments; national +affairs, by national governments; international affairs will be administered by +global government. + +World peace cannot be maintained by treaties, diplomacy, foreign policies, +alliances, balances of power, or any other type of makeshift juggling with the +sovereignties of nationalism. World law must come into being and must be +enforced by world government--the sovereignty of all mankind. + +The individual will enjoy far more liberty under world government. Today, the +citizens of the great powers are taxed, regulated, and controlled almost +oppressively, and much of this present interference with individual liberties +will vanish when the national governments are willing to trustee their +sovereignty as regards international affairs into the hands of global +government. + +Under global government the national groups will be afforded a real opportunity +to realize and enjoy the personal liberties of genuine democracy. The fallacy +of self-determination will be ended. With global regulation of money and trade +will come the new era of world-wide peace. Soon may a global language evolve, +and there will be at least some hope of sometime having a global religion--or +religions with a global viewpoint. + +Collective security will never afford peace until the collectivity includes all +mankind. + +The political sovereignty of representative mankind government will bring +lasting peace on earth, and the spiritual brotherhood of man will forever +insure good will among all men. And there is no other way whereby peace on +earth and good will among men can be realized. + +* + +After the death of Cymboyton, his sons encountered great difficulties in +maintaining a peaceful faculty. The repercussions of Jesus' teachings would +have been much greater if the later Christian teachers who joined the Urmia +faculty had exhibited more wisdom and exercised more tolerance. + +Cymboyton's eldest son had appealed to Abner at Philadelphia for help, but +Abner's choice of teachers was most unfortunate in that they turned out to be +unyielding and uncompromising. These teachers sought to make their religion +dominant over the other beliefs. They never suspected that the oft-referred-to +lectures of the caravan conductor had been delivered by Jesus himself. + +As confusion increased in the faculty, the three brothers withdrew their +financial support, and after five years the school closed. Later it was +reopened as + + top of page - 1492 + +a Mithraic temple and eventually burned down in connection with one of their +orgiastic celebrations. + +7. THE THIRTY-FIRST YEAR (A.D. 25) + +When Jesus returned from the journey to the Caspian Sea, he knew that his world +travels were about finished. He made only one more trip outside of Palestine, +and that was into Syria. After a brief visit to Capernaum, he went to Nazareth, +stopping over a few days to visit. In the middle of April he left Nazareth for +Tyre. From there he journeyed on north, tarrying for a few days at Sidon, but +his destination was Antioch. + +This is the year of Jesus' solitary wanderings through Palestine and Syria. +Throughout this year of travel he was known by various names in different parts +of the country: the carpenter of Nazareth, the boatbuilder of Capernaum, the +scribe of Damascus, and the teacher of Alexandria. + +At Antioch the Son of Man lived for over two months, working, observing, +studying, visiting, ministering, and all the while learning how man lives, how +he thinks, feels, and reacts to the environment of human existence. For three +weeks of this period he worked as a tentmaker. He remained longer in Antioch +than at any other place he visited on this trip. Ten years later, when the +Apostle Paul was preaching in Antioch and heard his followers speak of the +doctrines of the Damascus scribe, he little knew that his pupils had heard the +voice, and listened to the teachings, of the Master himself. + +From Antioch Jesus journeyed south along the coast to Caesarea, where he +tarried for a few weeks, continuing down the coast to Joppa. From Joppa he +traveled inland to Jamnia, Ashdod, and Gaza. From Gaza he took the inland trail +to Beersheba, where he remained for a week. + +Jesus then started on his final tour, as a private individual, through the +heart of Palestine, going from Beersheba in the south to Dan in the north. On +this journey northward he stopped at Hebron, Bethlehem (where he saw his +birthplace), Jerusalem (he did not visit Bethany), Beeroth, Lebonah, Sychar, +Shechem, Samaria, Geba, En-Gannim, Endor, Madon; passing through Magdala and +Capernaum, he journeyed on north; and passing east of the Waters of Merom, he +went by Karahta to Dan, or Caesarea Philippi. + +The indwelling Thought Adjuster now led Jesus to forsake the dwelling places of +men and betake himself up to Mount Hermon that he might finish his work of +mastering his human mind and complete the task of effecting his full +consecration to the remainder of his lifework on earth. + +This was one of those unusual and extraordinary epochs in the Master's earth +life on Urantia. Another and very similar one was the experience he passed +through when alone in the hills near Pella just subsequent to his baptism. This +period of isolation on Mount Hermon marked the termination of his purely human +career, that is, the technical termination of the mortal bestowal, while the +later isolation marked the beginning of the more divine phase of the bestowal. +And Jesus lived alone with God for six weeks on the slopes of Mount Hermon. + +8. THE SOJOURN ON MOUNT HERMON + +After spending some time in the vicinity of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus made ready +his supplies, and securing a beast of burden and a lad named Tiglath, he + + top of page - 1493 + +proceeded along the Damascus road to a village sometime known as Beit Jenn in +the foothills of Mount Hermon. Here, near the middle of August, A.D. 25, he +established his headquarters, and leaving his supplies in the custody of +Tiglath, he ascended the lonely slopes of the mountain. Tiglath accompanied +Jesus this first day up the mountain to a designated point about 6,000 feet +above sea level, where they built a stone container in which Tiglath was to +deposit food twice a week. + +The first day, after he had left Tiglath, Jesus had ascended the mountain only +a short way when he paused to pray. Among other things he asked his Father to +send back the guardian seraphim to "be with Tiglath." He requested that he be +permitted to go up to his last struggle with the realities of mortal existence +alone. And his request was granted. He went into the great test with only his +indwelling Adjuster to guide and sustain him. + +Jesus ate frugally while on the mountain; he abstained from all food only a day +or two at a time. The superhuman beings who confronted him on this mountain, +and with whom he wrestled in spirit, and whom he defeated in power, were real; +they were his archenemies in the system of Satania; they were not phantasms of +the imagination evolved out of the intellectual vagaries of a weakened and +starving mortal who could not distinguish reality from the visions of a +disordered mind. + +Jesus spent the last three weeks of August and the first three weeks of +September on Mount Hermon. During these weeks he finished the mortal task of +achieving the circles of mind-understanding and personality-control. Throughout +this period of communion with his heavenly Father the indwelling Adjuster also +completed the assigned services. The mortal goal of this earth creature was +there attained. Only the final phase of mind and Adjuster attunement remained +to be consummated. + +After more than five weeks of unbroken communion with his Paradise Father, +Jesus became absolutely assured of his nature and of the certainty of his +triumph over the material levels of time-space personality manifestation. He +fully believed in, and did not hesitate to assert, the ascendancy of his divine +nature over his human nature. + +Near the end of the mountain sojourn Jesus asked his Father if he might be +permitted to hold conference with his Satania enemies as the Son of Man, as +Joshua ben Joseph. This request was granted. During the last week on Mount +Hermon the great temptation, the universe trial, occurred. Satan (representing +Lucifer) and the rebellious Planetary Prince, Caligastia, were present with +Jesus and were made fully visible to him. And this "temptation," this final +trial of human loyalty in the face of the misrepresentations of rebel +personalities, had not to do with food, temple pinnacles, or presumptuous acts. +It had not to do with the kingdoms of this world but with the sovereignty of a +mighty and glorious universe. The symbolism of your records was intended for +the backward ages of the world's childlike thought. And subsequent generations +should understand what a great struggle the Son of Man passed through that +eventful day on Mount Hermon. + +To the many proposals and counterproposals of the emissaries of Lucifer, Jesus +only made reply: "May the will of my Paradise Father prevail, and you, my +rebellious son, may the Ancients of Days judge you divinely. I am your + + top of page - 1494 + +Creator-father; I can hardly judge you justly, and my mercy you have already +spurned. I commit you to the adjudication of the Judges of a greater universe." + +To all the Lucifer-suggested compromises and makeshifts, to all such specious +proposals about the incarnation bestowal, Jesus only made reply, "The will of +my Father in Paradise be done." And when the trying ordeal was finished, the +detached guardian seraphim returned to Jesus' side and ministered to him. + +On an afternoon in late summer, amid the trees and in the silence of nature, +Michael of Nebadon won the unquestioned sovereignty of his universe. On that +day he completed the task set for Creator Sons to live to the full the +incarnated life in the likeness of mortal flesh on the evolutionary worlds of +time and space. The universe announcement of this momentous achievement was not +made until the day of his baptism, months afterward, but it all really took +place that day on the mountain. And when Jesus came down from his sojourn on +Mount Hermon, the Lucifer rebellion in Satania and the Caligastia secession on +Urantia were virtually settled. Jesus had paid the last price required of him +to attain the sovereignty of his universe, which in itself regulates the status +of all rebels and determines that all such future upheavals (if they ever +occur) may be dealt with summarily and effectively. Accordingly, it may be seen +that the so-called "great temptation" of Jesus took place some time before his +baptism and not just after that event. + +At the end of this sojourn on the mountain, as Jesus was making his descent, he +met Tiglath coming up to the rendezvous with food. Turning him back, he said +only: "The period of rest is over; I must return to my Father's business." He +was a silent and much changed man as they journeyed back to Dan, where he took +leave of the lad, giving him the donkey. He then proceeded south by the same +way he had come, to Capernaum. + +9. THE TIME OF WAITING + +It was now near the end of the summer, about the time of the day of atonement +and the feast of tabernacles. Jesus had a family meeting in Capernaum over the +Sabbath and the next day started for Jerusalem with John the son of Zebedee, +going to the east of the lake and by Gerasa and on down the Jordan valley. +While he visited some with his companion on the way, John noted a great change +in Jesus. + +Jesus and John stopped overnight at Bethany with Lazarus and his sisters, going +early the next morning to Jerusalem. They spent almost three weeks in and +around the city, at least John did. Many days John went into Jerusalem alone +while Jesus walked about over the near-by hills and engaged in many seasons of +spiritual communion with his Father in heaven. + +Both of them were present at the solemn services of the day of atonement. John +was much impressed by the ceremonies of this day of all days in the Jewish +religious ritual, but Jesus remained a thoughtful and silent spectator. To the +Son of Man this performance was pitiful and pathetic. He viewed it all as +misrepresentative of the character and attributes of his Father in heaven. He +looked upon the doings of this day as a travesty upon the facts of divine +justice and the truths of infinite mercy. He burned to give vent to the +declaration of the real truth about his Father's loving character and merciful +conduct in the universe, but his faithful Monitor admonished him that his hour +had not yet come. But that night, at + + top of page - 1495 + +Bethany, Jesus did drop numerous remarks which greatly disturbed John; and John +never fully understood the real significance of what Jesus said in their +hearing that evening. + +Jesus planned to remain throughout the week of the feast of tabernacles with +John. This feast was the annual holiday of all Palestine; it was the Jewish +vacation time. Although Jesus did not participate in the merriment of the +occasion, it was evident that he derived pleasure and experienced satisfaction +as he beheld the lighthearted and joyous abandon of the young and the old. + +In the midst of the week of celebration and ere the festivities were finished, +Jesus took leave of John, saying that he desired to retire to the hills where +he might the better commune with his Paradise Father. John would have gone with +him, but Jesus insisted that he stay through the festivities, saying: "It is +not required of you to bear the burden of the Son of Man; only the watchman +must keep vigil while the city sleeps in peace." Jesus did not return to +Jerusalem. After almost a week alone in the hills near Bethany, he departed for +Capernaum. On the way home he spent a day and a night alone on the slopes of +Gilboa, near where King Saul had taken his life; and when he arrived at +Capernaum, he seemed more cheerful than when he had left John in Jerusalem. + +The next morning Jesus went to the chest containing his personal effects, which +had remained in Zebedee's workshop, put on his apron, and presented himself for +work, saying, "It behooves me to keep busy while I wait for my hour to come." +And he worked several months, until January of the following year, in the +boatshop, by the side of his brother James. After this period of working with +Jesus, no matter what doubts came up to becloud James's understanding of the +lifework of the Son of Man, he never again really and wholly gave up his faith +in the mission of Jesus. + +During this final period of Jesus' work at the boatshop, he spent most of his +time on the interior finishing of some of the larger craft. He took great pains +with all his handiwork and seemed to experience the satisfaction of human +achievement when he had completed a commendable piece of work. Though he wasted +little time upon trifles, he was a painstaking workman when it came to the +essentials of any given undertaking. + +As time passed, rumors came to Capernaum of one John who was preaching while +baptizing penitents in the Jordan, and John preached: "The kingdom of heaven is +at hand; repent and be baptized." Jesus listened to these reports as John +slowly worked his way up the Jordan valley from the ford of the river nearest +to Jerusalem. But Jesus worked on, making boats, until John had journeyed up +the river to a point near Pella in the month of January of the next year, A.D. +26, when he laid down his tools, declaring, "My hour has come," and presently +presented himself to John for baptism. + +But a great change had been coming over Jesus. Few of the people who had +enjoyed his visits and ministrations as he had gone up and down in the land +ever subsequently recognized in the public teacher the same person they had +known and loved as a private individual in former years. And there was a reason +for this failure of his early beneficiaries to recognize him in his later role +of public and authoritative teacher. For long years this transformation of mind +and spirit had been in progress, and it was finished during the eventful +sojourn on Mount Hermon. + + top of page - 1496 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Return ³ John The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ From... ³ Baptis... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p135.txt b/religious documents/p135.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82dba45 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p135.txt @@ -0,0 +1,816 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 135 John The Baptist + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 135 John The Baptist + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +JOHN the Baptist was born March 25, 7 B.C., in accordance with the promise that +Gabriel made to Elizabeth in June of the previous year. For five months +Elizabeth kept secret Gabriel's visitation; and when she told her husband, +Zacharias, he was greatly troubled and fully believed her narrative only after +he had an unusual dream about six weeks before the birth of John. Excepting the +visit of Gabriel to Elizabeth and the dream of Zacharias, there was nothing +unusual or supernatural connected with the birth of John the Baptist. + +On the eighth day John was circumcised according to the Jewish custom. He grew +up as an ordinary child, day by day and year by year, in the small village +known in those days as the City of Judah, about four miles west of Jerusalem. + +The most eventful occurrence in John's early childhood was the visit, in +company with his parents, to Jesus and the Nazareth family. This visit occurred +in the month of June, 1 B.C., when he was a little over six years of age. + +After their return from Nazareth John's parents began the systematic education +of the lad. There was no synagogue school in this little village; however, as +he was a priest, Zacharias was fairly well educated, and Elizabeth was far +better educated than the average Judean woman; she was also of the priesthood, +being a descendant of the "daughters of Aaron." Since John was an only child, +they spent a great deal of time on his mental and spiritual training. Zacharias +had only short periods of service at the temple in Jerusalem so that he devoted +much of his time to teaching his son. + +Zacharias and Elizabeth had a small farm on which they raised sheep. They +hardly made a living on this land, but Zacharias received a regular allowance +from the temple funds dedicated to the priesthood. + +1. JOHN BECOMES A NAZARITE + +John had no school from which to graduate at the age of fourteen, but his +parents had selected this as the appropriate year for him to take the formal +Nazarite vow. Accordingly, Zacharias and Elizabeth took their son to Engedi, +down by the Dead Sea. This was the southern headquarters of the Nazarite +brotherhood, and there the lad was duly and solemnly inducted into this order +for life. After these ceremonies and the making of the vows to abstain from all +intoxicating drinks, to let the hair grow, and to refrain from touching the +dead, the family proceeded to Jerusalem, where, before the temple, John +completed the making of the offerings which were required of those taking +Nazarite vows. + +John took the same life vows that had been administered to his illustrious +predecessors, Samson and the prophet Samuel. A life Nazarite was looked upon as +a sanctified and holy personality. The Jews regarded a Nazarite with almost the +respect and veneration accorded the high priest, and this was not strange since + + top of page - 1497 + +Nazarites of lifelong consecration were the only persons, except high priests, +who were ever permitted to enter the holy of holies in the temple. + +John returned home from Jerusalem to tend his father's sheep and grew up to be +a strong man with a noble character. + +When sixteen years old, John, as a result of reading about Elijah, became +greatly impressed with the prophet of Mount Carmel and decided to adopt his +style of dress. From that day on John always wore a hairy garment with a +leather girdle. At sixteen he was more than six feet tall and almost full +grown. With his flowing hair and peculiar mode of dress he was indeed a +picturesque youth. And his parents expected great things of this their only +son, a child of promise and a Nazarite for life. + +2. THE DEATH OF ZACHARIAS + +After an illness of several months Zacharias died in July, A.D. 12, when John +was just past eighteen years of age. This was a time of great embarrassment to +John since the Nazarite vow forbade contact with the dead, even in one's own +family. Although John had endeavored to comply with the restrictions of his vow +regarding contamination by the dead, he doubted that he had been wholly +obedient to the requirements of the Nazarite order; therefore, after his +father's burial he went to Jerusalem, where, in the Nazarite corner of the +women's court, he offered the sacrifices required for his cleansing. + +In September of this year Elizabeth and John made a journey to Nazareth to +visit Mary and Jesus. John had just about made up his mind to launch out in his +lifework, but he was admonished, not only by Jesus' words but also by his +example, to return home, take care of his mother, and await the "coming of the +Father's hour." After bidding Jesus and Mary good-bye at the end of this +enjoyable visit, John did not again see Jesus until the event of his baptism in +the Jordan. + +John and Elizabeth returned to their home and began to lay plans for the +future. Since John refused to accept the priest's allowance due him from the +temple funds, by the end of two years they had all but lost their home; so they +decided to go south with the sheep herd. Accordingly, the summer that John was +twenty years of age witnessed their removal to Hebron. In the so-called +"wilderness of Judea" John tended his sheep along a brook that was tributary to +a larger stream which entered the Dead Sea at Engedi. The Engedi colony +included not only Nazarites of lifelong and time-period consecration but +numerous other ascetic herdsmen who congregated in this region with their herds +and fraternized with the Nazarite brotherhood. They supported themselves by +sheep raising and from gifts which wealthy Jews made to the order. + +As time passed, John returned less often to Hebron, while he made more frequent +visits to Engedi. He was so entirely different from the majority of the +Nazarites that he found it very difficult fully to fraternize with the +brotherhood. But he was very fond of Abner, the acknowledged leader and head of +the Engedi colony. + +3. THE LIFE OF A SHEPHERD + +Along the valley of this little brook John built no less than a dozen stone +shelters and night corrals, consisting of piled-up stones, wherein he could +watch + + top of page - 1498 + +over and safeguard his herds of sheep and goats. John's life as a shepherd +afforded him a great deal of time for thought. He talked much with Ezda, an +orphan lad of Beth-zur, whom he had in a way adopted, and who cared for the +herds when he made trips to Hebron to see his mother and to sell sheep, as well +as when he went down to Engedi for Sabbath services. John and the lad lived +very simply, subsisting on mutton, goat's milk, wild honey, and the edible +locusts of that region. This, their regular diet, was supplemented by +provisions brought from Hebron and Engedi from time to time. + +Elizabeth kept John posted about Palestinian and world affairs, and his +conviction grew deeper and deeper that the time was fast approaching when the +old order was to end; that he was to become the herald of the approach of a new +age, "the kingdom of heaven." This rugged shepherd was very partial to the +writings of the Prophet Daniel. He read a thousand times Daniel's description +of the great image, which Zacharias had told him represented the history of the +great kingdoms of the world, beginning with Babylon, then Persia, Greece, and +finally Rome. John perceived that already was Rome composed of such polyglot +peoples and races that it could never become a strongly cemented and firmly +consolidated empire. He believed that Rome was even then divided, as Syria, +Egypt, Palestine, and other provinces; and then he further read "in the days of +these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be +destroyed. And this kingdom shall not be left to other people but shall break +in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." "And +there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, +and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which +shall not pass away, and his kingdom never shall be destroyed." "And the +kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven +shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is +an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." + +John was never able completely to rise above the confusion produced by what he +had heard from his parents concerning Jesus and by these passages which he read +in the Scriptures. In Daniel he read: "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, +one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and there was given him +dominion and glory and a kingdom." But these words of the prophet did not +harmonize with what his parents had taught him. Neither did his talk with +Jesus, at the time of his visit when he was eighteen years old, correspond with +these statements of the Scriptures. Notwithstanding this confusion, throughout +all of his perplexity his mother assured him that his distant cousin, Jesus of +Nazareth, was the true Messiah, that he had come to sit on the throne of David, +and that he (John) was to become his advance herald and chief support. + +From all John heard of the vice and wickedness of Rome and the dissoluteness +and moral barrenness of the empire, from what he knew of the evil doings of +Herod Antipas and the governors of Judea, he was minded to believe that the end +of the age was impending. It seemed to this rugged and noble child of nature +that the world was ripe for the end of the age of man and the dawn of the new +and divine age--the kingdom of heaven. The feeling grew in John's heart that he +was to be the last of the old prophets and the first of the new. And he fairly +vibrated with the mounting impulse to go forth and proclaim to all men: +"Repent! Get right with God! Get ready for the end; prepare yourselves for the +appearance of the new and eternal order of earth affairs, the kingdom of +heaven." + + top of page - 1499 + +4. THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH + +On August 17, A.D. 22, when John was twenty-eight years of age, his mother +suddenly passed away. Elizabeth's friends, knowing of the Nazarite restrictions +regarding contact with the dead, even in one's own family, made all +arrangements for the burial of Elizabeth before sending for John. When he +received word of the death of his mother, he directed Ezda to drive his herds +to Engedi and started for Hebron. + +On returning to Engedi from his mother's funeral, he presented his flocks to +the brotherhood and for a season detached himself from the outside world while +he fasted and prayed. John knew only of the old methods of approach to +divinity; he knew only of the records of such as Elijah, Samuel, and Daniel. +Elijah was his ideal of a prophet. Elijah was the first of the teachers of +Israel to be regarded as a prophet, and John truly believed that he was to be +the last of this long and illustrious line of the messengers of heaven. + +For two and a half years John lived at Engedi, and he persuaded most of the +brotherhood that "the end of the age was at hand"; that "the kingdom of heaven +was about to appear." And all his early teaching was based upon the current +Jewish idea and concept of the Messiah as the promised deliverer of the Jewish +nation from the domination of their gentile rulers. + +Throughout this period John read much in the sacred writings which he found at +the Engedi home of the Nazarites. He was especially impressed by Isaiah and by +Malachi, the last of the prophets up to that time. He read and reread the last +five chapters of Isaiah, and he believed these prophecies. Then he would read +in Malachi: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of +the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the hearts of the +fathers toward the children and the hearts of the children toward their +fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." And it was only this +promise of Malachi that Elijah would return that deterred John from going forth +to preach about the coming kingdom and to exhort his fellow Jews to flee from +the wrath to come. John was ripe for the proclamation of the message of the +coming kingdom, but this expectation of the coming of Elijah held him back for +more than two years. He knew he was not Elijah. What did Malachi mean? Was the +prophecy literal or figurative? How could he know the truth? He finally dared +to think that, since the first of the prophets was called Elijah, so the last +should be known, eventually, by the same name. Nevertheless, he had doubts, +doubts sufficient to prevent his ever calling himself Elijah. + +It was the influence of Elijah that caused John to adopt his methods of direct +and blunt assault upon the sins and vices of his contemporaries. He sought to +dress like Elijah, and he endeavored to talk like Elijah; in every outward +aspect he was like the olden prophet. He was just such a stalwart and +picturesque child of nature, just such a fearless and daring preacher of +righteousness. John was not illiterate, he did well know the Jewish sacred +writings, but he was hardly cultured. He was a clear thinker, a powerful +speaker, and a fiery denunciator. He was hardly an example to his age, but he +was an eloquent rebuke. + +At last he thought out the method of proclaiming the new age, the kingdom of +God; he settled that he was to become the herald of the Messiah; he swept aside +all doubts and departed from Engedi one day in March of A.D. 25 to begin his +short but brilliant career as a public preacher. + + top of page - 1500 + +5. THE KINGDOM OF GOD + +In order to understand John's message, account should be taken of the status of +the Jewish people at the time he appeared upon the stage of action. For almost +one hundred years all Israel had been in a quandary; they were at a loss to +explain their continuous subjugation to gentile overlords. Had not Moses taught +that righteousness was always rewarded with prosperity and power? Were they not +God's chosen people? Why was the throne of David desolate and vacant? In the +light of the Mosaic doctrines and the precepts of the prophets the Jews found +it difficult to explain their long-continued national desolation. + +About one hundred years before the days of Jesus and John a new school of +religious teachers arose in Palestine, the apocalyptists. These new teachers +evolved a system of belief that accounted for the sufferings and humiliation of +the Jews on the ground that they were paying the penalty for the nation's sins. +They fell back onto the well-known reasons assigned to explain the Babylonian +and other captivities of former times. But, so taught the apocalyptists, Israel +should take heart; the days of their affliction were almost over; the +discipline of God's chosen people was about finished; God's patience with the +gentile foreigners was about exhausted. The end of Roman rule was synonymous +with the end of the age and, in a certain sense, with the end of the world. +These new teachers leaned heavily on the predictions of Daniel, and they +consistently taught that creation was about to pass into its final stage; the +kingdoms of this world were about to become the kingdom of God. To the Jewish +mind of that day this was the meaning of that phrase--the kingdom of +heaven--which runs throughout the teachings of both John and Jesus. To the Jews +of Palestine the phrase "kingdom of heaven" had but one meaning: an absolutely +righteous state in which God (the Messiah) would rule the nations of earth in +perfection of power just as he ruled in heaven--"Your will be done on earth as +in heaven." + +In the days of John all Jews were expectantly asking, "How soon will the +kingdom come?" There was a general feeling that the end of the rule of the +gentile nations was drawing near. There was present throughout all Jewry a +lively hope and a keen expectation that the consummation of the desire of the +ages would occur during the lifetime of that generation. + +While the Jews differed greatly in their estimates of the nature of the coming +kingdom, they were alike in their belief that the event was impending, near at +hand, even at the door. Many who read the Old Testament literally looked +expectantly for a new king in Palestine, for a regenerated Jewish nation +delivered from its enemies and presided over by the successor of King David, +the Messiah who would quickly be acknowledged as the rightful and righteous +ruler of all the world. Another, though smaller, group of devout Jews held a +vastly different view of this kingdom of God. They taught that the coming +kingdom was not of this world, that the world was approaching its certain end, +and that "a new heaven and a new earth" were to usher in the establishment of +the kingdom of God; that this kingdom was to be an everlasting dominion, that +sin was to be ended, and that the citizens of the new kingdom were to become +immortal in their enjoyment of this endless bliss. + +All were agreed that some drastic purging or purifying discipline would of +necessity precede the establishment of the new kingdom on earth. The +literalists taught that a world-wide war would ensue which would destroy all +unbelievers, + + top of page - 1501 + +while the faithful would sweep on to universal and eternal victory. The +spiritists taught that the kingdom would be ushered in by the great judgment of +God which would relegate the unrighteous to their well-deserved judgment of +punishment and final destruction, at the same time elevating the believing +saints of the chosen people to high seats of honor and authority with the Son +of Man, who would rule over the redeemed nations in God's name. And this latter +group even believed that many devout gentiles might be admitted to the +fellowship of the new kingdom. + +Some of the Jews held to the opinion that God might possibly establish this new +kingdom by direct and divine intervention, but the vast majority believed that +he would interpose some representative intermediary, the Messiah. And that was +the only possible meaning the term Messiah could have had in the minds of the +Jews of the generation of John and Jesus. Messiah could not possibly refer to +one who merely taught God's will or proclaimed the necessity for righteous +living. To all such holy persons the Jews gave the title of prophet. The +Messiah was to be more than a prophet; the Messiah was to bring in the +establishment of the new kingdom, the kingdom of God. No one who failed to do +this could be the Messiah in the traditional Jewish sense. + +Who would this Messiah be? Again the Jewish teachers differed. The older ones +clung to the doctrine of the son of David. The newer taught that, since the new +kingdom was a heavenly kingdom, the new ruler might also be a divine +personality, one who had long sat at God's right hand in heaven. And strange as +it may appear, those who thus conceived of the ruler of the new kingdom looked +upon him not as a human Messiah, not as a mere man, but as "the Son of Man"--a +Son of God--a heavenly Prince, long held in waiting thus to assume the +rulership of the earth made new. Such was the religious background of the +Jewish world when John went forth proclaiming: "Repent, for the kingdom of +heaven is at hand! " + +It becomes apparent, therefore, that John's announcement of the coming kingdom +had not less than half a dozen different meanings in the minds of those who +listened to his impassioned preaching. But no matter what significance they +attached to the phrases which John employed, each of these various groups of +Jewish-kingdom expectants was intrigued by the proclamations of this sincere, +enthusiastic, rough-and-ready preacher of righteousness and repentance, who so +solemnly exhorted his hearers to "flee from the wrath to come." + +6. JOHN BEGINS TO PREACH + +Early in the month of March, A.D. 25, John journeyed around the western coast +of the Dead Sea and up the river Jordan to opposite Jericho, the ancient ford +over which Joshua and the children of Israel passed when they first entered the +promised land; and crossing over to the other side of the river, he established +himself near the entrance to the ford and began to preach to the people who +passed by on their way back and forth across the river. This was the most +frequented of all the Jordan crossings. + +It was apparent to all who heard John that he was more than a preacher. The +great majority of those who listened to this strange man who had come up from +the Judean wilderness went away believing that they had heard the voice of a +prophet. No wonder the souls of these weary and expectant Jews were deeply +stirred by such a phenomenon. Never in all Jewish history had the devout chil- + + top of page - 1502 + +dren of Abraham so longed for the "consolation of Israel" or more ardently +anticipated "the restoration of the kingdom." Never in all Jewish history could +John's message, "the kingdom of heaven is at hand," have made such a deep and +universal appeal as at the very time he so mysteriously appeared on the bank of +this southern crossing of the Jordan. + +He came from the herdsmen, like Amos. He was dressed like Elijah of old, and he +thundered his admonitions and poured forth his warnings in the "spirit and +power of Elijah." It is not surprising that this strange preacher created a +mighty stir throughout all Palestine as the travelers carried abroad the news +of his preaching along the Jordan. + +There was still another and a new feature about the work of this Nazarite +preacher: He baptized every one of his believers in the Jordan "for the +remission of sins." Although baptism was not a new ceremony among the Jews, +they had never seen it employed as John now made use of it. It had long been +the practice thus to baptize the gentile proselytes into the fellowship of the +outer court of the temple, but never had the Jews themselves been asked to +submit to the baptism of repentance. Only fifteen months intervened between the +time John began to preach and baptize and his arrest and imprisonment at the +instigation of Herod Antipas, but in this short time he baptized considerably +over one hundred thousand penitents. + +John preached four months at Bethany ford before starting north up the Jordan. +Tens of thousands of listeners, some curious but many earnest and serious, came +to hear him from all parts of Judea, Perea, and Samaria. Even a few came from +Galilee. + +In May of this year, while he still lingered at Bethany ford, the priests and +Levites sent a delegation out to inquire of John whether he claimed to be the +Messiah, and by whose authority he preached. John answered these questioners by +saying: "Go tell your masters that you have heard `the voice of one crying in +the wilderness,' as spoken by the prophet, saying, `make ready the way of the +Lord, make straight a highway for our God. Every valley shall be filled, and +every mountain and hill shall be brought low; the uneven ground shall become a +plain, while the rough places shall become a smooth valley; and all flesh shall +see the salvation of God.'" + +John was a heroic but tactless preacher. One day when he was preaching and +baptizing on the west bank of the Jordan, a group of Pharisees and a number of +Sadducees came forward and presented themselves for baptism. Before leading +them down into the water, John, addressing them as a group said: "Who warned +you to flee, as vipers before the fire, from the wrath to come? I will baptize +you, but I warn you to bring forth fruit worthy of sincere repentance if you +would receive the remission of your sins. Tell me not that Abraham is your +father. I declare that God is able of these twelve stones here before you to +raise up worthy children for Abraham. And even now is the ax laid to the very +roots of the trees. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is destined to +be cut down and cast into the fire." (The twelve stones to which he referred +were the reputed memorial stones set up by Joshua to commemorate the crossing +of the "twelve tribes" at this very point when they first entered the promised +land.) + +John conducted classes for his disciples, in the course of which he instructed +them in the details of their new life and endeavored to answer their many +questions. He counseled the teachers to instruct in the spirit as well as the +letter of the law. He instructed the rich to feed the poor; to the tax +gatherers he said: + + top of page - 1503 + +"Extort no more than that which is assigned you." To the soldiers he said: "Do +no violence and exact nothing wrongfully--be content with your wages." While he +counseled all: "Make ready for the end of the age--the kingdom of heaven is at +hand." + +7. JOHN JOURNEYS NORTH + +John still had confused ideas about the coming kingdom and its king. The longer +he preached the more confused he became, but never did this intellectual +uncertainty concerning the nature of the coming kingdom in the least lessen his +conviction of the certainty of the kingdom's immediate appearance. In mind John +might be confused, but in spirit never. He was in no doubt about the coming +kingdom, but he was far from certain as to whether or not Jesus was to be the +ruler of that kingdom. As long as John held to the idea of the restoration of +the throne of David, the teachings of his parents that Jesus, born in the City +of David, was to be the long-expected deliverer, seemed consistent; but at +those times when he leaned more toward the doctrine of a spiritual kingdom and +the end of the temporal age on earth, he was sorely in doubt as to the part +Jesus would play in such events. Sometimes he questioned everything, but not +for long. He really wished he might talk it all over with his cousin, but that +was contrary to their expressed agreement. + +As John journeyed north, he thought much about Jesus. He paused at more than a +dozen places as he traveled up the Jordan. It was at Adam that he first made +reference to "another one who is to come after me" in answer to the direct +question which his disciples asked him, "Are you the Messiah?" And he went on +to say: "There will come after me one who is greater than I, whose sandal +straps I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I baptize you with water, but +he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And his shovel is in his hand +thoroughly to cleanse his threshing floor; he will gather the wheat into his +garner, but the chaff will he burn up with the judgment fire." + +In response to the questions of his disciples John continued to expand his +teachings, from day to day adding more that was helpful and comforting compared +with his early and cryptic message: "Repent and be baptized." By this time +throngs were arriving from Galilee and the Decapolis. Scores of earnest +believers lingered with their adored teacher day after day. + +8. MEETING OF JESUS AND JOHN + +By December of A.D. 25, when John reached the neighborhood of Pella in his +journey up the Jordan, his fame had extended throughout all Palestine, and his +work had become the chief topic of conversation in all the towns about the lake +of Galilee. Jesus had spoken favorably of John's message, and this had caused +many from Capernaum to join John's cult of repentance and baptism. James and +John the fishermen sons of Zebedee had gone down in December, soon after John +took up his preaching position near Pella, and had offered themselves for +baptism. They went to see John once a week and brought back to Jesus fresh, +first-hand reports of the evangelist's work. + +Jesus' brothers James and Jude had talked about going down to John for baptism; +and now that Jude had come over to Capernaum for the Sabbath serv- + + top of page - 1504 + +ices, both he and James, after listening to Jesus' discourse in the synagogue, +decided to take counsel with him concerning their plans. This was on Saturday +night, January 12, A.D. 26. Jesus requested that they postpone the discussion +until the following day, when he would give them his answer. He slept very +little that night, being in close communion with the Father in heaven. He had +arranged to have noontime lunch with his brothers and to advise them concerning +baptism by John. That Sunday morning Jesus was working as usual in the +boatshop. James and Jude had arrived with the lunch and were waiting in the +lumber room for him, as it was not yet time for the midday recess, and they +knew that Jesus was very regular about such matters. + +Just before the noon rest, Jesus laid down his tools, removed his work apron, +and merely announced to the three workmen in the room with him, "My hour has +come." He went out to his brothers James and Jude, repeating, "My hour has +come--let us go to John." And they started immediately for Pella, eating their +lunch as they journeyed. This was on Sunday, January 13. They tarried for the +night in the Jordan valley and arrived on the scene of John's baptizing about +noon of the next day. + +John had just begun baptizing the candidates for the day. Scores of repentants +were standing in line awaiting their turn when Jesus and his two brothers took +up their positions in this line of earnest men and women who had become +believers in John's preaching of the coming kingdom. John had been inquiring +about Jesus of Zebedee's sons. He had heard of Jesus' remarks concerning his +preaching, and he was day by day expecting to see him arrive on the scene, but +he had not expected to greet him in the line of baptismal candidates. + +Being engrossed with the details of rapidly baptizing such a large number of +converts, John did not look up to see Jesus until the Son of Man stood in his +immediate presence. When John recognized Jesus, the ceremonies were halted for +a moment while he greeted his cousin in the flesh and asked, "But why do you +come down into the water to greet me?" And Jesus answered, "To be subject to +your baptism." John replied: "But I have need to be baptized by you. Why do you +come to me?" And Jesus whispered to John: "Bear with me now, for it becomes us +to set this example for my brothers standing here with me, and that the people +may know that my hour has come." + +There was a tone of finality and authority in Jesus' voice. John was atremble +with emotion as he made ready to baptize Jesus of Nazareth in the Jordan at +noon on Monday, January 14, A.D. 26. Thus did John baptize Jesus and his two +brothers James and Jude. And when John had baptized these three, he dismissed +the others for the day, announcing that he would resume baptisms at noon the +next day. As the people were departing, the four men still standing in the +water heard a strange sound, and presently there appeared for a moment an +apparition immediately over the head of Jesus, and they heard a voice saying, +"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." A great change came over +the countenance of Jesus, and coming up out of the water in silence he took +leave of them, going toward the hills to the east. And no man saw Jesus again +for forty days. + +John followed Jesus a sufficient distance to tell him the story of Gabriel's +visit to his mother ere either had been born, as he had heard it so many times +from his mother's lips. He allowed Jesus to continue on his way after he had +said, "Now I know of a certainty that you are the Deliverer." But Jesus made no +reply. + + top of page - 1505 + +9. FORTY DAYS OF PREACHING + +When John returned to his disciples (he now had some twenty-five or thirty who +abode with him constantly), he found them in earnest conference, discussing +what had just happened in connection with Jesus' baptism. They were all the +more astonished when John now made known to them the story of the Gabriel +visitation to Mary before Jesus was born, and also that Jesus spoke no word to +him even after he had told him about this. There was no rain that evening, and +this group of thirty or more talked long into the starlit night. They wondered +where Jesus had gone, and when they would see him again. + +After the experience of this day the preaching of John took on new and certain +notes of proclamation concerning the coming kingdom and the expected Messiah. +It was a tense time, these forty days of tarrying, waiting for the return of +Jesus. But John continued to preach with great power, and his disciples began +at about this time to preach to the overflowing throngs which gathered around +John at the Jordan. + +In the course of these forty days of waiting, many rumors spread about the +countryside and even to Tiberias and Jerusalem. Thousands came over to see the +new attraction in John's camp, the reputed Messiah, but Jesus was not to be +seen. When the disciples of John asserted that the strange man of God had gone +to the hills, many doubted the entire story. + +About three weeks after Jesus had left them, there arrived on the scene at +Pella a new deputation from the priests and Pharisees at Jerusalem. They asked +John directly if he was Elijah or the prophet that Moses promised; and when +John said, "I am not," they made bold to ask, "Are you the Messiah?" and John +answered, "I am not." Then said these men from Jerusalem: "If you are not +Elijah, nor the prophet, nor the Messiah, then why do you baptize the people +and create all this stir?" And John replied: "It should be for those who have +heard me and received my baptism to say who I am, but I declare to you that, +while I baptize with water, there has been among us one who will return to +baptize you with the Holy Spirit." + +These forty days were a difficult period for John and his disciples. What was +to be the relation of John to Jesus? A hundred questions came up for +discussion. Politics and selfish preferment began to make their appearance. +Intense discussions grew up around the various ideas and concepts of the +Messiah. Would he become a military leader and a Davidic king? Would he smite +the Roman armies as Joshua had the Canaanites? Or would he come to establish a +spiritual kingdom? John rather decided, with the minority, that Jesus had come +to establish the kingdom of heaven, although he was not altogether clear in his +own mind as to just what was to be embraced within this mission of the +establishment of the kingdom of heaven. + +These were strenuous days in John's experience, and he prayed for the return of +Jesus. Some of John's disciples organized scouting parties to go in search of +Jesus, but John forbade, saying: "Our times are in the hands of the God of +heaven; he will direct his chosen Son." + +It was early on the morning of Sabbath, February 23, that the company of John, +engaged in eating their morning meal, looked up toward the north and beheld +Jesus coming to them. As he approached them, John stood upon a large + + top of page - 1506 + +rock and, lifting up his sonorous voice, said: "Behold the Son of God, the +deliverer of the world! This is he of whom I have said, `After me there will +come one who is preferred before me because he was before me.' For this cause +came I out of the wilderness to preach repentance and to baptize with water, +proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And now comes one who shall +baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And I beheld the divine spirit descending +upon this man, and I heard the voice of God declare, `This is my beloved Son in +whom I am well pleased.'" + +Jesus bade them return to their food while he sat down to eat with John, his +brothers James and Jude having returned to Capernaum. + +Early in the morning of the next day he took leave of John and his disciples, +going back to Galilee. He gave them no word as to when they would again see +him. To John's inquiries about his own preaching and mission Jesus only said, +"My Father will guide you now and in the future as he has in the past." And +these two great men separated that morning on the banks of the Jordan, never +again to greet each other in the flesh. + +10. JOHN JOURNEYS SOUTH + +Since Jesus had gone north into Galilee, John felt led to retrace his steps +southward. Accordingly, on Sunday morning, March 3, John and the remainder of +his disciples began their journey south. About one quarter of John's immediate +followers had meantime departed for Galilee in quest of Jesus. There was a +sadness of confusion about John. He never again preached as he had before +baptizing Jesus. He somehow felt that the responsibility of the coming kingdom +was no longer on his shoulders. He felt that his work was almost finished; he +was disconsolate and lonely. But he preached, baptized, and journeyed on +southward. + +Near the village of Adam, John tarried for several weeks, and it was here that +he made the memorable attack upon Herod Antipas for unlawfully taking the wife +of another man. By June of this year (A.D. 26) John was back at the Bethany +ford of the Jordan, where he had begun his preaching of the coming kingdom more +than a year previously. In the weeks following the baptism of Jesus the +character of John's preaching gradually changed into a proclamation of mercy +for the common people, while he denounced with renewed vehemence the corrupt +political and religious rulers. + +Herod Antipas, in whose territory John had been preaching, became alarmed lest +he and his disciples should start a rebellion. Herod also resented John's +public criticisms of his domestic affairs. In view of all this, Herod decided +to put John in prison. Accordingly, very early in the morning of June 12, +before the multitude arrived to hear the preaching and witness the baptizing, +the agents of Herod placed John under arrest. As weeks passed and he was not +released, his disciples scattered over all Palestine, many of them going into +Galilee to join the followers of Jesus. + +11. JOHN IN PRISON + +John had a lonely and somewhat bitter experience in prison. Few of his +followers were permitted to see him. He longed to see Jesus but had to be +content + + top of page - 1507 + +with hearing of his work through those of his followers who had become +believers in the Son of Man. He was often tempted to doubt Jesus and his divine +mission. If Jesus were the Messiah, why did he do nothing to deliver him from +this unbearable imprisonment? For more than a year and a half this rugged man +of God's outdoors languished in that despicable prison. And this experience was +a great test of his faith in, and loyalty to, Jesus. Indeed, this whole +experience was a great test of John's faith even in God. Many times was he +tempted to doubt even the genuineness of his own mission and experience. + +After he had been in prison several months, a group of his disciples came to +him and, after reporting concerning the public activities of Jesus, said: "So +you see, Teacher, that he who was with you at the upper Jordan prospers and +receives all who come to him. He even feasts with publicans and sinners. You +bore courageous witness to him, and yet he does nothing to effect your +deliverance." But John answered his friends: "This man can do nothing unless it +has been given him by his Father in heaven. You well remember that I said, `I +am not the Messiah, but I am one sent on before to prepare the way for him.' +And that I did. He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the +bridegroom who stands near-by and hears him rejoices greatly because of the +bridegroom's voice. This, my joy, therefore is fulfilled. He must increase but +I must decrease. I am of this earth and have declared my message. Jesus of +Nazareth comes down to the earth from heaven and is above us all. The Son of +Man has descended from God, and the words of God he will declare to you. For +the Father in heaven gives not the spirit by measure to his own Son. The Father +loves his Son and will presently put all things in the hands of this Son. He +who believes in the Son has eternal life. And these words which I speak are +true and abiding." + +These disciples were amazed at John's pronouncement, so much so that they +departed in silence. John was also much agitated, for he perceived that he had +uttered a prophecy. Never again did he wholly doubt the mission and divinity of +Jesus. But it was a sore disappointment to John that Jesus sent him no word, +that he came not to see him, and that he exercised none of his great power to +deliver him from prison. But Jesus knew all about this. He had great love for +John, but being now cognizant of his divine nature and knowing fully the great +things in preparation for John when he departed from this world and also +knowing that John's work on earth was finished, he constrained himself not to +interfere in the natural outworking of the great preacher-prophet's career. + +This long suspense in prison was humanly unbearable. Just a few days before his +death John again sent trusted messengers to Jesus, inquiring: "Is my work done? +Why do I languish in prison? Are you truly the Messiah, or shall we look for +another?" And when these two disciples gave this message to Jesus, the Son of +Man replied: "Go back to John and tell him that I have not forgotten but to +suffer me also this, for it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. Tell John +what you have seen and heard--that the poor have good tidings preached to +them--and, finally, tell the beloved herald of my earth mission that he shall +be abundantly blessed in the age to come if he finds no occasion to doubt and +stumble over me." And this was the last word John received from Jesus. This +message greatly comforted him and did much to stabilize his faith and prepare +him for the tragic end of his life in the flesh which followed so soon upon the +heels of this memorable occasion. + + top of page - 1508 + +12. DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST + +As John was working in southern Perea when arrested, he was taken immediately +to the prison of the fortress of Machaerus, where he was incarcerated until his +execution. Herod ruled over Perea as well as Galilee, and he maintained +residence at this time at both Julias and Machaerus in Perea. In Galilee the +official residence had been moved from Sepphoris to the new capital at +Tiberias. + +Herod feared to release John lest he instigate rebellion. He feared to put him +to death lest the multitude riot in the capital, for thousands of Pereans +believed that John was a holy man, a prophet. Therefore Herod kept the Nazarite +preacher in prison, not knowing what else to do with him. Several times John +had been before Herod, but never would he agree either to leave the domains of +Herod or to refrain from all public activities if he were released. And this +new agitation concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was steadily increasing, +admonished Herod that it was no time to turn John loose. Besides, John was also +a victim of the intense and bitter hatred of Herodias, Herod's unlawful wife. + +On numerous occasions Herod talked with John about the kingdom of heaven, and +while sometimes seriously impressed with his message, he was afraid to release +him from prison. + +Since much building was still going on at Tiberias, Herod spent considerable +time at his Perean residences, and he was partial to the fortress of Machaerus. +It was a matter of several years before all the public buildings and the +official residence at Tiberias were fully completed. + +In celebration of his birthday Herod made a great feast in the Machaerian +palace for his chief officers and other men high in the councils of the +government of Galilee and Perea. Since Herodias had failed to bring about +John's death by direct appeal to Herod, she now set herself to the task of +having John put to death by cunning planning. + +In the course of the evening's festivities and entertainment, Herodias +presented her daughter to dance before the banqueters. Herod was very much +pleased with the damsel's performance and, calling her before him, said: "You +are charming. I am much pleased with you. Ask me on this my birthday for +whatever you desire, and I will give it to you, even to the half of my +kingdom." And Herod did all this while well under the influence of his many +wines. The young lady drew aside and inquired of her mother what she should ask +of Herod. Herodias said, "Go to Herod and ask for the head of John the +Baptist." And the young woman, returning to the banquet table, said to Herod, +"I request that you forthwith give me the head of John the Baptist on a +platter." + +Herod was filled with fear and sorrow, but because of his oath and because of +all those who sat at meat with him, he would not deny the request. And Herod +Antipas sent a soldier, commanding him to bring the head of John. So was John +that night beheaded in the prison, the soldier bringing the head of the prophet +on a platter and presenting it to the young woman at the rear of the banquet +hall. And the damsel gave the platter to her mother. When John's disciples +heard of this, they came to the prison for the body of John, and after laying +it in a tomb, they went and told Jesus. + + top of page - 1509 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Transition ³ Baptism And ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ The... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p136.txt b/religious documents/p136.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d75533a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p136.txt @@ -0,0 +1,918 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 136 Baptism And The Forty Days + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 136 Baptism And The Forty Days + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +JESUS began his public work at the height of the popular interest in John's +preaching and at a time when the Jewish people of Palestine were eagerly +looking for the appearance of the Messiah. There was a great contrast between +John and Jesus. John was an eager and earnest worker, but Jesus was a calm and +happy laborer; only a few times in his entire life was he ever in a hurry. +Jesus was a comforting consolation to the world and somewhat of an example; +John was hardly a comfort or an example. He preached the kingdom of heaven but +hardly entered into the happiness thereof. Though Jesus spoke of John as the +greatest of the prophets of the old order, he also said that the least of those +who saw the great light of the new way and entered thereby into the kingdom of +heaven was indeed greater than John. + +When John preached the coming kingdom, the burden of his message was: Repent! +flee from the wrath to come. When Jesus began to preach, there remained the +exhortation to repentance, but such a message was always followed by the +gospel, the good tidings of the joy and liberty of the new kingdom. + +1. CONCEPTS OF THE EXPECTED MESSIAH + +The Jews entertained many ideas about the expected deliverer, and each of these +different schools of Messianic teaching was able to point to statements in the +Hebrew scriptures as proof of their contentions. In a general way, the Jews +regarded their national history as beginning with Abraham and culminating in +the Messiah and the new age of the kingdom of God. In earlier times they had +envisaged this deliverer as "the servant of the Lord," then as "the Son of +Man," while latterly some even went so far as to refer to the Messiah as the +"Son of God." But no matter whether he was called the "seed of Abraham" or "the +son of David," all were agreed that he was to be the Messiah, the "anointed +one." Thus did the concept evolve from the "servant of the Lord" to the "son of +David," "Son of Man," and "Son of God." + +In the days of John and Jesus the more learned Jews had developed an idea of +the coming Messiah as the perfected and representative Israelite, combining in +himself as the "servant of the Lord" the threefold office of prophet, priest, +and king. + +The Jews devoutly believed that, as Moses had delivered their fathers from +Egyptian bondage by miraculous wonders, so would the coming Messiah deliver the +Jewish people from Roman domination by even greater miracles of power and +marvels of racial triumph. The rabbis had gathered together almost five hundred +passages from the Scriptures which, notwithstanding their apparent con- + + top of page - 1510 + +tradictions, they averred were prophetic of the coming Messiah. And amidst all +these details of time, technique, and function, they almost completely lost +sight of the personality of the promised Messiah. They were looking for a +restoration of Jewish national glory--Israel's temporal exaltation--rather than +for the salvation of the world. It therefore becomes evident that Jesus of +Nazareth could never satisfy this materialistic Messianic concept of the Jewish +mind. Many of their reputed Messianic predictions, had they but viewed these +prophetic utterances in a different light, would have very naturally prepared +their minds for a recognition of Jesus as the terminator of one age and the +inaugurator of a new and better dispensation of mercy and salvation for all +nations. + +The Jews had been brought up to believe in the doctrine of the Shekinah. But +this reputed symbol of the Divine Presence was not to be seen in the temple. +They believed that the coming of the Messiah would effect its restoration. They +held confusing ideas about racial sin and the supposed evil nature of man. Some +taught that Adam's sin had cursed the human race, and that the Messiah would +remove this curse and restore man to divine favor. Others taught that God, in +creating man, had put into his being both good and evil natures; that when he +observed the outworking of this arrangement, he was greatly disappointed, and +that "He repented that he had thus made man." And those who taught this +believed that the Messiah was to come in order to redeem man from this inherent +evil nature. + +The majority of the Jews believed that they continued to languish under Roman +rule because of their national sins and because of the halfheartedness of the +gentile proselytes. The Jewish nation had not wholeheartedly repented; +therefore did the Messiah delay his coming. There was much talk about +repentance; wherefore the mighty and immediate appeal of John's preaching, +"Repent and be baptized, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And the kingdom +of heaven could mean only one thing to any devout Jew: The coming of the +Messiah. + +There was one feature of the bestowal of Michael which was utterly foreign to +the Jewish conception of the Messiah, and that was the union of the two +natures, the human and the divine. The Jews had variously conceived of the +Messiah as perfected human, superhuman, and even as divine, but they never +entertained the concept of the union of the human and the divine. And this was +the great stumbling block of Jesus' early disciples. They grasped the human +concept of the Messiah as the son of David, as presented by the earlier +prophets; as the Son of Man, the superhuman idea of Daniel and some of the +later prophets; and even as the Son of God, as depicted by the author of the +Book of Enoch and by certain of his contemporaries; but never had they for a +single moment entertained the true concept of the union in one earth +personality of the two natures, the human and the divine. The incarnation of +the Creator in the form of the creature had not been revealed beforehand. It +was revealed only in Jesus; the world knew nothing of such things until the +Creator Son was made flesh and dwelt among the mortals of the realm. + +2. THE BAPTISM OF JESUS + +Jesus was baptized at the very height of John's preaching when Palestine was +aflame with the expectancy of his message--"the kingdom of God is at +hand"--when all Jewry was engaged in serious and solemn self-examination. The +Jew- + + top of page - 1511 + +ish sense of racial solidarity was very profound. The Jews not only believed +that the sins of the father might afflict his children, but they firmly +believed that the sin of one individual might curse the nation. Accordingly, +not all who submitted to John's baptism regarded themselves as being guilty of +the specific sins which John denounced. Many devout souls were baptized by John +for the good of Israel. They feared lest some sin of ignorance on their part +might delay the coming of the Messiah. They felt themselves to belong to a +guilty and sin-cursed nation, and they presented themselves for baptism that +they might by so doing manifest fruits of race penitence. It is therefore +evident that Jesus in no sense received John's baptism as a rite of repentance +or for the remission of sins. In accepting baptism at the hands of John, Jesus +was only following the example of many pious Israelites. + +When Jesus of Nazareth went down into the Jordan to be baptized, he was a +mortal of the realm who had attained the pinnacle of human evolutionary +ascension in all matters related to the conquest of mind and to +self-identification with the spirit. He stood in the Jordan that day a +perfected mortal of the evolutionary worlds of time and space. Perfect +synchrony and full communication had become established between the mortal mind +of Jesus and the indwelling spirit Adjuster, the divine gift of his Father in +Paradise. And just such an Adjuster indwells all normal beings living on +Urantia since the ascension of Michael to the headship of his universe, except +that Jesus' Adjuster had been previously prepared for this special mission by +similarly indwelling another superhuman incarnated in the likeness of mortal +flesh, Machiventa Melchizedek. + +Ordinarily, when a mortal of the realm attains such high levels of personality +perfection, there occur those preliminary phenomena of spiritual elevation +which terminate in eventual fusion of the matured soul of the mortal with its +associated divine Adjuster. And such a change was apparently due to take place +in the personality experience of Jesus of Nazareth on that very day when he +went down into the Jordan with his two brothers to be baptized by John. This +ceremony was the final act of his purely human life on Urantia, and many +superhuman observers expected to witness the fusion of the Adjuster with its +indwelt mind, but they were all destined to suffer disappointment. Something +new and even greater occurred. As John laid his hands upon Jesus to baptize +him, the indwelling Adjuster took final leave of the perfected human soul of +Joshua ben Joseph. And in a few moments this divine entity returned from +Divinington as a Personalized Adjuster and chief of his kind throughout the +entire local universe of Nebadon. Thus did Jesus observe his own former divine +spirit descending on its return to him in personalized form. And he heard this +same spirit of Paradise origin now speak, saying, "This is my beloved Son in +whom I am well pleased." And John, with Jesus' two brothers, also heard these +words. John's disciples, standing by the water's edge, did not hear these +words, neither did they see the apparition of the Personalized Adjuster. Only +the eyes of Jesus beheld the Personalized Adjuster. + +When the returned and now exalted Personalized Adjuster had thus spoken, all +was silence. And while the four of them tarried in the water, Jesus, looking up +to the near-by Adjuster, prayed: "My Father who reigns in heaven, hallowed be +your name. Your kingdom come! Your will be done on earth, even as it is in +heaven." When he had prayed, the "heavens were opened," and the Son of Man + + top of page - 1512 + +saw the vision, presented by the now Personalized Adjuster, of himself as a Son +of God as he was before he came to earth in the likeness of mortal flesh, and +as he would be when the incarnated life should be finished. This heavenly +vision was seen only by Jesus. + +It was the voice of the Personalized Adjuster that John and Jesus heard, +speaking in behalf of the Universal Father, for the Adjuster is of, and as, the +Paradise Father. Throughout the remainder of Jesus' earth life this +Personalized Adjuster was associated with him in all his labors; Jesus was in +constant communion with this exalted Adjuster. + +When Jesus was baptized, he repented of no misdeeds; he made no confession of +sin. His was the baptism of consecration to the performance of the will of the +heavenly Father. At his baptism he heard the unmistakable call of his Father, +the final summons to be about his Father's business, and he went away into +private seclusion for forty days to think over these manifold problems. In thus +retiring for a season from active personality contact with his earthly +associates, Jesus, as he was and on Urantia, was following the very procedure +that obtains on the morontia worlds whenever an ascending mortal fuses with the +inner presence of the Universal Father. + +This day of baptism ended the purely human life of Jesus. The divine Son has +found his Father, the Universal Father has found his incarnated Son, and they +speak the one to the other. + +(Jesus was almost thirty-one and one-half years old when he was baptized. While +Luke says that Jesus was baptized in the fifteenth year of the reign of +Tiberius Caesar, which would be A.D. 29 since Augustus died in A.D. 14, it +should be recalled that Tiberius was coemperor with Augustus for two and +one-half years before the death of Augustus, having had coins struck in his +honor in October, A.D. 11. The fifteenth year of his actual rule was, +therefore, this very year of A.D. 26, that of Jesus' baptism. And this was also +the year that Pontius Pilate began his rule as governor of Judea.) + +3. THE FORTY DAYS + +Jesus had endured the great temptation of his mortal bestowal before his +baptism when he had been wet with the dews of Mount Hermon for six weeks. There +on Mount Hermon, as an unaided mortal of the realm, he had met and defeated the +Urantia pretender, Caligastia, the prince of this world. That eventful day, on +the universe records, Jesus of Nazareth had become the Planetary Prince of +Urantia. And this Prince of Urantia, so soon to be proclaimed supreme Sovereign +of Nebadon, now went into forty days of retirement to formulate the plans and +determine upon the technique of proclaiming the new kingdom of God in the +hearts of men. + +After his baptism he entered upon the forty days of adjusting himself to the +changed relationships of the world and the universe occasioned by the +personalization of his Adjuster. During this isolation in the Perean hills he +determined upon the policy to be pursued and the methods to be employed in the +new and changed phase of earth life which he was about to inaugurate. + +Jesus did not go into retirement for the purpose of fasting and for the +affliction of his soul. He was not an ascetic, and he came forever to destroy +all such notions regarding the approach to God. His reasons for seeking this +retirement + + top of page - 1513 + +were entirely different from those which had actuated Moses and Elijah, and +even John the Baptist. Jesus was then wholly self-conscious concerning his +relation to the universe of his making and also to the universe of universes, +supervised by the Paradise Father, his Father in heaven. He now fully recalled +the bestowal charge and its instructions administered by his elder brother, +Immanuel, ere he entered upon his Urantia incarnation. He now clearly and fully +comprehended all these far-flung relationships, and he desired to be away for a +season of quiet meditation so that he could think out the plans and decide upon +the procedures for the prosecution of his public labors in behalf of this world +and for all other worlds in his local universe. + +While wandering about in the hills, seeking a suitable shelter, Jesus +encountered his universe chief executive, Gabriel, the Bright and Morning Star +of Nebadon. Gabriel now re-established personal communication with the Creator +Son of the universe; they met directly for the first time since Michael took +leave of his associates on Salvington when he went to Edentia preparatory to +entering upon the Urantia bestowal. Gabriel, by direction of Immanuel and on +authority of the Uversa Ancients of Days, now laid before Jesus information +indicating that his bestowal experience on Urantia was practically finished so +far as concerned the earning of the perfected sovereignty of his universe and +the termination of the Lucifer rebellion. The former was achieved on the day of +his baptism when the personalization of his Adjuster demonstrated the +perfection and completion of his bestowal in the likeness of mortal flesh, and +the latter was a fact of history on that day when he came down from Mount +Hermon to join the waiting lad, Tiglath. Jesus was now informed, upon the +highest authority of the local universe and the superuniverse, that his +bestowal work was finished in so far as it affected his personal status in +relation to sovereignty and rebellion. He had already had this assurance direct +from Paradise in the baptismal vision and in the phenomenon of the +personalization of his indwelling Thought Adjuster. + +While he tarried on the mountain, talking with Gabriel, the Constellation +Father of Edentia appeared to Jesus and Gabriel in person, saying: "The records +are completed. The sovereignty of Michael No. 611,121 over his universe of +Nebadon rests in completion at the right hand of the Universal Father. I bring +to you the bestowal release of Immanuel, your sponsor-brother for the Urantia +incarnation. You are at liberty now or at any subsequent time, in the manner of +your own choosing, to terminate your incarnation bestowal, ascend to the right +hand of your Father, receive your sovereignty, and assume your well-earned +unconditional rulership of all Nebadon. I also testify to the completion of the +records of the superuniverse, by authorization of the Ancients of Days, having +to do with the termination of all sin-rebellion in your universe and endowing +you with full and unlimited authority to deal with any and all such possible +upheavals in the future. Technically, your work on Urantia and in the flesh of +the mortal creature is finished. Your course from now on is a matter of your +own choosing." + +When the Most High Father of Edentia had taken leave, Jesus held long converse +with Gabriel regarding the welfare of the universe and, sending greetings to +Immanuel, proffered his assurance that, in the work which he was about to +undertake on Urantia, he would be ever mindful of the counsel he had received +in connection with the prebestowal charge administered on Salvington. + + top of page - 1514 + +Throughout all of these forty days of isolation James and John the sons of +Zebedee were engaged in searching for Jesus. Many times they were not far from +his abiding place, but never did they find him. + +4. PLANS FOR PUBLIC WORK + +Day by day, up in the hills, Jesus formulated the plans for the remainder of +his Urantia bestowal. He first decided not to teach contemporaneously with +John. He planned to remain in comparative retirement until the work of John +achieved its purpose, or until John was suddenly stopped by imprisonment. Jesus +well knew that John's fearless and tactless preaching would presently arouse +the fears and enmity of the civil rulers. In view of John's precarious +situation, Jesus began definitely to plan his program of public labors in +behalf of his people and the world, in behalf of every inhabited world +throughout his vast universe. Michael's mortal bestowal was on Urantial but for +all worlds of Nebadon. + +The first thing Jesus did, after thinking through the general plan of +co-ordinating his program with John's movement, was to review in his mind the +instructions of Immanuel. Carefully he thought over the advice given him +concerning his methods of labor, and that he was to leave no permanent writing +on the planet. Never again did Jesus write on anything except sand. On his next +visit to Nazareth, much to the sorrow of his brother Joseph, Jesus destroyed +all of his writing that was preserved on the boards about the carpenter shop, +and which hung upon the walls of the old home. And Jesus pondered well over +Immanuel's advice pertaining to his economic, social, and political attitude +toward the world as he should find it. + +Jesus did not fast during this forty days' isolation. The longest period he +went without food was his first two days in the hills when he was so engrossed +with his thinking that he forgot all about eating. But on the third day he went +in search of food. Neither was he tempted during this time by any evil spirits +or rebel personalities of station on this world or from any other world. + +These forty days were the occasion of the final conference between the human +and the divine minds, or rather the first real functioning of these two minds +as now made one. The results of this momentous season of meditation +demonstrated conclusively that the divine mind has triumphantly and spiritually +dominated the human intellect. The mind of man has become the mind of God from +this time on, and though the selfhood of the mind of man is ever present, +always does this spiritualized human mind say, "Not my will but yours be done." + +The transactions of this eventful time were not the fantastic visions of a +starved and weakened mind, neither were they the confused and puerile +symbolisms which afterward gained record as the "temptations of Jesus in the +wilderness." Rather was this a season for thinking over the whole eventful and +varied career of the Urantia bestowal and for the careful laying of those plans +for further ministry which would best serve this world while also contributing +something to the betterment of all other rebellion-isolated spheres. Jesus +thought over the whole span of human life on Urantia, from the days of Andon +and Fonta, down through Adam's default, and on to the ministry of the +Melchizedek of Salem. + +Gabriel had reminded Jesus that there were two ways in which he might manifest +himself to the world in case he should choose to tarry on Urantia for + + top of page - 1515 + +a time. And it was made clear to Jesus that his choice in this matter would +have nothing to do with either his universe sovereignty or the termination of +the Lucifer rebellion. These two ways of world ministry were: + +1. His own way--the way that might seem most pleasant and profitable from the +standpoint of the immediate needs of this world and the present edification of +his own universe. + +2. The Father's way--the exemplification of a farseeing ideal of creature life +visualized by the high personalities of the Paradise administration of the +universe of universes. + +It was thus made clear to Jesus that there were two ways in which he could +order the remainder of his earth life. Each of these ways had something to be +said in its favor as it might be regarded in the light of the immediate +situation. The Son of Man clearly saw that his choice between these two modes +of conduct would have nothing to do with his reception of universe sovereignty; +that was a matter already settled and sealed on the records of the universe of +universes and only awaited his demand in person. But it was indicated to Jesus +that it would afford his Paradise brother, Immanuel, great satisfaction if he, +Jesus, should see fit to finish up his earth career of incarnation as he had so +nobly begun it, always subject to the Father's will. On the third day of this +isolation Jesus promised himself he would go back to the world to finish his +earth career, and that in a situation involving any two ways he would always +choose the Father's will. And he lived out the remainder of his earth life +always true to that resolve. Even to the bitter end he invariably subordinated +his sovereign will to that of his heavenly Father. + +The forty days in the mountain wilderness were not a period of great temptation +but rather the period of the Master's great decisions. During these days of +lone communion with himself and his Father's immediate presence--the +Personalized Adjuster (he no longer had a personal seraphic guardian)--he +arrived, one by one, at the great decisions which were to control his policies +and conduct for the remainder of his earth career. Subsequently the tradition +of a great temptation became attached to this period of isolation through +confusion with the fragmentary narratives of the Mount Hermon struggles, and +further because it was the custom to have all great prophets and human leaders +begin their public careers by undergoing these supposed seasons of fasting and +prayer. It had always been Jesus' practice, when facing any new or serious +decisions, to withdraw for communion with his own spirit that he might seek to +know the will of God. + +In all this planning for the remainder of his earth life, Jesus was always torn +in his human heart by two opposing courses of conduct: + +1. He entertained a strong desire to win his people--and the whole world--to +believe in him and to accept his new spiritual kingdom. And he well knew their +ideas concerning the coming Messiah. + +2. To live and work as he knew his Father would approve, to conduct his work in +behalf of other worlds in need, and to continue, in the establishment of the +kingdom, to reveal the Father and show forth his divine character of love. + +Throughout these eventful days Jesus lived in an ancient rock cavern, a shelter +in the side of the hills near a village sometime called Beit Adis. He drank +from the small spring which came from the side of the hill near this rock +shelter. + + top of page - 1516 + +5. THE FIRST GREAT DECISION + +On the third day after beginning this conference with himself and his +Personalized Adjuster, Jesus was presented with the vision of the assembled +celestial hosts of Nebadon sent by their commanders to wait upon the will of +their beloved Sovereign. This mighty host embraced twelve legions of seraphim +and proportionate numbers of every order of universe intelligence. And the +first great decision of Jesus' isolation had to do with whether or not he would +make use of these mighty personalities in connection with the ensuing program +of his public work on Urantia. + +Jesus decided that he would not utilize a single personality of this vast +assemblage unless it should become evident that this was his Father's will. +Notwithstanding this general decision, this vast host remained with him +throughout the balance of his earth life, always in readiness to obey the least +expression of their Sovereign's will. Although Jesus did not constantly behold +these attendant personalities with his human eyes, his associated Personalized +Adjuster did constantly behold, and could communicate with, all of them. + +Before coming down from the forty days' retreat in the hills, Jesus assigned +the immediate command of this attendant host of universe personalities to his +recently Personalized Adjuster, and for more than four years of Urantia time +did these selected personalities from every division of universe intelligences +obediently and respectfully function under the wise guidance of this exalted +and experienced Personalized Mystery Monitor. In assuming command of this +mighty assembly, the Adjuster, being a onetime part and essence of the Paradise +Father, assured Jesus that in no case would these superhuman agencies be +permitted to serve, or manifest themselves in connection with, or in behalf of, +his earth career unless it should develop that the Father willed such +intervention. Thus by one great decision Jesus voluntarily deprived himself of +all superhuman co-operation in all matters having to do with the remainder of +his mortal career unless the Father might independently choose to participate +in some certain act or episode of the Son's earth labors. + +In accepting this command of the universe hosts in attendance upon Christ +Michael, the Personalized Adjuster took great pains to point out to Jesus that, +while such an assembly of universe creatures could be limited in their space +activities by the delegated authority of their Creator, such limitations were +not operative in connection with their function in time. And this limitation +was dependent on the fact that Adjusters are nontime beings when once they are +personalized. Accordingly was Jesus admonished that, while the Adjuster's +control of the living intelligences placed under his command would be complete +and perfect as to all matters involving space, there could be no such perfect +limitations imposed regarding time. Said the Adjuster: "I will, as you have +directed, enjoin the employment of this attendant host of universe +intelligences in any manner in connection with your earth career except in +those cases where the Paradise Father directs me to release such agencies in +order that his divine will of your choosing may be accomplished, and in those +instances where you may engage in any choice or act of your divine-human will +which shall only involve departures from the natural earth order as to time. In +all such events I am powerless, and your creatures here assembled in perfection +and unity of power are + + top of page - 1517 + +likewise helpless. If your united natures once entertain such desires, these +mandates of your choice will be forthwith executed. Your wish in all such +matters will constitute the abridgment of time, and the thing projected is +existent. Under my command this constitutes the fullest possible limitation +which can be imposed upon your potential sovereignty. In my self-consciousness +time is nonexistent, and therefore I cannot limit your creatures in anything +related thereto." + +Thus did Jesus become apprised of the working out of his decision to go on +living as a man among men. He had by a single decision excluded all of his +attendant universe hosts of varied intelligences from participating in his +ensuing public ministry except in such matters as concerned time only. It +therefore becomes evident that any possible supernatural or supposedly +superhuman accompaniments of Jesus' ministry pertained wholly to the +elimination of time unless the Father in heaven specifically ruled otherwise. +No miracle, ministry of mercy, or any other possible event occurring in +connection with Jesus' remaining earth labors could possibly be of the nature +or character of an act transcending the natural laws established and regularly +working in the affairs of man as he lives on Urantia except in this expressly +stated matter of time. No limits, of course, could be placed upon the +manifestations of "the Father's will." The elimination of time in connection +with the expressed desire of this potential Sovereign of a universe could only +be avoided by the direct and explicit act of the will of this God-man to the +effect that time, as related to the act or event in question, should not be +shortened or eliminated. In order to prevent the appearance of apparent time +miracles, it was necessary for Jesus to remain constantly time conscious. Any +lapse of time consciousness on his part, in connection with the entertainment +of definite desire, was equivalent to the enactment of the thing conceived in +the mind of this Creator Son, and without the intervention of time. + +Through the supervising control of his associated and Personalized Adjuster it +was possible for Michael perfectly to limit his personal earth activities with +reference to space, but it was not possible for the Son of Man thus to limit +his new earth status as potential Sovereign of Nebadon as regards time. And +this was the actual status of Jesus of Nazareth as he went forth to begin his +public ministry on Urantia. + +6. THE SECOND DECISION + +Having settled his policy concerning all personalities of all classes of his +created intelligences, so far as this could be determined in view of the +inherent potential of his new status of divinity, Jesus now turned his thoughts +toward himself. What would he, now the fully self-conscious creator of all +things and beings existent in this universe, do with these creator prerogatives +in the recurring life situations which would immediately confront him when he +returned to Galilee to resume his work among men? In fact, already, and right +where he was in these lonely hills, had this problem forcibly presented itself +in the matter of obtaining food. By the third day of his solitary meditations +the human body grew hungry. Should he go in quest of food as any ordinary man +would, or should he merely exercise his normal creative powers and produce +suitable bodily nourishment ready at hand? And this great decision of the +Master has been portrayed to you as a temptation--as a challenge by supposed +enemies that he "command that these stones become loaves of bread." + + top of page - 1518 + +Jesus thus settled upon another and consistent policy for the remainder of his +earth labors. As far as his personal necessities were concerned, and in general +even in his relations with other personalities, he now deliberately chose to +pursue the path of normal earthly existence; he definitely decided against a +policy which would transcend, violate, or outrage his own established natural +laws. But he could not promise himself, as he had already been warned by his +Personalized Adjuster, that these natural laws might not, in certain +conceivable circumstances, be greatly accelerated. In principle, Jesus decided +that his lifework should be organized and prosecuted in accordance with natural +law and in harmony with the existing social organization. The Master thereby +chose a program of living which was the equivalent of deciding against miracles +and wonders. Again he decided in favor of "the Father's will"; again he +surrendered everything into the hands of his Paradise Father. + +Jesus' human nature dictated that the first duty was self-preservation; that is +the normal attitude of the natural man on the worlds of time and space, and it +is, therefore, a legitimate reaction of a Urantia mortal. But Jesus was not +concerned merely with this world and its creatures; he was living a life +designed to instruct and inspire the manifold creatures of a far-flung +universe. + +Before his baptismal illumination he had lived in perfect submission to the +will and guidance of his heavenly Father. He emphatically decided to continue +on in just such implicit mortal dependence on the Father's will. He purposed to +follow the unnatural course--he decided not to seek self-preservation. He chose +to go on pursuing the policy of refusing to defend himself. He formulated his +conclusions in the words of Scripture familiar to his human mind: "Man shall +not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." +In reaching this conclusion in regard to the appetite of the physical nature as +expressed in hunger for food, the Son of Man made his final declaration +concerning all other urges of the flesh and the natural impulses of human +nature. + +His superhuman power he might possibly use for others, but for himself, never. +And he pursued this policy consistently to the very end, when it was jeeringly +said of him: "He saved others; himself he cannot save"--because he would not. + +The Jews were expecting a Messiah who would do even greater wonders than Moses, +who was reputed to have brought forth water from the rock in a desert place and +to have fed their forefathers with manna in the wilderness. Jesus knew the sort +of Messiah his compatriots expected, and he had all the powers and prerogatives +to measure up to their most sanguine expectations, but he decided against such +a magnificent program of power and glory. Jesus looked upon such a course of +expected miracle working as a harking back to the olden days of ignorant magic +and the degraded practices of the savage medicine men. Possibly, for the +salvation of his creatures, he might accelerate natural law, but to transcend +his own laws, either for the benefit of himself or the overawing of his fellow +men, that he would not do. And the Master's decision was final. + +Jesus sorrowed for his people; he fully understood how they had been led up to +the expectation of the coming Messiah, the time when "the earth will yield its +fruits ten thousandfold, and on one vine there will be a thousand branches, and +each branch will produce a thousand clusters, and each cluster will produce a +thousand grapes, and each grape will produce a gallon of wine." The Jews +believed the Messiah would usher in an era of miraculous plenty. The Hebrews +had long been nurtured on traditions of miracles and legends of wonders. + + top of page - 1519 + +He was not a Messiah coming to multiply bread and wine. He came not to minister +to temporal needs only; he came to reveal his Father in heaven to his children +on earth, while he sought to lead his earth children to join him in a sincere +effort so to live as to do the will of the Father in heaven. + +In this decision Jesus of Nazareth portrayed to an onlooking universe the folly +and sin of prostituting divine talents and God-given abilities for personal +aggrandizement or for purely selfish gain and glorification. That was the sin +of Lucifer and Caligastia. + +This great decision of Jesus portrays dramatically the truth that selfish +satisfaction and sensuous gratification, alone and of themselves, are not able +to confer happiness upon evolving human beings. There are higher values in +mortal existence--intellectual mastery and spiritual achievement--which far +transcend the necessary gratification of man's purely physical appetites and +urges. Man's natural endowment of talent and ability should be chiefly devoted +to the development and ennoblement of his higher powers of mind and spirit. + +Jesus thus revealed to the creatures of his universe the technique of the new +and better way, the higher moral values of living and the deeper spiritual +satisfactions of evolutionary human existence on the worlds of space. + +7. THE THIRD DECISION + +Having made his decisions regarding such matters as food and physical +ministration to the needs of his material body, the care of the health of +himself and his associates, there remained yet other problems to solve. What +would be his attitude when confronted by personal danger? He decided to +exercise normal watchcare over his human safety and to take reasonable +precaution to prevent the untimely termination of his career in the flesh but +to refrain from all superhuman intervention when the crisis of his life in the +flesh should come. As he was formulating this decision, Jesus was seated under +the shade of a tree on an overhanging ledge of rock with a precipice right +there before him. He fully realized that he could cast himself off the ledge +and out into space, and that nothing could happen to harm him provided he would +rescind his first great decision not to invoke the interposition of his +celestial intelligences in the prosecution of his lifework on Urantia, and +provided he would abrogate his second decision concerning his attitude toward +self-preservation. + +Jesus knew his fellow countrymen were expecting a Messiah who would be above +natural law. Well had he been taught that Scripture: "There shall no evil +befall you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling. For he shall give +his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you +up in their hands lest you dash your foot against a stone." Would this sort of +presumption, this defiance of his Father's laws of gravity, be justified in +order to protect himself from possible harm or, perchance, to win the +confidence of his mistaught and distracted people? But such a course, however +gratifying to the sign-seeking Jews, would be, not a revelation of his Father, +but a questionable trifling with the established laws of the universe of +universes. + +Understanding all of this and knowing that the Master refused to work in +defiance of his established laws of nature in so far as his personal conduct +was concerned, you know of a certainty that he never walked on the water nor +did anything else which was an outrage to his material order of administering +the + + top of page - 1520 + +world; always, of course, bearing in mind that there had, as yet, been found no +way whereby he could be wholly delivered from the lack of control over the +element of time in connection with those matters put under the jurisdiction of +the Personalized Adjuster. + +Throughout his entire earth life Jesus was consistently loyal to this decision. +No matter whether the Pharisees taunted him for a sign, or the watchers at +Calvary dared him to come down from the cross, he steadfastly adhered to the +decision of this hour on the hillside. + +8. THE FOURTH DECISION + +The next great problem with which this God-man wrestled and which he presently +decided in accordance with the will of the Father in heaven, concerned the +question as to whether or not any of his superhuman powers should be employed +for the purpose of attracting the attention and winning the adherence of his +fellow men. Should he in any manner lend his universe powers to the +gratification of the Jewish hankering for the spectacular and the marvelous? He +decided that he should not. He settled upon a policy of procedure which +eliminated all such practices as the method of bringing his mission to the +notice of men. And he consistently lived up to this great decision. Even when +he permitted the manifestation of numerous time-shortening ministrations of +mercy, he almost invariably admonished the recipients of his healing ministry +to tell no man about the benefits they had received. And always did he refuse +the taunting challenge of his enemies to "show us a sign" in proof and +demonstration of his divinity. + +Jesus very wisely foresaw that the working of miracles and the execution of +wonders would call forth only outward allegiance by overawing the material +mind; such performances would not reveal God nor save men. He refused to become +a mere wonder-worker. He resolved to become occupied with but a single +task--the establishment of the kingdom of heaven. + +Throughout all this momentous dialog of Jesus' communing with himself, there +was present the human element of questioning and near-doubting, for Jesus was +man as well as God. It was evident he would never be received by the Jews as +the Messiah if he did not work wonders. Besides, if he would consent to do just +one unnatural thing, the human mind would know of a certainty that it was in +subservience to a truly divine mind. Would it be consistent with "the Father's +will" for the divine mind to make this concession to the doubting nature of the +human mind? Jesus decided that it would not and cited the presence of the +Personalized Adjuster as sufficient proof of divinity in partnership with +humanity. + +Jesus had traveled much; he recalled Rome, Alexandria, and Damascus. He knew +the methods of the world--how people gained their ends in politics and commerce +by compromise and diplomacy. Would he utilize this knowledge in the furtherance +of his mission on earth? No! He likewise decided against all compromise with +the wisdom of the world and the influence of riches in the establishment of the +kingdom. He again chose to depend exclusively on the Father's will. + +Jesus was fully aware of the short cuts open to one of his powers. He knew many +ways in which the attention of the nation, and the whole world, could be + + top of page - 1521 + +immediately focused upon himself. Soon the Passover would be celebrated at +Jerusalem; the city would be thronged with visitors. He could ascend the +pinnacle of the temple and before the bewildered multitude walk out on the air; +that would be the kind of a Messiah they were looking for. But he would +subsequently disappoint them since he had not come to re-establish David's +throne. And he knew the futility of the Caligastia method of trying to get +ahead of the natural, slow, and sure way of accomplishing the divine purpose. +Again the Son of Man bowed obediently to the Father's way, the Father's will. + +Jesus chose to establish the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of mankind by +natural, ordinary, difficult, and trying methods, just such procedures as his +earth children must subsequently follow in their work of enlarging and +extending that heavenly kingdom. For well did the Son of Man know that it would +be "through much tribulation that many of the children of all ages would enter +into the kingdom." Jesus was now passing through the great test of civilized +man, to have power and steadfastly refuse to use it for purely selfish or +personal purposes. + +In your consideration of the life and experience of the Son of Man, it should +be ever borne in mind that the Son of God was incarnate in the mind of a +first-century human being, not in the mind of a twentieth-century or +other-century mortal. By this we mean to convey the idea that the human +endowments of Jesus were of natural acquirement. He was the product of the +hereditary and environmental factors of his time, plus the influence of his +training and education. His humanity was genuine, natural, wholly derived from +the antecedents of, and fostered by, the actual intellectual status and social +and economic conditions of that day and generation. While in the experience of +this God-man there was always the possibility that the divine mind would +transcend the human intellect, nonetheless, when, and as, his human mind +functioned, it did perform as would a true mortal mind under the conditions of +the human environment of that day. + +Jesus portrayed to all the worlds of his vast universe the folly of creating +artificial situations for the purpose of exhibiting arbitrary authority or of +indulging exceptional power for the purpose of enhancing moral values or +accelerating spiritual progress. Jesus decided that he would not lend his +mission on earth to a repetition of the disappointment of the reign of the +Maccabees. He refused to prostitute his divine attributes for the purpose of +acquiring unearned popularity or for gaining political prestige. He would not +countenance the transmutation of divine and creative energy into national power +or international prestige. Jesus of Nazareth refused to compromise with evil, +much less to consort with sin. The Master triumphantly put loyalty to his +Father's will above every other earthly and temporal consideration. + +9. THE FIFTH DECISION + +Having settled such questions of policy as pertained to his individual +relations to natural law and spiritual power, he turned his attention to the +choice of methods to be employed in the proclamation and establishment of the +kingdom of God. John had already begun this work; how might he continue the +message? How should he take over John's mission? How should he organize his +followers for effective effort and intelligent co-operation? Jesus was now +reaching the final decision which would forbid that he further regard himself +as the Jewish Messiah, at least as the Messiah was popularly conceived in that +day. + + top of page - 1522 + +The Jews envisaged a deliverer who would come in miraculous power to cast down +Israel's enemies and establish the Jews as world rulers, free from want and +oppression. Jesus knew that this hope would never be realized. He knew that the +kingdom of heaven had to do with the overthrow of evil in the hearts of men, +and that it was purely a matter of spiritual concern. He thought out the +advisability of inaugurating the spiritual kingdom with a brilliant and +dazzling display of power--and such a course would have been permissible and +wholly within the jurisdiction of Michael--but he fully decided against such a +plan. He would not compromise with the revolutionary techniques of Caligastia. +He had won the world in potential by submission to the Father's will, and he +proposed to finish his work as he had begun it, and as the Son of Man. + +You can hardly imagine what would have happened on Urantia had this God-man, +now in potential possession of all power in heaven and on earth, once decided +to unfurl the banner of sovereignty, to marshal his wonder-working battalions +in militant array! But he would not compromise. He would not serve evil that +the worship of God might presumably be derived therefrom. He would abide by the +Father's will. He would proclaim to an onlooking universe, "You shall worship +the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." + +As the days passed, with ever-increasing clearness Jesus perceived what kind of +a truth-revealer he was to become. He discerned that God's way was not going to +be the easy way. He began to realize that the cup of the remainder of his human +experience might possibly be bitter, but he decided to drink it. + +Even his human mind is saying good-bye to the throne of David. Step by step +this human mind follows in the path of the divine. The human mind still asks +questions but unfailingly accepts the divine answers as final rulings in this +combined life of living as a man in the world while all the time submitting +unqualifiedly to the doing of the Father's eternal and divine will. + +Rome was mistress of the Western world. The Son of Man, now in isolation and +achieving these momentous decisions, with the hosts of heaven at his command, +represented the last chance of the Jews to attain world dominion; but this +earthborn Jew, who possessed such tremendous wisdom and power, declined to use +his universe endowments either for the aggrandizement of himself or for the +enthronement of his people. He saw, as it were, "the kingdoms of this world," +and he possessed the power to take them. The Most Highs of Edentia had resigned +all these powers into his hands, but he did not want them. The kingdoms of +earth were paltry things to interest the Creator and Ruler of a universe. He +had only one objective, the further revelation of God to man, the establishment +of the kingdom, the rule of the heavenly Father in the hearts of mankind. + +The idea of battle, contention, and slaughter was repugnant to Jesus; he would +have none of it. He would appear on earth as the Prince of Peace to reveal a +God of love. Before his baptism he had again refused the offer of the Zealots +to lead them in rebellion against the Roman oppressors. And now he made his +final decision regarding those Scriptures which his mother had taught him, such +as: "The Lord has said to me, `You are my Son; this day have I begotten you. +Ask of me, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance and the +uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a +rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.'" + +Jesus of Nazareth reached the conclusion that such utterances did not refer to +him. At last, and finally, the human mind of the Son of Man made a clean sweep +of all these Messianic difficulties and contradictions--Hebrew scriptures, + + top of page - 1523 + +parental training, chazan teaching, Jewish expectations, and human ambitious +longings; once and for all he decided upon his course. He would return to +Galilee and quietly begin the proclamation of the kingdom and trust his Father +(the Personalized Adjuster) to work out the details of procedure day by day. + +By these decisions Jesus set a worthy example for every person on every world +throughout a vast universe when he refused to apply material tests to prove +spiritual problems, when he refused presumptuously to defy natural laws. And he +set an inspiring example of universe loyalty and moral nobility when he refused +to grasp temporal power as the prelude to spiritual glory. + +If the Son of Man had any doubts about his mission and its nature when he went +up in the hills after his baptism, he had none when he came back to his fellows +following the forty days of isolation and decisions. + +Jesus has formulated a program for the establishment of the Father's kingdom. +He will not cater to the physical gratification of the people. He will not deal +out bread to the multitudes as he has so recently seen it being done in Rome. +He will not attract attention to himself by wonder-working, even though the +Jews are expecting just that sort of a deliverer. Neither will he seek to win +acceptance of a spiritual message by a show of political authority or temporal +power. + +In rejecting these methods of enhancing the coming kingdom in the eyes of the +expectant Jews, Jesus made sure that these same Jews would certainly and +finally reject all of his claims to authority and divinity. Knowing all this, +Jesus long sought to prevent his early followers alluding to him as the +Messiah. + +Throughout his public ministry he was confronted with the necessity of dealing +with three constantly recurring situations: the clamor to be fed, the +insistence on miracles, and the final request that he allow his followers to +make him king. But Jesus never departed from the decisions which he made during +these days of his isolation in the Perean hills. + +10. THE SIXTH DECISION + +On the last day of this memorable isolation, before starting down the mountain +to join John and his disciples, the Son of Man made his final decision. And +this decision he communicated to the Personalized Adjuster in these words, "And +in all other matters, as in these now of decision-record, I pledge you I will +be subject to the will of my Father." And when he had thus spoken, he journeyed +down the mountain. And his face shone with the glory of spiritual victory and +moral achievement. + + top of page - 1524 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ John The ³ Tarrying Time ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Baptis... ³ I... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p137.txt b/religious documents/p137.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e49299c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p137.txt @@ -0,0 +1,863 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 137 Tarrying Time In Galilee + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 137 Tarrying Time In Galilee + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +EARLY on Saturday morning, February 23, A.D. 26, Jesus came down from the hills +to rejoin John's company encamped at Pella. All that day Jesus mingled with the +multitude. He ministered to a lad who had injured himself in a fall and +journeyed to the near-by village of Pella to deliver the boy safely into the +hands of his parents. + +1. CHOOSING THE FIRST FOUR APOSTLES + +During this Sabbath two of John's leading disciples spent much time with Jesus. +Of all John's followers one named Andrew was the most profoundly impressed with +Jesus; he accompanied him on the trip to Pella with the injured boy. On the way +back to John's rendezvous he asked Jesus many questions, and just before +reaching their destination, the two paused for a short talk, during which +Andrew said: "I have observed you ever since you came to Capernaum, and I +believe you are the new Teacher, and though I do not understand all your +teaching, I have fully made up my mind to follow you; I would sit at your feet +and learn the whole truth about the new kingdom." And Jesus, with hearty +assurance, welcomed Andrew as the first of his apostles, that group of twelve +who were to labor with him in the work of establishing the new kingdom of God +in the hearts of men. + +Andrew was a silent observer of, and sincere believer in, John's work, and he +had a very able and enthusiastic brother, named Simon, who was one of John's +foremost disciples. It would not be amiss to say that Simon was one of John's +chief supporters. + +Soon after Jesus and Andrew returned to the camp, Andrew sought out his +brother, Simon, and taking him aside, informed him that he had settled in his +own mind that Jesus was the great Teacher, and that he had pledged himself as a +disciple. He went on to say that Jesus had accepted his proffer of service and +suggested that he (Simon) likewise go to Jesus and offer himself for fellowship +in the service of the new kingdom. Said Simon: "Ever since this man came to +work in Zebedee's shop, I have believed he was sent by God, but what about +John? Are we to forsake him? Is this the right thing to do?" Whereupon they +agreed to go at once to consult John. John was saddened by the thought of +losing two of his able advisers and most promising disciples, but he bravely +answered their inquiries, saying: "This is but the beginning; presently will my +work end, and we shall all become his disciples." Then Andrew beckoned to Jesus +to draw aside while he announced that his brother desired to join himself to +the service of the new kingdom. And in welcoming Simon as his second apostle, +Jesus said: "Simon, your enthusiasm is commendable, but it is dangerous to the +work of the kingdom. + + top of page - 1525 + +I admonish you to become more thoughtful in your speech. I would change your +name to Peter." + +The parents of the injured lad who lived at Pella had besought Jesus to spend +the night with them, to make their house his home, and he had promised. Before +leaving Andrew and his brother, Jesus said, "Early on the morrow we go into +Galilee." + +After Jesus had returned to Pella for the night, and while Andrew and Simon +were yet discussing the nature of their service in the establishment of the +forthcoming kingdom, James and John the sons of Zebedee arrived upon the scene, +having just returned from their long and futile searching in the hills for +Jesus. When they heard Simon Peter tell how he and his brother, Andrew, had +become the first accepted counselors of the new kingdom, and that they were to +leave with their new Master on the morrow for Galilee, both James and John were +sad. They had known Jesus for some time, and they loved him. They had searched +for him many days in the hills, and now they returned to learn that others had +been preferred before them. They inquired where Jesus had gone and made haste +to find him. + +Jesus was asleep when they reached his abode, but they awakened him, saying: +"How is it that, while we who have so long lived with you are searching in the +hills for you, you prefer others before us and choose Andrew and Simon as your +first associates in the new kingdom?" Jesus answered them, "Be calm in your +hearts and ask yourselves, `who directed that you should search for the Son of +Man when he was about his Father's business?'" After they had recited the +details of their long search in the hills, Jesus further instructed them: "You +should learn to search for the secret of the new kingdom in your hearts and not +in the hills. That which you sought was already present in your souls. You are +indeed my brethren--you needed not to be received by me--already were you of +the kingdom, and you should be of good cheer, making ready also to go with us +tomorrow into Galilee." John then made bold to ask, "But, Master, will James +and I be associates with you in the new kingdom, even as Andrew and Simon?" And +Jesus, laying a hand on the shoulder of each of them, said: "My brethren, you +were already with me in the spirit of the kingdom, even before these others +made request to be received. You, my brethren, have no need to make request for +entrance into the kingdom; you have been with me in the kingdom from the +beginning. Before men, others may take precedence over you, but in my heart did +I also number you in the councils of the kingdom, even before you thought to +make this request of me. And even so might you have been first before men had +you not been absent engaged in a well-intentioned but self-appointed task of +seeking for one who was not lost. In the coming kingdom, be not mindful of +those things which foster your anxiety but rather at all times concern +yourselves only with doing the will of the Father who is in heaven." + +James and John received the rebuke in good grace; never more were they envious +of Andrew and Simon. And they made ready, with their two associate apostles, to +depart for Galilee the next morning. From this day on the term apostle was +employed to distinguish the chosen family of Jesus' advisers from the vast +multitude of believing disciples who subsequently followed him. + +Late that evening, James, John, Andrew, and Simon held converse with John the +Baptist, and with tearful eye but steady voice the stalwart Judean + + top of page - 1526 + +prophet surrendered two of his leading disciples to become the apostles of the +Galilean Prince of the coming kingdom. + +2. CHOOSING PHILIP AND NATHANIEL + +Sunday morning, February 24, A.D. 26, Jesus took leave of John the Baptist by +the river near Pella, never again to see him in the flesh. + +That day, as Jesus and his four disciple-apostles departed for Galilee, there +was a great tumult in the camp of John's followers. The first great division +was about to take place. The day before, John had made his positive +pronouncement to Andrew and Ezra that Jesus was the Deliverer. Andrew decided +to follow Jesus, but Ezra rejected the mild-mannered carpenter of Nazareth, +proclaiming to his associates: "The Prophet Daniel declares that the Son of Man +will come with the clouds of heaven, in power and great glory. This Galilean +carpenter, this Capernaum boatbuilder, cannot be the Deliverer. Can such a gift +of God come out of Nazareth? This Jesus is a relative of John, and through much +kindness of heart has our teacher been deceived. Let us remain aloof from this +false Messiah." When John rebuked Ezra for these utterances, he drew away with +many disciples and hastened south. And this group continued to baptize in +John's name and eventually founded a sect of those who believed in John but +refused to accept Jesus. A remnant of this group persists in Mesopotamia even +to this day. + +While this trouble was brewing among John's followers, Jesus and his four +disciple-apostles were well on their way toward Galilee. Before they crossed +the Jordan, to go by way of Nain to Nazareth, Jesus, looking ahead and up the +road, saw one Philip of Bethsaida with a friend coming toward them. Jesus had +known Philip aforetime, and he was also well known to all four of the new +apostles. He was on his way with his friend Nathaniel to visit John at Pella to +learn more about the reported coming of the kingdom of God, and he was +delighted to greet Jesus. Philip had been an admirer of Jesus ever since he +first came to Capernaum. But Nathaniel, who lived at Cana of Galilee, did not +know Jesus. Philip went forward to greet his friends while Nathaniel rested +under the shade of a tree by the roadside. + +Peter took Philip to one side and proceeded to explain that they, referring to +himself, Andrew, James, and John, had all become associates of Jesus in the new +kingdom and strongly urged Philip to volunteer for service. Philip was in a +quandary. What should he do? Here, without a moment's warning--on the roadside +near the Jordan--there had come up for immediate decision the most momentous +question of a lifetime. By this time he was in earnest converse with Peter, +Andrew, and John while Jesus was outlining to James the trip through Galilee +and on to Capernaum. Finally, Andrew suggested to Philip, "Why not ask the +Teacher?" + +It suddenly dawned on Philip that Jesus was a really great man, possibly the +Messiah, and he decided to abide by Jesus' decision in this matter; and he went +straight to him, asking, "Teacher, shall I go down to John or shall I join my +friends who follow you?" And Jesus answered, "Follow me." Philip was thrilled +with the assurance that he had found the Deliverer. + +Philip now motioned to the group to remain where they were while he hurried +back to break the news of his decision to his friend Nathaniel, who still +tarried behind under the mulberry tree, turning over in his mind the many +things which + + top of page - 1527 + +he had heard concerning John the Baptist, the coming kingdom, and the expected +Messiah. Philip broke in upon these meditations, exclaiming, "I have found the +Deliverer, him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote and whom John has +proclaimed." Nathaniel, looking up, inquired, "Whence comes this teacher?" And +Philip replied, "He is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, the carpenter, +more recently residing at Capernaum." And then, somewhat shocked, Nathaniel +asked, "Can any such good thing come out of Nazareth?" But Philip, taking him +by the arm, said, "Come and see." + +Philip led Nathaniel to Jesus, who, looking benignly into the face of the +sincere doubter, said: "Behold a genuine Israelite, in whom there is no deceit. +Follow me." And Nathaniel, turning to Philip, said: "You are right. He is +indeed a master of men. I will also follow, if I am worthy." And Jesus nodded +to Nathaniel, again saying, "Follow me." + +Jesus had now assembled one half of his future corps of intimate associates, +five who had for some time known him and one stranger, Nathaniel. Without +further delay they crossed the Jordan and, going by the village of Nain, +reached Nazareth late that evening. + +They all remained overnight with Joseph in Jesus' boyhood home. The associates +of Jesus little understood why their new-found teacher was so concerned with +completely destroying every vestige of his writing which remained about the +home in the form of the Ten Commandments and other mottoes and sayings. But +this proceeding, together with the fact that they never saw him subsequently +write--except upon the dust or in the sand--made a deep impression upon their +minds. + +3. THE VISIT TO CAPERNAUM + +The next day Jesus sent his apostles on to Cana, since all of them were invited +to the wedding of a prominent young woman of that town, while he prepared to +pay a hurried visit to his mother at Capernaum, stopping at Magdala to see his +brother Jude. + +Before leaving Nazareth, the new associates of Jesus told Joseph and other +members of Jesus' family about the wonderful events of the then recent past and +gave free expression to their belief that Jesus was the long-expected +deliverer. And these members of Jesus' family talked all this over, and Joseph +said: "Maybe, after all, Mother was right--maybe our strange brother is the +coming king." + +Jude was present at Jesus' baptism and, with his brother James, had become a +firm believer in Jesus' mission on earth. Although both James and Jude were +much perplexed as to the nature of their brother's mission, their mother had +resurrected all her early hopes of Jesus as the Messiah, the son of David, and +she encouraged her sons to have faith in their brother as the deliverer of +Israel. + +Jesus arrived in Capernaum Monday night, but he did not go to his own home, +where lived James and his mother; he went directly to the home of Zebedee. All +his friends at Capernaum saw a great and pleasant change in him. Once more he +seemed to be comparatively cheerful and more like himself as he was during the +earlier years at Nazareth. For years previous to his baptism and the isolation +periods just before and just after, he had grown increasingly serious and +self-contained. Now he seemed quite like his old self to all of them. There was +about + + top of page - 1528 + +him something of majestic import and exalted aspect, but he was once again +lighthearted and joyful. + +Mary was thrilled with expectation. She anticipated that the promise of Gabriel +was nearing fulfillment. She expected all Palestine soon to be startled and +stunned by the miraculous revelation of her son as the supernatural king of the +Jews. But to all of the many questions which his mother, James, Jude, and +Zebedee asked, Jesus only smilingly replied: "It is better that I tarry here +for a while; I must do the will of my Father who is in heaven." + +On the next day, Tuesday, they all journeyed over to Cana for the wedding of +Naomi, which was to take place on the following day. And in spite of Jesus' +repeated warnings that they tell no man about him "until the Father's hour +shall come," they insisted on quietly spreading the news abroad that they had +found the Deliverer. They each confidently expected that Jesus would inaugurate +his assumption of Messianic authority at the forthcoming wedding at Cana, and +that he would do so with great power and sublime grandeur. They remembered what +had been told them about the phenomena attendant upon his baptism, and they +believed that his future course on earth would be marked by increasing +manifestations of supernatural wonders and miraculous demonstrations. +Accordingly, the entire countryside was preparing to gather together at Cana +for the wedding feast of Naomi and Johab the son of Nathan. + +Mary had not been so joyous in years. She journeyed to Cana in the spirit of +the queen mother on the way to witness the coronation of her son. Not since he +was thirteen years old had Jesus' family and friends seen him so carefree and +happy, so thoughtful and understanding of the wishes and desires of his +associates, so touchingly sympathetic. And so they all whispered among +themselves, in small groups, wondering what was going to happen. What would +this strange person do next? How would he usher in the glory of the coming +kingdom? And they were all thrilled with the thought that they were to be +present to see the revelation of the might and power of Israel's God. + +4. THE WEDDING AT CANA + +By noon on Wednesday almost a thousand guests had arrived in Cana, more than +four times the number bidden to the wedding feast. It was a Jewish custom to +celebrate weddings on Wednesday, and the invitations had been sent abroad for +the wedding one month previously. In the forenoon and early afternoon it +appeared more like a public reception for Jesus than a wedding. Everybody +wanted to greet this near-famous Galilean, and he was most cordial to all, +young and old, Jew and gentile. And everybody rejoiced when Jesus consented to +lead the preliminary wedding procession. + +Jesus was now thoroughly self-conscious regarding his human existence, his +divine pre-existence, and the status of his combined, or fused, human and +divine natures. With perfect poise he could at one moment enact the human role +or immediately assume the personality prerogatives of the divine nature. + +As the day wore on, Jesus became increasingly conscious that the people were +expecting him to perform some wonder; more especially he recognized that his +family and his six disciple-apostles were looking for him appropriately to +announce his forthcoming kingdom by some startling and supernatural +manifestation. + + top of page - 1529 + +Early in the afternoon Mary summoned James, and together they made bold to +approach Jesus to inquire if he would admit them to his confidence to the +extent of informing them at what hour and at what point in connection with the +wedding ceremonies he had planned to manifest himself as the "supernatural +one." No sooner had they spoken of these matters to Jesus than they saw they +had aroused his characteristic indignation. He said only: "If you love me, then +be willing to tarry with me while I wait upon the will of my Father who is in +heaven." But the eloquence of his rebuke lay in the expression of his face. + +This move of his mother was a great disappointment to the human Jesus, and he +was much sobered by his reaction to her suggestive proposal that he permit +himself to indulge in some outward demonstration of his divinity. That was one +of the very things he had decided not to do when so recently isolated in the +hills. For several hours Mary was much depressed. She said to James: "I cannot +understand him; what can it all mean? Is there no end to his strange conduct?" +James and Jude tried to comfort their mother, while Jesus withdrew for an +hour's solitude. But he returned to the gathering and was once more +lighthearted and joyous. + +The wedding proceeded with a hush of expectancy, but the entire ceremony was +finished and not a move, not a word, from the honored guest. Then it was +whispered about that the carpenter and boatbuilder, announced by John as "the +Deliverer," would show his hand during the evening festivities, perhaps at the +wedding supper. But all expectance of such a demonstration was effectually +removed from the minds of his six disciple-apostles when he called them +together just before the wedding supper and, in great earnestness, said: "Think +not that I have come to this place to work some wonder for the gratification of +the curious or for the conviction of those who doubt. Rather are we here to +wait upon the will of our Father who is in heaven." But when Mary and the +others saw him in consultation with his associates, they were fully persuaded +in their own minds that something extraordinary was about to happen. And they +all sat down to enjoy the wedding supper and the evening of festive good +fellowship. + +The father of the bridegroom had provided plenty of wine for all the guests +bidden to the marriage feast, but how was he to know that the marriage of his +son was to become an event so closely associated with the expected +manifestation of Jesus as the Messianic deliverer? He was delighted to have the +honor of numbering the celebrated Galilean among his guests, but before the +wedding supper was over, the servants brought him the disconcerting news that +the wine was running short. By the time the formal supper had ended and the +guests were strolling about in the garden, the mother of the bridegroom +confided to Mary that the supply of wine was exhausted. And Mary confidently +said: "Have no worry--I will speak to my son. He will help us." And thus did +she presume to speak, notwithstanding the rebuke of but a few hours before. + +Throughout a period of many years, Mary had always turned to Jesus for help in +every crisis of their home life at Nazareth so that it was only natural for her +to think of him at this time. But this ambitious mother had still other motives +for appealing to her eldest son on this occasion. As Jesus was standing alone +in a corner of the garden, his mother approached him, saying, "My son, they +have no wine." And Jesus answered, "My good woman, what have I to do with +that?" Said Mary, "But I believe your hour has come; cannot you help us?" Jesus +replied: "Again I declare that I have not come to do things in this wise. Why +do + + top of page - 1530 + +you trouble me again with these matters?" And then, breaking down in tears, +Mary entreated him, "But, my son, I promised them that you would help us; won't +you please do something for me?" And then spoke Jesus: "Woman, what have you to +do with making such promises? See that you do it not again. We must in all +things wait upon the will of the Father in heaven." + +Mary the mother of Jesus was crushed; she was stunned! As she stood there +before him motionless, with the tears streaming down her face, the human heart +of Jesus was overcome with compassion for the woman who had borne him in the +flesh; and bending forward, he laid his hand tenderly upon her head, saying: +"Now, now, Mother Mary, grieve not over my apparently hard sayings, for have I +not many times told you that I have come only to do the will of my heavenly +Father? Most gladly would I do what you ask of me if it were a part of the +Father's will--" and Jesus stopped short, he hesitated. Mary seemed to sense +that something was happening. Leaping up, she threw her arms around Jesus' +neck, kissed him, and rushed off to the servants' quarters, saying, "Whatever +my son says, that do." But Jesus said nothing. He now realized that he had +already said--or rather desirefully thought--too much. + +Mary was dancing with glee. She did not know how the wine would be produced, +but she confidently believed that she had finally persuaded her first-born son +to assert his authority, to dare to step forth and claim his position and +exhibit his Messianic power. And, because of the presence and association of +certain universe powers and personalities, of which all those present were +wholly ignorant, she was not to be disappointed. The wine Mary desired and +which Jesus, the God-man, humanly and sympathetically wished for, was +forthcoming. + +Near at hand stood six waterpots of stone, filled with water, holding about +twenty gallons apiece. This water was intended for subsequent use in the final +purification ceremonies of the wedding celebration. The commotion of the +servants about these huge stone vessels, under the busy direction of his +mother, attracted Jesus' attention, and going over, he observed that they were +drawing wine out of them by the pitcherful. + +It was gradually dawning upon Jesus what had happened. Of all persons present +at the marriage feast of Cana, Jesus was the most surprised. Others had +expected him to work a wonder, but that was just what he had purposed not to +do. And then the Son of Man recalled the admonition of his Personalized Thought +Adjuster in the hills. He recounted how the Adjuster had warned him about the +inability of any power or personality to deprive him of the creator prerogative +of independence of time. On this occasion power transformers, midwayers, and +all other required personalities were assembled near the water and other +necessary elements, and in the face of the expressed wish of the Universe +Creator Sovereign, there was no escaping the instantaneous appearance of wine. +And this occurrence was made doubly certain since the Personalized Adjuster had +signified that the execution of the Son's desire was in no way a contravention +of the Father's will. + +But this was in no sense a miracle. No law of nature was modified, abrogated, +or even transcended. Nothing happened but the abrogation of time in association +with the celestial assembly of the chemical elements requisite for the +elaboration of the wine. At Cana on this occasion the agents of the Creator +made wine just as they do by the ordinary natural processes except that they +did it independently of time and with the intervention of superhuman agencies +in the matter of the space assembly of the necessary chemical ingredients. + + top of page - 1531 + +Furthermore it was evident that the enactment of this so-called miracle was not +contrary to the will of the Paradise Father, else it would not have transpired, +since Jesus had already subjected himself in all things to the Father's will. + +When the servants drew this new wine and carried it to the best man, the "ruler +of the feast," and when he had tasted it, he called to the bridegroom, saying: +"It is the custom to set out first the good wine and, when the guests have well +drunk, to bring forth the inferior fruit of the vine; but you have kept the +best of the wine until the last of the feast." + +Mary and the disciples of Jesus were greatly rejoiced at the supposed miracle +which they thought Jesus had intentionally performed, but Jesus withdrew to a +sheltered nook of the garden and engaged in serious thought for a few brief +moments. He finally decided that the episode was beyond his personal control +under the circumstances and, not being adverse to his Father's will, was +inevitable. When he returned to the people, they regarded him with awe; they +all believed in him as the Messiah. But Jesus was sorely perplexed, knowing +that they believed in him only because of the unusual occurrence which they had +just inadvertently beheld. Again Jesus retired for a season to the housetop +that he might think it all over. + +Jesus now fully comprehended that he must constantly be on guard lest his +indulgence of sympathy and pity become responsible for repeated episodes of +this sort. Nevertheless, many similar events occurred before the Son of Man +took final leave of his mortal life in the flesh. + +5. BACK IN CAPERNAUM + +Though many of the guests remained for the full week of wedding festivities, +Jesus, with his newly chosen disciple-apostles--James, John, Andrew, Peter, +Philip, and Nathaniel--departed very early the next morning for Capernaum, +going away without taking leave of anyone. Jesus' family and all his friends in +Cana were much distressed because he so suddenly left them, and Jude, Jesus' +youngest brother, set out in search of him. Jesus and his apostles went +directly to the home of Zebedee at Bethsaida. On this journey Jesus talked over +many things of importance to the coming kingdom with his newly chosen +associates and especially warned them to make no mention of the turning of the +water into wine. He also advised them to avoid the cities of Sepphoris and +Tiberias in their future work. + +After supper that evening, in this home of Zebedee and Salome, there was held +one of the most important conferences of all Jesus' earthly career. Only the +six apostles were present at this meeting; Jude arrived as they were about to +separate. These six chosen men had journeyed from Cana to Bethsaida with Jesus, +walking, as it were, on air. They were alive with expectancy and thrilled with +the thought of having been selected as close associates of the Son of Man. But +when Jesus set out to make clear to them who he was and what was to be his +mission on earth and how it might possibly end, they were stunned. They could +not grasp what he was telling them. They were speechless; even Peter was +crushed beyond expression. Only the deep-thinking Andrew dared to make reply to +Jesus' words of counsel. When Jesus perceived that they did not comprehend his +message, when he saw that their ideas of the Jewish Messiah were so completely +crystallized, he sent them to their rest while he walked and talked with his + + top of page - 1532 + +brother Jude. And before Jude took leave of Jesus, he said with much feeling: +"My father-brother, I never have understood you. I do not know of a certainty +whether you are what my mother has taught us, and I do not fully comprehend the +coming kingdom, but I do know you are a mighty man of God. I heard the voice at +the Jordan, and I am a believer in you, no matter who you are." And when he had +spoken, he departed, going to his own home at Magdala. + +That night Jesus did not sleep. Donning his evening wraps, he sat out on the +lake shore thinking, thinking until the dawn of the next day. In the long hours +of that night of meditation Jesus came clearly to comprehend that he never +would be able to make his followers see him in any other light than as the +long-expected Messiah. At last he recognized that there was no way to launch +his message of the kingdom except as the fulfillment of John's prediction and +as the one for whom the Jews were looking. After all, though he was not the +Davidic type of Messiah, he was truly the fulfillment of the prophetic +utterances of the more spiritually minded of the olden seers. Never again did +he wholly deny that he was the Messiah. He decided to leave the final +untangling of this complicated situation to the outworking of the Father's +will. + +The next morning Jesus joined his friends at breakfast, but they were a +cheerless group. He visited with them and at the end of the meal gathered them +about him, saying: "It is my Father's will that we tarry hereabouts for a +season. You have heard John say that he came to prepare the way for the +kingdom; therefore it behooves us to await the completion of John's preaching. +When the forerunner of the Son of Man shall have finished his work, we will +begin the proclamation of the good tidings of the kingdom." He directed his +apostles to return to their nets while he made ready to go with Zebedee to the +boatshop, promising to see them the next day at the synagogue, where he was to +speak, and appointing a conference with them that Sabbath afternoon. + +6. THE EVENTS OF A SABBATH DAY + +Jesus' first public appearance following his baptism was in the Capernaum +synagogue on Sabbath, March 2, A.D. 26. The synagogue was crowded to +overflowing. The story of the baptism in the Jordan was now augmented by the +fresh news from Cana about the water and the wine. Jesus gave seats of honor to +his six apostles, and seated with them were his brothers in the flesh James and +Jude. His mother, having returned to Capernaum with James the evening before, +was also present, being seated in the women's section of the synagogue. The +entire audience was on edge; they expected to behold some extraordinary +manifestation of supernatural power which would be a fitting testimony to the +nature and authority of him who was that day to speak to them. But they were +destined to disappointment. + +When Jesus stood up, the ruler of the synagogue handed him the Scripture roll, +and he read from the Prophet Isaiah: "Thus says the Lord: `The heaven is my +throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you built for +me? And where is the place of my dwelling? All these things have my hands +made,' says the Lord. `But to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and +of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.' Hear the word of the Lord, +you who tremble and fear: `Your brethren hated you and cast you out for my +name's sake.' But let the Lord be glorified. He shall appear to you in joy, and +all others shall be ashamed. A voice from the city, a voice from the temple, a +voice from + + top of page - 1533 + +the Lord says: `Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, +she was delivered of a man child.' Who has heard such a thing? Shall the earth +be made to bring forth in one day? Or can a nation be born at once? But thus +says the Lord: `Behold I will extend peace like a river, and the glory of even +the gentiles shall be like a flowing stream. As one whom his mother comforts, +so will I comfort you. And you shall be comforted even in Jerusalem. And when +you see these things, your heart shall rejoice.'" + +When he had finished this reading, Jesus handed the roll back to its keeper. +Before sitting down, he simply said: "Be patient and you shall see the glory of +God; even so shall it be with all those who tarry with me and thus learn to do +the will of my Father who is in heaven." And the people went to their homes, +wondering what was the meaning of all this. + +That afternoon Jesus and his apostles, with James and Jude, entered a boat and +pulled down the shore a little way, where they anchored while he talked to them +about the coming kingdom. And they understood more than they had on Thursday +night. + +Jesus instructed them to take up their regular duties until "the hour of the +kingdom comes." And to encourage them, he set an example by going back +regularly to work in the boatshop. In explaining that they should spend three +hours every evening in study and preparation for their future work, Jesus +further said: "We will all remain hereabout until the Father bids me call you. +Each of you must now return to his accustomed work just as if nothing had +happened. Tell no man about me and remember that my kingdom is not to come with +noise and glamor, but rather must it come through the great change which my +Father will have wrought in your hearts and in the hearts of those who shall be +called to join you in the councils of the kingdom. You are now my friends; I +trust you and I love you; you are soon to become my personal associates. Be +patient, be gentle. Be ever obedient to the Father's will. Make yourselves +ready for the call of the kingdom. While you will experience great joy in the +service of my Father, you should also be prepared for trouble, for I warn you +that it will be only through much tribulation that many will enter the kingdom. +But those who have found the kingdom, their joy will be full, and they shall be +called the blest of all the earth. But do not entertain false hope; the world +will stumble at my words. Even you, my friends, do not fully perceive what I am +unfolding to your confused minds. Make no mistake; we go forth to labor for a +generation of sign seekers. They will demand wonder-working as the proof that I +am sent by my Father, and they will be slow to recognize in the revelation of +my Father's love the credentials of my mission." + +That evening, when they had returned to the land, before they went their way, +Jesus, standing by the water's edge, prayed: "My Father, I thank you for these +little ones who, in spite of their doubts, even now believe. And for their +sakes have I set myself apart to do your will. And now may they learn to be +one, even as we are one." + +7. FOUR MONTHS OF TRAINING + +For four long months--March, April, May, and June--this tarrying time +continued; Jesus held over one hundred long and earnest, though cheerful and +joyous, sessions with these six associates and his own brother James. Owing to + + top of page - 1534 + +sickness in his family, Jude seldom was able to attend these classes. James, +Jesus' brother, did not lose faith in him, but during these months of delay and +inaction Mary nearly despaired of her son. Her faith, raised to such heights at +Cana, now sank to new low levels. She could only fall back on her so +oft-repeated exclamation: "I cannot understand him. I cannot figure out what it +all means." But James's wife did much to bolster Mary's courage. + +Throughout these four months these seven believers, one his own brother in the +flesh, were getting acquainted with Jesus; they were getting used to the idea +of living with this God-man. Though they called him Rabbi, they were learning +not to be afraid of him. Jesus possessed that matchless grace of personality +which enabled him so to live among them that they were not dismayed by his +divinity. They found it really easy to be "friends with God," God incarnate in +the likeness of mortal flesh. This time of waiting severely tested the entire +group of believers. Nothing, absolutely nothing, miraculous happened. Day by +day they went about their ordinary work, while night after night they sat at +Jesus' feet. And they were held together by his matchless personality and by +the gracious words which he spoke to them evening upon evening. + +This period of waiting and teaching was especially hard on Simon Peter. He +repeatedly sought to persuade Jesus to launch forth with the preaching of the +kingdom in Galilee while John continued to preach in Judea. But Jesus' reply to +Peter ever was: "Be patient, Simon. Make progress. We shall be none too ready +when the Father calls." And Andrew would calm Peter now and then with his more +seasoned and philosophic counsel. Andrew was tremendously impressed with the +human naturalness of Jesus. He never grew weary of contemplating how one who +could live so near God could be so friendly and considerate of men. + +Throughout this entire period Jesus spoke in the synagogue but twice. By the +end of these many weeks of waiting the reports about his baptism and the wine +of Cana had begun to quiet down. And Jesus saw to it that no more apparent +miracles happened during this time. But even though they lived so quietly at +Bethsaida, reports of the strange doings of Jesus had been carried to Herod +Antipas, who in turn sent spies to ascertain what he was about. But Herod was +more concerned about the preaching of John. He decided not to molest Jesus, +whose work continued along so quietly at Capernaum. + +In this time of waiting Jesus endeavored to teach his associates what their +attitude should be toward the various religious groups and the political +parties of Palestine. Jesus' words always were, "We are seeking to win all of +them, but we are not of any of them." + +The scribes and rabbis, taken together, were called Pharisees. They referred to +themselves as the "associates." In many ways they were the progressive group +among the Jews, having adopted many teachings not clearly found in the Hebrew +scriptures, such as belief in the resurrection of the dead, a doctrine only +mentioned by a later prophet, Daniel. + +The Sadducees consisted of the priesthood and certain wealthy Jews. They were +not such sticklers for the details of law enforcement. The Pharisees and +Sadducees were really religious parties, rather than sects. + +The Essenes were a true religious sect, originating during the Maccabean +revolt, whose requirements were in some respects more exacting than those of +the Pharisees. They had adopted many Persian beliefs and practices, lived as a + + top of page - 1535 + +brotherhood in monasteries, refrained from marriage, and had all things in +common. They specialized in teachings about angels. + +The Zealots were a group of intense Jewish patriots. They advocated that any +and all methods were justified in the struggle to escape the bondage of the +Roman yoke. + +The Herodians were a purely political party that advocated emancipation from +the direct Roman rule by a restoration of the Herodian dynasty. + +In the very midst of Palestine there lived the Samaritans, with whom "the Jews +had no dealings," notwithstanding that they held many views similar to the +Jewish teachings. + +All of these parties and sects, including the smaller Nazarite brotherhood, +believed in the sometime coming of the Messiah. They all looked for a national +deliverer. But Jesus was very positive in making it clear that he and his +disciples would not become allied to any of these schools of thought or +practice. The Son of Man was to be neither a Nazarite nor an Essene. + +While Jesus later directed that the apostles should go forth, as John had, +preaching the gospel and instructing believers, he laid emphasis on the +proclamation of the "good tidings of the kingdom of heaven." He unfailingly +impressed upon his associates that they must "show forth love, compassion, and +sympathy." He early taught his followers that the kingdom of heaven was a +spiritual experience having to do with the enthronement of God in the hearts of +men. + +As they thus tarried before embarking on their active public preaching, Jesus +and the seven spent two evenings each week at the synagogue in the study of the +Hebrew scriptures. In later years after seasons of intense public work, the +apostles looked back upon these four months as the most precious and profitable +of all their association with the Master. Jesus taught these men all they could +assimilate. He did not make the mistake of overteaching them. He did not +precipitate confusion by the presentation of truth too far beyond their +capacity to comprehend. + +8. SERMON ON THE KINGDOM + +On Sabbath, June 22, shortly before they went out on their first preaching tour +and about ten days after John's imprisonment, Jesus occupied the synagogue +pulpit for the second time since bringing his apostles to Capernaum. + +A few days before the preaching of this sermon on "The Kingdom," as Jesus was +at work in the boatshop, Peter brought him the news of John's arrest. Jesus +laid down his tools once more, removed his apron, and said to Peter: "The +Father's hour has come. Let us make ready to proclaim the gospel of the +kingdom." + +Jesus did his last work at the carpenter bench on this Tuesday, June 18, A.D. +26. Peter rushed out of the shop and by midafternoon had rounded up all of his +associates, and leaving them in a grove by the shore, he went in quest of +Jesus. But he could not find him, for the Master had gone to a different grove +to pray. And they did not see him until late that evening when he returned to +Zebedee's house and asked for food. The next day he sent his brother James to +ask for the privilege of speaking in the synagogue the coming Sabbath day. And +the ruler of the synagogue was much pleased that Jesus was again willing to +conduct the service. + + top of page - 1536 + +Before Jesus preached this memorable sermon on the kingdom of God, the first +pretentious effort of his public career, he read from the Scriptures these +passages: "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy people. Yahweh is +our judge, Yahweh is our lawgiver, Yahweh is our king; he will save us. Yahweh +is my king and my God. He is a great king over all the earth. Loving-kindness +is upon Israel in this kingdom. Blessed be the glory of the Lord for he is our +King." + +When he had finished reading, Jesus said: + +"I have come to proclaim the establishment of the Father's kingdom. And this +kingdom shall include the worshiping souls of Jew and gentile, rich and poor, +free and bond, for my Father is no respecter of persons; his love and his mercy +are over all. + +"The Father in heaven sends his spirit to indwell the minds of men, and when I +shall have finished my work on earth, likewise shall the Spirit of Truth be +poured out upon all flesh. And the spirit of my Father and the Spirit of Truth +shall establish you in the coming kingdom of spiritual understanding and divine +righteousness. My kingdom is not of this world. The Son of Man will not lead +forth armies in battle for the establishment of a throne of power or a kingdom +of worldly glory. When my kingdom shall have come, you shall know the Son of +Man as the Prince of Peace, the revelation of the everlasting Father. The +children of this world fight for the establishment and enlargement of the +kingdoms of this world, but my disciples shall enter the kingdom of heaven by +their moral decisions and by their spirit victories; and when they once enter +therein, they shall find joy, righteousness, and eternal life. + +"Those who first seek to enter the kingdom, thus beginning to strive for a +nobility of character like that of my Father, shall presently possess all else +that is needful. But I say to you in all sincerity: Unless you seek entrance +into the kingdom with the faith and trusting dependence of a little child, you +shall in no wise gain admission. + +"Be not deceived by those who come saying here is the kingdom or there is the +kingdom, for my Father's kingdom concerns not things visible and material. And +this kingdom is even now among you, for where the spirit of God teaches and +leads the soul of man, there in reality is the kingdom of heaven. And this +kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. + +"John did indeed baptize you in token of repentance and for the remission of +your sins, but when you enter the heavenly kingdom, you will be baptized with +the Holy Spirit. + +"In my Father's kingdom there shall be neither Jew nor gentile, only those who +seek perfection through service, for I declare that he who would be great in my +Father's kingdom must first become server of all. If you are willing to serve +your fellows, you shall sit down with me in my kingdom, even as, by serving in +the similitude of the creature, I shall presently sit down with my Father in +his kingdom. + +"This new kingdom is like a seed growing in the good soil of a field. It does +not attain full fruit quickly. There is an interval of time between the +establishment of the kingdom in the soul of man and that hour when the kingdom +ripens into the full fruit of everlasting righteousness and eternal salvation. + +"And this kingdom which I declare to you is not a reign of power and plenty. +The kingdom of heaven is not a matter of meat and drink but rather a life of +progressive righteousness and increasing joy in the perfecting service of my + + top of page - 1537 + +Father who is in heaven. For has not the Father said of his children of the +world, `It is my will that they should eventually be perfect, even as I am +perfect.' + +"I have come to preach the glad tidings of the kingdom. I have not come to add +to the heavy burdens of those who would enter this kingdom. I proclaim the new +and better way, and those who are able to enter the coming kingdom shall enjoy +the divine rest. And whatever it shall cost you in the things of the world, no +matter what price you may pay to enter the kingdom of heaven, you shall receive +manyfold more of joy and spiritual progress in this world, and in the age to +come eternal life. + +"Entrance into the Father's kingdom waits not upon marching armies, upon +overturned kingdoms of this world, nor upon the breaking of captive yokes. The +kingdom of heaven is at hand, and all who enter therein shall find abundant +liberty and joyous salvation. + +"This kingdom is an everlasting dominion. Those who enter the kingdom shall +ascend to my Father; they will certainly attain the right hand of his glory in +Paradise. And all who enter the kingdom of heaven shall become the sons of God, +and in the age to come so shall they ascend to the Father. And I have not come +to call the would-be righteous but sinners and all who hunger and thirst for +the righteousness of divine perfection. + +"John came preaching repentance to prepare you for the kingdom; now have I come +proclaiming faith, the gift of God, as the price of entrance into the kingdom +of heaven. If you would but believe that my Father loves you with an infinite +love, then you are in the kingdom of God." + +When he had thus spoken, he sat down. All who heard him were astonished at his +words. His disciples marveled. But the people were not prepared to receive the +good news from the lips of this God-man. About one third who heard him believed +the message even though they could not fully comprehend it; about one third +prepared in their hearts to reject such a purely spiritual concept of the +expected kingdom, while the remaining one third could not grasp his teaching, +many truly believing that he "was beside himself." + + top of page - 1538 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Baptism And ³ Training The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ The... ³ Ki... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p138.txt b/religious documents/p138.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c014b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p138.txt @@ -0,0 +1,649 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 138 Training The Kingdom's Messengers + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 138 Training The Kingdom's Messengers + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AFTER preaching the sermon on "The Kingdom," Jesus called the six apostles +together that afternoon and began to disclose his plans for visiting the cities +around and about the Sea of Galilee. His brothers James and Jude were very much +hurt because they were not called to this conference. Up to this time they had +regarded themselves as belonging to Jesus' inner circle of associates. But +Jesus planned to have no close relatives as members of this corps of apostolic +directors of the kingdom. This failure to include James and Jude among the +chosen few, together with his apparent aloofness from his mother ever since the +experience at Cana, was the starting point of an ever-widening gulf between +Jesus and his family. This situation continued throughout his public +ministry--they very nearly rejected him--and these differences were not fully +removed until after his death and resurrection. His mother constantly wavered +between attitudes of fluctuating faith and hope, and increasing emotions of +disappointment, humiliation, and despair. Only Ruth, the youngest, remained +unswervingly loyal to her father-brother. + +Until after the resurrection, Jesus' entire family had very little to do with +his ministry. If a prophet is not without honor save in his own country, he is +not without understanding appreciation save in his own family. + +1. FINAL INSTRUCTIONS + +The next day, Sunday, June 23, A.D. 26, Jesus imparted his final instructions +to the six. He directed them to go forth, two and two, to teach the glad +tidings of the kingdom. He forbade them to baptize and advised against public +preaching. He went on to explain that later he would permit them to preach in +public, but that for a season, and for many reasons, he desired them to acquire +practical experience in dealing personally with their fellow men. Jesus +purposed to make their first tour entirely one of personal work. Although this +announcement was something of a disappointment to the apostles, still they saw, +at least in part, Jesus' reason for thus beginning the proclamation of the +kingdom, and they started out in good heart and with confident enthusiasm. He +sent them forth by twos, James and John going to Kheresa, Andrew and Peter to +Capernaum, while Philip and Nathaniel went to Tarichea. + +Before they began this first two weeks of service, Jesus announced to them that +he desired to ordain twelve apostles to continue the work of the kingdom after +his departure and authorized each of them to choose one man from among his +early converts for membership in the projected corps of apostles. John spoke +up, asking: "But, Master, will these six men come into our midst and share all + + top of page - 1539 + +things equally with us who have been with you since the Jordan and have heard +all your teaching in preparation for this, our first labor for the kingdom?" +And Jesus replied: "Yes, John, the men you choose shall become one with us, and +you will teach them all that pertains to the kingdom, even as I have taught +you." After thus speaking, Jesus left them. + +The six did not separate to go to their work until they had exchanged many +words in discussion of Jesus' instruction that each of them should choose a new +apostle. Andrew's counsel finally prevailed, and they went forth to their +labors. In substance Andrew said: "The Master is right; we are too few to +encompass this work. There is need for more teachers, and the Master has +manifested great confidence in us inasmuch as he has intrusted us with the +choosing of these six new apostles." This morning, as they separated to go to +their work, there was a bit of concealed depression in each heart. They knew +they were going to miss Jesus, and besides their fear and timidity, this was +not the way they had pictured the kingdom of heaven being inaugurated. + +It had been arranged that the six were to labor for two weeks, after which they +were to return to the home of Zebedee for a conference. Meantime Jesus went +over to Nazareth to visit with Joseph and Simon and other members of his family +living in that vicinity. Jesus did everything humanly possible, consistent with +his dedication to the doing of his Father's will, to retain the confidence and +affection of his family. In this matter he did his full duty and more. + +While the apostles were out on this mission, Jesus thought much about John, now +in prison. It was a great temptation to use his potential powers to release +him, but once more he resigned himself to "wait upon the Father's will." + +2. CHOOSING THE SIX + +This first missionary tour of the six was eminently successful. They all +discovered the great value of direct and personal contact with men. They +returned to Jesus more fully realizing that, after all, religion is purely and +wholly a matter of personal experience. They began to sense how hungry were the +common people to hear words of religious comfort and spiritual good cheer. When +they assembled about Jesus, they all wanted to talk at once, but Andrew assumed +charge, and as he called upon them one by one, they made their formal reports +to the Master and presented their nominations for the six new apostles. + +Jesus, after each man had presented his selection for the new apostleships, +asked all the others to vote upon the nomination; thus all six of the new +apostles were formally accepted by all of the older six. Then Jesus announced +that they would all visit these candidates and give them the call to service. + +The newly selected apostles were: + +1. Matthew Levi, the customs collector of Capernaum, who had his office just to +the east of the city, near the borders of Batanea. He was selected by Andrew. + +2. Thomas Didymus, a fisherman of Tarichea and onetime carpenter and stone +mason of Gadara. He was selected by Philip. + +3. James Alpheus, a fisherman and farmer of Kheresa, was selected by James +Zebedee. + +4. Judas Alpheus, the twin brother of James Alpheus, also a fisherman, was +selected by John Zebedee. + + top of page - 1540 + +5. Simon Zelotes was a high officer in the patriotic organization of the +Zealots, a position which he gave up to join Jesus' apostles. Before joining +the Zealots, Simon had been a merchant. He was selected by Peter. + +6. Judas Iscariot was an only son of wealthy Jewish parents living in Jericho. +He had become attached to John the Baptist, and his Sadducee parents had +disowned him. He was looking for employment in these regions when Jesus' +apostles found him, and chiefly because of his experience with finances, +Nathaniel invited him to join their ranks. Judas Iscariot was the only Judean +among the twelve apostles. + +Jesus spent a full day with the six, answering their questions and listening to +the details of their reports, for they had many interesting and profitable +experiences to relate. They now saw the wisdom of the Master's plan of sending +them out to labor in a quiet and personal manner before the launching of their +more pretentious public efforts. + +3. THE CALL OF MATTHEW AND SIMON + +The next day Jesus and the six went to call upon Matthew, the customs +collector. Matthew was awaiting them, having balanced his books and made ready +to turn the affairs of his office over to his brother. As they approached the +toll house, Andrew stepped forward with Jesus, who, looking into Matthew's +face, said, "Follow me." And he arose and went to his house with Jesus and the +apostles. + +Matthew told Jesus of the banquet he had arranged for that evening, at least +that he wished to give such a dinner to his family and friends if Jesus would +approve and consent to be the guest of honor. And Jesus nodded his consent. +Peter then took Matthew aside and explained that he had invited one Simon to +join the apostles and secured his consent that Simon be also bidden to this +feast. + +After a noontide luncheon at Matthew's house they all went with Peter to call +upon Simon the Zealot, whom they found at his old place of business, which was +now being conducted by his nephew. When Peter led Jesus up to Simon, the Master +greeted the fiery patriot and only said, "Follow me." + +They all returned to Matthew's home, where they talked much about politics and +religion until the hour of the evening meal. The Levi family had long been +engaged in business and tax gathering; therefore many of the guests bidden to +this banquet by Matthew would have been denominated "publicans and sinners" by +the Pharisees. + +In those days, when a reception-banquet of this sort was tendered a prominent +individual, it was the custom for all interested persons to linger about the +banquet room to observe the guests at meat and to listen to the conversation +and speeches of the men of honor. Accordingly, most of the Capernaum Pharisees +were present on this occasion to observe Jesus' conduct at this unusual social +gathering. + +As the dinner progressed, the joy of the diners mounted to heights of good +cheer, and everybody was having such a splendid time that the onlooking +Pharisees began, in their hearts, to criticize Jesus for his participation in +such a lighthearted and carefree affair. Later in the evening, when they were +making speeches, one of the more malignant of the Pharisees went so far as to +criticize + + top of page - 1541 + +Jesus' conduct to Peter, saying: "How dare you to teach that this man is +righteous when he eats with publicans and sinners and thus lends his presence +to such scenes of careless pleasure making." Peter whispered this criticism to +Jesus before he spoke the parting blessing upon those assembled. When Jesus +began to speak, he said: "In coming here tonight to welcome Matthew and Simon +to our fellowship, I am glad to witness your lightheartedness and social good +cheer, but you should rejoice still more because many of you will find entrance +into the coming kingdom of the spirit, wherein you shall more abundantly enjoy +the good things of the kingdom of heaven. And to you who stand about +criticizing me in your hearts because I have come here to make merry with these +friends, let me say that I have come to proclaim joy to the socially +downtrodden and spiritual liberty to the moral captives. Need I remind you that +they who are whole need not a physician, but rather those who are sick? I have +come, not to call the righteous, but sinners." + +And truly this was a strange sight in all Jewry: to see a man of righteous +character and noble sentiments mingling freely and joyously with the common +people, even with an irreligious and pleasure-seeking throng of publicans and +reputed sinners. Simon Zelotes desired to make a speech at this gathering in +Matthew's house, but Andrew, knowing that Jesus did not want the coming kingdom +to become confused with the Zealots' movement, prevailed upon him to refrain +from making any public remarks. + +Jesus and the apostles remained that night in Matthew's house, and as the +people went to their homes, they spoke of but one thing: the goodness and +friendliness of Jesus. + +4. THE CALL OF THE TWINS + +On the morrow all nine of them went by boat over to Kheresa to execute the +formal calling of the next two apostles, James and Judas the twin sons of +Alpheus, the nominees of James and John Zebedee. The fisherman twins were +expecting Jesus and his apostles and were therefore awaiting them on the shore. +James Zebedee presented the Master to the Kheresa fishermen, and Jesus, gazing +on them, nodded and said, "Follow me." + +That afternoon, which they spent together, Jesus fully instructed them +concerning attendance upon festive gatherings, concluding his remarks by +saying: "All men are my brothers. My Father in heaven does not despise any +creature of our making. The kingdom of heaven is open to all men and women. No +man may close the door of mercy in the face of any hungry soul who may seek to +gain an entrance thereto. We will sit at meat with all who desire to hear of +the kingdom. As our Father in heaven looks down upon men, they are all alike. +Refuse not therefore to break bread with Pharisee or sinner, Sadducee or +publican, Roman or Jew, rich or poor, free or bond. The door of the kingdom is +wide open for all who desire to know the truth and to find God." + +That night at a simple supper at the Alpheus home, the twin brothers were +received into the apostolic family. Later in the evening Jesus gave his +apostles their first lesson dealing with the origin, nature, and destiny of +unclean spirits, but they could not comprehend the import of what he told them. +They found it very easy to love and admire Jesus but very difficult to +understand many of his teachings. + + top of page - 1542 + +After a night of rest the entire party, now numbering eleven, went by boat over +to Tarichea. + +5. THE CALL OF THOMAS AND JUDAS + +Thomas the fisherman and Judas the wanderer met Jesus and the apostles at the +fisher-boat landing at Tarichea, and Thomas led the party to his near-by home. +Philip now presented Thomas as his nominee for apostleship and Nathaniel +presented Judas Iscariot, the Judean, for similar honors. Jesus looked upon +Thomas and said: "Thomas, you lack faith; nevertheless, I receive you. Follow +me." To Judas Iscariot the Master said: "Judas, we are all of one flesh, and as +I receive you into our midst, I pray that you will always be loyal to your +Galilean brethren. Follow me." + +When they had refreshed themselves, Jesus took the twelve apart for a season to +pray with them and to instruct them in the nature and work of the Holy Spirit, +but again did they largely fail to comprehend the meaning of those wonderful +truths which he endeavored to teach them. One would grasp one point and one +would comprehend another, but none of them could encompass the whole of his +teaching. Always would they make the mistake of trying to fit Jesus' new gospel +into their old forms of religious belief. They could not grasp the idea that +Jesus had come to proclaim a new gospel of salvation and to establish a new way +of finding God; they did not perceive that he was a new revelation of the +Father in heaven. + +The next day Jesus left his twelve apostles quite alone; he wanted them to +become acquainted and desired that they be alone to talk over what he had +taught them. The Master returned for the evening meal, and during the +after-supper hours he talked to them about the ministry of seraphim, and some +of the apostles comprehended his teaching. They rested for a night and the next +day departed by boat for Capernaum. + +Zebedee and Salome had gone to live with their son David so that their large +home could be turned over to Jesus and his twelve apostles. Here Jesus spent a +quiet Sabbath with his chosen messengers; he carefully outlined the plans for +proclaiming the kingdom and fully explained the importance of avoiding any +clash with the civil authorities, saying: "If the civil rulers are to be +rebuked, leave that task to me. See that you make no denunciations of Caesar or +his servants." It was this same evening that Judas Iscariot took Jesus aside to +inquire why nothing was done to get John out of prison. And Judas was not +wholly satisfied with Jesus' attitude. + +6. THE WEEK OF INTENSIVE TRAINING + +The next week was devoted to a program of intense training. Each day the six +new apostles were put in the hands of their respective nominators for a +thoroughgoing review of all they had learned and experienced in preparation for +the work of the kingdom. The older apostles carefully reviewed, for the benefit +of the younger six, Jesus' teachings up to that hour. Evenings they all +assembled in Zebedee's garden to receive Jesus' instruction. + +It was at this time that Jesus established the mid-week holiday for rest and +recreation. And they pursued this plan of relaxation for one day each week +throughout the remainder of his material life. As a general rule, they never +prose- + + top of page - 1543 + +cuted their regular activities on Wednesday. On this weekly holiday Jesus would +usually take himself away from them, saying: "My children, go for a day of +play. Rest yourselves from the arduous labors of the kingdom and enjoy the +refreshment that comes from reverting to your former vocations or from +discovering new sorts of recreational activity." While Jesus, at this period of +his earth life, did not actually require this day of rest, he conformed to this +plan because he knew it was best for his human associates. Jesus was the +teacher--the Master; his associates were his pupils--disciples. + +Jesus endeavored to make clear to his apostles the difference between his +teachings and his life among them and the teachings which might subsequently +spring up about him. Said Jesus: "My kingdom and the gospel related thereto +shall be the burden of your message. Be not sidetracked into preaching about me +and about my teachings. Proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and portray my +revelation of the Father in heaven but do not be misled into the bypaths of +creating legends and building up a cult having to do with beliefs and teachings +about my beliefs and teachings." But again they did not understand why he thus +spoke, and no man dared to ask why he so taught them. + +In these early teachings Jesus sought to avoid controversies with his apostles +as far as possible excepting those involving wrong concepts of his Father in +heaven. In all such matters he never hesitated to correct erroneous beliefs. +There was just one motive in Jesus' postbaptismal life on Urantia, and that was +a better and truer revelation of his Paradise Father; he was the pioneer of the +new and better way to God, the way of faith and love. Ever his exhortation to +the apostles was: "Go seek for the sinners; find the downhearted and comfort +the anxious." + +Jesus had a perfect grasp of the situation; he possessed unlimited power, which +might have been utilized in the furtherance of his mission, but he was wholly +content with means and personalities which most people would have regarded as +inadequate and would have looked upon as insignificant. He was engaged in a +mission of enormous dramatic possibilities, but he insisted on going about his +Father's business in the most quiet and undramatic manner; he studiously +avoided all display of power. And he now planned to work quietly, at least for +several months, with his twelve apostles around about the Sea of Galilee. + +7. ANOTHER DISAPPOINTMENT + +Jesus had planned for a quiet missionary campaign of five months' personal +work. He did not tell the apostles how long this was to last; they worked from +week to week. And early on this first day of the week, just as he was about to +announce this to his twelve apostles, Simon Peter, James Zebedee, and Judas +Iscariot came to have private converse with him. Taking Jesus aside, Peter made +bold to say: "Master, we come at the behest of our associates to inquire +whether the time is not now ripe to enter into the kingdom. And will you +proclaim the kingdom at Capernaum, or are we to move on to Jerusalem? And when +shall we learn, each of us, the positions we are to occupy with you in the +establishment of the kingdom--" and Peter would have gone on asking further +questions, but Jesus raised an admonitory hand and stopped him. And beckoning +the other apostles standing near by to join them, Jesus said: "My little +children, how long shall I bear with you! Have I not made it plain to you that +my kingdom is not of this world? I have told you many times that I have not +come to sit on David's throne, + + top of page - 1544 + +and now how is it that you are inquiring which place each of you will occupy in +the Father's kingdom? Can you not perceive that I have called you as +ambassadors of a spiritual kingdom? Do you not understand that soon, very soon, +you are to represent me in the world and in the proclamation of the kingdom, +even as I now represent my Father who is in heaven? Can it be that I have +chosen you and instructed you as messengers of the kingdom, and yet you do not +comprehend the nature and significance of this coming kingdom of divine +pre-eminence in the hearts of men? My friends, hear me once more. Banish from +your minds this idea that my kingdom is a rule of power or a reign of glory. +Indeed, all power in heaven and on earth will presently be given into my hands, +but it is not the Father's will that we use this divine endowment to glorify +ourselves during this age. In another age you shall indeed sit with me in power +and glory, but it behooves us now to submit to the will of the Father and to go +forth in humble obedience to execute his bidding on earth." + +Once more were his associates shocked, stunned. Jesus sent them away two and +two to pray, asking them to return to him at noontime. On this crucial forenoon +they each sought to find God, and each endeavored to cheer and strengthen the +other, and they returned to Jesus as he had bidden them. + +Jesus now recounted for them the coming of John, the baptism in the Jordan, the +marriage feast at Cana, the recent choosing of the six, and the withdrawal from +them of his own brothers in the flesh, and warned them that the enemy of the +kingdom would seek also to draw them away. After this short but earnest talk +the apostles all arose, under Peter's leadership, to declare their undying +devotion to their Master and to pledge their unswerving loyalty to the kingdom, +as Thomas expressed it, "To this coming kingdom, no matter what it is and even +if I do not fully understand it." They all truly believed in Jesus, even though +they did not fully comprehend his teaching. + +Jesus now asked them how much money they had among them; he also inquired as to +what provision had been made for their families. When it developed that they +had hardly sufficient funds to maintain themselves for two weeks, he said: "It +is not the will of my Father that we begin our work in this way. We will remain +here by the sea two weeks and fish or do whatever our hands find to do; and in +the meantime, under the guidance of Andrew, the first chosen apostle, you shall +so organize yourselves as to provide for everything needful in your future +work, both for the present personal ministry and also when I shall subsequently +ordain you to preach the gospel and instruct believers." They were all greatly +cheered by these words; this was their first clearcut and positive intimation +that Jesus designed later on to enter upon more aggressive and pretentious +public efforts. + +The apostles spent the remainder of the day perfecting their organization and +completing arrangements for boats and nets for embarking on the morrow's +fishing as they had all decided to devote themselves to fishing; most of them +had been fishermen, even Jesus was an experienced boatman and fisherman. Many +of the boats which they used the next few years had been built by Jesus' own +hands. And they were good and trustworthy boats. + +Jesus enjoined them to devote themselves to fishing for two weeks, adding, "And +then will you go forth to become fishers of men." They fished in three groups, +Jesus going out with a different group each night. And they all so much enjoyed +Jesus! He was a good fisherman, a cheerful companion, and an inspiring friend; +the more they worked with him, the more they loved him. Said Matthew + + top of page - 1545 + +one day: "The more you understand some people, the less you admire them, but of +this man, even the less I comprehend him, the more I love him." + +This plan of fishing two weeks and going out to do personal work in behalf of +the kingdom for two weeks was followed for more than five months, even to the +end of this year of A.D. 26, until after the cessation of those special +persecutions which had been directed against John's disciples subsequent to his +imprisonment. + +8. FIRST WORK OF THE TWELVE + +After disposing of the fish catches of two weeks, Judas Iscariot, the one +chosen to act as treasurer of the twelve, divided the apostolic funds into six +equal portions, funds for the care of dependent families having been already +provided. And then near the middle of August, in the year A.D. 26, they went +forth two and two to the fields of work assigned by Andrew. The first two weeks +Jesus went out with Andrew and Peter, the second two weeks with James and John, +and so on with the other couples in the order of their choosing. In this way he +was able to go out at least once with each couple before he called them +together for the beginning of their public ministry. + +Jesus taught them to preach the forgiveness of sin through faith in God without +penance or sacrifice, and that the Father in heaven loves all his children with +the same eternal love. He enjoined his apostles to refrain from discussing: + +1. The work and imprisonment of John the Baptist. + +2. The voice at the baptism. Said Jesus: "Only those who heard the voice may +refer to it. Speak only that which you have heard from me; speak not hearsay." + +3. The turning of the water into wine at Cana. Jesus seriously charged them, +saying, "Tell no man about the water and the wine." + +They had wonderful times throughout these five or six months during which they +worked as fishermen every alternate two weeks, thereby earning enough money to +support themselves in the field for each succeeding two weeks of missionary +work for the kingdom. + +The common people marveled at the teaching and ministry of Jesus and his +apostles. The rabbis had long taught the Jews that the ignorant could not be +pious or righteous. But Jesus' apostles were both pious and righteous; yet they +were cheerfully ignorant of much of the learning of the rabbis and the wisdom +of the world. + +Jesus made plain to his apostles the difference between the repentance of +so-called good works as taught by the Jews and the change of mind by faith--the +new birth--which he required as the price of admission to the kingdom. He +taught his apostles that faith was the only requisite to entering the Father's +kingdom. John had taught them "repentance--to flee from the wrath to come." +Jesus taught, "Faith is the open door for entering into the present, perfect, +and eternal love of God." Jesus did not speak like a prophet, one who comes to +declare the word of God. He seemed to speak of himself as one having authority. +Jesus sought to divert their minds from miracle seeking to the finding of a +real and personal experience in the satisfaction and assurance of the +indwelling of God's spirit of love and saving grace. + +The disciples early learned that the Master had a profound respect and +sympathetic regard for every human being he met, and they were tremendously im + + top of page - 1546 + +pressed by this uniform and unvarying consideration which he so consistently +gave to all sorts of men, women, and children. He would pause in the midst of a +profound discourse that he might go out in the road to speak good cheer to a +passing woman laden with her burden of body and soul. He would interrupt a +serious conference with his apostles to fraternize with an intruding child. +Nothing ever seemed so important to Jesus as the individual human who chanced +to be in his immediate presence. He was master and teacher, but he was more--he +was also a friend and neighbor, an understanding comrade. + +Though Jesus' public teaching mainly consisted in parables and short +discourses, he invariably taught his apostles by questions and answers. He +would always pause to answer sincere questions during his later public +discourses. + +The apostles were at first shocked by, but early became accustomed to, Jesus' +treatment of women; he made it very clear to them that women were to be +accorded equal rights with men in the kingdom. + +9. FIVE MONTHS OF TESTING + +This somewhat monotonous period of alternate fishing and personal work proved +to be a grueling experience for the twelve apostles, but they endured the test. +With all of their grumblings, doubts, and transient dissatisfactions they +remained true to their vows of devotion and loyalty to the Master. It was their +personal association with Jesus during these months of testing that so endeared +him to them that they all (save Judas Iscariot) remained loyal and true to him +even in the dark hours of the trial and crucifixion. Real men simply could not +actually desert a revered teacher who had lived so close to them and had been +so devoted to them as had Jesus. Through the dark hours of the Master's death, +in the hearts of these apostles all reason, judgment, and logic were set aside +in deference to just one extraordinary human emotion--the supreme sentiment of +friendship-loyalty. These five months of work with Jesus led these apostles, +each one of them, to regard him as the best friend he had in all the world. And +it was this human sentiment, and not his superb teachings or marvelous doings, +that held them together until after the resurrection and the renewal of the +proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom. + +Not only were these months of quiet work a great test to the apostles, a test +which they survived, but this season of public inactivity was a great trial to +Jesus' family. By the time Jesus was prepared to launch forth on his public +work, his entire family (except Ruth) had practically deserted him. On only a +few occasions did they attempt to make subsequent contact with him, and then it +was to persuade him to return home with them, for they came near to believing +that he was beside himself. They simply could not fathom his philosophy nor +grasp his teaching; it was all too much for those of his own flesh and blood. + +The apostles carried on their personal work in Capernaum, Bethsaida-Julias, +Chorazin, Gerasa, Hippos, Magdala, Cana, Bethlehem of Galilee, Jotapata, Ramah, +Safed, Gischala, Gadara, and Abila. Besides these towns they labored in many +villages as well as in the countryside. By the end of this period the twelve +had worked out fairly satisfactory plans for the care of their respective +families. Most of the apostles were married, some had several children, but +they had made such arrangements for the support of their home folks that, with +some little assistance from the apostolic funds, they could devote their entire +energies to the + + top of page - 1547 + +Master's work without having to worry about the financial welfare of their +families. + +10. ORGANIZATION OF THE TWELVE + +The apostles early organized themselves in the following manner: + +1. Andrew, the first chosen apostle, was designated chairman and director +general of the twelve. + +2. Peter, James, and John were appointed personal companions of Jesus. They +were to attend him day and night, to minister to his physical and sundry needs, +and to accompany him on those night vigils of prayer and mysterious communion +with the Father in heaven. + +3. Philip was made steward of the group. It was his duty to provide food and to +see that visitors, and even the multitude of listeners at times, had something +to eat. + +4. Nathaniel watched over the needs of the families of the twelve. He received +regular reports as to the requirements of each apostle's family and, making +requisition on Judas, the treasurer, would send funds each week to those in +need. + +5. Matthew was the fiscal agent of the apostolic corps. It was his duty to see +that the budget was balanced, the treasury replenished. If the funds for mutual +support were not forthcoming, if donations sufficient to maintain the party +were not received, Matthew was empowered to order the twelve back to their nets +for a season. But this was never necessary after they began their public work; +he always had sufficient funds in the treasurer's hands to finance their +activities. + +6. Thomas was manager of the itinerary. It devolved upon him to arrange +lodgings and in a general way select places for teaching and preaching, thereby +insuring a smooth and expeditious travel schedule. + +7. James and Judas the twin sons of Alpheus were assigned to the management of +the multitudes. It was their task to deputize a sufficient number of assistant +ushers to enable them to maintain order among the crowds during the preaching. + +8. Simon Zelotes was given charge of recreation and play. He managed the +Wednesday programs and also sought to provide for a few hours of relaxation and +diversion each day. + +9. Judas Iscariot was appointed treasurer. He carried the bag. He paid all +expenses and kept the books. He made budget estimates for Matthew from week to +week and also made weekly reports to Andrew. Judas paid out funds on Andrew's +authorization. + +In this way the twelve functioned from their early organization up to the time +of the reorganization made necessary by the desertion of Judas, the betrayer. +The Master and his disciple-apostles went on in this simple manner until +Sunday, January 12, A.D. 27, when he called them together and formally ordained +them as ambassadors of the kingdom and preachers of its glad tidings. And soon +thereafter they prepared to start for Jerusalem and Judea on their first public +preaching tour. + + top of page - 1548 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Tarrying Time ³ The Twelve ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ I... ³ Apos... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p139.txt b/religious documents/p139.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0255b6a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p139.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1235 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 139 The Twelve Apostles + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 139 The Twelve Apostles + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +IT IS an eloquent testimony to the charm and righteousness of Jesus' earth life +that, although he repeatedly dashed to pieces the hopes of his apostles and +tore to shreds their every ambition for personal exaltation, only one deserted +him. + +The apostles learned from Jesus about the kingdom of heaven, and Jesus learned +much from them about the kingdom of men, human nature as it lives on Urantia +and on the other evolutionary worlds of time and space. These twelve men +represented many different types of human temperament, and they had not been +made alike by schooling. Many of these Galilean fishermen carried heavy strains +of gentile blood as a result of the forcible conversion of the gentile +population of Galilee one hundred years previously. + +Do not make the mistake of regarding the apostles as being altogether ignorant +and unlearned. All of them, except the Alpheus twins, were graduates of the +synagogue schools, having been thoroughly trained in the Hebrew scriptures and +in much of the current knowledge of that day. Seven were graduates of the +Capernaum synagogue schools, and there were no better Jewish schools in all +Galilee. + +When your records refer to these messengers of the kingdom as being "ignorant +and unlearned," it was intended to convey the idea that they were laymen, +unlearned in the lore of the rabbis and untrained in the methods of rabbinical +interpretation of the Scriptures. They were lacking in so-called higher +education. In modern times they would certainly be considered uneducated, and +in some circles of society even uncultured. One thing is certain: They had not +all been put through the same rigid and stereotyped educational curriculum. +From adolescence on they had enjoyed separate experiences of learning how to +live. + +1. ANDREW, THE FIRST CHOSEN + +Andrew, chairman of the apostolic corps of the kingdom, was born in Capernaum. +He was the oldest child in a family of five--himself, his brother Simon, and +three sisters. His father, now dead, had been a partner of Zebedee in the +fish-drying business at Bethsaida, the fishing harbor of Capernaum. When he +became an apostle, Andrew was unmarried but made his home with his married +brother, Simon Peter. Both were fishermen and partners of James and John the +sons of Zebedee. + +In A.D. 26, the year he was chosen as an apostle, Andrew was 33, a full year +older than Jesus and the oldest of the apostles. He sprang from an excellent +line + + top of page - 1549 + +of ancestors and was the ablest man of the twelve. Excepting oratory, he was +the peer of his associates in almost every imaginable ability. Jesus never gave +Andrew a nickname, a fraternal designation. But even as the apostles soon began +to call Jesus Master, so they also designated Andrew by a term the equivalent +of Chief. + +Andrew was a good organizer but a better administrator. He was one of the inner +circle of four apostles, but his appointment by Jesus as the head of the +apostolic group made it necessary for him to remain on duty with his brethren +while the other three enjoyed very close communion with the Master. To the very +end Andrew remained dean of the apostolic corps. + +Although Andrew was never an effective preacher, he was an efficient personal +worker, being the pioneer missionary of the kingdom in that, as the first +chosen apostle, he immediately brought to Jesus his brother, Simon, who +subsequently became one of the greatest preachers of the kingdom. Andrew was +the chief supporter of Jesus' policy of utilizing the program of personal work +as a means of training the twelve as messengers of the kingdom. + +Whether Jesus privately taught the apostles or preached to the multitude, +Andrew was usually conversant with what was going on; he was an understanding +executive and an efficient administrator. He rendered a prompt decision on +every matter brought to his notice unless he deemed the problem one beyond the +domain of his authority, in which event he would take it straight to Jesus. + +Andrew and Peter were very unlike in character and temperament, but it must be +recorded everlastingly to their credit that they got along together splendidly. +Andrew was never jealous of Peter's oratorical ability. Not often will an older +man of Andrew's type be observed exerting such a profound influence over a +younger and talented brother. Andrew and Peter never seemed to be in the least +jealous of each other's abilities or achievements. Late on the evening of the +day of Pentecost, when, largely through the energetic and inspiring preaching +of Peter, two thousand souls were added to the kingdom, Andrew said to his +brother: "I could not do that, but I am glad I have a brother who could." To +which Peter replied: "And but for your bringing me to the Master and by your +steadfastness keeping me with him, I should not have been here to do this." +Andrew and Peter were the exceptions to the rule, proving that even brothers +can live together peaceably and work together effectively. + +After Pentecost Peter was famous, but it never irritated the older Andrew to +spend the rest of his life being introduced as "Simon Peter's brother." + +Of all the apostles, Andrew was the best judge of men. He knew that trouble was +brewing in the heart of Judas Iscariot even when none of the others suspected +that anything was wrong with their treasurer; but he told none of them his +fears. Andrew's great service to the kingdom was in advising Peter, James, and +John concerning the choice of the first missionaries who were sent out to +proclaim the gospel, and also in counseling these early leaders about the +organization of the administrative affairs of the kingdom. Andrew had a great +gift for discovering the hidden resources and latent talents of young people. + +Very soon after Jesus' ascension on high, Andrew began the writing of a +personal record of many of the sayings and doings of his departed Master. After +Andrew's death other copies of this private record were made and circulated +freely among the early teachers of the Christian church. These informal notes +of Andrew's were subsequently edited, amended, altered, and added to until they +made up a fairly consecutive narrative of the Master's life on earth. The last +of + + top of page - 1550 + +these few altered and amended copies was destroyed by fire at Alexandria about +one hundred years after the original was written by the first chosen of the +twelve apostles. + +Andrew was a man of clear insight, logical thought, and firm decision, whose +great strength of character consisted in his superb stability. His +temperamental handicap was his lack of enthusiasm; he many times failed to +encourage his associates by judicious commendation. And this reticence to +praise the worthy accomplishments of his friends grew out of his abhorrence of +flattery and insincerity. Andrew was one of those all-round, even-tempered, +self-made, and successful men of modest affairs. + +Every one of the apostles loved Jesus, but it remains true that each of the +twelve was drawn toward him because of some certain trait of personality which +made a special appeal to the individual apostle. Andrew admired Jesus because +of his consistent sincerity, his unaffected dignity. When men once knew Jesus, +they were possessed with the urge to share him with their friends; they really +wanted all the world to know him. + +When the later persecutions finally scattered the apostles from Jerusalem, +Andrew journeyed through Armenia, Asia Minor, and Macedonia and, after bringing +many thousands into the kingdom, was finally apprehended and crucified in +Patrae in Achaia. It was two full days before this robust man expired on the +cross, and throughout these tragic hours he continued effectively to proclaim +the glad tidings of the salvation of the kingdom of heaven. + +2. SIMON PETER + +When Simon joined the apostles, he was thirty years of age. He was married, had +three children, and lived at Bethsaida, near Capernaum. His brother, Andrew, +and his wife's mother lived with him. Both Peter and Andrew were fisher +partners of the sons of Zebedee. + +The Master had known Simon for some time before Andrew presented him as the +second of the apostles. When Jesus gave Simon the name Peter, he did it with a +smile; it was to be a sort of nickname. Simon was well known to all his friends +as an erratic and impulsive fellow. True, later on, Jesus did attach a new and +significant import to this lightly bestowed nickname. + +Simon Peter was a man of impulse, an optimist. He had grown up permitting +himself freely to indulge strong feelings; he was constantly getting into +difficulties because he persisted in speaking without thinking. This sort of +thoughtlessness also made incessant trouble for all of his friends and +associates and was the cause of his receiving many mild rebukes from his +Master. The only reason Peter did not get into more trouble because of his +thoughtless speaking was that he very early learned to talk over many of his +plans and schemes with his brother, Andrew, before he ventured to make public +proposals. + +Peter was a fluent speaker, eloquent and dramatic. He was also a natural and +inspirational leader of men, a quick thinker but not a deep reasoner. He asked +many questions, more than all the apostles put together, and while the majority +of these questions were good and relevant, many of them were thoughtless and +foolish. Peter did not have a deep mind, but he knew his mind fairly well. He +was therefore a man of quick decision and sudden action. While others talked in +their + + top of page - 1551 + +astonishment at seeing Jesus on the beach, Peter jumped in and swam ashore to +meet the Master. + +The one trait which Peter most admired in Jesus was his supernal tenderness. +Peter never grew weary of contemplating Jesus' forbearance. He never forgot the +lesson about forgiving the wrongdoer, not only seven times but seventy times +and seven. He thought much about these impressions of the Master's forgiving +character during those dark and dismal days immediately following his +thoughtless and unintended denial of Jesus in the high priest's courtyard. + +Simon Peter was distressingly vacillating; he would suddenly swing from one +extreme to the other. First he refused to let Jesus wash his feet and then, on +hearing the Master's reply, begged to be washed all over. But, after all, Jesus +knew that Peter's faults were of the head and not of the heart. He was one of +the most inexplicable combinations of courage and cowardice that ever lived on +earth. His great strength of character was loyalty, friendship. Peter really +and truly loved Jesus. And yet despite this towering strength of devotion he +was so unstable and inconstant that he permitted a servant girl to tease him +into denying his Lord and Master. Peter could withstand persecution and any +other form of direct assault, but he withered and shrank before ridicule. He +was a brave soldier when facing a frontal attack, but he was a fear-cringing +coward when surprised with an assault from the rear. + +Peter was the first of Jesus' apostles to come forward to defend the work of +Philip among the Samaritans and Paul among the gentiles; yet later on at +Antioch he reversed himself when confronted by ridiculing Judaizers, +temporarily withdrawing from the gentiles only to bring down upon his head the +fearless denunciation of Paul. + +He was the first one of the apostles to make wholehearted confession of Jesus' +combined humanity and divinity and the first--save Judas--to deny him. Peter +was not so much of a dreamer, but he disliked to descend from the clouds of +ecstasy and the enthusiasm of dramatic indulgence to the plain and +matter-of-fact world of reality. + +In following Jesus, literally and figuratively, he was either leading the +procession or else trailing behind--"following afar off." But he was the +outstanding preacher of the twelve; he did more than any other one man, aside +from Paul, to establish the kingdom and send its messengers to the four corners +of the earth in one generation. + +After his rash denials of the Master he found himself, and with Andrew's +sympathetic and understanding guidance he again led the way back to the fish +nets while the apostles tarried to find out what was to happen after the +crucifixion. When he was fully assured that Jesus had forgiven him and knew he +had been received back into the Master's fold, the fires of the kingdom burned +so brightly within his soul that he became a great and saving light to +thousands who sat in darkness. + +After leaving Jerusalem and before Paul became the leading spirit among the +gentile Christian churches, Peter traveled extensively, visiting all the +churches from Babylon to Corinth. He even visited and ministered to many of the +churches which had been raised up by Paul. Although Peter and Paul differed +much in temperament and education, even in theology, they worked together +harmoniously for the upbuilding of the churches during their later years. + + top of page - 1552 + +Something of Peter's style and teaching is shown in the sermons partially +recorded by Luke and in the Gospel of Mark. His vigorous style was better shown +in his letter known as the First Epistle of Peter; at least this was true +before it was subsequently altered by a disciple of Paul. + +But Peter persisted in making the mistake of trying to convince the Jews that +Jesus was, after all, really and truly the Jewish Messiah. Right up to the day +of his death, Simon Peter continued to suffer confusion in his mind between the +concepts of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, Christ as the world's redeemer, and +the Son of Man as the revelation of God, the loving Father of all mankind. + +Peter's wife was a very able woman. For years she labored acceptably as a +member of the women's corps, and when Peter was driven out of Jerusalem, she +accompanied him upon all his journeys to the churches as well as on all his +missionary excursions. And the day her illustrious husband yielded up his life, +she was thrown to the wild beasts in the arena at Rome. + +And so this man Peter, an intimate of Jesus, one of the inner circle, went +forth from Jerusalem proclaiming the glad tidings of the kingdom with power and +glory until the fullness of his ministry had been accomplished; and he regarded +himself as the recipient of high honors when his captors informed him that he +must die as his Master had died--on the cross. And thus was Simon Peter +crucified in Rome. + +3. JAMES ZEBEDEE + +James, the older of the two apostle sons of Zebedee, whom Jesus nicknamed "sons +of thunder," was thirty years old when he became an apostle. He was married, +had four children, and lived near his parents in the outskirts of Capernaum, +Bethsaida. He was a fisherman, plying his calling in company with his younger +brother John and in association with Andrew and Simon. James and his brother +John enjoyed the advantage of having known Jesus longer than any of the other +apostles. + +This able apostle was a temperamental contradiction; he seemed really to +possess two natures, both of which were actuated by strong feelings. He was +particularly vehement when his indignation was once fully aroused. He had a +fiery temper when once it was adequately provoked, and when the storm was over, +he was always wont to justify and excuse his anger under the pretense that it +was wholly a manifestation of righteous indignation. Except for these periodic +upheavals of wrath, James's personality was much like that of Andrew. He did +not have Andrew's discretion or insight into human nature, but he was a much +better public speaker. Next to Peter, unless it was Matthew, James was the best +public orator among the twelve. + +Though James was in no sense moody, he could be quiet and taciturn one day and +a very good talker and storyteller the next. He usually talked freely with +Jesus, but among the twelve, for days at a time he was the silent man. His one +great weakness was these spells of unaccountable silence. + +The outstanding feature of James's personality was his ability to see all sides +of a proposition. Of all the twelve, he came the nearest to grasping the real +import and significance of Jesus' teaching. He, too, was slow at first to +comprehend the Master's meaning, but ere they had finished their training, he +had acquired a superior concept of Jesus' message. James was able to understand +a wide range + + top of page - 1553 + +of human nature; he got along well with the versatile Andrew, the impetuous +Peter, and his self-contained brother John. + +Though James and John had their troubles trying to work together, it was +inspiring to observe how well they got along. They did not succeed quite so +well as Andrew and Peter, but they did much better than would ordinarily be +expected of two brothers, especially such headstrong and determined brothers. +But, strange as it may seem, these two sons of Zebedee were much more tolerant +of each other than they were of strangers. They had great affection for one +another; they had always been happy playmates. It was these "sons of thunder" +who wanted to call fire down from heaven to destroy the Samaritans who presumed +to show disrespect for their Master. But the untimely death of James greatly +modified the vehement temperament of his younger brother John. + +That characteristic of Jesus which James most admired was the Master's +sympathetic affection. Jesus' understanding interest in the small and the +great, the rich and the poor, made a great appeal to him. + +James Zebedee was a well-balanced thinker and planner. Along with Andrew, he +was one of the more level-headed of the apostolic group. He was a vigorous +individual but was never in a hurry. He was an excellent balance wheel for +Peter. + +He was modest and undramatic, a daily server, an unpretentious worker, seeking +no special reward when he once grasped something of the real meaning of the +kingdom. And even in the story about the mother of James and John, who asked +that her sons be granted places on the right hand and the left hand of Jesus, +it should be remembered that it was the mother who made this request. And when +they signified that they were ready to assume such responsibilities, it should +be recognized that they were cognizant of the dangers accompanying the Master's +supposed revolt against the Roman power, and that they were also willing to pay +the price. When Jesus asked if they were ready to drink the cup, they replied +that they were. And as concerns James, it was literally true--he did drink the +cup with the Master, seeing that he was the first of the apostles to experience +martyrdom, being early put to death with the sword by Herod Agrippa. James was +thus the first of the twelve to sacrifice his life upon the new battle line of +the kingdom. Herod Agrippa feared James above all the other apostles. He was +indeed often quiet and silent, but he was brave and determined when his +convictions were aroused and challenged. + +James lived his life to the full, and when the end came, he bore himself with +such grace and fortitude that even his accuser and informer, who attended his +trial and execution, was so touched that he rushed away from the scene of +James's death to join himself to the disciples of Jesus. + +4. JOHN ZEBEDEE + +When he became an apostle, John was twenty-four years old and was the youngest +of the twelve. He was unmarried and lived with his parents at Bethsaida; he was +a fisherman and worked with his brother James in partnership with Andrew and +Peter. Both before and after becoming an apostle, John functioned as the +personal agent of Jesus in dealing with the Master's family, and he continued +to bear this responsibility as long as Mary the mother of Jesus lived. + +Since John was the youngest of the twelve and so closely associated with Jesus +in his family affairs, he was very dear to the Master, but it cannot be truth- + + top of page - 1554 + +fully said that he was "the disciple whom Jesus loved." You would hardly +suspect such a magnanimous personality as Jesus to be guilty of showing +favoritism, of loving one of his apostles more than the others. The fact that +John was one of the three personal aides of Jesus lent further color to this +mistaken idea, not to mention that John, along with his brother James, had +known Jesus longer than the others. + +Peter, James, and John were assigned as personal aides to Jesus soon after they +became apostles. Shortly after the selection of the twelve and at the time +Jesus appointed Andrew to act as director of the group, he said to him: "And +now I desire that you assign two or three of your associates to be with me and +to remain by my side, to comfort me and to minister to my daily needs." And +Andrew thought best to select for this special duty the next three first-chosen +apostles. He would have liked to volunteer for such a blessed service himself, +but the Master had already given him his commission; so he immediately directed +that Peter, James, and John attach themselves to Jesus. + +John Zebedee had many lovely traits of character, but one which was not so +lovely was his inordinate but usually well-concealed conceit. His long +association with Jesus made many and great changes in his character. This +conceit was greatly lessened, but after growing old and becoming more or less +childish, this self-esteem reappeared to a certain extent, so that, when +engaged in directing Nathan in the writing of the Gospel which now bears his +name, the aged apostle did not hesitate repeatedly to refer to himself as the +"disciple whom Jesus loved." In view of the fact that John came nearer to being +the chum of Jesus than any other earth mortal, that he was his chosen personal +representative in so many matters, it is not strange that he should have come +to regard himself as the "disciple whom Jesus loved" since he most certainly +knew he was the disciple whom Jesus so frequently trusted. + +The strongest trait in John's character was his dependability; he was prompt +and courageous, faithful and devoted. His greatest weakness was this +characteristic conceit. He was the youngest member of his father's family and +the youngest of the apostolic group. Perhaps he was just a bit spoiled; maybe +he had been humored slightly too much. But the John of after years was a very +different type of person than the self-admiring and arbitrary young man who +joined the ranks of Jesus' apostles when he was twenty-four. + +Those characteristics of Jesus which John most appreciated were the Master's +love and unselfishness; these traits made such an impression on him that his +whole subsequent life became dominated by the sentiment of love and brotherly +devotion. He talked about love and wrote about love. This "son of thunder" +became the "apostle of love"; and at Ephesus, when the aged bishop was no +longer able to stand in the pulpit and preach but had to be carried to church +in a chair, and when at the close of the service he was asked to say a few +words to the believers, for years his only utterance was, "My little children, +love one another." + +John was a man of few words except when his temper was aroused. He thought much +but said little. As he grew older, his temper became more subdued, better +controlled, but he never overcame his disinclination to talk; he never fully +mastered this reticence. But he was gifted with a remarkable and creative +imagination. + + top of page - 1555 + +There was another side to John that one would not expect to find in this quiet +and introspective type. He was somewhat bigoted and inordinately intolerant. In +this respect he and James were much alike--they both wanted to call down fire +from heaven on the heads of the disrespectful Samaritans. When John encountered +some strangers teaching in Jesus' name, he promptly forbade them. But he was +not the only one of the twelve who was tainted with this kind of self-esteem +and superiority consciousness. + +John's life was tremendously influenced by the sight of Jesus' going about +without a home as he knew how faithfully he had made provision for the care of +his mother and family. John also deeply sympathized with Jesus because of his +family's failure to understand him, being aware that they were gradually +withdrawing from him. This entire situation, together with Jesus' ever +deferring his slightest wish to the will of the Father in heaven and his daily +life of implicit trust, made such a profound impression on John that it +produced marked and permanent changes in his character, changes which +manifested themselves throughout his entire subsequent life. + +John had a cool and daring courage which few of the other apostles possessed. +He was the one apostle who followed right along with Jesus the night of his +arrest and dared to accompany his Master into the very jaws of death. He was +present and near at hand right up to the last earthly hour and was found +faithfully carrying out his trust with regard to Jesus' mother and ready to +receive such additional instructions as might be given during the last moments +of the Master's mortal existence. One thing is certain, John was thoroughly +dependable. John usually sat on Jesus' right hand when the twelve were at meat. +He was the first of the twelve really and fully to believe in the resurrection, +and he was the first to recognize the Master when he came to them on the +seashore after his resurrection. + +This son of Zebedee was very closely associated with Peter in the early +activities of the Christian movement, becoming one of the chief supporters of +the Jerusalem church. He was the right-hand support of Peter on the day of +Pentecost. + +Several years after the martyrdom of James, John married his brother's widow. +The last twenty years of his life he was cared for by a loving granddaughter. + +John was in prison several times and was banished to the Isle of Patmos for a +period of four years until another emperor came to power in Rome. Had not John +been tactful and sagacious, he would undoubtedly have been killed as was his +more outspoken brother James. As the years passed, John, together with James +the Lord's brother, learned to practice wise conciliation when they appeared +before the civil magistrates. They found that a "soft answer turns away wrath." +They also learned to represent the church as a "spiritual brotherhood devoted +to the social service of mankind" rather than as "the kingdom of heaven." They +taught loving service rather than ruling power--kingdom and king. + +When in temporary exile on Patmos, John wrote the Book of Revelation, which you +now have in greatly abridged and distorted form. This Book of Revelation +contains the surviving fragments of a great revelation, large portions of which +were lost, other portions of which were removed, subsequent to John's writing. +It is preserved in only fragmentary and adulterated form. + +John traveled much, labored incessantly, and after becoming bishop of the Asia +churches, settled down at Ephesus. He directed his associate, Nathan, in + + top of page - 1556 + +the writing of the so-called "Gospel according to John," at Ephesus, when he +was ninety-nine years old. Of all the twelve apostles, John Zebedee eventually +became the outstanding theologian. He died a natural death at Ephesus in A.D. +103 when he was one hundred and one years of age. + +5. PHILIP THE CURIOUS + +Philip was the fifth apostle to be chosen, being called when Jesus and his +first four apostles were on their way from John's rendezvous on the Jordan to +Cana of Galilee. Since he lived at Bethsaida, Philip had for some time known of +Jesus, but it had not occurred to him that Jesus was a really great man until +that day in the Jordan valley when he said, "Follow me." Philip was also +somewhat influenced by the fact that Andrew, Peter, James, and John had +accepted Jesus as the Deliverer. + +Philip was twenty-seven years of age when he joined the apostles; he had +recently been married, but he had no children at this time. The nickname which +the apostles gave him signified "curiosity." Philip was always wanting to be +shown. He never seemed to see very far into any proposition. He was not +necessarily dull, but he lacked imagination. This lack of imagination was the +great weakness of his character. He was a commonplace and matter-of-fact +individual. + +When the apostles were organized for service, Philip was made steward; it was +his duty to see that they were at all times supplied with provisions. And he +was a good steward. His strongest characteristic was his methodical +thoroughness; he was both mathematical and systematic. + +Philip came from a family of seven, three boys and four girls. He was next to +the oldest, and after the resurrection he baptized his entire family into the +kingdom. Philip's people were fisherfolk. His father was a very able man, a +deep thinker, but his mother was of a very mediocre family. Philip was not a +man who could be expected to do big things, but he was a man who could do +little things in a big way, do them well and acceptably. Only a few times in +four years did he fail to have food on hand to satisfy the needs of all. Even +the many emergency demands attendant upon the life they lived seldom found him +unprepared. The commissary department of the apostolic family was intelligently +and efficiently managed. + +The strong point about Philip was his methodical reliability; the weak point in +his make-up was his utter lack of imagination, the absence of the ability to +put two and two together to obtain four. He was mathematical in the abstract +but not constructive in his imagination. He was almost entirely lacking in +certain types of imagination. He was the typical everyday and commonplace +average man. There were a great many such men and women among the multitudes +who came to hear Jesus teach and preach, and they derived great comfort from +observing one like themselves elevated to an honored position in the councils +of the Master; they derived courage from the fact that one like themselves had +already found a high place in the affairs of the kingdom. And Jesus learned +much about the way some human minds function as he so patiently listened to +Philip's foolish questions and so many times complied with his steward's +request to "be shown." + +The one quality about Jesus which Philip so continuously admired was the +Master's unfailing generosity. Never could Philip find anything in Jesus which +was small, niggardly, or stingy, and he worshiped this ever-present and +unfailing liberality. + + top of page - 1557 + +There was little about Philip's personality that was impressive. He was often +spoken of as "Philip of Bethsaida, the town where Andrew and Peter live." He +was almost without discerning vision; he was unable to grasp the dramatic +possibilities of a given situation. He was not pessimistic; he was simply +prosaic. He was also greatly lacking in spiritual insight. He would not +hesitate to interrupt Jesus in the midst of one of the Master's most profound +discourses to ask an apparently foolish question. But Jesus never reprimanded +him for such thoughtlessness; he was patient with him and considerate of his +inability to grasp the deeper meanings of the teaching. Jesus well knew that, +if he once rebuked Philip for asking these annoying questions, he would not +only wound this honest soul, but such a reprimand would so hurt Philip that he +would never again feel free to ask questions. Jesus knew that on his worlds of +space there were untold billions of similar slow-thinking mortals, and he +wanted to encourage them all to look to him and always to feel free to come to +him with their questions and problems. After all, Jesus was really more +interested in Philip's foolish questions than in the sermon he might be +preaching. Jesus was supremely interested in men, all kinds of men. + +The apostolic steward was not a good public speaker, but he was a very +persuasive and successful personal worker. He was not easily discouraged; he +was a plodder and very tenacious in anything he undertook. He had that great +and rare gift of saying, "Come." When his first convert, Nathaniel, wanted to +argue about the merits and demerits of Jesus and Nazareth, Philip's effective +reply was, "Come and see." He was not a dogmatic preacher who exhorted his +hearers to "Go"--do this and do that. He met all situations as they arose in +his work with "Come"--"come with me; I will show you the way." And that is +always the effective technique in all forms and phases of teaching. Even +parents may learn from Philip the better way of saying to their children not +"Go do this and go do that," but rather, "Come with us while we show and share +with you the better way." + +The inability of Philip to adapt himself to a new situation was well shown when +the Greeks came to him at Jerusalem, saying: "Sir, we desire to see Jesus." Now +Philip would have said to any Jew asking such a question, "Come." But these men +were foreigners, and Philip could remember no instructions from his superiors +regarding such matters; so the only thing he could think to do was to consult +the chief, Andrew, and then they both escorted the inquiring Greeks to Jesus. +Likewise, when he went into Samaria preaching and baptizing believers, as he +had been instructed by his Master, he refrained from laying hands on his +converts in token of their having received the Spirit of Truth. This was done +by Peter and John, who presently came down from Jerusalem to observe his work +in behalf of the mother church. + +Philip went on through the trying times of the Master's death, participated in +the reorganization of the twelve, and was the first to go forth to win souls +for the kingdom outside of the immediate Jewish ranks, being most successful in +his work for the Samaritans and in all his subsequent labors in behalf of the +gospel. + +Philip's wife, who was an efficient member of the women's corps, became +actively associated with her husband in his evangelistic work after their +flight from the Jerusalem persecutions. His wife was a fearless woman. She +stood at the foot of Philip's cross encouraging him to proclaim the glad +tidings even to his murderers, and when his strength failed, she began the +recital of the story of sal- + + top of page - 1558 + +vation by faith in Jesus and was silenced only when the irate Jews rushed upon +her and stoned her to death. Their eldest daughter, Leah, continued their work, +later on becoming the renowned prophetess of Hierapolis. + +Philip, the onetime steward of the twelve, was a mighty man in the kingdom, +winning souls wherever he went; and he was finally crucified for his faith and +buried at Hierapolis. + +6. HONEST NATHANIEL + +Nathaniel, the sixth and last of the apostles to be chosen by the Master +himself, was brought to Jesus by his friend Philip. He had been associated in +several business enterprises with Philip and, with him, was on the way down to +see John the Baptist when they encountered Jesus. + +When Nathaniel joined the apostles, he was twenty-five years old and was the +next to the youngest of the group. He was the youngest of a family of seven, +was unmarried, and the only support of aged and infirm parents, with whom he +lived at Cana; his brothers and sister were either married or deceased, and +none lived there. Nathaniel and Judas Iscariot were the two best educated men +among the twelve. Nathaniel had thought to become a merchant. + +Jesus did not himself give Nathaniel a nickname, but the twelve soon began to +speak of him in terms that signified honesty, sincerity. He was "without +guile." And this was his great virtue; he was both honest and sincere. The +weakness of his character was his pride; he was very proud of his family, his +city, his reputation, and his nation, all of which is commendable if it is not +carried too far. But Nathaniel was inclined to go to extremes with his personal +prejudices. He was disposed to prejudge individuals in accordance with his +personal opinions. He was not slow to ask the question, even before he had met +Jesus, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" But Nathaniel was not +obstinate, even if he was proud. He was quick to reverse himself when he once +looked into Jesus' face. + +In many respects Nathaniel was the odd genius of the twelve. He was the +apostolic philosopher and dreamer, but he was a very practical sort of dreamer. +He alternated between seasons of profound philosophy and periods of rare and +droll humor; when in the proper mood, he was probably the best storyteller +among the twelve. Jesus greatly enjoyed hearing Nathaniel discourse on things +both serious and frivolous. Nathaniel progressively took Jesus and the kingdom +more seriously, but never did he take himself seriously. + +The apostles all loved and respected Nathaniel, and he got along with them +splendidly, excepting Judas Iscariot. Judas did not think Nathaniel took his +apostleship sufficiently seriously and once had the temerity to go secretly to +Jesus and lodge complaint against him. Said Jesus: "Judas, watch carefully your +steps; do not overmagnify your office. Who of us is competent to judge his +brother? It is not the Father's will that his children should partake only of +the serious things of life. Let me repeat: I have come that my brethren in the +flesh may have joy, gladness, and life more abundantly. Go then, Judas, and do +well that which has been intrusted to you but leave Nathaniel, your brother, to +give account of himself to God." And the memory of this, with that of many +similar experiences, long lived in the self-deceiving heart of Judas Iscariot. + + top of page - 1559 + +Many times, when Jesus was away on the mountain with Peter, James, and John, +and things were becoming tense and tangled among the apostles, when even Andrew +was in doubt about what to say to his disconsolate brethren, Nathaniel would +relieve the tension by a bit of philosophy or a flash of humor; good humor, +too. + +Nathaniel's duty was to look after the families of the twelve. He was often +absent from the apostolic councils, for when he heard that sickness or anything +out of the ordinary had happened to one of his charges, he lost no time in +getting to that home. The twelve rested securely in the knowledge that their +families' welfare was safe in the hands of Nathaniel. + +Nathaniel most revered Jesus for his tolerance. He never grew weary of +contemplating the broadmindedness and generous sympathy of the Son of Man. + +Nathaniel's father (Bartholomew) died shortly after Pentecost, after which this +apostle went into Mesopotamia and India proclaiming the glad tidings of the +kingdom and baptizing believers. His brethren never knew what became of their +onetime philosopher, poet, and humorist. But he also was a great man in the +kingdom and did much to spread his Master's teachings, even though he did not +participate in the organization of the subsequent Christian church. Nathaniel +died in India. + +7. MATTHEW LEVI + +Matthew, the seventh apostle, was chosen by Andrew. Matthew belonged to a +family of tax gatherers, or publicans, but was himself a customs collector in +Capernaum, where he lived. He was thirty-one years old and married and had four +children. He was a man of moderate wealth, the only one of any means belonging +to the apostolic corps. He was a good business man, a good social mixer, and +was gifted with the ability to make friends and to get along smoothly with a +great variety of people. + +Andrew appointed Matthew the financial representative of the apostles. In a way +he was the fiscal agent and publicity spokesman for the apostolic organization. +He was a keen judge of human nature and a very efficient propagandist. His is a +personality difficult to visualize, but he was a very earnest disciple and an +increasing believer in the mission of Jesus and in the certainty of the +kingdom. Jesus never gave Levi a nickname, but his fellow apostles commonly +referred to him as the "money-getter." + +Levi's strong point was his wholehearted devotion to the cause. That he, a +publican, had been taken in by Jesus and his apostles was the cause for +overwhelming gratitude on the part of the former revenue collector. However, it +required some little time for the rest of the apostles, especially Simon +Zelotes and Judas Iscariot, to become reconciled to the publican's presence in +their midst. Matthew's weakness was his shortsighted and materialistic +viewpoint of life. But in all these matters he made great progress as the +months went by. He, of course, had to be absent from many of the most precious +seasons of instruction as it was his duty to keep the treasury replenished. + +It was the Master's forgiving disposition which Matthew most appreciated. He +would never cease to recount that faith only was necessary in the business of +finding God. He always liked to speak of the kingdom as "this business of +finding God." + + top of page - 1560 + +Though Matthew was a man with a past, he gave an excellent account of himself, +and as time went on, his associates became proud of the publican's +performances. He was one of the apostles who made extensive notes on the +sayings of Jesus, and these notes were used as the basis of Isador's subsequent +narrative of the sayings and doings of Jesus, which has become known as the +Gospel according to Matthew. + +The great and useful life of Matthew, the business man and customs collector of +Capernaum, has been the means of leading thousands upon thousands of other +business men, public officials, and politicians, down through the subsequent +ages, also to hear that engaging voice of the Master saying, "Follow me." +Matthew really was a shrewd politician, but he was intensely loyal to Jesus and +supremely devoted to the task of seeing that the messengers of the coming +kingdom were adequately financed. + +The presence of Matthew among the twelve was the means of keeping the doors of +the kingdom wide open to hosts of downhearted and outcast souls who had +regarded themselves as long since without the bounds of religious consolation. +Outcast and despairing men and women flocked to hear Jesus, and he never turned +one away. + +Matthew received freely tendered offerings from believing disciples and the +immediate auditors of the Master's teachings, but he never openly solicited +funds from the multitudes. He did all his financial work in a quiet and +personal way and raised most of the money among the more substantial class of +interested believers. He gave practically the whole of his modest fortune to +the work of the Master and his apostles, but they never knew of this +generosity, save Jesus, who knew all about it. Matthew hesitated openly to +contribute to the apostolic funds for fear that Jesus and his associates might +regard his money as being tainted; so he gave much in the names of other +believers. During the earlier months, when Matthew knew his presence among them +was more or less of a trial, he was strongly tempted to let them know that his +funds often supplied them with their daily bread, but he did not yield. When +evidence of the disdain of the publican would become manifest, Levi would burn +to reveal to them his generosity, but always he managed to keep still. + +When the funds for the week were short of the estimated requirements, Levi +would often draw heavily upon his own personal resources. Also, sometimes when +he became greatly interested in Jesus' teaching, he preferred to remain and +hear the instruction, even though he knew he must personally make up for his +failure to solicit the necessary funds. But Levi did so wish that Jesus might +know that much of the money came from his pocket! He little realized that the +Master knew all about it. The apostles all died without knowing that Matthew +was their benefactor to such an extent that, when he went forth to proclaim the +gospel of the kingdom after the beginning of the persecutions, he was +practically penniless. + +When these persecutions caused the believers to forsake Jerusalem, Matthew +journeyed north, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and baptizing believers. +He was lost to the knowledge of his former apostolic associates, but on he +went, preaching and baptizing, through Syria, Cappadocia, Galatia, Bithynia, +and Thrace. And it was in Thrace, at Lysimachia, that certain unbelieving Jews +conspired with the Roman soldiers to encompass his death. And this regenerated +publican died triumphant in the faith of a salvation he had so surely learned +from the teachings of the Master during his recent sojourn on earth. + + top of page - 1561 + +8. THOMAS DIDYMUS + +Thomas was the eighth apostle, and he was chosen by Philip. In later times he +has become known as "doubting Thomas," but his fellow apostles hardly looked +upon him as a chronic doubter. True, his was a logical, skeptical type of mind, +but he had a form of courageous loyalty which forbade those who knew him +intimately to regard him as a trifling skeptic. + +When Thomas joined the apostles, he was twenty-nine years old, was married, and +had four children. Formerly he had been a carpenter and stone mason, but +latterly he had become a fisherman and resided at Tarichea, situated on the +west bank of the Jordan where it flows out of the Sea of Galilee, and he was +regarded as the leading citizen of this little village. He had little +education, but he possessed a keen, reasoning mind and was the son of excellent +parents, who lived at Tiberias. Thomas had the one truly analytical mind of the +twelve; he was the real scientist of the apostolic group. + +The early home life of Thomas had been unfortunate; his parents were not +altogether happy in their married life, and this was reflected in Thomas's +adult experience. He grew up having a very disagreeable and quarrelsome +disposition. Even his wife was glad to see him join the apostles; she was +relieved by the thought that her pessimistic husband would be away from home +most of the time. Thomas also had a streak of suspicion which made it very +difficult to get along peaceably with him. Peter was very much upset by Thomas +at first, complaining to his brother, Andrew, that Thomas was "mean, ugly, and +always suspicious." But the better his associates knew Thomas, the more they +liked him. They found he was superbly honest and unflinchingly loyal. He was +perfectly sincere and unquestionably truthful, but he was a natural-born +faultfinder and had grown up to become a real pessimist. His analytical mind +had become cursed with suspicion. He was rapidly losing faith in his fellow men +when he became associated with the twelve and thus came in contact with the +noble character of Jesus. This association with the Master began at once to +transform Thomas's whole disposition and to effect great changes in his mental +reactions to his fellow men. + +Thomas's great strength was his superb analytical mind coupled with his +unflinching courage--when he had once made up his mind. His great weakness was +his suspicious doubting, which he never fully overcame throughout his whole +lifetime in the flesh. + +In the organization of the twelve Thomas was assigned to arrange and manage the +itinerary, and he was an able director of the work and movements of the +apostolic corps. He was a good executive, an excellent businessman, but he was +handicapped by his many moods; he was one man one day and another man the next. +He was inclined toward melancholic brooding when he joined the apostles, but +contact with Jesus and the apostles largely cured him of this morbid +introspection. + +Jesus enjoyed Thomas very much and had many long, personal talks with him. His +presence among the apostles was a great comfort to all honest doubters and +encouraged many troubled minds to come into the kingdom, even if they could not +wholly understand everything about the spiritual and philosophic phases of the +teachings of Jesus. Thomas's membership in the twelve was a standing +declaration that Jesus loved even honest doubters. + + top of page - 1562 + +The other apostles held Jesus in reverence because of some special and +outstanding trait of his replete personality, but Thomas revered his Master +because of his superbly balanced character. Increasingly Thomas admired and +honored one who was so lovingly merciful yet so inflexibly just and fair; so +firm but never obstinate; so calm but never indifferent; so helpful and so +sympathetic but never meddlesome or dictatorial; so strong but at the same time +so gentle; so positive but never rough or rude; so tender but never +vacillating; so pure and innocent but at the same time so virile, aggressive, +and forceful; so truly courageous but never rash or foolhardy; such a lover of +nature but so free from all tendency to revere nature; so humorous and so +playful, but so free from levity and frivolity. It was this matchless symmetry +of personality that so charmed Thomas. He probably enjoyed the highest +intellectual understanding and personality appreciation of Jesus of any of the +twelve. + +In the councils of the twelve Thomas was always cautious, advocating a policy +of safety first, but if his conservatism was voted down or overruled, he was +always the first fearlessly to move out in execution of the program decided +upon. Again and again would he stand out against some project as being +foolhardy and presumptuous; he would debate to the bitter end, but when Andrew +would put the proposition to a vote, and after the twelve would elect to do +that which he had so strenuously opposed, Thomas was the first to say, "Let's +go!" He was a good loser. He did not hold grudges nor nurse wounded feelings. +Time and again did he oppose letting Jesus expose himself to danger, but when +the Master would decide to take such risks, always was it Thomas who rallied +the apostles with his courageous words, "Come on, comrades, let's go and die +with him." + +Thomas was in some respects like Philip; he also wanted "to be shown," but his +outward expressions of doubt were based on entirely different intellectual +operations. Thomas was analytical, not merely skeptical. As far as personal +physical courage was concerned, he was one of the bravest among the twelve. + +Thomas had some very bad days; he was blue and downcast at times. The loss of +his twin sister when he was nine years old had occasioned him much youthful +sorrow and had added to his temperamental problems of later life. When Thomas +would become despondent, sometimes it was Nathaniel who helped him to recover, +sometimes Peter, and not infrequently one of the Alpheus twins. When he was +most depressed, unfortunately he always tried to avoid coming in direct contact +with Jesus. But the Master knew all about this and had an understanding +sympathy for his apostle when he was thus afflicted with depression and +harassed by doubts. + +Sometimes Thomas would get permission from Andrew to go off by himself for a +day or two. But he soon learned that such a course was not wise; he early found +that it was best, when he was downhearted, to stick close to his work and to +remain near his associates. But no matter what happened in his emotional life, +he kept right on being an apostle. When the time actually came to move forward, +it was always Thomas who said, "Let's go!" + +Thomas is the great example of a human being who has doubts, faces them, and +wins. He had a great mind; he was no carping critic. He was a logical thinker; +he was the acid test of Jesus and his fellow apostles. If Jesus and his work +had not been genuine, it could not have held a man like Thomas from the start +to the finish. He had a keen and sure sense of fact. At the first appearance of +fraud or deception Thomas would have forsaken them all. Scientists may not + + top of page - 1563 + +fully understand all about Jesus and his work on earth, but there lived and +worked with the Master and his human associates a man whose mind was that of a +true scientist--Thomas Didymus--and he believed in Jesus of Nazareth. + +Thomas had a trying time during the days of the trial and crucifixion. He was +for a season in the depths of despair, but he rallied his courage, stuck to the +apostles, and was present with them to welcome Jesus on the Sea of Galilee. For +a while he succumbed to his doubting depression but eventually rallied his +faith and courage. He gave wise counsel to the apostles after Pentecost and, +when persecution scattered the believers, went to Cyprus, Crete, the North +African coast, and Sicily, preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom and +baptizing believers. And Thomas continued preaching and baptizing until he was +apprehended by the agents of the Roman government and was put to death in +Malta. Just a few weeks before his death he had begun the writing of the life +and teachings of Jesus. + +9 and 10. JAMES AND JUDAS ALPHEUS + +James and Judas the sons of Alpheus, the twin fishermen living near Kheresa, +were the ninth and tenth apostles and were chosen by James and John Zebedee. +They were twenty-six years old and married, James having three children, Judas +two. + +There is not much to be said about these two commonplace fisherfolk. They loved +their Master and Jesus loved them, but they never interrupted his discourses +with questions. They understood very little about the philosophical discussions +or the theological debates of their fellow apostles, but they rejoiced to find +themselves numbered among such a group of mighty men. These two men were almost +identical in personal appearance, mental characteristics, and extent of +spiritual perception. What may be said of one should be recorded of the other. + +Andrew assigned them to the work of policing the multitudes. They were the +chief ushers of the preaching hours and, in fact, the general servants and +errand boys of the twelve. They helped Philip with the supplies, they carried +money to the families for Nathaniel, and always were they ready to lend a +helping hand to any one of the apostles. + +The multitudes of the common people were greatly encouraged to find two like +themselves honored with places among the apostles. By their very acceptance as +apostles these mediocre twins were the means of bringing a host of fainthearted +believers into the kingdom. And, too, the common people took more kindly to the +idea of being directed and managed by official ushers who were very much like +themselves. + +James and Judas, who were also called Thaddeus and Lebbeus, had neither strong +points nor weak points. The nicknames given them by the disciples were +good-natured designations of mediocrity. They were "the least of all the +apostles"; they knew it and felt cheerful about it. + +James Alpheus especially loved Jesus because of the Master's simplicity. These +twins could not comprehend the mind of Jesus, but they did grasp the +sympathetic bond between themselves and the heart of their Master. Their minds +were not of a high order; they might even reverently be called stupid, but they +had a real experience in their spiritual natures. They believed in Jesus; they +were sons of God and fellows of the kingdom. + + top of page - 1564 + +Judas Alpheus was drawn toward Jesus because of the Master's unostentatious +humility. Such humility linked with such personal dignity made a great appeal +to Judas. The fact that Jesus would always enjoin silence regarding his unusual +acts made a great impression on this simple child of nature. + +The twins were good-natured, simple-minded helpers, and everybody loved them. +Jesus welcomed these young men of one talent to positions of honor on his +personal staff in the kingdom because there are untold millions of other such +simple and fear-ridden souls on the worlds of space whom he likewise wishes to +welcome into active and believing fellowship with himself and his outpoured +Spirit of Truth. Jesus does not look down upon littleness, only upon evil and +sin. James and Judas were little, but they were also faithful. They were simple +and ignorant, but they were also big-hearted, kind, and generous. + +And how gratefully proud were these humble men on that day when the Master +refused to accept a certain rich man as an evangelist unless he would sell his +goods and help the poor. When the people heard this and beheld the twins among +his counselors, they knew of a certainty that Jesus was no respecter of +persons. But only a divine institution--the kingdom of heaven--could ever have +been built upon such a mediocre human foundation! + +Only once or twice in all their association with Jesus did the twins venture to +ask questions in public. Judas was once intrigued into asking Jesus a question +when the Master had talked about revealing himself openly to the world. He felt +a little disappointed that there were to be no more secrets among the twelve, +and he made bold to ask: "But, Master, when you do thus declare yourself to the +world, how will you favor us with special manifestations of your goodness?" + +The twins served faithfully until the end, until the dark days of trial, +crucifixion, and despair. They never lost their heart faith in Jesus, and (save +John) they were the first to believe in his resurrection. But they could not +comprehend the establishment of the kingdom. Soon after their Master was +crucified, they returned to their families and nets; their work was done. They +had not the ability to go on in the more complex battles of the kingdom. But +they lived and died conscious of having been honored and blessed with four +years of close and personal association with a Son of God, the sovereign maker +of a universe. + +11. SIMON THE ZEALOT + +Simon Zelotes, the eleventh apostle, was chosen by Simon Peter. He was an able +man of good ancestry and lived with his family at Capernaum. He was +twenty-eight years old when he became attached to the apostles. He was a fiery +agitator and was also a man who spoke much without thinking. He had been a +merchant in Capernaum before he turned his entire attention to the patriotic +organization of the Zealots. + +Simon Zelotes was given charge of the diversions and relaxation of the +apostolic group, and he was a very efficient organizer of the play life and +recreational activities of the twelve. + +Simon's strength was his inspirational loyalty. When the apostles found a man +or woman who floundered in indecision about entering the kingdom, they would +send for Simon. It usually required only about fifteen minutes for this +enthusiastic advocate of salvation through faith in God to settle all doubts +and + + top of page - 1565 + +remove all indecision, to see a new soul born into the "liberty of faith and +the joy of salvation." + +Simon's great weakness was his material-mindedness. He could not quickly change +himself from a Jewish nationalist to a spiritually minded internationalist. +Four years was too short a time in which to make such an intellectual and +emotional transformation, but Jesus was always patient with him. + +The one thing about Jesus which Simon so much admired was the Master's +calmness, his assurance, poise, and inexplicable composure. + +Although Simon was a rabid revolutionist, a fearless firebrand of agitation, he +gradually subdued his fiery nature until he became a powerful and effective +preacher of "Peace on earth and good will among men." Simon was a great +debater; he did like to argue. And when it came to dealing with the legalistic +minds of the educated Jews or the intellectual quibblings of the Greeks, the +task was always assigned to Simon. + +He was a rebel by nature and an iconoclast by training, but Jesus won him for +the higher concepts of the kingdom of heaven. He had always identified himself +with the party of protest, but he now joined the party of progress, unlimited +and eternal progression of spirit and truth. Simon was a man of intense +loyalties and warm personal devotions, and he did profoundly love Jesus. + +Jesus was not afraid to identify himself with business men, laboring men, +optimists, pessimists, philosophers, skeptics, publicans, politicians, and +patriots. + +The Master had many talks with Simon, but he never fully succeeded in making an +internationalist out of this ardent Jewish nationalist. Jesus often told Simon +that it was proper to want to see the social, economic, and political orders +improved, but he would always add: "That is not the business of the kingdom of +heaven. We must be dedicated to the doing of the Father's will. Our business is +to be ambassadors of a spiritual government on high, and we must not +immediately concern ourselves with aught but the representation of the will and +character of the divine Father who stands at the head of the government whose +credentials we bear." It was all difficult for Simon to comprehend, but +gradually he began to grasp something of the meaning of the Master's teaching. + +After the dispersion because of the Jerusalem persecutions, Simon went into +temporary retirement. He was literally crushed. As a nationalist patriot he had +surrendered in deference to Jesus' teachings; now all was lost. He was in +despair, but in a few years he rallied his hopes and went forth to proclaim the +gospel of the kingdom. + +He went to Alexandria and, after working up the Nile, penetrated into the heart +of Africa, everywhere preaching the gospel of Jesus and baptizing believers. +Thus he labored until he was an old man and feeble. And he died and was buried +in the heart of Africa. + +12. JUDAS ISCARIOT + +Judas Iscariot, the twelfth apostle, was chosen by Nathaniel. He was born in +Kerioth, a small town in southern Judea. When he was a lad, his parents moved +to Jericho, where he lived and had been employed in his father's various +business enterprises until he became interested in the preaching and work of + + top of page - 1566 + +John the Baptist. Judas's parents were Sadducees, and when their son joined +John's disciples, they disowned him. + +When Nathaniel met Judas at Tarichea, he was seeking employment with a +fish-drying enterprise at the lower end of the Sea of Galilee. He was thirty +years of age and unmarried when he joined the apostles. He was probably the +best-educated man among the twelve and the only Judean in the Master's +apostolic family. Judas had no outstanding trait of personal strength, though +he had many outwardly appearing traits of culture and habits of training. He +was a good thinker but not always a truly honest thinker. Judas did not really +understand himself; he was not really sincere in dealing with himself. + +Andrew appointed Judas treasurer of the twelve, a position which he was +eminently fitted to hold, and up to the time of the betrayal of his Master he +discharged the responsibilities of his office honestly, faithfully, and most +efficiently. + +There was no special trait about Jesus which Judas admired above the generally +attractive and exquisitely charming personality of the Master. Judas was never +able to rise above his Judean prejudices against his Galilean associates; he +would even criticize in his mind many things about Jesus. Him whom eleven of +the apostles looked upon as the perfect man, as the "one altogether lovely and +the chiefest among ten thousand," this self-satisfied Judean often dared to +criticize in his own heart. He really entertained the notion that Jesus was +timid and somewhat afraid to assert his own power and authority. + +Judas was a good business man. It required tact, ability, and patience, as well +as painstaking devotion, to manage the financial affairs of such an idealist as +Jesus, to say nothing of wrestling with the helter-skelter business methods of +some of his apostles. Judas really was a great executive, a farseeing and able +financier. And he was a stickler for organization. None of the twelve ever +criticized Judas. As far as they could see, Judas Iscariot was a matchless +treasurer, a learned man, a loyal (though sometimes critical) apostle, and in +every sense of the word a great success. The apostles loved Judas; he was +really one of them. He must have believed in Jesus, but we doubt whether he +really loved the Master with a whole heart. The case of Judas illustrates the +truthfulness of that saying: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the +end thereof is death." It is altogether possible to fall victim to the peaceful +deception of pleasant adjustment to the paths of sin and death. Be assured that +Judas was always financially loyal to his Master and his fellow apostles. Money +could never have been the motive for his betrayal of the Master. + +Judas was an only son of unwise parents. When very young, he was pampered and +petted; he was a spoiled child. As he grew up, he had exaggerated ideas about +his self-importance. He was a poor loser. He had loose and distorted ideas +about fairness; he was given to the indulgence of hate and suspicion. He was an +expert at misinterpretation of the words and acts of his friends. All through +his life Judas had cultivated the habit of getting even with those whom he +fancied had mistreated him. His sense of values and loyalties was defective. + +To Jesus, Judas was a faith adventure. From the beginning the Master fully +understood the weakness of this apostle and well knew the dangers of admitting +him to fellowship. But it is the nature of the Sons of God to give every +created being a full and equal chance for salvation and survival. Jesus wanted +not only the mortals of this world but the onlookers of innumerable other +worlds to know + + top of page - 1567 + +that, when doubts exist as to the sincerity and wholeheartedness of a +creature's devotion to the kingdom, it is the invariable practice of the Judges +of men fully to receive the doubtful candidate. The door of eternal life is +wide open to all; "whosoever will may come"; there are no restrictions or +qualifications save the faith of the one who comes. + +This is just the reason why Jesus permitted Judas to go on to the very end, +always doing everything possible to transform and save this weak and confused +apostle. But when light is not honestly received and lived up to, it tends to +become darkness within the soul. Judas grew intellectually regarding Jesus' +teachings about the kingdom, but he did not make progress in the acquirement of +spiritual character as did the other apostles. He failed to make satisfactory +personal progress in spiritual experience. + +Judas became increasingly a brooder over personal disappointment, and finally +he became a victim of resentment. His feelings had been many times hurt, and he +grew abnormally suspicious of his best friends, even of the Master. Presently +he became obsessed with the idea of getting even, anything to avenge himself, +yes, even betrayal of his associates and his Master. + +But these wicked and dangerous ideas did not take definite shape until the day +when a grateful woman broke an expensive box of incense at Jesus' feet. This +seemed wasteful to Judas, and when his public protest was so sweepingly +disallowed by Jesus right there in the hearing of all, it was too much. That +event determined the mobilization of all the accumulated hate, hurt, malice, +prejudice, jealousy, and revenge of a lifetime, and he made up his mind to get +even with he knew not whom; but he crystallized all the evil of his nature upon +the one innocent person in all the sordid drama of his unfortunate life just +because Jesus happened to be the chief actor in the episode which marked his +passing from the progressive kingdom of light into that self-chosen domain of +darkness. + +The Master many times, both privately and publicly, had warned Judas that he +was slipping, but divine warnings are usually useless in dealing with +embittered human nature. Jesus did everything possible, consistent with man's +moral freedom, to prevent Judas's choosing to go the wrong way. The great test +finally came. The son of resentment failed; he yielded to the sour and sordid +dictates of a proud and vengeful mind of exaggerated self-importance and +swiftly plunged on down into confusion, despair, and depravity. + +Judas then entered into the base and shameful intrigue to betray his Lord and +Master and quickly carried the nefarious scheme into effect. During the +outworking of his anger-conceived plans of traitorous betrayal, he experienced +moments of regret and shame, and in these lucid intervals he faintheartedly +conceived, as a defense in his own mind, the idea that Jesus might possibly +exert his power and deliver himself at the last moment. + +When the sordid and sinful business was all over, this renegade mortal, who +thought lightly of selling his friend for thirty pieces of silver to satisfy +his long-nursed craving for revenge, rushed out and committed the final act in +the drama of fleeing from the realities of mortal existence--suicide. + +The eleven apostles were horrified, stunned. Jesus regarded the betrayer only +with pity. The worlds have found it difficult to forgive Judas, and his name +has become eschewed throughout a far-flung universe. + + top of page - 1568 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Training The ³ The Ordination ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Ki... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p140.txt b/religious documents/p140.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..87ed77c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p140.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1160 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 140 The Ordination Of The Twelve + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 140 The Ordination Of The Twelve + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +JUST before noon on Sunday, January 12, A.D. 27, Jesus called the apostles +together for their ordination as public preachers of the gospel of the kingdom. +The twelve were expecting to be called almost any day; so this morning they did +not go out far from the shore to fish. Several of them were lingering near the +shore repairing their nets and tinkering with their fishing paraphernalia. + +As Jesus started down the seashore calling the apostles, he first hailed Andrew +and Peter, who were fishing near the shore; next he signaled to James and John, +who were in a boat near by, visiting with their father, Zebedee, and mending +their nets. Two by two he gathered up the other apostles, and when he had +assembled all twelve, he journeyed with them to the highlands north of +Capernaum, where he proceeded to instruct them in preparation for their formal +ordination. + +For once all twelve of the apostles were silent; even Peter was in a reflective +mood. At last the long-waited-for hour had come! They were going apart with the +Master to participate in some sort of solemn ceremony of personal consecration +and collective dedication to the sacred work of representing their Master in +the proclamation of the coming of his Father's kingdom. + +1. PRELIMINARY INSTRUCTION + +Before the formal ordination service Jesus spoke to the twelve as they were +seated about him: "My brethren, this hour of the kingdom has come. I have +brought you apart here with me to present you to the Father as ambassadors of +the kingdom. Some of you heard me speak of this kingdom in the synagogue when +you first were called. Each of you has learned more about the Father's kingdom +since you have been with me working in the cities around about the Sea of +Galilee. But just now I have something more to tell you concerning this +kingdom. + +"The new kingdom which my Father is about to set up in the hearts of his earth +children is to be an everlasting dominion. There shall be no end of this rule +of my Father in the hearts of those who desire to do his divine will. I declare +to you that my Father is not the God of Jew or gentile. Many shall come from +the east and from the west to sit down with us in the Father's kingdom, while +many of the children of Abraham will refuse to enter this new brotherhood of +the rule of the Father's spirit in the hearts of the children of men. + +"The power of this kingdom shall consist, not in the strength of armies nor in +the might of riches, but rather in the glory of the divine spirit that shall +come to teach the minds and rule the hearts of the reborn citizens of this +heavenly kingdom, the sons of God. This is the brotherhood of love wherein +righteousness + + top of page - 1569 + +reigns, and whose battle cry shall be: Peace on earth and good will to all men. +This kingdom, which you are so soon to go forth proclaiming, is the desire of +the good men of all ages, the hope of all the earth, and the fulfillment of the +wise promises of all the prophets. + +"But for you, my children, and for all others who would follow you into this +kingdom, there is set a severe test. Faith alone will pass you through its +portals, but you must bring forth the fruits of my Father's spirit if you would +continue to ascend in the progressive life of the divine fellowship. Verily, +verily, I say to you, not every one who says, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the +kingdom of heaven; but rather he who does the will of my Father who is in +heaven. + +"Your message to the world shall be: Seek first the kingdom of God and his +righteousness, and in finding these, all other things essential to eternal +survival shall be secured therewith. And now would I make it plain to you that +this kingdom of my Father will not come with an outward show of power or with +unseemly demonstration. You are not to go hence in the proclamation of the +kingdom, saying, `it is here' or `it is there,' for this kingdom of which you +preach is God within you. + +"Whosoever would become great in my Father's kingdom shall become a minister to +all; and whosoever would be first among you, let him become the server of his +brethren. But when you are once truly received as citizens in the heavenly +kingdom, you are no longer servants but sons, sons of the living God. And so +shall this kingdom progress in the world until it shall break down every +barrier and bring all men to know my Father and believe in the saving truth +which I have come to declare. Even now is the kingdom at hand, and some of you +will not die until you have seen the reign of God come in great power. + +"And this which your eyes now behold, this small beginning of twelve +commonplace men, shall multiply and grow until eventually the whole earth shall +be filled with the praise of my Father. And it will not be so much by the words +you speak as by the lives you live that men will know you have been with me and +have learned of the realities of the kingdom. And while I would lay no grievous +burdens upon your minds, I am about to put upon your souls the solemn +responsibility of representing me in the world when I shall presently leave you +as I now represent my Father in this life which I am living in the flesh." And +when he had finished speaking, he stood up. + +2. THE ORDINATION + +Jesus now instructed the twelve mortals who had just listened to his +declaration concerning the kingdom to kneel in a circle about him. Then the +Master placed his hands upon the head of each apostle, beginning with Judas +Iscariot and ending with Andrew. When he had blessed them, he extended his +hands and prayed: + +"My Father, I now bring to you these men, my messengers. From among our +children on earth I have chosen these twelve to go forth to represent me as I +came forth to represent you. Love them and be with them as you have loved and +been with me. And now, my Father, give these men wisdom as I place all the +affairs of the coming kingdom in their hands. And I would, if it is your will, +tarry on earth a time to help them in their labors for the kingdom. And again, +my Father, I thank you for these men, and I commit them to your keeping while I +go on to finish the work you have given me to do." + + top of page - 1570 + +When Jesus had finished praying, the apostles remained each man bowed in his +place. And it was many minutes before even Peter dared lift up his eyes to look +upon the Master. One by one they embraced Jesus, but no man said aught. A great +silence pervaded the place while a host of celestial beings looked down upon +this solemn and sacred scene--the Creator of a universe placing the affairs of +the divine brotherhood of man under the direction of human minds. + +3. THE ORDINATION SERMON + +Then Jesus spoke, saying: "Now that you are ambassadors of my Father's kingdom, +you have thereby become a class of men separate and distinct from all other men +on earth. You are not now as men among men but as the enlightened citizens of +another and heavenly country among the ignorant creatures of this dark world. +It is not enough that you live as you were before this hour, but henceforth +must you live as those who have tasted the glories of a better life and have +been sent back to earth as ambassadors of the Sovereign of that new and better +world. Of the teacher more is expected than of the pupil; of the master more is +exacted than of the servant. Of the citizens of the heavenly kingdom more is +required than of the citizens of the earthly rule. Some of the things which I +am about to say to you may seem hard, but you have elected to represent me in +the world even as I now represent the Father; and as my agents on earth you +will be obligated to abide by those teachings and practices which are +reflective of my ideals of mortal living on the worlds of space, and which I +exemplify in my earth life of revealing the Father who is in heaven. + +"I send you forth to proclaim liberty to the spiritual captives, joy to those +in the bondage of fear, and to heal the sick in accordance with the will of my +Father in heaven. When you find my children in distress, speak encouragingly to +them, saying: + +"Happy are the poor in spirit, the humble, for theirs are the treasures of the +kingdom of heaven. + +"Happy are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be +filled. + +"Happy are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. + +"Happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. + +"And even so speak to my children these further words of spiritual comfort and +promise: + +"Happy are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Happy are they who +weep, for they shall receive the spirit of rejoicing. + +"Happy are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. + +"Happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. + +"Happy are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the +kingdom of heaven. Happy are you when men shall revile you and persecute you +and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely. Rejoice and be +exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. + +"My brethren, as I send you forth, you are the salt of the earth, salt with a +saving savor. But if this salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be +salted? It is henceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under +foot of men. + +"You are the light of the world. A city set upon a hill cannot be hid. Neither +do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it +gives + + top of page - 1571 + +light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they +may see your good works and be led to glorify your Father who is in heaven. + +"I am sending you out into the world to represent me and to act as ambassadors +of my Father's kingdom, and as you go forth to proclaim the glad tidings, put +your trust in the Father whose messengers you are. Do not forcibly resist +injustice; put not your trust in the arm of the flesh. If your neighbor smites +you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Be willing to suffer +injustice rather than to go to law among yourselves. In kindness and with mercy +minister to all who are in distress and in need. + +"I say to you: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those +who curse you, and pray for those who despitefully use you. And whatsoever you +believe that I would do to men, do you also to them. + +"Your Father in heaven makes the sun to shine on the evil as well as upon the +good; likewise he sends rain on the just and the unjust. You are the sons of +God; even more, you are now the ambassadors of my Father's kingdom. Be +merciful, even as God is merciful, and in the eternal future of the kingdom you +shall be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect. + +"You are commissioned to save men, not to judge them. At the end of your earth +life you will all expect mercy; therefore do I require of you during your +mortal life that you show mercy to all of your brethren in the flesh. Make not +the mistake of trying to pluck a mote out of your brother's eye when there is a +beam in your own eye. Having first cast the beam out of your own eye, you can +the better see to cast the mote out of your brother's eye. + +"Discern the truth clearly; live the righteous life fearlessly; and so shall +you be my apostles and my Father's ambassadors. You have heard it said: `If the +blind lead the blind, they both shall fall into the pit.' If you would guide +others into the kingdom, you must yourselves walk in the clear light of living +truth. In all the business of the kingdom I exhort you to show just judgment +and keen wisdom. Present not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast your +pearls before swine, lest they trample your gems under foot and turn to rend +you. + +"I warn you against false prophets who will come to you in sheep's clothing, +while on the inside they are as ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know +them. Do men gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles? Even so, every +good tree brings forth good fruit, but the corrupt tree bears evil fruit. A +good tree cannot yield evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good +fruit. Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is presently hewn down +and cast into the fire. In gaining an entrance into the kingdom of heaven, it +is the motive that counts. My Father looks into the hearts of men and judges by +their inner longings and their sincere intentions. + +"In the great day of the kingdom judgment, many will say to me, `Did we not +prophesy in your name and by your name do many wonderful works?' But I will be +compelled to say to them, `I never knew you; depart from me you who are false +teachers.' But every one who hears this charge and sincerely executes his +commission to represent me before men even as I have represented my Father to +you, shall find an abundant entrance into my service and into the kingdom of +the heavenly Father." + +Never before had the apostles heard Jesus speak in this way, for he had talked +to them as one having supreme authority. They came down from the mountain about +sundown, but no man asked Jesus a question. + + top of page - 1572 + +4. YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH + +The so-called "Sermon on the Mount" is not the gospel of Jesus. It does contain +much helpful instruction, but it was Jesus' ordination charge to the twelve +apostles. It was the Master's personal commission to those who were to go on +preaching the gospel and aspiring to represent him in the world of men even as +he was so eloquently and perfectly representative of his Father. + +"You are the salt of the earth, salt with a saving savor. But if this salt has +lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing +but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men." + +In Jesus' time salt was precious. It was even used for money. The modern word +"salary" is derived from salt. Salt not only flavors food, but it is also a +preservative. It makes other things more tasty, and thus it serves by being +spent. + +"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do +men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it +gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men +that they may see your good works and be led to glorify your Father who is in +heaven." + +While light dispels darkness, it can also be so "blinding" as to confuse and +frustrate. We are admonished to let our light so shine that our fellows will be +guided into new and godly paths of enhanced living. Our light should so shine +as not to attract attention to self. Even one's vocation can be utilized as an +effective "reflector" for the dissemination of this light of life. + +Strong characters are not derived from not doing wrong but rather from actually +doing right. Unselfishness is the badge of human greatness. The highest levels +of self-realization are attained by worship and service. The happy and +effective person is motivated, not by fear of wrongdoing, but by love of right +doing. + +"By their fruits you shall know them." Personality is basically changeless; +that which changes--grows--is the moral character. The major error of modern +religions is negativism. The tree which bears no fruit is "hewn down and cast +into the fire." Moral worth cannot be derived from mere repression--obeying the +injunction "Thou shalt not." Fear and shame are unworthy motivations for +religious living. Religion is valid only when it reveals the fatherhood of God +and enhances the brotherhood of men. + +An effective philosophy of living is formed by a combination of cosmic insight +and the total of one's emotional reactions to the social and economic +environment. Remember: While inherited urges cannot be fundamentally modified, +emotional responses to such urges can be changed; therefore the moral nature +can be modified, character can be improved. In the strong character emotional +responses are integrated and co-ordinated, and thus is produced a unified +personality. Deficient unification weakens the moral nature and engenders +unhappiness. + +Without a worthy goal, life becomes aimless and unprofitable, and much +unhappiness results. Jesus' discourse at the ordination of the twelve +constitutes a master philosophy of life. Jesus exhorted his followers to +exercise experiential faith. He admonished them not to depend on mere +intellectual assent, credulity, and established authority. + + top of page - 1573 + +Education should be a technique of learning (discovering) the better methods of +gratifying our natural and inherited urges, and happiness is the resulting +total of these enhanced techniques of emotional satisfactions. Happiness is +little dependent on environment, though pleasing surroundings may greatly +contribute thereto. + +Every mortal really craves to be a complete person, to be perfect even as the +Father in heaven is perfect, and such attainment is possible because in the +last analysis the "universe is truly fatherly." + +5. FATHERLY AND BROTHERLY LOVE + +From the Sermon on the Mount to the discourse of the Last Supper, Jesus taught +his followers to manifest fatherly love rather than brotherly love. Brotherly +love would love your neighbor as you love yourself, and that would be adequate +fulfillment of the "golden rule." But fatherly affection would require that you +should love your fellow mortals as Jesus loves you. + +Jesus loves mankind with a dual affection. He lived on earth as a twofold +personality--human and divine. As the Son of God he loves man with a fatherly +love--he is man's Creator, his universe Father. As the Son of Man, Jesus loves +mortals as a brother--he was truly a man among men. + +Jesus did not expect his followers to achieve an impossible manifestation of +brotherly love, but he did expect them to so strive to be like God--to be +perfect even as the Father in heaven is perfect--that they could begin to look +upon man as God looks upon his creatures and therefore could begin to love men +as God loves them--to show forth the beginnings of a fatherly affection. In the +course of these exhortations to the twelve apostles, Jesus sought to reveal +this new concept of fatherly love as it is related to certain emotional +attitudes concerned in making numerous environmental social adjustments. + +The Master introduced this momentous discourse by calling attention to four +faith attitudes as the prelude to the subsequent portrayal of his four +transcendent and supreme reactions of fatherly love in contrast to the +limitations of mere brotherly love. + +He first talked about those who were poor in spirit, hungered after +righteousness, endured meekness, and who were pure in heart. Such +spirit-discerning mortals could be expected to attain such levels of divine +selflessness as to be able to attempt the amazing exercise of fatherly +affection; that even as mourners they would be empowered to show mercy, promote +peace, and endure persecutions, and throughout all of these trying situations +to love even unlovely mankind with a fatherly love. A father's affection can +attain levels of devotion that immeasurably transcend a brother's affection. + +The faith and the love of these beatitudes strengthen moral character and +create happiness. Fear and anger weaken character and destroy happiness. This +momentous sermon started out upon the note of happiness. + +1. "Happy are the poor in spirit--the humble." To a child, happiness is the +satisfaction of immediate pleasure craving. The adult is willing to sow seeds +of self-denial in order to reap subsequent harvests of augmented happiness. In +Jesus' times and since, happiness has all too often been associated with the +idea of the possession of wealth. In the story of the Pharisee and the publican +praying in the temple, the one felt rich in spirit egotistical; the other felt +"poor in spirit"-- + + top of page - 1574 + +humble. One was self-sufficient; the other was teachable and truth-seeking. The +poor in spirit seek for goals of spiritual wealth--for God. And such seekers +after truth do not have to wait for rewards in a distant future; they are +rewarded now. They find the kingdom of heaven within their own hearts, and they +experience such happiness now. + +2. "Happy are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be +filled." Only those who feel poor in spirit will ever hunger for righteousness. +Only the humble seek for divine strength and crave spiritual power. But it is +most dangerous to knowingly engage in spiritual fasting in order to improve +one's appetite for spiritual endowments. Physical fasting becomes dangerous +after four or five days; one is apt to lose all desire for food. Prolonged +fasting, either physical or spiritual, tends to destroy hunger. + +Experiential righteousness is a pleasure, not a duty. Jesus' righteousness is a +dynamic love--fatherly-brotherly affection. It is not the negative or +thou-shalt-not type of righteousness. How could one ever hunger for something +negative--something "not to do"? + +It is not so easy to teach a child mind these first two of the beatitudes, but +the mature mind should grasp their significance. + +3. "Happy are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Genuine meekness has +no relation to fear. It is rather an attitude of man co-operating with +God--"Your will be done." It embraces patience and forbearance and is motivated +by an unshakable faith in a lawful and friendly universe. It masters all +temptations to rebel against the divine leading. Jesus was the ideal meek man +of Urantia, and he inherited a vast universe. + +4. "Happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Spiritual purity is +not a negative quality, except that it does lack suspicion and revenge. In +discussing purity, Jesus did not intend to deal exclusively with human sex +attitudes. He referred more to that faith which man should have in his fellow +man; that faith which a parent has in his child, and which enables him to love +his fellows even as a father would love them. A father's love need not pamper, +and it does not condone evil, but it is always anticynical. Fatherly love has +singleness of purpose, and it always looks for the best in man; that is the +attitude of a true parent. + +To see God--by faith--means to acquire true spiritual insight. And spiritual +insight enhances Adjuster guidance, and these in the end augment +God-consciousness. And when you know the Father, you are confirmed in the +assurance of divine sonship, and you can increasingly love each of your +brothers in the flesh, not only as a brother--with brotherly love--but also as +a father--with fatherly affection. + +It is easy to teach this admonition even to a child. Children are naturally +trustful, and parents should see to it that they do not lose that simple faith. +In dealing with children, avoid all deception and refrain from suggesting +suspicion. Wisely help them to choose their heroes and select their lifework. + +And then Jesus went on to instruct his followers in the realization of the +chief purpose of all human struggling--perfection--even divine attainment. +Always he admonished them: "Be you perfect, even as your Father in heaven is +perfect." He did not exhort the twelve to love their neighbors as they loved +themselves. That would have been a worthy achievement; it would have indicated +the achievement of brotherly love. He rather admonished his apostles to love +men as + + top of page - 1575 + +he had loved them--to love with a fatherly as well as a brotherly affection. +And he illustrated this by pointing out four supreme reactions of fatherly +love: + +1. "Happy are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." So-called common +sense or the best of logic would never suggest that happiness could be derived +from mourning. But Jesus did not refer to outward or ostentatious mourning. He +alluded to an emotional attitude of tenderheartedness. It is a great error to +teach boys and young men that it is unmanly to show tenderness or otherwise to +give evidence of emotional feeling or physical suffering. Sympathy is a worthy +attribute of the male as well as the female. It is not necessary to be +calloused in order to be manly. This is the wrong way to create courageous men. +The world's great men have not been afraid to mourn. Moses, the mourner, was a +greater man than either Samson or Goliath. Moses was a superb leader, but he +was also a man of meekness. Being sensitive and responsive to human need +creates genuine and lasting happiness, while such kindly attitudes safeguard +the soul from the destructive influences of anger, hate, and suspicion. + +2. "Happy are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Mercy here denotes +the height and depth and breadth of the truest friendship--loving-kindness. +Mercy sometimes may be passive, but here it is active and dynamic--supreme +fatherliness. A loving parent experiences little difficulty in forgiving his +child, even many times. And in an unspoiled child the urge to relieve suffering +is natural. Children are normally kind and sympathetic when old enough to +appreciate actual conditions. + +3. "Happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God." +Jesus' hearers were longing for military deliverance, not for peacemakers. But +Jesus' peace is not of the pacific and negative kind. In the face of trials and +persecutions he said, "My peace I leave with you." "Let not your heart be +troubled, neither let it be afraid." This is the peace that prevents ruinous +conflicts. Personal peace integrates personality. Social peace prevents fear, +greed, and anger. Political peace prevents race antagonisms, national +suspicions, and war. Peacemaking is the cure of distrust and suspicion. + +Children can easily be taught to function as peacemakers. They enjoy team +activities; they like to play together. Said the Master at another time: +"Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life +shall find it." + +4. "Happy are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is +the kingdom of heaven. Happy are you when men shall revile you and persecute +you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely. Rejoice and be +exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven." + +So often persecution does follow peace. But young people and brave adults never +shun difficulty or danger. "Greater love has no man than to lay down his life +for his friends." And a fatherly love can freely do all these things--things +which brotherly love can hardly encompass. And progress has always been the +final harvest of persecution. + +Children always respond to the challenge of courage. Youth is ever willing to +"take a dare." And every child should early learn to sacrifice. + +And so it is revealed that the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount are based +on faith and love and not on law--ethics and duty. + +Fatherly love delights in returning good for evil--doing good in retaliation +for injustice. + + top of page - 1576 + +6. THE EVENING OF THE ORDINATION + +Sunday evening, on reaching the home of Zebedee from the highlands north of +Capernaum, Jesus and the twelve partook of a simple meal. Afterward, while +Jesus went for a walk along the beach, the twelve talked among themselves. +After a brief conference, while the twins built a small fire to give them +warmth and more light, Andrew went out to find Jesus, and when he had overtaken +him, he said: "Master, my brethren are unable to comprehend what you have said +about the kingdom. We do not feel able to begin this work until you have given +us further instruction. I have come to ask you to join us in the garden and +help us to understand the meaning of your words." And Jesus went with Andrew to +meet with the apostles. + +When he had entered the garden, he gathered the apostles around him and taught +them further, saying: "You find it difficult to receive my message because you +would build the new teaching directly upon the old, but I declare that you must +be reborn. You must start out afresh as little children and be willing to trust +my teaching and believe in God. The new gospel of the kingdom cannot be made to +conform to that which is. You have wrong ideas of the Son of Man and his +mission on earth. But do not make the mistake of thinking that I have come to +set aside the law and the prophets; I have not come to destroy but to fulfill, +to enlarge and illuminate. I come not to transgress the law but rather to write +these new commandments on the tablets of your hearts. + +"I demand of you a righteousness that shall exceed the righteousness of those +who seek to obtain the Father's favor by almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. If +you would enter the kingdom, you must have a righteousness that consists in +love, mercy, and truth--the sincere desire to do the will of my Father in +heaven." + +Then said Simon Peter: "Master, if you have a new commandment, we would hear +it. Reveal the new way to us." Jesus answered Peter: "You have heard it said by +those who teach the law: `You shall not kill; that whosoever kills shall be +subject to judgment.' But I look beyond the act to uncover the motive. I +declare to you that every one who is angry with his brother is in danger of +condemnation. He who nurses hatred in his heart and plans vengeance in his mind +stands in danger of judgment. You must judge your fellows by their deeds; the +Father in heaven judges by the intent. + +"You have heard the teachers of the law say, `You shall not commit adultery.' +But I say to you that every man who looks upon a woman with intent to lust +after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. You can only +judge men by their acts, but my Father looks into the hearts of his children +and in mercy adjudges them in accordance with their intents and real desires." + +Jesus was minded to go on discussing the other commandments when James Zebedee +interrupted him, asking: "Master, what shall we teach the people regarding +divorcement? Shall we allow a man to divorce his wife as Moses has directed?" +And when Jesus heard this question, he said: "I have not come to legislate but +to enlighten. I have come not to reform the kingdoms of this world but rather +to establish the kingdom of heaven. It is not the will of the Father that I +should yield to the temptation to teach you rules of government, trade, or +social behavior, which, while they might be good for today, would be far from +suitable for the society of another age. I am on earth solely to comfort the +minds, liberate the spirits, and save the souls of men. But I will say, +concerning this + + top of page - 1577 + +question of divorcement, that, while Moses looked with favor upon such things, +it was not so in the days of Adam and in the Garden." + +After the apostles had talked among themselves for a short time, Jesus went on +to say: "Always must you recognize the two viewpoints of all mortal +conduct--the human and the divine; the ways of the flesh and the way of the +spirit; the estimate of time and the viewpoint of eternity." And though the +twelve could not comprehend all that he taught them, they were truly helped by +this instruction. + +And then said Jesus: "But you will stumble over my teaching because you are +wont to interpret my message literally; you are slow to discern the spirit of +my teaching. Again must you remember that you are my messengers; you are +beholden to live your lives as I have in spirit lived mine. You are my personal +representatives; but do not err in expecting all men to live as you do in every +particular. Also must you remember that I have sheep not of this flock, and +that I am beholden to them also, to the end that I must provide for them the +pattern of doing the will of God while living the life of the mortal nature." + +Then asked Nathaniel: "Master, shall we give no place to justice? The law of +Moses says, `An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' What shall we say?" +And Jesus answered: "You shall return good for evil. My messengers must not +strive with men, but be gentle toward all. Measure for measure shall not be +your rule. The rulers of men may have such laws, but not so in the kingdom; +mercy always shall determine your judgments and love your conduct. And if these +are hard sayings, you can even now turn back. If you find the requirements of +apostleship too hard, you may return to the less rigorous pathway of +discipleship." + +On hearing these startling words, the apostles drew apart by themselves for a +while, but they soon returned, and Peter said: "Master, we would go on with +you; not one of us would turn back. We are fully prepared to pay the extra +price; we will drink the cup. We would be apostles, not merely disciples." + +When Jesus heard this, he said: "Be willing, then, to take up your +responsibilities and follow me. Do your good deeds in secret; when you give +alms, let not the left hand know what the right hand does. And when you pray, +go apart by yourselves and use not vain repetitions and meaningless phrases. +Always remember that the Father knows what you need even before you ask him. +And be not given to fasting with a sad countenance to be seen by men. As my +chosen apostles, now set apart for the service of the kingdom, lay not up for +yourselves treasures on earth, but by your unselfish service lay up for +yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasures are, there will your +hearts be also. + +"The lamp of the body is the eye; if, therefore, your eye is generous, your +whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is selfish, the whole body +will be filled with darkness. If the very light which is in you is turned to +darkness, how great is that darkness! " + +And then Thomas asked Jesus if they should "continue having everything in +common." Said the Master: "Yes, my brethren, I would that we should live +together as one understanding family. You are intrusted with a great work, and +I crave your undivided service. You know that it has been well said: `No man +can serve two masters.' You cannot sincerely worship God and at the same time +wholeheartedly serve mammon. Having now enlisted unreservedly in the work of +the kingdom, be not anxious for your lives; much less be concerned with what +you shall eat or what you shall drink; nor yet for your bodies, what clothing +you shall wear. Already have you learned that willing hands and earnest hearts +shall not go hungry. And now, when you prepare to devote all of your energies +to the + + top of page - 1578 + +work of the kingdom, be assured that the Father will not be unmindful of your +needs. Seek first the kingdom of God, and when you have found entrance thereto, +all things needful shall be added to you. Be not, therefore, unduly anxious for +the morrow. Sufficient for the day is the trouble thereof." + +When Jesus saw they were disposed to stay up all night to ask questions, he +said to them: "My brethren, you are earthen vessels; it is best for you to go +to your rest so as to be ready for the morrow's work." But sleep had departed +from their eyes. Peter ventured to request of his Master that "I have just a +little private talk with you. Not that I would have secrets from my brethren, +but I have a troubled spirit, and if, perchance, I should deserve a rebuke from +my Master, I could the better endure it alone with you." And Jesus said, "Come +with me, Peter"--leading the way into the house. When Peter returned from the +presence of his Master much cheered and greatly encouraged, James decided to go +in to talk with Jesus. And so on through the early hours of the morning, the +other apostles went in one by one to talk with the Master. When they had all +held personal conferences with him save the twins, who had fallen asleep, +Andrew went in to Jesus and said: "Master, the twins have fallen asleep in the +garden by the fire; shall I arouse them to inquire if they would also talk with +you?" And Jesus smilingly said to Andrew, "They do well--trouble them not." And +now the night was passing; the light of another day was dawning. + +7. THE WEEK FOLLOWING THE ORDINATION + +After a few hours' sleep, when the twelve were assembled for a late breakfast +with Jesus, he said: "Now must you begin your work of preaching the glad +tidings and instructing believers. Make ready to go to Jerusalem." After Jesus +had spoken, Thomas mustered up courage to say: "I know, Master, that we should +now be ready to enter upon the work, but I fear we are not yet able to +accomplish this great undertaking. Would you consent for us to stay hereabouts +for just a few days more before we begin the work of the kingdom?" And when +Jesus saw that all of his apostles were possessed by this same fear, he said: +"It shall be as you have requested; we will remain here over the Sabbath day." + +For weeks and weeks small groups of earnest truth seekers, together with +curious spectators, had been coming to Bethsaida to see Jesus. Already word +about him had spread over the countryside; inquiring groups had come from +cities as far away as Tyre, Sidon, Damascus, Caesarea, and Jerusalem. +Heretofore, Jesus had greeted these people and taught them concerning the +kingdom, but the Master now turned this work over to the twelve. Andrew would +select one of the apostles and assign him to a group of visitors, and sometimes +all twelve of them were so engaged. + +For two days they worked, teaching by day and holding private conferences late +into the night. On the third day Jesus visited with Zebedee and Salome while he +sent his apostles off to "go fishing, seek carefree change, or perchance visit +your families." On Thursday they returned for three more days of teaching. + +During this week of rehearsing, Jesus many times repeated to his apostles the +two great motives of his postbaptismal mission on earth: + +1. To reveal the Father to man. + +2. To lead men to become son-conscious--to faith-realize that they are the +children of the Most High. + + top of page - 1579 + +One week of this varied experience did much for the twelve; some even became +over self-confident. At the last conference, the night after the Sabbath, Peter +and James came to Jesus, saying, "We are ready--let us now go forth to take the +kingdom." To which Jesus replied, "May your wisdom equal your zeal and your +courage atone for your ignorance." + +Though the apostles failed to comprehend much of his teaching, they did not +fail to grasp the significance of the charmingly beautiful life he lived with +them. + +8. THURSDAY AFTERNOON ON THE LAKE + +Jesus well knew that his apostles were not fully assimilating his teachings. He +decided to give some special instruction to Peter, James, and John, hoping they +would be able to clarify the ideas of their associates. He saw that, while some +features of the idea of a spiritual kingdom were being grasped by the twelve, +they steadfastly persisted in attaching these new spiritual teachings directly +onto their old and entrenched literal concepts of the kingdom of heaven as a +restoration of David's throne and the re-establishment of Israel as a temporal +power on earth. Accordingly, on Thursday afternoon Jesus went out from the +shore in a boat with Peter, James, and John to talk over the affairs of the +kingdom. This was a four hours' teaching conference, embracing scores of +questions and answers, and may most profitably be put in this record by +reorganizing the summary of this momentous afternoon as it was given by Simon +Peter to his brother, Andrew, the following morning: + +1. Doing the Father's will. Jesus' teaching to trust in the overcare of the +heavenly Father was not a blind and passive fatalism. He quoted with approval, +on this afternoon, an old Hebrew saying: "He who will not work shall not eat." +He pointed to his own experience as sufficient commentary on his teachings. His +precepts about trusting the Father must not be adjudged by the social or +economic conditions of modern times or any other age. His instruction embraces +the ideal principles of living near God in all ages and on all worlds. + +Jesus made clear to the three the difference between the requirements of +apostleship and discipleship. And even then he did not forbid the exercise of +prudence and foresight by the twelve. What he preached against was not +forethought but anxiety, worry. He taught the active and alert submission to +God's will. In answer to many of their questions regarding frugality and +thriftiness, he simply called attention to his life as carpenter, boatmaker, +and fisherman, and to his careful organization of the twelve. He sought to make +it clear that the world is not to be regarded as an enemy; that the +circumstances of life constitute a divine dispensation working along with the +children of God. + +Jesus had great difficulty in getting them to understand his personal practice +of nonresistance. He absolutely refused to defend himself, and it appeared to +the apostles that he would be pleased if they would pursue the same policy. He +taught them not to resist evil, not to combat injustice or injury, but he did +not teach passive tolerance of wrongdoing. And he made it plain on this +afternoon that he approved of the social punishment of evildoers and criminals, +and that the civil government must sometimes employ force for the maintenance +of social order and in the execution of justice. + +He never ceased to warn his disciples against the evil practice of retaliation; +he made no allowance for revenge, the idea of getting even. He deplored the +hold- + + top of page - 1580 + +ing of grudges. He disallowed the idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a +tooth. He discountenanced the whole concept of private and personal revenge, +assigning these matters to civil government, on the one hand, and to the +judgment of God, on the other. He made it clear to the three that his teachings +applied to the individual, not the state. He summarized his instructions up to +that time regarding these matters, as: + +Love your enemies--remember the moral claims of human brotherhood. + +The futility of evil: A wrong is not righted by vengeance. Do not make the +mistake of fighting evil with its own weapons. + +Have faith--confidence in the eventual triumph of divine justice and eternal +goodness. + +2. Political attitude. He cautioned his apostles to be discreet in their +remarks concerning the strained relations then existing between the Jewish +people and the Roman government; he forbade them to become in any way embroiled +in these difficulties. He was always careful to avoid the political snares of +his enemies, ever making reply, "Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's +and to God the things which are God's." He refused to have his attention +diverted from his mission of establishing a new way of salvation; he would not +permit himself to be concerned about anything else. In his personal life he was +always duly observant of all civil laws and regulations; in all his public +teachings he ignored the civic, social, and economic realms. He told the three +apostles that he was concerned only with the principles of man's inner and +personal spiritual life. + +Jesus was not, therefore, a political reformer. He did not come to reorganize +the world; even if he had done this, it would have been applicable only to that +day and generation. Nevertheless, he did show man the best way of living, and +no generation is exempt from the labor of discovering how best to adapt Jesus' +life to its own problems. But never make the mistake of identifying Jesus' +teachings with any political or economic theory, with any social or industrial +system. + +3. Social attitude. The Jewish rabbis had long debated the question: Who is my +neighbor? Jesus came presenting the idea of active and spontaneous kindness, a +love of one's fellow men so genuine that it expanded the neighborhood to +include the whole world, thereby making all men one's neighbors. But with all +this, Jesus was interested only in the individual, not the mass. Jesus was not +a sociologist, but he did labor to break down all forms of selfish isolation. +He taught pure sympathy, compassion. Michael of Nebadon is a mercy-dominated +Son; compassion is his very nature. + +The Master did not say that men should never entertain their friends at meat, +but he did say that his followers should make feasts for the poor and the +unfortunate. Jesus had a firm sense of justice, but it was always tempered with +mercy. He did not teach his apostles that they were to be imposed upon by +social parasites or professional alms-seekers. The nearest he came to making +sociological pronouncements was to say, "Judge not, that you be not judged." + +He made it clear that indiscriminate kindness may be blamed for many social +evils. The following day Jesus definitely instructed Judas that no apostolic +funds were to be given out as alms except upon his request or upon the joint +petition of two of the apostles. In all these matters it was the practice of +Jesus always to say, "Be as wise as serpents but as harmless as doves." It +seemed to be his purpose in all social situations to teach patience, tolerance, +and forgiveness. + + top of page - 1581 + +The family occupied the very center of Jesus' philosophy of life--here and +hereafter. He based his teachings about God on the family, while he sought to +correct the Jewish tendency to overhonor ancestors. He exalted family life as +the highest human duty but made it plain that family relationships must not +interfere with religious obligations. He called attention to the fact that the +family is a temporal institution; that it does not survive death. Jesus did not +hesitate to give up his family when the family ran counter to the Father's +will. He taught the new and larger brotherhood of man--the sons of God. In +Jesus' time divorce practices were lax in Palestine and throughout the Roman +Empire. He repeatedly refused to lay down laws regarding marriage and divorce, +but many of Jesus' early followers had strong opinions on divorce and did not +hesitate to attribute them to him. All of the New Testament writers held to +these more stringent and advanced ideas about divorce except John Mark. + +4. Economic attitude. Jesus worked, lived, and traded in the world as he found +it. He was not an economic reformer, although he did frequently call attention +to the injustice of the unequal distribution of wealth. But he did not offer +any suggestions by way of remedy. He made it plain to the three that, while his +apostles were not to hold property, he was not preaching against wealth and +property, merely its unequal and unfair distribution. He recognized the need +for social justice and industrial fairness, but he offered no rules for their +attainment. + +He never taught his followers to avoid earthly possessions, only his twelve +apostles. Luke, the physician, was a strong believer in social equality, and he +did much to interpret Jesus' sayings in harmony with his personal beliefs. +Jesus never personally directed his followers to adopt a communal mode of life; +he made no pronouncement of any sort regarding such matters. + +Jesus frequently warned his listeners against covetousness, declaring that "a +man's happiness consists not in the abundance of his material possessions." He +constantly reiterated, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world +and lose his own soul?" He made no direct attack on the possession of property, +but he did insist that it is eternally essential that spiritual values come +first. In his later teachings he sought to correct many erroneous Urantia views +of life by narrating numerous parables which he presented in the course of his +public ministry. Jesus never intended to formulate economic theories; he well +knew that each age must evolve its own remedies for existing troubles. And if +Jesus were on earth today, living his life in the flesh, he would be a great +disappointment to the majority of good men and women for the simple reason that +he would not take sides in present-day political, social, or economic disputes. +He would remain grandly aloof while teaching you how to perfect your inner +spiritual life so as to render you manyfold more competent to attack the +solution of your purely human problems. + +Jesus would make all men Godlike and then stand by sympathetically while these +sons of God solve their own political, social, and economic problems. It was +not wealth that he denounced, but what wealth does to the majority of its +devotees. On this Thursday afternoon Jesus first told his associates that "it +is more blessed to give than to receive." + +5. Personal religion. You, as did his apostles, should the better understand +Jesus' teachings by his life. He lived a perfected life on Urantia, and his +unique + + top of page - 1582 + +teachings can only be understood when that life is visualized in its immediate +background. It is his life, and not his lessons to the twelve or his sermons to +the multitudes, that will assist most in revealing the Father's divine +character and loving personality. + +Jesus did not attack the teachings of the Hebrew prophets or the Greek +moralists. The Master recognized the many good things which these great +teachers stood for, but he had come down to earth to teach something +additional, "the voluntary conformity of man's will to God's will." Jesus did +not want simply to produce a religious man, a mortal wholly occupied with +religious feelings and actuated only by spiritual impulses. Could you have had +but one look at him, you would have known that Jesus was a real man of great +experience in the things of this world. The teachings of Jesus in this respect +have been grossly perverted and much misrepresented all down through the +centuries of the Christian era; you have also held perverted ideas about the +Master's meekness and humility. What he aimed at in his life appears to have +been a superb self-respect. He only advised man to humble himself that he might +become truly exalted; what he really aimed at was true humility toward God. He +placed great value upon sincerity--a pure heart. Fidelity was a cardinal virtue +in his estimate of character, while courage was the very heart of his +teachings. "Fear not" was his watchword, and patient endurance his ideal of +strength of character. The teachings of Jesus constitute a religion of valor, +courage, and heroism. And this is just why he chose as his personal +representatives twelve commonplace men, the majority of whom were rugged, +virile, and manly fishermen. + +Jesus had little to say about the social vices of his day; seldom did he make +reference to moral delinquency. He was a positive teacher of true virtue. He +studiously avoided the negative method of imparting instruction; he refused to +advertise evil. He was not even a moral reformer. He well knew, and so taught +his apostles, that the sensual urges of mankind are not suppressed by either +religious rebuke or legal prohibitions. His few denunciations were largely +directed against pride, cruelty, oppression, and hypocrisy. + +Jesus did not vehemently denounce even the Pharisees, as did John. He knew many +of the scribes and Pharisees were honest of heart; he understood their +enslaving bondage to religious traditions. Jesus laid great emphasis on "first +making the tree good." He impressed the three that he valued the whole life, +not just a certain few special virtues. + +The one thing which John gained from this day's teaching was that the heart of +Jesus' religion consisted in the acquirement of a compassionate character +coupled with a personality motivated to do the will of the Father in heaven. + +Peter grasped the idea that the gospel they were about to proclaim was really a +fresh beginning for the whole human race. He conveyed this impression +subsequently to Paul, who formulated therefrom his doctrine of Christ as "the +second Adam." + +James grasped the thrilling truth that Jesus wanted his children on earth to +live as though they were already citizens of the completed heavenly kingdom. + +Jesus knew men were different, and he so taught his apostles. He constantly +exhorted them to refrain from trying to mold the disciples and believers +according to some set pattern. He sought to allow each soul to develop in its +own way, a perfecting and separate individual before God. In answer to one of +Peter's + + top of page - 1583 + +many questions, the Master said: "I want to set men free so that they can start +out afresh as little children upon the new and better life." Jesus always +insisted that true goodness must be unconscious, in bestowing charity not +allowing the left hand to know what the right hand does. + +The three apostles were shocked this afternoon when they realized that their +Master's religion made no provision for spiritual self-examination. All +religions before and after the times of Jesus, even Christianity, carefully +provide for conscientious self-examination. But not so with the religion of +Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus' philosophy of life is without religious +introspection. The carpenter's son never taught character building; he taught +character growth, declaring that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. +But Jesus said nothing which would proscribe self-analysis as a prevention of +conceited egotism. + +The right to enter the kingdom is conditioned by faith, personal belief. The +cost of remaining in the progressive ascent of the kingdom is the pearl of +great price, in order to possess which a man sells all that he has. + +The teaching of Jesus is a religion for everybody, not alone for weaklings and +slaves. His religion never became crystallized (during his day) into creeds and +theological laws; he left not a line of writing behind him. His life and +teachings were bequeathed the universe as an inspirational and idealistic +inheritance suitable for the spiritual guidance and moral instruction of all +ages on all worlds. And even today, Jesus' teaching stands apart from all +religions, as such, albeit it is the living hope of every one of them. + +Jesus did not teach his apostles that religion is man's only earthly pursuit; +that was the Jewish idea of serving God. But he did insist that religion was +the exclusive business of the twelve. Jesus taught nothing to deter his +believers from the pursuit of genuine culture; he only detracted from the +tradition-bound religious schools of Jerusalem. He was liberal, bighearted, +learned, and tolerant. Self-conscious piety had no place in his philosophy of +righteous living. + +The Master offered no solutions for the nonreligious problems of his own age +nor for any subsequent age. Jesus wished to develop spiritual insight into +eternal realities and to stimulate initiative in the originality of living; he +concerned himself exclusively with the underlying and permanent spiritual needs +of the human race. He revealed a goodness equal to God. He exalted love--truth, +beauty, and goodness--as the divine ideal and the eternal reality. + +The Master came to create in man a new spirit, a new will--to impart a new +capacity for knowing the truth, experiencing compassion, and choosing +goodness--the will to be in harmony with God's will, coupled with the eternal +urge to become perfect, even as the Father in heaven is perfect. + +9. THE DAY OF CONSECRATION + +The next Sabbath day Jesus devoted to his apostles, journeying back to the +highland where he had ordained them; and there, after a long and beautifully +touching personal message of encouragement, he engaged in the solemn act of the +consecration of the twelve. This Sabbath afternoon Jesus assembled the apostles +around him on the hillside and gave them into the hands of his heavenly Father +in preparation for the day when he would be compelled to leave them alone in +the world. There was no new teaching on this occasion, just visiting and +communion. + + top of page - 1584 + +Jesus reviewed many features of the ordination sermon, delivered on this same +spot, and then, calling them before him one by one, he commissioned them to go +forth in the world as his representatives. The Master's consecration charge +was: "Go into all the world and preach the glad tidings of the kingdom. +Liberate spiritual captives, comfort the oppressed, and minister to the +afflicted. Freely you have received, freely give." + +Jesus advised them to take neither money nor extra clothing, saying, "The +laborer is worthy of his hire." And finally he said: "Behold I send you forth +as sheep in the midst of wolves; be you therefore as wise as serpents and as +harmless as doves. But take heed, for your enemies will bring you up before +their councils, while in their synagogues they will castigate you. Before +governors and rulers you will be brought because you believe this gospel, and +your very testimony shall be a witness for me to them. And when they lead you +to judgment, be not anxious about what you shall say, for the spirit of my +Father indwells you and will at such a time speak through you. Some of you will +be put to death, and before you establish the kingdom on earth, you will be +hated by many peoples because of this gospel; but fear not; I will be with you, +and my spirit shall go before you into all the world. And my Father's presence +will abide with you while you go first to the Jews, then to the gentiles." + +And when they came down from the mountain, they journeyed back to their home in +Zebedee's house. + +10. THE EVENING AFTER THE CONSECRATION + +That evening while teaching in the house, for it had begun to rain, Jesus +talked at great length, trying to show the twelve what they must be,not what +they must do. They knew only a religion that imposed the doing of certain +things as the means of attaining righteousness--salvation. But Jesus would +reiterate, "In the kingdom you must be righteous in order to do the work." Many +times did he repeat, "Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven +is perfect." All the while was the Master explaining to his bewildered apostles +that the salvation which he had come to bring to the world was to be had only +by believing, by simple and sincere faith. Said Jesus: "John preached a baptism +of repentance, sorrow for the old way of living. You are to proclaim the +baptism of fellowship with God. Preach repentance to those who stand in need of +such teaching, but to those already seeking sincere entrance to the kingdom, +open the doors wide and bid them enter into the joyous fellowship of the sons +of God." But it was a difficult task to persuade these Galilean fishermen that, +in the kingdom, being righteous, by faith, must precede doing righteousness in +the daily life of the mortals of earth. + +Another great handicap in this work of teaching the twelve was their tendency +to take highly idealistic and spiritual principles of religious truth and +remake them into concrete rules of personal conduct. Jesus would present to +them the beautiful spirit of the soul's attitude, but they insisted on +translating such teachings into rules of personal behavior. Many times, when +they did make sure to remember what the Master said, they were almost certain +to forget what he did not say. But they slowly assimilated his teaching because +Jesus was all that he taught. What they could not gain from his verbal +instruction, they gradually acquired by living with him. + + top of page - 1585 + +It was not apparent to the apostles that their Master was engaged in living a +life of spiritual inspiration for every person of every age on every world of a +far-flung universe. Notwithstanding what Jesus told them from time to time, the +apostles did not grasp the idea that he was doing a work on this world but for +all other worlds in his vast creation. Jesus lived his earth life on Urantia, +not to set a personal example of mortal living for the men and women of this +world, but rather to create a high spiritual and inspirational ideal for all +mortal beings on all worlds. + +This same evening Thomas asked Jesus: "Master, you say that we must become as +little children before we can gain entrance to the Father's kingdom, and yet +you have warned us not to be deceived by false prophets nor to become guilty of +casting our pearls before swine. Now, I am honestly puzzled. I cannot +understand your teaching." Jesus replied to Thomas: "How long shall I bear with +you! Ever you insist on making literal all that I teach. When I asked you to +become as little children as the price of entering the kingdom, I referred not +to ease of deception, mere willingness to believe, nor to quickness to trust +pleasing strangers. What I did desire that you should gather from the +illustration was the child-father relationship. You are the child, and it is +your Father's kingdom you seek to enter. There is present that natural +affection between every normal child and its father which insures an +understanding and loving relationship, and which forever precludes all +disposition to bargain for the Father's love and mercy. And the gospel you are +going forth to preach has to do with a salvation growing out of the +faith-realization of this very and eternal child-father relationship." + +The one characteristic of Jesus' teaching was that the morality of his +philosophy originated in the personal relation of the individual to God--this +very child-father relationship. Jesus placed emphasis on the individual, not on +the race or nation. While eating supper, Jesus had the talk with Matthew in +which he explained that the morality of any act is determined by the +individual's motive. Jesus' morality was always positive. The golden rule as +restated by Jesus demands active social contact; the older negative rule could +be obeyed in isolation. Jesus stripped morality of all rules and ceremonies and +elevated it to majestic levels of spiritual thinking and truly righteous +living. + +This new religion of Jesus was not without its practical implications, but +whatever of practical political, social, or economic value there is to be found +in his teaching is the natural outworking of this inner experience of the soul +as it manifests the fruits of the spirit in the spontaneous daily ministry of +genuine personal religious experience. + +After Jesus and Matthew had finished talking, Simon Zelotes asked, "But, +Master, are all men the sons of God?" And Jesus answered: "Yes, Simon, all men +are the sons of God, and that is the good news you are going to proclaim." But +the apostles could not grasp such a doctrine; it was a new, strange, and +startling announcement. And it was because of his desire to impress this truth +upon them that Jesus taught his followers to treat all men as their brothers. + +In response to a question asked by Andrew, the Master made it clear that the +morality of his teaching was inseparable from the religion of his living. He +taught morality, not from the nature of man, but from the relation of man to +God. + +John asked Jesus, "Master, what is the kingdom of heaven?" And Jesus answered: +"The kingdom of heaven consists in these three essentials: first, recog- + + top of page - 1586 + +nition of the fact of the sovereignty of God; second, belief in the truth of +sonship with God; and third, faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human +desire to do the will of God--to be like God. And this is the good news of the +gospel: that by faith every mortal may have all these essentials of salvation." + +And now the week of waiting was over, and they prepared to depart on the morrow +for Jerusalem. + + top of page - 1587 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Twelve ³ Beginning The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Apos... ³ P... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p141.txt b/religious documents/p141.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2ed742 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p141.txt @@ -0,0 +1,588 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 141 Beginning The Public Work + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 141 Beginning The Public Work + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ON THE first day of the week, January 19, A.D. 27, Jesus and the twelve +apostles made ready to depart from their headquarters in Bethsaida. The twelve +knew nothing of their Master's plans except that they were going up to +Jerusalem to attend the Passover feast in April, and that it was the intention +to journey by way of the Jordan valley. They did not get away from Zebedee's +house until near noon because the families of the apostles and others of the +disciples had come to say good-bye and wish them well in the new work they were +about to begin. + +Just before leaving, the apostles missed the Master, and Andrew went out to +find him. After a brief search he found Jesus sitting in a boat down the beach, +and he was weeping. The twelve had often seen their Master when he seemed to +grieve, and they had beheld his brief seasons of serious preoccupation of mind, +but none of them had ever seen him weep. Andrew was somewhat startled to see +the Master thus affected on the eve of their departure for Jerusalem, and he +ventured to approach Jesus and ask: "On this great day, Master, when we are to +depart for Jerusalem to proclaim the Father's kingdom, why is it that you weep? +Which of us has offended you?" And Jesus, going back with Andrew to join the +twelve, answered him: "No one of you has grieved me. I am saddened only because +none of my father Joseph's family have remembered to come over to bid us +Godspeed." At this time Ruth was on a visit to her brother Joseph at Nazareth. +Other members of his family were kept away by pride, disappointment, +misunderstanding, and petty resentment indulged as a result of hurt feelings + +1. LEAVING GALILEE + +Capernaum was not far from Tiberias, and the fame of Jesus had begun to spread +well over all of Galilee and even to parts beyond. Jesus knew that Herod would +soon begin to take notice of his work; so he thought best to journey south and +into Judea with his apostles. A company of over one hundred believers desired +to go with them, but Jesus spoke to them and besought them not to accompany the +apostolic group on their way down the Jordan. Though they consented to remain +behind, many of them followed after the Master within a few days. + +The first day Jesus and the apostles only journeyed as far as Tarichea, where +they rested for the night. The next day they traveled to a point on the Jordan +near Pella where John had preached about one year before, and where Jesus had +received baptism. Here they tarried for more than two weeks, teaching and +preaching. By the end of the first week several hundred people had assembled in + + top of page - 1588 + +a camp near where Jesus and the twelve dwelt, and they had come from Galilee, +Phoenicia, Syria, the Decapolis, Perea, and Judea. + +Jesus did no public preaching. Andrew divided the multitude and assigned the +preachers for the forenoon and afternoon assemblies; after the evening meal +Jesus talked with the twelve. He taught them nothing new but reviewed his +former teaching and answered their many questions. On one of these evenings he +told the twelve something about the forty days which he spent in the hills near +this place. + +Many of those who came from Perea and Judea had been baptized by John and were +interested in finding out more about Jesus' teachings. The apostles made much +progress in teaching the disciples of John inasmuch as they did not in any way +detract from John's preaching, and since they did not at this time even baptize +their new disciples. But it was always a stumbling stone to John's followers +that Jesus, if he were all that John had announced, did nothing to get him out +of prison. John's disciples never could understand why Jesus did not prevent +the cruel death of their beloved leader. + +From night to night Andrew carefully instructed his fellow apostles in the +delicate and difficult task of getting along smoothly with the followers of +John the Baptist. During this first year of Jesus' public ministry more than +three fourths of his followers had previously followed John and had received +his baptism. This entire year of A.D. 27 was spent in quietly taking over +John's work in Perea and Judea. + +2. GOD'S LAW AND THE FATHER'S WILL + +The night before they left Pella, Jesus gave the apostles some further +instruction with regard to the new kingdom. Said the Master: "You have been +taught to look for the coming of the kingdom of God, and now I come announcing +that this long-looked-for kingdom is near at hand, even that it is already here +and in our midst. In every kingdom there must be a king seated upon his throne +and decreeing the laws of the realm. And so have you developed a concept of the +kingdom of heaven as a glorified rule of the Jewish people over all the peoples +of the earth with Messiah sitting on David's throne and from this place of +miraculous power promulgating the laws of all the world. But, my children, you +see not with the eye of faith, and you hear not with the understanding of the +spirit. I declare that the kingdom of heaven is the realization and +acknowledgment of God's rule within the hearts of men. True, there is a King in +this kingdom, and that King is my Father and your Father. We are indeed his +loyal subjects, but far transcending that fact is the transforming truth that +we are his sons. In my life this truth is to become manifest to all. Our Father +also sits upon a throne, but not one made with hands. The throne of the +Infinite is the eternal dwelling place of the Father in the heaven of heavens; +he fills all things and proclaims his laws to universes upon universes. And the +Father also rules within the hearts of his children on earth by the spirit +which he has sent to live within the souls of mortal men. + +"When you are the subjects of this kingdom, you indeed are made to hear the law +of the Universe Ruler; but when, because of the gospel of the kingdom which I +have come to declare, you faith-discover yourselves as sons, you henceforth +look not upon yourselves as law-subject creatures of an all-powerful king but +as privileged sons of a loving and divine Father. Verily, verily, I say to you, + + top of page - 1589 + +when the Father's will is your law, you are hardly in the kingdom. But when the +Father's will becomes truly your will, then are you in very truth in the +kingdom because the kingdom has thereby become an established experience in +you. When God's will is your law, you are noble slave subjects; but when you +believe in this new gospel of divine sonship, my Father's will becomes your +will, and you are elevated to the high position of the free children of God, +liberated sons of the kingdom." + +Some of the apostles grasped something of this teaching, but none of them +comprehended the full significance of this tremendous announcement, unless it +was James Zebedee. But these words sank into their hearts and came forth to +gladden their ministry during later years of service. + +3. THE SOJOURN AT AMATHUS + +The Master and his apostles remained near Amathus for almost three weeks. The +apostles continued to preach twice daily to the multitude, and Jesus preached +each Sabbath afternoon. It became impossible to continue the Wednesday +playtime; so Andrew arranged that two apostles should rest each day of the six +days in the week, while all were on duty during the Sabbath services. + +Peter, James, and John did most of the public preaching. Philip, Nathaniel, +Thomas, and Simon did much of the personal work and conducted classes for +special groups of inquirers; the twins continued their general police +supervision, while Andrew, Matthew, and Judas developed into a general +managerial committee of three, although each of these three also did +considerable religious work. + +Andrew was much occupied with the task of adjusting the constantly recurring +misunderstandings and disagreements between the disciples of John and the newer +disciples of Jesus. Serious situations would arise every few days, but Andrew, +with the assistance of his apostolic associates, managed to induce the +contending parties to come to some sort of agreement, at least temporarily. +Jesus refused to participate in any of these conferences; neither would he give +any advice about the proper adjustment of these difficulties. He never once +offered a suggestion as to how the apostles should solve these perplexing +problems. When Andrew came to Jesus with these questions, he would always say: +"It is not wise for the host to participate in the family troubles of his +guests; a wise parent never takes sides in the petty quarrels of his own +children." + +The Master displayed great wisdom and manifested perfect fairness in all of his +dealings with his apostles and with all of his disciples. Jesus was truly a +master of men; he exercised great influence over his fellow men because of the +combined charm and force of his personality. There was a subtle commanding +influence in his rugged, nomadic, and homeless life. There was intellectual +attractiveness and spiritual drawing power in his authoritative manner of +teaching, in his lucid logic, his strength of reasoning, his sagacious insight, +his alertness of mind, his matchless poise, and his sublime tolerance. He was +simple, manly, honest, and fearless. With all of this physical and intellectual +influence manifest in the Master's presence, there were also all those +spiritual charms of being which have become associated with his +personality--patience, tenderness, meekness, gentleness, and humility. + +Jesus of Nazareth was indeed a strong and forceful personality; he was an +intellectual power and a spiritual stronghold. His personality not only +appealed + + top of page - 1590 + +to the spiritually minded women among his followers, but also to the educated +and intellectual Nicodemus and to the hardy Roman soldier, the captain +stationed on guard at the cross, who, when he had finished watching the Master +die, said, "Truly, this was a Son of God." And red-blooded, rugged Galilean +fishermen called him Master. + +The pictures of Jesus have been most unfortunate. These paintings of the Christ +have exerted a deleterious influence on youth; the temple merchants would +hardly have fled before Jesus if he had been such a man as your artists usually +have depicted. His was a dignified manhood; he was good, but natural. Jesus did +not pose as a mild, sweet, gentle, and kindly mystic. His teaching was +thrillingly dynamic. He not only meant well, but he went about actually doing +good. + +The Master never said, "Come to me all you who are indolent and all who are +dreamers." But he did many times say, "Come to me all you who labor, and I will +give you rest--spiritual strength." The Master's yoke is, indeed, easy, but +even so, he never imposes it; every individual must take this yoke of his own +free will. + +Jesus portrayed conquest by sacrifice, the sacrifice of pride and selfishness. +By showing mercy, he meant to portray spiritual deliverance from all grudges, +grievances, anger, and the lust for selfish power and revenge. And when he +said, "Resist not evil," he later explained that he did not mean to condone sin +or to counsel fraternity with iniquity. He intended the more to teach +forgiveness, to "resist not evil treatment of one's personality, evil injury to +one's feelings of personal dignity." + +4. TEACHING ABOUT THE FATHER + +While sojourning at Amathus, Jesus spent much time with the apostles +instructing them in the new concept of God; again and again did he impress upon +them that God is a Father, not a great and supreme bookkeeper who is chiefly +engaged in making damaging entries against his erring children on earth, +recordings of sin and evil to be used against them when he subsequently sits in +judgment upon them as the just Judge of all creation. The Jews had long +conceived of God as a king over all, even as a Father of the nation, but never +before had large numbers of mortal men held the idea of God as a loving Father +of the individual. + +In answer to Thomas's question, "Who is this God of the kingdom?" Jesus +replied: "God is your Father, and religion--my gospel--is nothing more nor less +than the believing recognition of the truth that you are his son. And I am here +among you in the flesh to make clear both of these ideas in my life and +teachings." + +Jesus also sought to free the minds of his apostles from the idea of offering +animal sacrifices as a religious duty. But these men, trained in the religion +of the daily sacrifice, were slow to comprehend what he meant. Nevertheless, +the Master did not grow weary in his teaching. When he failed to reach the +minds of all of the apostles by means of one illustration, he would restate his +message and employ another type of parable for purposes of illumination. + +At this same time Jesus began to teach the twelve more fully concerning their +mission "to comfort the afflicted and minister to the sick." The Master taught +them much about the whole man--the union of body, mind, and spirit to form the +individual man or woman. Jesus told his associates about the three forms of + + top of page - 1591 + +affliction they would meet and went on to explain how they should minister to +all who suffer the sorrows of human sickness. He taught them to recognize: + +1. Diseases of the flesh--those afflictions commonly regarded as physical +sickness. + +2. Troubled minds--those nonphysical afflictions which were subsequently looked +upon as emotional and mental difficulties and disturbances. + +3. The possession of evil spirits. + +Jesus explained to his apostles on several occasions the nature, and something +concerning the origin, of these evil spirits, in that day often also called +unclean spirits. The Master well knew the difference between the possession of +evil spirits and insanity, but the apostles did not. Neither was it possible, +in view of their limited knowledge of the early history of Urantia, for Jesus +to undertake to make this matter fully understandable. But he many times said +to them, alluding to these evil spirits: "They shall no more molest men when I +shall have ascended to my Father in heaven, and after I shall have poured out +my spirit upon all flesh in those times when the kingdom will come in great +power and spiritual glory." + +From week to week and from month to month, throughout this entire year, the +apostles paid more and more attention to the healing ministry of the sick. + +5. SPIRITUAL UNITY + +One of the most eventful of all the evening conferences at Amathus was the +session having to do with the discussion of spiritual unity. James Zebedee had +asked, "Master, how shall we learn to see alike and thereby enjoy more harmony +among ourselves?" When Jesus heard this question, he was stirred within his +spirit, so much so that he replied: "James, James, when did I teach you that +you should all see alike? I have come into the world to proclaim spiritual +liberty to the end that mortals may be empowered to live individual lives of +originality and freedom before God. I do not desire that social harmony and +fraternal peace shall be purchased by the sacrifice of free personality and +spiritual originality. What I require of you, my apostles, is spirit unity--and +that you can experience in the joy of your united dedication to the +wholehearted doing of the will of my Father in heaven. You do not have to see +alike or feel alike or even think alike in order spiritually to be alike. +Spiritual unity is derived from the consciousness that each of you is indwelt, +and increasingly dominated, by the spirit gift of the heavenly Father. Your +apostolic harmony must grow out of the fact that the spirit hope of each of you +is identical in origin, nature, and destiny. + +"In this way you may experience a perfected unity of spirit purpose and spirit +understanding growing out of the mutual consciousness of the identity of each +of your indwelling Paradise spirits; and you may enjoy all of this profound +spiritual unity in the very face of the utmost diversity of your individual +attitudes of intellectual thinking, temperamental feeling, and social conduct. +Your personalities may be refreshingly diverse and markedly different, while +your spiritual natures and spirit fruits of divine worship and brotherly love +may be so unified that all who behold your lives will of a surety take +cognizance of this spirit identity and soul unity; they will recognize that you +have been with me and have thereby learned, and acceptably, how to do the will +of the Father in heaven. You can achieve the unity of the service of God even +while you render + + top of page - 1592 + +such service in accordance with the technique of your own original endowments +of mind, body, and soul. + +"Your spirit unity implies two things, which always will be found to harmonize +in the lives of individual believers: First, you are possessed with a common +motive for life service; you all desire above everything to do the will of the +Father in heaven. Second, you all have a common goal of existence; you all +purpose to find the Father in heaven, thereby proving to the universe that you +have become like him." + +Many times during the training of the twelve Jesus reverted to this theme. +Repeatedly he told them it was not his desire that those who believed in him +should become dogmatized and standardized in accordance with the religious +interpretations of even good men. Again and again he warned his apostles +against the formulation of creeds and the establishment of traditions as a +means of guiding and controlling believers in the gospel of the kingdom. + +6. LAST WEEK AT AMATHUS + +Near the end of the last week at Amathus, Simon Zelotes brought to Jesus one +Teherma, a Persian doing business at Damascus. Teherma had heard of Jesus and +had come to Capernaum to see him, and there learning that Jesus had gone with +his apostles down the Jordan on the way to Jerusalem, he set out to find him. +Andrew had presented Teherma to Simon for instruction. Simon looked upon the +Persian as a "fire worshiper," although Teherma took great pains to explain +that fire was only the visible symbol of the Pure and Holy One. After talking +with Jesus, the Persian signified his intention of remaining for several days +to hear the teaching and listen to the preaching. + +When Simon Zelotes and Jesus were alone, Simon asked the Master: "Why is it +that I could not persuade him? Why did he so resist me and so readily lend an +ear to you?" Jesus answered: "Simon, Simon, how many times have I instructed +you to refrain from all efforts to take something out of the hearts of those +who seek salvation? How often have I told you to labor only to put something +into these hungry souls? Lead men into the kingdom, and the great and living +truths of the kingdom will presently drive out all serious error. When you have +presented to mortal man the good news that God is his Father, you can the +easier persuade him that he is in reality a son of God. And having done that, +you have brought the light of salvation to the one who sits in darkness. Simon, +when the Son of Man came first to you, did he come denouncing Moses and the +prophets and proclaiming a new and better way of life? No. I came not to take +away that which you had from your forefathers but to show you the perfected +vision of that which your fathers saw only in part. Go then, Simon, teaching +and preaching the kingdom, and when you have a man safely and securely within +the kingdom, then is the time, when such a one shall come to you with +inquiries, to impart instruction having to do with the progressive advancement +of the soul within the divine kingdom." + +Simon was astonished at these words, but he did as Jesus had instructed him, +and Teherma, the Persian, was numbered among those who entered the kingdom. + +That night Jesus discoursed to the apostles on the new life in the kingdom. He +said in part: "When you enter the kingdom, you are reborn. You cannot teach the +deep things of the spirit to those who have been born only of the flesh; first + + top of page - 1593 + +see that men are born of the spirit before you seek to instruct them in the +advanced ways of the spirit. Do not undertake to show men the beauties of the +temple until you have first taken them into the temple. Introduce men to God +and as the sons of God before you discourse on the doctrines of the fatherhood +of God and the sonship of men. Do not strive with men--always be patient. It is +not your kingdom; you are only ambassadors. Simply go forth proclaiming: This +is the kingdom of heaven--God is your Father and you are his sons, and this +good news, if you wholeheartedly believe it, is your eternal salvation." + +The apostles made great progress during the sojourn at Amathus. But they were +very much disappointed that Jesus would give them no suggestions about dealing +with John's disciples. Even in the important matter of baptism, all that Jesus +said was: "John did indeed baptize with water, but when you enter the kingdom +of heaven, you shall be baptized with the Spirit." + +7. AT BETHANY BEYOND JORDAN + +On February 26, Jesus, his apostles, and a large group of followers journeyed +down the Jordan to the ford near Bethany in Perea, the place where John first +made proclamation of the coming kingdom. Jesus with his apostles remained here, +teaching and preaching, for four weeks before they went on up to Jerusalem. + +The second week of the sojourn at Bethany beyond Jordan, Jesus took Peter, +James, and John into the hills across the river and south of Jericho for a +three days' rest. The Master taught these three many new and advanced truths +about the kingdom of heaven. For the purpose of this record we will reorganize +and classify these teachings as follows: + +Jesus endeavored to make clear that he desired his disciples, having tasted of +the good spirit realities of the kingdom, so to live in the world that men, by +seeing their lives, would become kingdom conscious and hence be led to inquire +of believers concerning the ways of the kingdom. All such sincere seekers for +the truth are always glad to hear the glad tidings of the faith gift which +insures admission to the kingdom with its eternal and divine spirit realities. + +The Master sought to impress upon all teachers of the gospel of the kingdom +that their only business was to reveal God to the individual man as his +Father--to lead this individual man to become son-conscious; then to present +this same man to God as his faith son. Both of these essential revelations are +accomplished in Jesus. He became, indeed, "the way, the truth, and the life." +The religion of Jesus was wholly based on the living of his bestowal life on +earth. When Jesus departed from this world, he left behind no books, laws, or +other forms of human organization affecting the religious life of the +individual. + +Jesus made it plain that he had come to establish personal and eternal +relations with men which should forever take precedence over all other human +relationships. And he emphasized that this intimate spiritual fellowship was to +be extended to all men of all ages and of all social conditions among all +peoples. The only reward which he held out for his children was: in this +world--spiritual joy and divine communion; in the next world--eternal life in +the progress of the divine spirit realities of the Paradise Father. + +Jesus laid great emphasis upon what he called the two truths of first import in +the teachings of the kingdom, and they are: the attainment of salvation by +faith, and faith alone, associated with the revolutionary teaching of the +attain- + + top of page - 1594 + +ment of human liberty through the sincere recognition of truth, "You shall know +the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Jesus was the truth made +manifest in the flesh, and he promised to send his Spirit of Truth into the +hearts of all his children after his return to the Father in heaven. + +The Master was teaching these apostles the essentials of truth for an entire +age on earth. They often listened to his teachings when in reality what he said +was intended for the inspiration and edification of other worlds. He +exemplified a new and original plan of life. From the human standpoint he was +indeed a Jew, but he lived his life for all the world as a mortal of the realm. + +To insure the recognition of his Father in the unfolding of the plan of the +kingdom, Jesus explained that he had purposely ignored the "great men of +earth." He began his work with the poor, the very class which had been so +neglected by most of the evolutionary religions of preceding times. He despised +no man; his plan was world-wide, even universal. He was so bold and emphatic in +these announcements that even Peter, James, and John were tempted to think he +might possibly be beside himself. + +He sought mildly to impart to these apostles the truth that he had come on this +bestowal mission, not to set an example for a few earth creatures, but to +establish and demonstrate a standard of human life for all peoples upon all +worlds throughout his entire universe. And this standard approached the highest +perfection, even the final goodness of the Universal Father. But the apostles +could not grasp the meaning of his words. + +He announced that he had come to function as a teacher, a teacher sent from +heaven to present spiritual truth to the material mind. And this is exactly +what he did; he was a teacher, not a preacher. From the human viewpoint Peter +was a much more effective preacher than Jesus. Jesus' preaching was so +effective because of his unique personality, not so much because of compelling +oratory or emotional appeal. Jesus spoke directly to men's souls. He was a +teacher of man's spirit, but through the mind. He lived with men. + +It was on this occasion that Jesus intimated to Peter, James, and John that his +work on earth was in some respects to be limited by the commission of his +"associate on high," referring to the prebestowal instructions of his Paradise +brother, Immanuel. He told them that he had come to do his Father's will and +only his Father's will. Being thus motivated by a wholehearted singleness of +purpose, he was not anxiously bothered by the evil in the world. + +The apostles were beginning to recognize the unaffected friendliness of Jesus. +Though the Master was easy of approach, he always lived independent of, and +above, all human beings. Not for one moment was he ever dominated by any purely +mortal influence or subject to frail human judgment. He paid no attention to +public opinion, and he was uninfluenced by praise. He seldom paused to correct +misunderstandings or to resent misrepresentation. He never asked any man for +advice; he never made requests for prayers. + +James was astonished at how Jesus seemed to see the end from the beginning. The +Master rarely appeared to be surprised. He was never excited, vexed, or +disconcerted. He never apologized to any man. He was at times saddened, but +never discouraged. + +More clearly John recognized that, notwithstanding all of his divine +endowments, after all, he was human. Jesus lived as a man among men and +understood, loved, and knew how to manage men. In his personal life he was so +human, and yet so faultless. And he was always unselfish. + + top of page - 1595 + +Although Peter, James, and John could not understand very much of what Jesus +said on this occasion, his gracious words lingered in their hearts, and after +the crucifixion and resurrection they came forth greatly to enrich and gladden +their subsequent ministry. No wonder these apostles did not fully comprehend +the Master's words, for he was projecting to them the plan of a new age. + +8. WORKING IN JERICHO + +Throughout the four weeks' sojourn at Bethany beyond Jordan, several times each +week Andrew would assign apostolic couples to go up to Jericho for a day or +two. John had many believers in Jericho, and the majority of them welcomed the +more advanced teachings of Jesus and his apostles. On these Jericho visits the +apostles began more specifically to carry out Jesus' instructions to minister +to the sick; they visited every house in the city and sought to comfort every +afflicted person. + +The apostles did some public work in Jericho, but their efforts were chiefly of +a more quiet and personal nature. They now made the discovery that the good +news of the kingdom was very comforting to the sick; that their message carried +healing for the afflicted. And it was in Jericho that Jesus' commission to the +twelve to preach the glad tidings of the kingdom and minister to the afflicted +was first fully carried into effect. + +They stopped in Jericho on the way up to Jerusalem and were overtaken by a +delegation from Mesopotamia that had come to confer with Jesus. The apostles +had planned to spend but a day here, but when these truth seekers from the East +arrived, Jesus spent three days with them, and they returned to their various +homes along the Euphrates happy in the knowledge of the new truths of the +kingdom of heaven. + +9. DEPARTING FOR JERUSALEM + +On Monday, the last day of March, Jesus and the apostles began their journey up +the hills toward Jerusalem. Lazarus of Bethany had been down to the Jordan +twice to see Jesus, and every arrangement had been made for the Master and his +apostles to make their headquarters with Lazarus and his sisters at Bethany as +long as they might desire to stay in Jerusalem. + +The disciples of John remained at Bethany beyond the Jordan, teaching and +baptizing the multitudes, so that Jesus was accompanied only by the twelve when +he arrived at Lazarus's home. Here Jesus and the apostles tarried for five +days, resting and refreshing themselves before going on to Jerusalem for the +Passover. It was a great event in the lives of Martha and Mary to have the +Master and his apostles in the home of their brother, where they could minister +to their needs. + +On Sunday morning, April 6, Jesus and the apostles went down to Jerusalem; and +this was the first time the Master and all of the twelve had been there +together. + + top of page - 1596 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Ordination ³ The Passover ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ At... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p142.txt b/religious documents/p142.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f53e1c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p142.txt @@ -0,0 +1,681 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 142 The Passover At Jerusalem + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 142 The Passover At Jerusalem + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE month of April Jesus and the apostles worked in Jerusalem, going out of the +city each evening to spend the night at Bethany. Jesus himself spent one or two +nights each week in Jerusalem at the home of Flavius, a Greek Jew, where many +prominent Jews came in secret to interview him. + +The first day in Jerusalem Jesus called upon his friend of former years, Annas, +the onetime high priest and relative of Salome, Zebedee's wife. Annas had been +hearing about Jesus and his teachings, and when Jesus called at the high +priest's home, he was received with much reserve. When Jesus perceived Annas's +coldness, he took immediate leave, saying as he departed: "Fear is man's chief +enslaver and pride his great weakness; will you betray yourself into bondage to +both of these destroyers of joy and liberty?" But Annas made no reply. The +Master did not again see Annas until the time when he sat with his son-in-law +in judgment on the Son of Man. + +1. TEACHING IN THE TEMPLE + +Throughout this month Jesus or one of the apostles taught daily in the temple. +When the Passover crowds were too great to find entrance to the temple +teaching, the apostles conducted many teaching groups outside the sacred +precincts. The burden of their message was: + +1. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. + +2. By faith in the fatherhood of God you may enter the kingdom of heaven, thus +becoming the sons of God. + +3. Love is the rule of living within the kingdom--supreme devotion to God while +loving your neighbor as yourself. + +4. Obedience to the will of the Father, yielding the fruits of the spirit in +one's personal life, is the law of the kingdom. + +The multitudes who came to celebrate the Passover heard this teaching of Jesus, +and hundreds of them rejoiced in the good news. The chief priests and rulers of +the Jews became much concerned about Jesus and his apostles and debated among +themselves as to what should be done with them. + +Besides teaching in and about the temple, the apostles and other believers were +engaged in doing much personal work among the Passover throngs. These +interested men and women carried the news of Jesus' message from this Passover +celebration to the uttermost parts of the Roman Empire and also to the East. +This was the beginning of the spread of the gospel of the kingdom to the +outside world. No longer was the work of Jesus to be confined to Palestine. + + top of page - 1597 + +2. GOD'S WRATH + +There was in Jerusalem in attendance upon the Passover festivities one Jacob, a +wealthy Jewish trader from Crete, and he came to Andrew making request to see +Jesus privately. Andrew arranged this secret meeting with Jesus at Flavius's +home the evening of the next day. This man could not comprehend the Master's +teachings, and he came because he desired to inquire more fully about the +kingdom of God. Said Jacob to Jesus: "But, Rabbi, Moses and the olden prophets +tell us that Yahweh is a jealous God, a God of great wrath and fierce anger. +The prophets say he hates evildoers and takes vengeance on those who obey not +his law. You and your disciples teach us that God is a kind and compassionate +Father who so loves all men that he would welcome them into this new kingdom of +heaven, which you proclaim is so near at hand." + +When Jacob finished speaking, Jesus replied: "Jacob, you have well stated the +teachings of the olden prophets who taught the children of their generation in +accordance with the light of their day. Our Father in Paradise is changeless. +But the concept of his nature has enlarged and grown from the days of Moses +down through the times of Amos and even to the generation of the prophet +Isaiah. And now have I come in the flesh to reveal the Father in new glory and +to show forth his love and mercy to all men on all worlds. As the gospel of +this kingdom shall spread over the world with its message of good cheer and +good will to all men, there will grow up improved and better relations among +the families of all nations. As time passes, fathers and their children will +love each other more, and thus will be brought about a better understanding of +the love of the Father in heaven for his children on earth. Remember, Jacob, +that a good and true father not only loves his family as a whole--as a +family--but he also truly loves and affectionately cares for each individual +member." + +After considerable discussion of the heavenly Father's character, Jesus paused +to say: "You, Jacob, being a father of many, know well the truth of my words." +And Jacob said: "But, Master, who told you I was the father of six children? +How did you know this about me?" And the Master replied: "Suffice it to say +that the Father and the Son know all things, for indeed they see all. Loving +your children as a father on earth, you must now accept as a reality the love +of the heavenly Father for you--not just for all the children of Abraham, but +for you, your individual soul." + +Then Jesus went on to say: "When your children are very young and immature, and +when you must chastise them, they may reflect that their father is angry and +filled with resentful wrath. Their immaturity cannot penetrate beyond the +punishment to discern the father's farseeing and corrective affection. But when +these same children become grown-up men and women, would it not be folly for +them to cling to these earlier and misconceived notions regarding their father? +As men and women they should now discern their father's love in all these early +disciplines. And should not mankind, as the centuries pass, come the better to +understand the true nature and loving character of the Father in heaven? What +profit have you from successive generations of spiritual illumination if you +persist in viewing God as Moses and the prophets saw him? I say to you, Jacob, +under the bright light of this hour you should see the Father as none of those +who have gone before ever beheld him. And thus seeing him, you should rejoice + + top of page - 1598 + +to enter the kingdom wherein such a merciful Father rules, and you should seek +to have his will of love dominate your life henceforth." + +And Jacob answered: "Rabbi, I believe; I desire that you lead me into the +Father's kingdom." + +3. THE CONCEPT OF GOD + +The twelve apostles, most of whom had listened to this discussion of the +character of God, that night asked Jesus many questions about the Father in +heaven. The Master's answers to these questions can best be presented by the +following summary in modern phraseology: + +Jesus mildly upbraided the twelve, in substance saying: Do you not know the +traditions of Israel relating to the growth of the idea of Yahweh, and are you +ignorant of the teaching of the Scriptures concerning the doctrine of God? And +then did the Master proceed to instruct the apostles about the evolution of the +concept of Deity throughout the course of the development of the Jewish people. +He called attention to the following phases of the growth of the God idea: + +1. Yahweh--the god of the Sinai clans. This was the primitive concept of Deity +which Moses exalted to the higher level of the Lord God of Israel. The Father +in heaven never fails to accept the sincere worship of his children on earth, +no matter how crude their concept of Deity or by what name they symbolize his +divine nature. + +2. The Most High. This concept of the Father in heaven was proclaimed by +Melchizedek to Abraham and was carried far from Salem by those who subsequently +believed in this enlarged and expanded idea of Deity. Abraham and his brother +left Ur because of the establishment of sun worship, and they became believers +in Melchizedek's teaching of El Elyon--the Most High God. Theirs was a +composite concept of God, consisting in a blending of their older Mesopotamian +ideas and the Most High doctrine. + +3. El Shaddai. During these early days many of the Hebrews worshiped El +Shaddai, the Egyptian concept of the God of heaven, which they learned about +during their captivity in the land of the Nile. Long after the times of +Melchizedek all three of these concepts of God became joined together to form +the doctrine of the creator Deity, the Lord God of Israel. + +4. Elohim. From the times of Adam the teaching of the Paradise Trinity has +persisted. Do you not recall how the Scriptures begin by asserting that "In the +beginning the Gods created the heavens and the earth"? This indicates that when +that record was made the Trinity concept of three Gods in one had found +lodgment in the religion of our forebears. + +5. The Supreme Yahweh. By the times of Isaiah these beliefs about God had +expanded into the concept of a Universal Creator who was simultaneously +all-powerful and all-merciful. And this evolving and enlarging concept of God +virtually supplanted all previous ideas of Deity in our fathers' religion. + +6. The Father in heaven. And now do we know God as our Father in heaven. Our +teaching provides a religion wherein the believer is a son of God. That is the +good news of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. Coexistent with the Father +are the Son and the Spirit, and the revelation of the nature and ministry + + top of page - 1599 + +of these Paradise Deities will continue to enlarge and brighten throughout the +endless ages of the eternal spiritual progression of the ascending sons of God. +At all times and during all ages the true worship of any human being--as +concerns individual spiritual progress--is recognized by the indwelling spirit +as homage rendered to the Father in heaven. + +Never before had the apostles been so shocked as they were upon hearing this +recounting of the growth of the concept of God in the Jewish minds of previous +generations; they were too bewildered to ask questions. As they sat before +Jesus in silence, the Master continued: "And you would have known these truths +had you read the Scriptures. Have you not read in Samuel where it says: `And +the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, so much so that he moved +David against them, saying, go number Israel and Judah'? And this was not +strange because in the days of Samuel the children of Abraham really believed +that Yahweh created both good and evil. But when a later writer narrated these +events, subsequent to the enlargement of the Jewish concept of the nature of +God, he did not dare attribute evil to Yahweh; therefore he said: `And Satan +stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel.' Cannot you +discern that such records in the Scriptures clearly show how the concept of the +nature of God continued to grow from one generation to another? + +"Again should you have discerned the growth of the understanding of divine law +in perfect keeping with these enlarging concepts of divinity. When the children +of Israel came out of Egypt in the days before the enlarged revelation of +Yahweh, they had ten commandments which served as their law right up to the +times when they were encamped before Sinai. And these ten commandments were: + +"1. You shall worship no other god, for the Lord is a jealous God. + +"2. You shall not make molten gods. + +"3. You shall not neglect to keep the feast of unleavened bread. + +"4. Of all the males of men or cattle, the first-born are mine, says the Lord. + +"5. Six days you may work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. + +"6. You shall not fail to observe the feast of the first fruits and the feast +of the ingathering at the end of the year. + +"7. You shall not offer the blood of any sacrifice with leavened bread. + +"8. The sacrifice of the feast of the Passover shall not be left until morning. + +"9. The first of the first fruits of the ground you shall bring to the house of +the Lord your God. + +"10. You shall not seethe a kid in its mother's milk. + +"And then, amidst the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, Moses gave them the new +ten commandments, which you will all allow are more worthy utterances to +accompany the enlarging Yahweh concepts of Deity. And did you never take notice +of these commandments as twice recorded in the Scriptures, that in the first +case deliverance from Egypt is assigned as the reason for Sabbath keeping, +while in a later record the advancing religious beliefs of our forefathers +demanded that this be changed to the recognition of the fact of creation as the +reason for Sabbath observance? + +"And then will you remember that once again--in the greater spiritual +enlightenment of Isaiah's day--these ten negative commandments were changed + + top of page - 1600 + +into the great and positive law of love, the injunction to love God supremely +and your neighbor as yourself. And it is this supreme law of love for God and +for man that I also declare to you as constituting the whole duty of man." + +And when he had finished speaking, no man asked him a question. They went, each +one to his sleep. + +4. FLAVIUS AND GREEK CULTURE + +Flavius, the Greek Jew, was a proselyte of the gate, having been neither +circumcised nor baptized; and since he was a great lover of the beautiful in +art and sculpture, the house which he occupied when sojourning in Jerusalem was +a beautiful edifice. This home was exquisitely adorned with priceless treasures +which he had gathered up here and there on his world travels. When he first +thought of inviting Jesus to his home, he feared that the Master might take +offense at the sight of these so-called images. But Flavius was agreeably +surprised when Jesus entered the home that, instead of rebuking him for having +these supposedly idolatrous objects scattered about the house, he manifested +great interest in the entire collection and asked many appreciative questions +about each object as Flavius escorted him from room to room, showing him all of +his favorite statues. + +The Master saw that his host was bewildered at his friendly attitude toward +art; therefore, when they had finished the survey of the entire collection, +Jesus said: "Because you appreciate the beauty of things created by my Father +and fashioned by the artistic hands of man, why should you expect to be +rebuked? Because Moses onetime sought to combat idolatry and the worship of +false gods, why should all men frown upon the reproduction of grace and beauty? +I say to you, Flavius, Moses' children have misunderstood him, and now do they +make false gods of even his prohibitions of images and the likeness of things +in heaven and on earth. But even if Moses taught such restrictions to the +darkened minds of those days, what has that to do with this day when the Father +in heaven is revealed as the universal Spirit Ruler over all? And, Flavius, I +declare that in the coming kingdom they shall no longer teach, `Do not worship +this and do not worship that'; no longer shall they concern themselves with +commands to refrain from this and take care not to do that, but rather shall +all be concerned with one supreme duty. And this duty of man is expressed in +two great privileges: sincere worship of the infinite Creator, the Paradise +Father, and loving service bestowed upon one's fellow men. If you love your +neighbor as you love yourself, you really know that you are a son of God. + +"In an age when my Father was not well understood, Moses was justified in his +attempts to withstand idolatry, but in the coming age the Father will have been +revealed in the life of the Son; and this new revelation of God will make it +forever unnecessary to confuse the Creator Father with idols of stone or images +of gold and silver. Henceforth, intelligent men may enjoy the treasures of art +without confusing such material appreciation of beauty with the worship and +service of the Father in Paradise, the God of all things and all beings." + +Flavius believed all that Jesus taught him. The next day he went to Bethany +beyond the Jordan and was baptized by the disciples of John. And this he did +because the apostles of Jesus did not yet baptize believers. When Flavius +returned to Jerusalem, he made a great feast for Jesus and invited sixty of his + + top of page - 1601 + +friends. And many of these guests also became believers in the message of the +coming kingdom. + +5. THE DISCOURSE ON ASSURANCE + +One of the great sermons which Jesus preached in the temple this Passover week +was in answer to a question asked by one of his hearers, a man from Damascus. +This man asked Jesus: "But, Rabbi, how shall we know of a certainty that you +are sent by God, and that we may truly enter into this kingdom which you and +your disciples declare is near at hand?" And Jesus answered: + +"As to my message and the teaching of my disciples, you should judge them by +their fruits. If we proclaim to you the truths of the spirit, the spirit will +witness in your hearts that our message is genuine. Concerning the kingdom and +your assurance of acceptance by the heavenly Father, let me ask what father +among you who is a worthy and kindhearted father would keep his son in anxiety +or suspense regarding his status in the family or his place of security in the +affections of his father's heart? Do you earth fathers take pleasure in +torturing your children with uncertainty about their place of abiding love in +your human hearts? Neither does your Father in heaven leave his faith children +of the spirit in doubtful uncertainty as to their position in the kingdom. If +you receive God as your Father, then indeed and in truth are you the sons of +God. And if you are sons, then are you secure in the position and standing of +all that concerns eternal and divine sonship. If you believe my words, you +thereby believe in Him who sent me, and by thus believing in the Father, you +have made your status in heavenly citizenship sure. If you do the will of the +Father in heaven, you shall never fail in the attainment of the eternal life of +progress in the divine kingdom. + +"The Supreme Spirit shall bear witness with your spirits that you are truly the +children of God. And if you are the sons of God, then have you been born of the +spirit of God; and whosoever has been born of the spirit has in himself the +power to overcome all doubt, and this is the victory that overcomes all +uncertainty, even your faith. + +"Said the Prophet Isaiah, speaking of these times: `When the spirit is poured +upon us from on high, then shall the work of righteousness become peace, +quietness, and assurance forever.' And for all who truly believe this gospel, I +will become surety for their reception into the eternal mercies and the +everlasting life of my Father's kingdom. You, then, who hear this message and +believe this gospel of the kingdom are the sons of God, and you have life +everlasting; and the evidence to all the world that you have been born of the +spirit is that you sincerely love one another." + +The throng of listeners remained many hours with Jesus, asking him questions +and listening attentively to his comforting answers. Even the apostles were +emboldened by Jesus' teaching to preach the gospel of the kingdom with more +power and assurance. This experience at Jerusalem was a great inspiration to +the twelve. It was their first contact with such enormous crowds, and they +learned many valuable lessons which proved of great assistance in their later +work. + +6. THE VISIT WITH NICODEMUS + +One evening at the home of Flavius there came to see Jesus one Nicodemus, a +wealthy and elderly member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. He had heard much + + top of page - 1602 + +about the teachings of this Galilean, and so he went one afternoon to hear him +as he taught in the temple courts. He would have gone often to hear Jesus +teach, but he feared to be seen by the people in attendance upon his teaching, +for already were the rulers of the Jews so at variance with Jesus that no +member of the Sanhedrin would want to be identified in any open manner with +him. Accordingly, Nicodemus had arranged with Andrew to see Jesus privately and +after nightfall on this particular evening. Peter, James, and John were in +Flavius's garden when the interview began, but later they all went into the +house where the discourse continued. + +In receiving Nicodemus, Jesus showed no particular deference; in talking with +him, there was no compromise or undue persuasiveness. The Master made no +attempt to repulse his secretive caller, nor did he employ sarcasm. In all his +dealings with the distinguished visitor, Jesus was calm, earnest, and +dignified. Nicodemus was not an official delegate of the Sanhedrin; he came to +see Jesus wholly because of his personal and sincere interest in the Master's +teachings. + +Upon being presented by Flavius, Nicodemus said: "Rabbi, we know that you are a +teacher sent by God, for no mere man could so teach unless God were with him. +And I am desirous of knowing more about your teachings regarding the coming +kingdom." + +Jesus answered Nicodemus: "Verily, verily, I say to you, Nicodemus, except a +man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Then replied +Nicodemus: "But how can a man be born again when he is old? He cannot enter a +second time into his mother's womb to be born." + +Jesus said: "Nevertheless, I declare to you, except a man be born of the +spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the +flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. But you should +not marvel that I said you must be born from above. When the wind blows, you +hear the rustle of the leaves, but you do not see the wind--whence it comes or +whither it goes--and so it is with everyone born of the spirit. With the eyes +of the flesh you can behold the manifestations of the spirit, but you cannot +actually discern the spirit." + +Nicodemus replied: "But I do not understand--how can that be?" Said Jesus: "Can +it be that you are a teacher in Israel and yet ignorant of all this? It +becomes, then, the duty of those who know about the realities of the spirit to +reveal these things to those who discern only the manifestations of the +material world. But will you believe us if we tell you of the heavenly truths? +Do you have the courage, Nicodemus, to believe in one who has descended from +heaven, even the Son of Man?" + +And Nicodemus said: "But how can I begin to lay hold upon this spirit which is +to remake me in preparation for entering into the kingdom?" Jesus answered: +"Already does the spirit of the Father in heaven indwell you. If you would be +led by this spirit from above, very soon would you begin to see with the eyes +of the spirit, and then by the wholehearted choice of spirit guidance would you +be born of the spirit since your only purpose in living would be to do the will +of your Father who is in heaven. And so finding yourself born of the spirit and +happily in the kingdom of God, you would begin to bear in your daily life the +abundant fruits of the spirit." + +Nicodemus was thoroughly sincere. He was deeply impressed but went away +bewildered. Nicodemus was accomplished in self-development, in self-restraint, +and even in high moral qualities. He was refined, egoistic, and altruistic; but +he did not know how to submit his will to the will of the divine Father as a +little + + top of page - 1603 + +child is willing to submit to the guidance and leading of a wise and loving +earthly father, thereby becoming in reality a son of God, a progressive heir of +the eternal kingdom. + +But Nicodemus did summon faith enough to lay hold of the kingdom. He faintly +protested when his colleagues of the Sanhedrin sought to condemn Jesus without +a hearing; and with Joseph of Arimathea, he later boldly acknowledged his faith +and claimed the body of Jesus, even when most of the disciples had fled in fear +from the scenes of their Master's final suffering and death. + +7. THE LESSON ON THE FAMILY + +After the busy period of teaching and personal work of Passover week in +Jerusalem, Jesus spent the next Wednesday at Bethany with his apostles, +resting. That afternoon, Thomas asked a question which elicited a long and +instructive answer. Said Thomas: "Master, on the day we were set apart as +ambassadors of the kingdom, you told us many things, instructed us regarding +our personal mode of life, but what shall we teach the multitude? How are these +people to live after the kingdom more fully comes? Shall your disciples own +slaves? Shall your believers court poverty and shun property? Shall mercy alone +prevail so that we shall have no more law and justice?" Jesus and the twelve +spent all afternoon and all that evening, after supper, discussing Thomas's +questions. For the purposes of this record we present the following summary of +the Master's instruction: + +Jesus sought first to make plain to his apostles that he himself was on earth +living a unique life in the flesh, and that they, the twelve, had been called +to participate in this bestowal experience of the Son of Man; and as such +coworkers, they, too, must share in many of the special restrictions and +obligations of the entire bestowal experience. There was a veiled intimation +that the Son of Man was the only person who had ever lived on earth who could +simultaneously see into the very heart of God and into the very depths of man's +soul. + +Very plainly Jesus explained that the kingdom of heaven was an evolutionary +experience, beginning here on earth and progressing up through successive life +stations to Paradise. In the course of the evening he definitely stated that at +some future stage of kingdom development he would revisit this world in +spiritual power and divine glory. + +He next explained that the "kingdom idea" was not the best way to illustrate +man's relation to God; that he employed such figures of speech because the +Jewish people were expecting the kingdom, and because John had preached in +terms of the coming kingdom. Jesus said: "The people of another age will better +understand the gospel of the kingdom when it is presented in terms expressive +of the family relationship--when man understands religion as the teaching of +the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, sonship with God." Then the +Master discoursed at some length on the earthly family as an illustration of +the heavenly family, restating the two fundamental laws of living: the first +commandment of love for the father, the head of the family, and the second +commandment of mutual love among the children, to love your brother as +yourself. And then he explained that such a quality of brotherly affection +would invariably manifest itself in unselfish and loving social service. + +Following that, came the memorable discussion of the fundamental +characteristics of family life and their application to the relationship +existing between + + top of page - 1604 + +God and man. Jesus stated that a true family is founded on the following seven +facts: + +1. The fact of existence. The relationships of nature and the phenomena of +mortal likenesses are bound up in the family: Children inherit certain parental +traits. The children take origin in the parents; personality existence depends +on the act of the parent. The relationship of father and child is inherent in +all nature and pervades all living existences. + +2. Security and pleasure. True fathers take great pleasure in providing for the +needs of their children. Many fathers are not content with supplying the mere +wants of their children but enjoy making provision for their pleasures also. + +3. Education and training. Wise fathers carefully plan for the education and +adequate training of their sons and daughters. When young they are prepared for +the greater responsibilities of later life. + +4. Discipline and restraint. Farseeing fathers also make provision for the +necessary discipline, guidance, correction, and sometimes restraint of their +young and immature offspring. + +5. Companionship and loyalty. The affectionate father holds intimate and loving +intercourse with his children. Always is his ear open to their petitions; he is +ever ready to share their hardships and assist them over their difficulties. +The father is supremely interested in the progressive welfare of his progeny. + +6. Love and mercy. A compassionate father is freely forgiving; fathers do not +hold vengeful memories against their children. Fathers are not like judges, +enemies, or creditors. Real families are built upon tolerance, patience, and +forgiveness. + +7. Provision for the future. Temporal fathers like to leave an inheritance for +their sons. The family continues from one generation to another. Death only +ends one generation to mark the beginning of another. Death terminates an +individual life but not necessarily the family. + +For hours the Master discussed the application of these features of family life +to the relations of man, the earth child, to God, the Paradise Father. And this +was his conclusion: "This entire relationship of a son to the Father, I know in +perfection, for all that you must attain of sonship in the eternal future I +have now already attained. The Son of Man is prepared to ascend to the right +hand of the Father, so that in me is the way now open still wider for all of +you to see God and, ere you have finished the glorious progression, to become +perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." + +When the apostles heard these startling words, they recalled the pronouncements +which John made at the time of Jesus' baptism, and they also vividly recalled +this experience in connection with their preaching and teaching subsequent to +the Master's death and resurrection. + +Jesus is a divine Son, one in the Universal Father's full confidence. He had +been with the Father and comprehended him fully. He had now lived his earth +life to the full satisfaction of the Father, and this incarnation in the flesh +had enabled him fully to comprehend man. Jesus was the perfection of man; he +had attained just such perfection as all true believers are destined to attain +in him and through him. Jesus revealed a God of perfection to man and presented +in himself the perfected son of the realms to God. + + top of page - 1605 + +Although Jesus discoursed for several hours, Thomas was not yet satisfied, for +he said: "But, Master, we do not find that the Father in heaven always deals +kindly and mercifully with us. Many times we grievously suffer on earth, and +not always are our prayers answered. Where do we fail to grasp the meaning of +your teaching?" + +Jesus replied: "Thomas, Thomas, how long before you will acquire the ability to +listen with the ear of the spirit? How long will it be before you discern that +this kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, and that my Father is also a spiritual +being? Do you not understand that I am teaching you as spiritual children in +the spirit family of heaven, of which the fatherhead is an infinite and eternal +spirit? Will you not allow me to use the earth family as an illustration of +divine relationships without so literally applying my teaching to material +affairs? In your minds cannot you separate the spiritual realities of the +kingdom from the material, social, economic, and political problems of the age? +When I speak the language of the spirit, why do you insist on translating my +meaning into the language of the flesh just because I presume to employ +commonplace and literal relationships for purposes of illustration? My +children, I implore that you cease to apply the teaching of the kingdom of the +spirit to the sordid affairs of slavery, poverty, houses, and lands, and to the +material problems of human equity and justice. These temporal matters are the +concern of the men of this world, and while in a way they affect all men, you +have been called to represent me in the world, even as I represent my Father. +You are spiritual ambassadors of a spiritual kingdom, special representatives +of the spirit Father. By this time it should be possible for me to instruct you +as full-grown men of the spirit kingdom. Must I ever address you only as +children? Will you never grow up in spirit perception? Nevertheless, I love you +and will bear with you, even to the very end of our association in the flesh. +And even then shall my spirit go before you into all the world." + +8. IN SOUTHERN JUDEA + +By the end of April the opposition to Jesus among the Pharisees and Sadducees +had become so pronounced that the Master and his apostles decided to leave +Jerusalem for a while, going south to work in Bethlehem and Hebron. The entire +month of May was spent in doing personal work in these cities and among the +people of the surrounding villages. No public preaching was done on this trip, +only house-to-house visitation. A part of this time, while the apostles taught +the gospel and ministered to the sick, Jesus and Abner spent at Engedi, +visiting the Nazarite colony. John the Baptist had gone forth from this place, +and Abner had been head of this group. Many of the Nazarite brotherhood became +believers in Jesus, but the majority of these ascetic and eccentric men refused +to accept him as a teacher sent from heaven because he did not teach fasting +and other forms of self-denial. + +The people living in this region did not know that Jesus had been born in +Bethlehem. They always supposed the Master had been born at Nazareth, as did +the vast majority of his disciples, but the twelve knew the facts. + +This sojourn in the south of Judea was a restful and fruitful season of labor; +many souls were added to the kingdom. By the first days of June the agitation +against Jesus had so quieted down in Jerusalem that the Master and the apostles +returned to instruct and comfort believers. + + top of page - 1606 + +Although Jesus and the apostles spent the entire month of June in or near +Jerusalem, they did no public teaching during this period. They lived for the +most part in tents, which they pitched in a shaded park, or garden, known in +that day as Gethsemane. This park was situated on the western slope of the +Mount of Olives not far from the brook Kidron. The Sabbath week ends they +usually spent with Lazarus and his sisters at Bethany. Jesus entered within the +walls of Jerusalem only a few times, but a large number of interested inquirers +came out to Gethsemane to visit with him. One Friday evening Nicodemus and one +Joseph of Arimathea ventured out to see Jesus but turned back through fear even +after they were standing before the entrance to the Master's tent. And, of +course, they did not perceive that Jesus knew all about their doings. + +When the rulers of the Jews learned that Jesus had returned to Jerusalem, they +prepared to arrest him; but when they observed that he did no public preaching, +they concluded that he had become frightened by their previous agitation and +decided to allow him to carry on his teaching in this private manner without +further molestation. And thus affairs moved along quietly until the last days +of June, when one Simon, a member of the Sanhedrin, publicly espoused the +teachings of Jesus, after so declaring himself before the rulers of the Jews. +Immediately a new agitation for Jesus' apprehension sprang up and grew so +strong that the Master decided to retire into the cities of Samaria and the +Decapolis. + + top of page - 1607 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Beginning The ³ Going Through ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ P... ³ S... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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Going north into Samaria, they tarried over the Sabbath at Bethel. +Here they preached for several days to the people who came from Gophna and +Ephraim. A group of citizens from Arimathea and Thamna came over to invite +Jesus to visit their villages. The Master and his apostles spent more than two +weeks teaching the Jews and Samaritans of this region, many of whom came from +as far as Antipatris to hear the good news of the kingdom. + +The people of southern Samaria heard Jesus gladly, and the apostles, with the +exception of Judas Iscariot, succeeded in overcoming much of their prejudice +against the Samaritans. It was very difficult for Judas to love these +Samaritans. The last week of July Jesus and his associates made ready to depart +for the new Greek cities of Phasaelis and Archelais near the Jordan. + +1. PREACHING AT ARCHELAIS + +The first half of the month of August the apostolic party made its headquarters +at the Greek cities of Archelais and Phasaelis, where they had their first +experience preaching to well-nigh exclusive gatherings of gentiles--Greeks, +Romans, and Syrians--for few Jews dwelt in these two Greek towns. In contacting +with these Roman citizens, the apostles encountered new difficulties in the +proclamation of the message of the coming kingdom, and they met with new +objections to the teachings of Jesus. At one of the many evening conferences +with his apostles, Jesus listened attentively to these objections to the gospel +of the kingdom as the twelve repeated their experiences with the subjects of +their personal labors. + +A question asked by Philip was typical of their difficulties. Said Philip: +"Master, these Greeks and Romans make light of our message, saying that such +teachings are fit for only weaklings and slaves. They assert that the religion +of the heathen is superior to our teaching because it inspires to the +acquirement of a strong, robust, and aggressive character. They affirm that we +would convert all men into enfeebled specimens of passive nonresisters who +would soon perish from the face of the earth. They like you, Master, and freely +admit that your teaching is heavenly and ideal, but they will not take us +seriously. They assert that your religion is not for this world; that men +cannot live as you teach. And now, Master, what shall we say to these +gentiles?" + +After Jesus had heard similar objections to the gospel of the kingdom presented +by Thomas, Nathaniel, Simon Zelotes, and Matthew, he said to the twelve: + + top of page - 1608 + +"I have come into this world to do the will of my Father and to reveal his +loving character to all mankind. That, my brethren, is my mission. And this one +thing I will do, regardless of the misunderstanding of my teachings by Jews or +gentiles of this day or of another generation. But you should not overlook the +fact that even divine love has its severe disciplines. A father's love for his +son oftentimes impels the father to restrain the unwise acts of his thoughtless +offspring. The child does not always comprehend the wise and loving motives of +the father's restraining discipline. But I declare to you that my Father in +Paradise does rule a universe of universes by the compelling power of his love. +Love is the greatest of all spirit realities. Truth is a liberating revelation, +but love is the supreme relationship. And no matter what blunders your fellow +men make in their world management of today, in an age to come the gospel which +I declare to you will rule this very world. The ultimate goal of human progress +is the reverent recognition of the fatherhood of God and the loving +materialization of the brotherhood of man. + +"But who told you that my gospel was intended only for slaves and weaklings? Do +you, my chosen apostles, resemble weaklings? Did John look like a weakling? Do +you observe that I am enslaved by fear? True, the poor and oppressed of this +generation have the gospel preached to them. The religions of this world have +neglected the poor, but my Father is no respecter of persons. Besides, the poor +of this day are the first to heed the call to repentance and acceptance of +sonship. The gospel of the kingdom is to be preached to all men--Jew and +gentile, Greek and Roman, rich and poor, free and bond--and equally to young +and old, male and female. + +"Because my Father is a God of love and delights in the practice of mercy, do +not imbibe the idea that the service of the kingdom is to be one of monotonous +ease. The Paradise ascent is the supreme adventure of all time, the rugged +achievement of eternity. The service of the kingdom on earth will call for all +the courageous manhood that you and your coworkers can muster. Many of you will +be put to death for your loyalty to the gospel of this kingdom. It is easy to +die in the line of physical battle when your courage is strengthened by the +presence of your fighting comrades, but it requires a higher and more profound +form of human courage and devotion calmly and all alone to lay down your life +for the love of a truth enshrined in your mortal heart. + +"Today, the unbelievers may taunt you with preaching a gospel of nonresistance +and with living lives of nonviolence, but you are the first volunteers of a +long line of sincere believers in the gospel of this kingdom who will astonish +all mankind by their heroic devotion to these teachings. No armies of the world +have ever displayed more courage and bravery than will be portrayed by you and +your loyal successors who shall go forth to all the world proclaiming the good +news--the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men. The courage of the +flesh is the lowest form of bravery. Mind bravery is a higher type of human +courage, but the highest and supreme is uncompromising loyalty to the +enlightened convictions of profound spiritual realities. And such courage +constitutes the heroism of the God-knowing man. And you are all God-knowing +men; you are in very truth the personal associates of the Son of Man." + +This was not all that Jesus said on that occasion, but it is the introduction +of his address, and he went on at great length in amplification and in +illustration of this pronouncement. This was one of the most impassioned +addresses which + + top of page - 1609 + +Jesus ever delivered to the twelve. Seldom did the Master speak to his apostles +with evident strong feeling, but this was one of those few occasions when he +spoke with manifest earnestness, accompanied by marked emotion. + +The result upon the public preaching and personal ministry of the apostles was +immediate; from that very day their message took on a new note of courageous +dominance. The twelve continued to acquire the spirit of positive aggression in +the new gospel of the kingdom. From this day forward they did not occupy +themselves so much with the preaching of the negative virtues and the passive +injunctions of their Master's many-sided teaching. + +2. LESSON ON SELF-MASTERY + +The Master was a perfected specimen of human self-control. When he was reviled, +he reviled not; when he suffered, he uttered no threats against his tormentors; +when he was denounced by his enemies, he simply committed himself to the +righteous judgment of the Father in heaven. + +At one of the evening conferences, Andrew asked Jesus: "Master, are we to +practice self-denial as John taught us, or are we to strive for the +self-control of your teaching? Wherein does your teaching differ from that of +John?" Jesus answered: "John indeed taught you the way of righteousness in +accordance with the light and laws of his fathers, and that was the religion of +self-examination and self-denial. But I come with a new message of +self-forgetfulness and self-control. I show to you the way of life as revealed +to me by my Father in heaven. + +"Verily, verily, I say to you, he who rules his own self is greater than he who +captures a city. Self-mastery is the measure of man's moral nature and the +indicator of his spiritual development. In the old order you fasted and prayed; +as the new creature of the rebirth of the spirit, you are taught to believe and +rejoice. In the Father's kingdom you are to become new creatures; old things +are to pass away; behold I show you how all things are to become new. And by +your love for one another you are to convince the world that you have passed +from bondage to liberty, from death into life everlasting. + +"By the old way you seek to suppress, obey, and conform to the rules of living; +by the new way you are first transformed by the Spirit of Truth and thereby +strengthened in your inner soul by the constant spiritual renewing of your +mind, and so are you endowed with the power of the certain and joyous +performance of the gracious, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Forget +not--it is your personal faith in the exceedingly great and precious promises +of God that ensures your becoming partakers of the divine nature. Thus by your +faith and the spirit's transformation, you become in reality the temples of +God, and his spirit actually dwells within you. If, then, the spirit dwells +within you, you are no longer bondslaves of the flesh but free and liberated +sons of the spirit. The new law of the spirit endows you with the liberty of +self-mastery in place of the old law of the fear of self-bondage and the +slavery of self-denial. + +"Many times, when you have done evil, you have thought to charge up your acts +to the influence of the evil one when in reality you have but been led astray +by your own natural tendencies. Did not the Prophet Jeremiah long ago tell you +that the human heart is deceitful above all things and sometimes even +desperately wicked? How easy for you to become self-deceived and thereby fall +into + + top of page - 1610 + +foolish fears, divers lusts, enslaving pleasures, malice, envy, and even +vengeful hatred! + +"Salvation is by the regeneration of the spirit and not by the self-righteous +deeds of the flesh. You are justified by faith and fellowshipped by grace, not +by fear and the self-denial of the flesh, albeit the Father's children who have +been born of the spirit are ever and always masters of the self and all that +pertains to the desires of the flesh. When you know that you are saved by +faith, you have real peace with God. And all who follow in the way of this +heavenly peace are destined to be sanctified to the eternal service of the +ever-advancing sons of the eternal God. Henceforth, it is not a duty but rather +your exalted privilege to cleanse yourselves from all evils of mind and body +while you seek for perfection in the love of God. + +"Your sonship is grounded in faith, and you are to remain unmoved by fear. Your +joy is born of trust in the divine word, and you shall not therefore be led to +doubt the reality of the Father's love and mercy. It is the very goodness of +God that leads men into true and genuine repentance. Your secret of the mastery +of self is bound up with your faith in the indwelling spirit, which ever works +by love. Even this saving faith you have not of yourselves; it also is the gift +of God. And if you are the children of this living faith, you are no longer the +bondslaves of self but rather the triumphant masters of yourselves, the +liberated sons of God. + +"If, then, my children, you are born of the spirit, you are forever delivered +from the self-conscious bondage of a life of self-denial and watchcare over the +desires of the flesh, and you are translated into the joyous kingdom of the +spirit, whence you spontaneously show forth the fruits of the spirit in your +daily lives; and the fruits of the spirit are the essence of the highest type +of enjoyable and ennobling self-control, even the heights of terrestrial mortal +attainment--true self-mastery." + +3. DIVERSION AND RELAXATION + +About this time a state of great nervous and emotional tension developed among +the apostles and their immediate disciple associates. They had hardly become +accustomed to living and working together. They were experiencing increasing +difficulties in maintaining harmonious relations with John's disciples. The +contact with the gentiles and the Samaritans was a great trial to these Jews. +And besides all this, the recent utterances of Jesus had augmented their +disturbed state of mind. Andrew was almost beside himself; he did not know what +next to do, and so he went to the Master with his problems and perplexities. +When Jesus had listened to the apostolic chief relate his troubles, he said: +"Andrew, you cannot talk men out of their perplexities when they reach such a +stage of involvement, and when so many persons with strong feelings are +concerned. I cannot do what you ask of me--I will not participate in these +personal social difficulties--but I will join you in the enjoyment of a +three-day period of rest and relaxation. Go to your brethren and announce that +all of you are to go with me up on Mount Sartaba, where I desire to rest for a +day or two. + +"Now you should go to each of your eleven brethren and talk with him privately, +saying: `The Master desires that we go apart with him for a season to rest and +relax. Since we all have recently experienced much vexation of spirit and +stress of mind, I suggest that no mention be made of our trials and troubles +while on this holiday. Can I depend upon you to co-operate with me in this + + top of page - 1611 + +matter?' In this way privately and personally approach each of your brethren." +And Andrew did as the Master had instructed him. + +This was a marvelous occasion in the experience of each of them; they never +forgot the day going up the mountain. Throughout the entire trip hardly a word +was said about their troubles. Upon reaching the top of the mountain, Jesus +seated them about him while he said: "My brethren, you must all learn the value +of rest and the efficacy of relaxation. You must realize that the best method +of solving some entangled problems is to forsake them for a time. Then when you +go back fresh from your rest or worship, you are able to attack your troubles +with a clearer head and a steadier hand, not to mention a more resolute heart. +Again, many times your problem is found to have shrunk in size and proportions +while you have been resting your mind and body." + +The next day Jesus assigned to each of the twelve a topic for discussion. The +whole day was devoted to reminiscences and to talking over matters not related +to their religious work. They were momentarily shocked when Jesus even +neglected to give thanks--verbally--when he broke bread for their noontide +lunch. This was the first time they had ever observed him to neglect such +formalities. + +When they went up the mountain, Andrew's head was full of problems. John was +inordinately perplexed in his heart. James was grievously troubled in his soul. +Matthew was hard pressed for funds inasmuch as they had been sojourning among +the gentiles. Peter was overwrought and had recently been more temperamental +than usual. Judas was suffering from a periodic attack of sensitiveness and +selfishness. Simon was unusually upset in his efforts to reconcile his +patriotism with the love of the brotherhood of man. Philip was more and more +nonplused by the way things were going. Nathaniel had been less humorous since +they had come in contact with the gentile populations, and Thomas was in the +midst of a severe season of depression. Only the twins were normal and +unperturbed. All of them were exceedingly perplexed about how to get along +peaceably with John's disciples. + +The third day when they started down the mountain and back to their camp, a +great change had come over them. They had made the important discovery that +many human perplexities are in reality nonexistent, that many pressing troubles +are the creations of exaggerated fear and the offspring of augmented +apprehension. They had learned that all such perplexities are best handled by +being forsaken; by going off they had left such problems to solve themselves. + +Their return from this holiday marked the beginning of a period of greatly +improved relations with the followers of John. Many of the twelve really gave +way to mirth when they noted the changed state of everybody's mind and observed +the freedom from nervous irritability which had come to them as a result of +their three days' vacation from the routine duties of life. There is always +danger that monotony of human contact will greatly multiply perplexities and +magnify difficulties. + +Not many of the gentiles in the two Greek cities of Archelais and Phasaelis +believed in the gospel, but the twelve apostles gained a valuable experience in +this their first extensive work with exclusively gentile populations. On a +Monday morning, about the middle of the month, Jesus said to Andrew: "We go +into Samaria." And they set out at once for the city of Sychar, near Jacob's +well. + + top of page - 1612 + +4. THE JEWS AND THE SAMARITANS + +For more than six hundred years the Jews of Judea, and later on those of +Galilee also, had been at enmity with the Samaritans. This ill feeling between +the Jews and the Samaritans came about in this way: About seven hundred years +B.C., Sargon, king of Assyria, in subduing a revolt in central Palestine, +carried away and into captivity over twenty-five thousand Jews of the northern +kingdom of Israel and installed in their place an almost equal number of the +descendants of the Cuthites, Sepharvites, and the Hamathites. Later on, +Ashurbanipal sent still other colonies to dwell in Samaria. + +The religious enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans dated from the return +of the former from the Babylonian captivity, when the Samaritans worked to +prevent the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Later they offended the Jews by extending +friendly assistance to the armies of Alexander. In return for their friendship +Alexander gave the Samaritans permission to build a temple on Mount Gerizim, +where they worshiped Yahweh and their tribal gods and offered sacrifices much +after the order of the temple services at Jerusalem. At least they continued +this worship up to the time of the Maccabees, when John Hyrcanus destroyed +their temple on Mount Gerizim. The Apostle Philip, in his labors for the +Samaritans after the death of Jesus, held many meetings on the site of this old +Samaritan temple. + +The antagonisms between the Jews and the Samaritans were time-honored and +historic; increasingly since the days of Alexander they had had no dealings +with each other. The twelve apostles were not averse to preaching in the Greek +and other gentile cities of the Decapolis and Syria, but it was a severe test +of their loyalty to the Master when he said, "Let us go into Samaria." But in +the year and more they had been with Jesus, they had developed a form of +personal loyalty which transcended even their faith in his teachings and their +prejudices against the Samaritans. + +5. THE WOMAN OF SYCHAR + +When the Master and the twelve arrived at Jacob's well, Jesus, being weary from +the journey, tarried by the well while Philip took the apostles with him to +assist in bringing food and tents from Sychar, for they were disposed to stay +in this vicinity for a while. Peter and the Zebedee sons would have remained +with Jesus, but he requested that they go with their brethren, saying: "Have no +fear for me; these Samaritans will be friendly; only our brethren, the Jews, +seek to harm us." And it was almost six o'clock on this summer's evening when +Jesus sat down by the well to await the return of the apostles. + +The water of Jacob's well was less mineral than that from the wells of Sychar +and was therefore much valued for drinking purposes. Jesus was thirsty, but +there was no way of getting water from the well. When, therefore, a woman of +Sychar came up with her water pitcher and prepared to draw from the well, Jesus +said to her, "Give me a drink." This woman of Samaria knew Jesus was a Jew by +his appearance and dress, and she surmised that he was a Galilean Jew from his +accent. Her name was Nalda and she was a comely creature. She was much +surprised to have a Jewish man thus speak to her at the well and ask for water, +for it was not deemed proper in those days for a self-respecting man to + + top of page - 1613 + +speak to a woman in public, much less for a Jew to converse with a Samaritan. +Therefore Nalda asked Jesus, "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink +of me, a Samaritan woman?" Jesus answered: "I have indeed asked you for a +drink, but if you could only understand, you would ask me for a draught of the +living water." Then said Nalda: "But, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and +the well is deep; whence, then, have you this living water? Are you greater +than our father Jacob who gave us this well, and who drank thereof himself and +his sons and his cattle also?" + +Jesus replied: "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but +whosoever drinks of the water of the living spirit shall never thirst. And this +living water shall become in him a well of refreshment springing up even to +eternal life." Nalda then said: "Give me this water that I thirst not neither +come all the way hither to draw. Besides, anything which a Samaritan woman +could receive from such a commendable Jew would be a pleasure." + +Nalda did not know how to take Jesus' willingness to talk with her. She beheld +in the Master's face the countenance of an upright and holy man, but she +mistook friendliness for commonplace familiarity, and she misinterpreted his +figure of speech as a form of making advances to her. And being a woman of lax +morals, she was minded openly to become flirtatious, when Jesus, looking +straight into her eyes, with a commanding voice said, "Woman, go get your +husband and bring him hither." This command brought Nalda to her senses. She +saw that she had misjudged the Master's kindness; she perceived that she had +misconstrued his manner of speech. She was frightened; she began to realize +that she stood in the presence of an unusual person, and groping about in her +mind for a suitable reply, in great confusion, she said, "But, Sir, I cannot +call my husband, for I have no husband." Then said Jesus: "You have spoken the +truth, for, while you may have once had a husband, he with whom you are now +living is not your husband. Better it would be if you would cease to trifle +with my words and seek for the living water which I have this day offered you." + +By this time Nalda was sobered, and her better self was awakened. She was not +an immoral woman wholly by choice. She had been ruthlessly and unjustly cast +aside by her husband and in dire straits had consented to live with a certain +Greek as his wife, but without marriage. Nalda now felt greatly ashamed that +she had so unthinkingly spoken to Jesus, and she most penitently addressed the +Master, saying: "My Lord, I repent of my manner of speaking to you, for I +perceive that you are a holy man or maybe a prophet." And she was just about to +seek direct and personal help from the Master when she did what so many have +done before and since--dodged the issue of personal salvation by turning to the +discussion of theology and philosophy. She quickly turned the conversation from +her own needs to a theological controversy. Pointing over to Mount Gerizim, she +continued: "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and yet you would say that +in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship; which, then, is the right +place to worship God?" + +Jesus perceived the attempt of the woman's soul to avoid direct and searching +contact with its Maker, but he also saw that there was present in her soul a +desire to know the better way of life. After all, there was in Nalda's heart a +true thirst for the living water; therefore he dealt patiently with her, +saying: "Woman, let me say to you that the day is soon coming when neither on +this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. But now you worship +that which you know not, a mixture of the religion of many pagan gods and + + top of page - 1614 + +gentile philosophies. The Jews at least know whom they worship; they have +removed all confusion by concentrating their worship upon one God, Yahweh. But +you should believe me when I say that the hour will soon come--even now +is--when all sincere worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, +for it is just such worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and they who +worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Your salvation comes not +from knowing how others should worship or where but by receiving into your own +heart this living water which I am offering you even now." + +But Nalda would make one more effort to avoid the discussion of the +embarrassing question of her personal life on earth and the status of her soul +before God. Once more she resorted to questions of general religion, saying: +"Yes, I know, Sir, that John has preached about the coming of the Converter, he +who will be called the Deliverer, and that, when he shall come, he will declare +to us all things"--and Jesus, interrupting Nalda, said with startling +assurance, "I who speak to you am he." + +This was the first direct, positive, and undisguised pronouncement of his +divine nature and sonship which Jesus had made on earth; and it was made to a +woman, a Samaritan woman, and a woman of questionable character in the eyes of +men up to this moment, but a woman whom the divine eye beheld as having been +sinned against more than as sinning of her own desire and as now being a human +soul who desired salvation, desired it sincerely and wholeheartedly, and that +was enough. + +As Nalda was about to voice her real and personal longing for better things and +a more noble way of living, just as she was ready to speak the real desire of +her heart, the twelve apostles returned from Sychar, and coming upon this scene +of Jesus' talking so intimately with this woman--this Samaritan woman, and +alone--they were more than astonished. They quickly deposited their supplies +and drew aside, no man daring to reprove him, while Jesus said to Nalda: +"Woman, go your way; God has forgiven you. Henceforth you will live a new life. +You have received the living water, and a new joy will spring up within your +soul, and you shall become a daughter of the Most High." And the woman, +perceiving the disapproval of the apostles, left her waterpot and fled to the +city. + +As she entered the city, she proclaimed to everyone she met: "Go out to Jacob's +well and go quickly, for there you will see a man who told me all I ever did. +Can this be the Converter?" And ere the sun went down, a great crowd had +assembled at Jacob's well to hear Jesus. And the Master talked to them more +about the water of life, the gift of the indwelling spirit. + +The apostles never ceased to be shocked by Jesus' willingness to talk with +women, women of questionable character, even immoral women. It was very +difficult for Jesus to teach his apostles that women, even so-called immoral +women, have souls which can choose God as their Father, thereby becoming +daughters of God and candidates for life everlasting. Even nineteen centuries +later many show the same unwillingness to grasp the Master's teachings. Even +the Christian religion has been persistently built up around the fact of the +death of Christ instead of around the truth of his life. The world should be +more concerned with his happy and God-revealing life than with his tragic and +sorrowful death. + +Nalda told this entire story to the Apostle John the next day, but he never +revealed it fully to the other apostles, and Jesus did not speak of it in +detail to the twelve. + + top of page - 1615 + +Nalda told John that Jesus had told her "all I ever did." John many times +wanted to ask Jesus about this visit with Nalda, but he never did. Jesus told +her only one thing about herself, but his look into her eyes and the manner of +his dealing with her had so brought all of her checkered life in panoramic +review before her mind in a moment of time that she associated all of this +self-revelation of her past life with the look and the word of the Master. +Jesus never told her she had had five husbands. She had lived with four +different men since her husband cast her aside, and this, with all her past, +came up so vividly in her mind at the moment when she realized Jesus was a man +of God that she subsequently repeated to John that Jesus had really told her +all about herself. + +6. THE SAMARITAN REVIVAL + +On the evening that Nalda drew the crowd out from Sychar to see Jesus, the +twelve had just returned with food, and they besought Jesus to eat with them +instead of talking to the people, for they had been without food all day and +were hungry. But Jesus knew that darkness would soon be upon them; so he +persisted in his determination to talk to the people before he sent them away. +When Andrew sought to persuade him to eat a bite before speaking to the crowd, +Jesus said, "I have meat to eat that you do not know about." When the apostles +heard this, they said among themselves: "Has any man brought him aught to eat? +Can it be that the woman gave him food as well as drink?" When Jesus heard them +talking among themselves, before he spoke to the people, he turned aside and +said to the twelve: "My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me and to +accomplish His work. You should no longer say it is such and such a time until +the harvest. Behold these people coming out from a Samaritan city to hear us; I +tell you the fields are already white for the harvest. He who reaps receives +wages and gathers this fruit to eternal life; consequently the sowers and the +reapers rejoice together. For herein is the saying true: `One sows and another +reaps.' I am now sending you to reap that whereon you have not labored; others +have labored, and you are about to enter into their labor." This he said in +reference to the preaching of John the Baptist. + +Jesus and the apostles went into Sychar and preached two days before they +established their camp on Mount Gerizim. And many of the dwellers in Sychar +believed the gospel and made request for baptism, but the apostles of Jesus did +not yet baptize. + +The first night of the camp on Mount Gerizim the apostles expected that Jesus +would rebuke them for their attitude toward the woman at Jacob's well, but he +made no reference to the matter. Instead he gave them that memorable talk on +"The realities which are central in the kingdom of God." In any religion it is +very easy to allow values to become disproportionate and to permit facts to +occupy the place of truth in one's theology. The fact of the cross became the +very center of subsequent Christianity; but it is not the central truth of the +religion which may be derived from the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. + +The theme of Jesus' teaching on Mount Gerizim was: That he wants all men to see +God as a Father-friend just as he (Jesus) is a brother-friend. And again and +again he impressed upon them that love is the greatest relationship in the +world--in the universe--just as truth is the greatest pronouncement of the +observation of these divine relationships. + + top of page - 1616 + +Jesus declared himself so fully to the Samaritans because he could safely do +so, and because he knew that he would not again visit the heart of Samaria to +preach the gospel of the kingdom. + +Jesus and the twelve camped on Mount Gerizim until the end of August. They +preached the good news of the kingdom--the fatherhood of God--to the Samaritans +in the cities by day and spent the nights at the camp. The work which Jesus and +the twelve did in these Samaritan cities yielded many souls for the kingdom and +did much to prepare the way for the marvelous work of Philip in these regions +after Jesus' death and resurrection, subsequent to the dispersion of the +apostles to the ends of the earth by the bitter persecution of believers at +Jerusalem. + +7. TEACHINGS ABOUT PRAYER AND WORSHIP + +At the evening conferences on Mount Gerizim, Jesus taught many great truths, +and in particular he laid emphasis on the following: + +True religion is the act of an individual soul in its self-conscious relations +with the Creator; organized religion is man's attempt to socialize the worship +of individual religionists. + +Worship--contemplation of the spiritual--must alternate with service, contact +with material reality. Work should alternate with play; religion should be +balanced by humor. Profound philosophy should be relieved by rhythmic poetry. +The strain of living--the time tension of personality--should be relaxed by the +restfulness of worship. The feelings of insecurity arising from the fear of +personality isolation in the universe should be antidoted by the faith +contemplation of the Father and by the attempted realization of the Supreme. + +Prayer is designed to make man less thinking but more realizing; it is not +designed to increase knowledge but rather to expand insight. + +Worship is intended to anticipate the better life ahead and then to reflect +these new spiritual significances back onto the life which now is. Prayer is +spiritually sustaining, but worship is divinely creative. + +Worship is the technique of looking to the One for the inspiration of service +to the many. Worship is the yardstick which measures the extent of the soul's +detachment from the material universe and its simultaneous and secure +attachment to the spiritual realities of all creation. + +Prayer is self-reminding--sublime thinking; worship is +self-forgetting--superthinking. Worship is effortless attention, true and ideal +soul rest, a form of restful spiritual exertion. + +Worship is the act of a part identifying itself with the Whole; the finite with +the Infinite; the son with the Father; time in the act of striking step with +eternity. Worship is the act of the son's personal communion with the divine +Father, the assumption of refreshing, creative, fraternal, and romantic +attitudes by the human soul-spirit. + +Although the apostles grasped only a few of his teachings at the camp, other +worlds did, and other generations on earth will. + + top of page - 1617 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Passover ³ At Gilboa And ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ At... ³ I... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p144.txt b/religious documents/p144.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5e5c38 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p144.txt @@ -0,0 +1,817 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 144 At Gilboa And In The Decapolis + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 144 At Gilboa And In The Decapolis + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +SEPTEMBER and October were spent in retirement at a secluded camp upon the +slopes of Mount Gilboa. The month of September Jesus spent here alone with his +apostles, teaching and instructing them in the truths of the kingdom. + +There were a number of reasons why Jesus and his apostles were in retirement at +this time on the borders of Samaria and the Decapolis. The Jerusalem religious +rulers were very antagonistic; Herod Antipas still held John in prison, fearing +either to release or execute him, while he continued to entertain suspicions +that John and Jesus were in some way associated. These conditions made it +unwise to plan for aggressive work in either Judea or Galilee. There was a +third reason: the slowly augmenting tension between the leaders of John's +disciples and the apostles of Jesus, which grew worse with the increasing +number of believers. + +Jesus knew that the days of the preliminary work of teaching and preaching were +about over, that the next move involved the beginning of the full and final +effort of his life on earth, and he did not wish the launching of this +undertaking to be in any manner either trying or embarrassing to John the +Baptist. Jesus had therefore decided to spend some time in retirement +rehearsing his apostles and then to do some quiet work in the cities of the +Decapolis until John should be either executed or released to join them in a +united effort. + +1. THE GILBOA ENCAMPMENT + +As time passed, the twelve became more devoted to Jesus and increasingly +committed to the work of the kingdom. Their devotion was in large part a matter +of personal loyalty. They did not grasp his many-sided teaching; they did not +fully comprehend the nature of Jesus or the significance of his bestowal on +earth. + +Jesus made it plain to his apostles that they were in retirement for three +reasons: + +1. To confirm their understanding of, and faith in, the gospel of the kingdom. + +2. To allow opposition to their work in both Judea and Galilee to quiet down. + +3. To await the fate of John the Baptist. + +While tarrying on Gilboa, Jesus told the twelve much about his early life and +his experiences on Mount Hermon; he also revealed something of what happened in +the hills during the forty days immediately after his baptism. And + + top of page - 1618 + +he directly charged them that they should tell no man about these experiences +until after he had returned to the Father. + +During these September weeks they rested, visited, recounted their experiences +since Jesus first called them to service, and engaged in an earnest effort to +co-ordinate what the Master had so far taught them. In a measure they all +sensed that this would be their last opportunity for prolonged rest. They +realized that their next public effort in either Judea or Galilee would mark +the beginning of the final proclamation of the coming kingdom, but they had +little or no settled idea as to what the kingdom would be when it came. John +and Andrew thought the kingdom had already come; Peter and James believed that +it was yet to come; Nathaniel and Thomas frankly confessed they were puzzled; +Matthew, Philip, and Simon Zelotes were uncertain and confused; the twins were +blissfully ignorant of the controversy; and Judas Iscariot was silent, +noncommittal. + +Much of this time Jesus was alone on the mountain near the camp. Occasionally +he took with him Peter, James, or John, but more often he went off to pray or +commune alone. Subsequent to the baptism of Jesus and the forty days in the +Perean hills, it is hardly proper to speak of these seasons of communion with +his Father as prayer, nor is it consistent to speak of Jesus as worshiping, but +it is altogether correct to allude to these seasons as personal communion with +his Father. + +The central theme of the discussions throughout the entire month of September +was prayer and worship. After they had discussed worship for some days, Jesus +finally delivered his memorable discourse on prayer in answer to Thomas's +request: "Master, teach us how to pray." + +John had taught his disciples a prayer, a prayer for salvation in the coming +kingdom. Although Jesus never forbade his followers to use John's form of +prayer, the apostles very early perceived that their Master did not fully +approve of the practice of uttering set and formal prayers. Nevertheless, +believers constantly requested to be taught how to pray. The twelve longed to +know what form of petition Jesus would approve. And it was chiefly because of +this need for some simple petition for the common people that Jesus at this +time consented, in answer to Thomas's request, to teach them a suggestive form +of prayer. Jesus gave this lesson one afternoon in the third week of their +sojourn on Mount Gilboa. + +2. THE DISCOURSE ON PRAYER + +"John indeed taught you a simple form of prayer: `O Father, cleanse us from +sin, show us your glory, reveal your love, and let your spirit sanctify our +hearts forevermore, Amen!' He taught this prayer that you might have something +to teach the multitude. He did not intend that you should use such a set and +formal petition as the expression of your own souls in prayer. + +"Prayer is entirely a personal and spontaneous expression of the attitude of +the soul toward the spirit; prayer should be the communion of sonship and the +expression of fellowship. Prayer, when indited by the spirit, leads to +co-operative spiritual progress. The ideal prayer is a form of spiritual +communion which leads to intelligent worship. True praying is the sincere +attitude of reaching heavenward for the attainment of your ideals. + + top of page - 1619 + +"Prayer is the breath of the soul and should lead you to be persistent in your +attempt to ascertain the Father's will. If any one of you has a neighbor, and +you go to him at midnight and say: `Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend +of mine on a journey has come to see me, and I have nothing to set before him'; +and if your neighbor answers, `Trouble me not, for the door is now shut and the +children and I are in bed; therefore I cannot rise and give you bread,' you +will persist, explaining that your friend hungers, and that you have no food to +offer him. I say to you, though your neighbor will not rise and give you bread +because he is your friend, yet because of your importunity he will get up and +give you as many loaves as you need. If, then, persistence will win favors even +from mortal man, how much more will your persistence in the spirit win the +bread of life for you from the willing hands of the Father in heaven. Again I +say to you: Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and +it shall be opened to you. For every one who asks receives; he who seeks finds; +and to him who knocks the door of salvation will be opened. + +"Which of you who is a father, if his son asks unwisely, would hesitate to give +in accordance with parental wisdom rather than in the terms of the son's faulty +petition? If the child needs a loaf, will you give him a stone just because he +unwisely asks for it? If your son needs a fish, will you give him a watersnake +just because it may chance to come up in the net with the fish and the child +foolishly asks for the serpent? If you, then, being mortal and finite, know how +to answer prayer and give good and appropriate gifts to your children, how much +more shall your heavenly Father give the spirit and many additional blessings +to those who ask him? Men ought always to pray and not become discouraged. + +"Let me tell you the story of a certain judge who lived in a wicked city. This +judge feared not God nor had respect for man. Now there was a needy widow in +that city who came repeatedly to this unjust judge, saying, `Protect me from my +adversary.' For some time he would not give ear to her, but presently he said +to himself: `Though I fear not God nor have regard for man, yet because this +widow ceases not to trouble me, I will vindicate her lest she wear me out by +her continual coming.' These stories I tell you to encourage you to persist in +praying and not to intimate that your petitions will change the just and +righteous Father above. Your persistence, however, is not to win favor with God +but to change your earth attitude and to enlarge your soul's capacity for +spirit receptivity. + +"But when you pray, you exercise so little faith. Genuine faith will remove +mountains of material difficulty which may chance to lie in the path of soul +expansion and spiritual progress." + +3. THE BELIEVER'S PRAYER + +But the apostles were not yet satisfied; they desired Jesus to give them a +model prayer which they could teach the new disciples. After listening to this +discourse on prayer, James Zebedee said: "Very good, Master, but we do not +desire a form of prayer for ourselves so much as for the newer believers who so +frequently beseech us, `Teach us how acceptably to pray to the Father in +heaven.'" + +When James had finished speaking, Jesus said: "If, then, you still desire such +a prayer, I would present the one which I taught my brothers and sisters in +Nazareth": + + top of page - 1620 + +Our Father who is in heaven, + +Hallowed be your name. + +Your kingdom come; your will be done + +On earth as it is in heaven. + +Give us this day our bread for tomorrow; + +Refresh our souls with the water of life. + +And forgive us every one our debts + +As we also have forgiven our debtors. + +Save us in temptation, deliver us from evil, + +And increasingly make us perfect like yourself. + +It is not strange that the apostles desired Jesus to teach them a model prayer +for believers. John the Baptist had taught his followers several prayers; all +great teachers had formulated prayers for their pupils. The religious teachers +of the Jews had some twenty-five or thirty set prayers which they recited in +the synagogues and even on the street corners. Jesus was particularly averse to +praying in public. Up to this time the twelve had heard him pray only a few +times. They observed him spending entire nights at prayer or worship, and they +were very curious to know the manner or form of his petitions. They were really +hard pressed to know what to answer the multitudes when they asked to be taught +how to pray as John had taught his disciples. + +Jesus taught the twelve always to pray in secret; to go off by themselves +amidst the quiet surroundings of nature or to go in their rooms and shut the +doors when they engaged in prayer. + +After Jesus' death and ascension to the Father it became the practice of many +believers to finish this so-called Lord's prayer by the addition of--"In the +name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Still later on, two lines were lost in copying, +and there was added to this prayer an extra clause, reading: "For yours is the +kingdom and the power and the glory, forevermore." + +Jesus gave the apostles the prayer in collective form as they had prayed it in +the Nazareth home. He never taught a formal personal prayer, only group, +family, or social petitions. And he never volunteered to do that. + +Jesus taught that effective prayer must be: + +1. Unselfish--not alone for oneself. + +2. Believing--according to faith. + +3. Sincere--honest of heart. + +4. Intelligent--according to light. + +5. Trustful--in submission to the Father's all-wise will. + +When Jesus spent whole nights on the mountain in prayer, it was mainly for his +disciples, particularly for the twelve. The Master prayed very little for +himself, although he engaged in much worship of the nature of understanding +communion with his Paradise Father. + +4. MORE ABOUT PRAYER + +For days after the discourse on prayer the apostles continued to ask the Master +questions regarding this all-important and worshipful practice. Jesus' +instruction to the apostles during these days, regarding prayer and worship, +may be summarized and restated in modern phraseology as follows: + + top of page - 1621 + +The earnest and longing repetition of any petition, when such a prayer is the +sincere expression of a child of God and is uttered in faith, no matter how +ill-advised or impossible of direct answer, never fails to expand the soul's +capacity for spiritual receptivity. + +In all praying, remember that sonship is a gift. No child has aught to do with +earning the status of son or daughter. The earth child comes into being by the +will of its parents. Even so, the child of God comes into grace and the new +life of the spirit by the will of the Father in heaven. Therefore must the +kingdom of heaven--divine sonship--be received as by a little child. You earn +righteousness--progressive character development--but you receive sonship by +grace and through faith. + +Prayer led Jesus up to the supercommunion of his soul with the Supreme Rulers +of the universe of universes. Prayer will lead the mortals of earth up to the +communion of true worship. The soul's spiritual capacity for receptivity +determines the quantity of heavenly blessings which can be personally +appropriated and consciously realized as an answer to prayer. + +Prayer and its associated worship is a technique of detachment from the daily +routine of life, from the monotonous grind of material existence. It is an +avenue of approach to spiritualized self-realization and individuality of +intellectual and religious attainment. + +Prayer is an antidote for harmful introspection. At least, prayer as the Master +taught it is such a beneficent ministry to the soul. Jesus consistently +employed the beneficial influence of praying for one's fellows. The Master +usually prayed in the plural, not in the singular. Only in the great crises of +his earth life did Jesus ever pray for himself. + +Prayer is the breath of the spirit life in the midst of the material +civilization of the races of mankind. Worship is salvation for the +pleasure-seeking generations of mortals. + +As prayer may be likened to recharging the spiritual batteries of the soul, so +worship may be compared to the act of tuning in the soul to catch the universe +broadcasts of the infinite spirit of the Universal Father. + +Prayer is the sincere and longing look of the child to its spirit Father; it is +a psychologic process of exchanging the human will for the divine will. Prayer +is a part of the divine plan for making over that which is into that which +ought to be. + +One of the reasons why Peter, James, and John, who so often accompanied Jesus +on his long night vigils, never heard Jesus pray, was because their Master so +rarely uttered his prayers as spoken words. Practically all of Jesus' praying +was done in the spirit and in the heart--silently. + +Of all the apostles, Peter and James came the nearest to comprehending the +Master's teaching about prayer and worship. + +5. OTHER FORMS OF PRAYER + +From time to time, during the remainder of Jesus' sojourn on earth, he brought +to the notice of the apostles several additional forms of prayer, but he did +this only in illustration of other matters, and he enjoined that these "parable +prayers" should not be taught to the multitudes. Many of them were from other +inhabited planets, but this fact Jesus did not reveal to the twelve. Among +these prayers were the following: + + top of page - 1622 + +Our Father in whom consist the universe realms, + +Uplifted be your name and all-glorious your character. + +Your presence encompasses us, and your glory is manifested + +Imperfectly through us as it is in perfection shown on high. + +Give us this day the vivifying forces of light, + +And let us not stray into the evil bypaths of our imagination, + +For yours is the glorious indwelling, the everlasting power, + +And to us, the eternal gift of the infinite love of your Son. + +Even so, and everlastingly true. + +* + +Our creative Parent, who is in the center of the universe, + +Bestow upon us your nature and give to us your character. + +Make us sons and daughters of yours by grace + +And glorify your name through our eternal achievement. + +Your adjusting and controlling spirit give to live and dwell within us + +That we may do your will on this sphere as angels do your bidding in light. + +Sustain us this day in our progress along the path of truth. + +Deliver us from inertia, evil, and all sinful transgression. + +Be patient with us as we show loving-kindness to our fellows. + +Shed abroad the spirit of your mercy in our creature hearts. + +Lead us by your own hand, step by step, through the uncertain maze of life, + +And when our end shall come, receive into your own bosom our faithful spirits. + +Even so, not our desires but your will be done. + +* + +Our perfect and righteous heavenly Father, + +This day guide and direct our journey. + +Sanctify our steps and co-ordinate our thoughts. + +Ever lead us in the ways of eternal progress. + +Fill us with wisdom to the fullness of power + +And vitalize us with your infinite energy. + +Inspire us with the divine consciousness of + +The presence and guidance of the seraphic hosts. + +Guide us ever upward in the pathway of light; + +Justify us fully in the day of the great judgment. + +Make us like yourself in eternal glory + +And receive us into your endless service on high. + +* + +Our Father who is in the mystery, + +Reveal to us your holy character. + +Give your children on earth this day + +To see the way, the light, and the truth. + +Show us the pathway of eternal progress + +And give us the will to walk therein. + +Establish within us your divine kingship + +And thereby bestow upon us the full mastery of self. + +Let us not stray into paths of darkness and death; + +Lead us everlastingly beside the waters of life. + +Hear these our prayers for your own sake; + +Be pleased to make us more and more like yourself. + + top of page - 1623 + +At the end, for the sake of the divine Son, + +Receive us into the eternal arms. + +Even so, not our will but yours be done. + +* + +Glorious Father and Mother, in one parent combined, + +Loyal would we be to your divine nature. + +Your own self to live again in and through us + +By the gift and bestowal of your divine spirit, + +Thus reproducing you imperfectly in this sphere + +As you are perfectly and majestically shown on high. + +Give us day by day your sweet ministry of brotherhood + +And lead us moment by moment in the pathway of loving service. + +Be you ever and unfailingly patient with us + +Even as we show forth your patience to our children. + +Give us the divine wisdom that does all things well + +And the infinite love that is gracious to every creature. + +Bestow upon us your patience and loving-kindness + +That our charity may enfold the weak of the realm. + +And when our career is finished, make it an honor to your name, + +A pleasure to your good spirit, and a satisfaction to our soul helpers. + +Not as we wish, our loving Father, but as you desire the eternal good of your +mortal children, + +Even so may it be. + +* + +Our all-faithful Source and all-powerful Center, + +Reverent and holy be the name of your all-gracious Son. + +Your bounties and your blessings have descended upon us, + +Thus empowering us to perform your will and execute your bidding. + +Give us moment by moment the sustenance of the tree of life; + +Refresh us day by day with the living waters of the river thereof. + +Step by step lead us out of darkness and into the divine light. + +Renew our minds by the transformations of the indwelling spirit, + +And when the mortal end shall finally come upon us, + +Receive us to yourself and send us forth in eternity. + +Crown us with celestial diadems of fruitful service, + +And we shall glorify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Influence. + +Even so, throughout a universe without end. + +* + +Our Father who dwells in the secret places of the universe, + +Honored be your name, reverenced your mercy, and respected your judgment. + +Let the sun of righteousness shine upon us at noontime, + +While we beseech you to guide our wayward steps in the twilight. + +Lead us by the hand in the ways of your own choosing + +And forsake us not when the path is hard and the hours are dark. + +Forget us not as we so often neglect and forget you. + +But be you merciful and love us as we desire to love you. + +Look down upon us in kindness and forgive us in mercy + +As we in justice forgive those who distress and injure us. + + top of page - 1624 + +May the love, devotion, and bestowal of the majestic Son + +Make available life everlasting with your endless mercy and love. + +May the God of universes bestow upon us the full measure of his spirit; + +Give us grace to yield to the leading of this spirit. + +By the loving ministry of devoted seraphic hosts + +May the Son guide and lead us to the end of the age. + +Make us ever and increasingly like yourself + +And at our end receive us into the eternal Paradise embrace. + +Even so, in the name of the bestowal Son + +And for the honor and glory of the Supreme Father. + +Though the apostles were not at liberty to present these prayer lessons in +their public teachings, they profited much from all of these revelations in +their personal religious experiences. Jesus utilized these and other prayer +models as illustrations in connection with the intimate instruction of the +twelve, and specific permission has been granted for transcribing these seven +specimen prayers into this record. + +6. CONFERENCE WITH JOHN'S APOSTLES + +Around the first of October, Philip and some of his fellow apostles were in a +near-by village buying food when they met some of the apostles of John the +Baptist. As a result of this chance meeting in the market place there came +about a three weeks' conference at the Gilboa camp between the apostles of +Jesus and the apostles of John, for John had recently appointed twelve of his +leaders to be apostles, following the precedent of Jesus. John had done this in +response to the urging of Abner, the chief of his loyal supporters. Jesus was +present at the Gilboa camp throughout the first week of this joint conference +but absented himself the last two weeks. + +By the beginning of the second week of this month, Abner had assembled all of +his associates at the Gilboa camp and was prepared to go into council with the +apostles of Jesus. For three weeks these twenty-four men were in session three +times a day and for six days each week. The first week Jesus mingled with them +between their forenoon, afternoon, and evening sessions. They wanted the Master +to meet with them and preside over their joint deliberations, but he +steadfastly refused to participate in their discussions, though he did consent +to speak to them on three occasions. These talks by Jesus to the twenty-four +were on sympathy, co-operation, and tolerance. + +Andrew and Abner alternated in presiding over these joint meetings of the two +apostolic groups. These men had many difficulties to discuss and numerous +problems to solve. Again and again would they take their troubles to Jesus, +only to hear him say: "I am concerned only with your personal and purely +religious problems. I am the representative of the Father to the individual, +not to the group. If you are in personal difficulty in your relations with God, +come to me, and I will hear you and counsel you in the solution of your +problem. But when you enter upon the co-ordination of divergent human +interpretations of religious questions and upon the socialization of religion, +you are destined to solve all such problems by your own decisions. Albeit, I am +ever sympathetic and always interested, and when you arrive at your conclusions +touching these matters of nonspiritual import, provided you are all agreed, +then I pledge in advance my full + + top of page - 1625 + +approval and hearty co-operation. And now, in order to leave you unhampered in +your deliberations, I am leaving you for two weeks. Be not anxious about me, +for I will return to you. I will be about my Father's business, for we have +other realms besides this one." + +After thus speaking, Jesus went down the mountainside, and they saw him no more +for two full weeks. And they never knew where he went or what he did during +these days. It was some time before the twenty-four could settle down to the +serious consideration of their problems, they were so disconcerted by the +absence of the Master. However, within a week they were again in the heart of +their discussions, and they could not go to Jesus for help. + +The first item the group agreed upon was the adoption of the prayer which Jesus +had so recently taught them. It was unanimously voted to accept this prayer as +the one to be taught believers by both groups of apostles. + +They next decided that, as long as John lived, whether in prison or out, both +groups of twelve apostles would go on with their work, and that joint meetings +for one week would be held every three months at places to be agreed upon from +time to time. + +But the most serious of all their problems was the question of baptism. Their +difficulties were all the more aggravated because Jesus had refused to make any +pronouncement upon the subject. They finally agreed: As long as John lived, or +until they might jointly modify this decision, only the apostles of John would +baptize believers, and only the apostles of Jesus would finally instruct the +new disciples. Accordingly, from that time until after the death of John, two +of the apostles of John accompanied Jesus and his apostles to baptize +believers, for the joint council had unanimously voted that baptism was to +become the initial step in the outward alliance with the affairs of the +kingdom. + +It was next agreed, in case of the death of John, that the apostles of John +would present themselves to Jesus and become subject to his direction, and that +they would baptize no more unless authorized by Jesus or his apostles. + +And then was it voted that, in case of John's death, the apostles of Jesus +would begin to baptize with water as the emblem of the baptism of the divine +Spirit. As to whether or not repentance should be attached to the preaching of +baptism was left optional; no decision was made binding upon the group. John's +apostles preached, "Repent and be baptized." Jesus' apostles proclaimed, +"Believe and be baptized." + +And this is the story of the first attempt of Jesus' followers to co-ordinate +divergent efforts, compose differences of opinion, organize group undertakings, +legislate on outward observances, and socialize personal religious practices. + +Many other minor matters were considered and their solutions unanimously agreed +upon. These twenty-four men had a truly remarkable experience these two weeks +when they were compelled to face problems and compose difficulties without +Jesus. They learned to differ, to debate, to contend, to pray, and to +compromise, and throughout it all to remain sympathetic with the other person's +viewpoint and to maintain at least some degree of tolerance for his honest +opinions. + +On the afternoon of their final discussion of financial questions, Jesus +returned, heard of their deliberations, listened to their decisions, and said: +"These, then, are your conclusions, and I shall help you each to carry out the +spirit of your united decisions." + + top of page - 1626 + +Two months and a half from this time John was executed, and throughout this +period the apostles of John remained with Jesus and the twelve. They all worked +together and baptized believers during this season of labor in the cities of +the Decapolis. The Gilboa camp was broken up on November 2, A.D. 27. + +7. IN THE DECAPOLIS CITIES + +Throughout the months of November and December, Jesus and the twenty-four +worked quietly in the Greek cities of the Decapolis, chiefly in Scythopolis, +Gerasa, Abila, and Gadara. This was really the end of that preliminary period +of taking over John's work and organization. Always does the socialized +religion of a new revelation pay the price of compromise with the established +forms and usages of the preceding religion which it seeks to salvage. Baptism +was the price which the followers of Jesus paid in order to carry with them, as +a socialized religious group, the followers of John the Baptist. John's +followers, in joining Jesus' followers, gave up just about everything except +water baptism. + +Jesus did little public teaching on this mission to the cities of the +Decapolis. He spent considerable time teaching the twenty-four and had many +special sessions with John's twelve apostles. In time they became more +understanding as to why Jesus did not go to visit John in prison, and why he +made no effort to secure his release. But they never could understand why Jesus +did no marvelous works, why he refused to produce outward signs of his divine +authority. Before coming to the Gilboa camp, they had believed in Jesus mostly +because of John's testimony, but soon they were beginning to believe as a +result of their own contact with the Master and his teachings. + +For these two months the group worked most of the time in pairs, one of Jesus' +apostles going out with one of John's. The apostle of John baptized, the +apostle of Jesus instructed, while they both preached the gospel of the kingdom +as they understood it. And they won many souls among these gentiles and +apostate Jews. + +Abner, the chief of John's apostles, became a devout believer in Jesus and was +later on made the head of a group of seventy teachers whom the Master +commissioned to preach the gospel. + +8. IN CAMP NEAR PELLA + +The latter part of December they all went over near the Jordan, close by Pella, +where they again began to teach and preach. Both Jews and gentiles came to this +camp to hear the gospel. It was while Jesus was teaching the multitude one +afternoon that some of John's special friends brought the Master the last +message which he ever had from the Baptist. + +John had now been in prison a year and a half, and most of this time Jesus had +labored very quietly; so it was not strange that John should be led to wonder +about the kingdom. John's friends interrupted Jesus' teaching to say to him: +"John the Baptist has sent us to ask--are you truly the Deliverer, or shall we +look for another?" + +Jesus paused to say to John's friends: "Go back and tell John that he is not +forgotten. Tell him what you have seen and heard, that the poor have good +tidings preached to them." And when Jesus had spoken further to the messengers +of John, he turned again to the multitude and said: "Do not think that John +doubts the gospel of the kingdom. He makes inquiry only to assure his disciples +who + + top of page - 1627 + +are also my disciples. John is no weakling. Let me ask you who heard John +preach before Herod put him in prison: What did you behold in John--a reed +shaken with the wind? A man of changeable moods and clothed in soft raiment? As +a rule they who are gorgeously appareled and who live delicately are in kings' +courts and in the mansions of the rich. But what did you see when you beheld +John? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and much more than a prophet. Of John it +was written: `Behold, I send my messenger before your face; he shall prepare +the way before you.' + +"Verily, verily, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen a +greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is but small in the kingdom of heaven +is greater because he has been born of the spirit and knows that he has become +a son of God." + +Many who heard Jesus that day submitted themselves to John's baptism, thereby +publicly professing entrance into the kingdom. And the apostles of John were +firmly knit to Jesus from that day forward. This occurrence marked the real +union of John's and Jesus' followers. + +After the messengers had conversed with Abner, they departed for Machaerus to +tell all this to John. He was greatly comforted, and his faith was strengthened +by the words of Jesus and the message of Abner. + +On this afternoon Jesus continued to teach, saying: "But to what shall I liken +this generation? Many of you will receive neither John's message nor my +teaching. You are like the children playing in the market place who call to +their fellows and say: `We piped for you and you did not dance; we wailed and +you did not mourn.' And so with some of you. John came neither eating nor +drinking, and they said he had a devil. The Son of Man comes eating and +drinking, and these same people say: `Behold, a gluttonous man and a +winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!' Truly, wisdom is justified by +her children. + +"It would appear that the Father in heaven has hidden some of these truths from +the wise and haughty, while he has revealed them to babes. But the Father does +all things well; the Father reveals himself to the universe by the methods of +his own choosing. Come, therefore, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and +you shall find rest for your souls. Take upon you the divine yoke, and you will +experience the peace of God, which passes all understanding." + +9. DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST + +John the Baptist was executed by order of Herod Antipas on the evening of +January 10, A.D. 28. The next day a few of John's disciples who had gone to +Machaerus heard of his execution and, going to Herod, made request for his +body, which they put in a tomb, later giving it burial at Sebaste, the home of +Abner. The following day, January 12, they started north to the camp of John's +and Jesus' apostles near Pella, and they told Jesus about the death of John. +When Jesus heard their report, he dismissed the multitude and, calling the +twenty-four together, said: "John is dead. Herod has beheaded him. Tonight go +into joint council and arrange your affairs accordingly. There shall be delay +no longer. The hour has come to proclaim the kingdom openly and with power. +Tomorrow we go into Galilee." + +Accordingly, early on the morning of January 13, A.D. 28, Jesus and the +apostles, accompanied by some twenty-five disciples, made their way to +Capernaum and lodged that night in Zebedee's house. + + top of page - 1628 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Going Through ³ Four Eventful ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ S... ³ D... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p145.txt b/religious documents/p145.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a255c5e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p145.txt @@ -0,0 +1,555 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 145 Four Eventful Days At Capernaum + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 145 Four Eventful Days At Capernaum + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +JESUS and the apostles arrived in Capernaum the evening of Tuesday, January 13. +As usual, they made their headquarters at the home of Zebedee in Bethsaida. Now +that John the Baptist had been sent to his death, Jesus prepared to launch out +in the first open and public preaching tour of Galilee. The news that Jesus had +returned rapidly spread throughout the city, and early the next day, Mary the +mother of Jesus hastened away, going over to Nazareth to visit her son Joseph. + +Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday Jesus spent at the Zebedee house instructing +his apostles preparatory to their first extensive public preaching tour. He +also received and taught many earnest inquirers, both singly and in groups. +Through Andrew, he arranged to speak in the synagogue on the coming Sabbath +day. + +Late on Friday evening Jesus' baby sister, Ruth, secretly paid him a visit. +They spent almost an hour together in a boat anchored a short distance from the +shore. No human being, save John Zebedee, ever knew of this visit, and he was +admonished to tell no man. Ruth was the only member of Jesus' family who +consistently and unwaveringly believed in the divinity of his earth mission +from the times of her earliest spiritual consciousness right on down through +his eventful ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension; and she finally +passed on to the worlds beyond never having doubted the supernatural character +of her father-brother's mission in the flesh. Baby Ruth was the chief comfort +of Jesus, as regards his earth family, throughout the trying ordeal of his +trial, rejection, and crucifixion. + +1. THE DRAUGHT OF FISHES + +On Friday morning of this same week, when Jesus was teaching by the seaside, +the people crowded him so near the water's edge that he signaled to some +fishermen occupying a near-by boat to come to his rescue. Entering the boat, he +continued to teach the assembled multitude for more than two hours. This boat +was named "Simon"; it was the former fishing vessel of Simon Peter and had been +built by Jesus' own hands. On this particular morning the boat was being used +by David Zebedee and two associates, who had just come in near shore from a +fruitless night of fishing on the lake. They were cleaning and mending their +nets when Jesus requested them to come to his assistance. + +After Jesus had finished teaching the people, he said to David: "As you were +delayed by coming to my help, now let me work with you. Let us go fishing; put +out into yonder deep and let down your nets for a draught." But Simon, one of +David's assistants, answered: "Master, it is useless. We toiled all night + + top of page - 1629 + +and took nothing; however, at your bidding we will put out and let down the +nets." And Simon consented to follow Jesus' directions because of a gesture +made by his master, David. When they had proceeded to the place designated by +Jesus, they let down their nets and enclosed such a multitude of fish that they +feared the nets would break, so much so that they signaled to their associates +on the shore to come to their assistance. When they had filled all three boats +with fish, almost to sinking, this Simon fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, +"Depart from me, Master, for I am a sinful man." Simon and all who were +concerned in this episode were amazed at the draught of fishes. From that day +David Zebedee, this Simon, and their associates forsook their nets and followed +Jesus. + +But this was in no sense a miraculous draught of fishes. Jesus was a close +student of nature; he was an experienced fisherman and knew the habits of the +fish in the Sea of Galilee. On this occasion he merely directed these men to +the place where the fish were usually to be found at this time of day. But +Jesus' followers always regarded this as a miracle. + +2. AFTERNOON AT THE SYNAGOGUE + +The next Sabbath, at the afternoon service in the synagogue, Jesus preached his +sermon on "The Will of the Father in Heaven." In the morning Simon Peter had +preached on "The Kingdom." At the Thursday evening meeting of the synagogue +Andrew had taught, his subject being "The New Way." At this particular time +more people believed in Jesus in Capernaum than in any other one city on earth. + +As Jesus taught in the synagogue this Sabbath afternoon, according to custom he +took the first text from the law, reading from the Book of Exodus: "And you +shall serve the Lord, your God, and he shall bless your bread and your water, +and all sickness shall be taken away from you." He chose the second text from +the Prophets, reading from Isaiah: "Arise and shine, for your light has come, +and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Darkness may cover the earth and +gross darkness the people, but the spirit of the Lord shall arise upon you, and +the divine glory shall be seen with you. Even the gentiles shall come to this +light, and many great minds shall surrender to the brightness of this light." + +This sermon was an effort on Jesus' part to make clear the fact that religion +is a personal experience. Among other things, the Master said: + +"You well know that, while a kindhearted father loves his family as a whole, he +so regards them as a group because of his strong affection for each individual +member of that family. No longer must you approach the Father in heaven as a +child of Israel but as a child of God. As a group, you are indeed the children +of Israel, but as individuals, each one of you is a child of God. I have come, +not to reveal the Father to the children of Israel, but rather to bring this +knowledge of God and the revelation of his love and mercy to the individual +believer as a genuine personal experience. The prophets have all taught you +that Yahweh cares for his people, that God loves Israel. But I have come among +you to proclaim a greater truth, one which many of the later prophets also +grasped, that God loves you--every one of you--as individuals. All these +generations have you had a national or racial religion; now have I come to give +you a personal religion. + + top of page - 1630 + +"But even this is not a new idea. Many of the spiritually minded among you have +known this truth, inasmuch as some of the prophets have so instructed you. Have +you not read in the Scriptures where the Prophet Jeremiah says: `In those days +they shall no more say, the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's +teeth are set on edge. Every man shall die for his own iniquity; every man who +eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. Behold, the days shall come +when I will make a new covenant with my people, not according to the covenant +which I made with their fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, +but according to the new way. I will even write my law in their hearts. I will +be their God, and they shall be my people. In that day they shall not say, one +man to his neighbor, do you know the Lord? Nay! For they shall all know me +personally, from the least to the greatest.' + +"Have you not read these promises? Do you not believe the Scriptures? Do you +not understand that the prophet's words are fulfilled in what you behold this +very day? And did not Jeremiah exhort you to make religion an affair of the +heart, to relate yourselves to God as individuals? Did not the prophet tell you +that the God of heaven would search your individual hearts? And were you not +warned that the natural human heart is deceitful above all things and +oftentimes desperately wicked? + +"Have you not read also where Ezekiel taught even your fathers that religion +must become a reality in your individual experiences? No more shall you use the +proverb which says, `The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's +teeth are set on edge.' `As I live,' says the Lord God, `behold all souls are +mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son. Only the soul +that sins shall die.' And then Ezekiel foresaw even this day when he spoke in +behalf of God, saying: `A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will +I put within you.' + +"No more should you fear that God will punish a nation for the sin of an +individual; neither will the Father in heaven punish one of his believing +children for the sins of a nation, albeit the individual member of any family +must often suffer the material consequences of family mistakes and group +transgressions. Do you not realize that the hope of a better nation--or a +better world--is bound up in the progress and enlightenment of the individual?" + +Then the Master portrayed that the Father in heaven, after man discerns this +spiritual freedom, wills that his children on earth should begin that eternal +ascent of the Paradise career which consists in the creature's conscious +response to the divine urge of the indwelling spirit to find the Creator, to +know God and to seek to become like him. + +The apostles were greatly helped by this sermon. All of them realized more +fully that the gospel of the kingdom is a message directed to the individual, +not to the nation. + +Even though the people of Capernaum were familiar with Jesus' teaching, they +were astonished at his sermon on this Sabbath day. He taught, indeed, as one +having authority and not as the scribes. + +Just as Jesus finished speaking, a young man in the congregation who had been +much agitated by his words was seized with a violent epileptic attack and +loudly cried out. At the end of the seizure, when recovering consciousness, he +spoke in a dreamy state, saying: "What have we to do with you, Jesus of +Nazareth? You are the holy one of God; have you come to destroy us?" Jesus + + top of page - 1631 + +bade the people be quiet and, taking the young man by the hand, said, "Come out +of it"--and he was immediately awakened. + +This young man was not possessed of an unclean spirit or demon; he was a victim +of ordinary epilepsy. But he had been taught that his affliction was due to +possession by an evil spirit. He believed this teaching and behaved accordingly +in all that he thought or said concerning his ailment. The people all believed +that such phenomena were directly caused by the presence of unclean spirits. +Accordingly they believed that Jesus had cast a demon out of this man. But +Jesus did not at that time cure his epilepsy. Not until later on that day, +after sundown, was this man really healed. Long after the day of Pentecost the +Apostle John, who was the last to write of Jesus' doings, avoided all reference +to these so-called acts of "casting out devils," and this he did in view of the +fact that such cases of demon possession never occurred after Pentecost. + +As a result of this commonplace incident the report was rapidly spread through +Capernaum that Jesus had cast a demon out of a man and miraculously healed him +in the synagogue at the conclusion of his afternoon sermon. The Sabbath was +just the time for the rapid and effective spreading of such a startling rumor. +This report was also carried to all the smaller settlements around Capernaum, +and many of the people believed it. + +The cooking and the housework at the large Zebedee home, where Jesus and the +twelve made their headquarters, was for the most part done by Simon Peter's +wife and her mother. Peter's home was near that of Zebedee; and Jesus and his +friends stopped there on the way from the synagogue because Peter's wife's +mother had for several days been sick with chills and fever. Now it chanced +that, at about the time Jesus stood over this sick woman, holding her hand, +smoothing her brow, and speaking words of comfort and encouragement, the fever +left her. Jesus had not yet had time to explain to his apostles that no miracle +had been wrought at the synagogue; and with this incident so fresh and vivid in +their minds, and recalling the water and the wine at Cana, they seized upon +this coincidence as another miracle, and some of them rushed out to spread the +news abroad throughout the city. + +Amatha, Peter's mother-in-law, was suffering from malarial fever. She was not +miraculously healed by Jesus at this time. Not until several hours later, after +sundown, was her cure effected in connection with the extraordinary event which +occurred in the front yard of the Zebedee home. + +And these cases are typical of the manner in which a wonder-seeking generation +and a miracle-minded people unfailingly seized upon all such coincidences as +the pretext for proclaiming that another miracle had been wrought by Jesus. + +3. THE HEALING AT SUNDOWN + +By the time Jesus and his apostles had made ready to partake of their evening +meal near the end of this eventful Sabbath day, all Capernaum and its environs +were agog over these reputed miracles of healing; and all who were sick or +afflicted began preparations to go to Jesus or to have themselves carried there +by their friends just as soon as the sun went down. According to Jewish +teaching it was not permissible even to go in quest of health during the sacred +hours of the Sabbath. + + top of page - 1632 + +Therefore, as soon as the sun sank beneath the horizon, scores of afflicted +men, women, and children began to make their way toward the Zebedee home in +Bethsaida. One man started out with his paralyzed daughter just as soon as the +sun sank behind his neighbor's house. + +The whole day's events had set the stage for this extraordinary sundown scene. +Even the text Jesus had used for his afternoon sermon had intimated that +sickness should be banished; and he had spoken with such unprecedented power +and authority! His message was so compelling! While he made no appeal to human +authority, he did speak directly to the consciences and souls of men. Though he +did not resort to logic, legal quibbles, or clever sayings, he did make a +powerful, direct, clear, and personal appeal to the hearts of his hearers. + +That Sabbath was a great day in the earth life of Jesus, yes, in the life of a +universe. To all local universe intents and purposes the little Jewish city of +Capernaum was the real capital of Nebadon. The handful of Jews in the Capernaum +synagogue were not the only beings to hear that momentous closing statement of +Jesus' sermon: "Hate is the shadow of fear; revenge the mask of cowardice." +Neither could his hearers forget his blessed words, declaring, "Man is the son +of God, not a child of the devil." + +Soon after the setting of the sun, as Jesus and the apostles still lingered +about the supper table, Peter's wife heard voices in the front yard and, on +going to the door, saw a large company of sick folks assembling, and that the +road from Capernaum was crowded by those who were on their way to seek healing +at Jesus' hands. On seeing this sight, she went at once and informed her +husband, who told Jesus. + +When the Master stepped out of the front entrance of Zebedee's house, his eyes +met an array of stricken and afflicted humanity. He gazed upon almost one +thousand sick and ailing human beings; at least that was the number of persons +gathered together before him. Not all present were afflicted; some had come +assisting their loved ones in this effort to secure healing. + +The sight of these afflicted mortals, men, women, and children, suffering in +large measure as a result of the mistakes and misdeeds of his own trusted Sons +of universe administration, peculiarly touched the human heart of Jesus and +challenged the divine mercy of this benevolent Creator Son. But Jesus well knew +he could never build an enduring spiritual movement upon the foundation of +purely material wonders. It had been his consistent policy to refrain from +exhibiting his creator prerogatives. Not since Cana had the supernatural or +miraculous attended his teaching; still, this afflicted multitude touched his +sympathetic heart and mightily appealed to his understanding affection. + +A voice from the front yard exclaimed: "Master, speak the word, restore our +health, heal our diseases, and save our souls." No sooner had these words been +uttered than a vast retinue of seraphim, physical controllers, Life Carriers, +and midwayers, such as always attended this incarnated Creator of a universe, +made themselves ready to act with creative power should their Sovereign give +the signal. This was one of those moments in the earth career of Jesus in which +divine wisdom and human compassion were so interlocked in the judgment of the +Son of Man that he sought refuge in appeal to his Father's will. + +When Peter implored the Master to heed their cry for help, Jesus, looking down +upon the afflicted throng, answered: "I have come into the world to reveal + + top of page - 1633 + +the Father and establish his kingdom. For this purpose have I lived my life to +this hour. If, therefore, it should be the will of Him who sent me and not +inconsistent with my dedication to the proclamation of the gospel of the +kingdom of heaven, I would desire to see my children made whole--and--" but the +further words of Jesus were lost in the tumult. + +Jesus had passed the responsibility of this healing decision to the ruling of +his Father. Evidently the Father's will interposed no objection, for the words +of the Master had scarcely been uttered when the assembly of celestial +personalities serving under the command of Jesus' Personalized Thought Adjuster +was mightily astir. The vast retinue descended into the midst of this motley +throng of afflicted mortals, and in a moment of time 683 men, women, and +children were made whole, were perfectly healed of all their physical diseases +and other material disorders. Such a scene was never witnessed on earth before +that day, nor since. And for those of us who were present to behold this +creative wave of healing, it was indeed a thrilling spectacle. + +But of all the beings who were astonished at this sudden and unexpected +outbreak of supernatural healing, Jesus was the most surprised. In a moment +when his human interests and sympathies were focused upon the scene of +suffering and affliction there spread out before him, he neglected to bear in +his human mind the admonitory warnings of his Personalized Adjuster regarding +the impossibility of limiting the time element of the creator prerogatives of a +Creator Son under certain conditions and in certain circumstances. Jesus +desired to see these suffering mortals made whole if his Father's will would +not thereby be violated. The Personalized Adjuster of Jesus instantly ruled +that such an act of creative energy at that time would not transgress the will +of the Paradise Father, and by such a decision--in view of Jesus' preceding +expression of healing desire--the creative act was. What a Creator Son desires +and his Father wills IS. Not in all of Jesus' subsequent earth life did another +such en masse physical healing of mortals take place. + +As might have been expected, the fame of this sundown healing at Bethsaida in +Capernaum spread throughout all Galilee and Judea and to the regions beyond. +Once more were the fears of Herod aroused, and he sent watchers to report on +the work and teachings of Jesus and to ascertain if he was the former carpenter +of Nazareth or John the Baptist risen from the dead. + +Chiefly because of this unintended demonstration of physical healing, +henceforth, throughout the remainder of his earth career, Jesus became as much +a physician as a preacher. True, he continued his teaching, but his personal +work consisted mostly in ministering to the sick and the distressed, while his +apostles did the work of public preaching and baptizing believers. + +But the majority of those who were recipients of supernatural or creative +physical healing at this sundown demonstration of divine energy were not +permanently spiritually benefited by this extraordinary manifestation of mercy. +A small number were truly edified by this physical ministry, but the spiritual +kingdom was not advanced in the hearts of men by this amazing eruption of +timeless creative healing. + +The healing wonders which every now and then attended Jesus' mission on earth +were not a part of his plan of proclaiming the kingdom. They were incidentally +inherent in having on earth a divine being of well-nigh unlimited creator +prerogatives in association with an unprecedented combination of + + top of page - 1634 + +divine mercy and human sympathy. But such so-called miracles gave Jesus much +trouble in that they provided prejudice-raising publicity and afforded much +unsought notoriety. + +4. THE EVENING AFTER + +Throughout the evening following this great outburst of healing, the rejoicing +and happy throng overran Zebedee's home, and the apostles of Jesus were keyed +up to the highest pitch of emotional enthusiasm. From a human standpoint, this +was probably the greatest day of all the great days of their association with +Jesus. At no time before or after did their hopes surge to such heights of +confident expectation. Jesus had told them only a few days before, and when +they were yet within the borders of Samaria, that the hour had come when the +kingdom was to be proclaimed in power, and now their eyes had seen what they +supposed was the fulfillment of that promise. They were thrilled by the vision +of what was to come if this amazing manifestation of healing power was just the +beginning. Their lingering doubts of Jesus' divinity were banished. They were +literally intoxicated with the ecstasy of their bewildered enchantment. + +But when they sought for Jesus, they could not find him. The Master was much +perturbed by what had happened. These men, women, and children who had been +healed of diverse diseases lingered late into the evening, hoping for Jesus' +return that they might thank him. The apostles could not understand the +Master's conduct as the hours passed and he remained in seclusion; their joy +would have been full and perfect but for his continued absence. When Jesus did +return to their midst, the hour was late, and practically all of the +beneficiaries of the healing episode had gone to their homes. Jesus refused the +congratulations and adoration of the twelve and the others who had lingered to +greet him, only saying: "Rejoice not that my Father is powerful to heal the +body, but rather that he is mighty to save the soul. Let us go to our rest, for +tomorrow we must be about the Father's business." + +And again did twelve disappointed, perplexed, and heart-sorrowing men go to +their rest; few of them, except the twins, slept much that night. No sooner +would the Master do something to cheer the souls and gladden the hearts of his +apostles, than he seemed immediately to dash their hopes in pieces and utterly +to demolish the foundations of their courage and enthusiasm. As these +bewildered fishermen looked into each other's eyes, there was but one thought: +"We cannot understand him. What does all this mean?" + +5. EARLY SUNDAY MORNING + +Neither did Jesus sleep much that Saturday night. He realized that the world +was filled with physical distress and overrun with material difficulties, and +he contemplated the great danger of being compelled to devote so much of his +time to the care of the sick and afflicted that his mission of establishing the +spiritual kingdom in the hearts of men would be interfered with or at least +subordinated to the ministry of things physical. Because of these and similar +thoughts which occupied the mortal mind of Jesus during the night, he arose +that Sunday morning long before daybreak and went all alone to one of his +favorite places for communion with the Father. The theme of Jesus' prayer on +this early morning was for wisdom and judgment that he might not allow his +human sympathy, + + top of page - 1635 + +joined with his divine mercy, to make such an appeal to him in the presence of +mortal suffering that all of his time would be occupied with physical ministry +to the neglect of the spiritual. Though he did not wish altogether to avoid +ministering to the sick, he knew that he must also do the more important work +of spiritual teaching and religious training. + +Jesus went out in the hills to pray so many times because there were no private +rooms suitable for his personal devotions. + +Peter could not sleep that night; so, very early, shortly after Jesus had gone +out to pray, he aroused James and John, and the three went to find their +Master. After more than an hour's search they found Jesus and besought him to +tell them the reason for his strange conduct. They desired to know why he +appeared to be troubled by the mighty outpouring of the spirit of healing when +all the people were overjoyed and his apostles so much rejoiced. + +For more than four hours Jesus endeavored to explain to these three apostles +what had happened. He taught them about what had transpired and explained the +dangers of such manifestations. Jesus confided to them the reason for his +coming forth to pray. He sought to make plain to his personal associates the +real reasons why the kingdom of the Father could not be built upon +wonder-working and physical healing. But they could not comprehend his +teaching. + +Meanwhile, early Sunday morning, other crowds of afflicted souls and many +curiosity seekers began to gather about the house of Zebedee. They clamored to +see Jesus. Andrew and the apostles were so perplexed that, while Simon Zelotes +talked to the assembly, Andrew, with several of his associates, went to find +Jesus. When Andrew had located Jesus in company with the three, he said: +"Master, why do you leave us alone with the multitude? Behold, all men seek +you; never before have so many sought after your teaching. Even now the house +is surrounded by those who have come from near and far because of your mighty +works. Will you not return with us to minister to them?" + +When Jesus heard this, he answered: "Andrew, have I not taught you and these +others that my mission on earth is the revelation of the Father, and my message +the proclamation of the kingdom of heaven? How is it, then, that you would have +me turn aside from my work for the gratification of the curious and for the +satisfaction of those who seek for signs and wonders? Have we not been among +these people all these months, and have they flocked in multitudes to hear the +good news of the kingdom? Why have they now come to besiege us? Is it not +because of the healing of their physical bodies rather than as a result of the +reception of spiritual truth for the salvation of their souls? When men are +attracted to us because of extraordinary manifestations, many of them come +seeking not for truth and salvation but rather in quest of healing for their +physical ailments and to secure deliverance from their material difficulties. + +"All this time I have been in Capernaum, and both in the synagogue and by the +seaside have I proclaimed the good news of the kingdom to all who had ears to +hear and hearts to receive the truth. It is not the will of my Father that I +should return with you to cater to these curious ones and to become occupied +with the ministry of things physical to the exclusion of the spiritual. I have +ordained you to preach the gospel and minister to the sick, but I must not +become engrossed in healing to the exclusion of my teaching. No, Andrew, I will +not return with you. Go and tell the people to believe in that which we have +taught them and to rejoice in the liberty of the sons of God, and make ready +for our departure for the other cities of Galilee, where the way has al- + + top of page - 1636 + +ready been prepared for the preaching of the good tidings of the kingdom. It +was for this purpose that I came forth from the Father. Go, then, and prepare +for our immediate departure while I here await your return." + +When Jesus had spoken, Andrew and his fellow apostles sorrowfully made their +way back to Zebedee's house, dismissed the assembled multitude, and quickly +made ready for the journey as Jesus had directed. And so, on the afternoon of +Sunday, January 18, A.D. 28, Jesus and the apostles started out upon their +first really public and open preaching tour of the cities of Galilee. On this +first tour they preached the gospel of the kingdom in many cities, but they did +not visit Nazareth. + +That Sunday afternoon, shortly after Jesus and his apostles had left for +Rimmon, his brothers James and Jude came to see him, calling at Zebedee's +house. About noon of that day Jude had sought out his brother James and +insisted that they go to Jesus. By the time James consented to go with Jude, +Jesus had already departed. + +The apostles were loath to leave the great interest which had been aroused at +Capernaum. Peter calculated that no less than one thousand believers could have +been baptized into the kingdom. Jesus listened to them patiently, but he would +not consent to return. Silence prevailed for a season, and then Thomas +addressed his fellow apostles, saying: "Let's go! The Master has spoken. No +matter if we cannot fully comprehend the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, of +one thing we are certain: We follow a teacher who seeks no glory for himself." +And reluctantly they went forth to preach the good tidings in the cities of +Galilee. + + top of page - 1637 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ At Gilboa And ³ First ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ I... ³ Preaching... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p146.txt b/religious documents/p146.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca8b49b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p146.txt @@ -0,0 +1,616 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 146 First Preaching Tour Of Galilee + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 146 First Preaching Tour Of Galilee + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE first public preaching tour of Galilee began on Sunday, January 18, A.D. +28, and continued for about two months, ending with the return to Capernaum on +March 17. On this tour Jesus and the twelve apostles, assisted by the former +apostles of John, preached the gospel and baptized believers in Rimmon, +Jotapata, Ramah, Zebulun, Iron, Gischala, Chorazin, Madon, Cana, Nain, and +Endor. In these cities they tarried and taught, while in many other smaller +towns they proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom as they passed through. + +This was the first time Jesus permitted his associates to preach without +restraint. On this tour he cautioned them on only three occasions; he +admonished them to remain away from Nazareth and to be discreet when passing +through Capernaum and Tiberias. It was a source of great satisfaction to the +apostles at last to feel they were at liberty to preach and teach without +restriction, and they threw themselves into the work of preaching the gospel, +ministering to the sick, and baptizing believers, with great earnestness and +joy. + +1. PREACHING AT RIMMON + +The small city of Rimmon had once been dedicated to the worship of a Babylonian +god of the air, Ramman. Many of the earlier Babylonian and later Zoroastrian +teachings were still embraced in the beliefs of the Rimmonites; therefore did +Jesus and the twenty-four devote much of their time to the task of making plain +the difference between these older beliefs and the new gospel of the kingdom. +Peter here preached one of the great sermons of his early career on "Aaron and +the Golden Calf." + +Although many of the citizens of Rimmon became believers in Jesus' teachings, +they made great trouble for their brethren in later years. It is difficult to +convert nature worshipers to the full fellowship of the adoration of a +spiritual ideal during the short space of a single lifetime. + +Many of the better of the Babylonian and Persian ideas of light and darkness, +good and evil, time and eternity, were later incorporated in the doctrines of +so-called Christianity, and their inclusion rendered the Christian teachings +more immediately acceptable to the peoples of the Near East. In like manner, +the inclusion of many of Plato's theories of the ideal spirit or invisible +patterns of all things visible and material, as later adapted by Philo to the +Hebrew theology, made Paul's Christian teachings more easy of acceptance by the +western Greeks. + +It was at Rimmon that Todan first heard the gospel of the kingdom, and he later +carried this message into Mesopotamia and far beyond. He was among the first to +preach the good news to those who dwelt beyond the Euphrates. + + top of page - 1638 + +2. AT JOTAPATA + +While the common people of Jotapata heard Jesus and his apostles gladly and +many accepted the gospel of the kingdom, it was the discourse of Jesus to the +twenty-four on the second evening of their sojourn in this small town that +distinguishes the Jotapata mission. Nathaniel was confused in his mind about +the Master's teachings concerning prayer, thanksgiving, and worship, and in +response to his question Jesus spoke at great length in further explanation of +his teaching. Summarized in modern phraseology, this discourse may be presented +as emphasizing the following points: + +1. The conscious and persistent regard for iniquity in the heart of man +gradually destroys the prayer connection of the human soul with the spirit +circuits of communication between man and his Maker. Naturally God hears the +petition of his child, but when the human heart deliberately and persistently +harbors the concepts of iniquity, there gradually ensues the loss of personal +communion between the earth child and his heavenly Father. + +2. That prayer which is inconsistent with the known and established laws of God +is an abomination to the Paradise Deities. If man will not listen to the Gods +as they speak to their creation in the laws of spirit, mind, and matter, the +very act of such deliberate and conscious disdain by the creature turns the +ears of spirit personalities away from hearing the personal petitions of such +lawless and disobedient mortals. Jesus quoted to his apostles from the Prophet +Zechariah: "But they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and +stopped their ears that they should not hear. Yes, they made their hearts +adamant like a stone, lest they should hear my law and the words which I sent +by my spirit through the prophets; therefore did the results of their evil +thinking come as a great wrath upon their guilty heads. And so it came to pass +that they cried for mercy, but there was no ear open to hear." And then Jesus +quoted the proverb of the wise man who said: "He who turns away his ear from +hearing the divine law, even his prayer shall be an abomination." + +3. By opening the human end of the channel of the God-man communication, +mortals make immediately available the ever-flowing stream of divine ministry +to the creatures of the worlds. When man hears God's spirit speak within the +human heart, inherent in such an experience is the fact that God simultaneously +hears that man's prayer. Even the forgiveness of sin operates in this same +unerring fashion. The Father in heaven has forgiven you even before you have +thought to ask him, but such forgiveness is not available in your personal +religious experience until such a time as you forgive your fellow men. God's +forgiveness in fact is not conditioned upon your forgiving your fellows, but in +experience it is exactly so conditioned. And this fact of the synchrony of +divine and human forgiveness was thus recognized and linked together in the +prayer which Jesus taught the apostles. + +4. There is a basic law of justice in the universe which mercy is powerless to +circumvent. The unselfish glories of Paradise are not possible of reception by +a thoroughly selfish creature of the realms of time and space. Even the +infinite love of God cannot force the salvation of eternal survival upon any +mortal creature who does not choose to survive. Mercy has great latitude of +bestowal, + + top of page - 1639 + +but, after all, there are mandates of justice which even love combined with +mercy cannot effectively abrogate. Again Jesus quoted from the Hebrew +scriptures: "I have called and you refused to hear; I stretched out my hand, +but no man regarded. You have set at naught all my counsel, and you have +rejected my reproof, and because of this rebellious attitude it becomes +inevitable that you shall call upon me and fail to receive an answer. Having +rejected the way of life, you may seek me diligently in your times of +suffering, but you will not find me." + +5. They who would receive mercy must show mercy; judge not that you be not +judged. With the spirit with which you judge others you also shall be judged. +Mercy does not wholly abrogate universe fairness. In the end it will prove +true: "Whoso stops his ears to the cry of the poor, he also shall some day cry +for help, and no one will hear him." The sincerity of any prayer is the +assurance of its being heard; the spiritual wisdom and universe consistency of +any petition is the determiner of the time, manner, and degree of the answer. A +wise father does not literally answer the foolish prayers of his ignorant and +inexperienced children, albeit the children may derive much pleasure and real +soul satisfaction from the making of such absurd petitions. + +6. When you have become wholly dedicated to the doing of the will of the Father +in heaven, the answer to all your petitions will be forthcoming because your +prayers will be in full accordance with the Father's will, and the Father's +will is ever manifest throughout his vast universe. What the true son desires +and the infinite Father wills IS. Such a prayer cannot remain unanswered, and +no other sort of petition can possibly be fully answered. + +7. The cry of the righteous is the faith act of the child of God which opens +the door of the Father's storehouse of goodness, truth, and mercy, and these +good gifts have long been in waiting for the son's approach and personal +appropriation. Prayer does not change the divine attitude toward man, but it +does change man's attitude toward the changeless Father. The motive of the +prayer gives it right of way to the divine ear, not the social, economic, or +outward religious status of the one who prays. + +8. Prayer may not be employed to avoid the delays of time or to transcend the +handicaps of space. Prayer is not designed as a technique for aggrandizing self +or for gaining unfair advantage over one's fellows. A thoroughly selfish soul +cannot pray in the true sense of the word. Said Jesus: "Let your supreme +delight be in the character of God, and he shall surely give you the sincere +desires of your heart." "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will +act." "For the Lord hears the cry of the needy, and he will regard the prayer +of the destitute." + +9. "I have come forth from the Father; if, therefore, you are ever in doubt as +to what you would ask of the Father, ask in my name, and I will present your +petition in accordance with your real needs and desires and in accordance with +my Father's will." Guard against the great danger of becoming self-centered in +your prayers. Avoid praying much for yourself; pray more for the spiritual +progress of your brethren. Avoid materialistic praying; pray in the spirit and +for the abundance of the gifts of the spirit. + +10. When you pray for the sick and afflicted, do not expect that your petitions +will take the place of loving and intelligent ministry to the necessities of +these afflicted ones. Pray for the welfare of your families, friends, and +fellows, + + top of page - 1640 + +but especially pray for those who curse you, and make loving petitions for +those who persecute you. "But when to pray, I will not say. Only the spirit +that dwells within you may move you to the utterance of those petitions which +are expressive of your inner relationship with the Father of spirits." + +11. Many resort to prayer only when in trouble. Such a practice is thoughtless +and misleading. True, you do well to pray when harassed, but you should also be +mindful to speak as a son to your Father even when all goes well with your +soul. Let your real petitions always be in secret. Do not let men hear your +personal prayers. Prayers of thanksgiving are appropriate for groups of +worshipers, but the prayer of the soul is a personal matter. There is but one +form of prayer which is appropriate for all God's children, and that is: +"Nevertheless, your will be done." + +12. All believers in this gospel should pray sincerely for the extension of the +kingdom of heaven. Of all the prayers of the Hebrew scriptures he commented +most approvingly on the petition of the Psalmist: "Create in me a clean heart, +O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Purge me from secret sins and keep +back your servant from presumptuous transgression." Jesus commented at great +length on the relation of prayer to careless and offending speech, quoting: +"Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips." "The human +tongue," said Jesus, "is a member which few men can tame, but the spirit within +can transform this unruly member into a kindly voice of tolerance and an +inspiring minister of mercy." + +13. Jesus taught that the prayer for divine guidance over the pathway of +earthly life was next in importance to the petition for a knowledge of the +Father's will. In reality this means a prayer for divine wisdom. Jesus never +taught that human knowledge and special skill could be gained by prayer. But he +did teach that prayer is a factor in the enlargement of one's capacity to +receive the presence of the divine spirit. When Jesus taught his associates to +pray in the spirit and in truth, he explained that he referred to praying +sincerely and in accordance with one's enlightenment, to praying wholeheartedly +and intelligently, earnestly and steadfastly. + +14. Jesus warned his followers against thinking that their prayers would be +rendered more efficacious by ornate repetitions, eloquent phraseology, fasting, +penance, or sacrifices. But he did exhort his believers to employ prayer as a +means of leading up through thanksgiving to true worship. Jesus deplored that +so little of the spirit of thanksgiving was to be found in the prayers and +worship of his followers. He quoted from the Scriptures on this occasion, +saying: "It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to +the name of the Most High, to acknowledge his loving-kindness every morning and +his faithfulness every night, for God has made me glad through his work. In +everything I will give thanks according to the will of God." + +15. And then Jesus said: "Be not constantly overanxious about your common +needs. Be not apprehensive concerning the problems of your earthly existence, +but in all these things by prayer and supplication, with the spirit of sincere +thanksgiving, let your needs be spread out before your Father who is in +heaven." Then he quoted from the Scriptures: "I will praise the name of God +with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving. And this will please the +Lord better than the sacrifice of an ox or bullock with horns and hoofs." + + top of page - 1641 + +16. Jesus taught his followers that, when they had made their prayers to the +Father, they should remain for a time in silent receptivity to afford the +indwelling spirit the better opportunity to speak to the listening soul. The +spirit of the Father speaks best to man when the human mind is in an attitude +of true worship. We worship God by the aid of the Father's indwelling spirit +and by the illumination of the human mind through the ministry of truth. +Worship, taught Jesus, makes one increasingly like the being who is worshiped. +Worship is a transforming experience whereby the finite gradually approaches +and ultimately attains the presence of the Infinite. + +And many other truths did Jesus tell his apostles about man's communion with +God, but not many of them could fully encompass his teaching. + +3. THE STOP AT RAMAH + +At Ramah Jesus had the memorable discussion with the aged Greek philosopher who +taught that science and philosophy were sufficient to satisfy the needs of +human experience. Jesus listened with patience and sympathy to this Greek +teacher, allowing the truth of many things he said but pointing out that, when +he was through, he had failed in his discussion of human existence to explain +"whence, why, and whither," and added: "Where you leave off, we begin. Religion +is a revelation to man's soul dealing with spiritual realities which the mind +alone could never discover or fully fathom. Intellectual strivings may reveal +the facts of life, but the gospel of the kingdom unfolds the truths of being. +You have discussed the material shadows of truth; will you now listen while I +tell you about the eternal and spiritual realities which cast these transient +time shadows of the material facts of mortal existence?" For more than an hour +Jesus taught this Greek the saving truths of the gospel of the kingdom. The old +philosopher was susceptible to the Master's mode of approach, and being +sincerely honest of heart, he quickly believed this gospel of salvation. + +The apostles were a bit disconcerted by the open manner of Jesus' assent to +many of the Greek's propositions, but Jesus afterward privately said to them: +"My children, marvel not that I was tolerant of the Greek's philosophy. True +and genuine inward certainty does not in the least fear outward analysis, nor +does truth resent honest criticism. You should never forget that intolerance is +the mask covering up the entertainment of secret doubts as to the trueness of +one's belief. No man is at any time disturbed by his neighbor's attitude when +he has perfect confidence in the truth of that which he wholeheartedly +believes. Courage is the confidence of thoroughgoing honesty about those things +which one professes to believe. Sincere men are unafraid of the critical +examination of their true convictions and noble ideals." + +On the second evening at Ramah, Thomas asked Jesus this question: "Master, how +can a new believer in your teaching really know, really be certain, about the +truth of this gospel of the kingdom?" + +And Jesus said to Thomas: "Your assurance that you have entered into the +kingdom family of the Father, and that you will eternally survive with the +children of the kingdom, is wholly a matter of personal experience--faith in +the word of truth. Spiritual assurance is the equivalent of your personal +religious experience in the eternal realities of divine truth and is otherwise +equal to your + + top of page - 1642 + +intelligent understanding of truth realities plus your spiritual faith and +minus your honest doubts. + +"The Son is naturally endowed with the life of the Father. Having been endowed +with the living spirit of the Father, you are therefore sons of God. You +survive your life in the material world of the flesh because you are identified +with the Father's living spirit, the gift of eternal life. Many, indeed, had +this life before I came forth from the Father, and many more have received this +spirit because they believed my word; but I declare that, when I return to the +Father, he will send his spirit into the hearts of all men. + +"While you cannot observe the divine spirit at work in your minds, there is a +practical method of discovering the degree to which you have yielded the +control of your soul powers to the teaching and guidance of this indwelling +spirit of the heavenly Father, and that is the degree of your love for your +fellow men. This spirit of the Father partakes of the love of the Father, and +as it dominates man, it unfailingly leads in the directions of divine worship +and loving regard for one's fellows. At first you believe that you are sons of +God because my teaching has made you more conscious of the inner leadings of +our Father's indwelling presence; but presently the Spirit of Truth shall be +poured out upon all flesh, and it will live among men and teach all men, even +as I now live among you and speak to you the words of truth. And this Spirit of +Truth, speaking for the spiritual endowments of your souls, will help you to +know that you are the sons of God. It will unfailingly bear witness with the +Father's indwelling presence, your spirit, then dwelling in all men as it now +dwells in some, telling you that you are in reality the sons of God. + +"Every earth child who follows the leading of this spirit shall eventually know +the will of God, and he who surrenders to the will of my Father shall abide +forever. The way from the earth life to the eternal estate has not been made +plain to you, but there is a way, there always has been, and I have come to +make that way new and living. He who enters the kingdom has eternal life +already--he shall never perish. But much of this you will the better understand +when I shall have returned to the Father and you are able to view your present +experiences in retrospect." + +And all who heard these blessed words were greatly cheered. The Jewish +teachings had been confused and uncertain regarding the survival of the +righteous, and it was refreshing and inspiring for Jesus' followers to hear +these very definite and positive words of assurance about the eternal survival +of all true believers. + +The apostles continued to preach and baptize believers, while they kept up the +practice of visiting from house to house, comforting the downcast and +ministering to the sick and afflicted. The apostolic organization was expanded +in that each of Jesus' apostles now had one of John's as an associate; Abner +was the associate of Andrew; and this plan prevailed until they went down to +Jerusalem for the next Passover. + +The special instruction given by Jesus during their stay at Zebulun had chiefly +to do with further discussions of the mutual obligations of the kingdom and +embraced teaching designed to make clear the differences between personal +religious experience and the amities of social religious obligations. This was +one of the few times the Master ever discussed the social aspects of religion. +Through- + + top of page - 1643 + +out his entire earth life Jesus gave his followers very little instruction +regarding the socialization of religion. + +In Zebulun the people were of a mixed race, hardly Jew or gentile, and few of +them really believed in Jesus, notwithstanding they had heard of the healing of +the sick at Capernaum. + +4. THE GOSPEL AT IRON + +At Iron, as in many of even the smaller cities of Galilee and Judea, there was +a synagogue, and during the earlier times of Jesus' ministry it was his custom +to speak in these synagogues on the Sabbath day. Sometimes he would speak at +the morning service, and Peter or one of the other apostles would preach at the +afternoon hour. Jesus and the apostles would also often teach and preach at the +week-day evening assemblies at the synagogue. Although the religious leaders at +Jerusalem became increasingly antagonistic toward Jesus, they exercised no +direct control over the synagogues outside of that city. It was not until later +in Jesus' public ministry that they were able to create such a widespread +sentiment against him as to bring about the almost universal closing of the +synagogues to his teaching. At this time all the synagogues of Galilee and +Judea were open to him. + +Iron was the site of extensive mineral mines for those days, and since Jesus +had never shared the life of the miner, he spent most of his time, while +sojourning at Iron, in the mines. While the apostles visited the homes and +preached in the public places, Jesus worked in the mines with these underground +laborers. The fame of Jesus as a healer had spread even to this remote village, +and many sick and afflicted sought help at his hands, and many were greatly +benefited by his healing ministry. But in none of these cases did the Master +perform a so-called miracle of healing save in that of the leper. + +Late on the afternoon of the third day at Iron, as Jesus was returning from the +mines, he chanced to pass through a narrow side street on his way to his +lodging place. As he drew near the squalid hovel of a certain leprous man, the +afflicted one, having heard of his fame as a healer, made bold to accost him as +he passed his door, saying as he knelt before him: "Lord, if only you would, +you could make me clean. I have heard the message of your teachers, and I would +enter the kingdom if I could be made clean." And the leper spoke in this way +because among the Jews lepers were forbidden even to attend the synagogue or +otherwise engage in public worship. This man really believed that he could not +be received into the coming kingdom unless he could find a cure for his +leprosy. And when Jesus saw him in his affliction and heard his words of +clinging faith, his human heart was touched, and the divine mind was moved with +compassion. As Jesus looked upon him, the man fell upon his face and worshiped. +Then the Master stretched forth his hand and, touching him, said: "I will--be +clean." And immediately he was healed; the leprosy no longer afflicted him. + +When Jesus had lifted the man upon his feet, he charged him: "See that you tell +no man about your healing but rather go quietly about your business, showing +yourself to the priest and offering those sacrifices commanded by Moses in +testimony of your cleansing." But this man did not do as Jesus had instructed +him. Instead, he began to publish abroad throughout the town that Jesus had +cured his leprosy, and since he was known to all the village, the people could +plainly see that he had been cleansed of his disease. He did not go to the +priests + + top of page - 1644 + +as Jesus had admonished him. As a result of his spreading abroad the news that +Jesus had healed him, the Master was so thronged by the sick that he was forced +to rise early the next day and leave the village. Although Jesus did not again +enter the town, he remained two days in the outskirts near the mines, +continuing to instruct the believing miners further regarding the gospel of the +kingdom. + +This cleansing of the leper was the first so-called miracle which Jesus had +intentionally and deliberately performed up to this time. And this was a case +of real leprosy. + +From Iron they went to Gischala, spending two days proclaiming the gospel, and +then departed for Chorazin, where they spent almost a week preaching the good +news; but they were unable to win many believers for the kingdom in Chorazin. +In no place where Jesus had taught had he met with such a general rejection of +his message. The sojourn at Chorazin was very depressing to most of the +apostles, and Andrew and Abner had much difficulty in upholding the courage of +their associates. And so, passing quietly through Capernaum, they went on to +the village of Madon, where they fared little better. There prevailed in the +minds of most of the apostles the idea that their failure to meet with success +in these towns so recently visited was due to Jesus' insistence that they +refrain, in their teaching and preaching, from referring to him as a healer. +How they wished he would cleanse another leper or in some other manner so +manifest his power as to attract the attention of the people! But the Master +was unmoved by their earnest urging. + +5. BACK IN CANA + +The apostolic party was greatly cheered when Jesus announced, "Tomorrow we go +to Cana." They knew they would have a sympathetic hearing at Cana, for Jesus +was well known there. They were doing well with their work of bringing people +into the kingdom when, on the third day, there arrived in Cana a certain +prominent citizen of Capernaum, Titus, who was a partial believer, and whose +son was critically ill. He heard that Jesus was at Cana; so he hastened over to +see him. The believers at Capernaum thought Jesus could heal any sickness. + +When this nobleman had located Jesus in Cana, he besought him to hurry over to +Capernaum and heal his afflicted son. While the apostles stood by in breathless +expectancy, Jesus, looking at the father of the sick boy, said: "How long shall +I bear with you? The power of God is in your midst, but except you see signs +and behold wonders, you refuse to believe." But the nobleman pleaded with +Jesus, saying: "My Lord, I do believe, but come ere my child perishes, for when +I left him he was even then at the point of death." And when Jesus had bowed +his head a moment in silent meditation, he suddenly spoke, "Return to your +home; your son will live." Titus believed the word of Jesus and hastened back +to Capernaum. And as he was returning, his servants came out to meet him, +saying, "Rejoice, for your son is improved--he lives." Then Titus inquired of +them at what hour the boy began to mend, and when the servants answered +"yesterday about the seventh hour the fever left him," the father recalled that +it was about that hour when Jesus had said, "Your son will live." And Titus +henceforth believed with a whole heart, and all his family also believed. This +son became a mighty minister of the kingdom and later yielded up his life with +those who suffered in Rome. Though the entire household of Titus, their +friends, and even the apostles regarded this episode as a miracle, it was not. +At least this + + top of page - 1645 + +was not a miracle of curing physical disease. It was merely a case of +preknowledge concerning the course of natural law, just such knowledge as Jesus +frequently resorted to subsequent to his baptism. + +Again was Jesus compelled to hasten away from Cana because of the undue +attention attracted by the second episode of this sort to attend his ministry +in this village. The townspeople remembered the water and the wine, and now +that he was supposed to have healed the nobleman's son at so great a distance, +they came to him, not only bringing the sick and afflicted but also sending +messengers requesting that he heal sufferers at a distance. And when Jesus saw +that the whole countryside was aroused, he said, "Let us go to Nain." + +6. NAIN AND THE WIDOW'S SON + +These people believed in signs; they were a wonder-seeking generation. By this +time the people of central and southern Galilee had become miracle minded +regarding Jesus and his personal ministry. Scores, hundreds, of honest persons +suffering from purely nervous disorders and afflicted with emotional +disturbances came into Jesus' presence and then returned home to their friends +announcing that Jesus had healed them. And such cases of mental healing these +ignorant and simple-minded people regarded as physical healing, miraculous +cures. + +When Jesus sought to leave Cana and go to Nain, a great multitude of believers +and many curious people followed after him. They were bent on beholding +miracles and wonders, and they were not to be disappointed. As Jesus and his +apostles drew near the gate of the city, they met a funeral procession on its +way to the near-by cemetery, carrying the only son of a widowed mother of Nain. +This woman was much respected, and half of the village followed the bearers of +the bier of this supposedly dead boy. When the funeral procession had come up +to Jesus and his followers, the widow and her friends recognized the Master and +besought him to bring the son back to life. Their miracle expectancy was +aroused to such a high pitch they thought Jesus could cure any human disease, +and why could not such a healer even raise the dead? Jesus, while being thus +importuned, stepped forward and, raising the covering of the bier, examined the +boy. Discovering that the young man was not really dead, he perceived the +tragedy which his presence could avert; so, turning to the mother, he said: +"Weep not. Your son is not dead; he sleeps. He will be restored to you." And +then, taking the young man by the hand, he said, "Awake and arise." And the +youth who was supposed to be dead presently sat up and began to speak, and +Jesus sent them back to their homes. + +Jesus endeavored to calm the multitude and vainly tried to explain that the lad +was not really dead, that he had not brought him back from the grave, but it +was useless. The multitude which followed him, and the whole village of Nain, +were aroused to the highest pitch of emotional frenzy. Fear seized many, panic +others, while still others fell to praying and wailing over their sins. And it +was not until long after nightfall that the clamoring multitude could be +dispersed. And, of course, notwithstanding Jesus' statement that the boy was +not dead, everyone insisted that a miracle had been wrought, even the dead +raised. Although Jesus told them the boy was merely in a deep sleep, they +explained that that was the manner of his speaking and called attention to the +fact that he always in great modesty tried to hide his miracles. + + top of page - 1646 + +So the word went abroad throughout Galilee and into Judea that Jesus had raised +the widow's son from the dead, and many who heard this report believed it. +Never was Jesus able to make even all his apostles fully understand that the +widow's son was not really dead when he bade him awake and arise. But he did +impress them sufficiently to keep it out of all subsequent records except that +of Luke, who recorded it as the episode had been related to him. And again was +Jesus so besieged as a physician that he departed early the next day for Endor. + +7. AT ENDOR + +At Endor Jesus escaped for a few days from the clamoring multitudes in quest of +physical healing. During their sojourn at this place the Master recounted for +the instruction of the apostles the story of King Saul and the witch of Endor. +Jesus plainly told his apostles that the stray and rebellious midwayers who had +oftentimes impersonated the supposed spirits of the dead would soon be brought +under control so that they could no more do these strange things. He told his +followers that, after he returned to the Father, and after they had poured out +their spirit upon all flesh, no more could such semispirit beings--so-called +unclean spirits--possess the feeble- and evil-minded among mortals. + +Jesus further explained to his apostles that the spirits of departed human +beings do not come back to the world of their origin to communicate with their +living fellows. Only after the passing of a dispensational age would it be +possible for the advancing spirit of mortal man to return to earth and then +only in exceptional cases and as a part of the spiritual administration of the +planet. + +When they had rested two days, Jesus said to his apostles: "On the morrow let +us return to Capernaum to tarry and teach while the countryside quiets down. At +home they will have by this time partly recovered from this sort of +excitement." + + top of page - 1647 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Four Eventful ³ The Interlude ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ D... ³ V... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p147.txt b/religious documents/p147.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14ee37c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p147.txt @@ -0,0 +1,639 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 147 The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 147 The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +JESUS and the apostles arrived in Capernaum on Wednesday, March 17, and spent +two weeks at the Bethsaida headquarters before they departed for Jerusalem. +These two weeks the apostles taught the people by the seaside while Jesus spent +much time alone in the hills about his Father's business. During this period +Jesus, accompanied by James and John Zebedee, made two secret trips to +Tiberias, where they met with the believers and instructed them in the gospel +of the kingdom. + +Many of the household of Herod believed in Jesus and attended these meetings. +It was the influence of these believers among Herod's official family that had +helped to lessen that ruler's enmity toward Jesus. These believers at Tiberias +had fully explained to Herod that the "kingdom" which Jesus proclaimed was +spiritual in nature and not a political venture. Herod rather believed these +members of his own household and therefore did not permit himself to become +unduly alarmed by the spreading abroad of the reports concerning Jesus' +teaching and healing. He had no objections to Jesus' work as a healer or +religious teacher. Notwithstanding the favorable attitude of many of Herod's +advisers, and even of Herod himself, there existed a group of his subordinates +who were so influenced by the religious leaders at Jerusalem that they remained +bitter and threatening enemies of Jesus and the apostles and, later on, did +much to hamper their public activities. The greatest danger to Jesus lay in the +Jerusalem religious leaders and not in Herod. And it was for this very reason +that Jesus and the apostles spent so much time and did most of their public +preaching in Galilee rather than at Jerusalem and in Judea. + +1. THE CENTURION'S SERVANT + +On the day before they made ready to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the +Passover, Mangus, a centurion, or captain, of the Roman guard stationed at +Capernaum, came to the rulers of the synagogue, saying: "My faithful orderly is +sick and at the point of death. Would you, therefore, go to Jesus in my behalf +and beseech him to heal my servant?" The Roman captain did this because he +thought the Jewish leaders would have more influence with Jesus. So the elders +went to see Jesus and their spokesman said: "Teacher, we earnestly request you +to go over to Capernaum and save the favorite servant of the Roman centurion, +who is worthy of your notice because he loves our nation and even built us the +very synagogue wherein you have so many times spoken." + +And when Jesus had heard them, he said, "I will go with you." And as he went +with them over to the centurion's house, and before they had entered his yard, +the Roman soldier sent his friends out to greet Jesus, instructing them to say: +"Lord, trouble not yourself to enter my house, for I am not worthy that you + + top of page - 1648 + +should come under my roof. Neither did I think myself worthy to come to you; +wherefore I sent the elders of your own people. But I know that you can speak +the word where you stand and my servant will be healed. For I am myself under +the orders of others, and I have soldiers under me, and I say to this one go, +and he goes; to another come, and he comes, and to my servants do this or do +that, and they do it." + +And when Jesus heard these words, he turned and said to his apostles and those +who were with them: "I marvel at the belief of the gentile. Verily, verily, I +say to you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." Jesus, turning +from the house, said, "Let us go hence." And the friends of the centurion went +into the house and told Mangus what Jesus had said. And from that hour the +servant began to mend and was eventually restored to his normal health and +usefulness. + +But we never knew just what happened on this occasion. This is simply the +record, and as to whether or not invisible beings ministered healing to the +centurion's servant, was not revealed to those who accompanied Jesus. We only +know of the fact of the servant's complete recovery. + +2. THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM + +Early on the morning of Tuesday, March 30, Jesus and the apostolic party +started on their journey to Jerusalem for the Passover, going by the route of +the Jordan valley. They arrived on the afternoon of Friday, April 2, and +established their headquarters, as usual, at Bethany. Passing through Jericho, +they paused to rest while Judas made a deposit of some of their common funds in +the bank of a friend of his family. This was the first time Judas had carried a +surplus of money, and this deposit was left undisturbed until they passed +through Jericho again when on that last and eventful journey to Jerusalem just +before the trial and death of Jesus. + +The party had an uneventful trip to Jerusalem, but they had hardly got +themselves settled at Bethany when from near and far those seeking healing for +their bodies, comfort for troubled minds, and salvation for their souls, began +to congregate, so much so that Jesus had little time for rest. Therefore they +pitched tents at Gethsemane, and the Master would go back and forth from +Bethany to Gethsemane to avoid the crowds which so constantly thronged him. The +apostolic party spent almost three weeks at Jerusalem, but Jesus enjoined them +to do no public preaching, only private teaching and personal work. + +At Bethany they quietly celebrated the Passover. And this was the first time +that Jesus and all of the twelve partook of the bloodless Passover feast. The +apostles of John did not eat the Passover with Jesus and his apostles; they +celebrated the feast with Abner and many of the early believers in John's +preaching. This was the second Passover Jesus had observed with his apostles in +Jerusalem. + +When Jesus and the twelve departed for Capernaum, the apostles of John did not +return with them. Under the direction of Abner they remained in Jerusalem and +the surrounding country, quietly laboring for the extension of the kingdom, +while Jesus and the twelve returned to work in Galilee. Never again were the +twenty-four all together until a short time before the commissioning and +sending forth of the seventy evangelists. But the two groups were co-operative, +and notwithstanding their differences of opinion, the best of feelings +prevailed. + + top of page - 1649 + +3. AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA + +The afternoon of the second Sabbath in Jerusalem, as the Master and the +apostles were about to participate in the temple services, John said to Jesus, +"Come with me, I would show you something." John conducted Jesus out through +one of the Jerusalem gates to a pool of water called Bethesda. Surrounding this +pool was a structure of five porches under which a large group of sufferers +lingered in quest of healing. This was a hot spring whose reddish-tinged water +would bubble up at irregular intervals because of gas accumulations in the rock +caverns underneath the pool. This periodic disturbance of the warm waters was +believed by many to be due to supernatural influences, and it was a popular +belief that the first person who entered the water after such a disturbance +would be healed of whatever infirmity he had. + +The apostles were somewhat restless under the restrictions imposed by Jesus, +and John, the youngest of the twelve, was especially restive under this +restraint. He had brought Jesus to the pool thinking that the sight of the +assembled sufferers would make such an appeal to the Master's compassion that +he would be moved to perform a miracle of healing, and thereby would all +Jerusalem be astounded and presently be won to believe in the gospel of the +kingdom. Said John to Jesus: "Master, see all of these suffering ones; is there +nothing we can do for them?" And Jesus replied: "John, why would you tempt me +to turn aside from the way I have chosen? Why do you go on desiring to +substitute the working of wonders and the healing of the sick for the +proclamation of the gospel of eternal truth? My son, I may not do that which +you desire, but gather together these sick and afflicted that I may speak words +of good cheer and eternal comfort to them." + +In speaking to those assembled, Jesus said: "Many of you are here, sick and +afflicted, because of your many years of wrong living. Some suffer from the +accidents of time, others as a result of the mistakes of their forebears, while +some of you struggle under the handicaps of the imperfect conditions of your +temporal existence. But my Father works, and I would work, to improve your +earthly state but more especially to insure your eternal estate. None of us can +do much to change the difficulties of life unless we discover the Father in +heaven so wills. After all, we are all beholden to do the will of the Eternal. +If you could all be healed of your physical afflictions, you would indeed +marvel, but it is even greater that you should be cleansed of all spiritual +disease and find yourselves healed of all moral infirmities. You are all God's +children; you are the sons of the heavenly Father. The bonds of time may seem +to afflict you, but the God of eternity loves you. And when the time of +judgment shall come, fear not, you shall all find, not only justice, but an +abundance of mercy. Verily, verily, I say to you: He who hears the gospel of +the kingdom and believes in this teaching of sonship with God, has eternal +life; already are such believers passing from judgment and death to light and +life. And the hour is coming in which even those who are in the tombs shall +hear the voice of the resurrection." + +And many of those who heard believed the gospel of the kingdom. Some of the +afflicted were so inspired and spiritually revivified that they went about +proclaiming that they had also been cured of their physical ailments. + +One man who had been many years downcast and grievously afflicted by the +infirmities of his troubled mind, rejoiced at Jesus' words and, picking up his + + top of page - 1650 + +bed, went forth to his home, even though it was the Sabbath day. This afflicted +man had waited all these years for somebody to help him; he was such a victim +of the feeling of his own helplessness that he had never once entertained the +idea of helping himself which proved to be the one thing he had to do in order +to effect recovery--take up his bed and walk. + +Then said Jesus to John: "Let us depart ere the chief priests and the scribes +come upon us and take offense that we spoke words of life to these afflicted +ones." And they returned to the temple to join their companions, and presently +all of them departed to spend the night at Bethany. But John never told the +other apostles of this visit of himself and Jesus to the pool of Bethesda on +this Sabbath afternoon. + +4. THE RULE OF LIVING + +On the evening of this same Sabbath day, at Bethany, while Jesus, the twelve, +and a group of believers were assembled about the fire in Lazarus's garden, +Nathaniel asked Jesus this question: "Master, although you have taught us the +positive version of the old rule of life, instructing us that we should do to +others as we wish them to do to us, I do not fully discern how we can always +abide by such an injunction. Let me illustrate my contention by citing the +example of a lustful man who thus wickedly looks upon his intended consort in +sin. How can we teach that this evil-intending man should do to others as he +would they should do to him?" + +When Jesus heard Nathaniel's question, he immediately stood upon his feet and, +pointing his finger at the apostle, said: "Nathaniel, Nathaniel! What manner of +thinking is going on in your heart? Do you not receive my teachings as one who +has been born of the spirit? Do you not hear the truth as men of wisdom and +spiritual understanding? When I admonished you to do to others as you would +have them do to you, I spoke to men of high ideals, not to those who would be +tempted to distort my teaching into a license for the encouragement of evil +doing." + +When the Master had spoken, Nathaniel stood up and said: "But, Master, you +should not think that I approve of such an interpretation of your teaching. I +asked the question because I conjectured that many such men might thus misjudge +your admonition, and I hoped you would give us further instruction regarding +these matters." And then when Nathaniel had sat down, Jesus continued speaking: +"I well know, Nathaniel, that no such idea of evil is approved in your mind, +but I am disappointed in that you all so often fail to put a genuinely +spiritual interpretation upon my commonplace teachings, instruction which must +be given you in human language and as men must speak. Let me now teach you +concerning the differing levels of meaning attached to the interpretation of +this rule of living, this admonition to `do to others that which you desire +others to do to you': + +"1. The level of the flesh. Such a purely selfish and lustful interpretation +would be well exemplified by the supposition of your question. + +"2. The level of the feelings. This plane is one level higher than that of the +flesh and implies that sympathy and pity would enhance one's interpretation of +this rule of living. + +"3. The level of mind. Now come into action the reason of mind and the +intelligence of experience. Good judgment dictates that such a rule of living + + top of page - 1651 + +should be interpreted in consonance with the highest idealism embodied in the +nobility of profound self-respect. + +"4. The level of brotherly love. Still higher is discovered the level of +unselfish devotion to the welfare of one's fellows. On this higher plane of +wholehearted social service growing out of the consciousness of the fatherhood +of God and the consequent recognition of the brotherhood of man, there is +discovered a new and far more beautiful interpretation of this basic rule of +life. + +"5. The moral level. And then when you attain true philosophic levels of +interpretation, when you have real insight into the rightness and wrongness of +things, when you perceive the eternal fitness of human relationships, you will +begin to view such a problem of interpretation as you would imagine a +high-minded, idealistic, wise, and impartial third person would so view and +interpret such an injunction as applied to your personal problems of adjustment +to your life situations. + +"6. The spiritual level. And then last, but greatest of all, we attain the +level of spirit insight and spiritual interpretation which impels us to +recognize in this rule of life the divine command to treat all men as we +conceive God would treat them. That is the universe ideal of human +relationships. And this is your attitude toward all such problems when your +supreme desire is ever to do the Father's will. I would, therefore, that you +should do to all men that which you know I would do to them in like +circumstances." + +Nothing Jesus had said to the apostles up to this time had ever more astonished +them. They continued to discuss the Master's words long after he had retired. +While Nathaniel was slow to recover from his supposition that Jesus had +misunderstood the spirit of his question, the others were more than thankful +that their philosophic fellow apostle had had the courage to ask such a +thought-provoking question. + +5. VISITING SIMON THE PHARISEE + +Though Simon was not a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, he was an influential +Pharisee of Jerusalem. He was a half-hearted believer, and notwithstanding that +he might be severely criticized therefor, he dared to invite Jesus and his +personal associates, Peter, James, and John, to his home for a social meal. +Simon had long observed the Master and was much impressed with his teachings +and even more so with his personality. + +The wealthy Pharisees were devoted to almsgiving, and they did not shun +publicity regarding their philanthropy. Sometimes they would even blow a +trumpet as they were about to bestow charity upon some beggar. It was the +custom of these Pharisees, when they provided a banquet for distinguished +guests, to leave the doors of the house open so that even the street beggars +might come in and, standing around the walls of the room behind the couches of +the diners, be in position to receive portions of food which might be tossed to +them by the banqueters. + +On this particular occasion at Simon's house, among those who came in off the +street was a woman of unsavory reputation who had recently become a believer in +the good news of the gospel of the kingdom. This woman was well known +throughout all Jerusalem as the former keeper of one of the so-called +high-class brothels located hard by the temple court of the gentiles. She had, + + top of page - 1652 + +on accepting the teachings of Jesus, closed up her nefarious place of business +and had induced the majority of the women associated with her to accept the +gospel and change their mode of living; notwithstanding this, she was still +held in great disdain by the Pharisees and was compelled to wear her hair +down--the badge of harlotry. This unnamed woman had brought with her a large +flask of perfumed anointing lotion and, standing behind Jesus as he reclined at +meat, began to anoint his feet while she also wet his feet with her tears of +gratitude, wiping them with the hair of her head. And when she had finished +this anointing, she continued weeping and kissing his feet. + +When Simon saw all this, he said to himself: "This man, if he were a prophet, +would have perceived who and what manner of woman this is who thus touches him; +that she is a notorious sinner." And Jesus, knowing what was going on in +Simon's mind, spoke up, saying: "Simon, I have something which I would like to +say to you." Simon answered, "Teacher, say on." Then said Jesus: "A certain +wealthy moneylender had two debtors. The one owed him five hundred denarii and +the other fifty. Now, when neither of them had wherewith to pay, he forgave +them both. Which of them do you think, Simon, would love him most?" Simon +answered, "He, I suppose, whom he forgave the most." And Jesus said, "You have +rightly judged," and pointing to the woman, he continued: "Simon, take a good +look at this woman. I entered your house as an invited guest, yet you gave me +no water for my feet. This grateful woman has washed my feet with tears and +wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss of friendly greeting, +but this woman, ever since she came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head +with oil you neglected to anoint, but she has anointed my feet with precious +lotions. And what is the meaning of all this? Simply that her many sins have +been forgiven, and this has led her to love much. But those who have received +but little forgiveness sometimes love but little." And turning around toward +the woman, he took her by the hand and, lifting her up, said: "You have indeed +repented of your sins, and they are forgiven. Be not discouraged by the +thoughtless and unkind attitude of your fellows; go on in the joy and liberty +of the kingdom of heaven." + +When Simon and his friends who sat at meat with him heard these words, they +were the more astonished, and they began to whisper among themselves, "Who is +this man that he even dares to forgive sins?" And when Jesus heard them thus +murmuring, he turned to dismiss the woman, saying, "Woman, go in peace; your +faith has saved you." + +As Jesus arose with his friends to leave, he turned to Simon and said: "I know +your heart, Simon, how you are torn betwixt faith and doubts, how you are +distraught by fear and troubled by pride; but I pray for you that you may yield +to the light and may experience in your station in life just such mighty +transformations of mind and spirit as may be comparable to the tremendous +changes which the gospel of the kingdom has already wrought in the heart of +your unbidden and unwelcome guest. And I declare to all of you that the Father +has opened the doors of the heavenly kingdom to all who have the faith to +enter, and no man or association of men can close those doors even to the most +humble soul or supposedly most flagrant sinner on earth if such sincerely seek +an entrance." And Jesus, with Peter, James, and John, took leave of their host +and went to join the rest of the apostles at the camp in the garden of +Gethsemane. + + top of page - 1653 + +That same evening Jesus made the long-to-be-remembered address to the apostles +regarding the relative value of status with God and progress in the eternal +ascent to Paradise. Said Jesus: "My children, if there exists a true and living +connection between the child and the Father, the child is certain to progress +continuously toward the Father's ideals. True, the child may at first make slow +progress, but the progress is none the less sure. The important thing is not +the rapidity of your progress but rather its certainty. Your actual achievement +is not so important as the fact that the direction of your progress is Godward. +What you are becoming day by day is of infinitely more importance than what you +are today. + +"This transformed woman whom some of you saw at Simon's house today is, at this +moment, living on a level which is vastly below that of Simon and his +well-meaning associates; but while these Pharisees are occupied with the false +progress of the illusion of traversing deceptive circles of meaningless +ceremonial services, this woman has, in dead earnest, started out on the long +and eventful search for God, and her path toward heaven is not blocked by +spiritual pride and moral self-satisfaction. The woman is, humanly speaking, +much farther away from God than Simon, but her soul is in progressive motion; +she is on the way toward an eternal goal. There are present in this woman +tremendous spiritual possibilities for the future. Some of you may not stand +high in actual levels of soul and spirit, but you are making daily progress on +the living way opened up, through faith, to God. There are tremendous +possibilities in each of you for the future. Better by far to have a small but +living and growing faith than to be possessed of a great intellect with its +dead stores of worldly wisdom and spiritual unbelief." + +But Jesus earnestly warned his apostles against the foolishness of the child of +God who presumes upon the Father's love. He declared that the heavenly Father +is not a lax, loose, or foolishly indulgent parent who is ever ready to condone +sin and forgive recklessness. He cautioned his hearers not mistakenly to apply +his illustrations of father and son so as to make it appear that God is like +some overindulgent and unwise parents who conspire with the foolish of earth to +encompass the moral undoing of their thoughtless children, and who are thereby +certainly and directly contributing to the delinquency and early demoralization +of their own offspring. Said Jesus: "My Father does not indulgently condone +those acts and practices of his children which are self-destructive and +suicidal to all moral growth and spiritual progress. Such sinful practices are +an abomination in the sight of God." + +Many other semiprivate meetings and banquets did Jesus attend with the high and +the low, the rich and the poor, of Jerusalem before he and his apostles finally +departed for Capernaum. And many, indeed, became believers in the gospel of the +kingdom and were subsequently baptized by Abner and his associates, who +remained behind to foster the interests of the kingdom in Jerusalem and +thereabouts. + +6. RETURNING TO CAPERNAUM + +The last week of April, Jesus and the twelve departed from their Bethany +headquarters near Jerusalem and began their journey back to Capernaum by way of +Jericho and the Jordan. + + top of page - 1654 + +The chief priests and the religious leaders of the Jews held many secret +meetings for the purpose of deciding what to do with Jesus. They were all +agreed that something should be done to put a stop to his teaching, but they +could not agree on the method. They had hoped that the civil authorities would +dispose of him as Herod had put an end to John, but they discovered that Jesus +was so conducting his work that the Roman officials were not much alarmed by +his preaching. Accordingly, at a meeting which was held the day before Jesus' +departure for Capernaum, it was decided that he would have to be apprehended on +a religious charge and be tried by the Sanhedrin. Therefore a commission of six +secret spies was appointed to follow Jesus, to observe his words and acts, and +when they had amassed sufficient evidence of lawbreaking and blasphemy, to +return to Jerusalem with their report. These six Jews caught up with the +apostolic party, numbering about thirty, at Jericho and, under the pretense of +desiring to become disciples, attached themselves to Jesus' family of +followers, remaining with the group up to the time of the beginning of the +second preaching tour in Galilee; whereupon three of them returned to Jerusalem +to submit their report to the chief priests and the Sanhedrin. + +Peter preached to the assembled multitude at the crossing of the Jordan, and +the following morning they moved up the river toward Amathus. They wanted to +proceed straight on to Capernaum, but such a crowd gathered here they remained +three days, preaching, teaching, and baptizing. They did not move toward home +until early Sabbath morning, the first day of May. The Jerusalem spies were +sure they would now secure their first charge against Jesus--that of Sabbath +breaking--since he had presumed to start his journey on the Sabbath day. But +they were doomed to disappointment because, just before their departure, Jesus +called Andrew into his presence and before them all instructed him to proceed +for a distance of only one thousand yards, the legal Jewish Sabbath day's +journey. + +But the spies did not have long to wait for their opportunity to accuse Jesus +and his associates of Sabbath breaking. As the company passed along the narrow +road, the waving wheat, which was just then ripening, was near at hand on +either side, and some of the apostles, being hungry, plucked the ripe grain and +ate it. It was customary for travelers to help themselves to grain as they +passed along the road, and therefore no thought of wrongdoing was attached to +such conduct. But the spies seized upon this as a pretext for assailing Jesus. +When they saw Andrew rub the grain in his hand, they went up to him and said: +"Do you not know that it is unlawful to pluck and rub the grain on the Sabbath +day?" And Andrew answered: "But we are hungry and rub only sufficient for our +needs; and since when did it become sinful to eat grain on the Sabbath day?" +But the Pharisees answered: "You do no wrong in eating, but you do break the +law in plucking and rubbing out the grain between your hands; surely your +Master would not approve of such acts." Then said Andrew: "But if it is not +wrong to eat the grain, surely the rubbing out between our hands is hardly more +work than the chewing of the grain, which you allow; wherefore do you quibble +over such trifles?" When Andrew intimated that they were quibblers, they were +indignant, and rushing back to where Jesus walked along, talking to Matthew, +they protested, saying: "Behold, Teacher, your apostles do that which is +unlawful on the Sabbath day; they pluck, rub, and eat the grain. We are sure +you will command them to cease." And then said Jesus to the accusers: "You are + + top of page - 1655 + +indeed zealous for the law, and you do well to remember the Sabbath day to keep +it holy; but did you never read in the Scripture that, one day when David was +hungry, he and they who were with him entered the house of God and ate the +showbread, which it was not lawful for anyone to eat save the priests? and +David also gave this bread to those who were with him. And have you not read in +our law that it is lawful to do many needful things on the Sabbath day? And +shall I not, before the day is finished, see you eat that which you have +brought along for the needs of this day? My good men, you do well to be zealous +for the Sabbath, but you would do better to guard the health and well-being of +your fellows. I declare that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the +Sabbath. And if you are here present with us to watch my words, then will I +openly proclaim that the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath." + +The Pharisees were astonished and confounded by his words of discernment and +wisdom. For the remainder of the day they kept by themselves and dared not ask +any more questions. + +Jesus' antagonism to the Jewish traditions and slavish ceremonials was always +positive. It consisted in what he did and in what he affirmed. The Master spent +little time in negative denunciations. He taught that those who know God can +enjoy the liberty of living without deceiving themselves by the licenses of +sinning. Said Jesus to the apostles: "Men, if you are enlightened by the truth +and really know what you are doing, you are blessed; but if you know not the +divine way, you are unfortunate and already breakers of the law." + +7. BACK IN CAPERNAUM + +It was around noon on Monday, May 3, when Jesus and the twelve came to +Bethsaida by boat from Tarichea. They traveled by boat in order to escape those +who journeyed with them. But by the next day the others, including the official +spies from Jerusalem, had again found Jesus. + +On Tuesday evening Jesus was conducting one of his customary classes of +questions and answers when the leader of the six spies said to him: "I was +today talking with one of John's disciples who is here attending upon your +teaching, and we were at a loss to understand why you never command your +disciples to fast and pray as we Pharisees fast and as John bade his +followers." And Jesus, referring to a statement by John, answered this +questioner: "Do the sons of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with +them? As long as the bridegroom remains with them, they can hardly fast. But +the time is coming when the bridegroom shall be taken away, and during those +times the children of the bridechamber undoubtedly will fast and pray. To pray +is natural for the children of light, but fasting is not a part of the gospel +of the kingdom of heaven. Be reminded that a wise tailor does not sew a piece +of new and unshrunk cloth upon an old garment, lest, when it is wet, it shrink +and produce a worse rent. Neither do men put new wine into old wine skins, lest +the new wine burst the skins so that both the wine and the skins perish. The +wise man puts the new wine into fresh wine skins. Therefore do my disciples +show wisdom in that they do not bring too much of the old order over into the +new teaching of the gospel of the kingdom. You who have lost your teacher may +be justified in fasting for a time. Fasting may be an appropriate part of the +law of Moses, but in the coming kingdom the sons of God shall experience +freedom from fear and joy in the divine spirit." + + top of page - 1656 + +And when they heard these words, the disciples of John were comforted while the +Pharisees themselves were the more confounded. + +Then the Master proceeded to warn his hearers against entertaining the notion +that all olden teaching should be replaced entirely by new doctrines. Said +Jesus: "That which is old and also true must abide. Likewise, that which is new +but false must be rejected. But that which is new and also true, have the faith +and courage to accept. Remember it is written: `Forsake not an old friend, for +the new is not comparable to him. As new wine, so is a new friend; if it +becomes old, you shall drink it with gladness.'" + +8. THE FEAST OF SPIRITUAL GOODNESS + +That night, long after the usual listeners had retired, Jesus continued to +teach his apostles. He began this special instruction by quoting from the +Prophet Isaiah: + +"`Why have you fasted? For what reason do you afflict your souls while you +continue to find pleasure in oppression and to take delight in injustice? +Behold, you fast for the sake of strife and contention and to smite with the +fist of wickedness. But you shall not fast in this way to make your voices +heard on high. + +"`Is it such a fast that I have chosen--a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is +it to bow down his head like a bulrush, to grovel in sackcloth and ashes? Will +you dare to call this a fast and an acceptable day in the sight of the Lord? Is +not this the fast I should choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo +the knots of heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every +yoke? Is it not to share my bread with the hungry and to bring those who are +homeless and poor to my house? And when I see those who are naked, I will +clothe them. + +"`Then shall your light break forth as the morning while your health springs +forth speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you while the glory of the +Lord shall be your rear guard. Then will you call upon the Lord, and he shall +answer; you will cry out, and he shall say--Here am I. And all this he will do +if you refrain from oppression, condemnation, and vanity. The Father rather +desires that you draw out your heart to the hungry, and that you minister to +the afflicted souls; then shall your light shine in obscurity, and even your +darkness shall be as the noonday. Then shall the Lord guide you continually, +satisfying your soul and renewing your strength. You shall become like a +watered garden, like a spring whose waters fail not. And they who do these +things shall restore the wasted glories; they shall raise up the foundations of +many generations; they shall be called the rebuilders of broken walls, the +restorers of safe paths in which to dwell.'" + +And then long into the night Jesus propounded to his apostles the truth that it +was their faith that made them secure in the kingdom of the present and the +future, and not their affliction of soul nor fasting of body. He exhorted the +apostles at least to live up to the ideas of the prophet of old and expressed +the hope that they would progress far beyond even the ideals of Isaiah and the +older prophets. His last words that night were: "Grow in grace by means of that +living faith which grasps the fact that you are the sons of God while at the +same time it recognizes every man as a brother." + +It was after two o'clock in the morning when Jesus ceased speaking and every +man went to his place for sleep. + + top of page - 1657 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ First ³ Training ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Preaching... ³ Evange... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p148.txt b/religious documents/p148.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d1abf8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p148.txt @@ -0,0 +1,686 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 148 Training Evangelists At Bethsaida + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 148 Training Evangelists At Bethsaida + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +FROM May 3 to October 3, A.D. 28, Jesus and the apostolic party were in +residence at the Zebedee home at Bethsaida. Throughout this five months' period +of the dry season an enormous camp was maintained by the seaside near the +Zebedee residence, which had been greatly enlarged to accommodate the growing +family of Jesus. This seaside camp, occupied by an ever-changing population of +truth seekers, healing candidates, and curiosity devotees, numbered from five +hundred to fifteen hundred. This tented city was under the general supervision +of David Zebedee, assisted by the Alpheus twins. The encampment was a model in +order and sanitation as well as in its general administration. The sick of +different types were segregated and were under the supervision of a believer +physician, a Syrian named Elman. + +Throughout this period the apostles would go fishing at least one day a week, +selling their catch to David for consumption by the seaside encampment. The +funds thus received were turned over to the group treasury. The twelve were +permitted to spend one week out of each month with their families or friends. + +While Andrew continued in general charge of the apostolic activities, Peter was +in full charge of the school of the evangelists. The apostles all did their +share in teaching groups of evangelists each forenoon, and both teachers and +pupils taught the people during the afternoons. After the evening meal, five +nights a week, the apostles conducted question classes for the benefit of the +evangelists. Once a week Jesus presided at this question hour, answering the +holdover questions from previous sessions. + +In five months several thousand came and went at this encampment. Interested +persons from every part of the Roman Empire and from the lands east of the +Euphrates were in frequent attendance. This was the longest settled and +well-organized period of the Master's teaching. Jesus' immediate family spent +most of this time at either Nazareth or Cana. + +The encampment was not conducted as a community of common interests, as was the +apostolic family. David Zebedee managed this large tent city so that it became +a self-sustaining enterprise, notwithstanding that no one was ever turned away. +This ever-changing camp was an indispensable feature of Peter's evangelistic +training school. + +1. A NEW SCHOOL OF THE PROPHETS + +Peter, James, and Andrew were the committee designated by Jesus to pass upon +applicants for admission to the school of evangelists. All the races and + + top of page - 1658 + +nationalities of the Roman world and the East, as far as India, were +represented among the students in this new school of the prophets. This school +was conducted on the plan of learning and doing. What the students learned +during the forenoon they taught to the assembly by the seaside during the +afternoon. After supper they informally discussed both the learning of the +forenoon and the teaching of the afternoon. + +Each of the apostolic teachers taught his own view of the gospel of the +kingdom. They made no effort to teach just alike; there was no standardized or +dogmatic formulation of theologic doctrines. Though they all taught the same +truth, each apostle presented his own personal interpretation of the Master's +teaching. And Jesus upheld this presentation of the diversity of personal +experience in the things of the kingdom, unfailingly harmonizing and +co-ordinating these many and divergent views of the gospel at his weekly +question hours. Notwithstanding this great degree of personal liberty in +matters of teaching, Simon Peter tended to dominate the theology of the school +of evangelists. Next to Peter, James Zebedee exerted the greatest personal +influence. + +The one hundred and more evangelists trained during this five months by the +seaside represented the material from which (excepting Abner and John's +apostles) the later seventy gospel teachers and preachers were drawn. The +school of evangelists did not have everything in common to the same degree as +did the twelve. + +These evangelists, though they taught and preached the gospel, did not baptize +believers until after they were later ordained and commissioned by Jesus as the +seventy messengers of the kingdom. Only seven of the large number healed at the +sundown scene at this place were to be found among these evangelistic students. +The nobleman's son of Capernaum was one of those trained for gospel service in +Peter's school. + +2. THE BETHSAIDA HOSPITAL + +In connection with the seaside encampment, Elman, the Syrian physician, with +the assistance of a corps of twenty-five young women and twelve men, organized +and conducted for four months what should be regarded as the kingdom's first +hospital. At this infirmary, located a short distance to the south of the main +tented city, they treated the sick in accordance with all known material +methods as well as by the spiritual practices of prayer and faith +encouragement. Jesus visited the sick of this encampment not less than three +times a week and made personal contact with each sufferer. As far as we know, +no so-called miracles of supernatural healing occurred among the one thousand +afflicted and ailing persons who went away from this infirmary improved or +cured. However, the vast majority of these benefited individuals ceased not to +proclaim that Jesus had healed them. + +Many of the cures effected by Jesus in connection with his ministry in behalf +of Elman's patients did, indeed, appear to resemble the working of miracles, +but we were instructed that they were only just such transformations of mind +and spirit as may occur in the experience of expectant and faith-dominated +persons who are under the immediate and inspirational influence of a strong, +positive, and beneficent personality whose ministry banishes fear and destroys +anxiety. + +Elman and his associates endeavored to teach the truth to these sick ones +concerning the "possession of evil spirits," but they met with little success. +The + + top of page - 1659 + +belief that physical sickness and mental derangement could be caused by the +dwelling of a so-called unclean spirit in the mind or body of the afflicted +person was well-nigh universal. + +In all his contact with the sick and afflicted, when it came to the technique +of treatment or the revelation of the unknown causes of disease, Jesus did not +disregard the instructions of his Paradise brother, Immanuel, given ere he +embarked upon the venture of the Urantia incarnation. Notwithstanding this, +those who ministered to the sick learned many helpful lessons by observing the +manner in which Jesus inspired the faith and confidence of the sick and +suffering. + +The camp disbanded a short time before the season for the increase in chills +and fever drew on. + +3. THE FATHER'S BUSINESS + +Throughout this period Jesus conducted public services at the encampment less +than a dozen times and spoke only once in the Capernaum synagogue, the second +Sabbath before their departure with the newly trained evangelists upon their +second public preaching tour of Galilee. + +Not since his baptism had the Master been so much alone as during this period +of the evangelists' training encampment at Bethsaida. Whenever any one of the +apostles ventured to ask Jesus why he was absent so much from their midst, he +would invariably answer that he was "about the Father's business." + +During these periods of absence, Jesus was accompanied by only two of the +apostles. He had released Peter, James, and John temporarily from their +assignment as his personal companions that they might also participate in the +work of training the new evangelistic candidates, numbering more than one +hundred. When the Master desired to go to the hills about the Father's +business, he would summon to accompany him any two of the apostles who might be +at liberty. In this way each of the twelve enjoyed an opportunity for close +association and intimate contact with Jesus. + +It has not been revealed for the purposes of this record, but we have been led +to infer that the Master, during many of these solitary seasons in the hills, +was in direct and executive association with many of his chief directors of +universe affairs. Ever since about the time of his baptism this incarnated +Sovereign of our universe had become increasingly and consciously active in the +direction of certain phases of universe administration. And we have always held +the opinion that, in some way not revealed to his immediate associates, during +these weeks of decreased participation in the affairs of earth he was engaged +in the direction of those high spirit intelligences who were charged with the +running of a vast universe, and that the human Jesus chose to designate such +activities on his part as being "about his Father's business." + +Many times, when Jesus was alone for hours, but when two of his apostles were +near by, they observed his features undergo rapid and multitudinous changes, +although they heard him speak no words. Neither did they observe any visible +manifestation of celestial beings who might have been in communication with +their Master, such as some of them did witness on a subsequent occasion. + +4. EVIL, SIN, AND INIQUITY + +It was the habit of Jesus two evenings each week to hold special converse with +individuals who desired to talk with him, in a certain secluded and sheltered + + top of page - 1660 + +corner of the Zebedee garden. At one of these evening conversations in private +Thomas asked the Master this question: "Why is it necessary for men to be born +of the spirit in order to enter the kingdom? Is rebirth necessary to escape the +control of the evil one? Master, what is evil?" When Jesus heard these +questions, he said to Thomas: + +"Do not make the mistake of confusing evil with the evil one, more correctly +the iniquitous one. He whom you call the evil one is the son of self-love, the +high administrator who knowingly went into deliberate rebellion against the +rule of my Father and his loyal Sons. But I have already vanquished these +sinful rebels. Make clear in your mind these different attitudes toward the +Father and his universe. Never forget these laws of relation to the Father's +will: + +"Evil is the unconscious or unintended transgression of the divine law, the +Father's will. Evil is likewise the measure of the imperfectness of obedience +to the Father's will. + +"Sin is the conscious, knowing, and deliberate transgression of the divine law, +the Father's will. Sin is the measure of unwillingness to be divinely led and +spiritually directed. + +"Iniquity is the willful, determined, and persistent transgression of the +divine law, the Father's will. Iniquity is the measure of the continued +rejection of the Father's loving plan of personality survival and the Sons' +merciful ministry of salvation. + +"By nature, before the rebirth of the spirit, mortal man is subject to inherent +evil tendencies, but such natural imperfections of behavior are neither sin nor +iniquity. Mortal man is just beginning his long ascent to the perfection of the +Father in Paradise. To be imperfect or partial in natural endowment is not +sinful. Man is indeed subject to evil, but he is in no sense the child of the +evil one unless he has knowingly and deliberately chosen the paths of sin and +the life of iniquity. Evil is inherent in the natural order of this world, but +sin is an attitude of conscious rebellion which was brought to this world by +those who fell from spiritual light into gross darkness. + +"You are confused, Thomas, by the doctrines of the Greeks and the errors of the +Persians. You do not understand the relationships of evil and sin because you +view mankind as beginning on earth with a perfect Adam and rapidly +degenerating, through sin, to man's present deplorable estate. But why do you +refuse to comprehend the meaning of the record which discloses how Cain, the +son of Adam, went over into the land of Nod and there got himself a wife? And +why do you refuse to interpret the meaning of the record which portrays the +sons of God finding wives for themselves among the daughters of men? + +"Men are, indeed, by nature evil, but not necessarily sinful. The new +birth--the baptism of the spirit--is essential to deliverance from evil and +necessary for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, but none of this detracts +from the fact that man is the son of God. Neither does this inherent presence +of potential evil mean that man is in some mysterious way estranged from the +Father in heaven so that, as an alien, foreigner, or stepchild, he must in some +manner seek for legal adoption by the Father. All such notions are born, first, +of your misunderstanding of the Father and, second, of your ignorance of the +origin, nature, and destiny of man. + +"The Greeks and others have taught you that man is descending from godly +perfection steadily down toward oblivion or destruction; I have come to show + + top of page - 1661 + +that man, by entrance into the kingdom, is ascending certainly and surely up to +God and divine perfection. Any being who in any manner falls short of the +divine and spiritual ideals of the eternal Father's will is potentially evil, +but such beings are in no sense sinful, much less iniquitous. + +"Thomas, have you not read about this in the Scriptures, where it is written: +`You are the children of the Lord your God.' `I will be his Father and he shall +be my son.' `I have chosen him to be my son--I will be his Father.' `Bring my +sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one who +is called by my name, for I have created them for my glory.' `You are the sons +of the living God.' `They who have the spirit of God are indeed the sons of +God.' While there is a material part of the human father in the natural child, +there is a spiritual part of the heavenly Father in every faith son of the +kingdom." + +All this and much more Jesus said to Thomas, and much of it the apostle +comprehended, although Jesus admonished him to "speak not to the others +concerning these matters until after I shall have returned to the Father." And +Thomas did not mention this interview until after the Master had departed from +this world. + +5. THE PURPOSE OF AFFLICTION + +At another of these private interviews in the garden Nathaniel asked Jesus: +"Master, though I am beginning to understand why you refuse to practice healing +indiscriminately, I am still at a loss to understand why the loving Father in +heaven permits so many of his children on earth to suffer so many afflictions." +The Master answered Nathaniel, saying: + +"Nathaniel, you and many others are thus perplexed because you do not +comprehend how the natural order of this world has been so many times upset by +the sinful adventures of certain rebellious traitors to the Father's will. And +I have come to make a beginning of setting these things in order. But many ages +will be required to restore this part of the universe to former paths and thus +release the children of men from the extra burdens of sin and rebellion. The +presence of evil alone is sufficient test for the ascension of man--sin is not +essential to survival. + +"But, my son, you should know that the Father does not purposely afflict his +children. Man brings down upon himself unnecessary affliction as a result of +his persistent refusal to walk in the better ways of the divine will. +Affliction is potential in evil, but much of it has been produced by sin and +iniquity. Many unusual events have transpired on this world, and it is not +strange that all thinking men should be perplexed by the scenes of suffering +and affliction which they witness. But of one thing you may be sure: The Father +does not send affliction as an arbitrary punishment for wrongdoing. The +imperfections and handicaps of evil are inherent; the penalties of sin are +inevitable; the destroying consequences of iniquity are inexorable. Man should +not blame God for those afflictions which are the natural result of the life +which he chooses to live; neither should man complain of those experiences +which are a part of life as it is lived on this world. It is the Father's will +that mortal man should work persistently and consistently toward the betterment +of his estate on earth. Intelligent application would enable man to overcome +much of his earthly misery. + + top of page - 1662 + +"Nathaniel, it is our mission to help men solve their spiritual problems and in +this way to quicken their minds so that they may be the better prepared and +inspired to go about solving their manifold material problems. I know of your +confusion as you have read the Scriptures. All too often there has prevailed a +tendency to ascribe to God the responsibility for everything which ignorant man +fails to understand. The Father is not personally responsible for all you may +fail to comprehend. Do not doubt the love of the Father just because some just +and wise law of his ordaining chances to afflict you because you have +innocently or deliberately transgressed such a divine ordinance. + +"But, Nathaniel, there is much in the Scriptures which would have instructed +you if you had only read with discernment. Do you not remember that it is +written: `My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of +his correction, for whom the Lord loves he corrects, even as the father +corrects the son in whom he takes delight.' `The Lord does not afflict +willingly.' `Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now do I keep the law. +Affliction was good for me that I might thereby learn the divine statutes.' `I +know your sorrows. The eternal God is your refuge, while underneath are the +everlasting arms.' `The Lord also is a refuge for the oppressed, a haven of +rest in times of trouble.' `The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of +affliction; the Lord will not forget the sick.' `As a father shows compassion +for his children, so is the Lord compassionate to those who fear him. He knows +your body; he remembers that you are dust.' `He heals the brokenhearted and +binds up their wounds.' `He is the hope of the poor, the strength of the needy +in his distress, a refuge from the storm, and a shadow from the devastating +heat.' `He gives power to the faint, and to them who have no might he increases +strength.' `A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax he will not +quench.' `When you pass through the waters of affliction, I will be with you, +and when the rivers of adversity overflow you, I will not forsake you.' `He has +sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and +to comfort all who mourn.' `There is correction in suffering; affliction does +not spring forth from the dust.'" + +6. THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF SUFFERING-- + +It was this same evening at Bethsaida that John also asked Jesus why so many +apparently innocent people suffered from so many diseases and experienced so +many afflictions. In answering John's questions, among many other things, the +Master said: + +"My son, you do not comprehend the meaning of adversity or the mission of +suffering. Have you not read that masterpiece of Semitic literature--the +Scripture story of the afflictions of Job? Do you not recall how this wonderful +parable begins with the recital of the material prosperity of the Lord's +servant? You well remember that Job was blessed with children, wealth, dignity, +position, health, and everything else which men value in this temporal life. +According to the time-honored teachings of the children of Abraham such +material prosperity was all-sufficient evidence of divine favor. But such +material possessions and such temporal prosperity do not indicate God's favor. +My Father in heaven loves the poor just as much as the rich; he is no respecter +of persons. + + top of page - 1663 + +"Although transgression of divine law is sooner or later followed by the +harvest of punishment, while men certainly eventually do reap what they sow, +still you should know that human suffering is not always a punishment for +antecedent sin. Both Job and his friends failed to find the true answer for +their perplexities. And with the light you now enjoy you would hardly assign to +either Satan or God the parts they play in this unique parable. While Job did +not, through suffering, find the resolution of his intellectual troubles or the +solution of his philosophical difficulties, he did achieve great victories; +even in the very face of the breakdown of his theological defenses he ascended +to those spiritual heights where he could sincerely say, `I abhor myself'; then +was there granted him the salvation of a vision of God. So even through +misunderstood suffering, Job ascended to the superhuman plane of moral +understanding and spiritual insight. When the suffering servant obtains a +vision of God, there follows a soul peace which passes all human understanding. + +"The first of Job's friends, Eliphaz, exhorted the sufferer to exhibit in his +afflictions the same fortitude he had prescribed for others during the days of +his prosperity. Said this false comforter: `Trust in your religion, Job; +remember that it is the wicked and not the righteous who suffer. You must +deserve this punishment, else you would not be afflicted. You well know that no +man can be righteous in God's sight. You know that the wicked never really +prosper. Anyway, man seems predestined to trouble, and perhaps the Lord is only +chastising you for your own good.' No wonder poor Job failed to get much +comfort from such an interpretation of the problem of human suffering. + +"But the counsel of his second friend, Bildad, was even more depressing, +notwithstanding its soundness from the standpoint of the then accepted +theology. Said Bildad: `God cannot be unjust. Your children must have been +sinners since they perished; you must be in error, else you would not be so +afflicted. And if you are really righteous, God will certainly deliver you from +your afflictions. You should learn from the history of God's dealings with man +that the Almighty destroys only the wicked.' + +"And then you remember how Job replied to his friends, saying: `I well know +that God does not hear my cry for help. How can God be just and at the same +time so utterly disregard my innocence? I am learning that I can get no +satisfaction from appealing to the Almighty. Cannot you discern that God +tolerates the persecution of the good by the wicked? And since man is so weak, +what chance has he for consideration at the hands of an omnipotent God? God has +made me as I am, and when he thus turns upon me, I am defenseless. And why did +God ever create me just to suffer in this miserable fashion?' + +"And who can challenge the attitude of Job in view of the counsel of his +friends and the erroneous ideas of God which occupied his own mind? Do you not +see that Job longed for a human God, that he hungered to commune with a divine +Being who knows man's mortal estate and understands that the just must often +suffer in innocence as a part of this first life of the long Paradise ascent? +Wherefore has the Son of Man come forth from the Father to live such a life in +the flesh that he will be able to comfort and succor all those who must +henceforth be called upon to endure the afflictions of Job. + +"Job's third friend, Zophar, then spoke still less comforting words when he +said: `You are foolish to claim to be righteous, seeing that you are thus +afflicted. But I admit that it is impossible to comprehend God's ways. Perhaps +there is + + top of page - 1664 + +some hidden purpose in all your miseries.' And when Job had listened to all +three of his friends, he appealed directly to God for help, pleading the fact +that `man, born of woman, is few of days and full of trouble.' + +"Then began the second session with his friends. Eliphaz grew more stern, +accusing, and sarcastic. Bildad became indignant at Job's contempt for his +friends. Zophar reiterated his melancholy advice. Job by this time had become +disgusted with his friends and appealed again to God, and now he appealed to a +just God against the God of injustice embodied in the philosophy of his friends +and enshrined even in his own religious attitude. Next Job took refuge in the +consolation of a future life in which the inequities of mortal existence may be +more justly rectified. Failure to receive help from man drives Job to God. Then +ensues the great struggle in his heart between faith and doubt. Finally, the +human sufferer begins to see the light of life; his tortured soul ascends to +new heights of hope and courage; he may suffer on and even die, but his +enlightened soul now utters that cry of triumph, `My Vindicator lives!' + +"Job was altogether right when he challenged the doctrine that God afflicts +children in order to punish their parents. Job was ever ready to admit that God +is righteous, but he longed for some soul-satisfying revelation of the personal +character of the Eternal. And that is our mission on earth. No more shall +suffering mortals be denied the comfort of knowing the love of God and +understanding the mercy of the Father in heaven. While the speech of God spoken +from the whirlwind was a majestic concept for the day of its utterance, you +have already learned that the Father does not thus reveal himself, but rather +that he speaks within the human heart as a still, small voice, saying, `This is +the way; walk therein.' Do you not comprehend that God dwells within you, that +he has become what you are that he may make you what he is!" + +Then Jesus made this final statement: "The Father in heaven does not willingly +afflict the children of men. Man suffers, first, from the accidents of time and +the imperfections of the evil of an immature physical existence. Next, he +suffers the inexorable consequences of sin--the transgression of the laws of +life and light. And finally, man reaps the harvest of his own iniquitous +persistence in rebellion against the righteous rule of heaven on earth. But +man's miseries are not a personal visitation of divine judgment. Man can, and +will, do much to lessen his temporal sufferings. But once and for all be +delivered from the superstition that God afflicts man at the behest of the evil +one. Study the Book of Job just to discover how many wrong ideas of God even +good men may honestly entertain; and then note how even the painfully afflicted +Job found the God of comfort and salvation in spite of such erroneous +teachings. At last his faith pierced the clouds of suffering to discern the +light of life pouring forth from the Father as healing mercy and everlasting +righteousness." + +John pondered these sayings in his heart for many days. His entire afterlife +was markedly changed as a result of this conversation with the Master in the +garden, and he did much, in later times, to cause the other apostles to change +their viewpoints regarding the source, nature, and purpose of commonplace human +afflictions. But John never spoke of this conference until after the Master had +departed. + +7. THE MAN WITH THE WITHERED HAND + +The second Sabbath before the departure of the apostles and the new corps of +evangelists on the second preaching tour of Galilee, Jesus spoke in the + + top of page - 1665 + +Capernaum synagogue on the "Joys of Righteous Living." When Jesus had finished +speaking, a large group of those who were maimed, halt, sick, and afflicted +crowded up around him, seeking healing. Also in this group were the apostles, +many of the new evangelists, and the Pharisaic spies from Jerusalem. Everywhere +that Jesus went (except when in the hills about the Father's business) the six +Jerusalem spies were sure to follow. + +The leader of the spying Pharisees, as Jesus stood talking to the people, +induced a man with a withered hand to approach him and ask if it would be +lawful to be healed on the Sabbath day or should he seek help on another day. +When Jesus saw the man, heard his words, and perceived that he had been sent by +the Pharisees, he said: "Come forward while I ask you a question. If you had a +sheep and it should fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, would you reach down, +lay hold on it, and lift it out? Is it lawful to do such things on the Sabbath +day?" And the man answered: "Yes, Master, it would be lawful thus to do well on +the Sabbath day." Then said Jesus, speaking to all of them: "I know wherefore +you have sent this man into my presence. You would find cause for offense in me +if you could tempt me to show mercy on the Sabbath day. In silence you all +agreed that it was lawful to lift the unfortunate sheep out of the pit, even on +the Sabbath, and I call you to witness that it is lawful to exhibit +loving-kindness on the Sabbath day not only to animals but also to men. How +much more valuable is a man than a sheep! I proclaim that it is lawful to do +good to men on the Sabbath day." And as they all stood before him in silence, +Jesus, addressing the man with the withered hand, said: "Stand up here by my +side that all may see you. And now that you may know that it is my Father's +will that you do good on the Sabbath day, if you have the faith to be healed, I +bid you stretch out your hand." + +And as this man stretched forth his withered hand, it was made whole. The +people were minded to turn upon the Pharisees, but Jesus bade them be calm, +saying: "I have just told you that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, to +save life, but I did not instruct you to do harm and give way to the desire to +kill." The angered Pharisees went away, and notwithstanding it was the Sabbath +day, they hastened forthwith to Tiberias and took counsel with Herod, doing +everything in their power to arouse his prejudice in order to secure the +Herodians as allies against Jesus. But Herod refused to take action against +Jesus, advising that they carry their complaints to Jerusalem. + +This is the first case of a miracle to be wrought by Jesus in response to the +challenge of his enemies. And the Master performed this so-called miracle, not +as a demonstration of his healing power, but as an effective protest against +making the Sabbath rest of religion a veritable bondage of meaningless +restrictions upon all mankind. This man returned to his work as a stone mason, +proving to be one of those whose healing was followed by a life of thanksgiving +and righteousness. + +8. LAST WEEK AT BETHSAIDA + +The last week of the sojourn at Bethsaida the Jerusalem spies became much +divided in their attitude toward Jesus and his teachings. Three of these +Pharisees were tremendously impressed by what they had seen and heard. +Meanwhile, at Jerusalem, Abraham, a young and influential member of the +Sanhedrin, publicly espoused the teachings of Jesus and was baptized in the +pool + + top of page - 1666 + +of Siloam by Abner. All Jerusalem was agog over this event, and messengers were +immediately dispatched to Bethsaida recalling the six spying Pharisees. + +The Greek philosopher who had been won for the kingdom on the previous tour of +Galilee returned with certain wealthy Jews of Alexandria, and once more they +invited Jesus to come to their city for the purpose of establishing a joint +school of philosophy and religion as well as an infirmary for the sick. But +Jesus courteously declined the invitation. + +About this time there arrived at the Bethsaida encampment a trance prophet from +Bagdad, one Kirmeth. This supposed prophet had peculiar visions when in trance +and dreamed fantastic dreams when his sleep was disturbed. He created a +considerable disturbance at the camp, and Simon Zelotes was in favor of dealing +rather roughly with the self-deceived pretender, but Jesus intervened and +allowed him entire freedom of action for a few days. All who heard his +preaching soon recognized that his teaching was not sound as judged by the +gospel of the kingdom. He shortly returned to Bagdad, taking with him only a +half dozen unstable and erratic souls. But before Jesus interceded for the +Bagdad prophet, David Zebedee, with the assistance of a self-appointed +committee, had taken Kirmeth out into the lake and, after repeatedly plunging +him into the water, had advised him to depart hence--to organize and build a +camp of his own. + +On this same day, Beth-Marion, a Phoenician woman, became so fanatical that she +went out of her head and, after almost drowning from trying to walk on the +water, was sent away by her friends. + +The new Jerusalem convert, Abraham the Pharisee, gave all of his worldly goods +to the apostolic treasury, and this contribution did much to make possible the +immediate sending forth of the one hundred newly trained evangelists. Andrew +had already announced the closing of the encampment, and everybody prepared +either to go home or else to follow the evangelists into Galilee. + +9. HEALING THE PARALYTIC + +On Friday afternoon, October 1, when Jesus was holding his last meeting with +the apostles, evangelists, and other leaders of the disbanding encampment, and +with the six Pharisees from Jerusalem seated in the front row of this assembly +in the spacious and enlarged front room of the Zebedee home, there occurred one +of the strangest and most unique episodes of all Jesus' earth life. The Master +was, at this time, speaking as he stood in this large room, which had been +built to accommodate these gatherings during the rainy season. The house was +entirely surrounded by a vast concourse of people who were straining their ears +to catch some part of Jesus' discourse. + +While the house was thus thronged with people and entirely surrounded by eager +listeners, a man long afflicted with paralysis was carried down from Capernaum +on a small couch by his friends. This paralytic had heard that Jesus was about +to leave Bethsaida, and having talked with Aaron the stone mason, who had been +so recently made whole, he resolved to be carried into Jesus' presence, where +he could seek healing. His friends tried to gain entrance to Zebedee's house by +both the front and back doors, but too many people were crowded together. But +the paralytic refused to accept defeat; he directed + + top of page - 1667 + +his friends to procure ladders by which they ascended to the roof of the room +in which Jesus was speaking, and after loosening the tiles, they boldly lowered +the sick man on his couch by ropes until the afflicted one rested on the floor +immediately in front of the Master. When Jesus saw what they had done, he +ceased speaking, while those who were with him in the room marveled at the +perseverance of the sick man and his friends. Said the paralytic: "Master, I +would not disturb your teaching, but I am determined to be made whole. I am not +like those who received healing and immediately forgot your teaching. I would +be made whole that I might serve in the kingdom of heaven." Now, +notwithstanding that this man's affliction had been brought upon him by his own +misspent life, Jesus, seeing his faith, said to the paralytic: "Son, fear not; +your sins are forgiven. Your faith shall save you." + +When the Pharisees from Jerusalem, together with other scribes and lawyers who +sat with them, heard this pronouncement by Jesus, they began to say to +themselves: "How dare this man thus speak? Does he not understand that such +words are blasphemy? Who can forgive sin but God?" Jesus, perceiving in his +spirit that they thus reasoned within their own minds and among themselves, +spoke to them, saying: "Why do you so reason in your hearts? Who are you that +you sit in judgment over me? What is the difference whether I say to this +paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or arise, take up your bed, and walk? But +that you who witness all this may finally know that the Son of Man has +authority and power on earth to forgive sins, I will say to this afflicted man, +Arise, take up your bed, and go to your own house." And when Jesus had thus +spoken, the paralytic arose, and as they made way for him, he walked out before +them all. And those who saw these things were amazed. Peter dismissed the +assemblage, while many prayed and glorified God, confessing that they had never +before seen such strange happenings. + +And it was about this time that the messengers of the Sanhedrin arrived to bid +the six spies return to Jerusalem. When they heard this message, they fell to +earnest debate among themselves; and after they had finished their discussions, +the leader and two of his associates returned with the messengers to Jerusalem, +while three of the spying Pharisees confessed faith in Jesus and, going +immediately to the lake, were baptized by Peter and fellowshipped by the +apostles as children of the kingdom. + + top of page - 1668 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Interlude ³ The Second ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ V... ³ Prea... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p149.txt b/religious documents/p149.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..521bab6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p149.txt @@ -0,0 +1,621 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 149 The Second Preaching Tour + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 149 The Second Preaching Tour + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE second public preaching tour of Galilee began on Sunday, October 3, A.D. +28, and continued for almost three months, ending on December 30. Participating +in this effort were Jesus and his twelve apostles, assisted by the newly +recruited corps of 117 evangelists and by numerous other interested persons. On +this tour they visited Gadara, Ptolemais, Japhia, Dabaritta, Megiddo, Jezreel, +Scythopolis, Tarichea, Hippos, Gamala, Bethsaida-Julias, and many other cities +and villages. + +Before the departure on this Sunday morning Andrew and Peter asked Jesus to +give the final charge to the new evangelists, but the Master declined, saying +that it was not his province to do those things which others could acceptably +perform. After due deliberation it was decided that James Zebedee should +administer the charge. At the conclusion of James's remarks Jesus said to the +evangelists: "Go now forth to do the work as you have been charged, and later +on, when you have shown yourselves competent and faithful, I will ordain you to +preach the gospel of the kingdom." + +On this tour only James and John traveled with Jesus. Peter and the other +apostles each took with them about one dozen of the evangelists and maintained +close contact with them while they carried on their work of preaching and +teaching. As fast as believers were ready to enter the kingdom, the apostles +would administer baptism. Jesus and his two companions traveled extensively +during these three months, often visiting two cities in one day to observe the +work of the evangelists and to encourage them in their efforts to establish the +kingdom. This entire second preaching tour was principally an effort to afford +practical experience for this corps of 117 newly trained evangelists. + +Throughout this period and subsequently, up to the time of the final departure +of Jesus and the twelve for Jerusalem, David Zebedee maintained a permanent +headquarters for the work of the kingdom in his father's house at Bethsaida. +This was the clearinghouse for Jesus' work on earth and the relay station for +the messenger service which David carried on between the workers in various +parts of Palestine and adjacent regions. He did all of this on his own +initiative but with the approval of Andrew. David employed forty to fifty +messengers in this intelligence division of the rapidly enlarging and extending +work of the kingdom. While thus employed, he partially supported himself by +spending some of his time at his old work of fishing. + +1. THE WIDESPREAD FAME OF JESUS + +By the time the camp at Bethsaida had been broken up, the fame of Jesus, +particularly as a healer, had spread to all parts of Palestine and through all +of + + top of page - 1669 + +Syria and the surrounding countries. For weeks after they left Bethsaida, the +sick continued to arrive, and when they did not find the Master, on learning +from David where he was, they would go in search of him. On this tour Jesus did +not deliberately perform any so-called miracles of healing. Nevertheless, +scores of afflicted found restoration of health and happiness as a result of +the reconstructive power of the intense faith which impelled them to seek for +healing. + +There began to appear about the time of this mission--and continued throughout +the remainder of Jesus' life on earth--a peculiar and unexplained series of +healing phenomena. In the course of this three months' tour more than one +hundred men, women, and children from Judea, Idumea, Galilee, Syria, Tyre, and +Sidon, and from beyond the Jordan were beneficiaries of this unconscious +healing by Jesus and, returning to their homes, added to the enlargement of +Jesus' fame. And they did this notwithstanding that Jesus would, every time he +observed one of these cases of spontaneous healing, directly charge the +beneficiary to "tell no man." + +It was never revealed to us just what occurred in these cases of spontaneous or +unconscious healing. The Master never explained to his apostles how these +healings were effected, other than that on several occasions he merely said, "I +perceive that power has gone forth from me." On one occasion he remarked when +touched by an ailing child, "I perceive that life has gone forth from me." + +In the absence of direct word from the Master regarding the nature of these +cases of spontaneous healing, it would be presuming on our part to undertake to +explain how they were accomplished, but it will be permissible to record our +opinion of all such healing phenomena. We believe that many of these apparent +miracles of healing, as they occurred in the course of Jesus' earth ministry, +were the result of the coexistence of the following three powerful, potent, and +associated influences: + +1. The presence of strong, dominant, and living faith in the heart of the human +being who persistently sought healing, together with the fact that such healing +was desired for its spiritual benefits rather than for purely physical +restoration. + +2. The existence, concomitant with such human faith, of the great sympathy and +compassion of the incarnated and mercy-dominated Creator Son of God, who +actually possessed in his person almost unlimited and timeless creative healing +powers and prerogatives. + +3. Along with the faith of the creature and the life of the Creator it should +also be noted that this God-man was the personified expression of the Father's +will. If, in the contact of the human need and the divine power to meet it, the +Father did not will otherwise, the two became one, and the healing occurred +unconsciously to the human Jesus but was immediately recognized by his divine +nature. The explanation, then, of many of these cases of healing must be found +in a great law which has long been known to us, namely, What the Creator Son +desires and the eternal Father wills IS. + +It is, then, our opinion that, in the personal presence of Jesus, certain forms +of profound human faith were literally and truly compelling in the +manifestation of healing by certain creative forces and personalities of the +universe + + top of page - 1670 + +who were at that time so intimately associated with the Son of Man. It +therefore becomes a fact of record that Jesus did frequently suffer men to heal +themselves in his presence by their powerful, personal faith. + +Many others sought healing for wholly selfish purposes. A rich widow of Tyre, +with her retinue, came seeking to be healed of her infirmities, which were +many; and as she followed Jesus about through Galilee, she continued to offer +more and more money, as if the power of God were something to be purchased by +the highest bidder. But never would she become interested in the gospel of the +kingdom; it was only the cure of her physical ailments that she sought. + +2. ATTITUDE OF THE PEOPLE + +Jesus understood the minds of men. He knew what was in the heart of man, and +had his teachings been left as he presented them, the only commentary being the +inspired interpretation afforded by his earth life, all nations and all +religions of the world would speedily have embraced the gospel of the kingdom. +The well-meant efforts of Jesus' early followers to restate his teachings so as +to make them the more acceptable to certain nations, races, and religions, only +resulted in making such teachings the less acceptable to all other nations, +races, and religions. + +The Apostle Paul, in his efforts to bring the teachings of Jesus to the +favorable notice of certain groups in his day, wrote many letters of +instruction and admonition. Other teachers of Jesus' gospel did likewise, but +none of them realized that some of these writings would subsequently be brought +together by those who would set them forth as the embodiment of the teachings +of Jesus. And so, while so-called Christianity does contain more of the +Master's gospel than any other religion, it does also contain much that Jesus +did not teach. Aside from the incorporation of many teachings from the Persian +mysteries and much of the Greek philosophy into early Christianity, two great +mistakes were made: + +1. The effort to connect the gospel teaching directly onto the Jewish theology, +as illustrated by the Christian doctrines of the atonement--the teaching that +Jesus was the sacrificed Son who would satisfy the Father's stern justice and +appease the divine wrath. These teachings originated in a praiseworthy effort +to make the gospel of the kingdom more acceptable to disbelieving Jews. Though +these efforts failed as far as winning the Jews was concerned, they did not +fail to confuse and alienate many honest souls in all subsequent generations. + +2. The second great blunder of the Master's early followers, and one which all +subsequent generations have persisted in perpetuating, was to organize the +Christian teaching so completely about the person of Jesus. This overemphasis +of the personality of Jesus in the theology of Christianity has worked to +obscure his teachings, and all of this has made it increasingly difficult for +Jews, Mohammedans, Hindus, and other Eastern religionists to accept the +teachings of Jesus. We would not belittle the place of the person of Jesus in a +religion which might bear his name, but we would not permit such consideration +to eclipse his inspired life or to supplant his saving message: the fatherhood +of God and the brotherhood of man. + +The teachers of the religion of Jesus should approach other religions with the +recognition of the truths which are held in common (many of which come + + top of page - 1671 + +directly or indirectly from Jesus' message) while they refrain from placing so +much emphasis on the differences. + +While, at that particular time, the fame of Jesus rested chiefly upon his +reputation as a healer, it does not follow that it continued so to rest. As +time passed, more and more he was sought for spiritual help. But it was the +physical cures that made the most direct and immediate appeal to the common +people. Jesus was increasingly sought by the victims of moral enslavement and +mental harassments, and he invariably taught them the way of deliverance. +Fathers sought his advice regarding the management of their sons, and mothers +came for help in the guidance of their daughters. Those who sat in darkness +came to him, and he revealed to them the light of life. His ear was ever open +to the sorrows of mankind, and he always helped those who sought his ministry. + +When the Creator himself was on earth, incarnated in the likeness of mortal +flesh, it was inevitable that some extraordinary things should happen. But you +should never approach Jesus through these so-called miraculous occurrences. +Learn to approach the miracle through Jesus, but do not make the mistake of +approaching Jesus through the miracle. And this admonition is warranted, +notwithstanding that Jesus of Nazareth is the only founder of a religion who +performed supermaterial acts on earth. + +The most astonishing and the most revolutionary feature of Michael's mission on +earth was his attitude toward women. In a day and generation when a man was not +supposed to salute even his own wife in a public place, Jesus dared to take +women along as teachers of the gospel in connection with his third tour of +Galilee. And he had the consummate courage to do this in the face of the +rabbinic teaching which declared that it was "better that the words of the law +should be burned than delivered to women." + +In one generation Jesus lifted women out of the disrespectful oblivion and the +slavish drudgery of the ages. And it is the one shameful thing about the +religion that presumed to take Jesus' name that it lacked the moral courage to +follow this noble example in its subsequent attitude toward women. + +As Jesus mingled with the people, they found him entirely free from the +superstitions of that day. He was free from religious prejudices; he was never +intolerant. He had nothing in his heart resembling social antagonism. While he +complied with the good in the religion of his fathers, he did not hesitate to +disregard man-made traditions of superstition and bondage. He dared to teach +that catastrophes of nature, accidents of time, and other calamitous happenings +are not visitations of divine judgments or mysterious dispensations of +Providence. He denounced slavish devotion to meaningless ceremonials and +exposed the fallacy of materialistic worship. He boldly proclaimed man's +spiritual freedom and dared to teach that mortals of the flesh are indeed and +in truth sons of the living God. + +Jesus transcended all the teachings of his forebears when he boldly substituted +clean hearts for clean hands as the mark of true religion. He put reality in +the place of tradition and swept aside all pretensions of vanity and hypocrisy. +And yet this fearless man of God did not give vent to destructive criticism or +manifest an utter disregard of the religious, social, economic, and political +usages of his day. He was not a militant revolutionist; he was a pro- + + top of page - 1672 + +gressive evolutionist. He engaged in the destruction of that which was only +when he simultaneously offered his fellows the superior thing which ought to +be. + +Jesus received the obedience of his followers without exacting it. Only three +men who received his personal call refused to accept the invitation to +discipleship. He exercised a peculiar drawing power over men, but he was not +dictatorial. He commanded confidence, and no man ever resented his giving a +command. He assumed absolute authority over his disciples, but no one ever +objected. He permitted his followers to call him Master. + +The Master was admired by all who met him except by those who entertained +deep-seated religious prejudices or those who thought they discerned political +dangers in his teachings. Men were astonished at the originality and +authoritativeness of his teaching. They marveled at his patience in dealing +with backward and troublesome inquirers. He inspired hope and confidence in the +hearts of all who came under his ministry. Only those who had not met him +feared him, and he was hated only by those who regarded him as the champion of +that truth which was destined to overthrow the evil and error which they had +determined to hold in their hearts at all cost. + +On both friends and foes he exercised a strong and peculiarly fascinating +influence. Multitudes would follow him for weeks, just to hear his gracious +words and behold his simple life. Devoted men and women loved Jesus with a +well-nigh superhuman affection. And the better they knew him the more they +loved him. And all this is still true; even today and in all future ages, the +more man comes to know this God-man, the more he will love and follow after +him. + +3. HOSTILITY OF THE RELIGIOUS LEADERS + +Notwithstanding the favorable reception of Jesus and his teachings by the +common people, the religious leaders at Jerusalem became increasingly alarmed +and antagonistic. The Pharisees had formulated a systematic and dogmatic +theology. Jesus was a teacher who taught as the occasion served; he was not a +systematic teacher. Jesus taught not so much from the law as from life, by +parables. (And when he employed a parable for illustrating his message, he +designed to utilize just one feature of the story for that purpose. Many wrong +ideas concerning the teachings of Jesus may be secured by attempting to make +allegories out of his parables.) + +The religious leaders at Jerusalem were becoming well-nigh frantic as a result +of the recent conversion of young Abraham and by the desertion of the three +spies who had been baptized by Peter, and who were now out with the evangelists +on this second preaching tour of Galilee. The Jewish leaders were increasingly +blinded by fear and prejudice, while their hearts were hardened by the +continued rejection of the appealing truths of the gospel of the kingdom. When +men shut off the appeal to the spirit that dwells within them, there is little +that can be done to modify their attitude. + +When Jesus first met with the evangelists at the Bethsaida camp, in concluding +his address, he said: "You should remember that in body and +mind--emotionally--men react individually. The only uniform thing about men is +the indwelling spirit. Though divine spirits may vary somewhat in the nature +and extent of their experience, they react uniformly to all spiritual appeals. +Only through, and by appeal to, this spirit can mankind ever attain unity and +brother- + + top of page - 1673 + +hood." But many of the leaders of the Jews had closed the doors of their hearts +to the spiritual appeal of the gospel. From this day on they ceased not to plan +and plot for the Master's destruction. They were convinced that Jesus must be +apprehended, convicted, and executed as a religious offender, a violator of the +cardinal teachings of the Jewish sacred law. + +4. PROGRESS OF THE PREACHING TOUR + +Jesus did very little public work on this preaching tour, but he conducted many +evening classes with the believers in most of the cities and villages where he +chanced to sojourn with James and John. At one of these evening sessions one of +the younger evangelists asked Jesus a question about anger, and the Master +among other things said, in reply: + +"Anger is a material manifestation which represents, in a general way, the +measure of the failure of the spiritual nature to gain control of the combined +intellectual and physical natures. Anger indicates your lack of tolerant +brotherly love plus your lack of self-respect and self-control. Anger depletes +the health, debases the mind, and handicaps the spirit teacher of man's soul. +Have you not read in the Scriptures that `wrath kills the foolish man,' and +that man `tears himself in his anger'? That `he who is slow of wrath is of +great understanding,' while `he who is hasty of temper exalts folly'? You all +know that `a soft answer turns away wrath,' and how `grievous words stir up +anger.' `Discretion defers anger,' while `he who has no control over his own +self is like a defenseless city without walls.' `Wrath is cruel and anger is +outrageous.' `Angry men stir up strife, while the furious multiply their +transgressions.' `Be not hasty in spirit, for anger rests in the bosom of +fools.'" Before Jesus ceased speaking, he said further: "Let your hearts be so +dominated by love that your spirit guide will have little trouble in delivering +you from the tendency to give vent to those outbursts of animal anger which are +inconsistent with the status of divine sonship." + +On this same occasion the Master talked to the group about the desirability of +possessing well-balanced characters. He recognized that it was necessary for +most men to devote themselves to the mastery of some vocation, but he deplored +all tendency toward overspecialization, toward becoming narrow-minded and +circumscribed in life's activities. He called attention to the fact that any +virtue, if carried to extremes, may become a vice. Jesus always preached +temperance and taught consistency--proportionate adjustment of life problems. +He pointed out that overmuch sympathy and pity may degenerate into serious +emotional instability; that enthusiasm may drive on into fanaticism. He +discussed one of their former associates whose imagination had led him off into +visionary and impractical undertakings. At the same time he warned them against +the dangers of the dullness of overconservative mediocrity. + +And then Jesus discoursed on the dangers of courage and faith, how they +sometimes lead unthinking souls on to recklessness and presumption. He also +showed how prudence and discretion, when carried too far, lead to cowardice and +failure. He exhorted his hearers to strive for originality while they shunned +all tendency toward eccentricity. He pleaded for sympathy without +sentimentality, piety without sanctimoniousness. He taught reverence free from +fear and superstition. + + top of page - 1674 + +It was not so much what Jesus taught about the balanced character that +impressed his associates as the fact that his own life was such an eloquent +exemplification of his teaching. He lived in the midst of stress and storm, but +he never wavered. His enemies continually laid snares for him, but they never +entrapped him. The wise and learned endeavored to trip him, but he did not +stumble. They sought to embroil him in debate, but his answers were always +enlightening, dignified, and final. When he was interrupted in his discourses +with multitudinous questions, his answers were always significant and +conclusive. Never did he resort to ignoble tactics in meeting the continuous +pressure of his enemies, who did not hesitate to employ every sort of false, +unfair, and unrighteous mode of attack upon him. + +While it is true that many men and women must assiduously apply themselves to +some definite pursuit as a livelihood vocation, it is nevertheless wholly +desirable that human beings should cultivate a wide range of cultural +familiarity with life as it is lived on earth. Truly educated persons are not +satisfied with remaining in ignorance of the lives and doings of their fellows. + +5. LESSON REGARDING CONTENTMENT + +When Jesus was visiting the group of evangelists working under the supervision +of Simon Zelotes, during their evening conference Simon asked the Master: "Why +are some persons so much more happy and contented than others? Is contentment a +matter of religious experience?" Among other things, Jesus said in answer to +Simon's question: + +"Simon, some persons are naturally more happy than others. Much, very much, +depends upon the willingness of man to be led and directed by the Father's +spirit which lives within him. Have you not read in the Scriptures the words of +the wise man, `The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the +inward parts'? And also that such spirit-led mortals say: `The lines are fallen +to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a goodly heritage.' `A little that a +righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked,' for `a good man +shall be satisfied from within himself.' `A merry heart makes a cheerful +countenance and is a continual feast. Better is a little with the reverence of +the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs +where love is than a fatted ox and hatred therewith. Better is a little with +righteousness than great revenues without rectitude.' `A merry heart does good +like a medicine.' `Better is a handful with composure than a superabundance +with sorrow and vexation of spirit.' + +"Much of man's sorrow is born of the disappointment of his ambitions and the +wounding of his pride. Although men owe a duty to themselves to make the best +of their lives on earth, having thus sincerely exerted themselves, they should +cheerfully accept their lot and exercise ingenuity in making the most of that +which has fallen to their hands. All too many of man's troubles take origin in +the fear soil of his own natural heart. `The wicked flee when no man pursues.' +`The wicked are like the troubled sea, for it cannot rest, but its waters cast +up mire and dirt; there is no peace, says God, for the wicked.' + +"Seek not, then, for false peace and transient joy but rather for the assurance +of faith and the sureties of divine sonship which yield composure, contentment, +and supreme joy in the spirit." + + top of page - 1675 + +Jesus hardly regarded this world as a "vale of tears." He rather looked upon it +as the birth sphere of the eternal and immortal spirits of Paradise ascension, +the "vale of soul making." + +6. THE "FEAR OF THE LORD" + +It was at Gamala, during the evening conference, that Philip said to Jesus: +"Master, why is it that the Scriptures instruct us to `fear the Lord,' while +you would have us look to the Father in heaven without fear? How are we to +harmonize these teachings?" And Jesus replied to Philip, saying: + +"My children, I am not surprised that you ask such questions. In the beginning +it was only through fear that man could learn reverence, but I have come to +reveal the Father's love so that you will be attracted to the worship of the +Eternal by the drawing of a son's affectionate recognition and reciprocation of +the Father's profound and perfect love. I would deliver you from the bondage of +driving yourselves through slavish fear to the irksome service of a jealous and +wrathful King-God. I would instruct you in the Father-son relationship of God +and man so that you may be joyfully led into that sublime and supernal free +worship of a loving, just, and merciful Father-God. + +"The `fear of the Lord' has had different meanings in the successive ages, +coming up from fear, through anguish and dread, to awe and reverence. And now +from reverence I would lead you up, through recognition, realization, and +appreciation, to love. When man recognizes only the works of God, he is led to +fear the Supreme; but when man begins to understand and experience the +personality and character of the living God, he is led increasingly to love +such a good and perfect, universal and eternal Father. And it is just this +changing of the relation of man to God that constitutes the mission of the Son +of Man on earth. + +"Intelligent children do not fear their father in order that they may receive +good gifts from his hand; but having already received the abundance of good +things bestowed by the dictates of the father's affection for his sons and +daughters, these much loved children are led to love their father in responsive +recognition and appreciation of such munificent beneficence. The goodness of +God leads to repentance; the beneficence of God leads to service; the mercy of +God leads to salvation; while the love of God leads to intelligent and +freehearted worship. + +"Your forebears feared God because he was mighty and mysterious. You shall +adore him because he is magnificent in love, plenteous in mercy, and glorious +in truth. The power of God engenders fear in the heart of man, but the nobility +and righteousness of his personality beget reverence, love, and willing +worship. A dutiful and affectionate son does not fear or dread even a mighty +and noble father. I have come into the world to put love in the place of fear, +joy in the place of sorrow, confidence in the place of dread, loving service +and appreciative worship in the place of slavish bondage and meaningless +ceremonies. But it is still true of those who sit in darkness that `the fear of +the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' But when the light has more fully come, +the sons of God are led to praise the Infinite for what he is rather than to +fear him for what he does. + +"When children are young and unthinking, they must necessarily be admonished to +honor their parents; but when they grow older and become some- + + top of page - 1676 + +what more appreciative of the benefits of the parental ministry and protection, +they are led up, through understanding respect and increasing affection, to +that level of experience where they actually love their parents for what they +are more than for what they have done. The father naturally loves his child, +but the child must develop his love for the father from the fear of what the +father can do, through awe, dread, dependence, and reverence, to the +appreciative and affectionate regard of love. + +"You have been taught that you should `fear God and keep his commandments, for +that is the whole duty of man.' But I have come to give you a new and higher +commandment. I would teach you to `love God and learn to do his will, for that +is the highest privilege of the liberated sons of God.' Your fathers were +taught to `fear God--the Almighty King.' I teach you, `Love God--the +all-merciful Father.' + +"In the kingdom of heaven, which I have come to declare, there is no high and +mighty king; this kingdom is a divine family. The universally recognized and +unreservedly worshiped center and head of this far-flung brotherhood of +intelligent beings is my Father and your Father. I am his Son, and you are also +his sons. Therefore it is eternally true that you and I are brethren in the +heavenly estate, and all the more so since we have become brethren in the flesh +of the earthly life. Cease, then, to fear God as a king or serve him as a +master; learn to reverence him as the Creator; honor him as the Father of your +spirit youth; love him as a merciful defender; and ultimately worship him as +the loving and all-wise Father of your more mature spiritual realization and +appreciation. + +"Out of your wrong concepts of the Father in heaven grow your false ideas of +humility and springs much of your hypocrisy. Man may be a worm of the dust by +nature and origin, but when he becomes indwelt by my Father's spirit, that man +becomes divine in his destiny. The bestowal spirit of my Father will surely +return to the divine source and universe level of origin, and the human soul of +mortal man which shall have become the reborn child of this indwelling spirit +shall certainly ascend with the divine spirit to the very presence of the +eternal Father. + +"Humility, indeed, becomes mortal man who receives all these gifts from the +Father in heaven, albeit there is a divine dignity attached to all such faith +candidates for the eternal ascent of the heavenly kingdom. The meaningless and +menial practices of an ostentatious and false humility are incompatible with +the appreciation of the source of your salvation and the recognition of the +destiny of your spirit-born souls. Humility before God is altogether +appropriate in the depths of your hearts; meekness before men is commendable; +but the hypocrisy of self-conscious and attention-craving humility is childish +and unworthy of the enlightened sons of the kingdom. + +"You do well to be meek before God and self-controlled before men, but let your +meekness be of spiritual origin and not the self-deceptive display of a +self-conscious sense of self-righteous superiority. The prophet spoke advisedly +when he said, `Walk humbly with God,' for, while the Father in heaven is the +Infinite and the Eternal, he also dwells `with him who is of a contrite mind +and a humble spirit.' My Father disdains pride, loathes hypocrisy, and abhors +iniquity. And it was to emphasize the value of sincerity and perfect trust in +the loving support and faithful guidance of the heavenly Father that I have so +often referred to the little child as illustrative of the attitude of mind and +the + + top of page - 1677 + +response of spirit which are so essential to the entrance of mortal man into +the spirit realities of the kingdom of heaven. + +"Well did the Prophet Jeremiah describe many mortals when he said: `You are +near God in the mouth but far from him in the heart.' And have you not also +read that direful warning of the prophet who said: `The priests thereof teach +for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money. At the same time they +profess piety and proclaim that the Lord is with them.' Have you not been well +warned against those who `speak peace to their neighbors when mischief is in +their hearts,' those who `flatter with the lips while the heart is given to +double-dealing'? Of all the sorrows of a trusting man, none is so terrible as +to be `wounded in the house of a trusted friend.'" + +7. RETURNING TO BETHSAIDA + +Andrew, in consultation with Simon Peter and with the approval of Jesus, had +instructed David at Bethsaida to dispatch messengers to the various preaching +groups with instructions to terminate the tour and return to Bethsaida some +time on Thursday, December 30. By supper time on that rainy day all of the +apostolic party and the teaching evangelists had arrived at the Zebedee home. + +The group remained together over the Sabbath day, being accommodated in the +homes of Bethsaida and near-by Capernaum, after which the entire party was +granted a two weeks' recess to go home to their families, visit their friends, +or go fishing. The two or three days they were together in Bethsaida were, +indeed, exhilarating and inspiring; even the older teachers were edified by the +young preachers as they narrated their experiences. + +Of the 117 evangelists who participated in this second preaching tour of +Galilee, only about seventy-five survived the test of actual experience and +were on hand to be assigned to service at the end of the two weeks' recess. +Jesus, with Andrew, Peter, James, and John, remained at the Zebedee home and +spent much time in conference regarding the welfare and extension of the +kingdom. + + top of page - 1678 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Training ³ The Third ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Evange... ³ Preac... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p150.txt b/religious documents/p150.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e99cba --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p150.txt @@ -0,0 +1,614 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 150 The Third Preaching Tour + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 150 The Third Preaching Tour + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ON SUNDAY evening, January 16, A.D. 29, Abner, with the apostles of John, +reached Bethsaida and went into joint conference with Andrew and the apostles +of Jesus the next day. Abner and his associates made their headquarters at +Hebron and were in the habit of coming up to Bethsaida periodically for these +conferences. + +Among the many matters considered by this joint conference was the practice of +anointing the sick with certain forms of oil in connection with prayers for +healing. Again did Jesus decline to participate in their discussions or to +express himself regarding their conclusions. The apostles of John had always +used the anointing oil in their ministry to the sick and afflicted, and they +sought to establish this as a uniform practice for both groups, but the +apostles of Jesus refused to bind themselves by such a regulation. + +On Tuesday, January 18, the twenty-four were joined by the tested evangelists, +about seventy-five in number, at the Zebedee house in Bethsaida preparatory to +being sent forth on the third preaching tour of Galilee. This third mission +continued for a period of seven weeks. + +The evangelists were sent out in groups of five, while Jesus and the twelve +traveled together most of the time, the apostles going out two and two to +baptize believers as occasion required. For a period of almost three weeks +Abner and his associates also worked with the evangelistic groups, advising +them and baptizing believers. They visited Magdala, Tiberias, Nazareth, and all +the principal cities and villages of central and southern Galilee, all the +places previously visited and many others. This was their last message to +Galilee, except to the northern portions. + +1. THE WOMEN'S EVANGELISTIC CORPS + +Of all the daring things which Jesus did in connection with his earth career, +the most amazing was his sudden announcement on the evening of January 16: "On +the morrow we will set apart ten women for the ministering work of the +kingdom." At the beginning of the two weeks' period during which the apostles +and the evangelists were to be absent from Bethsaida on their furlough, Jesus +requested David to summon his parents back to their home and to dispatch +messengers calling to Bethsaida ten devout women who had served in the +administration of the former encampment and the tented infirmary. These women +had all listened to the instruction given the young evangelists, but it had +never occurred to either themselves or their teachers that Jesus would dare to +commission women to teach the gospel of the kingdom and minister to + + top of page - 1679 + +the sick. These ten women selected and commissioned by Jesus were: Susanna, the +daughter of the former chazan of the Nazareth synagogue; Joanna, the wife of +Chuza, the steward of Herod Antipas; Elizabeth, the daughter of a wealthy Jew +of Tiberias and Sepphoris; Martha, the elder sister of Andrew and Peter; +Rachel, the sister-in-law of Jude, the Master's brother in the flesh; Nasanta, +the daughter of Elman, the Syrian physician; Milcha, a cousin of the Apostle +Thomas; Ruth, the eldest daughter of Matthew Levi; Celta, the daughter of a +Roman centurion; and Agaman, a widow of Damascus. Subsequently, Jesus added two +other women to this group--Mary Magdalene and Rebecca, the daughter of Joseph +of Arimathea. + +Jesus authorized these women to effect their own organization and directed +Judas to provide funds for their equipment and for pack animals. The ten +elected Susanna as their chief and Joanna as their treasurer. From this time on +they furnished their own funds; never again did they draw upon Judas for +support. + +It was most astounding in that day, when women were not even allowed on the +main floor of the synagogue (being confined to the women's gallery), to behold +them being recognized as authorized teachers of the new gospel of the kingdom. +The charge which Jesus gave these ten women as he set them apart for gospel +teaching and ministry was the emancipation proclamation which set free all +women and for all time; no more was man to look upon woman as his spiritual +inferior. This was a decided shock to even the twelve apostles. + + top of page - 1680 + +Notwithstanding they had many times heard the Master say that "in the kingdom +of heaven there is neither rich nor poor, free nor bond, male nor female, all +are equally the sons and daughters of God," they were literally stunned when he +proposed formally to commission these ten women as religious teachers and even +to permit their traveling about with them. The whole country was stirred up by +this proceeding, the enemies of Jesus making great capital out of this move, +but everywhere the women believers in the good news stood stanchly behind their +chosen sisters and voiced no uncertain approval of this tardy acknowledgment of +woman's place in religious work. And this liberation of women, giving them due +recognition, was practiced by the apostles immediately after the Master's +departure, albeit they fell back to the olden customs in subsequent +generations. Throughout the early days of the Christian church women teachers +and ministers were called deaconesses and were accorded general recognition. +But Paul, despite the fact that he conceded all this in theory, never really +incorporated it into his own attitude and personally found it difficult to +carry out in practice. + +2. THE STOP AT MAGDALA + +As the apostolic party journeyed from Bethsaida, the women traveled in the +rear. During the conference time they always sat in a group in front and to the +right of the speaker. Increasingly, women had become believers in the gospel of +the kingdom, and it had been a source of much difficulty and no end of +embarrassment when they had desired to hold personal converse with Jesus or one +of the apostles. Now all this was changed. When any of the women believers +desired to see the Master or confer with the apostles, they went to Susanna, +and in company with one of the twelve women evangelists, they would go at once +into the presence of the Master or one of his apostles. + +It was at Magdala that the women first demonstrated their usefulness and +vindicated the wisdom of their choosing. Andrew had imposed rather strict rules +upon his associates about doing personal work with women, especially with those +of questionable character. When the party entered Magdala, these ten women +evangelists were free to enter the evil resorts and preach the glad tidings +directly to all their inmates. And when visiting the sick, these women were +able to draw very close in their ministry to their afflicted sisters. As the +result of the ministry of these ten women (afterward known as the twelve women) +at this place, Mary Magdalene was won for the kingdom. Through a succession of +misfortunes and in consequence of the attitude of reputable society toward +women who commit such errors of judgment, this woman had found herself in one +of the nefarious resorts of Magdala. It was Martha and Rachel who made plain to +Mary that the doors of the kingdom were open to even such as she. Mary believed +the good news and was baptized by Peter the next day. + +Mary Magdalene became the most effective teacher of the gospel among this group +of twelve women evangelists. She was set apart for such service, together with +Rebecca, at Jotapata about four weeks subsequent to her conversion. Mary and +Rebecca, with the others of this group, went on through the remainder of Jesus' +life on earth, laboring faithfully and effectively for the enlightenment and +uplifting of their downtrodden sisters; and when the last and tragic episode in +the drama of Jesus' life was being enacted, notwithstanding the apostles all +fled but one, these women were all present, and not one either denied or +betrayed him. + +3. SABBATH AT TIBERIAS + +The Sabbath services of the apostolic party had been put in the hands of the +women by Andrew, upon instructions from Jesus. This meant, of course, that they +could not be held in the new synagogue. The women selected Joanna to have +charge of this occasion, and the meeting was held in the banquet room of +Herod's new palace, Herod being away in residence at Julias in Perea. Joanna +read from the Scriptures concerning woman's work in the religious life of +Israel, making reference to Miriam, Deborah, Esther, and others. + +Late that evening Jesus gave the united group a memorable talk on "Magic and +Superstition." In those days the appearance of a bright and supposedly new star +was regarded as a token indicating that a great man had been born on earth. +Such a star having then recently been observed, Andrew asked Jesus if these +beliefs were well founded. In the long answer to Andrew's question the Master +entered upon a thoroughgoing discussion of the whole subject of human +superstition. The statement which Jesus made at this time may be summarized in +modern phraseology as follows: + +1. The courses of the stars in the heavens have nothing whatever to do with the +events of human life on earth. Astronomy is a proper pursuit of science, but +astrology is a mass of superstitious error which has no place in the gospel of +the kingdom. + +2. The examination of the internal organs of an animal recently killed can +reveal nothing about weather, future events, or the outcome of human affairs. + +3. The spirits of the dead do not come back to communicate with their families +or their onetime friends among the living. + + top of page - 1681 + +4. Charms and relics are impotent to heal disease, ward off disaster, or +influence evil spirits; the belief in all such material means of influencing +the spiritual world is nothing but gross superstition. + +5. Casting lots, while it may be a convenient way of settling many minor +difficulties, is not a method designed to disclose the divine will. Such +outcomes are purely matters of material chance. The only means of communion +with the spiritual world is embraced in the spirit endowment of mankind, the +indwelling spirit of the Father, together with the outpoured spirit of the Son +and the omnipresent influence of the Infinite Spirit. + +6. Divination, sorcery, and witchcraft are superstitions of ignorant minds, as +also are the delusions of magic. The belief in magic numbers, omens of good +luck, and harbingers of bad luck, is pure and unfounded superstition. + +7. The interpretation of dreams is largely a superstitious and groundless +system of ignorant and fantastic speculation. The gospel of the kingdom must +have nothing in common with the soothsayer priests of primitive religion. + +8. The spirits of good or evil cannot dwell within material symbols of clay, +wood, or metal; idols are nothing more than the material of which they are +made. + +9. The practices of the enchanters, the wizards, the magicians, and the +sorcerers, were derived from the superstitions of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, +the Babylonians, and the ancient Canaanites. Amulets and all sorts of +incantations are futile either to win the protection of good spirits or to ward +off supposed evil spirits. + +10. He exposed and denounced their belief in spells, ordeals, bewitching, +cursing, signs, mandrakes, knotted cords, and all other forms of ignorant and +enslaving superstition. + +4. SENDING THE APOSTLES OUT TWO AND TWO + +The next evening, having gathered together the twelve apostles, the apostles of +John, and the newly commissioned women's group, Jesus said: "You see for +yourselves that the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Let us all, +therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest that he send forth still more laborers +into his fields. While I remain to comfort and instruct the younger teachers, I +would send out the older ones two and two that they may pass quickly over all +Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom while it is yet convenient and +peaceful." Then he designated the pairs of apostles as he desired them to go +forth, and they were: Andrew and Peter, James and John Zebedee, Philip and +Nathaniel, Thomas and Matthew, James and Judas Alpheus, Simon Zelotes and Judas +Iscariot. + +Jesus arranged the date for meeting the twelve at Nazareth, and in parting, he +said: "On this mission go not to any city of the gentiles, neither go into +Samaria, but go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Preach the +gospel of the kingdom and proclaim the saving truth that man is a son of God. +Remember that the disciple is hardly above his master nor a servant greater +than his lord. It is enough for the disciple to be equal with his master and +the servant to become like his lord. If some people have dared to call the +master of the house an associate of Beelzebub, how much more shall they so +regard those of his household! But you should not fear these unbelieving +enemies. I declare + + top of page - 1682 + +to you that there is nothing covered up that is not going to be revealed; there +is nothing hidden that shall not be known. What I have taught you privately, +that preach with wisdom in the open. What I have revealed to you in the inner +chamber, that you are to proclaim in due season from the housetops. And I say +to you, my friends and disciples, be not afraid of those who can kill the body, +but who are not able to destroy the soul; rather put your trust in Him who is +able to sustain the body and save the soul. + +"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And yet I declare that not one of them +is forgotten in God's sight. Know you not that the very hairs of your head are +all numbered? Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than a great many +sparrows. Be not ashamed of my teaching; go forth proclaiming peace and good +will, but be not deceived--peace will not always attend your preaching. I came +to bring peace on earth, but when men reject my gift, division and turmoil +result. When all of a family receive the gospel of the kingdom, truly peace +abides in that house; but when some of the family enter the kingdom and others +reject the gospel, such division can produce only sorrow and sadness. Labor +earnestly to save the whole family lest a man's foes become those of his own +household. But, when you have done your utmost for all of every family, I +declare to you that he who loves father or mother more than this gospel is not +worthy of the kingdom." + +When the twelve had heard these words, they made ready to depart. And they did +not again come together until the time of their assembling at Nazareth to meet +with Jesus and the other disciples as the Master had arranged. + +5. WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED? + +One evening at Shunem, after John's apostles had returned to Hebron, and after +Jesus' apostles had been sent out two and two, when the Master was engaged in +teaching a group of twelve of the younger evangelists who were laboring under +the direction of Jacob, together with the twelve women, Rachel asked Jesus this +question: "Master, what shall we answer when women ask us, What shall I do to +be saved?" When Jesus heard this question, he answered: + +"When men and women ask what shall we do to be saved, you shall answer, Believe +this gospel of the kingdom; accept divine forgiveness. By faith recognize the +indwelling spirit of God, whose acceptance makes you a son of God. Have you not +read in the Scriptures where it says, `In the Lord have I righteousness and +strength.' Also where the Father says, `My righteousness is near; my salvation +has gone forth, and my arms shall enfold my people.' `My soul shall be joyful +in the love of my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and +has covered me with the robe of his righteousness.' Have you not also read of +the Father that his name `shall be called the Lord our righteousness.' `Take +away the filthy rags of self-righteousness and clothe my son with the robe of +divine righteousness and eternal salvation.' It is forever true, `the just +shall live by faith.' Entrance into the Father's kingdom is wholly free, but +progress--growth in grace--is essential to continuance therein. + +"Salvation is the gift of the Father and is revealed by his Sons. Acceptance by +faith on your part makes you a partaker of the divine nature, a son or a +daughter of God. By faith you are justified; by faith are you saved; and by +this same faith are you eternally advanced in the way of progressive and divine +perfection. By faith was Abraham justified and made aware of salvation by the + + top of page - 1683 + +teachings of Melchizedek. All down through the ages has this same faith saved +the sons of men, but now has a Son come forth from the Father to make salvation +more real and acceptable." + +When Jesus had left off speaking, there was great rejoicing among those who had +heard these gracious words, and they all went on in the days that followed +proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom with new power and with renewed energy +and enthusiasm. And the women rejoiced all the more to know they were included +in these plans for the establishment of the kingdom on earth. + +In summing up his final statement, Jesus said: "You cannot buy salvation; you +cannot earn righteousness. Salvation is the gift of God, and righteousness is +the natural fruit of the spirit-born life of sonship in the kingdom. You are +not to be saved because you live a righteous life; rather is it that you live a +righteous life because you have already been saved, have recognized sonship as +the gift of God and service in the kingdom as the supreme delight of life on +earth. When men believe this gospel, which is a revelation of the goodness of +God, they will be led to voluntary repentance of all known sin. Realization of +sonship is incompatible with the desire to sin. Kingdom believers hunger for +righteousness and thirst for divine perfection." + +6. THE EVENING LESSONS + +At the evening discussions Jesus talked upon many subjects. During the +remainder of this tour--before they all reunited at Nazareth--he discussed "The +Love of God," "Dreams and Visions," "Malice," "Humility and Meekness," "Courage +and Loyalty," "Music and Worship," "Service and Obedience," "Pride and +Presumption," "Forgiveness in Relation to Repentance," "Peace and Perfection," +"Evil Speaking and Envy," "Evil, Sin, and Temptation," "Doubts and Unbelief," +"Wisdom and Worship." With the older apostles away, these younger groups of +both men and women more freely entered into these discussions with the Master. + +After spending two or three days with one group of twelve evangelists, Jesus +would move on to join another group, being informed as to the whereabouts and +movements of all these workers by David's messengers. This being their first +tour, the women remained much of the time with Jesus. Through the messenger +service each of these groups was kept fully informed concerning the progress of +the tour, and the receipt of news from other groups was always a source of +encouragement to these scattered and separated workers. + +Before their separation it had been arranged that the twelve apostles, together +with the evangelists and the women's corps, should assemble at Nazareth to meet +the Master on Friday, March 4. Accordingly, about this time, from all parts of +central and southern Galilee these various groups of apostles and evangelists +began moving toward Nazareth. By midafternoon, Andrew and Peter, the last to +arrive, had reached the encampment prepared by the early arrivals and situated +on the highlands to the north of the city. And this was the first time Jesus +had visited Nazareth since the beginning of his public ministry. + +7. THE SOJOURN AT NAZARETH + +This Friday afternoon Jesus walked about Nazareth quite unobserved and wholly +unrecognized. He passed by the home of his childhood and the carpenter + + top of page - 1684 + +shop and spent a half hour on the hill which he so much enjoyed when a lad. Not +since the day of his baptism by John in the Jordan had the Son of Man had such +a flood of human emotion stirred up within his soul. While coming down from the +mount, he heard the familiar sounds of the trumpet blast announcing the going +down of the sun, just as he had so many, many times heard it when a boy growing +up in Nazareth. Before returning to the encampment, he walked down by the +synagogue where he had gone to school and indulged his mind in many +reminiscences of his childhood days. Earlier in the day Jesus had sent Thomas +to arrange with the ruler of the synagogue for his preaching at the Sabbath +morning service. + +The people of Nazareth were never reputed for piety and righteous living. As +the years passed, this village became increasingly contaminated by the low +moral standards of near-by Sepphoris. Throughout Jesus' youth and young manhood +there had been a division of opinion in Nazareth regarding him; there was much +resentment when he moved to Capernaum. While the inhabitants of Nazareth had +heard much about the doings of their former carpenter, they were offended that +he had never included his native village in any of his earlier preaching tours. +They had indeed heard of Jesus' fame, but the majority of the citizens were +angry because he had done none of his great works in the city of his youth. For +months the people of Nazareth had discussed Jesus much, but their opinions +were, on the whole, unfavorable to him. + +Thus did the Master find himself in the midst of, not a welcome homecoming, but +a decidedly hostile and hypercritical atmosphere. But this was not all. His +enemies, knowing that he was to spend this Sabbath day in Nazareth and +supposing that he would speak in the synagogue, had hired numerous rough and +uncouth men to harass him and in every way possible make trouble. + +Most of the older of Jesus' friends, including the doting chazan teacher of his +youth, were dead or had left Nazareth, and the younger generation was prone to +resent his fame with strong jealousy. They failed to remember his early +devotion to his father's family, and they were bitter in their criticism of his +neglect to visit his brother and his married sisters living in Nazareth. The +attitude of Jesus' family toward him had also tended to increase this unkind +feeling of the citizenry. The orthodox among the Jews even presumed to +criticize Jesus because he walked too fast on the way to the synagogue this +Sabbath morning. + +8. THE SABBATH SERVICE + +This Sabbath was a beautiful day, and all Nazareth, friends and foes, turned +out to hear this former citizen of their town discourse in the synagogue. Many +of the apostolic retinue had to remain without the synagogue; there was not +room for all who had come to hear him. As a young man Jesus had often spoken in +this place of worship, and this morning, when the ruler of the synagogue handed +him the roll of sacred writings from which to read the Scripture lesson, none +present seemed to recall that this was the very manuscript which he had +presented to this synagogue. + +The services on this day were conducted just as when Jesus had attended them as +a boy. He ascended the speaking platform with the ruler of the synagogue, and +the service was begun by the recital of two prayers: "Blessed is the Lord, King +of the world, who forms the light and creates the darkness, who + + top of page - 1685 + +makes peace and creates everything; who, in mercy, gives light to the earth and +to those who dwell upon it and in goodness, day by day and every day, renews +the works of creation. Blessed is the Lord our God for the glory of his +handiworks and for the light-giving lights which he has made for his praise. +Selah. Blessed is the Lord our God, who has formed the lights." + +After a moment's pause they again prayed: "With great love has the Lord our God +loved us, and with much overflowing pity has he pitied us, our Father and our +King, for the sake of our fathers who trusted in him. You taught them the +statutes of life; have mercy upon us and teach us. Enlighten our eyes in the +law; cause our hearts to cleave to your commandments; unite our hearts to love +and fear your name, and we shall not be put to shame, world without end. For +you are a God who prepares salvation, and us have you chosen from among all +nations and tongues, and in truth have you brought us near your great +name--selah--that we may lovingly praise your unity. Blessed is the Lord, who +in love chose his people Israel." + +The congregation then recited the Shema, the Jewish creed of faith. This ritual +consisted in repeating numerous passages from the law and indicated that the +worshipers took upon themselves the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, also the +yoke of the commandments as applied to the day and the night. + +And then followed the third prayer: "True it is that you are Yahweh, our God +and the God of our fathers; our King and the King of our fathers; our Savior +and the Savior of our fathers; our Creator and the rock of our salvation; our +help and our deliverer. Your name is from everlasting, and there is no God +beside you. A new song did they that were delivered sing to your name by the +seashore; together did all praise and own you King and say, Yahweh shall reign, +world without end. Blessed is the Lord who saves Israel." + +The ruler of the synagogue then took his place before the ark, or chest, +containing the sacred writings and began the recitation of the nineteen prayer +eulogies, or benedictions. But on this occasion it was desirable to shorten the +service in order that the distinguished guest might have more time for his +discourse; accordingly, only the first and last of the benedictions were +recited. The first was: "Blessed is the Lord our God, and the God of our +fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; the +great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who shows mercy and kindness, who +creates all things, who remembers the gracious promises to the fathers and +brings a savior to their children's children for his own name's sake, in love. +O King, helper, savior, and shield! Blessed are you, O Yahweh, the shield of +Abraham." + +Then followed the last benediction: "O bestow on your people Israel great peace +forever, for you are King and the Lord of all peace. And it is good in your +eyes to bless Israel at all times and at every hour with peace. Blessed are +you, Yahweh, who blesses his people Israel with peace." The congregation looked +not at the ruler as he recited the benedictions. Following the benedictions he +offered an informal prayer suitable for the occasion, and when this was +concluded, all the congregation joined in saying amen. + +Then the chazan went over to the ark and brought out a roll, which he presented +to Jesus that he might read the Scripture lesson. It was customary to call upon +seven persons to read not less than three verses of the law, but this practice +was waived on this occasion that the visitor might read the lesson of his own +selection. Jesus, taking the roll, stood up and began to read from Deuteronomy: +"For this commandment which I give you this day is not hidden from you, + + top of page - 1686 + +neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, who shall go +up for us to heaven and bring it down to us that we may hear and do it? Neither +is it beyond the sea, that you should say, who will go over the sea for us to +bring the commandment to us that we may hear and do it? No, the word of life is +very near to you, even in your presence and in your heart, that you may know +and obey it." + +And when he had ceased reading from the law, he turned to Isaiah and began to +read: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach +good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives +and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are +bruised and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." + +Jesus closed the book and, after handing it back to the ruler of the synagogue, +sat down and began to discourse to the people. He began by saying: "Today are +these Scriptures fulfilled." And then Jesus spoke for almost fifteen minutes on +"The Sons and Daughters of God." Many of the people were pleased with the +discourse, and they marveled at his graciousness and wisdom. + +It was customary in the synagogue, after the conclusion of the formal service, +for the speaker to remain so that those who might be interested could ask him +questions. Accordingly, on this Sabbath morning Jesus stepped down into the +crowd which pressed forward to ask questions. In this group were many turbulent +individuals whose minds were bent on mischief, while about the fringe of this +crowd there circulated those debased men who had been hired to make trouble for +Jesus. Many of the disciples and evangelists who had remained without now +pressed into the synagogue and were not slow to recognize that trouble was +brewing. They sought to lead the Master away, but he would not go with them. + +9. THE NAZARETH REJECTION + +Jesus found himself surrounded in the synagogue by a great throng of his +enemies and a sprinkling of his own followers, and in reply to their rude +questions and sinister banterings he half humorously remarked: "Yes, I am +Joseph's son; I am the carpenter, and I am not surprised that you remind me of +the proverb, `Physician heal yourself,' and that you challenge me to do in +Nazareth what you have heard I did at Capernaum; but I call you to witness that +even the Scriptures declare that `a prophet is not without honor save in his +own country and among his own people.'" + +But they jostled him and, pointing accusing fingers at him, said: "You think +you are better than the people of Nazareth; you moved away from us, but your +brother is a common workman, and your sisters still live among us. We know your +mother, Mary. Where are they today? We hear big things about you, but we notice +that you do no wonders when you come back." Jesus answered them: "I love the +people who dwell in the city where I grew up, and I would rejoice to see you +all enter the kingdom of heaven, but the doing of the works of God is not for +me to determine. The transformations of grace are wrought in response to the +living faith of those who are the beneficiaries." + +Jesus would have good-naturedly managed the crowd and effectively disarmed even +his violent enemies had it not been for the tactical blunder of one of his own +apostles, Simon Zelotes, who, with the help of Nahor, one of the younger +evangelists, had meanwhile gathered together a group of Jesus' friends + + top of page - 1687 + +from among the crowd and, assuming a belligerent attitude, had served notice on +the enemies of the Master to go hence. Jesus had long taught the apostles that +a soft answer turns away wrath, but his followers were not accustomed to seeing +their beloved teacher, whom they so willingly called Master, treated with such +discourtesy and disdain. It was too much for them, and they found themselves +giving expression to passionate and vehement resentment, all of which only +tended to arouse the mob spirit in this ungodly and uncouth assembly. And so, +under the leadership of hirelings, these ruffians laid hold upon Jesus and +rushed him out of the synagogue to the brow of a near-by precipitous hill, +where they were minded to shove him over the edge to his death below. But just +as they were about to push him over the edge of the cliff, Jesus turned +suddenly upon his captors and, facing them, quietly folded his arms. He said +nothing, but his friends were more than astonished when, as he started to walk +forward, the mob parted and permitted him to pass on unmolested. + +Jesus, followed by his disciples, proceeded to their encampment, where all this +was recounted. And they made ready that evening to go back to Capernaum early +the next day, as Jesus had directed. This turbulent ending of the third public +preaching tour had a sobering effect upon all of Jesus' followers. They were +beginning to realize the meaning of some of the Master's teachings; they were +awaking to the fact that the kingdom would come only through much sorrow and +bitter disappointment. + +They left Nazareth this Sunday morning, and traveling by different routes, they +all finally assembled at Bethsaida by noon on Thursday, March 10. They came +together as a sober and serious group of disillusioned preachers of the gospel +of truth and not as an enthusiastic and all-conquering band of triumphant +crusaders. + + top of page - 1688 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Second ³ Tarrying And ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Prea... ³ Te... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p151.txt b/religious documents/p151.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2551a55 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p151.txt @@ -0,0 +1,593 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 151 Tarrying And Teaching By The Seaside + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 151 Tarrying And Teaching By The Seaside + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +BY MARCH 10 all of the preaching and teaching groups had forgathered at +Bethsaida. Thursday night and Friday many of them went out to fish, while on +the Sabbath day they attended the synagogue to hear an aged Jew of Damascus +discourse on the glory of father Abraham. Jesus spent most of this Sabbath day +alone in the hills. That Saturday night the Master talked for more than an hour +to the assembled groups on "The mission of adversity and the spiritual value of +disappointment." This was a memorable occasion, and his hearers never forgot +the lesson he imparted. + +Jesus had not fully recovered from the sorrow of his recent rejection at +Nazareth; the apostles were aware of a peculiar sadness mingled with his usual +cheerful demeanor. James and John were with him much of the time, Peter being +more than occupied with the many responsibilities having to do with the welfare +and direction of the new corps of evangelists. This time of waiting before +starting for the Passover at Jerusalem, the women spent in visiting from house +to house, teaching the gospel, and ministering to the sick in Capernaum and the +surrounding cities and villages. + +1. THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER + +About this time Jesus first began to employ the parable method of teaching the +multitudes that so frequently gathered about him. Since Jesus had talked with +the apostles and others long into the night, on this Sunday morning very few of +the group were up for breakfast; so he went out by the seaside and sat alone in +the boat, the old fishing boat of Andrew and Peter, which was always kept at +his disposal, and meditated on the next move to be made in the work of +extending the kingdom. But the Master was not to be alone for long. Very soon +the people from Capernaum and near-by villages began to arrive, and by ten +o'clock that morning almost one thousand were assembled on shore near Jesus' +boat and were clamoring for attention. Peter was now up and, making his way to +the boat, said to Jesus, "Master, shall I talk to them?" But Jesus answered, +"No, Peter, I will tell them a story." And then Jesus began the recital of the +parable of the sower, one of the first of a long series of such parables which +he taught the throngs that followed after him. This boat had an elevated seat +on which he sat (for it was the custom to sit when teaching) while he talked to +the crowd assembled along the shore. After Peter had spoken a few words, Jesus +said: + +"A sower went forth to sow, and it came to pass as he sowed that some seed fell +by the wayside to be trodden underfoot and devoured by the birds of + + top of page - 1689 + +heaven. Other seed fell upon the rocky places where there was little earth, and +immediately it sprang up because there was no depth to the soil, but as soon as +the sun shone, it withered because it had no root whereby to secure moisture. +Other seed fell among the thorns, and as the thorns grew up, it was choked so +that it yielded no grain. Still other seed fell upon good ground and, growing, +yielded, some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some a hundredfold." And when he +had finished speaking this parable, he said to the multitude, "He who has ears +to hear, let him hear." + +The apostles and those who were with them, when they heard Jesus teach the +people in this manner, were greatly perplexed; and after much talking among +themselves, that evening in the Zebedee garden Matthew said to Jesus: "Master, +what is the meaning of the dark sayings which you present to the multitude? Why +do you speak in parables to those who seek the truth?" And Jesus answered: + +"In patience have I instructed you all this time. To you it is given to know +the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to the undiscerning multitudes and +to those who seek our destruction, from now on, the mysteries of the kingdom +shall be presented in parables. And this we will do so that those who really +desire to enter the kingdom may discern the meaning of the teaching and thus +find salvation, while those who listen only to ensnare us may be the more +confounded in that they will see without seeing and will hear without hearing. +My children, do you not perceive the law of the spirit which decrees that to +him who has shall be given so that he shall have an abundance; but from him who +has not shall be taken away even that which he has. Therefore will I henceforth +speak to the people much in parables to the end that our friends and those who +desire to know the truth may find that which they seek, while our enemies and +those who love not the truth may hear without understanding. Many of these +people follow not in the way of the truth. The prophet did, indeed, describe +all such undiscerning souls when he said: `For this people's heart has waxed +gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed lest +they should discern the truth and understand it in their hearts.'" + +The apostles did not fully comprehend the significance of the Master's words. +As Andrew and Thomas talked further with Jesus, Peter and the other apostles +withdrew to another portion of the garden where they engaged in earnest and +prolonged discussion. + +2. INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE + +Peter and the group about him came to the conclusion that the parable of the +sower was an allegory, that each feature had some hidden meaning, and so they +decided to go to Jesus and ask for an explanation. Accordingly, Peter +approached the Master, saying: "We are not able to penetrate the meaning of +this parable, and we desire that you explain it to us since you say it is given +us to know the mysteries of the kingdom." And when Jesus heard this, he said to +Peter: "My son, I desire to withhold nothing from you, but first suppose you +tell me what you have been talking about; what is your interpretation of the +parable?" + +After a moment of silence, Peter said: "Master, we have talked much concerning +the parable, and this is the interpretation I have decided upon: The + + top of page - 1690 + +sower is the gospel preacher; the seed is the word of God. The seed which fell +by the wayside represents those who do not understand the gospel teaching. The +birds which snatched away the seed that fell upon the hardened ground represent +Satan, or the evil one, who steals away that which has been sown in the hearts +of these ignorant ones. The seed which fell upon the rocky places, and which +sprang up so suddenly, represents those superficial and unthinking persons who, +when they hear the glad tidings, receive the message with joy; but because the +truth has no real root in their deeper understanding, their devotion is +short-lived in the face of tribulation and persecution. When trouble comes, +these believers stumble; they fall away when tempted. The seed which fell among +thorns represents those who hear the word willingly, but who allow the cares of +the world and the deceitfulness of riches to choke the word of truth so that it +becomes unfruitful. Now the seed which fell on good ground and sprang up to +bear, some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold, represents those who, +when they have heard the truth, receive it with varying degrees of +appreciation--owing to their differing intellectual endowments--and hence +manifest these varying degrees of religious experience." + +Jesus, after listening to Peter's interpretation of the parable, asked the +other apostles if they did not also have suggestions to offer. To this +invitation only Nathaniel responded. Said he: "Master, while I recognize many +good things about Simon Peter's interpretation of the parable, I do not fully +agree with him. My idea of this parable would be: The seed represents the +gospel of the kingdom, while the sower stands for the messengers of the +kingdom. The seed which fell by the wayside on hardened ground represents those +who have heard but little of the gospel, along with those who are indifferent +to the message, and who have hardened their hearts. The birds of the sky that +snatched away the seed which fell by the wayside represent one's habits of +life, the temptation of evil, and the desires of the flesh. The seed which fell +among the rocks stands for those emotional souls who are quick to receive new +teaching and equally quick to give up the truth when confronted with the +difficulties and realities of living up to this truth; they lack spiritual +perception. The seed which fell among the thorns represents those who are +attracted to the truths of the gospel; they are minded to follow its teachings, +but they are prevented by the pride of life, jealousy, envy, and the anxieties +of human existence. The seed which fell on good soil, springing up to bear, +some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold, represents the natural and +varying degrees of ability to comprehend truth and respond to its spiritual +teachings by men and women who possess diverse endowments of spirit +illumination." + +When Nathaniel had finished speaking, the apostles and their associates fell +into serious discussion and engaged in earnest debate, some contending for the +correctness of Peter's interpretation, while almost an equal number sought to +defend Nathaniel's explanation of the parable. Meanwhile Peter and Nathaniel +had withdrawn to the house, where they were involved in a vigorous and +determined effort the one to convince and change the mind of the other. + +The Master permitted this confusion to pass the point of most intense +expression; then he clapped his hands and called them about him. When they had +all gathered around him once more, he said, "Before I tell you about this +parable, do any of you have aught to say?" Following a moment of silence, +Thomas spoke up: "Yes, Master, I wish to say a few words. I remember that you +once told us to beware of this very thing. You instructed us that, when + + top of page - 1691 + +using illustrations for our preaching, we should employ true stories, not +fables, and that we should select a story best suited to the illustration of +the one central and vital truth which we wished to teach the people, and that, +having so used the story, we should not attempt to make a spiritual application +of all the minor details involved in the telling of the story. I hold that +Peter and Nathaniel are both wrong in their attempts to interpret this parable. +I admire their ability to do these things, but I am equally sure that all such +attempts to make a natural parable yield spiritual analogies in all its +features can only result in confusion and serious misconception of the true +purpose of such a parable. That I am right is fully proved by the fact that, +whereas we were all of one mind an hour ago, now are we divided into two +separate groups who hold different opinions concerning this parable and hold +such opinions so earnestly as to interfere, in my opinion, with our ability +fully to grasp the great truth which you had in mind when you presented this +parable to the multitude and subsequently asked us to make comment upon it." + +The words which Thomas spoke had a quieting effect on all of them. He caused +them to recall what Jesus had taught them on former occasions, and before Jesus +resumed speaking, Andrew arose, saying: "I am persuaded that Thomas is right, +and I would like to have him tell us what meaning he attaches to the parable of +the sower." After Jesus had beckoned Thomas to speak, he said: "My brethren, I +did not wish to prolong this discussion, but if you so desire, I will say that +I think this parable was spoken to teach us one great truth. And that is that +our teaching of the gospel of the kingdom, no matter how faithfully and +efficiently we execute our divine commissions, is going to be attended by +varying degrees of success; and that all such differences in results are +directly due to conditions inherent in the circumstances of our ministry, +conditions over which we have little or no control." + +When Thomas had finished speaking, the majority of his fellow preachers were +about ready to agree with him, even Peter and Nathaniel were on their way over +to speak with him, when Jesus arose and said: "Well done, Thomas; you have +discerned the true meaning of parables; but both Peter and Nathaniel have done +you all equal good in that they have so fully shown the danger of undertaking +to make an allegory out of my parables. In your own hearts you may often +profitably engage in such flights of the speculative imagination, but you make +a mistake when you seek to offer such conclusions as a part of your public +teaching." + +Now that the tension was over, Peter and Nathaniel congratulated each other on +their interpretations, and with the exception of the Alpheus twins, each of the +apostles ventured to make an interpretation of the parable of the sower before +they retired for the night. Even Judas Iscariot offered a very plausible +interpretation. The twelve would often, among themselves, attempt to figure out +the Master's parables as they would an allegory, but never again did they +regard such speculations seriously. This was a very profitable session for the +apostles and their associates, especially so since from this time on Jesus more +and more employed parables in connection with his public teaching. + +3. MORE ABOUT PARABLES + +The apostles were parable-minded, so much so that the whole of the next evening +was devoted to the further discussion of parables. Jesus introduced + + top of page - 1692 + +the evening's conference by saying: "My beloved, you must always make a +difference in teaching so as to suit your presentation of truth to the minds +and hearts before you. When you stand before a multitude of varying intellects +and temperaments, you cannot speak different words for each class of hearers, +but you can tell a story to convey your teaching; and each group, even each +individual, will be able to make his own interpretation of your parable in +accordance with his own intellectual and spiritual endowments. You are to let +your light shine but do so with wisdom and discretion. No man, when he lights a +lamp, covers it up with a vessel or puts it under the bed; he puts his lamp on +a stand where all can behold the light. Let me tell you that nothing is hid in +the kingdom of heaven which shall not be made manifest; neither are there any +secrets which shall not ultimately be made known. Eventually, all these things +shall come to light. Think not only of the multitudes and how they hear the +truth; take heed also to yourselves how you hear. Remember that I have many +times told you: To him who has shall be given more, while from him who has not +shall be taken away even that which he thinks he has." + +The continued discussion of parables and further instruction as to their +interpretation may be summarized and expressed in modern phraseology as +follows: + +1. Jesus advised against the use of either fables or allegories in teaching the +truths of the gospel. He did recommend the free use of parables, especially +nature parables. He emphasized the value of utilizing the analogy existing +between the natural and the spiritual worlds as a means of teaching truth. He +frequently alluded to the natural as "the unreal and fleeting shadow of spirit +realities." + +2. Jesus narrated three or four parables from the Hebrew scriptures, calling +attention to the fact that this method of teaching was not wholly new. However, +it became almost a new method of teaching as he employed it from this time +onward. + +3. In teaching the apostles the value of parables, Jesus called attention to +the following points: + +The parable provides for a simultaneous appeal to vastly different levels of +mind and spirit. The parable stimulates the imagination, challenges the +discrimination, and provokes critical thinking; it promotes sympathy without +arousing antagonism. + +The parable proceeds from the things which are known to the discernment of the +unknown. The parable utilizes the material and natural as a means of +introducing the spiritual and the supermaterial. + +Parables favor the making of impartial moral decisions. The parable evades much +prejudice and puts new truth gracefully into the mind and does all this with +the arousal of a minimum of the self-defense of personal resentment. + +To reject the truth contained in parabolical analogy requires conscious +intellectual action which is directly in contempt of one's honest judgment and +fair decision. The parable conduces to the forcing of thought through the sense +of hearing. + +The use of the parable form of teaching enables the teacher to present new and +even startling truths while at the same time he largely avoids all controversy +and outward clashing with tradition and established authority. + + top of page - 1693 + +The parable also possesses the advantage of stimulating the memory of the truth +taught when the same familiar scenes are subsequently encountered. + +In this way Jesus sought to acquaint his followers with many of the reasons +underlying his practice of increasingly using parables in his public teaching. + +Toward the close of the evening's lesson Jesus made his first comment on the +parable of the sower. He said the parable referred to two things: First, it was +a review of his own ministry up to that time and a forecast of what lay ahead +of him for the remainder of his life on earth. And second, it was also a hint +as to what the apostles and other messengers of the kingdom might expect in +their ministry from generation to generation as time passed. + +Jesus also resorted to the use of parables as the best possible refutation of +the studied effort of the religious leaders at Jerusalem to teach that all of +his work was done by the assistance of demons and the prince of devils. The +appeal to nature was in contravention of such teaching since the people of that +day looked upon all natural phenomena as the product of the direct act of +spiritual beings and supernatural forces. He also determined upon this method +of teaching because it enabled him to proclaim vital truths to those who +desired to know the better way while at the same time affording his enemies +less opportunity to find cause for offense and for accusations against him. + +Before he dismissed the group for the night, Jesus said: "Now will I tell you +the last of the parable of the sower. I would test you to know how you will +receive this: The kingdom of heaven is also like a man who cast good seed upon +the earth; and while he slept by night and went about his business by day, the +seed sprang up and grew, and although he knew not how it came about, the plant +came to fruit. First there was the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in +the ear. And then when the grain was ripe, he put forth the sickle, and the +harvest was finished. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear." + +Many times did the apostles turn this saying over in their minds, but the +Master never made further mention of this addition to the parable of the sower. + +4. MORE PARABLES BY THE SEA + +The next day Jesus again taught the people from the boat, saying: "The kingdom +of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while he slept, +his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and hastened away. And so when +the young blades sprang up and later were about to bring forth fruit, there +appeared also the weeds. Then the servants of this householder came and said to +him: `Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Whence then come these +weeds?' And he replied to his servants, `An enemy has done this.' The servants +then asked their master, `Would you have us go out and pluck up these weeds?' +But he answered them and said: `No, lest while you are gathering them up, you +uproot the wheat also. Rather let them both grow together until the time of the +harvest, when I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the weeds and bind +them in bundles to burn and then gather up the wheat to be stored in my barn.'" + +After the people had asked a few questions, Jesus spoke another parable: "The +kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man sowed in his +field. Now a mustard seed is the least of seeds, but when it is full + + top of page - 1694 + +grown, it becomes the greatest of all herbs and is like a tree so that the +birds of heaven are able to come and rest in the branches thereof." + +"The kingdom of heaven is also like leaven which a woman took and hid in three +measures of meal, and in this way it came about that all of the meal was +leavened." + +"The kingdom of heaven is also like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man +discovered. In his joy he went forth to sell all he had that he might have the +money to buy the field." + +"The kingdom of heaven is also like a merchant seeking goodly pearls; and +having found one pearl of great price, he went out and sold everything he +possessed that he might be able to buy the extraordinary pearl." + +"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a sweep net which was cast into the sea, +and it gathered up every kind of fish. Now, when the net was filled, the +fishermen drew it up on the beach, where they sat down and sorted out the fish, +gathering the good into vessels while the bad they threw away." + +Many other parables spoke Jesus to the multitudes. In fact, from this time +forward he seldom taught the masses except by this means. After speaking to a +public audience in parables, he would, during the evening classes, more fully +and explicitly expound his teachings to the apostles and the evangelists. + +5. THE VISIT TO KHERESA + +The multitude continued to increase throughout the week. On Sabbath Jesus +hastened away to the hills, but when Sunday morning came, the crowds returned. +Jesus spoke to them in the early afternoon after the preaching of Peter, and +when he had finished, he said to his apostles: "I am weary of the throngs; let +us cross over to the other side that we may rest for a day." + +On the way across the lake they encountered one of those violent and sudden +windstorms which are characteristic of the Sea of Galilee, especially at this +season of the year. This body of water is almost seven hundred feet below the +level of the sea and is surrounded by high banks, especially on the west. There +are steep gorges leading up from the lake into the hills, and as the heated air +rises in a pocket over the lake during the day, there is a tendency after +sunset for the cooling air of the gorges to rush down upon the lake. These +gales come on quickly and sometimes go away just as suddenly. + +It was just such an evening gale that caught the boat carrying Jesus over to +the other side on this Sunday evening. Three other boats containing some of the +younger evangelists were trailing after. This tempest was severe, +notwithstanding that it was confined to this region of the lake, there being no +evidence of a storm on the western shore. The wind was so strong that the waves +began to wash over the boat. The high wind had torn the sail away before the +apostles could furl it, and they were now entirely dependent on their oars as +they laboriously pulled for the shore, a little more than a mile and a half +distant. + +Meanwhile Jesus lay asleep in the stern of the boat under a small overhead +shelter. The Master was weary when they left Bethsaida, and it was to secure +rest that he had directed them to sail him across to the other side. These +ex-fishermen were strong and experienced oarsmen, but this was one of the worst + + top of page - 1695 + +gales they had ever encountered. Although the wind and the waves tossed their +boat about as though it were a toy ship, Jesus slumbered on undisturbed. Peter +was at the right-hand oar near the stern. When the boat began to fill with +water, he dropped his oar and, rushing over to Jesus, shook him vigorously in +order to awaken him, and when he was aroused, Peter said: "Master, don't you +know we are in a violent storm? If you do not save us, we will all perish." + +As Jesus came out in the rain, he looked first at Peter, and then peering into +the darkness at the struggling oarsmen, he turned his glance back upon Simon +Peter, who, in his agitation, had not yet returned to his oar, and said: "Why +are all of you so filled with fear? Where is your faith? Peace, be quiet." +Jesus had hardly uttered this rebuke to Peter and the other apostles, he had +hardly bidden Peter seek peace wherewith to quiet his troubled soul, when the +disturbed atmosphere, having established its equilibrium, settled down into a +great calm. The angry waves almost immediately subsided, while the dark clouds, +having spent themselves in a short shower, vanished, and the stars of heaven +shone overhead. All this was purely coincidental as far as we can judge; but +the apostles, particularly Simon Peter, never ceased to regard the episode as a +nature miracle. It was especially easy for the men of that day to believe in +nature miracles inasmuch as they firmly believed that all nature was a +phenomenon directly under the control of spirit forces and supernatural beings. + +Jesus plainly explained to the twelve that he had spoken to their troubled +spirits and had addressed himself to their fear-tossed minds, that he had not +commanded the elements to obey his word, but it was of no avail. The Master's +followers always persisted in placing their own interpretation on all such +coincidental occurrences. From this day on they insisted on regarding the +Master as having absolute power over the natural elements. Peter never grew +weary of reciting how "even the winds and the waves obey him." + +It was late in the evening when Jesus and his associates reached the shore, and +since it was a calm and beautiful night, they all rested in the boats, not +going ashore until shortly after sunrise the next morning. When they were +gathered together, about forty in all, Jesus said: "Let us go up into yonder +hills and tarry for a few days while we ponder over the problems of the +Father's kingdom." + +6. THE KHERESA LUNATIC + +Although most of the near-by eastern shore of the lake sloped up gently to the +highlands beyond, at this particular spot there was a steep hillside, the shore +in some places dropping sheer down into the lake. Pointing up to the side of +the near-by hill, Jesus said: "Let us go up on this hillside for our breakfast +and under some of the shelters rest and talk." + +This entire hillside was covered with caverns which had been hewn out of the +rock. Many of these niches were ancient sepulchres. + + top of page - 1696 + +About halfway up the hillside on a small, relatively level spot was the +cemetery of the little village of Kheresa. As Jesus and his associates passed +near this burial ground, a lunatic who lived in these hillside caverns rushed +up to them. This demented man was well known about these parts, having onetime +been bound with fetters and chains and confined in one of the grottos. Long +since he had broken his shackles and now roamed at will among the tombs and +abandoned sepulchres. + +This man, whose name was Amos, was afflicted with a periodic form of insanity. +There were considerable spells when he would find some clothing and deport +himself fairly well among his fellows. During one of these lucid intervals he +had gone over to Bethsaida, where he heard the preaching of Jesus and the +apostles, and at that time had become a halfhearted believer in the gospel of +the kingdom. But soon a stormy phase of his trouble appeared, and he fled to +the tombs, where he moaned, cried out aloud, and so conducted himself as to +terrorize all who chanced to meet him. + +When Amos recognized Jesus, he fell down at his feet and exclaimed: "I know +you, Jesus, but I am possessed of many devils, and I beseech that you will not +torment me." This man truly believed that his periodic mental affliction was +due to the fact that, at such times, evil or unclean spirits entered into him +and dominated his mind and body. His troubles were mostly emotional--his brain +was not grossly diseased. + +Jesus, looking down upon the man crouching like an animal at his feet, reached +down and, taking him by the hand, stood him up and said to him: "Amos, you are +not possessed of a devil; you have already heard the good news that you are a +son of God. I command you to come out of this spell." And when Amos heard Jesus +speak these words, there occurred such a transformation in his intellect that +he was immediately restored to his right mind and the normal control of his +emotions. By this time a considerable crowd had assembled from the near-by +village, and these people, augmented by the swine herders from the highland +above them, were astonished to see the lunatic sitting with Jesus and his +followers, in possession of his right mind and freely conversing with them. + +As the swine herders rushed into the village to spread the news of the taming +of the lunatic, the dogs charged upon a small and untended herd of about thirty +swine and drove most of them over a precipice into the sea. And it was this +incidental occurrence, in connection with the presence of Jesus and the +supposed miraculous curing of the lunatic, that gave origin to the legend that +Jesus had cured Amos by casting a legion of devils out of him, and that these +devils had entered into the herd of swine, causing them forthwith to rush +headlong to their destruction in the sea below. Before the day was over, this +episode was published abroad by the swine tenders, and the whole village +believed it. Amos most certainly believed this story; he saw the swine tumbling +over the brow of the hill shortly after his troubled mind had quieted down, and +he always believed that they carried with them the very evil spirits which had +so long tormented and afflicted him. And this had a good deal to do with the +permanency of his cure. It is equally true that all of Jesus' apostles (save +Thomas) believed that the episode of the swine was directly connected with the +cure of Amos. + +Jesus did not obtain the rest he was looking for. Most of that day he was +thronged by those who came in response to the word that Amos had been cured, +and who were attracted by the story that the demons had gone out of the lunatic +into the herd of swine. And so, after only one night of rest, early Tuesday +morning Jesus and his friends were awakened by a delegation of these +swine-raising gentiles who had come to urge that he depart from their midst. +Said their spokesman to Peter and Andrew: "Fishermen of Galilee, depart from us +and take your prophet with you. We know he is a holy man, but the + + top of page - 1697 + +gods of our country do not know him, and we stand in danger of losing many +swine. The fear of you has descended upon us, so that we pray you to go hence." +And when Jesus heard them, he said to Andrew, "Let us return to our place." + +As they were about to depart, Amos besought Jesus to permit him to go back with +them, but the Master would not consent. Said Jesus to Amos: "Forget not that +you are a son of God. Return to your own people and show them what great things +God has done for you." And Amos went about publishing that Jesus had cast a +legion of devils out of his troubled soul, and that these evil spirits had +entered into a herd of swine, driving them to quick destruction. And he did not +stop until he had gone into all the cities of the Decapolis, declaring what +great things Jesus had done for him. + + top of page - 1698 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Third ³ Events Leading ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Preac... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p152.txt b/religious documents/p152.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3fc12a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p152.txt @@ -0,0 +1,550 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 152 Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 152 Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE story of the cure of Amos, the Kheresa lunatic, had already reached +Bethsaida and Capernaum, so that a great crowd was waiting for Jesus when his +boat landed that Tuesday forenoon. Among this throng were the new observers +from the Jerusalem Sanhedrin who had come down to Capernaum to find cause for +the Master's apprehension and conviction. As Jesus spoke with those who had +assembled to greet him, Jairus, one of the rulers of the synagogue, made his +way through the crowd and, falling down at his feet, took him by the hand and +besought that he would hasten away with him, saying: "Master, my little +daughter, an only child, lies in my home at the point of death. I pray that you +will come and heal her." When Jesus heard the request of this father, he said: +"I will go with you." + +As Jesus went along with Jairus, the large crowd which had heard the father's +request followed on to see what would happen. Shortly before they reached the +ruler's house, as they hastened through a narrow street and as the throng +jostled him, Jesus suddenly stopped, exclaiming, "Someone touched me." And when +those who were near him denied that they had touched him, Peter spoke up: +"Master, you can see that this crowd presses you, threatening to crush us, and +yet you say `someone has touched me.' What do you mean?" Then Jesus said: "I +asked who touched me, for I perceived that living energy had gone forth from +me." As Jesus looked about him, his eyes fell upon a near-by woman, who, coming +forward, knelt at his feet and said: "For years I have been afflicted with a +scourging hemorrhage. I have suffered many things from many physicians; I have +spent all my substance, but none could cure me. Then I heard of you, and I +thought if I may but touch the hem of his garment, I shall certainly be made +whole. And so I pressed forward with the crowd as it moved along until, +standing near you, Master, I touched the border of your garment, and I was made +whole; I know that I have been healed of my affliction." + +When Jesus heard this, he took the woman by the hand and, lifting her up, said: +"Daughter, your faith has made you whole; go in peace." It was her faith and +not her touch that made her whole. And this case is a good illustration of many +apparently miraculous cures which attended upon Jesus' earth career, but which +he in no sense consciously willed. The passing of time demonstrated that this +woman was really cured of her malady. Her faith was of the sort that laid +direct hold upon the creative power resident in the Master's person. With the +faith she had, it was only necessary to approach the Master's person. It was +not at all necessary to touch his garment; that was merely the superstitious +part of her belief. Jesus called this woman, Veronica of Caesarea-Philippi, +into + + top of page - 1699 + +his presence to correct two errors which might have lingered in her mind, or +which might have persisted in the minds of those who witnessed this healing: He +did not want Veronica to go away thinking that her fear in attempting to steal +her cure had been honored, or that her superstition in associating the touch of +his garment with her healing had been effective. He desired all to know that it +was her pure and living faith that had wrought the cure. + +1. AT JAIRUS'S HOUSE + +Jairus was, of course, terribly impatient of this delay in reaching his home; +so they now hastened on at quickened pace. Even before they entered the ruler's +yard, one of his servants came out, saying: "Trouble not the Master; your +daughter is dead." But Jesus seemed not to heed the servant's words, for, +taking with him Peter, James, and John, he turned and said to the +grief-stricken father: "Fear not; only believe." When he entered the house, he +found the flute-players already there with the mourners, who were making an +unseemly tumult; already were the relatives engaged in weeping and wailing. And +when he had put all the mourners out of the room, he went in with the father +and mother and his three apostles. He had told the mourners that the damsel was +not dead, but they laughed him to scorn. Jesus now turned to the mother, +saying: "Your daughter is not dead; she is only asleep." And when the house had +quieted down, Jesus, going up to where the child lay, took her by the hand and +said, "Daughter, I say to you, awake and arise!" And when the girl heard these +words, she immediately rose up and walked across the room. And presently, after +she had recovered from her daze, Jesus directed that they should give her +something to eat, for she had been a long time without food. + +Since there was much agitation in Capernaum against Jesus, he called the family +together and explained that the maiden had been in a state of coma following a +long fever, and that he had merely aroused her, that he had not raised her from +the dead. He likewise explained all this to his apostles, but it was futile; +they all believed he had raised the little girl from the dead. What Jesus said +in explanation of many of these apparent miracles had little effect on his +followers. They were miracle-minded and lost no opportunity to ascribe another +wonder to Jesus. Jesus and the apostles returned to Bethsaida after he had +specifically charged all of them that they should tell no man. + +When he came out of Jairus's house, two blind men led by a dumb boy followed +him and cried out for healing. About this time Jesus' reputation as a healer +was at its very height. Everywhere he went the sick and the afflicted were +waiting for him. The Master now looked much worn, and all of his friends were +becoming concerned lest he continue his work of teaching and healing to the +point of actual collapse. + +Jesus' apostles, let alone the common people, could not understand the nature +and attributes of this God-man. Neither has any subsequent generation been able +to evaluate what took place on earth in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. And +there can never occur an opportunity for either science or religion to check up +on these remarkable events for the simple reason that such an extraordinary +situation can never again occur, either on this world or on any other world in +Nebadon. Never again, on any world in this entire universe, will a being appear +in the likeness of mortal flesh, at the same time embodying all + + top of page - 1700 + +the attributes of creative energy combined with spiritual endowments which +transcend time and most other material limitations. + +Never before Jesus was on earth, nor since, has it been possible so directly +and graphically to secure the results attendant upon the strong and living +faith of mortal men and women. To repeat these phenomena, we would have to go +into the immediate presence of Michael, the Creator, and find him as he was in +those days--the Son of Man. Likewise, today, while his absence prevents such +material manifestations, you should refrain from placing any sort of limitation +on the possible exhibition of his spiritual power. Though the Master is absent +as a material being, he is present as a spiritual influence in the hearts of +men. By going away from the world, Jesus made it possible for his spirit to +live alongside that of his Father which indwells the minds of all mankind. + +2. FEEDING THE FIVE THOUSAND + +Jesus continued to teach the people by day while he instructed the apostles and +evangelists at night. On Friday he declared a furlough of one week that all his +followers might go home or to their friends for a few days before preparing to +go up to Jerusalem for the Passover. But more than one half of his disciples +refused to leave him, and the multitude was daily increasing in size, so much +so that David Zebedee desired to establish a new encampment, but Jesus refused +consent. The Master had so little rest over the Sabbath that on Sunday morning, +March 27, he sought to get away from the people. Some of the evangelists were +left to talk to the multitude while Jesus and the twelve planned to escape, +unnoticed, to the opposite shore of the lake, where they proposed to obtain +much needed rest in a beautiful park south of Bethsaida-Julias. This region was +a favorite resorting place for Capernaum folks; they were all familiar with +these parks on the eastern shore. + +But the people would not have it so. They saw the direction taken by Jesus' +boat, and hiring every craft available, they started out in pursuit. Those who +could not obtain boats fared forth on foot to walk around the upper end of the +lake. + +By late afternoon more than a thousand persons had located the Master in one of +the parks, and he spoke to them briefly, being followed by Peter. Many of these +people had brought food with them, and after eating the evening meal, they +gathered about in small groups while Jesus' apostles and disciples taught them. + +Monday afternoon the multitude had increased to more than three thousand. And +still--way into the evening--the people continued to flock in, bringing all +manner of sick folks with them. Hundreds of interested persons had made their +plans to stop over at Capernaum to see and hear Jesus on their way to the +Passover, and they simply refused to be disappointed. By Wednesday noon about +five thousand men, women, and children were assembled here in this park to the +south of Bethsaida-Julias. The weather was pleasant, it being near the end of +the rainy season in this locality. + +Philip had provided a three days' supply of food for Jesus and the twelve, +which was in the custody of the Mark lad, their boy of all chores. By afternoon +of this, the third day for almost half of this multitude, the food the people +had brought with them was nearly exhausted. David Zebedee had no tented + + top of page - 1701 + +city here to feed and accommodate the crowds. Neither had Philip made food +provision for such a multitude. But the people, even though they were hungry, +would not go away. It was being quietly whispered about that Jesus, desiring to +avoid trouble with both Herod and the Jerusalem leaders, had chosen this quiet +spot outside the jurisdiction of all his enemies as the proper place to be +crowned king. The enthusiasm of the people was rising every hour. Not a word +was said to Jesus, though, of course, he knew all that was going on. Even the +twelve apostles were still tainted with such notions, and especially the +younger evangelists. The apostles who favored this attempt to proclaim Jesus +king were Peter, John, Simon Zelotes, and Judas Iscariot. Those opposing the +plan were Andrew, James, Nathaniel, and Thomas. Matthew, Philip, and the +Alpheus twins were noncommittal. The ringleader of this plot to make him king +was Joab, one of the young evangelists. + +This was the stage setting about five o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, when +Jesus asked James Alpheus to summon Andrew and Philip. Said Jesus: "What shall +we do with the multitude? They have been with us now three days, and many of +them are hungry. They have no food." Philip and Andrew exchanged glances, and +then Philip answered: "Master, you should send these people away so that they +may go to the villages around about and buy themselves food." And Andrew, +fearing the materialization of the king plot, quickly joined with Philip, +saying: "Yes, Master, I think it best that you dismiss the multitude so that +they may go their way and buy food while you secure rest for a season." By this +time others of the twelve had joined the conference. Then said Jesus: "But I do +not desire to send them away hungry; can you not feed them?" This was too much +for Philip, and he spoke right up: "Master, in this country place where can we +buy bread for this multitude? Two hundred denarii worth would not be enough for +lunch." + +Before the apostles had an opportunity to express themselves, Jesus turned to +Andrew and Philip, saying: "I do not want to send these people away. Here they +are, like sheep without a shepherd. I would like to feed them. What food have +we with us?" While Philip was conversing with Matthew and Judas, Andrew sought +out the Mark lad to ascertain how much was left of their store of provisions. +He returned to Jesus, saying: "The lad has left only five barley loaves and two +dried fishes"--and Peter promptly added, "We have yet to eat this evening." + +For a moment Jesus stood in silence. There was a faraway look in his eyes. The +apostles said nothing. Jesus turned suddenly to Andrew and said, "Bring me the +loaves and fishes." And when Andrew had brought the basket to Jesus, the Master +said: "Direct the people to sit down on the grass in companies of one hundred +and appoint a leader over each group while you bring all of the evangelists +here with us." + +Jesus took up the loaves in his hands, and after he had given thanks, he broke +the bread and gave to his apostles, who passed it on to their associates, who +in turn carried it to the multitude. Jesus in like manner broke and distributed +the fishes. And this multitude did eat and were filled. And when they had +finished eating, Jesus said to the disciples: "Gather up the broken pieces that +remain over so that nothing will be lost." And when they had finished gathering +up the fragments, they had twelve basketfuls. They who ate of this +extraordinary feast numbered about five thousand men, women, and children. + + top of page - 1702 + +And this is the first and only nature miracle which Jesus performed as a result +of his conscious preplanning. It is true that his disciples were disposed to +call many things miracles which were not, but this was a genuine supernatural +ministration. In this case, so we were taught, Michael multiplied food elements +as he always does except for the elimination of the time factor and the visible +life channel. + +3. THE KING-MAKING EPISODE + +The feeding of the five thousand by supernatural energy was another of those +cases where human pity plus creative power equaled that which happened. Now +that the multitude had been fed to the full, and since Jesus' fame was then and +there augmented by this stupendous wonder, the project to seize the Master and +proclaim him king required no further personal direction. The idea seemed to +spread through the crowd like a contagion. The reaction of the multitude to +this sudden and spectacular supplying of their physical needs was profound and +overwhelming. For a long time the Jews had been taught that the Messiah, the +son of David, when he should come, would cause the land again to flow with milk +and honey, and that the bread of life would be bestowed upon them as manna from +heaven was supposed to have fallen upon their forefathers in the wilderness. +And was not all of this expectation now fulfilled right before their eyes? When +this hungry, undernourished multitude had finished gorging itself with the +wonder-food, there was but one unanimous reaction: "Here is our king." The +wonder-working deliverer of Israel had come. In the eyes of these simple-minded +people the power to feed carried with it the right to rule. No wonder, then, +that the multitude, when it had finished feasting, rose as one man and shouted, +"Make him king!" + +This mighty shout enthused Peter and those of the apostles who still retained +the hope of seeing Jesus assert his right to rule. But these false hopes were +not to live for long. This mighty shout of the multitude had hardly ceased to +reverberate from the near-by rocks when Jesus stepped upon a huge stone and, +lifting up his right hand to command their attention, said: "My children, you +mean well, but you are short-sighted and material-minded." There was a brief +pause; this stalwart Galilean was there majestically posed in the enchanting +glow of that eastern twilight. Every inch he looked a king as he continued to +speak to this breathless multitude: "You would make me king, not because your +souls have been lighted with a great truth, but because your stomachs have been +filled with bread. How many times have I told you that my kingdom is not of +this world? This kingdom of heaven which we proclaim is a spiritual +brotherhood, and no man rules over it seated upon a material throne. My Father +in heaven is the all-wise and the all-powerful Ruler over this spiritual +brotherhood of the sons of God on earth. Have I so failed in revealing to you +the Father of spirits that you would make a king of his Son in the flesh! Now +all of you go hence to your own homes. If you must have a king, let the Father +of lights be enthroned in the heart of each of you as the spirit Ruler of all +things." + +These words of Jesus sent the multitude away stunned and disheartened. Many who +had believed in him turned back and followed him no more from that day. The +apostles were speechless; they stood in silence gathered about the twelve +baskets of the fragments of food; only the chore boy, the Mark + + top of page - 1703 + +lad, spoke, "And he refused to be our king." Jesus, before going off to be +alone in the hills, turned to Andrew and said: "Take your brethren back to +Zebedee's house and pray with them, especially for your brother, Simon Peter." + +4. SIMON PETER'S NIGHT VISION + +The apostles, without their Master--sent off by themselves--entered the boat +and in silence began to row toward Bethsaida on the western shore of the lake. +None of the twelve was so crushed and downcast as Simon Peter. Hardly a word +was spoken; they were all thinking of the Master alone in the hills. Had he +forsaken them? He had never before sent them all away and refused to go with +them. What could all this mean? + +Darkness descended upon them, for there had arisen a strong and contrary wind +which made progress almost impossible. As the hours of darkness and hard rowing +passed, Peter grew weary and fell into a deep sleep of exhaustion. Andrew and +James put him to rest on the cushioned seat in the stern of the boat. While the +other apostles toiled against the wind and the waves, Peter dreamed a dream; he +saw a vision of Jesus coming to them walking on the sea. When the Master seemed +to walk on by the boat, Peter cried out, "Save us, Master, save us." And those +who were in the rear of the boat heard him say some of these words. As this +apparition of the night season continued in Peter's mind, he dreamed that he +heard Jesus say: "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." This was like the +balm of Gilead to Peter's disturbed soul; it soothed his troubled spirit, so +that (in his dream) he cried out to the Master: "Lord, if it really is you, bid +me come and walk with you on the water." And when Peter started to walk upon +the water, the boisterous waves frightened him, and as he was about to sink, he +cried out, "Lord, save me!" And many of the twelve heard him utter this cry. +Then Peter dreamed that Jesus came to the rescue and, stretching forth his +hand, took hold and lifted him up, saying: "O, you of little faith, wherefore +did you doubt?" + +In connection with the latter part of his dream Peter arose from the seat +whereon he slept and actually stepped overboard and into the water. And he +awakened from his dream as Andrew, James, and John reached down and pulled him +out of the sea. + +To Peter this experience was always real. He sincerely believed that Jesus came +to them that night. He only partially convinced John Mark, which explains why +Mark left a portion of the story out of his narrative. Luke, the physician, who +made careful search into these matters, concluded that the episode was a vision +of Peter's and therefore refused to give place to this story in the preparation +of his narrative. + +5. BACK IN BETHSAIDA + +Thursday morning, before daylight, they anchored their boat offshore near +Zebedee's house and sought sleep until about noontime. Andrew was first up and, +going for a walk by the sea, found Jesus, in company with their chore boy, +sitting on a stone by the water's edge. Notwithstanding that many of the +multitude and the young evangelists searched all night and much of the next day +about the eastern hills for Jesus, shortly after midnight he and the Mark lad +had started to walk around the lake and across the river, back to Bethsaida. + + top of page - 1704 + +Of the five thousand who were miraculously fed, and who, when their stomachs +were full and their hearts empty, would have made him king, only about five +hundred persisted in following after him. But before these received word that +he was back in Bethsaida, Jesus asked Andrew to assemble the twelve apostles +and their associates, including the women, saying, "I desire to speak with +them." And when all were ready, Jesus said: + +"How long shall I bear with you? Are you all slow of spiritual comprehension +and deficient in living faith? All these months have I taught you the truths of +the kingdom, and yet are you dominated by material motives instead of spiritual +considerations. Have you not even read in the Scriptures where Moses exhorted +the unbelieving children of Israel, saying: `Fear not, stand still and see the +salvation of the Lord'? Said the singer: `Put your trust in the Lord.' `Be +patient, wait upon the Lord and be of good courage. He shall strengthen your +heart.' `Cast your burden on the Lord, and he shall sustain you. Trust him at +all times and pour out your heart to him, for God is your refuge.' `He who +dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the +Almighty.' `It is better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in human +princes.' + +"And now do you all see that the working of miracles and the performance of +material wonders will not win souls for the spiritual kingdom? We fed the +multitude, but it did not lead them to hunger for the bread of life neither to +thirst for the waters of spiritual righteousness. When their hunger was +satisfied, they sought not entrance into the kingdom of heaven but rather +sought to proclaim the Son of Man king after the manner of the kings of this +world, only that they might continue to eat bread without having to toil +therefor. And all this, in which many of you did more or less participate, does +nothing to reveal the heavenly Father or to advance his kingdom on earth. Have +we not sufficient enemies among the religious leaders of the land without doing +that which is likely to estrange also the civil rulers? I pray that the Father +will anoint your eyes that you may see and open your ears that you may hear, to +the end that you may have full faith in the gospel which I have taught you." + +Jesus then announced that he wished to withdraw for a few days of rest with his +apostles before they made ready to go up to Jerusalem for the Passover, and he +forbade any of the disciples or the multitude to follow him. Accordingly they +went by boat to the region of Gennesaret for two or three days of rest and +sleep. Jesus was preparing for a great crisis of his life on earth, and he +therefore spent much time in communion with the Father in heaven. + +The news of the feeding of the five thousand and the attempt to make Jesus king +aroused widespread curiosity and stirred up the fears of both the religious +leaders and the civil rulers throughout all Galilee and Judea. While this great +miracle did nothing to further the gospel of the kingdom in the souls of +material-minded and halfhearted believers, it did serve the purpose of bringing +to a head the miracle-seeking and king-craving proclivities of Jesus' immediate +family of apostles and close disciples. This spectacular episode brought an end +to the early era of teaching, training, and healing, thereby preparing the way +for the inauguration of this last year of proclaiming the higher and more +spiritual phases of the new gospel of the kingdom--divine sonship, spiritual +liberty, and eternal salvation. + + top of page - 1705 + +6. AT GENNESARET + +While resting at the home of a wealthy believer in the Gennesaret region, Jesus +held informal conferences with the twelve every afternoon. The ambassadors of +the kingdom were a serious, sober, and chastened group of disillusioned men. +But even after all that had happened, and as subsequent events disclosed, these +twelve men were not yet fully delivered from their inbred and long-cherished +notions about the coming of the Jewish Messiah. Events of the preceding few +weeks had moved too swiftly for these astonished fishermen to grasp their full +significance. It requires time for men and women to effect radical and +extensive changes in their basic and fundamental concepts of social conduct, +philosophic attitudes, and religious convictions. + +While Jesus and the twelve were resting at Gennesaret, the multitudes +dispersed, some going to their homes, others going on up to Jerusalem for the +Passover. In less than one month's time the enthusiastic and open followers of +Jesus, who numbered more than fifty thousand in Galilee alone, shrank to less +than five hundred. Jesus desired to give his apostles such an experience with +the fickleness of popular acclaim that they would not be tempted to rely on +such manifestations of transient religious hysteria after he should leave them +alone in the work of the kingdom, but he was only partially successful in this +effort. + +The second night of their sojourn at Gennesaret the Master again told the +apostles the parable of the sower and added these words: "You see, my children, +the appeal to human feelings is transitory and utterly disappointing; the +exclusive appeal to the intellect of man is likewise empty and barren; it is +only by making your appeal to the spirit which lives within the human mind that +you can hope to achieve lasting success and accomplish those marvelous +transformations of human character that are presently shown in the abundant +yielding of the genuine fruits of the spirit in the daily lives of all who are +thus delivered from the darkness of doubt by the birth of the spirit into the +light of faith--the kingdom of heaven." + +Jesus taught the appeal to the emotions as the technique of arresting and +focusing the intellectual attention. He designated the mind thus aroused and +quickened as the gateway to the soul, where there resides that spiritual nature +of man which must recognize truth and respond to the spiritual appeal of the +gospel in order to afford the permanent results of true character +transformations. + +Jesus thus endeavored to prepare the apostles for the impending shock--the +crisis in the public attitude toward him which was only a few days distant. He +explained to the twelve that the religious rulers of Jerusalem would conspire +with Herod Antipas to effect their destruction. The twelve began to realize +more fully (though not finally) that Jesus was not going to sit on David's +throne. They saw more fully that spiritual truth was not to be advanced by +material wonders. They began to realize that the feeding of the five thousand +and the popular movement to make Jesus king was the apex of the +miracle-seeking, wonder-working expectance of the people and the height of +Jesus' acclaim by the populace. They vaguely discerned and dimly foresaw the +approaching times of spiritual sifting and cruel adversity. These twelve men +were + + top of page - 1706 + +slowly awaking to the realization of the real nature of their task as +ambassadors of the kingdom, and they began to gird themselves for the trying +and testing ordeals of the last year of the Master's ministry on earth. + +Before they left Gennesaret, Jesus instructed them regarding the miraculous +feeding of the five thousand, telling them just why he engaged in this +extraordinary manifestation of creative power and also assuring them that he +did not thus yield to his sympathy for the multitude until he had ascertained +that it was "according to the Father's will." + +7. AT JERUSALEM + +Sunday, April 3, Jesus, accompanied only by the twelve apostles, started from +Bethsaida on the journey to Jerusalem. To avoid the multitudes and to attract +as little attention as possible, they journeyed by way of Gerasa and +Philadelphia. He forbade them to do any public teaching on this trip; neither +did he permit them to teach or preach while sojourning in Jerusalem. They +arrived at Bethany, near Jerusalem, late on Wednesday evening, April 6. For +this one night they stopped at the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, but the +next day they separated. Jesus, with John, stayed at the home of a believer +named Simon, near the house of Lazarus in Bethany. Judas Iscariot and Simon +Zelotes stopped with friends in Jerusalem, while the rest of the apostles +sojourned, two and two, in different homes. + +Jesus entered Jerusalem only once during this Passover, and that was on the +great day of the feast. Many of the Jerusalem believers were brought out by +Abner to meet Jesus at Bethany. During this sojourn at Jerusalem the twelve +learned how bitter the feeling was becoming toward their Master. They departed +from Jerusalem all believing that a crisis was impending. + +On Sunday, April 24, Jesus and the apostles left Jerusalem for Bethsaida, going +by way of the coast cities of Joppa, Caesarea, and Ptolemais. Thence, overland +they went by Ramah and Chorazin to Bethsaida, arriving on Friday, April 29. +Immediately on reaching home, Jesus dispatched Andrew to ask of the ruler of +the synagogue permission to speak the next day, that being the Sabbath, at the +afternoon service. And Jesus well knew that that would be the last time he +would ever be permitted to speak in the Capernaum synagogue. + + top of page - 1707 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Tarrying And ³ The Crisis At ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Te... ³ C... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p153.txt b/religious documents/p153.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d5de1d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p153.txt @@ -0,0 +1,590 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 153 The Crisis At Capernaum + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 153 The Crisis At Capernaum + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ON FRIDAY evening, the day of their arrival at Bethsaida, and on Sabbath +morning, the apostles noticed that Jesus was seriously occupied with some +momentous problem; they were cognizant that the Master was giving unusual +thought to some important matter. He ate no breakfast and but little at +noontide. All of Sabbath morning and the evening before, the twelve and their +associates were gathered together in small groups about the house, in the +garden, and along the seashore. There was a tension of uncertainty and a +suspense of apprehension resting upon all of them. Jesus had said little to +them since they left Jerusalem. + +Not in months had they seen the Master so preoccupied and uncommunicative. Even +Simon Peter was depressed, if not downcast. Andrew was at a loss to know what +to do for his dejected associates. Nathaniel said they were in the midst of the +"lull before the storm." Thomas expressed the opinion that "something out of +the ordinary is about to happen." Philip advised David Zebedee to "forget about +plans for feeding and lodging the multitude until we know what the Master is +thinking about." Matthew was putting forth renewed efforts to replenish the +treasury. James and John talked over the forthcoming sermon in the synagogue +and speculated much as to its probable nature and scope. Simon Zelotes +expressed the belief, in reality a hope, that "the Father in heaven may be +about to intervene in some unexpected manner for the vindication and support of +his Son," while Judas Iscariot dared to indulge the thought that possibly Jesus +was oppressed with regrets that "he did not have the courage and daring to +permit the five thousand to proclaim him king of the Jews." + +It was from among such a group of depressed and disconsolate followers that +Jesus went forth on this beautiful Sabbath afternoon to preach his epoch-making +sermon in the Capernaum synagogue. The only word of cheerful greeting or +well-wishing from any of his immediate followers came from one of the +unsuspecting Alpheus twins, who, as Jesus left the house on his way to the +synagogue, saluted him cheerily and said: "We pray the Father will help you, +and that we may have bigger multitudes than ever." + +1. THE SETTING OF THE STAGE + +A distinguished congregation greeted Jesus at three o'clock on this exquisite +Sabbath afternoon in the new Capernaum synagogue. Jairus presided and handed +Jesus the Scriptures to read. The day before, fifty-three Pharisees and +Sadducees had arrived from Jerusalem; more than thirty of the leaders and +rulers of the neighboring synagogues were also present. These Jewish religious +leaders were acting directly under orders from the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, and +they constituted the orthodox vanguard which had come to inaugurate + + top of page - 1708 + +open warfare on Jesus and his disciples. Sitting by the side of these Jewish +leaders, in the synagogue seats of honor, were the official observers of Herod +Antipas, who had been directed to ascertain the truth concerning the disturbing +reports that an attempt had been made by the populace to proclaim Jesus the +king of the Jews, over in the domains of his brother Philip. + +Jesus comprehended that he faced the immediate declaration of avowed and open +warfare by his increasing enemies, and he elected boldly to assume the +offensive. At the feeding of the five thousand he had challenged their ideas of +the material Messiah; now he chose again openly to attack their concept of the +Jewish deliverer. This crisis, which began with the feeding of the five +thousand, and which terminated with this Sabbath afternoon sermon, was the +outward turning of the tide of popular fame and acclaim. Henceforth, the work +of the kingdom was to be increasingly concerned with the more important task of +winning lasting spiritual converts for the truly religious brotherhood of +mankind. This sermon marks the crisis in the transition from the period of +discussion, controversy, and decision to that of open warfare and final +acceptance or final rejection. + +The Master well knew that many of his followers were slowly but surely +preparing their minds finally to reject him. He likewise knew that many of his +disciples were slowly but certainly passing through that training of mind and +that discipline of soul which would enable them to triumph over doubt and +courageously to assert their full-fledged faith in the gospel of the kingdom. +Jesus fully understood how men prepare themselves for the decisions of a crisis +and the performance of sudden deeds of courageous choosing by the slow process +of the reiterated choosing between the recurring situations of good and evil. +He subjected his chosen messengers to repeated rehearsals in disappointment and +provided them with frequent and testing opportunities for choosing between the +right and the wrong way of meeting spiritual trials. He knew he could depend on +his followers, when they met the final test, to make their vital decisions in +accordance with prior and habitual mental attitudes and spirit reactions. + +This crisis in Jesus' earth life began with the feeding of the five thousand +and ended with this sermon in the synagogue; the crisis in the lives of the +apostles began with this sermon in the synagogue and continued for a whole +year, ending only with the Master's trial and crucifixion. + +As they sat there in the synagogue that afternoon before Jesus began to speak, +there was just one great mystery, just one supreme question, in the minds of +all. Both his friends and his foes pondered just one thought, and that was: +"Why did he himself so deliberately and effectively turn back the tide of +popular enthusiasm?" And it was immediately before and immediately after this +sermon that the doubts and disappointments of his disgruntled adherents grew +into unconscious opposition and eventually turned into actual hatred. It was +after this sermon in the synagogue that Judas Iscariot entertained his first +conscious thought of deserting. But he did, for the time being, effectively +master all such inclinations. + +Everyone was in a state of perplexity. Jesus had left them dumfounded and +confounded. He had recently engaged in the greatest demonstration of +supernatural power to characterize his whole career. The feeding of the five +thousand was the one event of his earth life which made the greatest appeal + + top of page - 1709 + +to the Jewish concept of the expected Messiah. But this extraordinary advantage +was immediately and unexplainedly offset by his prompt and unequivocal refusal +to be made king. + +On Friday evening, and again on Sabbath morning, the Jerusalem leaders had +labored long and earnestly with Jairus to prevent Jesus' speaking in the +synagogue, but it was of no avail. Jairus' only reply to all this pleading was: +"I have granted this request, and I will not violate my word." + +2. THE EPOCHAL SERMON + +Jesus introduced this sermon by reading from the law as found in Deuteronomy: +"But it shall come to pass, if this people will not hearken to the voice of +God, that the curses of transgression shall surely overtake them. The Lord +shall cause you to be smitten by your enemies; you shall be removed into all +the kingdoms of the earth. And the Lord shall bring you and the king you have +set up over you into the hands of a strange nation. You shall become an +astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations. Your sons and your +daughters shall go into captivity. The strangers among you shall rise high in +authority while you are brought very low. And these things shall be upon you +and your seed forever because you would not hearken to the word of the Lord. +Therefore shall you serve your enemies who shall come against you. You shall +endure hunger and thirst and wear this alien yoke of iron. The Lord shall bring +against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, a nation whose +tongue you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, a nation which +will have little regard for you. And they shall besiege you in all your towns +until the high fortified walls wherein you have trusted come down; and all the +land shall fall into their hands. And it shall come to pass that you will be +driven to eat the fruit of your own bodies, the flesh of your sons and +daughters, during this time of siege, because of the straitness wherewith your +enemies shall press you." + +And when Jesus had finished this reading, he turned to the Prophets and read +from Jeremiah: "`If you will not hearken to the words of my servants the +prophets whom I have sent you, then will I make this house like Shiloh, and I +will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.' And the priests +and the teachers heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the Lord. And +it came to pass that, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the +Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and teachers +laid hold of him, saying, 'You shall surely die.' And all the people crowded +around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. And when the princes of Judah heard +these things, they sat in judgment on Jeremiah. Then spoke the priests and the +teachers to the princes and to all the people, saying: `This man is worthy to +die, for he has prophesied against our city, and you have heard him with your +own ears.' + + top of page - 1710 + +Then spoke Jeremiah to all the princes and to all the people: `The Lord sent me +to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words which you +have heard. Now, therefore, amend your ways and reform your doings and obey the +voice of the Lord your God that you may escape the evil which has been +pronounced against you. As for me, behold I am in your hands. Do with me as +seems good and right in your eyes. But know you for certain that, if you put me +to death, you shall bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this people, +for of a truth the Lord has sent me to speak all these words in your ears.' + +"The priests and teachers of that day sought to kill Jeremiah, but the judges +would not consent, albeit, for his words of warning, they did let him down by +cords in a filthy dungeon until he sank in mire up to his armpits. That is what +this people did to the Prophet Jeremiah when he obeyed the Lord's command to +warn his brethren of their impending political downfall. Today, I desire to ask +you: What will the chief priests and religious leaders of this people do with +the man who dares to warn them of the day of their spiritual doom? Will you +also seek to put to death the teacher who dares to proclaim the word of the +Lord, and who fears not to point out wherein you refuse to walk in the way of +light which leads to the entrance to the kingdom of heaven? + +"What is it you seek as evidence of my mission on earth? We have left you +undisturbed in your positions of influence and power while we preached glad +tidings to the poor and the outcast. We have made no hostile attack upon that +which you hold in reverence but have rather proclaimed new liberty for man's +fear-ridden soul. I came into the world to reveal my Father and to establish on +earth the spiritual brotherhood of the sons of God, the kingdom of heaven. And +notwithstanding that I have so many times reminded you that my kingdom is not +of this world, still has my Father granted you many manifestations of material +wonders in addition to more evidential spiritual transformations and +regenerations. + +"What new sign is it that you seek at my hands? I declare that you already have +sufficient evidence to enable you to make your decision. Verily, verily, I say +to many who sit before me this day, you are confronted with the necessity of +choosing which way you will go; and I say to you, as Joshua said to your +forefathers, `choose you this day whom you will serve.' Today, many of you +stand at the parting of the ways. + +"Some of you, when you could not find me after the feasting of the multitude on +the other side, hired the Tiberias fishing fleet, which a week before had taken +shelter near by during a storm, to go in pursuit of me, and what for? Not for +truth and righteousness or that you might the better know how to serve and +minister to your fellow men! No, but rather that you might have more bread for +which you had not labored. It was not to fill your souls with the word of life, +but only that you might fill the belly with the bread of ease. And long have +you been taught that the Messiah, when he should come, would work those wonders +which would make life pleasant and easy for all the chosen people. It is not +strange, then, that you who have been thus taught should long for the loaves +and the fishes. But I declare to you that such is not the mission of the Son of +Man. I have come to proclaim spiritual liberty, teach eternal truth, and foster +living faith. + +"My brethren, hanker not after the meat which perishes but rather seek for the +spiritual food that nourishes even to eternal life; and this is the bread of +life which the Son gives to all who will take it and eat, for the Father has +given the Son this life without measure. And when you asked me, `What must we +do to perform the works of God?' I plainly told you: `This is the work of God, +that you believe him whom he has sent.'" + +And then said Jesus, pointing up to the device of a pot of manna which +decorated the lintel of this new synagogue, and which was embellished with +grape clusters: "You have thought that your forefathers in the wilderness ate +manna--the bread of heaven--but I say to you that this was the bread of earth. +While Moses did not give your fathers bread from heaven, my Father now + + top of page - 1711 + +stands ready to give you the true bread of life. The bread of heaven is that +which comes down from God and gives eternal life to the men of the world. And +when you say to me, Give us this living bread, I will answer: I am this bread +of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, while he who believes me shall +never thirst. You have seen me, lived with me, and beheld my works, yet you +believe not that I came forth from the Father. But to those who do +believe--fear not. All those led of the Father shall come to me, and he who +comes to me shall in nowise be cast out. + +"And now let me declare to you, once and for all time, that I have come down +upon the earth, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And +this is the final will of Him who sent me, that of all those he has given me I +should not lose one. And this is the will of the Father: That every one who +beholds the Son and who believes him shall have eternal life. Only yesterday +did I feed you with bread for your bodies; today I offer you the bread of life +for your hungry souls. Will you now take the bread of the spirit as you then so +willingly ate the bread of this world?" + +As Jesus paused for a moment to look over the congregation, one of the teachers +from Jerusalem (a member of the Sanhedrin) rose up and asked: "Do I understand +you to say that you are the bread which comes down from heaven, and that the +manna which Moses gave to our fathers in the wilderness did not?" And Jesus +answered the Pharisee, "You understood aright." Then said the Pharisee: "But +are you not Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, the carpenter? Are not your +father and mother, as well as your brothers and sisters, well known to many of +us? How then is it that you appear here in God's house and declare that you +have come down from heaven?" + +By this time there was much murmuring in the synagogue, and such a tumult was +threatened that Jesus stood up and said: "Let us be patient; the truth never +suffers from honest examination. I am all that you say but more. The Father and +I are one; the Son does only that which the Father teaches him, while all those +who are given to the Son by the Father, the Son will receive to himself. You +have read where it is written in the Prophets, `You shall all be taught by +God,' and that `Those whom the Father teaches will hear also his Son.' Every +one who yields to the teaching of the Father's indwelling spirit will +eventually come to me. Not that any man has seen the Father, but the Father's +spirit does live within man. And the Son who came down from heaven, he has +surely seen the Father. And those who truly believe this Son already have +eternal life. + +"I am this bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are +dead. But this bread which comes down from God, if a man eats thereof, he shall +never die in spirit. I repeat, I am this living bread, and every soul who +attains the realization of this united nature of God and man shall live +forever. And this bread of life which I give to all who will receive is my own +living and combined nature. The Father in the Son and the Son one with the +Father--that is my life-giving revelation to the world and my saving gift to +all nations." + +When Jesus had finished speaking, the ruler of the synagogue dismissed the +congregation, but they would not depart. They crowded up around Jesus to ask +more questions while others murmured and disputed among themselves. And this +state of affairs continued for more than three hours. It was well past seven +o'clock before the audience finally dispersed. + + top of page - 1712 + +3. THE AFTER MEETING + +Many were the questions asked Jesus during this after meeting. Some were asked +by his perplexed disciples, but more were asked by caviling unbelievers who +sought only to embarrass and entrap him. + +One of the visiting Pharisees, mounting a lampstand, shouted out this question: +"You tell us that you are the bread of life. How can you give us your flesh to +eat or your blood to drink? What avail is your teaching if it cannot be carried +out?" And Jesus answered this question, saying: "I did not teach you that my +flesh is the bread of life nor that my blood is the water thereof. But I did +say that my life in the flesh is a bestowal of the bread of heaven. The fact of +the Word of God bestowed in the flesh and the phenomenon of the Son of Man +subject to the will of God, constitute a reality of experience which is +equivalent to the divine sustenance. You cannot eat my flesh nor can you drink +my blood, but you can become one in spirit with me even as I am one in spirit +with the Father. You can be nourished by the eternal word of God, which is +indeed the bread of life, and which has been bestowed in the likeness of mortal +flesh; and you can be watered in soul by the divine spirit, which is truly the +water of life. The Father has sent me into the world to show how he desires to +indwell and direct all men; and I have so lived this life in the flesh as to +inspire all men likewise ever to seek to know and do the will of the indwelling +heavenly Father." + +Then one of the Jerusalem spies who had been observing Jesus and his apostles, +said: "We notice that neither you nor your apostles wash your hands properly +before you eat bread. You must well know that such a practice as eating with +defiled and unwashed hands is a transgression of the law of the elders. Neither +do you properly wash your drinking cups and eating vessels. Why is it that you +show such disrespect for the traditions of the fathers and the laws of our +elders?" And when Jesus heard him speak, he answered: "Why is it that you +transgress the commandments of God by the laws of your tradition? The +commandment says, `Honor your father and your mother,' and directs that you +share with them your substance if necessary; but you enact a law of tradition +which permits undutiful children to say that the money wherewith the parents +might have been assisted has been `given to God.' The law of the elders thus +relieves such crafty children of their responsibility, notwithstanding that the +children subsequently use all such monies for their own comfort. Why is it that +you in this way make void the commandment by your own tradition? Well did +Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, saying: `This people honors me with their +lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as +their doctrines the precepts of men.' + +"You can see how it is that you desert the commandment while you hold fast to +the tradition of men. Altogether willing are you to reject the word of God +while you maintain your own traditions. And in many other ways do you dare to +set up your own teachings above the law and the prophets." + +Jesus then directed his remarks to all present. He said: "But hearken to me all +of you. It is not that which enters into the mouth that spiritually defiles the +man, but rather that which proceeds out of the mouth and from the heart." But +even the apostles failed fully to grasp the meaning of his words, for Simon +Peter also asked him: "Lest some of your hearers be unnecessarily offended, +would you explain to us the meaning of these words?" And then said Jesus to +Peter: + + top of page - 1713 + +"Are you also hard of understanding? Know you not that every plant which my +heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up? Turn now your attention to +those who would know the truth. You cannot compel men to love the truth. Many +of these teachers are blind guides. And you know that, if the blind lead the +blind, both shall fall into the pit. But hearken while I tell you the truth +concerning those things which morally defile and spiritually contaminate men. I +declare it is not that which enters the body by the mouth or gains access to +the mind through the eyes and ears, that defiles the man. Man is only defiled +by that evil which may originate within the heart, and which finds expression +in the words and deeds of such unholy persons. Do you not know it is from the +heart that there come forth evil thoughts, wicked projects of murder, theft, +and adulteries, together with jealousy, pride, anger, revenge, railings, and +false witness? And it is just such things that defile men, and not that they +eat bread with ceremonially unclean hands." + +The Pharisaic commissioners of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin were now almost +convinced that Jesus must be apprehended on a charge of blasphemy or on one of +flouting the sacred law of the Jews; wherefore their efforts to involve him in +the discussion of, and possible attack upon, some of the traditions of the +elders, or so-called oral laws of the nation. No matter how scarce water might +be, these traditionally enslaved Jews would never fail to go through with the +required ceremonial washing of the hands before every meal. It was their belief +that "it is better to die than to transgress the commandments of the elders." +The spies asked this question because it had been reported that Jesus had said, +"Salvation is a matter of clean hearts rather than of clean hands." But such +beliefs, when they once become a part of one's religion, are hard to get away +from. Even many years after this day the Apostle Peter was still held in the +bondage of fear to many of these traditions about things clean and unclean, +only being finally delivered by experiencing an extraordinary and vivid dream. +All of this can the better be understood when it is recalled that these Jews +looked upon eating with unwashed hands in the same light as commerce with a +harlot, and both were equally punishable by excommunication. + +Thus did the Master elect to discuss and expose the folly of the whole rabbinic +system of rules and regulations which was represented by the oral law--the +traditions of the elders, all of which were regarded as more sacred and more +binding upon the Jews than even the teachings of the Scriptures. And Jesus +spoke out with less reserve because he knew the hour had come when he could do +nothing more to prevent an open rupture of relations with these religious +leaders. + +4. LAST WORDS IN THE SYNAGOGUE + +In the midst of the discussions of this after meeting, one of the Pharisees +from Jerusalem brought to Jesus a distraught youth who was possessed of an +unruly and rebellious spirit. Leading this demented lad up to Jesus, he said: +"What can you do for such affliction as this? Can you cast out devils?" And +when the Master looked upon the youth, he was moved with compassion and, +beckoning for the lad to come to him, took him by the hand and said: "You know +who I am; come out of him; and I charge one of your loyal fellows to see that +you do not return." And immediately the lad was normal and in his right mind. +And this is the first case where Jesus really cast an "evil spirit" out of a + + top of page - 1714 + +human being. All of the previous cases were only supposed possession of the +devil; but this was a genuine case of demoniac possession, even such as +sometimes occurred in those days and right up to the day of Pentecost, when the +Master's spirit was poured out upon all flesh, making it forever impossible for +these few celestial rebels to take such advantage of certain unstable types of +human beings. + +When the people marveled, one of the Pharisees stood up and charged that Jesus +could do these things because he was in league with devils; that he admitted in +the language which he employed in casting out this devil that they were known +to each other; and he went on to state that the religious teachers and leaders +at Jerusalem had decided that Jesus did all his so-called miracles by the power +of Beelzebub, the prince of devils. Said the Pharisee: "Have nothing to do with +this man; he is in partnership with Satan." + +Then said Jesus: "How can Satan cast out Satan? A kingdom divided against +itself cannot stand; if a house be divided against itself, it is soon brought +to desolation. Can a city withstand a siege if it is not united? If Satan casts +out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then shall his kingdom stand? But +you should know that no one can enter into the house of a strong man and +despoil his goods except he first overpower and bind that strong man. And so, +if I by the power of Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them +out? Therefore shall they be your judges. But if I, by the spirit of God, cast +out devils, then has the kingdom of God truly come upon you. If you were not +blinded by prejudice and misled by fear and pride, you would easily perceive +that one who is greater than devils stands in your midst. You compel me to +declare that he who is not with me is against me, while he who gathers not with +me scatters abroad. Let me utter a solemn warning to you who would presume, +with your eyes open and with premeditated malice, knowingly to ascribe the +works of God to the doings of devils! Verily, verily, I say to you, all your +sins shall be forgiven, even all of your blasphemies, but whosoever shall +blaspheme against God with deliberation and wicked intention shall never obtain +forgiveness. Since such persistent workers of iniquity will never seek nor +receive forgiveness, they are guilty of the sin of eternally rejecting divine +forgiveness. + +"Many of you have this day come to the parting of the ways; you have come to a +beginning of the making of the inevitable choice between the will of the Father +and the self-chosen ways of darkness. And as you now choose, so shall you +eventually be. You must either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else +will the tree become corrupt and its fruit corrupt. I declare that in my +Father's eternal kingdom the tree is known by its fruits. But some of you who +are as vipers, how can you, having already chosen evil, bring forth good +fruits? After all, out of the abundance of the evil in your hearts your mouths +speak." + +Then stood up another Pharisee, who said: "Teacher, we would have you give us a +predetermined sign which we will agree upon as establishing your authority and +right to teach. Will you agree to such an arrangement?" And when Jesus heard +this, he said: "This faithless and sign-seeking generation seeks a token, but +no sign shall be given you other than that which you already have, and that +which you shall see when the Son of Man departs from among you." + +And when he had finished speaking, his apostles surrounded him and led him from +the synagogue. In silence they journeyed home with him to Bethsaida. They were +all amazed and somewhat terror-stricken by the sudden change in the + + top of page - 1715 + +Master's teaching tactics. They were wholly unaccustomed to seeing him perform +in such a militant manner. + +5. THE SATURDAY EVENING + +Time and again had Jesus dashed to pieces the hopes of his apostles, repeatedly +had he crushed their fondest expectations, but no time of disappointment or +season of sorrow had ever equaled that which now overtook them. And, too, there +was now admixed with their depression a real fear for their safety. They were +all surprisingly startled by the suddenness and completeness of the desertion +of the populace. They were also somewhat frightened and disconcerted by the +unexpected boldness and assertive determination exhibited by the Pharisees who +had come down from Jerusalem. But most of all they were bewildered by Jesus' +sudden change of tactics. Under ordinary circumstances they would have welcomed +the appearance of this more militant attitude, but coming as it did, along with +so much that was unexpected, it startled them. + +And now, on top of all of these worries, when they reached home, Jesus refused +to eat. For hours he isolated himself in one of the upper rooms. It was almost +midnight when Joab, the leader of the evangelists, returned and reported that +about one third of his associates had deserted the cause. All through the +evening loyal disciples had come and gone, reporting that the revulsion of +feeling toward the Master was general in Capernaum. The leaders from Jerusalem +were not slow to feed this feeling of disaffection and in every way possible to +seek to promote the movement away from Jesus and his teachings. During these +trying hours the twelve women were in session over at Peter's house. They were +tremendously upset, but none of them deserted. + +It was a little after midnight when Jesus came down from the upper chamber and +stood among the twelve and their associates, numbering about thirty in all. He +said: "I recognize that this sifting of the kingdom distresses you, but it is +unavoidable. Still, after all the training you have had, was there any good +reason why you should stumble at my words? Why is it that you are filled with +fear and consternation when you see the kingdom being divested of these +lukewarm multitudes and these halfhearted disciples? Why do you grieve when the +new day is dawning for the shining forth in new glory of the spiritual +teachings of the kingdom of heaven? If you find it difficult to endure this +test, what, then, will you do when the Son of Man must return to the Father? +When and how will you prepare yourselves for the time when I ascend to the +place whence I came to this world? + +"My beloved, you must remember that it is the spirit that quickens; the flesh +and all that pertains thereto is of little profit. The words which I have +spoken to you are spirit and life. Be of good cheer! I have not deserted you. +Many shall be offended by the plain speaking of these days. Already you have +heard that many of my disciples have turned back; they walk no more with me. +From the beginning I knew that these halfhearted believers would fall out by +the way. Did I not choose you twelve men and set you apart as ambassadors of +the kingdom? And now at such a time as this would you also desert? Let each of +you look to his own faith, for one of you stands in grave danger." And when +Jesus had finished speaking, Simon Peter said: "Yes, Lord, we are sad and +perplexed, but we will never forsake you. You have taught us the words of +eternal life. We have believed in you and followed with you all this time. We + + top of page - 1716 + +will not turn back, for we know that you are sent by God." And as Peter ceased +speaking, they all with one accord nodded their approval of his pledge of +loyalty. + +Then said Jesus: "Go to your rest, for busy times are upon us; active days are +just ahead." + + top of page - 1717 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Events Leading ³ Last Days At ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ Ca... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p154.txt b/religious documents/p154.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3786bca --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p154.txt @@ -0,0 +1,477 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 154 Last Days At Capernaum + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 154 Last Days At Capernaum + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ON THE eventful Saturday night of April 30, as Jesus was speaking words of +comfort and courage to his downcast and bewildered disciples, at Tiberias a +council was being held between Herod Antipas and a group of special +commissioners representing the Jerusalem Sanhedrin. These scribes and Pharisees +urged Herod to arrest Jesus; they did their best to convince him that Jesus was +stirring up the populace to dissension and even to rebellion. But Herod refused +to take action against him as a political offender. Herod's advisers had +correctly reported the episode across the lake when the people sought to +proclaim Jesus king and how he rejected the proposal. + +One of Herod's official family, Chuza, whose wife belonged to the women's +ministering corps, had informed him that Jesus did not propose to meddle with +the affairs of earthly rule; that he was only concerned with the establishment +of the spiritual brotherhood of his believers, which brotherhood he called the +kingdom of heaven. Herod had confidence in Chuza's reports, so much so that he +refused to interfere with Jesus' activities. Herod was also influenced at this +time, in his attitude toward Jesus, by his superstitious fear of John the +Baptist. Herod was one of those apostate Jews who, while he believed nothing, +feared everything. He had a bad conscience for having put John to death, and he +did not want to become entangled in these intrigues against Jesus. He knew of +many cases of sickness which had been apparently healed by Jesus, and he +regarded him as either a prophet or a relatively harmless religious fanatic. + +When the Jews threatened to report to Caesar that he was shielding a traitorous +subject, Herod ordered them out of his council chamber. Thus matters rested for +one week, during which time Jesus prepared his followers for the impending +dispersion. + +1. A WEEK OF COUNSEL + +From May 1 to May 7 Jesus held intimate counsel with his followers at the +Zebedee house. Only the tried and trusted disciples were admitted to these +conferences. At this time there were only about one hundred disciples who had +the moral courage to brave the opposition of the Pharisees and openly declare +their adherence to Jesus. With this group he held sessions morning, afternoon, +and evening. Small companies of inquirers assembled each afternoon by the +seaside, where some of the evangelists or apostles discoursed to them. These +groups seldom numbered more than fifty. + +On Friday of this week official action was taken by the rulers of the Capernaum +synagogue closing the house of God to Jesus and all his followers. This + + top of page - 1718 + +action was taken at the instigation of the Jerusalem Pharisees. Jairus resigned +as chief ruler and openly aligned himself with Jesus. + +The last of the seaside meetings was held on Sabbath afternoon, May 7. Jesus +talked to less than one hundred and fifty who had assembled at that time. This +Saturday night marked the time of the lowest ebb in the tide of popular regard +for Jesus and his teachings. From then on there was a steady, slow, but more +healthful and dependable growth in favorable sentiment; a new following was +built up which was better grounded in spiritual faith and true religious +experience. The more or less composite and compromising transition stage +between the materialistic concepts of the kingdom held by the Master's +followers and those more idealistic and spiritual concepts taught by Jesus, had +now definitely ended. From now on there was a more open proclamation of the +gospel of the kingdom in its larger scope and in its far-flung spiritual +implications. + +2. A WEEK OF REST + +Sunday, May 8, A.D. 29, at Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin passed a decree closing all +the synagogues of Palestine to Jesus and his followers. This was a new and +unprecedented usurpation of authority by the Jerusalem Sanhedrin. Theretofore +each synagogue had existed and functioned as an independent congregation of +worshipers and was under the rule and direction of its own board of governors. +Only the synagogues of Jerusalem had been subject to the authority of the +Sanhedrin. This summary action of the Sanhedrin was followed by the resignation +of five of its members. One hundred messengers were immediately dispatched to +convey and enforce this decree. Within the short space of two weeks every +synagogue in Palestine had bowed to this manifesto of the Sanhedrin except the +synagogue at Hebron. The rulers of the Hebron synagogue refused to acknowledge +the right of the Sanhedrin to exercise such jurisdiction over their assembly. +This refusal to accede to the Jerusalem decree was based on their contention of +congregational autonomy rather than on sympathy with Jesus' cause. Shortly +thereafter the Hebron synagogue was destroyed by fire. + +This same Sunday morning, Jesus declared a week's holiday, urging all of his +disciples to return to their homes or friends to rest their troubled souls and +speak words of encouragement to their loved ones. He said: "Go to your several +places to play or fish while you pray for the extension of the kingdom." + +This week of rest enabled Jesus to visit many families and groups about the +seaside. He also went fishing with David Zebedee on several occasions, and +while he went about alone much of the time, there always lurked near by two or +three of David's most trusted messengers, who had no uncertain orders from +their chief respecting the safeguarding of Jesus. There was no public teaching +of any sort during this week of rest. + +This was the week that Nathaniel and James Zebedee suffered from more than a +slight illness. For three days and nights they were acutely afflicted with a +painful digestive disturbance. On the third night Jesus sent Salome, James's +mother, to her rest, while he ministered to his suffering apostles. Of course +Jesus could have instantly healed these two men, but that is not the method of +either the Son or the Father in dealing with these commonplace difficulties and +afflictions of the children of men on the evolutionary worlds of time and +space. Never once, throughout all of his eventful life in the flesh, did Jesus +engage in any sort + + top of page - 1719 + +of supernatural ministration to any member of his earth family or in behalf of +any one of his immediate followers. + +Universe difficulties must be met and planetary obstacles must be encountered +as a part of the experience training provided for the growth and development, +the progressive perfection, of the evolving souls of mortal creatures. The +spiritualization of the human soul requires intimate experience with the +educational solving of a wide range of real universe problems. The animal +nature and the lower forms of will creatures do not progress favorably in +environmental ease. Problematic situations, coupled with exertion stimuli, +conspire to produce those activities of mind, soul, and spirit which contribute +mightily to the achievement of worthy goals of mortal progression and to the +attainment of higher levels of spirit destiny. + +3. THE SECOND TIBERIAS CONFERENCE + +On May 16 the second conference at Tiberias between the authorities at +Jerusalem and Herod Antipas was convened. Both the religious and the political +leaders from Jerusalem were in attendance. The Jewish leaders were able to +report to Herod that practically all the synagogues in both Galilee and Judea +were closed to Jesus' teachings. A new effort was made to have Herod place +Jesus under arrest, but he refused to do their bidding. On May 18, however, +Herod did agree to the plan of permitting the Sanhedrin authorities to seize +Jesus and carry him to Jerusalem to be tried on religious charges, provided the +Roman ruler of Judea concurred in such an arrangement. Meanwhile, Jesus' +enemies were industriously spreading the rumor throughout Galilee that Herod +had become hostile to Jesus, and that he meant to exterminate all who believed +in his teachings. + +On Saturday night, May 21, word reached Tiberias that the civil authorities at +Jerusalem had no objection to the agreement between Herod and the Pharisees +that Jesus be seized and carried to Jerusalem for trial before the Sanhedrin on +charges of flouting the sacred laws of the Jewish nation. Accordingly, just +before midnight of this day, Herod signed the decree which authorized the +officers of the Sanhedrin to seize Jesus within Herod's domains and forcibly to +carry him to Jerusalem for trial. Strong pressure from many sides was brought +to bear upon Herod before he consented to grant this permission, and he well +knew that Jesus could not expect a fair trial before his bitter enemies at +Jerusalem. + +4. SATURDAY NIGHT IN CAPERNAUM + +On this same Saturday night, in Capernaum a group of fifty leading citizens met +at the synagogue to discuss the momentous question: "What shall we do with +Jesus?" They talked and debated until after midnight, but they could not find +any common ground for agreement. Aside from a few persons who inclined to the +belief that Jesus might be the Messiah, at least a holy man, or perhaps a +prophet, the meeting was divided into four nearly equal groups who held, +respectively, the following views of Jesus: + +1. That he was a deluded and harmless religious fanatic. + +2. That he was a dangerous and designing agitator who might stir up rebellion. + + top of page - 1720 + +3. That he was in league with devils, that he might even be a prince of devils. + +4. That he was beside himself, that he was mad, mentally unbalanced. + +There was much talk about Jesus' preaching doctrines which were upsetting for +the common people; his enemies maintained that his teachings were impractical, +that everything would go to pieces if everybody made an honest effort to live +in accordance with his ideas. And the men of many subsequent generations have +said the same things. Many intelligent and well-meaning men, even in the more +enlightened age of these revelations, maintain that modern civilization could +not have been built upon the teachings of Jesus--and they are partially right. +But all such doubters forget that a much better civilization could have been +built upon his teachings, and sometime will be. This world has never seriously +tried to carry out the teachings of Jesus on a large scale, notwithstanding +that halfhearted attempts have often been made to follow the doctrines of +so-called Christianity. + +5. THE EVENTFUL SUNDAY MORNING + +May 22 was an eventful day in the life of Jesus. On this Sunday morning, before +daybreak, one of David's messengers arrived in great haste from Tiberias, +bringing the word that Herod had authorized, or was about to authorize, the +arrest of Jesus by the officers of the Sanhedrin. The receipt of the news of +this impending danger caused David Zebedee to arouse his messengers and send +them out to all the local groups of disciples, summoning them for an emergency +council at seven o'clock that morning. When the sister-in-law of Jude (Jesus' +brother) heard this alarming report, she hastened word to all of Jesus' family +who dwelt near by, summoning them forthwith to assemble at Zebedee's house. And +in response to this hasty call, presently there were assembled Mary, James, +Joseph, Jude, and Ruth. + +At this early morning meeting Jesus imparted his farewell instructions to the +assembled disciples; that is, he bade them farewell for the time being, knowing +well that they would soon be dispersed from Capernaum. He directed them all to +seek God for guidance and to carry on the work of the kingdom regardless of +consequences. The evangelists were to labor as they saw fit until such time as +they might be called. He selected twelve of the evangelists to accompany him; +the twelve apostles he directed to remain with him no matter what happened. The +twelve women he instructed to remain at the Zebedee house and at Peter's house +until he should send for them. + +Jesus consented to David Zebedee's continuing his countrywide messenger +service, and in bidding the Master farewell presently, David said: "Go forth to +your work, Master. Don't let the bigots catch you, and never doubt that the +messengers will follow after you. My men will never lose contact with you, and +through them you shall know of the kingdom in other parts, and by them we will +all know about you. Nothing that might happen to me will interfere with this +service, for I have appointed first and second leaders, even a third. I am +neither a teacher nor a preacher, but it is in my heart to do this, and none +can stop me." + +About 7:30 this morning Jesus began his parting address to almost one hundred +believers who had crowded indoors to hear him. This was a solemn occasion for +all present, but Jesus seemed unusually cheerful; he was once more + + top of page - 1721 + +like his normal self. The seriousness of weeks had gone, and he inspired all of +them with his words of faith, hope, and courage. + +6. JESUS' FAMILY ARRIVES + +It was about eight o'clock on this Sunday morning when five members of Jesus' +earth family arrived on the scene in response to the urgent summons of Jude's +sister-in-law. Of all his family in the flesh, only one, Ruth, believed +wholeheartedly and continuously in the divinity of his mission on earth. Jude +and James, and even Joseph, still retained much of their faith in Jesus, but +they had permitted pride to interfere with their better judgment and real +spiritual inclinations. Mary was likewise torn between love and fear, between +mother love and family pride. Though she was harassed by doubts, she could +never quite forget the visit of Gabriel ere Jesus was born. The Pharisees had +been laboring to persuade Mary that Jesus was beside himself, demented. They +urged her to go with her sons and seek to dissuade him from further efforts at +public teaching. They assured Mary that soon Jesus' health would break, and +that only dishonor and disgrace could come upon the entire family as a result +of allowing him to go on. And so, when the word came from Jude's sister-in-law, +all five of them started at once for Zebedee's house, having been together at +Mary's home, where they had met with the Pharisees the evening before. They had +talked with the Jerusalem leaders long into the night, and all were more or +less convinced that Jesus was acting strangely, that he had acted strangely for +some time. While Ruth could not explain all of his conduct, she insisted that +he had always treated his family fairly and refused to agree to the program of +trying to dissuade him from further work. + +On the way to Zebedee's house they talked these things over and agreed among +themselves to try to persuade Jesus to come home with them, for, said Mary: "I +know I could influence my son if he would only come home and listen to me." +James and Jude had heard rumors concerning the plans to arrest Jesus and take +him to Jerusalem for trial. They also feared for their own safety. As long as +Jesus was a popular figure in the public eye, his family allowed matters to +drift along, but now that the people of Capernaum and the leaders at Jerusalem +had suddenly turned against him, they began keenly to feel the pressure of the +supposed disgrace of their embarrassing position. + +They had expected to meet Jesus, take him aside, and urge him to go home with +them. They had thought to assure him that they would forget his neglect of +them--they would forgive and forget--if he would only give up the foolishness +of trying to preach a new religion which could bring only trouble to himself +and dishonor upon his family. To all of this Ruth would say only: "I will tell +my brother that I think he is a man of God, and that I hope he would be willing +to die before he would allow these wicked Pharisees to stop his preaching." +Joseph promised to keep Ruth quiet while the others labored with Jesus. + +When they reached the Zebedee house, Jesus was in the very midst of delivering +his parting address to the disciples. They sought to gain entrance to the +house, but it was crowded to overflowing. Finally they established themselves +on the back porch and had word passed in to Jesus, from person to person, so +that it finally was whispered to him by Simon Peter, who interrupted his +talking for the purpose, and who said: "Behold, your mother and your brothers +are outside, and they are very anxious to speak with you." Now it did not occur +to his mother + + top of page - 1722 + +how important was the giving of this parting message to his followers, neither +did she know that his address was likely to be terminated any moment by the +arrival of his apprehenders. She really thought, after so long an apparent +estrangement, in view of the fact that she and his brothers had shown the grace +actually to come to him, that Jesus would cease speaking and come to them the +moment he received word they were waiting. + +It was just another of those instances in which his earth family could not +comprehend that he must be about his Father's business. And so Mary and his +brothers were deeply hurt when, notwithstanding that he paused in his speaking +to receive the message, instead of his rushing out to greet them, they heard +his musical voice speak with increased volume: "Say to my mother and my +brothers that they should have no fear for me. The Father who sent me into the +world will not forsake me; neither shall any harm come upon my family. Bid them +be of good courage and put their trust in the Father of the kingdom. But, after +all, who is my mother and who are my brothers?" And stretching forth his hands +toward all of his disciples assembled in the room, he said: "I have no mother; +I have no brothers. Behold my mother and behold my brethren! For whosoever does +the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my mother, my brother, and +my sister." + +And when Mary heard these words, she collapsed in Jude's arms. They carried her +out in the garden to revive her while Jesus spoke the concluding words of his +parting message. He would then have gone out to confer with his mother and his +brothers, but a messenger arrived in haste from Tiberias bringing word that the +officers of the Sanhedrin were on their way with authority to arrest Jesus and +carry him to Jerusalem. Andrew received this message and, interrupting Jesus, +told it to him. + +Andrew did not recall that David had posted some twenty-five sentinels about +the Zebedee house, and that no one could take them by surprise; so he asked +Jesus what should be done. The Master stood there in silence while his mother, +having heard the words, "I have no mother," was recovering from the shock in +the garden. It was at just this time that a woman in the room stood up and +exclaimed, "Blessed is the womb that bore you and blessed are the breasts that +nursed you." Jesus turned aside a moment from his conversation with Andrew to +answer this woman by saying, "No, rather is the one blessed who hears the word +of God and dares to obey it." + +Mary and Jesus' brothers thought that Jesus did not understand them, that he +had lost Interest in them, little realizing that it was they who failed to +understand Jesus. Jesus fully understood how difficult it is for men to break +with their past. He knew how human beings are swayed by the preacher's +eloquence, and how the conscience responds to emotional appeal as the mind does +to logic and reason, but he also knew how far more difficult it is to persuade +men to disown the past. + +It is forever true that all who may think they are misunderstood or not +appreciated have in Jesus a sympathizing friend and an understanding counselor. +He had warned his apostles that a man's foes may be they of his own household, +but he had hardly realized how near this prediction would come to apply to his +own experience. Jesus did not forsake his earth family to do his Father's +work--they forsook him. Later on, after the Master's death and resurrection, +when James became connected with the early Christian movement, he suffered im- + + top of page - 1723 + +measurably measurably as a result of his failure to enjoy this earlier +association with Jesus and his disciples. + +In passing through these events, Jesus chose to be guided by the limited +knowledge of his human mind. He desired to undergo the experience with his +associates as a mere man. And it was in the human mind of Jesus to see his +family before he left. He did not wish to stop in the midst of his discourse +and thus render their first meeting after so long a separation such a public +affair. He had intended to finish his address and then have a visit with them +before leaving, but this plan was thwarted by the conspiracy of events which +immediately followed. + +The haste of their flight was augmented by the arrival of a party of David's +messengers at the rear entrance of the Zebedee home. The commotion produced by +these men frightened the apostles into thinking that these new arrivals might +be their apprehenders, and in fear of immediate arrest, they hastened through +the front entrance to the waiting boat. And all of this explains why Jesus did +not see his family waiting on the back porch. + +But he did say to David Zebedee as he entered the boat in hasty flight: "Tell +my mother and my brothers that I appreciate their coming, and that I intended +to see them. Admonish them to find no offense in me but rather to seek for a +knowledge of the will of God and for grace and courage to do that will." + +7. THE HASTY FLIGHT + +And so it was on this Sunday morning, the twenty-second of May, in the year +A.D. 29, that Jesus, with his twelve apostles and the twelve evangelists, +engaged in this hasty flight from the Sanhedrin officers who were on their way +to Bethsaida with authority from Herod Antipas to arrest him and take him to +Jerusalem for trial on charges of blasphemy and other violations of the sacred +laws of the Jews. It was almost half past eight this beautiful morning when +this company of twenty-five manned the oars and pulled for the eastern shore of +the Sea of Galilee. + +Following the Master's boat was another and smaller craft, containing six of +David's messengers, who had instructions to maintain contact with Jesus and his +associates and to see that information of their whereabouts and safety was +regularly transmitted to the home of Zebedee in Bethsaida, which had served as +headquarters for the work of the kingdom for some time. But Jesus was never +again to make his home at the house of Zebedee. From now on, throughout the +remainder of his earth life, the Master truly "had not where to lay his head." +No more did he have even the semblance of a settled abode. + +They rowed over to near the village of Kheresa, put their boat in the custody +of friends, and began the wanderings of this eventful last year of the Master's +life on earth. For a time they remained in the domains of Philip, going from +Kheresa up to Caesarea-Philippi, thence making their way over to the coast of +Phoenicia. + +The crowd lingered about the home of Zebedee watching these two boats make +their way over the lake toward the eastern shore, and they were well started +when the Jerusalem officers hurried up and began their search for Jesus. They +refused to believe he had escaped them, and while Jesus and his party were + + top of page - 1724 + +journeying northward through Batanea, the Pharisees and their assistants spent +almost a full week vainly searching for him in the neighborhood of Capernaum. + +Jesus' family returned to their home in Capernaum and spent almost a week in +talking, debating, and praying. They were filled with confusion and +consternation. They enjoyed no peace of mind until Thursday afternoon, when +Ruth returned from a visit to the Zebedee house, where she learned from David +that her father-brother was safe and in good health and making his way toward +the Phoenician coast. + + top of page - 1725 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Crisis At ³ Fleeing ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ C... ³ Through... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p155.txt b/religious documents/p155.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14f923f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p155.txt @@ -0,0 +1,591 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 155 Fleeing Through Northern Galilee + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 155 Fleeing Through Northern Galilee + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +SOON after landing near Kheresa on this eventful Sunday, Jesus and the +twenty-four went a little way to the north, where they spent the night in a +beautiful park south of Bethsaida-Julias. They were familiar with this camping +place, having stopped there in days gone by. Before retiring for the night, the +Master called his followers around him and discussed with them the plans for +their projected tour through Batanea and northern Galilee to the Phoenician +coast. + +1. WHY DO THE HEATHEN RAGE? + +Said Jesus: "You should all recall how the Psalmist spoke of these times, +saying, `Why do the heathen rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the +earth set themselves, and the rulers of the people take counsel together, +against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break the bonds of +mercy asunder and let us cast away the cords of love.' + +"Today you see this fulfilled before your eyes. But you shall not see the +remainder of the Psalmist's prophecy fulfilled, for he entertained erroneous +ideas about the Son of Man and his mission on earth. My kingdom is founded on +love, proclaimed in mercy, and established by unselfish service. My Father does +not sit in heaven laughing in derision at the heathen. He is not wrathful in +his great displeasure. True is the promise that the Son shall have these +so-called heathen (in reality his ignorant and untaught brethren) for an +inheritance. And I will receive these gentiles with open arms of mercy and +affection. All this loving-kindness shall be shown the so-called heathen, +notwithstanding the unfortunate declaration of the record which intimates that +the triumphant Son `shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces +like a potter's vessel.' The Psalmist exhorted you to `serve the Lord with +fear'--I bid you enter into the exalted privileges of divine sonship by faith; +he commands you to rejoice with trembling; I bid you rejoice with assurance. He +says, `Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish when his wrath is +kindled.' But you who have lived with me well know that anger and wrath are not +a part of the establishment of the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men. But +the Psalmist did glimpse the true light when, in finishing this exhortation, he +said: `Blessed are they who put their trust in this Son.'" + +Jesus continued to teach the twenty-four, saying: "The heathen are not without +excuse when they rage at us. Because their outlook is small and narrow, they +are able to concentrate their energies enthusiastically. Their goal is near and +more or less visible; wherefore do they strive with valiant and effective +execution. You who have professed entrance into the kingdom of heaven are +altogether too vacillating and indefinite in your teaching conduct. The heathen + + top of page - 1726 + +strike directly for their objectives; you are guilty of too much chronic +yearning. If you desire to enter the kingdom, why do you not take it by +spiritual assault even as the heathen take a city they lay siege to? You are +hardly worthy of the kingdom when your service consists so largely in an +attitude of regretting the past, whining over the present, and vainly hoping +for the future. Why do the heathen rage? Because they know not the truth. Why +do you languish in futile yearning? Because you obey not the truth. Cease your +useless yearning and go forth bravely doing that which concerns the +establishment of the kingdom. + +"In all that you do, become not one-sided and overspecialized. The Pharisees +who seek our destruction verily think they are doing God's service. They have +become so narrowed by tradition that they are blinded by prejudice and hardened +by fear. Consider the Greeks, who have a science without religion, while the +Jews have a religion without science. And when men become thus misled into +accepting a narrow and confused disintegration of truth, their only hope of +salvation is to become truth-co-ordinated--converted. + +"Let me emphatically state this eternal truth: If you, by truth co-ordination, +learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, +your fellow men will then seek after you that they may gain what you have so +acquired. The measure wherewith truth seekers are drawn to you represents the +measure of your truth endowment, your righteousness. The extent to which you +have to go with your message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your +failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth-co-ordinated life." + +And many other things the Master taught his apostles and the evangelists before +they bade him good night and sought rest upon their pillows. + +2. THE EVANGELISTS IN CHORAZIN + +On Monday morning, May 23, Jesus directed Peter to go over to Chorazin with the +twelve evangelists while he, with the eleven, departed for Caesarea-Philippi, +going by way of the Jordan to the Damascus-Capernaum road, thence northeast to +the junction with the road to Caesarea-Philippi, and then on into that city, +where they tarried and taught for two weeks. They arrived during the afternoon +of Tuesday, May 24. + +Peter and the evangelists sojourned in Chorazin for two weeks, preaching the +gospel of the kingdom to a small but earnest company of believers. But they +were not able to win many new converts. No city of all Galilee yielded so few +souls for the kingdom as Chorazin. In accordance with Peter's instructions the +twelve evangelists had less to say about healing--things physical--while they +preached and taught with increased vigor the spiritual truths of the heavenly +kingdom. These two weeks at Chorazin constituted a veritable baptism of +adversity for the twelve evangelists in that it was the most difficult and +unproductive period in their careers up to this time. Being thus deprived of +the satisfaction of winning souls for the kingdom, each of them the more +earnestly and honestly took stock of his own soul and its progress in the +spiritual paths of the new life. + +When it appeared that no more people were minded to seek entrance into the +kingdom, Peter, on Tuesday, June 7, called his associates together and departed +for Caesarea-Philippi to join Jesus and the apostles. They arrived about +noontime on Wednesday and spent the entire evening in rehearsing their +experiences among the unbelievers of Chorazin. During the discussions of this + + top of page - 1727 + +evening Jesus made further reference to the parable of the sower and taught +them much about the meaning of the apparent failure of life undertakings. + +3. AT CAESAREA-PHILIPPI + +Although Jesus did no public work during this two weeks' sojourn near +Caesarea-Philippi, the apostles held numerous quiet evening meetings in the +city, and many of the believers came out to the camp to talk with the Master. +Very few were added to the group of believers as a result of this visit. Jesus +talked with the apostles each day, and they more clearly discerned that a new +phase of the work of preaching the kingdom of heaven was now beginning. They +were commencing to comprehend that the "kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink +but the realization of the spiritual joy of the acceptance of divine sonship." + +The sojourn at Caesarea-Philippi was a real test to the eleven apostles; it was +a difficult two weeks for them to live through. They were well-nigh depressed, +and they missed the periodic stimulation of Peter's enthusiastic personality. +In these times it was truly a great and testing adventure to believe in Jesus +and go forth to follow after him. Though they made few converts during these +two weeks, they did learn much that was highly profitable from their daily +conferences with the Master. + +The apostles learned that the Jews were spiritually stagnant and dying because +they had crystallized truth into a creed; that when truth becomes formulated as +a boundary line of self-righteous exclusiveness instead of serving as signposts +of spiritual guidance and progress, such teachings lose their creative and +life-giving power and ultimately become merely preservative and fossilizing. + +Increasingly they learned from Jesus to look upon human personalities in terms +of their possibilities in time and in eternity. They learned that many souls +can best be led to love the unseen God by being first taught to love their +brethren whom they can see. And it was in this connection that new meaning +became attached to the Master's pronouncement concerning unselfish service for +one's fellows: "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of my brethren, you +did it to me." + +One of the great lessons of this sojourn at Caesarea had to do with the origin +of religious traditions, with the grave danger of allowing a sense of +sacredness to become attached to nonsacred things, common ideas, or everyday +events. From one conference they emerged with the teaching that true religion +was man's heartfelt loyalty to his highest and truest convictions. + +Jesus warned his believers that, if their religious longings were only +material, increasing knowledge of nature would, by progressive displacement of +the supposed supernatural origin of things, ultimately deprive them of their +faith in God. But that, if their religion were spiritual, never could the +progress of physical science disturb their faith in eternal realities and +divine values. + +They learned that, when religion is wholly spiritual in motive, it makes all +life more worth while, filling it with high purposes, dignifying it with +transcendent values, inspiring it with superb motives, all the while comforting +the human soul with a sublime and sustaining hope. True religion is designed to +lessen the strain of existence; it releases faith and courage for daily living +and unselfish serving. Faith promotes spiritual vitality and righteous +fruitfulness. + +Jesus repeatedly taught his apostles that no civilization could long survive +the loss of the best in its religion. And he never grew weary of pointing out +to the + + top of page - 1728 + +twelve the great danger of accepting religious symbols and ceremonies in the +place of religious experience. His whole earth life was consistently devoted to +the mission of thawing out the frozen forms of religion into the liquid +liberties of enlightened sonship. + +4. ON THE WAY TO PHOENICIA + +On Thursday morning, June 9, after receiving word regarding the progress of the +kingdom brought by the messengers of David from Bethsaida, this group of +twenty-five teachers of truth left Caesarea-Philippi to begin their journey to +the Phoenician coast. They passed around the marsh country, by way of Luz, to +the point of junction with the Magdala-Mount Lebanon trail road, thence to the +crossing with the road leading to Sidon, arriving there Friday afternoon. + +While pausing for lunch under the shadow of an overhanging ledge of rock, near +Luz, Jesus delivered one of the most remarkable addresses which his apostles +ever listened to throughout all their years of association with him. No sooner +had they seated themselves to break bread than Simon Peter asked Jesus: +"Master, since the Father in heaven knows all things, and since his spirit is +our support in the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth, why is it +that we flee from the threats of our enemies? Why do we refuse to confront the +foes of truth?" But before Jesus had begun to answer Peter's question, Thomas +broke in, asking: "Master, I should really like to know just what is wrong with +the religion of our enemies at Jerusalem. What is the real difference between +their religion and ours? Why is it we are at such diversity of belief when we +all profess to serve the same God?" And when Thomas had finished, Jesus said: +"While I would not ignore Peter's question, knowing full well how easy it would +be to misunderstand my reasons for avoiding an open clash with the rulers of +the Jews at just this time, still it will prove more helpful to all of you if I +choose rather to answer Thomas's question. And that I will proceed to do when +you have finished your lunch." + +5. THE DISCOURSE ON TRUE RELIGION + +This memorable discourse on religion, summarized and restated in modern +phraseology, gave expression to the following truths: + +While the religions of the world have a double origin--natural and +revelatory--at any one time and among any one people there are to be found +three distinct forms of religious devotion. And these three manifestations of +the religious urge are: + +1. Primitive religion. The seminatural and instinctive urge to fear mysterious +energies and worship superior forces, chiefly a religion of the physical +nature, the religion of fear. + +2. The religion of civilization. The advancing religious concepts and practices +of the civilizing races--the religion of the mind--the intellectual theology of +the authority of established religious tradition. + +3. True religion--the religion of revelation. The revelation of supernatural +values, a partial insight into eternal realities, a glimpse of the goodness and +beauty of the infinite character of the Father in heaven--the religion of the +spirit as demonstrated in human experience. + + top of page - 1729 + +The religion of the physical senses and the superstitious fears of natural man, +the Master refused to belittle, though he deplored the fact that so much of +this primitive form of worship should persist in the religious forms of the +more intelligent races of mankind. Jesus made it clear that the great +difference between the religion of the mind and the religion of the spirit is +that, while the former is upheld by ecclesiastical authority, the latter is +wholly based on human experience. + +And then the Master, in his hour of teaching, went on to make clear these +truths: + +Until the races become highly intelligent and more fully civilized, there will +persist many of those childlike and superstitious ceremonies which are so +characteristic of the evolutionary religious practices of primitive and +backward peoples. Until the human race progresses to the level of a higher and +more general recognition of the realities of spiritual experience, large +numbers of men and women will continue to show a personal preference for those +religions of authority which require only intellectual assent, in contrast to +the religion of the spirit, which entails active participation of mind and soul +in the faith adventure of grappling with the rigorous realities of progressive +human experience. + +The acceptance of the traditional religions of authority presents the easy way +out for man's urge to seek satisfaction for the longings of his spiritual +nature. The settled, crystallized, and established religions of authority +afford a ready refuge to which the distracted and distraught soul of man may +flee when harassed by fear and tormented by uncertainty. Such a religion +requires of its devotees, as the price to be paid for its satisfactions and +assurances, only a passive and purely intellectual assent. + +And for a long time there will live on earth those timid, fearful, and hesitant +individuals who will prefer thus to secure their religious consolations, even +though, in so casting their lot with the religions of authority, they +compromise the sovereignty of personality, debase the dignity of self-respect, +and utterly surrender the right to participate in that most thrilling and +inspiring of all possible human experiences: the personal quest for truth, the +exhilaration of facing the perils of intellectual discovery, the determination +to explore the realities of personal religious experience, the supreme +satisfaction of experiencing the personal triumph of the actual realization of +the victory of spiritual faith over intellectual doubt as it is honestly won in +the supreme adventure of all human existence--man seeking God, for himself and +as himself, and finding him. + +The religion of the spirit means effort, struggle, conflict, faith, +determination, love, loyalty, and progress. The religion of the mind--the +theology of authority--requires little or none of these exertions from its +formal believers. Tradition is a safe refuge and an easy path for those fearful +and halfhearted souls who instinctively shun the spirit struggles and mental +uncertainties associated with those faith voyages of daring adventure out upon +the high seas of unexplored truth in search for the farther shores of spiritual +realities as they may be discovered by the progressive human mind and +experienced by the evolving human soul. + +And Jesus went on to say: "At Jerusalem the religious leaders have formulated +the various doctrines of their traditional teachers and the prophets of other +days into an established system of intellectual beliefs, a religion of +authority. + + top of page - 1730 + +The appeal of all such religions is largely to the mind. And now are we about +to enter upon a deadly conflict with such a religion since we will so shortly +begin the bold proclamation of a new religion--a religion which is not a +religion in the present-day meaning of that word, a religion that makes its +chief appeal to the divine spirit of my Father which resides in the mind of +man; a religion which shall derive its authority from the fruits of its +acceptance that will so certainly appear in the personal experience of all who +really and truly become believers in the truths of this higher spiritual +communion." + +Pointing out each of the twenty-four and calling them by name, Jesus said: "And +now, which one of you would prefer to take this easy path of conformity to an +established and fossilized religion, as defended by the Pharisees at Jerusalem, +rather than to suffer the difficulties and persecutions attendant upon the +mission of proclaiming a better way of salvation to men while you realize the +satisfaction of discovering for yourselves the beauties of the realities of a +living and personal experience in the eternal truths and supreme grandeurs of +the kingdom of heaven? Are you fearful, soft, and ease-seeking? Are you afraid +to trust your future in the hands of the God of truth, whose sons you are? Are +you distrustful of the Father, whose children you are? Will you go back to the +easy path of the certainty and intellectual settledness of the religion of +traditional authority, or will you gird yourselves to go forward with me into +that uncertain and troublous future of proclaiming the new truths of the +religion of the spirit, the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men?" + +All twenty-four of his hearers rose to their feet, intending to signify their +united and loyal response to this, one of the few emotional appeals which Jesus +ever made to them, but he raised his hand and stopped them, saying: "Go now +apart by yourselves, each man alone with the Father, and there find the +unemotional answer to my question, and having found such a true and sincere +attitude of soul, speak that answer freely and boldly to my Father and your +Father, whose infinite life of love is the very spirit of the religion we +proclaim." + +The evangelists and apostles went apart by themselves for a short time. Their +spirits were uplifted, their minds were inspired, and their emotions mightily +stirred by what Jesus had said. But when Andrew called them together, the +Master said only: "Let us resume our journey. We go into Phoenicia to tarry for +a season, and all of you should pray the Father to transform your emotions of +mind and body into the higher loyalties of mind and the more satisfying +experiences of the spirit." + +As they journeyed on down the road, the twenty-four were silent, but presently +they began to talk one with another, and by three o'clock that afternoon they +could not go farther; they came to a halt, and Peter, going up to Jesus, said: +"Master, you have spoken to us the words of life and truth. We would hear more; +we beseech you to speak to us further concerning these matters." + +6. THE SECOND DISCOURSE ON RELIGION + +And so, while they paused in the shade of the hillside, Jesus continued to +teach them regarding the religion of the spirit, in substance saying: + +You have come out from among those of your fellows who choose to remain +satisfied with a religion of mind, who crave security and prefer conformity. +You have elected to exchange your feelings of authoritative certainty for the +assur- + + top of page - 1731 + +ances of the spirit of adventurous and progressive faith. You have dared to +protest against the grueling bondage of institutional religion and to reject +the authority of the traditions of record which are now regarded as the word of +God. Our Father did indeed speak through Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Amos, and +Hosea, but he did not cease to minister words of truth to the world when these +prophets of old made an end of their utterances. My Father is no respecter of +races or generations in that the word of truth is vouchsafed one age and +withheld from another. Commit not the folly of calling that divine which is +wholly human, and fail not to discern the words of truth which come not through +the traditional oracles of supposed inspiration. + +I have called upon you to be born again, to be born of the spirit. I have +called you out of the darkness of authority and the lethargy of tradition into +the transcendent light of the realization of the possibility of making for +yourselves the greatest discovery possible for the human soul to make--the +supernal experience of finding God for yourself, in yourself, and of yourself, +and of doing all this as a fact in your own personal experience. And so may you +pass from death to life, from the authority of tradition to the experience of +knowing God; thus will you pass from darkness to light, from a racial faith +inherited to a personal faith achieved by actual experience; and thereby will +you progress from a theology of mind handed down by your ancestors to a true +religion of spirit which shall be built up in your souls as an eternal +endowment. + +Your religion shall change from the mere intellectual belief in traditional +authority to the actual experience of that living faith which is able to grasp +the reality of God and all that relates to the divine spirit of the Father. The +religion of the mind ties you hopelessly to the past; the religion of the +spirit consists in progressive revelation and ever beckons you on toward higher +and holier achievements in spiritual ideals and eternal realities. + +While the religion of authority may impart a present feeling of settled +security, you pay for such a transient satisfaction the price of the loss of +your spiritual freedom and religious liberty. My Father does not require of you +as the price of entering the kingdom of heaven that you should force yourself +to subscribe to a belief in things which are spiritually repugnant, unholy, and +untruthful. It is not required of you that your own sense of mercy, justice, +and truth should be outraged by submission to an outworn system of religious +forms and ceremonies. The religion of the spirit leaves you forever free to +follow the truth wherever the leadings of the spirit may take you. And who can +judge--perhaps this spirit may have something to impart to this generation +which other generations have refused to hear? + +Shame on those false religious teachers who would drag hungry souls back into +the dim and distant past and there leave them! And so are these unfortunate +persons doomed to become frightened by every new discovery, while they are +discomfited by every new revelation of truth. The prophet who said, "He will be +kept in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on God," was not a mere intellectual +believer in authoritative theology. This truth-knowing human had discovered +God; he was not merely talking about God. + +I admonish you to give up the practice of always quoting the prophets of old +and praising the heroes of Israel, and instead aspire to become living prophets +of the Most High and spiritual heroes of the coming kingdom. To honor the +God-knowing leaders of the past may indeed be worth while, but why, in + + top of page - 1732 + +so doing, should you sacrifice the supreme experience of human existence: +finding God for yourselves and knowing him in your own souls? + +Every race of mankind has its own mental outlook upon human existence; +therefore must the religion of the mind ever run true to these various racial +viewpoints. Never can the religions of authority come to unification. Human +unity and mortal brotherhood can be achieved only by and through the +superendowment of the religion of the spirit. Racial minds may differ, but all +mankind is indwelt by the same divine and eternal spirit. The hope of human +brotherhood can only be realized when, and as, the divergent mind religions of +authority become impregnated with, and overshadowed by, the unifying and +ennobling religion of the spirit--the religion of personal spiritual +experience. + +The religions of authority can only divide men and set them in conscientious +array against each other; the religion of the spirit will progressively draw +men together and cause them to become understandingly sympathetic with one +another. The religions of authority require of men uniformity in belief, but +this is impossible of realization in the present state of the world. The +religion of the spirit requires only unity of experience--uniformity of +destiny--making full allowance for diversity of belief. The religion of the +spirit requires only uniformity of insight, not uniformity of viewpoint and +outlook. The religion of the spirit does not demand uniformity of intellectual +views, only unity of spirit feeling. The religions of authority crystallize +into lifeless creeds; the religion of the spirit grows into the increasing joy +and liberty of ennobling deeds of loving service and merciful ministration. + +But watch, lest any of you look with disdain upon the children of Abraham +because they have fallen on these evil days of traditional barrenness. Our +forefathers gave themselves up to the persistent and passionate search for God, +and they found him as no other whole race of men have ever known him since the +times of Adam, who knew much of this as he was himself a Son of God. My Father +has not failed to mark the long and untiring struggle of Israel, ever since the +days of Moses, to find God and to know God. For weary generations the Jews have +not ceased to toil, sweat, groan, travail, and endure the sufferings and +experience the sorrows of a misunderstood and despised people, all in order +that they might come a little nearer the discovery of the truth about God. And, +notwithstanding all the failures and falterings of Israel, our fathers +progressively, from Moses to the times of Amos and Hosea, did reveal +increasingly to the whole world an ever clearer and more truthful picture of +the eternal God. And so was the way prepared for the still greater revelation +of the Father which you have been called to share. + +Never forget there is only one adventure which is more satisfying and thrilling +than the attempt to discover the will of the living God, and that is the +supreme experience of honestly trying to do that divine will. And fail not to +remember that the will of God can be done in any earthly occupation. Some +callings are not holy and others secular. All things are sacred in the lives of +those who are spirit led; that is, subordinated to truth, ennobled by love, +dominated by mercy, and restrained by fairness--justice. The spirit which my +Father and I shall send into the world is not only the Spirit of Truth but also +the spirit of idealistic beauty. + +You must cease to seek for the word of God only on the pages of the olden +records of theologic authority. Those who are born of the spirit of God shall +henceforth discern the word of God regardless of whence it appears to take + + top of page - 1733 + +origin. Divine truth must not be discounted because the channel of its bestowal +is apparently human. Many of your brethren have minds which accept the theory +of God while they spiritually fail to realize the presence of God. And that is +just the reason why I have so often taught you that the kingdom of heaven can +best be realized by acquiring the spiritual attitude of a sincere child. It is +not the mental immaturity of the child that I commend to you but rather the +spiritual simplicity of such an easy-believing and fully-trusting little one. +It is not so important that you should know about the fact of God as that you +should increasingly grow in the ability to feel the presence of God. + +When you once begin to find God in your soul, presently you will begin to +discover him in other men's souls and eventually in all the creatures and +creations of a mighty universe. But what chance does the Father have to appear +as a God of supreme loyalties and divine ideals in the souls of men who give +little or no time to the thoughtful contemplation of such eternal realities? +While the mind is not the seat of the spiritual nature, it is indeed the +gateway thereto. + +But do not make the mistake of trying to prove to other men that you have found +God; you cannot consciously produce such valid proof, albeit there are two +positive and powerful demonstrations of the fact that you are God-knowing, and +they are: + +1. The fruits of the spirit of God showing forth in your daily routine life. + +2. The fact that your entire life plan furnishes positive proof that you have +unreservedly risked everything you are and have on the adventure of survival +after death in the pursuit of the hope of finding the God of eternity, whose +presence you have foretasted in time. + +Now, mistake not, my Father will ever respond to the faintest flicker of faith. +He takes note of the physical and superstitious emotions of the primitive man. +And with those honest but fearful souls whose faith is so weak that it amounts +to little more than an intellectual conformity to a passive attitude of assent +to religions of authority, the Father is ever alert to honor and foster even +all such feeble attempts to reach out for him. But you who have been called out +of darkness into the light are expected to believe with a whole heart; your +faith shall dominate the combined attitudes of body, mind, and spirit. + +You are my apostles, and to you religion shall not become a theologic shelter +to which you may flee in fear of facing the rugged realities of spiritual +progress and idealistic adventure; but rather shall your religion become the +fact of real experience which testifies that God has found you, idealized, +ennobled, and spiritualized you, and that you have enlisted in the eternal +adventure of finding the God who has thus found and sonshipped you. + +And when Jesus had finished speaking, he beckoned to Andrew and, pointing to +the west toward Phoenicia, said: "Let us be on our way." + + top of page - 1734 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Last Days At ³ The Sojourn At ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Ca... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p156.txt b/religious documents/p156.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a361663 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p156.txt @@ -0,0 +1,550 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 156 The Sojourn At Tyre And Sidon + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 156 The Sojourn At Tyre And Sidon + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ON FRIDAY afternoon, June 10, Jesus and his associates arrived in the environs +of Sidon, where they stopped at the home of a well-to-do woman who had been a +patient in the Bethsaida hospital during the times when Jesus was at the height +of his popular favor. The evangelists and the apostles were lodged with her +friends in the immediate neighborhood, and they rested over the Sabbath day +amid these refreshing surroundings. They spent almost two and one-half weeks in +Sidon and vicinity before they prepared to visit the coast cities to the north. + +This June Sabbath day was one of great quiet. The evangelists and apostles were +altogether absorbed in their meditations regarding the discourses of the Master +on religion to which they had listened en route to Sidon. They were all able to +appreciate something of what he had told them, but none of them fully grasped +the import of his teaching. + +1. THE SYRIAN WOMAN + +There lived near the home of Karuska, where the Master lodged, a Syrian woman +who had heard much of Jesus as a great healer and teacher, and on this Sabbath +afternoon she came over, bringing her little daughter. The child, about twelve +years old, was afflicted with a grievous nervous disorder characterized by +convulsions and other distressing manifestations. + +Jesus had charged his associates to tell no one of his presence at the home of +Karuska, explaining that he desired to have a rest. While they had obeyed their +Master's instructions, the servant of Karuska had gone over to the house of +this Syrian woman, Norana, to inform her that Jesus lodged at the home of her +mistress and had urged this anxious mother to bring her afflicted daughter for +healing. This mother, of course, believed that her child was possessed by a +demon, an unclean spirit. + +When Norana arrived with her daughter, the Alpheus twins explained through an +interpreter that the Master was resting and could not be disturbed; whereupon +Norana replied that she and the child would remain right there until the Master +had finished his rest. Peter also endeavored to reason with her and to persuade +her to go home. He explained that Jesus was weary with much teaching and +healing, and that he had come to Phoenicia for a period of quiet and rest. But +it was futile; Norana would not leave. To Peter's entreaties she replied only: +"I will not depart until I have seen your Master. I know he can cast the demon +out of my child, and I will not go until the healer has looked upon my +daughter." + +Then Thomas sought to send the woman away but met only with failure. To him she +said: "I have faith that your Master can cast out this demon which + + top of page - 1735 + +torments my child. I have heard of his mighty works in Galilee, and I believe +in him. What has happened to you, his disciples, that you would send away those +who come seeking your Master's help?" And when she had thus spoken, Thomas +withdrew. + +Then came forward Simon Zelotes to remonstrate with Norana. Said Simon: "Woman, +you are a Greek-speaking gentile. It is not right that you should expect the +Master to take the bread intended for the children of the favored household and +cast it to the dogs." But Norana refused to take offense at Simon's thrust. She +replied only: "Yes, teacher, I understand your words. I am only a dog in the +eyes of the Jews, but as concerns your Master, I am a believing dog. I am +determined that he shall see my daughter, for I am persuaded that, if he shall +but look upon her, he will heal her. And even you, my good man, would not dare +to deprive the dogs of the privilege of obtaining the crumbs which chance to +fall from the children's table." + +At just this time the little girl was seized with a violent convulsion before +them all, and the mother cried out: "There, you can see that my child is +possessed by an evil spirit. If our need does not impress you, it would appeal +to your Master, who I have been told loves all men and dares even to heal the +gentiles when they believe. You are not worthy to be his disciples. I will not +go until my child has been cured." + +Jesus, who had heard all of this conversation through an open window, now came +outside, much to their surprise, and said: "O woman, great is your faith, so +great that I cannot withhold that which you desire; go your way in peace. Your +daughter already has been made whole." And the little girl was well from that +hour. As Norana and the child took leave, Jesus entreated them to tell no one +of this occurrence; and while his associates did comply with this request, the +mother and the child ceased not to proclaim the fact of the little girl's +healing throughout all the countryside and even in Sidon, so much so that Jesus +found it advisable to change his lodgings within a few days. + +The next day, as Jesus taught his apostles, commenting on the cure of the +daughter of the Syrian woman, he said: "And so it has been all the way along; +you see for yourselves how the gentiles are able to exercise saving faith in +the teachings of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. Verily, verily, I tell +you that the Father's kingdom shall be taken by the gentiles if the children of +Abraham are not minded to show faith enough to enter therein." + +2. TEACHING IN SIDON + +In entering Sidon, Jesus and his associates passed over a bridge, the first one +many of them had ever seen. As they walked over this bridge, Jesus, among other +things, said: "This world is only a bridge; you may pass over it, but you +should not think to build a dwelling place upon it." + +As the twenty-four began their labors in Sidon, Jesus went to stay in a home +just north of the city, the house of Justa and her mother, Bernice. Jesus +taught the twenty-four each morning at the home of Justa, and they went abroad +in Sidon to teach and preach during the afternoons and evenings. + +The apostles and the evangelists were greatly cheered by the manner in which +the gentiles of Sidon received their message; during their short sojourn + + top of page - 1736 + +many were added to the kingdom. This period of about six weeks in Phoenicia was +a very fruitful time in the work of winning souls, but the later Jewish writers +of the Gospels were wont lightly to pass over the record of this warm reception +of Jesus' teachings by these gentiles at this very time when such a large +number of his own people were in hostile array against him. + +In many ways these gentile believers appreciated Jesus' teachings more fully +than the Jews. Many of these Greek-speaking Syrophoenicians came to know not +only that Jesus was like God but also that God was like Jesus. These so-called +heathen achieved a good understanding of the Master's teachings about the +uniformity of the laws of this world and the entire universe. They grasped the +teaching that God is no respecter of persons, races, or nations; that there is +no favoritism with the Universal Father; that the universe is wholly and ever +law-abiding and unfailingly dependable. These gentiles were not afraid of +Jesus; they dared to accept his message. All down through the ages men have not +been unable to comprehend Jesus; they have been afraid to. + +Jesus made it clear to the twenty-four that he had not fled from Galilee +because he lacked courage to confront his enemies. They comprehended that he +was not yet ready for an open clash with established religion, and that he did +not seek to become a martyr. It was during one of these conferences at the home +of Justa that the Master first told his disciples that "even though heaven and +earth shall pass away, my words of truth shall not." + +The theme of Jesus' instructions during the sojourn at Sidon was spiritual +progression. He told them they could not stand still; they must go forward in +righteousness or retrogress into evil and sin. He admonished them to "forget +those things which are in the past while you push forward to embrace the +greater realities of the kingdom." He besought them not to be content with +their childhood in the gospel but to strive for the attainment of the full +stature of divine sonship in the communion of the spirit and in the fellowship +of believers. + +Said Jesus: "My disciples must not only cease to do evil but learn to do well; +you must not only be cleansed from all conscious sin, but you must refuse to +harbor even the feelings of guilt. If you confess your sins, they are forgiven; +therefore must you maintain a conscience void of offense." + +Jesus greatly enjoyed the keen sense of humor which these gentiles exhibited. +It was the sense of humor displayed by Norana, the Syrian woman, as well as her +great and persistent faith, that so touched the Master's heart and appealed to +his mercy. Jesus greatly regretted that his people--the Jews were so lacking in +humor. He once said to Thomas: "My people take themselves too seriously; they +are just about devoid of an appreciation of humor. The burdensome religion of +the Pharisees could never have had origin among a people with a sense of humor. +They also lack consistency; they strain at gnats and swallow camels." + +3. THE JOURNEY UP THE COAST + +On Tuesday, June 28, the Master and his associates left Sidon, going up the +coast to Porphyreon and Heldua. They were well received by the gentiles, and +many were added to the kingdom during this week of teaching and preaching. The +apostles preached in Porphyreon and the evangelists taught in Heldua. + + top of page - 1737 + +While the twenty-four were thus engaged in their work, Jesus left them for a +period of three or four days, paying a visit to the coast city of Beirut, where +he visited with a Syrian named Malach, who was a believer, and who had been at +Bethsaida the year before. + +On Wednesday, July 6, they all returned to Sidon and tarried at the home of +Justa until Sunday morning, when they departed for Tyre, going south along the +coast by way of Sarepta, arriving at Tyre on Monday, July 11. By this time the +apostles and the evangelists were becoming accustomed to working among these +so-called gentiles, who were in reality mainly descended from the earlier +Canaanite tribes of still earlier Semitic origin. All of these peoples spoke +the Greek language. It was a great surprise to the apostles and evangelists to +observe the eagerness of these gentiles to hear the gospel and to note the +readiness with which many of them believed. + +4. AT TYRE + +From July 11 to July 24 they taught in Tyre. Each of the apostles took with him +one of the evangelists, and thus two and two they taught and preached in all +parts of Tyre and its environs. The polyglot population of this busy seaport +heard them gladly, and many were baptized into the outward fellowship of the +kingdom. Jesus maintained his headquarters at the home of a Jew named Joseph, a +believer, who lived three or four miles south of Tyre, not far from the tomb of +Hiram who had been king of the city-state of Tyre during the times of David and +Solomon. + +Daily, for this period of two weeks, the apostles and evangelists entered Tyre +by way of Alexander's mole to conduct small meetings, and each night most of +them would return to the encampment at Joseph's house south of the city. Every +day believers came out from the city to talk with Jesus at his resting place. +The Master spoke in Tyre only once, on the afternoon of July 20, when he taught +the believers concerning the Father's love for all mankind and about the +mission of the Son to reveal the Father to all races of men. There was such an +interest in the gospel of the kingdom among these gentiles that, on this +occasion, the doors of the Melkarth temple were opened to him, and it is +interesting to record that in subsequent years a Christian church was built on +the very site of this ancient temple. + +Many of the leaders in the manufacture of Tyrian purple, the dye that made Tyre +and Sidon famous the world over, and which contributed so much to their +world-wide commerce and consequent enrichment, believed in the kingdom. When, +shortly thereafter, the supply of the sea animals which were the source of this +dye began to diminish, these dye makers went forth in search of new habitats of +these shellfish. And thus migrating to the ends of the earth, they carried with +them the message of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man--the +gospel of the kingdom. + +5. JESUS' TEACHING AT TYRE + +On this Wednesday afternoon, in the course of his address, Jesus first told his +followers the story of the white lily which rears its pure and snowy head high +into the sunshine while its roots are grounded in the slime and muck of the +darkened soil beneath. "Likewise," said he, "mortal man, while he has his + + top of page - 1738 + +roots of origin and being in the animal soil of human nature, can by faith +raise his spiritual nature up into the sunlight of heavenly truth and actually +bear the noble fruits of the spirit." + +It was during this same sermon that Jesus made use of his first and only +parable having to do with his own trade--carpentry. In the course of his +admonition to "Build well the foundations for the growth of a noble character +of spiritual endowments," he said: "In order to yield the fruits of the spirit, +you must be born of the spirit. You must be taught by the spirit and be led by +the spirit if you would live the spirit-filled life among your fellows. But do +not make the mistake of the foolish carpenter who wastes valuable time +squaring, measuring, and smoothing his worm-eaten and inwardly rotting timber +and then, when he has thus bestowed all of his labor upon the unsound beam, +must reject it as unfit to enter into the foundations of the building which he +would construct to withstand the assaults of time and storm. Let every man make +sure that the intellectual and moral foundations of character are such as will +adequately support the superstructure of the enlarging and ennobling spiritual +nature, which is thus to transform the mortal mind and then, in association +with that re-created mind, is to achieve the evolvement of the soul of immortal +destiny. Your spirit nature--the jointly created soul--is a living growth, but +the mind and morals of the individual are the soil from which these higher +manifestations of human development and divine destiny must spring. The soil of +the evolving soul is human and material, but the destiny of this combined +creature of mind and spirit is spiritual and divine." + +On the evening of this same day Nathaniel asked Jesus: "Master, why do we pray +that God will lead us not into temptation when we well know from your +revelation of the Father that he never does such things?" Jesus answered +Nathaniel: + +"It is not strange that you ask such questions seeing that you are beginning to +know the Father as I know him, and not as the early Hebrew prophets so dimly +saw him. You well know how our forefathers were disposed to see God in almost +everything that happened. They looked for the hand of God in all natural +occurrences and in every unusual episode of human experience. They connected +God with both good and evil. They thought he softened the heart of Moses and +hardened the heart of Pharaoh. When man had a strong urge to do something, good +or evil, he was in the habit of accounting for these unusual emotions by +remarking: `The Lord spoke to me saying, do thus and so, or go here and there.' +Accordingly, since men so often and so violently ran into temptation, it became +the habit of our forefathers to believe that God led them thither for testing, +punishing, or strengthening. But you, indeed, now know better. You know that +men are all too often led into temptation by the urge of their own selfishness +and by the impulses of their animal natures. When you are in this way tempted, +I admonish you that, while you recognize temptation honestly and sincerely for +just what it is, you intelligently redirect the energies of spirit, mind, and +body, which are seeking expression, into higher channels and toward more +idealistic goals. In this way may you transform your temptations into the +highest types of uplifting mortal ministry while you almost wholly avoid these +wasteful and weakening conflicts between the animal and spiritual natures. + +"But let me warn you against the folly of undertaking to surmount temptation by +the effort of supplanting one desire by another and supposedly superior + + top of page - 1739 + +desire through the mere force of the human will. If you would be truly +triumphant over the temptations of the lesser and lower nature, you must come +to that place of spiritual advantage where you have really and truly developed +an actual interest in, and love for, those higher and more idealistic forms of +conduct which your mind is desirous of substituting for these lower and less +idealistic habits of behavior that you recognize as temptation. You will in +this way be delivered through spiritual transformation rather than be +increasingly overburdened with the deceptive suppression of mortal desires. The +old and the inferior will be forgotten in the love for the new and the +superior. Beauty is always triumphant over ugliness in the hearts of all who +are illuminated by the love of truth. There is mighty power in the expulsive +energy of a new and sincere spiritual affection. And again I say to you, be not +overcome by evil but rather overcome evil with good." + +Long into the night the apostles and evangelists continued to ask questions, +and from the many answers we would present the following thoughts, restated in +modern phraseology: + +Forceful ambition, intelligent judgment, and seasoned wisdom are the essentials +of material success. Leadership is dependent on natural ability, discretion, +will power, and determination. Spiritual destiny is dependent on faith, love, +and devotion to truth--hunger and thirst for righteousness--the wholehearted +desire to find God and to be like him. + +Do not become discouraged by the discovery that you are human. Human nature may +tend toward evil, but it is not inherently sinful. Be not downcast by your +failure wholly to forget some of your regrettable experiences. The mistakes +which you fail to forget in time will be forgotten in eternity. Lighten your +burdens of soul by speedily acquiring a long-distance view of your destiny, a +universe expansion of your career. + +Make not the mistake of estimating the soul's worth by the imperfections of the +mind or by the appetites of the body. Judge not the soul nor evaluate its +destiny by the standard of a single unfortunate human episode. Your spiritual +destiny is conditioned only by your spiritual longings and purposes. + +Religion is the exclusively spiritual experience of the evolving immortal soul +of the God-knowing man, but moral power and spiritual energy are mighty forces +which may be utilized in dealing with difficult social situations and in +solving intricate economic problems. These moral and spiritual endowments make +all levels of human living richer and more meaningful. + +You are destined to live a narrow and mean life if you learn to love only those +who love you. Human love may indeed be reciprocal, but divine love is outgoing +in all its satisfaction-seeking. The less of love in any creature's nature, the +greater the love need, and the more does divine love seek to satisfy such need. +Love is never self-seeking, and it cannot be self-bestowed. Divine love cannot +be self-contained; it must be unselfishly bestowed. + +Kingdom believers should possess an implicit faith, a whole-souled belief, in +the certain triumph of righteousness. Kingdom builders must be undoubting of +the truth of the gospel of eternal salvation. Believers must increasingly learn +how to step aside from the rush of life--escape the harassments of material +existence--while they refresh the soul, inspire the mind, and renew the spirit +by worshipful communion. + +God-knowing individuals are not discouraged by misfortune or downcast by +disappointment. Believers are immune to the depression consequent upon + + top of page - 1740 + +purely material upheavals; spirit livers are not perturbed by the episodes of +the material world. Candidates for eternal life are practitioners of an +invigorating and constructive technique for meeting all of the vicissitudes and +harassments of mortal living. Every day a true believer lives, he finds it +easier to do the right thing. + +Spiritual living mightily increases true self-respect. But self-respect is not +self-admiration. Self-respect is always co-ordinate with the love and service +of one's fellows. It is not possible to respect yourself more than you love +your neighbor; the one is the measure of the capacity for the other. + +As the days pass, every true believer becomes more skillful in alluring his +fellows into the love of eternal truth. Are you more resourceful in revealing +goodness to humanity today than you were yesterday? Are you a better +righteousness recommender this year than you were last year? Are you becoming +increasingly artistic in your technique of leading hungry souls into the +spiritual kingdom? + +Are your ideals sufficiently high to insure your eternal salvation while your +ideas are so practical as to render you a useful citizen to function on earth +in association with your mortal fellows? In the spirit, your citizenship is in +heaven; in the flesh, you are still citizens of the earth kingdoms. Render to +the Caesars the things which are material and to God those which are spiritual. + +The measure of the spiritual capacity of the evolving soul is your faith in +truth and your love for man, but the measure of your human strength of +character is your ability to resist the holding of grudges and your capacity to +withstand brooding in the face of deep sorrow. Defeat is the true mirror in +which you may honestly view your real self. + +As you grow older in years and more experienced in the affairs of the kingdom, +are you becoming more tactful in dealing with troublesome mortals and more +tolerant in living with stubborn associates? Tact is the fulcrum of social +leverage, and tolerance is the earmark of a great soul. If you possess these +rare and charming gifts, as the days pass you will become more alert and expert +in your worthy efforts to avoid all unnecessary social misunderstandings. Such +wise souls are able to avoid much of the trouble which is certain to be the +portion of all who suffer from lack of emotional adjustment, those who refuse +to grow up, and those who refuse to grow old gracefully. + +Avoid dishonesty and unfairness in all your efforts to preach truth and +proclaim the gospel. Seek no unearned recognition and crave no undeserved +sympathy. Love, freely receive from both divine and human sources regardless of +your deserts, and love freely in return. But in all other things related to +honor and adulation seek only that which honestly belongs to you. + +The God-conscious mortal is certain of salvation; he is unafraid of life; he is +honest and consistent. He knows how bravely to endure unavoidable suffering; he +is uncomplaining when faced by inescapable hardship. + +The true believer does not grow weary in well-doing just because he is +thwarted. Difficulty whets the ardor of the truth lover, while obstacles only +challenge the exertions of the undaunted kingdom builder. + +And many other things Jesus taught them before they made ready to depart from +Tyre. + +The day before Jesus left Tyre for the return to the region of the Sea of +Galilee, he called his associates together and directed the twelve evangelists +to + + top of page - 1741 + +go back by a route different from that which he and the twelve apostles were to +take. And after the evangelists here left Jesus, they were never again so +intimately associated with him. + +6. THE RETURN FROM PHOENICIA + +About noon on Sunday, July 24, Jesus and the twelve left the home of Joseph, +south of Tyre, going down the coast to Ptolemais. Here they tarried for a day, +speaking words of comfort to the company of believers resident there. Peter +preached to them on the evening of July 25. + +On Tuesday they left Ptolemais, going east inland to near Jotapata by way of +the Tiberias road. Wednesday they stopped at Jotapata and instructed the +believers further in the things of the kingdom. Thursday they left Jotapata, +going north on the Nazareth-Mount Lebanon trail to the village of Zebulun, by +way of Ramah. They held meetings at Ramah on Friday and remained over the +Sabbath. They reached Zebulun on Sunday, the 31st, holding a meeting that +evening and departing the next morning. + +Leaving Zebulun, they journeyed over to the junction with the Magdala-Sidon +road near Gischala, and thence they made their way to Gennesaret on the western +shores of the lake of Galilee, south of Capernaum, where they had appointed to +meet with David Zebedee, and where they intended to take counsel as to the next +move to be made in the work of preaching the gospel of the kingdom. + +During a brief conference with David they learned that many leaders were then +gathered together on the opposite side of the lake near Kheresa, and +accordingly, that very evening a boat took them across. For one day they rested +quietly in the hills, going on the next day to the park, near by, where the +Master once fed the five thousand. Here they rested for three days and held +daily conferences, which were attended by about fifty men and women, the +remnants of the once numerous company of believers resident in Capernaum and +its environs. + +While Jesus was absent from Capernaum and Galilee, the period of the Phoenician +sojourn, his enemies reckoned that the whole movement had been broken up and +concluded that Jesus' haste in withdrawing indicated he was so thoroughly +frightened that he would not likely ever return to bother them. All active +opposition to his teachings had about subsided. The believers were beginning to +hold public meetings once more, and there was occurring a gradual but effective +consolidation of the tried and true survivors of the great sifting through +which the gospel believers had just passed. + +Philip, the brother of Herod, had become a halfhearted believer in Jesus and +sent word that the Master was free to live and work in his domains. + +The mandate to close the synagogues of all Jewry to the teachings of Jesus and +all his followers had worked adversely upon the scribes and Pharisees. +Immediately upon Jesus' removing himself as an object of controversy, there +occurred a reaction among the entire Jewish people; there was general +resentment against the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin leaders at Jerusalem. Many +of the rulers of the synagogues began surreptitiously to open their synagogues +to Abner and his associates, claiming that these teachers were followers of +John and not disciples of Jesus. + +Even Herod Antipas experienced a change of heart and, on learning that Jesus +was sojourning across the lake in the territory of his brother Philip, sent + + top of page - 1742 + +word to him that, while he had signed warrants for his arrest in Galilee, he +had not so authorized his apprehension in Perea, thus indicating that Jesus +would not be molested if he remained outside of Galilee; and he communicated +this same ruling to the Jews at Jerusalem. + +And that was the situation about the first of August, A.D. 29, when the Master +returned from the Phoenician mission and began the reorganization of his +scattered, tested, and depleted forces for this last and eventful year of his +mission on earth. + +The issues of battle are clearly drawn as the Master and his associates prepare +to begin the proclamation of a new religion, the religion of the spirit of the +living God who dwells in the minds of men. + + top of page - 1743 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Fleeing ³ At ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Through... ³ Caesarea-phi... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p157.txt b/religious documents/p157.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..54c9f43 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p157.txt @@ -0,0 +1,564 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 157 At Caesarea-philippi + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 157 At Caesarea-philippi + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +BEFORE Jesus took the twelve for a short sojourn in the vicinity of +Caesarea-Philippi, he arranged through the messengers of David to go over to +Capernaum on Sunday, August 7, for the purpose of meeting his family. By +prearrangement this visit was to occur at the Zebedee boatshop. David Zebedee +had arranged with Jude, Jesus' brother, for the presence of the entire Nazareth +family--Mary and all of Jesus' brothers and sisters--and Jesus went with Andrew +and Peter to keep this appointment. It was certainly the intention of Mary and +the children to keep this engagement, but it so happened that a group of the +Pharisees, knowing that Jesus was on the opposite side of the lake in Philip's +domains, decided to call upon Mary to learn what they could of his whereabouts. +The arrival of these Jerusalem emissaries greatly perturbed Mary, and noting +the tension and nervousness of the entire family, they concluded that Jesus +must have been expected to pay them a visit. Accordingly they installed +themselves in Mary's home and, after summoning reinforcements, waited patiently +for Jesus' arrival. And this, of course, effectively prevented any of the +family from attempting to keep their appointment with Jesus. Several times +during the day both Jude and Ruth endeavored to elude the vigilance of the +Pharisees in their efforts to send word to Jesus, but it was of no avail. + +Early in the afternoon David's messengers brought Jesus word that the Pharisees +were encamped on the doorstep of his mother's house, and therefore he made no +attempt to visit his family. And so again, through no fault of either, Jesus +and his earth family failed to make contact. + +1. THE TEMPLE-TAX COLLECTOR + +As Jesus, with Andrew and Peter, tarried by the lake near the boatshop, a +temple-tax collector came upon them and, recognizing Jesus, called Peter to one +side and said: "Does not your Master pay the temple tax?" Peter was inclined to +show indignation at the suggestion that Jesus should be expected to contribute +to the maintenance of the religious activities of his sworn enemies, but, +noting a peculiar expression on the face of the tax collector, he rightly +surmised that it was the purpose to entrap them in the act of refusing to pay +the customary half shekel for the support of the temple services at Jerusalem. +Accordingly, Peter replied: "Why of course the Master pays the temple tax. You +wait by the gate, and I will presently return with the tax." + +Now Peter had spoken hastily. Judas carried their funds, and he was across the +lake. Neither he, his brother, nor Jesus had brought along any money. And + + top of page - 1744 + +knowing that the Pharisees were looking for them, they could not well go to +Bethsaida to obtain money. When Peter told Jesus about the collector and that +he had promised him the money, Jesus said: "If you have promised, then should +you pay. But wherewith will you redeem your promise? Will you again become a +fisherman that you may honor your word? Nevertheless, Peter, it is well in the +circumstances that we pay the tax. Let us give these men no occasion for +offense at our attitude. We will wait here while you go with the boat and cast +for the fish, and when you have sold them at yonder market, pay the collector +for all three of us." + +All of this had been overheard by the secret messenger of David who stood near +by, and who then signaled to an associate, fishing near the shore, to come in +quickly. When Peter made ready to go out in the boat for a catch, this +messenger and his fisherman friend presented him with several large baskets of +fish and assisted him in carrying them to the fish merchant near by, who +purchased the catch, paying sufficient, with what was added by the messenger of +David, to meet the temple tax for the three. The collector accepted the tax, +foregoing the penalty for tardy payment because they had been for some time +absent from Galilee. + +It is not strange that you have a record of Peter's catching a fish with a +shekel in its mouth. In those days there were current many stories about +finding treasures in the mouths of fishes; such tales of near miracles were +commonplace. So, as Peter left them to go toward the boat, Jesus remarked, +half-humorously: "Strange that the sons of the king must pay tribute; usually +it is the stranger who is taxed for the upkeep of the court, but it behooves us +to afford no stumbling block for the authorities. Go hence! maybe you will +catch the fish with the shekel in its mouth." Jesus having thus spoken, and +Peter so soon appearing with the temple tax, it is not surprising that the +episode became later expanded into a miracle as recorded by the writer of +Matthew's Gospel. + +Jesus, with Andrew and Peter, waited by the seashore until nearly sundown. +Messengers brought them word that Mary's house was still under surveillance; +therefore, when it grew dark, the three waiting men entered their boat and +slowly rowed away toward the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. + +2. AT BETHSAIDA-JULIAS + +On Monday, August 8, while Jesus and the twelve apostles were encamped in +Magadan Park, near Bethsaida-Julias, more than one hundred believers, the +evangelists, the women's corps, and others interested in the establishment of +the kingdom, came over from Capernaum for a conference. And many of the +Pharisees, learning that Jesus was here, came also. By this time some of the +Sadducees were united with the Pharisees in their effort to entrap Jesus. +Before going into the closed conference with the believers, Jesus held a public +meeting at which the Pharisees were present, and they heckled the Master and +otherwise sought to disturb the assembly. Said the leader of the disturbers: +"Teacher, we would like you to give us a sign of your authority to teach, and +then, when the same shall come to pass, all men will know that you have been +sent by God." And Jesus answered them: "When it is evening, you say it will be +fair weather, for the heaven is red; in the morning it will be foul weather, +for the heaven is red and lowering. When you see a cloud rising in the west, +you say showers will come; when the wind blows from the south, you say +scorching heat will come. + + top of page - 1745 + +How is it that you so well know how to discern the face of the heavens but are +so utterly unable to discern the signs of the times? To those who would know +the truth, already has a sign been given; but to an evil-minded and +hypocritical generation no sign shall be given." + +When Jesus had thus spoken, he withdrew and prepared for the evening conference +with his followers. At this conference it was decided to undertake a united +mission throughout all the cities and villages of the Decapolis as soon as +Jesus and the twelve should return from their proposed visit to +Caesarea-Philippi. The Master participated in planning for the Decapolis +mission and, in dismissing the company, said: "I say to you, beware of the +leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Be not deceived by their show of +much learning and by their profound loyalty to the forms of religion. Be only +concerned with the spirit of living truth and the power of true religion. It is +not the fear of a dead religion that will save you but rather your faith in a +living experience in the spiritual realities of the kingdom. Do not allow +yourselves to become blinded by prejudice and paralyzed by fear. Neither permit +reverence for the traditions so to pervert your understanding that your eyes +see not and your ears hear not. It is not the purpose of true religion merely +to bring peace but rather to insure progress. And there can be no peace in the +heart or progress in the mind unless you fall wholeheartedly in love with +truth, the ideals of eternal realities. The issues of life and death are being +set before you--the sinful pleasures of time against the righteous realities of +eternity. Even now you should begin to find deliverance from the bondage of +fear and doubt as you enter upon the living of the new life of faith and hope. +And when the feelings of service for your fellow men arise within your soul, do +not stifle them; when the emotions of love for your neighbor well up within +your heart, give expression to such urges of affection in intelligent ministry +to the real needs of your fellows." + +3. PETER'S CONFESSION + +Early Tuesday morning Jesus and the twelve apostles left Magadan Park for +Caesarea-Philippi, the capital of the Tetrarch Philip's domain. +Caesarea-Philippi was situated in a region of wondrous beauty. It nestled in a +charming valley between scenic hills where the Jordan poured forth from an +underground cave. The heights of Mount Hermon were in full view to the north, +while from the hills just to the south a magnificent view was had of the upper +Jordan and the Sea of Galilee. + +Jesus had gone to Mount Hermon in his early experience with the affairs of the +kingdom, and now that he was entering upon the final epoch of his work, he +desired to return to this mount of trial and triumph, where he hoped the +apostles might gain a new vision of their responsibilities and acquire new +strength for the trying times just ahead. As they journeyed along the way, +about the time of passing south of the Waters of Merom, the apostles fell to +talking among themselves about their recent experiences in Phoenicia and +elsewhere and to recounting how their message had been received, and how the +different peoples regarded their Master. + +As they paused for lunch, Jesus suddenly confronted the twelve with the first +question he had ever addressed to them concerning himself. He asked this +surprising question, "Who do men say that I am?" + + top of page - 1746 + +Jesus had spent long months in training these apostles as to the nature and +character of the kingdom of heaven, and he well knew the time had come when he +must begin to teach them more about his own nature and his personal +relationship to the kingdom. And now, as they were seated under the mulberry +trees, the Master made ready to hold one of the most momentous sessions of his +long association with the chosen apostles. + +More than half the apostles participated in answering Jesus' question. They +told him that he was regarded as a prophet or as an extraordinary man by all +who knew him; that even his enemies greatly feared him, accounting for his +powers by the indictment that he was in league with the prince of devils. They +told him that some in Judea and Samaria who had not met him personally believed +he was John the Baptist risen from the dead. Peter explained that he had been, +at sundry times and by various persons, compared with Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, +and Jeremiah. When Jesus had listened to this report, he drew himself upon his +feet, and looking down upon the twelve sitting about him in a semicircle, with +startling emphasis he pointed to them with a sweeping gesture of his hand and +asked, "But who say you that I am?" There was a moment of tense silence. The +twelve never took their eyes off the Master, and then Simon Peter, springing to +his feet, exclaimed: "You are the Deliverer, the Son of the living God." And +the eleven sitting apostles arose to their feet with one accord, thereby +indicating that Peter had spoken for all of them. + +When Jesus had beckoned them again to be seated, and while still standing +before them, he said: "This has been revealed to you by my Father. The hour has +come when you should know the truth about me. But for the time being I charge +you that you tell this to no man. Let us go hence." + +And so they resumed their journey to Caesarea-Philippi, arriving late that +evening and stopping at the home of Celsus, who was expecting them. The +apostles slept little that night; they seemed to sense that a great event in +their lives and in the work of the kingdom had transpired. + +4. THE TALK ABOUT THE KINGDOM + +Since the occasions of Jesus' baptism by John and the turning of the water into +wine at Cana, the apostles had, at various times, virtually accepted him as the +Messiah. For short periods some of them had truly believed that he was the +expected Deliverer. But hardly would such hopes spring up in their hearts than +the Master would dash them to pieces by some crushing word or disappointing +deed. They had long been in a state of turmoil due to conflict between the +concepts of the expected Messiah which they held in their minds and the +experience of their extraordinary association with this extraordinary man which +they held in their hearts. + +It was late forenoon on this Wednesday when the apostles assembled in Celsus' +garden for their noontime meal. During most of the night and since they had +arisen that morning, Simon Peter and Simon Zelotes had been earnestly laboring +with their brethren to bring them all to the point of the wholehearted +acceptance of the Master, not merely as the Messiah, but also as the divine Son +of the living God. The two Simons were well-nigh agreed in their estimate of +Jesus, and they labored diligently to bring their brethren around to the full +acceptance of their views. While Andrew continued as the director- + + top of page - 1747 + +general of the apostolic corps, his brother, Simon Peter, was becoming, +increasingly and by common consent, the spokesman for the twelve. + +They were all seated in the garden at just about noon when the Master appeared. +They wore expressions of dignified solemnity, and all arose to their feet as he +approached them. Jesus relieved the tension by that friendly and fraternal +smile which was so characteristic of him when his followers took themselves, or +some happening related to themselves, too seriously. With a commanding gesture +he indicated that they should be seated. Never again did the twelve greet their +Master by arising when he came into their presence. They saw that he did not +approve of such an outward show of respect. + +After they had partaken of their meal and were engaged in discussing plans for +the forthcoming tour of the Decapolis, Jesus suddenly looked up into their +faces and said: "Now that a full day has passed since you assented to Simon +Peter's declaration regarding the identity of the Son of Man, I would ask if +you still hold to your decision?" On hearing this, the twelve stood upon their +feet, and Simon Peter, stepping a few paces forward toward Jesus, said: "Yes, +Master, we do. We believe that you are the Son of the living God." And Peter +sat down with his brethren. + +Jesus, still standing, then said to the twelve: "You are my chosen ambassadors, +but I know that, in the circumstances, you could not entertain this belief as a +result of mere human knowledge. This is a revelation of the spirit of my Father +to your inmost souls. And when, therefore, you make this confession by the +insight of the spirit of my Father which dwells within you, I am led to declare +that upon this foundation will I build the brotherhood of the kingdom of +heaven. Upon this rock of spiritual reality will I build the living temple of +spiritual fellowship in the eternal realities of my Father's kingdom. All the +forces of evil and the hosts of sin shall not prevail against this human +fraternity of the divine spirit. And while my Father's spirit shall ever be the +divine guide and mentor of all who enter the bonds of this spirit fellowship, +to you and your successors I now deliver the keys of the outward kingdom--the +authority over things temporal--the social and economic features of this +association of men and women as fellows of the kingdom." And again he charged +them, for the time being, that they should tell no man that he was the Son of +God. + +Jesus was beginning to have faith in the loyalty and integrity of his apostles. +The Master conceived that a faith which could stand what his chosen +representatives had recently passed through would undoubtedly endure the fiery +trials which were just ahead and emerge from the apparent wreckage of all their +hopes into the new light of a new dispensation and thereby be able to go forth +to enlighten a world sitting in darkness. On this day the Master began to +believe in the faith of his apostles, save one. + +And ever since that day this same Jesus has been building that living temple +upon that same eternal foundation of his divine sonship, and those who thereby +become self-conscious sons of God are the human stones which constitute this +living temple of sonship erecting to the glory and honor of the wisdom and love +of the eternal Father of spirits. + +And when Jesus had thus spoken, he directed the twelve to go apart by +themselves in the hills to seek wisdom, strength, and spiritual guidance until +the time of the evening meal. And they did as the Master admonished them. + + top of page - 1748 + +5. THE NEW CONCEPT + +The new and vital feature of Peter's confession was the clear-cut recognition +that Jesus was the Son of God, of his unquestioned divinity. Ever since his +baptism and the wedding at Cana these apostles had variously regarded him as +the Messiah, but it was not a part of the Jewish concept of the national +deliverer that he should be divine. The Jews had not taught that the Messiah +would spring from divinity; he was to be the "anointed one," but hardly had +they contemplated him as being "the Son of God." In the second confession more +emphasis was placed upon the combined nature, the supernal fact that he was the +Son of Man and the Son of God, and it was upon this great truth of the union of +the human nature with the divine nature that Jesus declared he would build the +kingdom of heaven. + +Jesus had sought to live his life on earth and complete his bestowal mission as +the Son of Man. His followers were disposed to regard him as the expected +Messiah. Knowing that he could never fulfill their Messianic expectations, he +endeavored to effect such a modification of their concept of the Messiah as +would enable him partially to meet their expectations. But he now recognized +that such a plan could hardly be carried through successfully. He therefore +elected boldly to disclose the third plan--openly to announce his divinity, +acknowledge the truthfulness of Peter's confession, and directly proclaim to +the twelve that he was a Son of God. + +For three years Jesus had been proclaiming that he was the "Son of Man," while +for these same three years the apostles had been increasingly insistent that he +was the expected Jewish Messiah. He now disclosed that he was the Son of God, +and upon the concept of the combined nature of the Son of Man and the Son of +God, he determined to build the kingdom of heaven. He had decided to refrain +from further efforts to convince them that he was not the Messiah. He now +proposed boldly to reveal to them what he is, and then to ignore their +determination to persist in regarding him as the Messiah. + +6. THE NEXT AFTERNOON + +Jesus and the apostles remained another day at the home of Celsus, waiting for +messengers to arrive from David Zebedee with funds. Following the collapse of +the popularity of Jesus with the masses there occurred a great falling off in +revenue. When they reached Caesarea-Philippi, the treasury was empty. Matthew +was loath to leave Jesus and his brethren at such a time, and he had no ready +funds of his own to hand over to Judas as he had so many times done in the +past. However, David Zebedee had foreseen this probable diminution of revenue +and had accordingly instructed his messengers that, as they made their way +through Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, they should act as collectors of money to +be forwarded to the exiled apostles and their Master. And so, by evening of +this day, these messengers arrived from Bethsaida bringing funds sufficient to +sustain the apostles until their return to embark upon the Decapolis tour. +Matthew expected to have money from the sale of his last piece of property in +Capernaum by that time, having arranged that these funds should be anonymously +turned over to Judas. + + top of page - 1749 + +Neither Peter nor the other apostles had a very adequate conception of Jesus' +divinity. They little realized that this was the beginning of a new epoch in +their Master's career on earth, the time when the teacher-healer was becoming +the newly conceived Messiah--the Son of God. From this time on a new note +appeared in the Master's message. Henceforth his one ideal of living was the +revelation of the Father, while his one idea in teaching was to present to his +universe the personification of that supreme wisdom which can only be +comprehended by living it. He came that we all might have life and have it more +abundantly. + +Jesus now entered upon the fourth and last stage of his human life in the +flesh. The first stage was that of his childhood, the years when he was only +dimly conscious of his origin, nature, and destiny as a human being. The second +stage was the increasingly self-conscious years of youth and advancing manhood, +during which he came more clearly to comprehend his divine nature and human +mission. This second stage ended with the experiences and revelations +associated with his baptism. The second stage of the Master's earth experience +extended from the baptism through the years of his ministry as teacher and +healer and up to this momentous hour of Peter's confession at +Caesarea-Philippi. This third period of his earth life embraced the times when +his apostles and his immediate followers knew him as the Son of Man and +regarded him as the Messiah. The fourth and last period of his earth career +began here at Caesarea-Philippi and extended on to the crucifixion. This stage +of his ministry was characterized by his acknowledgment of divinity and +embraced the labors of his last year in the flesh. During the fourth period, +while the majority of his followers still regarded him as the Messiah, he +became known to the apostles as the Son of God. Peter's confession marked the +beginning of the new period of the more complete realization of the truth of +his supreme ministry as a bestowal Son on Urantia and for an entire universe, +and the recognition of that fact, at least hazily, by his chosen ambassadors. + +Thus did Jesus exemplify in his life what he taught in his religion: the growth +of the spiritual nature by the technique of living progress. He did not place +emphasis, as did his later followers, upon the incessant struggle between the +soul and the body. He rather taught that the spirit was easy victor over both +and effective in the profitable reconciliation of much of this intellectual and +instinctual warfare. + +A new significance attaches to all of Jesus' teachings from this point on. +Before Caesarea-Philippi he presented the gospel of the kingdom as its master +teacher. After Caesarea-Philippi he appeared not merely as a teacher but as the +divine representative of the eternal Father, who is the center and +circumference of this spiritual kingdom, and it was required that he do all +this as a human being, the Son of Man. + +Jesus had sincerely endeavored to lead his followers into the spiritual kingdom +as a teacher, then as a teacher-healer, but they would not have it so. He well +knew that his earth mission could not possibly fulfill the Messianic +expectations of the Jewish people; the olden prophets had portrayed a Messiah +which he could never be. He sought to establish the Father's kingdom as the Son +of Man, but his followers would not go forward in the adventure. Jesus, seeing +this, then elected to meet his believers part way and in so doing prepared +openly to assume the role of the bestowal Son of God. + + top of page - 1750 + +Accordingly, the apostles heard much that was new as Jesus talked to them this +day in the garden. And some of these pronouncements sounded strange even to +them. Among other startling announcements they listened to such as the +following: + +"From this time on, if any man would have fellowship with us, let him assume +the obligations of sonship and follow me. And when I am no more with you, think +not that the world will treat you better than it did your Master. If you love +me, prepare to prove this affection by your willingness to make the supreme +sacrifice." + +"And mark well my words: I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. +The Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister and to bestow his +life as the gift for all. I declare to you that I have come to seek and to save +those who are lost." + +"No man in this world now sees the Father except the Son who came forth from +the Father. But if the Son be lifted up, he will draw all men to himself, and +whosoever believes this truth of the combined nature of the Son shall be +endowed with life that is more than age-abiding." + +"We may not yet proclaim openly that the Son of Man is the Son of God, but it +has been revealed to you; wherefore do I speak boldly to you concerning these +mysteries. Though I stand before you in this physical presence, I came forth +from God the Father. Before Abraham was, I am. I did come forth from the Father +into this world as you have known me, and I declare to you that I must +presently leave this world and return to the work of my Father." + +"And now can your faith comprehend the truth of these declarations in the face +of my warning you that the Son of Man will not meet the expectations of your +fathers as they conceived the Messiah? My kingdom is not of this world. Can you +believe the truth about me in the face of the fact that, though the foxes have +holes and the birds of heaven have nests, I have not where to lay my head?" + +"Nevertheless, I tell you that the Father and I are one. He who has seen me has +seen the Father. My Father is working with me in all these things, and he will +never leave me alone in my mission, even as I will never forsake you when you +presently go forth to proclaim this gospel throughout the world. + +"And now have I brought you apart with me and by yourselves for a little while +that you may comprehend the glory, and grasp the grandeur, of the life to which +I have called you: the faith-adventure of the establishment of my Father's +kingdom in the hearts of mankind, the building of my fellowship of living +association with the souls of all who believe this gospel." + +The apostles listened to these bold and startling statements in silence; they +were stunned. And they dispersed in small groups to discuss and ponder the +Master's words. They had confessed that he was the Son of God, but they could +not grasp the full meaning of what they had been led to do. + +7. ANDREW'S CONFERENCE + +That evening Andrew took it upon himself to hold a personal and searching +conference with each of his brethren, and he had profitable and heartening + + top of page - 1751 + +talks with all of his associates except Judas Iscariot. Andrew had never +enjoyed such intimate personal association with Judas as with the other +apostles and therefore had not thought it of serious account that Judas never +had freely and confidentially related himself to the head of the apostolic +corps. But Andrew was now so worried by Judas's attitude that, later on that +night, after all the apostles were fast asleep, he sought out Jesus and +presented his cause for anxiety to the Master. Said Jesus: "It is not amiss, +Andrew, that you have come to me with this matter, but there is nothing more +that we can do; only go on placing the utmost confidence in this apostle. And +say nothing to his brethren concerning this talk with me." + +And that was all Andrew could elicit from Jesus. Always had there been some +strangeness between this Judean and his Galilean brethren. Judas had been +shocked by the death of John the Baptist, severely hurt by the Master's rebukes +on several occasions, disappointed when Jesus refused to be made king, +humiliated when he fled from the Pharisees, chagrined when he refused to accept +the challenge of the Pharisees for a sign, bewildered by the refusal of his +Master to resort to manifestations of power, and now, more recently, depressed +and sometimes dejected by an empty treasury. And Judas missed the stimulus of +the multitudes. + +Each of the other apostles was, in some and varying measure, likewise affected +by these selfsame trials and tribulations, but they loved Jesus. At least they +must have loved the Master more than did Judas, for they went through with him +to the bitter end. + +Being from Judea, Judas took personal offense at Jesus' recent warning to the +apostles to "beware the leaven of the Pharisees"; he was disposed to regard +this statement as a veiled reference to himself. But the great mistake of Judas +was: Time and again, when Jesus would send his apostles off by themselves to +pray, Judas, instead of engaging in sincere communion with the spiritual forces +of the universe, indulged in thoughts of human fear while he persisted in the +entertainment of subtle doubts about the mission of Jesus as well as giving in +to his unfortunate tendency to harbor feelings of revenge. + +And now Jesus would take his apostles along with him to Mount Hermon, where he +had appointed to inaugurate his fourth phase of earth ministry as the Son of +God. Some of them were present at his baptism in the Jordan and had witnessed +the beginning of his career as the Son of Man, and he desired that some of them +should also be present to hear his authority for the assumption of the new and +public role of a Son of God. Accordingly, on the morning of Friday, August 12, +Jesus said to the twelve: "Lay in provisions and prepare yourselves for a +journey to yonder mountain, where the spirit bids me go to be endowed for the +finish of my work on earth. And I would take my brethren along that they may +also be strengthened for the trying times of going with me through this +experience." + + top of page - 1752 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Sojourn At ³ The Mount Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ Tr... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p158.txt b/religious documents/p158.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac51baf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p158.txt @@ -0,0 +1,624 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 158 The Mount Of Transfiguration + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 158 The Mount Of Transfiguration + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +IT WAS near sundown on Friday afternoon, August 12, A.D. 29, when Jesus and his +associates reached the foot of Mount Hermon, near the very place where the lad +Tiglath once waited while the Master ascended the mountain alone to settle the +spiritual destinies of Urantia and technically to terminate the Lucifer +rebellion. And here they sojourned for two days in spiritual preparation for +the events so soon to follow. + +In a general way, Jesus knew beforehand what was to transpire on the mountain, +and he much desired that all his apostles might share this experience. It was +to fit them for this revelation of himself that he tarried with them at the +foot of the mountain. But they could not attain those spiritual levels which +would justify their exposure to the full experience of the visitation of the +celestial beings so soon to appear on earth. And since he could not take all of +his associates with him, he decided to take only the three who were in the +habit of accompanying him on such special vigils. Accordingly, only Peter, +James, and John shared even a part of this unique experience with the Master. + +1. THE TRANSFIGURATION + +Early on the morning of Monday, August 15, Jesus and the three apostles began +the ascent of Mount Hermon, and this was six days after the memorable noontide +confession of Peter by the roadside under the mulberry trees. + +Jesus had been summoned to go up on the mountain, apart by himself, for the +transaction of important matters having to do with the progress of his bestowal +in the flesh as this experience was related to the universe of his own +creation. It is significant that this extraordinary event was timed to occur +while Jesus and the apostles were in the lands of the gentiles, and that it +actually transpired on a mountain of the gentiles. + +They reached their destination, about halfway up the mountain, shortly before +noon, and while eating lunch, Jesus told the three apostles something of his +experience in the hills to the east of Jordan shortly after his baptism and +also some more of his experience on Mount Hermon in connection with his former +visit to this lonely retreat. + +When a boy, Jesus used to ascend the hill near his home and dream of the +battles which had been fought by the armies of empires on the plain of +Esdraelon; now he ascended Mount Hermon to receive the endowment which was to +prepare him to descend upon the plains of the Jordan to enact the closing +scenes of the drama of his bestowal on Urantia. The Master could have +relinquished the struggle this day on Mount Hermon and returned to his rule of +the universe domains, but he not only chose to meet the requirements of his +order of + + top of page - 1753 + +divine sonship embraced in the mandate of the Eternal Son on Paradise, but he +also elected to meet the last and full measure of the present will of his +Paradise Father. On this day in August three of his apostles saw him decline to +be invested with full universe authority. They looked on in amazement as the +celestial messengers departed, leaving him alone to finish out his earth life +as the Son of Man and the Son of God. + +The faith of the apostles was at a high point at the time of the feeding of the +five thousand, and then it rapidly fell almost to zero. Now, as a result of the +Master's admission of his divinity, the lagging faith of the twelve arose in +the next few weeks to its highest pitch, only to undergo a progressive decline. +The third revival of their faith did not occur until after the Master's +resurrection. + +It was about three o'clock on this beautiful afternoon that Jesus took leave of +the three apostles, saying: "I go apart by myself for a season to commune with +the Father and his messengers; I bid you tarry here and, while awaiting my +return, pray that the Father's will may be done in all your experience in +connection with the further bestowal mission of the Son of Man." And after +saying this to them, Jesus withdrew for a long conference with Gabriel and the +Father Melchizedek, not returning until about six o'clock. When Jesus saw their +anxiety over his prolonged absence, he said: "Why were you afraid? You well +know I must be about my Father's business; wherefore do you doubt when I am not +with you? I now declare that the Son of Man has chosen to go through his full +life in your midst and as one of you. Be of good cheer; I will not leave you +until my work is finished." + +As they partook of their meager evening meal, Peter asked the Master, "How long +do we remain on this mountain away from our brethren?" And Jesus answered: +"Until you shall see the glory of the Son of Man and know that whatsoever I +have declared to you is true." And they talked over the affairs of the Lucifer +rebellion while seated about the glowing embers of their fire until darkness +drew on and the apostles' eyes grew heavy, for they had begun their journey +very early that morning. + +When the three had been fast asleep for about half an hour, they were suddenly +awakened by a near-by crackling sound, and much to their amazement and +consternation, on looking about them, they beheld Jesus in intimate converse +with two brilliant beings clothed in the habiliments of the light of the +celestial world. And Jesus' face and form shone with the luminosity of a +heavenly light. These three conversed in a strange language, but from certain +things said, Peter erroneously conjectured that the beings with Jesus were +Moses and Elijah; in reality, they were Gabriel and the Father Melchizedek. The +physical controllers had arranged for the apostles to witness this scene +because of Jesus' request. + +The three apostles were so badly frightened that they were slow in collecting +their wits, but Peter, who was first to recover himself, said, as the dazzling +vision faded from before them and they observed Jesus standing alone: "Jesus, +Master, it is good to have been here. We rejoice to see this glory. We are +loath to go back down to the inglorious world. If you are willing, let us abide +here, and we will erect three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for +Elijah." And Peter said this because of his confusion, and because nothing else +came into his mind at just that moment. + +While Peter was yet speaking, a silvery cloud drew near and overshadowed the +four of them. The apostles now became greatly frightened, and as they fell + + top of page - 1754 + +down on their faces to worship, they heard a voice, the same that had spoken on +the occasion of Jesus' baptism, say: "This is my beloved Son; give heed to +him." And when the cloud vanished, again was Jesus alone with the three, and he +reached down and touched them, saying: "Arise and be not afraid; you shall see +greater things than this." But the apostles were truly afraid; they were a +silent and thoughtful trio as they made ready to descend the mountain shortly +before midnight. + +2. COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN + +For about half the distance down the mountain not a word was spoken. Jesus then +began the conversation by remarking: "Make certain that you tell no man, not +even your brethren, what you have seen and heard on this mountain until the Son +of Man has risen from the dead." The three apostles were shocked and bewildered +by the Master's words, "until the Son of Man has risen from the dead." They had +so recently reaffirmed their faith in him as the Deliverer, the Son of God, and +they had just beheld him transfigured in glory before their very eyes, and now +he began to talk about "rising from the dead"! + +Peter shuddered at the thought of the Master's dying--it was too disagreeable +an idea to entertain--and fearing that James or John might ask some question +relative to this statement, he thought best to start up a diverting +conversation and, not knowing what else to talk about, gave expression to the +first thought coming into his mind, which was: "Master, why is it that the +scribes say that Elijah must first come before the Messiah shall appear?" And +Jesus, knowing that Peter sought to avoid reference to his death and +resurrection, answered: "Elijah indeed comes first to prepare the way for the +Son of Man, who must suffer many things and finally be rejected. But I tell you +that Elijah has already come, and they received him not but did to him +whatsoever they willed." And then did the three apostles perceive that he +referred to John the Baptist as Elijah. Jesus knew that, if they insisted on +regarding him as the Messiah, then must John be the Elijah of the prophecy. + +Jesus enjoined silence about their observation of the foretaste of his +post-resurrection glory because he did not want to foster the notion that, +being now received as the Messiah, he would in any degree fulfill their +erroneous concepts of a wonder-working deliverer. Although Peter, James, and +John pondered all this in their minds, they spoke not of it to any man until +after the Master's resurrection. + +As they continued to descend the mountain, Jesus said to them: "You would not +receive me as the Son of Man; therefore have I consented to be received in +accordance with your settled determination, but, mistake not, the will of my +Father must prevail. If you thus choose to follow the inclination of your own +wills, you must prepare to suffer many disappointments and experience many +trials, but the training which I have given you should suffice to bring you +triumphantly through even these sorrows of your own choosing." + +Jesus did not take Peter, James, and John with him up to the mount of the +transfiguration because they were in any sense better prepared than the other +apostles to witness what happened, or because they were spiritually more fit to +enjoy such a rare privilege. Not at all. He well knew that none of the twelve +were spiritually qualified for this experience; therefore did he take with him +only the three apostles who were assigned to accompany him at those times when +he desired to be alone to enjoy solitary communion. + + top of page - 1755 + +3. MEANING OF THE TRANSFIGURATION + +That which Peter, James, and John witnessed on the mount of transfiguration was +a fleeting glimpse of a celestial pageant which transpired that eventful day on +Mount Hermon. The transfiguration was the occasion of: + +1. The acceptance of the fullness of the bestowal of the incarnated life of +Michael on Urantia by the Eternal Mother-Son of Paradise. As far as concerned +the requirements of the Eternal Son, Jesus had now received assurance of their +fulfillment. And Gabriel brought Jesus that assurance. + +2. The testimony of the satisfaction of the Infinite Spirit as to the fullness +of the Urantia bestowal in the likeness of mortal flesh. The universe +representative of the Infinite Spirit, the immediate associate of Michael on +Salvington and his ever-present coworker, on this occasion spoke through the +Father Melchizedek. + +Jesus welcomed this testimony regarding the success of his earth mission +presented by the messengers of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, but he +noted that his Father did not indicate that the Urantia bestowal was finished; +only did the unseen presence of the Father bear witness through Jesus' +Personalized Adjuster, saying, "This is my beloved Son; give heed to him." And +this was spoken in words to be heard also by the three apostles. + +After this celestial visitation Jesus sought to know his Father's will and +decided to pursue the mortal bestowal to its natural end. This was the +significance of the transfiguration to Jesus. To the three apostles it was an +event marking the entrance of the Master upon the final phase of his earth +career as the Son of God and the Son of Man. + +After the formal visitation of Gabriel and the Father Melchizedek, Jesus held +informal converse with these, his Sons of ministry, and communed with them +concerning the affairs of the universe. + +4. THE EPILEPTIC BOY + +It was shortly before breakfast time on this Tuesday morning when Jesus and his +companions arrived at the apostolic camp. As they drew near, they discerned a +considerable crowd gathered around the apostles and soon began to hear the loud +words of argument and disputation of this group of about fifty persons, +embracing the nine apostles and a gathering equally divided between Jerusalem +scribes and believing disciples who had tracked Jesus and his associates in +their journey from Magadan. + +Although the crowd engaged in numerous arguments, the chief controversy was +about a certain citizen of Tiberias who had arrived the preceding day in quest +of Jesus. This man, James of Safed, had a son about fourteen years old, an only +child, who was severely afflicted with epilepsy. In addition to this nervous +malady this lad had become possessed by one of those wandering, mischievous, +and rebellious midwayers who were then present on earth and uncontrolled, so +that the youth was both epileptic and demon-possessed. + +For almost two weeks this anxious father, a minor official of Herod Antipas, +had wandered about through the western borders of Philip's domains, seeking +Jesus that he might entreat him to cure this afflicted son. And he did not +catch + + top of page - 1756 + +up with the apostolic party until about noon of this day when Jesus was up on +the mountain with the three apostles. + +The nine apostles were much surprised and considerably perturbed when this man, +accompanied by almost forty other persons who were looking for Jesus, suddenly +came upon them. At the time of the arrival of this group the nine apostles, at +least the majority of them, had succumbed to their old temptation--that of +discussing who should be greatest in the coming kingdom; they were busily +arguing about the probable positions which would be assigned the individual +apostles. They simply could not free themselves entirely from the +long-cherished idea of the material mission of the Messiah. And now that Jesus +himself had accepted their confession that he was indeed the Deliverer--at +least he had admitted the fact of his divinity--what was more natural than +that, during this period of separation from the Master, they should fall to +talking about those hopes and ambitions which were uppermost in their hearts. +And they were engaged in these discussions when James of Safed and his fellow +seekers after Jesus came upon them. + +Andrew stepped up to greet this father and his son, saying, "Whom do you seek?" +Said James: "My good man, I search for your Master. I seek healing for my +afflicted son. I would have Jesus cast out this devil that possesses my child." +And then the father proceeded to relate to the apostles how his son was so +afflicted that he had many times almost lost his life as a result of these +malignant seizures. + +As the apostles listened, Simon Zelotes and Judas Iscariot stepped into the +presence of the father, saying: "We can heal him; you need not wait for the +Master's return. We are ambassadors of the kingdom; no longer do we hold these +things in secret. Jesus is the Deliverer, and the keys of the kingdom have been +delivered to us." By this time Andrew and Thomas were in consultation at one +side. Nathaniel and the others looked on in amazement; they were all aghast at +the sudden boldness, if not presumption, of Simon and Judas. Then said the +father: "If it has been given you to do these works, I pray that you will speak +those words which will deliver my child from this bondage." Then Simon stepped +forward and, placing his hand on the head of the child, looked directly into +his eyes and commanded: "Come out of him, you unclean spirit; in the name of +Jesus obey me." But the lad had only a more violent fit, while the scribes +mocked the apostles in derision, and the disappointed believers suffered the +taunts of these unfriendly critics. + +Andrew was deeply chagrined at this ill-advised effort and its dismal failure. +He called the apostles aside for conference and prayer. After this season of +meditation, feeling keenly the sting of their defeat and sensing the +humiliation resting upon all of them, Andrew sought, in a second attempt, to +cast out the demon, but only failure crowned his efforts. Andrew frankly +confessed defeat and requested the father to remain with them overnight or +until Jesus' return, saying: "Perhaps this sort goes not out except by the +Master's personal command." + +And so, while Jesus was descending the mountain with the exuberant and ecstatic +Peter, James, and John, their nine brethren likewise were sleepless in their +confusion and downcast humiliation. They were a dejected and chastened group. +But James of Safed would not give up. Although they could give him no idea as +to when Jesus might return, he decided to stay on until the Master came back. + + top of page - 1757 + +5, JESUS HEALS THE BOY + +As Jesus drew near, the nine apostles were more than relieved to welcome him, +and they were greatly encouraged to behold the good cheer and unusual +enthusiasm which marked the countenances of Peter, James, and John. They all +rushed forward to greet Jesus and their three brethren. As they exchanged +greetings, the crowd came up, and Jesus asked, "What were you disputing about +as we drew near?" But before the disconcerted and humiliated apostles could +reply to the Master's question, the anxious father of the afflicted lad stepped +forward and, kneeling at Jesus' feet, said: "Master, I have a son, an only +child, who is possessed by an evil spirit. Not only does he cry out in terror, +foam at the mouth, and fall like a dead person at the time of seizure, but +oftentimes this evil spirit which possesses him rends him in convulsions and +sometimes has cast him into the water and even into the fire. With much +grinding of teeth and as a result of many bruises, my child wastes away. His +life is worse than death; his mother and I are of a sad heart and a broken +spirit. About noon yesterday, seeking for you, I caught up with your disciples, +and while we were waiting, your apostles sought to cast out this demon, but +they could not do it. And now, Master, will you do this for us, will you heal +my son?" + +When Jesus had listened to this recital, he touched the kneeling father and +bade him rise while he gave the near-by apostles a searching survey. Then said +Jesus to all those who stood before him: "O faithless and perverse generation, +how long shall I bear with you? How long shall I be with you? How long ere you +learn that the works of faith come not forth at the bidding of doubting +unbelief?" And then, pointing to the bewildered father, Jesus said, "Bring +hither your son." And when James had brought the lad before Jesus, he asked, +"How long has the boy been afflicted in this way?" The father answered, "Since +he was a very young child." And as they talked, the youth was seized with a +violent attack and fell in their midst, gnashing his teeth and foaming at the +mouth. After a succession of violent convulsions he lay there before them as +one dead. Now did the father again kneel at Jesus' feet while he implored the +Master, saying: "If you can cure him, I beseech you to have compassion on us +and deliver us from this affliction." And when Jesus heard these words, he +looked down into the father's anxious face, saying: "Question not my Father's +power of love, only the sincerity and reach of your faith. All things are +possible to him who really believes." And then James of Safed spoke those +long-to-be-remembered words of commingled faith and doubt, "Lord, I believe. I +pray you help my unbelief." + +When Jesus heard these words, he stepped forward and, taking the lad by the +hand, said: "I will do this in accordance with my Father's will and in honor of +living faith. My son, arise! Come out of him, disobedient spirit, and go not +back into him." And placing the hand of the lad in the hand of the father, +Jesus said: "Go your way. The Father has granted the desire of your soul." And +all who were present, even the enemies of Jesus, were astonished at what they +saw. + +It was indeed a disillusionment for the three apostles who had so recently +enjoyed the spiritual ecstasy of the scenes and experiences of the +transfiguration, so soon to return to this scene of the defeat and discomfiture +of their fellow apostles. But it was ever so with these twelve ambassadors of +the kingdom. + + top of page - 1758 + +They never failed to alternate between exaltation and humiliation in their life +experiences. + +This was a true healing of a double affliction, a physical ailment and a spirit +malady. And the lad was permanently cured from that hour. When James had +departed with his restored son, Jesus said: "We go now to Caesarea-Philippi; +make ready at once." And they were a quiet group as they journeyed southward +while the crowd followed on behind. + +6. IN CELSUS' GARDEN + +They remained overnight with Celsus, and that evening in the garden, after they +had eaten and rested, the twelve gathered about Jesus, and Thomas said: +"Master, while we who tarried behind still remain ignorant of what transpired +up on the mountain, and which so greatly cheered our brethren who were with +you, we crave to have you talk with us concerning our defeat and instruct us in +these matters, seeing that those things which happened on the mountain cannot +be disclosed at this time." + +And Jesus answered Thomas, saying: "Everything which your brethren heard on the +mountain shall be revealed to you in due season. But I will now show you the +cause of your defeat in that which you so unwisely attempted. While your Master +and his companions, your brethren, ascended yonder mountain yesterday to seek +for a larger knowledge of the Father's will and to ask for a richer endowment +of wisdom effectively to do that divine will, you who remained on watch here +with instructions to strive to acquire the mind of spiritual insight and to +pray with us for a fuller revelation of the Father's will, failed to exercise +the faith at your command but, instead, yielded to the temptation and fell into +your old evil tendencies to seek for yourselves preferred places in the kingdom +of heaven--the material and temporal kingdom which you persist in +contemplating. And you cling to these erroneous concepts in spite of the +reiterated declaration that my kingdom is not of this world. + +"No sooner does your faith grasp the identity of the Son of Man than your +selfish desire for worldly preferment creeps back upon you, and you fall to +discussing among yourselves as to who should be greatest in the kingdom of +heaven, a kingdom which, as you persist in conceiving it, does not exist, nor +ever shall. Have not I told you that he who would be greatest in the kingdom of +my Father's spiritual brotherhood must become little in his own eyes and thus +become the server of his brethren? Spiritual greatness consists in an +understanding love that is Godlike and not in an enjoyment of the exercise of +material power for the exaltation of self. In what you attempted, in which you +so completely failed, your purpose was not pure. Your motive was not divine. +Your ideal was not spiritual. Your ambition was not altruistic. Your procedure +was not based on love, and your goal of attainment was not the will of the +Father in heaven. + +"How long will it take you to learn that you cannot time-shorten the course of +established natural phenomena except when such things are in accordance with +the Father's will? nor can you do spiritual work in the absence of spiritual +power. And you can do neither of these, even when their potential is present, +without the existence of that third and essential human factor, the personal +experience of the possession of living faith. Must you always have material +manifestations as an attraction for the spiritual realities of the kingdom? Can + + top of page - 1759 + +you not grasp the spirit significance of my mission without the visible +exhibition of unusual works? When can you be depended upon to adhere to the +higher and spiritual realities of the kingdom regardless of the outward +appearance of all material manifestations?" + +When Jesus had thus spoken to the twelve, he added: "And now go to your rest, +for on the morrow we return to Magadan and there take counsel concerning our +mission to the cities and villages of the Decapolis. And in the conclusion of +this day's experience, let me declare to each of you that which I spoke to your +brethren on the mountain, and let these words find a deep lodgment in your +hearts: The Son of Man now enters upon the last phase of the bestowal. We are +about to begin those labors which shall presently lead to the great and final +testing of your faith and devotion when I shall be delivered into the hands of +the men who seek my destruction. And remember what I am saying to you: The Son +of Man will be put to death, but he shall rise again." + +They retired for the night, sorrowful. They were bewildered; they could not +comprehend these words. And while they were afraid to ask aught concerning what +he had said, they did recall all of it subsequent to his resurrection. + +7. PETER'S PROTEST + +Early this Wednesday morning Jesus and the twelve departed from +Caesarea-Philippi for Magadan Park near Bethsaida-Julias. The apostles had +slept very little that night, so they were up early and ready to go. Even the +stolid Alpheus twins had been shocked by this talk about the death of Jesus. As +they journeyed south, just beyond the Waters of Merom they came to the Damascus +road, and desiring to avoid the scribes and others whom Jesus knew would +presently be coming along after them, he directed that they go on to Capernaum +by the Damascus road which passes through Galilee. And he did this because he +knew that those who followed after him would go on down over the east Jordan +road since they reckoned that Jesus and the apostles would fear to pass through +the territory of Herod Antipas. Jesus sought to elude his critics and the crowd +which followed him that he might be alone with his apostles this day. + +They traveled on through Galilee until well past the time for their lunch, when +they stopped in the shade to refresh themselves. And after they had partaken of +food, Andrew, speaking to Jesus, said: "Master, my brethren do not comprehend +your deep sayings. We have come fully to believe that you are the Son of God, +and now we hear these strange words about leaving us, about dying. We do not +understand your teaching. Are you speaking to us in parables? We pray you to +speak to us directly and in undisguised form." + +In answer to Andrew, Jesus said: "My brethren, it is because you have confessed +that I am the Son of God that I am constrained to begin to unfold to you the +truth about the end of the bestowal of the Son of Man on earth. You insist on +clinging to the belief that I am the Messiah, and you will not abandon the idea +that the Messiah must sit upon a throne in Jerusalem; wherefore do I persist in +telling you that the Son of Man must presently go to Jerusalem, suffer many +things, be rejected by the scribes, the elders, and the chief priests, and +after all this be killed and raised from the dead. And I speak not a parable to +you; I speak the truth to you that you may be prepared for these events when + + top of page - 1760 + +they suddenly come upon us." And while he was yet speaking, Simon Peter, +rushing impetuously toward him, laid his hand upon the Master's shoulder and +said: "Master, be it far from us to contend with you, but I declare that these +things shall never happen to you." + +Peter spoke thus because he loved Jesus; but the Master's human nature +recognized in these words of well-meant affection the subtle suggestion of +temptation that he change his policy of pursuing to the end his earth bestowal +in accordance with the will of his Paradise Father. And it was because he +detected the danger of permitting the suggestions of even his affectionate and +loyal friends to dissuade him, that he turned upon Peter and the other +apostles, saying: "Get you behind me. You savor of the spirit of the adversary, +the tempter. When you talk in this manner, you are not on my side but rather on +the side of our enemy. In this way do you make your love for me a stumbling +block to my doing the Father's will. Mind not the ways of men but rather the +will of God." + +After they had recovered from the first shock of Jesus' stinging rebuke, and +before they resumed their journey, the Master spoke further: "If any man would +come after me, let him disregard himself, take up his responsibilities daily, +and follow me. For whosoever would save his life selfishly, shall lose it, but +whosoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's, shall save it. What does +it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What would a man +give in exchange for eternal life? Be not ashamed of me and my words in this +sinful and hypocritical generation, even as I will not be ashamed to +acknowledge you when in glory I appear before my Father in the presence of all +the celestial hosts. Nevertheless, many of you now standing before me shall not +taste death till you see this kingdom of God come with power." + +And thus did Jesus make plain to the twelve the painful and conflicting path +which they must tread if they would follow him. What a shock these words were +to these Galilean fishermen who persisted in dreaming of an earthly kingdom +with positions of honor for themselves! But their loyal hearts were stirred by +this courageous appeal, and not one of them was minded to forsake him. Jesus +was not sending them alone into the conflict; he was leading them. He asked +only that they bravely follow. + +Slowly the twelve were grasping the idea that Jesus was telling them something +about the possibility of his dying. They only vaguely comprehended what he said +about his death, while his statement about rising from the dead utterly failed +to register in their minds. As the days passed, Peter, James, and John, +recalling their experience upon the mount of the transfiguration, arrived at a +fuller understanding of certain of these matters. + +In all the association of the twelve with their Master, only a few times did +they see that flashing eye and hear such swift words of rebuke as were +administered to Peter and the rest of them on this occasion. Jesus had always +been patient with their human shortcomings, but not so when faced by an +impending threat against the program of implicitly carrying out his Father's +will regarding the remainder of his earth career. The apostles were literally +stunned; they were amazed and horrified. They could not find words to express +their sorrow. Slowly they began to realize what the Master must endure, and +that they must go through these experiences with him, but they did not awaken +to the reality of these coming events until long after these early hints of the +impending tragedy of his latter days. + + top of page - 1761 + +In silence Jesus and the twelve started for their camp at Magadan Park, going +by way of Capernaum. As the afternoon wore on, though they did not converse +with Jesus, they talked much among themselves while Andrew talked with the +Master. + +8. AT PETER'S HOUSE + +Entering Capernaum at twilight, they went by unfrequented thoroughfares +directly to the home of Simon Peter for their evening meal. While David Zebedee +made ready to take them across the lake, they lingered at Simon's house, and +Jesus, looking up at Peter and the other apostles, asked: "As you walked along +together this afternoon, what was it that you talked about so earnestly among +yourselves?" The apostles held their peace because many of them had continued +the discussion begun at Mount Hermon as to what positions they were to have in +the coming kingdom; who should be the greatest, and so on. Jesus, knowing what +it was that occupied their thoughts that day, beckoned to one of Peter's little +ones and, setting the child down among them, said: "Verily, verily, I say to +you, except you turn about and become more like this child, you will make +little progress in the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever shall humble himself and +become as this little one, the same shall become greatest in the kingdom of +heaven. And whoso receives such a little one receives me. And they who receive +me receive also Him who sent me. If you would be first in the kingdom, seek to +minister these good truths to your brethren in the flesh. But whosoever causes +one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone +were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea. If the things you do +with your hands, or the things you see with your eyes give offense in the +progress of the kingdom, sacrifice these cherished idols, for it is better to +enter the kingdom minus many of the beloved things of life rather than to cling +to these idols and find yourself shut out of the kingdom. But most of all, see +that you despise not one of these little ones, for their angels do always +behold the faces of the heavenly hosts." + +When Jesus had finished speaking, they entered the boat and sailed across to +Magadan. + + top of page - 1762 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ At ³ The Decapolis ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Caesarea-phi... ³ T... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p159.txt b/religious documents/p159.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a201d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p159.txt @@ -0,0 +1,641 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 159 The Decapolis Tour + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 159 The Decapolis Tour + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +WHEN Jesus and the twelve arrived at Magadan Park, they found awaiting them a +group of almost one hundred evangelists and disciples, including the women's +corps, and they were ready immediately to begin the teaching and preaching tour +of the cities of the Decapolis. + +On this Thursday morning, August 18, the Master called his followers together +and directed that each of the apostles should associate himself with one of the +twelve evangelists, and that with others of the evangelists they should go out +in twelve groups to labor in the cities and villages of the Decapolis. The +women's corps and others of the disciples he directed to remain with him. Jesus +allotted four weeks to this tour, instructing his followers to return to +Magadan not later than Friday, September 16. He promised to visit them often +during this time. In the course of this month these twelve groups labored in +Gerasa, Gamala, Hippos, Zaphon, Gadara, Abila, Edrei, Philadelphia, Heshbon, +Dium, Scythopolis, and many other cities. Throughout this tour no miracles of +healing or other extraordinary events occurred. + +1. THE SERMON ON FORGIVENESS + +One evening at Hippos, in answer to a disciple's question, Jesus taught the +lesson on forgiveness. Said the Master: + +"If a kindhearted man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, does he +not immediately leave the ninety and nine and go out in search of the one that +has gone astray? And if he is a good shepherd, will he not keep up his quest +for the lost sheep until he finds it? And then, when the shepherd has found his +lost sheep, he lays it over his shoulder and, going home rejoicing, calls to +his friends and neighbors, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was +lost.' I declare that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents +than over ninety and nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Even so, it +is not the will of my Father in heaven that one of these little ones should go +astray, much less that they should perish. In your religion God may receive +repentant sinners; in the gospel of the kingdom the Father goes forth to find +them even before they have seriously thought of repentance. + +"The Father in heaven loves his children, and therefore should you learn to +love one another; the Father in heaven forgives you your sins; therefore should +you learn to forgive one another. If your brother sins against you, go to him +and with tact and patience show him his fault. And do all this between you and +him alone. If he will listen to you, then have you won your brother. But if +your brother will not hear you, if he persists in the error of his way, go +again to him, taking with you one or two mutual friends that you may thus have +two or even + + top of page - 1763 + +three witnesses to confirm your testimony and establish the fact that you have +dealt justly and mercifully with your offending brother. Now if he refuses to +hear your brethren, you may tell the whole story to the congregation, and then, +if he refuses to hear the brotherhood, let them take such action as they deem +wise; let such an unruly member become an outcast from the kingdom. While you +cannot pretend to sit in judgment on the souls of your fellows, and while you +may not forgive sins or otherwise presume to usurp the prerogatives of the +supervisors of the heavenly hosts, at the same time, it has been committed to +your hands that you should maintain temporal order in the kingdom on earth. +While you may not meddle with the divine decrees concerning eternal life, you +shall determine the issues of conduct as they concern the temporal welfare of +the brotherhood on earth. And so, in all these matters connected with the +discipline of the brotherhood, whatsoever you shall decree on earth shall be +recognized in heaven. Although you cannot determine the eternal fate of the +individual, you may legislate regarding the conduct of the group, for, where +two or three of you agree concerning any of these things and ask of me, it +shall be done for you if your petition is not inconsistent with the will of my +Father in heaven. And all this is ever true, for, where two or three believers +are gathered together, there am I in the midst of them." + +Simon Peter was the apostle in charge of the workers at Hippos, and when he +heard Jesus thus speak, he asked: "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against +me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?" And Jesus answered Peter: "Not only +seven times but even to seventy times and seven. Therefore may the kingdom of +heaven be likened to a certain king who ordered a financial reckoning with his +stewards. And when they had begun to conduct this examination of accounts, one +of his chief retainers was brought before him confessing that he owed his king +ten thousand talents. Now this officer of the king's court pleaded that hard +times had come upon him, and that he did not have wherewith to pay this +obligation. And so the king commanded that his property be confiscated, and +that his children be sold to pay his debt. When this chief steward heard this +stern decree, he fell down on his face before the king and implored him to have +mercy and grant him more time, saying, `Lord, have a little more patience with +me, and I will pay you all.' And when the king looked upon this negligent +servant and his family, he was moved with compassion. He ordered that he should +be released, and that the loan should be wholly forgiven. + +"And this chief steward, having thus received mercy and forgiveness at the +hands of the king, went about his business, and finding one of his subordinate +stewards who owed him a mere hundred denarii, he laid hold upon him and, taking +him by the throat, said, `Pay me all you owe.' And then did this fellow steward +fall down before the chief steward and, beseeching him, said: `Only have +patience with me, and I will presently be able to pay you.' But the chief +steward would not show mercy to his fellow steward but rather had him cast in +prison until he should pay his debt. When his fellow servants saw what had +happened, they were so distressed that they went and told their lord and +master, the king. When the king heard of the doings of his chief steward, he +called this ungrateful and unforgiving man before him and said: 'You are a +wicked and unworthy steward. When you sought for compassion, I freely forgave +you your entire debt. Why did you not also show mercy to your fellow steward, +even as I showed mercy to you?' And the king was so very angry that he +delivered his + + top of page - 1764 + +ungrateful chief steward to the jailers that they might hold him until he had +paid all that was due. And even so shall my heavenly Father show the more +abundant mercy to those who freely show mercy to their fellows. How can you +come to God asking consideration for your shortcomings when you are wont to +chastise your brethren for being guilty of these same human frailties? I say to +all of you: Freely you have received the good things of the kingdom; therefore +freely give to your fellows on earth." + +Thus did Jesus teach the dangers and illustrate the unfairness of sitting in +personal judgment upon one's fellows. Discipline must be maintained, justice +must be administered, but in all these matters the wisdom of the brotherhood +should prevail. Jesus invested legislative and judicial authority in the group, +not in the individual. Even this investment of authority in the group must not +be exercised as personal authority. There is always danger that the verdict of +an individual may be warped by prejudice or distorted by passion. Group +judgment is more likely to remove the dangers and eliminate the unfairness of +personal bias. Jesus sought always to minimize the elements of unfairness, +retaliation, and vengeance. + +[The use of the term seventy-seven as an illustration of mercy and forbearance +was derived from the Scriptures referring to Lamech's exultation because of the +metal weapons of his son Tubal-Cain, who, comparing these superior instruments +with those of his enemies, exclaimed: "If Cain, with no weapon in his hand, was +avenged seven times, I shall now be avenged seventy-seven."] + +2. THE STRANGE PREACHER + +Jesus went over to Gamala to visit John and those who worked with him at that +place. That evening, after the session of questions and answers, John said to +Jesus: "Master, yesterday I went over to Ashtaroth to see a man who was +teaching in your name and even claiming to be able to cast out devils. Now this +fellow had never been with us, neither does he follow after us; therefore I +forbade him to do such things." Then said Jesus: "Forbid him not. Do you not +perceive that this gospel of the kingdom shall presently be proclaimed in all +the world? How can you expect that all who will believe the gospel shall be +subject to your direction? Rejoice that already our teaching has begun to +manifest itself beyond the bounds of our personal influence. Do you not see, +John, that those who profess to do great works in my name must eventually +support our cause? They certainly will not be quick to speak evil of me. My +son, in matters of this sort it would be better for you to reckon that he who +is not against us is for us. In the generations to come many who are not wholly +worthy will do many strange things in my name, but I will not forbid them. I +tell you that, even when a cup of cold water is given to a thirsty soul, the +Father's messengers shall ever make record of such a service of love." + +This instruction greatly perplexed John. Had he not heard the Master say, "He +who is not with me is against me"? And he did not perceive that in this case +Jesus was referring to man's personal relation to the spiritual teachings of +the kingdom, while in the other case reference was made to the outward and +far-flung social relations of believers regarding the questions of +administrative control and the jurisdiction of one group of believers over the +work of other groups which would eventually compose the forthcoming world-wide +brotherhood. + + top of page - 1765 + +But John oftentimes recounted this experience in connection with his subsequent +labors in behalf of the kingdom. Nevertheless, many times did the apostles take +offense at those who made bold to teach in the Master's name. To them it always +seemed inappropriate that those who had never sat at Jesus' feet should dare to +teach in his name. + +This man whom John forbade to teach and work in Jesus' name did not heed the +apostle's injunction. He went right on with his efforts and raised up a +considerable company of believers at Kanata before going on into Mesopotamia. +This man, Aden, had been led to believe in Jesus through the testimony of the +demented man whom Jesus healed near Kheresa, and who so confidently believed +that the supposed evil spirits which the Master cast out of him entered the +herd of swine and rushed them headlong over the cliff to their destruction. + +3. INSTRUCTION FOR TEACHERS AND BELIEVERS + +At Edrei, where Thomas and his associates labored, Jesus spent a day and a +night and, in the course of the evening's discussion, gave expression to the +principles which should guide those who preach truth, and which should activate +all who teach the gospel of the kingdom. Summarized and restated in modern +phraseology, Jesus taught: + +Always respect the personality of man. Never should a righteous cause be +promoted by force; spiritual victories can be won only by spiritual power. This +injunction against the employment of material influences refers to psychic +force as well as to physical force. Overpowering arguments and mental +superiority are not to be employed to coerce men and women into the kingdom. +Man's mind is not to be crushed by the mere weight of logic or overawed by +shrewd eloquence. While emotion as a factor in human decisions cannot be wholly +eliminated, it should not be directly appealed to in the teachings of those who +would advance the cause of the kingdom. Make your appeals directly to the +divine spirit that dwells within the minds of men. Do not appeal to fear, pity, +or mere sentiment. In appealing to men, be fair; exercise self-control and +exhibit due restraint; show proper respect for the personalities of your +pupils. Remember that I have said: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and +if any man will open, I will come in." + +In bringing men into the kingdom, do not lessen or destroy their self-respect. +While overmuch self-respect may destroy proper humility and end in pride, +conceit, and arrogance, the loss of self-respect often ends in paralysis of the +will. It is the purpose of this gospel to restore self-respect to those who +have lost it and to restrain it in those who have it. Make not the mistake of +only condemning the wrongs in the lives of your pupils; remember also to accord +generous recognition for the most praiseworthy things in their lives. Forget +not that I will stop at nothing to restore self-respect to those who have lost +it, and who really desire to regain it. + +Take care that you do not wound the self-respect of timid and fearful souls. Do +not indulge in sarcasm at the expense of my simple-minded brethren. Be not +cynical with my fear-ridden children. Idleness is destructive of self-respect; +therefore, admonish your brethren ever to keep busy at their chosen tasks, and +put forth every effort to secure work for those who find themselves without +employment. + + top of page - 1766 + +Never be guilty of such unworthy tactics as endeavoring to frighten men and +women into the kingdom. A loving father does not frighten his children into +yielding obedience to his just requirements. + +Sometime the children of the kingdom will realize that strong feelings of +emotion are not equivalent to the leadings of the divine spirit. To be strongly +and strangely impressed to do something or to go to a certain place, does not +necessarily mean that such impulses are the leadings of the indwelling spirit. + +Forewarn all believers regarding the fringe of conflict which must be traversed +by all who pass from the life as it is lived in the flesh to the higher life as +it is lived in the spirit. To those who live quite wholly within either realm, +there is little conflict or confusion, but all are doomed to experience more or +less uncertainty during the times of transition between the two levels of +living. In entering the kingdom, you cannot escape its responsibilities or +avoid its obligations, but remember: The gospel yoke is easy and the burden of +truth is light. + +The world is filled with hungry souls who famish in the very presence of the +bread of life; men die searching for the very God who lives within them. Men +seek for the treasures of the kingdom with yearning hearts and weary feet when +they are all within the immediate grasp of living faith. Faith is to religion +what sails are to a ship; it is an addition of power, not an added burden of +life. There is but one struggle for those who enter the kingdom, and that is to +fight the good fight of faith. The believer has only one battle, and that is +against doubt--unbelief. + +In preaching the gospel of the kingdom, you are simply teaching friendship with +God. And this fellowship will appeal alike to men and women in that both will +find that which most truly satisfies their characteristic longings and ideals. +Tell my children that I am not only tender of their feelings and patient with +their frailties, but that I am also ruthless with sin and intolerant of +iniquity. I am indeed meek and humble in the presence of my Father, but I am +equally and relentlessly inexorable where there is deliberate evildoing and +sinful rebellion against the will of my Father in heaven. + +You shall not portray your teacher as a man of sorrows. Future generations +shall know also the radiance of our joy, the buoyance of our good will, and the +inspiration of our good humor. We proclaim a message of good news which is +infectious in its transforming power. Our religion is throbbing with new life +and new meanings. Those who accept this teaching are filled with joy and in +their hearts are constrained to rejoice evermore. Increasing happiness is +always the experience of all who are certain about God. + +Teach all believers to avoid leaning upon the insecure props of false sympathy. +You cannot develop strong characters out of the indulgence of self-pity; +honestly endeavor to avoid the deceptive influence of mere fellowship in +misery. Extend sympathy to the brave and courageous while you withhold overmuch +pity from those cowardly souls who only halfheartedly stand up before the +trials of living. Offer not consolation to those who lie down before their +troubles without a struggle. Sympathize not with your fellows merely that they +may sympathize with you in return. + +When my children once become self-conscious of the assurance of the divine +presence, such a faith will expand the mind, ennoble the soul, reinforce the +personality, augment the happiness, deepen the spirit perception, and enhance +the power to love and be loved. + + top of page - 1767 + +Teach all believers that those who enter the kingdom are not thereby rendered +immune to the accidents of time or to the ordinary catastrophes of nature. +Believing the gospel will not prevent getting into trouble, but it will insure +that you shall be unafraid when trouble does overtake you. If you dare to +believe in me and wholeheartedly proceed to follow after me, you shall most +certainly by so doing enter upon the sure pathway to trouble. I do not promise +to deliver you from the waters of adversity, but I do promise to go with you +through all of them. + +And much more did Jesus teach this group of believers before they made ready +for the night's sleep. And they who heard these sayings treasured them in their +hearts and did often recite them for the edification of the apostles and +disciples who were not present when they were spoken. + +4. THE TALK WITH NATHANIEL + +And then went Jesus over to Abila, where Nathaniel and his associates labored. +Nathaniel was much bothered by some of Jesus' pronouncements which seemed to +detract from the authority of the recognized Hebrew scriptures. Accordingly, on +this night, after the usual period of questions and answers, Nathaniel took +Jesus away from the others and asked: "Master, could you trust me to know the +truth about the Scriptures? I observe that you teach us only a portion of the +sacred writings--the best as I view it--and I infer that you reject the +teachings of the rabbis to the effect that the words of the law are the very +words of God, having been with God in heaven even before the times of Abraham +and Moses. What is the truth about the Scriptures?" When Jesus heard the +question of his bewildered apostle, he answered: + +"Nathaniel, you have rightly judged; I do not regard the Scriptures as do the +rabbis. I will talk with you about this matter on condition that you do not +relate these things to your brethren, who are not all prepared to receive this +teaching. The words of the law of Moses and the teachings of the Scriptures +were not in existence before Abraham. Only in recent times have the Scriptures +been gathered together as we now have them. While they contain the best of the +higher thoughts and longings of the Jewish people, they also contain much that +is far from being representative of the character and teachings of the Father +in heaven; wherefore must I choose from among the better teachings those truths +which are to be gleaned for the gospel of the kingdom. + +"These writings are the work of men, some of them holy men, others not so holy. +The teachings of these books represent the views and extent of enlightenment of +the times in which they had their origin. As a revelation of truth, the last +are more dependable than the first. The Scriptures are faulty and altogether +human in origin, but mistake not, they do constitute the best collection of +religious wisdom and spiritual truth to be found in all the world at this time. + +"Many of these books were not written by the persons whose names they bear, but +that in no way detracts from the value of the truths which they contain. If the +story of Jonah should not be a fact, even if Jonah had never lived, still would +the profound truth of this narrative, the love of God for Nineveh and the +so-called heathen, be none the less precious in the eyes of all those who love +their + + top of page - 1768 + +fellow men. The Scriptures are sacred because they present the thoughts and +acts of men who were searching for God, and who in these writings left on +record their highest concepts of righteousness, truth, and holiness. The +Scriptures contain much that is true, very much, but in the light of your +present teaching, you know that these writings also contain much that is +misrepresentative of the Father in heaven, the loving God I have come to reveal +to all the worlds. + +"Nathaniel, never permit yourself for one moment to believe the Scripture +records which tell you that the God of love directed your forefathers to go +forth in battle to slay all their enemies--men, women, and children. Such +records are the words of men, not very holy men, and they are not the word of +God. The Scriptures always have, and always will, reflect the intellectual, +moral, and spiritual status of those who create them. Have you not noted that +the concepts of Yahweh grow in beauty and glory as the prophets make their +records from Samuel to Isaiah? And you should remember that the Scriptures are +intended for religious instruction and spiritual guidance. They are not the +works of either historians or philosophers. + +"The thing most deplorable is not merely this erroneous idea of the absolute +perfection of the Scripture record and the infallibility of its teachings, but +rather the confusing misinterpretation of these sacred writings by the +tradition-enslaved scribes and Pharisees at Jerusalem. And now will they employ +both the doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures and their +misinterpretations thereof in their determined effort to withstand these newer +teachings of the gospel of the kingdom. Nathaniel, never forget, the Father +does not limit the revelation of truth to any one generation or to any one +people. Many earnest seekers after the truth have been, and will continue to +be, confused and disheartened by these doctrines of the perfection of the +Scriptures. + +"The authority of truth is the very spirit that indwells its living +manifestations, and not the dead words of the less illuminated and supposedly +inspired men of another generation. And even if these holy men of old lived +inspired and spirit-filled lives, that does not mean that their words were +similarly spiritually inspired. Today we make no record of the teachings of +this gospel of the kingdom lest, when I have gone, you speedily become divided +up into sundry groups of truth contenders as a result of the diversity of your +interpretation of my teachings. For this generation it is best that we live +these truths while we shun the making of records. + +"Mark you well my words, Nathaniel, nothing which human nature has touched can +be regarded as infallible. Through the mind of man divine truth may indeed +shine forth, but always of relative purity and partial divinity. The creature +may crave infallibility, but only the Creators possess it. + +"But the greatest error of the teaching about the Scriptures is the doctrine of +their being sealed books of mystery and wisdom which only the wise minds of the +nation dare to interpret. The revelations of divine truth are not sealed except +by human ignorance, bigotry, and narrow-minded intolerance. The light of the +Scriptures is only dimmed by prejudice and darkened by superstition. A false +fear of sacredness has prevented religion from being safeguarded by common +sense. The fear of the authority of the sacred writings of the past effectively +prevents the honest souls of today from accepting the new light of the gospel, +the light which these very God-knowing men of another generation so intensely +longed to see. + + top of page - 1769 + +"But the saddest feature of all is the fact that some of the teachers of the +sanctity of this traditionalism know this very truth. They more or less fully +understand these limitations of Scripture, but they are moral cowards, +intellectually dishonest. They know the truth regarding the sacred writings, +but they prefer to withhold such disturbing facts from the people. And thus do +they pervert and distort the Scriptures, making them the guide to slavish +details of the daily life and an authority in things nonspiritual instead of +appealing to the sacred writings as the repository of the moral wisdom, +religious inspiration, and the spiritual teaching of the God-knowing men of +other generations." + +Nathaniel was enlightened, and shocked, by the Master's pronouncement. He long +pondered this talk in the depths of his soul, but he told no man concerning +this conference until after Jesus' ascension; and even then he feared to impart +the full story of the Master's instruction. + +5. THE POSITIVE NATURE OF JESUS' RELIGION + +At Philadelphia, where James was working, Jesus taught the disciples about the +positive nature of the gospel of the kingdom. When, in the course of his +remarks, he intimated that some parts of the Scripture were more +truth-containing than others and admonished his hearers to feed their souls +upon the best of the spiritual food, James interrupted the Master, asking: +"Would you be good enough, Master, to suggest to us how we may choose the +better passages from the Scriptures for our personal edification?" And Jesus +replied: "Yes, James, when you read the Scriptures look for those eternally +true and divinely beautiful teachings, such as: + +"Create in me a clean heart, O Lord. + +"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. + +"You should love your neighbor as yourself. + +"For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying, fear not; I will +help you. + +"Neither shall the nations learn war any more." + +And this is illustrative of the way Jesus, day by day, appropriated the cream +of the Hebrew scriptures for the instruction of his followers and for inclusion +in the teachings of the new gospel of the kingdom. Other religions had +suggested the thought of the nearness of God to man, but Jesus made the care of +God for man like the solicitude of a loving father for the welfare of his +dependent children and then made this teaching the cornerstone of his religion. +And thus did the doctrine of the fatherhood of God make imperative the practice +of the brotherhood of man. The worship of God and the service of man became the +sum and substance of his religion. Jesus took the best of the Jewish religion +and translated it to a worthy setting in the new teachings of the gospel of the +kingdom. + +Jesus put the spirit of positive action into the passive doctrines of the +Jewish religion. In the place of negative compliance with ceremonial +requirements, Jesus enjoined the positive doing of that which his new religion +required of those who accepted it. Jesus' religion consisted not merely in +believing, but in actually doing, those things which the gospel required. He +did not teach that the essence + + top of page - 1770 + +of his religion consisted in social service, but rather that social service was +one of the certain effects of the possession of the spirit of true religion. + +Jesus did not hesitate to appropriate the better half of a Scripture while he +repudiated the lesser portion. His great exhortation, "Love your neighbor as +yourself," he took from the Scripture which reads: "You shall not take +vengeance against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor +as yourself." Jesus appropriated the positive portion of this Scripture while +rejecting the negative part. He even opposed negative or purely passive +nonresistance. Said he: "When an enemy smites you on one cheek, do not stand +there dumb and passive but in positive attitude turn the other; that is, do the +best thing possible actively to lead your brother in error away from the evil +paths into the better ways of righteous living." Jesus required his followers +to react positively and aggressively to every life situation. The turning of +the other cheek, or whatever act that may typify, demands initiative, +necessitates vigorous, active, and courageous expression of the believer's +personality. + +Jesus did not advocate the practice of negative submission to the indignities +of those who might purposely seek to impose upon the practitioners of +nonresistance to evil, but rather that his followers should be wise and alert +in the quick and positive reaction of good to evil to the end that they might +effectively overcome evil with good. Forget not, the truly good is invariably +more powerful than the most malignant evil. The Master taught a positive +standard of righteousness: "Whosoever wishes to be my disciple, let him +disregard himself and take up the full measure of his responsibilities daily to +follow me." And he so lived himself in that "he went about doing good." And +this aspect of the gospel was well illustrated by many parables which he later +spoke to his followers. He never exhorted his followers patiently to bear their +obligations but rather with energy and enthusiasm to live up to the full +measure of their human responsibilities and divine privileges in the kingdom of +God. + +When Jesus instructed his apostles that they should, when one unjustly took +away the coat, offer the other garment, he referred not so much to a literal +second coat as to the idea of doing something positive to save the wrongdoer in +the place of the olden advice to retaliate--"an eye for an eye" and so on. +Jesus abhorred the idea either of retaliation or of becoming just a passive +sufferer or victim of injustice. On this occasion he taught them the three ways +of contending with, and resisting, evil: + +1. To return evil for evil--the positive but unrighteous method. + +2. To suffer evil without complaint and without resistance--the purely negative +method. + +3. To return good for evil, to assert the will so as to become master of the +situation, to overcome evil with good--the positive and righteous method. + +One of the apostles once asked: "Master, what should I do if a stranger forced +me to carry his pack for a mile?" Jesus answered: "Do not sit down and sigh for +relief while you berate the stranger under your breath. Righteousness comes not +from such passive attitudes. If you can think of nothing more effectively +positive to do, you can at least carry the pack a second mile. That will of a +certainty challenge the unrighteous and ungodly stranger." + +The Jews had heard of a God who would forgive repentant sinners and try to +forget their misdeeds, but not until Jesus came, did men hear about a God who +went in search of lost sheep, who took the initiative in looking for sinners, +and + + top of page - 1771 + +who rejoiced when he found them willing to return to the Father's house. This +positive note in religion Jesus extended even to his prayers. And he converted +the negative golden rule into a positive admonition of human fairness. + +In all his teaching Jesus unfailingly avoided distracting details. He shunned +flowery language and avoided the mere poetic imagery of a play upon words. He +habitually put large meanings into small expressions. For purposes of +illustration Jesus reversed the current meanings of many terms, such as salt, +leaven, fishing, and little children. He most effectively employed the +antithesis, comparing the minute to the infinite and so on. His pictures were +striking, such as, "The blind leading the blind." But the greatest strength to +be found in his illustrative teaching was its naturalness. Jesus brought the +philosophy of religion from heaven down to earth. He portrayed the elemental +needs of the soul with a new insight and a new bestowal of affection. + +6. THE RETURN TO MAGADAN + +The mission of four weeks in the Decapolis was moderately successful. Hundreds +of souls were received into the kingdom, and the apostles and evangelists had a +valuable experience in carrying on their work without the inspiration of the +immediate personal presence of Jesus. + +On Friday, September 16, the entire corps of workers assembled by +prearrangement at Magadan Park. On the Sabbath day a council of more than one +hundred believers was held at which the future plans for extending the work of +the kingdom were fully considered. The messengers of David were present and +made reports concerning the welfare of the believers throughout Judea, Samaria, +Galilee, and adjoining districts. + +Few of Jesus' followers at this time fully appreciated the great value of the +services of the messenger corps. Not only did the messengers keep the believers +throughout Palestine in touch with each other and with Jesus and the apostles, +but during these dark days they also served as collectors of funds, not only +for the sustenance of Jesus and his associates, but also for the support of the +families of the twelve apostles and the twelve evangelists. + +About this time Abner moved his base of operations from Hebron to Bethlehem, +and this latter place was also the headquarters in Judea for David's +messengers. David maintained an overnight relay messenger service between +Jerusalem and Bethsaida. These runners left Jerusalem each evening, relaying at +Sychar and Scythopolis, arriving in Bethsaida by breakfast time the next +morning. + +Jesus and his associates now prepared to take a week's rest before they made +ready to start upon the last epoch of their labors in behalf of the kingdom. +This was their last rest, for the Perean mission developed into a campaign of +preaching and teaching which extended right on down to the time of their +arrival at Jerusalem and of the enactment of the closing episodes of Jesus' +earth career. + + top of page - 1772 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Mount Of ³ Rodan Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Tr... ³ Alexan... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p160.txt b/religious documents/p160.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..45c1596 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p160.txt @@ -0,0 +1,695 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 160 Rodan Of Alexandria + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 160 Rodan Of Alexandria + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ON SUNDAY morning, September 18, Andrew announced that no work would be planned +for the coming week. All of the apostles, except Nathaniel and Thomas, went +home to visit their families or to sojourn with friends. This week Jesus +enjoyed a period of almost complete rest, but Nathaniel and Thomas were very +busy with their discussions with a certain Greek philosopher from Alexandria +named Rodan. This Greek had recently become a disciple of Jesus through the +teaching of one of Abner's associates who had conducted a mission at +Alexandria. Rodan was now earnestly engaged in the task of harmonizing his +philosophy of life with Jesus' new religious teachings, and he had come to +Magadan hoping that the Master would talk these problems over with him. He also +desired to secure a firsthand and authoritative version of the gospel from +either Jesus or one of his apostles. Though the Master declined to enter into +such a conference with Rodan, he did receive him graciously and immediately +directed that Nathaniel and Thomas should listen to all he had to say and tell +him about the gospel in return. + +1. RODAN'S GREEK PHILOSOPHY + +Early Monday morning, Rodan began a series of ten addresses to Nathaniel, +Thomas, and a group of some two dozen believers who chanced to be at Magadan. +These talks, condensed, combined, and restated in modern phraseology, present +the following thoughts for consideration: + +Human life consists in three great drives--urges, desires, and lures. Strong +character, commanding personality, is only acquired by converting the natural +urge of life into the social art of living, by transforming present desires +into those higher longings which are capable of lasting attainment, while the +commonplace lure of existence must be transferred from one's conventional and +established ideas to the higher realms of unexplored ideas and undiscovered +ideals. + +The more complex civilization becomes, the more difficult will become the art +of living. The more rapid the changes in social usage, the more complicated +will become the task of character development. Every ten generations mankind +must learn anew the art of living if progress is to continue. And if man +becomes so ingenious that he more rapidly adds to the complexities of society, +the art of living will need to be remastered in less time, perhaps every single +generation. If the evolution of the art of living fails to keep pace with the +technique of existence, humanity will quickly revert to the simple urge of +living--the attainment of the satisfaction of present desires. Thus will +humanity remain immature; society will fail in growing up to full maturity. + + top of page - 1773 + +Social maturity is equivalent to the degree to which man is willing to +surrender the gratification of mere transient and present desires for the +entertainment of those superior longings the striving for whose attainment +affords the more abundant satisfactions of progressive advancement toward +permanent goals. But the true badge of social maturity is the willingness of a +people to surrender the right to live peaceably and contentedly under the +ease-promoting standards of the lure of established beliefs and conventional +ideas for the disquieting and energy-requiring lure of the pursuit of the +unexplored possibilities of the attainment of undiscovered goals of idealistic +spiritual realities. + +Animals respond nobly to the urge of life, but only man can attain the art of +living, albeit the majority of mankind only experience the animal urge to live. +Animals know only this blind and instinctive urge; man is capable of +transcending this urge to natural function. Man may elect to live upon the high +plane of intelligent art, even that of celestial joy and spiritual ecstasy. +Animals make no inquiry into the purposes of life; therefore they never worry, +neither do they commit suicide. Suicide among men testifies that such beings +have emerged from the purely animal stage of existence, and to the further fact +that the exploratory efforts of such human beings have failed to attain the +artistic levels of mortal experience. Animals know not the meaning of life; man +not only possesses capacity for the recognition of values and the comprehension +of meanings, but he also is conscious of the meaning of meanings--he is +self-conscious of insight. + +When men dare to forsake a life of natural craving for one of adventurous art +and uncertain logic, they must expect to suffer the consequent hazards of +emotional casualties--conflicts, unhappiness, and uncertainties--at least until +the time of their attainment of some degree of intellectual and emotional +maturity. Discouragement, worry, and indolence are positive evidence of moral +immaturity. Human society is confronted with two problems: attainment of the +maturity of the individual and attainment of the maturity of the race. The +mature human being soon begins to look upon all other mortals with feelings of +tenderness and with emotions of tolerance. Mature men view immature folks with +the love and consideration that parents bear their children. + +Successful living is nothing more or less than the art of the mastery of +dependable techniques for solving common problems. The first step in the +solution of any problem is to locate the difficulty, to isolate the problem, +and frankly to recognize its nature and gravity. The great mistake is that, +when life problems excite our profound fears, we refuse to recognize them. +Likewise, when the acknowledgment of our difficulties entails the reduction of +our long-cherished conceit, the admission of envy, or the abandonment of +deep-seated prejudices, the average person prefers to cling to the old +illusions of safety and to the long-cherished false feelings of security. Only +a brave person is willing honestly to admit, and fearlessly to face, what a +sincere and logical mind discovers. + +The wise and effective solution of any problem demands that the mind shall be +free from bias, passion, and all other purely personal prejudices which might +interfere with the disinterested survey of the actual factors that go to make +up the problem presenting itself for solution. The solution of life problems +requires courage and sincerity. Only honest and brave individuals are able to +follow valiantly through the perplexing and confusing maze of living to where +the logic of a fearless mind may lead. And this emancipation of the mind and +soul can never be effected without the driving power of an intelligent +enthusiasm which borders on religious zeal. It requires the lure of a great +ideal to drive man on in + + top of page - 1774 + +the pursuit of a goal which is beset with difficult material problems and +manifold intellectual hazards. + +Even though you are effectively armed to meet the difficult situations of life, +you can hardly expect success unless you are equipped with that wisdom of mind +and charm of personality which enable you to win the hearty support and +co-operation of your fellows. You cannot hope for a large measure of success in +either secular or religious work unless you can learn how to persuade your +fellows, to prevail with men. You simply must have tact and tolerance. + +But the greatest of all methods of problem solving I have learned from Jesus, +your Master. I refer to that which he so consistently practices, and which he +has so faithfully taught you, the isolation of worshipful meditation. In this +habit of Jesus' going off so frequently by himself to commune with the Father +in heaven is to be found the technique, not only of gathering strength and +wisdom for the ordinary conflicts of living, but also of appropriating the +energy for the solution of the higher problems of a moral and spiritual nature. +But even correct methods of solving problems will not compensate for inherent +defects of personality or atone for the absence of the hunger and thirst for +true righteousness. + +I am deeply impressed with the custom of Jesus in going apart by himself to +engage in these seasons of solitary survey of the problems of living; to seek +for new stores of wisdom and energy for meeting the manifold demands of social +service; to quicken and deepen the supreme purpose of living by actually +subjecting the total personality to the consciousness of contacting with +divinity; to grasp for possession of new and better methods of adjusting +oneself to the ever-changing situations of living existence; to effect those +vital reconstructions and readjustments of one's personal attitudes which are +so essential to enhanced insight into everything worth while and real; and to +do all of this with an eye single to the glory of God--to breathe in sincerity +your Master's favorite prayer, "Not my will, but yours, be done." + +This worshipful practice of your Master brings that relaxation which renews the +mind; that illumination which inspires the soul; that courage which enables one +bravely to face one's problems; that self-understanding which obliterates +debilitating fear; and that consciousness of union with divinity which equips +man with the assurance that enables him to dare to be Godlike. The relaxation +of worship, or spiritual communion as practiced by the Master, relieves +tension, removes conflicts, and mightily augments the total resources of the +personality. And all this philosophy, plus the gospel of the kingdom, +constitutes the new religion as I understand it. + +Prejudice blinds the soul to the recognition of truth, and prejudice can be +removed only by the sincere devotion of the soul to the adoration of a cause +that is all-embracing and all-inclusive of one's fellow men. Prejudice is +inseparably linked to selfishness. Prejudice can be eliminated only by the +abandonment of self-seeking and by substituting therefor the quest of the +satisfaction of the service of a cause that is not only greater than self, but +one that is even greater than all humanity--the search for God, the attainment +of divinity. The evidence of maturity of personality consists in the +transformation of human desire so that it constantly seeks for the realization +of those values which are highest and most divinely real. + +In a continually changing world, in the midst of an evolving social order, it +is impossible to maintain settled and established goals of destiny. Stability +of per- + + top of page - 1775 + +sonality can be experienced only by those who have discovered and embraced the +living God as the eternal goal of infinite attainment. And thus to transfer +one's goal from time to eternity, from earth to Paradise, from the human to the +divine, requires that man shall become regenerated, converted, be born again; +that he shall become the re-created child of the divine spirit; that he shall +gain entrance into the brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven. All philosophies +and religions which fall short of these ideals are immature. The philosophy +which I teach, linked with the gospel which you preach, represents the new +religion of maturity, the ideal of all future generations. And this is true +because our ideal is final, infallible, eternal, universal, absolute, and +infinite. + +My philosophy gave me the urge to search for the realities of true attainment, +the goal of maturity. But my urge was impotent; my search lacked driving power; +my quest suffered from the absence of certainty of directionization. And these +deficiencies have been abundantly supplied by this new gospel of Jesus, with +its enhancement of insights, elevation of ideals, and settledness of goals. +Without doubts and misgivings I can now wholeheartedly enter upon the eternal +venture. + +2. THE ART OF LIVING + +There are just two ways in which mortals may live together: the material or +animal way and the spiritual or human way. By the use of signals and sounds +animals are able to communicate with each other in a limited way. But such +forms of communication do not convey meanings, values, or ideas. The one +distinction between man and the animal is that man can communicate with his +fellows by means of symbols which most certainly designate and identify +meanings, values, ideas, and even ideals. + +Since animals cannot communicate ideas to each other, they cannot develop +personality. Man develops personality because he can thus communicate with his +fellows concerning both ideas and ideals. + +It is this ability to communicate and share meanings that constitutes human +culture and enables man, through social associations, to build civilizations. +Knowledge and wisdom become cumulative because of man's ability to communicate +these possessions to succeeding generations. And thereby arise the cultural +activities of the race: art, science, religion, and philosophy. + +Symbolic communication between human beings predetermines the bringing into +existence of social groups. The most effective of all social groups is the +family, more particularly the two parents. Personal affection is the spiritual +bond which holds together these material associations. Such an effective +relationship is also possible between two persons of the same sex, as is so +abundantly illustrated in the devotions of genuine friendships. + +These associations of friendship and mutual affection are socializing and +ennobling because they encourage and facilitate the following essential factors +of the higher levels of the art of living: + +1. Mutual self-expression and self-understanding. Many noble human impulses die +because there is no one to hear their expression. Truly, it is not good for man +to be alone. Some degree of recognition and a certain amount of appreciation +are essential to the development of human character. Without the genuine love +of a home, no child can achieve the full development of normal + + top of page - 1776 + +character. Character is something more than mere mind and morals. Of all social +relations calculated to develop character, the most effective and ideal is the +affectionate and understanding friendship of man and woman in the mutual +embrace of intelligent wedlock. Marriage, with its manifold relations, is best +designed to draw forth those precious impulses and those higher motives which +are indispensable to the development of a strong character. I do not hesitate +thus to glorify family life, for your Master has wisely chosen the father-child +relationship as the very cornerstone of this new gospel of the kingdom. And +such a matchless community of relationship, man and woman in the fond embrace +of the highest ideals of time, is so valuable and satisfying an experience that +it is worth any price, any sacrifice, requisite for its possession. + +2. Union of souls--the mobilization of wisdom. Every human being sooner or +later acquires a certain concept of this world and a certain vision of the +next. Now it is possible, through personality association, to unite these views +of temporal existence and eternal prospects. Thus does the mind of one augment +its spiritual values by gaining much of the insight of the other. In this way +men enrich the soul by pooling their respective spiritual possessions. +Likewise, in this same way, man is enabled to avoid that ever-present tendency +to fall victim to distortion of vision, prejudice of viewpoint, and narrowness +of judgment. Fear, envy, and conceit can be prevented only by intimate contact +with other minds. I call your attention to the fact that the Master never sends +you out alone to labor for the extension of the kingdom; he always sends you +out two and two. And since wisdom is superknowledge, it follows that, in the +union of wisdom, the social group, small or large, mutually shares all +knowledge. + +3. The enthusiasm for living. Isolation tends to exhaust the energy charge of +the soul. Association with one's fellows is essential to the renewal of the +zest for life and is indispensable to the maintenance of the courage to fight +those battles consequent upon the ascent to the higher levels of human living. +Friendship enhances the joys and glorifies the triumphs of life. Loving and +intimate human associations tend to rob suffering of its sorrow and hardship of +much of its bitterness. The presence of a friend enhances all beauty and exalts +every goodness. By intelligent symbols man is able to quicken and enlarge the +appreciative capacities of his friends. One of the crowning glories of human +friendship is this power and possibility of the mutual stimulation of the +imagination. Great spiritual power is inherent in the consciousness of +wholehearted devotion to a common cause, mutual loyalty to a cosmic Deity. + +4. The enhanced defense against all evil. Personality association and mutual +affection is an efficient insurance against evil. Difficulties, sorrow, +disappointment, and defeat are more painful and disheartening when borne alone. +Association does not transmute evil into righteousness, but it does aid in +greatly lessening the sting. Said your Master, "Happy are they who mourn"--if a +friend is at hand to comfort. There is positive strength in the knowledge that +you live for the welfare of others, and that these others likewise live for +your welfare and advancement. Man languishes in isolation. Human beings +unfailingly become discouraged when they view only the transitory transactions +of time. The present, when divorced from the past and the future, becomes +exasperatingly trivial. Only a glimpse of the circle of eternity can inspire +man to do his best and + + top of page - 1777 + +can challenge the best in him to do its utmost. And when man is thus at his +best, he lives most unselfishly for the good of others, his fellow sojourners +in time and eternity. + +I repeat, such inspiring and ennobling association finds its ideal +possibilities in the human marriage relation. True, much is attained out of +marriage, and many, many marriages utterly fail to produce these moral and +spiritual fruits. Too many times marriage is entered by those who seek other +values which are lower than these superior accompaniments of human maturity. +Ideal marriage must be founded on something more stable than the fluctuations +of sentiment and the fickleness of mere sex attraction; it must be based on +genuine and mutual personal devotion. And thus, if you can build up such +trustworthy and effective small units of human association, when these are +assembled in the aggregate, the world will behold a great and glorified social +structure, the civilization of mortal maturity. Such a race might begin to +realize something of your Master's ideal of "peace on earth and good will among +men." While such a society would not be perfect or entirely free from evil, it +would at least approach the stabilization of maturity. + +3. THE LURES OF MATURITY + +The effort toward maturity necessitates work, and work requires energy. Whence +the power to accomplish all this? The physical things can be taken for granted, +but the Master has well said, "Man cannot live by bread alone." Granted the +possession of a normal body and reasonably good health, we must next look for +those lures which will act as a stimulus to call forth man's slumbering +spiritual forces. Jesus has taught us that God lives in man; then how can we +induce man to release these soul-bound powers of divinity and infinity? How +shall we induce men to let go of God that he may spring forth to the +refreshment of our own souls while in transit outward and then to serve the +purpose of enlightening, uplifting, and blessing countless other souls? How +best can I awaken these latent powers for good which lie dormant in your souls? +One thing I am sure of: Emotional excitement is not the ideal spiritual +stimulus. Excitement does not augment energy; it rather exhausts the powers of +both mind and body. Whence then comes the energy to do these great things? Look +to your Master. Even now he is out in the hills taking in power while we are +here giving out energy. The secret of all this problem is wrapped up in +spiritual communion, in worship. From the human standpoint it is a question of +combined meditation and relaxation. Meditation makes the contact of mind with +spirit; relaxation determines the capacity for spiritual receptivity. And this +interchange of strength for weakness, courage for fear, the will of God for the +mind of self, constitutes worship. At least, that is the way the philosopher +views it. + +When these experiences are frequently repeated, they crystallize into habits, +strength-giving and worshipful habits, and such habits eventually formulate +themselves into a spiritual character, and such a character is finally +recognized by one's fellows as a mature personality. These practices are +difficult and time-consuming at first, but when they become habitual, they are +at once restful and time-saving. The more complex society becomes, and the more +the lures of civilization multiply, the more urgent will become the necessity +for God-knowing individuals to form such protective habitual practices designed +to conserve and augment their spiritual energies. + + top of page - 1778 + +Another requirement for the attainment of maturity is the co-operative +adjustment of social groups to an ever-changing environment. The immature +individual arouses the antagonisms of his fellows; the mature man wins the +hearty co-operation of his associates, thereby many times multiplying the +fruits of his life efforts. + +My philosophy tells me that there are times when I must fight, if need be, for +the defense of my concept of righteousness, but I doubt not that the Master, +with a more mature type of personality, would easily and gracefully gain an +equal victory by his superior and winsome technique of tact and tolerance. All +too often, when we battle for the right, it turns out that both the victor and +the vanquished have sustained defeat. I heard the Master say only yesterday +that the "wise man, when seeking entrance through the locked door, would not +destroy the door but rather would seek for the key wherewith to unlock it." Too +often we engage in a fight merely to convince ourselves that we are not afraid. + +This new gospel of the kingdom renders a great service to the art of living in +that it supplies a new and richer incentive for higher living. It presents a +new and exalted goal of destiny, a supreme life purpose. And these new concepts +of the eternal and divine goal of existence are in themselves transcendent +stimuli, calling forth the reaction of the very best that is resident in man's +higher nature. On every mountaintop of intellectual thought are to be found +relaxation for the mind, strength for the soul, and communion for the spirit. +From such vantage points of high living, man is able to transcend the material +irritations of the lower levels of thinking--worry, jealousy, envy, revenge, +and the pride of immature personality. These high-climbing souls deliver +themselves from a multitude of the crosscurrent conflicts of the trifles of +living, thus becoming free to attain consciousness of the higher currents of +spirit concept and celestial communication. But the life purpose must be +jealously guarded from the temptation to seek for easy and transient +attainment; likewise must it be so fostered as to become immune to the +disastrous threats of fanaticism. + +4. THE BALANCE OF MATURITY + +While you have an eye single to the attainment of eternal realities, you must +also make provision for the necessities of temporal living. While the spirit is +our goal, the flesh is a fact. Occasionally the necessities of living may fall +into our hands by accident, but in general, we must intelligently work for +them. The two major problems of life are: making a temporal living and the +achievement of eternal survival. And even the problem of making a living +requires religion for its ideal solution. These are both highly personal +problems. True religion, in fact, does not function apart from the individual. + +The essentials of the temporal life, as I see them, are: + +1. Good physical health. + +2. Clear and clean thinking. + +3. Ability and skill. + +4. Wealth--the goods of life. + +5. Ability to withstand defeat. + +6. Culture--education and wisdom. + + top of page - 1779 + +Even the physical problems of bodily health and efficiency are best solved when +they are viewed from the religious standpoint of our Master's teaching: That +the body and mind of man are the dwelling place of the gift of the Gods, the +spirit of God becoming the spirit of man. The mind of man thus becomes the +mediator between material things and spiritual realities. + +It requires intelligence to secure one's share of the desirable things of life. +It is wholly erroneous to suppose that faithfulness in doing one's daily work +will insure the rewards of wealth. Barring the occasional and accidental +acquirement of wealth, the material rewards of the temporal life are found to +flow in certain well-organized channels, and only those who have access to +these channels may expect to be well rewarded for their temporal efforts. +Poverty must ever be the lot of all men who seek for wealth in isolated and +individual channels. Wise planning, therefore, becomes the one thing essential +to worldly prosperity. Success requires not only devotion to one's work but +also that one should function as a part of some one of the channels of material +wealth. If you are unwise, you can bestow a devoted life upon your generation +without material reward; if you are an accidental beneficiary of the flow of +wealth, you may roll in luxury even though you have done nothing worth while +for your fellow men. + +Ability is that which you inherit, while skill is what you acquire. Life is not +real to one who cannot do some one thing well, expertly. Skill is one of the +real sources of the satisfaction of living. Ability implies the gift of +foresight, farseeing vision. Be not deceived by the tempting rewards of +dishonest achievement; be willing to toil for the later returns inherent in +honest endeavor. The wise man is able to distinguish between means and ends; +otherwise, sometimes overplanning for the future defeats its own high purpose. +As a pleasure seeker you should aim always to be a producer as well as a +consumer. + +Train your memory to hold in sacred trust the strength-giving and worthwhile +episodes of life, which you can recall at will for your pleasure and +edification. Thus build up for yourself and in yourself reserve galleries of +beauty, goodness, and artistic grandeur. But the noblest of all memories are +the treasured recollections of the great moments of a superb friendship. And +all of these memory treasures radiate their most precious and exalting +influences under the releasing touch of spiritual worship. + +But life will become a burden of existence unless you learn how to fail +gracefully. There is an art in defeat which noble souls always acquire; you +must know how to lose cheerfully; you must be fearless of disappointment. Never +hesitate to admit failure. Make no attempt to hide failure under deceptive +smiles and beaming optimism. It sounds well always to claim success, but the +end results are appalling. Such a technique leads directly to the creation of a +world of unreality and to the inevitable crash of ultimate disillusionment. + +Success may generate courage and promote confidence, but wisdom comes only from +the experiences of adjustment to the results of one's failures. Men who prefer +optimistic illusions to reality can never become wise. Only those who face +facts and adjust them to ideals can achieve wisdom. Wisdom embraces both the +fact and the ideal and therefore saves its devotees from both of those barren +extremes of philosophy--the man whose idealism excludes facts and the +materialist who is devoid of spiritual outlook. Those timid souls who can only +keep up the struggle of life by the aid of continuous false illusions of suc- + + top of page - 1780 + +cess are doomed to suffer failure and experience defeat as they ultimately +awaken from the dream world of their own imaginations. + +And it is in this business of facing failure and adjusting to defeat that the +far-reaching vision of religion exerts its supreme influence. Failure is simply +an educational episode--a cultural experiment in the acquirement of wisdom--in +the experience of the God-seeking man who has embarked on the eternal adventure +of the exploration of a universe. To such men defeat is but a new tool for the +achievement of higher levels of universe reality. + +The career of a God-seeking man may prove to be a great success in the light of +eternity, even though the whole temporal-life enterprise may appear as an +overwhelming failure, provided each life failure yielded the culture of wisdom +and spirit achievement. Do not make the mistake of confusing knowledge, +culture, and wisdom. They are related in life, but they represent vastly +differing spirit values; wisdom ever dominates knowledge and always glorifies +culture. + +5. THE RELIGION OF THE IDEAL + +You have told me that your Master regards genuine human religion as the +individual's experience with spiritual realities. I have regarded religion as +man's experience of reacting to something which he regards as being worthy of +the homage and devotion of all mankind. In this sense, religion symbolizes our +supreme devotion to that which represents our highest concept of the ideals of +reality and the farthest reach of our minds toward eternal possibilities of +spiritual attainment. + +When men react to religion in the tribal, national, or racial sense, it is +because they look upon those without their group as not being truly human. We +always look upon the object of our religious + + top of page - 1781 + +loyalty as being worthy of the reverence of all men. Religion can never be a +matter of mere intellectual belief or philosophic reasoning; religion is always +and forever a mode of reacting to the situations of life; it is a species of +conduct. Religion embraces thinking, feeling, and acting reverently toward some +reality which we deem worthy of universal adoration. + +If something has become a religion in your experience, it is self-evident that +you already have become an active evangel of that religion since you deem the +supreme concept of your religion as being worthy of the worship of all mankind, +all universe intelligences. If you are not a positive and missionary evangel of +your religion, you are self-deceived in that what you call a religion is only a +traditional belief or a mere system of intellectual philosophy. If your +religion is a spiritual experience, your object of worship must be the +universal spirit reality and ideal of all your spiritualized concepts. All +religions based on fear, emotion, tradition, and philosophy I term the +intellectual religions, while those based on true spirit experience I would +term the true religions. The object of religious devotion may be material or +spiritual, true or false, real or unreal, human or divine. Religions can +therefore be either good or evil. + +Morality and religion are not necessarily the same. A system of morals, by +grasping an object of worship, may become a religion. A religion, by losing its +universal appeal to loyalty and supreme devotion, may evolve into a system of +philosophy or a code of morals. This thing, being, state, or order of +existence, or possibility of attainment which constitutes the supreme ideal of +religious loyalty, and which is the recipient of the religious devotion of +those who worship, is God. Regardless of the name applied to this ideal of +spirit reality, it is God. + +The social characteristics of a true religion consist in the fact that it +invariably seeks to convert the individual and to transform the world. Religion +implies the existence of undiscovered ideals which far transcend the known +standards of ethics and morality embodied in even the highest social usages of +the most mature institutions of civilization. Religion reaches out for +undiscovered ideals, unexplored realities, superhuman values, divine wisdom, +and true spirit attainment. True religion does all of this; all other beliefs +are not worthy of the name. You cannot have a genuine spiritual religion +without the supreme and supernal ideal of an eternal God. A religion without +this God is an invention of man, a human institution of lifeless intellectual +beliefs and meaningless emotional ceremonies. A religion might claim as the +object of its devotion a great ideal. But such ideals of unreality are not +attainable; such a concept is illusionary. The only ideals susceptible of human +attainment are the divine realities of the infinite values resident in the +spiritual fact of the eternal God. + +The word God, the idea of God as contrasted with the ideal of God, can become a +part of any religion, no matter how puerile or false that religion may chance +to be. And this idea of God can become anything which those who entertain it +may choose to make it. The lower religions shape their ideas of God to meet the +natural state of the human heart; the higher religions demand that the human +heart shall be changed to meet the demands of the ideals of true religion. + +The religion of Jesus transcends all our former concepts of the idea of worship +in that he not only portrays his Father as the ideal of infinite reality but +positively declares that this divine source of values and the eternal center of +the universe is truly and personally attainable by every mortal creature who +chooses to enter the kingdom of heaven on earth, thereby acknowledging the +acceptance of sonship with God and brotherhood with man. That, I submit, is the +highest concept of religion the world has ever known, and I pronounce that +there can never be a higher since this gospel embraces the infinity of +realities, the divinity of values, and the eternity of universal attainments. +Such a concept constitutes the achievement of the experience of the idealism of +the supreme and the ultimate. + +I am not only intrigued by the consummate ideals of this religion of your +Master, but I am mightily moved to profess my belief in his announcement that +these ideals of spirit realities are attainable; that you and I can enter upon +this long and eternal adventure with his assurance of the certainty of our +ultimate arrival at the portals of Paradise. My brethren, I am a believer, I +have embarked; I am on my way with you in this eternal venture. The Master says +he came from the Father, and that he will show us the way. I am fully persuaded +he speaks the truth. I am finally convinced that there are no attainable ideals +of reality or values of perfection apart from the eternal and Universal Father. + +I come, then, to worship, not merely the God of existences, but the God of the +possibility of all future existences. Therefore must your devotion to a supreme +ideal, if that ideal is real, be devotion to this God of past, present, and +future universes of things and beings. And there is no other God, for there +cannot possibly be any other God. All other gods are figments of the +imagination, illusions of mortal mind, distortions of false logic, and the +self-deceptive idols of those who create them. Yes, you can have a religion +without this God, but it + + top of page - 1782 + +does not mean anything. And if you seek to substitute the word God for the +reality of this ideal of the living God, you have only deluded yourself by +putting an idea in the place of an ideal, a divine reality. Such beliefs are +merely religions of wishful fancy. + +I see in the teachings of Jesus, religion at its best. This gospel enables us +to seek for the true God and to find him. But are we willing to pay the price +of this entrance into the kingdom of heaven? Are we willing to be born again? +to be remade? Are we willing to be subject to this terrible and testing process +of self-destruction and soul reconstruction? Has not the Master said: "Whoso +would save his life must lose it. Think not that I have come to bring peace but +rather a soul struggle"? True, after we pay the price of dedication to the +Father's will, we do experience great peace provided we continue to walk in +these spiritual paths of consecrated living. + +Now are we truly forsaking the lures of the known order of existence while we +unreservedly dedicate our quest to the lures of the unknown and unexplored +order of the existence of a future life of adventure in the spirit worlds of +the higher idealism of divine reality. And we seek for those symbols of meaning +wherewith to convey to our fellow men these concepts of the reality of the +idealism of the religion of Jesus, and we will not cease to pray for that day +when all mankind shall be thrilled by the communal vision of this supreme +truth. Just now, our focalized concept of the Father, as held in our hearts, is +that God is spirit; as conveyed to our fellows, that God is love. + +The religion of Jesus demands living and spiritual experience. Other religions +may consist in traditional beliefs, emotional feelings, philosophic +consciousness, and all of that, but the teaching of the Master requires the +attainment of actual levels of real spirit progression. + +The consciousness of the impulse to be like God is not true religion. The +feelings of the emotion to worship God are not true religion. The knowledge of +the conviction to forsake self and serve God is not true religion. The wisdom +of the reasoning that this religion is the best of all is not religion as a +personal and spiritual experience. True religion has reference to destiny and +reality of attainment as well as to the reality and idealism of that which is +wholeheartedly faith-accepted. And all of this must be made personal to us by +the revelation of the Spirit of Truth. + +And thus ended the dissertations of the Greek philosopher, one of the greatest +of his race, who had become a believer in the gospel of Jesus. + + top of page - 1783 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Decapolis ³ Further ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ T... ³ Discuss... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p161.txt b/religious documents/p161.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..72a0f83 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p161.txt @@ -0,0 +1,346 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 161 Further Discussions With Rodan + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 161 Further Discussions With Rodan + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ON SUNDAY, September 25, A.D. 29, the apostles and the evangelists assembled at +Magadan. After a long conference that evening with his associates, Jesus +surprised all by announcing that early the next day he and the twelve apostles +would start for Jerusalem to attend the feast of tabernacles. He directed that +the evangelists visit the believers in Galilee, and that the women's corps +return for a while to Bethsaida. + +When the hour came to leave for Jerusalem, Nathaniel and Thomas were still in +the midst of their discussions with Rodan of Alexandria, and they secured the +Master's permission to remain at Magadan for a few days. And so, while Jesus +and the ten were on their way to Jerusalem, Nathaniel and Thomas were engaged +in earnest debate with Rodan. The week prior, in which Rodan had expounded his +philosophy, Thomas and Nathaniel had alternated in presenting the gospel of the +kingdom to the Greek philosopher. Rodan discovered that he had been well +instructed in Jesus' teachings by one of the former apostles of John the +Baptist who had been his teacher at Alexandria. + +1. THE PERSONALITY OF GOD + +There was one matter on which Rodan and the two apostles did not see alike, and +that was the personality of God. Rodan readily accepted all that was presented +to him regarding the attributes of God, but he contended that the Father in +heaven is not, cannot be, a person as man conceives personality. While the +apostles found themselves in difficulty trying to prove that God is a person, +Rodan found it still more difficult to prove he is not a person. + +Rodan contended that the fact of personality consists in the coexistent fact of +full and mutual communication between beings of equality, beings who are +capable of sympathetic understanding. Said Rodan: "In order to be a person, God +must have symbols of spirit communication which would enable him to become +fully understood by those who make contact with him. But since God is infinite +and eternal, the Creator of all other beings, it follows that, as regards +beings of equality, God is alone in the universe. There are none equal to him; +there are none with whom he can communicate as an equal. God indeed may be the +source of all personality, but as such he is transcendent to personality, even +as the Creator is above and beyond the creature." + +This contention greatly troubled Thomas and Nathaniel, and they had asked Jesus +to come to their rescue, but the Master refused to enter into their +discussions. He did say to Thomas: "It matters little what idea of the Father +you may entertain as long as you are spiritually acquainted with the ideal of +his infinite and eternal nature." + + top of page - 1784 + +Thomas contended that God does communicate with man, and therefore that the +Father is a person, even within the definition of Rodan. This the Greek +rejected on the ground that God does not reveal himself personally; that he is +still a mystery. Then Nathaniel appealed to his own personal experience with +God, and that Rodan allowed, affirming that he had recently had similar +experiences, but these experiences, he contended, proved only the reality of +God, not his personality. + +By Monday night Thomas gave up. But by Tuesday night Nathaniel had won Rodan to +believe in the personality of the Father, and he effected this change in the +Greek's views by the following steps of reasoning: + +1. The Father in Paradise does enjoy equality of communication with at least +two other beings who are fully equal to himself and wholly like himself--the +Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. In view of the doctrine of the Trinity, +the Greek was compelled to concede the personality possibility of the Universal +Father. (It was the later consideration of these discussions which led to the +enlarged conception of the Trinity in the minds of the twelve apostles. Of +course, it was the general belief that Jesus was the Eternal Son.) + +2. Since Jesus was equal with the Father, and since this Son had achieved the +manifestation of personality to his earth children, such a phenomenon +constituted proof of the fact, and demonstration of the possibility, of the +possession of personality by all three of the Godheads and forever settled the +question regarding the ability of God to communicate with man and the +possibility of man's communicating with God. + +3. That Jesus was on terms of mutual association and perfect communication with +man; that Jesus was the Son of God. That the relation of Son and Father +presupposes equality of communication and mutuality of sympathetic +understanding; that Jesus and the Father were one. That Jesus maintained at one +and the same time understanding communication with both God and man, and that, +since both God and man comprehended the meaning of the symbols of Jesus' +communication, both God and man possessed the attributes of personality in so +far as the requirements of the ability of intercommunication were concerned. +That the personality of Jesus demonstrated the personality of God, while it +proved conclusively the presence of God in man. That two things which are +related to the same thing are related to each other. + +4. That personality represents man's highest concept of human reality and +divine values; that God also represents man's highest concept of divine reality +and infinite values; therefore, that God must be a divine and infinite +personality, a personality in reality although infinitely and eternally +transcending man's concept and definition of personality, but nevertheless +always and universally a personality. + +5. That God must be a personality since he is the Creator of all personality +and the destiny of all personality. Rodan had been tremendously influenced by +the teaching of Jesus, "Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven +is perfect." + +When Rodan heard these arguments, he said: "I am convinced. I will confess God +as a person if you will permit me to qualify my confession of such a belief by +attaching to the meaning of personality a group of extended values, + + top of page - 1785 + +such as superhuman, transcendent, supreme, infinite, eternal, final, and +universal. I am now convinced that, while God must be infinitely more than a +personality, he cannot be anything less. I am satisfied to end the argument and +to accept Jesus as the personal revelation of the Father and the satisfaction +of all unsatisfied factors in logic, reason, and philosophy." + +2. THE DIVINE NATURE OF JESUS + +Since Nathaniel and Thomas had so fully approved Rodan's views of the gospel of +the kingdom, there remained only one more point to consider, the teaching +dealing with the divine nature of Jesus, a doctrine only so recently publicly +announced. Nathaniel and Thomas jointly presented their views of the divine +nature of the Master, and the following narrative is a condensed, rearranged, +and restated presentation of their teaching: + +1. Jesus has admitted his divinity, and we believe him. Many remarkable things +have happened in connection with his ministry which we can understand only by +believing that he is the Son of God as well as the Son of Man. + +2. His life association with us exemplifies the ideal of human friendship; only +a divine being could possibly be such a human friend. He is the most truly +unselfish person we have ever known. He is the friend even of sinners; he dares +to love his enemies. He is very loyal to us. While he does not hesitate to +reprove us, it is plain to all that he truly loves us. The better you know him, +the more you will love him. You will be charmed by his unswerving devotion. +Through all these years of our failure to comprehend his mission, he has been a +faithful friend. While he makes no use of flattery, he does treat us all with +equal kindness; he is invariably tender and compassionate. He has shared his +life and everything else with us. We are a happy community; we share all things +in common. We do not believe that a mere human could live such a blameless life +under such trying circumstances. + +3. We think Jesus is divine because he never does wrong; he makes no mistakes. +His wisdom is extraordinary; his piety superb. He lives day by day in perfect +accord with the Father's will. He never repents of misdeeds because he +transgresses none of the Father's laws. He prays for us and with us, but he +never asks us to pray for him. We believe that he is consistently sinless. We +do not think that one who is only human ever professed to live such a life. He +claims to live a perfect life, and we acknowledge that he does. Our piety +springs from repentance, but his piety springs from righteousness. He even +professes to forgive sins and does heal diseases. No mere man would sanely +profess to forgive sin; that is a divine prerogative. And he has seemed to be +thus perfect in his righteousness from the times of our first contact with him. +We grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, but our Master exhibits +maturity of righteousness to start with. All men, good and evil, recognize +these elements of goodness in Jesus. And yet never is his piety obtrusive or +ostentatious. He is both meek and fearless. He seems to approve of our belief +in his divinity. He is either what he professes to be, or else he is the +greatest hypocrite and fraud the world has ever known. We are persuaded that he +is just what he claims to be. + +4. The uniqueness of his character and the perfection of his emotional control +convince us that he is a combination of humanity and divinity. He un- + + top of page - 1786 + +failingly responds to the spectacle of human need; suffering never fails to +appeal to him. His compassion is moved alike by physical suffering, mental +anguish, or spiritual sorrow. He is quick to recognize and generous to +acknowledge the presence of faith or any other grace in his fellow men. He is +so just and fair and at the same time so merciful and considerate. He grieves +over the spiritual obstinacy of the people and rejoices when they consent to +see the light of truth. + +5. He seems to know the thoughts of men's minds and to understand the longings +of their hearts. And he is always sympathetic with our troubled spirits. He +seems to possess all our human emotions, but they are magnificently glorified. +He strongly loves goodness and equally hates sin. He possesses a superhuman +consciousness of the presence of Deity. He prays like a man but performs like a +God. He seems to foreknow things; he even now dares to speak about his death, +some mystic reference to his future glorification. While he is kind, he is also +brave and courageous. He never falters in doing his duty. + +6. We are constantly impressed by the phenomenon of his superhuman knowledge. +Hardly does a day pass but something transpires to disclose that the Master +knows what is going on away from his immediate presence. He also seems to know +about the thoughts of his associates. He undoubtedly has communion with +celestial personalities; he unquestionably lives on a spiritual plane far above +the rest of us. Everything seems to be open to his unique understanding. He +asks us questions to draw us out, not to gain information. + +7. Recently the Master does not hesitate to assert his superhumanity. From the +day of our ordination as apostles right on down to recent times, he has never +denied that he came from the Father above. He speaks with the authority of a +divine teacher. The Master does not hesitate to refute the religious teachings +of today and to declare the new gospel with positive authority. He is +assertive, positive, and authoritative. Even John the Baptist, when he heard +Jesus speak, declared that he was the Son of God. He seems to be so sufficient +within himself. He craves not the support of the multitude; he is indifferent +to the opinions of men. He is brave and yet so free from pride. + +8. He constantly talks about God as an ever-present associate in all that he +does. He goes about doing good, for God seems to be in him. He makes the most +astounding assertions about himself and his mission on earth, statements which +would be absurd if he were not divine. He once declared, "Before Abraham was, I +am." He has definitely claimed divinity; he professes to be in partnership with +God. He well-nigh exhausts the possibilities of language in the reiteration of +his claims of intimate association with the heavenly Father. He even dares to +assert that he and the Father are one. He says that any one who has seen him +has seen the Father. And he says and does all these tremendous things with such +childlike naturalness. He alludes to his association with the Father in the +same manner that he refers to his association with us. He seems to be so sure +about God and speaks of these relations in such a matter-of-fact way. + +9. In his prayer life he appears to communicate directly with his Father. We +have heard few of his prayers, but these few would indicate that he talks with +God, as it were, face to face. He seems to know the future as well as the past. +He simply could not be all of this and do all of these extraordinary things + + top of page - 1787 + +unless he were something more than human. We know he is human, we are sure of +that, but we are almost equally sure that he is also divine. We believe that he +is divine. We are convinced that he is the Son of Man and the Son of God. + +When Nathaniel and Thomas had concluded their conferences with Rodan, they +hurried on toward Jerusalem to join their fellow apostles, arriving on Friday +of that week. This had been a great experience in the lives of all three of +these believers, and the other apostles learned much from the recounting of +these experiences by Nathaniel and Thomas. + +Rodan made his way back to Alexandria, where he long taught his philosophy in +the school of Meganta. He became a mighty man in the later affairs of the +kingdom of heaven; he was a faithful believer to the end of his earth days, +yielding up his life in Greece with others when the persecutions were at their +height. + +3. JESUS' HUMAN AND DIVINE MINDS + +Consciousness of divinity was a gradual growth in the mind of Jesus up to the +occasion of his baptism. After he became fully self-conscious of his divine +nature, prehuman existence, and universe prerogatives, he seems to have +possessed the power of variously limiting his human consciousness of his +divinity. It appears to us that from his baptism until the crucifixion it was +entirely optional with Jesus whether to depend only on the human mind or to +utilize the knowledge of both the human and the divine minds. At times he +appeared to avail himself of only that information which was resident in the +human intellect. On other occasions he appeared to act with such fullness of +knowledge and wisdom as could be afforded only by the utilization of the +superhuman content of his divine consciousness. + +We can understand his unique performances only by accepting the theory that he +could, at will, self-limit his divinity consciousness. We are fully cognizant +that he frequently withheld from his associates his foreknowledge of events, +and that he was aware of the nature of their thinking and planning. We +understand that he did not wish his followers to know too fully that he was +able to discern their thoughts and to penetrate their plans. He did not desire +too far to transcend the concept of the human as it was held in the minds of +his apostles and disciples. + +We are utterly at a loss to differentiate between his practice of self-limiting +his divine consciousness and his technique of concealing his preknowledge and +thought discernment from his human associates. We are convinced that he used +both of these techniques, but we are not always able, in a given instance, to +specify which method he may have employed. We frequently observed him acting +with only the human content of consciousness; then would we behold him in +conference with the directors of the celestial hosts of the universe and +discern the undoubted functioning of the divine mind. And then on almost +numberless occasions did we witness the working of this combined personality of +man and God as it was activated by the apparent perfect union of the human and +the divine minds. This is the limit of our knowledge of such phenomena; we +really do not actually know the full truth about this mystery. + + top of page - 1788 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Rodan Of ³ At The Feast ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Alexan... ³ Of... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p162.txt b/religious documents/p162.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea14f3b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p162.txt @@ -0,0 +1,705 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 162 At The Feast Of Tabernacles + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 162 At The Feast Of Tabernacles + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +WHEN Jesus started up to Jerusalem with the ten apostles, he planned to go +through Samaria, that being the shorter route. Accordingly, they passed down +the eastern shore of the lake and, by way of Scythopolis, entered the borders +of Samaria. Near nightfall Jesus sent Philip and Matthew over to a village on +the eastern slopes of Mount Gilboa to secure lodging for the company. It so +happened that these villagers were greatly prejudiced against the Jews, even +more so than the average Samaritans, and these feelings were heightened at this +particular time as so many were on their way to the feast of tabernacles. These +people knew very little about Jesus, and they refused him lodging because he +and his associates were Jews. When Matthew and Philip manifested indignation +and informed these Samaritans that they were declining to entertain the Holy +One of Israel, the infuriated villagers chased them out of the little town with +sticks and stones. + +After Philip and Matthew had returned to their fellows and reported how they +had been driven out of the village, James and John stepped up to Jesus and +said: "Master, we pray you to give us permission to bid fire come down from +heaven to devour these insolent and impenitent Samaritans." But when Jesus +heard these words of vengeance, he turned upon the sons of Zebedee and severely +rebuked them: "You know not what manner of attitude you manifest. Vengeance +savors not of the outlook of the kingdom of heaven. Rather than dispute, let us +journey over to the little village by the Jordan ford." Thus because of +sectarian prejudice these Samaritans denied themselves the honor of showing +hospitality to the Creator Son of a universe. + +Jesus and the ten stopped for the night at the village near the Jordan ford. +Early the next day they crossed the river and continued on to Jerusalem by way +of the east Jordan highway, arriving at Bethany late Wednesday evening. Thomas +and Nathaniel arrived on Friday, having been delayed by their conferences with +Rodan. + +Jesus and the twelve remained in the vicinity of Jerusalem until the end of the +following month (October), about four and one-half weeks. Jesus himself went +into the city only a few times, and these brief visits were made during the +days of the feast of tabernacles. He spent a considerable portion of October +with Abner and his associates at Bethlehem. + +1. THE DANGERS OF THE VISIT TO JERUSALEM + +Long before they fled from Galilee, the followers of Jesus had implored him to +go to Jerusalem to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom in order that his message +might have the prestige of having been preached at the center of Jewish culture +and learning; but now that he had actually come to Jerusalem to teach, + + top of page - 1789 + +they were afraid for his life. Knowing that the Sanhedrin had sought to bring +Jesus to Jerusalem for trial and recalling the Master's recently reiterated +declarations that he must be subject to death, the apostles had been literally +stunned by his sudden decision to attend the feast of tabernacles. To all their +previous entreaties that he go to Jerusalem he had replied, "The hour has not +yet come." Now, to their protests of fear he answered only, "But the hour has +come." + +During the feast of tabernacles Jesus went boldly into Jerusalem on several +occasions and publicly taught in the temple. This he did in spite of the +efforts of his apostles to dissuade him. Though they had long urged him to +proclaim his message in Jerusalem, they now feared to see him enter the city at +this time, knowing full well that the scribes and Pharisees were bent on +bringing about his death. + +Jesus' bold appearance in Jerusalem more than ever confused his followers. Many +of his disciples, and even Judas Iscariot, the apostle, had dared to think that +Jesus had fled in haste into Phoenicia because he feared the Jewish leaders and +Herod Antipas. They failed to comprehend the significance of the Master's +movements. His presence in Jerusalem at the feast of tabernacles, even in +opposition to the advice of his followers, sufficed forever to put an end to +all whisperings about fear and cowardice. + +During the feast of tabernacles, thousands of believers from all parts of the +Roman Empire saw Jesus, heard him teach, and many even journeyed out to Bethany +to confer with him regarding the progress of the kingdom in their home +districts. + +There were many reasons why Jesus was able publicly to preach in the temple +courts throughout the days of the feast, and chief of these was the fear that +had come over the officers of the Sanhedrin as a result of the secret division +of sentiment in their own ranks. It was a fact that many of the members of the +Sanhedrin either secretly believed in Jesus or else were decidedly averse to +arresting him during the feast, when such large numbers of people were present +in Jerusalem, many of whom either believed in him or were at least friendly to +the spiritual movement which he sponsored. + +The efforts of Abner and his associates throughout Judea had also done much to +consolidate sentiment favorable to the kingdom, so much so that the enemies of +Jesus dared not be too outspoken in their opposition. This was one of the +reasons why Jesus could publicly visit Jerusalem and live to go away. One or +two months before this he would certainly have been put to death. + +But the audacious boldness of Jesus in publicly appearing in Jerusalem overawed +his enemies; they were not prepared for such a daring challenge. Several times +during this month the Sanhedrin made feeble attempts to place the Master under +arrest, but nothing came of these efforts. His enemies were so taken aback by +Jesus' unexpected public appearance in Jerusalem that they conjectured he must +have been promised protection by the Roman authorities. Knowing that Philip +(Herod Antipas's brother) was almost a follower of Jesus, the members of the +Sanhedrin speculated that Philip had secured for Jesus promises of protection +against his enemies. Jesus had departed from their jurisdiction before they +awakened to the realization that they had been mistaken in the belief that his +sudden and bold appearance in Jerusalem had been due to a secret understanding +with the Roman officials. + +Only the twelve apostles had known that Jesus intended to attend the feast of +tabernacles when they had departed from Magadan. The other followers of + + top of page - 1790 + +the Master were greatly astonished when he appeared in the temple courts and +began publicly to teach, and the Jewish authorities were surprised beyond +expression when it was reported that he was teaching in the temple. + +Although his disciples had not expected Jesus to attend the feast, the vast +majority of the pilgrims from afar who had heard of him entertained the hope +that they might see him at Jerusalem. And they were not disappointed, for on +several occasions he taught in Solomon's Porch and elsewhere in the temple +courts. These teachings were really the official or formal announcement of the +divinity of Jesus to the Jewish people and to the whole world. + +The multitudes who listened to the Master's teachings were divided in their +opinions. Some said he was a good man; some a prophet; some that he was truly +the Messiah; others said he was a mischievous meddler, that he was leading the +people astray with his strange doctrines. His enemies hesitated to denounce him +openly for fear of his friendly believers, while his friends feared to +acknowledge him openly for fear of the Jewish leaders, knowing that the +Sanhedrin was determined to put him to death. But even his enemies marveled at +his teaching, knowing that he had not been instructed in the schools of the +rabbis. + +Every time Jesus went to Jerusalem, his apostles were filled with terror. They +were the more afraid as, from day to day, they listened to his increasingly +bold pronouncements regarding the nature of his mission on earth. They were +unaccustomed to hearing Jesus make such positive claims and such amazing +assertions even when preaching among his friends. + +2. THE FIRST TEMPLE TALK + +The first afternoon that Jesus taught in the temple, a considerable company sat +listening to his words depicting the liberty of the new gospel and the joy of +those who believe the good news, when a curious listener interrupted him to +ask: "Teacher, how is it you can quote the Scriptures and teach the people so +fluently when I am told that you are untaught in the learning of the rabbis?" +Jesus replied: "No man has taught me the truths which I declare to you. And +this teaching is not mine but His who sent me. If any man really desires to do +my Father's will, he shall certainly know about my teaching, whether it be +God's or whether I speak for myself. He who speaks for himself seeks his own +glory, but when I declare the words of the Father, I thereby seek the glory of +him who sent me. But before you try to enter into the new light, should you not +rather follow the light you already have? Moses gave you the law, yet how many +of you honestly seek to fulfill its demands? Moses in this law enjoins you, +saying, `You shall not kill'; notwithstanding this command some of you seek to +kill the Son of Man." + +When the crowd heard these words, they fell to wrangling among themselves. Some +said he was mad; some that he had a devil. Others said this was indeed the +prophet of Galilee whom the scribes and Pharisees had long sought to kill. Some +said the religious authorities were afraid to molest him; others thought that +they laid not hands upon him because they had become believers in him. After +considerable debate one of the crowd stepped forward and asked Jesus, "Why do +the rulers seek to kill you?" And he replied: "The rulers seek to kill me +because they resent my teaching about the good news of the kingdom, + + top of page - 1791 + +a gospel that sets men free from the burdensome traditions of a formal religion +of ceremonies which these teachers are determined to uphold at any cost. They +circumcise in accordance with the law on the Sabbath day, but they would kill +me because I once on the Sabbath day set free a man held in the bondage of +affliction. They follow after me on the Sabbath to spy on me but would kill me +because on another occasion I chose to make a grievously stricken man +completely whole on the Sabbath day. They seek to kill me because they well +know that, if you honestly believe and dare to accept my teaching, their system +of traditional religion will be overthrown, forever destroyed. Thus will they +be deprived of authority over that to which they have devoted their lives since +they steadfastly refuse to accept this new and more glorious gospel of the +kingdom of God. And now do I appeal to every one of you: Judge not according to +outward appearances but rather judge by the true spirit of these teachings; +judge righteously." + +Then said another inquirer: "Yes, Teacher, we do look for the Messiah, but when +he comes, we know that his appearance will be in mystery. We know whence you +are. You have been among your brethren from the beginning. The deliverer will +come in power to restore the throne of David's kingdom. Do you really claim to +be the Messiah?" And Jesus replied: "You claim to know me and to know whence I +am. I wish your claims were true, for indeed then would you find abundant life +in that knowledge. But I declare that I have not come to you for myself; I have +been sent by the Father, and he who sent me is true and faithful. By refusing +to hear me, you are refusing to receive him who sends me. You, if you will +receive this gospel, shall come to know him who sent me. I know the Father, for +I have come from the Father to declare and reveal him to you." + +The agents of the scribes wanted to lay hands upon him, but they feared the +multitude, for many believed in him. Jesus' work since his baptism had become +well known to all Jewry, and as many of these people recounted these things, +they said among themselves: "Even though this teacher is from Galilee, and even +though he does not meet all of our expectations of the Messiah, we wonder if +the deliverer, when he does come, will really do anything more wonderful than +this Jesus of Nazareth has already done." + +When the Pharisees and their agents heard the people talking this way, they +took counsel with their leaders and decided that something should be done +forthwith to put a stop to these public appearances of Jesus in the temple +courts. The leaders of the Jews, in general, were disposed to avoid a clash +with Jesus, believing that the Roman authorities had promised him immunity. +They could not otherwise account for his boldness in coming at this time to +Jerusalem; but the officers of the Sanhedrin did not wholly believe this rumor. +They reasoned that the Roman rulers would not do such a thing secretly and +without the knowledge of the highest governing body of the Jewish nation. + +Accordingly, Eber, the proper officer of the Sanhedrin, with two assistants was +dispatched to arrest Jesus. As Eber made his way toward Jesus, the Master said: +"Fear not to approach me. Draw near while you listen to my teaching. I know you +have been sent to apprehend me, but you should understand that nothing will +befall the Son of Man until his hour comes. You are not arrayed against me; you +come only to do the bidding of your masters, and even these rulers of the Jews +verily think they are doing God's service when they secretly seek my +destruction. + + top of page - 1792 + +"I bear none of you ill will. The Father loves you, and therefore do I long for +your deliverance from the bondage of prejudice and the darkness of tradition. I +offer you the liberty of life and the joy of salvation. I proclaim the new and +living way, the deliverance from evil and the breaking of the bondage of sin. I +have come that you might have life, and have it eternally. You seek to be rid +of me and my disquieting teachings. If you could only realize that I am to be +with you only a little while! In just a short time I go to him who sent me into +this world. And then will many of you diligently seek me, but you shall not +discover my presence, for where I am about to go you cannot come. But all who +truly seek to find me shall sometime attain the life that leads to my Father's +presence." + +Some of the scoffers said among themselves: "Where will this man go that we +cannot find him? Will he go to live among the Greeks? Will he destroy himself? +What can he mean when he declares that soon he will depart from us, and that we +cannot go where he goes?" + +Eber and his assistants refused to arrest Jesus; they returned to their meeting +place without him. When, therefore, the chief priests and the Pharisees +upbraided Eber and his assistants because they had not brought Jesus with them, +Eber only replied: "We feared to arrest him in the midst of the multitude +because many believe in him. Besides, we never heard a man speak like this man. +There is something out of the ordinary about this teacher. You would all do +well to go over to hear him." And when the chief rulers heard these words, they +were astonished and spoke tauntingly to Eber: "Are you also led astray? Are you +about to believe in this deceiver? Have you heard that any of our learned men +or any of the rulers have believed in him? Have any of the scribes or the +Pharisees been deceived by his clever teachings? How does it come that you are +influenced by the behavior of this ignorant multitude who know not the law or +the prophets? Do you not know that such untaught people are accursed?" And then +answered Eber: "Even so, my masters, but this man speaks to the multitude words +of mercy and hope. He cheers the downhearted, and his words were comforting +even to our souls. What can there be wrong in these teachings even though he +may not be the Messiah of the Scriptures? And even then does not our law +require fairness? Do we condemn a man before we hear him?" And the chief of the +Sanhedrin was wroth with Eber and, turning upon him, said: "Have you gone mad? +Are you by any chance also from Galilee? Search the Scriptures, and you will +discover that out of Galilee arises no prophet, much less the Messiah." + +The Sanhedrin disbanded in confusion, and Jesus withdrew to Bethany for the +night. + +3. THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY + +It was during this visit to Jerusalem that Jesus dealt with a certain woman of +evil repute who was brought into his presence by her accusers and his enemies. +The distorted record you have of this episode would suggest that this woman had +been brought before Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees, and that Jesus so dealt +with them as to indicate that these religious leaders of the Jews might +themselves have been guilty of immorality. Jesus well knew that, while these +scribes and Pharisees were spiritually blind and intellectually prejudiced by +their loyalty to tradition, they were to be numbered among the most thoroughly +moral men of that day and generation. + + top of page - 1793 + +What really happened was this: Early the third morning of the feast, as Jesus +approached the temple, he was met by a group of the hired agents of the +Sanhedrin who were dragging a woman along with them. As they came near, the +spokesman said: "Master, this woman was taken in adultery--in the very act. +Now, the law of Moses commands that we should stone such a woman. What do you +say should be done with her?" + +It was the plan of Jesus' enemies, if he upheld the law of Moses requiring that +the self-confessed transgressor be stoned, to involve him in difficulty with +the Roman rulers, who had denied the Jews the right to inflict the death +penalty without the approval of a Roman tribunal. If he forbade stoning the +woman, they would accuse him before the Sanhedrin of setting himself up above +Moses and the Jewish law. If he remained silent, they would accuse him of +cowardice. But the Master so managed the situation that the whole plot fell to +pieces of its own sordid weight. + +This woman, once comely, was the wife of an inferior citizen of Nazareth, a man +who had been a troublemaker for Jesus throughout his youthful days. The man, +having married this woman, did most shamefully force her to earn their living +by making commerce of her body. He had come up to the feast at Jerusalem that +his wife might thus prostitute her physical charms for financial gain. He had +entered into a bargain with the hirelings of the Jewish rulers thus to betray +his own wife in her commercialized vice. And so they came with the woman and +her companion in transgression for the purpose of ensnaring Jesus into making +some statement which could be used against him in case of his arrest. + +Jesus, looking over the crowd, saw her husband standing behind the others. He +knew what sort of man he was and perceived that he was a party to the +despicable transaction. Jesus first walked around to near where this degenerate +husband stood and wrote upon the sand a few words which caused him to depart in +haste. Then he came back before the woman and wrote again upon the ground for +the benefit of her would-be accusers; and when they read his words, they, too, +went away, one by one. And when the Master had written in the sand the third +time, the woman's companion in evil took his departure, so that, when the +Master raised himself up from this writing, he beheld the woman standing alone +before him. Jesus said: "Woman, where are your accusers? did no man remain to +stone you?" And the woman, lifting up her eyes, answered, "No man, Lord." And +then said Jesus: "I know about you; neither do I condemn you. Go your way in +peace." And this woman, Hildana, forsook her wicked husband and joined herself +to the disciples of the kingdom. + +4. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES + +The presence of people from all of the known world, from Spain to India, made +the feast of tabernacles an ideal occasion for Jesus for the first time +publicly to proclaim his full gospel in Jerusalem. At this feast the people +lived much in the open air, in leafy booths. It was the feast of the harvest +ingathering, and coming, as it did, in the cool of the autumn months, it was +more generally attended by the Jews of the world than was the Passover at the +end of the winter or Pentecost at the beginning of summer. The apostles at last +beheld their Master making the bold announcement of his mission on earth before +all the world, as it were. + + top of page - 1794 + +This was the feast of feasts, since any sacrifice not made at the other +festivals could be made at this time. This was the occasion of the reception of +the temple offerings; it was a combination of vacation pleasures with the +solemn rites of religious worship. Here was a time of racial rejoicing, mingled +with sacrifices, Levitical chants, and the solemn blasts of the silvery +trumpets of the priests. At night the impressive spectacle of the temple and +its pilgrim throngs was brilliantly illuminated by the great candelabras which +burned brightly in the court of the women as well as by the glare of scores of +torches standing about the temple courts. The entire city was gaily decorated +except the Roman castle of Antonia, which looked down in grim contrast upon +this festive and worshipful scene. And how the Jews did hate this ever-present +reminder of the Roman yoke! + +Seventy bullocks were sacrificed during the feast, the symbol of the seventy +nations of heathendom. The ceremony of the outpouring of the water symbolized +the outpouring of the divine spirit. This ceremony of the water followed the +sunrise procession of the priests and Levites. The worshipers passed down the +steps leading from the court of Israel to the court of the women while +successive blasts were blown upon the silvery trumpets. And then the faithful +marched on toward the beautiful gate, which opened upon the court of the +gentiles. Here they turned about to face westward, to repeat their chants, and +to continue their march for the symbolic water. + +On the last day of the feast almost four hundred and fifty priests with a +corresponding number of Levites officiated. At daybreak the pilgrims assembled +from all parts of the city, each carrying in the right hand a sheaf of myrtle, +willow, and palm branches, while in the left hand each one carried a branch of +the paradise apple--the citron, or the "forbidden fruit." These pilgrims +divided into three groups for this early morning ceremony. One band remained at +the temple to attend the morning sacrifices; another group marched down below +Jerusalem to near Maza to cut the willow branches for the adornment of the +sacrificial altar, while the third group formed a procession to march from the +temple behind the water priest, who, to the sound of the silvery trumpets, bore +the golden pitcher which was to contain the symbolic water, out through Ophel +to near Siloam, where was located the fountain gate. After the golden pitcher +had been filled at the pool of Siloam, the procession marched back to the +temple, entering by way of the water gate and going directly to the court of +the priests, where the priest bearing the water pitcher was joined by the +priest bearing the wine for the drink offering. These two priests then repaired +to the silver funnels leading to the base of the altar and poured the contents +of the pitchers therein. The execution of this rite of pouring the wine and the +water was the signal for the assembled pilgrims to begin the chanting of the +Psalms from 113 to 118 inclusive, in alternation with the Levites. And as they +repeated these lines, they would wave their sheaves at the altar. Then followed +the sacrifices for the day, associated with the repeating of the Psalm for the +day, the Psalm for the last day of the feast being the eighty-second, beginning +with the fifth verse. + +5. SERMON ON THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD + +On the evening of the next to the last day of the feast, when the scene was +brilliantly illuminated by the lights of the candelabras and the torches, Jesus +stood up in the midst of the assembled throng and said: + + top of page - 1795 + +"I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but +shall have the light of life. Presuming to place me on trial and assuming to +sit as my judges, you declare that, if I bear witness of myself, my witness +cannot be true. But never can the creature sit in judgment on the Creator. Even +if I do bear witness about myself, my witness is everlastingly true, for I know +whence I came, who I am, and whither I go. You who would kill the Son of Man +know not whence I came, who I am, or whither I go. You judge only by the +appearances of the flesh; you do not perceive the realities of the spirit. I +judge no man, not even my archenemy. But if I should choose to judge, my +judgment would be true and righteous, for I would judge not alone but in +association with my Father, who sent me into the world, and who is the source +of all true judgment. You even allow that the witness of two reliable persons +may be accepted--well, then, I bear witness of these truths; so also does my +Father in heaven. And when I told you this yesterday, in your darkness you +asked me, `Where is your Father?' Truly, you know neither me nor my Father, for +if you had known me, you would also have known the Father. + +"I have already told you that I am going away, and that you will seek me and +not find me, for where I am going you cannot come. You who would reject this +light are from beneath; I am from above. You who prefer to sit in darkness are +of this world; I am not of this world, and I live in the eternal light of the +Father of lights. You all have had abundant opportunity to learn who I am, but +you shall have still other evidence confirming the identity of the Son of Man. +I am the light of life, and every one who deliberately and with understanding +rejects this saving light shall die in his sins. Much I have to tell you, but +you are unable to receive my words. However, he who sent me is true and +faithful; my Father loves even his erring children. And all that my Father has +spoken I also proclaim to the world. + +"When the Son of Man is lifted up, then shall you all know that I am he, and +that I have done nothing of myself but only as the Father has taught me. I +speak these words to you and to your children. And he who sent me is even now +with me; he has not left me alone, for I do always that which is pleasing in +his sight." + +As Jesus thus taught the pilgrims in the temple courts, many believed. And no +man dared to lay hands upon him. + +6. DISCOURSE ON THE WATER OF LIFE + +On the last day, the great day of the feast, as the procession from the pool of +Siloam passed through the temple courts, and just after the water and the wine +had been poured down upon the altar by the priests, Jesus, standing among the +pilgrims, said: "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. From the +Father above I bring to this world the water of life. He who believes me shall +be filled with the spirit which this water represents, for even the Scriptures +have said, `Out of him shall flow rivers of living waters.' When the Son of Man +has finished his work on earth, there shall be poured out upon all flesh the +living Spirit of Truth. Those who receive this spirit shall never know +spiritual thirst." + +Jesus did not interrupt the service to speak these words. He addressed the +worshipers immediately after the chanting of the Hallel, the responsive reading +of the Psalms accompanied by waving of the branches before the altar. Just here +was a pause while the sacrifices were being prepared, and it was at this time +that + + top of page - 1796 + +the pilgrims heard the fascinating voice of the Master declare that he was the +giver of living water to every spirit-thirsting soul. + +At the conclusion of this early morning service Jesus continued to teach the +multitude, saying: "Have you not read in the Scripture: `Behold, as the waters +are poured out upon the dry ground and spread over the parched soil, so will I +give the spirit of holiness to be poured out upon your children for a blessing +even to your children's children'? Why will you thirst for the ministry of the +spirit while you seek to water your souls with the traditions of men, poured +from the broken pitchers of ceremonial service? That which you see going on +about this temple is the way in which your fathers sought to symbolize the +bestowal of the divine spirit upon the children of faith, and you have done +well to perpetuate these symbols, even down to this day. But now has come to +this generation the revelation of the Father of spirits through the bestowal of +his Son, and all of this will certainly be followed by the bestowal of the +spirit of the Father and the Son upon the children of men. To every one who has +faith shall this bestowal of the spirit become the true teacher of the way +which leads to life everlasting, to the true waters of life in the kingdom of +heaven on earth and in the Father's Paradise over there." + +And Jesus continued to answer the questions of both the multitude and the +Pharisees. Some thought he was a prophet; some believed him to be the Messiah; +others said he could not be the Christ, seeing that he came from Galilee, and +that the Messiah must restore David's throne. Still they dared not arrest him. + +7. THE DISCOURSE ON SPIRITUAL FREEDOM + +On the afternoon of the last day of the feast and after the apostles had failed +in their efforts to persuade him to flee from Jerusalem, Jesus again went into +the temple to teach. Finding a large company of believers assembled in +Solomon's Porch, he spoke to them, saying: + +"If my words abide in you and you are minded to do the will of my Father, then +are you truly my disciples. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make +you free. I know how you will answer me: We are the children of Abraham, and we +are in bondage to none; how then shall we be made free? Even so, I do not speak +of outward subjection to another's rule; I refer to the liberties of the soul. +Verily, verily, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of +sin. And you know that the bondservant is not likely to abide forever in the +master's house. You also know that the son does remain in his father's house. +If, therefore, the Son shall make you free, shall make you sons, you shall be +free indeed. + +"I know that you are Abraham's seed, yet your leaders seek to kill me because +my word has not been allowed to have its transforming influence in their +hearts. Their souls are sealed by prejudice and blinded by the pride of +revenge. I declare to you the truth which the eternal Father shows me, while +these deluded teachers seek to do the things which they have learned only from +their temporal fathers. And when you reply that Abraham is your father, then do +I tell you that, if you were the children of Abraham, you would do the works of +Abraham. Some of you believe my teaching, but others seek to destroy me because +I have told you the truth which I received from God. But Abraham did not so +treat the truth of God. I perceive that some among you are determined + + top of page - 1797 + +to do the works of the evil one. If God were your Father, you would know me and +love the truth which I reveal. Will you not see that I come forth from the +Father, that I am sent by God, that I am not doing this work of myself? Why do +you not understand my words? Is it because you have chosen to become the +children of evil? If you are the children of darkness, you will hardly walk in +the light of the truth which I reveal. The children of evil follow only in the +ways of their father, who was a deceiver and stood not for the truth because +there came to be no truth in him. But now comes the Son of Man speaking and +living the truth, and many of you refuse to believe. + +"Which of you convicts me of sin? If I, then, proclaim and live the truth shown +me by the Father, why do you not believe? He who is of God hears gladly the +words of God; for this cause many of you hear not my words, because you are not +of God. Your teachers have even presumed to say that I do my works by the power +of the prince of devils. One near by has just said that I have a devil, that I +am a child of the devil. But all of you who deal honestly with your own souls +know full well that I am not a devil. You know that I honor the Father even +while you would dishonor me. I seek not my own glory, only the glory of my +Paradise Father. And I do not judge you, for there is one who judges for me. + +"Verily, verily, I say to you who believe the gospel that, if a man will keep +this word of truth alive in his heart, he shall never taste death. And now just +at my side a scribe says this statement proves that I have a devil, seeing that +Abraham is dead, also the prophets. And he asks: `Are you so much greater than +Abraham and the prophets that you dare to stand here and say that whoso keeps +your word shall not taste death? Who do you claim to be that you dare to utter +such blasphemies?' And I say to all such that, if I glorify myself, my glory is +as nothing. But it is the Father who shall glorify me, even the same Father +whom you call God. But you have failed to know this your God and my Father, and +I have come to bring you together; to show you how to become truly the sons of +God. Though you know not the Father, I truly know him. Even Abraham rejoiced to +see my day, and by faith he saw it and was glad." + +When the unbelieving Jews and the agents of the Sanhedrin who had gathered +about by this time heard these words, they raised a tumult, shouting: "You are +not fifty years of age, and yet you talk about seeing Abraham; you are a child +of the devil!" Jesus was unable to continue the discourse. He only said as he +departed, "Verily, verily, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." Many of the +unbelievers rushed forth for stones to cast at him, and the agents of the +Sanhedrin sought to place him under arrest, but the Master quickly made his way +through the temple corridors and escaped to a secret meeting place near Bethany +where Martha, Mary, and Lazarus awaited him. + +8. THE VISIT WITH MARTHA AND MARY + +It had been arranged that Jesus should lodge with Lazarus and his sisters at a +friend's house, while the apostles were scattered here and there in small +groups, these precautions being taken because the Jewish authorities were again +becoming bold with their plans to arrest him. + +For years it had been the custom for these three to drop everything and listen +to Jesus' teaching whenever he chanced to visit them. With the loss of their +parents, Martha had assumed the responsibilities of the home life, and so on +this + + top of page - 1798 + +occasion, while Lazarus and Mary sat at Jesus' feet drinking in his refreshing +teaching, Martha made ready to serve the evening meal. It should be explained +that Martha was unnecessarily distracted by numerous needless tasks, and that +she was cumbered by many trivial cares; that was her disposition. + +As Martha busied herself with all these supposed duties, she was perturbed +because Mary did nothing to help. Therefore she went to Jesus and said: +"Master, do you not care that my sister has left me alone to do all of the +serving? Will you not bid her to come and help me?" Jesus answered: "Martha, +Martha, why are you always anxious about so many things and troubled by so many +trifles? Only one thing is really worth while, and since Mary has chosen this +good and needful part, I shall not take it away from her. But when will both of +you learn to live as I have taught you: both serving in co-operation and both +refreshing your souls in unison? Can you not learn that there is a time for +everything--that the lesser matters of life should give way before the greater +things of the heavenly kingdom?" + +9. AT BETHLEHEM WITH ABNER + +Throughout the week that followed the feast of tabernacles, scores of believers +forgathered at Bethany and received instruction from the twelve apostles. The +Sanhedrin made no effort to molest these gatherings since Jesus was not +present; he was throughout this time working with Abner and his associates in +Bethlehem. The day following the close of the feast, Jesus had departed for +Bethany, and he did not again teach in the temple during this visit to +Jerusalem. + +At this time, Abner was making his headquarters at Bethlehem, and from that +center many workers had been sent to the cities of Judea and southern Samaria +and even to Alexandria. Within a few days of his arrival, Jesus and Abner +completed the arrangements for the consolidation of the work of the two groups +of apostles. + +Throughout his visit to the feast of tabernacles, Jesus had divided his time +about equally between Bethany and Bethlehem. At Bethany he spent considerable +time with his apostles; at Bethlehem he gave much instruction to Abner and the +other former apostles of John. And it was this intimate contact that finally +led them to believe in him. These former apostles of John the Baptist were +influenced by the courage he displayed in his public teaching in Jerusalem as +well as by the sympathetic understanding they experienced in his private +teaching at Bethlehem. These influences finally and fully won over each of +Abner's associates to a wholehearted acceptance of the kingdom and all that +such a step implied. + +Before leaving Bethlehem for the last time, the Master made arrangements for +them all to join him in the united effort which was to precede the ending of +his earth career in the flesh. It was agreed that Abner and his associates were +to join Jesus and the twelve in the near future at Magadan Park. + +In accordance with this understanding, early in November Abner and his eleven +fellows cast their lot with Jesus and the twelve and labored with them as one +organization right on down to the crucifixion. + +In the latter part of October Jesus and the twelve withdrew from the immediate +vicinity of Jerusalem. On Sunday, October 30, Jesus and his associates left the +city of Ephraim, where he had been resting in seclusion for a few days, + + top of page - 1799 + +and, going by the west Jordan highway directly to Magadan Park, arrived late on +the afternoon of Wednesday, November 2. + +The apostles were greatly relieved to have the Master back on friendly soil; no +more did they urge him to go up to Jerusalem to proclaim the gospel of the +kingdom. + + top of page - 1800 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Further ³ Ordination Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Discuss... ³ T... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p163.txt b/religious documents/p163.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fbdf23b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p163.txt @@ -0,0 +1,592 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 163 Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 163 Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +A FEW days after the return of Jesus and the twelve to Magadan from Jerusalem, +Abner and a group of some fifty disciples arrived from Bethlehem. At this time +there were also assembled at Magadan Camp the evangelistic corps, the women's +corps, and about one hundred and fifty other true and tried disciples from all +parts of Palestine. After devoting a few days to visiting and the +reorganization of the camp, Jesus and the twelve began a course of intensive +training for this special group of believers, and from this well-trained and +experienced aggregation of disciples the Master subsequently chose the seventy +teachers and sent them forth to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. This +regular instruction began on Friday, November 4, and continued until Sabbath, +November 19. + +Jesus gave a talk to this company each morning. Peter taught methods of public +preaching; Nathaniel instructed them in the art of teaching; Thomas explained +how to answer questions; while Matthew directed the organization of their group +finances. The other apostles also participated in this training in accordance +with their special experience and natural talents. + +1. ORDINATION OF THE SEVENTY + +The seventy were ordained by Jesus on Sabbath afternoon, November 19, at the +Magadan Camp, and Abner was placed at the head of these gospel preachers and +teachers. This corps of seventy consisted of Abner and ten of the former +apostles of John, fifty-one of the earlier evangelists, and eight other +disciples who had distinguished themselves in the service of the kingdom. + +About two o'clock on this Sabbath afternoon, between showers of rain, a company +of believers, augmented by the arrival of David and the majority of his +messenger corps and numbering over four hundred, assembled on the shore of the +lake of Galilee to witness the ordination of the seventy. + +Before Jesus laid his hands upon the heads of the seventy to set them apart as +gospel messengers, addressing them, he said: "The harvest is indeed plenteous, +but the laborers are few; therefore I exhort all of you to pray that the Lord +of the harvest will send still other laborers into his harvest. I am about to +set you apart as messengers of the kingdom; I am about to send you to Jew and +gentile as lambs among wolves. As you go your ways, two and two, I instruct you +to carry neither purse nor extra clothing, for you go forth on this first +mission for only a short season. Salute no man by the way, attend only to your +work. Whenever you go to stay at a home, first say: Peace be to this household. +If those who love peace live therein, you shall abide there; if not, then shall +you depart. And having selected this home, remain there for your stay in that +city, eating and + + top of page - 1801 + +drinking whatever is set before you. And you do this because the laborer is +worthy of his sustenance. Move not from house to house because a better lodging +may be offered. Remember, as you go forth proclaiming peace on earth and good +will among men, you must contend with bitter and self-deceived enemies; +therefore be as wise as serpents while you are also as harmless as doves. + +"And everywhere you go, preach, saying, `The kingdom of heaven is at hand,' and +minister to all who may be sick in either mind or body. Freely you have +received of the good things of the kingdom; freely give. If the people of any +city receive you, they shall find an abundant entrance into the Father's +kingdom; but if the people of any city refuse to receive this gospel, still +shall you proclaim your message as you depart from that unbelieving community, +saying, even as you leave, to those who reject your teaching: `Notwithstanding +you reject the truth, it remains that the kingdom of God has come near you.' He +who hears you hears me. And he who hears me hears Him who sent me. He who +rejects your gospel message rejects me. And he who rejects me rejects Him who +sent me." + +When Jesus had thus spoken to the seventy, he began with Abner and, as they +knelt in a circle about him, laid his hands upon the head of every man. + +Early the next morning Abner sent the seventy messengers into all the cities of +Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. And these thirty-five couples went forth preaching +and teaching for about six weeks, all of them returning to the new camp near +Pella, in Perea, on Friday, December 30. + +2. THE RICH YOUNG MAN AND OTHERS + +Over fifty disciples who sought ordination and appointment to membership in the +seventy were rejected by the committee appointed by Jesus to select these +candidates. This committee consisted of Andrew, Abner, and the acting head of +the evangelistic corps. In all cases where this committee of three were not +unanimous in agreement, they brought the candidate to Jesus, and while the +Master never rejected a single person who craved ordination as a gospel +messenger, there were more than a dozen who, when they had talked with Jesus, +no more desired to become gospel messengers. + +One earnest disciple came to Jesus, saying: "Master, I would be one of your new +apostles, but my father is very old and near death; could I be permitted to +return home to bury him?" To this man Jesus said: "My son, the foxes have +holes, and the birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to +lay his head. You are a faithful disciple, and you can remain such while you +return home to minister to your loved ones, but not so with my gospel +messengers. They have forsaken all to follow me and proclaim the kingdom. If +you would be an ordained teacher, you must let others bury the dead while you +go forth to publish the good news." And this man went away in great +disappointment. + +Another disciple came to the Master and said: "I would become an ordained +messenger, but I would like to go to my home for a short while to comfort my +family." And Jesus replied: "If you would be ordained, you must be willing to +forsake all. The gospel messengers cannot have divided affections. No man, +having put his hand to the plough, if he turns back, is worthy to become a +messenger of the kingdom." + +Then Andrew brought to Jesus a certain rich young man who was a devout +believer, and who desired to receive ordination. This young man, Matadormus, + + top of page - 1802 + +was a member of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin; he had heard Jesus teach and had been +subsequently instructed in the gospel of the kingdom by Peter and the other +apostles. Jesus talked with Matadormus concerning the requirements of +ordination and requested that he defer decision until after he had thought more +fully about the matter. Early the next morning, as Jesus was going for a walk, +this young man accosted him and said: "Master, I would know from you the +assurances of eternal life. Seeing that I have observed all the commandments +from my youth, I would like to know what more I must do to gain eternal life?" +In answer to this question Jesus said: "If you keep all the commandments--do +not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do +not defraud, honor your parents--you do well, but salvation is the reward of +faith, not merely of works. Do you believe this gospel of the kingdom?" And +Matadormus answered: "Yes, Master, I do believe everything you and your +apostles have taught me." And Jesus said, "Then are you indeed my disciple and +a child of the kingdom." + +Then said the young man: "But, Master, I am not content to be your disciple; I +would be one of your new messengers." When Jesus heard this, he looked down +upon him with a great love and said: "I will have you to be one of my +messengers if you are willing to pay the price, if you will supply the one +thing which you lack." Matadormus replied: "Master, I will do anything if I may +be allowed to follow you." Jesus, kissing the kneeling young man on the +forehead, said: "If you would be my messenger, go and sell all that you have +and, when you have bestowed the proceeds upon the poor or upon your brethren, +come and follow me, and you shall have treasure in the kingdom of heaven." + +When Matadormus heard this, his countenance fell. He arose and went away +sorrowful, for he had great possessions. This wealthy young Pharisee had been +raised to believe that wealth was the token of God's favor. Jesus knew that he +was not free from the love of himself and his riches. The Master wanted to +deliver him from the love of wealth, not necessarily from the wealth. While the +disciples of Jesus did not part with all their worldly goods, the apostles and +the seventy did. Matadormus desired to be one of the seventy new messengers, +and that was the reason for Jesus' requiring him to part with all of his +temporal possessions. + +Almost every human being has some one thing which is held on to as a pet evil, +and which the entrance into the kingdom of heaven requires as a part of the +price of admission. If Matadormus had parted with his wealth, it probably would +have been put right back into his hands for administration as treasurer of the +seventy. For later on, after the establishment of the church at Jerusalem, he +did obey the Master's injunction, although it was then too late to enjoy +membership in the seventy, and he became the treasurer of the Jerusalem church, +of which James the Lord's brother in the flesh was the head. + +Thus always it was and forever will be: Men must arrive at their own decisions. +There is a certain range of the freedom of choice which mortals may exercise. +The forces of the spiritual world will not coerce man; they allow him to go the +way of his own choosing. + +Jesus foresaw that Matadormus, with his riches, could not possibly become an +ordained associate of men who had forsaken all for the gospel; at the same +time, he saw that, without his riches, he would become the ultimate leader of +all of them. But, like Jesus' own brethren, he never became great in the +kingdom + + top of page - 1803 + +because he deprived himself of that intimate and personal association with the +Master which might have been his experience had he been willing to do at this +time the very thing which Jesus asked, and which, several years subsequently, +he actually did. + +Riches have nothing directly to do with entrance into the kingdom of heaven, +but the love of wealth does. The spiritual loyalties of the kingdom are +incompatible with servility to materialistic mammon. Man may not share his +supreme loyalty to a spiritual ideal with a material devotion. + +Jesus never taught that it was wrong to have wealth. He required only the +twelve and the seventy to dedicate all of their worldly possessions to the +common cause. Even then, he provided for the profitable liquidation of their +property, as in the case of the Apostle Matthew. Jesus many times advised his +well-to-do disciples as he taught the rich man of Rome. The Master regarded the +wise investment of excess earnings as a legitimate form of insurance against +future and unavoidable adversity. When the apostolic treasury was overflowing, +Judas put funds on deposit to be used subsequently when they might suffer +greatly from a diminution of income. This Judas did after consultation with +Andrew. Jesus never personally had anything to do with the apostolic finances +except in the disbursement of alms. But there was one economic abuse which he +many times condemned, and that was the unfair exploitation of the weak, +unlearned, and less fortunate of men by their strong, keen, and more +intelligent fellows. Jesus declared that such inhuman treatment of men, women, +and children was incompatible with the ideals of the brotherhood of the kingdom +of heaven. + +3. THE DISCUSSION ABOUT WEALTH + +By the time Jesus had finished talking with Matadormus, Peter and a number of +the apostles had gathered about him, and as the rich young man was departing, +Jesus turned around to face the apostles and said: "You see how difficult it is +for those who have riches to enter fully into the kingdom of God! Spiritual +worship cannot be shared with material devotions; no man can serve two masters. +You have a saying that it is `easier for a camel to go through the eye of a +needle than for the heathen to inherit eternal life.' And I declare that it is +as easy for this camel to go through the needle's eye as for these +self-satisfied rich ones to enter the kingdom of heaven." + +When Peter and the apostles heard these words, they were astonished +exceedingly, so much so that Peter said: "Who then, Lord, can be saved? Shall +all who have riches be kept out of the kingdom?" And Jesus replied: "No, Peter, +but all who put their trust in riches shall hardly enter into the spiritual +life that leads to eternal progress. But even then, much which is impossible to +man is not beyond the reach of the Father in heaven; rather should we recognize +that with God all things are possible." + +As they went off by themselves, Jesus was grieved that Matadormus did not +remain with them, for he greatly loved him. And when they had walked down by +the lake, they sat there beside the water, and Peter, speaking for the twelve +(who were all present by this time), said: "We are troubled by your words to +the rich young man. Shall we require those who would follow you to give up all +their worldly goods?" And Jesus said: "No, Peter, only those who would become +apostles, and who desire to live with me as you do and as one family. But the +Father requires that the affections of his children be pure and undivided. +What- + + top of page - 1804 + +ever thing or person comes between you and the love of the truths of the +kingdom, must be surrendered. If one's wealth does not invade the precincts of +the soul, it is of no consequence in the spiritual life of those who would +enter the kingdom." + +And then said Peter, "But, Master, we have left everything to follow you, what +then shall we have?" And Jesus spoke to all of the twelve: "Verily, verily, I +say to you, there is no man who has left wealth, home, wife, brethren, parents, +or children for my sake and for the sake of the kingdom of heaven who shall not +receive manifold more in this world, perhaps with some persecutions, and in the +world to come eternal life. But many who are first shall be last, while the +last shall often be first. The Father deals with his creatures in accordance +with their needs and in obedience to his just laws of merciful and loving +consideration for the welfare of a universe. + +"The kingdom of heaven is like a householder who was a large employer of men, +and who went out early in the morning to hire laborers to work in his vineyard. +When he had agreed with the laborers to pay them a denarius a day, he sent them +into the vineyard. Then he went out about nine o'clock, and seeing others +standing in the market place idle, he said to them: `Go you also to work in my +vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will pay you.' And they went at once to +work. Again he went out about twelve and about three and did likewise. And +going to the market place about five in the afternoon, he found still others +standing idle, and he inquired of them, `Why do you stand here idle all the +day?' And the men answered, `Because nobody has hired us.' Then said the +householder: `Go you also to work in my vineyard, and whatever is right I will +pay you.' + +"When evening came, this owner of the vineyard said to his steward: `Call the +laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last hired and ending +with the first.' When those who were hired about five o'clock came, they +received a denarius each, and so it was with each of the other laborers. When +the men who were hired at the beginning of the day saw how the later comers +were paid, they expected to receive more than the amount agreed upon. But like +the others every man received only a denarius. And when each had received his +pay, they complained to the householder, saying: `These men who were hired last +worked only one hour, and yet you have paid them the same as us who have borne +the burden of the day in the scorching sun.' + +"Then answered the householder: `My friends, I do you no wrong. Did not each of +you agree to work for a denarius a day? Take now that which is yours and go +your way, for it is my desire to give to those who came last as much as I have +given to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? or do you +begrudge my generosity because I desire to be good and to show mercy?'" + +4. FAREWELL TO THE SEVENTY + +It was a stirring time about the Magadan Camp the day the seventy went forth on +their first mission. Early that morning, in his last talk with the seventy, +Jesus placed emphasis on the following: + +1. The gospel of the kingdom must be proclaimed to all the world, to gentile as +well as to Jew. + +2. While ministering to the sick, refrain from teaching the expectation of +miracles. + + top of page - 1805 + +3. Proclaim a spiritual brotherhood of the sons of God, not an outward kingdom +of worldly power and material glory. + +4. Avoid loss of time through overmuch social visiting and other trivialities +which might detract from wholehearted devotion to preaching the gospel. + +5. If the first house to be selected for a headquarters proves to be a worthy +home, abide there throughout the sojourn in that city. + +6. Make clear to all faithful believers that the time for an open break with +the religious leaders of the Jews at Jerusalem has now come. + +7. Teach that man's whole duty is summed up in this one commandment: Love the +Lord your God with all your mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself. (This +they were to teach as man's whole duty in place of the 613 rules of living +expounded by the Pharisees.) + +When Jesus had talked thus to the seventy in the presence of all the apostles +and disciples, Simon Peter took them off by themselves and preached to them +their ordination sermon, which was an elaboration of the Master's charge given +at the time he laid his hands upon them and set them apart as messengers of the +kingdom. Peter exhorted the seventy to cherish in their experience the +following virtues: + +1. Consecrated devotion. To pray always for more laborers to be sent forth into +the gospel harvest. He explained that, when one so prays, he will the more +likely say, "Here am I; send me." He admonished them to neglect not their daily +worship. + +2. True courage. He warned them that they would encounter hostility and be +certain to meet with persecution. Peter told them their mission was no +undertaking for cowards and advised those who were afraid to step out before +they started. But none withdrew. + +3. Faith and trust. They must go forth on this short mission wholly unprovided +for; they must trust the Father for food and shelter and all other things +needful. + +4. Zeal and initiative. They must be possessed with zeal and intelligent +enthusiasm; they must attend strictly to their Master's business. Oriental +salutation was a lengthy and elaborate ceremony; therefore had they been +instructed to "salute no man by the way," which was a common method of +exhorting one to go about his business without the waste of time. It had +nothing to do with the matter of friendly greeting. + +5. Kindness and courtesy. The Master had instructed them to avoid unnecessary +waste of time in social ceremonies, but he enjoined courtesy toward all with +whom they should come in contact. They were to show every kindness to those who +might entertain them in their homes. They were strictly warned against leaving +a modest home to be entertained in a more comfortable or influential one. + +6. Ministry to the sick. The seventy were charged by Peter to search out the +sick in mind and body and to do everything in their power to bring about the +alleviation or cure of their maladies. + +And when they had been thus charged and instructed, they started out, two and +two, on their mission in Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. + + top of page - 1806 + +Although the Jews had a peculiar regard for the number seventy, sometimes +considering the nations of heathendom as being seventy in number, and although +these seventy messengers were to go with the gospel to all peoples, still as +far as we can discern, it was only coincidental that this group happened to +number just seventy. Certain it was that Jesus would have accepted no less than +half a dozen others, but they were unwilling to pay the price of forsaking +wealth and families. + +5. MOVING THE CAMP TO PELLA + +Jesus and the twelve now prepared to establish their last headquarters in +Perea, near Pella, where the Master was baptized in the Jordan. The last ten +days of November were spent in council at Magadan, and on Tuesday, December 6, +the entire company of almost three hundred started out at daybreak with all +their effects to lodge that night near Pella by the river. This was the same +site, by the spring, that John the Baptist had occupied with his camp several +years before. + +After the breaking up of the Magadan Camp, David Zebedee returned to Bethsaida +and began immediately to curtail the messenger service. The kingdom was taking +on a new phase. Daily, pilgrims arrived from all parts of Palestine and even +from remote regions of the Roman Empire. Believers occasionally came from +Mesopotamia and from the lands east of the Tigris. Accordingly, on Sunday, +December 18, David, with the help of his messenger corps, loaded on to the pack +animals the camp equipage, then stored in his father's house, with which he had +formerly conducted the camp of Bethsaida by the lake. Bidding farewell to +Bethsaida for the time being, he proceeded down the lake shore and along the +Jordan to a point about one-half mile north of the apostolic camp; and in less +than a week he was prepared to offer hospitality to almost fifteen hundred +pilgrim visitors. The apostolic camp could accommodate about five hundred. This +was the rainy season in Palestine, and these accommodations were required to +take care of the ever-increasing number of inquirers, mostly earnest, who came +into Perea to see Jesus and to hear his teaching. + +David did all this on his own initiative, though he had taken counsel with +Philip and Matthew at Magadan. He employed the larger part of his former +messenger corps as his helpers in conducting this camp; he now used less than +twenty men on regular messenger duty. Near the end of December and before the +return of the seventy, almost eight hundred visitors were gathered about the +Master, and they found lodging in David's camp. + +6. THE RETURN OF THE SEVENTY + +On Friday, December 30, while Jesus was away in the near-by hills with Peter, +James, and John, the seventy messengers were arriving by couples, accompanied +by numerous believers, at the Pella headquarters. All seventy were assembled at +the teaching site about five o'clock when Jesus returned to the camp. The +evening meal was delayed for more than an hour while these enthusiasts for the +gospel of the kingdom related their experiences. David's messengers had brought +much of this news to the apostles during previous weeks, but it was truly +inspiring to hear these newly ordained teachers of the gospel personally tell +how their message had been received by hungry Jews and gentiles. At last Jesus + + top of page - 1807 + +was able to see men going out to spread the good news without his personal +presence. The Master now knew that he could leave this world without seriously +hindering the progress of the kingdom. + +When the seventy related how "even the devils were subject" to them, they +referred to the wonderful cures they had wrought in the cases of victims of +nervous disorders. Nevertheless, there had been a few cases of real spirit +possession relieved by these ministers, and referring to these, Jesus said: "It +is not strange that these disobedient minor spirits should be subject to you, +seeing that I beheld Satan falling as lightning from heaven. But rejoice not so +much over this, for I declare to you that, as soon as I return to my Father, we +will send forth our spirits into the very minds of men so that no more can +these few lost spirits enter the minds of unfortunate mortals. I rejoice with +you that you have power with men, but be not lifted up because of this +experience but the rather rejoice that your names are written on the rolls of +heaven, and that you are thus to go forward in an endless career of spiritual +conquest." + +And it was at this time, just before partaking of the evening meal, that Jesus +experienced one of those rare moments of emotional ecstasy which his followers +had occasionally witnessed. He said: "I thank you, my Father, Lord of heaven +and earth, that, while this wonderful gospel was hidden from the wise and +self-righteous, the spirit has revealed these spiritual glories to these +children of the kingdom. Yes, my Father, it must have been pleasing in your +sight to do this, and I rejoice to know that the good news will spread to all +the world even after I shall have returned to you and the work which you have +given me to perform. I am mightily moved as I realize you are about to deliver +all authority into my hands, that only you really know who I am, and that only +I really know you, and those to whom I have revealed you. And when I have +finished this revelation to my brethren in the flesh, I will continue the +revelation to your creatures on high." + +When Jesus had thus spoken to the Father, he turned aside to speak to his +apostles and ministers: "Blessed are the eyes which see and the ears which hear +these things. Let me say to you that many prophets and many of the great men of +the past ages have desired to behold what you now see, but it was not granted +them. And many generations of the children of light yet to come will, when they +hear of these things, envy you who have heard and seen them." + +Then, speaking to all the disciples, he said: "You have heard how many cities +and villages have received the good news of the kingdom, and how my ministers +and teachers have been received by both the Jew and the gentile. And blessed +indeed are these communities which have elected to believe the gospel of the +kingdom. But woe upon the light-rejecting inhabitants of Chorazin, +Bethsaida-Julias, and Capernaum, the cities which did not well receive these +messengers. I declare that, if the mighty works done in these places had been +done in Tyre and Sidon, the people of these so-called heathen cities would have +long since repented in sackcloth and ashes. It shall indeed be more tolerable +for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment." + +The next day being the Sabbath, Jesus went apart with the seventy and said to +them: "I did indeed rejoice with you when you came back bearing the good +tidings of the reception of the gospel of the kingdom by so many people +scattered throughout Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. But why were you so +surprisingly elated? Did you not expect that your message would manifest power +in its delivery? Did you go forth with so little faith in this gospel that you +come back + + top of page - 1808 + +in surprise at its effectiveness? And now, while I would not quench your spirit +of rejoicing, I would sternly warn you against the subtleties of pride, +spiritual pride. If you could understand the downfall of Lucifer, the +iniquitous one, you would solemnly shun all forms of spiritual pride. + +"You have entered upon this great work of teaching mortal man that he is a son +of God. I have shown you the way; go forth to do your duty and be not weary in +well doing. To you and to all who shall follow in your steps down through the +ages, let me say: I always stand near, and my invitation-call is, and ever +shall be, Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you +rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am true and loyal, and you +shall find spiritual rest for your souls." + +And they found the Master's words to be true when they put his promises to the +test. And since that day countless thousands also have tested and proved the +surety of these same promises. + +7. PREPARATION FOR THE LAST MISSION + +The next few days were busy times in the Pella camp; preparations for the +Perean mission were being completed. Jesus and his associates were about to +enter upon their last mission, the three months' tour of all Perea, which +terminated only upon the Master's entering Jerusalem for his final labors on +earth. Throughout this period the headquarters of Jesus and the twelve apostles +was maintained here at the Pella camp. + +It was no longer necessary for Jesus to go abroad to teach the people. They now +came to him in increasing numbers each week and from all parts, not only from +Palestine but from the whole Roman world and from the Near East. Although the +Master participated with the seventy in the tour of Perea, he spent much of his +time at the Pella camp, teaching the multitude and instructing the twelve. +Throughout this three months' period at least ten of the apostles remained with +Jesus. + +The women's corps also prepared to go out, two and two, with the seventy to +labor in the larger cities of Perea. This original group of twelve women had +recently trained a larger corps of fifty women in the work of home visitation +and in the art of ministering to the sick and the afflicted. Perpetua, Simon +Peter's wife, became a member of this new division of the women's corps and was +intrusted with the leadership of the enlarged women's work under Abner. After +Pentecost she remained with her illustrious husband, accompanying him on all of +his missionary tours; and on the day Peter was crucified in Rome, she was fed +to the wild beasts in the arena. This new women's corps also had as members the +wives of Philip and Matthew and the mother of James and John. + +The work of the kingdom now prepared to enter upon its terminal phase under the +personal leadership of Jesus. And this present phase was one of spiritual depth +in contrast with the miracle-minded and wonder-seeking multitudes who followed +after the Master during the former days of popularity in Galilee. However, +there were still any number of his followers who were material-minded, and who +failed to grasp the truth that the kingdom of heaven is the spiritual +brotherhood of man founded on the eternal fact of the universal fatherhood of +God. + + top of page - 1809 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ At The Feast ³ At The Feast ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Of... ³ Of... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p164.txt b/religious documents/p164.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6468d88 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p164.txt @@ -0,0 +1,507 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 164 At The Feast Of Dedication + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 164 At The Feast Of Dedication + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AS THE camp at Pella was being established, Jesus, taking with him Nathaniel +and Thomas, secretly went up to Jerusalem to attend the feast of the +dedication. Not until they passed over the Jordan at the Bethany ford, did the +two apostles become aware that their Master was going on to Jerusalem. When +they perceived that he really intended to be present at the feast of +dedication, they remonstrated with him most earnestly, and using every sort of +argument, they sought to dissuade him. But their efforts were of no avail; +Jesus was determined to visit Jerusalem. To all their entreaties and to all +their warnings emphasizing the folly and danger of placing himself in the hands +of the Sanhedrin, he would reply only, "I would give these teachers in Israel +another opportunity to see the light, before my hour comes." + +On they went toward Jerusalem, the two apostles continuing to express their +feelings of fear and to voice their doubts about the wisdom of such an +apparently presumptuous undertaking. They reached Jericho about half past four +and prepared to lodge there for the night. + +1. STORY OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN + +That evening a considerable company gathered about Jesus and the two apostles +to ask questions, many of which the apostles answered, while others the Master +discussed. In the course of the evening a certain lawyer, seeking to entangle +Jesus in a compromising disputation, said: "Teacher, I would like to ask you +just what I should do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered, "What is +written in the law and the prophets; how do you read the Scriptures?" The +lawyer, knowing the teachings of both Jesus and the Pharisees, answered: "To +love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your +neighbor as yourself." Then said Jesus: "You have answered right; this, if you +really do, will lead to life everlasting." + +But the lawyer was not wholly sincere in asking this question, and desiring to +justify himself while also hoping to embarrass Jesus, he ventured to ask still +another question. Drawing a little closer to the Master, he said, "But, +Teacher, I should like you to tell me just who is my neighbor?" The lawyer +asked this question hoping to entrap Jesus into making some statement that +would contravene the Jewish law which defined one's neighbor as "the children +of one's people." The Jews looked upon all others as "gentile dogs." This +lawyer was somewhat familiar with Jesus' teachings and therefore well knew that +the Master thought differently; thus he hoped to lead him into saying something +which could be construed as an attack upon the sacred law. + + top of page - 1810 + +But Jesus discerned the lawyer's motive, and instead of falling into the trap, +he proceeded to tell his hearers a story, a story which would be fully +appreciated by any Jericho audience. Said Jesus: "A certain man was going down +from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell into the hands of cruel brigands, who +robbed him, stripped him and beat him, and departing, left him half dead. Very +soon, by chance, a certain priest was going down that way, and when he came +upon the wounded man, seeing his sorry plight, he passed by on the other side +of the road. And in like manner a Levite also, when he came along and saw the +man, passed by on the other side. Now, about this time, a certain Samaritan, as +he journeyed down to Jericho, came across this wounded man; and when he saw how +he had been robbed and beaten, he was moved with compassion, and going over to +him, he bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and setting the man upon +his own beast, brought him here to the inn and took care of him. And on the +morrow he took out some money and, giving it to the host, said: `Take good care +of my friend, and if the expense is more, when I come back again, I will repay +you.' Now let me ask you: Which of these three turned out to be the neighbor of +him who fell among the robbers?" And when the lawyer perceived that he had +fallen into his own snare, he answered, "He who showed mercy on him." And Jesus +said, "Go and do likewise." + +The lawyer answered, "He who showed mercy," that he might refrain from even +speaking that odious word, Samaritan. The lawyer was forced to give the very +answer to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" which Jesus wished given, and +which, if Jesus had so stated, would have directly involved him in the charge +of heresy. Jesus not only confounded the dishonest lawyer, but he told his +hearers a story which was at the same time a beautiful admonition to all his +followers and a stunning rebuke to all Jews regarding their attitude toward the +Samaritans. And this story has continued to promote brotherly love among all +who have subsequently believed the gospel of Jesus. + +2. AT JERUSALEM + +Jesus had attended the feast of tabernacles that he might proclaim the gospel +to the pilgrims from all parts of the empire; he now went up to the feast of +the dedication for just one purpose: to give the Sanhedrin and the Jewish +leaders another chance to see the light. The principal event of these few days +in Jerusalem occurred on Friday night at the home of Nicodemus. Here were +gathered together some twenty-five Jewish leaders who believed Jesus' teaching. +Among this group were fourteen men who were then, or had recently been, members +of the Sanhedrin. This meeting was attended by Eber, Matadormus, and Joseph of +Arimathea. + +On this occasion Jesus' hearers were all learned men, and both they and his two +apostles were amazed at the breadth and depth of the remarks which the Master +made to this distinguished group. Not since the times when he had taught in +Alexandria, Rome, and in the islands of the Mediterranean, had he exhibited +such learning and shown such a grasp of the affairs of men, both secular and +religious. + +When this little meeting broke up, all went away mystified by the Master's +personality, charmed by his gracious manner, and in love with the man. They had +sought to advise Jesus concerning his desire to win the remaining members of +the Sanhedrin. The Master listened attentively, but silently, to all their + + top of page - 1811 + +proposals. He well knew none of their plans would work. He surmised that the +majority of the Jewish leaders never would accept the gospel of the kingdom; +nevertheless, he gave them all this one more chance to choose. But when he went +forth that night, with Nathaniel and Thomas, to lodge on the Mount of Olives, +he had not yet decided upon the method he would pursue in bringing his work +once more to the notice of the Sanhedrin. + +That night Nathaniel and Thomas slept little; they were too much amazed by what +they had heard at Nicodemus's house. They thought much over the final remark of +Jesus regarding the offer of the former and present members of the Sanhedrin to +go with him before the seventy. The Master said: "No, my brethren, it would be +to no purpose. You would multiply the wrath to be visited upon your own heads, +but you would not in the least mitigate the hatred which they bear me. Go, each +of you, about the Father's business as the spirit leads you while I once more +bring the kingdom to their notice in the manner which my Father may direct." + +3. HEALING THE BLIND BEGGAR + +The next morning the three went over to Martha's home at Bethany for breakfast +and then went immediately into Jerusalem. This Sabbath morning, as Jesus and +his two apostles drew near the temple, they encountered a well-known beggar, a +man who had been born blind, sitting at his usual place. Although these +mendicants did not solicit or receive alms on the Sabbath day, they were +permitted thus to sit in their usual places. Jesus paused and looked upon the +beggar. As he gazed upon this man who had been born blind, the idea came into +his mind as to how he would once more bring his mission on earth to the notice +of the Sanhedrin and the other Jewish leaders and religious teachers. + +As the Master stood there before the blind man, engrossed in deep thought, +Nathaniel, pondering the possible cause of this man's blindness, asked: +"Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?" + +The rabbis taught that all such cases of blindness from birth were caused by +sin. Not only were children conceived and born in sin, but a child could be +born blind as a punishment for some specific sin committed by its father. They +even taught that a child itself might sin before it was born into the world. +They also taught that such defects could be caused by some sin or other +indulgence of the mother while carrying the child. + +There was, throughout all these regions, a lingering belief in reincarnation. +The older Jewish teachers, together with Plato, Philo, and many of the Essenes, +tolerated the theory that men may reap in one incarnation what they have sown +in a previous existence; thus in one life they were believed to be expiating +the sins committed in preceding lives. The Master found it difficult to make +men believe that their souls had not had previous existences. + +However, inconsistent as it seems, while such blindness was supposed to be the +result of sin, the Jews held that it was meritorious in a high degree to give +alms to these blind beggars. It was the custom of these blind men constantly to +chant to the passers-by, "O tenderhearted, gain merit by assisting the blind." + +Jesus entered into the discussion of this case with Nathaniel and Thomas, not +only because he had already decided to use this blind man as the means of that +day bringing his mission once more prominently to the notice of the Jewish + + top of page - 1812 + +leaders, but also because he always encouraged his apostles to seek for the +true causes of all phenomena, natural or spiritual. He had often warned them to +avoid the common tendency to assign spiritual causes to commonplace physical +events. + +Jesus decided to use this beggar in his plans for that day's work, but before +doing anything for the blind man, Josiah by name, he proceeded to answer +Nathaniel's question. Said the Master: "Neither did this man sin nor his +parents that the works of God might be manifest in him. This blindness has come +upon him in the natural course of events, but we must now do the works of Him +who sent me, while it is still day, for the night will certainly come when it +will be impossible to do the work we are about to perform. When I am in the +world, I am the light of the world, but in only a little while I will not be +with you." + +When Jesus had spoken, he said to Nathaniel and Thomas: "Let us create the +sight of this blind man on this Sabbath day that the scribes and Pharisees may +have the full occasion which they seek for accusing the Son of Man." Then, +stooping over, he spat on the ground and mixed the clay with the spittle, and +speaking of all this so that the blind man could hear, he went up to Josiah and +put the clay over his sightless eyes, saying: "Go, my son, wash away this clay +in the pool of Siloam, and immediately you shall receive your sight." And when +Josiah had so washed in the pool of Siloam, he returned to his friends and +family, seeing. + +Having always been a beggar, he knew nothing else; so, when the first +excitement of the creation of his sight had passed, he returned to his usual +place of alms-seeking. His friends, neighbors, and all who had known him +aforetime, when they observed that he could see, all said, "Is this not Josiah +the blind beggar?" Some said it was he, while others said, "No, it is one like +him, but this man can see." But when they asked the man himself, he answered, +"I am he." + +When they began to inquire of him how he was able to see, he answered them: "A +man called Jesus came by this way, and when talking about me with his friends, +he made clay with spittle, anointed my eyes, and directed that I should go and +wash in the pool of Siloam. I did what this man told me, and immediately I +received my sight. And that is only a few hours ago. I do not yet know the +meaning of much that I see." And when the people who began to gather about him +asked where they could find the strange man who had healed him, Josiah could +answer only that he did not know. + +This is one of the strangest of all the Master's miracles. This man did not ask +for healing. He did not know that the Jesus who had directed him to wash at +Siloam, and who had promised him vision, was the prophet of Galilee who had +preached in Jerusalem during the feast of tabernacles. This man had little +faith that he would receive his sight, but the people of that day had great +faith in the efficacy of the spittle of a great or holy man; and from Jesus' +conversation with Nathaniel and Thomas, Josiah had concluded that his would-be +benefactor was a great man, a learned teacher or a holy prophet; accordingly he +did as Jesus directed him. + +Jesus made use of the clay and the spittle and directed him to wash in the +symbolic pool of Siloam for three reasons: + +1. This was not a miracle response to the individual's faith. This was a wonder +which Jesus chose to perform for a purpose of his own, but which he so arranged +that this man might derive lasting benefit therefrom. + + top of page - 1813 + +2. As the blind man had not asked for healing, and since the faith he had was +slight, these material acts were suggested for the purpose of encouraging him. +He did believe in the superstition of the efficacy of spittle, and he knew the +pool of Siloam was a semisacred place. But he would hardly have gone there had +it not been necessary to wash away the clay of his anointing. There was just +enough ceremony about the transaction to induce him to act. + +3. But Jesus had a third reason for resorting to these material means in +connection with this unique transaction: This was a miracle wrought purely in +obedience to his own choosing, and thereby he desired to teach his followers of +that day and all subsequent ages to refrain from despising or neglecting +material means in the healing of the sick. He wanted to teach them that they +must cease to regard miracles as the only method of curing human diseases. + +Jesus gave this man his sight by miraculous working, on this Sabbath morning +and in Jerusalem near the temple, for the prime purpose of making this act an +open challenge to the Sanhedrin and all the Jewish teachers and religious +leaders. This was his way of proclaiming an open break with the Pharisees. He +was always positive in everything he did. And it was for the purpose of +bringing these matters before the Sanhedrin that Jesus brought his two apostles +to this man early in the afternoon of this Sabbath day and deliberately +provoked those discussions which compelled the Pharisees to take notice of the +miracle. + +4. JOSIAH BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN + +By midafternoon the healing of Josiah had raised such a discussion around the +temple that the leaders of the Sanhedrin decided to convene the council in its +usual temple meeting place. And they did this in violation of a standing rule +which forbade the meeting of the Sanhedrin on the Sabbath day. Jesus knew that +Sabbath breaking would be one of the chief charges to be brought against him +when the final test came, and he desired to be brought before the Sanhedrin for +adjudication of the charge of having healed a blind man on the Sabbath day, +when the very session of the high Jewish court sitting in judgment on him for +this act of mercy would be deliberating on these matters on the Sabbath day and +in direct violation of their own self-imposed laws. + +But they did not call Jesus before them; they feared to. Instead, they sent +forthwith for Josiah. After some preliminary questioning, the spokesman for the +Sanhedrin (about fifty members being present) directed Josiah to tell them what +had happened to him. Since his healing that morning Josiah had learned from +Thomas, Nathaniel, and others that the Pharisees were angry about his healing +on the Sabbath, and that they were likely to make trouble for all concerned; +but Josiah did not yet perceive that Jesus was he who was called the Deliverer. +So, when the Pharisees questioned him, he said: "This man came along, put clay +upon my eyes, told me to go wash in Siloam, and I do now see." + +One of the older Pharisees, after making a lengthy speech, said: "This man +cannot be from God because you can see that he does not observe the Sabbath. He +violates the law, first, in making the clay, then, in sending this beggar to +wash in Siloam on the Sabbath day. Such a man cannot be a teacher sent from +God." + +Then one of the younger men who secretly believed in Jesus, said: "If this man +is not sent by God, how can he do these things? We know that one who is a + + top of page - 1814 + +common sinner cannot perform such miracles. We all know this beggar and that he +was born blind; now he sees. Will you still say that this prophet does all +these wonders by the power of the prince of devils?" And for every Pharisee who +dared to accuse and denounce Jesus one would arise to ask entangling and +embarrassing questions, so that a serious division arose among them. The +presiding officer saw whither they were drifting, and in order to allay the +discussion, he prepared further to question the man himself. Turning to Josiah, +he said: "What do you have to say about this man, this Jesus, whom you claim +opened your eyes?" And Josiah answered, "I think he is a prophet." + +The leaders were greatly troubled and, knowing not what else to do, decided to +send for Josiah's parents to learn whether he had actually been born blind. +They were loath to believe that the beggar had been healed. + +It was well known about Jerusalem, not only that Jesus was denied entrance into +all synagogues, but that all who believed in his teaching were likewise cast +out of the synagogue, excommunicated from the congregation of Israel; and this +meant denial of all rights and privileges of every sort throughout all Jewry +except the right to buy the necessaries of life. + +When, therefore, Josiah's parents, poor and fear-burdened souls, appeared +before the august Sanhedrin, they were afraid to speak freely. Said the +spokesman of the court: "Is this your son? and do we understand aright that he +was born blind? If this is true, how is it that he can now see?" And then +Josiah's father, seconded by his mother, answered: "We know that this is our +son, and that he was born blind, but how it is that he has come to see, or who +it was that opened his eyes, we know not. Ask him; he is of age; let him speak +for himself." + +They now called Josiah up before them a second time. They were not getting +along well with their scheme of holding a formal trial, and some were beginning +to feel strange about doing this on the Sabbath; accordingly, when they +recalled Josiah, they attempted to ensnare him by a different mode of attack. +The officer of the court spoke to the former blind man, saying: "Why do you not +give God the glory for this? Why do you not tell us the whole truth about what +happened? We all know that this man is a sinner. Why do you refuse to discern +the truth? You know that both you and this man stand convicted of Sabbath +breaking. Will you not atone for your sin by acknowledging God as your healer, +if you still claim that your eyes have this day been opened?" + +But Josiah was neither dumb nor lacking in humor; so he replied to the officer +of the court: "Whether this man is a sinner, I know not; but one thing I do +know--that, whereas I was blind, now I see." And since they could not entrap +Josiah, they sought further to question him, asking: "Just how did he open your +eyes? what did he actually do to you? what did he say to you? did he ask you to +believe in him?" + +Josiah replied, somewhat impatiently: "I have told you exactly how it all +happened, and if you did not believe my testimony, why would you hear it again? +Would you by any chance also become his disciples?" When Josiah had thus +spoken, the Sanhedrin broke up in confusion, almost violence, for the leaders +rushed upon Josiah, angrily exclaiming: "You may talk about being this man's +disciple, but we are disciples of Moses, and we are the teachers of the laws of +God. We know that God spoke through Moses, but as for this man Jesus, we know +not whence he is." + +Then Josiah, standing upon a stool, shouted abroad to all who could hear, +saying: "Hearken, you who claim to be the teachers of all Israel, while I +declare + + top of page - 1815 + +to you that herein is a great marvel since you confess that you know not whence +this man is, and yet you know of a certainty, from the testimony which you have +heard, that he opened my eyes. We all know that God does not perform such works +for the ungodly; that God would do such a thing only at the request of a true +worshiper--for one who is holy and righteous. You know that not since the +beginning of the world have you ever heard of the opening of the eyes of one +who was born blind. Look, then, all of you, upon me and realize what has been +done this day in Jerusalem! I tell you, if this man were not from God, he could +not do this." And as the Sanhedrists departed in anger and confusion, they +shouted to him: "You were altogether born in sin, and do you now presume to +teach us? Maybe you were not really born blind, and even if your eyes were +opened on the Sabbath day, this was done by the power of the prince of devils." +And they went at once to the synagogue to cast out Josiah. + +Josiah entered this trial with meager ideas about Jesus and the nature of his +healing. Most of the daring testimony which he so cleverly and courageously +bore before this supreme tribunal of all Israel developed in his mind as the +trial proceeded along such unfair and unjust lines. + +5. TEACHING IN SOLOMON'S PORCH + +All of the time this Sabbath-breaking session of the Sanhedrin was in progress +in one of the temple chambers, Jesus was walking about near at hand, teaching +the people in Solomon's Porch, hoping that he would be summoned before the +Sanhedrin where he could tell them the good news of the liberty and joy of +divine sonship in the kingdom of God. But they were afraid to send for him. +They were always disconcerted by these sudden and public appearances of Jesus +in Jerusalem. The very occasion they had so ardently sought, Jesus now gave +them, but they feared to bring him before the Sanhedrin even as a witness, and +even more they feared to arrest him. + +This was midwinter in Jerusalem, and the people sought the partial shelter of +Solomon's Porch; and as Jesus lingered, the crowds asked him many questions, +and he taught them for more than two hours. Some of the Jewish teachers sought +to entrap him by publicly asking him: "How long will you hold us in suspense? +If you are the Messiah, why do you not plainly tell us?" Said Jesus: "I have +told you about myself and my Father many times, but you will not believe me. +Can you not see that the works I do in my Father's name bear witness for me? +But many of you believe not because you belong not to my fold. The teacher of +truth attracts only those who hunger for the truth and who thirst for +righteousness. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And +to all who follow my teaching I give eternal life; they shall never perish, and +no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given me these +children, is greater than all, so that no one is able to pluck them out of my +Father's hand. The Father and I are one." Some of the unbelieving Jews rushed +over to where they were still building the temple to pick up stones to cast at +Jesus, but the believers restrained them. + +Jesus continued his teaching: "Many loving works have I shown you from the +Father, so that now would I inquire for which one of these good works do you +think to stone me?" And then answered one of the Pharisees: "For no good work +would we stone you but for blasphemy, inasmuch as you, being a man, dare to +make yourself equal with God." And Jesus answered: "You charge the + + top of page - 1816 + +Son of Man with blasphemy because you refused to believe me when I declared to +you that I was sent by God. If I do not the works of God, believe me not, but +if I do the works of God, even though you believe not in me, I should think you +would believe the works. But that you may be certain of what I proclaim, let me +again assert that the Father is in me and I in the Father, and that, as the +Father dwells in me, so will I dwell in every one who believes this gospel." +And when the people heard these words, many of them rushed out to lay hands +upon the stones to cast at him, but he passed out through the temple precincts; +and meeting Nathaniel and Thomas, who had been in attendance upon the session +of the Sanhedrin, he waited with them near the temple until Josiah came from +the council chamber. + +Jesus and the two apostles did not go in search of Josiah at his home until +they heard he had been cast out of the synagogue. When they came to his house, +Thomas called him out in the yard, and Jesus, speaking to him, said: "Josiah, +do you believe in the Son of God?" And Josiah answered, "Tell me who he is that +I may believe in him." And Jesus said: "You have both seen and heard him, and +it is he who now speaks to you." And Josiah said, "Lord, I believe," and +falling down, he worshiped. + +When Josiah learned that he had been cast out of the synagogue, he was at first +greatly downcast, but he was much encouraged when Jesus directed that he should +immediately prepare to go with them to the camp at Pella. This simple-minded +man of Jerusalem had indeed been cast out of a Jewish synagogue, but behold the +Creator of a universe leading him forth to become associated with the spiritual +nobility of that day and generation. + +And now Jesus left Jerusalem, not again to return until near the time when he +prepared to leave this world. With the two apostles and Josiah the Master went +back to Pella. And Josiah proved to be one of the recipients of the Master's +miraculous ministry who turned out fruitfully, for he became a lifelong +preacher of the gospel of the kingdom. + + top of page - 1817 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Ordination Of ³ The Perean ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ T... ³ Miss... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p165.txt b/religious documents/p165.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84ebd42 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p165.txt @@ -0,0 +1,531 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 165 The Perean Mission Begins + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 165 The Perean Mission Begins + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ON TUESDAY, January 3, A.D. 30, Abner, the former chief of the twelve apostles +of John the Baptist, a Nazarite and onetime head of the Nazarite school at +Engedi, now chief of the seventy messengers of the kingdom, called his +associates together and gave them final instructions before sending them on a +mission to all of the cities and villages of Perea. This Perean mission +continued for almost three months and was the last ministry of the Master. From +these labors Jesus went directly to Jerusalem to pass through his final +experiences in the flesh. The seventy, supplemented by the periodic labors of +Jesus and the twelve apostles, worked in the following cities and towns and +some fifty additional villages: Zaphon, Gadara, Macad, Arbela, Ramath, Edrei, +Bosora, Caspin, Mispeh, Gerasa, Ragaba, Succoth, Amathus, Adam, Penuel, +Capitolias, Dion, Hatita, Gadda, Philadelphia, Jogbehah, Gilead, Beth-Nimrah, +Tyrus, Elealah, Livias, Heshbon, Callirrhoe, Beth-Peor, Shittim, Sibmah, +Medeba, Beth-Meon, Areopolis, and Aroer. + +Throughout this tour of Perea the women's corps, now numbering sixty-two, took +over most of the work of ministration to the sick. This was the final period of +the development of the higher spiritual aspects of the gospel of the kingdom, +and there was, accordingly, an absence of miracle working. No other part of +Palestine was so thoroughly worked by the apostles and disciples of Jesus, and +in no other region did the better classes of citizens so generally accept the +Master's teaching. + +Perea at this time was about equally gentile and Jewish, the Jews having been +generally removed from these regions during the times of Judas Maccabee. Perea +was the most beautiful and picturesque province of all Palestine. It was +generally referred to by the Jews as "the land beyond the Jordan." + +Throughout this period Jesus divided his time between the camp at Pella and +trips with the twelve to assist the seventy in the various cities where they +taught and preached. Under Abner's instructions the seventy baptized all +believers, although Jesus had not so charged them. + +1. AT THE PELLA CAMP + +By the middle of January more than twelve hundred persons were gathered +together at Pella, and Jesus taught this multitude at least once each day when +he was in residence at the camp, usually speaking at nine o'clock in the +morning if not prevented by rain. Peter and the other apostles taught each +afternoon. The evenings Jesus reserved for the usual sessions of questions and +answers with the twelve and other advanced disciples. The evening groups +averaged about fifty. + +By the middle of March, the time when Jesus began his journey toward Jerusalem, +over four thousand persons composed the large audience which heard + + top of page - 1818 + +Jesus or Peter preach each morning. The Master chose to terminate his work on +earth when the interest in his message had reached a high point, the highest +point attained under this second or nonmiraculous phase of the progress of the +kingdom. While three quarters of the multitude were truth seekers, there were +also present a large number of Pharisees from Jerusalem and elsewhere, together +with many doubters and cavilers. + +Jesus and the twelve apostles devoted much of their time to the multitude +assembled at the Pella camp. The twelve paid little or no attention to the +field work, only going out with Jesus to visit Abner's associates from time to +time. Abner was very familiar with the Perean district since this was the field +in which his former master, John the Baptist, had done most of his work. After +beginning the Perean mission, Abner and the seventy never returned to the Pella +camp. + +2. SERMON ON THE GOOD SHEPHERD + +A company of over three hundred Jerusalemites, Pharisees and others, followed +Jesus north to Pella when he hastened away from the jurisdiction of the Jewish +rulers at the ending of the feast of the dedication; and it was in the presence +of these Jewish teachers and leaders, as well as in the hearing of the twelve +apostles, that Jesus preached the sermon on the "Good Shepherd." After half an +hour of informal discussion, speaking to a group of about one hundred, Jesus +said: + +"On this night I have much to tell you, and since many of you are my disciples +and some of you my bitter enemies, I will present my teaching in a parable, so +that you may each take for yourself that which finds a reception in your heart. + +"Tonight, here before me are men who would be willing to die for me and for +this gospel of the kingdom, and some of them will so offer themselves in the +years to come; and here also are some of you, slaves of tradition, who have +followed me down from Jerusalem, and who, with your darkened and deluded +leaders, seek to kill the Son of Man. The life which I now live in the flesh +shall judge both of you, the true shepherds and the false shepherds. If the +false shepherd were blind, he would have no sin, but you claim that you see; +you profess to be teachers in Israel; therefore does your sin remain upon you. + +"The true shepherd gathers his flock into the fold for the night in times of +danger. And when the morning has come, he enters into the fold by the door, and +when he calls, the sheep know his voice. Every shepherd who gains entrance to +the sheepfold by any other means than by the door is a thief and a robber. The +true shepherd enters the fold after the porter has opened the door for him, and +his sheep, knowing his voice, come out at his word; and when they that are his +are thus brought forth, the true shepherd goes before them; he leads the way +and the sheep follow him. His sheep follow him because they know his voice; +they will not follow a stranger. They will flee from the stranger because they +know not his voice. This multitude which is gathered about us here are like +sheep without a shepherd, but when we speak to them, they know the shepherd's +voice, and they follow after us; at least, those who hunger for truth and +thirst for righteousness do. Some of you are not of my fold; you know not my +voice, and you do not follow me. And because you are false shepherds, the sheep +know not your voice and will not follow you." + + top of page - 1819 + +And when Jesus had spoken this parable, no one asked him a question. After a +time he began again to speak and went on to discuss the parable: + +"You who would be the undershepherds of my Father's flocks must not only be +worthy leaders, but you must also feed the flock with good food; you are not +true shepherds unless you lead your flocks into green pastures and beside still +waters. + +"And now, lest some of you too easily comprehend this parable, I will declare +that I am both the door to the Father's sheepfold and at the same time the true +shepherd of my Father's flocks. Every shepherd who seeks to enter the fold +without me shall fail, and the sheep will not hear his voice. I, with those who +minister with me, am the door. Every soul who enters upon the eternal way by +the means I have created and ordained shall be saved and will be able to go on +to the attainment of the eternal pastures of Paradise. + +"But I also am the true shepherd who is willing even to lay down his life for +the sheep. The thief breaks into the fold only to steal, and to kill, and to +destroy; but I have come that you all may have life and have it more +abundantly. He who is a hireling, when danger arises, will flee and allow the +sheep to be scattered and destroyed; but the true shepherd will not flee when +the wolf comes; he will protect his flock and, if necessary, lay down his life +for his sheep. Verily, verily, I say to you, friends and enemies, I am the true +shepherd; I know my own and my own know me. I will not flee in the face of +danger. I will finish this service of the completion of my Father's will, and I +will not forsake the flock which the Father has intrusted to my keeping. + +"But I have many other sheep not of this fold, and these words are true not +only of this world. These other sheep also hear and know my voice, and I have +promised the Father that they shall all be brought into one fold, one +brotherhood of the sons of God. And then shall you all know the voice of one +shepherd, the true shepherd, and shall all acknowledge the fatherhood of God. + +"And so shall you know why the Father loves me and has put all of his flocks in +this domain in my hands for keeping; it is because the Father knows that I will +not falter in the safeguarding of the sheepfold, that I will not desert my +sheep, and that, if it shall be required, I will not hesitate to lay down my +life in the service of his manifold flocks. But, mind you, if I lay down my +life, I will take it up again. No man nor any other creature can take away my +life. I have the right and the power to lay down my life, and I have the same +power and right to take it up again. You cannot understand this, but I received +such authority from my Father even before this world was." + +When they heard these words, his apostles were confused, his disciples were +amazed, while the Pharisees from Jerusalem and around about went out into the +night, saying, "He is either mad or has a devil." But even some of the +Jerusalem teachers said: "He speaks like one having authority; besides, who +ever saw one having a devil open the eyes of a man born blind and do all of the +wonderful things which this man has done?" + +On the morrow about half of these Jewish teachers professed belief in Jesus, +and the other half in dismay returned to Jerusalem and their homes. + +3. SABBATH SERMON AT PELLA + +By the end of January the Sabbath-afternoon multitudes numbered almost three +thousand. On Saturday, January 28, Jesus preached the memorable ser- + + top of page - 1820 + +mon on "Trust and Spiritual Preparedness." After preliminary remarks by Simon +Peter, the Master said: + +"What I have many times said to my apostles and to my disciples, I now declare +to this multitude: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy, +born of prejudice and nurtured in traditional bondage, albeit many of these +Pharisees are honest of heart and some of them abide here as my disciples. +Presently all of you shall understand my teaching, for there is nothing now +covered that shall not be revealed. That which is now hid from you shall all be +made known when the Son of Man has completed his mission on earth and in the +flesh. + +"Soon, very soon, will the things which our enemies now plan in secrecy and in +darkness be brought out into the light and be proclaimed from the housetops. +But I say to you, my friends, when they seek to destroy the Son of Man, be not +afraid of them. Fear not those who, although they may be able to kill the body, +after that have no more power over you. I admonish you to fear none, in heaven +or on earth, but to rejoice in the knowledge of Him who has power to deliver +you from all unrighteousness and to present you blameless before the judgment +seat of a universe. + +"Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And yet, when these birds flit +about in quest of their sustenance, not one of them exists without the +knowledge of the Father, the source of all life. To the seraphic guardians the +very hairs of your head are numbered. And if all of this is true, why should +you live in fear of the many trifles which come up in your daily lives? I say +to you: Fear not; you are of much more value than many sparrows. + +"All of you who have had the courage to confess faith in my gospel before men I +will presently acknowledge before the angels of heaven; but he who shall +knowingly deny the truth of my teachings before men shall be denied by his +guardian of destiny even before the angels of heaven. + +"Say what you will about the Son of Man, and it shall be forgiven you; but he +who presumes to blaspheme against God shall hardly find forgiveness. When men +go so far as knowingly to ascribe the doings of God to the forces of evil, such +deliberate rebels will hardly seek forgiveness for their sins. + +"And when our enemies bring you before the rulers of the synagogues and before +other high authorities, be not concerned about what you should say and be not +anxious as to how you should answer their questions, for the spirit that dwells +within you shall certainly teach you in that very hour what you should say in +honor of the gospel of the kingdom. + +"How long will you tarry in the valley of decision? Why do you halt between two +opinions? Why should Jew or gentile hesitate to accept the good news that he is +a son of the eternal God? How long will it take us to persuade you to enter +joyfully into your spiritual inheritance? I came into this world to reveal the +Father to you and to lead you to the Father. The first I have done, but the +last I may not do without your consent; the Father never compels any man to +enter the kingdom. The invitation ever has been and always will be: Whosoever +will, let him come and freely partake of the water of life." + +When Jesus had finished speaking, many went forth to be baptized by the +apostles in the Jordan while he listened to the questions of those who +remained. + + top of page - 1821 + +4. DIVIDING THE INHERITANCE + +As the apostles baptized believers, the Master talked with those who tarried. +And a certain young man said to him: "Master, my father died leaving much +property to me and my brother, but my brother refuses to give me that which is +my own. Will you, then, bid my brother divide this inheritance with me?" Jesus +was mildly indignant that this material-minded youth should bring up for +discussion such a question of business; but he proceeded to use the occasion +for the impartation of further instruction. Said Jesus: "Man, who made me a +divider over you? Where did you get the idea that I give attention to the +material affairs of this world?" And then, turning to all who were about him, +he said: "Take heed and keep yourselves free from covetousness; a man's life +consists not in the abundance of the things which he may possess. Happiness +comes not from the power of wealth, and joy springs not from riches. Wealth, in +itself, is not a curse, but the love of riches many times leads to such +devotion to the things of this world that the soul becomes blinded to the +beautiful attractions of the spiritual realities of the kingdom of God on earth +and to the joys of eternal life in heaven. + +"Let me tell you a story of a certain rich man whose ground brought forth +plentifully; and when he had become very rich, he began to reason with himself, +saying: `What shall I do with all my riches? I now have so much that I have no +place to store my wealth.' And when he had meditated on his problem, he said: +`This I will do; I will pull down my barns and build greater ones, and thus +will I have abundant room in which to store my fruits and my goods. Then can I +say to my soul, soul, you have much wealth laid up for many years; take now +your ease; eat, drink, and be merry, for you are rich and increased in goods.' + +"But this rich man was also foolish. In providing for the material requirements +of his mind and body, he had failed to lay up treasures in heaven for the +satisfaction of the spirit and for the salvation of the soul. And even then he +was not to enjoy the pleasure of consuming his hoarded wealth, for that very +night was his soul required of him. That night there came the brigands who +broke into his house to kill him, and after they had plundered his barns, they +burned that which remained. And for the property which escaped the robbers his +heirs fell to fighting among themselves. This man laid up treasures for himself +on earth, but he was not rich toward God." + +Jesus thus dealt with the young man and his inheritance because he knew that +his trouble was covetousness. Even if this had not been the case, the Master +would not have interfered, for he never meddled with the temporal affairs of +even his apostles, much less his disciples. + +When Jesus had finished his story, another man rose up and asked him: "Master, +I know that your apostles have sold all their earthly possessions to follow +you, and that they have all things in common as do the Essenes, but would you +have all of us who are your disciples do likewise? Is it a sin to possess +honest wealth?" And Jesus replied to this question: "My friend, it is not a sin +to have honorable wealth; but it is a sin if you convert the wealth of material +possessions into treasures which may absorb your interests and divert your +affections from devotion to the spiritual pursuits of the kingdom. There is no +sin in having honest possessions on earth provided your treasure is in heaven, +for + + top of page - 1822 + +where your is there will your heart be also. There is a great difference +between wealth which leads to covetousness and selfishness and that which is +held and dispensed in the spirit of stewardship by those who have an abundance +of this world's goods, and who so bountifully contribute to the support of +those who devote all their energies to the work of the kingdom. Many of you who +are here and without money are fed and lodged in yonder tented city because +liberal men and women of means have given funds to your host, David Zebedee, +for such purposes. + +"But never forget that, after all, wealth is unenduring. The love of riches all +too often obscures and even destroys the spiritual vision. Fail not to +recognize the danger of wealth's becoming, not your servant, but your master." + +Jesus did not teach nor countenance improvidence, idleness, indifference to +providing the physical necessities for one's family, or dependence upon alms. +But he did teach that the material and temporal must be subordinated to the +welfare of the soul and the progress of the spiritual nature in the kingdom of +heaven. + +Then, as the people went down by the river to witness the baptizing, the first +man came privately to Jesus about his inheritance inasmuch as he thought Jesus +had dealt harshly with him; and when the Master had again heard him, he +replied: "My son, why do you miss the opportunity to feed upon the bread of +life on a day like this in order to indulge your covetous disposition? Do you +not know that the Jewish laws of inheritance will be justly administered if you +will go with your complaint to the court of the synagogue? Can you not see that +my work has to do with making sure that you know about your heavenly +inheritance? Have you not read the Scripture: `There is he who waxes rich by +his wariness and much pinching, and this is the portion of his reward: Whereas +he says, I have found rest and now shall be able to eat continually of my +goods, yet he knows not what time shall bring upon him, and also that he must +leave all these things to others when he dies.' Have you not read the +commandment: `You shall not covet.' And again, `They have eaten and filled +themselves and waxed fat, and then did they turn to other gods.' Have you read +in the Psalms that `the Lord abhors the covetous,' and that `the little a +righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked.' `If riches +increase, set not your heart upon them.' Have you read where Jeremiah said, +`Let not the rich man glory in his riches'; and Ezekiel spoke truth when he +said, `With their mouths they make a show of love, but their hearts are set +upon their own selfish gain.'" + +Jesus sent the young man away, saying to him, "My son, what shall it profit you +if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?" + +To another standing near by who asked Jesus how the wealthy would stand in the +day of judgment, he replied: "I have come to judge neither the rich nor the +poor, but the lives men live will sit in judgment on all. Whatever else may +concern the wealthy in the judgment, at least three questions must be answered +by all who acquire great wealth, and these questions are: + +"1. How much wealth did you accumulate? + +"2. How did you get this wealth? + +"3. How did you use your wealth?" + +Then Jesus went into his tent to rest for a while before the evening meal. When +the apostles had finished with the baptizing, they came also and would + + top of page - 1823 + +have talked with him about wealth on earth and treasure in heaven, but he was +asleep. + +5. TALKS TO THE APOSTLES ON WEALTH + +That evening after supper, when Jesus and the twelve gathered together for +their daily conference, Andrew asked: "Master, while we were baptizing the +believers, you spoke many words to the lingering multitude which we did not +hear. Would you be willing to repeat these words for our benefit?" And in +response to Andrew's request, Jesus said: + +"Yes, Andrew, I will speak to you about these matters of wealth and +self-support, but my words to you, the apostles, must be somewhat different +from those spoken to the disciples and the multitude since you have forsaken +everything, not only to follow me, but to be ordained as ambassadors of the +kingdom. Already have you had several years' experience, and you know that the +Father whose kingdom you proclaim will not forsake you. You have dedicated your +lives to the ministry of the kingdom; therefore be not anxious or worried about +the things of the temporal life, what you shall eat, nor yet for your body, +what you shall wear. The welfare of the soul is more than food and drink; the +progress in the spirit is far above the need of raiment. When you are tempted +to doubt the sureness of your bread, consider the ravens; they sow not neither +reap, they have no storehouses or barns, and yet the Father provides food for +every one of them that seeks it. And of how much more value are you than many +birds! Besides, all of your anxiety or fretting doubts can do nothing to supply +your material needs. Which of you by anxiety can add a handbreadth to your +stature or a day to your life? Since such matters are not in your hands, why do +you give anxious thought to any of these problems? + +"Consider the lilies, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; yet I +say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If +God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is cut +down and cast into the fire, how much more shall he clothe you, the ambassadors +of the heavenly kingdom. O you of little faith! When you wholeheartedly devote +yourselves to the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, you should not be +of doubtful minds concerning the support of yourselves or the families you have +forsaken. If you give your lives truly to the gospel, you shall live by the +gospel. If you are only believing disciples, you must earn your own bread and +contribute to the sustenance of all who teach and preach and heal. If you are +anxious about your bread and water, wherein are you different from the nations +of the world who so diligently seek such necessities? Devote yourselves to your +work, believing that both the Father and I know that you have need of all these +things. Let me assure you, once and for all, that, if you dedicate your lives +to the work of the kingdom, all your real needs shall be supplied. Seek the +greater thing, and the lesser will be found therein; ask for the heavenly, and +the earthly shall be included. The shadow is certain to follow the substance. + +"You are only a small group, but if you have faith, if you will not stumble in +fear, I declare that it is my Father's good pleasure to give you this kingdom. +You have laid up your treasures where the purse waxes not old, where no thief +can despoil, and where no moth can destroy. And as I told the people, where +your treasure is, there will your heart be also. + + top of page - 1824 + +"But in the work which is just ahead of us, and in that which remains for you +after I go to the Father, you will be grievously tried. You must all be on your +watch against fear and doubts. Every one of you, gird up the loins of your +minds and let your lamps be kept burning. Keep yourselves like men who are +watching for their master to return from the marriage feast so that, when he +comes and knocks, you may quickly open to him. Such watchful servants are +blessed by the master who finds them faithful at such a great moment. Then will +the master make his servants sit down while he himself serves them. Verily, +verily, I say to you that a crisis is just ahead in your lives, and it behooves +you to watch and be ready. + +"You well understand that no man would suffer his house to be broken into if he +knew what hour the thief was to come. Be you also on watch for yourselves, for +in an hour that you least suspect and in a manner you think not, shall the Son +of Man depart." + +For some minutes the twelve sat in silence. Some of these warnings they had +heard before but not in the setting presented to them at this time. + +6. ANSWER TO PETER'S QUESTION + +As they sat thinking, Simon Peter asked: "Do you speak this parable to us, your +apostles, or is it for all the disciples?" And Jesus answered: + +"In the time of testing, a man's soul is revealed; trial discloses what really +is in the heart. When the servant is tested and proved, then may the lord of +the house set such a servant over his household and safely trust this faithful +steward to see that his children are fed and nurtured. Likewise, will I soon +know who can be trusted with the welfare of my children when I shall have +returned to the Father. As the lord of the household shall set the true and +tried servant over the affairs of his family, so will I exalt those who endure +the trials of this hour in the affairs of my kingdom. + +"But if the servant is slothful and begins to say in his heart, `My master +delays his coming,' and begins to mistreat his fellow servants and to eat and +drink with the drunken, then the lord of that servant will come at a time when +he looks not for him and, finding him unfaithful, will cast him out in +disgrace. Therefore you do well to prepare yourselves for that day when you +will be visited suddenly and in an unexpected manner. Remember, much has been +given to you; therefore will much be required of you. Fiery trials are drawing +near you. I have a baptism to be baptized with, and I am on watch until this is +accomplished. You preach peace on earth, but my mission will not bring peace in +the material affairs of men--not for a time, at least. Division can only be the +result where two members of a family believe in me and three members reject +this gospel. Friends, relatives, and loved ones are destined to be set against +each other by the gospel you preach. True, each of these believers shall have +great and lasting peace in his own heart, but peace on earth will not come +until all are willing to believe and enter into their glorious inheritance of +sonship with God. Nevertheless, go into all the world proclaiming this gospel +to all nations, to every man, woman, and child." + +And this was the end of a full and busy Sabbath day. On the morrow Jesus and +the twelve went into the cities of northern Perea to visit with the seventy, +who were working in these regions under Abner's supervision. + + top of page - 1825 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ At The Feast ³ Last Visit To ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Of... ³ N... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p166.txt b/religious documents/p166.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f46487 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p166.txt @@ -0,0 +1,491 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 166 Last Visit To Northern Perea + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 166 Last Visit To Northern Perea + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +FROM February 11 to 20, Jesus and the twelve made a tour of all the cities and +villages of northern Perea where the associates of Abner and the members of the +women's corps were working. They found these messengers of the gospel meeting +with success, and Jesus repeatedly called the attention of his apostles to the +fact that the gospel of the kingdom could spread without the accompaniment of +miracles and wonders. + +This entire mission of three months in Perea was successfully carried on with +little help from the twelve apostles, and the gospel from this time on +reflected, not so much Jesus' personality, as his teachings. But his followers +did not long follow his instructions, for soon after Jesus' death and +resurrection they departed from his teachings and began to build the early +church around the miraculous concepts and the glorified memories of his +divine-human personality. + +1. THE PHARISEES AT RAGABA + +On Sabbath, February 18, Jesus was at Ragaba, where there lived a wealthy +Pharisee named Nathaniel; and since quite a number of his fellow Pharisees were +following Jesus and the twelve around the country, he made a breakfast on this +Sabbath morning for all of them, about twenty in number, and invited Jesus as +the guest of honor. + +By the time Jesus arrived at this breakfast, most of the Pharisees, with two or +three lawyers, were already there and seated at the table. The Master +immediately took his seat at the left of Nathaniel without going to the water +basins to wash his hands. Many of the Pharisees, especially those favorable to +Jesus' teachings, knew that he washed his hands only for purposes of +cleanliness, that he abhorred these purely ceremonial performances; so they +were not surprised at his coming directly to the table without having twice +washed his hands. But Nathaniel was shocked by this failure of the Master to +comply with the strict requirements of Pharisaic practice. Neither did Jesus +wash his hands, as did the Pharisees, after each course of food nor at the end +of the meal. + +After considerable whispering between Nathaniel and an unfriendly Pharisee on +his right and after much lifting of eyebrows and sneering curling of lips by +those who sat opposite the Master, Jesus finally said: "I had thought that you +invited me to this house to break bread with you and perchance to inquire of me +concerning the proclamation of the new gospel of the kingdom of God; but I +perceive that you have brought me here to witness an exhibition of cere- + + top of page - 1826 + +monial devotion to your own self-righteousness. That service you have now done +me; what next will you honor me with as your guest on this occasion?" + +When the Master had thus spoken, they cast their eyes upon the table and +remained silent. And since no one spoke, Jesus continued: "Many of you +Pharisees are here with me as friends, some are even my disciples, but the +majority of the Pharisees are persistent in their refusal to see the light and +acknowledge the truth, even when the work of the gospel is brought before them +in great power. How carefully you cleanse the outside of the cups and the +platters while the spiritual-food vessels are filthy and polluted! You make +sure to present a pious and holy appearance to the people, but your inner souls +are filled with self-righteousness, covetousness, extortion, and all manner of +spiritual wickedness. Your leaders even dare to plot and plan the murder of the +Son of Man. Do not you foolish men understand that the God of heaven looks at +the inner motives of the soul as well as on your outer pretenses and your pious +professions? Think not that the giving of alms and the paying of tithes will +cleanse you from unrighteousness and enable you to stand clean in the presence +of the Judge of all men. Woe upon you Pharisees who have persisted in rejecting +the light of life! You are meticulous in tithing and ostentatious in +almsgiving, but you knowingly spurn the visitation of God and reject the +revelation of his love. Though it is all right for you to give attention to +these minor duties, you should not have left these weightier requirements +undone. Woe upon all who shun justice, spurn mercy, and reject truth! Woe upon +all those who despise the revelation of the Father while they seek the chief +seats in the synagogue and crave flattering salutations in the market places!" + +When Jesus would have risen to depart, one of the lawyers who was at the table, +addressing him, said: "But, Master, in some of your statements you reproach us +also. Is there nothing good in the scribes, the Pharisees, or the lawyers?" And +Jesus, standing, replied to the lawyer: "You, like the Pharisees, delight in +the first places at the feasts and in wearing long robes while you put heavy +burdens, grievous to be borne, on men's shoulders. And when the souls of men +stagger under these heavy burdens, you will not so much as lift with one of +your fingers. Woe upon you who take your greatest delight in building tombs for +the prophets your fathers killed! And that you consent to what your fathers did +is made manifest when you now plan to kill those who come in this day doing +what the prophets did in their day--proclaiming the righteousness of God and +revealing the mercy of the heavenly Father. But of all the generations that are +past, the blood of the prophets and the apostles shall be required of this +perverse and self-righteous generation. Woe upon all of you lawyers who have +taken away the key of knowledge from the common people! You yourselves refuse +to enter into the way of truth, and at the same time you would hinder all +others who seek to enter therein. But you cannot thus shut up the doors of the +kingdom of heaven; these we have opened to all who have the faith to enter, and +these portals of mercy shall not be closed by the prejudice and arrogance of +false teachers and untrue shepherds who are like whited sepulchres which, while +outwardly they appear beautiful, are inwardly full of dead men's bones and all +manner of spiritual uncleanness." + +And when Jesus had finished speaking at Nathaniel's table, he went out of the +house without partaking of food. And of the Pharisees who heard these words, +some became believers in his teaching and entered into the kingdom, + + top of page - 1827 + +but the larger number persisted in the way of darkness, becoming all the more +determined to lie in wait for him that they might catch some of his words which +could be used to bring him to trial and judgment before the Sanhedrin at +Jerusalem. + +There were just three things to which the Pharisees paid particular attention: + +1. The practice of strict tithing. + +2. Scrupulous observance of the laws of purification. + +3. Avoidance of association with all non-Pharisees. + +At this time Jesus sought to expose the spiritual barrenness of the first two +practices, while he reserved his remarks designed to rebuke the Pharisees' +refusal to engage in social intercourse with non-Pharisees for another and +subsequent occasion when he would again be dining with many of these same men. + +2. THE TEN LEPERS + +The next day Jesus went with the twelve over to Amathus, near the border of +Samaria, and as they approached the city, they encountered a group of ten +lepers who sojourned near this place. Nine of this group were Jews, one a +Samaritan. Ordinarily these Jews would have refrained from all association or +contact with this Samaritan, but their common affliction was more than enough +to overcome all religious prejudice. They had heard much of Jesus and his +earlier miracles of healing, and since the seventy made a practice of +announcing the time of Jesus' expected arrival when the Master was out with the +twelve on these tours, the ten lepers had been made aware that he was expected +to appear in this vicinity at about this time; and they were, accordingly, +posted here on the outskirts of the city where they hoped to attract his +attention and ask for healing. When the lepers saw Jesus drawing near them, not +daring to approach him, they stood afar off and cried to him: "Master, have +mercy on us; cleanse us from our affliction. Heal us as you have healed +others." + +Jesus had just been explaining to the twelve why the gentiles of Perea, +together with the less orthodox Jews, were more willing to believe the gospel +preached by the seventy than were the more orthodox and tradition-bound Jews of +Judea. He had called their attention to the fact that their message had +likewise been more readily received by the Galileans, and even by the +Samaritans. But the twelve apostles were hardly yet willing to entertain kind +feelings for the long-despised Samaritans. + +Accordingly, when Simon Zelotes observed the Samaritan among the lepers, he +sought to induce the Master to pass on into the city without even hesitating to +exchange greetings with them. Said Jesus to Simon: "But what if the Samaritan +loves God as well as the Jews? Should we sit in judgment on our fellow men? Who +can tell? if we make these ten men whole, perhaps the Samaritan will prove more +grateful even than the Jews. Do you feel certain about your opinions, Simon?" +And Simon quickly replied, "If you cleanse them, you will soon find out." And +Jesus replied: "So shall it be, Simon, and you will soon know the truth +regarding the gratitude of men and the loving mercy of God." + +Jesus, going near the lepers, said: "If you would be made whole, go forthwith +and show yourselves to the priests as required by the law of Moses." And + + top of page - 1828 + +as they went, they were made whole. But when the Samaritan saw that he was +being healed, he turned back and, going in quest of Jesus, began to glorify God +with a loud voice. And when he had found the Master, he fell on his knees at +his feet and gave thanks for his cleansing. The nine others, the Jews, had also +discovered their healing, and while they also were grateful for their +cleansing, they continued on their way to show themselves to the priests. + +As the Samaritan remained kneeling at Jesus' feet, the Master, looking about at +the twelve, especially at Simon Zelotes, said: "Were not ten cleansed? Where, +then, are the other nine, the Jews? Only one, this alien, has returned to give +glory to God." And then he said to the Samaritan, "Arise and go your way; your +faith has made you whole." + +Jesus looked again at his apostles as the stranger departed. And the apostles +all looked at Jesus, save Simon Zelotes, whose eyes were downcast. The twelve +said not a word. Neither did Jesus speak; it was not necessary that he should. + +Though all ten of these men really believed they had leprosy, only four were +thus afflicted. The other six were cured of a skin disease which had been +mistaken for leprosy. But the Samaritan really had leprosy. + +Jesus enjoined the twelve to say nothing about the cleansing of the lepers, and +as they went on into Amathus, he remarked: "You see how it is that the children +of the house, even when they are insubordinate to their Father's will, take +their blessings for granted. They think it a small matter if they neglect to +give thanks when the Father bestows healing upon them, but the strangers, when +they receive gifts from the head of the house, are filled with wonder and are +constrained to give thanks in recognition of the good things bestowed upon +them." And still the apostles said nothing in reply to the Master's words. + +3. THE SERMON AT GERASA + +As Jesus and the twelve visited with the messengers of the kingdom at Gerasa, +one of the Pharisees who believed in him asked this question: "Lord, will there +be few or many really saved?" And Jesus, answering, said: + +"You have been taught that only the children of Abraham will be saved; that +only the gentiles of adoption can hope for salvation. Some of you have reasoned +that, since the Scriptures record that only Caleb and Joshua from among all the +hosts that went out of Egypt lived to enter the promised land, only a +comparatively few of those who seek the kingdom of heaven shall find entrance +thereto. + +"You also have another saying among you, and one that contains much truth: That +the way which leads to eternal life is straight and narrow, that the door which +leads thereto is likewise narrow so that, of those who seek salvation, few can +find entrance through this door. You also have a teaching that the way which +leads to destruction is broad, that the entrance thereto is wide, and that +there are many who choose to go this way. And this proverb is not without its +meaning. But I declare that salvation is first a matter of your personal +choosing. Even if the door to the way of life is narrow, it is wide enough to +admit all who sincerely seek to enter, for I am that door. And the Son will +never refuse entrance to any child of the universe who, by faith, seeks to find +the Father through the Son. + + top of page - 1829 + +"But herein is the danger to all who would postpone their entrance into the +kingdom while they continue to pursue the pleasures of immaturity and indulge +the satisfactions of selfishness: Having refused to enter the kingdom as a +spiritual experience, they may subsequently seek entrance thereto when the +glory of the better way becomes revealed in the age to come. And when, +therefore, those who spurned the kingdom when I came in the likeness of +humanity seek to find an entrance when it is revealed in the likeness of +divinity, then will I say to all such selfish ones: I know not whence you are. +You had your chance to prepare for this heavenly citizenship, but you refused +all such proffers of mercy; you rejected all invitations to come while the door +was open. Now, to you who have refused salvation, the door is shut. This door +is not open to those who would enter the kingdom for selfish glory. Salvation +is not for those who are unwilling to pay the price of wholehearted dedication +to doing my Father's will. When in spirit and soul you have turned your backs +upon the Father's kingdom, it is useless in mind and body to stand before this +door and knock, saying, `Lord, open to us; we would also be great in the +kingdom.' Then will I declare that you are not of my fold. I will not receive +you to be among those who have fought the good fight of faith and won the +reward of unselfish service in the kingdom on earth. And when you say, `Did we +not eat and drink with you, and did you not teach in our streets?' then shall I +again declare that you are spiritual strangers; that we were not fellow +servants in the Father's ministry of mercy on earth; that I do not know you; +and then shall the Judge of all the earth say to you: `Depart from us, all you +who have taken delight in the works of iniquity.' + +"But fear not; every one who sincerely desires to find eternal life by entrance +into the kingdom of God shall certainly find such everlasting salvation. But +you who refuse this salvation will some day see the prophets of the seed of +Abraham sit down with the believers of the gentile nations in this glorified +kingdom to partake of the bread of life and to refresh themselves with the +water thereof. And they who shall thus take the kingdom in spiritual power and +by the persistent assaults of living faith will come from the north and the +south and from the east and the west. And, behold, many who are first will be +last, and those who are last will many times be first." + +This was indeed a new and strange version of the old and familiar proverb of +the straight and narrow way. + +Slowly the apostles and many of the disciples were learning the meaning of +Jesus' early declaration: "Unless you are born again, born of the spirit, you +cannot enter the kingdom of God." Nevertheless, to all who are honest of heart +and sincere in faith, it remains eternally true: "Behold, I stand at the doors +of men's hearts and knock, and if any man will open to me, I will come in and +sup with him and will feed him with the bread of life; we shall be one in +spirit and purpose, and so shall we ever be brethren in the long and fruitful +service of the search for the Paradise Father." And so, whether few or many are +to be saved altogether depends on whether few or many will heed the invitation: +"I am the door, I am the new and living way, and whosoever wills may enter to +embark upon the endless truth-search for eternal life." + +Even the apostles were unable fully to comprehend his teaching as to the +necessity for using spiritual force for the purpose of breaking through all +material resistance and for surmounting every earthly obstacle which might +chance to stand in the way of grasping the all-important spiritual values of +the new life in the spirit as the liberated sons of God. + + top of page - 1830 + +4. TEACHING ABOUT ACCIDENTS + +While most Palestinians ate only two meals a day, it was the custom of Jesus +and the apostles, when on a journey, to pause at midday for rest and +refreshment. And it was at such a noontide stop on the way to Philadelphia that +Thomas asked Jesus: "Master, from hearing your remarks as we journeyed this +morning, I would like to inquire whether spiritual beings are concerned in the +production of strange and extraordinary events in the material world and, +further, to ask whether the angels and other spirit beings are able to prevent +accidents." + +In answer to Thomas's inquiry, Jesus said: "Have I been so long with you, and +yet you continue to ask me such questions? Have you failed to observe how the +Son of Man lives as one with you and consistently refuses to employ the forces +of heaven for his personal sustenance? Do we not all live by the same means +whereby all men exist? Do you see the power of the spiritual world manifested +in the material life of this world, save for the revelation of the Father and +the sometime healing of his afflicted children? + +"All too long have your fathers believed that prosperity was the token of +divine approval; that adversity was the proof of God's displeasure. I declare +that such beliefs are superstitions. Do you not observe that far greater +numbers of the poor joyfully receive the gospel and immediately enter the +kingdom? If riches evidence divine favor, why do the rich so many times refuse +to believe this good news from heaven? + +"The Father causes his rain to fall on the just and the unjust; the sun +likewise shines on the righteous and the unrighteous. You know about those +Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with the sacrifices, but I tell you these +Galileans were not in any manner sinners above all their fellows just because +this happened to them. You also know about the eighteen men upon whom the tower +of Siloam fell, killing them. Think not that these men who were thus destroyed +were offenders above all their brethren in Jerusalem. These folks were simply +innocent victims of one of the accidents of time. + +"There are three groups of events which may occur in your lives: + +"1. You may share in those normal happenings which are a part of the life you +and your fellows live on the face of the earth. + +"2. You may chance to fall victim to one of the accidents of nature, one of the +mischances of men, knowing full well that such occurrences are in no way +prearranged or otherwise produced by the spiritual forces of the realm. + +"3. You may reap the harvest of your direct efforts to comply with the natural +laws governing the world. + +"There was a certain man who planted a fig tree in his yard, and when he had +many times sought fruit thereon and found none, he called the vinedressers +before him and said: `Here have I come these three seasons looking for fruit on +this fig tree and have found none. Cut down this barren tree; why should it +encumber the ground?' But the head gardener answered his master: `Let it alone +for one more year so that I may dig around it and put on fertilizer, and then, +next year, if it bears no fruit, it shall be cut down.' And when they had thus +complied with the laws of fruitfulness, since the tree was living and good, +they were rewarded with an abundant yield. + + top of page - 1831 + +"In the matter of sickness and health, you should know that these bodily states +are the result of material causes; health is not the smile of heaven, neither +is affliction the frown of God. + +"The Father's human children have equal capacity for the reception of material +blessings; therefore does he bestow things physical upon the children of men +without discrimination. When it comes to the bestowal of spiritual gifts, the +Father is limited by man's capacity for receiving these divine endowments. +Although the Father is no respecter of persons, in the bestowal of spiritual +gifts he is limited by man's faith and by his willingness always to abide by +the Father's will." + +As they journeyed on toward Philadelphia, Jesus continued to teach them and to +answer their questions having to do with accidents, sickness, and miracles, but +they were not able fully to comprehend this instruction. One hour of teaching +will not wholly change the beliefs of a lifetime, and so Jesus found it +necessary to reiterate his message, to tell again and again that which he +wished them to understand; and even then they failed to grasp the meaning of +his earth mission until after his death and resurrection. + +5. THE CONGREGATION AT PHILADELPHIA + +Jesus and the twelve were on their way to visit Abner and his associates, who +were preaching and teaching in Philadelphia. Of all the cities of Perea, in +Philadelphia the largest group of Jews and gentiles, rich and poor, learned and +unlearned, embraced the teachings of the seventy, thereby entering into the +kingdom of heaven. The synagogue of Philadelphia had never been subject to the +supervision of the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem and therefore had never been closed +to the teachings of Jesus and his associates. At this very time, Abner was +teaching three times a day in the Philadelphia synagogue. + +This very synagogue later on became a Christian church and was the missionary +headquarters for the promulgation of the gospel through the regions to the +east. It was long a stronghold of the Master's teachings and stood alone in +this region as a center of Christian learning for centuries. + +The Jews at Jerusalem had always had trouble with the Jews of Philadelphia. And +after the death and resurrection of Jesus the Jerusalem church, of which James +the Lord's brother was head, began to have serious difficulties with the +Philadelphia congregation of believers. Abner became the head of the +Philadelphia church, continuing as such until his death. And this estrangement +with Jerusalem explains why nothing is heard of Abner and his work in the +Gospel records of the New Testament. This feud between Jerusalem and +Philadelphia lasted throughout the lifetimes of James and Abner and continued +for some time after the destruction of Jerusalem. Philadelphia was really the +headquarters of the early church in the south and east as Antioch was in the +north and west. + +It was the apparent misfortune of Abner to be at variance with all of the +leaders of the early Christian church. He fell out with Peter and James (Jesus' +brother) over questions of administration and the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem +church; he parted company with Paul over differences of philosophy and +theology. Abner was more Babylonian than Hellenic in his philosophy, and he +stubbornly resisted all attempts of Paul to remake the teachings of Jesus so as + + top of page - 1832 + +to present less that was objectionable, first to the Jews, then to the +Greco-Roman believers in the mysteries. + +Thus was Abner compelled to live a life of isolation. He was head of a church +which was without standing at Jerusalem. He had dared to defy James the Lord's +brother, who was subsequently supported by Peter. Such conduct effectively +separated him from all his former associates. Then he dared to withstand Paul. +Although he was wholly sympathetic with Paul in his mission to the gentiles, +and though he supported him in his contentions with the church at Jerusalem, he +bitterly opposed the version of Jesus' teachings which Paul elected to preach. +In his last years Abner denounced Paul as the "clever corrupter of the life +teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the living God." + +During the later years of Abner and for some time thereafter, the believers at +Philadelphia held more strictly to the religion of Jesus, as he lived and +taught, than any other group on earth. + +Abner lived to be 89 years old, dying at Philadelphia on the 21st day of +November, A.D. 74. And to the very end he was a faithful believer in, and +teacher of, the gospel of the heavenly kingdom. + + top of page - 1833 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Perean ³ The Visit To ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Miss... ³ Ph... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p167.txt b/religious documents/p167.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..969ee0d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p167.txt @@ -0,0 +1,567 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 167 The Visit To Philadelphia + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 167 The Visit To Philadelphia + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THROUGHOUT this period of the Perean ministry, when mention is made of Jesus +and the apostles visiting the various localities where the seventy were at +work, it should be recalled that, as a rule, only ten were with him since it +was the practice to leave at least two of the apostles at Pella to instruct the +multitude. As Jesus prepared to go on to Philadelphia, Simon Peter and his +brother, Andrew, returned to the Pella encampment to teach the crowds there +assembled. When the Master left the camp at Pella to visit about Perea, it was +not uncommon for from three to five hundred of the campers to follow him. When +he arrived at Philadelphia, he was accompanied by over six hundred followers. + +No miracles had attended the recent preaching tour through the Decapolis, and, +excepting the cleansing of the ten lepers, thus far there had been no miracles +on this Perean mission. This was a period when the gospel was proclaimed with +power, without miracles, and most of the time without the personal presence of +Jesus or even of his apostles. + +Jesus and the ten apostles arrived at Philadelphia on Wednesday, February 22, +and spent Thursday and Friday resting from their recent travels and labors. +That Friday night James spoke in the synagogue, and a general council was +called for the following evening. They were much rejoiced over the progress of +the gospel at Philadelphia and among the near-by villages. The messengers of +David also brought word of the further advancement of the kingdom throughout +Palestine, as well as good news from Alexandria and Damascus. + +1. BREAKFAST WITH THE PHARISEES + +There lived in Philadelphia a very wealthy and influential Pharisee who had +accepted the teachings of Abner, and who invited Jesus to his house Sabbath +morning for breakfast. It was known that Jesus was expected in Philadelphia at +this time; so a large number of visitors, among them many Pharisees, had come +over from Jerusalem and from elsewhere. Accordingly, about forty of these +leading men and a few lawyers were bidden to this breakfast, which had been +arranged in honor of the Master. + +As Jesus lingered by the door, speaking with Abner, and after the host had +seated himself, there came into the room one of the leading Pharisees of +Jerusalem, a member of the Sanhedrin, and as was his habit, he made straight +for the seat of honor at the left of the host. But since this place had been +reserved for the Master and that on the right for Abner, the host beckoned the +Jerusalem Pharisee to sit four seats to the left, and this dignitary was much +offended because he did not receive the seat of honor. + + top of page - 1834 + +Soon they were all seated and enjoying the visiting among themselves since the +majority of those present were disciples of Jesus or else were friendly to the +gospel. Only his enemies took notice of the fact that he did not observe the +ceremonial washing of his hands before he sat down to eat. Abner washed his +hands at the beginning of the meal but not during the serving. + +Near the end of the meal there came in from the street a man long afflicted +with a chronic disease and now in a dropsical condition. This man was a +believer, having recently been baptized by Abner's associates. He made no +request of Jesus for healing, but the Master knew full well that this afflicted +man came to this breakfast hoping thereby to escape the crowds which thronged +him and thus be more likely to engage his attention. This man knew that few +miracles were then being performed; however, he had reasoned in his heart that +his sorry plight might possibly appeal to the Master's compassion. And he was +not mistaken, for, when he entered the room, both Jesus and the self-righteous +Pharisee from Jerusalem took notice of him. The Pharisee was not slow to voice +his resentment that such a one should be permitted to enter the room. But Jesus +looked upon the sick man and smiled so benignly that he drew near and sat down +upon the floor. As the meal was ending, the Master looked over his fellow +guests and then, after glancing significantly at the man with dropsy, said: "My +friends, teachers in Israel and learned lawyers, I would like to ask you a +question: Is it lawful to heal the sick and afflicted on the Sabbath day, or +not?" But those who were there present knew Jesus too well; they held their +peace; they answered not his question. + +Then went Jesus over to where the sick man sat and, taking him by the hand, +said: "Arise and go your way. You have not asked to be healed, but I know the +desire of your heart and the faith of your soul." Before the man left the room, +Jesus returned to his seat and, addressing those at the table, said: "Such +works my Father does, not to tempt you into the kingdom, but to reveal himself +to those who are already in the kingdom. You can perceive that it would be like +the Father to do just such things because which one of you, having a favorite +animal that fell in the well on the Sabbath day, would not go right out and +draw him up?" And since no one would answer him, and inasmuch as his host +evidently approved of what was going on, Jesus stood up and spoke to all +present: "My brethren, when you are bidden to a marriage feast, sit not down in +the chief seat, lest, perchance, a more honored man than you has been invited, +and the host will have to come to you and request that you give your place to +this other and honored guest. In this event, with shame you will be required to +take a lower place at the table. When you are bidden to a feast, it would be +the part of wisdom, on arriving at the festive table, to seek for the lowest +place and take your seat therein, so that, when the host looks over the guests, +he may say to you: `My friend, why sit in the seat of the least? come up +higher'; and thus will such a one have glory in the presence of his fellow +guests. Forget not, every one who exalts himself shall be humbled, while he who +truly humbles himself shall be exalted. Therefore, when you entertain at dinner +or give a supper, invite not always your friends, your brethren, your kinsmen, +or your rich neighbors that they in return may bid you to their feasts, and +thus will you be recompensed. When you give a banquet, sometimes bid the poor, +the maimed, and the blind. In this way you shall be blessed in your heart, for +you well know that the lame and the halt cannot repay you for your loving +ministry." + + top of page - 1835 + +2. PARABLE OF THE GREAT SUPPER + +As Jesus finished speaking at the breakfast table of the Pharisee, one of the +lawyers present, desiring to relieve the silence, thoughtlessly said: "Blessed +is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God"--that being a common saying of +those days. And then Jesus spoke a parable, which even his friendly host was +compelled to take to heart. He said: + +"A certain ruler gave a great supper, and having bidden many guests, he +dispatched his servants at suppertime to say to those who were invited, `Come, +for everything is now ready.' And they all with one accord began to make +excuses. The first said, `I have just bought a farm, and I must needs to go +prove it; I pray you have me excused.' Another said, `I have bought five yoke +of oxen, and I must go to receive them; I pray you have me excused.' And +another said, `I have just married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So the +servants went back and reported this to their master. When the master of the +house heard this, he was very angry, and turning to his servants, he said: `I +have made ready this marriage feast; the fatlings are killed, and all is in +readiness for my guests, but they have spurned my invitation; they have gone +every man after his lands and his merchandise, and they even show disrespect to +my servants who bid them come to my feast. Go out quickly, therefore, into the +streets and lanes of the city, out into the highways and the byways, and bring +hither the poor and the outcast, the blind and the lame, that the marriage +feast may have guests.' And the servants did as their lord commanded, and even +then there was room for more guests. Then said the lord to his servants: `Go +now out into the roads and the countryside and constrain those who are there to +come in that my house may be filled. I declare that none of those who were +first bidden shall taste of my supper.' And the servants did as their master +commanded, and the house was filled." + +And when they heard these words, they departed; every man went to his own +place. At least one of the sneering Pharisees present that morning comprehended +the meaning of this parable, for he was baptized that day and made public +confession of his faith in the gospel of the kingdom. Abner preached on this +parable that night at the general council of believers. + +The next day all of the apostles engaged in the philosophic exercise of +endeavoring to interpret the meaning of this parable of the great supper. +Though Jesus listened with interest to all of these differing interpretations, +he steadfastly refused to offer them further help in understanding the parable. +He would only say, "Let every man find out the meaning for himself and in his +own soul." + +3. THE WOMAN WITH THE SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY + +Abner had arranged for the Master to teach in the synagogue on this Sabbath +day, the first time Jesus had appeared in a synagogue since they had all been +closed to his teachings by order of the Sanhedrin. At the conclusion of the +service Jesus looked down before him upon an elderly woman who wore a downcast +expression, and who was much bent in form. This woman had long been +fear-ridden, and all joy had passed out of her life. As Jesus stepped down from + + top of page - 1836 + +the pulpit, he went over to her and, touching her bowed-over form on the +shoulder, said: "Woman, if you would only believe, you could be wholly loosed +from your spirit of infirmity." And this woman, who had been bowed down and +bound up by the depressions of fear for more than eighteen years, believed the +words of the Master and by faith straightened up immediately. When this woman +saw that she had been made straight, she lifted up her voice and glorified God. + +Notwithstanding that this woman's affliction was wholly mental, her bowed-over +form being the result of her depressed mind, the people thought that Jesus had +healed a real physical disorder. Although the congregation of the synagogue at +Philadelphia was friendly toward the teachings of Jesus, the chief ruler of the +synagogue was an unfriendly Pharisee. And as he shared the opinion of the +congregation that Jesus had healed a physical disorder, and being indignant +because Jesus had presumed to do such a thing on the Sabbath, he stood up +before the congregation and said: "Are there not six days in which men should +do all their work? In these working days come, therefore, and be healed, but +not on the Sabbath day." + +When the unfriendly ruler had thus spoken, Jesus returned to the speaker's +platform and said: "Why play the part of hypocrites? Does not every one of you, +on the Sabbath, loose his ox from the stall and lead him forth for watering? If +such a service is permissible on the Sabbath day, should not this woman, a +daughter of Abraham who has been bound down by evil these eighteen years, be +loosed from this bondage and led forth to partake of the waters of liberty and +life, even on this Sabbath day?" And as the woman continued to glorify God, his +critic was put to shame, and the congregation rejoiced with her that she had +been healed. + +As a result of his public criticism of Jesus on this Sabbath the chief ruler of +the synagogue was deposed, and a follower of Jesus was put in his place. + +Jesus frequently delivered such victims of fear from their spirit of infirmity, +from their depression of mind, and from their bondage of fear. But the people +thought that all such afflictions were either physical disorders or possession +of evil spirits. + +Jesus taught again in the synagogue on Sunday, and many were baptized by Abner +at noon on that day in the river which flowed south of the city. On the morrow +Jesus and the ten apostles would have started back to the Pella encampment but +for the arrival of one of David's messengers, who brought an urgent message to +Jesus from his friends at Bethany, near Jerusalem. + +4. THE MESSAGE FROM BETHANY + +Very late on Sunday night, February 26, a runner from Bethany arrived at +Philadelphia, bringing a message from Martha and Mary which said, "Lord, he +whom you love is very sick." This message reached Jesus at the close of the +evening conference and just as he was taking leave of the apostles for the +night. At first Jesus made no reply. There occurred one of those strange +interludes, a time when he appeared to be in communication with something +outside of, and beyond, himself. And then, looking up, he addressed the +messenger in the hearing of the apostles, saying: "This sickness is really not +to the death. Doubt not that it may be used to glorify God and exalt the Son." + + top of page - 1837 + +Jesus was very fond of Martha, Mary, and their brother, Lazarus; he loved them +with a fervent affection. His first and human thought was to go to their +assistance at once, but another idea came into his combined mind. He had almost +given up hope that the Jewish leaders at Jerusalem would ever accept the +kingdom, but he still loved his people, and there now occurred to him a plan +whereby the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem might have one more chance to +accept his teachings; and he decided, his Father willing, to make this last +appeal to Jerusalem the most profound and stupendous outward working of his +entire earth career. The Jews clung to the idea of a wonder-working deliverer. +And though he refused to stoop to the performance of material wonders or to the +enactment of temporal exhibitions of political power, he did now ask the +Father's consent for the manifestation of his hitherto unexhibited power over +life and death. + +The Jews were in the habit of burying their dead on the day of their demise; +this was a necessary practice in such a warm climate. It often happened that +they put in the tomb one who was merely comatose, so that on the second, or +even the third, day such a one would come forth from the tomb. But it was the +belief of the Jews that, while the spirit or soul might linger near the body +for two or three days, it never tarried after the third day; that decay was +well advanced by the fourth day, and that no one ever returned from the tomb +after the lapse of such a period. And it was for these reasons that Jesus +tarried yet two full days in Philadelphia before he made ready to start for +Bethany. + +Accordingly, early on Wednesday morning he said to his apostles: "Let us +prepare at once to go into Judea again." And when the apostles heard their +Master say this, they drew off by themselves for a time to take counsel of one +another. James assumed the direction of the conference, and they all agreed +that it was only folly to allow Jesus to go again into Judea, and they came +back as one man and so informed him. Said James: "Master, you were in Jerusalem +a few weeks back, and the leaders sought your death, while the people were +minded to stone you. At that time you gave these men their chance to receive +the truth, and we will not permit you to go again into Judea." + +Then said Jesus: "But do you not understand that there are twelve hours of the +day in which work may safely be done? If a man walks in the day, he does not +stumble inasmuch as he has light. If a man walks in the night, he is liable to +stumble since he is without light. As long as my day lasts, I fear not to enter +Judea. I would do one more mighty work for these Jews; I would give them one +more chance to believe, even on their own terms--conditions of outward glory +and the visible manifestation of the power of the Father and the love of the +Son. Besides, do you not realize that our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, and +I would go to awake him out of this sleep!" + +Then said one of the apostles: "Master, if Lazarus has fallen asleep, then will +he the more surely recover." It was the custom of the Jews at that time to +speak of death as a form of sleep, but as the apostles did not understand that +Jesus meant that Lazarus had departed from this world, he now said plainly: +"Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes, even if the others are not +thereby saved, that I was not there, to the end that you shall now have new +cause to believe in me; and by that which you will witness, you should all be +strengthened in preparation for that day when I shall take leave of you and go +to the Father." + + top of page - 1838 + +When they could not persuade him to refrain from going into Judea, and when +some of the apostles were loath even to accompany him, Thomas addressed his +fellows, saying: "We have told the Master our fears, but he is determined to go +to Bethany. I am satisfied it means the end; they will surely kill him, but if +that is the Master's choice, then let us acquit ourselves like men of courage; +let us go also that we may die with him." And it was ever so; in matters +requiring deliberate and sustained courage, Thomas was always the mainstay of +the twelve apostles. + +5. ON THE WAY TO BETHANY + +On the way to Judea Jesus was followed by a company of almost fifty of his +friends and enemies. At their noon lunchtime, on Wednesday, he talked to his +apostles and this group of followers on the "Terms of Salvation," and at the +end of this lesson told the parable of the Pharisee and the publican (a tax +collector). Said Jesus: "You see, then, that the Father gives salvation to the +children of men, and this salvation is a free gift to all who have the faith to +receive sonship in the divine family. There is nothing man can do to earn this +salvation. Works of self-righteousness cannot buy the favor of God, and much +praying in public will not atone for lack of living faith in the heart. Men you +may deceive by your outward service, but God looks into your souls. What I am +telling you is well illustrated by two men who went into the temple to pray, +the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed to +himself: `O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, +unlearned, unjust, adulterers, or even like this publican. I fast twice a week; +I give tithes of all that I get.' But the publican, standing afar off, would +not so much as lift his eyes to heaven but smote his breast, saying, `God be +merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you that the publican went home with God's +approval rather than the Pharisee, for every one who exalts himself shall be +humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted." + +That night, in Jericho, the unfriendly Pharisees sought to entrap the Master by +inducing him to discuss marriage and divorce, as did their fellows one time in +Galilee, but Jesus artfully avoided their efforts to bring him into conflict +with their laws concerning divorce. As the publican and the Pharisee +illustrated good and bad religion, their divorce practices served to contrast +the better marriage laws of the Jewish code with the disgraceful laxity of the +Pharisaic interpretations of these Mosaic divorce statutes. The Pharisee judged +himself by the lowest standard; the publican squared himself by the highest +ideal. Devotion, to the Pharisee, was a means of inducing self-righteous +inactivity and the assurance of false spiritual security; devotion, to the +publican, was a means of stirring up his soul to the realization of the need +for repentance, confession, and the acceptance, by faith, of merciful +forgiveness. The Pharisee sought justice; the publican sought mercy. The law of +the universe is: Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find. + +Though Jesus refused to be drawn into a controversy with the Pharisees +concerning divorce, he did proclaim a positive teaching of the highest ideals +regarding marriage. He exalted marriage as the most ideal and highest of all +human relationships. Likewise, he intimated strong disapproval of the lax and +unfair divorce practices of the Jerusalem Jews, who at that time permitted a + + top of page - 1839 + +man to divorce his wife for the most trifling of reasons, such as being a poor +cook, a faulty housekeeper, or for no better reason than that he had become +enamoured of a better-looking woman. + +The Pharisees had even gone so far as to teach that divorce of this easy +variety was a special dispensation granted the Jewish people, particularly the +Pharisees. And so, while Jesus refused to make pronouncements dealing with +marriage and divorce, he did most bitterly denounce these shameful floutings of +the marriage relationship and pointed out their injustice to women and +children. He never sanctioned any divorce practice which gave man any advantage +over woman; the Master countenanced only those teachings which accorded women +equality with men. + +Although Jesus did not offer new mandates governing marriage and divorce, he +did urge the Jews to live up to their own laws and higher teachings. He +constantly appealed to the written Scriptures in his effort to improve their +practices along these social lines. While thus upholding the high and ideal +concepts of marriage, Jesus skillfully avoided clashing with his questioners +about the social practices represented by either their written laws or their +much-cherished divorce privileges. + +It was very difficult for the apostles to understand the Master's reluctance to +make positive pronouncements relative to scientific, social, economic, and +political problems. They did not fully realize that his earth mission was +exclusively concerned with revelations of spiritual and religious truths. + +After Jesus had talked about marriage and divorce, later on that evening his +apostles privately asked many additional questions, and his answers to these +inquiries relieved their minds of many misconceptions. At the conclusion of +this conference Jesus said: "Marriage is honorable and is to be desired by all +men. The fact that the Son of Man pursues his earth mission alone is in no way +a reflection on the desirability of marriage. That I should so work is the +Father's will, but this same Father has directed the creation of male and +female, and it is the divine will that men and women should find their highest +service and consequent joy in the establishment of homes for the reception and +training of children, in the creation of whom these parents become copartners +with the Makers of heaven and earth. And for this cause shall a man leave his +father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall become as +one." + +And in this way Jesus relieved the minds of the apostles of many worries about +marriage and cleared up many misunderstandings regarding divorce; at the same +time he did much to exalt their ideals of social union and to augment their +respect for women and children and for the home. + +6. BLESSING THE LITTLE CHILDREN + +That evening Jesus' message regarding marriage and the blessedness of children +spread all over Jericho, so that the next morning, long before Jesus and the +apostles prepared to leave, even before breakfast time, scores of mothers came +to where Jesus lodged, bringing their children in their arms and leading them +by their hands, and desired that he bless the little ones. When the apostles +went out to view this assemblage of mothers with their children, they +endeavored to send them away, but these women refused to depart until the +Master laid his hands on their children and blessed them. And when the apostles +loudly rebuked these mothers, Jesus, hearing the tumult, came out and indig- + + top of page - 1840 + +nantly reproved them, saying: "Suffer little children to come to me; forbid +them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Verily, verily, I say to you, +whosoever receives not the kingdom of God as a little child shall hardly enter +therein to grow up to the full stature of spiritual manhood." + +And when the Master had spoken to his apostles, he received all of the +children, laying his hands on them, while he spoke words of courage and hope to +their mothers. + +Jesus often talked to his apostles about the celestial mansions and taught that +the advancing children of God must there grow up spiritually as children grow +up physically on this world. And so does the sacred oftentimes appear to be the +common, as on this day these children and their mothers little realized that +the onlooking intelligences of Nebadon beheld the children of Jericho playing +with the Creator of a universe. + +Woman's status in Palestine was much improved by Jesus' teaching; and so it +would have been throughout the world if his followers had not departed so far +from that which he painstakingly taught them. + +It was also at Jericho, in connection with the discussion of the early +religious training of children in habits of divine worship, that Jesus +impressed upon his apostles the great value of beauty as an influence leading +to the urge to worship, especially with children. The Master by precept and +example taught the value of worshiping the Creator in the midst of the natural +surroundings of creation. He preferred to commune with the heavenly Father +amidst the trees and among the lowly creatures of the natural world. He +rejoiced to contemplate the Father through the inspiring spectacle of the +starry realms of the Creator Sons. + +When it is not possible to worship God in the tabernacles of nature, men should +do their best to provide houses of beauty, sanctuaries of appealing simplicity +and artistic embellishment, so that the highest of human emotions may be +aroused in association with the intellectual approach to spiritual communion +with God. Truth, beauty, and holiness are powerful and effective aids to true +worship. But spirit communion is not promoted by mere massive ornateness and +overmuch embellishment with man's elaborate and ostentatious art. Beauty is +most religious when it is most simple and naturelike. How unfortunate that +little children should have their first introduction to concepts of public +worship in cold and barren rooms so devoid of the beauty appeal and so empty of +all suggestion of good cheer and inspiring holiness! The child should be +introduced to worship in nature's outdoors and later accompany his parents to +public houses of religious assembly which are at least as materially attractive +and artistically beautiful as the home in which he is daily domiciled. + +7. THE TALK ABOUT ANGELS + +As they journeyed up the hills from Jericho to Bethany, Nathaniel walked most +of the way by the side of Jesus, and their discussion of children in relation +to the kingdom of heaven led indirectly to the consideration of the ministry of +angels. Nathaniel finally asked the Master this question: "Seeing that the high +priest is a Sadducee, and since the Sadducees do not believe in angels, what +shall we teach the people regarding the heavenly ministers?" Then, among other +things, Jesus said: + + top of page - 1841 + +"The angelic hosts are a separate order of created beings; they are entirely +different from the material order of mortal creatures, and they function as a +distinct group of universe intelligences. Angels are not of that group of +creatures called `the Sons of God' in the Scriptures; neither are they the +glorified spirits of mortal men who have gone on to progress through the +mansions on high. Angels are a direct creation, and they do not reproduce +themselves. The angelic hosts have only a spiritual kinship with the human +race. As man progresses in the journey to the Father in Paradise, he does +traverse a state of being at one time analogous to the state of the angels, but +mortal man never becomes an angel. + +"The angels never die, as man does. The angels are immortal unless, perchance, +they become involved in sin as did some of them with the deceptions of Lucifer. +The angels are the spirit servants in heaven, and they are neither all-wise nor +all-powerful. But all of the loyal angels are truly pure and holy. + +"And do you not remember that I said to you once before that, if you had your +spiritual eyes anointed, you would then see the heavens opened and behold the +angels of God ascending and descending? It is by the ministry of the angels +that one world may be kept in touch with other worlds, for have I not +repeatedly told you that I have other sheep not of this fold? And these angels +are not the spies of the spirit world who watch upon you and then go forth to +tell the Father the thoughts of your heart and to report on the deeds of the +flesh. The Father has no need of such service inasmuch as his own spirit lives +within you. But these angelic spirits do function to keep one part of the +heavenly creation informed concerning the doings of other and remote parts of +the universe. And many of the angels, while functioning in the government of +the Father and the universes of the Sons, are assigned to the service of the +human races. When I taught you that many of these seraphim are ministering +spirits, I spoke not in figurative language nor in poetic strains. And all this +is true, regardless of your difficulty in comprehending such matters. + +"Many of these angels are engaged in the work of saving men, for have I not +told you of the seraphic joy when one soul elects to forsake sin and begin the +search for God? I did even tell you of the joy in the presence of the angels of +heaven over one sinner who repents, thereby indicating the existence of other +and higher orders of celestial beings who are likewise concerned in the +spiritual welfare and with the divine progress of mortal man. + +"Also are these angels very much concerned with the means whereby man's spirit +is released from the tabernacles of the flesh and his soul escorted to the +mansions in heaven. Angels are the sure and heavenly guides of the soul of man +during that uncharted and indefinite period of time which intervenes between +the death of the flesh and the new life in the spirit abodes." + +And he would have spoken further with Nathaniel regarding the ministry of +angels, but he was interrupted by the approach of Martha, who had been informed +that the Master was drawing near to Bethany by friends who had observed him +ascending the hills to the east. And she now hastened to greet him. + + top of page - 1842 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Last Visit To ³ The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ N... ³ Resurrectio... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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Her brother, Lazarus, had been dead four +days and had been laid away in their private tomb at the far end of the garden +late on Sunday afternoon. The stone at the entrance of the tomb had been rolled +in place on the morning of this day, Thursday. + +When Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus concerning Lazarus's illness, they were +confident the Master would do something about it. They knew that their brother +was desperately sick, and though they hardly dared hope that Jesus would leave +his work of teaching and preaching to come to their assistance, they had such +confidence in his power to heal disease that they thought he would just speak +the curative words, and Lazarus would immediately be made whole. And when +Lazarus died a few hours after the messenger left Bethany for Philadelphia, +they reasoned that it was because the Master did not learn of their brother's +illness until it was too late, until he had already been dead for several +hours. + +But they, with all of their believing friends, were greatly puzzled by the +message which the runner brought back Tuesday forenoon when he reached Bethany. +The messenger insisted that he heard Jesus say, ". . . this sickness is really +not to the death." Neither could they understand why he sent no word to them +nor otherwise proffered assistance. + +Many friends from near-by hamlets and others from Jerusalem came over to +comfort the sorrow-stricken sisters. Lazarus and his sisters were the children +of a well-to-do and honorable Jew, one who had been the leading resident of the +little village of Bethany. And notwithstanding that all three had long been +ardent followers of Jesus, they were highly respected by all who knew them. +They had inherited extensive vineyards and olive orchards in this vicinity, and +that they were wealthy was further attested by the fact that they could afford +a private burial tomb on their own premises. Both of their parents had already +been laid away in this tomb. + +Mary had given up the thought of Jesus' coming and was abandoned to her grief, +but Martha clung to the hope that Jesus would come, even up to the time on that +very morning when they rolled the stone in front of the tomb and sealed the +entrance. Even then she instructed a neighbor lad to keep watch down the +Jericho road from the brow of the hill to the east of Bethany; and it was this +lad who brought tidings to Martha that Jesus and his friends were approaching. + +When Martha met Jesus, she fell at his feet, exclaiming, "Master, if you had +been here, my brother would not have died!" Many fears were passing + + top of page - 1843 + +through Martha's mind, but she gave expression to no doubt, nor did she venture +to criticize or question the Master's conduct as related to Lazarus's death. +When she had spoken, Jesus reached down and, lifting her upon her feet, said, +"Only have faith, Martha, and your brother shall rise again." Then answered +Martha: "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection of the last day; +and even now I believe that whatever you shall ask of God, our Father will give +you." + +Then said Jesus, looking straight into the eyes of Martha: "I am the +resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he +live. In truth, whosoever lives and believes in me shall never really die. +Martha, do you believe this?" And Martha answered the Master: "Yes, I have long +believed that you are the Deliverer, the Son of the living God, even he who +should come to this world." + +Jesus having inquired for Mary, Martha went at once into the house and, +whispering to her sister, said, "The Master is here and has asked for you." And +when Mary heard this, she rose up quickly and hastened out to meet Jesus, who +still tarried at the place, some distance from the house, where Martha had +first met him. The friends who were with Mary, seeking to comfort her, when +they saw that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, supposing that +she was going to the tomb to weep. + +Many of those present were Jesus' bitter enemies. That is why Martha had come +out to meet him alone, and also why she went in secretly to inform Mary that he +had asked for her. Martha, while craving to see Jesus, desired to avoid any +possible unpleasantness which might be caused by his coming suddenly into the +midst of a large group of his Jerusalem enemies. It had been Martha's intention +to remain in the house with their friends while Mary went to greet Jesus, but +in this she failed, for they all followed Mary and so found themselves +unexpectedly in the presence of the Master. + +Martha led Mary to Jesus, and when she saw him, she fell at his feet, +exclaiming, "If you had only been here, my brother would not have died!" And +when Jesus saw how they all grieved over the death of Lazarus, his soul was +moved with compassion. + +When the mourners saw that Mary had gone to greet Jesus, they withdrew for a +short distance while both Martha and Mary talked with the Master and received +further words of comfort and exhortation to maintain strong faith in the Father +and complete resignation to the divine will. + +The human mind of Jesus was mightily moved by the contention between his love +for Lazarus and the bereaved sisters and his disdain and contempt for the +outward show of affection manifested by some of these unbelieving and +murderously intentioned Jews. Jesus indignantly resented the show of forced and +outward mourning for Lazarus by some of these professed friends inasmuch as +such false sorrow was associated in their hearts with so much bitter enmity +toward himself. Some of these Jews, however, were sincere in their mourning, +for they were real friends of the family. + +1. AT THE TOMB OF LAZARUS + +After Jesus had spent a few moments in comforting Martha and Mary, apart from +the mourners, he asked them, "Where have you laid him?" Then Martha said, "Come +and see." And as the Master followed on in silence with the two + + top of page - 1844 + +sorrowing sisters, he wept. When the friendly Jews who followed after them saw +his tears, one of them said: "Behold how he loved him. Could not he who opened +the eyes of the blind have kept this man from dying?" By this time they were +standing before the family tomb, a small natural cave, or declivity, in the +ledge of rock which rose up some thirty feet at the far end of the garden plot. + +It is difficult to explain to human minds just why Jesus wept. While we have +access to the registration of the combined human emotions and divine thoughts, +as of record in the mind of the Personalized Adjuster, we are not altogether +certain about the real cause of these emotional manifestations. We are inclined +to believe that Jesus wept because of a number of thoughts and feelings which +were going through his mind at this time, such as: + +1. He felt a genuine and sorrowful sympathy for Martha and Mary; he had a real +and deep human affection for these sisters who had lost their brother. + +2. He was perturbed in his mind by the presence of the crowd of mourners, some +sincere and some merely pretenders. He always resented these outward +exhibitions of mourning. He knew the sisters loved their brother and had faith +in the survival of believers. These conflicting emotions may possibly explain +why he groaned as they came near the tomb. + +3. He truly hesitated about bringing Lazarus back to the mortal life. His +sisters really needed him, but Jesus regretted having to summon his friend back +to experience the bitter persecution which he well knew Lazarus would have to +endure as a result of being the subject of the greatest of all demonstrations +of the divine power of the Son of Man. + +And now we may relate an interesting and instructive fact: Although this +narrative unfolds as an apparently natural and normal event in human affairs, +it has some very interesting side lights. While the messenger went to Jesus on +Sunday, telling him of Lazarus's illness, and while Jesus sent word that it was +"not to the death," at the same time he went in person up to Bethany and even +asked the sisters, "Where have you laid him?" Even though all of this seems to +indicate that the Master was proceeding after the manner of this life and in +accordance with the limited knowledge of the human mind, nevertheless, the +records of the universe reveal that Jesus' Personalized Adjuster issued orders +for the indefinite detention of Lazarus's Thought Adjuster on the planet +subsequent to Lazarus's death, and that this order was made of record just +fifteen minutes before Lazarus breathed his last. + +Did the divine mind of Jesus know, even before Lazarus died, that he would +raise him from the dead? We do not know. We know only what we are herewith +placing on record. + +Many of Jesus' enemies were inclined to sneer at his manifestations of +affection, and they said among themselves: "If he thought so much of this man, +why did he tarry so long before coming to Bethany? If he is what they claim, +why did he not save his dear friend? What is the good of healing strangers in +Galilee if he cannot save those whom he loves?" And in many other ways they +mocked and made light of the teachings and works of Jesus. + +And so, on this Thursday afternoon at about half past two o'clock, was the +stage all set in this little hamlet of Bethany for the enactment of the +greatest of all works connected with the earth ministry of Michael of Nebadon, +the greatest + + top of page - 1845 + +manifestation of divine power during his incarnation in the flesh, since his +own resurrection occurred after he had been liberated from the bonds of mortal +habitation. + +The small group assembled before Lazarus's tomb little realized the presence +near at hand of a vast concourse of all orders of celestial beings assembled +under the leadership of Gabriel and now in waiting, by direction of the +Personalized Adjuster of Jesus, vibrating with expectancy and ready to execute +the bidding of their beloved Sovereign. + +When Jesus spoke those words of command, "Take away the stone," the assembled +celestial hosts made ready to enact the drama of the resurrection of Lazarus in +the likeness of his mortal flesh. Such a form of resurrection involves +difficulties of execution which far transcend the usual technique of the +resurrection of mortal creatures in morontia form and requires far more +celestial personalities and a far greater organization of universe facilities. + +When Martha and Mary heard this command of Jesus directing that the stone in +front of the tomb be rolled away, they were filled with conflicting emotions. +Mary hoped that Lazarus was to be raised from the dead, but Martha, while to +some extent sharing her sister's faith, was more exercised by the fear that +Lazarus would not be presentable, in his appearance, to Jesus, the apostles, +and their friends. Said Martha: "Must we roll away the stone? My brother has +now been dead four days, so that by this time decay of the body has begun." +Martha also said this because she was not certain as to why the Master had +requested that the stone be removed; she thought maybe Jesus wanted only to +take one last look at Lazarus. She was not settled and constant in her +attitude. As they hesitated to roll away the stone, Jesus said: "Did I not tell +you at the first that this sickness was not to the death? Have I not come to +fulfill my promise? And after I came to you, did I not say that, if you would +only believe, you should see the glory of God? Wherefore do you doubt? How long +before you will believe and obey?" + +When Jesus had finished speaking, his apostles, with the assistance of willing +neighbors, laid hold upon the stone and rolled it away from the entrance to the +tomb. + +It was the common belief of the Jews that the drop of gall on the point of the +sword of the angel of death began to work by the end of the third day, so that +it was taking full effect on the fourth day. They allowed that the soul of man +might linger about the tomb until the end of the third day, seeking to +reanimate the dead body; but they firmly believed that such a soul had gone on +to the abode of departed spirits ere the fourth day had dawned. + +These beliefs and opinions regarding the dead and the departure of the spirits +of the dead served to make sure, in the minds of all who were now present at +Lazarus's tomb and subsequently to all who might hear of what was about to +occur, that this was really and truly a case of the raising of the dead by the +personal working of one who declared he was "the resurrection and the life." + +2. THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS + +As this company of some forty-five mortals stood before the tomb, they could +dimly see the form of Lazarus, wrapped in linen bandages, resting on the right +lower niche of the burial cave. While these earth creatures stood there in + + top of page - 1846 + +almost breathless silence, a vast host of celestial beings had swung into their +places preparatory to answering the signal for action when it should be given +by Gabriel, their commander. + +Jesus lifted up his eyes and said: "Father, I am thankful that you heard and +granted my request. I know that you always hear me, but because of those who +stand here with me, I thus speak with you, that they may believe that you have +sent me into the world, and that they may know that you are working with me in +that which we are about to do." And when he had prayed, he cried with a loud +voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" + +Though these human observers remained motionless, the vast celestial host was +all astir in unified action in obedience to the Creator's word. In just twelve +seconds of earth time the hitherto lifeless form of Lazarus began to move and +presently sat up on the edge of the stone shelf whereon it had rested. His body +was bound about with grave cloths, and his face was covered with a napkin. And +as he stood up before them--alive--Jesus said, "Loose him and let him go." + +All, save the apostles, with Martha and Mary, fled to the house. They were pale +with fright and overcome with astonishment. While some tarried, many hastened +to their homes. + +Lazarus greeted Jesus and the apostles and asked the meaning of the grave +cloths and why he had awakened in the garden. Jesus and the apostles drew to +one side while Martha told Lazarus of his death, burial, and resurrection. She +had to explain to him that he had died on Sunday and was now brought back to +life on Thursday, inasmuch as he had had no consciousness of time since falling +asleep in death. + +As Lazarus came out of the tomb, the Personalized Adjuster of Jesus, now chief +of his kind in this local universe, gave command to the former Adjuster of +Lazarus, now in waiting, to resume abode in the mind and soul of the +resurrected man. + +Then went Lazarus over to Jesus and, with his sisters, knelt at the Master's +feet to give thanks and offer praise to God. Jesus, taking Lazarus by the hand, +lifted him up, saying: "My son, what has happened to you will also be +experienced by all who believe this gospel except that they shall be +resurrected in a more glorious form. You shall be a living witness of the truth +which I spoke--I am the resurrection and the life. But let us all now go into +the house and partake of nourishment for these physical bodies." + +As they walked toward the house, Gabriel dismissed the extra groups of the +assembled heavenly host while he made record of the first instance on Urantia, +and the last, where a mortal creature had been resurrected in the likeness of +the physical body of death. + +Lazarus could hardly comprehend what had occurred. He knew he had been very +sick, but he could recall only that he had fallen asleep and been awakened. He +was never able to tell anything about these four days in the tomb because he +was wholly unconscious. Time is nonexistent to those who sleep the sleep of +death. + +Though many believed in Jesus as a result of this mighty work, others only +hardened their hearts the more to reject him. By noon the next day this story +had spread over all Jerusalem. Scores of men and women went to Bethany to look +upon Lazarus and talk with him, and the alarmed and disconcerted Phar- + + top of page - 1847 + +isees hastily called a meeting of the Sanhedrin that they might determine what +should be done about these new developments. + +3. MEETING OF THE SANHEDRIN + +Even though the testimony of this man raised from the dead did much to +consolidate the faith of the mass of believers in the gospel of the kingdom, it +had little or no influence on the attitude of the religious leaders and rulers +at Jerusalem except to hasten their decision to destroy Jesus and stop his +work. + +At one o'clock the next day, Friday, the Sanhedrin met to deliberate further on +the question, "What shall we do with Jesus of Nazareth?" After more than two +hours of discussion and acrimonious debate, a certain Pharisee presented a +resolution calling for Jesus' immediate death, proclaiming that he was a menace +to all Israel and formally committing the Sanhedrin to the decision of death, +without trial and in defiance of all precedent. + +Time and again had this august body of Jewish leaders decreed that Jesus be +apprehended and brought to trial on charges of blasphemy and numerous other +accusations of flouting the Jewish sacred law. They had once before even gone +so far as to declare he should die, but this was the first time the Sanhedrin +had gone on record as desiring to decree his death in advance of a trial. But +this resolution did not come to a vote since fourteen members of the Sanhedrin +resigned in a body when such an unheard-of action was proposed. While these +resignations were not formally acted upon for almost two weeks, this group of +fourteen withdrew from the Sanhedrin on that day, never again to sit in the +council. When these resignations were subsequently acted upon, five other +members were thrown out because their associates believed they entertained +friendly feelings toward Jesus. With the ejection of these nineteen men the +Sanhedrin was in a position to try and to condemn Jesus with a solidarity +bordering on unanimity. + +The following week Lazarus and his sisters were summoned to appear before the +Sanhedrin. When their testimony had been heard, no doubt could be entertained +that Lazarus had been raised from the dead. Though the transactions of the +Sanhedrin virtually admitted the resurrection of Lazarus, the record carried a +resolution attributing this and all other wonders worked by Jesus to the power +of the prince of devils, with whom Jesus was declared to be in league. + +No matter what the source of his wonder-working power, these Jewish leaders +were persuaded that, if he were not immediately stopped, very soon all the +common people would believe in him; and further, that serious complications +with the Roman authorities would arise since so many of his believers regarded +him as the Messiah, Israel's deliverer. + +It was at this same meeting of the Sanhedrin that Caiaphas the high priest +first gave expression to that old Jewish adage, which he so many times +repeated: "It is better that one man die, than that the community perish." + +Although Jesus had received warning of the doings of the Sanhedrin on this dark +Friday afternoon, he was not in the least perturbed and continued resting over +the Sabbath with friends in Bethphage, a hamlet near Bethany. Early Sunday +morning Jesus and the apostles assembled, by prearrangement, at the home of +Lazarus, and taking leave of the Bethany family, they started on their journey +back to the Pella encampment. + + top of page - 1848 + +4. THE ANSWER TO PRAYER + +On the way from Bethany to Pella the apostles asked Jesus many questions, all +of which the Master freely answered except those involving the details of the +resurrection of the dead. Such problems were beyond the comprehension capacity +of his apostles; therefore did the Master decline to discuss these questions +with them. Since they had departed from Bethany in secret, they were alone. +Jesus therefore embraced the opportunity to say many things to the ten which he +thought would prepare them for the trying days just ahead. + +The apostles were much stirred up in their minds and spent considerable time +discussing their recent experiences as they were related to prayer and its +answering. They all recalled Jesus' statement to the Bethany messenger at +Philadelphia, when he said plainly, "This sickness is not really to the death." +And yet, in spite of this promise, Lazarus actually died. All that day, again +and again, they reverted to the discussion of this question of the answer to +prayer. + +Jesus' answers to their many questions may be summarized as follows: + +1. Prayer is an expression of the finite mind in an effort to approach the +Infinite. The making of a prayer must, therefore, be limited by the knowledge, +wisdom, and attributes of the finite; likewise must the answer be conditioned +by the vision, aims, ideals, and prerogatives of the Infinite. There never can +be observed an unbroken continuity of material phenomena between the making of +a prayer and the reception of the full spiritual answer thereto. + +2. When a prayer is apparently unanswered, the delay often betokens a better +answer, although one which is for some good reason greatly delayed. When Jesus +said that Lazarus's sickness was really not to the death, he had already been +dead eleven hours. No sincere prayer is denied an answer except when the +superior viewpoint of the spiritual world has devised a better answer, an +answer which meets the petition of the spirit of man as contrasted with the +prayer of the mere mind of man. + +3. The prayers of time, when indited by the spirit and expressed in faith, are +often so vast and all-encompassing that they can be answered only in eternity; +the finite petition is sometimes so fraught with the grasp of the Infinite that +the answer must long be postponed to await the creation of adequate capacity +for receptivity; the prayer of faith may be so all-embracing that the answer +can be received only on Paradise. + +4. The answers to the prayer of the mortal mind are often of such a nature that +they can be received and recognized only after that same praying mind has +attained the immortal state. The prayer of the material being can many times be +answered only when such an individual has progressed to the spirit level. + +5. The prayer of a God-knowing person may be so distorted by ignorance and so +deformed by superstition that the answer thereto would be highly undesirable. +Then must the intervening spirit beings so translate such a prayer that, when +the answer arrives, the petitioner wholly fails to recognize it as the answer +to his prayer. + +6. All true prayers are addressed to spiritual beings, and all such petitions +must be answered in spiritual terms, and all such answers must consist in +spiritual realities. Spirit beings cannot bestow material answers to the spirit +peti- + + top of page - 1849 + +tions of even material beings. Material beings can pray effectively only when +they "pray in the spirit." + +7. No prayer can hope for an answer unless it is born of the spirit and +nurtured by faith. Your sincere faith implies that you have in advance +virtually granted your prayer hearers the full right to answer your petitions +in accordance with that supreme wisdom and that divine love which your faith +depicts as always actuating those beings to whom you pray. + +8. The child is always within his rights when he presumes to petition the +parent; and the parent is always within his parental obligations to the +immature child when his superior wisdom dictates that the answer to the child's +prayer be delayed, modified, segregated, transcended, or postponed to another +stage of spiritual ascension. + +9. Do not hesitate to pray the prayers of spirit longing; doubt not that you +shall receive the answer to your petitions. These answers will be on deposit, +awaiting your achievement of those future spiritual levels of actual cosmic +attainment, on this world or on others, whereon it will become possible for you +to recognize and appropriate the long-waiting answers to your earlier but +ill-timed petitions. + +10. All genuine spirit-born petitions are certain of an answer. Ask and you +shall receive. But you should remember that you are progressive creatures of +time and space; therefore must you constantly reckon with the time-space factor +in the experience of your personal reception of the full answers to your +manifold prayers and petitions. + +5. WHAT BECAME OF LAZARUS + +Lazarus remained at the Bethany home, being the center of great interest to +many sincere believers and to numerous curious individuals, until the week of +the crucifixion of Jesus, when he received warning that the Sanhedrin had +decreed his death. The rulers of the Jews were determined to put a stop to the +further spread of the teachings of Jesus, and they well judged that it would be +useless to put Jesus to death if they permitted Lazarus, who represented the +very peak of his wonder-working, to live and bear testimony to the fact that +Jesus had raised him from the dead. Already had Lazarus suffered bitter +persecution from them. + +And so Lazarus took hasty leave of his sisters at Bethany, fleeing down through +Jericho and across the Jordan, never permitting himself to rest long until he +had reached Philadelphia. Lazarus knew Abner well, and here he felt safe from +the murderous intrigues of the wicked Sanhedrin. + +Soon after this Martha and Mary disposed of their lands at Bethany and joined +their brother in Perea. Meantime, Lazarus had become the treasurer of the +church at Philadelphia. He became a strong supporter of Abner in his +controversy with Paul and the Jerusalem church and ultimately died, when 67 +years old, of the same sickness that carried him off when he was a younger man +at Bethany. + + top of page - 1850 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Visit To ³ Last Teaching ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Ph... ³ A... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p169.txt b/religious documents/p169.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4ff5f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p169.txt @@ -0,0 +1,509 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 169 Last Teaching At Pella + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 169 Last Teaching At Pella + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +LATE on Monday evening, March 6, Jesus and the ten apostles arrived at the +Pella camp. This was the last week of Jesus' sojourn there, and he was very +active in teaching the multitude and instructing the apostles. He preached +every afternoon to the crowds and each night answered questions for the +apostles and certain of the more advanced disciples residing at the camp. + +Word regarding the resurrection of Lazarus had reached the encampment two days +before the Master's arrival, and the entire assembly was agog. Not since the +feeding of the five thousand had anything occurred which so aroused the +imagination of the people. And thus it was at the very height of the second +phase of the public ministry of the kingdom that Jesus planned to teach this +one short week at Pella and then to begin the tour of southern Perea which led +right up to the final and tragic experiences of the last week in Jerusalem. + +The Pharisees and the chief priests had begun to formulate their charges and to +crystallize their accusations. They objected to the Master's teachings on these +grounds: + +1. He is a friend of publicans and sinners; he receives the ungodly and even +eats with them. + +2. He is a blasphemer; he talks about God as being his Father and thinks he is +equal with God. + +3. He is a lawbreaker. He heals disease on the Sabbath and in many other ways +flouts the sacred law of Israel. + +4. He is in league with devils. He works wonders and does seeming miracles by +the power of Beelzebub, the prince of devils. + +1. PARABLE OF THE LOST SON + +On Thursday afternoon Jesus talked to the multitude about the "Grace of +Salvation." In the course of this sermon he retold the story of the lost sheep +and the lost coin and then added his favorite parable of the prodigal son. Said +Jesus: + +"You have been admonished by the prophets from Samuel to John that you should +seek for God--search for truth. Always have they said, `Seek the Lord while he +may be found.' And all such teaching should be taken to heart. But I have come +to show you that, while you are seeking to find God, God is likewise seeking to +find you. Many times have I told you the story of the good shepherd who left +the ninety and nine sheep in the fold while he went forth searching for the one +that was lost, and how, when he had found the straying sheep, he laid it + + top of page - 1851 + +over his shoulder and tenderly carried it back to the fold. And when the lost +sheep had been restored to the fold, you remember that the good shepherd called +in his friends and bade them rejoice with him over the finding of the sheep +that had been lost. Again I say there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who +repents than over the ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance. The +fact that souls are lost only increases the interest of the heavenly Father. I +have come to this world to do my Father's bidding, and it has truly been said +of the Son of Man that he is a friend of publicans and sinners. + +"You have been taught that divine acceptance comes after your repentance and as +a result of all your works of sacrifice and penitence, but I assure you that +the Father accepts you even before you have repented and sends the Son and his +associates to find you and bring you, with rejoicing, back to the fold, the +kingdom of sonship and spiritual progress. You are all like sheep which have +gone astray, and I have come to seek and to save those who are lost. + +"And you should also remember the story of the woman who, having had ten pieces +of silver made into a necklace of adornment, lost one piece, and how she lit +the lamp and diligently swept the house and kept up the search until she found +the lost piece of silver. And as soon as she found the coin that was lost, she +called together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have +found the piece that was lost.' So again I say, there is always joy in the +presence of the angels of heaven over one sinner who repents and returns to the +Father's fold. And I tell you this story to impress upon you that the Father +and his Son go forth to search for those who are lost, and in this search we +employ all influences capable of rendering assistance in our diligent efforts +to find those who are lost, those who stand in need of salvation. And so, while +the Son of Man goes out in the wilderness to seek for the sheep gone astray, he +also searches for the coin which is lost in the house. The sheep wanders away, +unintentionally; the coin is covered by the dust of time and obscured by the +accumulation of the things of men. + +"And now I would like to tell you the story of a thoughtless son of a +well-to-do farmer who deliberately left his father's house and went off into a +foreign land, where he fell into much tribulation. You recall that the sheep +strayed away without intention, but this youth left his home with +premeditation. It was like this: + +"A certain man had two sons; one, the younger, was lighthearted and carefree, +always seeking for a good time and shirking responsibility, while his older +brother was serious, sober, hard-working, and willing to bear responsibility. +Now these two brothers did not get along well together; they were always +quarreling and bickering. The younger lad was cheerful and vivacious, but +indolent and unreliable; the older son was steady and industrious, at the same +time self-centered, surly, and conceited. The younger son enjoyed play but +shunned work; the older devoted himself to work but seldom played. This +association became so disagreeable that the younger son came to his father and +said: Father, give me the third portion of your possessions which would fall to +me and allow me to go out into the world to seek my own fortune.' And when the +father heard this request, knowing how unhappy the young man was at home and +with his older brother, he divided his property, giving the youth his share. + +"Within a few weeks the young man gathered together all his funds and set out +upon a journey to a far country, and finding nothing profitable to do which + + top of page - 1852 + +was also pleasurable, he soon wasted all his inheritance in riotous living. And +when he had spent all, there arose a prolonged famine in that country, and he +found himself in want. And so, when he suffered hunger and his distress was +great, he found employment with one of the citizens of that country, who sent +him into the fields to feed swine. And the young man would fain have filled +himself with the husks which the swine ate, but no one would give him anything. + +"One day, when he was very hungry, he came to himself and said: `How many hired +servants of my father have bread enough and to spare while I perish with +hunger, feeding swine off here in a foreign country! I will arise and go to my +father, and I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against +you. I am no more worthy to be called your son; only be willing to make me one +of your hired servants.' And when the young man had reached this decision, he +arose and started out for his father's house. + +"Now this father had grieved much for his son; he had missed the cheerful, +though thoughtless, lad. This father loved this son and was always on the +lookout for his return, so that on the day he approached his home, even while +he was yet afar off, the father saw him and, being moved with loving +compassion, ran out to meet him, and with affectionate greeting he embraced and +kissed him. And after they had thus met, the son looked up into his father's +tearful face and said: `Father! I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; +I am no more worthy to be called a son'--but the lad did not find opportunity +to complete his confession because the overjoyed father said to the servants +who had by this time come running up: `Bring quickly his best robe, the one I +have saved, and put it on him and put the son's ring on his hand and fetch +sandals for his feet.' + +"And then, after the happy father had led the footsore and weary lad into the +house, he called to his servants: `Bring on the fatted calf and kill it, and +let us eat and make merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was +lost and is found.' And they all gathered about the father to rejoice with him +over the restoration of his son. + +"About this time, while they were celebrating, the elder son came in from his +day's work in the field, and as he drew near the house, he heard the music and +the dancing. And when he came up to the back door, he called out one of the +servants and inquired as to the meaning of all this festivity. And then said +the servant: `Your long-lost brother has come home, and your father has killed +the fatted calf to rejoice over his son's safe return. Come in that you also +may greet your brother and receive him back into your father's house.' + +"But when the older brother heard this, he was so hurt and angry he would not +go into the house. When his father heard of his resentment of the welcome of +his younger brother, he went out to entreat him. But the older son would not +yield to his father's persuasion. He answered his father, saying: `Here these +many years have I served you, never transgressing the least of your commands, +and yet you never gave me even a kid that I might make merry with my friends. I +have remained here to care for you all these years, and you never made +rejoicing over my faithful service, but when this your son returns, having +squandered your substance with harlots, you make haste to kill the fatted calf +and make merry over him.' + +"Since this father truly loved both of his sons, he tried to reason with this +older one: `But, my son, you have all the while been with me, and all this +which I have is yours. You could have had a kid at any time you had made +friends to share your merriment. But it is only proper that you should now join +with me + + top of page - 1853 + +in being glad and merry because of your brother's return. Think of it, my son, +your brother was lost and is found; he has returned alive to us!'" + +This was one of the most touching and effective of all the parables which Jesus +ever presented to impress upon his hearers the Father's willingness to receive +all who seek entrance into the kingdom of heaven. + +Jesus was very partial to telling these three stories at the same time. He +presented the story of the lost sheep to show that, when men unintentionally +stray away from the path of life, the Father is mindful of such lost ones and +goes out, with his Sons, the true shepherds of the flock, to seek the lost +sheep. He then would recite the story of the coin lost in the house to +illustrate how thorough is the divine searching for all who are confused, +confounded, or otherwise spiritually blinded by the material cares and +accumulations of life. And then he would launch forth into the telling of this +parable of the lost son, the reception of the returning prodigal, to show how +complete is the restoration of the lost son into his Father's house and heart. + +Many, many times during his years of teaching, Jesus told and retold this story +of the prodigal son. This parable and the story of the good Samaritan were his +favorite means of teaching the love of the Father and the neighborliness of +man. + +2. PARABLE OF THE SHREWD STEWARD + +One evening Simon Zelotes, commenting on one of Jesus' statements, said: +"Master, what did you mean when you said today that many of the children of the +world are wiser in their generation than are the children of the kingdom since +they are skillful in making friends with the mammon of unrighteousness?" Jesus +answered: + +"Some of you, before you entered the kingdom, were very shrewd in dealing with +your business associates. If you were unjust and often unfair, you were +nonetheless prudent and farseeing in that you transacted your business with an +eye single to your present profit and future safety. Likewise should you now so +order your lives in the kingdom as to provide for your present joy while you +also make certain of your future enjoyment of treasures laid up in heaven. If +you were so diligent in making gains for yourselves when in the service of +self, why should you show less diligence in gaining souls for the kingdom since +you are now servants of the brotherhood of man and stewards of God? + +"You may all learn a lesson from the story of a certain rich man who had a +shrewd but unjust steward. This steward had not only oppressed his master's +clients for his own selfish gain, but he had also directly wasted and +squandered his master's funds. When all this finally came to the ears of his +master, he called the steward before him and asked the meaning of these rumors +and required that he should give immediate accounting of his stewardship and +prepare to turn his master's affairs over to another. + +"Now this unfaithful steward began to say to himself: `What shall I do since I +am about to lose this stewardship? I have not the strength to dig; to beg I am +ashamed. I know what I will do to make certain that, when I am put out of this +stewardship, I will be welcomed into the houses of all who do business with my +master.' And then, calling in each of his lord's debtors, he said to the first, +`How + + top of page - 1854 + +much do you owe my master?' He answered, `A hundred measures of oil.' Then said +the steward, `Take your wax board bond, sit down quickly, and change it to +fifty.' Then he said to another debtor, `How much do you owe?' And he replied, +`A hundred measures of wheat.' Then said the steward, `Take your bond and write +fourscore.' And this he did with numerous other debtors. And so did this +dishonest steward seek to make friends for himself after he would be discharged +from his stewardship. Even his lord and master, when he subsequently found out +about this, was compelled to admit that his unfaithful steward had at least +shown sagacity in the manner in which he had sought to provide for future days +of want and adversity. + +"And it is in this way that the sons of this world sometimes show more wisdom +in their preparation for the future than do the children of light. I say to you +who profess to be acquiring treasure in heaven: Take lessons from those who +make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, and likewise so conduct your +lives that you make eternal friendship with the forces of righteousness in +order that, when all things earthly fail, you shall be joyfully received into +the eternal habitations. + +"I affirm that he who is faithful in little will also be faithful in much, +while he who is unrighteous in little will also be unrighteous in much. If you +have not shown foresight and integrity in the affairs of this world, how can +you hope to be faithful and prudent when you are trusted with the stewardship +of the true riches of the heavenly kingdom? If you are not good stewards and +faithful bankers, if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who +will be foolish enough to give you great treasure in your own name? + +"And again I assert that no man can serve two masters; either he will hate the +one and love the other, or else he will hold to one while he despises the +other. You cannot serve God and mammon." + +When the Pharisees who were present heard this, they began to sneer and scoff +since they were much given to the acquirement of riches. These unfriendly +hearers sought to engage Jesus in unprofitable argumentation, but he refused to +debate with his enemies. When the Pharisees fell to wrangling among themselves, +their loud speaking attracted large numbers of the multitude encamped +thereabouts; and when they began to dispute with each other, Jesus withdrew, +going to his tent for the night. + +3. THE RICH MAN AND THE BEGGAR + +When the meeting became too noisy, Simon Peter, standing up, took charge, +saying: "Men and brethren, it is not seemly thus to dispute among yourselves. +The Master has spoken, and you do well to ponder his words. And this is no new +doctrine which he proclaimed to you. Have you not also heard the allegory of +the Nazarites concerning the rich man and the beggar? Some of us heard John the +Baptist thunder this parable of warning to those who love riches and covet +dishonest wealth. And while this olden parable is not according to the gospel +we preach, you would all do well to heed its lessons until such a time as you +comprehend the new light of the kingdom of heaven. The story as John told it +was like this: + +"There was a certain rich man named Dives, who, being clothed in purple and +fine linen, lived in mirth and splendor every day. And there was a certain + + top of page - 1855 + +beggar named Lazarus, who lay at this rich man's gate, covered with sores and +desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table; yes, +even the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar +died and was carried away by the angels to rest in Abraham's bosom. And then, +presently, this rich man also died and was buried with great pomp and regal +splendor. When the rich man departed from this world, he waked up in Hades, and +finding himself in torment, he lifted up his eyes and beheld Abraham afar off +and Lazarus in his bosom. And then Dives cried aloud: `Father Abraham, have +mercy on me and send over Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in +water to cool my tongue, for I am in great anguish because of my punishment.' +And then Abraham replied: `My son, you should remember that in your lifetime +you enjoyed the good things while Lazarus in like manner suffered the evil. But +now all this is changed, seeing that Lazarus is comforted while you are +tormented. And besides, between us and you there is a great gulf so that we +cannot go to you, neither can you come over to us.' Then said Dives to Abraham: +`I pray you send Lazarus back to my father's house, inasmuch as I have five +brothers, that he may so testify as to prevent my brothers from coming to this +place of torment.' But Abraham said: `My son, they have Moses and the prophets; +let them hear them.' And then answered Dives: `No, No, Father Abraham! but if +one go to them from the dead, they will repent.' And then said Abraham: `If +they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded even if +one were to rise from the dead.'" + +After Peter had recited this ancient parable of the Nazarite brotherhood, and +since the crowd had quieted down, Andrew arose and dismissed them for the +night. Although both the apostles and his disciples frequently asked Jesus +questions about the parable of Dives and Lazarus, he never consented to make +comment thereon. + +4. THE FATHER AND HIS KINGDOM + +Jesus always had trouble trying to explain to the apostles that, while they +proclaimed the establishment of the kingdom of God, the Father in heaven was +not a king. At the time Jesus lived on earth and taught in the flesh, the +people of Urantia knew mostly of kings and emperors in the governments of the +nations, and the Jews had long contemplated the coming of the kingdom of God. +For these and other reasons, the Master thought best to designate the spiritual +brotherhood of man as the kingdom of heaven and the spirit head of this +brotherhood as the Father in heaven. Never did Jesus refer to his Father as a +king. In his intimate talks with the apostles he always referred to himself as +the Son of Man and as their elder brother. He depicted all his followers as +servants of mankind and messengers of the gospel of the kingdom. + +Jesus never gave his apostles a systematic lesson concerning the personality +and attributes of the Father in heaven. He never asked men to believe in his +Father; he took it for granted they did. Jesus never belittled himself by +offering arguments in proof of the reality of the Father. His teaching +regarding the Father all centered in the declaration that he and the Father are +one; that he who has seen the Son has seen the Father; that the Father, like +the Son, knows all things; that only the Son really knows the Father, and he to +whom the Son will reveal him; that he who knows the Son knows also the Father; +and that the Father sent him into the world to reveal their combined natures +and to show + + top of page - 1856 + +forth their conjoint work. He never made other pronouncements about his Father +except to the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well, when he declared, "God is +spirit." + +You learn about God from Jesus by observing the divinity of his life, not by +depending on his teachings. From the life of the Master you may each assimilate +that concept of God which represents the measure of your capacity to perceive +realities spiritual and divine, truths real and eternal. The finite can never +hope to comprehend the Infinite except as the Infinite was focalized in the +time-space personality of the finite experience of the human life of Jesus of +Nazareth. + +Jesus well knew that God can be known only by the realities of experience; +never can he be understood by the mere teaching of the mind. Jesus taught his +apostles that, while they never could fully understand God, they could most +certainly know him, even as they had known the Son of Man. You can know God, +not by understanding what Jesus said, but by knowing what Jesus was. Jesus was +a revelation of God. + +Except when quoting the Hebrew scriptures, Jesus referred to Deity by only two +names: God and Father. And when the Master made reference to his Father as God, +he usually employed the Hebrew word signifying the plural God (the Trinity) and +not the word Yahweh, which stood for the progressive conception of the tribal +God of the Jews. + +Jesus never called the Father a king, and he very much regretted that the +Jewish hope for a restored kingdom and John's proclamation of a coming kingdom +made it necessary for him to denominate his proposed spiritual brotherhood the +kingdom of heaven. With the one exception--the declaration that "God is +spirit"--Jesus never referred to Deity in any manner other than in terms +descriptive of his own personal relationship with the First Source and Center +of Paradise. + +Jesus employed the word God to designate the idea of Deity and the word Father +to designate the experience of knowing God. When the word Father is employed to +denote God, it should be understood in its largest possible meaning. The word +God cannot be defined and therefore stands for the infinite concept of the +Father, while the term Father, being capable of partial definition, may be +employed to represent the human concept of the divine Father as he is +associated with man during the course of mortal existence. + +To the Jews, Elohim was the God of gods, while Yahweh was the God of Israel. +Jesus accepted the concept of Elohim and called this supreme group of beings +God. In the place of the concept of Yahweh, the racial deity, he introduced the +idea of the fatherhood of God and the world-wide brotherhood of man. He exalted +the Yahweh concept of a deified racial Father to the idea of a Father of all +the children of men, a divine Father of the individual believer. And he further +taught that this God of universes and this Father of all men were one and the +same Paradise Deity. + +Jesus never claimed to be the manifestation of Elohim (God) in the flesh. He +never declared that he was a revelation of Elohim (God) to the worlds. He never +taught that he who had seen him had seen Elohim (God). But he did proclaim +himself as the revelation of the Father in the flesh, and he did say that whoso +had seen him had seen the Father. As the divine Son he claimed to represent +only the Father. + + top of page - 1857 + +He was, indeed, the Son of even the Elohim God; but in the likeness of mortal +flesh and to the mortal sons of God, he chose to limit his life revelation to +the portrayal of his Father's character in so far as such a revelation might be +comprehensible to mortal man. As regards the character of the other persons of +the Paradise Trinity, we shall have to be content with the teaching that they +are altogether like the Father, who has been revealed in personal portraiture +in the life of his incarnated Son, Jesus of Nazareth. + +Although Jesus revealed the true nature of the heavenly Father in his earth +life, he taught little about him. In fact, he taught only two things: that God +in himself is spirit, and that, in all matters of relationship with his +creatures, he is a Father. On this evening Jesus made the final pronouncement +of his relationship with God when he declared: "I have come out from the +Father, and I have come into the world; again, I will leave the world and go to +the Father." + +But mark you! never did Jesus say, "Whoso has heard me has heard God." But he +did say, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." To hear Jesus' teaching is +not equivalent to knowing God, but to see Jesus is an experience which in +itself is a revelation of the Father to the soul. The God of universes rules +the far-flung creation, but it is the Father in heaven who sends forth his +spirit to dwell within your minds. + +Jesus is the spiritual lens in human likeness which makes visible to the +material creature Him who is invisible. He is your elder brother who, in the +flesh, makes known to you a Being of infinite attributes whom not even the +celestial hosts can presume fully to understand. But all of this must consist +in the personal experience of the individual believer. God who is spirit can be +known only as a spiritual experience. God can be revealed to the finite sons of +the material worlds, by the divine Son of the spiritual realms, only as a +Father. You can know the Eternal as a Father; you can worship him as the God of +universes, the infinite Creator of all existences. + + top of page - 1858 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The ³ The Kingdom Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Resurrectio... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p170.txt b/religious documents/p170.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a97677 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p170.txt @@ -0,0 +1,610 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 170 The Kingdom Of Heaven + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 170 The Kingdom Of Heaven + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +SATURDAY afternoon, March 11, Jesus preached his last sermon at Pella. This was +among the notable addresses of his public ministry, embracing a full and +complete discussion of the kingdom of heaven. He was aware of the confusion +which existed in the minds of his apostles and disciples regarding the meaning +and significance of the terms "kingdom of heaven" and "kingdom of God," which +he used as interchangeable designations of his bestowal mission. Although the +very term kingdom of heaven should have been enough to separate what it stood +for from all connection with earthly kingdoms and temporal governments, it was +not. The idea of a temporal king was too deep-rooted in the Jewish mind thus to +be dislodged in a single generation. Therefore Jesus did not at first openly +oppose this long-nourished concept of the kingdom. + +This Sabbath afternoon the Master sought to clarify the teaching about the +kingdom of heaven; he discussed the subject from every viewpoint and endeavored +to make clear the many different senses in which the term had been used. In +this narrative we will amplify the address by adding numerous statements made +by Jesus on previous occasions and by including some remarks made only to the +apostles during the evening discussions of this same day. We will also make +certain comments dealing with the subsequent outworking of the kingdom idea as +it is related to the later Christian church. + +1. CONCEPTS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN + +In connection with the recital of Jesus' sermon it should be noted that +throughout the Hebrew scriptures there was a dual concept of the kingdom of +heaven. The prophets presented the kingdom of God as: + +1. A present reality; and as + +2. A future hope--when the kingdom would be realized in fullness upon the +appearance of the Messiah. This is the kingdom concept which John the Baptist +taught. + +From the very first Jesus and the apostles taught both of these concepts. There +were two other ideas of the kingdom which should be borne in mind: + +3. The later Jewish concept of a world-wide and transcendental kingdom of +supernatural origin and miraculous inauguration. + +4. The Persian teachings portraying the establishment of a divine kingdom as +the achievement of the triumph of good over evil at the end of the world. + +Just before the advent of Jesus on earth, the Jews combined and confused all of +these ideas of the kingdom into their apocalyptic concept of the Messiah's + + top of page - 1859 + +coming to establish the age of the Jewish triumph, the eternal age of God's +supreme rule on earth, the new world, the era in which all mankind would +worship Yahweh. In choosing to utilize this concept of the kingdom of heaven, +Jesus elected to appropriate the most vital and culminating heritage of both +the Jewish and Persian religions. + +The kingdom of heaven, as it has been understood and misunderstood down through +the centuries of the Christian era, embraced four distinct groups of ideas: + +1. The concept of the Jews. + +2. The concept of the Persians. + +3. The personal-experience concept of Jesus--"the kingdom of heaven within +you." + +4. The composite and confused concepts which the founders and promulgators of +Christianity have sought to impress upon the world. + +At different times and in varying circumstances it appears that Jesus may have +presented numerous concepts of the "kingdom" in his public teachings, but to +his apostles he always taught the kingdom as embracing man's personal +experience in relation to his fellows on earth and to the Father in heaven. +Concerning the kingdom, his last word always was, "The kingdom is within you." + +Centuries of confusion regarding the meaning of the term "kingdom of heaven" +have been due to three factors: + +1. The confusion occasioned by observing the idea of the "kingdom" as it passed +through the various progressive phases of its recasting by Jesus and his +apostles. + +2. The confusion which was inevitably associated with the transplantation of +early Christianity from a Jewish to a gentile soil. + +3. The confusion which was inherent in the fact that Christianity became a +religion which was organized about the central idea of Jesus' person; the +gospel of the kingdom became more and more a religion about him. + +2. JESUS' CONCEPT OF THE KINGDOM + +The Master made it clear that the kingdom of heaven must begin with, and be +centered in, the dual concept of the truth of the fatherhood of God and the +correlated fact of the brotherhood of man. The acceptance of such a teaching, +Jesus declared, would liberate man from the age-long bondage of animal fear and +at the same time enrich human living with the following endowments of the new +life of spiritual liberty: + +1. The possession of new courage and augmented spiritual power. The gospel of +the kingdom was to set man free and inspire him to dare to hope for eternal +life. + +2. The gospel carried a message of new confidence and true consolation for all +men, even for the poor. + +3. It was in itself a new standard of moral values, a new ethical yardstick +wherewith to measure human conduct. It portrayed the ideal of a resultant new +order of human society. + +4. It taught the pre-eminence of the spiritual compared with the material; it +glorified spiritual realities and exalted superhuman ideals. + + top of page - 1860 + +5. This new gospel held up spiritual attainment as the true goal of living. +Human life received a new endowment of moral value and divine dignity. + +6. Jesus taught that eternal realities were the result (reward) of righteous +earthly striving. Man's mortal sojourn on earth acquired new meanings +consequent upon the recognition of a noble destiny. + +7. The new gospel affirmed that human salvation is the revelation of a +far-reaching divine purpose to be fulfilled and realized in the future destiny +of the endless service of the salvaged sons of God. + +These teachings cover the expanded idea of the kingdom which was taught by +Jesus. This great concept was hardly embraced in the elementary and confused +kingdom teachings of John the Baptist. + +The apostles were unable to grasp the real meaning of the Master's utterances +regarding the kingdom. The subsequent distortion of Jesus' teachings, as they +are recorded in the New Testament, is because the concept of the gospel writers +was colored by the belief that Jesus was then absent from the world for only a +short time; that he would soon return to establish the kingdom in power and +glory--just such an idea as they held while he was with them in the flesh. But +Jesus did not connect the establishment of the kingdom with the idea of his +return to this world. That centuries have passed with no signs of the +appearance of the "New Age" is in no way out of harmony with Jesus' teaching. + +The great effort embodied in this sermon was the attempt to translate the +concept of the kingdom of heaven into the ideal of the idea of doing the will +of God. Long had the Master taught his followers to pray: "Your kingdom come; +your will be done"; and at this time he earnestly sought to induce them to +abandon the use of the term kingdom of God in favor of the more practical +equivalent, the will of God. But he did not succeed. + +Jesus desired to substitute for the idea of the kingdom, king, and subjects, +the concept of the heavenly family, the heavenly Father, and the liberated sons +of God engaged in joyful and voluntary service for their fellow men and in the +sublime and intelligent worship of God the Father. + +Up to this time the apostles had acquired a double viewpoint of the kingdom; +they regarded it as: + +1. A matter of personal experience then present in the hearts of true +believers, and + +2. A question of racial or world phenomena; that the kingdom was in the future, +something to look forward to. + +They looked upon the coming of the kingdom in the hearts of men as a gradual +development, like the leaven in the dough or like the growing of the mustard +seed. They believed that the coming of the kingdom in the racial or world sense +would be both sudden and spectacular. Jesus never tired of telling them that +the kingdom of heaven was their personal experience of realizing the higher +qualities of spiritual living; that these realities of the spirit experience +are progressively translated to new and higher levels of divine certainty and +eternal grandeur. + +On this afternoon the Master distinctly taught a new concept of the double +nature of the kingdom in that he portrayed the following two phases: + +"First. The kingdom of God in this world, the supreme desire to do the will of +God, the unselfish love of man which yields the good fruits of improved ethical +and moral conduct. + + top of page - 1861 + +"Second. The kingdom of God in heaven, the goal of mortal believers, the estate +wherein the love for God is perfected, and wherein the will of God is done more +divinely." + +Jesus taught that, by faith, the believer enters the kingdom now. In the +various discourses he taught that two things are essential to faith-entrance +into the kingdom: + +1. Faith, sincerity. To come as a little child, to receive the bestowal of +sonship as a gift; to submit to the doing of the Father's will without +questioning and in the full confidence and genuine trustfulness of the Father's +wisdom; to come into the kingdom free from prejudice and preconception; to be +open-minded and teachable like an unspoiled child. + +2. Truth hunger. The thirst for righteousness, a change of mind, the +acquirement of the motive to be like God and to find God. + +Jesus taught that sin is not the child of a defective nature but rather the +offspring of a knowing mind dominated by an unsubmissive will. Regarding sin, +he taught that God has forgiven; that we make such forgiveness personally +available by the act of forgiving our fellows. When you forgive your brother in +the flesh, you thereby create the capacity in your own soul for the reception +of the reality of God's forgiveness of your own misdeeds. + +By the time the Apostle John began to write the story of Jesus' life and +teachings, the early Christians had experienced so much trouble with the +kingdom-of-God idea as a breeder of persecution that they had largely abandoned +the use of the term. John talks much about the "eternal life." Jesus often +spoke of it as the "kingdom of life." He also frequently referred to "the +kingdom of God within you." He once spoke of such an experience as "family +fellowship with God the Father." Jesus sought to substitute many terms for the +kingdom but always without success. Among others, he used: the family of God, +the Father's will, the friends of God, the fellowship of believers, the +brotherhood of man, the Father's fold, the children of God, the fellowship of +the faithful, the Father's service, and the liberated sons of God. + +But he could not escape the use of the kingdom idea. It was more than fifty +years later, not until after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman armies, +that this concept of the kingdom began to change into the cult of eternal life +as its social and institutional aspects were taken over by the rapidly +expanding and crystallizing Christian church. + +3. IN RELATION TO RIGHTEOUSNESS + +Jesus was always trying to impress upon his apostles and disciples that they +must acquire, by faith, a righteousness which would exceed the righteousness of +slavish works which some of the scribes and Pharisees paraded so vaingloriously +before the world. + +Though Jesus taught that faith, simple childlike belief, is the key to the door +of the kingdom, he also taught that, having entered the door, there are the +progressive steps of righteousness which every believing child must ascend in +order to grow up to the full stature of the robust sons of God. + +It is in the consideration of the technique of receiving God's forgiveness that +the attainment of the righteousness of the kingdom is revealed. Faith is the +price you pay for entrance into the family of God; but forgiveness is the act +of God + + top of page - 1862 + +which accepts your faith as the price of admission. And the reception of the +forgiveness of God by a kingdom believer involves a definite and actual +experience and consists in the following four steps, the kingdom steps of inner +righteousness: + +1. God's forgiveness is made actually available and is personally experienced +by man just in so far as he forgives his fellows. + +2. Man will not truly forgive his fellows unless he loves them as himself. + +3. To thus love your neighbor as yourself is the highest ethics. + +4. Moral conduct, true righteousness, becomes, then, the natural result of such +love. + +It therefore is evident that the true and inner religion of the kingdom +unfailingly and increasingly tends to manifest itself in practical avenues of +social service. Jesus taught a living religion that impelled its believers to +engage in the doing of loving service. But Jesus did not put ethics in the +place of religion. He taught religion as a cause and ethics as a result. + +The righteousness of any act must be measured by the motive; the highest forms +of good are therefore unconscious. Jesus was never concerned with morals or +ethics as such. He was wholly concerned with that inward and spiritual +fellowship with God the Father which so certainly and directly manifests itself +as outward and loving service for man. He taught that the religion of the +kingdom is a genuine personal experience which no man can contain within +himself; that the consciousness of being a member of the family of believers +leads inevitably to the practice of the precepts of the family conduct, the +service of one's brothers and sisters in the effort to enhance and enlarge the +brotherhood. + +The religion of the kingdom is personal, individual; the fruits, the results, +are familial, social. Jesus never failed to exalt the sacredness of the +individual as contrasted with the community. But he also recognized that man +develops his character by unselfish service; that he unfolds his moral nature +in loving relations with his fellows. + +By teaching that the kingdom is within, by exalting the individual, Jesus +struck the deathblow of the old society in that he ushered in the new +dispensation of true social righteousness. This new order of society the world +has little known because it has refused to practice the principles of the +gospel of the kingdom of heaven. And when this kingdom of spiritual +pre-eminence does come upon the earth, it will not be manifested in mere +improved social and material conditions, but rather in the glories of those +enhanced and enriched spiritual values which are characteristic of the +approaching age of improved human relations and advancing spiritual +attainments. + +4. JESUS' TEACHING ABOUT THE KINGDOM + +Jesus never gave a precise definition of the kingdom. At one time he would +discourse on one phase of the kingdom, and at another time he would discuss a +different aspect of the brotherhood of God's reign in the hearts of men. In the +course of this Sabbath afternoon's sermon Jesus noted no less than five phases, +or epochs, of the kingdom, and they were: + +1. The personal and inward experience of the spiritual life of the fellowship +of the individual believer with God the Father. + + top of page - 1863 + +2. The enlarging brotherhood of gospel believers, the social aspects of the +enhanced morals and quickened ethics resulting from the reign of God's spirit +in the hearts of individual believers. + +3. The supermortal brotherhood of invisible spiritual beings which prevails on +earth and in heaven, the superhuman kingdom of God. + +4. The prospect of the more perfect fulfillment of the will of God, the advance +toward the dawn of a new social order in connection with improved spiritual +living--the next age of man. + +5. The kingdom in its fullness, the future spiritual age of light and life on +earth. + +Wherefore must we always examine the Master's teaching to ascertain which of +these five phases he may have reference to when he makes use of the term +kingdom of heaven. By this process of gradually changing man's will and thus +affecting human decisions, Michael and his associates are likewise gradually +but certainly changing the entire course of human evolution, social and +otherwise. + +The Master on this occasion placed emphasis on the following five points as +representing the cardinal features of the gospel of the kingdom: + +1. The pre-eminence of the individual. + +2. The will as the determining factor in man's experience. + +3. Spiritual fellowship with God the Father. + +4. The supreme satisfactions of the loving service of man. + +5. The transcendency of the spiritual over the material in human personality. + +This world has never seriously or sincerely or honestly tried out these dynamic +ideas and divine ideals of Jesus' doctrine of the kingdom of heaven. But you +should not become discouraged by the apparently slow progress of the kingdom +idea on Urantia. Remember that the order of progressive evolution is subjected +to sudden and unexpected periodical changes in both the material and the +spiritual worlds. The bestowal of Jesus as an incarnated Son was just such a +strange and unexpected event in the spiritual life of the world. Neither make +the fatal mistake, in looking for the age manifestation of the kingdom, of +failing to effect its establishment within your own souls. + +Although Jesus referred one phase of the kingdom to the future and did, on +numerous occasions, intimate that such an event might appear as a part of a +world crisis; and though he did likewise most certainly, on several occasions, +definitely promise sometime to return to Urantia, it should be recorded that he +never positively linked these two ideas together. He promised a new revelation +of the kingdom on earth and at some future time; he also promised sometime to +come back to this world in person; but he did not say that these two events +were synonymous. From all we know these promises may, or may not, refer to the +same event. + +His apostles and disciples most certainly linked these two teachings together. +When the kingdom failed to materialize as they had expected, recalling the +Master's teaching concerning a future kingdom and remembering his promise to +come again, they jumped to the conclusion that these promises referred to an +identical event; and therefore they lived in hope of his immediate second +coming to establish the kingdom in its fullness and with power and glory. And +so have + + top of page - 1864 + +successive believing generations lived on earth entertaining the same inspiring +but disappointing hope. + +5. LATER IDEAS OF THE KINGDOM + +Having summarized the teachings of Jesus about the kingdom of heaven, we are +permitted to narrate certain later ideas which became attached to the concept +of the kingdom and to engage in a prophetic forecast of the kingdom as it may +evolve in the age to come. + +Throughout the first centuries of the Christian propaganda, the idea of the +kingdom of heaven was tremendously influenced by the then rapidly spreading +notions of Greek idealism, the idea of the natural as the shadow of the +spiritual--the temporal as the time shadow of the eternal. + +But the great step which marked the transplantation of the teachings of Jesus +from a Jewish to a gentile soil was taken when the Messiah of the kingdom +became the Redeemer of the church, a religious and social organization growing +out of the activities of Paul and his successors and based on the teachings of +Jesus as they were supplemented by the ideas of Philo and the Persian doctrines +of good and evil. + +The ideas and ideals of Jesus, embodied in the teaching of the gospel of the +kingdom, nearly failed of realization as his followers progressively distorted +his pronouncements. The Master's concept of the kingdom was notably modified by +two great tendencies: + +1. The Jewish believers persisted in regarding him as the Messiah. They +believed that Jesus would very soon return actually to establish the world-wide +and more or less material kingdom. + +2. The gentile Christians began very early to accept the doctrines of Paul, +which led increasingly to the general belief that Jesus was the Redeemer of the +children of the church, the new and institutional successor of the earlier +concept of the purely spiritual brotherhood of the kingdom. + +The church, as a social outgrowth of the kingdom, would have been wholly +natural and even desirable. The evil of the church was not its existence, but +rather that it almost completely supplanted the Jesus concept of the kingdom. +Paul's institutionalized church became a virtual substitute for the kingdom of +heaven which Jesus had proclaimed. + +But doubt not, this same kingdom of heaven which the Master taught exists +within the heart of the believer, will yet be proclaimed to this Christian +church, even as to all other religions, races, and nations on earth--even to +every individual. + +The kingdom of Jesus' teaching, the spiritual ideal of individual righteousness +and the concept of man's divine fellowship with God, became gradually submerged +into the mystic conception of the person of Jesus as the Redeemer-Creator and +spiritual head of a socialized religious community. In this way a formal and +institutional church became the substitute for the individually spirit-led +brotherhood of the kingdom. + +The church was an inevitable and useful social result of Jesus' life and +teachings; the tragedy consisted in the fact that this social reaction to the +teachings of the kingdom so fully displaced the spiritual concept of the real +kingdom as Jesus taught and lived it. + + top of page - 1865 + +The kingdom, to the Jews, was the Israelite community; to the gentiles it +became the Christian church. To Jesus the kingdom was the sum of those +individuals who had confessed their faith in the fatherhood of God, thereby +declaring their wholehearted dedication to the doing of the will of God, thus +becoming members of the spiritual brotherhood of man. + +The Master fully realized that certain social results would appear in the world +as a consequence of the spread of the gospel of the kingdom; but he intended +that all such desirable social manifestations should appear as unconscious and +inevitable outgrowths, or natural fruits, of this inner personal experience of +individual believers, this purely spiritual fellowship and communion with the +divine spirit which indwells and activates all such believers. + +Jesus foresaw that a social organization, or church, would follow the progress +of the true spiritual kingdom, and that is why he never opposed the apostles' +practicing the rite of John's baptism. He taught that the truth-loving soul, +the one who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, for God, is admitted by +faith to the spiritual kingdom; at the same time the apostles taught that such +a believer is admitted to the social organization of disciples by the outward +rite of baptism. + +When Jesus' immediate followers recognized their partial failure to realize his +ideal of the establishment of the kingdom in the hearts of men by the spirit's +domination and guidance of the individual believer, they set about to save his +teaching from being wholly lost by substituting for the Master's ideal of the +kingdom the gradual creation of a visible social organization, the Christian +church. And when they had accomplished this program of substitution, in order +to maintain consistency and to provide for the recognition of the Master's +teaching regarding the fact of the kingdom, they proceeded to set the kingdom +off into the future. The church, just as soon as it was well established, began +to teach that the kingdom was in reality to appear at the culmination of the +Christian age, at the second coming of Christ. + +In this manner the kingdom became the concept of an age, the idea of a future +visitation, and the ideal of the final redemption of the saints of the Most +High. The early Christians (and all too many of the later ones) generally lost +sight of the Father-and-son idea embodied in Jesus' teaching of the kingdom, +while they substituted therefor the well-organized social fellowship of the +church. The church thus became in the main a social brotherhood which +effectively displaced Jesus' concept and ideal of a spiritual brotherhood. + +Jesus' ideal concept largely failed, but upon the foundation of the Master's +personal life and teachings, supplemented by the Greek and Persian concepts of +eternal life and augmented by Philo's doctrine of the temporal contrasted with +the spiritual, Paul went forth to build up one of the most progressive human +societies which has ever existed on Urantia. + +The concept of Jesus is still alive in the advanced religions of the world. +Paul's Christian church is the socialized and humanized shadow of what Jesus +intended the kingdom of heaven to be--and what it most certainly will yet +become. Paul and his successors partly transferred the issues of eternal life +from the individual to the church. Christ thus became the head of the church +rather than the elder brother of each individual believer in the Father's +family of the kingdom. Paul and his contemporaries applied all of Jesus' +spiritual implications regarding himself and the individual believer to the +church as a group of believers; and in doing this, they struck a deathblow to +Jesus' concept of the divine kingdom in the heart of the individual believer. + + top of page - 1866 + +And so, for centuries, the Christian church has labored under great +embarrassment because it dared to lay claim to those mysterious powers and +privileges of the kingdom, powers and privileges which can be exercised and +experienced only between Jesus and his spiritual believer brothers. And thus it +becomes apparent that membership in the church does not necessarily mean +fellowship in the kingdom; one is spiritual, the other mainly social. + +Sooner or later another and greater John the Baptist is due to arise +proclaiming "the kingdom of God is at hand"--meaning a return to the high +spiritual concept of Jesus, who proclaimed that the kingdom is the will of his +heavenly Father dominant and transcendent in the heart of the believer--and +doing all this without in any way referring either to the visible church on +earth or to the anticipated second coming of Christ. There must come a revival +of the actual teachings of Jesus, such a restatement as will undo the work of +his early followers who went about to create a sociophilosophical system of +belief regarding the fact of Michael's sojourn on earth. In a short time the +teaching of this story about Jesus nearly supplanted the preaching of Jesus' +gospel of the kingdom. In this way a historical religion displaced that +teaching in which Jesus had blended man's highest moral ideas and spiritual +ideals with man's most sublime hope for the future--eternal life. And that was +the gospel of the kingdom. + +It is just because the gospel of Jesus was so many-sided that within a few +centuries students of the records of his teachings became divided up into so +many cults and sects. This pitiful subdivision of Christian believers results +from failure to discern in the Master's manifold teachings the divine oneness +of his matchless life. But someday the true believers in Jesus will not be thus +spiritually divided in their attitude before unbelievers. Always we may have +diversity of intellectual comprehension and interpretation, even varying +degrees of socialization, but lack of spiritual brotherhood is both inexcusable +and reprehensible. + +Mistake not! there is in the teachings of Jesus an eternal nature which will +not permit them forever to remain unfruitful in the hearts of thinking men. The +kingdom as Jesus conceived it has to a large extent failed on earth; for the +time being, an outward church has taken its place; but you should comprehend +that this church is only the larval stage of the thwarted spiritual kingdom, +which will carry it through this material age and over into a more spiritual +dispensation where the Master's teachings may enjoy a fuller opportunity for +development. Thus does the so-called Christian church become the cocoon in +which the kingdom of Jesus' concept now slumbers. The kingdom of the divine +brotherhood is still alive and will eventually and certainly come forth from +this long submergence, just as surely as the butterfly eventually emerges as +the beautiful unfolding of its less attractive creature of metamorphic +development. + + top of page - 1867 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Last Teaching ³ On The Way To ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ A... ³ J... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p171.txt b/religious documents/p171.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c223709 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p171.txt @@ -0,0 +1,662 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 171 On The Way To Jerusalem + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 171 On The Way To Jerusalem + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE day after the memorable sermon on "The Kingdom of Heaven," Jesus announced +that on the following day he and the apostles would depart for the Passover at +Jerusalem, visiting numerous cities in southern Perea on the way. + +The address on the kingdom and the announcement that he was going to the +Passover set all his followers to thinking that he was going up to Jerusalem to +inaugurate the temporal kingdom of Jewish supremacy. No matter what Jesus said +about the nonmaterial character of the kingdom, he could not wholly remove from +the minds of his Jewish hearers the idea that the Messiah was to establish some +kind of nationalistic government with headquarters at Jerusalem. + +What Jesus said in his Sabbath sermon only tended to confuse the majority of +his followers; very few were enlightened by the Master's discourse. The leaders +understood something of his teachings regarding the inner kingdom, "the kingdom +of heaven within you," but they also knew that he had spoken about another and +future kingdom, and it was this kingdom they believed he was now going up to +Jerusalem to establish. When they were disappointed in this expectation, when +he was rejected by the Jews, and later on, when Jerusalem was literally +destroyed, they still clung to this hope, sincerely believing that the Master +would soon return to the world in great power and majestic glory to establish +the promised kingdom. + +It was on this Sunday afternoon that Salome the mother of James and John +Zebedee came to Jesus with her two apostle sons and, in the manner of +approaching an Oriental potentate, sought to have Jesus promise in advance to +grant whatever request she might make. But the Master would not promise; +instead, he asked her, "What do you want me to do for you?" Then answered +Salome: "Master, now that you are going up to Jerusalem to establish the +kingdom, I would ask you in advance to promise me that these my sons shall have +honor with you, the one to sit on your right hand and the other to sit on your +left hand in your kingdom." + +When Jesus heard Salome's request, he said: "Woman, you know not what you ask." +And then, looking straight into the eyes of the two honor-seeking apostles, he +said: "Because I have long known and loved you; because I have even lived in +your mother's house; because Andrew has assigned you to be with me at all +times; therefore do you permit your mother to come to me secretly, making this +unseemly request. But let me ask you: Are you able to drink the cup I am about +to drink?" And without a moment for thought, James and John answered, "Yes, +Master, we are able." Said Jesus: "I am saddened that you know not why we go up +to Jerusalem; I am grieved that you understand not + + top of page - 1868 + +the nature of my kingdom; I am disappointed that you bring your mother to make +this request of me; but I know you love me in your hearts; therefore I declare +that you shall indeed drink of my cup of bitterness and share in my +humiliation, but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to +give. Such honors are reserved for those who have been designated by my +Father." + +By this time someone had carried word of this conference to Peter and the other +apostles, and they were highly indignant that James and John would seek to be +preferred before them, and that they would secretly go with their mother to +make such a request. When they fell to arguing among themselves, Jesus called +them all together and said: "You well understand how the rulers of the gentiles +lord it over their subjects, and how those who are great exercise authority. +But it shall not be so in the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever would be great among +you, let him first become your servant. He who would be first in the kingdom, +let him become your minister. I declare to you that the Son of Man came not to +be ministered to but to minister; and I now go up to Jerusalem to lay down my +life in the doing of the Father's will and in the service of my brethren." When +the apostles heard these words, they withdrew by themselves to pray. That +evening, in response to the labors of Peter, James and John made suitable +apologies to the ten and were restored to the good graces of their brethren. + +In asking for places on the right hand and on the left hand of Jesus at +Jerusalem, the sons of Zebedee little realized that in less than one month +their beloved teacher would be hanging on a Roman cross with a dying thief on +one side and another transgressor on the other side. And their mother, who was +present at the crucifixion, well remembered the foolish request she had made of +Jesus at Pella regarding the honors she so unwisely sought for her apostle +sons. + +1. THE DEPARTURE FROM PELLA + +On the forenoon of Monday, March 13, Jesus and his twelve apostles took final +leave of the Pella encampment, starting south on their tour of the cities of +southern Perea, where Abner's associates were at work. They spent more than two +weeks visiting among the seventy and then went directly to Jerusalem for the +Passover. + +When the Master left Pella, the disciples encamped with the apostles, about one +thousand in number, followed after him. About one half of this group left him +at the Jordan ford on the road to Jericho when they learned he was going over +to Heshbon, and after he had preached the sermon on "Counting the Cost." They +went on up to Jerusalem, while the other half followed him for two weeks, +visiting the towns in southern Perea. + +In a general way, most of Jesus' immediate followers understood that the camp +at Pella had been abandoned, but they really thought this indicated that their +Master at last intended to go to Jerusalem and lay claim to David's throne. A +large majority of his followers never were able to grasp any other concept of +the kingdom of heaven; no matter what he taught them, they would not give up +this Jewish idea of the kingdom. + +Acting on the instructions of the Apostle Andrew, David Zebedee closed the +visitors' camp at Pella on Wednesday, March 15. At this time almost four +thousand visitors were in residence, and this does not include the one thousand +and more persons who sojourned with the apostles at what was known as the +teach- + + top of page - 1869 + +ers' camp, and who went south with Jesus and the twelve. Much as David disliked +to do it, he sold the entire equipment to numerous buyers and proceeded with +the funds to Jerusalem, subsequently turning the money over to Judas Iscariot. + +David was present in Jerusalem during the tragic last week, taking his mother +back with him to Bethsaida after the crucifixion. While awaiting Jesus and the +apostles, David stopped with Lazarus at Bethany and became tremendously +agitated by the manner in which the Pharisees had begun to persecute and harass +him since his resurrection. Andrew had directed David to discontinue the +messenger service; and this was construed by all as an indication of the early +establishment of the kingdom at Jerusalem. David found himself without a job, +and he had about decided to become the self-appointed defender of Lazarus when +presently the object of his indignant solicitude fled in haste to Philadelphia. +Accordingly, sometime after the resurrection and also after the death of his +mother, David betook himself to Philadelphia, having first assisted Martha and +Mary in disposing of their real estate; and there, in association with Abner +and Lazarus, he spent the remainder of his life, becoming the financial +overseer of all those large interests of the kingdom which had their center at +Philadelphia during the lifetime of Abner. + +Within a short time after the destruction of Jerusalem, Antioch became the +headquarters of Pauline Christianity, while Philadelphia remained the center of +the Abnerian kingdom of heaven. From Antioch the Pauline version of the +teachings of Jesus and about Jesus spread to all the Western world; from +Philadelphia the missionaries of the Abnerian version of the kingdom of heaven +spread throughout Mesopotamia and Arabia until the later times when these +uncompromising emissaries of the teachings of Jesus were overwhelmed by the +sudden rise of Islam. + +2. ON COUNTING THE COST + +When Jesus and the company of almost one thousand followers arrived at the +Bethany ford of the Jordan sometimes called Bethabara, his disciples began to +realize that he was not going directly to Jerusalem. While they hesitated and +debated among themselves, Jesus climbed upon a huge stone and delivered that +discourse which has become known as "Counting the Cost." The Master said: + +"You who would follow after me from this time on, must be willing to pay the +price of wholehearted dedication to the doing of my Father's will. If you would +be my disciples, you must be willing to forsake father, mother, wife, children, +brothers, and sisters. If any one of you would now be my disciple, you must be +willing to give up even your life just as the Son of Man is about to offer up +his life for the completion of the mission of doing the Father's will on earth +and in the flesh. + +"If you are not willing to pay the full price, you can hardly be my disciple. +Before you go further, you should each sit down and count the cost of being my +disciple. Which one of you would undertake to build a watchtower on your lands +without first sitting down to count up the cost to see whether you had money +enough to complete it? If you fail thus to reckon the cost, after you have laid +the foundation, you may discover that you are unable to finish that which you +have begun, and therefore will all your neighbors mock you, saying, `Behold, +this + + top of page - 1870 + +man began to build but was unable to finish his work.' Again, what king, when +he prepares to make war upon another king, does not first sit down and take +counsel as to whether he will be able, with ten thousand men, to meet him who +comes against him with twenty thousand? If the king cannot afford to meet his +enemy because he is unprepared, he sends an embassy to this other king, even +when he is yet a great way off, asking for terms of peace. + +"Now, then, must each of you sit down and count the cost of being my disciple. +From now on you will not be able to follow after us, listening to the teaching +and beholding the works; you will be required to face bitter persecutions and +to bear witness for this gospel in the face of crushing disappointment. If you +are unwilling to renounce all that you are and to dedicate all that you have, +then are you unworthy to be my disciple. If you have already conquered yourself +within your own heart, you need have no fear of that outward victory which you +must presently gain when the Son of Man is rejected by the chief priests and +the Sadducees and is given into the hands of mocking unbelievers. + +"Now should you examine yourself to find out your motive for being my disciple. +If you seek honor and glory, if you are worldly minded, you are like the salt +when it has lost its savor. And when that which is valued for its saltiness has +lost its savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? Such a condiment is useless; it +is fit only to be cast out among the refuse. Now have I warned you to turn back +to your homes in peace if you are not willing to drink with me the cup which is +being prepared. Again and again have I told you that my kingdom is not of this +world, but you will not believe me. He who has ears to hear let him hear what I +say." + +Immediately after speaking these words, Jesus, leading the twelve, started off +on the way to Heshbon, followed by about five hundred. After a brief delay the +other half of the multitude went on up to Jerusalem. His apostles, together +with the leading disciples, thought much about these words, but still they +clung to the belief that, after this brief period of adversity and trial, the +kingdom would certainly be set up somewhat in accordance with their +long-cherished hopes. + +3. THE PEREAN TOUR + +For more than two weeks Jesus and the twelve, followed by a crowd of several +hundred disciples, journeyed about in southern Perea, visiting all of the towns +wherein the seventy labored. Many gentiles lived in this region, and since few +were going up to the Passover feast at Jerusalem, the messengers of the kingdom +went right on with their work of teaching and preaching. + +Jesus met Abner at Heshbon, and Andrew directed that the labors of the seventy +should not be interrupted by the Passover feast; Jesus advised that the +messengers should go forward with their work in complete disregard of what was +about to happen at Jerusalem. He also counseled Abner to permit the women's +corps, at least such as desired, to go to Jerusalem for the Passover. And this +was the last time Abner ever saw Jesus in the flesh. His farewell to Abner was: +"My son, I know you will be true to the kingdom, and I pray the Father to grant +you wisdom that you may love and understand your brethren." + +As they traveled from city to city, large numbers of their followers deserted +to go on to Jerusalem so that, by the time Jesus started for the Passover, the +number of those who followed along with him day by day had dwindled to less +than two hundred. + + top of page - 1871 + +The apostles understood that Jesus was going to Jerusalem for the Passover. +They knew that the Sanhedrin had broadcast a message to all Israel that he had +been condemned to die and directing that anyone knowing his whereabouts should +inform the Sanhedrin; and yet, despite all this, they were not so alarmed as +they had been when he had announced to them in Philadelphia that he was going +to Bethany to see Lazarus. This change of attitude from that of intense fear to +a state of hushed expectancy was mostly because of Lazarus's resurrection. They +had reached the conclusion that Jesus might, in an emergency, assert his divine +power and put to shame his enemies. This hope, coupled with their more profound +and mature faith in the spiritual supremacy of their Master, accounted for the +outward courage displayed by his immediate followers, who now made ready to +follow him into Jerusalem in the very face of the open declaration of the +Sanhedrin that he must die. + +The majority of the apostles and many of his inner disciples did not believe it +possible for Jesus to die; they, believing that he was "the resurrection and +the life," regarded him as immortal and already triumphant over death. + +4. TEACHING AT LIVIAS + +On Wednesday evening, March 29, Jesus and his followers encamped at Livias on +their way to Jerusalem, after having completed their tour of the cities of +southern Perea. It was during this night at Livias that Simon Zelotes and Simon +Peter, having conspired to have delivered into their hands at this place more +than one hundred swords, received and distributed these arms to all who would +accept them and wear them concealed beneath their cloaks. Simon Peter was still +wearing his sword on the night of the Master's betrayal in the garden. + +Early on Thursday morning before the others were awake, Jesus called Andrew and +said: "Awaken your brethren! I have something to say to them." Jesus knew about +the swords and which of his apostles had received and were wearing these +weapons, but he never disclosed to them that he knew such things. When Andrew +had aroused his associates, and they had assembled off by themselves, Jesus +said: "My children, you have been with me a long while, and I have taught you +much that is needful for this time, but I would now warn you not to put your +trust in the uncertainties of the flesh nor in the frailties of man's defense +against the trials and testing which lie ahead of us. I have called you apart +here by yourselves that I may once more plainly tell you that we are going up +to Jerusalem, where you know the Son of Man has already been condemned to +death. Again am I telling you that the Son of Man will be delivered into the +hands of the chief priests and the religious rulers; that they will condemn him +and then deliver him into the hands of the gentiles. And so will they mock the +Son of Man, even spit upon him and scourge him, and they will deliver him up to +death. And when they kill the Son of Man, be not dismayed, for I declare that +on the third day he shall rise. Take heed to yourselves and remember that I +have forewarned you." + +Again were the apostles amazed, stunned; but they could not bring themselves to +regard his words as literal; they could not comprehend that the Master meant +just what he said. They were so blinded by their persistent belief in the +temporal kingdom on earth, with headquarters at Jerusalem, that they simply +could not--would not--permit themselves to accept Jesus' words as literal. They +pondered all that day as to what the Master could mean by such + + top of page - 1872 + +strange pronouncements. But none of them dared to ask him a question concerning +these statements. Not until after his death did these bewildered apostles wake +up to the realization that the Master had spoken to them plainly and directly +in anticipation of his crucifixion. + +It was here at Livias, just after breakfast, that certain friendly Pharisees +came to Jesus and said: "Flee in haste from these parts, for Herod, just as he +sought John, now seeks to kill you. He fears an uprising of the people and has +decided to kill you. We bring you this warning that you may escape." + +And this was partly true. The resurrection of Lazarus frightened and alarmed +Herod, and knowing that the Sanhedrin had dared to condemn Jesus, even in +advance of a trial, Herod made up his mind either to kill Jesus or to drive him +out of his domains. He really desired to do the latter since he so feared him +that he hoped he would not be compelled to execute him. + +When Jesus heard what the Pharisees had to say, he replied: "I well know about +Herod and his fear of this gospel of the kingdom. But, mistake not, he would +much prefer that the Son of Man go up to Jerusalem to suffer and die at the +hands of the chief priests; he is not anxious, having stained his hands with +the blood of John, to become responsible for the death of the Son of Man. Go +you and tell that fox that the Son of Man preaches in Perea today, tomorrow +goes into Judea, and after a few days, will be perfected in his mission on +earth and prepared to ascend to the Father." + +Then turning to his apostles, Jesus said: "From olden times the prophets have +perished in Jerusalem, and it is only befitting that the Son of Man should go +up to the city of the Father's house to be offered up as the price of human +bigotry and as the result of religious prejudice and spiritual blindness. O +Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kills the prophets and stones the teachers of +truth! How often would I have gathered your children together even as a hen +gathers her own brood under her wings, but you would not let me do it! Behold, +your house is about to be left to you desolate! You will many times desire to +see me, but you shall not. You will then seek but not find me." And when he had +spoken, he turned to those around him and said: "Nevertheless, let us go up to +Jerusalem to attend the Passover and do that which becomes us in fulfilling the +will of the Father in heaven." + +It was a confused and bewildered group of believers who this day followed Jesus +into Jericho. The apostles could discern only the certain note of final triumph +in Jesus' declarations regarding the kingdom; they just could not bring +themselves to that place where they were willing to grasp the warnings of the +impending setback. When Jesus spoke of "rising on the third day," they seized +upon this statement as signifying a sure triumph of the kingdom immediately +following an unpleasant preliminary skirmish with the Jewish religious leaders. +The "third day" was a common Jewish expression signifying "presently" or "soon +thereafter." When Jesus spoke of "rising," they thought he referred to the +"rising of the kingdom." + +Jesus had been accepted by these believers as the Messiah, and the Jews knew +little or nothing about a suffering Messiah. They did not understand that Jesus +was to accomplish many things by his death which could never have been achieved +by his life. While it was the resurrection of Lazarus that nerved the apostles +to enter Jerusalem, it was the memory of the transfiguration that sustained the +Master at this trying period of his bestowal. + + top of page - 1873 + +5. THE BLIND MAN AT JERICHO + +Late on the afternoon of Thursday, March 30, Jesus and his apostles, at the +head of a band of about two hundred followers, approached the walls of Jericho. +As they came near the gate of the city, they encountered a throng of beggars, +among them one Bartimeus, an elderly man who had been blind from his youth. +This blind beggar had heard much about Jesus and knew all about his healing of +the blind Josiah at Jerusalem. He had not known of Jesus' last visit to Jericho +until he had gone on to Bethany. Bartimeus had resolved that he would never +again allow Jesus to visit Jericho without appealing to him for the restoration +of his sight. + +News of Jesus' approach had been heralded throughout Jericho, and hundreds of +the inhabitants flocked forth to meet him. When this great crowd came back +escorting the Master into the city, Bartimeus, hearing the heavy tramping of +the multitude, knew that something unusual was happening, and so he asked those +standing near him what was going on. And one of the beggars replied, "Jesus of +Nazareth is passing by." When Bartimeus heard that Jesus was near, he lifted up +his voice and began to cry aloud, "Jesus, Jesus, have mercy upon me!" And as he +continued to cry louder and louder, some of those near to Jesus went over and +rebuked him, requesting him to hold his peace; but it was of no avail; he cried +only the more and the louder. + +When Jesus heard the blind man crying out, he stood still. And when he saw him, +he said to his friends, "Bring the man to me." And then they went over to +Bartimeus, saying: "Be of good cheer; come with us, for the Master calls for +you." When Bartimeus heard these words, he threw aside his cloak, springing +forward toward the center of the road, while those near by guided him to Jesus. +Addressing Bartimeus, Jesus said: "What do you want me to do for you?" Then +answered the blind man, "I would have my sight restored." And when Jesus heard +this request and saw his faith, he said: "You shall receive your sight; go your +way; your faith has made you whole." Immediately he received his sight, and he +remained near Jesus, glorifying God, until the Master started on the next day +for Jerusalem, and then he went before the multitude declaring to all how his +sight had been restored in Jericho. + +6. THE VISIT TO ZACCHEUS + +When the Master's procession entered Jericho, it was nearing sundown, and he +was minded to abide there for the night. As Jesus passed by the customs house, +Zaccheus the chief publican, or tax collector, happened to be present, and he +much desired to see Jesus. This chief publican was very rich and had heard much +about this prophet of Galilee. He had resolved that he would see what sort of a +man Jesus was the next time he chanced to visit Jericho; accordingly, Zaccheus +sought to press through the crowd, but it was too great, and being short of +stature, he could not see over their heads. And so the chief publican followed +on with the crowd until they came near the center of the city and not far from +where he lived. When he saw that he would be unable to penetrate the crowd, and +thinking that Jesus might be going right on through the city without stopping, +he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree whose spreading branches +overhung the roadway. He knew that in this way he could obtain a good view of + + top of page - 1874 + +the Master as he passed by. And he was not disappointed, for, as Jesus passed +by, he stopped and, looking up at Zaccheus, said: "Make haste, Zaccheus, and +come down, for tonight I must abide at your house." And when Zaccheus heard +these astonishing words, he almost fell out of the tree in his haste to get +down, and going up to Jesus, he expressed great joy that the Master should be +willing to stop at his house. + +They went at once to the home of Zaccheus, and those who lived in Jericho were +much surprised that Jesus would consent to abide with the chief publican. Even +while the Master and his apostles lingered with Zaccheus before the door of his +house, one of the Jericho Pharisees, standing near by, said: "You see how this +man has gone to lodge with a sinner, an apostate son of Abraham who is an +extortioner and a robber of his own people." And when Jesus heard this, he +looked down at Zaccheus and smiled. Then Zaccheus stood upon a stool and said: +"Men of Jericho, hear me! I may be a publican and a sinner, but the great +Teacher has come to abide in my house; and before he goes in, I tell you that I +am going to bestow one half of all my goods upon the poor, and beginning +tomorrow, if I have wrongfully exacted aught from any man, I will restore +fourfold. I am going to seek salvation with all my heart and learn to do +righteousness in the sight of God." + +When Zaccheus had ceased speaking, Jesus said: "Today has salvation come to +this home, and you have become indeed a son of Abraham." And turning to the +crowd assembled about them, Jesus said: "And marvel not at what I say nor take +offense at what we do, for I have all along declared that the Son of Man has +come to seek and to save that which is lost." + +They lodged with Zaccheus for the night. On the morrow they arose and made +their way up the "road of robbers" to Bethany on their way to the Passover at +Jerusalem. + +7. "AS JESUS PASSED BY" + +Jesus spread good cheer everywhere he went. He was full of grace and truth. His +associates never ceased to wonder at the gracious words that proceeded out of +his mouth. You can cultivate gracefulness, but graciousness is the aroma of +friendliness which emanates from a love-saturated soul. + +Goodness always compels respect, but when it is devoid of grace, it often +repels affection. Goodness is universally attractive only when it is gracious. +Goodness is effective only when it is attractive. + +Jesus really understood men; therefore could he manifest genuine sympathy and +show sincere compassion. But he seldom indulged in pity. While his compassion +was boundless, his sympathy was practical, personal, and constructive. Never +did his familiarity with suffering breed indifference, and he was able to +minister to distressed souls without increasing their self-pity. + +Jesus could help men so much because he loved them so sincerely. He truly loved +each man, each woman, and each child. He could be such a true friend because of +his remarkable insight--he knew so fully what was in the heart and in the mind +of man. He was an interested and keen observer. He was an expert in the +comprehension of human need, clever in detecting human longings. + +Jesus was never in a hurry. He had time to comfort his fellow men "as he passed +by." And he always made his friends feel at ease. He was a charming listener. +He never engaged in the meddlesome probing of the souls of his asso- + + top of page - 1875 + +ciates. As he comforted hungry minds and ministered to thirsty souls, the +recipients of his mercy did not so much feel that they were confessing to him +as that they were conferring with him. They had unbounded confidence in him +because they saw he had so much faith in them. + +He never seemed to be curious about people, and he never manifested a desire to +direct, manage, or follow them up. He inspired profound self-confidence and +robust courage in all who enjoyed his association. When he smiled on a man, +that mortal experienced increased capacity for solving his manifold problems. + +Jesus loved men so much and so wisely that he never hesitated to be severe with +them when the occasion demanded such discipline. He frequently set out to help +a person by asking for help. In this way he elicited interest, appealed to the +better things in human nature. + +The Master could discern saving faith in the gross superstition of the woman +who sought healing by touching the hem of his garment. He was always ready and +willing to stop a sermon or detain a multitude while he ministered to the needs +of a single person, even to a little child. Great things happened not only +because people had faith in Jesus, but also because Jesus had so much faith in +them. + +Most of the really important things which Jesus said or did seemed to happen +casually, "as he passed by." There was so little of the professional, the +well-planned, or the premeditated in the Master's earthly ministry. He +dispensed health and scattered happiness naturally and gracefully as he +journeyed through life. It was literally true, "He went about doing good." + +And it behooves the Master's followers in all ages to learn to minister as +"they pass by"--to do unselfish good as they go about their daily duties. + +8. PARABLE OF THE POUNDS + +They did not start from Jericho until near noon since they sat up late the +night before while Jesus taught Zaccheus and his family the gospel of the +kingdom. About halfway up the ascending road to Bethany the party paused for +lunch while the multitude passed on to Jerusalem, not knowing that Jesus and +the apostles were going to abide that night on the Mount of Olives. + +The parable of the pounds, unlike the parable of the talents, which was +intended for all the disciples, was spoken more exclusively to the apostles and +was largely based on the experience of Archelaus and his futile attempt to gain +the rule of the kingdom of Judea. This is one of the few parables of the Master +to be founded on an actual historic character. It was not strange that they +should have had Archelaus in mind inasmuch as the house of Zaccheus in Jericho +was very near the ornate palace of Archelaus, and his aqueduct ran along the +road by which they had departed from Jericho. + +Said Jesus: "You think that the Son of Man goes up to Jerusalem to receive a +kingdom, but I declare that you are doomed to disappointment. Do you not +remember about a certain prince who went into a far country to receive for +himself a kingdom, but even before he could return, the citizens of his +province, who in their hearts had already rejected him, sent an embassy after +him, saying, `We will not have this man to reign over us'? As this king was +rejected in the temporal rule, so is the Son of Man to be rejected in the +spiritual rule. Again I declare that my kingdom is not of this world; but if +the Son of Man had been accorded the + + top of page - 1876 + +spiritual rule of his people, he would have accepted such a kingdom of men's +souls and would have reigned over such a dominion of human hearts. +Notwithstanding that they reject my spiritual rule over them, I will return +again to receive from others such a kingdom of spirit as is now denied me. You +will see the Son of Man rejected now, but in another age that which the +children of Abraham now reject will be received and exalted. + +"And now, as the rejected nobleman of this parable, I would call before me my +twelve servants, special stewards, and giving into each of your hands the sum +of one pound, I would admonish each to heed well my instructions that you trade +diligently with your trust fund while I am away that you may have wherewith to +justify your stewardship when I return, when a reckoning shall be required of +you. + +"And even if this rejected Son should not return, another Son will be sent to +receive this kingdom, and this Son will then send for all of you to receive +your report of stewardship and to be made glad by your gains. + +"And when these stewards were subsequently called together for an accounting, +the first came forward, saying, `Lord, with your pound I have made ten pounds +more.' And his master said to him: `Well done; you are a good servant; because +you have proved faithful in this matter, I will give you authority over ten +cities.' And the second came, saying, `Your pound left with me, Lord, has made +five pounds.' And the master said, `I will accordingly make you ruler over five +cities.' And so on down through the others until the last of the servants, on +being called to account, reported: `Lord, behold, here is your pound, which I +have kept safely done up in this napkin. And this I did because I feared you; I +believed that you were unreasonable, seeing that you take up where you have not +laid down, and that you seek to reap where you have not sown.' Then said his +lord: `You negligent and unfaithful servant, I will judge you out of your own +mouth. You knew that I reap where I have apparently not sown; therefore you +knew this reckoning would be required of you. Knowing this, you should have at +least given my money to the banker that at my coming I might have had it with +proper interest.' + +"And then said this ruler to those who stood by: `Take the money from this +slothful servant and give it to him who has ten pounds.' And when they reminded +the master that such a one already had ten pounds, he said: `To every one who +has shall be given more, but from him who has not, even that which he has shall +be taken away from him.'" + +And then the apostles sought to know the difference between the meaning of this +parable and that of the former parable of the talents, but Jesus would only +say, in answer to their many questions: "Ponder well these words in your hearts +while each of you finds out their true meaning." + +It was Nathaniel who so well taught the meaning of these two parables in the +after years, summing up his teachings in these conclusions: + +1. Ability is the practical measure of life's opportunities. You will never be +held responsible for the accomplishment of that which is beyond your abilities. + +2. Faithfulness is the unerring measure of human trustworthiness. He who is +faithful in little things is also likely to exhibit faithfulness in everything +consistent with his endowments. + +3. The Master grants the lesser reward for lesser faithfulness when there is +like opportunity. + + top of page - 1877 + +4. He grants a like reward for like faithfulness when there is lesser +opportunity. + +When they had finished their lunch, and after the multitude of followers had +gone on toward Jerusalem, Jesus, standing there before the apostles in the +shade of an overhanging rock by the roadside, with cheerful dignity and a +gracious majesty pointed his finger westward, saying: "Come, my brethren, let +us go on into Jerusalem, there to receive that which awaits us; thus shall we +fulfill the will of the heavenly Father in all things." + +And so Jesus and his apostles resumed this, the Master's last journey to +Jerusalem in the likeness of the flesh of mortal man. + + top of page - 1878 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Kingdom Of ³ Going Into ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ Jeru... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p172.txt b/religious documents/p172.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..988b088 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p172.txt @@ -0,0 +1,608 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 172 Going Into Jerusalem + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 172 Going Into Jerusalem + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +JESUS and the apostles arrived at Bethany shortly after four o'clock on Friday +afternoon, March 31, A.D. 30. Lazarus, his sisters, and their friends were +expecting them; and since so many people came every day to talk with Lazarus +about his resurrection, Jesus was informed that arrangements had been made for +him to stay with a neighboring believer, one Simon, the leading citizen of the +little village since the death of Lazarus's father. + +That evening, Jesus received many visitors, and the common folks of Bethany and +Bethphage did their best to make him feel welcome. Although many thought Jesus +was now going into Jerusalem, in utter defiance of the Sanhedrin's decree of +death, to proclaim himself king of the Jews, the Bethany family--Lazarus, +Martha, and Mary--more fully realized that the Master was not that kind of a +king; they dimly felt that this might be his last visit to Jerusalem and +Bethany. + +The chief priests were informed that Jesus lodged at Bethany, but they thought +best not to attempt to seize him among his friends; they decided to await his +coming on into Jerusalem. Jesus knew about all this, but he was majestically +calm; his friends had never seen him more composed and congenial; even the +apostles were astounded that he should be so unconcerned when the Sanhedrin had +called upon all Jewry to deliver him into their hands. While the Master slept +that night, the apostles watched over him by twos, and many of them were girded +with swords. Early the next morning they were awakened by hundreds of pilgrims +who came out from Jerusalem, even on the Sabbath day, to see Jesus and Lazarus, +whom he had raised from the dead. + +1. SABBATH AT BETHANY + +Pilgrims from outside of Judea, as well as the Jewish authorities, had all been +asking: "What do you think? will Jesus come up to the feast?" Therefore, when +the people heard that Jesus was at Bethany, they were glad, but the chief +priests and Pharisees were somewhat perplexed. They were pleased to have him +under their jurisdiction, but they were a trifle disconcerted by his boldness; +they remembered that on his previous visit to Bethany, Lazarus had been raised +from the dead, and Lazarus was becoming a big problem to the enemies of Jesus. + +Six days before the Passover, on the evening after the Sabbath, all Bethany and +Bethphage joined in celebrating the arrival of Jesus by a public banquet at the +home of Simon. This supper was in honor of both Jesus and Lazarus; it was +tendered in defiance of the Sanhedrin. Martha directed the serving of the food; +her sister Mary was among the women onlookers as it was against the custom of +the Jews for a woman to sit at a public banquet. The agents of the Sanhedrin +were present, but they feared to apprehend Jesus in the midst of his friends. + + top of page - 1879 + +Jesus talked with Simon about Joshua of old, whose namesake he was, and recited +how Joshua and the Israelites had come up to Jerusalem through Jericho. In +commenting on the legend of the walls of Jericho falling down, Jesus said: "I +am not concerned with such walls of brick and stone; but I would cause the +walls of prejudice, self-righteousness, and hate to crumble before this +preaching of the Father's love for all men." + +The banquet went along in a very cheerful and normal manner except that all the +apostles were unusually sober. Jesus was exceptionally cheerful and had been +playing with the children up to the time of coming to the table. + +Nothing out of the ordinary happened until near the close of the feasting when +Mary the sister of Lazarus stepped forward from among the group of women +onlookers and, going up to where Jesus reclined as the guest of honor, +proceeded to open a large alabaster cruse of very rare and costly ointment; and +after anointing the Master's head, she began to pour it upon his feet as she +took down her hair and wiped them with it. The whole house became filled with +the odor of the ointment, and everybody present was amazed at what Mary had +done. Lazarus said nothing, but when some of the people murmured, showing +indignation that so costly an ointment should be thus used, Judas Iscariot +stepped over to where Andrew reclined and said: "Why was this ointment not sold +and the money bestowed to feed the poor? You should speak to the Master that he +rebuke such waste." + +Jesus, knowing what they thought and hearing what they said, put his hand upon +Mary's head as she knelt by his side and, with a kindly expression upon his +face, said: "Let her alone, every one of you. Why do you trouble her about +this, seeing that she has done a good thing in her heart? To you who murmur and +say that this ointment should have been sold and the money given to the poor, +let me say that you have the poor always with you so that you may minister to +them at any time it seems good to you; but I shall not always be with you; I go +soon to my Father. This woman has long saved this ointment for my body at its +burial, and now that it has seemed good to her to make this anointing in +anticipation of my death, she shall not be denied such satisfaction. In the +doing of this, Mary has reproved all of you in that by this act she evinces +faith in what I have said about my death and ascension to my Father in heaven. +This woman shall not be reproved for that which she has this night done; rather +do I say to you that in the ages to come, wherever this gospel shall be +preached throughout the whole world, what she has done will be spoken of in +memory of her." + +It was because of this rebuke, which he took as a personal reproof, that Judas +Iscariot finally made up his mind to seek revenge for his hurt feelings. Many +times had he entertained such ideas subconsciously, but now he dared to think +such wicked thoughts in his open and conscious mind. And many others encouraged +him in this attitude since the cost of this ointment was a sum equal to the +earnings of one man for one year--enough to provide bread for five thousand +persons. But Mary loved Jesus; she had provided this precious ointment with +which to embalm his body in death, for she believed his words when he +forewarned them that he must die, and it was not to be denied her if she +changed her mind and chose to bestow this offering upon the Master while he yet +lived. + +Both Lazarus and Martha knew that Mary had long saved the money wherewith to +buy this cruse of spikenard, and they heartily approved of her doing + + top of page - 1880 + +as her heart desired in such a matter, for they were well-to-do and could +easily afford to make such an offering. + +When the chief priests heard of this dinner in Bethany for Jesus and Lazarus, +they began to take counsel among themselves as to what should be done with +Lazarus. And presently they decided that Lazarus must also die. They rightly +concluded that it would be useless to put Jesus to death if they permitted +Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead, to live. + +2. SUNDAY MORNING WITH THE APOSTLES + +On this Sunday morning, in Simon's beautiful garden, the Master called his +twelve apostles around him and gave them their final instructions preparatory +to entering Jerusalem. He told them that he would probably deliver many +addresses and teach many lessons before returning to the Father but advised the +apostles to refrain from doing any public work during this Passover sojourn in +Jerusalem. He instructed them to remain near him and to "watch and pray." Jesus +knew that many of his apostles and immediate followers even then carried swords +concealed on their persons, but he made no reference to this fact. + +This morning's instructions embraced a brief review of their ministry from the +day of their ordination near Capernaum down to this day when they were +preparing to enter Jerusalem. The apostles listened in silence; they asked no +questions. + +Early that morning David Zebedee had turned over to Judas the funds realized +from the sale of the equipment of the Pella encampment, and Judas, in turn, had +placed the greater part of this money in the hands of Simon, their host, for +safekeeping in anticipation of the exigencies of their entry into Jerusalem. + +After the conference with the apostles Jesus held converse with Lazarus and +instructed him to avoid the sacrifice of his life to the vengefulness of the +Sanhedrin. It was in obedience to this admonition that Lazarus, a few days +later, fled to Philadelphia when the officers of the Sanhedrin sent men to +arrest him. + +In a way, all of Jesus' followers sensed the impending crisis, but they were +prevented from fully realizing its seriousness by the unusual cheerfulness and +exceptional good humor of the Master. + +3. THE START FOR JERUSALEM + +Bethany was about two miles from the temple, and it was half past one that +Sunday afternoon when Jesus made ready to start for Jerusalem. He had feelings +of profound affection for Bethany and its simple people. Nazareth, Capernaum, +and Jerusalem had rejected him, but Bethany had accepted him, had believed in +him. And it was in this small village, where almost every man, woman, and child +were believers, that he chose to perform the mightiest work of his earth +bestowal, the resurrection of Lazarus. He did not raise Lazarus that the +villagers might believe, but rather because they already believed. + +All morning Jesus had thought about his entry into Jerusalem. Heretofore he had +always endeavored to suppress all public acclaim of him as the Messiah, but it +was different now; he was nearing the end of his career in the flesh, his death +had been decreed by the Sanhedrin, and no harm could come from allowing his +disciples to give free expression to their feelings, just as might occur if he +elected to make a formal and public entry into the city. + + top of page - 1881 + +Jesus did not decide to make this public entrance into Jerusalem as a last bid +for popular favor nor as a final grasp for power. Neither did he do it +altogether to satisfy the human longings of his disciples and apostles. Jesus +entertained none of the illusions of a fantastic dreamer; he well knew what was +to be the outcome of this visit. + +Having decided upon making a public entrance into Jerusalem, the Master was +confronted with the necessity of choosing a proper method of executing such a +resolve. Jesus thought over all of the many more or less contradictory +so-called Messianic prophesies, but there seemed to be only one which was at +all appropriate for him to follow. Most of these prophetic utterances depicted +a king, the son and successor of David, a bold and aggressive temporal +deliverer of all Israel from the yoke of foreign domination. But there was one +Scripture that had sometimes been associated with the Messiah by those who held +more to the spiritual concept of his mission, which Jesus thought might +consistently be taken as a guide for his projected entry into Jerusalem. This +Scripture was found in Zechariah, and it said: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of +Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king comes to you. He is +just and he brings salvation. He comes as the lowly one, riding upon an ass, +upon a colt, the foal of an ass." + +A warrior king always entered a city riding upon a horse; a king on a mission +of peace and friendship always entered riding upon an ass. Jesus would not +enter Jerusalem as a man on horseback, but he was willing to enter peacefully +and with good will as the Son of Man on a donkey. + +Jesus had long tried by direct teaching to impress upon his apostles and his +disciples that his kingdom was not of this world, that it was a purely +spiritual matter; but he had not succeeded in this effort. Now, what he had +failed to do by plain and personal teaching, he would attempt to accomplish by +a symbolic appeal. Accordingly, right after the noon lunch, Jesus called Peter +and John, and after directing them to go over to Bethphage, a neighboring +village a little off the main road and a short distance northwest of Bethany, +he further said: "Go to Bethphage, and when you come to the junction of the +roads, you will find the colt of an ass tied there. Loose the colt and bring it +back with you. If any one asks you why you do this, merely say, `The Master has +need of him."' And when the two apostles had gone into Bethphage as the Master +had directed, they found the colt tied near his mother in the open street and +close to a house on the corner. As Peter began to untie the colt, the owner +came over and asked why they did this, and when Peter answered him as Jesus had +directed, the man said: "If your Master is Jesus from Galilee, let him have the +colt." And so they returned bringing the colt with them. + +By this time several hundred pilgrims had gathered around Jesus and his +apostles. Since midforenoon the visitors passing by on their way to the +Passover had tarried. Meanwhile, David Zebedee and some of his former messenger +associates took it upon themselves to hasten on down to Jerusalem, where they +effectively spread the report among the throngs of visiting pilgrims about the +temple that Jesus of Nazareth was making a triumphal entry into the city. +Accordingly, several thousand of these visitors flocked forth to greet this +much-talked-of prophet and wonder-worker, whom some believed to be the Messiah. +This multitude, coming out from Jerusalem, met Jesus and the crowd going into +the city just after they had passed over the brow of Olivet and had begun the +descent into the city. + + top of page - 1882 + +As the procession started out from Bethany, there was great enthusiasm among +the festive crowd of disciples, believers, and visiting pilgrims, many hailing +from Galilee and Perea. Just before they started, the twelve women of the +original women's corps, accompanied by some of their associates, arrived on the +scene and joined this unique procession as it moved on joyously toward the +city. + +Before they started, the Alpheus twins put their cloaks on the donkey and held +him while the Master got on. As the procession moved toward the summit of +Olivet, the festive crowd threw their garments on the ground and brought +branches from the near-by trees in order to make a carpet of honor for the +donkey bearing the royal Son, the promised Messiah. As the merry crowd moved on +toward Jerusalem, they began to sing, or rather to shout in unison, the Psalm, +"Hosanna to the son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. +Hosanna in the highest. Blessed be the kingdom that comes down from heaven." + +Jesus was lighthearted and cheerful as they moved along until he came to the +brow of Olivet, where the city and the temple towers came into full view; there +the Master stopped the procession, and a great silence came upon all as they +beheld him weeping. Looking down upon the vast multitude coming forth from the +city to greet him, the Master, with much emotion and with tearful voice, said: +"O Jerusalem, if you had only known, even you, at least in this your day, the +things which belong to your peace, and which you could so freely have had! But +now are these glories about to be hid from your eyes. You are about to reject +the Son of Peace and turn your backs upon the gospel of salvation. The days +will soon come upon you wherein your enemies will cast a trench around about +you and lay siege to you on every side; they shall utterly destroy you, +insomuch that not one stone shall be left upon another. And all this shall +befall you because you knew not the time of your divine visitation. You are +about to reject the gift of God, and all men will reject you." + +When he had finished speaking, they began the descent of Olivet and presently +were joined by the multitude of visitors who had come from Jerusalem waving +palm branches, shouting hosannas, and otherwise expressing gleefulness and good +fellowship. The Master had not planned that these crowds should come out from +Jerusalem to meet them; that was the work of others. He never premeditated +anything which was dramatic. + +Along with the multitude which poured out to welcome the Master, there came +also many of the Pharisees and his other enemies. They were so much perturbed +by this sudden and unexpected outburst of popular acclaim that they feared to +arrest him lest such action precipitate an open revolt of the populace. They +greatly feared the attitude of the large numbers of visitors, who had heard +much of Jesus, and who, many of them, believed in him. + +As they neared Jerusalem, the crowd became more demonstrative, so much so that +some of the Pharisees made their way up alongside Jesus and said: "Teacher, you +should rebuke your disciples and exhort them to behave more seemly." Jesus +answered: "It is only fitting that these children should welcome the Son of +Peace, whom the chief priests have rejected. It would be useless to stop them +lest in their stead these stones by the roadside cry out." + +The Pharisees hastened on ahead of the procession to rejoin the Sanhedrin, +which was then in session at the temple, and they reported to their associates: +"Behold, all that we do is of no avail; we are confounded by this Galilean. The +people have gone mad over him; if we do not stop these ignorant ones, all the +world will go after him." + + top of page - 1883 + +There really was no deep significance to be attached to this superficial and +spontaneous outburst of popular enthusiasm. This welcome, although it was +joyous and sincere, did not betoken any real or deep-seated conviction in the +hearts of this festive multitude. These same crowds were equally as willing +quickly to reject Jesus later on this week when the Sanhedrin once took a firm +and decided stand against him, and when they became disillusioned--when they +realized that Jesus was not going to establish the kingdom in accordance with +their long-cherished expectations. + +But the whole city was mightily stirred up, insomuch that everyone asked, "Who +is this man?" And the multitude answered, "This is the prophet of Galilee, +Jesus of Nazareth." + +4. VISITING ABOUT THE TEMPLE + +While the Alpheus twins returned the donkey to its owner, Jesus and the ten +apostles detached themselves from their immediate associates and strolled about +the temple, viewing the preparations for the Passover. No attempt was made to +molest Jesus as the Sanhedrin greatly feared the people, and that was, after +all, one of the reasons Jesus had for allowing the multitude thus to acclaim +him. The apostles little understood that this was the only human procedure +which could have been effective in preventing Jesus' immediate arrest upon +entering the city. The Master desired to give the inhabitants of Jerusalem, +high and low, as well as the tens of thousands of Passover visitors, this one +more and last chance to hear the gospel and receive, if they would, the Son of +Peace. + +And now, as the evening drew on and the crowds went in quest of nourishment, +Jesus and his immediate followers were left alone. What a strange day it had +been! The apostles were thoughtful, but speechless. Never, in their years of +association with Jesus, had they seen such a day. For a moment they sat down by +the treasury, watching the people drop in their contributions: the rich putting +much in the receiving box and all giving something in accordance with the +extent of their possessions. At last there came along a poor widow, scantily +attired, and they observed as she cast two mites (small coppers) into the +trumpet. And then said Jesus, calling the attention of the apostles to the +widow: "Heed well what you have just seen. This poor widow cast in more than +all the others, for all these others, from their superfluity, cast in some +trifle as a gift, but this poor woman, even though she is in want, gave all +that she had, even her living." + +As the evening drew on, they walked about the temple courts in silence, and +after Jesus had surveyed these familiar scenes once more, recalling his +emotions in connection with previous visits, not excepting the earlier ones, he +said, "Let us go up to Bethany for our rest." Jesus, with Peter and John, went +to the home of Simon, while the other apostles lodged among their friends in +Bethany and Bethphage. + +5. THE APOSTLES' ATTITUDE + +This Sunday evening as they returned to Bethany, Jesus walked in front of the +apostles. Not a word was spoken until they separated after arriving at Simon's +house. No twelve human beings ever experienced such diverse and inexplicable +emotions as now surged through the minds and souls of these ambassadors of the +kingdom. These sturdy Galileans were confused and discon- + + top of page - 1884 + +certed; they did not know what to expect next; they were too surprised to be +much afraid. They knew nothing of the Master's plans for the next day, and they +asked no questions. They went to their lodgings, though they did not sleep +much, save the twins. But they did not keep armed watch over Jesus at Simon's +house. + +Andrew was thoroughly bewildered, well-nigh confused. He was the one apostle +who did not seriously undertake to evaluate the popular outburst of acclaim. He +was too preoccupied with the thought of his responsibility as chief of the +apostolic corps to give serious consideration to the meaning or significance of +the loud hosannas of the multitude. Andrew was busy watching some of his +associates whom he feared might be led away by their emotions during the +excitement, particularly Peter, James, John, and Simon Zelotes. Throughout this +day and those which immediately followed, Andrew was troubled with serious +doubts, but he never expressed any of these misgivings to his apostolic +associates. He was concerned about the attitude of some of the twelve whom he +knew were armed with swords; but he did not know that his own brother, Peter, +was carrying such a weapon. And so the procession into Jerusalem made a +comparatively superficial impression upon Andrew; he was too busy with the +responsibilities of his office to be otherwise affected. + +Simon Peter was at first almost swept off his feet by this popular +manifestation of enthusiasm; but he was considerably sobered by the time they +returned to Bethany that night. Peter simply could not figure out what the +Master was about. He was terribly disappointed that Jesus did not follow up +this wave of popular favor with some kind of a pronouncement. Peter could not +understand why Jesus did not speak to the multitude when they arrived at the +temple, or at least permit one of the apostles to address the crowd. Peter was +a great preacher, and he disliked to see such a large, receptive, and +enthusiastic audience go to waste. He would so much have liked to preach the +gospel of the kingdom to that throng right there in the temple; but the Master +had specifically charged them that they were to do no teaching or preaching +while in Jerusalem this Passover week. The reaction from the spectacular +procession into the city was disastrous to Simon Peter; by night he was sobered +and inexpressibly saddened. + +To James Zebedee, this Sunday was a day of perplexity and profound confusion; +he could not grasp the purport of what was going on; he could not comprehend +the Master's purpose in permitting this wild acclaim and then in refusing to +say a word to the people when they arrived at the temple. As the procession +moved down Olivet toward Jerusalem, more especially when they were met by the +thousands of pilgrims who poured forth to welcome the Master, James was cruelly +torn by his conflicting emotions of elation and gratification at what he saw +and by his profound feeling of fear as to what would happen when they reached +the temple. And then was he downcast and overcome by disappointment when Jesus +climbed off the donkey and proceeded to walk leisurely about the temple courts. +James could not understand the reason for throwing away such a magnificent +opportunity to proclaim the kingdom. By night, his mind was held firmly in the +grip of a distressing and dreadful uncertainty. + +John Zebedee came somewhere near understanding why Jesus did this; at least he +grasped in part the spiritual significance of this so-called triumphal entry +into Jerusalem. As the multitude moved on toward the temple, and as John beheld +his Master sitting there astride the colt, he recalled hearing Jesus onetime +quote the passage of Scripture, the utterance of Zechariah, which described the +coming of the Messiah as a man of peace and riding into Jerusalem on an ass. + + top of page - 1885 + +As John turned this Scripture over in his mind, he began to comprehend the +symbolic significance of this Sunday-afternoon pageant. At least, he grasped +enough of the meaning of this Scripture to enable him somewhat to enjoy the +episode and to prevent his becoming overmuch depressed by the apparent +purposeless ending of the triumphal procession. John had a type of mind which +naturally tended to think and feel in symbols. + +Philip was entirely unsettled by the suddenness and spontaneity of the +outburst. He could not collect his thoughts sufficiently while on the way down +Olivet to arrive at any settled notion as to what all the demonstration was +about. In a way, he enjoyed the performance because his Master was being +honored. By the time they reached the temple, he was perturbed by the thought +that Jesus might possibly ask him to feed the multitude, so that the conduct of +Jesus in turning leisurely away from the crowds, which so sorely disappointed +the majority of the apostles, was a great relief to Philip. Multitudes had +sometimes been a great trial to the steward of the twelve. After he was +relieved of these personal fears regarding the material needs of the crowds, +Philip joined with Peter in the expression of disappointment that nothing was +done to teach the multitude. That night Philip got to thinking over these +experiences and was tempted to doubt the whole idea of the kingdom; he honestly +wondered what all these things could mean, but he expressed his doubts to no +one; he loved Jesus too much. He had great personal faith in the Master. + +Nathaniel, aside from the symbolic and prophetic aspects, came the nearest to +understanding the Master's reason for enlisting the popular support of the +Passover pilgrims. He reasoned it out, before they reached the temple, that +without such a demonstrative entry into Jerusalem Jesus would have been +arrested by the Sanhedrin officials and cast into prison the moment he presumed +to enter the city. He was not, therefore, in the least surprised that the +Master made no further use of the cheering crowds when he had once got inside +the walls of the city and had thus so forcibly impressed the Jewish leaders +that they would refrain from placing him under immediate arrest. Understanding +the real reason for the Master's entering the city in this manner, Nathaniel +naturally followed along with more poise and was less perturbed and +disappointed by Jesus' subsequent conduct than were the other apostles. +Nathaniel had great confidence in Jesus' understanding of men as well as in his +sagacity and cleverness in handling difficult situations. + +Matthew was at first nonplused by this pageant performance. He did not grasp +the meaning of what his eyes were seeing until he also recalled the Scripture +in Zechariah where the prophet had alluded to the rejoicing of Jerusalem +because her king had come bringing salvation and riding upon the colt of an +ass. As the procession moved in the direction of the city and then drew on +toward the temple, Matthew became ecstatic; he was certain that something +extraordinary would happen when the Master arrived at the temple at the head of +this shouting multitude. When one of the Pharisees mocked Jesus, saying, "Look, +everybody, see who comes here, the king of the Jews riding on an ass!" Matthew +kept his hands off of him only by exercising great restraint. None of the +twelve was more depressed on the way back to Bethany that evening. Next to +Simon Peter and Simon Zelotes, he experienced the highest nervous tension and +was in a state of exhaustion by night. But by morning Matthew was much cheered; +he was, after all, a cheerful loser. + + top of page - 1886 + +Thomas was the most bewildered and puzzled man of all the twelve. Most of the +time he just followed along, gazing at the spectacle and honestly wondering +what could be the Master's motive for participating in such a peculiar +demonstration. Down deep in his heart he regarded the whole performance as a +little childish, if not downright foolish. He had never seen Jesus do anything +like this and was at a loss to account for his strange conduct on this Sunday +afternoon. By the time they reached the temple, Thomas had deduced that the +purpose of this popular demonstration was so to frighten the Sanhedrin that +they would not dare immediately to arrest the Master. On + + top of page - 1887 + +the way back to Bethany Thomas thought much but said nothing. By bedtime the +Master's cleverness in staging the tumultuous entry into Jerusalem had begun to +make a somewhat humorous appeal, and he was much cheered up by this reaction. + +This Sunday started off as a great day for Simon Zelotes. He saw visions of +wonderful doings in Jerusalem the next few days, and in that he was right, but +Simon dreamed of the establishment of the new national rule of the Jews, with +Jesus on the throne of David. Simon saw the nationalists springing into action +as soon as the kingdom was announced, and himself in supreme command of the +assembling military forces of the new kingdom. On the way down Olivet he even +envisaged the Sanhedrin and all of their sympathizers dead before sunset of +that day. He really believed something great was going to happen. He was the +noisiest man in the whole multitude. By five o'clock that afternoon he was a +silent, crushed, and disillusioned apostle. He never fully recovered from the +depression which settled down on him as a result of this day's shock; at least +not until long after the Master's resurrection. + +To the Alpheus twins this was a perfect day. They really enjoyed it all the way +through, and not being present during the time of quiet visitation about the +temple, they escaped much of the anticlimax of the popular upheaval. They could +not possibly understand the downcast behavior of the apostles when they came +back to Bethany that evening. In the memory of the twins this was always their +day of being nearest heaven on earth. This day was the satisfying climax of +their whole career as apostles. And the memory of the elation of this Sunday +afternoon carried them on through all of the tragedy of this eventful week, +right up to the hour of the crucifixion. It was the most befitting entry of the +king the twins could conceive; they enjoyed every moment of the whole pageant. +They fully approved of all they saw and long cherished the memory. + +Of all the apostles, Judas Iscariot was the most adversely affected by this +processional entry into Jerusalem. His mind was in a disagreeable ferment +because of the Master's rebuke the preceding day in connection with Mary's +anointing at the feast in Simon's house. Judas was disgusted with the whole +spectacle. To him it seemed childish, if not indeed ridiculous. As this +vengeful apostle looked upon the proceedings of this Sunday afternoon, Jesus +seemed to him more to resemble a clown than a king. He heartily resented the +whole performance. He shared the views of the Greeks and Romans, who looked +down upon anyone who would consent to ride upon an ass or the colt of an ass. +By the time the triumphal procession had entered the city, Judas had about made +up his mind to abandon the whole idea of such a kingdom; he was almost resolved +to forsake all such farcical attempts to establish the kingdom of heaven. And +then he thought of the resurrection of Lazarus, and many other things, and +decided to stay on with the twelve, at least for another day. Besides, he +carried the bag, and he would not desert with the apostolic funds in his +possession. On the way back to Bethany that night his conduct did not seem +strange since all of the apostles were equally downcast and silent. + +Judas was tremendously influenced by the ridicule of his Sadducean friends. No +other single factor exerted such a powerful influence on him, in his final +determination to forsake Jesus and his fellow apostles, as a certain episode +which occurred just as Jesus reached the gate of the city: A prominent Sadducee +(a friend of Judas's family) rushed up to him in a spirit of gleeful ridicule +and, slapping him on the back, said: "Why so troubled of countenance, my good +friend; cheer up and join us all while we acclaim this Jesus of Nazareth the +king of the Jews as he rides through the gates of Jerusalem seated on an ass." +Judas had never shrunk from persecution, but he could not stand this sort of +ridicule. With the long-nourished emotion of revenge there was now blended this +fatal fear of ridicule, that terrible and fearful feeling of being ashamed of +his Master and his fellow apostles. At heart, this ordained ambassador of the +kingdom was already a deserter; it only remained for him to find some plausible +excuse for an open break with the Master. + + top of page - 1888 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ On The Way To ³ Monday In ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ J... ³ Jerus... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p173.txt b/religious documents/p173.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ec8428 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p173.txt @@ -0,0 +1,542 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 173 Monday In Jerusalem + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 173 Monday In Jerusalem + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +EARLY on this Monday morning, by prearrangement, Jesus and the apostles +assembled at the home of Simon in Bethany, and after a brief conference they +set out for Jerusalem. The twelve were strangely silent as they journeyed on +toward the temple; they had not recovered from the experience of the preceding +day. They were expectant, fearful, and profoundly affected by a certain feeling +of detachment growing out of the Master's sudden change of tactics, coupled +with his instruction that they were to engage in no public teaching throughout +this Passover week. + +As this group journeyed down Mount Olivet, Jesus led the way, the apostles +following closely behind in meditative silence. There was just one thought +uppermost in the minds of all save Judas Iscariot, and that was: What will the +Master do today? The one absorbing thought of Judas was: What shall I do? Shall +I go on with Jesus and my associates, or shall I withdraw? And if I am going to +quit, how shall I break off? + +It was about nine o'clock on this beautiful morning when these men arrived at +the temple. They went at once to the large court where Jesus so often taught, +and after greeting the believers who were awaiting him, Jesus mounted one of +the teaching platforms and began to address the gathering crowd. The apostles +withdrew for a short distance and awaited developments. + +1. CLEANSING THE TEMPLE + +A huge commercial traffic had grown up in association with the services and +ceremonies of the temple worship. There was the business of providing suitable +animals for the various sacrifices. Though it was permissible for a worshiper +to provide his own sacrifice, the fact remained that this animal must be free +from all "blemish" in the meaning of the Levitical law and as interpreted by +official inspectors of the temple. Many a worshiper had experienced the +humiliation of having his supposedly perfect animal rejected by the temple +examiners. It therefore became the more general practice to purchase +sacrificial animals at the temple, and although there were several stations on +near-by Olivet where they could be bought, it had become the vogue to buy these +animals directly from the temple pens. Gradually there had grown up this custom +of selling all kinds of sacrificial animals in the temple courts. An extensive +business, in which enormous profits were made, had thus been brought into +existence. Part of these gains was reserved for the temple treasury, but the +larger part went indirectly into the hands of the ruling high-priestly +families. + +This sale of animals in the temple prospered because, when the worshiper +purchased such an animal, although the price might be somewhat high, no more + + top of page - 1889 + +fees had to be paid, and he could be sure the intended sacrifice would not be +rejected on the ground of possessing real or technical blemishes. At one time +or another systems of exorbitant overcharge were practiced upon the common +people, especially during the great national feasts. At one time the greedy +priests went so far as to demand the equivalent of the value of a week's labor +for a pair of doves which should have been sold to the poor for a few pennies. +The "sons of Annas" had already begun to establish their bazaars in the temple +precincts, those very merchandise marts which persisted to the time of their +final overthrow by a mob three years before the destruction of the temple +itself. + +But traffic in sacrificial animals and sundry merchandise was not the only way +in which the courts of the temple were profaned. At this time there was +fostered an extensive system of banking and commercial exchange which was +carried on right within the temple precincts. And this all came about in the +following manner: During the Asmonean dynasty the Jews coined their own silver +money, and it had become the practice to require the temple dues of one-half +shekel and all other temple fees to be paid with this Jewish coin. This +regulation necessitated that money-changers be licensed to exchange the many +sorts of currency in circulation throughout Palestine and other provinces of +the Roman Empire for this orthodox shekel of Jewish coining. The temple head +tax, payable by all except women, slaves, and minors, was one-half shekel, a +coin about the size of a ten cent piece but twice as thick. By the times of +Jesus the priests had also been exempted from the payment of temple dues. +Accordingly, from the 15th to the 25th of the month preceding the Passover, +accredited money-changers erected their booths in the principal cities of +Palestine for the purpose of providing the Jewish people with proper money to +meet the temple dues after they had reached Jerusalem. After this ten-day +period these money-changers moved on to Jerusalem and proceeded to set up their +exchange tables in the courts of the temple. They were permitted to charge the +equivalent of from three to four cents commission for the exchange of a coin +valued at about ten cents, and in case a coin of larger value was offered for +exchange, they were allowed to collect double. Likewise did these temple +bankers profit from the exchange of all money intended for the purchase of +sacrificial animals and for the payment of vows and the making of offerings. + +These temple money-changers not only conducted a regular banking business for +profit in the exchange of more than twenty sorts of money which the visiting +pilgrims would periodically bring to Jerusalem, but they also engaged in all +other kinds of transactions pertaining to the banking business. Both the temple +treasury and the temple rulers profited tremendously from these commercial +activities. It was not uncommon for the temple treasury to hold upwards of ten +million dollars while the common people languished in poverty and continued to +pay these unjust levies. + +In the midst of this noisy aggregation of money-changers, merchandisers, and +cattle sellers, Jesus, on this Monday morning, attempted to teach the gospel of +the heavenly kingdom. He was not alone in resenting this profanation of the +temple; the common people, especially the Jewish visitors from foreign +provinces, also heartily resented this profiteering desecration of their +national house of worship. At this time the Sanhedrin itself held its regular +meetings in a chamber surrounded by all this babble and confusion of trade and +barter. + + top of page - 1890 + +As Jesus was about to begin his address, two things happened to arrest his +attention. At the money table of a near-by exchanger a violent and heated +argument had arisen over the alleged overcharging of a Jew from Alexandria, +while at the same moment the air was rent by the bellowing of a drove of some +one hundred bullocks which was being driven from one section of the animal pens +to another. As Jesus paused, silently but thoughtfully contemplating this scene +of commerce and confusion, close by he beheld a simple-minded Galilean, a man +he had once talked with in Iron, being ridiculed and jostled about by +supercilious and would-be superior Judeans; and all of this combined to produce +one of those strange and periodic uprisings of indignant emotion in the soul of +Jesus. + +To the amazement of his apostles, standing near at hand, who refrained from +participation in what so soon followed, Jesus stepped down from the teaching +platform and, going over to the lad who was driving the cattle through the +court, took from him his whip of cords and swiftly drove the animals from the +temple. But that was not all; he strode majestically before the wondering gaze +of the thousands assembled in the temple court to the farthest cattle pen and +proceeded to open the gates of every stall and to drive out the imprisoned +animals. By this time the assembled pilgrims were electrified, and with +uproarious shouting they moved toward the bazaars and began to overturn the +tables of the money-changers. In less than five minutes all commerce had been +swept from the temple. By the time the near-by Roman guards had appeared on the +scene, all was quiet, and the crowds had become orderly; Jesus, returning to +the speaker's stand, spoke to the multitude: "You have this day witnessed that +which is written in the Scriptures: `My house shall be called a house of prayer +for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers.'" + +But before he could utter other words, the great assembly broke out in hosannas +of praise, and presently a throng of youths stepped out from the crowd to sing +grateful hymns of appreciation that the profane and profiteering merchandisers +had been ejected from the sacred temple. By this time certain of the priests +had arrived on the scene, and one of them said to Jesus, "Do you not hear what +the children of the Levites say?" And the Master replied, "Have you never read, +`Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings has praise been perfected'?" And all +the rest of that day while Jesus taught, guards set by the people stood watch +at every archway, and they would not permit anyone to carry even an empty +vessel across the temple courts. + +When the chief priests and the scribes heard about these happenings, they were +dumfounded. All the more they feared the Master, and all the more they +determined to destroy him. But they were nonplused. They did not know how to +accomplish his death, for they greatly feared the multitudes, who were now so +outspoken in their approval of his overthrow of the profane profiteers. And all +this day, a day of quiet and peace in the temple courts, the people heard +Jesus' teaching and literally hung on his words. + +This surprising act of Jesus was beyond the comprehension of his apostles. They +were so taken aback by this sudden and unexpected move of their Master that +they remained throughout the whole episode huddled together near the speaker's +stand; they never lifted a hand to further this cleansing of the temple. If +this spectacular event had occurred the day before, at the time of Jesus' +triumphal arrival at the temple at the termination of his tumultuous procession +through the gates of the city, all the while loudly acclaimed by the multitude, +they would + + top of page - 1891 + +have been ready for it, but coming as it did, they were wholly unprepared to +participate. + +This cleansing of the temple discloses the Master's attitude toward +commercializing the practices of religion as well as his detestation of all +forms of unfairness and profiteering at the expense of the poor and the +unlearned. This episode also demonstrates that Jesus did not look with approval +upon the refusal to employ force to protect the majority of any given human +group against the unfair and enslaving practices of unjust minorities who may +be able to entrench themselves behind political, financial, or ecclesiastical +power. Shrewd, wicked, and designing men are not to be permitted to organize +themselves for the exploitation and oppression of those who, because of their +idealism, are not disposed to resort to force for self-protection or for the +furtherance of their laudable life projects. + +2. CHALLENGING THE MASTER'S AUTHORITY + +On Sunday the triumphal entry into Jerusalem so overawed the Jewish leaders +that they refrained from placing Jesus under arrest. Today, this spectacular +cleansing of the temple likewise effectively postponed the Master's +apprehension. Day by day the rulers of the Jews were becoming more and more +determined to destroy him, but they were distraught by two fears, which +conspired to delay the hour of striking. The chief priests and the scribes were +unwilling to arrest Jesus in public for fear the multitude might turn upon them +in a fury of resentment; they also dreaded the possibility of the Roman guards +being called upon to quell a popular uprising. + +At the noon session of the Sanhedrin it was unanimously agreed that Jesus must +be speedily destroyed, inasmuch as no friend of the Master attended this +meeting. But they could not agree as to when and how he should be taken into +custody. Finally they agreed upon appointing five groups to go out among the +people and seek to entangle him in his teaching or otherwise to discredit him +in the sight of those who listened to his instruction. Accordingly, about two +o'clock, when Jesus had just begun his discourse on "The Liberty of Sonship," a +group of these elders of Israel made their way up near Jesus and, interrupting +him in the customary manner, asked this question: "By what authority do you do +these things? Who gave you this authority?" + +It was altogether proper that the temple rulers and the officers of the Jewish +Sanhedrin should ask this question of anyone who presumed to teach and perform +in the extraordinary manner which had been characteristic of Jesus, especially +as concerned his recent conduct in clearing the temple of all commerce. These +traders and money-changers all operated by direct license from the highest +rulers, and a percentage of their gains was supposed to go directly into the +temple treasury. Do not forget that authority was the watchword of all Jewry. +The prophets were always stirring up trouble because they so boldly presumed to +teach without authority, without having been duly instructed in the rabbinic +academies and subsequently regularly ordained by the Sanhedrin. Lack of this +authority in pretentious public teaching was looked upon as indicating either +ignorant presumption or open rebellion. At this time only the Sanhedrin could +ordain an elder or teacher, and such a ceremony had to take place in the +presence of at least three persons who had previously been so ordained. Such an +ordination conferred the title of "rabbi" upon the teacher and also qualified +him to act as a judge, "binding and loosing such matters as might be brought to +him for adjudication." + + top of page - 1892 + +The rulers of the temple came before Jesus at this afternoon hour challenging +not only his teaching but his acts. Jesus well knew that these very men had +long publicly taught that his authority for teaching was Satanic, and that all +his mighty works had been wrought by the power of the prince of devils. +Therefore did the Master begin his answer to their question by asking them a +counter-question. Said Jesus: "I would also like to ask you one question which, +if you will answer me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these +works. The baptism of John, whence was it? Did John get his authority from +heaven or from men?" + +And when his questioners heard this, they withdrew to one side to take counsel +among themselves as to what answer they might give. They had thought to +embarrass Jesus before the multitude, but now they found themselves much +confused before all who were assembled at that time in the temple court. And +their discomfiture was all the more apparent when they returned to Jesus, +saying: "Concerning the baptism of John, we cannot answer; we do not know." And +they so answered the Master because they had reasoned among themselves: If we +shall say from heaven, then will he say, Why did you not believe him, and +perchance will add that he received his authority from John; and if we shall +say from men, then might the multitude turn upon us, for most of them hold that +John was a prophet; and so they were compelled to come before Jesus and the +people confessing that they, the religious teachers and leaders of Israel, +could not (or would not) express an opinion about John's mission. And when they +had spoken, Jesus, looking down upon them, said, "Neither will I tell you by +what authority I do these things." + +Jesus never intended to appeal to John for his authority; John had never been +ordained by the Sanhedrin. Jesus' authority was in himself and in his Father's +eternal supremacy. + +In employing this method of dealing with his adversaries, Jesus did not mean to +dodge the question. At first it may seem that he was guilty of a masterly +evasion, but it was not so. Jesus was never disposed to take unfair advantage +of even his enemies. In this apparent evasion he really supplied all his +hearers with the answer to the Pharisees' question as to the authority behind +his mission. They had asserted that he performed by authority of the prince of +devils. Jesus had repeatedly asserted that all his teaching and works were by +the power and authority of his Father in heaven. This the Jewish leaders +refused to accept and were seeking to corner him into admitting that he was an +irregular teacher since he had never been sanctioned by the Sanhedrin. In +answering them as he did, while not claiming authority from John, he so +satisfied the people with the inference that the effort of his enemies to +ensnare him was effectively turned upon themselves and was much to their +discredit in the eyes of all present. + +And it was this genius of the Master for dealing with his adversaries that made +them so afraid of him. They attempted no more questions that day; they retired +to take further counsel among themselves. But the people were not slow to +discern the dishonesty and insincerity in these questions asked by the Jewish +rulers. Even the common folk could not fail to distinguish between the moral +majesty of the Master and the designing hypocrisy of his enemies. But the +cleansing of the temple had brought the Sadducees over to the side of the +Pharisees in perfecting the plan to destroy Jesus. And the Sadducees now +represented a majority of the Sanhedrin. + + top of page - 1893 + +3. PARABLE OF THE TWO SONS + +As the caviling Pharisees stood there in silence before Jesus, he looked down +on them and said: "Since you are in doubt about John's mission and arrayed in +enmity against the teaching and the works of the Son of Man, give ear while I +tell you a parable: A certain great and respected landholder had two sons, and +desiring the help of his sons in the management of his large estates, he came +to one of them, saying, `Son, go work today in my vineyard.' And this +unthinking son answered his father, saying, `I will not go'; but afterward he +repented and went. When he had found his older son, likewise he said to him, +`Son, go work in my vineyard.' And this hypocritical and unfaithful son +answered, `Yes, my father, I will go.' But when his father had departed, he +went not. Let me ask you, which of these sons really did his father's will?" + +And the people spoke with one accord, saying, "The first son." And then said +Jesus: "Even so; and now do I declare that the publicans and harlots, even +though they appear to refuse the call to repentance, shall see the error of +their way and go on into the kingdom of God before you, who make great +pretensions of serving the Father in heaven while you refuse to do the works of +the Father. It was not you, the Pharisees and scribes, who believed John, but +rather the publicans and sinners; neither do you believe my teaching, but the +common people hear my words gladly." + +Jesus did not despise the Pharisees and Sadducees personally. It was their +systems of teaching and practice which he sought to discredit. He was hostile +to no man, but here was occurring the inevitable clash between a new and living +religion of the spirit and the older religion of ceremony, tradition, and +authority. + +All this time the twelve apostles stood near the Master, but they did not in +any manner participate in these transactions. Each one of the twelve was +reacting in his own peculiar way to the events of these closing days of Jesus' +ministry in the flesh, and each one likewise remained obedient to the Master's +injunction to refrain from all public teaching and preaching during this +Passover week. + +4. PARABLE OF THE ABSENT LANDLORD + +When the chief Pharisees and the scribes who had sought to entangle Jesus with +their questions had finished listening to the story of the two sons, they +withdrew to take further counsel, and the Master, turning his attention to the +listening multitude, told another parable: + +"There was a good man who was a householder, and he planted a vineyard. He set +a hedge about it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watchtower for the +guards. Then he let this vineyard out to tenants while he went on a long +journey into another country. And when the season of the fruits drew near, he +sent servants to the tenants to receive his rental. But they took counsel among +themselves and refused to give these servants the fruits due their master; +instead, they fell upon his servants, beating one, stoning another, and sending +the others away empty-handed. And when the householder heard about all this, he +sent other and more trusted servants to deal with these wicked tenants, and +these they wounded and also treated shamefully. And then the householder sent +his favorite servant, his steward, and him they killed. And still, in patience +and with forbear- + + top of page - 1894 + +ance, he dispatched many other servants, but none would they receive. Some they +beat, others they killed, and when the householder had been so dealt with, he +decided to send his son to deal with these ungrateful tenants, saying to +himself, `They may mistreat my servants, but they will surely show respect for +my beloved son.' But when these unrepentant and wicked tenants saw the son, +they reasoned among themselves: `This is the heir; come, let us kill him and +then the inheritance will be ours.' So they laid hold on him, and after casting +him out of the vineyard, they killed him. When the lord of that vineyard shall +hear how they have rejected and killed his son, what will he do to those +ungrateful and wicked tenants?" + +And when the people heard this parable and the question Jesus asked, they +answered, "He will destroy those miserable men and let out his vineyard to +other and honest farmers who will render to him the fruits in their season." +And when some of them who heard perceived that this parable referred to the +Jewish nation and its treatment of the prophets and to the impending rejection +of Jesus and the gospel of the kingdom, they said in sorrow, "God forbid that +we should go on doing these things." + +Jesus saw a group of the Sadducees and Pharisees making their way through the +crowd, and he paused for a moment until they drew near him, when he said: "You +know how your fathers rejected the prophets, and you well know that you are set +in your hearts to reject the Son of Man." And then, looking with searching gaze +upon those priests and elders who were standing near him, Jesus said: "Did you +never read in the Scripture about the stone which the builders rejected, and +which, when the people had discovered it, was made into the cornerstone? And so +once more do I warn you that, if you continue to reject this gospel, presently +will the kingdom of God be taken away from you and be given to a people willing +to receive the good news and to bring forth the fruits of the spirit. And there +is a mystery about this stone, seeing that whoso falls upon it, while he is +thereby broken in pieces, shall be saved; but on whomsoever this stone falls, +he will be ground to dust and his ashes scattered to the four winds." + +When the Pharisees heard these words, they understood that Jesus referred to +themselves and the other Jewish leaders. They greatly desired to lay hold on +him then and there, but they feared the multitude. However, they were so +angered by the Master's words that they withdrew and held further counsel among +themselves as to how they might bring about his death. And that night both the +Sadducees and the Pharisees joined hands in the plan to entrap him the next +day. + +5. PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST + +After the scribes and rulers had withdrawn, Jesus addressed himself again to +the assembled crowd and spoke the parable of the wedding feast. He said: + +"The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a certain king who made a marriage +feast for his son and dispatched messengers to call those who had previously +been invited to the feast to come, saying, `Everything is ready for the +marriage supper at the king's palace.' Now, many of those who had once promised +to attend, at this time refused to come. When the king heard of these +rejections of his invitation, he sent other servants and messengers, saying: +`Tell all those who were bidden, to come, for, behold, my dinner is ready. My +oxen and my fatlings + + top of page - 1895 + +are killed, and all is in readiness for the celebration of the forthcoming +marriage of my son.' But again did the thoughtless make light of this call of +their king, and they went their ways, one to the farm, another to the pottery, +and others to their merchandise. Still others were not content thus to slight +the king's call, but in open rebellion they laid hands on the king's messengers +and shamefully mistreated them, even killing some of them. And when the king +perceived that his chosen guests, even those who had accepted his preliminary +invitation and had promised to attend the wedding feast, had finally rejected +his call and in rebellion had assaulted and slain his chosen messengers, he was +exceedingly wroth. And then this insulted king ordered out his armies and the +armies of his allies and instructed them to destroy these rebellious murderers +and to burn down their city. + +"And when he had punished those who spurned his invitation, he appointed yet +another day for the wedding feast and said to his messengers: `They who were +first bidden to the wedding were not worthy; so go now into the parting of the +ways and into the highways and even beyond the borders of the city, and as many +as you shall find, bid even these strangers to come in and attend this wedding +feast.' And then these servants went out into the highways and the +out-of-the-way places, and they gathered together as many as they found, good +and bad, rich and poor, so that at last the wedding chamber was filled with +willing guests. When all was ready, the king came in to view his guests, and +much to his surprise he saw there a man without a wedding garment. The king, +since he had freely provided wedding garments for all his guests, addressing +this man, said: `Friend, how is it that you come into my guest chamber on this +occasion without a wedding garment?' And this unprepared man was speechless. +Then said the king to his servants: `Cast out this thoughtless guest from my +house to share the lot of all the others who have spurned my hospitality and +rejected my call. I will have none here except those who delight to accept my +invitation, and who do me the honor to wear those guest garments so freely +provided for all.'" + +After speaking this parable, Jesus was about to dismiss the multitude when a +sympathetic believer, making his way through the crowds toward him, asked: +"But, Master, how shall we know about these things? how shall we be ready for +the king's invitation? what sign will you give us whereby we shall know that +you are the Son of God?" And when the Master heard this, he said, "Only one +sign shall be given you." And then, pointing to his own body, he continued, +"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." But they did not +understand him, and as they dispersed, they talked among themselves, saying, +"Almost fifty years has this temple been in building, and yet he says he will +destroy it and raise it up in three days." Even his own apostles did not +comprehend the significance of this utterance, but subsequently, after his +resurrection, they recalled what he had said. + +About four o'clock this afternoon Jesus beckoned to his apostles and indicated +that he desired to leave the temple and to go to Bethany for their evening meal +and a night of rest. On the way up Olivet Jesus instructed Andrew, Philip, and +Thomas that, on the morrow, they should establish a camp nearer the city which +they could occupy during the remainder of the Passover week. In compliance with +this instruction the following morning they pitched their tents in the hillside +ravine overlooking the public camping park of Gethsemane, on a plot of ground +belonging to Simon of Bethany. + + top of page - 1896 + +Again it was a silent group of Jews who made their way up the western slope of +Olivet on this Monday night. These twelve men, as never before, were beginning +to sense that something tragic was about to happen. While the dramatic +cleansing of the temple during the early morning had aroused their hopes of +seeing the Master assert himself and manifest his mighty powers, the events of +the entire afternoon only operated as an anticlimax in that they all pointed to +the certain rejection of Jesus' teaching by the Jewish authorities. The +apostles were gripped by suspense and were held in the firm grasp of a terrible +uncertainty. They realized that only a few short days could intervene between +the events of the day just passed and the crash of an impending doom. They all +felt that something tremendous was about to happen, but they knew not what to +expect. They went to their various places for rest, but they slept very little. +Even the Alpheus twins were at last aroused to the realization that the events +of the Master's life were moving swiftly toward their final culmination. + + top of page - 1897 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Going Into ³ Tuesday ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Jeru... ³ Morning... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p174.txt b/religious documents/p174.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3fc6518 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p174.txt @@ -0,0 +1,517 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 174 Tuesday Morning In The Temple + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The + Temple +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 174 Tuesday Morning In The Temple + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ABOUT seven o'clock on this Tuesday morning Jesus met the apostles, the women's +corps, and some two dozen other prominent disciples at the home of Simon. At +this meeting he said farewell to Lazarus, giving him that instruction which led +him so soon to flee to Philadelphia in Perea, where he later became connected +with the missionary movement having its headquarters in that city. Jesus also +said good-bye to the aged Simon, and gave his parting advice to the women's +corps, as he never again formally addressed them. + +This morning he greeted each of the twelve with a personal salutation. To +Andrew he said: "Be not dismayed by the events just ahead. Keep a firm hold on +your brethren and see that they do not find you downcast." To Peter he said: +"Put not your trust in the arm of flesh nor in weapons of steel. Establish +yourself on the spiritual foundations of the eternal rocks." To James he said: +"Falter not because of outward appearances. Remain firm in your faith, and you +shall soon know of the reality of that which you believe." To John he said: "Be +gentle; love even your enemies; be tolerant. And remember that I have trusted +you with many things." To Nathaniel he said: "Judge not by appearances; remain +firm in your faith when all appears to vanish; be true to your commission as an +ambassador of the kingdom." To Philip he said: "Be unmoved by the events now +impending. Remain unshaken, even when you cannot see the way. Be loyal to your +oath of consecration." To Matthew he said: "Forget not the mercy that received +you into the kingdom. Let no man cheat you of your eternal reward. As you have +withstood the inclinations of the mortal nature, be willing to be steadfast." +To Thomas he said: "No matter how difficult it may be, just now you must walk +by faith and not by sight. Doubt not that I am able to finish the work I have +begun, and that I shall eventually see all of my faithful ambassadors in the +kingdom beyond." To the Alpheus twins he said: "Do not allow the things which +you cannot understand to crush you. Be true to the affections of your hearts +and put not your trust in either great men or the changing attitude of the +people. Stand by your brethren." And to Simon Zelotes he said: "Simon, you may +be crushed by disappointment, but your spirit shall rise above all that may +come upon you. What you have failed to learn from me, my spirit will teach you. +Seek the true realities of the spirit and cease to be attracted by unreal and +material shadows." And to Judas Iscariot he said: "Judas, I have loved you and +have prayed that you would love your brethren. Be not weary in well doing; and +I would warn you to beware the slippery paths of flattery and the poison darts +of ridicule." + +And when he had concluded these greetings, he departed for Jerusalem with +Andrew, Peter, James, and John as the other apostles set about the +establishment of the Gethsemane camp, where they were to go that night, and +where they made their headquarters for the remainder of the Master's life in +the flesh. About half- + + top of page - 1898 + +way down the slope of Olivet Jesus paused and visited more than an hour with +the four apostles. + +1. DIVINE FORGIVENESS + +For several days Peter and James had been engaged in discussing their +differences of opinion about the Master's teaching regarding the forgiveness of +sin. They had both agreed to lay the matter before Jesus, and Peter embraced +this occasion as a fitting opportunity for securing the Master's counsel. +Accordingly, Simon Peter broke in on the conversation dealing with the +differences between praise and worship, by asking: "Master, James and I are not +in accord regarding your teachings having to do with the forgiveness of sin. +James claims you teach that the Father forgives us even before we ask him, and +I maintain that repentance and confession must precede the forgiveness. Which +of us is right? what do you say?" + +After a short silence Jesus looked significantly at all four and answered: "My +brethren, you err in your opinions because you do not comprehend the nature of +those intimate and loving relations between the creature and the Creator, +between man and God. You fail to grasp that understanding sympathy which the +wise parent entertains for his immature and sometimes erring child. It is +indeed doubtful whether intelligent and affectionate parents are ever called +upon to forgive an average and normal child. Understanding relationships +associated with attitudes of love effectively prevent all those estrangements +which later necessitate the readjustment of repentance by the child with +forgiveness by the parent. + +"A part of every father lives in the child. The father enjoys priority and +superiority of understanding in all matters connected with the child-parent +relationship. The parent is able to view the immaturity of the child in the +light of the more advanced parental maturity, the riper experience of the older +partner. With the earthly child and the heavenly Father, the divine parent +possesses infinity and divinity of sympathy and capacity for loving +understanding. Divine forgiveness is inevitable; it is inherent and inalienable +in God's infinite understanding, in his perfect knowledge of all that concerns +the mistaken judgment and erroneous choosing of the child. Divine justice is so +eternally fair that it unfailingly embodies understanding mercy. + +"When a wise man understands the inner impulses of his fellows, he will love +them. And when you love your brother, you have already forgiven him. This +capacity to understand man's nature and forgive his apparent wrongdoing is +Godlike. If you are wise parents, this is the way you will love and understand +your children, even forgive them when transient misunderstanding has apparently +separated you. The child, being immature and lacking in the fuller +understanding of the depth of the child-father relationship, must frequently +feel a sense of guilty separation from a father's full approval, but the true +father is never conscious of any such separation. Sin is an experience of +creature consciousness; it is not a part of God's consciousness. + +"Your inability or unwillingness to forgive your fellows is the measure of your +immaturity, your failure to attain adult sympathy, understanding, and love. You +hold grudges and nurse vengefulness in direct proportion to your ignorance of +the inner nature and true longings of your children and your fellow beings. +Love is the outworking of the divine and inner urge of life. It is founded on +understanding, nurtured by unselfish service, and perfected in wisdom." + + top of page - 1899 + +2. QUESTIONS BY THE JEWISH RULERS + +On Monday evening there had been held a council between the Sanhedrin and some +fifty additional leaders selected from among the scribes, Pharisees, and the +Sadducees. It was the consensus of this meeting that it would be dangerous to +arrest Jesus in public because of his hold upon the affections of the common +people. It was also the opinion of the majority that a determined effort should +be made to discredit him in the eyes of the multitude before he should be +arrested and brought to trial. Accordingly, several groups of learned men were +designated to be on hand the next morning in the temple to undertake to entrap +him with difficult questions and otherwise to seek to embarrass him before the +people. At last, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and even the Herodians were all +united in this effort to discredit Jesus in the eyes of the Passover +multitudes. + +Tuesday morning, when Jesus arrived in the temple court and began to teach, he +had uttered but few words when a group of the younger students from the +academies, who had been rehearsed for this purpose, came forward and by their +spokesman addressed Jesus: "Master, we know you are a righteous teacher, and we +know that you proclaim the ways of truth, and that you serve only God, for you +fear no man, and that you are no respecter of persons. We are only students, +and we would know the truth about a matter which troubles us; our difficulty is +this: Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar? Shall we give or shall we +not give?" Jesus, perceiving their hypocrisy and craftiness, said to them: "Why +do you thus come to tempt me? Show me the tribute money, and I will answer +you." And when they handed him a denarius, he looked at it and said, "Whose +image and superscription does this coin bear?" And when they answered him, +"Caesar's," Jesus said, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and +render to God the things that are God's." + +When he had thus answered these young scribes and their Herodian accomplices, +they withdrew from his presence, and the people, even the Sadducees, enjoyed +their discomfiture. Even the youths who had endeavored to entrap him marveled +greatly at the unexpected sagacity of the Master's answer. + +The previous day the rulers had sought to trip him before the multitude on +matters of ecclesiastical authority, and having failed, they now sought to +involve him in a damaging discussion of civil authority. Both Pilate and Herod +were in Jerusalem at this time, and Jesus' enemies conjectured that, if he +would dare to advise against the payment of tribute to Caesar, they could go at +once before the Roman authorities and charge him with sedition. On the other +hand, if he should advise the payment of tribute in so many words, they rightly +calculated that such a pronouncement would greatly wound the national pride of +his Jewish hearers, thereby alienating the good will and affection of the +multitude. + +In all this the enemies of Jesus were defeated since it was a well-known ruling +of the Sanhedrin, made for the guidance of the Jews dispersed among the gentile +nations, that the "right of coinage carried with it the right to levy taxes." +In this manner Jesus avoided their trap. To have answered "No" to their +question would have been equivalent to inciting rebellion; to have answered +"Yes" would have shocked the deep-rooted nationalist sentiments of that day. +The Master did not evade the question; he merely employed the wisdom of making +a double reply. Jesus was never evasive, but he was always wise in his dealings +with those who sought to harass and destroy him. + + top of page - 1900 + +3. THE SADDUCEES AND THE RESURRECTION + +Before Jesus could get started with his teaching, another group came forward to +question him, this time a company of the learned and crafty Sadducees. Their +spokesman, drawing near to him, said: "Master, Moses said that if a married man +should die, leaving no children, his brother should take the wife and raise up +seed for the deceased brother. Now there occurred a case where a certain man +who had six brothers died childless; his next brother took his wife but also +soon died, leaving no children. Likewise did the second brother take the wife, +but he also died leaving no offspring. And so on until all six of the brothers +had had her, and all six of them passed on without leaving children. And then, +after them all, the woman herself died. Now, what we would like to ask you is +this: In the resurrection whose wife will she be since all seven of these +brothers had her?" + +Jesus knew, and so did the people, that these Sadducees were not sincere in +asking this question because it was not likely that such a case would really +occur; and besides, this practice of the brothers of a dead man seeking to +beget children for him was practically a dead letter at this time among the +Jews. Nevertheless, Jesus condescended to reply to their mischievous question. +He said: "You all do err in asking such questions because you know neither the +Scriptures nor the living power of God. You know that the sons of this world +can marry and are given in marriage, but you do not seem to understand that +they who are accounted worthy to attain the worlds to come, through the +resurrection of the righteous, neither marry nor are given in marriage. Those +who experience the resurrection from the dead are more like the angels of +heaven, and they never die. These resurrected ones are eternally the sons of +God; they are the children of light resurrected into the progress of eternal +life. And even your Father Moses understood this, for, in connection with his +experiences at the burning bush, he heard the Father say, `I am the God of +Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' And so, along with Moses, do +I declare that my Father is not the God of the dead but of the living. In him +you all do live, reproduce, and possess your mortal existence." + +When Jesus had finished answering these questions, the Sadducees withdrew, and +some of the Pharisees so far forgot themselves as to exclaim, "True, true, +Master, you have well answered these unbelieving Sadducees." The Sadducees +dared not ask him any more questions, and the common people marveled at the +wisdom of his teaching. + +Jesus appealed only to Moses in his encounter with the Sadducees because this +religio-political sect acknowledged the validity of only the five so-called +Books of Moses; they did not allow that the teachings of the prophets were +admissible as a basis of doctrinal dogmas. The Master in his answer, though +positively affirming the fact of the survival of mortal creatures by the +technique of the resurrection, did not in any sense speak approvingly of the +Pharisaic beliefs in the resurrection of the literal human body. The point +Jesus wished to emphasize was: That the Father had said, "I am the God of +Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," not I was their God. + +The Sadducees had thought to subject Jesus to the withering influence of +ridicule, knowing full well that persecution in public would most certainly +create further sympathy for him in the minds of the multitude. + + top of page - 1901 + +4. THE GREAT COMMANDMENT + +Another group of Sadducees had been instructed to ask Jesus entangling +questions about angels, but when they beheld the fate of their comrades who had +sought to entrap him with questions concerning the resurrection, they very +wisely decided to hold their peace; they retired without asking a question. It +was the prearranged plan of the confederated Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, and +Herodians to fill up the entire day with these entangling questions, hoping +thereby to discredit Jesus before the people and at the same time effectively +to prevent his having any time for the proclamation of his disturbing +teachings. + +Then came forward one of the groups of the Pharisees to ask harassing +questions, and the spokesman, signaling to Jesus, said: "Master, I am a lawyer, +and I would like to ask you which, in your opinion, is the greatest +commandment?" Jesus answered: "There is but one commandment, and that one is +the greatest of all, and that commandment is: `Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, +the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and +with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.' This is the +first and great commandment. And the second commandment is like this first; +indeed, it springs directly therefrom, and it is: `You shall love your neighbor +as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these; on these two +commandments hang all the law and the prophets." + +When the lawyer perceived that Jesus had answered not only in accordance with +the highest concept of Jewish religion, but that he had also answered wisely in +the sight of the assembled multitude, he thought it the better part of valor +openly to commend the Master's reply. Accordingly, he said: "Of a truth, +Master, you have well said that God is one and there is none beside him; and +that to love him with all the heart, understanding, and strength, and also to +love one's neighbor as one's self, is the first and great commandment; and we +are agreed that this great commandment is much more to be regarded than all the +burnt offerings and sacrifices." When the lawyer answered thus discreetly, +Jesus looked down upon him and said, "My friend, I perceive that you are not +far from the kingdom of God." + +Jesus spoke the truth when he referred to this lawyer as being "not far from +the kingdom," for that very night he went out to the Master's camp near +Gethsemane, professed faith in the gospel of the kingdom, and was baptized by +Josiah, one of the disciples of Abner. + +Two or three other groups of the scribes and Pharisees were present and had +intended to ask questions, but they were either disarmed by Jesus' answer to +the lawyer, or they were deterred by the discomfiture of all who had undertaken +to ensnare him. After this no man dared to ask him another question in public. + +When no more questions were forthcoming, and as the noon hour was near, Jesus +did not resume his teaching but was content merely to ask the Pharisees and +their associates a question. Said Jesus: "Since you ask no more questions, I +would like to ask you one. What do you think of the Deliverer? That is, whose +son is he?" After a brief pause one of the scribes answered, "The Messiah is +the son of David." And since Jesus knew that there had been much debate, even +among his own disciples, as to whether or not he was the son of David, he asked +this further question: "If the Deliverer is indeed the son of David, how is it +that, + + top of page - 1902 + +in the Psalm which you accredit to David, he himself, speaking in the spirit, +says, `The Lord said to my lord, sit on my right hand until I make your enemies +the footstool of your feet.' If David calls him Lord, how then can he be his +son?" Although the rulers, the scribes, and the chief priests made no reply to +this question, they likewise refrained from asking him any more questions in an +effort to entangle him. They never answered this question which Jesus put to +them, but after the Master's death they attempted to escape the difficulty by +changing the interpretation of this Psalm so as to make it refer to Abraham +instead of the Messiah. Others sought to escape the dilemma by disallowing that +David was the author of this so-called Messianic Psalm. + +A short time back the Pharisees had enjoyed the manner in which the Sadducees +had been silenced by the Master; now the Sadducees were delighted by the +failure of the Pharisees; but such rivalry was only momentary; they speedily +forgot their time-honored differences in the united effort to stop Jesus' +teachings and doings. But throughout all of these experiences the common people +heard him gladly. + +5. THE INQUIRING GREEKS + +About noontime, as Philip was purchasing supplies for the new camp which was +that day being established near Gethsemane, he was accosted by a delegation of +strangers, a group of believing Greeks from Alexandria, Athens, and Rome, whose +spokesman said to the apostle: "You have been pointed out to us by those who +know you; so we come to you, Sir, with the request to see Jesus, your Master." +Philip was taken by surprise thus to meet these prominent and inquiring Greek +gentiles in the market place, and, since Jesus had so explicitly charged all of +the twelve not to engage in any public teaching during the Passover week, he +was a bit perplexed as to the right way to handle this matter. He was also +disconcerted because these men were foreign gentiles. If they had been Jews or +near-by and familiar gentiles, he would not have hesitated so markedly. What he +did was this: He asked these Greeks to remain right where they were. As he +hastened away, they supposed that he went in search of Jesus, but in reality he +hurried off to the home of Joseph, where he knew Andrew and the other apostles +were at lunch; and calling Andrew out, he explained the purpose of his coming, +and then, accompanied by Andrew, he returned to the waiting Greeks. + +Since Philip had about finished the purchasing of supplies, he and Andrew +returned with the Greeks to the home of Joseph, where Jesus received them; and +they sat near while he spoke to his apostles and a number of leading disciples +assembled at this luncheon. Said Jesus: + +"My Father sent me to this world to reveal his loving-kindness to the children +of men, but those to whom I first came have refused to receive me. True, +indeed, many of you have believed my gospel for yourselves, but the children of +Abraham and their leaders are about to reject me, and in so doing they will +reject Him who sent me. I have freely proclaimed the gospel of salvation to +this people; I have told them of sonship with joy, liberty, and life more +abundant in the spirit. My Father has done many wonderful works among these +fear-ridden sons of men. But truly did the Prophet Isaiah refer to this people +when he wrote: `Lord, who has believed our teachings? And to whom has the Lord +been revealed?' Truly have the leaders of my people deliberately blinded their +eyes that they see not, + + top of page - 1903 + +and hardened their hearts lest they believe and be saved. All these years have +I sought to heal them of their unbelief that they might be recipients of the +Father's eternal salvation. I know that not all have failed me; some of you +have indeed believed my message. In this room now are a full score of men who +were once members of the Sanhedrin, or who were high in the councils of the +nation, albeit even some of you still shrink from open confession of the truth +lest they cast you out of the synagogue. Some of you are tempted to love the +glory of men more than the glory of God. But I am constrained to show +forbearance since I fear for the safety and loyalty of even some of those who +have been so long near me, and who have lived so close by my side. + +"In this banquet chamber I perceive there are assembled Jews and gentiles in +about equal numbers, and I would address you as the first and last of such a +group that I may instruct in the affairs of the kingdom before I go to my +Father." + +These Greeks had been in faithful attendance upon Jesus' teaching in the +temple. On Monday evening they had held a conference at the home of Nicodemus, +which lasted until the dawn of day, and thirty of them had elected to enter the +kingdom. + +As Jesus stood before them at this time, he perceived the end of one +dispensation and the beginning of another. Turning his attention to the Greeks, +the Master said: + +"He who believes this gospel, believes not merely in me but in Him who sent me. +When you look upon me, you see not only the Son of Man but also Him who sent +me. I am the light of the world, and whosoever will believe my teaching shall +no longer abide in darkness. If you gentiles will hear me, you shall receive +the words of life and shall enter forthwith into the joyous liberty of the +truth of sonship with God. If my fellow countrymen, the Jews, choose to reject +me and to refuse my teachings, I will not sit in judgment on them, for I came +not to judge the world but to offer it salvation. Nevertheless, they who reject +me and refuse to receive my teaching shall be brought to judgment in due season +by my Father and those whom he has appointed to sit in judgment on such as +reject the gift of mercy and the truths of salvation. Remember, all of you, +that I speak not of myself, but that I have faithfully declared to you that +which the Father commanded I should reveal to the children of men. And these +words which the Father directed me to speak to the world are words of divine +truth, everlasting mercy, and eternal life. + +"But to both Jew and gentile I declare the hour has about come when the Son of +Man will be glorified. You well know that, except a grain of wheat falls into +the earth and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies in good soil, it springs up +again to life and bears much fruit. He who selfishly loves his life stands in +danger of losing it; but he who is willing to lay down his life for my sake and +the gospel's shall enjoy a more abundant existence on earth and in heaven, life +eternal. If you will truly follow me, even after I have gone to my Father, then +shall you become my disciples and the sincere servants of your fellow mortals. + +"I know my hour is approaching, and I am troubled. I perceive that my people +are determined to spurn the kingdom, but I am rejoiced to receive these +truth-seeking gentiles who come here today inquiring for the way of light. +Nevertheless, my heart aches for my people, and my soul is distraught by that +which lies just before me. What shall I say as I look ahead and discern what is +about to befall me? Shall I say, Father save me from this awful hour? No! For +this + + top of page - 1904 + +very purpose have I come into the world and even to this hour. Rather will I +say, and pray that you will join me: Father, glorify your name; your will be +done." + +When Jesus had thus spoken, the Personalized Adjuster of his indwelling during +prebaptismal times appeared before him, and as he paused noticeably, this now +mighty spirit of the Father's representation spoke to Jesus of Nazareth, +saying: "I have glorified my name in your bestowals many times, and I will +glorify it once more." + +While the Jews and gentiles here assembled heard no voice, they could not fail +to discern that the Master had paused in his speaking while a message came to +him from some superhuman source. They all said, every man to the one who was by +him, "An angel has spoken to him." + +Then Jesus continued to speak: "All this has not happened for my sake but for +yours. I know of a certainty that the Father will receive me and accept my +mission in your behalf, but it is needful that you be encouraged and be made +ready for the fiery trial which is just ahead. Let me assure you that victory +shall eventually crown our united efforts to enlighten the world and liberate +mankind. The old order is bringing itself to judgment; the Prince of this world +I have cast down; and all men shall become free by the light of the spirit +which I will pour out upon all flesh after I have ascended to my Father in +heaven. + +"And now I declare to you that I, if I be lifted up on earth and in your lives, +will draw all men to myself and into the fellowship of my Father. You have +believed that the Deliverer would abide on earth forever, but I declare that +the Son of Man will be rejected by men, and that he will go back to the Father. +Only a little while will I be with you; only a little time will the living +light be among this darkened generation. Walk while you have this light so that +the oncoming darkness and confusion may not overtake you. He who walks in the +darkness knows not where he goes; but if you will choose to walk in the light, +you shall all indeed become liberated sons of God. And now, all of you, come +with me while we go back to the temple and I speak farewell words to the chief +priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodians, and the +benighted rulers of Israel." + +Having thus spoken, Jesus led the way over the narrow streets of Jerusalem back +to the temple. They had just heard the Master say that this was to be his +farewell discourse in the temple, and they followed him in silence and in deep +meditation. + + top of page - 1905 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Monday In ³ The Last ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Jerus... ³ Temple... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p175.txt b/religious documents/p175.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c663a9f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p175.txt @@ -0,0 +1,467 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 175 The Last Temple Discourse + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... The Last Temple + Discourse +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 175 The Last Temple Discourse + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +SHORTLY after two o'clock on this Tuesday afternoon, Jesus, accompanied by +eleven apostles, Joseph of Arimathea, the thirty Greeks, and certain other +disciples, arrived at the temple and began the delivery of his last address in +the courts of the sacred edifice. This discourse was intended to be his last +appeal to the Jewish people and the final indictment of his vehement enemies +and would-be destroyers--the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and the chief +rulers of Israel. Throughout the forenoon the various groups had had an +opportunity to question Jesus; this afternoon no one asked him a question. + +As the Master began to speak, the temple court was quiet and orderly. The +money-changers and the merchandisers had not dared again to enter the temple +since Jesus and the aroused multitude had driven them out the previous day. +Before beginning the discourse, Jesus tenderly looked down upon this audience +which was so soon to hear his farewell public address of mercy to mankind +coupled with his last denunciation of the false teachers and the bigoted rulers +of the Jews. + +1. THE DISCOURSE + +"This long time have I been with you, going up and down in the land proclaiming +the Father's love for the children of men, and many have seen the light and, by +faith, have entered into the kingdom of heaven. In connection with this +teaching and preaching the Father has done many wonderful works, even to the +resurrection of the dead. Many sick and afflicted have been made whole because +they believed; but all of this proclamation of truth and healing of disease has +not opened the eyes of those who refuse to see light, those who are determined +to reject this gospel of the kingdom. + +"In every manner consistent with doing my Father's will, I and my apostles have +done our utmost to live in peace with our brethren, to conform with the +reasonable requirements of the laws of Moses and the traditions of Israel. We +have persistently sought peace, but the leaders of Israel will not have it. By +rejecting the truth of God and the light of heaven, they are aligning +themselves on the side of error and darkness. There cannot be peace between +light and darkness, between life and death, between truth and error. + +"Many of you have dared to believe my teachings and have already entered into +the joy and liberty of the consciousness of sonship with God. And you will bear +me witness that I have offered this same sonship with God to all the Jewish +nation, even to these very men who now seek my destruction. And even now would +my Father receive these blinded teachers and these hypocritical leaders if they +would only turn to him and accept his mercy. Even now it is not too late for +this people to receive the word of heaven and to welcome the Son of Man. + + top of page - 1906 + +"My Father has long dealt in mercy with this people. Generation after +generation have we sent our prophets to teach and warn them, and generation +after generation have they killed these heaven-sent teachers. And now do your +willful high priests and stubborn rulers go right on doing this same thing. As +Herod brought about the death of John, you likewise now make ready to destroy +the Son of Man. + +"As long as there is a chance that the Jews will turn to my Father and seek +salvation, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will keep his hands of mercy +outstretched toward you; but when you have once filled up your cup of +impenitence, and when once you have finally rejected my Father's mercy, this +nation will be left to its own counsels, and it shall speedily come to an +inglorious end. This people was called to become the light of the world, to +show forth the spiritual glory of a God-knowing race, but you have so far +departed from the fulfillment of your divine privileges that your leaders are +about to commit the supreme folly of all the ages in that they are on the verge +of finally rejecting the gift of God to all men and for all ages--the +revelation of the love of the Father in heaven for all his creatures on earth. + +"And when you do once reject this revelation of God to man, the kingdom of +heaven shall be given to other peoples, to those who will receive it with joy +and gladness. In the name of the Father who sent me, I solemnly warn you that +you are about to lose your position in the world as the standard-bearers of +eternal truth and the custodians of the divine law. I am just now offering you +your last chance to come forward and repent, to signify your intention to seek +God with all your hearts and to enter, like little children and by sincere +faith, into the security and salvation of the kingdom of heaven. + +"My Father has long worked for your salvation, and I came down to live among +you and personally show you the way. Many of both the Jews and the Samaritans, +and even the gentiles, have believed the gospel of the kingdom, but those who +should be first to come forward and accept the light of heaven have steadfastly +refused to believe the revelation of the truth of God--God revealed in man and +man uplifted to God. + +"This afternoon my apostles stand here before you in silence, but you shall +soon hear their voices ringing out with the call to salvation and with the urge +to unite with the heavenly kingdom as the sons of the living God. And now I +call to witness these, my disciples and believers in the gospel of the kingdom, +as well as the unseen messengers by their sides, that I have once more offered +Israel and her rulers deliverance and salvation. But you all behold how the +Father's mercy is slighted and how the messengers of truth are rejected. +Nevertheless, I admonish you that these scribes and Pharisees still sit in +Moses' seat, and therefore, until the Most Highs who rule in the kingdoms of +men shall finally overthrow this nation and destroy the place of these rulers, +I bid you co-operate with these elders in Israel. You are not required to unite +with them in their plans to destroy the Son of Man, but in everything related +to the peace of Israel you are to be subject to them. In all these matters do +whatsoever they bid you and observe the essentials of the law but do not +pattern after their evil works. Remember, this is the sin of these rulers: They +say that which is good, but they do it not. You well know how these leaders +bind heavy burdens on your shoulders, burdens grievous to bear, and that they +will not lift as much as one finger to help you bear these weighty burdens. +They have oppressed you with ceremonies and enslaved you by traditions. + + top of page - 1907 + +"Furthermore, these self-centered rulers delight in doing their good works so +that they will be seen by men. They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge +the borders of their official robes. They crave the chief places at the feasts +and demand the chief seats in the synagogues. They covet laudatory salutations +in the market places and desire to be called rabbi by all men. And even while +they seek all this honor from men, they secretly lay hold of widows' houses and +take profit from the services of the sacred temple. For a pretense these +hypocrites make long prayers in public and give alms to attract the notice of +their fellows. + +"While you should honor your rulers and reverence your teachers, you should +call no man Father in the spiritual sense, for there is one who is your Father, +even God. Neither should you seek to lord it over your brethren in the kingdom. +Remember, I have taught you that he who would be greatest among you should +become the server of all. If you presume to exalt yourselves before God, you +will certainly be humbled; but whoso truly humbles himself will surely be +exalted. Seek in your daily lives, not self-glorification, but the glory of +God. Intelligently subordinate your own wills to the will of the Father in +heaven. + +"Mistake not my words. I bear no malice toward these chief priests and rulers +who even now seek my destruction; I have no ill will for these scribes and +Pharisees who reject my teachings. I know that many of you believe in secret, +and I know you will openly profess your allegiance to the kingdom when my hour +comes. But how will your rabbis justify themselves since they profess to talk +with God and then presume to reject and destroy him who comes to reveal the +Father to the worlds? + +"Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You would shut the doors of +the kingdom of heaven against sincere men because they happen to be unlearned +in the ways of your teaching. You refuse to enter the kingdom and at the same +time do everything within your power to prevent all others from entering. You +stand with your backs to the doors of salvation and fight with all who would +enter therein. + +"Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! for you do +indeed encompass land and sea to make one proselyte, and when you have +succeeded, you are not content until you have made him twofold worse than he +was as a child of the heathen. + +"Woe upon you, chief priests and rulers who lay hold of the property of the +poor and demand heavy dues of those who would serve God as they think Moses +ordained! You who refuse to show mercy, can you hope for mercy in the worlds to +come? + +"Woe upon you, false teachers, blind guides! What can be expected of a nation +when the blind lead the blind? They both shall stumble into the pit of +destruction. + +"Woe upon you who dissimulate when you take an oath! You are tricksters since +you teach that a man may swear by the temple and break his oath, but that whoso +swears by the gold in the temple must remain bound. You are all fools and +blind. You are not even consistent in your dishonesty, for which is the +greater, the gold or the temple which has supposedly sanctified the gold? You +also teach that, if a man swears by the altar, it is nothing; but that, if one +swears by the gift that is upon the altar, then shall he be held as a debtor. +Again are you blind to the truth, for which is the greater, the gift or the +altar which sanctifies the gift? How can you justify such hypocrisy and +dishonesty in the sight of the God of heaven? + + top of page - 1908 + +"Woe upon you, scribes and Pharisees and all other hypocrites who make sure +that they tithe mint, anise, and cumin and at the same time disregard the +weightier matters of the law--faith, mercy, and judgment! Within reason, the +one you ought to have done but not to have left the other undone. You are truly +blind guides and dumb teachers; you strain out the gnat and swallow the camel. + +"Woe upon you, scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites! for you are scrupulous to +cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter, but within there remains the +filth of extortion, excesses, and deception. You are spiritually blind. Do you +not recognize how much better it would be first to cleanse the inside of the +cup, and then that which spills over would of itself cleanse the outside? You +wicked reprobates! you make the outward performances of your religion to +conform with the letter of your interpretation of Moses' law while your souls +are steeped in iniquity and filled with murder. + +"Woe upon all of you who reject truth and spurn mercy! Many of you are like +whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead +men's bones and all sorts of uncleanness. Even so do you who knowingly reject +the counsel of God appear outwardly to men as holy and righteous, but inwardly +your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and iniquity. + +"Woe upon you, false guides of a nation! Over yonder have you built a monument +to the martyred prophets of old, while you plot to destroy him of whom they +spoke. You garnish the tombs of the righteous and flatter yourselves that, had +you lived in the days of your fathers, you would not have killed the prophets; +and then in the face of such self-righteous thinking you make ready to slay him +of whom the prophets spoke, the Son of Man. Inasmuch as you do these things, +are you witness to yourselves that you are the wicked sons of them who slew the +prophets. Go on, then, and fill up the cup of your condemnation to the full! + +"Woe upon you, children of evil! John did truly call you the offspring of +vipers, and I ask how can you escape the judgment that John pronounced upon +you? + +"But even now I offer you in my Father's name mercy and forgiveness; even now I +proffer the loving hand of eternal fellowship. My Father has sent you the wise +men and the prophets; some you have persecuted and others you have killed. Then +appeared John proclaiming the coming of the Son of Man, and him you destroyed +after many had believed his teaching. And now you make ready to shed more +innocent blood. Do you not comprehend that a terrible day of reckoning will +come when the Judge of all the earth shall require of this people an accounting +for the way they have rejected, persecuted, and destroyed these messengers of +heaven? Do you not understand that you must account for all of this righteous +blood, from the first prophet killed down to the times of Zechariah, who was +slain between the sanctuary and the altar? And if you go on in your evil ways, +this accounting may be required of this very generation. + +"O Jerusalem and the children of Abraham, you who have stoned the prophets and +killed the teachers that were sent to you, even now would I gather your +children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you will +not! + +"And now I take leave of you. You have heard my message and have made your +decision. Those who have believed my gospel are even now safe within the +kingdom of God. To you who have chosen to reject the gift of God, I say that +you will no more see me teaching in the temple. My work for you is done. +Behold, I now go forth with my children, and your house is left to you +desolate!" + +And then the Master beckoned his followers to depart from the temple. + + top of page - 1909 + +2. STATUS OF INDIVIDUAL JEWS + +The fact that the spiritual leaders and the religious teachers of the Jewish +nation onetime rejected the teachings of Jesus and conspired to bring about his +cruel death, does not in any manner affect the status of any individual Jew in +his standing before God. And it should not cause those who profess to be +followers of the Christ to be prejudiced against the Jew as a fellow mortal. +The Jews, as a nation, as a sociopolitical group, paid in full the terrible +price of rejecting the Prince of Peace. Long since they ceased to be the +spiritual torchbearers of divine truth to the races of mankind, but this +constitutes no valid reason why the individual descendants of these long-ago +Jews should be made to suffer the persecutions which have been visited upon +them by intolerant, unworthy, and bigoted professed followers of Jesus of +Nazareth, who was, himself, a Jew by natural birth. + +Many times has this unreasoning and un-Christlike hatred and persecution of +modern Jews terminated in the suffering and death of some innocent and +unoffending Jewish individual whose very ancestors, in the times of Jesus, +heartily accepted his gospel and presently died unflinchingly for that truth +which they so wholeheartedly believed. What a shudder of horror passes over the +onlooking celestial beings as they behold the professed followers of Jesus +indulge themselves in persecuting, harassing, and even murdering the later-day +descendants of Peter, Philip, Matthew, and others of the Palestinian Jews who +so gloriously yielded up their lives as the first martyrs of the gospel of the +heavenly kingdom! + +How cruel and unreasoning to compel innocent children to suffer for the sins of +their progenitors, misdeeds of which they are wholly ignorant, and for which +they could in no way be responsible! And to do such wicked deeds in the name of +one who taught his disciples to love even their enemies! It has become +necessary, in this recital of the life of Jesus, to portray the manner in which +certain of his fellow Jews rejected him and conspired to bring about his +ignominious death; but we would warn all who read this narrative that the +presentation of such a historical recital in no way justifies the unjust +hatred, nor condones the unfair attitude of mind, which so many professed +Christians have maintained toward individual Jews for many centuries. Kingdom +believers, those who follow the teachings of Jesus, must cease to mistreat the +individual Jew as one who is guilty of the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus. +The Father and his Creator Son have never ceased to love the Jews. God is no +respecter of persons, and salvation is for the Jew as well as for the gentile. + +3. THE FATEFUL SANHEDRIN MEETING + +At eight o'clock on this Tuesday evening the fateful meeting of the Sanhedrin +was called to order. On many previous occasions had this supreme court of the +Jewish nation informally decreed the death of Jesus. Many times had this august +ruling body determined to put a stop to his work, but never before had they +resolved to place him under arrest and to bring about his death at any and all +costs. It was just before midnight on this Tuesday, April 4, A.D. 30, that the +Sanhedrin, as then constituted, officially and unanimously voted to impose the +death sentence upon both Jesus and Lazarus. This was the answer to the Master's +last appeal to the rulers of the Jews which he had made in the temple only a +few hours + + top of page - 1910 + +before, and it represented their reaction of bitter resentment toward Jesus' +last and vigorous indictment of these same chief priests and impenitent +Sadducees and Pharisees. The passing of death sentence (even before his trial) +upon the Son of God was the Sanhedrin's reply to the last offer of heavenly +mercy ever to be extended to the Jewish nation, as such. + +From this time on the Jews were left to finish their brief and short lease of +national life wholly in accordance with their purely human status among the +nations of Urantia. Israel had repudiated the Son of the God who made a +covenant with Abraham, and the plan to make the children of Abraham the +light-bearers of truth to the world had been shattered. The divine covenant had +been abrogated, and the end of the Hebrew nation drew on apace. + +The officers of the Sanhedrin were given the orders for Jesus' arrest early the +next morning, but with instructions that he must not be apprehended in public. +They were told to plan to take him in secret, preferably suddenly and at night. +Understanding that he might not return that day (Wednesday) to teach in the +temple, they instructed these officers of the Sanhedrin to "bring him before +the high Jewish court sometime before midnight on Thursday." + +4. THE SITUATION IN JERUSALEM + +At the conclusion of Jesus' last discourse in the temple, the apostles once +more were left in confusion and consternation. Before the Master began his +terrible denunciation of the Jewish rulers, Judas had returned to the temple, +so that all twelve heard this latter half of Jesus' last discourse in the +temple. It is unfortunate that Judas Iscariot could not have heard the first +and mercy-proffering half of this farewell address. He did not hear this last +offer of mercy to the Jewish rulers because he was still in conference with a +certain group of Sadducean relatives and friends with whom he had lunched, and +with whom he was conferring as to the most fitting manner of dissociating +himself from Jesus and his fellow apostles. It was while listening to the +Master's final indictment of the Jewish leaders and rulers that Judas finally +and fully made up his mind to forsake the gospel movement and wash his hands of +the whole enterprise. Nevertheless, he left the temple in company with the +twelve, went with them to Mount Olivet, where, with his fellow apostles, he +listened to that fateful discourse on the destruction of Jerusalem and the end +of the Jewish nation, and remained with them that Tuesday night at the new camp +near Gethsemane. + +The multitude who heard Jesus swing from his merciful appeal to the Jewish +leaders into that sudden and scathing rebuke which bordered on ruthless +denunciation, were stunned and bewildered. That night, while the Sanhedrin sat +in death judgment upon Jesus, and while the Master sat with his apostles and +certain of his disciples out on the Mount of Olives foretelling the death of +the Jewish nation, all Jerusalem was given over to the serious and suppressed +discussion of just one question: "What will they do with Jesus?" + +At the home of Nicodemus more than thirty prominent Jews who were secret +believers in the kingdom met and debated what course they would pursue in case +an open break with the Sanhedrin should come. All present agreed that they +would make open acknowledgment of their allegiance to the Master in the very +hour they should hear of his arrest. And that is just what they did. + + top of page - 1911 + +The Sadducees, who now controlled and dominated the Sanhedrin, were desirous of +making away with Jesus for the following reasons: + +1. They feared that the increased popular favor with which the multitude +regarded him threatened to endanger the existence of the Jewish nation by +possible involvement with the Roman authorities. + +2. His zeal for temple reform struck directly at their revenues; the cleansing +of the temple affected their pocketbooks. + +3. They felt themselves responsible for the preservation of social order, and +they feared the consequences of the further spread of Jesus' strange and new +doctrine of the brotherhood of man. + +The Pharisees had different motives for wanting to see Jesus put to death. They +feared him because: + +1. He was arrayed in telling opposition to their traditional hold upon the +people. The Pharisees were ultraconservative, and they bitterly resented these +supposedly radical attacks upon their vested prestige as religious teachers. + +2. They held that Jesus was a lawbreaker; that he had shown utter disregard for +the Sabbath and numerous other legal and ceremonial requirements. + +3. They charged him with blasphemy because he alluded to God as his Father. + +4. And now were they thoroughly angry with him because of his last discourse of +bitter denunciation which he had this day delivered in the temple as the +concluding portion of his farewell address. + +The Sanhedrin, having formally decreed the death of Jesus and having issued +orders for his arrest, adjourned on this Tuesday near midnight, after +appointing to meet at ten o'clock the next morning at the home of Caiaphas the +high priest for the purpose of formulating the charges on which Jesus should be +brought to trial. + +A small group of the Sadducees had actually proposed to dispose of Jesus by +assassination, but the Pharisees utterly refused to countenance such a +procedure. + +And this was the situation in Jerusalem and among men on this eventful day +while a vast concourse of celestial beings hovered over this momentous scene on +earth, anxious to do something to assist their beloved Sovereign but powerless +to act because they were effectively restrained by their commanding superiors. + + top of page - 1912 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Tuesday ³ Tuesday ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Morning... ³ Evening... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p176.txt b/religious documents/p176.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ecbda1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p176.txt @@ -0,0 +1,518 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 176 Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... Tuesday Evening On + Mount Olivet +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 176 Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THIS Tuesday afternoon, as Jesus and the apostles passed out of the temple on +their way to the Gethsemane camp, Matthew, calling attention to the temple +construction, said: "Master, observe what manner of buildings these are. See +the massive stones and the beautiful adornment; can it be that these buildings +are to be destroyed?" As they went on toward Olivet, Jesus said: "You see these +stones and this massive temple; verily, verily, I say to you: In the days soon +to come there shall not be left one stone upon another. They shall all be +thrown down." These remarks depicting the destruction of the sacred temple +aroused the curiosity of the apostles as they walked along behind the Master; +they could conceive of no event short of the end of the world which would +occasion the destruction of the temple. + +In order to avoid the crowds passing along the Kidron valley toward Gethsemane, +Jesus and his associates were minded to climb up the western slope of Olivet +for a short distance and then follow a trail over to their private camp near +Gethsemane located a short distance above the public camping ground. As they +turned to leave the road leading on to Bethany, they observed the temple, +glorified by the rays of the setting sun; and while they tarried on the mount, +they saw the lights of the city appear and beheld the beauty of the illuminated +temple; and there, under the mellow light of the full moon, Jesus and the +twelve sat down. The Master talked with them, and presently Nathaniel asked +this question: "Tell us, Master, how shall we know when these events are about +to come to pass?" + +1. THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM + +In answering Nathaniel's question, Jesus said: "Yes, I will tell you about the +times when this people shall have filled up the cup of their iniquity; when +justice shall swiftly descend upon this city of our fathers. I am about to +leave you; I go to the Father. After I leave you, take heed that no man deceive +you, for many will come as deliverers and will lead many astray. When you hear +of wars and rumors of wars, be not troubled, for though all these things will +happen, the end of Jerusalem is not yet at hand. You should not be perturbed by +famines or earthquakes; neither should you be concerned when you are delivered +up to the civil authorities and are persecuted for the sake of the gospel. You +will be thrown out of the synagogue and put in prison for my sake, and some of +you will be killed. When you are brought up before governors and rulers, it +shall be for a testimony of your faith and to show your steadfastness in the +gospel of the kingdom. And when you stand before judges, be not anxious +beforehand as to what you should say, for the spirit will teach you in that +very + + top of page - 1913 + +hour what you should answer your adversaries. In these days of travail, even +your own kinsfolk, under the leadership of those who have rejected the Son of +Man, will deliver you up to prison and death. For a time you may be hated by +all men for my sake, but even in these persecutions I will not forsake you; my +spirit will not desert you. Be patient! doubt not that this gospel of the +kingdom will triumph over all enemies and, eventually, be proclaimed to all +nations." + +Jesus paused while he looked down upon the city. The Master realized that the +rejection of the spiritual concept of the Messiah, the determination to cling +persistently and blindly to the material mission of the expected deliverer, +would presently bring the Jews in direct conflict with the powerful Roman +armies, and that such a contest could only result in the final and complete +overthrow of the Jewish nation. When his people rejected his spiritual bestowal +and refused to receive the light of heaven as it so mercifully shone upon them, +they thereby sealed their doom as an independent people with a special +spiritual mission on earth. Even the Jewish leaders subsequently recognized +that it was this secular idea of the Messiah which directly led to the +turbulence which eventually brought about their destruction. + +Since Jerusalem was to become the cradle of the early gospel movement, Jesus +did not want its teachers and preachers to perish in the terrible overthrow of +the Jewish people in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem; wherefore +did he give these instructions to his followers. Jesus was much concerned lest +some of his disciples become involved in these soon-coming revolts and so +perish in the downfall of Jerusalem. + +Then Andrew inquired: "But, Master, if the Holy City and the temple are to be +destroyed, and if you are not here to direct us, when should we forsake +Jerusalem?" Said Jesus: "You may remain in the city after I have gone, even +through these times of travail and bitter persecution, but when you finally see +Jerusalem being encompassed by the Roman armies after the revolt of the false +prophets, then will you know that her desolation is at hand; then must you flee +to the mountains. Let none who are in the city and around about tarry to save +aught, neither let those who are outside dare to enter therein. There will be +great tribulation, for these will be the days of gentile vengeance. And after +you have deserted the city, this disobedient people will fall by the edge of +the sword and will be led captive into all nations; and so shall Jerusalem be +trodden down by the gentiles. In the meantime, I warn you, be not deceived. If +any man comes to you, saying, `Behold, here is the Deliverer,' or `Behold, +there is he,' believe it not, for many false teachers will arise and many will +be led astray; but you should not be deceived, for I have told you all this +beforehand." + +The apostles sat in silence in the moonlight for a considerable time while +these astounding predictions of the Master sank into their bewildered minds. +And it was in conformity with this very warning that practically the entire +group of believers and disciples fled from Jerusalem upon the first appearance +of the Roman troops, finding a safe shelter in Pella to the north. + +Even after this explicit warning, many of Jesus' followers interpreted these +predictions as referring to the changes which would obviously occur in +Jerusalem when the reappearing of the Messiah would result in the establishment +of the New Jerusalem and in the enlargement of the city to become the world's +capital. In their minds these Jews were determined to connect the destruction +of the temple with the "end of the world." They believed this New Jerusalem +would fill all Palestine; that the end of the world would be followed by the +immediate + + top of page - 1914 + +appearance of the "new heavens and the new earth." And so it was not strange +that Peter should say: "Master, we know that all things will pass away when the +new heavens and the new earth appear, but how shall we know when you will +return to bring all this about?" + +When Jesus heard this, he was thoughtful for some time and then said: "You ever +err since you always try to attach the new teaching to the old; you are +determined to misunderstand all my teaching; you insist on interpreting the +gospel in accordance with your established beliefs. Nevertheless, I will try to +enlighten you." + +2. THE MASTER'S SECOND COMING + +On several occasions Jesus had made statements which led his hearers to infer +that, while he intended presently to leave this world, he would most certainly +return to consummate the work of the heavenly kingdom. As the conviction grew +on his followers that he was going to leave them, and after he had departed +from this world, it was only natural for all believers to lay fast hold upon +these promises to return. The doctrine of the second coming of Christ thus +became early incorporated into the teachings of the Christians, and almost +every subsequent generation of disciples has devoutly believed this truth and +has confidently looked forward to his sometime coming. + +If they were to part with their Master and Teacher, how much more did these +first disciples and the apostles grasp at this promise to return, and they lost +no time in associating the predicted destruction of Jerusalem with this +promised second coming. And they continued thus to interpret his words +notwithstanding that, throughout this evening of instruction on Mount Olivet, +the Master took particular pains to prevent just such a mistake. + +In further answer to Peter's question, Jesus said: "Why do you still look for +the Son of Man to sit upon the throne of David and expect that the material +dreams of the Jews will be fulfilled? Have I not told you all these years that +my kingdom is not of this world? The things which you now look down upon are +coming to an end, but this will be a new beginning out of which the gospel of +the kingdom will go to all the world and this salvation will spread to all +peoples. And when the kingdom shall have come to its full fruition, be assured +that the Father in heaven will not fail to visit you with an enlarged +revelation of truth and an enhanced demonstration of righteousness, even as he +has already bestowed upon this world him who became the prince of darkness, and +then Adam, who was followed by Melchizedek, and in these days, the Son of Man. +And so will my Father continue to manifest his mercy and show forth his love, +even to this dark and evil world. So also will I, after my Father has invested +me with all power and authority, continue to follow your fortunes and to guide +in the affairs of the kingdom by the presence of my spirit, who shall shortly +be poured out upon all flesh. Even though I shall thus be present with you in +spirit, I also promise that I will sometime return to this world, where I have +lived this life in the flesh and achieved the experience of simultaneously +revealing God to man and leading man to God. Very soon must I leave you and +take up the work the Father has intrusted to my hands, but be of good courage, +for I will sometime return. In the meantime, my Spirit of the Truth of a +universe shall comfort and guide you. + + top of page - 1915 + +"You behold me now in weakness and in the flesh, but when I return, it shall be +with power and in the spirit. The eye of flesh beholds the Son of Man in the +flesh, but only the eye of the spirit will behold the Son of Man glorified by +the Father and appearing on earth in his own name. + +"But the times of the reappearing of the Son of Man are known only in the +councils of Paradise; not even the angels of heaven know when this will occur. +However, you should understand that, when this gospel of the kingdom shall have +been proclaimed to all the world for the salvation of all peoples, and when the +fullness of the age has come to pass, the Father will send you another +dispensational bestowal, or else the Son of Man will return to adjudge the age. + +"And now concerning the travail of Jerusalem, about which I have spoken to you, +even this generation will not pass away until my words are fulfilled; but +concerning the times of the coming again of the Son of Man, no one in heaven or +on earth may presume to speak. But you should be wise regarding the ripening of +an age; you should be alert to discern the signs of the times. You know when +the fig tree shows its tender branches and puts forth its leaves that summer is +near. Likewise, when the world has passed through the long winter of +material-mindedness and you discern the coming of the spiritual springtime of a +new dispensation, should you know that the summertime of a new visitation draws +near. + +"But what is the significance of this teaching having to do with the coming of +the Sons of God? Do you not perceive that, when each of you is called to lay +down his life struggle and pass through the portal of death, you stand in the +immediate presence of judgment, and that you are face to face with the facts of +a new dispensation of service in the eternal plan of the infinite Father? What +the whole world must face as a literal fact at the end of an age, you, as +individuals, must each most certainly face as a personal experience when you +reach the end of your natural life and thereby pass on to be confronted with +the conditions and demands inherent in the next revelation of the eternal +progression of the Father's kingdom." + +Of all the discourses which the Master gave his apostles, none ever became so +confused in their minds as this one, given this Tuesday evening on the Mount of +Olives, regarding the twofold subject of the destruction of Jerusalem and his +own second coming. There was, therefore, little agreement between the +subsequent written accounts based on the memories of what the Master said on +this extraordinary occasion. Consequently, when the records were left blank +concerning much that was said that Tuesday evening, there grew up many +traditions; and very early in the second century a Jewish apocalyptic about the +Messiah written by one Selta, who was attached to the court of the Emperor +Caligula, was bodily copied into the Matthew Gospel and subsequently added (in +part) to the Mark and Luke records. It was in these writings of Selta that the +parable of the ten virgins appeared. No part of the gospel record ever suffered +such confusing misconstruction as this evening's teaching. But the Apostle John +never became thus confused. + +As these thirteen men resumed their journey toward the camp, they were +speechless and under great emotional tension. Judas had finally confirmed his +decision to abandon his associates. It was a late hour when David Zebedee, John +Mark, and a number of the leading disciples welcomed Jesus and the twelve to +the new camp, but the apostles did not want to sleep; they wanted to know more +about the destruction of Jerusalem, the Master's departure, and the end of the +world. + + top of page - 1916 + +3. LATER DISCUSSION AT THE CAMP + +As they gathered about the campfire, some twenty of them, Thomas asked: "Since +you are to return to finish the work of the kingdom, what should be our +attitude while you are away on the Father's business?" As Jesus looked them +over by the firelight, he answered: + +"And even you, Thomas, fail to comprehend what I have been saying. Have I not +all this time taught you that your connection with the kingdom is spiritual and +individual, wholly a matter of personal experience in the spirit by the +faith-realization that you are a son of God? What more shall I say? The +downfall of nations, the crash of empires, the destruction of the unbelieving +Jews, the end of an age, even the end of the world, what have these things to +do with one who believes this gospel, and who has hid his life in the surety of +the eternal kingdom? You who are God-knowing and gospel-believing have already +received the assurances of eternal life. Since your lives have been lived in +the spirit and for the Father, nothing can be of serious concern to you. +Kingdom builders, the accredited citizens of the heavenly worlds, are not to be +disturbed by temporal upheavals or perturbed by terrestrial cataclysms. What +does it matter to you who believe this gospel of the kingdom if nations +overturn, the age ends, or all things visible crash, since you know that your +life is the gift of the Son, and that it is eternally secure in the Father? +Having lived the temporal life by faith and having yielded the fruits of the +spirit as the righteousness of loving service for your fellows, you can +confidently look forward to the next step in the eternal career with the same +survival faith that has carried you through your first and earthly adventure in +sonship with God. + +"Each generation of believers should carry on their work, in view of the +possible return of the Son of Man, exactly as each individual believer carries +forward his lifework in view of inevitable and ever-impending natural death. +When you have by faith once established yourself as a son of God, nothing else +matters as regards the surety of survival. But make no mistake! this survival +faith is a living faith, and it increasingly manifests the fruits of that +divine spirit which first inspired it in the human heart. That you have once +accepted sonship in the heavenly kingdom will not save you in the face of the +knowing and persistent rejection of those truths which have to do with the +progressive spiritual fruit-bearing of the sons of God in the flesh. You who +have been with me in the Father's business on earth can even now desert the +kingdom if you find that you love not the way of the Father's service for +mankind. + +"As individuals, and as a generation of believers, hear me while I speak a +parable: There was a certain great man who, before starting out on a long +journey to another country, called all his trusted servants before him and +delivered into their hands all his goods. To one he gave five talents, to +another two, and to another one. And so on down through the entire group of +honored stewards, to each he intrusted his goods according to their several +abilities; and then he set out on his journey. When their lord had departed, +his servants set themselves at work to gain profits from the wealth intrusted +to them. Immediately he who had received five talents began to trade with them +and very soon had made a profit of another five talents. In like manner he who +had received two talents soon had gained two more. And so did all of these +servants make gains for their master + + top of page - 1917 + +except he who received but one talent. He went away by himself and dug a hole +in the earth where he hid his lord's money. Presently the lord of those +servants unexpectedly returned and called upon his stewards for a reckoning. +And when they had all been called before their master, he who had received the +five talents came forward with the money which had been intrusted to him and +brought five additional talents, saying, `Lord, you gave me five talents to +invest, and I am glad to present five other talents as my gain.' And then his +lord said to him: `Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful +over a few things; I will now set you as steward over many; enter forthwith +into the joy of your lord.' And then he who had received the two talents came +forward, saying: `Lord, you delivered into my hands two talents; behold, I have +gained these other two talents.' And his lord then said to him: `Well done, +good and faithful steward; you also have been faithful over a few things, and I +will now set you over many; enter you into the joy of your lord.' And then +there came to the accounting he who had received the one talent. This servant +came forward, saying, `Lord, I knew you and realized that you were a shrewd man +in that you expected gains where you had not personally labored; therefore was +I afraid to risk aught of that which was intrusted to me. I safely hid your +talent in the earth; here it is; you now have what belongs to you.' But his +lord answered: `You are an indolent and slothful steward. By your own words you +confess that you knew I would require of you an accounting with reasonable +profit, such as your diligent fellow servants have this day rendered. Knowing +this, you ought, therefore, to have at least put my money into the hands of the +bankers that on my return I might have received my own with interest.' And then +to the chief steward this lord said: `Take away this one talent from this +unprofitable servant and give it to him who has the ten talents.' + +"To every one who has, more shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but +from him who has not, even that which he has shall be taken away. You cannot +stand still in the affairs of the eternal kingdom. My Father requires all his +children to grow in grace and in a knowledge of the truth. You who know these +truths must yield the increase of the fruits of the spirit and manifest a +growing devotion to the unselfish service of your fellow servants. And remember +that, inasmuch as you minister to one of the least of my brethren, you have +done this service to me. + +"And so should you go about the work of the Father's business, now and +henceforth, even forevermore. Carry on until I come. In faithfulness do that +which is intrusted to you, and thereby shall you be ready for the reckoning +call of death. And having thus lived for the glory of the Father and the +satisfaction of the Son, you shall enter with joy and exceedingly great +pleasure into the eternal service of the everlasting kingdom." + +Truth is living; the Spirit of Truth is ever leading the children of light into +new realms of spiritual reality and divine service. You are not given truth to +crystallize into settled, safe, and honored forms. Your revelation of truth +must be so enhanced by passing through your personal experience that new beauty +and actual spiritual gains will be disclosed to all who behold your spiritual +fruits and in consequence thereof are led to glorify the Father who is in +heaven. Only those faithful servants who thus grow in the knowledge of the +truth, and who thereby develop the capacity for divine appreciation of +spiritual realities, can ever hope to "enter fully into the joy of their Lord." +What a sorry sight for + + top of page - 1918 + +successive generations of the professed followers of Jesus to say, regarding +their stewardship of divine truth: "Here, Master, is the truth you committed to +us a hundred or a thousand years ago. We have lost nothing; we have faithfully +preserved all you gave us; we have allowed no changes to be made in that which +you taught us; here is the truth you gave us." But such a plea concerning +spiritual indolence will not justify the barren steward of truth in the +presence of the Master. In accordance with the truth committed to your hands +will the Master of truth require a reckoning. + +In the next world you will be asked to give an account of the endowments and +stewardships of this world. Whether inherent talents are few or many, a just +and merciful reckoning must be faced. If endowments are used only in selfish +pursuits and no thought is bestowed upon the higher duty of obtaining increased +yield of the fruits of the spirit, as they are manifested in the ever-expanding +service of men and the worship of God, such selfish stewards must accept the +consequences of their deliberate choosing. + +And how much like all selfish mortals was this unfaithful servant with the one +talent in that he blamed his slothfulness directly upon his lord. How prone is +man, when he is confronted with the failures of his own making, to put the +blame upon others, oftentimes upon those who least deserve it! + +Said Jesus that night as they went to their rest: "Freely have you received; +therefore freely should you give of the truth of heaven, and in the giving will +this truth multiply and show forth the increasing light of saving grace, even +as you minister it." + +4. THE RETURN OF MICHAEL + +Of all the Master's teachings no one phase has been so misunderstood as his +promise sometime to come back in person to this world. It is not strange that +Michael should be interested in sometime returning to the planet whereon he +experienced his seventh and last bestowal, as a mortal of the realm. It is only +natural to believe that Jesus of Nazareth, now sovereign ruler of a vast +universe, would be interested in coming back, not only once but even many +times, to the world whereon he lived such a unique life and finally won for +himself the Father's unlimited bestowal of universe power and authority. +Urantia will eternally be one of the seven nativity spheres of Michael in the +winning of universe sovereignty. + +Jesus did, on numerous occasions and to many individuals, declare his intention +of returning to this world. As his followers awakened to the fact that their +Master was not going to function as a temporal deliverer, and as they listened +to his predictions of the overthrow of Jerusalem and the downfall of the Jewish +nation, they most naturally began to associate his promised return with these +catastrophic events. But when the Roman armies leveled the walls of Jerusalem, +destroyed the temple, and dispersed the Judean Jews, and still the Master did +not reveal himself in power and glory, his followers began the formulation of +that belief which eventually associated the second coming of Christ with the +end of the age, even with the end of the world. + +Jesus promised to do two things after he had ascended to the Father, and after +all power in heaven and on earth had been placed in his hands. He promised, +first, to send into the world, and in his stead, another teacher, the Spirit of +Truth; and this he did on the day of Pentecost. Second, he most certainly +promised his followers that he would sometime personally return to this world. +But he did + + top of page - 1919 + +not say how, where, or when he would revisit this planet of his bestowal +experience in the flesh. On one occasion he intimated that, whereas the eye of +flesh had beheld him when he lived here in the flesh, on his return (at least +on one of his possible visits) he would be discerned only by the eye of +spiritual faith. + +Many of us are inclined to believe that Jesus will return to Urantia many times +during the ages to come. We do not have his specific promise to make these +plural visits, but it seems most probable that he who carries among his +universe titles that of Planetary Prince of Urantia will many times visit the +world whose conquest conferred such a unique title upon him. + +We most positively believe that Michael will again come in person to Urantia, +but we have not the slightest idea as to when or in what manner he may choose +to come. Will his second advent on earth be timed to occur in connection with +the terminal judgment of this present age, either with or without the +associated appearance of a Magisterial Son? Will he come in connection with the +termination of some subsequent Urantian age? Will he come unannounced and as an +isolated event? We do not know. Only one thing we are certain of, that is, when +he does return, all the world will likely know about it, for he must come as +the supreme ruler of a universe and not as the obscure babe of Bethlehem. But +if every eye is to behold him, and if only spiritual eyes are to discern his +presence, then must his advent be long deferred. + +You would do well, therefore, to disassociate the Master's personal return to +earth from any and all set events or settled epochs. We are sure of only one +thing: He has promised to come back. We have no idea as to when he will fulfill +this promise or in what connection. As far as we know, he may appear on earth +any day, and he may not come until age after age has passed and been duly +adjudicated by his associated Sons of the Paradise corps. + +The second advent of Michael on earth is an event of tremendous sentimental +value to both midwayers and humans; but otherwise it is of no immediate moment +to midwayers and of no more practical importance to human beings than the +common event of natural death, which so suddenly precipitates mortal man into +the immediate grasp of that succession of universe events which leads directly +to the presence of this same Jesus, the sovereign ruler of our universe. The +children of light are all destined to see him, and it is of no serious concern +whether we go to him or whether he should chance first to come to us. Be you +therefore ever ready to welcome him on earth as he stands ready to welcome you +in heaven. We confidently look for his glorious appearing, even for repeated +comings, but we are wholly ignorant as to how, when, or in what connection he +is destined to appear. + + top of page - 1920 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Last ³ Wednesday, The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Temple... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p177.txt b/religious documents/p177.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0a143c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p177.txt @@ -0,0 +1,544 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 177 Wednesday, The Rest Day + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... Wednesday, The Rest + Day +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 177 Wednesday, The Rest Day + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +WHEN the work of teaching the people did not press them, it was the custom of +Jesus and his apostles to rest from their labors each Wednesday. On this +particular Wednesday they ate breakfast somewhat later than usual, and the camp +was pervaded by an ominous silence; little was said during the first half of +this morning meal. At last Jesus spoke: "I desire that you rest today. Take +time to think over all that has happened since we came to Jerusalem and +meditate on what is just ahead, of which I have plainly told you. Make sure +that the truth abides in your lives, and that you daily grow in grace." + +After breakfast the Master informed Andrew that he intended to be absent for +the day and suggested that the apostles be permitted to spend the time in +accordance with their own choosing, except that under no circumstances should +they go within the gates of Jerusalem. + +When Jesus made ready to go into the hills alone, David Zebedee accosted him, +saying: "You well know, Master, that the Pharisees and rulers seek to destroy +you, and yet you make ready to go alone into the hills. To do this is folly; I +will therefore send three men with you well prepared to see that no harm +befalls you." Jesus looked over the three well-armed and stalwart Galileans and +said to David: "You mean well, but you err in that you fail to understand that +the Son of Man needs no one to defend him. No man will lay hands on me until +that hour when I am ready to lay down my life in conformity to my Father's +will. These men may not accompany me. I desire to go alone, that I may commune +with the Father." + +Upon hearing these words, David and his armed guards withdrew; but as Jesus +started off alone, John Mark came forward with a small basket containing food +and water and suggested that, if he intended to be away all day, he might find +himself hungry. The Master smiled on John and reached down to take the basket. + +1. ONE DAY ALONE WITH GOD + +As Jesus was about to take the lunch basket from John's hand, the young man +ventured to say: "But, Master, you may set the basket down while you turn aside +to pray and go on without it. Besides, if I should go along to carry the lunch, +you would be more free to worship, and I will surely be silent. I will ask no +questions and will stay by the basket when you go apart by yourself to pray." + +While making this speech, the temerity of which astonished some of the near-by +listeners, John had made bold to hold on to the basket. There they stood, both +John and Jesus holding the basket. Presently the Master let go and, looking + + top of page - 1921 + +down on the lad, said: "Since with all your heart you crave to go with me, it +shall not be denied you. We will go off by ourselves and have a good visit. You +may ask me any question that arises in your heart, and we will comfort and +console each other. You may start out carrying the lunch, and when you grow +weary, I will help you. Follow on with me." + +Jesus did not return to the camp that evening until after sunset. The Master +spent this last day of quiet on earth visiting with this truth-hungry youth and +talking with his Paradise Father. This event has become known on high as "the +day which a young man spent with God in the hills." Forever this occasion +exemplifies the willingness of the Creator to fellowship the creature. Even a +youth, if the desire of the heart is really supreme, can command the attention +and enjoy the loving companionship of the God of a universe, actually +experience the unforgettable ecstasy of being alone with God in the hills, and +for a whole day. And such was the unique experience of John Mark on this +Wednesday in the hills of Judea. + +Jesus visited much with John, talking freely about the affairs of this world +and the next. John told Jesus how much he regretted that he had not been old +enough to be one of the apostles and expressed his great appreciation that he +had been permitted to follow on with them since their first preaching at the +Jordan ford near Jericho, except for the trip to Phoenicia. Jesus warned the +lad not to become discouraged by impending events and assured him he would live +to become a mighty messenger of the kingdom. + +John Mark was thrilled by the memory of this day with Jesus in the hills, but +he never forgot the Master's final admonition, spoken just as they were about +to return to the Gethsemane camp, when he said: "Well, John, we have had a good +visit, a real day of rest, but see to it that you tell no man the things which +I told you." And John Mark never did reveal anything that transpired on this +day which he spent with Jesus in the hills. + +Throughout the few remaining hours of Jesus' earth life John Mark never +permitted the Master for long to get out of his sight. Always was the lad in +hiding near by; he slept only when Jesus slept. + +2. EARLY HOME LIFE + +In the course of this day's visiting with John Mark, Jesus spent considerable +time comparing their early childhood and later boyhood experiences. Although +John's parents possessed more of this world's goods than had Jesus' parents, +there was much experience in their boyhood which was very similar. Jesus said +many things which helped John better to understand his parents and other +members of his family. When the lad asked the Master how he could know that he +would turn out to be a "mighty messenger of the kingdom," Jesus said: + +"I know you will prove loyal to the gospel of the kingdom because I can depend +upon your present faith and love when these qualities are grounded upon such an +early training as has been your portion at home. You are the product of a home +where the parents bear each other a sincere affection, and therefore you have +not been overloved so as injuriously to exalt your concept of self-importance. +Neither has your personality suffered distortion in consequence of your +parents' loveless maneuvering for your confidence and loyalty, the one against +the other. You have enjoyed that parental love which insures laudable +self-confidence and which fosters normal feelings of security. But + + top of page - 1922 + +you have also been fortunate in that your parents possessed wisdom as well as +love; and it was wisdom which led them to withhold most forms of indulgence and +many luxuries which wealth can buy while they sent you to the synagogue school +along with your neighborhood playfellows, and they also encouraged you to learn +how to live in this world by permitting you to have original experience. You +came over to the Jordan, where we preached and John's disciples baptized, with +your young friend Amos. Both of you desired to go with us. When you returned to +Jerusalem, your parents consented; Amos's parents refused; they loved their son +so much that they denied him the blessed experience which you have had, even +such as you this day enjoy. By running away from home, Amos could have joined +us, but in so doing he would have wounded love and sacrificed loyalty. Even if +such a course had been wise, it would have been a terrible price to pay for +experience, independence, and liberty. Wise parents, such as yours, see to it +that their children do not have to wound love or stifle loyalty in order to +develop independence and enjoy invigorating liberty when they have grown up to +your age. + +"Love, John, is the supreme reality of the universe when bestowed by all-wise +beings, but it is a dangerous and oftentimes semiselfish trait as it is +manifested in the experience of mortal parents. When you get married and have +children of your own to rear, make sure that your love is admonished by wisdom +and guided by intelligence. + +"Your young friend Amos believes this gospel of the kingdom just as much as +you, but I cannot fully depend upon him; I am not certain about what he will do +in the years to come. His early home life was not such as would produce a +wholly dependable person. Amos is too much like one of the apostles who failed +to enjoy a normal, loving, and wise home training. Your whole afterlife will be +more happy and dependable because you spent your first eight years in a normal +and well-regulated home. You possess a strong and well-knit character because +you grew up in a home where love prevailed and wisdom reigned. Such a childhood +training produces a type of loyalty which assures me that you will go through +with the course you have begun." + +For more than an hour Jesus and John continued this discussion of home life. +The Master went on to explain to John how a child is wholly dependent on his +parents and the associated home life for all his early concepts of everything +intellectual, social, moral, and even spiritual since the family represents to +the young child all that he can first know of either human or divine +relationships. The child must derive his first impressions of the universe from +the mother's care; he is wholly dependent on the earthly father for his first +ideas of the heavenly Father. The child's subsequent life is made happy or +unhappy, easy or difficult, in accordance with his early mental and emotional +life, conditioned by these social and spiritual relationships of the home. A +human being's entire afterlife is enormously influenced by what happens during +the first few years of existence. + +It is our sincere belief that the gospel of Jesus' teaching, founded as it is +on the father-child relationship, can hardly enjoy a world-wide acceptance +until such a time as the home life of the modern civilized peoples embraces +more of love and more of wisdom. Notwithstanding that parents of the twentieth +century possess great knowledge and increased truth for improving the home and +ennobling the home life, it remains a fact that very few modern homes are such + + top of page - 1923 + +good places in which to nurture boys and girls as Jesus' home in Galilee and +John Mark's home in Judea, albeit the acceptance of Jesus' gospel will result +in the immediate improvement of home life. The love life of a wise home and the +loyal devotion of true religion exert a profound reciprocal influence upon each +other. Such a home life enhances religion, and genuine religion always +glorifies the home. + +It is true that many of the objectionable stunting influences and other +cramping features of these olden Jewish homes have been virtually eliminated +from many of the better-regulated modern homes. There is, indeed, more +spontaneous freedom and far more personal liberty, but this liberty is not +restrained by love, motivated by loyalty, nor directed by the intelligent +discipline of wisdom. As long as we teach the child to pray, "Our Father who is +in heaven," a tremendous responsibility rests upon all earthly fathers so to +live and order their homes that the word father becomes worthily enshrined in +the minds and hearts of all growing children. + +3. THE DAY AT CAMP + +The apostles spent most of this day walking about on Mount Olivet and visiting +with the disciples who were encamped with them, but early in the afternoon they +became very desirous of seeing Jesus return. As the day wore on, they grew +increasingly anxious about his safety; they felt inexpressibly lonely without +him. There was much debating throughout the day as to whether the Master should +have been allowed to go off by himself in the hills, accompanied only by an +errand boy. Though no man openly so expressed his thoughts, there was not one +of them, save Judas Iscariot, who did not wish himself in John Mark's place. + +It was about midafternoon when Nathaniel made his speech on "Supreme Desire" to +about half a dozen of the apostles and as many disciples, the ending of which +was: "What is wrong with most of us is that we are only halfhearted. We fail to +love the Master as he loves us. If we had all wanted to go with him as much as +John Mark did, he would surely have taken us all. We stood by while the lad +approached the Master and offered him the basket, but when the Master took hold +of it, the lad would not let go. And so the Master left us here while he went +off to the hills with basket, boy, and all." + +About four o'clock, runners came to David Zebedee bringing him word from his +mother at Bethsaida and from Jesus' mother. Several days previously David had +made up his mind that the chief priests and rulers were going to kill Jesus. +David knew they were determined to destroy the Master, and he was about +convinced that Jesus would neither exert his divine power to save himself nor +permit his followers to employ force in his defense. Having reached these +conclusions, he lost no time in dispatching a messenger to his mother, urging +her to come at once to Jerusalem and to bring Mary the mother of Jesus and +every member of his family. + +David's mother did as her son requested, and now the runners came back to David +bringing the word that his mother and Jesus' entire family were on the way to +Jerusalem and should arrive sometime late on the following day or very early +the next morning. Since David did this on his own initiative, he thought it +wise to keep the matter to himself. He told no one, therefore, that Jesus' +family was on the way to Jerusalem. + + top of page - 1924 + +Shortly after noon, more than twenty of the Greeks who had met with Jesus and +the twelve at the home of Joseph of Arimathea arrived at the camp, and Peter +and John spent several hours in conference with them. These Greeks, at least +some of them, were well advanced in the knowledge of the kingdom, having been +instructed by Rodan at Alexandria. + +That evening, after returning to the camp, Jesus visited with the Greeks, and +had it not been that such a course would have greatly disturbed his apostles +and many of his leading disciples, he would have ordained these twenty Greeks, +even as he had the seventy. + +While all of this was going on at the camp, in Jerusalem the chief priests and +elders were amazed that Jesus did not return to address the multitudes. True, +the day before, when he left the temple, he had said, "I leave your house to +you desolate." But they could not understand why he would be willing to forego +the great advantage which he had built up in the friendly attitude of the +crowds. While they feared he would stir up a tumult among the people, the +Master's last words to the multitude had been an exhortation to conform in +every reasonable manner with the authority of those "who sit in Moses' seat." +But it was a busy day in the city as they simultaneously prepared for the +Passover and perfected their plans for destroying Jesus. + +Not many people came to the camp, for its establishment had been kept a +well-guarded secret by all who knew that Jesus was expecting to stay there in +place of going out to Bethany every night. + +4. JUDAS AND THE CHIEF PRIESTS + +Shortly after Jesus and John Mark left the camp, Judas Iscariot disappeared +from among his brethren, not returning until late in the afternoon. This +confused and discontented apostle, notwithstanding his Master's specific +request to refrain from entering Jerusalem, went in haste to keep his +appointment with Jesus' enemies at the home of Caiaphas the high priest. This +was an informal meeting of the Sanhedrin and had been appointed for shortly +after 10 o'clock that morning. This meeting was called to discuss the nature of +the charges which should be lodged against Jesus and to decide upon the +procedure to be employed in bringing him before the Roman authorities for the +purpose of securing the necessary civil confirmation of the death sentence +which they had already passed upon him. + +On the preceding day Judas had disclosed to some of his relatives and to +certain Sadducean friends of his father's family that he had reached the +conclusion that, while Jesus was a well-meaning dreamer and idealist, he was +not the expected deliverer of Israel. Judas stated that he would very much like +to find some way of withdrawing gracefully from the whole movement. His friends +flatteringly assured him that his withdrawal would be hailed by the Jewish +rulers as a great event, and that nothing would be too good for him. They led +him to believe that he would forthwith receive high honors from the Sanhedrin, +and that he would at last be in a position to erase the stigma of his +well-meant but "unfortunate association with untaught Galileans." + +Judas could not quite believe that the mighty works of the Master had been +wrought by the power of the prince of devils, but he was now fully convinced + + top of page - 1925 + +that Jesus would not exert his power in self-aggrandizement; he was at last +convinced that Jesus would allow himself to be destroyed by the Jewish rulers, +and he could not endure the humiliating thought of being identified with a +movement of defeat. He refused to entertain the idea of apparent failure. He +thoroughly understood the sturdy character of his Master and the keenness of +that majestic and merciful mind, yet he derived pleasure from even the partial +entertainment of the suggestion of one of his relatives that Jesus, while he +was a well-meaning fanatic, was probably not really sound of mind; that he had +always appeared to be a strange and misunderstood person. + +And now, as never before, Judas found himself becoming strangely resentful that +Jesus had never assigned him a position of greater honor. All along he had +appreciated the honor of being the apostolic treasurer, but now he began to +feel that he was not appreciated; that his abilities were unrecognized. He was +suddenly overcome with indignation that Peter, James, and John should have been +honored with close association with Jesus, and at this time, when he was on the +way to the high priest's home, he was bent on getting even with Peter, James, +and John more than he was concerned with any thought of betraying Jesus. But +over and above all, just then, a new and dominating thought began to occupy the +forefront of his conscious mind: He had set out to get honor for himself, and +if this could be secured simultaneously with getting even with those who had +contributed to the greatest disappointment of his life, all the better. He was +seized with a terrible conspiracy of confusion, pride, desperation, and +determination. And so it must be plain that it was not for money that Judas was +then on his way to the home of Caiaphas to arrange for the betrayal of Jesus. + +As Judas approached the home of Caiaphas, he arrived at the final decision to +abandon Jesus and his fellow apostles; and having thus made up his mind to +desert the cause of the kingdom of heaven, he was determined to secure for +himself as much as possible of that honor and glory which he had thought would +sometime be his when he first identified himself with Jesus and the new gospel +of the kingdom. All of the apostles once shared this ambition with Judas, but +as time passed they learned to admire truth and to love Jesus, at least more +than did Judas. + +The traitor was presented to Caiaphas and the Jewish rulers by his cousin, who +explained that Judas, having discovered his mistake in allowing himself to be +misled by the subtle teaching of Jesus, had arrived at the place where he +wished to make public and formal renunciation of his association with the +Galilean and at the same time to ask for reinstatement in the confidence and +fellowship of his Judean brethren. This spokesman for Judas went on to explain +that Judas recognized it would be best for the peace of Israel if Jesus should +be taken into custody, and that, as evidence of his sorrow in having +participated in such a movement of error and as proof of his sincerity in now +returning to the teachings of Moses, he had come to offer himself to the +Sanhedrin as one who could so arrange with the captain holding the orders for +Jesus' arrest that he could be taken into custody quietly, thus avoiding any +danger of stirring up the multitudes or the necessity of postponing his arrest +until after the Passover. + +When his cousin had finished speaking, he presented Judas, who, stepping +forward near the high priest, said: "All that my cousin has promised, I will +do, but what are you willing to give me for this service?" Judas did not seem +to discern the look of disdain and even disgust that came over the face of the + + top of page - 1926 + +hardhearted and vainglorious Caiaphas; his heart was too much set on self-glory +and the craving for the satisfaction of self-exaltation. + +And then Caiaphas looked down upon the betrayer while he said: "Judas, you go +to the captain of the guard and arrange with that officer to bring your Master +to us either tonight or tomorrow night, and when he has been delivered by you +into our hands, you shall receive your reward for this service." When Judas +heard this, he went forth from the presence of the chief priests and rulers and +took counsel with the captain of the temple guards as to the manner in which +Jesus was to be apprehended. Judas knew that Jesus was then absent from the +camp and had no idea when he would return that evening, and so they agreed +among themselves to arrest Jesus the next evening (Thursday) after the people +of Jerusalem and all of the visiting pilgrims had retired for the night. + +Judas returned to his associates at the camp intoxicated with thoughts of +grandeur and glory such as he had not had for many a day. He had enlisted with +Jesus hoping some day to become a great man in the new kingdom. He at last +realized that there was to be no new kingdom such as he had anticipated. But he +rejoiced in being so sagacious as to trade off his disappointment in failing to +achieve glory in an anticipated new kingdom for the immediate realization of +honor and reward in the old order, which he now believed would survive, and +which he was certain would destroy Jesus and all that he stood for. In its last +motive of conscious intention, Judas's betrayal of Jesus was the cowardly act +of a selfish deserter whose only thought was his own safety and glorification, +no matter what might be the results of his conduct upon his Master and upon his +former associates. + +But it was ever just that way. Judas had long been engaged in this deliberate, +persistent, selfish, and vengeful consciousness of progressively building up in +his mind, and entertaining in his heart, these hateful and evil desires of +revenge and disloyalty. Jesus loved and trusted Judas even as he loved and +trusted the other apostles, but Judas failed to develop loyal trust and to +experience wholehearted love in return. And how dangerous ambition can become +when it is once wholly wedded to self-seeking and supremely motivated by sullen +and long-suppressed vengeance! What a crushing thing is disappointment in the +lives of those foolish persons who, in fastening their gaze on the shadowy and +evanescent allurements of time, become blinded to the higher and more real +achievements of the everlasting attainments of the eternal worlds of divine +values and true spiritual realities. Judas craved worldly honor in his mind and +grew to love this desire with his whole heart; the other apostles likewise +craved this same worldly honor in their minds, but with their hearts they loved +Jesus and were doing their best to learn to love the truths which he taught +them. + +Judas did not realize it at this time, but he had been a subconscious critic of +Jesus ever since John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod. Deep down in his heart +Judas always resented the fact that Jesus did not save John. You should not +forget that Judas had been a disciple of John before he became a follower of +Jesus. And all these accumulations of human resentment and bitter +disappointment which Judas had laid by in his soul in habiliments of hate were +now well organized in his subconscious mind and ready to spring up to engulf +him when he once dared to separate himself from the supporting influence of his +brethren while at the same time exposing himself to the clever insinuations and +subtle ridicule of the enemies of Jesus. Every time Judas allowed his hopes to +soar high and Jesus would do or say something to dash them to pieces, + + top of page - 1927 + +there was always left in Judas's heart a scar of bitter resentment; and as +these scars multiplied, presently that heart, so often wounded, lost all real +affection for the one who had inflicted this distasteful experience upon a +well-intentioned but cowardly and self-centered personality. Judas did not +realize it, but he was a coward. Accordingly was he always inclined to assign +to Jesus cowardice as the motive which led him so often to refuse to grasp for +power or glory when they were apparently within his easy reach. And every +mortal man knows full well how love, even when once genuine, can, through +disappointment, jealousy, and long-continued resentment, be eventually turned +into actual hate. + +At last the chief priests and elders could breathe easily for a few hours. They +would not have to arrest Jesus in public, and the securing of Judas as a +traitorous ally insured that Jesus would not escape from their jurisdiction as +he had so many times in the past. + +5. THE LAST SOCIAL HOUR + +Since it was Wednesday, this evening at the camp was a social hour. The Master +endeavored to cheer his downcast apostles, but that was well-nigh impossible. +They were all beginning to realize that disconcerting and crushing events were +impending. They could not be cheerful, even when the Master recounted their +years of eventful and loving association. Jesus made careful inquiry about the +families of all of the apostles and, looking over toward David Zebedee, asked +if anyone had heard recently from his mother, his youngest sister, or other +members of his family. David looked down at his feet; he was afraid to answer. + +This was the occasion of Jesus' warning his followers to beware of the support +of the multitude. He recounted their experiences in Galilee when time and again +great throngs of people enthusiastically followed them around and then just as +ardently turned against them and returned to their former ways of believing and +living. And then he said: "And so you must not allow yourselves to be deceived +by the great crowds who heard us in the temple, and who seemed to believe our +teachings. These multitudes listen to the truth and believe it superficially +with their minds, but few of them permit the word of truth to strike down into +the heart with living roots. Those who know the gospel only in the mind, and +who have not experienced it in the heart, cannot be depended upon for support +when real trouble comes. When the rulers of the Jews reach an agreement to +destroy the Son of Man, and when they strike with one accord, you will see the +multitude either flee in dismay or else stand by in silent amazement while +these maddened and blinded rulers lead the teachers of the gospel truth to +their death. And then, when adversity and persecution descend upon you, still +others whom you think love the truth will be scattered, and some will renounce +the gospel and desert you. Some who have been very close to us have already +made up their minds to desert. You have rested today in preparation for those +times which are now upon us. Watch, therefore, and pray that on the morrow you +may be strengthened for the days that are just ahead." + +The atmosphere of the camp was charged with an inexplicable tension. Silent +messengers came and went, communicating with only David Zebedee. Before the +evening had passed, certain ones knew that Lazarus had taken hasty flight from +Bethany. John Mark was ominously silent after returning to camp, +notwithstanding he had spent the whole day in the Master's company. Every +effort + + top of page - 1928 + +to persuade him to talk only indicated clearly that Jesus had told him not to +talk. + +Even the Master's good cheer and his unusual sociability frightened them. They +all felt the certain drawing upon them of the terrible isolation which they +realized was about to descend with crashing suddenness and inescapable terror. +They vaguely sensed what was coming, and none felt prepared to face the test. +The Master had been away all day; they had missed him tremendously. + +This Wednesday evening was the low-tide mark of their spiritual status up to +the actual hour of the Master's death. Although the next day was one more day +nearer the tragic Friday, still, he was with them, and they passed through its +anxious hours more gracefully. + +It was just before midnight when Jesus, knowing this would be the last night he +would ever sleep through with his chosen family on earth, said, as he dispersed +them for the night: "Go to your sleep, my brethren, and peace be upon you till +we rise on the morrow, one more day to do the Father's will and experience the +joy of knowing that we are his sons." + + top of page - 1929 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Tuesday ³ Last Day At ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Evening... ³ The... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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Last Day At The Camp +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 178 Last Day At The Camp + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +JESUS planned to spend this Thursday, his last free day on earth as a divine +Son incarnated in the flesh, with his apostles and a few loyal and devoted +disciples. Soon after the breakfast hour on this beautiful morning, the Master +led them to a secluded spot a short distance above their camp and there taught +them many new truths. Although Jesus delivered other discourses to the apostles +during the early evening hours of the day, this talk of Thursday forenoon was +his farewell address to the combined camp group of apostles and chosen +disciples, both Jews and gentiles. The twelve were all present save Judas. +Peter and several of the apostles remarked about his absence, and some of them +thought Jesus had sent him into the city to attend to some matter, probably to +arrange the details of their forthcoming celebration of the Passover. Judas did +not return to the camp until midafternoon, a short time before Jesus led the +twelve into Jerusalem to partake of the Last Supper. + +1. DISCOURSE ON SONSHIP AND CITIZENSHIP + +Jesus talked to about fifty of his trusted followers for almost two hours and +answered a score of questions regarding the relation of the kingdom of heaven +to the kingdoms of this world, concerning the relation of sonship with God to +citizenship in earthly governments. This discourse, together with his answers +to questions, may be summarized and restated in modern language as follows: + +The kingdoms of this world, being material, may often find it necessary to +employ physical force in the execution of their laws and for the maintenance of +order. In the kingdom of heaven true believers will not resort to the +employment of physical force. The kingdom of heaven, being a spiritual +brotherhood of the spirit-born sons of God, may be promulgated only by the +power of the spirit. This distinction of procedure refers to the relations of +the kingdom of believers to the kingdoms of secular government and does not +nullify the right of social groups of believers to maintain order in their +ranks and administer discipline upon unruly and unworthy members. + +There is nothing incompatible between sonship in the spiritual kingdom and +citizenship in the secular or civil government. It is the believer's duty to +render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's and to God the things which are +God's. There cannot be any disagreement between these two requirements, the one +being material and the other spiritual, unless it should develop that a Caesar +presumes to usurp the prerogatives of God and demand that spiritual homage and +supreme worship be rendered to him. In such a case you shall worship + + top of page - 1930 + +only God while you seek to enlighten such misguided earthly rulers and in this +way lead them also to the recognition of the Father in heaven. You shall not +render spiritual worship to earthly rulers; neither should you employ the +physical forces of earthly governments, whose rulers may sometime become +believers, in the work of furthering the mission of the spiritual kingdom. + +Sonship in the kingdom, from the standpoint of advancing civilization, should +assist you in becoming the ideal citizens of the kingdoms of this world since +brotherhood and service are the cornerstones of the gospel of the kingdom. The +love call of the spiritual kingdom should prove to be the effective destroyer +of the hate urge of the unbelieving and war-minded citizens of the earthly +kingdoms. But these material-minded sons in darkness will never know of your +spiritual light of truth unless you draw very near them with that unselfish +social service which is the natural outgrowth of the bearing of the fruits of +the spirit in the life experience of each individual believer. + +As mortal and material men, you are indeed citizens of the earthly kingdoms, +and you should be good citizens, all the better for having become reborn spirit +sons of the heavenly kingdom. As faith-enlightened and spirit-liberated sons of +the kingdom of heaven, you face a double responsibility of duty to man and duty +to God while you voluntarily assume a third and sacred obligation: service to +the brotherhood of God-knowing believers. + +You may not worship your temporal rulers, and you should not employ temporal +power in the furtherance of the spiritual kingdom; but you should manifest the +righteous ministry of loving service to believers and unbelievers alike. In the +gospel of the kingdom there resides the mighty Spirit of Truth, and presently I +will pour out this same spirit upon all flesh. The fruits of the spirit, your +sincere and loving service, are the mighty social lever to uplift the races of +darkness, and this Spirit of Truth will become your power-multiplying fulcrum. + +Display wisdom and exhibit sagacity in your dealings with unbelieving civil +rulers. By discretion show yourselves to be expert in ironing out minor +disagreements and in adjusting trifling misunderstandings. In every possible +way--in everything short of your spiritual allegiance to the rulers of the +universe--seek to live peaceably with all men. Be you always as wise as +serpents but as harmless as doves. + +You should be made all the better citizens of the secular government as a +result of becoming enlightened sons of the kingdom; so should the rulers of +earthly governments become all the better rulers in civil affairs as a result +of believing this gospel of the heavenly kingdom. The attitude of unselfish +service of man and intelligent worship of God should make all kingdom believers +better world citizens, while the attitude of honest citizenship and sincere +devotion to one's temporal duty should help to make such a citizen the more +easily reached by the spirit call to sonship in the heavenly kingdom. + +So long as the rulers of earthly governments seek to exercise the authority of +religious dictators, you who believe this gospel can expect only trouble, +persecution, and even death. But the very light which you bear to the world, +and even the very manner in which you will suffer and die for this gospel of +the kingdom, will, in themselves, eventually enlighten the whole world and +result in the gradual divorcement of politics and religion. The persistent +preaching of this gospel of the kingdom will some day bring to all nations a +new and unbelievable liberation, intellectual freedom, and religious liberty. + + top of page - 1931 + +Under the soon-coming persecutions by those who hate this gospel of joy and +liberty, you will thrive and the kingdom will prosper. But you will stand in +grave danger in subsequent times when most men will speak well of kingdom +believers and many in high places nominally accept the gospel of the heavenly +kingdom. Learn to be faithful to the kingdom even in times of peace and +prosperity. Tempt not the angels of your supervision to lead you in troublous +ways as a loving discipline designed to save your ease-drifting souls. + +Remember that you are commissioned to preach this gospel of the kingdom--the +supreme desire to do the Father's will coupled with the supreme joy of the +faith realization of sonship with God--and you must not allow anything to +divert your devotion to this one duty. Let all mankind benefit from the +overflow of your loving spiritual ministry, enlightening intellectual +communion, and uplifting social service; but none of these humanitarian labors, +nor all of them, should be permitted to take the place of proclaiming the +gospel. These mighty ministrations are the social by-products of the still more +mighty and sublime ministrations and transformations wrought in the heart of +the kingdom believer by the living Spirit of Truth and by the personal +realization that the faith of a spirit-born man confers the assurance of living +fellowship with the eternal God. + +You must not seek to promulgate truth nor to establish righteousness by the +power of civil governments or by the enaction of secular laws. You may always +labor to persuade men's minds, but you must never dare to compel them. You must +not forget the great law of human fairness which I have taught you in positive +form: Whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do even so to them. + +When a kingdom believer is called upon to serve the civil government, let him +render such service as a temporal citizen of such a government, albeit such a +believer should display in his civil service all of the ordinary traits of +citizenship as these have been enhanced by the spiritual enlightenment of the +ennobling association of the mind of mortal man with the indwelling spirit of +the eternal God. If the unbeliever can qualify as a superior civil servant, you +should seriously question whether the roots of truth in your heart have not +died from the lack of the living waters of combined spiritual communion and +social service. The consciousness of sonship with God should quicken the entire +life service of every man, woman, and child who has become the possessor of +such a mighty stimulus to all the inherent powers of a human personality. + +You are not to be passive mystics or colorless ascetics; you should not become +dreamers and drifters, supinely trusting in a fictitious Providence to provide +even the necessities of life. You are indeed to be gentle in your dealings with +erring mortals, patient in your intercourse with ignorant men, and forbearing +under provocation; but you are also to be valiant in defense of righteousness, +mighty in the promulgation of truth, and aggressive in the preaching of this +gospel of the kingdom, even to the ends of the earth. + +This gospel of the kingdom is a living truth. I have told you it is like the +leaven in the dough, like the grain of mustard seed; and now I declare that it +is like the seed of the living being, which, from generation to generation, +while it remains the same living seed, unfailingly unfolds itself in new +manifestations and grows acceptably in channels of new adaptation to the +peculiar needs and conditions of each successive generation. The revelation I +have made to you is a living revelation, and I desire that it shall bear +appropriate fruits in each individual and in each generation in accordance with +the laws of spiritual growth, + + top of page - 1932 + +increase, and adaptative development. From generation to generation this gospel +must show increasing vitality and exhibit greater depth of spiritual power. It +must not be permitted to become merely a sacred memory, a mere tradition about +me and the times in which we now live. + +And forget not: We have made no direct attack upon the persons or upon the +authority of those who sit in Moses' seat; we only offered them the new light, +which they have so vigorously rejected. We have assailed them only by the +denunciation of their spiritual disloyalty to the very truths which they +profess to teach and safeguard. We clashed with these established leaders and +recognized rulers only when they threw themselves directly in the way of the +preaching of the gospel of the kingdom to the sons of men. And even now, it is +not we who assail them, but they who seek our destruction. Do not forget that +you are commissioned to go forth preaching only the good news. You are not to +attack the old ways; you are skillfully to put the leaven of new truth in the +midst of the old beliefs. Let the Spirit of Truth do his own work. Let +controversy come only when they who despise the truth force it upon you. But +when the willful unbeliever attacks you, do not hesitate to stand in vigorous +defense of the truth which has saved and sanctified you. + +Throughout the vicissitudes of life, remember always to love one another. Do +not strive with men, even with unbelievers. Show mercy even to those who +despitefully abuse you. Show yourselves to be loyal citizens, upright artisans, +praiseworthy neighbors, devoted kinsmen, understanding parents, and sincere +believers in the brotherhood of the Father's kingdom. And my spirit shall be +upon you, now and even to the end of the world. + +When Jesus had concluded his teaching, it was almost one o'clock, and they +immediately went back to the camp, where David and his associates had lunch +ready for them. + +2. AFTER THE NOONTIME MEAL + +Not many of the Master's hearers were able to take in even a part of his +forenoon address. Of all who heard him, the Greeks comprehended most. Even the +eleven apostles were bewildered by his allusions to future political kingdoms +and to successive generations of kingdom believers. Jesus' most devoted +followers could not reconcile the impending end of his earthly ministry with +these references to an extended future of gospel activities. Some of these +Jewish believers were beginning to sense that earth's greatest tragedy was +about to take place, but they could not reconcile such an impending disaster +with either the Master's cheerfully indifferent personal attitude or his +forenoon discourse, wherein he repeatedly alluded to the future transactions of +the heavenly kingdom, extending over vast stretches of time and embracing +relations with many and successive temporal kingdoms on earth. + +By noon of this day all the apostles and disciples had learned about the hasty +flight of Lazarus from Bethany. They began to sense the grim determination of +the Jewish rulers to exterminate Jesus and his teachings. + +David Zebedee, through the work of his secret agents in Jerusalem, was fully +advised concerning the progress of the plan to arrest and kill Jesus. He knew +all about the part of Judas in this plot, but he never disclosed this knowledge +to the other apostles nor to any of the disciples. Shortly after lunch he did + + top of page - 1933 + +lead Jesus aside and, making bold, asked him whether he knew--but he never got +further with his question. The Master, holding up his hand, stopped him, +saying: "Yes, David, I know all about it, and I know that you know, but see to +it that you tell no man. Only doubt not in your own heart that the will of God +will prevail in the end." + +This conversation with David was interrupted by the arrival of a messenger from +Philadelphia bringing word that Abner had heard of the plot to kill Jesus and +asking if he should depart for Jerusalem. This runner hastened off for +Philadelphia with this word for Abner: "Go on with your work. If I depart from +you in the flesh, it is only that I may return in the spirit. I will not +forsake you. I will be with you to the end." + +About this time Philip came to the Master and asked: "Master, seeing that the +time of the Passover draws near, where would you have us prepare to eat it?" +And when Jesus heard Philip's question, he answered: "Go and bring Peter and +John, and I will give you directions concerning the supper we will eat together +this night. As for the Passover, that you will have to consider after we have +first done this." + +When Judas heard the Master speaking with Philip about these matters, he drew +closer that he might overhear their conversation. But David Zebedee, who was +standing near, stepped up and engaged Judas in conversation while Philip, +Peter, and John went to one side to talk with the Master. + +Said Jesus to the three: "Go immediately into Jerusalem, and as you enter the +gate, you will meet a man bearing a water pitcher. He will speak to you, and +then shall you follow him. When he leads you to a certain house, go in after +him and ask of the good man of that house, `Where is the guest chamber wherein +the Master is to eat supper with his apostles?' And when you have thus +inquired, this householder will show you a large upper room all furnished and +ready for us." + +When the apostles reached the city, they met the man with the water pitcher +near the gate and followed on after him to the home of John Mark, where the +lad's father met them and showed them the upper room in readiness for the +evening meal. + +And all of this came to pass as the result of an understanding arrived at +between the Master and John Mark during the afternoon of the preceding day when +they were alone in the hills. Jesus wanted to be sure he would have this one +last meal undisturbed with his apostles, and believing if Judas knew beforehand +of their place of meeting he might arrange with his enemies to take him, he +made this secret arrangement with John Mark. In this way Judas did not learn of +their place of meeting until later on when he arrived there in company with +Jesus and the other apostles. + +David Zebedee had much business to transact with Judas so that he was easily +prevented from following Peter, John, and Philip, as he so much desired to do. +When Judas gave David a certain sum of money for provisions, David said to him: +"Judas, might it not be well, under the circumstances, to provide me with a +little money in advance of my actual needs?" And after Judas had reflected for +a moment, he answered: "Yes, David, I think it would be wise. In fact, in view +of the disturbed conditions in Jerusalem, I think it would be best for me to +turn over all the money to you. They plot against the Master, and in case +anything should happen to me, you would not be hampered." + + top of page - 1934 + +And so David received all the apostolic cash funds and receipts for all money +on deposit. Not until the evening of the next day did the apostles learn of +this transaction. + +It was about half past four o'clock when the three apostles returned and +informed Jesus that everything was in readiness for the supper. The Master +immediately prepared to lead his twelve apostles over the trail to the Bethany +road and on into Jerusalem. And this was the last journey he ever made with all +twelve of them. + +3. ON THE WAY TO THE SUPPER + +Seeking again to avoid the crowds passing through the Kidron valley back and +forth between Gethsemane Park and Jerusalem, Jesus and the twelve walked over +the western brow of Mount Olivet to meet the road leading from Bethany down to +the city. As they drew near the place where Jesus had tarried the previous +evening to discourse on the destruction of Jerusalem, they unconsciously paused +while they stood and looked down in silence upon the city. As they were a +little early, and since Jesus did not wish to pass through the city until after +sunset, he said to his associates: + +"Sit down and rest yourselves while I talk with you about what must shortly +come to pass. All these years have I lived with you as brethren, and I have +taught you the truth concerning the kingdom of heaven and have revealed to you +the mysteries thereof. And my Father has indeed done many wonderful works in +connection with my mission on earth. You have been witnesses of all this and +partakers in the experience of being laborers together with God. And you will +bear me witness that I have for some time warned you that I must presently +return to the work the Father has given me to do; I have plainly told you that +I must leave you in the world to carry on the work of the kingdom. It was for +this purpose that I set you apart, in the hills of Capernaum. The experience +you have had with me, you must now make ready to share with others. As the +Father sent me into this world, so am I about to send you forth to represent me +and finish the work I have begun. + +"You look down on yonder city in sorrow, for you have heard my words telling of +the end of Jerusalem. I have forewarned you lest you should perish in her +destruction and so delay the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom. +Likewise do I warn you to take heed lest you needlessly expose yourselves to +peril when they come to take the Son of Man. I must go, but you are to remain +to witness to this gospel when I have gone, even as I directed that Lazarus +flee from the wrath of man that he might live to make known the glory of God. +If it is the Father's will that I depart, nothing you may do can frustrate the +divine plan. Take heed to yourselves lest they kill you also. Let your souls be +valiant in defense of the gospel by spirit power but be not misled into any +foolish attempt to defend the Son of Man. I need no defense by the hand of man; +the armies of heaven are even now near at hand; but I am determined to do the +will of my Father in heaven, and therefore must we submit to that which is so +soon to come upon us. + +"When you see this city destroyed, forget not that you have entered already +upon the eternal life of endless service in the ever-advancing kingdom of +heaven, even of the heaven of heavens. You should know that in my Father's +universe and in mine are many abodes, and that there awaits the children of +light the + + top of page - 1935 + +revelation of cities whose builder is God and worlds whose habit of life is +righteousness and joy in the truth. I have brought the kingdom of heaven to you +here on earth, but I declare that all of you who by faith enter therein and +remain therein by the living service of truth, shall surely ascend to the +worlds on high and sit with me in the spirit kingdom of our Father. But first +must you gird yourselves and complete the work which you have begun with me. +You must first pass through much tribulation and endure many sorrows--and these +trials are even now upon us--and when you have finished your work on earth, you +shall come to my joy, even as I have finished my Father's work on earth and am +about to return to his embrace." + +When the Master had spoken, he arose, and they all followed him down Olivet and +into the city. None of the apostles, save three, knew where they were going as +they made their way along the narrow streets in the approaching darkness. The +crowds jostled them, but no one recognized them nor knew that the Son of God +was passing by on his way to the last mortal rendezvous with his chosen +ambassadors of the kingdom. And neither did the apostles know that one of their +own number had already entered into a conspiracy to betray the Master into the +hands of his enemies. + +John Mark had followed them all the way into the city, and after they had +entered the gate, he hurried on by another street so that he was waiting to +welcome them to his father's home when they arrived. + + top of page - 1936 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Wednesday, The ³ The Last Supper ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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The Last Supper +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 179 The Last Supper + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +DURING the afternoon of this Thursday, when Philip reminded the Master about +the approaching Passover and inquired concerning his plans for its celebration, +he had in mind the Passover supper which was due to be eaten on the evening of +the next day, Friday. It was the custom to begin the preparations for the +celebration of the Passover not later than noon of the preceding day. And since +the Jews reckoned the day as beginning at sunset, this meant that Saturday's +Passover supper would be eaten on Friday night, sometime before the midnight +hour. + +The apostles were, therefore, entirely at a loss to understand the Master's +announcement that they would celebrate the Passover one day early. They +thought, at least some of them did, that he knew he would be placed under +arrest before the time of the Passover supper on Friday night and was therefore +calling them together for a special supper on this Thursday evening. Others +thought that this was merely a special occasion which was to precede the +regular Passover celebration. + +The apostles knew that Jesus had celebrated other Passovers without the lamb; +they knew that he did not personally participate in any sacrificial service of +the Jewish system. He had many times partaken of the paschal lamb as a guest, +but always, when he was the host, no lamb was served. It would not have been a +great surprise to the apostles to have seen the lamb omitted even on Passover +night, and since this supper was given one day earlier, they thought nothing of +its absence. + +After receiving the greetings of welcome extended by the father and mother of +John Mark, the apostles went immediately to the upper chamber while Jesus +lingered behind to talk with the Mark family. + +It had been understood beforehand that the Master was to celebrate this +occasion alone with his twelve apostles; therefore no servants were provided to +wait upon them. + +1. THE DESIRE FOR PREFERENCE + +When the apostles had been shown upstairs by John Mark, they beheld a large and +commodious chamber, which was completely furnished for the supper, and observed +that the bread, wine, water, and herbs were all in readiness on one end of the +table. Except for the end on which rested the bread and wine, this long table +was surrounded by thirteen reclining couches, just such as would be provided +for the celebration of the Passover in a well-to-do Jewish household. + +As the twelve entered this upper chamber, they noticed, just inside the door, +the pitchers of water, the basins, and towels for laving their dusty feet; and +since + + top of page - 1937 + +no servant had been provided to render this service, the apostles began to look +at one another as soon as John Mark had left them, and each began to think +within himself, Who shall wash our feet? And each likewise thought that it +would not be he who would thus seem to act as the servant of the others. + +As they stood there, debating in their hearts, they surveyed the seating +arrangement of the table, taking note of the higher divan of the host with one +couch on the right and eleven arranged around the table on up to opposite this +second seat of honor on the host's right. + +They expected the Master to arrive any moment, but they were in a quandary as +to whether they should seat themselves or await his coming and depend on him to +assign them their places. While they hesitated, Judas stepped over to the seat +of honor, at the left of the host, and signified that he intended there to +recline as the preferred guest. This act of Judas immediately stirred up a +heated dispute among the other apostles. Judas had no sooner seized the seat of +honor than John Zebedee laid claim to the next preferred seat, the one on the +right of the host. Simon Peter was so enraged at this assumption of choice +positions by Judas and John that, as the other angry apostles looked on, he +marched clear around the table and took his place on the lowest couch, the end +of the seating order and just opposite to that chosen by John Zebedee. Since +others had seized the high seats, Peter thought to choose the lowest, and he +did this, not merely in protest against the unseemly pride of his brethren, but +with the hope that Jesus, when he should come and see him in the place of least +honor, would call him up to a higher one, thus displacing one who had presumed +to honor himself. + +With the highest and the lowest positions thus occupied, the rest of the +apostles chose places, some near Judas and some near Peter, until all were +located. They were seated about the U-shaped table on these reclining divans in +the following order: on the right of the Master, John; on the left, Judas, +Simon Zelotes, Matthew, James Zebedee, Andrew, the Alpheus twins, Philip, +Nathaniel, Thomas, and Simon Peter. + +They are gathered together to celebrate, at least in spirit, an institution +which antedated even Moses and referred to the times when their fathers were +slaves in Egypt. This supper is their last rendezvous with Jesus, and even in +such a solemn setting, under the leadership of Judas the apostles are led once +more to give way to their old predilection for honor, preference, and personal +exaltation. + +They were still engaged in voicing angry recriminations when the Master +appeared in the doorway, where he hesitated a moment as a look of +disappointment slowly crept over his face. Without comment he went to his +place, and he did not disturb their seating arrangement. + +They were now ready to begin the supper, except that their feet were still +unwashed, and they were in anything but a pleasant frame of mind. When the +Master arrived, they were still engaged in making uncomplimentary remarks about +one another, to say nothing of the thoughts of some who had sufficient +emotional control to refrain from publicly expressing their feelings. + +2. BEGINNING THE SUPPER + +For a few moments after the Master had gone to his place, not a word was +spoken. Jesus looked them all over and, relieving the tension with a smile, +said: "I have greatly desired to eat this Passover with you. I wanted to eat +with you + + top of page - 1938 + +once more before I suffered, and realizing that my hour has come, I arranged to +have this supper with you tonight, for, as concerns the morrow, we are all in +the hands of the Father, whose will I have come to execute. I shall not again +eat with you until you sit down with me in the kingdom which my Father will +give me when I have finished that for which he sent me into this world." + +After the wine and the water had been mixed, they brought the cup to Jesus, +who, when he had received it from the hand of Thaddeus, held it while he +offered thanks. And when he had finished offering thanks, he said: "Take this +cup and divide it among yourselves and, when you partake of it, realize that I +shall not again drink with you the fruit of the vine since this is our last +supper. When we sit down again in this manner, it will be in the kingdom to +come." + +Jesus began thus to talk to his apostles because he knew that his hour had +come. He understood that the time had come when he was to return to the Father, +and that his work on earth was almost finished. The Master knew he had revealed +the Father's love on earth and had shown forth his mercy to mankind, and that +he had completed that for which he came into the world, even to the receiving +of all power and authority in heaven and on earth. Likewise, he knew Judas +Iscariot had fully made up his mind to deliver him that night into the hands of +his enemies. He fully realized that this traitorous betrayal was the work of +Judas, but that it also pleased Lucifer, Satan, and Caligastia the prince of +darkness. But he feared none of those who sought his spiritual overthrow any +more than he feared those who sought to accomplish his physical death. The +Master had but one anxiety, and that was for the safety and salvation of his +chosen followers. And so, with the full knowledge that the Father had put all +things under his authority, the Master now prepared to enact the parable of +brotherly love. + +3. WASHING THE APOSTLES' FEET + +After drinking the first cup of the Passover, it was the Jewish custom for the +host to arise from the table and wash his hands. Later on in the meal and after +the second cup, all of the guests likewise rose up and washed their hands. +Since the apostles knew that their Master never observed these rites of +ceremonial hand washing, they were very curious to know what he intended to do +when, after they had partaken of this first cup, he arose from the table and +silently made his way over to near the door, where the water pitchers, basins, +and towels had been placed. And their curiosity grew into astonishment as they +saw the Master remove his outer garment, gird himself with a towel, and begin +to pour water into one of the foot basins. Imagine the amazement of these +twelve men, who had so recently refused to wash one another's feet, and who had +engaged in such unseemly disputes about positions of honor at the table, when +they saw him make his way around the unoccupied end of the table to the lowest +seat of the feast, where Simon Peter reclined, and, kneeling down in the +attitude of a servant, make ready to wash Simon's feet. As the Master knelt, +all twelve arose as one man to their feet; even the traitorous Judas so far +forgot his infamy for a moment as to arise with his fellow apostles in this +expression of surprise, respect, and utter amazement. + +There stood Simon Peter, looking down into the upturned face of his Master. +Jesus said nothing; it was not necessary that he should speak. His attitude +plainly revealed that he was minded to wash Simon Peter's feet. Notwithstanding + + top of page - 1939 + +his frailties of the flesh, Peter loved the Master. This Galilean fisherman was +the first human being wholeheartedly to believe in the divinity of Jesus and to +make full and public confession of that belief. And Peter had never since +really doubted the divine nature of the Master. Since Peter so revered and +honored Jesus in his heart, it was not strange that his soul resented the +thought of Jesus' kneeling there before him in the attitude of a menial servant +and proposing to wash his feet as would a slave. When Peter presently collected +his wits sufficiently to address the Master, he spoke the heart feelings of all +his fellow apostles. + +After a few moments of this great embarrassment, Peter said, "Master, do you +really mean to wash my feet?" And then, looking up into Peter's face, Jesus +said: "You may not fully understand what I am about to do, but hereafter you +will know the meaning of all these things." Then Simon Peter, drawing a long +breath, said, "Master, you shall never wash my feet!" And each of the apostles +nodded their approval of Peter's firm declaration of refusal to allow Jesus +thus to humble himself before them. + +The dramatic appeal of this unusual scene at first touched the heart of even +Judas Iscariot; but when his vainglorious intellect passed judgment upon the +spectacle, he concluded that this gesture of humility was just one more episode +which conclusively proved that Jesus would never qualify as Israel's deliverer, +and that he had made no mistake in the decision to desert the Master's cause. + +As they all stood there in breathless amazement, Jesus said: "Peter, I declare +that, if I do not wash your feet, you will have no part with me in that which I +am about to perform." When Peter heard this declaration, coupled with the fact +that Jesus continued kneeling there at his feet, he made one of those decisions +of blind acquiescence in compliance with the wish of one whom he respected and +loved. As it began to dawn on Simon Peter that there was attached to this +proposed enactment of service some signification that determined one's future +connection with the Master's work, he not only became reconciled to the thought +of allowing Jesus to wash his feet but, in his characteristic and impetuous +manner, said: "Then, Master, wash not my feet only but also my hands and my +head." + +As the Master made ready to begin washing Peter's feet, he said: "He who is +already clean needs only to have his feet washed. You who sit with me tonight +are clean--but not all. But the dust of your feet should have been washed away +before you sat down at meat with me. And besides, I would perform this service +for you as a parable to illustrate the meaning of a new commandment which I +will presently give you." + +In like manner the Master went around the table, in silence, washing the feet +of his twelve apostles, not even passing by Judas. When Jesus had finished +washing the feet of the twelve, he donned his cloak, returned to his place as +host, and after looking over his bewildered apostles, said: + +"Do you really understand what I have done to you? You call me Master, and you +say well, for so I am. If, then, the Master has washed your feet, why was it +that you were unwilling to wash one another's feet? What lesson should you +learn from this parable in which the Master so willingly does that service +which his brethren were unwilling to do for one another? Verily, verily, I say +to you: A servant is not greater than his master; neither is one who is sent +greater than he who sends him. You have seen the way of service in my life +among you, and blessed are you who will have the gracious courage so to serve. +But why are you + + top of page - 1940 + +so slow to learn that the secret of greatness in the spiritual kingdom is not +like the methods of power in the material world? + +"When I came into this chamber tonight, you were not content proudly to refuse +to wash one another's feet, but you must also fall to disputing among +yourselves as to who should have the places of honor at my table. Such honors +the Pharisees and the children of this world seek, but it should not be so +among the ambassadors of the heavenly kingdom. Do you not know that there can +be no place of preferment at my table? Do you not understand that I love each +of you as I do the others? Do you not know that the place nearest me, as men +regard such honors, can mean nothing concerning your standing in the kingdom of +heaven? You know that the kings of the gentiles have lordship over their +subjects, while those who exercise this authority are sometimes called +benefactors. But it shall not be so in the kingdom of heaven. He who would be +great among you, let him become as the younger; while he who would be chief, +let him become as one who serves. Who is the greater, he who sits at meat, or +he who serves? Is it not commonly regarded that he who sits at meat is the +greater? But you will observe that I am among you as one who serves. If you are +willing to become fellow servants with me in doing the Father's will, in the +kingdom to come you shall sit with me in power, still doing the Father's will +in future glory." + +When Jesus had finished speaking, the Alpheus twins brought on the bread and +wine, with the bitter herbs and the paste of dried fruits, for the next course +of the Last Supper. + +4. LAST WORDS TO THE BETRAYER + +For some minutes the apostles ate in silence, but under the influence of the +Master's cheerful demeanor they were soon drawn into conversation, and ere long +the meal was proceeding as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred to +interfere with the good cheer and social accord of this extraordinary occasion. +After some time had elapsed, in about the middle of this second course of the +meal, Jesus, looking them over, said: "I have told you how much I desired to +have this supper with you, and knowing how the evil forces of darkness have +conspired to bring about the death of the Son of Man, I determined to eat this +supper with you in this secret chamber and a day in advance of the Passover +since I will not be with you by this time tomorrow night. I have repeatedly +told you that I must return to the Father. Now has my hour come, but it was not +required that one of you should betray me into the hands of my enemies." + +When the twelve heard this, having already been robbed of much of their +self-assertiveness and self-confidence by the parable of the feet washing and +the Master's subsequent discourse, they began to look at one another while in +disconcerted tones they hesitatingly inquired, "Is it I?" And when they had all +so inquired, Jesus said: "While it is necessary that I go to the Father, it was +not required that one of you should become a traitor to fulfill the Father's +will. This is the coming to fruit of the concealed evil in the heart of one who +failed to love the truth with his whole soul. How deceitful is the intellectual +pride that precedes the spiritual downfall! My friend of many years, who even +now eats my bread, will be willing to betray me, even as he now dips his hand +with me in the dish." + +And when Jesus had thus spoken, they all began again to ask, "Is it I?" And as +Judas, sitting on the left of his Master, again asked, "Is it I?" Jesus, +dipping the bread in the dish of herbs, handed it to Judas, saying, "You have + + top of page - 1941 + +said." But the others did not hear Jesus speak to Judas. John, who reclined on +Jesus' right hand, leaned over and asked the Master: "Who is it? We should know +who it is that has proved untrue to his trust." Jesus answered: "Already have I +told you, even he to whom I gave the sop." But it was so natural for the host +to give a sop to the one who sat next to him on the left that none of them took +notice of this, even though the Master had so plainly spoken. But Judas was +painfully conscious of the meaning of the Master's words associated with his +act, and he became fearful lest his brethren were likewise now aware that he +was the betrayer. + +Peter was highly excited by what had been said, and leaning forward over the +table, he addressed John, "Ask him who it is, or if he has told you, tell me +who is the betrayer." + +Jesus brought their whisperings to an end by saying: "I sorrow that this evil +should have come to pass and hoped even up to this hour that the power of truth +might triumph over the deceptions of evil, but such victories are not won +without the faith of the sincere love of truth. I would not have told you these +things at this, our last supper, but I desire to warn you of these sorrows and +so prepare you for what is now upon us. I have told you of this because I +desire that you should recall, after I have gone, that I knew about all these +evil plottings, and that I forewarned you of my betrayal. And I do all this +only that you may be strengthened for the temptations and trials which are just +ahead." + +When Jesus had thus spoken, leaning over toward Judas, he said: "What you have +decided to do, do quickly." And when Judas heard these words, he arose from the +table and hastily left the room, going out into the night to do what he had set +his mind to accomplish. When the other apostles saw Judas hasten off after +Jesus had spoken to him, they thought he had gone to procure something +additional for the supper or to do some other errand for the Master since they +supposed he still carried the bag. + +Jesus now knew that nothing could be done to keep Judas from turning traitor. +He started with twelve--now he had eleven. He chose six of these apostles, and +though Judas was among those nominated by his first-chosen apostles, still the +Master accepted him and had, up to this very hour, done everything possible to +sanctify and save him, even as he had wrought for the peace and salvation of +the others. + +This supper, with its tender episodes and softening touches, was Jesus' last +appeal to the deserting Judas, but it was of no avail. Warning, even when +administered in the most tactful manner and conveyed in the most kindly spirit, +as a rule, only intensifies hatred and fires the evil determination to carry +out to the full one's own selfish projects, when love is once really dead. + +5. ESTABLISHING THE REMEMBRANCE SUPPER + +As they brought Jesus the third cup of wine, the "cup of blessing," he arose +from the couch and, taking the cup in his hands, blessed it, saying: "Take this +cup, all of you, and drink of it. This shall be the cup of my remembrance. This +is the cup of the blessing of a new dispensation of grace and truth. This shall +be to you the emblem of the bestowal and ministry of the divine Spirit of +Truth. And I will not again drink this cup with you until I drink in new form +with you in the Father's eternal kingdom." + + top of page - 1942 + +The apostles all sensed that something out of the ordinary was transpiring as +they drank of this cup of blessing in profound reverence and perfect silence. +The old Passover commemorated the emergence of their fathers from a state of +racial slavery into individual freedom; now the Master was instituting a new +remembrance supper as a symbol of the new dispensation wherein the enslaved +individual emerges from the bondage of ceremonialism and selfishness into the +spiritual joy of the brotherhood and fellowship of the liberated faith sons of +the living God. + +When they had finished drinking this new cup of remembrance, the Master took up +the bread and, after giving thanks, broke it in pieces and, directing them to +pass it around, said: "Take this bread of remembrance and eat it. I have told +you that I am the bread of life. And this bread of life is the united life of +the Father and the Son in one gift. The word of the Father, as revealed in the +Son, is indeed the bread of life." When they had partaken of the bread of +remembrance, the symbol of the living word of truth incarnated in the likeness +of mortal flesh, they all sat down. + +In instituting this remembrance supper, the Master, as was always his habit, +resorted to parables and symbols. He employed symbols because he wanted to +teach certain great spiritual truths in such a manner as to make it difficult +for his successors to attach precise interpretations and definite meanings to +his words. In this way he sought to prevent successive generations from +crystallizing his teaching and binding down his spiritual meanings by the dead +chains of tradition and dogma. In the establishment of the only ceremony or +sacrament associated with his whole life mission, Jesus took great pains to +suggest his meanings rather than to commit himself to precise definitions. He +did not wish to destroy the individual's concept of divine communion by +establishing a precise form; neither did he desire to limit the believer's +spiritual imagination by formally cramping it. He rather sought to set man's +reborn soul free upon the joyous wings of a new and living spiritual liberty. + +Notwithstanding the Master's effort thus to establish this new sacrament of the +remembrance, those who followed after him in the intervening centuries saw to +it that his express desire was effectively thwarted in that his simple +spiritual symbolism of that last night in the flesh has been reduced to precise +interpretations and subjected to the almost mathematical precision of a set +formula. Of all Jesus' teachings none have become more tradition-standardized. + +This supper of remembrance, when it is partaken of by those who are +Son-believing and God-knowing, does not need to have associated with its +symbolism any of man's puerile misinterpretations regarding the meaning of the +divine presence, for upon all such occasions the Master is really present. The +remembrance supper is the believer's symbolic rendezvous with Michael. When you +become thus spirit-conscious, the Son is actually present, and his spirit +fraternizes with the indwelling fragment of his Father. + +After they had engaged in meditation for a few moments, Jesus continued +speaking: "When you do these things, recall the life I have lived on earth +among you and rejoice that I am to continue to live on earth with you and to +serve through you. As individuals, contend not among yourselves as to who shall +be greatest. Be you all as brethren. And when the kingdom grows to embrace +large groups of believers, likewise should you refrain from contending for +greatness or seeking preferment between such groups." + + top of page - 1943 + +And this mighty occasion took place in the upper chamber of a friend. There was +nothing of sacred form or of ceremonial consecration about either the supper or +the building. The remembrance supper was established without ecclesiastical +sanction. + +When Jesus had thus established the supper of the remembrance, he said to the +apostles: "And as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. And when +you do remember me, first look back upon my life in the flesh, recall that I +was once with you, and then, by faith, discern that you shall all some time sup +with me in the Father's eternal kingdom. This is the new Passover which I leave +with you, even the memory of my bestowal life, the word of eternal truth; and +of my love for you, the outpouring of my Spirit of Truth upon all flesh." + +And they ended this celebration of the old but bloodless Passover in connection +with the inauguration of the new supper of the remembrance, by singing, all +together, the one hundred and eighteenth Psalm. + + top of page - 1944 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Last Day At ³ The Farewell ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ The... ³ Di... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p180.txt b/religious documents/p180.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..242cf06 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p180.txt @@ -0,0 +1,589 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 180 The Farewell Discourse + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way +To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... The Farewell Discourse +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 180 The Farewell Discourse + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AFTER singing the Psalm at the conclusion of the Last Supper, the apostles +thought that Jesus intended to return immediately to the camp, but he indicated +that they should sit down. Said the Master: + +"You well remember when I sent you forth without purse or wallet and even +advised that you take with you no extra clothes. And you will all recall that +you lacked nothing. But now have you come upon troublous times. No longer can +you depend upon the good will of the multitudes. Henceforth, he who has a +purse, let him take it with him. When you go out into the world to proclaim +this gospel, make such provision for your support as seems best. I have come to +bring peace, but it will not appear for a time. + +"The time has now come for the Son of Man to be glorified, and the Father shall +be glorified in me. My friends, I am to be with you only a little longer. Soon +you will seek for me, but you will not find me, for I am going to a place to +which you cannot, at this time, come. But when you have finished your work on +earth as I have now finished mine, you shall then come to me even as I now +prepare to go to my Father. In just a short time I am going to leave you, you +will see me no more on earth, but you shall all see me in the age to come when +you ascend to the kingdom which my Father has given to me." + +1. THE NEW COMMANDMENT + +After a few moments of informal conversation, Jesus stood up and said: "When I +enacted for you a parable indicating how you should be willing to serve one +another, I said that I desired to give you a new commandment; and I would do +this now as I am about to leave you. You well know the commandment which +directs that you love one another; that you love your neighbor even as +yourself. But I am not wholly satisfied with even that sincere devotion on the +part of my children. I would have you perform still greater acts of love in the +kingdom of the believing brotherhood. And so I give you this new commandment: +That you love one another even as I have loved you. And by this will all men +know that you are my disciples if you thus love one another. + +"When I give you this new commandment, I do not place any new burden upon your +souls; rather do I bring you new joy and make it possible for you to experience +new pleasure in knowing the delights of the bestowal of your heart's affection +upon your fellow men. I am about to experience the supreme joy, even though +enduring outward sorrow, in the bestowal of my affection upon you and your +fellow mortals. + +"When I invite you to love one another, even as I have loved you, I hold up +before you the supreme measure of true affection, for greater love can no man +have than this: that he will lay down his life for his friends. And you are my + + top of page - 1945 + +friends; you will continue to be my friends if you are but willing to do what I +have taught you. You have called me Master, but I do not call you servants. If +you will only love one another as I am loving you, you shall be my friends, and +I will ever speak to you of that which the Father reveals to me. + +"You have not merely chosen me, but I have also chosen you, and I have ordained +you to go forth into the world to yield the fruit of loving service to your +fellows even as I have lived among you and revealed the Father to you. The +Father and I will both work with you, and you shall experience the divine +fullness of joy if you will only obey my command to love one another, even as I +have loved you." + +If you would share the Master's joy, you must share his love. And to share his +love means that you have shared his service. Such an experience of love does +not deliver you from the difficulties of this world; it does not create a new +world, but it most certainly does make the old world new. + +Keep in mind: It is loyalty, not sacrifice, that Jesus demands. The +consciousness of sacrifice implies the absence of that wholehearted affection +which would have made such a loving service a supreme joy. The idea of duty +signifies that you are servant-minded and hence are missing the mighty thrill +of doing your service as a friend and for a friend. The impulse of friendship +transcends all convictions of duty, and the service of a friend for a friend +can never be called a sacrifice. The Master has taught the apostles that they +are the sons of God. He has called them brethren, and now, before he leaves, he +calls them his friends. + +2. THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES + +Then Jesus stood up again and continued teaching his apostles: "I am the true +vine, and my Father is the husbandman. I am the vine, and you are the branches. +And the Father requires of me only that you shall bear much fruit. The vine is +pruned only to increase the fruitfulness of its branches. Every branch coming +out of me which bears no fruit, the Father will take away. Every branch which +bears fruit, the Father will cleanse that it may bear more fruit. Already are +you clean through the word I have spoken, but you must continue to be clean. +You must abide in me, and I in you; the branch will die if it is separated from +the vine. As the branch cannot bear fruit except it abides in the vine, so +neither can you yield the fruits of loving service except you abide in me. +Remember: I am the real vine, and you are the living branches. He who lives in +me, and I in him, will bear much fruit of the spirit and experience the supreme +joy of yielding this spiritual harvest. If you will maintain this living +spiritual connection with me, you will bear abundant fruit. If you abide in me +and my words live in you, you will be able to commune freely with me, and then +can my living spirit so infuse you that you may ask whatsoever my spirit wills +and do all this with the assurance that the Father will grant us our petition. +Herein is the Father glorified: that the vine has many living branches, and +that every branch bears much fruit. And when the world sees these fruit-bearing +branches--my friends who love one another, even as I have loved them--all men +will know that you are truly my disciples. + +"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Live in my love even as I +live in the Father's love. If you do as I have taught you, you shall abide in +my love even as I have kept the Father's word and evermore abide in his love." + + top of page - 1946 + +The Jews had long taught that the Messiah would be "a stem arising out of the +vine" of David's ancestors, and in commemoration of this olden teaching a large +emblem of the grape and its attached vine decorated the entrance to Herod's +temple. The apostles all recalled these things while the Master talked to them +this night in the upper chamber. + +But great sorrow later attended the misinterpretation of the Master's +inferences regarding prayer. There would have been little difficulty about +these teachings if his exact words had been remembered and subsequently +truthfully recorded. But as the record was made, believers eventually regarded +prayer in Jesus' name as a sort of supreme magic, thinking that they would +receive from the Father anything they asked for. For centuries honest souls +have continued to wreck their faith against this stumbling block. How long will +it take the world of believers to understand that prayer is not a process of +getting your way but rather a program of taking God's way, an experience of +learning how to recognize and execute the Father's will? It is entirely true +that, when your will has been truly aligned with his, you can ask anything +conceived by that will-union, and it will be granted. And such a will-union is +effected by and through Jesus even as the life of the vine flows into and +through the living branches. + +When there exists this living connection between divinity and humanity, if +humanity should thoughtlessly and ignorantly pray for selfish ease and +vain-glorious accomplishments, there could be only one divine answer: more and +increased bearing of the fruits of the spirit on the stems of the living +branches. When the branch of the vine is alive, there can be only one answer to +all its petitions: increased grape bearing. In fact, the branch exists only +for, and can do nothing except, fruit bearing, yielding grapes. So does the +true believer exist only for the purpose of bearing the fruits of the spirit: +to love man as he himself has been loved by God--that we should love one +another, even as Jesus has loved us. + +And when the Father's hand of discipline is laid upon the vine, it is done in +love, in order that the branches may bear much fruit. And a wise husbandman +cuts away only the dead and fruitless branches. + +Jesus had great difficulty in leading even his apostles to recognize that +prayer is a function of spirit-born believers in the spirit-dominated kingdom. + +3. ENMITY OF THE WORLD + +The eleven had scarcely ceased their discussions of the discourse on the vine +and the branches when the Master, indicating that he was desirous of speaking +to them further and knowing that his time was short, said: "When I have left +you, be not discouraged by the enmity of the world. Be not downcast even when +faint-hearted believers turn against you and join hands with the enemies of the +kingdom. If the world shall hate you, you should recall that it hated me even +before it hated you. If you were of this world, then would the world love its +own, but because you are not, the world refuses to love you. You are in this +world, but your lives are not to be worldlike. I have chosen you out of the +world to represent the spirit of another world even to this world from which +you have been chosen. But always remember the words I have spoken to you: The +servant is not greater than his master. If they dare to persecute me, they will +also persecute you. If my words offend the unbelievers, so also will your words +offend the ungodly. And all of this will they do to you because they believe +not in + + top of page - 1947 + +me nor in Him who sent me; so will you suffer many things for the sake of my +gospel. But when you endure these tribulations, you should recall that I also +suffered before you for the sake of this gospel of the heavenly kingdom. + +"Many of those who will assail you are ignorant of the light of heaven, but +this is not true of some who now persecute us. If we had not taught them the +truth, they might do many strange things without falling under condemnation, +but now, since they have known the light and presumed to reject it, they have +no excuse for their attitude. He who hates me hates my Father. It cannot be +otherwise; the light which would save you if accepted can only condemn you if +it is knowingly rejected. And what have I done to these men that they should +hate me with such a terrible hatred? Nothing, save to offer them fellowship on +earth and salvation in heaven. But have you not read in the Scripture the +saying: `And they hated me without a cause'? + +"But I will not leave you alone in the world. Very soon, after I have gone, I +will send you a spirit helper. You shall have with you one who will take my +place among you, one who will continue to teach you the way of truth, who will +even comfort you. + +"Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; continue to believe also +in me. Even though I must leave you, I will not be far from you. I have already +told you that in my Father's universe there are many tarrying-places. If this +were not true, I would not have repeatedly told you about them. I am going to +return to these worlds of light, stations in the Father's heaven to which you +shall some time ascend. From these places I came into this world, and the hour +is now at hand when I must return to my Father's work in the spheres on high. + +"If I thus go before you into the Father's heavenly kingdom, so will I surely +send for you that you may be with me in the places that were prepared for the +mortal sons of God before this world was. Even though I must leave you, I will +be present with you in spirit, and eventually you shall be with me in person +when you have ascended to me in my universe even as I am about to ascend to my +Father in his greater universe. And what I have told you is true and +everlasting, even though you may not fully comprehend it. I go to the Father, +and though you cannot now follow me, you shall certainly follow me in the ages +to come." + +When Jesus sat down, Thomas arose and said: "Master, we do not know where you +are going; so of course we do not know the way. But we will follow you this +very night if you will show us the way." + +When Jesus heard Thomas, he answered: "Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the +life. No man goes to the Father except through me. All who find the Father, +first find me. If you know me, you know the way to the Father. And you do know +me, for you have lived with me and you now see me." + +But this teaching was too deep for many of the apostles, especially for Philip, +who, after speaking a few words with Nathaniel, arose and said: "Master, show +us the Father, and everything you have said will be made plain." + +And when Philip had spoken, Jesus said: "Philip, have I been so long with you +and yet you do not even now know me? Again do I declare: He who has seen me has +seen the Father. How can you then say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe +that I am in the Father and the Father in me? Have I not taught you that the +words which I speak are not my words but the words of the Father? I speak for +the Father and not of myself. I am in this world to do the + + top of page - 1948 + +Father's will, and that I have done. My Father abides in me and works through +me. Believe me when I say that the Father is in me, and that I am in the +Father, or else believe me for the sake of the very life I have lived--for the +work's sake." + +As the Master went aside to refresh himself with water, the eleven engaged in a +spirited discussion of these teachings, and Peter was beginning to deliver +himself of an extended speech when Jesus returned and beckoned them to be +seated. + +4. THE PROMISED HELPER + +Jesus continued to teach, saying: "When I have gone to the Father, and after he +has fully accepted the work I have done for you on earth, and after I have +received the final sovereignty of my own domain, I shall say to my Father: +Having left my children alone on earth, it is in accordance with my promise to +send them another teacher. And when the Father shall approve, I will pour out +the Spirit of Truth upon all flesh. Already is my Father's spirit in your +hearts, and when this day shall come, you will also have me with you even as +you now have the Father. This new gift is the spirit of living truth. The +unbelievers will not at first listen to the teachings of this spirit, but the +sons of light will all receive him gladly and with a whole heart. And you shall +know this spirit when he comes even as you have known me, and you will receive +this gift in your hearts, and he will abide with you. You thus perceive that I +am not going to leave you without help and guidance. I will not leave you +desolate. Today I can be with you only in person. In the times to come I will +be with you and all other men who desire my presence, wherever you may be, and +with each of you at the same time. Do you not discern that it is better for me +to go away; that I leave you in the flesh so that I may the better and the more +fully be with you in the spirit? + +"In just a few hours the world will see me no more; but you will continue to +know me in your hearts even until I send you this new teacher, the Spirit of +Truth. As I have lived with you in person, then shall I live in you; I shall be +one with your personal experience in the spirit kingdom. And when this has come +to pass, you shall surely know that I am in the Father, and that, while your +life is hid with the Father in me, I am also in you. I have loved the Father +and have kept his word; you have loved me, and you will keep my word. As my +Father has given me of his spirit, so will I give you of my spirit. And this +Spirit of Truth which I will bestow upon you shall guide and comfort you and +shall eventually lead you into all truth. + +"I am telling you these things while I am still with you that you may be the +better prepared to endure those trials which are even now right upon us. And +when this new day comes, you will be indwelt by the Son as well as by the +Father. And these gifts of heaven will ever work the one with the other even as +the Father and I have wrought on earth and before your very eyes as one person, +the Son of Man. And this spirit friend will bring to your remembrance +everything I have taught you." + +As the Master paused for a moment, Judas Alpheus made bold to ask one of the +few questions which either he or his brother ever addressed to Jesus in public. +Said Judas: "Master, you have always lived among us as a friend; how shall we +know you when you no longer manifest yourself to us save by this spirit? If the +world sees you not, how shall we be certain about you? How will you show +yourself to us?" + + top of page - 1949 + +Jesus looked down upon them all, smiled, and said: "My little children, I am +going away, going back to my Father. In a little while you will not see me as +you do here, as flesh and blood. In a very short time I am going to send you my +spirit, just like me except for this material body. This new teacher is the +Spirit of Truth who will live with each one of you, in your hearts, and so will +all the children of light be made one and be drawn toward one another. And in +this very manner will my Father and I be able to live in the souls of each one +of you and also in the hearts of all other men who love us and make that love +real in their experiences by loving one another, even as I am now loving you." + +Judas Alpheus did not fully understand what the Master said, but he grasped the +promise of the new teacher, and from the expression on Andrew's face, he +perceived that his question had been satisfactorily answered. + +5. THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH + +The new helper which Jesus promised to send into the hearts of believers, to +pour out upon all flesh, is the Spirit of Truth. This divine endowment is not +the letter or law of truth, neither is it to function as the form or expression +of truth. The new teacher is the conviction of truth, the consciousness and +assurance of true meanings on real spirit levels. And this new teacher is the +spirit of living and growing truth, expanding, unfolding, and adaptative truth. + +Divine truth is a spirit-discerned and living reality. Truth exists only on +high spiritual levels of the realization of divinity and the consciousness of +communion with God. You can know the truth, and you can live the truth; you can +experience the growth of truth in the soul and enjoy the liberty of its +enlightenment in the mind, but you cannot imprison truth in formulas, codes, +creeds, or intellectual patterns of human conduct. When you undertake the human +formulation of divine truth, it speedily dies. The post-mortem salvage of +imprisoned truth, even at best, can eventuate only in the realization of a +peculiar form of intellectualized glorified wisdom. Static truth is dead truth, +and only dead truth can be held as a theory. Living truth is dynamic and can +enjoy only an experiential existence in the human mind. + +Intelligence grows out of a material existence which is illuminated by the +presence of the cosmic mind. Wisdom comprises the consciousness of knowledge +elevated to new levels of meaning and activated by the presence of the universe +endowment of the adjutant of wisdom. Truth is a spiritual reality value +experienced only by spirit-endowed beings who function upon supermaterial +levels of universe consciousness, and who, after the realization of truth, +permit its spirit of activation to live and reign within their souls. + +The true child of universe insight looks for the living Spirit of Truth in +every wise saying. The God-knowing individual is constantly elevating wisdom to +the living-truth levels of divine attainment; the spiritually unprogressive +soul is all the while dragging the living truth down to the dead levels of +wisdom and to the domain of mere exalted knowledge. + +The golden rule, when divested of the superhuman insight of the Spirit of +Truth, becomes nothing more than a rule of high ethical conduct. The golden +rule, when literally interpreted, may become the instrument of great offense to +one's fellows. Without a spiritual discernment of the golden rule of wisdom you +might reason that, since you are desirous that all men speak the full and frank +truth of their minds to you, you should therefore fully and frankly speak the + + top of page - 1950 + +full thought of your mind to your fellow beings. Such an unspiritual +interpretation of the golden rule might result in untold unhappiness and no end +of sorrow. + +Some persons discern and interpret the golden rule as a purely intellectual +affirmation of human fraternity. Others experience this expression of human +relationship as an emotional gratification of the tender feelings of the human +personality. Another mortal recognizes this same golden rule as the yardstick +for measuring all social relations, the standard of social conduct. Still +others look upon it as being the positive injunction of a great moral teacher +who embodied in this statement the highest concept of moral obligation as +regards all fraternal relationships. In the lives of such moral beings the +golden rule becomes the wise center and circumference of all their philosophy. + +In the kingdom of the believing brotherhood of God-knowing truth lovers, this +golden rule takes on living qualities of spiritual realization on those higher +levels of interpretation which cause the mortal sons of God to view this +injunction of the Master as requiring them so to relate themselves to their +fellows that they will receive the highest possible good as a result of the +believer's contact with them. This is the essence of true religion: that you +love your neighbor as yourself. + +But the highest realization and the truest interpretation of the golden rule +consists in the consciousness of the spirit of the truth of the enduring and +living reality of such a divine declaration. The true cosmic meaning of this +rule of universal relationship is revealed only in its spiritual realization, +in the interpretation of the law of conduct by the spirit of the Son to the +spirit of the Father that indwells the soul of mortal man. And when such +spirit-led mortals realize the true meaning of this golden rule, they are +filled to overflowing with the assurance of citizenship in a friendly universe, +and their ideals of spirit reality are satisfied only when they love their +fellows as Jesus loved us all, and that is the reality of the realization of +the love of God. + +This same philosophy of the living flexibility and cosmic adaptability of +divine truth to the individual requirements and capacity of every son of God, +must be perceived before you can hope adequately to understand the Master's +teaching and practice of nonresistance to evil. The Master's teaching is +basically a spiritual pronouncement. Even the material implications of his +philosophy cannot be helpfully considered apart from their spiritual +correlations. The spirit of the Master's injunction consists in the +nonresistance of all selfish reaction to the universe, coupled with the +aggressive and progressive attainment of righteous levels of true spirit +values: divine beauty, infinite goodness, and eternal truth--to know God and to +become increasingly like him. + +Love, unselfishness, must undergo a constant and living readaptative +interpretation of relationships in accordance with the leading of the Spirit of +Truth. Love must thereby grasp the ever-changing and enlarging concepts of the +highest cosmic good of the individual who is loved. And then love goes on to +strike this same attitude concerning all other individuals who could possibly +be influenced by the growing and living relationship of one spirit-led mortal's +love for other citizens of the universe. And this entire living adaptation of +love must be effected in the light of both the environment of present evil and +the eternal goal of the perfection of divine destiny. + +And so must we clearly recognize that neither the golden rule nor the teaching +of nonresistance can ever be properly understood as dogmas or precepts. They +can only be comprehended by living them, by realizing their meanings in + + top of page - 1951 + +the living interpretation of the Spirit of Truth, who directs the loving +contact of one human being with another. + +And all this clearly indicates the difference between the old religion and the +new. The old religion taught self-sacrifice; the new religion teaches only +self-forgetfulness, enhanced self-realization in conjoined social service and +universe comprehension. The old religion was motivated by fear-consciousness; +the new gospel of the kingdom is dominated by truth-conviction, the spirit of +eternal and universal truth. And no amount of piety or creedal loyalty can +compensate for the absence in the life experience of kingdom believers of that +spontaneous, generous, and sincere friendliness which characterizes the +spirit-born sons of the living God. Neither tradition nor a ceremonial system +of formal worship can atone for the lack of genuine compassion for one's +fellows. + +6. THE NECESSITY FOR LEAVING + +After Peter, James, John, and Matthew had asked the Master numerous questions, +he continued his farewell discourse by saying: "And I am telling you about all +this before I leave you in order that you may be so prepared for what is coming +upon you that you will not stumble into serious error. The authorities will not +be content with merely putting you out of the synagogues; I warn you the hour +draws near when they who kill you will think they are doing a service to God. +And all of these things they will do to you and to those whom you lead into the +kingdom of heaven because they do not know the Father. They have refused to +know the Father by refusing to receive me; and they refuse to receive me when +they reject you, provided you have kept my new commandment that you love one +another even as I have loved you. I am telling you in advance about these +things so that, when your hour comes, as mine now has, you may be strengthened +in the knowledge that all was known to me, and that my spirit shall be with you +in all your sufferings for my sake and the gospel's. It was for this purpose +that I have been talking so plainly to you from the very beginning. I have even +warned you that a man's foes may be those of his own household. Although this +gospel of the kingdom never fails to bring great peace to the soul of the +individual believer, it will not bring peace on earth until man is willing to +believe my teaching wholeheartedly and to establish the practice of doing the +Father's will as the chief purpose in living the mortal life. + +"Now that I am leaving you, seeing that the hour has come when I am about to go +to the Father, I am surprised that none of you have asked me, Why do you leave +us? Nevertheless, I know that you ask such questions in your hearts. I will +speak to you plainly, as one friend to another. It is really profitable for you +that I go away. If I go not away, the new teacher cannot come into your hearts. +I must be divested of this mortal body and be restored to my place on high +before I can send this spirit teacher to live in your souls and lead your +spirits into the truth. And when my spirit comes to indwell you, he will +illuminate the difference between sin and righteousness and will enable you to +judge wisely in your hearts concerning them. + +"I have yet much to say to you, but you cannot stand any more just now. Albeit, +when he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he shall eventually guide you into all +truth as you pass through the many abodes in my Father's universe. + +"This spirit will not speak of himself, but he will declare to you that which +the Father has revealed to the Son, and he will even show you things to come; + + top of page - 1952 + +he will glorify me even as I have glorified my Father. This spirit comes forth +from me, and he will reveal my truth to you. Everything which the Father has in +this domain is now mine; wherefore did I say that this new teacher would take +of that which is mine and reveal it to you. + +"In just a little while I will leave you for a short time. Afterward, when you +again see me, I shall already be on my way to the Father so that even then you +will not see me for long." + +While he paused for a moment, the apostles began to talk with each other: "What +is this that he tells us? `In just a little while I will leave you,' and `When +you see me again it will not be for long, for I will be on my way to the +Father.' What can he mean by this `little while' and `not for long'? We cannot +understand what he is telling us." + +And since Jesus knew they asked these questions, he said: "Do you inquire among +yourselves about what I meant when I said that in a little while I would not be +with you, and that, when you would see me again, I would be on my way to the +Father? I have plainly told you that the Son of Man must die, but that he will +rise again. Can you not then discern the meaning of my words? You will first be +made sorrowful, but later on will you rejoice with many who will understand +these things after they have come to pass. A woman is indeed sorrowful in the +hour of her travail, but when she is once delivered of her child, she +immediately forgets her anguish in the joy of the knowledge that a man has been +born into the world. And so are you about to sorrow over my departure, but I +will soon see you again, and then will your sorrow be turned into rejoicing, +and there shall come to you a new revelation of the salvation of God which no +man can ever take away from you. And all the worlds will be blessed in this +same revelation of life in effecting the overthrow of death. Hitherto have you +made all your requests in my Father's name. After you see me again, you may +also ask in my name, and I will hear you. + +"Down here I have taught you in proverbs and spoken to you in parables. I did +so because you were only children in the spirit; but the time is coming when I +will talk to you plainly concerning the Father and his kingdom. And I shall do +this because the Father himself loves you and desires to be more fully revealed +to you. Mortal man cannot see the spirit Father; therefore have I come into the +world to show the Father to your creature eyes. But when you have become +perfected in spirit growth, you shall then see the Father himself." + +When the eleven had heard him speak, they said to each other: "Behold, he does +speak plainly to us. Surely the Master did come forth from God. But why does he +say he must return to the Father?" And Jesus saw that they did not even yet +comprehend him. These eleven men could not get away from their long-nourished +ideas of the Jewish concept of the Messiah. The more fully they believed in +Jesus as the Messiah, the more troublesome became these deep-rooted notions +regarding the glorious material triumph of the kingdom on earth. + + top of page - 1953 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Last Supper ³ Final ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ³ Admonitio... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p181.txt b/religious documents/p181.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90d6c69 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p181.txt @@ -0,0 +1,628 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 181 Final Admonitions And Warnings + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way +To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... Final Admonitions And + Warnings +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 181 Final Admonitions And Warnings + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AFTER the conclusion of the farewell discourse to the eleven, Jesus visited +informally with them and recounted many experiences which concerned them as a +group and as individuals. At last it was beginning to dawn upon these Galileans +that their friend and teacher was going to leave them, and their hope grasped +at the promise that, after a little while, he would again be with them, but +they were prone to forget that this return visit was also for a little while. +Many of the apostles and the leading disciples really thought that this promise +to return for a short season (the short interval between the resurrection and +the ascension) indicated that Jesus was just going away for a brief visit with +his Father, after which he would return to establish the kingdom. And such an +interpretation of his teaching conformed both with their preconceived beliefs +and with their ardent hopes. Since their lifelong beliefs and hopes of wish +fulfillment were thus agreed, it was not difficult for them to find an +interpretation of the Master's words which would justify their intense +longings. + +After the farewell discourse had been discussed and had begun to settle down in +their minds, Jesus again called the apostles to order and began the impartation +of his final admonitions and warnings. + +1. LAST WORDS OF COMFORT + +When the eleven had taken their seats, Jesus stood and addressed them: "As long +as I am with you in the flesh, I can be but one individual in your midst or in +the entire world. But when I have been delivered from this investment of mortal +nature, I will be able to return as a spirit indweller of each of you and of +all other believers in this gospel of the kingdom. In this way the Son of Man +will become a spiritual incarnation in the souls of all true believers. + +"When I have returned to live in you and work through you, I can the better +lead you on through this life and guide you through the many abodes in the +future life in the heaven of heavens. Life in the Father's eternal creation is +not an endless rest of idleness and selfish ease but rather a ceaseless +progression in grace, truth, and glory. Each of the many, many stations in my +Father's house is a stopping place, a life designed to prepare you for the next +one ahead. And so will the children of light go on from glory to glory until +they attain the divine estate wherein they are spiritually perfected even as +the Father is perfect in all things. + +"If you would follow after me when I leave you, put forth your earnest efforts +to live in accordance with the spirit of my teachings and with the ideal of my +life--the doing of my Father's will. This do instead of trying to imitate my +natural life in the flesh as I have, perforce, been required to live it on this +world. + + top of page - 1954 + +"The Father sent me into this world, but only a few of you have chosen fully to +receive me. I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, but all men will not +choose to receive this new teacher as the guide and counselor of the soul. But +as many as do receive him shall be enlightened, cleansed, and comforted. And +this Spirit of Truth will become in them a well of living water springing up +into eternal life. + +"And now, as I am about to leave you, I would speak words of comfort. Peace I +leave with you; my peace I give to you. I make these gifts not as the world +gives--by measure--I give each of you all you will receive. Let not your heart +be troubled, neither let it be fearful. I have overcome the world, and in me +you shall all triumph through faith. I have warned you that the Son of Man will +be killed, but I assure you I will come back before I go to the Father, even +though it be for only a little while. And after I have ascended to the Father, +I will surely send the new teacher to be with you and to abide in your very +hearts. And when you see all this come to pass, be not dismayed, but rather +believe, inasmuch as you knew it all beforehand. I have loved you with a great +affection, and I would not leave you, but it is the Father's will. My hour has +come. + +"Doubt not any of these truths even after you are scattered abroad by +persecution and are downcast by many sorrows. When you feel that you are alone +in the world, I will know of your isolation even as, when you are scattered +every man to his own place, leaving the Son of Man in the hands of his enemies, +you will know of mine. But I am never alone; always is the Father with me. Even +at such a time I will pray for you. And all of these things have I told you +that you might have peace and have it more abundantly. In this world you will +have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I have triumphed in the world and shown +you the way to eternal joy and everlasting service." + +Jesus gives peace to his fellow doers of the will of God but not on the order +of the joys and satisfactions of this material world. Unbelieving materialists +and fatalists can hope to enjoy only two kinds of peace and soul comfort: +Either they must be stoics, with steadfast resolution determined to face the +inevitable and to endure the worst; or they must be optimists, ever indulging +that hope which springs eternal in the human breast, vainly longing for a peace +which never really comes. + +A certain amount of both stoicism and optimism are serviceable in living a life +on earth, but neither has aught to do with that superb peace which the Son of +God bestows upon his brethren in the flesh. The peace which Michael gives his +children on earth is that very peace which filled his own soul when he himself +lived the mortal life in the flesh and on this very world. The peace of Jesus +is the joy and satisfaction of a God-knowing individual who has achieved the +triumph of learning fully how to do the will of God while living the mortal +life in the flesh. The peace of Jesus' mind was founded on an absolute human +faith in the actuality of the divine Father's wise and sympathetic overcare. +Jesus had trouble on earth, he has even been falsely called the "man of +sorrows," but in and through all of these experiences he enjoyed the comfort of +that confidence which ever empowered him to proceed with his life purpose in +the full assurance that he was achieving the Father's will. + +Jesus was determined, persistent, and thoroughly devoted to the accomplishment +of his mission, but he was not an unfeeling and calloused stoic; he ever + + top of page - 1955 + +sought for the cheerful aspects of his life experiences, but he was not a blind +and self-deceived optimist. The Master knew all that was to befall him, and he +was unafraid. After he had bestowed this peace upon each of his followers, he +could consistently say, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be +afraid." + +The peace of Jesus is, then, the peace and assurance of a son who fully +believes that his career for time and eternity is safely and wholly in the care +and keeping of an all-wise, all-loving, and all-powerful spirit Father. And +this is, indeed, a peace which passes the understanding of mortal mind, but +which can be enjoyed to the full by the believing human heart. + +2. FAREWELL PERSONAL ADMONITIONS + +The Master had finished giving his farewell instructions and imparting his +final admonitions to the apostles as a group. He then addressed himself to +saying good-bye individually and to giving each a word of personal advice, +together with his parting blessing. The apostles were still seated about the +table as when they first sat down to partake of the Last Supper, and as the +Master went around the table talking to them, each man rose to his feet when +Jesus addressed him. + +To John, Jesus said: "You, John, are the youngest of my brethren. You have been +very near me, and while I love you all with the same love which a father +bestows upon his sons, you were designated by Andrew as one of the three who +should always be near me. Besides this, you have acted for me and must continue +so to act in many matters concerning my earthly family. And I go to the Father, +John, having full confidence that you will continue to watch over those who are +mine in the flesh. See to it that their present confusion regarding my mission +does not in any way prevent your extending to them all sympathy, counsel, and +help even as you know I would if I were to remain in the flesh. And when they +all come to see the light and enter fully into the kingdom, while you all will +welcome them joyously, I depend upon you, John, to welcome them for me. + +"And now, as I enter upon the closing hours of my earthly career, remain near +at hand that I may leave any message with you regarding my family. As concerns +the work put in my hands by the Father, it is now finished except for my death +in the flesh, and I am ready to drink this last cup. But as for the +responsibilities left to me by my earthly father, Joseph, while I have attended +to these during my life, I must now depend upon you to act in my stead in all +these matters. And I have chosen you to do this for me, John, because you are +the youngest and will therefore very likely outlive these other apostles. + +"Once we called you and your brother sons of thunder. You started out with us +strong-minded and intolerant, but you have changed much since you wanted me to +call fire down upon the heads of ignorant and thoughtless unbelievers. And you +must change yet more. You should become the apostle of the new commandment +which I have this night given you. Dedicate your life to teaching your brethren +how to love one another, even as I have loved you." + +As John Zebedee stood there in the upper chamber, the tears rolling down his +cheeks, he looked into the Master's face and said: "And so I will, my Master, +but how can I learn to love my brethren more?" And then answered Jesus: "You +will learn to love your brethren more when you first learn to love their Father +in heaven more, and after you have become truly more interested in + + top of page - 1956 + +their welfare in time and in eternity. And all such human interest is fostered +by understanding sympathy, unselfish service, and unstinted forgiveness. No man +should despise your youth, but I exhort you always to give due consideration to +the fact that age oftentimes represents experience, and that nothing in human +affairs can take the place of actual experience. Strive to live peaceably with +all men, especially your friends in the brotherhood of the heavenly kingdom. +And, John, always remember, strive not with the souls you would win for the +kingdom." + +And then the Master, passing around his own seat, paused a moment by the side +of the place of Judas Iscariot. The apostles were rather surprised that Judas +had not returned before this, and they were very curious to know the +significance of Jesus' sad countenance as he stood by the betrayer's vacant +seat. But none of them, except possibly Andrew, entertained even the slightest +thought that their treasurer had gone out to betray his Master, as Jesus had +intimated to them earlier in the evening and during the supper. So much had +been going on that, for the time being, they had quite forgotten about the +Master's announcement that one of them would betray him. + +Jesus now went over to Simon Zelotes, who stood up and listened to this +admonition: "You are a true son of Abraham, but what a time I have had trying +to make you a son of this heavenly kingdom. I love you and so do all of your +brethren. I know that you love me, Simon, and that you also love the kingdom, +but you are still set on making this kingdom come according to your liking. I +know full well that you will eventually grasp the spiritual nature and meaning +of my gospel, and that you will do valiant work in its proclamation, but I am +distressed about what may happen to you when I depart. I would rejoice to know +that you would not falter; I would be made happy if I could know that, after I +go to the Father, you would not cease to be my apostle, and that you would +acceptably deport yourself as an ambassador of the heavenly kingdom." + +Jesus had hardly ceased speaking to Simon Zelotes when the fiery patriot, +drying his eyes, replied: "Master, have no fears for my loyalty. I have turned +my back upon everything that I might dedicate my life to the establishment of +your kingdom on earth, and I will not falter. I have survived every +disappointment so far, and I will not forsake you." + +And then, laying his hand on Simon's shoulder, Jesus said: "It is indeed +refreshing to hear you talk like that, especially at such a time as this, but, +my good friend, you still do not know what you are talking about. Not for one +moment would I doubt your loyalty, your devotion; I know you would not hesitate +to go forth in battle and die for me, as all these others would" (and they all +nodded a vigorous approval), "but that will not be required of you. I have +repeatedly told you that my kingdom is not of this world, and that my disciples +will not fight to effect its establishment. I have told you this many times, +Simon, but you refuse to face the truth. I am not concerned with your loyalty +to me and to the kingdom, but what will you do when I go away and you at last +wake up to the realization that you have failed to grasp the meaning of my +teaching, and that you must adjust your misconceptions to the reality of +another and spiritual order of affairs in the kingdom?" + +Simon wanted to speak further, but Jesus raised his hand and, stopping him, +went on to say: "None of my apostles are more sincere and honest at heart than +you, but not one of them will be so upset and disheartened as you, after my + + top of page - 1957 + +departure. In all of your discouragement my spirit shall abide with you, and +these, your brethren, will not forsake you. Do not forget what I have taught +you regarding the relation of citizenship on earth to sonship in the Father's +spiritual kingdom. Ponder well all that I have said to you about rendering to +Caesar the things which are Caesar's and to God that which is God's. Dedicate +your life, Simon, to showing how acceptably mortal man may fulfill my +injunction concerning the simultaneous recognition of temporal duty to civil +powers and spiritual service in the brotherhood of the kingdom. If you will be +taught by the Spirit of Truth, never will there be conflict between the +requirements of citizenship on earth and sonship in heaven unless the temporal +rulers presume to require of you the homage and worship which belong only to +God. + +"And now, Simon, when you do finally see all of this, and after you have shaken +off your depression and have gone forth proclaiming this gospel in great power, +never forget that I was with you even through all of your season of +discouragement, and that I will go on with you to the very end. You shall +always be my apostle, and after you become willing to see by the eye of the +spirit and more fully to yield your will to the will of the Father in heaven, +then will you return to labor as my ambassador, and no one shall take away from +you the authority which I have conferred upon you, because of your slowness of +comprehending the truths I have taught you. And so, Simon, once more I warn you +that they who fight with the sword perish with the sword, while they who labor +in the spirit achieve life everlasting in the kingdom to come with joy and +peace in the kingdom which now is. And when the work given into your hands is +finished on earth, you, Simon, shall sit down with me in my kingdom over there. +You shall really see the kingdom you have longed for, but not in this life. +Continue to believe in me and in that which I have revealed to you, and you +shall receive the gift of eternal life." + +When Jesus had finished speaking to Simon Zelotes, he stepped over to Matthew +Levi and said: "No longer will it devolve upon you to provide for the treasury +of the apostolic group. Soon, very soon, you will all be scattered; you will +not be permitted to enjoy the comforting and sustaining association of even one +of your brethren. As you go onward preaching this gospel of the kingdom, you +will have to find for yourselves new associates. I have sent you forth two and +two during the times of your training, but now that I am leaving you, after you +have recovered from the shock, you will go out alone, and to the ends of the +earth, proclaiming this good news: That faith-quickened mortals are the sons of +God." + +Then spoke Matthew: "But, Master, who will send us, and how shall we know where +to go? Will Andrew show us the way?" And Jesus answered: "No, Levi, Andrew will +no longer direct you in the proclamation of the gospel. He will, indeed, +continue as your friend and counselor until that day whereon the new teacher +comes, and then shall the Spirit of Truth lead each of you abroad to labor for +the extension of the kingdom. Many changes have come over you since that day at +the customhouse when you first set out to follow me; but many more must come +before you will be able to see the vision of a brotherhood in which gentile +sits alongside Jew in fraternal association. But go on with your urge to win +your Jewish brethren until you are fully satisfied and then turn with power to +the gentiles. One thing you may be certain of, Levi: You have won + + top of page - 1958 + +the confidence and affection of your brethren; they all love you." (And all ten +of them signified their acquiescence in the Master's words.) + +"Levi, I know much about your anxieties, sacrifices, and labors to keep the +treasury replenished which your brethren do not know, and I am rejoiced that, +though he who carried the bag is absent, the publican ambassador is here at my +farewell gathering with the messengers of the kingdom. I pray that you may +discern the meaning of my teaching with the eyes of the spirit. And when the +new teacher comes into your heart, follow on as he will lead you and let your +brethren see--even all the world--what the Father can do for a hated +tax-gatherer who dared to follow the Son of Man and to believe the gospel of +the kingdom. Even from the first, Levi, I loved you as I did these other +Galileans. Knowing then so well that neither the Father nor the Son has respect +of persons, see to it that you make no such distinctions among those who become +believers in the gospel through your ministry. And so, Matthew, dedicate your +whole future life service to showing all men that God is no respecter of +persons; that, in the sight of God and in the fellowship of the kingdom, all +men are equal, all believers are the sons of God." + +Jesus then stepped over to James Zebedee, who stood in silence as the Master +addressed him, saying: "James, when you and your younger brother once came to +me seeking preferment in the honors of the kingdom, and I told you such honors +were for the Father to bestow, I asked if you were able to drink my cup, and +both of you answered that you were. Even if you were not then able, and if you +are not now able, you will soon be prepared for such a service by the +experience you are about to pass through. By such behavior you angered your +brethren at that time. If they have not already fully forgiven you, they will +when they see you drink my cup. Whether your ministry be long or short, possess +your soul in patience. When the new teacher comes, let him teach you the poise +of compassion and that sympathetic tolerance which is born of sublime +confidence in me and of perfect submission to the Father's will. Dedicate your +life to the demonstration of that combined human affection and divine dignity +of the God-knowing and Son-believing disciple. And all who thus live will +reveal the gospel even in the manner of their death. You and your brother John +will go different ways, and one of you may sit down with me in the eternal +kingdom long before the other. It would help you much if you would learn that +true wisdom embraces discretion as well as courage. You should learn sagacity +to go along with your aggressiveness. There will come those supreme moments +wherein my disciples will not hesitate to lay down their lives for this gospel, +but in all ordinary circumstances it would be far better to placate the wrath +of unbelievers that you might live and continue to preach the glad tidings. As +far as lies in your power, live long on the earth that your life of many years +may be fruitful in souls won for the heavenly kingdom." + +When the Master had finished speaking to James Zebedee, he stepped around to +the end of the table where Andrew sat and, looking his faithful helper in the +eyes, said: "Andrew, you have faithfully represented me as acting head of the +ambassadors of the heavenly kingdom. Although you have sometimes doubted and at +other times manifested dangerous timidity, still, you have always been +sincerely just and eminently fair in dealing with your associates. Ever since +the ordination of you and your brethren as messengers of the kingdom, you have +been + + top of page - 1959 + +self-governing in all group administrative affairs except that I designated you +as the acting head of these chosen ones. In no other temporal matter have I +acted to direct or to influence your decisions. And this I did in order to +provide for leadership in the direction of all your subsequent group +deliberations. In my universe and in my Father's universe of universes, our +brethren-sons are dealt with as individuals in all their spiritual relations, +but in all group relationships we unfailingly provide for definite leadership. +Our kingdom is a realm of order, and where two or more will creatures act in +co-operation, there is always provided the authority of leadership. + +"And now, Andrew, since you are the chief of your brethren by authority of my +appointment, and since you have thus served as my personal representative, and +as I am about to leave you and go to my Father, I release you from all +responsibility as regards these temporal and administrative affairs. From now +on you may exercise no jurisdiction over your brethren except that which you +have earned in your capacity as spiritual leader, and which your brethren +therefore freely recognize. From this hour you may exercise no authority over +your brethren unless they restore such jurisdiction to you by their definite +legislative action after I shall have gone to the Father. But this release from +responsibility as the administrative head of this group does not in any manner +lessen your moral responsibility to do everything in your power to hold your +brethren together with a firm and loving hand during the trying time just +ahead, those days which must intervene between my departure in the flesh and +the sending of the new teacher who will live in your hearts, and who ultimately +will lead you into all truth. As I prepare to leave you, I would liberate you +from all administrative responsibility which had its inception and authority in +my presence as one among you. Henceforth I shall exercise only spiritual +authority over you and among you. + +"If your brethren desire to retain you as their counselor, I direct that you +should, in all matters temporal and spiritual, do your utmost to promote peace +and harmony among the various groups of sincere gospel believers. Dedicate the +remainder of your life to promoting the practical aspects of brotherly love +among your brethren. Be kind to my brothers in the flesh when they come fully +to believe this gospel; manifest loving and impartial devotion to the Greeks in +the West and to Abner in the East. Although these, my apostles, are soon going +to be scattered to the four corners of the earth, there to proclaim the good +news of the salvation of sonship with God, you are to hold them together during +the trying time just ahead, that season of intense testing during which you +must learn to believe this gospel without my personal presence while you +patiently await the arrival of the new teacher, the Spirit of Truth. And so, +Andrew, though it may not fall to you to do the great works as seen by men, be +content to be the teacher and counselor of those who do such things. Go on with +your work on earth to the end, and then shall you continue this ministry in the +eternal kingdom, for have I not many times told you that I have other sheep not +of this flock?" + +Jesus then went over to the Alpheus twins and, standing between them, said: "My +little children, you are one of the three groups of brothers who chose to +follow after me. All six of you have done well to work in peace with your own +flesh and blood, but none have done better than you. Hard times are just ahead +of us. You may not understand all that will befall you and your brethren, but +never doubt that you were once called to the work of the kingdom. For some time +there will be no multitudes to manage, but do not become discouraged; when + + top of page - 1960 + +your lifework is finished, I will receive you on high, where in glory you shall +tell of your salvation to seraphic hosts and to multitudes of the high Sons of +God. Dedicate your lives to the enhancement of commonplace toil. Show all men +on earth and the angels of heaven how cheerfully and courageously mortal man +can, after having been called to work for a season in the special service of +God, return to the labors of former days. If, for the time being, your work in +the outward affairs of the kingdom should be completed, you should go back to +your former labors with the new enlightenment of the experience of sonship with +God and with the exalted realization that, to him who is God-knowing, there is +no such thing as common labor or secular toil. To you who have worked with me, +all things have become sacred, and all earthly labor has become a service even +to God the Father. And when you hear the news of the doings of your former +apostolic associates, rejoice with them and continue your daily work as those +who wait upon God and serve while they wait. You have been my apostles, and you +always shall be, and I will remember you in the kingdom to come." + +And then Jesus went over to Philip, who, standing up, heard this message from +his Master: "Philip, you have asked me many foolish questions, but I have done +my utmost to answer every one, and now would I answer the last of such +questionings which have arisen in your most honest but unspiritual mind. All +the time I have been coming around toward you, have you been saying to +yourself, `What shall I ever do if the Master goes away and leaves us alone in +the world?' O, you of little faith! And yet you have almost as much as many of +your brethren. You have been a good steward, Philip. You failed us only a few +times, and one of those failures we utilized to manifest the Father's glory. +Your office of stewardship is about over. You must soon more fully do the work +you were called to do--the preaching of this gospel of the kingdom. Philip, you +have always wanted to be shown, and very soon shall you see great things. Far +better that you should have seen all this by faith, but since you were sincere +even in your material sightedness, you will live to see my words fulfilled. And +then, when you are blessed with spiritual vision, go forth to your work, +dedicating your life to the cause of leading mankind to search for God and to +seek eternal realities with the eye of spiritual faith and not with the eyes of +the material mind. Remember, Philip, you have a great mission on earth, for the +world is filled with those who look at life just as you have tended to. You +have a great work to do, and when it is finished in faith, you shall come to me +in my kingdom, and I will take great pleasure in showing you that which eye has +not seen, ear heard, nor the mortal mind conceived. In the meantime, become as +a little child in the kingdom of the spirit and permit me, as the spirit of the +new teacher, to lead you forward in the spiritual kingdom. And in this way will +I be able to do much for you which I was not able to accomplish when I +sojourned with you as a mortal of the realm. And always remember, Philip, he +who has seen me has seen the Father." + +Then went the Master over to Nathaniel. As Nathaniel stood up, Jesus bade him +be seated and, sitting down by his side, said: "Nathaniel, you have learned to +live above prejudice and to practice increased tolerance since you became my +apostle. But there is much more for you to learn. You have been a blessing to +your fellows in that they have always been admonished by your consistent +sincerity. When I have gone, it may be that your frankness will interfere with +your getting along well with your brethren, both old and new. You should learn +that the ex- + + top of page - 1961 + +pression of even a good thought must be modulated in accordance with the +intellectual status and spiritual development of the hearer. Sincerity is most +serviceable in the work of the kingdom when it is wedded to discretion. + +"If you would learn to work with your brethren, you might accomplish more +permanent things, but if you find yourself going off in quest of those who +think as you do, in that event dedicate your life to proving that the +God-knowing disciple can become a kingdom builder even when alone in the world +and wholly isolated from his fellow believers. I know you will be faithful to +the end, and I will some day welcome you to the enlarged service of my kingdom +on high." + +Then Nathaniel spoke, asking Jesus this question: "I have listened to your +teaching ever since you first called me to the service of this kingdom, but I +honestly cannot understand the full meaning of all you tell us. I do not know +what to expect next, and I think most of my brethren are likewise perplexed, +but they hesitate to confess their confusion. Can you help me?" Jesus, putting +his hand on Nathaniel's shoulder, said: "My friend, it is not strange that you +should encounter perplexity in your attempt to grasp the meaning of my +spiritual teachings since you are so handicapped by your preconceptions of +Jewish tradition and so confused by your persistent tendency to interpret my +gospel in accordance with the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees. + +"I have taught you much by word of mouth, and I have lived my life among you. I +have done all that can be done to enlighten your minds and liberate your souls, +and what you have not been able to get from my teachings and my life, you must +now prepare to acquire at the hand of that master of all teachers--actual +experience. And in all of this new experience which now awaits you, I will go +before you and the Spirit of Truth shall be with you. Fear not; that which you +now fail to comprehend, the new teacher, when he has come, will reveal to you +throughout the remainder of your life on earth and on through your training in +the eternal ages." + +And then the Master, turning to all of them, said: "Be not dismayed that you +fail to grasp the full meaning of the gospel. You are but finite, mortal men, +and that which I have taught you is infinite, divine, and eternal. Be patient +and of good courage since you have the eternal ages before you in which to +continue your progressive attainment of the experience of becoming perfect, +even as your Father in Paradise is perfect." + +And then Jesus went over to Thomas, who, standing up, heard him say: "Thomas, +you have often lacked faith; however, when you have had your seasons with +doubt, you have never lacked courage. I know well that the false prophets and +spurious teachers will not deceive you. After I have gone, your brethren will +the more appreciate your critical way of viewing new teachings. And when you +all are scattered to the ends of the earth in the times to come, remember that +you are still my ambassador. Dedicate your life to the great work of showing +how the critical material mind of man can triumph over the inertia of +intellectual doubting when faced by the demonstration of the manifestation of +living truth as it operates in the experience of spirit-born men and women who +yield the fruits of the spirit in their lives, and who love one another, even +as I have loved you. Thomas, I am glad you joined us, and I know, after a short +period of perplexity, you will go on in the service of the kingdom. Your doubts +have perplexed your brethren, but they have never troubled me. I have +confidence in you, and I will go before you even to the uttermost parts of the +earth." + + top of page - 1962 + +Then the Master went over to Simon Peter, who stood up as Jesus addressed him: +"Peter, I know you love me, and that you will dedicate your life to the public +proclamation of this gospel of the kingdom to Jew and gentile, but I am +distressed that your years of such close association with me have not done more +to help you think before you speak. What experience must you pass through +before you will learn to set a guard upon your lips? How much trouble have you +made for us by your thoughtless speaking, by your presumptuous self-confidence! +And you are destined to make much more trouble for yourself if you do not +master this frailty. You know that your brethren love you in spite of this +weakness, and you should also understand that this shortcoming in no way +impairs my affection for you, but it lessens your usefulness and never ceases +to make trouble for you. But you will undoubtedly receive great help from the +experience you will pass through this very night. And what I now say to you, +Simon Peter, I likewise say to all your brethren here assembled: This night you +will all be in great danger of stumbling over me. You know it is written, `The +shepherd will be smitten and the sheep will be scattered abroad.' When I am +absent, there is great danger that some of you will succumb to doubts and +stumble because of what befalls me. But I promise you now that I will come back +to you for a little while, and that I will then go before you into Galilee." + +Then said Peter, placing his hand on Jesus' shoulder: "No matter if all my +brethren should succumb to doubts because of you, I promise that I will not +stumble over anything you may do. I will go with you and, if need be, die for +you." + +As Peter stood there before his Master, all atremble with intense emotion and +overflowing with genuine love for him, Jesus looked straight into his moistened +eyes as he said: "Peter, verily, verily, I say to you, this night the cock will +not crow until you have denied me three or four times. And thus what you have +failed to learn from peaceful association with me, you will learn through much +trouble and many sorrows. And after you have really learned this needful +lesson, you should strengthen your brethren and go on living a life dedicated +to preaching this gospel, though you may fall into prison and, perhaps, follow +me in paying the supreme price of loving service in the building of the +Father's kingdom. + +"But remember my promise: When I am raised up, I will tarry with you for a +season before I go to the Father. And even this night will I make supplication +to the Father that he strengthen each of you for that which you must now so +soon pass through. I love you all with the love wherewith the Father loves me, +and therefore should you henceforth love one another, even as I have loved +you." + +And then, when they had sung a hymn, they departed for the camp on the Mount of +Olives. + + top of page - 1963 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ + ³ The Farewell ³ In Gethsemane ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ + ³ Di... ³ ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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In Gethsemane +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 182 In Gethsemane + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +IT WAS about ten o'clock this Thursday night when Jesus led the eleven apostles +from the home of Elijah and Mary Mark on their way back to the Gethsemane camp. +Ever since that day in the hills, John Mark had made it his business to keep a +watchful eye on Jesus. John, being in need of sleep, had obtained several hours +of rest while the Master had been with his apostles in the upper room, but on +hearing them coming downstairs, he arose and, quickly throwing a linen coat +about himself, followed them through the city, over the brook Kidron, and on to +their private encampment adjacent to Gethsemane Park. And John Mark remained so +near the Master throughout this night and the next day that he witnessed +everything and overheard much of what the Master said from this time on to the +hour of the crucifixion. + +As Jesus and the eleven made their way back to camp, the apostles began to +wonder about the meaning of Judas's prolonged absence, and they spoke to one +another concerning the Master's prediction that one of them would betray him, +and for the first time they suspected that all was not well with Judas +Iscariot. But they did not engage in open comment about Judas until they +reached the camp and observed that he was not there, waiting to receive them. +When they all besieged Andrew to know what had become of Judas, their chief +remarked only, "I do not know where Judas is, but I fear he has deserted us." + +1. THE LAST GROUP PRAYER + +A few moments after arriving at camp, Jesus said to them: "My friends and +brethren, my time with you is now very short, and I desire that we draw apart +by ourselves while we pray to our Father in heaven for strength to sustain us +in this hour and henceforth in all the work we must do in his name." + +When Jesus had thus spoken, he led the way a short distance up on Olivet, and +in full view of Jerusalem he bade them kneel on a large flat rock in a circle +about him as they had done on the day of their ordination; and then, as he +stood there in the midst of them glorified in the mellow moonlight, he lifted +up his eyes toward heaven and prayed: + +"Father, my hour has come; now glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. I +know that you have given me full authority over all living creatures in my +realm, and I will give eternal life to all who will become faith sons of God. +And this is eternal life, that my creatures should know you as the only true +God and Father of all, and that they should believe in him whom you sent into +the world. Father, I have exalted you on earth and have accomplished the work +which you gave me to do. I have almost finished my bestowal upon the children +of our own creation; there remains only for me to lay down my life in the +flesh. And now, + + top of page - 1964 + +O my Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before this world +was and receive me once more at your right hand. + +"I have manifested you to the men whom you chose from the world and gave to me. +They are yours--as all life is in your hands--you gave them to me, and I have +lived among them, teaching them the way of life, and they have believed. These +men are learning that all I have comes from you, and that the life I live in +the flesh is to make known my Father to the worlds. The truth which you have +given to me I have revealed to them. These, my friends and ambassadors, have +sincerely willed to receive your word. I have told them that I came forth from +you, that you sent me into this world, and that I am about to return to you. +Father, I do pray for these chosen men. And I pray for them not as I would pray +for the world, but as for those whom I have chosen out of the world to +represent me to the world after I have returned to your work, even as I have +represented you in this world during my sojourn in the flesh. These men are +mine; you gave them to me; but all things which are mine are ever yours, and +all that which was yours you have now caused to be mine. You have been exalted +in me, and I now pray that I may be honored in these men. I can no longer be in +this world; I am about to return to the work you have given me to do. I must +leave these men behind to represent us and our kingdom among men. Father, keep +these men faithful as I prepare to yield up my life in the flesh. Help these, +my friends, to be one in spirit, even as we are one. As long as I could be with +them, I could watch over them and guide them, but now am I about to go away. Be +near them, Father, until we can send the new teacher to comfort and strengthen +them. + +"You gave me twelve men, and I have kept them all save one, the son of revenge, +who would not have further fellowship with us. These men are weak and frail, +but I know we can trust them; I have proved them; they love me, even as they +reverence you. While they must suffer much for my sake, I desire that they +should also be filled with the joy of the assurance of sonship in the heavenly +kingdom. I have given these men your word and have taught them the truth. The +world may hate them, even as it has hated me, but I do not ask that you take +them out of the world, only that you keep them from the evil in the world. +Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. And as you sent me into this +world, even so am I about to send these men into the world. For their sakes I +have lived among men and have consecrated my life to your service that I might +inspire them to be purified through the truth I have taught them and the love I +have revealed to them. I well know, my Father, that there is no need for me to +ask you to watch over these brethren after I have gone; I know you love them +even as I, but I do this that they may the better realize the Father loves +mortal men even as does the Son. + +"And now, my Father, I would pray not only for these eleven men but also for +all others who now believe, or who may hereafter believe the gospel of the +kingdom through the word of their future ministry. I want them all to be one, +even as you and I are one. You are in me and I am in you, and I desire that +these believers likewise be in us; that both of our spirits indwell them. If my +children are one as we are one, and if they love one another as I have loved +them, all men will then believe that I came forth from you and be willing to +receive the revelation of truth and glory which I have made. The glory which +you gave me I have revealed to these believers. As you have lived with me in +spirit, so have I lived with them in the flesh. As you have been one with me, +so have I been one with them, and so will the new teacher ever be one with them +and in them. And all this + + top of page - 1965 + +have I done that my brethren in the flesh may know that the Father loves them +even as does the Son, and that you love them even as you love me. Father, work +with me to save these believers that they may presently come to be with me in +glory and then go on to join you in the Paradise embrace. Those who serve with +me in humiliation, I would have with me in glory so that they may see all you +have given into my hands as the eternal harvest of the seed sowing of time in +the likeness of mortal flesh. I long to show my earthly brethren the glory I +had with you before the founding of this world. This world knows very little of +you, righteous Father, but I know you, and I have made you known to these +believers, and they will make known your name to other generations. And now I +promise them that you will be with them in the world even as you have been with +me--even so." + +The eleven remained kneeling in this circle about Jesus for several minutes +before they arose and in silence made their way back to the near-by camp. + +Jesus prayed for unity among his followers, but he did not desire uniformity. +Sin creates a dead level of evil inertia, but righteousness nourishes the +creative spirit of individual experience in the living realities of eternal +truth and in the progressive communion of the divine spirits of the Father and +the Son. In the spiritual fellowship of the believer-son with the divine Father +there can never be doctrinal finality and sectarian superiority of group +consciousness. + +The Master, during the course of this final prayer with his apostles, alluded +to the fact that he had manifested the Father's name to the world. And that is +truly what he did by the revelation of God through his perfected life in the +flesh. The Father in heaven had sought to reveal himself to Moses, but he could +proceed no further than to cause it to be said, "I AM." And when pressed for +further revelation of himself, it was only disclosed, "I AM that I AM." But +when Jesus had finished his earth life, this name of the Father had been so +revealed that the Master, who was the Father incarnate, could truly say: + +I am the bread of life. + +I am the living water. + +I am the light of the world. + +I am the desire of all ages. + +I am the open door to eternal salvation. + +I am the reality of endless life. + +I am the good shepherd. + +I am the pathway of infinite perfection. + +I am the resurrection and the life. + +I am the secret of eternal survival. + +I am the way, the truth, and the life. + +I am the infinite Father of my finite children. + +I am the true vine; you are the branches. + +I am the hope of all who know the living truth. + +I am the living bridge from one world to another. + +I am the living link between time and eternity. + +Thus did Jesus enlarge the living revelation of the name of God to all +generations. As divine love reveals the nature of God, eternal truth discloses +his name in ever-enlarging proportions. + + top of page - 1966 + +2. LAST HOUR BEFORE THE BETRAYAL + +The apostles were greatly shocked when they returned to their camp and found +Judas absent. While the eleven were engaged in a heated discussion of their +traitorous fellow apostle, David Zebedee and John Mark took Jesus to one side +and revealed that they had kept Judas under observation for several days, and +that they knew he intended to betray him into the hands of his enemies. Jesus +listened to them but only said: "My friends, nothing can happen to the Son of +Man unless the Father in heaven so wills. Let not your hearts be troubled; all +things will work together for the glory of God and the salvation of men." + +The cheerful attitude of Jesus was waning. As the hour passed, he grew more and +more serious, even sorrowful. The apostles, being much agitated, were loath to +return to their tents even when requested to do so by the Master himself. +Returning from his talk with David and John, he addressed his last words to all +eleven, saying: "My friends, go to your rest. Prepare yourselves for the work +of tomorrow. Remember, we should all submit ourselves to the will of the Father +in heaven. My peace I leave with you." And having thus spoken, he motioned them +to their tents, but as they went, he called to Peter, James, and John, saying, +"I desire that you remain with me for a little while." + +The apostles fell asleep only because they were literally exhausted; they had +been running short on sleep ever since their arrival in Jerusalem. Before they +went to their separate sleeping quarters, Simon Zelotes led them all over to +his tent, where were stored the swords and other arms, and supplied each of +them with this fighting equipment. All of them received these arms and girded +themselves therewith except Nathaniel. Nathaniel, in refusing to arm himself, +said: "My brethren, the Master has repeatedly told us that his kingdom is not +of this world, and that his disciples should not fight with the sword to bring +about its establishment. I believe this; I do not think the Master needs to +have us employ the sword in his defense. We have all seen his mighty power and +know that he could defend himself against his enemies if he so desired. If he +will not resist his enemies, it must be that such a course represents his +attempt to fulfill his Father's will. I will pray, but I will not wield the +sword." When Andrew heard Nathaniel's speech, he handed his sword back to Simon +Zelotes. And so nine of them were armed as they separated for the night. + +Resentment of Judas's being a traitor for the moment eclipsed everything else +in the apostles' minds. The Master's comment in reference to Judas, spoken in +the course of the last prayer, opened their eyes to the fact that he had +forsaken them. + +After the eight apostles had finally gone to their tents, and while Peter, +James, and John were standing by to receive the Master's orders, Jesus called +to David Zebedee, "Send to me your most fleet and trustworthy messenger." When +David brought to the Master one Jacob, once a runner on the overnight messenger +service between Jerusalem and Bethsaida, Jesus, addressing him, said: "In all +haste, go to Abner at Philadelphia and say: `The Master sends greetings of +peace to you and says that the hour has come when he will be delivered into the +hands of his enemies, who will put him to death, but that he will rise from the +dead and appear to you shortly, before he goes to the Father, and that he will +then give you guidance to the time when the new teacher shall come to live in +your hearts.'" And when Jacob had rehearsed this message to the + + top of page - 1967 + +Master's satisfaction, Jesus sent him on his way, saying: "Fear not what any +man may do to you, Jacob, for this night an unseen messenger will run by your +side." + +Then Jesus turned to the chief of the visiting Greeks who were encamped with +them, and said: "My brother, be not disturbed by what is about to take place +since I have already forewarned you. The Son of Man will be put to death at the +instigation of his enemies, the chief priests and the rulers of the Jews, but I +will rise to be with you a short time before I go to the Father. And when you +have seen all this come to pass, glorify God and strengthen your brethren." + +In ordinary circumstances the apostles would have bidden the Master a personal +good night, but this evening they were so preoccupied with the sudden +realization of Judas's desertion and so overcome by the unusual nature of the +Master's farewell prayer that they listened to his good-bye salutation and went +away in silence. + +Jesus did say this to Andrew as he left his side that night: "Andrew, do what +you can to keep your brethren together until I come again to you after I have +drunk this cup. Strengthen your brethren, seeing that I have already told you +all. Peace be with you." + +None of the apostles expected anything out of the ordinary to happen that night +since it was already so late. They sought sleep that they might rise up early +in the morning and be prepared for the worst. They thought that the chief +priests would seek to apprehend their Master early in the morning as no secular +work was ever done after noon on the preparation day for the Passover. Only +David Zebedee and John Mark understood that the enemies of Jesus were coming +with Judas that very night. + +David had arranged to stand guard that night on the upper trail which led to +the Bethany-Jerusalem road, while John Mark was to watch along the road coming +up by the Kidron to Gethsemane. Before David went to his self-imposed task of +outpost duty, he bade farewell to Jesus, saying: "Master, I have had great joy +in my service with you. My brothers are your apostles, but I have delighted to +do the lesser things as they should be done, and I shall miss you with all my +heart when you are gone." And then said Jesus to David: "David, my son, others +have done that which they were directed to do, but this service have you done +of your own heart, and I have not been unmindful of your devotion. You, too, +shall some day serve with me in the eternal kingdom." + +And then, as he prepared to go on watch by the upper trail, David said to +Jesus: "You know, Master, I sent for your family, and I have word by a +messenger that they are tonight in Jericho. They will be here early tomorrow +forenoon since it would be dangerous for them to come up the bloody way by +night." And Jesus, looking down upon David, only said: "Let it be so, David." + +When David had gone up Olivet, John Mark took up his vigil near the road which +ran by the brook down to Jerusalem. And John would have remained at this post +but for his great desire to be near Jesus and to know what was going on. +Shortly after David left him, and when John Mark observed Jesus withdraw, with +Peter, James, and John, into a near-by ravine, he was so overcome with combined +devotion and curiosity that he forsook his sentinel post and followed after +them, hiding himself in the bushes, from which place he saw and overheard all +that transpired during those last moments in the garden and just before Judas +and the armed guards appeared to arrest Jesus. + + top of page - 1968 + +While all this was in progress at the Master's camp, Judas Iscariot was in +conference with the captain of the temple guards, who had assembled his men +preparatory to setting out, under the leadership of the betrayer, to arrest +Jesus. + +3. ALONE IN GETHSEMANE + +After all was still and quiet about the camp, Jesus, taking Peter, James, and +John, went a short way up a near-by ravine where he had often before gone to +pray and commune. The three apostles could not help recognizing that he was +grievously oppressed; never before had they observed their Master to be so +heavy-laden and sorrowful. When they arrived at the place of his devotions, he +bade the three sit down and watch with him while he went off about a stone's +throw to pray. And when he had fallen down on his face, he prayed: "My Father, +I came into this world to do your will, and so have I. I know that the hour has +come to lay down this life in the flesh, and I do not shrink therefrom, but I +would know that it is your will that I drink this cup. Send me the assurance +that I will please you in my death even as I have in my life." + +The Master remained in a prayerful attitude for a few moments, and then, going +over to the three apostles, he found them sound asleep, for their eyes were +heavy and they could not remain awake. As Jesus awoke them, he said: "What! can +you not watch with me even for one hour? Cannot you see that my soul is +exceedingly sorrowful, even to death, and that I crave your companionship?" +After the three had aroused from their slumber, the Master again went apart by +himself and, falling down on the ground, again prayed: "Father, I know it is +possible to avoid this cup--all things are possible with you--but I have come +to do your will, and while this is a bitter cup, I would drink it if it is your +will." And when he had thus prayed, a mighty angel came down by his side and, +speaking to him, touched him and strengthened him. + +When Jesus returned to speak with the three apostles, he again found them fast +asleep. He awakened them, saying: "In such an hour I need that you should watch +and pray with me--all the more do you need to pray that you enter not into +temptation--wherefore do you fall asleep when I leave you?" + +And then, for a third time, the Master withdrew and prayed: "Father, you see my +sleeping apostles; have mercy upon them. The spirit is indeed willing, but the +flesh is weak. And now, O Father, if this cup may not pass, then would I drink +it. Not my will, but yours, be done." And when he had finished praying, he lay +for a moment prostrate on the ground. When he arose and went back to his +apostles, once more he found them asleep. He surveyed them and, with a pitying +gesture, tenderly said: "Sleep on now and take your rest; the time of decision +is past. The hour is now upon us wherein the Son of Man will be betrayed into +the hands of his enemies." As he reached down to shake them that he might +awaken them, he said: "Arise, let us be going back to the camp, for, behold, he +who betrays me is at hand, and the hour has come when my flock shall be +scattered. But I have already told you about these things." + +During the years that Jesus lived among his followers, they did, indeed, have +much proof of his divine nature, but just now are they about to witness new +evidences of his humanity. Just before the greatest of all the revelations of +his divinity, his resurrection, must now come the greatest proofs of his mortal +nature, his humiliation and crucifixion. + + top of page - 1969 + +Each time he prayed in the garden, his humanity laid a firmer faith-hold upon +his divinity; his human will more completely became one with the divine will of +his Father. Among other words spoken to him by the mighty angel was the message +that the Father desired his Son to finish his earth bestowal by passing through +the creature experience of death just as all mortal creatures must experience +material dissolution in passing from the existence of time into the progression +of eternity. + +Earlier in the evening it had not seemed so difficult to drink the cup, but as +the human Jesus bade farewell to his apostles and sent them to their rest, the +trial grew more appalling. Jesus experienced that natural ebb and flow of +feeling which is common to all human experience, and just now he was weary from +work, exhausted from the long hours of strenuous labor and painful anxiety +concerning the safety of his apostles. While no mortal can presume to +understand the thoughts and feelings of the incarnate Son of God at such a time +as this, we know that he endured great anguish and suffered untold sorrow, for +the perspiration rolled off his face in great drops. He was at last convinced +that the Father intended to allow natural events to take their course; he was +fully determined to employ none of his sovereign power as the supreme head of a +universe to save himself. + +The assembled hosts of a vast creation are now hovered over this scene under +the transient joint command of Gabriel and the Personalized Adjuster of Jesus. +The division commanders of these armies of heaven have repeatedly been warned +not to interfere with these transactions on earth unless Jesus himself should +order them to intervene. + +The experience of parting with the apostles was a great strain on the human +heart of Jesus; this sorrow of love bore down on him and made it more difficult +to face such a death as he well knew awaited him. He realized how weak and how +ignorant his apostles were, and he dreaded to leave them. He well knew that the +time of his departure had come, but his human heart longed to find out whether +there might not possibly be some legitimate avenue of escape from this terrible +plight of suffering and sorrow. And when it had thus sought escape, and failed, +it was willing to drink the cup. The divine mind of Michael knew he had done +his best for the twelve apostles; but the human heart of Jesus wished that more +might have been done for them before they should be left alone in the world. +Jesus' heart was being crushed; he truly loved his brethren. He was isolated +from his family in the flesh; one of his chosen associates was betraying him. +His father Joseph's people had rejected him and thereby sealed their doom as a +people with a special mission on earth. His soul was tortured by baffled love +and rejected mercy. It was just one of those awful human moments when +everything seems to bear down with crushing cruelty and terrible agony. + +Jesus' humanity was not insensible to this situation of private loneliness, +public shame, and the appearance of the failure of his cause. All these +sentiments bore down on him with indescribable heaviness. In this great sorrow +his mind went back to the days of his childhood in Nazareth and to his early +work in Galilee. At the time of this great trial there came up in his mind many +of those pleasant scenes of his earthly ministry. And it was from these old +memories of Nazareth, Capernaum, Mount Hermon, and of the sunrise and sunset on +the shimmering Sea of Galilee, that he soothed himself as he made his human +heart strong and ready to encounter the traitor who should so soon betray him. + + top of page - 1970 + +Before Judas and the soldiers arrived, the Master had fully regained his +customary poise; the spirit had triumphed over the flesh; faith had asserted +itself over all human tendencies to fear or entertain doubt. The supreme test +of the full realization of the human nature had been met and acceptably passed. +Once more the Son of Man was prepared to face his enemies with equanimity and +in the full assurance of his invincibility as a mortal man unreservedly +dedicated to the doing of his Father's will. + + top of page - 1971 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Final ³ The Betrayal ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Admonitio... ³ An... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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The Betrayal And + Arrest Of Jesus +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 183 The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AFTER Jesus had finally awakened Peter, James, and John, he suggested that they +go to their tents and seek sleep in preparation for the duties of the morrow. +But by this time the three apostles were wide awake; they had been refreshed by +their short naps, and besides, they were stimulated and aroused by the arrival +on the scene of two excited messengers who inquired for David Zebedee and +quickly went in quest of him when Peter informed them where he kept watch. + +Although eight of the apostles were sound asleep, the Greeks who were encamped +alongside them were more fearful of trouble, so much so that they had posted a +sentinel to give the alarm in case danger should arise. When these two +messengers hurried into camp, the Greek sentinel proceeded to arouse all of his +fellow countrymen, who streamed forth from their tents, fully dressed and fully +armed. All the camp was now aroused except the eight apostles. Peter desired to +call his associates, but Jesus definitely forbade him. The Master mildly +admonished them all to return to their tents, but they were reluctant to comply +with his suggestion. + +Failing to disperse his followers, the Master left them and walked down toward +the olive press near the entrance to Gethsemane Park. Although the three +apostles, the Greeks, and the other members of the camp hesitated immediately +to follow him, John Mark hastened around through the olive trees and secreted +himself in a small shed near the olive press. Jesus withdrew from the camp and +from his friends in order that his apprehenders, when they arrived, might +arrest him without disturbing his apostles. The Master feared to have his +apostles awake and present at the time of his arrest lest the spectacle of +Judas's betraying him should so arouse their animosity that they would offer +resistance to the soldiers and would be taken into custody with him. He feared +that, if they should be arrested with him, they might also perish with him. + +Though Jesus knew that the plan for his death had its origin in the councils of +the rulers of the Jews, he was also aware that all such nefarious schemes had +the full approval of Lucifer, Satan, and Caligastia. And he well knew that +these rebels of the realms would also be pleased to see all of the apostles +destroyed with him. + +Jesus sat down, alone, on the olive press, where he awaited the coming of the +betrayer, and he was seen at this time only by John Mark and an innumerable +host of celestial observers. + +1. THE FATHER'S WILL + +There is great danger of misunderstanding the meaning of numerous sayings and +many events associated with the termination of the Master's career in + + top of page - 1972 + +the flesh. The cruel treatment of Jesus by the ignorant servants and the +calloused soldiers, the unfair conduct of his trials, and the unfeeling +attitude of the professed religious leaders, must not be confused with the fact +that Jesus, in patiently submitting to all this suffering and humiliation, was +truly doing the will of the Father in Paradise. It was, indeed and in truth, +the will of the Father that his Son should drink to the full the cup of mortal +experience, from birth to death, but the Father in heaven had nothing whatever +to do with instigating the barbarous behavior of those supposedly civilized +human beings who so brutally tortured the Master and so horribly heaped +successive indignities upon his nonresisting person. These inhuman and shocking +experiences which Jesus was called upon to endure in the final hours of his +mortal life were not in any sense a part of the divine will of the Father, +which his human nature had so triumphantly pledged to carry out at the time of +the final surrender of man to God as signified in the threefold prayer which he +indited in the garden while his weary apostles slept the sleep of physical +exhaustion. + +The Father in heaven desired the bestowal Son to finish his earth career +naturally, just as all mortals must finish up their lives on earth and in the +flesh. Ordinary men and women cannot expect to have their last hours on earth +and the supervening episode of death made easy by a special dispensation. +Accordingly, Jesus elected to lay down his life in the flesh in the manner +which was in keeping with the outworking of natural events, and he steadfastly +refused to extricate himself from the cruel clutches of a wicked conspiracy of +inhuman events which swept on with horrible certainty toward his unbelievable +humiliation and ignominious death. And every bit of all this astounding +manifestation of hatred and this unprecedented demonstration of cruelty was the +work of evil men and wicked mortals. God in heaven did not will it, neither did +the archenemies of Jesus dictate it, though they did much to insure that +unthinking and evil mortals would thus reject the bestowal Son. Even the father +of sin turned his face away from the excruciating horror of the scene of the +crucifixion. + +2. JUDAS IN THE CITY + +After Judas so abruptly left the table while eating the Last Supper, he went +directly to the home of his cousin, and then did the two go straight to the +captain of the temple guards. Judas requested the captain to assemble the +guards and informed him that he was ready to lead them to Jesus. Judas having +appeared on the scene a little before he was expected, there was some delay in +getting started for the Mark home, where Judas expected to find Jesus still +visiting with the apostles. The Master and the eleven left the home of Elijah +Mark fully fifteen minutes before the betrayer and the guards arrived. By the +time the apprehenders reached the Mark home, Jesus and the eleven were well +outside the walls of the city and on their way to the Olivet camp. + +Judas was much perturbed by this failure to find Jesus at the Mark residence +and in the company of eleven men, only two of whom were armed for resistance. +He happened to know that, in the afternoon when they had left camp, only Simon +Peter and Simon Zelotes were girded with swords; Judas had hoped to take Jesus +when the city was quiet, and when there was little chance of resistance. The +betrayer feared that, if he waited for them to return to their camp, more than +threescore of devoted disciples would be encountered, and he also knew that +Simon Zelotes had an ample store of arms in his possession. Judas + + top of page - 1973 + +was becoming increasingly nervous as he meditated how the eleven loyal apostles +would detest him, and he feared they would all seek to destroy him. He was not +only disloyal, but he was a real coward at heart. + +When they failed to find Jesus in the upper chamber, Judas asked the captain of +the guard to return to the temple. By this time the rulers had begun to +assemble at the high priest's home preparatory to receiving Jesus, seeing that +their bargain with the traitor called for Jesus' arrest by midnight of that +day. Judas explained to his associates that they had missed Jesus at the Mark +home, and that it would be necessary to go to Gethsemane to arrest him. The +betrayer then went on to state that more than threescore devoted followers were +encamped with him, and that they were all well armed. The rulers of the Jews +reminded Judas that Jesus had always preached nonresistance, but Judas replied +that they could not depend upon all Jesus' followers obeying such teaching. He +really feared for himself and therefore made bold to ask for a company of forty +armed soldiers. Since the Jewish authorities had no such force of armed men +under their jurisdiction, they went at once to the fortress of Antonia and +requested the Roman commander to give them this guard; but when he learned that +they intended to arrest Jesus, he promptly refused to accede to their request +and referred them to his superior officer. In this way more than an hour was +consumed in going from one authority to another until they finally were +compelled to go to Pilate himself in order to obtain permission to employ the +armed Roman guards. It was late when they arrived at Pilate's house, and he had +retired to his private chambers with his wife. He hesitated to have anything to +do with the enterprise, all the more so since his wife had asked him not to +grant the request. But inasmuch as the presiding officer of the Jewish +Sanhedrin was present and making personal request for this assistance, the +governor thought it wise to grant the petition, thinking he could later on +right any wrong they might be disposed to commit. + +Accordingly, when Judas Iscariot started out from the temple, about half after +eleven o'clock, he was accompanied by more than sixty persons--temple guards, +Roman soldiers, and curious servants of the chief priests and rulers. + +3. THE MASTER'S ARREST + +As this company of armed soldiers and guards, carrying torches and lanterns, +approached the garden, Judas stepped well out in front of the band that he +might be ready quickly to identify Jesus so that the apprehenders could easily +lay hands on him before his associates could rally to his defense. And there +was yet another reason why Judas chose to be ahead of the Master's enemies: He +thought it would appear that he had arrived on the scene ahead of the soldiers +so that the apostles and others gathered about Jesus might not directly connect +him with the armed guards following so closely upon his heels. Judas had even +thought to pose as having hastened out to warn them of the coming of the +apprehenders, but this plan was thwarted by Jesus' blighting greeting of the +betrayer. Though the Master spoke to Judas kindly, he greeted him as a traitor. + +As soon as Peter, James, and John, with some thirty of their fellow campers, +saw the armed band with torches swing around the brow of the hill, they knew +that these soldiers were coming to arrest Jesus, and they all rushed down to +near the olive press where the Master was sitting in moonlit solitude. As the +company of soldiers approached on one side, the three apostles and + + top of page - 1974 + +their associates approached on the other. As Judas strode forward to accost the +Master, there the two groups stood, motionless, with the Master between them +and Judas making ready to impress the traitorous kiss upon his brow. + +It had been the hope of the betrayer that he could, after leading the guards to +Gethsemane, simply point Jesus out to the soldiers, or at most carry out the +promise to greet him with a kiss, and then quickly retire from the scene. Judas +greatly feared that the apostles would all be present, and that they would +concentrate their attack upon him in retribution for his daring to betray their +beloved teacher. But when the Master greeted him as a betrayer, he was so +confused that he made no attempt to flee. + +Jesus made one last effort to save Judas from actually betraying him in that, +before the traitor could reach him, he stepped to one side and, addressing the +foremost soldier on the left, the captain of the Romans, said, "Whom do you +seek?" The captain answered, "Jesus of Nazareth." Then Jesus stepped up +immediately in front of the officer and, standing there in the calm majesty of +the God of all this creation, said, "I am he." Many of this armed band had +heard Jesus teach in the temple, others had learned about his mighty works, and +when they heard him thus boldly announce his identity, those in the front ranks +fell suddenly backward. They were overcome with surprise at his calm and +majestic announcement of identity. There was, therefore, no need for Judas to +go on with his plan of betrayal. The Master had boldly revealed himself to his +enemies, and they could have taken him without Judas's assistance. But the +traitor had to do something to account for his presence with this armed band, +and besides, he wanted to make a show of carrying out his part of the betrayal +bargain with the rulers of the Jews in order to be eligible for the great +reward and honors which he believed would be heaped upon him in compensation +for his promise to deliver Jesus into their hands. + +As the guards rallied from their first faltering at the sight of Jesus and at +the sound of his unusual voice, and as the apostles and disciples drew nearer, +Judas stepped up to Jesus and, placing a kiss upon his brow, said, "Hail, +Master and Teacher." And as Judas thus embraced his Master, Jesus said, +"Friend, is it not enough to do this! Would you even betray the Son of Man with +a kiss?" + +The apostles and disciples were literally stunned by what they saw. For a +moment no one moved. Then Jesus, disengaging himself from the traitorous +embrace of Judas, stepped up to the guards and soldiers and again asked, "Whom +do you seek?" And again the captain said, "Jesus of Nazareth." And again +answered Jesus: "I have told you that I am he. If, therefore, you seek me, let +these others go their way. I am ready to go with you." + +Jesus was ready to go back to Jerusalem with the guards, and the captain of the +soldiers was altogether willing to allow the three apostles and their +associates to go their way in peace. But before they were able to get started, +as Jesus stood there awaiting the captain's orders, one Malchus, the Syrian +bodyguard of the high priest, stepped up to Jesus and made ready to bind his +hands behind his back, although the Roman captain had not directed that Jesus +should be thus bound. When Peter and his associates saw their Master being +subjected to this indignity, they were no longer able to restrain themselves. +Peter drew his sword and with the others rushed forward to smite Malchus. But +before the soldiers could come to the defense of the high priest's servant, +Jesus raised a forbidding hand to Peter and, speaking sternly, said: "Peter, +put up your sword. They who take the sword shall perish by the sword. Do you +not under- + + top of page - 1975 + +stand that it is the Father's will that I drink this cup? And do you not +further know that I could even now command more than twelve legions of angels +and their associates, who would deliver me from the hands of these few men?" + +While Jesus thus effectively put a stop to this show of physical resistance by +his followers, it was enough to arouse the fear of the captain of the guards, +who now, with the help of his soldiers, laid heavy hands on Jesus and quickly +bound him. And as they tied his hands with heavy cords, Jesus said to them: +"Why do you come out against me with swords and with staves as if to seize a +robber? I was daily with you in the temple, publicly teaching the people, and +you made no effort to take me." + +When Jesus had been bound, the captain, fearing that the followers of the +Master might attempt to rescue him, gave orders that they be seized; but the +soldiers were not quick enough since, having overheard the captain's orders to +arrest them, Jesus' followers fled in haste back into the ravine. All this time +John Mark had remained secluded in the near-by shed. When the guards started +back to Jerusalem with Jesus, John Mark attempted to steal out of the shed in +order to catch up with the fleeing apostles and disciples; but just as he +emerged, one of the last of the returning soldiers who had pursued the fleeing +disciples was passing near and, seeing this young man in his linen coat, gave +chase, almost overtaking him. In fact, the soldier got near enough to John to +lay hold upon his coat, but the young man freed himself from the garment, +escaping naked while the soldier held the empty coat. John Mark made his way in +all haste to David Zebedee on the upper trail. When he had told David what had +happened, they both hastened back to the tents of the sleeping apostles and +informed all eight of the Master's betrayal and arrest. + +At about the time the eight apostles were being awakened, those who had fled up +the ravine were returning, and they all gathered together near the olive press +to debate what should be done. In the meantime, Simon Peter and John Zebedee, +who had hidden among the olive trees, had already gone on after the mob of +soldiers, guards, and servants, who were now leading Jesus back to Jerusalem as +they would have led a desperate criminal. John followed close behind the mob, +but Peter followed afar off. After John Mark's escape from the clutch of the +soldier, he provided himself with a cloak which he found in the tent of Simon +Peter and John Zebedee. He suspected the guards were going to take Jesus to the +home of Annas, the high priest emeritus; so he skirted around through the olive +orchards and was there ahead of the mob, hiding near the entrance to the gate +of the high priest's palace. + +4. DISCUSSION AT THE OLIVE PRESS + +James Zebedee found himself separated from Simon Peter and his brother John, +and so he now joined the other apostles and their fellow campers at the olive +press to deliberate on what should be done in view of the Master's arrest. + +Andrew had been released from all responsibility in the group management of his +fellow apostles; accordingly, in this greatest of all crises in their lives, he +was silent. After a short informal discussion, Simon Zelotes stood up on the +stone wall of the olive press and, making an impassioned plea for loyalty to +the Master and the cause of the kingdom, exhorted his fellow apostles and the +other disciples to hasten on after the mob and effect the rescue of Jesus. The +majority of the company would have been disposed to follow his aggressive +leadership had + + top of page - 1976 + +it not been for the advice of Nathaniel, who stood up the moment Simon had +finished speaking and called their attention to Jesus' oft-repeated teachings +regarding nonresistance. He further reminded them that Jesus had that very +night instructed them that they should preserve their lives for the time when +they should go forth into the world proclaiming the good news of the gospel of +the heavenly kingdom. And Nathaniel was encouraged in this stand by James +Zebedee, who now told how Peter and others drew their swords to defend the +Master against arrest, and that Jesus bade Simon Peter and his fellow swordsmen +sheathe their blades. Matthew and Philip also made speeches, but nothing +definite came of this discussion until Thomas, calling their attention to the +fact that Jesus had counseled Lazarus against exposing himself to death, +pointed out that they could do nothing to save their Master inasmuch as he +refused to allow his friends to defend him, and since he persisted in +refraining from the use of his divine powers to frustrate his human enemies. +Thomas persuaded them to scatter, every man for himself, with the understanding +that David Zebedee would remain at the camp to maintain a clearinghouse and +messenger headquarters for the group. By half past two o'clock that morning the +camp was deserted; only David remained on hand with three or four messengers, +the others having been dispatched to secure information as to where Jesus had +been taken, and what was going to be done with him. + +Five of the apostles, Nathaniel, Matthew, Philip, and the twins, went into +hiding at Bethphage and Bethany. Thomas, Andrew, James, and Simon Zelotes were +hiding in the city. Simon Peter and John Zebedee followed along to the home of +Annas. + +Shortly after daybreak, Simon Peter wandered back to the Gethsemane camp, a +dejected picture of deep despair. David sent him in charge of a messenger to +join his brother, Andrew, who was at the home of Nicodemus in Jerusalem. + +Until the very end of the crucifixion, John Zebedee remained, as Jesus had +directed him, always near at hand, and it was he who supplied David's +messengers with information from hour to hour which they carried to David at +the garden camp, and which was then relayed to the hiding apostles and to +Jesus' family. + +Surely, the shepherd is smitten and the sheep are scattered! While they all +vaguely realize that Jesus has forewarned them of this very situation, they are +too severely shocked by the Master's sudden disappearance to be able to use +their minds normally. + +It was shortly after daylight and just after Peter had been sent to join his +brother, that Jude, Jesus' brother in the flesh, arrived in the camp, almost +breathless and in advance of the rest of Jesus' family, only to learn that the +Master had already been placed under arrest; and he hastened back down the +Jericho road to carry this information to his mother and to his brothers and +sisters. David Zebedee sent word to Jesus' family, by Jude, to forgather at the +house of Martha and Mary in Bethany and there await news which his messengers +would regularly bring them. + +This was the situation during the last half of Thursday night and the early +morning hours of Friday as regards the apostles, the chief disciples, and the +earthly family of Jesus. And all these groups and individuals were kept in +touch with each other by the messenger service which David Zebedee continued to +operate from his headquarters at the Gethsemane camp. + + top of page - 1977 + +5. ON THE WAY TO THE HIGH PRIEST'S PALACE + +Before they started away from the garden with Jesus, a dispute arose between +the Jewish captain of the temple guards and the Roman captain of the company of +soldiers as to where they were to take Jesus. The captain of the temple guards +gave orders that he should be taken to Caiaphas, the acting high priest. The +captain of the Roman soldiers directed that Jesus be taken to the palace of +Annas, the former high priest and father-in-law of Caiaphas. And this he did +because the Romans were in the habit of dealing directly with Annas in all +matters having to do with the enforcement of the Jewish ecclesiastical laws. +And the orders of the Roman captain were obeyed; they took Jesus to the home of +Annas for his preliminary examination. + +Judas marched along near the captains, overhearing all that was said, but took +no part in the dispute, for neither the Jewish captain nor the Roman officer +would so much as speak to the betrayer--they held him in such contempt. + +About this time John Zebedee, remembering his Master's instructions to remain +always near at hand, hurried up near Jesus as he marched along between the two +captains. The commander of the temple guards, seeing John come up alongside, +said to his assistant: "Take this man and bind him. He is one of this fellow's +followers." But when the Roman captain heard this and, looking around, saw +John, he gave orders that the apostle should come over by him, and that no man +should molest him. Then the Roman captain said to the Jewish captain: "This man +is neither a traitor nor a coward. I saw him in the garden, and he did not draw +a sword to resist us. He has the courage to come forward to be with his Master, +and no man shall lay hands on him. The Roman law allows that any prisoner may +have at least one friend to stand with him before the judgment bar, and this +man shall not be prevented from standing by the side of his Master, the +prisoner." And when Judas heard this, he was so ashamed and humiliated that he +dropped back behind the marchers, coming up to the palace of Annas alone. + +And this explains why John Zebedee was permitted to remain near Jesus all the +way through his trying experiences this night and the next day. The Jews feared +to say aught to John or to molest him in any way because he had something of +the status of a Roman counselor designated to act as observer of the +transactions of the Jewish ecclesiastical court. John's position of privilege +was made all the more secure when, in turning Jesus over to the captain of the +temple guards at the gate of Annas's palace, the Roman, addressing his +assistant, said: "Go along with this prisoner and see that these Jews do not +kill him without Pilate's consent. Watch that they do not assassinate him, and +see that his friend, the Galilean, is permitted to stand by and observe all +that goes on." And thus was John able to be near Jesus right on up to the time +of his death on the cross, though the other ten apostles were compelled to +remain in hiding. John was acting under Roman protection, and the Jews dared +not molest him until after the Master's death. + +And all the way to the palace of Annas, Jesus opened not his mouth. From the +time of his arrest to the time of his appearance before Annas, the Son of Man +spoke no word. + + top of page - 1978 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ In Gethsemane ³ Before The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ³ Sanh... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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Before The Sanhedrin + Court +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 184 Before The Sanhedrin Court + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +REPRESENTATIVES of Annas had secretly instructed the captain of the Roman +soldiers to bring Jesus immediately to the palace of Annas after he had been +arrested. The former high priest desired to maintain his prestige as the chief +ecclesiastical authority of the Jews. He also had another purpose in detaining +Jesus at his house for several hours, and that was to allow time for legally +calling together the court of the Sanhedrin. It was not lawful to convene the +Sanhedrin court before the time of the offering of the morning sacrifice in the +temple, and this sacrifice was offered about three o'clock in the morning. + +Annas knew that a court of Sanhedrists was in waiting at the palace of his +son-in-law, Caiaphas. Some thirty members of the Sanhedrin had gathered at the +home of the high priest by midnight so that they would be ready to sit in +judgment on Jesus when he might be brought before them. Only those members were +assembled who were strongly and openly opposed to Jesus and his teaching since +it required only twenty-three to constitute a trial court. + +Jesus spent about three hours at the palace of Annas on Mount Olivet, not far +from the garden of Gethsemane, where they arrested him. John Zebedee was free +and safe in the palace of Annas not only because of the word of the Roman +captain, but also because he and his brother James were well known to the older +servants, having many times been guests at the palace as the former high priest +was a distant relative of their mother, Salome. + +1. EXAMINATION BY ANNAS + +Annas, enriched by the temple revenues, his son-in-law the acting high priest, +and with his relations to the Roman authorities, was indeed the most powerful +single individual in all Jewry. He was a suave and politic planner and plotter. +He desired to direct the matter of disposing of Jesus; he feared to trust such +an important undertaking wholly to his brusque and aggressive son-in-law. Annas +wanted to make sure that the Master's trial was kept in the hands of the +Sadducees; he feared the possible sympathy of some of the Pharisees, seeing +that practically all of those members of the Sanhedrin who had espoused the +cause of Jesus were Pharisees. + +Annas had not seen Jesus for several years, not since the time when the Master +called at his house and immediately left upon observing his coldness and +reserve in receiving him. Annas had thought to presume on this early +acquaintance and thereby attempt to persuade Jesus to abandon his claims and +leave Palestine. He was reluctant to participate in the murder of a good man +and had reasoned that Jesus might choose to leave the country rather than + + top of page - 1979 + +to suffer death. But when Annas stood before the stalwart and determined +Galilean, he knew at once that it would be useless to make such proposals. +Jesus was even more majestic and well poised than Annas remembered him. + +When Jesus was young, Annas had taken a great interest in him, but now his +revenues were threatened by what Jesus had so recently done in driving the +money-changers and other commercial traders out of the temple. This act had +aroused the enmity of the former high priest far more than had Jesus' +teachings. + +Annas entered his spacious audience chamber, seated himself in a large chair, +and commanded that Jesus be brought before him. After a few moments spent in +silently surveying the Master, he said: "You realize that something must be +done about your teaching since you are disturbing the peace and order of our +country." As Annas looked inquiringly at Jesus, the Master looked full into his +eyes but made no reply. Again Annas spoke, "What are the names of your +disciples, besides Simon Zelotes, the agitator?" Again Jesus looked down upon +him, but he did not answer. + +Annas was considerably disturbed by Jesus' refusal to answer his questions, so +much so that he said to him: "Do you have no care as to whether I am friendly +to you or not? Do you have no regard for the power I have in determining the +issues of your coming trial?" When Jesus heard this, he said: "Annas, you know +that you could have no power over me unless it were permitted by my Father. +Some would destroy the Son of Man because they are ignorant; they know no +better, but you, friend, know what you are doing. How can you, therefore, +reject the light of God?" + +The kindly manner in which Jesus spoke to Annas almost bewildered him. But he +had already determined in his mind that Jesus must either leave Palestine or +die; so he summoned up his courage and asked: "Just what is it you are trying +to teach the people? What do you claim to be?" Jesus answered: "You know full +well that I have spoken openly to the world. I have taught in the synagogues +and many times in the temple, where all the Jews and many of the gentiles have +heard me. In secret I have spoken nothing; why, then, do you ask me about my +teaching? Why do you not summon those who have heard me and inquire of them? +Behold, all Jerusalem has heard that which I have spoken even if you have not +yourself heard these teachings." But before Annas could make reply, the chief +steward of the palace, who was standing near, struck Jesus in the face with his +hand, saying, "How dare you answer the high priest with such words?" Annas +spoke no words of rebuke to his steward, but Jesus addressed him, saying, "My +friend, if I have spoken evil, bear witness against the evil; but if I have +spoken the truth, why, then, should you smite me?" + +Although Annas regretted that his steward had struck Jesus, he was too proud to +take notice of the matter. In his confusion he went into another room, leaving +Jesus alone with the household attendants and the temple guards for almost an +hour. + +When he returned, going up to the Master's side, he said, "Do you claim to be +the Messiah, the deliverer of Israel?" Said Jesus: "Annas, you have known me +from the times of my youth. You know that I claim to be nothing except that +which my Father has appointed, and that I have been sent to all men, gentile as +well as Jew." Then said Annas: "I have been told that you have claimed to be +the Messiah; is that true?" Jesus looked upon Annas but only replied, "So you +have said." + + top of page - 1980 + +About this time messengers arrived from the palace of Caiaphas to inquire what +time Jesus would be brought before the court of the Sanhedrin, and since it was +nearing the break of day, Annas thought best to send Jesus bound and in the +custody of the temple guards to Caiaphas. He himself followed after them +shortly. + +2. PETER IN THE COURTYARD + +As the band of guards and soldiers approached the entrance to the palace of +Annas, John Zebedee was marching by the side of the captain of the Roman +soldiers. Judas had dropped some distance behind, and Simon Peter followed afar +off. After John had entered the palace courtyard with Jesus and the guards, +Judas came up to the gate but, seeing Jesus and John, went on over to the home +of Caiaphas, where he knew the real trial of the Master would later take place. +Soon after Judas had left, Simon Peter arrived, and as he stood before the +gate, John saw him just as they were about to take Jesus into the palace. The +portress who kept the gate knew John, and when he spoke to her, requesting that +she let Peter in, she gladly assented. + +Peter, upon entering the courtyard, went over to the charcoal fire and sought +to warm himself, for the night was chilly. He felt very much out of place here +among the enemies of Jesus, and indeed he was out of place. The Master had not +instructed him to keep near at hand as he had admonished John. Peter belonged +with the other apostles, who had been specifically warned not to endanger their +lives during these times of the trial and crucifixion of their Master. + +Peter threw away his sword shortly before he came up to the palace gate so that +he entered the courtyard of Annas unarmed. His mind was in a whirl of +confusion; he could scarcely realize that Jesus had been arrested. He could not +grasp the reality of the situation--that he was here in the courtyard of Annas, +warming himself beside the servants of the high priest. He wondered what the +other apostles were doing and, in turning over in his mind as to how John came +to be admitted to the palace, concluded that it was because he was known to the +servants, since he had bidden the gate-keeper admit him. + +Shortly after the portress let Peter in, and while he was warming himself by +the fire, she went over to him and mischievously said, "Are you not also one of +this man's disciples?" Now Peter should not have been surprised at this +recognition, for it was John who had requested that the girl let him pass +through the palace gates; but he was in such a tense nervous state that this +identification as a disciple threw him off his balance, and with only one +thought uppermost in his mind--the thought of escaping with his life--he +promptly answered the maid's question by saying, "I am not." + +Very soon another servant came up to Peter and asked: "Did I not see you in the +garden when they arrested this fellow? Are you not also one of his followers?" +Peter was now thoroughly alarmed; he saw no way of safely escaping from these +accusers; so he vehemently denied all connection with Jesus, saying, "I know +not this man, neither am I one of his followers." + +About this time the portress of the gate drew Peter to one side and said: "I am +sure you are a disciple of this Jesus, not only because one of his followers +bade me let you in the courtyard, but my sister here has seen you in the temple +with this man. Why do you deny this?" When Peter heard the maid accuse him, he +denied all knowledge of Jesus with much cursing and swearing, again saying, + + top of page - 1981 + +"I am not this man's follower; I do not even know him; I never heard of him +before." + +Peter left the fireside for a time while he walked about the courtyard. He +would have liked to have escaped, but he feared to attract attention to +himself. Getting cold, he returned to the fireside, and one of the men standing +near him said: "Surely you are one of this man's disciples. This Jesus is a +Galilean, and your speech betrays you, for you also speak as a Galilean." And +again Peter denied all connection with his Master. + +Peter was so perturbed that he sought to escape contact with his accusers by +going away from the fire and remaining by himself on the porch. After more than +an hour of this isolation, the gate-keeper and her sister chanced to meet him, +and both of them again teasingly charged him with being a follower of Jesus. +And again he denied the accusation. Just as he had once more denied all +connection with Jesus, the cock crowed, and Peter remembered the words of +warning spoken to him by his Master earlier that same night. As he stood there, +heavy of heart and crushed with the sense of guilt, the palace doors opened, +and the guards led Jesus past on the way to Caiaphas. As the Master passed +Peter, he saw, by the light of the torches, the look of despair on the face of +his former self-confident and superficially brave apostle, and he turned and +looked upon Peter. Peter never forgot that look as long as he lived. It was +such a glance of commingled pity and love as mortal man had never beheld in the +face of the Master. + +After Jesus and the guards passed out of the palace gates, Peter followed them, +but only for a short distance. He could not go farther. He sat down by the side +of the road and wept bitterly. And when he had shed these tears of agony, he +turned his steps back toward the camp, hoping to find his brother, Andrew. On +arriving at the camp, he found only David Zebedee, who sent a messenger to +direct him to where his brother had gone to hide in Jerusalem. + +Peter's entire experience occurred in the courtyard of the palace of Annas on +Mount Olivet. He did not follow Jesus to the palace of the high priest, +Caiaphas. That Peter was brought to the realization that he had repeatedly +denied his Master by the crowing of a cock indicates that this all occurred +outside of Jerusalem since it was against the law to keep poultry within the +city proper. + +Until the crowing of the cock brought Peter to his better senses, he had only +thought, as he walked up and down the porch to keep warm, how cleverly he had +eluded the accusations of the servants, and how he had frustrated their purpose +to identify him with Jesus. For the time being, he had only considered that +these servants had no moral or legal right thus to question him, and he really +congratulated himself over the manner in which he thought he had avoided being +identified and possibly subjected to arrest and imprisonment. Not until the +cock crowed did it occur to Peter that he had denied his Master. Not until +Jesus looked upon him, did he realize that he had failed to live up to his +privileges as an ambassador of the kingdom. + +Having taken the first step along the path of compromise and least resistance, +there was nothing apparent to Peter but to go on with the course of conduct +decided upon. It requires a great and noble character, having started out +wrong, to turn about and go right. All too often one's own mind tends to +justify continuance in the path of error when once it is entered upon. + + top of page - 1982 + +Peter never fully believed that he could be forgiven until he met his Master +after the resurrection and saw that he was received just as before the +experiences of this tragic night of the denials. + +3. BEFORE THE COURT OF SANHEDRISTS + +It was about half past three o'clock this Friday morning when the chief priest, +Caiaphas, called the Sanhedrist court of inquiry to order and asked that Jesus +be brought before them for his formal trial. On three previous occasions the +Sanhedrin, by a large majority vote, had decreed the death of Jesus, had +decided that he was worthy of death on informal charges of law-breaking, +blasphemy, and flouting the traditions of the fathers of Israel. + +This was not a regularly called meeting of the Sanhedrin and was not held in +the usual place, the chamber of hewn stone in the temple. This was a special +trial court of some thirty Sanhedrists and was convened in the palace of the +high priest. John Zebedee was present with Jesus throughout this so-called +trial. + +How these chief priests, scribes, Sadducees, and some of the Pharisees +flattered themselves that Jesus, the disturber of their position and the +challenger of their authority, was now securely in their hands! And they were +resolved that he should never live to escape their vengeful clutches. + +Ordinarily, the Jews, when trying a man on a capital charge, proceeded with +great caution and provided every safeguard of fairness in the selection of +witnesses and the entire conduct of the trial. But on this occasion, Caiaphas +was more of a prosecutor than an unbiased judge. + +Jesus appeared before this court clothed in his usual garments and with his +hands bound together behind his back. The entire court was startled and +somewhat confused by his majestic appearance. Never had they gazed upon such a +prisoner nor witnessed such composure in a man on trial for his life. + +The Jewish law required that at least two witnesses must agree upon any point +before a charge could be laid against the prisoner. Judas could not be used as +a witness against Jesus because the Jewish law specifically forbade the +testimony of a traitor. More than a score of false witnesses were on hand to +testify against Jesus, but their testimony was so contradictory and so +evidently trumped up that the Sanhedrists themselves were very much ashamed of +the performance. Jesus stood there, looking down benignly upon these perjurers, +and his very countenance disconcerted the lying witnesses. Throughout all this +false testimony the Master never said a word; he made no reply to their many +false accusations. + +The first time any two of their witnesses approached even the semblance of an +agreement was when two men testified that they had heard Jesus say in the +course of one of his temple discourses that he would "destroy this temple made +with hands and in three days make another temple without hands." That was not +exactly what Jesus said, regardless of the fact that he pointed to his own body +when he made the remark referred to. + +Although the high priest shouted at Jesus, "Do you not answer any of these +charges?" Jesus opened not his mouth. He stood there in silence while all of +these false witnesses gave their testimony. Hatred, fanaticism, and +unscrupulous exaggeration so characterized the words of these perjurers that +their testimony + + top of page - 1983 + +fell in its own entanglements. The very best refutation of their false +accusations was the Master's calm and majestic silence. + +Shortly after the beginning of the testimony of the false witnesses, Annas +arrived and took his seat beside Caiaphas. Annas now arose and argued that this +threat of Jesus to destroy the temple was sufficient to warrant three charges +against him: + +1. That he was a dangerous traducer of the people. That he taught them +impossible things and otherwise deceived them. + +2. That he was a fanatical revolutionist in that he advocated laying violent +hands on the sacred temple, else how could he destroy it? + +3. That he taught magic inasmuch as he promised to build a new temple, and that +without hands. + +Already had the full Sanhedrin agreed that Jesus was guilty of death-deserving +transgressions of the Jewish laws, but they were now more concerned with +developing charges regarding his conduct and teachings which would justify +Pilate in pronouncing the death sentence upon their prisoner. They knew that +they must secure the consent of the Roman governor before Jesus could legally +be put to death. And Annas was minded to proceed along the line of making it +appear that Jesus was a dangerous teacher to be abroad among the people. + +But Caiaphas could not longer endure the sight of the Master standing there in +perfect composure and unbroken silence. He thought he knew at least one way in +which the prisoner might be induced to speak. Accordingly, he rushed over to +the side of Jesus and, shaking his accusing finger in the Master's face, said: +"I adjure you, in the name of the living God, that you tell us whether you are +the Deliverer, the Son of God." Jesus answered Caiaphas: "I am. Soon I go to +the Father, and presently shall the Son of Man be clothed with power and once +more reign over the hosts of heaven." + +When the high priest heard Jesus utter these words, he was exceedingly angry, +and rending his outer garments, he exclaimed: "What further need have we of +witnesses? Behold, now have you all heard this man's blasphemy. What do you now +think should be done with this law-breaker and blasphemer?" And they all +answered in unison, "He is worthy of death; let him be crucified." + +Jesus manifested no interest in any question asked him when before Annas or the +Sanhedrists except the one question relative to his bestowal mission. When +asked if he were the Son of God, he instantly and unequivocally answered in the +affirmative. + +Annas desired that the trial proceed further, and that charges of a definite +nature regarding Jesus' relation to the Roman law and Roman institutions be +formulated for subsequent presentation to Pilate. The councilors were anxious +to carry these matters to a speedy termination, not only because it was the +preparation day for the Passover and no secular work should be done after noon, +but also because they feared Pilate might any time return to the Roman capital +of Judea, Caesarea, since he was in Jerusalem only for the Passover +celebration. + +But Annas did not succeed in keeping control of the court. After Jesus had so +unexpectedly answered Caiaphas, the high priest stepped forward and smote him +in the face with his hand. Annas was truly shocked as the other members of the +court, in passing out of the room, spit in Jesus' face, and many of them +mockingly slapped him with the palms of their hands. And thus in disorder and + + top of page - 1984 + +with such unheard-of confusion this first session of the Sanhedrist trial of +Jesus ended at half past four o'clock. + +Thirty prejudiced and tradition-blinded false judges, with their false +witnesses, are presuming to sit in judgment on the righteous Creator of a +universe. And these impassioned accusers are exasperated by the majestic +silence and superb bearing of this God-man. His silence is terrible to endure; +his speech is fearlessly defiant. He is unmoved by their threats and undaunted +by their assaults. Man sits in judgment on God, but even then he loves them and +would save them if he could. + +4. THE HOUR OF HUMILIATION + +The Jewish law required that, in the matter of passing the death sentence, +there should be two sessions of the court. This second session was to be held +on the day following the first, and the intervening time was to be spent in +fasting and mourning by the members of the court. But these men could not await +the next day for the confirmation of their decision that Jesus must die. They +waited only one hour. In the meantime Jesus was left in the audience chamber in +the custody of the temple guards, who, with the servants of the high priest, +amused themselves by heaping every sort of indignity upon the Son of Man. They +mocked him, spit upon him, and cruelly buffeted him. They would strike him in +the face with a rod and then say, "Prophesy to us, you the Deliverer, who it +was that struck you." And thus they went on for one full hour, reviling and +mistreating this unresisting man of Galilee. + +During this tragic hour of suffering and mock trials before the ignorant and +unfeeling guards and servants, John Zebedee waited in lonely terror in an +adjoining room. When these abuses first started, Jesus indicated to John, by a +nod of his head, that he should retire. The Master well knew that, if he +permitted his apostle to remain in the room to witness these indignities, +John's resentment would be so aroused as to produce such an outbreak of +protesting indignation as would probably result in his death. + +Throughout this awful hour Jesus uttered no word. To this gentle and sensitive +soul of humankind, joined in personality relationship with the God of all this +universe, there was no more bitter portion of his cup of humiliation than this +terrible hour at the mercy of these ignorant and cruel guards and servants, who +had been stimulated to abuse him by the example of the members of this +so-called Sanhedrist court. + +The human heart cannot possibly conceive of the shudder of indignation that +swept out over a vast universe as the celestial intelligences witnessed this +sight of their beloved Sovereign submitting himself to the will of his ignorant +and misguided creatures on the sin-darkened sphere of unfortunate Urantia. + +What is this trait of the animal in man which leads him to want to insult and +physically assault that which he cannot spiritually attain or intellectually +achieve? In the half-civilized man there still lurks an evil brutality which +seeks to vent itself upon those who are superior in wisdom and spiritual +attainment. Witness the evil coarseness and the brutal ferocity of these +supposedly civilized men as they derived a certain form of animal pleasure from +this physical attack upon the unresisting Son of Man. As these insults, taunts, +and blows fell upon + + top of page - 1985 + +Jesus, he was undefending but not defenseless. Jesus was not vanquished, merely +uncontending in the material sense. + +These are the moments of the Master's greatest victories in all his long and +eventful career as maker, upholder, and savior of a vast and far-flung +universe. Having lived to the full a life of revealing God to man, Jesus is now +engaged in making a new and unprecedented revelation of man to God. Jesus is +now revealing to the worlds the final triumph over all fears of creature +personality isolation. The Son of Man has finally achieved the realization of +identity as the Son of God. Jesus does not hesitate to assert that he and the +Father are one; and on the basis of the fact and truth of that supreme and +supernal experience, he admonishes every kingdom believer to become one with +him even as he and his Father are one. The living experience in the religion of +Jesus thus becomes the sure and certain technique whereby the spiritually +isolated and cosmically lonely mortals of earth are enabled to escape +personality isolation, with all its consequences of fear and associated +feelings of helplessness. In the fraternal realities of the kingdom of heaven +the faith sons of God find final deliverance from the isolation of the self, +both personal and planetary. The God-knowing believer increasingly experiences +the ecstasy and grandeur of spiritual socialization on a universe +scale--citizenship on high in association with the eternal realization of the +divine destiny of perfection attainment. + +5. THE SECOND MEETING OF THE COURT + +At five-thirty o'clock the court reassembled, and Jesus was led into the +adjoining room, where John was waiting. Here the Roman soldier and the temple +guards watched over Jesus while the court began the formulation of the charges +which were to be presented to Pilate. Annas made it clear to his associates +that the charge of blasphemy would carry no weight with Pilate. Judas was +present during this second meeting of the court, but he gave no testimony. + +This session of the court lasted only a half hour, and when they adjourned to +go before Pilate, they had drawn up the indictment of Jesus, as being worthy of +death, under three heads: + +1. That he was a perverter of the Jewish nation; he deceived the people and +incited them to rebellion. + +2. That he taught the people to refuse to pay tribute to Caesar. + +3. That, by claiming to be a king and the founder of a new sort of kingdom, he +incited treason against the emperor. + +This entire procedure was irregular and wholly contrary to the Jewish laws. No +two witnesses had agreed on any matter except those who testified regarding +Jesus' statement about destroying the temple and raising it again in three +days. And even concerning that point, no witnesses spoke for the defense, and +neither was Jesus asked to explain his intended meaning. + +The only point the court could have consistently judged him on was that of +blasphemy, and that would have rested entirely on his own testimony. Even +concerning blasphemy, they failed to cast a formal ballot for the death +sentence. + +And now they presumed to formulate three charges, with which to go before +Pilate, on which no witnesses had been heard, and which were agreed upon while +the accused prisoner was absent. When this was done, three of the Pharisees +took + + top of page - 1986 + +their leave; they wanted to see Jesus destroyed, but they would not formulate +charges against him without witnesses and in his absence. + +Jesus did not again appear before the Sanhedrist court. They did not want again +to look upon his face as they sat in judgment upon his innocent life. Jesus did +not know (as a man) of their formal charges until he heard them recited by +Pilate. + +While Jesus was in the room with John and the guards, and while the court was +in its second session, some of the women about the high priest's palace, +together with their friends, came to look upon the strange prisoner, and one of +them asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?" And Jesus answered: "If +I tell you, you will not believe me; and if I ask you, you will not answer." + +At six o'clock that morning Jesus was led forth from the home of Caiaphas to +appear before Pilate for confirmation of the sentence of death which this +Sanhedrist court had so unjustly and irregularly decreed. + + top of page - 1987 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Betrayal ³ The Trial ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ An... ³ Befor... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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The Trial Before + Pilate +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 185 The Trial Before Pilate + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +SHORTLY after six o'clock on this Friday morning, April 7, A.D. 30, Jesus was +brought before Pilate, the Roman procurator who governed Judea, Samaria, and +Idumea under the immediate supervision of the legatus of Syria. The Master was +taken into the presence of the Roman governor by the temple guards, bound, and +was accompanied by about fifty of his accusers, including the Sanhedrist court +(principally Sadduceans), Judas Iscariot, and the high priest, Caiaphas, and by +the Apostle John. Annas did not appear before Pilate. + +Pilate was up and ready to receive this group of early morning callers, having +been informed by those who had secured his consent, the previous evening, to +employ the Roman soldiers in arresting the Son of Man, that Jesus would be +early brought before him. This trial was arranged to take place in front of the +praetorium, an addition to the fortress of Antonia, where Pilate and his wife +made their headquarters when stopping in Jerusalem. + +Though Pilate conducted much of Jesus' examination within the praetorium halls, +the public trial was held outside on the steps leading up to the main entrance. +This was a concession to the Jews, who refused to enter any gentile building +where leaven might be used on this day of preparation for the Passover. Such +conduct would not only render them ceremonially unclean and thereby debar them +from partaking of the afternoon feast of thanksgiving but would also +necessitate their subjection to purification ceremonies after sundown, before +they would be eligible to partake of the Passover supper. + +Although these Jews were not at all bothered in conscience as they intrigued to +effect the judicial murder of Jesus, they were nonetheless scrupulous regarding +all these matters of ceremonial cleanness and traditional regularity. And these +Jews have not been the only ones to fail in the recognition of high and holy +obligations of a divine nature while giving meticulous attention to things of +trifling importance to human welfare in both time and eternity. + +1. PONTIUS PILATE + +If Pontius Pilate had not been a reasonably good governor of the minor +provinces, Tiberius would hardly have suffered him to remain as procurator of +Judea for ten years. Although he was a fairly good administrator, he was a +moral coward. He was not a big enough man to comprehend the nature of his task +as governor of the Jews. He failed to grasp the fact that these Hebrews had a +real religion, a faith for which they were willing to die, and that millions +upon millions of them, scattered here and there throughout the empire, looked +to Jerusalem as the shrine of their faith and held the Sanhedrin in respect as +the highest tribunal on earth. + + top of page - 1988 + +Pilate did not love the Jews, and this deep-seated hatred early began to +manifest itself. Of all the Roman provinces, none was more difficult to govern +than Judea. Pilate never really understood the problems involved in the +management of the Jews and, therefore, very early in his experience as +governor, made a series of almost fatal and well-nigh suicidal blunders. And it +was these blunders that gave the Jews such power over him. When they wanted to +influence his decisions, all they had to do was to threaten an uprising, and +Pilate would speedily capitulate. And this apparent vacillation, or lack of +moral courage, of the procurator was chiefly due to the memory of a number of +controversies he had had with the Jews and because in each instance they had +worsted him. The Jews knew that Pilate was afraid of them, that he feared for +his position before Tiberius, and they employed this knowledge to the great +disadvantage of the governor on numerous occasions. + +Pilate's disfavor with the Jews came about as a result of a number of +unfortunate encounters. First, he failed to take seriously their deep-seated +prejudice against all images as symbols of idol worship. Therefore he permitted +his soldiers to enter Jerusalem without removing the images of Caesar from +their banners, as had been the practice of the Roman soldiers under his +predecessor. A large deputation of Jews waited upon Pilate for five days, +imploring him to have these images removed from the military standards. He +flatly refused to grant their petition and threatened them with instant death. +Pilate, himself being a skeptic, did not understand that men of strong +religious feelings will not hesitate to die for their religious convictions; +and therefore was he dismayed when these Jews drew themselves up defiantly +before his palace, bowed their faces to the ground, and sent word that they +were ready to die. Pilate then realized that he had made a threat which he was +unwilling to carry out. He surrendered, ordered the images removed from the +standards of his soldiers in Jerusalem, and found himself from that day on to a +large extent subject to the whims of the Jewish leaders, who had in this way +discovered his weakness in making threats which he feared to execute. + +Pilate subsequently determined to regain this lost prestige and accordingly had +the shields of the emperor, such as were commonly used in Caesar worship, put +up on the walls of Herod's palace in Jerusalem. When the Jews protested, he was +adamant. When he refused to listen to their protests, they promptly appealed to +Rome, and the emperor as promptly ordered the offending shields removed. And +then was Pilate held in even lower esteem than before. + +Another thing which brought him into great disfavor with the Jews was that he +dared to take money from the temple treasury to pay for the construction of a +new aqueduct to provide increased water supply for the millions of visitors to +Jerusalem at the times of the great religious feasts. The Jews held that only +the Sanhedrin could disburse the temple funds, and they never ceased to inveigh +against Pilate for this presumptuous ruling. No less than a score of riots and +much bloodshed resulted from this decision. The last of these serious outbreaks +had to do with the slaughter of a large company of Galileans even as they +worshiped at the altar. + +It is significant that, while this vacillating Roman ruler sacrificed Jesus to +his fear of the Jews and to safeguard his personal position, he finally was +deposed as a result of the needless slaughter of Samaritans in connection with +the preten- + + top of page - 1989 + +sions of a false Messiah who led troops to Mount Gerizim, where he claimed the +temple vessels were buried; and fierce riots broke out when he failed to reveal +the hiding place of the sacred vessels, as he had promised. As a result of this +episode, the legatus of Syria ordered Pilate to Rome. Tiberius died while +Pilate was on the way to Rome, and he was not reappointed as procurator of +Judea. He never fully recovered from the regretful condemnation of having +consented to the crucifixion of Jesus. Finding no favor in the eyes of the new +emperor, he retired to the province of Lausanne, where he subsequently +committed suicide. + +Claudia Procula, Pilate's wife, had heard much of Jesus through the word of her +maid-in-waiting, who was a Phoenician believer in the gospel of the kingdom. +After the death of Pilate, Claudia became prominently identified with the +spread of the good news. + +And all this explains much that transpired on this tragic Friday forenoon. It +is easy to understand why the Jews presumed to dictate to Pilate--to get him up +at six o'clock to try Jesus--and also why they did not hesitate to threaten to +charge him with treason before the emperor if he dared to refuse their demands +for Jesus' death. + +A worthy Roman governor who had not become disadvantageously involved with the +rulers of the Jews would never have permitted these bloodthirsty religious +fanatics to bring about the death of a man whom he himself had declared to be +innocent of their false charges and without fault. Rome made a great blunder, a +far-reaching error in earthly affairs, when she sent the second-rate Pilate to +govern Palestine. Tiberius had better have sent to the Jews the best provincial +administrator in the empire. + +2. JESUS APPEARS BEFORE PILATE + +When Jesus and his accusers had gathered in front of Pilate's judgment hall, +the Roman governor came out and, addressing the company assembled, asked, "What +accusation do you bring against this fellow?" The Sadducees and councilors who +had taken it upon themselves to put Jesus out of the way had determined to go +before Pilate and ask for confirmation of the death sentence pronounced upon +Jesus, without volunteering any definite charge. Therefore did the spokesman +for the Sanhedrist court answer Pilate: "If this man were not an evildoer, we +should not have delivered him up to you." + +When Pilate observed that they were reluctant to state their charges against +Jesus, although he knew they had been all night engaged in deliberations +regarding his guilt, he answered them: "Since you have not agreed on any +definite charges, why do you not take this man and pass judgment on him in +accordance with your own laws?" + +Then spoke the clerk of the Sanhedrin court to Pilate: "It is not lawful for us +to put any man to death, and this disturber of our nation is worthy to die for +the things which he has said and done. Therefore have we come before you for +confirmation of this decree." + +To come before the Roman governor with this attempt at evasion discloses both +the ill-will and the ill-humor of the Sanhedrists toward Jesus as well as their +lack of respect for the fairness, honor, and dignity of Pilate. What effrontery +for these subject citizens to appear before their provincial governor + + top of page - 1990 + +asking for a decree of execution against a man before affording him a fair +trial and without even preferring definite criminal charges against him! + +Pilate knew something of Jesus' work among the Jews, and he surmised that the +charges which might be brought against him had to do with infringements of the +Jewish ecclesiastical laws; therefore he sought to refer the case back to their +own tribunal. Again, Pilate took delight in making them publicly confess that +they were powerless to pronounce and execute the death sentence upon even one +of their own race whom they had come to despise with a bitter and envious +hatred. + +It was a few hours previously, shortly before midnight and after he had granted +permission to use Roman soldiers in effecting the secret arrest of Jesus, that +Pilate had heard further concerning Jesus and his teaching from his wife, +Claudia, who was a partial convert to Judaism, and who later on became a +full-fledged believer in Jesus' gospel. + +Pilate would have liked to postpone this hearing, but he saw the Jewish leaders +were determined to proceed with the case. He knew that this was not only the +forenoon of preparation for the Passover, but that this day, being Friday, was +also the preparation day for the Jewish Sabbath of rest and worship. + +Pilate, being keenly sensitive to the disrespectful manner of the approach of +these Jews, was not willing to comply with their demands that Jesus be +sentenced to death without a trial. When, therefore, he had waited a few +moments for them to present their charges against the prisoner, he turned to +them and said: "I will not sentence this man to death without a trial; neither +will I consent to examine him until you have presented your charges against him +in writing." + +When the high priest and the others heard Pilate say this, they signaled to the +clerk of the court, who then handed to Pilate the written charges against +Jesus. And these charges were: + +"We find in the Sanhedrist tribunal that this man is an evildoer and a +disturber of our nation in that he is guilty of: + +"1. Perverting our nation and stirring up our people to rebellion. + +"2. Forbidding the people to pay tribute to Caesar. + +"3. Calling himself the king of the Jews and teaching the founding of a new +kingdom." + +Jesus had not been regularly tried nor legally convicted on any of these +charges. He did not even hear these charges when first stated, but Pilate had +him brought from the praetorium, where he was in the keeping of the guards, and +he insisted that these charges be repeated in Jesus' hearing. + +When Jesus heard these accusations, he well knew that he had not been heard on +these matters before the Jewish court, and so did John Zebedee and his +accusers, but he made no reply to their false charges. Even when Pilate bade +him answer his accusers, he opened not his mouth. Pilate was so astonished at +the unfairness of the whole proceeding and so impressed by Jesus' silent and +masterly bearing that he decided to take the prisoner inside the hall and +examine him privately. + +Pilate was confused in mind, fearful of the Jews in his heart, and mightily +stirred in his spirit by the spectacle of Jesus' standing there in majesty +before his bloodthirsty accusers and gazing down on them, not in silent +contempt, but with an expression of genuine pity and sorrowful affection. + + top of page - 1991 + +3. THE PRIVATE EXAMINATION BY PILATE + +Pilate took Jesus and John Zebedee into a private chamber, leaving the guards +outside in the hall, and requesting the prisoner to sit down, he sat down by +his side and asked several questions. Pilate began his talk with Jesus by +assuring him that he did not believe the first count against him: that he was a +perverter of the nation and an inciter to rebellion. Then he asked, "Did you +ever teach that tribute should be refused Caesar?" Jesus, pointing to John, +said, "Ask him or any other man who has heard my teaching." Then Pilate +questioned John about this matter of tribute, and John testified concerning his +Master's teaching and explained that Jesus and his apostles paid taxes both to +Caesar and to the temple. When Pilate had questioned John, he said, "See that +you tell no man that I talked with you." And John never did reveal this matter. + +Pilate then turned around to question Jesus further, saying: "And now about the +third accusation against you, are you the king of the Jews?" Since there was a +tone of possibly sincere inquiry in Pilate's voice, Jesus smiled on the +procurator and said: "Pilate, do you ask this for yourself, or do you take this +question from these others, my accusers?" Whereupon, in a tone of partial +indignation, the governor answered: "Am I a Jew? Your own people and the chief +priests delivered you up and asked me to sentence you to death. I question the +validity of their charges and am only trying to find out for myself what you +have done. Tell me, have you said that you are the king of the Jews, and have +you sought to found a new kingdom?" + +Then said Jesus to Pilate: "Do you not perceive that my kingdom is not of this +world? If my kingdom were of this world, surely would my disciples fight that I +should not be delivered into the hands of the Jews. My presence here before you +in these bonds is sufficient to show all men that my kingdom is a spiritual +dominion, even the brotherhood of men who, through faith and by love, have +become the sons of God. And this salvation is for the gentile as well as for +the Jew." + +"Then you are a king after all?" said Pilate. And Jesus answered: "Yes, I am +such a king, and my kingdom is the family of the faith sons of my Father who is +in heaven. For this purpose was I born into this world, even that I should show +my Father to all men and bear witness to the truth of God. And even now do I +declare to you that every one who loves the truth hears my voice." + +Then said Pilate, half in ridicule and half in sincerity, "Truth, what is +truth--who knows?" + +Pilate was not able to fathom Jesus' words, nor was he able to understand the +nature of his spiritual kingdom, but he was now certain that the prisoner had +done nothing worthy of death. One look at Jesus, face to face, was enough to +convince even Pilate that this gentle and weary, but majestic and upright, man +was no wild and dangerous revolutionary who aspired to establish himself on the +temporal throne of Israel. Pilate thought he understood something of what Jesus +meant when he called himself a king, for he was familiar with the teachings of +the Stoics, who declared that "the wise man is king." Pilate was thoroughly +convinced that, instead of being a dangerous seditionmonger, Jesus was nothing +more or less than a harmless visionary, an innocent fanatic. + +After questioning the Master, Pilate went back to the chief priests and the +accusers of Jesus and said: "I have examined this man, and I find no fault in + + top of page - 1992 + +him. I do not think he is guilty of the charges you have made against him; I +think he ought to be set free." And when the Jews heard this, they were moved +with great anger, so much so that they wildly shouted that Jesus should die; +and one of the Sanhedrists boldly stepped up by the side of Pilate, saying: +"This man stirs up the people, beginning in Galilee and continuing throughout +all Judea. He is a mischief-maker and an evildoer. You will long regret it if +you let this wicked man go free." + +Pilate was hard pressed to know what to do with Jesus; therefore, when he heard +them say that he began his work in Galilee, he thought to avoid the +responsibility of deciding the case, at least to gain time for thought, by +sending Jesus to appear before Herod, who was then in the city attending the +Passover. Pilate also thought that this gesture would help to antidote some of +the bitter feeling which had existed for some time between himself and Herod, +due to numerous misunderstandings over matters of jurisdiction. + +Pilate, calling the guards, said: "This man is a Galilean. Take him forthwith +to Herod, and when he has examined him, report his findings to me." And they +took Jesus to Herod. + +4. JESUS BEFORE HEROD + +When Herod Antipas stopped in Jerusalem, he dwelt in the old Maccabean palace +of Herod the Great, and it was to this home of the former king that Jesus was +now taken by the temple guards, and he was followed by his accusers and an +increasing multitude. Herod had long heard of Jesus, and he was very curious +about him. When the Son of Man stood before him, on this Friday morning, the +wicked Idumean never for one moment recalled the lad of former years who had +appeared before him in Sepphoris pleading for a just decision regarding the +money due his father, who had been accidentally killed while at work on one of +the public buildings. As far as Herod knew, he had never seen Jesus, although +he had worried a great deal about him when his work had been centered in +Galilee. Now that he was in custody of Pilate and the Judeans, Herod was +desirous of seeing him, feeling secure against any trouble from him in the +future. Herod had heard much about the miracles wrought by Jesus, and he really +hoped to see him do some wonder. + +When they brought Jesus before Herod, the tetrarch was startled by his stately +appearance and the calm composure of his countenance. For some fifteen minutes +Herod asked Jesus questions, but the Master would not answer. Herod taunted and +dared him to perform a miracle, but Jesus would not reply to his many inquiries +or respond to his taunts. + +Then Herod turned to the chief priests and the Sadducees and, giving ear to +their accusations, heard all and more than Pilate had listened to regarding the +alleged evil doings of the Son of Man. Finally, being convinced that Jesus +would neither talk nor perform a wonder for him, Herod, after making fun of him +for a time, arrayed him in an old purple royal robe and sent him back to +Pilate. Herod knew he had no jurisdiction over Jesus in Judea. Though he was +glad to believe that he was finally to be rid of Jesus in Galilee, he was +thankful that it was Pilate who had the responsibility of putting him to death. +Herod never had fully recovered from the fear that cursed him as a result of +killing John the Baptist. Herod had at certain times even feared that Jesus was +John risen from the dead. Now he was relieved of that fear since he observed +that Jesus was a + + top of page - 1993 + +very different sort of person from the outspoken and fiery prophet who dared to +expose and denounce his private life. + +5. JESUS RETURNS TO PILATE + +When the guards had brought Jesus back to Pilate, he went out on the front +steps of the praetorium, where his judgment seat had been placed, and calling +together the chief priests and Sanhedrists, said to them: "You brought this man +before me with charges that he perverts the people, forbids the payment of +taxes, and claims to be king of the Jews. I have examined him and fail to find +him guilty of these charges. In fact, I find no fault in him. Then I sent him +to Herod, and the tetrarch must have reached the same conclusion since he has +sent him back to us. Certainly, nothing worthy of death has been done by this +man. If you still think he needs to be disciplined, I am willing to chastise +him before I release him." + +Just as the Jews were about to engage in shouting their protests against the +release of Jesus, a vast crowd came marching up to the praetorium for the +purpose of asking Pilate for the release of a prisoner in honor of the Passover +feast. For some time it had been the custom of the Roman governors to allow the +populace to choose some imprisoned or condemned man for pardon at the time of +the Passover. And now that this crowd had come before him to ask for the +release of a prisoner, and since Jesus had so recently been in great favor with +the multitudes, it occurred to Pilate that he might possibly extricate himself +from his predicament by proposing to this group that, since Jesus was now a +prisoner before his judgment seat, he release to them this man of Galilee as +the token of Passover good will. + +As the crowd surged up on the steps of the building, Pilate heard them calling +out the name of one Barabbas. Barabbas was a noted political agitator and +murderous robber, the son of a priest, who had recently been apprehended in the +act of robbery and murder on the Jericho road. This man was under sentence to +die as soon as the Passover festivities were over. + +Pilate stood up and explained to the crowd that Jesus had been brought to him +by the chief priests, who sought to have him put to death on certain charges, +and that he did not think the man was worthy of death. Said Pilate: "Which, +therefore, would you prefer that I release to you, this Barabbas, the murderer, +or this Jesus of Galilee?" And when Pilate had thus spoken, the chief priests +and the Sanhedrin councilors all shouted at the top of their voices, "Barabbas, +Barabbas! " And when the people saw that the chief priests were minded to have +Jesus put to death, they quickly joined in the clamor for his life while they +loudly shouted for the release of Barabbas. + +A few days before this the multitude had stood in awe of Jesus, but the mob did +not look up to one who, having claimed to be the Son of God, now found himself +in the custody of the chief priests and the rulers and on trial before Pilate +for his life. Jesus could be a hero in the eyes of the populace when he was +driving the money-changers and the traders out of the temple, but not when he +was a nonresisting prisoner in the hands of his enemies and on trial for his +life. + +Pilate was angered at the sight of the chief priests clamoring for the pardon +of a notorious murderer while they shouted for the blood of Jesus. He saw their +malice and hatred and perceived their prejudice and envy. Therefore he said to +them: "How could you choose the life of a murderer in preference to this man's + + top of page - 1994 + +whose worst crime is that he figuratively calls himself the king of the Jews?" +But this was not a wise statement for Pilate to make. The Jews were a proud +people, now subject to the Roman political yoke but hoping for the coming of a +Messiah who would deliver them from gentile bondage with a great show of power +and glory. They resented, more than Pilate could know, the intimation that this +meek-mannered teacher of strange doctrines, now under arrest and charged with +crimes worthy of death, should be referred to as "the king of the Jews." They +looked upon such a remark as an insult to everything which they held sacred and +honorable in their national existence, and therefore did they all let loose +their mighty shouts for Barabbas's release and Jesus' death. + +Pilate knew Jesus was innocent of the charges brought against him, and had he +been a just and courageous judge, he would have acquitted him and turned him +loose. But he was afraid to defy these angry Jews, and while he hesitated to do +his duty, a messenger came up and presented him with a sealed message from his +wife, Claudia. + +Pilate indicated to those assembled before him that he wished to read the +communication which he had just received before he proceeded further with the +matter before him. When Pilate opened this letter from his wife, he read: "I +pray you have nothing to do with this innocent and just man whom they call +Jesus. I have suffered many things in a dream this night because of him." This +note from Claudia not only greatly upset Pilate and thereby delayed the +adjudication of this matter, but it unfortunately also provided considerable +time in which the Jewish rulers freely circulated among the crowd and urged the +people to call for the release of Barabbas and to clamor for the crucifixion of +Jesus. + +Finally, Pilate addressed himself once more to the solution of the problem +which confronted him, by asking the mixed assembly of Jewish rulers and the +pardon-seeking crowd, "What shall I do with him who is called the king of the +Jews ? " And they all shouted with one accord, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" The +unanimity of this demand from the mixed multitude startled and alarmed Pilate, +the unjust and fear-ridden judge. + +Then once more Pilate said: "Why would you crucify this man? What evil has he +done? Who will come forward to testify against him?" But when they heard Pilate +speak in defense of Jesus, they only cried out all the more, "Crucify him! +Crucify him!" + +Then again Pilate appealed to them regarding the release of the Passover +prisoner, saying: "Once more I ask you, which of these prisoners shall I +release to you at this, your Passover time?" And again the crowd shouted, "Give +us Barabbas!" + +Then said Pilate: "If I release the murderer, Barabbas, what shall I do with +Jesus?" And once more the multitude shouted in unison, "Crucify him! Crucify +him!" + +Pilate was terrorized by the insistent clamor of the mob, acting under the +direct leadership of the chief priests and the councilors of the Sanhedrin; +nevertheless, he decided upon at least one more attempt to appease the crowd +and save Jesus. + +6. PILATE'S LAST APPEAL + +In all that is transpiring early this Friday morning before Pilate, only the +enemies of Jesus are participating. His many friends either do not yet know of +his night arrest and early morning trial or are in hiding lest they also be +apprehended + + top of page - 1995 + +and adjudged worthy of death because they believe Jesus' teachings. In the +multitude which now clamors for the Master's death are to be found only his +sworn enemies and the easily led and unthinking populace. + +Pilate would make one last appeal to their pity. Being afraid to defy the +clamor of this misled mob who cried for the blood of Jesus, he ordered the +Jewish guards and the Roman soldiers to take Jesus and scourge him. This was in +itself an unjust and illegal procedure since the Roman law provided that only +those condemned to die by crucifixion should be thus subjected to scourging. +The guards took Jesus into the open courtyard of the praetorium for this +ordeal. Though his enemies did not witness this scourging, Pilate did, and +before they had finished this wicked abuse, he directed the scourgers to desist +and indicated that Jesus should be brought to him. Before the scourgers laid +their knotted whips upon Jesus as he was bound to the whipping post, they again +put upon him the purple robe, and plaiting a crown of thorns, they placed it +upon his brow. And when they had put a reed in his hand as a mock scepter, they +knelt before him and mocked him, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they +spit upon him and struck him in the face with their hands. And one of them, +before they returned him to Pilate, took the reed from his hand and struck him +upon the head. + +Then Pilate led forth this bleeding and lacerated prisoner and, presenting him +before the mixed multitude, said: "Behold the man! Again I declare to you that +I find no crime in him, and having scourged him, I would release him." + +There stood Jesus of Nazareth, clothed in an old purple royal robe with a crown +of thorns piercing his kindly brow. His face was bloodstained and his form +bowed down with suffering and grief. But nothing can appeal to the unfeeling +hearts of those who are victims of intense emotional hatred and slaves to +religious prejudice. This sight sent a mighty shudder through the realms of a +vast universe, but it did not touch the hearts of those who had set their minds +to effect the destruction of Jesus. + +When they had recovered from the first shock of seeing the Master's plight, +they only shouted the louder and the longer, "Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify +him!" + +And now did Pilate comprehend that it was futile to appeal to their supposed +feelings of pity. He stepped forward and said: "I perceive that you are +determined this man shall die, but what has he done to deserve death? Who will +declare his crime?" + +Then the high priest himself stepped forward and, going up to Pilate, angrily +declared: "We have a sacred law, and by that law this man ought to die because +he made himself out to be the Son of God." When Pilate heard this, he was all +the more afraid, not only of the Jews, but recalling his wife's note and the +Greek mythology of the gods coming down on earth, he now trembled at the +thought of Jesus possibly being a divine personage. He waved to the crowd to +hold its peace while he took Jesus by the arm and again led him inside the +building that he might further examine him. Pilate was now confused by fear, +bewildered by superstition, and harassed by the stubborn attitude of the mob. + +7. PILATE'S LAST INTERVIEW + +As Pilate, trembling with fearful emotion, sat down by the side of Jesus, he +inquired: "Where do you come from? Really, who are you? What is this they say, +that you are the Son of God?" + + top of page - 1996 + +But Jesus could hardly answer such questions when asked by a man-fearing, weak, +and vacillating judge who was so unjust as to subject him to flogging even when +he had declared him innocent of all crime, and before he had been duly +sentenced to die. Jesus looked Pilate straight in the face, but he did not +answer him. Then said Pilate: "Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not realize +that I still have power to release you or to crucify you?" Then said Jesus: +"You could have no power over me except it were permitted from above. You could +exercise no authority over the Son of Man unless the Father in heaven allowed +it. But you are not so guilty since you are ignorant of the gospel. He who +betrayed me and he who delivered me to you, they have the greater sin." + +This last talk with Jesus thoroughly frightened Pilate. This moral coward and +judicial weakling now labored under the double weight of the superstitious fear +of Jesus and mortal dread of the Jewish leaders. + +Again Pilate appeared before the crowd, saying: "I am certain this man is only +a religious offender. You should take him and judge him by your law. Why should +you expect that I would consent to his death because he has clashed with your +traditions?" + +Pilate was just about ready to release Jesus when Caiaphas, the high priest, +approached the cowardly Roman judge and, shaking an avenging finger in Pilate's +face, said with angry words which the entire multitude could hear: "If you +release this man, you are not Caesar's friend, and I will see that the emperor +knows all." This public threat was too much for Pilate. Fear for his personal +fortunes now eclipsed all other considerations, and the cowardly governor +ordered Jesus brought out before the judgment seat. As the Master stood there +before them, he pointed to him and tauntingly said, "Behold your king." And the +Jews answered, "Away with him. Crucify him!" And then Pilate said, with much +irony and sarcasm, "Shall I crucify your king?" And the Jews answered, "Yes, +crucify him! We have no king but Caesar." And then did Pilate realize that +there was no hope of saving Jesus since he was unwilling to defy the Jews. + +8. PILATE'S TRAGIC SURRENDER + +Here stood the Son of God incarnate as the Son of Man. He was arrested without +indictment; accused without evidence; adjudged without witnesses; punished +without a verdict; and now was soon to be condemned to die by an unjust judge +who confessed that he could find no fault in him. If Pilate had thought to +appeal to their patriotism by referring to Jesus as the "king of the Jews," he +utterly failed. The Jews were not expecting any such a king. The declaration of +the chief priests and the Sadducees, "We have no king but Caesar," was a shock +even to the unthinking populace, but it was too late now to save Jesus even had +the mob dared to espouse the Master's cause. + +Pilate was afraid of a tumult or a riot. He dared not risk having such a +disturbance during Passover time in Jerusalem. He had recently received a +reprimand from Caesar, and he would not risk another. The mob cheered when he +ordered the release of Barabbas. Then he ordered a basin and some water, and +there before the multitude he washed his hands, saying: "I am innocent of the +blood of this man. You are determined that he shall die, but I have found no +guilt in him. See you to it. The soldiers will lead him forth." And then the +mob cheered and replied, "His blood be on us and on our children." + + top of page - 1997 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Before The ³ Just Before ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Sanh... ³ The... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p186.txt b/religious documents/p186.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2bc723 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p186.txt @@ -0,0 +1,451 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 186 Just Before The Crucifixion + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... Just Before The + Crucifixion +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 186 Just Before The Crucifixion + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AS JESUS and his accusers started off to see Herod, the Master turned to the +Apostle John and said: "John, you can do no more for me. Go to my mother and +bring her to see me ere I die." When John heard his Master's request, although +reluctant to leave him alone among his enemies, he hastened off to Bethany, +where the entire family of Jesus was assembled in waiting at the home of Martha +and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead. + +Several times during the morning, messengers had brought news to Martha and +Mary concerning the progress of Jesus' trial. But the family of Jesus did not +reach Bethany until just a few minutes before John arrived bearing the request +of Jesus to see his mother before he was put to death. After John Zebedee had +told them all that had happened since the midnight arrest of Jesus, Mary his +mother went at once in the company of John to see her eldest son. By the time +Mary and John reached the city, Jesus, accompanied by the Roman soldiers who +were to crucify him, had already arrived at Golgotha. + +When Mary the mother of Jesus started out with John to go to her son, his +sister Ruth refused to remain behind with the rest of the family. Since she was +determined to accompany her mother, her brother Jude went with her. The rest of +the Master's family remained in Bethany under the direction of James, and +almost every hour the messengers of David Zebedee brought them reports +concerning the progress of that terrible business of putting to death their +eldest brother, Jesus of Nazareth. + +1. THE END OF JUDAS ISCARIOT + +It was about half past eight o'clock this Friday morning when the hearing of +Jesus before Pilate was ended and the Master was placed in the custody of the +Roman soldiers who were to crucify him. As soon as the Romans took possession +of Jesus, the captain of the Jewish guards marched with his men back to their +temple headquarters. The chief priest and his Sanhedrist associates followed +close behind the guards, going directly to their usual meeting place in the +hall of hewn stone in the temple. Here they found many other members of the +Sanhedrin waiting to learn what had been done with Jesus. As Caiaphas was +engaged in making his report to the Sanhedrin regarding the trial and +condemnation of Jesus, Judas appeared before them to claim his reward for the +part he had played in his Master's arrest and sentence of death. + +All of these Jews loathed Judas; they looked upon the betrayer with only +feelings of utter contempt. Throughout the trial of Jesus before Caiaphas and +during his appearance before Pilate, Judas was pricked in his conscience about + + top of page - 1998 + +his traitorous conduct. And he was also beginning to become somewhat +disillusioned regarding the reward he was to receive as payment for his +services as Jesus' betrayer. He did not like the coolness and aloofness of the +Jewish authorities; nevertheless, he expected to be liberally rewarded for his +cowardly conduct. He anticipated being called before the full meeting of the +Sanhedrin and there hearing himself eulogized while they conferred upon him +suitable honors in token of the great service which he flattered himself he had +rendered his nation. Imagine, therefore, the great surprise of this egotistic +traitor when a servant of the high priest, tapping him on the shoulder, called +him just outside the hall and said: "Judas, I have been appointed to pay you +for the betrayal of Jesus. Here is your reward." And thus speaking, the servant +of Caiaphas handed Judas a bag containing thirty pieces of silver--the current +price of a good, healthy slave. + +Judas was stunned, dumfounded. He rushed back to enter the hall but was +debarred by the doorkeeper. He wanted to appeal to the Sanhedrin, but they +would not admit him. Judas could not believe that these rulers of the Jews +would allow him to betray his friends and his Master and then offer him as a +reward thirty pieces of silver. He was humiliated, disillusioned, and utterly +crushed. He walked away from the temple, as it were, in a trance. He +automatically dropped the money bag in his deep pocket, that same pocket +wherein he had so long carried the bag containing the apostolic funds. And he +wandered out through the city after the crowds who were on their way to witness +the crucifixions. + +From a distance Judas saw them raise the cross piece with Jesus nailed thereon, +and upon sight of this he rushed back to the temple and, forcing his way past +the doorkeeper, found himself standing in the presence of the Sanhedrin, which +was still in session. The betrayer was well-nigh breathless and highly +distraught, but he managed to stammer out these words: "I have sinned in that I +have betrayed innocent blood. You have insulted me. You have offered me as a +reward for my service, money--the price of a slave. I repent that I have done +this; here is your money. I want to escape the guilt of this deed." + +When the rulers of the Jews heard Judas, they scoffed at him. One of them +sitting near where Judas stood, motioned that he should leave the hall and +said: "Your Master has already been put to death by the Romans, and as for your +guilt, what is that to us? See you to that--and begone!" + +As Judas left the Sanhedrin chamber, he removed the thirty pieces of silver +from the bag and threw them broadcast over the temple floor. When the betrayer +left the temple, he was almost beside himself. Judas was now passing through +the experience of the realization of the true nature of sin. All the glamor, +fascination, and intoxication of wrongdoing had vanished. Now the evildoer +stood alone and face to face with the judgment verdict of his disillusioned and +disappointed soul. Sin was bewitching and adventurous in the committing, but +now must the harvest of the naked and unromantic facts be faced. + +This onetime ambassador of the kingdom of heaven on earth now walked through +the streets of Jerusalem, forsaken and alone. His despair was desperate and +well-nigh absolute. On he journeyed through the city and outside the walls, on +down into the terrible solitude of the valley of Hinnom, where he climbed up +the steep rocks and, taking the girdle of his cloak, fastened one end to a +small tree, tied the other about his neck, and cast himself over the precipice. +Ere he was dead, the knot which his nervous hands had tied gave way, and the +betrayer's body was dashed to pieces as it fell on the jagged rocks below. + + top of page - 1999 + +2. THE MASTER'S ATTITUDE + +When Jesus was arrested, he knew that his work on earth, in the likeness of +mortal flesh, was finished. He fully understood the sort of death he would die, +and he was little concerned with the details of his so-called trials. + +Before the Sanhedrist court Jesus declined to make replies to the testimony of +perjured witnesses. There was but one question which would always elicit an +answer, whether asked by friend or foe, and that was the one concerning the +nature and divinity of his mission on earth. When asked if he were the Son of +God, he unfailingly made reply. He steadfastly refused to speak when in the +presence of the curious and wicked Herod. Before Pilate he spoke only when he +thought that Pilate or some other sincere person might be helped to a better +knowledge of the truth by what he said. Jesus had taught his apostles the +uselessness of casting their pearls before swine, and he now dared to practice +what he had taught. His conduct at this time exemplified the patient submission +of the human nature coupled with the majestic silence and solemn dignity of the +divine nature. He was altogether willing to discuss with Pilate any question +related to the political charges brought against him--any question which he +recognized as belonging to the governor's jurisdiction. + +Jesus was convinced that it was the will of the Father that he submit himself +to the natural and ordinary course of human events just as every other mortal +creature must, and therefore he refused to employ even his purely human powers +of persuasive eloquence to influence the outcome of the machinations of his +socially nearsighted and spiritually blinded fellow mortals. Although Jesus +lived and died on Urantia, his whole human career, from first to last, was a +spectacle designed to influence and instruct the entire universe of his +creation and unceasing upholding. + +These shortsighted Jews clamored unseemlily for the Master's death while he +stood there in awful silence looking upon the death scene of a nation--his +earthly father's own people. + +Jesus had acquired that type of human character which could preserve its +composure and assert its dignity in the face of continued and gratuitous +insult. He could not be intimidated. When first assaulted by the servant of +Annas, he had only suggested the propriety of calling witnesses who might duly +testify against him. + +From first to last, in his so-called trial before Pilate, the onlooking +celestial hosts could not refrain from broadcasting to the universe the +depiction of the scene of "Pilate on trial before Jesus." + +When before Caiaphas, and when all the perjured testimony had broken down, +Jesus did not hesitate to answer the question of the chief priest, thereby +providing in his own testimony that which they desired as a basis for +convicting him of blasphemy. + +The Master never displayed the least interest in Pilate's well-meant but +halfhearted efforts to effect his release. He really pitied Pilate and +sincerely endeavored to enlighten his darkened mind. He was wholly passive to +all the Roman governor's appeals to the Jews to withdraw their criminal charges +against him. Throughout the whole sorrowful ordeal he bore himself with simple +dignity and unostentatious majesty. He would not so much as cast reflections of +in- + + top of page - 2000 + +sincerity upon his would-be murderers when they asked if he were "king of the +Jews." With but little qualifying explanation he accepted the designation, +knowing that, while they had chosen to reject him, he would be the last to +afford them real national leadership, even in a spiritual sense. + +Jesus said little during these trials, but he said enough to show all mortals +the kind of human character man can perfect in partnership with God and to +reveal to all the universe the manner in which God can become manifest in the +life of the creature when such a creature truly chooses to do the will of the +Father, thus becoming an active son of the living God. + +His love for ignorant mortals is fully disclosed by his patience and great +self-possession in the face of the jeers, blows, and buffetings of the coarse +soldiers and the unthinking servants. He was not even angry when they +blindfolded him and, derisively striking him in the face, exclaimed: "Prophesy +to us who it was that struck you." + +Pilate spoke more truly than he knew when, after Jesus had been scourged, he +presented him before the multitude, exclaiming, "Behold the man!" Indeed, the +fear-ridden Roman governor little dreamed that at just that moment the universe +stood at attention, gazing upon this unique scene of its beloved Sovereign thus +subjected in humiliation to the taunts and blows of his darkened and degraded +mortal subjects. And as Pilate spoke, there echoed throughout all Nebadon, +"Behold God and man! " Throughout a universe, untold millions have ever since +that day continued to behold that man, while the God of Havona, the supreme +ruler of the universe of universes, accepts the man of Nazareth as the +satisfaction of the ideal of the mortal creatures of this local universe of +time and space. In his matchless life he never failed to reveal God to man. +Now, in these final episodes of his mortal career and in his subsequent death, +he made a new and touching revelation of man to God. + +3. THE DEPENDABLE DAVID ZEBEDEE + +Shortly after Jesus was turned over to the Roman soldiers at the conclusion of +the hearing before Pilate, a detachment of the temple guards hastened out to +Gethsemane to disperse or arrest the followers of the Master. But long before +their arrival these followers had scattered. The apostles had retired to +designated hiding places; the Greeks had separated and gone to various homes in +Jerusalem; the other disciples had likewise disappeared. David Zebedee believed +that Jesus' enemies would return; so he early removed some five or six tents up +the ravine near where the Master so often retired to pray and worship. Here he +proposed to hide and at the same time maintain a center, or co-ordinating +station, for his messenger service. David had hardly left the camp when the +temple guards arrived. Finding no one there, they contented themselves with +burning the camp and then hastened back to the temple. On hearing their report, +the Sanhedrin was satisfied that the followers of Jesus were so thoroughly +frightened and subdued that there would be no danger of an uprising or any +attempt to rescue Jesus from the hands of his executioners. They were at last +able to breathe easily, and so they adjourned, every man going his way to +prepare for the Passover. + +As soon as Jesus was turned over to the Roman soldiers by Pilate for +crucifixion, a messenger hastened away to Gethsemane to inform David, and +within five minutes runners were on their way to Bethsaida, Pella, +Philadelphia, Sidon, + + top of page - 2001 + +Shechem, Hebron, Damascus, and Alexandria. And these messengers carried the +news that Jesus was about to be crucified by the Romans at the insistent behest +of the rulers of the Jews. + +Throughout this tragic day, until the message finally went forth that the +Master had been laid in the tomb, David sent messengers about every half hour +with reports to the apostles, the Greeks, and Jesus' earthly family, assembled +at the home of Lazarus in Bethany. When the messengers departed with the word +that Jesus had been buried, David dismissed his corps of local runners for the +Passover celebration and for the coming Sabbath of rest, instructing them to +report to him quietly on Sunday morning at the home of Nicodemus, where he +proposed to go in hiding for a few days with Andrew and Simon Peter. + +This peculiar-minded David Zebedee was the only one of the leading disciples of +Jesus who was inclined to take a literal and plain matter-of-fact view of the +Master's assertion that he would die and "rise again on the third day." David +had once heard him make this prediction and, being of a literal turn of mind, +now proposed to assemble his messengers early Sunday morning at the home of +Nicodemus so that they would be on hand to spread the news in case Jesus rose +from the dead. David soon discovered that none of Jesus' followers were looking +for him to return so soon from the grave; therefore did he say little about his +belief and nothing about the mobilization of all his messenger force on early +Sunday morning except to the runners who had been dispatched on Friday forenoon +to distant cities and believer centers. + +And so these followers of Jesus, scattered throughout Jerusalem and its +environs, that night partook of the Passover and the following day remained in +seclusion. + +4. PREPARATION FOR THE CRUCIFIXION + +After Pilate had washed his hands before the multitude, thus seeking to escape +the guilt of delivering up an innocent man to be crucified just because he +feared to resist the clamor of the rulers of the Jews, he ordered the Master +turned over to the Roman soldiers and gave the word to their captain that he +was to be crucified immediately. Upon taking charge of Jesus, the soldiers led +him back into the courtyard of the praetorium, and after removing the robe +which Herod had put on him, they dressed him in his own garments. These +soldiers mocked and derided him, but they did not inflict further physical +punishment. Jesus was now alone with these Roman soldiers. His friends were in +hiding; his enemies had gone their way; even John Zebedee was no longer by his +side. + +It was a little after eight o'clock when Pilate turned Jesus over to the +soldiers and a little before nine o'clock when they started for the scene of +the crucifixion. During this period of more than half an hour Jesus never spoke +a word. The executive business of a great universe was practically at a +standstill. Gabriel and the chief rulers of Nebadon were either assembled here +on Urantia, or else they were closely attending upon the space reports of the +archangels in an effort to keep advised as to what was happening to the Son of +Man on Urantia. + +By the time the soldiers were ready to depart with Jesus for Golgotha, they had +begun to be impressed by his unusual composure and extraordinary dignity, by +his uncomplaining silence. + +Much of the delay in starting off with Jesus for the site of the crucifixion +was due to the last-minute decision of the captain to take along two thieves +who had + + top of page - 2002 + +been condemned to die; since Jesus was to be crucified that morning, the Roman +captain thought these two might just as well die with him as wait for the end +of the Passover festivities. + +As soon as the thieves could be made ready, they were led into the courtyard, +where they gazed upon Jesus, one of them for the first time, but the other had +often heard him speak, both in the temple and many months before at the Pella +camp. + +5. JESUS' DEATH IN RELATION TO THE PASSOVER + +There is no direct relation between the death of Jesus and the Jewish Passover. +True, the Master did lay down his life in the flesh on this day, the day of the +preparation for the Jewish Passover, and at about the time of the sacrificing +of the Passover lambs in the temple. But this coincidental occurrence does not +in any manner indicate that the death of the Son of Man on earth has any +connection with the Jewish sacrificial system. Jesus was a Jew, but as the Son +of Man he was a mortal of the realms. The events already narrated and leading +up to this hour of the Master's impending crucifixion are sufficient to +indicate that his death at about this time was a purely natural and man-managed +affair. + +It was man and not God who planned and executed the death of Jesus on the +cross. True, the Father refused to interfere with the march of human events on +Urantia, but the Father in Paradise did not decree, demand, or require the +death of his Son as it was carried out on earth. It is a fact that in some +manner, sooner or later, Jesus would have had to divest himself of his mortal +body, his incarnation in the flesh, but he could have executed such a task in +countless ways without dying on a cross between two thieves. All of this was +man's doing, not God's. + +At the time of the Master's baptism he had already completed the technique of +the required experience on earth and in the flesh which was necessary for the +completion of his seventh and last universe bestowal. At this very time Jesus' +duty on earth was done. All the life he lived thereafter, and even the manner +of his death, was a purely personal ministry on his part for the welfare and +uplifting of his mortal creatures on this world and on other worlds. + +The gospel of the good news that mortal man may, by faith, become +spirit-conscious that he is a son of God, is not dependent on the death of +Jesus. True, indeed, all this gospel of the kingdom has been tremendously +illuminated by the Master's death, but even more so by his life. + +All that the Son of Man said or did on earth greatly embellished the doctrines +of sonship with God and of the brotherhood of men, but these essential +relationships of God and men are inherent in the universe facts of God's love +for his creatures and the innate mercy of the divine Sons. These touching and +divinely beautiful relations between man and his Maker on this world and on all +others throughout the universe of universes, have existed from eternity; and +they are not in any sense dependent on these periodic bestowal enactments of +the Creator Sons of God, who thus assume the nature and likeness of their +created intelligences as a part of the price which they must pay for the final +acquirement of unlimited sovereignty over their respective local universes. + +The Father in heaven loved mortal man on earth just as much before the life and +death of Jesus on Urantia as he did after this transcendent exhibition of the +copartnership of man and God. This mighty transaction of the incarnation of the +God of Nebadon as a man on Urantia could not augment the attributes of the + + top of page - 2003 + +eternal, infinite, and universal Father, but it did enrich and enlighten all +other administrators and creatures of the universe of Nebadon. While the Father +in heaven loves us no more because of this bestowal of Michael, all other +celestial intelligences do. And this is because Jesus not only made a +revelation of God to man, but he also likewise made a new revelation of man to +the Gods and to the celestial intelligences of the universe of universes. + +Jesus is not about to die as a sacrifice for sin. He is not going to atone for +the inborn moral guilt of the human race. Mankind has no such racial guilt +before God. Guilt is purely a matter of personal sin and knowing, deliberate +rebellion against the will of the Father and the administration of his Sons. + +Sin and rebellion have nothing to do with the fundamental bestowal plan of the +Paradise Sons of God, albeit it does appear to us that the salvage plan is a +provisional feature of the bestowal plan. + +The salvation of God for the mortals of Urantia would have been just as +effective and unerringly certain if Jesus had not been put to death by the +cruel hands of ignorant mortals. If the Master had been favorably received by +the mortals of earth and had departed from Urantia by the voluntary +relinquishment of his life in the flesh, the fact of the love of God and the +mercy of the Son--the fact of sonship with God--would have in no wise been +affected. You mortals are the sons of God, and only one thing is required to +make such a truth factual in your personal experience, and that is your +spirit-born faith. + + top of page - 2004 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Trial ³ The Crucifixion ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Befor... ³ ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p187.txt b/religious documents/p187.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..318483e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p187.txt @@ -0,0 +1,527 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 187 The Crucifixion + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... The Crucifixion +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 187 The Crucifixion + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +AFTER the two brigands had been made ready, the soldiers, under the direction +of a centurion, started for the scene of the crucifixion. The centurion in +charge of these twelve soldiers was the same captain who had led forth the +Roman soldiers the previous night to arrest Jesus in Gethsemane. It was the +Roman custom to assign four soldiers for each person to be crucified. The two +brigands were properly scourged before they were taken out to be crucified, but +Jesus was given no further physical punishment; the captain undoubtedly thought +he had already been sufficiently scourged, even before his condemnation. + +The two thieves crucified with Jesus were associates of Barabbas and would +later have been put to death with their leader if he had not been released as +the Passover pardon of Pilate. Jesus was thus crucified in the place of +Barabbas. + +What Jesus is now about to do, submit to death on the cross, he does of his own +free will. In foretelling this experience, he said: "The Father loves and +sustains me because I am willing to lay down my life. But I will take it up +again. No one takes my life away from me--I lay it down of myself. I have +authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up. I have received +such a commandment from my Father." + +It was just before nine o'clock this morning when the soldiers led Jesus from +the praetorium on the way to Golgotha. They were followed by many who secretly +sympathized with Jesus, but most of this group of two hundred or more were +either his enemies or curious idlers who merely desired to enjoy the shock of +witnessing the crucifixions. Only a few of the Jewish leaders went out to see +Jesus die on the cross. Knowing that he had been turned over to the Roman +soldiers by Pilate, and that he was condemned to die, they busied themselves +with their meeting in the temple, whereat they discussed what should be done +with his followers. + +1. ON THE WAY TO GOLGOTHA + +Before leaving the courtyard of the praetorium, the soldiers placed the +crossbeam on Jesus' shoulders. It was the custom to compel the condemned man to +carry the crossbeam to the site of the crucifixion. Such a condemned man did +not carry the whole cross, only this shorter timber. The longer and upright +pieces of timber for the three crosses had already been transported to Golgotha +and, by the time of the arrival of the soldiers and their prisoners, had been +firmly implanted in the ground. + +According to custom the captain led the procession, carrying small white boards +on which had been written with charcoal the names of the criminals and + + top of page - 2005 + +the nature of the crimes for which they had been condemned. For the two thieves +the centurion had notices which gave their names, underneath which was written +the one word, "Brigand." It was the custom, after the victim had been nailed to +the crossbeam and hoisted to his place on the upright timber, to nail this +notice to the top of the cross, just above the head of the criminal, that all +witnesses might know for what crime the condemned man was being crucified. The +legend which the centurion carried to put on the cross of Jesus had been +written by Pilate himself in Latin, Greek, and Aramaic, and it read: "Jesus of +Nazareth--the King of the Jews." + +Some of the Jewish authorities who were yet present when Pilate wrote this +legend made vigorous protest against calling Jesus the "king of the Jews." But +Pilate reminded them that such an accusation was part of the charge which led +to his condemnation. When the Jews saw they could not prevail upon Pilate to +change his mind, they pleaded that at least it be modified to read, "He said, +`I am the king of the Jews."' But Pilate was adamant; he would not alter the +writing. To all further supplication he only replied, "What I have written, I +have written." + +Ordinarily, it was the custom to journey to Golgotha by the longest road in +order that a large number of persons might view the condemned criminal, but on +this day they went by the most direct route to the Damascus gate, which led out +of the city to the north, and following this road, they soon arrived at +Golgotha, the official crucifixion site of Jerusalem. Beyond Golgotha were the +villas of the wealthy, and on the other side of the road were the tombs of many +well-to-do Jews. + +Crucifixion was not a Jewish mode of punishment. Both the Greeks and the Romans +learned this method of execution from the Phoenicians. Even Herod, with all his +cruelty, did not resort to crucifixion. The Romans never crucified a Roman +citizen; only slaves and subject peoples were subjected to this dishonorable +mode of death. During the siege of Jerusalem, just forty years after the +crucifixion of Jesus, all of Golgotha was covered by thousands upon thousands +of crosses upon which, from day to day, there perished the flower of the Jewish +race. A terrible harvest, indeed, of the seed-sowing of this day. + +As the death procession passed along the narrow streets of Jerusalem, many of +the tenderhearted Jewish women who had heard Jesus' words of good cheer and +compassion, and who knew of his life of loving ministry, could not refrain from +weeping when they saw him being led forth to such an ignoble death. As he +passed by, many of these women bewailed and lamented. And when some of them +even dared to follow along by his side, the Master turned his head toward them +and said: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but rather weep for +yourselves and for your children. My work is about done--soon I go to my +Father--but the times of terrible trouble for Jerusalem are just beginning. +Behold, the days are coming in which you shall say: Blessed are the barren and +those whose breasts have never suckled their young. In those days will you pray +the rocks of the hills to fall on you in order that you may be delivered from +the terrors of your troubles." + +These women of Jerusalem were indeed courageous to manifest sympathy for Jesus, +for it was strictly against the law to show friendly feelings for one who was +being led forth to crucifixion. It was permitted the rabble to jeer, mock, and +ridicule the condemned, but it was not allowed that any sympathy should + + top of page - 2006 + +be expressed. Though Jesus appreciated the manifestation of sympathy in this +dark hour when his friends were in hiding, he did not want these kindhearted +women to incur the displeasure of the authorities by daring to show compassion +in his behalf. Even at such a time as this Jesus thought little about himself, +only of the terrible days of tragedy ahead for Jerusalem and the whole Jewish +nation. + +As the Master trudged along on the way to the crucifixion, he was very weary; +he was nearly exhausted. He had had neither food nor water since the Last +Supper at the home of Elijah Mark; neither had he been permitted to enjoy one +moment of sleep. In addition, there had been one hearing right after another up +to the hour of his condemnation, not to mention the abusive scourgings with +their accompanying physical suffering and loss of blood. Superimposed upon all +this was his extreme mental anguish, his acute spiritual tension, and a +terrible feeling of human loneliness. + +Shortly after passing through the gate on the way out of the city, as Jesus +staggered on bearing the crossbeam, his physical strength momentarily gave way, +and he fell beneath the weight of his heavy burden. The soldiers shouted at him +and kicked him, but he could not arise. When the captain saw this, knowing what +Jesus had already endured, he commanded the soldiers to desist. Then he ordered +a passerby, one Simon from Cyrene, to take the crossbeam from Jesus' shoulders +and compelled him to carry it the rest of the way to Golgotha. + +This man Simon had come all the way from Cyrene, in northern Africa, to attend +the Passover. He was stopping with other Cyrenians just outside the city walls +and was on his way to the temple services in the city when the Roman captain +commanded him to carry Jesus' crossbeam. Simon lingered all through the hours +of the Master's death on the cross, talking with many of his friends and with +his enemies. After the resurrection and before leaving Jerusalem, he became a +valiant believer in the gospel of the kingdom, and when he returned home, he +led his family into the heavenly kingdom. His two sons, Alexander and Rufus, +became very effective teachers of the new gospel in Africa. But Simon never +knew that Jesus, whose burden he bore, and the Jewish tutor who once befriended +his injured son, were the same person. + +It was shortly after nine o'clock when this procession of death arrived at +Golgotha, and the Roman soldiers set themselves about the task of nailing the +two brigands and the Son of Man to their respective crosses. + +2. THE CRUCIFIXION + +The soldiers first bound the Master's arms with cords to the crossbeam, and +then they nailed his hands to the wood. When they had hoisted this crossbeam up +on the post, and after they had nailed it securely to the upright timber of the +cross, they bound and nailed his feet to the wood, using one long nail to +penetrate both feet. The upright timber had a large peg, inserted at the proper +height, which served as a sort of saddle for supporting the body weight. The +cross was not high, the Master's feet being only about three feet from the +ground. He was therefore able to hear all that was said of him in derision and +could plainly see the expression on the faces of all those who so thoughtlessly +mocked him. And also could those present easily hear all that Jesus said during +these hours of lingering torture and slow death. + + top of page - 2007 + +It was the custom to remove all clothes from those who were to be crucified, +but since the Jews greatly objected to the public exposure of the naked human +form, the Romans always provided a suitable loin cloth for all persons +crucified at Jerusalem. Accordingly, after Jesus' clothes had been removed, he +was thus garbed before he was put upon the cross. + +Crucifixion was resorted to in order to provide a cruel and lingering +punishment, the victim sometimes not dying for several days. There was +considerable sentiment against crucifixion in Jerusalem, and there existed a +society of Jewish women who always sent a representative to crucifixions for +the purpose of offering drugged wine to the victim in order to lessen his +suffering. But when Jesus tasted this narcotized wine, as thirsty as he was, he +refused to drink it. The Master chose to retain his human consciousness until +the very end. He desired to meet death, even in this cruel and inhuman form, +and conquer it by voluntary submission to the full human experience. + +Before Jesus was put on his cross, the two brigands had already been placed on +their crosses, all the while cursing and spitting upon their executioners. +Jesus' only words, as they nailed him to the crossbeam, were, "Father, forgive +them, for they know not what they do." He could not have so mercifully and +lovingly interceded for his executioners if such thoughts of affectionate +devotion had not been the mainspring of all his life of unselfish service. The +ideas, motives, and longings of a lifetime are openly revealed in a crisis. + +After the Master was hoisted on the cross, the captain nailed the title up +above his head, and it read in three languages, "Jesus of Nazareth--the King of +the Jews." The Jews were infuriated by this believed insult. But Pilate was +chafed by their disrespectful manner; he felt he had been intimidated and +humiliated, and he took this method of obtaining petty revenge. He could have +written "Jesus, a rebel." But he well knew how these Jerusalem Jews detested +the very name of Nazareth, and he was determined thus to humiliate them. He +knew that they would also be cut to the very quick by seeing this executed +Galilean called "The King of the Jews." + +Many of the Jewish leaders, when they learned how Pilate had sought to deride +them by placing this inscription on the cross of Jesus, hastened out to +Golgotha, but they dared not attempt to remove it since the Roman soldiers were +standing on guard. Not being able to remove the title, these leaders mingled +with the crowd and did their utmost to incite derision and ridicule, lest any +give serious regard to the inscription. + +The Apostle John, with Mary the mother of Jesus, Ruth, and Jude, arrived on the +scene just after Jesus had been hoisted to his position on the cross, and just +as the captain was nailing the title above the Master's head. John was the only +one of the eleven apostles to witness the crucifixion, and even he was not +present all of the time since he ran into Jerusalem to bring back his mother +and her friends soon after he had brought Jesus' mother to the scene. + +As Jesus saw his mother, with John and his brother and sister, he smiled but +said nothing. Meanwhile the four soldiers assigned to the Master's crucifixion, +as was the custom, had divided his clothes among them, one taking the sandals, +one the turban, one the girdle, and the fourth the cloak. This left the tunic, +or seamless vestment reaching down to near the knees, to be cut up into four +pieces, but when the soldiers saw what an unusual garment it was, they decided +to cast lots for it. Jesus looked down on them while they divided his garments, +and the thoughtless crowd jeered at him. + + top of page - 2008 + +It was well that the Roman soldiers took possession of the Master's clothing. +Otherwise, if his followers had gained possession of these garments, they would +have been tempted to resort to superstitious relic worship. The Master desired +that his followers should have nothing material to associate with his life on +earth. He wanted to leave mankind only the memory of a human life dedicated to +the high spiritual ideal of being consecrated to doing the Father's will. + +3. THOSE WHO SAW THE CRUCIFIXION + +At about half past nine o'clock this Friday morning, Jesus was hung upon the +cross. Before eleven o'clock, upward of one thousand persons had assembled to +witness this spectacle of the crucifixion of the Son of Man. Throughout these +dreadful hours the unseen hosts of a universe stood in silence while they gazed +upon this extraordinary phenomenon of the Creator as he was dying the death of +the creature, even the most ignoble death of a condemned criminal. + +Standing near the cross at one time or another during the crucifixion were +Mary, Ruth, Jude, John, Salome (John's mother), and a group of earnest women +believers including Mary the wife of Clopas and sister of Jesus' mother, Mary +Magdalene, and Rebecca, onetime of Sepphoris. These and other friends of Jesus +held their peace while they witnessed his great patience and fortitude and +gazed upon his intense sufferings. + +Many who passed by wagged their heads and, railing at him, said: "You who would +destroy the temple and build it again in three days, save yourself. If you are +the Son of God, why do you not come down from your cross?" In like manner some +of the rulers of the Jews mocked him, saying, "He saved others, but himself he +cannot save." Others said, "If you are the king of the Jews, come down from the +cross, and we will believe in you." And later on they mocked him the more, +saying: "He trusted in God to deliver him. He even claimed to be the Son of +God--look at him now--crucified between two thieves." Even the two thieves also +railed at him and cast reproach upon him. + +Inasmuch as Jesus would make no reply to their taunts, and since it was nearing +noontime of this special preparation day, by half past eleven o'clock most of +the jesting and jeering crowd had gone its way; less than fifty persons +remained on the scene. The soldiers now prepared to eat lunch and drink their +cheap, sour wine as they settled down for the long deathwatch. As they partook +of their wine, they derisively offered a toast to Jesus, saying, "Hail and good +fortune! to the king of the Jews." And they were astonished at the Master's +tolerant regard of their ridicule and mocking. + +When Jesus saw them eat and drink, he looked down upon them and said, "I +thirst." When the captain of the guard heard Jesus say, "I thirst," he took +some of the wine from his bottle and, putting the saturated sponge stopper upon +the end of a javelin, raised it to Jesus so that he could moisten his parched +lips. + +Jesus had purposed to live without resort to his supernatural power, and he +likewise elected to die as an ordinary mortal upon the cross. He had lived as a +man, and he would die as a man--doing the Father's will. + +4. THE THIEF ON THE CROSS + +One of the brigands railed at Jesus, saying, "If you are the Son of God, why do +you not save yourself and us?" But when he had reproached Jesus, + + top of page - 2009 + +the other thief, who had many times heard the Master teach, said: "Do you have +no fear even of God? Do you not see that we are suffering justly for our deeds, +but that this man suffers unjustly? Better that we should seek forgiveness for +our sins and salvation for our souls." When Jesus heard the thief say this, he +turned his face toward him and smiled approvingly. When the malefactor saw the +face of Jesus turned toward him, he mustered up his courage, fanned the +flickering flame of his faith, and said, "Lord, remember me when you come into +your kingdom." And then Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say to you today, you +shall sometime be with me in Paradise." + +The Master had time amidst the pangs of mortal death to listen to the faith +confession of the believing brigand. When this thief reached out for salvation, +he found deliverance. Many times before this he had been constrained to believe +in Jesus, but only in these last hours of consciousness did he turn with a +whole heart toward the Master's teaching. When he saw the manner in which Jesus +faced death upon the cross, this thief could no longer resist the conviction +that this Son of Man was indeed the Son of God. + +During this episode of the conversion and reception of the thief into the +kingdom by Jesus, the Apostle John was absent, having gone into the city to +bring his mother and her friends to the scene of the crucifixion. Luke +subsequently heard this story from the converted Roman captain of the guard. + +The Apostle John told about the crucifixion as he remembered the event two +thirds of a century after its occurrence. The other records were based upon the +recital of the Roman centurion on duty who, because of what he saw and heard, +subsequently believed in Jesus and entered into the full fellowship of the +kingdom of heaven on earth. + +This young man, the penitent brigand, had been led into a life of violence and +wrongdoing by those who extolled such a career of robbery as an effective +patriotic protest against political oppression and social injustice. And this +sort of teaching, plus the urge for adventure, led many otherwise well-meaning +youths to enlist in these daring expeditions of robbery. This young man had +looked upon Barabbas as a hero. Now he saw that he had been mistaken. Here on +the cross beside him he saw a really great man, a true hero. Here was a hero +who fired his zeal and inspired his highest ideas of moral self-respect and +quickened all his ideals of courage, manhood, and bravery. In beholding Jesus, +there sprang up in his heart an overwhelming sense of love, loyalty, and +genuine greatness. + +And if any other person among the jeering crowd had experienced the birth of +faith within his soul and had appealed to the mercy of Jesus, he would have +been received with the same loving consideration that was displayed toward the +believing brigand. + +Just after the repentant thief heard the Master's promise that they should +sometime meet in Paradise, John returned from the city, bringing with him his +mother and a company of almost a dozen women believers. John took up his +position near Mary the mother of Jesus, supporting her. Her son Jude stood on +the other side. As Jesus looked down upon this scene, it was noontide, and he +said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son!" And speaking to John, he said, +"My son, behold your mother!" And then he addressed them both, saying, "I +desire that you depart from this place." And so John and Jude led Mary away + + top of page - 2010 + +from Golgotha. John took the mother of Jesus to the place where he tarried in +Jerusalem and then hastened back to the scene of the crucifixion. After the +Passover Mary returned to Bethsaida, where she lived at John's home for the +rest of her natural life. Mary did not live quite one year after the death of +Jesus. + +After Mary left, the other women withdrew for a short distance and remained in +attendance upon Jesus until he expired on the cross, and they were yet standing +by when the body of the Master was taken down for burial. + +5. LAST HOUR ON THE CROSS + +Although it was early in the season for such a phenomenon, shortly after twelve +o'clock the sky darkened by reason of the fine sand in the air. The people of +Jerusalem knew that this meant the coming of one of those hot-wind sandstorms +from the Arabian desert. Before one o'clock the sky was so dark the sun was +hid, and the remainder of the crowd hastened back to the city. When the Master +gave up his life shortly after this hour, less than thirty people were present, +only the thirteen Roman soldiers and a group of about fifteen believers. These +believers were all women except two, Jude, Jesus' brother, and John Zebedee, +who returned to the scene just before the Master expired. + +Shortly after one o'clock, amidst the increasing darkness of the fierce +sandstorm, Jesus began to fail in human consciousness. His last words of mercy, +forgiveness, and admonition had been spoken. His last wish--concerning the care +of his mother--had been expressed. During this hour of approaching death the +human mind of Jesus resorted to the repetition of many passages in the Hebrew +scriptures, particularly the Psalms. The last conscious thought of the human +Jesus was concerned with the repetition in his mind of a portion of the Book of +Psalms now known as the twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second Psalms. +While his lips would often move, he was too weak to utter the words as these +passages, which he so well knew by heart, would pass through his mind. Only a +few times did those standing by catch some utterance, such as, "I know the Lord +will save his anointed," "Your hand shall find out all my enemies," and "My +God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus did not for one moment entertain +the slightest doubt that he had lived in accordance with the Father's will; and +he never doubted that he was now laying down his life in the flesh in +accordance with his Father's will. He did not feel that the Father had forsaken +him; he was merely reciting in his vanishing consciousness many Scriptures, +among them this twenty-second Psalm, which begins with "My God, my God, why +have you forsaken me?" And this happened to be one of the three passages which +were spoken with sufficient clearness to be heard by those standing by. + +The last request which the mortal Jesus made of his fellows was about half past +one o'clock when, a second time, he said, "I thirst," and the same captain of +the guard again moistened his lips with the same sponge wet in the sour wine, +in those days commonly called vinegar. + +The sandstorm grew in intensity and the heavens increasingly darkened. Still +the soldiers and the small group of believers stood by. The soldiers crouched +near the cross, huddled together to protect themselves from the cutting sand. +The mother of John and others watched from a distance where they were somewhat +sheltered by an overhanging rock. When the Master finally breathed his + + top of page - 2011 + +last, there were present at the foot of his cross John Zebedee, his brother +Jude, his sister Ruth, Mary Magdalene, and Rebecca, onetime of Sepphoris. + +It was just before three o'clock when Jesus, with a loud voice, cried out, "It +is finished! Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." And when he had thus +spoken, he bowed his head and gave up the life struggle. When the Roman +centurion saw how Jesus died, he smote his breast and said: "This was indeed a +righteous man; truly he must have been a Son of God." And from that hour he +began to believe in Jesus. + +Jesus died royally--as he had lived. He freely admitted his kingship and +remained master of the situation throughout the tragic day. He went willingly +to his ignominious death, after he had provided for the safety of his chosen +apostles. He wisely restrained Peter's trouble-making violence and provided +that John might be near him right up to the end of his mortal existence. He +revealed his true nature to the murderous Sanhedrin and reminded Pilate of the +source of his sovereign authority as a Son of God. He started out to Golgotha +bearing his own crossbeam and finished up his loving bestowal by handing over +his spirit of mortal acquirement to the Paradise Father. After such a life--and +at such a death--the Master could truly say, "It is finished." + +Because this was the preparation day for both the Passover and the Sabbath, the +Jews did not want these bodies to be exposed on Golgotha. Therefore they went +before Pilate asking that the legs of these three men be broken, that they be +dispatched, so that they could be taken down from their crosses and cast into +the criminal burial pits before sundown. When Pilate heard this request, he +forthwith sent three soldiers to break the legs and dispatch Jesus and the two +brigands. + +When these soldiers arrived at Golgotha, they did accordingly to the two +thieves, but they found Jesus already dead, much to their surprise. However, in +order to make sure of his death, one of the soldiers pierced his left side with +his spear. Though it was common for the victims of crucifixion to linger alive +upon the cross for even two or three days, the overwhelming emotional agony and +the acute spiritual anguish of Jesus brought an end to his mortal life in the +flesh in a little less than five and one-half hours. + +6. AFTER THE CRUCIFIXION + +In the midst of the darkness of the sandstorm, about half past three o'clock, +David Zebedee sent out the last of the messengers carrying the news of the +Master's death. The last of his runners he dispatched to the home of Martha and +Mary in Bethany, where he supposed the mother of Jesus stopped with the rest of +her family. + +After the death of the Master, John sent the women, in charge of Jude, to the +home of Elijah Mark, where they tarried over the Sabbath day. John himself, +being well known by this time to the Roman centurion, remained at Golgotha +until Joseph and Nicodemus arrived on the scene with an order from Pilate +authorizing them to take possession of the body of Jesus. + +Thus ended a day of tragedy and sorrow for a vast universe whose myriads of +intelligences had shuddered at the shocking spectacle of the crucifixion of the +human incarnation of their beloved Sovereign; they were stunned by this +exhibition of mortal callousness and human perversity. + + top of page - 2012 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Just Before ³ The Time Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ The... ³ The... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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The Time Of The Tomb +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 188 The Time Of The Tomb + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE day and a half that Jesus' mortal body lay in the tomb of Joseph, the +period between his death on the cross and his resurrection, is a chapter in the +earth career of Michael which is little known to us. We can narrate the burial +of the Son of Man and put in this record the events associated with his +resurrection, but we cannot supply much information of an authentic nature +about what really transpired during this epoch of about thirty-six hours, from +three o'clock Friday afternoon to three o'clock Sunday morning. This period in +the Master's career began shortly before he was taken down from the cross by +the Roman soldiers. He hung upon the cross about one hour after his death. He +would have been taken down sooner but for the delay in dispatching the two +brigands. + +The rulers of the Jews had planned to have Jesus' body thrown in the open +burial pits of Gehenna, south of the city; it was the custom thus to dispose of +the victims of crucifixion. If this plan had been followed, the body of the +Master would have been exposed to the wild beasts. + +In the meantime, Joseph of Arimathea, accompanied by Nicodemus, had gone to +Pilate and asked that the body of Jesus be turned over to them for proper +burial. It was not uncommon for friends of crucified persons to offer bribes to +the Roman authorities for the privilege of gaining possession of such bodies. +Joseph went before Pilate with a large sum of money, in case it became +necessary to pay for permission to remove Jesus' body to a private burial tomb. +But Pilate would not take money for this. When he heard the request, he quickly +signed the order which authorized Joseph to proceed to Golgotha and take +immediate and full possession of the Master's body. In the meantime, the +sandstorm having considerably abated, a group of Jews representing the +Sanhedrin had gone out to Golgotha for the purpose of making sure that Jesus' +body accompanied those of the brigands to the open public burial pits. + +1. THE BURIAL OF JESUS + +When Joseph and Nicodemus arrived at Golgotha, they found the soldiers taking +Jesus down from the cross and the representatives of the Sanhedrin standing by +to see that none of Jesus' followers prevented his body from going to the +criminal burial pits. When Joseph presented Pilate's order for the Master's +body to the centurion, the Jews raised a tumult and clamored for its +possession. In their raving they sought violently to take possession of the +body, and when they did this, the centurion ordered four of his soldiers to his +side, and with drawn swords they stood astride the Master's body as it lay +there on the ground. + + top of page - 2013 + +The centurion ordered the other soldiers to leave the two thieves while they +drove back this angry mob of infuriated Jews. When order had been restored, the +centurion read the permit from Pilate to the Jews and, stepping aside, said to +Joseph: "This body is yours to do with as you see fit. I and my soldiers will +stand by to see that no man interferes." + +A crucified person could not be buried in a Jewish cemetery; there was a strict +law against such a procedure. Joseph and Nicodemus knew this law, and on the +way out to Golgotha they had decided to bury Jesus in Joseph's new family tomb, +hewn out of solid rock, located a short distance north of Golgotha and across +the road leading to Samaria. No one had ever lain in this tomb, and they +thought it appropriate that the Master should rest there. Joseph really +believed that Jesus would rise from the dead, but Nicodemus was very doubtful. +These former members of the Sanhedrin had kept their faith in Jesus more or +less of a secret, although their fellow Sanhedrists had long suspected them, +even before they withdrew from the council. From now on they were the most +outspoken disciples of Jesus in all Jerusalem. + +At about half past four o'clock the burial procession of Jesus of Nazareth +started from Golgotha for Joseph's tomb across the way. The body was wrapped in +a linen sheet as the four men carried it, followed by the faithful women +watchers from Galilee. The mortals who bore the material body of Jesus to the +tomb were: Joseph, Nicodemus, John, and the Roman centurion. + +They carried the body into the tomb, a chamber about ten feet square, where +they hurriedly prepared it for burial. The Jews did not really bury their dead; +they actually embalmed them. Joseph and Nicodemus had brought with them large +quantities of myrrh and aloes, and they now wrapped the body with bandages +saturated with these solutions. When the embalming was completed, they tied a +napkin about the face, wrapped the body in a linen sheet, and reverently placed +it on a shelf in the tomb. + +After placing the body in the tomb, the centurion signaled for his soldiers to +help roll the doorstone up before the entrance to the tomb. The soldiers then +departed for Gehenna with the bodies of the thieves while the others returned +to Jerusalem, in sorrow, to observe the Passover feast according to the laws of +Moses. + +There was considerable hurry and haste about the burial of Jesus because this +was preparation day and the Sabbath was drawing on apace. The men hurried back +to the city, but the women lingered near the tomb until it was very dark. + +While all this was going on, the women were hiding near at hand so that they +saw it all and observed where the Master had been laid. They thus secreted +themselves because it was not permissible for women to associate with men at +such a time. These women did not think Jesus had been properly prepared for +burial, and they agreed among themselves to go back to the home of Joseph, rest +over the Sabbath, make ready spices and ointments, and return on Sunday morning +properly to prepare the Master's body for the death rest. The women who thus +tarried by the tomb on this Friday evening were: Mary Magdalene, Mary the wife +of Clopas, Martha another sister of Jesus' mother, and Rebecca of Sepphoris. + +Aside from David Zebedee and Joseph of Arimathea, very few of Jesus' disciples +really believed or understood that he was due to arise from the tomb on the +third day. + + top of page - 2014 + +2. SAFEGUARDING THE TOMB + +If Jesus' followers were unmindful of his promise to rise from the grave on the +third day, his enemies were not. The chief priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees +recalled that they had received reports of his saying he would rise from the +dead. + +This Friday night, after the Passover supper, about midnight a group of the +Jewish leaders gathered at the home of Caiaphas, where they discussed their +fears concerning the Master's assertions that he would rise from the dead on +the third day. This meeting ended with the appointment of a committee of +Sanhedrists who were to visit Pilate early the next day, bearing the official +request of the Sanhedrin that a Roman guard be stationed before Jesus' tomb to +prevent his friends from tampering with it. Said the spokesman of this +committee to Pilate: "Sir, we remember that this deceiver, Jesus of Nazareth, +said, while he was yet alive, `After three days I will rise again.' We have, +therefore, come before you to request that you issue such orders as will make +the sepulchre secure against his followers, at least until after the third day. +We greatly fear lest his disciples come and steal him away by night and then +proclaim to the people that he has risen from the dead. If we should permit +this to happen, this mistake would be far worse than to have allowed him to +live." + +When Pilate heard this request of the Sanhedrists, he said: "I will give you a +guard of ten soldiers. Go your way and make the tomb secure." They went back to +the temple, secured ten of their own guards, and then marched out to Joseph's +tomb with these ten Jewish guards and ten Roman soldiers, even on this Sabbath +morning, to set them as watchmen before the tomb. These men rolled yet another +stone before the tomb and set the seal of Pilate on and around these stones, +lest they be disturbed without their knowledge. And these twenty men remained +on watch up to the hour of the resurrection, the Jews carrying them their food +and drink. + +3. DURING THE SABBATH DAY + +Throughout this Sabbath day the disciples and the apostles remained in hiding, +while all Jerusalem discussed the death of Jesus on the cross. There were +almost one and one-half million Jews present in Jerusalem at this time, hailing +from all parts of the Roman Empire and from Mesopotamia. This was the beginning +of the Passover week, and all these pilgrims would be in the city to learn of +the resurrection of Jesus and to carry the report back to their homes. + +Late Saturday night, John Mark summoned the eleven apostles secretly to come to +the home of his father, where, just before midnight, they all assembled in the +same upper chamber where they had partaken of the Last Supper with their Master +two nights previously. + +Mary the mother of Jesus, with Ruth and Jude, returned to Bethany to join their +family this Saturday evening just before sunset. David Zebedee remained at the +home of Nicodemus, where he had arranged for his messengers to assemble early +Sunday morning. The women of Galilee, who prepared spices for the further +embalming of Jesus' body, tarried at the home of Joseph of Arimathea. + +We are not able fully to explain just what happened to Jesus of Nazareth during +this period of a day and a half when he was supposed to be resting in + + top of page - 2015 + +Joseph's new tomb. Apparently he died the same natural death on the cross as +would any other mortal in the same circumstances. We heard him say, "Father, +into your hands I commend my spirit." We do not fully understand the meaning of +such a statement inasmuch as his Thought Adjuster had long since been +personalized and so maintained an existence apart from Jesus' mortal being. The +Master's Personalized Adjuster could in no sense be affected by his physical +death on the cross. That which Jesus put in the Father's hands for the time +being must have been the spirit counterpart of the Adjuster's early work in +spiritizing the mortal mind so as to provide for the transfer of the transcript +of the human experience to the mansion worlds. There must have been some +spiritual reality in the experience of Jesus which was analogous to the spirit +nature, or soul, of the faith-growing mortals of the spheres. But this is +merely our opinion--we do not really know what Jesus commended to his Father. + +We know that the physical form of the Master rested there in Joseph's tomb +until about three o'clock Sunday morning, but we are wholly uncertain regarding +the status of the personality of Jesus during that period of thirty-six hours. +We have sometimes dared to explain these things to ourselves somewhat as +follows: + +1. The Creator consciousness of Michael must have been at large and wholly free +from its associated mortal mind of the physical incarnation. + +2. The former Thought Adjuster of Jesus we know to have been present on earth +during this period and in personal command of the assembled celestial hosts. + +3. The acquired spirit identity of the man of Nazareth which was built up +during his lifetime in the flesh, first, by the direct efforts of his Thought +Adjuster, and later, by his own perfect adjustment between the physical +necessities and the spiritual requirements of the ideal mortal existence, as it +was effected by his never-ceasing choice of the Father's will, must have been +consigned to the custody of the Paradise Father. Whether or not this spirit +reality returned to become a part of the resurrected personality, we do not +know, but we believe it did. But there are those in the universe who hold that +this soul-identity of Jesus now reposes in the "bosom of the Father," to be +subsequently released for leadership of the Nebadon Corps of the Finality in +their undisclosed destiny in connection with the uncreated universes of the +unorganized realms of outer space. + +4. We think the human or mortal consciousness of Jesus slept during these +thirty-six hours. We have reason to believe that the human Jesus knew nothing +of what transpired in the universe during this period. To the mortal +consciousness there appeared no lapse of time; the resurrection of life +followed the sleep of death as of the same instant. + +And this is about all we can place on record regarding the status of Jesus +during this period of the tomb. There are a number of correlated facts to which +we can allude, although we are hardly competent to undertake their +interpretation. + +In the vast court of the resurrection halls of the first mansion world of +Satania, there may now be observed a magnificent material-morontia structure +known as the "Michael Memorial," now bearing the seal of Gabriel. This memorial +was created shortly after Michael departed from this world, and it bears + + top of page - 2016 + +this inscription: "In commemoration of the mortal transit of Jesus of Nazareth +on Urantia." + +There are records extant which show that during this period the supreme council +of Salvington, numbering one hundred, held an executive meeting on Urantia +under the presidency of Gabriel. There are also records showing that the +Ancients of Days of Uversa communicated with Michael regarding the status of +the universe of Nebadon during this time. + +We know that at least one message passed between Michael and Immanuel on +Salvington while the Master's body lay in the tomb. + +There is good reason for believing that some personality sat in the seat of +Caligastia in the system council of the Planetary Princes on Jerusem which +convened while the body of Jesus rested in the tomb. + +The records of Edentia indicate that the Constellation Father of Norlatiadek +was on Urantia, and that he received instructions from Michael during this time +of the tomb. + +And there is much other evidence which suggests that not all of the personality +of Jesus was asleep and unconscious during this time of apparent physical +death. + +4. MEANING OF THE DEATH ON THE CROSS + +Although Jesus did not die this death on the cross to atone for the racial +guilt of mortal man nor to provide some sort of effective approach to an +otherwise offended and unforgiving God; even though the Son of Man did not +offer himself as a sacrifice to appease the wrath of God and to open the way +for sinful man to obtain salvation; notwithstanding that these ideas of +atonement and propitiation are erroneous, nonetheless, there are significances +attached to this death of Jesus on the cross which should not be overlooked. It +is a fact that Urantia has become known among other neighboring inhabited +planets as the "World of the Cross." + +Jesus desired to live a full mortal life in the flesh on Urantia. Death is, +ordinarily, a part of life. Death is the last act in the mortal drama. In your +well-meant efforts to escape the superstitious errors of the false +interpretation of the meaning of the death on the cross, you should be careful +not to make the great mistake of failing to perceive the true significance and +the genuine import of the Master's death. + +Mortal man was never the property of the archdeceivers. Jesus did not die to +ransom man from the clutch of the apostate rulers and fallen princes of the +spheres. The Father in heaven never conceived of such crass injustice as +damning a mortal soul because of the evildoing of his ancestors. Neither was +the Master's death on the cross a sacrifice which consisted in an effort to pay +God a debt which the race of mankind had come to owe him. + +Before Jesus lived on earth, you might possibly have been justified in +believing in such a God, but not since the Master lived and died among your +fellow mortals. Moses taught the dignity and justice of a Creator God; but +Jesus portrayed the love and mercy of a heavenly Father. + +The animal nature--the tendency toward evildoing--may be hereditary, but sin is +not transmitted from parent to child. Sin is the act of conscious and +deliberate rebellion against the Father's will and the Sons' laws by an +individual will creature. + + top of page - 2017 + +Jesus lived and died for a whole universe, not just for the races of this one +world. While the mortals of the realms had salvation even before Jesus lived +and died on Urantia, it is nevertheless a fact that his bestowal on this world +greatly illuminated the way of salvation; his death did much to make forever +plain the certainty of mortal survival after death in the flesh. + +Though it is hardly proper to speak of Jesus as a sacrificer, a ransomer, or a +redeemer, it is wholly correct to refer to him as a savior. He forever made the +way of salvation (survival) more clear and certain; he did better and more +surely show the way of salvation for all the mortals of all the worlds of the +universe of Nebadon. + +When once you grasp the idea of God as a true and loving Father, the only +concept which Jesus ever taught, you must forthwith, in all consistency, +utterly abandon all those primitive notions about God as an offended monarch, a +stern and all-powerful ruler whose chief delight is to detect his subjects in +wrongdoing and to see that they are adequately punished, unless some being +almost equal to himself should volunteer to suffer for them, to die as a +substitute and in their stead. The whole idea of ransom and atonement is +incompatible with the concept of God as it was taught and exemplified by Jesus +of Nazareth. The infinite love of God is not secondary to anything in the +divine nature. + +All this concept of atonement and sacrificial salvation is rooted and grounded +in selfishness. Jesus taught that service to one's fellows is the highest +concept of the brotherhood of spirit believers. Salvation should be taken for +granted by those who believe in the fatherhood of God. The believer's chief +concern should not be the selfish desire for personal salvation but rather the +unselfish urge to love and, therefore, serve one's fellows even as Jesus loved +and served mortal men. + +Neither do genuine believers trouble themselves so much about the future +punishment of sin. The real believer is only concerned about present separation +from God. True, wise fathers may chasten their sons, but they do all this in +love and for corrective purposes. They do not punish in anger, neither do they +chastise in retribution. + +Even if God were the stern and legal monarch of a universe in which justice +ruled supreme, he certainly would not be satisfied with the childish scheme of +substituting an innocent sufferer for a guilty offender. + +The great thing about the death of Jesus, as it is related to the enrichment of +human experience and the enlargement of the way of salvation, is not the fact +of his death but rather the superb manner and the matchless spirit in which he +met death. + +This entire idea of the ransom of the atonement places salvation upon a plane +of unreality; such a concept is purely philosophic. Human salvation is real; it +is based on two realities which may be grasped by the creature's faith and +thereby become incorporated into individual human experience: the fact of the +fatherhood of God and its correlated truth, the brotherhood of man. It is true, +after all, that you are to be "forgiven your debts, even as you forgive your +debtors." + +5. LESSONS FROM THE CROSS + +The cross of Jesus portrays the full measure of the supreme devotion of the +true shepherd for even the unworthy members of his flock. It forever places + + top of page - 2018 + +all relations between God and man upon the family basis. God is the Father; man +is his son. Love, the love of a father for his son, becomes the central truth +in the universe relations of Creator and creature--not the justice of a king +which seeks satisfaction in the sufferings and punishment of the evil-doing +subject. + +The cross forever shows that the attitude of Jesus toward sinners was neither +condemnation nor condonation, but rather eternal and loving salvation. Jesus is +truly a savior in the sense that his life and death do win men over to goodness +and righteous survival. Jesus loves men so much that his love awakens the +response of love in the human heart. Love is truly contagious and eternally +creative. Jesus' death on the cross exemplifies a love which is sufficiently +strong and divine to forgive sin and swallow up all evil-doing. Jesus disclosed +to this world a higher quality of righteousness than justice--mere technical +right and wrong. Divine love does not merely forgive wrongs; it absorbs and +actually destroys them. The forgiveness of love utterly transcends the +forgiveness of mercy. Mercy sets the guilt of evil-doing to one side; but love +destroys forever the sin and all weakness resulting therefrom. Jesus brought a +new method of living to Urantia. He taught us not to resist evil but to find +through him a goodness which effectually destroys evil. The forgiveness of +Jesus is not condonation; it is salvation from condemnation. Salvation does not +slight wrongs; it makes them right. True love does not compromise nor condone +hate; it destroys it. The love of Jesus is never satisfied with mere +forgiveness. The Master's love implies rehabilitation, eternal survival. It is +altogether proper to speak of salvation as redemption if you mean this eternal +rehabilitation. + +Jesus, by the power of his personal love for men, could break the hold of sin +and evil. He thereby set men free to choose better ways of living. Jesus +portrayed a deliverance from the past which in itself promised a triumph for +the future. Forgiveness thus provided salvation. The beauty of divine love, +once fully admitted to the human heart, forever destroys the charm of sin and +the power of evil. + +The sufferings of Jesus were not confined to the crucifixion. In reality, Jesus +of Nazareth spent upward of twenty-five years on the cross of a real and +intense mortal existence. The real value of the cross consists in the fact that +it was the supreme and final expression of his love, the completed revelation +of his mercy. + +On millions of inhabited worlds, tens of trillions of evolving creatures who +may have been tempted to give up the moral struggle and abandon the good fight +of faith, have taken one more look at Jesus on the cross and then have forged +on ahead, inspired by the sight of God's laying down his incarnate life in +devotion to the unselfish service of man. + +The triumph of the death on the cross is all summed up in the spirit of Jesus' +attitude toward those who assailed him. He made the cross an eternal symbol of +the triumph of love over hate and the victory of truth over evil when he +prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." That devotion +of love was contagious throughout a vast universe; the disciples caught it from +their Master. The very first teacher of his gospel who was called upon to lay +down his life in this service, said, as they stoned him to death, "Lay not this +sin to their charge." + +The cross makes a supreme appeal to the best in man because it discloses one +who was willing to lay down his life in the service of his fellow men. Greater + + top of page - 2019 + +love no man can have than this: that he would be willing to lay down his life +for his friends--and Jesus had such a love that he was willing to lay down his +life for his enemies, a love greater than any which had hitherto been known on +earth. + +On other worlds, as well as on Urantia, this sublime spectacle of the death of +the human Jesus on the cross of Golgotha has stirred the emotions of mortals, +while it has aroused the highest devotion of the angels. + +The cross is that high symbol of sacred service, the devotion of one's life to +the welfare and salvation of one's fellows. The cross is not the symbol of the +sacrifice of the innocent Son of God in the place of guilty sinners and in +order to appease the wrath of an offended God, but it does stand forever, on +earth and throughout a vast universe, as a sacred symbol of the good bestowing +themselves upon the evil and thereby saving them by this very devotion of love. +The cross does stand as the token of the highest form of unselfish service, the +supreme devotion of the full bestowal of a righteous life in the service of +wholehearted ministry, even in death, the death of the cross. And the very +sight of this great symbol of the bestowal life of Jesus truly inspires all of +us to want to go and do likewise. + +When thinking men and women look upon Jesus as he offers up his life on the +cross, they will hardly again permit themselves to complain at even the +severest hardships of life, much less at petty harassments and their many +purely fictitious grievances. His life was so glorious and his death so +triumphant that we are all enticed to a willingness to share both. There is +true drawing power in the whole bestowal of Michael, from the days of his youth +to this overwhelming spectacle of his death on the cross. + +Make sure, then, that when you view the cross as a revelation of God, you do +not look with the eyes of the primitive man nor with the viewpoint of the later +barbarian, both of whom regarded God as a relentless Sovereign of stern justice +and rigid law-enforcement. Rather, make sure that you see in the cross the +final manifestation of the love and devotion of Jesus to his life mission of +bestowal upon the mortal races of his vast universe. See in the death of the +Son of Man the climax of the unfolding of the Father's divine love for his sons +of the mortal spheres. The cross thus portrays the devotion of willing +affection and the bestowal of voluntary salvation upon those who are willing to +receive such gifts and devotion. There was nothing in the cross which the +Father required--only that which Jesus so willingly gave, and which he refused +to avoid. + +If man cannot otherwise appreciate Jesus and understand the meaning of his +bestowal on earth, he can at least comprehend the fellowship of his mortal +sufferings. No man can ever fear that the Creator does not know the nature or +extent of his temporal afflictions. + +We know that the death on the cross was not to effect man's reconciliation to +God but to stimulate man's realization of the Father's eternal love and his +Son's unending mercy, and to broadcast these universal truths to a whole +universe. + + top of page - 2020 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Crucifixion ³ The ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ³ Resurrectio... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p189.txt b/religious documents/p189.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b1aa56 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p189.txt @@ -0,0 +1,546 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 189 The Resurrection + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... The Resurrection +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 189 The Resurrection + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +SOON after the burial of Jesus on Friday afternoon, the chief of the archangels +of Nebadon, then present on Urantia, summoned his council of the resurrection +of sleeping will creatures and entered upon the consideration of a possible +technique for the restoration of Jesus. These assembled sons of the local +universe, the creatures of Michael, did this on their own responsibility; +Gabriel had not assembled them. By midnight they had arrived at the conclusion +that the creature could do nothing to facilitate the resurrection of the +Creator. They were disposed to accept the advice of Gabriel, who instructed +them that, since Michael had "laid down his life of his own free will, he also +had power to take it up again in accordance with his own determination." +Shortly after the adjournment of this council of the archangels, the Life +Carriers, and their various associates in the work of creature rehabilitation +and morontia creation, the Personalized Adjuster of Jesus, being in personal +command of the assembled celestial hosts then on Urantia, spoke these words to +the anxious waiting watchers: + +"Not one of you can do aught to assist your Creator-father in the return to +life. As a mortal of the realm he has experienced mortal death; as the +Sovereign of a universe he still lives. That which you observe is the mortal +transit of Jesus of Nazareth from life in the flesh to life in the morontia. +The spirit transit of this Jesus was completed at the time I separated myself +from his personality and became your temporary director. Your Creator-father +has elected to pass through the whole of the experience of his mortal +creatures, from birth on the material worlds, on through natural death and the +resurrection of the morontia, into the status of true spirit existence. A +certain phase of this experience you are about to observe, but you may not +participate in it. Those things which you ordinarily do for the creature, you +may not do for the Creator. A Creator Son has within himself the power to +bestow himself in the likeness of any of his created sons; he has within +himself the power to lay down his observable life and to take it up again; and +he has this power because of the direct command of the Paradise Father, and I +know whereof I speak." + +When they heard the Personalized Adjuster so speak, they all assumed the +attitude of anxious expectancy, from Gabriel down to the most humble cherubim. +They saw the mortal body of Jesus in the tomb; they detected evidences of the +universe activity of their beloved Sovereign; and not understanding such +phenomena, they waited patiently for developments. + +1. THE MORONTIA TRANSIT + +At two forty-five Sunday morning, the Paradise incarnation commission, +consisting of seven unidentified Paradise personalities, arrived on the scene +and + + top of page - 2021 + +immediately deployed themselves about the tomb. At ten minutes before three, +intense vibrations of commingled material and morontia activities began to +issue from Joseph's new tomb, and at two minutes past three o'clock, this +Sunday morning, April 9, A.D. 30, the resurrected morontia form and personality +of Jesus of Nazareth came forth from the tomb. + +After the resurrected Jesus emerged from his burial tomb, the body of flesh in +which he had lived and wrought on earth for almost thirty-six years was still +lying there in the sepulchre niche, undisturbed and wrapped in the linen sheet, +just as it had been laid to rest by Joseph and his associates on Friday +afternoon. Neither was the stone before the entrance of the tomb in any way +disturbed; the seal of Pilate was still unbroken; the soldiers were still on +guard. The temple guards had been on continuous duty; the Roman guard had been +changed at midnight. None of these watchers suspected that the object of their +vigil had risen to a new and higher form of existence, and that the body which +they were guarding was now a discarded outer covering which had no further +connection with the delivered and resurrected morontia personality of Jesus. + +Mankind is slow to perceive that, in all that is personal, matter is the +skeleton of morontia, and that both are the reflected shadow of enduring spirit +reality. How long before you will regard time as the moving image of eternity +and space as the fleeting shadow of Paradise realities? + +As far as we can judge, no creature of this universe nor any personality from +another universe had anything to do with this morontia resurrection of Jesus of +Nazareth. On Friday he laid down his life as a mortal of the realm; on Sunday +morning he took it up again as a morontia being of the system of Satania in +Norlatiadek. There is much about the resurrection of Jesus which we do not +understand. But we know that it occurred as we have stated and at about the +time indicated. We can also record that all known phenomena associated with +this mortal transit, or morontia resurrection, occurred right there in Joseph's +new tomb, where the mortal material remains of Jesus lay wrapped in burial +cloths. + +We know that no creature of the local universe participated in this morontia +awakening. We perceived the seven personalities of Paradise surround the tomb, +but we did not see them do anything in connection with the Master's awakening. +Just as soon as Jesus appeared beside Gabriel, just above the tomb, the seven +personalities from Paradise signalized their intention of immediate departure +for Uversa. + +Let us forever clarify the concept of the resurrection of Jesus by making the +following statements: + +1. His material or physical body was not a part of the resurrected personality. +When Jesus came forth from the tomb, his body of flesh remained undisturbed in +the sepulchre. He emerged from the burial tomb without moving the stones before +the entrance and without disturbing the seals of Pilate. + +2. He did not emerge from the tomb as a spirit nor as Michael of Nebadon; he +did not appear in the form of the Creator Sovereign, such as he had had before +his incarnation in the likeness of mortal flesh on Urantia. + +3. He did come forth from this tomb of Joseph in the very likeness of the +morontia personalities of those who, as resurrected morontia ascendant beings, +emerge from the resurrection halls of the first mansion world of this local +system + + top of page - 2022 + +of Satania. And the presence of the Michael memorial in the center of the vast +court of the resurrection halls of mansonia number one leads us to conjecture +that the Master's resurrection on Urantia was in some way fostered on this, the +first of the system mansion worlds. + +The first act of Jesus on arising from the tomb was to greet Gabriel and +instruct him to continue in executive charge of universe affairs under +Immanuel, and then he directed the chief of the Melchizedeks to convey his +brotherly greetings to Immanuel. He thereupon asked the Most High of Edentia +for the certification of the Ancients of Days as to his mortal transit; and +turning to the assembled morontia groups of the seven mansion worlds, here +gathered together to greet and welcome their Creator as a creature of their +order, Jesus spoke the first words of the postmortal career. Said the morontia +Jesus: "Having finished my life in the flesh, I would tarry here for a short +time in transition form that I may more fully know the life of my ascendant +creatures and further reveal the will of my Father in Paradise." + +After Jesus had spoken, he signaled to the Personalized Adjuster, and all +universe intelligences who had been assembled on Urantia to witness the +resurrection were immediately dispatched to their respective universe +assignments. + +Jesus now began the contacts of the morontia level, being introduced, as a +creature, to the requirements of the life he had chosen to live for a short +time on Urantia. This initiation into the morontia world required more than an +hour of earth time and was twice interrupted by his desire to communicate with +his former associates in the flesh as they came out from Jerusalem wonderingly +to peer into the empty tomb to discover what they considered evidence of his +resurrection. + +Now is the mortal transit of Jesus--the morontia resurrection of the Son of +Man--completed. The transitory experience of the Master as a personality midway +between the material and the spiritual has begun. And he has done all this +through power inherent within himself; no personality has rendered him any +assistance. He now lives as Jesus of morontia, and as he begins this morontia +life, the material body of his flesh lies there undisturbed in the tomb. The +soldiers are still on guard, and the seal of the governor about the rocks has +not yet been broken. + +2. THE MATERIAL BODY OF JESUS + +At ten minutes past three o'clock, as the resurrected Jesus fraternized with +the assembled morontia personalities from the seven mansion worlds of Satania, +the chief of archangels--the angels of the resurrection--approached Gabriel and +asked for the mortal body of Jesus. Said the chief of the archangels: "We may +not participate in the morontia resurrection of the bestowal experience of +Michael our sovereign, but we would have his mortal remains put in our custody +for immediate dissolution. We do not propose to employ our technique of +dematerialization; we merely wish to invoke the process of accelerated time. It +is enough that we have seen the Sovereign live and die on Urantia; the hosts of +heaven would be spared the memory of enduring the sight of the slow decay of +the human form of the Creator and Upholder of a universe. In the name of the +celestial intelligences of all Nebadon, I ask for a mandate giving me the +custody of the mortal body of Jesus of Nazareth and empowering us to proceed +with its immediate dissolution." + + top of page - 2023 + +And when Gabriel had conferred with the senior Most High of Edentia, the +archangel spokesman for the celestial hosts was given permission to make such +disposition of the physical remains of Jesus as he might determine. + +After the chief of archangels had been granted this request, he summoned to his +assistance many of his fellows, together with a numerous host of the +representatives of all orders of celestial personalities, and then, with the +aid of the Urantia midwayers, proceeded to take possession of Jesus' physical +body. This body of death was a purely material creation; it was physical and +literal; it could not be removed from the tomb as the morontia form of the +resurrection had been able to escape the sealed sepulchre. By the aid of +certain morontia auxiliary personalities, the morontia form can be made at one +time as of the spirit so that it can become indifferent to ordinary matter, +while at another time it can become discernible and contactable to material +beings, such as the mortals of the realm. + +As they made ready to remove the body of Jesus from the tomb preparatory to +according it the dignified and reverent disposal of near-instantaneous +dissolution, it was assigned the secondary Urantia midwayers to roll away the +stones from the entrance of the tomb. The larger of these two stones was a huge +circular affair, much like a millstone, and it moved in a groove chiseled out +of the rock, so that it could be rolled back and forth to open or close the +tomb. When the watching Jewish guards and the Roman soldiers, in the dim light +of the morning, saw this huge stone begin to roll away from the entrance of the +tomb, apparently of its own accord--without any visible means to account for +such motion--they were seized with fear and panic, and they fled in haste from +the scene. The Jews fled to their homes, afterward going back to report these +doings to their captain at the temple. The Romans fled to the fortress of +Antonia and reported what they had seen to the centurion as soon as he arrived +on duty. + +The Jewish leaders began the sordid business of supposedly getting rid of Jesus +by offering bribes to the traitorous Judas, and now, when confronted with this +embarrassing situation, instead of thinking of punishing the guards who +deserted their post, they resorted to bribing these guards and the Roman +soldiers. They paid each of these twenty men a sum of money and instructed them +to say to all: "While we slept during the nighttime, his disciples came upon us +and took away the body." And the Jewish leaders made solemn promises to the +soldiers to defend them before Pilate in case it should ever come to the +governor's knowledge that they had accepted a bribe. + +The Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus has been based on the fact of +the "empty tomb." It was indeed a fact that the tomb was empty, but this is not +the truth of the resurrection. The tomb was truly empty when the first +believers arrived, and this fact, associated with that of the undoubted +resurrection of the Master, led to the formulation of a belief which was not +true: the teaching that the material and mortal body of Jesus was raised from +the grave. Truth having to do with spiritual realities and eternal values +cannot always be built up by a combination of apparent facts. Although +individual facts may be materially true, it does not follow that the +association of a group of facts must necessarily lead to truthful spiritual +conclusions. + +The tomb of Joseph was empty, not because the body of Jesus had been +rehabilitated or resurrected, but because the celestial hosts had been granted +their request to afford it a special and unique dissolution, a return of the +"dust to + + top of page - 2024 + +dust," without the intervention of the delays of time and without the operation +of the ordinary and visible processes of mortal decay and material corruption. + +The mortal remains of Jesus underwent the same natural process of elemental +disintegration as characterizes all human bodies on earth except that, in point +of time, this natural mode of dissolution was greatly accelerated, hastened to +that point where it became well-nigh instantaneous. + +The true evidences of the resurrection of Michael are spiritual in nature, +albeit this teaching is corroborated by the testimony of many mortals of the +realm who met, recognized, and communed with the resurrected morontia Master. +He became a part of the personal experience of almost one thousand human beings +before he finally took leave of Urantia. + +3. THE DISPENSATIONAL RESURRECTION + +A little after half past four o'clock this Sunday morning, Gabriel summoned the +archangels to his side and made ready to inaugurate the general resurrection of +the termination of the Adamic dispensation on Urantia. When the vast host of +the seraphim and the cherubim concerned in this great event had been marshaled +in proper formation, the morontia Michael appeared before Gabriel, saying: "As +my Father has life in himself, so has he given it to the Son to have life in +himself. Although I have not yet fully resumed the exercise of universe +jurisdiction, this self-imposed limitation does not in any manner restrict the +bestowal of life upon my sleeping sons; let the roll call of the planetary +resurrection begin." + +The circuit of the archangels then operated for the first time from Urantia. +Gabriel and the archangel hosts moved to the place of the spiritual polarity of +the planet; and when Gabriel gave the signal, there flashed to the first of the +system mansion worlds the voice of Gabriel, saying: "By the mandate of Michael, +let the dead of a Urantia dispensation rise!" Then all the survivors of the +human races of Urantia who had fallen asleep since the days of Adam, and who +had not already gone on to judgment, appeared in the resurrection halls of +mansonia in readiness for morontia investiture. And in an instant of time the +seraphim and their associates made ready to depart for the mansion worlds. +Ordinarily these seraphic guardians, onetime assigned to the group custody of +these surviving mortals, would have been present at the moment of their awaking +in the resurrection halls of mansonia, but they were on this world itself at +this time because of the necessity of Gabriel's presence here in connection +with the morontia resurrection of Jesus. + +Notwithstanding that countless individuals having personal seraphic guardians +and those achieving the requisite attainment of spiritual personality progress +had gone on to mansonia during the ages subsequent to the times of Adam and +Eve, and though there had been many special and millennial resurrections of +Urantia sons, this was the third of the planetary roll calls, or complete +dispensational resurrections. The first occurred at the time of the arrival of +the Planetary Prince, the second during the time of Adam, and this, the third, +signalized the morontia resurrection, the mortal transit, of Jesus of Nazareth. + +When the signal of the planetary resurrection had been received by the chief of +archangels, the Personalized Adjuster of the Son of Man relinquished his +authority over the celestial hosts assembled on Urantia, turning all these sons +of the local universe back to the jurisdiction of their respective commanders. +And + + top of page - 2025 + +when he had done this, he departed for Salvington to register with Immanuel the +completion of the mortal transit of Michael. And he was immediately followed by +all the celestial host not required for duty on Urantia. But Gabriel remained +on Urantia with the morontia Jesus. + +And this is the recital of the events of the resurrection of Jesus as viewed by +those who saw them as they really occurred, free from the limitations of +partial and restricted human vision. + +4. DISCOVERY OF THE EMPTY TOMB + +As we approach the time of the resurrection of Jesus on this early Sunday +morning, it should be recalled that the ten apostles were sojourning at the +home of Elijah and Mary Mark, where they were asleep in the upper chamber, +resting on the very couches whereon they reclined during the last supper with +their Master. This Sunday morning they were all there assembled except Thomas. +Thomas was with them for a few minutes late Saturday night when they first got +together, but the sight of the apostles, coupled with the thought of what had +happened to Jesus, was too much for him. He looked his associates over and +immediately left the room, going to the home of Simon in Bethphage, where he +thought to grieve over his troubles in solitude. The apostles all suffered, not +so much from doubt and despair as from fear, grief, and shame. + +At the home of Nicodemus there were gathered together, with David Zebedee and +Joseph of Arimathea, some twelve or fifteen of the more prominent of the +Jerusalem disciples of Jesus. At the home of Joseph of Arimathea there were +some fifteen or twenty of the leading women believers. Only these women abode +in Joseph's house, and they had kept close within during the hours of the +Sabbath day and the evening after the Sabbath, so that they were ignorant of +the military guard on watch at the tomb; neither did they know that a second +stone had been rolled in front of the tomb, and that both of these stones had +been placed under the seal of Pilate. + +A little before three o'clock this Sunday morning, when the first signs of day +began to appear in the east, five of the women started out for the tomb of +Jesus. They had prepared an abundance of special embalming lotions, and they +carried many linen bandages with them. It was their purpose more thoroughly to +give the body of Jesus its death anointing and more carefully to wrap it up +with the new bandages. + +The women who went on this mission of anointing Jesus' body were: Mary +Magdalene, Mary the mother of the Alpheus twins, Salome the mother of the +Zebedee brothers, Joanna the wife of Chuza, and Susanna the daughter of Ezra of +Alexandria. + +It was about half past three o'clock when the five women, laden with their +ointments, arrived before the empty tomb. As they passed out of the Damascus +gate, they encountered a number of soldiers fleeing into the city more or less +panic-stricken, and this caused them to pause for a few minutes; but when +nothing more developed, they resumed their journey. + +They were greatly surprised to see the stone rolled away from the entrance to +the tomb, inasmuch as they had said among themselves on the way out, "Who will +help us roll away the stone?" They set down their burdens and began to look +upon one another in fear and with great amazement. While they stood there, + + top of page - 2026 + +atremble with fear, Mary Magdalene ventured around the smaller stone and dared +to enter the open sepulchre. This tomb of Joseph was in his garden on the +hillside on the eastern side of the road, and it also faced toward the east. By +this hour there was just enough of the dawn of a new day to enable Mary to look +back to the place where the Master's body had lain and to discern that it was +gone. In the recess of stone where they had laid Jesus, Mary saw only the +folded napkin where his head had rested and the bandages wherewith he had been +wrapped lying intact and as they had rested on the stone before the celestial +hosts removed the body. The covering sheet lay at the foot of the burial niche. + +After Mary had tarried in the doorway of the tomb for a few moments (she did +not see distinctly when she first entered the tomb), she saw that Jesus' body +was gone and in its place only these grave cloths, and she uttered a cry of +alarm and anguish. All the women were exceedingly nervous; they had been on +edge ever since meeting the panicky soldiers at the city gate, and when Mary +uttered this scream of anguish, they were terror-stricken and fled in great +haste. And they did not stop until they had run all the way to the Damascus +gate. By this time Joanna was conscience-stricken that they had deserted Mary; +she rallied her companions, and they started back for the tomb. + +As they drew near the sepulchre, the frightened Magdalene, who was even more +terrorized when she failed to find her sisters waiting when she came out of the +tomb, now rushed up to them, excitedly exclaiming: "He is not there--they have +taken him away!" And she led them back to the tomb, and they all entered and +saw that it was empty. + +All five of the women then sat down on the stone near the entrance and talked +over the situation. It had not yet occurred to them that Jesus had been +resurrected. They had been by themselves over the Sabbath, and they conjectured +that the body had been moved to another resting place. But when they pondered +such a solution of their dilemma, they were at a loss to account for the +orderly arrangement of the grave cloths; how could the body have been removed +since the very bandages in which it was wrapped were left in position and +apparently intact on the burial shelf? + +As these women sat there in the early hours of the dawn of this new day, they +looked to one side and observed a silent and motionless stranger. For a moment +they were again frightened, but Mary Magdalene, rushing toward him and +addressing him as if she thought he might be the caretaker of the garden, said, +"Where have you taken the Master? Where have they laid him? Tell us that we may +go and get him." When the stranger did not answer Mary, she began to weep. Then +spoke Jesus to them, saying, "Whom do you seek?" Mary said: "We seek for Jesus +who was laid to rest in Joseph's tomb, but he is gone. Do you know where they +have taken him?" Then said Jesus: "Did not this Jesus tell you, even in +Galilee, that he would die, but that he would rise again?" These words startled +the women, but the Master was so changed that they did not yet recognize him +with his back turned to the dim light. And as they pondered his words, he +addressed the Magdalene with a familiar voice, saying, "Mary." And when she +heard that word of well-known sympathy and affectionate greeting, she knew it +was the voice of the Master, and she rushed to kneel at his feet while she +exclaimed, "My Lord, and my Master!" And all of the other women recognized that +it was the Master who stood before them in glorified form, and they quickly +knelt before him. + + top of page - 2027 + +These human eyes were enabled to see the morontia form of Jesus because of the +special ministry of the transformers and the midwayers in association with +certain of the morontia personalities then accompanying Jesus. + +As Mary sought to embrace his feet, Jesus said: "Touch me not, Mary, for I am +not as you knew me in the flesh. In this form will I tarry with you for a +season before I ascend to the Father. But go, all of you, now and tell my +apostles--and Peter--that I have risen, and that you have talked with me." + +After these women had recovered from the shock of their amazement, they +hastened back to the city and to the home of Elijah Mark, where they related to +the ten apostles all that had happened to them; but the apostles were not +inclined to believe them. They thought at first that the women had seen a +vision, but when Mary Magdalene repeated the words which Jesus had spoken to +them, and when Peter heard his name, he rushed out of the upper chamber, +followed closely by John, in great haste to reach the tomb and see these things +for himself. + +The women repeated the story of talking with Jesus to the other apostles, but +they would not believe; and they would not go to find out for themselves as had +Peter and John. + +5. PETER AND JOHN AT THE TOMB + +As the two apostles raced for Golgotha and the tomb of Joseph, Peter's thoughts +alternated between fear and hope; he feared to meet the Master, but his hope +was aroused by the story that Jesus had sent special word to him. He was half +persuaded that Jesus was really alive; he recalled the promise to rise on the +third day. Strange to relate, this promise had not occurred to him since the +crucifixion until this moment as he hurried north through Jerusalem. As John +hastened out of the city, a strange ecstasy of joy and hope welled up in his +soul. He was half convinced that the women really had seen the risen Master. + +John, being younger than Peter, outran him and arrived first at the tomb. John +tarried at the door, viewing the tomb, and it was just as Mary had described +it. Very soon Simon Peter rushed up and, entering, saw the same empty tomb with +the grave cloths so peculiarly arranged. And when Peter had come out, John also +went in and saw it all for himself, and then they sat down on the stone to +ponder the meaning of what they had seen and heard. And while they sat there, +they turned over in their minds all that had been told them about Jesus, but +they could not clearly perceive what had happened. + +Peter at first suggested that the grave had been rifled, that enemies had +stolen the body, perhaps bribed the guards. But John reasoned that the grave +would hardly have been left so orderly if the body had been stolen, and he also +raised the question as to how the bandages happened to be left behind, and so +apparently intact. And again they both went back into the tomb more closely to +examine the grave cloths. As they came out of the tomb the second time, they +found Mary Magdalene returned and weeping before the entrance. Mary had gone to +the apostles believing that Jesus had risen from the grave, but when they all +refused to believe her report, she became downcast and despairing. She longed +to go back near the tomb, where she thought she had heard the familiar voice of +Jesus. + +As Mary lingered after Peter and John had gone, the Master again appeared to +her, saying: "Be not doubting; have the courage to believe what you have seen +and heard. Go back to my apostles and again tell them that I have risen, + + top of page - 2028 + +that I will appear to them, and that presently I will go before them into +Galilee as I promised." + +Mary hurried back to the Mark home and told the apostles she had again talked +with Jesus, but they would not believe her. But when Peter and John returned, +they ceased to ridicule and became filled with fear and apprehension. + + top of page - 2029 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The Time Of ³ Morontia ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ The... ³ Appear... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p190.txt b/religious documents/p190.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..481d34b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p190.txt @@ -0,0 +1,478 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 190 Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... Morontia Appearances + Of Jesus +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 190 Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE resurrected Jesus now prepares to spend a short period on Urantia for the +purpose of experiencing the ascending morontia career of a mortal of the +realms. Although this time of the morontia life is to be spent on the world of +his mortal incarnation, it will, however, be in all respects the counterpart of +the experience of Satania mortals who pass through the progressive morontia +life of the seven mansion worlds of Jerusem. + +All this power which is inherent in Jesus--the endowment of life--and which +enabled him to rise from the dead, is the very gift of eternal life which he +bestows upon kingdom believers, and which even now makes certain their +resurrection from the bonds of natural death. + +The mortals of the realms will arise in the morning of the resurrection with +the same type of transition or morontia body that Jesus had when he arose from +the tomb on this Sunday morning. These bodies do not have circulating blood, +and such beings do not partake of ordinary material food; nevertheless, these +morontia forms are real. When the various believers saw Jesus after his +resurrection, they really saw him; they were not the self-deceived victims of +visions or hallucinations. + +Abiding faith in the resurrection of Jesus was the cardinal feature of the +faith of all branches of the early gospel teaching. In Jerusalem, Alexandria, +Antioch, and Philadelphia all the gospel teachers united in this implicit faith +in the Master's resurrection. + +In viewing the prominent part which Mary Magdalene took in proclaiming the +Master's resurrection, it should be recorded that Mary was the chief spokesman +for the women's corps, as was Peter for the apostles. Mary was not chief of the +women workers, but she was their chief teacher and public spokesman. Mary had +become a woman of great circumspection, so that her boldness in speaking to a +man whom she considered to be the caretaker of Joseph's garden only indicates +how horrified she was to find the tomb empty. It was the depth and agony of her +love, the fullness of her devotion, that caused her to forget, for a moment, +the conventional restraints of a Jewish woman's approach to a strange man. + +1. HERALDS OF THE RESURRECTION + +The apostles did not want Jesus to leave them; therefore had they slighted all +his statements about dying, along with his promises to rise again. They were +not expecting the resurrection as it came, and they refused to believe until +they were confronted with the compulsion of unimpeachable evidence and the +absolute proof of their own experiences. + + top of page - 2030 + +When the apostles refused to believe the report of the five women who +represented that they had seen Jesus and talked with him, Mary Magdalene +returned to the tomb, and the others went back to Joseph's house, where they +related their experiences to his daughter and the other women. And the women +believed their report. Shortly after six o'clock the daughter of Joseph of +Arimathea and the four women who had seen Jesus went over to the home of +Nicodemus, where they related all these happenings to Joseph, Nicodemus, David +Zebedee, and the other men there assembled. Nicodemus and the others doubted +their story, doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead; they conjectured that +the Jews had removed the body. Joseph and David were disposed to believe the +report, so much so that they hurried out to inspect the tomb, and they found +everything just as the women had described. And they were the last to so view +the sepulchre, for the high priest sent the captain of the temple guards to the +tomb at half past seven o'clock to remove the grave cloths. The captain wrapped +them all up in the linen sheet and threw them over a near-by cliff. + +From the tomb David and Joseph went immediately to the home of Elijah Mark, +where they held a conference with the ten apostles in the upper chamber. Only +John Zebedee was disposed to believe, even faintly, that Jesus had risen from +the dead. Peter had believed at first but, when he failed to find the Master, +fell into grave doubting. They were all disposed to believe that the Jews had +removed the body. David would not argue with them, but when he left, he said: +"You are the apostles, and you ought to understand these things. I will not +contend with you; nevertheless, I now go back to the home of Nicodemus, where I +have appointed with the messengers to assemble this morning, and when they have +gathered together, I will send them forth on their last mission, as heralds of +the Master's resurrection. I heard the Master say that, after he should die, he +would rise on the third day, and I believe him." And thus speaking to the +dejected and forlorn ambassadors of the kingdom, this self-appointed chief of +communication and intelligence took leave of the apostles. On his way from the +upper chamber he dropped the bag of Judas, containing all the apostolic funds, +in the lap of Matthew Levi. + +It was about half past nine o'clock when the last of David's twenty-six +messengers arrived at the home of Nicodemus. David promptly assembled them in +the spacious courtyard and addressed them: + +"Men and brethren, all this time you have served me in accordance with your +oath to me and to one another, and I call you to witness that I have never yet +sent out false information at your hands. I am about to send you on your last +mission as volunteer messengers of the kingdom, and in so doing I release you +from your oaths and thereby disband the messenger corps. Men, I declare to you +that we have finished our work. No more does the Master have need of mortal +messengers; he has risen from the dead. He told us before they arrested him +that he would die and rise again on the third day. I have seen the tomb--it is +empty. I have talked with Mary Magdalene and four other women, who have talked +with Jesus. I now disband you, bid you farewell, and send you on your +respective assignments, and the message which you shall bear to the believers +is: `Jesus has risen from the dead; the tomb is empty.'" + +The majority of those present endeavored to persuade David not to do this. But +they could not influence him. They then sought to dissuade the messengers, + + top of page - 2031 + +but they would not heed the words of doubt. And so, shortly before ten o'clock +this Sunday morning, these twenty-six runners went forth as the first heralds +of the mighty truth-fact of the resurrected Jesus. And they started out on this +mission as they had on so many others, in fulfillment of their oath to David +Zebedee and to one another. These men had great confidence in David. They +departed on this assignment without even tarrying to talk with those who had +seen Jesus; they took David at his word. The majority of them believed what +David had told them, and even those who somewhat doubted, carried the message +just as certainly and just as swiftly. + +The apostles, the spiritual corps of the kingdom, are this day assembled in the +upper chamber, where they manifest fear and express doubts, while these laymen, +representing the first attempt at the socialization of the Master's gospel of +the brotherhood of man, under the orders of their fearless and efficient +leader, go forth to proclaim the risen Savior of a world and a universe. And +they engage in this eventful service ere his chosen representatives are willing +to believe his word or to accept the evidence of eyewitnesses. + +These twenty-six were dispatched to the home of Lazarus in Bethany and to all +of the believer centers, from Beersheba in the south to Damascus and Sidon in +the north; and from Philadelphia in the east to Alexandria in the west. + +When David had taken leave of his brethren, he went over to the home of Joseph +for his mother, and they then went out to Bethany to join the waiting family of +Jesus. David abode there in Bethany with Martha and Mary until after they had +disposed of their earthly possessions, and he accompanied them on their journey +to join their brother, Lazarus, at Philadelphia. + +In about one week from this time John Zebedee took Mary the mother of Jesus to +his home in Bethsaida. James, Jesus' eldest brother, remained with his family +in Jerusalem. Ruth remained at Bethany with Lazarus's sisters. The rest of +Jesus' family returned to Galilee. David Zebedee left Bethany with Martha and +Mary, for Philadelphia, early in June, the day after his marriage to Ruth, +Jesus' youngest sister. + +2. JESUS' APPEARANCE AT BETHANY + +From the time of the morontia resurrection until the hour of his spirit +ascension on high, Jesus made nineteen separate appearances in visible form to +his believers on earth. He did not appear to his enemies nor to those who could +not make spiritual use of his manifestation in visible form. His first +appearance was to the five women at the tomb; his second, to Mary Magdalene, +also at the tomb. + +The third appearance occurred about noon of this Sunday at Bethany. Shortly +after noontide, Jesus' oldest brother, James, was standing in the garden of +Lazarus before the empty tomb of the resurrected brother of Martha and Mary, +turning over in his mind the news brought to them about one hour previously by +the messenger of David. James had always inclined to believe in his eldest +brother's mission on earth, but he had long since lost contact with Jesus' work +and had drifted into grave doubting regarding the later claims of the apostles +that Jesus was the Messiah. The whole family was startled and well-nigh +confounded by the news brought by the messenger. Even as James stood before +Lazarus's empty tomb, Mary Magdalene arrived on the scene and was excitedly + + top of page - 2032 + +relating to the family her experiences of the early morning hours at the tomb +of Joseph. Before she had finished, David Zebedee and his mother arrived. Ruth, +of course, believed the report, and so did Jude after he had talked with David +and Salome. + +In the meantime, as they looked for James and before they found him, while he +stood there in the garden near the tomb, he became aware of a near-by presence, +as if someone had touched him on the shoulder; and when he turned to look, he +beheld the gradual appearance of a strange form by his side. He was too much +amazed to speak and too frightened to flee. And then the strange form spoke, +saying: "James, I come to call you to the service of the kingdom. Join earnest +hands with your brethren and follow after me." When James heard his name +spoken, he knew that it was his eldest brother, Jesus, who had addressed him. +They all had more or less difficulty in recognizing the morontia form of the +Master, but few of them had any trouble recognizing his voice or otherwise +identifying his charming personality when he once began to communicate with +them. + +When James perceived that Jesus was addressing him, he started to fall to his +knees, exclaiming, "My father and my brother," but Jesus bade him stand while +he spoke with him. And they walked through the garden and talked for almost +three minutes; talked over experiences of former days and forecast the events +of the near future. As they neared the house, Jesus said, "Farewell, James, +until I greet you all together." + +James rushed into the house, even while they looked for him at Bethphage, +exclaiming: "I have just seen Jesus and talked with him, visited with him. He +is not dead; he has risen! He vanished before me, saying, `Farewell until I +greet you all together.'" He had scarcely finished speaking when Jude returned, +and he retold the experience of meeting Jesus in the garden for the benefit of +Jude. And they all began to believe in the resurrection of Jesus. James now +announced that he would not return to Galilee, and David exclaimed: "He is seen +not only by excited women; even stronghearted men have begun to see him. I +expect to see him myself." + +And David did not long wait, for the fourth appearance of Jesus to mortal +recognition occurred shortly before two o'clock in this very home of Martha and +Mary, when he appeared visibly before his earthly family and their friends, +twenty in all. The Master appeared in the open back door, saying: "Peace be +upon you. Greetings to those once near me in the flesh and fellowship for my +brothers and sisters in the kingdom of heaven. How could you doubt? Why have +you lingered so long before choosing to follow the light of truth with a whole +heart? Come, therefore, all of you into the fellowship of the Spirit of Truth +in the Father's kingdom." As they began to recover from the first shock of +their amazement and to move toward him as if to embrace him, he vanished from +their sight. + +They all wanted to rush off to the city to tell the doubting apostles about +what had happened, but James restrained them. Mary Magdalene, only, was +permitted to return to Joseph's house. James forbade their publishing abroad +the fact of this morontia visit because of certain things which Jesus had said +to him as they conversed in the garden. But James never revealed more of his +visit with the risen Master on this day at the Lazarus home in Bethany. + + top of page - 2033 + +3. AT THE HOME OF JOSEPH + +The fifth morontia manifestation of Jesus to the recognition of mortal eyes +occurred in the presence of some twenty-five women believers assembled at the +home of Joseph of Arimathea, at about fifteen minutes past four o'clock on this +same Sunday afternoon. Mary Magdalene had returned to Joseph's house just a few +minutes before this appearance. James, Jesus' brother, had requested that +nothing be said to the apostles concerning the Master's appearance at Bethany. +He had not asked Mary to refrain from reporting the occurrence to her sister +believers. Accordingly, after Mary had pledged all the women to secrecy, she +proceeded to relate what had so recently happened while she was with Jesus' +family at Bethany. And she was in the very midst of this thrilling recital when +a sudden and solemn hush fell over them; they beheld in their very midst the +fully visible form of the risen Jesus. He greeted them, saying: "Peace be upon +you. In the fellowship of the kingdom there shall be neither Jew nor gentile, +rich nor poor, free nor bond, man nor woman. You also are called to publish the +good news of the liberty of mankind through the gospel of sonship with God in +the kingdom of heaven. Go to all the world proclaiming this gospel and +confirming believers in the faith thereof. And while you do this, forget not to +minister to the sick and strengthen those who are fainthearted and fear-ridden. +And I will be with you always, even to the ends of the earth." And when he had +thus spoken, he vanished from their sight, while the women fell on their faces +and worshiped in silence. + +Of the five morontia appearances of Jesus occurring up to this time, Mary +Magdalene had witnessed four. + +As a result of sending out the messengers during the midforenoon and from the +unconscious leakage of intimations concerning this appearance of Jesus at +Joseph's house, word began to come to the rulers of the Jews during the early +evening that it was being reported about the city that Jesus had risen, and +that many persons were claiming to have seen him. The Sanhedrists were +thoroughly aroused by these rumors. After a hasty consultation with Annas, +Caiaphas called a meeting of the Sanhedrin to convene at eight o'clock that +evening. It was at this meeting that action was taken to throw out of the +synagogues any person who made mention of Jesus' resurrection. It was even +suggested that any one claiming to have seen him should be put to death; this +proposal, however, did not come to a vote since the meeting broke up in +confusion bordering on actual panic. They had dared to think they were through +with Jesus. They were about to discover that their real trouble with the man of +Nazareth had just begun. + +4. APPEARANCE TO THE GREEKS + +About half past four o'clock, at the home of one Flavius, the Master made his +sixth morontia appearance to some forty Greek believers there assembled. While +they were engaged in discussing the reports of the Master's resurrection, he +manifested himself in their midst, notwithstanding that the doors were securely +fastened, and speaking to them, said: "Peace be upon you. While the Son of Man +appeared on earth among the Jews, he came to minister to all men. + + top of page - 2034 + +In the kingdom of my Father there shall be neither Jew nor gentile; you will +all be brethren--the sons of God. Go you, therefore, to all the world, +proclaiming this gospel of salvation as you have received it from the +ambassadors of the kingdom, and I will fellowship you in the brotherhood of the +Father's sons of faith and truth." And when he had thus charged them, he took +leave, and they saw him no more. They remained within the house all evening; +they were too much overcome with awe and fear to venture forth. Neither did any +of these Greeks sleep that night; they stayed awake discussing these things and +hoping that the Master might again visit them. Among this group were many of +the Greeks who were at Gethsemane when the soldiers arrested Jesus and Judas +betrayed him with a kiss. + +Rumors of Jesus' resurrection and reports concerning the many appearances to +his followers are spreading rapidly, and the whole city is being wrought up to +a high pitch of excitement. Already the Master has appeared to his family, to +the women, and to the Greeks, and presently he manifests himself in the midst +of the apostles. The Sanhedrin is soon to begin the consideration of these new +problems which have been so suddenly thrust upon the Jewish rulers. Jesus +thinks much about his apostles but desires that they be left alone for a few +more hours of solemn reflection and thoughtful consideration before he visits +them. + +5. THE WALK WITH TWO BROTHERS + +At Emmaus, about seven miles west of Jerusalem, there lived two brothers, +shepherds, who had spent the Passover week in Jerusalem attending upon the +sacrifices, ceremonials, and feasts. Cleopas, the elder, was a partial believer +in Jesus; at least he had been cast out of the synagogue. His brother, Jacob, +was not a believer, although he was much intrigued by what he had heard about +the Master's teachings and works. + +On this Sunday afternoon, about three miles out of Jerusalem and a few minutes +before five o'clock, as these two brothers trudged along the road to Emmaus, +they talked in great earnestness about Jesus, his teachings, work, and more +especially concerning the rumors that his tomb was empty, and that certain of +the women had talked with him. Cleopas was half a mind to believe these +reports, but Jacob was insistent that the whole affair was probably a fraud. +While they thus argued and debated as they made their way toward home, the +morontia manifestation of Jesus, his seventh appearance, came alongside them as +they journeyed on. Cleopas had often heard Jesus teach and had eaten with him +at the homes of Jerusalem believers on several occasions. But he did not +recognize the Master even when he spoke freely with them. + +After walking a short way with them, Jesus said: "What were the words you +exchanged so earnestly as I came upon you?" And when Jesus had spoken, they +stood still and viewed him with sad surprise. Said Cleopas: "Can it be that you +sojourn in Jerusalem and know not the things which have recently happened?" +Then asked the Master, "What things?" Cleopas replied: "If you do not know +about these matters, you are the only one in Jerusalem who has not heard these +rumors concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in word and in +deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers delivered +him up to the Romans and demanded that they crucify him. Now many of us had +hoped that it was he who would deliver Israel from the + + top of page - 2035 + +yoke of the gentiles. But that is not all. It is now the third day since he was +crucified, and certain women have this day amazed us by declaring that very +early this morning they went to his tomb and found it empty. And these same +women insist that they talked with this man; they maintain that he has risen +from the dead. And when the women reported this to the men, two of his apostles +ran to the tomb and likewise found it empty"--and here Jacob interrupted his +brother to say, "but they did not see Jesus." + +As they walked along, Jesus said to them: "How slow you are to comprehend the +truth! When you tell me that it is about the teachings and work of this man +that you have your discussions, then may I enlighten you since I am more than +familiar with these teachings. Do you not remember that this Jesus always +taught that his kingdom was not of this world, and that all men, being the sons +of God, should find liberty and freedom in the spiritual joy of the fellowship +of the brotherhood of loving service in this new kingdom of the truth of the +heavenly Father's love? Do you not recall how this Son of Man proclaimed the +salvation of God for all men, ministering to the sick and afflicted and setting +free those who were bound by fear and enslaved by evil? Do you not know that +this man of Nazareth told his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, be +delivered up to his enemies, who would put him to death, and that he would +arise on the third day? Have you not been told all this? And have you never +read in the Scriptures concerning this day of salvation for Jew and gentile, +where it says that in him shall all the families of the earth be blessed; that +he will hear the cry of the needy and save the souls of the poor who seek him; +that all nations shall call him blessed? That such a Deliverer shall be as the +shadow of a great rock in a weary land. That he will feed the flock like a true +shepherd, gathering the lambs in his arms and tenderly carrying them in his +bosom. That he will open the eyes of the spiritually blind and bring the +prisoners of despair out into full liberty and light; that all who sit in +darkness shall see the great light of eternal salvation. That he will bind up +the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives of sin, and open up the +prison to those who are enslaved by fear and bound by evil. That he will +comfort those who mourn and bestow upon them the joy of salvation in the place +of sorrow and heaviness. That he shall be the desire of all nations and the +everlasting joy of those who seek righteousness. That this Son of truth and +righteousness shall rise upon the world with healing light and saving power; +even that he will save his people from their sins; that he will really seek and +save those who are lost. That he will not destroy the weak but minister +salvation to all who hunger and thirst for righteousness. That those who +believe in him shall have eternal life. That he will pour out his spirit upon +all flesh, and that this Spirit of Truth shall be in each believer a well of +water, springing up into everlasting life. Did you not understand how great was +the gospel of the kingdom which this man delivered to you? Do you not perceive +how great a salvation has come upon you?" + +By this time they had come near to the village where these brothers dwelt. Not +a word had these two men spoken since Jesus began to teach them as they walked +along the way. Soon they drew up in front of their humble dwelling place, and +Jesus was about to take leave of them, going on down the road, but they +constrained him to come in and abide with them. They insisted that it was near +nightfall, and that he tarry with them. Finally Jesus consented, and very soon +after they went into the house, they sat down to eat. They gave him the bread +to bless, and as he began to break and hand to them, their eyes were opened, +and + + top of page - 2036 + +Cleopas recognized that their guest was the Master himself. And when he said, +"It is the Master--," the morontia Jesus vanished from their sight. + +And then they said, the one to the other, "No wonder our hearts burned within +us as he spoke to us while we walked along the road! and while he opened up to +our understanding the teachings of the Scriptures!" + +They would not stop to eat. They had seen the morontia Master, and they rushed +from the house, hastening back to Jerusalem to spread the good news of the +risen Savior. + +About nine o'clock that evening and just before the Master appeared to the ten, +these two excited brothers broke in upon the apostles in the upper chamber, +declaring that they had seen Jesus and talked with him. And they told all that +Jesus had said to them and how they had not discerned who he was until the time +of the breaking of the bread. + + top of page - 2037 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ The ³ Appearances To ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Resurrectio... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p191.txt b/religious documents/p191.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f580f9c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p191.txt @@ -0,0 +1,530 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 191 Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... Appearances To The + Apostles And Other Leaders +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 191 Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +RESURRECTION Sunday was a terrible day in the lives of the apostles; ten of +them spent the larger part of the day in the upper chamber behind barred doors. +They might have fled from Jerusalem, but they were afraid of being arrested by +the agents of the Sanhedrin if they were found abroad. Thomas was brooding over +his troubles alone at Bethphage. He would have fared better had he remained +with his fellow apostles, and he would have aided them to direct their +discussions along more helpful lines. + +All day long John upheld the idea that Jesus had risen from the dead. He +recounted no less than five different times when the Master had affirmed he +would rise again and at least three times when he alluded to the third day. +John's attitude had considerable influence on them, especially on his brother +James and on Nathaniel. John would have influenced them more if he had not been +the youngest member of the group. + +Their isolation had much to do with their troubles. John Mark kept them in +touch with developments about the temple and informed them as to the many +rumors gaining headway in the city, but it did not occur to him to gather up +news from the different groups of believers to whom Jesus had already appeared. +That was the kind of service which had heretofore been rendered by the +messengers of David, but they were all absent on their last assignment as +heralds of the resurrection to those groups of believers who dwelt remote from +Jerusalem. For the first time in all these years the apostles realized how much +they had been dependent on David's messengers for their daily information +regarding the affairs of the kingdom. + +All this day Peter characteristically vacillated emotionally between faith and +doubt concerning the Master's resurrection. Peter could not get away from the +sight of the grave cloths resting there in the tomb as if the body of Jesus had +just evaporated from within. "But," reasoned Peter, "if he has risen and can +show himself to the women, why does he not show himself to us, his apostles?" +Peter would grow sorrowful when he thought that maybe Jesus did not come to +them on account of his presence among the apostles, because he had denied him +that night in Annas's courtyard. And then would he cheer himself with the word +brought by the women, "Go tell my apostles--and Peter." But to derive +encouragement from this message implied that he must believe that the women had +really seen and heard the risen Master. Thus Peter alternated between faith and +doubt throughout the whole day, until a little after eight o'clock, when he +ventured out into the courtyard. Peter thought to remove himself from among the +apostles so that he might not prevent Jesus' coming to them because of his +denial of the Master. + +James Zebedee at first advocated that they all go to the tomb; he was strongly +in favor of doing something to get to the bottom of the mystery. It was +Nathaniel + + top of page - 2038 + +who prevented them from going out in public in response to James's urging, and +he did this by reminding them of Jesus' warning against unduly jeopardizing +their lives at this time. By noontime James had settled down with the others to +watchful waiting. He said little; he was tremendously disappointed because +Jesus did not appear to them, and he did not know of the Master's many +appearances to other groups and individuals. + +Andrew did much listening this day. He was exceedingly perplexed by the +situation and had more than his share of doubts, but he at least enjoyed a +certain sense of freedom from responsibility for the guidance of his fellow +apostles. He was indeed grateful that the Master had released him from the +burdens of leadership before they fell upon these distracting times. + +More than once during the long and weary hours of this tragic day, the only +sustaining influence of the group was the frequent contribution of Nathaniel's +characteristic philosophic counsel. He was really the controlling influence +among the ten throughout the entire day. Never once did he express himself +concerning either belief or disbelief in the Master's resurrection. But as the +day wore on, he became increasingly inclined toward believing that Jesus had +fulfilled his promise to rise again. + +Simon Zelotes was too much crushed to participate in the discussions. Most of +the time he reclined on a couch in a corner of the room with his face to the +wall; he did not speak half a dozen times throughout the whole day. His concept +of the kingdom had crashed, and he could not discern that the Master's +resurrection could materially change the situation. His disappointment was very +personal and altogether too keen to be recovered from on short notice, even in +the face of such a stupendous fact as the resurrection. + +Strange to record, the usually inexpressive Philip did much talking throughout +the afternoon of this day. During the forenoon he had little to say, but all +afternoon he asked questions of the other apostles. Peter was often annoyed by +Philip's questions, but the others took his inquiries good-naturedly. Philip +was particularly desirous of knowing, provided Jesus had really risen from the +grave, whether his body would bear the physical marks of the crucifixion. + +Matthew was highly confused; he listened to the discussions of his fellows but +spent most of the time turning over in his mind the problem of their future +finances. Regardless of Jesus' supposed resurrection, Judas was gone, David had +unceremoniously turned the funds over to him, and they were without an +authoritative leader. Before Matthew got around to giving serious consideration +to their arguments about the resurrection, he had already seen the Master face +to face. + +The Alpheus twins took little part in these serious discussions; they were +fairly busy with their customary ministrations. One of them expressed the +attitude of both when he said, in reply to a question asked by Philip: "We do +not understand about the resurrection, but our mother says she talked with the +Master, and we believe her." + +Thomas was in the midst of one of his typical spells of despairing depression. +He slept a portion of the day and walked over the hills the rest of the time. +He felt the urge to rejoin his fellow apostles, but the desire to be by himself +was the stronger. + +The Master put off the first morontia appearance to the apostles for a number +of reasons. First, he wanted them to have time, after they heard of his +resurrection, to think well over what he had told them about his death and + + top of page - 2039 + +resurrection when he was still with them in the flesh. The Master wanted Peter +to wrestle through with some of his peculiar difficulties before he manifested +himself to them all. In the second place, he desired that Thomas should be with +them at the time of his first appearance. John Mark located Thomas at the home +of Simon in Bethphage early this Sunday morning, bringing word to that effect +to the apostles about eleven o'clock. Any time during this day Thomas would +have gone back to them if Nathaniel or any two of the other apostles had gone +for him. He really wanted to return, but having left as he did the evening +before, he was too proud to go back of his own accord so soon. By the next day +he was so depressed that it required almost a week for him to make up his mind +to return. The apostles waited for him, and he waited for his brethren to seek +him out and ask him to come back to them. Thomas thus remained away from his +associates until the next Saturday evening, when, after darkness had come on, +Peter and John went over to Bethphage and brought him back with them. And this +is also the reason why they did not go at once to Galilee after Jesus first +appeared to them; they would not go without Thomas. + +1. THE APPEARANCE TO PETER + +It was near half past eight o'clock this Sunday evening when Jesus appeared to +Simon Peter in the garden of the Mark home. This was his eighth morontia +manifestation. Peter had lived under a heavy burden of doubt and guilt ever +since his denial of the Master. All day Saturday and this Sunday he had fought +the fear that, perhaps, he was no longer an apostle. He had shuddered at the +fate of Judas and even thought that he, too, had betrayed his Master. All this +afternoon he thought that it might be his presence with the apostles that +prevented Jesus' appearing to them, provided, of course, he had really risen +from the dead. And it was to Peter, in such a frame of mind and in such a state +of soul, that Jesus appeared as the dejected apostle strolled among the flowers +and shrubs. + +When Peter thought of the loving look of the Master as he passed by on Annas's +porch, and as he turned over in his mind that wonderful message brought him +early that morning by the women who came from the empty tomb, "Go tell my +apostles--and Peter"--as he contemplated these tokens of mercy, his faith began +to surmount his doubts, and he stood still, clenching his fists, while he spoke +aloud: "I believe he has risen from the dead; I will go and tell my brethren." +And as he said this, there suddenly appeared in front of him the form of a man, +who spoke to him in familiar tones, saying: "Peter, the enemy desired to have +you, but I would not give you up. I knew it was not from the heart that you +disowned me; therefore I forgave you even before you asked; but now must you +cease to think about yourself and the troubles of the hour while you prepare to +carry the good news of the gospel to those who sit in darkness. No longer +should you be concerned with what you may obtain from the kingdom but rather be +exercised about what you can give to those who live in dire spiritual poverty. +Gird yourself, Simon, for the battle of a new day, the struggle with spiritual +darkness and the evil doubtings of the natural minds of men." + +Peter and the morontia Jesus walked through the garden and talked of things +past, present, and future for almost five minutes. Then the Master vanished +from his gaze, saying, "Farewell, Peter, until I see you with your brethren." + +For a moment, Peter was overcome by the realization that he had talked with the +risen Master, and that he could be sure he was still an ambassador of + + top of page - 2040 + +the kingdom. He had just heard the glorified Master exhort him to go on +preaching the gospel. And with all this welling up within his heart, he rushed +to the upper chamber and into the presence of his fellow apostles, exclaiming +in breathless excitement: "I have seen the Master; he was in the garden. I +talked with him, and he has forgiven me." + +Peter's declaration that he had seen Jesus in the garden made a profound +impression upon his fellow apostles, and they were about ready to surrender +their doubts when Andrew got up and warned them not to be too much influenced +by his brother's report. Andrew intimated that Peter had seen things which were +not real before. Although Andrew did not directly allude to the vision of the +night on the Sea of Galilee wherein Peter claimed to have seen the Master +coming to them walking on the water, he said enough to betray to all present +that he had this incident in mind. Simon Peter was very much hurt by his +brother's insinuations and immediately lapsed into crestfallen silence. The +twins felt very sorry for Peter, and they both went over to express their +sympathy and to say that they believed him and to reassert that their own +mother had also seen the Master. + +2. FIRST APPEARANCE TO THE APOSTLES + +Shortly after nine o'clock that evening, after the departure of Cleopas and +Jacob, while the Alpheus twins comforted Peter, and while Nathaniel +remonstrated with Andrew, and as the ten apostles were there assembled in the +upper chamber with all the doors bolted for fear of arrest, the Master, in +morontia form, suddenly appeared in the midst of them, saying: "Peace be upon +you. Why are you so frightened when I appear, as though you had seen a spirit? +Did I not tell you about these things when I was present with you in the flesh? +Did I not say to you that the chief priests and the rulers would deliver me up +to be killed, that one of your own number would betray me, and that on the +third day I would rise? Wherefore all your doubtings and all this discussion +about the reports of the women, Cleopas and Jacob, and even Peter? How long +will you doubt my words and refuse to believe my promises? And now that you +actually see me, will you believe? Even now one of you is absent. When you are +gathered together once more, and after all of you know of a certainty that the +Son of Man has risen from the grave, go hence into Galilee. Have faith in God; +have faith in one another; and so shall you enter into the new service of the +kingdom of heaven. I will tarry in Jerusalem with you until you are ready to go +into Galilee. My peace I leave with you." + +When the morontia Jesus had spoken to them, he vanished in an instant from +their sight. And they all fell on their faces, praising God and venerating +their vanished Master. This was the Master's ninth morontia appearance. + +3. WITH THE MORONTIA CREATURES + +The next day, Monday, was spent wholly with the morontia creatures then present +on Urantia. As participants in the Master's morontia-transition experience, +there had come to Urantia more than one million morontia directors and +associates, together with transition mortals of various orders from the seven +mansion worlds of Satania. The morontia Jesus sojourned with these splendid +intelligences for forty days. He instructed them and learned from their +directors + + top of page - 2041 + +the life of morontia transition as it is traversed by the mortals of the +inhabited worlds of Satania as they pass through the system morontia spheres. + +About midnight of this Monday the Master's morontia form was adjusted for +transition to the second stage of morontia progression. When he next appeared +to his mortal children on earth, it was as a second-stage morontia being. As +the Master progressed in the morontia career, it became, technically, more and +more difficult for the morontia intelligences and their transforming associates +to visualize the Master to mortal and material eyes. + +Jesus made the transit to the third stage of morontia on Friday, April 14; to +the fourth stage on Monday, the 17th; to the fifth stage on Saturday, the 22nd; +to the sixth stage on Thursday, the 27th; to the seventh stage on Tuesday, May +2; to Jerusem citizenship on Sunday, the 7th; and he entered the embrace of the +Most Highs of Edentia on Sunday, the 14th. + +In this manner did Michael of Nebadon complete his service of universe +experience since he had already, in connection with his previous bestowals, +experienced to the full the life of the ascendant mortals of time and space +from the sojourn on the headquarters of the constellation even on to, and +through, the service of the headquarters of the superuniverse. And it was by +these very morontia experiences that the Creator Son of Nebadon really finished +and acceptably terminated his seventh and final universe bestowal. + +4. THE TENTH APPEARANCE (AT PHILADELPHIA) + +The tenth morontia manifestation of Jesus to mortal recognition occurred a +short time after eight o'clock on Tuesday, April 11, at Philadelphia, where he +showed himself to Abner and Lazarus and some one hundred and fifty of their +associates, including more than fifty of the evangelistic corps of the seventy. +This appearance occurred just after the opening of a special meeting in the +synagogue which had been called by Abner to discuss the crucifixion of Jesus +and the more recent report of the resurrection which had been brought by +David's messenger. Inasmuch as the resurrected Lazarus was now a member of this +group of believers, it was not difficult for them to believe the report that +Jesus had risen from the dead. + +The meeting in the synagogue was just being opened by Abner and Lazarus, who +were standing together in the pulpit, when the entire audience of believers saw +the form of the Master appear suddenly. He stepped forward from where he had +appeared between Abner and Lazarus, neither of whom had observed him, and +saluting the company, said: + +"Peace be upon you. You all know that we have one Father in heaven, and that +there is but one gospel of the kingdom--the good news of the gift of eternal +life which men receive by faith. As you rejoice in your loyalty to the gospel, +pray the Father of truth to shed abroad in your hearts a new and greater love +for your brethren. You are to love all men as I have loved you; you are to +serve all men as I have served you. With understanding sympathy and brotherly +affection, fellowship all your brethren who are dedicated to the proclamation +of the good news, whether they be Jew or gentile, Greek or Roman, Persian or +Ethiopian. John proclaimed the kingdom in advance; you have preached the gospel +in power; the Greeks already teach the good news; and I am soon to send forth +the Spirit of Truth into the souls of all these, my brethren, + + top of page - 2042 + +who have so unselfishly dedicated their lives to the enlightenment of their +fellows who sit in spiritual darkness. You are all the children of light; +therefore stumble not into the misunderstanding entanglements of mortal +suspicion and human intolerance. If you are ennobled, by the grace of faith, to +love unbelievers, should you not also equally love those who are your fellow +believers in the far-spreading household of faith? Remember, as you love one +another, all men will know that you are my disciples. + +"Go, then, into all the world proclaiming this gospel of the fatherhood of God +and the brotherhood of men to all nations and races and ever be wise in your +choice of methods for presenting the good news to the different races and +tribes of mankind. Freely you have received this gospel of the kingdom, and you +will freely give the good news to all nations. Fear not the resistance of evil, +for I am with you always, even to the end of the ages. And my peace I leave +with you." + +When he had said, "My peace I leave with you," he vanished from their sight. +With the exception of one of his appearances in Galilee, where upward of five +hundred believers saw him at one time, this group in Philadelphia embraced the +largest number of mortals who saw him on any single occasion. + +Early the next morning, even while the apostles tarried in Jerusalem awaiting +the emotional recovery of Thomas, these believers at Philadelphia went forth +proclaiming that Jesus of Nazareth had risen from the dead. + +The next day, Wednesday, Jesus spent without interruption in the society of his +morontia associates, and during the midafternoon hours he received visiting +morontia delegates from the mansion worlds of every local system of inhabited +spheres throughout the constellation of Norlatiadek. And they all rejoiced to +know their Creator as one of their own order of universe intelligence. + +5. SECOND APPEARANCE TO THE APOSTLES + +Thomas spent a lonesome week alone with himself in the hills around about +Olivet. During this time he saw only those at Simon's house and John Mark. It +was about nine o'clock on Saturday, April 15, when the two apostles found him +and took him back with them to their rendezvous at the Mark home. The next day +Thomas listened to the telling of the stories of the Master's various +appearances, but he steadfastly refused to believe. He maintained that Peter +had enthused them into thinking they had seen the Master. Nathaniel reasoned +with him, but it did no good. There was an emotional stubbornness associated +with his customary doubtfulness, and this state of mind, coupled with his +chagrin at having run away from them, conspired to create a situation of +isolation which even Thomas himself did not fully understand. He had withdrawn +from his fellows, he had gone his own way, and now, even when he was back among +them, he unconsciously tended to assume an attitude of disagreement. He was +slow to surrender; he disliked to give in. Without intending it, he really +enjoyed the attention paid him; he derived unconscious satisfaction from the +efforts of all his fellows to convince and convert him. He had missed them for +a full week, and he obtained considerable pleasure from their persistent +attentions. + +They were having their evening meal a little after six o'clock, with Peter +sitting on one side of Thomas and Nathaniel on the other, when the doubting +apostle said: "I will not believe unless I see the Master with my own eyes and +put my finger in the mark of the nails." As they thus sat at supper, and while +the + + top of page - 2043 + +doors were securely shut and barred, the morontia Master suddenly appeared +inside the curvature of the table and, standing directly in front of Thomas, +said: + +"Peace be upon you. For a full week have I tarried that I might appear again +when you were all present to hear once more the commission to go into all the +world and preach this gospel of the kingdom. Again I tell you: As the Father +sent me into the world, so send I you. As I have revealed the Father, so shall +you reveal the divine love, not merely with words, but in your daily living. I +send you forth, not to love the souls of men, but rather to love men. You are +not merely to proclaim the joys of heaven but also to exhibit in your daily +experience these spirit realities of the divine life since you already have +eternal life, as the gift of God, through faith. When you have faith, when +power from on high, the Spirit of Truth, has come upon you, you will not hide +your light here behind closed doors; you will make known the love and the mercy +of God to all mankind. Through fear you now flee from the facts of a +disagreeable experience, but when you shall have been baptized with the Spirit +of Truth, you will bravely and joyously go forth to meet the new experiences of +proclaiming the good news of eternal life in the kingdom of God. You may tarry +here and in Galilee for a short season while you recover from the shock of the +transition from the false security of the authority of traditionalism to the +new order of the authority of facts, truth, and faith in the supreme realities +of living experience. Your mission to the world is founded on the fact that I +lived a God-revealing life among you; on the truth that you and all other men +are the sons of God; and it shall consist in the life which you will live among +men--the actual and living experience of loving men and serving them, even as I +have loved and served you. Let faith reveal your light to the world; let the +revelation of truth open the eyes blinded by tradition; let your loving service +effectually destroy the prejudice engendered by ignorance. By so drawing close +to your fellow men in understanding sympathy and with unselfish devotion, you +will lead them into a saving knowledge of the Father's love. The Jews have +extolled goodness; the Greeks have exalted beauty; the Hindus preach devotion; +the far-away ascetics teach reverence; the Romans demand loyalty; but I require +of my disciples life, even a life of loving service for your brothers in the +flesh." + +When the Master had so spoken, he looked down into the face of Thomas and said: +"And you, Thomas, who said you would not believe unless you could see me and +put your finger in the nail marks of my hands, have now beheld me and heard my +words; and though you see no nail marks on my hands, since I am raised in the +form that you also shall have when you depart from this world, what will you +say to your brethren? You will acknowledge the truth, for already in your heart +you had begun to believe even when you so stoutly asserted your unbelief. Your +doubts, Thomas, always most stubbornly assert themselves just as they are about +to crumble. Thomas, I bid you be not faithless but believing--and I know you +will believe, even with a whole heart." + +When Thomas heard these words, he fell on his knees before the morontia Master +and exclaimed, "I believe! My Lord and my Master!" Then said Jesus to Thomas: +"You have believed, Thomas, because you have really seen and heard me. Blessed +are those in the ages to come who will believe even though they have not seen +with the eye of flesh nor heard with the mortal ear." + +And then, as the Master's form moved over near the head of the table, he +addressed them all, saying: "And now go all of you to Galilee, where I will +presently appear to you." After he said this, he vanished from their sight. + + top of page - 2044 + +The eleven apostles were now fully convinced that Jesus had risen from the +dead, and very early the next morning, before the break of day, they started +out for Galilee. + +6. THE ALEXANDRIAN APPEARANCE + +While the eleven apostles were on the way to Galilee, drawing near their +journey's end, on Tuesday evening, April 18, at about half past eight o'clock, +Jesus appeared to Rodan and some eighty other believers, in Alexandria. This +was the Master's twelfth appearance in morontia form. Jesus appeared before +these Greeks and Jews at the conclusion of the report of David's messenger +regarding the crucifixion. This messenger, being the fifth in the +Jerusalem-Alexandria relay of runners, had arrived in Alexandria late that +afternoon, and when he had delivered his message to Rodan, it was decided to +call the believers together to receive this tragic word from the messenger +himself. At about eight o'clock, the messenger, Nathan of Busiris, came before +this group and told them in detail all that had been told him by the preceding +runner. Nathan ended his touching recital with these words: "But David, who +sends us this word, reports that the Master, in foretelling his death, declared +that he would rise again." Even as Nathan spoke, the morontia Master appeared +there in full view of all. And when Nathan sat down, Jesus said: + +"Peace be upon you. That which my Father sent me into the world to establish +belongs not to a race, a nation, nor to a special group of teachers or +preachers. This gospel of the kingdom belongs to both Jew and gentile, to rich +and poor, to free and bond, to male and female, even to the little children. +And you are all to proclaim this gospel of love and truth by the lives which +you live in the flesh. You shall love one another with a new and startling +affection, even as I have loved you. You will serve mankind with a new and +amazing devotion, even as I have served you. And when men see you so love them, +and when they behold how fervently you serve them, they will perceive that you +have become faith-fellows of the kingdom of heaven, and they will follow after +the Spirit of Truth which they see in your lives, to the finding of eternal +salvation. + +"As the Father sent me into this world, even so now send I you. You are all +called to carry the good news to those who sit in darkness. This gospel of the +kingdom belongs to all who believe it; it shall not be committed to the custody +of mere priests. Soon will the Spirit of Truth come upon you, and he shall lead +you into all truth. Go you, therefore, into all the world preaching this +gospel, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the ages." + +When the Master had so spoken, he vanished from their sight. All that night +these believers remained there together recounting their experiences as kingdom +believers and listening to the many words of Rodan and his associates. And they +all believed that Jesus had risen from the dead. Imagine the surprise of +David's herald of the resurrection, who arrived the second day after this, when +they replied to his announcement, saying: "Yes, we know, for we have seen him. +He appeared to us day before yesterday." + + top of page - 2045 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Morontia ³ Appearances In ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Appear... ³ ... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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Appearances In Galilee +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 192 Appearances In Galilee + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +BY THE time the apostles left Jerusalem for Galilee, the Jewish leaders had +quieted down considerably. Since Jesus appeared only to his family of kingdom +believers, and since the apostles were in hiding and did no public preaching, +the rulers of the Jews concluded that the gospel movement was, after all, +effectually crushed. They were, of course, disconcerted by the increasing +spread of rumors that Jesus had risen from the dead, but they depended upon the +bribed guards effectively to counteract all such reports by their reiteration +of the story that a band of his followers had removed the body. + +From this time on, until the apostles were dispersed by the rising tide of +persecution, Peter was the generally recognized head of the apostolic corps. +Jesus never gave him any such authority, and his fellow apostles never formally +elected him to such a position of responsibility; he naturally assumed it and +held it by common consent and also because he was their chief preacher. From +now on public preaching became the main business of the apostles. After their +return from Galilee, Matthias, whom they chose to take the place of Judas, +became their treasurer. + +During the week they tarried in Jerusalem, Mary the mother of Jesus spent much +of the time with the women believers who were stopping at the home of Joseph of +Arimathea. + +Early this Monday morning when the apostles departed for Galilee, John Mark +went along. He followed them out of the city, and when they had passed well +beyond Bethany, he boldly came up among them, feeling confident they would not +send him back. + +The apostles paused several times on the way to Galilee to tell the story of +their risen Master and therefore did not arrive at Bethsaida until very late on +Wednesday night. It was noontime on Thursday before they were all awake and +ready to partake of breakfast. + +1. APPEARANCE BY THE LAKE + +About six o'clock Friday morning, April 21, the morontia Master made his +thirteenth appearance, the first in Galilee, to the ten apostles as their boat +drew near the shore close to the usual landing place at Bethsaida. + +After the apostles had spent the afternoon and early evening of Thursday in +waiting at the Zebedee home, Simon Peter suggested that they go fishing. When +Peter proposed the fishing trip, all of the apostles decided to go along. All +night they toiled with the nets but caught no fish. They did not much mind the +failure to make a catch, for they had many interesting experiences to talk +over, things + + top of page - 2046 + +which had so recently happened to them at Jerusalem. But when daylight came, +they decided to return to Bethsaida. As they neared the shore, they saw someone +on the beach, near the boat landing, standing by a fire. At first they thought +it was John Mark, who had come down to welcome them back with their catch, but +as they drew nearer the shore, they saw they were mistaken--the man was too +tall for John. It had occurred to none of them that the person on the shore was +the Master. They did not altogether understand why Jesus wanted to meet with +them amidst the scenes of their earlier associations and out in the open in +contact with nature, far away from the shut-in environment of Jerusalem with +its tragic associations of fear, betrayal, and death. He had told them that, if +they would go into Galilee, he would meet them there, and he was about to +fulfill that promise. + +As they dropped anchor and prepared to enter the small boat for going ashore, +the man on the beach called to them, "Lads, have you caught anything?" And when +they answered, "No," he spoke again. "Cast the net on the right side of the +boat, and you will find fish." While they did not know it was Jesus who had +directed them, with one accord they cast in the net as they had been +instructed, and immediately it was filled, so much so that they were hardly +able to draw it up. Now, John Zebedee was quick of perception, and when he saw +the heavy-laden net, he perceived that it was the Master who had spoken to +them. When this thought came into his mind, he leaned over and whispered to +Peter, "It is the Master." Peter was ever a man of thoughtless action and +impetuous devotion; so when John whispered this in his ear, he quickly arose +and cast himself into the water that he might the sooner reach the Master's +side. His brethren came up close behind him, having come ashore in the small +boat, hauling the net of fishes after them. + +By this time John Mark was up and, seeing the apostles coming ashore with the +heavy-laden net, ran down the beach to greet them; and when he saw eleven men +instead of ten, he surmised that the unrecognized one was the risen Jesus, and +as the astonished ten stood by in silence, the youth rushed up to the Master +and, kneeling at his feet, said, "My Lord and my Master." And then Jesus spoke, +not as he had in Jerusalem, when he greeted them with "Peace be upon you," but +in commonplace tones he addressed John Mark: "Well, John, I am glad to see you +again and in carefree Galilee, where we can have a good visit. Stay with us, +John, and have breakfast." + +As Jesus talked with the young man, the ten were so astonished and surprised +that they neglected to haul the net of fish in upon the beach. Now spoke Jesus: +"Bring in your fish and prepare some for breakfast. Already we have the fire +and much bread." + +While John Mark had paid homage to the Master, Peter had for a moment been +shocked at the sight of the coals of fire glowing there on the beach; the scene +reminded him so vividly of the midnight fire of charcoal in the courtyard of +Annas, where he had disowned the Master, but he shook himself and, kneeling at +the Master's feet, exclaimed, "My Lord and my Master!" + +Peter then joined his comrades as they hauled in the net. When they had landed +their catch, they counted the fish, and there were 153 large ones. And again +was the mistake made of calling this another miraculous catch of fish. There +was no miracle connected with this episode. It was merely an exercise of the +Master's preknowledge. He knew the fish were there and accordingly directed the +apostles where to cast the net. + + top of page - 2047 + +Jesus spoke to them, saying: "Come now, all of you, to breakfast. Even the +twins should sit down while I visit with you; John Mark will dress the fish." +John Mark brought seven good-sized fish, which the Master put on the fire, and +when they were cooked, the lad served them to the ten. Then Jesus broke the +bread and handed it to John, who in turn served it to the hungry apostles. When +they had all been served, Jesus bade John Mark sit down while he himself served +the fish and the bread to the lad. And as they ate, Jesus visited with them and +recounted their many experiences in Galilee and by this very lake. + +This was the third time Jesus had manifested himself to the apostles as a +group. When Jesus first addressed them, asking if they had any fish, they did +not suspect who he was because it was a common experience for these fishermen +on the Sea of Galilee, when they came ashore, to be thus accosted by the fish +merchants of Tarichea, who were usually on hand to buy the fresh catches for +the drying establishments. + +Jesus visited with the ten apostles and John Mark for more than an hour, and +then he walked up and down the beach, talking with them two and two--but not +the same couples he had at first sent out together to teach. All eleven of the +apostles had come down from Jerusalem together, but Simon Zelotes grew more and +more despondent as they drew near Galilee, so that, when they reached +Bethsaida, he forsook his brethren and returned to his home. + +Before taking leave of them this morning, Jesus directed that two of the +apostles should volunteer to go to Simon Zelotes and bring him back that very +day. And Peter and Andrew did so. + +2. VISITING WITH THE APOSTLES TWO AND TWO + +When they had finished breakfast, and while the others sat by the fire, Jesus +beckoned to Peter and to John that they should come with him for a stroll on +the beach. As they walked along, Jesus said to John, "John, do you love me?" +And when John answered, "Yes, Master, with all my heart," the Master said: +"Then, John, give up your intolerance and learn to love men as I have loved +you. Devote your life to proving that love is the greatest thing in the world. +It is the love of God that impels men to seek salvation. Love is the ancestor +of all spiritual goodness, the essence of the true and the beautiful." + +Jesus then turned toward Peter and asked, "Peter, do you love me?" Peter +answered, "Lord, you know I love you with all my soul." Then said Jesus: "If +you love me, Peter, feed my lambs. Do not neglect to minister to the weak, the +poor, and the young. Preach the gospel without fear or favor; remember always +that God is no respecter of persons. Serve your fellow men even as I have +served you; forgive your fellow mortals even as I have forgiven you. Let +experience teach you the value of meditation and the power of intelligent +reflection." + +After they had walked along a little farther, the Master turned to Peter and +asked, "Peter, do you really love me?" And then said Simon, "Yes, Lord, you +know that I love you." And again said Jesus: "Then take good care of my sheep. +Be a good and a true shepherd to the flock. Betray not their confidence in you. +Be not taken by surprise at the enemy's hand. Be on guard at all times--watch +and pray." + +When they had gone a few steps farther, Jesus turned to Peter and, for the +third time, asked, "Peter, do you truly love me?" And then Peter, being +slightly + + top of page - 2048 + +grieved at the Master's seeming distrust of him, said with considerable +feeling, "Lord, you know all things, and therefore do you know that I really +and truly love you." Then said Jesus: "Feed my sheep. Do not forsake the flock. +Be an example and an inspiration to all your fellow shepherds. Love the flock +as I have loved you and devote yourself to their welfare even as I have devoted +my life to your welfare. And follow after me even to the end." + +Peter took this last statement literally--that he should continue to follow +after him--and turning to Jesus, he pointed to John, asking, "If I follow on +after you, what shall this man do?" And then, perceiving that Peter had +misunderstood his words, Jesus said: "Peter, be not concerned about what your +brethren shall do. If I will that John should tarry after you are gone, even +until I come back, what is that to you? Only make sure that you follow me." + +This remark spread among the brethren and was received as a statement by Jesus +to the effect that John would not die before the Master returned, as many +thought and hoped, to establish the kingdom in power and glory. It was this +interpretation of what Jesus said that had much to do with getting Simon +Zelotes back into service, and keeping him at work. + +When they returned to the others, Jesus went for a walk and talk with Andrew +and James. When they had gone a short distance, Jesus said to Andrew, "Andrew, +do you trust me?" And when the former chief of the apostles heard Jesus ask +such a question, he stood still and answered, "Yes, Master, of a certainty I +trust you, and you know that I do." Then said Jesus: "Andrew, if you trust me, +trust your brethren more--even Peter. I once trusted you with the leadership of +your brethren. Now must you trust others as I leave you to go to the Father. +When your brethren begin to scatter abroad because of bitter persecutions, be a +considerate and wise counselor to James my brother in the flesh when they put +heavy burdens upon him which he is not qualified by experience to bear. And +then go on trusting, for I will not fail you. When you are through on earth, +you shall come to me." + +Then Jesus turned to James, asking, "James, do you trust me?" And of course +James replied, "Yes, Master, I trust you with all my heart." Then said Jesus: +"James, if you trust me more, you will be less impatient with your brethren. If +you will trust me, it will help you to be kind to the brotherhood of believers. +Learn to weigh the consequences of your sayings and your doings. Remember that +the reaping is in accordance with the sowing. Pray for tranquillity of spirit +and cultivate patience. These graces, with living faith, shall sustain you when +the hour comes to drink the cup of sacrifice. But never be dismayed; when you +are through on earth, you shall also come to be with me." + +Jesus next talked with Thomas and Nathaniel. Said he to Thomas, "Thomas, do you +serve me?" Thomas replied, "Yes, Lord, I serve you now and always." Then said +Jesus: "If you would serve me, serve my brethren in the flesh even as I have +served you. And be not weary in this well-doing but persevere as one who has +been ordained by God for this service of love. When you have finished your +service with me on earth, you shall serve with me in glory. Thomas, you must +cease doubting; you must grow in faith and the knowledge of truth. Believe in +God like a child but cease to act so childishly. Have courage; be strong in +faith and mighty in the kingdom of God." + + top of page - 2049 + +Then said the Master to Nathaniel, "Nathaniel, do you serve me?" And the +apostle answered, "Yes, Master, and with an undivided affection." Then said +Jesus: "If, therefore, you serve me with a whole heart, make sure that you are +devoted to the welfare of my brethren on earth with tireless affection. Admix +friendship with your counsel and add love to your philosophy. Serve your fellow +men even as I have served you. Be faithful to men as I have watched over you. +Be less critical; expect less of some men and thereby lessen the extent of your +disappointment. And when the work down here is over, you shall serve with me on +high." + +After this the Master talked with Matthew and Philip. To Philip he said, +"Philip, do you obey me?" Philip answered, "Yes, Lord, I will obey you even +with my life." Then said Jesus: "If you would obey me, go then into the lands +of the gentiles and proclaim this gospel. The prophets have told you that to +obey is better than to sacrifice. By faith have you become a God-knowing +kingdom son. There is but one law to obey--that is the command to go forth +proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. Cease to fear men; be unafraid to preach +the good news of eternal life to your fellows who languish in darkness and +hunger for the light of truth. No more, Philip, shall you busy yourself with +money and goods. You now are free to preach the glad tidings just as are your +brethren. And I will go before you and be with you even to the end." + +And then, speaking to Matthew, the Master asked, "Matthew, do you have it in +your heart to obey me?" Matthew answered, "Yes, Lord, I am fully dedicated to +doing your will." Then said the Master: "Matthew, if you would obey me, go +forth to teach all peoples this gospel of the kingdom. No longer will you serve +your brethren the material things of life; henceforth you are also to proclaim +the good news of spiritual salvation. From now on have an eye single only to +obeying your commission to preach this gospel of the Father's kingdom. As I +have done the Father's will on earth, so shall you fulfill the divine +commission. Remember, both Jew and gentile are your brethren. Fear no man when +you proclaim the saving truths of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven. And +where I go, you shall presently come." + +Then he walked and talked with the Alpheus twins, James and Judas, and speaking +to both of them, he asked, "James and Judas, do you believe in me?" And when +they both answered, "Yes, Master, we do believe," he said: "I will soon leave +you. You see that I have already left you in the flesh. I tarry only a short +time in this form before I go to my Father. You believe in me--you are my +apostles, and you always will be. Go on believing and remembering your +association with me, when I am gone, and after you have, perchance, returned to +the work you used to do before you came to live with me. Never allow a change +in your outward work to influence your allegiance. Have faith in God to the end +of your days on earth. Never forget that, when you are a faith son of God, all +upright work of the realm is sacred. Nothing which a son of God does can be +common. Do your work, therefore, from this time on, as for God. And when you +are through on this world, I have other and better worlds where you shall +likewise work for me. And in all of this work, on this world and on other +worlds, I will work with you, and my spirit shall dwell within you." + +It was almost ten o'clock when Jesus returned from his visit with the Alpheus +twins, and as he left the apostles, he said: "Farewell, until I meet you all on +the + + top of page - 2050 + +mount of your ordination tomorrow at noontime." When he had thus spoken, he +vanished from their sight. + +3. ON THE MOUNT OF ORDINATION + +At noon on Saturday, April 22, the eleven apostles assembled by appointment on +the hill near Capernaum, and Jesus appeared among them. This meeting occurred +on the very mount where the Master had set them apart as his apostles and as +ambassadors of the Father's kingdom on earth. And this was the Master's +fourteenth morontia manifestation. + +At this time the eleven apostles knelt in a circle about the Master and heard +him repeat the charges and saw him re-enact the ordination scene even as when +they were first set apart for the special work of the kingdom. And all of this +was to them as a memory of their former consecration to the Father's service, +except the Master's prayer. When the Master--the morontia Jesus--now prayed, it +was in tones of majesty and with words of power such as the apostles had never +before heard. Their Master now spoke with the rulers of the universes as one +who, in his own universe, had had all power and authority committed to his +hand. And these eleven men never forgot this experience of the morontia +rededication to the former pledges of ambassadorship. The Master spent just one +hour on this mount with his ambassadors, and when he had taken an affectionate +farewell of them, he vanished from their sight. + +And no one saw Jesus for a full week. The apostles really had no idea what to +do, not knowing whether the Master had gone to the Father. In this state of +uncertainty they tarried at Bethsaida. They were afraid to go fishing lest he +come to visit them and they miss seeing him. During this entire week Jesus was +occupied with the morontia creatures on earth and with the affairs of the +morontia transition which he was experiencing on this world. + +4. THE LAKESIDE GATHERING + +Word of the appearances of Jesus was spreading throughout Galilee, and every +day increasing numbers of believers arrived at the Zebedee home to inquire +about the Master's resurrection and to find out the truth about these reputed +appearances. Peter, early in the week, sent out word that a public meeting +would be held by the seaside the next Sabbath at three o'clock in the +afternoon. + +Accordingly, on Saturday, April 29, at three o'clock, more than five hundred +believers from the environs of Capernaum assembled at Bethsaida to hear Peter +preach his first public sermon since the resurrection. The apostle was at his +best, and after he had finished his appealing discourse, few of his hearers +doubted that the Master had risen from the dead. + +Peter ended his sermon, saying: "We affirm that Jesus of Nazareth is not dead; +we declare that he has risen from the tomb; we proclaim that we have seen him +and talked with him." Just as he finished making this declaration of faith, +there by his side, in full view of all these people, the Master appeared in +morontia form and, speaking to them in familiar accents, said, "Peace be upon +you, and my peace I leave with you." When he had thus appeared and had so +spoken to them, he vanished from their sight. This was the fifteenth morontia +manifestation of the risen Jesus. + + top of page - 2051 + +Because of certain things said to the eleven while they were in conference with +the Master on the mount of ordination, the apostles received the impression +that their Master would presently make a public appearance before a group of +the Galilean believers, and that, after he had done so, they were to return to +Jerusalem. Accordingly, early the next day, Sunday, April 30, the eleven left +Bethsaida for Jerusalem. They did considerable teaching and preaching on the +way down the Jordan, so that they did not arrive at the home of the Marks in +Jerusalem until late on Wednesday, May 3. + +This was a sad home-coming for John Mark. Just a few hours before he reached +home, his father, Elijah Mark, suddenly died from a hemorrhage in the brain. +Although the thought of the certainty of the resurrection of the dead did much +to comfort the apostles in their grief, at the same time they truly mourned the +loss of their good friend, who had been their stanch supporter even in the +times of great trouble and disappointment. John Mark did all he could to +comfort his mother and, speaking for her, invited the apostles to continue to +make their home at her house. And the eleven made this upper chamber their +headquarters until after the day of Pentecost. + +The apostles had purposely entered Jerusalem after nightfall that they might +not be seen by the Jewish authorities. Neither did they publicly appear in +connection with the funeral of Elijah Mark. All the next day they remained in +quiet seclusion in this eventful upper chamber. + +On Thursday night the apostles had a wonderful meeting in this upper chamber +and all pledged themselves to go forth in the public preaching of the new +gospel of the risen Lord except Thomas, Simon Zelotes, and the Alpheus twins. +Already had begun the first steps of changing the gospel of the +kingdom--sonship with God and brotherhood with man--into the proclamation of +the resurrection of Jesus. Nathaniel opposed this shift in the burden of their +public message, but he could not withstand Peter's eloquence, neither could he +overcome the enthusiasm of the disciples, especially the women believers. + +And so, under the vigorous leadership of Peter and ere the Master ascended to +the Father, his well-meaning representatives began that subtle process of +gradually and certainly changing the religion of Jesus into a new and modified +from of religion about Jesus. + + top of page - 2052 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Appearances To ³ Final ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ Appearanc... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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Final Appearances And + Ascension +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 193 Final Appearances And Ascension + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE sixteenth morontia manifestation of Jesus occurred on Friday, May 5, in the +courtyard of Nicodemus, about nine o'clock at night. On this evening the +Jerusalem believers had made their first attempt to get together since the +resurrection. Assembled here at this time were the eleven apostles, the women's +corps and their associates, and about fifty other leading disciples of the +Master, including a number of the Greeks. This company of believers had been +visiting informally for more than half an hour when, suddenly, the morontia +Master appeared in full view and immediately began to instruct them. Said +Jesus: + +"Peace be upon you. This is the most representative group of +believers--apostles and disciples, both men and women--to which I have appeared +since the time of my deliverance from the flesh. I now call you to witness that +I told you beforehand that my sojourn among you must come to an end; I told you +that presently I must return to the Father. And then I plainly told you how the +chief priests and the rulers of the Jews would deliver me up to be put to +death, and that I would rise from the grave. Why, then, did you allow +yourselves to become so disconcerted by all this when it came to pass? and why +were you so surprised when I rose from the tomb on the third day? You failed to +believe me because you heard my words without comprehending the meaning +thereof. + +"And now you should give ear to my words lest you again make the mistake of +hearing my teaching with the mind while in your hearts you fail to comprehend +the meaning. From the beginning of my sojourn as one of you, I taught you that +my one purpose was to reveal my Father in heaven to his children on earth. I +have lived the God-revealing bestowal that you might experience the God-knowing +career. I have revealed God as your Father in heaven; I have revealed you as +the sons of God on earth. It is a fact that God loves you, his sons. By faith +in my word this fact becomes an eternal and living truth in your hearts. When, +by living faith, you become divinely God-conscious, you are then born of the +spirit as children of light and life, even the eternal life wherewith you shall +ascend the universe of universes and attain the experience of finding God the +Father on Paradise. + +"I admonish you ever to remember that your mission among men is to proclaim the +gospel of the kingdom--the reality of the fatherhood of God and the truth of +the sonship of man. Proclaim the whole truth of the good news, not just a part +of the saving gospel. Your message is not changed by my resurrection +experience. Sonship with God, by faith, is still the saving truth of the gospel +of the kingdom. You are to go forth preaching the love of God and the service +of man. That which the world needs most to know is: Men are the sons of God, +and through faith they can actually realize, and daily experience, this +ennobling truth. + + top of page - 2053 + +My bestowal should help all men to know that they are the children of God, but +such knowledge will not suffice if they fail personally to faith-grasp the +saving truth that they are the living spirit sons of the eternal Father. The +gospel of the kingdom is concerned with the love of the Father and the service +of his children on earth. + +"Among yourselves, here, you share the knowledge that I have risen from the +dead, but that is not strange. I have the power to lay down my life and to take +it up again; the Father gives such power to his Paradise Sons. You should the +rather be stirred in your hearts by the knowledge that the dead of an age +entered upon the eternal ascent soon after I left Joseph's new tomb. I lived my +life in the flesh to show how you can, through loving service, become +God-revealing to your fellow men even as, by loving you and serving you, I have +become God-revealing to you. I have lived among you as the Son of Man that you, +and all other men, might know that you are all indeed the sons of God. +Therefore, go you now into all the world preaching this gospel of the kingdom +of heaven to all men. Love all men as I have loved you; serve your fellow +mortals as I have served you. Freely you have received, freely give. Only tarry +here in Jerusalem while I go to the Father, and until I send you the Spirit of +Truth. He shall lead you into the enlarged truth, and I will go with you into +all the world. I am with you always, and my peace I leave with you." + +When the Master had spoken to them, he vanished from their sight. It was near +daybreak before these believers dispersed; all night they remained together, +earnestly discussing the Master's admonitions and contemplating all that had +befallen them. James Zebedee and others of the apostles also told them of their +experiences with the morontia Master in Galilee and recited how he had three +times appeared to them. + +1. THE APPEARANCE AT SYCHAR + +About four o'clock on Sabbath afternoon, May 13, the Master appeared to Nalda +and about seventy-five Samaritan believers near Jacob's well, at Sychar. The +believers were in the habit of meeting at this place, near where Jesus had +spoken to Nalda concerning the water of life. On this day, just as they had +finished their discussions of the reported resurrection, Jesus suddenly +appeared before them, saying: + +"Peace be upon you. You rejoice to know that I am the resurrection and the +life, but this will avail you nothing unless you are first born of the eternal +spirit, thereby coming to possess, by faith, the gift of eternal life. If you +are the faith sons of my Father, you shall never die; you shall not perish. The +gospel of the kingdom has taught you that all men are the sons of God. And this +good news concerning the love of the heavenly Father for his children on earth +must be carried to all the world. The time has come when you worship God +neither on Gerizim nor at Jerusalem, but where you are, as you are, in spirit +and in truth. It is your faith that saves your souls. Salvation is the gift of +God to all who believe they are his sons. But be not deceived; while salvation +is the free gift of God and is bestowed upon all who accept it by faith, there +follows the experience of bearing the fruits of this spirit life as it is lived +in the flesh. The acceptance of the doctrine of the fatherhood of God implies +that you also freely accept the associated truth of the brotherhood of man. And +if man is your brother, he is + + top of page - 2054 + +even more than your neighbor, whom the Father requires you to love as yourself. +Your brother, being of your own family, you will not only love with a family +affection, but you will also serve as you would serve yourself. And you will +thus love and serve your brother because you, being my brethren, have been thus +loved and served by me. Go, then, into all the world telling this good news to +all creatures of every race, tribe, and nation. My spirit shall go before you, +and I will be with you always." + +These Samaritans were greatly astonished at this appearance of the Master, and +they hastened off to the near-by towns and villages, where they published +abroad the news that they had seen Jesus, and that he had talked to them. And +this was the seventeenth morontia appearance of the Master. + +2. THE PHOENICIAN APPEARANCE + +The Master's eighteenth morontia appearance was at Tyre, on Tuesday, May 16, at +a little before nine o'clock in the evening. Again he appeared at the close of +a meeting of believers, as they were about to disperse, saying: + +"Peace be upon you. You rejoice to know that the Son of Man has risen from the +dead because you thereby know that you and your brethren shall also survive +mortal death. But such survival is dependent on your having been previously +born of the spirit of truth-seeking and God-finding. The bread of life and the +water thereof are given only to those who hunger for truth and thirst for +righteousness--for God. The fact that the dead rise is not the gospel of the +kingdom. These great truths and these universe facts are all related to this +gospel in that they are a part of the result of believing the good news and are +embraced in the subsequent experience of those who, by faith, become, in deed +and in truth, the everlasting sons of the eternal God. My Father sent me into +the world to proclaim this salvation of sonship to all men. And so send I you +abroad to preach this salvation of sonship. Salvation is the free gift of God, +but those who are born of the spirit will immediately begin to show forth the +fruits of the spirit in loving service to their fellow creatures. And the +fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and +God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous +loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, +merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace. +If professed believers bear not these fruits of the divine spirit in their +lives, they are dead; the Spirit of Truth is not in them; they are useless +branches on the living vine, and they soon will be taken away. My Father +requires of the children of faith that they bear much spirit fruit. If, +therefore, you are not fruitful, he will dig about your roots and cut away your +unfruitful branches. Increasingly, must you yield the fruits of the spirit as +you progress heavenward in the kingdom of God. You may enter the kingdom as a +child, but the Father requires that you grow up, by grace, to the full stature +of spiritual adulthood. And when you go abroad to tell all nations the good +news of this gospel, I will go before you, and my Spirit of Truth shall abide +in your hearts. My peace I leave with you." + +And then the Master disappeared from their sight. The next day there went out +from Tyre those who carried this story to Sidon and even to Antioch and +Damascus. Jesus had been with these believers when he was in the flesh, and +they + + top of page - 2055 + +were quick to recognize him when he began to teach them. While his friends +could not readily recognize his morontia form when made visible, they were +never slow to identify his personality when he spoke to them. + +3. LAST APPEARANCE IN JERUSALEM + +Early Thursday morning, May 18, Jesus made his last appearance on earth as a +morontia personality. As the eleven apostles were about to sit down to +breakfast in the upper chamber of Mary Mark's home, Jesus appeared to them and +said: + +"Peace be upon you. I have asked you to tarry here in Jerusalem until I ascend +to the Father, even until I send you the Spirit of Truth, who shall soon be +poured out upon all flesh, and who shall endow you with power from on high." +Simon Zelotes interrupted Jesus, asking, "Then, Master, will you restore the +kingdom, and will we see the glory of God manifested on earth?" When Jesus had +listened to Simon's question, he answered: "Simon, you still cling to your old +ideas about the Jewish Messiah and the material kingdom. But you will receive +spiritual power after the spirit has descended upon you, and you will presently +go into all the world preaching this gospel of the kingdom. As the Father sent +me into the world, so do I send you. And I wish that you would love and trust +one another. Judas is no more with you because his love grew cold, and because +he refused to trust you, his loyal brethren. Have you not read in the Scripture +where it is written: `It is not good for man to be alone. No man lives to +himself'? And also where it says: `He who would have friends must show himself +friendly'? And did I not even send you out to teach, two and two, that you +might not become lonely and fall into the mischief and miseries of isolation? +You also well know that, when I was in the flesh, I did not permit myself to be +alone for long periods. From the very beginning of our associations I always +had two or three of you constantly by my side or else very near at hand even +when I communed with the Father. Trust, therefore, and confide in one another. +And this is all the more needful since I am this day going to leave you alone +in the world. The hour has come; I am about to go to the Father." + +When he had spoken, he beckoned for them to come with him, and he led them out +on the Mount of Olives, where he bade them farewell preparatory to departing +from Urantia. This was a solemn journey to Olivet. Not a word was spoken by any +of them from the time they left the upper chamber until Jesus paused with them +on the Mount of Olives. + +4. CAUSES OF JUDAS'S DOWNFALL + +It was in the first part of the Master's farewell message to his apostles that +he alluded to the loss of Judas and held up the tragic fate of their traitorous +fellow worker as a solemn warning against the dangers of social and fraternal +isolation. It may be helpful to believers, in this and in future ages, briefly +to review the causes of Judas's downfall in the light of the Master's remarks +and in view of the accumulated enlightenment of succeeding centuries. + +As we look back upon this tragedy, we conceive that Judas went wrong, +primarily, because he was very markedly an isolated personality, a personality + + top of page - 2056 + +shut in and away from ordinary social contacts. He persistently refused to +confide in, or freely fraternize with, his fellow apostles. But his being an +isolated type of personality would not, in and of itself, have wrought such +mischief for Judas had it not been that he also failed to increase in love and +grow in spiritual grace. And then, as if to make a bad matter worse, he +persistently harbored grudges and fostered such psychologic enemies as revenge +and the generalized craving to "get even" with somebody for all his +disappointments. + +This unfortunate combination of individual peculiarities and mental tendencies +conspired to destroy a well-intentioned man who failed to subdue these evils by +love, faith, and trust. That Judas need not have gone wrong is well proved by +the cases of Thomas and Nathaniel, both of whom were cursed with this same sort +of suspicion and overdevelopment of the individualistic tendency. Even Andrew +and Matthew had many leanings in this direction; but all these men grew to love +Jesus and their fellow apostles more, and not less, as time passed. They grew +in grace and in a knowledge of the truth. They became increasingly more +trustful of their brethren and slowly developed the ability to confide in their +fellows. Judas persistently refused to confide in his brethren. When he was +impelled, by the accumulation of his emotional conflicts, to seek relief in +self-expression, he invariably sought the advice and received the unwise +consolation of his unspiritual relatives or those chance acquaintances who were +either indifferent, or actually hostile, to the welfare and progress of the +spiritual realities of the heavenly kingdom, of which he was one of the twelve +consecrated ambassadors on earth. + +Judas met defeat in his battles of the earth struggle because of the following +factors of personal tendencies and character weakness: + +1. He was an isolated type of human being. He was highly individualistic and +chose to grow into a confirmed "shut-in" and unsociable sort of person. + +2. As a child, life had been made too easy for him. He bitterly resented +thwarting. He always expected to win; he was a very poor loser. + +3. He never acquired a philosophic technique for meeting disappointment. +Instead of accepting disappointments as a regular and commonplace feature of +human existence, he unfailingly resorted to the practice of blaming someone in +particular, or his associates as a group, for all his personal difficulties and +disappointments. + +4. He was given to holding grudges; he was always entertaining the idea of +revenge. + +5. He did not like to face facts frankly; he was dishonest in his attitude +toward life situations. + +6. He disliked to discuss his personal problems with his immediate associates; +he refused to talk over his difficulties with his real friends and those who +truly loved him. In all the years of their association he never once went to +the Master with a purely personal problem. + +7. He never learned that the real rewards for noble living are, after all, +spiritual prizes, which are not always distributed during this one short life +in the flesh. + +As a result of his persistent isolation of personality, his griefs multiplied, +his sorrows increased, his anxieties augmented, and his despair deepened almost +beyond endurance. + + top of page - 2057 + +While this self-centered and ultraindividualistic apostle had many psychic, +emotional, and spiritual troubles, his main difficulties were: In personality, +he was isolated. In mind, he was suspicious and vengeful. In temperament, he +was surly and vindictive. Emotionally, he was loveless and unforgiving. +Socially, he was unconfiding and almost wholly self-contained. In spirit, he +became arrogant and selfishly ambitious. In life, he ignored those who loved +him, and in death, he was friendless. + +These, then, are the factors of mind and influences of evil which, taken +altogether, explain why a well-meaning and otherwise onetime sincere believer +in Jesus, even after several years of intimate association with his +transforming personality, forsook his fellows, repudiated a sacred cause, +renounced his holy calling, and betrayed his divine Master. + +5. THE MASTER'S ASCENSION + +It was almost half past seven o'clock this Thursday morning, May 18, when Jesus +arrived on the western slope of Mount Olivet with his eleven silent and +somewhat bewildered apostles. From this location, about two thirds the way up +the mountain, they could look out over Jerusalem and down upon Gethsemane. +Jesus now prepared to say his last farewell to the apostles before he took +leave of Urantia. As he stood there before them, without being directed they +knelt about him in a circle, and the Master said: + +"I bade you tarry in Jerusalem until you were endowed with power from on high. +I am now about to take leave of you; I am about to ascend to my Father, and +soon, very soon, will we send into this world of my sojourn the Spirit of +Truth; and when he has come, you shall begin the new proclamation of the gospel +of the kingdom, first in Jerusalem and then to the uttermost parts of the +world. Love men with the love wherewith I have loved you and serve your fellow +mortals even as I have served you. By the spirit fruits of your lives impel +souls to believe the truth that man is a son of God, and that all men are +brethren. Remember all I have taught you and the life I have lived among you. +My love overshadows you, my spirit will dwell with you, and my peace shall +abide upon you. Farewell." + +When the morontia Master had thus spoken, he vanished from their sight. This +so-called ascension of Jesus was in no way different from his other +disappearances from mortal vision during the forty days of his morontia career +on Urantia. + +The Master went to Edentia by way of Jerusem, where the Most Highs, under the +observation of the Paradise Son, released Jesus of Nazareth from the morontia +state and, through the spirit channels of ascension, returned him to the status +of Paradise sonship and supreme sovereignty on Salvington. + +It was about seven forty-five this morning when the morontia Jesus disappeared +from the observation of his eleven apostles to begin the ascent to the right +hand of his Father, there to receive formal confirmation of his completed +sovereignty of the universe of Nebadon. + +6. PETER CALLS A MEETING + +Acting upon the instruction of Peter, John Mark and others went forth to call +the leading disciples together at the home of Mary Mark. By ten thirty, one + + top of page - 2058 + +hundred and twenty of the foremost disciples of Jesus living in Jerusalem had +forgathered to hear the report of the farewell message of the Master and to +learn of his ascension. Among this company was Mary the mother of Jesus. She +had returned to Jerusalem with John Zebedee when the apostles came back from +their recent sojourn in Galilee. Soon after Pentecost she returned to the home +of Salome at Bethsaida. James the brother of Jesus was also present at this +meeting, the first conference of the Master's disciples to be called after the +termination of his planetary career. + +Simon Peter took it upon himself to speak for his fellow apostles and made a +thrilling report of the last meeting of the eleven with their Master and most +touchingly portrayed the Master's final farewell and his ascension +disappearance. It was a meeting the like of which had never before occurred on +this world. This part of the meeting lasted not quite one hour. Peter then +explained that they had decided to choose a successor to Judas Iscariot, and +that a recess would be granted to enable the apostles to decide between the two +men who had been suggested for this position, Matthias and Justus. + +The eleven apostles then went downstairs, where they agreed to cast lots in +order to determine which of these men should become an apostle to serve in +Judas's place. The lot fell on Matthias, and he was declared to be the new +apostle. He was duly inducted into his office and then appointed treasurer. But +Matthias had little part in the subsequent activities of the apostles. + +Soon after Pentecost the twins returned to their homes in Galilee. Simon +Zelotes was in retirement for some time before he went forth preaching the +gospel. Thomas worried for a shorter period and then resumed his teaching. +Nathaniel differed increasingly with Peter regarding preaching about Jesus in +the place of proclaiming the former gospel of the kingdom. This disagreement +became so acute by the middle of the following month that Nathaniel withdrew, +going to Philadelphia to visit Abner and Lazarus; and after tarrying there for +more than a year, he went on into the lands beyond Mesopotamia preaching the +gospel as he understood it. + +This left but six of the original twelve apostles to become actors on the stage +of the early proclamation of the gospel in Jerusalem: Peter, Andrew, James, +John, Philip, and Matthew. + +Just about noon the apostles returned to their brethren in the upper chamber +and announced that Matthias had been chosen as the new apostle. And then Peter +called all of the believers to engage in prayer, prayer that they might be +prepared to receive the gift of the spirit which the Master had promised to +send. + + top of page - 2059 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Appearances In ³ Bestowal Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ ... ³ The... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p194.txt b/religious documents/p194.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f4fb4f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p194.txt @@ -0,0 +1,646 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 194 Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... Bestowal Of The + Spirit Of Truth +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 194 Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +ABOUT one o'clock, as the one hundred and twenty believers were engaged in +prayer, they all became aware of a strange presence in the room. At the same +time these disciples all became conscious of a new and profound sense of +spiritual joy, security, and confidence. This new consciousness of spiritual +strength was immediately followed by a strong urge to go out and publicly +proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and the good news that Jesus had risen from +the dead. + +Peter stood up and declared that this must be the coming of the Spirit of Truth +which the Master had promised them and proposed that they go to the temple and +begin the proclamation of the good news committed to their hands. And they did +just what Peter suggested. + +These men had been trained and instructed that the gospel which they should +preach was the fatherhood of God and the sonship of man, but at just this +moment of spiritual ecstasy and personal triumph, the best tidings, the +greatest news, these men could think of was the fact of the risen Master. And +so they went forth, endowed with power from on high, preaching glad tidings to +the people--even salvation through Jesus--but they unintentionally stumbled +into the error of substituting some of the facts associated with the gospel for +the gospel message itself. Peter unwittingly led off in this mistake, and +others followed after him on down to Paul, who created a new religion out of +the new version of the good news. + +The gospel of the kingdom is: the fact of the fatherhood of God, coupled with +the resultant truth of the sonship-brotherhood of men. Christianity, as it +developed from that day, is: the fact of God as the Father of the Lord Jesus +Christ, in association with the experience of believer-fellowship with the +risen and glorified Christ. + +It is not strange that these spirit-infused men should have seized upon this +opportunity to express their feelings of triumph over the forces which had +sought to destroy their Master and end the influence of his teachings. At such +a time as this it was easier to remember their personal association with Jesus +and to be thrilled with the assurance that the Master still lived, that their +friendship had not ended, and that the spirit had indeed come upon them even as +he had promised. + +These believers felt themselves suddenly translated into another world, a new +existence of joy, power, and glory. The Master had told them the kingdom would +come with power, and some of them thought they were beginning to discern what +he meant. + +And when all of this is taken into consideration, it is not difficult to +understand how these men came to preach a new gospel about Jesus in the place +of their former message of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men. + + top of page - 2060 + +1. THE PENTECOST SERMON + +The apostles had been in hiding for forty days. This day happened to be the +Jewish festival of Pentecost, and thousands of visitors from all parts of the +world were in Jerusalem. Many arrived for this feast, but a majority had +tarried in the city since the Passover. Now these frightened apostles emerged +from their weeks of seclusion to appear boldly in the temple, where they began +to preach the new message of a risen Messiah. And all the disciples were +likewise conscious of having received some new spiritual endowment of insight +and power. + +It was about two o'clock when Peter stood up in that very place where his +Master had last taught in this temple, and delivered that impassioned appeal +which resulted in the winning of more than two thousand souls. The Master had +gone, but they suddenly discovered that this story about him had great power +with the people. No wonder they were led on into the further proclamation of +that which vindicated their former devotion to Jesus and at the same time so +constrained men to believe in him. Six of the apostles participated in this +meeting: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, and Matthew. They talked for more +than an hour and a half and delivered messages in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, +as well as a few words in even other tongues with which they had a speaking +acquaintance. + +The leaders of the Jews were astounded at the boldness of the apostles, but +they feared to molest them because of the large numbers who believed their +story. + +By half past four o'clock more than two thousand new believers followed the +apostles down to the pool of Siloam, where Peter, Andrew, James, and John +baptized them in the Master's name. And it was dark when they had finished with +baptizing this multitude. + +Pentecost was the great festival of baptism, the time for fellowshipping the +proselytes of the gate, those gentiles who desired to serve Yahweh. It was, +therefore, the more easy for large numbers of both the Jews and believing +gentiles to submit to baptism on this day. In doing this, they were in no way +disconnecting themselves from the Jewish faith. Even for some time after this +the believers in Jesus were a sect within Judaism. All of them, including the +apostles, were still loyal to the essential requirements of the Jewish +ceremonial system. + +2. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PENTECOST + +Jesus lived on earth and taught a gospel which redeemed man from the +superstition that he was a child of the devil and elevated him to the dignity +of a faith son of God. Jesus' message, as he preached it and lived it in his +day, was an effective solvent for man's spiritual difficulties in that day of +its statement. And now that he has personally left the world, he sends in his +place his Spirit of Truth, who is designed to live in man and, for each new +generation, to restate the Jesus message so that every new group of mortals to +appear upon the face of the earth shall have a new and up-to-date version of +the gospel, just such personal enlightenment and group guidance as will prove +to be an effective solvent for man's ever-new and varied spiritual +difficulties. + +The first mission of this spirit is, of course, to foster and personalize +truth, for it is the comprehension of truth that constitutes the highest form +of human + + top of page - 2061 + +liberty. Next, it is the purpose of this spirit to destroy the believer's +feeling of orphanhood. Jesus having been among men, all believers would +experience a sense of loneliness had not the Spirit of Truth come to dwell in +men's hearts. + +This bestowal of the Son's spirit effectively prepared all normal men's minds +for the subsequent universal bestowal of the Father's spirit (the Adjuster) +upon all mankind. In a certain sense, this Spirit of Truth is the spirit of +both the Universal Father and the Creator Son. + +Do not make the mistake of expecting to become strongly intellectually +conscious of the outpoured Spirit of Truth. The spirit never creates a +consciousness of himself, only a consciousness of Michael, the Son. From the +beginning Jesus taught that the spirit would not speak of himself. The proof, +therefore, of your fellowship with the Spirit of Truth is not to be found in +your consciousness of this spirit but rather in your experience of enhanced +fellowship with Michael. + +The spirit also came to help men recall and understand the words of the Master +as well as to illuminate and reinterpret his life on earth. + +Next, the Spirit of Truth came to help the believer to witness to the realities +of Jesus' teachings and his life as he lived it in the flesh, and as he now +again lives it anew and afresh in the individual believer of each passing +generation of the spirit-filled sons of God. + +Thus it appears that the Spirit of Truth comes really to lead all believers +into all truth, into the expanding knowledge of the experience of the living +and growing spiritual consciousness of the reality of eternal and ascending +sonship with God. + +Jesus lived a life which is a revelation of man submitted to the Father's will, +not an example for any man literally to attempt to follow. This life in the +flesh, together with his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, +presently became a new gospel of the ransom which had thus been paid in order +to purchase man back from the clutch of the evil one--from the condemnation of +an offended God. Nevertheless, even though the gospel did become greatly +distorted, it remains a fact that this new message about Jesus carried along +with it many of the fundamental truths and teachings of his earlier gospel of +the kingdom. And, sooner or later, these concealed truths of the fatherhood of +God and the brotherhood of men will emerge to effectually transform the +civilization of all mankind. + +But these mistakes of the intellect in no way interfered with the believer's +great progress in growth in spirit. In less than a month after the bestowal of +the Spirit of Truth, the apostles made more individual spiritual progress than +during their almost four years of personal and loving association with the +Master. Neither did this substitution of the fact of the resurrection of Jesus +for the saving gospel truth of sonship with God in any way interfere with the +rapid spread of their teachings; on the contrary, this overshadowing of Jesus' +message by the new teachings about his person and resurrection seemed greatly +to facilitate the preaching of the good news. + +The term "baptism of the spirit," which came into such general use about this +time, merely signified the conscious reception of this gift of the Spirit of +Truth and the personal acknowledgment of this new spiritual power as an +augmentation of all spiritual influences previously experienced by God-knowing +souls. + +Since the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, man is subject to the teaching and +guidance of a threefold spirit endowment: the spirit of the Father, the Thought + + top of page - 2062 + +Adjuster; the spirit of the Son, the Spirit of Truth; the spirit of the Spirit, +the Holy Spirit. + +In a way, mankind is subject to the double influence of the sevenfold appeal of +the universe spirit influences. The early evolutionary races of mortals are +subject to the progressive contact of the seven adjutant mind-spirits of the +local universe Mother Spirit. As man progresses upward in the scale of +intelligence and spiritual perception, there eventually come to hover over him +and dwell within him the seven higher spirit influences. And these seven +spirits of the advancing worlds are: + +1. The bestowed spirit of the Universal Father--the Thought Adjusters. + +2. The spirit presence of the Eternal Son--the spirit gravity of the universe +of universes and the certain channel of all spirit communion. + +3. The spirit presence of the Infinite Spirit--the universal spirit-mind of all +creation, the spiritual source of the intellectual kinship of all progressive +intelligences. + +4. The spirit of the Universal Father and the Creator Son--the Spirit of Truth, +generally regarded as the spirit of the Universe Son. + +5. The spirit of the Infinite Spirit and the Universe Mother Spirit--the Holy +Spirit, generally regarded as the spirit of the Universe Spirit. + +6. The mind-spirit of the Universe Mother Spirit--the seven adjutant +mind-spirits of the local universe. + +7. The spirit of the Father, Sons, and Spirits--the new-name spirit of the +ascending mortals of the realms after the fusion of the mortal spirit-born soul +with the Paradise Thought Adjuster and after the subsequent attainment of the +divinity and glorification of the status of the Paradise Corps of the Finality. + +And so did the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth bring to the world and its +peoples the last of the spirit endowment designed to aid in the ascending +search for God. + +3. WHAT HAPPENED AT PENTECOST + +Many queer and strange teachings became associated with the early narratives of +the day of Pentecost. In subsequent times the events of this day, on which the +Spirit of Truth, the new teacher, came to dwell with mankind, have become +confused with the foolish outbreaks of rampant emotionalism. The chief mission +of this outpoured spirit of the Father and the Son is to teach men about the +truths of the Father's love and the Son's mercy. These are the truths of +divinity which men can comprehend more fully than all the other divine traits +of character. The Spirit of Truth is concerned primarily with the revelation of +the Father's spirit nature and the Son's moral character. The Creator Son, in +the flesh, revealed God to men; the Spirit of Truth, in the heart, reveals the +Creator Son to men. When man yields the "fruits of the spirit" in his life, he +is simply showing forth the traits which the Master manifested in his own +earthly life. When Jesus was on earth, he lived his life as one +personality--Jesus of Nazareth. As the indwelling spirit of the "new teacher," +the Master has, since Pentecost, been able to live his life anew in the +experience of every truth-taught believer. + +Many things which happen in the course of a human life are hard to understand, +difficult to reconcile with the idea that this is a universe in which truth + + top of page - 2063 + +prevails and in which righteousness triumphs. It so often appears that slander, +lies, dishonesty, and unrighteousness--sin--prevail. Does faith, after all, +triumph over evil, sin, and iniquity? It does. And the life and death of Jesus +are the eternal proof that the truth of goodness and the faith of the +spirit-led creature will always be vindicated. They taunted Jesus on the cross, +saying, "Let us see if God will come and deliver him." It looked dark on that +day of the crucifixion, but it was gloriously bright on the resurrection +morning; it was still brighter and more joyous on the day of Pentecost. The +religions of pessimistic despair seek to obtain release from the burdens of +life; they crave extinction in endless slumber and rest. These are the +religions of primitive fear and dread. The religion of Jesus is a new gospel of +faith to be proclaimed to struggling humanity. This new religion is founded on +faith, hope, and love. + +To Jesus, mortal life had dealt its hardest, cruelest, and bitterest blows; and +this man met these ministrations of despair with faith, courage, and the +unswerving determination to do his Father's will. Jesus met life in all its +terrible reality and mastered it--even in death. He did not use religion as a +release from life. The religion of Jesus does not seek to escape this life in +order to enjoy the waiting bliss of another existence. The religion of Jesus +provides the joy and peace of another and spiritual existence to enhance and +ennoble the life which men now live in the flesh. + +If religion is an opiate to the people, it is not the religion of Jesus. On the +cross he refused to drink the deadening drug, and his spirit, poured out upon +all flesh, is a mighty world influence which leads man upward and urges him +onward. The spiritual forward urge is the most powerful driving force present +in this world; the truth-learning believer is the one progressive and +aggressive soul on earth. + +On the day of Pentecost the religion of Jesus broke all national restrictions +and racial fetters. It is forever true, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there +is liberty." On this day the Spirit of Truth became the personal gift from the +Master to every mortal. This spirit was bestowed for the purpose of qualifying +believers more effectively to preach the gospel of the kingdom, but they +mistook the experience of receiving the outpoured spirit for a part of the new +gospel which they were unconsciously formulating. + +Do not overlook the fact that the Spirit of Truth was bestowed upon all sincere +believers; this gift of the spirit did not come only to the apostles. The one +hundred and twenty men and women assembled in the upper chamber all received +the new teacher, as did all the honest of heart throughout the whole world. +This new teacher was bestowed upon mankind, and every soul received him in +accordance with the love for truth and the capacity to grasp and comprehend +spiritual realities. At last, true religion is delivered from the custody of +priests and all sacred classes and finds its real manifestation in the +individual souls of men. + +The religion of Jesus fosters the highest type of human civilization in that it +creates the highest type of spiritual personality and proclaims the sacredness +of that person. + +The coming of the Spirit of Truth on Pentecost made possible a religion which +is neither radical nor conservative; it is neither the old nor the new; it is +to be dominated neither by the old nor the young. The fact of Jesus' earthly +life provides a fixed point for the anchor of time, while the bestowal of the +Spirit of + + top of page - 2064 + +Truth provides for the everlasting expansion and endless growth of the religion +which he lived and the gospel which he proclaimed. The spirit guides into all +truth; he is the teacher of an expanding and always-growing religion of endless +progress and divine unfolding. This new teacher will be forever unfolding to +the truth-seeking believer that which was so divinely folded up in the person +and nature of the Son of Man. + +The manifestations associated with the bestowal of the "new teacher," and the +reception of the apostles' preaching by the men of various races and nations +gathered together at Jerusalem, indicate the universality of the religion of +Jesus. The gospel of the kingdom was to be identified with no particular race, +culture, or language. This day of Pentecost witnessed the great effort of the +spirit to liberate the religion of Jesus from its inherited Jewish fetters. +Even after this demonstration of pouring out the spirit upon all flesh, the +apostles at first endeavored to impose the requirements of Judaism upon their +converts. Even Paul had trouble with his Jerusalem brethren because he refused +to subject the gentiles to these Jewish practices. No revealed religion can +spread to all the world when it makes the serious mistake of becoming permeated +with some national culture or associated with established racial, social, or +economic practices. + +The bestowal of the Spirit of Truth was independent of all forms, ceremonies, +sacred places, and special behavior by those who received the fullness of its +manifestation. When the spirit came upon those assembled in the upper chamber, +they were simply sitting there, having just been engaged in silent prayer. The +spirit was bestowed in the country as well as in the city. It was not necessary +for the apostles to go apart to a lonely place for years of solitary meditation +in order to receive the spirit. For all time, Pentecost disassociates the idea +of spiritual experience from the notion of especially favorable environments. + +Pentecost, with its spiritual endowment, was designed forever to loose the +religion of the Master from all dependence upon physical force; the teachers of +this new religion are now equipped with spiritual weapons. They are to go out +to conquer the world with unfailing forgiveness, matchless good will, and +abounding love. They are equipped to overcome evil with good, to vanquish hate +by love, to destroy fear with a courageous and living faith in truth. Jesus had +already taught his followers that his religion was never passive; always were +his disciples to be active and positive in their ministry of mercy and in their +manifestations of love. No longer did these believers look upon Yahweh as "the +Lord of Hosts." They now regarded the eternal Deity as the "God and Father of +the Lord Jesus Christ." They made that progress, at least, even if they did in +some measure fail fully to grasp the truth that God is also the spiritual +Father of every individual. + +Pentecost endowed mortal man with the power to forgive personal injuries, to +keep sweet in the midst of the gravest injustice, to remain unmoved in the face +of appalling danger, and to challenge the evils of hate and anger by the +fearless acts of love and forbearance. Urantia has passed through the ravages +of great and destructive wars in its history. All participants in these +terrible struggles met with defeat. There was but one victor; there was only +one who came out of these embittered struggles with an enhanced +reputation--that was Jesus of Nazareth and his gospel of overcoming evil with +good. The secret of a better civilization is bound up in the Master's teachings +of the brotherhood of man, the good will of love and mutual trust. + + top of page - 2065 + +Up to Pentecost, religion had revealed only man seeking for God; since +Pentecost, man is still searching for God, but there shines out over the world +the spectacle of God also seeking for man and sending his spirit to dwell +within him when he has found him. + +Before the teachings of Jesus which culminated in Pentecost, women had little +or no spiritual standing in the tenets of the older religions. After Pentecost, +in the brotherhood of the kingdom woman stood before God on an equality with +man. Among the one hundred and twenty who received this special visitation of +the spirit were many of the women disciples, and they shared these blessings +equally with the men believers. No longer can man presume to monopolize the +ministry of religious service. The Pharisee might go on thanking God that he +was "not born a woman, a leper, or a gentile," but among the followers of Jesus +woman has been forever set free from all religious discriminations based on +sex. Pentecost obliterated all religious discrimination founded on racial +distinction, cultural differences, social caste, or sex prejudice. No wonder +these believers in the new religion would cry out, "Where the spirit of the +Lord is, there is liberty." + +Both the mother and brother of Jesus were present among the one hundred and +twenty believers, and as members of this common group of disciples, they also +received the outpoured spirit. They received no more of the good gift than did +their fellows. No special gift was bestowed upon the members of Jesus' earthly +family. Pentecost marked the end of special priesthoods and all belief in +sacred families. + +Before Pentecost the apostles had given up much for Jesus. They had sacrificed +their homes, families, friends, worldly goods, and positions. At Pentecost they +gave themselves to God, and the Father and the Son responded by giving +themselves to man--sending their spirits to live within men. This experience of +losing self and finding the spirit was not one of emotion; it was an act of +intelligent self-surrender and unreserved consecration. + +Pentecost was the call to spiritual unity among gospel believers. When the +spirit descended on the disciples at Jerusalem, the same thing happened in +Philadelphia, Alexandria, and at all other places where true believers dwelt. +It was literally true that "there was but one heart and soul among the +multitude of the believers." The religion of Jesus is the most powerful +unifying influence the world has ever known. + +Pentecost was designed to lessen the self-assertiveness of individuals, groups, +nations, and races. It is this spirit of self-assertiveness which so increases +in tension that it periodically breaks loose in destructive wars. Mankind can +be unified only by the spiritual approach, and the Spirit of Truth is a world +influence which is universal. + +The coming of the Spirit of Truth purifies the human heart and leads the +recipient to formulate a life purpose single to the will of God and the welfare +of men. The material spirit of selfishness has been swallowed up in this new +spiritual bestowal of selflessness. Pentecost, then and now, signifies that the +Jesus of history has become the divine Son of living experience. The joy of +this outpoured spirit, when it is consciously experienced in human life, is a +tonic for health, a stimulus for mind, and an unfailing energy for the soul. + +Prayer did not bring the spirit on the day of Pentecost, but it did have much +to do with determining the capacity of receptivity which characterized the in- + + top of page - 2066 + +dividual believers. Prayer does not move the divine heart to liberality of +bestowal, but it does so often dig out larger and deeper channels wherein the +divine bestowals may flow to the hearts and souls of those who thus remember to +maintain unbroken communion with their Maker through sincere prayer and true +worship. + +4. BEGINNINGS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH + +When Jesus was so suddenly seized by his enemies and so quickly crucified +between two thieves, his apostles and disciples were completely demoralized. +The thought of the Master, arrested, bound, scourged, and crucified, was too +much for even the apostles. They forgot his teachings and his warnings. He +might, indeed, have been "a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all +the people," but he could hardly be the Messiah they had hoped would restore +the kingdom of Israel. + +Then comes the resurrection, with its deliverance from despair and the return +of their faith in the Master's divinity. Again and again they see him and talk +with him, and he takes them out on Olivet, where he bids them farewell and +tells them he is going back to the Father. He has told them to tarry in +Jerusalem until they are endowed with power--until the Spirit of Truth shall +come. And on the day of Pentecost this new teacher comes, and they go out at +once to preach their gospel with new power. They are the bold and courageous +followers of a living Lord, not a dead and defeated leader. The Master lives in +the hearts of these evangelists; God is not a doctrine in their minds; he has +become a living presence in their souls. + +"Day by day they continued steadfastly and with one accord in the temple and +breaking bread at home. They took their food with gladness and singleness of +heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. They were all filled +with the spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. And the +multitudes of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of +them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own, and they had +all things in common." + +What has happened to these men whom Jesus had ordained to go forth preaching +the gospel of the kingdom, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man? +They have a new gospel; they are on fire with a new experience; they are filled +with a new spiritual energy. Their message has suddenly shifted to the +proclamation of the risen Christ: "Jesus of Nazareth, a man God approved by +mighty works and wonders; him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel +and foreknowledge of God, you did crucify and slay. The things which God +foreshadowed by the mouth of all the prophets, he thus fulfilled. This Jesus +did God raise up. God has made him both Lord and Christ. Being, by the right +hand of God, exalted and having received from the Father the promise of the +spirit, he has poured forth this which you see and hear. Repent, that your sins +may be blotted out; that the Father may send the Christ, who has been appointed +for you, even Jesus, whom the heaven must receive until the times of the +restoration of all things." + +The gospel of the kingdom, the message of Jesus, had been suddenly changed into +the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They now proclaimed the facts of his life, +death, and resurrection and preached the hope of his speedy return to this + + top of page - 2067 + +world to finish the work he began. Thus the message of the early believers had +to do with preaching about the facts of his first coming and with teaching the +hope of his second coming, an event which they deemed to be very near at hand. + +Christ was about to become the creed of the rapidly forming church. Jesus +lives; he died for men; he gave the spirit; he is coming again. Jesus filled +all their thoughts and determined all their new concept of God and everything +else. They were too much enthused over the new doctrine that "God is the Father +of the Lord Jesus" to be concerned with the old message that "God is the loving +Father of all men," even of every single individual. True, a marvelous +manifestation of brotherly love and unexampled good will did spring up in these +early communities of believers. But it was a fellowship of believers in Jesus, +not a fellowship of brothers in the family kingdom of the Father in heaven. +Their good will arose from the love born of the concept of Jesus' bestowal and +not from the recognition of the brotherhood of mortal man. Nevertheless, they +were filled with joy, and they lived such new and unique lives that all men +were attracted to their teachings about Jesus. They made the great mistake of +using the living and illustrative commentary on the gospel of the kingdom for +that gospel, but even that represented the greatest religion mankind had ever +known. + +Unmistakably, a new fellowship was arising in the world. "The multitude who +believed continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the +breaking of bread, and in prayers." They called each other brother and sister; +they greeted one another with a holy kiss; they ministered to the poor. It was +a fellowship of living as well as of worship. They were not communal by decree +but by the desire to share their goods with their fellow believers. They +confidently expected that Jesus would return to complete the establishment of +the Father's kingdom during their generation. This spontaneous sharing of +earthly possessions was not a direct feature of Jesus' teaching; it came about +because these men and women so sincerely and so confidently believed that he +was to return any day to finish his work and to consummate the kingdom. But the +final results of this well-meant experiment in thoughtless brotherly love were +disastrous and sorrow-breeding. Thousands of earnest believers sold their +property and disposed of all their capital goods and other productive assets. +With the passing of time, the dwindling resources of Christian "equal-sharing" +came to an end--but the world did not. Very soon the believers at Antioch were +taking up a collection to keep their fellow believers at Jerusalem from +starving. + +In these days they celebrated the Lord's Supper after the manner of its +establishment; that is, they assembled for a social meal of good fellowship and +partook of the sacrament at the end of the meal. + +At first they baptized in the name of Jesus; it was almost twenty years before +they began to baptize in "the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy +Spirit." Baptism was all that was required for admission into the fellowship of +believers. They had no organization as yet; it was simply the Jesus +brotherhood. + +This Jesus sect was growing rapidly, and once more the Sadducees took notice of +them. The Pharisees were little bothered about the situation, seeing that none +of the teachings in any way interfered with the observance of the Jewish laws. +But the Sadducees began to put the leaders of the Jesus sect in jail until they +were prevailed upon to accept the counsel of one of the leading rabbis, +Gamaliel, who advised them: "Refrain from these men and let them alone, for + + top of page - 2068 + +if this counsel or this work is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of +God, you will not be able to overthrow them, lest haply you be found even to be +fighting against God." They decided to follow Gamaliel's counsel, and there +ensued a time of peace and quiet in Jerusalem, during which the new gospel +about Jesus spread rapidly. + +And so all went well in Jerusalem until the time of the coming of the Greeks in +large numbers from Alexandria. Two of the pupils of Rodan arrived in Jerusalem +and made many converts from among the Hellenists. Among their early converts +were Stephen and Barnabas. These able Greeks did not so much have the Jewish +viewpoint, and they did not so well conform to the Jewish mode of worship and +other ceremonial practices. And it was the doings of these Greek believers that +terminated the peaceful relations between the Jesus brotherhood and the +Pharisees and Sadducees. Stephen and his Greek associate began to preach more +as Jesus taught, and this brought them into immediate conflict with the Jewish +rulers. In one of Stephen's public sermons, when he reached the objectionable +part of the discourse, they dispensed with all formalities of trial and +proceeded to stone him to death on the spot. + +Stephen, the leader of the Greek colony of Jesus' believers in Jerusalem, thus +became the first martyr to the new faith and the specific cause for the formal +organization of the early Christian church. This new crisis was met by the +recognition that believers could not longer go on as a sect within the Jewish +faith. They all agreed that they must separate themselves from unbelievers; and +within one month from the death of Stephen the church at Jerusalem had been +organized under the leadership of Peter, and James the brother of Jesus had +been installed as its titular head. + +And then broke out the new and relentless persecutions by the Jews, so that the +active teachers of the new religion about Jesus, which subsequently at Antioch +was called Christianity, went forth to the ends of the empire proclaiming +Jesus. In carrying this message, before the time of Paul the leadership was in +Greek hands; and these first missionaries, as also the later ones, followed the +path of Alexander's march of former days, going by way of Gaza and Tyre to +Antioch and then over Asia Minor to Macedonia, then on to Rome and to the +uttermost parts of the empire. + + top of page - 2069 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Final ³ After Pentecost ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ Appearanc... ³ ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p195.txt b/religious documents/p195.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..78e1388 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p195.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1144 @@ + Urantia Book Paper 195 After Pentecost + SPIRITWEB ORG, PROMOTING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE INTERNET. + + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem ... After Pentecost +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 195 After Pentecost + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +THE results of Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost were such as to decide +the future policies, and to determine the plans, of the majority of the +apostles in their efforts to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. Peter was the +real founder of the Christian church; Paul carried the Christian message to the +gentiles, and the Greek believers carried it to the whole Roman Empire. + +Although the tradition-bound and priest-ridden Hebrews, as a people, refused to +accept either Jesus' gospel of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man +or Peter's and Paul's proclamation of the resurrection and ascension of Christ +(subsequent Christianity), the rest of the Roman Empire was found to be +receptive to the evolving Christian teachings. Western civilization was at this +time intellectual, war weary, and thoroughly skeptical of all existing +religions and universe philosophies. The peoples of the Western world, the +beneficiaries of Greek culture, had a revered tradition of a great past. They +could contemplate the inheritance of great accomplishments in philosophy, art, +literature, and political progress. But with all these achievements they had no +soul-satisfying religion. Their spiritual longings remained unsatisfied. + +Upon such a stage of human society the teachings of Jesus, embraced in the +Christian message, were suddenly thrust. A new order of living was thus +presented to the hungry hearts of these Western peoples. This situation meant +immediate conflict between the older religious practices and the new +Christianized version of Jesus' message to the world. Such a conflict must +result in either decided victory for the new or for the old or in some degree +of compromise. History shows that the struggle ended in compromise. +Christianity presumed to embrace too much for any one people to assimilate in +one or two generations. It was not a simple spiritual appeal, such as Jesus had +presented to the souls of men; it early struck a decided attitude on religious +rituals, education, magic, medicine, art, literature, law, government, morals, +sex regulation, polygamy, and, in limited degree, even slavery. Christianity +came not merely as a new religion--something all the Roman Empire and all the +Orient were waiting for--but as a new order of human society. And as such a +pretension it quickly precipitated the social-moral clash of the ages. The +ideals of Jesus, as they were reinterpreted by Greek philosophy and socialized +in Christianity, now boldly challenged the traditions of the human race +embodied in the ethics, morality, and religions of Western civilization. + +At first, Christianity won as converts only the lower social and economic +strata. But by the beginning of the second century the very best of Greco-Roman +culture was increasingly turning to this new order of Christian belief, this +new concept of the purpose of living and the goal of existence. + + top of page - 2070 + +How did this new message of Jewish origin, which had almost failed in the land +of its birth, so quickly and effectively capture the very best minds of the +Roman Empire? The triumph of Christianity over the philosophic religions and +the mystery cults was due to: + +1. Organization. Paul was a great organizer and his successors kept up the pace +he set. + +2. Christianity was thoroughly Hellenized. It embraced the best in Greek +philosophy as well as the cream of Hebrew theology. + +3. But best of all, it contained a new and great ideal, the echo of the life +bestowal of Jesus and the reflection of his message of salvation for all +mankind. + +4. The Christian leaders were willing to make such compromises with Mithraism +that the better half of its adherents were won over to the Antioch cult. + +5. Likewise did the next and later generations of Christian leaders make such +further compromises with paganism that even the Roman emperor Constantine was +won to the new religion. + +But the Christians made a shrewd bargain with the pagans in that they adopted +the ritualistic pageantry of the pagan while compelling the pagan to accept the +Hellenized version of Pauline Christianity. They made a better bargain with the +pagans than they did with the Mithraic cult, but even in that earlier +compromise they came off more than conquerors in that they succeeded in +eliminating the gross immoralities and also numerous other reprehensible +practices of the Persian mystery. + +Wisely or unwisely, these early leaders of Christianity deliberately +compromised the ideals of Jesus in an effort to save and further many of his +ideas. And they were eminently successful. But mistake not! these compromised +ideals of the Master are still latent in his gospel, and they will eventually +assert their full power upon the world. + +By this paganization of Christianity the old order won many minor victories of +a ritualistic nature, but the Christians gained the ascendancy in that: + +1. A new and enormously higher note in human morals was struck. + +2. A new and greatly enlarged concept of God was given to the world. + +3. The hope of immortality became a part of the assurance of a recognized + +4. Jesus of Nazareth was given to man's hungry soul. + +Many of the great truths taught by Jesus were almost lost in these early +compromises, but they yet slumber in this religion of paganized Christianity, +which was in turn the Pauline version of the life and teachings of the Son of +Man. And Christianity, even before it was paganized, was first thoroughly +Hellenized. Christianity owes much, very much, to the Greeks. It was a Greek, +from Egypt, who so bravely stood up at Nicaea and so fearlessly challenged this +assembly that it dared not so obscure the concept of the nature of Jesus that +the real truth of his bestowal might have been in danger of being lost to the +world. This Greek's name was Athanasius, and but for the eloquence and the +logic of this believer, the persuasions of Arius would have triumphed. + + top of page - 2071 + +1. INFLUENCE OF THE GREEKS + +The Hellenization of Christianity started in earnest on that eventful day when +the Apostle Paul stood before the council of the Areopagus in Athens and told +the Athenians about "the Unknown God." There, under the shadow of the +Acropolis, this Roman citizen proclaimed to these Greeks his version of the new +religion which had taken origin in the Jewish land of Galilee. And there was +something strangely alike in Greek philosophy and many of the teachings of +Jesus. They had a common goal--both aimed at the emergence of the individual. +The Greek, at social and political emergence; Jesus, at moral and spiritual +emergence. The Greek taught intellectual liberalism leading to political +freedom; Jesus taught spiritual liberalism leading to religious liberty. These +two ideas put together constituted a new and mighty charter for human freedom; +they presaged man's social, political, and spiritual liberty. + +Christianity came into existence and triumphed over all contending religions +primarily because of two things: + +1. The Greek mind was willing to borrow new and good ideas even from the Jews. + +2. Paul and his successors were willing but shrewd and sagacious compromisers; +they were keen theologic traders. + +At the time Paul stood up in Athens preaching "Christ and Him Crucified," the +Greeks were spiritually hungry; they were inquiring, interested, and actually +looking for spiritual truth. Never forget that at first the Romans fought +Christianity, while the Greeks embraced it, and that it was the Greeks who +literally forced the Romans subsequently to accept this new religion, as then +modified, as a part of Greek culture. + +The Greek revered beauty, the Jew holiness, but both peoples loved truth. For +centuries the Greek had seriously thought and earnestly debated about all human +problems--social, economic, political, and philosophic--except religion. Few +Greeks had paid much attention to religion; they did not take even their own +religion very seriously. For centuries the Jews had neglected these other +fields of thought while they devoted their minds to religion. They took their +religion very seriously, too seriously. As illuminated by the content of Jesus' +message, the united product of the centuries of the thought of these two +peoples now became the driving power of a new order of human society and, to a +certain extent, of a new order of human religious belief and practice. + +The influence of Greek culture had already penetrated the lands of the western +Mediterranean when Alexander spread Hellenistic civilization over the +near-Eastern world. The Greeks did very well with their religion and their +politics as long as they lived in small city-states, but when the Macedonian +king dared to expand Greece into an empire, stretching from the Adriatic to the +Indus, trouble began. The art and philosophy of Greece were fully equal to the +task of imperial expansion, but not so with Greek political administration or +religion. After the city-states of Greece had expanded into empire, their +rather parochial gods seemed a little queer. The Greeks were really searching +for one God, a greater and better God, when the Christianized version of the +older Jewish religion came to them. + + top of page - 2072 + +The Hellenistic Empire, as such, could not endure. Its cultural sway continued +on, but it endured only after securing from the West the Roman political genius +for empire administration and after obtaining from the East a religion whose +one God possessed empire dignity. + +In the first century after Christ, Hellenistic culture had already attained its +highest levels; its retrogression had begun; learning was advancing but genius +was declining. It was at this very time that the ideas and ideals of Jesus, +which were partially embodied in Christianity, became a part of the salvage of +Greek culture and learning. + +Alexander had charged on the East with the cultural gift of the civilization of +Greece; Paul assaulted the West with the Christian version of the gospel of +Jesus. And wherever the Greek culture prevailed throughout the West, there +Hellenized Christianity took root. + +The Eastern version of the message of Jesus, notwithstanding that it remained +more true to his teachings, continued to follow the uncompromising attitude of +Abner. It never progressed as did the Hellenized version and was eventually +lost in the Islamic movement. + +2. THE ROMAN INFLUENCE + +The Romans bodily took over Greek culture, putting representative government in +the place of government by lot. And presently this change favored Christianity +in that Rome brought into the whole Western world a new tolerance for strange +languages, peoples, and even religions. + +Much of the early persecution of Christians in Rome was due solely to their +unfortunate use of the term "kingdom" in their preaching. The Romans were +tolerant of any and all religions but very resentful of anything that savored +of political rivalry. And so, when these early persecutions, due so largely to +misunderstanding, died out, the field for religious propaganda was wide open. +The Roman was interested in political administration; he cared little for +either art or religion, but he was unusually tolerant of both. + +Oriental law was stern and arbitrary; Greek law was fluid and artistic; Roman +law was dignified and respect-breeding. Roman education bred an unheard-of and +stolid loyalty. The early Romans were politically devoted and sublimely +consecrated individuals. They were honest, zealous, and dedicated to their +ideals, but without a religion worthy of the name. Small wonder that their +Greek teachers were able to persuade them to accept Paul's Christianity. + +And these Romans were a great people. They could govern the Occident because +they did govern themselves. Such unparalleled honesty, devotion, and stalwart +self-control was ideal soil for the reception and growth of Christianity. + +It was easy for these Greco-Romans to become just as spiritually devoted to an +institutional church as they were politically devoted to the state. The Romans +fought the church only when they feared it as a competitor of the state. Rome, +having little national philosophy or native culture, took over Greek culture +for its own and boldly adopted Christ as its moral philosophy. Christianity +became the moral culture of Rome but hardly its religion in the sense of being +the individual experience in spiritual growth of those who embraced the new +religion in such a wholesale manner. True, indeed, many individuals did +penetrate beneath the surface of all this state religion and found for the +nourishment + + top of page - 2073 + +of their souls the real values of the hidden meanings held within the latent +truths of Hellenized and paganized Christianity. + +The Stoic and his sturdy appeal to "nature and conscience" had only the better +prepared all Rome to receive Christ, at least in an intellectual sense. The +Roman was by nature and training a lawyer; he revered even the laws of nature. +And now, in Christianity, he discerned in the laws of nature the laws of God. A +people that could produce Cicero and Vergil were ripe for Paul's Hellenized +Christianity. + +And so did these Romanized Greeks force both Jews and Christians to +philosophize their religion, to co-ordinate its ideas and systematize its +ideals, to adapt religious practices to the existing current of life. And all +this was enormously helped by translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek +and by the later recording of the New Testament in the Greek tongue. + +The Greeks, in contrast with the Jews and many other peoples, had long +provisionally believed in immortality, some sort of survival after death, and +since this was the very heart of Jesus' teaching, it was certain that +Christianity would make a strong appeal to them. + +A succession of Greek-cultural and Roman-political victories had consolidated +the Mediterranean lands into one empire, with one language and one culture, and +had made the Western world ready for one God. Judaism provided this God, but +Judaism was not acceptable as a religion to these Romanized Greeks. Philo +helped some to mitigate their objections, but Christianity revealed to them an +even better concept of one God, and they embraced it readily. + +3. UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE + +After the consolidation of Roman political rule and after the dissemination of +Christianity, the Christians found themselves with one God, a great religious +concept, but without empire. The Greco-Romans found themselves with a great +empire but without a God to serve as the suitable religious concept for empire +worship and spiritual unification. The Christians accepted the empire; the +empire adopted Christianity. The Roman provided a unity of political rule; the +Greek, a unity of culture and learning; Christianity, a unity of religious +thought and practice. + +Rome overcame the tradition of nationalism by imperial universalism and for the +first time in history made it possible for different races and nations at least +nominally to accept one religion. + +Christianity came into favor in Rome at a time when there was great contention +between the vigorous teachings of the Stoics and the salvation promises of the +mystery cults. Christianity came with refreshing comfort and liberating power +to a spiritually hungry people whose language had no word for "unselfishness." + +That which gave greatest power to Christianity was the way its believers lived +lives of service and even the way they died for their faith during the earlier +times of drastic persecution. + +The teaching regarding Christ's love for children soon put an end to the +widespread practice of exposing children to death when they were not wanted, +particularly girl babies. + + top of page - 2074 + +The early plan of Christian worship was largely taken over from the Jewish +synagogue, modified by the Mithraic ritual; later on, much pagan pageantry was +added. The backbone of the early Christian church consisted of Christianized +Greek proselytes to Judaism. + +The second century after Christ was the best time in all the world's history +for a good religion to make progress in the Western world. During the first +century Christianity had prepared itself, by struggle and compromise, to take +root and rapidly spread. Christianity adopted the emperor; later, he adopted +Christianity. This was a great age for the spread of a new religion. There was +religious liberty; travel was universal and thought was untrammeled. + +The spiritual impetus of nominally accepting Hellenized Christianity came to +Rome too late to prevent the well-started moral decline or to compensate for +the already well-established and increasing racial deterioration. This new +religion was a cultural necessity for imperial Rome, and it is exceedingly +unfortunate that it did not become a means of spiritual salvation in a larger +sense. + +Even a good religion could not save a great empire from the sure results of +lack of individual participation in the affairs of government, from overmuch +paternalism, overtaxation and gross collection abuses, unbalanced trade with +the Levant which drained away the gold, amusement madness, Roman +standardization, the degradation of woman, slavery and race decadence, physical +plagues, and a state church which became institutionalized nearly to the point +of spiritual barrenness. + +Conditions, however, were not so bad at Alexandria. The early schools continued +to hold much of Jesus' teachings free from compromise. Pantaenus taught Clement +and then went on to follow Nathaniel in proclaiming Christ in India. While some +of the ideals of Jesus were sacrificed in the building of Christianity, it +should in all fairness be recorded that, by the end of the second century, +practically all the great minds of the Greco-Roman world had become Christian. +The triumph was approaching completion. + +And this Roman Empire lasted sufficiently long to insure the survival of +Christianity even after the empire collapsed. But we have often conjectured +what would have happened in Rome and in the world if it had been the gospel of +the kingdom which had been accepted in the place of Greek Christianity. + +4. THE EUROPEAN DARK AGES + +The church, being an adjunct to society and the ally of politics, was doomed to +share in the intellectual and spiritual decline of the so-called European "dark +ages." During this time, religion became more and more monasticized, +asceticized, and legalized. In a spiritual sense, Christianity was hibernating. +Throughout this period there existed, alongside this slumbering and secularized +religion, a continuous stream of mysticism, a fantastic spiritual experience +bordering on unreality and philosophically akin to pantheism. + +During these dark and despairing centuries, religion became virtually +secondhanded again. The individual was almost lost before the overshadowing +authority, tradition, and dictation of the church. A new spiritual menace arose +in the creation of a galaxy of "saints" who were assumed to have special +influence at the divine courts, and who, therefore, if effectively appealed to, +would be able to intercede in man's behalf before the Gods. + + top of page - 2075 + +But Christianity was sufficiently socialized and paganized that, while it was +impotent to stay the oncoming dark ages, it was the better prepared to survive +this long period of moral darkness and spiritual stagnation. And it did persist +on through the long night of Western civilization and was still functioning as +a moral influence in the world when the renaissance dawned. The rehabilitation +of Christianity, following the passing of the dark ages, resulted in bringing +into existence numerous sects of the Christian teachings, beliefs suited to +special intellectual, emotional, and spiritual types of human personality. And +many of these special Christian groups, or religious families, still persist at +the time of the making of this presentation. + +Christianity exhibits a history of having originated out of the unintended +transformation of the religion of Jesus into a religion about Jesus. It further +presents the history of having experienced Hellenization, paganization, +secularization, institutionalization, intellectual deterioration, spiritual +decadence, moral hibernation, threatened extinction, later rejuvenation, +fragmentation, and more recent relative rehabilitation. Such a pedigree is +indicative of inherent vitality and the possession of vast recuperative +resources. And this same Christianity is now present in the civilized world of +Occidental peoples and stands face to face with a struggle for existence which +is even more ominous than those eventful crises which have characterized its +past battles for dominance. + +Religion is now confronted by the challenge of a new age of scientific minds +and materialistic tendencies. In this gigantic struggle between the secular and +the spiritual, the religion of Jesus will eventually triumph. + +5. THE MODERN PROBLEM + +The twentieth century has brought new problems for Christianity and all other +religions to solve. The higher a civilization climbs, the more necessitous +becomes the duty to "seek first the realities of heaven" in all of man's +efforts to stabilize society and facilitate the solution of its material +problems. + +Truth often becomes confusing and even misleading when it is dismembered, +segregated, isolated, and too much analyzed. Living truth teaches the truth +seeker aright only when it is embraced in wholeness and as a living spiritual +reality, not as a fact of material science or an inspiration of intervening +art. + +Religion is the revelation to man of his divine and eternal destiny. Religion +is a purely personal and spiritual experience and must forever be distinguished +from man's other high forms of thought, such as: + +1. Man's logical attitude toward the things of material reality. + +2. Man's aesthetic appreciation of beauty contrasted with ugliness. + +3. Man's ethical recognition of social obligations and political duty. + +4. Even man's sense of human morality is not, in and of itself, religious. + +Religion is designed to find those values in the universe which call forth +faith, trust, and assurance; religion culminates in worship. Religion discovers +for the soul those supreme values which are in contrast with the relative +values discovered by the mind. Such superhuman insight can be had only through +genuine religious experience. + +A lasting social system without a morality predicated on spiritual realities +can no more be maintained than could the solar system without gravity. + + top of page - 2076 + +Do not try to satisfy the curiosity or gratify all the latent adventure surging +within the soul in one short life in the flesh. Be patient ! be not tempted to +indulge in a lawless plunge into cheap and sordid adventure. Harness your +energies and bridle your passions; be calm while you await the majestic +unfolding of an endless career of progressive adventure and thrilling +discovery. + +In confusion over man's origin, do not lose sight of his eternal destiny. +Forget not that Jesus loved even little children, and that he forever made +clear the great worth of human personality. + +As you view the world, remember that the black patches of evil which you see +are shown against a white background of ultimate good. You do not view merely +white patches of good which show up miserably against a black background of +evil. + +When there is so much good truth to publish and proclaim, why should men dwell +so much upon the evil in the world just because it appears to be a fact? The +beauties of the spiritual values of truth are more pleasurable and uplifting +than is the phenomenon of evil. + +In religion, Jesus advocated and followed the method of experience, even as +modern science pursues the technique of experiment. We find God through the +leadings of spiritual insight, but we approach this insight of the soul through +the love of the beautiful, the pursuit of truth, loyalty to duty, and the +worship of divine goodness. But of all these values, love is the true guide to +real insight. + +6. MATERIALISM + +Scientists have unintentionally precipitated mankind into a materialistic +panic; they have started an unthinking run on the moral bank of the ages, but +this bank of human experience has vast spiritual resources; it can stand the +demands being made upon it. Only unthinking men become panicky about the +spiritual assets of the human race. When the materialistic-secular panic is +over, the religion of Jesus will not be found bankrupt. The spiritual bank of +the kingdom of heaven will be paying out faith, hope, and moral security to all +who draw upon it "in His name." + +No matter what the apparent conflict between materialism and the teachings of +Jesus may be, you can rest assured that, in the ages to come, the teachings of +the Master will fully triumph. In reality, true religion cannot become involved +in any controversy with science; it is in no way concerned with material +things. Religion is simply indifferent to, but sympathetic with, science, while +it supremely concerns itself with the scientist. + +The pursuit of mere knowledge, without the attendant interpretation of wisdom +and the spiritual insight of religious experience, eventually leads to +pessimism and human despair. A little knowledge is truly disconcerting. + +At the time of this writing the worst of the materialistic age is over; the day +of a better understanding is already beginning to dawn. The higher minds of the +scientific world are no longer wholly materialistic in their philosophy, but +the rank and file of the people still lean in that direction as a result of +former teachings. But this age of physical realism is only a passing episode in +man's life on earth. Modern science has left true religion--the teachings of +Jesus as translated in the lives of his believers--untouched. All science has +done is to destroy the childlike illusions of the misinterpretations of life. + + top of page - 2077 + +Science is a quantitative experience, religion a qualitative experience, as +regards man's life on earth. Science deals with phenomena; religion, with +origins, values, and goals. To assign causes as an explanation of physical +phenomena is to confess ignorance of ultimates and in the end only leads the +scientist straight back to the first great cause--the Universal Father of +Paradise. + +The violent swing from an age of miracles to an age of machines has proved +altogether upsetting to man. The cleverness and dexterity of the false +philosophies of mechanism belie their very mechanistic contentions. The +fatalistic agility of the mind of a materialist forever disproves his +assertions that the universe is a blind and purposeless energy phenomenon. + +The mechanistic naturalism of some supposedly educated men and the thoughtless +secularism of the man in the street are both exclusively concerned with things; +they are barren of all real values, sanctions, and satisfactions of a spiritual +nature, as well as being devoid of faith, hope, and eternal assurances. One of +the great troubles with modern life is that man thinks he is too busy to find +time for spiritual meditation and religious devotion. + +Materialism reduces man to a soulless automaton and constitutes him merely an +arithmetical symbol finding a helpless place in the mathematical formula of an +unromantic and mechanistic universe. But whence comes all this vast universe of +mathematics without a Master Mathematician? Science may expatiate on the +conservation of matter, but religion validates the conservation of men's +souls--it concerns their experience with spiritual realities and eternal +values. + +The materialistic sociologist of today surveys a community, makes a report +thereon, and leaves the people as he found them. Nineteen hundred years ago, +unlearned Galileans surveyed Jesus giving his life as a spiritual contribution +to man's inner experience and then went out and turned the whole Roman Empire +upside down. + +But religious leaders are making a great mistake when they try to call modern +man to spiritual battle with the trumpet blasts of the Middle Ages. Religion +must provide itself with new and up-to-date slogans. Neither democracy nor any +other political panacea will take the place of spiritual progress. False +religions may represent an evasion of reality, but Jesus in his gospel +introduced mortal man to the very entrance upon an eternal reality of spiritual +progression. + +To say that mind "emerged" from matter explains nothing. If the universe were +merely a mechanism and mind were unapart from matter, we would never have two +differing interpretations of any observed phenomenon. The concepts of truth, +beauty, and goodness are not inherent in either physics or chemistry. A machine +cannot know, much less know truth, hunger for righteousness, and cherish +goodness. + +Science may be physical, but the mind of the truth-discerning scientist is at +once supermaterial. Matter knows not truth, neither can it love mercy nor +delight in spiritual realities. Moral convictions based on spiritual +enlightenment and rooted in human experience are just as real and certain as +mathematical deductions based on physical observations, but on another and +higher level. + +If men were only machines, they would react more or less uniformly to a +material universe. Individuality, much less personality, would be nonexistent. + +The fact of the absolute mechanism of Paradise at the center of the universe of +universes, in the presence of the unqualified volition of the Second Source and +Center, makes forever certain that determiners are not the exclusive law of the + + top of page - 2078 + +cosmos. Materialism is there, but it is not exclusive; mechanism is there, but +it is not unqualified; determinism is there, but it is not alone. + +The finite universe of matter would eventually become uniform and deterministic +but for the combined presence of mind and spirit. The influence of the cosmic +mind constantly injects spontaneity into even the material worlds. + +Freedom or initiative in any realm of existence is directly proportional to the +degree of spiritual influence and cosmic-mind control; that is, in human +experience, the degree of the actuality of doing "the Father's will." And so, +when you once start out to find God, that is the conclusive proof that God has +already found you. + +The sincere pursuit of goodness, beauty, and truth leads to God. And every +scientific discovery demonstrates the existence of both freedom and uniformity +in the universe. The discoverer was free to make the discovery. The thing +discovered is real and apparently uniform, or else it could not have become +known as a thing. + +7. THE VULNERABILITY OF MATERIALISM + +How foolish it is for material-minded man to allow such vulnerable theories as +those of a mechanistic universe to deprive him of the vast spiritual resources +of the personal experience of true religion. Facts never quarrel with real +spiritual faith; theories may. Better that science should be devoted to the +destruction of superstition rather than attempting the overthrow of religious +faith--human belief in spiritual realities and divine values. + +Science should do for man materially what religion does for him spiritually: +extend the horizon of life and enlarge his personality. True science can have +no lasting quarrel with true religion. The "scientific method" is merely an +intellectual yardstick wherewith to measure material adventures and physical +achievements. But being material and wholly intellectual, it is utterly useless +in the evaluation of spiritual realities and religious experiences. + +The inconsistency of the modern mechanist is: If this were merely a material +universe and man only a machine, such a man would be wholly unable to recognize +himself as such a machine, and likewise would such a machine-man be wholly +unconscious of the fact of the existence of such a material universe. The +materialistic dismay and despair of a mechanistic science has failed to +recognize the fact of the spirit-indwelt mind of the scientist whose very +supermaterial insight formulates these mistaken and self-contradictory concepts +of a materialistic universe. + +Paradise values of eternity and infinity, of truth, beauty, and goodness, are +concealed within the facts of the phenomena of the universes of time and space. +But it requires the eye of faith in a spirit-born mortal to detect and discern +these spiritual values. + +The realities and values of spiritual progress are not a "psychologic +projection"--a mere glorified daydream of the material mind. Such things are +the spiritual forecasts of the indwelling Adjuster, the spirit of God living in +the mind of man. And let not your dabblings with the faintly glimpsed findings +of "relativity" disturb your concepts of the eternity and infinity of God. And +in all your solicitation concerning the necessity for self-expression do not +make the mistake of failing to provide for Adjuster-expression, the +manifestation of your real and better self. + + top of page - 2079 + +If this were only a material universe, material man would never be able to +arrive at the concept of the mechanistic character of such an exclusively +material existence. This very mechanistic concept of the universe is in itself +a nonmaterial phenomenon of mind, and all mind is of nonmaterial origin, no +matter how thoroughly it may appear to be materially conditioned and +mechanistically controlled. + +The partially evolved mental mechanism of mortal man is not overendowed with +consistency and wisdom. Man's conceit often outruns his reason and eludes his +logic. + +The very pessimism of the most pessimistic materialist is, in and of itself, +sufficient proof that the universe of the pessimist is not wholly material. +Both optimism and pessimism are concept reactions in a mind conscious of values +as well as of facts. If the universe were truly what the materialist regards it +to be, man as a human machine would then be devoid of all conscious recognition +of that very fact. Without the consciousness of the concept of values within +the spirit-born mind, the fact of universe materialism and the mechanistic +phenomena of universe operation would be wholly unrecognized by man. One +machine cannot be conscious of the nature or value of another machine. + +A mechanistic philosophy of life and the universe cannot be scientific because +science recognizes and deals only with materials and facts. Philosophy is +inevitably superscientific. Man is a material fact of nature, but his life is a +phenomenon which transcends the material levels of nature in that it exhibits +the control attributes of mind and the creative qualities of spirit. + +The sincere effort of man to become a mechanist represents the tragic +phenomenon of that man's futile effort to commit intellectual and moral +suicide. But he cannot do it. + +If the universe were only material and man only a machine, there would be no +science to embolden the scientist to postulate this mechanization of the +universe. Machines cannot measure, classify, nor evaluate themselves. Such a +scientific piece of work could be executed only by some entity of supermachine +status. + +If universe reality is only one vast machine, then man must be outside of the +universe and apart from it in order to recognize such a fact and become +conscious of the insight of such an evaluation. + +If man is only a machine, by what technique does this man come to believe or +claim to know that he is only a machine? The experience of self-conscious +evaluation of one's self is never an attribute of a mere machine. A +self-conscious and avowed mechanist is the best possible answer to mechanism. +If materialism were a fact, there could be no self-conscious mechanist. It is +also true that one must first be a moral person before one can perform immoral +acts. + +The very claim of materialism implies a supermaterial consciousness of the mind +which presumes to assert such dogmas. A mechanism might deteriorate, but it +could never progress. Machines do not think, create, dream, aspire, idealize, +hunger for truth, or thirst for righteousness. They do not motivate their lives +with the passion to serve other machines and to choose as their goal of eternal +progression the sublime task of finding God and striving to be like him. +Machines are never intellectual, emotional, aesthetic, ethical, moral, or +spiritual. + +Art proves that man is not mechanistic, but it does not prove that he is +spiritually immortal. Art is mortal morontia, the intervening field between +man, + + top of page - 2080 + +the material, and man, the spiritual. Poetry is an effort to escape from +material realities to spiritual values. + +In a high civilization, art humanizes science, while in turn it is +spiritualized by true religion--insight into spiritual and eternal values. Art +represents the human and time-space evaluation of reality. Religion is the +divine embrace of cosmic values and connotes eternal progression in spiritual +ascension and expansion. The art of time is dangerous only when it becomes +blind to the spirit standards of the divine patterns which eternity reflects as +the reality shadows of time. True art is the effective manipulation of the +material things of life; religion is the ennobling transformation of the +material facts of life, and it never ceases in its spiritual evaluation of art. + +How foolish to presume that an automaton could conceive a philosophy of +automatism, and how ridiculous that it should presume to form such a concept of +other and fellow automatons! + +Any scientific interpretation of the material universe is valueless unless it +provides due recognition for the scientist. No appreciation of art is genuine +unless it accords recognition to the artist. No evaluation of morals is worth +while unless it includes the moralist. No recognition of philosophy is edifying +if it ignores the philosopher, and religion cannot exist without the real +experience of the religionist who, in and through this very experience, is +seeking to find God and to know him. Likewise is the universe of universes +without significance apart from the I AM, the infinite God who made it and +unceasingly manages it. + +Mechanists--humanists--tend to drift with the material currents. Idealists and +spiritists dare to use their oars with intelligence and vigor in order to +modify the apparently purely material course of the energy streams. + +Science lives by the mathematics of the mind; music expresses the tempo of the +emotions. Religion is the spiritual rhythm of the soul in time-space harmony +with the higher and eternal melody measurements of Infinity. Religious +experience is something in human life which is truly supermathematical. + +In language, an alphabet represents the mechanism of materialism, while the +words expressive of the meaning of a thousand thoughts, grand ideas, and noble +ideals--of love and hate, of cowardice and courage--represent the performances +of mind within the scope defined by both material and spiritual law, directed +by the assertion of the will of personality, and limited by the inherent +situational endowment. + +The universe is not like the laws, mechanisms, and the uniformities which the +scientist discovers, and which he comes to regard as science, but rather like +the curious, thinking, choosing, creative, combining, and discriminating +scientist who thus observes universe phenomena and classifies the mathematical +facts inherent in the mechanistic phases of the material side of creation. +Neither is the universe like the art of the artist, but rather like the +striving, dreaming, aspiring, and advancing artist who seeks to transcend the +world of material things in an effort to achieve a spiritual goal. + +The scientist, not science, perceives the reality of an evolving and advancing +universe of energy and matter. The artist, not art, demonstrates the existence +of the transient morontia world intervening between material existence and +spiritual liberty. The religionist, not religion, proves the existence of the +spirit realities and divine values which are to be encountered in the progress +of eternity. + + top of page - 2081 + +8. SECULAR TOTALITARIANISM + +But even after materialism and mechanism have been more or less vanquished, the +devastating influence of twentieth-century secularism will still blight the +spiritual experience of millions of unsuspecting souls. + +Modern secularism has been fostered by two world-wide influences. The father of +secularism was the narrow-minded and godless attitude of nineteenth- and +twentieth-century so-called science--atheistic science. The mother of modern +secularism was the totalitarian medieval Christian church. Secularism had its +inception as a rising protest against the almost complete domination of Western +civilization by the institutionalized Christian church. + +At the time of this revelation, the prevailing intellectual and philosophical +climate of both European and American life is decidedly secular--humanistic. +For three hundred years Western thinking has been progressively secularized. +Religion has become more and more a nominal influence, largely a ritualistic +exercise. The majority of professed Christians of Western civilization are +unwittingly actual secularists. + +It required a great power, a mighty influence, to free the thinking and living +of the Western peoples from the withering grasp of a totalitarian +ecclesiastical domination. Secularism did break the bonds of church control, +and now in turn it threatens to establish a new and godless type of mastery +over the hearts and minds of modern man. The tyrannical and dictatorial +political state is the direct offspring of scientific materialism and +philosophic secularism. Secularism no sooner frees man from the domination of +the institutionalized church than it sells him into slavish bondage to the +totalitarian state. Secularism frees man from ecclesiastical slavery only to +betray him into the tyranny of political and economic slavery. + +Materialism denies God, secularism simply ignores him; at least that was the +earlier attitude. More recently, secularism has assumed a more militant +attitude, assuming to take the place of the religion whose totalitarian bondage +it onetime resisted. Twentieth-century secularism tends to affirm that man does +not need God. But beware! this godless philosophy of human society will lead +only to unrest, animosity, unhappiness, war, and world-wide disaster. + +Secularism can never bring peace to mankind. Nothing can take the place of God +in human society. But mark you well! do not be quick to surrender the +beneficent gains of the secular revolt from ecclesiastical totalitarianism. +Western civilization today enjoys many liberties and satisfactions as a result +of the secular revolt. The great mistake of secularism was this: In revolting +against the almost total control of life by religious authority, and after +attaining the liberation from such ecclesiastical tyranny, the secularists went +on to institute a revolt against God himself, sometimes tacitly and sometimes +openly. + +To the secularistic revolt you owe the amazing creativity of American +industrialism and the unprecedented material progress of Western civilization. +And because the secularistic revolt went too far and lost sight of God and true +religion, there also followed the unlooked-for harvest of world wars and +international unsettledness. + +It is not necessary to sacrifice faith in God in order to enjoy the blessings +of the modern secularistic revolt: tolerance, social service, democratic +govern- + + top of page - 2082 + +ment, and civil liberties. It was not necessary for the secularists to +antagonize true religion in order to promote science and to advance education. + +But secularism is not the sole parent of all these recent gains in the +enlargement of living. Behind the gains of the twentieth century are not only +science and secularism but also the unrecognized and unacknowledged spiritual +workings of the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. + +Without God, without religion, scientific secularism can never co-ordinate its +forces, harmonize its divergent and rivalrous interests, races, and +nationalisms. This secularistic human society, notwithstanding its unparalleled +materialistic achievement, is slowly disintegrating. The chief cohesive force +resisting this disintegration of antagonism is nationalism. And nationalism is +the chief barrier to world peace. + +The inherent weakness of secularism is that it discards ethics and religion for +politics and power. You simply cannot establish the brotherhood of men while +ignoring or denying the fatherhood of God. + +Secular social and political optimism is an illusion. Without God, neither +freedom and liberty, nor property and wealth will lead to peace. + +The complete secularization of science, education, industry, and society can +lead only to disaster. During the first third of the twentieth century +Urantians killed more human beings than were killed during the whole of the +Christian dispensation up to that time. And this is only the beginning of the +dire harvest of materialism and secularism; still more terrible destruction is +yet to come. + +9. CHRISTIANITY'S PROBLEM + +Do not overlook the value of your spiritual heritage, the river of truth +running down through the centuries, even to the barren times of a materialistic +and secular age. In all your worthy efforts to rid yourselves of the +superstitious creeds of past ages, make sure that you hold fast the eternal +truth. But be patient! when the present superstition revolt is over, the truths +of Jesus' gospel will persist gloriously to illuminate a new and better way. + +But paganized and socialized Christianity stands in need of new contact with +the uncompromised teachings of Jesus; it languishes for lack of a new vision of +the Master's life on earth. A new and fuller revelation of the religion of +Jesus is destined to conquer an empire of materialistic secularism and to +overthrow a world sway of mechanistic naturalism. Urantia is now quivering on +the very brink of one of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social +readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment. + +The teachings of Jesus, even though greatly modified, survived the mystery +cults of their birthtime, the ignorance and superstition of the dark ages, and +are even now slowly triumphing over the materialism, mechanism, and secularism +of the twentieth century. And such times of great testing and threatened defeat +are always times of great revelation. + +Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend +solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. If Christianity persists in +neglecting its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social +and material problems, the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these +new teachers of Jesus' religion who will be exclusively devoted to the +spiritual regeneration of men. And then will these spirit-born souls quickly +supply the + + top of page - 2083 + +leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and +political reorganization of the world. + +The modern age will refuse to accept a religion which is inconsistent with +facts and out of harmony with its highest conceptions of truth, beauty, and +goodness. The hour is striking for a rediscovery of the true and original +foundations of present-day distorted and compromised Christianity--the real +life and teachings of Jesus. + +Primitive man lived a life of superstitious bondage to religious fear. Modern, +civilized men dread the thought of falling under the dominance of strong +religious convictions. Thinking man has always feared to be held by a religion. +When a strong and moving religion threatens to dominate him, he invariably +tries to rationalize, traditionalize, and institutionalize it, thereby hoping +to gain control of it. By such procedure, even a revealed religion becomes +man-made and man-dominated. Modern men and women of intelligence evade the +religion of Jesus because of their fears of what it will do to them--and with +them. And all such fears are well founded. The religion of Jesus does, indeed, +dominate and transform its believers, demanding that men dedicate their lives +to seeking for a knowledge of the will of the Father in heaven and requiring +that the energies of living be consecrated to the unselfish service of the +brotherhood of man. + +Selfish men and women simply will not pay such a price for even the greatest +spiritual treasure ever offered mortal man. Only when man has become +sufficiently disillusioned by the sorrowful disappointments attendant upon the +foolish and deceptive pursuits of selfishness, and subsequent to the discovery +of the barrenness of formalized religion, will he be disposed to turn +wholeheartedly to the gospel of the kingdom, the religion of Jesus of Nazareth. + +The world needs more firsthand religion. Even Christianity--the best of the +religions of the twentieth century--is not only a religion about Jesus, but it +is so largely one which men experience secondhand. They take their religion +wholly as handed down by their accepted religious teachers. What an awakening +the world would experience if it could only see Jesus as he really lived on +earth and know, firsthand, his life-giving teachings! Descriptive words of +things beautiful cannot thrill like the sight thereof, neither can creedal +words inspire men's souls like the experience of knowing the presence of God. +But expectant faith will ever keep the hope-door of man's soul open for the +entrance of the eternal spiritual realities of the divine values of the worlds +beyond. + +Christianity has dared to lower its ideals before the challenge of human greed, +war-madness, and the lust for power; but the religion of Jesus stands as the +unsullied and transcendent spiritual summons, calling to the best there is in +man to rise above all these legacies of animal evolution and, by grace, attain +the moral heights of true human destiny. + +Christianity is threatened by slow death from formalism, overorganization, +intellectualism, and other nonspiritual trends. The modern Christian church is +not such a brotherhood of dynamic believers as Jesus commissioned continuously +to effect the spiritual transformation of successive generations of mankind. + +So-called Christianity has become a social and cultural movement as well as a +religious belief and practice. The stream of modern Christianity drains many an +ancient pagan swamp and many a barbarian morass; many olden cultural watersheds +drain into this present-day cultural stream as well as the high Galilean +tablelands which are supposed to be its exclusive source. + + top of page - 2084 + +10. THE FUTURE + +Christianity has indeed done a great service for this world, but what is now +most needed is Jesus. The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the +experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men. +It is futile to talk about a revival of primitive Christianity; you must go +forward from where you find yourselves. Modern culture must become spiritually +baptized with a new revelation of Jesus' life and illuminated with a new +understanding of his gospel of eternal salvation. And when Jesus becomes thus +lifted up, he will draw all men to himself. Jesus' disciples should be more +than conquerors, even overflowing sources of inspiration and enhanced living to +all men. Religion is only an exalted humanism until it is made divine by the +discovery of the reality of the presence of God in personal experience. + +The beauty and sublimity, the humanity and divinity, the simplicity and +uniqueness, of Jesus' life on earth present such a striking and appealing +picture of man-saving and God-revealing that the theologians and philosophers +of all time should be effectively restrained from daring to form creeds or +create theological systems of spiritual bondage out of such a transcendental +bestowal of God in the form of man. In Jesus the universe produced a mortal man +in whom the spirit of love triumphed over the material handicaps of time and +overcame the fact of physical origin. + +Ever bear in mind--God and men need each other. They are mutually necessary to +the full and final attainment of eternal personality experience in the divine +destiny of universe finality. + +"The kingdom of God is within you" was probably the greatest pronouncement +Jesus ever made, next to the declaration that his Father is a living and loving +spirit. + +In winning souls for the Master, it is not the first mile of compulsion, duty, +or convention that will transform man and his world, but rather the second mile +of free service and liberty-loving devotion that betokens the Jesusonian +reaching forth to grasp his brother in love and sweep him on under spiritual +guidance toward the higher and divine goal of mortal existence. Christianity +even now willingly goes the first mile, but mankind languishes and stumbles +along in moral darkness because there are so few genuine second-milers--so few +professed followers of Jesus who really live and love as he taught his +disciples to live and love and serve. + +The call to the adventure of building a new and transformed human society by +means of the spiritual rebirth of Jesus' brotherhood of the kingdom should +thrill all who believe in him as men have not been stirred since the days when +they walked about on earth as his companions in the flesh. + +No social system or political regime which denies the reality of God can +contribute in any constructive and lasting manner to the advancement of human +civilization. But Christianity, as it is subdivided and secularized today, +presents the greatest single obstacle to its further advancement; especially is +this true concerning the Orient. + +Ecclesiasticism is at once and forever incompatible with that living faith, +growing spirit, and firsthand experience of the faith-comrades of Jesus in the + + top of page - 2085 + +brotherhood of man in the spiritual association of the kingdom of heaven. The +praiseworthy desire to preserve traditions of past achievement often leads to +the defense of outgrown systems of worship. The well-meant desire to foster +ancient thought systems effectually prevents the sponsoring of new and adequate +means and methods designed to satisfy the spiritual longings of the expanding +and advancing minds of modern men. Likewise, the Christian churches of the +twentieth century stand as great, but wholly unconscious, obstacles to the +immediate advance of the real gospel--the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. + +Many earnest persons who would gladly yield loyalty to the Christ of the gospel +find it very difficult enthusiastically to support a church which exhibits so +little of the spirit of his life and teachings, and which they have been +erroneously taught he founded. Jesus did not found the so-called Christian +church, but he has, in every manner consistent with his nature, fostered it as +the best existent exponent of his lifework on earth. + +If the Christian church would only dare to espouse the Master's program, +thousands of apparently indifferent youths would rush forward to enlist in such +a spiritual undertaking, and they would not hesitate to go all the way through +with this great adventure. + +Christianity is seriously confronted with the doom embodied in one of its own +slogans: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." The non-Christian world +will hardly capitulate to a sect-divided Christendom. The living Jesus is the +only hope of a possible unification of Christianity. The true church--the Jesus +brotherhood--is invisible, spiritual, and is characterized by unity, not +necessarily by uniformity. Uniformity is the earmark of the physical world of +mechanistic nature. Spiritual unity is the fruit of faith union with the living +Jesus. The visible church should refuse longer to handicap the progress of the +invisible and spiritual brotherhood of the kingdom of God. And this brotherhood +is destined to become a living organism in contrast to an institutionalized +social organization. It may well utilize such social organizations, but it must +not be supplanted by them. + +But the Christianity of even the twentieth century must not be despised. It is +the product of the combined moral genius of the God-knowing men of many races +during many ages, and it has truly been one of the greatest powers for good on +earth, and therefore no man should lightly regard it, notwithstanding its +inherent and acquired defects. Christianity still contrives to move the minds +of reflective men with mighty moral emotions. + +But there is no excuse for the involvement of the church in commerce and +politics; such unholy alliances are a flagrant betrayal of the Master. And the +genuine lovers of truth will be slow to forget that this powerful +institutionalized church has often dared to smother newborn faith and persecute +truth bearers who chanced to appear in unorthodox raiment. + +It is all too true that such a church would not have survived unless there had +been men in the world who preferred such a style of worship. Many spiritually +indolent souls crave an ancient and authoritative religion of ritual and sacred +traditions. Human evolution and spiritual progress are hardly sufficient to +enable all men to dispense with religious authority. And the invisible +brotherhood of the kingdom may well include these family groups of various +social and temperamental classes if they are only willing to become truly +spirit-led sons of God. But in this brotherhood of Jesus there is no place for +sectarian rivalry, group bitterness, nor assertions of moral superiority and +spiritual infallibility. + + top of page - 2086 + +These various groupings of Christians may serve to accommodate numerous +different types of would-be believers among the various peoples of Western +civilization, but such division of Christendom presents a grave weakness when +it attempts to carry the gospel of Jesus to Oriental peoples. These races do +not yet understand that there is a religion of Jesus separate, and somewhat +apart, from Christianity, which has more and more become a religion about +Jesus. + +The great hope of Urantia lies in the possibility of a new revelation of Jesus +with a new and enlarged presentation of his saving message which would +spiritually unite in loving service the numerous families of his present-day +professed followers. + +Even secular education could help in this great spiritual renaissance if it +would pay more attention to the work of teaching youth how to engage in life +planning and character progression. The purpose of all education should be to +foster and further the supreme purpose of life, the development of a majestic +and well-balanced personality. There is great need for the teaching of moral +discipline in the place of so much self-gratification. Upon such a foundation +religion may contribute its spiritual incentive to the enlargement and +enrichment of mortal life, even to the security and enhancement of life +eternal. + +Christianity is an extemporized religion, and therefore must it operate in low +gear. High-gear spiritual performances must await the new revelation and the +more general acceptance of the real religion of Jesus. But Christianity is a +mighty religion, seeing that the commonplace disciples of a crucified carpenter +set in motion those teachings which conquered the Roman world in three hundred +years and then went on to triumph over the barbarians who overthrew Rome. This +same Christianity conquered--absorbed and exalted--the whole stream of Hebrew +theology and Greek philosophy. And then, when this Christian religion became +comatose for more than a thousand years as a result of an overdose of mysteries +and paganism, it resurrected itself and virtually reconquered the whole Western +world. Christianity contains enough of Jesus' teachings to immortalize it. + +If Christianity could only grasp more of Jesus' teachings, it could do so much +more in helping modern man to solve his new and increasingly complex problems. + +Christianity suffers under a great handicap because it has become identified in +the minds of all the world as a part of the social system, the industrial life, +and the moral standards of Western civilization; and thus has Christianity +unwittingly seemed to sponsor a society which staggers under the guilt of +tolerating science without idealism, politics without principles, wealth +without work, pleasure without restraint, knowledge without character, power +without conscience, and industry without morality. + +The hope of modern Christianity is that it should cease to sponsor the social +systems and industrial policies of Western civilization while it humbly bows +itself before the cross it so valiantly extols, there to learn anew from Jesus +of Nazareth the greatest truths mortal man can ever hear--the living gospel of +the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. + + top of page - 2087 + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + +ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ +³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ Bestowal Of ³ The Faith Of ³ Urantia Book ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ +³ The... ³ Je... ³ PA... ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. 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The Faith Of Jesus +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Paper 196 The Faith Of Jesus + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Introduction + +JESUS enjoyed a sublime and wholehearted faith in God. He experienced the +ordinary ups and downs of mortal existence, but he never religiously doubted +the certainty of God's watchcare and guidance. His faith was the outgrowth of +the insight born of the activity of the divine presence, his indwelling +Adjuster. His faith was neither traditional nor merely intellectual; it was +wholly personal and purely spiritual. + +The human Jesus saw God as being holy, just, and great, as well as being true, +beautiful, and good. All these attributes of divinity he focused in his mind as +the "will of the Father in heaven." Jesus' God was at one and the same time +"The Holy One of Israel" and "The living and loving Father in heaven." The +concept of God as a Father was not original with Jesus, but he exalted and +elevated the idea into a sublime experience by achieving a new revelation of +God and by proclaiming that every mortal creature is a child of this Father of +love, a son of God. + +Jesus did not cling to faith in God as would a struggling soul at war with the +universe and at death grips with a hostile and sinful world; he did not resort +to faith merely as a consolation in the midst of difficulties or as a comfort +in threatened despair; faith was not just an illusory compensation for the +unpleasant realities and the sorrows of living. In the very face of all the +natural difficulties and the temporal contradictions of mortal existence, he +experienced the tranquillity of supreme and unquestioned trust in God and felt +the tremendous thrill of living, by faith, in the very presence of the heavenly +Father. And this triumphant faith was a living experience of actual spirit +attainment. Jesus' great contribution to the values of human experience was not +that he revealed so many new ideas about the Father in heaven, but rather that +he so magnificently and humanly demonstrated a new and higher type of living +faith in God. Never on all the worlds of this universe, in the life of any one +mortal, did God ever become such a living reality as in the human experience of +Jesus of Nazareth. + +In the Master's life on Urantia, this and all other worlds of the local +creation discover a new and higher type of religion, religion based on personal +spiritual relations with the Universal Father and wholly validated by the +supreme authority of genuine personal experience. This living faith of Jesus +was more than an intellectual reflection, and it was not a mystic meditation. + +Theology may fix, formulate, define, and dogmatize faith, but in the human life +of Jesus faith was personal, living, original, spontaneous, and purely +spiritual. This faith was not reverence for tradition nor a mere intellectual +belief which he held as a sacred creed, but rather a sublime experience and a +profound conviction which securely held him. His faith was so real and +all-encompassing that it + + top of page - 2088 + +absolutely swept away any spiritual doubts and effectively destroyed every +conflicting desire. Nothing was able to tear him away from the spiritual +anchorage of this fervent, sublime, and undaunted faith. Even in the face of +apparent defeat or in the throes of disappointment and threatening despair, he +calmly stood in the divine presence free from fear and fully conscious of +spiritual invincibility. Jesus enjoyed the invigorating assurance of the +possession of unflinching faith, and in each of life's trying situations he +unfailingly exhibited an unquestioning loyalty to the Father's will. And this +superb faith was undaunted even by the cruel and crushing threat of an +ignominious death. + +In a religious genius, strong spiritual faith so many times leads directly to +disastrous fanaticism, to exaggeration of the religious ego, but it was not so +with Jesus. He was not unfavorably affected in his practical life by his +extraordinary faith and spirit attainment because this spiritual exaltation was +a wholly unconscious and spontaneous soul expression of his personal experience +with God. + +The all-consuming and indomitable spiritual faith of Jesus never became +fanatical, for it never attempted to run away with his well-balanced +intellectual judgments concerning the proportional values of practical and +commonplace social, economic, and moral life situations. The Son of Man was a +splendidly unified human personality; he was a perfectly endowed divine being; +he was also magnificently co-ordinated as a combined human and divine being +functioning on earth as a single personality. Always did the Master co-ordinate +the faith of the soul with the wisdom-appraisals of seasoned experience. +Personal faith, spiritual hope, and moral devotion were always correlated in a +matchless religious unity of harmonious association with the keen realization +of the reality and sacredness of all human loyalties--personal honor, family +love, religious obligation, social duty, and economic necessity. + +The faith of Jesus visualized all spirit values as being found in the kingdom +of God; therefore he said, "Seek first the kingdom of heaven." Jesus saw in the +advanced and ideal fellowship of the kingdom the achievement and fulfillment of +the "will of God." The very heart of the prayer which he taught his disciples +was, "Your kingdom come; your will be done." Having thus conceived of the +kingdom as comprising the will of God, he devoted himself to the cause of its +realization with amazing self-forgetfulness and unbounded enthusiasm. But in +all his intense mission and throughout his extraordinary life there never +appeared the fury of the fanatic nor the superficial frothiness of the +religious egotist. + +The Master's entire life was consistently conditioned by this living faith, +this sublime religious experience. This spiritual attitude wholly dominated his +thinking and feeling, his believing and praying, his teaching and preaching. +This personal faith of a son in the certainty and security of the guidance and +protection of the heavenly Father imparted to his unique life a profound +endowment of spiritual reality. And yet, despite this very deep consciousness +of close relationship with divinity, this Galilean, God's Galilean, when +addressed as Good Teacher, instantly replied, "Why do you call me good?" When +we stand confronted by such splendid self-forgetfulness, we begin to understand +how the Universal Father found it possible so fully to manifest himself to him +and reveal himself through him to the mortals of the realms. + +Jesus brought to God, as a man of the realm, the greatest of all offerings: the +consecration and dedication of his own will to the majestic service of doing +the divine will. Jesus always and consistently interpreted religion wholly in +terms of the Father's will. When you study the career of the Master, as +concerns prayer + + top of page - 2089 + +or any other feature of the religious life, look not so much for what he taught +as for what he did. Jesus never prayed as a religious duty. To him prayer was a +sincere expression of spiritual attitude, a declaration of soul loyalty, a +recital of personal devotion, an expression of thanksgiving, an avoidance of +emotional tension, a prevention of conflict, an exaltation of intellection, an +ennoblement of desire, a vindication of moral decision, an enrichment of +thought, an invigoration of higher inclinations, a consecration of impulse, a +clarification of viewpoint, a declaration of faith, a transcendental surrender +of will, a sublime assertion of confidence, a revelation of courage, the +proclamation of discovery, a confession of supreme devotion, the validation of +consecration, a technique for the adjustment of difficulties, and the mighty +mobilization of the combined soul powers to withstand all human tendencies +toward selfishness, evil, and sin. He lived just such a life of prayerful +consecration to the doing of his Father's will and ended his life triumphantly +with just such a prayer. The secret of his unparalleled religious life was this +consciousness of the presence of God; and he attained it by intelligent prayer +and sincere worship--unbroken communion with God--and not by leadings, voices, +visions, or extraordinary religious practices. + +In the earthly life of Jesus, religion was a living experience, a direct and +personal movement from spiritual reverence to practical righteousness. The +faith of Jesus bore the transcendent fruits of the divine spirit. His faith was +not immature and credulous like that of a child, but in many ways it did +resemble the unsuspecting trust of the child mind. Jesus trusted God much as +the child trusts a parent. He had a profound confidence in the universe--just +such a trust as the child has in its parental environment. Jesus' wholehearted +faith in the fundamental goodness of the universe very much resembled the +child's trust in the security of its earthly surroundings. He depended on the +heavenly Father as a child leans upon its earthly parent, and his fervent faith +never for one moment doubted the certainty of the heavenly Father's overcare. +He was not disturbed seriously by fears, doubts, and skepticism. Unbelief did +not inhibit the free and original expression of his life. He combined the +stalwart and intelligent courage of a full-grown man with the sincere and +trusting optimism of a believing child. His faith grew to such heights of trust +that it was devoid of fear. + +The faith of Jesus attained the purity of a child's trust. His faith was so +absolute and undoubting that it responded to the charm of the contact of fellow +beings and to the wonders of the universe. His sense of dependence on the +divine was so complete and so confident that it yielded the joy and the +assurance of absolute personal security. There was no hesitating pretense in +his religious experience. In this giant intellect of the full-grown man the +faith of the child reigned supreme in all matters relating to the religious +consciousness. It is not strange that he once said, "Except you become as a +little child, you shall not enter the kingdom." Notwithstanding that Jesus' +faith was childlike, it was in no sense childish. + +Jesus does not require his disciples to believe in him but rather to believe +with him, believe in the reality of the love of God and in full confidence +accept the security of the assurance of sonship with the heavenly Father. The +Master desires that all his followers should fully share his transcendent +faith. Jesus most touchingly challenged his followers, not only to believe what +he believed, but also to believe as he believed. This is the full significance +of his one supreme requirement, "Follow me." + + top of page - 2090 + +Jesus' earthly life was devoted to one great purpose--doing the Father's will, +living the human life religiously and by faith. The faith of Jesus was +trusting, like that of a child, but it was wholly free from presumption. He +made robust and manly decisions, courageously faced manifold disappointments, +resolutely surmounted extraordinary difficulties, and unflinchingly confronted +the stern requirements of duty. It required a strong will and an unfailing +confidence to believe what Jesus believed and as he believed. + +1. JESUS--THE MAN + +Jesus' devotion to the Father's will and the service of man was even more than +mortal decision and human determination; it was a wholehearted consecration of +himself to such an unreserved bestowal of love. No matter how great the fact of +the sovereignty of Michael, you must not take the human Jesus away from men. +The Master has ascended on high as a man, as well as God; he belongs to men; +men belong to him. How unfortunate that religion itself should be so +misinterpreted as to take the human Jesus away from struggling mortals! Let not +the discussions of the humanity or the divinity of the Christ obscure the +saving truth that Jesus of Nazareth was a religious man who, by faith, achieved +the knowing and the doing of the will of God; he was the most truly religious +man who has ever lived on Urantia. + +The time is ripe to witness the figurative resurrection of the human Jesus from +his burial tomb amidst the theological traditions and the religious dogmas of +nineteen centuries. Jesus of Nazareth must not be longer sacrificed to even the +splendid concept of the glorified Christ. What a transcendent service if, +through this revelation, the Son of Man should be recovered from the tomb of +traditional theology and be presented as the living Jesus to the church that +bears his name, and to all other religions! Surely the Christian fellowship of +believers will not hesitate to make such adjustments of faith and of practices +of living as will enable it to "follow after" the Master in the demonstration +of his real life of religious devotion to the doing of his Father's will and of +consecration to the unselfish service of man. Do professed Christians fear the +exposure of a self-sufficient and unconsecrated fellowship of social +respectability and selfish economic maladjustment? Does institutional +Christianity fear the possible jeopardy, or even the overthrow, of traditional +ecclesiastical authority if the Jesus of Galilee is reinstated in the minds and +souls of mortal men as the ideal of personal religious living? Indeed, the +social readjustments, the economic transformations, the moral rejuvenations, +and the religious revisions of Christian civilization would be drastic and +revolutionary if the living religion of Jesus should suddenly supplant the +theologic religion about Jesus. + +To "follow Jesus" means to personally share his religious faith and to enter +into the spirit of the Master's life of unselfish service for man. One of the +most important things in human living is to find out what Jesus believed, to +discover his ideals, and to strive for the achievement of his exalted life +purpose. Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the +religious life of Jesus and how he lived it. + +The common people heard Jesus gladly, and they will again respond to the +presentation of his sincere human life of consecrated religious motivation if +such truths shall again be proclaimed to the world. The people heard him gladly +be- + + top of page - 2091 + +cause he was one of them, an unpretentious layman; the world's greatest +religious teacher was indeed a layman. + +It should not be the aim of kingdom believers literally to imitate the outward +life of Jesus in the flesh but rather to share his faith; to trust God as he +trusted God and to believe in men as he believed in men. Jesus never argued +about either the fatherhood of God or the brotherhood of men; he was a living +illustration of the one and a profound demonstration of the other. + +Just as men must progress from the consciousness of the human to the +realization of the divine, so did Jesus ascend from the nature of man to the +consciousness of the nature of God. And the Master made this great ascent from +the human to the divine by the conjoint achievement of the faith of his mortal +intellect and the acts of his indwelling Adjuster. The fact-realization of the +attainment of totality of divinity (all the while fully conscious of the +reality of humanity) was attended by seven stages of faith consciousness of +progressive divinization. These stages of progressive self-realization were +marked off by the following extraordinary events in the Master's bestowal +experience: + +1. The arrival of the Thought Adjuster. + +2. The messenger of Immanuel who appeared to him at Jerusalem when he was about +twelve years old. + +3. The manifestations attendant upon his baptism. + +4. The experiences on the Mount of Transfiguration. + +5. The morontia resurrection. + +6. The spirit ascension. + +7. The final embrace of the Paradise Father, conferring unlimited sovereignty +of his universe. + +2. THE RELIGION OF JESUS + +Some day a reformation in the Christian church may strike deep enough to get +back to the unadulterated religious teachings of Jesus, the author and finisher +of our faith. You may preach a religion about Jesus, but, perforce, you must +live the religion of Jesus. In the enthusiasm of Pentecost, Peter +unintentionally inaugurated a new religion, the religion of the risen and +glorified Christ. The Apostle Paul later on transformed this new gospel into +Christianity, a religion embodying his own theologic views and portraying his +own personal experience with the Jesus of the Damascus road. The gospel of the +kingdom is founded on the personal religious experience of the Jesus of +Galilee; Christianity is founded almost exclusively on the personal religious +experience of the Apostle Paul. Almost the whole of the New Testament is +devoted, not to the portrayal of the significant and inspiring religious life +of Jesus, but to a discussion of Paul's religious experience and to a portrayal +of his personal religious convictions. The only notable exceptions to this +statement, aside from certain parts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are the Book of +Hebrews and the Epistle of James. Even Peter, in his writing, only once +reverted to the personal religious life of his Master. The New Testament is a +superb Christian document, but it is only meagerly Jesusonian. + +Jesus' life in the flesh portrays a transcendent religious growth from the +early ideas of primitive awe and human reverence up through years of personal +spirit- + + top of page - 2092 + +ual communion until he finally arrived at that advanced and exalted status of +the consciousness of his oneness with the Father. And thus, in one short life, +did Jesus traverse that experience of religious spiritual progression which man +begins on earth and ordinarily achieves only at the conclusion of his long +sojourn in the spirit training schools of the successive levels of the +pre-Paradise career. Jesus progressed from a purely human consciousness of the +faith certainties of personal religious experience to the sublime spiritual +heights of the positive realization of his divine nature and to the +consciousness of his close association with the Universal Father in the +management of a universe. He progressed from the humble status of mortal +dependence which prompted him spontaneously to say to the one who called him +Good Teacher, "Why do you call me good? None is good but God," to that sublime +consciousness of achieved divinity which led him to exclaim, "Which one of you +convicts me of sin?" And this progressing ascent from the human to the divine +was an exclusively mortal achievement. And when he had thus attained divinity, +he was still the same human Jesus, the Son of Man as well as the Son of God. + +Mark, Matthew, and Luke retain something of the picture of the human Jesus as +he engaged in the superb struggle to ascertain the divine will and to do that +will. John presents a picture of the triumphant Jesus as he walked on earth in +the full consciousness of divinity. The great mistake that has been made by +those who have studied the Master's life is that some have conceived of him as +entirely human, while others have thought of him as only divine. Throughout his +entire experience he was truly both human and divine, even as he yet is. + +But the greatest mistake was made in that, while the human Jesus was recognized +as having a religion, the divine Jesus (Christ) almost overnight became a +religion. Paul's Christianity made sure of the adoration of the divine Christ, +but it almost wholly lost sight of the struggling and valiant human Jesus of +Galilee, who, by the valor of his personal religious faith and the heroism of +his indwelling Adjuster, ascended from the lowly levels of humanity to become +one with divinity, thus becoming the new and living way whereby all mortals may +so ascend from humanity to divinity. Mortals in all stages of spirituality and +on all worlds may find in the personal life of Jesus that which will strengthen +and inspire them as they progress from the lowest spirit levels up to the +highest divine values, from the beginning to the end of all personal religious +experience. + +At the time of the writing of the New Testament, the authors not only most +profoundly believed in the divinity of the risen Christ, but they also +devotedly and sincerely believed in his immediate return to earth to consummate +the heavenly kingdom. This strong faith in the Lord's immediate return had much +to do with the tendency to omit from the record those references which +portrayed the purely human experiences and attributes of the Master. The whole +Christian movement tended away from the human picture of Jesus of Nazareth +toward the exaltation of the risen Christ, the glorified and soon-returning +Lord Jesus Christ. + +Jesus founded the religion of personal experience in doing the will of God and +serving the human brotherhood; Paul founded a religion in which the glorified +Jesus became the object of worship and the brotherhood consisted of fellow +believers in the divine Christ. In the bestowal of Jesus these two concepts +were potential in his divine-human life, and it is indeed a pity that his +followers failed to create a unified religion which might have given proper +recognition to both + + top of page - 2093 + +the human and the divine natures of the Master as they were inseparably bound +up in his earth life and so gloriously set forth in the original gospel of the +kingdom. + +You would be neither shocked nor disturbed by some of Jesus' strong +pronouncements if you would only remember that he was the world's most +wholehearted and devoted religionist. He was a wholly consecrated mortal, +unreservedly dedicated to doing his Father's will. Many of his apparently hard +sayings were more of a personal confession of faith and a pledge of devotion +than commands to his followers. And it was this very singleness of purpose and +unselfish devotion that enabled him to effect such extraordinary progress in +the conquest of the human mind in one short life. Many of his declarations +should be considered as a confession of what he demanded of himself rather than +what he required of all his followers. In his devotion to the cause of the +kingdom, Jesus burned all bridges behind him; he sacrificed all hindrances to +the doing of his Father's will. + +Jesus blessed the poor because they were usually sincere and pious; he +condemned the rich because they were usually wanton and irreligious. He would +equally condemn the irreligious pauper and commend the consecrated and +worshipful man of wealth. + +Jesus led men to feel at home in the world; he delivered them from the slavery +of taboo and taught them that the world was not fundamentally evil. He did not +long to escape from his earthly life; he mastered a technique of acceptably +doing the Father's will while in the flesh. He attained an idealistic religious +life in the very midst of a realistic world. Jesus did not share Paul's +pessimistic view of humankind. The Master looked upon men as the sons of God +and foresaw a magnificent and eternal future for those who chose survival. He +was not a moral skeptic; he viewed man positively, not negatively. He saw most +men as weak rather than wicked, more distraught than depraved. But no matter +what their status, they were all God's children and his brethren. + +He taught men to place a high value upon themselves in time and in eternity. +Because of this high estimate which Jesus placed upon men, he was willing to +spend himself in the unremitting service of humankind. And it was this infinite +worth of the finite that made the golden rule a vital factor in his religion. +What mortal can fail to be uplifted by the extraordinary faith Jesus has in +him? + +Jesus offered no rules for social advancement; his was a religious mission, and +religion is an exclusively individual experience. The ultimate goal of +society's most advanced achievement can never hope to transcend Jesus' +brotherhood of men based on the recognition of the fatherhood of God. The ideal +of all social attainment can be realized only in the coming of this divine +kingdom. + +3. THE SUPREMACY OF RELIGION + +Personal, spiritual religious experience is an efficient solvent for most +mortal difficulties; it is an effective sorter, evaluator, and adjuster of all +human problems. Religion does not remove or destroy human troubles, but it does +dissolve, absorb, illuminate, and transcend them. True religion unifies the +personality for effective adjustment to all mortal requirements. Religious +faith--the positive leading of the indwelling divine presence--unfailingly +enables the God-knowing man to bridge that gulf existing between the +intellectual logic which recognizes the Universal First Cause as It and those +positive affirmations of the soul which + + top of page - 2094 + +aver this First Cause is heavenly Father of Jesus' gospel, the personal God of +human salvation. + +There are just three elements in universal reality: fact, idea, and relation. +The religious consciousness identifies these realities as science, philosophy, +and truth. Philosophy would be inclined to view these activities as reason, +wisdom, and faith--physical reality, intellectual reality, and spiritual +reality. We are in the habit of designating these realities as thing, meaning, +and value. + +The progressive comprehension of reality is the equivalent of approaching God. +The finding of God, the consciousness of identity with reality, is the +equivalent of the experiencing of self-completion--self-entirety, +self-totality. The experiencing of total reality is the full realization of +God, the finality of the God-knowing experience. + +The full summation of human life is the knowledge that man is educated by fact, +ennobled by wisdom, and saved--justified--by religious faith. + +Physical certainty consists in the logic of science; moral certainty, in the +wisdom of philosophy; spiritual certainty, in the truth of genuine religious +experience. + +The mind of man can attain high levels of spiritual insight and corresponding +spheres of divinity of values because it is not wholly material. There is a +spirit nucleus in the mind of man--the Adjuster of the divine presence. There +are three separate evidences of this spirit indwelling of the human mind: + +1. Humanitarian fellowship--love. The purely animal mind may be gregarious for +self-protection, but only the spirit-indwelt intellect is unselfishly +altruistic and unconditionally loving. + +2. Interpretation of the universe--wisdom. Only the spirit-indwelt mind can +comprehend that the universe is friendly to the individual. + +3. Spiritual evaluation of life--worship. Only the spirit-indwelt man can +realize the divine presence and seek to attain a fuller experience in and with +this foretaste of divinity. + +The human mind does not create real values; human experience does not yield +universe insight. Concerning insight, the recognition of moral values and the +discernment of spiritual meanings, all that the human mind can do is to +discover, recognize, interpret, and choose. + +The moral values of the universe become intellectual possessions by the +exercise of the three basic judgments, or choices, of the mortal mind: + +1. Self-judgment--moral choice. + +2. Social-judgment--ethical choice. + +3. God-judgment--religious choice. + +Thus it appears that all human progress is effected by a technique of conjoint +revelational evolution. + +Unless a divine lover lived in man, he could not unselfishly and spiritually +love. Unless an interpreter lived in the mind, man could not truly realize the +unity of the universe. Unless an evaluator dwelt with man, he could not +possibly appraise moral values and recognize spiritual meanings. And this lover +hails from the very source of infinite love; this interpreter is a part of +Universal Unity; this evaluator is the child of the Center and Source of all +absolute values of divine and eternal reality. + + top of page - 2095 + +Moral evaluation with a religious meaning--spiritual insight--connotes the +individual's choice between good and evil, truth and error, material and +spiritual, human and divine, time and eternity. Human survival is in great +measure dependent on consecrating the human will to the choosing of those +values selected by this spirit-value sorter--the indwelling interpreter and +unifier. Personal religious experience consists in two phases: discovery in the +human mind and revelation by the indwelling divine spirit. Through +oversophistication or as a result of the irreligious conduct of professed +religionists, a man, or even a generation of men, may elect to suspend their +efforts to discover the God who indwells them; they may fail to progress in and +attain the divine revelation. But such attitudes of spiritual nonprogression +cannot long persist because of the presence and influence of the indwelling +Thought Adjusters. + +This profound experience of the reality of the divine indwelling forever +transcends the crude materialistic technique of the physical sciences. You +cannot put spiritual joy under a microscope; you cannot weigh love in a +balance; you cannot measure moral values; neither can you estimate the quality +of spiritual worship. + +The Hebrews had a religion of moral sublimity; the Greeks evolved a religion of +beauty; Paul and his conferees founded a religion of faith, hope, and charity. +Jesus revealed and exemplified a religion of love: security in the Father's +love, with joy and satisfaction consequent upon sharing this love in the +service of the human brotherhood. + +Every time man makes a reflective moral choice, he immediately experiences a +new divine invasion of his soul. Moral choosing constitutes religion as the +motive of inner response to outer conditions. But such a real religion is not a +purely subjective experience. It signifies the whole of the subjectivity of the +individual engaged in a meaningful and intelligent response to total +objectivity--the universe and its Maker. + +The exquisite and transcendent experience of loving and being loved is not just +a psychic illusion because it is so purely subjective. The one truly divine and +objective reality that is associated with mortal beings, the Thought Adjuster, +functions to human observation apparently as an exclusively subjective +phenomenon. Man's contact with the highest objective reality, God, is only +through the purely subjective experience of knowing him, of worshiping him, of +realizing sonship with him. + +True religious worship is not a futile monologue of self-deception. Worship is +a personal communion with that which is divinely real, with that which is the +very source of reality. Man aspires by worship to be better and thereby +eventually attains the best. + +The idealization and attempted service of truth, beauty, + + top of page - 2096 + +and goodness is not a substitute for genuine religious experience--spiritual +reality. Psychology and idealism are not the equivalent of religious reality. +The projections of the human intellect may indeed originate false gods--gods in +man's image--but the true God-consciousness does not have such an origin. The +God-consciousness is resident in the indwelling spirit. Many of the religious +systems of man come from the formulations of the human intellect, but the +God-consciousness is not necessarily a part of these grotesque systems of +religious slavery. + +God is not the mere invention of man's idealism; he is the very source of all +such superanimal insights and values. God is not a hypothesis formulated to +unify the human concepts of truth, beauty, and goodness; he is the personality +of love from whom all of these universe manifestations are derived. The truth, +beauty, and goodness of man's world are unified by the increasing spirituality +of the experience of mortals ascending toward Paradise realities. The unity of +truth, beauty, and goodness can only be realized in the spiritual experience of +the God-knowing personality. + +Morality is the essential pre-existent soil of personal God-consciousness, the +personal realization of the Adjuster's inner presence, but such morality is not +the source of religious experience and the resultant spiritual insight. The +moral nature is superanimal but subspiritual. Morality is equivalent to the +recognition of duty, the realization of the existence of right and wrong. The +moral zone intervenes between the animal and the human types of mind as +morontia functions between the material and the spiritual spheres of +personality attainment. + +The evolutionary mind is able to discover law, morals, and ethics; but the +bestowed spirit, the indwelling Adjuster, reveals to the evolving human mind +the lawgiver, the Father-source of all that is true, beautiful, and good; and +such an illuminated man has a religion and is spiritually equipped to begin the +long and adventurous search for God. + +Morality is not necessarily spiritual; it may be wholly and purely human, +albeit real religion enhances all moral values, makes them more meaningful. +Morality without religion fails to reveal ultimate goodness, and it also fails +to provide for the survival of even its own moral values. Religion provides for +the enhancement, glorification, and assured survival of everything morality +recognizes and approves. + +Religion stands above science, art, philosophy, ethics, and morals, but not +independent of them. They are all indissolubly interrelated in human +experience, personal and social. Religion is man's supreme experience in the +mortal nature, but finite language makes it forever impossible for theology +ever adequately to depict real religious experience. + +Religious insight possesses the power of turning defeat into higher desires and +new determinations. Love is the highest motivation which man may utilize in his +universe ascent. But love, divested of truth, beauty, and goodness, is only a +sentiment, a philosophic distortion, a psychic illusion, a spiritual deception. +Love must always be redefined on successive levels of morontia and spirit +progression. + +Art results from man's attempt to escape from the lack of beauty in his +material environment; it is a gesture toward the morontia level. Science is +man's effort to solve the apparent riddles of the material universe. Philosophy +is man's attempt at the unification of human experience. Religion is man's +supreme gesture, his magnificent reach for final reality, his determination to +find God and to be like him. + +In the realm of religious experience, spiritual possibility is potential +reality. Man's forward spiritual urge is not a psychic illusion. All of man's +universe romancing may not be fact, but much, very much, is truth. + +Some men's lives are too great and noble to descend to the low level of being +merely successful. The animal must adapt itself to the environment, but the +religious man transcends his environment and in this way escapes the +limitations of the present material world through this insight of divine love. +This concept of love generates in the soul of man that superanimal effort to +find truth, beauty, and goodness; and when he does find them, he is glorified +in their embrace; he is consumed with the desire to live them, to do +righteousness. + + top of page - 2097 + +Be not discouraged; human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of +God to the world, in and through Jesus, shall not fail. + +The great challenge to modern man is to achieve better communication with the +divine Monitor that dwells within the human mind. Man's greatest adventure in +the flesh consists in the well-balanced and sane effort to advance the borders +of self-consciousness out through the dim realms of embryonic +soul-consciousness in a wholehearted effort to reach the borderland of +spirit-consciousness--contact with the divine presence. Such an experience +constitutes God-consciousness, an experience mightily confirmative of the +pre-existent truth of the religious experience of knowing God. Such +spirit-consciousness is the equivalent of the knowledge of the actuality of +sonship with God. Otherwise, the assurance of sonship is the experience of +faith. + +And God-consciousness is equivalent to the integration of the self with the +universe, and on its highest levels of spiritual reality. Only the spirit +content of any value is imperishable. Even that which is true, beautiful, and +good may not perish in human experience. If man does not choose to survive, +then does the surviving Adjuster conserve those realities born of love and +nurtured in service. And all these things are a part of the Universal Father. +The Father is living love, and this life of the Father is in his Sons. And the +spirit of the Father is in his Sons' sons--mortal men. When all is said and +done, the Father idea is still the highest human concept of God. + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART IV: The Life and Teachings + of Jesus : The Bestowal Of Michael On Urantia The Times Of Michael's Bestowal + Birth And Infancy Of Jesus The Early Childhood Of Jesus The Later Childhood Of + Jesus Jesus At Jerusalem The Two Crucial Years The Adolescent Years Jesus' + Early Manhood The Later Adult Life Of Jesus On The Way To Rome The World's + Religions The Sojourn At Rome The Return From Rome The Transition Years John + The Baptist Baptism And The Forty Days Tarrying Time In Galilee Training The +Kingdom's Messengers The Twelve Apostles The Ordination Of The Twelve Beginning + The Public Work The Passover At Jerusalem Going Through Samaria At Gilboa And + In The Decapolis Four Eventful Days At Capernaum First Preaching Tour Of + Galilee The Interlude Visit To Jerusalem Training Evangelists At Bethsaida The + Second Preaching Tour The Third Preaching Tour Tarrying And Teaching By The + Seaside Events Leading Up To The Capernaum Crisis The Crisis At Capernaum Last + Days At Capernaum Fleeing Through Northern Galilee The Sojourn At Tyre And + Sidon At Caesarea-philippi The Mount Of Transfiguration The Decapolis Tour + Rodan Of Alexandria Further Discussions With Rodan At The Feast Of Tabernacles + Ordination Of The Seventy At Magadan At The Feast Of Dedication The Perean + Mission Begins Last Visit To Northern Perea The Visit To Philadelphia The +Resurrection Of Lazarus Last Teaching At Pella The Kingdom Of Heaven On The Way + To Jerusalem Going Into Jerusalem Monday In Jerusalem Tuesday Morning In The +Temple The Last Temple Discourse Tuesday Evening On Mount Olivet Wednesday, The + Rest Day Last Day At The Camp The Last Supper The Farewell Discourse Final + Admonitions And Warnings In Gethsemane The Betrayal And Arrest Of Jesus Before + The Sanhedrin Court The Trial Before Pilate Just Before The Crucifixion The +Crucifixion The Time Of The Tomb The Resurrection Morontia Appearances Of Jesus + Appearances To The Apostles And Other Leaders Appearances In Galilee Final + Appearances And Ascension Bestowal Of The Spirit Of Truth After Pentecost The + Faith Of Jesus + + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ // ³ ³ ³ ³ + ³ After Pentecost ³ Urantia Book PA... ³ Search ³ SiteMap! ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ +// + +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +ÚÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄ¿ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ SPIRITWEB ORG (info@spiritweb.org), ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ http://www.spiritweb.org ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ Webmaster ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ONLINE SINCE 1993. MAINTAINED IN SWITZERLAND. ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ DISTRIBUTED TO CALIFORNIA, SPAIN, ITALY, SOUTH AFRICA, ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ AUSTRALIA ³ ³ +³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ +ÀÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÙ diff --git a/religious documents/p_dream.txt b/religious documents/p_dream.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7e6274 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p_dream.txt @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +============================================================================= +Martin Luther King's "Dream" speech planted the seeds of his dream for a +better life in the hearts of his people and through the years those seeds took +root and empowered many people to work toward a better world. However, as a +Witch who considers every living thing on this planet kindred in spirit, if +not in flesh; I needed a broader vision. So... + + I have a Vision + of a world wherein + the color of a person's skin + does not preclude respect + for the sacred spirit within. + + I have a Vision + of a world in which + *WHO* you love is less important + than *THAT* you love. + + I have a Vision + of a world in which + it matters less *WHAT* you believe + than that you + strive to *PRACTICE* what you believe + with *ABSOLUTE* + respect for the right of others + to practice what *They* believe. + + I have a Vision + of a world in which + Wealth is less important than + Life, Love, and Health. + + I have a Vision + of a world wherein + the measure of a person's accomplishments + is less in the power they wield + than in the Beauty and Harmony they can create. + + +These words are my seeds. May they take root in the hearts of kindred souls +until there is enough loving power behind them to make Vision REALITY. + + +Brightest Blessings +Winged Moon diff --git a/religious documents/p_of_g_p.txt b/religious documents/p_of_g_p.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e0e286 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/p_of_g_p.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3497 @@ + TABLE OF CONTENTS I + In order of appearance + + BIBLE + +Genesis . ................GEN + +Exodus . ................EXO + +Leviticus . ...............LEV + +Numbers . ................NUM + +Deuteronomy . ..............DEU + +Joshua . .................JOS + +Judges . .................JDG + +Ruth . ..................RTH + +1-Samuel . ................SA1 + +2-Samuel . ................SA2 + +1-Kings . ................KI1 + +2-Kings . ................KI2 + +1-Chronicles . ..............CH1 + +2-Chronicles . ..............CH2 + +Ezra . .................EZR + +Nehemiah . ................NEH + +Esther . ................EST + +Job . ..................JOB + +Psalms . ................PSA + +Proverbs . ................PRO + +Ecclesiastes . ..............ECC + +Song-of-Solomon . ............SON + +Isaiah . ................ISA + +Jeremiah . ................JER + +Lamentations . ..............LAM + +Ezekiel . ................EZE + +Daniel . ................DAN + +Hosea . .................HOS + +Joel . .................JOE + +Amos . .................AMO + +Obadiah . ................OBA + +Jonah . .................JON + +Micah . .................MIC + +Nahum . .................NAH + +Habakkuk . ................HAB + +Zephaniah . ...............ZEP + +Haggai . ................HAG + +Zechariah . ...............ZEC + +Malachi . ................MAL + +Matthew . ................MAT + +Mark . .................MAR + +Luke . .................LUK + +John . .................JOH + +Acts . .................ACT + +Romans . ................ROM + +1-Corinthians . .............CO1 + +2-Corinthians . .............CO2 + +Galatians . ...............GAL + +Ephesians . ...............EPH + +Philippians . ..............PHI + +Colossians . ..............COL + +1-Thessalonians . ............TH1 + +2-Thessalonians . ............TH2 + +1-Timothy . ...............TI1 + +2-Timothy . ...............TI2 + +Titus . .................TIT + +Philemon . ................PHM + +Hebrews . ................HEB + +James . .................JAM + +1-Peter . ................PE1 + +2-Peter . ................PE2 + +1-John . ................JO1 + +2-John . ................JO2 + +3-John . ................JO3 + +Jude . .................JUD + +Revelation . ...............REV + + + + BOOK OF MORMON + +Preface . ................PRE + +1-Nephi . ................NE1 + +2-Nephi . ................NE2 + +Jacob . .................JAC + +Enos . .................ENO + +Jarom . .................JAR + +Omni . .................OMN + +Words-of-Mormon . ............WOM + +Mosiah . ................MSH + +Alma . .................ALM + +Helaman . ................HEL + +3-Nephi . ................NE3 + +4-Nephi . ................NE4 + +Mormon . ................MOR + +Ether . .................ETH + +Moroni . ................MNI + + + + DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS + +Doctrine-and-Covenants . .........D&C + +Official-Declarations . .........DEC + + + + PEARL OF GREAT PRICE + +Moses . .................MOS + +Abraham . ................ABR + +Joseph-Smith-Matthew . ..........JSM + +Joseph-Smith-History . ..........JSH + +Articles-of-Faith . ...........AOF + + + + + + TABLE OF CONTENTS II + Alphabetically by name of book + +1-Chronicles . ..............CH1 + +1-Corinthians . .............CO1 + +1-John . ................JO1 + +1-Kings . ................KI1 + +1-Nephi . ................NE1 + +1-Peter . ................PE1 + +1-Samuel . ................SA1 + +1-Thessalonians . ............TH1 + +1-Timothy . ...............TI1 + +2-Chronicles . ..............CH2 + +2-Corinthians . .............CO2 + +2-John . ................JO2 + +2-Kings . ................KI2 + +2-Nephi . ................NE2 + +2-Peter . ................PE2 + +2-Samuel . ................SA2 + +2-Thessalonians . ............TH2 + +2-Timothy . ...............TI2 + +3-John . ................JO3 + +3-Nephi . ................NE3 + +4-Nephi . ................NE4 + +Abraham . ................ABR + +Acts . .................ACT + +Alma . .................ALM + +Amos . .................AMO + +Articles-of-Faith . ...........AOF + +Colossians . ..............COL + +Daniel . ................DAN + +Deuteronomy . ..............DEU + +Doctrine-and-Covenants . .........D&C + +Ecclesiastes . ..............ECC + +Enos . .................ENO + +Ephesians . ...............EPH + +Esther . ................EST + +Ether . .................ETH + +Exodus . ................EXO + +Ezekiel . ................EZE + +Ezra . .................EZR + +Galatians . ...............GAL + +Genesis . ................GEN + +Habakkuk . ................HAB + +Haggai . ................HAG + +Hebrews . ................HEB + +Helaman . ................HEL + +Hosea . .................HOS + +Isaiah . ................ISA + +Jacob . .................JAC + +James . .................JAM + +Jarom . .................JAR + +Jeremiah . ................JER + +Job . ..................JOB + +Joel . .................JOE + +John . .................JOH + +Jonah . .................JON + +Joseph-Smith-History . ..........JSH + +Joseph-Smith-Matthew . ..........JSM + +Joshua . .................JOS + +Jude . .................JUD + +Judges . .................JDG + +Lamentations . ..............LAM + +Leviticus . ...............LEV + +Luke . .................LUK + +Malachi . ................MAL + +Mark . .................MAR + +Matthew . ................MAT + +Micah . .................MIC + +Mormon . ................MOR + +Moroni . ................MNI + +Moses . .................MOS + +Mosiah . ................MSH + +Nahum . .................NAH + +Nehemiah . ................NEH + +Numbers . ................NUM + +Obadiah . ................OBA + +Official-Declarations . .........DEC + +Omni . .................OMN + +Philemon . ................PHM + +Philippians . ..............PHI + +Preface . ................PRE + +Proverbs . ................PRO + +Psalms . ................PSA + +Revelation . ...............REV + +Romans . ................ROM + +Ruth . ..................RTH + +Song-of-Solomon . ............SON + +Titus . .................TIT + +Words-of-Mormon . ............WOM + +Zechariah . ...............ZEC + +Zephaniah . ...............ZEP + + + + TABLE OF CONTENTS III + Alphabetically by abbreviation + +Abraham . ................ABR + +Acts . .................ACT + +Alma . .................ALM + +Amos . .................AMO + +Articles-of-Faith . ...........AOF + +1-Chronicles . ..............CH1 + +2-Chronicles . ..............CH2 + +1-Corinthians . .............CO1 + +2-Corinthians . .............CO2 + +Colossians . ..............COL + +Doctrine-and-Covenants . .........D&C + +Daniel . ................DAN + +Official-Declarations . .........DEC + +Deuteronomy . ..............DEU + +Ecclesiastes . ..............ECC + +Enos . .................ENO + +Ephesians . ...............EPH + +Esther . ................EST + +Ether . .................ETH + +Exodus . ................EXO + +Ezekiel . ................EZE + +Ezra . .................EZR + +Galatians . ...............GAL + +Genesis . ................GEN + +Habakkuk . ................HAB + +Haggai . ................HAG + +Hebrews . ................HEB + +Helaman . ................HEL + +Hosea . .................HOS + +Isaiah . ................ISA + +Jacob . .................JAC + +James . .................JAM + +Jarom . .................JAR + +Judges . .................JDG + +Jeremiah . ................JER + +1-John . ................JO1 + +2-John . ................JO2 + +3-John . ................JO3 + +Job . ..................JOB + +Joel . .................JOE + +John . .................JOH + +Jonah . .................JON + +Joshua . .................JOS + +Joseph-Smith-History . ..........JSH + +Joseph-Smith-Matthew . ..........JSM + +Jude . .................JUD + +1-Kings . ................KI1 + +2-Kings . ................KI2 + +Lamentations . ..............LAM + +Leviticus . ...............LEV + +Luke . .................LUK + +Malachi . ................MAL + +Mark . .................MAR + +Matthew . ................MAT + +Micah . .................MIC + +Moroni . ................MNI + +Mormon . ................MOR + +Moses . .................MOS + +Mosiah . ................MSH + +Nahum . .................NAH + +1-Nephi . ................NE1 + +2-Nephi . ................NE2 + +3-Nephi . ................NE3 + +4-Nephi . ................NE4 + +Nehemiah . ................NEH + +Numbers . ................NUM + +Obadiah . ................OBA + +Omni . .................OMN + +1-Peter . ................PE1 + +2-Peter . ................PE2 + +Philippians . ..............PHI + +Philemon . ................PHM + +Preface . ................PRE + +Proverbs . ................PRO + +Psalms . ................PSA + +Revelation . ...............REV + +Romans . ................ROM + +Ruth . ..................RTH + +1-Samuel . ................SA1 + +2-Samuel . ................SA2 + +Song-of-Solomon . ............SON + +1-Thessalonians . ............TH1 + +2-Thessalonians . ............TH2 + +1-Timothy . ...............TI1 + +2-Timothy . ...............TI2 + +Titus . .................TIT + +Words-of-Mormon . ............WOM + +Zechariah . ...............ZEC + +Zephaniah . ...............ZEP + + The ASCII Scriptures + + UNIX version + +This ASCII version of the Scriptures was created through the efforts of many +volunteers. Although every effort was made to be as accurate as possible, we +are sure these files contain errors. Therefore, be sure to consult a post-1982 +printed version of the Book of Mormon if accuracy is important. The printed +version always takes precedence. + +These files are not public domain. They are freely copyable. No charge may be +made for them. No changes may be made, except to bring them into conformity +with the official version printed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day +Saints. The headers to books and chapters (all parts numbered with :0 ) must +conform with pre-1979 versions of the scriptures. All of the files in this +archive must be kept together when distributing the archive. The ASCII +Scriptures may be used and distributed freely for NON-COMMERCIAL, PRIVATE +purposes. Uploading to bulletin boards is encouraged. + +Comments are welcome. These files are currently being edited to correct the +mistakes we are sure they still have. If you find errors, please point them out +to me so I can correct them in the master. Sending me a corrected copy of the +verses would make me very happy. If you have any comments or suggestions, I +will be happy to hear from you. + +InterNet address: blake@nevada.edu (preferred) BITnet address: blake@unsvax +Uncle Sam's mail: PO Box 81083 + Las Vegas, NV 89180 + +Many thanks to all who participated in making this ASCII version of the +Scriptures possible. + +If you have a public domain copy of the Bible in any version other than the +KJV, or of the Koran, I would appreciate receiving a copy!! MOS 0:0 The Book of +Moses + +MOS 1:0 VISIONS OF MOSES. As revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, in June, +1830. + +MOS 1:1 The words of God, which he spake unto Moses at a time when Moses was +caught up into an exceedingly high mountain, + +MOS 1:2 And he saw God face to face, and he talked with him, and the glory of +God was upon Moses; therefore Moses could endure his presence. + +MOS 1:3 And God spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I am the Lord God Almighty, +and Endless is my name; for I am without beginning of days or end of years; and +is not this endless? + +MOS 1:4 And, behold, thou art my son; wherefore look, and I will show unto thee +the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end, and +also my words, for they never cease. + +MOS 1:5 Wherefore, no man can behold all my works, except he behold all my +glory; and no man can behold all my glory, and afterwards remain in the flesh +on the earth. + +MOS 1:6 And I have a work for thee, Moses my son; and thou art in the +similitude of mine Only Begotten; and mine Only Begotten is and shall be the +Savior, for he is full of grace and truth; but there is no God beside me, and +all things are present with me, for I know them all. + +MOS 1:7 And now, behold, this one thing I show unto thee, Moses, my son, for +thou art in the world, and now I show it unto thee. + +MOS 1:8 And it came to pass that Moses looked, and beheld the world upon which +he was created; and Moses beheld the world and all the ends thereof, and all +the children of men which are, and which were created; of the same he greatly +marveled and wondered. + +MOS 1:9 And the presence of God withdrew from Moses, that his glory was not +upon Moses; and Moses was left unto himself. And as he was left unto himself, +he fell unto the earth. + +MOS 1:10 And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before +Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto +himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never +had supposed. + +MOS 1:11 But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my +spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have +withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his +face, for I was transfigured before him. + +MOS 1:12 And it came to pass that when Moses had said these words, behold, +Satan came tempting him, saying: Moses, son of man, worship me. + +MOS 1:13 And it came to pass that Moses looked upon Satan and said: Who art +thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; +and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee? + +MOS 1:14 For behold, I could not look upon God, except his glory should come +upon me, and I were transfigured before him. But I can look upon thee in the +natural man. Is it not so, surely? + +MOS 1:15 Blessed be the name of my God, for his Spirit hath not altogether +withdrawn from me, or else where is thy glory, for it is darkness unto me? And +I can judge between thee and God; for God said unto me: Worship God, for him +only shalt thou serve. + +MOS 1:16 Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not; for God said unto me: Thou are +after the similitude of mine Only Begotten. + +MOS 1:17 And he also gave me commandments when he called unto me out of the +burning bush, saying: Call upon God in the name of mine Only Begotten, and +worship me. + +MOS 1:18 And again Moses said: I will not cease to call upon God, I have other +things to inquire of him: for his glory has been upon me, wherefore I can judge +between him and thee. Depart hence, Satan. + +MOS 1:19 And now, when Moses had said these words, Satan cried with a loud +voice, and ranted upon the earth, and commanded, saying: I am the Only +Begotten, worship me. + +MOS 1:20 And it came to pass that Moses began to fear exceedingly; and as he +began to fear, he saw the bitterness of hell. Nevertheless, calling upon God, +he received strength, and he commanded, saying: Depart from me, Satan, for this +one God only will I worship, which is the God of glory. + +MOS 1:21 And now Satan began to tremble, and the earth shook; and Moses +received strength, and called upon God, saying: In the name of the Only +Begotten, depart hence, Satan. + +MOS 1:22 And it came to pass that Satan cried with a loud voice, with weeping, +and wailing, and gnashing of teeth; and he departed hence, even from the +presence of Moses, that he beheld him not. + +MOS 1:23 And now of this thing Moses bore record; but because of wickedness it +is not had among the children of men. + +MOS 1:24 And it came to pass that when Satan had departed from the presence of +Moses, that Moses lifted up his eyes unto heaven, being filled with the Holy +Ghost, which beareth record of the Father and the Son; + +MOS 1:25 And calling upon the name of God, he beheld his glory again, for it +was upon him; and he heard a voice, saying: Blessed art thou, Moses, for I, the +Almighty, have chosen thee, and thou shalt be made stronger than many waters; +for they shall obey thy command as if thou wert God. + +MOS 1:26 And lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days; for thou shalt +deliver my people from bondage, even Israel my chosen. + +MOS 1:27 And it came to pass, as the voice was still speaking, Moses cast his +eyes and beheld the earth, yea, even all of it; and there was not a particle of +it which he did not behold, discerning it by the spirit of God. + +MOS 1:28 And he beheld also the inhabitants thereof, and there was not a soul +which he beheld not; and he discerned them by the Spirit of God; and their +numbers were great, even numberless as the sand upon the sea shore. + +MOS 1:29 And he beheld many lands; and each land was called earth, and there +were inhabitants on the face thereof. + +MOS 1:30 And it came to pass that Moses called upon God, saying: Tell me, I +pray thee, why these things are so, and by what thou madest them? + +MOS 1:31 And behold, the glory of the Lord was upon Moses, so that Moses stood +in the presence of God, and talked with him face to face. And the Lord God said +unto Moses: For mine own purpose have I made these things. Here is wisdom and +it remaineth in me. + +MOS 1:32 And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only +Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth. + +MOS 1:33 And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for +mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten. + +MOS 1:34 And the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many. + +MOS 1:35 But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I +unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word +of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto +man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them. + +MOS 1:36 And it came to pass that Moses spake unto the Lord, saying: Be +merciful unto thy servant, O God, and tell me concerning this earth, and the +inhabitants thereof, and also the heavens, and then thy servant will be +content. + +MOS 1:37 And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, +and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they +are mine. + +MOS 1:38 And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so +shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words. + +MOS 1:39 For behold, this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the +immortality and eternal life of man. + +MOS 1:40 And now, Moses, my son, I will speak unto thee concerning this earth +upon which thou standest; and thou shalt write the things which I shall speak. + +MOS 1:41 And in a day when the children of men shall esteem my words as naught +and take many of them from the book which thou shalt write, behold, I will +raise up another like unto thee; and they shall be had again among the children +of men among as many as shall believe. + +MOS 1:42 (These words were spoken unto Moses in the mount, the name of which +shall not be known among the children of men. And now they are spoken unto you. +Show them not unto any except them that believe. Even so. Amen.) + +MOS 2:0 THE WRITINGS OF MOSES. As revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, in +December 1830. + +MOS 2:1 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I +reveal unto you concerning this heaven, and this earth; write the words which I +speak. I am the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God; by mine Only Begotten +I created these things; yea, in the beginning I created the heaven, and the +earth upon which thou standest. + +MOS 2:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and I caused darkness to come +up upon the face of the deep; and my Spirit moved upon the face of the water; +for I am God. + +MOS 2:3 And I, God, said: Let there be light; and there was light. + +MOS 2:4 And I, God, saw the light; and that light was good. And I, God, divided +the light from the darkness. + +MOS 2:5 And I, God, called the light Day; and the darkness, I called Night; and +this I did by the word of my power, and it was done as I spake; and the evening +and the morning were the first day. + +MOS 2:6 And again, I, God, said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the +water, and it was so, even as I spake; and I said: Let it divide the waters +from the waters; and it was done; + +MOS 2:7 And I, God, made the firmament and divided the waters, yea, the great +waters under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and +it was so even as I spake. + +MOS 2:8 And I, God, called the firmament Heaven; and the evening and the +morning were the second day. + +MOS 2:9 And I, God, said: Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together +unto one place, and it was so; and I, God, said: Let there be dry land; and it +was so. + +MOS 2:10 And I, God, called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of +the waters, called I the Sea; and I, God, saw that all things which I had made +were good. + +MOS 2:11 And I, God, said: Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding +seed, the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, and the tree yielding +fruit, whose seed should be in itself upon the earth, and it was so even as I +spake. + +MOS 2:12 And the earth brought forth grass, every herb yielding seed after his +kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed should be in itself, after his +kind; and I, God, saw that all things which I had made were good; + +MOS 2:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day. + +MOS 2:14 And I, God, said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, +to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, +and for days, and for years; + +MOS 2:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give +light upon the earth; and it was so. + +MOS 2:16 And I, God, made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, +and the lesser light to rule the night, and the greater light was the sun, and +the lesser light was the moon; and the stars also were made even according to +my word. + +MOS 2:17 And I, God, set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon +the earth. + +MOS 2:18 And the sun to rule over the day, and the moon to rule over the night, +and to divide the light from the darkness; and I, God, saw that all things +which I had made were good; + +MOS 2:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. + +MOS 2:20 And I, God, said: Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving +creature that hath life, and fowl which may fly above the earth in the open +firmament of heaven. + +MOS 2:21 And I, God, created great whales, and every living creature that +moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every +winged fowl after his kind; and I, God, saw that all things which I had created +were good. + +MOS 2:22 And I, God, blessed them, saying: Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill +the waters in the sea; and let fowl multiply in the earth; + +MOS 2:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. + +MOS 2:24 And I, God, said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature after +his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their +kind, and it was so; + +MOS 2:25 And I, God, made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and cattle +after their kind, and everything which creepeth upon the earth after his kind; +and I, God, saw that all these things were good. + +MOS 2:26 And I, God, said unto mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the +beginning: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and it was so. And +I, God, said: Let them have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and over the +fowls of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every +creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. + +MOS 2:27 And I, God, created man in mine own image, in the image of mine Only +Begotten created I him; male and female created I them. + +MOS 2:28 And I, God, blessed them, and said unto them: Be fruitful, and +multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the +fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that +moveth upon the earth. + +MOS 2:29 And I, God, said unto man: Behold, I have given you every herb bearing +seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which +shall be the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. + +MOS 2:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to +everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein I grant life, there shall be +given every clean herb for meat; and it was so, even as I spake. + +MOS 2:31 And I, God, saw everything that I had made, and, behold, all things +which I had made were very good; and the evening and the morning were the sixth +day. + +MOS 3:0 THE WRITINGS OF MOSES. As revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, in +December, 1830--Continued. + +MOS 3:1 Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. + +MOS 3:2 And on the seventh day I, God, ended my work, and all things which I +had made; and I rested on the seventh day from all my work, and all things +which I had made were finished, and I, God, saw that they were good; + +MOS 3:3 And I, God, blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in +it I had rested from all my work which I, God, had created and made. + +MOS 3:4 And now, behold, I say unto you, that these are the generations of the +heaven and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that I, the Lord +God, made the heaven and the earth, + +MOS 3:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb +of the field before it grew. For I, the Lord God, created all things of which I +have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the +earth. For I, the Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the face of the +earth. And I, the Lord God, had created all the children of men; and not yet a +man to till the ground; for in heaven created I them; and there was not yet +flesh upon the earth, neither in the water, neit her in the air; + +MOS 3:6 But I, the Lord God, spake, and there went up a mist from the earth, +and watered the whole face of the ground. + +MOS 3:7 And I, the Lord God, formed man from the dust of the ground, and +breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul, +the first flesh upon the earth, the first man also; nevertheless, all things +were before created; but spiritually were they created and made according to my +word. + +MOS 3:8 And I, the Lord God, planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there I put +the man whom I had formed. + +MOS 3:9 And out of the ground made I, the Lord God, to grow every tree, +naturally, that is pleasant to the sight of man; and man could behold it. And +it became also a living soul. For it was spiritual in the day that I created +it; for it remaineth in the sphere in which I, God, created it, yea, even all +things which I prepared for the use of man; and man saw that it was good for +food. And I, the Lord God, planted the tree of life also in the midst of the +garden, and also the tree of knowledge of good and ev il. + +MOS 3:10 And I, the Lord God, caused a river to go out of Eden to water the +garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. + +MOS 3:11 And I, the Lord God, called the name of the first Pison, and it +compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where I, the Lord God, created much gold; + +MOS 3:12 And the gold of that land was good, and there was bdellium and the +onyx stone. + +MOS 3:13 And the name of the second river was called Gihon; the same that +compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. + +MOS 3:14 And the name of the third river was Hiddekel; that which goeth toward +the east of Assyria. And the fourth river was the Euphrates. + +MOS 3:15 And I, the Lord God, took the man, and put him into the Garden of +Eden, to dress it, and to keep it. + +MOS 3:16 And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the +garden thou mayest freely eat, + +MOS 3:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat +of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; +but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt +surely die. + +MOS 3:18 And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten, that it was not +good that the man should be alone; wherefore, I will make an help meet for him. + +MOS 3:19 And out of the ground I, the Lord God, formed every beast of the +field, and every fowl of the air; and commanded that they should come unto +Adam, to see what he would call them; and they were also living souls; for I, +God, breathed into them the breath of life, and commanded that whatsoever Adam +called every living creature, that should be the name thereof. + +MOS 3:20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to +every beast of the field; but as for Adam, there was not found an help meet for +him. + +MOS 3:21 And I, the Lord God, caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; and he +slept, and I took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in the stead thereof; + +MOS 3:22 And the rib which I, the Lord God, had taken from man, made I a woman, +and brought her unto the man. + +MOS 3:23 And Adam said: This I know now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my +flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. + +MOS 3:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall +cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh. + +MOS 3:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. + +MOS 4:0 THE WRITINGS OF MOSES. As revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, in +December, 1830--Continued. + +MOS 4:1 And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou +hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from +the beginning, and he came before me, saying--Behold, here am I, send me, I +will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be +lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor. + +MOS 4:2 But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the +beginning, said unto me, Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine +forever. + +MOS 4:3 Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to +destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that +I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I +caused that he should be cast down; + +MOS 4:4 And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to +deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as +would not hearken unto my voice. + +MOS 4:5 And now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which +I, the Lord God, had made. + +MOS 4:6 And Satan put it into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away +many after him,) and he sought also to beguile Eve, for he knew not the mind of +God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world. + +MOS 4:7 And he said unto the woman: Yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of +every tree of the garden? (And he spake by the mouth of the serpent.) + +MOS 4:8 And the woman said unto the serpent: We may eat of the fruit of the +trees of the garden; + +MOS 4:9 But of the fruit of the tree which thou beholdest in the midst of the +garden, God hath said ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest +ye die. + +MOS 4:10 And the serpent said unto the woman: Ye shall not surely die; + +MOS 4:11 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall +be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. + +MOS 4:12 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it +became pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make her wise, she +took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and also gave unto her husband with +her, and he did eat. + +MOS 4:13 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they had +been naked. And they sewed fig-leaves together and made themselves aprons. + +MOS 4:14 And they heard the voice of the Lord God, as they were walking in the +garden, in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife went to hide themselves +from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. + +MOS 4:15 And I, the Lord God, called unto Adam, and said unto him: Where goest +thou? + +MOS 4:16 And he said: I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, +because I beheld that I was naked, and I hid myself. + +MOS 4:17 And I, the Lord God, said unto Adam: Who told thee thou wast naked? +Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not +eat, if so thou shouldst surely die? + +MOS 4:18 And the man said: The woman thou gavest me, and commanded that she +should remain with me, she gave me of the fruit of the tree and I did eat. + +MOS 4:19 And I, the Lord God, said unto the woman: What is this thing which +thou hast done? And the woman said: The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. + +MOS 4:20 And I, the Lord God, said unto the serpent: Because thou hast done +this thou shalt be cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; +upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life; + +MOS 4:21 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and +her seed; and he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. + +MOS 4:22 Unto the woman, I, the Lord God, said: I will greatly multiply thy +sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy +desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. + +MOS 4:23 And unto Adam, I, the Lord God, said: Because thou hast hearkened unto +the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the fruit of the tree of which I +commanded thee, saying--Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed shall be the ground +for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. + +MOS 4:24 Thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt +eat the herb of the field. + +MOS 4:25 By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou shalt return +unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou wast, and unto +dust shalt thou return. + +MOS 4:26 And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all +living; for thus have I, the Lord God, called the first of all women, which are +many. + +MOS 4:27 Unto Adam, and also unto his wife, did I, the Lord God, make coats of +skins, and clothed them. + +MOS 4:28 And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten: Behold, the man is +become as one of us to know good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand +and partake also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever, + +MOS 4:29 Therefore I, the Lord God, will send him forth from the Garden of +Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken; + +MOS 4:30 For as I, the Lord God, liveth, even so my words cannot return void, +for as they go forth out of my mouth they must be fulfilled. + +MOS 4:31 So I drove out the man, and I placed at the east of the Garden of +Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of +the tree of life. + +MOS 4:32 (And these are the words which I spake unto my servant Moses, and they +are true even as I will; and I have spoken them unto you. See thou show them +unto no man, until I command you, except to them that believe. Amen.) + +MOS 5:0 THE WRITINGS OF MOSES. As revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, in +December, 1830--Continued. + +MOS 5:1 And it came to pass that after I, the Lord God, had driven them out, +that Adam began to till the earth, and to have dominion over all the beasts of +the field, and to eat his bread by the sweat of his brow, as I the Lord had +commanded him. And Eve, also, his wife, did labor with him. + +MOS 5:2 And Adam knew his wife, and she bare unto him sons and daughters, and +they began to multiply and to replenish the earth. + +MOS 5:3 And from that time forth, the sons and daughters of Adam began to +divide two and two in the land, and to till the land, and to tend flocks, and +they also begat sons and daughters. + +MOS 5:4 And Adam and Eve, his wife, called upon the name of the Lord, and they +heard the voice of the Lord from the way toward the Garden of Eden, speaking +unto them, and they saw him not; for they were shut out from his presence. + +MOS 5:5 And he gave unto them commandments, that they should worship the Lord +their God, and should offer the firstlings of their flocks, for an offering +unto the Lord. And Adam was obedient unto the commandments of the Lord. + +MOS 5:6 And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: +Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know +not, save the Lord commanded me. + +MOS 5:7 And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a similitude of the +sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth. + +MOS 5:8 Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, +and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore. + +MOS 5:9 And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of +the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father from the +beginning, henceforth and forever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be +redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will. + +MOS 5:10 And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy +concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, +for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall +have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God. + +MOS 5:11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were +it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should +have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life +which God giveth unto all the obedient. + +MOS 5:12 And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things +known unto their sons and their daughters. + +MOS 5:13 And Satan came among them, saying: I am also a son of God; and he +commanded them, saying: Believe it not; and they believed it not; and they +loved Satan more than God. And men began from that time forth to be carnal, +sensual, and devilish. + +MOS 5:14 And the Lord God called upon men by the Holy Ghost everywhere and +commanded them that they should repent; + +MOS 5:15 And as many as believed in the Son, and repented of their sins, should +be saved; and as many as believed not and repented not, should be damned; and +the words went forth out of the mouth of God in a firm decree; wherefore they +must be fulfilled. + +MOS 5:16 And Adam and Eve, his wife, ceased not to call upon God. And Adam knew +Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said: I have gotten a man +from the Lord; wherefore he may not reject his words. But behold, Cain +hearkened not, saying: Who is the Lord that I should know him? + +MOS 5:17 And she again conceived and bare his brother Abel. And Abel hearkened +unto the voice of the Lord. And Abel was a keeper or sheep, but Cain was a +tiller of the ground. + +MOS 5:18 And Cain loved Satan more than God. And Satan commanded him, saying: +Make an offering unto the Lord. + +MOS 5:19 And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit +of the ground an offering unto the Lord. + +MOS 5:20 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the +fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering; + +MOS 5:21 But unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect. Now Satan knew +this, and it pleased him. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. + +MOS 5:22 And the Lord said unto Cain: Why are thou wroth? Why is thy +countenance fallen? + +MOS 5:23 If thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted. And if thou doest not +well, sin lieth at the door, and Satan desireth to have thee; and except thou +shalt hearken unto my commandments, I will deliver thee up, and it shall be +unto thee according to his desire. And thou shalt rule over him; + +MOS 5:24 For from this time forth thou shalt be the father of his lies; thou +shalt be called Perdition; for thou wast also before the world. + +MOS 5:25 And it shall be said in time to come that these abominations were had +from Cain; for he rejected the greater counsel which was had from God; and this +is a cursing which I will put upon thee, except thou repent. + +MOS 5:26 And Cain was wroth, and listened not any more to the voice of the +Lord, neither to Abel, his brother, who walked in holiness before the Lord. + +MOS 5:27 And Adam and his wife mourned before the Lord, because of Cain and his +brethren. + +MOS 5:28 And it came to pass that Cain took one of his brothers' daughters to +wife, and they loved Satan more than God. + +MOS 5:29 And Satan said unto Cain: Swear unto me by thy throat, and if thou +tell it thou shalt die; and swear thy brethren by their heads, and by the +living God, that they tell it not; for if they tell it, they shall surely die; +and this that thy father may not know it; and this day I will deliver thy +brother Abel into thine hands. + +MOS 5:30 And Satan sware unto Cain that he would do according to his commands. +And all these things were done in secret. + +MOS 5:31 And Cain said: Truly I am Mahan, the master of this great secret, that +I may murder and get gain. Wherefore Cain was called Master Mahan, and he +gloried in his wickedness. + +MOS 5:32 And Cain went into the field, and Cain talked with Abel, his brother. +And it came to pass that while they were in the field, Cain rose up against +Abel, his brother, and slew him. + +MOS 5:33 And Cain gloried in that which he had done, saying: I am free; surely +the flocks of my brother falleth into my hands. + +MOS 5:34 And the Lord said unto Cain: Where is Abel, thy brother? And he said: +I know not. Am I my brother's keeper? + +MOS 5:35 And the Lord said: What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's +blood cries unto me from the ground. + +MOS 5:36 And now thou shalt be cursed from the earth which hath opened her +mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. + +MOS 5:37 When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee +her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. + +MOS 5:38 And Cain said unto the Lord: Satan tempted me because of my brother's +flocks. And I was wroth also; for his offering thou didst accept and not mine; +my punishment is greater than I can bear. + +MOS 5:39 Behold thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the Lord, and +from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the +earth; and it shall come to pass, that he that findeth me will slay me, because +of mine iniquities, for these things are not hid from the Lord. + +MOS 5:40 And I the Lord said unto him: Whosoever slayeth thee, vengeance shall +be taken on him sevenfold. And I the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any +finding him should kill him. + +MOS 5:41 And Cain was shut out from the presence of the Lord, and with his wife +and many of his brethren dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. + +MOS 5:42 And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch, and he also +begat many sons and daughters. And he builded a city, and he called the name of +the city after the name of his son, Enoch. + +MOS 5:43 And unto Enoch was born Irad, and other sons and daughters. And Irad +begat Mahujael, and other sons and daughters. And Mahujael begat Methusael, and +other sons and daughters. And Methusael begat Lamech. + +MOS 5:44 And Lamech took unto himself two wives; the name of the one being +Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah. + +MOS 5:45 And Adah bare Jabal; he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and +they were keepers of cattle; and his brother's name was Jubal, who was the +father of all such as handle the harp and organ. + +MOS 5:46 And Zillah, she also bare Tubal Cain, an instructor of every artificer +in brass and iron. And the sister of Tubal Cain was called Naamah. + +MOS 5:47 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah: Hear my voice, ye +wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech; for I have slain a main to my +wounding, and a young man to my hurt. + +MOS 5:48 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech shall be seventy and +seven fold; + +MOS 5:49 For Lamech having entered into a covenant with Satan, after the manner +of Cain, wherein he became Master Mahan, master of that great secret which was +administered unto Cain by Satan; and Irad, the son of Enoch, having known their +secret, began to reveal it unto the sons of Adam; + +MOS 5:50 Wherefore Lamech, being angry, slew him, not like unto Cain, his +brother Abel, for the sake of getting gain, but he slew him for the oath's +sake. + +MOS 5:51 For, from the days of Cain, there was a secret combination, and their +works were in the dark, and they knew every man his brother. + +MOS 5:52 Wherefore the Lord cursed Lamech, and his house, and all them that had +covenanted with Satan; for they kept not the commandments of God, and it +displeased God, and he ministered not unto them, and their works were +abominations, and began to spread among all the sons of men. And it was among +the sons of men. + +MOS 5:53 And among the daughters of men these things were not spoken, because +that Lamech had spoken the secret unto his wives, and they rebelled against +him, and declared these things abroad, and had not compassion; + +MOS 5:54 Wherefore Lamech was despised, and cast out, and came not among the +sons of men, lest he should die. + +MOS 5:55 And thus the works of darkness began to prevail among all the sons of +men. + +MOS 5:56 And God cursed the earth with a sore curse, and was angry with the +wicked, with all the sons of men whom he had made; + +MOS 5:57 For they would not hearken unto his voice, nor believe on his Only +Begotten Son, even him whom he declared should come in the meridian of time, +who was prepared from before the foundation of the world. + +MOS 5:58 And thus the Gospel began to be preached, from the beginning, being +declared by holy angels sent forth from the presence of God, and by his own +voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost. + +MOS 5:59 And thus all things were confirmed unto Adam, by an holy ordinance, +and the Gospel preached, and a decree sent forth, that it should be in the +world, until the end thereof; and thus it was. Amen. + +MOS 6:0 THE WRITINGS OF MOSES. As revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, in +December, 1830--Continued. + +MOS 6:1 And Adam hearkened unto the voice of God, and called upon his sons to +repent. + +MOS 6:2 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son, and he called his +name Seth. And Adam glorified the name of God; for he said: God hath appointed +me another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. + +MOS 6:3 And God revealed himself unto Seth, and he rebelled not, but offered an +acceptable sacrifice, like unto his brother Abel. And to him also was born a +son, and he called his name Enos. + +MOS 6:4 And then began these men to call upon the name of the Lord, and the +Lord blessed them; + +MOS 6:5 And a book of remembrance was kept, in the which was recorded, in the +language of Adam, for it was given unto as many as called upon God to write by +the spirit of inspiration; + +MOS 6:6 And by them their children were taught to read and write, having a +language which was pure and undefiled. + +MOS 6:7 Now this same Priesthood, which was in the beginning, shall be in the +end of the world also. + +MOS 6:8 Now this prophecy Adam spake, as he was moved upon by the Holy Ghost, +and a genealogy was kept of the children of God. And this was the book of the +generations of Adam, saying: In the day that God created man, in the likeness +of God made he him; + +MOS 6:9 In the image of his own body, male and female, created he them, and +blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created and +became living souls in the land upon the footstool of God. + +MOS 6:10 And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his +own likeness, after his own image, and called his name Seth. + +MOS 6:11 And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred +years, and he begat many sons and daughters; + +MOS 6:12 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, +and he died. + +MOS 6:13 Seth lived one hundred and five years, and begat Enos, and prophesied +in all his days, and taught his son Enos in the ways of God; wherefore Enos +prophesied also. + +MOS 6:14 And Seth lived, after he begat Enos, eight hundred and seven years, +and begat many sons and daughters. + +MOS 6:15 And the children of men were numerous upon all the face of the land. +And in those days Satan had great dominion among men, and raged in their +hearts; and from thenceforth came wars and bloodshed; and a man's hand was +against his own brother, in administering death, because of secret works, +seeking for power. + +MOS 6:16 All the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died. + +MOS 6:17 And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan. And Enos and the +residue of the people of God came out from the land, which was called Shulon, +and dwelt in a land of promise, which he called after his own son, whom he had +named Cainan. + +MOS 6:18 And Enos lived, after he begat Cainan, eight hundred and fifteen +years, and begat many sons and daughters. And all the days of Enos were nine +hundred and five years, and he died. + +MOS 6:19 And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel; and Cainan lived +after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and +daughters. And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years, and he +died. + +MOS 6:20 And Mahalaleel lived sixty-five years, and begat Jared; and Mahalaleel +lived, after he begat Jared, eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and +daughters. And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred and ninety-five +years, and he died. + +MOS 6:21 And Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begat Enoch; and +Jared lived, after he begat Enoch, eight hundred years, and begat sons and +daughters. And Jared taught Enoch in all the ways of God. + +MOS 6:22 And this is the genealogy of the sons of Adam, who was the son of God, +with whom God, himself, conversed. + +MOS 6:23 And they were preachers of righteousness, and spake and prophesied, +and called upon all men, everywhere, to repent; and faith was taught unto the +children of men. + +MOS 6:24 And it came to pass that all the days of Jared were nine hundred and +sixty-two years, and he died. + +MOS 6:25 And Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begat Methuselah. + +MOS 6:26 And it came to pass that Enoch journeyed in the land, among the +people; and as he journeyed, the Spirit of God descended out of heaven, and +abode upon him. + +MOS 6:27 And he heard a voice from heaven, saying: Enoch, my son, prophesy unto +this people, and say unto them--Repent, for thus saith the Lord: I am angry +with this people, and my fierce anger is kindled against them; for their hearts +have waxed hard, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes cannot see +afar off; + +MOS 6:28 And for these many generations, ever since the day that I have created +them, have they gone astray, and have denied me, and have sought their own +counsels in the dark; and in their own abominations have they devised murder, +and have not kept the commandments, which I gave unto their father, Adam. + +MOS 6:29 Wherefore, they have foresworn themselves, and, by their oaths, they +have brought upon themselves death; and a hell I have prepared for them, if +they repent not; + +MOS 6:30 And this is a decree, which I have sent forth in the beginning of the +world, from my own mouth, from the foundation thereof, and by the mouths of my +servants, thy fathers, have I decreed it, even as it shall be sent forth in the +world, unto the ends thereof. + +MOS 6:31 And when Enoch had heard these words, he bowed himself to the earth, +before the Lord, and spake before the Lord, saying: Why is it that I have found +favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow +of speech; wherefore am I thy servant? + +MOS 6:32 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have commanded +thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and +I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as +seemeth me good. + +MOS 6:33 Say unto this people: Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who +made you. + +MOS 6:34 Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; +and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their +course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me. + +MOS 6:35 And the Lord spake unto Enoch, and said unto him: Anoint thine eyes +with clay, and wash them, and thou shalt see. And he did so. + +MOS 6:36 And he beheld the spirits that God had created; and he beheld also +things which were not visible to the natural eye; and from thenceforth came the +saying abroad in the land: A seer hath the Lord raised up unto his people. + +MOS 6:37 And it came to pass that Enoch went forth in the land, among the +people, standing upon the hills and the high places, and cried with a loud +voice, testifying against their works; and all men were offended because of +him. + +MOS 6:38 And they came forth to hear him, upon the high places, saying unto the +tent-keepers: Tarry ye here and keep the tents, while we go yonder to behold +the seer, for he prophesieth, and there is a strange thing in the land; a wild +man hath come among us. + +MOS 6:39 And it came to pass when they heard him, no man laid hands on him; for +fear came on all them that heard him; for he walked with God. + +MOS 6:40 And there came a man unto him, whose name was Mahijah, and said unto +him: Tell us plainly who thou art, and from whence thou comest? + +MOS 6:41 And he said unto them: I came out from the land of Cainan, the land of +my fathers, a land of righteousness unto this day. And my father taught me in +all the ways of God. + +MOS 6:42 And it came to pass, as I journeyed from the land of Cainan, by the +sea east, I beheld a vision; and lo, the heavens I saw, and the Lord spake with +me, and gave me commandment; wherefore, for this cause, to keep the +commandment, I speak forth these words. + +MOS 6:43 And Enoch continued his speech, saying: The Lord which spake with me, +the same is the God of heaven, and he is my God, and your God, and ye are my +brethren, and why counsel ye yourselves, and deny the God of heaven? + +MOS 6:44 The heavens he made; the earth is his footstool; and the foundation +thereof is his. Behold, he laid it, an host of men hath he brought in upon the +face thereof. + +MOS 6:45 And death hath come upon our fathers; nevertheless we know them, and +cannot deny, and even the first of all we know, even Adam. + +MOS 6:46 For a book of remembrance we have written among us, according to the +pattern given by the finger of God; and it is given in our language. + +MOS 6:47 And as Enoch spake forth the words of God, the people trembled, and +could not stand in his presence. + +MOS 6:48 And he said unto them: Because that Adam fell, we are; and by his fall +came death; and we are made partakers of misery and woe. + +MOS 6:49 Behold Satan hath come among the children of men, and tempteth them to +worship him; and men have become carnal, sensual, and devilish, and are shut +out from the presence of God. + +MOS 6:50 But God hath made known unto our fathers that all men must repent. + +MOS 6:51 And he called upon our father Adam by his own voice, saying: I am God; +I made the world, and men before they were in the flesh. + +MOS 6:52 And he also said unto him: If thou wilt turn unto me, and hearken unto +my voice, and believe, and repent of all thy transgressions, and be baptized, +even in water, in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and +truth, which is Jesus Christ, the only name which shall be given under heaven, +whereby salvation shall come unto the children of men, ye shall receive the +gift of the Holy Ghost, asking all things in his name, and whatsoever ye shall +ask, it shall be given you. + +MOS 6:53 And our father Adam spake unto the Lord, and said: Why is it that men +must repent and be baptized in water? And the Lord said unto Adam: Behold I +have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden. + +MOS 6:54 Hence came the saying abroad among the people, that the Son of God +hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be +answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation +of the world. + +MOS 6:55 And the Lord spake unto Adam, saying: Inasmuch as thy children are +conceived in sin, even so when they begin to grow up, sin conceiveth in their +hearts, and they taste the bitter, that they may know to prize the good. + +MOS 6:56 And it is given unto them to know good and evil; wherefore they are +agents unto themselves, and I have given unto you another law and commandment. + +MOS 6:57 Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must +repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing +can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of +Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even +Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time. + +MOS 6:58 Therefore I give unto you a commandment, to teach these things freely +unto your children, saying: + +MOS 6:59 That by reason of transgression cometh the fall, which fall bringeth +death, and inasmuch as ye were born into the world by water, and blood, and the +spirit, which I have made, and so became of dust a living soul, even so ye must +be born again into the kingdom of heaven, of water, and of the Spirit, and be +cleansed by blood, even the blood of mine Only Begotten; that ye might be +sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and +eternal life in the world to come, even im mortal glory; + +MOS 6:60 For by the water ye keep the commandment; by the Spirit ye are +justified, and by the blood ye are sanctified; + +MOS 6:61 Therefore it is given to abide in you; the record of heaven; the +Comforter; the peaceable things of immortal glory; the truth of all things; +that which quickeneth all things, which maketh alive all things; that which +knoweth all things, and hath all power according to wisdom, mercy, truth, +justice, and judgment. + +MOS 6:62 And now, behold, I say unto you: This is the plan of salvation unto +all men, through the blood of mine Only Begotten, who shall come in the +meridian of time. + +MOS 6:63 And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created +and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which +are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on +the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the +earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me. + +MOS 6:64 And it came to pass, when the Lord had spoken with Adam, our father, +that Adam cried unto the Lord, and he was caught away by the Spirit of the +Lord, and was carried down into the water, and was laid under the water, and +was brought forth out of the water. + +MOS 6:65 And thus he was baptized, and the Spirit of God descended upon him, +and thus he was born of the Spirit, and became quickened in the inner man. + +MOS 6:66 And he heard a voice out of heaven, saying: Thou are baptized with +fire, and with the Holy Ghost. This is the record of the Father, and the Son, +from henceforth and forever; + +MOS 6:67 And thou art after the order of him who was without beginning of days +or end of years, from all eternity to all eternity. + +MOS 6:68 Behold, thou art one in me, a son of God; and thus may all become my +sons. Amen. + +MOS 7:0 THE WRITINGS OF MOSES. As revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, in +December, 1830--Continued. + +MOS 7:1 And it came to pass that Enoch continued his speech, saying: Behold, +our father Adam taught these things, and many have believed and become the sons +of God, and many have believed not, and have perished in their sins, and are +looking forth with fear, in torment, for the fiery indignation of the wrath of +God to be poured out upon them. + +MOS 7:2 And from that time forth Enoch began to prophesy, saying unto the +people, that: As I was journeying, and stood upon the place Mahujah, and cried +unto the Lord, there came a voice out of heaven, saying--Turn ye, and get ye +upon the mount Simeon. + +MOS 7:3 And it came to pass that I turned and went up on the mount; and as I +stood upon the mount, I beheld the heavens open, and I was clothed upon with +glory; + +MOS 7:4 And I saw the Lord; and he stood before my face, and he talked with me, +even as a man talketh one with another, face to face; and he said unto me: +Look, and I will show unto thee the world for the space of many generations. + +MOS 7:5 And it came to pass that I beheld in the valley of Shum, and lo, a +great people which dwelt in tents, which were the people of Shum. + +MOS 7:6 And again the Lord said unto me: Look; and I looked towards the north, +and I beheld the people of Canaan, which dwelt in tents. + +MOS 7:7 And the Lord said unto me: Prophesy; and I prophesied, saying: Behold +the people of Canaan, which are numerous, shall go forth in battle array +against the people of Shum, and shall slay them that they shall utterly be +destroyed; and the people of Canaan shall divide themselves in the land, and +the land shall be barren and unfruitful, and none other people shall dwell +there but the people of Canaan; + +MOS 7:8 For behold, the Lord shall curse the land with much heat, and the +barrenness thereof shall go forth forever; and there was a blackness came upon +all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people. + +MOS 7:9 And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: Look; and I looked, and +I beheld the land of Sharon, and the land of Enoch, and the land of Omner, and +the land of Heni, and the land of Shem, and the land of Haner, and the land of +Hanannihah, and all the inhabitants thereof; + +MOS 7:10 And the Lord said unto me: Go to this people, and say unto +them--Repent, lest I come out and smite them with a curse, and they die. + +MOS 7:11 And he gave unto me a commandment that I should baptize in the name of +the Father, and of the Son, which is full of grace and truth, and of the Holy +Ghost, which beareth record of the Father and the Son. + +MOS 7:12 And it came to pass that Enoch continued to call upon all the people, +save it were the people of Canaan, to repent; + +MOS 7:13 And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and +their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, +and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; +and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the +lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so +powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language +which God had given him. + +MOS 7:14 There also came up a land out of the depth of the sea, and so great +was the fear of the enemies of the people of God, that they fled and stood afar +off and went upon the land which came up out of the depth of the sea. + +MOS 7:15 And the giants of the land, also, stood afar off; and there went forth +a curse upon all people that fought against God; + +MOS 7:16 And from that time forth there were wars and bloodshed among them; but +the Lord came and dwelt with his people, and they dwelt in righteousness. + +MOS 7:17 The fear of the Lord was upon all nations, so great was the glory of +the Lord, which was upon his people. And the Lord blessed the land, and they +were blessed upon the mountains, and upon the high places, and did flourish. + +MOS 7:18 And the Lord called his people ZION, because they were of one heart +and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there were no poor among them. + +MOS 7:19 And Enoch continued his preaching in righteousness unto the people of +God. And it came to pass in his days, that he built a city that was called the +City of Holiness, even ZION. + +MOS 7:20 And it came to pass that Enoch talked with the Lord; and he said unto +the Lord: Surely Zion shall dwell in safety forever. But the Lord said unto +Enoch: Zion have I blessed, but the residue of the people have I cursed. + +MOS 7:21 And it came to pass that the Lord showed unto Enoch all the +inhabitants of the earth; and he beheld, and lo, Zion, in process of time, was +taken up into heaven. And the Lord said unto Enoch: Behold mine abode forever. + +MOS 7:22 And Enoch also beheld the residue of the people which were the sons of +Adam; and they were a mixture of all the seed of Adam save it was the seed of +Cain, for the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among them. + +MOS 7:23 And after that Zion was taken up into heaven, Enoch beheld, and lo, +all the nations of the earth were before him; + +MOS 7:24 And there came generation upon generation; and Enoch was high and +lifted up, even in the bosom of the Father, and of the Son of Man; and behold, +the power of Satan was upon all the face of the earth. + +MOS 7:25 And he saw angels descending out of heaven; and he heard a loud voice +saying: Wo, wo be unto the inhabitants of the earth. + +MOS 7:26 And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it +veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, +and his angels rejoiced. + +MOS 7:27 And Enoch beheld angels descending out of heaven, bearing testimony of +the Father and Son; and the Holy Ghost fell on many, and they were caught up by +the powers of heaven into Zion. + +MOS 7:28 And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of +the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that +the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains? + +MOS 7:29 And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing +thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity? + +MOS 7:30 And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, +yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of +thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art +there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou are just; thou are merciful and +kind forever; + +MOS 7:31 And thou hast taken Zion to thine own bosom, from all thy creations, +from all eternity to all eternity; and naught but peace, justice, and truth is +the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no +end; how is it thou canst weep? + +MOS 7:32 The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the +workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day +I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency; + +MOS 7:33 And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that +they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but +behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood; + +MOS 7:34 And the fire of mine indignation is kindled against them; and in my +hot displeasure will I send in the floods upon them, for my fierce anger is +kindled against them. + +MOS 7:35 Behold, I am God; Man of Holiness is my name; Man of Counsel is my +name; and Endless and Eternal is my name, also. + +MOS 7:36 Wherefore, I can stretch forth mine hands and hold all the creations +which I have made; and mine eye can pierce them also, and among all the +workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy +brethren. + +MOS 7:37 But behold, their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers; Satan +shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens +shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should +not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer? + +MOS 7:38 But behold, these which thine eyes are upon shall perish in the +floods; and behold, I will shut them up; a prison have I prepared for them. + +MOS 7:39 And That which I have chosen hath pled before my face. Wherefore, he +suffereth for their sins; inasmuch as they will repent in the day that my +Chosen shall return unto me, and until that day they shall be in torment; + +MOS 7:40 Wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep, yea, and all the +workmanship of mine hands. + +MOS 7:41 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Enoch, and told Enoch all +the doings of the children of men; wherefore Enoch knew, and looked upon their +wickedness, and their misery, and wept and stretched forth his arms, and his +heart swelled wide as eternity; and his bowels yearned; and all eternity shook. + +MOS 7:42 And Enoch also saw Noah, and his family; that the posterity of all the +sons of Noah should be saved with a temporal salvation; + +MOS 7:43 Wherefore Enoch saw that Noah built an ark; and that the Lord smiled +upon it, and held it in his own hand; but upon the residue of the wicked the +floods came and swallowed them up. + +MOS 7:44 And as Enoch saw this, he had bitterness of soul, and wept over his +brethren, and said unto the heavens: I will refuse to be comforted; but the +Lord said unto Enoch: Lift up your heart, and be glad; and look. + +MOS 7:45 And it came to pass that Enoch looked; and from Noah, he beheld all +the families of the earth; and he cried unto the Lord, saying: When shall the +day of the Lord come? When shall the blood of the Righteous be shed, that all +they that mourn may be sanctified and have eternal life? + +MOS 7:46 And the Lord said: It shall be in the meridian of time, in the days of +wickedness and vengeance. + +MOS 7:47 And behold, Enoch saw the day of the coming of the Son of Man, even in +the flesh; and his soul rejoiced, saying: The Righteous is lifted up, and the +Lamb is slain from the foundation of the world; and through faith I am in the +bosom of the Father, and behold, Zion is with me. + +MOS 7:48 And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a +voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am +pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I +rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When +will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season +abide upon my face? + +MOS 7:49 And when Enoch heard the earth mourn, he wept, and cried unto the +Lord, saying: O Lord, wilt thou not have compassion upon the earth? Wilt thou +not bless the children of Noah? + +MOS 7:50 And it came to pass that Enoch continued his cry unto the Lord, +saying: I ask thee, O Lord, in the name of thine Only Begotten, even Jesus +Christ, that thou wilt have mercy upon Noah and his seed, that the earth might +never more be covered by the floods. + +MOS 7:51 And the Lord could not withhold; and he covenanted with Enoch, and +sware unto him with an oath, that he would stay the floods; that he would call +upon the children of Noah; + +MOS 7:52 And he sent forth an unalterable decree, that a remnant of his seed +should always be found among all nations, while the earth should stand; + +MOS 7:53 And the Lord said: Blessed is he through whose seed Messiah shall +come; for he saith I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is +broad as eternity; whose cometh in at the gate and climbeth up by me shall +never fall; wherefore, blessed are they of whom I have spoken, for they shall +come forth with songs of everlasting joy. + +MOS 7:54 And it came to pass that Enoch cried unto the Lord, saying: When the +Son of Man cometh in the flesh, shall the earth rest? I pray thee, show me +these things. + +MOS 7:55 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Look, and he looked and beheld the Son +of Man lifted up on the cross, after the manner of men; + +MOS 7:56 And he heard a loud voice; and the heavens were veiled; and all the +creations of God mourned; and the earth groaned; and the rocks were rent; and +the saints arose, and were crowned at the right hand of the Son of Man, with +crowns of glory; + +MOS 7:57 And as many of the spirits as were in prison came forth, and stood on +the right hand of God; and the remainder were reserved in chains of darkness +until the judgment of the great day. + +MOS 7:58 And again Enoch wept and cried unto the Lord, saying: When shall the +earth rest? + +MOS 7:59 And Enoch beheld the Son of Man ascend up unto the Father; and he +called unto the Lord, saying: Wilt thou not come again upon the earth? +Forasmuch as thou art God, and I know thee, and thou hast sworn unto me, and +commanded me that I should ask in the name of thine Only Begotten; thou hast +made me, and given unto me a right to thy throne, and not of myself, but +through thine own grace; wherefore, I ask thee if thou wilt not come again on +the earth. + +MOS 7:60 And the Lord said unto Enoch: As I live, even so will I come in the +last days, in the days of wickedness and vengeance, to fulfill the oath which I +have made unto you concerning the children of Noah; + +MOS 7:61 And the day shall come that the earth shall rest, but before that day +the heavens shall be darkened, and a veil of darkness shall cover the earth; +and the heavens shall shake, and also the earth; and great tribulations shall +be among the children of men, but my people will I preserve; + +MOS 7:62 And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I +send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; his +resurrection from the dead; yea, and also the resurrection of all men; and +righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to +gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, unto a place which I +shall prepare, an Holy City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be +looking forth for the time of my coming; for there shal l be my tabernacle, and +it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem. + +MOS 7:63 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Then shalt thou and all thy city meet +them there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and +we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will +kiss each other; + +MOS 7:64 And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come +forth out of all the creations which I have made; and for the space of a +thousand years the earth shall rest. + +MOS 7:65 And it came to pass that Enoch saw the day of the coming of the Son of +Man, in the last days, to dwell on the earth in righteousness for the space of +a thousand years; + +MOS 7:66 But before that day he saw great tribulations among the wicked; and he +also saw the sea, that it was troubled, and men's hearts failing them, looking +forth with fear for the judgments of the Almighty God, which should come upon +the wicked. + +MOS 7:67 And the Lord showed Enoch all things, even unto the end of the world; +and he saw the day of the righteous, the hour of their redemption, and received +a fulness of joy; + +MOS 7:68 And all the days of Zion, in the days of Enoch, were three hundred and +sixty-five years. + +MOS 7:69 And Enoch and all his people walked with God, and he dwelt in the +midst of Zion; and it came to pass that Zion was not, for God received it up +into his own bosom; and from thence went forth the saying, ZION IS FLED. + +MOS 8:0 THE WRITINGS OF MOSES. As revealed to Joseph Smith the Prophet, in +December, 1830--Concluded. + +MOS 8:1 And all the days of Enoch were four hundred and thirty years. + +MOS 8:2 And it came to pass that Methuselah, the son of Enoch, was not taken, +that the covenants of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he made to Enoch; for +he truly covenanted with Enoch that Noah should be of the fruit of his loins. + +MOS 8:3 And it came to pass that Methuselah prophesied that from his loins +should spring all the kingdoms of the earth (through Noah), and he took glory +unto himself. + +MOS 8:4 And there came forth a great famine into the land, and the Lord cursed +the earth with a sore curse, and many of the inhabitants thereof died. + +MOS 8:5 And it came to pass that Methuselah lived one hundred and eighty-seven +years, and begat Lamech; + +MOS 8:6 And Methuselah lived, after he begat Lamech, seven hundred and +eighty-two years, and begat sons and daughters; + +MOS 8:7 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, +and he died. + +MOS 8:8 And Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and begat a son, + +MOS 8:9 And he called his name Noah, saying: This son shall comfort us +concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord +hath cursed. + +MOS 8:10 And Lamech lived, after he begat Noah, five hundred and ninety-five +years, and begat sons and daughters; + +MOS 8:11 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, +and he died. + +MOS 8:12 And Noah was four hundred and fifty years old, and begat Japheth; and +forty-two years afterward he begat Shem of her who was the mother of Japheth, +and when he was five hundred years old he begat Ham. + +MOS 8:13 And Noah and his sons hearkened unto the Lord, and gave heed, and they +were called the sons of God. + +MOS 8:14 And when these men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and +daughters were born unto them, the sons of men saw that those daughters were +fair, and they took them wives, even as they chose. + +MOS 8:15 And the Lord said unto Noah: The daughters of thy sons have sold +themselves; for behold mine anger is kindled against the sons of men, for they +will not hearken to my voice. + +MOS 8:16 And it came to pass that Noah prophesied, and taught the things of +God, even as it was in the beginning. + +MOS 8:17 And the Lord said unto Noah: My Spirit shall not always strive with +man, for he shall know that all flesh shall die; yet his days shall be an +hundred and twenty years; and if men do not repent, I will send in the floods +upon them. + +MOS 8:18 And in those days there were giants on the earth, and they sought Noah +to take away his life; but the Lord was with Noah, and the power of the Lord +was upon him. + +MOS 8:19 And the Lord ordained Noah after his own order, and commanded him that +he should go forth and declare his Gospel unto the children of men, even as it +was given unto Enoch. + +MOS 8:20 And it came to pass that Noah called upon the children of men that +they should repent; but they hearkened not unto his words; + +MOS 8:21 And also, after that they had heard him, they came up before him, +saying: Behold, we are the sons of God; have we not taken unto ourselves the +daughters of men? And are we not eating and drinking, and marrying and giving +in marriage? And our wives bear unto us children, and the same are mighty men, +which are like unto men of old, men of great renown. And they hearkened not +unto the words of Noah. + +MOS 8:22 And God saw that the wickedness of men had become great in the earth; +and every man was lifted up in the imagination of the thoughts of his heart, +being only evil continually. + +MOS 8:23 And it came to pass that Noah continued his preaching unto the people, +saying: Hearken, and give heed unto my words; + +MOS 8:24 Believe and repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus +Christ, the Son of God, even as our fathers, and ye shall receive the Holy +Ghost, that ye may have all things made manifest; and if ye do not this, the +floods will come in upon you; nevertheless they hearkened not. + +MOS 8:25 And it repented Noah, and his heart was pained that the Lord had made +man on the earth, and it grieved him at the heart. + +MOS 8:26 And the Lord said: I will destroy man whom I have created, from the +face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls +of the air; for it repenteth Noah that I have created them, and that I have +made them; and he hath called upon me; for they have sought his life. + +MOS 8:27 And thus Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord; for Noah was a just +man, and perfect in his generation; and he walked with God, as did also his +three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. + +MOS 8:28 The earth was corrupt before God, and it was filled with violence. + +MOS 8:29 And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all +flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth. + +MOS 8:30 And God said unto Noah: The end of all flesh is come before me, for +all the earth is filled with violence, and behold I will destroy all flesh from +off the earth. ABR 0:0 THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM. Translated from the Papyrus, by +Joseph Smith. A Translation of some ancient Records, that have fallen into our +hands from the catacombs of Egypt.--The writings of Abraham while he was in +Egypt, called the Book of Abraham, written by his own hand, upon papyrus. See +History of the Church, vol. 2, pp. 235, 236, 348-351. + +ABR 1:1 In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers, I, +Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence; + +ABR 1:2 And finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I +sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be +ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of +righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be +a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to +be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive +instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a +High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers. + +ABR 1:3 It was conferred upon me from the fathers; it came down from the +fathers, from the beginning of time, yea, even from the beginning, or before +the foundation of the earth, down to the present time, even the right of the +firstborn, or the first man, who is Adam, or first father, through the fathers +unto me. + +ABR 1:4 I sought for mine appointment unto the Priesthood according to the +appointment of God unto the fathers concerning the seed. + +ABR 1:5 My fathers, having turned from their righteousness, and from the holy +commandments which the Lord their God had given unto them, unto the worshiping +of the gods of the heathen, utterly refused to hearken to my voice; + +ABR 1:6 For their hearts were set to do evil, and were wholly turned to the god +of Elkenah, and the god of Libnah, and the god of Mahmackrah, and the god of +Korash, and the god of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; + +ABR 1:7 Therefore they turned their hearts of the sacrifice of the heathen in +offering up their children unto these dumb idols, and hearkened not unto my +voice, but endeavored to take away my life by the hand of the priest of Elkenah +was also the priest of Pharaoh. + +ABR 1:8 Now, at this time it was the custom of the priest of Pharaoh, the king +of Egypt, to offer up upon the altar which was built in the land of Chaldea, +for the offering unto these strange gods, men, women, and children. + +ABR 1:9 And it came to pass that the priest made an offering unto the god of +Pharaoh, and also unto the god of Shagreel, even after the manner of the +Egyptians. Now the god of Shagreel was the sun. + +ABR 1:10 Even the thank-offering of a child did the priest of Pharaoh offer +upon the altar which stood by the hill called Potiphar's Hill, at the head of +the plain of Olishem. + +ABR 1:11 Now, this priest had offered upon this altar three virgins at one +time, who were the daughters of Onitah, one of the royal descent directly from +the loins of Ham. These virgins were offered up because of their virtue; they +would not bow down to worship gods of wood or of stone, therefore they were +killed upon this altar, and it was done after the manner of the Egyptians. + +ABR 1:12 And it came to pass that the priests laid violence upon me, that they +might slay me also, as they did those virgins upon this altar; and that you may +have a knowledge of this altar, I will refer you to the representation at the +commencement of this record. + +ABR 1:13 It was made after the form of a bedstead, such as was had among the +Chaldeans, and it stood before the gods of Elkenah, Libnah, Mahmackrah, Korash, +and also a god like unto that of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. + +ABR 1:14 That you may have an understanding of these gods, I have given you the +fashion of them in the figures at the beginning, which manner of figures is +called by the Chaldeans Rahleenos, which signifies hieroglyphics. + +ABR 1:15 And as they lifted up their hands upon me, that they might offer me up +and take away my life, behold, I lifted up my voice unto the Lord my God, and +the Lord hearkened and heard, and he filled me with the vision of the Almighty, +and the angel of his presence stood by me, and immediately unloosed my bands; + +ABR 1:16 And his voice was unto me: Abraham, Abraham, behold, my name is +Jehovah, and I have heard thee, and have come down to deliver thee, and to take +thee away from thy father's house, and from all thy kinsfolk, into a strange +land which thou knowest not of; + +ABR 1:17 And this because they have turned their hearts away from me, to +worship the god of Elkenah, and the god of Libnah, and the god of Mahmackrah, +and the god of Korash, and the god of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; therefore I have +come down to visit them, and to destroy him who hath lifted up against thee, +Abraham, my son, to take away thy life. + +ABR 1:18 Behold, I will lead thee by my hand, and I will take thee, to put upon +thee my name, even the Priesthood of thy father, and my power shall be over +thee. + +ABR 1:19 As it was with Noah so shall it be with thee; but through thy ministry +my name shall be known in the earth forever, for I am thy God. + +ABR 1:20 Behold, Potiphar's Hill was in the land of Ur, of Chaldea. And the +Lord broke down the altar of Elkenah, and of the gods of the land, and utterly +destroyed them, and smote the priest that he died; and there was great mourning +in Chaldea, and also in the court of Pharaoh; which Pharaoh signifies king by +royal blood. + +ABR 1:21 Now this king of Egypt was a descendant from the loins of Ham, and was +a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites by birth. + +ABR 1:22 From this descent sprang all the Egyptians, and thus the blood of the +Canaanites was preserved in the land. + +ABR 1:23 The land of Egypt being first discovered by a woman, who was the +daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus, which in the Chaldean signifies +Egypt, which signifies that which is forbidden; + +ABR 1:24 When this woman discovered the land it was under water, who afterward +settled her sons in it; and thus, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved +the curse in the land. + +ABR 1:25 Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the +eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the +government of Ham, which was patriarchal. + +ABR 1:26 Pharaoh, being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his +people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order +established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first +patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who +blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, +but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood. + +ABR 1:27 Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the +right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from +Noah, through Ham, therefore my father was led away by their idolatry; + +ABR 1:28 But I shall endeavor, hereafter, to delineate the chronology running +back from myself to the beginning of the creation, for the records have come +into my hands, which I hold unto this present time. + +ABR 1:29 Now, after the priest of Elkenah was smitten that he died, there came +a fulfillment of those things which were said unto me concerning the land of +Chaldea, that there should be a famine in the land. + +ABR 1:30 Accordingly a famine prevailed throughout all the land of Chaldea, and +my father was sorely tormented because of the famine, and he repented of the +evil which he had determined against me, to take away my life. + +ABR 1:31 But the records of the fathers, even the patriarchs, concerning the +right of Priesthood, the Lord my God preserved in mine own hands; therefore a +knowledge of the beginning of the creation, and also of the planets, and of the +stars, as they were made known unto the fathers, have I kept even unto this +day, and I shall endeavor to write some of these things upon this record, for +the benefit of my posterity that shall come after me. + +ABR 2:1 Now the Lord God caused the famine to wax sore in the land of Ur, +insomuch that Haran, my brother, died; but Terah, my father, yet lived in the +land of Ur, of the Chaldees. + +ABR 2:2 And it came to pass that I, Abraham, took Sarai to wife, and Nehor, my +brother, took Milcah to wife, who was the daughter of Haran. + +ABR 2:3 Now the Lord had said unto me: Abraham, get thee out of thy country, +and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show +thee. + +ABR 2:4 Therefore I left the land of Ur, of the Chaldees, to go into the land +of Canaan; and I took Lot, my brother's son, and his wife, and Sarai my wife; +and also my father followed after me, unto the land which we denominated Haran. + +ABR 2:5 And the famine abated; and my father tarried in Haran and dwelt there, +as there were many flocks in Haran; and my father turned again unto his +idolatry, therefore he continued in Haran. + +ABR 2:6 But I, Abraham, and Lot, my brother's son, prayed unto the Lord, and +the Lord appeared unto me, and said unto me: Arise, and take Lot with thee; for +I have purposed to take thee away out of Haran, and to make of thee a minister +to bear record of my name in a strange land which I will give unto thy seed +after thee for an everlasting possession, when they hearken to my voice. + +ABR 2:7 For I am the Lord thy God; I dwell in heaven; the earth is my +footstool; I stretch my hand over the sea, and it obeys my voice; I cause the +wind and the fire to be my chariot; I say to the mountains depart hence, and +behold, they are taken away by a whirlwind, in an instant, suddenly. + +ABR 2:8 My name is Jehovah, and I know the end from the beginning; therefore my +hand shall be over thee. + +ABR 2:9 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee above +measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a +blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this +ministry and Priesthood unto all nations; + +ABR 2:10 And I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this +Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and +shall rise up and bless thee, as their father; + +ABR 2:11 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; +and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy +Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in +thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed +of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the +blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life +eternal. + +ABR 2:12 Now, after the Lord had withdrawn from speaking to me, and withdrawn +his face from me, I said in my heart: Thy servant has sought thee earnestly; +now I have found thee; + +ABR 2:13 Thou didst send thine angel to deliver me from the gods of Elkenah, +and I will do well to hearken unto thy voice, therefore let thy servant rise up +and depart in peace. + +ABR 2:14 So I, Abraham, departed as the Lord had said unto me, and Lot with me; +and I, Abraham, was sixty and two years old when I departed out of Haran. + +ABR 2:15 And I took Sarai, whom I took to wife when I was in Ur, in Chaldea, +and Lot, my brother's son, and all our substance that we had gathered, and the +souls that we had won in Haran, and came forth in the way to the land of +Canaan, and dwelt in tents as we came on our way; + +ABR 2:16 Therefore, eternity was our covering, and our rock and our salvation, +as we journeyed from Haran by the way of Jershon, to come to the land of +Canaan. + +ABR 2:17 Now I, Abraham, built an altar in the land of Jershon, and made an +offering unto the Lord, and prayed that the famine might be turned away from my +father's house, that they might not perish. + +ABR 2:18 And then we passed from Jershon through the land unto the place of +Sechem; it was situated in the plains of Moreh, and we had already come into +the borders of the land of the Canaanites, and I offered sacrifice there in the +plains of Moreh, and called on the Lord devoutly, because we had already come +into the land of this idolatrous nation. + +ABR 2:19 And the Lord appeared unto me in answer to my prayers, and said unto +me: Unto thy seed will I give this land. + +ABR 2:20 And I, Abraham, arose from the place of the altar which I had built +unto the Lord, and removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, +and pitched my tent there, Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east; and there I +built another altar unto the Lord, and called again upon the name of the Lord. + +ABR 2:21 And I, Abraham, journeyed, going on still towards the south; and there +was a continuation of a famine in the land; and I, Abraham, concluded to go +down into Egypt, to sojourn there, for the famine became very grievous. + +ABR 2:22 And it came to pass when I was come near to enter into Egypt, the Lord +said unto me: Behold, Sarai, thy wife, is a very fair woman to look upon; + +ABR 2:23 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see her, +they will say--She is his wife; and they will kill you, but they will save her +alive; therefore see that ye do on this wise: + +ABR 2:24 Let her say unto the Egyptians, she is thy sister, and thy soul shall +live. + +ABR 2:25 And it came to pass that I, Abraham, told Sarai, my wife, all that the +Lord had said unto me--Therefore say unto them, I pray thee, thou art my +sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live +because of thee. + +ABR 3:1 And I, Abraham, had the Urim and Thummim, which the Lord my God had +given unto me, in Ur of the Chaldees; + +ABR 3:2 And I saw the stars, that they were very great, and that one of them +was nearest unto the throne of God; and there were many great ones which were +near unto it; + +ABR 3:3 And the Lord said unto me: These are the governing ones; and the name +of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me, for I am the Lord thy +God: I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as +that upon which thou standest. + +ABR 3:4 And the Lord said unto me, by the Urim and Thummim, that Kolob was +after the manner of the Lord, according to its times and seasons in the +revolutions thereof; that one revolution was a day unto the Lord, after his +manner of reckoning, it being one thousand years according to the time +appointed unto that whereon thou standest. This is the reckoning of the Lord's +time, according to the reckoning of Kolob. + +ABR 3:5 And the Lord said unto me: The planet which is the lesser light, lesser +than that which is to rule the day, even the night, is above or greater than +that upon which thou standest in point of reckoning, for it moveth in order +more slow; this is in order because it standeth above the earth upon which thou +standest, therefore the reckoning of its time is not so many as to its number +of days, and of months, and of years. + +ABR 3:6 And the Lord said unto me: Now, Abraham, these two facts exist, behold +thine eyes see it; it is given unto thee to know the times of reckoning, and +the set time, yea, the set time of the earth upon which thou standest, and the +set time of the greater light which is set to rule the day, and the set time of +the lesser light which is set to rule the night. + +ABR 3:7 Now the set time of the lesser light is a longer time as to its +reckoning than the reckoning of the time of the earth upon which thou standest. + +ABR 3:8 And where these two facts exist, there shall be another fact above +them, that is, there shall be another planet whose reckoning of time shall be +longer still; + +ABR 3:9 And thus there shall be the reckoning of the time of one planet above +another, until thou come nigh unto Kolob, which Kolob is after the reckoning of +the Lord's time; which Kolob is set nigh unto the throne of God, to govern all +those planets which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest. + +ABR 3:10 And it is given unto thee to know the set time of all the stars that +are set to give light, until thou come near unto the throne of God. + +ABR 3:11 Thus I, Abraham, talked with the Lord, face to face, as one man +talketh with another; and he told me of the works which his hands had made; + +ABR 3:12 And he said unto me: My son, my son (and his hand was stretched out), +behold I will show you all these. And he put his hand upon mine eyes, and I saw +those things which his hands had made, which were many; and they multiplied +before mine eyes, and I could not see the end thereof. + +ABR 3:13 And he said unto me: This is Shinehah, which is the sun. And he said +unto me: Kokob, which is star. And he said unto me: Olea, which is the moon. +And he said unto me: Kokaubeam, which signifies stars, or all the great lights, +which were in the firmament of heaven. + +ABR 3:14 And it was in the night time when the Lord spake these words unto me: +I will multiply thee, and thy seed after thee, like unto these; and if thou +canst count the number of sands, so shall be the number of thy seeds. + +ABR 3:15 And the Lord said unto me: Abraham, I show these things unto thee +before ye go into Egypt, that ye may declare all these words. + +ABR 3:16 If two things exist, and there be one above the other, there shall be +greater things above them; therefore Kolob is the greatest of all the Kokaubeam +that thou hast seen, because it is nearest unto me. + +ABR 3:17 Now, if there be two things, one above the other, and the moon be +above the earth, then it may be that a planet or a star may exist above it; and +there is nothing that the Lord thy God shall take in his heart to do but what +he will do it. + +ABR 3:18 Howbeit that he made the greater star; as, also, if there be two +spirits, and one shall be more intelligent that the other, yet these two +spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent that the other, have no +beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, +for they are gnolaum, or eternal. + +ABR 3:19 And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are +two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another +more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than +they all. + +ABR 3:20 The Lord thy God sent his angel to deliver thee from the hands of the +priest of Elkenah. + +ABR 3:21 I dwell in the midst of them all; I now, therefore, have come down +unto thee to declare unto thee the works which my hands have made, wherein my +wisdom excelleth them all, for I rule in the heavens above, and in the earth +beneath, in all wisdom and prudence, over all the intelligences thine eyes have +seen from the beginning; I came down in the beginning in the midst of all the +intelligences thou hast seen. + +ABR 3:22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were +organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the +noble and great ones; + +ABR 3:23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst +of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those +that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: +Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born. + +ABR 3:24 And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said +unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we +will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may +dwell; + +ABR 3:25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things +whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; + +ABR 3:26 And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who +keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those +who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have +glory added upon their heads for ever and ever. + +ABR 3:27 And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the +Son of Man: Here am I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send +me. And the Lord said: I will send the first. + +ABR 3:28 And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that +day, many followed after him. + +ABR 4:1 And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the +beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the +earth. + +ABR 4:2 And the earth, after it was formed, was empty and desolate, because +they had not formed anything but the earth; and darkness reigned upon the face +of the deep, and the Spirit of the Gods was brooding upon the face of the +waters. + +ABR 4:3 And they (the Gods) said: Let there be light; and there was light. + +ABR 4:4 And they (the Gods) comprehended the light, for it was bright; and they +divided the light, or caused it to be divided, from the darkness. + +ABR 4:5 And the Gods called the light Day, and the darkness they called Night. +And it came to pass that from the evening until morning they called night; and +from the morning until the evening they called day; and this was the first, or +the beginning, of that which they called day and night. + +ABR 4:6 And the Gods also said: Let there be an expanse in the midst of the +waters, and it shall divide the waters from the waters. + +ABR 4:7 And the Gods ordered the expanse, so that it divided the waters which +were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was +so, even as they ordered. + +ABR 4:8 And the Gods called the expanse, Heaven. And it came to pass that it +was from evening until morning that they called night; and it came to pass that +it was from morning until evening that they called day; and this was the second +time that they called night and day. + +ABR 4:9 And the Gods ordered, saying: Let the waters under the heaven be +gathered together unto one place, and let the earth come up dry; and it was so +as they ordered; + +ABR 4:10 And the Gods pronounced the dry land, Earth; and the gathering +together of the waters, pronounced they, Great Waters; and the Gods saw that +they were obeyed. + +ABR 4:11 And the Gods said: Let us prepare the earth to bring forth grass; the +herb yielding seed; the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, whose seed +in itself yieldeth its own likeness upon the earth; and it was so, even as they +ordered. + +ABR 4:12 And the Gods organized the earth to bring forth grass from its own +seed, and the herb to bring forth herb from its own seed, yielding seed after +his kind; and the earth to bring forth the tree from its own seed, yielding +fruit, whose seed could only bring forth the same in itself, after his kind; +and the Gods saw that they were obeyed. + +ABR 4:13 And it came to pass that they numbered the days; from the evening +until the morning they called night; and it came to pass, from the morning +until the evening they called day; and it was the third time. + +ABR 4:14 And the Gods organized the lights in the expanse of the heaven, and +caused them to divide the day from the night; and organized them to be for +signs and for seasons, and for days and for years; + +ABR 4:15 And organized them to be for lights in the expanse of the heaven to +give light upon the earth; and it was so. + +ABR 4:16 And the Gods organized the two great lights, the greater light to rule +the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; with the lesser light they set +the stars also; + +ABR 4:17 And the Gods set them in the expanse of the heavens, to give light +upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to cause to +divide the light from the darkness. + +ABR 4:18 And the Gods watched those things which they had ordered until they +obeyed. + +ABR 4:19 And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that is was +night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that it was +day; and it was the fourth time. + +ABR 4:20 And the Gods said: Let us prepare the waters to bring forth abundantly +the moving creatures that have life; and the fowl, that they may fly above the +earth in the open expanse of heaven. + +ABR 4:21 And the Gods prepared the waters that they might bring forth great +whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters were to bring +forth abundantly after their kinds; and every winged fowl after their kind. And +the Gods saw that they would be obeyed, and that their plan was good. + +ABR 4:22 And the Gods said: We will bless them, and cause them to be fruitful +and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas or great waters; and cause the +fowl to multiply in the earth. + +ABR 4:23 And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that they +called night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that +they called day; and it was the fifth time. + +ABR 4:24 And the Gods prepared the earth to bring forth the living creature +after his kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their +kind; and it was so, as they had said. + +ABR 4:25 And the Gods organized the earth to bring forth the beasts after their +kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth +after its kind; and the Gods saw they would obey. + +ABR 4:26 And the Gods took counsel among themselves and said: Let us go down +and form man in our image, after our likeness; and we will give them dominion +over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, +and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the +earth. + +ABR 4:27 So the Gods went down to organize man in their own image, in the image +of the Gods to form they him, male and female to form they them. + +ABR 4:28 And the Gods said: We will bless them. And the Gods said: We will +cause them to be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, +and to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, +and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. + +ABR 4:29 And the Gods said: Behold, we will give them every herb bearing seed +that shall come upon the face of all the earth, and every tree which shall have +fruit upon it; yea, the fruit of the tree yielding seed to them we will give +it; it shall be for their meat. + +ABR 4:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to +every thing that creepeth upon the earth, behold, we will give them life, and +also we will give to them every green herb for meat, and all these things shall +be thus organized. + +ABR 4:31 And the Gods said: We will do everything that we have said, and +organize them; and behold, they shall be very obedient. And it came to pass +that it was from evening until morning they called night; and it came to pass +that it was from morning until evening that they called day; and they numbered +the sixth time. + +ABR 5:1 And thus we will finish the heavens and the earth, and all the hosts of +them. + +ABR 5:2 And the Gods said among themselves: On the seventh time we will end our +work, which we have counseled; and we will rest on the seventh time from all +our work which we have counseled. + +ABR 5:3 And the Gods concluded upon the seventh time, because that on the +seventh time they would rest from all their works which they (the Gods) +counseled among themselves to form; and sanctified it. And thus were their +decisions at the time that they counseled among themselves to form the heavens +and the earth. + +ABR 5:4 And the Gods came down and formed these the generations of the heavens +and of the earth, when they were formed in the day that the Gods formed the +earth and the heavens, + +ABR 5:5 According to all that which they had said concerning every plant of the +field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; +for the Gods had not caused it to rain upon the earth when they counseled to do +them, and had not formed a man to till the ground. + +ABR 5:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of +the ground. + +ABR 5:7 And the Gods formed man from the dust of the ground, and took his +spirit (that is, the man's spirit), and put it into him; and breathed into his +nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. + +ABR 5:8 And the Gods planted a garden, eastward in Eden, and there they put the +man, whose spirit they had put into the body which they had formed. + +ABR 5:9 And out of the ground made the Gods to grow every tree that is pleasant +to the sight and good for food; the tree of life, also, in the midst of the +garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. + +ABR 5:10 There was a river running out of Eden, to water the garden, and from +thence it was parted and became into four heads. + +ABR 5:11 And the Gods took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden, to dress +it and to keep it. + +ABR 5:12 And the Gods commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden +thou mayest freely eat, + +ABR 5:13 But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of +it; for in the time that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now I, +Abraham, saw that it was after the Lord's time, which was after the time of +Kolob; for as yet the Gods had not appointed unto Adam his reckoning. + +ABR 5:14 And the Gods said: Let us make an help meet for the man, for it is not +good that the man should be alone, therefore we will form an help meet for him. + +ABR 5:15 And the Gods caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam; and he slept, and +they took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in the stead thereof; + +ABR 5:16 And of the rib which the Gods had taken from man, formed they a woman, +and brought her unto the man. + +ABR 5:17 And Adam said: This was bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; now +she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man; + +ABR 5:18 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall +cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. + +ABR 5:19 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. + +ABR 5:20 And out of the ground the Gods formed every beast of the field, and +every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call +them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that should be the name +thereof. + +ABR 5:21 And Adam gave names to all cattle, to the fowl of the air, to every +beast of the field; and for Adam, there was found an help meet for him. JSM 1:0 +An extract from the translation of the Bible. Being the twenty-fourth chapter +of Matthew, commencing with the last verse of the twenty-third chapter, King +James Version. + +JSM 1:1 For I say unto you, that ye shall not see me henceforth and know that I +am he of whom it is written by the prophets, until ye shall say: Blessed is he +who cometh in the name of the Lord, in the clouds of heaven, and all the holy +angels with him. Then understood his disciples that he should come again on the +earth, after that he was glorified and crowned on the right hand of God. + +JSM 1:2 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple; and his disciples +came to him, for to hear him, saying: Master, show us concerning the buildings +of the temple, as thou hast said they shall be thrown down, and left unto you +desolate. + +JSM 1:3 And Jesus said unto them: See ye not all these things, and do ye not +understand them? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here, upon this +temple, one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. + +JSM 1:4 And Jesus left them, and went upon the Mount of Olives. And as he sat +upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying: Tell +us when shall these things be which thou hast said concerning the destruction +of the temple, and the Jews; and what is the sign of thy coming, and of the end +of the world, or the destruction of the wicked, which is the end of the world? + +JSM 1:5 And Jesus answered, and said unto them: Take heed that no man deceive +you; + +JSM 1:6 For many shall come in my name, saying--I am Christ and shall deceive +many; + +JSM 1:7 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and +ye shall be hated of all nations, for my name's sake; + +JSM 1:8 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and +shall hate one another; + +JSM 1:9 And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many; + +JSM 1:10 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold; + +JSM 1:11 But he that remaineth steadfast and is not overcome, the same shall be +saved. + +JSM 1:12 When you, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken +of by Daniel the prophet, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, then you +shall stand in the holy place; whoso readeth let him understand. + +JSM 1:13 Then let them who are in Judea flee into the mountains; + +JSM 1:14 Let him who is on the housetop flee, and not return to take anything +out of his house; + +JSM 1:15 Neither let him who is in the field return back to take his clothes; + +JSM 1:16 And wo unto them that are with child, and unto them that give suck in +those days; + +JSM 1:17 Therefore, pray ye the Lord that your flight be not in the winter, +neither on the Sabbath day; + +JSM 1:18 For then, in those days, shall be great tribulation on the Jews, and +upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, such as was not before sent upon Israel, of +God, since the beginning of their kingdom until this time; no, nor ever shall +be sent again upon Israel. + +JSM 1:19 And things which have befallen them are only the beginning of the +sorrows which shall come upon them. + +JSM 1:20 And except those days should be shortened, there should none of their +flesh be saved; but for the elect's sake, according to the covenant, those days +shall be shortened. + +JSM 1:21 Behold, these things I have spoken unto you concerning the Jews; and +again, after the tribulation of those days which shall come upon Jerusalem, if +any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe him not; + +JSM 1:22 For in those days there shall also arise false Christs, and false +prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch, that, if possible, +they shall deceive the very elect, who are the elect according to the covenant. + +JSM 1:23 Behold, I speak these things unto you for the elect's sake; and you +also shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled, for +all I have told you must come to pass; but the end is not yet. + +JSM 1:24 Behold, I have told you before; + +JSM 1:25 Wherefore, if they shall say unto you: Behold, he is in the desert; go +not forth: Behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not; + +JSM 1:26 For as the light of the morning cometh out of the east, and shineth +even unto the west, and covereth the whole earth, so shall also the coming of +the Son of Man be. + +JSM 1:27 And now I show unto you a parable. Behold, wheresoever the carcass is, +there will the eagles be gathered together; so likewise shall mine elect be +gathered from the four quarters of the earth. + +JSM 1:28 And they shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars. + +JSM 1:29 Behold I speak for mine elect's sake; for nation shall rise against +nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there shall be famines, and pestilences, +and earthquakes, in divers places. + +JSM 1:30 And again, because iniquity shall abound, the love of men shall wax +cold; but he that shall not be overcome, the same shall be saved. + +JSM 1:31 And again, this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the +world, for a witness unto all the nations, and then shall the end come, or the +destruction of the wicked; + +JSM 1:32 And again shall the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the +prophet, be fulfilled. + +JSM 1:33 And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be +darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from +heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken. + +JSM 1:34 Verily, I say unto you, this generation, in which these things shall +be shown forth, shall not pass away until all I have told you shall be +fulfilled. + +JSM 1:35 Although, the days will come that heaven and earth shall pass away; +yet my words shall not pass away, but all shall be fulfilled. + +JSM 1:36 And, as I said before, after the tribulation of those days, and the +powers of heaven shall be shaken, then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man +in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see +the Son of Man coming the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory; + +JSM 1:37 And whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived, for the Son of +Man shall come, and he shall send his angels before him with the great sound of +a trumpet, and they shall gather together the remainder of his elect from the +four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. + +JSM 1:38 Now learn a parable of the fig-tree--When its branches are yet tender, +and it begins to put forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh at hand; + +JSM 1:39 So likewise, mine elect, when they shall see all these things, they +shall know that he is near, even at the doors; + +JSM 1:40 But of that day, and hour, no man knoweth; no, not the angels of God +in heaven, but my Father only. + +JSM 1:41 But as it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be also at the coming +of the Son of Man; + +JSM 1:42 For it shall be with them, as it was in the days which were before the +flood; for until the day that Noah entered into the ark they were eating and +drinking, marrying and giving in marriage; + +JSM 1:43 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall +also the coming of the Son of Man be. + +JSM 1:44 Then shall be fulfilled that which is written, that in the last days, +two shall be in the field, the one shall be taken, and the other left; + +JSM 1:45 Two shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken, and the +other left; + +JSM 1:46 And what I say unto one, I say unto all men: watch, therefore, for you +know not at what hour your Lord doth come. + +JSM 1:47 But know this, if the good man of the house had known in what watch +the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his +house to have been broken up, but would have been ready. + +JSM 1:48 Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the +Son of Man cometh. + +JSM 1:49 Who, then, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made +ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? + +JSM 1:50 Blessed is that servant whom his lord, when he cometh, shall find so +doing; and verily I say unto you, he shall make him ruler over all his goods. + +JSM 1:51 But if that evil servant shall say in his heart: My lord delayeth his +coming, + +JSM 1:52 And shall begin to smith his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink +with the drunken, + +JSM 1:53 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for +him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, + +JSM 1:54 And shall cut him asunder, and shall appoint him his portion with the +hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. + +JSM 1:55 And thus cometh the end of the wicked, according to the prophecy of +Moses, saying: They shall be cut off from among the people; but the end of the +earth is not yet, but by and by. JSH 0:0 Joseph Smith--History. Extracts from +the History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet. For a complete record see History of +the Church, Vol. 1, Chapters 1 to 5 inclusive. + +JSH 1:1 Owing to the many reports which have been put in circulation by +evil-disposed and designing persons, in relation to the rise and progress of +the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, all of which have been +designed by the authors thereof to militate against its character as a Church +and its progress in the world--I have been induced to write this history, to +disabuse the public mind, and put all inquirers after truth in possession of +the facts, as they have transpired, in relation both to mys elf and the Church, +so far as I have such facts in my possession. + +JSH 1:2 In this history I shall present the various events in relation to this +Church, in truth and righteousness, as they have transpired, or as they at +present exist, being now [1838] the eighth year since the organization of the +said Church. + +JSH 1:3 I was born in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and five, +on the twenty-third day of December, in the town of Sharon, Windsor county, +State of Vermont . ..My father, Joseph Smith, Sen., left the State of Vermont, +and moved to Palmyra, Ontario (now Wayne) county, in the State of New York, +when I was in my tenth year, or thereabouts. In about four years after my +father's arrival in Palmyra, he moved with his family into Manchester in the +same county of Ontario-- + +JSH 1:4 His family consisting of eleven souls, namely, my father, Joseph Smith; +my mother, Lucy Smith (whose name, previous to her marriage, was Mack, daughter +of Solomon Mack); my brothers, Alvin (who died November 19th, 1823, in the 26th +year of his age), Hyrum, myself, Samuel Harrison, William, Don Carlos; and my +sisters, Sophronia, Catherine, and Lucy. + +JSH 1:5 Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was +in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. +It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects +in that region of country. Indeed, the whole district of country seemed +affected by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the different +religious parties, which created no small stir and division amongst the people, +some crying "Lo, here!" and others, "Lo, there!" Som e were contending for the +Methodist faith, some for the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist. + +JSH 1:6 For, notwithstanding the great love which the converts to the different +faiths expressed at the time of their conversion, and the great zeal manifested +by the respective clergy, who were active in getting up and promoting this +extraordinary scene of religious feeling, in order to have everybody converted, +as they were pleased to call it; yet when the converts began to file off, some +to one party and some to another, it was seen that the seemingly good feelings +of both the priests and the converts we re more pretended than real; for a +scene of great confusion and bad feeling ensued--priest contending against +priest, and convert against convert; so that all their good feelings one for +another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words and a +contest about opinions. + +JSH 1:7 I was at this time in my fifteenth year. My father's family were +proselyted to the Presbyterian faith, and four of them joined that church, +namely, my mother, Lucy; my brothers Hyrum and Samuel Harrison; and my sister +Sophronia. + +JSH 1:8 During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious +reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and ofter +poignant, still I keep aloof from all these parties, though I attended their +several meetings as often as occasion would permit. In process of time my mind +became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be +united with them; but so great were the confusion and strife among the +different denominations, that it was impossible for a p erson young as I was, +and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who +was right and who was wrong. + +JSH 1:9 My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great +and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and +Methodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their +errors, or, at least, to make the people think they were in error. On the other +hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in +endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all others. + +JSH 1:10 In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said +to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they +all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I +know it? + +JSH 1:11 While I was laboring under the difficulties caused by the contests of +these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, +first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him +ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall +be given him. + +JSH 1:12 Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart +of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force +into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that +if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and +unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the +teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of +scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question +by an appeal to the Bible. + +JSH 1:13 At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in +darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of +God. I at length came to the determination to "ask of God," concluding that if +he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not +upbraid, I might venture. + +JSH 1:14 So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired +to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear +day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time +in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had +never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally. + +JSH 1:15 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to +go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began +to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when +immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had +such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not +speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if +I were doomed to sudden destruction. + +JSH 1:16 But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the +power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was +ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction--not to some +imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, +who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being--just at +this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above +the brightness of the sun, which descended g radually until it fell upon me. + +JSH 1:17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy +which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose +brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of +them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other--This is +My Beloved Son. Hear Him! + +JSH 1:18 My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the +sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I +get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the +Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right +(for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)--and +which I should join. + +JSH 1:19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; +and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an +abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: "they +draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach +for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they +deny the power thereof. + +JSH 1:20 He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things +did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself +again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light +had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went +home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace, mother inquired what the matter was. +I replied, "Never mind, all is well--I am well enough off." I then said to my +mother, "I have learned for myself that Presb yterianism is not true." It seems +as though the adversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I +was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why +should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the opposition and +persecution that arose against me, almost in my infancy? + +JSH 1:21 Some few days after I had this vision, I happened to be in company +with one of the Methodist preachers, who was very active in the before +mentioned religious excitement; and, conversing with him on the subject of +religion, I took occasion to give him an account of the vision which I had had. +I was greatly surprised at his behavior; he treated my communication not only +lightly, but with great contempt, saying it was all of the devil, that there +were no such things as visions or revelations in these days; that all such +things had ceased with the apostles, and that there would never be any more of +them. + +JSH 1:22 I soon found, however, that my telling the story had excited a great +deal of prejudice against me among professors of religion, and was the cause of +great persecution, which continued to increase; and though I was an obscure +boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in +life such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high +standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me, and +create a bitter persecution; and this was comm on among all the sects--all +united to persecute me. + +JSH 1:23 It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, how very +strange it was that an obscure boy, of a little over fourteen years of age, and +one, too, who was doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty maintenance by +his daily labor, should be thought a character of sufficient importance to +attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day, +and in a manner to create in them a spirit of the most bitter persecution and +reviling. But strange or not, so it was, and it was often the cause of great +sorrow to myself. + +JSH 1:24 However, it was nevertheless a fact that I had beheld a vision. I have +thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King +Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light, and +heard a voice; but still there were but few who believed him; some said he was +dishonest, others said he was mad; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all +this did not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen a vision, he knew +he had, and all the persecution under h eaven could not make it otherwise; and +though they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and would know to his +latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a voice speaking unto +him, and all the world could not make him think or believe otherwise. + +JSH 1:25 So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of +that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me; and +though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it +was true; and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all +manner of evil against me for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why +persecute me for telling the truth? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I +knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neithe r dared I do it; at +least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation. + +JSH 1:26 I had now got my mind satisfied so far as the sectarian world was +concerned--that it was not my duty to join with any of them, but to continue as +I was until further directed. I had found the testimony of James to be +true--that a man who lacked wisdom might ask of God, and obtain, and not be +upbraided. + +JSH 1:27 I continued to pursue my common vocations in life until the +twenty-first of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, all the +time suffering severe persecution at the hands of all classes of men, both +religious and irreligious, because I continued to affirm that I had seen a +vision. + +JSH 1:28 During the space of time which intervened between the time I had the +vision and the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three--having been forbidden to +join any of the religious sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and +persecuted by those who ought to have been my friends and to have endeavored in +a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me--I was left to all kinds +of temptations; and, mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into +errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; +which, I am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the +sight of God. In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any +great or malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature. +But I was guilt of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., +not consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was +called of God as I had been. But this will not seem very strange to any one who + recollects my youth, and is acquainted with my native cheery temperament. + +JSH 1:29 In consequence of these things, I often felt condemned for my weakness +and imperfections; when, on the evening of the above-mentioned twenty-first of +September, after I had retired to my bed for the night, I betook myself to +prayer and supplication to Almighty God for forgiveness of all my sins and +follies, and also for a manifestation to me, that I might know of my state and +standing before him; for I had full confidence in obtaining a divine +manifestation, as I previously had one. + +JSH 1:30 While I was thus in the act of calling upon God, I discovered a light +appearing in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter +than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside, standing +in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor. + +JSH 1:31 He had on a loose robe of most exquisite whiteness. It was a whiteness +beyond anything earthly I had ever seen; nor do I believe that any earthly +thing could be made to appear so exceedingly white and brilliant. His hands +were naked, and his arms also, a little above the wrist; so, also, were his +feet naked, as were his legs, a little above the ankles. His head and neck were +also bare. I could discover that he had no other clothing on but this robe, as +it was open, so that I could see into his boso m. + +JSH 1:32 Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was +glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. The room +was exceedingly light, but not so very bright as immediately around his person. +When I first looked upon him, I was afraid; but the fear soon left me. + +JSH 1:33 He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent +from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a +work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all +nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken +of among all people. + +JSH 1:34 He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving +an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from +whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was +contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants; + +JSH 1:35 Also, that there were two stones in silver bows--and these stones, +fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and +Thummim--deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones +were what constituted "seers" in ancient or former times; and that God had +prepared them for the purpose of translating the book. + +JSH 1:36 After telling me these things, he commenced quoting the prophecies of +the Old Testament. He first quoted part of the third chapter of Malachi; and he +quoted also the fourth or last chapter of the same prophecy, though with a +little variation from the way it reads in our Bibles. Instead of quoting the +first verse as it reads in our books, he quoted it thus: + +JSH 1:37 For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the +proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble; for they that come +shall burn them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root +nor branch. + +JSH 1:38 And again, he quoted the fifth verse thus: Behold, I will reveal unto +you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the +great and dreadful day of the Lord. + +JSH 1:39 He also quoted the next verse differently: And he shall plant in the +hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the +children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would +be utterly wasted at his coming. + +JSH 1:40 In addition to these, he quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, saying +that it was about to be fulfilled. He quoted also the third chapter of Acts, +twenty-second and twenty-third verses, precisely as they stand in our New +Testament. He said that that prophet was Christ; but the day had not yet come +when "they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the +people," but soon would. + +JSH 1:41 He also quoted the second chapter of Joel, from the twenty-eighth +verse to the last. He also said that this was not yet fulfilled, but was soon +to be. And he further stated that the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come +in. He quoted many other passages of scripture, and offered many explanations +which cannot be mentioned here. + +JSH 1:42 Again, he told me, that when I got those plates of which he had +spoken--for the time that they should be obtained was not yet fulfilled--I +should not show them to any person; neither the breastplate with the Urim and +Thummim; only to those to whom I should be commanded to show them; if I did I +should be destroyed. While he was conversing with me about the plates, the +vision was opened to my mind that I could see the place where the plates were +deposited, and that so clearly and distinctly that I kn ew the place again when +I visited it. + +JSH 1:43 After this communication, I saw the light in the room begin to gather +immediately around the person of him who had been speaking to me, and it +continued to do so until the room was again left dark, except just around him; +when, instantly I saw, as it were, a conduit open right up into heaven, and he +ascended till he entirely disappeared, and the room was left as it had been +before this heavenly light had made its appearance. + +JSH 1:44 I lay musing on the singularity of the scene, and marveling greatly at +what had been told to me by this extraordinary messenger; when, in the midst of +my meditation, I suddenly discovered that my room was again beginning to get +lighted, and in an instant, as it were, the same heavenly messenger was again +by my bedside. + +JSH 1:45 He commenced, and again related the very same things which he had done +at his first visit, without the least variation; which having done, he informed +me of great judgments which were coming upon the earth, with great desolations +by famine, sword, and pestilence; and that these grievous judgments would come +on the earth in this generation. Having related these things, he again ascended +as he had done before. + +JSH 1:46 By this time, so deep were the impressions made on my mind, that sleep +had fled from my eyes, and I lay overwhelmed in astonishment at what I had both +seen and heard. But what was my surprise when again I beheld the same messenger +at my bedside, and heard him rehearse or repeat over again to me the same +things as before; and added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would try to +tempt me (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of my father's family), +to get the plates for the purpose of ge tting rich. This he forbade me, saying +that I must have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify +God, and must not be influenced by any other motive than that of building his +kingdom; otherwise I could not get them. + +JSH 1:47 After this third visit, he again ascended into heaven as before, and I +was again left to ponder on the strangeness of what I had just experienced; +when almost immediately after the heavenly messenger had ascended from me for +the third time, the cock crowed, and I found that day was approaching, so that +our interviews must have must occupied the whole of that night. + +JSH 1:48 I shortly after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the +necessary labors of the day; but, in attempting to work as at other times, I +found my strength so exhausted as to render me entirely unable. My father, who +was laboring along with me, discovered something to be wrong with me, and told +me to go home. I started with the intention of going to the house; but, in +attempting to cross the fence out of the field where we were, my strength +entirely failed me, and I fell helpless on the ground, an d for a time was +quite unconscious of anything. + +JSH 1:49 The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking unto me, +calling me by name. I looked up, and beheld the same messenger standing over my +head, surrounded by light as before. He then again related unto me all that he +had related to me the previous night, and commanded me to go to my father and +tell him of the vision and commandments which I had received. + +JSH 1:50 I obeyed; I returned to my father in the field, and rehearsed the +whole matter to him. He replied to me that it was of God, and told me to go and +do as commanded by the messenger. I left the field, and went to the place where +the messenger had told me the plates were deposited; and owing to the +distinctness of the vision which I had had concerning it, I knew the place the +instant that I arrived there. + +JSH 1:51 Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario county, New York, +stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the +neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a +stone of considerable size, lay the plates, deposited in a stone box. This +stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner +towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, +but the edge all around was covered with earth. + +JSH 1:52 Having removed the earth, I obtained a lever, which I got fixed under +the edge of the stone, and with a little exertion raised it up. I looked in, +and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the +breastplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they lay was formed +by laying stones together in some kind of cement. In the bottom of the box were +laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and +the other things with them. + +JSH 1:53 I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by the +messenger, and was again informed that the time for bringing them forth had not +yet arrived, neither would it, until four years from that time; but he told me +that I should come to that place precisely in one year from that time, and that +he would there meet with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time +should come for obtaining the plates. + +JSH 1:54 Accordingly, as I had been commanded, I went at the end of each year, +and at each time I found the same messenger there, and received instruction and +intelligence from him at each of our interviews, respecting what the Lord was +going to do, and how and in what manner his kingdom was to be conducted in the +last days. + +JSH 1:55 As my father's worldly circumstances were very limited, we were under +the necessity of laboring with our hands, hiring out by day's work and +otherwise, as we could get opportunity. Sometimes we were at home, and +sometimes abroad, and by continuous labor were enabled to get a comfortable +maintenance. + +JSH 1:56 In the year 1823 my father's family met with a great affliction by the +death of my eldest brother, Alvin. In the month of October, 1825, I hired with +an old gentleman by the name of Josiah Stoal, who lived in Chenango county, +State of New York. He had heard something of a silver mine having been opened +by the Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna county, State of Pennsylvania; and +had, previous to my hiring to him, been digging, in order, if possible, to +discover the mine. After I went to liver with hi m, he took me, with the rest +of his hands, to dig for the silver mine, at which I continued to work for +nearly a month, without success in our undertaking, and finally I prevailed +with the old gentleman to cease digging after it. Hence arose the very +prevalent story of my having been a money-digger. + +JSH 1:57 During the time that I was thus employed, I was put to board with a +Mr. Isaac Hale, of that place; it was there I first saw my wife (his daughter), +Emma Hale. On the 18th of January, 1827, we were married, while I was yet +employed in the service of Mr. Stoal. + +JSH 1:58 Owing to my continuing to assert that I had seen a vision, persecution +still followed me, and my wife's father's family were very much opposed to our +being married. I was, therefore, under the necessity of taking her elsewhere; +so we went and were married at the house of Squire Tarbill, in South +Bainbridge, Chenango county, New York. Immediately after my marriage, I left +Mr. Stoal's, and went to my father's, and farmed with him that season. + +JSH 1:59 At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and +Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September, one +thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of +another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly +messenger delivered them up to me with this charge: that I should be +responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any +neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would preserve the m, until +he, the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected. + +JSH 1:60 I soon found out the reason why I had received such strict charges to +keep them safe, and why it was that the messenger had said that when I had done +what was required at my hand, he would call for them. For no sooner was it +known that I had them, than the most strenuous exertions were used to get them +from me. Every stratagem that could be invented was resorted to for that +purpose. The persecution became more bitter and severe than before, and +multitudes were on the alert continually to get them f rom me if possible. But +by the wisdom of God, they remained safe in my hands, until I had accomplished +by them what was required at my hand. When, according to arrangements, the +messenger called for them, I delivered them up to him; and he has them in his +charge until this day, being the second day of May, one thousand eight hundred +and thirty-eight. + +JSH 1:61 The excitement, however, still continued, and rumor with her thousand +tongues was all the time employed in circulating falsehoods about my father's +family, and about myself. If I were to relate a thousandth part of them, it +would fill up volumes. The persecution, however, became so intolerable that I +was under the necessity of leaving Manchester, and going with my wife to +Susquehanna county, in the State of Pennsylvania. While preparing to +start--being very poor, and the persecution so heavy upon u s that there was no +probability that we would ever be otherwise--in the midst of our afflictions we +found a friend in a gentleman by the name of Martin Harris, who came to us and +gave me fifty dollars to assist us on our journey. Mr. Harris was a resident of +Palmyra township, Wayne county, in the State of New York, and a farmer of +respectability. + +JSH 1:62 By this timely aid was I enabled to reach the place of my destination +in Pennsylvania; and immediately after my arrival there I commenced copying the +characters off the plates. I copied a considerable number of them, and by means +of the Urim and Thummim I translated some of them, which I did between the time +I arrived at the house of my wife's father, in the month of December, and the +February following. + +JSH 1:63 Sometime in this month of February, the aforementioned Mr. Martin +Harris came to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the plates, +and started with them to the city of New York. For what took place relative to +him and the characters, I refer to his own account of the circumstances, as he +related them to me after his return, which was as follows: + +JSH 1:64 "I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which +had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, +a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated +that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen +translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet +translated, and he said that they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyriac, and +Arabic; and he said they were true characters. He gave me a ce rtificate to the +people of Palmyra that they were true characters, and that the translation of +such of them as had been translated was also correct. I took the certificate +and put it into my pocket, and was just leaving the house, when Mr. Anthon +called me back, and asked me how the young man found out that there were gold +plates in the place where he found them. I answered that an angel of God had +revealed it unto him. + +JSH 1:65 "He then said to me, `Let me see that certificate.' I accordingly took +it out of my pocket and gave it to him, when he took it and tore it to pieces, +saying that there was no such thing now as ministering of angels, and that if I +would bring the plates to him he would translate them. I informed him that part +of the plates were sealed, and that I was forbidden to bring them. He replied, +`I cannot read a sealed book.' I left him and went to Dr. Mitchell, who +sanctioned what Professor Anthon had said respecting both the characters and +the translation." + +JSH 1:66 On the 5th day of April, 1829, Oliver Cowdery came to my house, until +which time I had never seen him. He stated to me that having been teaching +school in the neighborhood where my father resided, and my father being one of +those who sent to the school, he went to board for a season at his house, and +while there the family related to him the circumstances of my having received +the plates, and accordingly he had come to make inquiries of me. + +JSH 1:67 Two days after the arrival of Mr. Cowdery (being the 7th of April) I +commenced to translate the Book of Mormon, and he began to write for me. + +JSH 1:68 We still continued the work of translation, when, in the ensuing month +(May, 1829), we on a certain day went into the woods to pray and inquire of the +Lord respecting baptism for the remission of sins, that we found mentioned in +the translation of the plates. While we were thus employed, praying and calling +upon the Lord, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of light, and +having laid his hands upon us, he ordained us, saying: + +JSH 1:69 Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the +Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of +the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of +sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth until the sons of Levi +do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness. + +JSH 1:70 He said this Aaronic Priesthood had not the power of laying on hands +for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but that this should be conferred on us +hereafter; and he commanded us to go and be baptized, and gave us directions +that I should baptize Oliver Cowdery, and that afterwards he should baptize me. + +JSH 1:71 Accordingly we went and were baptized, I baptized him first, and +afterwards he baptized me--after which I laid my hands upon his head and +ordained him to the Aaronic Priesthood, and afterwards he laid his hands on me +and ordained me to the same Priesthood--for so we were commanded.* + +JSH 1:72 The messenger who visited us on this occasion and conferred this +Priesthood upon us, said that his name was John, the same that is called John +the Baptist in the New Testament, and that he acted under the direction of +Peter, James and John, who held the keys of the Priesthood of Melchizedek, +which Priesthood, he said, would in due time be conferred on us, and that I +should be called the first Elder of the Church, and he (Oliver Cowdery) the +second. It was on the fifteenth day of May, 1829, that we were ordained under +the hand of this messenger, and baptized. + +JSH 1:73 Immediately on our coming up out of the water after we had been +baptized, we experienced great and glorious blessings from our Heavenly Father. +No sooner had I baptized Oliver Cowdery, than the Holy Ghost fell upon him, and +he stood up and prophesied many things which should shortly come to pass. And +again, so soon as I had been baptized by him, I also had the spirit of +prophecy, when, standing up, I prophesied concerning the rise of this Church, +and many other things connected with the Church, and + this generation of the children of men. We were filled with the Holy Ghost, +and rejoiced in the God of our salvation. + +JSH 1:74 Our minds being now enlightened, we began to have the scriptures laid +open to our understandings, and true meaning and intention of their more +mysterious passages revealed unto us in a manner which we never could attain to +previously, nor ever before had thought of. In the meantime we were forced to +keep secret the circumstances of having received the Priesthood and our having +been baptized, owing to a spirit of persecution which had already manifested +itself in the neighborhood. + +JSH 1:75 We had been threatened with being mobbed, from time to time, and this, +too, by professors of religion. And their intentions of mobbing us were only +counteracted by the influence of my wife's father's family (under Divine +providence), who had become very friendly to me, and who were opposed to mobs, +and were willing that I should continue the work of translation without +interruption; and therefore offered and promised us protection from all +unlawful proceedings, as far as in them lay. + +JSH F:1 Oliver Cowdery describes these events thus: "These were days never to +be forgotten--to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of +heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued, +uninterrupted, to write from his mouth, as he translated with the Urim and +Thummim, or, as the Nephites would have said, `Interpreters,' the history or +record called `The Book of Mormon.' + +JSH F:2 "To notice, in even few words, the interesting account given by Mormon +and his faithful son, Moroni, of a people once beloved and favored of heaven, +would supersede my present design; I shall therefore defer this to a future +period, and, as I said in the introduction, pass more directly to some few +incidents immediately connected with the rise of this Church, which may be +entertaining to some thousands who have stepped forward, amid the frowns of +bigots and the calumny of hypocrites, and embraced th e Gospel of Christ. + +JSH F:3 "No men, in their sober senses, could translate and write the +directions given to the Nephites from the mouth of the Savior, of the precise +manner in which men should build up His Church, and especially when corruption +had spread an uncertainty over all forms and systems practiced among men, +without desiring a privilege of showing the willingness of the heart by being +buried in the liquid grave, to answer a `good conscience by the resurrection of +Jesus Christ.' + +JSH F:4 "After writing the account given of the Savior's ministry to the +remnant of the seed of Jacob, upon this continent, it was easy to be seen, as +the prophet said it would be, that darkness covered the earth and gross +darkness the minds of the people. On reflecting further it was as easy to be +seen that amid the great strife and noise concerning religion, none had +authority from God to administer the ordinances of the Gospel. For the question +might be asked, have men authority to administer in the name + of Christ, who deny revelations, when His testimony is no less than the spirit +of prophecy, and His religion based, built, and sustained by immediate +revelations, in all ages of the world when He has had a people on earth? If +these facts were buried, and carefully concealed by men whose craft would have +been in danger if once permitted to shine in the faces of men, they were no +longer to us; and we only waited for the commandment to be given `Arise and be +baptized.' + +JSH F:5 "This was not long desired before it was realized. The Lord, who is +rich in mercy, and ever willing to answer the consistent prayer of the humble, +after we had called upon Him in a fervent manner, aside from the abodes of men, +condescended to manifest to us His will. On a sudden, as from the midst of +eternity, the voice of the Redeemer spake peace to us, while the veil was +parted and the angel of God came down clothed with glory, and delivered the +anxiously looked for message, and the keys of the Go spel of repentance. What +joy! what wonder! what amazement! While the world was racked and +distracted--while millions were groping as the blind for the wall, and while +all men were resting upon uncertainty, as a general mass, our eyes beheld, our +ears heard, as in the `blaze of day'; yes, more--above the glitter of the May +sunbeam, which then shed its brilliancy over the face of nature! Then his +voice, though mild, pierced to the center, and his words, `I am thy +fellow-servant,' dispelled every fear. We list ened, we gazed, we admired! +'Twas the voice of an angel from glory, 'twas a message from the Most High! And +as we heard we rejoiced, while His love enkindled upon our souls, and we were +wrapped in the vision of the Almighty! Where was room for doubt? Nowhere; +uncertainty had fled, doubt had sunk no more to rise, while fiction and +deception had fled forever! + +JSH F:6 "But, dear brother, think, further think for a moment, what joy filled +our hearts, and with what surprise we must have bowed, (for who would not have +bowed the knee for such a blessing?) when we received under his hand the Holy +Priesthood as he said, `Upon you my fellow-servants, in the name of Messiah, I +confer this Priesthood and this authority, which shall remain upon earth, that +the Sons of Levi may yet offer an offering unto the Lord in righteousness!' + +JSH F:7 "I shall not attempt to paint to you the feelings of this heart, nor +the majestic beauty and glory which surrounded us on this occasion; but you +will believe me when I say, that earth, nor men, with the eloquence of time, +cannot begin to clothe language in as interesting and sublime a manner as this +holy personage. No; nor has this earth power to give the joy, to bestow the +peace, or comprehend the wisdom which was contained in each sentence as they +were delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit! Ma n may deceive his +fellow-men, deception may follow deception, and the children of the wicked one +may have power to seduce the foolish and untaught, till naught but fiction +feeds the many, and the fruit of falsehood carries in its current the giddy to +the grave; but one touch with the finger of his love, yes, one ray of glory +from the upper world, or one word from the mouth of the Savior, from the bosom +of eternity, strikes it all into insignificance, and blots it forever from the +mind. The assurance that we + were in the presence of an angel, the certainty that we heard the voice of +Jesus, and the truth unsullied as it flowed from a pure personage, dictated by +the will of God, is to me past description, and I shall ever look upon this +expression of the Savior's goodness with wonder and thanksgiving while I am +permitted to tarry; and in those mansions where perfection dwells and sin never +comes, I hope to adore in that day which shall never cease."--Times and +Seasons, vol. 2, p. 201. AOF 0 The Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus +Christ of Latter-Day Saints. History of the Church, Vol. 4, pp. 535-541 + +AOF 1 We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and +in the Holy Ghost. + +AOF 2 We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for +Adam's transgression. + +AOF 3 We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be +saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. + +AOF 4 We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: +first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by +immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of +the Holy Ghost. + +AOF 5 We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the +laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and +administer in the ordinances thereof. + +AOF 6 We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, +namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth. + +AOF 7 We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, +healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth. + +AOF 8 We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated +correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. + +AOF 9 We believe all that God has revealed, all the He does now reveal, and we +believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to +the Kingdom of God. + +AOF 10 We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of +the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American +continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the +earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. + +AOF 11 We claim the privilege of worshiping the Almighty God according to the +dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them +worship how, where, or what they may. + +AOF 12 We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and +magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. + +AOF 13 We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in +doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of +Paul--We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, +and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, +lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. + +AOF 00 Joseph Smith. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/pagan.txt b/religious documents/pagan.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..59fb2e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pagan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,248 @@ + PAGAN HISTORY + +Paganism is a loose word for the large variety of polytheistic, shamanistic, +and mystical non-monotheistic religions. Paganism exists in all cultures, +from paleolithic to technological, but has historically waxed and waned. The +ancient Egyptians are an example of a highly pagan society; so are the ancient +Romans; and all paleolithic cultures from the Old Stone Age to the present +have strong pagan elements. An example of a less pagan culture would be the +West for the last thousand years or so, since the centuries following the Fall +of Rome. The domination of the Middle East by Christians and Moslems has also +largely shut out paganism. + +Characteristic of paganism is a tolerance for other paganistic ideas, even +those that literally contradict one's own. Such persecutions as have been +directed against paganistic religions by each other are by-products of +political struggles and mass population movements rather than ideologically +motivated. The same is to some extent true of early Judaism, which was the +direct inheritor to the traditions of a strongly pagan society. A slave +revolt apparently led to a few hundred thousand slaves with no place to live; +to get them, they butchered the inhabitants of pagan cities and took up +residence in the cities themselves. They invoked their war god to justify +this action. Similarly, when the beginnings of the modern Greek mythology +were laid down, it was as a result of invading Northern barbarians supplanting +the earlier (and somewhat gynocentric) Titan mythology with their imported +religion, which grew more refined and less aggressive later on, as happened +with Judaism. + +Before it came under the thumb of monotheism, the West was dominated by the +highly civilized Roman culture. The Roman Republic and Empire were +characterized by an unusually large number of religions together in a single +social whole, frequently sharing the same geography and even the same temples. +This explicitly eclectic (or "syncretistic", as it is more usually known in +studies of the Romans) synthesis is more similar to modern neo-paganism +than any other form of historical paganism I know of. However, it ended after +the Christian emperors took over and Rome fell. + +The post-pagan West experienced frequent resurgences of paganism in various +forms. If we date this at 1000 CE for convenience, we see first the +Inquisitorial period, where paganism was punished with death and torture. Then +there comes the Renaissance, in which pagan symbolism and ideas in art and +philosophy were somewhat more common than explicitly Christian ones. The +Renaissance lasted until the 16th century. Note that the Inquisitions lasted +effectively until the Enlightenment period, and were bad during the +Renaissance, but ceased to be mostly ideologically motivated after the first +three centuries. The Inquisition had become a political arm of the Vatican, a +force useful in many ways other than suppressing heresy. It spent much of its +time accomplishing political, anti-feminist, and covert goals of the Church. +We see in the trial of the Templars in the fourteenth century that uncommonly +faithful people were caught in a secular political struggle between the King +of France and the Pope. They were routinely tortured, the usual prompted +confessions were given, and they were executed, for reasons having nothing to +do with ideology or heresy except as excuses. + +It is also during the Renaissance that we begin to have evidence of what we +may consider explicitly religious paganism again. Most of the grimoires we +have date from this era; alchemists, often overtly Christian but employing +pagan symbolism and texts, were most common during the Renaissance; the +Kabbalah and Tarot originate in the Renaissance, forming the backbone of +modern pagan symbolism. The Renaissance also saw the obscure origins of a +rebirth, in improved form, of Greek humanism, technically pagan because of its +suppression by Christian Rome and its use of theistic symbols. + +The Reformation was again a less pagan period; Protestant rulers like +Elizabeth and James carried out their own anti-heresy pogroms, annihilating +most evidence of witchcraft. Of particular interest in the Reformation is +Scot's "The Discoverie of Witchcraft," which presents the humanist and +rationalist perspective on witches which has generally triumphed today: that +witch accusations were more often driven by factors such as ugliness, personal +enmity, poverty, and so forth than on ideological grounds, and that in fact +there were no witches. This is probably true only of the later Inquisitorial +period. Earlier on, the Inquisition certainly did help in the temporary +stamping out of paganism; so if pagans are witches, there were witches. + +We need not bother much with Murray's supposedly anthropological study of +English witchcraft in the Inquisitorial period, except to note that it has +been devoutly accepted by many modern pagans, and to point out some of its +flaws. Based on late Inquisitorial evidence and the consistency of the +confessions obtained by the Inquisitors, and tossing in some disjointed scraps +of English folk history and legend, Murray asks us to believe that a +paleolithic subculture lasted in England, living semi-naked in the bushes, +until nearly the beginning of the Reformation at least, and possibly until the +current day. Of course late Inquisitorial confessions were consistent; they +were practically dictated to the torture victim. A much better account of the +relationship of paganism to Christianity before and during England's +post-pagan period is Jessi Weston's classic "From Ritual to Romance." Its +conclusions were derived from decades of intense study of the Grail mythology +and its anthropological, mythological, and social context. + +As a parting note on the Reformation, we may note the peculiar phenomenon of +court astrologers and alchemists and their ilk, the most notable examples +being the sorcerer John Dee and the seer Edward Kelley under Elizabeth. These +were the inheritors of Paracelsus and the other alchemists and Christian +medicine doctors, using pagan symbols and methods with a veil of Christian +symbolism. Kelley stopped the work of Dee and Kelley under unknown +circumstances; he is said to have been told by the angels to form a group sex +arrangement with Dee and his wife, which they supposedly did for awhile; in +another version, Kelley was driven from the work by a prophecy of a new age +dawning, which was heresy. + +So, on to the Enlightenment of the seventeenth century. This was more +humanistic than religious, though humanism is a religion on alternate +Tuesdays; it all depends which of the many reasonable definitions you use. In +any case, the seventeenth centuries saw the first applications of the renewed +Greek humanism that originated in the Renaissance. The counter-Christian +current was running stronger; more and more, people were beginning to demand +equal treatment for all, and freedom from the rigid boundaries of thought +and expression imposed on them by governments and churches alike. This +humanism has colored most "opposition" religious movements in America since +this time, much for the better in my opinion. This is because principles of +respect for the individual were put into the American system of government (as +an afterthought - the humanistic heyday had ended in the 1780's in America, +and the new would-be ruling class had to be forcibly reminded), and the +governmental structure was such that it was able to make progress in its +understanding of freedom. + +Things did not work out quite so well in France's humanistic revolution, +largely due to Robespierre, the atheistic moral grandfather of Stalin and Pol +Pot. He interpreted opposition to monarchy as punishing high birth with low +death, and then set out ruthlessly to purge opposition and deviation. Soon +monarchy was re-established in France. + +The nineteenth century was a period of resurgence of paganism. The +neo-classical movement was explicitly devoted to rediscovering the virtues of +the highly pagan societies Rome and Greece. This movement was to be by far +the dominant force of the century. Humanism was further applied to the +institution of slavery, resulting in war and social upheaval. The Prometheans +such as Blake, Shelley, Byron, and so forth were widely considered to be +among the greatest luminaries of the period. + +The method of science and its results made available much more information on +religions of the East and of less civilized cultures. Contact between +religiously different but politically equal forces invariably leads to mutual +excuses for the other, largely to help keep trade going, but also as a result +of time spent in foreign climes observing the practice of religion. This +creates, although not in great numbers at first, a different attitude toward +religions than the dogmatic denial of all other religions possible only under +a large and self-sufficient monolithic theocracy. Other religions are seen as +not neccessarily conflicting with one's own any more than another art movement +does with one's own favorite. + +There was a more open resurgence of sorcery in less overtly Christian forms, +particularly in the last half of the century. This attracted many notable +adherents, and from the publication of "The Magus" by Barrett in 1801, created +a magical library in modern English which is still widely read and used. It +used the work of Renaissance magicians, court sorcerors, Kabalists, and so +forth, and attempted to apply the psychological principles of the day in +various original fudgings. There was also the Theosophical movement, largely +discredited by Blavatsky's proven cheating on tests of psychic powers, and +rather more like spiritualism with Eastern allusions than any Eastern +religion. + +The psychical movement, which changed its name to parapsychology, grew out of +spiritualism, which grew out of mesmerism, which was apparently fairly +original and totally ludicrous, but did yield the secret of hypnotism. This +led legitimate investigators to examining the claims of other groups usually +brushed off as mystical. The early Society for Psychical Research,founded in +1882 and led by prominent scientists such as the American psychologist William +James, was formed "first, to carry on systematic experimentation with hypnotic +subjects, mediums, clairvoyants, and others; and, secondly, to collect +evidence concerning apparitions, haunted houses, and similar phenomena which +are incidentally reported, but which, from their fugitive nature, admit of no +deliberate control." + +It is to be noted that there is still, a century later, no replicable +experiment to demonstrate the existence of anything but hypnotic subjects in +this list. It is also worth noting that while general models of the layout of +the psyche continue to be employed in psychotherapy, there is still no +generally agreed upon experimental methodology to falsify features of these +models. Finally, it should be noted that the ritual magic methods employed +by many pagans, in other times as well as today, still have not been placed +under real scientific scrutiny to determine whether or not they produce any +physically measurable effects. (My feeling is that such effects are limited +in scope to participants in the rituals and people who have knowledge of their +occurrence, whether such knowledge is true or false.) + +Various factions of magicians struggled to survive in the early half of the +twentieth century, against an increasingly Christian atheist culture; that is, +a materialistic populace considered almost exclusively with day-to- day life +and easy entertainment, but still paying occasional lip service to +Christianity and suspicious of all other religions. Most of the inheritors of +nineteenth-century magical paganism were hopelessly fragmented and dogmatized, +incapable of working together and resolving their differences. + +In the late forties, Gerald Gardner began publishing books on witchcraft. +Gardner was a known associate of Crowley's and his rituals use a lot of +symbolism drawn from Crowley, but only a few actual references to Crowley. He +is also reported to have associated with Theosophist groups. Crowley was one +of the chief inheritors of the jumble left at the end of the nineteenth +century, as well as a traveler and student in Eastern lands. In any case, +Gardner (after Crowley) called for yet another neo-classicism, following the +pattern of all the other resurgences of Greco-Roman paganism, but more +explicitly religious. + +The laudable looseness of Gardner's system was more attractive to magically +inclined people than the Golden Dawn and Theosophy splinters remaining. It +freed them to create on their own, and they went at it with a vengeance. One +reason for the greater effective freedom was that Gardner was not as hard an +act to follow as many of the Golden Dawn leaders. He was soon gone beyond by +his students, many of whom went off to form their own Gardnerian splinters and +mythological histories of their origin. + +Another reason was the less formidable Gardnerian system of initiation. Most +magical groups had complex multi-layered spiritual hierarchies. These were +supposed to represent psychological fact, but little in the way of acceptable +empirical observation was used to correct these schemes, mostly drawn from +loose interpretations of the Kaballa, and they can't be said to have really +compelling inter-individual force. These were replaced by a simple hierarchy +of three grades. This was the high-level structure of the Golden Dawn, and of +a number of Masonic groups, which divided their degrees into categories.The +third grade was no longer reserved for secret chiefs who almost certainly +never existed or for mythological prophets, and the initiations had a +more joyful and celebratory character, rather than a system of awful +psychological ordeals. (I feel that the emphasis on ordeals and spiritual +hierarchy was a product of Christian influence, with the triumph of martyrdom +as a supreme spiritual experience and the hierarchic nature of the Church, and +that a simpler formula based on Thelemic growth, like the dominant neo-pagan +formula, rather than Christian death/rebirth is more appropriate.) + +A common claim among neo-pagans is that paganism was suddenly revealed to the +world in the fifties after centuries of hiding. This is demonstrably false; +all that is needed is a bit of history, textual analysis, and symbolic +comparison to see how close neo-paganism (as the movement came to be known in +the sixties) is to its known historical antecedents. But mythological +histories are themselves traditional in world religions. While it is +important to know the real history of a religion, this does not invalidate the +possible value of mythological tales of the origin, because these serve as +fictional statements of intent, often incorporating powerful symbolism. They +have literary value in this respect; and literary or other artistic value is a +type of spiritual value. + +Modern religious paganism has made a unique contribution. No eclectic/pagan +movement of the historical past has brought the contributions of paleolithic +shamanism into the fold as well as has neo-paganism. In large part this is +due to a rise in knowledge of such religions at the same time as the rise of +neo-paganism. This is an extremely valuable contribution; in shamanism lies +the roots of all human religion. A coven meeting still resembles a GD lodge +considerably more than it does a shamanistic lodge, despite the valuable +addition of techniques originating in shamanism. + +This has been a necessarily brief and incomplete account. I have not +mentioned Rabelais, the Rosicrucians, the decadent poets, Nietzsche, deSade, +Levi, Gurdjieff, James, Augustine, Shakespeare, Masonry, Paine, American +utopian communities, Jung, Merlin, art and spirit, or Gnosticism, all of which +are vital elements of the story; I have given short shrift to the psychical +movement and its influence on nineteenth and twentieth century paganism; and I +have neglected many other relevant topics. But I hope this will suffice +as a brief overview of the pagan history preceding neo-paganism. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/pagan_aa.txt b/religious documents/pagan_aa.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd9cb06 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pagan_aa.txt @@ -0,0 +1,316 @@ + ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS AND THE NEO-PAGAN + + by: "the Bard" + + GODDESS: Grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change, + the COURAGE to change the things I can, + and the WISDOM to know the difference.....! + + -the Serenity Prayer + + * + + Aw, f**k it! + -Serenity Prayer (short form) + + * + +(DISCLAIMER: the opinions in this article are my own, and should not, and +must not, be taken as necessarily the opinions of AA as a whole. AA does +NOT endorse ANY specific religious belief. To quote the standard definition: +"AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or +institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses or +opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other +alcoholics to achieve sobriety." GOT THAT?) + + * + + JUSTIFICATION 101 + + Taoists say, "Shit happens." + + Buddhists say, "If shit happens, it's not really shit." + + Zen says, "What is the sound of shit happening?" + + Hindus say, "This shit happened before." + + Muslims say, "If shit happens, Allah wills it." + + Protestants say, "If shit happens, let it happen to someone else." + + Catholics say, "If shit happens, you deserve it." + + Fundies say, "If shit happens, the Devil did it!" + + Jews say, "Why does shit always happen to us?" + + Baha'is say, "If shit happens, it's a Spiritual Experience!" + + Wiccans say, "There's gotta be a pony in here someplace!" + + * + + Alcoholics don't take lovers...they take hostages. + + * + + "Hi! My name's "the Bard," and I'm a grateful alcoholic and Recovering + Anglican." + + (Hi, Bard!) + + Now, for those lucky ones of you that are reading this who are -not- +drunks.....maybe none of this applies to you, tho you could perhaps learn +something from it. Just bear in mind that if you haven't "been there," then +you don't truly understand what it's like. Try to bear with us; we're not +finished yet... + * + + Probably the best way to start is to talk about the Twelve Steps of +AA....and comment on them from a Pagan point of view. Being Pagan doesn't +make us any better that anyone else, but it does affect our view of the +Universe. Being alcoholics, however, we will tend to do what every other +alky does, and start logic-chopping and complicating even the simplest things +into utterly unrecognizable impossibilties...and when we do -that- we can +say to ourselves, "It's too hard for me. I can't do that." + + Keep it SIMPLE, stupid! + + A question to think about: To properly work magick, you must be in +full possession of your faculties. You think you can work magick -drunk-? +HAH! That's kinda like giving an armed nuke to a three-year old child..... +Maybe it'll work out OK, and then again.......odds are pretty good that you'll +get a BIG hole in the ground REAL soon! + + Another question to think about: do you wonder, sometimes, if you +maybe -are- an alcoholic? Well, ole hoss, if you gotta wonder about it, then +you probably are.......alcoholism is a DISEASE. It is -not- an immoral defect +in you. It is NOT a "failing." It is simply a disease, and there is NO cure. + + There is, however, a way to recover from it. Read on! + + * + +STEP ONE: We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives + had become unmanageable. + + This one is pretty obvious, and doesn't need a lot of comment. It + applies the same to the Fundie as it does to the Pagan. If you + just can't handle alcohol, you just can't handle it. Period. + +STEP TWO: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore + us to sanity. + + What is the Goddess/God -but- a "power" greater than ourselves? + There IS a "Higher Power." Call it what you will. Call it God, + call it Goddess, call it Ralph, if you wanna, but it IS there, + and surrendering your EGO to it is necessary for it to work. + Brad Hicks said that "Nothing so chokes Magick as EGO," and he + was right! + +STEP THREE: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care + of God, as we understood Him. + + Now, PAY ATTENTION! It says "as we understood.." Yeah, it says + "God" and "Him." So what? This was written to reach out to people. + Ya want it to say "Goddess" and "Her?" FINE! Say it that way to + yourself. I know a guy that said "Ralph" and "It." Worked fine! + -Don't- get hung up in semantics. You got an agenda, take it + somewhere else. You bring it into AA, and you'll stay drunk. + + I notice that fella in the third row right is having problems with + the semantics here...he's associating "God" (or "Higher Power") + with that Big Fella with the Long White Beard that sits up in the + Great White Throne of Judgement and writes down everything bad you + do so He can punish you for it. I thought we had thrown out that + concept of the Punishing God! We ain't talking Fundie here, boy! + + By "ego" I do not mean your free will. This you have. This you will + always have. I mean surrendering that part of you that sits in the + corner and screams defiance at an uncaring world. The "child-self," + if you will. "Child" is selfish, uncaring, and manipulative. These + are things we need to recover -from-. "Child" will manipulate by many + techniques, one of which being "people pleasing." (We need to recover + from -that-, too.) + + Besides, if you are a practicing alky, your "will" consists mainly of + finding a way to get drunk. Pbflth! That ain't "will." That's an + addiction. + +STEP FOUR: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. + + OOPS! Here's a hard one! That icky buzzword "moral!" I hear a + LOT from Wiccans about the differences between "morals" and + "ethics." Frankly, if the actions/attitudes are harmful, then they + can be called immoral/unethical. "An ye harm NONE, do what ye will." + If your actions hurt someone, YOU need to realize it, and admit it. + See the next step. Logic-chopping at this point will only get you + into trouble. If you wanna read "ethics" for "morals," go right + ahead....just be honest with yourself. As a practicing alky, you've + lied to yourself long enough. + +STEP FIVE: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the + exact nature of our wrongs. + + So tell the Goddess (or Ralph) your problems with dealing with + life, liberty and the pursuit of tapioca pudding. Tell it to + yourself, too. GET A SPONSOR and talk to them about it. Pretty + simple, really. + +STEP SIX: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of + character. + + Talk to your sponsor about this one. The Goddess (or Ralph) will + do it, if you can get out from behind your own EGO long enough to + let it happen.... + +STEP SEVEN: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. + + Notice it says..."humbly." Contrary to the belief of -every- + single alky I've ever known, we are NOT the Center Of The + Universe. + + As amazing as it may sound, the Goddess runs the Multi-verse quite + well on Her own. -You- can't even handle alcohol on your own, so + what makes you think you can run the Multi-verse? + +STEP EIGHT: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to + make amends to them all. + + Yeah, I know, Karma has taken care of it. But that's on the level + of the whole Multi-verse. Make your list. This helps you to admit + to yourself (see the steps above) just where you were being a jerk. + Notice also it says "...became willing..." This does not mean "made + amends." It means you are WILLING, sincerely willing, to make those + amends. Karma has already stomped on you, if you think about it, but + for your own growth you MUST cop to this. + +STEP NINE: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when + to do so would injure them or others. + + This is pretty obvious, don't you think? You got questions about + this, ask your sponsor. + +STEP TEN: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong + promptly admitted it. + + "I thought I had made a misteak once, but I was wrong." + + (Good epitaph for anyone who died drunk! You die drunk, you stay + drunk next time around, until you get the message...you wanna do + that, go right ahead. Call me when you become teachable.) + + It's always pretty hard to admit to making a mistake...Wiccans and + other neo-Pagans are no different than anyone else about that one. + +STEP ELEVEN: Sought thru prayer and meditation to improve our conscious + contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for + knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out. + + No problem here for Pagans, is there? I mean after all, isn't + this exactly what we're trying to do in the first place? You + ain't gonna do diddely-squat with magick without the Higher + Power, anyway.....and this step is a doggone good lesson in + what real magick -really- is all about. Think about it for a + while. + + It is your Will that wants you to get sober. It is your EGO that + keeps you drinking, along with the physical "allergy." Take that + EGO, that spoiled child-self, and turn it over to the Goddess. Or + Ralph. + +STEP TWELVE: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, + we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice + these principles in all our affairs. + + So whattya think I'm -doing- here ? + + * + + Just for funsies, let's look at those steps in -reverse-...... + + *************************************************************** + + THE 12 STEPS IN REVERSE + + SUCCESSFUL RULES FOR THE SELF-DESTRUCTION OF THE ALCOHOLIC + +1. I stated that I could handle liquor and/or drugs, and I was master + of my fate. + +2. Firmly believed that I was entirely rational and sane in every + respect. + +3. Made a decision to run my own life and be successful in all my + undertakings. + +4. Made a searching and thorough inventory of my fellow man and found + him wanting. + +5. Admitted to no one, including God and myself, that there was + anything wrong with me. + +6. Sought through alcohol and/or drugs to overcome my responsibilities + and escape the realities of life. + +7. Got drunk/stoned to remove these shortcomings. + +8. Made a list of all persons who had harmed me, whether imaginary or + real, and swore to get even. + +9. Got even whenever possible, except when to do so would injure me. + +10. Continued to find fault with the world and with the people in it, + and when I was right, promptly admitted it. + +11. Sought through conniving and hypocrisy to improve myself + materially at the expense of my fellow man as I misunderstood him, + asking only for the means to get and stay drunk or stoned and escape + from reality. + +12. After having a complete moral, physical and financial breakdown, I + tried to drag those who were dear to me down to my level, and to + practice these reasonings in all my affairs. + + ******************************************************************* + + Well? + + It may be that you are still a practicing alcoholic. You are still +drinking and drugging and making everyone around you miserable. I won't +preach to you. If that's what you want to do, then that's fine with me. +That's -your- problem, not mine. I am dealing with -me-, today, not with +you. + + When you hit bottom, whatever that may be to you, whether it is +winding up in the drunk tank, or squatting in a corner with DT's, or +being thrown thru the roof of a car at 65 MPH (and surviving it), or having +blackouts, or losing everything you have, or, Goddess forbid, killing some +one else with your car.....and the Goddess FINALLY gets your attention, +then remember that AA is out there, and CAN help you. + + Call your local Central Office, and get the location, date and +time of a meeting near you. If you need a ride to it, they'll be glad to +help out. Get a copy of the Big Book, and read it. + + Go to meetings. Read the Big Book. You don't even have to -say- +anything in meetings. Just sit there and listen for a while, if that's +what you feel you need to do.....but GO TO THE DAMN MEETINGS! + + This is being published, initially, over BBSes. Your local BBS, +if it is FIDONET, may carry the RECOVERY echo. It is available on the +backbone, and can be brought in by your local SysOp. Ask for it. Read it. +It's for -you-. + + * + + Blessed Be! + Sober, one day at a time: + + -the Bard + Yule, 1990 CE + + (end) + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/pagandrg.txt b/religious documents/pagandrg.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0aebc16 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pagandrg.txt @@ -0,0 +1,135 @@ +Nachricht #11/14 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 18.Mar 92 22:17 +Von : The Scribe +An : All +Betreff: drug use +=> 12887 +Paul Tuitean +PO BX 24213 +Edina MN 55424 + +Dear Gentle people; + Enclosed you should find an article which I am trying to get +published in as many Pagan newspapers as possible before the main start +of the Festival season. + I am a representative of the Guardians of the fourth face. Which is +a pagan order concerned with the safety and security of the entire Pagan +Community, and we believe that it is time for us as a community, to make +some decisions about our public use of drugs. Thus this article. + We are trying to reach as large a Pagan audience as possible and would +appreciate the inclusion of this article in your news letter. Because of +this We waive all copyrights etc., and request that you print my address +with this letter so as to facilitate the dissemination of this article and +any feed back you might receive. + We feel that this is a very important issue for our community at +this time and believe that we should try to arrive at some sort of +consensus as a group, before we as a community have to face the far +reaching effects of a "DRUG BUST" at one of our gatherings +Thank you very much for your time. + Blessed Be + Paul Tuitean + Guardians of the Fourth Face + +(Continued next message) + + +--- QuickBBS 2.75 Ovr + * Origin: CRYSTAL CAVE DAS MAGICKAL TREFFPUNKT 719-391-1092 (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #12/14 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 18.Mar 92 22:18 +Von : The Scribe +An : All +Betreff: drug use +12886 <==> 12888 +(Drugs continued page 3 of 5) +Unfortunately things have changed sufficiently in the past couple of years +for all Pagans to question whether any controlled substance use at our +gatherings, can still be argued to"harm none". Here is why we believe this +issue is critical. + A) Because of the so called war on drugs this countries drug laws + (among others) have become more restrictive and repressive. + With for example the possession of just 1/4 oz of marijuana now carrying + a mandatory ten year sentence, or(if it is a second drug related offense) + life with out parole, in one state we know of(Florida). + B)The political orientation of this country has been swinging more and more + towards the "right" and becoming increasingly intolerant as the economy + has become more unstable. This has left some politicians, including some + police Chiefs, looking for a new focus to enhance declining revenues. + C)The great satanic Conspiracy Theory has Finally been fairly well + discredited, this is leaving certain Satan experts looking for something + to restore their lost credibility. Some of these experts are fundamen- + talist Christian Police Officers. +These situations (among others) could provide some enterprising police +officers +with an extremely attractive "bust", if they could catch the people at a +witch's meeting in possession of,or(gods help us) dealing illegal substances. +How attractive a bust is illustrated by what happened at the Gay Mens +Festival in Iowa two years ago, where thirty one law enforcement officers +from six different departments intervened. + Where the Guardians see the most danger(besides the adverse publicity +that such a bust would produce ) is that any drug related arrest at one of +our gatherings would likely get: + - the primary suspects long prison terms + - all others present at the gathering arrested + - The Organizers of the gathering and Owners of the property charged + with various felonies ranging from "aiding and abetting","Concealing + a Felony", "Conspiracy to distribute, "Running a disorderly or drug + house", to "Contributing to the delinquency of minors" and Child + abuse". + +(Continued next Message) + + + + +--- QuickBBS 2.75 Ovr + * Origin: CRYSTAL CAVE DAS MAGICKAL TREFFPUNKT 719-391-1092 (93:9510/0) +Nachricht #13/14 in "METAPHYSICAL" (Oeffentlich) +Datum : 18.Mar 92 22:19 +Von : The Scribe +An : All +Betreff: drug use +12887 <==> 12931 +Drugs continued page 5 of 5 + +This will hopefully give the organizers and property owners some +hope of legal protection if a problem should arise. We also recommend +that the organizers of every pagan gathering consider including a similar +statement in their Waiver Forms. The Guardians are not trying to impose +our own moral judgment, or standards on anyone. If you feel that it is +within your inalienable Religious or Constitutional Rights to use drugs, +fine.If you feel the need to combat "UNJUST LAWS", fine. We only ask +that you do so in your territory, and please, do not Martyr your sisters +and brothers who may not be prepared for the honor. + +We expect this article to generate some controversy in our community. +We anticipate some criticism for what we have said here. But the stakes +involved are too high and we believe the Pagan Community as a whole needs +to come to grips with this issue. The Guardians feel that because of +these very real threats to our people, that the entire Community needs to +reach a consensus to : + -Consistently and visibly Ban the public use of Controlled + Substances at all our Gatherings for the foreseeable future. + -Pursue concerted legal and political efforts(on the state + level where we can possibly get legislation enacted to our benefit + in this matter) to change the laws we consider unjust, to warn our + people, who may not be able to get involved, when they might be in + jeopardy. + As with all subjects that touch the safety or security of the pagan +Community, the Guardians of the Fourth Face, as members of the Pagan +Community, believe in the creed: + "DO AS YE WILL, AN YE HARM OR ENDANGER NONE" + +What do you believe ? + +Blessed Be + + Paul Tuitean of + the Guardians of the fourth Face + PO BX 24213 + Edina, MN 5424 + + + +--- QuickBBS 2.75 Ovr + * Origin: CRYSTAL CAVE DAS MAGICKAL TREFFPUNKT 719-391-1092 (93:9510/0) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/paganfaq.txt b/religious documents/paganfaq.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9212c7d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/paganfaq.txt @@ -0,0 +1,783 @@ +Archive-name: paganism-faq +Last-modified: Oct 1994 +Version: 2.1 +Posting-frequency: every four weeks or after each revision +Keywords: paganism Wicca Witchcraft + + + FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS FOR ALT.PAGAN + +Authors: +Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik; Br'an Arthur Davis-Howe; +T. O. Radzykewycz; Ailsa N.T. Murphy; Cecilia Henningsson + +Acknowledgements to Jack Coyote, Robert Pearson, Chris Carlisle and +Izzy, and a special thanks to Janis Maria Cortese. + +**Disclaimer** + Throughout this FAQ you will find the words "usually," often," and +other disclaimers; this is because Paganism is not a rigid, structured +belief system. We have tried to present as many faces of the neopagan +sub-culture as possible in the FAQ, but realize we can't possibly +cover it all. + + Many people, no doubt, will object to every part of this FAQ, but +we stand by it as our best attempt. + +*First version completed 25 January 1993* + +Questions: + + 1) What is this group for? + 2) What is paganism/a pagan? + 2b) What is Paganism? How is it different from paganism? + 3) What are different types of paganism? + 4) What is Witchcraft/Wicca? + 4b) Why do some of you use the word Witch? Wiccan? + 5) What are some different traditions in the Craft? + 6) Are pagans Witches? + 7) Are you Satanists? + 8) What kinds of people are pagans? + 9) What holidays do you celebrate? + 9b) How do I pronounce...? What does this name mean? + 10) What god(s) do you believe in? + 11) Can one be both Christian and pagan? + 12) What were the Burning Times? + 13) How many pagans/Witches are there today? + 14) Why isn't it soc.religion.paganism instead of alt.pagan? + 15) Is brutal honesty or polite conversation the preferred tone of + conversation around here? + 16) What are the related newsgroups? + 17) Are there any electronic mailing lists on this subject? + 18) I'm not a pagan; should I post here? + 19) How does one/do I become a pagan? + 20) What books/magazines should I read? + 21) How do I find pagans/Witches/covens/teachers in my area? + 22) What's a coven really like? + 23) How do I form a coven? + 24) What does Dianic mean? + 25) Aren't women-only circles discriminatory? + 26) Can/will you cast me a love spell/curse my enemies? + 27) Is it okay if I...? Will I still be a pagan if I...? + 28) I am a pagan and I think I am being discriminated against because + of my religion. What should I do? + 29) What one thing would most pagans probably want the world to know + about them? + + +1) What is this group for? + + This newsgroup is for the discussion of paganism and Witchcraft in +their various forms and traditions; for sharing ideas for ritual and +completed liturgy; for networking with others of a like mind and those +who are not; for answering questions and disseminating information +about paganism and Witchcraft (and, occasionally, for dispelling the +misconceptions about same). It's also for sharing within a larger +community than one might find at home. While we are interested in +traditional pagan practices, the alt.pagan community is fundamentally +neopagan -- our practices are modern, though they are based on ancient +ideas or images. + +2) What is paganism/a pagan? + + The words paganism and pagan come from the Latin "paganus," +meaning "country dweller." Neopagans hold a reverence for the Earth +and all its creatures, generally see all life as interconnected, and +tend to strive to attune one's self to the manifestation of this +belief as seen in the cycles of nature. Pagans are usually +polytheistic (believing in more than one god), and they usually +believe in immanance, or the concept of divinity residing in all +things. Many pagans, though polytheistic, see all things as being +part of one Great Mystery. The apparent contradiction of being both +polytheistic and monotheistic can be resolved by seeing the God/desses +as masks worn by the Great Mystery. Other pagans are simply +monotheistic or polytheistic, and still others are atheistic. + + Some people believe paganism to be a religion within itself; +others see it as a belief system (such as monotheism) that can be +incorporated into religions like Wicca or Druidism; others see it as a +broad category including many religions. The fact that we are +re-creating religion for ourselves after centuries of suppression +makes us very eclectic and very concerned with the "rightness" of a +particular thing for the individual. So when you see some people +calling it a religion and others not, when you see it capitalized in +some instances and not in others, don't be confused -- we're all still +basically talking about the same thing. + +2b) What is Paganism? How is it different from paganism? + + Paganism (with a capital "P") is one strand of neopaganism which +strives to allow each person to draw from whatever religious and +cultural traditions are meaningful for the individual. The practices +of Paganism derive from those of Wicca, but are not identical with +those of Wicca. Some people view Paganism as a non-initiatory form of +Wicca, or Wicca as an initiatory form of Paganism. Some say that +Witches are the clergy of Paganism. (On the other hand, some Witches +violently disagree with that viewpoint. As with most things in this +FAQ, there is no answer with which everyone can completely agree.) + +3) What are different types of paganism? + + Paleo-paganism: the standard of paganism, a pagan culture which +has not been disrupted by "civilization" by another culture -- +Australian Bushmen modern (who are probably becoming meso-pagans), +ancient Celtic religion (Druidism), the religions of the +pre-patriarchal cultures of Old Europe, Norse religion, pre-Columbian +Native American religions, etc. + + Civilo-paganism: the religions of "civilized" communities which +evolved in paleo-pagan cultures -- Classical Greco-Roman religion, +Egyptian religion, Middle-Eastern paganism, Aztec religion, etc. + + Meso-paganism: a group, which may or may not still constitute a +separate culture, which has been influenced by a conquering culture, +but has been able to maintain an independence of religious practice -- +many Native American nations, etc. + + Syncreto-paganism: similar to meso-pagan, but having had to +submerge itself into the dominant culture, and adopt the external +practices and symbols of the other religion -- the various +Afro-diasporic traditions (Voudoun, Santeria, etc.), Culdee +Christianity, etc. + + Neopaganism: attempts of modern people to reconnect with nature, +using imagery and forms from other types of pagans, but adjusting them +to the needs of modern people. Since this category is the focus of +alt.pagan, the listing here is more comprehensive (though no listing +could be completely comprehensive): + + Wicca -- in all its many forms + neo-Shamanism + neo-Druidism + Asatru and other forms of Norse neopaganism + neo-Native American practices + the range of things labeled "Women's Spirituality" + the Sabaean Religious Order + Church of All Worlds + Discordianism + Radical Faeries and other "Men's Spirituality" movements + certain people within Thelema and hedonistic Satanism + some of eco-feminism + and last, but not least, Paganism + +4) What is Witchcraft/Wicca? + + Wicca was the first (or at least one of the first) of the neopagan +religions. As a result, it is the best known, and tends to overshadow +its younger, smaller siblings. This bias appears in the postings in +alt.pagan and in this FAQ. This does not mean that Wicca is more +valid than other neopagan religions -- just larger and louder. + + Wicca, however, is only one of the things called W/witchcraft (or +sometimes, the Craft, a term also applied to Masonry). There are a +whole range of styles of folk-magic around the world which are called +witchcraft in English. If the word Witch is capitalized, it indicates +that it is being used to refer to a member of a pagan religion, not +just to a practitioner of folk-magic. There are also Witches who +practice religions called Witchcraft which are not Wicca. These +religions tend to be more folk-pagan than Wicca, drawing on the +heritage of a specific culture or region. + + Wicca itself is a new religion, drawing strongly on the practices +of Ceremonial Magic. While there are claims that Wicca goes back into +the mists of pre-history, honest examination of the practices and +history of the Wicca will make it clear that Wicca is new. (Actually, +the word "Wicca" itself is recently coined, at least in its present +usage. The OE "wicca" was pronounced "witch-ah" and meant male +magician. The new word "Wicca" is pronounced "wick-uh", capitalized +as a religion, and means a religion, not a person.) However, Wicca +has developed in many directions and should not be seen as a unified +whole, even though it is fairly new. Rituals and beliefs vary widely +among Witches. + + Unlike most of the neopagan religions, Wicca is an initiatory +religion, that is, people who choose to practice Wicca believe that +the commitment to this path set changes in motion in their lives. +Many Traditions (sects) of Wicca formalize this with a ritual (or +series of rituals) of initiation. Others, especially Solitary +Witches, trust that the Gods will do the initiating of the Witch. + +4b) Why do some of you use the word Witch? Wiccan? + + First, not everyone in alt.pagan is Wiccan/Witchy, so this +question only applies to some of the people. + + Witch is a very old word meaning "magic-maker", from a root which +meant "bending" and "shaping". For many of us, the word Witch is a +powerful reclaiming of that inherent human power to make changes +around us. For others, including some of the people within Wicca, +that word is not their word. Some people within Wicca take the +adjective "Wiccan" and use it as a noun. + + (Some people question the authenticity of the etymology that says +"witch" means "to bend or shape." They believe that the word is +simply from the Old English for "wise one" and has no relation to the +root mentioned above -- which gives us the modern word "wicker," for +instance. However, this definition is a good way to think of how a +modern Witch might see him/herself.) + +5) What are some different traditions in the Craft? + + Different traditions in the Craft include Gardnerian Wicca, +Alexandrian Wicca, Dianic Wicca, the Faery tradition, many branches of +Celtic-based Wicca, and many other forms of Wicca often called +eclectic, since they draw their practices and liturgy from many +different sources. There is no way to include all traditions because +new ones are being created every day by the practitioners themselves. + +6) Are pagans Witches? + + We've mentioned that even among pagans and Witches, there is +dispute about just how specific these terms are. But the majority +opinion seems to be that the question, "Are pagans Witches?" is about +the same as the question, "Are Christians Catholics?" (or Methodists, +Baptists or whatever). Most Witches are pagans, but not all pagans +are Witches. + +7) Are you Satanists? + + This is a bit of a loaded question, since there are several +different conceptions of what Satanism really is. Most pagans do not +worship Satan or practice Satanic rites. Some pagans practice +something called Satanism, but it is a far cry from the Hollywood +image of Satanism. These people tend to value pleasure as a primary +motivation, or to find meaning in images which the repressive +Christian churches attacked. For some of these folk, reclaiming the +word "Satanist" is an act of resistance against oppression. For more +information on Satanism as a religion, please check out alt.satanism. + + If what you're really wanting to know is do we sacrifice babies +and worship evil incarnate, the answer's no. + +8) What kinds of people are pagans? + + People from all walks of life are pagans -- computer programmers, +artists, police officers, journalists, university professors -- the +list is endless. Many people, no matter what their mundane +occupation, find solace in the life-affirming aspects of paganism. + +9) What holidays do you celebrate? + + Because neopaganism follows so many traditions from many different +parts of the world, there is no single set of holidays that all +neopagans celebrate. Several calendars are available which list many +different holidays, one or more for every day of the year (e.g. Wise +Woman's Wheel of the Year calendar from SageWoman Magazine). Most of +these holidays are either dedicated to particular deities (e.g. +Brighid, Diana, Thor), or mark seasonal changes in the environment +(e.g. the solstices and equinoxes). What specific holidays are +celebrated is something decided within a certain tradition, or by the +individual. + +9b) How do I pronounce...? What does this name mean? + + The names that are generally used to denote the Wiccan sabbats (as +well as festivals of many pagan traditions) come from Gaelic (both +Scots and Irish), Welsh, Norse, and Anglo-Saxon. There are variations +of pronunciations for each one. We are not trying to say that if you +don't say it like we tell you to, that you'll be wrong or anything +like that. But since so many people have asked, here is a list that +can give you a good start in trying to sound like the languages from +which these words came. + + Just remember, this is not some kind of Sekrit Pagan Language +(TM); many of these words are in use in Europe today by pagans and +non-pagans alike to denote these days. And yes, this shows a European +bias, but then so do the commonly-used names for Wiccan holy days. +These seem to be the names most frequently asked about in alt.pagan. + + Samhain (31 Oct) -- Irish Gaelic for "summer's end." The +standard Irish pronunciation is "sow-in" with the "ow" like in "cow." +Other pronunciations that follow with the many Gaelic dialects include +"sow-een" "shahvin" "sowin" (with "ow" like in "glow"). The Scots +Gaelic spelling is "Samhuin" or "Samhuinn." There is no linguistic +foundation for saying this word "samhane" the way it might look if it +were English. When in doubt, just say "Hallows" or even "Hallowe'en." + + Yule (@21 Dec) -- Norse for "wheel." It's pretty much +pronounced just like it looks, although if you want to make a stab at +a Scandinavian sound, it'll be more like "yool" and less like "yewl." +This is the winter solstice. + + Imbolg/Imbolc (1 Feb) -- Irish Gaelic for "in the belly." +Pronounce this one "IM-bullug" or "IM-bulk" with a guttural "k" on the +end. Other names include Candlemas; Brighid (pronounced "breed"), who +is the Irish goddess whose festival this is; and Oimelc (pronounced +EE-mulk), which means "ewe's milk" in Scots Gaelic. + + Ostara (@21 Mar) -- Saxon name for a maiden goddess of spring, +loosely connected to Astarte and Ishtar. This one's easy -- +"o-STAHR-uh." Other names include Eostre (say "OHS-truh" or +"EST-truh"). This is the spring equinox. + + Beltane/Bealtaine (30 April) -- Irish Gaelic for either "fires +of Bel" or "bright fires." If you want to try it in Gaelic, you can +say "bee-YAWL-tinnuh" or "BELL-tinnuh." Unlike Samhain, this word can +within the linguistic structure of its language of origin be +pronounced like it looks -- "BELL-tane" -- without totally abandoning +its original construction. Other names are Walpurgisnacht +(vawl-PUR-gis-nahkt) and May Day. + + Litha (@21 Jun) -- Norse or Anglo-Saxon for "longest day." +You can say this one just like it looks, or you can try for a +Scandinavian sound and say "leetha" with the "th" more like a "t." +This is the summer solstice. + + Lughnasadh/Lunasa or Lammas (1 Aug) -- The first is Irish +Gaelic for "festival of Lugh" (a major Irish deity); the second is +Anglo-Saxon for "festival of the loaves" ("hlaf-mass"). Don't panic +at that spelling; the second (which is modern Irish as opposed to old +Irish) tells you all you need to know. Say "LOO-nah-sah." (Some +people maintain that the Scots dialect says it "LOO-nah-soo.") Lammas +is just like it looks, "LAH-mus." + + Mabon (@21 Sep) -- This is believed to be a form of the Welsh +word for "son." Therefore, it would probably be pronounced "MA-bon" +with the "a" like in "mass." However, most Wiccans and pagans say +"MAY-bon." This is the autumn equinox. + +10) What god(s) do you believe in? + + Neopagans believe in a great many goddesses and gods. However, +not all neopagans believe in the same ones, or even in any at all. +Many neopagans believe in a Goddess and a God that are manifest in all +things. Some follow particular pantheons (e.g. Greek, Irish, Norse, +Yoruban, Welsh), others don't stick to any one culture, and still +others see the Divine in more symbolic terms. Many ascribe certain +qualities to different goddesses, such as Athena as the goddess of +wisdom; Aphrodite as the goddess of love; Artemis as the goddess of +the hunt, and so on. Many pagans and Witches see the Goddess in three +aspects, those of Maiden, Mother and Crone; and the God in two, the +Young God and the Old God. Other pagans do not believe in any gods at +all, but instead honor spirits and/or totems in various forms such as +animals or trees, as in many of the native American religions. As is +usually the case, defining "God" is a very slippery idea. But these +are some of the more common among modern pagans. + +11) Can one be both Christian and pagan? + + Depends on who you ask. :) + + There is much dissention on this particular topic, with both +pagans and Christians taking both stances. There are many brands of +Christian mysticism, some more similar to the aspects of paganism than +others. But some pagans who dance outside to the light of the moon +and praise the Goddess in Her aspect of Diana see and feel no +contradiction to going inside and lighting candles to Mary, the Queen +of Heaven and the Mother of God, the next day. And those same pagans +see the same sacrificial king motif in Jesus as they do in Osiris. + + Many people might find it difficult to reconcile the two paths; +others see a successful integration possible. It depends on what is +right for the individual. + +12) What were the Burning Times? + + The Burning Times is the name used by many modern Witches and +pagans for the era of the Inquisition, and of the other witch hunts +(including Salem) which sprang from it. During that time, many +women and some men were persecuted for practices objectionable to the +Church, especially witchcraft. The _Malleus Maleficarum_ was a guide +on how to torture accused witches into confessing to whatever they +were accused of. At the height of the persecutions, entire towns were +left with only one or two women in them, and to this day no one knows +for sure how many people were brutally murdered during this craze. + + As is often the case, this horror sprang from fear and +misinformation -- most of the people who were arrested, tortured and +killed were not Witches (or witches) of any sort, but simply people +who had gotten on the wrong side of someone who had the local +magistrate's ear, or who somehow didn't fit in (particularly beautiful +or ugly women, widows who had wealth or owned land, the handicapped +and retarded, and even overly intelligent people are all examples of +those who became primary targets of this persecution). + + Although discrimination still exists against Witches and pagans, +we now enjoy comparative freedom of religious practice after those +dark times. But this time is considered a very important event by +most Witches and pagans (comparable to the atrocities and devastation +perpetrated during the Holocaust ), one that should never be +forgotten, and many do active public education work to assure as best +they can that it will never happen again. + +13) How many pagans/Witches are there today? + + Although many people have given estimates, it's impossible to know +this due to the number of people "in the broom closet." However, all +branches of the neopagan movement are steadily growing. + +14) Why isn't it soc.religion.paganism instead of alt.pagan? + + Because we had a vote to create a talk.religion.paganism newsgroup +back in January 1990 and it was voted down, largely because the +proposed group was to be moderated and people didn't like that idea. +So, when that failed, some enterprising soul took it upon himself to +create alt.pagan, because you don't need approval to do that. + + Since then, we have discussed changing newsgroup hierarchies +(usually to either soc.religion or talk.religion), but the consensus +at present seems to be to keep the format we have. Being typical +pagans, we like as little structure as possible. + +15) Is brutal honesty or polite conversation the preferred mode +of conversation around here? + + People tend to get a little rowdy around here sometimes, so don't +let it get to you. One of the disadvantages to this type of +communication is the increased possibility of misunderstanding due to +the inability to see the person and hear his or her vocal inflections, +see their facial expressions, et cetera. It's generally frowned upon +to attack someone baselessly, but there is no problem with disagreeing +with someone vigorously -- vociferously, even. Try being +constructive. + +16) What are the related newsgroups? + + alt.mythology + alt.satanism + alt.magick + alt.astrology + alt.divination + alt.discordia + +17) Are there any electronic mailing lists on this subject? + + Many -- we will include some in our alt.pagan resources list. +This list is not yet completed; we will revise the FAQ as soon as it +is. + +18) I'm not a pagan; should I post here? + + Yes, definitely -- with a couple of caveats: + + a) Don't come on to witness to us. We're really not interested in +being converted (or worse, saved). It's not a tenet of our path to +convert, and so we are particularly unhappy with the idea. Plus +which, you will add unnecessarily to the noise level in this +newsgroup, since most readers will feel compelled to flame you to the +farthest reaches of Hell. + + (This doesn't mean we don't want to discuss aspects of other +religions as they relate to paganism, however. Discussion we like. +Argument, even. But *not* witness attempts.) + + b) If you're new to News, then you might want to check out +news.announce.newusers for the posting protocol. And you might want +to read some articles for a while -- get the feel of things -- before +you post. + +And remember, Usenet and Internet provide you with (among other +things) the opportunity to make a total fool of yourself in front of +thousands of people worldwide, *and* include the bonus of having it +preserved on CD-ROM for many years afterwards. + +19) How does one/do I become a pagan? + + Most followers of pagan beliefs feel that, if someone is meant to +find the pagan path, s/he will eventually. Usually, it is not a case +so much of "becoming" a pagan as it is of finding a vocabulary for +ideas and beliefs that you have always held. Good ways of +investigating if this path is for you is to frequent pagan or new age +bookstores, attend open pagan gatherings when the opportunity arises, +and look for contacts. Most importantly, read read read! There are +plenty of good books out there, as well as periodicals. The latter +especially might be useful in the way of making contacts in your area. + +20) What books/magazines should I read? + + There are many, many good books on this subject (and quite a few +bad ones), and we will have many of them in our alt.pagan resources +list when it is completed. But the best book to read is _Drawing Down +the Moon_ by Margot Adler. This is not a how-to book; it's a +comprehensive study of the neopagan movement in America, and the +author is a journalist, a reporter for National Public Radio, and a +pagan. + + Also, to get started contacting other pagans, the best place to +write is Circle Network, P.O. Box 219, Mt. Horeb, WI, 53572. Circle +is the largest pagan network in the country and publishes a guide to +pagan groups around the United States, Canada, and overseas. They +might be able to get you in touch with pagans in your area if you +can't find them yourself. + + For residents of the UK who are looking for contacts, try +getting in touch with the Pagan Federation. Similar to Circle in +intent, they publish a quarterly newsletter and provides contact +information for UK pagans. Their address is Pagan Federation, BM Box +7097, London, WC1N 3XX, United Kingdom. + + If you start with that, then you will generally find pointers to +other sources and resources. + +21) How do I find pagans/Witches/covens/teachers in my area? How do I +evaluate them? + + Some of your best contacts may come from your local new age, pagan +or occult bookstores. Check their bulletin boards for notices, or ask +the staff. Also, many periodicals frequently allow people to +advertise for contacts in their particular area. Circle Network, +based in Wisconsin, has recently come out with an updated guide to +pagan groups; it is available by mail-order or through certain new age +bookstores. + + Don't be in a hurry to find a teacher. "When the student is +ready, the teacher will appear" is a popular saying in most pagan and +Craft communities. Frustrating as that may sound, it's really a +sensible way to think. Neopaganism, like any esoteric movement, +attracts its share of unsavory characters. When you do meet people, +use your intuition. If they seem somehow "off" to you, then they're +probably not for you. If no one seems like someone you think you'd +like to be with, then you're probably better off working solitary, at +least for such time as you find no compatible people. + + And by no means should you infer from this that all solitaries are +"pagans-in-waiting". Many people are quite happy to work alone, and +in fact prefer it. There is nothing wrong with working on your own as +long as you like -- even if that turns out to be a lifetime. + + In fact, there are several people who highly recommend that you +study on your own for a while before looking for others to work with. +This gives you the chance to get started figuring out what feels right +for you without having pressure from others to conform to their +beliefs and dogmas. + +22) What's a coven really like? + + Well, if you're expecting to hear about sex and blood magic, +animal sacrifice, and ritual cruelty, then you'll be disappointed. +Forming or joining a coven, is a spiritual commitment (the words coven +and covenant are related) that is entered into advisedly. Once that +bond is made, though, you find yourself in a spiritual community of +people who have roughly the same theology, getting together to +celebrate the passing of the seasons and the cycles of the moon, +providing support and comfort to its members -- a lot like a small +spiritual community of any faith. Another common saying in the Craft +is "In perfect love and perfect trust," and that sums up the +relationship among coveners pretty well. + + Another kind of group for like-minded pagans to gather in is +called a circle. The ties between coven members are as close as those +between members of a family, and in some cases, closer. A circle is +similar to a group of friends -- you like to do things together, but +the bonds between members are not as serious as between coven-members. + +23) How do I form a coven? + + Just as you shouldn't be in a big rush to find a teacher, you +probably shouldn't set right out to form a coven. Most Witches +believe the coven bond to be a very intense and serious one, one that +applies on the Karmic as well as mundane levels. Think of it as +getting married -- you wouldn't marry the first people you met who are +interested in getting married too, would you? + + Forming a circle, or a magical study group, is perhaps a better +first step. It can be on a relatively informal basis, and you and the +other participants can get to know each other while learning about the +Craft together (as a matter of fact, many covens are formed from study +groups). The fun of this is that you can meet more people who are +interested in what you're interested in, and you can all learn +together, and maybe even develop a tradition from the results of your +studies. (You can do this as a solitary, of course, but some people +do take more enjoyment in working with others. Once again, do what's +right for you.) + + The steps for contacting people to form a coven are much the same +as finding other pagans and Witches in your area. A word of advice, +though: You may want to leave your last name off, or get a P.O. box. +Don't give out your number (unless you have an answering machine). +Advertising yourself as being interested in this sort of thing might +attract, shall we say, undesirables. Try writing such a notice so +that those who are probably interested in similar ideals will know +what you're talking about without attracting the attention of people +who aren't. Even though *we* know that we're perfectly ethical and +legitimate, not everyone else does. + +24) What does Dianic mean? + + Like everything else in neopaganism and the Craft, the term Dianic +is one that has several meanings. A majority of those who call +themselves Dianic are women that choose not to work with male energy +in their ritual, magic, or universe. They feel that they need +spiritual and psychic space filled with only women's energy. + + Some Dianics are feminist Witches, both lesbian and heterosexual, +who often come to the Craft through feminism. Although these women +may be involved with men in one way or another, they agree that +religion has over-emphasized the male for the last several thousand +years, and therefore want to share their women's energy in women's +circles. They may or may not also be involved with the mainstream +pagan community, and they may or may not participate in magic and +ritual with men. + + The most visible groups of Dianics are those who are lesbian +Dianics. They are generally not interested in revering any sort of +male deity or in working with men in circle. They choose to limit +their dependence on and acceptance of the male-defined world as much +as possible, and they do so not to exclude men but rather to celebrate +women and the feminine. For that reason many of them do not interact +much with the "mainstream" pagan community. + + (There are also those who call themselves Dianic and who are not +like those described above, but who practice Witchcraft based on the +traditions found books like those of anthropologist Margaret Murray. +However, the term is more often meant to designate those practitioners +described in the first two paragraphs.) + +25) Aren't women-only circles discriminatory? + + Yes, women-only circles are discriminatory. So what? *ALL* +circles are somewhat discriminatory, even if the only discrimination +is that they'll evict preachers who disrupt the proceedings of the +circle. + + If you're worried about being discriminatory in your own circle, +simply look at the circle as a group of friends. Then, the +discrimination is simply a limit on who you'll have as your friends, +which is undeniably a good thing. + + If you're worried about being discriminated against, then you can +form your own circle, and you have the option to make it a men-only +circle. Why do you want to intrude into a social space where you're +not wanted? + + If the participants are discussing business-related things +affecting you during their circle, then you have legal rights to be +allowed to participate, regardless of whether the discrimination is +gender-related or not. It would be good advice to avoid such topics +during circle. If you're worried that a circle from which you're +excluded is doing so, you can talk to a lawyer to find out what those +rights are and whether it will be wise and useful to pursue them. + + Ultimately, though, you need to remember that some people feel +strongly that some mysteries are gender-related and therefore it is +not appropriate to have men (or women, depending) in attendance. It's +not a plot to keep you out or to make you feel bad, but rather quite +an ancient method of exploring certain mysteries that only apply to +one sex (e.g. menstruation). + +26) Can/will you cast me a love spell/curse my enemies? + + Can we? Probably. (Whether it might yield the desired result is +something else.) Will we? Not on your life, bucko. + + Pagans and Witches usually believe in some form of what's called +the Witches' Rede: "As long as you harm no one, do what you will." +That isn't nearly as easy as it might sound. That means whatever +action you undertake, it can't harm anyone, including yourself. +Witches and pagans also believe in some form of the Law of Return: +"Whatever you do magically [or otherwise] will come back to you," some +say three times, some nine, some just say it will come back to you. +And it does. As Ursula K. LeGuin said, "You can't light a candle +without somewhere casting a shadow." + + Most of us believe that it is wrong to use magical power to coerce +someone into doing something against his or her free will. Curses and +love spells are the most prevalent examples of manipulative magic. +Some Witches and pagans do believe that using one's powers in defense +(say, to assure a rapist's getting caught) is all right; others do +not. Those who do choose to work that kind of magic do so knowing +that it will come back to them, and are making an informed choice when +they decide to do so. + + This makes it sound as if we spend our lives deciding whether to +curse or hex someone, when that's not true. Most of the time, our +spells and magical workings are for such things as healing the planet, +getting a job (or otherwise bringing prosperity into our lives), +healing (both ourselves and others), and spiritual empowerment. +Spells are really quite similar to prayer -- they just have more +Hollywood hoopla attached to them. + + Besides, anything you do for yourself will work much better than a +spell or working done by someone else. + +27. Is it okay if I...? Will I still be a pagan if I...? + + Yes. Most pagans take a clearly anti-authorative (no one is your +superior) stance when it comes to other pagans' religious practices. +Ideally, we try to remember the relativity of our values. + + One of the major advantages of neopaganism, is that it is defined +by you, and that is what makes it so empowering (making you feel your +own power). Nobody can tell you that you aren't a true neopagan, +because *you* decide what's right for *you*. There are no dogmas +(truth defined by an expert) in neopaganism, simply because there +couldn't possibly be any expert who knows better than you what feels +right for you. Many pagans also appreciate the Discordian catma +(related to dog-ma :) "Any Discordian is expressedly forbidden to +believe what she reads." We also like the paradox in this cuddly +catma. + + You are encouraged to share your new ideas and inventions with us, +but a statement along with a request for comments will probably give +you more informative replies than asking your fellow netters for +permission to do what is right for you. A "Am I still okay if I..." +question will probably leave you with dozens of responses containing +the most frequently given piece of advice on alt.pagan: Do what feels +right for you. If what you really want is to hear that you are okay, +please turn to alt.support. + +28) I am a pagan and I think I am being discriminated against because +of my religion. What should I do? + + First of all, don't panic. Are you really being discriminated +against, or are things happening to you that would happen no matter +what your religious beliefs were? Not to belittle religious +discrimination because of course it happens, but you want to be sure +that's what is going on before you take measures based on that +assumption. + + If, after looking at the situation objectively, you feel that +you are being treated the way you are *specifically because of your +religion*, then there are groups you can contact who specialize in +giving assistance in just this very thing. One is Circle Network, +whose address is given above. Another is AMER (Alliance of Magical +and Earth Religions), and they can be reached through Chris Carlisle +at C24884@wuvmd.wustl.edu, or from addresses on several hobbyist +networks including FIDONET as well. + +28) What one thing would most pagans probably want the world to know +about them? + + The answer included here comes from Margot Adler's excellent book +_Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other +Pagans in America Today_ (the revised edition). If after reading this +FAQ, you want to learn even more about modern paganism, we highly +recommend this book. It is available in most bookstores and in many +libraries. + + "We are not evil. We don't harm or seduce people. We are not +dangerous. We are ordinary people like you. We have families, jobs, +hopes, and dreams. We are not a cult. This religion is not a joke. +We are not what you think we are from looking at T.V. We are real. +We laugh, we cry. We are serious. We have a sense of humor. You +don't have to be afraid of us. We don't want to convert you. And +please don't try to convert us. Just give us the same right we give +you -- to live in peace. We are much more similar to you than you +think." + +-- Margot Adler, _Drawing Down the Moon_, p.453. + +AFTERWORD + +The creators of this FAQ want to thank the readers of alt.pagan for +their input in compiling the questions. We will be more than happy to +revise it to include the points of view from other readers. If you +would like to add information to this FAQ, please send email to +susanhk@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu with your proposed addition. + +Thank you and Blessed Be! + +**References** + +_Drawing Down the Moon_, Margot Adler, Beacon Press. +_To Know_, Jade, Delphi Press. + +This file is available via anonymous Internet FTP to the host +ftp.cc.utexas.edu, in the directory pub/minerva. + +-- +Beannachta! +---Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik----------------------susanhk@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu--- +"The hart he loves the high wood, the hare she loves the hill; + The Knight he loves his bright sword, the Lady -- loves her will." + diff --git a/religious documents/paganyul.txt b/religious documents/paganyul.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2632577 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/paganyul.txt @@ -0,0 +1,387 @@ +From: gerda@eagles.uucp (Gerda Thunarsson) +Newsgroups: alt.pagan +Subject: Yule Customs +Message-ID: <5XP6VB1w165w@eagles.uucp> +Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 16:02:03 CST +Organization: Eagles Reaches Church of Asatru - Elder Hof +Lines: 382 + +This is an Asatru viewpoint of Yule Customs and Traditions. Please +do not take offense if you are Wiccan or follow another tradition. +The differences in Customs and traditions are simply those of +different cultures. Any comments or questions, please email + +ymir%eagles@brewich.hou.tx.us + +Yule +Customs, Comments and Ceremony + by: Ymir Thunarsson + +"Wassail, Wassail, all over the town, +Out toast is white, our ale is brown, +Our bowl is made of a maplin tree; +We be good fellows all - I drink to thee!" + ---Worcestershire Wassailing Song + + Ahhhhhhh! The smell of evergreen, of apples, cinnamon, +cloves and ale alters my senses. They carry me away to a time +and place of both joy and struggle. A time of kinship, ancient +and modern. A time to celebrate life and its fullness; while +always mindful of those ancestors dead but not forgotten. Oaths +and boasts abound as merriment and Frith rule the day. Hail +Jolnir and the Oaths of Yule! Yes, it is that wondrous time of +year once again. Yule, when presents are freely given and +goodwill is the watchword of the hour. But, what is Yule? Is +it the celebration of the birth of a minor Middle Eastern +teacher? Does this holiday exist only as an excuse for parades, +football games and commercial profits? Or perhaps...it is much +more...Sacred and Rich in meaning and steeped in lore! +Yule-tide was and is recognized as the most important blessing +of the Teutonic year. Yule (sometimes referred to as Midwinter) +serves as the perfect counterbalance to Midsummer representing +the extremes of Light to Darkness and Darkness to Light. At +Midsummer, Sunna is celebrated at her highest stead where all +"secrets and mysteries" are exposed to her light. During the +dark nights of winter these mysteries lay hidden in an +Etin-cover of ice and snow. There they remain, in a dark and +secret place, awaiting their rebirth with the coming of the +Mother Night (winter solstice). This event marks the most +accepted beginning of the Yule season and continues through +Twelfth Night (called Yule Proper by those of Eagles Reaches). +The Twelve Nights of Yule serve both as a symbol of the old +year's passing and as a nurturing process for the seasons to +come. The symbolism and rituals surrounding this most Holy of +blessing have always been one of life, death and rebirth. Even +in the bastardized form of "Christmas" this essential truth +remains. Yule, besides all else, is a celebration of life +coming from death, warmth from icy cold and hope in times of +despair. It is the "natural" embodiment of the triumph of the +will; that special quality which turns struggle and ordeal into +heroic achievement. Yule-tide customs and traditions are as +many and varied as the folk who celebrate them. These +festivities, both ancient and modern, will be explored in the +following pages. Also, it will be the attempt of this author to +present this knowledge in a practical and usable form for +today's Germanic Heathen. The dark nights of Yule are a time of +deep reflection and of ancestor worship. In the teutonic way of +thinking, it is from our "ancestral memory banks" that personal +enlightenment has its roots. It is through our ancestors that +we have a "genetic link" to the past and in part it is this link +that we honor in ritual and ceremony. In this sense our Yule is +somewhat similar to the Irish Celtic Celebration of Samhain +(pronounce sah- wayne). Both the Celtic and the Teutonic +peoples believe that their blessing was at a time in which the +realm of the dead and the world of the living drew closer in +some magical and mysterious way. Of course, the observance of +Samhain was traditionally done during what is now known as the +month of October and time-wise closer to the Germanic Blessing +of Harvest and Winter Findings (Winter Nights to those in Eagles +Reaches). While Yule is closer to midwinter, occurring in the +months of December and early January. What is important for the +followers of Asatru/Odinism is to remember that honoring the +name and spirit of our ancestors should be of primary focus +during all future blessings of Yule. As evidence of another +Yule-tide tradition is the wassailing song presented at the +beginning of this commentary. The custom of wassailing is as +important as it is ancient. The most common use of the term +"wassail" is one of describing a festive drink. There are +various recipes. A favorite of mine is a personal variation of +one made during the reign of Charles I: + +...Slowly boil five pints of ale (Double Diamond is my personal +choice). While the ale is heating beat together six eggs (both +whites and yolks) and add to the ale. Add roasted apples, 1/2 +cup of honey, fresh nutmeg, 1 handful of cloves and 1/2 cup of +sliced fresh ginger root and finally 1/4 cup of brown sugar. +Let the mixture brew for at least 10 minutes and serve piping +hot. + + There are many folks today that prefer the use of apple +cider to the Ale. Whichever you chose, the result is quite +appealing. It is also the custom to take the brew about the +neighborhood carrying it in a wooden bowl (Wassail Bowl) while +leading a procession from door to door singing and spreading the +feeling of Frith and good cheer. In ancient times the +traditional Yule feast was marked by an event known as +ale-frith. The actual name was mungatstidhir or ale days. +Another related tradition is that of the Yule Cup. During this +celebration a Yule-tide peace was declared. Here is a custom +which continued despite the christianization of Europe. In the +old days, the feasting and drinking itself was a test of the +individual. It was from such a test that a person's, an entire +family or even a clan's luck (in the archaic sense of the word) +was determined. Woe would be unto the one that did not feel the +frith and the ale grip them! One that could not drink oneself +into "spiritual fellowship" with the rest of the celebrants must +be a person forsaken by luck (a niding). When the Gods depart +from the festivities the ale would degenerate into strong +alcohol and divine intoxication would then give way to +drunkenness pure and simple. One strange event would be that of +the celebrants feigning to be drunk and slowly sliding down to +the floor to avoid the nidh or shame of being luckless. Even +worse, would be the event of almost no one being touched by the +Gods. This would mean that he ale was no good and that the +entire House (feudal sense) was then held in contempt and that +their coming year's ordeal would be tragic. Another serious +offense was that of refusing to partake of the holy ale, +insulting not only the celebrants, but the Gods themselves. One +such accounting was the story of the famous feast at Hladi. +Earl Sigurd got Hakon AEthelstansfostri (then Christian King of +Norway) to celebrate a blot. The Earl began as the chairman of +the blot and drank a toast to the King, thus drawing him into +the Holy Circle of Frith. The people watch closely to see if +the King would do his part. When King Hakon hesitated, riot +broke out. If Hakon would not eat and drink holiness with them, +he was not of their frith and who could then trust him to share +and answer for their luck and honor?! His refusal was a +scornful challenge because by just sitting there and not +partaking he created a dead spot in the circle. Magically put, +it broke the energy or cohesive force created by all those in +attendance and placed the goodwill of the rest; one towards the +other in greatest peril imaginable. A very important lesson in +both etiquette and magical practice is addressed here. If a +person plans not to partake of a particular blessing...DO NOT +COME AT ALL!! Otherwise, the aim of the blessing, the festive +or mystic mood of the celebrants and the honoring of a great +house (including their ancestors) could be put in jeopardy. +Even though the concepts of the Yule Cup and Ale-Frith may not +have a direct line of connecting them to today's custom of +Wassailing historically, it is this author's firm conviction +that the spirit (both magically and religiously) of all three +remain essentially the same. Namely, they are all blessing of +health, good fellowship, peace and a oneness with the Aesir and +Vanir. Proof of this assertion may lie within the etymology of +the word Wassail itself. The common spelling and meaning of the +term is derived from a mongrelization of the Anglo-Saxon +"Waes(thu)hal" which means "be thou healthy or hale" when used +as a toast or a greeting. From the American Heritage Dictionary +of Indo-European Roots, it is shown to have stemmed from both +the terms Kailo, meaning "whole or of good omen" and Wes(wesan +or waes) meaning "to be." In Old English Hal means "hale or +whole." The Old English word Halig means "holy" and is also +derived from the same roots. Thus, it is most appropriate to +celebrate our highest holiday (holy day) of Yule with a +refreshment whose very name validates the essential gifts of the +season. Another form of wassailing is evident in the British +Isles. Here, besides the drink being observed the locals also, +"wassail" trees. A hymn is usually sung to the tree wishing it +good health and long life. A blessing is also bestowed upon it +to be fruitful and then guns are fired or some other loud noise +is made in order to drive off any woeful wights. Toasts to the +tree are then drunk from the wassail bowl. When all have +finished their toasts, the remainder of the holy liquid is pour +out on the earth around the trunk while toast or cakes from the +wassail are placed upon its branches. This is a +christianization of the old form of "tree wassailing." It is +not advisable to try and scare off any of the wights as you may +frighten friendly ones as well. Gifts of varying types are +quite sufficient in placating these folk. This leads us to one +of the more recognizable traditions...the Yule Tree. The Yule +Tree, called the Christmas Tree in today's world, goes back to +the Germanic Heathen tradition of providing "gifts" for the +alfar (elves) in order to gain their aid in the coming year (or +at least not provoke their wrath). The symbol of the tree has +always been of tantamount importance to those whose ancestry +stems from northern and central Europe. Even in our cosmology +we refer to the term World-Tree or Yggdrasil when talking about +the nine worlds of existence. The Yew tree is an evergreen that +is special to Odhinn and is believed to possess magical and +curative powers. Even in modern medical science, the Yew has +become an important source of research for a cure for cancer. +It is also a link to our relationship with the Gods and +Goddesses. From our lore it is said that both those we call +Gods/Goddesses and the race known as humanity came from trees. +Female from the Birch and males from the Ash or Yew. With this +in mind, it is no wonder why the symbol of the tree is one of +holiness to us. Just as it is not a surprise that the +christianized degeneration of trees, (and for that fact all of +nature) as sacred images, to be insulting. The practices of +decorating the tree was a form of sacrifice and whether want to +admit it or not it still serves basically the same purpose +today. It is best to keep in mind when you adorn your tree with +ornaments just what those decorations stand for. From personal +experience, those of us at Eagles Reaches have found that making +sacral gifts to be a powerful, as well as, enjoyable experience. +The symbolism of the gifts offered is also very important. +Would you try to honor the elves with trappings denoting the +birth and celebration of the leader of a middle-eastern cult +that has spent the last 2,000 years trying to eliminate them +from the face of the earth? I think not! It was only because +our ancestors were under the scrutiny of "the church" that the +trees had to be brought indoors in the first place. The most +appropriate types of "gifts" to be hung should be those that are +either natural and edible or symbolic, such as a Golden Eagle +placed at the tree's top. Some personal suggestions would be: +strings of popcorn, candy or cranberries, sugar cookies with +runic or other symbolic figures on them, candy canes, cinnamon +sticks tied with ribbon into the shape of the Gebo ( ) rune and +golden delicious apples covered in cinnamon and nutmeg, as well +as, being stuffed with cloves and wrapped in netting tied by a +brightly colored bow. For an even greater religious effect you +may add other symbols that relate to the World-Tree such as two +ravens, mimir's well at the bottom, the Norns and the World +Serpent. This might sound like a lot of trouble but, the +rewards are worth the effort. Speaking of leaving gifts for the +elves...what about that most famous (in the Hollywood sense) elf +of all? yes, that "rotund fellow" dressed in red, whit and +black (Hmmmm! interesting color scheme), Santa Claus. As it is +sung in our carols and shown on our television sets, we leave +milk and cookies for this kindly imp. But why? First of all, +it is appropriate to leave the alfar gifts of milk and cookies. +It works quite nicely as an appeasement in our home and has +served us well on numerous occasions. Secondly, because Santa, +St. Nicholas, etc. is not a Christian "saint" or figure at all! +Even though there is a St. Nicholas in Christianity, he has +almost nothing in common with the figure that we know and love. +Think about this rationally for a moment. Here is this fellow +who descends from the north pole around the time of the winter +solstice. He has a long white or grey beard and dresses +predominately in red (note: red is as symbolic of the Germanic +Alfs as green is to the Celtic Wee People) with black and white +trim. He drives a flying sled pulled by reindeer (two of which +are said to be named Donner (Thunder); also the German name for +Thorr and Blitzen (Lightning); one of Thorr's symbols) and is at +times referred to as the "jolly old elf." It does not take a +scholar to see that this so-called Santa Clause has absolutely +nothing to do with Christianity. "So, who is St. Nick," you +ask? He is none other than the supreme God of the Aesir, +Odhinn! Here is a deity that has a white or grey beard hailing +from the ancient north. He is a God with many names. One such +name is Nick. It is well documented that he gave up one eye to +gain his famous wisdom. With his remaining eye he was able to +indicate a "secret" with just "a wink of an eye" (remember your +Christmas songs and stories, kids?). Satan or the Devil is +sometimes called "Old Nick" in England. He is the stealer of +souls. The followers of Odhinn's path wore the Valknutr or Knot +of the Slain as a sign that they have already forfeited their +lives in the service of Odhinn in exchange for wisdom and +knowledge. Still not convinced? Then let's turn to the realm +of folklore through Jacob Grimm's Teutonic Mythology in his +description of Odhinn and the Wild Hunt: + +"...He hunts the twelve nights of Yule with the barking of his +dogs and a hoto, hoto cry (could this be related to Ho, Ho, Ho) +has a white beard. Once a carpenter had the courage to add his +own ho, ho and a black mass came tumbling down the chimney +(sound familiar?)... Later in the passages it says: "...The +folk leave him a bundle of oats for his horse. He visits the +land upon the holy tide bringing welfare and blessing, accepting +gifts and offerings..." + +It is more than evident to a person with an open mind and a true +heart as to just who this "saint" is. A person would do well to +remember that fact in any and all blessings concerning Yule. As +a side note, there is another name in which he travels by and +has a close association to the Yule-tide season: Jol or Jolnir. +This is even evident in a "Christmas Card" I once received from +Sweden. On the inside was written the Greeting "Gut Jol" or +"Good Yule" which is roughly equivalent to the English "Merry +Christmas." Perhaps the greatest symbol of light in the times of +darkness is the unextenguished flame that burns throughout the +long nights of Yule. Here is an all too often forgotten +tradition that symbolizes the eternal light (solar might) that +warms and nurtures us the year round. The Yule log is a piece +of wood (preferably ash, yew, birch or some other wood +considered sacred to your area) that is either found lying upon +the ground of your sacred grove or is cut from a tree (after +asking the tree its' permission of course) and taken to the +hearth to be burned over twelve hour period each and every night +on the holy tide. It should be lit on the first night of Yule, +though some say it should be set to flame on December 24. The +basic disagreement is on exactly when the season begins. My +advice is to stick with the solstice as your customary starting +point and you will not be far off. The standard way in which to +light the faggot is from the fragments of the previous year's +log. In areas such as Houston, where a hearth is for the most +part impractical, candles are often used in place of the log +itself. A particular variation of this tradition is practiced +at Eagles Reaches. First, a log is taken in the traditional +manner. It is then bedecked with evergreen branches, +poinsettias, holly and other seasonal items. At the top rest +three candles; red, white and black (the three holy colors of +our ancestors) and are lit each night of the tide. They are +replaced with fresh candles the following morning in keeping +with the spirit of the original practice. There is also another +light that shines during this most holy of festivals. It is +known as the Light Tree or Light Apple. This structure is +composed of an apple or several apples supported by sticks. +Upon it are attached various nuts and sprigs of holly, ivy and +possibly mistletoe (though not usually the case). Also, +evergreen leaves are attached with a circle of candles towards +the top. Cloves and other spices add a nice touch as well. The +Yule Light Apple is used as the centerpiece during the main +feast. With all of these beautiful and meaningful customs why +is it that their original luster and impact have been lost on +today's world? The answer lies disturbingly on the infiltration +of the aforementioned middle-eastern cult called Christianity. +In a letter from Pope Gregory I to Augustine on the method of +converting the Heathen of England he says: + +"...tell him of the plans I have for converting the Angles. The +temples should not be destroyed (as had been done previously), +but the idols which are housed in them should be. ...If the +temples are soundly constructed, then they must be transformed +from places in which demons are worshipped into places that are +pleasing to God....These festivals (such as Yule)...need to be +changed into "dedication days" and the birthdays of holy +martyrs, whose relics should be housed in the tabernacles made +from the boughs of the trees around the temples that have been +transformed into churches. Let them celebrate their festivals +as (Christian) religious feasts..." + + The lies, manipulations and insidious perversions by the +minions of the Christ Child have "almost" destroyed the most +holy of all blessings. It can only be revived by a return to +the spirit of the old ways whenever possible, by staying true to +our ancestral Gods and Goddesses and to our ancestors +themselves. For without them that which is and that which is +becoming would be empty and hollow. We MUST reclaim what is +rightfully ours...Our Religion...Our Birthright...OUR CULTURE! + +Wassail!! + + +References + + + + 1. Branston, Brian, Gods of the North, London 1955 + + 2. Branston, Brian, The Lost Gods of England, London 1956 + + 3. Chadwick, H. M., The Cult of Othin, London 1899 + + 4. Christian, Roy, Old English Customs , New Abbot 1962 + + 5. Drake-Carnell, F. J., Old English Customs and +Ceremonies, London 1938 + + 6. Eliis Davidson, H. R., Scandanavian Mythology, London +1969 + + 7. Ellis Davidson, H. R., Gods and Myths of Northern +Europe, London 1964 + + 8. Gomme, G. L., Folklore Relics in Early Village Life, +London 1883 + + 9. Grimm, Jacob, Teutonic Mythology, Trans. S. Stallybrass, +New York 1966 + +10. Gronbech, Vilhelm, The Culture of the Teutons, London +1931 + +11. Gundarsson, Kveldulf, Teutonic Magic, St. Paul 1990 + +12. Idunna, A Journal of Pre-Christian Northern Tradition, +various articles and authors from 1989-1992. + +13. Page, R. I.., Norse Myths, Austin 1990 + +14. Penick, Nigel, Practical Magic in the Northern +Tradition, Wellingborough 1989 + +15. Thorsson, Edred, A Book of Troth, St. Paul 1989 + +16. Tiller, Alexander, Yule and Christmas, London 1899 + diff --git a/religious documents/paghist.txt b/religious documents/paghist.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98abd1d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/paghist.txt @@ -0,0 +1,252 @@ +(This message was written for USENET's talk.religion.misc in early December +1986, in response to a request for information on paganism. It fit my +absolute criterion of quality - that is, a huge number of compliments, even +from people who usually think I'm an asshole - so I thought some people here +might enjoy reading it.) + +Paganism is a loose word for the large variety of polytheistic, shamanistic, +and mystical non-monotheistic religions. Paganism exists in all cultures, +from paleolithic to technological, but has historically waxed and waned. +The ancient Egyptians are an example of a highly pagan society; so are the +ancient Romans; and all paleolithic cultures from the Old Stone Age to the +present have strong pagan elements. An example of a less pagan culture +would be the West for the last thousand years or so, since the centuries +following the Fall of Rome. The domination of the Middle East by Christians +and Moslems has also largely shut out paganism. + +Characteristic of paganism is a tolerance for other pagnistic ideas, even +those that literally contradict one's own. Such persecutions as have been +directed against paganistic religions by each other are by-products of +political struggles and mass population movements rather than ideologically +motivated. The same is to some extent true of early Judaism, which was the +direct inheritor to the traditions of a strongly pagan society. A slave +revolt apparently led to a few hundred thousand slaves with no place to +live; to get them, they butchered the inhabitants of pagan cities and took +up residence in the cities themselves. They invoked their war god to +justify this action. Similarly, when the beginnings of the modern Greek +mythology were laid down, it was as a result of invading Northern barbarians +supplanting the earlier (and somewhat gynocentric) Titan mythology with +their imported religion, which grew more refined and less aggressive later +on, as happened with Judaism. + +Before it came under the thumb of monotheism, the West was dominated by +the highly civilized Roman culture. The Roman Republic and Empire were +characterized by an unusually large number of religions together in a +single social whole, frequently sharing the same geography and even +the same temples. This explicitly eclectic (or "syncretistic", as it is +more usually known in studies of the Romans) synthesis is more similar to +modern neo-paganism than any other form of historical paganism I know of. +However, it ended after the Christian emperors took over and Rome fell. + +The post-pagan West experienced frequent resurgences of paganism in various +forms. If we date this at 1000 CE for convenience, we see first the +Inquisitorial period, where paganism was punished with death and torture. +Then there comes the Renaissance, in which pagan symbolism and ideas in art +and philosophy were somewhat more common than explicitly Christian ones. +The Renaissance lasted until the 16th century. Note that the Inquisitions +lasted effectively until the Enlightenment period, and were bad during the +Renaissance, but ceased to be mostly ideologically motivated after the first +three centuries. The Inquisition had become a political arm of the Vatican, +a force useful in many ways other than suppressing heresy. It spent much of +its time accomplishing political, antifeminist, and covert goals of the +Church. We see in the trial of the Templars in the fourteenth century that +uncommonly faithful people were caught in a secular political struggle +between the King of France and the Pope. They were routinely tortured, the +usual prompted confessions were given, and they were executed, for reasons +having nothing to do with ideology or heresy except as excuses. + +It is also during the Renaissance that we begin to have evidence of what we +may consider explicitly religious paganism again. Most of the grimoires we +have date from this era; alchemists, often overtly Christian but employing +pagan symbolism and texts, were most common during the Renaissance; the +Kabbalah and Tarot originate in the Renaissance, forming the backbone of +modern pagan symbolism. The Renaissance also saw the obscure origins of a +rebirth, in improved form, of Greek humanism, technically pagan because of +its suppression by Christian Rome and its use of theistic symbols. + +The Reformation was again a less pagan period; Protestant rulers like +Elizabeth and James carried out their own anti-heresy pogroms, annihilating +most evidence of witchcraft. Of particular interest in the Reformation is +Scot's "The Discoverie of Witchcraft", which presents the humanist and +rationalist perspective on witches which has generally triumphed today: that +witch accusations were more often driven by factors such as ugliness, +personal enmity, poverty, and so forth than on ideological grounds, and that +in fact there were no witches. This is probably true only of the later +Inquisitorial period. Earlier on, the Inquisition certainly did help in the +temporary stamping out of paganism; so if pagans are witches, there were +witches. + +We need not bother much with Murray's supposedly anthropological study of +English witchcraft in the Inquisitorial period, except to note that it has +been devoutly accepted by many modern pagans, and to point out some of its +flaws. Based on late Inquisitorial evidence and the consistency of the +confessions obtained by the Inquistors, and tossing in some disjointed +scraps of English folk history and legend, Murray asks us to believe that a +paleolithic subculture lasted in England, living semi-naked in the bushes, +until nearly the beginning of the Reformation at least, and possibly until +the current day. Of course late Inquistorial confessions were consistent; +they were practically dictated to the torture victim. A much better account +of the relationship of paganism to Christianity before and during England's +post-pagan period is Jessi Weston's classic "From Ritual to Romance". Its +conclusions were derived from decades of intense study of the Grail +mythology and its anthropological, mythological, and social context. + +As a parting note on the Reformation, we may note the peculiar phenomenon of +court astrologers and alchemists and their ilk, the most notable examples +being the sorcerer John Dee and the seer Edward Kelley under Elizabeth. +These were the inheritors of Paracelsus and the other alchemists and +Christian medicine doctors, using pagan symbols and methods with a veil of +Christian symbolism. Kelley stopped the work of Dee and Kelley under +unknown circumstances; he is said to have been told by the angels to form a +group sex arrangement with Dee and his wife, which they supposedly did for a +while; in another version, Kelley was driven from the work by a prophecy of +a new age dawning, which was heresy. + +So, on to the Enlightenment of the seventeenth century. This was more +humanistic than religious, though humanism is a religion on alternate +Tuesdays; it all depends which of the many reasonable definitions you use. +In any case, the seventeenth centuries saw the first applications of the +renewed Greek humanism that originated in the Renaissance. The +counter-Christian current was running stronger; more and more, people were +beginning to demand equal treatment for all, and freedom from the rigid +boundaries of thought and expression imposed on them by governments and +churches alike. This humanism has colored most "opposition" religious +movements in America since this time, much for the better in my opinion. +This is because principles of respect for the individual were put into the +American system of government (as an afterthought - the humanistic heyday +had ended in the 1780's in America, and the new would-be ruling class had to +be forcibly reminded), and the governmental structure was such that it was +able to make progress in its understanding of freedom. + +Things did not work out quite so well in France's humanistic revolution, +largely due to Robespierre, the atheistic moral grandfather of Stalin and +Pol Pot. He interpreted opposition to monarchy as punishing high birth +with low death, and then set out ruthlessly to purge opposition and +deviation. Soon monarchy was re-established in France. + +The nineteenth century was a period of resurgence of paganism. The +neo-classical movement was explicitly devoted to rediscovering the virtues +of the highly pagan societies Rome and Greece. This movement was to be by +far the dominant force of the century. Humanism was further applied to the +institution of slavery, resulting in war and social upheaval. The +Prometheans such as Blake, Shelley, Byron, and so forth were widely +considered to be among the greatest luminaries of the period. + +The method of science and its results made available much more information +on religions of the East and of less civilized cultures. Contact between +religiously different but politically equal forces invariably leads to +mutual excuses for the other, largely to help keep trade going, but also as +a result of time spent in foreign climes observing the practice of religion. +This creates, although not in great numbers at first, a different attitude +toward religions than the dogmatic denial of all other religions possible +only under a large and self-sufficient monolithic theocracy. Other +religions are seen as not neccessarily conflicting with one's own any more +than another art movement does with one's own favorite. + +There was a more open resurgence of sorcery in less overtly Christian forms, +particularly in the last half of the century. This attracted many notable +adherents, and from the publication of "The Magus" by Barrett in 1801, +created a magical library in modern English which is still widely read and +used. It used the work of Renaissance magicians, court sorcerors, +Kabalists, and so forth, and attempted to apply the psychological principles +of the day in various original fudgings. There was also the Theosophical +movement, largely discredited by Blavatsky's proven cheating on tests of +psychic powers, and rather more like spiritualism with Eastern allusions +than any Eastern religion. + +The psychical movement, which changed its name to parapsychology, grew out of +spiritualism, which grew out of mesmerism, which was apparently fairly +original and totally ludicrous, but did yield the secret of hypnotism. +This led legitimate investigators to examining the claims of other groups +usually brushed off as mystical. The early Society for Psychical Research, +founded in 1882 and led by prominent scientists such as the American +psychologist William James, was formed "first, to carry on systematic +experimentation with hypnotic subjects, mediums, clairvoyants, and others; +and, secondly, to collect evidence concerning apparitions, haunted houses, +and similar phenomena which are incidentally reported, but which, from their +fugitive nature, admit of no deliberate control." + +It is to be noted that there is still, a century later, no replicable +experiment to demonstrate the existence of anything but hypnotic subjects in +this list. It is also worth noting that while general models of the layout of +the psyche continue to be employed in psychotherapy, there is still no +generally agreed upon experimental methodology to falsify features of these +models. Finally, it should be noted that the ritual magic methods employed by +many pagans, in other times as well as today, still have not been placed under +real scientific scrutiny to determine whether or not they produce any physically +measurable effects. (My feeling is that such effects are limited in scope to +participants in the rituals and people who have knowledge of their occurrence, +whether such knowledge is true or false.) + +Various factions of magicians struggled to survive in the early half of the +twentieth century, against an increasingly Christian atheist culture; that +is, a materialistic populace considered almost exclusively with day-to-day +life and easy entertainment, but still paying occassional lip service to +Christianity and suspicious of all other religions. Most of the inheritors +of nineteenth-century magical paganism were hopelessly fragmented and +dogmatized, incapable of working together and resolving their differences. + +In the late forties, Gerald Gardner began publishing books on witchcraft. +Gardner was a known associate of Crowley's and his rituals use a lot of +symbolism drawn from Crowley, but only a few actual references to Crowley. +He is also reported to have associated with Theosophist groups. Crowley was +one of the chief inheritors of the jumble left at the end of the nineteenth +century, as well as a traveller and student in Eastern lands. In any case, +Gardner (after Crowley) called for yet another neo-classicism, following the +pattern of all the other resurgences of Graeco-Roman paganism, but more +explicitly religious. + +The laudable looseness of Gardner's system was more attractive to magically +inclined people than the Golden Dawn and Theosophy splinters remaining. It +freed them to create on their own, and they went at it with a vengeance. One +reason for the greater effective freedom was that Gardner was not as hard an +act to follow as many of the Golden Dawn leaders. He was soon gone beyond by +his students, many of whom went off to form their own Gardnerian splinters +and mythological histories of their origin. + +Another reason was the less formidable Gardnerian system of initiation. Most +magical groups had complex multi-layered spiritual hierarchies. These were +supposed to represent psychological fact, but little in the way of acceptable +empirical observation was used to correct these schemes, mostly drawn from +loose interpretations of the Kaballa, and they can't be said to have really +compelling inter-individual force. These were replaced by a simple hierarchy +of three grades. This was the high-level structure of the Golden Dawn, and +of a number of Masonic groups, which divided their degrees into categories. +The third grade was no longer reserved for secret chiefs who almost certainly +never existed or for mythological prophets, and the initiations had a more +joyful and celebratory character, rather than a system of awful psychological +ordeals. (I feel that the emphasis on ordeals and spiritual hierarchy was +a product of Christian influence, with the triumph of martyrdom as a supreme +spiritual experience and the hierarchic nature of the Church, and that a +simpler formula based on Thelemic growth, like the dominant neo-pagan formula, +rather than Christian death/rebirth is more appropriate.) + +A common claim among neo-pagans is that paganism was suddenly revealed to the +world in the fifties after centuries of hiding. This is demonstrably false; +all that is needed is a bit of history, textual analysis, and symbolic +comparison to see how close neo-paganism (as the movement came to be known in +the sixties) is to its known historical antecedents. But mythological +histories are themselves traditional in world religions. While it is important +to know the real history of a religion, this does not invalidate the possible +value of mythological tales of the origin, because these serve as fictional +statements of intent, often incorporating powerful symbolism. They have +literary value in this respect; and literary or other artistic value is a type +of spiritual value. + +Modern religious paganism has made a unique contribution. No eclectic/pagan +movement of the historical past has brought the contributions of paleolithic +shamanism into the fold as well as has neo-paganism. In large part this is +due to a rise in knowledge of such religions at the same time as the rise of +neo-paganism. This is an extremely valuable contribution; in shamanism lies +the roots of all human religion. A coven meeting still resembles a GD lodge +considerably more than it does a shamanistic lodge, despite the valuable +addition of techniques originating in shamanism. + +This has been a neccessarily brief and incomplete account. I have not +mentioned Rabelais, the Rosicrucians, the decadent poets, Nietzsche, de +Sade, Levi, Gurdjieff, James, Augustine, Shakespeare, Masonry, Paine, American +utopian communities, Jung, Merlin, art and spirit, or Gnosticism, all of which +are vital elements of the story; I have given short shrift to the psychical +movement and its influence on nineteenth and twentieth century paganism; +and I have neglected many other relevant topics. But I hope this will +suffice as a brief overview of the pagan history preceding neo-paganism. diff --git a/religious documents/pagnmuse.txt b/religious documents/pagnmuse.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3230ce --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pagnmuse.txt @@ -0,0 +1,238 @@ + PAGAN MUSINGS + +[Tony Kelly of the Selene Community in Wales wrote this +piece in l970. It was published in l97l in the British +edition of The Waxing Moon under the title "Pagan Movement." + Under the title "Pagan Musings" it has passed from hand to +hand and group to group all over the United States. Tony +Kelly was one of the founders of the Pagan Movement in the +British Isles, which, with the Pagan Way in the United +States, began as a single group of researchers into ancient +goddess cults. They later divided, agreeing that each +country required a different approach in bringing back +Paganism.] + +We're of the old religion, sired of Time, and born of our +beloved Earth Mother. For too long the people have trodden +a stony path that goes only onward beneath a sky that goes +only upwards. The Horned God plays in a lonely glade for +the people are scattered in this barren age and the winds +carry his plaintive notes over deserted heaths and reedy +moors and into the lonely grasses. who know now the ancient +tongue of the Moon? And who speaks still with the Goddess? +The magic of the land of Lirien and the old pagan gods have +withered in the dragons breath; the old ways of magic have +slipped into the well of the past, and only the rocks now +remember what the moon told us long ago, and what we learned +from the trees, and the voices of grasses and the scents of +flowers. + +We're pagans and we worship the pagan gods, and among the +people there are witches yet who speak with the moon and +dance with the Horned One. But a witch is a rare pagan in +these days, deep and inscrutable, recognizable only by her +own kind, by the light in her eyes and the love in her +breast, by the magic in her hands and the lilt of her tongue +and by her knowledge of the real. But the wiccan way is one +way. There are many; there are pagans the world over who +worship the Earth Mother and the Sky Father, the Rain God +and the Rainbow Goddess, the Dark One and the Hag on the +mountain, the Moon Goddess and the Little People in the +mists on the other side of the veil. A pagan is one who +worships the goddesses and gods of nature, whether by +observation or by study, whether by love or admiration, or +whether in their sacred rites with the Moon, or the great +festivals of the Sun. + +Many suns ago, as the pale dawn of reason crept across the +pagan sky, man grew out of believing in the gods. He has +yet to grow out disbelieving in them. He who splits the +Goddess on an existence-nonexistence dichotomy will earn +himself only paradoxes, for the gods are not so divided and +nor the magic lands of the Brother of Time. Does a mind +exist? Ask her and she will tell you yes, but seek her out, +and she'll elude you. She in in every place, and in no +place, and you'll see her works in all places, but herself +in none. Existence was the second-born from the Mother's +womb and contains neither the first-born, nor the unborn. +Show us your mind, and we'll show you the gods! No matter +that you can't, for we can't show you the gods. But come +with us and the Goddess herself will be our love and the God +will call the tune. But a brass penny for your reason; for +logic is a closed ring, and the child doesn't validate the +Mother, nor the dream the dreamer. And what matter the wars +of opposites to she who has fallen in love with a whirlwind +or to the lover of the arching rainbow. + +But tell us of your Goddess as you love her, and the gods +that guide your works, and we'll listen with wonder, for to +do less would be arrogant. but we'll do more, for the heart +of man is aching for memories only half forgotten, and the +Old Ones only half unseen. We'll write the old myths as +they were always written and we'll read them on the rocks +and in the caves and in the deep of the greenwood's shade, +and we'll hear them in the rippling mountain streams and in +the rustling of the leaves, and we'll see them in the storm +clouds, and in the evening mists. We've no wish to create a +new religion for our religion is as old as the hills and +older, and we've no wish to bring differences together. +Differences are like different flowers in a meadow, and we +are all one in the Mother. + +What need is there for a pagan movement since our religion +has no teachings and we hear it in the wind and feel it in +the stones and the Moon will dance with us as she will? +There is a need. For long the Divider has been among our +people and the tribes of man are no more. The sons of the +Sky Father have all but conquered nature, but they have +poisoned her breast and the Mother is sad for the +butterflies are dying and the night draws on. A curse on +the conqueror! But not of us, for they curse themselves for +they are nature too. They have stolen our magic and sold it +to the mindbenders and the mindbenders tramp a maze that has +no outlet for they fear the real for the One who guards the +path. + +Where are the pagan shrines? And where do the people +gather? Where is the magic made? And where are the Goddess +and the Old Ones? Our shrines are in the fields and on the +mountains, in the stars and in the wind, deep in the +greenwood and on the algal rocks where two streams meet. +but the shrines are deserted, and if we gathered in the arms +of the Moon for our ancient rites to be with our gods as we +were of old, we would be stopped by the dead who now rule +the Mother's land and claim rights of ownership on the +Mother's breast, and make laws of division and frustration +for us. We can no longer gather with our gods in a public +place and the old rites of communion have been driven from +the towns and cities ever deeper into the heath where barely +a handful of heathens have remained to guard the old secrets +and enact the old rites. there is magic in the heath far +from the cold grey society, and there are islands of magic +hidden in the entrails of the metropoles behind closed +doors, but the people are few, and the barriers between us +are formidable. The old religion has become a dark way, +obscure, and hidden in the protective bosom of the night. +Thin fingers turn the pages of a book of shadows while the +sunshine seeks in vain his worshippers in his leafy glades. + +Here, then, is the basic reason for a Pagan Movement; we +must create a pagan society wherein everyone shall be free +to worship the goddesses and gods of nature, and the +relationship between a worshipper and her gods shall be +sacred and inviolable, provided only that in her love of her +own gods, she doesn't curse the names of the gods of others. + +It's not yet our business to press the law-makers with +undivided endeavour to unmake the laws of repression and, +with the Mother's love, it may never become our business for +the stifling tides of dogmatism are at last already in ebb. +Our first work, and our greatest wish, is to come together, +to be with each other in our tribes for we haven't yet grown +from the Mother's breast to the stature of the gods. We're +of the earth, and sibs to all the children of wild nature, +born long ago in the warm mud of the ocean floor; we were +together then, and we were together in the rain forests long +before that dark day when, beguiled by the pride of the Sky +Father, and forgetful of the Mother's love, we killed her +earlier-born children and impoverished the old genetic pool. + The Red child lives yet in America; the Black Child has not +forsaken the gods; the old Australians are still with their +nature gods; the Old Ones still live deep in the heart of +Mother India, and the White Child has still a foot on the +old wiccan way, but Neanderthaler is no more and her magic +faded as the Lli and the Archan burst their banks and the +ocean flowed in to divide the Isle of Erin from the land of +the White Goddess. + +Man looked with one eye on a two-faced god when he reached +for the heavens and scorned the Earth which alone is our +life and our provider and the bosom to which we have ever +returned since the dawn of Time. He who looks only to +reason to plum the unfathomable is a fool, for logic is an +echo already implicit i the question, and it has no voice of +its own; but he is no greater fool than he who scorns logic +or derides its impotence from afar, but fears to engage in +fair combat when he stands on his opponent's threshold. +don't turn your back on Reason, for his thrust is deadly; +but confound him and he'll yield for his code of combat is +honorable. so here is more of the work of the Pagan +Movement. Our lore has become encrusted over the ages with +occult trivia and the empty vapourings of the lost. The +occult arts are in a state of extreme decadence, astrology +is in a state of disrepute and fears to confront the +statistician's sword; alien creeds oust our native arts and, +being as little understood as our own forgotten arts, are +just as futile for their lack of understanding, and more so +for their unfamiliarity. Misunderstanding is rife. +Disbelief is black on every horizon, and vampires abound on +the blood of the credulous. Our work is to reject the +trivial, the irrelevant and the erroneous, and to bring the +lost children of the Earth Mother again into the court of +the Sky Father where reason alone will avail. Belief is the +deceit of the credulous; it has no place in the heart of a +pagan. + +But while we are sad for those who are bemused by Reason, we +are deadened by those who see no further than his syllogisms +as he turns the eternal wheel of the Great Tautology. We +were not fashioned in the mathematician's computations, and +we were old when the first alchemist was a child. We have +walked in the magic forest, bewitched in the old Green +Thinks; we have seen the cauldron and the one become many +and the many in the one; we know the Silver Maid of the +moonlight and the sounds of the cloven feet. We have heard +the pipes on the twilight ferns, and we've seen the spells +of the enchantress, and Time be stilled. We've been into +eternal darkness where the Night Mare rides and rode her to +the edge of the Abyss, and beyond, and we know the dark face +of the Rising Sun. spin a spell or words and make a magic +knot; spin it on the magic loom and spin it with the gods. +Say it in the old chant and say it to the Goddess, and in +her name. Say it to a dark well and breathe it on a stone. +There are no signposts on the untrod way, but we'll make our +rituals together and bring them as our gifts to the Goddess +and her God in the great rites. Here, then, is our work in +the Pagan Movement; to make magic in the name of our gods, +to share our magic where the gods would wish it, and to come +together in our ancient festivals of birth, and life, of +death and of change in the old rhythm. We'll print the +rituals that can be shared in the written work; we'll do +all in our power to bring the people together, to teach +those who would learn, and to learn from those who can +teach. We will initiate groups, bring people to groups, and +groups to other groups in our common devotion to the goddess +and gods of nature. We will not storm the secrets of any +coven, nor profane the tools, the magic, and still less, the +gods of another. + +We'll collect the myths of the ages, of our people and of +the pagans of other lands, and we'll study the books of the +wise and we'll talk to the very young. And whatever the +pagan needs in her study, or her worship, then it is our +concern, and the Movement's business to do everything +possible to help each other in our worship of the gods we +love. + +We are committed with the lone pagan on the seashore, with +he who worships in the fastness of a mountain range or she +who sings the old chant in a lost valley far from the +metalloid road. We are committed with the wanderer, and +equally with the prisoner, disinherited from the Mother's +milk in the darkness of the industrial webs. We are +committed too with the coven, with the circular dance in the +light of the full moon, with the great festivals of the sun, +and with the gatherings of the people. We are committed to +build our temples in the towns and in the wilderness, to buy +the lands and the streams from the landowners and give them +to the Goddess for her children's use, and we'll replant the +greenwood as it was of old for love of the dryad stillness, +and for love of our children's children. + +When the streams flow clear and the winds blow pure, and the +sun never more rises unrenowned nor the moon ride in the +skies unloved; when the stones tell of the Horned God and +the greenwood grows deep to call back her own ones, then our +work will be ended and the Pagan Movement will return to the +beloved womb of our old religion, to the nature goddesses +and gods of paganism. diff --git a/religious documents/pagntech.txt b/religious documents/pagntech.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7566c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pagntech.txt @@ -0,0 +1,119 @@ +It is important that we not lose track of our past while we adapt +to the present. There is an inclination to put aside that which +is simple and/or archaic, and then forget about it; much of value +can be lost thereby. Certainly we should strive for relevancy, +but we shouldn't overcompensate and become imbalanced in the +other direction. While *we* may not be farmers or hunters, there +still are such people; not all old technology is obsolete. + +For example, I am not a techie, I am a musician, a poet, a writer +of fantasy fiction, all impractical things to be in this fast- +paced society of yuppies and other competetive types. Therefore +an entirely modern, tech/science/et al - oriented Neopagan system +would be as irrelevant to me as an agricultural system is to most +of us. What I do is a craft of past centuries, I am an artisan, +not a scientist or businesswoman. There are still a few of us +left! + +In fact, all the members but one of my coven, Firestar, and its +affiliated study group are living alternate lifestyles -- besides +me we have a journalist, a graphic artist, and a professional +student (living off a large inheritance and getting a degree in +Magic as Religion from Cal). And as for our High Priestess and +Priest -- well, they are beyond classification! So we may find +such archaicisms more meaningful to us than "real-world" folks +(???). + +By its very (???) a Pagan Student Group at a school like (???) +must have a greater preponderance of engineers and scientists -- +this is no more the whole world than farming or hunting are +(although one might view the "corporate jungle" as a society of +hunter/gatherers...;->) -- but it creates a different sort of +working group. + +So, in order to satisfy everyone, must we give up on any kind of +generalised system? This might not be unreasonable, as the +guilds of old had their especial rites (eg, the Masons). If so, +the question is: how do we build these systems from scratch? + +If such seperateness seems divisive, a middle way might be to +have a somewhat general system with patron deities for the +occupations -- this would be no more divisive than the Catholic +system of patron saints. I, for one, certainly feel better in +pouring a libation for Odin and Bragi when I've made a sale, or +need to (!); whether one believes in deities or not, this is +still an affirmation, a cause whose effect may or may not become +apparent. There are certainly enough deities to go around! + +Then what general system might we construct? While some +concepts, images, and archetypes may mean less to us today +(though they certainly remain in the collective unconscious), +there are yet those which are universal (male and female, and +their ages and abilities; earth, sky, natural forces such as +weather and tectonics; others?). These should be a part of any +such system as we invoke the divinity in ourselves (ya can't get +rid of the Goddess and God that easy!). + +What tools should be used? Knives, swords, sickles, hold less +charge for us, as they are not so much part of our daily life +(tho many SCA folks will contradict me on the knife. I know, I +wear one too...). But cups and plates stay with us, as well as +pots, and hammers, gavels, even the conductor's baton. These are +such ordinary things, but when elevated to chalice, +paten/pentacle, cauldron, wand, become something special. So +should we cease to use the other tools and instead elevate other +ordinary objects to the level of ritual objects? On the other +hand, there is something truly awe-inspiring in a beautiful and +skillfully-handled sword. We takes our energy where we gets it, +yes? + +What additions might we make? We would have to pay attention to +even the minor-seeming things. Would we change the elemental +system? I think not, for the elements as they currently stand +comprise, in one form or another, all aspects of existence. But +if we did, how would we do it, and still be serious (it's very +easy to make silly quarters!). + +[A note on salt for those unhappy with "archaicisms": salt has +been a purifying agent for ages, and still is, in many diverse +systems -- British, Mediterranean, even Romany. And I think the +process of Koshering meat with salt is as much a matter of +purification as leeching out blood. So the symbology of salt has +less to do with an obsolete technology than with its basic +action, acknowledged by many peoples.] + +Finally, as for the cycle of the year, whether we farm or hunt or +not, the seasons are a part of our lives; weather affects us, and +even though we buy food in supermarkets, seasonal changes in +price, quality and availability are reminders. Nothing says +"SUMMER AT LAST!" to me like a large, fragrant peach (arg! how I +miss and look forward to them!). When I was a student on the +quarter system at Cal, I was even more in touch with the cycle. + +And if we cease to acknowledge the passing of the seasons, we +lose touch with the earth, which, if we are to keep her as she +should be kept, must not happen. I am not saying "Ah, for the +goode olde days before the nasty Industrial Revolution alienated +us from Mother Earth and promoted pollution and strip-mining and +other land-rape." I am saying that if we are to live "in beauty +upon the earth" as the Hopi say, we should at least acknowledge +some tie with her seasonally, if at no other time. The quarters +and cross-quarters are good times for this, because it is in +earth's changes that she is most beautiful. Besides which, the +feasts and festivals are now, as they have always bene, an +opportunity for a community to gather, share, and party. + +But life is surer these days -- we no longer fear the endless +night of Winter Solstice, because we know we won't starve. We +are more comfortable in the physical world because it is known to +us now. Is there a point to ritual any more? Well, yes: + +Ultimately, we must avoid mundanity. We must not become so +caught up in Relevance that we lose the specialness of what we +do, the sense of wonder, the knowledge that we can do marvels. + +There is a special responsibility in being one's own priest, in +mastery of one's own powers. We must keep this in mind, with +pride. With apologies to O. Henry, we are the Magi. + +by Leigh Ann "SeaHawk" Hussey diff --git a/religious documents/panimals.txt b/religious documents/panimals.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cdfc348 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/panimals.txt @@ -0,0 +1,79 @@ +Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1993 18:31:31 +0200 +From: Thomas Eriksson +To: ceci@lysator.liu.se + + +This article is excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal. Each +issue of the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal is published by High Plains +Arts and Sciences; P.O. Box 620604, Littleton Co., 80123, a Colorado +Non-Profit Corporation, under a Public Domain Copyright, which +entitles any person or group of persons to reproduce, in any form +whatsoever, any material contained therein without restriction, so +long as articles are not condensed or abbreviated in any fashion, and +credit is given the original author.! + +POWER ANIMALS + +by Alernon + + +Come to us: Eagle, Wolf, Bear and Cougar. +Dance we now The Power dances. + +Eagle soaring above the peaks, +Share with us freedom, majesty and fighting skills. +Teach us lessons we need to learn. +Dance with us The Power dances. + +Wolf, cunning tracker, by day or night. Share with us endurance, +courage and adaptability. +Teach us lessons we need to learn. Dance with us The Power +dances. + +Bear, trampling along earthen paths, Share with us Mighty +strength and sense of smell. +Teach us lessons we need to learn. Dance with us The Power +dances. + +Cougar, lonely tracker of terrains, Share with us Agility, +stamina and endless curiosity. Teach us lessons we need to +learn. Dance with us The Power dances. + +Movements slow +Movements rapid. +Frenzied swaying +Upward, downward. +Dipping, turning +Round and round. +Dance we now +The Power dances. + +Dancing partners, +You and I. +With me, in me +I am you, you are me. +Together as one, +Yet separate, too. +Dance we now +The Power dances. + +Awaken now +All Spirit Beings, +To dance the dances +With your human kin. + +Dance the Cycles +Of Life and Death, +Hope and Fear, +Good and Evil. +Dance the Cycles, +Now and Again. + +Lowerworld, Upperworld, +Journeying now +and forevermore. +Of Time and Space +All is Once, +There is none. +Dance the dances +Again and again. .......from R.M.P.J. 8/86 diff --git a/religious documents/pantacle.txt b/religious documents/pantacle.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4903b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pantacle.txt @@ -0,0 +1,331 @@ + + + + + + The Pantacle - a teaching story + (c) Gary Dumbauld, 1988 + + + Michael came, walking slowly, purposefully, to the stone + circle deep in the woods. Stripped of clothes he came, naked to + the wind the moon and the stars, a cord of red twice his height + tied round his waist, a black-hilted knife at his left hip. He + tried to still his mind, remember his lessons, push his thoughts + to the back of his mind, and just feel; the feel of the Earth on + which he trod, the feel of the wind on his body, the feather- + weight touch of the moonlight on his skin. He tried to put + himself in harmony with the grand design of the Universe, the + purpose of the evening, he willed himself sternly to master his + emotions, listen and look with sacred intent. + + He came, bearing the pantacle before him, balanced firmly on + his hands. Silver, it was, silver like the moon, carved and + etched, polished, burnished and blackened with signs and symbols. + How he had sweated over it, this past year, with hammer and + chisel, graver and burin, acids and wax, the tools of the + silversmith. A year and a day it had been, since he was judged + worthy to become a Priest, and given this task. His to carry, + this silver shield, but not his to own, till the rite was over + and he, like his father and mother before him, his aunts and + uncles and grandparents for generations, inherited by solemn and + sacred ceremony the High Priesthood of the Wise. + + The High Priestess' athame pressed to his chest, her low, + clear voice as she asked him the ritual questions, roused him as + from a dream, of forest dark, and woods enchanted. He answered + her with a voice not quite fearful, but not as steady as he would + have wished. + + "I come to this Circle seeking knowledge. I am Michael; my + face you well know; I have been sworn and initiated into the + Third Degree, but I would now seek the Priesthood of the Wise. I + come, bringing as my key this sacred Pantacle, over which I have + labored for a year and a day; I wish to be instructed in it's + true meaning; to this end I present my self, the work of my + hands, and two passwords: Perfect Love and Perfect Trust." + + "All who bring such words are doubly welcome" the High + Priestess replied, "and I give to you a third password, a kiss", + and so saying, kissed him on the lips and whirled him sunwise + into the sacred space. He gazed about himself, his eyes sliding + easily over the usual implements on the altar, the candles and + wands, censer, bowls of incense and salt; he looked at the High + Priestess expectantly. + + The High Priestess spoke again, her voice reverberating + through the circle, echoing back from the sacred boundary stones; + "A seeker comes; this his purpose. The purpose of the Wise--to + teach! As it has ever been, let it now so be done! Who shall + begin?" + + The Priest in the North stood forward. "I shall begin. Young + High Priest to be, step to the North." + + Michael walked to the North, handed the Priest his Pantacle, and + + + + + + + stood silently while the Priest examined it, hoping that his work + would be judged as correct, hoping he had made an accurate + rendering of all the signs and symbols that he had been shown, a + year and a day previous. + The Priest carefully examined the pantacle, turning it about to + catch the light of the central fire, then handed it back to the + boy. + + "It is well done, all is correct. Look upon the symbol at + the top of the pantacle--the upright triangle. This sign is the + symbol of fire, the flame straining upwards, and stands for the + three-fold salute, by which I now salute you, recognizing the + fire within you, the fire of will, the will to accomplish, the + will to dare. A year ago you knew nothing of the craft of the + silversmith, and yet you have taught yourself to make this pan- + tacle. I say again, well done!", and so saying, the Priest + touched Michael with his athame on the right shoulder, the top of + his head, the left shoulder, and again on the right shoulder. + + Putting his arm around Michael's shoulder, the Priest brought + Michael around sunwards a few steps, then faced him again. + + "The next symbol on the pantacle is a pentagram. This + pentagram stands for the five-fold salute. In the form of a + pentagram with one point up, the five-fold salute symbolizes that + which is the best man has to offer, ascending to the Gods, being + enriched, expanded and augmented, and returning to enrich the + life of mankind. Thus, the five fold salute symbolizes the + microcosm of man containing the macrocosm of the Universe." So + saying, the Priest touched Michael with the wand, on the right + hip, head, left hip, right breast, left breast, and right hip. + + A priestess stepped forward, saying, "Now, with your + permission, I will carry on this candidate's instruction." The + Priest bowed to her, and returned to his place in the North. The + Priestess took Michael by the hand and walked with him farther + around the circle, still moving sunwards. She stopped, released + his hand, and faced him, taking up a bowl of blue paint. + Stepping closer, she reached out her blue-daubed hand, and made + the sign of the labrys on his chest. + + "The next symbol on the pantacle is that of the Goddess in + her aspect as the two moons, monthly waxing and waning. The + waxing moon symbolizes that which is outgoing and constructive in + mankind, the waning moon that which is hidden and withdrawn. The + waning moon also reminds us that for every accomplishment there + will be failures, that for every gain in our lives there will be + setbacks; we are not to weep and wail against the Gods, or fate, + or karma, but we should accept that there is a balance, and the + balance will be maintained, whether we will it or not. + Constructive and destructive, life and death--this is the way the + world is made; that which dies paves the way for the next round + of life." + + The Priestess linked arms with him then, and they moved farther + sunwards about the circle. She turned to him, and kissed him + firmly on the mouth, saying "The next symbol on the pantacle is + the kiss. I kiss you, Michael, because we are human; the Gods + have created us male and female. I also kiss you in token of the + perfect love and perfect trust I have for you, and for the + + + + + + + perfect love and perfect trust you declared for us when you + entered this holy space. That is why you were greeted by the + High Priestess with a kiss." + + Michael stood, blushing. He could still taste the sweetness of + her mouth, and his body wanted to respond to her as man to + woman--it was well he was carrying the pantacle in front of him; + then he got himself under control, realizing the importance of + this lesson; the ritual kiss would always be more than a + handshake between equals, but never quite a sexual overture; an + acknowledgement, not a demand. He sighed, composed himself, and + looked at the next sign on the pantacle. + + A stern-looking Priest came towards Michael, his face set in grim + lines, carrying something Michael could not quite make out. The + man faced Michael, then walked behind him, carrying what could + now be clearly seen as a cat o'nine tails. Michael flinched in + anticipation of being struck; surely the Priest was not going to + whip him? Ouch! Yes he was! + + "Michael," the Priest said, between strokes, "the next sign + on the pantacle is the scourge. The scourge of memory. Stand + tall, now, and be still, it will hurt worse if you try to avoid + it." + Now he had stopped striking Michael with the scourge. The welts + on his back stung and burned, but Michael tried to ignore the + pain and concentrate on the Priest's voice as he continued. + + "Michael, you told us at your First Degree initiation that + you were willing to suffer to learn. This scourge will not be + applied to your back again in a physical sense, but I want you to + learn to look back upon your life; and take power from the + foolish stupid things you have done. The mistakes, the petty + jealousies, the little hurts you've inflicted on your friends, + your parents, the people around you. Remember, Michael, and as + you remember, allow yourself to feel sad, to feel the pain and + embarrassment you've caused. Feel it, take the power from it, + then let it go! Go onward, take strength from your past, don't + dwell on it, but don't pretend the past never happened." + + The Priest again stepped behind Michael, this time carrying a pot + of something in his hand. Michael flinched again as something + touched his back, but this was cool and soothing, drawing out the + pain. The Priest waited a few moments, till he saw that the + cooling balm had done its work, then took Michael gently by the + hand and drew him along, ever sunwards, to explain the next + symbol. + + "The next symbol on the pantacle is the sign of the God, the + horned circle. The horned circle represents, among other things, + the Cretan bull, annually sacrificed by our ancestors. The bull + symbolizes the wild magic of the God, the intuitional magic, the + magic that springs from the instinct. The Cretan priests + sacrificed the bull, thus indicating the triumph of reason and + intellect over instinct and intuition. We, however are not + Cretans, and we do not immolate the bull of intuition on the + altar of reason. Logic and reason are fine in their place, but + never neglect the way you feel; never forget that the universe is + a mixture, a combination, a melding of the tangible and the + unreal, instinct and logic. Now I must retire, your instruction + + + + + + + will be completed by the High Priestess." + + The High priestess approached Michael, walking slowly, + deliberately, each foot placed with purpose, her upright carriage + reminding him of her status, first among equals, High Priestess + of the Coven, the Circle of the Wise. + + She stepped closer. "Michael," she said, "the last symbol on the + rim of the pantacle is the inverted triangle, the alchemical + symbol of water; representing the number three, the number of + life. It is a gate, a gateway of life, a gateway of time, for + time is past, present, and future; life is body, mind, spirit. I + am about to bestow upon you, the three-fold kiss, to bring your + body, your past, your mind, the present, your spirit, and the + future to bear on this moment." + + So saying, she bent and kissed him, first on the right shoulder, + then the left; kneeling she kissed him just above the phallus, + and then on his right shoulder again. + + "Michael, you have now passed around the rim of the + pantacle, let us now move to the center, and I will instruct you + in the meaning of the central pentagram. The pentagram in the + center of the pantacle is the sign of mankind. If I stand thus, + with feet apart, hands stretched to the winds, head erect, the + pentagram will enclose my body. We therefore can observe that + the pentagram in the center of the pantacle represents mankind in + the center of the universe, surrounded by Goddess and God; + blessings and reminders; past, present and future; good memories + and bad; light and life, love and law. The central pentagram + therefore can serve as a reminder to us, that the Universe was + NOT made for man, man was made for the Universe." + + She knelt at his feet, smiling, and kissed him, first on the + left foot, then the right, saying, "I bless your feet, Michael, + that have brought you in these ways, reminding you to be ever + ready to go on foot, to help, protect, and defend the brothers + and sisters of the Wise." + + She kissed his knees, saying, "I bless your knees, reminding + you to ever go on bent knee in humility when supplicating the + Deities, that one who knows his own worth will gladly kneel in + order to learn." + + She kissed his phallus, and said, "I bless and consecrate + the organ of generation, that in time you may know that love is + the great teacher of equality; love is the prime example of man + and woman as equals; two beings, alike in all ways, equal in all + ways, but totally different; one incomplete without the other; + forever opposite, but forever complimentary. Indiscriminate sex + will gain you nothing, Michael, for though sex is magic, love is + the magician." + + She kissed his right and left breast, saying "I bless your + breast, and remind you to keep within the safe repository of the + breast, the secrets of the Wise, as if under lock and key." + + Then she kissed him on the mouth, and said, "I bless your + mouth, Michael; henceforth, as a High Priest, you will be a + teacher, and the words of your mouth, based in knowledge, + + + + + + + leavened with intuition and instinct, uttered with magical will, + shall live in the memory of the Wise. Go forward, make your + progress, High Priest and Magus! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/pantry.txt b/religious documents/pantry.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7d24c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pantry.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3478 @@ +(1881) Wed 31 Jul 91 1:00 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 2896587d + The Magick Pantry + +This post was written to assist those participating in the +ASTRAL_GARDEN echo, or anyone for that matter that can benefit from +its content. If you haven't checked out the Astral_Garden echo, +perhaps you would like to see what has brought all this on. It is +intended as a general reference to give those not familiar with a +Magick Panty, what exacly it is, and what items might be included. +Some of the items my not be considered ethically sound, so please +use your own descretion and training to make these decisions. + +Purpose and Directions: + +The larder or Magick Pantry must be kept secret and secure. It is a +place to store all of your magickal herbs and various plants that +the magician needs to rely on in the day to day practice of magick. + It is a perfect accompinemt for the plants grown in your Magick +Garden. + +Find a cupboard or recess in the house, preferably one with a solid +oak door. Be careful not to let in too much light. Damp must be +kept out. Open the door swiftly, put in and take out what is +needed and close the door again. Keep all the herbs separate and +in labelled jars. Rose water and orange water must be placed in +earthenware pots since glass would allow the light to draw their +potency. Similarly, precious substances such as Ambergris and +Caviare should be stored in boxes of Almond-Wood as this is the +safest of all of the known woods. + +To prepare well all spells and magick potions, the vessels, +including mortar and pestle, spoons, and knives should be perfectly +clean and in some cases brand new. For the more demanding spells +the utensils can be used only once. + +More difficult spells or those requiring open cooking, may need the +construction of a tripod of sticks from which to hang the pot. +Keep a selection of Efficacious Sticks. Elder, Almond, Oak, Apple, +Rowan, Medlar, Vine, Cypress and Laurel branches can be gathered +for this purpose. + +For spells promising fertility and youth Hippomanes is needed. (Of +course this is definately NOT used by all magicians, and therefore +I'd suggest using your own descretion.) This is the foamy white +substance found on the head of a newly born foal. The vital parts +of a wolf as well as its skin, teeth and feet will be useful in +many spells, particularly those warding off injury and attack. To +inspire, excite or please the pet cat, a supply of its favourite +herb, Catnip is also needed. + +For making spells stay or even last for ever, dissolved gold, +silver and pearls are necessary. To ease all pains, to secure +death for oneself or to bring it under control and make a slave of +it Hemlock is the classic herb. It is said that to eat only a +little of the herb will make someone your slave for life. I don't +know if that it actually the case, as I've never really wanted a +slave, so I've never tried using it in this manner. + +Varied additional supplies that are available thru some Herbalists +and which are good for the Magick Pantry are: Camel Oil, Dragon's +Blood, and Unicorn Milk (of course these are simply the man-made +names) Again, check with your local herbalist for recipes of this +nature. If you have recipes for either of these three, I'd +certainly appreciate and welcome your posting them. + +In the next post labeled "The Magick Pantry" you will see some of +the herbs to include as well as their names and some of their +magickal uses. These are some of the most important ones to read: +Marigold, Nettle, Wild Teasel, Celandine, Periwinkle, Pennyroyal, +Houndstongue, Henbane, Lily, Mistletoe, Centuary, Sage, Vervain, +Celery, Rose, and Snakeweed. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1882) Wed 31 Jul 91 1:29 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Stock) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28965ab6 + The Magick Pantry - Contents of Stock Summary + +The following items should be included in your Magick Pantry. +Following this post, additional posts will follow describing each +in some detail, as well as giving the Magickal uses of each. I +certainly hope that you will enjoy them. + +ALCHONE, ASPHODEL, BASIL, BELLADONNA, BETONY, BLOOD ROOT, +BRIMSTONE, CELANDINE, CELERY, CENTAURY, CHICORY, CORIANDER, DILL, +ELECAMPANE, ERINGO, GINSENG, HENBANE, HOUNDSTONGUE, IVY, LETTUCE, +LILY, MANDRAKE, MARIGOLD, MISTLETOE, MUGWORT, MUSK OIL, MYRTLE, +NETTLE, ORRIS, PENNYROYAL, PERIWINKLE, PEONY, ROSE, ROSEMARY, RUE, +SAGE, SNAKEWEED, SPIKENARD, SUNTULL, TONKA BEANS, VERVAIN, WHALE +OIL, WILD TEASEL, and WORMWOOD. + +Other items such as RoseHips, Lemon Grass, Hybiscus Flower, and +Elderberries will also be discussed. I personally love all of +these! If you have descriptions of them, please feel free to post +them as you see the examples here. + +Again, we are discussing how to plant and maintain these herbs in +the ASTRAL_GARDEN echo. If you are interested, please join us there. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1883) Wed 31 Jul 91 1:38 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Alchone) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28965bc7 + The Magick Pantry - Alchone + +If this herb can be obtained, it must be kept and preserved as +something precious. It is the herb of the sun itself. It can heal +the passions and secret griefs of any sufferer. It can also soothe +the stomach. Moreover, it increases a man's sexual potency if the +juice is taken prudently. To carry the root is tot keep the eyes +free from infection or even from seeing anything to grieve them. A +little Alchone tucked inside a shirt will preserve the wearer from +fits. It is also an anti-congestant and an anti-depressant. + +Your selection of canisters should be glass, and properly labeled. +Remember, it is a very vital root for any magician to stock. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1884) Wed 31 Jul 91 1:42 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Asphodel) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28965f23 + The Magick Pantry - Asphodel + +This is the same beautiful flower that covered the fields of +Elysium but it is useful, too. It works best under the influence +of Saturn, since it belongs to this planet. Use Asphodel for pains +in the legs or bladder. Boil a little of the root in water and +drink the resulting infusion. A little of the root itself, carried in +a clean white linen cloth, will protect against all negativity +. keep some wrapped up and hidden in the house +for the same effect. Teething children should carry a little +Asphodel and their teeth will break through and grow painlessly. +It also offers ver good nighttime protection against fears and +enemies alike. + +As with previous roots, store in a glass container away from the +light and moisture. Be sure to seal the lid after every use to +insure freshness and potiency. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1885) Wed 31 Jul 91 1:48 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Basil) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28965ed3 + The Magick Pantry - Basil + +This is the most controversial of all the herbs. To many it is +sweet and charming. To others it is poison. In all ancient +writers Basil excites rude abuse. A French physician of the Middle +Ages has claimed that to inhale the herb causes a scorpion to be +born in the brain, or as the modern doctor might say, madness. Of +course, opinion again vary.. although many myths have their basis +of fact. On the other hand, Basil is a popular and harmless +cooking herb. Include it fresh in the Magick Pantry. Grow a new +sprig in the garden and it will keep you safe. The Hindus solemnly +hold it to be a sacred herb and worship it. So dear to them is the +Basil that they place a sprig of it in each room of their house to +bring safety and prosperity. Hang it on the inside of the door of +each room. Sprinkle a pinch on food just before it is eaten and +your soul will be joined to that of the goddess of love. The +married partner who has eaten Basil will be truly loved, but may +also become quarrelsome. + +As with other herbs, store in a proper container, sealed to prevent +moisture loss/gain. Basil can be dried from fresh cuttings by +hanging upside down for a week or longer depending on the plant. +Once dried, storage is relatively easy. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1886) Wed 31 Jul 91 1:57 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Belladonna) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28966074 + The Magick Pantry - Belladonna + +The term deadly nightshade accurately describes the strength of +this powerful Herb. Sweno's army, when it invaded Scotland, was +lulled into repose while its leaders were negotiating a truce which +the Scots never intended to accept. The Scottish side provided the +drinks and refreshments by mutual agreement. The drink given to +Sweno's army was laced with Belladonna. The wretched army fell +into a deep slumber and, thus made vunerable, was overwhelmed by +the Scots. The name Belladonna derives from two sources. The herb +has its cosmetic uses and can make a lady twice as beautiful by +enlarging her pupils into a seductive wide-eyed look. But also it +is named after a notorious Italian poisoner, Leucota, who viciously +used the herb to poison all her beautiful female friends. + +This herb can be difficult to aquire although storage isn't a +problem. Utilizing the same principles as in the previous posts +should be sufficent. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1887) Wed 31 Jul 91 2:02 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Betony) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28966348 + The Magick Pantry - Betony + +this herb is also known as Bishopswort but in the Magick Pantry it +may not be given an ecclesiastical name. Call it Betony or Wood +Betony and hold it in awe. It has both a good and evil reputation. + The physician to the Emperor Caesar Augustus used it to treat his +master for liver trouble, to protect him from Epidemics and to +assist in his digestion. It was said that the Emperor used +it to guard against Witchcraft although this term was mistaken in +those days. + +On the other hand, Betony is said to have been invaluable to +sorcerers' spells. It's forbidden name was bestowed upon it +because it tended to grow around old abbeys and derelict churches. +Many people said that the herb was hiding on consecrated ground +from the may occultists who would use it for evil purposes. + +In opposing various forms of witchcraft, it may be used as follows: + +Gently flake the dried leaves and strew them in an unbroken circle +around the outside of the house or place you want to protect. Make +the ring thicker under windows and outside the door. A wall of +good enfluences will arise and no evil deed will be able to pass +through it. + +Caution: If Betony is consumed it is sure to cause death by +vomiting. Please do not use this herb in edible recipes! + +Betony is a natural enemy of the vine, for their tendrils repel one +another. Keep them far apart in the Magick Pantry for this simple +reason. Like described in the Astral_Garden, there are those herbs +and trees that simply will not tolerate each other. + +As with the other herbs, store in sealed containers, away from +excessive moisture and light. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite + +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1888) Wed 31 Jul 91 2:14 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Blood Root) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28966498 + The Magick Pantry - Blood Root + +Store this herb in a jar labelled with a false name but remember +that the Blood Root is within. This herb is the root of deception. + The Indians of North America used it to stain their bodies, and it +is used still to dye fabrics. Taken internally it can produce a +hypnotic trance. (use with caution as with all magickally oriented +herbs) Carried on a person, inside a leather pouch or a +money-purse, Blood Root will protect that individual from +negativity or evil influences. But keep it close to money for it +demands payment. If a home is suffering from an evil influence, +put a sprig of Blood Root under the doorstep or windowsill and all +will be well. Any definite spell or curse placed by a witch can be +reversed by flinging broken pieces of the root onto his/her +doorstep. However, never trust Blood root unquestioningly, as it +often times will suprise you. + +As with other herbs, store in a glass container or container of +your choice. keep it free of excess moisture, and always shield it +from extra light. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite + +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1889) Wed 31 Jul 91 2:20 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Brimstone) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28966591 + The Magick Pantry - Brimstone + +No substance is more powerful in invoking or in driving off the +forces of evil. Find a piece of red paper and lay this on a metal +plate or dish. On the paper place a pinch of Brimstone. do this +four times and put each dish in one of the four corners of the room +in which the spell is being cast. At midnight set light to the +Brimstone. Address each dish with the following words: + + * I command all evil to flee this house never to return * + +Remember to leave all windosw wide open during this rite or the +smoke of the brimstone will be unable to escape and with it the +spell. + +Some say that Brimstone is actually a resin like that of +Frankinsence. If you have additional information on this item, +please feel free to post about it. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1890) Wed 31 Jul 91 2:42 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Celandine) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28966bf9 + The Magick Pantry - Celandine + +Never confuse this important plant with the lesser Celandine or +Pilewort used traditionally in the treatment of haemorrhoids. The +true Celandine is at once a more disagreeable and more potent herb. + It has black seeds; its taste is bitter and caustic; and its smell +is foul. But its influence is not to be sneered at. Swallows and +Eagles build their nests in May, and the flowering of the Celandine +in that month is linked with this annual domestic impulse in the +animal kingdom. the herb has its human uses and it is a useful +medicine for jaundice, corns, warts, sore eyes, toothache, ringworm +and scurvy. + +John Parkinson, in a manual published in 1640, writes that he has +it on good authority that any sufferer from yellow jaundice will +benefit by putting a sprinkling of Celandine herb beneath his bare +feet and treading it. But its influence is wider still. If the +heart of a mole can be obtained, cooked with this herb and then +consumed, it will vanquish all enemies and win any law suits that +may be contested. More somberly, when placed on the head of a +dying man, the Celandine will disclose whether or not the sufferer +is bound to lose his fight. If the man must die, he will sing out +in a loud voice, but he will weep if he can be saved. I thought +that was interesting indeed. Something that I simply must try when +given the unfortunate opportunity. + +As with all herbs, store them in a closed container away from +external light sources, and keep them dry. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: (Herbs,Poltices,Magickal Cooking) (RAX 1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1891) Wed 31 Jul 91 2:51 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Celery) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28966d2e + The Magick Pantry - Celery + +Known traditionally as smallage, this plant has always been one of +the prime aphrodisiac foods and more will be made of this kind of +magick in the final set, probably located in the Astral_Home echo. +The rumour is that the famous cola drinks contain elements of this +particularly stimulating tonic. + +Gather the root when it is still green, drench it in the oil of the +Cypress tree and place the greenery in a pot of gruel. Leave the +gruel for one year. Worms will appear, and those who carry these +worms with them will be gentle and kind and able to triumph over +their enemies. + +To make Oxen etc, faithfull and certain to follow their masters, +tie a pouch of the celery herb around their necks. The length of +time unfortunately was not specified. Being that this is the +Astral_Chef echo, that didn't sound too important anyway. + +As with all herbs, you know.. so on and so on... + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: (Herbs,Poltices,Magickal Cooking) (RAX 1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1892) Wed 31 Jul 91 2:57 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Centaury) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28966e79 + The Magick Pantry - Centaury + +The Sun dominates this herb as it does many of the other Magick +Plants. A Centaury opens its flowers just as the sun comes out and +closes them as the sun goes in. Often the Centaury is described as +an agreeable herb and is prescribed for Dyspepsia, but care is +advised. If this herb is mixed with the blood of a female lapwing +or a black Plover and poured with oil into a lamp, all those who +circle the light will believe themselves to be magickal and will +live in a world of delusions, so it is stated. Throw the same +mixture into a fire when the stars are shining and then watch the +heavens. The stars will seem to clash and collide. Put some of +the herb and the birs's blood on a bandage and push it under a +foe's nostril, it is said that he/she will suddenly be filled with +groundless fears and run for his/her life. + +I will try to find more about this herb. If anyone has additional +info, I'd really love to hear it.. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: (Herbs,Poltices,Magickal Cooking) (RAX 1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(1946) Wed 31 Jul 91 15:07 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Chicory) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28971a81 + The Magick Pantry - Chicory + +Do not despise Chicory or Endive and exile it to some anaemic +salad. Endive was a divinely chosen herb among many cultures. +Traditionally, it is a herb of love. To prepare it and bring it to +usefulness, chop the Chicory and let it dry. Grind it to a powder +and as a love philtre add it to your food or drink. (especially to +flavour coffees) It is said to do so without telling anyone and, +if the secret is well kept, this philtre will arouse passion in the +lover of one's choice. For good fortune in romance an Endive must +be carried on the person. Be sure to renew it every two weeks with +a fresh plant as its period of potency is not more than fifteen days. + +Legend states that in ceratin ceremonies, if carried out with +Chicory, can make the man who eats the plant invisible to human +view. Crusaders hung it on their banners, explorers carried it as +they wen venturing into a new land, and prospectors looking for +gold in California kept a sprig of it in hand for good luck. + +Gather Chickory at midnight on the 25th of July. Force a sprig +into any lock that will not open, and pass another sprig over +parchment bearing a description of any problem to be solved; all +obstacles and difficulties will be resolved according to legend +about this herb. + +As with any herb, keep snug in a seal container. Label your +container and be sure to keep direct sunlight away from this herb, +as it tends to loose its potency when over exposed to excessive +sunlight. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite + +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2016) Fri 2 Aug 91 12:49 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Coriander) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28999cfa + The Magick Pantry - Coriander + +In many religions Coriander is honoured. Several references have +been documented that the Gods demanded that this herb should be +used with four others at each feast. Its other uses are not so +godly however. Grate the seeds into a glass of your best, matured +wine. Give them to a lover and strong passions will be arroused. +But as the powder is placed in the wind, the lovers must chant +together with the following couplet: + + "Warm seed, warm heart, Let us never be apart" + +Nothing else must be said according to legend. When the wine is +drunk its influence will be felt sruging in the blood, so it is +written. + +The Coriander seed is round and has an appearance like that of a +small nut. Its shell is eaisly broken once dried, and has a very +pleasent fragrance. + +Store this herb in a glass container, free of moisture in your +Magick Pantry. As with other herbs, keep them away from strong +external light sources.. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2017) Fri 2 Aug 91 12:58 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Dill) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28999fa6 + The Magick Pantry - Dill + +Like with most herbs, the myths are endless for this one as well. +It was said that many attributed this herb as a cure for the common +hiccough. Many even thought that the common hiccough was a result +of a witch with a frog in the throat. This amused me.. + +The power of the Dill shouldn't be taken lightly, as it should be +greatly appreciated by any magician. To cure the common hiccough, +stir a small pinch of Dill into a syrup made from Black Cherries +which have been laying in the Magick Pantry for at least (3) days. +When the powder is well dissolved in the liquid/syrup, allow a few +drops to trickle down the throat without swallowing. The hiccoughs +will cease. + +Dill was also included in many love potions. Here's an old recipe +used here as an example. Steep a few sprigs in hot sweet wine. A +few minutes after drinking on half of a pint, it is said that +passions will be excited. (old but effective, I'd say) + +Dill is also quite effective in removing negative energies +throughout the household. As with Basil, the same techniques are +applied. + +Keep this and all herbs in a sealed container in your pantry. +Again, away from strong light and excessive moisture. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2018) Fri 2 Aug 91 13:09 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Elecampane) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 2899a1a0 + The Magick Pantry - Elecampane + +Make a light distillation of this herb and bathe the face with it. +Do not use a mirror and trust the herb. It is said that by +utilizing this tincture on the face that it will profit the +complexion by removing unwanted blemishes etc. + +Elecampane is of course also an effective love potion. Aristotle +himself taught how to make them, using this herb as follows. Take +Vervain and Mistletoe and place these herbs in a got oven with the +Elecampane. Dry and mingle the sprigs thoroughly. Pound the three +herbs into a powder and put this into the food or drink of the one +desired. The magickal combination of each herb bound together by +this process is said to achieve a potency far beyond that of your +basic aphrodisiac's strength. + +I'm sure that everyone would be interested in hearing from those of +you that have utilized this herb in other fashions as well. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2019) Fri 2 Aug 91 13:17 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Eringo) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 2899a370 + The Magick Pantry - Eringo + +This unique herb has many benefits, not to mention its tremendous +powers in the healing plane. It is a necessary part of any Magick +Pantry, one that should never be left out. + +To heal broken bones or simply to draw out thorns from lacerated +flesh, make a paste of the herb by brusing the root and boiling it +with pig fat (bacon, fatback etc. although salted lard works best) +Apply the mixture as a poultice. The bones will heal, the thorns +will spring out and the skin will mend without a any trace of a +scar. + +Again, this herb has many benefits. Like most herbs it too can be +used in Love Potions. To improve a love affair or invigorate a +marriage bed, grind the root into small pieces or into a powder. +Add this to your food or better still, to that of the uninspired +partner. Legend says that the ancient Greek women always wore a +sprig of Eringo to ensure that they kept the love of a man. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2020) Fri 2 Aug 91 13:25 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Ginseng) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 2899ac0c + The Magick Pantry - Ginseng + +With the exception of tea's, Ginseng is the most celebrated plant +in all the Orient. The Chinese have great faith in its curative +and strengthening properties and call it the "Chinchona of China". +The Manchurian Genseng comes from the Emperor's mother country, +from the soil from which legend says sprang the `God of Heaven'. +It is, therefore, gragrded as more efficacious than the Ginseng +grown anywere else. When the plant grows wild its root resembles +the shape of the human body, and like Mandrake, it is thought to be +most appropriate for most any Magickal spell. + +Medicinally, Ginseng is a cure for colds, skin diseases and poor +circulation of the blood. It's anti-spasmodic properties relieve +certain forms of hiccoughs too, like Dill. But it is also a very +powerful remedy for rheumatism. When taken regularly it removes +general fatague and promotes good health. Combined with the juices +of a ripe pineapple, it is an excellent medication for indigestion. + Ginseng is particularly useful in the treatment of young children +as well as the aged. + +Ginseng tea can be made from the dried leaves or blossoms of the +herb. After the berries are gathered select the brightest, +cleanest leaves from a mature plant. Place them above the kitchen +stove in thick bunches turning and mixing well until they are very +dry. Store away in paper sacks. When the leaves are steeped in +boiling water, just like ordinary tea, the liquid may be drunk with +cream and sugar if preferred. + +Another recipe for general use in the home is the following: Take +a piece of the root when it is very hard and dry. Break it up with +a hammer and grind it through a coffee mill several times until it +is reduced to a fine powder. To three ounces of the powder add one +ounce of milk, sugar and sixty drops of oil of wintergreen. Mix +all the ingredients well and store in a glass jar. The correct +dosage in one teaspoonful to a small teacup of boiling water. When +the drink is cooled it should be taken before each meal. It may +also be filtered served with cream and sugar, and consumed with the +meal. Made as directed this is a most pleasant aromatic tea and +has a good effect on the stomach, brain and the nervous system. If +the evening cup of ginseng is much larger, it is a good and safe +hypnotic, producing a deep restfull, natural sleep. + +I would also like to point out that Ginseng does not always have to +be considered as a medicinal herb, as that is simply not true. It +is a food, a plant that can be consumed as food. Therefore one +should consider Ginseng as a food rather than a medicinal remedy. +Long before the Chinese used herbs medicinally, they realized the +benefits of Ginseng as a food. When the warring states began, they +began to search out its benefits medicinally. Now that we are once +again a peace loving lot, we once again should realize these `food' +related benefits as opposed to the medicinal ones. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2021) Fri 2 Aug 91 14:02 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Henbane) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 2899af91 + The Magick Pantry - Henbane + +Mystery has shrouded this herb for centuries. Many legends both +true and false as also accompanied it for this reason. To begin +with let's discuss the hard cold facts.. NEVER play with Henbane. +It is as powerful as Opium and a deadly poison if taken unprepared. + NEVER let a child sleep near a Henbane as if he/she does, they +will never wake. + +Not suprisingly, it was a traditional means of putting down a mad +dog in years gone by. The dog was induced to eat meat mixed with +this herb and the animal quickly died. Curiously, too, if the +juice of the henbane is poured into a silver cup, the cup will +shatter into thousands of fragments. + +For those who enjoy a dish of Hare in season but cannot endure the +hunt, the following is recommended. Mix Henbane with the blood of +a young hare and hang the hare's skin, smeared with the potion, +outside the kitchen door. According to English legend, every Hare +from the neighborhood will gather there and will not move until the +skin is removed. Truly a Magickal enchantment, if the legend holds +true. + +The benefits of Henbane to human life are more controversial. It +is said that if the feet are washed in Henbane a peacefull sleep +ensues. Sniffing the flowers can have the same effect. Hundred of +years ago, dentists would burn Henbane in a sizzling dish of +charcoal surrounded by water, and the desperate patient would be +prevailed upon to inhale the fumes. The charlatan would then claim +that he could see the wicked, achebearing worms make their escape +from the painful tooth into the water around the coals. The +chronicler of this story notes that the dentist had usually +arranged for an accomplice to drop tiny pieces of lute strings into +the water, as the patient closed his eyes against the smoke. When +he looked again he would feel less pain, owing to the numbing +effects of the Henbane, and he could actually see his toothache +wriggling in the dish. + +Truly an interesting herb that does warrent some serious +considerations, both in the preperation and storage of the plant. +Please do be careful when working with this herb. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2022) Fri 2 Aug 91 14:17 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Houndstongue) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 2899b221 + The Magick Pantry - Houndstongue + +If you are squeemish please pass this entry as it's quite detailed, +although an interesting addition to the Magick Pantry. The herb is +however a part of the pantry. + +Whether or not this herb does neutralize the bite of a mad dog +cannot be stated authoritatively. But it is recorded that when +strewn under the feet of a barking dog Houndstongue will silence +the nuisance.. hence the name. + +The full spell is a bit more complicated. + +Capture a frog (it must be a young female) remove its heart and +reproductive organs and crush them into the powdered plant. Put +the paste in an open dish outside your door or wherever the +annoying dogs choose to bark. Soon all the dogs in the +neighborhood will gather around the pot. Take enough sprigs of the +herb and push one under the front toe of each of the dogs +assembled. They will be dumb henceforward. + +Please Note!!! + +A more infuriating yapping can be even more effectively silenced. +Tie a small sachet of Houndstongue around the dog's neck, where it +cannot be ripped by the creature's teeth. The animal will turn +round and round wildly and finally drop down in a state of +paralysis, barely distinguishable from death. + +These techniques are of course totally used at the magicians own +personal descresion. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2023) Fri 2 Aug 91 14:28 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Ivy/General) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 2899b6a1 + The Magick Pantry - Ivy (General) + +Ivy should have been planted into the very stones of the house. It +is also a necessary part of the Magick Garden (see the +Astral_Garden echo for details). When it has wrapped itself around +the home, it is said that everyone within will be well guarded +against negative influences and illness. However, it is said that +if the ivy withers and does not thrive around the outside walls, +financial storms will follow. + +Old legends tell us that wine merchants, and innkeepers, or anyone +who is making wines or throwing a party, must have a pring of Ivy +outside their door. Bacchus owns this plant and he will bring +special merriment to any house where it is honoured. It is also +said that in doing the above that there will be gaiety but no +drunkenness. + +Another legends states that if a girl who wants to find herself a +spouce, takes a sprig of Ivy, laying it gently on her breasts and +repeats these words, will find her awaited mate. + +"Ivy, ivy, I love thee, In my bosom I put thee, The first young +man who speaks to me, My future husband he shall be.." + +It is also said that the concentrated essense of Ivy dropped into +the nostrils will cure the common cold. + +In many religions the Evergreen Ivy is a symbol of everlasting +life. To others, more pessimistic, the gentle Ivy is a poison. +Which ever view you choose, the Ivy is definately an essential +accompaniment to your Magick Pantry. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2024) Fri 2 Aug 91 14:47 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Lettuce) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 2899b8a6 + The Magick Pantry - Lettuce + +This is a very powerful plant, homely as it is. Lettuce seems to +be woman's enemy, and is said to be a chief cause of infertility. +Never let more than twelve lettuces grow in the garden and never +keep more than one lettuce in the pantry or the house will lack +children. Legend sometimes says otherwise, although many still +swear by this today. + +For the Romans lettuce was a good counter to drunkenness and +titillated the sexual appetite after a good dinner. The earliest +English sources use in severe cases of insomnia. The Egyptian +Pharahos prized the Lettuce and offered it in worship to the high +gods. + +It has been said that nutritionally, some forms of Lettuce are +perhaps absent of nutrients. It is also documented that Lettuce +contains 70% vegetable fats and water, which unlike popular +thought, is not the best choice of dieters using this philosophy. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2025) Fri 2 Aug 91 14:55 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Lilly) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 2899bbc9 + The Magick Pantry - Lilly + +This is the flower of the moon and its best known action is to cool +and pacify. Medically, its strength lies in settling fevers and +particularly in soothing madness. Freckles and sunburn respond to +the gentle application of the distilled water of the Lilly. In +some phases of the Magickal world the power of the Lily is somewhat +different however. Some say it produces madness, as does the moon +herself, although these cases are few and far between. + +Again, the following may not be pleasent for some. If you tend to +be squeemish, I'd simply go to the next entry. + +Gather the flowers when the sun is in the sign of Leo. Mix the +dried flowers with the juice of the Laurel or of the Bay tree and +leave the paste under a pile of cow dung. Worms will breed. Catch +the worms, dry them and make up a powder. Secretly sprinkle this +powder on the chosen victim's clothes or even try to drop some down +his neck. So long as this powder sticks to him, never again will +the enemy rest or sleep. The oil drawn from the origional dung +will cause an instant fever, if you can succeed in anointing the +victim's brow with it. However, if the enemy is just to be given a +severe warning, drop some of the oil into his milk churns and +endeavour to cover these with the skin of a cow of a single colour. + His cows will dry up till the spell is undone. + +As you can see from the above, many cultures have abused the +essences of the Lily, which in itself is a shame. The herb/plant +is a beautiful creation with many benefits to mankind. Why someone +would want to harm another using this addition to the Magick Pantry +does not seem to be logical. + +If you have a recipe from the Lily and would like to share it/them +with us, I would certainly welcome them. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2143) Sat 3 Aug 91 6:19 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Mandrake) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 289a9562 + The Magick Pantry - Mandrake + +The root of Mandragora crudely suggests the appearance of a man. +It hardly needs saying that this plant is probably the most famous +in magick lore. Superstition decrees that Mandrake must not be +plucked from the ground by human hand or else the plant will kill. +Instead, a cord was wound round the plant and then tethered to the +collar of a manageable dog. When the dog was chased, the root was +pulled up and a hideous cry was heard to come from the plant. +Again, according to superstition, the dog did not survive the ordeal. + +Many superstitions of this nature shroud this mysterious herb. The +great sorcer Merlin knew of ways to call upon the Mandrake's +powers, as well as the proper method of harvesting the herb. +Legend has it that it was from the Mandrake that Morgan Lefae' was +bewitched into Merlin's dominion. Some say that they still are +incased together for eternity below Stonehenge as a result of the +Mandrake's influence. + +It is said that a little of the juice makes a man vain. More makes +him an imbecile. Mandrake is dedicated to Circe, the goddess of +fecundity, celebrated for her golden hair and notorious for her +knowledge and application of Witchcraft. Circe's Island, the basis +of many legends is said to hold the true key to the Mandrake and +it's uses. Although no man has ever returned from the island sane, +according to legend. + +To keep this herb in the house sufficiently guarantees against +sickness and peril. When it was impossible to find a single +uncloven root, again legend says that some of the ancient ones +formed peices of Mandrake into human figures. These also held +tremendous magickal powers. A man would order a female form and a +woman would order a male form. Each believed that the affection of +the opposite sex could be secured thereby. Many people burried +their entire wealth by the Mandrake plant in the belief that the +pot of gold would increase. + +Moreover, the powder is an indispensable aphrodisiac. Even the +sceptical Pliny has no doubt about this. In parts of Asia the root +was worn to increase vertility and provide protection against +attacks on the person. Most magicians value the potiency of the +Mandrake, and heed the cautions thereby. Many spells will be +useless unless the herb is burned as an incense while an +incantation is being chanted. Never forget that the Mandrake is +supposed to be a living creature, engendered underground from a +dean man's seed dropped on the earth as he was hanged for murder. + +Interesting as the Mandrake is, the magickal uses are still +somewhat puzzling to most in the craft. I would be interested in +hearing from those of you that have also used this herb in your +magickal ceremonies. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite + + +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2144) Sat 3 Aug 91 6:37 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Marigold) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 289a9718 + The Magick Pantry - Marigold + +Taken as a mouthwash, this is an ancient remedy for a toothache. +The marigold is a well known stimulant too. For hundreds of years, +particularly in Holland, it has been the favourite flavouring for +stews and potions. As it is the flower of the sun and a summer +flowering plant, it must be kept in a dried state. The ancients +believed that the Marigold's power to turn with the sun was a +highly magickal property. Rightly used it would ensure perfect +peace and prosperity to the bearer. But the following spell must +be worked with the Marigold before it can succeed. + +Always gather this flower in August when the sun is in Leo. Wrap +the head from one of the flowers in a Laurel leaf or in the leaves +of the May tree or Hawthorn. Add a wolf's tooth. No one will say +a bad word against the wearer of this charm. Let him sleep with +this small parcel under the pillow and if any man secretly wrongs +him the enemy's identity will be made known. If a marigold is left +in your circle, or church, it is said that no woman that has +commited adultery against a wronged and faithful husband will be +able to leave the spot where they stand or sit. If any spell +demands that the marigold is eaten, make sure that this is done at +breakfast time ONLY! + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2145) Sat 3 Aug 91 6:44 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Mistletoe) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 289a9a93 + The Magick Pantry - Mistletoe + +Legend and superstition place this plant on the higest plane of +magickal power and influence. Most of us involved in magick, have +heard stories of the Mistletoe, or have utilized it in one fashion +or another. It is said that to hang Mistletoe round the neck would +ward off negative influences. Its habit of growing on trees, and +particularly the mighty Oak has been attributed to the plant's +anxiety never to touch the ground. It's a benefical exchange as +the Mistletoe actually protects the Oak from the dangers of +lightning. + +The Anglo-Saxons worshipped Mistletoe as a present form of heaven +and as the sprem of the holy Oak tree. It has been written that +only the Druid, robed in white and carrying his golden sickle, +could gather it, and then but once a year during a ceremony +dignified by the sacrifice of two white bulls. At this ritual +sacred songs were sung in honour of the plant and prayers to the +gods were addressed to it. Every New Year the Mistletoe was +distributed to each family and used throughout the following twelve +months as a remedy against all ills and as an antidote to all +poisons. + +More specific among its uses is its power to open all locks. How +to perform this ritual is unfortunately not recorded in any text +that I could find. If you know or have read it somewhere, I'd +certainly appreciate the post. + +It has also been said to test whether a man's prophecy is valid, +lay a pinch of Mistletoe mixed with rosinweed on his tongue. If +the prophecy is true the man will repeat his statement. Otherwise +he will forget it. It is also a well-authenticated phenomenon that +if the mixture just described is rubbed into a swallow's wing and +the wing is the left hanging from a tree, the birds from miles +around will spped to the spot and hover there indefinitely. + +Exactly why anyone would want to do the above with the swallow is +not recorded. + +Store Mistletoe in your Magick Pantry in a sealed container, again +away from non essential light. Keep the lid to the jar tightly +sealed. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2146) Sat 3 Aug 91 6:59 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Mugwort) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 289a9c5d + The Magick Pantry - Mugwort + +This is definitely a female herb and its medical uses are generally +in the interest of women. With ordinary field daisies, it may be +used to smooth away all hard cysts and bumps that grow in the neck. + In medieval witchcraft and in some modern traditions, Mugwort +could bestow gifts of Clairvoyance if respectfully used. One of +its names is Witch Herb. + +Crystal Gazers/Scryers valued the plant and would strew their +tables and tabernacles with sprigs of dried Mugwort. The plant's +tendency to lean to the north as it grows made many people believe +that it was magnetic and responsive to many supernatural messages. + +To dream about the future, take three leaves of Mugwort and tuck +them inside a hemp bag. Put the bag under the pillow at night. +After three nights have passed it is said that one will dream of +the days to come. + +When a magician had to be consulted, they frequently took a long +time to complete the spell. To prevent fatigue, they would often +give their clients a sprig of Mugwort as they journeyed homeward. + +Store this as you would the other items in your Magick Pantry. +Again, paying close attention to excess moisture and light. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2484) Sat 3 Aug 91 22:24 +By: Moreta +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (coriander) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 84:5004/9.12 289b73ce@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28999cfa + +GE> Store this herb in a glass container, free of moisture in your +GE> Magick Pantry. As with other herbs, keep them away from strong +GE> external light sources.. + +Greg wouldnt' it be better to store herbs in a dark glass +container and or pottery.. where the light would be cut down more, +rather than clear glass? +(dunno why I am tossing that out.. other than just babbling +tonight.. ;> ) + +--- XRS! 4.50 +* Origin: Fly with the wind.....sleep with the sea... (RAX +84:5004/9.12)@ +PATH: 30027/12 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2485) Sat 3 Aug 91 22:37 +By: Moreta +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (lilly) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 84:5004/9.12 289b76dc@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 2899bbc9 +Lilly + +Greg which lily are you refering to?? I know of several and I will +dig up what I have on them, (unless you are just saying general +type.. ie all lilies) + +Mo + +--- XRS! 4.50 +* Origin: Fly with the wind.....sleep with the sea... (RAX +84:5004/9.12)@ +PATH: 30027/12 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2618) Mon 5 Aug 91 20:12 +By: Taliesin +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@PID: RA 1.01@ +MSGID: 84:5004/9 4e3c4eaa@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 2896587d +Hey, this sounds keen! A couple things-- + 1) Back up a bit, and go over that bit about the +Hemlock/slave onnection. You may not have much use for that info, +but, potentially, I do! What kind of dynamics are involved here? +Who actually eats it, what part, how much (obviously, dosage is NOT +something to experiment with here!), with or without their +knowledge (hopefully "with"), under what conditions does this work +best, does the effect carry from this life to the next (i.e. is +this a bonding that extends beyond death?), and most importantly, +what makes it work (i.e. why wouldn't munching on a parsley sprig, +for example, work just as well? Why is it eaten, not just rubbed +on the body, or burned & inhaled/incensed/whatever? What's the +significance of it all? I'm assuming that it's partially something +in the Hemlock itself, but I'm fairly sure that there's something +beyond just that... how does Will figure into the scheme?) + 2) You mentioned "recipies" for Dragon's Blood, Unicorn +Milk & Camel Oil. I've seen Dragon's Blood in resinous chunks +(_Calamus Draco_) in a few herb shops, and have seen Unicorn Milk +mentioned in a book or 2, but never followed up on it--is it +similar to Unicorn Root (_Aletris Farinosa_, or _Chamaelirium +Luteum_, for "False Unicorn Root")? Anyway, I do have a reference +from _Wylundt's Book of Incense" under Dragon's Blood which states +that + "Many unscrupulous dealers will sell you 'Poor Man's + Dragon's Blood'. It looks and smells much like the + real thing, only it's made of talc, red sandalwood, and + frankincense." +That's about as close to a "recipie" as I can find! + Thanx for the posting--this promises to be quite keen! + (However, I'm unclear as to whether this is a whole new echo +that's coming up, or if it's an extension of this one? +Clarification would be grand!) + Much thanx--Tal +--- + * Origin: -= The Sacred Grove =- Seattle's Pagan BBS +(206)634-1980 (84:5004/9.0)@ +PATH: 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2619) Mon 5 Aug 91 20:16 +By: Taliesin +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (basil) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@PID: RA 1.01@ +MSGID: 84:5004/9 4e3c4f92@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28965ed3 +For storing basil once dried, would you recommend that the leaves +be removed from the stems, or should the whole kit-n-kaboodle, +stalk and all, be kept, and if so, how and why? + (Gee, think I could fit any more questions into a mere 3 +lines?) :) + --Tal +--- + * Origin: -= The Sacred Grove =- Seattle's Pagan BBS +(206)634-1980 (84:5004/9.0)@ +PATH: 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2620) Mon 5 Aug 91 20:21 +By: Taliesin +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (blood Root) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@PID: RA 1.01@ +MSGID: 84:5004/9 4e3c50ac@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28966498 +The only form I've found this stuff in is powdered +(reddish-browny-russet colored stuff). I've used it in a few +insence blends (and please don't ask me what I've put it in--I've +just recently started taking notes of what blends I make! ), but somehow didn't quite know what to do with it +most of the time! I guess I was picking up on its "shady" nature, +as you pointed out in your post! + Under what conditions does this grow best, what climates, +and any suggestions on where to get seeds/shoots? + --Tal +--- + * Origin: -= The Sacred Grove =- Seattle's Pagan BBS +(206)634-1980 (84:5004/9.0)@ +PATH: 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(2621) Mon 5 Aug 91 20:22 +By: Taliesin +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (brimstone) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@PID: RA 1.01@ +MSGID: 84:5004/9 4e3c5122@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28966591 +If Brimstone is another name for Sulphur, as I've always heard, +then I can rummage around in some chemistry texts--what other names +does it go under? If it has some I recognize, I might be able to +find an entry or 2 on it for you! + --Tal +--- + * Origin: -= The Sacred Grove =- Seattle's Pagan BBS +(206)634-1980 (84:5004/9.0)@ +PATH: 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3003) Tue 6 Aug 91 15:44 +By: Greg Edwards +To: Moreta +Re: The Magick Pantry (coriander) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 289f0ee2@ +REPLY: 84:5004/9.12 289b73ce +In a message to Greg Edwards <03 Aug 91 22:24> Moreta wrote: + + +Mo> Greg wouldnt' it be better to store herbs in a dark glass +Mo> container and or pottery.. where the light would be cut down +Mo> more, rather than clear glass? + +Yes, definately if you have them, by all means use them. Some +herbs, those with little to no chlorphyll ie: Hybiscus Flowers +are fine in clear glass containers. Actually, I have many of them +in Sterilized Jars which works out rather well. + +I'm in the process of asking for those expert in carpentry to post +in the Astral_Home echo any designs that they have (or can come up +with) for a Magick Pantry. That should prove to be interesting. +Who knows, it may even give you and I some more ideas. + +Thanks for the post Mo! + +Greg..E + +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3004) Tue 6 Aug 91 16:04 +By: Greg Edwards +To: Moreta +Re: The Magick Pantry (lilly) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 289f0f47@ +REPLY: 84:5004/9.12 289b76dc +In a message to Greg Edwards <03 Aug 91 22:37> Moreta wrote: + +Mo> Greg which lily are you refering to?? I know of several and I +Mo> will dig up what I have on them, (unless you are just saying +Mo> general type.. ie all lilies) + +This is in reference to all Lilies in general. These references +are provided as a starting point, and YES definately.. if you find +additional info, feel free to post it here! + +Greg..E + +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3127) Thu 8 Aug 91 22:00 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b48960 +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 8415f015 +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 2896587d + > brought all this on. It is intended as a general reference + > to give those not familiar with a Magick Panty, what exacly + > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Hey greg - I am not at all familiar with a Magick Panty (giggle, +giggle) are these the same as edible underwear? + Blessed Be + Lady G. + > Camel Oil, Dragon's Blood, and Unicorn Milk (of course +Dragon's blood is the resin from the Draceana Draca, a palm tree +which grows in temperate to tropical climates. It is a deep red +color, and is harvested in much the same way as frankincense oil. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3153) Wed 7 Aug 91 9:36 +By: Moreta +To: Taliesin +Re: The Magick Pantry (basil) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 84:5004/9.12 28a00592@ +REPLY: 84:5004/9 4e3c4f92 +Ta> For storing basil once dried, would you recommend that the +leaves Ta> be removed from the stems, or should the whole +kit-n-kaboodle, +Ta> stalk and all, be kept, and if so, how and why? +Ta> (Gee, think I could fit any more questions into a mere 3 +lines?) :) + + +Tal, why not just freeze it? or make a pesto out of it or some +such.. and I don't think you could have added any more questions +in 3 lines hehee + +Mo + +--- XRS! 4.50 +* Origin: Fly with the wind.....sleep with the sea... (RAX +84:5004/9.12)@ +PATH: 30027/12 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3346) Thu 8 Aug 91 9:01 +By: Moreta +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (coriander) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 84:5004/9.12 28a14f22@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 289f0ee2 +GE> I'm in the process of asking for those expert in carpentry to +GE> post in the Astral_Home echo any designs that they have (or can +GE> come up with) for a Magick Pantry. That should prove to be +GE> interesting. Who knows, it may even +GE> give you and I some more ideas. + +Sounds like a plan, I always have ideas hehehee + +Thanks for clearing it up about the glass, I was told at one point +that clear glass containers wasn't good for any herb cause it would +leach them.. ;> I will take your word on it though ;> + + + +--- XRS! 4.50 +* Origin: Fly with the wind.....sleep with the sea... (RAX +84:5004/9.12)@ +PATH: 30027/12 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3347) Thu 8 Aug 91 9:20 +By: Moreta +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (lilly) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 84:5004/9.12 28a15388@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 289f0f47 +GE> This is in reference to all Lilies in general. These references +GE> are provided as a starting point, and YES definately.. if you +GE> find additional info, feel free to post it here! + +Ok I will look though my books and see what I come up with and +which ones. ;> Saw something the other day, and now I can't find +that specific book heheheee oh well.. ;> I will track it down. ;> + +Mo + + +--- XRS! 4.50 +* Origin: Fly with the wind.....sleep with the sea... (RAX +84:5004/9.12)@ +PATH: 30027/12 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3518) Sat 10 Aug 91 17:29 +By: Greg Edwards +To: Lady Galadriel +Re: The Magick Pantry +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:1085 208f99e7 +@MSGID: 1:133/520 85116ce5 +@REPLY: 84:5001/379 8415f015 + > > to give those not familiar with a Magick Panty, what exacly + > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + > + > Hey greg - I am not at all familiar with a Magick Panty + > (giggle, giggle) are these the same as edible underwear? + +OH, No.. I'm so embarrassed! > +I guess we know what I'm thinking about! See how you +were missed LG! + > > Camel Oil, Dragon's Blood, and Unicorn Milk (of course + > Dragon's blood is the resin from the Draceana Draca, a palm + > tree which grows in temperate to tropical climates. It is a + > deep red color, and is harvested in much the same way as + > frankincense oil. + +Thank you Lady Galadriel! I've seen recipes for Unicorn Milk, +although trying to gather them is another story. In the old +Astral_Chef archives (before the crash) I had it. Do you happen to +know what the ingredients are? + +Greg..E + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: CrystaLink - Astralite/Atlanta,GA (1:133/520) +@PATH: 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3577) Sun 11 Aug 91 13:49 +By: Greg Edwards +To: Taliesin +Re: The Magick Pantry +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a58ce7@ +REPLY: 84:5004/9 4e3c4eaa +In a message to Greg Edwards <05 Aug 91 20:12> Taliesin wrote: + +Ta> Hey, this sounds keen! A couple things-- + +Glad that you are enjoying it Tal. Sorry it's been so long before +a reply, we've been very busy. A few more additions are on the way +soon too. + +Ta> 1) Back up a bit, and go over that bit about the +Ta> Hemlock/slave onnection. You may not have much use for that + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Grin, I do not recall saying anything about the Slave connection. +:-O I also think that you are talking about Hembane not Hemlock. + + +Ta> info, but, potentially, I do! What kind of dynamics are +involved Ta> here? Who actually eats it, what part, how much +(obviously, + +Hembane has been used by magicians for centuries. As for today's +uses, what I've written/transcribed is a base only. It makes for +interesting conversation especially when people have some in their +Magick Pantry, and use it for their one personal uses. Primarily +it was used in elixers as a seditive. It promotes the psychi so it +is said, and causes deep relaxation. Perhaps some of the others +can elaborate a bit more. + +Ta> dosage is NOT something to experiment with here!), with or +Ta> without their knowledge (hopefully "with"), under what +conditions Ta> does this work best, does the effect carry from this +life to the +Ta> next (i.e. is this a bonding that extends beyond death?), and + +I would definately say that! It certainly isn't something to +experiment with. I would suggest that you check on the ritual uses +in some of the herbal books that are out there. There are some +really interesting uses of the plant, although this entry is only +for introduction to the Magick Pantry. + +Ta> most importantly, what makes it work (i.e. why wouldn't munching +Ta> on a parsley sprig, for example, work just as well? Why is it +Ta> eaten, not just rubbed on the body, or burned & +Ta> inhaled/incensed/whatever? What's the significance of it all? + +Are you sure that you were reading the right heading? In the case +of Henbane several hundered years ago, the dentists used to use it +as a hypnotic to soothe the pain of extractions etc. Check on that +again Tal. + +Ta> I'm assuming that it's partially something in the Hemlock +itself, Ta> but I'm fairly sure that there's something beyond just +that... +Ta> how does Will figure into the scheme?) + +Oh I have no doubt of that. If something is strong enough to smash +silver in to hundereds of peices simply by pouring the juice in a +silver container, then yes I'd definately say so. See what else +you can find out, and let's read about it. + +Ta> 2) You mentioned "recipies" for Dragon's Blood, Unicorn +Ta> Milk & Camel Oil. I've seen Dragon's Blood in resinous chunks +Ta> (_Calamus Draco_) in a few herb shops, and have seen Unicorn Milk + +It is a resin much like what you've described. The ritual uses of +it is mainly in the incense form, although I'm sure that there are +more. I'm sure what your book is referring to is the imitation + than a premium mixture of the primary ingredients. + +Ta> mentioned in a book or 2, but never followed up on it--is it +Ta> similar to Unicorn Root (_Aletris Farinosa_, or _Chamaelirium +Ta> Luteum_, for "False Unicorn Root")? Anyway, I do have a + +Seems like that would depend on the recipe. Perhaps you can post +the recipe that you have for Unicorn Root. I've never used Unicorn +Milk personally, although I'm looking for a recipe now. + +Ta> Thanx for the posting--this promises to be quite keen! +Ta> (However, I'm unclear as to whether this is a whole new +Ta> echo that's coming up, or if it's an extension of this one? +Ta> Clarification would be grand!) + +Astral_Chef was originally created to explore the art of poultices, +herbs and anything herbal related. This includes mundane cooking +etc. It also is here to provide assistance in the formulation of +magickal remedies etc. Another echo is really not needed as long +as we keep things on topic. I'm sure that Lady Galadriel will +concur. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3578) Sun 11 Aug 91 14:16 +By: Greg Edwards +To: Taliesin +Re: The Magick Pantry (basil) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a58d8b@ +REPLY: 84:5004/9 4e3c4f92 +In a message to Greg Edwards <05 Aug 91 20:16> Taliesin wrote: + +Ta> For storing basil once dried, would you recommend that the +leaves Ta> be removed from the stems, or should the whole +kit-n-kaboodle, +Ta> stalk and all, be kept, and if so, how and why? + +Personally, I prefer to hang the Basil for a time. This allows the +nectar to travel down through the stems to the leaves. It also for +some reason keeps the leaves (aroma) sweet smelling rather than +creating a tartness which some Basil tends to do. + +Storing the plant is easy once you've dried it. The stalks make an +interesting accompaniment for your homemade incenses, if ground. + +Greg..E +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3579) Sun 11 Aug 91 15:41 +By: Greg Edwards +To: Taliesin +Re: The Magick Pantry (blood Root) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a5a17a@ +REPLY: 84:5004/9 4e3c50ac +In a message to Greg Edwards <05 Aug 91 20:21> Taliesin wrote: + +Ta> The only form I've found this stuff in is powdered +Ta> (reddish-browny-russet colored stuff). I've used it in a few +Ta> insence blends (and please don't ask me what I've put it +in--I've Ta> just recently started taking notes of what blends I +make! +Ta> ), but somehow didn't quite know what to +Ta> do with it most of the time! I guess I was picking up on its +Ta> "shady" nature, as you pointed out in your post! + +Yes, you can use it in incenses. It also is still widely used in +cosmetics to this day. Some call it Indian Earth, some call it +bronzing powder. Isn't it nice to know that you can have it there +in the pantry when company comes and forgets their makeup? + +Ta> Under what conditions does this grow best, what climates, +Ta> and any suggestions on where to get seeds/shoots? + +Actually this is best discussed in the Astral_Garden echo. + +Greg..E +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3580) Sun 11 Aug 91 15:43 +By: Greg Edwards +To: Taliesin +Re: The Magick Pantry (brimstone) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a5a20d@ +REPLY: 84:5004/9 4e3c5122 +In a message to Greg Edwards <05 Aug 91 20:22> Taliesin wrote: + +Ta> If Brimstone is another name for Sulphur, as I've always heard, +Ta> then I can rummage around in some chemistry texts--what other +Ta> names does it go under? If it has some I recognize, I might be +Ta> able to find an entry or 2 on it for you! + +I would certainly welcome that addition Tal. Does anyone else know +more about this? I know that the refined sulphur is different than +that of its raw form. + +Greg..E +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3581) Sun 11 Aug 91 15:53 +By: Greg Edwards +To: Moreta +Re: The Magick Pantry (coriander) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a5a4b1@ +REPLY: 84:5004/9.12 28a14f22 +In a message to Greg Edwards <08 Aug 91 9:01> Moreta wrote: + +Mo> Sounds like a plan, I always have ideas hehehee + +Well post them over there! I'd love to hear about your designs. +Frankly Nomad is getting edgey again. It's usually a sign that he +needs to build something. + +Mo> Thanks for clearing it up about the glass, I was told at one +Mo> point that clear glass containers wasn't good for any herb cause +Mo> it would leach them.. ;> I will take your word on it though ;> + +It is my opinion that the colour of the glass isn't important, if +the doors are sealed well. This is with the exception of the +really green leafy herbs and the chlorophyl. Sealing the glass is +another story though. Did your source give you any other details +why they thought that coloured glass was important for *All* herbs? + I'd be interested in hearing about it, seriously. + +Greg..E + +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3582) Sun 11 Aug 91 15:57 +By: Greg Edwards +To: Moreta +Re: The Magick Pantry (lilly) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a5a4f4@ +REPLY: 84:5004/9.12 28a15388 +In a message to Greg Edwards <08 Aug 91 9:20> Moreta wrote: + +Mo> Ok I will look though my books and see what I come up with and +Mo> which ones. ;> Saw something the other day, and now I can't +Mo> find that specific book heheheee oh well.. ;> I will track it +down. ;> + +I'll look forward to that as well when you find it. References on +Lilies are few and far between from what I can see. + +Greg..E + +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3879) Mon 12 Aug 91 14:25 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Musk Oil) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a6e328 + The Magick Pantry - Musk Oil + +Never feel that this is too exotic for the larder. Many spells are +made sweeter or more insidious by the lingering scent of musk. To +bless a Talisman of Venus and ensure good health, prosperity and +love, Musk can be utilized in the following ways.. + +Bring the talisman for blessing on a friday; come at the tenth hour +of the day or at the eighth hour of the morning. Make a fire of +Myrtle wood and throw Musk Oil and Lignum into the flames. Place +the talisman (used for defense, protection, or allurement) in front +of the vessel that bears an offering to Venus, and as the incense +rises chant the following invocation: + +"Conjuro et confirmo Super vos angeli fortes, Sancti atque +potentes, Sancti atque potentes." + +After this invocation a special request is made and the Talisman +will be blessed. It is important not to touch the talisman until +the next day. Leave it to rest, or the spell will be undone. + +As you can see, Musk Oil is traditionally used in incenses, bath +oils, and elixers for love. This recipe simply allows the maker to +invoke the talisman with a purpose. + +I would like to add here that in many traditions, the difference +between a Talisman and an Amulet is that while the Talisman is used +for protection, love ect.. the Amulet is usually agressive, and +promotes agressive magickal properties. Do not confuse the two, as +the "Purpose" must be clearly stated prior to the invocation of any +magickal tool. + +Balance and Light.. +Greg..E +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3880) Mon 12 Aug 91 14:37 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Myrtle) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a6e7ba + The Magick Pantry - Myrtle + +Out of all of the primary ingredients, Myrtle is one of your best +resources. If one is ever afflicted by bad dreams sent by one's +enemies, it has been written that Myrtle is the perfect remedy. + +Here's what you do: + +Make a small glass of the liquid and keep it by the bedside. It is +said that any negative night spell at work will be cancelled. The +reason for this is unclear, however based on research and from +personal experience, it is definately worth the effort. + +Myrtle was a particular favourite of the goddess Venus. Both the +Greeks and the Romans believed that the plant contained the secrets +of eternal youth and passionate love. The theory was as follows: +To gain these benefits for ever, a brew of Myrtle must be drunk +once every three days since the spell lasts only that long without +renewal. + +The taste of the plant is undeniably disagreeable. It is, +therefore, permissible to mix Myrtle with food. But mix it only +with meat for when it is added to another substance it will taste +of blood. Remember for this charm to work both lovers must eat or +drink from the same container, otherwise no good effect will be +felt from the Myrtle. + +It is said that for thinning hair, you can use Myrtle berries +together with rosemary, southernwood, hazel-bark and maidenhair in +equal amounts. Burn them together in a fresh fire and collect the +ashes carefully. Stir this powder into white wine and use the +liquid as a shampoo, rubbing and massaging into the scalp. make +this a daily ritual. > + +Some old cultures believed that if Myrtle was eaten, it would +empower anyone to spot those delving into evil magickal art forms. +Be forewarned however, that most expert in these arts are also able +to counter these actions. It is not something to play with to say +the least. + +It is said that when a fresh Myrtle sprig is picked and crackles in +the hand that the beloved person is always true and faithfull. + +Many legends refer to this herb with affection calling it the +bleeding tree, since it was connected with blood and sorrow in +Greek mythology. Phaedra pricked these leaves with a hairpin in +her anxious frustration as she awaited Hypolytus, who was already +dead. The leaves still bear the sorrowful marks. Therefore, when +storing Myrtle leaves, never crush or bend them before they are +dried or used. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3881) Mon 12 Aug 91 14:56 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Nettle) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a6e982 + The Magick Pantry - Nettle + +Nettle is an agressive plant with many properties. The Nettle in +England was traditionally supposed to have been planted by the +Roman legions of Julius Caesar. Unused to England's miserable and +freezing climate, they frequently found their limbs chilled or even +numbed by the frost or sleet. As a remedy they plucked the Nettles +and then scorged their legs and arms with them. After this they +enjoyed the warmth of the inflammation. Legend has it that to hold +the Nettle in one's hand insures +one against any fears of hallucinations. + +Take some Nettle leaves and mix them with the common houseleek, +which is a soothing agant against Nettle stings. Anoint the body +with this essence and sprinkle the rest on any stretch of water +where fishing has been unseccessful. Then enter the water treading +with dignity and respect for the magick, and the fish will leap +into your hands. If they are unacceptable or too small, just +withdraw the hand and the fish will happily jump back into the +water of their own accord. + +Growing tips and planting the Nettle are located in the +Astral_Garden echo. + + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3882) Mon 12 Aug 91 15:03 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Orris) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a6eaba + The Magick Pantry - Orris + +This is an ordinary herb to all appearances but its two magickal +uses must be known. In the middle ages it was mixed with food and +drink to promote love. Ground into a fine dust and blown over the +clothes of a loved one, it will ensure that the lover's affection +is returned. + +Orris is a powerful incense in many magickal arts. When making a +benign incantation during the casting of a spell favourable to +oneself, sweeten the breath with an Orris root. Offer a sprig to a +baby, if he takes it and puts it in his mouth, his teething will be +easy and his whole life is said to be a happy one. If he seems to +be refusing it, encourage him, since to embrace the Orris is to +learn to enjoy all that is moderate and pleasant in life. + + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3883) Mon 12 Aug 91 15:09 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Pennyroyal) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a6ec9a + The Magick Pantry - Pennyroyal + +Any ordinary domestic larder will certainly contain this common +flavouring even before a Magick Pantry is assembled. But grow the +plant in your Magick Garden (see the Astral_Garden echo). A brew +of the plant is useful as a remedy for spasms or hysteria. The oil +will deter mosquitos and gnats as well. A garland of the flowers +worn round the brows will relieve giddiness and a swimming head. + +By far the most mysterious powers of the herb possesses bear on the +animal world. Take some dried Pennyroyal, grind it with a stone +taken from the nest of a lapwing or a black plover, and smear the +belly of any female beast with this powder. The animal will +quickly produce an offspring that is deep black in colour. An +ailing animal can be miraculously healed of any sickness by +sniffing a pinch of Pennyroyal mixture. At first the poor beast +will drop as if dead but presently it will rise again completely +cured. A little more of the mixture placed among bees will ensure +that they never desert the hive. Any bees or flies that have been +drowned can be placed in the warm ashes of this herb and it is said +that they will return to life within the hour. + +As you can see, there are many legends on this marvelous herb. I +would be interested in hearing anyone elses experiences with it as +well. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3884) Mon 12 Aug 91 15:16 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Periwinkle) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a6ee25 + The Magick Pantry - Periwinkle + +Beware of treating this herb as mearly decorative and removing it +to a vase or a display. Recently its strength was further +revealed. It was claimed by some medical opinion that the +Periwinkle or Vince Rosea, was an effective cure for diabetes. +More interesting to most of us is the power the plant has to +reconcile man and wife and revive their passions. + +Note: This may not be appropriate if you are weak stomached. + +To effect this atonement, beat the Periwinkle into a powder and mix +it with earthworms and the herb named Houseleek. Unfortunately, no +further information was available as to the specific way this balm +should be applied, except to say that it should be given with meat +to the unhappy couple. Furthermore, put this herb in the mouth of +a young bull and the animal will run amok directly at your enemy. + +For those of you that like special effects at your circles, and +enjoy outside fires within them, sprinkle some Periwinkle powder +into the fire and the flames will turn bright blue. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3885) Mon 12 Aug 91 15:24 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Peony) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a6f07a + The Magick Pantry - Peony + +It is said that this herb cured the gods injured in the Trojan +wars. From time immemorial, the seeds have been dried and worn in +ticht neckband by men and women as a sure protection against those +that work in the black arts. In Christian philosophy, it was +Lucifer himself that was credited with the creation of the Peony, +but its dedication has long since been transferred to the sun. +Therefore, work spells with it only on the seventh day, and then +only after sunrise. + +It contains a remarkable cure for a swimming head or for those +sensations of unreality that may afflict on at any time. Take the +root and the seed of one and the same Peony flower. Ensure that +the weight of both is equal. Pound them together into as much +powder as will balance a nutmeg on the scales. Now grind the +netmeg, shake the powder and grind it again. Mix together both the +powders and sprinkle fine sugar into them. Put a pinch under the +toungue every morning for a month. This will steady and calm any +being. + +In Ireland it is widely used and is helpful to women suffering +after childbirth. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3886) Mon 12 Aug 91 15:33 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Rose) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a6f1eb + The Magick Pantry - The Rose (General) + +The Rose is beautiful both in appearance and in scent. Yes, it is +a flower but it's also considered to be a very powerfull herb. The +magickal effects of the Rose can be devastating. Take a center +from the whole flower or just one dried petal. A mustard seed and +a weasel's foot are also needed. Hang all these together in a +hempen bag on a branch of ANY tree; that tree will never again +bear fruit. + +A dried Rose, entwined in a fisherman's net, will charm into it a +full shoal of fish. To create an optical illusion, if illusion it +be, take some of the origional Rose and some mustard powder and mix +it together with purest Olive oil and a little Brimstone . + Sprinkle this potion over the roof and the outside walls of the +chosen house. When the sun shines this house will appear to be on +fire. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3905) Mon 12 Aug 91 19:39 +By: Taliesin +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@PID: RA 1.01@ +MSGID: 84:5004/9 4e458182@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28a58ce7 +I'm pretty sure it was under Hemlock's entry that you wrote about +having somebody eating a sprig of it to make that person your +slave. I could be wrong--I'll take some time in a few days to +re-read the messages about it. (I've been gone for a few days +again, which means that I'm woefully behind in the messages!) + --Tal +--- + * Origin: -= The Sacred Grove =- Seattle's Pagan BBS +(206)634-1980 (84:5004/9.0)@ +PATH: 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(3906) Mon 12 Aug 91 19:43 +By: Taliesin +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (blood Root) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@PID: RA 1.01@ +MSGID: 84:5004/9 4e458246@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28a5a17a +> +> Yes, you can use it in incenses. It also is still widely +> used in cosmetics to this day. Some call it Indian Earth, +> some call it bronzing powder. Isn't it nice to know that you +> can have it there in the pantry when company comes and +> forgets their makeup? +> +Forgot to ask--is it toxic? +> +> Actually this is best discussed in the Astral_Garden echo. +> +Are these messages duplicated in Astral_Garden? If not, can they +be? --Tal +--- + * Origin: -= The Sacred Grove =- Seattle's Pagan BBS +(206)634-1980 (84:5004/9.0)@ +PATH: 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4052) Tue 13 Aug 91 8:11 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Rosemary) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a7dd9a + The Magick Pantry - Rosemary + +It is traditional it is said to wear Rosemary at weddings. This +was always done in ancient times and the herb was a much a symbol +of marriage as was the colour white. The power of Rosemary is to +remind and to bind. For many years occultists have appreciated +Rosemary as a stong agent. + +One spell, enabling a virgin to see her future husband, had to be +carried out on the eve of St. Mary Magdalene. The herb was dipped +into a mixture of wine vinegar and water in a glass dish, and the +juice was then used to anoint the virgin's breasts. She had to be +accompanied by two of her closest friends under the age of +twenty-one, who would then conduct her back to her bedroom after +the ritual, all without speaking a word. The virgin would then +inevitably dream of her future husband. + +An alternative to the anointing was for the three girls to take +three sips of the liquid. They then fastened a sprig of Rosemary +to their bosoms and retired confidently to bed. All three would +that night dream of their future husbands and learn the secrets of +their lives thereafter. + +Rosemary can also be used to retain or gain power over a man. To +do this, aquire some water or wine already touched by the man +himself. Place the Rosemary in four boxes, set out at the four +polls of the compass, (Northe, South, East, and West) which must be +placed in the center of the room. Pour a little water or wine into +each of the boxes and say the following: (Again, a Latin +translation would be nice) + + "Tibi impero ut quaedam viluero, et velim adimpleas et facias" + +When two days have elapsed take out the Rosemary, swathe it in silk +and bury it in the earth, no less than six inches deep. Let it lie +there for three days and then remove the bundle one hour after +sunset. Burn the herb, collect and powder the ashes. When this +powder is discreetly placed into the food or drink of the chosen +man, he will return your love. + +Rosemary is a long slender leaf tapered on the ends. It smells +sweet, and when crushed it is quite palatable. It is also said +that one can make a Rosemary infusion, to rid the household pet of +fleas. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4053) Tue 13 Aug 91 8:25 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Rue) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a7e086 + The Magick Pantry - Rue + +Many cultures have adorned this herb for centuries. It is said +that Rue is helpful in rescinding unwanted magickal workings, and +to reverse decisions. It is the herb of repentance, the herb of +grace. Roman Catholics sprinkle the petals of Rue on the surface +of their holy water. During a symbolic ceremony to guard against +disease, it is also strewn in some courts of law. Its uses in +removing negative entities are astounding. This includes the art +of excorsism, in some faiths. + +Here was an instruction from a priest recorded in 1664 that I +though was interesting regarding excorsism. His origin was never +mentioned... + +To remove the influence of someone's Familiar + +First they are to try the entity by dousing with prepaired holy +water, or water blessed by the faith. To this would include the +addition of incense, sulphur, and rue which from thence, as we +suppose can, came to be called herb of grace, along with St. John's +wort which therefore they call the evil out, yet they may do good +to the patient. + +Other uses would be to make a tea and some incense from Rue. Drink +the tea and burn the incense simultaneously. Although Rue is not +an aphrodisiac, it has been known to attract a desireable lover, +clear the mind, and enable one to solve many problems. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite + + +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4054) Tue 13 Aug 91 8:37 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Sage) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a7e2bc + The Magick Pantry - Sage + +Many traditions utilize this powerful herb in many ways. Of these, +smudging, incenses, as well as cooking are among the most popular. +Again, this herb must be grown fresh. +Never use the remnants of your cooking supply for magickal +workings. Red Sage is an exotic plant in spite of its conventional +uses. The herb may be used for throat gargles and mouthwashes, but +it also has many magickal properties. + +This magickal working is not for those that are squimish. (I found +it interesting, and am in hopes that others will as well.) + +Dry, purify and select the best pieces of the plant and put them in +a small pile of cow dung on a glass dish. If discretion and +respect are used, soon a worm will issue forth or perhaps a bird +with black tail feathers. The blood of the creature that wriggles +or hops out of the glass vessel is powerful and dangerous. Place a +drop of it on the brest of anyone to be disposed of. The person +will loose his/her wits and feel nothing for fifteen days or more. +Once the magick creature is killed for its blood, burn the carcass +and collect the ashes. Scatter them on a fresh fire. A +magnificent rainbow will appear in the sky and a horrible +thunderstorm will follow. If a woman wishes to dominate her home +she must grow plenty of sage in her garden. + +As mentioned above.. this text is for reference purposes only. + + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4102) Tue 13 Aug 91 14:57 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459a1 +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 868ed702 +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 2896587d + > Elder, Almond, Oak, Apple, Rowan, Medlar, Vine, Cypress and + ~~~~~~ +What is Medlar? Amber and I are unable to locate any plant or tree +with this name. + > the head of a newly born foal. The vital parts of a wolf + > as well as its skin, teeth and feet will be useful in many + > spells, particularly those warding off injury and attack. +In the U.S. it is illegal to kill wolves, last I heard. I would +also add that often the labels used in spells are meant +allegorically, not literally. Take the example of Dragon's Blood. +Any thing which could be accomplished by using wolf parts can also +be accomplished in another way, thereby not causing the demise of +such a wonderful creature. Those which may be road killed are often +not good for magicakal purposes, altho by all means save the hide +if possible. + > gold, silver and pearls are necessary. To ease all pains, + > to secure death for oneself or to bring it under control + > and make a slave of it Hemlock is the classic herb. It is +Socrates did not make a slave of death this way! This is dangerous +information. Hemlock is very poisenous, and even in minute doses +will cause massive discomfort physically. Even inhaling the smoke +of burning hemlock can be very dangerous. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4103) Tue 13 Aug 91 15:19 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Stock) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459a2 +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 868f0309 +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28965ab6 + + > BRIMSTONE, - Is not an herb, it is the mineral sulphur + > MUSK OIL, - is also not an herb, it is the extract from the +glands of the musk rat, musk deer, or musk ox. Most musk oil in +stores is artificial. + > SUNTULL,- What is this? Can't find it anywhere. + WHALE OIL,- again, not an herb, and ecologically speaking, not a +good item to support the harvest of. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4104) Tue 13 Aug 91 15:22 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Alchone) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459a3 +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 868f579e +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28965bc7 + > The Magick Pantry - Alchone +What is this? I have been unable to locate ANY herb by this name. +Do you have a description of the plant? Any alternative name? If +this is such a vital root, it would be very nice to know what it is! + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4105) Tue 13 Aug 91 15:31 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Asphodel) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459a4 +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 868f78bf +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28965f23 + > The Magick Pantry - Asphodel + > + > This is the same beautiful flower that covered the fields + > of Elysium but it is useful, too. It works best under the + > influence of Saturn, since it belongs to this planet. Use +Yes, it did, but it comes under the influence of Pluto, and was +used in that connection by the Eleusinian mystics. The fields of +Elysium are located in the Underworld. Also in connection with this +it is used in the consecration of the magickal wand, and assits in +the crossing over of souls if planted near grave sites. +Ancient cemetaries recieved copius plantings of Asphodel. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4106) Tue 13 Aug 91 15:41 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Basil) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459a5 +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 868f87ba +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28965ed3 + > The Magick Pantry - Basil + > + > This is the most controversial of all the herbs. To many +Say What???? + + > it is sweet and charming. To others it is poison. In all + > ancient writers Basil excites rude abuse. A French + > physician of the Middle Ages has claimed that to inhale the + > herb causes a scorpion to be born in the brain, or as the + > modern doctor might say, madness. Of course, opinion again + > vary.. although many myths have their basis of fact. On +This is a bunch of hogwash! It seems to me that you are quoting +from some very archaic herbals - and not good ones at that. + The Hindus + > solemnly hold it to be a sacred herb and worship it. So +Use it to invoke Krishna and Vishnu. + +Basil is used as a tea for indegestion, fevers, colds, flu, kidney +and bladder troubles, headaches, cramps, nausea, vomiting, +constipation and to calm nervous conditions. It can also be an aid +in starting delayed menses. +Dried basil placed in grains and flours repels weevils. +Magickally, Basil is associated with salamanders and dragons. It +can be used to invoke their prescence for advice, inspiration, or +protection. For this purpose it can be burned as incense, drunk as +a tea, or sprinkled as a libation. +It can also be used to promote courage for facing Initiations, it +provides strength for positive expansion. It protects one from +spiritual fear. It was used by Solomen is the asperging of the +Temple. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4107) Tue 13 Aug 91 15:53 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Belladonna) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459a6 +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 868fb6ab +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28966074 + + > The Magick Pantry - Belladonna + +Used to invoke Bellona and other goddesses of war. Ruling planet is +Saturn. Has an affinity to Onyx and should be stored with the stone. +Belladonna is the source of both Atropine and Scopolomine, both +very useful drugs in allopathic medicine. The alkaloids which are +refined for use in these drugs are responsible for the herbs `evil' +reputation. They produce hallucinations, rapid heart beat, flushing +of the skin, dry-mouth, which can lead to coma and death if not +counteracted. +The active ingredients are Tropeine alkoloids,flavone glycosides, +coumarins, scopoline, scopoletine, tannin, acids, and phytosturol. +In case of accidental poisening you should induce vomiting and give +charcoal tablets. +This plant can be purchased in most any herbal garden shop. +Belladonna is still used in some countries to dilate the pupils of +the eyes for thourough examination. It continues to be used in +prepartions sold by pharmaceutical companies, and prescribed by +M.D.'s for nervous stomach in the form of Donnatol. +It's use should be restricted to trained Herbalists due to the +great potential for over-dosage with possible fatal results. +It has also been used as a specific antidote for nerve gases and +accidental poisening from pesticides used in aeriel spraying. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4108) Tue 13 Aug 91 16:01 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Betony) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459a7 +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 868fe934 +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28966348 + > digestion. part of the quinary> It was said that the Emperor used it + > to guard against Witchcraft although this term was mistaken + > in those days. +A) What is the quinary? Been thru all my medical texts and cannot +find anything close to this as part of the digestive system. +B) I have never had any problems with Betony and I AM a Witch. I +use it in my herbal smoking mix, with no problems whatsoever. + +Betony is used for liver problems. It is also used for headaches +and for calming nerves. + > In opposing various forms of witchcraft, it may be used as + > follows: + > + > Gently flake the dried leaves and strew them in an unbroken + > circle around the outside of the house or place you want to + > protect. Make the ring thicker under windows and outside + > the door. A wall of good enfluences will arise and no evil + > deed will be able to pass through it. +First, we are assuming it is eveil witchcraft. Second, this is +still B.S>! +Caution: if Betony is consumed it will cause death by vomiting???? +Where did you get this???? It is completely untrue!!!! Wood betony +is NOT poisenous. It is often used as a substitute for black tea, +without the harmful caffiene and acids found in tea. +Wood betony can help prevent intoxication if worn or carried, as +well as strenghtening the body. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4109) Tue 13 Aug 91 16:07 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Blood Root) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459a8 +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 86900ad3 +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28966498 + > The Magick Pantry - Blood Root +It is part of the Poppy family + > + > Store this herb in a jar labelled with a false name but + > remember that the Blood Root is within. This herb is the + > root of deception. The Indians of North America used it to +This is ridiculous! + > Taken internally it can produce a hypnotic trance. (use +Otherwise known as DEATH! +Bloodroot is used externally for ringworm and ot6her skin fungi. +It is active within the Heart and should be restricted for internal +use to a trained herbalist. +It is also used in minute amounts for asthma and bronchitis, as +well as for causing menstrual flow. +Its active ingredients are: alkoloid chelidonine, sangninarina, +berberine, chelerythrine, and others + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4110) Tue 13 Aug 91 16:12 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Brimstone) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459a9 +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 86902382 +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28966591 + + > The Magick Pantry - Brimstone + +This is not an herb! It is a mineral. + > + > Some say that Brimstone is actually a resin like that of + > Frankinsence. If you have additional information on this + > item, please feel free to post about it. +This mineral is sulphur, with brimstone being the archaic term for +it. From this many of the "sulpha" drugs are made. Sulpha is an +antibiotic, which can cause nausea and vomiting in many people, it +has a FOUL smell. It can indeed be used as a cleansing fumigatory +in sick rooms, altho its debatable if the cure isn't worse than the +problem. +As a powder it has been sprinkled into infected wounds, altho today +it is more common to use it in tablet form. It is especially +effective in urinary infections. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4111) Tue 13 Aug 91 16:20 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Celandine) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459aa +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 869039f1 +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28966bf9 + > The Magick Pantry - Celandine +Again, a member of the poppy family + > + > Never confuse this important plant with the lesser + > Celandine or Pilewort used traditionally in the treatment +I am referring to Celadine the Greater, in the following post. +Celandine aids in escaping unwarranted imprisonment and entrapment +when worn next to the skin and replaced every three days.(Probably +cause it smells so bad no one wants to be near you). It cures +depression and imparts good spirits. +It is used in Eastern Europe in tincture form for sluggish liver, +neuralgia of the face, head or shoulders. It is also useful in +relieveing wound pain. Considered an effective wart remover, +howeve4r it may also cause ulcerations. +It is considered a narcotic due to the effect of the volatile oils +which contain the alkoloids. Active ingred: chelidonine, +chelerythrine, coptisinel, protropine, chelidonic acid, saponin, +carotenoid pigments and enzymes. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + + + + + + > + > John Parkinson, in a manual published in 1640, writes that + > he has it on good authority that any sufferer from yellow + > jaundice will benefit by putting a sprinkling of Celandine + > herb beneath his bare feet and treading it. But its + > influence is wider still. If the heart of a mole can be + > obtained, cooked with this herb and then consumed, it will + > vanquish all enemies and win any law suits that may be + > contested. More somberly, when placed on the head of a + > dying man, the Celandine will disclose whether or not the + > sufferer is bound to lose his fight. If the man must die, + > he will sing out in a loud voice, but he will weep if he + > can be saved. I thought that was interesting indeed. + > Something that I simply must try when given the unfortunate + > opportunity. + > + > As with all herbs, store them in a closed container away + > from external light sources, and keep them dry. + > + > Balance and Light... + > Greg Edwards Astralite + > --- XRS! 4.50+ + > * Origin: (Herbs,Poltices,Magickal Cooking) (RAX + > 1:133/520.1) + > + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4112) Tue 13 Aug 91 16:56 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Celery) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459ab +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 86907abb +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28966d2e + > The Magick Pantry - Celery + > Gather the root when it is still green, drench it in the + > oil of the Cypress tree and place the greenery in a pot of + > gruel. Leave the gruel for one year. Worms will appear, + > and those who carry these worms with them will be gentle + > and kind and able to triumph over their enemies. that sounds discusting, although it has been said to be + > quite powerfull> +If you leave any food for a year worms will appear. + +Chew celery seeds to aid concentration. Use in dream pillows to +aid sleep. Burn with Orris root to increase psychic power. +Stimulates the liver. Celery juice or tea taken several times daily +helps relieve some forms of sciatica or neuralgia. Stimulates the +kidneys. Also useful for flatulence when tinctured into brandy. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4113) Tue 13 Aug 91 17:13 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Centaury) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459ac +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 8691188b +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28966e79 + > The Magick Pantry - Centaury + > prescribed for Dyspepsia, but care is advised. If this + > herb is mixed with the blood of a female lapwing or a black + > Plover and poured with oil into a lamp, all those who + > circle the light will believe themselves to be magickal and + > will live in a world of delusions, so it is stated. Throw + > the same mixture into a fire when the stars are shining and + > then watch the heavens. The stars will seem to clash and + > collide. Put some of the herb and the birs's blood on a + > bandage and push it under a foe's nostril, it is said that + > he/she will suddenly be filled with groundless fears and + > run for his/her life. +All of this is complete malarky. + +Named after Chiron the Centuar, the great hunter, and patron of +herbalists. +Used in cold infusion for stomach problems, stimulates the liver +and bile when taken prior to meals. +In no reference do I find any indication of toxic properties. +I am having some severe problems Greg, with the fact that there are +often warnings attached to very benign herbs, and NONE attached to +many of the very dangerous ones you have listed here. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4114) Tue 13 Aug 91 17:18 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Chicory) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459ad +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 86913dd3 +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28971a81 + > The Magick Pantry - Chicory + > + > Do not despise Chicory or Endive and exile it to some +Chicory and endive, while related, are not the same plant! + +Chicory is use4d as a substitute for coffee, particularily among +the French. It stimulates the liver. Used externally for skin +inflammations, swelling and lacerations. Has a diuretic effect +similar to dandelion. Chicory is also used as one of the Bach +Flower remedies. +Active ingredients: Intybin, bitter principle, in root. Glycusides +and cicharin in leaves. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4115) Tue 13 Aug 91 17:21 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Coriander) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459ae +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 86915700 +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28999cfa + > The Magick Pantry - Coriander + > +Relieves fever when used as a tea. Prevents griping when added to +laxatives. Aids flatulence. Sweetens the breath. Major ingredient +in curries. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4116) Tue 13 Aug 91 17:25 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (Dill) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459af +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 86916041 +@REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28999fa6 + > The Magick Pantry - Dill + > + > Like with most herbs, the myths are endless for this one as + > well. It was said that many attributed this herb as a cure + > for the common hiccough. Many even thought that the common + > hiccough was a result of a witch with a frog in the throat. + > This amused me.. +It doesn't amuse me. + +Its name comes from the Saxon word meaning to lull. Used to relieve +colic in babies. Relieves flatulence, and aids in releasing breast +congealing. Stimulates appetite, has a laxative effect. +Protective when hung in doorway or carried in sachet. Often used in +money spells. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4117) Tue 13 Aug 91 17:30 +By: Lady Galadriel +To: Taliesin +Re: The Magick Pantry +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@EID:4389 17b459a0 +@MSGID: 84:5001/379 869174f5 +@REPLY: 84:5004/9 4e3c4eaa + > Hey, this sounds keen! A couple things-- + > 1) Back up a bit, and go over that bit about the + > Hemlock/slave onnection. You may not have much use for + > that info, but, potentially, I do! What kind of dynamics + > are involved here? Who actually eats it, what part, how + > much (obviously, dosage is NOT something to experiment with + > here!), with or without their knowledge (hopefully "with"), + > under what conditions does this work best, does the effect + > carry from this life to the next (i.e. is this a bonding + > that extends beyond death?), and most importantly, what + > makes it work (i.e. why wouldn't munching on a parsley + > sprig, for example, work just as well? Why is it eaten, + > not just rubbed on the body, or burned & + > inhaled/incensed/whatever? What's the significance of it + > all? I'm assuming that it's partially something in the + > Hemlock itself, but I'm fairly sure that there's something + > beyond just that... how does Will figure into the scheme?) Tal - +I strongly urge you NOT to experiemnt with Hemlock in any way shape +or form. It is extremely noxious, and the only slavery you will +find from it is imprisonment for having killed a lover! +I am sorry if I sound severe, but this is very dangerous, and I am +upset that Greg put this out without any cautions what so ever. +PLEASE, please do not use hemlock. Even getting the volatile oil on +your skin or inhaling it when burning can cause nasty reactions in +some people. + Blessed Be + Lady G. + + + > 2) You mentioned "recipies" for Dragon's Blood, + > Unicorn Milk & Camel Oil. I've seen Dragon's Blood in + > resinous chunks + > (_Calamus Draco_) in a few herb shops, and have seen + > Unicorn Milk mentioned in a book or 2, but never followed + > up on it--is it similar to Unicorn Root (_Aletris + > Farinosa_, or _Chamaelirium Luteum_, for "False Unicorn + > Root")? Anyway, I do have a reference from _Wylundt's Book + > of Incense" under Dragon's Blood which states that + > "Many unscrupulous dealers will sell you 'Poor Man's + > + > Dragon's Blood'. It looks and smells much like the + > + > real thing, only it's made of talc, red sandalwood, + > and + > frankincense." + > That's about as close to a "recipie" as I can find! + > Thanx for the posting--this promises to be quite + > keen! + > (However, I'm unclear as to whether this is a whole + > new echo that's coming up, or if it's an extension of this + > one? Clarification would be grand!) > Much thanx--Tal + > --- + > * Origin: -= The Sacred Grove =- Seattle's Pagan BBS + > (206)634-1980 (84:5004/9.0) + > + +--- FD 1.99c + * Origin: The Magick is in Life Itself... -=Grove of the Unicorn=- +Ga. (84:5001/379) +@PATH: 5001/379 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4124) Tue 13 Aug 91 12:30 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Snakeweed) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a81874 + The Magick Pantry - Snakeweed + +No herb is stranger in its powers than Snakeweed. It is also +called Bistort and under this name it was used by doctors as a +gargle and as a treatment for haemorrhages. But regard it as +Snakeweed and treat it accordingly. + +One legend says... Bury a sprig of it in the ground with a leaf of +Clover. Red and Green snakes will spring out from this patch of +earth. Catch and kill them and dry their skins. Make a powder out +of them and scoop a little of hte substance onto a burning lamp in +a darkened room. Again red and green snakes, wreathing and coiling +in multitudes, will sprout from the light. Place the same powder +under the sleeping head of any man troubled by recurring dreams and +he will never again dream of himself. + +If you have anything further to add about Snakeweed, please feel +free to do so. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4125) Tue 13 Aug 91 12:36 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Spikenard) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a819f6 + The Magick Pantry - Spikenard + +This plant is more common in North America rather than Europe, but +international legend has much to say about its powers. It is +particularly well known in the German occult world. But the herb +originally grew in India and it has a deep history and significance +among the Hindus. In the Christian faith for example, the Bible +claims that Jesus Christ was anointed with ointment distilled from +Spikenard. + +It is a most useful herb to keep a lover faithful. Take a sprig of +the herb and try to make the lover touch it with his right hand. +Better still, make him/her wear it for a short time against his/her +heart. Retrieve the Spikenard and enclose it in a leather pouch. +Tie the bag very securely and bury it in the ground. The best +place to do this is within the circle of stones in the Magick +Garden. As long as the bag remains in the earth, the lover will be +true. Check the bag twice a month, for on those occasions a new +sprig of Spikenard must be added to continue the spell. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4126) Tue 13 Aug 91 12:42 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Suntull) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a81b24 + The Magick Pantry - Suntull + +This root can be acquired under the name of skunk cabbage or meadow +cabbage. It has both the appearance and the reputation of being a +nasty and anti-human herb. Medically, its only use seems to be for +producing saliva and helping to calm fevers. But to the magician, +its powers are more precise and more important. + +Take a Suntull leaf which must have been gathered on a Sunday in +August, on hour after sunrise. Fold a single yellow dandelion +flower within the leaf. Around this a bayleaf must be wrapped. +Carry this talisman in your pocket to guard against those who wish +to do you harm. Every person henceforth will become a friend and +justice will be obtained in any court of law. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4127) Tue 13 Aug 91 12:47 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Tonka Beans) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a81d1f + The Magick Pantry - Tonka Beans + +These beans are native to Guiana so some hardship may be +experienced in acquiring them. But their uses are various so it is +worth wile to persevere. They are important in the making of +incense on account of their strong and lasting smell. To consume +them is a perilous venture, since their power is to paralyse the +heart. However, when the bean is used with caution, its power is +good. + +Take one or three of the beans and put them in a locket or pouch. +To give the cham grace and greatly added power, attach a cross +(made of wood, metal or other substances, just as long as it's not +a crucifix) Aquarian Star, or a Pentagram/Pentacle to the chain on +the locket. To make a more powerful talisman or an Amulet pierce the +bean at the sharp end and thread it with a thin gold wire. Onto +this wire tie a golden cross, or any of the above suggestions. Try +to use a wishing stone or tool as this will bring about greater +power. + +Charge this amulet or talisman with a purpose, and release the +energy into the universe. It is said that by carrying this +talisman, you will be protected against even the greatest harm. +Likewise, if employing an amulet the same is true only in the +agressive nature. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4128) Tue 13 Aug 91 12:56 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Vervain) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a81fcd + The Magick Pantry - Vervain + +Many traditions utilize this powerful herb in many ways. Here are +some of the more interesting possiblities... + +It is certainly a strong drug and widely used as a tranquilizer. +Traditionally, a weak Vervain water creates merriment among the +guests at a formal gathering. An old custom was to steep Vervain +in hot water, strain off the herb itself and diluting the solution +further, to use the liquid as a detergent or a spray around the +home. It was said that all negativity would be kept at bay by its +use. The water was commonly referred to as Juno's brew. The dry +herb has often been carried as a charm against similar forces. + +To cure fainting fits, gather the herb when the sun is in Aries. +Mix the dried substance with a pinch of Peony or a single Peony pod +which is one year old. The brew will remedy the sickness. If the +herb is buried in a garden, after eight weeks worms will be +engendered. These worms are fatal to the touch. A sprig of the +plant, placed in a dovecot, will keep the doves happy and stop them +from flying away. If a man keeps two mistresses, a pinch of this +powder will set the two women at each other's throat. + +Vervain is not the best smelling herb out there, especially if you +are going to steep it. Be forwarned that it can have some major +complications should a pet ingest too much of the herb, although I +personally know of several people that give it to their animals +regularly. Cats are primairly of interest here as they tend to +adore it, as a substitue for Catnip, so it is said. + +It is said that Vervain is so powerful that if it were able to make +contact with the sun that it would turn blue, if it were to ever be +taken there. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4129) Tue 13 Aug 91 13:08 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Whale Oil) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a821f1 + The Magick Pantry - Whale Oil + +This is an important ingredient in the Magick Pantry. No this +isn't the oil from the whale, although in old times, it was. Today +it is mostly Crocodile oil or the distillation of some organ from a +reptile that is used. Certain spells that you may come across will +reference this type of oil. These substances are getting harder +and harder to purchase. Hardly a single delicatessen still stock +reptile produce. + +Here are some uses for Whale Oil.. + +To end the irritating croaking of frogs in the Magick Garden or to +drive away howling cats (as we have all heard from time to time) +you can cast the following spell: + +Melt some wax that has been bleached by Sunlight and add a little +Whale Oil from an earthenware jar. Put the mixture into a clay +vessel and lower into it a sturdy wick. Light the magick lamp and +put it on the edge of the pond or on a doorstep. No frog will +croak again and no cat will dare to howl at night, when this has +been achieved. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4130) Tue 13 Aug 91 13:16 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Wild Teasel) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a8232a + The Magick Pantry - Wild Teasel + +This is a mysterious and important herb to keep in the Magick +Pantry. It comes third in the magick order of plants, but it is +rarely found in a garden. It's power is unquestionable... the +proof is found in tis capacity of produce pregancy in animals. + +The traditional spell demands Mandrake juice. Mix this fertile +essence with the prepared liquid of the Wild Teasel. Give the +mixture to a bird or a beast and it will presently produce healthy +young of its own kind. But do not give thanks to the Mandrake +alone. Fear the Teasel for it can create discord. The secret of +this reprehensible power is a dangerous one and must be carefully +handled. + +A tooth recently extracted from the gum is needed. Drop the tooth +into meat or drink prepared with Teasek, and quarrels and fights +will begin. Only the calming Valerian can soothe the tumult. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4131) Tue 13 Aug 91 13:21 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry (Wormwood) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a825c0 + The Magick Pantry - Wormwood + +Myths and legends surround this herb as well. It was said that as +the serpend writhered its way in flight from this Garden of Eden, +this plant sprang up in its trail. Its power is great, not only +agains halitosis and worms, but also against mouse bites and +attacks by jellyfish, Anomoes, and particularly the Portuqese +Man-of-War's. + +This herb dedicated to Artemis, it has long been employed in +ceremonials to raise the dead, Necromancy.. if you will. It has +also been used to conspire with the lower negative entities of the +underworld by many magicians. In such rituals Wormwood must be +burned on glowing charcoal and the incense will work the spell. +Sometimes the powdered herb is placed in a folded cone of black +paper and the paper is lighted at the tip. But this must be +performed only at the dead of night. As the smoke rises, cry out, +invoke the name or names of the desired departed, or entieies and +ask them to make their presence known. Provided that the necessary +apparatus can be constructed, the spell will work better if the +fuming incense is swung from side to sid on a pendulum. + +To cure the plaque magicians used to mix Wormwood with rue, plunged +into a pint of ale with a slice of lemon and left overnight. In +the morning the brew was drunk in one draught without other food or +drink. The patient sually rallied. + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4132) Tue 13 Aug 91 13:33 +By: Greg Edwards +To: All +Re: The Magick Pantry Conclusion +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 1:133/520.1 28a8279b + The Magick Pantry - Conclusion + +As you can see, there are many items that are necessary in order to +stock your larder. Please keep in mind that these are suggested +items. Each magician has their own personal collection, some which +may not have been included here. This was provided to give you a +guide or to start your pantry. + +If you have additional entries that you would like to add, please +feel free to do so. I will be releasing this in file format to all +CrystaLink boards within the next day or so. For additional +support consult with the Astral_Garden (c) echo as well. + +The preceeding was referenced from "The Book of Spells" by David +Norris & Jacquemine Charrott-Lodwidge. Additional references were +by Greg Edwards care of the Astral_Chef (c) echo. + +Enjoy your new Larder! + +Balance and Light... +Greg Edwards Astralite +--- XRS! 4.50+ +* Origin: Echo-Desc: (Herbology/Cooking/Herbs/Poltices etc) (RAX +1:133/520.1) +@PATH: 30027/1 133/520 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4243) Tue 13 Aug 91 12:25 +By: Taliesin +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (musk Oil) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@PID: RA 1.01@ +MSGID: 84:5004/9 4e466d24@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28a6e328 +> +> "Conjuro et confirmo Super vos angeli fortes, Sancti atque +> potentes, Sancti atque potentes." translate this, it appears to be Latin. I would welcome the +> English translation> +> +If my halting Latin suffices, an approximate translation (almost a +transliteration) would read "Be called together and consecrated / +by the angelic hosts over us, made holy by their powers, made holy +by their powers". (This probably isn't excessively accurate, but +I'm pretty sure that's the general jist of it.) + Do you mean that these incantations don't come with +explanations? I dunno, but for me, I'd be a little on the leery +side of invoking/creating something with words I don't +understand....maybe I've seen too many movies, but even still...! + --Tal +--- + * Origin: -= The Sacred Grove =- Seattle's Pagan BBS +(206)634-1980 (84:5004/9.0)@ +PATH: 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4244) Tue 13 Aug 91 12:28 +By: Taliesin +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (myrtle) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@PID: RA 1.01@ +MSGID: 84:5004/9 4e466de2@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28a6e7ba +Is this the same myrtle trees that grow pretty much only in +Jerusalem-area and along the Oregon coast? Keen! I've kinda +wondered what was so special about them that there would be such a +market for all the little myrtlewood trinkets in gift shops along +the coast...and maybe I can still find that myrtlewood cross that i +got as a gift so long ago...? + --Tal +--- + * Origin: -= The Sacred Grove =- Seattle's Pagan BBS +(206)634-1980 (84:5004/9.0)@ +PATH: 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4259) Tue 13 Aug 91 12:26 +By: Moreta +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (coriander) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 84:5004/9.12 28a81a56@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28a5a4b1 +GE> Well post them over there! I'd love to hear about your designs. +GE> Frankly Nomad is getting edgey again. It's usually a sign that +GE> he needs to build something. + +Guess I will have to dig out the ones that I have laying around +then hehe we shall see.. ;> + +GE> It is my opinion that the colour of the glass isn't important, +if GE> the doors are sealed well. This is with the exception of the +GE> really green leafy herbs and the chlorophyl. Sealing the glass +GE> is another story though. Did your source give you any other +GE> details why they thought that coloured glass was important for +GE> *All* herbs? I'd be interested in hearing about it, seriously. + +Basicly light in general will leach nutrients etc from any herb, +etc that is dried.. regardless if it is green or whatever.. +sooooo.. ;> + +Mo + + +--- XRS! 4.50 +* Origin: Fly with the wind.....sleep with the sea... (RAX +84:5004/9.12)@ +PATH: 30027/12 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4262) Tue 13 Aug 91 12:49 +By: Moreta +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (lilly) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 84:5004/9.12 28a81bcc@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28a5a4f4 +> Mo> Ok I will look though my books and see what I come up with +and > Mo> which ones. ;> Saw something the other day, and now I +can't +> Mo> find that specific book heheheee oh well.. ;> I will track it +down. ;> + +GE> I'll look forward to that as well when you find it. References +GE> on Lilies are few and far between from what I can see. + +I know they are, I am still looking just have to figure out which + book has what i am looking for.. ;> I will get some info +though.. ;> + +Mo + + +--- XRS! 4.50 +* Origin: Fly with the wind.....sleep with the sea... (RAX +84:5004/9.12)@ +PATH: 30027/12 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4276) Wed 14 Aug 91 10:28 +By: Moreta +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (musk Oil) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 84:5004/9.12 28a94c5c@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28a6e328 +GE> "Conjuro et confirmo Super vos angeli fortes, Sancti atque +GE> potentes, Sancti atque potentes." translate this, it appears to be Latin. I would welcome the +GE> English translation> + +I will see if I can translate it Greg, my latin is rusty and so is +my spanish, so I don't know if I can do it, I will give it a shot +;> Wish me luck.. hahahahaa + +Mo + +--- XRS! 4.50 +* Origin: Illusion is the Reality, change your Illusion.. (RAX +84:5004/9.12)@ +PATH: 30027/12 5004/9 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +(4277) Wed 14 Aug 91 10:31 +By: Moreta +To: Greg Edwards +Re: The Magick Pantry (nettle) +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +@MSGID: 84:5004/9.12 28a94d53@ +REPLY: 1:133/520.1 28a6e982 +GE> Take some Nettle leaves and mix them with the common houseleek, +GE> which is a soothing agant against Nettle stings. Anoint the +body GE> with this essence and sprinkle the rest on any stretch of +water +GE> where fishing has been unseccessful. Then enter the water + +I might mention that putting mud on a nettle sting works very well +for relieving pain of the sting.. and I have used the sap from a +fresh maple leave for it also.. (I don't know if it was just +coincidence with that or not.. ) + +Mo + +--- XRS! 4.50 +* Origin: Illusion is the Reality, change your Illusion.. (RAX +84:5004/9.12)@ +PATH: 30027/12 5004/9 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/parents.txt b/religious documents/parents.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d4cda6 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/parents.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/paths.txt b/religious documents/paths.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a0b97d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/paths.txt @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +ab:paths.txt 16jan90 + + + + The Ways of Making Magic + + The [eight pointed asterisk] sign on the Athame is said to represent, + among other things, the Eight Paths which all lead to the Center and + the Eight Ways of Making magic, and these are: + + 1. Meditation or concentration. + 2. Chants, Spells, Invocations. Invoking the Goddess, etc. + 3. Projection of the Astral Body, or Trance. + 4. Incense, Drugs, Wine, etc. Any potion which aids to release the + Spirit. + 5. Dancing + 6. Blood control. Use of the Cords. + 7. The Scourge. + 8. The Great Rite. + + You can combine many of these ways to produce more power. + + To practice the Art successfully, you need the following five things: + + 1. Intention. You must have the absolute will to succeed, the firm + belief that you can do so and the determination to win through + against all obstacles. + 2. Preparation. You must be properly prepared. + 3. Invocation. The Mighty Ones must be invoked. + 4. Consecration. The Circle must be properly cast and consecrated + and you must have properly consecrated tools. + 5. Purification. You must be purified. + + Hence there are 5 things necessary before you can start, and then 8 + Paths or Ways leading to the Centre. For instance, you can combine 4, + 5, 6, 7, and 8 together in one rite; or 4, 6 and 7 together with 1 and + 2, or with 3 perhaps. The more ways you can combine, the more power + you produce. + + It is not meet to make offering of less than two score lashes to the + Goddess, for here be a mystery. The fortunate numbers be 3, 7, 9 and + thrice 7 which be 21. And these numbers total two score, so a less + perfect or fortunate number would not be a perfect prayer. Also the + Fivefold Salute be 5, yet it be 8 kisses; for there be 2 feet, 2 knees + and 2 breasts. And five times 8 be two score. Also there be 8 Working + Tools and the Pentacle be 5; and five eights be two score. + + (Note: 8 plus 5 equals 13. 8 multipled by 5 equals 40.) + + ---------- + -Published in Janet & Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way". They say it + comes from GBG's BOS (Text B and Text C) + diff --git a/religious documents/patrick.txt b/religious documents/patrick.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2638dd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/patrick.txt @@ -0,0 +1,245 @@ + +Date: Tue 30 May 89 16:57:28 +From: Warren Stott (on 1:104/904.7) +Subj: Snakes, what snakes? + +A Brief History and Analysis of Saint Patrick and the Myth + +Much of the history and life of St. Patrick is inextricably entangled in +legend. The legends have been perpetuated and embellished through the years to +the point of mystery. Some of these legends served in Patrick's time to +further his missionary efforts among the pagans of Ireland. Today, however, +they are a source of great debate. The tales of magic and miracles have been +weighed by historians, both ecclesiastical and agnostic, with the few +authenticated writings of Patrick himself. The resulting picture is still +subject to much interpretation. The information presented here is intended to +be a cursory overview dealing primarily with the nature of Patrick's +missionary effort. + +Patrick was probably born in Briton between 385 and 389 CE. Many accounts hold +that his father was and a minor administrator for the Roman Empire, a deacon +of the church and himself the son of a priest. The rules of celibacy among the +clergy were apparently not strictly adhered to in fourth century Briton. A +Roman subject and Christian by birth, Patrick lived on his fathers estate +until he was sixteen years old. Patrick's own writings say that he was not +devoted to study in his youth and (1)"knew not the True God." + +It is clear from other historical evidence that Briton was subject to periodic +attack by Irish raiding parties. Many Britons were kidnapped and sold as +slaves in Ireland. Sometime around 403 CE Patrick himself was carried off by a +band of raiders. He was sold to an Irish king who held him as a herdsman for +ten years. During this time Patrick learned Gaelic and an appreciation for the +Irish countryside. This was also when he found his "true God." Later in his +live he wrote that each day of his enslavement he "said a hundred prayers and +nearly as many at night." + +Patrick's writings tell of visions that began after years of enslavement and +prayer. The visions came in his sleep, guiding him toward his escape. "You are +soon to return to your native land." was one message telling him to prepare +for escape and "Your ship is ready." telling him when. Historians presume that +after a decade of working herd animals on the slopes of the Irish highlands, +he was in good health and well able to make good his escape. Patrick writes +that he walked two hundred miles to where a boat was "waiting" for him. He was +refused passage at first but after a silent prayer, and presumably God's +intervention, the sailors let him aboard. + +In the course of returning to Briton, a number of miracles and tests are +attributed to Patrick. He is said to have converted the sailors after being +stranded in an unpopulated area of Gaul. Legend has it that the party was near +starvation when Patrick was challenged about the nature of his loving God that +would let these men and His disciple starve. Patrick is said to have testified +as to his unshaken faith and only shortly there after to have miraculously +found a herd of wild pigs immediately on the road ahead. This is one of the +many legendary miracles that historians tend to discount as being exaggeration +of mere coincidence. + +Patrick finally made his way to civilization and indirectly back to his family +in Briton. Here again Patrick was influenced by visions. This time the visions +suggested that he was to bring Christianity to the pagans of Ireland. "We +beseech thee, holy youth, to come and walk among us again." From this point +the history of Patrick's travels and teachers becomes convoluted. It is +presumed that the self-enlightened youth would have required formal education +and acceptance by the church to continue on to his calling. His travels and +tales of him suggest that he studied for a number of years in Gaul and Briton, +and perhaps even Rome. During this period his travels brought him into contact +with a number of other men who would become saints themselves. This in itself +created a number of stories and legends leaving unclear not only where and +when Patrick studied but also confusing the stories surrounding these other +one-day saints. Regardless, this teaching brought him firmly under the +influence of Rome and the church. He, however, was not the one picked by the +church to open Ireland to Christianity. + +By this time their were already a small number of Christian settlements and +monasteries in the south and east of Ireland. Most of these Christians were +refugees from strife in Europe and Briton. They had, of course, had an impact +on the natives and converted some number of Druid and pagan folk. Likewise, +some early clergy practiced a mixture of the old pagan religions and druidism +by night and Christianity by day. Word came to Rome of this heresy and the +charge to convert Ireland and punish the offending clergy was born. One Deacon +Palladius was selected by Pope Celestine to be the first bishop of Ireland in +431. Palladius is thought to have been a Greek with little knowledge of the +Irish people, language, or culture. It is not surprising that his missionary +efforts were less than wholly successful. + +Palladius founded a few churches in the northeast of Ireland though the known +Christian settlements and monasteries were mostly in the south. He met with +tremendous resistance from the local king, Nathy, and the native pagans. +Unwilling to stay in this hostile environment and away from his homeland, +Palladius soon sailed from Ireland for home. A chance landing in western +Scotland gave him opportunity for a more successful missionary effort among +the Picts which ended with his death the following year in 432. An Irish +saying has it that (2)"The Lord gave Ireland not to Palladius but to Patrick." + +It is not clear who actually raised Patrick to the rank of bishop and sent him +to Ireland. This too is lost in the legends but it is generally held that St. +Germanus and not the Pope was responsible. Patrick came to Ireland in 432 +landing at the sight of Palladius' failure. + +He realized that the common people would follow in conversion if he could +first convert their leaders. He made great show of his strength against the +chieftains and kings and sought opportunities to challenge their faith. Legend +has it that Patrick was as willing to raise his left hand in a curse as his +right in a blessing. Stories abound of the miracles Patrick performed +throughout his travels; he turned the fertile lands of king Nathy into a salt +marsh, he changed the dogs of the local chieftain Dichu into stone, he healed +the injured and raised the sons of one converted chieftain from the dead. +There are many incidents in legend of Patrick performing acts of druidical +magic much to the astonishment of druids and chieftains alike. + +Beyond the attributed magic and miracles, there is the more realistic +historical view that Patrick brought more than Christianity to the pagan +masses. Historians have long credited the spread of Christianity with the +spread of literacy and vice-versa. The missionaries brought with them books, +albeit Christian books, and written language which proved to be the brightest +of offerings to cultures that relied on the oral histories for recording the +past. This was no less true of Ireland. + +There was a practice at the time of the high king lighting the first Beltane +fire each year. Fires were extinguished all over the country to allow the king +to bring forth the new fire thus demonstrating his power and ability to +provide for his subjects through the grace of the Gods. The fire was light on +a high hilltop so people for miles around could see this event. Brands from +this fire were taken through the countryside to light anew the peoples own +fires. This symbolized that all blessings flowed from the Gods, through the +high king and on to the population. It was held at the time that should any +fire be raised before the king's fire it would mark the end of the these times +and the fall of the king. Patrick's coup de grace was no doubt the lighting of +a Beltane fire on a hilltop near by before the king's fire was light. Many +people saw this a sign that Patrick had indeed unseated the king and +supplanted his new God for the old. Patrick had made good the prediction and +tightened his grip on the ruling class of Ireland. + +Modern non-ecclesiastical historians take exception with the authenticity of +much of the St. Patrick tale. First there is the question of separating the +legends from the man. Though there was a man named Patrick who served as +bishop in Ireland, much of the legend surrounding him appears more likely to +be a composite of Patrick and a number of other bishops and clergy, some +earlier than Palladius. Secondly, the accomplishments attributed to Patrick at +once reinforce the multiple persona of Patrick as well as discredit most of +the legends as pious wishful thinking or simple exaggeration. + +Legend has it that Patrick's deliverance of Ireland to Christianity took only +15 to 25 years. This appears to be far too short a time to have accomplished +the establishment of the Church of Ireland and the baptizing of "thousands" of +pagans. Further, there is the question of deliverance. The suggestion is that +Ireland as a whole became a Christian country in this short period of time. +There is significant evidence that widespread pagan and pagan sympathetic +religion was practiced throughout the fifth and sixth centuries in much of +Ireland. Considering that Patrick appears to have died in 461, his +accomplishments are, at best, chronologically misrepresented and at worst, +completely over stated. + +The story of St. Patrick driving the serpents from Ireland into the sea is an +excellent example of the corruption of fact by the historians that first +attempted to record Patrick's life. This tale has been interpreted by some as +a metaphor for the conversion or banishing of the Druids and other pagans +during this time. This has been used by both Christians and pagans for their +own purposes and actually serves neither. Many historians now view the tale as +a fabrication of one man in the name of pious fervor. + +The story goes that Patrick spread his missionary zeal throughout Ireland for +a number of years, finally coming to what is now County Mayo on Clew Bay. Here +Patrick fasted and meditated the forty days of Lent atop the 2500 foot high +peak known today as Croagh Patrick. Observing this peak it is clear this was +not a hospitable place for a old man alone. Even today, the peak is seldom +visible through the clouds and is subject to freezing temperatures and wet +winds off the ocean. When the days of Lent had passed, Patrick (3)"gathered +together from all parts of Ireland all the poisonous creatures... By the power +of his word he drove the whole pestilent swarm from the precipice of the +mountain, headlong into the ocean." + +Modern historians as well as geologists and anthropologists have a different +story to tell. As Katherine Scherman puts it, (4)"This legend was invented +some seven hundred years after Patrick lived, to explain the then- +unaccountable fact of Ireland's freedom from snakes. The island actually lost +its reptiles and amphibians fifteen to twenty thousand years earlier. Most of +the plants and animals of the British Isles had been killed or driven south as +the ice cap grew. When the glacial sheet waned they began to come back. But +before they could reach Ireland the melting ice raised the water level, and +the land bridge that had connected Wales and Ireland during the Ice Age was +broken by the re-creation of the Irish Sea... The only animals that got back +to Ireland were those that could swim or fly... Two amphibians and one reptile +made it; the natterjack toad, the smooth newt and the brown lizard, all +innocuous little creatures. Ireland's snakelessness was commented on as early +as the third century A.D. by the grammarian Gaius Julius Solinus: 'In that +land there are no snakes, birds are few, and the people are inhospitable and +warlike.'... It was his (Patrick's) twelfth-century biographer, Jocelyn, +credulously reverent, who chose to explain his country's odd deficiency by +tacking yet another legend to the top-heavy halo surrounding the saint." + +There is much about St. Patrick that will never be known for fact. There is +much that might be left to faith among the Christian or heavily Church +indoctrinated. The facts are that there was a man named Patrick who served as +a missionary to Ireland. He is credited with forming the Church of Ireland and +was canonized for his service. In terms of the snakes of Ireland and Patrick, +the lesson is clear that history and the recording of history is subject to +the predisposition of the historian. Patrick, it would appear, did little more +than any other missionary of Christianity did for his charge. Patrick, like +many missionaries, is guilty of the destruction of historical artifacts and at +the same time should be credited, in part, with bringing literacy to Ireland. +These are the sins and accomplishments of a man who followed his faith and the +calling of his "true God." The corruption of his story and his religion were +largely not his doing. + +Timeline: + 385 Probable birth year + 431 Palladius to Ireland + 432 Patrick to Ireland, Palladious' death + 444 Native clergy and an episcopal see at Armagh + 457 Patrick resigned as head of the Church of Ireland + 461 Patrick's death + +Footnotes: +1 "Confession" Saint Patrick, the date of this document is still in contest. + All quotes used are form Confession unless otherwise footnoted. +2 Several twentieth century historians have proposed that Palladius and + Patrick were one and the same. They base this generally on chronology and + specific interpretation of the legends surrounding both men. +3 "The Life and Acts of St. Patrick Jocelyn, Monk of Furness (date unknown). +4 "The Flowering of Ireland" Katherine Scherman, Little, Brown & Co. 1981. + +Additional Commentary: + This article was not written to defend Patrick just as it was not written +to be specifically pagan sympathetic. I researched and wrote this article to +answer a question for myself and as such, was primarily interested in fact of +history. I am not justifying or defending anything that Patrick or the +expansion of Christianity or, specificaly, the church did. I just wanted to +know where the nonsense about the snakes came from. + In researching the subject I found for every non-ecclesiastical history +there are several by church scholars and more by wanna-be historians with no +credentiuals except "faith." + I also found that the magickal acts attributed to various saints including +Patrick is really heady stuff. These guys are supposed to have done stuff that +makes the best of the current crop of magick users look like toddlers. This +raises the question of how did the church differentiate between the magick +performed by these ancient saints and that attributed to witches. Of course +the answer is the Saint called down a miracle and the witch was in league with +the devil. I guess it would be wise then if challanged about an act of magick +to claim it was a miracle. Who knows, it might lead to a new high paying +carrier. + +-Warren- + +--- + * Origin: === Tech Pubs Consulting === (1:104/904.7) + diff --git a/religious documents/pc_1-10.txt b/religious documents/pc_1-10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..940e8ab --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pc_1-10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,925 @@ + + P R I M E C H A O S + ===================== + +FOREWORD + +This book is a state-of-the-art report on Chaos Magick. It is +written with an overview of magick which has grown out of many +years of practical work, in a variety of magickal groups and +orders, including the Pact of the IOT. +The author's creative and experimantal involvement with magick +shows in the originality of the material. Think of an influential +magickal book: how long ago was that picture of magick conceived? +Less than 50 years? Phil's book represents the nearest thing to +live magick I've seen in print. It contains work which is still +being tested. This is a window an the world of the working +magickian, a mysterious flask of distillate hauled from the +laboratories of the mind, still smoking suspiciously. +One of the great strengths of the book is the section on groups. +Chaos Magick has drawn most of its current incalculable influ- +ence from the work of groups. In a world where transaction has +replaced duty as an imperfect method of achieving social +coherence, it is astonishing that virtually nothing exists on +the practical dynamics of the non-religious magickal group. +What Liber Null did for the solo magician, this essay does for +the magickal group, in summarizing the results of years of +experience in such alliances. +Informed as it is by the spirit of postmodernism, the book +does not try to achieve closure. It does not present a system, +but supplies the reader with powerful strategic and magickal +tools for this stage of the Pandeamonaeon. The mood of the +book ist of being profoundly at home in the accelerating shift +and fragmantation of daily life. Connoissuers of late 20th +century demotic will be delighted by the thefts of phrase. As +we see fractal T-shirts, popular images from chaos, and chaos +sigils fired out of our TV screens, the reciprocal process is +occurring too, and magickal symbolism is growing out of fractal +shards of culture. +In opening up the magickal demensions of the work of Burroughs +and Gysin, Phil introduces to the experimental sorcerer two +particulary valuable ideas: the use of cut-up, the sliding +and dislocation of words, as a magickal technique, and the +concept of wordvirus, aka meme. As in pre-literate societies, +magick becomes the core of language, as we weave spells from +spelling. This pulls our magick into the heart of everyday +life, the Chaos of the Normal, which is where it belongs. + +Dave Lee +W H Y C H A O S M A G I C K ? + +There's basically two kinds of magick. There's puff's magick, and +git `ard Magick. Chaos is git `ard Magick. + Mick McMagus. Leeds, 1987 + +As our world changes, so too do our magick. Throughout history, +the way in which magick is described and understood changes, from +its beginnings in proto-shamanism, to the great 'Occult Revival' +at the turn of this century. Chaos Magick sets the pace for our +entry into the next century. +There have been revolutions in science, literature and art. Chaos +Magick is the first revolution in the field of Magick. Previous +(and many existing) magical philosophies have been rooted in a +connection to the past - be it the past of the ancestors, or in +historical (or romantic) tradition. Althrough much of what is +emerging as Chaos Magick builds on what has magically gone before +it stresses change, rather than continuity, as the only constant. +We live in a world that is rapidly changing, a world where the +application of high technology and media saturation enables us to +mix styles endlessly, where elements of the past present, and +possible futures are conjured up in most aspects of everyday life +from the clothes we wear, to the beliefs we adopt. While other +magical systems promise stability, an anchor into fixed time and +ordered universe neatly encapsulated into bite-size take-home +pieces, Chaos Magick moves with the fusion and fluidity of +modern life. +Chaos Magick began to surface in the late 70s as punk rock arose +to threaten the complancency of the establishment. Now we see +Chaos Theory move from an obscure branch of mathematics into an +accepted 'new' science. We have watched computer-generated +fractals become high fashion, the mandalas for a new generation. +Chaos has become fashionable. We do not reject modern culture, +we embrace it. So how is Chaos Magick different from the other +Magical Systems which are on special offer in the modern world ? + +Firstly, Chaos Magick is a paradigm rather than a system in itself. +It is an approach or overall view, wherein each individual, ulti- +mately, creates his own magical psychocosm. Rather than 'following' +a path, the Chaos Magician weaves his own path out of individual +experiences, and what works best for him. The Chaos Magician has, +from the very beginnings, the option to be as eclectic as he +desires, selecting beliefs and techniques from any magical system, +indeed anything which ha believes will be useful - from the past, +present, or possible futures. From literature, art, science, +pseudoscience, technology or fantasy. +The revolutionary impact of Chaos Magick was that it emphasized +practical experience. What matters is hands-on experience - rather +than accommodating second-hand beliefs or long lists of corres- +pondences. There are no Chaos teachers, 'holy' books or traditions +that dictate belief an behaviour. The Chaos Magician is free to +act first, and choose his questions ans answers later. It is the +Chaos Magician rather than some guru or teacher, who is respon- +sible for development, experience, creativity, and the results of +his actions. +Magick has always been a way of creating islands of order out of +what Austin Spare called 'the chaos of the normal'. As society +became more complex, it seems that 'magical' realities became +increasingly abstract and relatively simplistic. The otherworld +of tribal shaman is a fair reflection of his everyday world, +whereas the 'innerworld' of the twentiethcentury Cabbalist bears +little resemblance to consensus reality, as he ascends Jacob's +Ladder away from the Earth into cosmic abstract spaces. the +general view of Chaos Magick is that any islands of order we +create are at best temporary enclaves; that belief itself is a +tool, rather than a set of limitations that can quickly become a +stagnant dogma. Thus a Chaos Magician may choose to adopt a +Cabbalistic belief-system as a temporary measure, just as he may +given enough time, determination and effort redesign his personal +belief which govern any aspect of his behaviour or attitudes. +"Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted" is one of the +few Chaos slogans. No wonder that some occultists react to Chaos +Magicians as through they are militant anarchists. +As we move towards the twenty-first century, a number of concepts +which, until fairly recently (and from certain belief-system +remain so), appeared stable and understood have been called into +question. Pete Carroll, in his seminal work Liber Null (the +premier grimoire of Chaos Magick so far), described the 'death' +of these concepts as - the Death of Spirituality, the Death of +Superstition, the Death of Identity, the Death of Belief, and the +Death of Ideology. These concepts are no longer fixed and rigid, +and reality becomesa playground for those with the will to enjoy +and make it so. One of the immediate concerns to be voiced about +Chaos Magick was an implied lack of an ethical basis. Most other +occult systems have clearly-stated (sometimes over-stated) ethical +stances concerning what the practitioner must not do. The Chaos +paradigm rejects the necessity of this attitude and instead tends +towards the view that personal morality grows from within - that +is, it up to each individual to define and uphold his own ethical +standards, rather than them being imposed by some outward agency. +Having said this, Chaos Magick is generally pro-life and pro- +freedom of expression. Magick tends to be portrayed as being +separate or beyond our everyday existence. Chaos Magick, howerver +supports the proposition that magick works best when it is +responsive to our life situations. The Chaos approach is that of +becoming more flexibel and adaptive to the world through which +we move, to take a wide-angle, rather than one-directional view +of the world, and to seek and embrace new possibilities. To find +the most appropriate position and perspective to act from, and +than act decisively. Magick becomes not so much what we 'do', but +the 'way' we live. +This book is but one viewpoint into the Choas Perspective. Magick +stagnates when it becomes trapped into set formulations and pro- +cedures. Look beyond what you 'know'to be magick, and go further. +Enjoy. + - Phil Hine, January 1993. + P A R T O N E +A C H I E V A B L E R E A L I T Y + +One of the first questions that a non-magician asks the practitioner +of magick is Why do you do it ? A number of answers may be offered. +One may speak of a desire to unterstand the universe, of finding a +way of 'spiritual' living, a means to personal transformation, self- +evolution - of course, much depends on the belief-system that has +been adopted. Spiritual Living implies the belief that there is +something about life which isn't 'spiritual'; Personal Trans- +foramtion keeps things nicely psychological; and Self-Evolution has +a Darwinian ring to it. For now through, let's cast the net fairly +broadly and answer that Magick is a set of techniques and appoaches +that can be used to extend the limits of Achievable Reality. + +In the Chaos paradigm, the emphasis is placed on realizing magick +work into Consensus Reality. Success is not measured through context +dependent 'spititual' grades, nor by a slow, imperceptible plodding +along a course which was laid down by someone else, but by visible +results by which the magician demonstates to himself that he can +do things which, a short time ago, never entered his mind as +possibilities. Some Chaos Magicians tend to the view that Magick is +a means of adapting oneself to one's environment. Through Magick, +one can redesign oneself, enabeling greater freedom of movemnt +within the environment and, where necessary, seek to adapt and +redesign the environment to allow a greater degree of posibilities. + +Adopting this stance requires the ability to evaluat one's +circumstances without recourse to the safety-net of delusions +which aspiring magi often weave about themselves. Gone too, are the +cosmic cop-out clauses which, on the one hand, allow a magician to +believe that if a spell 'worked' it's because he is a good magician +but if it didin't, it's because the tides/karma/fates weren't +'right'. The responsibility for the failure or success implies a +greater responsibility than failure, as successful magicks lead to +change, and change is not generally easy to cope with. + +GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD +The very act of doing magick itself threatens the magicans +established limit of Achievable Reality, even if one is +practising the entry-level BodyMind Exercises, Mind Control +and simple Sorceries which are available through the plethora +of magical workbooks (Chaos or otherwise) now available. +Probably the most formidable opponent the magician will +encounter is his own inertia, or resistance to change. +Embarking on any training or work schedule automatically +invokes this demon, and magicians may be surprised time and +time again at the ingenuity 'it' shows in manufacturing +excuse which justify the delaying of a practice 'until +tomorrow'. The demon of Inertia is the Guardian of the +Threshold of Achievable Reality, and the only way to over- +come it is through determination, effort and sheer bloody- +mindedness: themselves useful qualities for the would-be +magician. + +BASIC PROCEDURE +One may consider magick to be an art, science, or somewhere +inbetween, but it remains true that before one assumes the +pose of being a magical Dali or Heisenberg, some basic +procedures must be established. Just because Chaos Magick +semms to imply that all the 'rules' of other magical systems +can be cast aside, doesn't mean that there is a total absence +of self-discipline. Well begun is half done, and establishing +basic procedures of practice go a long way in moving back the +borders of Achievable Reality. + +STAGES OF LEARNING +When learning any new skill, there are three key stages which +it is well to be awere of. Firstly, there is the initial +stage of practice which if fulled be high levels of enthus- +iasm and motivation, and so the results of learning are +fairly immediate. So far, so good. However, at some point in +the practice, one enters a 'dry' stage - the Guardian of the +Threshold has caught on to what is happening and suddenly, +the practice becomes BORING. Out come the +excueses and delaying tactics. This is the 'hump` experienced by +students and people on long training courses, and is the point +where many people give up. This is the time when one has to conquer +the Guardian by being equal to its wiles. Once this stage has +passed, one frinds that the effort that was being diverted into +resisting the practice is available for further progression; that +there is now little effort involved in the practice, and its +benefits may be reaped. A great deal of early learning follows +these stages, and learining magical skills is similar, exept that +one is not only establishing new patterns, but changing +established patterns. + +TIME SCHEDULING +Learning new skills requires time - a commodity that one often not +willing to redistribute and which not everybody has to the same +degree. Many magical workbooks insist that set exercises be +diligently performed at the same hour each day. This is fine, if +one's lifestyle allows such rigorous structuring of personal time, +but others find it near-impossible. When setting a Time Schedule, +it is essential to be realistic. Making up unrealistic schedule +often means the one is unlikely to stick to it, which ultimately +strengthens the Guardian of one's Achievable Reality. A Time +Schedule should be difficult, but not impossible, lest one sets +oneself up for failure at the beginning. +THE MAGICAL DIARY +Keeping a Magical Diary of practice, ideas, weird experiences, and +dreams is essential. It becomes not only a record of work done, +but also a depository of ideas and insights arising out of one's +magical work. It is also a valuable tool for self-assessment. Just +as it is all too easy for aspiring magicians to see themself as +the best thing since Solomon's wand, so too is it easy to deny +that one has made any progress at all. When there is no guru, +teacher or master to give support, then there remains only oneself. +The Magical Diary is the place where strenghts and weaknesses are +acknowledged, and changes over time effort can be discerned. + +MAGICK WORKS +Magick, like sexual intercourse, needs to be experienced to be +fully understood. Similary, the fist few times that one tries it, +it might not live up to preconceived expectations. It might even +be a dismal failure, but that shouldn't put you off forever, +right? However, the Guardian lurks in a corner of the psyche, +armed with justifications, rationalizations, excuses - all the +embedded cultural programming which says that magick is super- +stition, fantasy, and something that can't 'really' happen. The +fact that much of what passes for Consensus Reality is based on +superstition, fantasy and things which defy rational explanation +is neither here nor there. To overcome the Guardian, the would- +be magician has to prove to himself that MAGICK WORKS, and the +only way to do this is by trying it out. Proving that Magick +Works, even in a small way, begins the process of pushing back +the boundaries of Achievable Reality. Suddenly, nothing is as +clear-cut as it formerly seemed. Keep 'doing' Magick for long +enough and it becomes an embedded part of personal reality - as +familiar as the sky, earth, and buildings seen every day. At this +point one ceases to believe in magick as something 'seperate' +from the rest of one's familiar world. Rather, the world is +becoming magical. + + +T H E D Y N A M I C S O F S O R C E R Y + +Orthodox magical systems make a distinction between 'Low' Magick +(Sorcery) which is concerned with bringing about change in one's +immediate circumstances, and 'High' Magick which in concernd with +'Spititual' Evolution. The Chaos Paradigm generally rejects this +distinction, as it implies a philosophy which rejects the +physical world as being somehow inferior to a 'spirituality' +which is somehow above the world. Also, this distinction is not +an accurate reflection of magical experience. +Being able to see the results of Sorcery workings (even in small +ways) shift the boundray of Achievable Reality and successfully +embeds the fact that magick works. It also raises one's +confidence in both personal abilities and the techniques them- +self, and leads to a more expansive outlook. +Also, success with Sorcery techniques requires that one develop +the ability to assess self-performance, and critically examine +desires, which in self leads to change. Bringing about direct +changes in the world necessitates that the magician pay close +attention to what he is about. Sorcery, with its emphasis on +pragmatic techniques and observable results, directs attention +to the world as it is experienced, rather than some simplistic +idea that has hitherto been accepted as 'real'. Reality is more +complex than many people generally like to think. +The dynamics of socery are fairly simple, and there is a wide +variety of techniques available. Also it's not difficult to +devise personal techniques which are unique to oneself. The +application of Sorcery, too, is very wide. + +1. INTENTION +Most acts of Sorcery begin with the Statemant of Intent. This is +a simple declaration of what one is about to do, and for what +final purpose. Since vague intentions tend to give rise to, at +best, vague results, the magician should formulate a Statament +of Intent which is as precise as possible, without +becoming overly verbose. Two techniques which may be of assistance +here are: + +(I) DIVINATION SYSTEMS +The surface desire for change may well not be the best point from +which to work. This is where Divnation Systems such as Tarot, +I Ching, Runes, Astrology, or self-created systems can be brought +in. For example, a Sorcerer is desirous of obtaining employment +- 'getting a job' is desire. However, using a divination system to +examine the components of the situation, he finds that a key +element which 'blocks' his desire is lack of confidence. so he +performs a working where improving self-confidence is the main +focus of the Enchantment. +Divination system can also be used when examining a situation +which involves other people. It may occasionally be useful to +examine one's motives for intervening in a situation involving +other people, and also looking for 'hidden' factors which may be +immediately apparent. + +(II) COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING +There is often a good deal of difference between what we think we +'ought' to be doing, and what can realistically be achieved. This +difference is often a contributing factor to work and life +stresses. Magicians often have high ideals, but may sometimes find +that it is difficult to bring those ideals down to earth. It can +be useful, in this regard, to take an overall intention and break +it down into smaller stages, each of which is more readily +realised than the overall objective. Rather than trying for a +sudden 'push' of Achievable Reality threshold, it may by more +realistic to attempt this in stages. + +SORCERY EVENT SERIES +A Sorcery Event Series (S.E.S.) is a series of linked Sorcery +operations. A long-term goal is broken down into smaller, related +steps. As one results manifests, the momentum of success carries +the magician into the next working in the +series. This sets up a condition where each single event concluded +in the series, increases the probability of the overall intent +manifesting. The S.E.S. is a particularly useful tactic for work- +ing with establishing long-term projects. The effect can be +likened to setting up a line of dominoes, and then pushing the +first domino into its neighbour. + +2. PROBABILITY PATHWAYS +Contrary to popular opinion, magical results do not pop up out of +thin air, and it does help enormously, with Sorcery workings if +there is a 'pathway' through which the desired result can manifest. +This can also be examined in terms of probabilities. A Sorcerer +who performs a ritual to ensure that he passes an exam, but who +does not any revison or cramming, is not creating a situation where +there is a reasonable probability that he will pass with flying +colours. If he does study, however, the probability of success is +likely to be higher. Sorcery does seem to achieve the best results +when the probability factor is at least fractionally higher than +zero. To take another example, when planning workings for +financial gain, it is useful to have a number of projects on the +go, any of which many results in increased funds - and hence the +sorcery working is more likely to yield some kind of positive +result. + +3. TIMING +Timing is an important yet often underrated factor in practical +magick. A good example of how timing can critically affect the +outcome of a working is that of Healing. If a client has a long- +term, progressive may be more successful at an early rather than +a late stage in the course of the illness. Complex life +situations can be examined for the purposes of Sorcery as +unfolding event series. In the early stages of a developing +situation, there may be more fluidity and flexibility than at a +later stage, where it is less easy to influence probable out- +comes. Events which can be perceived are macroscopic changes +which have been brought about by +the unseen interaction of microscopic fluctuations. In other words +an avalanche can be seem, but not the very small factors which +brought it about. Developing strategies that allow the +identification of small changes, and then influencing them so +that they lead to change which fulfils the cordinations of one's +statement of intent, can therefore be useful for Sorcery working. +In other words, learn to 'nudge' a situation at the right moment. +Paying close attention to what is happening in a given situation +is useful, and using Divination systems can also help here. + +SORCERY OPERATIONS - BASIC PROCEDURE +Once a Statement of Intent has been formulated, and any other +relevant factors taken into account, the next general step in +any Sorcery operation is to move into a Free Area. In orthodox +magical systems, this tends to involve ritual procedures for +setting up a magical Circle, making any psychological adjustments +for magical work, or assuming particular postures. In the Chaos +Paradigm, a Free Area is any space which has been redefined as a +zone where normal Consencus Reality is suspended, and Magical +Reality is operant. Thus a Free Area may refer to a previously- +prepared Temple, a space in which ritual is to be performed, or +a state of Consciousness. +Within the Free Area, the magician uses any offered technique/ +trick deemed appropriate to clear his awareness of anything but +the impending magical act. This can range from full ritual +procedure - performing a Banishing ritual, setting up an altar, +ect.,to merely closing one's eyes and concentrating. The +techniques used to define a Free Area often depend upon: +I) Circumstances +II) Available Time +III) Necessity +IV) Individual Perference +Following the defination of, and entry into the Free Area, the +next stage is to move towards a stage of consciousness known in +condition of one-pointed consciousness wherein awareness is emptied +of all save object of concentration; where will is given both +intentionality and vector. The main routs to Gnosis are threefold: +Excitatory - anything which stills the BodyMind, such as passive +meditation, slow chanting, hypnotic agents, or slow breathing; and +Indifferent Vacuity - a state of no-mind, or Non-Interest/Disinterest +where the object of desire flickers briefly in a mind emptied of +all content - no emotional attachment to the desire. +Upon entering the 'peak' of Gnosis, the desire in its chosen +repredentative from - a sigil, for example - is projected forth, +towards its target or into the void of the multiverse. It is then +banished from awareness, that is to say forgotten. +Following projection of the desire, the Free Area is closed using +any preferred method, such as manic laughter, a Banishing Ritual, +or a hand gesture. The Magician then moves onward, having set up +the conditions whereby his desire will manifest accordingly. +It should be noted that a key to Sorcery is that, on completion +of a working, it should be considered - at least on a magical +level - to be finished with, and nothing more in the way of +magical work needs to be done. The deep certainty that one's +Sorcery will yield the desired result will only come through +continued practice, effort, and refinement of technique, but it is +not unusal for advanced practitioners to claim a 'succes' rate +with the kind of magick of around 80-90%. +The above description of General Sorcery working, from a three- +hour group ritual involving prolonged dancing, druming and +chanting, to an act of 'Empty-Handed' magick which can be +performed anywhere, and need only last a few seconds. In general, +magicians tend to proceed from the former to the latter type of +working. As one continually shifts the boundary of Achievable +Reality, the definations of 'what' constitutes a magical action +tend to become fairly fluid. At +the beginning of magical practice, it is usual to perceive magical +operations as being 'seperate' to everyday experience. Later how- +ever, acts of magick becomes a part of everyday experience, as +one makes the transition between inhabiting a Consensus Reality +which is gradulally widening to admit the possibilities of magick +to creating a personal Magical Reality - a Psychocosm. + +E V O L V I N G A P S Y C H O C O S M + +In becoming familiar with magical ideas, reading books, learning +symbol systems and correspondences, one comes to learn the 'game +rule' of magick. Like any other game, the rules define the frame- +work of the activity. For a game to be wortwhile, its rules must +be flexible, open to different interpretation, and allow for +different needs and situations. Involvement with magical practice +shows that the game rule of Consensus Reality are more flexible, +and have more loopholes than one may originally through. +Developing a magical Psychocosm is slow process, as one pathers +momentum in magical practice, shifting from the 'beginner's mind' +of having read a few books and probably having set up +preconceptions as to what magick is 'about', to beginning to +practice magical techniques in earnest. One of the strengths of +Chaos paradigm is that experience is stresses over pre- +experiential beliefs. Do it first then consider which beliefs +and concepts seem to be most appropriate, in the light of +personal experience. +In modern culture, there are hundreds of magical paradigms +available, with more being discovered, recovered and invented +every year. Beginners in magick often adopt a paradigm which +reflects their core self-beliefs and ideas, or, as is some- +times the case, the first system that is encountered or made +accessible. Since few people get anything from an approach they +are not even remotely interested in, it is usually best to +choose a magical system that is attactive, for whatever reasons. + + +ENGLAMOURMENT +All magical paradigms have their attendant glamours, and these may +be changed as a paradigm develops. The earliest editions of Liber +Null, for example, did not mentation the term Chaos. Early on in +its development, Chaos Magick required the glamour of being some- +how 'sinister' or 'Satanic' which, while inaccurate, has doubtless +drawn quite a few people to become interested in it. Some magical +systems have strong quasi-religious overtones, and for +practitioners of these systems, the glamours can become faiths. +Elements of glamour include not only beliefs and concepts, but +styles of writing, narrative content, images, overall presentation +buzz-words, and occasionally the participation of charismatic +figureheads. Often, the attractiveness of a glamour for an indi- +vidual reflects personal tastes in literature, music, or other +fashions. For Chaos Magicians, the power of glamour becomes yet +another technique to be unterstood and utitized. For example, +successfully weaving the glamour of being a shaman will signi- +ficantly alter other people's reaction to the magician, as would +successfully weaving the glamour of being a Satanist. Indeed, it +is possible for a magician who is adept in the projection of +glamours to be perceived as both (by different sets of people), +when in fact neither glamour is particularly true. + + +PARADIGM SHIFTS +A well-documented feature of post-traumatic reaction is the +tendency amongst some individuals to shift towards major lifestyle +changes. Witness, for example, the number of people who embrace +religion following bereavement, accidents, or over-use of +hallucinogenic agents. +A core technique in Chaos Magick practice is the conscious attempt +to make periodic Paradigm Shifts. The aim here is to loosen one's +personal web of beliefs and attitudes; to gain an Ego-complex that +is adaptive to new situations and attitudes. Shifting into a new +paradigm or world-view is instructive, not only in terms of +empathy - understanding another persons' outlook on life - but also +by bringing about +a deliberate change which occurs across different strata of one's +life, the magician undergoes a process of egofracturing and +remoulding. +It should be understood that making a paradigm shift is not easy. +It is not merely a matter of deciding one day to be a hedonist, +and the next, a medieval ascetic. Merely playing around with +beliefs and attitudes in the safety of one's own handspace is +little more than mental masturbation. Paradigm Shifts are rarely +effective unless they are enacted fully within Consensus Reality. +Thus it is one thing to convince oneselfe of being a Born-Again +Christian, another to convince family and peers that such is the +case, and another thing still to convince other Born-Again +Christians. Entering any particular paradigm as an ego- +deconstructive exercises implies a stance of total involvement +and embtace of any associated beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours. +This process takes time. It takes time to establish oneself +comfortably within a particular paradigm; time to exerience +Consensus Reality totally within that worldview, and time to +withdraw from that paradigm and evaluate the experience. Some +paradigm are easier to enter and leave than other. It is +relatively easy, for example, to shift from being a fanatical +follower of a religion to a fanatical exponent of a magical +system. All that a person has changed, in this example, is the +surface content of the beliefs. The embedded patterns of +behaviour and attitude have remained intact, and it is these +'embedded' befiefs and behaviours which are at the root of the +more conscious responses to situations and life-changes. +The sense of being a uniaue individual - the Ego - is maintained +by a pattern which basically makes a divide between what it 'is' +and what which it is 'not'. An individuals' attitudes beliefs +and allegiance to various ideologies and social groups reinforce +the sense of selfhood, against the projected other. These +structures are very much responsible for maintaining one's +preception of the way things 'are' - the embedded perception of +consensus reality, echoed back through all aspects of one's life, +so that there is little sense of +reality being fragile or unstable (exept at times of stress). +One's worldview literally becomes the World - embedded and +reinforce, so that its limitations and parameters are experienced +unreflexively, as self-evident 'truths'. The first stage of +moving into a Paradigm Shift is made when one begins to question +the validity of these self-evident truths - to begin to experience +Consensus Reality as fragile, where one's own individual beliefs +are seen a prop as those held by others. A great many people do +this as a matter of course and, as this proccess leads to anxiety +and alienation, seek to resolve the inner conflict by embracing an +ideology which gives them the illusion of 'solid ground' - meaning +participation, and a secure place to be. Many religious and quasi- +magical cults recruit their members by deliberately targeting +individuals who have begun to question their participation in +Consensus Reality. +Individuals with a rigid ego-complex tend to react to any +perceived 'threat' to their world-view by suppressing, denying, +or attaching the source of dissonance. The more 'loose' one's +ego-complex, the more adaptive and tolerant the individuals is to +new ideas, change, understanding another person's viewpoint, and - +perhaps most important - the ability to interact with others +across a wide social range, without requiring a complex consensus +of attitude and belief. + +EGO MAPPING +In deliberately setting out to enter into Paradigm Shift, the +magician is preparing to assault the fortress of his own identity. +A ground plan of the area is therefore useful. Ego Mapping +requires the articulation and unravelling of one's own beliefe and +attitudes: ideologies that the magician is attracted to or, +equally , is repelled by: perceived strengths and weaknesses, +fears, ego-propping fantasies, desires, dreams, nightmares. The +magician writes an account of himself, as he is, how he would like +to be, and how he things other see him; he trawls back through his +personal history, attempting to identify major turning-points, +success, incidents of failure, embarrassment, blunders, traumas and +ecstasis. An account of himself in the third person may be useful, +as might be an obituary, written in the present, or ten yeas in +the future. +As the process gains momentum, there comes the understanding that +one's worldview, which may well have been tacitly sccepted as +'true' so far, is merely one of many, in a bewilderingly complex, +expanding culture. An initial choice of Paradigm Shift may be the +movement into a paradigm which is diametrically opposend to a +belief-system which one has invested a good deal of time, energy, +and self-esteem into. A change of political ideology is a good +example, as it requires a radical transition towards embracing and +experiencing a worldview which has been, for years, the +'opposition'. Here, the magician may have spent years viewing a +particular ideology through stereotyped 'others'. by deliberatly +becoming one those 'others', he challenges the 'truth' of his +pervious worldview. Of course, this is risky, especially as it +will affect every spect of one's lifestyle, particularly +interactions with family, friends, peer group, etc. + + +SUB-PARADIGM SHIFTS +The kind of Paradigm shift examined so far is very broad in its +scope. It can also be instructive, from time to time, to make +occasional sub-paradigm shifts within a specific context. The +symbolic and ontological sub-paradigm that make up occult belief +systems come within this category. Compared with manking Paradigm +Shifts within one's Social World, shifting between magical +paradigms is relatively easy. Magicians do tend to move between +magical paradigms in the course of their offer different degrees of +explanatory strength, freedom of expression, personal meaning and +working within its parameters until they are experienced as 'true' +and then moving to another paradigm, is instructive. One example of +such concept of subtle body energies. By studying, and heance +embedding the symbolism and layout of standard +western set of chakra-points, a magician will eventually come to +have expirience which accord with that particular overly of +internal subtel energies. Shift into a different system of power- +points, and one can again experience phenomena which are consonant +with the new system. Such experience tends to lead to the +conclusion that magical belief systems are not necessarily 'true' +descriptions of the territory, but merely structures for organizing +assimilating, and integrating experience. To do this successful +requires that the magician works with any chosen system over time. +Thus magical models becomes themselves tools, rather than rigid +parameter. Some tools are likely to be better for some types of +exploration than other, and Chaos Magick tend to the view that it +is more efficient to have a wide range of conceptual weapons to +choose from, rather than be limited to one paradigm that cannot +possibly account for everything. Tools however, can be subtle +traps. A magical model which at first appears liberating, yielding +new insights, informating and experiences can become, in time, +restictive. +The inability to move beyond the limits of one's chosen dominant +paradigm seriously hampers one's ability to be adaptive to life- +changes, and the exploration of new possibilities. A strength of +the chaos approach to magick is the freedom to draw inspiration, +creativity, and structure from any area of human endeavour, and not +be restricted to what is usually perceived as 'magick'. Hence a +rising interest in cybernetics, science-fiction, biology, +communications, non-linear dynamics, and other diverse +contributions to contemporary culture. Rather then attempting to +accommodate ideas within existing paradigms, Chaos Magick creats +new paradigms based on current ideas and possible futures, rather +than continually attempting to rewrite and recycle the past. The +cumulative effects of Paradigm Shift, practised on all possible +levels, are: the deep unterstanding that all beliefs are relative, +that one can consciously adopt a particular stance and successful +weave a projective glamour (both for self and others) from it; that +one is able to accept new +information and ideas without perceiving them as a threat; that +one can live comfortably within many differnt roles and selves. +All individulas are free to make contradictory statemants, be wrong +occasionally, and admit to errors in judgement, without suffering +a serious blow to the ego. This transition is known as shift from +Ego-centric behaviour, to Exo-centric behaviour. That is, the +process of movement from a position where a stable sense of self +has to be maintained at all costs, to a position where a multitude +of selves is acknowledged, which a continual sense of engagement +towards those selves which are, as yet, unknown. Further, it +requires the identification and acceptance of that which the +magician has previously found fearful, distasteful and +unacceptable - the demon-selves which, having been faced and +bound, become routes into power. This practice is not easy, as it +requires the ability to move freely eithin one's Social World, +and the continual reassessment of on's Personal World. + +USEFUL GAMBITS + +Going Away +Travelling not only broadens the mind, it also provides a useful +opportunity to adopt Paradigm Shifts in a social space where few +other are likely to be familiar with one's 'normal' identity. +Self-Observation +Here, the magician develops the ability to observe himself +dispassionately, so that he becomes aware of how he creates +projects, and maintains a distinct identity. Awareness of the +dynamics of identity Maintenance is essental when attempting to +alter that than projection at will. It is also important to be +able to observe how other people react to willed identity +projetion. Self-Observation becomes a continual meditation. It is +also instructive to pay attention to how others maintain and +project different identities. +Shock Tactics +It is a natural tendency for individuals to attribute their +own behaviour to situational factors, yet at the same time, +attribute the behaviour of other to their personality, the +process of labelling other on the basis of their dress, peers, +and given opinions can become a subtle trap. Knowledeg of this +tendency can be turned to the magician's advantage. If, for +example, he knows that another person has tagged him as holding +generally liberal views on various issues, then choosing the +appropriate moment to make a comment which implies the opposite +view, is likely to give the other person a considerable shock. +Such tactics may used to enhance personal power, or to appear to +collude with another, whilst maintaining a hidden agenda. +The above might promot the question 'Do Chaos Magicians ever +remain in one paradigm or sub-paradigem for any length of time?' +Of course. The practice of making Paradigm Shifts allows the +magician to move between paradigms, so that he develops, over time, +a web of personally significant paradigms, based on developing +personal and ethical stances, embedded beliefs, a mobile sense of +identity, and whatever magical models are being used at any one +time. This sounds complex, but is experience as simple, or self- +evident. The Chaos Magician is more likely to accept that his +paradigm-web is likely to change, and that he is quite likely to +find himself doing things which were previously outside his +know repertoire of experiences. +THE MAGICAL SELF +Creating a Magical Self is a process of deciding what qualities, +abilities and skills the magician wishes to acquire, and creating +a role which is the encapsulation of these projections. The +Magical Self is a persona-mask which the magician 'wears' each time +he performs any act of magick. It may be associated with a +particular symbol, item of adornment, clothing. Each act of magick +reinforces the role. A related practice is that of adopting magical +names. Some magicians choose a name or motto which reflects their +magical aspirations. Such names are usually chosen due to +association with particular magical concepts. The magician +identifies himdelf with the name - thereby invoking his Magical +Self. As the magician develops, so may his name change. An example +of a magical name is PACHAD - a Heberw word which can be +translated as 'Fear'. It is also a title of the Cabbalistic +Sephiroth GEBURAH, which corresponds to the planet Mars. This +name might thus be adopted by a magician who wishes to identify +his magical self with a martial curent. +There is little point however, in designing a magical persona +which merely reinforces qualities that the magician already +possesses in abundance. The Magical Self is an invocation of +future otherness - a self which one might sense the need of, but +has not yet developed the requisite abilities and powers of. +Initially, the Magician Self is a mask which one adopts when +moving from Consensus Reality to Magical Reality. But, over time +and experience, the 'everyday' selves assume the function of masks +and Magical Selves become dominant. + +CHAOS IDENTITIES +Entering a magical universe is an attempt to impose order onto +chaos. Magical universe are based in Mythic or eternal time - +linking into the past through symbol, image, and a sense of +continuity. An escape route, whereby one can gain a breathing space +a sense of order and permanence. There can identity be stabilised +and rooted into a structure. The magical revival is powered by two +related undercurrents. Firstly, the search for a personal and +collective past, and secondly, the need for escape routes from +the perceived tyranny of Consensus Reality. The desire to uncover +and preserve the past is part of the impulse to preserve the self. +Without knowing where one has been, it is difficult to plot a +clear future. The concern for recovering the past, through +museums, ruins, etc has been growing since the nineteenth century. +The past is seen as the foundation of personal and collective +identity. It offers the sense of continuity, of eternal time. But +history is no longer true. The past is being re-written, re-forged +in a new image to feed dreams of +Golden Ages, or National Boundaries, of Agelss Wisdom. History has +turned into commodity, a growth industry; the preoccupation with +roots has grown rapidly since the 1970s, ever more so due to +widespread insecurity in areas nominally seen as stable - labour, +credit, technology, skills. +Magical universe offer the promise of a meta-theory through which +all things may be represented. This runs contrary (hence its power) +to the spirit of the age, which turns away from global projections; +where a meta-narrative is illusory. The sciences are suddenly +uncertain; no longer able to chart the void through mathematics, +they find smaller and smaller worlds to discover. The one-world +dream of the Enlightenment is fragmenting into worlds colliding and +worlds apart; individuals do masks to enter the different reality- +games, the social worlds layered through the eyes of strangers; +existences which may only be guessed at refracted through the media +never-web of stereotypes and labels. Images flicker across screens +and into minds. +Working, living and acting within a magical psychocosm, one +discovers that the sense of identity becomes inextricably +interwoven with one's magick. There is a graduated progression from +magick beeing something that one is interested in, to something +that one is engrossed by, to being a magician more or less full +time. In terms of the Chaos approach, this implies continual change +modification of identity, entering different paradigms of belief +and behaviour, learning new skills, and shedding life-patterns +which have outworn their usefulness. There is thus a shift from a +core Ego which is based on differences, the self-other divide, to +Exo, the self in a continual progrss of engagement. As one +continues to expand and develop the personal psychocosm, the size +of the social group which reinforces that sense of identity grows +smaller. +SELF LOVE +The aim of the progress is to reach the point where identity is +countinually being deconstructed - when a measure of fluidity +of expression is attained and one is released from the necessity +of seeking self-validation from others. This is what Austin Osman +Spare referred to with his doctrine of Self Love. This is no +narcissistic basking in the glamours of the ego, rather, it is the +discovery of the void at the core of an indentity which is freely +able to move into any desire set of social relations, without +becoming trapped or attached to them. As the core of the sense of +self is 'Self-Love', rather than any limitated label, one attains a +state of great freedom of movement and expression. +Self Love does not necessarily imply alienation or withdrawal from +Consensus Reality. Modern culture is saurated with escape routes +by which one is encouraged to resist the routines of reality. +Drugs, sex, fantasy scripts, social enclaves, ideologies, +therapies, mindscapes, the past, utopia - all well-signposted +escape routes that, ultimately, reveal themselves to be dead-ends. +This is especially true of so-called revolutionary escape routes - +political, alternative lifestyles, magical endeavour. They support +rather than threaten, consensus reality, whilst feeding the +illusion of escape. Many of these escape routes require a change +in social scripts and masks and do little more than create fragile +enclaves within consensus reality, which inevitably are recaptured +recuperated, and commodified into fashion and trends. +Magick is the 'great' escape route to the edge. Through its +practice the magician may project himself into Mythic Time, make +place and space sacred, project future benign or otherwise. Whilst +political ideologies focus on changing the structure of social +relations, magical scripts focus on changing identity, so that the +structure might one day follow. All transient individuals, +magicians dream new towers from the buildings of consensus reality. +The difficult comes in attempting to find others who will share +and personal identity has been rendered fluid, ephemeral, and +endlessly open to the exercise of will and imagination. This may +be liberating. It may also, of course, be deeply +unsettling and stressful. Nostalgia for common values becomes a +cultural force, as much from the counter-culture as the +establishment. As the spatial and temporal worlds become +increasingly compressed, so the response increasingly becomes +that of denial, cynicism or a blase attitude - sensory screening, +the yearning for a past forever lost, and the simplification of +representation. The search for escape routes vieds yet another +market of commodities. There is no escape from Society of the +Spectacle. The Chaos appoach to the deconstruction of identity +can be understood by examining the tactics of Aleister Crowley, +who has left a good deal of useful materiel for exploring the +boundaries of identity. Crowley's life can be understood as a +continual battle between himself and consensus reality - a battle +to create a personal enclave for himself beyond the limits of +conventional morality. Crowley sought to escape the Society of +the Spectacle by becomming himself Spectacular. He used his +lovers, pupils and writings to create a free area from which he +could give free reign to the myriad selves which he had uncovered +through his magical living. Crowley's approach to the problem of +identity was an extrem one, and part of his drive towards the +extrems of experience may have come from his desire to inaugurate +a new society. The scheme may have begun as a deliberate +projective glamour, but there are indications that Crowley became +trapped within his own glamours which, though they provided meaning +and support, may have also, at times, seemed to be crushing weights. +Through he deliberatly created tensions and stresses within himself +he used these to fulfil his task - to perturb - and he countinues +to do so. +The Chaos Magician may occasionally resort to extreme stances, but +is less likely to be concerned with projecting his personal +visions onto anyone else. Chaos future dreams are not, as yet, +guided by one overall meta-vision. Instead, there is the +Pandemonaeon - a future which sewthes with possibilities, any of +which may become manifest, according to individual will and +powers, rather than overall schema. + +Matter is my playground. I make and break without though. Laugh +and come UNTO me. + Eris, the Stupid Book + +Modern society has exalted the notion of individualism almost to +a pathological degree. Within this urge to be individual are the +continual exhortations to find 'real','higher' or 'true' selves. +But if 'Nothing is True' and 'Everything is Permitted', one may +come to discover that there is nought but a whirling void behind +the social masks and personas necessary for moving through social +reality. The Chaos approach offers the choice of becomming many +individuals, and to finde a sense of freedom not through +attempting to resist consensus reality,, or to create an enclave +beyound it, but to embrace it joyfully. While the majority of +magical paradigms seek to reject consensus reality in favour of +'higher' states of being, the Chaos approach masks consensus +reality into a playground for the phenomenizing of will desire. +By experience consensus reality from the basis of Self Love, the +magican may begin the long and fascinating process of bringing to +earth those shards of the Pandaemonaeon - and whatever my lie +beyound it - which engage attention. This is, by definition, the +activity of an Elite group, since few have the drive, stamina, and +determination to continually strip away the skins of identity, in +favour of freedom of movement. +For the Chaos perspective, the sence of selfhood is an emergent +property of continual movement through zones of social dynamics - +there is no 'core' behind the masks. As one gradually moves away +from dependence on social groups to reinforce a sense of identity; +when one ceases to label one-selves on the basis of a few dominant +behaviours or identifications; the magician becomes able to +establish experimental 'beachheads' into the nascent possibilities +of the future round the corner. Freedom lies in remaining mobile, +elusive, and relaxed. Rather than resisting the chaos of the +normal, the magician joyfully hurls his-selves into it, +never quite sure what will emerge. When there is no need to +be anchored in a stable past or present, the possibilities of any +future that one might care to dream about are there for the taking. +Thus, by extending the limits of Achievable Reality, it becomes +possible to mutate and re-design the human entity for explorations +into future spaces. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/pchrist.txt b/religious documents/pchrist.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4aa042c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pchrist.txt @@ -0,0 +1,345 @@ +From: Ammond Shadowcraft +To: All Members Msg #128, 04-Apr-88 10:44edt +Subject: Pagan Christs + + The Sacrifical God man + + How did the Christian mythos arise? Where did it come from? + + The Christian myth is almost totally Pagan in origin. I used to + think that anything outside the Judeo/Christian/Moslem Belief System or + worldview was Pagan. Such is not the case. + + The two main features of the CBS are the Eucharist and Sacrifice of + a God man. These two features were well known and well loved by Pagan + mystery cults centuries before the Christian Cults intergrated them + into the Gospels. + + The Eucharist goes way back into history and is based upon the + ritual consumption of the God man. Osiris, Dionysus, Attis and many + others were ritually consumed. The practice dates back to prehistory + when a human sacrifice was identified with the God (perhaps a + Vegetative God) and was sacrificed and eaten. Over the ages human + sacrifice was found detestable. Animals were then substituted and + sacrificed as the ritual identifier of the God which was then followed + by grain offerings, breads shaped into the form of the God, sometimes + in the shapes of natural items (sun, moon, etc.). + + The mythos of the Jewish Christ integrated this practice into it's + mysteries. There is strong reason for this. For some 200 plus years + before the time recorded for Jesus the Greeks and their mystery cults + invaded and changed Israel for all time. A war was instituted to + diminish or wipeout the Hellenizing influence. Part of the Hellenizing + influence was an effort to update or change the Jewish religion to + something more applicable to the times. After the Maccabbes War the + Hellenizing cultist were driven underground; right to the heart of the + Jewish mystical culture. Hence the Greek influence upon the myth of + Jesus. + + The sacrifice of the God man (Jesus, Attis, Adonis, Osiris) was a + well known and well loved feature also. In fact it was necessary to + have a willing sacrifice before a Eucharist could be performed. When + the sacrifice was not willing the legs and sometimes arms of the + sacrifice were broken to make it look like the sacrifice was willing + (not struggling against the sacrificers). Jesus was a willing + sacrifice. + Images of Attis (Tammuz/Dummuzi) were nailed or impaled upon a pine + tree. The Jews knew this and wrote "Cursed is he who hangs upon a + tree." A goat was substituted for a boy in sacrifice to Dionysus at + Potniae and a hart for a virgin at Laodicea. King Athamas had been + called upon to sacrifice his first born son by the Delphic Oracle, + Melenloas sacrificed two children in Egypt when stayed by contrary + winds; three Persian boys were offered up at the battle of Salamis. It + was only in the time of Hadrian that the annual human sacrifice to Zeus + was abolished at Salamis in Cyprus. The God man Jesus was hung upon a + tree; he was also the lamb of God. As such the sacrifice and Eucharist of + the God man Jesus is purely Pagan in origin. + + Part of the older Pagan sacrifices was in the King sacrificing his + only begotten son. Jesus was the only begotten son of the King of + Israel, sacrificed to take away the sins of the world. This practice + was overturned in the myth of Abraham and Issac when it was found + detestable and injurious to the tribe or kingdom. Yet the God man Jesus + was sacrificed in the flesh. This was done to appeal to the underground + Greek mystery cults who had much in common with the Jewish Christian + Cultist. + + "During centuries of this evolution, the Jewish people tasted many + times the bitterness of despair and the profound doubt denounced by the + last of the prophets. In periods when many went openly over to + Hellenism, it could not be but the the ancient rites of the Semitic + race were revived, as some are declared to have been in earlier times + of trouble. Among the rites of expiation and propititiation, none stood + traditionally higher than the sacrifice of the king, or the king's son. + The Jews saw such an act performed for them, as it were, when the + Romans under Anthony, at Herod's wish, scourged, crucified [lit. bound + to stake], and beheaded Antigonous, the last of the Asmonean priest + kings in 37 B.C." _Pagan_Christs_ page 44,45 by J. M. Robertson + + The mode of sacrifice was predetermined by previous Pagan doctrine. + The type of sacrifice was also predetermined by Pagan doctrine. Both + the sacrifice of the king, and the king's son were incorporated into + the Gospel myth. The God man Jesus is both the King of the Jews and the + son of God, the king of Israel. + + As stated before the sacrifice of the king or king's son was found + injurious to the state. Before animal and grain sacrifices, criminals + and prisoners of war were substituted. Yet the criminal had to be + identified with the king. This was done by putting royal robes on the + sacrifice and parading the sacrifice around, calling it the king. + "The number three was of mystic significance in many parts of the + East. The Dravidians of India sacrificed three victims to the Sun-god. + In western as in eastern Asia, the number three would have its votaries + in respect of trinitartian concepts as well as the primary notions of + 'the heavens, the earth, and the underworld.' Traditionally, the Syrian + rite called for a royal victim. The substitution of a criminal for the + king or kings son was repugnet, however, to the higher doctrine that + the victim be unblemished. To solve this problem one of the malefactors + was distinguished from the other criminals by a ritual of mock-crowning + and robing in the spirit of 'sympathetic magic'. By parading him as + king, and calling the others what indeed they were, it was possible to + attain the semblence of a truly august sacrifice." _Pagan_Christs_, by + J.M. Robertson page 45 + + There is nothing in this mythos that did not originate in other + cultures. + + "We can only conclude that the death ritual of the Christian creed + was framed in a pagan environment and embodies some of the most + widespread ideas of Pagan religion. the two aspects in which the + historic Christ is typically presented to his worshipers, those of his + infancy and death, are typically Pagan." _Pagan_Christs_ by J.M + Roberts, page 52. + + What about the man Jesus then? Was he divine? Did he exist? Is/was + he the Savior? + + Most, if not all, of the Christian Belief System is Pagan in + origin. It is indeed hard to force oneself to believe that Jesus is + the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God when such titles were readily + copied from Pagan doctrine. Perhaps the only item not borrowed from + Pagan sources was the Messiah concept. That, of course, was taken from + the Jewish hysteria of the time. In the siege of Jerusalem in 72 C.E. + there were some 18 Messiahs inside Jerusalem alone. Neither the God man + Jesus nor the self proclaimed militant messiahs saved Jerusalem. Such + was the measure of hysterical superstition upon the nation of Israel. + "There is not a conception associated with Christ that is not + common to some or all of the Savior cults of antiquity. The title + Savior was given in Judaism to Yahweh; among the Greeks to Zeus, + Heilos, Artemis, Dionysus, Hercales, the Dioscurui, Ceybele and + Aesculapius. It is the essential conception of Osiris. So, too, Osiris + taketh away sin, is the judge of the dead and of the last judgment. + Dionysus, the Lord of the UnderWorld and primarily a god of feasting + ('the Son of Man commeth eating and drinking'), comes to be conceived + as the Soul of the World and the inspirer of chastity and self + purification. [J. M. Robertson may be referring to Attis here.] From the + Mysteries of Dionysus and Isis comes the proclamation of the easy + 'yoke'. Christ not only works the Dionysiac miracle, but calls himself + the 'true vine.'" + + "Like Christ, and like Adonis and Attis, Osiris and Dionysus also + suffer and die and rise again. To become one with them is the mystical + passion of their worshippers. They are all alike in that their + mysteries give immortality. From Mithraism Christ takes the symbolic + keys of heaven and hell and assumes the function of the virgin-born + Saoshyant, the destroyer of the Evil One. Like Mithra, Merodach, and + the Egyptian Khousu, he is the Mediator; like Khousu, Horus and + Merodach, he is one of a trinity, like Horus he is grouped with a + Divine Mother; like Khousu he is joined to the Logos; and like Merodach + he is associated with the Holy Spirit, one of whose symbols is fire." + + "In fundamentals, therefore, Christism is but paganism reshaped. It + is only the economic and doctrinal evolution of the system--the first + determined by Jewish practice and Roman environment, the second by Greek + thought--that constitutes new phenomena in religious history." _Pagan_ + _Christs_ by J.M. Robertson pages 52,53 + + No religion develops in a vacuum. All religions are influenced not + only by it's predecessors but by the contemporaries of the time also. + Such is the nature of Christism yesterday and today. + + Now about Jesus the man, did he exist? I think not. All the + teaching of Jesus can be attributed to other sources and grafted over + the Gospel myth. Nothing he said was substantially different in any way + from previous sayings. Jesus was not a man but a contrived myth. + + "The Christian myth grew by absorbing details from pagan cults. The + birth story is similar to many nativity myths in the pagan world. The + Christ had to have a Virgin for a mother. Like the image of the + child-god in the cult of Dionysus, he was pictured in swaddling clothes + in a basket manger. He was born in a stable like Horus--the stable + temple of the Virgin Goddess, Isis, Queen of Heaven. Again , like + Dionysus, he turned water into wine, like Aesculapius, he raised men + from the dead and gave sight to the blind; and like Attis and Adonis, + he is mourned and rejoiced over by women. His resurrection took place, + like that of Mithra, from a rock tomb." + + The man Jesus did not exist. There are however sources that speak + of others seeing him. These were secondhand sources. No direct + observations were made. At one time or another we have all had a vision + of Deity in our minds. Such is the sight of Jesus, a mental image. + + What of the Gospels then? They are passion plays designed to be + read or acted out in front of an audience. Passion plays were a common + feature of pagan religion. Looking at the Gospels themselves one finds + a chopply written, scene by scene, display of the life of the God man. + Only the important aspects of his life are described. The minor events + and influences of the life of Jesus are not recorded, which leaves one + to think that the Gospels are indeed a play. + + "When we turn from the reputed teaching of Jesus to the story of + his career, the presumption is that it has a factual basis is so + slender as to be negligible. The Church found it so difficult to settle + the date of its alleged founder's birth that the Christian era was made + to begin some years before the year which chronologists latter inferred + on the strength of other documents. The nativity was placed at the + winter solstice, thus coinciding with the birthday of the Sun-god. And + the date for the crucifiction was made to vary from year to year to + conform to the astronomical principle which fixed the Jewish Passover. + [The Passover is moon based, an already familiar pagan method of + cyclic, monthly dating.] In between the birth and death of Jesus, there + is an almost total absence of information except about the brief period + of his ministry. Of his life between the ages of twelve and thirty we + know nothing. There are not even any myths. It is impossible to + establish with any accuracy the duration of the ministry from the + Gospels. According to the tradition it lasted one year, which suggests + that it was either based on the formula 'the acceptable year of the + Lord', or on the myth of the Sun-god." _Pagan_Christs_ by J.M. + Robertson, page 68 + + The Quest for the Historical Jesus + + "...It is only in comparitively modern times that the possibility was + considered that Jesus does not belong to history at all. Those who come +across this idea for the first time are naturally startled by it. In fact the +suspicion that Jesus might be as mythical as other ancient saviors as Osiris, +Mithra and Krishna arose as a result of a serious effort to discover his real +voice and actions. the most scrupulous of analysis of the texts failed to +reveal a convincing picture of an authentic person." +_Pagan_Christs_, page 63 + + Well such is what J.M. Robertson claims. + + "Modern biblical critics freely admit that some of the Gospel narritive + must be fiction. We know now that much of it was composed well after the +events it purports to describe. Comparitive religion has drawn attention to +close pagan parallels--to the essential features of the story--the virgin +birth, the sacrifical death and resurrection. The same is true of the rites of +baptism and sacramental communion. Many critics still feel, however, that +these are accretions which, together with, togehter with the miracles, can be +safely shed without injury to a nucleus if historical fact. The argue that +pagan Gods may have some of the attributes of Jesus, and although they may +have been regarded as law givers and teachers, they did not leave behind a +coherent and profound teaching. Apollo, Osiris and the rest seem, therefore, +to be obviously mythical, whereas Buddha and Jesus are not. The teachings of +each of the latter, it is felt, bear the unmistakable of a single, unique +mind. Such a doctrine could not have formed itself spontaneously." +_Pagan_Christs_, page 64. + + The rite of baptism has already been discussed in this topic. Robertson + contends that the rite of baptism superceeded the rite of circumsicion. This +makes sense to me. It is much less painful and physically safer to undergo +ritual initiation through baptism by water than by ritual circumcision. The +gentile Christists would contend for this; and as the Jewish Christists died +baptism did replace circumcision as a physical sign of new spiritual being. + + "We shall consider the case of Buddha later. First let us look at the main + objections to this view that the existence of a body of teaching is +overwhelming evidence of the existence of an historical teacher. The earliest +Christian documents are ascribed to Paul. These epistles were written long +before the canonical gospels were put together and accepted by the Church. The +older protions, however, tell us nothing about the life of Jesus. The silence +of paul is remarkable if indeed he was familiar with the Jesuine biography. +Secondly, the unity of teaching, which it is said, would show it to have been +the work of one mind is conspicuously absent. So far from displaying +coherence, the ethical precepts are frequently obscure and contradictory. So +far from being original, many of the sayings are merely quotations from Hebrew +literature, and some have pagan parallels. As for the Sermon on the Mount, it +is no more than a patchwork of utterances found in the Old Testament." +_Pagan_Christs_ pg. 64 + + I was suprised to hear that some of the Epistles of Paul are the earliest + of the Christian writings. Anyone care to point us to an already typed in +dating of the N.T.? Care to type one in? If such is the case then it is +outstanding that as Paul was the first to write about mystery of the sacrifice +of Christ he tells us nothing of the life of Christ. It's as if he didn't +know. Surely he would have known such details being close to the original +twelve. Perhaps he didn't care, such details being meaningless as the ethics, +mystery and sacrifice of the God man were most important. + + It seems the earliest of the gospel forms was lost with Matthew and Mark + being dependent opon these lost forms. This scans nicely. The earliest forms +were probably the purest of the Jewish Christian story of the Messiah. As time +went by more of the pagan gentile influence was felt as needed. Various +features of the virgin birth of the God man, the nativity scenes, the Last +Supper, the betrayal, the crucifiction and mysterious ressurection were +incoroprated into the present gospels to appeal to pagan cultist. + + Some scholars indicate that Revelations was next inline. This scans + nicely as it presents a supposedly Jewish-Christian eschotology. When one +looks at the symbolism one can see the Mazedian influence in Revelations. +Revelations seems to present a first or second step in the evolution of the +Sacrifice and Resurrection of the God man. Perhaps a middle step is more +appropriate. A middle step between Jewish Messiah cults and Gentile Savour +cults. + + It would be monumental to eliminate all supposedly contradictory and + questionable passages from the Gospels. Fortunately that work has already +been done with some suprising, for me at least, outcomes. Here's one.. + + "For over a hundred years German scholars have been struggling to solve + this problem, and their efforts have been unavailing. In order to establish +some solid textual foundation for the historicity of Jesus, they have piled +hypothesis upon hypothesis with ever new refinements. The retreat from this +hopless task was finally sounded by the emminent German critic, O. Schmeidel. +Afer an exhuastive search, he was satisfied that he had discovered some texts +which passes the most severe tests and were entirely credible. But in the +whole of the gospels all he could salvage were NINE such texts. Let us +enumerate this forlorn handful of unwounded survivors. + + 1) Mark XXX.17 [really mark 10.17] f.f. "Why callest me thou good?" etc. 2) +Matt XII.31 f.f. "Blasphemy against the Son of Man pardonable" 3) Mark III.21 +"He is beside himself" 4) Mark XII.32 "Of that hour and day knoweth no man" 5) +Mark XV.34, Matt "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" etc. 6) Mark +VIII.12 "No sign shall be given this generation." 7) Mark VI.5 "He was able to +do no mighty work there." 8) Mark VIII.14-21 Rebuke to disciples concerning +bread and leaven.." 9) Matt XI.5, Luke VII.22 Passage to be taken in the sense +of spiritual + healing, since it ends with mention of preaching--not a miracle at all." +_Pagan_Christs_ pgs 64,65. + + What was the basis for selecting these texts? Basicly O. Sshmeiedel felt + that where Jesus speaks simply as a man, making no pretense to divinity, or +to miraculous powers, and where he is presented as failing to impress his +relatives and neighbors with any sense of his superiority--there the record is +entirely credible. I'll have to quote this because of the logical content... + + J.M. Roberts quoting Schmeidel: + "According to Schmidel, these passages represent "the foundation pillars + for a truly scientific life of Jesus... They prove not only that in the +person of Jesus we have to do with a completely human being, and that the +divine is sought in him only in the form in which it is capable of being found +in a man; THEY ALSO PROVE THAT HE REALLY DID EXIST, and that the Gospels +contain at least SOME ABSOLUTELY TURSTWORTHY FACTS concerning him. + + This will shock the believer without satisfying the scientific + naturalist. I submit that the propostition I have italicized is absolutely +untenable. On this point may be staked the whole dispute about the actuality +of the gospel Jesus. It simply does not follow that because a statement is +credible it is therefore trustworth or proved. If it were so, half the +characters in fiction could be "proved" to be real people. Perfectly credible +statements are made about them." _Pagan_Christs_ pgs 64-65. + + And I would add that perfectly credible statements are made by fictional + characters also. It is credible to pronounce that Joe Catholic said a hundred +Hail Marys this morning. Such is a credible statement concerning Catholics. +But is it trustworthy? + + Such thinking requires a leap. The leap involves a thought process that + says what is possible must indeed be true. T.X. Huxley makes this same +mistake. Huxley says that Sauls visit with the Witch of Endor is entirely +probable, so there is no reason not to believe it. It is probable that I, as a +child, fell into a dark hole for 3 days and nights. History is full of +discredited "probablilites". + + diff --git a/religious documents/pentacle.txt b/religious documents/pentacle.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..66cf1fe --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pentacle.txt @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ + -=- What Is A Pentacle -=- + __________________ + + + A Pentacle is a symbol of a person who is a Pagan. A Pagan would wear a +Pentacle just like a Christian would wear a cross, or a Jewish person would +wear a Star of David: + + If you wear a Pentacle, or plan to wear one, you should know what it +means. A Pentacle is a five pointed star. All of the sides are the same size +which makes the Pentacle balanced. Each of these points is very important our +lives. Let's look at them one at a time. + + + SPIRIT: Spirit is the top point. It represents the creators of all life, + ______ the God and the Goddess together. The God and Goddess are very + important to us because they give us life and help us work the + magick that we do. They love us and care for us every day of our + lives. The God and Goddess have given us the four elements and + these elements are the other four points. + + + AIR: Air is important to all of us. We breathe it all the time. If we + ___ did not have air we would die. Take a deep breath, feel the air. + + + WATER: We also need water to survive. If we didn't have water we would + _____ shrivel up and die. We have water in our mouth and eyes; the + blood in our bodies is wet. Move your tongue around your mouth, + feel the water. + + + FIRE: Fire is warm, even hot sometimes. Feel your body it is warm. + ____ Every person has fire in their body. Sometimes when you have + too much fire in your body you have a fever. + + + EARTH: From the earth we get our food which keeps us alive. Our body is + _____ also made up of earth, it is solid; touch your arm and feel it. + + + So the next time someone asks, "What does that star mean?" you can say: +"It is a Pentacle. It represents the four elements Air, Fire, Water, and +Earth, that's the four points of the star. The fifth point is the Spirit the +God and Goddess who we love. + + Spirit is Purple Air is Yellow Water is Blue + + Earth is Green Fire is Red \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/peyote.txt b/religious documents/peyote.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e6ae97 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/peyote.txt @@ -0,0 +1,494 @@ + THE PEYOTE RELIGION AMONG THE AMERICAN INDIANS + + By Patty Yuen + + + INTRODUCTION + + The use of Peyote has long been referred to as a cult "...which we + found springing into existence when old ways of life (of the American + Indian) are being destroyed by a powerful and technologically more + advanced culture ..." thus also classifying it as a revitalization + movement. + + Today, peyote use has become the most popular, and one of the most + durable of all the religious movements created by American Indians as a + result of the suffering as the effects of domination by American + society. Peyote use (in the United States) has thus evolved into what + is more accurately described as a religion: a system of symbols which + produces powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations by + formulating conceptions of a general order of existence. + + The rite as it came to the United States was aboriginal in character, + and had no hint of influence of any other religion. Today, the Peyote + religion can be characterized as the combination of beliefs tinged with + Christianity and rituals which are distinctly Indian. The peyote cactus + is central to the religion for its effects after ingestion and for its + symbolism. For them, the cactus is the basis for their communication + with God, and their cure for all bodily and spiritual ailments--a + palladium, power and panacea. + + In spite of opposition from traditional and Christian Indians, who + oppose the cult fear and hate Peyote, and from the Indian Service, + doctors, missionaries, and traders, the religion has been passed from + the land of the ancient Aztec empire to the Mexican Indians, and + beginning in 1870's, spread to the United States, especially in the + Plains, where nearly all groups use it. It is today one of the major + religions of most Indians of the United States between the rocky + Mountains and the Mississippi, from the territories spanning from + Nevada to Wisconson, and even up to Southern Canada and parts of the + Great Basin. The appeal of peyote is based upon the visions it induces, + and its "medicine power," and its availability in doctoring is + culturally based upon the aboriginal vision quest of the American + Indians and the ideological premises of this quest. + + + + PEYOTE + + The Plant + + Peyote, or Lophophora williamsii is a small, low-growing spineless + cactus, and ranges in shape from a turnip to carrot-shape. It does not + have branches or leaves, but has tufts of hair or fuzz which are said + to cause sore eyes or blindness. The flesh and roots are eaten by + peyotists. The rounded top surface, which alone appears above the soil + (and which cut off and dried, popular method of preparation, becomes + the peyote-button) makes it difficult to find. It grows mainly in areas + of Texas and Mexico, and was first discovered in 1560. It contains nine + narcotic alkaloids, the most important of which is mescaline, which + produces profound sensory and psychic derangements, or hallucinations + lasting about twenty-four hours. It is this property of the peyote + which led the native American Indian to value and use it religiously. + + It is interesting to note that throughout the world, people use many + substances to create special psychological states such as the opiates, + marijuana, coca, alcohol, etc. These are often used in magical + contexts, for instance, for divination, to create a trance, visions, or + dreams. But peyote is the only substance known which is used to create + a special psychological state in service of religious ends. Cult + members face persecution and imprisonment in order to use peyote for + religious purposes. Another interesting point is that given the wide + range of the plant genera in Eastern and Western worlds, why is it that + in America, the American Indians knew of some forty local species of + hallucinogens, while the rest of the world had scarcely half a dozen. + + Physiology of Peyote Intoxication + + Physiologically, the most noted characteristics of peyote is its + production of visual hallucinations or color visions, as well as the + derangements of olfactory, auditory, and touch senses. Typically, the + first stage in the reaction to the ingestion of peyote is exhilaration + (which may result in the allaying of hunger and thirst on the long + pilgrimage to peyote land n order to obtain the drug, to give courage + in war, and strength in dancing, and racing, etc.) which is produced by + the strychnine-like alkaloids, followed by the second stage, + characterized by profound depression, nausea and wakefulness, mild + analgesia, and a sensation of fullness in the stomach or loss of + appetite. If dosage continues, there may be active nauseam and a + feeling of tightness in the chest, some muscular tetany (particularly + evident in the jaw muscles), and finally, under the influence of the + morphine-like alkaloids,heightened sensitivity to nuances of sound, + color form and texture. If dosage continues, b rilliant color visions + are produced with eyes open or closed. There are no ill after-effects, + and peyote is not known to be habit-forming. It is in the latter stage + where "running amok," witchcraft-suspicion, psychic fear-states, + euphoria and feeling of brotherhood, partial anesthesia, the "suffering + to learn something" (characteristic of the Plains vision quest), + hallucinations which teaches the worshiper sacred songs of peyote, and + "learning" of painting and bead designs, symbolical birds and feathers, + etc. + + + Reasons for the Use of Peyote in Ritual Practice + + "For American Indians from the most ancient times, this experience + (induced by peyote) of `medicine power' -- sought ...everywhere at + least by shamans or medicine men..." -- motivated American Indians to + explore a plant that resulted in such impressive experiences by the + worshippers. The question arises, why are these characteristics of + peyote so important to a religion? The visions are not critical to the + peyotist, as one may have been led to believe; in fact they are rare or + absent in a large percentage of cases, and even disvalued by many + peyotists, although welcomed by many others. + + What I found to believe that makes peyote so religiously important is + the feeling of personal significance of external and internal stimuli + that hallucinogenics, in particular peyote, creates because the + physiological reactions occur in the person, subjectively. Each person + is experiencing his own similar, but distinct reaction, and examining + his own thoughts, which cannot be exactly the same as the next + person's. "Personal significance heightens the religious experience in + the peyote meeting because it supplies evident proof that something is + being done to and for the human organism and it is felt as a power." + + This feeling of personal significance asks, "What does this mean for + me?" For example, if the worshipper is ill, he will be able to ask his + own bodily sensations and the events of the meeting for an + understanding of why he is ill and whether he is likely to get better. + Or if he is anxious or depressed, or guilt-ridden, he can examine these + feelings and the reasons for them and seek in his experience a clue as + to whether he is forgiven, needs to worry, or can ever be happy. These + are generally referred to as revelations. "Users may find personal + significance in the events of the peyote meeting, the physical + surroundings, their fellow participants and in their behavior and + expressions, visions, nausea, indigestion, headache or simply in their + own ruminations." + + Peyote is a religious adjunct-and aid to a special and personal + experience. Many other religions also have, for the same purposes, such + adjuncts such as fasting, repetitive prayer, trance, self-torture, etc. + These, like the peyote experience are other-than-usual experiences + which, in the context of religious ritual, is usually identified as + having to do with the supernatural. The mind-moving effect of the plant + was proof enough to them that it has supernatural mana or "power." + + + THE RITUAL USE OF PEYOTE + + Symbolism of the Ritual + + To the users of peyote, the peyote is in itself, is a power that works + from the outside. It is a teacher who can show a man the right way to + live and answer his questions by giving him an experience to live + through. + + + Through the use of peyote in the ritual, one is able to communicate + with the Creator, or in more syncretized tribes, God. The ritual is + also regarded as a communion with one's fellow worshippers. Prayer, + song, drumming and the eating of peyote are all regarded as forms of + communication with God, and the reactions brought on by the drug is + regarded as communication from Him--through reflection, illumination, + or visual or auditory hallucinations. The communion with fellow + peyotists is felt through the joint eating of peyote, the singing, + confessions, in the drinking of water together at midnight and dawn and + in the ceremonial breakfast which closes the meeting. + + Purpose + + A peyote meeting is generally held for a purpose, one of the most + common reasons is for curing. Some other reasons for a meeting to be + called can range from averting evil, promoting future good, or thanking + God for past blessings to celebrating a child's birth, a death, + obtaining rain, to divine and combat sorcery, to locate an enemy at + war, finding lost objects, foretell the future, and to "see the face of + Jesus" or the faces of dead relatives. Some tribes even hold meetings + on New Years Eve, Christmas, and Easter. Doctoring the sick is, however + the commonest reason for calling a meeting, but a quote from an old + Indian states that, however, when a man wishes to have a meeting, he + ordinarily finds little difficulty in discovering a reason for it, "In + the early days they just had a good time for one night. It was not used + as a curing ceremony then... at first they wanted to have good visions, + that's what they were after. But then, recently, they began to use it + as medicine for sick people." + + The Peyote Rite + + The ceremonial use of peyote varies greatly from tribe to tribe, but a + general, or "universal" outline of a peyote ritual will be sufficient. + + For those tribes who live beyond the habitat of peyote, they may have + to make pilgrimages in order to obtain peyote. For many Mexican + journeys, it is very ritualized, for example, they must walk, some + tribes require fasting even if the journey may last for a month. But + for the majority, this journey is not ritualized, although there is a + modest ceremony at the site. For example, on finding the first plant, a + Kiowa pilgrim sits west of it, rolls a cornshuck cigarette and prays, + "I have found you, now open up, show me where the rest of you are; I + want to use you to pray for the health of my people." He sings and eats + green plants while harvesting them; only the tops are taken, so that + the roots may regenerate buds for the next pilgrimage. In Mexican + tribes, the first button they find is saved as a "father peyote" for + meetings later, in the plains, it is the largest one. + + In preparation, many tribes commonly take a sweatbath, while some + require a washing of the hair in yucca suds. Fasting, perfuming of the + body with mint, sage, or other scented plants are also common + preparations in order to cleanse the body for the meeting. An universal + peyotist restriction is that salt may not be eaten on the day that + peyote is eaten. It is also considered hygenically if not ethically + unwise to use peyote in alcoholic drinks; indeed, many become peyotists + in order to cure their alcoholic addictions. + + + The sponsor selects the leader, or himself acts as one. If a tipi is + used, the sponsor's womenfolk erect the tipi, or enclosure, prepare and + bring the food and water the next morning. The sponsor stands the cost + of the meeting, or others may help in funding the peyote if it has to + be purchased. Communicants may bring their own supply of buttons. + + The leader also supplies the paraphernalia: typical requirements are a + staff, gourd rattle or rasp, eagle-bone whistle, and his personal + "feathers" for doctoring. Each item has specific symbolic meaning in + representing the idealogy of their creation. + + The road chief is the most important individual in a meeting. "The + leader of each ceremony is the sole director of it. He may base his + ceremony partly on visions during previous ceremonies. In other cases, + he follows ceremonies that he has participated in, changing or adding + details to suit his personal ideas. No two ceremonies conducted by + different individuals are therefore exactly alike; but the general + course of all is similar." -- This variation in leadership is also seen + as a function of leadership -- he has full authority to change the + ceremony in any way he wishes, and his permission must be asked and + secured even in such little matters as leaving the meeting temporarily; + even the fireman, his chief assistant must obtain his permission, and + constantly consults with him throughout the ceremony for directions. -- + In fact, peyote leadership is a matter of prestige in a tribe, and a + major means of advancement among the fellow tribe, since each tribe has + a limited number of rec ognized peyote leaders. For example, the Pawnee + tribe has only eight recognized leaders in a population of eight + hundred. + + Participants gather at sundown and enter the enclosure anytime after + nightfall, in a clockwise manner. Entrance is generally informal. The + road chief, who conducts the meeting may say a brief prayer: "I am + going into my place of worship. Be with us tonight."-- The road chief + sits west of the fire, which has been started by the fire chief who + sits north of the door. Two other officials are required: a drummer + chief, who does most of the drumming; he sits south of the road chief, + and the cedar chief, who sprinkles dried cedar incense on the fire at + several points of the ceremony is seated to his right. Almost any one + can learn these roles after a little observation. A road chief is + trained more elaborately by another road chief. In front of them is a + raised crescent moon of earth, and the altar, where the father peyote + is placed. Father peyote should be the focus of concentration in + praying, singing, drumming, and smoking ritual cigarettes as it serves + as a center for communication with God. + + Some individuals cherish and prize their father peyotes. Some even + become heirlooms. If one gives his away, or loses it, he may be subject + to misfortunes. + + + A prayer, and smoking together is the first ceremony which announces + the purpose of the meeting. The papers to roll the tobacco is usually + made of corn husks. All pray privately, and then the incense ceremony + follows. The cedar man will sprinkle cedar on the fire. The scent will + protect them from feeling weak or dizzy. Peyote is then passed around + and eaten. Peyote is generally eaten in the raw dried state as + "buttons" but, when obtainable, in the green form also, which is said + to e more potent. Peyote "tea," a dark-brown infusion of soaked and + boiled buttons may also be provided. This method is commonly used to + administer peyote to the old and sick, who may be unable to chew the + buttons, and are unable to pick the fuzz off, which is believed to + cause blindness. + + Singing and drumming begin, continuing until midnight. There are four + "peyote songs" which must be sung throughout the course of the night, + usually by the road chief: Hayatinayo (Opening Song), Yahiyano + (Midnight Song), Wakaho (Daylight Song), and Gayatina (Closing Song). + During this time, the paraphernalia, staff, drum, tobacco, peyote, + etc., are passed around to the left, in a clockwise circuit, for all + participants to handle. + + At about midnight, when the midnight song is sung, a bucket of water is + brought in by a female, usually the wife of the road chief, who is + usually referred to as Peyote Woman, who, according to some tribe's + legends discovered peyote. In the early days, women were prohibited to + attend in meetings, and only old men used peyote, but forty or fifty + years ago, women started coming in to be doctored and gradually came in + for other reasons, though they could not use the ritual paraphernalia; + under no circumstances may a menstruant woman enter.-- The restriction + against women appears to apply only to groups who early had peyote, + when it still had a flavor of a warriors' society about it. It is in + the mexican practices where women are able to fully participate, and in + a few cases where a woman acts as road chief. + + The water is passed around after prayers by various officiants. After + midnight water, singing and drumming recommence, and peyote is again + passed around. Public confessions are common, lengthy prayers for the + purpose the meeting is held begin and continue until dawn, where a + morning water ceremony, like the midnight ceremony, is held, after the + four songs are completed. Again, it is brought in by a woman, whether + she has participated in the meeting or not, and is followed by more + singing and drumming, and prayers for the purpose and for the + worshippers themselves. This ceremony is the morning "baptism" or + "curing" rite. Singing and drumming again, and then the meeting closes + with a ceremonial breakfast of parched corn, boneless meat, fruit, and + water. A lot of joking, and discussion of the night's events and + experiences occur. And at sometime between ten in the morning and one + in the afternoon, a large meal is served. + + + + Beliefs and Values of the Power of Peyote + + Peyotists believe in the existence of power, spirits, and incarnations + of power. "...[Power] is an immaterial and invisible supernatural + force..." which man needs in order to be successful and healthy; + without it he becomes unsuccessful and ill...God, who is equated with + the Great Spirit, or the Creator, is the ultimate source of power. This + power is personified as the Peyote spirit. Peyote "was given to the + Indians by God because he took pity on them for being a subject + people--poor, weak, helpless and ignorant...God made the Peyote + cactus..., and put some of his power into it," in order to help the + Indians. Therefore when one eats peyote, he absorbs the power inherent + in it, which he can then utilize to cure and to understand the world + and one's place in it. + + The amount of peyote eaten usually is minimally, four buttons. Some + have eaten 75 to 100 or more, but the average is a third or a fourth of + this. The reason for such large quantities being that there is a + certain prestige in eating and retaining large amounts of peyote.-- But + peyote is not as predictable as one may think. An overdose may cause + one to vomit, and this is regarded as a punishment of one's sins, but + it cleanses the body of its impurities in the process and purifies the + blood. The belief in peyote as a protection against witchcraft is + widespread. Vomiting of the peyote is attributed to witchcraft forced + upon by a powerful shaman, for in Mexico and the Southwest, war and + witching are often done while under the influence of peyote. "A + favorite device of witches to weaken the leader was to make his + assistants vomit the peyote." + + Non-Ritual Uses of Peyote + + In many instances, peyote is used to prophecize and to divine. Peyote + is also carried in pouches as amulets as charms against all injuries + and illnesses, and is also a powerful protection against witchcraft in + foot races, which are common in Mexican tribes, held usually at night + before a meeting. Rivals are liable to throw bones and obstructions on + the track and cause the Tarahumari runner to be bewitched and lose the + race. + + Peyote is also used to topically cure wounds. A salve is made out of + peyote and fat, and is put on to snakebites, arrow wounds, bruises, + etc. Therapeutic uses of peyote also vary from relieving cramps, + fainting spells, painful joints, rheumatism, head-aches, fever, and + colds. In the Plains, a Wichita case of blindness of 15 years was cured + by the sole application of peyote infusion. One of the most remarkable + instances is the curing of a Cheyenne woman of liver cancer, which had + been declared hopeless at a white hospital, although a meeting was + called for this purpose. + + Peyote is also used in war for courage, in order to not feel fatigue in + long journeys, etc. Peyote in fact gave power to perform shamanistic + tricks in the old days. + + + + PEYOTISM AS A NATIVISTIC MOVEMENT + + Revitalization movement: "a deliberate, organized, conscious effort by + members of society to construct a more satisfying culture" as a result + of real or imagined conditions that create a demand for change. A + nativistic movement, such as peyotism, is a form of a revitalization + movement that is defined by Linton as, "Any conscious, organized + attempt on the part of a society's members to revive or perpetuate + selected aspects of its culture." + + Further evidence that the peyote religion is revitalistic is that + several types of deprivation that are prevalent in the Indians' + situation is noted to be the causal link in which leads individuals to + join such a religion, the cause of the rapid spread of Peyotism. These + are: + + (1) - economic deprivation. In the American Indian's case, the lost of + their possessions, such as livestock and land. + + (2) - organismic deprivation. This applies to the feeling of the + reduction of one's worth among his fellows. If "...one's membership + category is seen as distinctly below standard, (The American Indian is + stills regarded with prejudice) this represents behavioral (organismic) + deprivation" (Aberle). + + (3) - ethical deprivation is the result of the loss of hierarchy which + used to be regarded with reverence amongst the tribes. With the + introduction of reservations and with Indians, involvement in white + man's world, these traditions become less adhered to. + + (4) - psychic deprivation, which results in the search for new meaning + and values, and + + (5) - social deprivation, which refers to the loss of power felt as an + American Indian. For instance, he is unable to control events on/ of + the reservations as a result of white man's laws, and the Bureau of + Indian Affairs. + + + CONCLUSION + + Peyotism seeks a more satisfying way of life for Indian individuals in + this world, in spite of the difficulties that confront Indians. + Peyotism's only organized efforts at institutional change are those + aimed at altering the legal status of the practice itself. Peyotism + does not believe in changes of individual habit alone, but sees changes + in belief, custom, behavior, and style of life as proceeding from a + change of inner state. This is the stated goal of the Native American + Church. In a sense, peyotism turns its face from the white world, but + it has an ethic that is adaptive for the American Indian in his + situation in America. Its stress on abstinence from alcohol, on hard + work, self-support, sexual morality and responsibility for one's family + is adaptive for those groups partially integrated in our industrialized + society. + + + + December 4, 1989 + + WORKS CITED + + + Aberle, David F. The Peyote Religion. Chicago and London: The + University of Chicago Press, 1982. + + Artaud, Antonin. The Peyote Dance. New York: Farrar, Strauss and + Giroux, Inc., 1976. + + Benitez, Fernando. In The Magic Land of Peyote. Austin and London: + University of Texas Press, 1911. + + LaBarre, Weston. The Peyote Cult. Connecticut: The Shoe String Press, + 1975. + + Lehmann, Arthur C. and Meyers, James E. Magic, Witchcraft, and + Religion. California: Mayfield Publishing Company,1989. + + Siskin, Edgar E. Washo Shamans and Peyotists. Utah: University of Utah + Press, 1983. + + + NOTES + + 1 Lehman, Arthur C, and Meyers, James E. Magic, Witchcraft, and + Religion (California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1989) p.126. + 2 Aberle, David F. The Peyote Religion.(Chicago and London: The + University of Chicago Press, 1982). + 3 Aberle, p.34. + 4 Aberle. + 5 LaBarre, Weston. The Peyote Cult.(Connecticut: The Shoestring Press, + 1975) p.xv. + 6 LaBarre, p.xv. + 7 LaBarre, p.xv. + 8 Aberle, p.8. + 9 Aberle + 10 Aberle, p.10. + 11 LaBarre, p.xv. + 12 Lehmann, p.126. + 13 Aberle, p.59. + 14 LaBarre, p.58. + 15 LaBarre, p.8. + 16 Siskin, Edgar E. Washo Shamans and Peyotists.(Utah: University of + Utah Press, 1983). + 17 LaBarre, p.43. + 18 Benitez, Fernando. In The Magic Land of Peyote. (Austin and London: + University of Texas Press, 1911). + 19 LaBarre, p.63. + 20 Artaud, Antonin. The Peyote Dance. (New York: Farrar, Strauss and + Giroux, Inc., 1976). + 21 Artaud. + + 22 Benitez. + 23 LaBarre, p.60. + 24 LaBarre, p.26. + 25 LaBarre, p.65. + 26 LaBarre, p.42. + 27 Artaud. + 28 LaBarre, p.87. + 29 LaBarre, p.29. + 30 Aberle, p.338. + 31 Aberle, p.338. + 32 Aberle, p.334. + 33 Aberle, p.335. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/pgn&jew.txt b/religious documents/pgn&jew.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9c4512 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pgn&jew.txt @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ +Beliefs of a Pagan Polytheist...To His Rabbinical Student Friend... + +Although the Source of Being underlies all that is, it is essentially +unmanifest and without qualities in the usual sense,and per se cannot +be the object of religion. However, in answer to human spiritual need, +it manifests in form as human deities. These are AS IF objective and +independent gods and goddesses. I acknowledge that the component of +the human mind is part of the process, but the fact that these deities +may spring in part from the collective unconscious or Jung's +archetypes does not obscure their status as deific entities which +serve as the focus for the individual's spiritual life, and which do +so as effectively AS IF they were what they seem to be....I do not +find profit or point in debating what anything "IS" beyond what I can +experience it to be...I find comfort in a Source generous and loving +enough to appear in the guise which serves best to help me in my quest +to love Goddess or God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and +my neigbor as non-different from me in esseence. + It would take a really dense polytheist to insist that there is +only One Right Way....that's authoritarian monotheism in thin +disguise...but it would take an insane polytheist to believe that +there is more than one "ground of all being"--- contradictory by +definition..HOWEVER (CRITICAL POINT AHEAD!): pagan polytheism is more +than "many masks of the One God"...These deities we experience really +are indistinguishable in practice from MANY, and so we treat them as +such.....The spiritual experience involved "doesn't happen" otherwise. + Note, though: the Wiccans who believe in a Mother Goddess and a +Nature God realize that the highest mystical experiences lies in the +two becoming one...But this does not deny the separateness in a +reductionist way. As perceived and experienced within a rich and real +spiritual life, the Two are two.....But just as the material Earth and +its growing life are non-separate, so every year we experience in the +cycle of the seasons the manifestation of the polar principles uniting +to become the one manifest world of life and nature. It is precisely +because we perceive the Two functioning as separate entities that the +vision of unity is so mysterious (in the good technical sense) and +ineffable, and moves us so. For some people, me for example, it is +only through a real and ineffable union of Two that are really +separate that the Oneness becomes a numinous and mystical fact instead +of a numerical datum. + There is a theology, or for a Goddess-worshipper, "thealogy", that +can articulate all this in better and more formal language, but I hope +something got across...Of COURSE the unmanifest Source is not-two (NOT +the same as ONE!), but what is absolutely unmanifest is too close to +being really "NOT" for humans. So the Ground Of Deity (note the +acronym!) is quite happy to manifest as Real Gods to meet human +spiritual needs, with a bit of co-operation from the human psyche, and +would in theory gladly emerge as, ACTUALLY, Klukk the great Chicken- +God if that's what it took to integrate worshippers into loving unity +with one another and the world and the divine. + Just be sure you realize that, just as a Krishna worshipper REALLY +does encounter Krishna and a Christian REALLY has an experience of the +Christos, a pagan can actually experience deity within as a loving, +beautiful feminine Presence of unmistakeable reality and cosmic scale- +--indistinguishable from ANYONE ELSE'S mystical experience only in +form. Since operationally and experientially the goddesses and gods +are in no way distinguishable from what one would experience in the +instance of "they really exist", we pragmatically say that they really +do...Any other assumption abolishes the numinous mystical +experience.....And since my root assumption is that this experience is +the ultimate point and goal of any non-trivial religion, I am a +polytheist. Being one gives me a simple explanation for the fact, and +it is a fact, that Jews and Christians and Muslims and Hindus, and ad +infinitum, ALL report mystical unions/apotheoses/epiphanies of a real +meeting with a real deity....Their interpretation of this universal +fact leads them, usually, to the conclusion that they finally have +personal proof that they are right and all the others are deluded. My +pagan polytheist view is that they are all non-deluded: that, out of +the Unmanifest or (pardon the plagiarism/blasphemy) Ain Soph arise +Real Deities who, from all appearances, have an independent existence +apart from the observer/worshipper. Out of an unseen and featureless +Void, pregnant with Being, Love and Consciousness unexpressed, all of +us get what we need. + To voice this paradoxical fact that there are Many at the same time +that there is Unity requires one to tread as carefully as a student of +Kabalah dealing with Emanations as not effecing the Oneness...I can't +do it on that high a level, but I hope I communicated something. + There are the "play Pagans" and the "shock their parents" pagans, +but most of us, for all our glaring faults, have found in our faith an +approach to that ineffable experience behind all religions that works +for us as no other has....and which integrates it into our lives, and +our lives into our world in loving and compassionate manner as no +other way has.... + +Shalom, Blessed Be, and may the great Gee Whiz take a likin' to ya... + + Raven Dragonrune + + + diff --git a/religious documents/pgnsm.txt b/religious documents/pgnsm.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..50fa95e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pgnsm.txt @@ -0,0 +1,354 @@ + + Paganism + + by + + Eric S. Raymond. + + + I. Introduction + +The neopagan phenomenon is a loose collection of religious +movements, experiments and jokes that offers a healthy alternative to +the dogmatism of the Judeo/Christian/Islamic mainstream (on the one +hand) and the mushy- mindedness of most 'New Age' groups (on the +other). + +This article, prepared at the request of a number of curious +net.posters, offers a brief description of neopagan thought and +practice. A list of good sources for further study are listed at +the end. + + II. What is a neopagan? + +I used the term 'religious' above, but as you'll see it's actually +more than somewhat misleading, and I (like many other neopagans) use it +only because no other word is available for the more general kind of +thing of which the neopagan movement and what we generally think of as +'religion' are special cases. + +Neopaganism is 'religious' in the etymological sense of 're +ligare', to rebind (to roots, to strengths, to the basics of things), +and it deals with mythology and the realm of the 'spiritual'. But, as we +in the Judeo/Christian West have come to understand 'religion' (an +organized body of belief that connects the 'supernatural' with an +authoritarian moral code via 'faith') neopaganism is effectively and +radically anti-religious. I emphasize this because it is important in +understanding what follows. + +Common characteristics of almost all the groups that describe +themselves as 'neopagan' (the term is often capitalized) include: + + 1. Anti-dogmatism + +Neopagan religions are religions of practice, pragmatism and +immediate experience. The emphasis is always on what they can help the +individuals in them to *do* and *experience*; theology and metaphysics +take a back seat, and very little 'faith' or 'belief' is required or +expected. In fact many neopagans (including yours truly) are actively +hostile to 'faith' and all the related ideas of religious authority, +'divine revelation' and the like. + + 2. Compatibility with a scientific world-view + +This tends to follow from the above. Because neopaganism is centered +in experiences rather than beliefs, it doesn't need or want to do vast +overarching cosmologies or push fixed Final Answers to the Big Questions +-- understanding and helping human beings relate to each other and the +world as we experience it is quite enough for us. Thus, we are generally +friendly to science and the scientific world-view. Many of us are +scientists and technologists ourselve (in fact, by some counts, a +plurality of us are computer programmers!). + + 3. Reverence for nature, sensuality, and pleasure + +Most neopaganisms make heavy use of nature symbolism and encourage +people to be more aware of their ties to all the non-human life on this +planet. Explicit worship of 'Gaia', the earth ecosphere considered as a +single interdependent unit, is common. Veneration of nature dieties is +central to many traditions. Ecological activism is often considered a +religious duty, though there is much controversy over what form it +should take. + +By preference, most neopagans hold their ceremonies outdoors under +sun or moon. Seasonal changes and astronomical rhythms (especially the +solstices, equinoxes and full and new moons) define the ritual +calendar. + +Ritual and festive nudity are common; to be naked before nature is +often considered a holy and integrating act in itself. Sex is considered +sacramental and sexual energy and symbolisms permeate neopagan practice +(we like to contrast this with Christianity, in which the central +sacrament commemorates a murder and climaxes in ritual cannibalism). + +4. Polytheism, pantheism, agnosticism + +Most neopaganisms are explicitly polytheistic -- that is, they +recognize pantheons of multiple dieties. But the reality behind this is +more complex than it might appear. + +First, many neopagans are philosophical agnostics or even atheists; +there is a tendency to regard 'the gods' as Jungian archetypes or +otherwise in some sense created by and dependent on human belief, and +thus naturally plural and observer-dependent. + +Secondly, as in many historical polytheisms, there is an implicit +though seldom-discussed idea that all the gods and goddesses we deal +with are 'masks', refractions of some underlying unity that we cannot or +should not attempt to approach directly. + +And thirdly, there is a strong undercurrent of pantheism, the belief +that the entire universe is in some important sense a responsive, +resonating and sacred whole (or, which is different and subtler, that it +is proper for human beings to view it that way). + +Many neopagans hold all three of these beliefs simultaneously. + +5. Decentralized, non-authoritarian organization; no priestly elite + +Neopagans have seen what happens when a priesthood elite gets +temporal power; we want none of that. We do not take collections, build +temples, or fund a full-time clergy. In fact the clergy-laity +distinction is pretty soft; in many traditions, all members are +considered 'in training' for it, and in all traditions every participant +in a ritual is an active one; there are and can be no pew-sitting +passive observers. + +Most neopagan traditions are (dis)organized as horizontal networks +of small affinity groups (usually called 'circles', 'groves', or +'covens' depending on the flavor of neopagan involved). Priests and +priestesses have no real authority outside their own circles (and +sometimes not much inside them!), though some do have national +reputations. + +Many of us keep a low profile partly due to a real fear of +persecution. Too many of our spiritual ancestors were burned, hung, +flayed and shot by religions that are still powerful for a lot of us to +feel safe in the open. Down in the Bible Belt the burnings and beatings +are still going on, and the media loves to hang that 'Satanist' label on +anything it doesn't understand for a good juicy story. + + +Also, we never prosyletize. This posting is about as active a +neopagan solicitation as anyone will ever see; we tend to believe that +'converts' are dangerous robots and that people looking to be +'converted' aren't the kind we want. We have found that it works quite +well enough to let people find us when they're ready for what we +have to teach. + + + 6. Reverence for the female principle + +One of the most striking differences between neopagan groups and the +religious mainstream is the wide prevalence (and in some traditions +dominance) of the worship of goddesses. Almost all neopagans revere some +form of the Great Mother, often as a nature goddess identified with the +ecosphere, and there are probably more female neopagan clergy than there +are male. + +Most neopagan traditions are equalist (these tend to pair the Great +Mother with a male fertility-god, usually some cognate of the Greek +Pan). A vocal and influential minority are actively feminist, and +(especially on the West Coast) there have been attempts to present +various neopagan traditions as the natural 'women's religion' for the +feminist movement. The effects of this kind of politicization of +neopaganism are a topic of intense debate within the movement and +fuel some of its deepest factional divisions. + + 7. Respect for art and creativity + +Neopaganism tends to attract artists and musicians as much as it +attracts technologists. Our myth and ritual can be very powerful at +stimulating and releasing creativity, and one of the greatest strengths +of the movement is the rich outgrowth of music, poetry, crafts and arts +that has come from that. It is quite common for people joining the +movement to discover real talents in those areas that they never +suspected. + +Poets and musicians have the kind of special place at neopagan +festivals that they did in pre-literate cultures; many of our best-known +people are or have been bards and songsmiths, and the ability to compose +and improvise good ritual poetry is considered the mark of a gifted +priest(ess) and very highly respected. + + + 8. Eclecticism + +"Steal from any source that doesn't run too fast" is a neopagan +motto. A typical neopagan group will mix Greek, Celtic and Egyptian +mythology with American Indian shamanism. Ritual technique includes +recognizable borrowings from medieval ceremonial magic, Freemasonry and +pre-Nicene Christianity, as well as a bunch of 20th-century inventions. +Humanistic psychology and some of the more replicable New Age healing +techniques have recently been influential. The resulting stew is lively +and effective, though sometimes a bit hard to hold together. + + 9. A sense of humor + +Neopagans generally believe that it is more dangerous to take your +religion too seriously than too lightly. Self-spoofery is frequent and +(in some traditions) semi-institutionalized, and at least one major +neopagan tradition (Discordianism, known to many on this net) is +*founded* on elaborate spoofery and started out as a joke. + +One of the most attractive features of the neopagan approach is that +we don't confuse solemnity with gloom. Our rituals are generally +celebratory and joyous, and a humorous remark at the right time +need not break the mood. + +We generally feel that any religion that can't stand to have fun +poked at it is in as sad shape as the corresponding kind of person. + + + III. What kinds of neopagan are there, and where did they come from? + +Depending on who you talk to and what definitions you use, there +are between 40,000 and 200,000 neopagans in the U.S.; the true figure is +probably closer to the latter than the former, and the movement is still +growing rapidly following a major 'population explosion' in the late +'70s. + +The numerically largest and most influential neopagan group is the +'Kingdom of Wicca' -- the modern witch covens. Modern witchcraft has +nothing to do with Hollywood's images of the cackling, cauldron-stirring +crone (though Wiccans sometimes joke about that one) and is actively +opposed to the psychopathic Satanism that many Christians erroneously +think of as 'witchcraft'. Your author is an initiate Wiccan priest +and coven leader of long standing. + +Other important subgroups include those seeking to revive Norse, +Egyptian, Amerind, and various kinds of tribal pantheons other than the +Greek and Celtic ones that have been incorporated into Wicca. These +generally started out as Wiccan offshoots or have been so heavily +influenced by Wiccan ritual technique that their people can usually +work comfortably in a Wiccan circle and vice- versa. + +There are also the various orders of ceremonial magicians, most +claiming to be the successors to the turn-of-the-century Golden Dawn or +one of the groups founded by Alesteir Crowley during his brillant and +notorious occult career. These have their own very elaborate ritual +tradition, and tend to be more intellectual, more rigid, and less +nature-oriented. They are sometimes reluctant to describe themselves as +neopagans. + +The Discordians (and, more recently, the Discordian-offshoot Church +of the Sub-Genius) are few in number but quite influential. They are the +neopagan movement's sacred clowns, puncturing pretense and adding an +essential note to the pagan festivals. Many Wiccans, especially among +priests and priestesses, are also Discordians and will look you straight +in the eye and tell you that the entire neopagan movement is a +Discordian hoax... + +Neopaganism used to be largely a white, upper-middle-class +phenomenon, but that has been changing during the last five years. So +called 'new-collar' workers have come in in droves during the eighties. +We still see fewer non-whites, proportionately, than there are in the +general population, but that is also changing (though more slowly). With +the exception of a few nut-fringe 'Aryan' groups detested by the whole +rest of the movement, neopagans are actively anti-racist; prejudice is +not the problem, it's more that the ideas have tended to be accepted by +the more educated segments of society first, and until recently those +more educated segments were mostly white. + +On the East Coast, a higher-than-general-population percentage of +neopagans have Roman Catholic or Jewish backgrounds, but figures suggest +this is not true nationwide. There is also a very significant overlap in +population with science-fiction fandom and the Society for Creative +Anachronism. + +Politically, neopagans are distributed about the same as the +general population, except that whether liberal or conservative they +tend to be more individualist and less conformist and moralistic than +average. It is therefore not too surprising that the one significant +difference in distribution is the presence of a good many more +libertarians than one would see in a same-sized chunk of the general +population (I particularly register this because I'm a libertarian +myself, but non-libertarians have noted the same phenomenon). These +complexities are obscured by the fact that the most politically active +and visible neopagans are usually ex-hippie left-liberals from the +'60s. + +I think the most acute generalization made about pagans as a whole +is Margot Adler's observation that they are mostly self-made people, +supreme individualists not necessarily in the assertive or egoist sense +but because they have felt the need to construct their own culture, +their own definitions, their own religious paths, out of whatever +came to hand rather than accepting the ones that the mainstream offers. + + IV. Where do I find out more? + +I have deliberately not said much about mythology, or specific +religious practice or aims, or the role of magic and to what extent we +practice and 'believe' in it. Any one of those is a topic for another +posting; but you can get a lot of information from books. Here's a +basic bibliography: + + + Adler, Margot _Drawing_Down_the_Moon_ (Random House 1979, hc) + + This book is a lucid and penetrating account of who the modern + neo-pagans are, what they do and why they do it, from a woman who spent +almost two years doing observer-participant journalism in the neo-pagan +community. Especially valuable because it combines an anthropologist's +objectivity with a candid personal account of her own feelings about all +she saw and did and how her ideas about the neo-pagans changed under the +impact of the experiences she went through. Recommended strongly as a +first book on the subject, and it's relatively easy to find. There is +now a revised and expanded second edition available. + + + Starhawk _The_Spiral_Dance_ + + An anthology of philosophy, poetry, training exercises, ritual outlines +and instructive anecdotes from a successful working coven. First-rate as +an introduction to the practical aspects of magick and running a +functioning circle. Often findable at feminist bookstores. + + + Shea, Robert and Wilson, Robert Anton _Illuminatus!_ (Dell, 1975, pb) + + This work of alleged fiction is an incredible berserko-surrealist +rollercoaster that _will_ bend your mind into a pretzel with an +acid-head blitzkrieg of plausible, instructive and enlightening lies and +a few preposterous and obscure truths. Amidst this eccentric tale of +world-girdling conspiracies, intelligent dolphins, the fall of Atlantis, +who _really_ killed JFK, sex, drugs, rock and roll and the Cosmic Giggle +Factor, you will find Serious Truths about Mind, Time, Space, the Nature +of God(dess) and What It All Means -- and also learn why you should on +no account take them Seriously. Pay particular attention to Appendix +Lamedh ("The Tactics of Magick"), but it won't make sense until you've +read the rest. + + This was first published in 3 volumes as _The_Eye_In_The_Pyramid_, _The_ +Golden_Apple_ and _Leviathan_, but there's now a one-volume trade +paperback carried by most chain bookstores under SF. + + + Campbell, Joseph W., _The_Masks_of_God_ (Viking Books, 1971, pb) + + One of the definitive analytical surveys of world mythography -- and +readable to boot! It's in 4 volumes: + + I. _Primitive_Mythology_ + II. _Oriental_Mythology_ + III. _Occidental_Mythology_ + IV. _Creative_Mythology_ + + The theoretical framework of these books is a form of pragmatic +neo-Jungianism which has enormously influenced the neopagans (we can +accurately be described as the practice for which Campbell and Jung were +theorizing). Note especially his predictions in vols. I & IV of a +revival of shamanic, vision-quest-based religious forms. The recent +Penguin pb edition of this book should be available in the Mythology and +Folklore selection of any large bookstore. + + + Bonewits, Isaac, _Real_Magic_ (Creative Arts Books, 1979, pb) + + A fascinating analytical study of the psychodynamics of ritual and +magick. This was Bonewits's Ph.D. thesis for the world's only known +doctorate in Magic and Thaumaturgy (UCLA Berkeley, 1971). Hardest of the +five to find but well worth the effort -- an enormously instructive, +trenchant and funny book. + + diff --git a/religious documents/planets.txt b/religious documents/planets.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..37c2aa5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/planets.txt @@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ + + Planetry Hours Chart + + After spending several hours decoding the planetry hours + charts I decided that I would release this information unto + anyone that is capable of reading this ASCII text file. I + hope that this file will be of use to you. If not to you + then perhaps you can send it on to someone else. + + *Blessed Be* + + Freyr + + + Let me first try and convey the various symbols for the + planets to you and be in hopes that I do not confuse you + more. + + Sun : Circle with dot in the middle, Archangel is + Michael + + Moon : A moon shaped object, Archangel is Gabriel + + Mars : A circle with an arrow point to the right out of + the top, Archangel Samael + + Mercury : A circle with a cresent sitting on the top of it, + with cross below it, supporting it, Archangel + Raphael + + Venus : Looks like a four, archangel Sachiel + + Saturn : A cross supporting a circle, Archangel Anael + + Jupiter : A t with a two connected to it, Archangel Cassiel + + + Okay you now posses a limited knowledge of the shapes, since + I do not have access to graphics to show them to you, a hope + that I have provided you with enough infomation. (Please + note: Jupiters symbols can also appear as an h) + + Hours of the day +------------------------------------------------------------------ +Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat +------------------------------------------------------------------ +1 |Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury |Venus |Saturn |Jupiter +2 |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury |Venus +3 |Mercury|Venus |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun |Moon |Mars +4 |Moon |Mars |Mercury|Venus |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun +5 |Jupiter|Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury |Venus |Saturn +6 |Venus |Saturn |Jupiter|Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury +7 |Mars |Mercury |Venus |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun |Moon +8 |Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury |Venus |Saturn |Jupiter +9 |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury |Venus +10 |Mercury|Venus |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun |Moon |Mars +11 |Moon |Mars |Mercury|Venus |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun +12 |Jupiter|Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury |Venus |Saturn +------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Hours of the Night +------------------------------------------------------------------ +Hour Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat +------------------------------------------------------------------ +1 |Venus |Saturn |Jupiter|Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury +2 |Mars |Mercury |Venus |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun |Moon +3 |Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury |Venus |Saturn |Jupiter +4 |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury |Venus +5 |Mercury|Venus |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun |Moon |Mars +6 |Moon |Mars |Mercury|Venus |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun +7 |Jupiter|Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury |Venus |Saturn +8 |Venus |Saturn |Jupiter|Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury +9 |Mars |Mercury |Venus |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun |Moon +10 |Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury |Venus |Saturn |Jupiter +11 |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun |Moon |Mars |Mercury |Venus +12 |Mercury|Venus |Saturn |Jupiter |Sun |Moon |Mars +------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Now let it be known that the following angels rule over the + days. + + Sunday : Michael + Monday : Gabriel + Tuesday : Samael + Wednessday : Raphael + Thursday : Sachiel + Friday : Anael + Saturday : Cassiel + + Now let it be known that the following planets have the + following effects. + + Mercury, adaptability, and knowledge, Mercury is the + chameleon. + + Venus, Love, romanace, beauty, harmony, wealth, fame, + pleasure. Venus is a serious planet, do not invoke venus + unless you intend to be serious (in other words, if you only + want someone to like you, invoke the moon not venus) + + Mars, Bellicosity, warfare, strength, passion. Mars is hard + to control once invoked, it will not stop until it + vanquishes everything in it's path, it is also very powerful + + Jupiter, benevolence, generosity, judgement, good fortune, + the relegious life. Jupiter represents expansion and + growth. + + Saturn, old age, limitations, discipline. The key word for + saturn is crystillisation, saturn has a tendance to slow + things down. + + The Moon is it's 5 phases: + + New moon, new begginings + + Waxing moon, Construction + + Full moon, Completion (Most powerful phase of the moon) + + Waning moon, Draw within + + Dark moon, low energy (lowest point of the moons cycle) + + ----------------- + + The Sun, vitality, skillfulness, creativity, knowledge + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/planpart.txt b/religious documents/planpart.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecd8252 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/planpart.txt @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ + +Parts of the seven planets. + + Part of the Moon, known as the Part of Fortune, Pars Fortuna, (PF) + Asc + Moon - Sun +It signifies life, body and soul, strength, fortune, substance and profit. + + Part of the Sun, known as Part of the Future or Spirit (SP) + Asc + Sun - Moon +It signifies the soul and body, and its quality, faith, prophecy, religion, the +"things" in a persons life, and what is yet to come in a person's life. + + Part of Saturn, known as the Heavy Part of Serious and Weighty Matters. + Asc + Saturn - PF * by day(Sun in houses 7-12) + Asc + PF - Saturn * by night(Sun in houses 1-6) +It signifies memory, faith and religion, moderation and constancy, things which +have been lost or stolen, what type of death the native may experience. It also +signifies heavy low buildings. + + Part of Jupiter, known as the Part of Happiness. + Asc + SP - Jupiter * by day + Asc + Jupiter - SP * by night +It signifies honor and attainment, victory and assistance, happiness, and +goodness. It also signifies churches, wisdom, trust, faith, all the good things +that we enjoy and mutual participation in the good. + + Part of Venus, known as the Part of Love and Concord. + Asc + PF - SP * by day + Asc + SP - PF * by night +It signifies pleasures, desires, wants in venereal things both licit and illicit +and all things that incline to sex and pleasure. + + Part of Mercury, known as Part of Poverty and ordinary intellect. + Asc + SP - PF * by day + Asc + PF - SP * by night +It signifies poverty and stupidity, war, fear and hatred, injuries, buying and +selling. + diff --git a/religious documents/pledge.txt b/religious documents/pledge.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d81248f Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/pledge.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/plw.txt b/religious documents/plw.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..11497b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/plw.txt @@ -0,0 +1,357 @@ + THE POOR LITTLE WITCH + by Jack T. Chick + adapted from comic form by J. Brad Hicks + +On a crowded volleyball court, one girl lay dejected on the ground. Her +classmates derided her: "@#*!! Mandy dropped the ball AGAIN!" "Of course!" +"Mandy! ... Can't you do ANYTHING right?" "Why do we have to put up with +HER?" Mandy could only sob, "I'm sorry!" + +That night, she went to her mom for sympathy, but her mother didn't even look +up from the bills. "Don't talk to me now, Mandy! Can't you see I'm busy? +Since your father left us I'm the only one to support this family ..." + +Alone in her room, Mandy was inconsolable. "I'd give anything to be like the +other girls ... If only I could BE someone!" A passing demon smiled, and +silently said, "You CAN be ... I'll see to that!" + +The next day in one of her classes, the pretty young teacher singled her out. +"Mandy, could you stay after school please?" ("Oh. Oh. What did I do wrong?" +worried Mandy.) But the teacher wanted to talk about something else. "Mandy, +I know you're lonely, but you're such a sweet and talented girl ... You should +have a lot of friends." Mandy was dumb-struck. "Me?" + +Later, she told her mother, "Mom, my teacher, Mrs. White, has invited me to a +slumber party at her house this weekend. She's really nice. Can I go?" Her +mother replied, "Sure, why not?" + +That weekend, as Mandy approached the house, Mrs. White warned the other +girls. "We have a new girl ... Mandy! Go easy with her. She doesn't know!" + +That night, one of the girls said to her, "Hey, Mandy, do you want to learn +some really neat new things?" "Sure," said Mandy. Another girl nudged her +and said, "Watch this." In minutes, the coffee table was hovering several +feet above the ground. + +Mandy was astonished! "WOW! Could I do that?" "It's easy," the girl +replied, "we'll show you how." + +Two weeks later, one of the older girls in the group came to Mandy with a +suggestion. "Hey, Mandy, how would you like to see the other girls drop the +ball in P.E.?" + +Mandy didn't have to think twice. "I WISH! They're always putting me down. +Is there a way?" + +The older girl nodded, and said, "Sure ... here's what you do. Before you go +to school, light a candle, sit and stare into the light and ask Bruth to help +you." + +"Who's Bruth?" Mandy wanted to know. + +"Oh ... he's just a friend," the other girl replied. "Just try it and you'll +see." + +The next morning before school, Mandy sat on her bed and stared hard at the +candle on the nightstand. "Oh, Bruth, you are my friend. Please help me in +P.E. today! Make Cathy drop the ball!" she said. Feeling something more was +required, she added, "I command you!" The half-visible demon hovering just +outside her field of vision nodded. "Gotcha, Baby!" he silently replied. + +And that day in P.E., it was a different girl who crouched on the volleyball +court after a painful stumble. A teammate berated her, "Cathy, you're +screwing up today. That's the THIRD TIME ... even Mandy's playing better than +you!" In the back, Mandy secretly smiled. "WOW!" she thought, "This is +great!" + +Across town in the big new church building, a crowd gathers around the large +and cheerful figure of the new pastor. "Pastor ... what a blessing to have +you lead our congregation," one woman gushes. A balding gentleman held out a +thick wad of bills, and said, "Here's a love gift, Reverend, go buy some new +suits." Another man asked, "Do you find the parsonage comfortable, Rev. +Chuckwyn?" Pastor Chuckwyn was enthusiastic. "Oh my yes, Mr. White ... It's +a palace. Why, I've never been treated so well ... Praise the Lord!" A demon +hidden at the back of the crowd had other thoughs. "We'll take good care of +you, Chuckwyn!" he silently vowed. + +After the Pastor left, saying to himself, "They love me!", there was a meeting +upstairs at the big new church. + +"What do you think of him?" "He's a JERK ... he doesn't believe the Bible ... +so he's ours ... bought and paid for." "We'll use the same technique on him +as we did with the others. Next month I'll ask him to join the lodge." "GOOD +... our church will grow fast because he won't offend anyone!" + +Meanwhile, Mrs. White had important news. "Mandy, you have grown so fast that +we feel you should attend this meeting. You will really increase your +powers." Flattered, Mandy replied, "That's great, Mrs. White!" + +In the car on their way to the "meeting," Mandy and Mrs. White happened to +pass by a small downtown church. The hymn "Power in the Blood" filled the +air, and filled Mrs. White with fear and rage. Mandy saw Mrs. White's +reaction, and was concerned. "What's the matter, Mrs. White, are you sick? +You're shaking!" + +Mrs. White glared at the simple, hand-painted sign that read "Gospel Hall" and +obliquely replied, "Don't ever go in that place, Mandy, it's very evil ... One +of our traitors goes there! Don't ever have anything to do with old Mrs. +Grayson or that place ... You'll be sorry if you do." + +It was dark and the full moon was rising when the two women arrived at an old +barn outside of town. "Gee, Mrs. White," said Mandy, "I've never seen any +place like this ... What's going on?" Mrs. White was silent, but thought to +herself, "You haven't seen nuthin' yet, kid!" + +Inside, everyone wore identical black robes. A sinister-looking man ascended +the altar and addressed the crowd. "Welcome, beloved brothers and sisters. +Tonight is a night of great celebration and sacrifice to our most Holy Father +in order that he might poor out his his blessings upon us." + +A woman knelt before him and blindly offered up her baby. Candles flickered +as the leader continued, "Sister Loraine has especially conceived this child +for tonight." He laid the baby on the altar, and his dagger rose high as the +crowd circled round and, over the baby's terrified cries, chanted, "HAIL +SATAN!" [1] + +Within her hooded robe, Mandy gasped, dumb-struck and paralyzed with fear. +"This can't be!" she thought to herself. But Mrs. White, robed like the rest, +turned to her with a large chalice. "Here, Mandy, you MUST drink of the +child's blood and our Father will bless you and give you increased powers." + +"No! ... No! I can't ... I'm sick," Mandy desperately cried. + +But Mrs. White was grimly determined. "Drink, Mandy! OR DIE!" + +Terrified, Mandy surrendered. "O.K., O.K. ... I'll do it." + +In the car driving away, Mrs. White was displeased, and Mandy was still +horror-stricken. Mrs. White grimly said, "Mandy, I see you were quite upset +tonight ... Don't even THINK of going to the police! Our High Priest IS the +Chief of Police! ... There's no way out!" + +Alone in her room, Mandy sobbed hysterically. "I had no idea what I was +getting into ... There MUST be a way out," she moaned. "I've never been so +scared in my life ... what am I going to do?" + +In her desperation, Mandy went to the big Christian church looking for help, +unaware that Mr. And Mrs. White are members. The pastor enthusiastically +proclaimed, "Welcome to God's house!" and Mandy thought, "Maybe he can help +me," but in the choir loft, Mrs. White had other thoughts. "Surprise, +surprise. There's little Mandy ... When I tell the High Priest ... she's +dead!" + +After church, it was an angry crowd of adults who approached Reverend +Chuckwyn. A tall woman started off with strong words. "Pastor, a witch +visited our church this morning. If she joins our church, she'll destroy our +children! You MUST speak out against witchcraft or we leave!" + +A grim look swept across the pastor's face, and he said, "This is most +distressing." + +The tall woman's balding husband handed the pastor another wad of money and +said, "Pastor, here's another little gift showing our appreciation ... Just +get rid of the witch, O.K.?" + +That evening, Reverend Chuckwyn's demeanor was less cheerful. Angrily, he +shouted, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live[2] ... We will NOT tolerate +witches here! They are reprobate! (Fore-ordained to damnation.)"[3] As the +choir shouted, "AMEN!", Mandy gasped. "He's speaking about me! What am I +going to do?" she thought to herself. + +On the night of the next full moon, she nerved herself up to visit a house on +the edge of town. "Mrs. White said that Mrs. Grayson was a traitor," Mandy +worried aloud. "I've got nothing to lose ... I've GOT to take the chance! Oh +God ... help me!" As the rising moon looked on, Mandy knocked on the door. + +The door opened, and a woman looked out and gently said, "Come in, my dear. +May I help you?" + +At her kindness, Mandy began to sob again. "I'm in such trouble," Mandy +began. "Mrs. White said there's no way out." + +Recognition spread across Mrs. Grayson's face. "Oh, yes there is ... I know +Mrs. White and she's a liar." After they went in and sat down, Mrs. White +asked, "You got into Satanism, didn't you, dear?" + +Still sobbing, Mandy choked out, "Yes, and they killed a baby and ... and ..." +She gasped for breath and continued on another tack. "How can I get out? +Even that pastor said there's no hope for me." + +Mrs. White asked, "The church on Maple Road?" + +"Yes," Mandy replied. + +Mrs. White helped her up and led her out to the car. "I was in the craft once +and I know these people mean business. They WILL kill you if they can. Come +with me now, sweetie. I was just on my way to church. These people are TRUE +servants of God ... We'll show you how you can be set free." + +And at the Gospel Hall, after the service, the pastor spoke privately with +Mandy and Mrs. Grayson. "Mandy," he said, "Jesus Christ died on the cross for +your sins.[4] His precious blood cancels any contract you've made with Satan +and it washes away your sins.[5] All you have to do is pray and ask Jesus +Christ to save you[6] and become your Lord and Master ... Then you can use His +power to get rid of the demons.[7]" + +The three of them knelt, and Mandy quietly prayed. "Lord Jesus, please +forgive me and wash me clean. I want you as my Lord and personal Savior .. I +want to serve YOU instead of Satan." + +The pastor gently interrupted, "Now Mandy, you must rebuke Satan and his +demons in the name of Jesus." + +Determined, Mandy prayed on. "Satan, I will no longer serve you. Jesus is +now my Savior, Lord and Master ... Bruth, you and all you demons in my body, +soul and spirit ... I command you now to leave me at once in the name of Jesus +Christ[8] my Lord!" And several ghostly demons came out of her body and fled +screaming into the moonlit night.[9] + +As they rose from their knees, Mrs. Grayson said to Mandy, "You must not go +home alone tonight, dear ... This is the full moon ... It's too dangerous." + +"Yes, Mandy," the pastor agreed, "Stay with us for awhile ... They'll try to +kill you." "Please, Mandy!" Mrs. Grayson pleaded. + +But Mandy smiled confidently and said, "Oh ... No thank you! I'll be +alright." + +But as Mandy walked home alone, a black van with a pentacle in the rear window +pulled up beside her, and two thugs jumped out and grabbed her. "It's party +time, kid," said one of them as they shoved her into the back. Mandy was +murdered by the satanists, but she stood firm and didn't deny Jesus. + +That same night, Pastor Chuckwyn died in his sleep. + +As Mandy knelt before the throne of God, the Figure on the throne proclaimed, +"Well done thou good and faithful servant ... you did not deny my name[10] ... +therefore I am not ashamed of you, Mandy. Enter thou into the joy of the +Lord." + +Then Pastor Chuckwyn stood before the throne, waving his hands and shouting, +"Here I am, Lord." But Jesus said to him, "Chuckwyn, you worker of iniquity +(evil). The blood of Mandy and many others is on your hands. You called on +my name but did not follow my commands. You worked for money and the praise +of men ... and you despised the word of God. NOW, DEPART FROM ME INTO +HELL."[11] + +______________________________________________________________________________ + + 1. Note: Police estimate between 40,000 to 60,000 ritual homicides per year + occur in the U.S. (Dr. A. Carlisle - Homocide Investigation Seminar, Las + Vegas, Nevada, 1986) + 2. Ex. 22:18 + 3. But: "The Lord is ... not willing that ANY should perish, but that all + should come to repentance." II Peter 3:9 + 4. I Cor. 15:3-4 + 5. Rev. 1:5 + 6. Rom. 10:13 + 7. Luke 10:19-20 + 8. Acts 16:16-18 + 9. For an in-depth expose of the occult, send for _He Came to Set the + Captives Free_ and _Prepare for War_, by Rebecca Brown, M.D., Published by + Chick Publications, Inc. +10. Matt. 10:32,33 +11. Matt. 7:21-23, John 14:15 + + THE BIBLE SAYS THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO HEAVEN. + +Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the +Father, but by me." (John 14:6) + +NOBODY ELSE CAN HELP YOU. + +"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ +Jesus." (I Timothy 2:5) + +"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is +the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) + +WHAT YOU MUST DO: PRAY TO GOD IN YOUR OWN WORDS: + +1. ADMIT that you are a sinner, and that only the Lord Jesus can save you. + (Romans 3:23) +2. REPENT: be willing to turn away from sin and submit to God. (See Luke 13:5) +3. BELIEVE that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed his blood to + pay the price for your sins, and that he rose again. (See Romans 10:9) +4. ASK God to save you. (See Romans 10:13) +5. ASK Jesus Christ to be the Lord (take control) of your life. (See Romans + 12:1-2) + +IF YOU REALLY MADE JESUS YOUR LORD (KING), THEN ACT LIKE IT! + +1. Read your Bible every day to get to know Christ better. +2. Talk to God in prayer every day. +3. Find a church where the Bible is taught as the complete Word of God and is + the final authority. +4. Obey Christ's command and be baptized. (See Matthew 28:19) +______________________________________________________________________________ + +brought to you by CHICK PUBLICATIONS + P. O. Box 662, Chino, Calif. 91710 U.S.A. + Telephone: (714) 987-0771 + Send $5.00 for Sample Assortment and Price List + +adapted from the comic version by J. Brad Hicks + 3900 Roland, Apt. B + St. Louis, MO 63121 USA + FidoNet... 1:100/523, Brad Hicks + CompuServe Brad Hicks [76012,300] + GEnie..... BRADHICKS + +Adapter's notes: Strong words from the only man who still defends John W. +"Lance Collins" Todd (from whose testimony most of this is derived). Here are +a few facts to ward off hysteria: + +* That levitating table at the beginning is a thigh-slapper. Considering what + witches have to spend every year in legal fees just to be allowed to hold + jobs in this so-called "land of the free," if magic on that scale were so + easy, do you really think that the hundreds of thousands of dollars that + have been put up as prizes to anyone who can reliable demonstrate ANY ONE + psychic ability would still be unclaimed? Follow this rule-of-thumb and + you'll seldom go wrong: the more extravagant someone claims their powers are + (or their enemies' power is), the more likely it is that that person is a + charlatan. + +* The entire Viet Nam war killed about 20,000 Americans. Yet Jack Chick and + Dr. Carlisle would have you believe that TWO to THREE TIMES that many people + are ritually murdered EVERY YEAR. + +* According to the National Safety Council, about 46,000 Americans die in + automobile accidents every year. How many people that you knew were killed + in automobile accidents? By Satanists? + +* In the same year that Dr. Carlisle made that incredible claim, the FBI + reported ... not 53,000 ... not 5300 ... but only 53 unsolved disappearances + of children. + +* The original Church of Satan, in southern California, has closed due to a + lack of members. Its largest surviving splinter, the Temple of Set, has not + millions ... not tens of thousands ... but a few dozen members. At its + largest, the Satanic Church of the Process (and various groups related to + it) numbered a few dozen churches, with less than a thousand members - and + they have since mostly faded out. Not counting drugged-out kooks and lone + psychopaths (who will latch onto any excuse for their mayhem), and ignorant + and rebellious kids, there are probably less than 200 real Satanic witches + in the entire U.S., and only one known Satanic church. That's less than one + Satanist per MILLION people; most people have probably never MET one. (And + NONE of them have been charged with any crime.) + +* On the other hand, NON-Satanic witches, such as the Fam-Trads, Dianics, and + Neo-Pagans, number into the tens of thousands or more. They don't kill + animals, let alone children; theirs is a religion that worships life and + whose Goddess told them, "Nor do I demand any sacrifice, for behold, I am + the Mother of all things, and my love is poured forth upon the Earth." + +* Here's a Scripture for Jack Chick and the other witch-hunters, from their + own Bible: "Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or + favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. Do not go about + spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything which endangers + your neighbor's life." (Lev. 19:15-16 NIV) And another: "Do not follow + the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not + pervert justice by siding with the crowd. ... Have nothing to do with a + false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I + will not acquit the guilty. ... Do not oppress an alien (someone not of your + people); you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were + aliens in Egypt." (Ex. 23:2-9 NIV) And if that's too hard, let's try one + of the Ten Commandments: "You shall not give false testimony against your + neighbor." (Ex. 20:16 NIV) diff --git a/religious documents/pmanners.txt b/religious documents/pmanners.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd4eaa9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pmanners.txt @@ -0,0 +1,295 @@ +********************************************************************** +*From:THE DRUIDS PROGRESS, Report #6. The DRUIDS PROGRESS is * +*published seminannually (Gods Willing) and is sent primarily to * +*the subscribing members of ADF. For Further information write: * +* ADF, PO Box 1022, Nyack, NY USA 10960-1022 (include a SASE). * +*All Items acredited to "the Archdruid" have been written by and * +*are (C) 1990 by P.E.I. Bonewits. All items created by other * +*parties are (C) 1990 by them. All opinions expressed, save those * +*specifically attributed to the Board of Trustees, are the opnions * +*of the individuals expressing them and are Not official ADF * +*policy. * +* Reprint Procedure: Neopagan, Druidic, Midievalist and all * +*cultural publications may reprint any material written by P.E.I. * +*Bonewits, but his copyright notice must appear in full. If more * +*than 250 words are excerpeted, one cent per word should be donated * +*to ADF. * +********************************************************************** + + PAGAN MANNERS + OR + Are There Any Dead Animals in The Soup? + + by Grey Cat, Members Advocate + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + + I can hear the outraged screams already. there are people out there who +believe that the very idea of "Pagan Manners" is a conflict in terms; that +"manners" are outdated, dishonest and hypocritical. Well, think again. +Manners constitute the only successful technique ever discovered by +humankind to enable groups and individuals, holding moderately disparate +views, customs or beliefs, to get along together. There are things more +improtant than manners; but, without manners, its unlikely that a +discussion will ever go to them. + + Pagan manners are fairly simple and have nothing to do with which fork +you use or how to word an invitation. They have to do with respect for +others' feelinsg and beliefs. They most specifically have to do with +recognition of the fact that you should "judge not th path of your brother +or sister for their path is sacred." Manners are also the only way of +attempting to grant everyone the personal space which each of us needs. +There have been a number of attempts to write down a list of "thou shalts" +and "thou shalt nots" which will cover Pagan life. Here are several tries +made by four different people: + +MY OWN OPINIONS + +1. Never assume that you are invited to a ritual or a nonpublic gathering +just because your friend is invited. Have your friend call the group doing +the event and ASK! (or call yourself). + +2. When participating in a ritual led by a group of which you are not a +member, ask ahead of time what will be done. SHould there be something in +the explanation, or in the set-up of the ritual area which bothers you, +just quietly don't participate in the ritual. + +3. Ask the person(s) officiating at a ritual before you place anything in +the ritual area; wear clothing or tools which might be considered unusual; +or add private energy workings to the ritual being done. + +4. Never just walk out of a cast ritual circle. Ask someone in the group +sponsering the ritual to cit you a door if your eally and truly absolutely +have to leave. + +5. Don't make comments on the ritual, its leaders or the amount or quality +of the energy raised during the ritual unless such opinions are asked for +by the leaders. Save it for your friends, privately, after the ritual is +over. + +6. Vegetarians, Vegans, Strict Carnivors, Diabestics, and any others with +very strong food preferences: no one minds your asking quietly and politely +"Which dishes have meat (sugar, spices, hot pepper, etc.) in them?" When +planning a meal for mized Pagan/Wiccan groups, it is strongly suggested +that at least some of the dishes be vegetarian, sugar-free, relatively +non-spicey etc. At all times, within and without the ritual context, always +provide an alternative to alcholic beverages. + +7. While many people have become far less secrative about their membership +in a Pagan group, it is never, EVER, permissible to "blow someones cover". +Do not ever call a friend or acquaintence by their Pagan name or mention +their membership in a mundane situation. It is also bad manners - and a +symptom of social climbing - to call an individual by his/her mundane name +in a Pagan situation. It always reminds me of an extra calling John Wayne +"The Duke" at a local bar. + +8. Whether you drink, take drugs or indulge in other similar behavior is +completely your own buisness. It is always wrong to urge such behavior +on any other individual. The majority of serious Pagan groups absolutely do +NOT allow anyone under the influence of drugs or alchol to participate in +ritual. Do not be offended of you are turned away for this reason. If you +are taking a psycho-active drug for a medical reason it is very wise to +check with the ritual elader(s) so they will understand and can advise you +if they feel the ritual might be harmful to you. + +9. Just because most Pagans/Wiccans are udner 40 and in reasonably good +physical condition, never assume that everyone is. Rituals and gatherings +should be planned so that those with physical problems are not barred +totally from participation. Particularly in ritual, be aware that many more +people than you might think are "mobility disabled." Group ritual should +take place in an accessable area and some thought should be given to +designating a safe place for those not taking part in dancing to stand or +sit. Please be alert to anyone to whom help would be welcome. Help them to +find a campsite which minimizes walking - to the ritual area, to the privys, +to the eating area - whatever. Help them pitch their camp. Don't make them +feel unwlecome - most handicapped people have worked extra hard on their +magickal skills and may be able to add a great deal to the power in ritual +and to the success of the gathering. + +10. When at any sort of gathering, please be thoughtful. Particularly please +observe true quiet after midnight. No one minds if you and others want to +stay up all night talking or whatever. Everyone else minds a great deal if +you stay up talking and laughing loudly and/or drumming. Thoise hosting +a gathering should take the responsibility of keeping the noise level very +low in at least some of the sleeping areas - and designating it as a +quiet area. + +11. Do not allow yourself to get the idea that you know the One True, Right +and Only Path! Even if you really do have the conviction that what someone +else is doing is "wrong", "incorrect", "Left-hand path" or whatever, just +don't talk about it. It is perfectly permissible to refrain from +participating in the activities of those with whom you cannot feel comfortable. +It is not acceptable to express the idea that they "shouldn't" be doing it. +This is not to say that if you know of criminal behavior on the part of a +so-called Pagan/Wiccan group you should not report it. We must also be +responsible for cleaning up our own act. + + Paganism is glorified by its diversity. Please do not allow yourself to +express judgement by categories. Whether or not you like or dislike blacks, +Indians, Homsexuals, women, men, or whatever, keep it to yourself! If you +really and truly cannot feel comfortable taking part in a ritual which +isn't conducted according to the tradition you follow or if you cannot be +pleasant in company mixed with groups you disapprove of, please just stay +home. + + +PAGAN/CRAFT ETIQUETTE by Soapbox Sam + +Listed below are not hard and fast rules, but some helpful guidelines for +those who would function smoothly in a craft/Pagan environment. + +1. Should you write to someone for information, always enclose an SASE +(Self-addressed, Stamped Envelope). Many of us receive several inquiries a +day. Sometimes just answering them, much less having to pay the postage and +buy envelopes, is a time-consuming, expensive task! + +2. Should your inquiry be about Pagan/Craft folks in your area, tell about +yourself, and how you came to have our names and wrote to is - after all +the Inquisition is alive and sick here in the heart of the Bible Belt. Do +not expect names and addresses unless they are already "public". Most of us, +even the "public" Pagan/Craft folks prefer to meet people slowly and carefully +over a cup of coffee in a public place, before we start introducing you to +our groups and our friends. Why should we risk when you have risked nothing? +((Sometimes I get mail that simply has a name and address on it and demand +that I send the latest copy of my newsletter or the names and addresses/phone +numbers of all Craft people in the writer's areas. One man sent me a letter +raising hell because he has (according to him) sent me $0.33 in the mail and +was waiting on the copy of my newsletter "I owed him"! Sadly, this type of +letter is more common than not... his letter and 33 cents, is ever sent, was +never recveived. Do I really have to explain to grown mature adults about +sending money through the mails???)) + +3. If you are invited to a gathering or festival, whether by written or oral +invitation, before you invite others, get permission. Because of space, +or other considerations, the number of people that can be accommodated might +be limited, or certain individuals or groups may not be welcome because of +personality conflicts and resulting disharmony. Also, if a weekend gathering +is scheduled and you can only arrive for the ritual and then must leave, +aske if that is OK... sometimes the ritual is the climax of the entire +gathering, rather than an event in itself; in that case to show up only for +the ritual not having been part of the entire event is to 'take-away' from +the meaning of thw hole for those who were there! + +4. Always inquire what you should bring to any gathering. If you have +received an official invitation, you should have been told. But, assume +nothing! Ask if you need to bring food, robes, candles, drinks, eating +utensils (forks, cups, plates, etc). It is unreasonable and rude to assume +that an invitation to a gathering means that people just like yourselves, +will expect you to come and eat their food, use their utensils and leave a +mess for them to clean up after you have gone. If you cannot take food, then +at least offer the gathering sponsers a cash donation to help defray their +cost. If you can't stay to help clean up afterwards, at elast be considerate +enough to get your own refuse to a garbage container. + +5. To be invitred to participate in anotehr's ritual is NOT your right, but +rather a privilage and an honor. If you are unfamiliar with their tradition, +common courtesy demands that you at least inquire about enough information +to participate in a spositive fashion, and most certainly, make no +assumptions about adding anything to the circle or placing your "special' +crystals, totems, whatever in the circle or at a specific place within the +circle without getting permission. Also, do not remove anything from a +circle even should you feel it doesn't belong, without explaining why and +getting permission. + +6. It should not have to be said, but then neither should any of the above: +If these Pagan/Craft rituals have no meaning in your life, and if you have +just come for the fellowship, then enjoy the fellowship and please do not +attend the ritual. The circle is a significant part of our entire way of life, +not a reenactment of some past event just for the sake of the pageantry. When +we can, we are pleased to share it with you, and we do so in Love and Light +with Peace and Laughter. + + +IDEAS FROM MERLIN THE ENCHANTER + +1. Be Yourself... if you worry about what others think, then you won't think +for yourself... and if you don't think for yourself, you may as well be dead! + +2. Allow all others to be themselves... just because Joe Blow from kokomo has +blue candles on his altar and you use only white ones, that doesn't mean +he is the son of Satan. We must each one be allowed our own Pagan path in +freedom, for if we cannot do that, then we have no freedom! + +3. Let's stop all the silliness of who is and is not a Witch, and what one +must do to be a witch. + +4. Don't ask for someone's opinions unless you really want it! More Witch +wars are started because someone asked for another's views and didn't like +the answer they got! + +5. Add a dose of good humor (the worst Witches are the ones that take +everything so S-E-R-I-O-U-S-L-Y!) + + +IDEAS FROM BEKET ASER EDITHSDATTER + +It is necessaru that we learn to bve just plain adult about working together - +or even, just existing on the same planet. + +1. If you can't tolerate any slightest deviation from your own tradition, +do not take part in public or cross-cultural rituals or gatherings. + +2. If you have ideas of what should be in the ritual; or what should not - +go to the planning meeting and express your opinions. + +3. If you delegate a task to someone else - you have made it their job. The +only thing you have to say is "Thank you". When and how they do it is their +buisness so long as it is done at the moment it is required. + +4. Appoint somebody to keep notes of the planning meetings - as things are +said, not afterwards, or, inevitably, there will be disagreements about the +ground rules. + +5. Gossip : There are a few situations wherein it is legitimate to pass on +"gossip". the following suggestions are not all inclusive but may serve +to give guidelines for judging: + +a. When a major life change definately is occuring to someone with whom you +and the person to whom you pass on the information - frequently work. + +b. When you are acting as resource to help someone decrease a situation of +disagreement. + +c. When you really plan to take positive avtion to alleviate the situation +the gossip refers to. + +d. (This situation really does not occur all that often.) When warning +someone about an individual whose practices are definately undesirable for +a reason other than that you don't like them. + +e. When you have truly accurate information to counteract damaging and +inaccurate rumor. + +6. When examining a situation to decide whether or not you, yourself, are +under psychic attack, be sure to ask yourself if it couldn't be because +being under attack makes you feel important. + +7. Within the group or group structure, the High Priest and or High Priestess +are generally entitled to your respect and a certain amount of deference. If +they really, really don't know as much as you do, perhaps it is time that +you take a fond and friendly leave of them/him/her and begin a group of +your own. + + Obviously, group or group affairs are appropriate subjects for discussion +amoung all the memebrs, and the HP/S definately should be willing to listen +to reasonable suggestions. However, you joined the group in order to learn +from its eladers; a year or two of study probably doesn't qualify you to +suddenly object to all their teachings, methods, and beliefs. Above all, +it is inappropriate to try to stir up the whole group and "take over" the +group. The leaders have put a good deal of time, patience, thought and +teaching into building the group and giving it a good name - if you want to +be Witch Queen of the Universe, start your own group from scratch and try +to become good enough to earn status yourself. The goal is not big groups, +it is the best possible groups. + +For group leaders: They need to be grown-up enough to know that every +disagreement isn't necessarily a personal attack. They need to develop +leadership skills to avoid confrontation and inflexibility. They need to +know how to lead without dominating and they need an intense interest in the +health of the group. The HP/S needs to listen to the ideas of the members +and to use their ideas whenever posssible. They should be able to explain +rationally why certain ideas cannot be used. + + #30# +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + diff --git a/religious documents/pmo-93.txt b/religious documents/pmo-93.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de5a9a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pmo-93.txt @@ -0,0 +1,169 @@ + +Pagan Miracles Occur +at the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions! + +A Report from the Archdruid + +Thanks to the outstanding generosity of one of our members (who +insists on remaining anonymous), I was able to represent Neopagan +Druidism at the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religion, held in +Chicago from August 28th through September 4th. This event celebrated +the 100th anniversary of the first such Parliament. In 1883, many +Eastern religions made their first major appearance to the American +public. This year's gathering may prove to have been as important for +the Earth Religions as 1883 was for Vedanta, Buddhism, Jainism, Zen +and Bahai. + +Some 7,000 people attended over the course of eight days: mystics and +others from the liberal wings of Judaism, Catholicism, Eastern +Orthodoxy, and Islam, official Representatives of those same faiths +(mostly arch-conservatives), leaders from various liberal mainstream +religions (mostly Unitarian Universalists and mainline Protestants), +representatives of various Eastern religions (such as Hindus, Jains, +Sikhs, Shintoists, etc.), delegates from more obscure minority belief +systems (such as Theosophists, Rosicrucians, Urantians, etc.), Native +American religious leaders (some 60 or so!), and us -- the Neopagans. +Oh, yes, there were also a few hundred reporters from both secular and +religious media, most of whom were far more interested in the +"unusual" religions than in the mainstream ones. + +While at the Parliament, I witnessed events of a (more-or-less) +miraculous nature: Representatives of most of the world's different +religions showed up and were civil to each other. Well, most of the +time. The Eastern Orthodox Catholics dropped out of the Parliament +early, ostensibly because of the presence of "unreal" religions such +as ourselves, but actually following an old pattern of walking out of +ecumenical events. A few delegates from India got into a fight during +a speech about political/religious persecutions there. Some of the +Jewish groups left because an Islamic preacher known for anti-Semitic +comments appeared (the only Big Name who brought armed bodyguards). +Everybody else seemed to get along remarkably well, and it was quite +an experience to see all these people in their ceremonial clothing +talking peacefully with one another. + +Even more astonishing, leaders of several different Neopagan +organizations actively cooperated to put our best collective face +forward! Representatives of the Covenant of the Goddess (COG), the +Fellowship of Isis (FOI), the EarthSpirit Community (ESC), Circle +Sanctuary, the Church of All Worlds (CAW), Panthea/CUUPs, and our own +ADF (three other members showed up -- as parts of other groups) worked +together to educate other religious leaders and the assembled press. +Special honors should go to Don Frew and Phyllis Curot of COG, Lady +Olivia Robert of FOI, Andras & Deirdre Corban Arthan of ESC, and the +many others who worked with them. By the time we counted all the +Neopagans at the Parliament, there were more than 150 of us, from +dozens of different traditions! + +We directed people to each other's events, we handed out each other's +literature, we referred reporters to each other's experts. We all +showed enormous solidarity and pluralistic toleration. Selena Fox and +I even kissed and made up -- in front of witnesses! + +COG, FOI, and the Lyceum of Venus of Healing (LVH -- a school and +healing center within FOI) had hospitality suites throughout the +event, hosting press conferences, parties and "off-program" workshops +by Neopagan teachers (FOI, for example, graciously loaned me the use +of their suite to present "Druidism 101"). ESC and COG had very +professional looking press kits and publicity packets to explain +Neopaganism simply and clearly. A generic Wiccan ritual was performed +in a nearby park (after sicing the ACLU on the Chicago Parks Dept.), +which was attended by 200 delegates and filmed by documentary makers +and TV stations. ESC's Pagan chorale, Mothertongue, gave a magnificent +concert, complete with dancers and stage magic by Jeff McBride. The +FOI performed a complex ritual drama based on Egyptian mythology. No +honest person who attended any of these events could ever again +believe the lies that Christian fundamentalists tell about us. + +The week included literally hundreds of different presentations from +scores of different faiths. Usually there were eight to twelve events +happening simultaneously. Amid the pleasant chaos, Pagan after Pagan +presented workshops and lectures about Goddess Worship, Neopaganism, +Wicca, Earth Religions old and new, the Gaia Hypothesis, and more. +Perhaps just as important were the many presentations made by members +of the mainstream religions about goddesses, Sophia, Shekinah, and +other manifestations of the Divine Feminine Spirit(s). Most of these +Goddess-oriented presentations drew large crowds. It got to the point +where speaker after speaker began to say, "or Her" every time the +Supreme Being was referred to as "Him." A few even added, "or It or +They!" + +The omnipresence of Divine Females at the Parliament inspired me to +make a three-foot wide paper banner saying, "The Goddess: You will +never be able to ignore Her again." By accidentally joining the end of +a procession of peace- and ecology-oriented banners ("The Ribbon +Project"), I was able to carry this Goddess banner throughout the huge +crowd gathering for a closing speech by the Dalai Lama. It was +heartwarming to see nearly a third of the delegates applauding loudly +whenever they saw the banner. It was even better to see the large +number of women from Catholic, Islamic, Sikh, and other patriarchal +faiths who stood up to cheer, even though their male leaders were +frowning fiercely. + +So the Parliament was a grand experience for Neopaganism in general. +We networked with other polytheistic groups present, including Native +Americans, Hindus, and Shintoists. We were able to explain ourselves +to a large number of sympathetic and interested reporters, as well as +liberals from the religious mainstream and other minority belief +systems. We even managed to get three Neopagan representatives (Lady +Olivia of FOI, Lady Cara-Marguerite of LVH, and Deborah Ann Light of +COG, FOI, ESC, ADF, and several other groups) into the elite(ist) +subset of 200 "spiritual leaders" who met during the last three days +of the Parliament to approve an official statement on global ethics. + +As for ADF's benefits from my attendence, they were not as high as +they might have been, had we had financing to attend further in +advance. FOI, COG, Circle and ESC were able to join as "Co-Sponsors" +of the Parliament early, giving them slots in the programming and time +to get press kits and such together. Of course, co-sponsorship, press +kits, and renting hospitality suites probably cost each of these +sibling organizations a few thousand dollars each (not to mention +airfare, food, and lodging expenses). Their investments paid off in +increased access to both delegates and the media. + +I brought along a few hundred ADF brochures, which I passed out along +with cards listing our new 800 number (1-800-DRUIDRY). These have +resulted in at least one "follow-up" interview about Neopagan +Druidism, which should appear soon in the Atlanta Journal & +Constitution. If we had had a professional looking press kit, and an +information booth or hospitality suite in which to hand it out, we +might have been able to generate more press interest. If we had been +able to send several of our Senior Druids, we would have been able to +share our liturgical and artistic excellence with the world. + +As things were, operating on our usual shoestring budget, I was able +to do some useful networking with leaders from other religions -- +including a Chinese Taoist master who is 1/4 Irish and very interested +in ADF! I was also able to meet many delightful Chicago-area Pagans, +do a couple of lectures at local metaphysical shops (Light of the Moon +and The Occult Shop), and it looks as if we will be having several new +members and a new Grove there soon! + +On a personal level, I met and/or was inspired by wonderful people +from many other Pagan and non-Pagan faiths. I found the common thread +was one of simple human decency being valued more than doctrine. +Perhaps the world's problems aren't all caused by monotheism per se, +as I have tended to believe, but by what Sam Webster calls "mono- +thesis-ism", dualism, fundamentalism and fanaticism. We have more +allies in the world's other religions than we may have believed. + +I am also beginning to get a clearer idea of Neopaganism's role in the +history of America and the world. I'll discuss this at length in the +Samhain issue of DP (#11). In the meantime, my deepest thanks go to +the anonymous ADF member who made this adventure possible. May the +Earth Mother cast many blessings upon your generous head! + +********************************************* + +A PS for those of you who were concerned about expenses: + +Our anonymous donor provided $350 for registration and $250 for airfare. +I spent another $150 of my own money for meals and local transportation. +I wrote two Archdruidical checks, for $50 and $20, to the people from +FOI and LVH to help with their room expenses (since I used their rooms +quite a bit). I distributed a few hundred ADF booklets (perhaps $20 +worth of printing?). I made several long distance calls to my home, +using the phone card connected to the ADF line (which I have taken to +using for all official ADF business, instead of our personal line, which +should simplify bookkeeping for Beket). All in all, I'd guess that +participation in this event cost ADF about $100, our donar $600, and me +$150 cash plus another $300+ in lost wages. diff --git a/religious documents/pod_hist.txt b/religious documents/pod_hist.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e9a4ce --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pod_hist.txt @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +Message #2777 on "MAGICKNET" (public) +Date : 31-Oct-91 16:23 +From : Farrell McGovern +To : Grendel +Subj : Re: Man +1417 <= + G> > alterNets here (at least, I think they're + G> > alterNets) that I've never heard of before; BaphoNet + G> > (cute), ThelemaNet, and MagickNet. Are these actual + G> > non-FIDO nets? + G> + G> ThelemaNet is a BBS, not a network, and it is down. BaphoNet is another + G> BBS. Magicknet is an echo and we are on it right now. This echo and the + G> two that go with it at all times (Mundane and Metaphysical) are are of + G> the Pagan/Occult Distribution Network PODNET) and are also carried on a + G> couple of other networks such as GateNet. + + Well, not exactly...Magicknet is/was a privately distributed echo that +was started mainly to let people know about some ickyness that was going on in +regards to some Anti-Pagan/Witch legislation...and grew...For the longest time +there was just Magicknet (the echo), which then absorbed Alternate_Religions, +a small, local Pagan echo which I ran. As things grew, it was split by the +moderator, Brad Hicks, into three separate echos: Magicknet, discussing things +relating to Pagan religions and Magick and Ceremonial Magick; Mundane, a pagan +"Chat" echo; and Metaphysical, a place for "magazine quality" articles. + + Then Brad stepped down as moderator due to time constraints and +such...and things continued to grow...so it was decided to "formalize" the +network, and call it something. The Pagan Distribution Network was the fav, +but due to the fact that it was already used in the Fidonet Nodelist for +somethingelse...we fell back upon the Pagan/Occult Distribution System, or +PODS. + +ttyl + Farrell + +--- Maximus-CBCS v1.02 + * Origin: Solsbury Hill BBS [Ottawa: Canada's Captial!] (93:9630/7) + diff --git a/religious documents/pope.txt b/religious documents/pope.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aae6c03 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pope.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ + _______________________________________________________ + | | + | the bearer of this card | + | is a genuine and authorized | + | | + | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ POPE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | + | ^^^^ | + | So please Treat Him/Her Right | + | GOOD FOREVER | + |Genuine and authorized by the House of Apostles of Eris| + | | + |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| + | This authorizes you to found your own erisian sect and| + | you are herewith infallible in all matters spiritual, | + | at least as far as you yourself go, and that's pretty | + | far. | + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/porno.txt b/religious documents/porno.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db5cfee --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/porno.txt @@ -0,0 +1,149 @@ + + PAGAN PORNO? + by Pagan X + +[Editor's note: This piece probably ought to be considered at +least partly as a publications review, but it seems to go some- +what farther abroad than the limits of that title, and makes an +interesting proposal, so we present it here, on its own two feet. +-Pete] + +[Author's note: If you wish to pass over this Feminist diatribe, +at least read the last paragraph, as it contains information of +interest to the libidinous. Thank you. - Pagan X] + + Once, long ago and in a bed far away, a former lover said +"If you were blonde with big breasts, you probably wouldn't be +into this Goddess-stuff." + + A real feeling of pain, of sorrow, shot through me, from the +top of my head to somewhere near my heart. In my own bed, in my +own house, with someone who presumably loved me -- I was not +safe, not good enough, not free from comparisons. Beyond my +front door, I knew and accepted the constant battle with per- +fection: on posters, billboards, radio ads, TV shows, magazines, +comic books - the Barbie-body, the money, the make-up, the +clothes. In my own bed I still was not beautiful enough, because +I was not beautiful in the right way, and this he saw as the +entirety of my religious impulse. + + Just as it bothered me in my own bed, I find an emphasis on +a certain form of beauty in Pagan art disturbing. I look up to +Pagan newsletters as my communication with co-religionists, for +the reassurance of their company in my commitment to the Goddess. +In a way, they are family, and while I don't always expect to +read what I believe on an issue, I also take them curiously to +heart. And so, I found myself responding strongly to the art in +"The Vigil; A Graphic Journal Of Wiccaen (sic) And Earth Reli +gions". + + Graphic is right! The cover illustration features a prone +female nude upon the pentacle, all ready to be sacrificed, raped +or inundated with chocolate sauce for that matter; a very passive +and ominous figure. It was a representation of The Great Rite, +an aspect of Wiccan iconography beloved by sensational newspaper +columnists. The favored graphic of this 22 page production is +the naked body of the 16 to 23 year-old caucasian female accoun- +ted for in 22 nipples and 11 breasts behind something, that's 33 +breasts in all, distributed among 31 female faces. The male +forms, also caucasian, ( none of which were full frontal nudes as +were many of the women), found a mere five representations. As I +have noted, all of them were missing something - phalli. + + I prepared to review it negatively on the grounds of the +abysmal punctuation, spelling and folklore, which it all has. I +still feel that anyone who publishes a newsletter and presumes to +write should deign to use a dictionary, but I had to be honest +with myself. I hated this newsletter for the pictures. Gerald +Gardner couldn't spell, and was not the most critical folklorist +of his time, so who am I to talk? I also have to concede that +other people have different visions of Goddess, and have a right +to these visions, even if I think they are the fantasies of an +immature subconscious. If these people have a revelation that +says that Hecate is the same as Persephone, is about 18 years old +and doesn't wear any clothes, as long as they don't insist that +it's The One True Way of Goddess Worship, I shouldn't get snotty +about the overuse of double quotes in their newsletter. My +religion is not defined by one man's sexual fantasies (and that +includes Gerald Gardner), but it should be able to include them, +perhaps in a small, dark box somewhere in the bottom of Lake +Washington. + + Beauty is a factor in my worship of the Goddess. I don't +want to measure up to an ideal of beauty that is false, and +obscene because it is false. Bo Derek, the Perfect 10, had ribs +removed to get a long waist, I'm told. I worship the Goddess +because She is all women, and the beauty of all women, many kinds +of beauty in many kinds of strengths and talents, and bodies +shaped to different sports, arts, and duties: scarred from +childbirth, rough-handed from washing dishes and diapers, myopic +from reading in bad light. The best dancer I ever saw was an +immense black woman, all pillowed fat; and under that fat of +living well, highly controlled muscles. She didn't move in a +tired, listless or cautious way, she didn't stomp or trip; she +was completely balanced within herself and radiating the joy of a +beautiful woman sharing her skill. I wanted to see many Goddes- +ses and equally varied priestesses, breasts drooping from nur- +sing, breasts unformed in childhood, with wide hips and narrow +hips and huge hands, with veins and moles, with muscles, stan- +ding, sitting, dancing, drawing, writing...and on top! + + I want to see the God represented in a sexually exciting +manner! One of the five males in The Vigil is the editor's self- +portrait, the only portraiture, I might add (in other words, the +only other 'real' person). In other sacred literature, Jawweh +and His angels wear bathrobes all the time, or caftans, and even +poor Jesus has on at least a bath towel. Male figures in Pagan +art are often choir-robed Druids; I want to see the God in no- +thing but His fur, and not coyly behind some bush, either! I +want to see him with an erection - it doesn't have to be large, +just sincere. Sure, naked women are just art nouveau, but to +many a naked man is obscenity... dare to print them! Try to mail +it! It doesn't necessarily mean that an editor is a homosexual. +Why should they have all the fun? (And they do. There are some +wonderful Gods in the men's newsletters). + + I, Pagan X, am a Dread Feminist, and as a Dread Feninist +could be expected to advocate censorship. Actually, I like +nudes, and I like sex, and I even watch Dark Shadows in the A.M. +daily on channel 11. Instead of censoring all the T&A publica- +tions, I would like to see a collection of Pagan erotica. After +all, the Goddess says, "All acts of love and pleasure are my +rituals," and I think I am safe in assuming that a healthy in- +terest in sex is one of the stronger lures of the Neo-pagan move- +ments. Send me your fantasies, poems, pen and ink drawings... of +meeting the Goddess at the campus coffee shop, and she, gently, +joyfully divesting you of your tortured virginity (you do not +have to be male to write this one), of encounters with tall, +dark, urbane men, gaunt and corpse cold yet with a world of +sorrow in their eyes, of dragon-transformations of high- school +nerds, of elderly women, of many women, many men, or all the +scenes that Dion Fortune glosses over in her novels. And, yes, +if you absolutely must, drawings of firm-breasted nymphs leaning +against a pentagram, because these will be selected by a commit- +tee so that politics will not intrude upon the really exciting. + + We plan to put out a chapbook, or possibly even print some +of the more reserved works in these hitherto moral pages. All +the proceeds would go toward the Hecate Shrine land fund so that +we can have more space to run around religiously naked in the +great outdoors to Hecate's honor and glory. We hope that it will +be a product that you will be proud to hide under your mattress. +Send submissions to Pagan X, PO Box 85507, Seattle, WA., 98145. +This is for real! I'll be waiting for YOUR submissions, (written +only, please). - Pagan X + + ~~~~~~~~~~ +Lest we forget, The Vigil is available from The Oaken Door, PO +Box 31250, Omaha, Nebraska 68132. Sample is $2, subscription +price is $1.50 per issue, as it is only published occasionally, +and comes in an envelope. + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +----------------------------------------------------------------- +SYSOP'S NOTE: I would be remiss in my duties if I failed to tell +you that this is from PANEGYRIA volume 2, number 8, and was +downloaded from Earthrite BBS (415-651-9496). PANEGYRIA costs $8 +per year, and their address is Box 85507, Seattle, WA 98145. + Enjoy! - Talespinner, Sysop WeirdBase +----------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/power.txt b/religious documents/power.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dda5398 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/power.txt @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +ab:power.txt 16jan90 + + + Power + + + Power is latent in the body and may be drawn out and used in various + ways by the skilled. But unless confined in a circle it will be swiftly + dissapated. Hence the importance of a poroperly constructed circle. + Power seems to exude from the body via the skin and possibly from the + orifices of the body; hence you should be properly prepared. The + slightest dirt spoils everything, which shows the importance of + thorough cleanliness. + + The attitude of mind has great effect, so only work with a spirit of + reverence. A little wine taken and repeated during the ceremony, if + necessary, helps to produce the power. Other strong drinks or drugs may + be used, but it is necessary to be very moderate, as if you are + confused, even slightly, you cannot control the power you evoke. + + The simplest way is by dancing and singing monotonous chants, slowly at + first and gradually quickening the tempo until giddiness ensues. Then + the calls may be used, or even wild and meaningful shrieking produces + power. But this method inflames the mind and renders it difficult to + control the power, though control may be gained through practice. The + scourge is a far better way, for it stimulates and excites both body + and soul, yet one easily retains control. + + The Great Rite is far the best. It releases enormous power, but the + conditions and circumstances make it difficult for the mind to maintain + control at first. It is again a matter of practice and the natural + strength of the operator's will and in a lesser degree those of his + assistants. If, as of old, there were many trained assistants present + and all wills properly attuned, wonders occur. + + Sorcerors chiefly used the blood sacrifice; and while we hold this to + be evil we cannot deny that this method is very efficient. Power + flashes forth from newly shed blood, instead of slowly exuding as by + our method. The victim's terror and anguish add keenness and quite a + small animal can yield enormous power. The great difficulty is in the + human mind controlling the power of the lower animal mind. But + sorcerors claim they have methods for effecting this and that the + difficulty disappears the higher the animal used and when the victim is + human disappears entirely. (The practice is an abomination, but it is + so.) + + Priests know this well; and by their auto-da-fe's, with the victim's + pain and terror (the fires acting much the same as circles), obtained + enormous power. + + Of old the Flagellants certainly evoked power, but through not being + confined by a circle most was lost. The amount of power raised was so + great and continuous that anyone with knowledge could direct and use + it; and it is most probable that the classical and heathen sacrifices + were used in the same way. There are whispers that when the human + victim was a willing sacrifice, with his mind directed on the Great + Work and with highly skilled assistants, wonders ensued - but of this I + would not speak. +---------- + -Published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way"; they got + it from GBG's BOS (Text B or C; it's the same in each). + diff --git a/religious documents/practinf.txt b/religious documents/practinf.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..26f84f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/practinf.txt @@ -0,0 +1,489 @@ + + A STUDY IN SHAMANISM + +Shaman (pronounced SHAH-maan) is a word from the language of the +Tungus people of Siberia. A Shaman is a man or woman who enters an +altered state of consciousness at will. The Shaman does this to +contact and utilize an ordinarily hidden reality to acquire knowledge, +power and to help others. The Shaman usually has at least one or more +spirits in his or her personal service. + +The trance or "ecstatic" state of consciousness the Shaman enters can +be termed as the Shamanistic State of Consciousness (SSC). The Shaman +does not enter this state for play, but only for serious purposes. The +Shaman must also know the basic methods of accomplishing the work in +the SSC before entering such a state. For example, if the Shaman +wishes to recover a patient's guardian animal, he must know the +techniques for reaching the Lowerworld, entering it, finding the +spirit animal and bringing it back safely. Subsequently, he must know +what instructions to give the patient in the Ordinary State of +Consciousness (OSC). + +The Shaman is an accomplished see-er who works in the dark, or at +least with the eyes covered, in order to see clearly. For this reason, +the Shaman usually engages in such practises at night. Some kind of +Shamanistic seeing can be done with the eyes open, but that kind of +perception is usually less profound. In darkness, the distractions of +ordinary reality are less, making it possible for the Shaman to +concentrate on aspects of non-ordinary reality essential for the +Shaman's work. The SSC must also be entered with the assistance of +drumming, singing, dancing and the use of rattles. + +Shamanistic Enlightenment is the literal ability to lighten the +darkness and see what others cannot perceive. + + +THE FIRST JOURNEY + +This is a simple exploration down through the tunnel into the +Lowerworld. The only mission is to travel the tunnel and perhaps see +what lies beyond. Make sure you thoroughly understand the instructions +before beginning the journey. + +To carry out the exercise, you will need a second person to act as a +drummer, or a cassette recording of Shamanistic drumming. + +Wait until you are calm and relaxed before undertaking any Shamanistic +journey. Avoid alcohol or any psychedelic substances for at least four +hours before the exercise. Eat only lightly, or not at all during the +preceding four hours. + +Choose a dark and quite room. Loosen or remove your clothing and lie +comfortably on the floor without a pillow. Take a few deep breaths and +relax your arms and legs. Lie there and contemplate your forth coming +mission. Then close your eyes, placing a hand or forearm over them to +keep out any light. + +Now visualize an opening into the earth that you remember from +sometime in your life. It can be one you remember from childhood, or +one you saw yesterday. Any kind of entry into the ground will do. It +may be a hole made by a burrowed animal, a hollow tree stump, a spring +or even a swamp. It can even be man-made. The right opening is one +that feels comfortable to you, and one which you can visualize. Spend +a couple of minutes seeing the hole, without going into it. Note it's +details clearly. + +Now either start the cassette recording, or instruct your companion to +begin drumming. The drumming should be a strong, monotonous, +unvarying, rapid beat. There should be no contrast in the intensity of +the drum beats, or the intervals between them. A drumming tempo of +about 205 to 220 beats per minute is usually effective for this kind +of journey. Allow yourself ten minutes for the journey. At the end of +that time, the drummer should indicate that your time is up by +striking four sharp beats to signal that it is time for your return. +The drummer should then beat the drum very rapidly for about half a +minute to accompany you on the return journey, concluding with four +more sharp beats to signal the end of the journey. + +When the drumming begins, enter your opening into the earth. Go down +through the opening and enter the tunnel. At first the tunnel might be +dark and dim. It might go underground at a slight angle, or it might +descend steeply. Sometimes the tunnel appears ribbed, and often it +bends. Occasionally one passes through the tunnel so fast that it is +not even seen. In following the tunnel, you may run right up against a +natural wall of stone, or some other obstacle. If this happens, just +go around it, or through a crack in it. If this fails, simply come +back and try again. + +At the end of the tunnel, you will emerge out of doors. Examine the +landscape in detail. Travel through it and remember it's features. +Explore until you are signaled to come back, and then return through +the tunnel the same way you went down. + +DO NOT BRING ANYTHING BACK WITH YOU. + + +POWER ANIMALS: + +Shaman's have long believed that their powers were of animals, plants, +the Sun etc... the basic energies of the universe. Long before Charles +Darwin, people in Shamanistic cultures were convinced that human and +animal were related. In myth, animals were depicted in human physical +form, but were distinguished by certain characteristics that are +familiar to the species. In North and South American Indian Mythology, +animal characters are not referred to as 'a coyote', 'a raven' or 'a +bear'. Instead these animals are referred to as Coyote, Raven or Bear. +In other words, these individual characters represent the entire +species. + +Every Shaman has at least one Guardian Spirit or Power animal. It is +through this animal, that the Shaman connects with the power of the +entire species of that animal. The power animal can also appear to the +Shaman in human form. Appearing in human form, is often indicative of +the animal's power. Another indication of this, is when, the animal is +seen moving through an element that is not their own, such as snakes +flying through the air, or birds swimming. When a Power Animal is in a +Shaman's possession, it acts as an alter ego for the Shaman, giving +the Shaman the power of transformation. Specially the power to +transform from human to animal, and back again. + +It is important to remember that there are no mythical animals in the +SSC. For example, a Dragon is just as real as any other animal. + +It is possible for a person to have a power animal, and not be aware +of it. Thus many people, specially children have at some point had the +protection of a guardian spirit, and have lost it. The following are +exercises which will help you get in touch with one or more of your +unknown power animals. + + + +CALLING THE BEASTS: + +There are different names for this exercise in different cultures. It +is a way for a person to get in touch with their animal aspects +through dance. Keep in mind that a Guardian spirit can appear in +animal or human form. + +Undertake this exercise in a quite, half darkened room, which is free +from furniture that can hamper your movements. It is helpful if you +have the use of one or two rattles, but these are not necessary. + +There are two parts to this exercise. (1)The starting dance, and +(2)Dancing your animal. In both dances, you loudly shake a rattle in +each hand, and dance in time to the rattle. In all dancing, you keep +your eyes half closed. This allows you to cut down on the light, and +at the same time enables you to know where you are in the room. + +The Starting Dance: + +Standing still and erect, face east and shake one rattle very rapidly +four times. This is the signal that you are starting, ending or making +an important transition in serious shamanistic work. Think of the +rising Sun and the power it brings to all living things. + +Still standing in place, start shaking on rattle at a steady pace of +about 150 beast per second. Do this for about half a minute in each +cardinal direction, while thinking of the element or power animals of +that direction. For example, you can think of an Eagle in the East, a +Lion in the South, a Serpent or Dolphin in the West, and a Bull in the +North. Move clockwise. + +Return to the East, and shake the rattle above your head at the same +rate for about half a minute. Think of the Sun, Moon, Stars, and the +entire universe above. Now, shake the rattle towards the ground, and +think of the Earth, our home and the gifts she gives to us. + +Still facing East, begin shaking both rattles at the same rate, and +dancing along with the beat, as if you were jogging in place. In this +starting dance, you are giving proof of your sincerity to the power +animals, wherever they may be, by making a sacrifice to them, of your +own energy in the form of dance. Dancing is a form of praying and +evoking the sympathy of the guardian spirit. + +Stop dancing, and stand still. Shake one rattle four times to signal +that you are about to make an important transition. + + +Dancing Your Animal: + +Start shaking your rattles loudly, but in a slow tempo of about 60 +beats per minute. Start dancing around the room in time to the rattle. +Move slowly and in a free form. Try to pick up the feeling of some +kind of mammal, bird, fish, reptile or a combination of these. Once +you feel the sense of something, concentrate on it and slowly move +your body in accordance with the creature. Be open to the experience +and emotions of the creature. Don't hesitate to make noises or cries +of it. By keeping your eyes half closed, you might be able to see the +non-ordinary environment in which the animal is living. You may even +be able to see the animal. Do this for about 5 minutes. + +Without pausing, shift to a higher state of rattle-shaking and +movement. Do this for about 4 minutes. + +Another shift to a still faster pace of rattle and body movement. Do +this for about 4 minutes. + +Stop dancing, and mentally welcome the animal into your body. To do +this, shake the rattle four times, and draw it and the animal towards +your solar plexus. + +Face the East, and shake the rattle four times, while standing still. +This is the signal that your work has ended. + +Once you have successfully gained your power animal, you make it +content enough to stay with you. This is done through exercising your +animal through dancing, and singing songs of the animal. Guardian +animals usually only stay with a person for a few years, and then +depart. So, in the course of a life-long shamanistic practise, a +person will have a number of animals. + + +HUNTING A POWER SONG: + +Every Shaman has at least one power song, which is used to "wake-up" +the guardian and other helpers to assist in healing and other +shamanistic work. + +To get a power song, plan to spend a day alone in a wild, natural +area. Choose a location which is free of people, and unaltered by +people. + +You must fast for the entire day before your excursion through Mother +Nature. Stroll quietly, and sometimes sit. Just wander wherever your +feet take you. As you walk around, discover what animal you feel like. +It may or may not be an animal you have danced before. Take on it's +feelings, and enjoy it's identity during the day. On your first +excursion, you may only encounter a melody. Subsequent trips will +unveil the words for your melody. + +Power songs can also be found anywhere quite by accident. It is +possible to encounter one on a Shamanistic journey through the +Lowerworld, and even in dreaming. Power songs do not have to have +elaborate verses, although they can. Many power songs are quite +simple, made up few words, which are repeated over and over, and +simple ideas. Use your power songs to trigger a mild state of trance +in any Shamanistic work you undertake. + + +MAKING THE JOURNEY TO RECOVER A POWER ANIMAL: + +In order to restore a Power Animal to a person, it is not necessary +that the person be lacking one at the time. A person can have up to +two Guardian Spirits at a time. A third Power Animal, however, cannot +enter the body with two already present. It will simply drift away to +be made available at a later time. + +Power Animals usually come and go unexpectedly from a person, +especially after a few years. If a person shows power loss, through +depression or illness, such work should be immediately undertaken, in +addition to whatever medical treatment is being applied. In any case, +the regular practise of this exercise is an important way to assure a +person of possessing power. It is better to have your own drummer for +this exercise. + +The Journey: + +Keep aside an evening that you intend to do the work in. Eat a light +lunch that day, but do not have any dinner. Abstain from drugs and +alcohol all day. + +Use a quite, dark room, and remove all furniture, or at least, clear a +wide area for movement. Light a candle on the floor, where it will not +throw too much light. + +Go through the steps of the Starting Dance, and Dancing Your Animal. +If you have a drummer, have him beat the drum in time to your rattle. +If you are using a cassette, shake your rattle in time to the drum. Do +this only when you are actually dancing. + +Shake your rattle four times in each of the six directions - East, +South, West, North, Heaven and Earth). This is done to draw the +attention of the spirits of the particular realms. + +Next, walk very slowly around your 'patient' four times. Shake the +rattle in a slow, but strong and steady tempo. Return to stand besides +the patient. + +Begin to whistle or hum your power song, and shake your rattle in +accompany with it. Do this until you are aware of a slight alteration +of consciousness. + +Now begin to sing the words to your song, still shaking the rattle +along with the beat. Do this until your consciousness alters more. +Keep on doing this until you have a strong urge to collapse and lie +down on the floor. + +Once you are on the floor, push your body against the patient, +shoulder-to-shoulder, hip-to-hip, and foot-to-foot. + +Without delay, cover your eyes with your hand, and begin to shake your +rattle just above your chest. The drummer begins beating in time to +it. + +Shake your rattle at a very fast rate, until you see the entrance to +the Lowerworld. + +When you go into the entrance, stop shaking your rattle, but your +drummer must keep on accompanying you on your journey. + +Once you are in the Lowerworld, avoid any non-mammals you might +encounter. Specially spiders or swarming insects, or any serpents or +fish whose teeth are visible. If you cannot pass by these things, you +must return immediately, and try again another time. + +Search the landscape of the Lowerworld with your eyes closed, for the +power animal you seek. The secret of discovering a power animal, is +that it will show itself at least four times in different aspects, or +different angles. Do not strain yourself you find the animal. If it is +going to show itself to you it will. + +After seeing the animal four times, clasp it to your chest immediately +with one hand. The animal will come willingly. Holding the animal, +pick up your rattle and shake it sharply four times. This signals the +drummer to stop drumming for a moment. + +Now shake your rattle very rapidly, while the drummer keeps up the +tempo set by you. + +When you return, set the rattle aside, while still holding the animal +to your chest. Rise to your knees, and face the patient. The drummer +should stop drumming, as soon as you rise to your knees. + +Place your cupped hands on the patients solar plexus, and blow through +you hands with all your might to send the spirit into your patient. + +Then, with your left hand, raise your patient to a sitting position, +and, place your cupped hands on the top rear of the patient's head. +Once again, forcefully blow, to send any residue of the power into the +head. + +Pick up the rattle, and shake it rapidly and sharply in a circle four +times around the whole length of the patient's body. This is done to +make a unity of the power with the body. + +Quietly tell your partner of the identity of the animal you brought +back. If the animal is one you do not know, describe it's appearance. +Describe all the details of the journey. + +Assist the patient to dance the animal that you have just retrieved. +As you shake the rattle, gradually increase the tempo in accordance +with the patient's movements. The drummer should follow the Shaman's +lead. After a while, shake the rattle four times to end the drumming +and the dance. + +Gently assist your patient to a sitting position on the floor, with a +reminder to dance the animal regularly to encourage it to stay. + + +POWER PRACTISES: + +Consulting a Power Animal: + +The Power Animal can be consulted in order to obtain advise on +problems. This is commonly called "divination". To do this, simply +journey to the Lowerworld to see your animal. Your Power Animal is +usually quite close by, and you won't have to journey far, before you +see it. Quite often, it is at the end of the tunnel. + +When you see your power animal, silently greet it, and pose your +question. Most often, the power animal will provide the answer by +moving it's body in an unusual way. However, sometimes, it may lead +you on a journey. The experiences on the journey will be relevant to +your answer. + +The first few times you do this, it is best to keep your answers +simple, so that they may be answered in a 'yes' or 'no' form. When you +become more experienced in understanding the animal's language, the +questions can be more complicated. + +You should keep some form of dairy in which to record your shamanistic +experiences. These you should record as soon as you finish a journey, +so that the memory is still clear. + +You need not wait until you have a problem before you undertake a +journey to see your animal guardian. It is beneficial to visit without +posting questions. You will find positive things happening in your +life around such visits. + +Keeping Power: + +When a Power Animal is restored, one usually begins to feel better +immediately, and then begins to feel a power flowing through the body, +gradually over the next few days. When this happens to you, it is +important no to become complacent. Your Guardian Spirit has entered +your body, not only to help you, but also to help itself, by +experiencing the material form. Therefore, you should dance your +animal at least once a week, even just for a few minutes, using the +aid of rattles. This helps keep the power with you. + +Even if you dance or exercise your animal regularly, you can still +expect it to grow restless, and to start travelling long distances. +This usually happens while you are asleep. Even if your guardian +Spirit is not with you, the power remains. However, if you start +waking up in the middle of the night feeling dispirited and depressed, +it is a sign that your Guardian Spirit has left you. If this should +happen, you should immediately seek a companion to make the journey to +restore power. + +Since one's Guardian Spirit can be off wandering while you are asleep, +it is common practise not to wake up a sleeping Shaman, suddenly. In +many cultures, this is considered dangerous. + + +Big Dreams: + +Dreams from a Shamanistic point of view are of two types. 'Ordinary' +and 'non-ordinary' or 'Big Dreams'. Big dreams are ones that occur +several times, or ones that are so vivid, that they almost seem real. +Big Dreams are considered to be communications from your Guardian. +These are not symbolic, but are literal. + +Should you have a Big Dream that has negative connotations- e.g. an +automobile accident. You should immediately enact the dream once you +are awake. The dream is not symbolic, but your enacting of it is. Just +go through the motions of the incident in a simple way, and get it +over with. + + +THE BONE GAME: + +This games is known by Western North American Indians, as the 'Stick +Game', the 'hand game' or the Bone Game. Shamanistic power and seeing +are utilized in this game. It may be played by only two individuals, +but most commonly, there are two opposing teams of at least sic +members each. In the game, the teams take turns attempting to 'see' +the location of a bone or bones hidden by the opposing team. + +A person designated as the 'see-er' or 'pointer' tries to locate the +marked bone within the hands of the opposing team, while the opposing +team tries to prevent the person from seeing the hidden bone. + +Before beginning the game, the teams should select a first 'see-er' +and back-up 'see-ers' should the first not be successful. Next +'hiders' and back-up 'hiders' should be selected. It is a good idea +also to appoint a referee to ensure all of the rules are adhered to +and to keep tract of the scoring process. + +Before the game begins, team members may decide to sing their power +songs to help awaken their guardians, however, once the actual game +begins, no talking or singing is not allowed between team members. +Non-verbal communication must be used to indicate when someone is +volunteering to be a new see-er or hider. + +See-ers often work with their eyes closed. Sometimes a see-er may even +turn his back on the opposing team, in order to see more clearly. +Experience is the best teacher to find out which way you see best. + +Team members must also decide on how they can help the seeing process. +For example, all the members might touch bodies, leading to the +see-er, to create a cone of power. The team that is hiding, must +disrupt the seeing process, by singing, shouting, dancing or whatever +else they wish to do to disrupt the see-er. + +When both teams are ready to play, they line up facing each other, +about four feet apart. A line should be indicated between the teams. +If indoors, this can be a cord, or lighted candles. It is against the +rules for any part of a team member's body, to cross the line. If this +occurs, a counter is awarded to the opposing team. + +Any object can be used as counters - from feathers to sticks. Each +team has three or four counters, and this is placed inside the line in +front of the team. The object of the game is to win all the counters. +A team has to win not only the opposing teams counters, but also it's +own. + +Two bones or sticks are used. These must be as much alike each other +as possible. Chicken wish-bones are good for this. Wrap a black thread +or string around one bone. This is the bone that the see-er must pick +out. + +When the game begins, the hider must turn his back on the opposing +team and shuffle the bones around in his hands. When he is done, he +should turn back to face the opposing team, and stick out both of his +hands in front of him. His team then starts a disruptive process to +prevent the other team from seeing clearly. When the hider is ready, +the referee should begin beating a drum. + +The seeing team remains quite, and concentrates on providing a shield +of tranquility around the see-er, and sends him power to help his +seeing. The see-er must pick out the marked bone in the hiders hand. +This is done by the see-er pointing to one of the hiders hands. + +If the see-er is correct, the team wins one of the opposing teams +counters. If the see-er is wrong, his team looses a turn, but does not +surrender a counter to the opposing team. In other words, counters can +only be won by successful seeing, not unsuccessful seeing. + +* Compiled by the Silver Circle Blessed Be + diff --git a/religious documents/prana.txt b/religious documents/prana.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..efe758f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/prana.txt @@ -0,0 +1,332 @@ +BASIC YOGIC BREATHING CONTROL +"PRANAYAMA" + + +Prana has been said to translate as "breath." In actuality, the Sanskrit +word "Prana" means life-force or life-energy. In fact, classic Pranayama +with its inhale/retain/exhale teaches that during the retention segment, +one should consciously retain the prana, then release the ordinary +oxygen from the lungs during exhalation, storing the prana in the solar +plexis (power) chakra. + +Pranamaya is the "science of prana," and linear yards of books have been +written about it! However, prana is the basis of Hatha Yoga, and should +be studied by anyone on a spiritual path, eastern or western. +Interestingly, the literal transliteration is Prana + Yama. Yama has a +dual meaning: restraint and death. ;) Meditate on that!! + + It would be impossible to go into any detail without taking up gig's of +memory, but I've included a few basic prana/breath techniques for +novices interested in getting started--they're also useful for more +experienced people as regular practice. + + "Breath is Life. He who controls breath controls life." +"When the breath is controlled, the mind is controlled." +"When Prana is met and conquered, one gains ascendency over death." + +"Prana, the vital breath, is born of Self. Like a person and his shadow, +the Self and the Prana are inseparable. Prana enters the body at birth, +but does not die with the body." --Prana Upanisad. + +"The wise speak not of senses of speech, sight, hearing, feeling, but +only of a grou of Pranas, for these are all the manifestations of +Prana." --Ch arakha Samhita. + + +Let's get *BASIC* now!! + +Several of the oldest Tantras state that the body is a Yantra, the +breath its Mantra. In order to facilitate better understanding of this +concept. "Bhramari Breath" is an excellent starting point. It is simple, +aids concentration, and provides a feeling of oneness with body and +breath, a consciousness, rather than a simple autonomic nervous system +function. Technique: Take a deep breath, exhale all stale air from +lungs, contracting abdominal muscles to squeeze out the last remnants. +Inhale through the *nose* while making a buzzing sound, like that of a +bee, with the inhalation. Retain for a few seconds (as long as +comfortable; working toward longer retention with practice, but not +forcing), concentrating on storing the Prana Energy in the solar plexus +(*manipura chakra*; literally manipura means 'jewel of great +consciousness)--or for non-chakra oriented people, the area above the +navel--and separating the Prana from the regular "air." Now exhale, +through the nose, making a humming sound. Focus your mind on the sounds +during inhalation and exhalation, on vital life energy being stored and +saved during breath retention. Each in-retain-out counts as one "cycle." +Begin with five or so cycles, adding more as you master Bhramari Breath +and it becomes natural to you. + +COMPLETE BREATH is the second basic that should be mastered. Most people +breathe shallowly, and even those who draw breath down to the abdomen +consciously may be missing a step along the way! Again, blow out all +air, contracting abdomen to help. Inhale deeply, *pulling* the breath +toward the abdomen, expanding it. Continue inhaling, next *pulling* into +the rib cage/middle of lungs. Continue, *pulling* breath into upper +lungs, chest, and throat area. Retain for a few seconds; be sure your +face is relaxed. No tension. Let it be natural. Exhale slowly, releasing +air oppositely from inhalation: first *pull* out of throat/chest, then +from ribcage/mid lungs, finally *pull* from the abdomen, contracting +abdominus recti, forcing all air out. Work up to longer +inhalation/retention/exhalation holds as complete breath becomes more +natural. Do not "count" with a clock; allow your body to be your clock. +The ratio sould be 1:1:1 with complete breath, unlike certain other +prana techniques. As well as the mental/mystical benefits, complete +breath increases oxygen supply to the blood--hemoglobin levels. Also +slows the heart rate. Calming effect on central nervous system. Complete +breath is used in conjunction with many Hatha Yoga a sanas (*postures*). + +VITALIC BREATH: Very easy. Strengthens lungs, energizes. Breathe through +nose in short, sharp sniffs until lungs are expanded to capacity. Blow +out through mouth, making a loud HAAA! sound. If desired, focus on +bringing in energizing prana, blowing out all tension and anything that +separates you from realizing your spiritual goals. + +KAPALABHATHI: Also easy to master. There are many variations; this being +a quite simple rendering, no less beneficial than more advanced +techniques. Sit in Lotus position, or with legs crossed; back and head +kept straight. Inhale, keep mouth closed, and "sneeze." With mouth +closed--the lower abdomen will balloon out. Snap it back in sharply. +Begin with ten-fifteen rounds, work up to 50 and above *naturally* +without forcing. You should feel nothing in upper lungs, chest, or +throat area. On a purely physical level, Kapalabhathi also pumps oxygen +in, increases hemoglobin levels, has soothing effect on many glands, and +can be used for relief by asthmatics or smokers ;). Attention focused on +solar plexus chakra. After rounds complete, sit quietly, feeling bodily +changes and mental effects on yourSelf. + +PRANA-VAYU RASA: or vigorous cycle. A recharging breath cycle. To be +performed while standing, with eyes closed, or turned upward, focused on +AJNA CHAKRA, the *third eye* chakra in middle of forehead. (1) Inhale, +lock air in chest. Swing arms twice backward and twice forward +vigorously. Exhale. (2) Inhale. Stretch arms forward at 90 degree angle +from body; swing them o ut sideways at shoulder level twice. Exhale, +drop arms. (3) Inhale. Swing arms up twice and down twice, parallel at +sides, arch small of back slightly. Exhale, drop arms. (4) Inhale, lock +breath in chest again. Stretch arms slowly forward. Clench fists and +pull them against the chest. Retain breath while shaking entire body. +Exhale. (5) Inhale. Swing arms overhead and bend body to the right from +the waist, *not* collapsing the ribcage. Concentrate on parts being +stretched. Exhale whi le straightening, repeat to the left. (6) Inhale. +Retain breath, massage ribs. Exhale. (7). Inhale. Retain breath, patting +breasts or pectoral muscles. Exhale. NOTE: the idea of recharging prana +is to tap individual energy/life force (*Atman*) and unite it with +universal energy/life force (*Brahman*). Physically, it energizes, +provides limbering of physical body, cleanses and exercises lungs. + + PRANA SUKHA/HEALING BREATH: Literally, "breath of joy; joyous +life-force." This breath is the simplest extension of simple prana into +"rhy thm." One must consciously alter the time spent on each part of the +breathing cycle. The rhythm of Prana Sukha is said to be perfectly +suited to extraction of vital energy from the atmosphere. The ratio of +inhalation/retention/exhalation is 1:4:2. In other words, inhale, hold +breath four times as long as inhalation takes, then exhale, taking twice +as long as inhalation. The inhalation establishes the time ratio for the +other two; never progress into discomfort. Generally, begin by inhaling +just slightly longer than when breathing unconsciously and proportion +retention and exhalation thereto. Gradually increase, to comfort. Sukha +slows down breathing process, which is beneficial to both body and mind. +IMPORTANT: Do *not* "count" either mentally or verbally, the rhythm +lengths. Counting is a *logial* process which can sometimes interfere +with meditative/spiritual *abstract* practice. Measure the rhythm +against pulse, heartbeat, or by focusing the mind on the sounds of +inhalation and exhalation of breath, and of the heart beating during +retention. This is ideal, as it creates an audio rhythm and helps the +body and mind merge. The Gheranda Samhita suggests: "In entering, the +breath makes the sound 'SOH' and in exiting, the sound 'HAM.' Thus the +breath makes the power word SOHAM; (or, I am It). The subtle sound +reverberates in the root chakra, the heart chakra, and the third eye +chakra. The Yogi should perform this repetition consciously." Another +measuring process is concentration o n a mantra, such as AUM, or +whatever one's personal prefernce. Feel the rhythm of each AUM. + + +PRANA AS APPLIED TO TANTRIC SEXUAL UNION + + +The above beginning prana practices should be mastered first: they form +the basis for deeper exploration into pranayama and Hatha Yoga. There +are many prana breaths which apply directly to Tantric practice and +Tantric lovemaking. A true follower of the Tantric path should develop +complete breath until it is totally natural; then healing breath to +purify the vital and subtle channels of the body. This, phy sical and +emotional damage from the highly-charged, intense energies created by +Tantric Union can be prevented. + +The flows of prana, the mind, and sexual energy are interdependent. +Breath control is vital to correct Tantric Union; breath is power. Fear +not the power; but lean to use it carefully. Yoga and Tantric raditions +believe in a five-fold division of Prana. "The original Prana contains +four other Pranas, each assigned to rule over a specific bodily +function. Together, these are the five subtle breath s." + +The original Prana is seen as upward moving; the Apana is downward +moving. These are the first and most important of the five suble +breaths. Tantra seeks to reverse the flow of Prana and Apana, then merge +them, transforming the body/mind/soul. According to Krsna in the +Bhagavad Gita: "Some Yogis offer the Prana into the Apana; others the +Apana into the Prana." NOTE: traditionally, the Prana is considered +*higher*, the Apana *lower*. Many spiritual paths have similar ideas; +but remember, in Tantric Pran ayama, they are not considered "good" vs. +"bad," but different flows of energy, both vital, the union of which +leads to enlightenment. The Gorakasatakham (*teachings of a great Indian +Guru) states: "The Atman (individual soul) is in thrall to Prana and +Apana. Whosoever knows and controls these two forces is a true Yogi and +will taste the ecstacy of Liberation. Draw up the Apana and unite it +with the Prana." + +The five subtle breaths take place in prana during the period of +retention. Inhale Prana, as if it w ere a fluid, lighter than water. +During retention, *see* the air divide into earth, water, fire, air and +ether. Exhale with fire, burning up the impurities. Pause slightly +before inhalation, concentrating on impurities returning to *earth* for +regeneration. + +THE CROW BEAK: The very first to master prior to Tantric Union. Roll the +tongue into a "beak" drawing the sides inward to form a "straw" or +"tube." Protrude rolled tongue through slightly parted lips and inhale +through the tongue. Retain, exhale through nostrils. This process, also +referred to as "Sithali" (*cool*) cools the body, activates liver and +spleen, and strengthens the subtle pranas of *sight* and *sound.* + + + UNION OF PRANA AND APANA: Solar and lunar symbolism are central to +Tantra, as they are to many other mystical teachings of both east and +west. Most, interestingly, have similar meaning: anient Hebrew tradition +conidered the sun masculine and paternal, the moon feminine and +maternal; Taoist Chinese tradition considered the sun Yang/hot/mascul +ine, the moon Yin/cool/feminine. As these beliefs developed at different +times in far-flung places, perhaps a "Jungian" archetypal truth is at +work here. + +HA: literally sun. THA: literally moon. YOGA: derived from root word +"Yug," meaning Yoke. HATHA YOGA = union of sun and moon. Hatha Yoga is +derived from Pranayama. The breath is linked to celestial influences; +thus, when breath is controlled, the influences are controlled. The +synthesis of HA and THA brings equilibrium, union, the goal of all +Yogis. + +Tantra associates the Sun with the right side of the body, masculine +energy, the element of fire, the color red, and intellect. The solar +energy is stored in the solar plexus--power chakra--its energy is upward +flowing (pranic) and considered celestial energy. The Moon is associated +with the left side of the body, feminine energy, cooling (Soma) quality, +the color white, the element of water and the intuitive processes. Lunar +energy is stored between the Crown Chakra and Third-Eye Chakra, +approximately the hairline, in a crescent-shaped portal. Its energy is +downward flowing (apanic) and is considered earthly energy. The union of +the two can be accomplished meditatively in Savasana with the assistance +of visualization. With or without visualization, Pranayama has +techniques to consciously unite HA and THA, both within the individual +and within a Tantric couple, one to the other. Below are a couple of +Solar/Lunar prana techniques. + +ANALOMA-VILOMA PRANAYAMA: Alternate Nostril Breathing, also called +SOLAR-LUNAR BREA TH. A major key to control of sexual energy. Solar +breath = Siva, transcendence; lunar breath = Sakthi, creative energy. +When both exist in balance, the life-force travels the Great Axis +(spinal column), rising through the chakras. Solar-Lunar breath employed +in Tantric Union provides a thrill which impels the Atman in an +evolutionary direction toward cosmic union and enlightenment. But this +breath must first be controlled through the practice of *white* +Tantra--solo, the union of HA and TH A within oneSelf. + + Technique: Sit straight in Lotus or with crossed legs, back and head +straight. The rhythm may be 1:1:1 or 1:4:2, as with healing breath +above. + + (1) Take right hand, bend index and middle fingers into palm. (2) place +hand above nose. Exhale. (3) Close right nostril with right thumb. +Inhale through left nostril, focusing mind on flow of air/ vital +force/energy. (4) Use thumb and ring finger to pinch both nostrils +closed. Retain breath. (5) Lift thumb, exhale through right nostril, +keeping left nostril closed with ring finger. (6) Inhale through right +nostril, focusing as above. (7) Pinch closed, retain breath. (8) Exhale +through left nostril, lifting ring finger. This constitutes one complete +"round" of Solar-Lunar breath. Begin with five to ten repetitions of +rounds; work up gradually to tolerance. + + *White* or solo HA-THA breath has physical benefits: balancing the +breath greatly assists with gaining control of parasympathetic processes +such as heartbeat, circulation and body temperature. It acts as +something of a natural tranquilizer, calming nerves, relieving tension, +and quieting mind. Mystically, it helps the individual unite the forces +within him/herself and gain ascendency over Prana/Apana--which together +equal the life force itself. + + The GHERANDA SAMHITA illustrates a meditative white Tantric form of +solar/lunar breathing: "Contemplate the primordial seed sound YANG, of +the air element and heart chakra, and visualize this syllable as of a +smoky color, filled with energy. Draw in the breath through the le ft +nostril, repeating the syllable mentally 16 times. Restrain the breath +while repeating the syllable mentally 64 times, then exhale all air +through the right nostril during the period required to mentally repeat +the syllable YANG 32 times." + +TANTRIC PRANA PRACTICED BY A COUPLE, PRIOR TO TANTRIC SEXUAL UNION. + +Ramana Dass illustrates one technique for a couple to combine tantra +with mantra through prana. "Experience the other as a mirror of oneself; +identify each partner's dual nature; surrender to the imp ersonal flow +of these energies; and, finally, mege into that underlying union. Both +partners sit in a comfortable position facing each other. The gaze of +each is directed to the right eye and the breath coordinated in such a +way that the inbreath of one partner is the outbreath of the other. +Breathing is slow, deep, and trusting. Once coordination is established, +both partners should visualize ocean waves as the breath experience, +rolling inward and outward. After a short period, one partner begins to +say, aloud, AUM with the outbreath, directing the AUM to the heart +chakra of the other. This process is reversed as the first partner +begins to breathe in anew, while the other now breathes out, AUM on his +or her outbreath. After several complete cycles, a deepening aof +concentration and fullness will be experienced by both, as well as a +growing awareness of clear love and unity. The final period of resting +in the realization of oneness may be had by closing the eyes while +maintaining the sound and coordinated breathing." + +PRANA DURING TANTRIC UNION. + +When one is ready for Tantric lovemaking, the Siva and Sakthi principles +unite within themSelves and each other. There is a convergence and +synchronization of their breaths; life-forces merging into a vortex, +physical and subtle energy exchange taking place. Lying on one side +causes the opposite side's nostril to dominate the breathing pattern. +The Tantras state that during lovemaking, the man should consciously +draw in the exhaled air from the woman's left nostril t hough his right +nostril, and allow her to consciously breathe in his exhaled breath from +the right nostril through her left nostril. Face-to-face lovemaking with +each couple lying on his/her side facilitates this exchange naturally. + +One Tantric text states: "By meditating on the breath during lovemaking +one should seize the life-force of the other with the life-force of +oneSelf and bestow the life force of oneSelf on that of the other." +During Tantric Union, the commitment of the couple is TOTAL--whether f +or the duration of the Act alone, for some set time limitation, for +life, or for Eternity. The exchange of life forces, when done for the +purpose of Tantric Commitment, binds souls together for Eternity, far +transcending the Christian "till death do us part." + +FINAL THOUGHTS FROM SOME MASTERS: + +"The solar breath leads to transcendence; the lunar breath is a +form-giving substance. Their union evokes the Eternal."--Prana Upanisad. + +"When the breath is unsteady, all is unsteady; when the breath is still; +all i s still. Control the breath carefully. Inhalation gives strength +and a controlled body; retention gives steadiness of mind and longevity; +exhalation purifies body and spirit."-- Goraksasathakam. + +"The oracle of breath unfolds its secrets to those who know the keys. +The elements in breath are known as fire, water, earth, air and +ether."--Swara Chinthamani. + + +The above tactics and practices are taken from traditional sacred texts; +with some commentary added by Yogini Padma Ushas Suryananda, Tantric +Dancing Yogini of the Kali Yuga. + +TAT TWAT ASI +HARI AUM TAT SAT +AUM SHANTI +NAMASTE +TAT TWAM ASI + + diff --git a/religious documents/precept.txt b/religious documents/precept.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b108c03 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/precept.txt @@ -0,0 +1,107 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU The document's +ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the coombspapers top +level INDEX file. +date of the document's last update/modification {TIME \@ "dd/MM/yy"|03/09/93} + +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his +kind permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, +ie. paper copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. +Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, Cardiff, South +Glamorgan, Wales, UK. email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be +sent to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded +on in person by myself. + +................................Beginning of file............................ + + + THE SONG OF CH'AN TAO CHIA + (THE PRECEPTS OF ZEN TAOISM) + +Have compassion for all sentient beings, +causing them no unnecessary hurt, nor needless harm. +Refrain from needless competitiveness, +from contriving for self-advantage, +and from subjugating others. + +When accepting authority over others, +know also that you accept responsibility for their wellbeing. +Value true friendship, and fulfill your obligations, +rather than striving with egotistical motive. + +Seek liberation from the negative passions +of hatred, envy, greed and rage, +and especially from delusion, +deceit and sensory desire. +Learn to let go of that which cannot be owned, +or which is destroyed by grasping. + +Seek the courage to be; +defend yourself, and your convictions. +Accept transience, the inevitable and the irrevocable. +Know that change exists in everything. +Negate the barriers to your awakening; +discover the positive in the negative, +and seek a meaningful purpose in what you do. + +Be just and honourable; +take pride in what you do, +rather than being proud of what you have accomplished. +Having humility and respect, +give thanks to those from whom you learn, +or who have otherwise helped you. +Act in harmony with your fellow beings, +with nature, and with inanimate objects. + +Know that a thing or an action +which may seem of little value to oneself, +may be a priceless treasure to another. +Help those who are suffering or disadvantaged, +and as you yourself become awakened, +help those who seek to make real their own potential. +Know that there is no shame in questioning. +Be diligent in your practice, +and on hearing the music of the absolute, +do not be so foolish as to try to sing its song. +Remember to renew the source, +in order to retain good health. + +Seek neither brilliance nor the void; +just think deeply, and work hard. +When still, be as the mountain; +when in movement be as the dragon riding the wind. +Be aware at all times, +like the tiger which only seems to sleep, +and at all times let the mind be like running water. + +When you are required to act, +remember that right motive +is essential to right action, +just as right thought is essential to right words. +Beware of creating burdens +for yourself or others to carry. +Act with necessary distinction, +being both creative and receptive, +and transcending subject/object dichotomy. + +Know that you are not the centre of the universe, +but learn to put the universe at your centre +by accepting the instant of your being. +Seek security within yourself, +rather than in others. +Know that even great worldly wealth, +and the accumulation of material things +are of little worth, +compared with the priceless treasures; +love, peace and the freedom to grow. + +Allow yourself to be, +so that your life may become a time of blossoming. + +..................................End of file.................................. + + diff --git a/religious documents/prepare.txt b/religious documents/prepare.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44a9ea6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/prepare.txt @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +ab:prepare.txt 16jan90 + + + Properly Prepared + + + Naked, but sandals (not shoes) may be worn. For initiation, tie hands + behind back, pull up to small of back and tie ends in front of throat, + leaving a cable-tow to lead by, hanging down in front. (Arms thus form + a triangle at back.) When initiate is kneeling at altar, the cable-tow + is tied to a ring in the altar. A short cord is tied like a garter + round the initiate's left leg above the knee, with ends tucked in. + Another is tied round right ankle and ends tucked in so as to be out of + the way while moving about. These cords are used to tie feet together + while initiate is kneeling at the altar and must be long enough to do + this firmly. Knees must also be firmly tied. This must be carefully + done. If the aspirant complains of pain the bonds must be loosened + slightly; always remember the object being to retard the blood flow + enough to induce a trance state. This involves slight discomfort; but + great discomfort prevents the trance state, so it is best to spend some + little time loosening and tightening the bonds until they are just + right. The aspirant alone can tell you when this is so. This, of + course, does not apply to the initiation, as then no trance is desired; + but for the purpose of ritual it is good that the initiates be bound + firmly enough to feel they are absolutely helpless but without + discomfort. + + The Measure (in the First Degree) is taken thus: + Height, round neck, across the heart and across the genitals. The + old custom is, if anyone were guilty of betraying the secrets, their + measure was buried at midnight in a boggy place, with curses that "as + the measure rots, so they will rot." +---------- + -published in Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way"; from GBG's + BOS (Text B or C; it's the same in each). + diff --git a/religious documents/princip.txt b/religious documents/princip.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f98e56 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/princip.txt @@ -0,0 +1,107 @@ +PRINCIPIA CHAOTICA + +Chaos Magic for the Pandaemeon + +In Chaos Magic, beliefs are not seen as ends in themselves, but as +tools for creating desired effects. To fully realize this is to face +a terrible freedom in which Nothing is True and Everything is +Permitted, which is to say that everything is possible, there are no +certainties, and the consequences can be ghastly. Laughter seems to +be the only defence against the realisation that one does not even +have a real self. + +The purpose of Chaos Rituals is to create beliefs by acting as +though such beliefs were true. In Chaos Rituals you Fake it till you +Make it, to obtain the power that a belief can provide. Afterwards, +if you have any sense, you will laugh it off, and seek the requisite +beliefs for whatever you want to do next, as Chaos moves you. + +Thus Chaoism proclaims the Death and Rebirth of the Gods. Our +subconscious creativity and parapsychological powers are more than +adequate to create or destroy any god or self or demon or other +"spritual" entity that we may choose to invest or disinvest belief +in, at least for ourselves and sometimes others as well. The +frequently awesome results attaining by creating gods by act of +ritually behaving as though they exist should not lead the Chaos +magician into the abyss of attributing ultimate reality to anything. +That is the transcendentalist mistake,, which leads to the narrowing +of the spectrum of the self. The real awesomeness lies in the range +of things we can discover ourselves capable of, even if we may +temporarily have to believe the effects are due to something else, +in order to be able to create them. The gods are dead. Long live the +gods. + +Magic appeals to those with a great deal of hubris and a fertile +imagination coupled with a strong suspicion that both reality and +human condition have a game like quality. The game is open ended, +and plays itself for amusement. Players can make up their own rules +to some extent, and cheat by using parapsychology if desired. + +A magician is one who has sold his soul for the chance of +participating more fully in reality. Only when nothing is true, and +the idea of a true self is abandoned, does everything become +permitted. There is some accuracy in the Faust myth, but he failed +to take it to its logical conclusion. + +It takes only the acceptance of a single belief to make someone a +magician. It is the meta-belief that belief is a tool for achieving +effects. This effect is often far easier to observe in others than +in oneself. It is usually quite easy to see how other people, and +indeed entire cultures, are both enabled and disabled by the beliefs +they hold. Beliefs tend to lead to activities which tend to +reconfirm belief in a circle they call virtuous rather than vicious, +even if the results are not amusing. The first stage of seeing +through the game can be a shocking enlightenment that leads either +to a weary cynicism or Buddhism. The second stage of actually +applying the insight to oneself can destroy the illusion of the soul +and create a magician. The realisation that belief is a tool rather +than an end in itself has immense consequences if fully accepted. +Within the limits set by physical possibility, and these limits are +wider and more malleable than most people believe, one can make real +any beliefs one chooses, including contradictionary beliefs. The +Magician is not striving for any particular limited identity goal, +rather he wants the meta-identity of being able to be anything. + +So welcome to the Kali Yuga of the Pandaemonaeon wherein nothing is +true and everything is permissable. For in these post-absolutist +days it is better to build upon the shifting sands than the rock +which will confound you on the day it shatters. Philosophers have +become no more than the keepers of useful sarcasms, for the secret +is out that there is no secret of the universe. All is Chaos and +evolution is going nowhere in particular. It is pure chance which +rules the universe and thus, and only thus, is life good. We are +born accidentally into a random world where only seeming causes lead +to apparent effects, and very little is predetermined, thank Chaos. +As everything is arbitrary and accidental then perhaps these words +are too small and pejorative, rather we should perhaps say that life, +the universe and everything is spontaneously creative and magical. + +Relishing stochastic reality we can revel exclusively in magical +definitions of existence. The roads of excess may yet lead to the +place of wisdom, and many indeterminate things can happen on the way +to thermodynamic equilibrium. It is vain to seek solid ground on +which to stand. Solidity is an illusion, as is the foot which stands +on it, and the self which thinks it owns either is the most +transparent illusion of all. + +The heavy vessels of faith are holed and sinking along with all +lifeboats and ingenious rafts. So will you shop at the supermarket +of sensation and let your consumer preferences define your true +self? Or will you in a bold and lighthearted fashion, thieve from +both for the fun of it? For belief is a tool for achieving whatever +one chooses to consider important or pleasurable, and sensation has +no other purpose than sensation. Thus help yourself to them without +paying the price. Sacrifice Truth for Freedom at every opportunity. +The greatest fun, freedom and achievement lies not being yourself. +There is little merit in simply being whomsoever you were destined +to be by accident of birth and circumstance. Hell is the condition +of having no alternatives. + +Reject then the obscenities of contrived uniformity, order and +purpose. Turn and face the tidal wave of Chaos from which +philosophers have been fleeing in terror for millennia. Leap in and +come out surfing its crest, sporting amidst the limitless weirdness +and mystery in all things, for those who reject false certainties. +Thank Chaos we shall never exhaust it. Create, destroy, enjoy, +IO CHAOS! + diff --git a/religious documents/principl.txt b/religious documents/principl.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ac33a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/principl.txt @@ -0,0 +1,209 @@ +The Craft (Witchcraft - NOT to be confused with Satanism. A true Witch has +nothing to do with this, even though there are some Satanists who (unright- +fully) call themselves "Witch".) contains a large number of groups with bonds +to each other, for the most part, which are looser than those you will find +between Christian churches. Each has it's own traditions, it's own beliefs, +it's own panthion, etc. So just WHAT is it that, overall, a Witch believes in? +The American Council of Witches was formed to determine what it was that all +Witches have in common, belief-wise. In the early 1970's, a paper was released +with their findings, and gives a good overall picture of it. The following is +the text of that paper. + +============================================================================== + +_BASIC_PRINCIPLES_OF_THE_CRAFT_ + +1. The first principle is that of love, and it is expressed in the ethic, + "DO AS YOU WILL, SO LONG AS YOU HARM NONE" + a) love is not emotional in it's essence, but is an attribute of the + individual as expressed in relation to other beings; + b) harming others can be by thought, word, or deed; + c> it is to be understood the "none" includes oneself; + d) the harm which is to be regarded as unethical is gratuitous harm; war, + in general, is gratuitous harm, although it is ethical to defend + oneself and one's liberty when threatened by real and present danger, + such as defense against invasion. + +2. The Witch must recognize and harmonize with the forces of the universe, in + accord with the Law of Polarity: everything is dual; everything has two + poles; everything has it's opposite; for every action there is a reaction; + all can be categorized as either active or reactive in relation to other + things. + a) Godhead is one unique and transcendant wholeness, beyond any + limitations or expressions; thus, it is beyond our human capacity to + understand and identify with this principle of Cosmic Oneness, except + as It is revealed to us in terms of It's attributes and operation. + b) The most basic and meaningful attribute of the One that we, as humans, + can relate to and understand, is that of polarity, of action and reac- + tion; therefore Witches recognize the Oneness of the Divinity, but + worship and relate to the Divine as the archetypal polarity of God and + Goddess, the All-Father and the Great Mother of the universe. The + Beings are as near as we can approach to the One within our human + limitations of understanding and expression, though it is possible to + experience the divine Oneness through the practices of the Mysteries. + c) Harmony does not consist of the pretty and the nice, but the balanced, + dynamic, poised co-operation and co-relation. + +3. The Witch must recognize, and operate within the framework of the Law of + Cause and Effect; every action has it's reaction, and every effect has + it's cause. All things occur according to this law; nothing in the + universe can occur outside this law, though we may not always appreciate + the relation between a given effect and it's cause. Subsidiary to this is + the Law of Three, which states that whatever goes forth must return + threefold, whether of good or ill; for our actions affect more than people + generally realize, and the resulting reactions are also part of the + harvest. + +4. As Above, So Below. That which exists in the Macrocosm exists, on a + smaller scale and to a lesser degree, in the Microcosm. The powers of the + universe exist also in the human, though in general instance they lie + dormant. The powers and abilities can be awakened and used if the proper + techniques are practiced, and this is why initiates of the Mysteries are + sworn to guard the secrets from the unworthy: Much harm can be done by + those who have power without responsibility, both to others and to + themselves according to the Laws of Cause and Effect and of Threefold + Return. + a) Since our philosophy teaches that the universe is the physical + manifestation of the Divine, there can be nothing in the universe which + does not partake of the nature of the Divine; hence, the powers and + attributes of the Divine exist also in the manifest, though to much + smaller degree. + b) These powers can be awakened through the various techniques of the + Mysteries, and, although they are only capable of small effects in and + of themselves, it is possible to use them in order to draw upon the + forces of the universe. Thus humanity can be the wielders of the power + of the Gods, a channel for Godhead to act within It's own + manifestation. This, then, is further reason for the oath of secrecy. + c) Since the universe is the body of the One, possessing the same + attributes as the One, it's Laws must be the principles through and by + which the One operates. By reasoning from the known to the unknown, + one can learn of the Divine, and thus of oneself. Thus the Craft is a + natural religion, seeing in Nature the expression and revelation of + Divinity. + +5. We know that everything in the universe is in movement or vibration and is + a function of that vibration. Everything vibrates; all things rise and + fall in a tidal system that reflects the motion inherent in the universe + and also in the atom. Matter and energy are but two poles of one + continuous phenomenon. Therefore the Witch celebrates, harmonizes with, + and makes use of the tides of the universe and of life as expressed + through the cycle of the seasons and the motion of the solar system. + These ritual observances are the eight great Festivals of the Year, + referred to as the Wheel of the Year. Further, the Witch works with the + forces and tides of the Moon, for this body is the mediator of much energy + to our planet Earth and thus to ourselves. + +6. Nothing is dead matter in the universe. All things exist, therefore all + things live, though perhaps in a different manner from that which we are + used to calling life. In view of this, the Witch knows that there is no + true death, only change from one condition to another. The universe is + the body of Godhead, and therefore possesses one transcendant + consciousness; all things partake of the consciousness, in varying levels + of trance/awareness. + a) Because of this principle, all things are sacred to the Witch, for all + partake of the one Life. + b) Therefore the Witch is a natural ecologist, for Nature is part of us as + we are a part of Nature. + +7. Astrology can be useful in marking and interpreting the flow and ebb of + the tides of our solar system, and thus of making use of those tides; + astrology should not be debased into mere fortune-telling. + +8. Throughout the development of the human race, civilizations have seen and + worshipped many and various attributes of the Divine. These universal + forces have been clothed in forms which were expressive to the worshipper + of the attribute of the Godhead which they expressed. Use of these + symbolic representations of the natural and divine forces of the universe, + or godforms, is a potent method for contacting and utilizing the forces + they represent. Thus the Gods are both natural and truely divine, and + man-made in that the forms with which they are clothed are products of + humanity's striving to know the Godhead. + a) In keeping with the Law of Polarity, these god-forms are brought into + harmony by the one great Law which states: All Gods are one God. All + Goddesses are one Goddess. There is one Initiator. This law is an + expression of our understanding that all of the forces of the universe, + by whatever ethnic god-form is chosen to clothe and relate to whichever + force, can be resolved into the fundamental polarity of the Godhead, + the Great Mother and the All-Father. + b) It is the use of differing godforms, of differing ethnic sources or + periods, which is the basis of many of the differences between the + various Traditions of the Craft. Each Tradition uses the forms, and + thus the names, which to that Tradition best express and awaken an + understanding of the force represented, according to the areas of + emphasis of the Tradition. + c) Because we know that differing names or representations are but + expressions of the same divine principles and forces, we require our + members to swear that they will never mock the names by which another + honors the Divine, even though those names be different from and + seemingly less expressive than the names and godforms used by our + Tradition (for to the members of another Tradition, using it's names, + ours may easily seem equally less expressive). + +9. A Witch refuses to allow her/himself to be corrupted by the great guilt + neuroses which have been foisted on humanity in the name of the Divine, + thus freeing the self of the slavery of the mind. The Witch expresses + responsibility for her/his actions, and accepts the consequences of them; + guilt is rejected as inhibiting to one's self-actualization, and replaced + by the efforts of the Witch to obey the teachings of harmlessness, + responsibility for the consequences of one's actions, and the goal of + actualizing the full powers of the individual. + a) We refuse to believe that a human being is born innately sinful, and + recognize the the concepts of sin and guilt are tremendously inhibiting + to the human potential; the consequences of the Law of Cause and + Effect, called karma by some, are not punishment, but the recurrences + of situations and their effects because the individual as not gained + the Wisdom needed to handle or avoid such situations. + b) There is no heaven except that which we ourselves make of our life on + Earth, and likewise there is no hell except the effects of our unwise + actions. Death is not followed by punishment or reward, but by life + and the continuing evolution of the human potential. + c) One cannot damn the divine in oneself; one can, however, cut oneself + off from it through the rejection of wisdom and a refusal to strive for + self-realization. This cutting off does not lead to personal suffering + in "hell", for there is no Self to suffer if the tie to one's own + divinity has been severed; what remains is merely an empty shell, a + "personality" or thought-form devoid of it's ensouling Spark of the + Divine Fire. + +10. We know of the existence of the life-force which ensouls all living + things, that is, all that exists. We know that a spark of this Divine + Fire is within each and every thing that exists, and that it does not + die; only the form of it's existence changes. We know that this spark of + the life-force returns to manifestation again and again in order to fully + realize and actualize it's potential, evolving finally to the peak and + essence of existence which is pure be-ing. In this process of + reincarnation each form returns in the same type of form, though it's + ever-increasing actualization may lead to higher levels of existence of + that form. Man returns as man, cat as feline, mineral as mineral, each + class of form evolving as the individual forms of that class evolve. + +11. This process of evolution through successive incarnations in manifest form + works through the utilizations of wisdom gained, the essence of the + life-experience. This essence of experience, or Wisdom, is an attribute + of the spark of life itself, one and inseparable (see 9a). + +12. We must care for the body, for it is the vehicle of the spark of life, the + form by which we attain. Thus we must heal the body of it's ills and keep + it a tuned and perfected tool; so must we heal others (both physicaly and + psychologically) as far as it is within our power to do so. However, we + cannot interfere with the life of another, even to heal, except at their + request or with their express permission; unless such non-interference + would be inhibiting to our own, ethical existence and development -- and + even then the responsibilities and consequences must be understood and + accepted. This, then, is one of the important reasons for the communal + life the Witches under the guidance of the Priesthood: That the group may + be guided by wisdom and experience, with the aid and support of one's + peers; and that one's actions may be guided by the influence of the + ethical life of the group as a whole. + +13. Harmony with, and utilization of, the great natural forces of the universe + is called magick. By magick we speak, not of the supernatural, but of the + superbly natural, but whose laws and applications are not as yet + recognized by the scientific establishment. The Witch must strive to + recognize these forces, learn their laws, attune her/himself to them, and + make use of them. The Witch must also be aware that power corrupts when + used _only_ for the gains of the self, and therefore must strive to serve + humanity: Either through the service in the Priesthood, or by example and + effects of his/her life on others. The choice must be made in accord with + the true nature of the Witch. + diff --git a/religious documents/prinord.txt b/religious documents/prinord.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d08a4b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/prinord.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2351 @@ +Article #630 (747 is last): +From: megazone@obsidian.WPI.EDU (MegaZone23) +Newsgroups: alt.discordia +Subject: Principia Ordia... A rare flash od inspiration.. +Date: Sun Jan 10 05:13:00 1993 + + + 50 + is + Is + -><- + -Horace + DO NOT CIRCULATE! + Ho Chi Zen + INTER-OFFICE WIRE SENT + King Cong + Real? + ___ ___ + ___ ___ + _________ + _________ + _________ + Answers: + * + CONTENTED CHAO + (courtesy of POEE) + -- Adam Weishaupt, + Grand Primus Illuminatus + Presented under the auspices + by the House of the Apostles + of ERIS. + of our Lady of Discord, ERIS + Cabal of the Unemployed + Monroe Cabal + of the lucky 25) + "Illuminate the Opposition!" + "This statement is false" + (You may be one + -Breton + -Hassan i Sabbah + -Rev. Dr. Grindlebone + 1. Harry Houdini + 2. Swing Music + 3. Pretzels + 4. 8 months + 5. Testy Culbert + 6. It protrudes. + 7. No vocal cords + Bullshit makes the flowers + Glory to We Children of ERIS + LICK HERE!!! + Please do not use this + Wholly Chao + cut off from Jeroboam him that + document as toilet tissue + grow & that's beautiful. + Dwarfs? + MAD MALIK + One night in a coffee house, a + Can you chart the COURSE + - John Kenneth Galbraith + --Che Fung (Ezra Pound, Canto 85) + -Gen. Geo. A. Custer + -Lichtenberg + -MARX + -Neils Bohr + Export License Not Required + Heute Die Welt + Love, + Morgens das Sonnensystem! + Some never do explain. + Some work together. + to Captain Valentine's SWEETHEART? + + + + + + + + + by + or + HARK + NIL + * * * + * or * + KALLISTI + Personal + TELEGRAM + Warning! + HAS ARRIVED + ILLEGITIMO + being the + or + $5.00(cheap) + -><- + CARBORUNDUM + DIED FOR + HIGH PRIEST + I DARE YOU! + INTRODUCTION + KING + PO BOX 1197 + Published By: + REMEMBER: + YOUR SINS + "The Five Laws have root in awareness." + * + -><- Mal-2 + -Genesis 1:29 + -Patamunzo Lingananda + =ON OCCULTISM= + Catalogs:$2.00 + DIRUIT AEDIFICAT MUTAT QUADRATA ROTUNDUS + FIVE TONS OF FLAX! + Form No.: O.D.D. IIb/ii.1-37D.VVM:3134 + IMPENDING DOOM + IT IS MY FIRM BELIEF THAT IT IS A MISTAKE + TO HOLD FIRM BELIEFS. + The Bureaucracy, Bureau of: DOGMAS + WESTERN UNION + When I was 8 or 9 years old, I acquired + a split beaver magazine. You can imagine + my disappointment when,upon examination + of the photos with a microscope, I found + that all I could see was dots. + -><- POEE -><- + -><- POEE -><- + As a Legionnaire + BRUNSWICK SHRINE + FINAL STATEMENT + When I Found Her + ~ POPE ~ + Bureau of The POEE Epistolary + HOLY NAMES + HOUSE OF THE RISING PODGE + Head Temple, San Francisco + SPECIAL AFTERWORD + THE INSIDE STORY! + WITH FAIRY DUST + invite YOU to join + mpython@gnu.ai.mit.edu + * * + BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI + BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI + GOOD FOREVER + How I Found Goddess + LOOMPANICS UNLIMITED + PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA + PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA + San Andreas Canyon" + Wherein Is Explained + - The Numeral V sign - + And What I Did To Her + CHAPTER 5: THE PIONEERS + SUSPENDED ANNIHILATION + Sewing Circle + St. Trinian's + THE DISCORDIAN SOCIETY + THE POEE MYSTEREE OATH G3400 + ~~ OLD POEE SLOGAN ~~ + Port Townsend, WA 98368 + THE SACRED CHAO + The Erisian Affirmation + When I found Her + When in Doubt, Fuck it. + About Absolutely Anything + CONVENTIONAL CHAOS + HOW TO START A POEE CABAL + INTRODUCTION OF NEGATIVISM + Legion of Dynamic Discord + POEE PRIEST, Okinawa Cabal + THE BOOK OF UTERUS + THE HONEST BOOK OF TRUTH + and HIGH PRIEST of + of Malaclypse the Younger + -THE GODDESS ERIS PREVAILS- + = The POEE Baptismal Rite = + = ZARATHUD'S ENLIGHTENMENT = + FIRST I MUST SPRINKLE YOU + INTERVIEW WITH NORTON CABAL + KNOW YE THIS O MAN OF FAITH! + MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER, KSC + NO TWO EQUALS ARE THE SAME! + Principia Discordia + THE PARABLE OF THE BITTER TEA + and How it was Revealed to + ( )Official Business (X) Surreptitious Business + (Werewolf Bridge, Robert Anton Wison) + * * + - Hassan i Sabbah + -----><----- + -><- OFFICIAL - POEE + -John Lennon + -Slogan of NORTON CABAL - S.F. + Abbey of the Barbarous Relic + G.H. Hill, San Francisco, 1979 + POEE DISORGANIZATIONAL MATRIX + THE CURSE OF GREYFACE AND THE + The Erisian Mysterees + revealed to Lord Omar + sez Thom,Gnos + name YOG-SOTHOTH? + DO NOT PULL ON YELLOW TIP + - JOSHUA NORTON CABAL - + Hearing this, the man was enlightened. + Rev. Dr. Hypocrates Magoun, P.P. + THE BEARER OF THIS CARD + Written, in some sense, by Mal-2 + as Divinely Revealed to + published by Joshua Norton Cabal + " On The Future Site of Beautiful + Application For Membership + MUCH ABOUT THE BAVARIAN ILLUMINATI + SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL POLICE + So please Treat Him Right + THE MYTH OF THE APPLE OF DISCORD + When not in Doubt... get in Doubt! + Which is Most Interesting + World Council of Churches Boutique + = THE FIVE FINGERED HAND OF ERIS = + Absolutely Everything Worth Knowing + DOGMA III - HISTORY #2, "COSMOGONY" + IS A GENUINE AND AUTHORIZED + San Francisco (K) All Rites Reversed + What We Know About ERIS (not much) + Dedicated to The Prettiest One + From the Honest Book of Truth + from the Honest Book of Truth + - THE BIRTH OF THE ERISIAN MOVEMENT - + A CATERPILLAR'S PRAISE TO THE BUTTERFLY + BEWARE! THE PARANOIDS ARE WATCHING YOU! + ERISIAN MAGIC RITUAL - THE TURKEY CURSE + GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE! + THE ANCIENT ILLUMINATED SEERS OF BAVARIA + The Upstart of one hand clapping + being a BIBLE of The Erisian Movement + by Gypsie Skripto, Special Correspondent + =THE FIVE APOSTLES OF ERIS & WHO THEY BE = + Laughing Buddha Jesus [LBJ] Ranch + THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE ERISTOCRACY + WITHOUT MESSING AROUND WITH THE POLYFATHER + being a Beginning Introduction to + All Rites Reversed (K) Reprint What You Like + THE BOOK OF EXPLANATIONS, Chapter 1 + THE MAGNUM OPIATE OF MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER + -Book of Chan compiled by O.P.U. sect + A PRIMER FOR ERISIAN EVANGELISTS by Lord Omar + DOGMA I - METAPHYSICS #2, "COSMOLOGY"* + HBT; The Book of Uterus, Chap. 3 + Malaclypse the Younger/Omnibenevolent Polyfather + Omnibenevolent Polyfather of Virginity in Gold + POEE High Priest + Published by POEE Head Temple - San Francisco + THE FIVE COMMANDMENTS (THE PENTABARF) + (K) ALL RIGHTS REVERSED - Reprint what you like + A POEE MYSTEREE RITE - THE SRI SYADASTIAN CHANT + How I Found Goddess & What I Did To Her + to the Loompanics Edition of PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA + THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT GUIDE IN YOUR LIFE! + The World's Oldest And Most Successful Conspiracy + The World's Oldest and Most Successful Conspiracy + DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE A LOPSIDED PINEAL GLAND? + Episkopos, THE RAYVILLE APPLE PANTHERS + My High Reverence MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER, KSC + Omnibenevolent Polyfather of Virginity in Gold + In the Erisian movement of the DISCORDIA SOCIETY + (HBT; The Book of Advise, 1:1) + DISCORDIAN SOCIETY SUPER SECRET CRYPTOGRAPHIC CYPHER CODE + Episkopos LORD OMAR KHAYYAM RAVENHURST, KSC; Bull Goose + Green Beret Special Warfare School, Ft. Bragg, N.C. + HAIL ERIS! -><- KALLISTI -><- ALL HAIL DISCORDIA! + KALLISTI HAIL ERIS ALL HAIL DISCORDIA + Founded by Hassan i Sabbah, 1090 A.D. (5090 A.L., 4850 A.M.) + Founded by Hassan i Sabbah, 1090 A.D. (5090 A.L., 4850 A.M.) + King Kong Kabal + N.Y.C. Cabal + Reformed by Adam Weishaupt, 1776 A.D. (5776 A.L., 5536 A.M.) + Reformed by Adam Weishaupt, 1776 A.D. (5776 A.L., 5536 A.M.) + Stijevoort, 1524. + "But nobody Wants it! Everybody hates it." + "Everything is true - Everything is permissible!" -><- + "Hah," She thought, "Here shall be a new game." + "I actually solved this problem some years ago," Rybicki writes, "for + "I am filled with fear and tormented with terrible visions of pain. + "In a way, we're a kind of Peace Corps." + "Maya is marvelous" I was thinking when I rapped on the little metal + "O! Eris! Blessed Mother of Man! Queen of Chaos! Daughter of Discord! + "Surrealism aims at the total transformation of the mind + "Tell me, you dumb beast." demanded the Priest in his commanding voice, + "What is this?" mumbled one to the other, "A religion based on The + "When your brother leaves the residence of Being, he shall not reside + "Why are you despondent?" demanded Void, "Your new brother will have + (HBT; The Book of Advise, 1:3) + (HLRSAIEI) + - Maj. A. Lincoln German, Training Director of the + --Albert Einstein + -Flemish Poet Jan Van + -Josh the Dill + -Rev. Thomas, Gnostic + -Robert Anton Wilson + 1) ARE YE A HUMAN BEING AND NOT A CABBAGE OR SOMETHING? The Initiate + 1021 'D' Street, Sacramento CA 94814 + 2) THAT'S TOO BAD. DO YE WISH TO BETTER THYSELF? The Initiate answers + 3) HOW STUPID. ARE YE WILLING TO BECOME PHILOSOPHICALLY ILLUMINIZED? + 4) VERY FUNNY. WILL YE DEDICATE YESELF TO THE HOLEY ERISIAN MOVEMENT? + 5) THEN SWEAR YE THE FOLLOWING AFTER ME: + Actually, the PRINCIPIA is the work of a time-travelling + Ah, I get spaced just thinking about it. Good luck on the Principia. + An Ordained POEE PRIEST/PRIESTESS or a CHAPLIN. + And Five Days Prior to This Occasion The Apostle The Elder + And POEE =POPE=. + And She taught order and disorder to play with each other in contest + And again he plunged into the physical orgy and completed the task, and + And find ye delight in Her Great Surprise! + And so we suffer because of the Original Snub. And so a Discordian + And with those words, each looked at the other in absolute awe. Omar + As I cabled over Nob to San Francisco's Station 'O' Post Office I + As she had promised, she maneuvered earthly happenings so that Paris + At first, the things brought forth by Eris were in a state of chaos + At which moment She turned herself into an aspirin commercial and left + Athena offered him Heroic War Victories, Hera offered him Great + Before he became a hermit, Zarathud was a young Priest, and took great + Considering current developments--you know the ones I speak of--it + DISORDER is simply unrelated information viewed through some + Darra Bazar, Kohat + Dear Brother Mal-2, + Discordia + Do you believe that? + During the next months they studied philosophies and theologies, and + Engrossed in establishing order, She finally one day noticed disorder + Episkopos Mordecai, Keeper of the Notary Sojac, informs me that you + Eris had been born pregnant, and after 55 years (Goddesses have an + Eristic Horde + FLIEGENDE KINDERSCHEISSE! + FLYING BABY SHIT!!!!! + Finally Zeus calmed things down and declared that an arbitrator must + For full benefit to the Head, this book should be read in + Forthcoming Doom to All Men Impending. And He Shall Signal + HBT; The Book of Explanations, Chap 2 + HBT; The Book of Gooks, Chap. 1 + HBT; The Book of Predictions, Chap. 19 + HBT; The Book of Predictions, Chap. 19 + Hail Eris. All hail Discordia. Fnord? + He did just as the Zen Master instructed. His meditation was + I found him in the Temple PO Box busy wrapping up the new Fourth + I have it on good authority that he is one of the most + I understand that he has consented to write an Afterward to + In 1968, virtually nobody had heard of this wonderful book. In + In conclusion, there is no conclusion. Things go on as they + In fact you might still push Vennard's The Federal Reserve Hoax: + In response to your request for unclassified agitprop to be inserted + In the Erisian Archives is an old memo from Omar to Mal-2: "I find the + In the beginning there was VOID, who had two daughters; one (the + International Arms and Hashish Inc. + It applies however, to a closed system, to something that is an + It has been ten years since I net the mysterious Malaclypse the + It seems that Zeus was preparing a wedding banquet for Peleus and + It turned out I was among the last to see Malaclypse. As subsequent + Just prior to the decade of the nineteen-sixties, when Sputnik was + Look into the Chao if thou wantest to know + MAO BUTTONS and Whittier Shall be Known as The Region of Thud + Malaclypse Shall Walk the Streets of Whittier Bearing a Sign + Munching the tasty grass, The Sacred Chao replied "MU".* + Now all of this time, Void was somewhat disturbed. He felt unsatisfied + Now, at last, the truth can be told. + Now, three of the invited goddesses,*** Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, + OH. WELL, THEN STOP. + Oh, and we have some good news for you, Brother Mal! You know that + One day Mal-2 asked the messenger spirit Saint Gulik to approach the + One day Zarathud took his students to a pleasant pasture and there he + Our teachings are not, need I remind you, available for publication. + POEE proclaims that the other division is preferable, and we work + POEE subscribes to the Law of Fives of Omar's sect. And POEE also + Reality is the original Rorschach. + Respectfully, + Seek into the Chao if thou wouldst be wise + Seek the Sacred Chao - therein you will find the foolishness of all + Some Great Books are recognized at once with a fusilade of critical + THE ARGUMENT BY FEAR and in an ominous voice ask "Do you know what + THE ARGUMENT BY SEMANTICAL GYMNASTICS and say that he is absolutely + THE BLIND ASSERTION and say "Well, He Is a girl, and His name is + THE FAITH BIT: "But you must have Faith! All is lost without Faith! I + THE FIGURATIVE SYMBOLISM DODGE and confide that sophisticated people + THE FIRST CLAUSE PLOY wherein you point to all of the discord and + THE PARATHEO-ANAMETAMYSTIKHOOD OF ERIS ESOTERIC (POEE) + THE PURPLE SAGE + That is, in any given situation, less organization, more chaos, is + That this brother, having no form, was to reside with Aneris in + The Aneristic Principle is that of APPARENT ORDER; the Eristic + The California State Bureau of Furniture and Bedding + The Curse of Greyface included the division of life into + The HIGH PRIEST, the Polyfather. + The LEGIONNAIRE DEACON, who is catching on. + The Law of Fives is never wrong. + The Law of Fives states simply that: ALL THINGS HAPPEN IN FIVES, OR + The Nagas of Upper Burma say that the sun + The SOCRATIC APPROACH is most successful when confronting the + The belief that "order is true" and disorder is false or somehow + The general location of our US HQ, incidentally, has been nearly + The legendry, the mystery, the cult grew slowly. By the mid-1970's, + The point is that (little-t) truth is a matter of definition + The second concept Wiener has to establish is that of entropy. + The tendency for entropy to increase in isolated systems is expressed + The two were dazed and neither moved nor spoke for several minutes. + The whirlpools that swirl in a direction opposed to the main current + There is the neophyte, or LEGIONNAIRE DISCIPLE. + They awoke to the sound of pins clattering, and found the bowlers + They discussed their strange encounter and reconstructed from memory + This Event by Seeking the Poor and Distributing to Them Precious + This being the 4th Edition, March 1970, San Francisco; a revision of + This made Eris angry, and so She fashioned an apple of pure gold** + To choose order over disorder, or disorder over order, is to accept a + Two young Californians, known later as Omar Ravenhurst and + Upon hearing this, absolutely nobody was enlightened. Primarily because + WHAT BOTHERS YOU, MAL? YOU DON'T SOUND WELL. + WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THAT, IF IT IS WHAT YOU WANT TO DO? + WIECZNY KWIAT WTADZA!!!!! + We look at the world through windows on which have been drawn grids + Western philosophy is traditionally concerned with contrasting one + What's in a Chao and why it ain't so! + When Hypoc was through meditating with St. Gulik, he went there into + When I read the ILLUMINATUS trilogy I resolved to again find and + When the 1000 PRINCIPIAS were gone the GREATER POOP stopped + When the ILLUMINATUS trilogy appeared in 1975, my co-author, Bob + When the sisters heard this, they both confronted Void and pleaded + Why not? We felt that this book was a true Classic (literatus + With our concept making apparatus called "mind" we look at reality + With this in mind, they studied the strange yin-yang. During a + You hold in your hands one the Great Books of our century fnord. + by Rev. Dr. Mungojerry Grindlebone, KOB + for All Literates to Read thereof: "DOOM", as a Warning of + for These Five Days. + is afraid to venture out at night. + of Limbo; and Master Pastor of the Church Invisible of + shines by day because, being a woman, it + the Laughing Christ, Hidden Temple of The Happy Jesus, + the Law of Fives is one of the oldest Erisian Mysterees. It was first + + + + KONG + and all that resembles it" + + + ___ ___ + by Lord Omar + 19 + ODD# II/2,xii;68Chs3136 + People in a Position to Know, Inc. + / \ + \ / + His worrying and meditation were disturbed when, as + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- + SM BT PD PP SO SM BT PD PP SO + (If temporary, also give an address from which mail can be forwarded) + Genuine and authorized by The House of Apostles of ERIS + RECOGNIZE that the -- DISCORDIAN SOCIETY -- doth hereby certify + The Law of Fives + POEE Holy Cow, and + 6 7 8 9 10 6 7 8 9 10 10 11 12 13 14 45 46 47 48 49 + 6 7 8 9 10 23 24 25 26 27 8 9 10 11 12 62 63 64 65 66 + 6 7 8 9 10 53 54 55 56 57 7 8 9 10 11 19 20 21 22 23 + 7 8 9 10 11 66 67 68 69 70 8 9 10 11 12 32 33 34 35 36 + For the Bureaucracy + HBT; The Gospel According to Fred, 3:1 + 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 12 13 14 15 16 54 55 56 57 58 + 10 11 12 13 14 41 42 43 44 45 14 15 16 17 18 7 8 9 10 11 + 11 12 13 14 15 11 12 13 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 50 51 52 53 54 + 11 12 13 14 15 28 29 30 31 32 13 14 15 16 17 67 68 69 70 71 + 11 12 13 14 15 58 59 60 61 62 12 13 14 15 16 24 25 26 27 28 + 12 13 14 15 16 71 72 73 1 2 Dsc 13 14 15 16 17 37 38 39 40 41 + 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 17 18 19 20 21 59 60 61 62 63 + 15 16 17 18 19 46 47 48 49 50 19 20 21 22 23 12 13 14 15 16 + 16 17 18 19 20 16 17 18 19 20 20 21 22 23 24 55 56 57 58 59 + 16 17 18 19 20 33 34 35 36 37 18 19 20 21 22 72 73 1 2 3 Afm + 16 17 18 19 20 63 64 65 66 67 17 18 19 20 21 29 30 31 32 33 + 17 18 19 20 21 3 4 5 6 7 18 19 20 21 22 42 43 44 45 46 + 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 22 23 24 25 26 64 65 66 67 68 + 20 21 22 23 24 51 52 53 54 55 24 25 26 27 28 17 18 19 20 21 + 21 22 23 24 25 21 22 23 24 25 25 26 27 28 29 60 61 62 63 64 + 21 22 23 24 25 38 39 40 41 42 23 24 25 26 27 4 5 6 7 8 + 21 22 23 24 25 68 69 70 71 72 22 23 24 25 26 34 35 36 37 38 + 22 23 24 25 26 8 9 10 11 12 23 24 25 26 27 47 48 49 50 51 + 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 27 28 29 30 31 69 70 71 72 73 + 25 26 27 28* 1 56 57 58 59 60 29 30 31 1 2 22 23 24 25 26 + 26 27 28 29 30 26 27 28 29 30 30 31 1 2 3 65 66 67 68 69 + 26 27 28 29 30 43 44 45 46 47 28 29 30 31 1 9 10 11 12 13 + 26 27 28 29 30 73 1 2 3 4 Cfn 27 28 29 30 1 39 40 41 42 43 + 27 28 29 30 31 13 14 15 16 17 28 29 30 1 2 52 53 54 55 56 + 30 1 2 3 4 35 36 37 38 39 [1991 = 3157][Next St. Tibs Day in 3158] + 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Dec 2 3 4 5 6 44 45 46 47 48 + 31 1 2 3 4 31 32 33 34 35 Aug 4 5 6 7 8 70 71 72 73 1 Bcy + and the wisdom of a child. + for the Disciples of Discordia + -Isaiah 16:11 walls) + ..... fl. oz. Last time you had a haircut: Reason: + 1) Chaos - Patron Apostle Hung Mung + 1) Mungday 1) Chaoflux + 1) Sweetmorn are named from the five Basic Elements: + 2) Boomtime SWEET, BOOM, PUNGENT, PRICKLE, and ORANGE + 2) Discord - Patron Apostle Dr. Van Van Mojo + 2) Mojoday 2) Discoflux + 3) Confusion - Patron Apostle Sri Syadasti + 3) Pungenday + 3) Syaday 3) Confuflux + 4) Bureaucracy - Patron Apostle Zarathud + 4) Prickle-Prickle + 4) Zaraday 4) Bureflux + 5) Maladay 5) Afflux + 5) Setting Orange + 5) The Aftermath - Patron Apostle The Elder Malaclypse + A. Miscellaneous Avatars + A. Office of My High Reverence, The Polyfather + A. The Breeze of Wisdom and/or The Wind of Insanity + A. The Five Apostles of ERIS + A. the Bureau of Erisian Archives + Address_____________________________________________________________ + B. Council of POEE Priests + B. The Breeze of Integrity and/or The Wind of Arrogance + B. The Fifth Column + B. The Golden Apple Corps (KSC) + B. the Bureau of The POEE Epistolary, and The Division of Dogmas + C. Episkoposes of The Discordian Society + C. POEE =POPES= everywhere + C. The Breeze of Beauty and/or The Wind of Outrages + C. The Bureau of Symbols,Emblems, Certificates and Such + C. The LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD + D. Drawer "O" for OUT OF FILE + D. Eristic Avatars + D. POEE Cabal Priests + D. The Breeze of Love and/or The Wind of Bombast + D. The Bureau of Eristic Affairs, and The Administry for The Unenlightened + E. Aneristic Avatars + E. Lost Documents and Forgotten Truths + E. Saints, Erisian Avatars, and Like Personages + E. The Breeze of Laughter and/or The Wind of Bullshit + E. The Bureau of Aneristic Affairs, and the Administry for the Orders of + For the Encouragement of Liberation of Freedom, and/or the Discouragement + For the Eristocracy and the Cabalablia + For what is left over + I have ceased raping little children []yes []no -- reason .......... + I would rather a. live in an outhouse b. play in a rock group c. eat + I, (complete Holy Name, with Mystical Titles, and degrees, designations, + Professional: On another ream of paper list every job since 1937 from which + Race: []horse []human I.Q.: 150-200 200-250 250-300 over 300 + Surrealists, Harlequinists, Absurdists and Zonked Artists Melee + b. POEE c. Bavarian Illuminati d. All of the Above e. None of the Above + caterpillars. I wear obscene tattoos because .......... + f. Other-- BE SPECIFIC! + hours + list all major psychic psychotic episodes experienced within the last 24 + you have been fired. Medical: On a separate sheet labeled "confidential" + - The Book of Uterus 1;5 + OPOVIG HIGH PRIEST POEE + ALL HAIL DISCORDIA! + Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord + STARBUCK'S PEBBLES Which + This Mysteree Rite is not required for initiation, but it is offered by many + [H.B.T. ; The Gospel According to Fred, 1:6] + dancing star! + to give birth to a +" This book is a mirror. When a monkey looks in, no apostle looks out." +"And God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon +"And, behold, thusly was the Law formulated: Imposition of Order = escalation +"But there is no house next door." +"Courtesy in the Corridors and on the Stairs" that he enjoyed. Name some +"Did you know that there is a million bucks hidden in the house next door?" +"Everybody I know who is right always agrees with ME" -Rev Lady Mal +"Ewige Blumenkraft!" +"Gentlemen," he said, "why does Pickering's Moon go about in reverse orbit? +"Grasshopper always wrong in argument with chicken" +"I should have been a plumber." +"KALLISTI" is Greek for "TO THE PRETTIEST ONE" and refers to an old myth about +"No? Then let's go build one!" +"Nothing is true. Everything is Permissible" +"O" for OUT OF FILE. +"Of course I'm crazy, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. I'm mad but not ill" +"Offender of The Faith." Discovered the Five Commandments. Patron of the Season +"Ol' Limb' Peak." +"PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA or HOW THE WEST WAS LOST" published in New Orleans in +"SOMEBODY HAD TO PUT ALL OF THIS CONFUSION HERE!" +"Since the Babylonian Captivity there has existed a determined, +"Study Demonology with an Enemy This Sunday" +"The tide is turning... the enemy is suffering terrible losses" +"There are trivial truths & there are great truths. The opposite of a +"Wherefore my bowels shall sound -I Kings 14:10 (This +"You will find that the State is the kind of ORGANIZATION which, though it +"common sense is what tells you that the world is flat." +"horns" are supported by another set, of inverted "horns". Or maybe it is +"kallisti" that appears on the title page and lastly on the back cover came +"why don't you do something worthwhile. What is your Purpose in Life, anyway?" +'44. +( ) Council of Episkoposes: Office of High Priesthood, Sect of the POEE +( ) Drawer o +( ) the Golden Apple Corps (X)House of Disciples of Discordia +(A.I.S.B.), headquartered here in the United States. +(Brothers of the Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria sect may wish to +(HBT; The Book of Advise, 2:1) +(Hashishim) by Hassan i Sabbah, with secret teachings based on Alhazred, +(The Priest here leads the Initiate in a recital of THE ERISIAN AFFIRMATION.) +(X) Official Business ( )Surreptitious Business page 1 of 1 pages +(concepts). Different philosophies use different grids. A culture is a group +(counting the bottom)? legend of Snow White and The Seven +(no meat on Friday), of Judaism (no meat of Pork), of Hindic Peoples (no meat +(previously not apparent because everything was chaos). There were many ways +* "Limbo Peak" refers to Old Limbo Peak, commonly called by the Greeks +* "MU" is the Chinese ideogram for NO-THING +* I checked this further with Mr. Thornley. He says that the woman in question +* Not to be confused with The Apple Corps Ltd. of those four singers. We +* Or maybe it was 1958, I forget. +* The Greek geometrician PYTHAGORAS, however, was not a typical aneristic +* This doctrine should not be confused with DOGMA III - HISTORY #6, "HISTORIC +* This is called THE DOCTRINE OF THE ORIGINAL SNUB +** The LAW OF NEGATIVE REVERSAL states that if something does not happen then +** There is historic disagreement concerning whether this apple was of +*** Actually there were five goddesses, but the Greeks did not know the Law +*THE PINEAL GLAND is where each and every one of us can talk to Eris. If you +- that it might not become lost among Precepts of Order in the Region of +-- the PRINCIPIA was actually the work of the Sufi Order. A third, very +------------- +------------------------------------- +-------------------------------------------------- +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +-------------------------------------------Pun-jab is Sikh, Sikh, Sikh!-------- +--Lord Omar +-><- +-Nietzsche +1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 +1) Om your next birthday, return to the place of your birth and, at precisely +1) The Priests and four Brothers are arranged in a pentagon with the Initiate +1. Before the beginning was the Nonexistent Chao, balanced in Oblivion by the +1. HUNG MUNG +1. Polite children will always remember that a church is the ______ of _____. +1. SAINT SECOND CLASS +1. The Military Order of THE KNIGHTS OF THE FIVE SIDED TEMPLE. This is for all +1. There came one day to Lord Omar, Bull Goose of Limbo, a Messenger +1. Today's date Yesterday's Date +1. Write the ERISIAN AFFIRMATION in five copies. +1. Ye have locked yerselves up in cages of fear--and, behold, do ye now +10. And it came to pass that on the fifth night he dreampt, and in his +10. During and after the Fall of the Establishment of Bureaucracy was the +10. The Earth quakes and the heavens rattle; the beasts of nature flock +11. Herein was set into motion the Eristic Pattern, which would Repeat Itself +11. Indeed do many things come to pass. +11. Thereupon the Angel Commanded to Lord: Take ye this Honest Book of +14. Wipe thine ass with what is written and grin like a ninny at what is +1965 in five copies, which were mostly lost. +1965. I worked for a guy on Bourbon Street who was a Xerox salesman by day. +1970,hundreds of people coast to coast were talking about it and asking the +2) All persons in the audience and the pentagon, excepting the Priest, assume +2) When you have done this, write to me and I'll tell you what to do next. +2. And the Angel of Eris bade of the Lord: Go ye hence and dig the +2. DR. VAN VAN MOJO +2. LANCE SAINT +2. Purpose of this application: --membership in : a. Legion of Dynamic Discord +2. Sign and nose-print each copy. +2. The Political Order of THE PARTY FOR WAR ON EVIL. This is reserved for +2. Whereupon, by an Act of Happenstance, the Hodge began gradually to +2. Ye have cast out yer brothers for devils and now complain ye, lamenting, +24,902.20656 by 61 and you get the distance of moon's orbit around the earth. +3) The Priest begins: +3. All Chaos was once yer kingdom; verily, held ye dominion over the entire +3. And though Omar did bid of the Collector of Garbage, in words that were +3. LIEUTENANT SAINT +3. Name_________________________ Holy Name________________ +3. SRI SYADASTI SYADAVAKTAVYA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADASTI CAVAKTAVYASCA +3. Send one to the President of the United States. +3. So Omar went forth to the Sacred Mound, which was to the East of +3. So in the beginning was the Primal Chaos, balanced on the Edge of Oblivion +3. The Academic Order of THE HEMLOCK FELLOWSHIP. They commonly inhabit schools +4) All present rejoice grandly. The new Brother opens a large jug of wine and +4. At the end of five days and five nights of digging, it came to pass +4. BRIGADIER SAINT +4. Description: Born: []Yes []No Eyes:[]2 []other Height: +4. O how the darknesses do crowd up, one against the other, in ye hearts! What +4. Send one to +4. The Social Order of THE CITIZENS COMMITTEE FOR CONCERNED CITIZENS. This is +4. Whereupon, by the Law of Negative Reversal,** the Podge swiftly +4. ZARATHUD THE INCORRIGIBLE, sometimes called ZARATHUD THE STAUNCH +5) The Ceremony generally degenerates. +5. An Age of Confusion, or an Ancient Age, is one in which History As We +5. And therein emerged the Active Force of Discord, the Subtle Manifestation +5. FIVE STAR SAINT +5. History: Education - highest grade completed 1 2 3 4 5 6 over 6th +5. Hung Mung slapped his buttocks, hopped about, and shook his head, saying "I +5. Nail one to a telephone pole. Hide one. And burn the other. +5. Omar slept. +5. THE ELDER MALACLYPSE +5. The Sacred Order of THE DEFAMATION LEAGUE. Not much is known about the D.L., +5. Verily, verily I say unto you, not all the Sinister Ministers of the +6. An Age of Bureaucracy is an Imperial Age in which Things Mature, in which +6. Forasmuch as it was Active, the Force of Discord entered the State of +6. On the fifth day of his sleeping, Lord Omar fell into a Trance, and +6. Sneaky Questions to establish personality traits +7. An Age of Disorder or an Aftermath is an Apocalyptic Period of Transition +7. And the Angel of Eris bade of the Lord: Go ye hence and lift the +7. And under Eris Confusion became established, and was hence called +7. Never write in pencil unless you are on a train or sick in bed. +7. Self Portrait +8. But Omar lamented, saying unto the Angel: What is this shit,man? +8. By the by it came to pass that the Establishment of Bureaucracy perished +9. And, lo, the Angel waxed in anger and Omar was stricken to the Ground +9. Thus it was, in accord with the Law of Laws. +>From this it may be concluded that Eris has usurped Eros (god of erotic love) +A =POPE= is someone who is not under the authority of the authorities. +A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z +A Discordian Society Legionnaire is one who prefers not to create his own +A GAME +A Head Doctor of Deep Africa and Maker of Fine Dolls. D.H.V., Doctor of Hoodoo +A Joint Effort of the Discordian Society +A Non-prophet Irreligious Disorganization +A SERMON ON ETHICS AND LOVE +A Sage of Ancient China and Official Discordian Missionary to the Heathen +A ZEN STORY +A hard nosed Hermit of Medieval Europe and Chaosphe Bible Banger. Dubbed +A jug of wine, +A leg of lamb +A person belonging to one or more Order is just as likely to carry a flag of +A serious young man found the conflicts of mid 20th Century America confusing. +A wandering Wiseman of Ancient Mediterrania ("Med-Terra" or middle earth), who +A) APOSTLE HOLYDAYS B) SEASON HOLYDAYS +ACTUAL, ARE MORE CAPABLE OF PERFECTION. +AN EPISKOPOS OF THE DISCORDIAN SOCIETY +AND SAN FRANCISCO DISCORDIAN SOCIETY CABAL BULLETIN AND INTERGALACTIC REPORT & +ANERISTIC ILLUSION. Some grids can be more useful than others, some more +ARE DIVISIBLE BY OR ARE MULTIPLES OF FIVE, OR ARE SOMEHOW DIRECTLY OR +ARTIST. +ASCII pebbles -DtC] REALLY form a pentagon? +Adrift like a Lunatic Lifeboat Crew +Advertisement +Aftermath, an Age of Disorder in which calculation, computations, and +Agents will contact you shortly. +Ahua, 8 Cumhu, Mayan date. Revived by Abdul Alhazred in his infamous Al Azif, +Albuquerque, NM) and ZEN WITHOUT ZEN MASTERS by Camden Benares (And/Or +All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some +An Erisian Hymn +An Illuminated Mind can see all of these, yet he does not insist that any one +An ORDAINED POEE PRIEST or PRIESTESS is defined as "one who holds an +And follow the Way it carries you, +And so it is that we, as men, do not exist until we do; and then it is that we +And so thank you for your insight, it may well be the clue to the mystery of +And they started fighting, and they started throwing punch all over the +And thou! +And when men become free then mankind will be free. +And with that he revealed his scroll. It was a diagram, like a yin-yang with +And, in return, Aneris swore that no matter how many existent things Eris +Aneristic Illusion. They do not know that they belong to Orders of Discordia. +Apostle. Lord Omar claims that Dr. Mojo heaps hatred upon Patamunzo, who sends +Apr 1 2 3 4 5 18 19 20 21 22 Oct 3 4 5 6 7 57 58 59 60 61 +Are not far apart in Discordian Eyes. +As a public service to all mankind and civilization in general, and to us in +Aztec Legend of QUETZLCOATL? very MENTION of the FORBIDDEN +B.C. Possibly it was he who taught the inner-teachings to Conan of Cimmeria +BEFORE THE GODDESS ERIS, I (name or holyname), do herewith declare myself a +Barnum, I'm not sure. The jumping man on page 12 is from an advertisement. I +Bavaria. +Bavarian Illuminati +Bavarian Illuminati, working together in multitudes, could so entwine the land +Be Ye Not Lost Among Precepts of Order... +Begin waving your arms in any elaborate manner and make motions with your hands +Beside me, +Blfffffffffffft! +Brother Ram, +Building, a most pregnant manifestation of straightjacket order resting on a +Buns). +Buns, and ruminate a bit about It All. +Bureaucracy; while over Bureaucracy Eris became established, and was hence +But also I sympathize with artists who must own and sell their works to earn a +But we know. +Button and Distributed to The Poor in The Region of Thud if he does not get +C) ST. TIB'S DAY - occurs once every 4 years (1+4=5) and is inserted +CANNOT SWALLOW HIS NOSE BUT HIS BROTHER CAN, HAS BEEN EXPOSED! IT IS MR. +CHORUS +CONVERSATION: +CYCLES," which states that social progress occurs in five cycles, the first +Care: Celestial Hotel (Suite #666) +Chao, so that they can put "KSC" after their names. +Chaos. Holyday: Jan 5. +Chapter 1, THE EPISTLE TO THE PARANOIDS +Chief Sun Flower Seed and the squaw Merry Jane. Patron to psychedelic type +Chinee. He who originally devised THE SACRED CHAO. Patron of the Season of +Climb into the Chao with a friend or two +Commerce, the Black Lotus Society, the Republican Party, the John Dillinger +Comparable to Lt/Saint but has an established following (fictional or +Concubine of Confusion! O! Exquisite Lady, I beseech You to lift a heavy burden +Confusion becomes entrenched and during which Balanced Balance,or +Confusion, wherein It copulated with the Queen and begat ERIS, Our Lady of +Confusion. For further information, consult your pineal gland. +Convictions cause convicts. +Corrections to last week's copy: Johnny Sample is offensive cornerback for the +Curse of Greyface, THE TURKEY CURSE is here passed on to Erisians everywhere +DESPITE strong evidence to the contrary, persistant rumor has it that it was +DISCORDIAN SOCIETY +DUTY: It shall be the duty of all persons playing "SINK" to help find more +Days of the Week* * The DAYS OF THE WEEK +Dear God; +Dedicated to an Advanced +Department of Comparative Realities, was assigned the Trust of the POEE Scruple +Dexter [to Ignotius]: That was me in that scene. +Dexter: He got our names mixed up. +Dexter: I don't much go for the worship business but I argee with Occupant +Dexter: I sort of enjoyed the confusion part. +Dexter: I think that George Dorn took too much guff from Hagbard. If someone +Dexter: I'll get it. +Dexter: I'm speaking figuratively of course. I'll tell you more tomorrow. +Dexter: You speak for yourself. +Dexter[to Gypsie]:It's a telegram for you, from Mal2. +Die For You Society, and the Camp Fire Girls. It is still useful to continue +Discord and Gross Manifestation of the Nonexistent Chao. +Discordian thought; it wasn't Garrison's Xerox, it was his mimeograph; and it +Discordians have a tradition of assuming HOLY NAMES. This is not +Discordians. Patron of the Season of Confusion. Holyday: May 31. NOTE: Sri +Do You Remember? +Do these 5 pebbles [note: they were pebbles,originally..try doing +Doings +Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton. +Dr. Mojo is an imposter and that PATAMUNZO LINGANANDA is the True Second +Dream a Messenger of Our Lady who told him of a Sacred Grove wherein +Dream he had a Vision, and in this Vision there came unto him a +Dull but Sincere Filler +ERIS +ERIS - GODDESS OF CHAOS, DISCORD & CONFUSION +ERIS CONTEMPLATES FOR 3125 YEARS +ERIS ESOTERIC. The first part can be taken to mean "equivalent +ERIS spelled fore-part-aft-wards is RISE. And spelled inside out is REIS, +ERIS!" Shrewedly observe if the subject is convinced. If he is, swear him into +ERISTIC ILLUSION. +Each occurs on the 5th Each occurs on the 50th +Edition of PRINCIPIA. He seemed impatient with me, insisting that he didn't +Elements, SWEET, BOOM, PUNGENT, PRICKLE, and ORANGE. Aneris, however, had been +Emperor Norton, Count Cagliostro, Guilliame of Aquaitaine, etc. +Episkoposes are developing separate paths to the Erisian mountain top. See the +Erisian Movement but The Erisian Movement and it is The Erisian Movement. And +Eristic propensity of the Pentagon site. +Esoteric, with the Authority invested at me by the High Priest of It, Office +Every man, woman and child on this Earth is a genuine and authorized Pope +Everybody understands Mickey Mouse. Few understand Herman Hesse. Only a +Everywhere people are hurting one another, the planet is rampant with +Ewige Blumenkraft! HAIL ERIS. +Example: St. Quixote (Don Quixote, Cervantes) +Example: St. Yossarian (Catch 22, Heller) +Excellent Goddess-Saturated Saint. +FBI. +FIFTH EDITION ODD# Infinity +FIVES. +Face the particular greyfaced you wish to short-circuit, or towards the +Face to fact with the mighty forces and elements of nature, the thoughtful man +Feb 5 6 7 8 9 36 37 38 39 40 9 10 11 12 13 2 3 4 5 6 +Fight till you're deceased. +Fight your little battles. +Finally even the box was closed. But over the years I noticed that copies were +Five Times Over Seventy-three Times, after which nothing would happen. +Fnords ->Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, Fnord, +For Office Use Only -- acc. rej. burned +For Your Enlightenment +For the Greater Glory, +Form, more or less, and such times are Ages of Balanced Unbalance, or +Fortunately, you have before you a handbook that will show you how to discover +From: MAD MALIK Hauptscheissmeister +G.H. Hill: Since then I have given up anarchy. Too many rules-- hating the +GODDESS OF CONFUSION +GOLDEN APPLE OF DISCORDIA to symbolize the ERISTIC PRINCIPLE. +GP: Even false things? +GP: How can that be? +GP: Is Eris true? +GP: Is that the answer to my question? +GP: Is there an essential meaning behind POEE? +GP: Maybe you are just crazy. +GP: Why do you deal with so many negatives? +GP: Will you develop that point? +GRAND OPERA pisseth against the wall..." +GREATER METROPOLITAN YORBA LINDA HERALD-NEWS-SUN-TRIBUNE-JOURNAL-DISPATCH-POST +GREATER POOP:Are you really serious or what? +GREYFACE +GYPSIE SKRIPTO [in response to a question]: ...1969 but only briefly. I guess +Garrison investigated Thornley). --GS +Gathered in discussion of the dropping of The Bomb; +Gen. Pandaemonium, Commanding +General License was Sgt. Pepper's Commander +Gentlemen, there are nipples on your chests; do you give milk? And what, +Gland" +Glands have perverted the Free Spirit of Man, and subverted Life into a +Go To Your Left-Right.... +God's name is ERIS, and that He is a girl?" If he should answer "Yes." then he +Goddess and request Her presence for some desperate advice. Shortly afterwards +Goddess directs him. He speaks for himself and for those that say that they +Goddess known to the Greeks as ERIS and to the Romans as DISCORDIA. This was +Goddess of Confusion? It is utter madness!" +Gold and how the fuck did we manage to fit inside of a tiny post office box +Good Saint material and definitely inspiring. +Grand (and gory) Old Discordja! +Grand (and gory) Old Discordja! +Grand (and gory) Old Discordja! +Great Seal to Jefferson in the garden that night. The Illuminated tradition +Greatest Association of What-ever-it-is-that-we-are." Lady Mal thinks of it as +Greeks, but that they cannot be trusted with historic matters. "They were," +Greyface and his followers took the game of playing at life more +Greyface, got it into his head that the universe was as humorless as +Guerrillas for World Peace. Patron of The Season of Discord. Holyday: Mar 19. +Gypsie [reading]: "If I told everybody how they could live inside of a post +Gypsie [to Hill] : What do you think of ILLUMINATUS? +Gypsie [to Hill]: And pacifism? +Gypsie [to Hill]: Did you really translate erotic Etruscan poetry? +Gypsie [to Hill]: Since you wrote it, I take it you are an anarchist? +Gypsie: ...what I really want to know is how can we all fit inside of a tiny +Gypsie: Can you use it without his permission? +Gypsie: Did you [Malik] have higher authority than the others? +Gypsie: Earlier you said that you met your objectives. Just what were those +Gypsie: Hey, guy, later. [to Hill]: Doesn't this leave you a little schizy? +Gypsie: How do you mean? +Gypsie: I have only one question left... +Gypsie: I'm reporting now, you talk. +Gypsie: Like what? +Gypsie: Perhaps. Later. +Gypsie: Specifically, what are some of the sources? +Gypsie: That name sounds familiar. Where is it from? +Gypsie: There are no real names at all? +Gypsie: To me? +Gypsie: Well, for one night anyway. The interview is in the PRINCIPIA. +Gypsie: What do you think about the PRINCIPIA now? Would you want to change it? +Gypsie: What's the other half? +Gypsie: Where did all the things in PRINCIPIA come from? +Gypsie: Will there ever be a Fifth Edition? +H.P. Lovecraft invented the NECRONOMICON. We answered according to our +HAIL HAIL HAIL HAIL HAIL ERIS ERIS ERIS ERIS ERIS ALL HAIL DISCORDIA! +HARVEY OSWALD? +HERE FOLLOWS SOME PSYCHO-METAPHYSICS. +HIP-2-3-4, HIP-2-3-4 +HODGE. The Pentagon has several references; for one,, it can be taken to +HOLYDAYS +HOW TO BECOME A POEE CHAPLIN +Hail Eris. T'AI +Hall: Oh, some. Camden Benares is a real name because he legally changed his +Hand of Eris, however, is not intended to be taken as satanic, for the +Have a friendly class talk. Permit each child to tell any part of the unit on +Have you ever SECRETLY WONDERED WHY IS there an ESOTERIC ALLEGORY con- +Have you ever secretly HYGIENE +He answers YES. +He is an Indian Pundit and Prince, born of the Peyotl Tribe, son of Gentle +He went to many people seeking a way of resolving within himself the discords +Headmaster, Camp Meeker Cabal +Heaven is down. Hell is up. +Hemlock? I never touch the stuff! +Her +Her Apple Corps is strong! +Her Apple Corps is strong! +Her Apple Corps is strong! +Her geneology is from the Greeks and is utterly confused. Either She was the +Here is a letter from A.I.S.B. to POEE: +Herewith your copy. DO NOT DIVULGE THIS INFORMATION - SECURITY E-5. +Herself to The Golden Apple Corps for the first time. +Hey Man...Great! I feel goofy, the way my old man looks when he's drunk. +Hill. He has also translated several volumes of Etruscan erotic +Hill: ...I do point out that it makes just as much sense from its own +Hill: A character can have a sign if I want it so. +Hill: But of course training contradicts Discordian principles. +Hill: He got mixed up about me too, in COSMIC TRIGGER. Bob says that when +Hill: I consider it a successful work and I wouldn't want to change it. In +Hill: I'm not sure I ever was one. Mal2 was not, Malik was. Personally I +Hill: If it is his? I don't know. I hope so. it means "left right" in Latin +Hill: It's OK, I'm half Gemini. +Hill: Its a name I came up with in the old days and never used it much. Its on +Hill: Nope. A spirit is a product of definition and the one who is doing the +Hill: Oh bull! Besides, I changed her so much the Greeks would never recognize +Hill: Oh, I changed a quote from Tom Gnostic on page 61 and I don't think he +Hill: Oh, I love it. I was finishing PRINCIPIA when Shea and Wilson were +Hill: Sure, but I used a pen name. I signed it "Robert Anton Wilson". +Hill: Taurus. That makes me a stubborn schizy. +Hill: There already is a Fifth Edition, by Mal2. It is a one page telegram +Hill: Weel, the poem on the front cover is by Walt Kelly and was spoken by one +Hill: Well you can look at it like that if you want to, but I created Mal2 to +Hill: Well, a full answer would take another book in itself. Most of the +Hill: Well, take a collage for example. Like the early one on page 36 of the +Hill: Well, that's hard to answer because it kept refining itself over the +Hill: Yeah, in a way that is right. That is why my name does not appear +Hill: Yeah. I get along better with rocks. +His name is Sanskrit, and means: All affirmations are true in some sense, false +Home Study Bible School; and F.I.H.G.W.P., Fellow of the Intergalactic Haitian +Honest Book. +I - There is no Goddess but Goddess and She is Your Goddess. There is no +I Tell You: One must +I am chaos. I am the substance from which your artists and scientists build +I burst out with questions like whether he preferred Panama Red or Acapulco +I enjoyed each of these yarns and did my part to help spread them. I was +I have come to tell you that you are free. Many ages ago, My consciousness +I like ILLUMINATUS for the surrealism. A very effective method of writing. +I missed you guys. +I sometimes think of it as a disorganization of Eris Freaks. It has been +I told them it had been transmitted by a canine intellgence -- +I've ever seen. The Lick Here Box on page 23 is one of many tidbits making the +I) The Out House +IF THE TELEPHONE RINGS TODAY..... WATER IT! +IGNOTUM PER IGNOTIUS: It's like hating your own fantasies. +II - A Discordian Shall Always use the Official Discordian Document Numbering +II) The House of the Rising Collapse +III - A Discordian is Required during his early Illumination to Go Off Alone & +III) The House of the Rising Hodge +INDIRECTLY APPROPRIATE TO 5. +IT IS SO WRITTEN! SO BE IT. HAIL DISCORDIA! PROSECUTORS WILL BE +IV - A Discordian shall Partake of No Hot Dog Buns, for Such was the Solace of +IV) The House of the Rising Podge +If a lot of people who receive this letter plant a few seeds and a lot of +If a quixotic socrates studied zen under Zorba...? +If he, wonder of wonders, still remains obstinate, then finally resort to: +If you are not hot for philosophy, best just to skip it. +If you can master nonsense as well as you have already learned to master +If you can't find the Polyfather, or having found him, don't want anything to +If you like Erisianism as it is presented according to Mal-2, then you may +If you think the PRINCIPIA is just a ha-ha, then go read it again. +If you want in on the Discordian Society then declare yourself what you wish +If you would rather not, then please pass this copy on to someone and perhaps +If your I.Q. is over 150, and you have $3,125.00 (plus handling), you might be +Ignotius: A perfectly normal pagan relationship. +Ignotius: Besides people confused him with Joe Malik in ILLUMINATUS. +Ignotius: Deities change things around all the time. +Ignotius: Here, here. +Ignotius: I am an athiest myself. There is no Greg Hill. +Ignotius: I got misquoted. Worse, I wasn't even in that scene and if I had +Ignotius: I'm a Whale. +Ignotius: Idealism lives with rules. Realism lives with rocks. +Ignotius: If you can live rewardingly with Goddess Eris you can live with any +Ignotius: Oh, is that what that was? +Ignotius: That is characteristic of the Discordian perspective. +Illumination. And it will teach you how to turn your miserable mess into a +In honor of this Incredible Event, this Holy Place is revered as a Shrine by +In other words, people invent gods and not the other way around. Later I +In parks. On lots. Public flower beds. In remote places. At City Hall. +In the 50's a female deity was blasphemy. In the 70's a humorous deity is +In the 50's my culture taught me that I was created by and for a deity, a +In the Los Angeles suburb of Whittier there lives a bowling alley, and within +In the meantime - plant your seeds. +In the year 1166 B.C., a malcontented hunchbrain by the name of +Inspiration to all men and a Scribe to the Gods. +Inspiration to all men and a Scribe to the Gods. +It also helps if one is absolutely zonked out of his gourd. +It is also the shape of the United States Military Headquarters, the Pentagon +It is called THE CURSE OF GREYFACE. +It is called THE SACRED CHAO. I appoint you Keepers of It. Therein you will +It is hovering o'er the table where the Chiefs of Staff are now +It is known that they now have absolute domination over all organized churches +It is not presently understood why men were so gullible at that +It is perplexing. +It is then repeated indefinitely, or for the first two thousand miles, which +It is written that when The Corps returns to The Shrine for the fifth time five +It says little, +It will advise you how to balance your Pineal Gland and reach spiritual +Jan 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 Chs Jul 5 6 7 8 9 40 41 42 43 44 Cfn +Jerusalem, Mecca and Cairo, bearing a sign that seemed to read "DOOM". (This is +Joe. Malaclypse was actually Alan Watts, one heard. No,said another legend +Join in thickest fray; +Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, Burroughs Nova Express, the King James translation of +Jun 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 7 8 9 10 11 49 50 51 52 53 +Know It begins to unfold, in which Whatever Is Coming emerges in Corporal +LEGIONNAIRE OF THE LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD. HAIL ERIS! HAIL HAIL! HAIL YES! +Lama. Inclosed are some plans for several new potential locations. Please +Later Omar activated the Hung Mung Cong Tong and ELF, on zenarchist +Law of Fives to be more and more manifest the harder I look." +Lay it before Kings of Nations and Collectors of Garbage. Preach from +Lo as the voice had predicted, the tea was bitter. +M2: Even false things are true. +M2: Everything is true. +M2: I don't know man, I didn't do it. +M2: Indeed! But do not reject these teaching as false because I am crazy. The +M2: No, of course not. That is just illustrative. The answer to your question +M2: No. +M2: There is a Zen Story about a student who asked a Master to explain the +M2: To dissolve them. +MAD MALIK: No wonder, he was pretty much a one man show then. We were just his +MAL-2: Sometimes I take humor seriously. Sometimes I take seriousness +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM +MOMOMOTO WHO CAN SWALLOW HIS NOSE. HE SWALLOWED HIS BROTHER IN THE SUMMER OF +MY HIGH REVERENCE MALACLYPSE THE YOUNGER, AB, DD, KSC, is the High Priest of +Mad Malik, Hauptscheissmeister; Resident for Norton Cabal +Magicians, and progeny the scientists, have always taken themselves and their +Magicians, especially since the Gnostic and the Quabala influences, have +Make a few copies of this letter (5 would be nice) and send them to friends of +Mal! If civilization makes it through this crises, our grandchildren will live +Mal-2 was once asked by one of his Disciples if he often prayed to Eris. He +Malaclypse the Younger KSC +Malaclypse the Younger, were indulging in their habit of sipping coffee at +Malaclypse. +Malignatius, KNS. +Malignatus, KNS, into his Discordian sect, The Ancient Illuminated Seers of +Malik: Come on Greg, you just think that we are your characters.... +Malik: Mal2 once told me that pacifism was a dilemma. If everybody was a +Malik: No, [but I was allowed to speak in the POOP] because [Malaclypse the +Malik: Oh so what. Contradictions are nothing to Discordians. +Malik: Spirits don't have signs. +Malik: We have had this argument before, Reverend Doctor Brother. But wine +Malik: What you don't realize is that a spirit has a self identity. +Malik: [Anarchy] is also standing up and proceeding forward, fantasy rule or +Manifestations of Everyday Chaos +Mar 2 3 4 5 6 61 62 63 64 65 Sep 3 4 5 6 7 27 28 29 30 31 +Mary Jane says "Plant Your Seeds. Keep Prices Down." +Masons, the Rothchild Banks, and the Federal Reserve System, we now have +May 1 2 3 4 5 48 49 50 51 52 Nov 2 3 4 5 6 14 15 16 17 18 +May the Goddess put twinkles in your eyes. +May we warn you against imitations! Ours is the original and genuine +May you be free of The Curse of Greyface. +May you have the knowledge of a sage, +Meanwhile, at the Chinese laundromat... +Messenger of Our Lady who entrusted to him a Rigoletto cigar box +Metaphysical Reality and that The Erisian Movement is really more like a poem +Mine brain has meditated on the spinning of The Chao; +Mockery, and Friendship. And that She begat Forgetfullness, Quarrels, Lies, +Momomoto, Famous Japanese, can swallow his nose. +Mord says that Omar says that we are all unicorns anyway. +Mr. Momomoto's brother who swallowed Mr. Momomoto in the summer of '44. +Mr. Momomoto, famous Japanese who can swallow his nose,has been +Mullah, and thereupon he worked digging in the sand for five days and +Myself." +NAMING OF OBJECTS is some times desirable. The object is named by the finder +NONSENSE AS SALVATION +NOTE: In the lore of western magic, the \/ is taken to symbolize horns, +Nam because it was turning the renaissance into a political revolution and was +New York Jets, not fullback as stated. Bobby Tolan's name is not Randy, but +No harm, though, in admitting that some of them can be found disguised in +No, we Erisians seldom pray, it is much too dangerous. Charles Fort has +Non-Being and then to leave her and, so that he might play with order and +Non-Being." "I see,"replied Void, "Then I decree the following: +Not for Circulation! +Note to POEE Priests: +Note: It is an Old Erisian Tradition to never agree with each other about +Nyx, goddess of night (who was either the daughter or wife of Chaos, or both), +O it cracked the Holy Punchbowl and it made the nectar leak; +O! Hail Eris. All Hail Dis-cord-ia. +O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Elder Mal. +O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Gu-lik. +O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Hung Mung. +O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Mo-jo. +O! Hail Eris. Blessed St. Zara-thud. +OF CHAINS! +ON NORBERT WEINER, NUCLEAR PHYSICIST +ON PRAYER +ORDER/DISORDER. They are the same! +ORDINATION AS A POEE PRIEST +Occupant: Brother needs some wine! +Occupant: Dilemma, Schilmemma. [to Gypsie]: What do you think of this, pretty +Occupant: Doesn't prove anything anyway. +Occupant: Eris told Mal2 what to use and where to find it. +Occupant: I choose Satyr. +Occupant: I do! +Occupant: I think paganism is a valid spiritual path. I encourage Erisianism +Occupant: Later then? +Occupant: See? +Occupant: So are other Erisians, like POEE. +Occupant: That's what She wanted! +Occupant: Well I can have a sign if I want to and screw both of you. +Occupant: You are smiling. +Occupant: You are supposed to be a pacifist. +Occupant: You didn't invent Eris. She caused you to think you created the +Occupant: You were inhabited by Malaclypse the Younger. He caused you to +Oct 24. +Of possible interest to all Discordians, this information is herewith released +Office of My High Reverence +Official +Official Discordian Document Number (if applicable): n/a +Official Proclamation -- ODD# III(b)/4,i;18Aft3135 +Ohio!" +One day Mal-2 consulted his Pineal Gland* and asked Eris if She really created +Onward, Fruits of Islam, +Onwards Buddhist Priests. +Onwards Christian Soldiers, +Ordination Certificate from the Office of the Polyfather." +Originating Cabal: Joshua Norton Cabal - San Francisco +Oswald was buying the assassination rifle, my girlfriend was printing the +Our Goddess when She was Confronted with The Original Snub. +Our People's Underworld Movement sect in Larchmont, prefers "The World's +Over the Waves in whatever you do. +PERPETUAL DATE CONVERTER FROM GREGORIAN TO POEE CALENDAR +PISCES to AQUARIUS +PLANETARY Pi, which I discovered, is 61. It's a Time-Energy relationship +PLAYING GAMES. +POEE +POEE & It's Priests +POEE (pronounced "POEE") is an acronym for The PARATHEO-ANAMETAMYSTIKHOOD OF +POEE ASTROLOGICAL SYSTEM +POEE BROTHER of THE LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD. +POEE LEGIONNAIRE DISCIPLES are authorized to initiate others as Discordian +POEE Priestly Things. A "POEE Cabal" is exactly what you think it is. +POEE Priests to proselytes who desire a formal ceremony. +POEE has 5 DEGREES: +POEE has no treasury, no by-laws, no articles, no guides save Mal-2's pineal +POEE has not registered,incorporated, or otherwise chartered with the State, +POEE is a bridge from +POEE, and POEE is grounded in his episkopotic revelations of The Goddess. He +POEE, then none of these Truths are binding, and it is a rotten shame that you +POINT. It may be vertical, horizontal, or else such, and it may be elaborated +POPE POOP. +POST OFFICE LIBERATION FRONT +PRINCIPIA were distributed by Mad Malik, Block Disorganizer, who had +PRINCIPIA. Each little piece was extracted from some larger work created by +PRINCIPLE, and instead of a Hodge spot on the Podge side, it depicts the +PS: PRIVATE - Not for publication in The Principia. +PURPOSE: To sink object or an object or a thing... +Part Five The Golden Secret +Partake Joyously of a Hot Dog on a Friday; this Devotive Ceremony to +Patamunzo Lingananda School of Higher Spiritual Wisdom, Skokie. +Patron and namesake of Mal-2. Patron on The Season of The Aftermath. Holyday: +Pelias and Kull. Founding of the Illuminated Ones of Bavaria, by Adam +Pentaverse, but today ye was sore afraid in dark corners, nooks, and sink +Perfect Counterpushpull of the Hodge and the Podge. +Pilgrimage is sufficient and that it is prudent to never get around to actually +Plant your seeds. +Please do not use me for a reference +Preparation for the Return to Oblivion to be followed by a Repetition of the +Presidential Tier, Paradise +Press, Berkeley, California). "We are operating on many levels here", +Priestly Things, using the Principia Discordia as a guide. Your Official Rank +Principia/Malaclypse was a very personal work for me and actually took 10 +Principle is that of APPARENT DISORDER. Both order and disorder are man made +Probability is a mathematical concept, coming from statistics. Entropy comes +Professor Ignotius. He ushered me into a spacious wood paneled and tapestry +Prolonged use in a darkened room may induce hallucinations or trigger +Pyramid has five sides? - behold, I will bring evil upon +Pyrotechnics of pure energy formed her flowing hair, and rainbows manifested +Q. "How come a woodpecker doesn't bash its brains out?" A. Nobody has ever +Questions +R=P-D+N. The collection of values of D (and of P) for all delegates is clearly +REALITY lying behind the ANCIENT TURN PALE with terror at the +REV. DR. OCCUPANT: Malik was the only one he would ever let write for the POOP +RUB-A-DUB-DUB +RUB-A-DUB-DUB +RULES: Sinking is allowd in any manner. To date, ten pound chunks of mud were +Remonstrate against the popular Paganisms of the Day: of Catholic Christendom +Reproduce and distribute these cards freely- POEE Head Temple, San Francisco +Resurrection of the Freedom-flowing Chaos. HAIL ERIS! +Rev. Mungo +Revealed by the Apostle Dr. Van Van Mojo as a specific counter to the evil +SAMPLE MESSAGE: ("HAIL ERIS") +SERIOUS/HUMOROUS. +SINISTER DEXTER HAS A BROKEN SPIROMETER. +SINISTER DEXTER: It's OK with me. Fate is fate. I never much liked "Mad Malik" +SINK +SINK is played by Discordians and people of much ilk. +STEP 1. Write out the message (HAIL ERIS) and put all the vowels at the end +STEP 2. Reverse order (IEIASRLH) +STEP 3. Convert to numbers (9-5-9-1-19-18-12-8) +STEP 4. Put into numerical order (1-5-8-9-9-12-18-19) +STEP 5. Convert back to letters (AEHIILRS) +SYA-DASTI +SYA-DASTI KAVAK-TAV-YASKA +SYA-DASTI SYA-NASTI +SYA-DASTI, SYA-NASTI, SYA-DAVAK-TAV-YASKA +SYA-DAVAK-TAVYA +SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADAVATAVYASCA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADAVAKTAVYASCA commonly +Saints. +Seal of the United States. +Seasons +Seek ye the Eye of the Hurricane. +She added, "victims of indigestion, you know." +She apparently embezzeled the Olympian Treasury and went to Brazil; whereupon +She heard this and then began to weep. +She opened a chain of whorehouses (which certainly would get a rise from the +She was not invited to the party that they held on Limbo Peak;* +Shea, and I both received hundreds of letters from people intrigued by the +Should you find that your own revelations of The Goddess become substantially +So She threw a Golden Apple, 'sted of turn'd t'other cheek! +Society Legionnaires. PRIESTS appoint their own DEACONS. The POLYFATHER +Some excerpts from an interview with Malaclypse the Younger by THE +Sparta. Anyway, everyone knows that the Trojan War followed when Sparta +Spoken. Take thine refuge with thine wine in the Nothing behind Everything, +Stagnation, is attained. +Stash, that ye may come to own it and, owning it, share it and, +Suddenly the place became devoid of light. Then an utter silence enveloped +Suffice it to say that Eris is not hateful or malicious. But She is +Summing the above equations, one for each delegate, gives S-S+NK, where K is +Syadasti should not be confused with BLESSED ST. GULIK THE STONED, who is not +System. +TAO FA TSU-DAN FIND PEACE WITH A +TELL NO ONE! ACCIDENTS HAVE A STRANGE WAY OF HAPPENING TO PEOPLE WHO TALK TOO +TESTS BY DOCTORS PROVE IT POSSIBLE TO SHRINK +THAT BLOWS NO MINDS. And remember that there is no tyranny in the State of +THE ANCIENT ILLUMINATED SEERS OF BAVARIA - VIGILANCE LODGE +THE DISCORDIAN SOCIETY +THE ERISIAN MOVEMENT HOUSE OF APOSTLES OF ERIS +THE FIVE ORDERS OF DISCORDIA ("THEM") +THE FOLLOWING FOUR CATAGORIES ARE RESERVED FOR FICTIONAL BEINGS WHO, NOT BEING +THE FOLLOWING IS QUOTED FROM BERGAN EVANS +THE GOLDEN APPLE CORPS +THE LAST WORD +THE LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD: +THE PARATHEO-ANAMETAMYSTIKHOOD OF ERIS ESOTERIC (POEE) +THE RECENT EXPOSE THAT MR. MOMOMOTO, FAMOUS JAPANESE WHO CAN SWALLOW HIS NOSE, +THE REVELATION +THE SACRED CHAO is the key to illumination. Devised by the Apostle Hung Mung +THE TRUTH IS FIVE BUT MEN HAVE ONLY ONE NAME FOR IT. +THERE IS NO TRUTH +THIS IS A CHAIN LETTER. +THUS ENDS PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA +TO PERFORM THE TURKEY CURSE: +TO: REV. RAMPANT PANCREAS, tRRoCR(a)pttM; Colorado Encrustation +TRANSGRESSICUTED. +TURNS are taken thusly: who somever gets the junk up and in the air first. +Take a foot stance as if you were John L. Sullivan preparing for fisticuffs. +Taoists. It is the HODGE-PODGE of the Erisians. And, instead of a Podge spot +Temple at 555 Battery Street to try for an interview. +Test Question from Topanga Cabal The Twelve Famous Buddha Minds School: If +That man lives best who's fain +The Chinese on the page is a grocery ad, I think. The Norton money on page 14 +The Classical Greeks were not influenced by the Classical Greeks. +The Classification of Saints +The Discordian Society has no definition. +The Eminent 16th Century Mathemetician Cardan so detested Luther that he +The FIRST ED PRINCIPIA, by the way, was reproduced at Xerox Corp when +The Five Apostles of Eris. +The GREAT PYRAMID has FIVE sides cealed in the apparently innocent +The Goddess Prevails. have a one-man cabal. +The Goddess. But the Greeks had only a limited understanding of Disorder, and +The Golden Apple Corps* is an honorary position for the Keepers of The Sacred +The Hell Law says that Hell is reserved exclusively for them that believe in +The Hidden Temple of The Happy Jesus. +The Hidden stone ripens fast, +The High Priest makes no demands on his Priests, though he does rather expect +The Initiate answers PROBABLY. +The Initiate swears the following: DMTS +The Necronomicon.) In 1090 A.D. was the founding of The Ismaelian Sect +The PENTABARF was discovered by the hermit Apostle Zarathud in the Fifth Year +The PODGE of the Sacred Chao is symbolized as The Golden Apple of Discordia, +The POEE HEAD TEMPLE is the Joshua Norton Cabal of The Discordian Society, +The PRINCIPIA itself is a collage. A conceptual collage. All of it happens +The Pentagon represents the Aneristic Principle of Order and symbolizes the +The Polyfather stranded alone with his species. +The Polyfather wishes to remind all Erisians the POEE was conceived not as a +The Priest continues: THEN I DO HERE PROCLAIM YE POEE DISCIPLE (name), +The Romans left a likeness of Her for posterity-- She was shown as a grotesque +The Sacred Chao symbolizes absolutely everything anyone need ever know about +The Turkey Curse is designed solely to counteract negative aneristic vibes and +The Turkey Curse works. It is firmly grounded on the fact that Greyface and +The esoteric name for this symbol is THE FIVE FINGERED HAND OF ERIS, commonly +The foregoing document was revealed to Mal-2 by the Goddess Herself through +The human race will begin solving it's problems on the day that it ceases +The official symbol of POEE is here illustrated. It may be this, or any +The real reality is there, but everything you KNOW about "it" is in your mind +The results will be instantly apparent. +The seeds of the ORDERS OF DISCORDIA were planted by Greyface into his early +The sunny one in a tunic was the Reverend Doctor Occupant, the trim khaki and +The teachings of the Sri Syadasti School of Spiritual School of Spiritual +The theorem to be proved is that if any even number of people take seats at +The unfortunate result of this is that mankind has since been +The words of the Foolish and those of the Wise +The words you are now reading are your ordination. +Then consult your pineal gland. +There are four other +There are no particular qualifications for Ordination because if you want to +There are no rules anywhere. Some Episkoposes +There is a lot of pirated stuff in the PRINCIPIA, especially in the margins. +There is serenity in Chaos. +There walked into the room a chimpanzee, shaggy and grey about the muzzle, +Thetis and did not want to invite Eris because of Her reputation as a +They looked around and saw that the bowlers were frozen like statues in a +This cryptographic cypher code is GUARANTEED TO BE 100% UNBREAKABLE. +This is St. Gulik. He is the Messenger of the Goddess. A different age from +This is an essential challenge to the basic concepts of all western occult +This is proven by the fact +This is slightly less than the actual distance because we have not yet +This is to inform you that your current position as diety is herewith +Those biased by the Aneristic Illusion would say yes. +Those biased by the Eristic Illusion would say no. Criss-cross them and it is +Thud. +To be reserved for all human beings deserving of Sainthood. Example: St.Norton +To that end, POEE proposes the countergame of NONSENSE AS SALVATION. Salvation +To this end, we propose that man develop his innate love for disorder, and +To: Jehova Yahweh +Today's DATE: day of the Carrot yesterday's DATE: Yes -><- +Transcribed to 1's and 0's by Druel the Chaotic, WPI Discordian Society +Trip 5! +Truth to thine bosom and cherish it. Carry it forth into The Land and +Truth, metaphysical reality, is irrelevant to grids entirely. Pick a grid, +Truth, that ye may come to know it and, knowing it, spread it and, +UPON SINKING: The sinked shall yell "I sank it!" or something equally as +Unbalanced Balance. +Understanding of the Paraphysical +Universal Absurdity. Moreover, of Itself the Coming of Aftermath waseth a +Unlike a song, chants are not sung but chanted. This particular one is much +Used by Old Roman Discordians, Illuminatus Churchill, and innocent Hippies +V - A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing What he reads. +V) The House of Apostle of ERIS +VERSE +VERSE +Verily! So much for all that. +WHAT IS the TRUE secret SINISTER WHY do scholarly anthropologists +WHO IS the MAN in ZURICH WHAT REALLY DID HAPPEN +WITHIN THE NEXT FIFTY-FIVEDAYS YOU WILL RECEIVE THIRTY-ELEVEN HUNDRED POUNDS +War among men. +Washington; and it was he who was the Man in Black who gave the design for The +We +We are returning to the two Zwack Cyphers for classified communications. +Wealth, and Aphrodite offered him the Most Beautiful Woman on Earth. Being a +Weishaupt, on May 1, 1776. He based it on the others. Weishaupt brought it to +Well, probably you do have one, and it's unfortunate because lopsided Pineal +Western Union Telegram +What care I for the Word and Sayings? What care I for the Inspiration +When I get to the bottom I go back to the top +Whenever I question him about this, he grows very evasive and attempts +Wherever. Whenever. Or start a plantation in your closet (but read up on it +Whistling in +Why are we Here ? SUPPRESSED KNOWLEDGE +Will whoever stole Brother Reverend Magoun's pornography please return +Wisdom are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, +Wisdom, Wilmette. +Within your Pineal Gland Do Mortals bow; +Wizard" in a Single Weekend. +Word of Goddess. Consequently, if you prefer a Discordian Sect other than +YES, I'd like to know the Five Simple Actions that will turn Me into a "Mental +YES. +Yah, yah, yah, +Yah, yah, yah, yah. +You have built for yourselves psychic suits of armor, and clad in them, your +Younger. I was free lancing for the underground papers and went to POEE Hear +Younger] hated politics. He was infuriated with Johnson and nixon over Viet +Your acute observation that ERIS spelled backwards is SIRE, and your inference +Zambian cybernetics genius who joined us? Well, he has secretly co-ordinated +[A quick rap is heard on the door] +[NOTE: Erisians of The Laughing Christ sect are of the silly contention that +[Paper tearing] +[a final graphic was deleted here at the end DtC] +[diagram of HODGE/PODGE TRANSFORMER deleted... DtC] +[graphic deleted... if you wanna see it, READ THE BOOK] +[graphical stuff deleted -DtC] +[laughter] +[note: Graphic Cypher deleted DtC] +____________________________ +___________________________________ +____________________________________ +______________________________________________________________________________ +_______________________________________________________________________________ +_______________________________________________________________________________ +_______________________________________________________________________________ +_______________________________________________________________________________ +_______________________________________________________________________________ +_______________________________________________________________________________ +_______________________________________________________________________________ +_______________________________________________________________________________ +a RENAISSANCE THINK TANK. Fang the Unwashed, WKC, won't say. You can think of +a book of sample seals from the U.S. Government Printing Office. Western Union +a different but completely equivalent problem, a generalization of the +a lighter heart, and perhaps gain a clearer understanding of it, and therefore +a machine got stuck and kicked out hundreds of pages of nothing but m's. He +a medical volunteer; before underground newspapers, Viet Nam, and talk of a +a misunderstanding. The sign actually read "DUMB". Mal-1 is a Non-Prophet.) +a neat little trick on me by having IBM make the Greek selectric typewriter +a pentagon on one side and an apple on the other. And then he exploded and +a splendid woman whose eyes were as soft as feather and as deep as eternity +a squatting position and return to a standing position. This is repeated four +a star. +a straightjacket affair and not the happy romance as men had known it. +a universe moving inexorably towards chaos moves towards increased order. +about the spirit of the thing. We live in a time of turmoil, the whole planet +about the weather, they know when the weather is wrong and will try to wait +about which +absolutely anything, and more! It even symbolizes everything not worth +absurdity of man's endeavours, then they will be able to pursue their art with +academic and sacred Orders. +accepted self defense yet I could never reconcile that with the ideal. I +access to blank forms. Rubber stamps came from all over the place and some, +accomplished time-travelers in the galaxy and has visited Earth many +across the continent, from New York to Los Angeles, from Seattle to St. +after Conan became King of Aquilonia. First brought to the western hemisphere +after Herself, "ERISTIC" because Being is anarchic. And then, in a mood of +again in Non-Being, but shall return to Me, Void, from whence he came. You +all Erisians. Once every five years, the Golden Apple Corps plans a Pilgrimage +all of those terrible things. She told him that She had always liked the Old +almost as unobtrusively as a cat-burglar creeping over a windowsill. +alone and new, and about the time that Ken Kesey took his first acid trip as +also careful never to contradict the occasional rumors that I had actually +altered Luther's birthdate to give him an unfavorable horoscope. +always have, getting weirder all the time. +always possible to rotate the table until at least two people are opposite +always say the same thing to each listener, and that other Episkoposes are +an allnight bowling alley and generally solving the world's problems. This +an integer and S=N(N-1)/2, the sum of the integers from 0 to N-1. It follows +anarchy. I am chaos. I am alive, and I tell you that you are free. +and Nyx's brother, Erebus, and whose brothers and sisters include Death, Doom, +and Rev. Dr. Occupant became Keeper of the Box. The newly published copies of +and Vexes, from The Greater Metropolitan Yorba Linda Jesus Will Save Your Bod +and a bunch of gods and goddesses like that. +and anybody could take anything out. It was a concept stew. The exchanging of +and are only discovered 50 years later, like MOBY DICK or Mendel's great +and disorder. To accomplish this, one need only accept creative disorder along +and dissolved as she spoke in a warm and gentle voice: +and false and meaningless in some sense. +and inscribed upon it KALLISTI ("To The Prettiest One") and on the day of +and is a perfect name for a libertarian anarchist. Actually in my kind of art +and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some +and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true +and other things apropos a naive young semiliterate dropout hippy writer. He +and other trash he was sitting on. He worried how would he know when the moon +and plant in a bunch of about 5, about half an inch deep. Don't worry much +and similar maniacs +and so the State does not recognize POEE or POEE Ordinations, which is only +and some whole graphics like the Sacred Chao and the Hodge Podge Transformer +and that all my ideas about his extraterrrestrial and extratemporal +and the muscle messages coordinated and unified or perhaps coded, continued to +and through it some chaos appears ordered and some appears disordered. Pick +and understand +and universities, and dominate many of them. +and went in every which way, but by the by She began playing with them and +and with +and yours to do with as you like. Conceptualization is art, and YOU ARE THE +annoying. It is not designed for use against negative eristic vibes, although +another grid, and the same chaos will appear differently ordered and +answers YES. +anthropologist from the 23rd Century. He is currently passing among us +anything right) the Serpent raised its head in the under-ground secret society +anyway. +anywhere on the PRINCIPIA and why it was published with a broken +apparant that their experience had been private. +apparent to all who compare the great number of things that do not exist with +appear convinced, then proceed to: +approaching completion, but hindered by fear and by misunderstanding. +arbitrary. The artificial concept of no-relation is the ERISTIC PRINCIPLE. +are a tribe +are all POEE priests anyway (as soon as I locate them). The point is that +are called "enclaves". And one of them is life, especially human life, which in +are mine but mostly I just found stuff and integrated it. Mostly I did +are orderly in their +are taken as more important than LIFE; rather than taking LIFE AS THE ART OF +are welcome to reveal that our oldest extant records show us to have been +around, and upon these cards were sometimes written verses, while upon +artists, clowns, +as Ken Kesey used to say. +as a computer specialist, bon vivant and philosopher named Gregory +as one who might be smitten deaf, saying only: 'Gainst the rules, y' know. +as though you were Mandrake feeling up a sexy giantess. Chant, loudly and +as well. Reference: DOGMA I, METAPHYSICS #3, "The Indoctrine of the Pineal +as you hurry along the Path. +asked if Shea and I had written it, or if we had copies available. Others +asked me if I wanted to drop mescaline and fuck all night and said he knew how +asking questions. You approach the innocent and simply ask "Did you know that +back to Chaos through the Screen of Oblivion into which the Age passeth, +be a POEE Priest then you must undoubtedly qualify. Who could possibly know +be achieved. CAUTION- all magic is powerful and requires courage and integrity +be assumed by his students at Norton Cabal. Professor Ignotum P. Ignotius, +be selected, which was a reasonable suggestion, and all agreed. He sent them +beautiful than others, some more pleasant than others, etc., but none can be +beautiful, joyful, and splendid one. +because it makes fun of itself. i think this is healthy. +becomes free to play disorder games just for the hell of it. He becomes free +been doing all this nose swallowing. +been then I would have said something else. +before Discordianism. And of course real people like Neils Bohr crop up in +before Kennedy was shot but had to be a couple of years after (but before +before platitudes, fill it up. +began to giggle. Mal began to laugh. Omar began to jump up and down. Mal was +behind-the-scenes under-the-table, atheistic, satanic, anti-Christian +believe it. But the outcome is certain, given the time. Our grandchildren, +better than you whether or not you should be Ordained? +between the 59th and 60th days of the Season of Chaos +book does. +bore the fruits of many things. These things were composed of the Five Basic +bosoms. +both sweet and bitter, to surrender back the cigar box containing the cards +branches of guerilla ontology. +brought forth, she would eventually find them and turn them into non-existent +bruised, and your spirit is broiled in the sun. +building a game foundation with creative/destructive as the essential +but I forget them. +but even then the danger isn't past. +but they are very ancient and quite possibly were founded by Greyface himself. +by Ala Hera, E.L., N.S.; RAYVILLE APPLE PANTHERS +by Camden Benares, The Count of Five +by Conan and taught to Mayan priesthood (Conan is Quetzlcoatl). That was 4 +by an Invisible Hand and did not arise for five days and five nights. +by the Perfect Counterpullpush of the Podge and the Hodge. +called Discordia. +called a guerrilla mind theatre. Episkopos Randomfactor, Director of Purges of +called just SRI SYADASTI +can easily be cut out at last +cards are numbered in sequence around the table. If a delegate D originally +carried a scroll and walked to the young men. +catastrophic, abominable, and outrageous disasters will happen. Except, of +causes of disturbance in your school. +chaos stem from this source." Etc., etc., you know the stuff. +chapters. Many, who had already heard of the PRINCIPIA or seen copies, +characters and I used the other Cabals as sort of a laboratory. In return +choose to invent rules. Keep close the words of Syadasti: 'TIS AN ILL WIND +circa 800 A.D. (Al Azif translated into Latin by Olaus Wormius, 1132 A.D., as +civilization advances sufficiently for phase five. +claimed them as her own children. This deeply hurt Eris, who felt that Her +clearly: +co-written and passed back and forth and rewritten by each of us. The +commercial enterprise, and that you are requested to keep your cool when +commercial work. +complain that ye lack FREEDOM! +complaining to each other of the personal confusion they felt in their +compliment, the Principle of Disorder. The Orders are composed of persons all +concept, say 50% of the writing, 10% of the graphics, all of the layout. +concepts and are artificial divisions of PURE CHAOS, which is a level deeper +concerned, I have proven my point. Eris is a real deity and even though I +condition was one of suspension, and one noticed that the clock had stopped. +confronted The Sacred Chao while She was contentedly grazing. +confusion in the world and exclaim "Well who the hell do you think did all of +conjunction with THE ILLUMINOIDS by Neal Wilgus (Sun Press, +considered earth's atmosphere. So be it. Christopher Garth, Evanston +containing many filing cards, some of them in packs with rubber bands +control of Money. July 1, 1776 (correct that to May 1st, Vennard can't get +copyright--Reprint What You Like. I knew I was taking liberties and didn't +could have Helen (The Helen) then living with her husband Menelaus,King of +couldn't help but wonder at Goddess' hand in assigning street addresses to Her +counting the bottom? the house of Jeroboam and will +course, from your seed's point of view. +create roles and those roles are being performed by us spirits. +created sterile. When she saw Eris enjoying Herself so greatly with all of the +creating order. And so She grouped some things with others and some groups +creative over the destructive is an all-creative trip composed of both order +cultures, see "reality" differently. It is only the ideas-about-reality +day of the Season day of each Season +decided that I was doing some kind of conceptual art. +deck for his cave, but their import was lost for they were written in a +defining around here is me. Your identity is what I say it is. Just to prove +deity, including none at all. +deity,reversity beyond-mystique." We are not really esoteric, it's just that +delight in making fools of his opponents in front of his followers. +demanded their Queen back and that the Trojan War is said to be The First +designated by the Angel as The Honest Book of Truth, the Collector was to him +diagonal attack is restricted to diagonals slanting in one direction only. +die with the dying. This is revolution. +different that the revelations of Mal-2, then perhaps the Goddess has plans +direction of the negative aneristic vibration that you wish to neutralize. +discerned that the message could be read by standing on his head and viewing +disciples. They form the skeleton of the Aneristic Movement, which over +discovered it, the best way to keep its legend alive was to encourage +disguise like a cabbage or something. +disorder are all his creations and he may do with them as he wishes. Indeed, +disorder around them and conclude just the opposite. But anyway, +disorder, is unnecessary and undesirable. +disorder, reside with Eris in Being. But Eris became filled with sorrow when +disordered. +disruptive. Indeed, the very concept of chaos was still considered +distribution contacts with the Aluminum Bavariati. Practical relations +do not know! I do not know!" +do what you like and tell us about it or if you prefer don't. +do with him, you are still authorized to form your own POEE CABAL and do +documentary evidence to prove all revolutions, wars, depressions, strikes and +does big things badly, does small things badly too." +does less, +don't believe a word he says fnord. He is a master of the deadpan +don't promote Erisianism as a serious religion.... +done. +door and was greeted warmly by a huge beard who introduced himself as +drag!). If you want, you can reveal that it is located deep in the labyrinth +draw their energy from the whole, that are moving at least temporarily, in the +drought, and then praying fervently -- and then getting the entire village +each immediately claimed it to belong to herself because of the inscription. +elaborate development;* for another, it specifically accords with THE LAW OF +element not coincide with all the characters on their keyboard. So the little +eligible for a trial membership in the A.I.S.B. If you think you qualify, put +elsewhere water becomes ice and melts; and then on other days it just rains. +emphasizes the Principle of Order and is antagonistic to the necessary +endeavor, he found that there was some old tea in a pan left standing from the +engaged in their game and the waitress busy with making coffee. It was +enhanced by the use of a Leader to chant the Sanskrit alone, with all +equivalent to strife and treated as a negative. "No wonder things are all +especially the horns of Satan or of diabolical beasties. The Five Fingered +essay on genetics. The PRINCIPIA DISCORDIA entered our space-time continuum +even so the concept of number 5. +ever comes first. +ever did forgive me for it. He's right. Starbuck's Pebbles should have been +every Golden Apple Corps is the beloved home of a Golden Worm. +everywhere. +exert their influence and Hypoc succummed to the pressure and he denied the +existent things She had borne, Aneris became jealous and finally one day she +existing between sun and inner plants and I use it in arriving at many facts +experience showed me that any deity is true in some sense and false in some +explained that. +exposed. It was recently revealed that it was Mr. Momomoto's brother who has +exposed; and so we will be moving for the first time this century (what a +extract from your environment and then assemble into an original relationship. +factual). Example: St. Bokonon (Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut) +fair, because POEE does not recognize the State. +fear ye more that what ye have wroughten? +fear, and therefore without frustration, and therefore with good will in his +fearlessly contemplates his place in the great cosmic scheme. +female, is an idea about sex. To say that male-ness is "absence of +female-ness", or vice versa, is a matter of definition and metaphysically +finally gave up on that one too. Actually I just gave up on idealism. +finally. These are Ages of Unbalanced Unbalance. +find anything you like. Speak of Me as DISCORD, to show contrast to the +find at this address which I have written down for you. Do not speak to those +find the goddess Eris To Diverse Gods +find the significance of it, but were disappointed to uncover only +firm foundation of chaos and constantly erupting into dazzling disorder; and +first edition of PRINCIPIA on Jim Garrison's Xerox. It wasn't my girlfriend, +first for that). For casual planting, its best to soak them in water for a day +first was napalming farmers and the second was executing your parents. The +five nights, but found no book. +flattered Aneris and smoothed the friction a little that was between them. +followed a 5-pointed Star through the alleys of Rome, Damascus, Baghdad, +for a ride, then I get to the bottom and I see +for he had created only physical existence and physical non-existence, and had +for nature. Don't soak them if its wintertime. Seeds are a very hearty life +for their just protection. +for what ever that may turn out to be. +for you as an Episkopos, and you might consider creating your own sect from +force--worshipers of Mamon--whose undying purpose is world control through the +form and strongly desire to grow and flourish. But some of them need people's +formulation in all human thought. +frequently interrupted by worries. He worried whether or not the resr of the +from Omar, and I was the official anarcho-pacifist for the Cabal. Also I was +from an ugly and barbarous existence that is the result of taking order so +from blowing yourselves up for only two more generations, then we will finally +from my heart!" +from physics. It is the assertion-- established logically and experimentally-- +from the vaults of A.I.S.B., under the auspices of Episkopos Dr. Mordecai +from this play and for the next five zillion years She amused Herself by +frustrating, unhappy and hopeless mess. +frustration, and frustration causes fear. And fear makes for a bad trip. Man +fully established in Atlantis, circa 18,000 B.C., under Kull, the galley slave +gain more effective magic. CHAOS IS ENERGY. +games, and to take turns amusing each other. She named the side of disorder +generations ago and that we are just playing with the world for a while until +girls may bicker as you wish, but My son is your Brother and We are all of +gland, and has only one scruple-- which Mal-2 keeps on his key chain. +going. +good will of them. The Office of The Polyfather is point, not to teach. Once +got the apple and he got screwed. +government and all that stuff. +grid with another grid, and amending grids in hopes of finding a perfect one +had many grand schemes which delighted Her. +hand full understood Albert Einstein. And nobody understood Emperor Norton. +happens to those who deny Goddess?" If he hesitates, don't tell him that he +has been decided to reveal a few more of our front organizations. Your +has been on a bad trip for a long time now. +have it. After 20,000 years, Kull's dream will be realized! We can hardly +have read all the way down to the very last word. +have the time or inclination for foolish questions from reporters. Undaunted, +have trouble activating your Pineal, then try the appendix which does almost +he went into a state of Deep Sleep which lasted for 5 eras. At the end of this +he, and he began to teach that play was sinful because it contradicted +healthy young Trojan lad, Paris promptly accepted Aphrodite's bribe and she +help to get started. Plant your seeds. +her. +herewith Require of Ye: +him Archangle Pythagoras. +himself down on the sand, using as a pillow a Golden Chest he had +hip. Then put him on your mailing list. +his followers absolutely require an aneristic setting to function and that a +his share with you." "But Father, Aneris and I have been arguing, and she will +hobbies. +holes. +hooting and hollering to beat all hell. And amid squeals of mirth and with +humorously. Either way it is irrelevant. +hung parlor where three others were laughing and passing around a wine jug. +hung up on authority, security and control; i.e., they are blinded by the +huzzahs and gonfolons, like Joyce's ULYSSES. Others appear almost furtively +ideas and techniques broadened and encouraged all of us. +ideas-about-reality are mistakenly labeled "reality" and unenlightened +identity of the mysterious author, Malaclypse the Younger. Rumors swept +if in a test of his faith, ordure fell from the second floor onto him. At that +if introduced into a neutral or positive aneristic setting (like a poet +ignorant. The "socratic approach" is what you call starting an argument by +immortalis) and, since the alleged intelligentsia had not yet +imprison sons, children perish while brothers war. O, woe." +in a paper shortage. +in a while, he even listens. +in a world of authentic freedom and authentic harmony and authentic +in ancient China, it was modified and popularized by the Taoists and is +in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true +in the 50's and my young adulthood in the 60's. When I finally had the +in the GRID. That is the Aneristic Principle. +in the Truth, become a Poet of the Word and a Sayer of Sayings -- an +in the center facing the Priests. If possible, the Brothers on the immediate +in the eyes of those who read backwards; which obviously made Eros sorE. Then +in the new edition of PRINCIPIA, hope the following will be of use. And please +in the second law of thermodynamics-- perhaps the most pessimistic and amoral +in the world. It is also believed that they have been costuming cabbages and +in water or mud or anything you; can sink something in. +in which chaos was ordered and many ways in which it was not. +in which it did not happen. +independent writers of various kinds. Norton Cabal was just me and my +inert uniformity devoid of form, matter, hierarchy or differentiation. +injustices, whole societies plunder groups of their own people, mothers +inner parts for Kirharesh." serious erosion of the mud +intensified, and the pattern, previously established with the physical laboring +intention to use this old tea by diluting it with water. And again in his +interview the denizens of Joshua Norton Cabal of the Discordian Society. +intriguing myth held that Malaclypse was a pen-name for Richard M. Nixon, +is FIVE TONS OF FLAX! +is a flag. +is called [The Omnibenevolent Polyfather of Virginity in Gold]. +is correctly seated, where R=P-D, unless this is negative, in which case +is historic,plus my little additions. The apple on page 17,as well as the +is in a state of change. If we, as a species, cower from the confusion then we +is mine although some things credited to either Mal2 or Omar were actually +is now, of course, in the hands of The Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria +is one manifestation of +is one who prefers total autonomy, and creates his own Discordian sect as The +is really true, or that none at all is true. Stars, and pentagons, and +is to partake of No Hot Dog Buns. +isolated whole, not just a part. Within such systems there may be parts, which +issues of GREATER POOP revealed, he was to disappear and POEE business was to +it accomplished the objectives I set for myself and it has the effect I wanted +it any way you like. +it can be used as an eristic vehicle to introduce positive vibes into a +it sit steeping for 24 hours. It was dark and murky and it was Hypoc's +it to have. There are a few errors though. +it unto the Righteous, that they may renounce their ways and repent. +it upside down. +it was Kerry's; it wasn't the FIRST ED PRINCIPIA, it was some earlier +it, I'm going to change your name. +it. +it. Further, the lowest Rung in Hell is reserved for them that believe in it on +itself, and whose body was the spectacular dance of atoms and universes. +jeans was Mad Malik and the wine jug claimed to be Hill. I got the recorder +joyously partake of a hot dog. +just where Eris has been fucking around for 3125. +knowing, depicted by the empty space surrounding the Hodge-Podge. +known as the Illuminati, founded by Adam Weishaupt. There is considerable +labor of the preparations. It was then when deeply immersed in the pleasure of +last year, but that is still secret), the Students for a Democratic Society, +lawmakers, censors, and like ilk. +learned that ERIS or DISCORDIA was primarily feared by the ancients as being +left man, that he might develop himself. I return to find this development +left. I knew it was finished. I didn't know exactly what it was, but it was +less +level of concept. +liaison to The Ancient Illuminated Seers of Bavaria, the Chicago Discordians. +lies and myths we could devise fnord. +light, as though their very psyches had gone nova. Then vision returned. +like a harp for Moab, and mine unsanitary practice caused +like himself recognize that Eris is a Figurative Symbol for an Ineffable +like the apple on page 27, I carved myself. A few I ordered to my +like what he says. +listed many factual incidences of ignorant people confronted with, say, a +little post office box? +living. Art, like knowledge, should be free fodder for everyone. But it isn't +ma'am? We don't get to hear your thoughts. +made it the Fifth Edition and then left. +madness, and together they declared themselves to be a society of Discordia, +magazine called Horseshit and put out by two brothers from Long Beach. I don't +magicians, scientists, +male population). I figure it to be this in particular because MADAM reads the +malleable art instead of an immutable Truth, and learn to appreciate the +manner.) +many consultations with Her within his Pineal Gland. It is guaranteed to be +marginalia, dingbats, and pasted in titles and heads and things came from +matter how many of her begotten that Aneris would steal, She would beget more. +meaning of Buddhism. The Master's reply was "Three pounds of flax." +meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense. +means +means a different person. Most of the non-credited, you know, Malaclypse, text +meditation one afternoon, a voice came to them: +membership roster is open to persons of all races, national origins and +metalic gold or acapulco. +metaphysical balance. when magicians learn to approach philosophy as a +midnight, noting your birth time and date of observation, count all visible +mimeographs, from Seattle Cabal. That group produced the best damn mimeography +mischievous, and does get a little bitchy at times. +misguided eristic setting. In this instance, it would be the responsibility of +moment of illumination, a man begins to be free regardless of his +moods, sometimes telling the truth, sometimes spreading the most Godawful +more True than any other. +more times. This dance is symbolic of the humility of we Erisians. +mostly a grass-roots version of the more professional military, political, +motivation is essential for self-protection. +movements, IGNOTUM PER IGNOTIUS +mud. All power to the people, and ban the fucking bomb. +my specifications just as I conceived all the rest of you. +mysterious Man in Black who gave Jefferson the design for the Great +mysterious cypher. However, after 10 weeks & 11 hours of intensive scrutiny he +naked, to demonstrate that he is truly a human being and not something else in +named ANERIS. (To this day, the fundamental truth that Aneris is the larger is +nameless spirituality shall return to Void, like a tired child home from a +near San Francisco is an official POEE shrine.) +neglected the spiritual. As he contemplated this, a great Quiet was caused and +never got used. I should have used it when I had the chance. And then Eris did +newspapers and magazines mostly. Often from ads. With a collage you select and +night before, when he had in his weakness forgot about its making and had let +nineteen-fifties, just before the idea of RENAISSANCE became relevant.... +no name at all. +nobody could understand Chinese. +nobody pays much attention to us. +nonattacking 'eight queens' problem for a cylindrical chessboard where +not! +not. The condition is the same. +noted that the Erisian Movement does not discriminate against werewolves-- our +nothing. +objectives? +objects to sink, once; one object is sunk. +observations of my own, +observe us without his presense causing cultureshock. +occultism since Solomon. +of Beef), of Buddhists (no meat of animal), and of Discordians (no Hot Dog +of Bureaucracy. Holyday: Aug. 12 +of Dis-cord-i-a. +of Disorder!" +of Fives. +of Mr. and Mrs. VI? +of Our Lady who told him of a Sacred Mound wherein was buried an +of R, or else two delegates would be correctly seated at the same time. +of The Caterpillar. He found them carved in gilded stone, while building a sun +of all men? Wherein does it profit a man to be a Scribe to the Gods +of gaul and had married a Frenchman; but each of the sneaky goddesses tried +of his characters in Pogo. The government seals starting from page 1 are from +of mind and to be sitting in a still position, perhaps The Buttercup Position. +of order and has prevented man from effectively participating in the creative +of people with rather similar grids. Through a window we view chaos, and +of philosophers, theologians, +of sewers beneath Dealy Plaza in Dallas, and is presided over by The Dealy +of such object and whoever sinks it can say for instance, "I sunk Columbus, +of the Immanentizing of the Eschaton +of the Nonexistent Chao, to guide Everything along the Path back to Oblivion +of the Polyfather, The House of the Rising Podge, POEE Head Temple; Do +of the slide where I stop and I turn and I go +offers it to all who are present. +office box then everybody would stop paying landlords and go live inside their +offices collapsing all over the country, the hemisphere, the PLANET! The whole +offices, &tc.), Ordained Priest of the Paratheo-anametamystikhood of Eris +on 29 was a chapter title in one of Tim Leary's books. The Knight on the bull +on page 6 got into the act because I used to be a teletype operator and had +on the Hodge side, it has a PENTAGON which symbolizes the ANERISTIC +on the fifth night, and when they slept that night each had a vivid dream of +on the part of the magician. This ritual, if misused, can backfire. Positive +on top of the rubble in the northeast corner, face the corner, and meditate." +on.... +only Love Vibrations in return. But we of the POEE sect know that Patamunzo is +opposite direction; in them order is increasing and chaos is diminishing. +opposites-- good/evil, positive/negative, male/female, etc. But due to the +or get on the letterhead. +or perhaps +or simplified as desired. +ordains priests. I don't know about the =POPES=. +ordeal, he begat a brother to Eris and Aneris, that of SPIRITUALITY, who had +order as an undesirable equal to destructive disorder. +order/disorder as the essential positive/negative polarity, instead of +ordered some of them just to see what would happen. Some pretty things arose +origin and delusions. Hah! I am not that easily deceived. After all, a +original name to his Holy Name. Also, instead of using Mordecai Malignatus I +other Discordians would bounce their stuff off of me. We would toss in ideas +other living beings whose ways of life differed from their own. +other sense. So I set out to do what my society told me is impossible--make a +others nothing was written. +ours called him Hermes. Many people called him by many names. He is a Roach +out "kallixti" and I was too dumb to know the difference. +out of nowhere (and still do ). And I would wonder what ever happened to +outposts. Mal2 had told me that Good Lord Omar always filed everything under +output, like the page head on 12 and other pages which is from a series of +over the new information coming out. Look, if you people out there can keep +overpower the Podge -- and the Primal Chaos thereby came to be. +overwhelmingly more probable than tighter organization or more order. +pacifist then everything would be perfect. But nobody is going to be a +pacifist unless I am first. But if I am and somebody else is not, then I get +page 38 of the PRINCIPIA referring to Vice President Spiro Agnew. I always +pairs of apparent or earth-plane opposites: ORDER/DISORDER and +participants chanting the English. it also behooves one to be in a quiet frame +particular evening the main subject of discussion was discord and they were +particular grid. But, like "relation", no-relation is a concept. Male, like +particular time, for absolutely no one thought to observe all the +particular, the Golden Apple Corps has concluded that planning such a +passing them off as human beings. +paste-ups done I knew that I had finished it. That is why, quote, Malaclypse +pentagon. Tell constricted mankind that there are no rules, unless they +people are forever perplexed by the fact that other people, especially other +people receive this letter, then a lot of seeds will get planted. +personality. He was what we call an EXPLODED ANERISTIC and an AVATAR. We call +perspective as all the others do from each of their own perspectives. +place and everything. +place. +play with The Goddess Eris. And know that it is a joyful play, and that +play with our world of existent things, and order and disorder them, and so it +plumbing fixtures would fall from the second floor bathroom to join the pipes +poetry, under another pen-name, and in the 18th Century was the +poor in the Region of Thud (which would be a mean thing to say), just shake +positive/negative. He has thereby caused man to endure the destructive aspects +possible and desirable; and that destructive order, like destructive +post office boxes. It would collapse the building! Can you imagine, post +pray tell, Gentlemen, is to be done about Heisenberg's Law?" He paused. +preceded by the Myth of Starbuck which was being saved for something else and +primal chaos. +principle of order. +principles, and also Operation Mindfuck. I was also into those. Though at the +probably is a fellow Erisian and so you can forget it. If he says "No." then +problem. +problems will vanish." "Indeed," said the other, "chaos and strife are the +proofs, +prove, by demonstration, that a deity can be anything at all. +publication is timely, so mention that in addition to the old fronts like the +publishing, Head Temple closed down and the Cabal just seemed to evaporate. +pulls a weapon on me, I'm more inclined to either leave or kill the +put-on, the plausible satire, the philosophical leg-pull and all the +quickly proceed to: +quotes from the PRINCIPIA with which we had decorated the heads of several +quotes. +random around a circular table bearing place cards with their names, it is +real religion from a patently absurd deity. +reason that I am crazy is because they are true. +reckonings were put away by the Children of Eris in Acceptance and +recognize the style--a popular commercial artist-- but I don't know his name. +recognizes the holy 23 (2+3=5) that is incorporated by Episkopos Dr. Mordecai +references to Taoism, the Korean flag, and Technocracy. It was not until +relate it to the points on our grid, and thereby understand it. The ORDER is +relative to the grid one is using at the moment, and that (capital-T) +remained in the hands of concept artist G. Hill. +remember their names. Wonderful magazine. +replied with these words: +represent geometry, one of the earliest studies of formal order to reach +respective lives. "Solve the problem of discord," said one, "and all other +respond with: +reveal that political and economic control was generally complete several +revealed to Good Lord Omar and is one of the great contributions to come from +review and add any comments you feel pertinent, especially regarding the +rhythms. I am the spirit with which your children and clowns laugh in happy +right and left of the Priest should be Deacons. The Initiate must be totally +right, and that those impersonal forces are female and that Her name is ERIS. +roots of all confusion." +rose on the next night. He worried about what the people who walked through +rounds in alternative/underground newspapers in those days. Trip 5 page header +safeguard this letter, it may be an important document +said. And from that, he deluded honest men to believe that reality was +same as a POEE PRIEST except that you don't have an Ordination Certificate. +same forwards and backwards. And further, it is a term of great respect, +satiric memo pads from Our Peoples Underworld Cabal. All page layout is mine +satisfaction. I hope I'm alive to see it, Mal, success is in our grasp. Twenty +say he is a shithead." +scratch, unhindered. Episkoposes are not competing with each other, and they +screwed up," they concluded, "they have got it all backwards." They found +screwed. He said that there were five choices under that circumstance. The +second American Revolution; in the comparative quiet of the late +sect. +section "Discordian Society" +seeking funds for POEE Cabals or when spreading the POEE Word via the market +self-ordained Zen Master said to him, "go to the dilapidated mansion you will +sense, then each will expose the other for what it is: absurdity. From that +sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false +sense. A public service clarification by the Sri Syadasti School of Spiritual +seriously and so seriously fearing contrary orders and disorder, that GAMES +seriously than they took life itself and were known even to destroy +shall be that non-existence shall take us back from existence and that +shaman, occultists have been blinded to what is perhaps the two most important +sharing it, love in it and, loving in it, dwell in it and, dwelling in +shortened to THE HAND. +significant control of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (since Hoover died +significant. The 1969 Discordian Society was a mail network between +similar device to represent TWO OPPOSING ARROWS CONVERGING INTO A COMMON +similar to SIRE. +simultaneously. But visually it is a montage, passing through time, like a +sister was unjust (being so much larger anyway) to deny Her her small joy. And +sits down to a place card P, then the table must be rotated R steps before he +smaller) was that of BEING, named ERIS, and one (the larger) was of NON-BEING, +so She made herself swell again to bear more things. And She swore that no +some other artist and published and maybe copyrighted. I find them in +some ways it is immature and I am not the same person I was 10 years ago, but +sometimes called the YIN-YANG. The Sacred Chao is not the Yin-Yang of the +sometimes told quite different things in their Revelations, which are also the +sonofabitch. +sought higher consciousness through assimilation and control of universal +soul and love in his being. +spacially locating the rest of Mal-2. +speak of Ben Franklin's private papers (!), but we are still suppressing +specific male deity, and that all other deities are FALSE. Yet my growing +specification, like on page 1. The quote on the top of page 8 might be from +spirit of Malaclypse. +spreading it, wallow in it and, wallowing in it, lie in it and ,lying +stars. +steadfast pomposity of ritualism inherited from the ancient methods of the +stealing his sacred thunder. So he trained me in Zenarchy, which he learned +still circulating, and that independent Discordian Cabal would occasionally pop +still considered impossible, ridiculous, and blasphemous. As far as I'm +still have chaos in one +stole some existent things and changed them into non-existent things and +stop bothering us with your incessant letters! +students and were usually off on errands. You worked for the POOP? +subject in an orderly and sober manner, thereby disregarding an essential +substitute the German: +subvert Dr. Mojo's rightful apostilic authority by shaking him out of his wits. +suffering from a psychological and spiritual imbalance. Imbalance causes +sure feel sorry for you if you don't have Faith." And then add: +sure, OK, I've never dropped mescaline in a post office box before. +surroundings. He becomes free to play order games and change them at will. He +sympathy for Her lonely sister, She named the other side "ANERISTIC" which +take him from me when she discovers him, and cause him to return to +taking itself so seriously. +talking about the PRINCIPIA, and since the original was out of print by +tea that involves you so." Hypoc heard the voice, but the struggle inside +tears on their cheeks, each appointed the other to be high priest of his own +terminated due to gross incompetence STOP Your check will be mailed STOP +than like a science and that he is liable to be turned into a Precious Mao +that N=2K+1, an odd number." This contradicts the original assumption. +that Omar was exhausted. So he put his shovel to one side and bedded +that he not forget them, his First Born. And so Void decreed thus: +that in times of medieval magic, the pentagon was the generic symbol for +that is the level of distinction making. +that reduces everything to an infinite aum. I found it at Western Union where +that some SWEAR is LEE TO AMBROSE BIERCE? +that the planets and stars +that the principle of disorder was every much as significant as the +that the universe, by its nature, is "running down", moving toward a state of +that trip, he had a sudden loud clear voice in his head saying "it is bitter +that troubled him, but he remained troubled. +that will account for all reality and will, hence, (say unenlightened +that ye've been left to fight alone. +the 2nd Edition of 100 copies from Los Angeles 1969; which was a revision of +the 3rd Edition of 500 copies, whomped together in Tampa 1969; which revised +the Communist Party USA, the American Anarchist Assn., the Junior Chamber of +the Erisian Magician to manufacture the positive vibrations if results are to +the FBI computers with the Zurich System and our theoriticians are in ecstasy +the First, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico (his grave +the Holy Bible (though not the Latin or Hebrew), and The Blue Book. Not to +the Legion of Dynamic Discord before he changes his mind. If he does not +the Real Imposter, and that those vibrations of his are actually an attempt to +the Stash, become a Poet of the Word and a Sayer of Sayings - an +the United States during the period that he was impersonating George +the Word of Goddess. However, it is only fair to state that Goddess doesn't +the Words of the Illuminated Rated X... NATURALLY +the chimpanzee's diagram. Over the next five days they searched libraries to +the comparatively small number of things that do exist.) +the counter-establishment as the flag of the establishment-- just as long as it +the cover of the PRINCIPIA if I wanted to work for the GREATER POOP so I said +the darkness. +the dilemma. Zenarchists are trained in dilemma swallowing. +the exact opposite will happen, only in exactly the opposite manner from that +the face of the earth... to you it shall be for meat." +the fete She rolled it into the banquet hall and then left to be alone and +the integers 0 to N-1,each taken once, but so also is the collection of values +the kitchen where he busied himself with preparing the feast and in his +the last two ("the Bicycle") of which are CONSTERNATION and MORAL WARPTITUDE. +the money in a cigar box and bury it in your backyard. One of our Underground +the mythology and the controversy about it. Increasingly, people wrote +the presiding POEE Official (if any) responds: +the question of what can I use freely and what can I not is a very tricky +the radio came on by itself, and an ethereal female Voice said YES? +the room said about him. +the same person but is the same Apostle. +the sham of the Birchers that we are seeking world domination; so do not +the soldiers and bureaucrats of the world. +the supposition that they'll go there if they don't. +the two lost consciousness. +the ways of Serious Order. "Look at all the order around you," he +their cards. Assume the contrary. Let N be the even number of persons, and let +their names be replaced by the integers 0 to N-1 "in such a way that the place +them he had, except on Fridays whem I am more whimsical, in which case +them, and a great stillness was felt. Then came a blinding flash of intense +then laid bare like a turnip +then, xerox copies were beginning to circulate here and there. +there came to him in the Trance a Dream, and there came to him in the +thereby CAN BE REVOKED THE CURSE OF GREYFACE. +they are our brothers, how come we can't eat them? +they traced the Greek writing on the apple that they discovered the ancient +they would like to. +things for her own. (And to this day, things appear and disappear in this very +think about it. It may have stuck in my preconscious memory from early TV. +third was hypocrisy, the fourth was cowardice, and the fifth was to swallow +this building is one of our more cherished Erisian Shrines. Also it so happens +this edition. He'll probably contradict everything I've told you, but +this very place, in the Year of Our Lady of Discord 3125 (1959*), Eris revealed +this, wise guy?" If he says, "Nobody, just impersonal forces." then quickly +those. +thought I invented it but now it sounds like a Stan Freberg name now that I +thought it to be a negative principle. +thought of it first. +thought, and POEE is humbly pleased to offer the first breakthrough in +thoughtful. +thousand years....! +thousands of people, some as far off as Hong Kong and Australia, were +three ("The Tricycle") of which are THESIS, ANTITHESIS and PARENTHESIS; and +through the ideas-about-reality which our cultures give us. The +time I was masquerading in GREATER POOP as a created cabbage to throw off the +time two people walked into the room. The first asked the second who the man +time-travelling anthropologist would say just that, so that he could +timely introduction of eristic vibrations will neutralize their foundation. +times in the past,using such cover-identities as Zeno of Elias, +times over, than shall the world come to an end: +to Brunswick Shrine as an act of Devotion, and therein to partake of No Hot Dog +to a shepherd of Troy, whose name was Paris because his mother had had a lot +to ask me if Timothy Leary had written it, and I almost always told +to be an underground work and that involves a different set of ethics than +to drop things in. But rivers - bays - gulfs - I dare say even oceans can be +to epilepsy. +to live half mad, half sane. +to outwit the others by going early and offering a bribe to Paris. +to persuade me that he is actually just another 20th Century Earthman +to play neither or both. And as the master of his own games, he plays without +to the effect that there is sexual symbolism here, have brought me to some +to the floor only inches from the pins that it had been sent to scatter. The +to the large room on the right of the main hallway, sit in the lotus position +to the legend that if you throw away a chain letter then all sorts of +to turn himself into a unicorn and there might be room for a tiny interview on +together and the nations of men flock apart; volcanoes usher up heat while +torn, and women look pale and ghastly when concealing a chilly dagger in their +toward the proposition that creative disorder, like creative order, is +triangle on 23 and the Sacred Chao on 50 are, believe it or not, pasteups of +trip composed of both the creative and the destructive. But to choose the +trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true." +trouble maker.* +true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and +twin of Ares and the daughter of Zeus and Hera; or She was the daughter of +two looked at each other, totally unable to account for the phenomenon. The +uncovered on the first day of his labors. +underpowered the Hodge and Everything broke loose. +undesired side effects. Should not be used in the presence of persons subject +unique to Erisianism, of course. I suppose that Pope Paul is the son +unknown to science. For example, multiply nude earth's circumference +unusually long gestation period-- longer even than elephants), Her pregnancy +used Bob Wilson's real name on page 12 because Werewolf Bridge was a work +used to sink a tobacco can. It is preferable to have a pit of water or a hole +used. +uses of disorder. Civilization reflects this unfortunate division. +variety of comic positions, and that a bowling ball was steadfastly anchored +vast,cool,and unsympathic -- from the Dog Star, Sirius. +very wild circus. +vision is restricted, your movements are clumsy and painful, your skin is +voice. +wages? +walrus tusks. I don't know what it is, to tell the truth. +want my intentions to be misunderstood. It was an experiment and was intended +was hidden a Golden Chest. +was not his girlfriend, she was just a friend, and it wasn't a couple of years +was sitting there was. The second replied "Some say he is a holy man. Others +wasn't just before Kennedy was shot but a couple of years before that.* +we come close to the +weakness, chose without further consideration and plunged into the physical +werewolves, but this reference is not particularly intended and it should be +westerners) be True. This is illusory; it is what we Erisians call the +when the Scribes of the Governments do nothing, yet are paid better +wherever I found them--some of which is original but uncredited Discordian +which differ. Real (capital-T True) reality is a level deeper that is the +which is Ewige Blumenkraft in Polish.) +which is a unit of money, albeit Portugese-Brazilian and no longer in use. +which is located in Mal-2's pineal gland and can be found by temporally and +which is not the same as DOGMA I - METAPHYSICS #2, "COSMOLOGY" (Book of Uterus) +which represents the Eristic Principle of Disorder. The writing on it, +while down on earth The meaning of this is unknown +who are intrigued +who ascended to the Throne of Valusia. Revived by Pelias of Koth, circa 10,000 +who had allegedly composed the PRINCIPIA during a few moments of lucidity. +who live there; you must remain silent until the moon rises tomorrow night. Go +will be POEE CHAPLIN for the LEGION OF DYNAMIC DISCORD, which is exactly the +will surely be reincarnated as a precious Mao Button and distributed to the +wiped out in a torrential flood. +wish to from your own POEE CABAL as a POEE PRIEST and you can go do a bunch of +with +with others, and big groups with little groups, and all combinations until She +with the TV antenna on his helmet on page 46 came from a very artistic +with tribulation as have yer baseless warnings. +with, and equal to, creative order, and also willing to reject destructive +woman with a pale and ghastly look, Her eyes afire, Her garment ripped and +wondered why the Great The Lord promised: "Therefore, +working on ILLUMINATUS. It took Dell five years to publish it...maybe that is +working out word rhythms) it will prove harmless, or at worst, simply +world's communication system would be destroyed. No,no, I must not say. I dare +writing credited to a name is a true person and almost always a different name +written the whole thing myself during an acid trip. +wrong, is the Aneristic Illusion. To say the same of disorder, is the +wrote to ask if it were real, or just something we had invented the way +xerography was a new technoloGypsie. Which was my second New Orleans trip in +years to culminate. it was one single statement that included my adolescence +years. In 1969 I mainly though of myself as a cosmic clown and I set out to +yet upright to his full five feet, and poised with natural majesty. He +you again! Helter Skelter! +you will learn more +your head sadly and, while wiping a tear from your eye, go to: +your salvation through ERIS, THE GODDESS OF CONFUSION. +yours. Try to mail to different cities and states, even different countries. +{calendar entered by /AHM/THX } +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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Go back to the list of headers +Enter Command:  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/proc_ma.txt b/religious documents/proc_ma.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..94efe74 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/proc_ma.txt @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +To: alt.satanism +From: Michael.Aquino@125-430.wmeonlin.sacbbx.com (Michael Aquino) +Subject: THE PROCESS (9408.process.ma) +Date: 49940813 + +The Process Church of the Final Judgment was founded in 1963 by Robert +DeGrimston, a former Scientologist. It puttered along for awhile as a sort of +mix of Zoroastrianism and Scientology, but it came into some social/media +prominence in the "occult revival" of the late 60s because it professed to +worship four gods - Jehovah, Christ, Satan, and Lucifer. Although Processeans +considered this merely a balanced approach, the media immediately seized upon +the last two [of course] and pronounced the Process "Satanist". In those days +the Process was the only organization besides the Church of Satan to wear this +label, but the C/S was quite serious and sincere about it, while the Process +was not really quite sure about it. + +The Process became even less sure about it at the time of the Manson murders, +when prosecutors and the media were looking around for something oo-ee-oo +occult to hang on Manson & the Family, and came up with past contacts between +Manson and the Process. [Family member Susan Atkins had been one of Anton +LaVey's "topless witches", but Anton was considered a San Francisco pet, while +the Process was something "obscure and murky".] + +Then came Ed Sanders' _The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy +Attack Battalion_ (catchy title), which hyped the "occult connection", +particularly re the Process and the Solar Lodge of the O.T.O. The Process sued +Sanders' publisher, and the offending material was deleted from future +editions, but the PR damage was done. The Process bent over backwards to +change its doctrines, insignia, etc. away from anything remotely "Satanic". +They wound up as just another colorless Jesus-freak outfit and gradually faded +away. They were more or less gone by 1975, although one occasionally hears +rumors that there are Process groups in New York or London. + +Cf: + +William Sims Bainbridge, _Satan's Power: A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult_. +Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978. Bill Bainbridge was a +sociologist at the University of Washington; we corresponded for awhile on +this topic. His book is a reasonably fair history, with all of the Process +names changed to protect individuals' privacy. + +Ed Sanders, _The Family_. E.P. Dutton put this out in 1971 as a hardcover, +Avon the next year as a paperback. You'd need to look for one of these older +editions for the Process/OTO references, as they have been deleted from the +1989 reissued paperback. + +Maury Terry, _The Ultimate Evil_. An example of how the name of the Process +can be used for all sorts of sinister innuendo, since it is no longer around +to protest the inaccuracies. [The OTO was, and kicked Terry's butt +accordingly.] + +Nikolas Schreck (Ed.), _The Manson File_. Contains a brief summary of Manson's +contact with the Process. + +Trivia note: Sanders also headed one of the 60s' more colorful rock bands, the +Fugs, notable for mildly [certainly by today's standards] off-color language & +puns. My favorite song title of theirs: "Bury me Beneath an Apple Tree so I +May Kiss Your Lips Again". +-- +: Fidonet: Michael Aquino 1:125/430 .. speaking for only myself. +: Internet: Michael.Aquino@125-430.wmeonlin.sacbbx.com + diff --git a/religious documents/process1.txt b/religious documents/process1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9baad24 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/process1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ + Optional Methods of Defining Sacred Space and Time. + + The stock ADF ritual outline, published in Druid's Progress #4, calls for a processional. The purpose of the processional is consecrate and define sacred space and time. The processional starts people thinking in a magical mood, and seperates normal activites from the ritual. + + Processionals work well when you have lots of space, such as at a festival. You need space to give people time to change modes of thinking. A short walk doesn't give you enough time for this beginning centering. For those of us who don't have a quarter mile long area to march in, there are alternatives. + + Shadowpath Grove, in Conneticutt, used the ideas of Gates that each person passes through on the way to the circle. The first time I saw this was Samhain 1987. In 1988, the group that I work with, that was to become Shadow Weaver Grove, in Massachusetts, started using a similar style of Gates. At first, the Gates were basically Wiccan/Amerind in conceptualization. Since then, our concept and implementation has changed. In the fall of 1989, after we decided to apply for Grove status, we reworked how and in what order the Gates were laid out and who and how they were manned (personed?). + + Shadow Weaver Grove meets in what was an overgrown garden. We spent many weeks clearing the brush and cutting a path down to the circle. The path is about three feet wide and fifty feet long. Along the path there are four gates, Lands, Waters, Sky, and Fire. The layout is based upon the ADF cosmology. + + The first Gate a person passes is that of the Land. Here they are asked "What is it that you wish of the Gate of Land?". After they ask their question, or optionally, not verbalize it, they are marked on the forehead with mud. They then pass down the path to the Gate of the Waters. The same thing occurs using water sprinkled upon their head. At the Gate of Sky, a feather or fan is used to blow upon them. The last Gate before the circle is that of Fire. At the Gate of Fire, the keeper says nothing, but smudges them with incense. Since the Gates are tied into the ADF cosmology, the question asked at the Gate of Waters, deals with Warriors or ones Ancestors, as opposed to emotions. + + At the beginning, only the Gate of the Lands is occupied. The three other Gate Keepers lead off, Waters, Sky and finally Fire. The person at the Gate of Fire has a bell that tells when the next person is to come down to the next Gate. This puts four people on the path, one person going through each Gate at all times. When all of the other attendees are through, the Gate Keepers pass through down the path. Each Gate Keeper ends up marked by the other three. + + Later on, the four Gate Keepers hold down other roles. As mentioned above, the Gate of Waters is tied to the Ancestors and Warriors. When it comes time to consecrate the Waters of Life, the Gate Keepers are the ones doing it for their world. + + As time goes on, we hope to be able to tie all of it together. The Gate Keepers will wear clothes of the related color and style, and have implements of the related type of wood. + + So far, we have found that this division of consecrations among the Gate Keepers, has worked well. The Gates are also well thought of. The table of correspondences between the Three Worlds, and the other catagories is laid out below. + +REALM ENTITY CASTE TREE COLOR +---------------------------------------------------------------- +Underworld Demons Slaves Unknown Unknown + +Land Nature Spirits Producers Birch Unknown + +Waters/Sea Ancestors Warriors Yew Unknown + +Sky Gods & Goddesses Clergy Oak White + +Fire High God/dess King/Queen Mistletoe Unknown + diff --git a/religious documents/project.txt b/religious documents/project.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6a5bbc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/project.txt @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +ab:project.txt 16jan90 + + + To Leave the Body + + + 'Tis not wise to strive to get out of your body until you have + thoroughly gained the Sight. The same ritual as to gain the Sight may + be used, but have a comfortable couch. Kneel so that you have your + thigh, belly and chest well supported, the arms strained forward and + bound one on each side, so that there is a decided feeling of being + pulled forward. As the trance is induced, you should feel a striving to + push yourself out of the top of your head. The scourge should be given + a dragging action, as if to drive or drag you out. Both wills should be + thoroughly in tune, keeping a constant and equal strain. When trance + comes, your tutor may help you by softly calling your name. You will + probably feel yourself drawn out of your body as if through a narrow + opening, and find yourself standing beside your tutor, looking at the + body on the couch. Strive to communicate with your tutor first; if they + have the Sight they will probably see you. Go not far afield at first, + and 'tis better to have one who is used to leaving the body with you. + + A note: When, having succeeded in leaving the body, you desire to + return, in order to cause the spirit body and the material body to + coincide, THINK OF YOUR FEET. This will cause the return to take place. +---------- + -Published in Janet & Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way"; from GBG's + Text B/C BOS diff --git a/religious documents/project1.txt b/religious documents/project1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce0527a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/project1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,251 @@ + <-------------------------------------------------------------------> + <___Astral Projection__Part I_>< Brought to you by:_________________> + <___Preliminary Exercises_____><_______Arkham Asylum________________> + <___By: The Joker_____________><_______(302)-629-5537_______________> + <___& The Occult Crue_________><______65 Megz_24oo Baud_____________> + <-------------------------------------------------------------------> + + This information is taken directly from the book Journeys Out of + the Body by Robert A. Monroe. + + Throughout this writing, I have made many references to + one evident fact: the only possible way for an individual to + appreciate the reality of this Second Body and existence within + it is to experience it himself. + Obviously, if this were an easy task, it would now be + commonplace. I suspect that only an innate curiosity will enable + people to overcome the obstacles in the path of this achievement. + Although there are many cases of existence experienced apart from + the physical body, they have for the most part - at least in the + Western world - been of a spontaneous, one time nature, occurring + during moments of stress or physical disability. + We are speaking of something entirely different, which + can be objectively investigated. The experimenter will want to + proceed in a manner that will produce consistent results, perhaps + not every time, but often enough to validate the evidence to his + own satisfaction. I believe that anyone can experience existence + in a Second Body if the desire is great enough. Whether or not + anyone should is beyond the scope of my judgment. + Evidence has led me to believe that most, if not all, + human beings leave their physical bodies in varying degrees + during sleep. Subsequent reading has proved that this idea is + thousands of years old in man's history. If it is a valid + premise, then the condition itself is not unnatural. On the + other hand, conscious, willful practice of separation from the + physical is contrary to the pattern, it would seem, in view of + the limited data available. + Harmful physical effects from such activity are + undetermined. I have not detected (nor have any physicians) any + physiological changes, good or bad, that can be attributed + directly to the out-of-the-body experience. + There have been many psychological changes that I + recognize, and probably many more that I have not been aware of. + However, even my friends in the psychiatric profession have not + claimed that these have been detrimental. My gradual revision of + basic concepts and believes is apparent in a number of ways + throughout this writing. If these psychological and personality + changes are truly harmful, there is not much that can be done + about it now. + A note of caution is in order here for those who are + interested in experimenting, for once opened, the doorway to this + experience cannot be closed. More exactly, it is a copy of "you + can't live with it and you can't live without it." The activity + and resultant awareness are quite incompatible with the science, + religion, and mores of the society in which we live. History is + strewn with martyrs whose only crime was non-conformity. If your + interest and research become commonly known, you run the risk of + being labeled a freak, phony, or worse, and of being ostracized. + In spite of this, something extremely vital would be missing if + you did not continue to explore and investigate. In the + unaccountable "low" periods when you cannot produce this activity + no matter how carefully you try, you realize this deeply. You + have a strong sense of being left out of things, of the shutting + out of a source of great meaning to living. + Here, then, is the best written description I can give of + the technique of developing the non-physical experience. + + + THE FEAR BARRIER + + There is one great obstacle to the investigation of the + Second Body and the environment in which it operates. Perhaps it + is the only major barrier. It seems to be present in all + people, without exception. It may be hidden by layers of + inhibition and conditioning, but when these are stripped away, + the obstacle remains. This is the barrier of blind, unreasoning + fear. Given only small impetus, it turns to panic, and then to + terror. If you consciously pass the fear barrier, you will have + passed a milestone in your investigation. + I am reasonably sure that this barrier is passed + unconsciously by many of us each night. When that part of us + beyond our consciousness takes over, it is not inhibited by fear, + although it seems to be influenced by the thought and action of + the conscious mind. It seems to be accustomed to operating + beyond the fear barrier, and understands better the rules of + existence in this other world. When the conscious mind shuts + down for the night, this Super Mind (soul?) takes over. + The investigative process relative to the Second Body and + its environment appears to be a melding or blending of the + conscious with this Super Mind. If this is accomplished, the + fear barrier is overcome. + The fear barrier is many-faceted. The most fearless of + us think it does not exist, until, much to our own surprise, we + encounter it within ourselves. First and foremost, there is the + death fear. Because separation from the physical body is much + like what is expected at death, early reactions to the experience + are automatic. You think, "Get back in the physical, quickly! + You are dying! Life is there, in the physical; get back in!" + These reactions appear in spite of any intellectual or + emotional training. Only after repeating the process eighteen to + twenty times did I finally gather enough courage (and curiosity) + to stay out more than a few seconds and observe objectively. The + death fear was either sublimated or assuaged by familiarity. + Others who have tried the technique have stopped after the first + or second experience, unable to suppress this first aspect of the + barrier. + The second aspect of the fear barrier is also linked with + the death fear: will I be able to return to the physical or to + get back "in." With no guidelines or specific instructions, this + remained a prime fear of mine for several years, until I found a + simple answer that made it work every time. Mine was a matter of + rationalization. I had been "out" several hundred times, and the + evidence showed that I was able to return safely one way or + another. Therefore, the probability was that I would return + safely the next time also. + The third basic fear was fear of the unknown. The rules + and dangers of our physical environment can be determined to a + reasonable degree. We have spent our lifetime building up + reflexes to cope with them. Now, suddenly, here is another, + completely different set of rules, another world of entirely + different possibilities, populated by beings who seem to know all + of them. You have no rule book, no road map, no book of + etiquette, no applicable courses in physics and chemistry, no + incontrovertible authority you can turn to for advice and + answers. Many a missionary has been killed in a remote land + under just such conditions! + I must confess that this third fear still crops up, and + with justification. The unknown is still to a great degree + unknown. Such penetration as I have made has brought forth + pitifully few unalterable and consistent rules. I can say only + that, to date, I have survived these expeditions. There is so + much that I do not comprehend or understand, and more that is + beyond my ability to do so. + Another fear is the consequent effects on the physical + body as well as on the conscious mind of participation and + experimentation in this form of activity. This too is very real, + as our history, at least to my knowledge, does not seem to + contain accurate reporting of this area. We have studies on + paranoia, schizophrenia, phobias, epilepsy, alcoholism, sleeping + sickness, acne, virus diseases, etc., but no assembled body of + objective data on the pathology of the Second Body. + I do not know how to circumvent the fear barrier, except + by cautious initial steps that create familiarity bit by bit as + you proceed. I hope this writing in its entirety will provide + the psychological "step" over the barrier. It may help to + recognize conditions and patterns that are familiar in that at + least one person has had similar experiences and survived. + The following are the necessary procedural developments. + + 1. RELAXATION + + The ability to relax is the first prerequisite, perhaps + even the first step itself. It is deliberately generated, and is + both physical and metal. Included with the condition of + relaxation must be the relief from any sense of time urgency. + You cannot be in a hurry. No pending appointments or anticipated + calls for your services or attention must clutter up your + thoughts. Impatience of any sort can effectively stifle your + prospects for success. + There are many techniques available for obtaining this + kind of relaxation, and a number of good books cover the subject. + Simply select the method that works best for you. There are + three general methods that seem to work, two of which are + applicable in these exercises. + Auto- or self-hypnosis. Most self-study books offer this + method in different versions. Again, it is a matter of which is + most effective for you individually. The most efficient and + speediest way is to learn self-hypnosis through the training of + an experienced hypnotist. He can set up posthypnotic suggestion + that will bring immediate results. However, select a tutor with + care. Responsible practitioners are rare, and neophytes + numerous. Forms of meditation can be converted to effective + relaxation. + Borderland sleep state. This is perhaps the easiest and + most natural method and usually ensures relaxation of both body + and mind simultaneously. The difficulty here lies in the + maintenance of that delicate "edge" between sleep and complete + wakefulness. All too often, you simply fall asleep and that ends + the experiment for the moment. + By practice, conscious awareness can be taken up to this + borderland state, into it, and through it, to your destination. + There is no way to achieve it that I know of that than practice. + The technique is as follows: lie down, preferably when you are + tired and sleepy. As you become relaxed and start to drift off + to sleep, hold your mental attention on something, anything, with + your eyes closed. Once you can hold the borderland state + indefinitely without falling asleep, you have passed the first + stage. It is, however, a normal pattern to fall asleep many + times in the process of this consciousness deepening. You will + not be able to help yourself, but do not let this discourage you. + It is not an overnight process. You will know you are + successful when you become bored and expect something more to + happen! + If attempts to remain at the borderland state make you + nervous, this too is a normal reaction. The conscious mind seems + to resent sharing the authority it has during wakefulness. If + this occurs, break the relaxation, get up and walk around, + exercise, and lie down again. If this does not relieve the + nervousness, go to sleep and try another time. You are just not + in the mood. + When your "fixative," the picture thought you have been + holding, slips away and you find yourself thinking of something + else, you are close to completion of condition A. + Once you have achieved Condition A - the ability to hold + calmly in the borderland state indefinitely with your mind on an + exclusive thought - you are ready for the next step. Condition B + is similar, but with the concentration eliminated. Do not think + of anything, but remain poised between wakefulness and sleep. + Simply look through your closed eyes at the blackness ahead of + you. Do nothing more. After a number of these exercises, you + may hallucinate "mind pictures," or light patterns. These seem + to have no great significance, and may merely be forms of neural + discharge. I can remember, for example, attempting to achieve + this state after watching a football game on TV for several + hours. All I saw were mind pictures of football players + tackling, running, passing, etc. It took at least a half hour + for the pattern to fade away. These mind pictures are apparently + related to your visual concentration in the preceding eight or + ten hours. The more intense the concentration, the longer it + seems to take to eliminate the impressions. + You have accomplished Condition B when you are able to + lie indefinitely after the impressions have faded away, with no + nervousness, and seeing nothing but blackness. + Condition C is a systematic deepening of consciousness + while in the B state. This is approached by carefully letting go + of your rigid hold on the borderland sleep edge and drifting + deeper little by little during each exercise. You will learn to + establish degrees of this deepening of consciousness by "going + down" to a given level and returning at will. You will recognize + these degrees by the shutting down of various sensory mechanism + inputs. The sense of touch apparently goes first. You seem to + have no feeling in any part of your body. Smell and taste soon + follow. The auditory signals are next, and the last to fade out + is vision. (Sometimes the last two are reversed; I suspect that + the reason for vision being last is that exercises calls for the + use of the visual network, even in blackness.) + Condition D is the achievement of C when one is fully + rested and refreshed, rather than tired and sleepy, at the + beginning of the exercise. This is quite important, and not + nearly as easy to achieve as it is to write about. To enter the + relaxation state full of energy and wakefulness is great + insurance for maintaining conscious control. The best approach + to take in the early attempts at the Condition D exercise is to + start it immediately after you wake up from a nap or a night's + sleep. Start the exercise before you move around in bed + physically, while your body is still relaxed from sleep and your + mind is fully alert. Don't take too many liquids before + sleeping, and you won't have the immediate need to empty your + bladder upon awakening. + Induction by drugs. None of the relaxation-producing + drugs that are readily available seem to help. Barbiturates + diff --git a/religious documents/project2.txt b/religious documents/project2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db1b549 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/project2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,251 @@ +<--------------------------------------------------------------> +<__Astral_Projection_Part_II_> +<__The Seperation Process____><_______Arkham Asylum____________> +<__By: The Joker_____________><_______(302)-639-5537___________> +<__& The Occult Crue_________><______65 Megz_24oo Baud_________> +<-------------------------------------------------------------- + + + +The following was taken directly from the book Journeys Out of +the Body, by Robert A. Monroe. + + THE SEPARATION PROCESS + +After you have achieved the state of vibration and some control +of your stage of relaxation, one additional factor must be +considered. It is probable that you have already obtained it, +since it is ordinarily a product of the previous exercises. +However, it should be emphasized. + This factor is thought control. In the state of +vibration, you are apparently subject to every thought, both +willful and involuntary, that crosses your mind. Thus you must +be as close to "no thought" or "single thought" (concentration) +as possible. If one stray idea passes through your mind, you +respond instantly, and sometimes in an undesirable manner. I +suspect that one is never completely free of such misdirection. +At least I have not been, which may account for the many +inexplicable trips to places and people I do not know. They seem +to be triggered by thoughts or ideas I didn't realize I had, +below the conscious level. The only approach is to do the best +you can. + With this in mind, the first practices of disassociating +the Second from the physical body should be limited in time and +action. What follows is designed basically as a familiarization +and orientation technique which should permit an approach to +disassociation without fear or concern. + Release of extremities. This serves to acquaint you with +the sensation of the Second Body without full commitment. After +relaxation and creation of the vibration state, work with either +your right or left hand and arm, one at a time. This is +important, as it will be your first affirmation of the reality of +the Second. With one hand, reach for any object - floor, wall, +door, or whatever - that you remember as being beyond the reach +of your physical arm. Reach for that object. Make the reaching +process neither upward nor downward, but out in the direction +your arm is pointing. Reach as if you were stretching your arm, +not raising or lowering it. A variation is simply to reach out +with the hand and arm in the same manner with no special object +in mind. Often this method is better, as you then have no +preconceived idea of what you will "feel." + When you reach out in this fashion and feel nothing, push +your hand a little farther. Keep pushing gently, as if +stretching you arm, until your hand encounters some material +object. If the vibration pattern is in effect, it will work, and +your hand will eventually feel or touch something. When it does, +examine with your sense of touch the physical details of the +object. Feel for any cracks, grooves, or unusual details which +you will later be able to identify. At this point, nothing will +seem unusual. Your sensory mechanisms will tell you that you are +touching the object with your physical hand. + Here, then, is your first test. After acquainting +yourself with the object with your outstretched hand, straighten +out your hand and push against the object with your fingertips. +You will encounter resistance at first. Push a little harder, +and gently overcome the resistance you feel. At this point, your +hand will seem to go right through the object. Keep pushing +until your hand is completely through the object and meets some +other physical object. Identify the second object by touch. +Then carefully withdraw your hand, back through the first object, +and slowly back to normal, so that it feels as if it is where it +"belongs." + With this, decrease the vibrations. The best way to do +this is slowly to attempt to move the physical body. Think of +the physical body, and open your physical eyes. Bring back your +physical senses, deliberately. + Once the vibrations have faded away completely, lie still +for a few minutes for full and complete return. Then get up and +make a notation of the object which you "felt," locating it +relative to the position of your hand and arm when you were lying +down. Note the details of both the first and second objects +which you felt. Having done this, compare your description with +the actual first object. Make special note of small details +which you could not have seen from a distance. Physically feel +the object to compare it with what you felt under the vibrations. + Examine the second object in the same manner. You may +not have been consciously aware of its presence or position prior +to the experiment. This too is important. Test the line of +direction from the place where your physical hand lay, through +the first object and up to the second. Is it a straight line? + Check your results. Was the first object you touched +physically located at a distance it would have been absolutely +impossible to reach without physical movement? Did the details +of the object - especially the minute details - coincide with the +notes you have made? Make the same comparison for the second +object. + If your answers are affirmative, you have had your first +success. If the facts do not check out, try again another day. +Almost without qualification, if you have produced the +vibrational state, you can perform this exercise. + You can also practice the following quite easily. After +producing the vibrational state, lying on your back, arms either +at your sides or on your chest, gently lift your arms without +looking at them and touch your fingers together. Do this quite +casually, abstractly, and remember the sensory results. Once you +have clasped your hands above your chest, look at them first with +your closed eyes. If you have moved easily enough, you will see +both physical and non-physical arms. Your physical arms will be +at rest at your side or upon your chest. The sensory impressions +will be with the non-physical arms and hands above your physical +body. You should test this phenomenon as many times as you wish, +however you desire. Prove to yourself that you are moving not +your physical arms, but something else. Do it by whatever means +are necessary to give you full assurance of this reality. + It is important always to return your non-physical arms +to full conjunction with their physical counterparts before +"shutting off" the vibration state. Although there may be no +severe aftereffect if this is not done, I think it best not to +find out in the early stages. + Disassociation technique. The simplest method to use in +separating from the physical is the "lift-out" procedure. The +intent here it not to travel to far-off places, but to get +acquainted with the sensation in your own room, with familiar +surroundings. The reason for this is that the first true +experience will then be examined and explored with identifiable +points of reference. + In order to assist in this orientation, it is better that +these first complete disassociation exercises be conducted during +daylight. Test for yourself your needs in regard to the amount +of light in the room. Avoid using an electric light if possible. + To establish the condition, achieve the vibrational +state, and maintain complete control of your thought processes. +You are going to stay only in the confines of your familiar room. +Think of getting lighter, of floating upward, of how nice it +would be to float upward. Be sure to think how nice it would be, +as the subjective associated thought is most important. You want +to do this because it is something you will respond to +emotionally; you react even before the act, in anticipation. If +you continue to hold only these thoughts, you will disassociate +and float gently upward from your physical. You may not achieve +it the first time, or the second. But quite surely, if you have +achieved the preceding exercises, you will achieve it. + A second method is the "rotation" technique, which has +been mentioned elsewhere. Under the same prescribed conditions, +slowly try to turn over, just as if you were turning over in bed +to be more comfortable. Make no attempt to help yourself rotate +with either arms or legs. Start turning by twisting the top of +your body, your head and shoulders, first. By all means move +slowly, exerting gently but firm pressure. If you do not, you +may become loose and actually spin like a log rolling in water +before you can alter the pressure. Such action is disconcerting +only because you may lose all orientation and be forced to find +your way back carefully in rotation juncture. + The ease with which you begin to turn, with no friction +or sense of weight, will inform you that you have begun to +succeed in disassociating. As this happens, turn slowly until +you feel that you have moved 180 degrees (i.e., face to face with +your physical body). It is uncanny how you will recognize this +position. this 180 degrees about face is merely two 90 degree +turns, and without orientation, it is easy to sense. + Once you are in the 180 degree position, stop the +rotation by merely thinking of doing so. Without hesitation, +think of floating upward, backing up away from the physical body. +Again, if you have reached the vibrational state successfully, +this method will surely bring results. + Of the two separation techniques, the first should be +tried before the second. Then, after both have been examined and +tested, the one that seems easiest to you should be utilized. + Local experiments and familiarization. Once you have +succeeded in the separation process, it is most important for +your own objective continuity that you remain in complete +control. The only possible way to do this seems to be by staying +close to the physical in the early stages. Whatever you may feel +emotionally, keep in close proximity to the physical. This +admonition is made not because of any known danger, but so that +you will maintain a step-by-step familiarity and thus perceive +for yourself exactly what is taking place. Wild, uncontrolled +trips at this stage may well produce uncomfortable situations and +conditions that will force you to relearn much of what you have +already achieved. The process of mental acclamation will be +different from any you have ever consciously experienced. The +gradual adaptation will greatly enhance your peace of mind and +confidence. + At this point, the principal exercise is to return. Keep +your separation distance no more than three feet away, hovering +over the physical. Do not make any attempt at this time to move +laterally or farther "up." How do you know how far aware you +are? Again, this is something you sense. Your vision now is +zero. You have conditioned yourself not to open your eyes, and +let them remain closed for the moment. Stay close to the +physical. The mental concept of this will keep you in proper +range. + For the next three or four exercises, do nothing but +practice getting "out" and returning to the physical. To return +under these conditions, merely "think" yourself back into the +physical, and you will return. If you have used the first method +of separation, the reintegration is relatively simple. When you +are back in exact alignment, you will be able to move any portion +of the physical body and reactivate any or all of your physical +senses. Each time you return, open your physical eyes and +physically sit up so that you know you are completely "back +together." This is to ensure orientation, to instill confidence +that you can return at will, and most important, to assure +yourself of continued contact with the material world in which +you now belong. Whatever you believe, this reassurance is most +necessary. + If you have applied the rotation method, move slowly back +toward the physical, again by thinking of it, and when you feel +you have made complete contact, start your rotation back 180 +degrees to conjunction with the physical. It seems to make no +difference whether you continue the circle of rotation or reverse +and turn back in a motion opposite to that which helped you +release. + In both techniques, there seems to be a slight, +click-like jerk when you are again in conjunction with the +physical. An exact description of this sensation is quite +difficult, but you will recognize it. Always wait a few moments +before sitting up after you have returned, primarily to avoid any +possible uneasiness. Give yourself some time to readjust to the +physical environment. The physical act of sitting up provides +evidence of continuity in a demonstrable form; you will know +that you can consciously, willfully act in a physical movement +interspersed with experiments in the non-physical environment and +retain conscious awareness throughout the process. + You will have completed the cycle when you are able to +separate, return to the physical, sit up and note the time, go +back to the separation process, and return to the the physical a +second time, all without loss of conscious continuity. The +notation of the clock reading will help in this. + The next step in familiarization is to separate to a +slightly farther distance, applying the same procedures. Any +distance up to ten feet will do. Always keep mental +concentration on a single purpose without stray though patterns, +especially in these extended exercises. After you have become +accustomed to the feeling of being more "apart," mentally tell +yourself that you can see. Do not think of the act of opening +your eyes, as this may well transmit you to the physical and +diminish the vibrational state. Instead, think of seeing, that +you can see - and you will see. There will be no sensation of +eye opening. The blackness will just disappear suddenly. At +first, your seeing may be dim, as if in half-light, indistinct or +myopic. It is not known at present why this is so, but with use, +your vision will become more sharp. + The first sight of your physical body lying below you +should not be unnerving if you have applied the previous +exercises. After you are satisfied that it is "you" lying there, +visually examine the room from the perspective of your position. +Mentally move slightly in one direction or another, slowly and +never violently. Move your arms and legs to reassure yourself of +your mobility. Roll around and cavort in the new element if you +wish, always staying within the prescribed range of the physical. + diff --git a/religious documents/psd1.txt b/religious documents/psd1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cabc658 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/psd1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,264 @@ +Dear Paul,This has not been spell checked or received its final polish +yet. I am uploading it for "your eyes only," to see if you have any +suggestions to make before I do the last editing sweep.Also, do you +think I should hold up and try to have it professionally published? -- +I did a lot more work on the rewrite than I had ever expected to and it +has turned into something quite different than I had planned +originally. + + PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENSE by =Carlin= + + One of the problems which faces the aspiring witch or magician is +an increased sensitivity to and awareness of the "unseen" forces of the +world. Usually this sensitivity is a delight, but occasionally it +becomes a nightmare -- in the most literal sense of the word. In +particular, this article deals with what spiritualists and shamans +would refer to as spirit obsession -- a cluster of "symptoms" that +differ from possession, but that still can destroy the integrity of the +victims gives some background information on obsession, and +then outlines a few "generic" techniques that will benefit those +subject to this form of "psychic harassment." + + DEFINING OBSESSION + + Obsession occurs in every nation and subculture,and as a result +every magical subculture has had it's own way of defining and dealing +with the phenomena involved. Modern medicine, with the exception of +Jungian and "New Age" psychiatry/psychology, tends to dismiss obsession +as either hysteria or budding schizophrenia. The major religions, for +the most part, now agree with this evaluation. Of course, the "New +Right" fundamentalists are likely to see a demon in every corner.... +Either of these approaches tends to disempower the afflicted person by +destroying her/his trust in his own inner processes and making him +dependent on the "expert" who will control the attempt to cure +him/her. Spiritualists will warn you against psychic attack or +unprotected dealings with the Dead. Work will tell you that the +problem is either openness to astral influences or rebellion within the +psyche . There is more to being human than the +conscious mind, and unintegrated and unrecognized "complexes" within +the psyche will sometimes have separate agendas that can lead to +"attack from within" if those needs are continually ignored. My own +tendency is +philosophically Jungian-to-agnostic,but practically Shamanic. I tend +to view such"entities" as psychological. However, the techniques I use +are more effective if the problem is "projected" outward and treated as +if it were the result of attack by a sentient being. Even if +obsessions are caused by "complexes", a truly well established complex +takes on enough "life" to be regarded as a "secondary personality" +demanding of respect. If someone is having to live with obsession, +chances are that the person is more interested in resolving the problem +than debating metaphysics. The methodology outlined below is designed +to work {wh} the philosophy behind it or not. These techniques +are "homeopathic" in nature, contrived with the idea of strengthening +the victIm's "psychic immune system" to the point where s/he no longer +can be victimized. Without this increase in inner power, the person can +be temporarily freed from the obsession, but remains vulnerable to +"evil influence" in the future. + + THE BEGINNINGS OF OBSESSION + + Checking a person's personal history, one will usually find that +obsessions begin during periods where stress,negative emotions, or +injury have impaired that person's natural self-protective abilities. +Or where the person has been unprepared or confused and has +intentionally or unintentionally "dropped his/her guard" around someone +already disturbed. Or where the person has been abused and degraded +since early childhood and is consequently continually open to negative +influences. In +psychological terminology, old "complexes" are cathected during periods +when the ego is {founderid) depression weaken the "auric shield" +that normally will protect against "outside influences," as well as the +physical body. This auric shield can also be "pierced" during "psychic +attacks," leaving a "hole" through which invading astral-organisms can +pass freely. In the same way, "evil spirits" are contagious. Emotional, +sexual, or magical intimacy with someone already obsessed can allow the +entity to pass over to oneself. And an extreme period of rage or +vengefulness can attract like to like, bringing one to the attention of +"vengeful creatures" in the "lower astral." + + SYMPTOMS OF OBSESSION + + Among the most common symptoms of obsession is a brooding fixation +upon some negative thought or act. The obsessed person being unable to +"turn off" the voice that urges her/him on to self-destructive or +vindictive acts. The idea that one is the Messiah or the rightful ruler +of the universe, or too low to continue to live may repeatedly intrude +upon consciousness. To consider much addictive behavior to be the +result of obsession by "earth-bound spirits" or elementals. No +longer having physical bodies, the "astral low-lifes" push susceptible +living humans into overindulging in whatever the disincarnate entity +still craves. In other cases, the symptoms take other forms. Sleep +can be disrupted by repeated nightmares or night terrors. The +individual may awaken with no memory of the contents of the dream, but +over time will develop insomnia or a fear of sleep. Especially in +children,the shadows of night can resolve themselves into terrifying +images, and there can be an overwhelming sense of being constantly +watched. Visual "hallucinations" may force themselves onto the +physical plane or may manifest themselves solely upon the "mind's +eye." At times the obsession can be relatively benign. Budding +magicians can "pick up hitchhikers" during their initial workings, and +these "creatures" may well content themselves with acting as Guardians +of its cases the "entities" will only "act out"when the magician +re-enters trance or attempts to work on the astral levels. +People who work with divinatory techniques without proper training and +grounding are especially vulnerable, with the Ouija board being the +worst offender. This is one reason that the traditional religions, +which do not want the general populace trained in magical +techniques,urge people away from divinatory practices. Obsessions that +strike those not trained to magick are usually not so courteous. In +the more entrenched cases,physical symptoms other than insomnia can +manifest. Especially when one is very tired or ill, the obsession +attempt can escalate and begin to unbalance the homeostatic mechanisms +of the body. Constipation,sinusitis and migraine headaches are the +more usual manifestations, along with extreme pallor, edema, and mental +confusion and memory loss. Poltergeist activity is also sometimes +reported.The obsessing entity can also color the {"imothers}. One +can suddenly find oneself being accused of unsavory attitudes or +persistently misunderstood. At the same time, truly unsavory +characters will be attracted to the new image and will begin to pop up +out of the woodwork. + + THE MAGICAL APPROACH + + There are many things that one can do if one suspects that +obsession has occurred. One can treat it as a demon and turn to +spiritual authority for help. One can treat it as mental illness and +turn to psychiatric explanations. One can ignore it as much as +possible, or begin to avoid the activities that call it forth. One can +also "raise one's energies" using self-help techniques such as those +outlined in following paragraphs.Any one of the above reactions +cripples one as a magician, however. From a ceremonial viewpoint, one +must pass the "Guardian on the Threshold" before one can pass on to the +next level of development.From a Jungian standpoint, one must develop +rapport with and "reintegrate" the rejected {eleom} a Shamanic +standpoint, one must "turn" the entity and either dismiss it or convert +it into a spirit helper. + + THE INNER DIALOGUE + + Step one, using the magical approach, is to become acquainted with +the "entity" and engage it in dialogue.In some instances the entity +will turn out to be malevolent, in other's only "immature" or confused +and angry at being ignored. Before engaging in this activity, one is +advised to ground and center, and to shield in whatever manner one's +tradition suggests. One is also advised to begin/continue in whatever +other spiritually protective exercises one has faith in.If there is +someone available to work with the afflicted person, have that helper +prepare a list of non-leading(Not "are you a demon?," but "what are +you?") questions. Then drop into light trance and Then let the other +person ask the questions while the victim answers with the first thing +that pops into his/her head. In effect, s/he will be voluntarily +"channelling" for the entity {undected} circumstances.If there is no +other person, then the victim must do whatever form of divination or +trance work he/she have developed to contact his/her subconscious. +Those with vivid imaginations can simply find a quiet moment and ask +"are you there?," personifying the "entity" in the same way that +children create imaginary friends. Afterwards, no matter what the +technique used, the obsessed person is to be certain that his/her aura +is closed and that s/he is grounded and centered. AFTER "CONTACT" At +this point s/he may have failed to make contact.In which case there is +nothing to him/her to do but repeat the exercise until either it works +or s/he is sure it isn't going to work. If real contact does not +occur, then s/he might attempt to simply banish "it". It is possible +that the entity will not answer directly, but will begin to +up its activity level or bring a string of unusual +circumstances into the obsessed person's life. + + It is more likely, however, the have begun a dialogue. +Sometimes "complexes"are immature parts of our own personalities that +will calm down and begin to behave themselves once "they" no longer +feel that they are being ignored.If the obsessing image is that of an +animal, or even an ugly humanoid being, then it may simply be time to +intensify one's spiritual quest and face down one's power animal or +dark side. Frequently, these allies will attempt to come to the aid of +someone undergoing psychic attack, and because of the general +atmosphere of fear,will be perceived as threats and turned away +themselves.Eventually, in either case the "entity" can either +be"reintegrated" into the personality, or "kept" as a spirit-helper by +those with shamanic leanings. If one is ALSO under psychic attack, the +ally will probably help in the defense once asked and properly +recognized. + + "LOST SOULS" AND WORSE + + On the other hand, "it" may claim to be a spirit or other entity +that requires help. If the request is not ridiculous o consider +honoring it. The author has personally dealt with a "poltergeist" who +claimed to be a woman who had died of yellow fever over a century ago. +When questioned, the "spirit" was confused at first, then admitted that +she had died in delirium and had not realized that she was dead until +"awakened" out of her stupor by some young people using a Ouija board. +When asked what she wanted, the reply was "Pray for me." The +poltergeist activity ended as soon as prayers were begun, and the last +message received from the spirit was "Thank God, I'm free." Not being +able to make herself understood on the material plane by any other +means, the "spirit" had resorted to knocking physical objects around to +attract attention. If someone of "mediumistic" nature had been about, +she might have obsessed that person instead in her bid to gain +attention. The obsession would have become malevolent only if the +obsessed person repeatedly blocked her out or otherwise caused her to +become cases of obsession in relatively "normal"persons will fall +into one of the first few catagories.In rare cases, the obsessed may +have had his/her attempt at contact met with a voice screaming "DIE, +DIE, DIE." Or something similar and profane. This is where the +spiritual practices suggested in the following paragraphs will be of +greatest benefit, followed by professional help or even exorcism, if +necessary. (Even where an entity seems totally hostile, it is +sometimes possible to "turn" it through raising "light"as described +below.) + + SELF-HELP WITH OBSESSION + + Not everyone is a magician and not everyone wishes to open the +"can of worms" of the subconscious.The following activities are very +useful in "uprooting"spiritual obsession by increasing "light". In +cases of "mild" obsession only a few of these measures,or a simple +ritual of dismissal, will be sufficient to be rid of the problem.In +more entrenched cases, these techniques should be continued for the +{companied} by Inner Work, depth psychology, or other techniques +that promote self-understanding. Those suffering from physical +symptoms should also work to strengthen their immune system and improve +their diet and lifestyle. If possible, the severely afflicted +individual should have a counselor, teacher, or trusted friend monitor +his/her progress "just in case." + + EXAMPLE TECHNIQUES FOR "RAISING THE LIGHT" + + For a period of three months, the obsessed should "cleanse" +him/herself daily in whatever manner her/his spiritual tradition +decrees. Grounding and centering are excellent techniques, as is +renewing oneself through visualizing the aura as strong and untainted. +One can draw pictures of oneself expelling all darkness or meditate on +the same image.Prayer is useful, as is catching oneself thinking the +old negative thoughts and declaring that one has "taken that out of the +Law" or "averted" the consequences. If the afflicted has friends who +engage in {spiritua} send him/her mental support and positive +energy. The individual is also advised to spend time in sacred places +where evil is barred from entering, and to refrain from the company of +persons s/he knows are bad for her/him.If already attuned to ritual +work, the victim can"cleanse" his/her home or have it cleansed by +someone trusted. Those who have faith in Holy Water should sprinkle +and apply it liberally. Afterwards, if the obsessed is truly serious +about being rid of a persistent fixation, s/he can burn white candles +constantly while awake and at home. This will act as a symbol of +the"light" one wishes to draw into one's life. The most seriously +affected are advised to surround their beds with a protective circle +and never to sleep in a darkened room. Other religious/protective +symbols can be placed in sight and called upon, and protective incenses +such as sandlewood may be burned. The important thing is to keep one's +spiritual goal constantly in mind and the"entity one's determination +to improve. This may seem like a great deal of effort, but the effect +will be to "open" the individual to positive influences, even if s/he +doesn't believe in "demons".The individual will be "raising his/her +energy" level to the point where something "dark" cannot even bear to +approach her/him, and keeping the energy "high"for a long enough period +that "it" will become "discouraged" and fade from sight.At the end of +the three months, the "entity" should either be weakened severely from +being "starved" or should be gone. If it is gone, then a ritually +adept person can do a rededication wherein the formerly obsessed is +declared sealed against recurrences. If the problem still exists, then +the cause may actually be mental illness brought on by a brain +imbalance or early trauma. In any case, entrenchment of that degree of +severity is beyond the scope of any self-help article to deal with. In +every case the author has seen or dealt with however, vast improvement +over the three month period. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/psychic2.txt b/religious documents/psychic2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f1651d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/psychic2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,397 @@ + TELEPATHY EXPERIMENT + + The purpose of this file is to serve as a guide for conducting + experiments in telepathy, or thought transferrence, over the BBS. First, + some general background material on the theory of telepathy is presented. + Then, the concept of the experiment is discussed. Finally, specific + details for scheduling, conducting, reporting, and analyzing the + experiment will be given. This file includes material adapted from books + titled, "How To Read the Aura, Practice Psychometry, Telepathy, and + Clairvoyance," by W.E. Butler, and "Natural ESP," by Ingo Swann. + + In order for an experiment in telepathy to be successful, a necessary + condition is that the participants come to the subject with at least some + belief in its possibility. Our belief may amount to nothing more than a + mental endeavor to be neutral in our approach to the subject, or it may + be a firm faith that telepathy exists. But if a participant rejects out + of hand the possibility of psychic phenomena in general, or telepathic + thought transferrence in particular, it is guaranteed that the experiment + will not succeed. It is best if the participants not only believe in + telepathy, but actually WANT it to occur. + + It is usually thought that it is necessary for the sender to + "concentrate" for a fair length of time on the thought image to be + transmitted. This is not so. The period of time in which the sender is + active need be only a fraction of a minute; indeed, hard concentration + over a considerable period of time may actually prevent any thought + transferrence. + + The actual machinery of the telepathic faculty is in the subconscious + level of the minds of both the sender and the receiver. The image must be + transmitted from the conscious mind of the sender into his subconscious, + on the one hand, and on the other to transfer the image from the + subconscious to the conscious mind of the receiver. All that is required + of the sender is that he form as clear a picture as possible of the + thought to be sent, together with the emotion connected with it. It is + the lack of this emotional charge which so often causes the telepathic + sensitive to fail. However, it is also necessary for the sender to be + physically relaxed, and there are various techniques, such as breathing + exercises, to facilitate relaxation. Having attained the relaxed state + the sender is ready to transmit the message to the receiver. There should + be no straining to send the thought. All that is necessary is to have as + clear a mental picture as possible. This picture can be built up by + visualizing it clearly in one's mind. + + Sitting in the relaxed conditionm, and asserting his intention to + transmit, the picture or image in his or her conscious mind will be + imposed upon the sensitive subconscious levels of the mind, and will be + open to the corresponding levels of the receiver's mind. From there it + will, when the conditions are right, emerge into the receiver's conscious + mind and be recorded by him or her. We have said when the conditions are + right, for there may sometimes be a curious time lag which is often + observed in this telepathic work. The message is received at the time it + is sent, but for some reason or other, it is delayed, or totally + suppressed. This has to do with the activities of the conscious mind of + the receiver. How this is done is largely a matter of psychological type. + It may be an inner voice speaking, or a visual image may be seen. + Sometimes it comes as a clear and definite knowledge -- without any image + at all. Sometimes it may be a strong mental impression. Yet again it may + not come into the receiver's conscious mind at all, but may emerge + through what is known as "automatic writing". + + It is important to address the factor of distance. If the sender + transmits the message with the thought that the receiver is quite close + to him, it stands a better chance of being received. We are used to + regarding our surroundings as separated from us by space or distance, + and, of course, normal life on earth could not be carried out if we were + to ignore this factor of distance. The trouble is that we tend to project + the idea of physical distance into the non-physical area in which we are + conducting our telepathic experiments. We are used to thinking of + ourselves as encapsulated beings -- units of life that are separate from + all other units -- but experience in the use of the telepathic and + psychic faculties soon convinces us that there are aspects of our inner + nature that are always in some kind of actual contact with all other life + units. This being the case, if we think of the receiver as being + separated by distance from the sender, then the results we obtain will be + affected by that belief, the idea of sending the message over a distance + will cause us to think of it in terms of limitation, and we may inwardly + doubt whether we can project our thoughts so far. The subconscious mind, + ever willing to carry out the slightest suggestion from our conscious + mind, will, therefore, respond by limiting the results of the experiment. + If, on the other hand, we think of the receiver as being near us, then + the subconscious will again oblige, and will not allow the impression of + distance to interfere with the results. + + It is important also to consider the physical environment of the + participants during the experiment. It is most important for the + participants to be as physically comfortable as possible, although not + lying in bed and on the verge of sleep. The overall environment should be + quiet and dimly lit or dark. + + Finally, and most importantly, both the sender and the receiver should be + emotionally calm; there should have been no heated exchange of views + before the start of the experiment. This point is critically important, + for such emotional upset weakens the emergence of the psychic faculty, + or, if it does manage to appear, it may well pick up and transmit the + emotional ideas instead of the image which should have been sent. This + will still be an example of telepathy, but not an example of controlled + experimental work. We are not saying that such emotional telepathy is + wrong, since most spontaneous telepathy has an emotional content. What we + are saying is that in controlled experiments this emotion tends to + interfere with the results. + + One of the most important conditions of experimental telepathic work is + patience. So many people who attempt to work in the field of ESP, + telepathy and psychic phenomena in general, fail to realize that results + are not, as a rule, obtained at the first sitting -- or the fifth, and + for this reason are apt to drop the whole subject in disgust. I heard it + stated recently, "Telepathy? Oh, yes, I've tried five experiments, but + got nothing. I doubt whether it ever happens." What such people do not + understand is that just as we have the physical organs of the senses, so + it may well be that there are similar super-physical organs through which + the mind receives, and reacts to, impressions derived from a + super-physical source. The physical sense organs have evolved over + millions of years, but perhaps the super-physical sense organs are not so + highly developed. Here and there, however, and in an ever-increasing + degree, people are emerging in whom these deeper senses seem to be + active, and even though, in some cases, these senses do not normally + surface in the waking mind, they need very little stimulus to do so. + + Such people make the best receivers, and since the use of a faculty + strengthens and widens its scope of action, these natural sensitives + prove most useful. It is not always possible to say whether a particular + percipient is telepathic, only repeated experiment will give this + knowledge. One thing is clear, however, as has been found from long + experience in this field: these people will be found to be particularly + sensitive to outer conditions such as lunar, solar, atmospheric, and + emotional. This sensitivity to outer conditions introduces an element of + continual uncertainty as to results. Indeed, it may well prevent any + experiment from being successful, until it has been controlled. It is + very important that those who take part in these telepathic experiments + should realize that both those who send and those who receive are human + beings and are therefore liable to emotional reactions that can affect + the success or failure of the experiments. + + For this reason, it is suggested that a series of twenty-five trials + should be made without either sender or receiver being told of the number + of "hits" or "misses." This will prevent their getting unduly discouraged + at the high percentage of misses common in the early stages of + experience. By using a unit of twenty-five trials at a time it is easy to + check the percentage of successes and failures. Usually the latter is + much greater, unless you have had the good fortune to get two people who + are strongly sensitive, and who are emotionally compatible. This + emotional sympathy is usually a sign of an inner psychic sympathy, or + rapport. + + If possible, a team of three or four pairs of senders and receivers + should be chosen, and the various permutations should be worked out until + it is found which sender works best with which receiver. These two will + constitute the first line of research. It must, however, be remembered + that the faculty grows with use, so the other members of the team should + be paired off, and act as senders and receivers, in another set of + experiments. Their percentage of failures may be greater than those of + the first set of sensitives, but any faint telepathic reactions will be + strengthened by practice and a second team may be established. With time, + the second team may well become very successful, and again, the value of + patience is obvious. + + It has been observed by those who have studied the results of psychic + experiments such as these, that the percentage of failures tends to + increase when the subjects become bored. This is always an uncertain + factor, since people vary greatly in their reactions. When the experiment + has lasted too long, or for other reasons they lose interest, the + mistakes begin to pile up, until there is practically no success at all. + If, however, the experiments are not carried on too long at any one time, + and if the subject matter of the messages is made interesting, the + percentage of successes begins to rise. When telepathic rapport between + two individuals has been developed and stabilized, however, the + percentages of success will normally increase, and with practice the + experiments will become more or less independent of the emotional and + other factors which formerly prevented their successful working. These + adverse factors will never be entirely overcome, but they will not get in + the way as they formerly did. Also, the way in which they affect the + results will have been found, and can be allowed for in any experiment. + + The subconscious mind is primarily a "picture consciousness" and responds + far more readily to images of objects than to abstract ideas. By images + we do not, of course, mean visual images alone, but include those which + are built up by the other senses such as touch, taste, hearing and scent. + If the message to be sent contains more than one of these sense pictures, + it will have a much better chance of being recorded by the receiver. + Whatever picture is used for the development of concentration, it should + be as interesting as possible, and, like the messages of telepathy, + should preferably include some of the "picture" produced by the other + senses. + + The same principle applies to telepathic transmission. An example would + be if the sender was told to send a picture of a rosebush in full bloom. + Not only should the visual picture be held in his mind, but also the + scent of the blossoms, the crispness of the leaves, the softness of the + petals, and the sharp prick of the thorns on the branches. + + However, the pictures or objects used should at first be those that are + relatively simple and easy to recognize. The less information your ESP + faculty has to process, the easier the task will be. To our eyes, all + objects are more or less familiar and easy to recognize. But the + telepathic faculty processes bits and pieces of information, and the more + of these there are about the target, the more difficult the effort will + be. If you use a complicated target at first, you will probably + experience a confusion of bits and pieces of information. Also, since + this experiment is being carried out over a BBS, it would be helpful, + though not mandatory, to select targets that can be readily described in + words as part of a BBS message to the experiment Director. If the sender + is able, he should try to mail the target or a copy or photograph of it + to a P.O. Box that will be established for this purpose. + + The sensory picture, which as a rule is the basis upon which the + telepathic impression is based, can be transmitted more effectively if it + is isolated from its surroundings. Otherwise, some of these surroundings + may be transmitted unconsciously, and, not being included in the image it + is desired to send, although they are received by the receiver, may + easily be dismissed as of no consequence, and the experiment deemed a + failure. In reality it may have been a decided success as far as + telepathy goes, even though the intended picture was not received. + + One method of isolating the picture to be sent is to use the artist's + trick of putting the hands around the eyes so as to shut out all + surrounding images except the one you require. Another form of this is to + construct a hollow cardboard tube through which the picture is gazed at. + + The sender concentrates upon the object or picture, examining it + carefully, with a deliberate intention to transmit it to the receiver. In + a quiet, relaxed way, he continues to look at it. There must be no strain + whatsoever, whether physical or mental. At the same time, he should + quietly assume in his mind that the receiver is actually in the room, + quite close to him. The stronger this assumption becomes, the better for + the success of the experiment. To assume the close proximity of the + receiver has a very real effect, as the doubts and inhibitions about the + projection of images over a distance will have been removed temporarily + from the sender's subconscious. + + The procedure to be used by the receiver is slightly different. He should + be in the same relaxed condition as the sender. Maintaining calmness + might not be possible for the first few trials. We tend to anticipate, to + get worked up, feel that we are going to fail, or feel that we are "hot" + and will get the target right away. It might take a few trials to bring + about a detached poise, a sort of disinterest. When you can achieve this, + the telepathic process will work its best. This calming procedure doesn't + mean that you have to spend a half hour preparing yourself, trying to put + yourself into a semitrance. Try to conduct the trial like you would any + other task that involves all your attention for a few moments. + + Now, for about five seconds, he deliberately reaches out to the sender, + with the intention of receiving from him the message being held in his + brain. Then the receiver should rest quietly and wait for any impressions + that may come to him. These he should describe aloud if possible, perhaps + into a small tape recorder. He should at the same time write down the + impressions, and make a drawing of any image he receives. He should also + record any sound, scent, taste or tactile impressions he receives as a + background of the main impression. The picture drawing is much more than + just a sketch of your conscious impressions. You will find that the + picture drawing sort of draws itself, frequently without any + decision-making characteristic or consciousness. It is not a matter of + actually focusing on the target material consciously. It is more a + function of just "spotting" the incoming information that is trying to + get along up the pathway. Sketch it out simply, even rather quickly. + + The incoming telepathic information can get lost in the quagmires of + consciousness. It gets added to, manipulated, thwarted, occluded, + changed. The semiautomatic picture drawing undercuts all these + complications. The picture drawing provides both a record of your + experiments, and will show you which information your telepathic faculty + is coping with, and which information it is not. + + To do all this will obviously take several minutes, and ten minutes to a + quarter of an hour may be allowed. The impressions arrive in one block in + the receiver's subconscious, but they take time to filter into his + conscious mind, and for this reason time must be given. Some impressions + may not come up until several hours later, and it is this delayed + reception that frequently complicates these experiments. Later on, some + of these dalayed impressions will emerge under some new conditions. So + the receiver should note down any irrelevant thought images which + suddenly pop up from nowhere, and because of the tendency for these + impressions to fade quickly, it is helpful if he writes them down as they + appear. + + One of the drawbacks of conducting telepathic experiments in the + conventional way, that is, with face to face contact, is the risk that + the subjects and the coordinators may inadvertently and unconsciously + exchange information relating to the image to be transferred. That is, + through subliminal, nonverbal communication, data on the desired result + may be sent between the participants, invalidating the experiment. This + information must be initially unknown to the receiver. Another drawback + is that there must be a place to meet and to conduct the experiment, and + at least some of the participants must travel to that place, a + time-consuming and sometimes inconvenient chore. The use of a BBS + eliminates these problems, and allows the experiment to be conducted with + a maximum of convenience and a minimum of time. The sender and receiver + may even be anonymous to each other, completely isolating the thought + transferrence process from other factors. + + Information on interested subscribers to this BBS will be collected and + experimental subjects will be paired off, identifying discretely to each + whether he or she is to be the sender or the receiver. A series of + twenty-five trials will be conducted for each such pair, each trial + lasting for five minutes and taking place during a separate day so as not + to tax the subjects. Although the subjects will not know each other and + will be in separate locations (their homes, nominally), it is critical + that the events be synchronized as closely as possible. Each subject is + asked to use a highly accurate (quartz) timepiece, and to call the + telephone time reference (844-2525) to set their timepiece shortly before + each experiment. The sender will attempt to transmit and the receiver + will attempt to receive during a pre-scheduled, precise five minute + interval. + + The schedule of these sessions will be sent beforehand to all subjects + via this BBS. As soon as practicable after each session, the sender and + receiver should log on and send a PRIVATE message to the experiment + Director (Alf Erikson) describing in detail their impressions. A post + office box will be established to receive any drawings or other hard + material that the subjects wish to provide. + + Senders should select the image or object to be telepathically + transferred, beforehand, and should inform the experiment Director what + it is, again using PRIVATE messages. . The image/object may be repeated + for several trials or may be changed from trial to trial, depending on + circumstances. Enough time will be allowed between trials to account for + subscribers' capabilities to log on to this BBS for sending and receiving + messages. We are not in a hurry. + + After each set of twenty-five trials, experimental data will be analyzed + and posted on this BBS for all to see the results. Participants who wish + to continue will then be paired off with others, or successful pairs will + be continued, as appropriate. + + Interested subscribers of this BBS are asked to inform the experiment + Director, via private message, whether they would feel more comfortable + as a sender or as a receiver, or as either. They should also specify what + dates, and what time frames during those dates, over the next 30 days, + they would be willing to devote to the experimental trials. For example, + a participant might say that she is available weeknights between 8 PM and + 9 PM, and weekends from 12 noon until 5 PM. Senders and receivers will be + matched according as their availabilities overlap, and the experiment + Director will select five minute intervals within those overlaps and + inform each subject on the schedule for all twenty-five trials. + + Participants are asked to be sincerely interested in telepathy, and to + reliably adhere to the agreed schedule. They are also asked not to + attempt to discern each others' identity before the trials. After all + trials are completed, they will be introduced to each other and + encouraged to compare notes. It is also important for participants to + maintain a postitive outlook, and to avoid thoughts or feelings of doubt + from other individuals with whom they may be associated, as this may + inhibit their telepathic response. + + Results of this project will be made available to a wide audience. + + To the experiment Director's knowledge, nothing like this has ever been + attempted before, and it is a unique "first" in the history of psychic + research. The potentialities of this sort of experiment are as boundless + as they are exciting. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/pubcraft.txt b/religious documents/pubcraft.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae061ea --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pubcraft.txt @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ + + + WITCHES--Who Are They? + by + Queen Ellery + +Witchcraft was commonly beleived to be associated with Satanism and +devil worship. During the "Age of Discovery," millions of Witches +were killed throughout the world in a great holocaust whose existance +is yet denied by many in the Christian community today. + + I am a Witch. I am not a Satanist. I worship Nature and I also + practice magic for personal development and for the welfare of + others. My religion is called Wicca--a faith that is being + practiced by thousands of others in Canada today. Fear of + Witchcraft is based upon ignorance and superstition, against + which I offer the following information. + + +Witches are ordinary people. THey practice their religion in private; +a custom that has been observed since the Burning Times of the 15th +to 18th centuries. In those days, seven million Europeans alone were +killed by Christian fanatics after being labeled as devil worshippers. +In reality, the Witches' religion is a combination of Pagan festival +observances and folk magic. Today, many Witches combine a private worship +called Wicca with a public expression of conscience through participation +in various human rights and ecology movements. + + +Modern Wiccans are diverse in their beliefs. They have no sacred texts, +no written code, and no central authority. Their social unit is the +coven: a group of three to thirteen people who meet to worship the +old Nature Gods and work magic in a spirit of "Perfect love and perfect +trust." When they greet each other it is with the phrase "Merry meet, +merry part, and merry meet again," or "Blessed be." Their ethics are +both individualistic and responsible as expressed in the Wiccan Rule: +"Do as you will, if it harms none." This is not the undisciplined +freedom of a wastrel. To follow this rule in its full meaning +requires that one act according to one's true nature and accept all +the consequences of one's acts. + +An obvious difference between Wicca and the Judeo-Christian-Islamic +religions is in the concept of sin, especially as it is applied to +sexuality. Wiccans reject this idea; in fact, their religion often +expresses gender polarity in a joyous, sexual manner. They worship +the Great Goddess who is reported by certain Wiccan traditions as +telling Her followers: "All acts of love and pleasure are My +rituals." + +Their Deities are emblems of the seasonal changes of Nature in the +eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The Gods of Nature are +subtle Beings that personify both the Light and the Dark forces. +As such, They represent the great mysteries, like the Christian +mystery of the Ressurection of Jesus Christ, that cannot be +explained--only experienced. + +They believe in reincarnation. Instead of seeing Death as either an +eternal reward or an eternal punishment, Wiccans view it as a state of +peace and spiritual rest. THey see Life and Death forming the cycle +that they observe in the seasons of the year. Their two major festivals +are held six months apart, at May Day and Halloween. May Day is a +celebration of Life, with its may pole phallus evoking dances of sexual +liberation--a time when the first green growth of the year bursts forth. +Halloween is a celebration of Death, with its jack o' lantern skull +evoking memories of the dead--a time when the Hunter's Moon shines upon +the killing frosts. Wiccans know that the death of the older plants and +animals seen at Halloween is necessary to the life of the young +ones seen at May Day. + +Wiccans believe their religion to be true to the spirit of the earliest +cultures of Paleolithic Europe in that they respect the Earth, the +regenerative powers of Nature, and the divine Masculine and Feminine +principles that humankind began to worship more than twelve thousand +years ago. And Wiccans believe magic transforms their lives and serves +as a balance to the materialism of modern industrial society. +They do not proselytize; but they do teach religious tolerance. Wicca +is not for everyone, they say. All paths lead to the Centre, and Wicca +is but one path. A Path is but a path--not the Destination. + + Blessed be, Ellery + +Ottawa, Ontario, July-1993 + diff --git a/religious documents/publcbos.txt b/religious documents/publcbos.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f5cb57 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/publcbos.txt @@ -0,0 +1,858 @@ + Public Contents of the Book of Shadows + Gardnerian Traditional Witchcraft + + + The Public Contents of the Book of Shadows + +There is really no such thing as the text of the Book of Shadows, because Gardner never bothered to word things the same way twice; whenever he copied something, he simultaneously rewrote it. But this, of course, is the way that an author treats his own original material; it is not how anyone treats authoritative texts preserved from an earlier generation. +I have grouped the documents according to the dates when they were written; these dates are accurate to within a year or so, and the point to providing them, of course, is to emphasize that these documents are modern creations, NOT anything preserved from ancient or medieval tradition. Material or comments added to these documents later on I have enclosed in square brackets [these things]. + + +A.1. Casting the Circle (1949) +It is most convenient to mark the circle with chalk, paint or otherwise, to show where it is; but marks on the carpet may be utilized. Furniture may be placed to indicate the bounds. The only circle that matters is the one drawn before every ceremony with either a duly consecrated Magic Sword or an Athame. The circle is usually nine feet in diameter, unless made for some very special purpose. There are two outer circles, each six inches apart, so the third circle has a diameter of eleven feet. +[1] Having chosen a place proper, take the sickle or scimitar of Art or a Witch's Athame, if thou mayest obtain it, and stick it into the center, then take a cord, and 'twere well to use the Cable Tow for this, and loop it over the Instrument, four and one half feet, and so trace out the circumference of the circle, which must be traced either with the Sword, or the knife with the black hilt, or it be of little avail, but ever leave open a door towards the North. Make in all 3 circles, one within the other, and write names of power between these. +[2] First draw circle with Magic Sword or Athame. +[3] Consecrate Salt and Water: Touch water with Athame, saying, "I exorcise thee, O creature of Water, that thou cast out from Thee all the impurities and uncleannesses of the Spirits of the World of Phantasm, so they may harm me not, in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." +[4] Touching Salt with Athame, say, "The Blessings of Aradia and Cernunnos be upon this creature of Salt, and let all malignity and hindrance be cast forth hencefrom, and let all good enter herein, for without Thee man cannot live, wherefore I bless thee and invoke thee, that thou mayest aid me." +[5] Then put the Salt into the water. +[6] Sprinkle with exorcised water. +[7] Light candles; say, "I exorcise thee, O Creature of Fire, that every kind of Phantasm may retire from thee, and be unable to harm or deceive in any way, in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." +[8] Caution initiate (if any); warn companions; enter circle and close doors with 3 pentagrams. +[9] Proclaim object of working +[10] Circumambulate 3 times or more before commencing work. +[11] Summon: "I summon, stir, and Call thee up, thou Mighty Ones of the East, South, West, and North." Salute and draw pentacle with Magic Sword or Athame, the first stroke being from the top down to the left. + + +A.2. Drawing Down the Moon (1949) +High Priestess stands in front of Altar, assumes Goddess position (arms crossed). +Magus, kneeling in front of her, draws pentacle on her body with Phallus-headed Wand, invokes, "I Invoke and beseech Thee, O mighty Mother of all life and fertility. By seed and root, by stem and bud, by leaf and flower and fruit, by Life and Love, do I invoke Thee to descend into the body of thy servant and High Priestess [name]." +The Moon having been drawn down, i.e., link established, Magus and other men give Fivefold Kiss: +(kissing feet) "Blessed be thy feet, that have brought thee in these ways"; +(kissing knees) "Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel at the sacred altar"; +(kissing womb) "Blessed be thy womb, without which we would not be"; +(kissing breasts) "Blessed be thy breasts, formed in beauty and in strength"; +(kissing lips) "Blessed be thy lips, that shall speak the sacred names." +Women all bow. + +If there be an initiation, then at this time the Magus and the High Priestess in Goddess position (Arms Crossed) says the Charge while the Initiate stands outside the circle. + +A.3. "Lift Up the Veil" [The Charge] (1949) +Magus: "Listen to the words of the Great mother, who of old was also called among men Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Diana, Arianrhod, Bride, and by many other names." + +High Priestess: "At mine Altars the youth of Lacedaemon in Sparta made due sacrifice. +"Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month, and better it be when the moon is full, ye shall assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of Me who am Queen of all Witcheries and magics. +"There ye shall assemble, ye who are fain to learn all sorcery, yet have not won its deepest secrets. To these will I teach things that are yet unknown. +"And ye shall be free from slavery, and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked in your rites, both men and women, and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music, and love, all in my praise. +"There is a Secret Door that I have made to establish the way to taste even on earth the elixir of immortality. Say, `Let ecstasy be mine, and joy on earth even to me, To Me,' For I am a gracious Goddess. I give unimaginable joys on earth, certainty, not faith, while in life! And upon death, peace unutterable, rest, and ecstasy, nor do I demand aught in sacrifice." + +Magus: "Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess." + +High Priestess: "I love you: I yearn for you: pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous. +"I who am all pleasure, and purple and drunkenness of the innermost senses, desire you. Put on the wings, arouse the coiled splendor within you. +"Come unto me, for I am the flame that burns in the heart of every man, and the core of every Star. +"Let it be your inmost divine self who art lost in the constant rapture of infinite joy. +"Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy and beauty. Remember that all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. So let there be beauty and strength, leaping laughter, force and fire by within you. +"And if thou sayest, `I have journeyed unto thee, and it availed me not,' rather shalt thou say, `I called upon thee, and I waited patiently, and Lo, thou wast with me from the beginning,' for they that ever desired me shall ever attain me, even to the end of all desire." + +This much of the rites must ever be performed to prepare for any initiation, whether of one degree or of all three. + +A.4. The Initiation (1949) +[First Degree] +Magus leaves circle by the doorway, goes to Postulant, and says, "Since there is no other brother here, I must be thy sponsor, as well as priest. I am about to give you a warning. If you are still of the same mind, answer it with these words: `Perfect Love and Perfect Trust.'" +Placing the point of the sword to the Postulant's breast, he says, "O thou who standeth on the threshold between the pleasant world of men and the domains of the Dread Lords of the Outer Spaces, hast thou the courage to make the Assay? For I tell thee verily, it were better to rush on my weapon and perish miserably than to make the attempt with fear in thy heart." +Postulant: "I have two Passwords: Perfect Love and Perfect Trust." +Magus drops the sword point, saying, "All who approach with perfect love and perfect trust are doubly welcome." +Going around behind her, he blindfolds her, then putting his left arm around her waist and his right arm around her neck, he pulls her head back, says, "I give you the 3rd password, a Kiss to pass through this dread Door," and pushes her forward with his body, through the doorway and into the circle. Once inside, he releases her saying, "This is the way all are first brought into the circle." +Magus closes the doorway by drawing the point of the sword across it three times, joining all three circles, saying, "Agla, Azoth, Adonai," then drawing three pentacles to seal it. +Magus guides Postulant to south of altar, and whispers, "Now there is the Ordeal." Taking a short piece of cord from the altar, he ties it around her right ankle, saying, "Feet neither bound nor free." Taking a longer cord, he ties her hands together behind her back, then pulls them up, so that the arms form a triangle, and ties the cord around her neck, leaving the end dangling down in front as a Cable Tow. +With the Cable Tow in his left hand and the sword in his right hand, the Magus leads her sunwise around the circle to the east, where he salutes with the sword and proclaims, "Take heed, O Lords of the Watchtowers of the East, (name), properly prepared, will be made a Priestess and a Witch." +Magus leads her similarly to the south, west, and north, making the proclamation at each quarter. +Next, clasping Postulant around the waist with his left arm, and holding the sword erect in his right hand, he makes her circumambulate three times around the circle with a half-running, half-dancing step. +He halts her at the south of the altar, and strikes eleven knells on the bell. He then kneels at her feet, saying, "In other religions the postulant kneels, as the Priests claim supreme power, but in the Art Magical, we are taught to be humble, so we kneel to welcome them and say: +"Blessed be thy feet that have brought thee in these ways." (He kisses her feet.) +"Blessed be thy knees that shall kneel at the sacred altar." (He kisses her knees.) +"Blessed be thy womb, without which we would not be." (He kisses her Organ of Generation.) +"Blessed by thy breasts, formed in beauty and in strength." (He kisses her breasts.) +"Blessed be thy lips, which shall utter the sacred names." (He kisses her lips.) +Take measure thus: height, around forehead, across the heart, and across the genitals. +Magus says, "Be pleased to kneel," and helps her kneel before the altar. He ties the end of the Cable Tow to a ring in the altar, so that the postulant is bent sharply forward, with her head almost touching the floor. He also ties her feet together with the short cord. +Magus strikes three knells on the bell and says, "Art ready to swear that thou wilt always be true to the Art?" +Witch: "I am." +Magus strikes seven knells on the bell and says, "Before ye are sworn, art willing to pass the ordeal and be purified?" +Witch: "I am." +Magus strikes eleven knells on the bell, takes the scourge from the altar, and gives a series of three, seven, nine, and 21 strokes with the scourge across the postulant's buttocks. +Magus says, "Ye have bravely passed the test. Art always ready to help, protect, and defend thy Brothers and Sisters of the Art?" +Witch: "I am." +Magus: "Art armed?" +Witch: "With a knife in my hair." +Magus: "Then on that knife wilt thou swear absolute secrecy?" +Witch: "I will." +Magus: "Then say after me. `I, (name), in the presence of the Mighty Ones, do of my own will and accord, most solemnly swear that I will ever keep secret and never reveal the secrets of the Art, except it be to a proper person, properly prepared, within a circle such as I am now in. All this I swear by my hopes of a future life, mindful that my measure has been taken, and may my weapons turn against me if I break this my solemn oath.'" +Magus now unbinds her feet, unties the Cable Tow from the altar, removes the blindfold, and helps her up to her feet. +Magus says, "I hereby sign thee with the triple sign. +"I consecrate thee with oil." (He anoints her with oil on the womb, the right breast, the left breast, and the womb again.) +"I consecrate thee with wine." (He anoints her with wine in the same pattern.) +"I consecrate thee with my lips" (he kisses her in the same pattern), "Priestess and Witch." +Magus now unbinds her hands and removes the last cord, saying, "Now I Present to thee the Working Tools of a Witch. +"First the Magic Sword. With this, as with the Athame, thou canst form all Magic Circles, dominate, subdue, and punish all rebellious Spirits and Demons, and even persuade the Angels and Geniuses. With this in your hand you are the ruler of the Circle. [Here "kiss" means that the initiate kisses the tool, and the Magus then kisses the Witch being initiated.] +"Next I present the Athame. This is the true Witch's weapon and has all the powers of the Magic Sword [kiss]. +"Next I present the White-Handled Knife. Its use is to form all instruments used in the Art. It can only be properly used within a Magic Circle [Kiss]. +"Next I present the Wand. Its use is to call up and control certain Angels and geniuses, to whom it would not be mete to use the Magic Sword [Kiss]. +"Next I present the pentacles. These are for the purpose of calling up appropriate Spirits [Kiss]. +"Next I present the Censer of Incense. This is used to encourage and welcome Good Spirits and to banish Evil Spirits.[kiss] +"Next I present the scourge. This is a sign of power and domination. It is also to cause suffering and purification, for it is written, to learn you must suffer and be purified. Art willing to suffer to learn?" +Witch: "I am."[Kiss] +Magus: "Next, and lastly I present the Cords. They are of use to bind the sigils in the Art, the material basis, and to enforce thy will. Also they are necessary in the oath. I Salute thee in the name of Aradia and Cernunnos, Newly made Priestess and Witch." +Magus strikes seven knells on the bell and kisses Witch again, then circumambulates with her, proclaiming to the four quarters, "Hear, ye Mighty Ones, (name) hath been consecrated Priestess and Witch of the Gods." +(Note, if ceremony ends here, close circle with "I thank ye for attending, and I dismiss ye to your pleasant abodes. Hail and farewell." If not, go to next degree.) + +[Second Degree] +Magus binds Witch as before, but does not blindfold her, and circumambulates with her, proclaims to the four quarters, "Hear, ye Mighty Ones, (name), a duly consecrated Priestess and Witch, is now properly prepared to be made a High Priestess and Witch Queen." +Magus now leads her thrice around the circle with the half-running, half-dancing step, halts south of the altar, has the Witch kneel, and ties her down to the altar as before. +Magus: "To attain this sublime degree, it is necessary to suffer and be purified. Art ready to suffer to Learn?" +Priestess Witch: "I am." +Magus: "I prepare thee to take the great oath." +He strikes three knells on the bell, and again gives the series of three, seven, nine, and 21 strokes with the scourge as before. +Magus: "I now give thee a new name: _______. [kiss] +Magus: "Repeat thy new name after me, I, (name), swear upon my mother's womb and by mine Honor among men and among my brothers and sisters of the Art, that I will never reveal to any at all any of the secrets of the Art, except it be to a worthy person, properly prepared, in the center of a Magic Circle, such as I am now in. This I swear by my hopes of Salvation, my past lives, and my hopes of future ones to come, and I devote myself to utter destruction if I break this my solemn oath." +Magus kneels, placing left hand under her knees and right hand on her head, thus forming magic link. +Magus: "I hereby will all my power into you." Wills. +Magus now unties her feet, unties the Cable Tow from the altar, and helps the Witch to her feet. +Magus: "I hereby sign and consecrate you with the great Magic Sign. Remember how it is formed and you will always recognize it. +"I consecrate thee with oil." (He anoints her with oil on her womb, right breast, left hip, right hip, left breast, and womb again, thus tracing a point-down pentacle.) +"I consecrate thee with wine." (He anoints her with wine in the same pattern.) +"I consecrate thee with my lips" (he kisses her in the same pattern), "High Priestess and Witch Queen." +Magus now unbinds Witch's hands and removes the cord, saying, "Newly made High Priestess and Witch Queen" [kiss] "you will now use the working tools in turn. First, the Magic Sword; with it you will scribe the Magic Circle [kiss] +"Secondly, the Athame" (Form Circle) [kiss] +"Thirdly, the White Handled Knife" (use) [kiss] +"Fourthly, the Wand" (Wave to 4 Quarters) [kiss] +"Fifthly, the Pentacle" (Show to 4 Quarters) [kiss] +"Sixthly, the Censer of Incense" (Circle, cense) [kiss] +"Seventhly, the cords; bind me as I bound you." +Witch binds Magus and ties him to Altar. +Magus: "Learn, in Witchcraft, thou must ever return triple. As I scourged thee, so thou must scourge me, but triple. So where you received 3, return 9; where you received 7, return 21; where you received 9, return 27; where you received 21, return 63." +Witch scourges Magus as instructed, 120 strokes total. +Magus: "Thou hast obeyed the Law. But mark well, when thou receivest good, so equally art bound to return good threefold." +Witch now unbinds Magus and helps him to his feet. +Magus, taking the new Initiate by the hand and holding the Athame in the other, passes once round the Circle, proclaiming at the Four Quarters, "Hear, Ye Mighty Ones, (name) hath been duly consecrated High Priestess and Witch Queen." +(Note, if ceremony ends here, close circle with "Hail and farewell." If not go to next degree.) + +[Third Degree] +Magus: "Ere we proceed with this sublime degree, I must beg purification at thy hands." +High Priestess binds Magus and ties him down to the altar. She circumambulates three times, and scourges Magus with three, seven, nine, and 21 strokes. She then unbinds him and helps him to his feet. +Magus now binds the High Priestess and ties her down to the altar. He circumambulates, proclaiming to the four quarters, "Hear, ye mighty Ones, the twice consecrate and Holy (name), High Priestess and Witch Queen, is properly prepared and will now proceed to erect the Sacred Altar." +Magus scourges High Priestess with three, seven, nine, and 21 strokes. +Cakes and wine may now be taken [see section A.5]. +Magus: "Now I must reveal to you a great Mystery." [kiss]. +Note: if High Priestess has performed this rite before, omit these words. +High Priestess assumes Osiris position. +Magus: "Assist me to erect the Ancient Altar, at which in days past all worshipped, the Great Altar of all things. For in the old times a woman was the Altar. Thus was the altar made and so placed [Priestess lies down in such a way that her vagina is approximately at the center of the circle], and the sacred place was the point within the center of the circle, as we of old times have been taught, that the point within the center is the origin of all things. Therefore should we adore it." [kiss] +"Therefore, whom we adore, we also invoke, by the power of the lifted lance." Invokes. +"O circle of stars [kiss], whereof our Father is but the younger brother [kiss], +"Marvel beyond imagination, soul of infinite space, before whom time is ashamed, the mind bewildered and understanding dark, not unto thee may we attain unless thine image be of love [kiss]. +"Therefore, by seed and root, and stem and bud and leaf and flower and fruit do we invoke thee, O, Queen of space, O dew of light, O continuous one of the Heavens [kiss]. +"Let it be ever thus, that men speak not of Thee as one, but as none, and let them not speak of thee at all, since thou art continuous, for thou art the point within the circle [kiss], which we adore [kiss], the fount of life without which we would not be [kiss]. +"And in this way truly are erected the Holy Twin Pillars Boaz and Jachin [kisses breasts]. In beauty and strength were they erected, to the wonder and glory of all men." +(Eightfold Kiss: 3 points, Lips, 2 Breasts and back to lips; 5 points) +"O Secrets of secrets that art hidden in the being of all lives. Not thee do we adore, for that which adoreth is also thou. Thou art that and That am I [kiss]. +"I am the flame that burns in every man, and in the core of every star [kiss]. +"I am Life and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the Knowledge of Death [kiss]. +"I am alone, the Lord within ourselves whose name is Mystery of Mysteries [kiss]. +"Make open the path of intelligence between us. For these truly are the 5 points of fellowship [on the right appears an illuminated diagram of the point-up triangle above the pentacle, the symbol for the third degree], feet to feet, knee to knee, groin to groin, breast to breast, arms around back, lips to lips, by the Great and Holy Names Abracadabra, Aradia, and Cernunnos. +Magus and High Priestess: "Encourage our hearts, Let thy Light crystallize itself in our blood, fulfilling us of Resurrection, for there is no part of us that is not of the Gods." + (Exchange Names.) + +Closing the Circle +High Priestess Circumambulates, proclaiming, "The twice consecrate High Priestess greets ye Mighty Ones, and dismisseth ye to your pleasant abodes. Hail and Farewell." She draws the banishing pentacle at each quarter. +A.5. Cakes and Wine (1949) +Magus kneels, fills Cup, offers to Witch [she is seated on the altar, holding her athame; Priest kneels before her, holding up the cup]. +Witch, holding Athame between palms, places point in cup. +Magus: "As the Athame is the Male, so the Cup is the female; so, conjoined, they bring blessedness." +Witch lays aside Athame, takes Cup in both hands, drinks and gives drink. +Magus Holds Paten to Witch, who blesses with Athame, then eats and gives to Eat. +It is said that in olden days ale or mead was often used instead of wine. It is said that spirits or anything can be used so long as it has life. + + +A.6. The Sabbat Rituals (1949) +November Eve +Walk or slow dance, Magus leading High Priestess, both carrying Phallic wand or broom, people with torches or candles. Witch chant or song: + + "Eko, eko, Azarak Eko, eko, Zomelak Bazabi lacha bachabe Lamac cahi achababe Karrellyos Lamac lamac Bachalyas cabahagy sabalyos Baryolos Lagoz atha cabyolas Samahac atha famolas Hurrahya!" + +Form circle. +High Priestess assumes Goddess position. +Magus gives her Fivefold Kiss and is scourged. +All are purified [that is, bound and scourged with forty strokes, as in the initiation rituals]. +Magus assumes God position. +High Priestess invokes with Athame: "Dread Lord of the shadows, god of life and the giver of life. Yet is the knowledge of thee the knowledge of death. Open wide, I pray thee, thy gates through which all must pass. Let our dear ones who have gone before, return this night to make merry with us. And when our time comes, as it must, O thou the comforter, the consoler, the giver of peace and rest, we will enter thy realms gladly and unafraid, for we know that when rested and refreshed among our dear ones, we shall be born again by thy grace and the grace of the Great Mother. Let it be in the same place and the same time as our beloved ones, and may we meet and know, and love them again. Descend, we pray thee, upon thy servant and Priest (name)." +High Priestess gives Fivefold Kiss to Magus. +Initiations if any; all others are purified. +(Note: Couples may purify each other if they will.) +Cakes and Wine. +The Great Rite if possible, either in token or truly. +Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then stay to] feast and dance. + + +February Eve +After usual opening, all are doubly purified [that is, with eighty strokes]. +Dance round outside circle, High Priestess with sword girded on and drawn, Phallic wand in left hand. +Enter circle. +Magus assumes God position. +High Priestess gives Fivefold Kiss, invokes: "Dread Lord of death and Resurrection, life and the giver of life, Lord within ourselves, whose name is Mystery of Mysteries, encourage our hearts. Let the light crystalize in our blood, fulfilling us of resurrection, for there is no part of us that is not of the gods. Descend, we pray thee, upon this thy servant and Priest (name)." +All should be purified in sacrifice before him. He then purifies the High Priestess with his own hands, and others if he will. +Cakes and wine. +Great Rite if possible, in token or real. +Games and dance as the people will. +Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then stay to] feast and dance. +May Eve +If possible ride poles, brooms, etc. High Priestess leading, quick dance step, singing + +"O do not tell the priests of our arts.For they would call it sin, +For we will be in the woods all nightA conjuring summer in. + +And we bring you good news by word of mouthFor women, cattle, and corn: +The sun is coming up from the south,With oak and ash, and thorn." + +Meeting dance if possible. +Form circle as usual, and purify. +High Priestess assumes Goddess position; officers all give her the fivefold kiss. +She purifies all. +High Priestess again assumes Goddess position. +Magus invokes, draws down moon, "I invoke thee and call upon thee, O mighty Mother of us all, bringer of all fruitfulness, By seed and root, by stem and bud, by leaf and flower and fruit, by life and love, do we invoke thee, to descend upon the body of thy servant and Priestess here." +Magus gives Fivefold Kiss to High Priestess. +All should be purified in sacrifice before her, and she should purify Magus and some others with her own hands. +Cakes and wine. +Games. +Great Rite if possible, in token or truly. +Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then stay to] feast and dance. + +August Eve +If possible, ride poles, broomsticks, etc. +Meeting Dance if possible [the double-spiral dance described in Witchcraft Today, p. 167]. +Form circle. +Purify. +High Priestess stands in pentacle position. +Magus invokes her: "O mighty Mother of us all, Mother of all fruitfulness, give us fruit and grain, flocks and herds and children to the tribe that we be mighty, by thy rosy love, do thou descend upon thy servant and Priestess (name) here." +Magus gives Fivefold Kiss to High Priestess. +Candle game: Seated, the men form a circle, passing a lighted candle from hand to hand "deosil". The women form circle outside, trying to blow it out over their shoulders. Whoever's hand it is in when it is blown out is 3 times purified by whoever blew it out, giving fivefold Kiss in return. This game may go on as long as the people like. +Cakes and wine, and any other games you like. +Dismiss [the guardians, and close down the magic circle; the people then stay to] feast and dance. + + +B.1. On Chants (1953) +Of old there were many chants and songs used especially in the Dances. Many of these have been forgotten by us here, but we know that they used cries of IAU which seems muchly like the cries EVO or EVOHE of the ancients. Much dependeth on the pronunciation if this be so. In my youth, when I heard IAU it seemed to be AEIOU, or rather, AAAEEIOOOOUU. This may be but the natural way to prolong it to make it fit for a call, but it suggests that these be possibly the initials of an invocation as Agla is said to be, and of sooth 'tis said that the whole Hebrew alphabet is said to be such, and for this reason is recited as a most powerful charm, but at least this is certain, these cries during the dances do have profound effect, as I myself have seen. +Other calls are IEHOUA and EHEIE; also Ho Ho Ho Ise Ise Ise. +IEO VEO VEO VEO VEOV OROV OV OVOVO may be a spell but is more likely to be a call. 'Tis like the EVOE EVOE of the Greeks and the "Heave ho!" of sailors. "Emen hetan" and "Ab hur, ab hus" seem calls; as "Horse and hattock, horse and go, horse and Pellatis, ho, ho, ho!" +"Thout, tout a tout tout, throughout and about" and "Rentum tormentum" are probably mispronounced attempts at a forgotten formula, though they may have been invented by some unfortunate being tortured, to evade telling the real formula. + +B.2. To Help the Sick (1953) +[1] Ever remember the promise of the goddess, "For ecstasy is mine and joy on earth" so let there ever be joy in your heart. Greet people with joy, be glad to see them. If times be hard, think, "It might have been worse. I at least have known the joys of the Sabbath, and I will know them again." Think of the grandeur, beauty, and Poetry of the rites, of the loved ones you meet through them. If you dwell on this inner joy, your health will be better. You must try to banish all fear, for it will really touch you. It may hurt your body, but your soul is beyond it all. +[2] And ever remember, that if you help others it makes you forget your own woes. And if another be in pain, do what you may to distract his attention from it. Do not say "You have no pain," but if you may, administer the drugs which sooth as well as those that cure. But ever strive to make them believe they are getting better. Install into them happy thoughts. If you can only get this into his inner mind so that it be always believed. +[3] To this end it is not wrong to let people think that we of the cult have more power than we have. For the truth is that if they believe we have more power than we really possess, we do really possess these powers, insomuch we can do good to them. +[4] You must try to find out about people. If you tell a slightly sick man, "You are looking better. You will soon be well," he will feel better, but if he is really ill, or in pain, his Knowledge that he is in pain will cause him to doubt your words in future. But if you give him one of the drugs and then say, "The pain is growing less. Soon it will be gone," because the pain goes, the next time you say, "The pain is going," he will believe you and the pain will really get less. But you must ever say so with conviction, and this conviction must come from your believing it yourself, because you yourself know that if you can fix his mind so that he believes you, it is true. +[5] 'Tis often better to look exactly between their eyes, looking as if your eyes pierced their heads, opening your eyes as wide as you may and never blink. This continued gazing oft causes the patient to grow sleepy. If they show signs of this, say "You are growing sleepy. You will sleep, you are tired. Sleep. Your eyes grow tired. Sleep." If they close their eyes, say "Your eyes close, you are tired, you cannot open your eyes." If they cannot, say "Your arms are tired, you cannot raise them." If they cannot, say "I am master of your mind. You must ever believe what I tell you. When I look like this into your eyes you will sleep and be subject to my will," then tell them they will sleep and wake up refreshed, feeling better. Continue this with soothing and healing drugs, and try to infuse into them the feeling of ecstasy that you feel at the Sabbath. They cannot feel it in full, but you can command them to feel what is in your own mind, and try to concentrate on this ecstasy. If you may safely tell that you are of the Cult, your task may be easier. And it were well to command them to know it only with their sleeping mind, and forget it, or to be at least unable to tell anyone about it when awake. A good way is to command them that, if they are ever questioned about Witchcraft or Witches, to immediately fall asleep. +[6] Ever remember if tempted to admit or boast of belonging to the cult you be endangering your brothers, for though now the fires of persecution may have died down, who knows when they may be revived? Many priests have knowledge of our secrets, and they well know that, though much religious bigotry has calmed down, many people would wish to join our cult. And if the truth were known of its joys, the Churches would lose power, so if we take many recruits, we may loose the fires of persecution against us again. So ever keep the secrets. +[7] Think joy, think love, try to help others and bring joy into their lives. Children are naturally easier to influence than grown people. Ever strive to work through people's existing beliefs. For instance, more than half of the world believe in amulets. An ordinary stone is not an amulet but if it hath a natural hole in it, it must be something unusual, so if the patient hath this belief give him one. But first carry it next your skin for a few days, forcing your will into it, to cure pain, to feel safe, or against their particular fear, and this amulet may keep imposing your will when you are absent. The masters of talismans knew this full well when they say they must be made in a circle, to avoid distraction, by someone whose mind is on the subject of the work. +[8] But keep your own mind happy. Remember the Words of the Goddess: "I give unimaginable joys on Earth, certainty, not faith, while in life, and upon death, peace unutterable, rest, and ecstasy, and the promise that you will return again." In the old days many of us went to the flames laughing and singing, and so we may again. We may have joy in life and beauty, and peace and Death and the promise of return. +[9] The Bible speaks sooth, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine but a broken spirit breaketh the bones." But you may not have a merry heart. Perchance you were born under an evil star. I think that the effects of the stars are overestimated, but you cannot make a merry heart to order, you say. But you can, in the Cult; there be secret processes by which your will and imagination may be influenced. This process also affects the body, and brings it to joy. Your body is happy, so your mind is happy. You are well because you are happy, and you are happy because you are well. +[10] Prayer may be used with good result if the patient believes it can and will work. Many believe it can, but do not believe their God or saint will help. Prayers to the Goddess help, especially the Amalthean Horn Prayer, as it causes stimulation to the body as well as to the mind. + + +B.3. The Scourge and the Kiss. (1953) +[1] Invocation +(Feet, knees, and wrists should be tightly bound to retard blood.) Scourge 40 or more, to make skin tingle, then say, invoking Goddess, +Hail, Aradia, from the Amalthean horn + Pour forth thy store of Love. I lowly bend + Before Thee! I invoke thee at the end + When other Gods are fallen and put to scorn. +Thy foot is to my lips! My sighs inborn + Rise, touch, curl about thy heart. Then spend, + Pitiful Love, loveliest Pity, descend + And bring me luck who am lonely and forlorn. + +Ask the Goddess to help you to obtain your desires, then Scourge again to bind the spell. This be powerful in ill luck and for sickness. It must be said in a Circle, and you must be properly prepared and well purified, both before and after saying, to bind the spell. +Before starting you must make a very clear picture in your mind of what you wish. Make yourself see the wish obtained. Be sure in your own mind exactly what it is and how it is to be fulfilled. +This spell is the one that was taught to me long ago and I have found it works, but I don't think there is any special virtue in these words. Any others can be substituted provided they ask the goddess's (or gods') help, and say clearly what you wish and you form the clear mental image; and if it doesn't work at first, keep on trying till it works. Your helper, who wields the scourge, must know what you wish, and also form the mental image. And at first at any rate, it will be better for you to work the spell, then for the girl to take your place and work it also; you scourge her. Don't try anything difficult at first, and do it at least once a week till it works. You have to get into sympathy with each other, before anything happens, and regular working helps this. +Of spells, the exact words matter little if the intent be clear and you raise the true power, and sufficient thereof. Always in rhyme they are. There is something queer about rhyme. I have tried, and the same seem to lose their power if you miss the rhyme. Also in rhyme, the words seem to say themselves. You do not have to pause and think: "What comes next?" Doing this takes away much of your intent. +[2] Order and discipline must be kept. A High Priest or Priestess may and should punish all faults to this end, and all of the Cult must accept such corrections willingly. All are brothers and sisters, for this reason: that even the High Priestess must submit to the scourge. Each fault should be corrected separately. The Priest or Priestess must be properly prepared and call the culprit to trial. They must be prepared as for initiation and kneel, be told their fault and sentence pronounced. Punishment should be the scourge, followed by a forfeit such as several fivefold kisses or something of this nature. The culprit must acknowledge the justice of the punishment by kissing hands and scourge on receiving sentence and again when thanking for punishment received.* +[3] The scourgings are 3, 7, 9 (thrice three), and 21 (thrice seven) 40 in all. It is not meet to make offerings [scourgings] of less than two score to the Goddess, for here be a mystery. The fortunate numbers be: 3 and 5. For three added to two (the Perfect Couple) be five. And three and five be eight; eight and five be thirteen; thirteen and eight be twenty-one. +The Fivefold Kiss is called 5, but there are 8 kisses, for there be 2 feet and 2 knees and genitals and 2 breasts and the lips. And 5 times 8 be two score. Also, fortunate numbers be 3, 7, 8, and 21, which total 40, or two score. For each man and woman hath ten fingers and ten toes, so each totals a score. And a perfect couple be two score. +So a lesser number would not be perfect prayer. If more are required make it a perfect number, as four score or six score. +Also there be Eight Elemental Weapons. +[4] To make the anointing ointment, take some glazed pans filled half full with grease or olive oil. Put in one sweet mint, marjoram in another, ground thyme in a 3rd, and it you may have it, patchouli, dried leaves pounded. Place pans in hot water bath. Stir and cook for several hours, then pout into linen bags, and squeeze grease through into pans again, and fill up with fresh leaves. After doing this several times, the grease will be highly perfumed. Then mix all together and store in a well-corked jar. +Anoint behind ears, throat, armpits, breasts, and womb. Also, for all ceremonies where the feet are kissed, they should also be anointed. + +B.4. The Priestess and the Sword (1953) +It is said, "When a woman takes the main part in worship of the Male God, she must be girt with a sword." +Note. This hath been explained as meaning that a man should be Magus representing the God, but if no one of sufficient rank and knowledge be present, a woman armed as a man may take his place. The sheath should be worn in a belt. She should carry the sword in hand, but if she has to use her hands, she should sheath the sword. Any other woman in the circle while this worship is performed shall be sword in hand. Those outside the circle only have the athame. +A woman may impersonate either the God or the Goddess, but a man may only impersonate the God. + + +B.5. The Warning (1953) +Keep this book in your own hand of write. Let brothers and Sisters copy what they will, but never let this book out of your hands, and never keep the writings of another, for if it be found in their hand of write, they may well be taken and tortured. Each should guard his own writings and destroy them whenever danger threatens. Learn as much as you may by heart, and when the danger is past, rewrite your book. For this reason, if any die, destroy their book if they have not been able to, for, if it be found, 'tis clear proof against them. "Ye may not be a Witch alone"; so all their friends be in danger of the torture. So destroy everything not necessary. +If your book be found on you, 'tis clear proof against you. You may be tortured. Keep all thought of the cult from your mind. Say you had bad dreams, that a Devil caused you to write this without your knowledge. Think to yourself, "I Know Nothing. I Remember nothing. I have forgotten all." Drive this into your mind. If the torture be too great to bear, say, "I will confess. I cannot bear this torment. What do you want me to say? Tell me and I will say it." If they try to make you talk of the brotherhood, do not, but if they try to make you speak of impossibilities, such as flying through the air, consorting with the Devis, sacrificing children, or eating men's flesh, say, "I had an evil dream. I was not myself. I was crazed." +Not all Magistrates are bad. If there be an excuse, they may show you mercy. If you have confessed aught, deny it afterwards. Say you babbled under the torture; you knew not what you did or said. If you be condemned, fear not. The Brotherhood is powerful. They may help you to escape if you are steadfast. If you betray aught, there is no hope for you, in this life, or in that which is to come. But, 'tis sure, that if steadfast you go to the pyre, drugs will reach you. You will feel naught, and you go but to Death and what lies beyond, the ecstasy of the Goddess. +The same with the working Tools. Let them be as ordinary things that anyone may have in their homes. The Pentacles shall be of wax that they may be melted or broken at once. Have no sword unless your rank allows you one. Have no names or signs on anything. Write them on in ink before consecrating them and wash it off at once when finished. +Never boast, never threaten, never say you wish ill to anyone. If any speak of the craft, say, "Speak not to me of such, it frightens me, 'tis evil luck to speak of it." + + +B.6. Of the Ordeal of the Art Magical (1953) +Learn of the spirit that goeth with burdens that have not honour, for 'tis the spirit that stoopeth the shoulders and not the weight. Armour is heavy, yet it is a proud burden and a man standeth upright in it. Limiting and constraining any of the senses serves to increase the concentration of another. Shutting the eyes aids the hearing. So the binding of the initiate's hands increases the mental perception, while the scourge increaseth the inner vision. So the initiate goeth through it proudly, like a princess, knowing it but serves to increase her glory. +But this can only be done by the aid of another intelligence and in a circle, to prevent the power thus generated being lost. Priests attempt to do the same with their scourgings and mortifications of the flesh. But lacking the aid of bonds and their attention being distracted by their scourging themselves and what little power they do produce being dissipated, as they do not usually work within a circle, it is little wonder that they oft fail. Monks and hermits do better, as they are apt to work in tiny cells and coves, which in some way act as circles. The Knights of the Temple, who used mutually to scourge each other in an octagon, did better still; but they apparently did not know the virtue of bonds and did evil, man to man. +But perhaps some did know? What of the Church's charge that they wore girdles or cords? + + +B.7. The Eightfold Way. (1953) +Eightfold Path or Ways to the Centre. + +1 Meditation or Concentration. This in practice means forming a mental image of what is desired, and forcing yourself to see that it is fulfilled, with the fierce belief and knowledge that it can and will be fulfilled, and that you will go on willing till you force it to be fulfilled. Called for short, "Intent" +2 Trance, projection of the Astral. +3 Rites, Chants, Spells, Runes, Charms, etc. +4 Incense, Drugs, Wine, etc., whatever is used to release the Spirit. (Note. One must be very careful about this. Incense is usually harmless, but you must be careful. If it has bad aftereffects, reduce the amount used, or the duration of the time it is inhaled. Drugs are very dangerous if taken to excess, but it must be remembered that there are drugs that are absolutely harmless, though people talk of them with bated breath, but Hemp is especially dangerous, because it unlocks the inner eye swiftly and easily, so one is tempted to use it more and more. If it is used at all, it must be with the strictest precautions, to see that the person who uses it has no control over the supply. This should be doled out by some responsible person, and the supply strictly limited.) +5 The Dance, and kindred practices. +6 Blood control (the Cords), Breath Control, and kindred practices. +7 The Scourge. +8 The Great Rite. + +These are all the ways. You may combine many of them into the one experiment, the more the better. + +The Five Essentials: + +1. The most important is "Intention": you must know that you can and will succeed; it is essential in every operation. +2. Preparation. (You must be properly prepared according to the rules of the Art; otherwise you will never succeed.) +3. The Circle must be properly formed and purified. +4. You all must be properly purified, several times if necessary, and this purification should be repeated several times during the rite. +5. You must have properly consecrated tools. + +These five essentials and Eight Paths or Ways cannot all be combined in one rite. Meditation and dancing do not combine well, but forming the mental image and the dance may be well combined with Chants. Spells, etc., combined with scourging and No. 6, followed by No. 8, form a splendid combination. Meditation, following scourging, combined with Nos. 3 and 4 and 5, are also very Good. For short cuts concentration, Nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8 are excellent. + + +B.8. To Gain the Sight (1953) +[1] This cometh to different people in diverse ways. 'Tis seldom it cometh naturally, but it can be induced in many ways. Deep and prolonged meditation may do it, but only if you be a natural, and usually prolonged fasting was also necessary. Of old monks and nuns obtained visions by long vigils, combined with fasting, flagellation till the blood came, and other mortifications of the flesh, and so undoubtedly had visions. In the East it is tried with various tortures, at the same time sitting in cramped postures, which retard the flow of blood, and these torments, long and continued, give good results. But in the Art we are taught an easier way to intensify the imagination, at the same time controlling the blood supply, and this may best be done by using the ritual. +[2] Incense is also good to propitiate the Spirits, but also to induce relaxation and to help to build up the atmosphere which is neces-sary to suggestibility. (For our human eyes are so blind to what really is, that it is often necessary to suggest that it is there, before we may see it, as we may point out to another something at a distance before they may see it themselves. Gum mastic, aromatic rush roots, cinnamon bark, musk, juniper, sandalwood, and ambergris in combination are all good, but patchouli is best of all. And if you may have hemp, 'tis better still, but be very careful of this. +[3] The circle being formed, all properly prepared, and the Rites done, and all purified, the aspirant should warlock and take his tutor round the circle, saluting the Mighty Ones, and invoke them to aid the operation. Then both dance round till giddy, invoking or using chants. Scourge. Then the Tutor should warlock very tightly, but not so to cause discomfort, but enough to retard the blood slightly. Again they should dance round, chanting, then scourge with light, steady, monotonous, slow strokes. lt is very good that the pupil may see them coming (this may be arranged from position, or if a big mirror is available, this can be used with excellent effect) as this has the effect of passes, and helps greatly to stimulate the imagination, and it is important that they be not hard, the object being not to do more than draw the blood to that part and so away from the brain. This with the tight warlocking, which should be warricked, slows down the circulation of the blood, and the passes soon induce a drowsiness and a stupor. The tutor should watch for this. As soon as the aspirant sleeps, the scourging should cease. The tutor should also watch that the pupil become not cold, and if they struggle or become distressed, they should be at once awakened. (Note: if it cannot be arranged for the pupil to see, the wand may be used, for a time, then return to scourging.) +[4] Do not be discouraged if no results come after two or three attempts. It will come, when both are in the right state. When you get some result, then results will come more quickly. Soon some of the ritual may be shortened, but never neglect to invoke the Goddess, and the Mighty Ones, or to form the Circle and do everything rightly. And for good and clear results, it is ever better to do too much ritual than too little. +[5] It hath been found that this practice doth often cause a fondness between aspirant and tutor, and 'tis a cause of better results if this be so. If for any reason it is undesirable that there be any great fondness between aspirant and tutor, this may be easily avoided, by both parties from the onset firmly resolving in their minds that if any doth ensue, it shall be that of brother and sister or parent and child. And it is for this reason that a man may only be taught by a woman and a woman by a man, and that man and man, and woman and woman, should never attempt these practices together. And may all the Curses of the Mighty Ones be on any who make the attempt.* +[6] Remember, the Circle, properly constructed, is ever necessary to prevent the power released from being dissipated. It is also a barrier against any disturbances of mischievous forces, for to obtain good results you must be free from all disturbances. Remember that darkness, points of light gleaming amid the surrounding dark, incense, and the steady passes by a white arm are not stage effects. They are the mechanical implements which start the suggestions, which later unlocks the knowledge that it is possible to obtain the divine ecstasy, and so attain knowledge and communion with the Divine Goddess. When once you have attained this, Ritual is not needed, as you may attain the state of ecstasy at will, but till then, or if you having attained this yourself, and wish to bring a companion to this state of joy, ritual is best. + + +B.9. Power (1953) +Power is latent in the body and may be drawn out and used in various ways by the skilled. But unless confined in a circle it will be swiftly dissipated. Hence the importance of a properly constructed circle. Power seems to exude from the body via the skin and possibly from the orifices of the body; hence you should be properly prepared. The slightest dirt spoils everything, which shows the importance of thorough cleanliness. +The attitude of mind has great effect, so only work with a spirit of reverence. A little wine taken and repeated during the ceremony, if necessary, helps to produce power. Other strong drinks or drugs may be used, but it is necessary to be very moderate, for if you are confused, even slightly, you cannot control the power you evoke. +The simplest way is by dancing and singing monotonous chants, slowly at first and gradually quickening the tempo until giddiness ensues. Then the calls may be used, or even wild and meaningless shrieking produces power. But this method inflames the mind and renders it difficult to control the power, though control may be gained through practice. The scourge is a far better way, for it stimulates and excites both body and soul, yet one easily retains control. +The Great Rite is far the best. It releases enormous power, but the conditions and circumstances make it difficult for the mind to maintain control at first. It is again a matter of practice and the natural strength of the operator's will and, in a lesser degree, of those of his assistants. If, as of old, there were many trained assistants present and all wills properly attuned, wonders occurred. +Sorcerors chiefly used the blood sacrifice; and while we hold this to be evil, we cannot deny that this method is very efficient. Power flashes forth from newly shed blood, instead of exuding slowly as by our method. The victim's terror and anguish add keenness, and even quite a small animal can yield enormous power. The great difficulty is in the human mind controlling the power of the lower animal mind. But sorcerers claim they have methods for effecting this and that the difficulty disappears the higher the animal used, and when the victim is human disappears entirely. (The practice is an abomination but it is so.) +Priests know this well; and by their auto-da-fs, with the victims' pain and terror (the fires acting much the same as circles), obtained much power. +Of old the Flagellants certainly evoked power, but through not being confined in a circle much was lost. The amount of power raised was so great and continuous that anyone with knowledge could direct and use it; and it is most probable that the classical and heathen sacrifices were used in the same way. There are whispers that when the human victim was a willing sacrifice, with his mind directed on the Great Work and with highly skilled assistants, wonders ensued but of this I would not speak. + + +B.10. Properly Prepared. (1953) +Naked, but sandals (not shoes) may be worn. For initiation, tie hands behind back, pull up to small of back, and tie ends in front of throat, leaving a cable-tow to lead by, hanging down in front. (Arms thus form a triangle at back.) When initiate is kneeling at altar, the cable-tow is tied to a ring in the altar. A short cord is tied like a garter round the initiate's left leg above the knee, with ends tucked in. Another is tied round right ankle and ends tucked in so as to be out of the way while moving about. These cords are used to tie feet together while initiate is kneeling at the altar and must be long enough to do this firmly. Knees must also be firmly tied. This must be carefully done. If the aspirant complains of pain, the bonds must be loosened slightly; always remember the object is to retard the blood flow enough to induce a trance state. This involves slight discomfort, but great discomfort prevents the trance state; so it is best to spend some little time loosening and tightening the bonds until they are just right. The aspirant alone can tell you when this is so. This, of course, does not apply to the initiation, as then no trance is desired; but for the purpose of ritual it is good that the initiates be bound firmly enough to feel they are absolutely helpless but without discomfort. + +B.11. The Meeting Dance. (1953) +The Maiden should lead. A man should place both hands on her waist, standing behind her, and alternate men and women should do the same, the Maiden leading and they dance following her. She at last leads them into a right-hand spiral. When the center is reached (and this had better be marked by a stone), she suddenly turns and dances back, kissing each man as she comes to him. All men and women turn likewise and dance back, men kissing girls and girls kissing men. All in time to music, it is a merry game, but must be practices to be done well. Note, the musicians should watch the dancers and make the music fast or slow as is best. For the beginners it should be slow, or there will be confusion. It is most excellent to get people to know each other at big gatherings. + +B.12. To Leave the Body. (1953) +'Tis not wise to strive to get out of your body until you have thoroughly gained the Sight. The same ritual as to gain the Sight may be used, but have a comfortable couch. Kneel so that you have your thigh, belly, and chest well supported, the arms strained forward and bound one on each side, so that there is a decided feeling of being pulled forward. As the trance is induced, you should feel a striving to push yourself out of the top of your head. The scourge should be given a dragging action, as if to drive or drag you out. Both wills should be thoroughly in tune, keeping a constant and equal strain. When trance comes, your tutor may help you by softly calling your name. You will probably feel yourself drawn out of your body as if through a narrow opening, and find yourself standing beside your tutor, looking at the body on the couch. Strive to communicate with your tutor first; if they have the Sight they will probably see you. Go not far afield at first, and 'tis better to have one who is used to leaving the body with you. +A note: When, having succeeded in leaving the body, you desire to return, in order to cause the spirit body and the material body to coincide, THINK OF YOUR FEET. This will cause the return to take place. + +B.13. The Working Tools (1953) +There are no magical supply shops, so unless you are lucky enough to be given or sold tools, a poor witch must extemporize. But when made you should be able to borrow or obtain an Athame. So having made your circle, erect an altar. Any small table or chest will do. There must be fire on it (a candle will suffice) and your book. For good results incense is best if you can get it, but coals in a chafing dish burning sweet-smelling herbs will do. A cup if you would have cakes and wine, and a platter with the signs drawn into the same in ink, showing a pentacle. A scourge is easily made (note, the scourge has eight tails and five knots in each tail). Get a white-hilted knife and a wand (a sword is not necessary). Cut the marks with Athame. Purify everything, then consecrate your tools in proper form and ever be properly prepared. But ever remember, magical operations are useless unless the mind can be brought to the proper attitude, keyed to the utmost pitch. +Affirmations must be made clearly, and the mind should be inflamed with desire. With this frenzy of will, you may do as much with simple tools as with the most complete set. But good and especially ancient tools have their own aura. They do help to bring about that reverential spirit, the desire to learn and develop your powers. For this reason witches ever try to obtain tools from sorcerers, who, being skilled men, make good tools and consecrate them well, giving them mighty power. But a great witch's tools also gain much power; and you should ever strive to make any tools you manufacture of the finest materials you can obtain, to the end that they may absorb your power the more easily. And of course if you may inherit or obtain another witch's tools, power will flow from them. +It is an old belief that the best substances for making tools are those that have once had life in them, as opposed to artificial substances. Thus wood or ivory is better for a wand than metal, which is more appropriate for knives or swords. Virgin parchment is better than manufactured paper for talismans, etc. And things which have been made by hand are good, because there is life in them. + + +B.14. Skyclad (1953) +It is important to work naked from the start, so it becometh as second nature, and no thought of "I have no clothes" shall ever intrude and take your attention from the work. Also, your skin being so accustomed to unconfinement, when power is given off the flow is more easy and regular. Also, when dancing you are free and unconfined. . . . +And the greatest of all, the touch of the body of your beloved thrills your inmost soul, and so your body gives out its utmost power; and then it is most important of all that there is not the slightest thing to divert the attention, for then the mind must seize and mold the power generated, and redirect it to the desired end with all the force and frenzy of the imagination. +It has been said that no real knowledge may be gained our way, that our practices are such that they can only lead to lust; but this is not really so. Our aim is to gain the inner sight, and we do it the most natural and easy way. Our opponents' aim is ever to prevent man and woman from loving, thinking that everything that helps or even permits them to love is wicked and vile. To us it is natural, and if it aids the Great Work it is good. +'Tis true that a couple burning with a frenzy for knowledge may go straight to their goal, but the average couple have not this fire. We show them the way, our system of props and aids (i.e., magic ritual). A couple working with nothing but lust will never attain in any case; but a couple who love each other dearly should already be sleeping together, and the first frenzy of love will have passed, and their souls will already be in sympathy. If the first time or two they do stay a while to worship Aphrodite, 'tis only a day or two lost, and the intense pleasure they obtain only leads them again to the mysteries of Hermes, their souls more attuned to the great search. Once they have pierced the veil they will not look back. +This rite may be used as the greatest of magics if it be done with both partners firmly fixing their minds on the object and not thinking of sex at all. That is, you must so firmly fix your mind on your object that sex and all else are naught. You inflame your will to such an extent that you may create a strain on the astral such that events happen. + +C.1. A Revision of the Casting Procedure (1957) +ALL ARE PURIFIED +[1] Magus consecrates salt and water. +[2] High Priestess kneels at Altar, takes up Sword, says, "I conjure thee, O Sword of Steel, to serve me as a defence in all Magical Operations. Guard me at all times against mine enemies, both visible and invisible. Grant that I may obtain what I desire in all things wherein I may use Thee, Wherefore do I bless Thee and invoke Thee in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." Gives Sword to Magus. +[3] Magus kneeling hands her vessel of consecrated Water and Aspergillum. He Casts the Circle, three circles, on the lines marked out, starting at the East and returning to the East. High Priestess follows, Asperging Circle (sprinkling it to purify it) and all present and finally herself. Then she goes round again censing it. (Everyone in the circle must be sprinkled and censed.) She returns vessel, etc., to Magus, who places them on altar, or convenient place, and hands her Sword [handwritten]. +[4] She walks slowly round Circle, saying, "I conjure Thee, O Circle of Space, that thou be a Boundary and a Protection and a meeting place between the world of Men and that of the Dread Lords of the OUTER SPACES, that Thou be cleansed, Purified, and strengthened to be a Guardian and a Protection that shall preserve and contain THAT POWER which we so earnestly desire to raise within thy bounds this night, wherefore do I bless thee and entreat thee to aid me in the endeavor, in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." Hands sword to Magus [handwritten]. +[5] Magus then summons the Mighty Ones as usual. +[6] High Priestess stands in front of Altar (which may be pushed back for this). High Priestess assumes Goddess position (arms crossed). Magus kneeling in front of her, draws pentacle on her body with Phallus-headed Wand, Invokes (Drawing down the Moon), "I Invoke and beseech Thee, O mighty MOTHER of all life and fertility. `By seed and root, by stem and bud, by leaf and flower and fruit, by Life and Love, do I invoke Thee' to descend into the body of thy servant and High Priestess (name)." (The Moon having been drawn down, i.e., link established, Magus and all male officers give fivefold kiss; all others bow.) +[7] High Priestess in Goddess position says Arms Crossed + +"Mother, Darksome and Divine,Mine the Scourge and Mine the Kiss,The Five-point Star of Love and Bliss; +Here I charge ye in this Sign. + (Opens out Arms to pentacle position) + +Bow before my Spirit bright (All bow)Aphrodite, Arianrhod,Lover of the Horned God, +Queen of Witchery and Night. + +Diana, Brigid, Melusine, + Am I named of old by men, + Artemis and Cerridwen, +Hell's dark mistress, Heaven's Queen. + +Ye who ask of me a boon, + Meet ye in some hidden shade, + Lead my dance in greenwood glade +By the light of the full moon. + +Dance about mine altar stone, + Work my holy magistry, + Ye who are fain of sorcery, +I bring ye secrets yet unknown. + +No more shall ye know slavery + who tread my round the Sabbat night. + Come ye all naked to the rite +In sign that ye are truly free. + +Keep ye my mysteries in mirth, + Heart joined to heart and lip to lip. + Five are the points of fellowship +That bring ye ecstasy on Earth. + +No other law but love I know; + By naught but love may I be known, + And all that liveth is my own: +From me they come, to me they go. + +C.2. The Prose Charge (1957) +THE CHARGE, to be read while the initiate stands, properly prepared before the Circle. + +[Magus]: Listen to the words of the Great mother, who was of old also called among men, Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite, Cerridwen, Diana, Arianrhod, Bride, and by many other names. +[High Priestess]: "At mine Altars the youth of Lacedaemon in Sparta made due sacrifice. Whenever ye have need of anything, once in the month, and better it be when the moon is full. Then ye shall assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of Me who am Queen of all Witcheries. There ye shall assemble, ye who are fain to learn all sorcery, yet who have not won its deepest secrets. To these will I teach things that are yet unknown. And ye shall be free from slavery, and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked in your rites, and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music, and love, all in my praise.' +"For mine is the ecstasy of the Spirit, and mine is also joy on earth. For my Law is Love unto all beings. +"Keep pure your highest ideals. Strive ever towards it. Let naught stop you or turn you aside. +"For mine is the secret which opens upon the door of youth; and mine is the cup of the Wine of Life: and the Cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of Immortality. +"I am the Gracious Goddess who gives the gift of Joy unto the heart of Man. +"Upon Earth I give the knowledge of the Spirit Eternal, and beyond death I give peace and freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor do I demand aught in sacrifice, for behold, I am the Mother of all things, and my love is poured out upon earth." +[Magus]: Hear ye the words of the Star Goddess, She in the dust of whose feet are the hosts of Heaven, whose body encircleth the universe. +[High Priestess]: "I who am the beauty of the green earth; and the White Moon amongst the Stars; and the mystery of the Waters; and the desire of the heart of man. I call unto thy soul: arise and come unto me. +"For I am the Soul of nature who giveth life to the Universe; `From me all things proceed; and unto me, all things must return.' Beloved of the Gods and men, thine inmost divine self shall be enfolded in the raptures of the infinite. +"Let my worship be within the heart that rejoiceth, for behold: all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals; and therefore let there be Beauty and Strength, Power and Compassion, Honour and Humility, Mirth and reverence within you. +"And thou who thinkest to seek me, know that thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not unless thou know the mystery, that if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, thou wilt never find it without thee, for behold; I have been with thee from the beginning, and I am that which is attained at the end of desire." + +C.3. CAKES AND WINE. (1957) +High Priestess seated on Altar, God position. +Magus, kneeling, kisses her feet, then knees, bows with head below her knees, extends arms along her thighs, and adores. +Magus fills cup and offers it to High Priestess, who, holding Athame between palms, places point in cup. +Magus says: "As the Athame is the male, so the cup is the female, and conjoined they bring blessedness." +High Priestess lays Athame aside, and takes Cup and drinks, gives Cup to server, who puts a little in each glass. +Magus presents Pentacle with cakes to High Priestess, saying, "Oh Queen most secret, bless this food unto our bodies, bestowing health, wealth, strength, joy and peace, and that fulfillment of love that is perpetual happiness". +High Priestess blesses them with Athame, takes Cake and eats, while the Magus gives her the Cup again and kisses knees and adores. +All sit as Witches, and invite High Priestess to join them. + + +C.4. The Sabbat Rituals (1957) +Spring equinox +The symbol of the wheel should be placed on the altar upright, decked with flowers, flanked with burning candles. The Cauldron, containing spirits, is in the east. Magus in west, High Priestess in east with Phallic wand or pinecone-tipped wand, or broomstick, or riding pole, broom upwards. +High Priestess lights Cauldron, saying, + +"We kindle fire this day! +In the presence of the Holy Ones:Without malice, without jealousy, without envy. +Without fear of aught beneath the sun.But the High Gods. + +Thee we invoke: O light of life:Be thou a bright flame before us: +Be thou a guiding star above us:Be thou a smooth path beneath us; + +Kindle thou in our hearts within,A flame of love for our neighbor, +To our foes, to our friends, to our kindred all:To all men on this broad Earth. + +O merciful son of CerridwenFrom the lowest thing that liveth +To the name that is highest of all." + +High Priestess draw pentacle upon Magus with wand, kiss, gives it to him. He does likewise. They lead the dance round the circle, all couples leaping burning fire. The last couple as the fire goes out should be well-purified three times, and each should give Fivefold Kiss to all of opposite sex. +Cakes and wine. +If the people will, the Cauldron dance can be done again, many times, or other games can be played. + + +Summer Solstice +Form circle. Invoke, Purify. Cauldron is placed before altar filled with water, wreathed with summer flowers. The people, men and women alternately, stand round circle. +High Priestess stands in north, before Cauldron, holding raised wand, which should be Phallic or tipped with a pinecone (anciently the thyrsus) or a riding pole or a broomstick, invokes the sun. "Great One of Heaven, Power of the Sun, we invoke thee in thine ancient names, Michael, Balin, Arthur, Lugh, Herne. Come again, as of old, into this thy land. Lift up thy shining spear of light to protect us. Put to flight the powers of darkness, give us fair woodlands and green fields, blossoming orchards and ripening corn. Bring us to stand upon thy hill of vision, and show us the path to the lovely realms of the gods." +High Priestess draws invoking pentacle on Magus with wand. +Magus comes forward sunwise and takes wand with kiss, plunges wand into Cauldron and holds it upright, saying, "The spear to the Cauldron, the lance to the Grail, spirit to flesh, man to woman, sun to earth." He salutes High Priestess over Cauldron, then rejoins people, still bearing wand. +High Priestess takes aspergillum, stands by Cauldron, says, "Dance ye about the Cauldron of Cerridwen the Goddess, and be ye blessed with the touch of this consecrated water, even as the sun, the lord of light, arriveth in his strength in the sign of the waters of life." +The people dance sunwise about the altar and Cauldron, led by Magus bearing wand. High Priestess sprinkles them lightly as they pass her. +Ritual of cakes and wine. +Any other dances, rites, or games as the Priestess and people wish. + +Autumn equinox +The altar should be decorated with symbols of autumn, pine cones, oak sprigs, acorns, or ears of corn, and should have fire or burning incense on it as usual. After usual purification, the people stand round, men and women alternately. Magus at west of altar in God position. +High Priestess stands at east of altar, facing him, and reads the incantation. +"Farewell, O Sun, ever returning light. The hidden god, who ever yet remains. He departs to the land of youth, through the gates of death, to dwell enthroned, the judge of gods and man. The horned leader of the hosts of air. Yet, even as stand unseen about the circle the forms of the Mighty Lords of the Outer Spaces,. So dwelleth he, `the lord within ourselves'. So dwelleth he within the secret seed, the seed of new reaped grain, the seed of flesh, hidden in the earth, the marvellous seed of the stars. `In him is life, and life is the light of men [John 1:4],' that which was never born and never dies. Therefore the Wicca weep not, but rejoice." +The High Priestess goes to the Magus with a kiss. He lays aside Athame and scourge, and kisses her. The High Priestess hands him her wand, which should be Phallic, or a branch tipped with a pinecone, Or a riding pole, or a broomstick (anciently the thyrsus). They lead the dance, she with a systrum or rattle, he with wand, the people falling in behind them, dancing three times round the altar. Then the candle game is played. +Cakes and wine. +Great Rite if possible. +Dances and games. +Winter Solstice +Form circle in usual manner, invoking the Mighty Ones. +The Cauldron of Cerridwen is placed in the circle at the south wreathed with holly, ivy, and mistletoe, with fire lighted within it. There should be no other light except for the candles on the altar and about the circle. +After all are purified, the Moon should be drawn down. +Then the High Priestess stands behind the Cauldron in pentacle position, symbolizing the rebirth of the sun. The people, man and woman alternately, stand round the circle. The Magus stands facing the High Priestess with a bundle of torches, or candles, and the book of words of the incantation. One of the officers stands beside him with a lighted candle, so that he may have light to read by. +The people begin to slowly move round the circle sunwise. As each passes him the Magus lights his candle or torch from the fire in the Cauldron, which may be simply a candle, till all have lighted candles or torches. Then the people dance round slowly as he reads the incantation. (A real fire must now be kindled in the Cauldron.) + +Queen of the Moon, Queen of the Sun.Queen of the Heavens, Queen of the Stars. +Queen of the Waters, Queen of the Earth.Who ordained to us the child of promise: + +It is the Great Mother who gives birth to him,He is the Lord of Life who is born again, +Darkness and tears are set behind,And the star of guidance comes up early. + +Golden sun of hill and mountainIllumine the land, illumine the world +Illumine the seas, illumine the rivers,Grief be laid, and joy be raised. + +Blessed be the Great MotherWithout beginning, without ending, +To everlasting, to eternity,I O. Evohe, Blessed be." + +The dance commences slowly, in rhythm with the chant, all taking up the call "I. O. Blessed be." The Priestess joins dance and leads them with a quicker rhythm. The cauldron with burning fire is pushed so that the dancers leap or step over it, in couples. Whichever couple is passing it as it goes out, should be well-purified, three times each, and may pay any amusing forfeit as the High Priestess may ordain. Sometimes the cauldron is relighted several times for this purpose. + + +C.5 The Eightfold Path or Ways. (1957) +1. Meditation or concentration, actually by the firm knowledge that you can and will succeed -- forming a clear picture in your mind or your requirements. +2. Trance states, Clairvoyance, Projection of the Astral etc. +3. Drugs, Wine, Incense. +4. Dance, Performing Rites with a purpose. +5. Chants, Spells etc. +6. Blood control (Cords etc), Breath control. +7. $courge +8. The Great Rite +N.B. +The great thing is to combine as many of these paths into the one operation. No 1 must be in all -- for if you have no clear picture of what you wish and no certainty you will not succeed -- 'tis useless. No 2 can be combined with this easily. Nos 3, 4, and 5 are all good preliminaries- also 6 and 7; but No 3 is dangerous and therefore if possible should be avoided, except for incense, which is harmless if too much is not used. +The best combination is Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 7, for small purposes, with no 8 if great force is necessary. Also a combination of 1, 6 and 7 is good if more can not be done; this if properly performed leads to No. 2. + + +C.6. The First-Degree Initiation (1957) +Draw Circle with Magic Sword or Athame. +Sprinkle with Exorcised Water. +Go round Circle with Magic Sword or Athame, Saying, "I conjure thee, O Circle of Power, that thou beest as a Boundary and a Protection to contain the magic power which I will raise within thy bounds. So do I bless thee, in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." +Go round, saying at East, South, West, and North, "I summon, stir, and call thee up, ye Mighty Ones of the East (South, West, North), to witness the rites and to guard the circle." +Magus draws down Moon on High Priestess. +Read Charge, then say, "O thou who standest on the threshold between the pleasant world of men and the dread domains of the lords of the outer spaces, hast thou the courage to make the assay?" (Place point of the Magic Sword or Athame to Postulant's heart.) "For I say verily it were better to rush on my blade and perish than to make the attempt with fear in thy heart." +Postulant: "I have two perfect words: perfect love, and perfect trust." +Say, "All who have are doubly welcome." +Entering position: "I give you a third to pass you through this dread door." Gives it [kiss]. +Lead Postulant sunwise to south of altar, and say, "O thou who hast declared intent to become one of us, hear then that which thou must know to do. Single is the race of men and of Gods; from a single source we both draw breath, but a difference of power in everything keeps us apart, for we are as nothing, but the Gods stay forever. Yet we can, in greatness of minds, be like the Gods, though we know not to what goal by day or in the night Fate has written that we shall run. Beyond all seas and Earth's last boundaries, beyond the Spring of night and the Heavens' vast expanse, there lies a majesty which is the domain of the Gods. Thou who would pass through the Gates of Night and Day to that sweet place, which is between the worlds of men and the domains of the Lords of the outer spaces, know that unless there is truth in thy heart, thy every effort is doomed to failure. HEAR THEN THE LAW: that thou lovest all things in nature; that thou shalt suffer no person to be harmed by thy hands or in thy mind; that thou walkest humbly in the ways of men and the ways of the Gods. Also it is the law that contentment thou shalt learn, through suffering, and from long years and from nobility of mind and of purpose, FOR THE WISE NEVER GROW OLD. Their minds are nourished by living in the daylight of the Gods, and if among the vulgar some discoveries should arise concerning some maxims of thy belief in the Gods, so do thou, for the most part, keep silent. For there is a great risk that thou mayest straightway vomit up that which thou hast not digested, and when someone shall say to thee, "Thou knowest naught," and it bites thee not, then knowest thou that thou hast begun the work. And as sheep do not bring their food to the shepherd to show how much they have eaten, but digesting inwardly their provender, bear outwardly wool and milk, even so, do not thou display the maxims to the vulgar, but rather the works that flow when they are digested. Now there is the ordeal." [This speech was added after about 1960.] +Tie cord around Postulant's right ankle, leaving ends free; say, "Feet neither bound nor free." +Leading postulant, proclaim at four quarters, "Take heed, ye Lords of the Watchtowers of the East (South, West, North), that (name) is properly prepared to be made a priestess and a witch." +Three times round the Circle with Dance step and chant. +Place Postulant in East; say, "Kneel." +Postulant kneels. +Strike eleven knells on bell; say, "Rise. In other religions the postulant kneels while the priest towers above him, but in the Art Magical we are taught to be humble, and so we kneel to welcome them, and we say: +"Blessed be the feet that have brought you in these ways [kiss]; +"Blessed be the knees that shall kneel at the sacred altar [kiss]; +"Blessed be thy womb (or organ of generation), without which we would not be [kiss]; +"Blessed be thy breasts, erected in beauty and in strength [kiss]; +"Blessed be thy lips, which shall utter the sacred names [kiss]. +"Before ye are sworn, art willing to pass the ordeal and be purified?" +Postulant "I am." +Take measure: height (tie knot); around head (tie knot); around heart (tie knot); around hips (tie knot). Prick postulant's thumb; catch blood on measure. Place measure on altar. Have postulant kneel, tie postulant's feet together, and secure cable tow to altar. Three strokes on bell. Say, "Art ready to swear that thou wilt always be true to the Art?" +Postulant "I am." +Strike seven times on bell and say, "Thou must first be purified." Scourge 3, 7, 9, 21. +Say, "Ye have bravely passed the test. Art always ready to help, protect, and defend thy brothers and sisters of the Art?" +Postulant "I am." +"Then say after me: I, (name), in the presence of the mighty ones of the outer spaces, do of my own free will most solemnly swear that I will ever keep secret and never reveal the secrets of the Art, except it be to a proper person, properly prepared, within such a circle as I am in now, and that I will never deny the Secrets to such a person if they be vouched for by a brother or Sister of the Art. All this I swear by my hopes of a future life, and may my weapons turn against me if I break this my solemn oath." +Loosen cords from ankles and from altar, and remove blindfold; assist to rise. +"I hereby sign thee with the triple sign [the point-down triangle formed by touching the genitals, the right breast, the left breast, and the genitals again.] + I consecrate thee with oil. + I consecrate thee with wine. + I consecrate thee with my lips, Priest (Priestess) and Witch." +Remove Cords [kiss]. +"I now present to you the working tools. First the magic sword. With this, as with the athame, thou canst form all magic circles, dominate, subdue, and punish all rebellious spirits and demons, and even persuade angels and good spirits. With this in your hand, you are ruler of the circle." [kiss] +"Next I present to you the athame. This is the true witches' weapon, and has all the powers of the magic sword." [kiss] +"Next I present the white-handled knife. Its use is to form all instruments used in the Art. It can only be used in a magic circle." [kiss] +"Next I present the wand. Its use is to call up and control certain angels and genie to whom it would not be meet to use the sword or athame." [kiss] +"Next I present the pentacle. This is for the purpose of calling up the appropriate spirits." [kiss] +"Next I present the censer of incense. This is used to encourage and welcome good spirits, and to banish evil spirits." [kiss] +"Next I present the scourge. This is a sign of power and domination. It is also used to cause purification and enlightenment, for it is written, `To learn you must suffer and be purified.' [kiss] Art willing to suffer to learn?" +Postulant: "I am." +"Next and lastly I present the cords. They are of use to bind the sigils of the art, also the material basis. Also they are necessary in the oath." [kiss] +"I now salute you in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos, Newly made Priestess and Witch." +Lead round and proclaim to four quarters, "Hear, ye Mighty Ones, (name) has been consecrated a priestess of the Goddess." +Now present new Witch to coven members. All should kiss and hug new Witch as welcome into membership. +To close circle proclaim to four quarters, "Ye Mighty Ones of the East (South, West, North), I thank you for attending and, ere ye depart for your lovely realms, I say hail and farewell." + + +C.7. The Second-Degree Initiation (1957) +Form Circle in usual manner, invoking the Mighty Ones at the Four Quarters. The Initiate should be properly prepared and bound with the Cords. All are purified, including Initiate. +Circle once, proclaiming at the Four Quarters: "Hear Ye Mighty Ones, . . . (N), a duly consecrated Priestess and Witch is now properly prepared to be made a High Priest and Magus (High Priestess and Witch Queen)." +Circle three times, with dance step and chant. Initiate then kneels before the Altar and is secured with the Cords. +Priestess or Magus: "To attain to this sublime Degree it is necessary to suffer and be purified. Art willing to suffer to learn?" +Initiate: "I am." +Priestess or Magus: "I purify thee to take this great oath rightly". Strike three strokes upon the bell. Scourge 3, 7, 9, 21. + "I now give thee a new name: . . ." [kiss] + "Repeat thy new name after me, saying, `I, . . ., swear, upon my mother's womb and by mine honour among men and my brothers and sisters of the Art, that I will never reveal to any at all any of the secrets of the Art, except it be to a worthy person, properly prepared, in the center of a Magic Circle such as I am now in. This I swear by my hopes of salvation, my past lives and my hopes of future ones to come and I devote myself and my measure to utter destruction if I break this my solemn Oath.'" +Kneel. Place Left Hand under Initiate's Knee and Right Hand on Head, thus forming Magic Link, saying: "I will all my power into thee." WILL. Loose, assist to rise. +Consecrate: "I consecrate thee with oil [on genitals, right breast, left hip, right hip, left breast, genitals), I consecrate thee with wine, I consecrate thee with my lips, High Priest and Magus (High Priestess and Witch Queen)." Loose remaining cords. [kiss] +"You will now use the working tools in turn, +"First the Magic Sword (Form Circle) [kiss] +"Second the Athame. (Form Circle) [kiss] +"Third the White-Handled Knife (use) [kiss] +"Fourth the Wand. (Wave to 4 Quarters) [kiss] +"Fifth the Pentacle. (Show to 4 Quarters) [kiss] +"Sixth the Censer. (Circle, cense) [kiss] +"Seventh the Cords. (Use) [kiss] +"Eighth the scourge: for learn, in witchcraft you must ever give as you receive, but ever triple. So where I gave thee 3, return 9; where I gave 7, return 21; where I gave 9, return 27; where I gave 21, return 63." (Use, 9, 21, 27, 63; i.e., 120 in all [kiss]) "Thou hast obeyed the law. But mark well, when thou receivest good, so equally art bound to return good threefold." +The Priestess or Magus is then loosed from the cords and says: "Having learned thus far, you must know why the Wicca are called the Hidden Children of the Goddess". +Then the Legend of the Goddess is either read or acted out. If it is possible to act it out, the new Initiate may take one of the parts. One of the Coven should act as Narrator, and another as Guardian of the Portal. The Priestess, or another woman, may act the part of the Goddess, and the Magus, or another man, may act the part of the God. The Priestess -- or whoever is taking the part of the Goddess -- takes off her necklace and lays it on the Altar. Then she goes outside the circle and is dressed in a veil and jewellery. The Magus -- or whoever is taking the part of the God -- is invested with a horned crown and girds on a sword, which he draws and stands in the God position with sword and scourge, by the altar. +Narrator: "In ancient times our Lord, the Horned One, was, as he still is, the Consoler, the Comforter; but men knew him as the Dread Lord of Shadows -- lonely, stern, and hard. Now our Lady the Goddess had never loved, but she would solve all mysteries, even the mystery of Death -- and so she journeyed to the Nether Lands. The Guardians of the Portals challenged her:" +(The Priestess -- or whoever is taking the part of the Goddess -- advances to the side of the Circle. Whoever is taking the part of the Guardian of the Portal challenges her with the Sword or Athame.) +Narrator: "`Strip off thy garments, lay aside thy jewels, for naught may ye bring with ye into this our land'. So she laid down her garments and her jewels and was bound, as are all who enter the realms of Death the Mighty One". +(The Priestess takes off the veil and the jewellery and lays them down outside the Circle. The Guardian of the Portal binds her with the Cords and brings her inside the Circle.) +Narrator: "Such was her beauty that Death himself knelt and laid his sword and crown at her feet and kissed her feet." +(The Magus -- or whoever is playing the part of the God -- comes forward and lays the Horned Crown and the Sword at the Priestess's feet and kisses her feet) +Narrator: "Saying, `Blessed be thy feet that have brought thee in these ways. Abide with me, but let me place my cold hand on thy heart'. And she replied, `I love thee not. Why dost thou cause all things that I love and take delight in to fade and die?' `Lady,' replied Death, `'Tis Age and Fate, against which I am helpless. Age causes all things to wither; but when men die at the end of time, I give them rest and peace and strength, so that they may return. But you, you are lovely. Return not; abide with me.' But she answered, `I love thee not.' Then said Death, `An you receive not my hand on your heart, you must receive Death's scourge.'" +(The Magus rises and takes up the Scourge from the Altar.) +Narrator: "`It is fate, better so,' she said, and she knelt." +(The Priestess kneels before the altar, and the Magus uses the scourge 3, 7, 9, 21.) +Narrator: "And Death scourged her tenderly, and she cried, `I feel the pangs of love'. And Death raised her, and said, `Blessed be,' and he gave her the Fivefold Kiss, saying, `Thus only may you attain to joy and knowledge'." +(The Magus raises the Priestess, gives her the Fivefold Kiss and unties the cords) +Narrator: "And he taught her all the Mysteries and gave her the necklace, which is the Circle of Rebirth." +(The Magus takes the Priestess's necklace from the Altar and replaces it about her neck. The Priestess takes up the Sword and the Horned Crown from the floor, where the Magus placed them, and gives them back to him. Then he stands as before by the Altar, in the position of the God, and she stands by his side in the pentacle position, as Goddess) +Narrator: "And she taught him the mystery of the sacred cup, which is the cauldron of rebirth. They loved and were one; and he taught her all the Magics. For there be three great mysteries in the life of man -- love, death, and resurrection in a new body -- and magic controls them all. To fulfill love you must return at the same time and place as the loved one, and you must meet and know and remember and love them again. But to be reborn you must die and be ready for a new body; to die you must be born; without love you may not be born -- and these be all the magics. And our Goddess ever inclineth to love and mirth and happiness, and guardeth and cheriseth Her hidden children in life; and in death she teacheth the way to have communion, and even in this world She teacheth them the Mystery of the Magic Circle, which is placed between the worlds." +The Priestess or Magus then replaces the Sword, Crown, Scourge, etc., upon the Altar, and taking the new Initiate by the hand and holding the Athame in the other, passes once round the Circle, proclaiming at the Four Quarters, "Hear, Ye Mighty Ones, . . . hath been duly consecrated High Priest and Magus (or High Priestess and Witch Queen)." + + +C.8. The Third-Degree Initiation (1957) +Magus gives Fivefold Kiss. +Magus: "Ere we proceed with this sublime degree, I must beg purification at thy hands." +High Priestess binds Magus and ties him down to the altar. She circumambulates three times, and scourges Magus with three, seven, nine, and 21 strokes. She then unbinds him and helps him to his feet. +Magus now binds the High Priestess and ties her down to the altar. He circumambulates, proclaiming to the four quarters, "Hear, ye mighty Ones, the twice consecrate and Holy (name), High Priestess and Witch Queen, is properly prepared and will now proceed to erect the Sacred Altar." +Magus scourges High Priestess with three, seven, nine, and 21 strokes. +Magus kisses her feet. "Ere I dare proceed with this sublime degree, I must again beg purification at thy hands." +She binds and scourges him. +Note: if High Priestess has not performed this rite before, he says, "Here I reveal to you a great mystery." [Kneel and place couch in position so as to face north.] + + Assist me to build + As the Mighty One willed, + An Altar of praise, + From beginning of days, + Thus doth it lie, + Twixt the points of the sky, + For thus it was placed When the Goddess embraced The Horned One, Her Lord, Who taught her the word, +[Priestess lies down in such a way that her vagina is approximately at the center of the circle] +Which quickened the womb, + And conquered the Tomb. + Be thus as of yore, + The Shrine we adore, [kiss] + The feast without fail, + The life-giving Grail, [kiss] + Before it uprear + The Miraculous Spear, + And invoke in this sign + The Goddess divine. [kiss] + +Invoke: "Thou who at moon of night doth reign, + Queen of the starry realm above, + `Not unto Thee may we attain + Unless Thine Image be of Love.' [kiss] + + By moon-rays silver shaft of power, + By green leaf breaking from the bud, + By seed that springeth into flower, + By life that courseth in the blood. [kiss] + + By rushing wind and leaping flame, + By flowing water and green earth, + Pour us the wine of our desire + From out Thy Cauldron of Rebirth. [kiss] + + Here may we see in vision clear + The Secret Strange unveiled at length, + The wondrous Twin-Pillars rear + Erect in Beauty and in Strength. [kiss breasts] + + Altar of Mysteries manifold, The Sacred Circle's central point, Thus do I sign thee as of old, With kisses of my lips anoint. +(Eightfold Kiss: 3 points, Lips, 2 Breasts and back to lips, & 5 points*, with oil, wine, & kisses) + + Open for me the Secret Way, + The pathway of intelligence, + Between the Gates of Night and Day, + Beyond the bounds of time and sense. + + Behold the Mystery aright, + The Five True Points of Fellowship, + Here where the Lance and Grail unite, + And feet and knees and breast and lips." + +Magus and High Priestess: "Encourage our hearts, Let thy Light crystallize itself in our blood, fulfilling us of Resurrection, for there is no part of us that is not of the Gods." + (Exchange Names.) + + +C.9. The Witches' Chant or Rune (1957) +Darksome night and Shining Moon, + East, then South, then West, then North, +Harken to the Witches Rune: + Here come I to call thee forth. + +Earth and Water, Air and Fire, + Wand and Pentacle and Sword, +Work ye unto my desire, + Harken ye unto my word. + +Cords and Censer, Scourge and knife, + Powers of the Witches Blade, +Waken all ye into life, + Come ye as the Charm is made: + +Queen of Heaven, Queen of Hell, + Horned Hunter of the Night, +Lend your power unto the Spell, + Work my will by Magic Rite. + +If chant is used to reinforce a work already begun, end with this: + +By all the power of land and seaBy all the might of moon and sun, +What is my will- "So mote it be,"What I do say- "It shall be done." + + +C.10. Consecrating Tools (1957) +(Note: if possible lay any new weapon touching an already consecrated one, Sword to sword, Athame to Athame, etc.) +[1] Prepare Circle and purify. All tools must be consecrated by a man and a woman, both as naked as drawn swords; they must be purified, clean, and properly prepared. +[2] Place tool on pentacle on altar. Magus sprinkles it with salt and water. Witch passes it through smoke of incense, replaces it on pentacle. Touching with already consecrated weapon, they say the First Conjuration. +[2a] For sword or athame, say "I conjure thee, O Sword (or Athame) of Steel, that thou servest me for a strength and a defence in all magical operations, against all mine enemies, visible and invisible, in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos. I conjure thee anew by the Holy Names Aradia and Cernunnos, that thou servest me for a protection in all adversities, so aid me." +[2b] For any other tool, say, "Aradia and Cernunnos, deign to bless and to consecrate this [tool], that it may obtain necessary virtue through thee for all acts of love and Beauty." +[3] Again they sprinkle and cense, and say the Second Conjuration: +[3a] For sword or athame, say, "I conjure thee, O Sword [Athame] of Steel, by the Great Gods and the Gentle Goddesses, by the virtue of the Heavens, of the Stars, of the Spirits who preside over them, that thou mayest receive such virtues that I may obtain the end that I desire in all things wherein I shall use thee, by the power of Aradia and Cernunnos." +[3b] For any other tool, say, "Aradia and Cernunnos, bless this instrument prepared in thine honour." (For the scourge or cords, add, "That it may only serve for a good use and end, and to thy Glory.") +[4] All instruments when consecrated should be presented to their User by giving the [point-down triangle] sign salute (if they are working in the 1st degree, or the sign of the higher degree if they are working that.) +[5] Then the one who is not the owner should give the Fivefold Kiss to the owner. For the final kiss, the tool should be placed between the breasts, and the two workers should embrace for as long as they feel like, it being held in place by their bodies. The new owner should use it immediately, i.e., cast (trace) Circle with Sword or Athame, wave wand to 4 quarters, cut something with white-handled knife, etc. Cords and scourge should be used at once. +The tool should be kept in as close connection as possible to the naked body for at least a month, i.e., kept under pillow, etc. When not in use, all tools and weapons should be put away in a secret place; and it is good that this should be near your sleeping place, and that you handle them each night before retiring. Do not allow anyone to touch or handle any of your tools until they are thoroughly impregnated with your aura; say, six months or as near as possible. But a couple working together may own the same tools, which will be impregnated with the aura of both. + + +D.1 The Old Laws (1961) +[A] The Law was made and Aredan of old. The law was made for the Wicca, to advise and help in their troubles. The Wicca should give due worship to the Gods and obey their will, which they Aredan, for it was made for the good of the Wicca, As the [5] Wicca's worship is good for the Gods, For the Gods love the Wicca. As a man loveth a woman, by mastering her, so the Wicca should love the Gods, by being mastered by them. +And it is necessary that the Circle, which is the Temple of the Gods, should be truly cast and purified, that it [10] may be a fit place for the Gods to enter. And the Wicca should be properly prepared and purified, to enter into the presence of the Gods. +With love and worship in their hearts they shall raise power from their bodies to give power to the Gods, as has been toughed us of old, [15] For in this way only may man have communion with the Gods, for the Gods cannot help man without the help of men. +[B] And the High Priestess shall rule her Coven as representative of the Goddess, and the High Priest shall support her as the representative of the God, And the High Priestess shall choose whom she [20] will, if he have sufficient rank, to be her High Priest), +For the God himself, kissed her feet in the fivefold salute, laying his power at the feet of the Goddess, because of her youth and beauty, her sweetness and kindness, her wisdom and Justice, her humility and generosity. So he resigned his lordship to her. +But the Priestess should [25] ever mind that all power comes from him. lt is only lent when it is used wisely and justly. And the greatest virtue of a High Priestess is that she recognizes that youth is necessary to the representative of the Goddess, so that she will retire gracefully in favour of a younger woman, Should the Coven so decide in Council, For the true [30] High Priestess realizes that gracefully surrendering pride of place is one of the greatest of virtues, and that thereby she will return to that pride of place in another life, with greater power and beauty. +[C] In the days when Witchdom extended far, we were free and worshipped in Alther Greatest Temples, but in these unhappy times [35] we must hold our sacred mysteries in secret. So it be Aredan, that none but the Wicca may see our mysteries, for our enemies are many, And torture looseth the tongues of many. It be aredan that each Coven shall not know where the next Coven bide, or who its members are, save the Priest and Priestess, [40] That there shall be no communication between them, save by the Messenger of the Gods, or the Summoner. Only if it be safe, may the Covens meet, in some safe place, for the great festivals. +And while there, none shall say whence they come, or give their true names, to the end that, if any are tortured, in their agony, they can [45] not tell if they know not. So it be Aredan that no one may tell any not of the Craft who be of the Wicca, nor give any names, or where they bide, or in any way tell anything which can betray any to our foes, nor may they tell where the Covenstead be, or where is the Covendom, [50] or where be the meetings or that there have been meetings. +And if any break these laws, even under torture, The Curse of the Goddess shall be upon them, so they never reborn on earth, And may they remain where they belong, in the Hell of the Christians. +[D] Let each High Priestess govern her Coven with Justice and [55] love, with the help of the advice of the elders, always heeding the advice of the Messenger of the Gods, if he cometh. She will heed all complaints of brothers, and strive to settle all differences among them, but it must be recognized that there be people who will ever strive to force others to do as they will. [60] They are not necessarily evil, and they often do have good ideas, and such ideas should be talked over in council. And if they will not agree with their brothers, or if they say, "I will not work under this High Priestess," it hath always been the old law to be convenient for the brethren, and to void disputes, any of the Third [65] may claim to found a new Coven because they live over a league from the Covenstead, or are about to do so. Anyone living within the Covendom wishing to form a new Coven, to avoid strife, shall tell the Elders of his intention and on the instant void his dwelling and remove to the new Covendom. +Members of the old Coven may join the New one when it be formed, but if they do, must utterly void the old Coven. The Elders of the New and the Old Covens should meet in peace and brotherly love, to decide the new boundaries. Those of the Craft who dwell outside both Covendoms may join either indifferent, but not both, though all may, if the Elders [75] agree, meet for the Great Festivals, if it be truly in peace and brotherly love. But splitting the coven oft means strife, so for this reason these laws were made of old, And may the curse of the Goddess be on any who disregard them. So be it aredan. +[E] If you would Keep a book let it be in your own hand of write. [80] Let brothers and sisters copy what they will, but never let the book out of your hands, and never keep the writings of another, for if it be found in their hand of write, they well may be taken and Engined. Each should guard his own writings and destroy it whenever danger threatens. Learn as much as you may by heart, and when danger is [85] past, rewrite your book an it be safe. For this reason, if any die, destroy their book if they have not been able to, for an it be found, 'tis clear proof against them, And our oppressors well know, "Ye may not be a witch alone" So all their kin and friends be in danger of torture. So ever destroy anything not necessary. +[90] If your book be found on you. 'tis clear proof against you alone. You may be engined. Keep all thoughts of the Craft from your mind. Say you had bad dreams; a devil caused you to write it without your knowledge. Think to yourself, "I know nothing. I remember nothing. I have forgotten everything." Drive this [95] into your mind. If the torture be too great to bear, say, "I will confess. I cannot bear this torture. What do you want me to say? Tell me and I will say it." If they try to make you speak of the brotherhood, Do NOT, but if they try to make you speak of [100] impossibilities, such as flying through the air, consorting with the Christian Devil, or sacrificing children, or eating men's flesh, to obtain relief from torture, say, "I had an evil dream. I was not myself. I was crazed." +Not all Magistrates are bad. If there [105] be an excuse they may show mercy. If you have confessed aught, deny it afterwards; say you babbled under torture, you knew not what you did or said. If you are condemned, fear not. The Brotherhood is powerful. They may help you to escape, if you stand steadfast, but if you betray aught, there is no hope for you, in this [110] life, or in that which is to come. Be sure, if steadfast you go to the pyre, Dwale will reach you. You will feel naught. You go but to Death and what lies beyond, the ecstasy of the Goddess. +[F] 'Tis probable that before you are engined, Dwale will reach you. [115] Always remember that Christians fear much that any die under torture. At the first sign of swoon, they cause it to be stopped, and blame the tormenters. For that reason, the tormenters themselves are apt to feign to torment, but do not, so it is best not to die at first. If Dwale reaches you, 'tis a sign that you have a friend somewhere. [120] You may be helped to escape, so despair not. If the worst comes, and you go to the pyre, wait till the flames and smoke spring up, bend your head over, and breath in with long breaths. You choke and die swiftly, and wake in the arms of the Goddess. +[G] To void discovery, let the working tools [125] be as ordinary things that any may have in their houses. Let the Pentacles be of wax, so they may be broken at once. Have no sword unless your rank allows you one. Have no names or signs on anything. Write the names and signs on them in ink before consecrating them and wash it off immediately after. Do not Bigrave them, [130] lest they cause discovery. Let the colour of the hilts tell which is which. +[H] Ever remember, ye are the Hidden Children of the Gods. So never do anything to disgrace them. Never boast, Never threaten, Never say you would wish ill to anyone. If you or any not in the Circle speak of the Craft, [135] say, "Speak not to me of such. It frightens me. 'Tis evil luck to speak of it." +For this reason: the Christians have spies everywhere. These speak as if they were well affected, as if they would come to Meetings, saying, "My mother used to go to worship the Old Ones. I would that I could go myself."* To these ever deny all knowledge. +[140] But to others ever say, "'Tis foolish men talk of witches flying through the air; to do so they must be light as thistledown," and "Men say that witches all be bleared-eyed old crones, so what pleasure can there be in witch meetings such as folk talk on?" Say, "Many wise men now say there be no such creatures." Ever [145] make it a jest, and in some future time, perhaps the persecution will die, and we may worship safely again. Let us all pray for that happy day. +[I] May the blessings of the Goddess and the God be on all who keep these laws which are Aredan. +[J] If the Craft hath any Appanage, let all brothers guard it, and help to keep it clear and good for the Craft, and let all justly guard all monies of the Craft. +But if some brothers truly wrought it, 'tis right that they have their pay, an it be just, an this be not taking [5] money for the use of the Art, but for good and honest work. And even the Christians say, "A labourer is worthy of his hire." But if any brothers work willingly for the good of the craft without pay, 'tis but to their greater honour. So it be Aredan. +[K] If there be any disputes or quarrels among the brethren, the [10] High Priestess shall straight convene the Elders and enquire into the matter, and they shall hear both sides, first alone, then together, and they shall decide justly, not favouring the one side or the other, ever recognizing that there be people who can never agree to work under others, but at the same time there be some people who [15] cannot rule justly. To those who ever must be chief, there is one answer, "Void the Coven and seek another, or make a Coven of your own, taking with you those who will to go." To those who cannot rule justly, the answer be, "Those who cannot bear your rule will leave you," for none may come to meetings with those with whom they are at [20] variance; so, an either cannot agree, get hence, for the Craft must ever survive. So it be Aredan. +[L] In the olden days when we had power, we could use our Arts against any who ill-treated any of the Brotherhood, but in these evil times, we may not do so, for our enemies have devised a burning [25] pit of everlasting fire, into which they say their God casteth all the people who worship him, except it be the very few who are released by their priests' spells and Masses, and this be chiefly by giving money and rich gifts to receive his favour, for their Alther Greatest God [Greatest God of all] is ever in need of Money. [30] But as our Gods need our aid to make fertility for men and crops, So the God of the Christians is ever in need of man's help to search out and destroy us. +Their priests tell them that any who get our help or our cures are damned to the Hell forever, so men be mad for the terror of it. But they make men [35] believe that they may scape this hell if they give victims to the tormenters. So for this reason all be forever spying, thinking, "An I can but catch one of the Wicca I will scape this fiery pit." But we have our hidels, and men searching long and not finding say, "there be none, or if they be, they be in a far country." +[40] But when one of our oppressors die, or even be sick, ever is the cry, "This be Witches Malice," and the hunt is up again. And though they slay ten of their people to one of ours, still they care not; they have many thousands, while we are few indeed. So it is Aredan that none shall use the Art in any way to do ill [45] to any, howevermuch they have injured us. And for long we have obeyed this law, "Harm none" and nowtimes many believe we exist not. So it be Aredan that this law shall still continue to help us in our plight. No one, however great an injury or injustice they receive, may use the Art in any to do ill or harm any. [50] But they may, after great consultations with all, use the Art to prevent or restrain Christians from harming us and others, but only to let or constrain them and never to punish, to this end. Men say, "Such an one is a mighty searcher out and persecutor of Old Women whom he deemeth to be Witches, [55] and none hath done him Skith [harm], so this be proof they cannot, or more truly, that there be none," For all know full well that so many folk have died because someone had a grudge against them, or were persecuted because they had money or goods to seize, or because they had none to bribe the searchers. And many have died [60] because they were scolding old women, so much so that men now say that only old women are witches, and this be to our advantage, and turns suspicion away from us. +In England 'tis now many a year since a witch hath died the death, +but any misuse of the power might raise the Persecution again; so never break this law, [65] however much you are tempted, and never consent to its being broken. If you know it is being broken in the least, you must work strongly against it, and any High Priestess or High Priest who consents to it must be immediately deposed, for 'tis the blood of the Brethren they endanger. Do good, an it be safe, and only if [70] it be safe, for any talk may endanger us. +[M] And strictly keep to the Old Law, never accept money for the use of the art. It is Christian priests and sorcerers who accept money for the use of their Arts, and they sell Dwale and evil love spells and pardons to let men scape from their sins. [75] Be not as these. Be not as these. If you accept not money, you will be free of temptation to use the Art for evil causes. +[N] You may use the Art for your own advantage, or for the advantage of the Craft, only if you be sure you harm none. But ever let the Coven debate the matter at length. Only if all are satisfied that none may be harmed [80] may the Art be used. If it is not possible to achieve your ends one way without harming any, perchance the aim may be achieved by acting in a different way, so as to harm none. May the Curse of the Goddess be on any who breach this law. So it be aredan. +[O] 'Tis adjudged lawful an anyone need a house or land, an none will [85] sell, to incline the owner's mind to be willing to sell, provided it harmeth him not in any way, and that the full worth is paid, without haggling. Never bargain or cheapen anything which you buy by the Art. So it be Aredan. +[P] It is the Old Law and the most important of all Laws [90] that no one may do or say anything which will endanger any of the Craft, or bring them in contact with the law of the land, or the Law of the Church or any of our persecutors. In any disputes between the brethren, no one may invoke any laws but those of the Craft, or any Tribunal but that of the Priestess and the Priest and the [95] Elders. And may the Curse of the Goddess be on any who so do. So it be Aredan. +[Q] It is not forbidden to say as Christians do, "There be Witchcraft in the Land," because our oppressors of old made it Heresy not to believe in Witchcraft, and so a crime to deny it, which thereby put [100] you under suspicion. But ever say "I know not of it here, perchance they may be, but afar off. I know not where." But ever speak so you cause others to doubt they be as they are. Always speak of them as old crones, consorting with the Devil and riding through the air. But ever say, "But how may men ride through the air an they be not [105] as light as thistledown?" But the curse of the Goddess be on any who cast any suspicion on any of the Brotherhood, or speaks of any real meeting place, or where any bide. So it be Aredan. +[R] Let the Craft keep books with the names of all Herbs which are good for man, and all cures, that all may learn. But keep [110] another book with all the Banes [poisons] and Apies. and let only the elders and trustworthy people have this knowledge. So it be Aredan. +[S] And may the Blessings of the Gods be on all who keep these Laws and the Curses of both God and Goddess be on all who break them So it be Aredan. +[The following two sections were added after 1960.] +[T] Remember the Art is the secret of the Gods and may only be used in earnest and never for show or vainglory. Magicians and Christians may taunt us, saying, "You have no power. Do magic before our eyes. Then only will we believe," seeking to cause us to betray our Art before them. Heed them not, for the Art is holy, and may only be used in need. And the curse of the Gods be on any who break this law. +[U] It ever be the way with women, and with men also, that they ever seek new love, nor should we reprove them for this, but it may be found to disadvantage the Craft, as so many a time it has happened that a High Priest or High Priestess, impelled by love, hath departed with their love; that is, they have left the coven. Now, if a High Priestess wishes to resign, she may do so in full Coven, and this resignation is valid. But if they should run off without resigning, who may know if they may not return within a few months? So the law is, if a High Priestess leaves her coven, but returns within the space of a year and a day, then she shall be taken back, and all shall be as before. Meanwhile, if she has a deputy, that deputy shall act as High Priestess for as long as the High Priestess is away. If she returns not at the end of a year and a day, then shall the coven elect a new High Priestess. Unless there be a good reason to the contrary. The person who has done the work should reap the benefit of the reward, Maiden and deputy of the High Priestess. + + +D.2. The Verse Charge (1961) +I the Mother, darksome and divine, +Say to thee, Oh children mine +(All ye assembled at mine Shrine),Mine the scourge and mine the kissThe five-point star of love and bliss +Here I charge ye in this sign. (Assume Goddess position.) + +All ye assembled here tonight +Bow before my spirit brightAphrodite, Arianrhod,Lover of the Horned God, +Mighty Queen of Witchery and night + +Astarte, Hecate, Ashtaroth, Dione, +(Morrigan, Etain, Nisene), +Diana, Brigid, Melusine,Am I named of old by men,Artemis and Cerridwen, +Hell's dark mistress, Heaven's Queen. + +(Whene'er trouble comes anoon) +All who would learn of me a Rune +Or would ask of me a boon,Meet ye in some secret gladeDance my round in greenwood shade, +by the light of the full moon. + +(In a place wild and lone) +With the comrades alone +Dance about my altar stone.Work my holy Magistry,Ye who are fain of sorcery, +I bring ye secrets yet unknown. + +(Whate'er troubles come to thee), +No more shall ye know slavery +Who give due worship unto me,Who tread my round on Sabbat-night.Come ye all naked to the rite, +In token ye be truly free. + +I teach the mystery of rebirth, +Keep ye my mysteries in mirthHeart joined to heart, and lip to lip,Five are the points of fellowship +That bring ye ecstasy on Earth. + +I ask no offerings, do but bow, +No other law but love I know,By naught but love I may be known,All that liveth is mine own +From me they come, to me they go. + + +D.3. Casting and Charging (1961) +[1] Forming Circle. Light candles. +1. Draw Circle with Magic Sword or Athame. +2. Sprinkle with consecrated water. +3. Cense. +4. Say, "I conjure thee, O Circle of Power, that thou be a Boundary and a Protection and a meeting place between the world of men and the realms of the Mighty Ones, A Guardian and a Protection that shall preserve and contain the Power which we shall raise within thee, Wherefore do I Bless and Consecrate thee." +5. Say "I summon, Stir, and Call Thee up, Ye Mighty Ones of the (East, South, West, North) To witness the Rites and to guard the Circle." + +[2] Closing Circle. +Say, "Mighty Ones of the (East, South, West, North), I thank you for attending, and ere you depart for your lovely realms, I say Hail and Farewell." + +[3] Consecration of Water and Salt. +Touch water with Athame, saying, "I exorcise thee, O Creature of Water, that thou cast out from thee all the impurities and uncleannesses of the spirits of the World of Phantasm, In the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." +Touching Salt with Athame, say, "Blessings be upon this creature of Salt. Let all malignity and hindrance be cast forth hencefrom and let all good enter herein. Wherefore I bless thee that thou mayest aid me, In the names of Aradia and Cernunnos." + +[4] Drawing Down the Moon. +"I invoke Thee and call upon Thee, Oh Mighty Mother of us All, Bringer of all Fruitfulness. By Seed and Root, by Stem and Bud, by Leaf and Flower and Fruit, by Life and Love, Do We invoke Thee to descend upon the body of Thy servant and Priestess (name)." +High Priest and other men give Fivefold Kiss. Women all bow. + + +D.4. Forming the Circle. (1961) +FORMING THE CIRCLE. [1] Must have a man and a woman, properly prepared, i.e., naked. +[2] Mark a circle nine feet across on the floor with chalk, etc. The best way is to get a string. Tie 2 loops four foot, six inches apart. Put one loop over a nail or something in the center. Put chalk in the other and run it round. If you can't make marks on the floor, put furniture, etc., round to form it. Have a table, etc., as an Altar, with all tools, etc., on it. Have a bowl of water, and some salt. +[3] Place Athame on the bowl of water. Say, "I exorcise thee, O creature of Water, that thou cast out from Thee all the impurities and uncleannesses of the Spirits of the World of Phantasm in the name of Aradia and Cernunnos. But ever mind that Water purifies the body, but the scourge purifies the soul." +[4] Then place Athame on the salt. Say, "Blessings be upon this creature of Salt. Let all malignity and hindrance be cast forth hencefrom, and let all good enter herein. Wherefore I bless thee that thou mayest aid me, in the name of Aradia and Cernunnos. +[5] Then trace Circle on the lines you have marked out, starting at the East and returning to the East. (Always go round the circle with your Right hand to the Altar. Never go Widdershins.) Then put the Salt into the water. and go round the circle again, sprinkling it to purify it. Then go round again censing it. (Everyone in the circle must be sprinkled and censed.) +[6] Then go to the East, Sword or Athame in hand. Draw an invoking pentacle in the Air, starting at the top and going to the lefthand corner, saying, "I summon, and call thee up, O Ye Mighty ones of the East, to guard the Circle and witness our rites." Then holding the point of sword or Athame upwards, do the same to the south, west, and north, and return to the center, to the south of the Altar. +[7] Then each girl should bind her man, hands behind back and cable Tow to neck. He should kneel at altar, and be scourged. When all men are thus "purified," they purify the girls in turn. No one may be in the circle without being thus purified. +[8] Then do whatever work wanted. +[9] When closing the Circle, the High Priestess, or whoever she tells to do it, saying, "Hail, ye mighty ones of the East. I thank you for attending, and ere ye depart for your lovely realms, We say, Hail and Farewell." + + +Bibliography +These are books you should read in order to see the sources Gardner used to create these rituals. + +Crowley, Aleister. Magick in Theory and Practice. Castle, n.d. [ca. 1930] +Gardner, Gerald B. High Magic's Aid. Michael Houghton, 1949. +------. Witchcraft Today. Jarrolds, 1954. +------. The Meaning of Witchcraft. Aquarian Press, 1959. +Glanvil, Joseph, and Henry More. Saducismus Triumphatus: or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions. London: Lowndes, 3d ed., 1689. Scholar's Facsimiles, 1966. One of Murray's major sources of information. +Leland, Charles Godfrey. Aradia: The Gospel of the Witches of Tuscany. Scribner's, 1897. Buckland Museum reprint, 1964. +Mathers, S. L. MacGregor, ed. and trans. The Greater Key of Solomon. De Laurence, Scott, 1914. +Murray, Margaret A. The Witch-Cult in Western Europe. Oxford University Press, 1921. Oxford paperback, 1962. +------. The God of the Witches. Oxford University Press, 1934. Doubleday Anchor, 1960. +Regardie, Israel. The Golden Dawn: An Account of the Teachings, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Order of the Golden Dawn. 1937-1940. Hazel Hills, 2d ed., 1969. + +* Gardner appended this paragraph to the Craft Laws in the early 1960s. +* Gardner appended this paragraph to the Craft Laws in the early 1960s. +* These are shown by a drawing to be: genitals, left foot, right knee, left knee, right foot, and back to genitals. +* My Lady Epona points out that this is precisely what Charles Cardell had claimed; that is, this paragraph is a response to Cardell, and so it was probably inserted into the Craft Laws after the run-in with the Cardells and Olive Green in 1959. This again is an indication that Gardner did not promulgate the Craft Laws as a document for the Book of Shadows until about 1960, when Mr. Q was initiated. +--- + +APPENDED NOTE: Although the information in regard to cource books is very +correct, it should be noted that additionally Gardner is known to have also +drawn from non-publically available books of Masonic Ritual accessable only to +members of FreeMasonry Lodges. +--- + diff --git a/religious documents/pxmaj1n1.txt b/religious documents/pxmaj1n1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ab6aaa --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pxmaj1n1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,308 @@ +From: James Still +Subject: P x M = a_j +Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 09:31:00 PST + + +... . . . . . . . . . . . . + + +popE x Mass = accelerated_j e s u s + +... . . . . . . . . . . . . + + + --- issue 1, no 1 ----------------------------------------------- + +#include W E L C O M E ! +int main() ...to the first +{ issue of popE x + printf("Editor: Johannes Kepler \n"); Mass = accelera + printf("Copyright (c) 1993 by James Still"); ted_jesus...... +} I'll be your ed + itor for this +So I'm sitting here eating a fucking piroshki 'zine, so please +store-bought from King Stupid's, and thinking observe the no +about stealing 4 megs of *beautiful* RAM from smoking sign.... +my work computer. The other eight shouldn't sit back, relax +miss their SIMM stick brother, and I sure and breath deep. +could use the adrenaline rush at home. I'm eagerly look + ing for submissi +I remember reading the other day on some alt ons of articles, +dot net posting how armed gangs are horking observations, +Pentium chips and RAM sticks from Silicon rants, raves, or +Valley companies. Right off the loading dock anything worth +just scooping 'em up like gummie bears outta reading... Send +the grocery-store bulk bins. RAM used to them to: +stand for "Random Access Memory" but I think +on the phone, "why the hell has RAM gone up or upload to the +so much?" and he mumbles something about a Hieroglyphic Voo +chip manufacturer's plant blowing up in doo Machine BBS +Japan. Blows up? How did that happen? at +1 303 443 +Cutting off my supply like that --I'm tryin' 2457 (V.32bis). +to score here and keep coming up dry... Hone those writi + ng skills... +Meanwhile VMaster's e-mailing and braggin' +to me about his decked-out machine with it's +pregnant banks of 16 whole megs. Damn. The +Cypherpunk mailing list is going on about "Digicash" and "Virtual +Money." It's a cool concept sure, pass some PGP-signed +sawbucks my way, but its still just vaporware. RAM is real. RAM +*is* money right now. + +I'm still eyeing that case and fingering the Phillips that could +crack it wide open. You'll have to excuse me, but that 4-meg is +whispering my name. + + ------ f e a t u r e ------------------------------------------- + + INHERITING THE BUGGED CODE OF VERSION 1.0 + + + by James Still + + +Come on you can admit it. The anarcho-seasoned angst that still +languishes on the Internet is getting boring. Remember when +rebellion used to be hip, happenin' and wow? Now it's about as +exciting as a sterile postcard photo of Sid Vicious. Even the +ancient how-to philes on building atomic bombs seem like an +amnesiatic blast from the past of Kubrick's Dr. StrangeLove. The +lock-step to a neuromanced-Marxism, liberally sprinkled with +sci-fi romance, has a whole generation lashing out in immature +frustration. Few look beyond the smoke of a paranoiac war to +make sure that the fascists are still there. Have we built an +ideology of absurdity? No, we+re just renting it. The truth is +we never asked "why" when we eagerly grabbed the bits of +disembodied leftovers of 60's activism, Reagonomic pipe-dreams, +and post-punk skepticism. Like a witch's brew, our generation +has thrown all of these things, plus a healthy dose of our own +disgust and apathy, into a boiling cauldron of schizophrenic +identity. But turn the ladle and stir the soup in search of a +real ethics that smacks of something worth computing for, and +you'll find only a watered down mixture of sickly broth. No meat +and potatoes. No huevos. + + +Ethics Version 2.0 + +The beta test is over for version 1.0, and the end user lost. I +can think of no better way for a confused schizo to rethink his +or her ethics and identity than with that lovely concept called +object-oriented programming. After all what is OOP? Objects are +understandable, we can see them, point to them and say, "Look at +that thing, that object." Just as a car has parts; a steering +wheel, engine, wheels, etc., a program's object has parts called +methods. Those methods are encapsulated together and the +programmer inherits them into his program. We computer nerds +think and understand this confusion called 'life' best when it is +reduced to a defined structure like OOP. The 'objects' we +inherited and incorporated into our own individual programs aren't +our own. It's like someone opened up our brain at birth and +poured in the weaknesses of dogma, racism, rigidity, narrow- +mindedness, and a whole host of other damning ideas masquarading +as "moral ethics." When do we stop inheriting the bugged source +code of other ideologies and political dead weight and start +thinking for ourselves? Now is the time to look closer at the +society we live in and tame the ideological monster in order to +make room for a code that works.(1) + + +The Gears of Society + +Our society is a flow of machines that "work best when constantly +breaking down," according to anti-Oedipal thinking. Like Donna +Hathaway's cyborgs, we are all interconnected as living machines +in a global system of valves, breaks, and cables, and operating +in a flux of material flow. Everything flows. The bee that +vomits the honey to the mouth that eats it, to the penis that +produces a flow of urine, to the anus that cuts off a flow of +shit. Penetration of the vagina by that penis, to the explusion +of infant from the same. Humans interact in libidinal context at +two levels according to French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and +Felix Guattari, in their work entitled Anti-Oedipus. One level +is as desiring machines and the other is a courtship with a +lifeless entity called the body without organs. We are all +desiring machines at a most basic level. Our connections to +other people, working, giving, taking, killing, fucking, flowing, +and the ethics with which we treat them, produces an ebb and flow +called desire production. Were it not for the millions of +"nervous systems all going tick-tick"(2) producing this desire, +we could not collectively create the body without organs. Marx +and Deleuze call this body Capital. For us, that body is +Information. The Internet exists as thousands of tendrils that +reach out in an endless electronic network of inorganic fingers. +We have created the Internet Information body and stitched it up +with our own material flow. It can't survive without us spoon- +feeding it the nourishment of purpose. This interaction blurs +the line between man and machine until, like a surgical graft we +and it are completely connected. A true philosophical Cyborg. +But this connection is a double-edged sword, for while we may +gain the swift efficiency of the machine, we will not survive +without the well-oiled cooperation of the other working parts. +Sartre describes all human relationships as "being locked in +tension and conflict, ... a constant struggle to absorb others +and resist being absorbed by them." Remember Naked Lunch's +paranoid fear of absorption? By not rethinking an ethics now, +the man/machine graft will result in the machine gaining the +power over the man simply by default. Absorbing the man. Even +if the cyborg were to consist of complete automation in every +detail save for a head and maybe a trunk of flesh, if that flesh +contains ethics, it will maintain humanity, and not sink +completely into cold circuitry. This is the reality upon which +our on-line ethics must be based. We are becoming one with the +machine. This machine can go on breaking down, or the parts can +bond together in a collective, cohesive morality. + + +Nietzsche killed God, Call a Doctor + +Ever since Zarathustra spoke thus our own human voices echo a +little too loudly across the gaping void where God once ruled. +The problems of societal breakdown cannot be blamed or projected +on a perceived lack of religious morality. We are completely on +our own. But hasn't it always been that way really? The epic +question of Plato's Euthephro dilemma shows us how even if there +is a God, we are still utterly alone in deciding right and wrong. +Kant recognized this when he wrote in Religion within the Bounds +of Pure Reason, + + "... every man creates his God. ... For in whatever + way ... the Diety should be made known to you, even... + if He should reveal Himself to you, it is you... who + must judge whether you are permitted (by your conscience) + to believe in Him and to worship Him." + +Humans have always been forced to make up the rules for right and +wrong. Sometimes we write leather-bound books with impressive +gold trim and attribute those rules to a god, but some flunky had +to put quill to parchment to initially write the damn thing. We +are back to the central question: What do I do that is right? +Of course there is a more selfish question which is all too +common among on-line rebels, that being: Why should I do what is +right? Self-interest is the monkey-wrench of moral philosophy. +It worried the hell out of Hobbes, Butler and as far back as +Plato, who wrote about the Master Criminal who killed the king, +raped the queen, and usurped the entire kingdom for himself. +(They had Conan comics back then?) Kant had the Hardened +Scoundrel who asked, "Why should I here and now do the thing +which is ethically right, when it will pay me better to do the +wrong thing?" + +This little philosophical gem, known as rational egoism, hits +home in cyberspace. If the body without organs is Information, +and our Deleuzean desire tells us to rape that hollow body, +before the Master Criminal can get to it, why wait? Isn't it +imperative to follow the libindal drive and take all you can in +good beer commercial, 'gusto' fashion? (Hoping that everyone +else will follow their ethics so that your conquests are +possible). These are difficult questions. The paradox is that +if everyone stole software, hacked and raped the virginal +mainframe systems of a so-called "Big Brother," or destroyed +the local BBS with a well-placed Trojan, there would be no one +left in the subsequent electronic rubble. The current excuses +we hear are no more than lame attempts at moralizing and +rationalizing a purported war against the Telco and 'Phed' enemy. +It is an odd time when a plunderer makes excuses for his thefts, +rather than accepting moral (or immoral) responsibilities for +them. Are our ethics so weak that we have to soothe our guilty +conscious by pointing to the fat profit margins of an AT&T? If +our intent is to steal, then let's admit at least that much, and +incorporate that into our object-oriented ethics. But let's not +steal under the false banner of an antifascism. The games of +moralizing an ideology, rather than an action, good or evil, is +awash in schizophrenic ethics. "There has never been so much +moralizing as in the century of Stalin and Hitler," wrote +philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy. But we go on using the macerated +semantics of "fascist," "capitalist," and "Marxist," anyway to +justify our fast-food, drive-thru anarchy. Because the on-line +rebel has issued an all-but battle-cry (everyone except me is to +behave and do so and so), we risk sinking into Levy's dreaded +"barbarism." The most pointless part of this impending barbarism, +is that we will sift through the rubble never knowing the good or +the evil, or who we are fighting for, against, or why. + + +It's the Isis and Bacchus Show + +Internet e-mail swells with the signifiers and taglines of a +postmodern paganism. Bacchus' pleasures once again blow sweet +nothings into the collective ears of a reccession-weary, +disgruntled cyberspace. It wasn't that long ago that the Nordic +motif spun out of Mein Kampf wooed another depressed society with +its subtle charms. Paganism has a mind-numbing way of putting +off and forgetting the responsibilities that we have toward +developing an ethics. Its attitude is that of a Star Trek rerun +on planet Lotus, where everyone is drunk with the carefree wine +of irresponsibility until Spock finally discovers the antidote +called Rationalism. The anti-pagan, consumptive era of the +eighties, with its monotheistic duality and Satanic 'backward +masking' scares, spawned an epic battle of good versus evil +(Capital versus Marx) that reached new heights of absurdity. +Paganism is a comforting dialectic, representing the cool +detachment of an anti-Reagan, anti-consumptive minimalism. +It is a halted, hesitancy that has decided 'desire' is more +important than humanity. + + +Make Room for Mac-Daddy + +The bug-riddled program of monotheistic morality hasn't worked +very well and the time has come to delete it from the collective +hard drive of our ingrained consciousness. If we also can shut +our ears to the honeyed song of the sirens of paganism as well, +we may be able to formulate a sound ethics that can get us by. +Even if only barely. The mistake is thinking in the worn-out +duality terms of a Marxist or a Capitalist, a Democrat or a +Republican, a Christian or a Pagan; they are all valid for a +fleeting moment and in a certain context, yet riddled with +ideological disease. Their meaning is lost in a sea of illusion +and half-truth. We must make room for an ethics by tossing into +that sea, all the baggage of ideology. We must inherit an +object-oriented ethics of our own, based on individual +responsibility for our own actions. If the code doesn't work +quite right, we can fine-tune it, modify it, or even delete it, +the choice is ours. But we must make that choice, and no one +else. + +In a world of polarized extremes, I don't envy the making of +those choices. There will be plenty of debugging going on while +we search for the elusive moraliste. It may take a while to +find such a creature among the electronic rubble of reactionism, +and there's no guarantee that barbarism won't rule the computer +networks anyway. But you probably spend too much time shut up +indoors with your computer as it is. Get out in the sunshine +why don't you? + +Just don't forget to take your laptop. ;) + + +Footnotes: + +^1 "Limit politics to make room for ethics." Bernard-Henri + Levy, The Testament of God, p. 37. + +^2 "Having checked it, loved it, been brought down and moved + on by it, I've come to see that the real world doesn't exist: + only millions and millions of small individual ones, all + rushing about with their heads cut off but their nervous + systems still tick-ticking." + + - Exerpts from the Mind of the Cappuccino Kid + + + ----.sig -------------------------------------------------------- + +popE x Mass = accelerated_j e s u s is published +periodically by the sysop of the Hieroglyphic Voodoo Machine BBS +which boasts and toasts --> V.32bis N81 at --> +1 303 443 2457. + +entire contents of this file is copyrighted 1993 (c) by James +Still, aka Johannes Kepler and may *not* be extracted or re- +published with prior consent from James Still. All Rights +Reserved Poncho... + +send submissions, gripes, comments to: still@kailua.colorado.edu + + ----EOF---------------------------------------------------------- + diff --git a/religious documents/pxmaj1n2.txt b/religious documents/pxmaj1n2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5761512 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pxmaj1n2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,210 @@ +From: James Still +Date: Wed, 02 Mar 94 13:37:00 PST + + +... . . . . . . . . . . . . + + +popE x Mass = accelerated_j e s u s + +... . . . . . . . . . . . . + + --- issue 1, no 2 ----------------------------------------------- + +#include +int main() Hmmm... this is +{ the second issue + printf("Editor: Johannes Kepler \n"); of PxM=a_j. + printf("Copyright (c) 1993 by James Still"); Got an excellent +} feature piece by + Patrick Salsbury + on gettin' every + + 'zine, so please + one up to speed +I notice that Borland is updating their C++ in cyberspace. +compiler to version 4.0. Didn't they just Hopefully with t +put out 3.1, or am I losing track of cyber- he addition of P +space & time? It used to be a year or so at's piece, more +before anyone had the nerve to make a full of you will begi +update to their software, but now something n to see the for +is a Jurassic Park fossil after a month or mat I'm shootin' +two. What gives? I myself feel the pinch for here. Send +as more and more people ask me to throw out me your submissi +an update to PGPShell. (I coulda swore 2.2 ons for the Janu +was just released in August....) ary issue now! I + need 'em right a +After deep consultation with a TI calculator way. E-mail me +I've come upon a frightening conspiracy of at still@kailua. +an exponential scale. Check this out: colorado.edu or + call up the Hier +Longevity (L) of a given piece of software oglyphic Voodoo +is exponentially denegrated over time (t) Machine BBS at +at a rate times demand (D). So, +1 303 443 2457. + + L = e^(Dt) + +Well, crunch this and you get a cool looking function of x that +looks like a stock market crash as variable (t) gets smaller. +I've got it all figured out: pretty soon the programmer will be +cranking out code just like those old Walt Disney movies where +all the townfolk pass pails of water to the barn that is on fire. +(Hurry up dammit, my software is ten daze old; where's that next +update!?) Of course sooner or later, one of us will stop and +realize that we didn't even know how to work the last gizmo let +alone this new bell and whistle just out. Ah well, tumultuous +times require fast food approaches--we did grow up with Starsky +& Hutch cool car chases after all. Please excuse me now while +I send in for C++ version 4.0. I just can't wait to get it. + + + ------ f e a t u r e ------------------------------------------- + + On the Relationship of Safety + to the Development of Culture + + Copyleft: Patrick G. Salsbury + salsbury@netcom.com + ------------------- + +I was just thinking about PGP and privacy and how they relate +to the psychological development of individuals, and thence, +subcultures. People, in fact, all creatures, seem to have a +need for safety. The more comfortable one feels, the more one +will be able to relax, and devote energies to the creative portion +of one's mind. Doing this, one focuses more "process time" to +exploring new regions of thought, rather than on various defense +mechanisms. + +On the Net at Large, people aren't as likely to post all their +deep-dark-secrets, at least, not without an anonymous account. +But in more private newsgroups, not as populated...rapport and +community develop. People feel safer, and open up. On mailing +lists, things can be more open, and on *private* mailing lists, +great intimacy can develop, with people you've never met, but +with whom you share some deep-rooted interest. + +With PGP and other new technologies, people are availed of an +even greater level of privacy/openness, which allows for a great +amount of freedom to be and express oneself... One can be assured +of talking only to those whom one chooses, and others who get the +messages won't get the real message which is hidden inside. With +techniques such as these, one can send a message to several +groups and have multiple messages contained within it. Sort of +like nested levels of privacy. + +The Net seems to be expanding as people join large groups, or +who have small groups which grow to large groups, and then +smaller, self-selecting groups splinter off into a new topic, or +a refinement of the original one in some new area. + +This, I think, is the main argument of this essay: That by +assuring people of their level of security, they will +spontaneously and automatically extend themselves to whatever +level they feel comfortable. As people open up more, some +individuals may notice further similaries with others, who +splinter off into another sub-culture, and the process begins +anew. + +I feel that this blossoming of sub-cultures may well point the +way to an ever-growing knowledge pool, hyper-linked by the +technology which made it possible in the first place. This pool +of knowledge, freely and easily accessible to any person on the +planet, would lead to an educational boom on a planetary scale +the likes of which have never before been seen. + +Individuals, when allowed to freely explore, find that which +intrigues them the most, and follow along that route until +they bore of the topic, or find something new to grab their +attention. This, I think, is the basis behind "Net Surfing." +People hop from topic to topic, learning new things, integrating +them with past experiences, and arriving at new ideas, which +they might then contribute to the Net at Large, which spurs new +ideas in others, who form new groups, ....and so it continues. + +Essentially, it seems that the most practical way to increase +the standard of living for the citizens of planet Earth, is to +increase the mind-power which is working on the various problems +of the era. The best way to do that is to educate more people. + +And it would seem that the Net at Large may well be the most +efficient method of info-delivery to the greatest amount of +people with the least amount of time or cost. + +For example: People often talk about the "problems" of population +growth in Third World countries, and debate about methods of +birth-control or population growth-rate moderation. But an action +as simple as running an electrical wire into the center of a +village will allow such an improvement in living standards, that +population will naturally decrease. This power source would allow +for everything from water purifiers, to light, heat, food +production, and of course, communications. When people's basic +needs have been met, such as food, shelter, and warmth, they are +able to focus more energy towards learning. ("Maslow's Hierarchy +of Needs") + +More population means more mind-power on the planet. (That seems +to be the one world-resource that never makes it onto the statistics +charts as being in demand.) If there all these people out there, +and they get access to satellite TV with thousands of world-wide +channels, and get access to the Internet, with it's millions of +users, and all the Internet browsing tools (such as as Archie, +gopher, WWW, WAIS, and Xmosaic), which are becoming ever-easier +to use, then I think we'll see such a boom of intellectual and +artistic development as to make the Renaissance pale in comparison. + +How to arrive at this? It seems that as technology continues to +advance, it becomes cheaper and easier to stay in touch more of +the time, from more places around the globe. And with the advance +of technomadics, people can now bring along a small computer, and +"jack in" to the Net from almost anywhere on the planet. So +suddenly, it doesn't really matter as much WHERE you are, because +you can carve out your own private niche in Cyberspace, and take +it with you. Go to a foriegn place, hook up to the Network, telnet +to your main system, and you're back home, with access to all of +your information, addresses, files, and friends, regardless of +where you physically are. And since there are no racial, ethnic, +age, or even gender-specific indicators over the Net, a person is +allowed to be whomever they truly wish to express themselves as. + +It seems fairly profound, that a person...ANY person...can go +into any group, and spend some time learning whatever their heart +desires, and become an expert in the field. They don't have to +know a whole lot about computers, because there are places along +the way in the Net where they can learn computers as they go. +They don't have to know how to spell or read very well when they +first start, but their language and vocabulary will improve as +they go along. There are spell-checkers and dictionaries, and +sometimes even grammatical and style-checking programs built +into various text processors. They don't have to be any specific +age. All that comes across is how well you can express yourself, +and _that_, as we've seen, is a function of feeling safe. + +Imagine some of the development of these vast expanses of +knowledge: People can browse through the Internet as they please, +learning whatever they need, to accomplish whatever it is that +they want to do. And along the way, there will be spinoffs that +benefit others. And they will form new groups...and these will +produce new ideas...and the Net/human mind-power will probably +just keep on growing... + + + ----.sig -------------------------------------------------------- + +popE x Mass = accelerated_j e s u s is published +periodically by the sysop of the Hieroglyphic Voodoo Machine BBS +which boasts and toasts --> V.32bis N81 at --> +1 303 443 2457. + +entire contents of this file is copyrighted (c) 1993 by James +Still, aka Johannes Kepler and may *not* be extracted or re- +published in part, or in its entirety without prior consent +from James Still. All Rights Reserved Poncho... + +send submissions, gripes, comments to: still@kailua.colorado.edu + +REMEMBER: You *can* make a pig out of push pins and an eraser. + +Pave the Earth! + + ----EOF---------------------------------------------------------- + diff --git a/religious documents/pyramid1.txt b/religious documents/pyramid1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8893cd8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/pyramid1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,179 @@ + PYRAMID POWER AND OTHER EFFECTS from Jeff Johnston + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Some of my research was based on following experiments that other + people have performed. The one item that got me started was an + electron microscopic photograph of a razor blade that had been treated + in a pyramid. There was a BEFORE and AFTER shot showing how the metal + had re-generated itself at the crystalline level. I found this very + interesting, because to me it seemed like pretty good verification for + some kind of effect. I suspect that multiple frequencies are involved + and that is why I branched out in the direction of bio-medical + effects, i.e. brainwave activity, some form that could be tried out + with different people under different circumstances, to see any + consistancy of effects. + + I did this research and other experiments that I haven't described yet, + about 8 or 9 years ago. This pyramid power effect is only part of what + I have been tracking as a larger effect that works in other areas + too. This may sound a little crazy but from what I can tell so far from + my research, it is linked to type of "Earth Energy Effect" (I need some + sort of name to try to describe this) that has been used in various + forms throughout what we know as "recorded history". When I have more + time available I will attempt to write a summary of experiments + performed over the last 20 years. This involves pyramid power and other + related material. + + One of my conclusions is that SHAPE has an effect on surrounding + matter, and that it doesn't have to be in the exact shape of a pyramid + to have an effect. For example, I have experimented with altering the + base angle to apex ratio and found that other shapes will work also. + This led me into another area in the design of antennas for capturing + this type of energy. I built a few prototype designs that were not even + square and still got some results. Not always as good results as using + a standard pyramid, but they did something. + + To answer your question: YES. The longest running experiment that I did + in this area was a preservation experiment that lasted 18 months. I + used a piece of raw pork. If anything is going to go bad, raw pork will + in about 48 hours. After 18 months there was no evidence of it smelling + or being bad. Only have 2 min. left will cont. another time. + + The following is a reply to answer some questions. + + In answer to the question what brainwave states did the subjects + experience: + + Alpha, Beta and Theta. In most subjects alpha was experienced in the + first 15 minutes. About half of the group experienced theta around the + 40 to 50 minute time frame. I tried several lengths of time, 1 hour, 1 + and 1/2 hours, 2 hours, and 3 hours. I experimented with a number of + variables of time length, also the time of day the experiment was done. + I was looking for some connection to some research done in Germany + starting in the 1940's dealing with what had now come to be known as + Cosmobiology. (Today the Russians take this quite seriously and + continue doing research in this area.) Cosmobiology is still "alive" + and well in Germany today, as well as some research being done in the + United States.Cosmobiology deals with cycles of time. + + It was some of the original research that spawned another subject, + biorhythms. Now, a lot of what is being done as biorhythms today has + kind of strayed from the original path, and the type of programs or + information I see on the subject today has been diluted quite a bit and + as a result a lot of the accuracy has been lost. So please don't judge + the Parent Cosmobiology, by the Child Biorhythms who due to + misunderstanding and lack of applied methods has caused some people to + question it's validity. + + For biorhythms to work properly it has to be based on the exact time of + the begining of the cycle. This means to the nearest minute. Most + software programs available today are only in the ballpark because they + are based on a window of time that is 24 hours wide. This is too wide + for accurate results in my opinion. Consult the original research done + in this area and I think you will see why. It's a question of + methodology. See Rineholt Ebertein et al. + + In answer to the question: Am I still doing research into the pyramid + effect? + + Yes I am, but not just "pyramid" research. I am in the slow process of + writing a book that includes some of the information of pyramid effects + but the core of the book material is on some other subjects that are + related. These involve some of the things I stumbled across while doing + research on the pyramid effects and other fields that at first I + thought were entirely unrelated. + + In answer to what type of control materials to use: + + I would recommend using two items as closely matched as possible. For + example, If you are planning on using razor blades in an experiment + then be sure that both the control and the experimented blade are from + the same SET or package from the same manufacturing facility. If using + fruit or organic material, then for example, use one apple but cut the + apple in half using one side for control and one side for the + experiment. + + On the subject of controls, be sure that the area that you are doing + the experiment in is as closely matched as possible in temp. humidity, + light, electromagnetic fields, alignment etc., and that the area being + observed be as secure as possible. The reason I say that is once upon a + time I had an experiment that ran for several weeks and I got one + result. I re-ran it and got another result. I re-ran it again and got + another result. Well by this time I was wondering what the problem was, + and after a lengthly investigation found out that someone in my + household had been cleaning in the area and unknowingly contaminated + the experiment. (Drove me crazy trying to figure it out.) If you are + doing preservation experiments, or any other for that matter, be sure + you do not exceed 5% of the volume of the pyramid. + + In answer to the question: Can you eat fruit preserved in a pyramid? + + Yes. I have eaten lots of things preserved this way. (This was done 8 + or 9 years ago, I am still alive so I guess there are no known toxic + effects.) One of my organic subjects was a carrot that at the begining + of the experiment was about 9 inches long by 1 and 1/4 inch around. 18 + months later this carrot was about 3 inches long and about the size of + a pencil around. I ate it. It tasted fine, had a good flavor and seemed + to me not to have changed too much except for the water content. + + In answer to the question: What materials did I build the large + meditation pyramid out of? + + Well, all together I built several hundred pyramids, out of all sorts + of materials, from 1 inch to 12 feet on the base. The meditation + pyramid that I did the brainwave experiments in was made of aluminum + tubing 3/4 inch diameter. On the subject of materials, I have found + that different materials have different effects. Some of these effects + can be classified as "hardcore scientific" and some are purely + subjective states reported by the person having the experience. A.K.A. + "a feeling inside". + + If you are using metal materials then I recommend not to use young + plants, because from what I can tell, the effect is too intense for + them at a young age. If you are dealing with experimenting with purely + biological effects then I recommend using wood or organic materials. I + have found that in some circumstances that if you are looking for + effects in VLV (Very Low Voltage) then the only way to go is pure + organic materials. + + I think that covers this batch of questions. I wish you well in your + experiments. The above reminds me of an experiment I did with the 12 + foot based aluminum tubing pyramid that I have found very interesting. + + I built an insulated copper coil of about 120 winds, and placed it + about 18 inches down from the apex of the pyramid. I ran the wires down + the northeast side of the pyramid aligned to magnetic north. I + connected the wires to a device that sent electrical signals through it + operating at 2 million cycles per second at 50,000 volts A.C. I let + this run for several hours. I noticed afterwards that it seemed to + magnify the effect of the pyramid, but what really got me was that + there was a faint glow in the dark at the apex. This was related to the + charging done before hand. What gave me part of the idea to try this + was a picture I saw, a kirlian photograph that showed a glow around the + apex of a pyramid. + + As far as research goes, a very good book on the subject is called The + Great Pyramid by Christopher Bird. In it he covers the history and + mathematics involved especially in relationship to the solar system. I + would recommend it as one of the best researched books in this area. + This guy spent years digging through libraries all over the world, + using documents that are preserved in archives, listing some of the + earliest recorded information available. + + I would be glad to answer more of your questions as time permits. Just + leave your questions as mail on paranet and I will collect them and + issue another upload. That way everyone that is interested can see the + answers to their questions and also so I don't answer the same question + over and over and over to different people. I am also interested in any + original research in this area that anyone would care to share with me, + especially in the areas of geomagnetic disturbances, electromagnetic + force fields and related subjects. Thank you, Jeff Johnston. + + NOTE FROM THE MAGICIAN Crystal Cave 719-391-1092. + + It has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the use of aluminum + in building pyramids causes a distinct loss of the power of said + object. It is best to use anything other than this metal. + + + EOF> \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/qanda.txt b/religious documents/qanda.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b767152 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/qanda.txt @@ -0,0 +1,191 @@ + + A LITTLE LESS MISUNDERSTANDING + + (what Christians don't understand about Neopaganism) + + by J. Brad Hicks + +Q: Are you a witch? +A: That's actually a tricky question to answer, so let me go about + it in a round-about way: what I am is a Neopagan. Neopaganism is a + beautiful, complex religion that is not in opposition to Christianity + in any way - just different. However, some of the people that the + Catholic church burned as "witches" were people who practiced + something essentially the same as what I do. In identification with + them and the suffering that they went through, some of us (Neopagans) + call ourselves witches. + One expert, P.E.I. Bonewits, says that there are actually several + kinds of groups that are called "witches." Some are people whose + ancestors were village healers, herbalists, midwives, and such - many + of whom had (or were ascribed to have) mental, or psychic, or magic + powers, which were passed down through the family in the form of oral + tradition, and Bonewits calls them "Traditional Witches." Some are + people who have deliberately used the term to oppose themselves to + Christianity, are practicing "Satanists," and practice (deliberately) + most of the practices invented by the Inquisition, and Bonewits calls + them "Gothic Witches" or "Neo-Gothic Witches." Some belong to radical + feminist groups, who use the term because they believe that the + original Inquisition was primarily anti-women; some of them practice + magic, many of them do not - Bonewits calls them "Feminist Witches." + But the vast majority (these days) are harmless people who worship God + in many forms, including the Lord and the Lady and Mother Earth. + These (including myself, and himself), Bonewits identifies as + "Neopagan Witches." + I hope that this helps more than it confuses. + +Q: Are you a devil worshipper? +A: I'm tempted to just say, "No!" and leave it at that, but that + probably isn't enough. + Devil worship (including Satanism) is really a Christian heresy. + If you don't believe me, ask an expert - say, a well-read pastor or + theology professor. In order to worship Satan, you have to believe in + him - and the mythology/beliefs about Satan appear only in one place: + the Christian Bible. So to be a Satanist or a devil worshipper, you + have to believe in the accuracy of the Christian Bible, then identify + yourself with God's Enemy, proclaim that you are "evil," and then try + to "fight against Jesus" or similar nonsense. + Neopagans do not accept the Christian Bible as a source of truth. + As a source of some beautiful poetry, sometimes, or as a source of + myth, but not as a source of truth. Emphatically, we do not believe + that God has an Opposite, an evil being trying to destroy God, the + world, man, or whatever. So it is non-sensical to say that Neopagans + worship Satan. + Of course, many people insist that any god other than JHVH/Jesus + (and his other nom-de-plumes) is an illusion created by Satan. Well, + you're welcome to believe that if you like - but over half of the + world's population is going to be unhappy at you. Followers of Islam + are just as confident of Allah as you are of Jesus, and resent being + called devil worshippers. So do I. + +Q: What do Neopagans believe about God? +A: Neopaganism is a relatively new religion with very, very old + roots. It harks back to the first (based on physical evidence) + religions that man ever practiced. Neopagans worship a variety of + symbols from the old religions - the practices of the ancient Celts, + the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Romans - and differ with each other + over what those symbols really represent. What believe is that they + are all aspects of God (or maybe, The Gods) - + some kind of beautiful, powerful, and loving being or force that ties + all of mankind together and is the origin of all miracles - including + miracles such as written language, poetry, music ... + +Q: Do Neopagans have a Bible? +A: Not most of us. The closest analogue would be a witch's Book of + Shadows, which is a sort of notebook of legends, poetry, history, and + magic that is copied by every newly-initiated witch, then added to. + But on the whole, even a Book of Shadows isn't what Christians think + of as a Bible. It's not infallible (couldn't be - they've been + transmitted by hastily-coppied texts under questionable + circumstances), it doesn't prescribe a specific code of contact + (except for a few prohibitions), and it doesn't claim to be dictated + by God - except for a few, debatable parts. + Those of us who aren't witches don't even have that much. + Neopaganism is a religious system that relies more on the individual + than on the Book or the Priest. One of the principal beliefs of + Neopaganism is that no one, not Pope nor Priest nor Elder, has the + right to interfere with your relationship to God. Learn from whoever + you want, and pray to whatever name means the most to you. + +Q: Did you say magic? Do Neopagans believe in the occult? +A: Cringe. What a badly worded question - but I hear it all the + time. Neopagans as a rule don't "believe in the occult" - we practice + magic. Magic is simply a way to focus the mental abilities that you + were born with, and use them to change the world in positive ways. + Magic can also be mixed with worship - in which case it differs very + little from Christian prayer. + +Q: But I thought that you said that you weren't a demon-worshipper? +A: That's right. Magic and demonology are two different things. + Magic you also know as "psychic powers" or "mentallics" or even as + "the power of positive thinking" - in essense, the magical world view + holds that "reality" is mostly a construct of the human mind, and as + such, can be altered by the human mind. That's all there is to it. + +Q: How do you become a Neopagan? +A: In a very real sense, nobody every "becomes" a Neopagan. There + are no converts, as no conversion is necessary. Neopaganism is an + attitude towards worship, and either you have it or you don't. + My case is not atypical. All of my life, I have been fascinated + by the old mythologies. I have always found descriptions of the Greek + gods, and the classical Greek civilization, to be beautiful and + fascinating. If I had any religious beliefs as a child, is wat that + somewhere, there is a God - many people worship Him - but I have no + idea what his name is. I set out to find Him, and through an odd + combination of circumstances, I because convinced that his Name was + Jesus. But seven years later, I had to admit to myself that Whoever + God is, he answers non-Christians' prayers as well as those in the + name of Jesus. In either case, true miracles are rare. In both + cases, the one praying has a devout experience with God. + After searching my soul, I admitted that I could not tell that I + was better off than when I believed in the old gods. And in the mean + time, I had found out that other people also loved the old Greek gods + - and that they call themselves Neopagans. When I realized that what + I believed was little or no different that what they believed, I + called myself a Neopagan, too. + The common element for nearly all of us is that nearly all of us + already believed these things, before we found out that anyone else + did. "Becoming" a pagan is never a conversion. It's usually a home- + coming. No one ever "brainwashed" me. I finally relaxed, and stopped + struggling against my own conscience. + +Q: I've heard about witches holding orgies and such. Do you? +A: No, that sort of thing doesn't appeal to me. Most of the crap + that you've heard about "witch orgies" is nonsense made up by the + National Enquirer to sell magazines. + But I shouldn't be flippant about this, because it underlies a + serious question - what kind of morality do Neopagans hold to? + + "Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill: + An it harm none, do what thou will!" + from an old Book of Shadows + + That about sums it up. Neopaganism teaches that it is harmful to + yourself (and dangerous) to harm others. It also teaches that trying + to impose your moral standards on somebody else's behaviour is (at + least) foolish - and probably dangerous, as you run some serious + chance of hurting that person. Perhaps in a sense Neopagans don't + have morality, for as R. A. Wilson said, "There are no commandments + because there is no Commander anywhere," but Neopagans do have ethics + - standards for behaviour based on honor and mutual benefit. + +Q: I saw on the news that Neopagans use a star in a circle as their + emblem. Isn't that a Satanic symbol? +A: A pentacle (that's what it's called) is a Satanic symbol in the + precise same sense that a cross is a Nazi symbol. The German National + Socialist Party used an equal-armed cross with four flags attached to + it as their emblem. (Yes, I know - that's a swastika. Well, before + the Nazis made the word common knowledge, people just called it a + "bent cross" - it's an old heraldic symbol, and it means the same + thing that a normal cross does). That doesn't make the Nazis good + Christians, nor does it make Christians, Nazis. + In the same sense, Satanists (and some rock groups) use a type of + pentacle as their emblem. That doesn't make them Neopagans, nor does + it mean that Neopagans are Satanists (or even rock-and-rollers). + +Q: Are Neopagans opposed to Christianity? +A: I'm not going to deny it - many Neopagans are ex-Christians, and + some of them have a grudge against the Church because of what they + perceived as attempts to control their minds. Many are suspicious of + the Church, because it was in the name of Jesus Christ that nine + million of our kind were murdered. + Neopagans are opposed to anyone who uses force to control the + minds of others. Does that include you? If not, then it means that + Neopagans as such are not opposed to you. Do you work for the benefit + of mankind, are you respectful to the Earth? Then it makes us allies, + whether or not either of us wants to admit it. + + - - - - - - - - - - + + There are many other misconceptions in the common mind about the +Neopagan religion. Unless you've studied it, read about it from +sympathetic sources, then you really don't know anything about Neopagan +history, beliefs, practices, customs, art, science, culture, or magic. But +it would take several entire books to teach you, and I already fear that I +will be accused of trying to win converts (despite what I've said above). +If you are curious and willing to learn, try some of the following books: + + Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon + Starhawk, The Spiral Dance + P.E.I. Bonewits, Real Magic + Stewart Farrar, What Witches Do. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/quack26.txt b/religious documents/quack26.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc4c01d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/quack26.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2733 @@ + + + ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» + ²º * * * THE OH SO HOLY BOOK OF º + ²º * *** º + ²º * ***** ° ° ° °°°° ° ° ° º + ²º * ****** ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° º + ²º * ***** ° ° ° ° ° °°° ° º + ²º * *** ° °° °°°°°°° ° ° ° ° º + ²º * * °°° ° ° ° °°°° ° ° ° º + ²º * * * * º + ²º * º + ²º º + ²º V E R S I O N # 2 6 M A R 2 6 1 9 9 2 º + ²ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ + ²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²²² + + + + + Great Profit of QUACK!: ABACAB + +Call of QUACK!: QUACK! + + +================================================================= + +Section 1 CONTENTS + ++---------------------------------+ +|PART ONE: THE HOLY BOOK OF QUACK!| ++---------------------------------+ +Section 2.................introduction +Section 3.................Explanation of terms and divisions +Section 5.................The Book of Abacab +Section 6.................Rules and Beleifs +Section 7.................The five B's of QUACK! +Section 8.................holy sign ups +Section 9.................useless rhetoric +Section 10................The Ruin +Section 11................Book of The Ruin +Section 12................Levels of membership +Section 13................Unofficial levels +Section 14................updating method +Section 15................Pricklies +Section 16................weird scary stuff +Section 17................PUNISHMENTS +Section 18................The Book of Diesel +Section 19................Fests and Bashes +Section 20................The Book of Trevor +Section 21................Fun Stuff +Section 22................ +Section 23................Upper level initiation ceremonies +Section 24................Notes +Section 25................First days as a new Quackist +Section 26................The MOO Belt +Section 27................Holy Places of all parts of MOOism +Section 28................Holy Symbols of QUACK! and MOO +Section 29................City Zones and Heirarchy in other + cities +Section 30................THE BOOK OF MODEMISM, an ancient cult + now accepted by QUACK! (By Cadomark) +Section 31................List of things that are stupid +Section 32................BOOK OF BLASPHEMOUS HERECIES (by the + evil E.D. Brebis +Section 33................A little bit by Floyd Gecko +Section 34................Book of Itchy and Scratchy +Section 35................Phoque olive yew! +Section 36................Ritual Shit +Section 37................Ceremonial Dress +Section 38................Holy Music +Section 39................A mission for all +Section 40................Abacab's FULL name (mockery of you know + who) +Section 41................QUACK in your everyday miserable life +Section 42................Annexation of land forming the QUACK! + nation +Section 43................The Book of Battles + ++--------------------------------------------------+ +|THE MONDIAN TEST SITE FOR TROUBLED MINDS IN UNITY | ++--------------------------------------------------+ + + + ++--------------------------------------+ +|PART TWO THE CHURCH OF IRRELEVANCE | ++--------------------------------------+ +Contents are listed in the book itself. + + ++--------------------------------------+ +|APPLICATION THINGS | ++--------------------------------------+ +1.........................Local Applicant Form +2.........................Application for those outside Ottawa + + +================================================================= + +WORD OF CAUTION: + ÕÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͸ + ³ THIS BOOK IS A GENERAL GUIDLINE. NO ONE IS FORCED ³ + ³ TO DO OR BELEIVE IN ANYTHING WRITTEN IN THIS BOOK ³ + ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ; + + + +=================================+ + | | + |PART ONE: THE HOLY BOOK OF QUACK!| + | | + +=================================+ + +Section 2 INTRODUCTION + + +WHAT THE FUCK IS ALL THIS SHIT? + +OUR SILLY SYNTAX PROTOCOL: + +There is only one true ACK, QUACK! All other occurences of "ack" +shall be replaced with SPLORKT. + + +QUACK IN A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: + + Half-Mad, the sysop of a BBS called the Psycho Shoppe created +this weird little religion. This religion stood for Pyroism, +Cannibalism, Necrophilia, Free Sex, Bureaucracy supporting, +Bureaucracy toppling, Paranoia, etc. Most of these beleifs were +held only by Half-Mad (Halfy) however some of the members did +beleive in some of the mentioned concepts. Anyhow, Halfy and High +Preest Floyd Gecko were together and someone shouted out "Moo!". +For some reason Halfy and Floyd loved it so much that they named +their religion MOOism. + + Later on Abacab called the Psycho Shoppe and started reading +about what MOO was all about. He was so disturbed by the whole +thing that he formed an anti MOO religion. It was decided that +this religion would be named after "QUACK!", one of the anti +MOOists. The religion QUACKism was born. Abacab seemed to enjoy +calling up the Psycho Shoppe and putting down MOOism. This +resulted in a mini war. Eventually Abacab and Halfy wanted to +meet to see what was up. They met in this forest by the railway +trSPLORKTs near Collonade Road in Nepean. Here they had a fire +and +got along quite fine. Abacab knew suddenly that MOOism was pretty +cool. QUACKists beleived in lots of MOOist concepts except +Necrophilia and Cannibalism. Apparently a MOOist was not forced +to beleive in anything. Abacab decided to make QUACKism a part of +MOOism that ignores the necro and cannibal stuff. + + Eventually Abacab was looking for a holy place for the +religion. The number one choice was an overgrown ruin in the +forest where he met Halfy in Nepean. This ruin was cleared of +trees so it was safe to have rather massive fires and explosions +in (ruin was 20 feet by 12 feet). This ruin became a popular +QUACKist and MOOist meeting place. Soon it was named The Ruin, +the holiest place to QUACKists. As for now, meetings continue +there. Refer to the other things in the QUACK MOO NYAAA menu for +more info. + +MOOISM: MAIN RELIGION + +Quackism: Anti-MOO religion which became pro-MOO +OinkBlatt: A struggling new part of MOO (procrastinators) +Pyros: Were the crusaders, then the official pyros of MOO, but +really nothing now eh. + +WHAT'S THIS MODEMISM SHIT? A religion originating in the Sarnia +Ont. Area. This religion became popular then kinda died. QUACK +accepts all beleifs of this former cult and it's leader, +CADOMARK. You know they're good when a prerequisite for their +religion is the knowledge of bomb making. + +QUACK! ITSELF: + +QUACKISM is a new sect of MOOism that promotes free sex, alcohol +and pyroism. It is a faith and a recreational institutuion, +upholding many beleifs held by MOOists. We beleive in any form of +enjoyment that deviates from the standards of conduct given by +our society and that involves many overly illegal actions +(burning eveything). MOOism is seen by us and society in general +as being absurd and abnormal, so that is why we like MOOists. Oh, +about Environmentalism...Quackists care for the environment, +however when burning hazardous substances comes into play, +enjoyment comes before the environment. It would truly be +hypocritical to burn things and be a staunch environmentalist. + +WHAT ELSE WE BELEIVE IN: + +A supreme being often refered to as God, Yaweh, The Lord, Allah. +Fortunately we choose to worship the Supreme being in an odd +manner. In having fun we are simply thanking the Supreme One for +all the nifty chemicals and other stuff he created. + +There is an afterlife, reincarnation occurs instead of Hell or +Purgatory. + + +Section 3: +General Syntax protocol and explanations of divisions + +Please use a ! after QUACK! if you remember. + +FORMERLY "QUACKISM" AND "QUACKIST" WERE REFERRED TO AS +"QUACKBLATT" AND "QUACKBLATTT" RESPECTIVELY. AS OF AUG 15 +THE OLD TERMS WERE INVALID. + +Like I said, QUACK! is the only "ACK". All others are mere +SPLORKTs. + +Section 5: +The History of QUACKISM: + +Book of the converted Abacab: + +"The great prophet of AntiMOO spent ages bashing and corrupting +the concepts of the great Halfy. He did profess in his evilness +that his religion was better than the Great Religion. One day he +did see the light (hmm, was he drunk?)and did see his errors and +felt a need to repent. At that time by some strange act of the +COW he decided to befriend all MOOists." + + +Section 6: Rules and Beleifs + +1. Quackists may or may not be MOOists + +2. MOOists are our freinds, however we are a seperate entity. + +3. Drinking and partying are staples of our diet + + +4. Criminal Codes of the land aren't necessarily to be respected +(unless you KNOW you'll get caught!) + +5. Sign up locations are on sacred ground. Honor the ground +before you leave with the simple mutter of "QUACK!" . + +6. BUSHBASHES are held spontaneously at any location. I'll keep +you posted. + +7. The Ruin is always to be capitalized. + +8. No one may chase after girls liked by Abacab. + +9. Quackists drink Coca-Cola Classic, however if something else +is cheaper it'll just have to do. + +Section 7: +THE FIVE B'S OF QUACKISM: + +QUACKISTS may or may not be sane and beleive that it is necessary +to be acceptable to society on occasion (ie: act like an idiot +but make sure nobody sees you). QUACKISM is easily acceptable by +all due to it's universally accepted methods of enjoyment such as +Booze, Babes, Bonfires, Balloons + Bombs (the five B's of +quackism). + +Section 8: +HOLY SIGN UPS + +INITIATION: In order to become a QUACKIST one must either sign up +at the locations to be specified, come to a +QUACK/MOO/Psycho/Pythonfest and become somewhat intoxicated, or +simply get a hold of Abacab somewhere on the BBSes. + +TWO QUACK! BUSHBASH locations are specified at the end of this +document along with directions. A serious QUACKIST will go out to +a location and find a sign-up sheet in a bag there. Anyone who +signs the list will automatically become a V.P. of QUACKISM. You +may also use this as a method of meeting Half Mad. You see, if +you tell him to go there, he WILL come. He's quite familiar with +location #1... + +Section 8:2: +QUACK! SIGN UP LOCATION 1 (WEST END) + +TOP SECRET (the Ruin) + +SECOND QUACK HOLY PLACEY THERE EH (EAST END): + +Currently pending discovery. Watch this space for news! + +Section 9 +USELESS RHETORIC: Quackists MUST be staunch patriots. All must +love Canada, but no one must hate other nations. The maple leaf +is an official QUACK thing.. + +AMERICAN QUACKISTS must honour the bald eagle and call him a +duck. + +Section 10 +THE RUIN + + The Ruin is seen as THE most holy place on earth to +Quackists. The Ruin is no more than the sad remnants of some sort +of railroad building. It's just a rectangular foundation with a +concrete stairway in it. Underneath the stairs is a cubby hole +where supplies are kept (mosquito coils etc.). If you visit The +Ruin you must honor the place with a flame of some sort (lighting +the mosquito coils doesn't count). The second from the top stair +is The Step Of Halfy. Do not sit on this step ever, for it +belongs to Halfy. The slab of concrete at the bottom of the +stairs is the Slab of Abacab. There's no reason why anyone would +want to sit there, so I don't care if you do. In the far right +corner from the entrance is a thingy. This is Floyd's thingy. +Leaning against the outside of the ruin is an orange 80 cu. ft. +cylinder. This fuel is to be used only by genuine Quackistss or +MOOists for bomb purposes. Now as a bonus, there is a nice orange +tarp to shelter you good Quackists from severe weather. + +UPDATE: The Ruin is empty. Seems the dumb fuck construction +workers weren't so dumb after all. Fuck. Well, if it rains, you +can still go under the stairs, but there aint no oxygen tank for +a bench no more. + +Section 11 +BOOK of THE RUIN + + "The pioneers of the rails pushed forth with the line. A +great terminal was required, because, well, it just was. A great +many large buildings did take effect, one unbeknownst to anyone +was the great temple. As the young buildings were destroyed by +the decision of some stupid bureaucrat The Ruin was born. After +60 years it was greeted by the Great Profit who came upon this +sorry sight and did say "QUACK!". As proclaimed by the great Duck +the promise of the unity of the Profit and the temple was +fufilled. Then the Great Profit did name it The Ruin. As +proclaimed by the Cow the Prophet of MOO would also visit the +temple and do geeky things there as if to confirm the validity of +The Ruin. Now and forevermore The Ruin shall be the holy worship +site of all Quackists." + +Past Visitors of The Ruin: ABACAB, Diesel D, Halfy, Floyd, Yemen, +Colin Hardie, Notorious Ninja, Gon Mad, The Phantomlord, Dan the +curator, Dennis the PHD, Willem the geek. + +Section 12 +LEVELS OF MEMBERSHIP + +12:1 The Great Profit of Quackism (equivalent to Grate Prophet +and High Preest) +holders-1 +name of holder: Abacab +requirements: Start a religion called Quackism. +vocation: to have a power trip and burn things +ambition: To lay all the BBS chicks in Ottawa. + +12:2 Most Honorable Duck (equivalent to Cardinal Richelieu) +holders-1 per City Zone +name of holder: +requirements: Special Entry +vocation: Actually contribute to the religion + +12:3 Executive Commitee Member (equivalent to inner circlBLATTTs +of MOO) +holders- (top secret) +names of holders: Floyd Gecko, I Yemen Oying, Jay Cadieux, others +I don't feel like bothering to mention. +requirements: special entry, chosen by Abacab +vocation: be present at most fests, continue to kiss up to Abacab + +12:4 Run of the Mill Member (equivalent to outer circlBLATTTs of +MOO) +holders- as many as can fit in The Ruin uncomfortably +names of holders: Gon Mad, The Phantomlord +requirements: join +vocation: practise the religion + +12:5 Mildly interested member (equivalent to Acolyte) +holders- infinite +names of holders:Infamous Axeman, Diceman, Pej Vongpaisal +requirements: be mildly interested, fart +vocation: admit who you are, burn things at The Ruin. + +Section 13 +UNOFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED LEVELS + +13:1 Vaguely aroused semi-member (no equivalence) +holders- ??? +names of holders: Diesel D +requirements: none +vocation: ??? + +13:2 Unknowing member (equivalent to old dog shit in a spring +puddle) +holders- who I say +names of holders: Helena, who I say +requirements: know nothing about computers, BBS's, or Quackism +vocation: get watched by Abacab, be unaware of everything, +undress with the blinds open so Abacab can watch through his +binoculars. + +BTW: There is no V.P. of Quackism, so signing a sheet don't mean +shit. Hahahaha!!! BUT signing The Ruin wall makes you a run of +the mill member. + +Section 14 +Update methods: + +Whenever any change takes place the first number in the +version goes up. Please distribute the newest version of +this file to local BBSes. + +Section 15 + +Pricklies + +Thorns +Spikes +Burr Bushes + + +Section 16 +Weird scary stuff + +As a Quackist you must consider Abacab or Halfy as your most +superior superior. I can officially recognize people objects and +places in the name of QUACK, however not necessarily in the name +of MOO. It is possible to be a Quackist without being a MOOist. +Oh, about the fuel at the ruin...If you aren't a Quackist or a +MOOist when you go to the ruin you can't touch the stuff. Once +you scrape your name in the wall, you CAN. You see, we also stand +for Bureaucracy. Shut up, follow the rules and you'll be fine. + +Section 17 +PUNISHMENTS (applies to all QUACKISTS including unknowing members +chosen by Abacab) +1. For disobeying Abacab and bashing MOO or Quack in a +pain-in-the-ass way: +One entire night (sunset to sunrise) underneath the stairs in The +Ruin. + +2. For using the gas before putting your name on the wall: +The use of a 2" long stick to light an acetylene balloon. + +3. For being a stupid arse hole in general +42566692 FARTS! + +Section 18 + +THE BOOK OF DIESEL + +" And then there was one who decided to sit on the fence. The +great Profit then removed the fence with his action of unifying +with MOO. Then the fool fell into the mud below where the great +Profit deemed him Vaguely Aroused Member. Diesel had then +realized that he had been a visitor to The Ruin and that he had +put his name in The Ruin and that he was powerless. From that +moment on he realized he could not fight the overpowering forces +of the Cow and the Duck" + +Section 19 +Fests and Bashes + +To date, no successful bashes have occurred. Many mini-fests have +occured at spontaneous times. These have all occurred at The Ruin +(obvious to any visitor). The next bash is planned for Aug. 16th +at The Ruin. This occasion will be a first, however the success +rate depends on attendance. + +WHOA! HOLD IT! There were some recent successes at the ruin. +There +was the great INSANITY FEST which was a blast, and some mini pyro +fest with the old "pyros" of MOO. The northern lights were +astoun- +ding. + +Section 20 +THE BOOK OF TREVOR + +"The bigot's name appeared on the wall of The Ruin. Promptly the +great Profit proceeded to dissolve and burn this digrace as if to +fufill the desires he had towards the real Trevor" + +Section 21 +FUN STUFF: USES: + +Acetylene Put in Balloon and ignite. +Hydrogen Same as above, smokeless. +Balloons Put explosive gasses in em. +Muriatic Acid Pour on small animals. +Lighters Light wd 40. +WD 40 Flamethrower. +Butane Same as above. +Wood Fires! +Acetone Fires! +Rubber Stinky fires! +Rubbers Heh... +Oxygen Fire steroids! +Urine Think about it... +Excrement Forget it... +Off! Lame... +Styrofoam Burn, or make napalm +Poo ... +B.O. Bug yer freinds! +Torps Deafen people, give em high medical bills +Flares They look neat + +Say, would a bombs file be a better idea? + +Section 22 + + + RENT THIS SPACE! YES, YOU CAN ADD A CHAPTER + TO THIS VACANT SECTION! HURRY, IT'LL GO SOON! + + +Section 23 +NEW INITIATION CEREMONIES + +To RUN OF THE MILL MEMBER + +To occur at either holy site + +-Abacab: Do you solemly swear to be a faithful member of the most +supreme institution of the Duck? + +-candidate: Yes, for I do desire to be one of your faithful. + +-Abacab: Ok, run through the woods and yell QUACK till I can't +hear you +then run bSPLORKT. + +-candidate: Okay, Abby, oh great one <..fukin S.O.B.> + +Twit runs through the woods yelling QUACK! untill he is no longer +heard (this is impossible for the twit to tell, thus making it a +challenge and if someone else happens to be wandering around in +the woods its even better). Twit returns. + +-Abacab: Yer in (thumbs up punch in the shoulder of candidate) + + +To EXECUTIVE COMMITEE MEMBER + +To occur at The Ruin + + + +-Abacab: Let the ceremony begin! + +-candidate: Ok. + +-Abacab: You have earned a great deal through your membership. +This is the last hurdle to clear for admission into the Commitee. + +-candidate: oh, really. + +-Abacab: You must do the following to prove you really wanna get +this geeky position... + +-candidate: Fuck You! + +-Abacab: EH? + +-candidate: uh, nevermind, go ahead + +-Abacab: Go to the centre of the Pond and yell QUACK! loud enough +for me and the other witnesses to hear from The Ruin. + +Candidate leaves ALONE and stands in the centre of the Pond. He +must then yell QUACK! + +-candidate: QUACK! + +Abacab and witnesses go to Pond. + +-Abacab: Very good. Welcome aboard! + +Abacab shakes hand of candidate violently. + + +PROMOTION TO MHD (most honorable duck) + +To occur in the middle of the train bridge over the Rideau River +near the area of The Ruin (Pure hell if you're afraid of +heights). + +-Abacab: I Declare thee MHD. + +All participants then yell QUACK and MOO. All meet for fest at +The Ruin. + + +Section 24 + +NOTES: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Section 25 +First days as a new Quackist + +I expect you to be more than a deadbeat and participate in +meetings at The Ruin etc. This is the only way to improve your +level. Also, I am going to upgrade any member one level if they +fill out the MOOism application and go through the MOOist +initiation. An impromptu upgrade ceremony whilst at The Ruin with +me may occur. See this as a payment for coming out and +participating. Likely you will get a higher level by showing up +with me. Also, once the Boisterous BBS is up, this will upgrade +your access level. + +Section 26 +THE MOO BELT + +A most fascinating discovery has been made by Executive Commitee +Member Floyd Gecko. As we are all aware, the most important place +to MOOists is Dunn's Deli in the Byward Market, and the most +important place to QUACKISTS is The Ruin. If a straight line is +drawn between the two an interesting phenomenon known as "The MOO +Belt" occurs. Within 350m of this line there are many places of +significance to MOO/QUACK members, such as locations of MOOfests, +Lisgar High, the houses of Abacab, Floyd, Harizof, Halfy, Kirsten +and so on. Apparently some sort of powerful field exists between +The Ruin and Dunn's that pulls MOOists and Quackists into it. +This belt will be considered as a Holy zone by all. + +Section 27 +Holy Places of MOO, QUACK and the PYROS + +1. Dunn's Deli (MOO): In the Byward Market +2. The Ruin (QUACK): Refer to "Holy Sign Ups" +3. The trestle (QUACK) : S of Greens Creek toboggan Hill +(Montreal at Bearbrook) along creek. +4. Hunt Club Bridge (PYROS): Under it + +Section 28 +HOLY SYMBOLS + +The first, being that of QUACK! is the Tri-Beak. It's a triangle +with a beak in it. The second, that of MOO, is The Halfy, named +after +the leader of MOO. + * * * + * ** *** ** + * * ** * ** + * * ** ** + * * * ** ** + * * * ** ** + * * * ** ** + * * * * * * *** + * * * * * * * * * + MOO + QUACK! OMM + +There is another symbol of QUACK designed by evil Heretic E.D. +Brebis. It's in the title thing and in The BLASPHEMOUS HERECIES +section of this book. + + +SECTION 29 +City Zone numbers. + +City Zone + +OTTAWA/HULL 1 +SUDBURY ONT 2 +TORONTO ONT 3 +MONTREAL PQ 4 +ALBANY NY 5 +NIAGARA ON/NY 6 +DETROIT/WINDSOR 7 +CHARLOTTOWN PEI 8 +FREDERICTON NB 9 +QUEBEC CITY PQ 10 + +Remaining have yet to be determined, however numbers will be +assigned at anyone's request. + +There is only ONE Great Profit, Abacab, of Zone 1. Each zone has +one MHD and an Executive Commitee, as well as other lower levels +membership. Abacab chooses ALL MHD's and each MHD is responsible +for the Executive Commitees in their city. In Zone 1 Abacab +assumes +all responsibilty for appointments to any level. + +Some Zones are member free, therefore Abacab handles all virgin +territory. + +SECTION 29 + +The Book of Modemism: + + "Once, a long time ago, a gentle and kind god noticed that +his subjects were getting bored calling up party lines and such. +Realizing that there should be a way for the more intelligent +peons to communicate, he created a device, known as the +MOdulator/DEModulator. And with a single word, he conjured up +the cable and program that would enable any mortal with a +computer and telephone line to tap into this real new world. + + At first, all was well. This god, being kind and gentle +and all that, didn't really care much about respect and homage. +It wasn't for him. Eventually, though, he noticed that his gift +to humankind was being perverted by those who would use it to +spread the evil nemesis of all true religions, namely +Christianity. + + The evil one was known to all as "Maverick," and he was +the SubOP of his own message section, the one on the evil +religion. + + The true followers of the modem were quick to rally to +the modem's defense, but it was to no avail. The evil Maverick +had grown too strong, and no longer listened to reason. He +really began to preach the evils of Christianity throughout the +entire BBS. + + The corruption spread like a cancer, and soon it was +almost unstoppable. +---------------------------------------------------------------- + + Then one day, as I had passed out over my computer, the god +of modems struck my terminal with a bolt of lightning. And in +the brief instant he spoke to me (it was at about 19Kbaud) he +informed me of the great new religion that would remove the +cancerous evil from the boards everywhere. He told me a great +many things, and in his last few nanoseconds of communication, he +named me to be the Original Modemist, that I might carry on the +fight where ever I might be. + + As I woke up the next morning, I was certain that I had +undergone a bad dream. But it was reality, for on my monitor was +the prayer of the prompt, a sign of holiness throughout the +world: + Our Prompt, + Who art in batch. + C:\> be thy name. + + + There follows the epic battle between good and evil, but +I'll spare you the details." + +-The Original Modemist, Cadomark + + + +SECTION 30 +List of things that are stupid. + +1. The local government will spend money on 2 signs to warn +motorists of a pothole. One is half a mile away and says "Bump +1/2 mile" the other at the site of the bump says "Bump". Of +course it would cost less just to patch the fucken hole! + +2. While on the subject of roads... An unimportant county road in +Ontario is better than any two lane highway in the U.S. and the +shitty residential street I live on is better than *any* road in +QUEBEC. + +3. Members of the opposite sex only admit they liked you AFTER +they stopped liking you. + +4. The most bigoted minorities are the ones that complain about +racism. + +5. Computers are obsolete before they even make it to store +shelves. + +6. Most BBS users go straight for the GIF section, not realizing +that they're admitting they masturbate. + +7. People will go somewhere only when nobody's trying to get them + +to go to the damn place. + +8. Fat people hate being that way, but do nothing about it. (This +goes for other fuck ups too). + +9. People whine and complain that spirit is too often neglected, +yet never show up for any event where they'd show it. + +10. People didn't ever give a fucking shit about the environment +until it became a trendy issue. + +11. It'll be ages before someone decides to accept my invitation +to add to this list. + +12. Dental Hygeinists always have more cavities than anyone else. + +Section 32 +BOOK OF BLASPHEMOUS HERECIES by the evil E.D. Brebis + +DISCLAIMER: "The incorrect oppinions expressed by the evil +heretic DO NOT in any way reflect the true beleifs of QUACK!" + +----------------------------------------------------------------- +Here, chuck this into your "book" which makes a mockery of QUACK. + + + ******** +----*** *///*** + ** *//////** + * *///////* + ** *////////** + * */////////* +--* */////////* + * *////////* + * *////////* + * *///////* + * *//////* +--** **///** + * **/* + ** ** + *** *** *** + ******** *** +-----------------------** + ** + * + *** + *** +---------------------------* + +(the Quaxign. If you're looking for any deep symbolical meaning, + FORGET IT! It's just a Weird looking Q.) + +"In the Name of Quack!, one helluva duck. + READ! In the name of Quack, who created, + Created ye fools from a drop of blood coagulated (poetic, eh?) + READ! And Quack! is most kind, + The Duck who hath taught mankind, + That which he knew not, being blind..." +(I didn't write that, QUACK! did. In fact that was the first holy +revelation, and basically it boils down to "hey you, shut up and +listen, cuz I created you and yer gonna GET IT if you don't +listen.") + +Listen now to the ramblings of the first and last prophet of +Quack! + +Okay, lemme get a few things straight first off: + +First and foremost, there is no God except QUACK!. Never mind +whatever else you might have read in this book. Understand? Only +Quack. If you are a Mooist, you are not a Quackist. This book was +written by a Mooist, except for this part and maybe a few others, +which are probably edited beyond recognition. Not that I care, +whatever goes into that Blasphemous Book is not my +responsibility. + + I hope you've got that all straight. If you haven't, well +that's your problem, you can FUCK OFF and read the other herecies +in this book, and skip this chapter. You're de one dat's a gonna +get it, not me. + + That little snippit of poetry there was translated +straight from duck with a few poetic licences that I took to make +it rhyme, since it rhymed in duck. And another translation for +the word QuAck! (READ!) can be Proclaim, or Tell Everyone About +It!, except that TELL EVERYONE ABOUT IT IN THE NAME OF QUACK! +didn't quite sound right. Anyways, this is another important +idea, +that you should be not only believing Quack, you should be SAYING +"Quack!". Why? WHY THE HELL NOT? IT'S A NICE THING TO SAY, +OKAY?!?!? SHEEZ! I'LL TELL YOU WHY! BECAUSE! *THAT'S* WHY! +(Now that I've taken a pill, I shall continue.) + Next important idea is to Sneep. This is about as best +translation of the word as I can. I would explain it, except I +seem to have run out of space here. Too bad, really, Sneeping is +about as important as saying Quack, and fun too. Well, that's it +then. Tune in next time for my next gospel session! + JUST SAY QUACK! + +----------------------------------------------------------------- +Section 33 + ÚÂÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ÃÅ´And now a silly bit by Floyd GeckoÃÅ´ + ÀÁÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÁÙ +Okay, so this bit was added in after this version was put in the +book of MOO... SOSUMI!!! + +Anyway, this gospel section will continue after some silly +noises. + +QUACK POING + MOO + DISASTER BLEEP + IKKI IKKI IKKI + + PITANG! POIT! + POIT! + Mumblemumble... + + + At any rate... + +Okay, so the weekend gospel is here commenced, by Rev. Fleud +Gocke. + +Floyd: RIGHT! YOU MISERABLE CHURCHGOING *SCUM*! +Congregation: But... but... but... +Fleud: *THERE AIN'T NO DAMN GOD BUT QUACK, OKAY?!!!!???* +Nincompoop: I thought you were a MOOist? +Floyd: DAMN RIGHT! [shoots self in foot] + + Excuse us a moment while we find the real Floyd. + +Ah. That's better. + + "So once upon a time, there was this wicked witch, and she +ruled an evil land, in which lived nasty people. Then QUACK +noticed how nasty and evil it was, and killed them all. The +moral of the story is, be nice all the time or QUACK will kill +you too." + + Nope, that's not him either. + +Ah. Here we are. + + What? Where am I? WHO ARE ALL YOU PEOPLE? You want +me to tell them about a WHAT? A *DUCK*? You must be JOKING. + You're serious, aren't you... Okay... + So there's this God, right? And his name is QUACK, and, +like, he's all powerful, except for this MOO thing, okay? Oh +yeah, and a Penguin. And Eris, Aneris, a Fire Hydrant, and some +Void Thing. Scratch that. + So there's this God, right? And his name is QUACK, and, +like, he's not real powerful or anything, and he doesn't even +exist, but, I mean, he's neat, and he's got lots of well con- +nected friends. Okay, um... I mean, his friends can tie their +own shoelaces. +Some of the time. That's SORTA connected, innit? + + *WE WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGIZE FOR THIS BEHAVIOUR. WE THOUGHT + WE WOULD BE GETTING QUALITY ENTERTAINMENT FOR OUR DOLLAR, + BUT FLOYD WAS JUST UNAVAILABLE. HE'S SENT A SINGING + TELEGRAM TO APOLOGIZE FOR NOT ADDING TO THIS BOOK.* + +Telegram Guy: I would only like to say, + I'm sorry that I had to stay + Out of your wonderful BOOK! + I'm sure that it's worth a LOOK! + Oh... It's a beautiful day in the + NEIGHBORHOOD... + + [THWAP] + + + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³And now your regular programming returns to the air³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + + + +Section 34 +The book of Itchy and Scratchy + + "QUACK normally dissapproves of dumb fads, however one must +watch that silly cartoon with the bratty kid in order to watch +the little Itchy And Scratchy cartoon the little brat watches. +MOO and QUACK can almost be symbolized by these Itchy and +Scratchy characters. Like the cat and mouse who " Fight fight +fight Fiiight fight fight fight fight!" QUACK and MOO bashed each +other. Well, ok, bad example! SOSUMI! The point is, thou must +like Itchy and Scratchy and remember their theme song. or not. +Fuh-Q." + +Section 35 +Phoque Olive Yew + +Now, I'd just like to tell everyone to FUCK OFF!!! Yeah, even +YOU! Fuck, sometimes it just feels good to tell everyone to FUCK +OFF! Fuck MOO! Fuck QUACK! Fuck YOU! Fuck ME! Fuck everyone! Fuck +this, I don't even wanna bother with you FUCKHEADS! Fuck, join my +FUCKING religion. Or don't. PHOQUE OLIVE YEW!!! + + |--- | | /--- | / \ / /--\ | | | + |__ | | | |< --- | | | | | | + | |__-| \___ | \ | \__/ |__-| . + + Thank you. + +Section 36 +Ritual Shit + +Well, the main ones are as follows: + +1. The Fuh-Q Ritual: + Tell people to fuck off by finding new ways to spell +variations on Fuck You. (eg: Fuh-Q, Fuh-Q II, Phoque Olive Yew) + +2. The Ruin Ritual + Go to a ruin and burn any old thingy you find in the +name of QUACK! + +3. The Heretic Ritual + Be a heretic, question and bash the hell outta QUACK etc. + +4. The Harass-a-Duck Ritual + Hang around a pond and yell at the Dux till they, and +anyone around, leaves in disgust. + +5. The Run-like-fuck, er, duck Ritual + As in the initiation, you run through wherever you are +and shout QUACK repeatedly until a witness can't hear you +anymore. +This is very difficult to perfect. + +6. Read a map Ritual + Study a map and draw lines all over it till you get some +spooky shape or whatever (this is how we discovered the MOO belt) + +7. The Ego-trip Ritual + Just be an egotistical weirdo-psycho and push lower ranking +people around. Also called The Half-Mad ritual. + +8. The singy Ritual + Find a place that's lSPLORKTing of people and sing +something. + +9. Hurt-the-Heretic Ritual + Do all you can to bring harm upon the evil E.D. Brebis for +spreading his most blasphemous herecies. + +Section 37 +Ceremonial Dress + +To be worn at official ceremonies (fests): + +1. Abacab, Most Honorable Duck: + +Hat, big ass thatch/straw/hay thing +White dress shirt. +Tie, any color but yellow. +Rubber Ducky in hand (OPTIONAL) +Brown Cords +Dress Shoes + + +Punishment #2 for refusal to comply. + +2. Executive Comittee Memebers: + +Yellow tie worn outside any shirts or coats + +3. Low ranking shit: + +Underwear worn outside pants. + + +Section 38 +Holy Music: + +1. Genesis; The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (2 LPs) +2. Horror sounds of the night; unknown (sold at Shoppers Drug +Mart around Halloween for 2 bux) + +DO NOT LISTEN TO + +Genesis; Abacab (LP) + +OR RECEIVE PUNISHMENT #1 !!! + +Lyrics to the song "Abacab": + +Look up on the wall +There on the floor +Under the pillow +Behind the door +There's a crSPLORKT in the mirror +Somewhere there's a hole in the windowpane +Do you think I'm to blame +Tell me do you think I'm to blame + +When they do it +You're never there +When they show it +You stop and stare +Abacab +Is in anywhere +Abacab + +If you're rappin all the world +Has he taken someone else's girl +When they turn on the pillow +Even when they answer the telephone +Don't you think they'll find out +Tell me don't you think they'll find out + +When they do it +You're never there +When they show it +You stop and stare +Abacab +Is in anywhere +Abacab +Does he really care? + +You wan't it, you got it +Now you know +You want it , you got it +Now you know + +It's an illusion +It's a game +A reflection +Of someone else's name +When you wake in the morning +He can find you covered in cellophane +Well there's a hole in there somewhere +Yeah there's a hole in there somewhere +Baby there's a hole in there somewhere +Now there's a hole in there somewhere + +When they do it +You're never there +When they show it +You stop and stare +Abacab +Is in anywhere +Abacab... + +-Genesis +From the album "Abacab" released 1981 + + + +Section 39 +A mission for all + +Hunt down and injure the most evil heretic, QUACK! This evil +one mocks our Grand Religion and must be destroyed at all +cost. The Great DUCK has inspired me, the author of this +book, to write this section. QUACK! must die. + +Section 40 Abacab's ONE name (a mockery of others eh) + +ChrisabacabjohnkevinfuckterminatordeathliferaelmOOrawgyjayzRawg- +TheLambTresspasserFuckerFuckedGenesisRevelationMyassBarayanneF.- +AzamaheethMatthew-Hater11Fourseasons8ConwaySouthgateBeaconHill&- +HeightsOttawaEastOttawaWestRideauFederalCanadianNorthernRailway- +RoundhouseTerminalStationDropPitsAshPitTowerTheRuinIncomingLord- +OutgoingDeparturesArrivalsTrain43UnionStationBeachburgSubdivisi- +onSmithsFallsSubdivisionL'OrignalSubdivisionGreensCreekRideauRi- +verHurdmanLeesSt.LaurentPublicEnemyNWATheD.O.C.sucksshitEazyE?I- +ceCubeChuckDFlavorFlavPhilCollinsPeterGabrielMikeRutherfordTony- +BanksChesterThompsonDarylSteurmerMeYouheSheTheyUsThemItEveryone- +JohnGeekComputer386MaximusWordperfectQUACK.TXT!ZellersStore21Cy- +rvilleMeadowlandsLoebIGAMerivaleMallMerivaleRoadHuntClubRoadCNR- +overpassHuntClubBridgeCapitalHomeHardwaregasolineDieselFuelMuri- +aticAcidAcetoneBombsMolotovFireFlameBurningHelp!I'mOnFire!Water- +StonesStreamsRiverFlowingFireHydrantOMMShitGodTheLordKingNYAAAA- +AAAAHistoryAK!UzziWD40HahEW.12345678910111213141516171819202122- +2324252627282930313233343536373839404142ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVW- +XYZJanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNo- +vemberDecemberFallWinterSpringSUMMERSundayMondayTuesdayWednesda- +yThursdayFridaySaturdayNewYearsEasterVictoriaDayCivicHolidayLab- +ourDayThanksgivingRemembranceDayChristmasOttawaNepeanGloucester- +CumberlandKanataWestCarletonOsgoodeRideauGoulbournHullHellYIKES- +!TorontoRichmondRichmondHillOshawaMississaugaHamiltonStonyCreek- +DunnvilleStromnessNiagaraPeninsulaTheFallsWhiteWaterWavePoolAnd- +WaterParkSplash!PoolLondonHydeParkGrandBendSarniaWindsorPetroli- +aOilSpringsDetroitArnpriorRenfrewCobdenPembrokeChalkRiverDeepRi- +verMattawaNorthBaySudburyCapreolOrleansRocklandWendoverMontreal- +QuebecAndAllThoseFuckingOtherPlacesHall + +There! I have ONE MEASELY NAME! Ok, so it's over 1700 letters +long SOSUMI! + +Actually, that's not really it. + +Section 41 +QUACK IN EVERYDAY LIFE + +Life's a bitch. Whenever you're in difficulty JUST SAY QUACK! +Yer mom bitches about your room being a mess... JUST SAY QUACK! +Yer boss bitches about your slSPLORKTing off at work... JUST SAY +QUACK! Yer cleint/customers don't like the service they are +getting, and they're voicing it to you... JUST SAY QUACK! + +Whenever you are in doubt, remember the warm nuturing family of +freinds you have in QUACK! let not the petty troubles of life +EVER make you miserable. Just remember that you can always hang +with other QUACKists and do fun shit. There's always a bright +future and upcoming fun for all QUACKists. Never be down... if +you feel discouraged JUST SAY QUACK! wherever you are. Don't feel +silly. Purge yourself. SAY QUACK!!!! + +Section 42 +Annexation of Lands forming the QUACK! Nation + +One duty of all members is to locate any chunk of abandoned or +deserted UNUSED (making it easier for us to *think* it's *really* +ours) land and annex it into the QUACK! nation. The +parts of the nation do not need to be connected to one another +either. Each region can be isolated or joined to another. So +far we claim the following lands: + +IN THE OTTAWA AREA + +1. TOP SECRET + +2. That land where the outer limits are the Queensway (hwy 17) +and Montreal Rd. to the north, Bearbrook Rd., City of Gloucester +Soccer Field, and Greens Creek to the east, Innes Rd. to the +south, and Blair Rd. to the west, however NOT including the lands +of the golf course contained within these limits. + +Section 43 +The Battles of The Great Forest + +All I see are the lost souls of a past I cannot remember. + +\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ + + +The Struggle of the Early Days +------------------------------ + Then I came upon this forest in the fall of 'eighty three and +found the shell of the first holy monument erected in this wood +by some persons long gone. And with it I built my holy shrine to +a god unknown and distant. Then in 'eighty five the demons from +Hydro razed my shrine and further distanced me from my god. So I +built a new one. + + +The Battle of Mike Walker +------------------------- + Then unbeknownst to me, another shrine to the evil god was +built elsewhere in the Holy Wood. The Fort of Walker took place +and took over the forest. The evil Mike Walker dominated the wood +and drove my men away. Only a year later did he flee when the +Holy Crusader of the new unknown religion did destroy the Fort of +Walker. Then did Walker destroy the Crusaders new Phort and burn +its remains... + + +The Battle of The pre-teens +--------------------------- + Four and a half years came to pass when the Crusader did +return to claim his now vacant wood. A new shrine to the unknown +god was required, and one was named. Then the evil pre-teens did +build another evil shrine. The evil pre-teens greeted the +Crusader with anger and the Crusader was not pleased. The +invaders built a mighty shrine larger than any that had existed +before. The Crusader tried to visit this shrine and warned the +evil pre-teens to leave at once. And then the evil pre-teens +proceeded to arm themselves and their shrine. Eventually Abacab +did come upon the site of this shrine on one cold winter day and +dismantle it with another faithful. And the pre-teens vanished +forever. + + +The Battle against MOO +---------------------- + The battles were far from over... +Abacab then retreated to what became the semi-permanent shrine to +his god. A shrine wich had survived as much as fifty times as +long as any other. But a new threat had emerged. The threat of +MOOism was in the air, and the Great Halfy did visit and +discourage Abacab from returning. Persistance and devotion +prevented a total war, and the two enemies met and did discuss +their differences and create a new nurturing environment for both +MOOism and the Unknown religion, QUACK! Triumphantly both went to +the remains of the shrine of the pre-teens and burnt it to ash. + + + + + + + + ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» + º * * * * * * * º + º * * * * * * * * * * * * * º + º The Mondian Test Site for troubled minds in unity º + º * * * * * * * * * * * * * º + º * * * * * * * º + ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ + +Part One + + And there she was, oblivious to the binoculars clearly focused +on her. Helena sat fidgeting with the lower part of her bathing +suit as Abacab watched with a close up view. Yes, her pubic hair +DID show. The babe never knew his name, but knew that Abacab, +lived behind her. She never knew it, but she had been officially +recognized as a Quackist. And yes, more than likely, she should +never have known about it... + +Part Two + + Then the profit made his way through the sharp prickles of the +prickly bushes. The Ruin seemed unusually sad and dark... as if +the thick brush that had at one time covered it were there once +again to haunt it. The ash in the centre of the once mighty pit +was washed away by some sort of red blood-like rain which +stained the smooth faced rubble. A musty smell strong enough to +invoke nausea was stagnant in the cold dry air. No flame would +survive this sombre sight... The profit walked away as if in slow +motion along the now obscure cord that marked the exit. + As he approached the light at the end of the thicket he could +see nothing but darkness. There lying naked in the sharp thorny +Raspberry canes was a fat man. The man was stuffing his stained +face with the fruit which grew from the bushes that tore into his +flesh. With each gulp his belly shifted violently. Then, looking +at the feet of the profit, he took one big gulp which caused a +convulsion so horrible that our profit could not stand to watch. +One of the sores on the mans belly suddenly tore open with a +thick fleshy "Schwohp". +The mortal pains caused the man to scream... + Suddenly from the oozing wound flew a dripping mallard. Blood +flew off her feathers as she flapped her soaked wings. Then as if +in a dream she spoke softly to the profit: "I am she you desire". +The profit sat dumbfounded, unable to speak. "I am Helena... and +that is my father" spoke the voice. And looking beside him there +was no more fat man. Only the blood sinking into the coal ridden +soil remained. The fluttering Helena dissapeared over the tree +tops, and then a thunder crash roared through the blSPLORKT sky. +She was not a mallard, but rather a raven in disguise. + The profit walked bSPLORKT to The Ruin with his head sunk low +"Is this the meaning of Quack? Was this my fate?".... + +Part Three + + BSPLORKT in the Ruin nothing had changed. The red blood was dry +and the ash still washed out. A severe cold snap hit the profit +as +he sat on the stair. A faint echo like that of someone walking up + +a long stairway was audible. In panic the profit looked all +around +him. Then a Puerto Rican man wearing only a pair of blue jeans +and +tattered sneakers surfaced from underneath the step of Halfy. His +shaken voice screamed out "Is this my home? Am I free?" + The profit questioned him " Who are you?" + The reply "I am Rael" + The profit lost his fear and demanded to know where he was +going. +"I am trying to get bSPLORKT to Broadway. You see, I was swept +away +underground in early morning Manhattan. I am trying to escape +this chamber of 32 doors. Where am I?" + "Far from home, and close to Hell" said our profit. + Then Rael dissappeared under the steps and the echoing +stairway sound was again to be heard. A faint scream and the +sound of deep rushing water faded into silence. + Then the sky was orange, and the setting sun shone onto the +ash covered rubble. A fire was present on the floor... footsteps, +many of them, approached. Then the Pyros, Quackists and MOOists +greeted him as they cheered on about a Pyro Fest. All that +evening our profit sat silently trying to peice together the +events that had occurred. Silently he said to himself "I must +continue to search for the answers. I must keep up my quest". And +then the fest went on with no further surprises. + +Part Four + + The profit somehow drifted away from the others upon their +departure. In the distance he heard Rael's voice singing: + +"When I take out my bottle filled up high with gasoline + You can tell by the night fires where Rael has been, has been" + + Why was this happening? Who was Rael *really*? Abacab felt his +wallet hit the ground. Oddly enough it was tightly placed in his +pocket a second earlier. A visa lay strewn from it. The name on + it was simply "JOHN". Then more singing blew through the +trees... + +"But down here I'm so alone with my fear + With everything I hear + And every single door + That I've walked through + brings me back + back here again + I've got to find my way + Cause back inside + This chamber of so many doors + I've nowhere + Nowhere to hide + But give you all my dreams + if you'd help me + Find the Door that doesn't lead me back again + Take me away.." + + Rael's body was found the next day by rail workers strewn in +the ditch. Only Abacab could recognize the face. It was his own. +He was Rael and he was dead. Then he... + +Part Five + + Rael? He was the fictional character mentioned in an old +Genesis album! Realizing this Abacab was not Rael. in fact +Rael and the railworkers were not there at all. What with +Helena? Did she exist? Yes. She must, for she aroused the +Prophet. A sudden spasm of fear ran thru Abacab. Hastily he +ran to find Helena. First he blasted through the bushes, +slopped through a ditch and burst across the trSPLORKTs. The +fence was vanquished like a hurdle, then the sound of wet +sneakers on the pavement was audible..." squish squish squish". +The ensuing fields filled Abacabs shoes with little seeds and +other annoying shit. No time to pick them out. It was time to +jump the creek behind the Hood. + The damn thing was just too wide to hop. Wading was an +alternative. And so it was done. At the other side Abby +continued to run in his bare feet, even though it was painful. +Finally in the Hood the home of the babe was visible. + The house was baren looking, however did seem inhabited. In +the bSPLORKTyard someones feet were visible. It was her... and he +went to grab her... and she fell to dust... HUH? Then he awoke +at the Pyrofest. + +Part Six + + Finally the Profit was inspired by the God, QUACK!, and knew +how to contact this Helena concept. And with Telix he did dial +the babe's number and she did reply "Hello...hello?" and the +profit did hit and she was gone. And then suddenly high +preest of MOO Fleyd Gocke did say "HUH?" and the profit realized +he made a faux pas and let a big fart. + +Part Seven +========== + +[as written by Mr. Canoe Head, Official Supplier of Recreational +Pharmaceuticals and Executive Committee member of QUACK!] + +Inspired by "The South Side of the Sky" by Yes. + + I + + Yet another evening, yet another drinkfest. Myself and about 120 +of my acquaintances had gathered near the river for one of the infamous +Beacon Hill bush parties. We were all sitting around the massive +bonfire, preparing hydrogen balloons, when suddenly this old guy walked +up to us and proclaimed, "Does anyone here like LSD?". We all shut up +and turned around, not saying anything, because nobody calls it LSD +these days and we were afraid he was a narc. But we changed our minds +after taking a look at this guy. He was about 50 years old, with a +massive grey beard, long hair and a tye-dye shirt. We recognized him as +being of the species Hippius Stonerus, an almost-extinct breed of tripped- +out individual. When I asked him if he had any acid on him, he told me to +close my eyes and stick out my tounge. He then proceeded to place a hit +of some obscure kind of acid on my tounge. I had caught a glimpse of +the stuff though, and the hit had a Tri-Beak on it! Before I could ask +him if he was a QUACKBLATTT, strange stuff started to happen. The earth +split in a 10' circle around the old man and I. The ground outside the +circle started to sink into the depths of the earth, while the ground +inside the circle started to rise at an alarming rate, forming a pillar. +All this was too much for my mind to take, and my world collapsed into a +heap of broken images... + + II + + When I woke up, we were still on our pillar, which was now +stationary. Looking around, I noticed that we were so high up that we +couldn't see the ground. I could see some snow-capped mountains in the +dBLATTTance, and the sun cast a glow of dBLATTTorted blue on their flanks. +Below us, only the pillar and the void. + + I turned to the old man and asked him what was going on. He +replied, "You and I have travelled many miles, but not in vain. Sit +yourself down, and I'll tell you a tale". So, after lighting a +cigarette, I sat down and the old man began: + + "Our party had left our camp at the base of the mountain earlier +that morning. We had learned from the monks in the town that a gate +to the sky exBLATTTed at the summit of the tallest mountain, the Mountain +of Light. The 400 kilometre trek to the base of that mountain had been +difficult, but aside from the fording of the River Lilith, gave us +little trouble. Even though the monks were unsure what exactly lay +beyond the gate to the sky, and that no-one had ever dared climb the steep, +treacherous slopes of the Mountain of Light, we were driven on by some +mysterious force. Whether it was the mystery, the promise of +immortality or the hazy blue glow at the mountain's top that drew us +towards it, we were unsure. + + The path from our base camp was fairly level and easy to walk. +However, after a few hours, the climb began. As we ascended amongst the +rocky crags of the Mountain of Light, rockslides, felled trees and other +obstacles barred our path. Fortunately, we were well prepared and our +gear was in excellent shape. As we turned a corner, we noticed an +enormous crevasse, at the bottom of which ran a torrent of green water. +Over this crevasse stretched a suspension bridge made out of rope and +boards. The bridge swayed bSPLORKT and forth in the fresh, cool mountain +winds. As we proceeded towards this bridge, the winds picked up, and +the bridge began to sway violently, barring our passage. A massive +voice boomed out: "I am the keeper of the bridge of Mog, and no-one may +pass without answering my riddle!". "We're fucked now", I muttered, and +asked this voice what his question was. The voice boomed out: + + "If you're driving across the Sahara desert + In a fiberglass canoe + With the windows open + Then how many grasshoppers do you need + To kick the seeds off a dill pickle?" + +We actually were fucked. Not wanting to be turned bSPLORKT, but at the same +time fearing what would happen if I answered wrong, I blurted out in +desperation, "It would take 42, because plutonium peanut butter repels +sentient apple cores". Suddenly, the winds died down. Hoping to high +hell this wasn't a trick, we made our way across the bridge. We marched +on for several more hours, then made camp for the night." + + At that point, the old man paused his tale and quietly said that it +was time for lunch. From the folds of his robe (I don't know where the +robe came from, I could swear he was wearing a tye-dye at the bush +party), he produced two cleaned pheasent carcasses, which we roasted on +the fire, which was still burning with an intense glow on top of our +pillar. + + III + + After lunch, he continued his story. "The next few days were all a +blur to us. Each day, we would wake up, break camp, and make our way up +the increasingly difficult slopes of the Mountain of Light, then rest +again for the night. The air was growing colder and thinner each day, +but we were prepared. The blue glow at the top was growing brighter +with every step we took, beckoning us forwards. On the fourteenth +night, with the moon shining bright, we estimated that we would reach +the summit during the next five days. + + This prediction, however, wasn't worth much. The next morning, we +awoke to a raging blizzard. The temperature had dropped to 25 below, +and the winds were howling like a wolf in heat. We plodded on anyways, +determined to find out what the hell was up there. By that night, we +had begun to feel the winds' bite. We set up camp in a snowdrift, but +we didn't get much sleep that night. + + Out of the five men that formed our party, only three were to +survive the next day's ascent. The extreme cold had gotten to them, and +Andrew, before expiring, said to us, "Go forward, for have gone too far +to turn bSPLORKT". That night, one of the other survivors said that we +seemed a million miles away from all of eternity, and we believed him. +And the storm raged on... + + The next two days were a absolute nightmare of cold, wind, snow and +death. Kevin had began to suffer from hypothermia, and we had looked +for shelter in order to look after Kevin and wait out the rest of the +storm. However, there was none to be found amongst the crags and +precipices of the Mountain of Light (whose name seemed ironic now, with +the sun blocked out by the storm). We buried him in a snowdrift, with +two enormous icicles marking his makeshift grave. That night, however, +our gloom was lifted by the fact that the storm seemed to be calming +down, and that we could see the bright glow at the summit shining like a +beacon in the snow. John and I would reach the summit the next day. + + The next day, we began our final ascent without even bothering to +break camp. The ground became extremely treacherous, and we had to move +slowly as to not fall off the jagged cliffs near the summit. At around +3:30 in the afternoon, we were within 1 mile of the glow. At the centre +of the glow, we thought we could see an orb of solid blue. Just looking +at this orb blinded us. Just then, the ground below John's feet gave +way, and he plummeted over the edge. I would continue the quest alone. +As I got closer to the orb, streaks of lightning appeared in the blue +sky. A faint humming could be heard, which grew louder as I got closer +to the portal. I began to think what could lie on the other side. Was +it immortality, was it death, was it metamorphosis into a bowl of +strawberry sherbet, was it reincarnation? I wasn't sure, but I was +determined to find out what the hell I went through all this shit for. + + When I got within a few feet of the orb, the air suddenly became +very warm. Strange visions appeared before me, and my hands were +shaking. Even though I was afraid of the unknown, I walked towards it +with solid determination. Just a few more steps now, and I'll be there. + + At last, I extented my hand to touch it. To my surprise, my hand went +right through it. As I stepped through it, I didn't know what was +happening to me. First the sensation of flying, then floating, then the +falling. All around me, as far as I could see, was the sky. I was +falling, but not off of the mountain. I wasn't afraid, but I wondered if +this was death felt like. + + As I continued my floating descent, I began to see visions: +landscapes, waterfalls, the sun, the moon, they were all liquid colour, +blending into each other to form one body. Then, against the bSPLORKTdrop +of raging fire, the liquid mass began to congeal, and took the form of +an enormous duck, which flew along with me in my descent. As we +continued down towards an unseen ground below, the duck spoke to me. +"QUACK!", it said, "I am the one who your people have sought for all of +eternity, and you alone were brave enough to seek me. The strength of +your spirit has brought you to me. Go forth and teach your people about +the ways of the duck, and your spirit shall be rewarded. Fear not, for +there are other faithful among your people. Find them, for there is +great strength in unity and fellowship". The great QUACK continued to speak +to me, but I do not remember hearing anything that he said. All I +remember was the floating, the falling, with the duck by my side, +followed by the blSPLORKTness. + + When I awoke, I was lying in a meadow, with white crosses here and +there marking the resting places of those who had fallen. After making +sure I was alive, I began looking at these gravestones, which all had +beaks carved in the stones. Out of all the names, one stood out: that +of Helena. I didn't know anyone by that name, but it stuck in my head +and still haunts me to this day." + + And with that, the old man ended his tale. + + + IV + + We spent the night atop the pillar, with the bonfire still burning +brightly in the cold night air. The next morning, he said to me: "The +world has passed on. You must search for the meaning of QUACK, just as +I have done". Then the old mand and the pillar vanished in a flash of +blue light. Just as the flash hit my eyes, I could hear an +ear-splitting QUACK! coming from the sky. When I overcame the blindness +caused by the flash, I was lying with a couple of my friends in a tent. +The bush party had ended, and most people had gone home, although +several of us had camped out. Captain Tripps turned to me and asked: +"So, man, how was the acid?". I didn't even try to explain it, and we +all went to sleep. + + +Part Eight +Ikhnathon, Itsacon and their band of Merry Men + + The Abandoned + + And I walk. I walk away from you. I get smaller and smaller. Never turning +back. Never to return. You wish I would. But I won't. Your tears won't stop me. +Your screams won't cause me to turn. I am distant. You collapse onto the bricks. +Your world falls apart. And I am gone. Never to return. You are alone. No wind +no sound no light no god. You pray for something near. You look up. I'm gone. + + The Disillusioned + +And there you fade into the distance as I indifferently walk away. Into a new +world and out of this hellish place. Ah my love falls upon the ground. I do not +see but I do know. Yes I know. So I turn and run. But I cannot change direction. +Always running the same way. Head spins. Spins. SPins! +"Typical" I say. + + UnRaelity + +Clam clack cloom cleek clom cloom cluk click. And down the stairs he goes! +Underneath the world into his own raelity. The raelity of Rael. Down 'em steps +we fly. Down down we go! Whee! Don't slip now! + + + +Fuck these stairs suck. Nothing but small undersize concrete steps! You can't +even walk properly down them... It's like I'm doing little kicks so I can +flutter deeper into this fucking pit! Say, I don't even know where I am. Like I +just remember going somewhere in a flood or something, then I came out of this +jagged hole into a dark and bloody world. Yeah, I recall seeing a bunch of +wrappers and garbage littered about that place. Hell, those creatures left a lot +of shit around. And they didn't even burn it. How fucking evolved! + +And some guy with purple and red splatters on him was sitting there. On the +Second Level stairway to The Mountains. The Stairway I can't get to. I don't +know why I can't get there. I think it's cause I have to pass through the bloody +dark place to get there. Oh well, the First Level stairway is fine with me. So +down I go! + +Geezus, howmuch futher do I go? I think there's ice now. How do I know? Because +I fell and I'm still falling. Bashing along these icy bumps. So you're probably +wondering why I'm so laid back when I'm dying right? Well Hell. I'll tell you +why. My life was cheap labour. Call me Mr. Sweatshop. You know, I was shovelling +gruel into Crass Man's belly. But hard times hit and he came crashing down to +nothing. I hear he eats raspberries or something. But what's my point? Well, I +became Cynic #32.6 under him. I was trained to be indifferent with long hours +and hard work. But when they announced their new drug "Workkoma" I had to run. +GET OUT! + +So here I am walking down stairs as usual. I really don't know where I'm going, +but it's not in the bloody dark world. Or is it? Wherever I am I'm safe. Don't +face nobody ever. I just keep running from what they call "evolution". + +Was I not falling? Oh, yeah, I was. So used to it I forgot. Well, better stop +now. This is anal. Better expose my nose ring so it'll catch on something. Like +what if I fall to the bottom (wherever that is) and die? + + -=FLASH=- + +Ow! There. Now I've stopped. Nyuk. Oh shit, my nose is still falling I beleive. +And since it's not heated by my blood anymore it has frozen. So it's going +"clink clink clink" deeper into the hole. + +AYE! Wait! Did I hear it stop? Clinks are gone? Am I at the bottom yet? +Hey! I am. Noseless but alive. That's what really matters. Me. 'Cause without me +living nothing would exist to me, cause I wouldn't be there. You know. + +Well here I am. Presented with another 32 doors. But since I can't count, it +might be fifteen. Can you count em? At any rate, there's no way I'm choosing +one. The closest will do fine. + + + +Rael swings the large creosote covered door open. The smell is pungent in the +air. Like the way a railway track smells in the hot summer sun. Behind the door +is some sort of warehouse. Well, maybe a hangar. In the centre is a peculiar +sight. A bunch of retired vandalized vehicles parked beside one another. There +is snow on top of them and around them. An occasional blade of dead grass pokes +out of the snow, which by the way is dirty and brown. Some of the vehicles have +large dents in them. Some have their motors pulled out. All have broken glass. +All have smears of rust on their white and red paint. + +The scene in the middle is perfectly rectangular and surrounded by a rope. In +front of the scene is a sign: + + EXIBIT "A" + WORLD OF ANCIENT MAN + +The tour guide goes on to explain the exibit: "In the 20th century they built +machines to last about 1/50th of a millenium. Apparently the manufacturers +sought to sell more after they wore out, hence increasing their 'Profit'" + +Curious indeed + +"What happened the the humans in charge of the corporations?" asked one of the +tourists. + +"Apparently no one bought the vehicles anymore. Then they closed plants and the +workers revolted. It was a pity they all died in the recessional wars of 1994. +Obviously we know better now." + +Tourist> "Mmmhummm. By the way, what is your name again sir?" + +Guide> "Mond. Ylpmis Mond" + + + + +Rael has decided to hide inside of one of these vehicles for a break. After all, +he missed out on the Workkoma like everyone else. Inside the vehicle of +preference there were a few intact seats. So Rael has a seat. Ahhh. + +Always looking for info, he looks about the inside of the ancient vehicle. near +the ceiling there arepeices of cardboard with pretty pictures of products on +them. Apparently this was called "Advertising". And some of the cards were faded +and hanging loosely. Very silly indeed. Next he looks at the floor. On it is a +little packet of purple papers. + +"Hmmmm, Transfer. Correspondance. What?" + +In the packets are little holes. The bigger ones are V shaped. And above them +are smaller circular ones. Very odd. + +"Hey, all the sixes are punched out. And this thing in the corner that says +'Destiny'. What is this?" + +Peculiar. + + +Part Nine +The Accident that might have been + + "Whuuuuiiiiiir...." The bus lumbers down the street on its usual stop and go routine. The passengers sit quietly staring out the window at the store fronts along the street. The bus slows to a stop and the doors swing open. A young girl with a wide collar shirt and flared jeans gets on. She pops a quarter into the coin slot and has a seat. + + "HEY! The fare is 30 cents now!" + + She returns to the front and adds a nickel. On the way back to her seat she pauses and looks up at a placard stating the 1977 fares. + + "Oh." she mutters. + + The four lanes of the street narrow to two. There are fewer stops and the bus speeds along the street. On its way to a suburb, it pulls onto an on ramp. The passengers are still staring at nothing through the windows. Dead looking. + + Then it happened... + + The driver seeing an 18 wheeler in the next lane speeds up to pull on. Likewise the truck driver does the same in an attempt to get ahead of the bus. Something went horribly wrong. + + The bus finally came to a rest at the bottom of the ravine. The frame was bent severly causing the roof to be crumpled and misaligned. Smoke pours out of the back as the spinning wheels come to rest. A large pool of green diesel fuel forms in the sparse grass. Inside the bus is a bunch of crumpled corpses all pressed up against the broken windows on one side. The view is quickly obscured as the inside of the window turns a bright red. + + A day later the bus appears just as it was the day before. Bent and crumpled, but devoid of carnage, shoved into a lot where many green and brown buses are parked. All are rusted out beyond beleif. Inside the bus the advertisements hang loosely. Some are missing. A book of transfers lies on the floor. Although the frame and roof were damaged, the interior has survived fairly well. + + +Part Ten +Ruin in the Back + + The date is the same. Sometime in 1977. Four young men, all about 17 come through the woods. One carries a 12 pack of Labatts 50 in stubby bottles. Reaching a concrete foundation, they stop and sigh in releif. After all, they had to trudge through a dense forest for nearly half a mile just to find a place to indulge in underaged drinking. + +Teen #1: "Hey man, why'd we come here? Like, it's just as bad in here as it is in the woods you know." + +#2: "But we got somewhere to sit at least!" + +#3: "Check this out! There's a hole under here! We can keep out beer n shit under here!" + +#1: "Alright man! No turkeys can steal it that way" + + Meanwhile #4 is unpacking his things inside the foundation. He breaks out a few beers and pops them open with his "Ville Du Quebec" bottle opener. + +#4 "Here ya go. Lets get smashed!" + +#1 "Fuck, let's go streaking afterwards" + +All: "Yer a homo." + +#1: "Fuck off" + + The late afternoon sun shines through the leaves. A damp mildewy smell fills the air. The temperature was moderate. Not too hot, but not chilly either. Here alone in a vast sea of silences were four happy voices and the clinking of bottles. A breeze blows through the trees. + +#3: "here, gimme some Off" + + By now the damp smell is replaced by that of insecticide. The sun has lowered enough to completely darken the interior of the forest. Realizing this, the four teens decide to leave. Someone's parents would bitch if they were late. In a drunken stupor they shove the last 3 beers into the hole and leave. The last guy dissappears through a wall of ivy. + +In the distance: "Ow, you little shit, you let that branch fly into my face on purpose!" + + The crunching sound fades, but the laughter lingers on for a while. +And then all is silent. + + The ruin slithers to the left. In the process the back wall caves in partially. The dirt all around it is disturbed. And once again. Silence. + + A new crunching sound fades in. This time it's a hermit of some sort. In his possession are several odd items: A banana seat, a car battery and some glasses. Seeing the ruin gave him hope. A possible home. + + + +"I aint gotten no sleep in days. That hole looks mighty damn comfy. Aint no pigs gonna fin' me in there." + + So I gos in the hole just to sleep. but instead I fine's a case a ber. Man oh man I aint had no ber for a long time. But it aint fer to steal it. Maybe I'll leave the person a gif'. hell, whut I need with this here banana seat thing. Fuck, it's theirs. I got me BEER! + + + + In the hole he suddenly finds comfort as he is drunken beyond reality. The sharp rocks somehow make a nice pillow. + +A song blows through the night + + And away he sleeps + While here I weeps + Forgotten like him + Just can't win + +The source of the songs in unknown, but almost like a ghost it envelops the site of the ruin. + + And away he sleeps + Tonight I'll creep + Move over the hole + The one that eats + And in he'll go + Where I don't know + +With the last words the ground shakes. The ruin slithers to the left once again. Suddenly our friend Mr. Hermit awakens. The comfort is gone as his world slithers. Beneath him a long hole begins to open aong the wall. The hole bubbles with mangled bodies entrapped in broken glass. Muffled screams lick his shoe and suck him under. + +"Let go o me you damn freak. Go away evil spirit. Damn you! DAMN YOU!" + +STOP + +And no one found him. And no one cared. And no one came back for years. And by then nothing remained. + + +/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ + + The All New Church of + + ÄÒÄ + º + º Ä· + º º + º ÄÒÄÄ¿ÄÒÄÄ¿ÖÄÄ¿ º ÖÄÄ¿º ³ÖÄÄ¿ ÄÒÄÄ¿ ÖÄÄ¿ÖÄÄ¿ + º º º º ³ º º ³º ³ ³ º ³ º º ³ + º º º ÇÄÄÙ º ÇÄÄÙÈ»ÚÙÖÄÄ´ º ³ º ÇÄÄÙ + º º º º º º º³ º ³ º ³ º º + ÄÐÄ ÄÐÄ ÄÐÄ ÓÄÄ ÄÐÄÓÄÄ ÈÙ ÓÄÄÁ ÄÐÄ Á ÓÄÄÙÓÄÄ + + First Release + +Irrelevant issues are the stuff dreams are made of. + + Table of Contents + ================= + + +Chapter One: The Book of irrelevance +Part One................. Rules for being human +Part Two................. The search for happiness +Part Three............... The Bus Of Destiny +Part Four................ The Book of Floyd +Chapter Two: Organization of the Church +Part One................. Hierarchy in the Holy Church +Part Two................. Symbolic Places and Objects +Part Three............... Ceremonies of The Church +Chapter Three: Carefully edited out +Chapter Four: Application + + + + +***************************************************************** + +CHAPTER ONE + + The Holy Book of Our Irrelevance + ================================== + +RULES FOR BEING HUMAN + +1. "You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it +will be yours for the entire period this time around." + +2. "You will learn lessons. You are enroled in a full-time +informal school called life. Each day in this school you will +have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons +or think them irrelevant and stupid." + ^^^^^^^^^^ +3. "There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of +trial and error and experimentation. The 'failed' experimenters +are as much a part of the process as the experiment that +ultimately 'works.'" + +4. "A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be +presented +to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have +learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson." + +5. "Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that +does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons +to be learned." + +6. "'There' is no better place than 'here.' When your 'there' has +become a 'here,' you will simply obtain another 'there' that +will, again, look better than 'here.'" + +7. "Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate +something about another person unless it reflects to you +something you love or hate about yourself." + +8. "What you make of life is up to you. You have all the tools +and +resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The +choice is yours." + +9. "Your answers lie inside you. The answers to life's questions +lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust." + +10. "You will, along the way, forget all this." + + + +THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS + +1. "You will never find joy in the material world. It will only +get boring, and you'll need something better. Joy can be found +in one's self and in others only" + +2. "The best things in life are free. Paying for stuff just +satisfies the capitalist greed that exists in our society" + +3. "Irrelevancy is the only true escape in this world. Live in a +surreal world and use your imagination. If you believe in +something surreal, it becomes real to you." + +4. "Find your pleasure with the basic things you have. With very +little you can do very much" + +5. "Divinity is a concept that dwells in one's self and in +others. Anyone can feel close to this divinity while alone or +with a special person. The passion that exists between two lovers +is the strongest form of this sacred divinity" + +6. "Let not religion control your life. You have the freedom to +believe in whatever the hell you want. Morality is what YOU make +it!" + +7. "Don't take things for granted. One day you will lose +everything." + +8. "Don't screw with other people. You'll get screwed back when +you least expect it." + +9. "Laugh your problems away. Others can't touch what's inside of +you. Just tell em to lighten up, or fuck off" + +10. "Irrelevancy and confusion are fun. Only you know what the +hell is really happening" + + + +THE BUS OF DESTINY +(The holy book of Cadomark) + +An Irrelevant story making little sense: + + + One day, a god boomed out, "LET ALL ROCKERS GO TO HULL!!!" + + (*AHEM*) Sorry, wrong commercial. + + + One fateful night, while Abacab and Cadomark were on-route +to a party, Cadomark began to have a strange feeling. He heard a +voice echoing ominously inside his head, saying, "All shall be +revealed when you see the Bus of Destiny." + + Since Cadomark hadn't been drinking much that night (yet), +he began to wonder what it was he heard, and what significance it +held for him. + + Later that night, as they were walking past the Baseline bus +station, Cadomark saw a bus with the number "666" posted. At +that moment, Abacab turned to him and said, "Dude, I've got this +great idea for a religion!" + + Cadomark had seen the Bus of Destiny. Who's destiny it was +to be was not yet clear, but no doubt would be later. + + At this point, the voice returned. Cadomark recognized it +as the voice of the god of Modemism, from whom he had not heard +in a long time. And this (with a slight liberalized translation) +is what he said: "It's been a long time, but now is the time for +you to sever from Quack. Form a new religion with Abacab, and +call it what you will, but it must retain the basic belief of +Modemism: +That all religions are nothing but a sham; a bad joke upon +humankind. Oh, and before I go, you must know this: My name is +Loki. I am your father." + + Dazed and confused, Cadomark sat down and watched a pair of +drunken infantile teenaged girls run around, scantily clad, in +sub-zero weather. An idea came to him. He smiled his wolfish +smile, then boarded the Bus of Destiny. + + Having boarded the Bus of Destiny, the first thing +Cadomark noticed was the rather mangy look of the bus driver. +He looked quite skinny. In fact, skeletal would have been a +better word. + + Stretching out his arm, the Busdriver of Destiny indicated +that bus fare would have to be paid before entry would be +allowed. + + Having noticed the fare-box, Cadomark racked his brains. +It was obvious that no coin manufactured on this mortal plane +would fit the slot. It was also obvious that this was the first +test (of what sort and why, nobody knew.) + + Finally, he looked at the problem a little more closely. It +wasn't a coin slot so much as a hungry maw. It was just that + +it looked exactly like OC Transpo coin slots that... well, no +matter. He took a box of Honey Nut Cheerios, poured some +into the cup surrounding the coin slot, and added milk. + + The contents disappeared into the fare box with a big +slurp, a happy belch, then a long sigh. Charon, the Busdriver +of Destiny, unblocked the way and let Cadomark take a seat. +----------------------------------------------------------------- + A long while later, the Busdriver indicated that this was +the last stop. It was time for Cadomark to disembark. + + He found himself standing in a very gloomy area. All that +was visible in the mist was a large, vaguely familiar, +dust-covered shape. As he strode up to it, he could see a +flickering redness glowing from within. + + Suddenly, a loud voice boomed out, "THIS IS THE GATE OF +VOLVO, PORTAL TO THE DIMENSION OF FIRE!!" + +Suddenly, he recognized the shape for what it once was--a late +model sedan. He stepped around it, wiping the dust from the +windshield. All the windows were heavily coated with soot +from the inside, preventing easy visibility. And strangely +enough, there was only one door, on the driver's side +(assuming it was a North American car.) + + With a shrug, he opened the door and stepped inside the Gate +of Volvo. + + Cadomark found himself in a very large... antechamber. The +floor was composed of redly-glowing sand, and the walls were +flickering in a peculiar fashion, reminiscent of fire. It was +hot. Real hot. Sweat began to bead off his brow. + + He peeled off his winter jacket, and turned to hang it on +a nearby coat hook. As soon as he let go, though, it burst into +flames. + + Apparently, it was a whole lot hotter than he thought. A +sudden scuffle of feet brought his attention back to the room +again. + + The pair of scantily clad females he had seen before had +entered the room. "Welcome," they chorused. + + "Great," Cadomark thought. "Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum." + + The blonde girl slapped him across the face. "Never +say those nasty things again!" (Apparently, they could read +thoughts.) "If you want to leave here, you must learn +quickly." The brunette gave him a jolt with a mental +cattle-prod to reinforce the concept. + + Not much inclined towards pain, Cadomark began to take the +whole affair a little more seriously. + + "Now," they said, "You are here to learn the great +arts of chemical destruction." + + The brunette left, and reappeared with a Cart of Holding +(tm). It held a large number of chemicals, some of them never +seen by Cadomark before. + + "Your training begins now." +----------------------------------------------------------------- + + A long time passed, during which many chemistry +experiments and much cattle prodding took place. + + Abused and tired, Cadomark stumbled back out of the Gate +of Volvo, and found himself... still talking to Abacab at the +Baseline station. Apparently, no time had elapsed, and he had +never even entered the Bus of Destiny in the first place. + + Abacab and Cadomark walked about the station for awhile, +then returned to the shelter with the bus-monitor. Abacab +then nudged him, pointed in a direction, and said, "They must +be drunk, eh?" + + Cadomark turned to look. It was the two scantily clad +girls again. One of them winked at him surreptiously, with +a broad smile on her face. He shuddered, and turned away. + + As he stared solemnly at the ground, he could hear a now +somewhat familiar voice speaking to him softly: + + "My son, it is important for you to realize that to you, + +knowledge IS power. Practise your skills, and continue to learn +as you go along..." + + The voice slowly faded out. + + Cadomark then suddenly realized that he wasn't wearing his +jacket. Even though it was frigid, he seemed to have no need +for a coat at all. Strangely enough, though, nobody else +noticed. + + +BOOK OF FLOYD GECKO +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + This is the story of how I came to be Purveyor Of +Paradoxes.It relates the facts behind the history, the history +behind the facts, the laughter behind the truth, and the truth +behind the banana. + + One day, as I waited for a bus to arrive, I was sitting +with a book in my hand, and reading about paradoxes and +mathematical logic, for my mind had forgotten the doctrine of +Illogic, and omitted the true Gods of Irrelevance. + I read about the first number SO BIG that it could never +possibly be interesting to anybody, and I thought how amazing it +was that it was the FIRST one like that. + I read about sentences that claimed to be false, and why +they were true. And I wondered about that one, but eventually +figured it out, for my mind, in accepting the illogic of it, had +wandered to the true path once more, and was distracted from the +book. + Instead, I wondered things. Like why the sky is green, +and whether pigs have wings, of ships and shoes and sealing wax, +of cabbages and kings. For I had read, a while before, that some +people are trying to pass off cabbages as human beings, dressing +them up in suits and sending them out to become chartered +accountants. + I wondered why it was that nothing momentous ever happens +to people while waiting for busses. Some God must have heard me, +whether it be Eris, MOO, Penguin, or the One True God Of +Irrelevance, QUACK, I cannot say. But a strange feeling came +over me. + I grew dizzy, and my vision clouded with a haze of light, +my knees became weak, and my hearing was filled with a quiet +roar. I felt my body go numb, and I fell over into the snow. +Nobody was there to help me, and so I lay for maybe thirty +seconds before I returned to my senses. I knew now that +something momentous was about to happen. + As I stood up, a bus pulled up. I stared in +apprehension. I recognized it as the Bus Of Destiny, number 666. +Charon waited inside with a grin on his face. I stared him down, +and ran to the back of the bus, seeking escape. Another bus +waited there, and so I clambered aboard, not pausing to see what +bus it was. + I displayed my pass, and walked fearfully past row upon +row of blank-faced passengers. They all stared straight ahead, +not looking at me for an instant. They all had glazed eyes, +staring vacantly into infinity. + So I seated myself at the back of the bus, and asked one +next to me which bus it was. There was no answer from him, but +a strange voice appeared in my head. "You Ride The Bus Of Doom," +it said, and I stared wide eyed at the passenders around me. I +rushed to the door and tried to wrest it open. It resisted me. +I smashed the emergency handle window and pulled the handle. The +doors continued to resist me. + I sat down again, waiting to see what would happen. +After an hour or two, the same strange sensation came over me +again, and I sank to the floor of the bus, grasping weakly at the +bars beside me. + When I regained my senses, I was sitting on the wooden +floor of some kind of stage, in front of a huge crowd. They were +chanting loudly, but I couldn't make out what it was that they +were saying. I stood, and a cheer went up, as if they were +expecting me to speak. They continued chanting, but now I could +hear what it was. + "DEATH TO ALL FANATICS! DEATH TO ALL FANATICS!" + They went on, pounding their fists in the air with each +cry of the strident chant. + "DEATH TO ALL FANATICS!" + They quieted as I approached the podium and cleared my +throat. I stood waiting for something to happen, then began to +speak against my will. + "You're probably wondering why I've gathered you here +today," said my voice. "Well so am I." + A hush fell over the crowd as they all stopped +whispering,shifting uncomfortably, and unwrapping food. They +turned as a whole to stare at me. + "I have been sent here to you on the 1729 bus, and I must +say how annoying it has been for me to go though this ordeal to +speak to you now without any idea of what I'm supposed to say." + "What I am about to tell you is the absolute truth." + They waited expectantly. + "What I just said was an utter lie." I still had no +control over what I said. I only wished that whoever had put me +here would take me back soon, before I got completely lost in my +own speech. + And indeed, my wish was granted. I thought at once that +everything was going my way. + I was driving a car down an american freeway on the left +side of the road. I swerved and dodged, reminded of the old +saying: +"When everything seems to be coming your way, you must be in the +wrong lane." But that wasn't the worst of my troubles. I can't +drive. + + I blacked out, of course. + + Some minutes or hours of darkness later, I awoke in the +snow next to a bus stop with people all around me, wearing a hot +and stuffy suit of armor. I didn't know what was happening, +except that I was hot and stuffy, so I removed my helmet. +Through the crowd of people came a knight in dark armor riding a +black horse. The people stood aside angrily as if it was only +someone wanting to get in line. The knight raised his sword over +his head, and spoke in a booming voice. + "At last I have you, Sir Knight! Your life is forfeit!" + I stared, incomprehending. + "Now I ask you a simple question! Answer it truthfully, +and I will spare you! Answer falsely, and I will kill you!" + I looked around for another knight somewhere, for I had +no horse, and I hadn't noticed my armour yet. As I looked, his +sword grew red hot, and steam began to curl from it. + He dashed my helmet from my hand and bellowed. + "WILL YOU ANSWER MY QUESTION?" + I realized he was talking to me. + "What is the question?" + "Will I kill you, or spare you?" + I saw his flaming sword. "Evidently you will kill me." + He considered. His helmet grew red hot, and screams came +from within. He raged, and smoke came from inside his head. +Then he fell from his horse, and into the snow. A great cloud of +steam went up, obscuring all vision, and when it cleared, I was +back at the empty bus stop, wearing my normal clothes. A sword +lay on the ground before me, with writing on it. + As I picked up the sword and read the writing, I realized +the paradox I had spoken. If he killed me, I would have spoken +truthfully, so he would have had to spare me. If he spared me, I +would have been lying, and so he would have had to kill me. I +had never realized what a powerful weapon a paradox could be. + I read the inscription on the sword. + + "PROVIDED TO THE PURVEYOR OF PARADOX" + + I put it away, and got on the next bus that arrived, only +to find that my book was no longer about logic, but about +prophets, and at that point I knew my destiny. + + And such is the story of how I became Purveyor Of +Paradox, and how MOO and Irrelevance were joined into one. + + Actually, that's got almost nothing to do with +Irrelevance. + + Or was that the point? + + At any rate: + + So Ends The Book Of + + FLOYD GECKO: PURVEYOR OF PARADOXES + + + DEATH TO ALL FANATICS! + MORTE AD OMNI FANATICOS! + MORT AU TOUT LES FANATIQUES! + + +CHAPTER TWO + + The Organization of the Church. + ============================== + +HIERARCHY IN THE CHURCH + +All are equal, and all have a special role to play in this world +of ours. The role of Great Profit Abacab is to lead the Church. +The role of Cadomark, Pyro-Chemical Advisor, is to prepare for +the holy ceremonies of irrelevance. The Role of Artifactual +Caretaker El Cid is to protect and care for holy Irrelevant +Artifacts. All who wish to think irrelevantly like us, will +receive a role, and it will be included in the following list. +More than one role may be voluntarily accepted. + +Abacab: Great Profit, Author of the Holy Book, Incendiary Joker +Cadomark: Chemical Engineer, Co-author of the Holy Book +El Cid: Artifactual Caretaker +Longshot: Voice of Reason at Holy Ceremonies, Minister of Truth +Floyd Gecko: Purveyor of Paradoxes, Co-author of the Holy Book + + +SYMBOLIC PLACES AND OBJECTS + +Symbolism is merely a figment of our imagination, however if we +believe in it becomes real. The Ruin is the first example of +how we apply out symbolism. A demolished railroad building that +played a role in the world of the 20's is no longer of any +importance to anyone. Our believing in it as a Holy place renews +the role of the location as a Holy gathering place and location +to +hold ceremonies. Our belief in the place has made it Holy in the +real world as well as our surreal thoughts. The east end ruins +and Mouth of Quack are equally as holy. Abacab and Cadomark have +both felt the inner divinity come upon us... a figment of our +imagination. We believe it is holy, therefore it is. + +Objects are that which we can feel and grasp. When one merges +symbolic thoughts with ordinarily mundane objects a Holy Object +or Artifact results. Each object has a distinct purpose. The Box +of Cid is the place where any smaller objects are kept. The +Rubber Chicken of MOO is used as part of MOOist initiation +ceremonies, which often occur concurrently with Ceremonies of +Irrelevance. + + +CEREMONIES OF THE CHURCH + +Holy ceremonies are performed mainly at The Ruin. Upon the Slab +of Irrelevance a great fire is lit using any nearby materials. +The next step in the holy ceremony is as follows: Cadomark or a +suitable substitute for Pyro-Chemical Advisor unveils assorted +materials to be used as he instructs. The most impressive +occurrence created using these objects is the Supreme moment of +the ceremony. At this point the inner divinities of All surge to +the forefront as the sensation of awe. Then the fire will +continue to burn as All sit back and ponder what occurred. Abacab +or another member of the church may provide the Holy Brew. The +Holy Brew is also known to create a sensation of well being and +of a surreal divinity. There are no said rules on how this +ceremony shall proceed. It may proceed at any place, at any time, +with anyone or with any materials. It must merely be performed in +the name of Irrelevance. + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + Not here anymore + ================ + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + Becoming a member of the Church + =============================== + +There is really nothing to it. It's as simple as stating what +role you wish to play in the Holy Church and living up to your +role. Attend a Ceremony to see what we're about. If you have no +contact with any members, just call yourself Holy Missionary of +Irrelevance and spread the teachings of the church. Any place you +want is Holy as long as you believe in it. Likely whoever +supplied you with this Book has information on how to contact the +Authors to answer any questions you may have. + + +*********** And this brings to a close The Holy Book *********** + +Peace! + + +Final section of the book (RENUMBERING EM IS TOO ANOYING EVERy time i make a +change] +The End. + +Last updated on this weird 14th day of November in the year +Nineteen Hundred and Ninety One at OTTAWA ONTARIO CANADA +Unveiled for no apparent reason. + + + + °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° + ° FUTHER READING: ° + ° ° + ° THE GREAT BOOK OF ° + ° ° + ° Ü Ü ÜÜ ÜÜ ° + ° ÛßÜßÛ Û Û Û Û ° + ° Û Û ßÜÜß ßÜÜß ° + ° ° + ° YOU *MUST* READ THIS ° + ° ° + °°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°° + + +The people behind this: + +Abacab, the Great Profit of QUACK! who has gone out of his way to +start this wonderful new cult for all you lost souls looking for +a RELEVANT religion. If you ever want to talk to Abacab you can +always reach him on the MOO echo, or in Ottawa Ont. on his BBS. +Yeah, The Roundhouse. 236-4519. Or was that already at the +beginning of this book? + +Cadomark, the Official PyroChemical Technician of QUACK! who +possesses a unique knowledge of chemistry which has made him an +excellent asset to our pyroman activities. I guess after living +near Sarnia you'd know about chemicals to huh? + +The Most Evil Blasphemous Asshole Heretic Son Of A Bitch, our +pal, E.D. Brebis, who exists solely for the purpose of comic +releif, and provision of Evil Insults. Also official Secret +Vistor of And Placer of Nails to Make Signs In Of The Ruin. Poor +guy lives in Quebec, so we understand his condition. + +and Floyd Gecko, the ultra weird supergenious and silly hat +wearer (not official) of QUACK! He's also the High Preest of MOO, +but in MY religion (which is better) he is merely an Executive +Commitee dude. I guess in general we're equal. yeah. thats the +tiquet... + + +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-APPLICATION THANGY-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- + + +1. Local Application: + +----------------------------------------------------------------- +What is you name/pseudo: + + +Where do you live?: + + +What is your phone number in the form (###)###-#### + + +Where did you hear about QUACK? + + + +Have you ever planned out the perfect Murder? +Elaborate: + + + +What is the most exciting pyro fun you've ever had: + + +Are you a virgin? + + +Are you of legal drinking age? + + +Will you visit The Ruin with us? + + +Have you filled out the MOO application? + + +Are you prepared to paticipate in local MOO/QUACK events? + + +Have you read the entire Quack book? + + +Do you eat coffee grinds? + + +What do you hope to be with this application? + +- Mildly Interested member (instant acceptance) +- Run of the Mill member (anyone can apply, however demotion will +occur for lack of participation) +- Executive commitee member (limited acceptance) +- Most Honorable Duck (acceptance for one) +- A puddle of pus +- A Duck +- A Cow +- A Pig + + +Are you any of the below: + +1.MOOIST +2.OINKBLATT +3.PYRO + + +Now simply fill in this application with a text editor and upload +it to my BBS OR use my online application. If you are filling +this out on paper, mail to: + +----------------------------------------------------------------- + +2. Application for those outside the Ottawa area + +Note: You may attempt to claim any position you wish, however I +will accept members on a first come first serve basis. If you +choose a high rank, you MUST attempt to spread this religion +around your locality and live up to your requirements. Find a +holy place in your area and paint both Holy symbols in it, The +Halfy and the Tri-Beak, including MOO OMM and QUACK under each +respective symbol. Refer to the Holy Symbols Section and the City +Zones And Heirarchy Section in the Book of QUACK! + +----------------------------------------------------------------- +What is you name?: + + +What Holy name would you like (an alias, NOT a title)?: + + + +What city and area do you live in?: + + +What is your phone number in the form (###)###-#### + + +Where did you hear about QUACK? + + + +Have you ever planned out the perfect Murder? +Elaborate: + + + +What is the most exciting pyro fun you've ever had: + + +Are you a virgin? + + +Are you of legal drinking age in your province/state? + + +Will you find a Holy Place? + + +Have you filled out the MOO application? + + +Are you prepared to paticipate in local MOO/QUACK events? + + +Have you read the entire Quack book? + + +Do you eat coffee grinds? + + +What do you hope to be with this application? + +- Mildly Interested member (instant acceptance) +- Run of the Mill member (anyone can apply, however demotion will +occur for lack of participation) +- Executive commitee member (limited acceptance) +- Most Honorable Duck/Local Leader of QUACK! (acceptance for one +per city) +- A puddle of pus +- A Duck +- A Cow +- A Pig + + + + + + JUST SAY QUACK! + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Fluids soak the trodden cinder soil + Unnoticed over the smell of diesel oil + Which burns in a distant tower + "KILL THE FLOWER! KILL THE FLOWER!" + + But there is no flower no power + Gone is the tower the power + But you are here so near + And I say goodbye to my fear + + And I know I'll run away + 'Cause I'm screamin "AINT NO WAY" + Aint no way today tomorrow + Merely the sickly sorrow + + In which I drown + But do not frown + We get better we do + And I'll always look to you + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/quiz.txt b/religious documents/quiz.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab9aa02 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/quiz.txt @@ -0,0 +1,109 @@ + ENLIGHTMENT QUIZ + + +The following is a rest of your level of enlightnment. Score one point for +each correct answer, subtract one point for each wrong answer. Add your +total number of right answers to the total number of wrong answers, divide +by the total number of questions on the test, then wonder why you've tried +to follow it this far. + +Select the answer which best completes the following statements: + +1. Yin and ......... + A) Yout B) Tonic C) Yenta D) Yang + +2. A Zen koan is ........ + + A) Jewish Buddist B) All of the above C) None of the above + D) None of the above + +3. Just before total God-realization I would see....... + A) A blue pearl B) Nothing C) Everything D) How would I know? + +4) Lao-Tsu is....... + A) Shrimp with fried rice B) The Atman Brothers + C) A Japanese word for sneeze D) One of the above + +5) Jivatman and Atman merge to become....... + A) Jivatmanatman B) The Atmnn Brithers + C) Jivatman & Atman Inc. D) Mr & Mrs Atman + +6) The word or words which best describes the relationship of God, Guru + And Self is....... + A) Oneness B) Twoness + C) Penpalness D) Just good friends + +7) Which of the following is not a name of the Lord? + A) Jehova B) Elohim C) Yahweh D) Charlton Heston + +8) If you swap a Swami with a Yogi you get....... + A) A Swogi B) A Salami C) Yogurt D) Heartburn + +9) Carlos Castaneda is: + A) a flamingo dancer B) A resort near San Juan + C) The 2nd baseman for D) The gutarist for Santana + The LA Dodgers + +10) Om Mani Padme means: + A) O manny, pardon my home B) Money talks, nobody walks in + C) It u cn rd ths msg u cn Sanskrit + Gt a gd jb D) Never having to say you're + Sorry + +11) The sound of one hand clapping is: + A) Very quiet B) similar to smiling with one lip + C) A Zen record shop D) Like the "p" in swimming + +12) Linguine is to fettucine as kundalini is to : + A) Eenie meenie B) Halloweenie C) Harry Houdini + D) Pepto Bismol (this is a silly answer) + +13) The Tao Te Ching is: + A) The new premier of China B) A new record by Cheech and Chong + C) I Ching's older brother D) A massage parlor in Tokyo + +14) You arrive at a party and your host says, "Far out, I want to take + the responsibility for creating space in your universe so you can + experience your experience." He means: + A) "Have a good time" B) "Don't eat the Sweedish meatballs" + C) "I just completed est training" D) Nothing anyone would understand + +15) If three devotees can meditate for a total of nine hours, how many + devotes would it take to mow the lawn? + +16) If three devotees can mow the lawn in one hour, how many stoned devo- + tees would it take to meditate until nobody cared? + +17) If shakti was rising toward the fourth chakra at a rate of 3.5 + pranayamas per second, and at the same time an energy force was + traveling in the opposite direction at a rate of 4.8 pranayams + per second, what time would it be in Chicago if we woke up in + Los Angles? + + +True-False + +_______Ramakrishna is a cereal made with rice and maple flavoring. + +_______Satori is better than nirnana and samadhi except on weekends + and holodays. + +_______Sufi dancing is like square dancing only rounder. + +_______The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a novel by Harold Robbins. + +Score + +0-5 points: You are hopelessly attached to the wheel of life and + death. Try again next incarnation! + +6-10 points You are largely unconscious and stuck in worldly pleasures + +10-15 points You are so-so on the enlightment scale. Keep reading the + New Sun. + +15-20 points You are a very conscious being; with a little good karma + you could go a long way. + +20-25 points You are very close to God-realization--early November at + the latest. diff --git a/religious documents/quotes.txt b/religious documents/quotes.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9df9b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/quotes.txt @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ + Quotes To Ponder + + "Evil personified appears at first sight repulsive.But the more we study +the personality of the Devil, the more fascinating it becomes. In the +beginning of existence the Evil One is everything bad, evil and immoral. +He is hatred, destruction, and annihilation incarnate, and as such he is +the adversary of existence, of the Creator, of GOD. The Devil is the rebel +of the cosmos, the independent in the empire of the tyrant, the opposition +to uniformity, the dissonance in the universal harmony, the exception to +the rule, the particular in the universal, the unforeseen chance that +breaks the law; he is the individualizing tendency, the craving for +originality, which bodily upsets the ordinances of God that enforce a +definite kind of conduct; he overturns the monotony that would permeate the +cosmic spheres if every atom in unconscious righteousness and with pious +obedience slavishly followed a generally prescribed course." + Paul Caurus, The History of the Devil + + "The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by +zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed +in the name of Satan. Many people do not like that statement, but few can +argue it." + Kenneth V. Lanning, FBI Report on Occult Crime, Oct. 1989 + + "The Satanist does not weakly, meekly and humbly 'pray', he does not beg +to Satan, nor does he perform any knee-bending exercises or blood +sacrifices before him. He recognises the god within and works to actualize +it. His ceremonies and rituals are Satanic affirmations to evoke the +bowers of his own being, and draw upon energies which are only now being +recognised by the mundane science." + Faustus Scorpius, Order of the Left Hand Path + + "Glory and praise to you, Satan, in the heights of heaven where once you +reigned, and in the depths of hell where, vanquished, you dream in silence. +Grant that my soul, some day, may rest beside you, under the Tree of +Knowledge, at the hour when on your brow, like a new Temple, its branches +will spread!" + Baudelaire, The Litanies of Satan, 1846 + + "Ware, nor for good nor ill, what aim hath act? +Without its climax, death, what savour hath +Life? an impeccable machine, exact +He paces an inane and pointless path +To glut brute appetites, his sole content +How tedious were he fit to comprehend +Himself! More, this our noble element +Of fire in nature, love in spirit, unkenned +Life hath no spring, no axle, and no end. +His body a blood-ruby radiant +With noble passion, sun-souled Lucifer +Swept through the dawn colossal, swift aslant +On Eden's imbecile perimeter. +He blessed nonentity with every curse +And spiced with sorrow the dull soul of sense, +Breathed life into the sterile universe, +With love and Knowledge drove out innocence +The Key of Joy is disobedience." + Aleister Crowley, Hymn to Lucifer diff --git a/religious documents/rand.txt b/religious documents/rand.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3219fc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rand.txt @@ -0,0 +1,227 @@ + T H E C R I T I C A L I M P O R T A N C E O F A Y N R A N D + compiled by ZOOGZ RIFT + * + As most of you are well aware, I am a firm supporter of the + writings of famed philosopher Ayn Rand. She devoted her life to intense + analysis of the working concepts of reality, and man's right to + personal freedom, individualism and self-interest. In her writings, she + explored, scientifically sorted out and proved the validity of + objective reality, setting forth the moral principles of Objectivism. + Many, many years ago, Rand changed the course and direction of the life + of Zoogz Rift forever, and out of respect to her, and even more so in + an attempt to better the world that I and those I care about have to + live in, I ask you to seriously think about the following quotations: + "Any system of ethics is based on and derived, implicitly or + explicitly, from a metaphysics. The ethic derived from the metaphysical + base of Objectivism holds that, since reason is man's basic tool of + survival, rationality is his highest virtue. To use his mind, to + perceive reality and act accordingly, is man's moral imperative. The + standard of value of the Objectivist ethics is: man's life--man's + survival qua man--or that which the nature of a rational being requires + for his proper survival. The Objectivist ethics, in essence, hold that + man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is + his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to + others, or others to himself." + "It is the concept of original sin that negates morality. If man is + guilty by nature, he has no choice about it. If he has no choice, the + issue does not belong in the field of morality. Morality pertains only + to the sphere of man's free will--only to those actions which are open + to his choice. To consider man guilty by nature is a contradiction in + terms." + "Now what does it mean, to act on whim? It means that man acts like + a zombie, without any knowledge of what he deals with, what he wants + to accomplish, or what motivates him. It means that man acts in a + state of temporary insanity. Is this what you call juicy or colorful? I + think the only juice that can come out of such a situation is blood." + "I most emphatically advocate a black-and-white view of the world. + What (do I mean) by the expression 'black and white'? It means good and + evil. Before you can identify...(gray areas) you have to know what is + black and what is white, because gray is a mixture of the two. And when + you establish that one alternative is good and the other is evil, there + is no justification for the choice of a mixture. There is no + justification for choosing any part of what you know to be evil." + "[D]ogma is a set of beliefs accepted on faith; that is, without + rational justification or against rational evidence. A dogma is a + matter of blind faith....Objectivism tells you that you must not accept + any idea or conviction unless you can demonstrate its truth by means of + reason." + "Force, in a free society, may be used only in retaliation...against + those who initiate its use. This is the proper task of government: to + serve as a policeman who protects men from the use of force." + "I am an advocate of laissez-faire capitalism, of individual + rights...there are no others...of individual freedom. It is on this + ground that I oppose any doctrine which proposes tha sacrifice of the + individual to the collective." + "So long as men can speak and write freely, so long as there is no + censorship, they still have the chance to reform their society....When + censorship is imposed, *that* is the sign that men should go on strike + intellectually, by which I mean, should not cooperate with the social + system in any way whatever." + --above quotes from "Playboy's Interview with Ayn Rand" + * + "Is the power of society limited or unlimited? Individualism + answers: The power of society is limited by the inalienable, individual + rights of man. Society may make only such laws as do not violate these + rights. Collectivism answers: The power of society is unlimited.... + Example: Under a system of individualism, a million men cannot pass a + law to kill one man for their own benefit. If they go ahead and kill + him, they are breaking the law...and they are punished....Under the + Soviet system, millions of peasants, or 'kulaks' were exterminated by + law, a law justified by the pretext that this was for the benefit of + the majority, which the Party contended was anti-kulak. Under the Nazi + system, millions of Jews were exterminated by law, a law justified that + this was for the benefit of the majority, which the Nazis contended was + anti-Semitic. The Soviet and Nazi laws were the unavoidable and + consistent result of the principle of collectivism. When applied in + practice, a principle which recognizes no morality and no individual + rights can result in nothing except brutality...Either the power of + society is limited or it is not. It can't be both." + "When we say that we hold individual rights to be *inalienable*, we + mean *just that*. *Inalienable* means that which we may not take away, + suspend, infringe, restrict, or violate--not ever, not at any time, not + for any purpose whatsoever." + "When you see a society that recognizes man's rights in some laws, + but not in others--do not hail it as a 'mixed' system and do not + conclude that a compromise between basic principles, opposed in theory, + can be made to work in practice. Such a society is not working--it is + merely disintegrating. Disintegration takes time. Nothing falls to + pieces immediately--neither a human body or a human society." + --above quotes from "Textbook of Americanism" + * + "The meaning ascribed in popular usage to the word "selfishness" is + not merely wrong, it represents a devastating intellectual + "package-deal" which is responsible, more than any other single factor, + for the arrested moral development of mankind. In popular usage, the + word "selfishness" is a synonym of evil; the image it conjures is of a + murderous brute who tramples over piles of corpses to achieve his own + ends, who cares for no living being and pursues nothing but the + gratification of the mindless whims of the moment. Yet the exact + meaning and dictionary definition of the word "selfishness" is: concern + with one's own interests....Altruism declares that any action taken for + the benefit of others is good, and any action taken for one's own + benefit is evil. Thus the *beneficiary* of an action is the only + criterion of moral value--so long as that benefit is for others, + anything goes. Hence the apalling immorality, the chronic injustice, + the grotesque double standards, the insoluable conflicts and + contradictions that have characterized human relationships and human + societies throughout history, under all the variants of the altruist + ethics." + "An irrational society is a society of moral cowards--of men + paralyzed by the loss of moral standards, principles and goals. But + since men have to act, so long as they live, such a society is ready to + be taken over by anyone willing to set its direction. The initiative + can come from only two types of men: either from the man who is willing + to assume the responsibility of asserting rational values--or from the + thug who is not troubled by questions of responsibility. No matter how + hard the struggle, there is only one choice that a rational man can + make in the face of such an alternative." + --above quotes from "The Virtue of Selfishness" + * + "If you are seriously interested in fighting for a better world, + begin by identifying the nature of the problem. The battle is + primarily intellectual [and philosophical], not political. Politics is + the last consequence, the practical implementation of the fundamental + ideas that dominate a given nations's culture....If you want to + influence a country's intellectual trend, the first step is to bring + order to your own ideas and integrate them into a consistent case, to + the best of your knowledge and your ability. This does not mean + memorizing and reciting slogans and principles, Objectivist or + otherwise: knowledge necessarily includes the ability to apply abstract + principles to concrete problems, to recognize the principles in + specific issues, to demonstrate them, and to advocate a consistent + course of action. This doesn't require omniscience or omnipotence; it + is the subconscious expectation many would-be crusaders. What is + required is HONESTY--intellectual honesty, which consists of knowing + what one does know, constantly expanding one's knowledge, and NEVER + evading or failing to correct a contradiction....Most particularly, DO + NOT KEEP SILENT shen your own ideas and values are being attacked...If + a dictatorship ever comes to this country, it will be by the default of + those who keep silent. We are still free enough to speak. Do we have + time? No one can tell. But time is on our side--because we have and + indestructable weapon and an invinceable ally...if we learn how to use + them...reason and reality." + --above quote from "Philosophy--Who Needs It?" + There are many books, pamphlets and publications written by, with, + and about Ayn Rand and her philosophical ideas. These quotes + admittedly just scrape the tip of the iceberg, and are intended to + entice you into reading the publications in full. Below is a list of + many of these publications, as well as the publishers and distributors. + I strongly urge you to go out and purchase these books, and read them + carefully--take your time--you've got a whole new life ahead of you. + Zoogz Rift 1988 + * + BOOKS BY AYN RAND: + Fiction: THE EARLY AYN RAND + WE THE LIVING + ANTHEM + NIGHT OF JANUARY 16TH + THE FOUNTAINHEAD + ATLAS SHRUGGED + + Philosophical (general): + FOR THE NEW INTELLECTUAL + PHILOSOPHY: WHO NEEDS IT + + Philosophical (epistemology): + INTRODUCTION TO OBJECTIVIST EPISTEMOLOGY + + Philosophical (ethics): + THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS + + Philosophical (aesthetics): + THE ROMANTIC MANIFESTO + + Philosophical (social-political-economic): + CAPITALISM: THE UNKNOWN IDEAL + THE NEW LEFT: THE ANTI-INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION + + Philosophical (compendium of quotations on various subjects): + THE AYN RAND LEXICON (compiled by H. Binschwanger) + + ABOUT AYN RAND: + THE PASSION OF AYN RAND (biography) by Barbara Branden + (Doubleday and Co., 1986) + MY THIRTY YEARS WITH AYN RAND: AN INTELLECTUAL MEMOIR + (pamphlet...biographical/expository) by Dr. Leonard Peikoff + (New Renaissance Books) + + BY LEONARD PEIKOFF (AYN RAND'S ASSOCIATE): + THE OMINOUS PARALLELS + + All books not specified as to publisher are available in paperback from + New American Library/Mentor Books. + + PAMPHLETS BY AYN RAND: + TEXTBOOK OF AMERICANISM + THE FORGOTTEN MAN OF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE: THE DOCTOR + THE INTELLECTUAL BANKRUPTCY OF OUR AGE + THE FASCIST NEW FRONTIER + THE MORAL FACTOR + GLOBAL BALKANIZATION + CULTURAL UPDATE + FAITH AND FORCE: THE DESTROYERS OF THE MODERN WORLD + AMERICA'S PERSECUTED MINORITY: BIG BUSINESS + NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN FREE ENTERPRISE + PLAYBOY'S INTERVIEW WITH AYN RAND + + PAMPHLETS BY LEONARD PEIKOFF: + ASSAULT FROM THE IVORY TOWER + THE AMERICAN SCHOOL: WHY JOHNNY CAN'T THINK + MEDICINE: THE DEATH OF A PROFESSION + MY THIRTY YEARS WITH AYN RAND + + PUBLICATIONS PUBLISHED BY AYN RAND: + THE OBJECTIVIST + THE OBJECTIVIST NEWSLETTER + THE AYN RAND LETTER + + All of the above are available through Second Renaissance Books, Box + 4625, Oceanside, CA 92054. The aforementioned publications are + available, in their complete runs, in bound volumes. Also available + through Second Renaissance are taped lectures by Rand and Peikoff. All + are well worth checking out. + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/reality.txt b/religious documents/reality.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0fba0b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/reality.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1043 @@ +25 + + + +Item 22 (Tue, Sep 27, 1988 (18:34)) Joe Durnavich (jjd) + The Fundamentals of Reality + + Ben, I'm still having trouble getting a complete picture of + your view of objective reality. I find your viewpoint interesting + because of your confidence when answering certain questions. + In the tree item, it seemed most people felt the answer was + unknowable, irrelevant, or uncertain. But you answered + with a definite, "YES, it does make a sound!" I'm still not + sure why you are so sure, but it seems to involve objective + reality. So I wouldn't cause the causality item to drift, I + started a new item. + + To get started, I'm just going to blurt out some statements + and let you comment on them: + + There is an objective reality. + It is external to the mind. + The senses are your only way of getting knowledge about reality. + +[PAUSE] 123 responses total. + + +------------------------- +22.1 Tue Sep 27 22:31:27 1988 Ben Kovitz (kiwi) + I know the title of this item, jjd, means that you want to talk about + metaphysics (the fundamentals of reality), but in your message you said + you wanted to know why I am "so sure". So, I'm goint to talk about + epistemology (how we get knowledge). And, I'm going to write my reply + off-line. Be back in a while... + +------------------------- +22.2 Tue Sep 27 22:41:40 1988 Joe Durnavich (jjd) + You're right. I already put the title in before I realized it wasn't + really appropriate. But at least I spelled everything right this time. + +------------------------- +22.3 Wed Sep 28 00:04:41 1988 Ben Kovitz (kiwi) + Well, I think the title was right, though. My previous response didn't + say exactly what I wanted to say. Aarghs, I'll just finish my big + response... + +------------------------- +22.4 Mon Oct 3 08:08:44 1988 H¡en Kovitz (kiwi) +[PAUSE] A friend of mine used to teach classes in word processors, spreadsheets, + and other "productivity" software. Often he would be hired to teach a + class in a program he had never seen or used before. He would spend one + night or so reading the manual and playing with the program, and then he + would be all ready to teach--and the companies hiring him had no complaint + with this. They were fully aware that he had never touched the software + before, and yet were quite willing to pay him $500 an afternoon to teach + their employees how to use it. + + Now, doesn't this strike you as a bit bizarre? This guy spends one night + learning a program and suddenly is able to teach it to others. Why not + just let those other people spend a night learning on their own, forget + the whole teaching setup, and save $500? What do they need him for? + + You might be tempted to answer that the reason he is able to learn the + programs so much faster than his students is because he is familiar with + certain general concepts which are common to all software of that type. + That is true, but there is an even more fundamental aspect to this. + + He is only able to learn those programs much faster than his students + because he already knows the important concepts which are necessary for + gaining a detailed knowledge of that kind of software. His students, in + order to reach that same level of knowledge of just one word processor, + must *first* learn those fundamental concepts. For example, in the case of +[PAUSE] a word processor, some basic concepts which newcomers to computers always + have a hard time grasping are: the difference between the copy of the + document that is being edited and the copy that is stored on disk; the + difference between the text of a document and its format (i.e., information + about paragraphing, pagination, indents, margins, etc.); the difference + between a keystroke which enters a character into a document and a + keystroke which gives a command to the word processor. A great deal of a + naive user's early time at a word processor is spent grasping these basic + concepts, because until he knows them there is no way he can get a detailed + understanding of how to use the program. + + That last point is the one I'm trying to stress. Until a user knows about + the fact that the word processor allows him to edit an edit buffer, which + is in volatile RAM, and not a disk file, which is stored in a medium which + retains its data even after the computer is shut off, he's not going to be + able to understand the "SAVE" command, no matter how it's implemented on + the particular word processor he's using. I've done my share of trai7{ing + users on word processors (never made $500 an afternoon, though), and I've + lost track of the number of times I've had users shut off the computer + before they've saved their document, only to call me up the next day + wondering what happened. + + Another concept which one must grasp before one can understand the SAVE + command, besides the concepts of volatile and permanent storage, is the +[PAUSE] concept of a document. If you don't know what a document is, you can't + understand the SAVE command, because what is it saving? This never + presents a problem for people learning to use a word processor, though, + because everyone who has a need of using a word processor already knows + about books, letters, articles, and has a very solid grasp of the concept + "document". I am only bringing this up to (a) further amplify my point + some knowledge cannot be acquired until one has first acquired more basic + knowledge, and (b) to begin linking back to the original question. + + In general, one cannot grasp any concept of action, until one has grasped + the concept of that which acts. In the word processor example, SAVEing is + an action, impossible to grasp until one understands the concept of a + document, or that which is SAVEd. And here are three fundamental concepts: + entity, nature, and action--and here is a fundamental principle of reality: + an entity's actions are caused by its nature. When you PRINT (another + action) document A, what shows up on the printer is different than when you + print document B, because the two documents are different. If you put a + different print-wheel in the printer, the form of the letters on the page + is different, beCAUSE the nature of the printwheel (the shape of the + letters) is different. + + But suppose someone were to say that there are no entities, only actions; + that there are no documents, there are only the actions of saving, + printing, etc. That is obvious nonsense: if there are no documents, then +[PAUSE] documents cannot be saved, printed, or anything else. If the concept of + "entity" is bogus, then so is the concept of "action". To affirm the + latter while denying the former is to deny one's own premises. + + Now, is there anything which must be grasped before one can grasp the + concept "knowledge"? Yes: "that which is known"--i.e., reality. Speaking + on the most fundamental level possible, before one can identify that one is + conscious, one must have been conscious of something. This basic fact, + existence, must be identified before ANYTHING else, and it is implicit and + self-evident in every perception. If the concept of existence is bogus, + then so is any concept pertaining to consciousness--or anything else. + Unless and until you have identified that what you perceive exists, and + that you do perceive it, you aren't going to get anywhere, you aren't going + to learn anything, and you aren't even going to be able to ask stupid + questions like "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear + it, does it make a sound?" What are trees? What are forests? What is + hearing? How did you find out about those? You could not have formed any + of these concepts without using the fundamental concepts of existence and + consciousness. For example, you could not have formed the concept + "hearing" until you had first identified WHAT you are hearing. Some time + you might want to observe children being taught about the five senses, and + observe that the only way to do it is to have them identify some quality + they can directly perceive, and then have them close their eyes, cover + their ears, etc., until they finally grasp that not only are there sounds, +[PAUSE] but that they hear them. And then think to yourself how horrible it would + be to try telling them that all they can really know is their sensations, + that consciousness creates reality, how you can't *know* that the tree + makes a sound, and how they can't *know* that reality will behave + consistently, since that is only an "assumption", etc., etc., etc. All + those phony pseudo-intellectual games would do is cripple the child's mind + before it had a chance to develop, no less than if you had smashed his + skull with a hammer. + + Now, perhaps, you see not only why I am so sure about the existence of an + objective reality, but why I feel so strongly about attempts to deny it. + +------------------------- +22.5 Mon Oct 3 19:03:47 1988 Joe Durnavich (jjd) + Your response came at a good time since I am in the middle of + reading some of Descarte's Meditations on the First Philosophy. + He comes to some of the same conclusions you do: he knows he has a mind + mind and at least some of the ideas in it had to come + from an external, formal reality (through cause and effect if + I understand him right). He uses the term "objective reality" + to mean *ideas in the mind* which represent real objects. Your + definition implies objective reality is the real objects + themselves, which are outside the mind. Did the definition + change over time? +[PAUSE] + So far, I understand and agree that: + - I have a mind. + + - There is an objective (external to my mind) reality. + + - To know I had a mind I had to be conscious of something first. + In other words, one of the main functions of my mind is to + perceive a reality. If there is no reality to perceive, then + my mind is useless and I'm stuck. To see I had a mind, my + mind must have first perceived something that exists + in reality. I know I have a mind. Therefore, I know + reality exists. + + Now, I am going to ask some more stupid and pseudo-intellectual + questions because that is the only way I know how to approach + this subject. Can I know what reality is made out of, or can + I only know its nature (how it behaves)? In other words, I + could be nothing more than a brain in a jar connected to a + computer. My brain would still contain my mind, and the + computer would provide the external reality. The computer + stimulates all my senses so that it looks to me like I am + a human living on the planet Earth, typing in this message + on this bbs. Can I figure out that I am really a brain in +[PAUSE] a jar connected to a computer, or can I only understand + the reality the computer program is showing me. (That is + the silliest question I have ever asked anybody, so feel + free to say whatever you feel like, however mean and nasty.) + +------------------------- +22.6 Mon Oct 3 21:16:57 1988 Bronis Vidugiris (bhv) + I would say that there is no way for you, me, or anyone else to KNOW they + are not a computer simulation. + +------------------------- +22.7 Mon Oct 3 21:22:16 1988 Leslie Mikesell (les) + Even very young children know that they participate in the act of + seeing. Cover your eyes and you don't see any more. + +------------------------- +22.8 Tue Oct 4 23:56:51 1988 tom chapin (tjc) + OK. Now you've read DesCartes. Remember that if he was right, then + God has been shown to exist... Now read Hume's response. Then read + Kant to get thoroughly confused... + +------------------------- +22.9 Wed Oct 5 01:54:50 1988 Ben Kovitz (kiwi) + jjd: A question is not stupid, silly, or pseudo-intellectual if it is asked +[PAUSE] honestly. I do think a lot of people who ask the question about the tree + falling in the forest (and, yes, the brain in the jar) do it, not because +they + want to know the answer, but because they delight in subverting other +people's + ability to think. A lot, but certainly not all of them. + + First, about Descartes: it is my understanding that his central argument goes + that you can't be sure of anything, because you can doubt everything, with +one + exception: since the act of doubting is itself an act of consciousness, you + CAN be sure that you are conscious. Hence, "I think therefore I am". He + wanted to defend the existence of the reality outside the mind, and so he + cooked up a rather convoluted argument to get from his famous axiom to the + existence of reality. However, it is impossible to prove existence on the + basis of anything which is derived from it; any such argument is totally + circular. Consequently, philosophers after Descartes were quick to point out + the flaws, and ever since, subjectivism has been gaining dominance in the + Western world. (Notice that only two people said that the tree makes a sound; + if you asked that question at a university philosophy department, the results + would be even more disappointing.) + + The primary problem with Descartes' argument is that you can't identify the + fact that you are conscious until you are conscious of something. First you +[PAUSE] identify some fact of reality, e.g., "the table is there", and only then can + you reflect and identify that "I know the table is there". His attempt to + prove existence on the basis of consciousness breeds subjectivism, because it + says, in effect, that if you believe something, that is proof that it's so. + It denies that the role of your mind is to perceive reality, and that the + proper use of your mind consists in rigorously keeping it it accord with + reality, and says instead that reality is whatever happens to be in your +mind. + It's not a long leap from there to "I wish it, therefore it is so." + + A few other problems that occur to me off the top of my head are: why is + doubt the basis for a philosophy? A philosophy starts by identifying + fundamental truths; a "fundamental doubt" is a contradiction in terms. The + arguments consists of taking a random, arbitrary conjecture, i.e., "how do I + know there is not an evil demon controlling all of my perceptions?", and then + saying that it is not the arbitrary conjecture which must be proven, but its + contrary. This is a basic logical fallacy, known as "appealing to +ignorance". + Notice that the argument contains a train of reasoning: because of X, Y + logically follows. (I.e., because doubting is an act of the mind, I have a + mind.) That means the argument presupposes the laws of logic (despite the + fallacy), which depend on the fact that everything that exists, possesses a + certain, definite, specific nature. Descartes' argument is a classic example + of that denying of one's own premises I was trying to illustrate in that +[PAUSE] example of saying that there are actions but not entities. However, none of + the problems in this paragraph are as bad or important as the basic idea of + subjectivism I was describing in the previous paragraph. + + Now, about the brain in the jar. How did you find out about brains? How did + you find out about jars? How did you find out about computers? How are + computers created? Do these things exist? Do you know about them? If not, + if you say that there is no objective reality or that you can't know about + objective reality, then there is no way you could discover all of these + things. Do you see what I am getting at here? To doubt that what you see is + real, because you have seen brains, jars, and computers, is craziness! + + (I should add, though, that computer simulations, while they are not the same + thing as what they simulate, nevertheless do possess definite properties of + their own, and are real.) + + But, getting more serious here, when I read, think, and talk about +philosophy, + I am trying to find answers: real, useable answers which I can apply in real + life, here in the real world. Debating about whether we can ever know that +we + are not a computer simulation just doesn't have anything to do with real +life. + What is the proper relationship between one's intellect and one's emotions? +[PAUSE] What is the right kind of life for a human being? What are correct +guidelines + for generalizing from observation? How does one prove a causal relationship? + What obligations (if any) do I have toward other people? These are important + questions, and questions only philosophy can answer. And they cannot be + answered by concocting arbitrary conjectures about brains in jars hooked up +to + computers. Ever since I was very young, I have *hated* schools, but *loved* + learning; much of my interest in epistemology has grown out of this: in order + to develop a correct theory of learning and teaching, it is necessary to have + a correct theory of knowledge and proof. Again, random speculations about + brains in jars don't help much to accomplish anything constructive, in the + field of education or anywhere else. + + (However, I have spent plenty of time grappling with the computer-simulation + question, and doing so was very valuable. It taught me quite a lot, both + about fundamental principles of reality, and about epistemology. I wish + someone had said something like the above two paragraphs to me back then, but + I doubt it would have sped me up that much, because no matter how much truth + you hear, you still have to understand it for yourself, and that takes time. + So, if you are really having troubles with this problem of how do you +validate + that there is an objective reality and even if there is, how can you ever +know +[PAUSE] anything about it, don't take the previous paragraph to mean that you should + just suddenly quit thinking about it even if you aren't confident that your + answer is right.) + + Lastly, about "Can I know what reality is made of, or can I only know its + nature (how it behaves)?", this doesn't seem to be the same question as the + one about the brain in the jar. I'm not sure what you mean by "what reality + is made of"; it's made of reality, of course! Nothing exists except reality; + there is no more fundamental, "substrate" of reality which is the "real" + reality, compared to the mere "surface", "fake" reality. (I've been thinking + about starting a "real reality vs. what only looks that way" item, since +that + seems to be at the center of all my disputes with Bronis, but I haven't + thought of a good way to explain my view on this, though.) Even in the + brain-in-the-jar conjecture, the things the computer is showing you are no + less real than the computer. Then again, I'm not sure I'm answering the + question you had in mind. + +------------------------- +22.10 Wed Oct 5 05:41:52 1988 Duffy Toler (duffy) + I took a similar stance on a discussion of "accepted reality" with + Dave Sueme some months ago. I didn't realise how stupid it sounds + untill i noticed my own thoughts on the matter echoed in the above + response. +[PAUSE] After considering that the Pythagorean's killed the fellow who + discovered irrational numbers, and considering the numerous + misconceptions about the nature of how everything from the universe + to the human body works, it seems that my current view of what's + "real" is colored by current scientific understanding. That view + is not only subject to change, it is probable that it really will + change according to historic precedent. + While it seems incomprehensible that we will someday discover + that we are disembodied brains in jars, i suspect that a person + from ancient times would find it equally incomprehensible that + his heart was just a pump. + A computer simulation would have an even more difficult time + discovering the nature of reality because it could have been + programmed not to discover it. The way to prevent it from + discovering the real world would be to programm it so that + it thinks it knows The Truth. + +------------------------- +22.11 Wed Oct 5 12:40:46 1988 Leslie Mikesell (les) + Ben: I don't think that the concept of consciousness creating reality + leads directly to "I wish it, therefore it is so". First, there is + the difference between thinking "about" something and the thought + that creates an action. For example you can think about running or + wish you were running while sitting perfectly still. But, running is +[PAUSE] certainly a conscious activity. There is a "thought" that makes your + foot move, although it is not the same as thinking "about" moving. + Second, there is no reason to suppose that there would be no limits on + the possibilities that could exist. Obviously any reasonable explanation + of reality must be able to produce exactly the results that we experience. + Beyond that, there is no basis for any kind of judgement. + +------------------------- +22.12 Wed Oct 5 17:27:35 1988 Bronis Vidugiris (bhv) + My position on this, and similar topics, is that the possibility of me + being a computer simulation is a futile question to think about BECAUSE + there is no way to disprove it experimentally. + +------------------------- +22.13 Wed Oct 5 18:40:55 1988 Joe Durnavich (jjd) + tjc: I read some Hume once, but all I remember is something about + billiard balls. I will read him again to see what he has to + say about Descartes' ideas. I don't want to dwell *too* much + on this subject though, because I can only spend so much time + wondering if reality exists before I have to get up and leave + for work. + + As for your response Ben, I see my mistake now of trying to + create a meta-reality with objects from the real reality +[PAUSE] (i.e., brains, jars, and computers). I was trying to find + the extent of your definition of reality by trying to go + beyond or above it. I can't seem to do that unless I bring + in a God of some sort (supernatural, infinite, etc.). But + comparing the finite with the infinite doesn't tell me + anything either. I guess I am stuck with the reality I am + immersed in then. + + Which brings me too your "But, getting more serious" paragraph. + I agree with you that philosophy is supposed to find real + usable answers for real questions asked by real human people + living real human lives. But I did not intend for this item + to be a reflection of what philosophy was all about. I am + not a philosopher. I know *little* about philosophy. I + was hoping all you guys would show me what it was all about. + Most of the debates here reduced themselves to an objective + versus subjective reality debate. I wanted to get to the + bottom of things here. Maybe getting this out of the way + will allow this conference to move on to more useful things. + +------------------------- +22.14 Wed Oct 5 18:55:27 1988 Joe Durnavich (jjd) + (Oh by the way, I am begging everybody to please keep this discussion + on at least a semi-intelligent level. Please, no more fighting +[PAUSE] and hurling of insults at each other. Specifically, please don't ignore + anybody Ben, not even Duffy. Say what you will about his responses, + but don't just ignore him. Otherwise I have no choice but to believe + *everything* he says. And everybody else, you can tell Ben he is + an obnoxious snob in the "Why I Hate Kiwi" item in the ccc conference. + Let's just try to attack his *responses* here.) + +------------------------- +22.15 Wed Oct 5 23:45:02 1988 tom chapin (tjc) + As Ben was ably pointing out, the difference between DesCartes and + Hume IS one of trying to find objective reality versus subjective + one. DesCartes tried to use doubt, hoping that whatever could not + be doubted had to be true, and that consciousness could not be doubted. + This led him to believe in thobjective reality of existence. But + Hume replied that our consciousness was not of objective reality, but + only of our sense-impressions, and our senses filter reality, and + cannot be depended on to give on objective reality, but only a + subjective one. + + And as Ben pointed out, since then, philosophers have tended to move + from objectivism to subjectivism. While there seems to be an objective + reality out there somewhere, our senses are so limited, so likely to + filter and alter reality as it comes to us, and since our very brains + are limited and may be unable to organize our sense-impressions into +[PAUSE] a true picture of objective reality, all we have left is our + subjective view. + +------------------------- +22.16 Thu Oct 6 10:33:47 1988 Leslie Mikesell (les) + A necessary problem, though. Our senses function by organizing reality + into patterns, so that repeating patterns can be recognized. This is + reenforced by assigning words to the patterns so that we can talk and + think about them. As my example of the TV image showed, it doesn't + really matter that the underlying reality is only slightly related to + the pattern that it projects. The real process of learning is to perceive + the same patterns as everyone else. Perhaps unfortunately, it is a + creative process, but without it we would have nothing to talk about. + +------------------------- +22.17 Thu Oct 6 17:44:53 1988 Joe Durnavich (jjd) + It seems the only way everyone can get more accurate patterns + into their brains though, is to pay closer attention to that + underlying reality. Eventually, you will figure out that the + TV image is just a dot moving rapidly on the screen... + +------------------------- +22.18 Thu Oct 6 21:32:38 1988 Leslie Mikesell (les) + I don't think so. When you stop seeing the agreed upon patterns, things +[PAUSE] are no longer interesting. How may people would keep a TV around if + they just saw the electron beam instead of the image? Even if someone + does perceive something "underneath" the patterns, there are no words + to describe it. How often do you notice the pressure of air on your + body? It is one of the main forces that affects you, but since it is + uniform it does not present a pattern that you generally recognize. + +------------------------- +22.19 Thu Oct 6 22:01:52 1988 Ben Kovitz (kiwi) + Here is my refutation of the "we can't be objective, because our senses + 'filter' reality" argument, at least in brief outline. + + The argument (and it was Kant who really developed it into its most fully + developed form, not Hume) rests on the premise that there is a way things + "really" look, which is different from the way they look to us. However, + what something looks like is not an attribute intrinsic to that object, it + depends on *both* the nature of the object and the nature of person looking + at it. + + Stating this principle in more abstract terms, every perception has both a + CONTENT and a FORM. (Please note that I am not using "form" as a synonym + for "shape".) The content is the thing which is perceived. The form is + what it looks like to the perceiver. What the subjectivist argument fails + to recognize is that there can be no such thing as a "formless" perception; +[PAUSE] it says that our perceptions, because they have a form which is partly + dictated by the nature of the mind, are not "true", because they are not a + "formless" perception, dictated by nothing but the content. + + Several months ago, I got into a length argument about this on another BBS, + and I came up with the following analogy to help clarify these two concepts + "content" and "form". Suppose you have two different books on the care and + feeding of cats. Book A uses all kinds of fancy, polysyllabic words, most + of which haven't been used since the nineteenth century. Book B is written + is simple, straighforward prose. But they both describe the same things: + they both describe the care and feeding of cats. That is, their CONTENT is + the same, but the FORM in which it is expressed is different. + + Now, try to imagine a book on the care and feeding of cats which doesn't + express its content in *any* form at all. You can't; the whole idea is + total nonsense. (Which is what makes talking about this so difficult: the + subjectivist argument premises something which literally can't be described, + contemplated, proven, or understood, and which can't exist.) Now, which of + the two books is the "true" book? The answer, of course, is that since they + have the same content, they are both equally "true". + + The same goes with perception: there can be no formless state of awareness, + where the nature of the perceiver plays no part. And, the mere fact that + you perceive by some means, rather than by some magical means, does not mean +[PAUSE] that you aren't perceiving at all. + + It might be objected that all of the above is totally irrelevant, since no + one who has argued that perception is unable to be objective has said +anything + about a formless state of awareness. However, that is a premise of the + argument, despite the fact that most subjectivists haven't identified it. + Notice that tjc said that because our brains are "limited", i.e., because + they possess a definite, specific nature, they can't give us a "true picture + of reality". Well, what would be a "true picture of reality"? What, +exactly, + are our "limited" perceptions being compared against? + + Finally, I should mention that there is a lot more to the issue than what + I've stated here. For example, it is wrong to say that we perceive + sensations, not reality; that's like saying that we perceive our nervous + systems, not reality. Sensations are part of the means by which we perceive; + they are not what we perceive. But the basic idea (or rather non-idea) of + a perception without any means or form as the standard by which to judge the + "truth" of a perception is the primary error in the subjectivist viewpoint. + +------------------------- +22.20 Thu Oct 6 22:30:21 1988 tom chapin (tjc) + I may be missing a bit here, but you seem to be saying the subjectivists +[PAUSE] wrongly demand that objective reality be "perfectly" (without limitations + or filtering) perceived to be believed. I would, rather, say that most + subjectivists would be epistemological agnostics rather than atheists. + In other words, a subjectivists would allow that an objective reality + most likely exists, but the nature of objective reality is too far removed + from us by our own physical limitations for us to have faith in our + interpretations of it. + + The question is where does that leave us subjectivists? We can't live in + a world of mere random chaos, we need to find some order. If we don't + have faith in our ability to determine the nature of teh world beyond + our distorted perceptions of it, we may have to look for such things as + consensus of outlook. + +------------------------- +22.21 Fri Oct 7 09:59:08 1988 Leslie Mikesell (les) + The problem is not well addressed because philosophers tend to not have + a good understanding of information storage and processing or the + underlying mechanisms e.g. body chemistry. Perhaps a starting point + would be to compare actual reality to a network with layered protocols. + Wasn't there a philosophy that there were seven levels of Logos? This + might mesh nicely with the OSI seven-layer network model. We can examine + the lower levels closely, but all we can do about the upper levels is + speculate about whether the lower levels reflect them by design. +[PAUSE] Now - about those lower levels. I'm convinced that ideas have a physical + substance not unlike viruses, that knowing a word requires the creation + of a specific complex molecule, and that we cannot make sense of anything + that cannot be stored at this level. + Is this getting too bizarre? + +------------------------- +22.22 Fri Oct 7 11:37:57 1988 Joe Durnavich (jjd) + tjc: I think Ben was trying to point out that it is in the + nature of perception to use the senses to perceive reality. + You are saying that because we use our senses, we can never + see the true reality. That implies that the only observer + who can see a true picture of reality is one who doesn't + use senses. But such an observer doesn't exist (and doesn't + make sense). It is unfair to compare our power of perception + to something that doesn't exist. (Nonetheless, I still + feel Ben is trying to pull one over on us. I need to + think about this some more.) + + Compared to one another though, we obviously have different + views on reality in our mind. Certainly, everything I + perceive is not necessarily true. And others have either + more or less true perceptions than me. How do we know + which knowledge is correct? To quote Dav Holle: +[PAUSE] + How do we know what we know? Simply because we + can get a lot of agreement on it? Does that mean + that the world really WAS flat in Copernicus' + time? (People lived as though it were true...) + + (I take that to be the same concept as tjc's "consensus of + opinion" and Leslie's "we must try to perceive the same + patterns as everybody else.") + +------------------------- +22.23 Fri Oct 7 17:20:00 1988 Bronis Vidugiris (bhv) + I think doubt, and the possibility of error, are part of the human + condition. I also think that any philosophy that attempts to make + absolutely and uncoditionaly true statements about anything is most + likely in error. (I obviously can't say it must definitely be in + error, of course :-)). + + It may be comforting to believe that one 'knows' reality, but it is + probably not true. + +------------------------- +22.24 Fri Oct 7 21:57:27 1988 Leslie Mikesell (les) + Has anyone read "Flatland"? It is a little book that attempts to +[PAUSE] address this issue by analogy. The scene is a two-dimensional land + peopled by one dimentional creatures as pompous and self-assured of + their understanding of reality as you might find anywhere. Then one + of them discovers the "up" direction and tries to explain to the + others. + +------------------------- +22.25 Fri Oct 7 22:40:53 1988 tom chapin (tjc) + Joe--yes, I was saying because we use senses we cannot achieve + a true picture of reality (or be sure if we have). All we have + is senses and reasoning, and both are limited, and we do not even + know how limited (yeah, Flatland...). So the most important parts + of reality could be totally beyond us, knowable only by a God, whom + we do not know to exist. + + Consensus would give us at least a way to deal with a common reality + even if not an ultimately true one, but we don't seem to be able to + achieve consensus... + +------------------------- +22.26 Fri Oct 7 23:42:04 1988 Ben Kovitz (kiwi) + tjc: WHY? (re: what you said about consensus.) + + +[PAUSE] jjd: Yes, the whole issue of subjectivism vs. objectivism is EXTREMELY + abstract, and takes a long time to properly understand. One thing that + I've seen confuse a lot of people is that they have absolutely no idea + what philosophy is: they try to incorporate or justify philosophic + abstractions on the basis of less fundamental things. An excellent + example of this is what Les said about philosophers not being qualified + to say much about these things, due to a lack of knowledge of information + processing and body chemistry. If you think carefully about what this means, + though, you'll see what a wild self-contradiction it is: it means that such + things as whether or not there is an objective reality, whether or not man + can ever have knowledge, is to be proven on the basis of observations of + and generalizations from the brain. But if the brain doesn't exist, or if + your senses don't give you a true picture of reality, then how do + observations of the brain prove anything? The error here is the failure to + understand that there are NO wider abstractionn{ than those of philosophy, + and NO more fundamental principles. Philosophy provides the foundation of + human knowledge, and without it, the totality of human knowledge crumbles. + (Also, philosophic abstractions cannot be proven on the basis of things + which are derived from them.) + + Now, regarding what you said about some perceptions not being true, and + there being more and less true perceptions. Could you give an example of + this? What is a "less true" perception? + +[PAUSE] I don't think you understood that concept of "form" I was trying to + explain, because it totally contradicts the idea that perceptions are + either true or false. Propositions are true or false, but not perceptions; + perceptions just are. Perceptions provide the form in which you are + aware of reality; there is no lower or more fundamental kind of awareness + into which you can analyze your perceptions. All higher-level knowledge, + including all abstractions, has its roots in perception; all of it consists + in seeing differences and similarities between perceptions and extrapolating + from perceptions. It is possible to make an error when connecting different + perceptions to form a generalization, and it is possible to make an error + when applying a generalization to a new perception, but the perceptions in + and of themselves cannot be "in error". + + A typical example of a "false" perception is an optical illusion: for + example, some illusion where two lines which are really the same length + appear to have different lengths. But in calling that perception "false", + you can only do it by reference to some standard of "truth"--and what is + the "true" perception in this case? How would the lines look if your brain + was constituted in some completely different way, where the optical doesn't + happen? You;'ll never know! The lines look to you the way they look to + you, because of *both* the nature of your brain and the nature of the lines. + The perception is the automatic effect of the way reality really is; to + say that the perception would only be "true" if the lines looked another + way, is to say that REALITY would only be "true" if the lines looked another +[PAUSE] way. + + It might be objected that the perception is still wrong, because the + perception is telling you that the lines are different lengths, whereas in + reality they are the same length. The error here is in equating the + perception of the lines with the concept of length. Your concept of + length was formed by identifying a quantitative relationship between a + certain attribute of objects you've perceived in the past (specifically, + their lengths). Your perception isn't "telling" you that the lines are + different lengths; it is simply giving you an awareness of the lines. What + make the perception an optical illusion is that it is so similar to other + percepotions of lines differing in length, that it is easy to misapply your + concept of length and form a false judgment on the basis of the perception. + (And, the concept of "length" is so basic and close to the perceptual level, + that it is easy to equate it with perception itself.) So, to summarize: + the perception in and of itself doesn't "tell" you that the lines are + different; that is a judgment you may or may not make ON THE BASIS of the + perception. + + Also, the mere fact that we have identified that the lines are in fact + different lengths is proof that it is not the perceptions which are mistaken, + but the conclusion we may or may not draw from them. Otherwise, how could + we ever have found out that the lines are the same length? Perception, + ultimately, is our only means of knowledge; we could only have found out +[PAUSE] by using our perceptions of the lines. + + + Wow. I've cranked out a lot of text these past few days. + +------------------------- +22.27 Sat Oct 8 00:05:21 1988 Ben Kovitz (kiwi) + ...and I'm still not done. + + One other comment, about your summary of my summary of the subjectivist + argument. The idea that the senses "filter" or "distort" reality, and + that a "true" perception would be one perceived without any senses, were not + the crux of my argument. Essentially, the subjectist argument goes like + this: because consciousness perceives by some definite MEANS, and not by + magic, is proof that there is no such thing as consciousness (i.e., no + true awareness of reality). Ayn Rand had a very good way of putting this: + + "...man is blind, because he has eyes--deaf, because he has ears--deluded, + because he has a mind--and the things he perceives do not exist, *because* + he perceives them." + + A word about the Flatland example: the fact that you don't know everything, + is not proof that you don't know anything. The residents of Flatland knew + what they knew: they knew about Flatland. When A. Square (the hero of the +[PAUSE] story) found out about 'up', he had simply learned something new, IN + ADDITION to what he already had known. To say that A. Square's discovery + "proved" the other Flatlander's beliefs about reality wrong, is to say that + new discoveries DESTROY knowledge, rather than augment it. + +------------------------- +22.28 Sat Oct 8 00:50:05 1988 Leslie Mikesell (les) + But the fact that you don't know everything means that you don't know + how much you don't know. Are we heading towards a mind-body duality + now, Ben? If you want to assert that philosophers are not constrained + by physics, please explain the nature of the consciousness that is + not limited to the mechanisms that you don't want to bother understanding. + +------------------------- +22.29 Sat Oct 8 09:19:01 1988 tom chapin (tjc) + Ben, I'm not sure what you are asking about my statement on consensus. + If you are asking why I feel consensus would be valuable, it's because + we would have less need for confidence in attaining true reality if we + could at least have a workable reality. If you are asking why we cannot + attain it, I am not saying we can't, just that we obviously haven't and + I see no likelihood we will any time soon. I would think lack of + consensus would support subjectivism--if we could attain the consciousness + of true reality, then why do we disagree on it? + +[PAUSE] About philosophy as the the foundation of human knowledge, it is quite + possible that our philosophy is dependent on our physiology. The + physiology of our senses could prevent us from perceiving any but the + most limited area of reality, and the physiology of our brain could + determine the interpretation of our perceptions, for example, imposing + a dualism which may not be present in true reality. Our philosophy + could be, not only incomplete, but a falsification of reality. + +------------------------- +22.30 Sat Oct 8 12:58:50 1988 Ben Kovitz (kiwi) + tjc: What is "the physiology of the brain"? Is it real? Are you aware of +it? + How did you find out about it? If it's not real, then none of what you + concluded from it makes any difference. If it is real, and you are aware + of it, then you are operating on the premise that reality is real and that + you can know about it. + + You said that "it is quite possible that our philosophy is dependent on our + physiology". I have two points to make about that: (1) do you have any + evidence to support this claim? If you don't, then there's no reason to + take it seriously. If you do, then you are saying that the evidence is real + and that you know it. (2) OF COURSE the nature of knowledge and how we + acquire it are dependent on the nature of the brain! What do you think I've + been talking about all this time? I've been saying that any perception is +[PAUSE] the effect of *both* the nature of the perceiver and the nature of what he + perceives. (I think that's now the third time I've said almost that exact + same sentence.) If we had no physiology, no means of consciousness, then + we certainly could not discover anything, even the law of causality. + + I wasn't asking why you feel consensus is valuable, but why you think it's + so important. But, regarding what you said about the fact that people + disagree is proof that we can't know the true reality, there are plenty of + reasons why people disagree that involve no such premise: (1) man is not + infallible; he can make errors in judgment.{ (2) Different people have + different amounts of knowledge, and they know about different things. (This + isn't so much a reason why people disagree, but a reason why the content of + their minds is not exactly identical, despite their having access to the same + reality.) (3) Reasoning is a volitional act; nature does not force you to + properly integrate the knowledge you have. For example, I know of some + people who talk about their knowledge of the physiology of the brain, in + order to support the contention that they can't know anything. And of + course there are all the things I{was talking about in the free HW ‹ +rÚºY[©Hø (4) Man is not omniscient; he has only a limited amount of knowledge. For + example, suppose that someone is playing a practical joke on Mr. A: say, + they've balanced a bucket of water above a door so when Mr. A. comes through + it, it empties on his head. Mr. A, not being omniscient, doesn't know about + this, and walks through the door not expecting to get wet. But big deal! + This certainly doesn't prove that man is unable to know "the true reality"; +[PAUSE] Mr. A knows what he knows, and when he gets wet, he knows that, too. + + Les: I don't see any connection at all between the three sentences of your + previous response. Could you explain what you are trying to say in more + detail? + +------------------------- +22.31 Sat Oct 8 14:38:02 1988 Leslie Mikesell (les) + Ben: I am trying to get a better idea of what you consider knowledge and + more specifically what the entity is that has or creates this knowledge. + I don't object at all to a mind-body duality but I place the knowledge + derived from the senses firmly in the body and can't say much at all + about the mind part (i.e. I do not limit the activity of consciousness to + the brain). You seem to be saying something more concrete - that thought + is proof of itself, but I can't quite follow it. + Suppose we put a microphone, speaker and amplifier in the same room and + turn up the power. Your argument that thought exists because of the + existence of a thinker seems like the fact that sound exists because of + the feedback effect. I'm looking for what was there before the amplifier + was turned on. + +------------------------- +22.32 Sat Oct 8 18:01:41 1988 tom chapin (tjc) + We seem to be arguing about how we can or cannot feel confident that +[PAUSE] we are conscious of true reality. As I understand your argument about + physiology, if we accept that perception is what gives us information + about physiology, then we have already accepted perception as giving + true reality. I would say that we only accepted it provisionally to see + where it would take us. When we did, we found that our perceptions show + that our consciousness is limited and fallible. We are left with a + paradox. The more information we get, the more we can see the + limitations of our perceptions. For me, a paradox is as good as a + contradiction at casting doubt on our grasp of reality. + + And, for me, lack of consensus casts further doubt on our grasp of + reality. Your reasons for lack of consensus are good, but they don't + help. Fallibility, differing amounts of knowledge, lack of integration + of knowledge, not being omniscient...how can I claim that I am the one + among all the competing views of reality who is correct? Only through + arrogance can I claim that it has to be the others who are more + fallible, have less knowledge, haven't integrated their knowledge. + There is no unyielding criterion by which to judge. + +------------------------- +22.33 Sat Oct 8 19:37:07 1988 Joe Durnavich (jjd) + Let's see if I'm understanding any of this so far: + + tjc: When you say "we only accepted it provisionally to see where +[PAUSE] it would take us" aren't you saying you did acquire some knowledge? + And then after you acquired some knowledge you say you can't? If + I'm understanding Ben correctly, then what you learned was that we + are prone to make erroneous judgements once in a while. But how + can we know we made incorrect judgements unless we made some + correct ones also? From that argument is seems like we are + learning some truthful things about reality. + + And if I am understanding the subjective viewpoint correctly, they + appear concerned over all the incorrect judgements we make (e.g., + the world is flat). How can we be certain a judgement of ours is + correct? To know reality correctly, must we know all of reality + correctly (omniscience)? Is not the restriction of having to + take time to learn reality a limit on our grasp of reality? + + les: Are you saying you don't like the idea of thinking about + thinking? + + kiwi: Regarding my response that contained the phrase "more + or less true perceptions": the more or less referred to a + quantity of true perceptions. With your correction that should + read, "more or less number of true propositions". + + If you asked me about a "false" perception I would have said +[PAUSE] someone who is color blind looking at a light which changes + from red to green and can't see the difference (assuming the + color blindness is a defect in the eye and not a mental problem). + + Also, did you mean to say "we have identified the lines are in fact + the *same* length" in the first sentence of the last paragraph of + one of your responses? You said "different lengths" which then, I + don't understand. + + Finally, Ben, so I know what you are talking about, what is your + definition of knowledge. Is there true knowledge and false + knowledge? + +------------------------- +22.34 Sat Oct 8 21:34:34 1988 tom chapin (tjc) + Joe, we just go up a metalevel on the road to infinite regress. + What we learn is that we are fallible and make mistakes. We do + not learn how to prove which of our knowledge is true and which is + merely the product of our falliblilty. If we can't prove which of our + beliefs are true and which are false, it does us no good to say that + some are true. + +------------------------- +22.35 Sat Oct 8 23:44:16 1988 Leslie Mikesell (les) +[PAUSE] Joe: I didn't realize I was saying that, but yes, thinking about thinking + is about as useful as thinking about swimming. + Tom: Perfect consensus would probably not be desirable - we would no longer + have anything to talk about. Besides, the evolution of ideas is hopelessly + intertwined with the evolution of living things and the diversity serves + its purpose. + +------------------------- +22.36 Sun Oct 9 00:19:42 1988 Ben Kovitz (kiwi) + Les (and jjd): My definition of knowledge is: a mental grasp of reality, + arrived at by a process of observation and reasoning from observation. + The next question, of course, is to ask what is my definition of "mental + grasp of reality". But here we come right up to the self-evident, perceptual + level; this (i.e., being conscious of something) cannot be broken down into + more fundamental, closer-to-perception terms. Asking for a definition of + consciousness is like asking for an explanation of what it's like to have + the sensation of red. You can define other, less fundamental concepts in + terms of these things, but you can't define these things in terms of + concepts which are derived from them. + + Regarding whether or not there is such a thing as false knowledge: "false + knowledge" is a contradiction in terms; "true knowledge" is a redundancy. + + Les: I don't understand your analogy of the amplifier: it sounds like you +[PAUSE] are asking what thoughts one had before one had any thoughts. Maybe the + following is what you were trying to get out of me: every thought is a + thought ABOUT SOMETHING. There is no such thing as a thought totally + devoid of any existential content. You can think about bus schedules, + the cost of hamburger, the structure of the atom, the number of lines on + a page, but you've got to be thinking about SOMETHING in order to be + thinking. And the only way to think about thinking is to reflect, +ultimately, + on thoughts you've had which were not thoughts about thinking. + + Speaking of which, it's time for this conversation to return to reality. + I have the impression that when most of you read, write, and think about + these things, they're just a bunch of big words to you, rather than something + you can see, touch, or feel. It is *very* important, in understanding + anything (not just philosophic abstractions) to have a good, solid, concrete + idea of what you're talking about. It is crucial that you be able to have + some concrete examples of what you're talking about spring to mind very + easily, if you don't want to wander off into some never-never land of + ivory-tower pseudo-intellectualism. For example, does anyone here have + any definite idea of the meaning of the statement, "your senses 'filter' + reality and thus fail to give you a true picture of reality"? That means + that the thing you call a toaster is not "really" a toaster, the keyboard + you type on is not "really" a keyboard, the thing you drive to work is not + "really" a car--or, at least, that you can't be sure of those things. Your +[PAUSE] blue jeans aren't "really" blue, they're "really" some non-color which you + can't perceive, because your senses are "limited". What would you say if + a person actually came up to you and asserted those things in perfect + seriousness? You'd say (I hope), "this guy is totally irrational" and + wouldn't take any of his absurd claims seriously. But, state those same + exact things using highly abstract language, and suddenly they're no less + "arbitrary" than the belief that there is a reality outside of your H[‹VHø and the job of your mind is to perceive it. + + Most people wouldn't dream of approaching any other subject in so anti- + intellectual and anti-rational a fashion; in any other subject, most people + would try to grasp the facts to the best of their ability. If you were + learning to play piano, you wouldn't whine that you aren't sure if the keys + are real, or say that because you can't hear sounds over 20,000 Hz, you + don't know what the piano "really" sounds like. I've noticed that Les' + messages about Unix in other conferences are very detailed, precise, and + factual: he tries to apply the entirety of his *knowledge* of Unix to + real-world problems. + + But how would you actually live your life, tjc and Les, if you actually lived + by the ideas you've espoused in this conference? "Oh, somebody at work + today disagreed with me about whether the gets() function leaves the newline + at the end of a string--now there's no consensus, and I can't be sure! After + all, it would be 'arrogant' to suppose that *my* picture of reality is the +[PAUSE] one, true one, what with all these competing views running around!" + + In closing, I recommend that you read the quotation that is displayed + when you enter this conference before you write your reply. + +------------------------- +22.37 Sun Oct 9 13:19:02 1988 Bronis Vidugiris (bhv) + I believe there is such a thing as "false knowledge". The previously + mentioned 'the world is flat' is a good example. It is knowledge, based on + a limited experience, that seems to be true. However, when more experience + is obtained, it turns out to be false. + + Color (are my purple jeans purple) is a very good example of the way that our + senses filter the world. Purple and violet are two different colors that + appear to be the same to unaided human vision. + The difference between purple and violet is that one consists of a single + frequency of light (violet), where the other conisists of a mixture of red +and blue light. This can be confirmed by + closer observation with color filters. + + Ben does have one good point, though. Most of the people who *really* have + no conception of what reality is are locked away somewhere, in padded cells +so + they can't hurt themselves. +[PAUSE] +------------------------- +22.38 Sun Oct 9 14:37:27 1988 Leslie Mikesell (les) + Ben: I understand unix because I have read the manual. More specifically, + because it is a deterministic system with known inputs. When a computer + acts in a way that I perceive to be non-deterministic, I call the repairman. + I have no problem dealing with reality on a level where I act as though + everything were deterministic or at least predictable on a statistical + model. However, I do not believe that is the case when dealing with + consciousness since that would deny the existance of free will, nor do I + believe that our universe is a closed system. Since you also seem unable to + define consciousness, our views may not be that far apart - I am just trying + to avoid having to accept anything as "self-evident". That is, things that + are evident to me are evident for a reason and I am willing to admit that not + everything is evident to me. + The microphone/speaker example alluded to the power of words to become + their own meaning. Once we learn to speak and think in words, it becomes + impossible to think otherwise. I was not asking for thoughts before thought, + but rather (zen-like) thought before words. It is, of course, impossible to + answer such a question but not because there is no answer. + +------------------------- +22.39 Sun Oct 9 19:16:54 1988 tom chapin (tjc) + Senses "filter" reality: The spectrum which we can see is a tiny part +[PAUSE] of the whole. The spectrum which we can hear is a tiny part of the + whole. We don't have any idea how many other spectra may exist which + we, due to our human limitations, may have no access to. But the + smallness of the percentage we can see and hear suggests (no, not entails) + the immensity of that we have no access to. Because we are so limited, our + knowledge is provisional and thus cannot be called knowledge of reality as + it exists in itself. + +------------------------- +22.40 Mon Oct 10 00:40:27 1988 Ben Kovitz (kiwi) + All right, you guys, I've been answering questions and trying to explain + my views and give my definitions--now it's your turn: + + WHAT are you referring to when you speak of "knowledge of reality as it + exists in itself"? If you can come up with a definition for this, that would + be best of all. And, in trying to explain why we can't have "knowledge of + reality as it exists in itself", please be sure to illustrate this with some + concrete examples (this was the "message" of my previous message). Do you + guys really believe that you have absolutely no knowledge of your toaster? + +------------------------- +22.41 Mon Oct 10 11:30:07 1988 tom chapin (tjc) + I love this demand: Tell me exactly what it is that you don't know. + Right.... +[PAUSE] + If we knew what reality really was, we would have no difficulty in + defining + +Time Left - 09:06:07 + <23> : + +Time Left - 09:06:07 + <23> : + +Time Left - 09:06:07 + <23> : \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/realok.txt b/religious documents/realok.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e52473a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/realok.txt @@ -0,0 +1,133 @@ + + Will the Real Loki Please Stand Up? + + by Magdalen Vertes + + Has Loki, the Norse 'Trickster' god, been misrepresented as an evil, +scheming character, who was even considered by early Christians to be another +face of the Devil? Or does Loki have his roots as a much more ancient god, +concerned with the balance of nature? It seems that Loki has all the +attributes to suggest the latter. First, Loki's name may have been derived +from the Sanskrit 'Loka', meaning a spirit undergoing karma - spiritual +advancement through repeated reincarnation. Loki, depicted as a handsome, +agile little man, with a pointed laughing face, piercing blue eyes, and +voluminous flame-red hair in curly locks, possesses sky shoes in which he can +travel, with great speed, over land, sea and air - suggesting that he is +connected with spirit flight (also being called the Sky Traveller) - and +therefore has shamanic roots. Also, Loki is the most prominent shapeshifter +in the mythological cycle - yet another shamanic trait. Loki does not +shapeshift in any evolutionary order - which may disprove the theory that +earthly evolution is a material representation of karma - a belief common among +many ancient peoples (such as the Hindus and Druids). Despite their lack of +science and technology, the non-classical peoples were in fact, as can be +seen by their religious theories and practices, much more perceptive about +their environment, both in worldly and other-worldly matters, than is often +believed. + What can be deduced in general from this information , therefore, is +that Loki's true form presides over and represents the true and pure spirit +form - the other form he takes, the bodies the spirit resides in on earth +during karma - for the only way that one can shape-shift in reality is by +reincarnation. As Loki is depicted as shapeshifting into a specific form for +a specific purpose in every case, this could show that, originally, Odinists +believed that spirits could return to Earth in any form for any purpose +according to fate, rather than in evolutionary order. As can be seen from +the myth 'The Well of Asgard', Loki changes into a mare in order to lure away +a stallion, as a result, becoming pregnant with Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged +horse. Therefore Loki has the power to change sex as well as shape, and can +become a father or a mother. This alone represents two things: the first +that we all have within each of us, both a masculine and feminine aspect of +the spirit, and can express either one irrespective of the sex of the +physical body. The second is that through its several incarnations, the +spirit can exist in both male and female bodies. Thus if it should exist +first in a female body, and then is reborn in a male body, the state of being +female in a previous life could still have an influence in the present life +as a male. Both these things can provide an explanation for homosexuality +and transvesticism. + Loki is also associated with natural phenomena outside living things, +and the reason for his being labelled 'The Trickster' is the fact that +natural forces, whether inside or outside living things are unpredictable and +can be most destructive. In Norse myth Loki's parents are two fire giants. +Giants are living things and they are led by Utgard Loki, a giant who is +identical to Loki in every way, save that he is much larger. + In 'Thor's Journey to Utgard', Thor and his friends visit Utgard to +discover that all Utgard Loki's subjects each represent a particular force of +nature, after being defeated in several contests with them. This story +bearing the message that man can never have complete control over the forces +of nature. 'The Binding of Loki' has the same meaning, as even when bound, +Loki causes earthquakes when he struggles to break free. Loki's +unpredictable side is represented in the myth 'Sif's Hair', in which Loki, +apparently for no reason, cuts off the long golden hair of Sif, a harvest +goddess, whilst she lies sleeping and unsuspecting of him. Loki then +compensates for his deed by going to the dwarfs to ask them to make a magical +wig of spun gold, which, when placed on Sif's head, grows as her original +hair did. So Sif's hair represents a field of ripe corn and Loki a fire +would could suddenly destroy it; but if new corn is planted in the place of +the original it will naturally grow again, represented by Sif's new wig +produced by Loki's instigation, and suggesting, therefore, that Loki replaces +all he destroys and so presides over the continuing cycle in nature. + Speaking of cycles, Loki is also connected with the seasonal cycle. In +the myth 'Idunna's Golden Apples', a giant called Thiazzi, persuades Loki to +deliver the youth goddess Idunna to him, together with her apples of eternal +life. So after Loki lures Idunna out of her apple orchard in Asgard for her +to be abducted by Thiazzi, the gods grow old because they no longer have the +apples of youth. This represents the state of the earth in winter when +nothing can grow and everything seems withered and old or dead. Loki then +rescues Idunna and returns her and the apples to the gods who then regain +their normal youth and vigour, thus spring comes again. + In another myth, Skadi, Thiazzi's daughter and a winter goddess, +confronts the gods to demand a sacrifice before she will allow spring to +come, appearing so hard and cold that they decide to yield to her. So Loki +offers himself on his own initiative, by tying himself to a goat by his +genitals and engaging in a tug of war with the goat until his genitals give +way, whereupon he falls into Skadi's lap and soaks her with his blood. This +pleases Skadi and she relents for spring to follow. + Although Loki eventually brings about the Ragnarok or end of the world, +by killing Balder, the sun god, the result after the imminent claustrophobic +effects is a brand new world, rising from the remains of the original one. So +Loki has the power to destroy and recreate no matter how large or small the +scale at which the events take place. Aiding Loki in bringing about the end +of the old world are his three strange children by his giantess love, +Angurboda. The first of these, Fenris, is a huge wolf who is bound by the +gods to prolong the orderly state which they created in the universe as +Fenris represents chaos, the original disordered state of affairs before the +earth was formed. The second, Jormangandr, is a huge sea serpent who +encircles the whole earth to hold his tail in his mouth, so that he appears +to have no beginning and no end, in this way representing the continuity of +time and of the cycle, and so being a reminded to Odin that nothing is +permanent, even his rule. So Odin banishes the serpent to earth, as earthly +beings are those who are more likely to be aware of time - as it often works +against them as they only have a limited amount of time while on Earth. The +third, Hela, is of course the Queen of the Dead, the ruler of the lower +spirit world who provides a resting place for spirits between earthly +existences whilst they are still undergoing karma. Since Loki is the father +of such influential beings, this suggests that he could even be the original +primeval all-powerful force which is the route of all other forces - +Angurboda being his female counterpart - or even the female side of him as he +is, as previously stated, seen to be bisexual. So, as much as Ymir and +Audumbla are the primeval Earth, Loki and Angurboda could be the primeval +spirits, and, upon Odin replacing Ymir and Audumbla to begin his orderly +rule, produce these children in order to secure their primeval influence and +control, being as the original primeval force is both the beginning and the +end. In reference to her bearing the children, Angurboda's name is derived +from the old Norse word meaning 'Distress Bringer' as the children represent +forces over which no other being can have complete control, like all natural +forces, and so they appear distressing. Although in most myths Angurboda is +depicted as Hela's mother, in others Hela and the winter goddess Skadi are +depicted as Angurboda herself, simply taking different names in order to take +different roles associated with death. So, as Skadi, she presides over the +earthly death-state of winter; as Hela, presiding over the death of +individuals rather than death in the universal sense, as of winter. +Therefore, this suggests that all other gods and goddesses too, may just +simply be the different faces of either Loki or Angurboda, if these two +deities are the original primeval forces of either Loki or Angurboda, and the +root of all else - these different faces sometimes having to oppose each +other in accordance with the balance of nature. Often, when Loki is +mentioned, just one word springs to mind - cunning, as he is referred to as +the Trickster because of his role. But, as we are all given, together with +our aspects, free will, cunning need not be used for evil ends, the fault +does not lie with Loki but with the user who would in fact be abusing Loki's +gift to him/her. Therefore, the conclusion is the Loki and his kin were +diabolized by early Christians, because their roles as described here proved +incompatible to their ideology of Christianity. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/reclmgod.txt b/religious documents/reclmgod.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31b2fa0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/reclmgod.txt @@ -0,0 +1,231 @@ +Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage +Path: decwrl!ucbvax!dewey.soe.berkeley.edu!lah +Subject: Reclaiming the God +Posted: 22 Jul 88 00:46:25 GMT +Organization: Black Oak Covenstead + + Well! Having been fairly swamped with responses, I'm posting this + to the whole net. Note that I wrote it specifically for a women's + group I belong to, but I'm sure it would be equally good in a mixed + circle. Comments are welcome, especially if you use it. By the way, + this ritual will be appearing in a two-volume book of rituals that will + be coming out this fall from the Polly Theist Press (a new Wiccan + publishing company), in trade paperback -- the real thing! Wow! + +B*B +Leigh Ann + +RITUAL FOR WOMEN RECLAIMING THE GOD + + The session begins with everyone telling how the figure of the God + had been "spoiled" for them -- ie, by patriarchal and/or sexually + repressive religions, by the destructive aspects of male energy (war, + domination), etc. + + The altar is decorated with symbols of the God -- ours had antlers, + a crystal phallus, grain & grapes, a plastic goat from a Celebrator + Doppelbock beer bottle, an abstract figure of Baron Samedi (a T shape + made of dowels and dressed in a black frock coat with a top hat, a red + scarf, and a cane), a couple of statues of Chinese sages or + bodhisattvas. + + I. Quarters: E - Myrddin, S - Weyland, W - Taliesin, N - Freyr + (sorry this is so sketchy; I just improvised them on the spot. Check + out their respective mythologies for ideas on how to invoke them) + +II. Guided Meditation + + GROUND AND CENTER. SINK INTO THE EARTH. ALL AROUND YOU, THE + BREATHING OF SISTERS BECOMES THE BREATHING OF THE WORLDS' WINDS. THE + HEAT OF OTHER BODIES BECOMES THE FIRE OF ALL LIFE. THE RUSH OF BLOOD + IN YOUR EARS BECOMES THE MURMURING OF THE SEA. THE FLOOR BECOMES A + RICH, LOAMY FIELD, FRESH PLOUGHED. + + FEEL THE SOIL. RUB IT BETWEEN YOUR FINGERS. SEE IT AND SMELL IT. + IT IS DARK, ALMOST BLACK. IT SMELLS OF COMPOST,SOMEHOW SMOKY. IT IS + SMOOTH, CRUMBLY, FREE OF ROCKS, FIRM TO SUPPORT ROOTS BUT LOOSE TO LET + THEM SPREAD. THIS IS MOTHER. LIE DOWN UPON HER BODY AND EMBRACE HER; + FEEL HER WARMTH, WARMTH FROM THE SUN, SEEPING INTO YOU, COMFORTING YOU. + + RISE UP. AT YOUR SIDE, HANGING FROM YOUR SHOULDER, IS A BAG. WHEN + YOU REACH INTO IT, YOUR HAND COMES OUT FULL OF SEEDS. WALK BACK AND + FORTH IN THE FIELD, SCATTERING THE SEEDS. FEEL THE SOIL GIVE UNDER + YOUR FEET. FEEL THE SUN OVERHEAD; IT IS HOT, AND YOU ARE GETTING + TIRED. KEEP ON, RHYTHMICALLY REACHING INTO THE BAG AND CASTING THE + SEEDS ABROAD. YOUR SWEAT RUNS OFF YOU INTO THE FURROWS, SOAKING INTO + THE SOIL. NOW THE WHOLE FIELD IS PLANTED. NOW YOU CAN SIT AT THE + FIELD'S EDGE AND REST. + + YOU ARE TIRED. YOU FEEL AS THOUGH YOU COULD REST FOR DAYS. YOU + SIT EASY, BALANCED, ROOTED LIKE A STONE. YOU ARE A STONE. YOU ARE THE + GUARDIAN STONE OF THIS FIELD. YOU WATCH, AS DAYS PASS. SLOWLY, + SLOWLY, THE SUN ROLLS OVERHEAD, CLOUDS FILL THE SKY AND EMPTY OVER THE + FIELD WITH THUNDER AND LIGHTNING. SLOWLY, SLOWLY, THE FIELD TURNS FROM + BROWN TO GREEN, AS THE FIRST SPROUTS FORCE THEIR WAY FROM THE SOIL. + DAYS PASS. WEEKS PASS. THE SPROUTS LOOK FIRST LIKE GRASS, THEN STALKS + APPEAR AND GROW EVER LONGER. AT THE TOP OF EACH STALK, SWELLINGS + BECOME NEW SEEDS. THE CLUSTERS OF SEEDS GROW, BLANKETED IN THEIR + CHAFF, THE HEADS OF GRAIN GROW BRUSHY, BEARDED. THE GRAIN TURNS GOLD + FROM GREEN; THE HEADS BOW DOWN UNDER THE WEIGHT OF THEIR SEED. + + AND NOW YOU SEE PEOPLE COMING INTO THE FIELD, WOMEN WITH SICKLES IN + THEIR HANDS. THEY ARE SINGING A DIRGE, A MOURNING SONG. THEY COME + INTO THE FIELD AND CUT THE STALKS, KILLING THE PLANTS! YOU ARE A + STONE, BUT YOU FEEL YOUR HEART BREAK WITH GRIEF FOR THIS KILLING. + SOON, ONLY STUBBLE IS LEFT; THE WOMEN HAVE TAKEN THE GRAIN AWAY. + BEFORE LONG, MORE WOMEN COME, AND SET FIRE TO THE STUBBLE. YOU FEEL + THE HEAT OF IT WARMING YOUR STONE BODY. YOU FEEL CRACKS OPEN INSIDE + YOU. SOON, THE FIRE BURNS OUT, AND THE FIELD IS LEFT BLACK AS IT + BEGAN. THE WOMEN RETURN WITH SEEDS, PLANTING AS BEFORE. THE WEATHER + TURNS COLD, AND YOUR STONE-SELF CRACKS APART; PIECES OF YOU FALL ONTO + THE FIELD. + + YOUR AWARENESS IS IN THE FIELD NOW, IN THE SEEDS. SLEEPING IN THE + EARTH, UNDER THE SNOW. WITH SPRING, YOU FEEL THE EARTH WARMING, AND + YOU KNOW WITHOUT KNOWING HOW THAT THE SUN IS ABOVE YOU. YOU PUSH + UPWARD, TOWARD THE UNSEEN SUN. YOU SEND DOWN A TAP ROOT TO HELP PUSH + YOU UP AND TO FEED YOU, AND IN THE OTHER DIRECTION YOU SEND A SHOOT + WITH TWO LEAF BUDS. BEFORE LONG, YOU BURST OUT INTO THE SUNLIGHT. ALL + AROUND YOU ARE OTHER PLANTS. AS THE DAYS PASS, YOU GROW WITH THEM. + WHEN THE THUNDERSTORMS COME, YOU FEEL THAT THIS RAIN IS RICHER, AND YOU + FEEL BLESSED. SEEDS DRINK RAIN AND EAT SUNLIGHT AND GROW HEAVY UPON + YOU. YOU CANNOT HOLD THEM UP; THEY PULL YOU DOWN. YOU ARE OPPRESSED, + AND AT A STANDSTILL. YOU SENSE MOVEMENT IN THE FIELD, AND THEN THERE + IS A SHARP PAIN! YOU ARE CUT OFF FROM YOUR ROOT! YOUR POWER TO + TRANSFORM SUNLIGHT SLIPS AWAY FROM YOU LIKE BLOOD! YOU ARE DYING! YOU + ARE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOUR MOTHER FIELD AND THROWN ON A HARD FLOOR. YOU + ARE BEATEN, BROKEN APART, SCATTERED. YOU ARE DEAD. + + BUT SOME AWARENESS REMAINS WITH YOU. YOU FEEL THE PIECES OF + YOURSELF GATHERED UP IN HUMAN HANDS, AND THEN SCATTERED AGAIN, THIS + TIME ON SOFTNESS. IT IS MOTHER! THEY HAVE RETURNED YOU TO MOTHER! + AND NOW YOU ARE MORE THAN YOU WERE BEFORE; BEFORE YOU WERE A SINGLE + PLANT -- NOW YOU ARE A DOZEN PLANTS. THE CYCLE IS REPEATED, ALL OF + YOUR SELVES ARE KILLED AND THROWN ABOUT, AND NOW YOU ARE HUNDREDS OF + SELVES! YOU DIE, YOU ARE TORN APART, YOU ARE REGATHERED, AND REBORN. + YOUR HUNDREDS OF SELVES SPEAK IN THIS VOICE: EVEN THIS AM I, AND I AM + GOD. + + COME BACK TO YOUR ONE SELF NOW, YOUR ONE HUMAN SELF. YOU ARE + SITTING BESIDE THE FIELD, WHERE YOU SAT DOWN, WITH THE EMPTY SEED BAG + AT YOUR SIDE. YOU LEAVE IT THERE, YOU RISE UP, AND TURN AWAY FROM THE + FIELD, TO THE WOODS AT THE BACK OF THE FIELD. YOU FEEL LEAF MOULD AND + TWIGS UNDERFOOT. ALL AROUND YOU YOU SEE LIFE SPRINGING UP OUT OF + DEATH. WHERE TREES HAVE FALLEN, NEW PLANTS ARE GROWING UP THROUGH THE + ROTTING TRUNKS. WHERE ANIMALS HAVE DIED, THEIR BODIES HAVE DECAYED TO + PROVIDE FOOD FOR THE PLANTS ALL AROUND. ALL AROUND YOU, LIFE IS LIVING + OFF OF DEATH; THIS IS THE NATURE OF LIFE, ITS HORROR AND ITS WONDER. + YOU HEAR A NOISE NEARBY AND TURN TO LOOK; THERE IS A MAGNIFICENT STAG + JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE OF A BUSH; YOU BLINK, AND IT IS GONE. WAS IT + ONLY BRANCHES? + + EVERYWHERE AROUND YOU, GREEN THINGS ARE FULL OF THE FIRE OF LIFE, + AS ARE YOU. YOU FEEL LIFE THRILLING THROUGH YOU, LIKE ELECTRICITY. + SOMETHING ELSE IS EXCITING YOU -- WHAT IS IT? YOU CANNOT QUITE TELL. + IS IT A SCENT, A SOUND, A SENSE? SOMETHING, THERE ON THE EDGE OF YOUR + HEARING, SOMETHING YOU CAN ALMOST TOUCH, A FAINT SCENT YOU + HALF-REMEMBER. WHAT IS IT? YOU ARE AROUSED AND DETERMINED TO TRACK + DOWN THE SOURCE. + + EVERYWHERE YOU TURN, YOU SEE GLIMPSES, HALF-SEEN, OF SOMETHING. + SOMETHING FLITTING THROUGH THE TREES. IS IT A DEER? A WILD BOAR? A + FERAL GOAT? A BEAR? ON THE BUSHES YOU FIND TUFTS OF HAIR. BEFORE YOU + YOU SEE TRACKS -- CLOVEN HOOVED, TOED, CLAWED. WHAT ARE YOU FOLLOWING? + DO YOU DARE GO ON? ALL AROUND YOU IS THE PULSING OF ELEMENTAL FORCES: + THE FIRE OF LIFE, THE WIND OF BREATH, THE WATER OF BLOOD, THE EARTH, + THE EARTH, THE EARTH, POWERFUL AND DARK AND UNKNOWABLE. + + ABOVE YOU, THE SKY DARKENS, THE WIND RISES. YOU HEAR THUNDER AND + THE BAYING OF HOUNDS, CRYING FOR BLOOD AND DEATH. YOU TREMBLE WITH + FEAR AND EXCITEMENT; WHITE HOUNDS WITH RED EARS BURST OUT OF THE + BUSHES, SURROUNDING YOU. THEY GROWL -- BUT THEY ARE WAGGING THEIR + TAILS. ARE YOU THEIR PREY, OR THEIR MASTER? YOU FEEL ANTLERS ON YOUR + OWN BROW; ARE YOU THE STAG THEY HUNT, OR THE HUNTER WHO CARES FOR THEM? + NOW THERE ARE PEOPLE WITH THE DOGS, AND YOU FEEL THE LOVE OF THE + PEOPLE, THE RESPECT. YOUR DEATH WILL FEED THEM, GIVE THEM THEIR NEEDS, + AND THEY ARE GIVING YOU THEIR LOVE. YOU KNOW THEIR HUNGER, AND YOU + FEEL GREAT COMPASSION FOR THEM. YOU LIE DOWN AND LEAVE YOUR BODY TO + THEM; THEY SING WITH JOY AS YOUR SELF FLIES UP OVERHEAD, OUTWARD, + SPREADING, INTO THE TREES AND PLANTS AND ANIMALS AND EVERYTHING. + + YOU ARE SUDDENLY OVERWHELMED BY THE FEELING THAT YOU ARE BEING + CAUGHT UP IN THE COSMOS; YOU ARE EVERYTHING AND NOTHING; YOU ARE NOT + YOURSELF; YOU HAVE NO SELF; YOU FEEL A SUDDEN, UNREASONING TERROR; YOU + ARE STILL; YOU ARE ALL. + + SLOWLY, SOMETHING BREAKS INTO YOUR FEAR. YOU HEAR A SWEET, LOW, + BREATHY PIPING. THE PIPING CALMS YOU, AND YOU KNOW NOW IN YOUR HEART + THAT YOU ARE ALWAYS A PART OF EVERYTHING AND EVERYTHING IS WITHIN YOU. + YOU ARE STILL; YOU ARE ALL; YOU ARE LIFE AND DEATH AND REBIRTH; WITHIN + YOUR OWN HUMAN BODY IS THE MICROCOSM OF ALL THAT IS. THE GREEKS NAME + THIS ALL "PAN". + + YOU STAND BACK IN THE WOOD, HEARING THE MUSIC, SMELLING THE SMELLS + OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS, FEELING THAT PULSE OF POWER FILLING YOU, + INFORMING YOU, EMPOWERING YOU. YOU ARE ECSTATIC! YOU TAKE TO YOUR + TOES AND DANCE WITH JOY! AROUND YOU, ANIMALS COME OUT OF THE FOREST TO + DANCE WITH YOU, REJOICING IN LIFE! + + YOU SEE THE LIGHT OF THE SUN FILTERING DOWN THROUGH LEAVES, AND THE + LIGHT SEEMS TO TAKE A SHAPE. WHAT IS THAT SHAPE? WHO DO YOU SEE? + + THE GOD STANDS, SMILING, WELCOMING, BEFORE YOU. WHO IS HE? HE IS + ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE; WHAT IS HE TO YOU? HIS EYES ARE SAD AND WARY + AS A DEER'S. HOW WILL YOU DEAL WITH HIM? HE REACHES OUT TO YOU; YOU + HAVE BEEN AS HE, YOU HAVE DIED AND RISEN, YOU HAVE BEEN THE LIFE OF + WILDNESS, YOU KNOW THAT HE HAS BEEN WITHIN YOU AS YOU; WILL YOU WELCOME + HIM BACK AS HE, THE GOD? + + YOU DO TOUCH HIM, AND WELCOME HIM. HE THROWS BACK HIS HEAD TO + LAUGH FOR JOY! AND NOW YOU DANCE TOGETHER, AS ONE, FOR YOU ARE ONE. + + SIT UP. FEEL YOUR BODY! TOUCH YOUR BODY AND FEEL YOUR FLESH, FEEL + THE HEAT OF LIFE UNDER YOUR FLESH. BREATHE AND FEEL THE WIND WITHIN + YOU. MOVE, AND FEEL THE JOY OF THE DANCE! RISE UP, AND DANCE THIS + INVOCATION! + + HE IS THE STORM THAT SCOURS THE LAND + HE IS THE GUIDE OF HIDDEN WAYS + HE IS THE HOLLY AND THE OAK + HE IS THE HUNTER AND THE PREY + HE IS THE LORD OF STAG AND BEAR + HE IS THE SLAYER AND THE SLAIN + HE IS THE BLADE OF SACRIFICE + HE IS THE BLOOD THAT HEALS ALL PAIN + HE IS THE WORD THAT MADE THE WORLDS + HE IS THE SONG IN EVERY THROAT + HE IS THE IVY AND THE GRAPE + HE IS THE LORD OF RAM AND GOAT + HE IS THE HEAT IN LIMB AND LOIN + HE IS THE RAPTURE AND THE FRIGHT + HE IS THE FIRST LORD OF THE DANCE + HE IS THE FLAME UPON THE HEIGHT + HE IS THE SOWER AND THE SEED + HE IS THE STONE BESIDE THE TRACK + HE IS THE BEARDED HEADS OF GRAIN + HE IS THE LEAF AND BRANCH AND BARK + HE IS THE LORD OF HORSE AND BOAR + HE IS THE BLACKTHORN ON THE MOUND + HE IS THE PULSE OF WOODLAND'S HEART + HE IS THE HOME AND HOLY GROUND + HE IS THE SALMON IN THE POOL + HE IS THE WINNER OF THE MEAD + HE IS THE HAZEL AND THE ASH + HE IS THE SECRET IN THE REED + HE IS THE SPEAKER OF THE RUNE + HE IS THE CORACLE ON SEA + HE IS THE SWALLOWED AND REBORN + HE IS THE RIDER OF THE TREE + + When all have danced to satiation, bring the dancing to a close, + then say: + + LOOK AROUND AND SEE THE ALL IN YOUR SISTERS! REACH OUT AND EMBRACE + THE GOD YOU SEE THERE! + +III. Feeling the presence of the God + + A. What/how do you feel now? + + +--- Leigh Ann Hussey -- \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/rede-bel.txt b/religious documents/rede-bel.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..991d731 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rede-bel.txt @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +THE WICCAN REDE + +"An' it harm none, do what thou wilt." + +Do what thou will ... but don't do anything that will harm another. + + + +THE PRINCIPALS OF WICCAN BELIEF + +1. We practice rites to attune ourselves with the natural rhythm of life forces marked by the phases of the Moon and the seasonal Quarters and Cross Quarters. + +2. We recognize that out intelligence gives us a unique responsibility toward our environment. We seek to live in harmony with Nature, in ecological balance offering fulfillment to life and consciousness within an evolutionary concept. + +3. We acknowledge a depth of power far greater than that apparent to the average person. Because it is far greater than ordinary it is sometimes called "supernatural", but we see it as lying within that which is naturally potential to all. + +4. We conceive of the Creative Power in the universe as manifesting through polarity - as masculine and feminine - and that this same Creative Power lies in all people, and functions through the interaction of the masculine and feminine. We value neither above the other, knowing each to be supportive to the other. We value sex as pleasure, as the symbol and embodiment of life, and as one of the sources of energies used in magickal practice and religious worship. + +5. We recognize both outer worlds and inner, or psychological, worlds sometimes known as the Spiritual World, the Collective Unconscious, Inner Planes, etc. - and we see in the inter-action of these two dimensions the basis for paranormal phenomena and magickal exercises. We neglect neither dimension for the other, seeing both as necessary for our fulfillment. + +6. We do not recognize any authoritarian hierarchy, but do honor those who teach, respect those who share their greater knowledge and wisdom, and acknowledge those who have courageously given of themselves in leadership. + +7. We see religion, magick and wisdom in living as being united in the way one views the world and lives within it - a world view and philosophy of life which we identify as Witchcraft - the Wiccan Way. + +8. Calling oneself "Witch" does not make a Witch - but neither does heredity itself, nor the collecting of titles, degrees and initiations. A Witch seeks to control the forces within her/himself that make life possible in order to live wisely and well without harm to others and in harmony with Nature. + +9. We believe in the afffirmation and fulfillment of life in a continuation of evolution and development of consciousness giving meaning to the Universe we know and our personal role within it. + +10. Our only animosity towards Christianity, or towards any other religion or philosophy of life, is to the extent that its institutions have claimed to be "the only way" and have sought to deny freedom to others and to suppress other ways of religious practice and belief. + +11. As North American Witches, we are not threatened by debates on the history of the Craft, the origins of various terms, the legitimacy of various aspects of different traditions. We are concerned with our present and our future. + +12. We do not accept the concept of absolute evil, nor do we worship any entity known as "Satan" or "the Devil", as defined by the Christian tradition. We do not seek power through the suffering of others, nor accept that personal benefit can be derived only by denial to another. + +13. We believe that we should seek within Nature that which is contributory to our health and well-being. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/rede.txt b/religious documents/rede.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d953336 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rede.txt @@ -0,0 +1,149 @@ + +EXEGESIS ON THE WICCAN REDE +by Judy Harrow + +originally published in HARVEST - Volume 5, Number 3 (Oimelc, 1985) +second publication: THE HIDDEN PATH - Volume X, Number 2 Beltane, 1987) + + All religions began with somebody's sudden flashing insight, +enlightenment, a shining vision. Some mystic found the way and the words to +share the vision, and, sharing it, attracted followers. The followers may +repeat those precise and poetic words about the vision until they congeal +into set phrases, fused language, repeated by rote and without understanding. +Cliches begin as great wisdom - that's why they spread so fast - and end as +ritual phrases, heard but not understood. Living spirituality so easily +hardens to boring religious routine, maintained through guilt and fear, or +habit and social opportunism - any reason but joy. + + We come to the Craft with a first generation's joy of discovery, and a +first generation's memory of bored hours of routine worship in our childhood. +Because we have known the difference, it is our particular challenge to find +or make ways to keep the Craft a living, real experience for our +grandchildren and for the students of our students. + + I think the best of these safeguards is already built into the Craft as +we know it, put there by our own good teachers. On our Path, the mystic +experience itself is shared, not just the fruits of mysticism. We give all +our students the techniques, and the protective/supportive environment that +enable almost every one of them to Draw the Moon and/or Invoke the God. This +is an incredibly radical change from older religions, even older Pagan +religions, in which the only permissible source of inspiration has been to +endlessly reinterpret and reapply the vision of the Founder (the Bible, the +Book of the Law, the Koran, ... ). The practice of Drawing the Moon is the +brilliant crown of the Craft. + + But notice how often, in the old myths, every treasure has its +pitfalls? I think I'm beginning to see one of ours. Between the normal +process of original visions clotting into cliche, and our perpetual flow of +new inspiration, we are in danger of losing the special wisdom of those who +founded the modern Craft. I do not think we should assiduously preserve every +precious word. My love for my own Gardnerian tradition does not blind me to +our sexist and heterosexist roots. And yet, I want us to remain identifiably +Witches and not meld into some homogeneous "New Age" sludge. For this, I +think we need some sort of anchoring in tradition to give us a sense of +identity. Some of the old sayings really do crystallize great wisdom as well, +life-affirming Pagan wisdom that our culture needs to hear. + + So I think it's time for a little creative borrowing from our +neighbors. Christians do something they call "exegesis;" Jews have a somewhat +similar process called "midrash." What it is is something between +interpretation and meditation, a very concentrated examination of a +particular text. The assumption often is that every single word has meaning +(cabalists even look at the individual letters). Out of this inspired +combination of scholarship and daydream comes the vitality of those paths +whose canon is closed. The contemporary example, of course, is Christian +Liberation Theology, based on a re-visioning of Jesus that would utterly +shock John Calvin. + + Although our canon is not closed - and the day it is is the day I quit +-I'm suggesting that we can use a similar process to renew the life of the +older parts of our own still-young heritage. + + So, I'd like to try doing some exegesis on an essential statement of +the Craft way of life. Every religion has some sort of ethic, some guideline +for what it means to live in accordance with this particular mythos, this +worldview. Ours, called the Wiccan Rede, is one of the most elegant +statements I've heard of the principle of situational ethics. Rather than +placing the power and duty to decide about behavior with teachers or +rulebooks, the Rede places it exactly where it belongs, with the actor. + + eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill: + AN IT HARM NONE, DO WHAT YOU WILL. + +I'd like to start with the second phrase first, and to take it almost word +by word. + +do what YOU will. This is the challenge to self-direction, to figure out +what we want, and not what somebody else wants for us or from us. All of us +are subject to tremendous role expectations and pressures, coming from our +families, our employers, our friends, society in general. It's easy to just +be molded, deceptively easy to become a compulsive rebel and reflexively do +the opposite of whatever "they" seem to want. Living by the Rede means +accepting the responsibility to assess the results of our actions and to +choose when we will obey, confront or evade the rules. + +do what you WILL. This is the challenge to introspection, to know what we +really want beyond the whim of the moment. The classic example is that of the +student who chooses to study for an exam rather than go to a party, because +what she really wants is to be a doctor. Again, balance is needed. Always +going to the library rather than the movies is the road to burnout, not the +road to a Nobel. What's more, there are others values in life, such as +sensuality, intimacy, spirituality, that get ignored in a compulsively +long-term orientation. So, our responsibility is not to mechanically follow +some rule like "always choose to defer gratification in your own long-term +self interest," but to really listen within, and to really choose, each time. + +DO what you will. This is the challenge to action. Don't wait for Prince +Charming or the revolution. Don't blame your mother or the system. Make a +realistic plan that includes all your assets. Be sure to include magic, both +the deeper insights and wisdoms of divination and the focusing of will and +energy that comes from active workings. Then take the first steps right now. +But, beware of thoughtless action, which is equally dangerous. For example, +daydreaming is needed, to envision a goal, to project the results of actions, +to check progress against goals, sometimes to revise goals. Thinking and +planning are necessary parts of personal progress. Action and thought are +complementary; neither can replace the other. + + When you really look at it, word by word, it sounds like a subtle and +profound guide for life, does it not? Is it complete? Shall "do what you +will" in fact be "the whole of the law" for us? I think not. The second +phrase of the Rede discusses the individual out of context. Taken by itself, +"DO WHAT YOU WILL" would produce a nastily competitive society, a "war of +each against all" more bitter than what we now endure. That is, it would if +it were possible. Happily, it's just plain not. + + Pagan myth and modern biology alike teach us that our Earth is one +interconnected living sphere, a whole system in which the actions of each +affect all (and this is emphatically not limited to humankind) through +intrinsic, organic feedback paths. As our technology amplifies the effects of +our individual actions, it becomes increasingly critical to understand that +these actions have consequences beyond the individual; consequences that, by +the very nature of things, come back to the individual as well. Cooperation, +once "merely" an ethical ideal, has become a survival imperative. Life is +relational, contextual. Exclusive focus on the individual Will is a lie and a +deathtrap. + + The qualifying "AN IT HARM NONE," draws a Circle around the individual +Will and places each of us firmly within the dual contexts of the human +community and the complex life-form that is Mother Gaia. The first phrase of +the Rede directs us to be aware of results of our actions projected not only +in time, as long-term personal outcomes, but in space - to consider how +actions may effect our families, co-workers, community, and the life of the +Earth as a whole, and to take those projections into account in our +decisions. + + But, like the rest of the Rede, "an it harm none" cannot be followed +unthinkingly. It is simply impossible for creatures who eat to harm none. Any +refusal to decide or act for fear of harming someone is also a decision and +an action, and will create results of some kind. When you consider that +"none" also includes ourselves, it becomes clear that what we have here is a +goal and an ideal, not a rule. + + The Craft, assuming ethical adulthood, offers us no rote rules. We will +always be working on incomplete knowledge. We will sometimes just plain make +mistakes. Life itself, and life-affirming religion, still demands that we +learn, decide, act, and accept the results. + + + Judy Harrow + diff --git a/religious documents/rede2.txt b/religious documents/rede2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..166d572 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rede2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,95 @@ + ==-> Witches Rede Of Chivalry <-== + + + + Insofar as the Craft of the Wise is the most ancient and most + honorable creed of humankind, it behooves all who are Witches to act in + ways that give respect to the Old Gods, to their sisters and brothers of + the Craft, and to themselves. Therefore, be it noted that: + + + + { 1 } Chivalry is a high code of honor which is of most ancient + Pagan origin, and must be lived by all who follow the Old ways. + + + { 2 } It must be kenned that thoughts and intent put forth on this + Middle Earth will wax strong in other worlds beyond, and return + bringing into creation on this world, that which had been sent + forth. Thus one should exercise discipline, for " as ye do plant, + so shall ye harvest." + + + { 3 } It is only by preparing our minds to be as Gods that we can + ultimately attain godhead. + + { 4 } " This above all.....to thine own self be true..." + + + { 5 } A Witch's word must have the validity of a signed and witnessed + + oath. Thus, give thy word sparingly, but adhere to it like iron. + + + { 6 } Refrain from speaking ill of others, for not all truths of the + matter may be know to all. + + + { 7 } Pass not unverified words about another, for hearsay is in large + part, a thing of falsehoods. + + + { 8 } Be thou honest with others, and have them known that honesty is + likewise expected of them. + + + { 9 } The fury of the moment plays folly with the truth; to keep one's + head is a virtue. + + + { 10 } Contemplate always the consequences of thine acts upon others. + Strive not to harm. + + + { 11 } Diverse covens may well have diverse views on love between members + and with others. When a coven, clan, or grove is visited or joined, + one should discern quietly their practices, and abide thereby. + + + { 12 } Dignity, a gracious manner, and a good humor are much to be + admired. + + + { 13 } As a Witch, thou hast power, and thy powers wax strongly as wisdom + increases. therefore exercise discretion in the use thereof. + + + { 14 } Courage and honor endure forever. Their echoes remain when the + mountains have crumbled to dust. + + + { 15 } Pledge friendship and fealty to those who so warrant. Strengthen + others of the Brethren and they shall strengthen thee. + + + { 16 } Thou shall not reveal the secrets of another Witch or another + Coven. Others have laboured long and hard for them, and cherish them + as treasures. + + { 17 } Though there may be a difference between those of the Old Ways, + those who are once born must see nothing, and must hear nothing. + + { 18 } Those who follow the mysteries should be above reproach in the + eyes of the world. + + { 19 } The laws of the land should be obeyed whenever possible and + within reason, for in the main they have been chosen with wisdom. + + { 20 } Have pride in thyself, and seek perfection in body and in mind. + For the Lady has said, " How canst thou honor another unless thou + give honor to thyself first? " + + { 21 } Those who seek the Mysteries should consider themselves as select + of the Gods, for it is they who lead the race of humankind to the + highest of thrones and beyond the very stars. + diff --git a/religious documents/redes.txt b/religious documents/redes.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c0b92c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/redes.txt @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ +ab:redes.txt 13jan90 + + The Wiccan Redes + +Bide the Wiccan Redes ye must, + In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust; +Live ye must and let to live, + Fairly take and fairly give; +Form the Circle thrice about, + To keep unwelcome spirits out; +Bind fast the spell every time, + Let the words be spoke in rhyme. + +Soft of eye and light of touch, + Speak ye little, listen much; +Deosil go by waxing moon, + Sing and dance the Witches' Rune; +Widdershins go by waning moon, + Chant ye then a baleful tune; +When the Lady's moon is new, + Kiss hand to her times two; +When the moon rides at peak, + Heart's desire then ye seek. + +Heed the North wind's mighty gale, + Lock the door & trim the sail; +When the wind comes from the South, + Love will kiss them on the mouth; +When the wind blows from the West, + departed souls have no rest; +When the wind blows from the East, + Expect the new and set the feast. + +Nine woods in the cauldron go, + Burn them quick, burn them slow; +Elder be the Lady's tree, + Burn it not or curs'd ye'll be; +When the wind begins to turn, + Soon Beltane fires will burn; +When the wheel has turned to Yule, + light the log, the Horned One rules. + +Heed the flower, bush or tree + By the Lady blessed be' +When the rippling waters flow + cast a stone - the truth you'll know; +When ye have & hold a need, + Hearken not to others' greed; +With a fool no seasons spend, + Or be counted as his friend. + +Merry meet and merry part + Bright the cheeks, warm the heart; +Mind the threefold law ye should, + Three times bad and three times good; +Whene'er misfortune is enow, + Wear the star upon your brow; +True in troth ever ye be + Lest thy love prove false to thee. + +'Tis by the sun that life be won, + And by the moon that change be done; +If ye would clear the path to will, + Make certain the mind be still; +What good be tools without Inner Light ? + What good be magic without wisdom-sight ? +Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill - + An it harm none, do what ye will. + +---------- +-Very well known (public domain). WCC has it. Published in Rhuddlwm Gawr's + "The Way". Published in an pamphlet called "Ottawa Pagan Resources"; + the pamphlet was organized/written by our very own Artos. Doubtless + many other published sources. +-No reason to believe it's part of a "standard" Alexandrian or Gardnerian + BOS, but it has been copied by a lot of people. + diff --git a/religious documents/relax1.txt b/religious documents/relax1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1e942c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/relax1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ + + RELAXATION TECHNIQUES I + + October 8, 1989 + + + RELAXING THE BODY + + Close your eyes. Get yourself comfortable, and concentrate on your + breathing. + + Pay close attention to your breathing. Recognize how slow and deep + breathing will help to induce relaxation. Exhale. Then take a deep + breath in through your nose and blow it out through your mouth. + Breathe from your abdomen, deeply and slowly. + + As you concentrate on your breathing, focus your attention on an + imaginary spot in the center of your forehead. Look at the spot as if + you were trying to see it from inside your head. + + You will begin to realize that your eyelids have become tense. + + Get a sense of how tense the eyelids can become as you stare at the + spot that you can compare this feeling with relaxation. + + When your eyelids become strained and uncomfortable, let them drop. + Notice the feeling of relaxation that radiates all through and around + your eyes. Allow that feeling of warmth and relaxation to move out to + the temples and across the forehead. + + Let the relaxation then radiate to your scalp, to the back of your + head, to your ears, temples, cheeks, nose, then to your mouth and chin. + + As you feel all the tension leave your face, relax your jaw muscles. + Let your jaw open slightly, so that all the tension can smoothly flow + away. + + Relax the muscles in your neck. As you do, let your head tip forward + gently so your chin just about touches your chest. + + Let this feeling of relaxation flow down into your shoulders and from + there into the muscles of your arms and hands, then down your back, + over to the front of the chest, on down to the abdomen, and then allow + it to reach all the way down to the base of the spine. + + Let the buttocks go completely loose and limp. Allow the warmth and + relaxation to spread to the thighs, on down the legs, down to the + ankles, and down through the feet to the tips of the toes. + + Now you feel completely relaxed. Take a moment, starting from the top + of your head and working down, to check to see if any part of you is + not yet fully relaxed. + + If you find any part of your body not fully relaxed, simply inhale a + deep breath and send it into the area, bringing soothing, healing, + relaxing, nourishing oxygen to comfort that area. As you exhale + imagine blowing out right through your skin any tension, tightness, or + discomfort. By inhaling a breath into that area and exhaling right + through the skin, you are able to replace tension in any part of your + body with gentle relaxation. + + When you find yourself quiet and fully relaxed, take a few moments to + enjoy it. + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/relax2.txt b/religious documents/relax2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c631cd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/relax2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ + + RELAXATION TECHNIQUES II + + October 8, 1989 + + + DEEP BREATHING + + Close your eyes...Get yourself comfortable. Pay careful attention to + your breathing. Recognize how slow and deep breathing will help to + induce relaxation. Exhale, then take a deep breath in through your + nose and blow it out through your mouth. Breathe from your abdomen, + deeply and slowly. Allow your abdomen to rise and fall as you breathe. + + With each inhale and exhale, count your breaths. count ONE on the + inhale and TWO on the exhale. Focus only on the breath and your + counting. + + If a thought comes into your mind which causes you to lose track of + your counting, just return to the count. + + If a thought comes into your mind, look at it as though it were someone + else's. Neither grab hold of it nor chop it down. Neither stop it nor + pursue it. Simply watch it come into view and disappear. Then + continue your counting. + + Count your breaths until you feel deeply relaxed. Breathe in and out + slowly, counting each breath, until you feel quiet, relaxed, and still + alert. + + EOF> + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/relax3.txt b/religious documents/relax3.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f20c218 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/relax3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ + + RELAXATION TECHNIQUES III + + October 8, 1989 + + + BEGINNING THE AP EXPERIENCE / REMEMBERING + + + Stretch, take a good deep stretch, all through your body. Slide down + in the afterglow of that stretch, into a relaxed position. + + Holding that afterglow feeling, reflect back on how it feels to be + relaxed, as if you were in bed at night on the edges of sleep (though + this time you stay AWAKE and don't miss the fun). If you are already + trained in some form of meditation or Astral Projection, reflect back + on one of your BEST experiences of meditation or AP, and how that felt. + If you are religious, reflect back on how it feels to listen in prayer. + + Whichever experience you reflect back on, remember it more and more + completely. Remember more and more clearly what it feels like, what + elements in the experience go along with that feeling. + + Remembering an experience re-creates the mental and physical basis of + that experience. This is why you are already virtually back in the + quality of this experience you are remembering, this experience you are + remembering more about, more and more clearly. + + While remembering the feeling and quality of this experience, now + slowly breathe in deeply and breathe out deeply...3 to 5 times, and + just let your muscles go a little more with each breath out, relaxing + more deeply. + + Become more aware of what you are feeling and experiencing within you, + and become more aware of your surroundings. It's surprising how much + of a mental picture you can build up of your surroundings, just from + what you can hear. + + Taking about six seconds to do so, breathe in slowly and very deeply. + + Exhale as slowly and deeply. With your lungs empty, try to blow out an + imaginary candle a foot in front of your face - that's how deeply you + should exhale. + + Go on inhaling and exhaling as deeply as you can, very slowly, six + seconds or longer each way. + + + + May you find the joy and happiness that you deserve...and also utilize + this text to your advantage. If you know someone that could benefit + from this text, please feel free to give them a copy. + + EOF> + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/religscl.txt b/religious documents/religscl.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e9de093 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/religscl.txt @@ -0,0 +1,320 @@ +Newsgroups: alt.atheism +From: shallit@graceland.uwaterloo.ca (Jeffrey Shallit) +Subject: "If You Don't Fight Back, It's Wrong" by Daniel Weisman +Message-ID: +Organization: University of Waterloo +Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1993 17:03:17 GMT +Lines: 312 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +This article is reprinted (with permission) from Freethought +Today, bulletin of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. + +For more information, write + +Freedom From Religion Foundation +P. O. Box 750 +Madison, WI 53701 +USA +(608) 256-8900 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +"If You Don't Fight Back, It's Wrong" + +In June, 1992, the United States Supreme Court declared prayers at +public high-school graduations to be unconstitutional, in the Lee v. +Weisman decision. This article is excerpted from Professor Weisman's +acceptance speech at the 15th annual Freedom From Religion Foundation +convention in San Antonio, December 5, 1992, when he and his family +were awarded the Foundation's 1992 "Freethinkers of the Year." His talk +was punctuated with applause and laughter. + + +By Prof. Daniel Weisman + +Let me share an impression of my day here. We were approached and got +to talk to a lot of you. Even the false modesty we build up in academia +was inadequate to the kind of expressions people shared with us. A +number of people came up to us and expressed with deep sincerity their +appreciation for what we did. I can tell you as some of you shared your +stories about what you've done, I felt like organizing a "Heroes +Anonymous" group here! + +We simply got very angry at what was an extremely inappropriate action +by a local school board in response to a question we raised. + +In 1986 Merith graduated from our neighborhood public middle school. At +the graduation a Baptist minister had us stand, bow our heads and pray +as a group to Jesus Christ: "We all thank Jesus Christ. He made these +kids what they are today." + +I had lots of reactions. Most of those have been well-reported in the +media. Mostly those reactions had to do with my identity as a Jew, but +also as a social worker where there is a commitment in my profession to +respond to challenges of vulnerable people, who always tend to be in +the minority, whether it is race or religion. I reacted on both levels, +and just raised some questions with my local school district. I sent a +note to the principal, who wasn't actually at that graduation because +of a family problem: "You missed something ... We hope you share our +reaction." We never heard from anybody. It's very unusual not to get an +answer. + +Three years passed. Deborah came up to graduate that year in 1989 and +we reminded the local school that we had been upset in the past. They +didn't answer us in February, in March, in April. We knew there was a +problem. Eventually we were able to get a meeting with the principal, +after a school teacher told us they had received our complaint and +recognized how uncomfortable we were, and therefore they had arranged +to get a rabbi to give the message at the graduation! (This is +absolutely true!) We had a meeting with the principal and he basically +said, "So sue me." Well, we did! [lots of clapping] + +The point I'm trying to make is: I appreciate being appreciated. We all +do. But when you're in this position you get pushed. And you have a +choice. Either take it, or if it's important enough and it's a +reasonable thing to fight about, fight it. If you don't fight back, +it's wrong. You don't feel so much a hero as, "What else am I supposed +to do?" [clapping] + +You do take abuse. You do get negative attention. But you have to live +with yourself. Part of the problem we face in having to fight these +battles over and over is that people who do believe the way we all do +on church and state take it. Some of them take it because they don't +have tenure and they don't have options. But you can also join with +other people and devise strategies not to take it. + +My two biggest disappointments in having taken the case were the lack +of support from the organized Jewish community in Rhode Island, and +from my own field, social work. The organized Jewish community was +embarrassed. Individuals, lots of individuals expressed support, people +we don't know, people we do know. In fact, on the flip side, one of the +harassing calls we got at eleven o'clock at night was from the +principal of the Jewish day school saying, "You don't like public +schools? Send your kid here. We'll give you a scholarship." It came +from everywhere: the lack of support from the organized Jewish +community--who know they knew better; the lack of organized support +from my social work profession, where there was no risk to express +support. They just couldn't make the connection that I felt was vital +for what our profession is about. + +I think you know the rest about the case. It shouldn't have gone past +the meeting with the principal. It did. It shouldn't have gone past +district court. It did. So on and so forth. With the Supreme Court I +just got the winning ticket. The Supreme Court, very surprisingly for +us, ruled in our favor. + +I can tell you during that last spring, we spent a number of ACLU +meetings practicing concession speeches. We actually had written +concession speeches, and when somebody in the group asked, "What are +you going to say if you win?" we all looked at that person and said: +"Get a life!" + +We did not have anything ready when we won. It was incredibly +exciting. Language doesn't capture the feelings I had. When the phone +rang I was actually on the same block as the Pawtucket creche, in the +same complex, at a meeting there. I got the phone call there and I +said, "Two losses on the same block!" But fortunately that didn't +happen. + +The feeling that you didn't lose an important case is incredible. The +second thought: not only didn't we lose, but we actually won! There's +no match for such feelings, among the experiences I've had in life. + +Let me just share a couple of other thoughts. When Anne called us +several months ago to describe what she wanted to do for us, she was +very good and asked us to whom the plaque should be made out. In our +discussions about it we decided this is the year of family values! This +was a family project. [clapping] + +This morning both speakers in the morning session, Allen Berger and +Craig Phelon, made tremendously complimentary statements about us and I +can just mirror them back on both of them, they're both courageous +people. Allen describes himself as a "nonbelieving Jew at a Catholic +college." That was kind of amusing. And I thought, Hey, I'm a +nonbelieving Jew in a public college--in a Catholic state! A +distinction without a difference as far as most Rhode Islanders are +concerned. That's part of the problem. + + + +* * * + +The current agenda as far as I can ascertain of the religious right is +to redevelop this country as a Christian nation. It's in their language +and it's in the post-case discussion: "This is a Christian nation." The +distinction between the majority and a body of law that separates a +majority from public policy is lost in their rhetoric. That's the First +Amendment, which is critically important and protects us from the +abuses that the majority will perpetrate on us. + +Remember the Supreme Court decision only pertained to public schools +through twelfth grade and deliberately excluded colleges on the +assessment that by that age you can't be coerced anymore. And so the +separation of church and state is not the issue; coercion is, even +though they specifically rejected the coercion test. + +I want to show you something. This campus mail came to my office the +day before yesterday: "Celebrating the birth of Christ--program +sponsored by the chaplain's office" of our public college. Here's what +they're doing this month. "Preparing our hearts for Christmas. Roman +Catholic Mass, Advent Prayer Hour for Roman Catholics." When I raised +this issue among my colleagues, the answer I get is, "The Supreme Court +says you can do this, so what's your problem?" People of good will and +people who know better are inclined not to fight back. The other +argument I get is, "She's not an employee of the college. What's the +big deal?" She isn't--she's paid for by the church but she has the +imprimatur of the college. It's the same fight. + + +Craig Phelon said that journalism loses its professionalism when it +comes to religion. That may be. In my experience of over three years +with the media, I couldn't find that professionalism. + +A quick story. NBC came to our house. They called the day before: +"We're coming." They showed up with the film crew. They set up at the +house, the lights, the whole thing. The woman who was not one of their +luminaries, someone I had never seen before, said off-camera, "They +just assigned me this case. I don't know what it's about. Tell me what +to ask you." Then they turn the lights on. + +We were on "Good Morning, America" the day before the case came down. I +almost missed my flight, and, by the way I specifically asked not to +fly Continental because it's a scab airline, and that's what they put +me on. The producer had me on the phone for too long, specifically +reviewing what we were going to talk about in our 40-second bite. I +gave him a lot of things to talk about. I said there are really two +things not to ask, because they're dead-end questions. One is: don't +ask me why we sued a rabbi. It was a circumstantial thing and really +unrelated to the First Amendment issues of the case, it's just a +happenstance, but it will kill the time, actually the five minute piece +they had, and you won't get a chance to probe. The second thing is +don't ask Deborah what her friends thought, because everybody's asked +that, and it's a fairly simple answer. At first, her friends didn't +understand it. If they talked about, they came to understand. + +We get to "Good Morning, America," the Green Room, the powder room, we +meet with the people who think they're very important, we should know +who they are. I'd never heard of Joan Lunden 'til I'm sitting beside +her. I didn't know who she was! (She didn't like that!) She says to me, +"So why a rabbi?" I answered it. She goes to Deborah: "What do your +friends think?" + +When cert. was granted (when the Supreme Court said they would take +this case) it was March of 1991. I was on sabbatical in Seattle. I +came home for Passover. We were having our version of a Passover Seder +at the house, which might appear very similar to the [nonprayer] +breakfast we had this morning. Here's our Passover tradition: Pass the +food. So CNN calls the night before. "You are going to be on CNN +tomorrow." And we say, "Whoa! Okay, send your camera crew. We're doing +a Passover thing but if you come in the morning ... " + +"No, no, you don't understand. You're going to Atlanta first thing in +the morning." + +"You have to understand. It's Passover." + +"Okay, we'll do New York, we'll fly you to New York. How about if we +send a limo and drive you to Boston?" + +I kept saying to the CNN person, "Look, here's my problem. I cooperate +with the press, I believe in the media, but it's Passover, we've got +the house set up. I've just got in from Seattle." + +The person said, "You don't understand, yourself. This is CNN. People +die to get on CNN." + +"Not me," I said. "It's a little ironic we're talking about a religion +case and you're not willing to appreciate an important Jewish holiday." + +They finally arranged to do a taping at the house at 1:00 in the +afternoon. We live on a little street with houses, the typical New +England block in Providence. They closed one end of the street with saw +horses, put up trucks with a dish. Neighbors are coming out taking +pictures of CNN. It was a nice day, the light was good. They made a +studio out of my back porch, a deck arrangement, with incredible wires +and all kinds of stuff. They got Vivian and Deborah since it was a +woman's production and show. I'm inside peeking out. + +They asked them each one question. Deborah's question was: "What do +your friends think of this?" + +Vivian's question was, "So tell us what happened, tell us the story." +After all this effort, Vivian has three minutes for quick review. +Deborah told them what her friends thought of it, and then they went to +a "panel of experts," and didn't come back to Vivian and Deborah. Then +the show was over! The panel of experts was uninformed, but Vivian's +mike was dead. They wouldn't let her interrupt with the facts, not +just the facts of our case, but what the Lemon Test says. They were +utterly uninformed. + + +C-Span, some of the professional media, the American Law Journal, were +excellent. They got to the facts, they were critical, they challenged +us. But most of the electronic media industry ought to be really +suspect. + + + +* * * + +Why does the religious right keep coming back to the public schools? I +just finished reading Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol. Let me +just tell you something about San Antonio schools. + +The inner city district of San Antonio has a school called Cooper +Middle School. In 1988 they spent $2,800 a year per kid. Ten minutes +from town is a neighborhood called Alamo Heights. They spent $4,600 per +year per kid. Teachers in inner cities have $27,000 a year salaries, +$31,000 in Alamo Heights. The gifted program: $46 per kids, Alamo +Heights; $1 inner city. The taxes raised per kid (through property +tax): $3,600 per kid, Alamo Heights; $924 inner city. In Texas the +range in money spent per kid per year for public education: $2,100 to +$20,000. You know who's in the $2,100 and who's in the $20,000. The tax +base in this state (the amount of value in property behind each kid): +$20,000 is the lowest, and $14 million is the highest. + +A funny little side statistic to all this: throughout Texas and +throughout the country, poor communities tax themselves at higher rates +for education. They're prepared to spend more out of the percent of +what they've got, but because the tax base is so low, the disparity is +too great. When these people are in lawsuits challenging the inequities +on constitutional grounds of equal protection, the defense is a +thinly-veiled defense of privilege, of social control by the rich, of +the poor, to serve the needs of the people in charge, and to maintain a +system that if properly challenged would collapse of its own weight, it +is so irrational and abusive. + +I don't have any "faith" in conspiracy theory. There's not some room +where the people in charge are meeting and arranging all this. I think +the system works the way the system works. I would argue that prayer +and organized religion in the school is an awfully effective way to +divert people's attention from these real problems. + +We're living in a period of time when there's some room for optimism, a +new administration. + +But we've got to be there. We've got to stop every little approach at +gaining back the ground we've just won on this little case about prayer +and graduation. They'll be back. We don't have the luxury of saying, +"I'm not going to fight it, I'll take it." + +It's nice to be a hero, I enjoy it, I love hearing you say my name; you +can say it all night. It was fun sitting in the Supreme Court hearing +eight justices saying "Weisman this and Weisman that" (Thomas didn't +say anything), but more important, I can live with myself. I think most +people shouldn't be able to live with themselves if they leave these +violations unchallenged. + + +* * * + +Daniel Weisman is a Professor of Social Worker at Rhode Island +College. He was a plaintiff with his daughter Deborah in Lee v. +Weisman. His Ph.D in social work is from Rutgers. He has also worked as +a community organizer. Vivian Weisman was not a plaintiff in the suit, +simply because she was out of town at the time it was filed. She has a +Master's of Social Worker from the University of Chicago and is +currently assistant executive director of the Jewish Community Center, +Rhode Island. diff --git a/religious documents/rhymchrg.txt b/religious documents/rhymchrg.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab5ff25 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rhymchrg.txt @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ + RHYMING CHARGE OF THE GODDESS + + I am the harmonious tune of the songbird + And the laughter of a gleeful child. + I am the bubbling sound of the running brook + And the scent of the flowers wild. + + I am the floating leaf upon the breeze + And the dancing fire in the forest glade. + I am the sweet smell of rains upon the soil + And the rapture of passion when love is made. + + I am the germination of seed in the Spring + And the ripening of wheat in the Sun. + I am the peaceful depth of the twilight + That soothes the soul when day is done. + + I am found in the twinkling of an aged eye... + And found in the birth of a newborn pup... + Yes...Birth and Growth and Death, am I + I am the gracious Earth, on whom you sup. + + I am your sister, your mother, the wise one. + I wrap you gently in the warmth of my love. + That which you seek you shall find within: + Not without...not below...not above! + + Remember always, my children, be reverent + Be gentle, loving and kind to each other + And hold sacred the Earth and its creatures + For I am the Lady, Creatrix and Mother! + +-Kalioppe- + 1993 diff --git a/religious documents/rights.txt b/religious documents/rights.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cd44d5a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rights.txt @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ + WITCHES PRESSING FOR RELIGIOUS RIGHTS + +By Bob Harvey, religious editor, Ottawa Citizen. + + Canadian witchcraft is growing up and becoming an institution. +Witches have formed two different national associations to press +governments for the rights they say they deserve as abona fide +religion. + Among the privaleges being demanded by the Wiccan Church of +Canada and the Congregationalist Witchcraft Association of Canada: the +right to marry and bury their adherents, and federal status as +tax-exempt charities. + The Toronto-based Wiccan Church is 13 years old, and +participates as a full member of an Ontario Interfaith +chaplaincy commitee. That opens the doors for Wiccan Priests and +Priestesses to visit members in provincial jails and hospitals. + The Congregationalist Witchcraft Association of Canada is based +in Vancouver, and has only recently obtained its charter as a non-profit +association. + Tamarra James, one of the founders of the Wiccan Church, argues, +with some justification, that as long as governments deny Wiccan +priests and priestesses the right to conduct marriages and +funerals, Canadian witches are being denied the freedom of +religion. + "These are rites of passage which from time out of mind are the +provinces of religion." + Already, groups like at least one spiritualist church have such +rights, and the witches deserve as much. But the witches' quest is not +just a simple human rights issue. + There are two problems the witches will have to overcome. The +first is that when governments give religious groups the right to +leaglly marry people, they grant tacit endorsement to the groups. That's +why Ontario demands a religious group be incorporated in the province +for 25 years before it can apply to have its ministers or priests +lecensed to perform marriages. + If the group makes it through 25 years without causing any +public scandals, the government can probably safely grant it the right +to marry its members. + A bigger problem for the witches will be overcomming a neagative +image that is centuries old. + That image is on display every year at Halloween, a festival +that's sacred to witches. James says may of the depictions of witches in +children's books are simply hate literature, and many Wiccan children +come home from school with tears in their eyes the first time they're +pressured to draw pictures of horrendous-looking witches. + The stereotyping is obviously wrong, but the reality is still +that many Canadians may never be comfortable with the idea of being +buried next to a witch whose gravesite has been consecrated in Wiccan +rituals. After all, Ontario still has different cemetaries for Jews and +Christians who want to be buried in ground consecrated by their won +faiths. + Some of the beliefs of Canadian witches are set out in a +statement by the Congregationalist Witchcraft Association that James +says the Wiccan Church would also have little difficulty with. +Those beliefs include: + + It is appropriate to name and worship a variety of gods and + goddesses. + + We can, through petition, action and ritual, cause change in the + world in accrding with our wills. + + All acts of love and pleasure are acts of praise of the goddess. + This specifically includes all non-coercive sexual orientations. + + Like it or not, those and other beliefs of Canada's witches +would still be vehemently opposed by many Canadians. That opposition +from other religious groups is likely to ge the biggest stumbling block +for witches trying to win greater recognition by government. + + +(Reproduced from The Ottawa Citizen, March 1992). diff --git a/religious documents/ritdedic.txt b/religious documents/ritdedic.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3e6c6b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ritdedic.txt @@ -0,0 +1,269 @@ +PRE-INITIATORY DEDICATION RITUAL + + by Ashta'ar-Arthura and Cleindori + for the Proteus lineage + and anyone else who wants to use it. + + +premise: "Every Witch is a Pagan; not every Pagan is a Witch." + + + There are many ways to honor Nature in our lives. For some, regular +participation in Pagan circles is a way to stay attuned to seasonal rhythms, an +enrichment and support for their real work in the world, a way of finding +community. An artist, a doctor, a mother, a counselor - such people may find +joy and sustenance in Pagan celebration eight times a year, or even at each +Moon, but wish to pursue it no farther. They are the Earth Mother's children, +as fully as are Her priests and priestesses. Their lives contribute as much as +ours to the re-creation of Pagan community, the restoration of ecological +sanity. A window is not opened by lifting one side. + + Others of us find in active priesthood our life's work, our art form. We +will dedicate a larger proportion of our time and energy to the religion +itself. We are the producers of ritual and ceremony, not the consumers. Not +because we are better, holier, or more devoted; but because this is where our +talents, and our delight, seem to lie. + + In our observation, people often spend some time exploring the community, +reading, attending public circles or festivals, perhaps creating personal +rituals or meditations for themselves. For some, this time of exploration +fosters a hunger. They wish to study more formally, explore more +systematically, aim for initiation into the priesthood of the Goddess. + + In the old days, such people would have been initiated before being taught +anything of importance. The need for secrecy was so dire that even the simplest +information was withheld. Indeed, no public festivals or Pagan circles existed +as places of exploration and discovery. Probably we lost many potentially +talented leaders by having no adequate channels in; but however much we +diminished, this is how we survived. The time for simple survival, thankfully, +is past. Now is the time for re-seeding. + + At the very end of the initiation, the candidate is declared to be "a +Witch and a Priest/ess." We were not willing in Proteus to make this +declaration before the Gods until the person had demonstrated to us their skill +and capacity as a ritual leader. Nor were we willing to allow a candidate to +make the commitment involved in accepting initiation until s/he had experienced +ritual leadership. We ask for a minimum year and a day of study, and +demonstration of competence by creating and conducting a Circle for our group. +There is enough material publicly available now that we can easily provide +this training without going into the oathbound rituals in our Book of Shadows. + + This decision created its own problems. By withholding initiation for a +year, we were leaving an equally important life passage unmarked - the point at +which a person decides and formally begins to study for the priesthood. That +moment should surely be celebrated! Moreover, there are commitments short of +the initiatory oath that are appropriate at this point. What follows is our +first approximation of a pre-initiatory dedication ritual. + + We more than welcome feedback from our family on this one. We plead for +it! + + +logistics: + + In this model, one coven elder agrees to enter into an apprenticeship +relationship with the candidate. While this would most typically be the coven +leader of the opposite gender to the candidate's, there may be good reason to +choose some other elder instead. The decision is made by four people: the +candidate, the elder who will be primary teacher, and both coven leaders. We +recommend consulting with all elders of the coven if at all feasible. + + We strongly recommend giving the candidate a list of the questions s/he +will be asked several days in advance, so s/he will know what commitments are +required before entering the Circle. We also recommend encouraging the +candidate to respond as fully as possible, rather than with a simple yes or no. +Elegant language is less important at this moment than giving the candidate the +opportunity to state her or his feelings and values within a Circle and before +the people whose company s/he aspires to join - and the exercise in personal +clarification that inheres in deciding what to say. + + The ritual here presented can be elaborated, and we recommend it, as time +and inclination allow. Some examples: in addition to the ritual welcome, each +coven member might offer the candidate some advice, or a blessing, or some +personal statement about Witchcraft and the process of learning involved. Small +gifts - a crystal, a homemade dream pillow - might be offered as talismans for +the voyage of discovery now beginning. Cakes and wine, with toasts to the +new student, might follow. + + +ritual: + +[in Circle, with all coven members present, and teaching elder at altar, +candidate steps to center carrying athame or other working tool] + +elder: (c's name), what do you seek? + +candidate: I seek to study Witchcraft. I ask you to teach me. + +elder: Do you understand that Witchcraft is the priesthood of the Old Gods +and Old Ways of Nature, and that every Witch is a priestess or priest? + +candidate: [respond] + +elder: Do you understand that initiation into that priesthood will change +your life forever, in ways that you cannot now foresee? + +candidate: [respond] + +elder: Do you understand what priesthood requires: that, if you become a +Witch, you serve the Lady and the Lord by serving Their People, to the fullest +of your ability? + +candidate: [respond] + +elder: Knowing these things, do you want to study Witchcraft and its +related arts until you know enough to decide whether this is truly your Path? + +candidate: [respond] + +elder: Do you understand that Witchcraft is one of many means to serve the +Old Gods and awaken the Old Ways, and that even this is not your way after all, +you may learn and grow while you are here? Can you accept that the decision may +be no? + +candidate: [respond] + +elder: Teaching what I love is a great joy. But I can only teach in joy if +I know that what I love will be used and shared with care and honor. Before I +am willing to teach you, there are three things and a fourth that you must +promise to me: + + Will you respect and protect the confidence of all who you meet in +the Circle and all who seek our aid, revealing their identities to no one +except by their explicit permission? + +candidate: [respond] + +elder: Will you practice and teach the Craft for love alone, using this +knowledge or teaching it only as a free gift, as I give it now to you, never +accepting payment for it in money or goods or labor? + +candidate: [respond] + +elder: Will you promise never to use what I teach you to affect another +person, avoiding not only baneful magic but all well-intentioned meddling, +unless you have that person's explicit permission? + +candidate: [respond] + +elder: And if time brings fullness, as all here hope and expect it will, +when you teach new students of your own, will you require these three pledges +of them, along with their pledge to similarly bind their own students, so that +all that spring from this line may be so pledged? + +candidate: [respond] + +elder: [ONLY PROCEEDING IF ALL RESPONSES HAVE BEEN AFFIRMATIVE] This +being so, I consent to teach you. This is how I value my labor - that I will +plant only good seed in good soil, to become fruit both sound and sweet. I +will teach you, I will learn from you, I will learn with you. So we begin by +exchanging our pledges. Place your hand on this athame and repeat after me: + + I, (name), here and now pledge + To you (name), to the Gods, + to all in this Circle + And, most truly, to myself, + That I will explore the Path called Witchcraft + Its lore and its symbols; + its rituals and its deeper meanings + Sharing with you my joy in discovery + and all my doubts and qualms. + Exploring all questions with open mind and heart. + Until I know surely whether or not + I am for the priesthood + and Witchcraft is for me + In token of this pledge I swear + on this tool of my power + To devote myself, from this moment on, + to learning the ways of Witchcraft + + [cover candidate's hand on tool with own hand] + And I make this pledge to you in return + + For the lesser knowledge, which can be taught, + I will be your teacher. + For the greater knowledge, which must be discovered, + I will be your guide and your friend. + For the questions and perplexities of the path, + I will be your companion. + To answer when I may; or simply + to be silent as you seek your own answers + And when the time comes to choose + whether you will enter the priesthood, + I will share with you + all I have observed and thought. + And may the Gods prosper our work together. + + Know that although I am your primary teacher, this Circle is not +made of the two of us alone. All here are dedicated to the Old Ways and each +has unique knowledge. All of us learn from and with each other. You, too, bring +the learning of a lifetime and the fresh insight of a beginner's questions. +Together we are more than the simple sum of each of us alone. Go around the +Circle, now, and accept each person's greetings. + +coveners: [embrace candidate in turn and say] I am _______. I am your +friend. In time, I may be your sister (or brother). + +candidate: [respond with same formula] + +elder: [bless the athame or other working tool that candidate brought +into Circle]. I return this working tool to you with my blessing. Accept it, +as I have accepted your pledge. Use it now, as your first ritual act. + +candidate: [go to each quarter and salute in any way s/he knows] Powers of +the East (South, West, North) I, ______, call on you to witness my pledge and +ask you to bless my time of exploration. [silent salute in East]. + +elder: -------, be welcome in the Circle! [embrace, almost certain to be +followed by group hug]. + +all: SO MOTE IT BE! + + +STUDENT'S PLEDGE - alternative versions +from Coven Risingstar + + +#1 + + And the need cannot be denied, + for I am the Mother's child + And have come back to the forsaken ways + + Teach me, Lady Queen*, + Child of our Mother, + The words of respect She would have us know, + The rituals by which we worship + Her Who birthed us of Herself. + Guide me in the Way + That nurtures all and harms none + As I seek to regain that + which was lost so long ago. + + And, finally, + walk beside me as Sister, (or Brother) + for we are both children of the Mother + + +#2 + + And the need cannot be denied' + for I am the Mother's child, + and have come back to the Ways of Old + + Teach me, Lady Queen*, + Child of our Mother, + The words of respect She would have us know + The rituals by which we worship + Her who birthed us out of Herself + Guide me as I seek what no other can teach me, + that which is mine but so long denied. + + And, finally, walk beside me as Sister (or Brother) + We are both children of our Mother. + + + + * I think I would substitute something like "Teach me, Elder Priest/ess" +or, better yet, simply "Teach me, friend" for this line. - Judy + diff --git a/religious documents/riteold.txt b/religious documents/riteold.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d87210c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/riteold.txt @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ + -=- The Old Religion -=- + + + Rituals of the Old Religion, known as Witchcraft or " Wicca " + affects us in may ways. They speak too our present needs, help + us to transform the Future, and enable us to experience a + special link with The Pagan Past. + + The Main Tenet Of Witchcraft, The Wiccan Rede, is: + + " An Harm None, Do What Thou Wilt " + + Do what you will... But don't do anything that will harm + another. Its as simple as that. + + + + + Consider This: + + " We Wiccans give thanks to the Mighty Ones + + For the richness and goodness of life. + + As there must be rain with the sun, + + To make all things good, so we must suffer + + Pain with Our Joy, to know all things. + + Our Love is ever with the Gods, + + For though we know not their thoughts, + + Yet we know their hearts, That all is for our good. " + + So Mote It Be + diff --git a/religious documents/rites.txt b/religious documents/rites.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7861b8d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rites.txt @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +Excerpt from "Witchcraft - What Is It?" by Paul Hugli. + +MODERN WITCHCRAFT RITES + + Most modern rites of wicca are derived from Dr. Gerald +Brosslow Gardner, philosopher, who travelled the world, returning +to his native England in 1946. He had knowledge of ancient +religions and opened a witchcraft museum on the Isle of Mann. +Also, he was a practising witch and by his death in 1964 he had +thousands of followers. + + Ceremonial setup consists of five things: 1) secrecy; 2) an +alter covered with white cloth; around it is a nine foot diameter +circle marked on the floor with chalk or tape; 3) about the circle +are the cabbalistic symbols of wicca, which will help to summon the +gods; 4) a candle is placed at each compass point, and on the alter +is a censer (with burning incense), a whip or scourge, an athame (a +small knife), a copper pentacle, a long blade sword, and containers +of salt and water; and 5) a pentagram is drawn within the circle, +representing the four elements (fire, water, air, and earth) and +the Quintessence (the so-called fifth element...the unseen or +beyond...the source of occult power). + + The actual ceremony can be conducted by the HP, wearing a +bronze helmet with horns (representing the hunting god), or the +HPS, who represents the Golden Mother or Great Mother (the goddess +of fertility). The coven members are either naked or dressed in +white robes. The worshippers are taken into the circumference of +the circle. Near by is THE BOOK OF SHADOWS, which each new leader +hand-copies from her "mentor". + + There are four parts to the wicca ceremony: 1) The blessing of +the coven--the circle is consecrated with salt and water; and the +HP or HPS recites, over the bowed heads of the coven, "Eko, Eko, +Azarak...Eko, Eko, Zamelak...Eko, Eko, Eko, Eko."; then all members +join hands; 2) The ritual dance--members dance around the circle as +the leader calls the gods to guide them; 3) The initiation of new +members--if the neophyte is female, the HP performs the rite; the +HPS if male. The new member kneels naked before the altar, the +leader rising the athame high and to the East, tells the gods of +another initiation...asking for their blessing. Then the neophyte +is allowed to enter the circle, where he is blindfolded and +wrists tied behind the back with a cord tied to the neck. he is +instructed by the HPS/HP not to pass on the secrets of the coven +and the promise is sealed with blood from the neophyte's small +finger. With the ritual sword at the neophyte's breast, he vows +his/her obedience to the cult. Then the neophyte is unbound and +has the blindfold removed. Lastly, the HPS/HP perform the "five- +fold kiss"...on the neophyte's feet, knees, genitals, breasts, and +lips...thus signifying the birth of a new witch; 4) The request to +the gods, asking for the gift of health, prosperity, fertility, and +well-being. Then another ritual dance takes place. And, though +the dance may seem erotic, intercourse is the exception and not the +rule. Transfered to computer by Allyson Taylor \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ritmabon.txt b/religious documents/ritmabon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c0c715a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ritmabon.txt @@ -0,0 +1,92 @@ + + A MABON OUTLINE: + + (soon to be a major Mabon Ritual, at a terminal near you.) + +I. General Mabon info to start with, set the mood, ect... : + +A. What is Mabon? +1. Mabon, sometimes known as the Harvest/Thanksgiving Ritual of the +Autumn Equinox, is one of the Spokes of the Wheel of the Year. In the +many Earth of Pagan Religions, a special kinship with the passing of +the seasons is felt... this is usually due to the history of the said +Tradition, most of which stem from agrarian culture, where the season +marked the way of life. From planting to reaping to winter to +summer... the seasons were of great importance to our ancenstors, for +their very existence depended upon good harvests, mild winters, enough +rainfall, and the like. + +2. So... having shown the importance of the seasons, we shall turn to +Mabon itself. Autumn.. Harvest time.. the reaping of what was sown +and cared thru during the year. A time of Thankfulness and Rejoicing. +So, of course, someone, at some point in time must have said... "Now +that the work is over... LET'S PARTY !!!" + +3. This is the essence of Mabon. Rejoicing in a bountiful harvest, +thanking the Gods for being so kind during the year, and, hopefully, +helping in winning over the Gods' favour for the coming year. + + +B. OK, so much for Mabon itself, now... What are we going to do? +1.Good question, and so.. on to the heart of this article... + + +II. About THE MABON RITE itself: + + Now, this will be a very Discordian Ritual in that each participant +will be (more or less) writing his/her own part. This outline is +provided to sorta nudge (nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more sir, +say no more!) people into making their individual pieces able to fit +into the whole thing... ( I feel like the Green Ball outta "HEAVY +METAL", the movie, something which ties things together). + +Back to the rite itself. + +Basically, 6 personages will be represented: +A Caller or Watcher of the EAST + SOUTH + WEST + and NORTH. +A High Priest, and +A High Priestess. + + Of course, since this is a generic Rite, the terms "Lord" and +"Lady" will be used when referring to the Male and Female aspects of +divinity/godhood/whatever... individuals may use which ever names they +wish, for a Rose, by any other name, would still smell as sweet. + + + +III. OUTLINE: + +A. Invocation... once everybody has arrived, a Circle shall be cast, +more or less, and the 4 Watchers/Callers each get to do their thing +invoking that which that direction symbolizes to come and attend the +festivities. After which, either the HPS or HP, or both would +consecrate the circle... in our case.. the circle will be around each +person at their 'puter.. with a sense of being connected to each other +via the others' 'puters. So.. what we'll do is... after the circle is +cast, and the 4 corners have done their things, then the HP will call +upon the Lord to attend, and the HPS shall call upon the Lady, (or, if +we want to be different, we can have the HP call the Lady, and the HPS +call the Lord... it's not as traditional, but I know of some Ladies +who are more likely to pay attention to some Young HP than some HPS, +if you get my meaning [wink]). + +B. Once invoked... it's time for the thanksgiving part... + we all got things we're thankful for... now's the chance + +C. After the Thanks are over, a customary requesting of Blessing for +the coming year is asked. + +D. That done with, it's time to dismiss the summoned ones... first, +around the circle.. each corner doing it's thing...the dismissal +consists of a Hail to the being summoned, a flattery (as I call it), +and then a structured dismissal (eg. "Air of the EAST... blah, blah, +blah,.. Go if thou must, but stay if thou wilt"). + The HP and HPS dismiss the Lord and Lady last with similar words. + +E. PARTY TIME!!!! get out the Beer, munchies, what have you... +celebrate.. you've earned it. + + diff --git a/religious documents/rocksee.txt b/religious documents/rocksee.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15e750f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rocksee.txt @@ -0,0 +1,86 @@ +Rock Seeing +----------------------------------------------- +This is a bit of experience from my recent workshop, where we used +rocks to answer a question. But first, you need a question (have it +in mind when you head out wherever you're going), and then you need a rock... + +The descriptive size is "2-fist sized" or "grapefruit" sized. It +should not be a crystal, and does not have to be round. Best place to +find one is to go out in the "wilderness" (anywhere not overly +populated with cement products) and let one call to you. Ask the rock +spirit for permission to remove it (if you intend to). Usually it's +enough just to carry it to where you can sit comfortably. + +Place your rock on the ground in front of you, and ask it the question +that you have on your mind. Be focused - one question per rock, +please! Now, without moving the rock, look at the surface on top. +What do you see there? (It helps to write down your question - so you +won't forget or change it - and also write down the things you see.). +There might be the pattern of a leaf on the rock. Or a face. Or an +animal. Whatever it is, it is an ANSWER, somehow to your question. +Write down what you see, and don't try to interpret it yet. You will +take four "spirits" from this rock face. + +When you have four on side one, turn it over and do the same on side +2. Same question, and write down the things you see. If you're +getting too many of one thing, or you REALLY want to get into it, do +the other sides, if the rock will sit that way. + +When you have all the information written down. Go back to the first +side, look at each symbol, at what you wrote down, and ask yourself +how it is an answer to your question. Write down what you think. +When you've written down the answer that each one of the things is, +then try to put them all together (a side at a time, perhaps) into a +summary of what the answer is to your question. + +When you're done with the rock, return it to its place with thanks +(and an offering is a nice touch, too). + +My own experience was fairly typical. It is well known that recently +my power animal guardians have done much for me that could be +considered miraculous. My question was, "how can I honor my animal +allies?" + +Side one of my rock (a mixture of fluorite, calcite, quartz, and +who-knows-what), showed me an oak leaf, a waterfall, storm clouds, and +an elephant. I felt the oak leaf symbolized forest habitat, as well +as my own power interests; the waterfall, energy and motion; the storm +clouds, anger and energy; and the elephant as a power needing +protection. + +Side two showed me a kind of ape, a winged (headless) body, a duck +head, and a rainbow. I interpreted the ape as an endangered species, +the winged body as a fossil imprint - preservation of the past; the +duck as something adaptive and prolific, and the rainbow as a meshing +of ideas and approaches, united to form harmony and beauty. + +In summary, I believe my power animals would be best honored by my +involvement in protecting the animals and habitats of this world. +It is clear that the old approaches are not working (adapting), and +that new blends of ideas and approaches will be needed to preserve the +species we now have, and provide for their future. It is time to +channel the anger and the energy I have, and that others have, into +something concrete and focused. Something that will make a difference +- small now, perhaps, but will move everyone it touches and cause them +to both add their "small" difference, and pass along the urge to do +so. + +--------------------------- +As you can see, you can get a lot of information from a rock! Just be +open to what comes, and let your feeling guide you. This is no place +to rationalize the symbols on a rock's skin! + +This method can be used for any kind of question, except that yes/no +questions really are harder to interpret. Too many symbols could mean +yes AND no! How, why, where, and who questions are easiest for the +rock to answer (and for other allies, as well). Time means very +little to a rock, so avoiding "when" questions is wise unless you plan +to live 900 years.... + +--------------------------- + +Give it a try. I'd love to hear how it works out. + --++Satinka++-- + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/roll.txt b/religious documents/roll.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..97bccc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/roll.txt @@ -0,0 +1,953 @@ +************************************************* +* * +* SOUND DOCTRINE BBS * +* (303) 680-7209 * +* 8/N/1 24HRS * +* * +* "For the time will come when men will not * +* put up with sound doctrine." * +* -2 Timothy 4:3 * +* * +************************************************* + + + C H R I S T I A N R O C K - N - R O L L + + +Just as there is no such thing as a Christian +porno shop, (though I have heard some claim +such), there is no such thing as Christian Rock-N- +Roll. The two words cannot mix. No more than +God can have any fellowship with darkness. + +There is such a thing as Holy music unto the +Lord! And though it may have drums and guitars +in the music, it's style and spiritual quality +will not resemble the world. You will not find +the smoke, lights, dress and loudness of the +music to be anything like the world. For +Christians are a holy separate people unto the +Lord. + + +* * * * AMY GRANT * * * * + +But we go even deeper than that in our judgement +of Christian rock music. For the music can be +mellow and sweet to the ears, but come straight +from the pit of hell. One example is the music +of Any Grant. She has sold her royal birthright +for the pleasures and praise of this world. And +we have told her and her pastor so. + +As most will know that Any Grant's stage symbol +is a leopard jacket. This is prophetic! God is +showing to all discerning Christians what her +true nature is. + + "Can the Ethiopian change his skin + or + the leopard its spot? + Neither can you do good who are accustomed + to doing evil." -Jeremiah 13:23 + +What must be judged here is not just the music's +style but the heart that sings it. Noting also, +that if the heart is right, the style will be +also. For if a tree is good, so is it's fruit. + + +* * * ATTRACTING THE WORLD * * * + +So many of you clamor that they are attracting +people to Jesus by using the world's music. By +becoming a Roman to the Romans. What wicked +reasoning that is! What mis-use of scripture! +Shall our church sell Coors on the church parking +lot to attract the non-believers? Shall our +Christian sisters dress like the world in order +to pull in the worldly? + +It is of the highest darkness to use such +reasoning. Jesus said, "be careful that the +light within you is not darkness"! Peter says +that Christians who use worldliness to attract +people to Jesus are of the highest caliber of +false prophets! + + "...Blackest darkness is reserved for them. + For they mouth empty, boastful words and, + by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful + human nature they entice people who are just + escaping from those who live in error. They + promise them freedom..." -2 Peter 2:17-19 + + +* * * * CHOICE * * * * + +You have a choice. To hunger and thirst after +righteousness. To avoid all music that is +unholy. To refuse to buy records of those who +have sold out to the world. To call others not +to go their concerts. Or to compromise. + +It is our prayer that you will choose to listen +to those who are faithful in the land. To those +that show they love the Lord. And if there be +not much music you can buy or listen to, then so +be it. Make "music in your heart" to the Lord +instead! He will be more pleased with that, then +the supporting of those who copy the world in +dress, hair and music. God does not support +hypocrisy, and neither should you. + + "My eyes will be on the faithful in the + land, that they may dwell with me; he + whose walk is blameless will minister to me. + No one who practices deceit will dwell in + my house..." -Psalm 101:6-7 + +Only as we stand and speak up for what is holy in +the Lord will the steady downward trend toward +the pit of hellish activity be stopped. Write +KLTT and other stations that support such utterly +wicked groups as STRYPER. Call your brothers and +sisters to avoid such concerts as Steve Camp, +Mylon LaFevor and Steve Taylor etc. etc.. Put +away the Any Grant albums. "Touch no unclean +thing" and God will receive you. Let the +faithful be the only ones who minister to you - +FORGET HOW GOOD THEIR WORDS ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! +That's what makes them so very wicked in God's +sight. + + + -Sysops + Sound Doctrine BBS + + -end part 1- +************************************************** + + -part 2- + + DRIVEN TO DARKNESS! + BY + DAVID WILKERSON + (8-3-1987) + +* * * * * * * * * * + +"'To the law and to the testimony; if they speak +not according to this word, it is because there +is no light in them...And they shall look unto +the earth; and behold trouble and darkness; and +they shall be driven to darkness.' -Isaiah 8:20- +22 + + Last night I attended a Christian music +festival. I will never forget what I saw, and +can truly say was a heartbreaking experience. +Since leaving the concert I have been weeping for +hours, groaning in the Spirit, feeling the wrath +of a holy God burning against what I saw. + + I went to the festival because the 'star +performer' featured last night had been in my +office just hours before, crying, telling me how +much he loved Jesus, how sincere he was, how he +wanted to learn more about holiness. He told me +my written messages convicted him. His words +sounded right-his attitude seemed humble. At his +request I went to hear him and his group because +he assured me I would not be offended. + + My heart is now so set on the massive human +need in New York City, and my great concerns now +have to do with rescuing lost souls from drugs, +alcohol and demon possession. I DID NOT WANT TO +GET INVOLVED ANYMORE IN THE MATTER OF ROCK AND +ROLL, HEAVY METAL, AND PUNK MUSIC IN THE CHURCH. +I felt I had said enough on the subject and I +told the musician so when he sat in my office. +We have prayed together and I hugged him when he +left my office. + + I went last night with an open heart, full of +love and compassions - for him, for all Christian +musicians, and especially for the 3,000 or so +young people attending the festival. I sat +through two devotional-type songs, then I sat +attentively listening as the musician testified +about what he said Christ had done in his life. +No preacher anywhere could have spoken with more +conviction and sincerity-the words were right. +He spoke of separation, of being obedient to +Jesus, of winning souls, of prayer, of holy +matrimony [he was married], of living a holy +life. I prayed as he spoke, 'Dear Lord, maybe I +misjudged this musician and his hard rock group. +Maybe you ARE doing something new in using the +music the ungodly prefer, to win them-to get +their attention, to attract them so they can be +ministered to. Lord, I am willing to rejoice in +hearing You preached, in any manner, from any +group-if You are present in it-if your Holy +Spirit is blessing it. + + I was honestly questioning if my writings +about the MUSIC OF DEVILS in God's house were +just old-fashioned prejudices or simply my +distaste for rock music. Was it just so much +fuss about nothing? Yet something was not quite +right. There was an inner tug at my heart making +me ill at ease. I reasoned, 'If Satan is +camouflaged in this somehow, if there is leaven +of evil-it will be revealed. Satan always +reveals himself in one way or another.' + + Suddenly the singer yelled in the microphone, +'JESUS IS COMING - HE IS GOING TO CRACK THE SKIES +- GET READY!' The song was entitled, 'CRACK THE +SKIES'. Suddenly smoke was billowing out of +smoke machines, the pounding beat was turned up +to a frenzied pitch, eerie lights began flashing, +the musicians stood like phantoms rising from a +murky swamp. It was ghostly, weird, strange-and +the crowd went wild-they seemed to love it. At +the same festival, a wild spiked hair group had +entertained-with painted faces, prancing about +like homosexual peacocks. + + At first, I couldn't believe what I was seeing +on stage. I said out loud, 'This can't be +happening at a Christian festival-they can't do +this to my Jesus! These people can't be this +blind-the leaders of this youth ministry can't be +so undiscerning! Oh God-what has happened to +your church that its leaders, it people, can't +see the evil of this abomination? + + Suddenly I was on the ground, on my back, +weeping and sobbing, and groaning in t he Spirit. +I sat up and took another look at the stage. I +WAS HORRIFIED BY WHAT I SAY IN THE SPIRIT. I SAW +DEMONIC IMAGES RISING FROM THE THAT STAGE! I +HEARD SATAN LAUGHING! Laughing at all the blind +parents-the blind shepherds-the blind youth-the +backslidden church! It was an overt +manifestation of Satan-worse than anything I've +ever seen on the streets of New York. + + I stood to my feet, literally shaking with the +fear of God-consumed with a sense of His holy +wrath against such wickedness. I rushed into the +crowd crying at the top of my voice-ICHABOD! {The +glory of the Lord has departed!} ICHABOD! I ran +through the crowd, pushing aside chairs, weeping, +shouting at the top of my voice, 'Ichabod-this is +satanic! Stop! God is grieved!' I was mostly +ignored and I think most thought I was a crazy +lunatic. I doubt anybody knew who I was-the +musicians could not hear me, and the crowd was +too tight to allow me near the stage. I wanted +to get to a microphone and cry like an Elijah- +'THIS IS VOMIT ON THE TABLE OF THE LORD! WHO ARE +YOUR TEACHERS, THAT YOU COULD BE SO BLIND, SO +WORLDLY, SO DECEIVED!? WHAT KIND OF BLASPHEMY IS +THIS?' + + I will not shut up this matter! I will not be +silent while multitudes of our Christian youth +are being deceived by smooth-talking wolves in +sheep's clothing! True love demands that the +truth be told. + + What hurt my spirit the most, and what is so +hard for me to understand, is that this +particular group, and many others, attend +Pentecostal churches. The musician I refer to +told me he gave up drugs, drinking, evil sex and +rock and roll performing when he got saved. He +cut his long, feminine hair, he quit dressing +like an exhibitionist and began to change all his +ways. It was a pastor who encouraged him to +'quit looking so square and use rock and roll to +reach the kids'. A teacher, in his sixties, +travels on occasion with them, teaching them and +encouraging them in their evil methods. +According to their teacher, rock and roll is +going to be the 'normal music in all Pentecostal +and evangelical churches'. + + It's now the middle of the night and I can't +sleep! I can't stop weeping inside. I am shut +in with God in my study diligently asking Him to +show me what is happening, because hours ago I +saw a few thousand young Christians, with +uplifted hands, thinking it was Jesus, when it +was most assuredly the devil. HAS THE CHURCH-OR +WHAT MAN CALLS THE CHURCH-SO BACKSLIDDEN THAT +THERE IS NO MORE DISCERNMENT WHATSOEVER? Has God +given up on some who are set on bringing devilish +practices into the realm of worship? + + NOW I WONDER-'WHO DARES TEACH SUCH JESUS-a +Jesus who winks at deception? How blatantly they +are mislearning Jesus Christ! WHAT JESUS ARE +THEY PREACHING?' + +************************************************** + 'But Ye Have Not So Learned Christ' + [Ephesians 4:20] +************************************************** + + + That is what Paul said in his letter to the +Ephesians. He was warning them not to walk as +some do 'in the vanity [pride] of their mind' +(Ephesians 4:17). He warned of those learned +Christ in a perverted way, because their +understanding was darkened. They were 'cut off +from the life of God through the ignorance that +is in them, because of the blindness of their +heart' (Ephesians 4:18). + + Some teacher, some shepherd, had MISTAUGHT +JESUS CHRIST to them. The Christ they learned +was not the Christ of God, the Lord of holiness, +the master of purity. While they speak so +sweetly of Jesus, and weep when they mention the +name, and tell of a hunger to walk in the ways of +Christ-Paul said of them, they 'ARE PAST FEELING +AND HAVE GIVEN THEMSELVES OVER UTNO +LASCIVIOUSNESS [lustfulness], TO WORK ALL +UNCLEANNESS WITH GREEDINESS' [Ephesians 4:19]. + + That is what I saw last night at the music +festival-a group of musicians who were pied +pipers, leading many young people right into the +arms of Satan with their smooth words about +Jesus, about celebrating forgiveness-then with an +energy of flesh and carnal greediness hard to +fathom-they put their stamp of approval on +paganism right out of the devil's treasury. They +were saying, by their music and their worldly, +ghastly performance-that Jesus and the garbage of +this world are compatible. They wore two masks- +one of sincere followers of Christ, the other of +performing clowns. With their faces lifted up to +God, they cursed Him by their blasphemous +mockery. Isaiah prophesied of such, '...they +shall curse their king and their God, and look +upward' [Isaiah 8:21]. What they preach and +practice are two different gospels. + + They are deceived, and consequently they are +deceivers themselves. They have MISLEARNED +CHRIST! They have been duped, manipulated and +cheated! They should have had a pastor or +teacher with enough Holy Ghost discernment, with +enough devotion to the true and holy Lord-to WARN +THEM TO SHOW THEM that God does not put up with +holding on to the old man and the old carnal +ways. Why didn't their shepherds discern that +these boys were walking in ignorance and +spiritual blindness, not understanding the true +demands of Christ? Why wasn't their greed dealt +with-not so much for money and fame, but a greed +that would not let go of the very thing that once +led them into drugs and emptiness. It's all +coming out now-that these groups are falling on +all sides, going back to the secular crowd, back +to cocaine, back to groupies-playing the part of +hypocrites and gospel phonies. Their shepherds +are so easily conned, because they are blind in +every way. Paul said it right, 'For it is a +shame even to speak of those things which are +done of them in secret.' [Ephesians 5:12]. They +very music they perform drives them back to +darkness. + + Now-it's probably too late! They have +rejected the reproof of prophets and watchmen who +really preach the truth! They are like those +Paul warns about, who have become so lost in +spiritual ignorance and blindness, they are +confirmed in their worldly ways! They are so +blind they believe they are honoring Christ and +blessing multitudes of youth the church 'can't +reach'. + + +************************************************** + + Sin-Soft Preachers Are Driving + This Generation Into Darkness + +************************************************** + +'...they shall be driven to darkness...' + [Isaiah 8:22] + + I blame their smooth talking, sin-soft +shepherds. Those same shepherds must one day +stand before Christ's judgement seat and answer- +not only for the musicians under their care-but +for all the Christian young people they in turn +have hurt and destroyed. Without flinching, I +declare that cowardly ministers, those who want +to be loved and honored rather than rejected for +preaching truth, are driving this generation into +deep spiritual darkness. + + We would not be facing a generation of +backslidden, pleasure-loving, worldly minded +youth in our churches-youth who do not even know +the commandments of a holy Christ-IF WE HAD MORE +HOLY BOLD PREACHERS AND EVANGELISTS WHO COULD +TEACH AND PREACH THE TRUTH OF CHRIST WITH PURITY +AND AUTHORITY. + + I am not accusing all preachers and teachers- +thank God for the few who still do not cower to +the crowd or compromise for the sake of numbers +and success. Maybe the youth won't listen to +those who cry out against their lusting after the +world-but when the judgements accelerate-they +will turn to the preachers of holiness for a sure +word from God. + + There is filth in Zion, and strangers have +been exalted in the house of God-by blind, +compromised, undiscerning Christian leaders. +They are calling evil good, and the counsel of a +righteous God is lightly esteemed. Hearts are +hardening, ears are closing, eyes are being shut- +because pride and flesh and ungodly entertainment +is grieving the Holy Spirit right out of His +temple. + + Isaiah warned, '...their root shall be +rottenness,...because they have cast away the law +of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of +the Holy One of Israel. Therefore is the anger +of the Lord kindled against his people...' +[Isaiah 5:24-25]. + + Hell must be ecstatic at the spectacle of +ministers not just abdicating to the immoral +music standards of the young-but actually +promoting. Who brings these worldly bent groups +into the church for concerts? Who encourages the +youth to embrace the music of devils? Who +ridicules evangelists and prophets and watchmen +who cry out against it? Who puts it on radio, +TV. and who promotes the concerts and festivals +that are now degenerating into SATANIC SHOWCASES? +It is the pastors, youth ministers, Christian +radio and TV. station owners and managers. They +will all live to see the wicked harvest of their +soft gospel and compromise-as their very own +children fall away to the spirit of this age. + + Webster's Twentieth Century Dictionary defines +whoredom as 'the desertion of the worship of God +for the worship of idolatry'. A whoremonger is +ONE WHO PROCURES OR PROMOTES IT. Any spiritual +leader who procures or promotes this idolatrous +desertion of true worship is truly a WHOREMONGER. +And Paul state emphatically, 'No whoremonger, nor +unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an +idolater, hat any inheritance in he kingdom of +Christ of God.' [Ephesians 5:5] + + Young people-don't listen to the whoremongers- +listen instead to the apostle Paul-who warned, +'Let no man [even preachers] deceive you with +vain [empty] words; for because of these things +cometh the wrath of God upon the children of +disobedience. BE YE NOT THEREFORE PARTAKERS WITH +THEM' {Ephesians 5:6-6} + + +************************************************** + Reprove Them! +************************************************** + + +'And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works +of darkness, but rather REPROVE THEM' [Eph. 5:11] + + All spiritual work that is tainted with the +least bit of darkness, God calls UNFRUITFUL +WORKS! This refutes the big lie of the devil +being promoted by the pushers of the 'new wave' +music, which argues, 'But it can't be of the +devil. Look at all the kids getting saved! +Listen to their wonderful testimonies. They +really reach the youth-many are getting saved. +They speak in a way the kids understand-they +glorify Christ in their speech.' + + God never has judged a work by the results. +No one is more successful in holding converts +than the Muslims. No church is richer than the +Vatican. The Jehovah Witnesses claim to be +winning multitudes to Christ. + + God judges everything by LIGHT! That means, +by how godly, how Christ-like-by how clear, how +pure, how transparent it is. He repudiates and +spits out of His mouth all that has even been +part dark. John saw the Holy City descending out +of the heaven from God, having the glory of God. +That is a holy people, a bride adorned and +prepared for the Bridegroom. Its main +characteristic is this: 'Her light was like unto +a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, +clear as crystal' [Revelation 21:11]. + + Whatever is of God is CLEAR AS CRYSTAL! It is +holiness so pure, it is translucent as pure +jasper stone. Those who are numbered in this +holy Zion, this New Jerusalem coming down from +God-have all STEPPED OUT INTO THE LIGHT! There +is no darkness in them at all-they have been +translated into His light! They walk in the +light-they hate darkness-they reprove it wherever +it appears. The enemy has come into religious +circles to destroy what is pure and clear by +introducing a pagan element that creates a shadow +or film. If Satan can inject the slightest +degree of error, or evil leaven, he knows the +Holy Spirit will draw back because of a grieving. +That is why no mixture-no shadow of dark paganism +must be permitted in Christ's church. + + Also, the Bible speaks of EVERY SEED YIELDING +AFTER ITS OWN KIND [Genesis 1:12]. An evil seed +produces evil fruit, often not recognized until +maturity. The rock and roll "prophets" of this +generation are yielding a seed after their own +kind-a seed that will one day bring forth a fruit +that will wither and die. Jude makes that very +clear, '...these feed themselves without fear: +clouds they are without water, carried about of +winds; trees WHOSE FRUIT WITHERETH, without +fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots." +[Jude 12]. + + What of the good sounding testimonies, the +sincere and convincing sermonettes? Paul has the +answer. 'Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye +on those who cause dissensions and HINDRANCES +contrary to the teaching which you learned, and +TURN AWAY FROM THEM...For such men are slaves, +not of our Lord Jesus Christ but of THEIR OWN +APPETITES; and BY THEIR SMOOTH AND FLATTERING +SPEECH THEY DECEIVE THE HEARTS OF THE +UNSUSPECTING." [Romans 16:17-18 NAS] + + Oh how God's people need discernment. Great +deceptions about every where, not only regarding +the rock and punk music of the young, but also in +regard to new forms of worship and praise being +promoted. Some of it is born of the Holy Spirit, +but much is born of the flesh-and only those who +walk in the light know the difference. + + There is a revival of worship and praise in he +land today, and much focus on prayer, +intercession nd new revelation. There is no +question about there being more and more +Christians standing for an hour or two-with great +congregations singing and praising loudly. There +are smiles, laugher, joy, hand clapping, upraised +hands, dancing-never in modern times has there +been a GREATER SHOUT IN THE CAMP. + + Thank God for those in the camp who worship in +Spirit and truth-who can lift clean hands and who +have pure hearts-who come before His holiness +with broken heart and contrite spirit. If they +are walking in holiness , trembling at God's +Word, repentant and free from the bondage of sin- +it is a glorious and acceptable offering unto the +Lord. God does inhabit the praises of His people- +but only if those people are walking in practical +righteousness. + + +************************************************** + + But There Is a Shout Which is + Shallow and Meaningless! + +************************************************** + + There is the shout of the overcomer and the +shout of the idolater-and we had better know the +difference. The Lord commanded Moses to 'Go, get +thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest +out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted +themselves: they have turned aside quickly out of +the way which I commanded them: they have made +them a molten calf, and have worshipped it' +[Exodus 32:7-8]. + + As Moses and Joshua approached the camp of +Israel, Joshua 'heard the noise of the people as +they shouted...' [v 17]. But it was not the +shout of those who had overcome the enemy. The +true shepherd Moses, having come fresh from the +very presence of God's holiness-could easily +discern that the GREAT SHOUT coming from the +Lord's chosen people was not pure. Something as +terribly wrong-it did not ring of the holiness of +God. + + Moses said, 'It is not the voice of them that +shout form mastery, neither is it the voice of +them that cry for being overcome: but the noise +of them that sing do I hear' [Exodus 32:18] + + That's all it was, MEANINGLESS, SHALLOW NOISE- +but an abomination in the ears of a holy God. +They had no right to sing; their hearts were +lusting after an idol. Their hearts were given +to pleasure and fun. They stood before a golden +calf-and it the name of the Lord offered burnt +offerings. The people 'sat down to eat and drink +and rose up to play..' [Exodus 32:6] + + I received many letters from Christians whom I +know have come through the school of Christ. +They have come through much suffering and +spiritual warfare to a place in God where nothing +else matters but knowing Him in fullness. They +were driven by such deep hunger for God, they +began to thirst for Christ as 'the hart that +panteth after water'. They tell me how out of +place they feel in these great assemblies where +the shout in the camp goes forth. It all looks +good, and on the surface sounds good. But they +can't enter in, because they discern something is +basically wrong. They can't even explain it-the +Spirit of God within them will not let them +partake of it. They discern some kind of +unspeakable darkness-something subtle, yet +ominous about all the flesh that accompanies the +singing, shouting, and dancing. It is almost too +professional, too put on, too carnal. They +leave, thinking to themselves, 'Is it me-is there +something wrong with me? Am I too judgmental? +Why am I not comfortable amidst all this singing +and dancing? + + Those who have STEPPED OUT INTO THE LIGHT can +easily discern the shadow of darkness. They will +not be fooled by false shouting, false dancing, +false worship, or false praying. + + True Zion saints REJOICE WITH TREMBLING! +{Psalm 2:11} They know that gladness belongs +only to the 'upright in heart' [Psalm 97:11]. +They can sing and dance when t he Spirit moves +them, but with David they can say, 'Zion heard, +and was glad; and the daughters of Judah REJOICED +BECAUSE OF THY JUDGEMENTS, O LORD' [Psalm 97:8]. +Zion saints, 'GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD AT THE +REMEMBRANCE OF HIS HOLINESS' [Psalm 97:12] + + No punk or rock or phony shouting and praise +for those walking in the light. They praise Him +for both His goodness and because they tremble at +His great and terrible name. + + 'The Lord is great in Zion; and he is high +about all the people...Let the people +tremble...LET THEM PRAISE THEY GREAT AND TERRIBLE +NAME; FOR IT IS HOLY' [Psalm 99:1-3] + +* * * * * * * * * * * + +For your information; + +David Wilkerson's messages are mailed free of +charge. + +They are sent out every three weeks-about 17 +issues per year. If you are not receiving them +on a regular basis but wish to be added to our +list, send your request to: + + World Challenge + P.O. Box 260 + Lindale, TX 75771 + +For quicker response call: + 214-963-8626 + + -end part 2- + +************************************************** + + -start part 3- + +The following is a text file that is being posted +on many Christian BBS systems. Please contrast +this article with God's Word in the prayer closet +and you will see clearly these perverts are not +of God. -Sysop Sound Doctrine BBS + +************************************************** + -part 3- + THE PERVERSION +************************************************** + + + + HOLY ROCK 'N' ROLLERS + + + They call it demon rock 'n' roll. Many +preachers have said it is Satan's tool for +catching teens off guard with a beat that drives +them into a sexual frenzy. Some have led +crusades, burned albums and picketed concerts. + + They are faced with one of the hottest trends +in music: Christian heavy-metal and hard-rock +bands, whose voices and guitars screech and wail +for Jesus Christ. "All we heard for years from +the pulpit was how bad rock 'n' roll was," said +Robert Sweet, 25, the long-haired drummer for +Stryper, a Christian band from Los Angeles, whose +members dress in skintight black and yellow body +suits and thick metal chains. "Well, how many +people are going to eat their words this year? +God created rock 'n' roll. Satan cannot create - +he can only twist and distort it and make it +junk. The first time you catch Stryper with a +beer in their hands or their faces in cocaine, +then you'll have a case. But until then, we're +innocent until proven guilty." + + Despite a nonstop wave of protest from +ministers and parents, Sweet's group is one of +more than 100 Christian rock bands that have +sprung up, Taking names like the Resurrection +Band, Barnabas, Jerusalem and Servant. For the +uninitiated, retailers like Dickson's Bible and +Book Store in Royal Oak post a chart that lists +each group and compares its sound to a secular +group such as the Kinks, Cheap Trick, Led +Zeppelin and AC/DC. But lyrically - and in +concert - the Christian and secular groups are +worlds apart. "Feeling so distressed tonight, +Jesus are you there, could we talk a little +while, I heard you really care," sings the +Resurrection Band from Chicago, which ends its +live Bootleg album by urging fans to give their +lives to Jesus. Other groups have an altar call, +or station counselors near exits to talk to +troubled teens. Stryper members sing about their +wild appearance - "No matter how we look, we +always praise His name. And if you you believe, +you got to do the same" - and throw 100 to 200 +New Testament Bibles out to the crowd. "One +guy was so anxious to get one," said Sweet, "that +he broke his arm." + + Sue Weldon, a 15-year-old from Troy, said she +recently brought her NON-CHRISTIAN friend to Pine +Knob to hear Petra, the best selling Christian +rock group. "She became a Christian at the end +of the concert," said Sue, twisting a strand of +her permed brown hair. "She went up to one of +the counselors and has joined a church now. She +really thought it was great." Stephen Wyss of +Royal Oak, a 22-year-old senior at Lawrence +Institute of Technology, said he owns 72 +Christian music albums. "The main difference +is what they sing about and their lifestyle," he +said. "When Michael Jackson was really popular, +everyone wanted to be like him. Well, with these +groups getting more popular, kids can see how +good it is to be a Christian, and they will have +a model to follow." "You're not going to reach +heavy metal people with pop music. You have +different types of evangelists because you have +different types of people." + + Though they have been around for about 10 +years, most Christian rock groups have just begun +to take off, riding on the powerful wings of +Christian contemporary artists like Amy Grant, +the first Christian singer to appear on +"mainstream" music charts. Ms. Grant recently +became the best selling artist in Christian music +history when her last two albums went gold ($1 +million in sales) and platinum (one million +albums sold). Her success in the secular +market has been followed by Petra - which is the +Greek word for rock - whose seven albums have +outsold all other Christian rock groups combined +with total sales of more than $1 million. + + Stryper, a Los Angeles group which will soon +tour the nation, recently sold 40,000 of its +newly released singles in one day. It has +already received advance orders for nearly +100,000 copies of its newest album, which has not +even been released. Such figures do not +compare with those of secular artists like +Michael Jackson and Prince. But they are +considered phenomenal by industry observers, +because major secular radio stations still refuse +to play Christian music, citing the songs' +emphasis on evangelism. "It's only been in the +last few years that Christian hard rock has made +any inroads into the mainstream market," said +Bob Darden, who writes about Christian music for +Billboard magazine. "That's because it's only +been in the last few years that the caliber of +the music has caught up with mainstream music. +There's no reason kids should see a bad Christian +group if they can see a good secular group. So +the Christians have gotten better." But Darden +is critical of the "bad, trite" lyrics by many of +the groups who, for instance, try to cram the +story of the resurrection into a three minute +song. And John Styll, editor-in-chief of +Contemporary Christian magazine, said many of the +artists have been content to copy the music style +of mainstream artists and just add religious +lyrics, instead of forging new ground. He also +predicted that they will never have the success +enjoyed by the mainstream counter parts. "It's +not in the cards," Styll said. "To most people, +contemporary Christian music is about as +appealing as contemporary Bahai music. They'll +just think, 'Oh, that's for them.' The gospel is +offensive to people. It will never achieve the +popularity that sin does." To Ministers who +spend a lot of time preaching about the dangers +of sin, the subject of rock music still draws a +lot of fire. "It is a device of the devil," said +the Rev. Samuel Peterson, pastor of Faith Temple +Church of God in Madison Heights. "In my church, +I don't allow it. Unless the ear is educated to +it, you can't hear the lyrics. What good is the +message if you can't hear it? And it grates on +my nerves, whether it's Christian or not. It's +like having someone scream in my ear. The beat +is very physical, driving and compelling. It +compels your nervous system until it drowns out +your brain. I can't find a better word than +'torment.'" But the Rev. Paul Patton, +assistant pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in +Livonia, encourages young people to listen to +Christian rock music. "If anyone has an ear +for that type of music," he said, "I'd prefer +they hear lyrical content that wasn't sexist or +has that macho mentality that is so much a part +of the heavy metal scene. They're reaching an +audience that most of their critics know nothing +about. They are touching lives and challenging +values that people in mainstream music aren't." + Stryper's Robert Sweet said the group's +success (its fan club has 10,000 members) +indicates it can stand on its own from secular +groups. But, he said, it has not been easy. +"It takes a lot of guts to be in rock 'n' roll +and stand up for Jesus," he said. "What field of +work are you more tempted in? Here I am, a +single guy who has professed to TV stations and +newspapers that I'm saving myself for the right +woman. And every time I play, I'm confronted by +10 to 20 beautiful women. It's real tempting. +And we can get all the free drugs and alcohol we +want." "But the more you do God's work, the +more the devil tempts you. So we just pray +harder. Stryper wants to walk into the most +heavy-metal, hard rock, drug abusing, blinded- +eyes kind of situation and say, 'Look, this is a +dark room and the light is walking in.'" +Among the 500 to 600 fans who write Stryper each +week are those who thank the group for helping +them overcome struggles with alcohol, +homosexuality or depression. "We tell them +don't thank us, thank Jesus," said Sweet, whose +mother manages the band and whose brother, +Michael, is the lead singer. "I remember one +night, a guy called me at 10 p.m. crying. He was +a stranger, but I felt like I should go visit +him. He was a 24-year-old guy dying of cerebral +palsy. He had Stryper stickers all over his +wheelchair." "I prayed with him and he asked +me if he could buy a Stryper jacket. I had mine +on and gave it to him. When he got my jacket, +tears were streaming down his face and he told +his mom, 'When I die, I want to be buried in +this. When I stand in front of God, I want him +to see me wearing something that's good, that's +right.'" "When those things happen, it lets us +know that we're more than just a rock band." +By Kate DeSmet from Detroit News, August 4, 1985 + + -end part 3- + +************************************************** + + SUMMARY & CONCLUSION + + +Arise now and put away your idols!! Call your +brothers and sisters to repentance. And if they +will not repent than do as scripture says and +"have nothing to do with them". + +Any BBS system that would post this article +without a refuting it for the whitewash it is, +has much to learn about what it means to follow +Jesus. Call them to repentance! + +Let there be a holy division that takes place in +the church. Let Proverbs 29:27 be true. + + "The righteous detest the dishonest; + the wicked detest the upright." + + -end- + +************************************************* +* * +* SOUND DOCTRINE BBS * +* (303) 680-7209 * +* 8/N/1 24HRS * +* * +* "For the time will come when men will not * +* put up with sound doctrine." * +* -2 Timothy 4:3 * +* * +************************************************* + + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699 + The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK + The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674 + Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560 + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/ros_ad.txt b/religious documents/ros_ad.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4553aa6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ros_ad.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12606 @@ +[PAGE 1] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + + + ------------------------------------ + [ A S T R O - D I A G N O S I S ] + [ ] + [ A G U I D E T O H E A L I N G ] + [ ] + [ ] + [ BY MAX HEINDEL ] + [ ] + [ AND ] + [ ] + [ AUGUSTA FOSS HEINDEL ] + ------------------------------------ + + + + + A TREATISE ON MEDICAL ASTROLOGY AND DIAGNOSIS + FROM THE HOROSCOPE AND HAND + + + + + THE ROSCICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS + MOUNT ECCLESIA + P.O. BOX 713 + OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, USA + + + + +[PAGE 3] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + + FOREWARD + + Of the thirty years devoted by the undersigned to research and the study +of astrology and astro-daignosis, a large part was spent with Max Heindel, +first as co-student and companion and later as his wife. A portion of the +astro-diagnosis in this book have been taken from Mr. Heindel's former +monthly lessons to esoteric students, and this fact together with our as- +sociation in astrological research in the reason why this volume goes out +under both our names, even though he passed into the larger life in 1919. + + This book may differ in a few instances from other books which deal with +the science of diagnosis from the planets. The authors of this volume, how- +ever, have had opportunities such as few other writers on this subject have +had. The Rosicrucian Fellowship, of which they were the founders, has a +very successful healing department. A description of the method used in +this department may be found on page 440. Of the thousands of patients who +have written to us for healing since the department started, each one has +sent in data describing the disease from which he suffered, its symptoms and +peculiarities, the doctor's diagnosis, etc. This information was in every +case carefully compared with the patient's horoscope, and a detailed study + + +[PAGE 4] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +made of both. The most striking as well as typical cases were used as +monthly lessons for the esoteric students of the Fellowship. From these +lessons we have chosen the best to print in this book. At no time have we +diagnosed direct to the patient. His horoscope, however, has given us a +wonderful key to the disease from which he was suffering and its causes, and +it has been used as a guide in giving advice regarding diet, exercise, envi- +ronment, and similar matters. + + We do not claim that this book is the last word on the subject, neither +do we claim that it is infallible. The knowledge which we have gained by +years of unceasing labor we are sharing with the world. We give it freely, +and if others can add to it, we shall rejoice. + --Augusta Foss Heindel. + + +[PAGE 5] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + INTRODUCTION + + Astro-diagnosis is the science and art of obtaining scientific knowledge +regarding disease and its causes as shown by the planets, as well as the +means of overcoming it. This new science of diagnosis and healing is slowly +permeating the medical world. It is a science which will not set aside the +old school of medicine and diagnosis, but it is an addition to the old +school The latter, we feel, will in time accept this newer method. At +present many physicians are willing to cooperate with the newer schools of +osteopathy, nature-cure, chiropractic, etc., and these open-minded men are +ready to accept a more advanced method of diagnosis when it has been demon- +strated to them as reliable. + + Depending entirely upon outward symptoms in locating disease and relying +wholly upon the action of medicine have cost millions of lives in the ages +past. But man is now becoming too enlightened, too broadminded to stick +stubbornly to old methods which have been proved by many mistakes, by the +sacrifice of many lives, to be inadequate. Medical science with its im- +proved instruments, the X-ray, iri-diagnosis, blood tests, etc., has made +great strides toward better methods of diagnosis. But the time is not far +hence when it will be generally conceded that to know in advance where human + + +[PAGE 6] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +chain is weakest, to understand by the science of the stars where the prac- +titioner may look for trouble, is by far the best way. Doctors will then +arrive very quickly at the cause of disease, and they will also know what +methods will be best to effect a cure. When they can use the key to the +soul, the horoscope, they will find the treatment to which the patient will +respond. They will also know the character of the patient, whether his will +is weak, and whether he is negative or emotional. They will then be guided +in their methods of treatment according to the information thus obtained. + + Disease may be classed under two heads, latent and active. "Symptoms" +give indication of disease which is in process of materializing. Latent +tendencies to disease are shown by the planetary afflictions in the horo- +scope of birth. In some instances these tendencies may remain latent during +the entire life because the native has lived in such a manner that no strain +was put on the body which would give the planets a chance to develop their +latent weakness. If there is a weak link in a chain but no strain is put +upon it, the chain will remain whole. So in the case of planetary afflic- +tions, they too may remain latent. But let the native abuse his body and at +once these weak spots will appear. This gives us the second class of dis- +ease, the active type. When the planetary aspects have been stirred into +action and disease has appeared, the progressed planetary positions give the +diagnostician the key to it. + + When the medical men, the scientists, the occult scientists, and the + + +[PAGE 7] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +astrologers have reached a friendly understanding, when the budding discov- +eries and the broader thoughts of man are no longer at variance with each +other, then humanity will know that the terrors and the pain of the operat- +ing room are things of the past. Then buoyant health will be universally +enjoyed, for mankind will be taught how to live in order to avoid suffering. +The doctors will be just as anxious to keep people well as they now are to +help them to recover from disease. The time is not far hence, we believe, +when the government will feel the necessity of paying doctors a yearly sal- +ary to teach the people how to avoid the pitfalls which lead to disease. + + +[PAGE 8] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + TABLE OF CONTENTS + +Foreward ...........................................................3 +Introduction........................................................5 + + PART I. +Chapter I. + The Anatomical and Physiological Properties + of the Signs..............................................15 +Chapter II.--Rulership and Qualities: + Anatomy and Physiology Correlated to the + Zodiac....................................................27 + Pathological Qualities of the Signs.............................28 + Physiological Afflictions of the Signs..........................29 + Anatomy and Physiology Correlated to the + Planets...................................................30 + Pathological Qualities of the Planets...........................31 + Astrological Affinities of the Sense Organs.....................32 +Chapter III. + Sympathy and Antipathy..........................................33 + + +[PAGE 9] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +Chapter IV. + The Science of Right Living.....................................37 +Chapter V. + The Mentality...................................................40 +Chapter VI. + + The Sixth House Influences......................................43 +Chapter VII. + Preliminary Steps in Diagnosing.................................46 +Chapter VIII. + Hints and Helps for the Healer..................................50 +Chapter IX. + Aphorisms.......................................................54 +Chapter X. + Diagnosing from the Hands and Finger Nails......................61 + + PART II. + Diagnosis From Horoscopes + +Chapter XI. + A Lesson in Directing...........................................70 + + +[PAGE 10] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +Chapter XII.--The Ears. + 1A.--Ears and Nerves............................................76 + 1B.--The Ears...................................................80 + 1C.--The Ears--Abscesses in Frontal Bone........................85 +Chapter XIII.--The Ears + 2A.--The Eyes...................................................88 + 2B: 2B.--The Eyes...............................................92 + 2C.--The Eyes...................................................97 + 2D.--Eye Trouble...............................................100 + 2E: 2F.--The Eyes..............................................104 + 2G.--The Eyes..................................................109 + 2H.--" "....................................................113 +Chapter XIV.--The Throat + 3A: B.--Tonsils, Adenoids......................................116 + 3C.--Throat and Tonsils........................................122 + 3D.--Goitre; Tonsils...........................................126 + 3E.--Goitre....................................................130 + 3F.--The Vocal Organs..........................................134 + 3G.--Loss of Speech............................................138 +Chapter XV.--The Lungs. + 4A.-- Tuberculosis.............................................142 + 4B.-- ".....................................................145 + 4C.-- ".....................................................148 +Chapter XVI.--The Heart. + 5A.--The Heart.................................................152 + + +[PAGE 11] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + 5B.--Heart; Kidneys............................................156 + 5C.--The Heart.................................................159 + 5D.-- " "....................................................163 + 5E.-- " "....................................................166 +Chapter XVII.--The Stomach. + 6A.--Stomach Trouble and Tuberculosis..........................170 + 6B.--Stomach Trouble and Inflammation of Kidneys...............174 + 6C.--The Pylorus...............................................176 + 6D.--Stomach and Kidney Trouble................................180 +Chapter XVIII.__The Kidneys + 7A.--The Kidneys...............................................183 + 7B.--The Kidneys and Mastoiditis...............................187 + 7C.--General Breakdown.........................................191 + 7D.--Renal Calculi.............................................195 + 7E.--Renal Circulation.........................................198 + 7F.--Bladder Trouble...........................................201 + 7G.--Diabetes..................................................204 + 7H.-- "......................................................207 +Chapter XIX.--Sex + 8A: B.--Sex and Throat.........................................211 + 8C.--Sex.......................................................215 + 8D: E.--Gonorrhea..............................................221 + + 8F.--Veneral Disease...........................................226 + 8G.-- " "...............................................230 + 8H.--Uterine Trouble...........................................234 + + +[PAGE 12] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + 8I.--Childbirth................................................238 + 8J.--Abortion..................................................241 +Chapter XX.--The Spine. + 9A.--Spinal Trouble............................................245 + 9B.-- " ".................................................249 + 9C.--Tuberculosis of the Spine.................................253 + 9D.: E.--Inability to Walk.....................................257 +Chapter XXI.--The Liver and Gall Bladder. + 10A.--The Liver................................................262 + 10B.--Gallstones...............................................266 + 10C: D.--Gallstones............................................269 +Chapter XXII.--The Circulation + 11A.--Palpitation of the Heart.................................274 + 11B.--Sluggish Circulation and Cataracts.......................278 + 11D.--Varicose Veins...........................................282 + 11E.--Restricted Circulation...................................286 + 11F.--Pernicious Anemia........................................289 + 11G.--Rheumatism and Impure Blood..............................293 + 11H: I.--Rheumatism............................................297 +Chapter XXIII.--Leprosy + 12A: B.--Leprosy...............................................301 +Chapter XXIV.--Paralysis + 13A.--Paralysis................................................308 + 13B.--Paralysis and Hardening of the Arteries..................311 + + + +[PAGE 13] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + + 13C.--Facial Paralysis.........................................315 + 13D: E.--Paralysis.............................................319 + 13F.--Infantile Paralysis......................................323 + 13G.--Rickets and Tetany.......................................327 +Chapter XXV.--THE NERVES. + 14A: B.--Nervous Breakdown and Paralysis.......................330 + 14C: D.--Defective Walk........................................335 + 14E.--Exaggerated Hysteria.....................................340 + 14F.--Obstruction of the Pneumogastric Nerve...................343 +Chapter XXVI.--The Bones. + 15A.--Injury to Femur..........................................347 + 15B.--Arthritic Muscular Atrophy...............................350 + 15C.--Ostemyelitis--Inflammation of Marrow of Bone.............354 +Chapter XXVII.--Spirit Control + 16A.--Spirit Control...........................................358 + 16B.--Obsession; Tonsils.......................................362 +Chapter XXVIII.--The Ductless Glands. + 17A: B.--Thyroid Gland Trouble.................................366 + 17C.--The Thymus Gland.........................................371 + 17D.--The Adrenals.............................................375 +Chapter XXIX.--Special Conditions. + 18A.--Deficiency in Lymph......................................380 + 18B.--Polypi and Kidney Trouble................................384 + + +[PAGE 14] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + 18C.--Pyorrhea.................................................387 + 18D.--Auto Intoxication........................................391 + 18E.--Peritonitis..............................................394 + 18F.--Arterio-Sclerosis........................................398 + 18G.--Typhoid and Spinal Trouble...............................402 + 18H.--Narcotics; Cigarettes....................................406 +Chapter XXX.--Insanity + + 19A.--A Mental Case............................................410 + 19B.--Insanity.................................................414 + 19C.--Insanity, Obsession, and Tuberculosis....................417 +Chapter XXXI.--Asthma + 20A.--Asthma...................................................421 + 20B.--Asthma,; Morphine Addiction..............................424 + 20C: D: E.--Asthma.............................................428 +Chapter XXXII.--Cancer + 21A.--Cancer...................................................433 + 21B.--Cancer...................................................436 +Chapter XXXIII.--Rosicrucian Healing. + How the Rosicrucians Heal the Sick.............................440 + + + +[PAGE 15] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + CHAPTER I + + THE ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES + OF THE SIGNS + + ARIES + + When Aries, which has rule over the head, is on the Ascendant, we have a +person whose actions are impulsive and aggressive. He acts and speaks +quickly. An excess of life force is generated by these people. This is in- +tensified when the dynamic Mars, which is the ruler of Aries, is also in Ar- +ies on the Ascendant, or when the life-giving sun is there. When these +planets add their vital energies to the Ascendant, we have a person who is +very apt to dissipate his forces. people who express Aries very strongly +are apt to be quick of temper of an explosive kind, but will not hold spite. +Those with Aries on the Ascendant, or with the sun or Mars there, are quick +to anger but also ready to forgive. + + Aries rules the head, the cerebral hemispheres of the brain, the upper +jaw, the eyes, and the face. The nose, however, is ruled by the martial +sign of Scorpio. + + +[PAGE 16] ASTRO DIAGNOSIS + + Aries is hot, dry, and inflammatory. Aries people with a slight cold or +disturbance of health may have a very high temperature. In illness their +fever will often be from three to four degrees higher than that of the per- +sons born uder the watery of airy signs. Under planetary afflictions these +people are subject to brain fever, dizziness, nosebleed, neuralgia, inflam- +mation of the cerebral hemispheres, and diseases of the brain and face. +They frequently suffer from a rush of blood to the head. + + The will of the patient plays a great part in the success of healing. +People under positive signs are most likely to respond, for they make per- +sonal effort to help the healer, while negative-sign people are prone to +follow the line of least resistance and to be neglectful in following the +instructions of the healer. + + TAURUS + + Taurus has rule over the region of the neck, the ears, palate, larynx, +tonsils, thyroid gland, lower jaw, occipital region, cerebellum, atlas, and +cervical vertebrae, vocal chords, carotid arteries, jugular vein, and the +pharynx. + + The Taurian is very stubborn and tenacious. Taurus being a negative +sign, when a Taurian contracts a disease, he holds on to it tenaciously. He +has great fear of sickness, and on account of this fear he makes a poor doc- +tor or nurse, whereas the Arian, being under Aires which is a positive sign, +will go into a sick room without fear and quickly throw off the disease. If + + +[PAGE 17] PROPERTIES OF THE SIGNS + +you have a patient who has Taurus rising or the sun in Taurus, never let him +think he is much ill, for his fear of sickness will often bring on a spell +of it. The Taurian has a tendency to take on flesh in middle life. Being +short and thickest as a rule, he becomes very fleshy about the neck and base +of the skull. This has a tendency to cause the swelling of glands, tonsil- +litis, quinsy, and various diseases of the organs of the neck; also polypi. + + GEMINI + + Gemini has rule over the arms, hands, shoulders, lungs, thymus gland, up- +per ribs, trachea, bronchi, capillaries, breath, and oxygenation of the +blood. + + The Gemini person is subject to nervous troubles. Gemini being one of +the common signs, a person born with this sign rising is often very careless +of his health and habits, and on this account we find more tubercular pa- +tients among Gemini people than among people of any one of the other eleven +signs. Gemini being classed among the positive signs, the Gemini person +can, if he is given the least bit of help, often throw off a disease. The +diseases to which Gemini is most subject are pulmonary troubles, bronchitis, +asthma, pneumonia, consumption, pleurisy, and nervous disorders. + + CANCER + + When we have a horoscope to diagnose for one who has the watery and +negative Cancer rising, we may look for one who is low in vitality; one who + + +[PAGE 18] ASTRO DIAGNOSIS + +is very timid yet loath to follow the advice of others. Cancer people are +apt to do the opposite from that which they are advised to do. They are +also full of suspicion, and on account of lack of faith in others they are +difficult to reach; but when their faith has once been established, they are +most loyal and ready to cooperate. A little praise or appreciation will of- +ten win them over. They are unduly sensitive, and when hurt do not forget +it readily. When the sun is in this watery sign, the native has more vital- +ity than when it is rising, for the sun is the giver of life and energy. + + Cancer has rule over the stomach, diaphragm, the mammae, upper lobes of +the liver, thoracic duct, eumification, peristalsis, the pancreas, gastric +vein, and the serum of the blood. + + The afflictions which may be classed under the sign of Cancer are indi- +gestion, hiccough, flatulency, dropsy, and sclerosis. Cancer people are +very fond of food and are usually hearty eaters. Consequently they are of- +ten afflicted with diseases which originate in wrong diet; especially do we +find this so with the people have Saturn in Cancer. This planet has a re- +stricting influence, and wherever he is found he robs the corresponding or- +gan of its fluids. When in Cancer he gives a desire for pastry and sweets. + + LEO + + When we have to deal with a patient with Leo on the Ascendant, we have +one with great vital energy, one who will not readily succumb to disease. + + +[PAGE 19] PROPERTIES OF THE SIGNS + +The Leo usually puts up a brave fight to overcome without calling upon oth- +ers for help, but when he gives up, he is usually very sick; he recovers +rapidly from illness, however. His pride will not permit him as a rule to +become a charge upon others. Being a positive sign the greatest handicap to +the Leo is impulse. He feels he must do everything with a very great amount +of energy, which is detrimental to the health of the parts of the body ruled +by this vital sign: the heart, aorta, vena cava, dorsal region of the +spine, and the spinal cord. + + The sun, which is the life giver, rules this sign of Leo and also has +rule over the vital etheric fluid coming through the spleen, which is the +gateway of the solar forces. Through the spleen the sign of Leo draws its +strength largely. We find those born with this sign rising very vital and +full of force, especially if the sun is also in Leo; but by the destructive +use of their surplus energy they are often afflicted with heart trouble of +various kinds, also spinal troubles. They suffer frequently with distur- +bance of the spleen, which has an effect upon the activities of the blood, +causing an excess of white blood corpuscles, which are destroyers and not +policemen of the blood stream as medical science claims. + + + VIRGO + + Virgo is a feminine and negative sign, the second of the earthy triplic- +ity, and has less power of resistance that the fixed sign of Leo. Virgo may +stand considerable strain, however, being of a nervous and wiry temperament; + + +[PAGE 20] ASTRO DIAGNOSIS + +still when the Virgoan gives up, he finds it very hard to rise and shake off +an illness. Being of a negative disposition he is apt to let circumstances +rule him, and does not assert his will power to overcome. Virgo is the +natural sixth house sign, the house which has rule over sickness; hence when +Virgo people once get into the clutches of sickness, they are apt to become +chronic invalids. Therefore though such people make excellent nurses, they +should be advised against this vocation and avoid sick rooms and hospitals, +for they are like sponges and every ready to take on the disease of their +patients. + + Virgo rules the abdominal region, intestines, the lower lobes of the +liver, the spleen, the duodenum, and the sympathetic nervous system. + + The afflictions which may be classed under the sign of Virgo are deter- +mined largely by the planets which may be afflicted in this sign. Cramps in +the intestines, wind, colic, malnutrition, diarrhea, constipation, peritoni- +tis, cholera, dysentery, worms, catarrh of the bowels, and appendicitis may +result from afflictions in Virgo. + + LIBRA + + Libra is one of the signs wherein the sun is weak. The sun is symbolized +by Sampson, who is minus his strength, for Delilah, who is the feminine +Virgo, has shorn him of his power, which was in his hair, representing the +sun's rays. As the sun enters Libra, it changes from north to south + + +[PAGE 21] PROPERTIES OF THE SIGNS + +declination; and as Libra is the sign of Saturn's exaltation, the sun's rays +at this point, the crossing of the equator, are weakest. Libra people on +this account are not always able to rise above physical conditions. Their +moods waver like the symbol which represents the sign, the scales. At one +time Librans are up in the seventh heaven of happiness and optimism, but at +the least mental disturbance they may drop to the very bottom of pessimism +and despair. Idealism is well developed in the Libran. The Libran patient +should, if possible, never be discouraged in whatever he has set his heart +upon doing, for shatter his ideals and down goes one side of the scales into +the very deepest discouragement, which often causes ill health. The Libran +should cultivate equilibrium. + + Physiologically this sign rules the kidneys, the lumbar region of the +spine, the skin, the ureters, which are the tiny ducts running between the +kidneys and the bladder, and the vaso-motor system. The afflictions from +with the Libran is most likely to suffer are Brights's disease, lumbago, +disturbed urine. The disease depends greatly upon the planets afflicting: +if Saturn, there is a scarcity of urine; if Jupiter, an excess, etc. +Nephritis, eczema, and diabetes are also diseases from which the Libran is +likely to suffer. + + SCORPIO + + The martial, watery sign of Scorpio is one of the least understood signs +of the entire twelve. Scorpio produces a number of types. Usually the + + +[PAGE 22] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Scorpio person is of a secretive, timid, retiring nature, one who does not +talk of his affairs. But there is another type of Scorpio who is ready to +argue at "the drop of the hat," holding our for his point, and he can become +very cruel. He usually has an explosive temper, which may, if the horoscope +has afflictions, undermine the health. The greatest danger to the health of +the Scorpio, however, comes from the generative organs and the ducts through +which the excretions of the body pass, such as the urethra (the small canal +through which the urine passes from the bladder outward) and the colon, +including the anus. + + The bladder, the sigmoid flexure, prostate gland, pubic bone, the red +coloring matter of the blood, and the nasal bones are also under the rule of +Scorpio. + + People born under this sign make good healers, surgeons, doctors, and +nurses. But there is often a cruel and tyrannical streak in the Scorpio, +and the desire nature is strong, sometimes sensual. Low desires often bring +excesses, which may cause the following diseases, expressing themselves ac- +cording to the planets and the afflicting aspects: syphilis, hernia, +scurvy, fistula, piles, inflammation and falling of the womb, uterine +troubles, stricture of the prostrate gland, and nasal catarrh. + + SAGITTARIUS + + The Sagittarian is usually the most gentle and easily cured of all pa- +tients, for with his frank and kindly nature he is most trusting and ever + + +[PAGE 23] PROPERTIES OF THE SIGNS + +ready to follow all the instructions of the healer; but he will also respond +to every negative suggestion. The healer may have given constructive advice +and left the patient feeling encouraged, but should one of his many friends +(for the Sagittarian is usually very popular and good mixer and therefore +attracts many friends to him) suggest sickness or tell him that he is look- +ing bad or give him some other remedy to follow he is very apt to accept the +suggestion. The result is that he often retards his recovery. Therefore it +is necessary for the Sagittarian patient to be placed under the care of +someone who will protect him from adverse suggestions. + + Sagittarius rules the region of the body directly surrounding the hips, +the sacral region of the spine, the coccygeal vertebrae, the femur, the +ilium, the iliac arteries, the sciatic nerves, and the ischium. + + The Sagittarian diseases are locomotor ataxia, sciatica, rheumatism, and +hip disease. + + CAPRICORN + + The sign of Capricorn is an earthy sign and ruled by the planet Saturn. +Capricorn people do not yield to disease very readily. They are of a wiry, +persistent, and stolid nature, and will suffer considerable pain before they +will succumb to illness. But once they have given in to sickness then they +are just as slow and stubborn in holding on to it. They sometimes become +hypochondriacs, and the healer must use most diplomatic methods to break up +the crystallized condition with which these Saturnian people clothe them- + + +[PAGE 24] ASTRO DIAGNOSIS + +selves. The most unfortunate part of it is that if a Capricorn who is in +this mental and physical state is aware that anyone is endeavoring to help +him, he will resist help and close up against the friend who thus approaches +him. Capricorn people ae super-sensitive and very retiring. They often +form habits of entertaining gloom and despondency, which have a deteriorat- +ing effect upon the health. + + The sign of Capricorn has rule over the knees, the skin, the joints, and +the hair. The skin of a Capricorn person is often sallow and dry. + + The disease to which Capricorn is subject are exzema, syphilis, leprosy; +also dislocation of the bones. + + + AQUARIUS + + The fixed and airy sign of Aquarius is under the rule of two planets, the +melancholy, fearful, and overanxious Saturn, which is ordinarily termed the +planet of obstruction, and the impulsive, heedless, emotional, and hys- +terical Uranus. While Aquarius is a fixed sign which endows the native with +a strong will, still when the Aquarian is afflicted by adverse aspects be- +tween certain planets, especially Saturn or Uranus when they are strongly +placed in the horoscope, he is prone to develop extreme gloom, pessimism, +and sensitiveness, or he is rash and responds to the emotional Uranus. +These varying moods frequently result in ill health, which too often takes +the form of nervousness. Aquarius being a mental and airy sign, its natives + + +[PAGE 25] PROPERTIES OF THE SIGNS + +are wiry and ambitious, and are prone to overdo. They can never measure +their strength until the body is strained to its very limit, therefore when +they do give up they are usually in a critical state; but they will give the +healer every opportunity to help them, for they are ever ready to cooperate. + + Physiologically the sign of Aquarius rules the lower limbs and ankles. + + The diseases with which the Aquarian may be afflicted are varicose veins, +swelling of the legs, and nervous diseases of various kinds. One indication +that the Aquarian has when the nerves begin to get weak is extreme sensi- +tiveness of the skin. There is a crawling sensation felt all over the body, +as if little insects were crawling on the skin. + + PISCES + + Pisces is a watery and common sign, and the people born under it are of a +lymphatic and negative nature very fond of luxuries, which too often lead +them to seek a life of ease; in later life they are prone to take on an ex- +cess of soft, flabby flesh, which leads to ill health. The Pisces people +respond very readily to suggestions, whether they are good or evil, and they +will also respond just as quickly to the influence of the healer. Do not +allow anyone who is of a too sympathetic nature to visit the Piscean while +he is ill. Of the oversympathetic type there are too many in the world to- +day, who think it a social duty to call upon every sick friends and + + +[PAGE 26] ASTRO DIAGNOSIS + +encourage the ailing one to talk about his disease, and then extend to him, +oh, so much sympathy! The Piscean person will enjoy the visit of the sympa- +thizer, but when the latter has gone, he usually has a relapse and must +quickly send for the doctor or healer. He should be placed in a very cheer- +ful room, with a cheerful attendant, and a sign on the door, "No sympathetic +visitors allowed." + + The Piscean is prone to drift into the habit of drink and the use of nar- +cotics, especially if we find an affliction of the moon and Neptune in the +horoscope. + + Pisces rules the feet, the toes, and the fibrin of the blood. On account +of their fondness for good food and an easy life Piscean people are subject +to gout and the swelling of the feet. + + + +[PAGE 27] ASTRO DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + CHAPTER II + + RULERSHIPS AND QUALITIES + ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY CORRELATED TO THE ZODIAC + +ARIES-Brain, cerebral hemispheres, cranium, eyes, face, upper jaw, internal + carotid arteries. +TAURUS-Neck, throat, palate, larynx, tonsils, lower jaw, ears, occipital + region, cerebellum, atlas, axis, external carotid arteries, jugular + veins, pharynx, thyroid gland, cervical vertebrae. +GEMINI-Shoulders, arms, hands, upper ribs, lungs, trachea, bronchi, + capillaries, breath, oxygenation of blood. +CANCER-stomach, esophagus, diaphragm, the mammae, lacteals, upper lobes of + liver, thoracic duct, pancreas, serum of blood, peristalisis of the + stomach, chymification. +LEO-Heart, dorsal region of spine, spinal cord, aorta, superior + and inferior vena cava. +VIRGO-Abdominal region, large and small intestines, lower lobe of liver, + spleen, duodenum, chylification, peristalsis of the bowels. + + +[PAGE 28] ASTRO DIAGNOSIS + +LIBRA-Kidneys, adrenals, lumbar region, skin, ureters, vasomotor system. +SCORPIO-Bladder, urethra, genitals, descending colon, prostate gland, + sigmoid flexure, nasal bone, pubic bone, red coloring matter in blood. +SAGITTARIUS-Hips, thighs, femus, ilium, cocygeal vertebrae, sacral region, + sciatic nerves, ischium. +CAPRICORN-Skin, knees, joints, hair. +AQUARIUS-Lower limbs, ankles. +PISCES-Feet, toes, fibrin of blood. + + ----- + + + PATHOLOGICAL QUALITIES OF THE SIGNS + +ARIES-Energy, forcefulness, excesses; heat, dryness, inflammation. +TAURUS-Stubbornness, brooding, uncontrolled anger, luxuriousness. +GEMINI-Negativeness, restlessness, nervousness. +CANCER-Lack of vitality, tenacity, unforgiveness, distrustfulness. +LEO-Inpulse, arrogance, fixity, vitality, ardor. +VIRGO-Selfishness, criticism, lack of sympathy, chastity. +LIBRA-Self-centeredness, sensitiveness, melancholy, jealousy. +SCORPIO-Tyranny, destructiveness, worrisomeness, reproduction. + + +[PAGE 29] RULERSHIPS AND QUALITIES + +SAGITTARIUS-Restlessness, venturesomeness, accidents. +CAPRICORN-Limitation, deliberation, crystallization, dryness. +AQUARIUS-Gloom, endurance, nervousness; super-sensitiveness +PISCES-Sensitiveness, lack of vitality, indolence, secretiveness. + + ----- + + PHYSIOLOGICAL AFFLICTIONS OF THE SIGNS + +ARIES-Neuralgia, insomnia, cerebral congestion, brain fever, baldness, + headache, dizziness, eye affections, toothache, gumboils. +TAURUS-Goitre, diptheria, laryngitis, tonsillitis, croup, polypi, quinsy, + glandular swelling of throat, apoplexy. +GEMINI-Bronchitis, asthma, pneumonia, consumption, pleurisy, corrupted + blood, nervous trouble, anemia. +CANCER-Indigestion, dipsomania, gastric catarrh, hiccough, flatulency, + dropsy, sclerosis. +LEO-Heart disease, angina pectoris, locomotor ataxia, hyperaemia, spinal + disease, spinal meningitis, fevers. +VIRGO-Peritonitis, malnutrition, dysentery, colic, constipation, diarrhea, + cholera, typhoid, appendicitis, tapeworm + + +[PAGE 30] ASTRO DIAGNOSIS + +LIBRA-Bright's disease, lumbago, suppression of urine, nephritis, + diabetes, renal calculi, uraemia. +SCORPIO-Syphilis, rupture, gravel, scurby, fistula, piles, diseases of the + womb or uterus, urethral stricture, prostatic stricture, nasal catarrh, + disease of nasal mucous membrane and nasal cartilage. +SAGITTARIUS-Locomotor ataxia, sciatica, lumbago, rheumatism, hip disease, + accidents to thighs. +CAPRICORN-Eczema, erysipelas, leprosy, dislocation of bones, weak knees. +AQUARIUS-Varicose veins, swollen ankles, leg ache, nervous diseases, + sensitive skin. +PISCES-Bunions, gout, deformed feet and toes, tumors, dropsy. + + ----- + + ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY CORRELATED + TO THE PLANETS + +SUN-Vital fluid, spleen, distribution of heat, pons varolii, oxygen, heart. +VENUS-Throat, kidneys, thymus gland, venous circulation. +MERCURY-Nerves, bronchial tubes, pulmonary circulation, thyroid gland, right + + +[PAGE 31] RULERSHIPS AND QUALITIES + + cerebral hemisphere, cerebro-spinal system, sensory nerves, vital fluid + in nerves, vocal cords, ears, sight, tongue, all sense perception, + breath. +MOON-Oesophagus, uterus, ovaries, lymphatics, sympathetic nervous system + synovial fluid, alimentary canal, lymph, chyle, nerve sheaths. +SATURN-Gall bladder, pnsymogastric or vagus nerve, teeth, skin, joints, + ligaments, sigmoid flexure. +JUPITER-Liver, glycogen, suprarenals, arterial circulation, fibrin of blood, + disposition of fats. +MARS-Iron in blood, red coloring matter in blood, genitals, motor nerves, + left cerebral hemisphere, muscular movements, desire body, rectum. +URANUS-Ethers, eyes, pituitary body, gases. +NEPTUNE-Pineal gland, spinal canal, nerve fiber. + + ----- + + PATHOLOGICAL QUALITIES OF THE PLANETS + +SUN-Hot, dry, vital, constructive, expansive, tonic. +VENUS-Warn, lymphatic, relaxing, sedentary. +MERCURY-Cold, dry, nervous. +MOON-Moist, cold, nutritive, receptive, collective, fluidic. +SATURN-Cold, dry, chronic, contracting, crystallizing, binding, restricting, + centripetal, obstructive. + + +[PAGE 32] ASTRO DIAGNOSIS + +JUPITER-Warn, moist, nourishing, expansive, corpulent, gourmandizing. +MARS-Hot, dry, inflammatory, energetic, eruptive, excessive, violent, + positive. +URANUS-Dry, spasmodic, electric, explosive, convulsive, disorganizing. +NEPTUNE-Comatose, shrinking, stunting, restricting, constricting. + + ----- + + ASTROLOGICAL AFFINITIES OF THE SENSE ORGANS + +EYES-Aries, Uranus, sun, moon, Ascelli, Antares, Pleiades. +EARS-Taurus, Mercury. +NOSE-Scorpio. + +TONGUE-Taurus, Mercury. + + +[PAGE 33] SYMPATHY AND ANTIPATHY + + CHAPTER III + + SYMPATHY AND ANTIPATHY + + Pythagoras taught that the solar system is one mighty musical instrument, +that the twelve signs of the zodiac may be compared to the semitones of the +chromatic scale, and that the planets constitute the seven white keys of the +cosmic key board. Each sign responds to a certain tone; some tones blend +and are harmonious, while others clash. As we find disharmony and conflict +between certain notes of a piano and between certain strings of a harp, so +do we find similar inharmony between various signs of the zodiac and various +planets in their effect on man. + + + ARIES TAURUS GEMINI CANCER + /\ /\ /\ /\ + / \ / \ / \ / \ + / \ / \ / \ / \ +LEO----SAGITTARIUS VIRGO---CAPRICORN LIBRA---AQUARIUS SCORPIO--PISCES + + + The symbol of the trine is the triangle. In astrology the trine is con- +sidered harmonious and benefic. Then we have the signs which represent the +four elements, forming the fiery, earthy, airy, and watery triangles. + + The fiery and airy signs are in harmony with each other, and the earthy + + +[PAGE 34] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +and watery triplicities are friendly; but the fiery and watery will not har- +monize, neither will the earthy and the fiery signs. Planets in these +various groups of signs will express the same sympathy or antipathy as the +signs themselves. The sign triplicities express themselves through harmony +in the temperaments and personalities of people, while the squares express +their afflictions through physical discomforts. + + Disease is really a lack of harmony between the spirit and the personal- +ity, a conflict between the lower and the higher man. The trines or tri- +plicities act as peacemakers, while the squares and oppositions place +limitations upon the spirit. The latter pair bring the lessons which are to +be learned. They exact payment of the debts of destiny from a person for +the mistakes made and the selfishness expressed in past lives. The squares +and oppositions are most vital in their action. The squares operate through +three groups of signs which constitute-- + + THE VICIOUS CIRCLE + + HEAD THROAT LUNGS + ARIES TAURUS GEMINI + | | | + | | CALVES | +STOMACH---|------KNEES HEART----|------ANKLES INTESTINES -|-----FEET +CANCER | CAPRICORN LEO | AQUARIUS VIRGO | PISCES + | | | + LIBRA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS + KIDNEYS GENITALS HIPS, THIGHS + LUMBAR NOSE + + +[PAGE 35] SYMPATHY AND ANTIPATHY + + Doctors have for years been studying the strange sympathy between differ- +ent parts of the body which they have found manifested in the diseases of +various patients. When they find a disease in one organ, they are in the +habit of looking for the cause in another organ which is in sympathy with +the first. For instance, in glaucoma or certain kinds of eye trouble they +have invariably found that the real cause or seat of the trouble was in the +stomach or the kidneys. In certain types of throat trouble and in goitre a +weakened heart has frequently been found to be the cause. + + The four points of the circle of the cardinal or equinoctial signs, +namely, Aries the eyes, Libra the kidneys, Cancer the stomach, and Capricorn +the knees, are closely in sympathy with one another, and trouble in one will +frequently manifest in one of the other signs of this circle. For instance, +if we find Saturn in the sign of its fall, Cancer, and afflicted, digestive +troubles ensue and invariably the kidneys will be disturbed; sometimes stiff +knee joints are the result. Eye troubles are frequently developed as a re- +sult of wrong eating. People with Saturn in Cancer are extremists in their +selection of food. They have strange likes and dislikes. + + The second vicious circle is that of the fixed signs: Taurus the throat; +Scorpio the generative organs, rectum, urethra, and nose; Leo the heart and +spine; Aquarius the legs, below the knees. When the organs of voice or the +tonsils are operated upon in childhood there will be disturbances at puberty +and later troubles in childbirth. Great sympathy is found between the sex + + +[PAGE 36] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +organs and the organs of speech. The removal of parts of the sex organs +causes change of voice, the male voice becoming feminine, and the female +voice masculine. Valvular heart trouble often causes the swelling of the +ankles. + + The third group of squares we find composed of the common or mutable +signs, corresponding to the cadent houses. The 6th house, which is corre- +lated to Virgo, and the 12th house, correlated to Pisces, are especially vi- +tal in the horoscope, for they are respectively the house of sickness and +the house of confinement and hospitals. We find great sympathy between +these two signs and houses. Common signs are the most productive of sick- +ness, and more hopeless invalids are found among common-sign people than in +any other group for the reason that their will power is not overly strong. + + Two common signs are ruled by Mercury, which has dominion over the +breath, nerves, and sense perception; and one by Jupiter, which has rule +over the fibrin of the blood, the arterial circulation, and the liver. +Gemini rules the lungs, and through these organs the blood is oxidized. +Virgo has rule over the intestines, sympathetic nervous system, and spleen. +How often we hear the remark, "I caught cold (or pneumonia) due to wet +feet," involving Gemini and Pisces. Many more examples could be cited of +the action of the vicious circles. + + +[PAGE 37] THE SCIENCE OF RIGHT LIVING + + CHAPTER IV + + THE SCIENCE OF RIGHT LIVING + + + In the previous chapters we studied the properties of the signs of the +zodiac, and had the anatomical groupings so arranged as to make it easy for +the student of astro-diagnosis to study them. It is very necessary that he +become familiar with the basic properties of the signs as well as of the +planets. It is impossible to make any headway in the art of diagnosing a +chart unless the student has considerable knowledge of the zodiac and the +properties of the signs and planets. He should also familiarize himself +with the science of progression. All these different phases he will have to +make use of before he can become proficient in diagnosis so that he may tell +what certain positions, aspects, and planets indicate. It is essential that +he understand the temperament and character of the patient before he can re- +ally be sure of his diagnosis of disease. + + To find the key to a disease and the reason why a man or woman has become +an invalid, whether the disease is organic, and whether the patient has bro- +ken the laws of nature, is just as necessary as the diagnosis itself. What + + +[PAGE 38] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +is the good of knowing what kind of a disease is shown in the horoscope if +you cannot show the patient where he is breaking the laws of nature? Dis- +ease in ninety-five cases out of every hundred is due to wrong methods of +living, and to be able to point these out to the patient leads to the cure. +First, you must remove the cause, and then the cure will follow as a natural +result. + + The secret of the success of the progressive doctor lies in the fact that +he will never, if he can possibly avoid it, diagnose the disease to his pa- +tient directly. He will only give advice and prescribe, and sometimes he +may give a hint regarding the cause of disease; he will also give directions +as to food and methods of living, and tell why the patient should discon- +tinue certain habits. From this diplomatic handling of the patient comes +the doctor's greatest success. He will never express a discouraging word. +He never robs the patient of his hope, and when he leaves the home of the +patient, he leaves with a smile and an encouraging word. + + There are exceptions, however, for there are doctors, and they are not in +the minority by any means, who are posing under the name of physician but +who will predict death or the necessity of operations of various kinds be- +fore they have really and truly diagnosed the disease. Under the care of +such a physician the poor patient is frequently doomed, for the one from +whom he has expected relief has really robbed him of hope. So we want to + + +[PAGE 39] THE SCIENCE OF RIGHT LIVING + +impress it very strongly upon our students that NEVER at any time should +they predict death; also never at any time tell the patient that he has +heart trouble, that he is in danger of insanity, or that he is afflicted +with the dread disease of tuberculosis; from such statements he would get +the thought of fear. Fear is usually worse in its effect upon the mind of +the negative one than the disease itself. Ninety patients out of every hun- +dred are ill because of wrong and dangerous methods of eating, ill because +of fear, or ill because of the lack of will power to resist temptations; in +fact, all disease is the result of ignorant violation of the laws of nature. +This may not have occurred in this life alone. It may have been brought +over from a life previous, and thus the patient has latent weaknesses. + + So we may realize that to be of real help in the healing of the sick the +healer or the diagnostician must have sufficient knowledge to be able to +give the suffering one instruction in right living. Our advice to the +reader would be to study carefully and memorize if possible the lessons in +astro-diagnosis which have just preceded; also to familiarize himself with +the properties of the various foods and their combinations, for you may ex- +pect if you tell a patient to change his diet that he will ask you what he +should eat. One may see from all these considerations how very necessary it +is to get a sane and safe knowledge of the science of right living. + + +[PAGE 40] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER V + + THE MENTALITY + + Our first thought when judging the mental qualities of a patient is to +find the position of Mercury. First note the sign in which it is placed, +then the house, and thirdly the aspects which this planet of reason is mak- +ing. + + To save time and space in these lessons we will not give the effects of +Mercury in the different signs of the zodiac, but will refer the reader to +THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS, pages 201 to 207, also pages 549, 550, where he +will find the basic qualities of Mercury in the twelve signs. These should +be studied very carefully, and this study will give a foundation upon which +to base the judgment. + + The next planet to consider is the moon. If there is a good aspect be- +tween the moon and Mercury, especially if these two planets are well placed +in the angles and in signs in which they can express their best qualities, +we may expect the patient will be able to cooperate with the healer. If +Mercury, however, is conjunct Saturn, we find a mind which is stubborn, +slow, and subject to melancholia. When Mercury is trine or sextile to + + +[PAGE 41] THE MENTALITY + +Saturn, a well balanced mind with good reasoning qualities will develop, and +a retentive memory is shown. When Mars or Uranus is in conjunction with +Mercury, the patient is of a high-strung, emotional, erratic type with +little control over the mind; but should Mars or Uranus be sextile or trine +to Mercury, it will have a tendency to quicken the mental faculties, giving +impulse. If we find Mercury or the moon afflicted by Neptune, the mind is +inclined toward unhealthy and unnatural conditions, obsession, religious ma- +nia, mediumship, drink, or drugs. Observe the house and sign in which these +planets are placed to find how they tend to express themselves. Neptune be- +ing the higher octave of Mercury, this planet has a strong influence on the +higher mind. Neptune when afflicted by Uranus or the moon gives tendencies +towards undesirable experiences in psychism. When Neptune is afflicted by +Mars, especially when it is in conjunction with this fiery planet, the na- +tive is often tempted to use hypnotism or black magic upon others, and is +himself prone to become the victim of those who unscrupulously use these +dreadful practices on others. + + When the mental afflictions are in the eighth or the twelfth house they +have a more subtle influence than elsewhere. Afflictions in the eighth +house may give the mind suicidal tendencies, but if in the twelfth house +being the house of self-undoing, hospitals, prisons and insane asylums, they +may cause confinement in some institution. + + +[PAGE 42] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + We wish to impress it very firmly upon the mind of the reader, never, +never at any time to base a diagnosis on only one or two aspects, but always +upon the entire horoscope. To illustrate the dangers of superficial judg- +ment we will take the horoscope of a man who had Mercury in Capricorn in the +sixth house, making only one aspect which was a weak square to Neptune. +Judging the horoscope quickly one would say that he had a dull mentality, +but as a boy he stood at the head of his class. In spelling and mathematics +he was very bright. As a man he has reached a high status among his associ- +ates. He is a leader in a line of work which requires executive ability and +a keen mentality. To illustrate our point we will note what the other plan- +ets indicated. He had seven planets in airy signs, five planets in mental +signs, the moon and Neptune both well aspected and in angles, the sun and +moon in fixed signs, and fixed and cardinal signs on the four angles. When +summing up the entire horoscope we can well see why this man reached such a +high position in mental work with a weak Mercury. So we want to impress it +firmly upon our readers to use their reasoning powers before giving a judg- +ment on a horoscope, whether it is for mental, moral, spiritual, or physical +qualities. + + +[PAGE 43] THE SIXTH HOUSE INFLUENCES + + CHAPTER VI + + THE SIXTH HOUSE INFLUENCES + + After we have carefully studied the mental qualities of our patient we +must try to find the strength of the will. The Ascendant as a rule gives us +a key to will and to the mentality. Now we will see what bearing the 6th +house has on the matter. The 6th house is the house of sickness, and very +often gives the key to the patient's condition. We therefore first look to +the ruler of this house to see what it indicates, in what sign and house it +is placed, and what the nature of the sign is and what part of the body is +ruled by it. Next we must see what planets are aspecting the ruler of this +house of sickness. + + Let us suppose that Aquarius is on the cusp of the 6th house. Then we +would look for the two planets, Uranus and Saturn, which have rule over this +sign. Naturally they will have rule over the health of the patient to a +very great extent. Now, suppose that Uranus is in the sign of Virgo and on +the Ascendant, as we find it in the horoscope of a man who was born April +22nd, 1881, at 2 P.M. Uranus rising gives the key to the nature, which is +one of great impulse. The co-ruler of the 6th house is Saturn. We find in + + +[PAGE 44] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +the greater number of horoscopes that Saturn is the afflicter. He is the +taskmaster that brings to man the needed lessons. Saturn in the horoscope +which we have under consideration is in Taurus, intercepted in the 9th house +and in conjunction with the sun and Jupiter. Saturn is not in this case the +worst afflicter. + + We now consider the planets which may be in the 6th house. Here we find +the vacillating moon in Aquarius and square to Venus and Neptune. The lat- +ter two planets are in the sign of Taurus in the 9th house. Here we have +the whole trouble. The moon and Venus are both feminine, indicating women; +the moon is the ruler of the 11th house, and thus represents women friends, +who tempted and caused this man to respond to the Uranus-Mars impulse. So +we may look for trouble through overindulgence of the desires, which are in- +dicated by the planets in Taurus and by Mars, the latter ruling the sign of +Scorpio, which governs sex. Hence we may expect that wine and women will +bring this man to his undoing. + + Note that Mercury is in the 8th house, and aspected very weakly by a +semi-sextile of Saturn, the sun, Jupiter, and Neptune. Mercury in Aries +works under impulse. It being practically unaspected in this sign and +Uranus being in opposition to Mars indicate a lack of forethought. With +these conditions and having a common sign on the Ascendant this man was a +perfect slave to his passions and desires. Here we may see what the, Virgo +Ascendant with Uranus in conjunction shows regarding the will. A decided + + +[PAGE 45] THE SIXTH HOUSE INFLUENCES + +lack of will power is indicated. With Virgo, the natural 6th house sign on +the Ascendant, and the sun in Taurus, this man was an easy victim of disease +for both Virgo and Taurus have a decided fear of sickness. + + We must never base our diagnosis on one or two afflictions, but we must +study all the signs and planets very carefully. Some horoscopes show very +plainly what is the matter, and at a glance we can see from a few aspects +what the disease may be. But other horoscopes hide the symptoms, just as +the doctor often finds it to be the case with his patients. Some tell him +at once where the disease is, while others are a puzzle and the disease may +be difficult to locate. Therefore the astrologer must study and reason to +be very sure that he has the correct diagnosis. + + +[PAGE 46] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER VII + + PRELIMINARY STEPS IN DIAGNOSING + + We are now ready to begin the real work of reading and diagnosing a +chart. First we must know what the rising sign indicates, for by this we +get the key to the patient's disposition. The Ascendant indicates the gen- +eral nature of the planetary baptism which a man received at birth, and +which will influence him all through this physical life. According to the +stamp of the stellar forces at birth will a man's tendencies be. Remember, +we do not say fate, but TENDENCIES, for man has the power within him to +change to a very great extent the influences that are shown in the horo- +scope. We must admit that the horoscope is the result of his past living +and that it indicates a certain probable destiny. If he allows the stars to +rule him, why then he becomes the victim of fate; but the wise man is he who +rules his stars. + + The Ascendant indicates the general characteristics and tendencies which +are latent within a man. Therefore this should be the starting point of our +diagnosis. Then we must see how the four angles are represented. If we +find common signs, namely, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces on the + + +[PAGE 47] PRELIMINARY STEPS IN DIAGNOSING + +cusps, we have a patient who will respond quickly to suggestions, and while +he will listen to the healer and may seemingly try to cooperate with him, +still on account of his wavering tendencies, or let us say the weakness of +will of the common sign person, he is prone to forget to follow directions. +One's instructions must be repeated often or the common sign patient is apt +to forget them. + + If the Ascendant and the four angles, however, are occupied by the four +cardinal signs, namely, Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, you may expect +cooperation from your patient; but if Aries is on the Ascendant, you must +let him think that he is doing the work himself. Never order an Arian to do +anything, but diplomatically ask him if he does not think so and so would be +good for him, for Aries dislikes to follow the dictates of another. When he +does follow your instructions, however, he will do it with great force, and +impulsively. We sometimes hear of people who follow the doctor's orders to +the extent that they will take a whole box of pills at one dose. Well, such +is the Aries patient. He must have results quickly or he will lose his in- +terest. The cardinal sign people as a rule are willing to cooperate with +the healer, and they will also make every effort to overcome disease. + + The fixed sign people, namely, those under Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and +Aquarius, are creatures of habit; that is, they are so fixed that when they +get into a rut, or if they form a habit, they are very difficult for the +healer to handle. This habit, which may be at the very bottom of the + + +[PAGE 48] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +trouble and have caused the disease, they hold on to with tenacity. The +fixed sign people have great determination, and when once they are aroused +they cooperate fully with the healer. Taurus and Scorpio people may at +times display a stubborn nature which is hard to combat, and they are also +so full of fear that the healer must be very careful of his suggestions in +their presence. He must always be optimistic and give suggestions of hope. + + The healer should be familiar with the temperament and disposition of +each sign, and realize that if the ruler of the sign is afflicted or if +malefic planets are in the sign, the response will be very different than it +will when the best sign of the sign is expressed. Remember, the unafflicted +magnanimous, jovial, and loving Leo is a very different person from the af- +flicted blustering, bragging, quarrelsome, stubborn Leo. Similarly, we may +find two sides to each sign. Let us study the signs and their rulers very +carefully. Note also very carefully what aspects the ruler of the Ascendant +makes, for this plant is usually the life ruler and has a great influence on +the life of the native. + + The next step is to study the mind, for if the mentality is weak, the +healer finds his work most difficult. In the mind of man lies the power +which may be used to control disease. A strong and well aspected Mercury +will guide a man into a safe and sane path of living, and such a person is +not prone to succumb to disease. But the afflicted Mercury often leads man + + +[PAGE 49] PRELIMINARY STEPS IN DIAGNOSING + +into temptations, and if the desire nature is strong and the mind weak, we +may expect that the patient will not have the will to cooperate with the +healer. Hence we may say that the healer must study the chart very care- +fully in order to trace the latent tendencies of his patient. When he has +traced them, he is able to get to the first cause. Remember, everything in +life has a first cause, and to get an understanding of a case we must go +back to the beginning. + + +[PAGE 50] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER VIII + + HINTS AND HELPS FOR THE HEALER + + 1.--NEVER, NEVER predict the time of death to your patient. Let the +reader repeat this injunction so as to impress it firmly upon his mind. If +you predict DEATH to a patient, YOU may become his executioner, and before +your God you will be held accountable for a great wrong. There is an old +adage which says, "While there's life, there's HOPE." No matter how strong +the affliction may be in the horoscope, sometimes Divine Providence may lend +a hand, and very serious periods may be passed with the proper help. + + 2.--The LAW does not permit a layman to diagnose disease for others; only +the licensed physician may do this. + + 3.--The wise healer will NEVER discuss disease with his patient, nor will +he ever diagnose to the patient. He will keep his knowledge for his own use +in healing. + + 4.--At all times keep the patient's mind, if possible, from thoughts of +disease, and before leaving give him some pleasant thought to help him +along. Laugh and joke with him; always leave him with a smile, for + + +[PAGE 51] HINTS AND HELPS FOR THE HEALER + +cheerfulness is half the cure. + + 5.--Refrain from asking him the question, "How do you feel?" This has a +tendency to throw his thoughts back to his physical body, which in illness +is a good thing for him to forget. Let your first words of greeting be, +"What a beautiful day! I am glad to see you." Any greeting is good that +will bring cheer, and help the sufferer to forget his pain. + + 5A.--Never discuss the patient's horoscope with him; if he insists how- +ever, then give him encouraging hints only, but NEVER tell him of an impend- +ing crisis. + + 6.--Sick people often have a morbid desire to probe into the future, to +know of any impending crisis or of possible death, especially if they have +some knowledge of astrology. The healer should request the patient to dis- +continue the study of his own horoscope while he is under his care; other- +wise he will find that many adverse suggestions obtained from such study +will appear in the mind of the patient, which will hinder the healing. + + 6A.--There are lines of force running between the two poles of a magnet, +and there is in all nature a positive and negative side. The human body is +a most powerful magnet expressing both the positive and the negative as- +pects. When a man is ill, he expressed the negative side of his nature, and +therefore the healer should (and will if he is the right healer) express the +opposite aspect, namely the positive. When this is done, the patient will + + +[PAGE 52] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +respond quickly, and the healing will be successful. Therefore it is very +necessary that the healer express positiveness and cheerfulness in the sick- +room. + + 7.--When a man is ill, his power of resistance is at its lowest ebb, and +he is very sensitive to influences from without. At that time the currents +of the vital body are turned inward, and he is apt to attract thoughts and +magnetism from others which if negative will have an adverse effect upon +him. When a man is in good health, the vital body ethers radiate outward +and thereby keep out negative elements, also throw out impurities. + + 8.--When one is ill, his power of resistance is low, and at that time the +vibrations of the healer have a grater effect than at other times; his in- +fluence is therefore powerful either for good or evil. If the healer's +thoughts are not pure, if his life is not clean, then his influence on the +patient is not good. Therefore it is most necessary that the healer LIVE +THE LIFE of purity, otherwise he can do more harm than good. + + 9.--If the healer's Saturn is on the Ascendant or in the sixth house of +the patient, he will have little success in helping the latter. + + 10.--A healer with the sun in Scorpio or with Scorpio on the Ascendant is +usually successful. + + 11.--The sun in fiery signs gives good healing power, also greater power + + +[PAGE 53] HINTS AND HELPS FOR THE HEALER + +over the diseases of those signs than is possessed by others. + + 12.--People born with common signs on the angles or with the sun in a +common sign make the best nurses; they have power to soothe the sick, and +they bring a quieting influence into the sick room. + + 13.--When Saturn is the afflicter, the skin is often very dry, and the +vitality low. Rub the skin briskly with rough bath gloves to stimulate cir- +culation. + + 14.--People with Virgo on the Ascendant or with the sun in Virgo make +good nurses. + + 15.--To calm a patient who has an afflicted Mars, it is well to choose a +Saturn hour. + + 16.--People with Saturn in the sixth house rarely make a success in the +art of healing. + + 17.--When the patient is suffering with nervous trouble, but Mars is not +afflicted, it is well to use a sun or a Mars hour for manipulations or min- +istrations. + + 18.--When the moon is increasing in light, namely, between the new and +the full, stimulants have the greatest effect and sedatives the least. + + 19.--When the moon is conjunction Saturn, stimulants have very little ef- +fect; but should the moon be conjoined to Mars, especially if Mars is strong +in the horoscope or is in the sign of Aries, then the healer should be most +careful in administering stimulants. + + +[PAGE 54] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER IX + + APHORISMS + + 1.--The moon may be regarded as the giver and the taker of life; that is, +the moon acts as a medium in carrying the life forces from the sun to the +earth and man, and the moon forces also eventually produce death. + + 2.--When the moon is full, the tides are higher, the bones are fuller of +marrow, and oysters are fuller than at any other time. The temperature is +then also highest in fevers. + + 3.--During the first half of life, particularly in childhood the moon has +greatest rule, and during the latter half of life the sun has the strongest +influence. + + 4.--The moon has great influence over insane people, that is, lunatics, +and over hysterical, epileptic, and nervous patients. These patients feel +the changes of the moon very greatly; especially are they very restless dur- +ing the full of the moon. They should never sleep with the moon shining on +them. + + 5.--At the new of the moon the material forces are weakest. The period +of the waning moon, namely between the full and the new, is strongest for +spiritual work, for at that time the influence of the sun is greatest. + + +[PAGE 55] APHORISMS + + 6.--Do not perform an operation when the moon is in the sign which rules +the part of the body to be operated upon. Ptolemy says, "Pierce not with +iron that part of the body which may be governed by the sign actually oc- +cupied by the moon." + + 7.--Operations performed at the exact change of the moon are rarely suc- +cessful. Choose the time for an operation when the moon is waxing or, as it +is commonly termed, the light of the moon. Do not operate when the sun is +in the sign which rules the part of the body to be cut. + + 8.--The moon revolves around the zodiac in about twenty-eight days. Dis- +ease reaches a turning point every seven days. Starting from the place of +the moon at the beginning of the illness, a change may be expected in seven +days (the square), on the fourteenth day (the opposition), and on the +twenty-first day (another square). + + 9.--The moon rules acute disease, the sun chronic. + + 10.--It is well to watch the squares and the opposition of the moon to +the transiting sun, Mars, and Saturn when operating. + + 11.--The moon has greatest rule over the health of the woman while the +sun influences the health of the man. + + 12.--From the new to the full moon stimulants produce the most effect and +sedatives are the weakest; decrease the dose of the one and increase the +other. + + +[PAGE 56] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + 13.--When the increasing moon is in good aspect to the radical Jupiter or +Venus, cardiac stimulation produces most lasting results. Palpitation is +most efficiently treated when the moon is decreasing and aspecting the above +planets favorably. Apply heart stimulants with extreme care when the moon +is evilly aspected to these planets and especially when it is dark or wan- +ing. + + 14.--Good aspects to the radical moon from the transiting Jupiter and Ve- +nus are very helpful. + + 15. Saturn when placed in the sixth house of the horoscope at birth has +a tendency to lower the vitality. + + 16.--The sign in which the sun is at birth is a very vital locality in +the horoscope, its influence varying according as it is cardinal, fixed, or +common. Also the house containing the sun, be it cadent, succedent, or an +angle is important. From the strength of the sun you may often judge the +response which you will get from your patient. + + 17.--Benefic aspects between the radical sun and Mars give great vitality +and resistance to disease. An evil aspect between the Sun and Mars is bet- +ter from a health standpoint than no aspect at all. + + 18.--Aspects to the Ascendant and the Midheaven are often unreliable un- +less you are absolutely sure of the minute of birth, and as clocks are fre- +quently off time and there is much confusion in regard to different kinds of +time, these two points should be used with great discretion. + + +[PAGE 57] APHORISMS + + 19.--Planets that are in critical degrees (See Simplified Scientific As- +trology, page 81) have a greater influence either for good or evil than in +other degrees. + + 20.--Certain fixed stars have a powerful influence on disease. Espe- +cially should the three following nebular spots be watched: the Pleiades, +29 degrees of Taurus; Ascelli, 6 degrees of Leo; and Antares, 8 degrees of +Sagittarius. + + 21.--A child with no aspect between the sun and Mars is subject to many +child's diseases. + + 22.--A patient with many planets in airy signs requires more air in the +sleeping apartment than others do; planets in fiery signs incline one to re- +quire much sunlight; and people with planets in watery or earthy signs suf- +fer from too much sunlight. + + 23.--With fixed signs on the angles and afflictions in common signs, the +native overcomes disease; when common signs are on the angles and the af- +flictions in fixed signs, he is more apt to succumb to disease. + + 24.--A well aspected sun when in the sign of Aries or Leo gives great vi- +tality and an ability to throw off disease. + + 25.--When people with Aries rising or the sun or Mars in the sign of Ar- +ies at birth are ill, their temperature rises much higher than that of other +patients, and they suffer much more quickly from fever, for there is a ten- +dency of the blood to rush to the head and to the skin. + + 26.--An affliction between the Sun and Saturn or a square between the +moon and the sun gives low vitality. When this condition is found in the + + +[PAGE 58] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +horoscope it is well during illness to watch the progressed moon in aspect +to these afflicted plants, and also especially the transits of the new and +full moons. + + 27.--Retrograde planets give very little help in disease. Regardless of +whether they are in good or evil aspect, their influence is latent until +they turn direct; then we may look for their awakened influence. + + 28.--Planets when they turn from retrograde to direct are slow in motion. +Their influence while in this slow motion is not as vital nor as powerful as +when they are swiftly moving. + + 29.--Planets are strong when in signs of their own nature, also when in +aspect to planets which are in compatible signs. + + 30.--When the hour of birth is not known a fairly accurate diagnosis may +be obtained by using a flat chart, i.e., by placing Aries on the first +house, Taurus on the second, Gemini on the third, etc. + + 31.--Saturn's influence is contracting, while Mars' is loosening. + + 32.--The sun rules the vital fluid which is specialized through the +spleen. When the sun is afflicted at birth disease frequently occurs when +progressions of the planets afflict the sun. + + 33.--When the radical sun or moon is within orb of the Pleiades in 29 de- +grees of Taurus, the Ascelli in Leo 6, or Antares in Sagittarius 8, trouble +with the eyes is indicated, especially if Saturn, Mars, or Uranus is also at +one of these spots. + + +[PAGE 59] APHORISMS + + 34.--Mercury in the twelfth house, afflicted by the sun, Saturn, Uranus +or Mars, also Mercury in Capricorn, the house of Saturn, when afflicted by a +malefic will affect the hearing. + + 35.--Watch the malefic planets when they are placed in either the sixth +or the twelfth house, the sixth being the house which has rule over sick- +ness, and the twelfth having rule over hospitals and places of confinement. + + 36.--It is necessary to observe the antipathy between certain signs and +planets. For instance, the fiery Mars may be posited in the water Pisces, +or the cold, earthy Saturn in the fiery sign of Aries. When a planet is in +the sign of its detriment, it may especially become a menace to health. + + 37.--The place where Saturn is found in the horoscope is most likely to +be a weak place in the physical body, the place most easily affected by dis- +ease. + + 38.--The Lucifer spirits from Mars aid in maintaining the heat of the +blood by dissolving the iron, a Mars metal, and enabling the blood to at- +tract oxygen, a sun element. + + 39.--A patient with the planet Mercury in square aspect to Saturn is apt +to suffer from gloom. A cheerful, sunny room should be chosen, with rose +colored walls. + + 40.--The sign of Leo on the Ascendant with the sun in its exaltation +sign, Aries, gives abundant vitality and the power to throw off disease. + + +[PAGE 60] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + 41.--If a disease is caused by an affliction of Mars, we may look for +help when the progressed moon reaches a good aspect of Venus. When the dis- +ease is of a Saturnian nature, we may expect the greatest help when the moon +aspects Jupiter. Note the symbol of Venus, the higher octave of Mars, and +that of Jupiter, the higher octave of Saturn; in each case the latter symbol +is the inversion of the former. + + 42.--If the moon is in conjunction with Saturn at the beginning of dis- +ease, we may expect that the disease will be of long duration. + + 43.--Disease related to the moon is of an acute nature and may change +within twenty-eight days, but when the disease is related to the sun, it is +of a more chronic nature and likely to be of longer duration and more stub- +born in resisting treatment. + + +[PAGE 61] HANDS AND FINGER NAILS + + CHAPTER X + + DIAGNOSING FROM THE HANDS AND FINGER NAILS + + The astrologer often finds himself at a great disadvantage in his reading +and diagnosing in that the patient is frequently mistaken in the hour of +birth or is not able to give any time. Also in seven out of every ten cases +in which the native thinks he has the right time, the horoscope when +corrected by events or rectified is found to be wrong in this particular. +People are constantly coming to the Rosicrucian Headquarters with horoscopes +which they have erected or have had some professional astrologer set up, and +in numerous cases in which they have been positive they had the correct time +of birth the rising sign does not tally with their personal appearance and +temperament. + + In one instance a woman claimed to have Pisces rising, but when we met +her personally we at once concluded that she had the first degrees of Aries +on the Ascendant for she had red hair a decided ram's profile, a prominent +Roman nose, and full lips, which if you read THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS you +will find tally with Aries. Another woman came to Headquarters claiming to +have Leo on the Ascendant, but she had a slender little body, a long face + + +[PAGE 62] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +with decidedly receding chin, long slender conical fingers, and long +nails--a perfect picture of Virgo. One case came to our notice of an ex- +tremely tall woman. The hour of birth she gave brought Taurus on the Ascen- +dant, but her personal appearance was very similar to that of Gemini. The +horoscope had many planets in the signs indicating height: the sun, Jupi- +ter, Mercury, and Neptune were in Gemini, and the moon and Venus in Aries. +This would + + + DIAGRAM A: + TWELVE DISTINCT TYPE OF FINGER NAILS + + +[PAGE 63] HANDS AND FINGER NAILS + +give her length of arm and upper body. At first appearance we doubted her +rising sign of Taurus, but when we examined her finger nails they were found +to be the perfect Taurian type. Taurus was also indicated by the heavy jaw +and full neck. A Gemini person's nails are small and the neck slender. + + Diagram A will give the reader a key to the pure types of finger nails, +correlated to the signs of the zodiac. Horoscopes with many planets in one +sign will change the nails. In the time the student will be able by using + + DIAGRAM: FINGER NAILS + + +[PAGE 64] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +this chart to detect the characteristics of any type. Note how the types +harmonize. Fixed sign nails are broad, showing great persistence and deter- +mination. The signs ruled by Venus, Taurus and Libra, give a more rounded +nail; the fingers are well shaped and long, and the mount of Venus, which is +at the base of the thumb is quite rounded and full. We could write much +more on the hands and their characteristics as compared with the horoscope, +but as this chapter is especially written to help in the diagnosis of dis- +ease, we will confine ourselves largely to this matter. + + It is not very difficult to detect diseases which are latent. For in- +stance, look at Diagram No. 1. We see a large, broad nail. This is similar +to the pure Leo type. With heart trouble latent, as in case No. 5A, where +the impulsive Mars is on the Ascendant, square to Venus indicating poor cir- +culation and a weak heart, we will find that the little half-moons at the +base of the nail are blue in color, and the lines in the palms of the hands +are also blue. When heart trouble has developed to a chronic stage and is +deep-seated, we find the nails ridged lengthwise as in Diagram No. 1, and +the corners turned upward away from the flesh as in Diagram No. 2. A horo- +scope which will illustrate this case may be found in THE MESSAGE OF THE +STARS, figure 3 on page 625. + + The nail shown in Diagram No. 3 is characteristic of cases such as No. +10A. The nail which indicates liver trouble is usually large in size but +longer than No. 1 or 2. The nail wedges into the flesh on the sides, and is + + +[PAGE 65] HANDS AND FINGER NAILS + +usually of a yellowish tint. The lines of the palm are also yellow. Remem- +ber when looking into the palm of the hand that the color of the lines is a +valuable clue to the health of the patient. If in good health the lines +should be of a soft pin; if the blood is impoverished, the lines are pale +and white; if the patient is feverish, the lines are red; if the liver is +out of order, they are yellow; and if the heart action is wrong, the color +is blue. + + In Diagram No. 4, we have a nail which is generally found on the hands of +people who have common or watery signs on the angles. Many planets in com- +mon or watery signs produce what is called the psychic type. People with +long, slender, clawlike fingers and nails are supersensitive and lacking in +strength and vitality. This type of nail is often found on the hands of the +idle rich, women who nurse a lap dog instead of a child and always have a +box of chocolates at their side. Long, slender, well shaped hands and nails +belong to the psychic type, and when the nails are ridged lengthwise and the +color of the nail is pale, it is an indication of a tendency to weakness of +the lungs. People with long, slender nails are usually susceptible to colds +and coughs. + + Nail No. 5 belongs to the nervous person who is intellectually inclined +and prone to overdo. + + Diagram No. 6 is that of a nail which indicates the person who frequently +bites his nails. It shows one who has little control over his temper and +whose feelings are very easily hurt. Such people are always carrying a chip + + +[PAGE 66] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +on their shoulder and always looking for slights. + + DIAGRAM B: THE THUMB + + A well balanced thumb indicates ability to control the emotions, includ- +ing anger. but where the thumb is short and the end of it is club-shaped +with a short nail, there is no control whatever over anger and things easily +turn red before the eyes. + + DIAGRAM B + + The thumb is a wonderful indicator of character, and must be taken into +consideration when diagnosing from the hand. In Diagram B we see that the +mount of Venus and the thumb are both a little too heavy. This is a typical + + +[PAGE 67] HANDS AND FINGER NAILS + +Taurian thumb with the mount of Venus very large, indicating a very strong +desire nature. The thumb is short and thick, showing a lack of will power +to rule the desires. When the thumb is long and well shaped, it is an indi- +cation of high ideals and the will to carry them out. + + In a well proportioned thumb the first phalanx should occupy two-fifths +and the second phalanx three-fifths of the length of the thumb. The tip of +the thumb should reach the middle joint of the first finger. A very long +thumb indicates that a person is obstinate, headstrong; a very short one in- +dicates lack of logic and a constant changing from one thing to another. If +the thumb is very thick throughout its entire length, the desires and tastes +are more or less coarse and primitive, and the person is lacking in tack and +refinement. If the thumb is very wide, especially at the tip, it indicates +one who "sees red" easily, often one who has an ungovernable temper; it also +indicates stubbornness. The patient who has a normally developed thumb will +carry out the physician's orders. + + If the first phalanx of the thumb is very long and the second one is +short, it indicates one who is reckless and whose actions are not controlled +by reason. If the first phalanx is short and the second very long it indi- +cates a talker, but not a doer. Such a person is mistrustful of everybody +and lacks self-control. + + The mount of Luna is located on the little finger side of the palm and +extends from about the middle of the palm to the wrist. When large and full +it indicates excessive emotion and imaginations, but when properly + + +[PAGE 68] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +proportioned it gives a well balanced mind. It is this mount of the moon +and lines found upon it which give the diagnostician a clue to mental af- +flictions and designate the lunar person. + + + INDICATIONS FROM THE FINGER NAILS + + Long, slender nails curving inward toward the flesh: scrofulous and im- +pure blood, weakness of the lungs, and throat trouble. + + White spots on the nails: anaemia, impoverished blood, nervousness. + + Long nails, thin and brittle: weak vitality, negativeness, timidity. + + Black or blue spots on the half moons: poison in blood, obstructed cir- +culation, or restricted heart action. The shape of the nails should be +taken into consideration before making a decision; see diagrams on page 63. + + Well rounded and clear cut half moons on nails indicate good circulation; +if pale pink, they indicate health; if dark blue, see page 64 for meaning. + + Nails whose top surface is concave indicate spinal weakness. + + Patients who have long smooth hands, the flesh soft and smooth, the fin- +gers flexible, the nails white in color, and especially when the nails wedge +tightly into the side of the finger and the wedge portion is colored, may be +said to have been BORN TIRED. They will make little attempt to help the +healer; they would prefer to have the Invisible Helpers to the work for +them. + + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 69] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + PART II + + DIAGNOSIS FROM HOROSCOPES + + +[PAGE 70] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XI + + NO. 1--A LESSON IN DIRECTING + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO.1: ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aries 29 SUN: Aquarius 8:08 SATURN: Scorpio 0:10 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Gemini 5 MOON: Aquarius 16:27 URANUS: Gemini 26:0 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 10 MERCURY: Capricorn 13:44 NEPTUNE: Aries 6:05 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Leo 10:31 VENUS: Pisces 22:34 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 2 MARS: Gemini 4:28 Scorpio 4:40 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 27 JUPITER: Sagittarius 20:52 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Taurus 4:40 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Female, born January 27, 1865, 5:15 P.M. + + Instead of using this horoscope for the diagnosis of disease, we will use +it to illustrate the art of directing, and judging the crisis and the dura- +tion of the disease. + + +[PAGE 71] A LESSON IN DIRECTING + + We find the fixed sign of Leo on the Ascendant, with the cardinal signs +of Aries and Libra on the 10th and 4th cusps respectively; the fixed signs +of Taurus and Scorpio intercepted. In this horoscope we have two rulers; +the ruler of the Ascendant, the sun, which is in the sign of its fall in +Aquarius and near the cusp of the 7th house; and the dynamic Mars, which is +the ruler of the 10th house, placed on the cusp of the 11th house in a +critical degree of the sign of Gemini. Mars is sextile to Neptune in the +9th house and trine to the sun in the 6th house. Therefore we may look to +the sun and Mars as having the greatest influence on the life of this woman. + + Now let us find the afflictions which were responsible for the sickness +which overtook her. We find Jupiter, which has rule over the arterial +blood, in its own sign of Sagittarius in the 5th house, square to Venus +which rules the venous circulation, and which is exalted in the watery sign +of Pisces in the 8th house. Jupiter is in opposition to Uranus in the sign +of Gemini and the 11th house. Venus is also square to Uranus. Now what do +these afflictions from the common signs indicate? We have had similar indi- +cations in the horoscopes of those who were afflicted with tuberculosis of +the lungs. Venus and Jupiter both so strong by sign and afflicted by +Uranus, this last named planet being in Gemini, which has rule over the +lungs, would naturally interfere with oxygenation, also giving a tendency to +coughs and colds. + + +[PAGE 72] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + On January 21, 1909, this woman contracted a heavy cold which culminated +in double pneumonia. The adjusted calculation date (calculated as taught on +page 470, THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS) is August 16, 1864. + + We will now progress the planets from August 16, 1908, which corresponds +to their places in the ephemeris on March 12, 1865. By adding the distance +which the principal planets move in 5 months, we find that in January 1909 +the progressed sun was in 22-22 of Pisces; the moon was in 27-28 of Virgo; +Mars was in 21 degrees of Gemini; Jupiter in 27-19 of Sagittarius; Venus in +7-50 of Taurus; Mercury in 17-16 of Pisces. + + Now to judge the kind of sickness we must see what aspects were made be- +tween the progressed and radical planets bearing on the organic weakness of +the lungs and poor circulation of the blood as shown in the radix. We first +look for the afflictions of the planets in common signs, and find that the +sun had progressed to the conjunction of the radical Venus in Pisces, which +made a square to the radical Jupiter. Mars had progressed to the opposition +of the radical Jupiter, and was square to the progressed sun. We also find +that the progressed moon was square to the radical Uranus in the sign of +Gemini, indicating the lungs. + + The above aspects of the progressed planets to the radical were a very +severe affliction and especially since they were from the common signs. + + There are three points to be taken into consideration in reading a horo- +scope; the radical chart is as the fact of the clock; the progressed planets + + +[PAGE 73] A LESSON IN DIRECTING + +are the hour hand; and the daily transits and the daily transits and the new +and full moons may be compared to the minute hand which tells the exact +time. The progressed aspects alone will not act; there must be an exciting +factor. The transits act as the match that lights the fuse, and the tran- +siting moon with its aspects and its lunations is the time marker. + + On January 21, 1909, we find that the moon was in conjunction with the +sun, and this was a new moon in the sign of Aquarius in square aspect to the +radical Saturn, which is in the fourth house in Scorpio. This lunation +marked the day when the woman first contracted the cold which culminated in +pneumonia. Saturn at birth is square to the radical sun, and the lunation +naturally strengthened this affliction. This of itself would not have af- +fected the lungs, but we find the progressed sun in conjunction with the +radical Venus in the 8th house and in the watery sign of Pisces. Venus is +the most adversely situated planet in the horoscope; it is in its exaltation +in Pisces, but is afflicted by a square of Jupiter and Uranus at birth. The +radical Jupiter is receiving assistance from the sextile of the moon, and +Uranus has a trine from Saturn, which will ameliorate the evil of these two +planets, but Venus is afflicted from both sides and without a single good +aspect to offset the evil. We also find that Venus had progressed to 7-50 +of Taurus in the tenth house and had reached a square of the radical sun. +The double affliction of the sun, the effect of which is of a hot and in- +flammatory nature, was in this case responsible for the inflammation which + + +[PAGE 74] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +took place in the capillaries of the lungs. + + But the question may be asked, Why should this inflammation take place in +the lungs? Why not in the throat or the feet where the afflicting planets +are found? Mars, which is another hot and inflammatory planet had pro- +gressed to 21-00 degrees of Gemini and was then squaring the radical Venus +and progressed sun. Mars, therefore, was the focusing point of the disease. + + We have previously stated that the moon is the time marker of a disease +and also marks the crisis. We therefore go to the beginning when the cold +was contracted and watch when the moon came to a square to the place of the +lunation, which was at midnight of Jan. 27, 1909, seven days later. Medical +science counts its critical days by 7, 14, and 21. The moon has particular +influence over man, and marks the time when recovery is apt to take place. + + Let us follow the transiting moon on her journey and see her influence. +On the 25th she reached the conjunction of the radical Venus and progressed +sun, also the opposition to the progressed moon, which was in 27-28 of +Virgo. This did not bring any great change, but on the night of the 27th +and the early morning of the 28th when the transiting moon reached the +square of the preceding lunation, a conjunction with the Midheaven, the +Dragon's Tail, and the progressed Venus, also an opposition to the radical +Saturn, death was very close. At 1 A.M. of the 28th the woman passed out of + + +[PAGE 75] A LESSON IN DIRECTING + +the body. She was able to see herself lying on the bed, and was fully con- +scious that death was near when the cries of the nurse who shook her brought +her back to life. + + The length of an illness may be known by the signs in which the planets +which caused the illness are found. If in fixed signs, the recovery is +slow; in cardinal signs, the illness is very severe but quickly over. In +all cases it is well to look to the radical aspects of Mars and the sun. If +these planets are well situated and aspected as in the case of this woman, +(Mars trine to the sun) and if fixed signs are on the angles it is an indi- +cation that the patient will win out, where many under similar afflictions +would go to the grave. + + +[PAGE 76] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XII + + THE EARS + + NO. 1A.--EARS AND NERVES + + Female, born June 1, 1884, 11: 45 A.M. + + "It matters not how strait the gate, + How charged with punishments the scroll, + I am the master of my fate; + I am the captain of my soul." + + Well may Henley say that man is the captain of his soul. When we look at +this horoscope, we read the message in the planets that this soul had pre- +pared a wide gate for itself and that the Path should be smooth and full of +sunshine, for we find twenty-four good and but eight evil aspects. This +from an astrologer's point of view should bring good health and happiness. + + We find the common and earthy sign of Virgo on the Ascendant, with the +moon and Uranus in conjunction in the first house, forming a sextile with +Venus and a trine with Mercury, which latter is the ruler of the Ascendant +and Midheaven; also a trine to the higher octave of Mercury, the mystical + + +[PAGE 77] THE EARS + +Neptune. This will give a degree of intellectuality. This woman should be +attracted to the study of dietetics and interested in humanitarian work, for +the humanitarian and advanced Uranus, which is so prominent in the first + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 1A: ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Gemini 8 SUN: Gemini 11:28 SATURN: Gemini 13:18 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Cancer 13 MOON: Virgo 22:34 URANUS: Virgo 24:00 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Leo 15 MERCURY: Taurus 22:51 NEPTUNE: Taurus 21:34 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Virgo 11:58 VENUS: Cancer 22:17 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Libra 5 MARS: Leo 28:23 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Scorpio 4 JUPITER: Leo 1:46 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +house and in conjunction with the moon, is ruler of the sixth house which +governs the common people, the laboring classes. + + The common and earthy sign of Virgo gives a tendency to drift along the +path of least resistance. The people under this sign are not keen to battle +with the tide but prefer to drift and are prone to become victims of their + + +[PAGE 78] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +physical ailments. In the case of this woman we find Mars, the planet of +dynamic energy, posited in Leo in the 12th house, that of self-undoing. +When Mars is in the fixed and fiery sign of Leo, its influence for good or +evil is much greater than elsewhere. We find in this case that Mars is the +chief afflicter, being square and parallel to the life ruler, Mercury, and +square to its higher octave, Neptune. But why should this affliction be +considered important when there are so many good aspects to offset it? +People with Mars in Leo may be likened to a keg of powder: they are apt to +go off at any moment, especially when Mercury and its higher octave, +Neptune, are square to Mars and in the fixed sign of Taurus. These aspects +give an ungovernable temper and indicate one who would hold resentment. + + We find Venus, the planet ruling the appetite, the palate, and the plea- +sures of the table, in the 11th house, friends, in the sign of Cancer, gov- +erning the stomach. Venus is sextile to Mercury and Neptune, both of which +are placed in the home of Venus, the sign ruling the throat, Taurus. Venus +is also sextile to the moon, the ruler of Cancer, and to Uranus, the natural +ruler of the 11th house. These aspects and positions indicate that this +woman was blessed (or shall we in this case term it afflicted?) with many +friends who invited her to many dinners, and she was ever ready to respond, +for with the moon and Uranus in conjunction in the first house she was +naturally of a restless nature and ready to go whenever an invitation + + +[PAGE 79] THE EARS + +arrived. A sextile between Venus in Cancer and the moon gives desire for +rich pastries and sweets, consequently her stomach was much abused by ex- +cesses. Also her nervous system was shattered by fits of anger. Thus the +vagus or pneumogastric nerve was weakened. + + This cranial nerve, which has its origin in the fourth ventricle, plays a +prominent part in the functions of the physical body. Its branches extend +to the ear, throat, heart, lungs, and liver, and it surrounds the +oesophagus, the tube through which the food passes after it leaves the +mouth, with a network of little nerves. Its branches also surround a large +part of the stomach. An excess of food which dilated and distended the +stomach, brought about by the impacts of the moon and Uranus on the Ascen- +dant, and the temper of Mars square Mercury undermined this poor woman's +health so that she became a chronic invalid. + + The sun is in a common sign near the Midheaven and afflicted by a con- +junction with Saturn in the Mercurial sign of Gemini. Mercury, the life +ruler, has rule over the hearing. We naturally look to the place occupied +by the strongest planet for the affliction. This woman was afflicted with +deafness in both ears, for one branch of the vagus nerve rules the auricle +of the ear. She also suffered from a constant pain under her right shoulder +blade, indicating liver trouble, and she was abnormally nervous. + + Here we may see how man may be his own executioner as indicated in this +horoscope. The ruler of the house of death, the eighth house, is afflicted + + +[PAGE 80] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +in the house of self-undoing, the twelfth. The only remedy for a patient of +this type is to eliminate all sweets and pastries, cut down the supply of +food to one-half, and learn to be still, to relax. + + NO. 1B--THE EARS + + This woman was born on June 22, 1881, at noon. We find the Venusian sign +of Libra on the Ascendant and the sun on the cusp of the Midheaven. This is +the most powerfully situated planet and therefore the life ruler. The sun +is sextile to Mars. In THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS, page 164, we are told that +a good aspect between these two fiery planets strengthens the constitution +and makes the person able to perform hard tasks and produces a superabun- +dance of vital energy. As the sun is accidentally dignified by being placed +in the 10th house and on the cusp of the Midheaven, the native should have +an abundance of will and energy to overcome almost any disease. This we +will touch upon later. + + We find here a very strange combination of planets, a blending of +benefics and malefics, all clustered in the 8th house and in the fixed sign + + +[PAGE 81] THE EARS + +of Taurus, ruling the region of the throat and neck. + + We find Mars in Taurus, the sign of Venus where he is in his detriment, +in conjunction with Saturn; this strengthens the malefic tendencies of + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 1B ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 1 SUN: Cancer 1:08 SATURN: Taurus 9:13 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 6 MOON: Taurus 15:06 URANUS: Virgo 10:13 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 6 MERCURY: Cancer 26:03 NEPTUNE: Taurus 15:42 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 0:47 VENUS: Taurus 17:21 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Libra 25 MARS: Taurus 0:31 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Scorpio 25 JUPITER: Taurus 16:24 ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Mars. Some may question the conjunction of Mars 0-31 and Saturn 9-13 as we +have heretofore given six degrees as the orb of the minor planets, but there +are exceptions to this rule. Where we find a cluster of planets placed in a +sign in which their evil tendencies are strong, especially when in a fixed + + +[PAGE 82] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +and also a bestial sign, then the orbs of those planets are greater, their +influence is stronger. Now, with Saturn's evil enhanced by the martial +rays, Saturn will have a strong influence for evil when he is placed within +orb of a conjunction with the moon and Neptune. + + We look for the physical trouble from the above four planets. These +placed in Taurus, the sign ruling the neck, also the glands, nerves, and ar- +teries within this region of the body which Saturn is afflicting, indicate +atrophy or obstruction. Saturn's influence on Neptune and the moon would +cause a contraction of the nerves. We find Jupiter and Venus also in con- +junction with the moon and Neptune and therefore indirectly influenced by +the orb of the afflicting Saturn. So we may conclude that this entire group +of six planets situated in the fixed sign of Taurus and in the 8th house is +under affliction. + + Jupiter rules the arterial blood, and Venus the venous blood. Neptune +and the moon on account of the conjunction with Saturn may be termed malefic +and will restrict the circulation in the carotid artery and interfere with +the various tubes that carry air and fluid to the ear, for the moon also +rules the white fluids or body oil. As a result of the restriction of the +various fluids, the semi-circular canals of the inner ear are lacking in the +liquid known as endolymph. This liquid acts upon the nerves that run to the +three canals as the acid acts upon the copper plates in an electric battery. +Where this endolymph is lacking, the equilibrium of the body is disturbed, + + + +[PAGE 83] THE EARS + +and, as in the case of this young woman, people so afflicted can not walk +without pitching forward. + + With the obstructed circulation of both arterial and venous blood, she +has also suffered with spasmodic torticollis, the twisting of the cervical +muscles. The square of Mercury to Mars would give this nervous contraction. + + The trouble developed in the fall of 1914 when the progressed moon had +reached a conjunction with the radical Mercury, the transiting Uranus was in +8 degrees of Aquarius making a square to Saturn, and the transiting Saturn +was in conjunction with the radical sun in the Midheaven. These transits +excited the affliction of the progressed moon, and naturally the nervous +system was disturbed. + + It has been said in our astrological diagnosis in the past that the con- +junction of Saturn and Neptune in Scorpio or Taurus may cause malformation +of the generative organs, and in THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS a case was given +proving this. The affliction of planets often works in squares and opposi- +tions. In this case all the planets are in Taurus, which rules the larynx +and throat and is the sign opposite to Scorpio, ruling the generative or- +gans. Here we find the cause of a disturbance which to some extent helped +to bring about the physical trouble. There was an abnormal and unnatural +sex desire which, not finding expression, excited the flow of blood to the +throat, and this being obstructed caused a disturbance. + + +[PAGE 84] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + Now regarding the sextile of the sun and Mars and the trine of Uranus to +the various afflicted planets in Taurus, were it not for these good aspects +this young lady would not have grown to womanhood, for great trouble would +have arisen during puberty. But the life-giving sun, so powerfully situated +in the Midheaven, sextile to Mars, and also within orb of a sextile to Sat- +urn, saved her much trouble during this period. + + If she could come under th care of an experienced osteopathic physician +who understands proper manipulations, this together with a careful diet +would enable her to overcome her physical afflictions. + + +[PAGE 85] THE EARS + + NO. 1C.--EARS, ABSCESSES IN FRONTAL BONE + + Female, born December 30th, 1864, at 9:30 P.M. + + In this horoscope we will continue with afflictions found in cardinal +signs. While they may be in different signs of the cardinal group, yet the +effect is similar in all. + + In this lesson we have the horoscope of a woman with Virgo on the Ascen- +dant and common signs on the angles. Two prominent planets, Uranus and +Mars, are in or near the 10th house. While they are retrograde and not in +conjunction, still they are parallel to each other and parallel to the sun. +Mars being in conjunction with the midheaven, sextile to Neptune, and trine +to the moon, gives great enthusiasm. Whatever this woman attempts to do is +done under impulse and with great force. With Mars and Uranus so prominent +and the sun in Capricorn she feels that she must rule at any cost. Should +she be denied this privilege, she would become very resentful and revenge- +ful. + + With Saturn in its sign of exaltation, Libra, square to Mercury in the +Saturnian sign of Capricorn, we meet the vicious circle of the cardinal +signs. The sun in Capricorn afflicted by a square of Neptune, both in car- +dinal signs, together with the parallel of the nervous and excitable Uranus +to the hot and inflammable Mars has caused a succession of abscesses in the + + +[PAGE 86] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +frontal bone, resulting in partial deafness in both ears. Here we find the +previously mentioned circle culminating in the ears. The writer has found +numerous cases of partial deafness resulting from an afflicted Mercury in + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 1C ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Gemini 4 SUN: Capricorn 9:44 SATURN: Libra 29:03 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Cancer 10 MOON: Aquarius 9:09 URANUS: Gemini 27:01 R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Leo 12 MERCURY: Capricorn 25:20 R NEPTUNE: Aries 5:36 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Virgo 8:33 VENUS: Aquarius 19:52 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Libra 3 MARS: Gemini 1:44 R ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Scorpio 0 JUPITER: Sagittarius 15:7 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +Capricorn, conjunction, square, or opposition Saturn especially when Saturn +was in a cardinal sign. + + It is not necessary, however, that these afflicted planets should cause +deafness. The planets impel, they excite. But wisdom is ever a friend + + +[PAGE 87] THE EARS + +which saves; man has but to learn to know himself. If he would be as zeal- +ous in understanding the functions of his own physical body as he is those +of his radio or automobile, then when planetary afflictions became known to +him and the symptoms appeared in the physical body, he would at once set to +work to conquer them just as he would go about repairing the mechanism of +his machine, oiling it, and cleaning it. For instance, if congestion were +felt in the neck or ears, there would most likely be some discomfort experi- +enced before any damage was done. Then a slight manipulation should be made +about the ears and the frontal bone, up and down the jugular vein, th back +of the neck, and wherever the fingers can find sore spots on and about the +cranium. Frequently a towel wrung out of hot water will relax the re- +stricted nerve centers in head and neck and regulate the blood flow to and +from the brain. This will keep the congestion down, and all serious trouble +may be avoided. + + +[PAGE 88] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XIII + + THE EYES + + NO. 2A.--EYE TROUBLE + + Male, born March 21, 1847, between 1:00 and 2:00 A.M. + + We usually judge the appearance of the native by the ruler of the Ascen- +dant and the planets on or near the Ascendant, also by the positions of the +sun and moon and their aspects. In this case we find there are two rulers, +Capricorn being intercepted in the 1st house. One of the rulers, the planet +Jupiter, is in its detriment in the sign of Gemini, making a square aspect +to the co-ruler Saturn, showing that these two planets are very active in +affecting the personal appearance and also the personality. Saturn has a +tendency to darken the eyes and hair and to make the body and the features +small. This man has the physical appearance of a Capricornian, is +thin-featured and small of body, and very nervous and restless. It is al- +ways necessary to study the temperament of the patient in order to know how +to deal with him, as it often gives a clue to the cause of disease and also + + +[PAGE 89] THE EYES + +helps to guide us in giving advice. + + We find that the man, Uranus, Mercury, and Venus are all in the martial +and energetic sign of Aries, with the sun making a sextile to Jupiter and +Mars. The last named planet is intercepted in the 1st house in the + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 2A ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Libra 22 SUN: Taurus 0:02 SATURN: Pisces 6:32 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Scorpio 18 MOON: Taurus 29:50 URANUS: Aries 13:26 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 9 MERCURY: Aries 15:21 NEPTUNE: ] + [ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 29:04 VENUS: Aries 22:47 Aquarius 29:12 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Aquarius 7 MARS: Capricorn 27:34 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Pisces 18 JUPITER: Gemini 10:18 Libra 20:01 ] + [ DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Aries 20:01 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +saturnine sign of Capricorn and is making a square to Venus and a trine to +the moon. Mars thus placed in the first house gives a very materialistic +state of mind. This man would sacrifice his health in the pursuance of + + +[PAGE 90] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +success in worldly matters. He craves riches, and worries and becomes very +restless when material matters do not prospect. This would in time, if con- +tinued, undermine his health and cause him to suffer from nervous disease. + + Neptune in the sign of Aquarius in square aspect to the moon in the wor- +risome and pessimistic sign of Taurus in the 5th house, the house of invest- +ments, indicates that he expends much energy in speculation. It is plainly +indicated that he has a tendency to become entangled with large corpora- +tions. He wrote to Headquarters several times endeavoring to get us to ad- +vise him regarding his speculations, but was told repeatedly that this was +against our teachings. During the war he invested his all in a large corpo- +ration which was building a submarine boat in which it hoped to interest the +government; but the corporation did not succeed in this, and in consequence +he lost heavily. We find that Saturn in the 2nd house in the watery sign of +Pisces, square to Jupiter in Gemini; also the watery planet Neptune is in +the last degree of Aquarius in the 2nd house, square to the watery moon in +the 5th house and the second sign, Taurus, all indicating speculation and +loss. + + Worry over financial loss aggravated the eye trouble from which he had +suffered for a number of years. He has been an incessant reader and has put +a heavy strain on his eyes. The mental disturbance over his financial loss +weakened the nervous system, causing him to lose the sight of one eye. We +find the moon in 29 degrees of Taurus conjunction the Pleiades and square to + + +[PAGE 91] THE EYES + +Neptune; Jupiter is in 10 degrees of Gemini in the 6th house, that of sick- +ness, in opposition to the fixed star Antares, which is situated in 8 de- +grees of Sagittarius; also Jupiter is making a square to the obstructing +Saturn, all indicating eye trouble. + + We find Mars square to Venus and trine to the moon in Taurus. This man +has in the past been fond of the "flesh pots of Egypt," and has gone to ex- +cess in drink and good things to eat. The result is constipation and inter- +nal hemorrhoids. We note that with Jupiter square to Saturn he has also +suffered from obstructed arterial circulation. Due to the amount of food +consumed in the past the poor body has been unable to bear the strain. At +present he is fearing the loss of the second eye, which if he is not more +careful in his diet and mode of living may be the case. + + This man would be a very hard patient to heal, as Mars in Capricorn near +the Ascendant is a most stubborn influence; he will not take advice from +anyone. It would take great persuasion and diplomacy to get him to follow +the advice of the healer. + + +[PAGE 92] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 2B--BX: THE EYES + + The Rosicrucian method of healing is not only one of faith, but it is +faith joined with common sense. We recognize disease, we acknowledge that +it is caused by breaking the laws of nature. Sometimes there is lack of +will. The horoscopes that we will herewith diagnose will show how one can +overcome where another will succumb to almost the same astrological condi- +tions. + + NO 2B + + Female, born December 1, 1862. + + Application for healing was made by this woman during the winter of 1918, +to assist her during an operation for the removal of cataracts on both eyes. +She had been under the care of the doctor for a number of months. He con- +cluded that the cataracts had reached a stage where they could be removed +with safety, but the woman felt that she desired the assistance of our In- +visible Helpers during this trying period. She had previously heard of the +wonderful success of our healers from friends who had been benefited. + + There were a number of good aspects in the horoscope, which always make +for safety, especially Mars trine the sun, which gives great recuperative +power. In looking for the afflictions we find Mercury opposition to the + + +[PAGE 93] THE EYES + +Pleiades in Taurus, and the sun and Venus conjoined to Antares. The +Pleiades and Antares are fixed stars which have direct influence over the +eyesight; especially is this true when they are afflicting the sun and Mer- +cury. + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 2B [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Sagitt. 9:05 SATURN: Libra 3:49 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Aries 15:47 URANUS: Gemini 19:07 R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Scorpio 27:24 NEPTUNE: Aries 1:08 R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Sagitt. 6:49 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Aries 10:54 Sagitt. 16:22 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Libra 20:17 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Gemini 16:22 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Much of this woman's trouble is due to the afflictions which we find in +the cardinal signs, Aries and Libra, the latter of which has rule over the +kidneys. Jupiter is conjoined to the restricting Saturn which is strong in +Libra, its sign of exaltation, and these two planets, namely, Jupiter and + + +[PAGE 94] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Saturn, are in opposition to Neptune in Aries, while Mars is also strong in +Aries, being conjoined the moon. These are danger signals, showing that +through wrong living (moon conjoined Mars stimulates the appetite) she has +undermined her health by wrong choice of foods and by eating to excess. +These practices have filled the kidneys with poisons, and when the kidneys +suffer the eyes go wrong, for the eyesight is frequently impaired through +the kidneys. However, cataracts are usually due to an excess of sweets, +creams, and very rich foods, and the afflictions in Libra are prone to send +these impurities to the eyes. But since Mars is in good aspect to the sun +and Venus, and the sun and Venus are in conjunction, this woman has overcome +the obstacles and been cured, passing successfully through the operation for +removal of cataracts. + + NO. 2BX. + + Female, born April 9, 1851. + + The chart for this case is the same as 11B, page 279. We here give the +outcome of this case in 1919, and earlier stage of which in 1915 is de- +scribed in No. 11B. + + This is the case of a woman afflicted similarly to the one in No. 2B, but +the reverse condition is found as regards the aspects of the planets. Noth- +ing but adverse aspects exist with the exception of one, Mars trine to the + + +[PAGE 95] THE EYES + +moon. We find the sun, the life giver, in the sign Aries, restricted by a +conjunction of Saturn and in opposition to Jupiter, ruling the arterial +blood, placed in the sign Libra, ruling the kidneys. These three planets +are also square to the moon in Cancer, the stomach. Here we find the kid- +neys (the janitor), the stomach, (the cook), and the head of the home, Ar- +ies, all afflicted, careless, and not doing their work. How can a home be +kept clean and fit to live in if all the workers are on a strike? The dust +will accumulate, an naturally the tenant will be very uncomfortable. We +find the stove full of ashes; it will not burn, and the smoke is escaping +through the doors and windows instead of through the chimney. + + In this horoscope we find the same indications as in No. 2B. The kidneys +have not been eliminating properly, and an abundance of food has been con- +sumed which has not been properly digested. Naturally the body has become +overcharged with poisons, which must find an outlet. We again find that the +weakest place is the head and eyes. When this woman called upon us she had +been operated on by a doctor who claimed that it was necessary to remove +both eyeballs as they had become diseased. The operation had already been +performed upon one of them, which affected the sight of the other. The re- +sult was that our healing was not successful. We were able, however, to +help the patient greatly in the matter of her stomach trouble, it having +seemed almost impossible for her to digest her food. But in her horoscope +we find little encouragement. Mars evidently did not give the assistance + + +[PAGE 96] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +necessary. Mercury, the sun and moon are all afflicted. The native had not +the strength of will or mentality to assist nature in a cure of her blind- +ness as we find Mercury square the moon and conjunction Saturn. + + In order to help such patients it is necessary first to remove the cause +of the disease. We must advise them to live so that the kidneys will be pu- +rified. An entire change of diet is necessary; tea, coffee, meat, and all +starchy foods must be eliminated. Nine patients out of ten will respond to +healing very quickly as soon as you give them a sane and rational diet. +Teach them how to live, and the work of the Invisible Helpers will be +greatly reinforced. + + +[PAGE 97] THE EYES + + NO. 2C.--THE EYES + + Female, born June 13, 1873, 11:55 P.M. + + First we judge the mind, by the aspects and position of Mercury and the +moon. We find that Mercury is in conjunction with the sun, but not so close +as to be combust; therefore he is in a very good position. We also see that +he is sextile to Jupiter and Neptune and trine to Mars. This gives the mind +considerable energy and brightness and creates an optimistic nature. On the +other hand we find the moon in conjunction with the planet of obstruction, +Saturn, and square to Venus, which is a testimony in the opposite direction. +Saturn is square to Neptune and Uranus is square to Mars. Thus all four +malefics are afflicting one another, and there can never be any great cheer- +fulness where this is the case unless the person can learn through phi- +losophy or religion to seek a peace that is above earthly understanding. At +the same time it must be understood that all the good aspects in the present +case will help to give the native occasional periods of optimism and joy, +which will break the periods of gloom and despondency. + + We find that there are common signs on the angles, which is a testimony +of a flexible character, difficult to rouse from sickness or trouble into +which the native may fall. The moon in conjunction with Saturn in Aquarius, +the sign which governs the ankles and lower parts of the limbs, is evidence + + +[PAGE 98] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +of a poor circulation; and Uranus in Leo, the sign of the heart, in opposi- +tion to the moon and Saturn shows that there is a fluttering of that + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 2C ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Sagitt. 22 SUN: Gemini 23:08 SATURN: Aquarius 1:52 R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Capricorn 13 MOON: Aquarius 6:48 URANUS: Leo 3:38 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Aquarius 7 MERCURY: Gemini 28:58 NEPTUNE: Aries 28:00 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Pisces 14:34 VENUS: Taurus 12:32 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus 1 MARS: Libra 28:13 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini 0 JUPITER: Leo 26:05 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +organ. This condition is much aggravated by the aforementioned square of +the four malefics. + + Saturn rules the pneumogastric nerve; if you count four degrees forward +from the position of Neptune to make the exact square with Saturn, you will +find that the point thus reached falls in Taurus, which governs the lower + + +[PAGE 99] THE EYES + +part of the head and the neck. This shows that there is pressure upon the +pneumogastric nerve where it leaves the head. If this could be relieved by +an osteopathic treatment, much good could be done for this person. On the +other hand, the square of Saturn to Mars in the last degrees of Libra (which +works also upon the first degrees of Scorpio), shows that there is trouble +with the elimination of the urine, a restriction of account of scalding +urine and bleeding piles, for Mars afflicted always causes heat and erup- +tion. + + But the worst affliction in this person's life arises from the fact that +Uranus is in the nebulous spot of the zodiac called Ascelli, which is cen- +tered in Leo 6. Uranus being there an in opposition to Saturn and the moon +causes blindness, which sad to say cannot be cured by any physical means, +for the afflictions which come from the fixed signs usually indicate a des- +tiny which we have made for ourselves in past lives and which is now "ripe." +All that we can do for this person is to endeavor to make her as cheerful as +possible under that affliction. + + With respect to the poor circulation and the faulty elimination of waste +products a great deal can be done by osteopathic treatments and the proper +kind of food. She should avoid all condiments and stimulating foods which +heat the urine, and she should be taught to walk for exercise so as to +strengthen the circulation in the body. + + There are many people who have been afflicted with blindness yet who have + + +[PAGE 100] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +made their mark in the world. "WHAT MAN HAS DONE, MAN CAN DO." By con- +stantly stimulating her to effort she may be roused from the lethargy indi- +cated by the common signs on the angles so that she will cease to feel her +condition as she does at the present time. + + + NO. 2D.--EYE TROUBLE + + Male, born February 11, 1918, 3:45 A.M. + + If the poor child whose horoscope we are about to diagnose had lived, he +might well have said, "I could have been the master of my fate, but instead +I have become a slave." Freedom of will depends upon the limitations which +the soul has placed for itself in its former lives. It may have placed ob- +stacles in its way by wrong use of knowledge or by breaking the laws of na- +ture in some way. Man was made in the likeness of God and God gave him do- +minion over the lower kingdoms. Therefore he has no one to interfere with +his freedom of will; he is absolute master of his destiny. + + Now, if this is so, why do we find so many who are born with misshapen +and deformed bodies or whose lives have been so unfortunate? Sometimes + + +[PAGE 101] THE EYES + +through accidents as wee babes they are made to suffer during the rest of +their earth life. A cause set going in one life has its effect in another +embodiment. If it were not so, if the law of cause and effect were not + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 2D ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Libra 18 SUN: Aquarius 21:51 SATURN: Leo 10:14 R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Scorpio 14 MOON: Aquarius 21:03 URANUS: Aquarius 23:37 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 4 MERCURY: Aquarius 1:25R NEPTUNE: Leo 5:16 R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 21:06 VENUS: Aquarius 19:38 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Capricorn 29 MARS: Libra 2:42 R Sagitt. 28:50 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Pisces 13 JUPITER: Gemini 1:54 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +established beyond a doubt, would not God, whom we know is an all-loving Fa- +ther, be very cruel and unjust? Could we love and worship such a tyrant? +But He has made man a little lower than the angels and has offered him a +crown of glory. This crown is not given for the asking, however; man must + + +[PAGE 102] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +earn it by a life of purity and unselfishness. + + + Now let us see what fate we may find in this babe's horoscope: + + We find Sagittarius rising, with Venus, moon, sun, and Uranus all in con- +junction in the advanced sign of Aquarius, intercepted in the 2nd house, +sextile to the Ascendant. Also the Dragon's Head, which is of a Jupiterian +nature, is in conjunction with the Ascendant. This would have given the +little fellow a most beautiful and charming personality. With Mars near the +Midheaven, trine to Mercury, which is in the mental sign of Aquarius, he was +very bright mentally. + + At eleven months of age he could stand alone. On July 12, 1919, at the +age of 17 months, he fell from a balcony, but no serious symptoms developed. +At that time we find the transiting moon and Mars square to the radical Mars +in the Midheaven; this is a very strong indication of accident. On July +14th and 15th the boy began to get drowsy, and could not keep food in his +stomach, for on that day the transiting moon was in Aquarius, making an op- +position to Saturn and Neptune in the eighth house in Leo. On the morning +of the 16th he was taken with convulsions, the transiting moon having just +passed a conjunction with Venus, moon, sun, and Uranus. Uranus when +afflicted causes convulsions. At the third convulsion the child lost his +eyesight, for the transiting Mercury had reached an opposition to the plan- +ets in Aquarius, (especially the lights, the sun and the moon), which +brought on total blindness, as indicated in the radical chart by Neptune in + + +[PAGE 103] THE EYES + +conjunction with fixed stars, the Ascelli, and also in conjunction with Sat- +urn. On the fifth day of his illness he became unconscious, lost his hear- +ing and the control of his tongue, and the head was drawn back over the +spine. A number of the most noted doctors were consulted, but none could +diagnose the case. They operated on the head and spine, however, and the +operations failed. + + Now, from the astrological diagnosis what do we find? Neptune rules the +spinal canal, that channel of spiritual fire from which all life emanates. +Saturn, the planet of obstruction, the chastener, is found in conjunction +with this occult planet, which also has rule over the pineal gland through +which the spiritual faculties first become awakened. Abuse of the spiritual +powers in former lives brings about physical infirmities. From birth this +boy's spine was affected, the spinal fluid obstructed, and total blindness +unavoidable. It is a known fact to astrologers that a child born at the new +or the full of the moon, if not supported strongly by benefics, rarely +lives. This child was born when the sun and moon were in exact conjunction +with the benefic Venus, and Mars, the planet of energy, was elevated near +the cusp of the 10th house, trine to Jupiter and Mercury. These benefic as- +pects made it possible for this babe to live for a short time. We have not +the exact date of the child's death. The last letter we received from the +parents stated that he was very low on November 6th, and was not expected to + + +[PAGE 104] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +live. We find on November 14th, 1919, the transiting sun making a square to +the cluster of planets in Aquarius, and the transiting moon in conjunction +with the afflicting planets in Leo and making an opposition to the planets +in Aquarius. It would be almost impossible for the babe to pass these af- +flictions, and death, no doubt, occurred at that time. + + THE EYES + + We will here give a lesson on the effect of Saturn, the obstructor, when +in the last decanate of Aquarius. The writer has observed that many cases +of eye trouble may be traced to Saturn when he is posited between the 24th +and the 30th degrees of Aquarius, and especially does this affect the sight +of the left eye. + + NO. 2E. + + + Female, born August 19, 1905. + + We will use a flat figure as the hour of birth is missing. We find the +sun in its own sign of Leo. Saturn is retrograde in its own sign, Aquarius, +and Mars is in Scorpio, the sign in which it is able to exercise its full + + +[PAGE 105] THE EYES + +strength. These three powerful planets are all in fixed signs and in op- +position or square to one another. Here we find a debt of ripe destiny fac- +ing this soul which it was impossible to avoid. At the age of twelve this +girl was almost entirely blind. + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 2E [FLAT CHART] ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Capriocorn 0 SUN: Leo 25:48 SATURN: Aquarius 29:48R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius 0 MOON: Aries 14:40 URANUS: Capricorn 0:26R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces 0 MERCURY: Virgo 13:36R NEPTUNE: Cancer 9:36 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Aries 0 VENUS: Cancer 14:41 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Scorpio 28:43 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Gemini 4:19 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Now let us see if we cannot read the message of the stars and see why +this dreadful affliction should come upon one so young. What is the debt +that she is called upon to pay? Neptune, the planet which rules spiritual +sight, is exalted in the watery sign of Cancer. This occult planet is in + + +[PAGE 106] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +opposition to Uranus, which is retrograde and in the saturnine sign of Cap- +ricorn. Uranus stands for clairvoyance and the unseen. Capricorn is the +natural 10th house sign of authority, that of one who rules. The sun, Sat- +urn, and Mars, all at home and in fixed and dominant signs and Mars parallel +to both Neptune and Uranus indicate that this poor soul in a previous life, +and in a cruel and dominant manner while occupying a male body, used his oc- +cult powers to enslave the opposite sex, thereby causing many tears to be +shed. It is said, "The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding +small." The Lords of Destiny have brought this Ego, who caused so many +tears to flow in a past life, into the weak body of this little girl, whose +mother, fearing childbirth, shed many tears while carrying her. The result +was a tender, sensitive body with impaired eye sight. + + +[PAGE 107] THE EYES + + NO. 2F. + + Female, born January 31, 1876, 8:00 P.M. + + Here we have Saturn in the 26th degree of Aquarius in conjunction with +Mercury and in the 6th house, the house ruling sickness. The moon is + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 2F ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Gemini 12 SUN: Aquarius 11:38 SATURN: Aquarius 26:36 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Cancer 16 MOON: Aries 16:47 URANUS: Leo 18:14R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Leo 18 MERCURY: Aquarius 29:17 NEPTUNE: Taurus 0:25 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Virgo 14:35 VENUS: Pisces 12:58 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Libra 9 MARS: Aries 11:00 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Scorpio 9 JUPITER: Scorpio 28:57 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +parallel to and in conjunction with Mars in the sign of Aries. This indi- +cates emotion and impulse. It shows one who does not reason but jumps into +things thoughtlessly and with fear. Especially is fear indicated when in + + +[PAGE 108] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +addition the sign of Virgo is rising. Sometimes in such cases the resulting +acts of impulse rebound upon the native, causing great suffering as in the +case of this woman. When she began to suffer with eye strain she permitted +the doctors to operate on her eyes on two different occasions. The first +time they removed the right eyeball, and the second time the operation +destroyed the sight of the left eye. From planetary indications, with the +proper care and diet her eyesight might have been saved, but unfortunately +she did not hear of the Invisible Helpers until too late. + + We see that in the case of horoscope no. 2E, the native was in the hands +of fate, and she had to pass through the greater part of this life in dark- +ness, while in the second figure fear and excessive emotion precipitated to- +tal blindness. + + +[PAGE 109] THE EYES + + NO. 2G.--THE EYES + + Female, born July 27, 1856, at 9:00 A.M. + + This woman has the feminine, earthy, and common sign of Virgo on the As- +cendant. We are taught in the COSMO-CONCEPTION that the Law of Consequence +works in harmony with the planets, and that the spirit is born into the +physical world at that opportune time when these may operate in harmony with +each other. The birth of the Ego is so timed by the Lords of Destiny that +the horoscope, which is the clock of destiny, registers the kind of debts +which the Ego has incurred in its previous lives and the time when these +debts come to fruition, when the harvest from the seeds which have been sown +must be garnered. + + However, the law of destiny is not a blind law, for it may be modified to +a certain degree in proportion to the strength of the will of the Ego. When +fixed or cardinal signs are on the angles and the afflictions are from com- +mon signs, then the Ego is often able to modify the effect of planetary af- +flictions; but when, as for instance in the horoscope under consideration, +we find a common sign on the Ascendant and the afflictions come from fixed +signs, then it is very probable that the forces involved in the debt of des- +tiny are too powerful for the Ego and the Law must take its course. + + In this horoscope we find the sun strongly placed in its own sign, Leo, + + +[PAGE 110] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +which is a fixed sign, in conjunction with Venus, square to the inflammatory +Mars, and parallel to Uranus. The fiery planet, the sun, is also in con- +junction with Ascellus, a fixed star which is in 5-41 of Leo and has influ- +ence over the eyes. We find Uranus in 24-36 Taurus, a fixed sign, in + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 2G ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Gemini 21 SUN: Leo 4:38 SATURN: Cancer 7:51 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Cancer 25 MOON: Gemini 12:29 URANUS: Taurus 21:36 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Leo 25 VENUS: Leo 6:32 NEPTUNE: Pisces 20:09R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Virgo 22:10 MERCURY: Cancer 20:54 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Libra 18 MARS: Libra 27:59 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Scorpio 18 JUPITER: Aries 9:10 ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +conjunction with the Pleiades, a group of fixed stars which are in 28-41 of +Taurus, also having an afflicting influence upon the eyes. We find the moon +prominently situated near the Midheaven in 12-29 of Gemini and in opposition + + +[PAGE 111] THE EYES + +to another fixed star, Antares, which is in 8 degrees and 27 minutes of +Sagittarius. + + Here we may read from the clock of destiny that blindness was likely to +be the fate of this woman. With the feminine, earthy, and common sign of +Virgo on the Ascendant and the afflictions from fixed signs, what could be +expected but that the will of this soul would not be strong enough to over- +come. Total blindness was the result. + + But what did she do to precipitate this? We find Saturn, the planet of +obstruction, in the 10th house in the sign of its fall, Cancer, and square +to Jupiter. Saturn is most evil in this watery sign, the sign of the stom- +ach, where he can undermine health by denying the stomach the fluids which +are so necessary for digestion. In Cancer Saturn also perverts the appe- +tite. People with Saturn afflicted in Cancer have strange likes and dis- +likes regarding food and are most stubborn about it. Even if they know that +too many chocolate creams and sodas and too much pie, cake, etc., will un- +dermine their health, they will have them. People with this affliction fre- +quently suffer from auto-intoxication. The poison which is then generated +by the stomach is mixed with the blood stream, and this very frequently pre- +cipitates blindness. + + We find in this horoscope a well aspected Mercury, which is sextile to +Uranus and the Ascendant and trine to Neptune, indicating that the native +had a keen desire for knowledge, especially along occult lines, and did not + + +[PAGE 112] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +save her eyes, but very likely read with poor light late at night, perhaps +reading in bed, which is a most dangerous habit and which has caused many to +lose their eyesight. But every cloud has its silver lining, and although +this poor woman has been totally blind for some years, yet she has developed +the sixth sense. With Neptune sextile Uranus and trine Mercury, she has a +wonderful development of the spiritual faculties, making it possible for her +to leave her body at will and she claims to be able to travel to far-off +planets. + + Had these afflicting planets and the Ascendant been reversed, with a +fixed sign rising and the afflictions from common signs, even though Saturn +had been in Cancer, the will would have been strong enough to have saved at +least a degree of this woman's eyesight. + + "One ship sails east and another sails west + With the self-same winds that blow. + 'Tis the set of the sail and not the gale + Which determines the way they go." + + +[PAGE 113] THE EYES + + NO. 2H.--THE EYES. + + Female, born June 28th, 1868. + + This horoscope is minus the hour of birth, therefore we are using a plain +figure with the planets copied from the Ephemeris for noon, Greenwich Mean +Time; but from all indications we believe that this woman has the last part +of Cancer on the Ascendant. + + The sun is in conjunction with Uranus, square to Jupiter, Uranus being +square to Neptune, while Jupiter is in conjunction with Neptune in Aries. +If we take the rising sign to be Cancer, this would bring the moon back so +that it would be within orb of an opposition to Jupiter and Neptune and +square to Uranus. We have here a configuration of planets which indicates +that excesses and emotions have ruled this woman to a very great extent, es- +pecially as we find the planet of desires, the hot tempered Mars, in its +fall in Taurus. Mars when in Taurus has a tendency to express his evil side +and is prone to cause excesses in food and also in temper. Now, with Can- +cer, the sign ruling the stomach, on the Ascendant and with Uranus, the +planet of impulse, in conjunction with the sun and square to Jupiter and +Neptune, we have a woman who has very little self-control. Excesses of all +kinds have filled her body with toxic matter. The blood vessels have become +clogged and hardened. When a woman at the age of fifty-five who has had to + + +[PAGE 114] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +work hard to support herself and family gives away to anger, and when as a +result the blood bounds through the hardened arteries bringing an unusual +rush of it to the head, we may expect trouble. Let us see where this may be +found: + + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 2H [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: CAPRICORN 0 SUN: Cancer 6:59 SATURN: Sagitt. 0:00R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: AQUARIUS 0 MOON: Libra 22:46 URANUS: Cancer 12:46 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: PISCES 0 MERCURY: Cancer 27:45 NEPTUNE: Aries 17:13 ] + [ ASCENDANT: ARIES 0 VENUS: Leo 2:22R ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: TAURUS 0 MARS: Taurus 27:55 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: GEMINI 0 JUPITER: Aries 12:13 ] + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Mars is in conjunction with the group of fixed stars, called the +Pleiades, which have an evil effect upon the eyes. With Mars in 27-55 of +Taurus in conjunction with fixed stars of a Mars-moon nature, with the pro- +gressed sun within orb of a square to Mars, and with the progressed Saturn + + +[PAGE 115] THE EYES + +retrograded back to the opposition of Mars, there is a tendency for the tem- +per to be aggravated, bringing trouble upon parts of the body which Mars af- +fects,--in this case the eyes. Saturn has a hardening, ossifying, restrict- +ing influence upon the part of the body corresponding to his position in the +horoscope. We find this planet in 0 degrees and 0 minutes of Sagittarius in +opposition to Mars radical. With these afflictions we may expect some +trouble with the eyes. + + In the early part of July, 1923, this woman developed what doctors called +retinitis of the right eye, which is an inflammation of the retina. This +caused a rupture of one of the blood vessels accompanied by severe pains in +the neck and shoulders. + + We would not, however, attribute all the damage to temper and hardened +arteries, for the foundation of the trouble had been laid by eye strain. +This woman was employed during the day as a chiropodist, and at night she +spent long hours in reading occultism and studying astrology. She had the +pernicious habit of reading with a bright light close to the eyes while ly- +ing upon a couch or bed, thereby causing a strain of the muscles of the eye. +With Neptune in opposition to the moon and Uranus square to both Neptune and +the moon, there has been a desire to force development. Intensive gazing at +bright objects, such as crystals, etc., which is ignorantly taught by some +occult orders, has a most destructive effect upon the eyes and has caused +much eye trouble among occult students. + + +[PAGE 116] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XIV + + THE THROAT + + NO. 3A.--B: TONSILS--ADENOIDS + + Male, born March 20, 1911, 3:10 P.M. + + Figure No. 3A has Leo rising, with the ruler, the sun, in conjunction +with and parallel to Mercury in the 8th house, and in the 12th house sign of +Pisces. This position and aspect of the ruler would deplete the vitality +and create nervousness. The boy would be easily disturbed and of a fretful +nature. This would interfere with the assimilation of food in the small in- +testines, for the conjunction of Mercury an the sun would have an effect in +the opposite sign of Virgo, the intestines. But we find another affliction +which will have a much more evil effect upon the health. Mars, the planet +of dynamic energy, also hot and fiery by nature, is posited in the airy and +nervous sign of Aquarius and in the 6th house, ruling sickness. Mars af- +flicted in this saturnine sign shows an evil side. We find him square to +the obstructive Saturn in the 9th house and in the sign of Taurus, ruling + + +[PAGE 117] THE THROAT + +the throat and the tonsils. Wherever we find Saturn, especially when af- +flicted, we may expect restriction, crystallization, and lack of fluids, and +with a square aspect to Mars, the planet causing fevers and inflammation, +what can we expect but a disturbed condition of the throat, + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 3A ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Taurus 17 SUN: Pisces 29:08 SATURN: Taurus 4:37 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Gemini 23 MOON: Sagitt. 5:18 URANUS: Capricorn 28:31 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 26 MERCURY: Pisces 29:30 NEPTUNE: Cancer 18:48R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Leo 24:14 VENUS: Aries 26:14 DRAGONS' HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 17 MARS: Aquarius 5:06 Taurus 12:17 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Libra 13 JUPITER: Scorpio 13:59R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Scorpio 12:17 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +a swelling of the tonsils? The affliction coming from fixed signs, +and Mars being in the 6th house, sickness, the trouble will be somewhat dif- +ficult to overcome, for this physical weakness was brought over from a +former life in which the soul had broken the laws of nature. A case of this + + +[PAGE 118] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +kind is often the result of abuses of the most sacred function of the body, +that of the generative organs. The results of abortions, or abuses of like +nature, are often brought back into the next embodiment producing weakened +organs. + + This boy could be helped greatly by manipulation and massage to keep the +circulation normal. The Piscean sun, conjunction Mercury, requires a quiet +and harmonious environment which we fear he will not have. Jupiter in Scor- +pio supplies good food and plenty of it which, however, he should not in- +dulge in to excess. A simple vegetarian diet will be most necessary for +him. Saturn in Taurus would indicate that one of the parents will be apt to +interfere with his freedom too much. A Leo can be ruined by the "don'ts" of +a saturnine parent, and the boy would suffer in health as a result of this +restriction by one parent and overindulgence of the other. + + +[PAGE 119] THE THROAT + + NO. 3B + + Female, born May 22, 1915, 3:22 A.M. + + Horoscope No. 3B is that of a little girl who suffered from the same ill- +ness as in the case of 3A, vis., the swelling of tonsils, adenoids, etc., +but with very different astrological afflictions. This shows how invaluable +the study of astrology would be to the physician in his diagnosis and that +it is absolutely dangerous to treat each case alike. What will heal one +might be dangerous to another. + + Here we have another fixed sign on the Ascendant, Taurus, ruling the +throat, with its ruler, Venus, near the cusp of the 1st house and sextile to +Saturn, but square to Neptune and in conjunction with Mars. The symptoms +would be very similar to those of 3A, but the trouble is from a different +source. + + We find Saturn, the planet of obstruction, in the sign of Cancer, the +stomach. Although this planet is not afflicted, yet wherever he is placed, +or whatever organ he rules over, there we may find a lack of fluids. Saturn +"dries up" and when he is in Cancer the appetite is abnormal and digestive +fluid is lacking. He craves the things that are detrimental and refuses +those which the body needs, and is very apt to gourmandize when the palate +is tickled with pie, cake, candy, etc. The result is that the body becomes +clogged like a stream dammed up: the material must find an outlet some- +where. In this case Mars, the planet of energy, is in conjunction with + + +[PAGE 120] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Venus, the planet ruling the venous blood. This indicates the section of +the body that will be affected. The blood becomes impure, causing swelling +and inflammation in the throat. To manipulate this afflicted region would + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 3B ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn 18 SUN: Gemini 00:12 SATURN: Cancer 1:13 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius 12 MOON: Virgo 2:30 URANUS: Aquarius 15:40R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces 15 MERCURY: Gemini 20:39 NEPTUNE: Cancer 28:09 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Taurus 2:10 VENUS: Taurus 0:19 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Gemini 3 MARS: Aries 27:11 Aquarius 21:35 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini 27 JUPITER: Pisces 23:32 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Leo 21:35 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +cause more inflammation. The remedy here would be to discontinue all food +for a day or two and give the girl only pineapple juice, putting the feet in +hot water with cold cloths on head and throat, in order to draw the surplus +blood to the lower extremities. This would give instant relief. + + +[PAGE 121] THE THROAT + + Can we wonder, after comparing two horoscopes of this kind, why the +medical man often fails in his treatment and feels that the only cure is the +removal of the inflamed parts? If he could read the stellar script, he +would make few failures and would then not be so apt to ruin the life of the +child by an operation. He little realizes that a removal of the tonsils or +an operation upon the throat interferes with the function of the generative +organs. A child who has been operated upon will suffer as a result when it +reaches puberty. Painful menstruation and trouble in childbirth are likely +to affect the life of the woman who has been thus operated upon in +childhood. Inflammation of the prostate gland in the man, and various other +physical weaknesses are often the result of an operation upon the throat. + + +[PAGE 122] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 3C.--THROAT AND TONSILS + + Male, born July 11th, 1882, 11:15 A.M. + + Here is given the horoscope of a man with the cardinal sign of Libra on +the Ascendant, and the ruler, Venus, in the fixed sign of Leo in the 11th +house, square and parallel to both the malefics, Saturn and Neptune. The +last two planets we find in the fixed sign of Taurus and in the 8th house. +This at the start is a very serious affliction, indicating that this man +came into life facing a heavy debt of destiny. + + Now let us see if we can find the cause of the condition and why this +soul has been restricted even from birth. Leo and Taurus are both fixed +signs, stubborn and immovable, therefore they are also the signs which bring +chronic and incurable illnesses; and where the afflictions come from two of +the most subtle planets, both slow in their motion, one may expect that the +disease is of a nature which the soul has attracted to itself as a debt of +destiny by the breaking of nature's laws in past lives, and not so much on +account of misdeeds in this embodiment. + + Planets often work in opposite signs. Afflictions as in this horoscope, +in the fixed sign of Taurus governing the throat, may have been brought +about by the abuse of the generative function (Scorpio) in one life, causing +a weakness of the throat or larynx in the next life, or vice versa. The un- +necessary removal of the female organs in one life may cause the Ego, who + + +[PAGE 123] THE THROAT + +changes sex in each life, to be born in a male body with the afflicted plan- +ets in the opposite sign, Taurus, as in the case of this man who was born +with underdeveloped organs of voice and throat. + + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 3C ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 8 SUN: Cancer 19:13 SATURN: Taurus 23:20 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 12 MOON: Gemini 7:05 URANUS: Virgo 15:30 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 12 MERCURY: Cancer 2:23 NEPTUNE: Taurus 18:22 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 6:37 VENUS: Leo 24:27 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 2 MARS: Virgo 6:34 Scorpio 27:08 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 3 JUPITER: Gemini 18:22 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Taurus 27:08 ] + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + The above statement does not mean that all women who have been operated +on will have these afflictions. Often through childbirth, or neglect of +nurse or doctors, the poor woman is forced to undergo an operation. These +are conditions for which she is not held accountable; but should she on + + +[PAGE 124] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +account of excesses or abortions have weakened the organs of sex, which +would make it necessary for their removal, such sins will bring their reac- +tion in restrictions of some kind, usually of the throat which is under the +rule of Taurus, the opposite sign to Scorpio, which rules the generative or- +gans. In fact the larynx and brain were developed in primitive man by the +sacrifice of one half of the creative faculty. Afflictions may not be ac- +tive in the body in childhood, and with a knowledge of the planets and a +strict adherence to the rules of right living, man may pass through life +with but little inconvenience; but whenever the laws are broken, when abuses +are allowed, then it is that the afflicted parts give way, for as it is +said, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. + + We find the sun in Cancer, which is the sign of the stomach, sextile to +Neptune in Taurus, the throat and palate, also sextile to Uranus which is +the ruler of the 5th house, the house of pleasures. Venus is sextile to Ju- +piter. All these facts show that this man has been very popular with his +women friends, who have entertained him lavishly, and the pleasures of the +table have helped in his undoing. + + The planet which helps to bring about physical ailments, the inflammatory +Mars, is in the sign of the intestines, Virgo, square to the moon in Gemini, +showing that the intestines suffered first from an excess of food and drink. +When the small intestines are inflamed, as they would be in this case, they +are unable to assimilate food properly. This inflammation throws + + +[PAGE 125] THE THROAT + +considerable poison into the blood, which seeks an outlet in the weakest +spot. Saturn conjunct Neptune in Taurus indicates that the throat received +the poison. This man has had his throat lanced twice for what the doctors +termed quinsy, an inflammation of the tonsils. He has had pieces taken from +the tonsils, showing that the blood was contaminated, causing suppuration in +the tonsils. + + +[PAGE 126] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 3D.--GOITRE--TONSILS + + Female, born August 12, 1911, 7:27 A.M. + + We will consider here the horoscope of a girl with Virgo on the Ascen- +dant. Virgo people have somewhat less resistance to disease than the aver- +age, especially when common signs occupy the four angles and Mercury and the +moon, which rule the mentality, are also in common signs and in opposition +to each other. The three strongest planets, namely, the sun, Saturn, and +Mars, are in fixed signs. We may expect that these planets will indicate in +what part of the body the disease will show itself. + + The sign of Taurus, we are told, in "THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS," page 541, +has rule over the neck, throat, tonsils, the carotid arteries, etc. From +this we may infer that Taurus also has rule over the veins and arteries +which serve the organs located in the throat; likewise it has rule over the +lower part of the occipital region of the jaw. The arteries of the human +body have their beginning in a common center. The aorta is to the circula- +tory system what the trunk is to the tree. All main arteries and veins have +a connection with the great human engine, the heart. The aorta is the main +trunk line, from which many branches carry the blood to all parts of the +body, after which the veins carry it back to the heart. These branches feed +the various parts of the body. The branch in which we are most interested + + +[PAGE 127] THE THROAT + +in this lesson is the carotid artery, from which branch off the thyroid ar- +teries, two in number, the superior and the inferior. + + In this horoscope we have the inflammatory Mars in Taurus. Mars focuses +heat, and wherever this planet is placed we find an abundance of blood. +Mars here is in the sign ruling the neck and afflicted by the conjunction of + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 3D ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Gemini 13 SUN: Leo 18:22 SATURN: Taurus 19:50 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Cancer 17 MOON: Pisces 12:48 URANUS: Capricorn 26:31R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Leo 19 MERCURY: Virgo 15:04 NEPTUNE: Cancer 22:20 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Virgo 15:34 VENUS: Virgo 26:28 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Libra 10 MARS: Taurus 17:15 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Scorpio 9 JUPITER: Scorpio 7:01 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Saturn, the planet of obstruction. Saturn has a drying-up effect upon the +parts which he influences. The effect of these two malefic planets may be +pictured by filling a rubber tube with water and closing both ends, then + + +[PAGE 128] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +pinching one end of the tube and forcing the water into the other end. We +may expect this to be the condition of the blood in the arteries and veins +of this girl's neck. Mars fills them full of blood, and Saturn with his re- +stricting influence holds the blood in one part, obstructing its flow and +resulting in enlarged veins of the neck, goitre, swollen tonsils, etc. Sat- +urn and Mars are afflicted by a square from the life-giving sun. The sun is +strong in its own home, Leo, which rules the vena cava, the aorta, and the +heart. + + At the age of eleven years this young girl suffered with goitre and swol- +len tonsils, having constant trouble with the throat and a tendency to +coughs and colds. One important fact will be found in the case of most +children with a tendency to throat trouble, namely, that they formed the +habit when tiny babies of breathing through the mouth. In nine cases out of +ten of children who are suffering with diseased tonsils and throat afflic- +tions they have not been taught to breathe through the nose. Parents should +at all times watch small children, and if they show a tendency to mouth +breathing while asleep, they should be given a solid rubber nipple, minus +the opening. This will force the breath through the nostrils and thereby +save the child much suffering in later years. + + With the sun in Leo, square to Saturn and Mars, this girl has a latent +tendency to valvular heart trouble. This may not develop until later in +life when the Mars-conjunction-Saturn-in-Taurus temper has been permitted to + + +[PAGE 129] THE THROAT + +do its damage, and Mercury in Virgo in opposition to the moon, in the 12th +and 6th houses, the latter ruling the health, have made themselves felt. + + There is great hope in this horoscope, however, due to Saturn being in +trine aspect to Mercury and sextile to the moon. This will give balance and +also persistence to the mind, which will help to stave off any illness and +save the girl much suffering in later life. + + +[PAGE 130] ASTRO DIAGNOSIS + + No. 3D.--GOITRE + +Female, born June 14, 1853 + + As we have no birth hour, the signs are entered on the houses in nu- +merical order so that Aries occupies the first house, Taurus the second, +Gemini the third, etc. and the noon positions of the planets are used just +as they are given in the ephemeris. + + We will first note that the progressed position of the sun in 1916 is Leo +23-27, and that of Mercury is Leo 26-27, retrograde. + + The aspects which particularly concern us are: Moon parallel Neptune, +square Jupiter, the sun and Mercury; Jupiter opposition the sun and Mercury; +Saturn parallel and conjunction Mars, squared by the progressed sun and Mer- +cury. + + We will first acquaint ourselves with the condition of the mind of this +woman. Gemini and Sagittarius are the signs ruling mind. Mercury is es- +sentially dignified in Gemini, and Jupiter in Sagittarius. The sun also is +favorably situated in the Mercurial sign Gemini. So far so good, but Mer- +cury, our significator of the mind, follows the sun and is too close to this +luminary; furthermore, Jupiter is in opposition to the sun and Mercury. Add +to this that the moon, the other significator of the mind, is square to Ju- +piter, the sun, and Mercury, and it will be apparent that the mental state + +[PAGE 131] THE THROAT + +of the native is not a very happy or auspicious one. + + Saturn is in Taurus, the sign of the throat. He is the planet of ob- +struction and has always an inimical influence on whatever part of the body +he occupies by sign. We may therefore judge that the throat will be + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 3E [FLAT CHART] ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn 0 SUN: Gemini 23:16 SATURN: Taurus 25:27 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Virgo 21:28 URANUS: Taurus 11:00 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces 0 MERCURY: Gemini 24:23 NEPTUNE: Pisces 13:44R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Aries 0 VENUS: Cancer 1:48 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus 0 MARS: Taurus 23:25 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini 0 JUPITER: Sagitt. 19:06R ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +obstructed, causing hoarseness of speech; and we may also be sure that Sat- +urn has an effect in the opposite sign Scorpio, which governs the generative +and eliminative organs. Saturn is cold, clammy, and moist. Mars is hot and + + +[PAGE 132] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +and dry. He is posited in the sign Taurus, closely conjoined and parallel +with Saturn, giving a tendency to inflammation and swelling. In the region +governed by the opposite sign he would produce scaling urine and copious +menses. + + Thus to inimical forces of opposite natures have been at war in the re- +gion of the throat from birth on, but the case did not become really acute +until 1914. Then the moon by progression reached the opposition of the +radical sun and Mercury, and at the same time the sun by progression came +within orb of a square to Saturn and Mars from the sign Leo, which governs +the heart. The keynote of Saturn is obstruction, and in Taurus he is +particularly powerful with respect to the heart action for he governs the +pneumogastric nerve which produces cardiac inhibition. On the other hand, +when the dynamic energy of Mars is directed by a square to the progressed +sun in Leo violent palpitation is bound to be the effect. Thus the enormous +range of heart action attendant upon exophthalmic goitre is produced in this +case. We also find that Saturn is near a conjunction with the Peliades lo- +cated in Taurus 29, and his square to the progressed sun has an effect upon +the eyes, which protrude in people affected with exophthalmic goitre. + + The configurations of the significators of mind previously mentioned +couples with the absence of radical squares and oppositions to Saturn and +Mars indicate that the basic cause of the patient's condition is mental. +The diagnosis is further confirmed by the fact that the acute condition was + + +[PAGE 133] THE THROAT + +brought about by the above noted progressed positions of the sun and Mer- +cury. As this affliction is from a fixed sign there is danger that the con- +dition may become chronic. If the person, however, is placed in a quiet, +cheerful environment and if she can be taught to wean herself from her mor- +bid imagination, there is a good chance of a permanent cure being accom- +plished when the sun gets out of orb of its square to Saturn and Mars, par- +ticularly if the proper diet is adopted. + + +[PAGE 134] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 3F.--THE VOCAL ORGANS + + Male, born May 30, 1919, 11:55 P.M. + + "The tissue of the life to be + We weave with colors all our own, + And in the field of destiny + We reap as we have sown." + --WHITTIER + + This is truly so in the life of the soul whose horoscope we are to study +here. + + With the fixed, Saturnine sign of Aquarius on the Ascendant and the sec- +ond ruler of Aquarius, the inspirational and advanced Uranus, in Pisces, in- +tercepted in the first house, we may say that there are really two rulers of +this horoscope: Saturn, which is in its fall in the seventh house in Leo, +and Uranus, which is strong in the occult sign of Pisces in the first house. + + Planets in angles have a greater influence on the life of the native than +when they are in cadent or succedent houses. Planets which are in fixed +signs and afflicted also bring with them a debt of destiny, which is usually +most difficult to overcome. + + In this horoscope we find Mercury in the fixed sign of Taurus, square to +the obstinate and obstructive planet, Saturn, which is in Leo, a fixed sign, +and in the seventh house angle. + + Saturn being one of the life rulers, though in the sign of its fall, will + + +[PAGE 135] THE THROAT + +have the post powerful rule over the life, and when Mercury and Saturn are +afflicting each other from bestial signs, namely, Taurus and Leo, we may +look for an impediment in the speech. + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 3F ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Sagitt. 6 SUN: Gemini 8:48 SATURN: Leo 22:34 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 25 MOON: Cancer 3:32 URANUS: Pisces 1:40 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Capricorn 14 MERCURY: Taurus 25:44 NEPTUNE: Leo 7:01 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Aquarius 11:17 VENUS: Cancer 21:04 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Aries 7 MARS: Gemini 3:30 Sagitt. 3:46 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Taurus 13 JUPITER: Cancer 16:23 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Gemini 3:46 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + This boy at the age of five years refused to talk. He is able to speak, +but will do so only when the greatest persuasion is used. + + Doctors have operated on him twice for water on the brain but have failed +to find anything wrong, and what the effect of these operations may have +upon the organism in the future remains to be seen. Up to the present time, + + +[PAGE 136] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + +however, the health of the boy has been normal. + + He will repeat only the sentences which are suggested to him, but if the +parents are persistent they may in time help him to overcome his weakness. + + On page 154, in the COSMO-CONCEPTION we are told: "What we are, what we +have, all our good qualities are the result of our own actions in the past. +What we lack in physical, moral, or mental excellence may yet be ours in the +future." + + This boy has truly taken up his life where he laid it down in a previous +one. The planets are the clock of destiny, which shows when each soul must +needs learn certain lessons, when it must reap from the seeds which it has +sown in its past lives. + + We learn in the Rosicrucian teachings that we are in this life here on +earth preparing to build the archetype of the body which we are to use in +our next life. In the case of this poor soul as we look back into his past, +we see where in his keen desire for spiritual development he neglected to +build his physical body by mortifying the flesh and neglected to use the or- +gans of speech, being a member of a silent Brotherhood. In which the life +was spent in silence and prayer. In this extremely one-sided life he devel- +oped the spiritual faculties at the expense of the physical senses. + + We see here the mystical Uranus is in the sign of Pisces, in the first +house, trine to the moon, which is in its own sign of Cancer. Neptune, an- +other spiritual planet, is parallel to Mercury and sextile to Mars and the + + +[PAGE 137] THE THROAT + +sun, indicating a soul who is highly developed along spiritual lines, but +one who is lacking in the ability to use his development in this life on ac- +count of the lack of desire to use the organs of speech. + + + This child may, however, be assisted by the parents in developing this +desire, but it will require great patience, as the mentality, on account of +Mercury square Saturn, will be slow to respond, and the boy will be very +stubborn, because of this aspect being from fixed signs. Mars, however, +which is in the Mercurial sign of Gemini, will lend its assistance in over- +coming the influence of Saturn to some extent. + + +[PAGE 138] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 3G.--THE LOSS OF SPEECH + Male, born December 19th, 1896, at 12:30 A.M. + + The young man whose horoscope we will analyze here has the cardinal and +airy sign of Libra on the Ascendant. Physically he expresses the sign of +Libra, being six feet in height, splendidly developed and with beautiful +blue eyes. People with cardinal or fixed signs on the angles have more +power of resistance than others. The will is stronger than that of common +signs. In the case of this young man, however, we find an affliction active +before he reached the age where he could be of assistance to the healers. + + In the COSMO-CONCEPTION we are told that in the latter part of the +Lemurian Epoch man's body became upright, this being necessary before he +would become an indwelling, self-conscious being, and certain changes then +had to take place in the bodily structure in order that the Ego might ex- +press itself through its vehicles. When the Ego entered within its ve- +hicles, it was necessary that part of the sex force be used to build the +brain and larynx, for it was destined that man should henceforth learn to do +his own thinking, and the voice was necessary that he might make himself un- +derstood and thereby communicate with others. To accomplish this a part of +his sex force had to be used. So a part of the creative organ remained with +the upper portion of the body, and was gradually converted into what + + +[PAGE 139] THE THROAT + +now constitutes the brain and larynx. Thus we may see that there must of +necessity be a close connection between these organs, namely, the generative +organs, larynx, and brain. + + It is interesting to note through astrology how this works out. We find + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 3G ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 5 SUN: Sagitt. 27:54 SATURN: Scorpio 25:54 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 9 MOON: Gemini 17:27 URANUS: Scorpio 26:48 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 9 MERCURY: Capricorn 9:20 NEPTUNE: Gemini 18:40 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 4:09 VENUS: Aquarius 7:49 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Libra 29 MARS: Gemini 16:16R ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 0 JUPITER: Virgo 10:10 ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Scorpio, the sign ruling sex, in opposition to Taurus, which has rule over +the throat and larynx. Proof of the above close connection may also be +found in the boy whose voice changes at puberty; also in the woman who has + + +[PAGE 140] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +had her ovaries removed and whose voice becomes deep and harsh. + + In the horoscope under consideration we find Saturn, the planet of atro- +phy, in the sign of Scorpio. Saturn is in conjunction with Uranus. These +two planets are unaspected save by the conjunction with each other and a +semi-sextile to the sun. And this we must consider as a condition which had +its beginning in a past life. When we find Uranus and Saturn in conjunction +in Scorpio and afflicted by other planets, we look for perversion or abnor- +mal sex expression. But in reading these two planets we go into the past +life for the abuses which have weakened the organs, causing the poor soul to +come into this life with the larynx and brain each unable to function nor- +mally. + + With Saturn conjunction Uranus in Scorpio we may look for its effect in +the opposite sign of Taurus, the throat. Saturn then has a tendency to re- +tard or restrict the secretion of the fluids of the glands or organs within +the region of the neck, for instance, the thyroid, which is placed astride +the windpipe at the front of the neck, and which may truly be called the +balance necessary for the proper functioning of the mind. The thyroid also +regulates all the other ductless glands, and every drop of blood in the cir- +culation in the upper part of the body passes back and forth through it. +Excesses or perversions of sex deplete the fluids of the thyroid gland. +What a telltale the human voice is! How the misuse of sex will make the +male voice effeminate and the female voice masculine! + + +[PAGE 141] THE THROAT + + In this horoscope we have the story of a man who at birth had a voice, +but after the age of four years he would not make a sound, nor has he spoken +a word since. The organs ruling the voice in this case have been weakened +by the dissipation of the sex fluids in a former life. We find Neptune, the +higher octave of Mercury, the planet ruling the pineal gland, in the mercu- +rial sign of Gemini, in conjunction with the moon and Mars, and in opposi- +tion to the sun. Neptune has rule over the pineal gland and the spinal +spirit fire. The brain in this case has remained childlike. The young man +dresses himself but he will not speak, and he spends his entire time turn- +ing the leaves of books. + + Truly, the spirit encased in this limited vehicle is learning some re- +markable lessons--lessons which are likely to bring it back in its next em- +bodiment as a childlike, virtuous woman. + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 142] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XV + + THE LUNGS + + NO. 4A.--TUBERCULOSIS + + THE horoscope here shown is that of a well-to-do man who spoiled his life +by excesses of all kinds. He was born on August 28, 1881, at 11 P.M. + + In the first place we find Jupiter, the planet of opulence, in the 12th +house, that of sorrow, trouble, and self-undoing, sextile to Venus, the +planet of attraction, in Cancer, the sign ruling the stomach, and in the 2nd +house, that of finance. This accounts for the native's business instinct in +money matters as well as his desire for rich and unhealthful foods; in part, +too, for his fatal weakness for the opposite sex. The moon square to Venus +from the fifth house, the house of pleasures, also Mars, the planet of dy- +namic energy, conjunct the saturnine Dragon's Tail, and both square to +Uranus, the planet of unconventionality and clandestine attachments, are +other strong testimonies in the latter direction. Furthermore, Saturn, the +planet of obstruction, in the 12th house, that of sorrow, in conjunction + + +[PAGE 143] THE LUNGS + +with Neptune, the planet of underhandedness, in Taurus, which is the oppo- +site of Scorpio, the sign governing the sex organs, shows trouble in that +region and also in the throat. + + As a whole this horoscope shows all manner of excesses, and a + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 4A ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aquarius 16 SUN: Virgo 5:57 SATURN: Taurus 12.25R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Pisces 15 MOON: Libra 21:28 URANUS: Virgo 13:39 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Aries 26 MERCURY: Virgo 3:50 NEPTUNE: Taurus 16:34R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Gemini 11:32 VENUS: Cancer 25:28 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Cancer 4 MARS: Gemini 15:49 Sagitt. 13:52 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Cancer 24 JUPITER: Taurus 25:45 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Gemini 13:32 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +consequent clogging up of the system. Venus in Cancer, the latter ruling +the stomach, gives a love of good things to eat, and especially to drink. +Its square to the moon in the sign Libra, ruling the kidneys, shows that +there was a very bad condition there preventing proper elim- + + +[PAGE 144] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +ination. The conjunction of Saturn, the planet of obstruction, with +Neptune in the sign Taurus, this sign having a reflex action in Scorpio, +resulted in painful hemorrhoids. Mars, the planet of dynamic energy, +conjoined with the saturnine Dragon's Tail in Gemini, the sign ruling the +lungs, square to Uranus, the planet of spasmodic action, shows a tendency +to coughs and weakness of the lungs, which finally destroyed the life. + + This horoscope is a lesson on the ravages of excess and indulgence of the +lower nature, and astrologers may use it for the purpose of convincing +people who are on the downward path that the way of the transgressor is +hard, and that our sins will surely find us out. + + By the exercise of will power, at least a great deal of the trouble +indicated might have been avoided. Toward the last the man realized that he +was going down and wanted help, but he was too weak to cease from his indul- +gences. Consequently he yielded to the tendencies shown in his horoscope, +and became the victim of tuberculosis and a number of complications. + + +[PAGE 145] THE LUNGS + + NO. 4B.--TUBERCULOSIS + + Female, born June 16, 1884, 8:30 A.M. + + Suffering from tuberculosis is shown very plainly by this horoscope, for +Saturn, the planet of obstruction and crystallization, is in Gemini, the +sign which rules the lungs. Although he is unaspected he always has a +malefic bodily influence in whatever part of the chart he is placed. His +obstructive and hardening tendencies clog and crystallize the lungs and +would be inimical even if he were not supported by evil aspects. We find +that the sun, which is the giver of life, is also in Gemini, square to the +moon, which is the particular significator of health in a woman's horoscope. +The moon is placed in the 8th house, the house of death, in pisces, the +twelfth sign, ruling confinement in hospitals and kindred institutions. The +sun is also square to the spasmodic Uranus, and Uranus is in opposition to +the moon. This will produce the cough and the hemorrhage which are part of +the symptoms of tuberculosis. + + Leo, the strong solar sign, is rising, and Jupiter, the planet of opti- +mism and joviality, is therein sextile to Mercury, the planet of reason and +mind. We may also note that all the angles are occupied by fixed signs. +These conditions show that in the first place the constitution was a good +one, that the native had to begin with a strong, vigorous nature and a + + +[PAGE 146] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +jovial sunny and friendly disposition. Had this horoscope been set up in +childhood's days so that one could have worked with the native ad counter- +acted the tendencies to tuberculosis, the chances are that she would have +entirely outgrown this tendency. As it is, however, the squares and + + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 4B ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Taurus 5 SUN: Gemini 25:54 SATURN: Gemini 15:16 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Gemini 11 MOON: Pisces 27:42 URANUS: Virgo 24:07 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 15 MERCURY: Gemini 3:16 NEPTUNE: Taurus 22:05 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Leo 14:36 VENUS: Cancer 27:59 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 6 MARS: Virgo 6:16 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Libra 3 JUPITER: Leo 4:35 ] + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + +oppositions of the sun, moon, and Uranus taken together with the moon's +placement in the 8th house and the 12th house sign show that this case is +likely to terminate fatally. The best that can be done for the + + +[PAGE 147] THE LUNGS + +patient now is to make her suffering as ittle as possible. +The magnetic force of an Aries person whose Saturn is not in any of the de- +grees encompassed by the 6th house of the patient's horoscope would be of +great help to her, and milk just fresh from the cow would do a great deal to +keep up her vitality as it is filled with the healthy animal ether. + + +[PAGE 148] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 4.C--TUBERCULOSIS + + Male, born December 1, 1883, 3:51 A.M. + + BY mistake this chart was first set up so that Leo occupied the Ascendant +end the sun was in the fifth house. The planets show the affliction no mat- +ter what sign rises, but a glance showed the figure to be erroneous because +the sun cannot be in the fifth house at four o'clock in the morning. So we +had it calculated again, with the result that we find Saturn in the eighth +house instead of in the eleventh and the sun in the second house instead of +the fifth. This makes a great deal of difference in the strength of the +symptoms. We would advise students that whenever they are given a figure +for judgment it is wise precaution always to look at the place of the sun +and notice if its location in the horoscope corresponds with its actual +place in the sky at the time of day when the birth took place. If it does +not, that is evidence that the horoscope has been incorrectly set up and is +therefore unfit to be used as a basis of judgment. We are all liable to +make mistakes in our calculations but this hint will undoubtedly help stu- +dents to avoid this particular mistake. + + The subject of this horoscope is suffering from tuberculosis, a disease +neither necessarily serious nor fatal. The student of Astro-Diagnosis has + + +[PAGE 149] THE LUNGS + +special facilities for judging how deeply the disease is rooted by the posi- +tions and aspects of the afflicting planets. Saturn, the planet of obstruc- +tion, in Gemini, the sign which rules the lungs, shows the tendency to cold +in the lungs and also hardening such as occurs in tuberculosis. But this +testimony would not have been so dangerous if it had come from + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 4C ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Leo 7 SUN: Sagitt. 8:37 SATURN: Gemini 6:27R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Virgo 11 MOON: Sagitt. 23:40 URANUS: Virgo 27:40 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Libra 8 MERCURY: Sagitt. 11:22 NEPTUNE: Taurus 19:09R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Libra 28:33 VENUS: Sagitt. 26:35 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 26 MARS: Leo 19:05 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 29 JUPITER: Leo 4:23R ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +the position shown in the erroneously cast figure where Saturn was placed +in the eleventh house, instead of its position in the true horoscope +where he is in the eighth house, denoting the manner of death. + + +[PAGE 150] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, is in opposition to Saturn, and so is the +life-giving sun. We may also note that the moon, which governs the tidal +air in the lungs, is in conjunction with Venus, which rules the venous +blood, and is square to Uranus. All these are signs which show that there +is comparatively little hope of escape for this patient from the dread dis- +ease until death looses the silver cord and frees him from the body. + + You will notice that the last degrees of Libra are rising so that the na- +tive has really more of the impulsive Scorpio characteristics than those of +Libra. Mars, ruler of Scorpio, in Leo adds to his energy and makes him fond +of swaggering and showing off, prodigal of his vitality. Mars trine Mercury +in Sagittarius shows an inclination for sport and probably overexertion, +which may have been responsible for the first breakdown about the +twenty-eighth year when the progressed moon was over the place of the +radical moon and Venus, or the year preceding when it was in opposition to +Saturn. + + It would be extreme cruelty to tell the patient that there is little +hope, of course, and no aspirant to invisible helpership would be so +thoughtless, but would strive to make his lot as easy as possible during the +remaining time, though realizing that whatever measures were taken would +only palliate but not cure. Meanwhile, it should be made clear to the per- +son that there is a spiritual reason for disease and that occult investiga- +tions have established the fact that a materialistic conception of life in a + + +[PAGE 151] THE LUNGS + +previous embodiment is a fruitful source of just such a condition as this +one, for by the thought that death ends all, the materialist gradually puts +himself out of tune with all activities in the spiritual world. When he en- +ters the Second Heaven where the archetypes of new bodies are built, he puts +all his crystallizing thoughts into the new vehicle, which is then born un- +der the hardening rays of Saturn, who in some way obstructs the life-giving +sun. If such a patient can be taught to believe this and become a devoted +Christian, he will be saved a similar fate in a future life. + + +[PAGE 152] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + CHAPTER XVI + + THE HEART + + NO. 5A.--THE HEART + + Female, born October 16, 1907, 2:00 P.M. + + Aquarius, a fixed and airy sign, is on the Ascendant. The fiery planet +Mars is just above the cusp in the 12th house, and the plastic and watery +moon is in the same sign in the first house. This gave this young woman a +very strange nature, for there is a great difference between the tem- +peraments given by the moon and Mars. Mars on the Ascendant afflicted by a +parallel to the ruler, the impulsive Uranus, gave the native a very impul- +sive nature. It indicates one who would fly into a fit of rage at the least +provacation. The two natures given by Mars and the moon were continually at +war with each other, the one impulsive, energetic, dynamic, and the other +restless, plastic, and changeable. The moon, however, is trine to the sun, +which gave a soft, peaceable, kindly nature, directly opposed to the martial +temperament. The restless, critical Mercury is placed near the Midheaven in + + +[PAGE 153] THE HEART + +the martial sign of Scorpio; this added to the temper. + + Planets when situated in angles and in fixed signs, as are several in +this horoscope, have a larger orb than otherwise, and we give eight degrees +or a little more to the major planets in such cases. We would consider + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART 5A ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Scorpio 26 SUN: Libra 22:23 SATURN: Pisces 21:59R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 19 MOON: Aquarius 25:07 URANUS: Capricorn 9:03 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Capricorn 11 MERCURY: Scorpio 15:46 NEPTUNE: Cancer 14:53 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Aquarius 7:14 VENUS: Scorpio 0:48 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Pisces 21 MARS: Aquarius 1:57 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Aries 28 JUPITER: Leo 10:28 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Jupiter here to be in opposition to Mars. Venus is in square aspect to +Mars, and Mercury is parallel to Venus and square to Jupiter. With Venus +ruling the venous blood and Jupiter the arterial blood, both being afflicted +by Mars and Jupiter by Mercury also, this young woman suffered from + + +[PAGE 154] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +restricted circulation, especially due to the fact that the afflictions are +all from fixed signs and angles, which affected the action of the heart. +With her high-strung, nervous temperament and uncontrolled fits of temper +she precipitated an attack of heart trouble each time she permitted herself +to be ruled by this emotion. + + There are also indications of in harmony in the home, for we find the +rulers of the 10th and 4th houses, Venus and Mars, in square aspect. Mars +is also the ruler of the 3rd house, which stands for sisters and brothers. +The above aspect would indicate that this young girl was greatly domineered +by those in the home, and being of a very impulsive and dominant nature her- +self, this provoked much display of temper, which was very injurious to the +health of one with the above planetary configurations. + + In 1917 the progressed sun reached the square to the radical Mars, while +the progressed Mars was in conjunction with the Ascendant. The result was +that a chronic condition of heart trouble set in which slowly led to dropsy, +for restricted heart action frequently bring about other complications. The +doctors, unfortunately, were unable to diagnose the disease correctly, and +she was treated for Bright's disease. In 1921 the progressed moon reached +the opposition to its radical place at birth. This opposition usually marks +the beginning of puberty, and is sometimes a critical period for young +girls, especially when Venus and Jupiter are both afflicted. When the moon + + +[PAGE 155] THE HEART + +passed through Leo, the sign of the heart, while making the opposition to +its radical place, it aggravated the dropsy, for the moon in Leo or Aquarius +has a tendency to cause dropsy in a patient suffering with heart trouble. + + Uranus, the planet of impulse and the higher octave of Venus, which also +has an influence over the circulatory system, is in opposition to Neptune in +Cancer, th sign ruling the stomach. Neptune is in the 6th house, health; +this would indicate that there was trouble with the digestive organs and an +abnormal desire for indigestible food. + + The young woman's parents called upon Headquarters for healing after the +doctors had given her up. They were told that the case was hopeless; she +passed out three weeks after she was put on our healing list. The case was +an incurable one when it reached our hands. She died in February, 1921. We +may here see how powerful afflictions are and how difficult to over some +when they are from fixed signs and in the angles. This was truly a debt of +destiny which this soul was called upon to pay, and it was beyond the power +of the Invisible Helpers. + + +[PAGE 156] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 5B.--HEART; KIDNEYS + + Male, born October 25, 1862, at 5:20 A.M. + + WE will use here the horoscope of a man with Libra on the Ascendant and +cardinal signs on all the angles. The planet of obstruction, Saturn, is ex- +alted in Libra, and is placed in the twelfth house. Saturn is in opposition +to Mars and Neptune. Mars and Neptune are in conjunction and parallel with +each other. We have here three malefic planets, one in the 12th house, rul- +ing hospitals, and two in the 6th house, the house of sickness. The twelfth +and the sixth houses are very dangerous positions for planets afflicting +each other by opposition. + + Saturn in Libra, when afflicted, causes obstruction of the renal secre- +tions, and lack of these secretions disturbs the chemical laboratory of the +kidneys. Poisons are thrown off by the blood after it passes through the +renal arteries to the kidneys, where it is purified and undergoes a thorough +filtering process, leaving its poisons such as urea, phosphoric acid, +sulphuric acid, potash, lime, and other refuse matter which it has taken +from the food. + + If the kidneys are healthy, these organs receive enough water from the +flood to dissolve these poisonous secretions, which are then washed out from +the kidneys as urine. But in a case such as we have for our diagnosis, + + +[PAGE 157] THE HEART + +where Saturn is afflicted in Libra, this washing out is not fully accom- +plished. The kidneys retain some of these poisonous secretions, which be- +come hardened mineral matter. In course of time a hardening process devel- +ops and the kidneys refuse to function properly. The result is that the + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART 5B ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 22 SUN: Scorpio 1:47 SATURN: Libra 0:18 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 23 MOON: Sagitt. 1:04 URANUS: Gemini 20:24R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 24 MERCURY: Scorpio 6:24R NEPTUNE: Aries 1:42R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 21:57 VENUS: Libra 20:17 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 21 MARS: Aries 7:41R Sagitt. 18:20 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 21 JUPITER: Libra 13:02 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Gemini 18:20 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +blood is not purified, and this mineral matter is lodged in the blood ves- +sels, which become clogged, and the circulation becomes impaired. + + The eyes are closely allied with the kidneys, and when the latter organs + + +[PAGE 158] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +are sluggish and filled with mineral matter, the eyesight becomes impaired. + + People with Mars in Aries have a desire to drink much liquid, as in the +case of this man, who was afflicted with an unquenchable thirst. As the +kidneys were not able to extract the excess water from the blood, this liq- +uid, which was not eliminated through the skin, remained in the blood, and +in time the man suffered from palpitation of the heart and dropsy. his case +was diagnosed by the doctors as heart disease. People suffering with this +affliction have very scanty and very highly colored urine. + + If a case of this kind is taken in time, the kidneys can be flushed and +the poisons eliminated by a proper diet. String beans, carrots, asparagus, +and tomatoes are most helpful in stimulating the kidneys and assisting in +the elimination of water. Onions are astringents, and where there is an ex- +cess of urine, the onion will regulate it. Therefore it is very necessary +that the vegetables be properly chosen to work against and not with the dis- +ease. + + +[PAGE 159] THE HEART + + NO. 5C.--THE HEART. + + Male, born October 6th, 1855, 1:00 A.M. + + "We shape, ourselves, the joy or fear + Of which the coming life is made, + And fill our Futures' atmosphere + With sunshine or with shade. + We weave with colors all our own + The tissues of the Life to be, + And in the field of Destiny + We reap as we have sown. + + "Still shall the soul around it call + The shadows which it gathered here, + And, painted on the eternal wall, + The past shall reappear. + Think ye the notes of holy song + On Milton's tuneful ear have died? + + Think ye that Raphael's angel throng + Has vanished from his side? + On, no! we live our life again; + Or warmly touched, or coldly dim, + The pictures of the past remain-- + Man's work shall follow him!" --Whittier. + + Well may we say of the soul whose destiny we read through this mystic +scroll that his work in the past followed him. He hewed a path for himself, +and chose one that was rough and rocky. His was the path of a leader of + + +[PAGE 160] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +men, for he had the sign of Leo on the Ascendant, with the moon in conjunc- +tion with Mars and the Ascendant and sextile to the ruler, the sun. He also + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 5C ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Taurus 1 SUN: Libra 12:26 SATURN: Cancer 0:01 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Gemini 7 MOON: Leo 18:49 URANUS: Taurus 20:14R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 12 MERCURY: Scorpio 6:51 NEPTUNE: Pisces 16:06R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Leo 11:34 VENUS: Libra 4:22R DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 3 MARS: Leo 21:46 Taurus 4:42 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 29 JUPITER: Aquarius 23:01R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Taurus 4:42 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +had fixed signs on the four angles and five planets therein. This is the +sign of a strong soul, a man who will never lean on anyone, but who will be +a doer, a lifter; as such he spent his life. This was a man who carried his +cross willingly and who bore the stripes of the cruelties of the world +uncomplainingly. One with such signs on the angles and with the planets as + + +[PAGE 161] THE HEART + +strongly placed as in this horoscope and afflicting one another surely finds +his life full of lessons, and many responsibilities are placed upon him. + + In his home he was most unhappy, as we see from Mercury in conjunction +with the Dragon's Tail in Scorpio in the 4th house. This indicates that the +wife was a nagger and a scold. Mercury in Scorpio shows that the wife would +never permit the husband to have a moment's peace. Then we find Saturn in +Cancer. Cancer is the natural fourth house sign. Saturn is square to Ve- +nus, again indicating a masterful and discordant marriage partner. With Ju- +piter in the seventh house, in opposition to the moon and mars and square to +Uranus, marriage and partnership are shown to be accompanied by many trials +and much opposition. + + In spite of all this we find that this man achieved quite a fortune, did +a big work, and made many friends. He was a leader in Masonry, where he did +many kind acts, helping the widow and orphan generously with his money. He +was deeply interested in prison work and also in occult studies. Neptune in +Pisces, sextile to Uranus, shows his interest in occultism, but both these +planets are retrograde, which brought him all kinds of restrictions. He was +never free to follow his higher ideals. + + With his many crosses, hard work, and disappointments he developed heart +trouble of a very serious nature, and for years he used heart stimulants so +as to keep at his work. He never allowed his physical sufferings to + + +[PAGE 162] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +interfere with his business, however, which was of a very responsible na- +ture, with many branches scattered over a large pat of America; also he had +many men under him. With leakage of the valves of the heart and in spite of +the resulting suffering he lived to the ripe old age of seventy years. We +may see from this that the will can be used to overcome and that man is +truly the master of his fate. Had this man had Virgo on the Ascendant or +some other sign less strong than Leo, together with the afflictions from +fixed signs, he would have become a confirmed invalid or have passed out as +a young man. Hence we may see that "the wise man rules his stars; the fool +is ruled by them." + + +[PAGE 163] THE HEART + + NO. 5D.--HEART DISEASE + + Male, born September 12, 1858, 8:15 A.M. + + + OUR first concern when diagnosing this horoscope is to ascertain the men- +tal caliber of the patient. Jupiter placed in the house of the higher mind +and Mars near the cusp of the house of the lower mind are in opposition, +also square to the sun and Mercury, a fact which stamps the native as a pes- +simist of an irritable nature. This is accentuated by the opposition of +mercury to Neptune, the lower mind being out of tune with all spiritual con- +cepts. Saturn square Venus prevents the native from seeing the beauty of +life. As these adverse testimonies are only counterbalanced by the moon +sextile Mercury and the sun, and trine Neptune, we may conclude that this +person is in a sad state and needs all the help and cheer it is possible to +bring him. We are afraid that even the best efforts will avail little +against such a barrier of pessimism as he has built around himself. + + Regarding the disease to which he is subject, the cold hand of Saturn in +leo shows us the obstructed heart action, and the consequent sluggish circu- +lation is designated by the square of Saturn to Venus and the square of the +sun and Mercury to Jupiter, for Jupiter and Venus govern the arterial and +venous circulations respectively. Uranus sextile Saturn produces a spas- +modic action felt as a fluttering of the heart; and being posited in Gemini + + +[PAGE 164] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +he also imparts a spasmodic motion to the lungs, making it at times diffi- +cult for the patient to breathe, though the condition is not so well defined +as in asthma. The affliction of the sun and Mercury in Virgo op- + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 5D ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 23 SUN: Virgo 19:34 SATURN: Leo 7:59 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 26 MOON: Scorpio 20:18 URANUS: Gemini 3:31 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 26 MERCURY: Virgo 24:05R NEPTUNE: Pisces 23:55R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 19:37 VENUS: Scorpio 4:50 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 17 MARS: Sagitt. 17:07 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 19 JUPITER: Gemini 20:22 ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +position Neptune indicates intestinal trouble. The affliction of the sun +and Mercury by Jupiter and Mars from the houses of travel, also the opposi- +tion of the last named planets, show a predisposition to accidents, espe- +cially when on a journey. With this phase of the indications we are not, + + +[PAGE 165] THE HEART + +however, concerned at the present time. + + We may bend our efforts to accelerate the action of the heart and promote +impaired digestion in order to give the person relief and a brighter outlook +upon life. As Saturn controls the pneumogastric nerve, his presence in Leo +shows us that this is the principal set of the trouble, for his nerve inhib- +its the heart action and acts also upon other vital organs. It is difficult +to reach this nerve in an efficient manner when we are clothed in our dense +bodies. But the conscientious Rosicrucian health adjuster has other means +at his disposal, for his Obligation to himself taken before the Elder Broth- +ers enables him to work upon his patients during the hours when his body is +sleeping. And he is taught how he may materialize fingers inside the body +of the ailing and thus give the needed help to remove obstructions, growths, +etc.; yes, even to adjust displaced bones. We receive many letters at Head- +quarters from patients who sense the presence of the Invisible Helpers and +the withdrawal of hands from their bodies at the moment when they awake. + + The best method to treat such a case as this would be for the healer to +thoroughly impress upon his or her mind where the seat of the malady is to +be found, physiologically and astrologically. Then after retrospection in +the evening say, "Now, I will go to help my patient under the direction of +the Elder Brothers," letting that be the last waking thought. + + The healer best fitted to take charge of this case would be one whose + + +[PAGE 166] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +rising sign is in harmony with Libra. Aquarius would be the first choice +and Gemini the second. It is further required that he or she should not +have Saturn in Libra or Pisces. + + + NO. 5E.--THE HEART. + + Female, born September 18, 1854, 10:00 A.M. + + HERE we have a horoscope with the energetic, active, and aggressive sign +of Scorpio on the Ascendant, with the life ruler, Mars, in the 1st house +within orb of the Ascendant and in its own sign, where a planet has the +greatest power either for good or evil. In the case of this woman this mar- +tial energy is dissipated and not kept under control, for the planet Mars is +in opposition to the erratic and impulsive Uranus which is posited in the +7th house in the fixed sign of Taurus where it is in its fall and therefore +apt to show its evil side. The combined influence of Mars and Uranus, both +being planets of impulse, acts like a fire fanned by the wind which has got +beyond control. + + We find the water moon near the Midheaven in the hot, fiery, and fixed +sign of Leo, and this planet is in square aspect to both the above planets + + +[PAGE 167] THE HEART + +of impulse. Fire in contact with water generates steam. This affliction of +the planets of fire to the watery and emotional moon has a similar effect +upon the mind of this woman. Mars in Scorpio afflicted and on the Ascendant + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTHCHART NO. 5E ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Leo 23 SUN: Virgo 25:06 SATURN: Gemini 15:48 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Virgo 26 MOON: Leo 10:03 URANUS: Taurus 16:26R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Libra 20 MERCURY: Libra 0:04 NEPTUNE: Pisces 14:18R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Scorpio 6:30 VENUS: Virgo 3:34 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Sagitt. 5 MARS: Scorpio 14:20 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Capricorn 11 JUPITER: Capricorn 17:43 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +gives an uncontrolled temper, showing a woman who would fly into a rage at +the least provocation and this anger is apt to be directed toward the mar- +riage partner. If we place a kettle of water on a fire which is kept fanned +into a red heat, in time the water boils down, the bottom of the kettle + + +[PAGE 168] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +becomes dry and burns out. In this state we find this woman. For years she +has created such a nervous and emotional environment about her in her home +that the poor heart has been burned and scorched, for the moon afflicted in +Leo indicates that the heart has been under a great strain. The result is +that in the year 1916 when the progressed moon reached the conjunction of +the radical Mars in the 1st house and later the opposition of Uranus in the +7th house (indicating the husband), domestic relations reached a critical +point. With the progressed Venus, Mercury, sun, and moon all transiting the +1st house and in the martial sign of Scorpio, the resulting fiery emotions +were too much for the body, and the poor woman lost all control of herself. +She wanted to cry all the time, she could not digest her food, and would of- +ten swoon away with heart trouble. + + There is, however, another cause for this physical break. We find a won- +derfully strong and well fortified Neptune in its own sign of Pisces in +theoccult 4th house, in sextile to Jupiter and Uranus and trine to Mars. +These aspects, especially the sextile between the two occult planets, +Neptune and Uranus, ordinarily give a strong desire for development along +mystical lines and would cause one to develop rapidly. But Neptune is mak- +ing a square to Saturn, and Uranus is square to the moon. Evil aspects be- +tween planets as well as good will bring development but the development is +of a different nature. + + +[PAGE 169] THE HEART + + As we have often stated in our lessons, anger and evil emotions are much +more injurious to a person who is endeavoring to live the higher life than +if he were content to drift and be of the earth earthy. Each time that this +woman gave way to her anger she set in motion a counter-clockwise vibration, +a fire that burned up the spiritual life that had been awakened, and the +poor body could not stand the strain. She cannot long continue placing this +strain upon the heart, for with the squares and opposition of Mars, moon, +and Uranus from angles and fixed signs, the heart will not be able to stand +the strain and death may be very sudden. + + +[PAGE 170] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XVII + + THE STOMACH + + NO. 6A.--STOMACH TROUBLE AND TUBERCULOSIS + + In the diagnosis of disease by the science of the stars it is sometimes +most difficult to know in what direction the afflictions may work. For in- +stance, we have so often written of the sinister effects of Saturn in Can- +cer, the sign which has rule over the stomach. When he afflicts in this +sign he robs the stomach of its gastric juice, which is necessary for the +digestion of the food. Saturn in this place has also a tendency to create a +desire for unhealthful foods and leads to the excessive use of cream, sugar, +desserts, etc. But in this lesson and the next we will endeavor to show how +Saturn when placed in the opposite sign, Capricorn--in which Saturn is at +home and where his influence is much more subtle and malevolent than when he +is in the sign of Cancer--has similar effects. + + We will use two horoscopes by which we will show the effects of Saturn in +Capricorn whereby diseases are produced of vastly different natures. We +will first use horoscope 6A, which is that of a man born February 19, 1902, +3:00 P.M. + + +[PAGE 171] THE STOMACH + + We find Saturn in 23-21 of Capricorn in the 6th house which has rule over +the health. Saturn is in opposition to the moon. This last named planet is +in its own sign of Cancer, the sign ruling the stomach. The moon is also in +opposition to Jupiter. When Jupiter has any connection with signs or + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTHCHART NO. 6A ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Aries 17 SUN: Pisces 0:23 SATURN: Capricorn 23:21] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Taurus 22 MOON: Cancer 27:17 URANUS: Sagitt. 20:44 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Gemini 27 MERCURY: Aquarius 28:09R NEPTUNE: Gemini 28:47R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Cancer 28:12 VENUS: Aquarius 22:19R DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Leo 20 MARS: Pisces 8:40 Scorpio 7:53 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 16 JUPITER: Aquarius 2:53 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Taurus 7:53 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +planets which rule the appetite, he creates a desire for food in large quan- +tities. Whatever Jupiter does must be on a big scale; with the moon and Ju- +piter in opposition we may look for the gourmand. + + +[PAGE 172] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + With Saturn afflicted in Capricorn the gastric juice of the stomach is +sluggish, and we may expect trouble in the digestion of the food. + + If the stomach is filled with an excess of rich food, the man will re- +ceive nourishment from only that part which the stomach can digest. The +blood is carried to the lungs to be oxygenated. Oxygenation is to the body +what the draft is to the stove. If we shut off the draft, we smother and +kill the fire, and so it is in the body. If man stops breathing, he dies. +In shallow breathing the lungs are not able to supply sufficient oxygen for +warmth and energy, and they do not exhale all the carbon dioxide. + + In this horoscope we find Neptune in Gemini. Gemini has rule over the +lungs. Neptune is on the cusp of the 12th house in opposition to Uranus in +the 5th house in Sagittarius. Uranus and Neptune when afflicted indicate a +nervous, cramping, spasmodic action. Neptune here indicates that the capil- +laries of the lungs were incapable of taking the amount of oxygen necessary +to oxygenate the blood. Consequently the carbon dioxide formed faster than +the lungs were able to exhale it. The result was that poison was stored up +in the system. The nerve cells became weak and sluggish, and little by +little the body became lowered in resistive power; the weakest organ was +then unable to keep up with its work. The bellows of the body, the lungs, +in the case of this man were unable to inhale enough air to burn up the poi- +sons. The result was the lungs became diseased and tuberculosis set in. + + +[PAGE 173] THE STOMACH + + People with planets afflicted in common signs are frequently susceptible +to tuberculosis. With the sun and Mars in conjunction in Pisces, and with +Uranus in Sagittarius in opposition to Neptune in Gemini--Pisces, Sagit- +tarius, and Gemini being common signs--the lungs as a consequence attracted +the impurities. hence we can see that Saturn in either Cancer or Capricorn +may be the direct cause of disease which expresses itself in another sign. + + Three years ago this man began to suffer with stomach trouble, which has +now been followed by tuberculosis of the lungs, a disease which had its be- +ginning in wrong eating. It can at this stage be cured by a very carefully +chosen diet of raw vegetables and fruits and very little protein. + + We will in our next lesson take up Horoscope 6B, which has Saturn in Cap- +ricorn, but which has its outcome in a quite different disease. + + +[PAGE 174] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 6B. + + STOMACH TROUBLE AND INFLAMMATION OF KIDNEYS + + Horoscope 6B is that of a man born February 26, 1871, 4 P.M. + + This will be a continuation of the lesson on the effect of Saturn in Cap- +ricorn, showing how this planet may express its evil side through the planet +which it aspects adversely. + + We find Saturn, the planet of obstruction, in the sign of Capricorn, a +cardinal sign. Signs of the like nature, especially the cardinal signs, +have an affinity for one another and respond to afflictions more readily on +that account. In this horoscope Saturn is in Capricorn, square to Mars in +Libra, both cardinal signs. Libra rules the kidneys and the little ducts +leading from the kidneys to the bladder, the ureters. Where we find Mars +afflicted we may look for heat and excessive action. Saturn in Capricorn +gives tendencies similar to those which he gives in Cancer--perverted +tastes, desire for strange and unnatural foods, and a liking for sugar, +pastries, etc. + + Saturn in Capricorn also obstructs the flow of the gastric juices in the +stomach, hence we can see why people with an afflicted Saturn in tropic or +cardinal signs, namely, Capricorn or Cancer, are often afflicted with indi- +gestion, rheumatism, uric acid deposits, etc. When we find the inflammatory +Mars in the cardinal sign of Libra, square to Saturn in Capricorn, we may + + +[PAGE 175] THE STOMACH + +expect that the poisonous elements which are left undigested to ferment in +the stomach will lodge in the kidneys, creating highly acid urine, which +causes inflammation in the kidneys and ureters. + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTHCHART NO. 6B ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Taurus 9 SUN: Pisces 7:55 SATURN: Capricorn 7:47 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Gemini 15 MOON: Gemini 2:18 URANUS: Cancer 22:58 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 19 MERCURY: Aquarius 15:54 NEPTUNE: Aries 19:57 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Leo 17:40 VENUS: Pisces 27:07 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 10 MARS: Libra 6:13R ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Libra 7 JUPITER: Gemini 16:50 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + In this horoscope we find the moon in Gemini, square to the sun in Pi- +sces. Gemini and Pisces, being common signs, here obstruct the oxygenation +of the blood and interfere with its purification, hence more impurities are +sent to the kidneys from this source. Thus we may see the similarity of + + +[PAGE 176] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +causes in this horoscope and horoscope 6A, although the results are not the +same. + + This man should be placed on a milk diet for several weeks, and after the +kidneys have been purified by this system of flushing, he should eliminate +all highly seasoned and most starchy foods from his diet. + + + NO 6C.--THE PYLORUS + + Female, born March 29, 1909, 1:30 P.M. + + We find that this girl has a very bright mind, with Mercury, the mental +planet in sextile aspect to the quick-witted and active planets, Mars and +Uranus, in the sign of Capricorn which gives stability and balance, bringing +the saturnine influence to bear upon the impulse and quick wit of the last +two planets. Mercury is also making a trine to the moon which is in its own +sign of Cancer. But we find much that is dangerous in this active mentality +should the parents allow this child to take up the dangerous fads of mystic +writing such as the planchette, ouija board, etc. Saturn in the sign of the +head, Aries, in square aspect to the mystical planet Neptune, Neptune being + + +[PAGE 177] THE STOMACH + +in conjunction with the moon, and the moon in opposition to Uranus and mars +from the 12th to the 6th house, show that some time in life, if the parents +are not careful this girl may suffer through insanity or spirit obsession. + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTHCHART NO. 6C ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Taurus 1 SUN: Aries 8:33 SATURN: Aries 12:27 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Gemini 9 MOON: Cancer 22:18 URANUS: Capricorn 20:46 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 15 MERCURY: Pisces 17:58 NEPTUNE: Cancer 14:19 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Leo 14:48 VENUS: Aries 0:52 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 4 MARS: Capricorn 22:41 Gemini 20:28 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 29 JUPITER: Virgo 6:10R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Sagitt. 20:28 ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + This horoscope has another affliction which makes it a very interesting +figure for diagnosis. The moon is in the sign of Cancer, the stomach, in +opposition to the inflammatory Mars and the nervous and contracting Uranus + + +[PAGE 178] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +which has a tendency to disturb digestion and create gas in the stomach, +also inflammation of the mucous membrane. Uranus is airy, the moon watery, +Mars fiery. In order to illustrate the effect of these three planets upon +one another, we kindle a fire, allow a strong breeze to blow upon it, and +after it is in full blaze pour water upon it; this will describe to a cer- +tain extent the effect of these three planets when acting upon the stomach. +Every bit of food that was taken into the stomach created a disturbance. +This child rarely tasted food without having great distress, nausea, and +vomiting; nothing could be retained in the stomach. She was afflicted in +this manner even from birth. At the age of eight years she was operated +upon by the doctors, who diagnosed her trouble as being in the cardiac +orifice, saying that this was too small. But the patient received no relief +from this operation. + + If the physician could only have reasoned that the vomiting and distur- +bance when food was in the stomach could not have been caused by a defect in +the entrance of the stomach but by another cause deeper down in the organ! +Astrology tells us that Saturn in square to Neptune indicates malformation, +undersize. if these two planets had been in the first pat of the sign of +Cancer or the last degrees of Gemini, it would have indicated the cardiac +orifice, but we find that the moon is in 22 degrees of Cancer, showing that +it was nearer the lower part of the organ. Mars and Uranus indicate invol- +untary muscular action. Mars, when afflicting the moon, shows nausea, and + + +[PAGE 179] THE STOMACH + +Uranus, when afflicting the moon, causes contraction. Thus we see indica- +tions that there were involuntary muscular action and contraction which +caused nausea. But why should the food be thrown back out of the stomach? +as the child could retain nothing. We find an undersized pylorus, an under- +sized outlet. After the food was in the stomach it could not be passed into +the intestines in the proper manner, and there being also insufficient mu- +cous membrane, there was faulty digestion. Naturally vomiting would be the +result. + + In such a case it would have been difficult to cure this young woman +without an operation, but instead of operating upon the cardiac orifice, the +doctors should have observed the pylorus and watched the action in this part +of the stomach. + + +[PAGE 180] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 6D.--STOMACH AND KIDNEY TROUBLE + + Female, born January 23, 1886, 4:00 A.M. + + A number of operations have been performed in the abdominal region of +this patient, and she has gone from one doctor to another until now she is a +physical and mental wreck. + + When we trace these effects back to their primal cause, we come to Saturn +in Cancer, the sign which rules the stomach. It is our experience that most +people who have Saturn in this position are mincers and peculiar in their +choice of food. Saturn in this horoscope is square to Jupiter, the planet +of self-indulgence, and to Uranus, the planet of spasmodic and irregular ac- +tion. Thus Saturn causes this person to indulge unduly her desire for good +things to eat. + + Uranus and Jupiter in the sign Libra, which rules the kidneys, square to +Saturn, the planet of obstruction, show that after the system has been +filled with food which it cannot assimilate, the kidneys are unable to +eliminate the waste products. Thus there is a general clogging of the sys- +tem with toxins and poisons of all kinds. Then the hot and fiery Mars +placed in Virgo, the sign ruling the intestines, lights the fire of inflam- +mation in order to cleanse the system. As the native's will power is not +particularly strong on account of the weak sign Sagittarius rising, she is +easily persuaded to undergo operations rather than undertake a reform in her +ways of living which would bring about an amelioration of her condition even +at this late hour. + + If is very sad to say that this is the case with a great many people. +They are sometimes ready to admit being gluttons when the fact is shown + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 6D: ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Libra 2 SUN: Aquarius 3:20 SATURN: Cancer 2:46R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Scorpio 0 MOON: Virgo 16:15 URANUS: Libra 7:39R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Scorpio 22 MERCURY: Capricorn 13:22 NEPTUNE: Taurus 22:48R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 9:45 VENUS: Pisces 7:32 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Capricorn 14 MARS: Virgo 25:12 Virgo 18:43 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Aquarius 25 JUPITER: Libra 5:59R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Pisces 18:43 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +them, but in most cases they think they are models of self-control as far as +the appetite is concerned even when they admit that they are eating the +wrong food. We have had a number of cases, however, where they admitted + + +[PAGE 182] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +this but claimed absolute inability to overcome the fault and curb their ap- +petite. The person whose horoscope we are considering was not exception to +the general rule, and therefore all our efforts to aid her were in vain. +She would not even expend the energy necessary to keep up the weekly letters +required of patients. In such cases there is of course nothing to do but to +leave the patient to his own resources until he learns his lesson--if not in +this life, then in some other one. + + +[PAGE 183] THE KIDNEYS + + CHAPTER XVIII + + THE KIDNEYS + + NO. 7A.--THE KIDNEYS + + Male, born March 14, 1892. + + THE horoscope which we will use here is a flat figure. The hour of birth +is not known, but in astro-diagnosis it is not necessary that we have the +hour of birth unless we are looking for a crisis. We must then take into +consideration the exact degree of the progressed moon and its aspects, also +the transiting planets; but the natural tendencies as to temperament and +morals, also the organic weaknesses are shown by the radical planets, which +give the astrologer they key to the health of the native, although if one +has the rising sign to show the will and the strength it is a help. Certain +signs such as Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, and Aquarius will overcome and +fight off a disease where most of the feminine signs, especially Taurus and +Virgo have not the will power to rise above physical conditions. Of the +common signs the sign of Gemini is the best able to control physical ail- +ments. + + +[PAGE 184] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + In this horoscope we find the sun, the life-giver, in the common and +negative sign of Pisces. The sun is afflicted by an opposition and parallel +of the destructive Saturn. Here we have at the beginning an indication of +low vitality. Jupiter, the ruler of Pisces and having rule over the + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTHCHART NO. 7A [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Pisces 24:23 SATURN: Virgo 26:58R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Libra 4:55 URANUS: Scorpio 5:53R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Aries 2:19 NEPTUNE: Gemini 6:28 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Taurus 5:02 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Capricorn 0:29 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Pisces 29:24 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + +arterial blood is in its own sign in conjunction with the sun and in opposi- +tion to Saturn. This opposition tends to lower the vitality, for if the +blood stream is stagnant, the entire body must suffer. We find Venus, the +planet having rule over the venous blood, in its own home in Taurus where +this planet is strong. Venus is afflicted by the opposition and parallel of +Uranus. This will increase the ill effects of Jupiter and the sun afflicted +by Saturn. With the afflicting influence of Saturn from Virgo, the sign +which has rule over the small intestines, we may expect impaired assimila- +tion of food. + + We find the moon in opposition and parallel to Jupiter and square to +Mars. These aspects coupled with Venus in Taurus in opposition to Uranus in +Scorpio would indicate that sensual pleasures have ruled this young man and +that his health was quickly shattered. Uranus in Scorpio in opposition to +Venus indicates indiscretion regarding the sacred generative function, and +at the age of sixteen when the progressed moon had reached the conjunction +of Venus and the opposition of Uranus, he contracted the dread disease of +syphilis. Although later seemingly cured, yet the powerful compounds such +as those of mercury and the various remedies used by medical science to com- +bat this disease left their destructive influence in the blood, and tubercu- +losis of the kidneys set in. This is shown by the moon in the sign of Li- +bra, ruling the kidneys, square to Mars, in opposition and parallel to +Jupiter, and in opposition to Mercury. + + This young man entered the medical profession. Later he was operated on +and had one of his kidneys removed, which was found to be hollow. The doc- +tors diagnosed his condition as tuberculosis of the kidneys. + + He passed out at the age of twenty-eight. When he reached that year, we + + +[PAGE 186] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +note that the progressed moon had finished its cycle and had again reached +its place at birth in Libra, and the progressed Jupiter had reached the op- +position to the radical and progressed moon. The time when the moon has +made the circle of the whole horoscope and reached its place at birth is a +critical time, and frequently when the moon is afflicted in the radical fig- +ure, this is a time of illness and one in which the native is faced with +many trials. + + +[PAGE 187] THE KIDNEYS + + NO. 7B.--KIDNEYS AND MASTOIDITIS + + Male, born May 8th, 1865, at 1:45 A.M. + + This horoscope has the fixed sign of Aquarius on the Ascendant, with the +sun in the fixed sing of Taurus and in conjunction with Venus and Mercury. +The sun is also sextile to Mars. Jupiter, the planet of opulence and be- +nevolence, is in the 10th house in its own sign of Sagittarius. These posi- +tions and aspects of the sun and Jupiter indicate one who is a great lover +of humanity, a man who is very generous financially and very ready to go out +of his way for others, even sacrificing his own comfort if he finds anyone +whom he can relieve of suffering or shield from harm. But we find Jupiter, +Mercury, Venus, and Saturn all retrograde. This indicates that the man will +find difficulty in realizing his ideals and in doing as much good as his +heart dictates, for retrograde planets indicate latent talents, possi- +bilities, and opportunities. + + Ability for earning money is very marked. This man is also a liberal +spender, having Venus in its own sign, and house--Taurus and the second +house--in conjunction with the sun and sextile to Mars. Whatever he does +must be done on a large and generous scale. He is a good entertainer also +and a good liver, for the sun, Venus, and Mercury in Taurus, sextile to Mars +in Cancer, and Taurus ruling the palate, give a desire for good things to +eat and plenty of them. Likewise does Mars in Cancer, sextile to Venus and + + +[PAGE 188] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +the sun, desire rich, highly seasoned foods and in large quantities. + + With Mars in the 5th house this man loves to share with his friends. But +while this generosity may have been good for others and he has made people + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 7B ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Sagitt. 13 SUN: Taurus 17:26 SATURN: Libra 25:27R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Capricorn 2 MOON: Libra 16:25 URANUS: Gemini 27:16 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Capricorn 24 MERCURY: Taurus 10:14R NEPTUNE: Aries 9:30 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Aquarius 26:12 VENUS: Taurus 17:28R DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Aries 19 MARS: Cancer 20:36 Libra 29:19 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Taurus 20 JUPITER: Sagitt. 28:11R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Aries 29:19 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +happy by tickling their palates, the result has been disastrous to himself. +His health could not withstand the onslaughts made upon the body by high +living. + + To find in what part of the body the damage done by excess of food + + +[PAGE 189] THE KIDNEYS + +will show, we look for the strongest afflictions. We find Mars in Cancer, +ruling the stomach, square to the moon and Saturn, which are in the sign of +Libra, Libra having rule over the kidneys. We also find Saturn in conjunc- +tion with and parallel to the moon. The moon rules the white fluids of the +body and the lymph. Saturn being the afflicter would as a result resist the +free flow of these fluids. As Jupiter, the planet ruling the arterial +blood, is in its own sign of Sagittarius, near the Midheaven, in opposition +to the nervous, excitable, and spasmodic Uranus in the Mercurial sign of +Gemini, and as Mars is parallel to both Jupiter and Uranus, we find an ob- +structed arterial circulation with the lymphatic circulation also impaired. + + When the man is continually breaking the laws of health by excessive eat- +ing, we may expect that the break must come some time. In 1906 while the +progressed sun was in conjunction with the radical Uranus in Gemini and the +progressed moon was making a square to Mars and an opposition to both the +moon and Saturn radical, this man was taken down with a severe attack of +pneumonia. In 1907 the progressed sun reached the opposition to the radical +Jupiter. This was followed in 1912 by the progressed moon in conjunction +with the radical Mars in Cancer. During that same year the progressed moon +afflicted by square its own place at birth and the radical Saturn, both in +Libra. This brought on a severe attack of kidney trouble and constriction + + +[PAGE 190] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +in the ureters, which interfered with the waste water passing from the kid- +neys to the bladder. + + At the age of thirteen, when the progressed moon had reached the sign of +Aries, and during its transit through this sign, it came to a conjunction +with the radical Neptune, an opposition to the radical moon and Saturn, a +square to Mars, and a conjunction with the Dragon's Tail. This brought on +trouble with the ears and continual headaches and earaches. When the moon +reached the conjunction with the radical Mercury and the retrograde pro- +gressed Venus in Taurus, inflammation of the mastoid cells developed. The +doctors operated on the mastoid bone twice, draining the pus which had +formed in the mastoid cavity. These operations left the patient with a +chronic headache and impaired nerves. + + If this man had been taught that he should eat to live instead of living +to eat he might have been saved much suffering. + + +[PAGE 191] THE KIDNEYS + + NO. 7C.--GENERAL BREAKDOWN + + Female, born April 19, 1888, 4:30 P.M. + + Judging the mind first as usual, we find that Mercury is in conjunction +with Venus and trine to the moon and Jupiter in fiery signs. Thus all the +three significators of mind may be said to be in trine. Jupiter is in a +measure concerned in the mental makeup because he is ruler of the ninth +sign, Sagittarius, and from him come the benevolent impulses which are +gradually lifting humanity from savagery through civilization to sainthood. + + It is at once apparent that we have here a person of unusually fine men- +tality. Even the conjunction of Saturn with the moon is very beneficial, +for as we have often said before, the nature of Saturn is obstruction, and +when he lays his restraining hand upon Mercury or the moon, it helps to +steady the flighty mind and gives power of concentration. At the same time, +of course, there is a tendency to melancholy connected with any of the as- +pects of Saturn to the significators of mind. Therefore it may be said that +those who have the greatest and deepest minds are usually of a sad disposi- +tion. + + This woman is not of a deliberative nature, however. She does not moan +her days away over the sorrows and sufferings of the world for there are +cardinal signs upon the angles and Mars is conjunction Uranus in the first + + +[PAGE 192] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +house. This gives here a very impulsive and restless nature. She has the +mind to see where reforms are needed, but the nature of her effort to carry +out these reforms depends upon her station in life, with which we are not +acquainted. If she had been born into a broad environment where wealth, + + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 7C ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 5 SUN: Taurus 0:14 SATURN: Cancer 29:57 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 8 MOON: Leo 5:36 URANUS: Libra 14:34R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 9 MERCURY: Aries 9:44 NEPTUNE: Taurus 28:39 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 4:21 VENUS: Aries 8:14 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 1 MARS: Libra 18:28R Leo 5:27 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 1 JUPITER: Sagitt. 5:06R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Aquarius 5:27 ] + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +position, and influence were at her command, she would have been a powerful +factor, felt in a wide sphere; but if she was born in a financially cramped +environment, she would be correspondingly hampered by its circumstances. + + +[PAGE 193] THE KIDNEYS + +However, no matter where she is her influence is bound to be felt, and she +will endeavor to revolutionize things with the inevitable result that she +will wear herself out in her efforts for improvement. + + As a chain always breaks at the point where the weakest link is found, so +it is also with the human life. Uranus, the planet of spasmodic, uncon- +trolled action is in opposition to Mercury, the planet which governs the +cerebro-spinal system, showing that there will be a nervous breakdown when- +ever great strain is put upon the body. Saturn, the planet of obstruction, +is in conjunction with the moon in the sign that governs the heart, Leo, and +it is square to the sun, ruler of Leo. Thus it is evident that the heart +action is very poor and there is an inability to specialize the vital force +from the sun, also a poor circulation. In fact, the chart shows the pos- +sibility of a condition which can only be described as a general breakdown +from overwork and nervous tension, affecting every organ in the body, for +Uranus and Mars in Libra will interfere with the action of the kidneys, the +sun afflicted in Taurus will act upon the throat, and the rectal elimina- +tion, governed by Scorpio, will be interfered with. This condition has fi- +nally materialized. + + It is almost needless to say that in such a case as this, absolute rest, +mental and physical, is necessary, preferably on a diet of fruits, for it is +very detrimental to force food into a system that is in such a shape as this +one. An Aquarian nurse whose Saturn is not in Libra or Pisces would have a +quieting and beneficial influence. But even though relief is given and a + + +[PAGE 194] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +cure effected, persons with this nature and temperament are bound to work +themselves to death some time sooner or later. Nothing that one can say or +do to educate them to the fact that they should take things quietly in order +that they may last will have any effect, for the spasmodic urge of Uranus +and the dynamic energy of Mars on the Ascendant will outweigh any consider- +ation because there are cardinal signs on the angles. This woman is bound +to work even if she knew that she would drop dead the next minute. There is +no doubt, however, that she is bound to benefit very much in soul growth +even if the body is destroyed in the process. + + +[PAGE 195] THE KIDNEYS + + NO. 7D.--RENAL CALCULI + + Male, born September 21, 1863, noon. + + In this horoscope Saturn is in conjunction with Mars and Venus. Neptune +is in opposition to all three, and the moon is square Saturn and Venus. +Mars, the planet of impulse, causes the native to see red on the slightest +provocation, and were he left alone there would be absolutely no chance of +restraining him save by putting him in a straight-jacket, particularly as +the sun is square Uranus, which would intensify the impulsiveness and oblit- +erate reason. But the saturnine ray is sufficiently effectual to +wet-blanket most of the erratic tendencies for he is in the sign of his ex- +altation, Libra, and highly elevated. + + Mercury in conjunction with Jupiter, both elevated and in trine to +Uranus, shows us that there is a wholesome, kindly, and religious side to +the mind. From Mars comes the readiness to take offense even where no rea- +sonable ground for it exists; Saturn will cause the native to brood over in- +juries whether they be real or fancied; but Jupiter will endeavor to instill +charity and judgment. It is apparent, however, that the forces which tend +to accentuate the evil side of the nature are the strongest and that it is a +hard and uphill fight for the higher nature. + + Saturn in the first part of Libra, the sign ruling the kidneys, acts in + + +[PAGE 196] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +such a manner that the secretion of urine is obstructed. Mars there causes +inflammation. The conjunction of Saturn with Venus, the latter governing +the venous circulation, reveals the fact that the branch of the portal sys- +tem which conducts the blood from the kidneys is obstructed, and the square + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 7D ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Libra 0 SUN: Virgo 28:14 SATURN: Libra 7:17 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Libra 29 MOON: Capricorn 13:47 URANUS: Gemini 25:06 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Scorpio 21 MERCURY: Libra 23:51 NEPTUNE: Aries 4:54R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 10:17 VENUS: Libra 9:20R ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Capricorn 14 MARS: Libra 1:55 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Aquarius 23 JUPITER: Libra 29:14 ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +of Saturn to the moon diminishes the amount of urine secreted. Neptune in +opposition to Saturn shows clearly a mental cause, irritability and worry, +interfering with nerve action. Thus renal calculi are formed, and the + + +[PAGE 197] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +person is subject to one of the most painful maladies imaginable. + + To help a person of this nature we must invoke the aid of Jupiter and +Mercury trine Uranus. Mars is the great energizer that impels to action, +but Saturn in conjunction puts a damper on him, and the native becomes indo- +lent, averse to the exercise generally enjoyed by the Sagittarians. We must +therefore wake the native up to the urgent necessity for exercise and plenty +of it. The moon in Capricorn acts in the opposite sign, Cancer, ruling the +stomach, and because it squares Saturn in Libra, the sign of the kidneys, it +interferes with the secretion of urine. Hence the necessity for the regula- +tion of the diet. Nothing of an irritating or unduly stimulating nature +should be eaten. + + The best healer for this person would be one who has Leo rising, as that +is in harmony with Sagittarius. Aries is second choice for the reason that +an Arian may be too rough and arouse antagonism without so intending. Nei- +ther should have Saturn in Sagittarius or Taurus, these being on the cusps +of the patient's first and sixth houses respectively. + + +[PAGE 198] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 7E.--RENAL CIRCULATION + + Female, born March 24, 1845, 5:06 A.M. + + In judging the case presented in this horoscope our first care, as usual, +is to find out what sort of mental quality this person has, for always we +must remember that the mind is the maker of the body. Therefore the wisest +doctors now use harmless pills and helpful suggestions. + + Mercury and the moon, the two particular significators in respect to +mind, are in opposition. The moon is also in opposition to the sun, Jupi- +ter, and Uranus. Mars is square to the sun, moon, Jupiter, Mercury, and +Uranus. Thus the person is extremely erratic, vacillating, and torn between +different purposes. There is only one redeeming feature, namely, Saturn +trine the moon and sextile Jupiter. Were it not for these aspects, which +steady the mind, the native would likely have gone insane. Take now in con- +junction with the foregoing remarks the fact that four common signs are on +the angles and you will understand that she is extremely difficult to handle +mentally. She is one of those unfortunate weaklings afflicted with a wish- +bone instead of a backbone. The sun square Mars makes her impulsive, also +the adverse aspects from cardinal signs give a certain surplus energy which +manifests as impulse. But she lacks the persistence to carry out her im- +petuous designs. + + +[PAGE 199] THE KIDNEYS + + The affliction of Jupiter indicates faulty circulation, and naturally we +judge the presence of Saturn in Aquarius as an indication of obstruction in +that place, for the diseases to which the human body is heir are found in +the weakest spot, and Saturn usually marks this. Aquarius governs the lower + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 7E ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Sagitt. 19 SUN: Aries 3:39 SATURN: Aquarius 15:39 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Capricorn 10 MOON: Libra 10:57 URANUS: Aries 6:07 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Aquarius 4 MERCURY: Aries 5:17 NEPTUNE: Aquarius 24:52 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Pisces 9:24 VENUS: Pisces 19:56 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Aries 26 MARS: Capricorn 9:41 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Taurus 26 JUPITER: Aries 13:45 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +limbs, and the presence of Saturn there shows us that the obstruction of the +circulation is at work in that region. Moreover, Mars has progressed to the +conjunction of Saturn in Aquarius, and both are in the twelfth house, the +house which indicates confinement. Therefore we may judge that the person + + +[PAGE 200] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +is afflicted with a severe case of impeded circulation, and it is no sur- +prise to learn that her legs are numb and cold, that she cannot use them +properly, and that she is confined to her bed on that account. + + The moon in Libra, which rules the kidneys, and her opposition to Jupiter +shows that the renal circulation is out of order, and the presence of so +many planets in Aries, which governs the head, is a sure indication that +there is a riot of conflicting forces there. Thus because of the afflic- +tions of these planets we have a case of sleeplessness, extreme nervousness, +and the irritability given by Uranus. The blood runs riot in the upper part +of the body, and there is too little in the lower. + + As that native is well along in years there is not much to build upon, +but an effort should nevertheless be made to stimulate the kidneys. The se- +cretion of urine is often totally stopped by the opposition of Uranus, Mer- +cury, and Jupiter to the moon in Libra. This leaves deposits of poison in +the system, and as long as these are not eliminated the person will be +weighted down by a heavy and sluggish feeling which makes the body seem as +if it were made of lead. Great care should be taken to soothe and calm this +woman as every bit of anger or irritability makes elimination more difficult +and causes more poison to collect in the system. A healer who has Scorpio +rising and who does not have Saturn in Aquarius, Pisces, or Leo would have a +beneficial effect. + + +[PAGE 201] THE KIDNEYS + + NO. 7F.--BLADDER TROUBLE + + Female, born October 21, 1886, 11:00 A.M. + + When we note that the moon and Mercury, which are significators of the +mind, are squaring each other from fixed signs, it is at once evident that +this patient will be rather set in her opinions and on that account diffi- +cult to handle. A person with Leo or Aries rising whose Saturn is not in +Gemini would probably have the best success in making her obey orders. Sat- +urn, the planet of obstruction, in Cancer, the sign which rules the stomach, +shows that the digestion is poor, and his square to the sun, Jupiter, and +Venus placed in the sign Libra, which rules the kidneys, indicates that +there is difficulty in the removal of the waste material through these or- +gans. The sun being close to the cusp of Scorpio, the sign which rules the +rectum, further accentuates the trouble of elimination, showing that the +person is subject to constipation. + + It should be noted that when the significator of bladder trouble is in +the fore part of the sign Libra, the difficulty will usually be found in the +kidneys themselves, but if in the latter part of Libra, the bladder will be +affected. Thus, following out this line of judgment we may know that as of +the sun is in 28 degrees of Libra, the trouble will be found more in the +bladder than in the kidneys. The square of the moon to Mercury in Scorpio + + +[PAGE 202] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +shows that there is nervous trouble in the rectal region. Altogether the +various signs and aspects which we have enumerated show that this person is +suffering from constipation and bladder trouble. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 7F ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Libra 16 SUN: Libra 28:13 SATURN: Cancer 22:22 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Scorpio 12 MOON: Leo 12:32 URANUS: Libra 9:22 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 4 MERCURY: Scorpio 13:16 NEPTUNE: Taurus 27:11R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 24:04 VENUS: Libra 17:38 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Aquarius 1 MARS: Sagitt. 11:33 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Pisces 11 JUPITER: Libra 18:53 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + This is not all. We find Mars, the planet of surgery, conjunction An- +tares. When one of the malefics is placed near the nebulous spot Antares, +Sagittarius 8, and either of the lights are afflicted, trouble with the eyes +is quite certain to result. In this horoscope both the sun and moon are + + +[PAGE 203] THE KIDNEYS + +afflicted, one by a square of Saturn, the other by a square of Mercury. We +may therefore judge that this woman will have trouble with her eyes, and as +Mars is placed in the twelfth house, which rules confinement in hospitals or +kindred places, it is evident that she is facing a grave danger from that +source. + + It is also plain from the horoscope that Saturn in Cancer is at the root +of all the trouble by obstructing the digestion, and if we can once convince +the patient that right living is the key to health, it may not be too late +to restore the tone of the system. It will probably be very difficult to so +convince her on account of her fixed mental attitude indicated by th square +of the moon and Mercury in fixed signs. + + A diet of coarse food consisting of whole wheat bread and vegetables +which have a great deal of fibre in them will be necessary to stimulate the +peristaltic action of the bowels. Asparagus and other foods which act on +the kidneys, with plenty of lettuce and spinach, which are full of iron, +will help to tone the system up so that in time elimination will become nor- +mal and then the eyes will grow better. + + +[PAGE 204] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 7G.--DIABETES + + Female, born December 28, 1885, 11:55 P.M. + + The patient in this case is suffering from diabetes, a disease in which +the food is turned to sugar in excess of the requirements of the body, and +this product is eliminated in the urine. Here we find Jupiter on the Ascen- +dant in the sign Libra, which governs the kidneys, conjunction and parallel +Uranus, and square the sun and Saturn, the latter in the sign Cancer, which +rules the stomach. We also find that the sun is square the moon in Libra, +and parallel and opposition Saturn. Thus it is very evident that the stom- +ach and kidneys are the weakest links in the chain of the body, and there- +fore we may look for disease in these organs. + + Jupiter afflicted and on the Ascendant denotes one who is too fond of +good things to eat, a glutton. The conjunction with Uranus tells us that +this person is not satisfied with quantity alone but desires her food to be +superfine in quality and to be excessively seasoned. Saturn, the planet of +obstruction, being in Cancer, the sign governing the stomach, interferes +with digestion. Consequently the food cannot be entirely assimilated, and +some of it must be expurgated from the system or it will cause a clogged and +poisoned condition. Jupiter has rule over the liver, where the sugar usu- +ally required in the economy of the body is manufactured but he is sorely +afflicted by a square of Saturn and the sun. Consequently this activity is + + +[PAGE 205] THE KIDNEYS + +abnormal, and as Jupiter is placed in the sign of the kidneys, Libra, he al- +lows the sugar to slip out in the urine, thus giving rise to the symptoms +which we diagnose as diabetes. There is also a throat affliction because + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 7G ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 6 SUN: Capricorn 7:49 SATURN: Cancer 4:40R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 10 MOON: Libra 17:46 URANUS: Libra 7:38 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 10 MERCURY: Sagitt. 19:04R NEPTUNE: Taurus 23:06R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 5:10 VENUS: Aquarius 23:20 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 2 MARS: Virgo 21:06 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 2 JUPITER: Libra 5:15 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Neptune is in Taurus, the sign that governs the throat, afflicting Venus, +the ruler of Taurus. + + When we look to the inner causes of this disease in our endeavor to find +a remedy we note that Saturn is elevated and afflicting the sun and Jupiter. + + +[PAGE 206] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +This makes the person morose and irritable, given to looking upon the dark +side of life and to finding fault with everything and everybody. The duct- +less glands are centers of important spiritual activity. An afflicted +Neptune in Taurus and an afflicted Uranus in Libra interfere with the ac- +tivities of the thyroid gland and the adrenals. + + Before such a person can be really cured she must experience some kind of +a shock or be taken into an entirely new environment and more cheerful +surroundings. A healer with Gemini or Aquarius rising whose Saturn is not +in Pisces would probably have the most beneficial effect. + + +[PAGE 207] THE KIDNEYS + + NO. 7H.--DIABETES + + Female, born February 24, 1863, at 9:50 P.M. + + The horoscope of this woman has the sign of Libra on the Ascendant, with +cardinal signs on the four angles, and Leo intercepted in the 10th house. +These are all signs of strong feeling. The cardinal signs are the favorites +of the universe, for the sun's entrance into these four signs marks the four +seasons. People with the cardinal signs on the angles feel more keenly, +live more intensely, and as a result suffer more than others. + + The ascending sign of our patient is that of Libra, with Jupiter retro- +grade on the Ascendant. Jupiter is parallel to the sun, but its being ret- +rograde naturally weakens the effects of this planet. We find Jupiter in +the latter degrees of Libra, a Venusian sign, and Venus and the sun in the +Jupiterian sign of Pisces; usually under such conditions the body taken on +an abundance of flesh after middle life. This woman was of immense size, +weighing over two hundred pounds, which is indicated by the above positions, +also by Jupiter on the Ascendant and Mars in Taurus sextile to Venus in Pi- +sces. Venus being in the fifth house, this woman found great pleasure in +good things to eat and wanted her food in large quantities. This naturally +caused her to put on much flesh. + + Neptune, the planet of mysteries, representing hidden or occult things is +in Aries in the 6th house, sextile to the moon. The 6th house rules labor + + +[PAGE 208] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +and the 10th house the vocation. The moon is the ruler of the 10th house, +and together with Neptune indicates the vocation which this woman would +choose. It is thus clearly indicated that she was a professional medium. + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 7H ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 29 SUN: Pisces 6:05 SATURN: Libra 4:08R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Virgo 2 MOON: Gemini 2:00 URANUS: Gemini 16:42 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Libra 1 MERCURY: Aquarius 12:29 NEPTUNE: Aries 2:32 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 24:20 VENUS: Pisces 24:17 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 22 MARS: Taurus 22:46 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 24 JUPITER: Libra 27:03R ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +She was reported to be a very good one, which is shown by the moon sextile +to Neptune and trine to Saturn, the 6th, 8th, and 12th houses being in- +volved. Uranus being trine to Mercury, she would seek reasons for spiritu- +alistic phenomena, also because Mercury is in the intellectual sign of + + +[PAGE 209] THE KIDNEYS + +Aquarius. Uranus is in the mercurial sign of Gemini, a sign of intellectu- +ality, and Uranus and Mercury are therefore in mutual reception, which is +conducive to much sympathy between these two planets. What is meant by "mu- +tual reception" is that these planets have exchanged signs; Uranus is in +Mercury's sign, and Mercury is in the Uranian sign. These two planets as a +result have a strong influence on the life of the native. This woman con- +ducted classes in spiritualism and gave spiritualistic readings. + + We find Venus and the sun in Pisces in the 5th house, the house of plea- +sure. Venus is sextile to Mars and has a weak square to Uranus. This was +clearly expressed in the woman's life, for she lived with a man whom she in- +troduced as her husband but to whom she had never been married. This man +was represented by the sun and Venus in Pisces and by Venus sextile to Mars +and in weak square to Uranus. The man was large, red-haired, and fond of +drink. He depended upon this woman entirely for his support, and they both +lived to eat, and to make merry upon the money which she earned as a medium. +This kind of a life may do for a while, but there comes a time when nature +rebels, when the vital organs refuse to stand the strain any longer, as in +this case. + + When the progressed Venus reached a conjunction with Mars in Taurus and +the progressed moon was in Aquarius, making a square to Mars radical and to +Venus progressed, the strain which the woman had placed on her body by her + + +[PAGE 210] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +riotous living found a weak spot in the kidneys, for the chain is only as +strong as its weakest link. Saturn usually shows the spot where the weak- +ness is apt to show itself. We find in this case Saturn in Libra in opposi- +tion and parallel to Neptune. This woman called upon headquarters when she +was suffering very greatly from diabetes. It was, however, very difficult +for her to follow the diet laid down for her as she was accustomed to the +richest foods, which were taken in large quantities. + + + +[PAGE 211] SEX + + CHAPTER XIX + + SEX + + SEX AND THROAT + + NO. 8A--B. + + We are told in the ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, page 269, that when the +Ego entered into possession of its vehicles, it became necessary to use part +of the creative force for the building of the brain and the larynx. The +latter was originally a part of the sex organ. The larynx was built while +the dense body was yet bent together in the bag-like shape which is still +the form of the human embryo. As the dense body straightened and became up- +right, part of the creative organ remained with the upper part of the dense +body and later became the larynx. + + It is always possible to make the lesson stronger by using two horo- +scopes. In this case we will begin with the horoscope numbered 8A, which is +that of man born April 22nd, 1881, at 2 P.M. + + The common sign of Virgo is on the Ascendant and common signs on all the +angles. In this horoscope we will show the law of the vicious circle, which +the doctors are so interested in and which is so baffling, and how this law + + +[PAGE 212] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +proves the truth of the statement quoted from the COSMO-CONCEPTION. + + We have Saturn, the sun, and Jupiter in conjunction, and Saturn and Jupi- +ter are parallel to the moon. Neptune is in conjunction with Venus and both + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 8A ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Gemini 3 SUN: Taurus 2:30 SATURN: Taurus 2:07 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Cancer 10 MOON: Aquarius 17:31 URANUS: Virgo 9:54R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Leo 13 MERCURY: Aries 9:07 NEPTUNE: Taurus 13:34 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Virgo 9:10 VENUS: Taurus 19:07R ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Libra 1 MARS: Pisces 14:41 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Libra 29 JUPITER: Taurus 2:33 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + +are square the moon. All these planets except the moon are in Taurus, the +sign which has rule over the throat. + + We find the planet of impulse, Uranus, retrograde on the Ascendant in +Virgo and in opposition to Mars. These planets are in common signs and in + + +[PAGE 213] SEX + +angles. Thus they are strong by house position but placed in weak-willed +signs. Uranus and Mars give the desire for pleasure and the gratification +of the senses. Mars is sextile to Venus and Neptune in Taurus, a sign which + + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTHCHART NO. 8B [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Scorpio 19:52 SATURN: Scorpio 11:11 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Virgo 23:19 URANUS: Scorpio 20:15 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Scorpio 0:57 NEPTUNE: Gemini 17:24R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Libra 4:24 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Scorpio 9:25 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Leo 8:52 ] + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + +makes one apt to drift along the same path, Taurus ruling the sense of +taste. Neptune and Venus in Taurus, square to the moon in Aquarius, would +lead to the habit of drink and also to irregular association with women +friends, for the moon is the ruler of the house of friends, the 11th. + + +[PAGE 214] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + We find no planets in Scorpio, the sign which rules the generative or- +gans, but Uranus afflicted by Mars gives a tendency to venereal diseases. +Syphilis was the net result. Therefore we may see that Taurus which rules +the throat and larynx, here expresses itself through the opposite point of +the vicious circle of the fixed signs, namely Scorpio, ruler of the gen- +erative organs. The moon in Aquarius, the third point of the circle, is +also a contributing factor in the situation. + + In the second case we will use a plain figure, as the hour of birth is +lacking. This is the horoscope, numbered 8B, of a woman born November 12th, +1895. + + In this figure we find Mercury, Mars, Saturn, the sun, and Uranus all in +the sign of Scorpio, which has rule over the generative organs, with Saturn +and Mars in conjunction and square to Jupiter. The sun and Uranus are also +in conjunction with each other and the sun is parallel to Jupiter. + + This woman had her tonsils removed at puberty. The tonsils are ruled by +Taurus. Due to Mars in conjunction with Saturn, and the sun in conjunction +with Uranus in the sign of Scorpio, she unfortunately yielded to the vicious +practice of abortion, which so weakened the functions of the generative or- +gans that removal of the ovarian tubes was necessary. Here again we see the +vicious circle of the fixed signs in operation, Taurus and Scorpio being the +points affected. + + We may see by comparison of these two horoscopes how the generative + + +[PAGE 215] SEX + +organs and the throat are closely in sympathy with each other and that +abuses of the function of one of them often express themselves through im- +paired functioning of the opposite organ. + + + NO. 8C.--SEX + + Female, born November 24, 1909, hour of birth not known. + + We will here illustrate how it is possible to diagnose a disease cor- +rectly from a flat figure. It is, however, impossible to predict the exact +time of crises or to judge the strength of the will of the patient, for +those with a common sign on the Ascendant some times become hopeless inva- +lids if planetary aspects are also weak, while one with fixed signs on the +angles (especially with the vital sun sign Leo ascending), even if the plan- +ets are weak, will often through the determination and will power of the +fixed signs overcome adverse conditions. The Taurians, however, although +under a fixed sign, sometimes allow fear to throw them into a chronic condi- +tion of ill health which with the fixed and stolid nature of this sign it is +very difficult to overcome. + + +[PAGE 216] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + In this lesson we shall deal largely with the ductless glands, upon which +science has spent so much time, though it has been unable as yet to arrive +at a full understanding of these little organs. We will deal particularly +with the thyroid gland, which is under the rule of Mercury and in which + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 8C [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Sagitt. 1:35 SATURN: Aries 16:57R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Aries 22:00 URANUS: Capricorn 18:31 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Scorpio 26:39 NEPTUNE: Cancer 19:04R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Capricorn 18:37 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Aries 1:11 Gemini 7:45 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Libra 8:24 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Sagitt. 7:45 ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +science is greatly interested, the thyroid glands of goats and monkeys hav- +ing been grafted into men to rejuvenate them. + + In the above horoscope we find Saturn, the planet of obstruction and +crystallization and ruler of the pneumogastric nerve, in conjunction with + + +[PAGE 217] SEX + +the moon, which rules the uterus, ovaries, and sympathetic nervous system. +Venus, the planet ruling the sign of Taurus, the throat, also rules the thy- +mus gland, the organ through which the child receives the parental blood +necessary to build the body. This gland has especially to do with the de- +velopment of the reproductive organs. At puberty the thymus gland atro- +phies, and its work is then continued by the pituitary body, ruled by +Uranus, which is the higher octave of Venus. In this girl's horoscope we +find the planets Venus and Uranus in conjunction, square to Saturn and the +moon, and in opposition to the planet Neptune, which has rule over the pi- +neal gland and which is the higher octave of Mercury. Scientists have ob- +served that the pineal gland has some connection with the mind. Dr. J. S. +Lankford stated in THE NEW YORK MEDICAL JOURNAL some time ago that "the pi- +neal gland, which is at the base of the brain, is a partly glandular and +partly nervous structure, and is known to be the center of all sensation and +emotion; at the same time it rules and directs all the activities of the +whole system of ductless glands and the vegetative nervous system, thereby +governing all the functions of organic life. It also serves as a communi- +cating center between the brain and the other organs." + + Now, where we find the planets which have rule over the nervous system +and the brain in square and opposition, what can we expect but that abuse of +one kind or another will cause bodily disturbance! In the case of this + + +[PAGE 218] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +young girl, whose guardians called upon our Healing Department for help, she +had for some years been afflicted with the secret sex habit, of which the +guardians were unaware until apprised through our diagnosis. The venous +circulation is obstructed by the conjunction of Venus and Uranus. The lat- +ter planet, according to THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS (page 573), "is respon- +sible for strange and abnormal growths which produce...freaks of nature." +The thymus gland in this case has an abnormal growth caused by the conjunc- +tion of Venus with Uranus, which created too much blood for the development +of the generative organs in childhood. This in turn created a disturbance +in the parts of the body ruled by this gland. + + We are told by the doctors that the pineal gland (under Neptune) rules +and directs all the ductless glands. Max Heindel has been alone in his +claim that Neptune is the higher octave of Mercury, the latter planet having +rule over the thyroid gland. Other astrologers have claimed that Neptune is +the higher octave of Venus. But science corroborates our contention that +the pineal gland has rule over the mentality. The COSMO-CONCEPTION states +that this was at first an organ of sensation and orientation, and that when +it began to withdraw into the head, the division of the sexes began to take +place and the brain and larynx were developed. + + Dr. Lankford further states that the large amount of sugar consumed by +humanity overdevelops and overstimulates the pineal gland. The truth of + + +[PAGE 219] SEX + +this has been shown in our experience with cases in which Neptune was af- +flicted and especially where the afflictions were such that the patient had +to overcome unnatural sex desires. These patients invariably were heavy +sugar eaters. Sugar in excess as well as liquor is a false stimulant and +excites the ductless glands, which when overstimulated are responsible for +sex degeneracy. This young girl by years of abuse had dissipated the vital +fluids that were necessary to help build the brain, and consequently at the +age of eleven she was afflicted with epilepsy, which is a disease caused by +abnormality of one of the ductless glands. The doctors could not find the +cause and wished to remove the tonsils. When there is an abnormal exercise +of the sex function or unexpressed unnatural desires, the throat, and espe- +cially the tonsils and the larynx, are often enlarged and swollen. Oh, what +a pity that all surgeons and the doctors of all schools do not have a knowl- +edge of diagnosis by the wonderful science of astrology to combine with +their own science! + + In order to help a case such as the one under consideration it is first +necessary to remove the cause, which is to help this poor girl overcome her +unnatural desires. The diet must be changed; all highly seasoned food, con- +diments, eggs, and especially sugar, must be eliminated, and the vegetables +which contain elements that work directly upon the nervous system should be +used, such as celery, onions, parsley, lettuce, et cetera. This body should +be kept clean by bathing and dry rubbing, and plenty of exercise in the + + +[PAGE 220] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +fresh air and sunshine should be taken. It will be difficult at the girl's +present age to build up the brain, which is very undeveloped. Young people +who have dissipated their vital fluids between the ages of seven and four- +teen when the creative force should be used for the development of the brain +will seldom be very bright mentally. The physical body, however, can be +built up, and if the habit is overcome before the age of twenty-one, there +is hope that by careful living the brain can be developed, giving an average +mentality. + + +[PAGE 221] SEX + + NO.8D--E: GONORRHEA + + Female, born July 30, 1896, hour not known. + + Two horoscopes will be used in this lesson in an endeavor to illustrate +how the planets show when disease may be the result of breaking the laws of +nature in former lives, and how the seeds that have been sown by past sins +will bring their fruits in this life. + + The first horoscope is that of a woman whose hour of birth is not known. +Nor is it necessary for diagnosis in a horoscope with planets so strangely +grouped and in the fixed signs. We will set the figure with Aries on the +Ascendant. We find Mercury, sun, Venus, Jupiter, and the Dragon's Tail all +in the fifth sign, Leo, which represents the pleasures of the native. We +find Mars in Taurus in its detriment, the sign in which this planet of dy- +namic energy shows its most evil tendencies. This planet is afflicted by +the opposition of the licentious Uranus and the obstructive Saturn. These +last named planets are in conjunction and in the fixed sign of Scorpio. +These three malefic planets, Mars, Uranus, and Saturn are also square to the +planets in Leo. + + Here we find a very heavy debt of destiny. In the Rosicrucian teachings +we are told that we lay the foundation in this life upon which we shall + + +[PAGE 222] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +build the structure of future lives. This woman in her previous life had +developed a very powerful desire nature, which in this embodiment was very +hard to keep under control. Venus in conjunction with the sun and Jupiter + + ------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 8D [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Leo 7:44 SATURN: Scorpio 12:38 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Aries 12:53 URANUS: Scorpio 20:28R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Leo 6:24 NEPTUNE: Gemini 19:34 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Leo 13:34 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Taurus 19:36 Aquarius 25:09 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Leo 17:15 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Leo 25:09 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------- + +and square to Uranus and Saturn in the sign of Scorpio, also Mars, the +planet which has rule over the desires, square to Venus and Jupiter, all +lead to free love and clandestine attachments, with the result that this +poor woman has contracted that dread disease, gonorrhea, which has resulted + + +[PAGE 223] SEX + +in tuberculosis of the pelvic and hip bones. + + Now planets impel but they do not compel. This woman by her former liv- +ing had attracted to herself these planetary afflictions, but she was not +impelled to respond to their weakness, for we find the moon well aspected, +making a sextile to Neptune and a trine to Jupiter, Venus, sun, and Mercury. +Neptune is also sextile to Venus and Jupiter. If the woman had used her +will and followed the desire to live right which naturally must have come to +her from time to time, she could have transmuted this seeming evil into +good. But the path of sensual pleasure was so much broader and so alluring, +while the upward path meant self-surrender! + + NO. 8E. + + Male, born August 13, 1920, 1:18 A.M. + + The second horoscope is that of a young boy born with the dread disease +with which the woman in case No. 8D was afflicted. The boy's poor little +body at birth was covered with sores, and in the early part of November of +the birth year this poor soul passed out under great suffering. + + +[PAGE 224] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + Now as regards the man who does not understand and believe in rebirth and +the law of consequence this last case would be apt to disturb his faith in +God, who to him might appear cruel and unjust to have visited this suffering +upon an innocent babe. But when the occultist who has a knowledge of + + ------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 8E ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Pisces 10 SUN: Leo 20:18 SATURN: Virgo 11:50 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aries 14 MOON: Leo 9:46 URANUS: Pisces 4:14R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Taurus 25 MERCURY: Leo 1:48 NEPTUNE: Leo 11:37 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Cancer 2:37 VENUS: Virgo 1:30 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Cancer 23 MARS: Scorpio 16:26 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Leo 14 JUPITER: Leo 27:01 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------- + +astrology seeks an answer to this seeming injustice, he finds Uranus in Pi- +sces, the 12th house sign of self-undoing, near the Midheaven and in opposi- +tion to Saturn, which is in the 4th house. These two planets represent the +parents and show that this soul had sinned in its previous lives in such a + + +[PAGE 225] SEX + +manner as to be attracted to parents who were afflicted with the above dis- +ease. + + We also find Mars in the sign of Scorpio, square to Neptune, sun, and +moon, which are in the fixed sign of Leo, the natural 5th house sign of +pleasure. This soul had passed out of its former embodiment in a manner +very similar to that of the woman with the first horoscope. The parents +were only the instruments through which it received its lesson. + + How strangely the threads of life cross one another, weaving in and out +with the threads of other persons' lives we have wronged, and who then must +be the means through which we learn our lessons. + + + "The mills of God grind slowly, + But they grind exceeding small." + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 226] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 8F.--VENEREAL DISEASE + + Male, born April 5, 1896, 4:00 A.M. + + Pisces, a watery and negative sign, is on the Ascendant, and the ruler, +Jupiter, is in another watery sign, Cancer, 29-18. Planets that are in the +last three degrees of a sign are not as helpful and active as when they are +less advanced in the sign. They act in the same manner as a ball thrown +with force; by the time it reaches its destination it has to some extent +lost its speed, and the greater the distance it travels the less its force. +So we find that planets situated in the last three degrees of a sign partake +partly of the sign in which they are placed and also of the one following, +giving a mixed vibration; therefore they express the nature of two signs. +In this horoscope Jupiter is in the 5th house, pleasures, and trine to Mer- +cury, the planet of reason, which is in the impulsive and martial sign of +Aries. The moon, the ruler of the 5th house is in the 11th house, ruling +friends in the sign of its fall, Capricorn, and in sextile to the planet of +love and pleasure, Venus. When this last named planet is on the Ascendant +the native is very apt to drift into the pleasure-loving path, the path of +the senses. He is easily influenced by attention and flattery from the op- +posite sex. In this case, the moon, a feminine planet, in the house of +friends, indicates that this young man's women friends will have the + + +[PAGE 227] SEX + +strongest influence in his life. Venus, another feminine planet, on the As- +cendant, afflicted by a square of Neptune, the co-ruler of the Ascendant and +the higher octave of Mercury, situated in the mercurial sign of Gemini in +the 4th house, indicates that his women friends will lead him into paths of + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 8F ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Sagitt. 14 SUN: Aries 16:05 SATURN: Scorpio 17:56R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Capricorn 6 MOON: Capricorn 20:15 URANUS: Scorpio 23:55R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Aquarius 1 MERCURY: Aries 3:09 NEPTUNE: Gemini 15:44 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Pisces 3:27 VENUS: Pisces 21:03 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Aries 17 MARS: Aquarius 24:54 Pisces 1:30 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Taurus 19 JUPITER: Cancer 29:18 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Virgo 1:30 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +the senses and may destroy his love for the home, for Venus is also trine to +the restless and romantic Uranus and the materialistic Saturn. These last +named planets are retrograde and in the martial sign of Scorpio, governing +sex. Mars, the planet of passion, is in the fixed sign of Aquarius, in the + + +[PAGE 228] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +12th house, that of self-undoing, and in square aspect to Uranus and Saturn. +Saturn and Mars are in mutual reception strengthening the good or evil of +these planets. + + What do we find? It happens that this poor young man's weakness and love +for women have attracted licentious and free-love companions, and the result +is venereal disease which has poisoned the blood. An with Venus, the planet +ruling the venous circulation, on the Ascendant and afflicted by the watery +planet Neptune in the sign of the lungs, Gemini, quick consumption is the +result. + + In February, 1919, the progressed moon reached the conjunction of the +radical Saturn, which brought on the lung disease. In July, five months +later, when the man called upon Headquarters for healing, he was already in +an advanced stage of galloping consumption. The following month, August, +the moon made a square to the inflammatory Mars, which brought on hemor- +rhages. + + Here we an see the influences of the planets, their causes and effects. +The relatives of this young man did not understand why he should have con- +tracted this disease of the lungs which worked so rapidly and was so de- +structive. With the affliction from watery signs, the soil was well pre- +pared for the seeds which were sown through dissipation and thoughtlessness. + + A case of this kind is very difficult to heal, for with the negative Pi- +sces on the Ascendant, and Saturn and Uranus, the planets indicating + + +[PAGE 229] SEX + +impulse, yes, even stubbornness, in conjunction in Scorpio and square to +Mars, all in fixed signs, it is very hard to guide such a person into safe +channels. And we find both the lights afflicted, the moon in the saturnine +sign of Capricorn, showing determination and stubbornness, square to the sun +in the impulsive sign of Mars. Hence this young man would not listen to +reason. He would do as he pleased regardless of caution and advice. A life +in the open air with careful diet and pure surroundings would be the only +cure; if he would listen to reason and adopt it he might get well. + + +[PAGE 230] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 8G--VENEREAL DISEASE + + Male, born October 6, 1895. + + Leo is on the Ascendant, and Jupiter is just above the cusp of the first +house, making a square aspect to Saturn and Mercury in the sign of Scorpio. +The moon in Taurus, its exaltation sign, is in the 10th house and in opposi- +tion to Uranus, which is also posited in its exaltation sign, Scorpio, rul- +ing the generative organs. The moon so strongly situated will have the +greatest influence over the young man's life and health. Being in opposi- +tion to the licentious Uranus, it will make him very free and unconventional +in his love affairs, and he will be attracted to women of a low type. With +the afflicted Jupiter ruling the arterial blood, and with Neptune in Gemini +in the 11th house, the house of friends, in square aspect to Venus, which +has rule over the venous blood, this young man is apt to be led into asso- +ciation with undesirable women friends. As a matter of fact they are re- +sponsible for his contracting a severe case of syphilis which poisoned the +blood. + + In 1914 we find the progressed sun in the first degree of Scorpio, and +the progressed moon in the sign Aquarius forming an opposition to the Ascen- +dant and the radical Jupiter in Leo. It is also coming up to a square of +the radical Saturn, Mercury, and Uranus in Scorpio. In this same year two +new moons afflicted the three latter planets. The one on January 26th fell + + +[PAGE 231] SEX + +in five degrees of Aquarius in opposition to Jupiter and square to Saturn +and Mercury. On April 25th the new moon fell in four degrees of Taurus, +square to Jupiter and opposition Saturn and Mercury. This was the time when + + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 8G ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aries 16 SUN: Libra 13:28 SATURN: Scorpio 6:53 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Taurus 28 MOON: Taurus 17:56 URANUS: Scorpio 18:02 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 10 MERCURY: Scorpio 8:21 NEPTUNE: Gemini 18:01R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Leo 10:25 VENUS: Virgo 18:12R DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Leo 26 MARS: Libra 14:54 Pisces 11:06 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 16 JUPITER: Leo 5:26 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Virgo 11:06 ] + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +the venereal disease was contracted. + + In 1918 the sun by progression formed a square to the radical Jupiter in +Leo, and in 1919 a conjunction with Saturn in Scorpio. In the latter year, +however, the progressed moon trined the Ascendant, and on May 29, 1919, an + + +[PAGE 232] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +eclipse of the sun in seven degrees of Gemini sextiled the Ascendant. These +vibrations no doubt saved the young man's life during the adverse aspects of +the progressed sun. + + In 1921 the progressed sun came into conjunction with the radical Mer- +cury. On April 22nd the full moon eclipse fell in two degrees of Scorpio +opposing the transiting sun and Venus. At the same time the transiting Mars +was within orb of a conjunction with the radical moon and in opposition to +Uranus. In the spring of that year the young man submitted to an operation +for an abscess under th diaphragm, which after being opened was a very long +time in discharging, necessitating a drain tube. The doctors claimed that +the pus was from the lungs, but the patient denied ever having had trouble +with these organs. The horoscope shows, however, that the doctors' diagno- +sis was correct, for Neptune in Gemini, ruling the lungs, afflicted by a +square of Venus from the common and earthy sign of Virgo, would obstruct the +delivery of the venous blood to the lungs, causing poor oxygenation. With +the blood stream polluted by the dread disease of syphilis and with both the +arterial blood (ruled by Jupiter) and the venous blood (ruled by Venus) ob- +structed, the weakest organ, the lungs, would naturally receive the poison +generated in the blood. + + After the patient had somewhat recovered from the operation he returned +home. On April 25th, he was taken back to the hospital (that was three days + + +[PAGE 233] SEX + +after the total eclipse of the moon in Scorpio) with what at first was +termed a case of mumps. The throat, jaw, and larynx were very much swollen +and inflamed. This condition was later diagnosed by some of the doctors as +actinomycosis, an infectious, chronic disease of cattle, sometimes trans- +ferred to man. But there was a difference of opinion among the doctors. +Some held that the disease was cancer. + + As the moon is the most heavily afflicted planet in the natal chart, +naturally when by progression in 1922 it reached the opposition of the +radical Saturn and Mercury and the square to Jupiter from the 10th house and +the sign of Taurus, the disease reached a stage where the body could no +longer rid itself of the poisons which had been stored up during eight +years. There were two new moons in 1922 which helped to bring about the +crisis. On January 27th the new moon fell in Aquarius, seven degrees and +eighteen minutes, opposing the radical Jupiter and square to the radical +Saturn and Mercury. On April 27th the new moon fell in six degrees and nine +minutes of Taurus, square to Jupiter and in opposition to Saturn and Mer- +cury. All these afflictions were from or reacted upon the signs of Taurus +and Scorpio. The tonsils, the larynx, and the throat therefore received +much of the pus generated in the body. The result was death. + + Had this young man, after he contracted the disease, lived a life of ab- +stinence from rich foods, tobacco, meat, liquor, etc., he might have + + +[PAGE 234] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +overcome it and perhaps have lived for a number of years. But the poisons +which were lodged principally in the lungs were increased by more impurities +generated through ignorance of diet. + + NO. 8H.--UTERINE TROUBLE + + Female, born July 29, 1881, 6:00 P.M. + + Capricorn, the Saturnian sign of the cardinal quadruplicity, is on the +Ascendant, and the ruler, Saturn, is in the 4th house, that of the home, in +the determined, stubborn, persistent sign of Taurus, making a square to the +life-giving sun, in the fixed sign of Leo ruling the heart. This has a ten- +dency to obstruct the life forces. The vitality is low, the heart action +sluggish, especially as we find Jupiter, the planet ruling the arterial cir- +culation, afflicted by the conjunction of the fiery Mars. This is a latent +condition which will give the native much greater trouble after she has +reached the period of menopause. Her restricted heart action will then be +more troublesome than before. + + When she called upon Headquarters for healing in the early part of 1914, +the progressed moon had reached the opposition to the afflicted planets in + + +[PAGE 235] SEX + +the 4th house in Taurus. The doctor who had been treating her for catarrh +of the stomach and nervousness failed to benefit her. She was very skepti- +cal and did not believe in spiritual healing, but friends who had been by + + --------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 8H ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Scorpio 10 SUN: Leo 6:55 SATURN: Taurus 11:53 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 4 MOON: Virgo 18:33 URANUS: Virgo 11:53 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 27 MERCURY: Cancer 20:49 NEPTUNE: Taurus 16:29 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Capricorn 20:10 VENUS: Gemini 22:12 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Pisces 0 MARS: Taurus 26:48 Sagitt. 15:28 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Aries 9 JUPITER: Taurus 22:51 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Gemini 15:28 ] + --------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +the Invisible helpers persuaded her to write to Headquarters for diagnosis. +She did not ask for healing, but only wanted to know what was the matter +with her physically, stating that the doctor could not understand the cause +of her general poor health. + + +[PAGE 236] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + In our diagnosis we told her that she had not developed normally. With +the obstructing Saturn conjunction Neptune in the sign of the throat, +trouble was indicated at puberty, also restricted menses, adenoids, and in- +flamed tonsils. This had a reflex action in the opposite sign of Scorpio, +which rules the generative organs, showing that these organs had never be- +come fully developed. Neptune has this tendency when afflicted, especially +in the sign of Taurus or Scorpio and in conjunction with or opposition to +Saturn. Then the generative organs are underdeveloped, and childbirth be- +comes very severe and painful. This woman had four children, and at each +birth her life was despaired of. The result was uterine trouble. + + A tendency to catarrh of the small intestine is also indicated, for we +have the moon, the ruler of the sign Cancer, the stomach, placed in the sign +Virgo, the small intestines, conjunct the spasmodic Uranus, showing that +there was spasmodic action of the intestines and that the food was not prop- +erly assimilated. This aspect also interfered with the digestion of food in +the stomach, as the moon is the ruler of that organ; this was aggravated by +a square of the moon to Venus. + + Uranus in conjunction with the ruler of the 7th house, the moon, shows +inharmony in marriage. The husband as indicated by this aspect is of a very +nervous, irritable nature, fond of drink (Venus square moon). A separation +is shown. This woman acknowledged that she had had trouble with her hus- +band, that he had left her suddenly, and stated that she was compelled to + + +[PAGE 237] SEX + +support her four children. One with Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, and Mars in +Taurus afflicting one another has a tendency to be critical and severe in +the home, but at the same time of a very frugal, hardworking nature, not +saving oneself but always working beyond one's physical strength. + + Due to the conditions noted this woman had become a broken-down, nervous +wreck, with severe uterine trouble and catarrh of the stomach and intes- +tines. She was not able to do a full day's work. Inside of two months, +however, through the aid of the Invisible Helpers she was able to take a po- +sition, and she became a healthy, happy woman. We advised a rational, care- +ful diet, eliminating all liquids with meals, for one with the planetary +conditions noted likes to drink a great deal during meals. This is often +dangerous to one with poor assimilation, and where there is a lack of diges- +tive fluids in the stomach and intestines. + + +[PAGE 238] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 8I.--CHILDBIRTH + + Female, born June 3rd, 1884, 9:00 P.M. + + It is evident from the figure that the native is of a very nervous, rest- +less temperament, for Mercury, the planet which rules the mind and the +nerves, is in conjunction with its higher octave, Neptune; this makes her +very high-strung. Then we find Saturn, the planet of obstruction, conjoined +with the life-giving sun in the mercurial sign Gemini. This diminishes the +vital solar life currents which feed the nerves, so that instead of as- +similating a great among such as is necessary to feed the nerves of a +high-strung person, she gets less than the normal amount and therefore is +"on edge" and run down. Add to this that Mars, the planet of passion, is +square Mercury, the planet of mind, which makes her temper very short, and +that the moon, ruler of the imaginative mind, is square Venus, the planet of +love, and you will understand that this person is very unhappy and always +out of patience with her condition and environment. + + Her trouble is due to the after effects of childbirth. The astrological +figure gives a very good description of the case. Mercury is conjunct +Neptune in the fifth house, which governs children, indicating an abnormal +condition. The planet of parturition, the moon, is in mutual reception with +and square to Venus. Mars in the eighth house, which indicates the manner + + +[PAGE 239] SEX + +of death, is square to Mercury in the fifth house, ruling children, which +shows the use of instruments, loss of blood, and a great shock to the ner- +vous system in childbirth. She must have been near the door of death at +that time. But while Saturn conjunct the sun saps the life forces, he also + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 8I ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Libra 10 SUN: Gemini 13:51 SATURN: Gemini 13:41 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Scorpio 9 MOON: Libra 22:24 URANUS: Virgo 24:00 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 3 MERCURY: Taurus 23:29 NEPTUNE: Taurus 21:40 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 25:11 VENUS: Cancer 23:39 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Capricorn 29 MARS: Leo 29:39 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Pisces 5 JUPITER: Leo 2:18 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +imparts a tenacity of life. Such people, unfortunately for them, do not die +quickly; they linger in their agony, an almost unbearable burden to them- +selves and other who must perforce live with them. No one is more to be +pitied. But the long years of invalidism shown by Saturn conjoined with the + + +[PAGE 240] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +sun in the sixth house, must be necessary to impart to the soul some quality +it lacks and has refused to cultivate in other and easier ways, otherwise +our Father in Heaven would never have taken such strenuous means to teach +her the lesson. + + From the healer's standpoint a case with Saturn and the sun conjoined in +the sixth house is almost, if not quite, hopeless, especially if there is a +fixed sign on the cusp, for the patient will be antagonistic, skeptical, and +recalcitrant to such an extent that he may more than neutralize all efforts +to aid nature in restoring harmony. The principal work should be directed +to cultivate in this patient a right understanding of the spiritual cause of +her condition. If she can be brought to pray for light to see the lesson +and for a chance to correct her mistake, whether in a past life or the +present one, the changed attitude of mind will cause a change in her condi- +tion so that either a cure will be effected or a speedier release found in +death. + + In the meantime such a person should be given food that will supply ether +to feed the nerves. Milk, warm and fresh from the cow, has this in abun- +dance, and so have uncooked vegetables. Under th Law of Compatibility a +healer with Aries or Leo rising whose Saturn is not in Gemini, would be best +for this person. + + +[PAGE 241] SEX + + NO. 8J.--ABORTION + + Female, born February 7, 1866, 3:30 A.M. + + Sagittarius is on the Ascendant in this chart. On page 133 of THE MES- +SAGE OF THE STARS it states that this sign produces two distinct classes, +the high and lofty type which aims its arrow at the stars, and the type +which responds to the animal instincts and indulges the animal desires. The +latter type will not think of the future. Like a child it will enjoy itself +to the fullest, living only from day to day, never laying aside anything for +a rainy day. Give such a person a million dollars and he will become a pau- +per in spite of it. His greatest enemies are his own appetites. + + In the horoscope which we have under consideration we find the ruler, Ju- +piter, in the sign of his fall, Capricorn, in the first house. Jupiter is +also conjunct the fiery Mars in its exaltation sign of Capricorn. This +gives Mars greater power for evil than otherwise. Planets have a reflex ac- +tion and often affect the signs opposite them, as in this case where the +sign Cancer receives the effects of Mars conjunct Jupiter. These planets +denote bulk, and when affecting the sign of Cancer the person is apt to make +a god of his stomach. His food must be of the very best, rich and highly +seasoned. + + The ruler of Cancer, the moon, is afflicted in the fixed sign Scorpio +(which has rule over the generative organs) by a conjunction of Saturn and a + + +[PAGE 242] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +square of Venus and the sun. The moon is the planet of fertilization, of +impregnation, and when found in the sign of Scorpio in a woman's horoscope +it is an indication that she will be apt to have several children. But when + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 8J ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Libra 11 SUN: Aquarius 18:28 SATURN: Scorpio 12:12 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Scorpio 9 MOON: Scorpio 14:02 URANUS: Cancer 0:16R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 0 MERCURY: Aquarius 2:52 NEPTUNE: Aries 8:30 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 20:42 VENUS: Aquarius 13:54 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Capricorn 26 MARS: Capricorn 23:44 Libra 14:45 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Pisces JUPITER: Capricorn 18:59 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Aries 14:45 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +the planet of obstruction, Saturn, is also in this sign and afflicted, the +organs of generation are sometimes undersized, as in the case of this woman. +During the birth of her first and only child she was three days in labor, +suffering greatly. This left her with a great fear of childbirth, led her + + +[PAGE 243] SEX + +to resort to abortion, the most dangerous and vicious of practices. Due to +the moon in Scorpio conception was frequent, and the native's great fear +caused her to employ means which destroyed the foetus. In th eyes of God +she became a murderess. The continued abuse later enveloped into a most +dangerous case of blood poisoning, which left her broken in health, a con- +firmed invalid. + + Because of the rich food in which she had for years indulged, her system +was overcharged with poisons, and since Venus, which has rule over the +venous blood, and Jupiter, the arterial, were both afflicted, all the impu- +rities were attracted to that part of the body where these planets were lo- +cated, Capricorn and Aquarius. Sluggishness of the body is always found in +the parts corresponding to the signs in which Venus and Jupiter are af- +flicted. There the ash is usually deposited. This woman was unable to walk +for five years before her death, which occurred in February, 1920. We have +not been able to ascertain the exact day of her death. We find the pro- +gressed moon in February making a square to the radical Venus. The pro- +gressed aspects alone, however, would not cause death. We must look for the +exciting planets, the transits. The full moon on February 4th fell in 14 +degrees and 16 minutes of Leo in opposition to the radical Venus and sun and +square to the radical Saturn and moon. These aspects, we think, were re- +sponsible for the native's demise. + + +[PAGE 244] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + How wonderfully accurate is diagnosis by the planets! Each time this +woman passed through a severe illness, which was quite frequently, her +relatives would report that it was a case of peritonitis. We find, however, +no affliction to the small intestines, but very severe afflictions to the +generative organs. + + +[PAGE 245] THE SPINE + + CHAPTER XX + + THE SPINE + + NO. 9A.--SPINAL TROUBLE + + Female, born June 21, 1899, 5:30 A.M. + + This horoscope is the figure of a young woman who is the daughter of +wealthy parents, as shown by the sun, which is ruler of the second house, +trine to Jupiter. We will first consider the mental caliber, as that is the +prime consideration in dealing with anyone. The sun is in the twelfth house +showing that the spirit in a certain sense is imprisoned. The sun is in +conjunction with the Dragon's Tail, which has a saturnine influence and +tends to further obstruct. These conditions rob life of its joy and fill +the soul with melancholy and fear, gloomy forebodings, and thoughts of im- +pending evil. Mars square to the moon, which is the life ruler, shows re- +bellion against this condition. The square of Mars to Venus, however, adds +to the tendencies which rob life of its satisfaction. The trine of the sun +to Jupiter and the sextile of Mars to the sun, Mercury, and Jupiter are +mitigating influences which give some light and life to this poor soul's + + +[PAGE 246] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +existence. The comforts procured through the wealth of parents as indicated +by these aspects help to make life more tolerable than it would otherwise +be. + + With regard to the health denoted in this figure, we find in the first + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 9A ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Pisces 21 SUN: Gemini 29:49 SATURN: Sagitt. 19:40R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Aries 27 MOON: Sagitt. 1:16 URANUS: Sagitt. 5:03R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Gemini 7 MERCURY: Cancer 7:48 NEPTUNE: Gemini 24:42 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Cancer 12:12 VENUS: Gemini 6:33 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Leo 1 MARS: Virgo 2:59 Sagitt. 29:24 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Leo 24 JUPITER: Scorpio 0:22R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Gemini 29:24 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +place Cancer, a weak sign, on the Ascendant. Four planets are posited in +the twelfth house, which in this case denotes confinement upon a sick bed. +Saturn, in the sixth house, which has to do with health, is a sufficient in- +dication that this will be a life of suffering. Saturn, the principal + + +[PAGE 247] THE SPINE + +significator in this respect, shows that the ailments will be deep-seated +and chronic. The moon, which is the peculiar significator of health in a +woman's horoscope, is within six degrees of the sixth house cusp, adding its +testimony in the same direction. Mars square to the moon near the sixth +house renders the native liable to operations. The sun conjunction the sat- +urnine Dragon's Tail in the twelfth house makes such operations exceedingly +dangerous for she has not the vitality wherewith to withstand and recuper- +ate. Moreover, the sun in 1914 had progressed within orb of a parallel to +Saturn at birth. Thus the native had at that time less vitality than she +had had in earlier years. As the moon came into opposition to Saturn in the +sixth house in October, 1913, we may well conceive that the condition at +that time became critical. + + Mars governs the muscles and the motor segment of the spinal cord. He is +square to the moon, which governs the sympathetic nerves, and also square to +Uranus, which causes spasmodic movements. Thus it is evident that the +nerves are affected and that the young lady has no dependable control over +her limbs. Neptune governs the spinal canal, and it is opposite Saturn, the +planet of obstruction. This configuration occurs in the signs of Gemini and +Sagittarius, and in the sixth and the twelfth houses. It is therefore +evident that there is trouble in the spine--obstruction, as denoted by Sat- +urn. + + The obstruction will be found in the region indicated by the conjunction + + +[PAGE 248] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + +of Neptune, Sun, and Dragon's Tail in 24 to 29 of Gemini, namely, the dorsal +region. The doctors have been unable to diagnose this case, and sad to say, +it is incurable by any physical means. There is only one method, namely, +the dilation of the spinal canal by repeated manipulations FROM WITHIN of +the materialized fingers of the Invisible Helpers. As the young woman has +not applied to us for healing, we are sorry to say that we cannot touch her +case; but were it submitted to us, we should advise a healer having Scorpio +rising and with Saturn neither in Cancer nor in Sagittarius, letting the +healer put himself under the direction of the Elder Brothers, who would then +do the work. + + +[PAGE 249] THE SPINE + + NO. 9B.--SPINAL TROUBLE + + Male, born February 1, 1918, at 12:30 A.M. + + We have here the horoscope of a boy who has fixed signs on all four +angles and the martial sign of Scorpio on the Ascendant. Our first thought +when looking at a horoscope for the diagnosis of disease is to find if there +is strength of will so that the patient will be able to give the needed as- +sistance to the healer, for if he has persistence to fight for his life, if +he will follow the instructions given by the healer, then the healer has +some cooperation and the task is not so heavy. The task is doubly hard, +however, in the case of a patient who has Saturn elevated in the 10th house, +conjunction with Midheaven, square the Ascendant, and with the stubborn sign +of Scorpio on the Ascendant. To effect a cure against the stubborn will of +such a patient might truly be classed under the head of miracles. + + As a rule we look to the strongest malefic planet when diagnosing from +the horoscope. Here we find the obstructing and restricting Saturn in con- +junction with the Midheaven, also conjunction and parallel Neptune and in +opposition to the life-giving sun. Saturn is in the sign of the sun, Leo, +and the sun is in Saturn's sign, Aquarius. When planets are in mutual re- +ception, i.e., have exchanged signs, as we find Saturn and the sun in this +horoscope, and especially when they are also in angles and fixed signs, then + + +[PAGE 250] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +we may expect a most stubborn and deep-seated cause of disease. + + We are told on page 619 of THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS that Leo rules the +spinal cord, and on page 566 of the same book that Neptune rules the spinal + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 9B ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Leo 10 SUN: Aquarius 11:34 SATURN: Leo 11:02R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Virgo 13 MOON: Libra 7:26 URANUS: Aquarius 23:02 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Libra 11 MERCURY: Capricorn 17:41 NEPTUNE: Leo 5:33R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Scorpio 3:25 VENUS: Aquarius 25:25R ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Sagitt. 2 MARS: Libra 3:02 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Capricorn 5 JUPITER: Gemini 1:32 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +canal. In this horoscope we find 10 degrees of Leo occupying the cusp of +the 10th house and the life-giving sun in opposition to Neptune, Saturn, and +the Midheaven. Can we find a more pronounced affliction than this, + + +[PAGE 251] THE SPINE + +especially with Leo ruling the spinal column and Neptune the spinal canal, +the latter of which is filled with the spinal spirit fire, the life of the +Father? + + When we find this spirit fire obstructed by Saturn and the sun, we may +conclude that this affliction is the result of serious wrongs committed in +previous lives. The wasting of the vital fluids, the abuse of the gen- +erative faculty, is a sin against the Holy Ghost and brings to the Ego the +most severe punishment, as in the case of this boy who was drawn to parents +who were fit instruments to give him a body which would cause the spirit to +suffer for past sins. And what a pitiful future faces him! He has never +walked nor talked. He must be fed, and he has positively no use of his body +whatever. + + The question may be asked, Is there any hope for this boy? Yes, to a +certain degree. The planet of reason, however, is weakly aspected by only a +semi-sextile to the sun and Uranus: therefore we may expect little help +from this quarter of the horoscope. But Mars, which is the ruler of the As- +cendant and the sixth house, both ruling the health, is the strongest and +best aspected planet in the horoscope. Mars is in the 11th house in Libra, +in conjunction with the moon, trine to Jupiter; and we may also say that +Mars is sextile to Saturn although seemingly out of orb, for Saturn is ret- +rograding and therefore throwing his influence towards Mars. Also we may +expect that Mars will receive some help from the life giving sun, the sun's +orb being larger than that of other planets. + + When a patient has fixed signs on the four angles and a well aspected + + +[PAGE 252] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Mars, he will make a greater effort to overcome than one who has not these +influences. This boy should be placed in the home of a nurse who has Scor- +pio or Aries on the Ascendant, and away from the parents, for the home, un- +der the rule of the Father, is no place for him. With this change and +proper care he might be able to gain at least partial control of his body +and be able to walk and feed himself; but he will never be very bright men- +tally, and will always to some extent be a charge to his parents. + + +[PAGE 253] THE SPINE + + NO. 9C.--TUBERCULOSIS OF THE SPINE + + Female, born March 17, 1889, 7:04 A.M. + + The fiery and martial sign of Aries is on the Ascendant, with Mars, the +ruler of the horoscope, in its own sign in the 1st house, giving great en- +ergy and impulse. Mars also in opposition to the erratic Uranus will make +this young woman unable to use moderation in anything. But she will be like +a skyrocket which is sent with great force into the air; as soon as it has +spent its energy it falls back to earth dull and lifeless. With the +life-giving sun, the ruler of the 6th house, sickness, in the negative and +watery sign of Pisces, and posited in the 12th house in opposition to the +watery moon which is in the house of sickness and in the earthy and common +sign of Virgo, this woman has not sufficient vitality to keep up with the +impulse of the double fiery influence on the Ascendant and is soon depleted +in strength. + + Mercury is sextile to Mars from the mental and fixed sign of Aquarius. +This makes the native very quick and active mentally, but whatever she be- +comes interested in she takes up with such force that the nervous system +suffers. This is increased by Mercury square to its higher octave, Neptune, +in Taurus. + + The sun afflicted and intercepted in the 12th house in Pisces, would in- +dicate a very unhappy and restricted life in early childhood. And as the +moon, ruler of the 4th house, the home and the mother, is afflicted, it + + +[PAGE 254] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +would indicate that much of the restriction will come from this direction. + + We are told in the Rosicrucian teachings that we are building the arche- +type in this life of the body we shall inhabit in a future life, and + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 9C ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn 5 SUN: Pisces 27:06 SATURN: Leo 14:07R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Capricorn 26 MOON: Virgo 27:23 URANUS: Libra 20:55R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Aquarius 24 MERCURY: Aquarius 29:52 NEPTUNE: Taurus 29:54 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Aries 10:11 VENUS: Taurus 10:10 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus 20 MARS: Aries 21:18 Cancer 17:52 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini 15 JUPITER: Capricorn 6:03 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Capricorn 17:52 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +that we are attracted to the parents who are physically, mentally, and mor- +ally able to supply us with such a body. In this case this young girl was +attracted to a mother who was selfish and neurasthenic, for the afflicted + + +[PAGE 255] THE SPINE + +moon in Virgo in the 6th house would represent the mother. The moon also +afflicts the small intestines, giving poor assimilation of food, which low- +ers the vitality. We find Saturn, the ruler of the 10th house, representing +the Father, square to Venus in her own sign of Taurus, ruling the throat and +palate, which indicates that the Father was fond of the winecup; he was, in +fact, a drunkard. This would corroborate the indications, shown by the af- +flicted sun above the Ascendant, of a hard life with many privations in +childhood. + + Now let us see how the afflictions between Saturn and Venus would affect +the health. As Leo is the sign ruling the heart and the spinal cord, Sat- +urn, the restricter, when placed in this sign, square to Venus which rules +the venous blood, causes a restricted circulation. It is stated in THE MES- +SAGE OF THE STARS, page 555, that Saturn in Leo gives a tendency to curva- +ture and disease of the spine. The physical body is the crystallized coun- +terpart of the finer vehicles. The vital body holds the physical atoms +together. This vital body, which is ruled by the sun, surrounds and inter- +penetrates the physical. If the sun in a person's horoscope is afflicted, +the vital fluid is obstructed and the vital body becomes diseased, as this +invisible force gains its entrance through the spleen which is also ruled by +the sun. Therefore, we can readily see that the vital fluids were ob- +structed from childhood. + + This young woman's case was diagnosed by the doctors as tubercular dis- +ease of the spine, Potts' disease. In December of 1918 and January 1919 she + + +[PAGE 256] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +had severe attacks of inflammation of the spine and has had several spinal +operations. + + It will be very difficult to heal this patient on account of her great +impulsiveness and the wasting of vitality. With sun and moon afflicted in +the 6th and 12th houses, she will dissipate her strength and will rebel at +restraint. + + She has Venus in the 1st house in Taurus, trine to Jupiter on the cusp of +the Midheaven. This with Neptune in Taurus sextile to the sun should give +wonderful musical ability and the faculty of writing and improvising music. +The impaired physical body and consequent suffering will soften the nature +and bring out the spiritual side. Neptune is making a trine to the moon as +a result of which this girl could develop talent for the inspirational and +spiritual side of music which would bring wonderful soul growth. This soul +will make greater spiritual progress in this one life of suffering that she +could in three ordinary lives with perfect health. + + +[PAGE 257] THE SPINE + + NO. 9D--E: INABILITY TO WALK + + Male, born January 18, 1919, 12 Noon. + + In this lesson we will try to show how a doctor, who can only observe +from outward and physical signs and who depends for his diagnosis upon symp- +toms only, can err in his diagnosis, and how the science of astro-diagnosis +proves that functional weakness is shown even at birth. "A chain is as +strong as its weakest link," is a proverbial expression, and so it is with +the physical body. We may go along smoothly for many years, seemingly in +good health, when suddenly something goes wrong, a link begins to weaken; +the strain which we have been putting on our physical body causes this weak +place to give way. + + This horoscope is that of a boy with the fixed sign of Taurus on the As- +cendant, and with the sun in Capricorn on the cusp of the Midheaven. The +life-giving sun, however, makes only a semi-sextile to Mars and Uranus, be- +sides its conjunction with the Midheaven, therefore the boy cannot expect a +great amount of help from this planet. We find Uranus in its own sign of +Aquarius, elevated in the 11th house, in conjunction with and parallel to +the dynamic Mars, and in opposition and parallel to the obstructive Saturn, +which is in the fixed sign of Leo and in the 5th house. We also find the +moon in the same sign, in conjunction with Saturn and in opposition to Mars +and Uranus. + + +[PAGE 258] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + We are told in the THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS, page 555, that Saturn af- +flicted in Leo gives a tendency to spinal diseases and sclerosis of the spi- +nal cord. The moon has rule over the synovial fluid, and with its afflic- +tion by Saturn, which has rule over the bony structures and the + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 9D ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn 25 SUN: Capricorn 27:37 SATURN: Leo 26:52R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius 20 MOON: Leo 26:57 URANUS: Aquarius 26:01 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces 26 MERCURY: Capricorn 6:30 NEPTUNE: Leo 8:14R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Taurus 13:07 VENUS: Aquarius 10:56 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Gemini 12 MARS: Aquarius 23:05 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Cancer 4 JUPITER: Cancer 8:38R ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +ligaments, and with the moon and Saturn both in the sign of Leo, which has +rule over the spinal column we may expect that the seat of the trouble will +be found in this latter region. Saturn dries up and causes atrophy. There- +fore we may diagnose this case as a lack of synovial fluid to lubricate the + + +[PAGE 259] THE SPINE + +vertebrae of the spine, also a loss of strength in the ligaments which con- +nect the spinal bones. + + The result is that this child while healthy and well formed, seemingly in +moderate health, still was unable to bear his weight on his legs. He would +draw them up Each time that the nurse attempted to teach him to stand. This +affliction, which comes from fixed signs, will be a most difficult one to +overcome unless a miracle is performed through spiritual healing, although +by patient manipulation with olive oil over the spinal region and a careful +vegetarian diet the child may be helped to a very great extent. + + +[PAGE 260] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 9E. + + Male, born December 13, 1868. + + This horoscope leads to a very different diagnosis. Having no hour of +birth we use a flat figure. We find in this case also the moon in + + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 9E [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Sagitt. 21:49 SATURN: Sagitt. 9:47 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Sagitt. 15:06 URANUS: Cancer 16:19R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Sagitt. 10:20 NEPTUNE: Aries 14:34R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Scorpio 16:43 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Virgo 1:59 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Aries 4:39 ] + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + +conjunction with the obstructive Saturn, but in the sign of Sagittarius rul- +ing the hops. Saturn is in conjunction with and parallel to Mercury, and +square to Mars. In 1914, after a spell of typhoid fever, this man was + + +[PAGE 261] THE SPINE + +unable to walk without crutches. He could not stand without swaying. The +doctors believed this weakness to have its seat in the spinal cord, while +astrology diagnoses it as a drying up of the synovial fluid of the hip +joints. When the weight is put on the pelvic region by standing, stooping, +or by any strained position, the pelvic bones slip out of position and in +turn press on the sciatic nerve, which controls the sacral plexus and the +limbs. A pressure on this nerve may cause what is termed paralysis of the +lower limbs. + + A case of this kind, however, is curable. A slight adjustment by an os- +teopathic physician or a chiropractor will eliminate the pressure upon the +sciatic nerve. Here we may see what a vast difference there is between +astro-diagnosis and medical diagnosis. The healer who has a knowledge of +the planets and their effect upon the physical body may find a great differ- +ence in cases which may have the same outward or physical symptoms. Also a +knowledge of body adjustment is often very helpful. + + +[PAGE 262] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XXI + + THE LIVER AND GALL BLADDER + + NO. 10A.--THE LIVER + + Male, born March 6th, 1831, 4 P.M. + + This is the horoscope of a man with the fixed and fiery sign of Leo on +the Ascendant, and the obstructing Saturn in Leo in the 1st house. + + Whenever Saturn is placed in an angle, a fixed sign, or near the Ascen- +dant, his influence is much more destructive than elsewhere, especially when +in the sign of Leo, which rules the heart. Then we may expect that the per- +son will be lacking in vitality. Especially so in the case of this man as +we find Saturn in square aspect to the dynamic Mars, and Mars in its fall +and near the cusp of the 10th house, where its destructive influence may re- +sult in the greatest amount of damage, particularly as we find these two af- +flicting and powerful planets in Leo and Taurus, two of the most powerful +signs in the horoscope. These planets are of opposite natures; Saturn is +cold and moist, while Mars is fiery, and dry. Consequently we may expect +that the body will suffer as a result. + + +[PAGE 263] THE LIVER AND GALL BLADDER + + The sun, the ruler of the Ascendant, is posited in the 8th house, in the +negative sign of Pisces, square to the moon. Here again we find an indica- +tion of depleted energy and lack of vitality. + + Now let us see how these afflictions work. The 10th house indicates the + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 10A ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Taurus 16 SUN: Pisces 15:14 SATURN: Leo 27:05R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Gemini 16 MOON: Sagitt. 13:09 URANUS: Aquarius 12:25 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 14 MERCURY: Aquarius 21:50 NEPTUNE: Capricorn 24:17 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Leo 13:12 VENUS: Aries 3:15 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 13 MARS: Taurus 24:04 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Libra 14 JUPITER: Aquarius 10:05 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +the Father, and Mars afflicted by a square to Mercury and Saturn, and in +Taurus near the cusp of the Midheaven would indicate the death of the Father +by accident. At the age of twelve years when the moon passed the Midheaven +and the conjunction of Mars, the Father was killed by the falling of a tree, + + +[PAGE 264] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +leaving the mother and three small children penniless. This forced the el- +dest boy, whose horoscope we are delineating, to help earn the wherewithal +to live. He was placed as an assistant to a blacksmith in the neighborhood, +and was compelled at the growing age of twelve years to do a man's work, +wielding the heavy sledge hammer. As a result the valves of the heart were +not fully developed. For years he suffered, and Each time he reached a +state of financial success, his health would break, forcing him to give up +and change to another climate for relief. Some doctors diagnosed his +trouble as tuberculosis, others as asthma. He had all the indications of +asthma, but these spells would come and go. Each winter while in the cold, +eastern climate he spent some time in bed with pneumonia or congestion of +the lungs. + + Here we see the effect of the affliction of sun square moon from the two +common signs of Pisces and Sagittarius. We find Mercury in the fixed sign +of Aquarius, in opposition to Saturn and square to Mars in Taurus, the +throat, which would give some tendency toward a nervous contraction of the +trachea. + + Now we have found the afflicting planets indicating valvular heart +trouble and weak lungs, but the man died from an abscess of the liver. +Where do we find the indication of liver trouble? Mars in Taurus is in his +detriment. This planet is the strongest in the horoscope; in fact Mars may +be called the life ruler. When in the sign ruling the throat, it gives a +desire to tickle the palate and a thirst which often leads to strong drink. + + +[PAGE 265] THE LIVER AND GALL BLADDER + +In this case we find Mars sextile to the sun and trine to Neptune. Neptune +governs and sometimes predisposes to the use of drugs. This had its result +in an abnormal desire for strong, black coffee. Instead of quenching his +thirst with water, this man would drink cold coffee and in large quantities. +Mars in Taurus also gives an abnormal appetite, indicating one who is apt to +gourmandize. With the lowered vitality on account of the affliction to the +heart and poor oxygenation in the lungs, the native was unable to do manual +labor, thereby being unable to work off the excess of food. Consequently +the poor liver was worked over time and became a receptacle for the poisons +created by the excess of food which could not be absorbed by the blood. Ju- +piter rules the liver; we find Jupiter in conjunction with and parallel to +Uranus in the 6th house, sickness, also parallel to the moon. Naturally the +liver would be sluggish and easily overtaxed. + + If this man had lived normally, he could have reached a ripe old age in +spite of the planetary afflictions, for with Mars elevated and sextile to +the sun, with the moon sextile to Jupiter, and with fixed signs on the +angles there is no reason why he should have passed out at the comparatively +early period of middle life. + + +[PAGE 266] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 10B.--GALLSTONES + + Male, born November 13, 1885, 8:52 P.M. + + We will judge first the mental caliber so that we may be better able to +deal with our patient, for the basic quality and trend of the mind have a +great determining influence as to the way a person views sickness, and we +must be prepared to meet his ideas in such a manner that we inspire confi- +dence. Mercury rules the 3rd house, which governs the lower mind. Its par- +allel to Saturn, the planet of obstruction, curbs this flighty constituent +of the personality and gives it depth, but this aspect also gives a tendency +to look at the dark side of things; pessimism and melancholy are among its +results. Mars in the mercurial sign of Virgo, square to Mercury, makes the +native cynical and quick to anger. + + Saturn in Cancer, the sign of the stomach, shows us that digestion is ob- +structed. His opposition to Venus and the square of both to Uranus in Libra +show that the venous circulation is also obstructed, particularly that of +the renal veins which carry the blood from the kidneys (Uranus in Libra), +and that part of the portal system which carries the blood from the stomach +(Saturn in Cancer), through the liver. Saturn rules the gall bladder, and +his position in Cancer, square Uranus in the sign of the kidneys (Libra), +shows the concretion of sediment in both of these organs. As brick is baked + + +[PAGE 267] THE LIVER AND GALL BLADDER + +clay, hardened by heat pent up in the kiln, so this sediment is burned into +gallstones and renal stones by the restraining action of Saturn when anger +is kindled by Mars. Inward impotent rage and vindictiveness which wait for +an opportunity to get even, the nursing of a grievance instead of letting + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 10B ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aries 9 SUN: Scorpio 21:56 SATURN: Cancer 7:50R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Taurus 16 MOON: Aquarius 13:18 URANUS: Libra 6:12 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Gemini 24 MERCURY: Sagitt. 8:06 NEPTUNE: Taurus 24:14R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Cancer 26:21 VENUS: Capricorn 7:33 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Leo 17 MARS: Virgo 2:49 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 10 JUPITER: Virgo 29:41 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +anger have vent and then forgetting it, harmful though that may be, are the +true cause of one of the most painful maladies to which flesh is heir. + + The trine of Jupiter and Neptune show the way of liberation through + + +[PAGE 268] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +appeal to the higher nature, for there is a basic benevolence that may be +invoked. Physical treatments can and must of course be given, but however +effective they may prove for the time being, they are merely palliative, for +until the patient changes his mental attitude there can be no real cure. +Continued inward rage will form new stones to take the place of those +eliminated or dissolved by the treatment. To thoroughly impress this fact +upon the patient is the first duty of the astro-therapeutic health adjuster. +The harm has been done in the present case, and cultivation of serenity can +only act to correct. But if a configuration like this is noted in the horo- +scope of a child, we ought to warn the parents so that this trait of nursing +wrath may be eradicated ere it gets a hold on the growing girl or boy. +Prevention is always better than cure. It is not enough just to help people +to regain health; our aim should be to teach them how to live in harmony +with the laws of love and life that they may never be sick. Until we thor- +oughly realize this and practice it we are missing the greatest part of our +privilege. + + A person with Scorpio rising would be our first choice when selecting a +healer for this case; one with Taurus would come next. But neither may have +Saturn in the degrees of the signs included in the patient's 1st or 6th +houses. The treatments, both mental and physical, should be given in the +hour of the sun. Large doses of olive oil or copious draughts of hot water +would be of great assistance. + + +[PAGE 269] THE LIVER AND GALL BLADDER + + NO. 10C--D: GALLSTONES + + Male, born April 23rd, 1850. + + No. 10C is the horoscope of a judge of the Supreme Court, whose hour of +birth we could not ascertain, but from events in his life we judge that Cap- +ricorn would be on the cusp of the Ascendant. Although the writer never met +this man in person, yet from indications in the home he was born some time +near 9:30 or 10 P.M. This would place Jupiter and the moon in or near the +Midheaven or the 9th house which would correspond with his character, for +from reports of friends he was a very efficient and just judge. He had much +inharmony in his home, which would be indicated by Saturn and Uranus in Ar- +ies in the 4th house, describing the wife as nagging and erratic. Saturn is +square to Mars in Cancer in the 7th house, again showing inharmony and quar- +reling with the marriage partner. + + The Judge was also greatly troubled through the weakness of an only son, +who squandered his time in drink and immorality, spending his money on the +opposite sex. This is shown by the position of Venus in the 5th house, gov- +erning children, also pleasures. Venus is very strong in the sign of Tau- +rus, which rules the palate and it is also sextile to Mars in Cancer, ruling +the stomach. + + People with Capricorn rising and with the ruler, Saturn, afflicted have a + + +[PAGE 270] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +tendency always to see the dark side of life and to brood over it, and when +Saturn is square to Mars there is much temper but not of the explosive kind. +Capricorn people cannot as a rule forgive and forget. Suppressed + + ------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 10C [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Taurus 2:57 SATURN: Aries 13:40 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Virgo 25:51 URANUS: Aries 26:41 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Taurus 9:17 NEPTUNE: Pisces 6:25 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Taurus 15:58 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Cancer 18:20 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Virgo 13:32R ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------- + +anger when continued for years will crystallize the bile in the gall blad- +der, which will have a tendency to form into small stones, causing intense +pain while they are being eliminated. The Judge suffered from these stones +for nearly twenty years. About 1894 the progressed Saturn neared an exact + + +[PAGE 271] THE LIVER AND GALL BLADDER + +square to the radical Mars, which may have set the time for the beginning of +the forming of these stones. This patient passed into the higher life on +January 1, 1916, when the transiting Saturn had reached the square to its +own place at birth. + + NO. 10D. + + Female, born December 14, 1855, at 10 A.M. + + This is the horoscope of a woman who has Capricorn on the Ascendant, and +the ruler, Saturn, is in the 5th house, square to the inflammatory Mars. We +have noted from a number of horoscopes in our files of patients who have +suffered from gallstones that they have had Saturn and Mars conjunction or +square. Saturn in this horoscope is in the house ruling children, the 5th, +and square to Mars in the 8th. This woman's troubles were caused by aggra- +vations by the children of her husband's first marriage, the stepchildren. +Note how clearly this is shown by Mercury and the sun in the 11th house, +which rules stepchildren, square to Neptune, ruler of the 2nd house. Anger +and inharmony arose in her home on account of her husband's finances, and as +usual the Capricorn nature would not forget and forgive, holding resentment +within until she paid the penalty in 1903 when she had the first attack of + + +[PAGE 272] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +gallstones, followed by another attack fourteen years later, about 1917. +The progressed moon was in Sagittarius in 1903 and in Gemini in 1917. The +exact time of the illness is not given, but the opposition and the conjunc- +tion of the progressed moon with Saturn will no doubt register the exact + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 10D ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Scorpio 25 SUN: Sagitt. 21:52 SATURN: Gemini 26:55R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 13 MOON: Aquarius 26:48 URANUS: Taurus 17:37R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 28 MERCURY: Sagitt. 12:08 NEPTUNE: Pisces 15:29 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Capricorn 16:39 VENUS: Scorpio 5:04 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Pisces 17 MARS: Libra 0:07 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Taurus 0 JUPITER: Aquarius 27:38 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +time. + + This disease is one of the most painful of afflictions. When the stones +pass from the gall bladder, pressing through the tiny gall duct which leads +into the duodenum, they often get partly through this duct but remain wedged + + +[PAGE 273] THE LIVER AND GALL BLADDER + +in, causing intense suffering. A very safe and often most beneficial remedy +is to have ready one-half cup of olive oil and the juice of one lemon. Set +the alarm clock to go off at 3 A.M.; at that time drink all of the oil fol- +lowed by the juice of the lemon. Refrain from eating breakfast, and eat +very little during the day. Repeat this for three nights in succession, and +the third morning take a cathartic. A tablespoon of Epsom salts has been +used by some with excellent results. If this does not eliminate the gall- +stones, try the remedy again about two or three weeks later. + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 274] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XXII + + THE CIRCULATION + + NO. 11.--PALPITATION OF THE HEART + + Female, born April 24, 1862, midnight. + + The Ascendant in this chart is occupied by the Saturnine sign of Capri- +corn, with Saturn, the ruler, intercepted in the 8th house. When we find +the life ruler so weakly situated and afflicted, we may look for a person +who is very likely to become a victim of circumstances, instead of being +victor; one who will allow the planets to rule her instead of her ruling the +planets. Where Saturn is afflicted in the house of limitations, the native +is very gloomy and always looks at the dark side of life, and if he suffers +physically, he is very apt, like the Virgoans, to give in to the disease. +Wherever Saturn, the plant of obstruction, is posited in the horoscopes, we +may look for trouble. In this case we find him in the sign of Virgo, ruling +the small intestines, and in conjunction with the planet Jupiter, which +rules the arterial circulation. Jupiter also has rule over the adrenals. + + +[PAGE 275] THE CIRCULATION + +The secretion of these glands is necessary to give tone to the blood, and +when restricted by Saturn we may expect that the arterial blood will be dis- +turbed. + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 11A ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Scorpio 5 SUN: Taurus 4:45 SATURN: Virgo 16:18R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Scorpio 28 MOON: Pisces 22:58 URANUS: Gemini 14:07 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 18 MERCURY: Aries 22:25 NEPTUNE: Aries 2:33 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Capricorn 7:33 VENUS: Pisces 19:17 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Aquarius 21 MARS: Aquarius 14:23 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Aries 3 JUPITER: Virgo 18:01R ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + But we do not judge by Saturn and his influence alone. We find the +planet Venus, ruling the venous blood, in conjunction with the moon, which +has rule over the synovial fluids, the lubricants of the body. Venus and +the moon are in opposition to Jupiter and Saturn. What would be the effect + + +[PAGE 276] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +upon the body of the afflictions of the above four plants? Due to the re- +stricting influence of Saturn we may expect trouble with the arterial circu- +lation. With the venous blood also restricted there is no freedom to the +blood flow, and the effect is the same as that of a stagnant stream of water +which becomes muddy and full of poisonous weeds. We may expect the blood to +become polluted and stagnant. + + We extract a certain amount of minerals from our food, which while we are +children can all be utilized to build bone; but after we have reached our +full stature and the body can use little of this mineral matter for its +growth, if taken in excess it then deposits in the joints and blood stream, +clinging to the surface of the little blood vessels in the same manner that +it does on the inside of a teakettle. If the circulation is good and the +blood has freedom to flow through the arteries and veins in a natural man- +ner, this deposit is very slight; but in old age or when circulation is im- +paired, this mineral is deposited in the blood and causes what is commonly +known as sclerosis or hardening of the arteries. In this case the walls of +the blood vessels are covered with a deposit of hard mineral substance, con- +sequently the blood flow is impeded; the muscles and joints become stiff and +sore, and gradually as this condition becomes chronic the person loses the +use of arms and limbs and chronic invalidism is the result. + + In this horoscope we find both Jupiter and Saturn posited in Virgo, + + +[PAGE 277] THE CIRCULATION + +ruling the small intestine. This small tube, although it is between 20 and +25 feet in length, is coiled in a small space in the abdominal region. It +is lined with mucous membrane and small tongue-like vessels that assist in +digesting and absorbing the food elements, afterwards distributing various +minerals extracted from the food into the white and red fluids of the body. +If the mucous membrane and these villi of the intestines are obstructed by +Saturn, as in the case of this woman whose moon is also opposed by this +afflicter, then the secretion of lymph and chyle, the white fluids of the +body, is obstructed, and in addition, the blood receives little nourishment. + + The woman suffers greatly from palpitation of the heart, headaches, high +blood pressure, and a constant pain in back and limbs. When the blood has +become sluggish and filled with ash it stands to reason that the heart must +suffer, for when through undue excitement or anger an excess of blood is +drawn to the heart and the clogged condition of the blood vessels prevents +it from freely leaving this central station, palpitation, high blood pres- +sure, rush of blood to the head, and various other afflictions naturally re- +sult. + + Now, what can we give as a remedy for such a condition? First of all we +would advise a simple and very light diet with very little starch, less +sugar, but more of raw onion, lettuce, spinach, etc. Always keep the bowels +free, and give the body a dry rub with a pair of bath mitts each morning +onarising and at night before going to bed. Unfortunately, a woman with the + + +[PAGE 278] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +sun aspected, as in this case, except by a semi-sextile to Neptune, and with +afflicting planets in Virgo and Pisces will not make the effort to get well. +It is so much less trouble to drift into invalidism. + + NO. 11B.--SLUGGISH CIRCULATION AND CATARACTS + + Female, born April 9, 1851, 1:58 A.M. + + We first judge as usual the mentality of our patient. Aries, the sign of +the head, has more planets than any other, and two of these are malefics. +Even if this were all it would be unfortunate and an indication of unfavor- +able characteristics, but the affliction of Saturn in Aries to the sun, +moon, Mercury, Uranus, and Jupiter tell us this is a subtle and +untrustworthy person, who is sadly indifferent to moral obligations of truth +and justice. Nor is it to be wondered at that such pronounced mental char- +acteristics should produce a marked effect upon the bodily functions, espe- +cially as the afflictions are all from cardinal signs. + + Saturn, the planet of obstruction, makes the native subtle and cautious + + +[PAGE 279] THE CIRCULATION + +mentally by his conjunction with Mercury and square to the moon, and also +protects her from being "found out." This same configuration obstructs the +flow of nerve force, and thus causes a clogging of both the voluntary and +sympathetic nervous systems, which are ruled by Mercury and the moon + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 11B ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Scorpio 19 SUN: Aries 18:50 SATURN: Aries 23:21 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 11 MOON: Cancer 18:56 URANUS: Aries 29:41 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Capricorn 1 MERCURY: Aries 26:53 NEPTUNE: Pisces 8:13 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Capricorn 24:06 VENUS: Pisces 6:18 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Pisces 11 MARS: Pisces 17:07 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Aries 21 JUPITER: Libra 18:00R ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +respectively. Saturn's principal field of activity will be found in the +pneumogastric nerve, which is normally saturnine and suppressive in its ac- +tion upon the heart, stomach, and other vital organs. The conjunction of + + +[PAGE 280] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Saturn with the sun is aggravated by the fact that they are in parallel, +situated in the first cardinal sign, Aries, ruling the head, square to the +moon in the second cardinal sign, Cancer, which rules the stomach, and in +opposition to Jupiter in the third cardinal sign, Libra, which rules the +kidneys. Were it not for the trine of Mars to the moon and the placement of +the sun in its exaltation sign, Aries, it would be difficult for life to be +sustained in this severely afflicted nativity. + + This person is afflicted with sluggish circulation, indigestion, and ner- +vous constipation on account of the planetary afflictions mentioned, still +this is far from the worst trouble. The conjunction of the planets in Ar- +ies, the head, and their opposition to Jupiter, which rules the arterial +circulation, show plainly how the nerves and blood vessels are clogged in +that most important part of the body, the head. As a consequence there is a +dearth of material with which to build up the various organs, and an accumu- +lation of waste. We all know that a bad stomach reacts on the eyes, and +when we consider the effect of the sun and Saturn in Aries square to the +moon in Cancer, we see that it is small wonder that both eyes are afflicted +with the saturnine obstruction known as cataract. + + A Taurus healer would be best fitted to handle this case, and it should +be made very, very plain to the patient that frankness and strict adherence +to truth are an absolute necessity for recovery. Even if resented at first, + + +[PAGE 281] THE CIRCULATION + +a kindly statement of the fact of the opposite fault and its effects will +probably bring a change. A religious attitude of mind will loosen the ten- +sion of nerves, allowing the bodily functions greater freedom. Uncooked +food should be given in as large a measure as the patient will allow, for +its ether is necessary to build up the nerves. Onions are prime builders, +and pineapple is unrivaled as a digestive stimulant. But in this case +physical factors, though of vital importance, pale into insignificance in +comparison with the benefit that will be derived from a proper appreciation +of the moral factors that have caused the disease, and a realization of the +imperative necessity of altering the trend of mind before any permanent re- +lief can be experienced. Nor should the healer despair and feel that this +is a case analogous to that of the leopard changing its spots, for the af- +flictions are from cardinal signs and therefore movable. It requires +thought and energy to plan how to deceive successfully, and this energy if +turned to good, will be a factor of equal power in bringing the light of +truth into the patient's life and letting it shine for others. + + (The above was the diagnosis of this case in 1915. The outcome in 1919 +is given in 2BX, page 94--EDITOR.) + + +[PAGE 282] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 11D.--VARICOSE VEINS + + Female, born January 17, 1875, 7:00 A.M. + + This woman has the Saturnian sign of Capricorn on the Ascendant, with the +life ruler, Saturn, in Aquarius where this planet is at home and most power- +ful. Being in the first house, in an angle, and in a fixed sign we may look +to Saturn as having the most powerful influence on the life as well as the +health of the native. + + We find that the obstructing Saturn is in square aspect to the inflamma- +tory Mars. This last named plant is on the cusp of the Midheaven and also +in an angle; it is in its own sign of Scorpio where it is powerful. Mars is +square to the spasmodic Uranus, which is in the sign of its fall, the fixed +sign of Leo, and also angular in the seventh house. Consequently, these +three malefics so powerfully situated in fixed signs and in the angles will +be very difficult to overcome. + + Mars in the Midheaven will dominate the actions of this woman, and it be- +ing square to the restless Uranus will incline toward excessive social ac- +tivity. With the Capricorn egotism enhanced by the sun and Mercury in the +first house in Capricorn, square to Jupiter and Neptune, the native would +aspire to shine in society. Especially would this be true with Venus in the +active sign of Sagittarius and in the eleventh house, ruling friends. With +Venus sextile to saturn she would aim to lead in games and social affairs, + + +[PAGE 283] THE CIRCULATION + +into which she would enter with all the impulse of the Mars-Uranus nature. + + Capricorn people are not very robust, and with the sun and Mercury on the +Ascendant in Capricorn afflicted by the square of Jupiter and Neptune, both + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 11D ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Scorpio 14 SUN: Capricorn 26:54 SATURN: Aquarius 14:26] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 4 MOON: Taurus 29:35 URANUS: Leo 13:56R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 20 MERCURY: Capricorn 28:07 NEPTUNE: Aries 28:04R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Capricorn 7:32 VENUS: Sagitt. 15:34 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Pisces 0 MARS: Scorpio 15:25 Aries 21:48 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Aries 16 JUPITER: Scorpio 0:22 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Libra 21:48 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +of these last named planets being in martial signs, giving impulse, the na- +tive would be very apt to dissipate her strength, the result being a +physical break in the weakest part. The greatest afflictions in this horo- +scope are found in the region of the knees, Capricorn, and the lower limbs, + + +[PAGE 284] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Aquarius, causing enlargement of the veins. Varices are caused by interfer- +ences in the Venus circulation resulting from overtaxing the muscles or +nerves of certain parts of the body. + + Venus being the best aspected planet and free from afflictions in the +sign of sports, Sagittarius, in the eleventh house, friends, trine to Uranus +and sextile to Saturn, and Mars, being prominent in the Midheaven, indicate +that the patient was an enthusiast in games; also in the entertainment of +friends, for the moon is well aspected by the sun and Mercury and is in the +Venus sign of Taurus in the 4th house, indicating the home, where the native +would be lavish in her entertainments. The consequent exertion would put a +heavy strain upon the heart. Uranus in Leo, square to Mars, and opposition +Saturn indicates organic heart trouble, and causes a spasmodic gushing of +blood through the aorta. Interference with the natural flow of blood +through the heart will cause a disturbance in the veins in other afflicted +parts of the body, as in this case where we find enlarged veins in the lower +limbs. + + This woman called upon our Healing Department for help in September, +1920, while under the care of the doctors in a hospital, after having had a +second operation for varicose veins. At that time the progressed Venus had +reached a conjunction with the radical sun, and the progressed moon was also +in that part of the horoscope. The transiting sun, Mercury, and Saturn were + + +[PAGE 285] THE CIRCULATION + +in conjunction in Virgo, the sign of health. The transiting Saturn was +square to the radical Venus, which brought on the last attack and was re- +sponsible for her submitting to the operation. + + Ordinary cases of varicose veins may be relieved and even cured by ban- +dages, and by a removal of strain so that the circulation of the blood may +become more normal. When the knife is used, however, as in this case, heal- +ing is interfered with. + + +[PAGE 286] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 11E.--RESTRICTED CIRCULATION + + Female, born April 13th, 1862. + + This horoscope is minus the hour of birth, but as the given time of birth +is frequently unreliable on account of the difference in time and clocks, +unless we have some data by which we can correct the horoscope, we are +nearly as safe in using a flat figure--diagnosing from the planets and signs +only. A very safe diagnosis may be arrived at by this method. Only when it +is necessary to watch for the crisis in order to help the patient pass +through a critical period is it necessary that we have the hour of birth. +This is then required in order to observe the progressed moon and the as- +pects of the transiting planets. + + We here find Saturn, the malefic, conjunction Jupiter in the sign of +Virgo. Virgo is the natural sixth house sign and therefore rules health and +sickness to a very great extent. We find that people who are ruled largely +by Virgo are prone to think much of their health and often become hypochon- +driacs. When several planets are found in this sign, we may trace the cause +of disease to this part of the horoscope. The small intestine is the organ +of distribution of the nutriment, where much of the food must go to be dis- +tributed to the various parts of the body through the blood. The intestines +are to the body what the commissary department is to the army. Therefore + + +[PAGE 287] THE CIRCULATION + +Virgo necessarily is a most vital part of the horoscope. + + Jupiter is the planet ruling the arterial circulation and the glycogen of +the liver, and Saturn has rule over the gall bladder and the pneumogastric + + ------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 11E [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Aries 23:17 SATURN: Virgo 16:52R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Libra 7:43 URANUS: Gemini 13:33 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Aries 1:44 NEPTUNE: Aries 2:08 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Pisces 9:53 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Aquarius 6:21 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Virgo 18:55R ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------- + +nerve, the most important of all nerves, which sends its branches to the +three most important parts of the body, namely the heart, stomach, and +lungs. Here they affect the distribution and digestion of the food in the +small intestine due to the sluggishness of the gall bladder in furnishing + + +[PAGE 288] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +the needed amount of bile and through impaired peristalsis. As a conse- +quence the tiny blood vessels which are distributed over the inner intesti- +nal surface are robbed of their nutriment, and the blood stream becomes de- +ficient and sluggish causing anemia. + + Especially is this true since we also find Venus, which rules the venous +blood, afflicted by a square of Uranus, these planets being in the common +signs of Pisces and Gemini. Uranus is also squaring Saturn and Jupiter. +This will interfere with the oxygenation of the blood as it passes through +the capillaries of the lungs. + + Before middle life these afflictions may express themselves through +colds, pneumonia, and painful menstruation. But after middle life when the +body begins to feel the strain of years, these afflictions will cause ane- +mia, arterio-sclerosis, and high blood pressure. The patient suffered from +the latter three diseases, and at the age of sixty was threatened with pa- +ralysis of the right side. She also had a dizzy, reeling feeling in the +head. + + A healer should advise such a patient against stimulants such as coffee, +tea, etc. Stimulation by friction of the skin would be of great benefit, +using a pair of bath gloves night and morning and rubbing the body until it +glows. Keep the mind free from excitement and worry, adopt a light and +carefully selected vegetarian diet, and drink plenty of pure water between +meals. + + +[PAGE 289] THE CIRCULATION + + NO. 11F.--PERNICIOUS ANEMIA + + Female, born Aug. 12, 1886, 5:00 A.M. + + We are using this chart to impress upon the mind of the student the great +necessity of advising patients as to the proper diet. Ninety per cent of +those who are suffering and broken down in health are ill, not on account of +the lack of food but because of wrong combinations or too much food. + + This young woman has the fixed sign of Leo on the Ascendant, and the sun, +the ruler, on the cusp of the first house. We find the obstructive Saturn +in his detriment in the sign of Cancer, which rules the stomach. Venus, the +planet ruling the venous circulation, is in conjunction with Saturn and in +opposition to the negative moon, which is in its detriment in the Saturnian +sign of Capricorn. Since Saturn and the moon are both in their detriment +and in mutual reception, the power for evil of these two planets is greatly +increased. The opposition occurs from the sixth house, that of sickness, to +the twelfth house, that of hospitals, confinement, and self-undoing. We can +well see how this poor soul has been responsible for her complete breakdown. +She has for years been an invalid in bed, not able to use her limbs. The +doctors have stated her disease to be arteriosclerosis. + + We find that Jupiter, ruling the arterial circulation, is afflicted by +the conjunction of Uranus in Libra, and that Venus, ruling the venous + + +[PAGE 290] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +circulation is square to Mars, these two latter planets being respectively +in the sign of the kidneys and the stomach. Mars is also square to the moon +in the house of sickness, the sixth. With this planetary afflictions to the + + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 11F ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Taurus 8 SUN: Leo 19:36 SATURN: Cancer 16:56 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Gemini 15 MOON: Capricorn 24:23 URANUS: Libra 5:13 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 20 MERCURY: Leo 26:36R NEPTUNE: Taurus 27:45 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Leo 18:55 VENUS: Cancer 21:07 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 10 MARS: Libra 23:53 Virgo 8:05 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Libra 6 JUPITER: Libra 4:26 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Pisces 8:05 ] + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + +stomach there is a tendency to overeat. The opposition of Venus and the +moon gives a great desire for liquids and sweets, and Saturn gives an abnor- +mal desire for unnatural foods and an excess of pastries, starches, etc. +This patient's body was like a stove that is filled with paper: when the + + +[PAGE 291] THE CIRCULATION + +paper is burned it makes a terrific heat, but the heat is not lasting, and +the stove is quickly filled with ashes. + + With Saturn in Cancer, there is a lack of gastric juice in the stomach. +Leo is rising and the sun and Mercury are on the Ascendant in sextile to +Mars. These positions give an unusual amount of energy but also the ten- +dency to dissipate it. When the body has become worn out and tired, the +stomach cannot digest the food; then if too much food is partaken of, decom- +position takes place, especially if the meal is made up of inharmonious food +elements. In the present case the poor weak stomach has been stuffed to +overflowing with food, and then cold water or hot tea with sugar has been +poured in after it. What was the result? Fermentation took place and the +food turned to poison instead of nourishing the body. This poor young woman +at the age of twenty-four was an invalid. Her body was filled with ash, and +with both the venous and arterial circulation impaired the blood could not +remain pure. She dissipated her energy, could not use moderation. She went +to excess in food, play, and mental work, and the result was that the body +could not throw out the ash accumulated from the excessive and ill-balanced +food. + + If she had come in contact with a doctor who would have placed her on a +rational and carefully chosen diet and who would not have given her poison- +ous narcotics, she could have been saved much suffering. Man often starves +in the midst of plenty, overloading his stomach while the body is really + + +[PAGE 292] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +starving from non-assimilation, as was the case with this young woman. She +lived to satisfy her appetite, but did not give her body blood-making food. +Her joints became stiff, her body ached, and in a few years she became a +confirmed invalid and is now confined in a hospital. If she were taken to a +hospital where scientific dietary treatment is given, she could yet become a +useful woman. + + When we meet such poor unfortunate ones, it behooves us who aspire to be- +come helpers and healers of humanity to use our efforts to guide them in the +right direction. + + +[PAGE 293] THE CIRCULATION + + + NO. 11G.--RHEUMATISM AND IMPURE BLOOD + + Male, born August 14, 1912, 1:30 P.M. + + We are using here the horoscope of a young man with the martial sign of +Scorpio on the Ascendant, and with the life ruler, Mars, in the 10th house, +sextile to the Ascendant and in conjunction with the watery moon. Where we +find the close conjunction of a hot and inflammatory planet with a cold and +watery one as in this case, and especially in the sign of Virgo, which is +the natural sixth house sign governing sickness, we may expect that it is a +starting point of illness, for fire and water create steam. + + Virgo is the sign which has rule over the small intestine, the intestines +being among the principal organs for the digestion, assimilation, and dis- +tribution of the food. The inflammatory Mars in this sign causes inflamma- +tion of the intestines. As Mars is in conjunction with the moon, the latter +having rule over the lymphatics, we may expect that the lymphatic vessels +and glands will be disturbed in their functions. They are carriers between +the cells of the body and the blood. Not only do they carry some of the nu- +triment of the food to the blood, but they also act as cleansers, taking up +a part of the waste matter and carrying it where it may be eliminated from +the body through the excretory organs. When the moon is afflicted by the +inflammatory Mars in Virgo, we may expect the lymphatics to be inflamed and + + +[PAGE 294] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +not able to function so as to help the blood in its work. The moon has rule +over the chyle, or white fluid which has been extracted from the food +through the villi of the small intestine. This intermingles with the lymph +and passes on into the circulation. These white fluids, + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 11G ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Virgo 7 SUN: Leo 21:33 SATURN: Gemini 3:09 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Libra 9 MOON: Virgo 18:50 URANUS: Aquarius 00:40R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Scorpio 4 MERCURY: Virgo 4:40R NEPTUNE: Cancer 24:34 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Scorpio 23:55 VENUS: Virgo 2:31 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Sagitt. 25 MARS: Virgo 17:54 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Aquarius 0 JUPITER: Sagitt. 5:46 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +which are so necessary in the work of feeding the blood, are obstructed in +the case of this boy. + + We have still another affliction which interferes with the purification +of the blood stream. Saturn the obstructor is in the sign of Gemini. + + +[PAGE 295] THE CIRCULATION + +Gemini has rule over the lungs. Saturn is in opposition to the planet Jupi- +ter, ruling the arterial circulation, and square to Venus, which has rule +over the venous blood. The lungs are the bellows of the body. Into the +tiny capillaries of these organs the pure air passes and the blood is thus +oxygenated and aerated. The pure oxygen is drawn into the air cells of the +lungs, the poisonous carbon-dioxide is exhaled, and thus the body is freed +from a large portion of its poisons. Whenever we find Saturn in the sign of +Gemini, especially if this planet is afflicted by both Jupiter and Venus, we +may expect the blood to be unhealthy and impure for Saturn, the obstructor, +is stationed at the door of the respiratory system, partially shutting out +the air from without and also partially keeping the carbon-dioxide within +the body. + + With these planetary afflictions we may look from a health point of view +for impure and anemic blood; also a tendency to intestinal inflammation +which will interfere with the proper assimilation and distribution of the +food. This boy at the age of eight years suffered from blotches and erup- +tions of the skin. As the moon has rule over the synovial fluid, we may see +how the conjunction of Mars with the moon caused rheumatism and fallen +arches, an indication that Mars burned up the oils which were necessary to +keep the joints of his legs and feet in order. + + What a pity that the parents were not familiar with the science of as- +trology! If they had been, they would have known of these planetary + + + +[PAGE 296] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +afflictions and by a careful diet, plenty of fresh air, and training in deep +breathing this boy could have been saved from much suffering. From all in- +dications tuberculosis of the lungs may set in should he neglect his health +by exposure to cold, for with Saturn afflicted by both Venus and Jupiter +from common signs, he has naturally developed a habit of shallow breathing, +which will tend to induce lung trouble. + + +[PAGE 297] THE CIRCULATION + + NO. 11H--I: RHEUMATISM + + We will use two horoscopes in order to show how planets placed in differ- +ent signs will bring about the same symptoms, the real causes of the disease +being different. + + NO. 11H. + + The native, a woman, was born on March 16, 1865, no hour given. We find +the fiery, discordant Mars conjunction the restless Uranus in the nervous +sign of Gemini (the arms and shoulders), and square to the life-giving sun +and Mercury, which are in conjunction in the watery sign of Pisces. Mars +and Uranus are also in opposition to Jupiter, which rules the arterial +blood, and Jupiter is square to the sun and Mercury. + + This patient has always had some trouble with obstructed circulation, es- +pecially in the arms and legs. Afflictions often work in squares and op- +positions. Illustrating this we find the assimilation in the small intes- +tine much impaired. Venus, the planet ruling the venous circulation, is in +opposition to the moon, which we find in the martial sign of Scorpio, ruling +elimination, the anus, urethra, and the generative organs. Saturn, the +planet of obstruction, is found in Libra, the kidneys, and being placed in +the last degree of this sign he obstructs elimination through the ureters, + + +[PAGE 298] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +the small ducts carrying the urine from the kidneys to the bladder. + + With all the many obstructions in the elimination of waste matter and the +impaired assimilation of food do we wonder that when this woman reached the + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 11H [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Pisces 25:56 SATURN: Libra 29:14R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Scorpio 9:56 URANUS: Gemini 25:34 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Pisces 24:07 NEPTUNE: Aries 7:34 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Taurus 10:51 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Gemini 22:41 Scorpio 9:56 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Sagitt. 27:39 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Taurus 2:07 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + +age of menopause the body suffered and the blood became so sluggish and im- +pure that rheumatism was the result? Her body was stiff, she found it al- +most impossible to move about, and she suffered especially with the arms and +shoulders. + + +[PAGE 299] THE CIRCULATION + + + NO. 11 I. + + The native, a man, was born December 6, 1870, about 7:30 P.M. There are +four planets in the sign Sagittarius in the 5th house, ruling pleasures and + + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 11I ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aries 8 SUN: Sagitt. 14:30 SATURN: Sagitt. 29:02 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Taurus 19 MOON: Taurus 29:59 URANUS: Cancer 26:08R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 4 MERCURY: Sagitt. 22:14 NEPTUNE: Aries 19:13R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Leo 5:30 VENUS: Sagitt. 14:07 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Leo 21 MARS: Virgo 20:03 Cancer 11:23 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 10 JUPITER: Gemini 22:19R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Capricorn 11:23 ] + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +appetites. The sun, ruler of the Ascendant, and Venus the ruler of the +house of friends, are in conjunction and square to the impulsive and discor- +dant Mars, showing that this man is fond of a good time. His love for wine + + +[PAGE 300] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +and women has been his undoing. He has indulged the appetites, and he is +surely paying the price of such living. + + Jupiter in the nervous sign of Gemini afflicted by the opposition of the +obstructing Saturn and nervous Mercury, also square to the inflammatory Mars +in the sign of Virgo, the small intestine, are indications similar to those +in horoscope 11H. This man suffered from numbness in the arms and hands. +The great strain put upon his system and the abuse of the poor stomach +caused neuritis, as both the venous and arterial circulations are afflicted +from the signs ruling the nervous system. + + The instruction given to both these patients would be very similar, +namely a simple vegetarian diet, elimination of meat, alcoholic drinks, and +highly seasoned foods, using plentifully green, raw vegetables, especially +lettuce and onions. The onion is a wonderful nerve tonic and body scaven- +ger. If taken at night in the form of a sandwich when the stomach is empty +it will purify the kidneys and liver and build up the nervous system. A +good brisk massage with a pair of bath gloves night and morning to keep the +pores of the skin open and stimulate the circulation is recommended. In +case 11H the bowels and kidneys should be kept free from clogging, and food +should be taken that works directly upon the liver and kidneys. + + +[PAGE 301] LEPROSY + + CHAPTER XXIII + + LEPROSY + + NO. 12A--B: LEPROSY + + Male, born September 11, 1885, at 1:00 A.M. + + The writer feels that horoscopes 12A and 12B, those of two brothers, will +give students a most helpful lesson in the diagnosing of disease, and show +that though the underlying causes and the outward appearances of both cases +are of a similar nature, still these cases are entirely different when sci- +entifically diagnosed. + + In both cases the relatives called upon Headquarters for healing of the +dread disease with which these brothers were afflicted. + + In horoscope 12A we find the watery sign of Cancer on the Ascendant, with +the obstructive Saturn near the cusp and square to Uranus in Libra. Here we +have two planets which both by position and aspect indicate eruptive blood +disease, and show the two stations where the poison is generated, namely, +Cancer, the stomach, and Libra, the kidneys. + + +[PAGE 302] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + Saturn in Cancer interferes with the peristaltic action which is so nec- +essary in the churning and the breaking up of food in the stomach. Saturn +has a tendency also to dry up the body fluids, and when in Cancer, which is + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 12A ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aries 6 SUN: Virgo 18:38 SATURN: Cancer 7:01 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Taurus 9 MOON: Libra 19:28 URANUS: Libra 2:23 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Gemini 10 MERCURY: Virgo 4:54R NEPTUNE: Taurus 25:33R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Cancer 9:26 VENUS: Libra 22:33 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Leo 6 MARS: Cancer 26:31 Virgo 25:50 (?) ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 4 JUPITER: Virgo 16:52 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Aries 25:49 (?) ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +the sign of its fall, this planet is weak and therefore most evil. Uranus +is the higher octave of Venus, and as Venus rules the moral nature on the +lower planes, so does Uranus rule or balance the morals on the higher +planes. Uranus in the Venus sign of Libra afflicted by a square of Saturn +would indicate that a lack of moral balance was largely responsible for the + + +[PAGE 303] LEPROSY + +physical ailment of the patient. + + Uranus has rule over the pituitary body or hypophysis. This little or- +gan, which is so wonderfully protected in a cradle-like bone within the +brain, consists of two small lobes, the anterior and posterior. The ante- +rior lobe has rule over the sex or creative force and over nerve fibre, +while the posterior lobe contributes to and controls the circulation of the +fluids of the body, especially the renal circulation. + + With Uranus is Libra, which has rule over the kidneys, square to the ob- +structive Saturn and both in cardinal signs, also with the +impulsive-cardinal signs on all the angles, we may expect excesses. With +Mars, the planet of dynamic energy and impulse, in the first house in Can- +cer, square to the planets of pleasure and self-indulgence, Venus and the +Moon, (Venus being strongly situated in its own sign of Libra and the moon +being the ruler of the Ascendant, square to its own house,) we may conclude +that this man through his excessive desires indulged in sensual pleasure to +such an extent that the functions of the pituitary body became impaired. As +the pituitary body regulates the assimilation of food, and as Saturn and +Mars are afflicted in the sign of the stomach, (Saturn in Cancer gives ab- +normal tastes and appetites, and Mars in Cancer indicates a gourmand) we may +expect that this man would be apt to make a cesspool of his body. + + With Venus and the moon in conjunction and square to Mars in Cancer on +the Ascendant, and with Saturn on the cusp of the Ascendant, we may expect + + +[PAGE 304] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +this person to be very untidy and careless. He is one who would neglect +cleanliness of the body and of his surroundings, also the elimination of +toxic poisons through the colon, kidneys, and skin. This would in time fill +the body with poisons which would ultimately cause eruption. + + The skin would become dry and dead, for the pituitary body with the as- +sistance of the thyroid gland feeds the skin. When these glands are tired +and depleted by sensual excesses, the conditions of the skin as well as the +general circulation of the body are impaired, dulling the mentality and +causing the slowing up of energies of mind and body. In this case the re- +sult was leprosy. + + This dread disease first made its appearance after the Flood, when veg- +etation was scarce and Noah and his family were forced to revert to the use +of meat for food. This together with excesses and degeneracy relating to +the generative function was responsible for this disease being of such com- +mon occurrence among the ancient Israelites and Egyptians. This ailment was +classed as unclean, and those afflicted with it were ostracized and excluded +from the church. + + Truly it is a disease caused by unsanitary and unclean habits of living, +and only those who, as in the case of this man, are gluttonous and careless +in their personal habits are afflicted with it. We will use horoscope 12B +to illustrate another phase of this disease. + + +[PAGE 305] LEPROSY + + NO. 12B. + + Male, born March 19, 1896, at 7:50 P.M. + + During the ancient Israelitic times the Jews looked upon leprosy as a pe- +culiar disease sent to man by God. It was recognized as a mark of the dis- +pleasure of God for some great sin committed, and it was considered a dread- +ful moral disease. The afflicted ones were separated from others by the +priests, who used ceremonies of purification for the healing of those who +had this unclean disorder. + + We see in this horoscope indications of moral depravity and uncleanli- +ness: We find Saturn retrograde in Scorpio, the sign which rules the secret +parts, the generative organs. Saturn is square to Mars, which is in +Aquarius, the home of Saturn. Uranus is also retrograde and in the sign of +Scorpio. These three planets, Saturn, Uranus, and Mars, are in mutual re- +ception, that is, Mars is in a Saturn sign and Saturn and Uranus are in a +Martian sign. Uranus is parallel to Mars and opposition the moon, both +Uranus and the moon being in their exaltation signs and in angles and fixed +signs. These planets are thus strong both by position and sign; therefore +they are also most powerful in their afflictions. When Saturn afflicts Mars +from Scorpio and Uranus afflicts Mars and the moon from this sign of sex, we +may at once diagnose the case as venereal disease, but it was of such a ma- +lignant nature that it was believed to be leprosy, for all outward symptoms + + +[PAGE 306] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +indicated leprosy. + + Certain forms of venereal disease go hand in hand with the dread disease + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 12B ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 23 SUN: Pisces 29:30 SATURN: Scorpio 18:43R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 23 MOON: Taurus 25:54 URANUS: Scorpio 24:21R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 25 MERCURY: Pisces 5:56 NEPTUNE: Gemini 15:24 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Libra 25:28 VENUS: Pisces 0:30 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 26 MARS: Aquarius 12:12 Pisces 2:22 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 24 JUPITER: Cancer 29:08R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Virgo 2:22 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +of leprosy; when the blood stream is poisoned, the glandular system is also +affected, which in turn interferes with the metabolism of the entire body. + + The Jews in olden times used no medicine to cure this unclean disease. +They claimed that it withered all desire for grace and spiritual life; + + +[PAGE 307] LEPROSY + +therefore the only cure was prayer and spiritual purification. + + In Matthew, 8th chapter, we find: "When he (Christ) was come down from +the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And, behold, there came a +leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me +clean. And Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, I will; be +thou clean. An immediately his leprosy was cleansed." + + +[PAGE 308] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XXIV + + PARALYSIS + + NO. 13A.--PARALYSIS + + Female, born August 22, 1899, 1:30 P.M. + + Paralysis of the limbs and arms is the affliction of this young woman. +We note first that this condition is indicated by the moon, which is the +particular significator of health for a woman. She is in Pisces which rules +the feet, and square to Saturn, the planet of obstruction, placed in Sagit- +tarius, the sign ruling the hips. Thus the whole region of the lower limbs +is afflicted. The moon is also square to Neptune and the saturnine Dragon's +Tail, which are placed in Gemini, the sign ruling the arms. The life-giving +sun is square to Uranus in Sagittarius and to the Ascendant, and these +afflictions are all the more powerful because the sun and moon are both an- +gular, one near the Midheaven, the other close to the Nadir. Thus there are +strong tendencies to trouble with the arms and limbs, dropsy, paralysis, and +wasting disease shown in the natal horoscope. + + +[PAGE 309] PARALYSIS + + These conditions did not become manifest until the patient was eighteen +years of age. At that time the progressed sun had reached Virgo 16-33; it +was then square to the radical Saturn. This brought out the latent weakness +and resulted in a gradual loss of control of the limbs, which left her + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 13A ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Virgo 22 SUN: Leo 29:44 SATURN: Sagitt. 17:04R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Libra 21 MOON: Pisces 21:46 URANUS: Sagitt. 4:02 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Scorpio 15 MERCURY: Leo 23:25R NEPTUNE: Gemini 26:38 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 3:47 VENUS: Leo 22:44 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Capricorn 6 MARS: Libra 10:38 Sagitt. 26:07 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Aquarius 15 JUPITER: Scorpio 4:39 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Gemini 26:07 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +prostrate. Neptune conjunction the saturnine Dragon's Tail in Gemini, the +sign ruling the lungs, gives an asthmatic condition and the afflicted moon +in Pisces gives a tendency to dropsical swellings, which have also +manifested. Thus for the time being she is in the grip of what seems an + + +[PAGE 310] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +incurable condition. But it is noteworthy that the afflictions are all from +common signs, and this gives the astrologer a ray of hope that when the sun +has passed the critical points the affliction may be cured and she may re- +gain the use of both arms and limbs even if not in full measure. + + In the meantime every effort should be made to promote circulation by the +manipulation and massage of the limbs and arms. A diet of fresh milk, which +contains much ether, and uncooked vegetables that will give her mineral +salts is sure to be of great benefit in helping to keep the limbs in shape +and preventing atrophy so that when the present planetary afflictions have +passed, the sextile of the radical sun and Jupiter may restore circulation. +This patient can best be treated by a healer having Aries or Leo rising and +whose Saturn is not in any place included in the degrees of the patient's +1st or 6th houses. + + +[PAGE 311] PARALYSIS + + NO. 13B.--PARALYSIS AND HARDENING OF THE ARTERIES + + + Male, born February 9, 1855, 9:00 P.M. + + We note first the mental qualities of the patient. The moon is conjoined +with the Dragon's Tail, a saturnine influence, and Mercury is square to Sat- +urn. Thus the two significators of mind are afflicted by an obstructive and +melancholy influence, which also operates upon Mars and Venus through the +square of Saturn. Saturn moreover is placed in the 9th house in the sign of +the lower mind, Gemini. Thus there is very little joy for this person; all +the world looks blue and gloomy to him; he meets everybody and everything +with gloom and distrust, and is always afraid to make a move in any direc- +tion for fear something is going to happen to him. + + This mental attitude is at the bottom of all his trouble, for no one who +carries such thoughts of fear and worry can ever be healthy. The more +cheerful and optimistic we are, the more we act as magnets for good things; +we become what people call "lucky." Conversely, such an attitude as this +person has is bound to bring misfortune and trouble. He thinks he has cause +to be worried, and upon the surface it may appear so, but the trouble is +that he mistakes effect for cause. The first work of a healer should be to +show him this fatal error and teach him to smile or at least to try to +smile. + + +[PAGE 312] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + Just as cheer promotes circulation and elimination, keeping the body in +health, so worry produces concretion by hindering the elimination of waste +matter, and therefore a diseased condition of the body follows. Three +places in this patient's body are affected by the saturnine influence. In + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 13B ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 4 SUN: Aquarius 20:49 SATURN: Gemini 8:55 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 7 MOON: Scorpio 20:21 URANUS: Taurus 12:55 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 8 MERCURY: Pisces 5:34 NEPTUNE: Pisces 14:40 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 3:29 VENUS: Pisces 4:48 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 0 MARS: Pisces 3:49 Taurus 17:20 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 0 JUPITER: Aquarius 12:17 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Scorpio 17:20 ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +the first place Saturn is in the sign Gemini, which governs the lungs; he is +square Mercury, Mars, and Venus, and thus he obstructs the expulsion of car- +bonic acid and prevents the proper oxygenation of the blood. The moon has +particular rule over the fluids of the body. She is in the latter part of + + +[PAGE 313] PARALYSIS + +Scorpio in conjunction with the Dragon's Tail. Thus we may look for ob- +struction of the urine and for concretions in the bladder. The sun and Ju- +piter are in Aquarius. Uranus squares Jupiter and the moon squares the sun. +The effects of this is felt in the opposite sign Leo, which rules the heart. +The sun is also parallel to Uranus, and therefore the heart action is very +uncertain, the circulation poor, the blood poisoned and heavy with waste +matter that cannot be eliminated through the regular channels. So this +clings to the walls of the arteries, and in the course of years the condi- +tion known as hardening of the arteries takes place, and the body becomes +dry and emaciated. + + The horoscope is the clock of destiny which marks the time when tenden- +cies shown at birth are due to materialize. In August, 1910, the moon had +progressed to the conjunction of its radical place. his configuration ex- +cited the moon's radical conjunction with the Dragon's Tail to action, as +well as her square to the radical sun and her opposition to Uranus radical. +Thus the disease which had been prepared for during so many years took a se- +rious turn and commenced to seriously hamper the native. In January, 1912, +the moon progressed to the opposition of Saturn radical and squared Mars and +Mercury, thus enlivening and bringing into action the condition foreshown in +the natal chart. Mars and Mercury govern the nervous system. Mars has rule + + +[PAGE 314] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +over the motor nerves and Mercury over the sensory nerves. The above pro- +gressed affliction obstructed the vital flow along the nerves and paralyzed +the body. + + Jupiter was parallel to the sun's radical place during 1912-14, and the +conjunction of the progressed sun and Mars in January, 1914, served to give +more energy. These influences should have been taken on he wing. The pa- +tient should have outdoor life, on a farm if possible, with a diet in which +buttermilk has a large part, and above all the cultivation of a cheerful at- +titude should be forced. This with manipulation of the spinal nerves would +probably bring life into the paralyzed limbs and might restore a fair mea- +sure of health under good progressed aspects. + + +[PAGE 315] PARALYSIS + + NO. 13C.--FACIAL PARALYSIS + + Female, born April 13, 1912, 9:00 A.M. + + This horoscope is that of a young girl with the watery and cardinal sign +of Cancer on the eastern angle and with the fiery Mars in conjunction with +the Ascendant. Mars is square to Venus and trine to the moon, the moon be- +ing the ruler of the Ascendant. Mars is the ruler of the 6th house, which +has rule over the health; consequently we must look to Mars as the indicator +of health. + + Mars in Cancer afflicted by a square from Venus, and Venus in the martial +sign of Aries, would indicate a gourmand, one who would as a result of too +much rich and highly seasoned food suffer from indigestion or inflammation +of the stomach. + + Neptune in Cancer afflicted by a square from the sun and Mercury would be +apt to give nervous trouble or malnutrition. But this young girl has been +in the very best of health, with the digestive organs in good condition. +The conjunction of Mars with the Ascendant in Cancer and square to Venus has +had little effect upon her health. + + The birth of this child was prepared for under the purest conditions and +in the most careful manner. The parents had prepared for it even before +conception, for they desired to attract to birth an Ego advanced and pure. +During all the prenatal period the mother received the greatest care, and + + +[PAGE 316] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +the child was loved into this physical world by advanced and pure parents. +She was a most wonderful child--healthy, happy, far above the average child +of her years, and superior to other children of her age in mentality. + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 13C ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Pisces 2 SUN: Aries 23:23 SATURN: Taurus 19:35 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aries 5 MOON: Pisces 8:22 URANUS: Aquarius 3:12 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Taurus 20 MERCURY: Aries 26:26R NEPTUNE: Cancer 21:02 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Cancer 2:32 VENUS: Aries 1:21 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Cancer 20 MARS: Cancer 4:30 Aries 21:38 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Leo 9 JUPITER: Sagitt. 15:10R DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ Libra 21:38 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + In the summer of 1922 she was taken with frequent hemorrhages of the nose +and with severe headaches. The best physicians were consulted, who did ev- +erything possible to locate the cause, but to no avail. The facial muscles +of the right side began to relax, and facial paralysis finally set in, + + +[PAGE 317] PARALYSIS + +greatly disfiguring a beautiful face. After trying every available method +to relieve the child, the father and mother took her on a touring trip to +southern California, hoping that the sea coast and lower altitude might re- +live her, which they did to some extent. + + Having read the Rosicrucian books on astrology, and knowing of our +method of healing and diagnosing, they visited Headquarters with the hope +that the writer would be able to diagnose and help them in their trouble. +This hope was realized. As soon as the aura of the child was contacted, the +writer was impelled to lay the child on her face and to run her hand over +the spinal column. Although not an osteopath nor a chiropractor, she found +irregularity in the region of the upper cervical vertebrae, also in the cen- +ter of the dorsal region. + + During this, may we call it intuitional or spiritual, diagnosis the par- +ents were silently watching every move of the writer, exchanging glances +from time to time. When it was mentioned that the spinal column was ir- +regular, the father spoke up, saying, "Oh, her spine is all right." When +asked if she had had an adjustment, he admitted that both he and his wife +were chiropractors and had practiced for almost two years. When asked if +they had not both practiced on the child, they shamefacedly admitted that +they had, with the result that the motor nerves had been over-stimulated. + + +[PAGE 318] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + Through the wonderful keyboard, the spinal column with its thirty-one +spinal nerves, a skillful operator can by manipulation enervate or stimulate +almost any part of the body, while an unskilled one may cause untold suffer- +ing. Such was the case with this beautiful young girl. The parents who had +loved her into existence, who would have sacrificed their very lives for +her, had in ignorance played once too often on her spinal nerves, exciting +them to work overtime, and after the damage had been done, they were not +skilled enough to know what method to use to undo the damage. + + We take the rulers of the 10th and 4th houses to indicate the parents. +Neptune is the ruler of Pisces, which is on the Midheaven, and Mercury the +ruler of Virgo, which is on the cusp of the 4th house. The above two plan- +ets are squaring each other. Mars on the Ascendant indicates accidents, in- +juries, etc. Mars is square to Venus in Aries, the head. The cardinal +signs act upon each other. the parts affected by squares such as from Ar- +ies, the head, to Cancer, the stomach, are in mutual bondage to each other. +While the nerves of the stomach may have been over-stimulated, thereby send- +ing an excess of blood to the head causing the bleeding of the nose, by a +knowledge of proper adjustments a skilled osteopath or chiropractor could in +a few treatments overcome this trouble. The Invisible Helpers of the Rose +Cross, by materializing a hand, can also accomplish the same thing. + + +[PAGE 319] PARALYSIS + + NO. 13D--E: PARALYSIS + + Male, born March 25, 1876, 2:00 A.M. + + We will use for this lesson the horoscopes of a man and woman who have +afflictions in common signs, in order to illustrate why one patient will +succumb to disease and become an invalid when another who has many more af- +flicting planets rises above them and thus becomes able to lead an active +and useful life. + + We will first diagnose horoscope 13D, where we find the common sign of +Sagittarius on the Ascendant with the ruler, Jupiter, retrograde, and in its +own sign in the 11th house, trine to the life-giving sun, but square to the +obstructing Saturn, which is in the sign of Pisces, another common sign. We +find the sun making only good aspects. The moon is square the Ascendant and +in conjunction with the desire body Dragon's Head, which has a Jupiterian +influence, sextile to Mars and Venus, and trine to Jupiter. These con- +figurations should give much vitality and be a strong factor for health in +this horoscope. Now why should a man with so few afflictions have become an +invalid? + + We find only two afflictions which would be detrimental to health; these +are Saturn square Jupiter, and Venus conjunction Mars in Taurus square to +Uranus in Leo. But with the common sign on the Ascendant this man's will + + +[PAGE 320] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +was not strong enough to withstand the temptations shown by Venus conjunc- +tion Mars in Taurus, the larynx (Taurus also represents the generative or- +gans by opposition from Scorpio), and square to Uranus. Dissipation in food +and drink filled the blood with impurities, which impaired the arterial + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 13D ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Scorpio 5 SUN: Aries 4:47 SATURN: Pisces 2:52 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Scorpio 25 MOON: Pisces 25:58 URANUS: Leo 16:14R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 10 MERCURY: Pisces 11:07 NEPTUNE: Taurus 1:45 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 23:36 VENUS: Taurus 16:17 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Aquarius 12 MARS: Taurus 18:11 Pisces 28:53 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Aries 4 JUPITER: Sagitt. 1:54R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Virgo 28:53 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +circulation. Saturn in a common sign, square to Jupiter also in a common +sign, Sagittarius, which has rule over the sacral region, shows that the +fifth lumbar nerve and the sacral nerves were obstructed in their function. +Naturally this interfered with the circulation in that part of the body, + + +[PAGE 321] PARALYSIS + +causing paralysis of the lower limbs. The common sign man naturally follows +the line of least resistance and drifts into invalidism. + + Now horoscope No. 13E, that of a woman, has the fixed sign of Leo rising, +and Mars is on the cusp of the Ascendant, but in this case we find the + + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 13E ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aries 27 SUN: Libra 22:08 SATURN: Sagitt. 3:10 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Gemini 4 MOON: Libra 12:12 URANUS: Cancer 17:26 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 9 MERCURY: Scorpio 16:48 NEPTUNE: Aries 15:44R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Leo 9:02 VENUS: Virgo 7:02 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 0 MARS: Leo 7:15 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 25 JUPITER: Aries 7:26R ] + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + +ruler, the sun, also the moon, both afflicted by the opposition of Neptune +and the square of Uranus. Venus, which has rule over the venous circula- +tion, is in the common sign of Virgo, square to the obstructing Saturn in +Sagittarius, the home of Jupiter, Sagittarius also ruling the sacral region. + + +[PAGE 322] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +A native with the dynamic Mars on the Ascendant in the fixed and impulsive +sign of Leo is full of energy and ambition, and would naturally use up much +strength and through temper and impulse dissipate much of her vitality. +With the circulation restricted in the sacral region by Saturn, why should +this woman not suffer with conditions similar to those of the man in horo- +scope No. 13D? + + In the man's horoscope we find conditions indicating a phlegmatic, men- +tally lazy person. With moon and Mercury in conjunction in Pisces and +sextile to Venus and Mars, and with Jupiter trine sun, everything came to +him without any great effort. Especially was he drawn to 5th, 7th, and 10th +house people--musical, theatrical people and movie actors, who led him into +a life of pleasure. We find the woman in horoscope No. 3E with plenty of +will and ambition, whose desire to heal and help humanity led her to take up +the medical profession. But she had a constant fight to keep her joints +from becoming stiff and sore. With Saturn obstructing the circulation in +the sacral region she suffered greatly with granulated joints of the shoul- +ders, hips and feet. Venus or Jupiter afflicted from common signs gives a +tendency to paralysis of the limbs, but with a fixed sign on the Ascendant +the native will not succumb. Therefore i is most necessary at all times +when diagnosing a disease to observe the rising sign and the aspects of the +sun, moon, and the ruler of the Ascendant. + + One who suffers from such afflictions as the above should make an effort + + +[PAGE 323] PARALYSIS + +to keep the circulation normal by eating very lightly of plain food, exer- +cising plentifully, and with a pair of bath mitts rubbing the limbs briskly +morning and night. This will often avert a case of paralysis. + + NO. 13F.--INFANTILE PARALYSIS + + Male, born July 7, 1908, 2:00 A.M. + + We will here examine the sympathetic aspects of planets in the cardinal +signs. We find in this horoscope a most interesting lesson illustrating the +sympathy and antipathy of the planets when placed in signs which are square +or in opposition to each other. + + The horoscope of this young man has the common sign of Gemini on the As- +cendant, with Mercury, Venus, Neptune, the sun, Mars, and the Dragon's Head +all in Cancer, the sign which has rule over the stomach. Four of these +planets, namely, Mercury, Venus, Neptune, and the sun are in opposition to +Uranus and square to Saturn. The sun is parallel to Uranus and Neptune; +Neptune, Uranus, and the sun are square to the moon in Libra in the 6th +house. + + +[PAGE 324] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + From our first observation we might diagnose this case as one of stomach +trouble, for with Venus in conjunction with Mercury, Neptune, and the sun +afflicted in Cancer we may expect poor digestion. When Neptune is one of +the afflictors, especially when it in turn is afflicted by Saturn, there is + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 13F ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Aquarius 11 SUN: Cancer 14:50 SATURN: Aries 10:00 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Pisces 10 MOON: Libra 21:22 URANUS: Capricorn 14:55R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Aries 20 MERCURY: Cancer 10:59R NEPTUNE: Cancer 14:37 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Gemini 4:14 VENUS: Cancer 12:51R DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Gemini 28 MARS: Cancer 29:32 Cancer 4:30 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Cancer 19 JUPITER: Leo 15:40 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Capricorn 4:30 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +a tendency to underdevelopment; the organs affected are often undersized and +Misshapen. With Saturn square Neptune and Uranus, Uranus being in the sign +of Capricorn which is in opposition to the sign ruling the stomach, this +child could not digest its food, which was often found in the stool in + + +[PAGE 325] PARALYSIS + +pieces. The parents, being ignorant of the cause of the condition, were in- +dulgent and permitted him at the age of two years to eat whatever he craved; +as a small child he was given solid food to eat. + + With Neptune in the sign of the stomach, square Saturn, and in opposition +to Uranus, the tiny glands which secrete the gastric juice of the stomach +and which are so necessary to furnish the lubricating mucus as well as the +digestive fluid, were lacking in vitality and prone to function spas- +modically; for Uranus causes spasmodic action, Saturn sluggish action, and +Neptune undersize or abnormal functioning. Therefore we would expect that +the blood in this case would not receive due nourishment from the food. The +body, as a result, would be deprived of the elements necessary for nourish- +ment. + + The damage in such cases generally materializes where the planet is +placed which has the most evil aspects. Here we find Uranus in Capricorn +making several adverse aspects as noted above. Uranus is receiving no help +whatever from other planets; therefore naturally we may expect the place of +such an afflicted planet to be the focusing point of the vicious circle. +Capricorn has rule over the legs and joints, especially the knee joints. At +the age of two years this boy was afflicted with what the doctors call in- +fantile paralysis, which caused him to lose the use of his feet. Infantile +paralysis is a disease which is diagnosed by the doctors as inflammation of +the gray matter of the spinal cord but this has not been proven. Some of + + +[PAGE 326] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +them are in doubt about this, and are seeking for another cause. + + No two children have the same effects from this infantile disease. From +an astrological standpoint no two who are afflicted with it have exactly the +same planetary afflictions nor necessarily the same rising sign. The writer +has found in seven horoscopes of children afflicted with it that Neptune has +been the chief afflicter in each case. As stated in THE MESSAGE OF THE +STARS, Neptune has rule over the spinal fluids and the pineal gland, and it +depends upon the planet which is afflicting Neptune as to how the disease +expresses itself. This naturally baffles the doctors, and they are unable +to explain why one child is left with one paralyzed leg, another with both +legs and arms paralyzed, and still another with one side entirely useless. +But the planets tell he reason for this diversity of outward expression. + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 327] PARALYSIS + + + NO. 13G.--RICKETS AND TETANY + + Female, born January 6th, 1911, 8:20 P.M. + + We have here the horoscope of a young girl who has the common sign of +Virgo on the Ascendant, with the sun in the fifth house in Capricorn. We +are told in THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS, page 544, that the sun rules the vital +fluid which is drawn into the body through the spleen and how this +life-giving fluid feeds the entire organism. The sun is afflicted in this +case by an opposition of Neptune, which is placed in the sign of Cancer. +Cancer has rule over the stomach. The sun is also afflicted by a parallel +of Mars and Uranus. We here may see that the gateway of the body through +which the solar force must needs enter in order to make it possible for the +vital body to restore what the desire body destroys, has not worked normally +even from birth. When the sun is afflicted by the spasmodic Uranus, the +cramping effect of Neptune, and the inflammatory conditions of the fiery +Mars, we may expect that at some time during the life of the native, when +nature's laws have been broken and when the progressed planets start the af- +flictions into action, there will be trouble. + + In the beginning of the year 1923 the progressed moon was passing through +the sign of Virgo and made a square to the radical Mars in Sagittarius. +This disturbed the metabolism of the digestive tract, which on account of + + +[PAGE 328] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +the resulting inflammation was unable to furnish the blood with the proper +amount of mineral salts. This combined with the disturbed solar force +caused by an afflicted sun deprived the bones and the muscles of their + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 13G ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Taurus 23 SUN: Capricorn 15:25 SATURN: Aries 29:43 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Cancer 2 MOON: Pisces 27:50 URANUS: Capricorn 24:42 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Leo 7 MERCURY: Capricorn 23:26R NEPTUNE: Cancer 20:19R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Virgo 2:50 VENUS: Capricorn 25:21 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 23 MARS: Sagitt. 12:10 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Libra 19 JUPITER: Scorpio 10:24 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +nourishment. In January 1923 the new moon fell in conjunction with the +radical Venus, Uranus, and Mercury, square to Saturn, and opposition to +Neptune. This excited the latent condition caused by Neptune in Cancer, the +sun, Uranus, Venus, and Mercury in Capricorn, and the malefic Saturn in + + +[PAGE 329] PARALYSIS + +Aries making a square to the last three planets. Added to all these afflic- +tions Mars radical is parallel to Uranus, Neptune, Venus and the sun. Do we +wonder that this young girl was afflicted with the dread disease of rickets, +which is a malady in which the bones are lacking in mineral matter, and with +tetany, which is a disease causing a nervous contraction of the muscles of +the extremities? + + Had the parents known the tendencies in this horoscope when the child was +quite young and carefully chosen her food so that she would have received +the greatest possible amount of nourishment from the smallest possible +amount of it, avoiding the excessive use of sugar, starches, and proteins, +and had they used more of nature's pure, green vegetables, they might have +helped her to build better bones and muscles. Unfortunately many of our +northern countries do not have the pure green food all the year round such +as we have here in sunny California, where it may be found in abundance +twelve months in the year. + + In prescribing a diet for the patient suffering from the above malady we +would eliminate all heavy proteins, giving her plenty of pure fresh goat's +milk, carrots, lettuce, onions, and spinach, adding a very small amount of +entire wheat bread each day to give bulk. Let her lie in the sunshine as +much as possible; especially should the sun shine upon the spine. Give her +friction rubs, which will stimulate the circulation. + + +[PAGE 330] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XXV + + THE NERVES + + NO. 14A--B: NERVOUS BREAKDOWN AND PARALYSIS + + In order to illustrate to the student why the same disease will leave +different after-effects we will use two horoscopes. These two charts prove +the claim which we have always made that there is no more perfect way of di- +agnosing the disease of a patient, nothing more reliable, than +astro-diagnosis. + + Both patients have called upon the Invisible Helpers for healing, and +both have been sufferers from that dread disease which has taken so many +lives all over the world and has claimed more victims than did the world +war, the disease which the doctors call influenza, or for short, the "flu." + + NO. 14A + + Male, born June 3rd, 1855, 2:00 A.M. + + Here we have the ambitious, fiery sign of Aries on the Ascendant, with +the sun in the restless, nervous sign of Gemini in the house of finances, in + + +[PAGE 331] THE NERVES + +conjunction with the persevering, tactful, thrifty, grasping Saturn. The +ruler of the horoscope, Mars, is in the last degrees of Taurus, square to +Jupiter. Jupiter has great love for finance. He likes it and therefore can + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 14A ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn 10 SUN: Gemini 12:05 SATURN: Gemini 18:25 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius 2 MOON: Capricorn 17:41 URANUS: Taurus 18:15 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces 2 MERCURY: Cancer 2:58 NEPTUNE: Pisces 18:07 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries 20:05 VENUS: Cancer 21:51 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus 26 MARS: Taurus 29:32 Taurus 11:23 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini 20 JUPITER: Pisces 2:04 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Scorpio 11:23 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +do great things with it. He is large and benevolent in all his ways. We +find that this man had a great desire for wealth, and after having had in- +fluenza he put such a strain upon his physical body in order to gain wealth +that he brought about a nervous condition from which he is now suffering. + + +[PAGE 332] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +He has the restless moon in the Midheaven trine to the irresponsible and in- +ventive Uranus, giving a great desire for speculation and to engage in +get-rich-quick schemes. But Neptune, the planet dealing with large corpora- +tions and speculation, is square to the sun and Saturn in the 2nd house, +showing that he has always been speculating with large corporations and al- +ways losing. + + Venus in Cancer in the 4th house in opposition to the moon in the +Midheaven gives an extravagant, frivoulous, slothful, and dissolute condi- +tion in the home, indicating that money is wasted and used very foolishly, +giving the native even greater desire to make money. He sacrificed his vi- +tality for the almighty dollar. Being a telegraph operator, he used the +brain and the fingers tips to excess, which caused inadequate nutrition of +the nervous system. The result was a complete nervous breakdown. + + +[PAGE 333] THE NERVES + + NO. 14B + + Male, born April 15, 1865, 8:22 A.M. + + With the nervous sign Gemini rising and the restless, unconventional +Uranus on the Ascendant in opposition to Jupiter, ruler of the arterial +blood, this man was an easy prey to pneumonia, as the capillaries of the +lungs were contracted, which made oxygenation spasmodic. + + The sun, the life giver, we find in the 11th house in Aries, in opposi- +tion to the retrograde Saturn in Libra. Saturn is in his exaltation in Li- +bra and very powerful. We would ordinarily look for the greatest trouble in +the corresponding part of the body. This man would some time have suffered +with renal disorder as the body was very sluggish and charged with impuri- +ties and the kidneys had not been eliminating properly for a number of +years. He has always been a hearty enter. With Mars in Cancer square to +Neptune, he has been very immoderate and abnormal in the indulgence of his +appetite, also too fond of liquids. + + The planets frequently work in opposites. In this case we find that the +sign Aries is the seat of the principal trouble. This man was paralyzed af- +ter the effects of pneumonia were overcome. + + We can see the difference between these two men. 14A is more able to +overcome disease, having the fiery, ambitious sign of Aries on the Ascen- +dant. He has better circulation for he has Mercury and Jupiter trine. + + +[PAGE 334] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +14B has the restless, emotional Uranus in Gemini on the Ascendant badly af- +flicted, and it is very difficult for him to remain quiet and calm; his emo- +tions constantly carry him to excesses and extremes. Both should be put + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 14B ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aquarius 27 SUN: Aries 25:45 SATURN: Libra 27:07R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aries 0 MOON: Sagitt. 16:09 URANUS: Gemini 26:16 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Taurus 11 MERCURY: Taurus 14:49 NEPTUNE: Aries 8:42 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Gemini 21:49 VENUS: Taurus 25:41 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Cancer 13 MARS: Cancer 8:12 Scorpio 0:32 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Leo 3 JUPITER: Sagitt. 29:00R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Taurus 0:32 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +on a strict diet, for they have indulged too freely in the good things of +the table. It should consist principally of vegetables, including raw on- +ions, parsley, and celery. + + 14A is suffering from a complete nervous breakdown, while 14B is +paralyzed. + + +[PAGE 335] THE NERVES + + NO. 14C--D: DEFECTIVE WALK + + A pair of most interestingly similar charts, both in aspects and symp- +toms, will now be considered. We will first take figure No. 14C, that of a +boy born November 25, 1899, 0:30 A.M. + + We find the vacillating and negative moon in the 12th house near the As- +cendant, as the ruler of the horoscope. This planet is square to the sun +and Uranus. These last two planets are in conjunction in Sagittarius, the +sign which has rule over the hips, the sacral region of the spine, and the +coccygeal region. Sagittarius also has rule over the iliac arteries and +veins, sciatic nerves, and locomotor muscles in hips and thighs. We also +find Mars in this sign of the hips, in conjunction with Venus, Mercury, and +Saturn. Venus rules the venous blood, and wherever this planet is placed +and afflicted, the circulation in that part of the body is impeded. Mars +burns up while Saturn restricts, contracts, and dries up. So we find that +the circulation is interfered with by these two afflicting planets, and as +Mercury rules the nerves we might expect that this boy would suffer from re- +strictions in the region of the hips. Neptune, the higher octave of Mer- +cury, works upon the nervous system and rules the spinal canal. In this +horoscope Neptune is placed in the 10th house in an angle where his power is +greater than when placed in a cadent or succeedent house. We also find him +in the sign of Mercury (Gemini) which rules the upper spinal nerves. As + + +[PAGE 336] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Neptune is in opposition to Venus, Mercury, and Saturn, and parallel with +Saturn, Mars, and Uranus, through this planet which has so many aspects and +the greater number of them afflictions, we can locate the seat of the + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 14C ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Gemini 12 SUN: Sagitt. 2:53 SATURN: Sagitt. 23:26 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Cancer 16 MOON: Virgo 3:45 URANUS: Sagitt. 7:58 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Leo 17 MERCURY: Sagitt. 22:01 NEPTUNE: Gemini 26:14R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Virgo 14:09 VENUS: Sagitt. 20:40 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Libra 9 MARS: Sagitt. 16:09 Sagitt. 21:05 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Scorpio 9 JUPITER: Scorpio 23:26 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Gemini 21:05 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +trouble--obstruction in the nervous system and spinal fluids. + + + This boy has never been able to walk without staggering like a drunken +man. Gemini being the sign of speech, and Mercury the planet ruling speech, +Neptune in Gemini has prevented his from learning to use the faculty of +speech. With the moon, the life ruler, afflicted in Virgo (the moon having + + +[PAGE 337] THE NERVES + +rule over the white fluids of the body, and Mercury, the small intestine), +it will be doubtful whether this young man can overcome these afflictions, +for a negative sign is rising and the afflictions from angles are stronger +than the will of the patient. + + NO. 14D + + + The second figure, that of a young man born March 17, 1900, 1:00 A.M., +has the energetic sign of Sagittarius on the Ascendant with Jupiter, the +life ruler, in its own sign in the 12th house, in conjunction with the ner- +vous and erratic Uranus, which is co-ruler of the horoscope. These two +planets are also in conjunction with the Dragon's Head with is of a +Jupiterian nature. They are afflicted by a square of Mars, from the sign +Pisces, also a parallel of Neptune and Saturn. With these afflictions of +Jupiter ruling the arterial blood, in the two Jupiterian signs, Sagittarius +(hips) and Pisces (the feet), what may we expect but that the arterial blood +would be obstructed in the limbs? As the action of Uranus is spasmodic, it +shows that at certain times only does this young man suffer with cramping of +the motor nerves. But we find Saturn, the planet of obstruction, strong in +its own sign of Capricorn, ruling the knees, afflicted by the square of the + + +[PAGE 338] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +moon from near the Midheaven, also by the square of Mercury in Aries. As +the joints of the body are largely ruled by the sign Capricorn, especially +when Saturn is placed in this sign and afflicted, we may expect a lack of +power in and control of the lower part of the body. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 14D ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Libra 11 SUN: Pisces 26:12 SATURN: Capricorn 4:24 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Scorpio 8 MOON: Libra 5:39 URANUS: Sagitt. 12:29 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 0 MERCURY: Aries 8:57R NEPTUNE: Gemini 24:15 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 19:22 VENUS: Taurus 7:34 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Capricorn 25 MARS: Pisces 12:51 Sagitt. 15:09 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Pisces 5 JUPITER: Sagitt. 10:41 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Gemini 15:09 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + We find Neptune, the planet ruling the spinal canal and the spinal spirit +fire, square to the life-giving sun. This aspect acts upon the body as a +disconnected wire would upon a telephone; there would be no response. The +vital fluids cannot flow freely through the spinal column; and the upper and +lower part of the body may be likened to two disconnected wires. This boy, + + +[PAGE 339] THE NERVES + +like the first one, could not walk without the support of crutches; but this +affliction was very slight until he reached the age of seven years when the +progressed moon reached the conjunction of the radical Saturn; then he lost +entire control of his limbs. + + We are told in Galatians, 6th chapter, 7th verse, that whatsoever a man +soweth, that shall he also reap. The question might be asked, "How could +these poor young men he held responsible for something that came upon them +as babes?" We are told that this life is not all, that we have lived many +lives, and that we are born to parent with whom we have made ties in previ- +ous lives. They are the instruments through which we are to receive our +lessons. As we look into the lives of these poor souls we see this exempli- +fied. They have been attracted to parents who could give them certain bod- +ies, the archetype of which they themselves were the builders. We note in +Horoscope No. 14C that Neptune is in the 10th house, opposition Saturn, Ve- +nus, and Mercury in the 4th house, indicating lewdness and drunkeness of +both parents; while in No. 14D the moon is afflicted in the 9th house by an +opposition of Mercury, and Saturn in square to both Mercury and moon, indi- +cating a drunken father and a nervous and neuresthenic mother. + + May the poor boys born into these miserably afflicted bodies learn their +lessons, as afflictions are to the soul what fire is to gold--a refiner. +Surely the experiences in this life will bring them much purification and +soul growth. + + +[PAGE 340] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 14E--EXAGGERATED HYSTERIA + Female, born December 5th, 1873, 8:45 P.M. + + This horoscope has the positive, vital, and fixed sign of Leo on the As- +cendant, with the ruler, the sun, in the fifth house in Sagittarius. The +moon and Saturn are very strong in their own home signs. Saturn, the planet +of obstruction, is in Capricorn in the sixth house, the house of sickness. +We usually look to such a planet and its position for the key to the +trouble. Saturn is square to the retrograde planet Neptune, which is in +conjunction with the Midheaven and in the impulsive sign of Aries. Neptune +is the higher octave of Mercury; it is in the ninth house, ruling the higher +mind. In such a case we may expect to find brain storms or some abnormal +mental trouble. + + The moon is in its own sign, Cancer, square to Jupiter. Therefore the +native can expect little help from the moon, and so we must look to the +planet Mercury to see if the mind is to receive assistance to overcome the +square of Neptune to Saturn. Mercury is retrograde, which makes its influ- +ence latent, and in the sign of its fall, the common and negative sign of +Sagittarius. Mercury, however, while weak by sign and retrograde, is helped +by a sextile of Jupiter and by one of Saturn. This will save the native +from insanity. + + Uranus, the planet of impulse, is retrograde and in the impulsive sign of + + +[PAGE 341] THE NERVES + +Leo, in conjunction with the Ascendant and in opposition to the fiery Mars. +Mars and Uranus are in angles, the first and seventh houses, and have a ten- +dency to cause spells of temper and spasmodic emotions. This causes ir- +regularity of the action of the heart. + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 14E ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aries 28 SUN: Sagitt. 14:04 SATURN: Capricorn 29:34 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Gemini 5 MOON: Cancer 7:23 URANUS: Leo 10:25R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 10 MERCURY: Sagitt. 2.20R NEPTUNE: Aries 26:04R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Leo 9:47 VENUS: Scorpio 25:03 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 0 MARS: Aquarius 9:52 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 26 JUPITER: Virgo 29:15 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Neptune in Aries square to Saturn causes the mind to become very selfish, +adn from childhood this native has demanded that others grant her every +wish. She would throw herself into a spasm in order to get what she wanted + + +[PAGE 342] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +from her parents. This habit grew upon her, and when she reached the age of +menopause, she had no control whatever over her emotions. The doctors diag- +nosed her case as exaggerated hysteria. + + As the progressed sun neared the conjunction with the radical Mars and +the opposition to the radical Uranus, heart trouble developed as a result of +the strain which she had put upon her body all through life by these selfish +spells. With Neptune in Aries, square to Saturn, she is lacking in mental +control and allows the emotional Uranus and Mars to entirely rule her life. + + Here is a case where the parents were much to blame by permitting her as +a child to have her own way. If they had controlled her in these spells in +the beginning, even though it had necessitated severe methods and caused the +clashing of wills, it would have helped her to get mastery over the emo- +tions. But as it is they permitted her to have her way, which has caused +her untold suffering and may bring a fatal ending. + + This is a case in which the patient precipitated her trouble through +violent actions. There is no reason whatever for poor health with only +three afflictions, namely, Saturn square Neptune and the Midheaven, Uranus +in conjunction with the Ascendant and in opposition to Mars, and Jupiter +square the moon; while there are 15 good aspects in the horoscope, including +the parallels and the sextile of the sun to Mars, and fixed and cardinal +signs are on the angles. It may well be said that this woman is digging her + + +[PAGE 343] THE NERVES + +own grave. Think of the archetype which she is laying the foundation for to +be used in her next embodiment! Can it be wondered at that some souls are +born with chronic and incurable diseases? + + NO. 14F--OBSTRUCTION OF THE PNEUMOGASTRIC NERVE + + Female, born April 4, 1915, 5 P.M. + + In this horoscope we have the common sign of Virgo on the Ascendant, com- +mon signs on the four angles, and the afflicting planets are posited in the +common signs. As a rule planetary afflictions from these weaker signs are +more easily overcome than from cardinal or fixed signs, but when the patient +also has common signs on the four angles he will not make the effort neces- +sary to overcome planetary conditions. + + We find the sun in the martial and impulsive sign of Aries, sextile to +Uranus. This latter planet is strong in its own sign of Aquarius. The moon +is in the restless sign of Sagittarius, and the ruler of the Ascendant, Mer- +cury, is in conjunction with the fiery and impulsive Mars. The positions of +these various planets will give this child a most impulsive, restless, and +ambitious nature, one which will keep her on the go constantly, and whatever +she does will be done in a quick and impulsive manner. A lack of +self-control is shown. She will eat hurriedly, failing to give proper + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 14F ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Gemini 27 SUN: Aries 14:10 SATURN: Gemini 26:42 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 3 MOON: Sagitt. 20:34 URANUS: Aquarius 14:49 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 4 MERCURY: Pisces 20:54 NEPTUNE: Cancer 27:39R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Virgo 27:42 VENUS: Pisces 3:59 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Libra 21 MARS: Pisces 20:48 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Scorpio 21 JUPITER: Pisces 14:20 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +attention to the mastication of her food. This hurry and impulse will have +a bad effect, for Mercury ruling the nervous system, conjunction Mars and +square to the moon and the destructive Saturn, will cause the nervous orga- +nization to become deranged each time that the native gives way to great + + +[PAGE 345] THE NERVES + +excitement, anger, excesses in eating, or anything which might produce a +strain on the nerves. + + The moon has rule over the oesophagus and stomach, and Saturn, which is +posited strongly in the Midheaven, has rule over the pneumogastric nerve. +Saturn is in opposition to the moon, hence we may expect trouble from the +branches of pneumogastric or vagus nerve. The two divisions of this great +nerve, the oesophageal and the gastric branches, are obstructed in their +functions by Saturn, and this interferes with peristaltic action. The slug- +gish action of the oesophagus and the cardiac orifice cause the good to move +too slowly through this tube before it reaches the stomach, and then it re- +mains too long a time in the stomach before it is digested, for Saturn +causes a sluggish condition of these organs. This may result in great dis- +tress. + + This girl suffered intensely with stomach trouble once every six or eight +days, the time varying. These spells may be traced to the effect of the +transiting moon as it passed through the common signs, forming the conjunc- +tion, opposition, or square of the planets in these signs. The moon tran- +siting over its radical place in Sagittarius, over Mercury, Jupiter, and +Mars in Pisces, and over Saturn in Gemini will bring these afflicted periods +once a week. + + The parents consulted a number of doctors, each one giving a different +diagnosis. One physician was positive of cancer and wanted to operate. + + +[PAGE 346] THE NERVES + +Between these spells of stomach trouble the girl seemed to be in fairly good +health. + + In a case of this kind undue excitement and all excesses should be +avoided, at the time of the moon's transits over the afflicted planets. +Caution in the choice of food should be exercised. All coarse foods which +are hard to digest should be avoided, and everything that is eaten should be +well masticated before it enters the oesophageal tube. + + +[PAGE 347] THE BONES + + CHAPTER XXVI + THE BONES + NO. 15A--INJURY TO FEMUR + Male, born November 11, 1886, 6:36 A.M. + + Sagittarius 24-24 is on the Ascendant in the present instance and the in- +flammatory and destructive Mars, the planet of impulse, is on the cusp of +the Ascendant in the pleasure-loving and heedless sign of Sagittarius. This +man was specially fond of horses. Mercury is in the 12th house in Sagit- +tarius, sextile to the impulsive Uranus in the 11th house, friends, which +shows a desire for swift action, racing, fast driving, et cetera. Mars, the +ruler of the fifth house, which has rule over pleasures, is sextile Jupiter. +This young man met with accident caused by horses. + + We find that at the age of 21 years the boy's progressed sun and Venus +were in conjunction with the radical Mercury and sextile to Uranus, the pro- +gressed Mars having just passed the square to Uranus, and reached the +sextile to Venus, indicating a most pleasurable time with friends. But the +progressed moon was in square aspect to the radical Neptune, sextile to + + +[PAGE 348] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Mars, and opposition the Midheaven. This brought about an accident, the +young man being thrown from a horse. From this he never recovered, the +lower limbs becoming paralyzed as a result. He was rarely free from pain, +and in 1916 the doctors removed part of the femur of the right leg, for the + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 15A ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Leo 28 SUN: Scorpio 18:20 SATURN: Cancer 22:28R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Libra 1 MOON: Taurus 6:39 URANUS: Libra 10:33 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Scorpio 13 MERCURY: Sagitt. 10:38 NEPTUNE: Taurus 26:47R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 24:24 VENUS: Scorpio 12:49 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Capricorn 13 MARS: Sagitt. 26:27 Virgo 3:16 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Aquarius 5 JUPITER: Libra 23:18 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Pisces 3:16 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +fall had bruised the bone and it had rotted. + + We find Saturn in the 8th house in Cancer square to Jupiter, which is the +ruler of the Ascendant. The moon is in its exaltation sign of Taurus, rul- +ing the palate, and in the fifth house, hence there was a desire for drink. + + +[PAGE 349] THE BONES + +From the indications in the 11th house, friends, he was wined and dined un- +til he had his body over charged with ash. Now when this is the case and +the boy is unable to take care of the excess of rich food, the toxic prod- +ucts settle in the weakest place. With Jupiter afflicted in Libra, which +has rule over the kidneys, these organs were overworked and not able to +eliminate the toxins and poisonous matter. The bruised femur naturally was +the point which attracted this toxic poison, and decomposition necessarily +took place. + + After a number of operations the native passed out in June, 1918, when +the progressed sun was nearing a conjunction with the Ascendant and the pro- +gressed moon was in Cancer in conjunction with Saturn in the 8th house, +death; also the progressed Mars was then within one degree of an opposition +to Saturn. + + Now had this young man been in touch with a physician who could have +properly adjusted the misplaced femur and who would have placed him on a +strict vegetarian diet, eliminating all meats and highly seasoned food in +order to keep the blood pure, there would have been great possibilities that +the life might have been prolonged and that he would not have become +paralyzed. But unfortunately he was in a small town in far-off New Zealand +where proper aid could not be obtained. The dislocated and bruised bone was +neglected, and the diet was largely composed of flesh foods as vegetables +were very scarce there at that time. + + +[PAGE 350] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 15B--ARTHRITIC MUSCULAR ATROPHY + + Female, Born December 4th, 1899, at 8 P.M. + + This young woman has the watery sign of Cancer on the Ascendant, with the +sun in the common sign of Sagittarius. + + It is the rule when looking for physical ailments to take the ruler of +the 6th house, which rules sickness, and find the position of this planet +and its aspects. In this horoscope we find 28 degrees of Sagittarius on the +cusp of the 6th house, but the influences of this sign is almost spent be- +fore reaching this house. We therefore consider Capricorn, the sign on the +7th house, with 28 degrees on the cusp. The greater part of this sign is +thus thrown into the 6th house; therefore we may consider Saturn as having +rule over the house of sickness. + + We find this disturbing and crystallizing planet in 24-37 Sagittarius in +conjunction with the inflammatory Mars and in opposition to Neptune and the +Dragon's Tail. We are told on page 566 of THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS that +Neptune rules the spinal gas, or spinal fluid as the doctors call it. We +find Neptune in conjunction with the Dragon's Tail in the sign of Gemini, +which has rule over the arms and the region of the 6th and 7th cervical and +the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd dorsal vertebrae. We find Mars and Saturn in the re- +gion of the lower end of the spine, the sacral or Sagittarian region. + + +[PAGE 351] THE BONES + +Saturn when afflicted by Neptune gives very deep-seated disease, that which +is difficult to understand. Saturn when afflicted also dries up the +synovial fluid of the joints wherever he may be posited. When in conjunc- +tion with Mars in the sacral region we may expect trouble, for Mars is hot + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 15B ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Aries 18 SUN: Sagitt. 12:50 SATURN: Sagitt. 24:37 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Taurus 23 MOON: Capricorn 10:28 URANUS: Sagitt. 8:35 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Gemini 28 MERCURY: Sagitt. 15:22R NEPTUNE: Gemini 25:58R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Cancer 28:58 VENUS: Capricorn 2:56 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Leo 21 MARS: Sagitt. 23:28 Sagitt. 20:33 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 17 JUPITER: Scorpio 25:39 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Gemini 20:33 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +and inflammatory and Saturn is cold and moist, with a restricting influence. + + We also find Uranus, the sun, and Mercury in conjunction and parallel in +this same part of the body, namely the sacral or Sagittarian region. + + +[PAGE 352] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Wherever we find two hot, fiery planets such as the sun and Mars, we may ex- +pect that much of the heat and vitality of the body will be brought to this +region, and when the restricting influence of Saturn is opposed to the ab- +normal and ossifying influence of an afflicted Neptune in the opposite re- +gion, namely the upper end of the spinal column, both exerting a harmful in- +fluence, we may liken the spinal fluid of the patient to a stream of water +which has been dammed at both ends. No fresh water is allowed to flow in, +and the old and stagnant water must remain and become polluted. As the +greater number of afflictions are to be found in the sacral region, +naturally the greater amount of impurity is also lodged there. + + This young girl developed arthritis of the hip joints at a very early +age, partly on account of the neglect of the parents, who were very inharmo- +nious. The father was a drunkard and libertine and the mother careless and +neglectful of her home duties, spending most of her time away from home and +leaving three little girls to shift for themselves. It was never definitely +known whether the beginning of this disease was due to an accident; but the +stars indicate a fall, which no doubt bruised the hip bone or the sacral +bones and was probably the first cause of the disease. Gradually the right +leg atrophied, and the spine became bent. + + In 1917 this girl called on Headquarters for the healing of her hand in- +jured in an accident. Here we may again note the influence of Mars and + + +[PAGE 353] THE BONES + +Saturn in conjunction, which had their effect in the opposite sign, Gemini, +and caused the breaking of one of the fingers. The bone became affected, +and the doctors were unable to do anything to heal it. With the help of the +Invisible Helpers, however, and a strict vegetarian diet she recovered. But +the native has inherited tainted blood from the father, in conjunction with +Saturn and in opposition to Neptune, which would indicate the affliction of +the father, namely, the dread disease gonorrhoea. Parents with this disease +frequently attract souls for rebirth who must needs suffer from spinal dis- +eases, blindness, etc. "The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind ex- +ceeding small." + + +[PAGE 354] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 15C. + + OSTEOMYELITIS--INFLAMMATION OF MARROW OF BONE + + Male, born January 9, 1898, 8:00 A.M. + + This lesson is based on the horoscope of a man who has the fixed sign of +Aquarius on the Ascendant, and fixed signs on all the angles indicating a +nature that has the will strongly developed, and with the sun in the +Saturnian sign of Capricorn there is indication that he has great persis- +tence in resisting disease. + + How well he has succeeded in his fight is shown by the aspect between the +sun and Mars, which often shows the extent of the damage which may have been +done to the physical body. Any aspect between Mars and the sun, even though +it be a square or an opposition, is better than no aspect. Strong signs on +the angles and the sun in a determined sign is an indication of power to +overcome physical restrictions. But in this case the sun is void of aspects +to Mars showing that the disease has mastery over the man. + + Mars, which is exalted in Capricorn, is in conjunction with Venus, square +to Jupiter, and elevated in the 11th house, indicating liability to acci- +dents. Mars in the 11th house also shows that friends would be responsible +for leading him into danger. + + We find a very prominent Uranus in this horoscope, which is near the cusp +of the Midheaven, in conjunction with Saturn, sextile to Jupiter, and trine + + +[PAGE 355] THE BONES + +the moon, indicating one who wishes to shine, to be a good fellow among his +friends; also one who would go to extremes in entertaining them. Uranus in +Sagittarius shows impulse which finds expression through sports, + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 15C ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Scorpio 21 SUN: Capricorn 19:21 SATURN: Sagitt. 8:24 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 17 MOON: Leo 6:25 URANUS: Sagitt. 2:08 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Capricorn 12 MERCURY: Capricorn 12:45 NEPTUNE: ] +[ ASCENDANT: Aquarius 10:10 VENUS: Capricorn 10:23 Gemini 20:24R ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Pisces 16 MARS: Capricorn 5:31 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Aries 21 JUPITER: Libra 9:56 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +particularly in connection with four-footed animals. Saturn rules the +bones. + + In 1917 the progressed Mars had reached a conjunction and a parallel of +the radical sun, which is in 19-21 of Capricorn in the 12th house, the house +of self-undoing. At the same time the progressed Venus was in parallel to + + +[PAGE 356] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +the radical Saturn and Uranus. This indicates that during the year 1917, +while with friends and horses this man sustained an injury to one of the +bones of the leg, which although at the time seemed but a bad bruise, never- +theless was a deep-seated injury. We will see now how clearly and precisely +the clock of destiny registers events. On December 3, 1918, there was an +eclipse of the sun in 10-31 of Sagittarius, conjunction with this man's +radical Saturn. The effect of an eclipse lasts during all the year which +follows. In 1919 we find the progressed sun conjunction the Ascendant, pro- +gressed Venus opposition to the radical moon, and the progressed Mars con- +junction the radical sun. We have here three afflictions during the year +following the eclipse, and when the transiting moon on June 5, 1919, fell in +square to the place of the eclipse at the same time making a square to the +radical Uranus and Saturn, the young man was taken with severe pains in the +right ankle, followed by chills and fever. From that time the leg began to +swell and a large abscess formed, which was lanced by the doctor. As soon +as one abscess healed another would form and in eight months he had been op- +erated on for abscesses at least ten times. By 1920 pus began to run from +small holes in the ankle and the doctors diagnosed the disease as +"osteomyelitis." + + On April 26th, 1924, this man again entered the hospital for an op- +eration, and at this time small pieces of bone were chipped away for seven +inches up the leg. + + +[PAGE 357] THE BONES + + In August 1924, when he called upon Headquarters for healing he was re- +turning to the hospital for another operation. + + It is unfortunate that many doctors do not realize that operations or re- +movals of parts of the body will never permanently cure so long as the pa- +tient is not put on a proper diet. + + The writer visited a friend in a hospital a short time ago who was se- +verely injured in an automobile accident. While she was strictly a vegetar- +ian and disliked meat, the doctors compelled her to eat plentifully of meats +and broths while her wounds were healing. + + In the horoscope of this young man under consideration we find Venus con- +junction Mars in a Saturnian sign, and square to Jupiter. Venus and Mars +are the rulers of the 4th and 10th houses indicating the parents, from whom +he had inherited scrofulous blood. So we may realize that no matter how +many bones the doctors may remove from his limb the real disease which is in +the blood, can only be cured by the strictest vegetarian or fruit diet. + + +[PAGE 358] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XXVII + + SPIRIT CONTROL + + NO. 16A.--SPIRIT CONTROL + + Male, born April 27, 1868, 6:37 P.M. + + In the horoscope before us we consider first the mental qualities as +shown in particular by Mercury and the moon. Mercury has three aspects, the +conjunction with its higher octave Neptune, which occurs in Aries the sign +of the head, a sextile to Venus in the Mercurial sign Gemini, and a square +to the moon in Cancer. We also note that Mercury goes before the sun. This +shows a kindly disposition and fairly good reasoning ability, though the na- +tive will not employ the ordinary processes of reasoning, but will use the +Neptunian method in all his mental operations. + + The moon in the ninth house in the psychic sign Cancer, its home sign, +and in conjunction with Uranus gives marked intuition. Saturn in Sagit- +tarius, the 9th house sign, trine to Jupiter, the ruler of Sagittarius, will +help to bring order into the native's thoughts, with the result that he will +be much more balanced than inspirational people usually are. Nevertheless + +[PAGE 359] SPIRIT CONTROL + +he will always stand out from the crowd for he is marked as a dreamer. +Uranus and the moon conjoined in the 9th house, the house of the higher +mind, will overrule everything else. But the other configurations bearing + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 16A ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Leo 13 SUN: Taurus 7:56 SATURN: Sagitt. 4:13R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Virgo 16 MOON: Cancer 14:23 URANUS: Cancer 9:35 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Libra 14 MERCURY: Aries 20:03 NEPTUNE: Aries 15:38 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Scorpio 5:46 VENUS: Gemini 23:05 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Sagitt. 5 MARS: Aries 12:17 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Capricorn 8 JUPITER: Aries 1:42 ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +upon this matter save him from becoming foolish and a butt for jokes. + + With respect to his health, we note first that the ruler of Aries is near +the cusp of the 6th house in conjunction with Neptune. Neptune makes a + + +[PAGE 360] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +conjunction with Mercury, which will make this man very sensitive and ir- +ritable, offsetting in that respect at times what we said concerning the +kindly disposition denoted by Mercury sextile to Venus. The moon and uranus +in Cancer, the sign which governs the stomach, shows that it will be very +difficult to please him with respect to food, and the square of Mars to this +configuration shows that he is likely to have gastric trouble when the re- +sistance of the system in broken down. Strong drink will be craved, and if +this desire is indulged, the psychic experiences of delirium are inevitable. + + Spirit controls are very apt to take possession of the body of such a +person even apart from drink because the square of the moon and Uranus to +Neptune and Mars favors such a condition, and temporary insanity at least is +liable to occur. + + Part of these statements have already been realized, for this patient has +applied to Headquarters for relief from unwelcome attention of spirits which +he had attracted at spiritualistic seances. He rebelled very much against +the diet which was prescribed for him and could not be made to keep up the +weekly letters. There is considerable hope, however, from the sun sextile +to the moon and Uranus that the Ego will ultimately free itself from outside +influences, though this will naturally cause the native a great deal more +trouble than if he had remained on the healing list until cured instead of +doing as he has done and as so many do. + + +[PAGE 361] SPIRIT CONTROL + + The moment such people feel the slightest relief they think there is no +need for further help from others. That is not a bad attitude to take be- +cause upon the Path of Attainment it is continually held up as an ideal that +"if thou art Christ, help thyself." There are too many leaners who do not +wish to bear their responsibility, who shirk it whenever they can, who are +always applying for help whenever they have even a toothache; some have even +telegraphed because of a headache and other ridiculously small ailments. +Therefore it is always best to encourage patients to help themselves as soon +as it is possible, for in that way they gain spiritually even if physically +their progress is more slow. + + In a case of this nature the simplest diet should be prescribed in order +to soothe the nerves: lettuce if it is at all obtainable, and onions in the +evening in any case. Such a diet, and exercises to limber up the spine, +particularly in the lumbar region where Saturn in Sagittarius has a grip on +the sciatic nerves, will in time restore such a patient to health provided +he avoids liquor and stays away from spiritualistic seances. + + +[PAGE 362] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + NO. 16B.--OBSESSION--TONSILS + + Female, born August 17, 1881, at 9 A.M. + + This horoscope is that of a woman who has the sign of Libra on the Ascen- +dant, with cardinal signs on all four angles. The sun in the positive and +fixed sign of Leo indicates that she will have determination well developed. +This determination, however, may be expressed in he form of stubbornness, +for Mercury is in Leo in the 10th house, square Saturn and Neptune, these +last two planets being in the fixed and stubborn sign of Taurus. the +squares of the above three planets, Saturn, Neptune, and Mercury, are from +the natural Capricorn or Saturnian 10th house, which is a dominant position, +to the 8th house, which is the natural Scorpio or Mars house; so we may ex- +pect that this woman will be very fixed in nature and determined to follow +her own inclinations. + + Her ideals or desires should have been expressed through Venus in Cancer, +conjunction the Midheaven. Venus is sextile to Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus +and parallel to the moon and Mars. This gives talent for art or music, also +a love for dress and display, and Venus being ruler of the Ascendant, it +should also give a sweet personality coupled with beauty of face and figure. +According to the diagnosis of psycho-analysis this woman during the years of +adolescence, when the life forces were welling up and the latent talents + + +[PAGE 363] SPIRIT CONTROL + +were seeking a means of expression, which would naturally be through art and +music, was not finding her field. Her ideals were crushed as a result, and +the spirit felt cramped and restrained. + + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 16B ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 10 SUN: Leo 24:28 SATURN: Taurus 12:24 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 19 MOON: Gemini 1:23 URANUS: Virgo 12:54 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 16 MERCURY: Leo 10:37 NEPTUNE: Taurus 16:35 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 6:43 VENUS: Cancer 12:01 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 0 MARS: Gemini 8:34 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Scorpio 29 JUPITER: Taurus 24:56 ] + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + + We may here see that Saturn, the ruler of the 4th house, indicating the +mother, is restraining Neptune, the ruler of the 6th house, which indicates +the service to be rendered. Mercury in the 10th, the house of the profes- +sion, is squaring Saturn and Neptune. We have here the proof that the +mother was not in sympathy with this woman's choice of a profession, and + + +[PAGE 364] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +forced her to express herself through channels where the spirit felt cramped +and the artistic instincts were held in check. In the case of a weak and +negative personality this sometimes works to advantage and the person does +not feel the restraint. But with a fixed and positive nature such as we +have in this horoscope, with five planets in fixed signs and cardinal signs +on the four angles, the case is different; when a woman of this type has her +ideals shattered, she finds it most difficult to adjust herself to the will +of others. The impulses thus restrained most frequently find an expression +in some other direction. + + In this case we find Neptune and Saturn trine Uranus; the psychic side +must then be the means of giving this soul relief from its pent-up feelings. +Uranus is square Mars, and the moon is conjunction and parallel Mars. These +afflictions together with those of Saturn, Neptune, and Mercury gave this +woman a negative development. Mediumship was most attractive to her. For a +short time she had the greatest joy for she developed very rapidly, which we +may see from Neptune trine Uranus, indicating psychism. But had this poor +soul had a knowledge of astrology and could she have seen the danger signals +in the planets she would not have meddled with the negative phase of +spiritual development. She would not have forced her development as we have + + +[PAGE 365] SPIRIT CONTROL + +found that she did. Being a positive character the Invisible Helpers were +able with her assistance to relieve her in a short time of a very bad case +of obsession, which she had developed through the practice of mediumship. + + The advice given to this woman through Headquarters was to eat lightly of +food consisting mainly of vegetables and fruits, eliminating heavy proteins +and starches, and to keep her mind and body active, not forgetting to pray, +for prayer is a wonderful help and a protection against adverse psychism. + + We also find in this horoscope a very helpful lesson relative to trouble +with the throat. We find Neptune and Saturn in conjunction in Taurus, which +rules the throat and larynx, square to Mercury in Leo; also Jupiter in Tau- +rus is square to the sun in Leo, indicating that the circulation of the +throat would be impaired at some time. Whenever we find Saturn and Neptune +in conjunction there is some difficulty in the development of the corre- +sponding organ. This woman developed a very bad case of tonsillitis, and +submitted herself to an operation in which the tonsils were removed. + + +[PAGE 366] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + CHAPTER XXVIII + + THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + + NO. 17A--B: THYROID GLAND TROUBLE + + We will use a flat figure in both the following cases as the hour of +birth is not known. This will not interfere with the diagnosis of disease, +but knowledge of the rising sign is necessary, however, in determining the +will of the patient. When the patient is facing a crisis it is well to know +the exact time of birth in order to calculate the place of the moon and its +relation to the transiting planets. These planets act as the minute hand of +the planetary clock. They determine by their aspects to the radical and +progressed planets whether the disease has reached a critical point. Espe- +cially do the new and full moons mark the time when changes may be expected. + + NO. 17A. + + Female, born April 25, 1877. + + We are told in THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS that Neptune is the higher octave +of Mercury, and has rule over the pineal gland, while Mercury rules the +thyroid. In this horoscope we find Venus, which rules the venous + + +[PAGE 367] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + +circulation, in its own sign of Taurus, ruler of the throat, in conjunction +with Neptune and the sun, also square to Mars in the sign of Aquarius. +Neptune when afflicted by Saturn as in the second horoscope, 17B, causes + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 17A [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Taurus 5:21 SATURN: Pisces 16:56 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Libra 7:07 URANUS: Leo 20:35R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Taurus 23:54 NEPTUNE: Taurus 5:01 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Taurus 2:19 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Aquarius 5:11 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Capricorn 3:34R ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +atrophy or an undersized organ in whatever part of the body he may be found +by sign. If in Leo, he may cause one valve of the heart to be smaller than +the others, producing irregularity of circulation. In this horoscope, how- +ever, we find Neptune between Venus and the sun, which gives bulk, The sun + + +[PAGE 368] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +brings heat and a large supply of blood to that part of the body in which it +is placed by sign. In this case the throat is the part receiving the great- +est flow of blood. When Mars is square to the sun or Venus we may find the +corresponding organ enlarged abnormally. Mercury, the plant which rules the +thyroid gland, is in Taurus, square to Uranus in the fixed sign of Leo. +Uranus in this sign also has a tendency to enlarge the organ affected by it. +Jupiter, which rules the arterial circulation, is square to the moon. + + This woman suffered from an enlarged thyroid gland, which reached such a +size that it interfered with the circulation and caused poor heart action. + + +[PAGE 369] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + + NO. 17B. + + Male, born September 26 1863. + + Venus is in conjunction with the sun, Mars, and Saturn, these four plan- +ets being in the sign of Libra and all in opposition to Neptune. This + + ------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 17B [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Libra 2:53 SATURN: Libra 7:47 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Pisces 22:51 URANUS: Gemini 25:07 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Libra 26:08 NEPTUNE: Aries 4:45R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Libra 6:40R ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Libra 5:00 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Scorpio 0:14 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------- + +configuration, particularly the obstructing influence of Saturn, caused a +disturbance in the thyroid gland, which, however, was not enlarged as in the +previous case, but its functions and circulation were interfered with. This +caused the man to suffer from weakened memory, deranged kidneys, and en- +largement of the prostate gland. + + What could be advised in order to help these patients? might be asked. +In the case of the woman of the first horoscope, where an excess of blood is +found in the throat and both Jupiter and Venus are afflicted, causing poor +arterial and venous circulation, we would advise a brisk rubbing of the +lower limbs with a pair of bath gloves, also hot foot baths to cause the +blood to circulate more freely to the lower part of the body thereby taking +the pressure away from the throat. We would also decrease the amount of +food which makes for flesh, such as white bread, pastries, sugar, and the +like. In the second horoscope we find the moon in Pisces, a watery sign, +which gives a craving for liquids. It is square to Uranus. This together +with the conjunction of Venus with Mars, sun, and Saturn indicates that the +lower nature, especially sex, has been the native's undoing. We would ad- +vise elimination of highly seasoned foods, liquor, tobacco, and meat, and +that he live a simple life with plenty of outdoor exercise. + + +[PAGE 371] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + + NO. 17C.--THE THYMUS GLAND + + Male, born August 16, 1918, 1:45 A.M. + + This is the horoscope of a young boy who has the watery and cardinal sign +of Cancer on the Ascendant. People with cardinal signs on the Ascendant are +more tense, or we may call it more high-strung and sensitive than others. +They feel more keenly. Not alone are their feelings more quickly hurt, but +their bodies are more sensitive to pain, and heir suffering is more intense. + + This boy has the magnanimous and jovial Jupiter in conjunction with the +Ascendant. Jupiter is parallel to the moon, which is the ruler of the As- +cendant, and Jupiter and the moon are in mutual exception. The suave and +loving Venus is in the first house, which will give the native a beautiful +form and face and a most lovable and attractive personality. + + At the age of about twenty months he was taken ill with meningitis, which +is an inflammation of the membranes enveloping the brain and spinal cord. +He recovered from this illness, but his head began to enlarge, and he lost +his sense of hearing. The enlargement of the head became so pronounced that +it necessitated operations. At two periods a little past the age of three +years (we judge the first to have been about when the progressed moon +reached 27 degrees of Capricorn, which brought it to the opposition of Ve- +nus, or two months later when it reached the square of Mars) two operations + + +[PAGE 372] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +were performed. A small piece of bone was removed from each temple, making +an opening into the brain. This caused water to gush out of the brain, and +seemed to relieve the child for a time; but later it was necessary to + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 17C ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Pisces 16 SUN: Leo 22:37 SATURN: Leo 18:39 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aries 21 MOON: Sagitt. 7:56 URANUS: Aquarius 25:51R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Gemini 4 MERCURY: Virgo 16:29 NEPTUNE: Leo 7:27 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Cancer 11:14 VENUS: Cancer 27:07 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Cancer 29 MARS: Libra 29:28 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Leo 20 JUPITER: Cancer 7:05 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +relieve the back of the head by two operations just behind the ears, one on +each side of the head. We are unable to give the exact dates of these op- +erations. We believe, however, that the moon's aspects registered them. We +find that about twenty-five months after the first operation the moon was in +opposition to Saturn, which registered another disturbance that we feel + + +[PAGE 373] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + + +probably marked the time of the operation on the back of the head. + + The parents brought this boy from the middle West to Los Angeles and +placed him in charge of a noted osteopathic physician, who superintended the +operations and treated him with the scientific manipulations of the modern +and excellent method of healing, osteopathy. The parents also placed the +child on our healing list with the hope that he might regain his sense of +hearing, which he lost at about the age of one and one-half years. The +writer was not made familiar with the past of the boy until after she had +diagnosed the case to a friend, so we will see how closely the planets tally +with the case. + + Venus, which has rule over the thymus gland, is strong in the first house +and is afflicted by the square of Mars. Mars is close to the cusp of its +own sign Scorpio. Mars indicates injuries. Scorpio is the sign which has +rule over the physician. The birth of this boy was a very labored one. The +life of the mother as well as that of the boy was despaired of. The +present-day physician does not allow the birth to be a natural one if it +takes too much of his time, for he is too busy and must hurry back to his +office to see his other patients. Consequently a large proportion of births +are hurried through the use of instruments. In this case the forced birth +caused an injury to certain nerves and to the innominate blood vessels which +carry the blood through the thymus gland to the brain. With Saturn in con- +junction with the sun in Leo, which has rule over the spinal cord, and both + + +[PAGE 374] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +in opposition to Uranus the spinal fluid was restricted and sluggish. +Uranus, which is the higher octave of Venus, has rule over the pituitary +body. This body is connected directly with the outer sheath of the spinal +cord, the dura mater Uranus being afflicted by the sun and Saturn has inter- +fered much with the functions of the spinal fluids. + + The thymus gland in a small child regulates the blood flow to and from +the brain through the innominate artery and vein. At birth the neck of this +child was in some manner injured, causing restriction of the flow of the +blood. The circulation being restricted, the head consequently filled with +water. The most interesting proof of this is that at the removal of the +pieces of bone from the temples, also from the back of the head, there was +no red blood in the wounds, at which the doctors marveled. The osteopathic +physician had been very active in his manipulations and treatments of the +thymus gland and the spinal column, showing that his diagnosis tallied with +ours. + + The boy is seemingly in good health but has lost his hearing. There is +some hope that this may be regained. When he reaches puberty and the thy- +roid gland takes up the work of the thymus gland, the nerves and the blood +vessels which serve the ear may be stimulated, and through the aid of the +Invisible Helpers the hearing may be regained. There is, however, some dan- +ger that the operations which were performed on the back of the head may +have permanently injured the nerves, which would affect the hearing. + + +[PAGE 375] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + + (17D) THE ADRENALS + + Female, born November 27th, 1905, 1:15 P.M. + + This young woman has the watery and negative sign of Pisces on the Ascen- +dant, and Jupiter, the ruler, retrograde in Gemini in the third house in op- +position to the life-giving sun. This to begin with is a much hampered and +restricted ruler, and is an indication that this soul has in its former +lives contracted debts of destiny which have matured and await their payment +in this life; for if the life ruler is afflicted by the most powerful +planet, namely the sun, also the square of Saturn and the parallel of Mars, +and is receiving little help, having only one helpful aspect, the trine of +Mars from the twelfth house, then we may take it that this person will have +her debts to pay in this life, and there will be no freedom until they are +liquidated. + + We find a very well-aspected Mercury in the 10th house, in conjunction +with the moon, the Midheaven, and Uranus, and sextile to Saturn. The moon, +which has partial rule over the mind, is in conjunction with the Midheaven, +giving the native a quick, keen mind. From a mental standpoint this girl +should be able to accomplish anything upon which she sets her mind, and one +wonders why such a mind is seemingly not accomplishing anything. What is +the cause? + + +[PAGE 376] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + We find common signs on all the four angles; the life ruler, Jupiter, is +retrograde in the common sign of Gemini, which is the sign of its fall, and +the sun also is in a common sign. These are indications that this soul is +satisfied to drift with the tide. Whatever headway she makes in this life +will be through the prodding influence of the father, signified by the tenth + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 17D ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Sagitt. 20 SUN: Sagitt. 5:51 SATURN: Aquarius 26:50 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Capricorn 11 MOON: Sagitt. 19:40 URANUS: Capricorn 2:40 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Aquarius 5 MERCURY: Sagitt. 26:25 NEPTUNE: Cancer 9:54R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Pisces 11:13 VENUS: Scorpio 16:02 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Aries 27 MARS: Aquarius 7:14 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Taurus 27 JUPITER: Gemini 0:59R ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +house. + + Jupiter has rule over the arterial circulation. His afflictions tend to +restrict the free flow of the blood stream. Jupiter also has rule over the +adrenals, the two tiny ductless glands which are over the kidneys. These + + +[PAGE 377] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + +two organs, like the thyroid gland, help to take care of the blood. As it +passes through them, it receives its supply of adrenal secretion. This se- +cretion gives energy to the body and causes the fluids to flow more freely. +The adrenals are the organs which stimulate the body. When we find Jupiter, +which has rule over these organs, as the life ruler and so severely af- +flicted, we may expect the patient to be lacking in energy, a negative and +ambitionless person. + + Neptune, which is the higher octave of Mercury, works upon the nervous +system, and rules the pineal gland and the spinal canal. It is retrograde +and in opposition to the spasmodic and erratic Uranus, the planet which +rules the pituitary body. Therefore we may look for a general derangement +of the ductless glands. We find a disturbance of the adrenals, which are +excited by the emotions, causing an uneven flow of their secretions, +sometimes resulting in convulsions or the opposite, coma, according to the +character of the uncontrolled emotions of the patient. + + This girl is the daughter of a wealthy father and a most self-willed and +selfish mother, who is addicted to the use of cigarettes and liquor. While +the mother was pregnant with this child, at times when she saw her husband +coming from his place of business she would throw herself into a fit in or- +der to work on his sympathy. In this manner she would get all her selfish +wants supplied. We are told in he Rosicrucian teachings that the Ego is at- +tracted to a parent through whom it may receive its lessons, and it may well + + +[PAGE 378] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +be said that this girl found in her mother one who could bring to her many +sad lessons. + + If the girl is crossed she quickly flies into a rage which ends in a fit +very similar to epilepsy. However, she does not froth at the mouth, neither +do her jaws set, as is sometimes the case in the above disease. Temper +causes the adrenal fluid to flow too rapidly into the blood. Excess of this +fluid causes jealousy and envy. + + We find two different conditions expressed in the spells under which this +girl labors. Jupiter is in opposition to the sun, and parallel to Mars, +which causes at times an excess of secretions, giving rise to the condition +already mentioned. At other time she will swoon away, being perfectly life- +less and rigid. This last condition is brought on when the adrenals stop +sending their fluid into the blood, indicated by Saturn square to Jupiter. +When under the first mentioned condition she has all the appearance of one +who is obsessed and becomes very cruel to those about her. This is also +shown in the horoscope by the opposition of Neptune to Uranus. + + The father has spent a fortune trying first one doctor and then another, +but to no avail. The girl is quite normal when not laboring under the in- +fluence of these spells. She, like her mother, also throws herself into +them in order to work upon the sympathy of her mother, sisters, and father. + + The latest diagnosis of the doctors is that a tumor is growing in the + + +[PAGE 379] THE DUCTLESS GLANDS + +brain near the cerebellum, and both the girl and her mother wish her to have +an operation, while the father is bitterly opposed to it. What the outcome +will be remains to be seen. Should she submit to the knife, as she is de- +termined to do, she may spend the remainder of her life in an institution as +a mental patient. + + +[PAGE 380] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + CHAPTER XXIX + + SPECIAL CONDITIONS + + NO. 18A.--DEFICIENCY IN LYMPH + + Male, born May 11, 1913, 6:59 A.M. + + A CHILD is the subject of this reading, who was about fifteen months old +at the time the reading was originally made. Ordinarily it might seem su- +perfluous to judge the character and mentality of one so young. Neverthe- +less, when we consider the body from a spiritual standpoint as the temple of +an indwelling divine spirit, it will be seen that the builder and architect +of that temple must be taken into consideration from the very first breath +until the time when the silver cord snaps. + + The mercurial sign Gemini is rising, but there is not the ordinary Gemini +nature, for Saturn in Gemini puts his obstructive hand upon this child and +will give a tendency to melancholy and a retiring disposition, a desire to +get away from society. + + Mercury and Venus in Aries, square to the moon and Neptune, give a ten- +dency to secretiveness, but the sextile of Saturn to Mars and Saturn's trine +to Uranus make the mind idealistic and energetic. Thus on the whole there + + +[PAGE 381] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +is good material for the parents to work upon. They should by all means +discourage the tendency to secretiveness, encourage idealism, and make the +youngster play with his companions. It looks very much as though + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 18A ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Aquarius 26 SUN: Taurus 20:10 SATURN: Gemini 5:13 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Pisces 28 MOON: Cancer 24:14 URANUS: Aquarius 7:33 ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Taurus 8 MERCURY: Aries 28:46 NEPTUNE: Cancer 23:36 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Gemini 19:19 VENUS: Aries 26:33R DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Cancer 11 MARS: Aries 2:35 Aries 0:49 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Leo 2 JUPITER: Capricorn 17:47R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Libra 0:49 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +he might be too much taken with himself, and from the very earliest child- +hood he should be taught to go among people. He should never be allowed to +go out by himself more than can possibly be helped. + + +[PAGE 382] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + Usually children of this age sleep largely from morning till night and +from night till morning; as soon as they have received food they go out into +dreamland that assimilation may be carried on better. But this is not the +case with our little subject; sleeplessness, restlessness, and nervousness +are the results of the opposition of the moon and Neptune to Jupiter and the +square of these three planets to Mercury and Venus posited in Aries, the +sign governing the head. Thus the whole nature is aquiver, the child cannot +get the needed rest, hence it is sick. + + The main trouble comes from the fact that the moon is conjunct Neptune. +This interferes with the distribution of the fluid indispensable to as- +similation, the lymph. Jupiter is afflicted by these two planets, and he +governs assimilation. On account of these two facts the child will not grow +as fast as he might other wise. He has peculiar notions about his food, and +these ideas will grow as he grows. This tendency is one of the things that +must be dealt with firmly, for the square of the moon to Venus gives abnor- +mal cravings, the moon and Neptune in Cancer will cause the child to long +for something that he never finds, and this might lead to the formation of +habits that would be extremely dangerous. No matter how he may protest and +though it may seem that ordinary foods do not agree with him, he should be +taught to eat everything of a good and healthful nature that comes on the +table, for the formation of a healthy appetite will counteract the strange + + +[PAGE 383] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +tendency that is dormant in his nature. Sweets in moderation will help. + + The circulation is interfered with by the affliction of Neptune and the +moon to Venus and Jupiter. Saturn and Uranus are strongly configurated by +trine and parallel from airy signs; this further reacts upon the circulation +and makes it spasmodic. The heart has a tendency to flutter on account of +the presence of Uranus in Aquarius. Thus the poor little child is consider- +ably afflicted to start with. Nevertheless there is no need of worry, for +the sun is trine to Jupiter and sextile to the moon and Neptune. The fact +also that it is in the marvelously vital sign of Taurus will operate to pre- +serve life, and even Saturn on the Ascendant gives persistence, resistance +to disease, and tenacity of life. + + There will be crises in the life, however, which knowledge of the forego- +ing will make it more easy for the parents to prepare for. The most severe +one will come at the time of puberty. Then the progressed moon will be +working in the 8th house, the house of death, and in opposition to its own +place, configurated with Neptune and square to Mercury and Venus. This is a +serious position but not all to be feared on account of the fact that the +sun is so strong in the horoscope. Moreover the trine of Saturn and Uranus +and the sextile of Saturn and Mars give a wonderful elasticity and energy to +the nature so that no matter though the boy be brought near the grave, he +will have the resilience to recuperate with astonishing rapidity. + + +[PAGE 384] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + At the present time it should be investigated as to whether the mother is +nursing the child, and whether she has felt nervous and run down. If so, +the child should at once be put upon a diet of goat's milk, which will give +the needed ether to compensate for the lack of lymph, and though the child +may not like the diet, he will grow accustomed to it. + + --------------- + + NO. 18.B--POLYPI AND KIDNEY TROUBLE + + + Male, born June 3, 1865, at 3:00 A.M. + + WE have here the horoscope of a man with the fixed sign of Taurus on the +Ascendant, and the ruler, Venus, posited just above the Ascendant in Taurus +and in the 12th house. Venus is making but two major aspects, a conjunction +with the Ascendant, and a square to the inflammatory Mars, which is in the +fixed sign of Leo and in the 4th house. + + The sign of Taurus rules the neck, throat, lower jaw, larynx, and ton- +sils, and its opposite signs, Scorpio, rules the rectum, descending colon, +urethra, and also the nose. These signs of Scorpio and Taurus are the most + + +[PAGE 385] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +vital signs of the twelve. Mark the strange coincidence which lies in the +fact that Taurus rules the greater part of the lower head and neck, and the +organs adjacent to the upper end of the spinal column, while Scorpio slips +in with its influence by ruling the nose in addition to the organs + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 18B ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn 25 SUN: Gemini 12:41 SATURN: Libra 24:05R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius 20 MOON: Libra 4:19 URANUS: Gemini 28:39 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces 26 MERCURY: Taurus 18:58 NEPTUNE: Aries 10:10 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Taurus 12:27 VENUS: Taurus 9:42 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Gemini 11 MERCURY: Taurus 18:58 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Cancer 4 JUPITER: Sagitt. 25:37R ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +near the lower end of the spinal column. Leo, the sign which squares Taurus +and Scorpio, rules THE RIVER OF LIFE, the spinal fluid, which connects the +organs ruled by Taurus and Scorpio. + + +[PAGE 386] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + Now in the horoscope under consideration we find the inflammatory Mars in +Leo, square to Venus in Taurus. Venus, being at home in this sign, +naturally attracts to herself the inflammatory influence of Mars whenever +Mars is found either in Taurus or afflicting her in that sign. Then we may +look for inflammatory troubles in the nose, generative organs, or rectum. +We may also look for the polypus which is a small growth peduncular in shape +that grows from the mucous membrane of the nose, and which often closes the +nasal passages, causing difficulty in breathing. It sometimes also grows +within the vagina or rectum. The habit of mouth breathing in children often +lays the foundation for these growths in the nose when planetary afflictions +are present in the horoscope. The mucous membrane of the nose is then ab- +normally sensitive and subject to irritation, which may result in these +polypi, frequently causing hay fever or asthma. + + The patient whose horoscope we are considering suffered with these +growths in both nasal passages, making it necessary that he breathe entirely +through the mouth. The moon is in 4 degrees and 19 minutes of Libra in the +6th house, which is the house of health. The moon is the natural ruler of +Cancer, the sign ruling the stomach. At the age of twenty-eight, when the +moon by progression had reached its place at birth, this man became seri- +ously ill with painter's colic, which later resulted in permanent injury to +the kidneys. The latter is due to the moon and Saturn in Libra, which sign +has rule over the kidneys. This general break in the health increased the + + +[PAGE 387] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +small growths in the nose, which resulted in an operation when the moon pro- +gressed into Scorpio and was in opposition to Venus. + + By eliminating meat, tobacco, liquor, and all condiments and living as +near as possible to nature's laws, this man is again enjoying good health. + + NO. 18C.--PYORRHEA + + Female, born July 13, 1871, 5:30 A.M. + + LEO, a fiery sign, here in on the Ascendant with the life ruler, the sun, +in the 21th house in Cancer in conjunction with Mercury and Uranus and +square to Neptune. We know from our reading of THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS +that Cancer rules the stomach, in which the greater amount of food must be +digested. This organ is the central supply station through which the body +receives its sustenance. Cancer also rules the esophagus, the tube between +the pharynx and the stomach, and the thoracic duct, the principal duct which +carries the lymph of the body. + + We note in this horoscope Uranus afflicted by a square of Neptune from +the Midheaven and the sign Aries. With Mercury and the sun also in + + +[PAGE 388] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +conjunction with Uranus and square to Neptune, we may expect an abnormal or +a radical mind. When an idea is formed it is carried to an extreme. This +woman could find no limit in anything, and we find this tendency indicated +regarding food. With the sign of Cancer on the cusp of the 12th house, the + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 18C ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aries 14 SUN: Cancer 20:35 SATURN: Capricorn 5:32R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Taurus 22 MOON: Gemini 4:10 URANUS: Cancer 26:31 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 1 MERCURY: Cancer 22:58 NEPTUNE: Aries 24:02 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Leo 1:43 VENUS: Virgo 6:05 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Leo 21 MARS: Libra 12:48 Gemini 29:48 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 14 JUPITER: Cancer 11:16 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Sagitt. 29:48 ] + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +house of self-undoing and limitations, and with the above afflictions of +Uranus, Mercury, and the sun we may expect great impulse and a decided ten- +dency to overeat. + + The plants in the 12th and 6th houses when afflicted are the most + + +[PAGE 389] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +detrimental to health, and in this horoscope we may look to th stomach as +being the seat of the trouble. Let us find the reason for this assertion: +The moon which is the ruler of the 12th house is in the house of friends, +the 11th, and square to Venus in the 2nd in the 6th house sign, Virgo, rul- +ing labor and sickness. This plainly shows us that this woman was most hos- +pitable, loved to entertain her friends, was happy when she could regale +them, and as indicated went to extremes in this direction. Venus square +moon indicates an abnormal desire for pastry and sugar; it indicates one who +having eaten a heavy meal, richly prepared, would indulge in chocolate +creams and various other ash producing dainties. This is one of the types +of women whom we often meet, whose greatest pride is in cooking and who are +never so happy as when they are entertaining at a sumptuously prepared +table. Cancer people are good cooks and usually take great pride in cater- +ing to the needs of the stomach. + + In this horoscope we find Saturn, the planet of obstruction, in its own +sign Capricorn and in the 6th house, health. Saturn is in opposition to ju- +piter in the sign of the stomach and in the 12th house. Planets and their +afflictions often show their effect in opposite signs, and when Saturn is in +Capricorn we usually expect some derangement of the stomach, for his effects +there are very similar to those of Saturn in Cancer. With Jupiter ruling +the arterial circulation, afflicted by Saturn, we may expect trouble with + + +[PAGE 390] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +the circulatory system of the stomach. And with the spasmodic Uranus in +conjunction with mercury, the nerves are also sensitive and nervous indiges- +tion is indicated. + + Now, when Saturn afflicts the stomach, there is a lack of pepsin and +stomach fluids wherewith to digest the food. Saturn in Cancer or Capricorn +gives abnormal appetite and makes one very fond of pastry, especially of +sugar, as does Venus square moon mentioned before. As vegetarians, such +people find it very hard to keep their bodies in good order for they will +usually refuse raw vegetables, preferring the starches and sugars. As a re- +sult the body does not receive the proper amount of mineral elements, and +the blood soon fills with ash. When an overabundance of refuse is stored up +in the blood, the body must seek a means of eliminating the waste matter. +If it is unable to find an outlet through which to throw off the impurities, +and if the bowels also refuse to do their part as is often the case when an +overabundance of food is consumed, then an illness is the result. We fre- +quently find cases of catarrh, skin disease, ulcers, etc., which are merely +an avenue the body uses to dispose of an excess of ash. + + In the case of this woman we find the gums eliminating pus and receding +toward the roots of the teeth. This disease is commonly called pyorrhea or +Riggs' disease and is increasing to an alarming degree in America. It was +rarely heart of fifty years ago, but since there has developed such a craze + + +[PAGE 391] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +for sugar and candy humanity is paying the price. + + To overcome this disease a well balanced, simple, vegetarian diet, free +from sugars and starches is advisable, and the careful cleansing of the gums +with lemon water each day. + + --------------- + + NO. 18D.--AUTO-INTOXICATION + + Male, born November 4th 1882, 11:49 P.M. + + THIS horoscope is that of a man with the watery sign of Cancer on the As- +cendant. In diagnosing it is customary to look to the sixth house, which +has rule over disease, and its ruler for the key to the trouble. In this +horoscope we have the sign of Capricorn on the cusp of the sixth house, with +its ruler, Saturn, in the 10th house in conjunction with the Dragon's Tail, +which is Saturnian in its influence. Saturn is also conjunction Neptune in +Taurus. These are all in opposition to the inflammatory Mars, which is +strong in its home sign Scorpio, having rule over the rectum and generative +organs. This is a most dangerous and subtle affliction, increased by +Neptune parallel the sun in Scorpio, and indicates an unrestrained passional + + +[PAGE 392] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +nature which in childhood found its outlet through the secret habit of mas- +turbation. This in time depletes the vitality, stunting the mentality, and +also the physical growth, and later in life causes much physical trouble. + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 18D ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Taurus 13 SUN: Scorpio 12:38 SATURN: Taurus 23:28R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Gemini 8 MOON: Virgo 8:43 URANUS: Virgo 22:05 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 0 MERCURY: Libra 24:13 NEPTUNE: Taurus 17:33R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Cancer 24:35 VENUS: Sagitt. 19:55 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Virgo 4 MARS: Scorpio 22:57 Scorpio 20:56 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Libra 13 JUPITER: Cancer 0:57R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Taurus 20:56 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + Scorpio rules both the rectum and the vital organs, and when excesses oc- +cur they often cause inflammation in the rectum resulting in intestinal hem- +orrhoids, interfering with elimination and causing a general sluggishness of +the excretory duet. + + We find the spasmodic Uranus in Virgo, the sign ruling the intestines; + + +[PAGE 393] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +it is also the natural sixth house sign and the sign which rules sickness. +Uranus is square to Venus, which rules the venous blood. Here we have indi- +cation of restricted circulation in the small intestine. Jupiter, the +planet of opulence, the planet which wants things in large quantities, is in +Cancer, the sign ruling the stomach, and in the twelfth house, the house of +self-undoing, sextile to the ruler of the Ascendant, the moon, indicating +that this young man has been a very hearty eater, carrying eating to excess. + + He dissipated the life forces during the period of life when he was in +greatest need of them, and has also consumed more food than the organs could +digest and distribute. Naturally, when the organs of elimination refused to +work, as might be expected, the blood stream became charged with ash, caus- +ing granulation of the joints through the excessive clogging generated in +the body from too much protein. This also burned up the natural body oils, +causing a granulation of the eyelids, rheumatism, and a generally weakened +condition of the entire system. + + Our advice to this patient would be to eliminate meats and starches, tak- +ing very little of the proteins, and to eat mostly fruits and vegetables; +also to live a chaste, clean life. Care should be taken to have his sur- +roundings clean and to sleep in a room with plenty of fresh air, for when we +find Saturn afflicted by the Dragon's Tail and Neptune in Taurus, it indi- +cates a tendency to neglect the sanitation of the body and surroundings. + + +[PAGE 394] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + NO. 18E.--PERITONITIS + + Male, born August 4, 1862, 11:30 P.M. + + TAURUS, a fixed and stubborn sign, is on the Ascendant, with the ruler, +Venus, in the watery sign of Cancer, square to the fiery and impulsive Mars, +and parallel to the ruler of Cancer, and watery moon. Venus is also ruler +of the house of sickness, the 6th house. Mars is in the 12th house in its +own sign of Aries. + + We may look for the key to the trouble in the configuration and the posi- +tions of the above three planets, Venus, Mars, and the moon. + + The planets that are in a location corresponding to that part of the body +in which the disease is found are not alone the cause of the disease. If a +burglar has entered our home and carried away our jewels, the first step to +be taken to find the culprit is to ascertain the place of his entrance. So +also must we find the gateway or the cause of the disease. + + Venus, we know, is the planet ruling sweets, sugars, etc. Taurus is the +sign ruling the throat, the palate; therefore Taurus has great influence +over the appetites. Venus is in Cancer, the sign ruling the stomach and the +thoracic duct, and is afflicted by a square to Mars. Mars when afflicted by +Venus and when in its own sign of Aries causes dissipation and desire for + + +[PAGE 395] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +excesses in eating, especially when Venus is in the sign of the stomach. +Taurians are usually very fond of food things to eat and drink; they are +hearty eaters and are apt to gourmandize. Therefore with the above + + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 18E ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aquarius 4 SUN: Leo 12:25 SATURN: Virgo 20:34 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Pisces 7 MOON: Sagitt. 8:10 URANUS: Gemini 19:40 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Aries 6 MERCURY: Cancer 27:50 NEPTUNE: Aries 3:39R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Taurus 0:27 VENUS: Cancer 10:34 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus 29 MARS: Aries 14:00 Sagitt. 22:36 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Cancer 1 JUPITER: Virgo 26:07 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Gemini 22:36 ] + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + +afflictions this native would eat and drink to excess. + + Uranus in Gemini is in a very nervous position. This excitable, rest- +less, and nervous planet, especially as it is squared by Saturn and Jupiter +from another mercurial sign, Virgo, will have a strong effect upon the + + +[PAGE 396] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +nervous system. + + Now, with Venus, which has rule over the venous blood, afflicted by Mars, +and with Jupiter, ruling the arterial blood, afflicted by the conjunction of +Saturn and the square of Uranus, this man has a very sluggish circulation, +especially of the stomach and small intestines. With both Jupiter and Sat- +urn posited in Virgo, what could be expected but that when an affliction +touches any of these planets sickness would result? + + At the age of thirty-nine th native's progressed sun reached the square +to Uranus which brought on nervous trouble. At the same time the sun was +within one degree of a conjunction of Saturn radical. The sun takes three +years to pass a conjunction; one year applying, one year in conjunction, and +another year separating. Therefore, this man passed through a double af- +fliction at that time, and a severe spell of peritonitis was the result. He +was unable to recover readily from this sickness, since through his igno- +rance of the causes he did not stop his heavy indulgence in food and drink. +In 1918, when the progressed moon came to the square of Saturn and Jupiter +and the opposition of Uranus, another illness occurred, which left him with +a severe case of catarrh of the intestines. + + If a patient of this type should call upon a probationer for advice and +help, what should he advise? He should first find the cause, and it is so +evident there that excess of food and drink were responsible that he should + + +[PAGE 397] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +advise abstinence from food for a short time, especially that ruled by Mars, +such as highly seasoned articles and condiments. Liquor and tobacco should +be entirely avoided. A strict vegetarian diet should be advised with plenty +of fresh air and sunshine to assist in relaxing the nerves. Where the Venus +and Jupiter circulations are sluggish, a friction bath would be advisable. + + +[PAGE 398] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + NO. 18F.--ARTERIO-SCLEROSIS + + Male, born July 27th, 1856, 5:00 A.M. + + As has been often stated in our astrological books and lessons, man is +master of this fate. He has his whole life before him, either to make or to +mar. Here we have a horoscope for diagnosis that speaks for itself, that of +a man who has had everything in his favor, with but two evil aspects in the +entire horoscope; everything else is good. We find the sun and Venus con- +junction in the sign of the heart, Leo, one of the strongest signs of the +entire twelve. Both these planets are sextile to the moon and trine to Ju- +piter, Jupiter being near the Midheaven. The mentality is decidedly strong +and keen, especially along metaphysical lines. Neptune is in its own home +(Pisces), sextile to Uranus and trine to Mercury. The moon is also well +aspected and in a mental sign, Gemini. This man ha a wonderful start in +life, and brought over with him from a previous life many fine qualities. + + As is often stated in astrological books by old and reliable writers, Ju- +piter in the Midheaven brings much good to the native. And surely this man +had many opportunities to succeed. Now why did he fail? + + First, we find Saturn in Cancer. As stated in THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS, +page 257, this "indicates that the stomach is weak and the gums subject to +pyorrhea. There is inability to properly digest the food." The stomach is + + +[PAGE 399] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +lacking in the fluids necessary to aid digestion. The native is also very +peculiar in his likes and dislikes as to food. This is the key to his +bodily afflictions. We find Saturn making a square to Jupiter, which rules +the arterial blood, and as stated on page 299 of THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS, + + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 18F ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Aries 22 SUN: Leo 4:28 SATURN: Cancer 7:49 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Taurus 29 MOON: Gemini 10:07 URANUS: Taurus 24:36 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Cancer 5 MERCURY: Cancer 20:35 NEPTUNE: Pisces 20:10R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Leo 5:50 VENUS: Leo 6:19 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Leo 26 MARS: Libra 27:53 Aries 19:07 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Virgo 21 JUPITER: Aries 9:10 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Libra 19:07 ] + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +under this aspect the native is "indolent and inclined to drift with the +tide; often a ward of society either in the poorhouse or prison. This as- +pect also gives a tendency to arterio-sclerosis." + + +[PAGE 400] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + We find the coarse, combative, discordant, passionate, and hot-tempered +Mars in Libra, a Venus sign. When afflicted it brings out its own lower na- +ture and that of Venus, creating undue attraction to the opposite sex. As +Mars is co-ruler of the 5th house and is making a square to the impulsive +and egotistical Mercury, the native's in harmony and hot temper have led him +to excesses. Instead of expressing the beautiful, artistic, and musical na- +ture of the sun and Venus conjunction on the Ascendant in Leo trine to Jupi- +ter, this man has directed an excess of love and vitality in the wrong di- +rection. He has indulged too freely in rich food, and has expended much of +his energy through the 5th house, pleasures. He has had much in harmony in +the home, caused by himself and his temper. As a result the blood has +become vitiated, and he now is in a very advanced stage of +arterio-sclerosis. + + In order to find out the time of the affliction we will go to his +forty-fourth year when the progressed moon had reached the 6th house in the +first degrees of Capricorn. It there made an opposition to Saturn in the +12th house in Cancer, the stomach, and a square to Jupiter in the Midheaven. +At the same time we find Mars progressed has reached 24-51 of Scorpio, mak- +ing an opposition to Uranus in Taurus. Impulse and excesses in fast living +at that time broke down his system, and since then the man has been an in- +valid, perfectly helpless, wheeled in a chair and confined in hospitals, due +to Saturn and Mercury in the 12th house, self-undoing. But he has always + + +[PAGE 401] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + + +found some kind hearted woman friend to look after his wants. He has been a +very difficult patient; his temper has been dreadful. Through his suffering +he has allowed himself to drift into this state of irascibility. Instead of +responding to the beautiful Venus influence he has given way to Mars square +Mercury. + + In order to improve he should have a nurse with Saturn well aspected, one +of an Aquarian nature, cool, calm, and collected, who could soothe him, +quiet his temper, and with great diplomacy lead him into right living. At +present he demands certain food and unless the nurse gives it to him he has +a dreadful spell of temper. This man would have to be loved into doing +things. To make a demand upon him or to tell him he dare not do a certain +thing would only awaken the spirit of opposition in him. Brisk massage with +a pair of rough bath gloves to open the pores of the skin and start the cir- +culation would be beneficial. Proper food and assistance to control his +temper would in time help him to overcome his condition. + + +[PAGE 402] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + NO. 18G.--TYPHOID AND SPINAL TROUBLE + + Male, born December 29, 2900, 12:45 A.M. + + FOUR cardinal signs are on the angles, with Mars trine to the sun and +Saturn. These testimonies show the person to be endowed with good vitality +and with an active and ambitious nature. But the counteracting aspects are +also strong. The moon is square to the sun and Saturn, Mars is square to +the ruler, Venus, and the majority of the planets are under the earth. This +takes away from the general resistance of the person. The opposition of +Neptune to Jupiter and Mercury in mental signs, Gemini and Sagittarius shows +that the native is of a very nervous temperament. + + Neptune in the 9th house usually gives a tendency to be a dreamer of +dreams, a visionary who grasps at the illusory things in life rather than +those that are near by the tangible. Neptune's opposition to Mercury, the +planet of reason, shows that this would be particularly accentuated in the +present case. The moon in Aries square to the sun and Saturn would further +make the mind flighty and unstable. + + Mars in Virgo configurated with uranus, whether by good or evil aspects, +makes a person liable to intestinal disorders. Mars is the planet of in- +flammation and fevers. He causes operations and other violence. Configura- +tions of Mars with Uranus have been observed to result not only in typhoid +and gastric fevers, but also very often Mars ruptures the peritoneum and + + +[PAGE 403] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +causes the person to have a prominent abdomen. The young man whose horo- +scope we are considering had typhoid fever as an initial disease when the +moon passed the conjunction of Mars by progression through the eleventh + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 18G ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 21 SUN: Capricorn 7:05 SATURN: Capricorn 7:24 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 25 MOON: Aries 9:15 URANUS: Sagitt. 14:10 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 24 MERCURY: Sagitt. 23:30 NEPTUNE: Gemini 27:35R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 17:46 VENUS: Sagitt. 7:20 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 15 MARS: Virgo 11:12 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 16 JUPITER: Sagitt. 25:20 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +house. Later she came to the square of Neptune, Jupiter, and Mercury. Then +the native's spine began to weaken. You will notice that the opposition of +Neptune to Jupiter and Mercury is from Gemini to Sagittarius, covering the +region of the spine. The moon later progressed to the opposition of her own + + +[PAGE 404] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +place at birth, and as the radical moon in Aries has particular dominion +over the cerebellum, which is the organ of coordination of movement, you +will readily understand that this makes it difficult for the patient to +walk. + + This is a curious case of interlocking afflictions and good aspects, for +you will observe that whenever the two principal afflicters Mars and the +moon, are struck by an adverse aspect there is always a good set of aspects +to minimize the evil effects. Were this not so the severe afflictions would +certainly have done away with this young man long ago. The square between +the moon and Saturn is particularly inimical. + + The moon progresses around the horoscope in twenty-eight years as we mea- +sure a day for a year. Saturn in the heavens by transit actually moves +around the circle of the zodiac in about thirty years. Thus the progressed +moon and the transiting Saturn are always bound to follow each other pretty +closely. When they are square at the birth of a person, they keep that same +relationship for a considerable number of years. Thus good aspects in the +horoscope are offset by the fact that the progressed moon is square to the +transiting Saturn, and evil aspects are similarly accentuated by this unfor- +tunate square. Therefore anybody who has this unfortunate configuration is +certainly under the whiplash of Saturn all his life. Even the good aspects +which we note in this horoscope and which are certainly very strong are to + + +[PAGE 405] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +some degree nullified by the square of Saturn and the moon at birth. + + Saturn always indicates that part of our destiny which has been brought +over from previous lives, and is almost unalterable. Therefore in this case +there is unfortunately not much to do. Baths and massage applied by a +healer who has Aquarius rising and whose Saturn is not in Libra or Pisces +would be most helpful. + + +[PAGE 406] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + NO. 18H: NARCOTICS--CIGARETTES + + + Female, born April 7, 1880, at 7:00 A.M. + + WE have here a most interesting case, that of a woman with the fixed sign +of Taurus on the Ascendant, and with the ruler in the watery sign of Pisces, +intercepted in the 11th house, in conjunction with the watery moon, and +square to the fiery and destructive Mars. Mars is the ruler of the 12th +house, the house of confinement, and Venus is the ruler of the 6th house +governing sickness. + + About 1904 the patient was operated on and had one kidney removed. She +could not give the exact year, but from planetary aspects we feel certain it +was in 1904, when the progressed sun ha just passed a conjunction with the +radical Neptune near the Ascendant, and the progressed moon was making a +square both to the radical Neptune and the progressed sun. At the present +writing this poor woman, who is forty-four years of age, expects to become a +mother in three months, and is struggling to overcome the dread narcotic +habit, which she has had about six years, also the cigarette habit. + + A most interesting principle is brought out in this horoscope. Neptune +in Taurus near the Ascendant is trine to Uranus in Virgo in the 5th house. +These planets are in signs of mutual reception; that is, Neptune being the +higher octave of Mercury is in a Venus sign, Taurus, and Uranus the higher + + +[PAGE 407] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +octave of Venus is in the mercurial sign of Virgo. The trine of these two +mystical planets would indicate the development of the two ductless glands +represented by them, namely the pineal gland by Neptune and the pituitary +body by Uranus. When these two glands are for any reason awakened and the + + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 18H ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn 29 SUN: Aries 18:02 SATURN: Aries 18:39 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius 25 MOON: Pisces 23:07 URANUS: Virgo 5:22R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Aries 2 MERCURY: Aries 2:14R NEPTUNE: Taurus 10:52 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Taurus 19:40 VENUS: Pisces 22:25 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Gemini 17 MARS: Gemini 27:43 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Cancer 8 JUPITER: Aries 1:06R ] + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +soul does not respond to the higher life but is inclined to drift into sen- +sual and worldly channels, their awakening then frequently leads to the +grossest indulgence of the lower nature--sometimes to drink or narcotics as + + +[PAGE 408] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +in the case of this poor woman. + + Venus and the moon in conjunction in Pisces, Venus being the ruler of the +6th house, governing sickness, and Mars the ruler of the 12th house, govern- +ing hospitals, indicate that some one in a hospital was responsible for her +forming the habit of taking narcotics from which she is suffering and this +person we believe to be a doctor friend who attended her. At the time when +she claimed she acquired the habit of using narcotics we find the progressed +Mercury trine to Uranus and the progressed Venus in conjunction with +Neptune. This would have a tendency to awaken the above mentioned glands +and cause a soul hunger, which in this case the woman mistook for a desire +to indulge in soul flights through the use of narcotics instead of through +living the Christ life. + + But the struggle now comes to get relief when she is in a most weakened, +despondent, and generally rundown condition from a spell of influenza com- +plicated by pregnancy, nerves, and insomnia; also the elimination through +the one remaining kidney is now being interfered with by Saturn conjunction +sun in Aries, which is producing an effect in the opposite sign of Libra. + + The one gleam of hope held out through the planets is the progressed sun +within orb of a sextile to the radical Jupiter and the progressed Mars trine +to the radical moon. These aspects are most favorable for the aid of the +Invisible Helpers, who can accomplish much more under favorable planetary + + +[PAGE 409] SPECIAL CONDITIONS + +aspects than at other times. Especially is she likely to receive help be- +cause her spirit is most desirous of overcoming, although she is lacking in +faith regarding our method of healing. She was persuaded to call upon us +for help by her own doctor, who had been healed through our Invisible help- +ers. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 410] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + CHAPTER XXX + + INSANITY + + NO. 19A.--A MENTAL CASE + + Female, born June 12, 1897, 9:00 P.M. + + WE have at all times tried to impress upon the minds of students of the +Rosicrucian Philosophy the great necessity of always looking at the bright +side of life, and ever to hold out hope to unhappy and afflicted ones. If +we aspire to be helpers of humanity, workers in God's great vineyard, we +must always throw the life line to the drowning man, that is, give him that +hope, that help, which means life to him. The astrologer who voices the +doom of his patient and takes the last ray of hope away when one who is suf- +fering comes to him perhaps as the last resort is little less than a mur- +derer. This may be putting it very strongly, but the writer feels that this +point cannot be emphasized too much. + + To illustrate the danger that lies in the prediction of death: a woman +wrote to Headquarters stating that she had but two more years to live, for +the astrologers had predicted this. Would we advise her, she asked, to take + + +[PAGE 411] INSANITY + +up the Rosicrucian Philosophy and astrology, and should she go ahead with +the school which she had started, or would it be best to give everything up +and prepare herself or the coming event, her passing out of the physical + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 19A ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Scorpio 5 SUN: Gemini 22:16 SATURN: Scorpio 25:40R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Scorpio 29 MOON: Scorpio 26:58 URANUS: Scorpio 25:59R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Sagitt. 21 MERCURY: Taurus 29:50 NEPTUNE: Gemini 20:05 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Capricorn 13:06 VENUS: Taurus 9:38 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Aquarius 23 MARS: Leo 14:46 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Aries 3 JUPITER: Virgo 3:27 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +body? We can assure you that this woman received a letter from Headquarters +that as surrounded by strong vibrations which scattered effectually the +thoughts of death. As a result of the letter she became a student of the +Philosophy and is today an active and healthy woman, destined to reach a + + +[PAGE 412] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +ripe old age. The astrologer who predicted this woman's death might have +been guilty of murder, but fortunately through her coming in contact with +one of our pupils who advised her to write to Headquarters, this was +averted. + + In 19A we have a patient who has so many weak and afflicted planets that +the astrologer must use the greatest diplomacy in order to encourage her. +On the first house is the gloomy, pessimistic Capricorn, with the ruler, +Saturn, in the Midheaven afflicted by the conjunction of the negative, vi- +sionary, worrisome moon and the irresponsible and fanatical Uranus; and to +make it even more unfortunate these three planets are in conjunction in the +fixed and martial sign of Scorpio, the natural eighth house sign, the house +of death. Mercury, the ruler of the mind, is in the gloomy and stubborn +sign of Taurus in opposition to the afflicted planets in Scorpio. Could we +find anything more unfortunate for mental trouble? When Taurus is afflicted +he assists Capricorn in magnifying the gloom side of life and increases his +brooding over imaginary ills, so you can imagine the temperament of this +poor woman. She was sadly in need of help. + + Her request for help came to us in November, 1916. She was at that time +in such a mental state that she had threatened suicide, could do nothing but +weep, and was surrounded by imaginary troubles. But she was very faithful +in writing her weekly letters and did all possible to cooperate with the +healers. When she requested healing her progressed Mars was square to the + + +[PAGE 413] INSANITY + +radical moon, Uranus, and Saturn in Scorpio, which caused this mental dis- +turbance. But fortunately the progressed moon at that time was in 25 degrees +of Cancer trine and sextile to the afflicted planets in the 10th and 5th +houses respectively. This was the life line that was ready to be thrown to +help her. + + Note that the artistic harmonious, and musical radical Venus is in her +own sign of Taurus, trine to the reverent and optimistic Jupiter. The one +window of light open to her was this good aspect--music and art. It was +necessary to bring harmony into this poor inharmonious mind, and we pre- +vailed upon her and her friends to provide her with music in the home and to +interest her in art. At the time of her request for help her progressed sun +was in 9 degrees and 50 minutes of Cancer, making a good aspect to the +radical Venus. This as the means of saving her reason. In May 1917 she +wrote us she was feeling so much better that she did not need the help of +the healers any longer. + + Here we can see what a wonderful work can be done through a true knowl- +edge of astrology. Had an unscrupulous astrologer met this woman and pre- +dicted suicide, the danger of which as shown so plainly in the figure, he +might have been her murderer. Therefore, dear friends, we hope you will +take this as a lesson to use astrology to help and to heal and not to wound. + + +[PAGE 414] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + NO. 19B.--INSANITY + + Female, Born January 7, 1868. + + Although we are unable to predict the dates of crises in her illness on +account of the lack of the birth hour, still the aspects between the planets +in this woman's chart, show sufficiently well the nature of the illness and +the yearly crises. We find the erratic and eccentric Uranus in the psychic +sign of Cancer, in opposition to Mars, the planet of impulse and reckless- +ness. Uranus is also in opposition to the life-given sun and to Mercury, +the planet of reason, both placed in the belligerent and violent sign Capri- +corn. All four of these planets are square by Neptune in Aries, the sign +which rules the head and the brain. + + We find that the benevolent ray of Jupiter is quenched by its placement +in the twelfth house sign of Pisces, indicating sorrow, trouble, and +self-undoing. There is is conjoined with the saturnine Dragon's Tail and +squared by the moon, the giver of visions and imagination, making the mind +morbid. He is also squared by Saturn, the planet of gloom and melancholy. +As a result of all these adverse, perverse, and perverting influences the +poor woman has always been weakminded, impulsive, reckless, gloomy, erratic, +and visionary. In the year 1915 matters cam to a crisis when the sun was in +the twelfth house sign of Pisces, ruling hospitals and asylums. The + + +[PAGE 415] INSANITY + +progressed moon also was there in conjunction with the sun and th saturnine +Dragon's Tail, and all of them square Saturn, with the result that the woman +as taken violently insane and had to be confined in an asylum, where she has + + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 19B [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Capricorn 16:31 SATURN: Sagitt. 2:11 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Gemini 11:51 URANUS: Cancer 10:38R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Capricorn 6:31 NEPTUNE: Aries 12:21 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Aquarius 11:54 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Capricorn 15:13 Virgo 7:44 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Pisces 6:02 DRAGON'S TAIL: ] + [ Pisces 7:44 ] + ---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +been ever since. There has been little or no improvement so far as the men- +tal condition is concerned, and the condition of physical health is also +delicate. + + It is not a hopeless case, however, for the principal inimical influences +are from cardinal signs, whose force is comparatively soon spent, and the + + +[PAGE 416] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +remainder are from common or flexible signs which are subject to modifica- +tion. Not that Neptune, the planet of the spiritual mind, is sextile to Ve- +nus, the planet of music, and to the moon, the planet of impressionability. +Venus and the moon are trine; this shows that the native loves music and +that she may be helped by it. With respect to health we find the moon in +Gemini, the sign that rules the lungs, which gives a tendency to colds in +the lungs. Uranus is in Cancer, squared by Neptune and in opposition to the +sun, Mars, and Mercury, which shows nervous indigestion, for Cancer rules +the stomach. This can be minimized by proper food, and if this can be pro- +vided it will help considerably to clear the mind. + + In dealing with the question of insanity students should remember that it +is a rupture, complete or partial, in the chain of bodies linking the spirit +to the physical vehicle. When the rupture occurs between the dense body and +the vital body, or between the latter and the desire body, we have the harm- +less idiot. When the break is between the desire body and the mind, the +reckless, impulsive, and violent desire nature takes charge of the lower ve- +hicle, and we have the violently raving maniac who must be restrained by a +straight-jacket and padded cell. But when the rupture takes place between +the mind and the spirit, the cunning and craftiness of the mind exert them- +selves to take charge of the lower personality; an insane person of this or- +der may go about among us for years plotting and scheming with such + + +[PAGE 417] INSANITY + +consummate cunning that we never suspect him of being abnormal until he car- +ries out some diabolical plot and then laughs and glouts over the ruin, +sorrow, and suffering which he has brought upon his victims. + + --------------- + + NO. 19C.--INSANITY, OBSESSION, AND TUBERCULOSIS + + + Male, born January 30th, 1889, at 12 noon. + + THIS horoscope was sent us by the relatives of the native, with permis- +sion to use it as a lesson. We find some very interesting points in it, +which may be of interest in the study of the science of diagnosis. + + Two special points must be taken into consideration in the horoscope of a +patient: the sign on the Ascendant and Mercury. The Ascendant shows the +strength of the personality. If fixed signs are on the four angles, namely, +the first, fourth, seventh, and tenth cusps, then the patient will be apt to +help the healer with his will to overcome disease. If, however, common +signs are on the angles, then the patient is apt to drift with the tide, and +is prone to lean upon the Invisible Helpers, expecting them to do all the +work, failing usually to do anything for himself. To get the best + + +[PAGE 418] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +cooperation from the patient it is most necessary that the mind be willing +to help. Where there is a weak or a stubborn mind, the patient can do much +to thwart the efforts made in his behalf, as we find in this horoscope. + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 19C ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Aquarius 7 SUN: Aquarius 10:50 SATURN: Leo 17:24R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Pisces 2 MOON: Capricorn 28:48 URANUS: Libra 21:59R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Aries 16 MERCURY: Aquarius 29:11 NEPTUNE: Taurus 29:33R ] +[ ASCENDANT: Gemini 11:06 VENUS: Pisces 26:28 ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Cancer 1 MARS: Pisces 16:15 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Cancer 18 JUPITER: Sagitt. 28:45 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Mercury being in a fixed sign in the tenth house and square to Neptune +here gives a most dominating and stubborn mentality. This is a person who +will bear no interference or domination from others. + + He has naturally a very devout and religious nature, but instead of fol- +lowing the soul's ideals, which are expressed by Jupiter in Sagittarius + + +[PAGE 419] INSANITY + +sextile to Mercury in Aquarius, his stubborn and ambitious mind led him to +respond to the vibrations of Venus square Jupiter, Mercury square Neptune, +and moon square Uranus. + + Venus is exalted in Pisces, the sign of self-undoing, and in the eleventh +house, square to Jupiter, which is strong in its own sign of Sagittarius, +the sign of religion. This indicates that a woman friend with her flattery +and attention, signified by Venus, was responsible for leading him from his +religious ideals into negative metaphysical speculation. In addition, the +versatile and restless moon makes a trine to Neptune in the occult twelfth +house, which gave him the desire for occult knowledge, but the moon, being +square to Uranus, led him to his undoing. A person with the planetary posi- +tions and aspects which we find in this horoscope is not satisfied to follow +instruction or heed the warnings of those who know about occult matters, but +he must needs rush in and investigate for himself. the sun in the Saturnian +sign of Aquarius in opposition to Saturn in the sign of Leo gives a vein of +skepticism, a nature which demands evidence and which must prove all things. +This spirit was his undoing. The sun and Saturn being in mutual reception +in the tenth and fourth houses respectively, strengthened this tendency. + + With the moon trine Neptune and square Uranus this man developed +mediumship very quickly and was able to contact the invisible realms. But +he heedlessly sought his knowledge along dangerous paths. While the yogi + + +[PAGE 420] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +teachings may be safe for the Fourth Race people, the orientals, and for +those of the Western races who are still on the lower rounds of evolution, +yet to one of the sensitive Western type these oriental teachings are most +dangerous. This poor man became attached to a group of Hindus, from whom he +received instructions in breathing exercises and psychic development. He as +also active in spiritualism wherein mediumship was encouraged. + + After a few years the progressed moon reached the opposition to the +radical Saturn and later a conjunction with the radical Mercury. Neptune, +being the higher octave of Mercury, works largely upon the nervous system, +and any undue stimulation will sometimes cause mental unbalance if Neptune +squares the mental planet Mercury, often expressing itself through religious +mania. This poor man repeatedly claims that he is the reincarnated Jesus. +Especially will Neptune give this tendency when in the twelfth house, where +it often causes incarceration in an institution for the insane. The moon in +the ninth house in Capricorn, square to Uranus, here increased the evil by +attracting undesirable entities to this already weakened mind, which was +easily driven out of the body, giving the obsessing entities freedom to take +possession of it. + + To top off this most unfortunate condition the poor man, who has been in +an insane asylum for some years, is slowly dying of that dread disease tu- +berculosis. This is shown by Jupiter in Sagittarius (Jupiter ruling the ar- +terial blood) square to Venus (which has rule over the venous blood) in Pi- +sces, two common signs. + + +[PAGE 421] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + CHAPTER XXXI + + ASTHMA + + NO. 20A.--ASTHMA + + Male, born August 15, 1915, 2:00 P.M. + + WE find the fiery sign of Sagittarius on the Ascendant, and its ruler, +Jupiter, at home in Pisces. This planet is at home in two signs, Sagit- +tarius and Pisces. When planets are posited in the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th +houses, their influence is much more potent, much stronger for either good +or evil than elsewhere, and especially if they are in fixed signs or in +their own homes. Jupiter is in its own home and in the 4th house, an angle, +and rules the arterial blood. It is in square aspect to the fiery Mars, +which is in the sign of the lungs, Gemini. Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, +ruling the air passing through the lungs, is in conjunction with the sun, +and these two planets are in the fiery sign of Leo ruling the heart. Now +that would be the physical effect of the two afflictions noted above? + + It is necessary that a certain amount of air be taken into the lungs in +order to supply the oxygen which is needed to give life to the blood which +feeds the heart. With the ruler of Gemini, Mercury, burned up by the heat +of the sun and the capillaries of the lungs filled with the fire of the fe- +verish and afflicted Mars, we have a congested and feverish chest, and the + + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 20A ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Virgo 27 SUN: Leo 21:52 SATURN: Cancer 11:50 ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Libra 26 MOON: Libra 22:18 URANUS: Aquarius 13:22R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Scorpio 17 MERCURY: Leo 23:21 NEPTUNE: Leo 0:59 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 6:08 VENUS: Leo 14:16 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Capricorn 10 MARS: Gemini 27:40 Aquarius 17:05 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Aquarius 19 JUPITER: Pisces 27:20R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Leo 17:05 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +blood is clogged and becomes sluggish, causing spasmodic action as it passes +through the aorta. The lungs become feverish and breathing laborious, caus- +ing spasms. We find Mars parallel to Saturn, which is in the sign of the +stomach, Cancer, and i the 8th house, indicating poor assimilation of the + + +[PAGE 423] ASTHMA + +food. We find the planet Venus, which rules the venous circulation, in the +hot and fiery sign of Leo in opposition to the spasmodic retrograde Uranus, +which is strong in its own sign Aquarius, giving uneven action to the heart. + + This boy will suffer more or less all through life with what is commonly +termed by the doctors, asthma. The first few years he suffered very much +from spasms. He will also be subject to coughs and colds, which will, how- +ever, never develop into consumption as is often the case. With Mars ruling +the lungs there is frequently a congested, feverish condition in the capil- +laries which burns up the oxygen. But here Mars is in sextile to the +life-giving sum in Leo, hence this boy will recuperate very rapidly. He +will be above the average in health in spite of the many afflictions, and he +will reach a ripe old age. + + +[PAGE 424] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + NO. 20B: ASTHMA--MORPHINE ADDICTION + + Male, born August 15, 1869, 9:00 A.M. + + WE will judge first the character of this person and for this purchase we +note that there are four cardinal signs on the angles. This is a great help +toward making people mentally alert and well balanced, but unfortunately +here we find that mercury, the significator of the mind is combust, and the +moon is in conjunction with Saturn. This renders the mind slow and melan- +choly, subject to fears, which of course never materialize. Uranus is el- +evated and square to Neptune, which gives a tendency toward spirit control, +but we have the trine of the sun to Neptune to minimize the danger. The na- +tive has a strong love nature as shown by the trine of Venus and Jupiter, +but the conjunction of moon and Saturn shows that the marriage partner is +likely always to wet-blanket and resent advances. Mars opposition Neptune +from the first to the seventh house makes it plain that there will be quar- +rels and trouble, all of which have an important bearing upon the sickness +and its cause. + + The sun in leo afflicted by Jupiter in Taurus shows that the arterial +circulation is poor, a condition which is somewhat minimized by the trine of +Jupiter and Venus, the two planets which govern the circulation. But the +rhythmic motion of respiration is seriously interfered with because Uranus +is in Cancer and elevated. This planet is spasmodic in its action and + + +[PAGE 425] ASTHMA + +affects the diaphragm when placed in Cancer. Here it is, as said, highly +elevated and square to Mars and Neptune, both in angles, a configuration +that is very strong. The rhythmic rise and fall of the diaphragm is + + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 20B ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Cancer 8 SUN: Leo 22:42 SATURN: Sagitt. 10:32 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Leo 13 MOON: Sagitt. 5:59 URANUS: Cancer 19:52 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Virgo 12 MERCURY: Leo 26:12 NEPTUNE: Aries 19:28R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Libra 6:33 VENUS: Virgo 19:05 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Scorpio 2 MARS: Libra 16:45 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Sagitt. 3 JUPITER: Taurus 19:58 ] + --------------------------------------------------------------------- + +absolutely essential to proper and regular respiration, an as this action is +interfered with to a degree by the afflictions here shown, we have the con- +dition known as asthma. + + It is well known that sufferers from this disease sometimes go a very + + +[PAGE 426] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +long time without sleep because of their inability to lie down. Morphine is +often given to relieve their condition and give them the rest they crave +with all their being. The danger of this drug cannot be overestimated in +any case, but it is greater for a patient who has Jupiter in Taurus af- +flicted by the sun like this one, for this always gives an inherent abnormal +appetite, a tendency to go to extremes in whatever is taken by way of the +mouth. Hence it is no wonder that this person has become addicted to the +use of morphine. + + There is hope, however, as shown by the horoscope. The moon rules the +alimentary canal and is responsible for the passage of the food through the +digestive tract. She is conjunct Saturn, and naturally this results in a +sluggish condition of the bowels. Uranus in Cancer operates upon the stom- +ach in such a way as to distend it periodically. With a full colon, a dis- +tended stomach, and the diaphragm moving erratically what wonder that the +heart refuses to force the vital fluid into the lungs and take it from them? +Heroic methods should be taken to clear the system and keep it clear. While +this will not relieve the spasmodic action of the diaphragm, it will at any +rate take the pressure away from the apex of the heart and thus materially +help to reduce the condition. Mars is sextile to the sun, therefore, the +heart can be strengthened. He is also sextile to Saturn showing the pos- +sibility of securing at least better action and circulation in the digestive +tract. + + +[PAGE 427] ASTHMA + + The worst condition in this horoscope, the one most difficult to over- +come, is Jupiter in Taurus square to the sun. It has been our experience +that even though it is pointed out to people that they have abnormal appe- +tites and they acknowledge it, they usually refuse to mend their ways. As +the above affliction is in fixed signs, it is exceedingly difficult to over- +come. The best assistance, however, would be from the trine of Venus to Ju- +piter, which excites the love nature and makes the native amenable to kind- +liness. The tender care of a woman would perhaps do more than anything else +to help him overcome the habit he has formed. A healer with Aquarius rising +and whose Saturn is not in Pisces would very likely have a beneficial effect +in this case. + + +[PAGE 428] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + + NO. 20C--D--E: ASTHMA + + The disease designated by the name of asthma is one of the most difficult +to diagnose, for many are suffering from symptoms which are diagnosed by the +doctors as those of asthma because of the shortness of breath, wheezing, and +coughing when frequently the person does not in reality have asthma. There +are various kinds of this disease. For instance there is hay asthma, which +comes in the fall of the year when the hay and grain are ripe. Sometimes it +comes from the noxious pollen of poisonous flowers, which causes a contrac- +tion of the passages to the lungs; these when inactive fill with mucus, +causing labored breathing. Then we have the heart or stomach asthma, which +is often the result of irregularity of the blood flow through the valves of +the heart, resulting in labored breathing and contraction of the chest and +lungs. Therefore the astrologer may find the diagnosis difficult. + + We will in this lesson endeavor to give a few helps showing according to +the afflictions the differences in diseases which may have similar outward +symptoms but the causes of which may be different. + + Case 20C is that of a man born March 6, 1831, 4 P.M. The horoscope for +this case is 10A, page 263. We find the disturbing Saturn in Leo, the sign +ruling the heart, square to Mars in Taurus, which has rule over the throat, +and opposition to Mercury, which is in the nervous sign of Aquarius. Mars + + +[PAGE 429] ASTHMA + +is also square to Mercury and parallel to Neptune. This configuration of +planets in fixed signs, would indicate spasmodic heart action, for Mercury +opposition Saturn would cause contraction of the valves of the heart, +thereby interfering with the excessive blood flow caused by Mars square Sat- +urn. We also find the sun in Pisces, a common sign, square to the moon in +Sagittarius. Common signs when afflicted interfere with the organs of res- +piration, given a tendency to trouble with the lungs. This man suffered +greatly with what some doctors diagnosed as asthma and others as heart +trouble, and he also frequently suffered from severe colds. Astrology shows +that he had valvular heart trouble and that is was not a true case of +asthma. He died from an abscess of the liver. For details regarding this +condition see No. 10A. + + In the case of horoscope 20D, that of a man born August 25, 1867, we find +Saturn in Scorpio, a fixed sign, square to Venus and Mercury in Leo, the +sign ruling the heart. We again find some trouble with poor heart action; +but the most disturbing affliction is found in th stomach, for the moon and +Uranus are in conjunction in the sign of Cancer, which has rule over this +organ, and both are square to the inflammatory Mars, Uranus also being +square to Neptune, all in cardinal signs. In this horoscope we find the +seat of the trouble in the stomach, showing impulsive and unnatural habits +regarding food, with a tendency to bolt the food and also excessive drinking + + +[PAGE 430] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +with meals, which would cause the stomach to become distended, thereby +pressing upon the heart and interfering with respiration. + + In horoscope 20E, that of a woman born June 23, 1898, we find a very + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 20D [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Virgo 1:46 SATURN: Scorpio 18:23 ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Cancer 6:36 URANUS: Cancer 11:40 ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Leo 14:14 NEPTUNE: Aries 14:14R ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Leo 23:22 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Libra 9:09 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Pisces 2:40R ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + +different cause, and we may diagnose this as a real case of hay asthma. +Neptune is conjunction Mercury in the sign of Gemini, which has rule over +the lungs. From the indications of personal appearance we should think that +this young woman had Virgo rising with Gemini in Midheaven, giving Mercury + + +[PAGE 431] ASTHMA + +as the life ruler. Neptune, being the higher octave of Mercury, has rule +over the nervous system. Neptune's influence is similar to that of +Saturn--constricting, astringent. When in Gemini, we may expect a + + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 20E [FLAT CHART] ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Capricorn SUN: Cancer 1:59 SATURN: Sagitt. 7:18R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Aquarius MOON: Leo 19:05 URANUS: Sagitt. 0:21R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Pisces MERCURY: Gemini 23:42 NEPTUNE: Gemini 22:38 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Aries VENUS: Leo 4:00 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Taurus MARS: Taurus 11:51 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Gemini JUPITER: Libra 1:24 ] + -------------------------------------------------------------------- + +disturbance in the bronchioles, especially during the summer months, as was +the case with this young woman, whose trouble was caused by the inhalation +of the pollen of certain grasses and flowers. + + You will, however, find that in most cases of asthma there is impaired + + +[PAGE 432] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +circulation. The blood stream is sluggish, showing an affliction to Venus +or Jupiter. When the blood is impure, elimination will also be sluggish. + + Great care should be used in the selection of food. The patient should +eat very lightly and only such foods as are easily digested but which give +the proper nourishment. Especially is this true of the evening meals, for +attacks of asthma invariably follow a heavy meal at night. Raw onion sand- +wiches eaten the last thing at night and cut the phlegm and insure a sound +sleep. + + +[PAGE 433] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + CHAPTER XXXII + + CANCER + + NO. 21A.-CANCER + + Female, born July 14, 1897, 4:00 P.M. + + Sagittarius, a common sign, is on the Ascendant, and the life ruler, Ju- +piter is in the 9th house in the sign of Virgo; Jupiter is also square to +the Ascendant. People with common signs on the four angles rarely make suf- +ficient effort to surmount the obstacles of life, and when we also find the +afflicting planets in these common signs, and the sun in the watery sign of +Cancer an in the 8th house, we have as in the case of this woman one who +would rather be an invalid than make the effort to keep the body in health, +and we can see how weak the effort will be to overcome. + + First, people with the sun and moon in Cancer are very fond of good +things to eat, and when the moon is also trine to Venus this enhances their +love for food and there is a tendency to overeat. Let us see what will be +the result. + + +[PAGE 434] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + We find the planet Venus, which has rule over the venous blood, in the +sign of Gemini, and in the 7th house, square to the inflammatory Mars and to +Jupiter. Jupiter, which has rule over the arterial blood, is afflicted by a + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + [ BIRTH CHART NO. 21A ] + [ ] + [ MIDHEAVEN: Virgo 22 SUN: Cancer 22:37 SATURN: Scorpio 24:17R ] + [ 11TH HOUSE: Libra 22 MOON: Aquarius 1:48 URANUS: Scorpio 25:10R ] + [ 12TH HOUSE: Scorpio 16 MERCURY: Cancer 21:22 NEPTUNE: Gemini 21:13 ] + [ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 4:48 VENUS: Gemini 7:09 ] + [ 2ND HOUSE: Capricorn 8 MARS: Virgo 3:49 ] + [ 3RD HOUSE: Aquarius 15 JUPITER: Virgo 8:20 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +conjunction of Mars, hence the circulation is very much obstructed, espe- +cially as Jupiter is in the sign of Virgo, which has rule over the small in- +testine. When the patient eats very heartily (especially as Cancer people +are very fond of starches), with the obstructed circulation and the + + +[PAGE 435] CANCER + +disturbed assimilation of food in the small intestine what may we expect but +that the bowels are filled with putrid matter. Fermentation set in, causing +derangement of the entire circulatory system. Saturn, the obstructor, in +conjunctionn with Uranus in the sign of Scorpio, which has rule over the +rectum, and in the 12th house, the house of self-undoing, also the house of +hidden things, is an indication that the young woman had formed secret hab- +its which caused much irritation to the organs of elimination and which had +their result in causing cancer of the rectum. + + She was ailing for a long time with dreadful pains across the lower bow- +els and at the lower end of the spinal column. The question may be asked, +Is there not a cure for this dread disease of cancer? Yes, when in its +first stages, it may be cured by eliminating all food for a few days, drink- +ing only pure, distilled water flavored with lemon juice, and giving the +bowels a thorough cleansing with high enemas. Then start with the +mono-diet, continuing this for three weeks if the patient is able to stand +it, but not to exceed three weeks. The patient should eat nothing but car- +rots. This vegetable may be prepared in various ways to make it palatable, +grinding it and drinking the juice, baking or steaming it or making it into +salads flavored with a little olive oil and lemon. The carrot has a pro- +nounced healing effect, especially when used as a poultice, and it has a +wonderful healing power for ulcer and cancerous growths. + + +[PAGE 436] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + NO. 21B.--CANCER + + Male, born December 14, 1857. Place and hour of birth unknown, but from +personal appearance and traits of character we have placed Sagittarius on +the Ascendant. Planets' positions for noon, G.M.T. + + THE doctors had told this man that he had cancer, and nothing could shake +his belief that he would some day pass out with the dread disease. He kept +up his letters to the Healing Department regularly for several months, but +they were always filled with doubt of our methods and discouragement regard- +ing the future. He also rebelled at the restrictions in diet, claiming that +he was too weak and sick to live without his daily beefsteak and fried pota- +toes. + + Later through the instrumentality of his son, who was working in our of- +fice as stenographer, this man with his wife rented a cottage on a tract +which adjoined the Headquarters grounds. In order to make it possible for +his father to partake of the health diet served in our dining hall, the son +applied for a job as gardener for his father. + + The first few weeks this poor man as a great trial to the cook. When he +failed to get what he demanded, he left the table hungry. This lasted for a +few days until hunger forced him to eat what was served. His demands were +for two eggs fried in butter, a large bowl of soft, boiled mush with several +teaspoons of sugar and plenty of cream, fried potatoes, white bread, and + + +[PAGE 437] CANCER + +two or three cups of strong, black coffee with several teaspoons of sugar in +each. The sugar bowl was emptied at each meal. He greatly tried the pa- +tience of both Mr. Heindel and myself. But the young son, who had + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- +[ BIRTH CHART NO. 21B ] +[ ] +[ MIDHEAVEN: Virgo 27 SUN: Sagitt. 22:31 SATURN: Cancer 27:14R ] +[ 11TH HOUSE: Libra 26 MOON: Sagitt. 1:11 URANUS: Taurus 26:16R ] +[ 12TH HOUSE: Scorpio 19 MERCURY: Capricorn 6:16 NEPTUNE: Pisces 19:56 ] +[ ASCENDANT: Sagitt. 8:45 VENUS: Sagitt. 4:17 DRAGON'S HEAD: ] +[ 2ND HOUSE: Capricorn 11 MARS: Libra 16:22 Pisces 22:26 ] +[ 3RD HOUSE: Aquarius 25 JUPITER: Taurus 6:25R DRAGON'S TAIL: ] +[ Virgo 22:26 ] + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +supported his father for a number of years was desperately anxious to help +us to help the latter. After a few weeks the patient adjusted himself, and +immediately his health began to improve. The eruptions on his face and his +breast began slowly to disappear, and his general health and strength began + + +[PAGE 438] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +to return. + + During the day it was observed that he was constantly eating candy; his +pockets were filled with this sweet. Before coming to Headquarters he would +eat one to two pounds of candy every day, and thought it necessary to do so +to keep up his strength. + + We note the conjunction of the moon and Venus just above the Ascendant in +the negative sign of Sagittarius. The moon and Venus conjoined, no matter +where they may be in the horoscope, give a desire for sweets, pastry, etc. + + In this case we find Saturn posited in the sign of the stomach, Cancer, +and retrograde to a square aspect with Mars, which is placed in a Venus +sign. this man had for years filled his body with an excess of starch, pro- +tein, and sugar. With his afflicted progressed Saturn in Cancer he was not +able to extract the vitamines from his food, and he was in the habit of +overeating and of bolting it. Naturally the body stores up excess amount of +food taken. His stomach refused to digest such quantities of food, or +rather was too weak and lacking in the juices necessary in digestion. There +was also a large amount of waste matter which the organs of elimination were +unable to throw off. Mars has rule over the rectum, being the ruler of +Scorpio which governs this organ. With Mars afflicted by the obstructive +progressed Saturn we might expect that the man would suffer from constipa- +tion. + + With all this ash stored up in the body can we wonder that the system + + +[PAGE 439] CANCER + +has to find some means of throwing out this poison? The result was that the +skin of the nose, throat, face and breast (Mars ruling Aries the face, Scor- +pio the bridge of the nose, and Saturn in Cancer the breast) was used as a +dumping ground for the body waste. After eight months of Mt. Ecclesia diet +this man moved back to the city with not a trace of cancer on his body; all +sores had entirely healed. Mars sextile to the life-giving sun brought vi- +tality. Wherever a good aspect between these two planets is found, there is +great hope of overcoming disease. + + Saturn in Cancer in the eighth house, the house of death, will eventually +be the case of the native's demise, together with the moon and Venus in a +common sign and in the house of self-undoing. In time his desire for sweets +and rich food will probably lead to excesses which will be the cause of his +death. + + +[PAGE 440] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + CHAPTER XXXIII + + ROSICRUCIAN HEALING + + HOW THE ROSICRUCIANS HEAL THE SICK + + THE Rosicrucian work of healing is carried on by the Elder Brothers of +the Rosicrucian Order through a band of Invisible Helpers whom they are in- +structing. + + The work is conducted according to the commands of Christ Jesus, namely, +"Preach the gospel and heal the sick." + + THE ELDER BROTHERS + + These are high spiritual beings through whom the Christ Spirit is working +for the benefit of humanity. + + THE INVISIBLE HELPERS + + The Invisible Helpers are those who live a worthy life of helpfulness +during the daytime while in their physical bodies, and whose evolutionary +development is such as to EARN the privilege of being helpful through the +instrumentality of the Elder Brothers at night while functioning in their + + +[PAGE 441] ROSICRUCIAN HEALING + +etheric bodies, as indicated in the words of the Rosicrucian Evening Ser- +vice: "Tonight while our physical bodies are peacefully resting in sleep, +may we as Invisible Helpers be found faithfully working in the vineyard of +Christ." These Invisible Helpers are gathered together in bands according +to their temperaments and their abilities. They are under the instruction +of other Helpers WHO ARE PHYSICIANS, and all of them work under the guidance +of the Elder Brothers, who naturally are the moving spirits of the whole +work. + + Not infrequently patients are aware of the presence of the Invisible +Helpers. + + RIGHT LIVING NECESSARY FOR A CURE + + The Invisible Helpers never refuse to answer an appeal for help, but in +order to respond to the Divine Healing Force patients must adopt the gospel +of right living; they should observe a pure meatless diet; they must fill +their living and sleeping rooms with pure air, their minds with pure +thoughts and their daily lives with pure actions. The Divine Healing Force +is pure; if you ask for it in order to be relieved of your ailments, you +must be willing to conform to the natural laws of purity. Pure air, pure +food, pure thinking and pure living! If you ignore these great health giv- +ing factors you may have called in vain upon the Divine Healing Force. + + +[PAGE 442] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + + HEALING FORCE + + The healing force comes from God, our Heavenly Father, the Great Physi- +cian of the universe; it is latent everywhere; by prayer and concentration +it is liberated and directed to the sufferer; it manifested through the Mas- +ter, Christ Jesus; it goes forth from the weekly healing meetings held at +the Rosicrucian Fellowship Headquarters. Through the workings of this su- +preme force the Invisible Helpers raise the vibrations of the patient to a +higher rate, thus enabling him, first, to eliminate the disease poison from +the system, and second, to rebuild every blood corpuscle, fibre, tissue, and +organ until the whole body is made new. This is done, not in a miraculous +manner but in accordance with nature's laws. If the patient continues to +break these laws and by a wrong mode of living to accumulate poisonous sub- +stances in the system, he frustrates the healing work. + + CAUSE OF DISEASE + + The wonderful organism called the human body is governed by immutable +natural laws. All disease results from willful or ignorant violation of +nature's laws. People are ill because in this earth life or in a previous +one they have disregarded the fundamental principles on which the health of +the body depends. If they wish to regain and to retain their health, they +must learn to understand these principles and to regulate their daily habits +in conformity with them. + + +[PAGE 443] ROSICRUCIAN HEALING + + This is what the Master Healer, Christ Jesus, meant when he said to the +man who was a cripple: "Thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse +thing come unto thee." (John 5-14.) Even the Christ could not give lasting +health unless the recipient of the healing force refrained from indulging +wrong habits which cause disease, and lived in obedience to the God-given +laws that rule man's body as well as his relations to his fellow creatures. + + + THE RIGHT TO HEALTH + + Some people "demand" perfect health and claim they have a right to it. +They forget that either in this or a former life some have forfeited their +God-given right through disobedience to nature's laws, which are God's laws. +Through suffering they have to learn obedience. When they have mastered +their lesson and are willing to "sin no more," their right to health will be +restored to them. + + VIOLATIONS OF THE LAWS OF HEALTH + + The Divine Healing Force is constructive; wrong methods of living which +disregard the laws of nature are destructive. + + The omissions and transgressions responsible for wrong living and conse- +quently for disease are many; the following are the principal ones: Un- +natural food; too much food; ill-proportioned food; lack of fresh air and +sunshine; lack of cleanliness; lack of exercise; lack of rest and sleep; +lack of self-control; sleeping in unventilated rooms; harboring thoughts of + + +[PAGE 444] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +anger, hatred, and resentment; yielding to a hasty temper; gratifying low +desires; harming fellow creatures whether human or animal; abusing the sa- +cred generative function. + + Since all the organs and functions of the body are interdependent, the +abuse and consequent affliction of one part hurts all the others, furthers +the accumulation of disease poison throughout the system, and lowers the vi- +tality of the whole. The local symptoms are only evidence of the whole body +being at fault. Therefore, all true healing, in order to achieve lasting +results, is directed not to the suppression of symptoms but to the removal +of the cause that made the symptoms appear. + + + SPIRITUAL HEALING + + Spiritual healing operates on the higher planes of being but is effected +in strict adherence to natural laws which prevail below as above; conse- +quently all natural therapeutics applied on the physical plan are in harmony +with the work of the Invisible Helpers on the higher planes. + + RIGHT FOOD IS NATURAL MEDICINE + + As the body is built up of the physical substances introduced into the +blood by the daily food, right food is the NATURAL medicine which the pa- +tient must take in order to cooperate with the Invisible Helpers in their +task of reconstructing his system. + + +[PAGE 445] ROSICRUCIAN HEALING + + EFFLUVIA TRANSMITTED IN WEEKLY REPORT + + Before the Invisible Helpers can work with the patient they must have ef- +fluvia from his vital body, which is the etheric counterpart of the physical +body and the operating sphere of the vital forces. The effluvia are ob- +tained by having the patient write every week a letter consisting of a few +words or a few lines with PEN AND INK. This is important as a pen charged +with fluid is a greater conductor of magnetism than a dry pencil. The ether +which thus impregnates the paper upon which the patient writes week by week +gives an indication of his condition at that particular time and furnishes +an entrance key to his system. IT IS SOMETHING WHICH HE HAS GIVEN VOLUNTAR- +ILY AND FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF FURNISHING ACCESS FOR THE INVISIBLE HELP- +ERS. Unless the patient does his part to do anything for him; so it may be +seen that it is of the utmost importance to keep up the weekly letters to +Headquarters. + + TIME REQUIRED FOR CURE + + Instantaneous cures are frequent where the Invisible Helpers are called +upon to assist in cases of acute disease. In the case of a chronic ailment +which is of long standing and has taken years to develop, a certain amount +of relief may be experienced immediately; complete recovery, however, which +is equivalent to a renewal of the whole system, can usually be achieved only + + +[PAGE 446] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS A GUIDE TO HEALING + +in gradual stages. As said before, the healing work of the Invisible Help- +ers is not suppression of symptoms but reconstruction of the whole system, +and in order to be accomplished it requires time as well as the patient's +faithful and constant cooperation along the lines indicated above. + + HEALING MEETINGS AT HEADQUARTERS + + Healing meetings are held at Rosicrucian Headquarters on the nights when +the moon enters cardinal signs in the zodiac. The hour of service is about +6:30 P.M. The virtue of the cardinal signs is dynamic energy which they +infuse into every enterprise started under their influence, and therefore +the healing thoughts of the helpers all over the world are endowed with +added power when launched upon their errands of mercy under this cardinal +influence. + + If you would like to join in this work, sit down quiet when the clock IN +YOUR PLACE OF RESIDENCE points to the given hour, 6:30 P.M., meditate on +HEALTH, and pray to the Great Physician, our Father in Heaven, for the res- +toration to health of all who suffer, particularly those who have applied to +Headquarters. + + At the same time visualize the Ecclesia, the healing Temple at Headquar- +ters, where the thoughts of all aspirants are finally gathered by the Elder +Brothers and used for the stated purpose. + + +[PAGE 447] INDEX + + INDEX + +Abdomen, prominent, cause of, Mars ruptures peritoneum 403. +Abdominal region 277. + ruled by Virgo 20, 27. +Abortion 214, 241, 243. + affects next embodiment 118. +Abscess in frontal bone 85, 86. + lanced, 10 operations 356. + under the diaphragm 232. +Abuse of generative faculty 251. +Accidents 164, 318, 347. + Sagittarian liable to 29. +Actinomcyosis, disease of cattle 233. +Adenoids and tonsils 119, 236. +Adrenals 206, 375, 377, 378. + ruled by Libra 27. +Afflictions, planetary, from angles stronger than will of the patient 337. + from cardinal signs, movable 281. + from common signs 39, 343. + from fixed signs 75, 99, 133. + may not be active in childhood 124. + results of serious wrongs 251. + strongest, show part of body damaged 180. + value of as refiner 339. + work in squares and oppositions 297. +Ailments, deep seated and chronic 247. +Air, necessary to supply oxygen 421. +Airy signs, many planets in, native requires much air 57. +Ambitious, Aquarians are 25. +Anemia, 288. + a Gemini affliction 29. + Pernicious 289. +Anger 114, 167, 169, 200, 266, 271, 345, 378. +Angina pectoris, Leo people subject to 29. +Angle house, more powerful than cadent or succeedent 335. +Ankles, swollen, Aquarian affliction 30. + + +[PAGE 448] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Antares, nebulous spot in 8 degrees of Sagittarius 57, 58, 202. +Anterior lobe of pituitary body 303. +Antipathy and sympathy 33. + between planets, should be observed 59. +Anus, ruled by Scorpio 22. +Aorta 19, 27, 126, 284, 422. + ruled by Leo 19, 27 +Apoplexy, a Taurian affliction 29. +Appendicitis, Virgoians subject to 20. +Appetites, abnormal 119, 155, 265, 390, 426 +Aquarius, afflicted, causes swollen ankles 30. + rules ankles 25. +Arches, fallen 295. +Archetypes 2, 254, 339, 343. + of future body built in this life 254. +Aries, hot, dry, inflammatory 16. + moral characteristics of 47. + on the Ascendant, effects of 15, 61. + parts of body ruled by 15. + sun in 57. +Arms and limbs, loss of use of 276. + and shoulders 298. + ruled by Gemini 17, 27. +Arrow, aimed at stars by Sagittarius 241. +Arterial blood, ruled by Jupiter 31, 232, 275, 280, 287, 289, 295, 333, 337, + 421 + circulation, afflicted 189, 276, 300, 320 + +Arteries, carotid, external ruled by Taurus 16, 27. + internal, ruled by Aries 16, 27. + hardened 115, 276, 311, 313 + of human body 126. + thyroid, inferior and superior 127. +Arterio-sclerosis 288, 289, 398, 400. +Arthritic muscular atrophy 350. +Arthritis of the hip joints 352. +Asceli, in 6 degrees of Leo 57, 58, 99. +Ascendant, gives general characteristics 46, 88. + in fixed signs 322. + starting point of astro-diagnosis 46. +Aspects, counteracting 402. + difference of development gives good or bad 168. + good, minimize evil effects 404. + interlocking 404. + progressed alone will not act 73. + + +[PAGE 449] INDEX + +Aspects, (CONT.) progressed represent hour hand of clock 73. + to Ascendant and Midheaven not always reliable 56. +Assimilation, interfered with by fretful disposition 116. + poor 23. + ruled by Jupiter 382. +Asthma, 164, 264, 309, 421, 424, 425, 429, 432. + caused by polypi 386 + circulation impaired in cases of 432. + difficult to diagnose 428. + Gemini subject to 17, 29. + hay 428, 430. + heart, and stomach 428. +Astro-Diganosis, difference between medical diagnosis and 261. + flat figure may be used in 183. + perfect way to diagnose 330. +Astrologer, responsibility of 410, 412, 413. +Astrology 115, 119. + must be used to help and heal 413. +Atlas, Taurus rules 16, 27. +Atrophy 310. + caused by Saturn 258. +Aura of child contacted 317. +Auto-intoxication 11, 391. +Average mentality 220. + +Babes, accidents to 101, 102. + afflictions in the lives of 224, 339. +Bath gloves and bath mitts 277, 370. +Bathing 219. +Baths and massage 370, 397, 405. +Bile 288. +Birth, at opportune time 109. + forced, causes injury to certain nerves and innominate + blood vessels 373. + hurried, through use of instruments 373. + labored 373. + neck of child injured at 374. + of child, prepared for under purest conditions 315. +Bladder 22, 28, 31, 190, 201, 213 +Blindness 99, 100, 103, 105, 10-8, 111, 112 353. +Blood, arterial, disturbed 275. + obstructed in limbs 337. + ruled by Jupiter 297. + venous ruled by Venus, 82. + Ash in 277, 390, 393. + + +[PAGE 450] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + +Blood, (CONT.) circulation of, must be normal 285. + cleansers of 293. + clogged, sluggish 298, 422. + contaminated 29, 125, 357. + corpuscles (white) 19. + eruptions due to disease of 301. + excess water in 157. + fibrin of, ruled by Jupiter 31. + flow of, excessive 429. + restricted 128, 200, 276. + impure, 120, 291, 320, 432. + in hardened arteries 114. + inflammation throws poison into 125. + influenced by dry Mercury 185. + iron, in, ruled by Mars 31. + loss of 239. + Mars fills arteries and veins with 127, 128. + mineral salts in 328. + oxygenation of the blood, 172, 288, 295. + poisoning, a dangerous case 243. + pressure, high 277, 288. + purified in the kidneys 156. + red coloring matter of, ruled by Scorpio 32, 31. + rush of, to the head 114, 277. + scrofulous 357. + tainted 228, 353. + undergoes filtering process 106. + undernourished 277, 325. + unhealthy 295. + venous and serous, ruled by Venus 275, 295, 434. + vessels 159, 280. +Bodies, deformed 100. +Bodily disturbances, caused by abuses 217. +Body, adjustment, knowledge of, helpful 261. + became upright in Lemurain Epoch 138. + compared to, radio or automobile 87. + compared to stove 291. + covered with sores 223. + fluids of, dried up by Saturn 302. + from spiritual standpoint 380. + left at will 112. + lowered in resistive force 172. + oils, natural 393. + removal of part of 357. + + +[PAGE 451] INDEX + +Body, (CONT.) stiff 298. + strain upon physical 257. + weak place in, gives way 257, 291. +Bone, bruised by fall; rotted 348. + building, while we are children 276. + femur, removal of 348. +Bones, deprived of nourishment 328. + displaced, adjustment of by Invisible Helpers 165. + caused by Capricorn 24, 30. + inflammation of marrow 354. +Bony structures and ligaments ruled by Saturn 258. +Bowels, lower, pains across 435. + must be kept free 277, 300. + peristaltic action of the 203. +Brain 332. + and larynx developed when pineal gland drew in head 218. + unable to function normally 140. + childlike 141. + cradle-like bone in 303 + storms 240. + undeveloped 220. +Breakdown, complete 289. +Breast 439. +Breath, the first 380. + ruled by Gemini 17, 27, 30. +Breathing difficult 164, 396, 428. + exercises for psychic development 420. + laborious, causing spasms 422. + mouth 128. + shallow 172, 296. +Bright's disease 21, 30, 154. +Bronchi, ruled by Gemini 17, 27. +Bronchioles 431. +Bronchitis, Gemini people subject to 17, 29. +Bunions, Piscean affliction 30. +Buttermilk 314. + +Cancer 233, 345, 433, 436, 439. + cure for 435. + sign of, parts of body ruled by 170, 387. +Candy eating, unusual case of indulgence in 438. +Capillaries, ruled by Gemini 17. +Carbon dioxide 172, 295. + + +[PAGE 452] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Carbonic acid, expulsion obstructed 312. +Cardiac orifice 178, 345. + ruled by last degree of Gemini or first of Cancer 178. +Cardinal points 35. + sign aspects 198. + people, suffer more than others 207. + sings, favorites of the universe 207. + impulsive 303. + on angles, patient cooperates 47. + react upon another 318. +Carotid arteries 15, 127. +Cartilage, nasal, ruled by Scorpio 31. +Cataracts, cause of 92, 278, 280. +Catarrh 390. + of intestines 236, 237, 396. + of stomach 235, 237. + Virgo, subject to 20. +Cathartic 273. +Cause and effect, law of 101. +Causes, of illness must be removed 38, 219. + work effects in another embodiment 101. +Cells of the body 293. +Centers of important spiritual activity 206. +Cerebellum, organ of co-ordination of movement 404. + Taurus rules 16. +Cerebral congestion 29. + hemisphere, Aries rules 15. + mars rules left 30. + Mercury rules right 31. +Cerebro-spinal system 193. + ruled by Mercury 31. +Cervical vertebrae, irregularity in region of upper 317. + ruled by Taurus 16. +Chain, breaks at weakest link 193. +Character, flexible, given by common signs 97. +Cheer, promotes circulation and elimination 311, 312, 314. +Chest, congested and feverish 422. +Child, charge to parents 252. + should be loved into the world 316. + unable to bear his weight on his legs 259. +Childbirth 120, 121, 238, 242. +Chills and fever 356. +Chiropodist 115. +Chiropractor 261, 318. +Chocolate creams, ash-producing dainties 111, 389. + + + +[PAGE 453] INDEX + +Cholera, Virgo people subject to 20, 29. +Chromatic scale of Phythagoras 33. +Chronic disease, finger nails ridged in 64. + invalidism 215, 276. +Chyle, white fluid ruled by the moon 30, 294. +Chymification, ruled by Cancer 18. +Cigarette habit 406. +Circles, vicious 34. +Circulation 274. + friction rubs to stimulate 329, 435. + governed by Venus and Jupiter 30, 423, 424. + impaired 64, 97, 99, 435, 157, 163, 192, 199, 200, 278, 286, 291, 313, + 367, 383, 432, 434. + obstructed in arms and legs 297. + restricted in sacral region 322. + strengthened by walking 99. +Circulatory system 126. + influenced by Uranus 155. +Coccygeal region, ruled by Sagittarius 23, 335. +Coffee, abnormal desire for 265. +Colic, a Virgo complaint 20, 29. + painter's 386. +Colon 304, 426. + ruled by Scorpio 22, 28. +Coma 377. +Common sense in the Rosicrucian method of healing 92. +Common signs, afflicted 109, 310, 429. + many planets in, show psychic type 65. + on angles 36, 47, 72, 100. + on Ascendant 53. + show lack of will 320. +Concentration, due to Saturn 191. +Congestion in neck or ears 87. +Consequence, Law of 109. +Constipation 91, 201, 280, 438. + A Virgo complaint 20, 29. +Consumption, and bladder trouble 202. + Gemini people subject to 17, 29, 423. +Contraction of muscles 179. +Control, lack of 168, 342. +Convulsions 102, 377. +Cooperation of healer and patient 249. +Cosmic keyboard 33. +Cough 145. +Coughs and colds 128, 388, 423, 429. + + +[PAGE 454] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Cramp, intestinal, caused by Virgo 20. +Cramping, spasmodic action due to Uranus-Neptune affliction 172. +Cranial nerve, origin and function 79. +Craving, abnormal, for foods, due to square of moon and Venus 382. +Creative force used for building brain and larynx 211. +Crisis cannot be predicted from flat figure 215. + when birth hour is not known 414. + in illness, necessary to calculate position of planets 366, 383. + lesson in predicting 70. + never tell of impending 51. +Critical degrees, planets have greater influence in 57. +Crown of glory must be earned 102. +Cruelity in a previous life, effect of 106. +Crutches 339. +Crystal gazing, bad for the eyes 115. +Crystallization, Capricorn subject to 29. +Cure, time required for 445. + +Deafness 79, 86. +Death 169, 172, 185, 349, 410. + looses the Silver Cord 150. + not to be predicted 39, 50. + preparations for 411. +Decomposition 291. +Degeneracy, the cause of leprosy 304. +Delilah, feminine Venus 20. +Desire for drink 349. + for knowledge, indications of 111. +Desire body destroys 327. + nature, takes charge in some forms of insanity 416. +Desires, unexpressed, unnatural 219, 290. +Despondency, Capricorn people subject to 24. +Destiny, clock of, registers events 356. + forces involved in debt of, too powerful for ego 109. + freedom from destiny through liquidation of debts 275. + law of, must take its course 109. + Lords of, time birth 109. +Diseases, chronic, incurable 343. + made in past lives 99, 105, 109, 122, 134, 155, 221. + + +[PAGE 455] INDEX + +Determination, given by fixed signs 48. + shown by broad nails 64. +Detriment, planet in its 59. +Development, of reproductive organs 217, 418. + of spiritual faculties 112, 115, 136, 168, 364. +Diabetes 210. + Libran tendency 21, 30. + symptoms 203, 205, 207. +Diagnosis, astrological 103, 244. + by symptoms only 257. + intuitional or spiritual 317. + scientific 42, 46, 310. +Diaphragm 425, 426. + ruled by Cancer 18. +Diarrhea 29. +Diet, effect of sane and rational 95. + for kidneys 158. + fruit 193, 357. + milk 176, 384. + Mt. Ecclesia 439. + must be regulated 197, 219, 237, 289. + of raw vegetables and fruits 173. + simple and very light to soothe the nerves 361. + wrong, affected lungs 173. +Dietary treatment, scientific 292. +Digestion in stomach 236. + trouble in 165, 168, 172, 201, 203, 266, 324. +Digestive fluids, lack of in stomach and intestines 119, 237. + organs afflicted 155. + tract, inflammation of 328. + metabolism of 328. +Diphtheria, Taurus affliction 29. +Dipsomania, a Cancer tendency 29. +Directing, lesson in art 70. +Disease cause of 34, 150, 173, 233, 230, 281, 442. + chronic 122. + duration of 70. + horoscopical indications of location of 126. + result of breaking laws of nature 38, 39, 92, 221. + same, may leave different after effects 330. + similarity and difference of causes of 175, 176, 297, 301. + turning point of 55. +Dislocation of bones, a Capricorn affliction 30. + + +[PAGE 456] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Dizziness 288. + Aries people subject to 15. +Doctors, Scorpio people make good as 22. +Dorsal region, afflicted 248, 317. + ruled by Leo 27. +Dragon's Tail, saturnine influence 345, 308. +Drink and narcotic habit 41, 360, 408. + tendency to 26, 265, 360. +Drinking liquids at meals dangerous to some 237. +Dropsical swellings 155, 309. +Dropsy 154, 158, 308. + Cancer people subject to 18, 29, 30. +Drunkard 255. +Dryness, caused by Capricorn afflictions 29. +Duct, thoracic, Cancer rules 27. +Ductless glands 206, 216, 366, 407. +Duodenum 17, 20, 273. +Dura Mater 374. +Dysentery 39. + +Ear, auricle of, ruled by vagus nerve 79. + nerves and blood vessels stimulated 374. + ruled by Taurus 16, 27, 31. + structure of 82. +Earaches 190. +Ears and nerves 76, 85, 190. +Eclipse, duration of effects of 356. + sun conjunction Saturn at 356. +Eczema, Capricorn suffers from 24. + Libran suffers from 21, 30. + of neck and face 94. +Effluvia, transmitted in weekly report 445. +Ego, able to modify effect of planetary afflictions 109. + attracted to parents of nature like its own 254, 315. + entered into possession of its vehicle 211. + lessons to be learned by 339. + strength of will of 109. + will free itself from outside influences 360. +Egyptians, leprosy common among 304. +Eighth house afflictions give suicidal tendencies 41. +Elder Brothers 165, 400. +Elements that work upon nervous system 219. + the four 33. + + +[PAGE 457] INDEX + +Elimination 99, 144, 201, 203, 309. + of urine 99. + organs of 393, 428. +Emotion, effect of, on body 168, 169. + mastery of 342. + ruling 113, 154, 377. + spasmodic 341. +Endolymph, lack of, affects equilibrium of the body 82. +Energy, dissipation of 291. + surplus, manifests as impulse 198. +Entities, undesirable, attracted by patient 420. +Epilepsy, caused by abnormality of one of ductless glands 219. + description of attack of 378. + ruled by the moon 54. +Equinotical signs in sympathy 35. +Eruptions on face and breast 437. +Erysipzlas, a Capricorn affliction 30. +Ether, in uncooked vegetables 240. + in fresh cow's milk 240, 310. + vital 52, 240. +Etheric fluids, sun rules 19. +Ethers, ruled by Uranus 31. +Excesses indicated by planetary configurations 113. + by abortions 124. +Excretory organs 293. +Exercise, plentiful, a necessity 323. + to limber up the spine 361. + urgent necessity 197. + walking for 99. +Experience, brings purification and soul growth 339. +Exposure to cold 296. +Eye strain 115. +Eye trouble 58, 80, 92, 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 111, 112, 202, 208, 288. + among occult students 115. + Antares 111, 202. + Asceli 110. + Saturn in Aquarius 104. +Eyeballs, diseased 95. +Eyelids, granualation of 393. +Eyes, 88, 104, 114, 243, 280. + cataracts on both 92. + ruled by Aries 15, 27. + +Face, ruled by Aries 15. + + +[PAGE 458] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Facial paralysis 315. +Faith, in the Rosicrucian method of healing 92. +Fall, indicated by the stars 102, 352. +Fasting 120, 435. +Fate: SEE DESTINY. +Father, represented by tenth house 255. +Fear, a Taurian characteristic 215. + and worry, 39, 197, 108, 245, 311. + of childbirth 106, 243. +Feet, ruled by Pisces 26, 28, 30. +Femur, injury to 347. + Sagittarius rules the 23, 28. +Feverishness, shown by red lines in palm 65. +Fibrin of blood, ruled by Pisces 28. +Fiery signs, planets in, the native requires much sunlight 57. +Finance, Jupiter has great love of 331. +Finger, broken 353. +Finger nails, broad, show determination 64. + ridged, show chronic disease 64. + twelve types of 62, 63, 64, 65. + what their shape indicates 68. +Fingers, long, clawlike, denote supersensitiveness 65. + materialized by Invisible Helpers 165. +Fire, planets of 167. +Fistula, a Scorpio affliction 22. +Fits 377, 378. +Fixed and dominant signs, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius 106. +Fixed sign people, creatures of habit 47. +Fixed signs, afflictions from 11, 109, 117, 155, 259, 427. + on angles 109, 160. +Fixed stars, of Mars-moon nature 114. + which have influence on disease 57. +Flatrulency, Cancer people subject to 18, 29. +Fluids, of body, of glands or organs 140. + red and white 277. + restrictions of 82, 119. + vital, which feed organism, ruled by the sun 30, 327. + white, ruled by moon 92, 313, 337. +Focusing point of disease 74. +Foetus destroyed 243. +Food, abnormal desires for 119, 142, 181, 265, 291, 320, 330, 389, 395, 399. + + + +[PAGE 459] INDEX + +Food (CONT.) assimilation of 180, 185, 204, 236, 255, 295, 423, 435. + body stores up excess amount of 438. + Cancer people fond of starchy 434. + caution in choice of 203, 289, 291, 296, 346. + choice of, for child 325, 329. + difficulty to retain 102. + distribution and digestion 277, 286, 291, 295, 297. + elements necessary for nourishment of body 277, 325. + excess of 79, 91, 124, 265, 290, 291, 333, 396, 433, 438. + fresh milk as 310. + highly seasoned 176, 188, 204, 219, 315, 370. + improper mastication of 344. + in vegetarian diet 158, 203, 288, 300, 310, 329, 334, 349, 353, 357, 365, + 390, 393, 397. + iron in 203. + juices necessary for digestion of 438. + minerals extracted from 276, 277. + passage of through digestive tract ruled by moon 426. + right, is natural medicine 444. + sweet, in moderation 382. + that works upon liver and kidneys 300. + uncooked, ether in 281. + vitamins in 438. +Foods, ruled by Mars 399. + stimulating 99. +Four elements 32. +Fourth Race people, Yogi teachings for the 420. +Freaks of nature, produced by Uranus 218. +Function, sacred, abused 118. +Functional weakness shown at birth 257. + +Gall bladder, bile in 270. + + ruled by Saturn 31, 266. + duct, leads to duodendum 272. +Galloping consumption 228. +Gallstones 266, 267, 270, 271, 272. + remedy for 273. +Gas in stomach 178. +Gastric branch 345. + fevers 403. + juice, necessary for digestion 170. + trouble, 172, 360. + vein, ruled by Cancer 18. + + +[PAGE 460] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Gemini, afflicted, causes anemia 29. + characteristics of 62, 63. +General breakdown 191. +Generative organs, abuse of, causes throat trouble 117, 118, 122. + abuse of, the cause of leprosy 304. + afflictions to 244. + connection between brain, larynx and 139. + function of, interfered with 120. + ruled by Scorpio 305. + underdeveloped 236. +Genitals, ruled by Scorpio 28, 31. +Girls, critical period for 150. +Gland, prostate, ruled by Scorpio 28. +Glands, 17, 293. + awakening of 407. + of goats and monkeys 216. + spasmodic function of 325. + which secrete gastric juice of stomach 325. +Glandular system affected 306. +Glycogen, ruled by Jupiter 31. +Goat's milk 329, 384. +Goitre 126, 128, 130. + exophtalmic goitre 1323. + eye affected by 132. +Gonorrhea 221, 223, 353. +Gourmand 171, 315. +Gout, a Piscean affliction 26, 30. +Gumbolis, an Arian affliction 29. +Gums, lemon water each day for 291. + eliminating pus 390. +Growths, abnormal 165, 218. + + +Harmonizing, types of nail 64. +Habit, drink of 213. +Hair, Capricorn rules 24. +Hand injured in accident 352. +Hands and finger nails 61. + materialized by Invisible Helpers 165. + ruled by Gemini 17, 27. +Hay fever, caused by polypi 386. +Head, and eyes 95. + Aries rules 15. + drawn back over spine 103. + enlargement of 371. + + +[PAGE 461] INDEX + +Headaches 190, 277, 316, 361. + an Arian affliction 29. +Healer, qualifications for 206, 240, 268, 310, 427. +Healers and helpers of humanity 292. + knowledge they must have 39, 48, 50, 53, 261. + under direction of the Elder Brothers 248. +Healer's signs in harmony with those of patient 165, 166. +Healing Department of the Rosicrucian Fellowship 218, 284, 436. +Healing force 442. + meetings at Headquarters 446. + Rosicrucian method of 92, 165, 317, 440. +Health, affected by overindulgence 118. + of native, key to 183. + sacrificed for worldly success 90. + the right to 443. + violations of laws of 188, 443. +Health adjuster, astro-therapeutic 268. +Hearing, loss of 103, 371. +Hemorrhage 145, 228. + of nose, 316. +Hemorrhoids, internal 91. + intestinal 392. + painful 144. +Heart 39, 98, 126, 128, 132, 152, 153, 154, 156, 158, 159, 162, 163, 164, + 165, 166, 168, 169, 193, 234, 274, 284, 313, 367, 383, 423, 426, 429. + affected by pneumogastric nerve 279. + excess of blood drain to 277. + flow of blood through, interfered with 284. + flow of blood through valves of heart 162, 264, 428. + life in blood feeds 422. + ruled by Leo 19, 29, 255. + stimulants 161. +Heart action, enormous range of in exophthalmic goitre, 132. +Hernia, a Scorpio affliction 22. +Hiccough, Cancer people subject to 18. +Hip bone 352. +Hips, ruled by Sagittarius 23, 28. +Horoscope, flat, used when birth hour not known 58. + strength of will first consideration in judging 249. + the Clock of Destiny 313. + + +[PAGE 462] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Horoscope (CONT.) value of 129, 146, 329, 426. +Horse, man thrown from 348. +Hospitals and confinement in 59, 400. + and kindred institutions, ruled by Pisces 145. +House of travel 164. +Hyperaemia, ruled by Virgo 29. +Hypochondria, a Capricorn tendency 23. +Hypochondriacs, think too much of self 386. +Hypophysis 303. +Hysteria, exaggerated 340. + + +Idealism, developed in Libra 21. +Idiocy, caused by rupture between dense and vital bodies 416. +Iliac arteries 335. +Ilium, ruled by Sagittarius 23, 28. +Illness, a starting point of 293. + crisis in, birth hour necessary to predict 183. + Taurus and Capricorn brood over 412. +Imagination, morbid 133. +Impulsiveness 108, 195, 256, 344. + caused by Leo on the Ascendant 19, 28. +Indigestion 174, 280, 315, 415. + Cancer people subject to 18, 29. +Indulgence of lower nature 118, 144. +Infantile paralysis 323, 325, 326. +Inflammation 16, 28, 120, 132, 175, 180. +Influenza 330, 331, 408. +Injuries, indicated by Mars on the Ascendant 318. + shown in progressed horoscope 356. +Insanity 177, 198, 340, 360, 410, 414, 415, 416, 417, 420. + ruled by moon 54. + should never be predicted 39. +Insomnia 29, 408. +Intestinal disorders 20, 116, 124, 125, 293, 295, 297, 393, 396, 402. + ruled by Virgo 20, 274, 277, 293. +Invalidism 162, 215, 240, 243, 278, 319, 321, 433. +Invisible Helpers 108, 165, 235, 237, 248, 318, 330, 252, 365, 374, 408, + 408, 440. + aided by favorable planetary aspects 408. + not permitted to interfere with ripe destiny 155. + + +[PAGE 463] INDEX + +Invisible Helpers (CONT.) presence of, sensed 165. + work of, reenforced 95. +Invisible Helpership, aspirant to 150. +Involuntary muscular action 178. +Iron in blood ruled by Mars 31. +Irregular associations with woman friends 213. +Irritability and worry 196. +Ischium, Sagittarius rules 23. +Israelites 304. + +Jaw, lower, ruled by Taurus 16. + swollen and inflamed 233. + upper ruled by Aries 15. +Jealousy and envy, caused by excess of adrenal fluid 378. +Joints, granulated 322, 393. + ruled by Capricorn 24. + stiff 292, 322. +Jugular vein, ruled by Rosicrucian 16. +Jupiter, afflicted 93, 154, 199, 204, 232, 243 322. + characteristics of 145, 171, 180, 187, 191, 195, 371, 413. + connected with signs ruling the appetites 171. + higher octave of Saturn 60. + rules adrenals 376. + rules arterial circulation 82, 95, 153, 163, 184, 189, 230, 232, 234, + 243, 275, 280, 287, 295, 368, 389, 396, 399, 404. + rules glycogen of the liver 287. + rules liver 204. +Jupiter in the signs of the zodiac: + Taurus 365, 424, 426, 427. + Gemini 88, 91, 300, 375, 376. + Cancer 220, 389, 393. + Virgo 274, 277, 286, 396, 433, 434. + Libra 95, 180, 204, 206, 280, 349. + Scorpio 118. + Sagittarius 130, 189, 191, 319, 419, 420, 421. + Capricorn 241, 243. + Aquarius 313. + Pisces 184, 226, 375, 421. + +Key, to bodily afflictions 399. + to health, right living 203. + + +[PAGE 464] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Kidneys, associated with eyes 93, 157. + chemical laboratory of 156. + impaired 93, 95, 157, 174, 175, 180, 183, 187, 190, 193, 195, 200, 218, + 304, 333, 349, 370, 384. + Libra rules 21. + removed 185, 406. +Knees afflicted (Capricorn) 24, 194. + +Lankford, Dr. J.S. on pineal gland 217. +Laryngitis, Taurians subject to 29. +Larynx and brain 124. + building of 124, 211. + ruled by Rosicrucian 16. +Last degree of sign rising 88. +Latent weakness 309. +Law does not permit layman to diagnose 50. + of Consequence 109. + of the Vicious Circle 211. +Leg ache, an Aquarian affliction 30. +Leg atrophied 352. + swollen 356. +Legs numb and cold 200. +Lemon juice 435. +Leo, gives vitality 57, 59. +Leo people subject to angina pectoris 29. + type of nail 64. + +Leprosy 24, 30, 301, 304, 305, 306, 307. +Life, continuity of 339. + currents feed the nerves 238. + despaired of at childbirth 236. + forces, dissipated 393. + giver, the sun 308. + spent in silence and prayer, result of 136. +Ligaments, ruled by Saturn 31. +Lights (sun and moon) afflicted 229. +Limbs 247, 261, 277, 284, 289, 303, 389. + lower, ruled by Aquarius 25, 28. +Lime 156. +Lines of the palm, what they show about health 65. +Liquids 290, 291 333. + craving for 370. +Liquor 219, 361. +Liver, abscess of 264, 429. + activity abnormal 79, 205, 265. + and gall bladder 262. + + +[PAGE 465] INDEX + +Liver (CONT.) glycogen of the, ruled by Jupiter 287. + lower lobe of, ruled by Virgo 20, 27. + ruled by Jupiter 31, 265. + upper lobes of, ruled by Cancer 18, 27. +Liver trouble, as indicated by finger nails and palm of hand 64, 65. +Locomotore ataxia, Sagittarian affliction 23, 30. +Lower mind, out of tune with spiritual concepts 163. + nature, undue attraction to the opposite sex 400, 407. +Lucifer Spirits, work in the blood 59. +Lumbar region ruled by Libra 21, 28. +Lunatics, ruled by the moon 54. +Lunations 73. +Lungs, 73, 142, 144, 145 164, 172, 173, 228, 288, 295, 333, 416, 422, 423, + 428, 429. + delivery of venous blood to the 232. + Gemini rules the 17, 172, 309, 416. + oxygenation in the 265. +Lymph, deficiency in 380. + indispensable to assimilation 382. +Lymphatic circulation impaired 189. +Lymphatic, inflamed 293, 294. + ruled by moon and Venus 31, 293. + +Malefic planets 156, 221. +Malefics in fixed signs 282. + in twelfth and sixth houses 59. + square of four 98. +Malformation indicated by Saturn square Neptune 178. +Malnutrition 315. + Virgo people subject to 20, 29. +Mammae, ruled by Cancer 18, 27. +Man, a little lower than the angels 101. + given dominion over lower kingdoms 100. + his own executioner 79. + master of his fate 100, 398. + must learn to know himself 87. +Mania, religious 420. +Maniac, raving 416. +Manipulation and massage 84, 87, 118, 248, 310, 314. +Marriage 161, 424. + partner shown by seventh house 269. +Mars, characteristics of 78, 86, 99, 103, 110, 113, 116, 120, 124, 127, 132, + 142, 144, 152, 166, 174, 177, 178 + + +[PAGE 466] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + + +Mars, characteristics of (CONT.) + 190, 194, 195, 196, 197, 202, 221, 222, 228, 238, 241, 247, 253, + 262, 264, 267, 271, 282, 293, 297, 299, 300, 303, 322, 327, 341, + 343, 347, 351, 373, 384, 386, 391, 400, 402, 406, 414, 421, 434. + destructive influence of 15, 262. + fills arteries and veins with blood, 128. + gives fevers and inflammation 117, 335, 422. + governs motor nerves 247, 313. + segment of spinal cord 247. + influence, examples of 53, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 64, 74, 115. + rules rectum 438. + SEE ALSO Characteristics. +Mars in sign of the zodiac: Aries 157, 253, 394, 439. + Taurus 81, 113, 127, 132, 207, 221, 263, 264. + Gemini 137, 144, 421, 423. + Cancer 187, 189, 269, 315, 333. + Leo 78, 150, 386. + Virgo 124, 180, 266, 293, 300, 402. + Libra 174, 193, 290, 384, 400, 438. + Scorpio 104, 167, 225, 282, 391, 438. + Sagittarius 335, 337, 347. + Capricorn 89, 91, 176, 337, 357. + Aquarius 116, 228, 305, 367. + Pisces 173, 337. +Martial energy, not controlled 166. + temperament 152. +Massage, bath gloves 300, 401. +Mastoid cavity, pus in 190. + bone operated upon 190. +Mastoiditis 187. +Masturbation 392. +Materialistic conception of life, effect of 151. +Materialization of fingers by Invisible Helpers 248. + of hands, by Invisible Helpers 318. +Mediumship 41, 208, 364, 419. +Melancholy, caused by Saturn 40, 191. + Librans subject to 28. +Memory weakened 370. +Meningitis 371. + spinal, ruled by Leo 29. +Menopause 234, 298, 342. +Menustration 121, 132, 236, 288. + + +[PAGE 467] INDEX + +Mental attitude, causes physical suffering 274, 311. + caliber of patient should be first consideration 97, 163, 168, 191, 198, + 245, 266, 278. + cases 131, 220, 304, 340, 410. + disturbance weakens nervous system 90. + laziness 322. + qualities shown particularly by Mercury and moon 40, 126, 130, 198, 201, + 358, 375. +Mentality, ruled by pineal glad 218. + signified in horoscope by planet Mercury. SEE MERCURY. +Mercury, characteristics of 145, 152, 226, 251, 300, 400, 402, 414. + examples of influence of 76, 92, 111, 135, 203, 251. + functions and organs ruled by: + hearing 79. + mentality 126, 176, 198, 201, 238, 340, 412, 424. + nerves 335, 336. + small intestines 337. + speech 336. + thyroid gland 216, 366. + ruler of Gemini 150, 421. + ruler of Virgo 318, 431. +Mercury, in the signs of the Zodiac + Aries 226, 278, 338, 358, 380. + Taurus 134, 368. + Gemini 98, 430. + Cancer 81. + Leo 362, 365, 421, 429. + Virgo 126, 129, 164. + Scorpio 92, 93, 153, 161, 201, 202, 230. + Sagittarius 150, 335, 340, 347. + Capricorn 71, 86. + Aquarius 102, 107, 209, 264, 418, 429. + Pisces 1116, 297, 322. +Mercury, used in the cure of syphilis 185. +Metabolism of entire body 306. +Midheaven and Ascendant, aspects not always reliable 56. +Milk, fresh from cow 147, 240. +Mind 41, 130, 140, 167, 191, 266, 365, 381, 402, 413, 416, 418, 424. + connected with pineal gland 217. + higher, ruled by Neptune 340,. + maker of the body 198. + moon partial significator of 126, 198, 201, 375. + + +[PAGE 468] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Mind (CONT.) religious attitude of, loosened tension of nerves 281. + steadied by Saturn 198. + three significators of 191. +Mineral elements 390. + matter deposited in joints and blood stream 276. + salts 310. +Miracle performed through spiritual healing 259. +Mono-diet 435. +Moon, characteristic influence of 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 60, 74, 75, 152, 166, + 167, 178, 226, 242, 253, 293, 332, 335, 412, 416, 419. + considered in judging mentality of 20, 40, 126, 130, 198, 201, 238, 375. + examples of influences of 83, 136, 185, 230, 233, 245, 335, 336, 356, + 371. + mount of the 67. + parts of body ruled by 82, 150, 189, 218, 247. + planet of impregnation and parturition 238, 242. + progressed, considered by predicting crisis 183. + progresses around horoscope in 28 years 404. + significator of health for women 145, 247, 308. +Moon's influence of new and full 73, 103, 328, 366. +Moral balance lacking, responsible for physical ailment 303. + depravity 305. + nature ruled by Venus and Uranus 302, +Morphine addiction 424, 426. +Mortifying the flesh 136. +Mother 106, 3254, 377, 406. + and babe, life despaired of 373. +Motor nerves, cramping of 337. + ruled by Mars 31. +Mount of Venus, well developed in Taurians 64. +Mouth-breathing 128, 386. +Mucous membrane 386. + inflamed 178, 277. + insufficient 179. +Mucus, lubricating in stomach 325. +Mumps 233, +Murder of unborn babe 243. +Murderer 410. +Muscles and joints, stiff and sore 276. + in spasmodic torticollis 83. + locomotore 235. + overtaxed 284. + + +[PAGE 469] INDEX + +Muscular movement, ruled by Mars 31. +Mutual reception defined 209. + examples of 209, 228, 238, 2489, 289, 305, 419. + +Narcotics 26, 291, 406, 408. +Nasal bones ruled by Scorpio 15, 22, 32. + catarrh, Scorpio affliction 22. + passages closed 386. +Nausea 178, 179. +Neck, enlarged veins of 128. + organs within region of 140. + pain in shoulders and 115. + ruled by Taurus 17, 28. +Neglect of physical body 136. +Nephritis, Libran suffers from 21, 30. +Neptune, afflicted, by Mars, gives tendency toward black magic 41. + afflicted by Uranus, negative psychism 41. + afflicted causes underdevelopment 172, 236, 324. + between Venus and Sun gives bulk 368. + characteristics of 77, 90, 103, 106, 137, 143, 177, 207, 228, 327, 416, + 431. + deals with large corporations 332. + higher octave of Mercury 41, 77, 141, 217, 218, 227, 238, 253, 335, 340, + 358, 366, 377, 420, 431. + rules drugs 265. + rules nervous system 431. + rules pineal gland 141, 217, 366, 377. + rules spinal canal 247, 25-, 251, 335, 377. + rules spiritual sight of 105. +Neptune in the signs of the zodiac: + Aries 93, 207, 240, 341, 388. + Taurus 122, 124, 143, 144, 205, 206, 213, 236, 253, 362, 391. + Gemini 141, 172, 227, 228, 230, 232, 308, 335, 336, 350, 430, 431. + Cancer 105, 155, 315, 323, 325, 327, 328, 382. + Aquarius 90. + Pisces 161, 168, 318, 398. + higher octave of Venus 218. +Nerve, fifth lumbar 320. + force 279. +Nerves, 79, 90, 172, 190, 196, 237, 247, 284, 318, 330, 344, 345, 408. + + +[PAGE 470] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Nerves (CONT.) motor, overstimulated 317. +Nervous breakdown 193, 3237, 330, 332, 334. + disorders, Aquarians subject to 25, 30. + Gemini people subject to 17, 28. + indigestion 390. + temperament 154. +Nervous system 300., + and spinal fluids obstructed 336. + disturbed by transits 83. + governed by Mars 313. + Mercury 313, 344. + helped by celery, onions, parsley, lettuce 219. + inadequately nourished 332. + Neptune works largely upon 420. + shattered by fits of anger 79. + sympathetic, ruled by Virgo 20. +Neuralgia, Arians subject to 16. +Neuritis 300. +Nose, inflammatory trouble in 386. +Nose bleed, Arians subject to 16. +Nourishment, obtained only from digested food 172. +Numbness in arms and hands, 300. +Nurse, requirements for 193, 201. + Scorpio people successful as 22. + Virgos successful as 20. + +Obligation of health adjuster 165. +Obsession 362, 365, 378, 417. +Obstruction, Saturn the planet of 308. +Occipital region, Taurus rules 16, 27. +Occult knowledge, desire for 111, 161, 168, 419. +Oesophageal branch of pneumogastric nerve obstructed 345. +Oesophagus, ruled by Cancer 31, 79, 345. +Oils necessary to keep joints in order 295. +Olive oil, treatments with 259, 268, 435. +Operations 93, 103, 108, 121, 123, 125, 135, 179, 180, 247, 357, 372, 379. + when they should be performed 55. +Opposite signs, effect of afflictions in 140, 215, 313. +Optimism, a magnet for good things 311. +Orb, exceptions to six degree 81. +Organ, abnormal enlargement of 368. + undersized and atrophied 367. + + +[PAGE 471] INDEX + +Organic weakness 183. +Organs, female, unnecessary removal of 123. + mutual bondage of 318. + of generation, afflicted 124, 242. + speech 123, 136, 137, 140. + undersized and misshapen due to Neptune afflicting Saturn 324. +Orientals, Yogi teachings safe for 420. +Ossifying influences of Neptune 352. +Osteophath 84, 99, 261, 318, 373. +Ouija board 176. +Ovarian tunes removed 214. +Ovaries, effect of removal of 140. + ruled by the moon 31. +Overexertion 150. +Oxygen, burned up in lungs 423. + pure 295. +Oxygenation of the blood 172, 175, 232, 312, 333. + ruled by Gemini 17, 27. + +Painter's colic 386. +Palate, ruled by Taurus 16, 394. +Palpitation of the heart 132, 158, 274, 277. + when most efficiently treated 56. +Pancreas, ruled by Cancer 18, 27. +Paralysis 261, 288, 308, 311, 319, 321, 322 326, 333, 334, 348. +Parental blood in child's body 217. +Parents 118, 137, 225, 251, 254, 316, 318, 325, 339, 342, 352, 353, 357, + 377. + need knowledge of astrology 295. +Past life, effects of 106, 140, 159, 240. +Patient, must make effort to overcome planetary conditions 343. + weekly letter required from 182, 436. + what thumb of, indicates 57. +Patients encouraged to help themselves 361, 417. + taught how to live 95. +Peacemakers, trines act as 34. +Pelvic region, weight on 261. +Pepsin, lack of 390. +Perception, sense ruled by Mercury 31. +Peristaltic action 18, 27, 288, 302, 345. + + +[PAGE 472] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Peritonitis 20, 29, 233, 394, 396. +Pernicious anemia 289. +Pessimism, barrier to healing 163. +Pharynx, ruled by Taurus 16. +Phoshporic acid, in the kidneys 156. +Piles, bleeding 99. + Scorpio afflicted causes 22. +Pineal Gland 103, 217, 218, 219, 407. + ruled by Neptune 31. +Pineapple, unrivaled as digestive stimulant 281. +Pituitary body 103, 217, 303, 304, 326, 377, 406. + ruled by Uranus 31. + SEE ALSO Lankford, Dr. J. S. +Planets affect opposite sign 116, 122, 241, 333. + clock of destiny 136, 366. + dangerous position for 156. + expression of, through opposite signs 214. + in cardinal signs 323. + in common signs 213, 433. + in fixed signs 153, 221, 229, 250, 419, 421. + in last degree of sign 99, 226. + in Leo and the fifth house 225. + in mutual reception 249. + in square of opposition 105, 323. + major, given eight degree orb 153. + opposition of, from 12th to 6th houses 156. + progressed, start afflictions into action 133, 327. + reflex action of 241. + retrograde 58, 227. + rising 88. + ruling nervous system 217. + Saturn and Neptune, the two most subtle 122. + strong in signs of like nature 58. + sympathy and antipathy of 323. + transiting 183. +Pleurisy, Gemini people subject to 17, 29. +Pneumogastric nerve, 79, 98, 99, 132, 165, 279, 287, 343, 345. +Pnenumonia 189, 264, 288, 333. + Gemini people subject to 17, 29. +Poisonous carbon dioxide exhaled 95, 125, 156, 172, 200, 204, 295, 439. +Polypi 384, 386. + Taurians subject to 17, 29. +Pregnancy 377, 408. +Preliminary steps in diagnosing 46. +Prenatal period 315. + + +[PAGE 473] INDEX + +Prevention better than cure 268. +Professional medium 208. +Progressed aspects alone will not act 73. + good for bringing about cure 314. +Prostrate gland, enlarged 370. + inflammation of 121. +Prostratic stricture 30. +Prostration 309. +Protein, 173, 329. + excessive heat from too much 393. +Psychism, negative 364. +Psycho-analytic diagnosis 362. +Ptolemy, quotation from 55. +Puberty 84, 121, 154, 217, 236, 374, 383. +Pubic bone, ruled by Scorpio 22. +Pulmonary circulation, ruled by Mercury 30. +Pus, generated in body 232, 233, 356. +Pylorus 176, 179. +Pyorrhea 387, 390, 398. +Pythagoras, teachings of concerning solar system 33. + +Quick consumption 228. +Quinsy 125. + Taurians subject to 17, 29. +Quotation, "Mills of God" 225. + +Radical planets show organic weaknesses 183. +Reading horoscopes, three points to consider in 72. +Rebirth and the Law of Consequence 224. +Recovery paid when sun is favorably aspected to Mars 75. + slow if afflictions are from fixed signs 75. +Rectal elimination 193. + region, nervous trouble in 202. +Rectum, growth in 386. + inflammation in 392. + ruled by Mars 31. +Reflex action 236, 241. +Rejuvenation, through gland grafting 216. +Religious mania 41. +Renal calculi 30, 195, 197. + circulation 198, 200, 266, 303. + disorder 333. + + +[PAGE 474] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Renal (CONT.) secretions 156. + stones 267. +Reproduction, ruled by Scorpio 28. +Respiratory system 295, 425, 429, 430. +Restlessness, due to worry 90. +Retrograde planets 58, 161, 187, 207, 251. +Retrospection 165. +Rheumatism 30, 174, 293, 295, 297, 298, 393. +Ribs, upper, ruled by Gemini 17. +Rickets and tetany 327, 329. +Rigg's Disease, Pyorrhea 390. +Rising sign 148, 183, 322, 326, 366. +Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception quotation from 211. + teachings 136, 221, 254, 377. +Ruler, life afflicted 274, 375. + of seventh house 236. + of sixth house indicator of sickness 43. +Rules, when looking for physical ailments 350. +Rupture between mind and spirit 416. + caused by Scorpio 30. + of blood vessel 115. + + +Sacral bones 352. + nerves 320. + plexus 261. + region of spine 23, 335. +Sagittarian, liable to accidents 29. +Sainthood, from savagery to 191. +Samson, symbolic of the sun 20. +Saturn, afflicted by Neptune 351, 365. + benefic characteristics of 191, 239, 331, 404. + destructive influence in angles 262. + exalted in Libra 20, 40, 53, 56, 57, 59, 73. + expresses through planet which it afflicts 174. + general influences of 18, 35, 44, 58, 60, 82, 103, 111, 115, 118, 119, + 127, 131, 140, 145, 151, 170, 176, 184, 189, 227, 239, 255, 262, + 282, 325, 335, 351, 390, 414. + malefic characteristics of 82, 119, 131, 140, 145, 184, 189, 262, 344, + 350. + obstructive action of 116, 119, 134, 142, 144, 149, 151, 156, 174, 191, + 193, 195, 201, 216, 221, 236, 238, 242, 247, 249, 266, 278, 289, +297, 311, 319, 321, 337, 340, 380, 389, 435. + + +[PAGE 475] INDEX + +Saturn, (CONT.) planet of destiny, 405. + rules the bones 355. + pneumogastric nerve 217. +Saturn in the signs of the zodiac: + Aries 176, 269, 278, 329. + Taurus 116, 118, 122, 127, 131, 132, 237, 362, 391. + Gemini 145, 149, 295, 312, 380. + Cancer 111, 119, 161, 162, 170, 173, 180 203, 204, 266, 289, 291 302, 303 + 348, 389, 398, 422, 438 439. + Leo 134, 163, 165, 193, 249, 255, 2567, 257, 262, 373, 419, 428. + Virgo 185, 274, 277, 396. + Libra 33, 85, 93, 156, 189, 195, 197, 205, 210, 297, 298, 333, 386. + Scorpio 140, 221, 227, 230, 242, 305, 429, 435. + Sagittarius 115, 260, 308, 335, 358, 361. + Capricorn 170, 172, 173, 174, 234, 270, 271, 272, 337, 340, 389, 412. + Aquarius 104, 107, 199, 243, 282. + Pisces 90, 319, 320. +Sciatic nerve, ruled by Sagittarius 23, 30. + nerves 261, 335, 361. +Sclerosis, Cancer people subject to 18. + hardening of the arteries 276. + of the spinal cord 258. +Scorpio, rules the generative organs 214. + rules the nose 15. +Scorpio people, characteristics of 48. +Scurvy, a Scorpio affliction 22, 30. +Secret habits 140, 218, 219, 435. + of doctor's success 38. +Secretions 156, 157, 266, 378. +Sedatives, least effective when moon increases in light 53. +Sedentary, Venus 31. +Sense perception, ruled by Mercury 31. +Sensory nerves, ruled by Mercury 31, 314. +Serum of blood, ruled by Cancer 18, 27. +Sex 83, 123, 140, 141, 215, 219, 370, 435. + and voice, proof of connection between 139. + force, used to build brain and larynx 138, 218. + of body used by ego changes in each life 123. + organs and throat 36, 143. +Sexual excesses tire and deplete glands 304. +Shock to nervous system in childhood 239. + + +[PAGE 476] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Shoulders, ruled by Gemini 17, 27. +Shrinking, Neptune 32. +Sigmoid flexure, ruled by Scorpio 22. +Signs, cardinal affinity of 174. + respond to afflictions readily 174. + common 173. + last degrees of, rising 88. + of like nature have affinity for one another 174. + of strong feeling 207. +Silver cord 380. +Sin against the Holy Ghost 251. +Sixth and twelfth houses, houses of sickness 43, 59, 290. + sense, development of 112. +Skin 157, 295, 300, 304, 390. + ruled by Capricorn 24, 28. + ruled by Libra 21. + sallow, Capricornian subject to 24. + sensitive, Aquarians subject to 25. +Sleeplessness 200, 382. +Sluggishness of body 243. +Solar forces 19. + drawn into body through spleen 327. +Soul, attracted to parent of nature like its own 225. + flights, through use of narcotics 408. + hunger 208. + sign of a strong 160. +Spasmodic, Uranus 32. +Speculation, desire for 90, 332. +Speech, impediment in 131, 135, 138. +Spinal canal, ruled by Neptune 103, 338. + filled with spinal spirit fire 251. +Spinal column 318, 352, 435. + cord, inflammation of gray matter of 326. + cord ruled by Leo 19, 255, 374. + fluid 103, 326, 350, 352, 374. + meningitis, a Leo affliction 29. + operations 256. + trouble, Leo people subject to 19. +Spine 103, 245, 248, 149, 255, 256, 258, 259 350, 352, 353, 402, 403. + dorsal region of, ruled by Leo 19, 27. +Spirit control 177, 358, 360, 420, 424. + fire, obstructed by Saturn and the sum 251. + linked to bodies 416. +Spirits, Lucifer, aid in maintaining blood heat 59. + + +[PAGE 477] INDEX + +Spiritual fire, life emanates from 103. + healing 235, 444, + life 169, 307, 309. + powers, abuse of 103. + world, activities in 151. +Spiritualism 209, 361, 420. +Spleen disturbances, Leo people subject to 19. + ruled by the sun 19, 58, 255. + ruled by Virgo 20. +Sports, expression through 355. +Squares 34. +Starches and sugars 176, 277, 290, 329, 390. +Stellar script, value of, to physician 121. +Stimulants, when to apply 53, 55, 56. +Stomach 79, 95, 170, 172, 174, 175, 190, 300, 315, 324, 345, 389, 390, 396, + 398, 426, 429, 430. + affected by pneumogastric nerve 279. + central supply station 387. + circulatory system of 390. + digestive fluid in 325, 390, 399. + gastric juices in 170, 291. + nerves of, overstimulated 318. + ruled by Cancer 18, 170, 387. +Stubbornness 16, 48, 229, 249. +Suffering, softens nature 256. +Sugar 218, 219. +Sulphuric acid 156. +Sun, entrance of into cardinal signs 207. + importance of having correct position of 148. + influence of, in astro-diagnosis 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 73, 75, 110, + 232, 352, 368, 422. + orb of, larger than that of planets 2251. + rules vital body 255. + the life giver 95, 145, 150, 184, 234, 238, 249, 253, 333, 338, 375, 414, + 439. + unaspected, limited 257, 278. +Sun baths 329. +Sun in the signs of the zodiac: + Aries 95, 229, 278, 280, 333, 343. + Taurus 187, 183. + Gemini 79, 130, 145, 238, 331. + Cancer 124, 323, 387, 433. + Leo 104, 110, 128, 132, 193, 234, 321, 362, 365, 373, 398, 421, 424. + Virgo 164. + + +[PAGE 478] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Sun in the signs of the zodiac: (CONT.) + Libra 201. + Scorpio 201, 230, 391. + Sagittarius 335, 340, 350, 376. + Capricorn 85, 257, 327, 354, 355. + Aquarius 104, 249, 313, 419. + Pisces 116, 173, 175, 207, 209, 253, 262, 297, 414, 429. +Supersensitivenss 24. +Surarenals, ruled by Jupiter 31. +Surgeons, Scorpio people successful as 22. +Swelling 132. + of legs, an Aquarian affliction 25. +Swollen ankles, an Aquarian affliction 30. + tonsils 219. +Swooning 378. +Sympathetic nervous system 279. + ruled by Virgo 20. +Sympathy and antipathy 33. + between generative organs and throat 215. + between two planets 309. +Symptoms, according to planetary positions 148, 261, 297, 428. +Synovial fluid 259, 261, 275. + fluids, ruled by the moon 258, 275, 295. +Syphillis 22, 24, 30, 185, 214. + +Talents, latent, indicated by retrograde planets 187, 363. +Talk, boy refused to 135. +Taurus, afflicted, gives tendency to apoplexy 29. + characteristics of 48. + parts of body ruled by 16, 63, 64, 67, 394. +Teachings, dangers of Oriental and Occult 115, 420. +Teeth, ruled by Saturn 31. +Temper, 15, 79, 98, 115, 128, 153, 154, 167, 195, 238, 270, 322, 341, 378, + 400, 401. +Temperament, gives clue to cause of disease 88, 89, 183. +Temperature, Arians run high 16, 57. +Tenacity, fixed sign people show great 48. +Tendencies, erratic 195. +Tetany 329. +Thirst, unquenchable 157/ +Thoracic duct 387. + ruled by Cancer 18, 27. +Thoughts, crystallizing built into new vehicle 151. +Threads of life, cross those of people we have wronged 225. +Throat, 83, 116, 117, 120, 122, 124, 125, 140, 211, 219, 233, 365, 370, 394, + 439. + + +[PAGE 479] INDEX + +Throat (CONT.) ruled by Taurus 31, 394. +Thumb, what it indicates 66, 67. +Thymus gland 217, 218, 371, 374. + ruled by Gemini 17. + ruled by Venus 31, 217. +Thyroid arteries 127. +Thyroid gland 140, 206, 216, 304, 366, 368, 369, 374. + ruled by Mercury 218, 368. + ruled by Taurus 16, 390. +Toes, Pisces rules 26. +Tongue, ruled by Mercury and Taurus 32. +Tonsilities 17, 29, 365. +Tonsils 117, 121, 125, 126, 128, 214, 219, 233, 236, 362, 365. + ruled by Taurus 16, 214. +Toothache 361. +Total eclipse in Scorpio 233. +Trachea, nervous contraction of 264. + ruled by Gemini 17. +Transits 73, 102, 104, 232, 243, 285, 345, 366. +Travel, to far-off planets, ability to 112. +Treatment in sun hour most effective 268. +Triangle, symbol of trine 33. +Tines, act as peacemakers 34. + harmonious and benefic 33. +Triplicities 33, 34. +Truthfulness, necessity for recovery from illness 280. +Tube drain 232. +Tuberculosis 142, 144, 145, 148, 170, 172, 264, 296, 417, 420. + not necessarily serious or fatal 145, 148, 149. + of kidneys 185. + of pelvic and hip bones 223. + of spine 253. 255. +Tumor in brain, near cerebellum 379. +Tumors 31. +Twelfth house afflictions most subtle 41. +Typhoid 29, 261, 402. + +Ulcers 390, 435. +Uranus, characteristics of 77, 85, 106, 113, 134, 136, 142, 144, 145, 152, + 155, 166, 177, 178, 180, 189, 193, 194, 200, 212, 221, 227, 229, + 230, 247, 253, 282, 297, 325, 327, 332, 333, 334, 337, 347, 355, + 377, 390, 392, 395, 412, 414, 425. + exalted in Scorpio 230. + examples of influences of 41, 43, 44, 58, 71, 102, 166, 172, 179, 212, + 213, 236, 340, 423. + + +[PAGE 480] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Uranus (CONT.) higher octave of Venus 154, 217, 302, 374. + rules pituitary body 217, 374. +Uranus, in twelve signs of the zodiac: + Aries 278. + Taurus 110, 166. + Gemini 164, 189, 209, 334, 395. + Cancer 360, 414, 416, 424, 426, 429. + Leo 98, 282, 284, 319, 368. + Virgo 84, 145, 212, 392, 406. + Libra 180, 193, 206, 266, 289, 301, 302, 303. + Scorpio 140, 185, 221, 305, 435. + Sagittarius 172, 173, 335, 355. + Capricorn 106, 324, 325. + Aquarius 134, 152, 257, 343, 3983, 423. + Pisces 134, 136, 224. +Urea 156. + +Ureters 190, 298. + ruled by Libra. +Urethra, ruled by Scorpio 22, 28. +Uric acid deposits 174. +Urine 21, 30, 99, 132, 156, 158, 175, 196, 197, 200, 313. + elimination of sugar in 204. + heated by foods 99. +Uterine trouble 234, 236, 237. + caused by afflicted Scorpio 22. +Uterus, ruled by the moon 31. + +Vagina, growth in 386. +Vagus nerve 345. +Varices, caused by interference in Venus circulation 284. +Varicose veins 25, 30, 282. +Vaso-motor system, Libra rules 21. +Vegetables, uncooked, have abundance of ether 240. + value of 219. +Vegetarian diet, 118, 128, 158, 203, 259, 277, 281, 300, 329, 334, 361, 394, + 432, 435. +Vegetative nervous system 217. +Vein, gastric ruled by Cancer 18. +Vena cava, Leo rules 19. +Venereal diseases 214, 225, 230, 231, 305. +Venous circulation afflicted 300. +Venus, characteristics of 142, 226, 227, 238, 371, 413, 416. + examples of influence of, in progression 73, 74. + + +[PAGE 481] INDEX + + higher octave of Mars 60. + mount of, large in Taurians 64. + rules palate 78. + thymus gland 217, 373. + venous blood 82, 120, 150, 153, 163, 185, 196, 228, 230, 232, 243, + 255, 266, 288, 290, 297, 321, 335, 367, 393 396, 420. +Venus in the signs of zodiac: + Aries 315, 318, 380. + Taurus 205, 217, 255, 256, 269, 319, 367. + Gemini 358, 434. + Cancer 79, 142, 143, 290, 323, 332, 362, 394. + Leo 12, 398, 429. + Virgo 232, 289. + Sagittarius 282, 335, 438. + Pisces 207, 209, 406, 419, 420. +Vertebrae of the spine 259. +Vicious circles 34, 85, 86, 211, 214, 325. +Villi of the intestines 277, 294. +Virgo, a common sign 62, 107, 211, 212, 274, + on Ascendant produces good nurses 53, + rules small intestines 180, 236. +Visions, imagination, given by moon 414. +Vital body 255, 327. + currents of, turned inward 52. +Vital flow along nerves checked 255, 314, 338. + fluid ruled by the sun 30, 58, 238, 327. + fluids dissipated 219, 220, 251. + organs 165. + signs of the zodiac 19, 385. +Vitality 57, 93, 263, 319, 402. + depleted 17, 57, 116, 150, 184, 234, 255, 256, 262, 322, 332. +Vocal organs 16, 134, 139, 141. +Voice, human, reveals character 140, 141. +Voluntary nervous system ruled by Mercury 279. + +Walk, defective 243, 257, 335, 404. +Water 167, 276, 288, 291 435. +Weeds, poisonous 276. +Weekly letters to healing department 360. +Western races, Yogi teachings unsuited for 420. +Wheat bread, to give bulk 329. + + +[PAGE 482] ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS + +Will and ambition 85, 92, 100, 111, 138, 144, 162, 180, 183, 223, 249, 322, + 254, 364. +Will power, usually shown in Ascendant 16, 43. +Wisdom, friend which saves 87. +Wise man rules his stars 162. +Wishbone instead of Backbone, patient had 198. +Womb trouble, Scorpio afflictions cause 22. +Worms, Virgo afflictions cause 22. +Worry 90, 312. +Wrath, nursing of 268. +Wreck, physical and mental 180. + +Yogi teachings, suitable for Fourth Race peoples 420. + + + + END OF "ASTRO-DIAGNOSIS--A GUIDE TO HEALING" + + + ---END OF FILE --- + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ros_ami.txt b/religious documents/ros_ami.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..759b9cc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ros_ami.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4059 @@ +[PAGE 1] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + + + + + ANCIENT AND MODERN + + INITIATION + + BY + + MAX HEINDEL + [1865-1919] + + + + + + + THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + + INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS + + MT. ECCLESIA + + P.O BOX 713 + + OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, U.S.A. + + ------- + + + + + +[PAGE 3] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + + FORWARD + + Within the pages of this little volume are to be found some of the most +priceless gems belonging to the deepest phases of the Christian religion. +These gems are the result of the spiritual investigations of that inspired +and illumined Seer, Max Heindel, the authorized messenger of the Elder +Brothers of the Rose Cross, who are working to disseminate throughout the +Western World the deeper spiritual meanings which are both concealed and re- +vealed within the Christian religion. + + The various important steps as outlined in the life of our Savior, Christ +Jesus, form the general plan of Initiation for humanity. Max Heindel in +this work gives a deeper and more mystic insight into this alchemical pro- +cess as it takes place in the body of man himself. For we are but "a little +lower than the angels...and it doth not yet appear what we shall be." + + This volume will be a welcome addition to the libraries of many ministers +and church organizations throughout the world. It will sound a new note of +inspiration and encouragement to all those who labor in His name. + + +[PAGE 4] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + The Rosicrucian School has a priceless heritage in the opportunity to +promulgate, during this crucial time in the spiritual evolution of men and +nations, the esoteric teachings belonging to the Christian Church. "Unto +whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." Therefore it is +in the spirit of reverence and humility that the Rosicrucian Fellowship +dedicates the priceless teachings contained within this little book to the +service of all humanity. + + May its Truth enlighten, its Wisdom guide, and its Love enfold all those +who come to partake of its Waters of Life. And may each one who comes find +the Illumined Way that is outlined herein. + + "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman, seeking goodly pearls. +Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he +had and bought it." + + +[PAGE 5] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + TABLE OF CONTENTS + + PART I + + THE TABERNACLE IN THE WILDERNESS + +Chapter Page + + I.--The Atlantean Mystery Temple............................. 9 + + II.--The Brazen Altar and Laver...............................17 + +III.--East Room of the Temple..................................28 + + IV.--The Ark of the Covenant..................................36 + + V.--The Sacred Shekinah Glory................................46 + + VI.--The New Moon and Initiation..............................54 + + PART II + + THE CHRISTIAN MYSTIC INITIATION + + I.--The Annunciation and Immaculate Conception...............63 + + II.--Mystic Rite of Baptism...................................75 + +III.--The Temptation...........................................84 + + IV.--The Transfiguration......................................91 + + V.--The Last Supper and Footwashing.........................102 + + VI.--Gethsemane, the Garden of Grief.........................109 + +VII.--The Stigmata and the Crucifixion........................114 + + +[PAGE 6] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + Page + +The Tabernacle in the Wilderness (Frontpiece) + +The Brazen Laver...............................................22 + +The Holy Place and the Holy of the Holies......................33 + +The Tabernacle in the Wilderness + "The Shadow of Good Things to Come".........................51 + +Christian Mystic Initiation: The Path Through the Heart........59 + +The Nine Steps of the Christian Mystic Initiation..............65 + +The Process of Transfiguration.................................94 + + +[PAGE 7] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + + + PART ONE + + + + THE TABERNACLE + + IN THE WILDERNESS + + + + + +[PAGE 9] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + CHAPTER ONE + + THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE + + Ever since mankind, the prodigal spirit sons of our Father in Heaven, +wandered into the wilderness of the world and fed upon the husks of its +pleasures, which starve the body, there has been within man's heart a sound- +less voice urging him to return; but most men are so engrossed in material +interests that they hear it not. The Mystic Mason who has heard this inner +voice feels impelled by an inner urge to seek for the Lost Word; to build a +house of God, a temple of the spirit, where he may meet the Father face to +face and answer His call. + + Nor is he dependent upon his own resources in this quest, for our Father +in Heaven has Himself prepared a way marked with guide posts which will lead +us to Him if we follow. But as we have forgotten the divine Word and would +be unable now to comprehend its meaning, the Father speaks to us in the + + +[PAGE 10] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +language of symbolism, which both hides and reveals the spiritual truths we +must understand before we can come to Him. Just as we give to our children +picture books which reveal to their nascent minds intellectual concepts +which they could not otherwise understand, so also each God-given symbol has +a deep meaning which could not be learned without that symbol. + + God is spirit and must be worshipped in spirit. It is therefore strictly +forbidden to make a material likeness of Him, for nothing we could make +would convey an adequate idea. But as we hail the flag of our country with +joy and enthusiasm because it awakens in our breasts the tenderest feelings +for home and our loved ones, because it stirs our noblest impulse, because +it is a symbol of all the things which we hold dear, so also do different +divine symbols which have been given to mankind from time to time speak to +that forum of truth which is within our hearts, and awaken our consciousness +to divine ideas entirely beyond words. Therefore symbolism, which has +played an all-important part in our past evolution, is still a prime neces- +sity in our spiritual development; hence the advisability of studying it +with our intellects and our hearts. + + It is obvious that our mental attitude today depends on how we thought +yesterday, also that our present condition and circumstances depend on how +we worked or shirked in the past. Every new thought or idea which comes to +us we view in the light of our previous experience, and thus we see that our +present and future are determined by our previous living. Similarly the + + +[PAGE 11] THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE + +path of spiritual endeavor which we have hewn out for ourselves in past ex- +istences determines our present attitude and the way we must go to attain +our aspirations. Therefore we can gain no true perspective of our future +development unless we first familiarize ourselves with the past. + + It is in recognition of this fact that modern Masonry harks back to the +temple of Solomon. That is very well as far as it goes, but in order to +gain the fullest perspective we must also take into consideration the an- +cient Atlantean Mystery Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. We must +understand the relative importance of that Tabernacle, also of the first and +second temples, for there were vital differences between them, each fraught +with cosmic significance; and within them all was the foreshadowing of the +CROSS, sprinkled with BLOOD, which was turned to ROSES. + + THE TABERNACLE IN THE WILDERNESS + + We read in the Bible the story of how Noah and a remnant of his people +with him were saved from the flood and formed the nucleus of the humanity of +the Rainbow Age in which we now live. It is also stated that Moses led his +people out of Egypt, the land of the Bull, Taurus, through waters which en- +gulfed their enemies and set them free as a chosen people to worship the +Lamb, Aries, into which sign the sun had then entered by precession of the +equinox. These two narratives relate to one and the same incident, namely, +the emergence of infant humanity from the doomed continent of Atlantis into + + +[PAGE 12] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +the present age of alternating cycles where summer and winter, day and +night, ebb and flow, follow each other. As humanity had then just become +endowed with mind, they began to realize the loss of the spiritual sight +which they had hitherto possessed, and they developed a yearning for the +spirit world and their divine guides which remains to this day, for humanity +has never ceased to mourn their loss. Therefore the ancient Atlantean Mys- +tery Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, was given to them that they +might meet the Lord when they had qualified themselves by service and subju- +gation of the lower nature by the Higher Self. Being designed by Jehovah it +was the embodiment of great cosmic truths hidden by a veil of symbolism +which spoke to the inner or Higher Self. + + In the first place it is worthy of notice that this divinely designed +Tabernacle was given to a chosen people, who were to build it from freewill +offerings given out of the fullness of their hearts. Herein is a particular +lesson, for the divine pattern of the path of progress is never given to +anyone who has not first made a covenant with God that he will serve Him and +is wiling to offer up his heart's blood in a life of service without +self-seeking The term "Mason" is derived from PHREE MESSEN, which is an +Egyptian term meaning "Children of Light." In the parlance of Masonry, God +is spoken of as the Grand Architect. ARCHE is a greek word which means +"Primordial substance." TEKTON is the Greek name for builder. It is said + + +[PAGE 13] THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE + +that Joseph, the father of Jesus, was a "CARPENTER," but the Greek word is +TEKTON--builder. It is also said that Jesus was a "tekton," a builder. +Thus every true mystic Freemason is a child of light according to the divine +pattern given him by our Father in Heaven. To this end he dedicates his +whole heart, soul, and mind. It is, or should be, his aspiration to be +"greatest in the kingdom of God," and therefore he must be THE SERVANT OF +ALL. + + The next point which calls for notice is the location of the temple with +respect to the cardinal points, and we find that it was laid directly east +and west. Thus we see that the path of spiritual progress is the same as +the star of empire; it travels from east to west. The aspirant entered at +the eastern gate and pursued the path by way of the Altar of Burnt Offer- +ings, the Brazen Laver, and the Holy Place to the westernmost part of the +Tabernacle, where the Ark, the greatest symbol of all, was located in the +Holy of Holies. As the wise men of the East followed the Christ star west- +ward to Bethlehem, so does the spiritual center of the civilized world shift +farther and farther westward, until today the crest of the spiritual wave +which started in China on the western shores of the Pacific has now reached +the eastern shores of the same ocean, where it is gathering strength to leap +once more in its cyclic journey across the waste of waters, to recommence in +a far future a new cyclic journey around the earth. + + The ambulant nature of this Tabernacle in the Wilderness is therefore an + + +[PAGE 14] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +excellent symbolical representation of the fact that man is migratory in +hisnature, an eternal pilgrim, ever passing from the shores of time to eter- +nity and back again. As a planet revolves in its cyclic journey around the +primary sun, so man, the little world or microcosm, travels in cyclic circle +dance around God, who is the source and goal of all. + + The great care and attention to detail regarding the construction of the +Tabernacle in the Wilderness shows that something far more exalted than what +struck the eye of sense was intended in its construction. Under its earthly +and material show there was designed a representation of things heavenly and +spiritual such as should be full of instruction to the candidate for Ini- +tiation and should not this reflection excite us to seek an intimate and fa- +miliar acquaintance with this ancient sanctuary? Surely it becomes us to +consider all parts of its plan with serious, careful, and reverential atten- +tion, remembering at every step the heavenly origin of it all, and humbly +endeavoring to penetrate through the shadows of its earthly service into the +sublime and glorious realities which according to the wisdom of the spirit +it proposes for our solemn contemplation. + + In order that we may gain a proper conception of this sacred place we +must consider the Tabernacle itself, its furniture and its court. The il- +lustration opposite page 33 may assist the student to form a better concep- +tion of the arrangement within. + + +[PAGE 15] THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE + + THE COURT OF THE TABERNACLE + + This was an enclosure which surrounded the Tabernacle. Its length was +twice its width, and the ate was at the east end. This gate was enclosed by +a curtain of blue, scarlet, and purple fine twined linen, and these colors +show us at once the status of this Tabernacle in the Wilderness. We are +taught in the sublime gospel of John that "God is Light," and no description +or similitude could convey a better conception or one more enlightening to +the spiritual mind than these words. When we consider that even the great- +est of modern telescopes have failed to find the borders of light, though +they penetrate space for millions and millions of miles, it gives us a weak +but comprehensive idea of the infinitude of God. + + We know that this light, which is God, is refracted into three primary +colors by the atmosphere surrounding our earth, viz., blue, yellow, and red; +and it is a fact well known to every occultist that the ray of the Father is +blue, while that of the Son is yellow, and the color of the Holy Spirit's +ray is red. Only the strongest and most spiritual ray can hope to penetrate +to the seat of consciousness of the life wave embodied in our mineral king- +dom, and therefore we find about the mountain ranges the blue ray of the Fa- +ther reflected back from the barren hillsides and hanging as a haze over +canyons and gulches. The yellow ray of the Son mixed with the blue of the +Father gives life and vitality to the plant world, which therefore reflects +back a green color, for it is incapable of keeping the ray WITHIN. But in + + +[PAGE 16] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +the animal kingdom, to which unregenerate man belongs anatomically, the +three rays are absorbed, and that of the Holy Spirit gives the red color to +his flesh and blood. The mixture of the blue and the red is evident in the +purple blood, poisoned because sinful. But the yellow is never evident un- +til it manifests as a soul body, the golden "WEDDING garment" of the mystic +Bride of the mystic Christ evolved from within. + + Thus the colors on the veils of the Temple, both at the gate and at the +entrance of the Tabernacle, showed that this structure was designed for a +period previous to the time of Christ, for it had only the blue and the +scarlet colors of the Father and the Holy Spirit together with their mix- +ture, purple. But white is the synthesis of all colors, and therefore the +yellow Christ ray was hidden in that part of the veil until in the fullness +of time Christ should appear to emancipate us from the ordinances that bind, +and initiate us into the full liberty of Sons of God, Sons of Light, Chil- +dren of Light, Phree Messen or Mystic Masons. + + +[PAGE 16A] THE ATLANTEAN MYSTERY TEMPLE + + + ILLUSTRATION: + + THE BRAZEN LAVER + + + + + + + + + +[PAGE 17] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER + + CHAPTER TWO + + THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER + + THE BRAZEN ALTAR was placed just inside the eastern gate, and it was used +for the sacrifice of animals during the temple service. The idea of using +bulls and goats as sacrifices seems barbaric to the modern mind, and we can- +not realize that they could ever have had any efficacy in that respect. The +Bible does indeed hear out this view of the matter, for we are told repeat- +edly that God desires not sacrifice but a broken spirit and a contrite +heart, and that He has no pleasure in sacrifices of blood. In view of this +fact it seems strange that sacrifices should ever have been commanded. But +we must realize that no religion can elevate those whom it is designed to +help if its teachings are too far above their intellectual or moral level. +To appeal to a barbarian, religion must have certain barbaric traits. A re- +ligion of love could not have appealed to those people, therefore they were +given a law which demanded "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." + + +[PAGE 18] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +There is not in the Old Testament any mention whatever of immortality, for +these people could not have understood a heaven nor aspired to it. But they +loved material possessions, and therefore they were told that if they did +right they and their seed should dwell in the land forever, that their +cattle should be multiplied, et cetera. + + They loved material possessions, and they knew that the increases of the +flock were due to the Lord's favor and given by Him for merit. Thus they +were taught to do right in the hope of a reward in this present world. They +were also deterred from wrongdoing by the swift punishment which was meted +out to them in retribution for their sins. This was the only way to reach +them. They could not have done right for the sake of right, nor could they +have understood the principle of making themselves "living sacrifices," and +they probably felt the loss of an animal for sin as we would feel the pangs +of conscience because of wrongdoing. + + The Altar was made of brass, a metal not found in nature, but made by man +from copper and zinc. Thus it is symbolically shown that sin was not +originally contemplated in our scheme of evolution and is an anomaly in na- +ture as well as its consequences, pain and death, symbolized by the sacrifi- +cial victims. But while the Altar itself was made from metals artificially +compounded, the fire which burned thereon unceasingly was of divine origin, +and it was kept alive from year to year with the most jealous care. No +other fire was ever used, and we may note with profit that when two presump- + + +[PAGE 19] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER + +tuous and rebellious priests dared to disregard this command and use strange +fire, they met with an awful retribution and instant death. When we have +once taken the oath of allegiance to the mystic Master, the HIGHER SELF, it +is extremely dangerous to disregard the precepts then given. + + When the candidate appears at the eastern gate he is "poor, naked, and +blind." He is at that moment an object of charity, needing to be clothed +and brought to the light, but this cannot be done at once in the mystic +Temple. + + During the time of his progress from the condition of nakedness until he +has been clothed in the gorgeous robes of the high priest there is a long +and difficult path to be traveled. The first lesson which he is taught is +that man advances by sacrifices alone. In the Christian Mystic Initiation +when the Christ washes the feet of His disciples, the explanation is given +that unless the minerals decomposed and were offered us as embodiments for +the plant kingdom, we should have no vegetation; also, did not the plant +food furnish sustenance for the animals, these latter beings could not find +expression; and so on, the higher is always feeding on the lower. Therefore +man has a duty to them, and so the Master washes the feet of His disciples +symbolically performing for them the menial service as a recognition of the +fact that they have served Him as stepping-stones to something higher. + + Similarly, when the candidate is brought to the Brazen Altar, he learns +the lesson that the animal is sacrificed for his sake, giving its body for + + +[PAGE 20] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +food and its skin for clothing. Moreover, he sees the dense cloud of smoke +hovering over the Altar and perceives within it a light, but that light is +too dim, too much enshrouded in smoke, to be of permanent guidance to him. +His spiritual eyes are weak, however, and it would not do to expose them at +once to the light of greater spiritual truths. + + We are told by the apostle Paul that the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was +a shadow of greater things to come. It may therefore be of interest and +profit to see what is the meaning of this Brazen Altar, with its sacrifices +and burning flesh, to the candidate who comes to the Temple in modern times. +In order that we may understand this mystery, we must first grasp the one +great and absolutely essential idea which underlies all true mysticism, +viz., that these things are WITHIN and not without. Angelus Silesius says +about the Cross: + + "Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, + And not within thyself thy soul will be forlorn. + The Cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain, + Unless within thyself it be set up again." + + This idea must be applied to every symbol and phase of mystic experience. +It is not the Christ without that saves, but THE CHRIST WITHIN. The Taber- +nacle was built at one time; it is clearly seen in the Memory of Nature when +the interior sight has been developed to a sufficient degree; but no one is +ever helped by the outward symbol. We must build the Tabernacle within our + + +[PAGE 21] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER + +own hearts and consciousness. We must live through, as an actual inner ex- +perience, the whole ritual of service there. We must become both the Altar +of sacrifice and the sacrificial animal lying upon it. We must become both +the priest that slays the animal and the animal that is slain. Later we +must learn to identify ourselves with the mystic Laver, and we must learn to +wash therein in spirit. Then we must enter behind the first veil, minister +in the East Room, and so on through the whole Temple service till we BECOME +the greatest of all these ancient symbols, the Shekinah Glory, or it will +avail us nothing. In short, before the symbol of the Tabernacle can really +help us, we must transfer it from the wilderness of space to a home in our +hearts so that when we have become everything that that symbol is, we shall +also have become that which it stands for spiritually. + + Let us then commence to build within ourselves the Altar of sacrifice, +first that we may offer upon it our wrongdoings and then expiate them in the +crucible of remorse. This is done under the modern system of preparation +for discipleship by an exercise performed in the evening and scientifically +designed by the Hierophants of the Western Mystery School for the advance- +ment of the aspirant on the path which leads to discipleship. Other schools +have given a similar exercise, but this one differs in one particular point +from all previous methods. After explaining the exercises we shall also +give the reason for this great and cardinal difference. This special method +has such a far-reaching effect that it enables one to learn now not only the + + +[PAGE 22] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +lessons which one should ordinarily learn in this life, but also attain a +development which otherwise could not be reached until future lives. + + After retiring for the night the body is relaxed. This is very impor- +tant, for when any part of the body is tense, the blood does not circulate +unimpeded; part of it is temporarily imprisoned under pressure. As all +spiritual development depends upon the blood, the maximum effort to attain +soul growth cannot be made when any part of the body is in tension. + + When perfect relaxation has been accomplished, the aspirant to the higher +life begins to review the scenes of the day, but he does not start with the +occurrences of the morning and finish with the events of the evening. He +views them in REVERSE order: first the scenes of the evening, then the +events of the afternoon, and lastly the occurrences of the morning. The +reason for this is that from the moment of birth when the child draws its +first complete breath, the air which is inspired into the lungs carries with +it a picture of the outside world, and as the blood courses through the left +ventricle of the heart, each scene of life is pictured upon a minute atom +located there. Every breath brings with it new pictures, and thus there is +engraved upon that little seed atom a record of every scene and act in our +whole life from the first breath to the last dying gasp. After death these +pictures from the basis of our purgatorial existence. Under the conditions +of the spirit world we suffer pangs of conscience so acute that they are un- +believable for every evil deed we have done, and we are thus discouraged + + +[PAGE 23] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER + +from continuing on the path of wrongdoing. The intensity of the joys which +we experience on account of our good deeds acts as a goad to spur us on the +path of virtue in future lives. But in the post-mortem existence this pan- +orama of life is reenacted in reverse order for the purpose of showing first +the effects and then the causes which generated them that the spirit may +learn how the law of cause and effect operates in life. Therefore the as- +pirant who is under the scientific guidance of the Elder Brothers of the +Rosicrucians is taught to perform his evening exercise also in reverse order +and to judge himself each day that he may escape the purgatorial suffering +after death. But let it be understood that no mere perfunctory review of +the scenes of the day will avail. It is not enough when we come to a scene +where we have grievously wronged somebody that we just say, "Well, I feel +rather sorry that I did it. I wish I had not done it." At that time we are +the sacrificial animal lying upon the Alter of Burnt Offerings, and unless +we can feel in our hearts the divinely enkindled fire of remorse burn to the +very marrow of our bones because of our wrongdoings during the day, we are +not accomplishing anything. + + During the ancient dispensation all the sacrifices were rubbed with salt +before being placed upon the Altar of Burnt Offerings. We all know how it +smarts and burns when we accidentally rub salt into a fresh wound. This +rubbing of salt into the sacrifices in that ancient Mystery Temple symbol- +ized the intensity of the burning which we must feel when we as living sac- +rifices place ourselves upon the Altar of Burnt Offerings. It is the feel- + + +[PAGE 24] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +ing of remorse, of deep and sincere sorrow for what we have done, which +eradicates the picture from the seed atom and leaves it clean and stainless, +so that as under the ancient dispensation transgressors were justified when +they brought to the Altar of Burnt Offerings a sacrifice which was there +burnt, so we in modern times by scientifically performing the evening exer- +cise of retrospection wipe away the record of our sins. It is a foregone +conclusion that we cannot continue evening after evening to perform this +living sacrifice without becoming better in consequence and ceasing, little +by little, to do the things for which we are forced to blame ourselves when +we have retired for the night. Thus, in addition to cleansing us from our +faults this exercise elevates us to a higher level of spirituality than we +could otherwise reach in the present life. + + It is also noteworthy that when anyone had committed a grievous crime and +fled to the sanctuary, he found safety in the shadow of the Altar of sacri- +fice, for there only the divinely enkindled fire could execute judgment. He +escaped the hands of man by putting himself under the hand of God. +Similarly also, the aspirant who acknowledges his wrongdoing nightly by +fleeing to the altar of living judgment thereby obtains sanctuary from the +law of cause and effect, and "though his sins be as scarlet they shall be +white as snow." + + THE BRAZEN LAVER + + The Brazen laver was a large basin which was always kept full of water. + + +[PAGE 25] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER + +It is said in the Bible that it was carried on the backs of twelve oxen, +also made of brass, and we are told that their hind parts were toward the +center of the vessel. It appears from the Memory of Nature, however, that +those animals were not oxen but symbolical representations of the twelve +signs of the zodiac. Humanity was at that time divided into twelve groups, +one group for each zodiacal sign. Each symbolic animal attracted a par- +ticular ray, and as the holy water used today in Catholic churches is magne- +tized by the priest during the ceremony of consecration, so also the water +in this Laver was magnetized by the divine Hierarchics who guided humanity. + + There can be no doubt concerning the power of holy water prepared by a +strong and magnetic personality. It takes on or absorbs the effluvia from +his vital body, and the people who use it become amenable to his rule in a +degree commensurate to their sensitiveness. Consequently the Brazen Lavers +in the ancient Atlantean mystery Temples, where the water was magnetized by +divine Hierarchs of immeasurable power, were a potent factor in guiding the +people in accordance with the wishes of these ruling powers. Thus the +priests were in perfect subjection to the mandates and dictates of their un- +seen spiritual leaders, and through them the people were made to follow +blindly. It was required of the priests that they wash their hands and feet +before going into the Tabernacle proper. If this command was not obeyed, +death would follow immediately on the priest entering into the Tabernacle. +We may therefore say that as the keyword of the Brazen Altar was + + +[PAGE 26] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +"justification" so the central idea of the Brazen Laver was "consecration." + + "Many are called but few are chosen." We have the example of the rich +young man who came to Christ asking what he must do to be perfect. He as- +serted that he had kept the law, but when Christ gave the command, "Follow +me," he could not, for he had many riches which held him fast as in a vise. +Like the great majority he was content if he could only escape condemnation, +and like them he was too lukewarm to strive for commendation merited by ser- +vice. The Brazen Laver is the symbol of sanctification and consecration of +the life to service. As Christ entered upon His three years' ministry +through the baptismal waters, so the aspirant to service in the ancient +Temple must sanctify himself in the sacred stream which must sanctify him- +self in the sacred stream which flowed from the Molten Sea. And the mystic +Mason endeavoring to build a temple "without sound of hammer" and to serve +therein must also consecrate himself and sanctify himself. He must be will- +ing to give up all earthly possessions that he may follow the CHRIST WITHIN. +Though he may retain his material possessions he must regard them as a sa- +cred trust to be used by him as a wise steward would use his master's pos- +sessions. And we must be ready in everything to obey this Christ within +when he says, "Follow me," even though the shadow of the Cross looms darkly +at the end, for without this utter abandonment of the life to the Light, to +the higher purposes, there can be no progress. Even as the Spirit descended +upon Jesus when he arose from the baptismal water of consecration, so also + + +[PAGE 27] THE BRAZEN ALTAR AND LAVER + +the mystic Mason who bathes in the Laver of the Molten Sea begins dimly to +hear the voice of the Master within his own heart teaching him the secrets +of the Craft that he may use them for the benefit of others. + + +[PAGE 28] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + CHAPTER THREE + + EAST ROOM OF THE TEMPLE + + HAVING MOUNTED the first steps upon the path the aspirant stands in front +of the veil which hangs before the mystic Temple. Drawing this aside he en- +ters into the East Room of the sanctuary, which was called the HOLY PLACE. +No window or opening of any sort was provided in the Tabernacle to let in +the light of day, but this room was never dark. Night and day it was +brightly illuminated by burning lamps. + + Its furniture was symbolical of the methods whereby the aspirant may make +SOUL GROWTH BY SERVICE. It consisted of three principal articles: The AL- +TER OF INCENSE, the TABLE OF SHEWBREAD, and the GOLDEN CANDLESTICK from +which the light proceeded. + + It was not allowable for the common Israelite to enter this sacred apart- +ment and behold the furniture. No one but a priest might pass the outer +veil and go in even as far as this first room. The Golden Candlestick was +placed on the south side of the Holy Place so as to be to the left of any + + +[PAGE 29] THE EAST ROOM OF THE TEMPLE + +person who stood in the middle of the room. It was made entirely of pure +gold, and consisted of a shaft or principal stem, rising upright from a +base, together with six branches. These branches started at three different +points on the stem and curved upward in three partial circles of varying di- +ameter, symbolizing the three periods of development (Saturn, Sun, and Moon +Periods) which man went through before the Earth period, which was not half +spent. This latter period was signified by the seventh light. Each of +these seven branches terminated in a lamp, and these lamps were supplied +with the purest olive oil, which was made by a special process. The priests +were required to take care that the Candlestick was never without a light. +Every day the lamps were examined, dressed, and supplied with oil so that +they might burn perpetually. + + The TABLE OF SHEWBREAD was placed on the north side of the apartment so +as to be in THE RIGHT HAND of the priest when he walked up toward the second +veil. Twelve loaves of unleavened bread were continually kept upon this +table. They were placed in two piles, one loaf upon another, and on top of +each pile there was a small quantity of frankincense. These loaves were +called shewbread, or bread of the face, because they were set solemnly forth +before the presence of the Lord, who dwelt in the Shekinah Glory behind the +second veil. Every Sabbath day these loaves were changed by the priests, +the old ones being taken away and new ones put in their place. The bread +that was taken away was used by the priests to eat, and no one else was + + +[PAGE 30] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +allowed to taste it; neither were they suffered to eat it anywhere except +within the Court of the Sanctuary, because it was most holy, and therefore +might only be taken by sacred persons upon holy ground. THE INCENSE THAT +WAS UPON THE TWO PILES OF SHEWBREAD WAS BURNED when the bread was changed, +as an offering by fire unto the Lord, as a memorial instead of the bread. + + The ALTAR OF INCENSE or the Golden Altar was the third article of furni- +ture in the East Room of the Temple. It was situated in the center of the +room, that is to say, halfway between the north and the south walls, in +front of the second veil. No flesh was ever burned upon this Altar, nor was +it ever touched with blood except on the most solemn occasions, and then its +horns alone were marked with the crimson stain. The smoke that arose from +its top was never any other than the smoke of burning incense. This went up +every morning and evening, filling the sanctuary with a fragrant cloud and +sending a refreshing odor out through all the courts and far over the coun- +try on every side for miles beyond. Because incense was thus burned every +day it was called "A PERPETUAL INCENSE before the Lord." + + It was not simple frankincense which was burned, but a compound of this +with other sweet spices, made according to the direction of Jehovah for this +special purpose and so considered holy, such as no man was allowed to make +like unto for common use. THE PRIEST WAS CHARGED NEVER TO OFFER STRANGE IN- +CENSE on the Golden Altar, that is, any other than the sacred composition. + + +[PAGE 31] THE EAST ROOM OF THE TEMPLE + +This Altar was placed directly before the veil on the outside of it, but be- +fore the Mercy Seat, which was within the second veil; for though he that +ministered at the Altar of Incense could not see the Mercy Seat because of +the interposing veil, yet he must look toward it and direct his incense that +way. And it was customary when the cloud of fragrant incense rose above the +temple for all the people who were standing without in the Court of the +Sanctuary to send up their prayers to God, each one silently by himself. + + THE MYSTIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EAST ROOM AND ITS FURNITURE + + THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK + + As previously said, when the priest stood in the center of the East Room +of the Tabernacle, the Seven-branched Candlestick was ON HIS LEFT toward the +SOUTH. This was symbolical of the fact that the seven lightgivers or plan- +ets which tread the mystic circle dance around the central orb, the sun, +travel in the narrow belt comprising eight degrees on either side of the +sun's path, which is called the zodiac. "God is Light," and the "Seven +Spirits before the Throne" are God's ministers; therefore THEY ARE MESSEN- +GERS OF LIGHT to humanity. Furthermore, as the heavens are ablaze with +light when the moon in its phases arrives at the "full" in the eastern part +of the heavens, so also the East Room of the Tabernacle was filled with +LIGHT, indicating VISIBLY the presence there of God and His seven Ministers, +the STAR ANGELS. + + +[PAGE 32] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + We may note, in passing, the light of the Golden Candlestick, which was +clear and the flame odorless, and compare it with the smoke-enveloped flame +on the Altar of Burnt Offerings, which in a certain sense generated darkness +rather than dispelled it. But there is a still deeper and more sublime +meaning in this fire symbol, which we will not take up for discussion until +we come to the SHEKINAH GLORY, whose dazzling brilliance hovered over the +Mercy Seat in the WEST ROOM. Before we can enter into this subject, we must +understand all the symbols that lie between the Golden Candlestick and that +sublime Father Fire which was the crowning glory of the Holy of Holies, the +most sacred part of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. + + THE TABLE OF SHEWBREAD + + The East Room of the Temple may be called the Hall of Service, for it +corresponds to the three years' ministry of Christ, and contains all the +paraphernalia for soul growth, though, as said, furnished with only three +principal articles. Among the chief of these is the Table of Shewbread. +Upon this table, as we have already seen, there were two piles of shewbread, +each containing six loaves, and upon the top of each pile there was a little +heap of frankincense. The aspirant who came to the Temple door "poor, na- +ked, and blind" has since been brought to the light of the Seven-branched +Candlestick, obtaining a certain amount of cosmic knowledge, and THIS HE IS +REQUIRED TO USE IN THE SERVICE OF HIS FELLOW MEN; the Table of Shewbread +represents this in symbol. + + +[PAGE 32A] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + + + ILLUSTRATION: + + EAST ROOM: THE HOLY PLACE + + AND WEST ROOM: THE HOLY OF HOLIES + + + + +[PAGE 33] THE EAST ROOM OF THE TEMPLE + + The grain from which this shewbread was made had been originally given by +God, but then it was planted by mankind, who had previously plowed and +tilled the soil. After planting their grain they must cultivate and water +it; then when the grain had borne fruit according to the nature of the soil +and the care bestowed upon it, it had to be harvested, threshed, ground, and +baked. Then the ancient SERVANTS OF GOD had to carry it into the Temple, +where it was placed before the Lord as bread to "SHEW" THAT THEY HAD PER- +FORMED THEIR TOIL AND RENDERED THE NECESSARY SERVICE. + + The God-given grains of wheat in the twelve loaves represent the OPPORTU- +NITIES FOR SOUL GROWTH given by God, which come to all through the twelve +departments of life represented by the twelve houses of the horoscope, under +the dominion of the twelve divine Hierarchies known through the signs of the +zodiac. BUT IT IS THE TASK OF THE MYSTIC MASON, THE TRUE TEMPLE BUILDER, TO +EMBRACE THESE OPPORTUNITIES, TO CULTIVATE AND NOURISH THEM SO THAT HE MAY +REAP THEREFROM THE LIVING BREAD WHICH NURTURES THE SOUL. + + We do not, however, assimilate our physical food IN TOTO; there is a +residue, a large proportion of ash, left after we have amalgamated the quin- +tessence into our system. Similarly, the shewbread was not burned or con- +sumed before the Lord, but two small heaps of frankincense were placed on +the two stacks of shewbread, one one each pile. This was conceived to be +the aroma thereof, and was later burned on the Altar of Incense. Likewise +the soul sustenance of service gathered daily by the ardent Mystic Mason is + + +[PAGE 34] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +thrown into the mill of retrospection at eventide when he retires to his +couch and performs there the scientific exercises given by the Elder +Brothers of the Rose Cross. + + There is a time each month which is particularly propitious for extract- +ing the frankincense of soul growth and burning it before the lord so that +it may be a sweet savor, TO BE AMALGAMATED WITH THE SOUL BODY and form part +of that golden, radiant "wedding garment." This as at the time when the +moon is at the full. Then she is in the east, and the heavens are ablaze +with light as was the East Room of the ancient Atlantean Mystery Temple +where the priest garnered the pabulum of the soul, symbolized by the +shewbread and the fragrant essence, which delighted our Father in Heaven +then as now. + + Let the Mystic Mason take particular note, however, that the loaves of +shewbread were not the musings of dreamers; they were not the product of +speculation upon the nature of God or light. THEY WERE THE PRODUCT OF AC- +TUAL TOIL, of orderly systematic work, and it behooves us to follow the path +of actual service if we would garner treasure in heaven. Unless we really +WORK and SERVE humanity, we shall have nothing to bring, no bread to "shew," +at the Feast of the Full Moon; and at the mystic marriage of the higher to +the lower self we shall find ourselves minus the radiant golden sold body, +the mystic wedding garment without which the union with Christ can never be +consummated. + + +[PAGE 35] THE EAST ROOM OF THE TEMPLE + + THE ALTER OF INCENSE + + At the Altar of Incense, as we saw in the general description of the Tab- +ernacle and its furniture, incense was offered before the lord continually, +and the priest who stood before the altar ministering was at that time look- +ing toward the mercy Seat over the Ark, though it as impossible for him to +see it because of the SECOND VEIL which was interposed between the first and +second apartments of the Tabernacle, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. +We have also seen in the consideration of the "shewbread" that INCENSE sym- +bolizes the extract, THE AROMA OF THE SERVICE we have rendered according to +our opportunities; and just as the sacrificial animal upon the Brazen Altar +represents the deeds of wrongdoing committed during the day, so the incense +burned upon the Golden Altar, which is a sweet savor to the Lord, represents +the virtuous deeds of our lives. + + +[PAGE 36] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + CHAPTER FOUR + + THE ARK OF THE COVENANT + + It is noteworthy and fraught with great mystic significance that the +aroma of VOLUNTARY SERVICE is represented as SWEET-SMELLING, FRAGRANT IN- +CENSE, while the odor of sin, selfishness, and transgression of the law, +represented by COMPULSORY SACRIFICE upon the Altar of service, is nauseat- +ing; for it needs no great imagination to understand that the cloud of smoke +which went up continually from the burning carcasses of the sacrificial +animals created a nauseating stench to show the exceeding loathsomeness of +it, while the perpetual incense offered upon the Altar before the second +veil showed by antithesis the beauty and sublimity of selfless service, thus +exhorting the Mystic Mason, as a CHILD OF LIGHT, to shun the one and cleave +to the other. + + Let it be understood also that SERVICE does not consist in doing great +things only. Some of the heroes, so-called were mean and small in their +general lives, and rose only to the occasion upon one great and notable day. + + +[PAGE 37] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT + +Martyrs have been put on the calendar of saints because they DIED for a +cause; but it is a greater heroism, it is a greater martyrdom sometimes, to +do the little things that no one notices and sacrifice self IN SIMPLE SER- +VICE TO OTHERS. + + We have seen previously that the veil at the entrance to the outer court +and the veil in front of th East Room of the Tabernacle were both made in +four colors, blue, red, purple, and white. But THE SECOND VEIL, which di- +vided the East Room of the Tabernacle from the West Room, differed with re- +spect to make-up from the other two. It was wrought with the figures of +Cherubim. We will not consider, however, the significance of this fact un- +til we take up the subject of the NEW MOON AND INITIATION, but will now look +into the second apartment of the Tabernacle, the western room, called the +Most Holy or the Holy of Holies. Beyond the second veil, into this second +apartment, no mortal might ever pass save the HIGH PRIEST, and he was only +allowed to enter on one occasion in the whole year, namely, Yom Kippur, the +Day of Atonement, and then only after the most solemn preparation and with +the most reverential care. The Holiest of All was clothed with the solem- +nity of another world; it was filled with an unearthly grandeur. The whole +Tabernacle was the sanctuary of God, but here in this place was the awful +abode of His presence, the special dwelling place of the SHEKINAH GLORY, and +well might mortal man tremble to present himself within these sacred + + +[PAGE 38] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +precincts, as the High Priest must do on the Day of Atonement. + + In the westernmost end of this apartment, the western end of the whole +Tabernacle, rested the "ARK OF THE COVENANT." It was a hollow receptacle +containing the GOLDEN POT OF MANNA, AARON'S ROD THAT BUDDED, AND THE TABLES +OF THE LAW which were given to Moses. While this Ark of the Covenant re- +mained in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, TWO STAVES WERE ALWAYS WITHIN +THE FOUR RINGS OF THE ARK so that it could be picked up instantly and moved, +but when the Ark as finally taken to Solomon's Temple, the staves were taken +out. This is very important in its symbolical significance. Above the Ark +hovered the Cherubim, and between them dwelt the uncreated glory of God. +"Three," said He to Moses, "I will meet with thee, and I will commune with +thee from above the Mercy Seat, from between the two Cherubim which are upon +the Ark of the Testimony." + + The glory of the Lord seen above the Mercy Seat was in the appearance of +a cloud. The Lord said to Moses, "Speak unto Aaron they brother that he +come not at all time into the Holiest Place within the veil before the Mercy +Seat which is upon the Ark, that he die not, for I will appear in the cloud +upon the Mercy Seat." This manifestation of the divine presence was called +among the Jews the SHEKINAH GLORY. Its appearance was attended no doubt +with a wonderful spiritual glory of which it is impossible to form any +proper conception. Out of this cloud the voice of God was heard with deep + + +[PAGE 39] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT + +solemnity when He was consulted in behalf of the people. + + When the aspirant has qualified to enter into this place behind the sec- +ond veil, he finds everything DARK to the physical eye, and it is necessary +that he should have another light WITHIN. When he first came to the eastern +Temple gate, he was "POOR, NAKED, AND BLIND," asking for LIGHT. He was then +shown the dim light which appeared in the smoke above the Altar of sacri- +fice, and told that in order to advance he must kindle within himself that +flame by remorse for wrongdoing. Later on he was shown the more excellent +light in the East Room of the Tabernacle, which proceeded from the +Seven-branched Candlestick; in other words he was given the light of knowl- +edge and of reason that by it he might advance further upon the path. But +it was required that BY SERVICE he should evolve within himself and around +himself another light, the golden "wedding garment," which is also THE +CHRIST LIGHT OF THE SOUL BODY. By lives of service this glorious +soul-substance gradually pervades his whole aura until it is ablaze with a +golden light. Not until he has evolved this INNER illumination can he enter +into the darkened precincts of the second Tabernacle, as the Most Holy place +is sometimes called. + + "GOD IS LIGHT; if we walk in the light as He is in the Light, we have +fellowship one with another." This is generally taken to indicate only the +fellowship of the Saints, but as a matter of fact it applies also to the +fellowship which we have with God. When the disciple enters the second Tab- +ernacle, THE LIGHT WITHIN HIMSELF VIBRATES TO THE LIGHT OF THE SHEKINAH + + +[PAGE 40] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +GLORY between the Cherubim, and he realizes the fellowship with his FATHER +FIRE. + + As the Cherubim and the Father Fire which hover above th Ark represent +the divine Hierarchies which overshadow mankind during his pilgrimage +through the wilderness, so THE ARK WHICH IS FOUND THERE REPRESENTS MAN IN +HIS HIGHEST DEVELOPMENT. Three were, as already said, three things within +the Ark: the Golden Pot of Manna, the Budding Rod, and the Tables of the +Law. When the aspirant stood at the eastern gate as a child of sin, THE LAW +WAS WITHOUT AS A TASKMASTER to bring him to Christ. It exacted with unre- +lenting severity an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Every trans- +gression brought a just recompense, and man was circumscribed on every hand +by laws commanding him to do certain things and refrain from doing others. +But when THROUGH SACRIFICE AND SERVICE he has finally arrived at the stage +of evolution represented by the Ark in the western room of the Tabernacle, +the TABLES OF THE LAW ARE WITHIN. He has then become emancipated from all +outside interference with his actions; not that he would break any laws, but +because HE WORKS WITH THEM. Just as we have learned to respect the property +right of others and have therefore become emancipated from the commandment. +"Thou shalt not steal," so he who keeps all laws because he wants to do so +has on that account no longer need of an exterior taskmaster, but gladly +renders obedience in all things because HE IS A SERVANT OF THE LAW AND WORKS +WITH IT, FROM CHOICE AND NOT THROUGH NECESSITY. + + +[PAGE 41] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT + + THE GOLDEN POT OF MANNA + + Manas, mensch, mens, or man is readily associated with the MANNA that +came down from heaven. it is the HUMAN SPIRIT that descended from our Fa- +ther above for a pilgrimage through matter, and the Golden Pot wherein it +was kept symbolizes the golden aura of the soul body. + + Although the Bible story is not in strict accordance with the events, it +gives the main facts of the mystic manna which fell from heaven. When we +want to learn what is the nature of this so-called BREAD, we may turn to the +sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, which relates how Christ fed the multi- +tudes with LOAVES AND FISHES, symbolizing the mystic doctrine of the 2000 +years which He was then ushering in, for during that time the sun BY PRECES- +SION OF THE EQUINOX has been passing through the sign of the fishes, Pisces, +and the people have been taught to abstain at least one day during the week +(Friday) and at a certain time of the year from the fleshpots which belonged +to Egypt or ancient Atlantis. They have been given the Piscean water at the +temple door, and the Virginian Wafers at the communion table before the al- +tar when they worshiped the Immaculate Virgin, representing the celestial +sign Virgo (which is opposite the sign Pisces), and entered communion with +the sun begotten by her. + + Christ also explained at that time in mystic but unmistakable language +what that LIVING BREAD, or manna, was, namely, the Ego. This explanation +will be found in verses thirty-three and thirty-five, where we read: "For + + +[PAGE 42] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth light unto +the world--I am (EGO SUM) THE BREAD OF LIFE." This, then, is the symbol of +the golden pot of manna which was found in the Ark. This manna is the Ego +or human spirit, which gives life to the organisms that we behold in the +physical world. It is hidden within the Ark of each human being, and the +Golden pot or soul body or "wedding garment" is also latent within every +one. It is made more massive, lustrous, and resplendent by the spiritual +alchemy whereby service is transmuted to soul growth. It is THE HOUSE NOT +MADE WITH HANDS, eternal in the heavens, wherewith Paul longed to be +clothed, as said in the Epistle to the Corinthians. Every one who is striv- +ing to aid his fellow men thereby garners within himself that golden trea- +sure, laid up in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can destroy it. + + AARON'S ROD + + An ancient legend relates that when Adam was expelled from the Garden of +Eden, he took with him three slips of the TREE OF LIFE, which were then +planted by Seth. Seth, the second son of Adam, is, according to the Masonic +legend, father of the spiritual hierarchy of CHURCHMEN working with humanity +through Catholicism, while the sons of Cain are the CRAFTSMEN of the world. +The latter are active in Freemasonry, promoting material and industrial +progress, as builders of the temple of Solomon, the universe, should be. + + +[PAGE 43] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT + +The three sprouts planted by Seth have had important missions in the +spiritual development of humanity, and one of them is said to be the Rod of +Aaron. + + In the beginning of concrete existence generation was carried on under +the wise guidance of the angels, who saw to it that the creative act was ac- +complished at times when the interplanetary rays of force were propitious; +and man was also forbidden to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. The nature of +that tree is readily determined from such sentences as "Adam KNEW his wife, +and she bore Cain"; "Adam KNEW his wife, and she bore Seth'; "how shall I +bear a child seeing that I KNOW not a man?" as said by Mary to the angel +Gabriel. In the light of this interpretation the STATEMENT of the Angel (it +was not a curse) when he discovered that his precepts had been disobeyed, +namely, "dying thou shalt die," is also intelligible, for the bodies gener- +ated regardless of cosmic influences could not be expected to persist. +Hence man was exiled from the etheric realms of spiritual force (Eden), +where grows the tree of vital power; exiled to concrete existence in the +dense physical bodies which he has made for himself by generation. This was +surely a blessing, for who has a body sufficiently good and perfect in his +own estimation that he would like to live in it forever? Death, then, is a +boon to the spiritual realms for a season, and build better vehicles each +time we return to earth life. As Oliver Wendell Holmes says: + + +[PAGE 44] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul! +As the swift seasons roll. +Leave thy low-vaulted past, +Let each new temple, nobler than the last, +Shut tree from Heaven with a dome more vast, +Till thou at length art free, +Leaving thine outgrown shell +by life's unresting sea." + + In the course of time when we learn to shun the pride of life and the +lust of the flesh, generation will cease to sap our vitality. The vital en- +ergy will then be used for regeneration, and the spiritual powers, symbol- +ized by Aaron's Rod, will be developed. + + The wand of the magician, the holy spear of parsifal the Grail king, and +the budding Rod of Aaron are emblems of this divine creative force, which +works wonders of such a nature that we call them miracles. But let it be +clearly understood that no one who has evolved to the point in evolution +where he is symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant in the West Room of the +Tabernacle ever uses this power for selfish ends. When Parsifal, the hero +of the soul myth by that name, had witnessed the temptation of Kundry and +proved himself to be emancipated from the greatest sin of all, the sin of +lust and unchastity, he recovered the sacred spear taken by the black magi- +cian, Klingsor, from the fallen and unchaste rail king, Amfortas. Then for +many years he traveled in the world, seeking again the Castle of the Grail, +and he said: "Often was I sorely beset by enemies and tempted to use the + + +[PAGE 45] THE ARK OF THE COVENANT + +spear in self-defense, but I knew that THE SACRED SPEAR MUST NEVER BE USED +TO HURT, ONLY TO HEAL." + + An that is the attitude of everyone who develops within him the budding +Rod of Aaron. Though he may turn this spiritual faculty to good account in +order to provide bread for a multitude, he would never think of turning a +single stone to bread FOR HIMSELF that his hunger might be appeased. Though +he were nailed to the cross to die, he would not free himself by spiritual +power which he had readily exercised to save others from the grave. Though +he were reviled every day of his life as a fraud or charlatan, he would +never misuse his spiritual power to show a sign whereby the world might know +without the shadow of a doubt that he was regenerate or heaven-born. This +was the attitude of Christ Jesus, and its has been and is imitated by every- +one who is a Christ-in-the-making. + + +[PAGE 46] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + CHAPTER FIVE + + THE SACRED SHEKINAH GLORY + + The Western Room of the Tabernacle was as dark as the heavens are at the +time when the lesser light, the moon, is in the western portion of sky at +eventide with the sun; that is to say, at the new moon, which begins a new +cycle in a new sign of the zodiac. In the westernmost part of this darkened +sanctuary stood the Ark of the Covenant, with the Cherubim hovering above, +and also the fiery Shekinah Glory, out of which the Father of Light communed +with His worshipers, but which to the physical vision was invisible and +therefore dark. + + We do not usually realize that the whole world is afire, that fire is in +the water, that it burns continually in plant, animal, and man; yes, there +is nothing in the work that is not ensouled by fire. The reason why we do +not perceive this more clearly is that we cannot dissociate fire and flame. +But as a matter of fact, FIRE bears the same relation to FLAME as SPIRIT to + + +[PAGE 47] THE SACRED SHEKINAH GLORY + +the BODY; it is the unseen but potent power of manifestation. In other +words, the true fire is dark, invisible to the physical sight. IT IS ONLY +CLOTHED IN FLAME WHEN CONSUMING PHYSICAL MATTER. Consider, for illustra- +tion, how fire leaps out of the flint when struck, and how a gas flame has +the darkened core beneath the light-giving portion; also how a wire may +carry electricity and be perfectly cold, yet it will emit a flame under cer- +tain conditions. + + At this point it may be expedient to mark the difference between the Tab- +ernacle in the Wilderness, Solomon's Temple, and the later Temple built by +Herod. There is a very vital difference. Both the MIRACULOUSLY ENKINDLED +FIRE on the Brazen Altar in the eastern part of the Tabernacle and the in- +visible SHEKINAH GLORY in the distant western part of the sanctuary were +also present in Solomon's Temple. These were thus sanctuaries in a sense +not equaled by the Temple built by Herod. The latter was, nevertheless, in +a sense the most glorious of the three, for IT WAS GRACED BY THE BODILY +PRESENCE OF OUR LORD, CHRIST JESUS, IN WHOM DWELT THE GODHEAD. Christ made +the first selfsacrifice, thereby abrogating the sacrifice of animals, and +finally at the consummation of His work in the visible world RENT THE VEIL +and opened a way into the Holy of Holies, not only for the favored few, the +priests and Levites, but that WHOSOEVER WILL may come and serve the Deity +whom we know as our Father. Having fulfilled the law and the prophets +Christ has done away with the OUTWARD sanctuary, and from henceforth the Al- +tar of Burnt Offerings must be set up WITHIN the heart to atone for wrong- + + +[PAGE 48] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +doing; the Golden Candlestick must be lighted WITHIN the heart to guide us +upon our way, as the Christ WITHIN, the Shekinah Glory of the Father, must +dwell WITHIN the sacred precincts of our own God Consciousness. + + THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS + + Paul in his letter to the Hebrews gives a description of the Tabernacle +and much information about the customs used there which it would benefit the +student to know. Among other things note that he calls the Tabernacle "a +shadow of good things to come." There is in this ancient Mystery Temple a +promise given which has not yet been fulfilled, a promise that holds good +today just as well as upon the day it was given. If we visualize in our +mind the arrangement of things inside the Tabernacle, we shall readily see +the shadow of the Cross. Commencing at the eastern gate there was the ALTAR +OF BURNT OFFERINGS; a little farther along the path to the Tabernacle itself +we find the LAVER OF CONSECRATION, the Molten Sea, in which the priests +washed. Then upon entering the East Room of the Temple we find an article +of furniture, THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK, at the EXTREME LEFT, and the TABLE OF +SHEWBREAD at the EXTREME RIGHT, the two forming a cross with the path we +have been pursuing toward and within the Tabernacle. In the center in front +of the second veil we find the ALTAR OF INCENSE, which forms the center of +the cross, while the Ark placed in the westernmost part of the West Room, +the Holy of Holies, gives the short or upper limb of the cross. In this + + + +[PAGE 48A] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + + + ILLUSTRATION: + + THE TABERNACLE IN THE WILDERNESS + + "THE SHADOW OF GOOD THINGS TO COME." PAUL + + + +[PAGE 49] THE SACRED SHEKINAH GLORY + +manner the symbol of spiritual unfoldment which is our particular ideal +today was shadowed forth in the ancient Mystery Temple, and that consumma- +tion which is attained at the end of the cross, the achievement of getting +the law WITHIN as it was within the Ark itself, is the one that we must all +concern ourselves with at the present time. The light that shines over the +Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies at the head of the cross, at the end of the +path in this world, is a light or reflection from the invisible world into +which the candidate seeks to enter when all the world has grown dark and +black about him. Only when we have attained to that stage where we perceive +the spiritual light that beckons us on, the light that floats over the Ark, +only when we stand in the shadow of the cross, can we really know the mean- +ing, the object, and the goal of life. + + At present we may take the opportunities which are offered and perform +service more or less efficiently, but it is only when we have by that ser- +vice evolved the spiritual light WITHIN ourselves, which is the SOUL BODY, +and when we have thus gained admission to the West Room, called the Hall of +Liberation, that we can really perceive and understand why we are in the +world, and what we need in order to make ourselves properly useful. We may +not remain, however, when access has been gained. The High Priest was only +allowed to enter ONCE A YEAR; there was a very long interval of time between +these glimpses of the real purpose of existence. In the times between it +was necessary for the High Priest to go out and function among his brethren, + + +[PAGE 50] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +humanity, and serve them to the very best of his ability, also to sin, +because he was not yet perfect, and then reenter the Holy of Holies after +having made proper amends for his sins. + + Similar it is with ourselves at this day. We at times attain glimpses of +the things that are in store for us and the things we must do to follow +Christ to that place where He went. You remember that He said to His dis- +ciples: Ye cannot follow me now, but ye shall follow me later. And so it +is with us. We have to look again and again into the darkened temple, the +Holy of Holies, before we are really fit to stay there; before we are really +fitted to take the last step and leap to the summit of the cross, THE PLACE +OF THE SKULL, that point in our heads where the spirit takes its departure +when it finally leaves the body, or off and on as an Invisible Helper. That +Golgotha is the ultimate of human attainment, and we must be prepared to en- +ter the darkened roon many times begore we are fitted for the final climax. + + + THE FULL MOON AS A FACTOR IN SOUL GROWTH + + + Let us now consider the Path of Initiation as symbolically shown in the +ancient Temples with the Ark, Fire, and Shekinah, and in the later Temples +where Christ taught. Note first that when man was expelled from the Garden +of Eden because he had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, Cherubim guarded the +entrance with a flaming sword. Passages like the following, "Adam KNEW Eve, +and she bore Abel"; "Adam KNEW Eve, and she bore Seth"; "Elkanah KNEW + + +[PAGE 51] THE SACRED SHEKINAH GLORY + + +Hannah, and she bore Samuel"; also Mary's question to the angel Gabriel, +"How shall I conceive seeing that I KNOW not a man?" all show plainly that +indulgence of the passions in the creative act was meant by the phrase, +"eating the Tree of Knowledge." When the creative act was performed under +inauspicious planetary rays it was a sin committed against the laws of na- +ture, which brought pain and death into the world, estranged us from our +primal guardians, and forced us to roam the wilderness of the world for +ages. + + At the gate of the mystic Temple of Solomon we find the Cherubim, but the +fiery sword is not longer in their hand; instead they hold a FLOWER, a sym- +bol full of mystic meaning. Let us compare man with a flower that we may +know the great import and signigicance of this emblem. Man takes his good +by way of the head, whence it goes downward. The plant takes nourishment +through the root and forces it upward. Man is passionate in love, and he +turns the generative organ toward the earth and hides it in shame because of +this taint of passion. The plant knows no passion, fertilization is accom- +plished in the most pure and chaste manner imaginable, therefore it projects +its generative organ, the flower, TOWARD THE SUN, a thing of beauty which +delights all who behold it. Passionate fallen man exhales THE DEADLY CARBON +DIOXINE; the chaste flower inhales this poison, transmutes it, and gives it +back pure, sweet, and scented, a fragrant elixir of life. + + This was the mystery of the Grail Cup; this is the emblematic sig- +nificance of the Cup of Communion, which is called "KELCH" in German "Calix" + + +[PAGE 52] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +in Latin, both names signifying the seed pod of the flower. The Communion +Cup with its mystic blood cleansed from the passion incident to generation +brings to him who truly drinks thereof eternal life, and thus it becomes the +vehicle of regeneration, of the mystic birth into a higher sphere, a "for- +eign country," where he who has served his apprenticeship in Temple building +and has mastered the "art and crafts" of this world may learn higher things. + + The symbol of the Cherubim with the open flower placed upon the door of +Solomon's Temple delivers the message to the aspirant that PURITY IS THE KEY +by which alone he can hope to unlock the gate to God; or as Christ expressed +it, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." The flesh must +be consumed on the Altar of self-sacrifice, and the sold must be washed in +the Laver of Consecration to the higher life where it may approach the +Temple door. When "naked," "poor," and "blinded" by tears of contrition it +gropes in darkness, seeking the Temple door, it shall find entrance to the +Hall of Service, the East Room of the Tabernacle, which is ablaze with light +from the Seven-branched Candlestick, emblematic of the luminosity of the +full moon, the moon changing in cycles of seven days. In this Hall of Ser- +vice the aspirant is taught to weave the luminour vesture of flame which +Paul called "some psuchicon," or soul body (1st Cor., 15:44), from the aroma +of the shewbread. + + When we speak of the soul body we mean exactly what we say, and this ve- +hicle is in nowise to be confused with the soul that permeates it. + + +[PAGE 53] THE SACRED SHEKINAH GLORY + +The Invisible Helper who uses it on soul flights knows it to be as real and +tangible as the dense body of flesh blood. But within that golden "wedding +garment" there is an INTANGIBLE SOMETHING cognized by the spirit of intro- +spection. It is unnameable and indescribable; it evades the most persistent +efforts to fathom it, yet it is there just as certainly as the vehicle which +it fills-yes, and more so. It is not life, love, beauty, wisdom, nor can +any other human concept convey an idea of what it is, for it is the sum of +all human faculties, attributes, and concepts of good, immeasurably intensi- +fied. If everything else were taken from us, that prime reality would still +remain, and we should be rich in its possession, for through it we feel the +drawing power of our Father in Heaven, that inner urge which all aspirants +know so well. + + To this inner something Christ referred when He said: No man cometh to me +except my Father draw him. Just as the true fire is hidden in the flame +that encloses it, so that unnameable, intangible something hides in the +sould body and burns up the frankincense extracted from the shrewbread; thus +it lights the fire which makes the soul body luminous. And the AROMA OF +LOVING SERVICE to others penetrates the veil as a sweet savor to God, who +dwells in the Shekinah Glory similar created above the Ark in the innermost +sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. + + +[PAGE 54] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + CHAPTER SIX + + THE NEW MOON AND INITIATION + + When the candidate entered at the eastern gate of the Temple looking for +light, he was confronted by the fire on he Altar of Burnt Offerings, which +emitted a dim light enveloped in clouds of smoke. He was then in the +spiritually darkened condition of the ordinary man; he lacked the light +within and therefore it was necessary to give him the light without. But +when he has arrived at the point when he is ready to have evolved the lumi- +nous soul body in the service of humanity. Then he is thought to have the +light within himself, "the light that lighteth every man." Unless he has +that, he cannot enter the dark room of the Temple. + + What takes place secretly in the Temple is shown openly in the heavens. +As the moon gathers light from the sun during her passage from the new to +the full, so the man who treads the path of holiness by use of his golden + + +[PAGE 55] THE NEW MOON AND INITIATION + +opportunities in the East Room of selfless service gathers the materials +wherewith to make his luminous "wedding garment," and that material is best +amalgamated on the night of the full moon. But conversely, as the moon +gradually dissipates the accumulated light and draws nearer the sun in order +to make a fresh start upon a new cycle at the time of the new moon, so also +according to the law of analogy those who have gathered their treasures and +laid them up in heaven by service are at a certain time of the month closer +to their Source and their Maker, their Father Fire in the higher spheres, +than at any other time. As the great saviors of mankind are born at the +winter solstice on the longest and darkest night of the year, so also the +process of Initiation which brings to birth in the invisible world one of +the lesser saviors, THE INVISIBLE HELPER, is most easily accomplished on the +longest and darkest night of the month, that is to say, on the night of the +new moon when the lunar orb is in the westernmost part of the heavens. + + All occult development begins with the vital body, and the keynote of +that vehicle is "repetition." To get the best out of any subject repetition +is necessary. In order to understand the final consummation to which all +this has been leading up, let us take a final look from another angle at the +three kinds of fire within the Temple. + + Near the eastern gate was the Altar of Burnt Offering. On that altar +smoke was continually generated by the bodies of the sacrifices, and the +pillar of smoke was seen far and wide by the multitude who were instructed + + +[PAGE 56] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +in the inner mysteries of life. The flame, the light, hidden in this cloud +of smoke was at best but dimly perceived. This showed that the great major- +ity of mankind are taught principally by the immutable laws of nature, which +exact from them a sacrifice whether they know it or not. As the flame of +purification was then fed by the more coarsely constructed and baser bodies +of animal sacrifices, exacted under the Mosaic law, so also today the baser +and more passionate mass of humanity is being brought into subjection by +fear of punishment by the law in the present world-more than by apprehension +of what my follow in the world to come. + + A light of a different nature shone in the East Room of the Tabernacle. +Instead of drawing its nourishment from the sinful and passionate flesh of +the animal sacrifices, it was fed by olive oil procured from the chaste +plant kingdom; and its flame was not shrouded in smoke, but was clear and +distinct, so that it might illuminate the room and guide the priests, who +were the servants of the Temple, in their ministrations. The priests were +endeavoring to work in harmony with the divine plan, therefore they saw the +light more clearly that the uninstructed and careless multitude. Today also +the mystic light shines for all who are endeavoring to really serve at the +shrine of self-sacrifice-particularly for the pledged pupils of a Mystery +School such as the Rosicrucian Order. They are waling in a light not seen +by the multitude, and if they are really serving, they have th true guidance +of the Elder Brothers of humanity, who are always ready to help them at the + + +[PAGE 57] THE NEW MOON AND INITIATION + +difficult points on the Path. + + But the most sacred fire of all was the Shekinah Glory in the West Room +of the Tabernacle above the Mercy Seat. As this West Room was dark, we un- +derstand that it was an invisible fire, a light from another world. + + Now mark this, the fire that was shrouded in smoke and flame upon the Al- +tar of Burnt Offerings, consuming the sacrifices brought there in expiation +of sins committed under the law, was the symbol of JEHOVAH THE LAWGIVER; and +we remember that the law was given to brings us to Christ. The clear and +beautiful light which shone in the Hall of Service, the East Room of the +Tabernacle, is the golden-hued Christ light, which guides those who endeavor +to follow in His steps upon the path of self-forgetting service. + + As the Christ said, "I go to my Father," when He was about to be cruci- +fied, so also the Servant of the Cross who has made the most of his opportu- +nities in the visible world is allowed to enter the glory of his Father +Fire, the invisible Shekinah Glory. He ceases then to see through the dark +glass of the body, and beholds his Father face to face in the invisible +realms of nature. + + The church steeple is very broad at the bottom, but gradually it narrows +more and more until at the top it is just a point with the cross above it. +So it is with the path of holiness; at the beginning there are many things +which we may permit ourselves, but as we advance, one after another of these +digressions must be done away with, and we must devote ourselves more and + + +[PAGE 58] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +more exclusively to the service of holiness. At last there comes a point +where this path is as sharp as the razor's edge, and we can then only grasp +at the cross. But when we have attained that point, when we can climb this +narrowest of all paths, then we are fitted to follow Christ into the beyond +and serve there as we have served here. + + Thus this ancient symbol shadowed forth the trial and triumph of the +faithful servant, and thought it has been superseded by other and greater +symbols holding forth a higher ideal and a greater promise, the basic prin- +ciples embodies in it are as valid today as ever. + + In the Altar of Burnt Offerings we see clearly the nauseating nature of +sin and the necessity of expiation and justification. + + By the Molten Sea we are still taught that we must live the stainless +life that of holiness and consecration. + + From the East Room we learn today how to make diligent use of our oppor- +tunities to grow the golden grain of selfless service and make that "living +bread" which feeds the soul, the Christ within. + + And when we have ascended the steps of Justification, Consecration, and +Self-Abnegation, we reach the West Room, which is the threshold of Lib- +eration. Over it we are conducted into greater realms, where greater soul +unfoldment may be accomplished. + + But through this ancient Temple stands no longer upon the plains where +the wandering hosts pitched their camps in the hoary past, it may be made a +much more potent factor for soul growth by any aspirant of today that it was +by the ancient Israelites provided he will build it according to pattern. + + +[PAGE 59] THE NEW MOON AND INITIATION + +Nor need the lack of gold wherewith to build distress anyone, for now the +true tabernacle must be built in heaven-and "HEAVEN IS WITH YOU." To build +well and true, according to the rules of the ancient craft of Mystic Ma- +sonry, the aspirant must learn first to build within himself the altar with +its sacrifices, then he must watch and pray while patiently waiting for the +divine fire to consume offering. Then he must bathe himself with tears of +contrition till he has washed away the stains of sin. Meanwhile he must +keep the lamp of divine guidance filled that he may perceive how, when, and +where to serve; he must work hard to have abundance of "bread of shew," and +the incense of aspiration and prayer must be ever in his heart and on his +lips. Then YOM KIPPUR, the Great Day of At-one-ment, will surely find him +ready to go to his Father, and learn how better to help his younger brothers +to ascent the Path. + + + + + +[PAGE 63] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + + CHAPTER ONE + + THE ANNUNCIATION AND IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + + Much is said in certain classes of the Western World about Initiation. +This in the minds of most people seems usually to be associated with the oc- +cultism taught in the religions of the far East; something that is peculiar +to the devotees of Buddhism, Hinduism, and kindred systems of faith, and +which in nowise appertains to the religion of the Western World, par- +ticularly to the Christian religion. + + We have shown in the preceding series on "Symbols and Ancient and Modern +Initiation: that this idea is entirely gratuitous, and that the ancient Tab- +ernacle in the Wilderness pictures in its symbolism the path of progression +from childlike ignorance to superhuman knowledge. As the VEDAS brought +light to the devotees who worshiped in faith and fervor on the banks of the +Ganges in the sunny South, so the Eddas were a guiding star to the sons of +the rugged Northland, who sought the Light of life in ancient Iceland where +the sturdy Vikings steered their ships in frozen seas. "Arjuna," who + + +[PAGE 64] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +fights the noble fight in the "Mahabharata," or "Great War," con- +stantly being waged between the higher and the lower self, difference in +nowise from the hero of the northern soul myth, "Siegfried," which means, +"He who through victory gains peace." + + Both are representative of the candidate undergoing Initiation. And +though their experiences in this great adventure vary in certain respects +called for by the temperamental differences of the northern and southern +peoples, and provided for in the respective schools to which they are re- +ferred for soul growth, the main features are identical, and the end, which +is enlightenment, is the same. Aspiring souls have walked to the Light in +the brilliantly illuminated Persian temples where the sun god in his blazing +chariot was the symbol of Light, as well as under the mystic magnificence of +the iridescence shed abroad by the aurora borealis of the frozen North. +That the true Light of the deepest esoteric knowledge has always been +present in all ages, even the darkest of the so-called dark, there is ample +evidence to show. + + Raphael used his wonderful skill with the brush to embody it in two of +his great paintings, "The Sistine Madonna" and the "Marriage of the Virgin," +which we would advise the interested reader to examine for himself. Copies +of these paintings are procurable in almost any art store. In the original +there is a peculiar tint of golden haze behind the Madonna and Child, which + + +[PAGE 64A] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + + + + ILLUSTRATION: + + CHRISTIAN MYSTIC INITIATION + + THE PATH THROUGH THE HEART + + LOVE THE BASIC FACTOR + + + + +[PAGE 65] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + +though exceedingly crude to one gifted with spiritual sight, is nevertheless +as close an imitation of the basic color of the first-heaven world as it is +possible to make with the pigments of earth. Close inspection of this back- +ground will reveal the fact that it is composed of a multitude of what we +are used to call "angel" heads and wings. + + This again is as literal a pictorial representation of facts concerning +the inhabitants of that world as could be given, for during the process of +purgation which takes place in the lower regions of the Desire World the +lower parts of the body are actually disintegrated so that only the head, +containing the intelligence of the man, remains when he enters the first +heaven, a fact which has puzzled many who have happened to see the souls +there. The wings of course have no reality outside the picture, but were +placed there to show ability to move swiftly, which is inherent in all be- +ings in the invisible worlds. The People is represented as pointing to the +Madonna and the Christ Child, and a close examination of the hand wherewith +he points will show that it has six fingers. There is not historical +evidence to show that the Pontiff actually had such a deformity, neither can +that fact be an accident; the six fingers in the painting must therefore +have been due to design on the part of the painter. + + What its purpose was we shall learn by examination of the "Marriage of +the Virgin," where a similar anomaly may be noted. In that picture Mary +and Joseph are represented together with he Christ Child under such condi- + + +[PAGE 66] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +tions that it is evident that they are just on the eve of departure for +Egypt, and a Rabbi is in the act of joining them in wedlock. The left foot +of Joseph is the foremost object in the picture, and if we count we shall +find it represented as having six toes. By the six fingers in the Pope's +picture and the six toes of Joseph, Raphael wants to show us that both pos- +sessed a sixth sense such as is awakened by Initiation. By this subtle +sense the foot of Joseph was guided in its flight to keep secure that sacred +things which had been entrusted to his care. To the other was given a sixth +sense that he might not be a blind leader of the blind but might have the +"seeing eye" required to point out the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And it +is a fact, though not commonly known, that with one or two exceptions when +political power was strong enough to corrupt the College of Cardinals, all +who have sat upon the so-called throne of Peter have had the spiritual sight +in a greater or lesser degree. + + We have seen in the articles on "Symbols of Ancient and Modern Ini- +tiation," which preceded the present article, that the Atlantean Mystery +Temple known as the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was a school of soul +growth; and it should not surprise us to learn that the four Gospels con- +taining the life of Christ are also formulae of Initiation, revealing an- +other and a later Path to power. In the ancient Egyptian Mysteries, Horus +was the first fruit whom the aspirant endeavored to imitate, and it is sig- +nificant that in the Ritual of Initiation which was in vogue in that day and + + +[PAGE 67] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + +which we now call the "Book of the Dead," the aspirant to Initiation was al- +ways addressed Horus so-and-so. Following the same method today we might +appropriately address those following the Christian Path of Initiation as +Christ so-and-so, for as a matter of fact all who tread this Path are really +Christs-in-the-making. Each in his or her turn will reach the different +stations of the Via Dolorosa, or Path of Sorrow, which leads to Calvary, and +experience in his or her own body the pangs and pains suffered by the Hero +of the Gospels. Initiation is a cosmic process of enlightenement and evolu- +tion of power; therefore the experiences of all are similar in the main fea- +tures. + + The Christian Mystic form of Initiation differs radically from the +Rosicrucian method, which aims to bring the candidate to compassion through +knowledge, and therefore seeks to cultivate in him the latent faculties of +spiritual sight and hearing at the very start of his career as an aspirant +to the higher life. it teaches him to know the hidden mysteries of being +and to perceive intellectually the unity of each with all, so that at last +through this knowledge there is awakened within him the feeling that makes +him truly realize his oneness with all that lives and moves, which puts him +in full and perfect tune with the Infinite, making him a true helper and +worker in the divine kingdom of evolution. + + The goal attained through the Christian Mystic Initiation is the same, +but the method, as said, is entirely different. In the first place, the + + +[PAGE 68] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +candidate is usually unconscious of trying to attain any definite object, at +least during the first stages of his endeavors, and there is in this noble +School of Initiation but no Teacher, the Christ, who is ever before the +spiritual vision of the candidate as the Ideal and the Goal of all his +striving. The Western world, alas! has become so enmeshed in intellectual- +ity that its aspirants can only enter the Path when their reason has been +satisfied; and unfortunately it i a desire for more knowledge which brings +most of the p pupils to the Rosicrucian School. It is an arduous task to +cultivate int he the compassion which must blend with their knowledge and be +the guiding factor in the use of it before they are fitted to enter the +Kingdom of Christ. But those who are drawn to the Christian Mystic Path +feel no difficulty of that nature. They have within themselves an +all-embracing love, which urges them onward and eventually generates in them +a knowledge which the writer believes to be far superior to that attained by +any other method. One who follows te intellectual Path of development is +apt to sneer superciliously at another whose temperament impels him along +the Mystic Path. Such an attitude of mind is not only detrimental to the +spiritual development of whoever entertains it, but it is entirely gratu- +itous, as the works of Jacob Boehme, Thomas a Kempis, and many other who +have followed the Mystic Path will show. The more knowledge we possess the +greater condemnation also shall we merit if we do not use it right. But +love, which is the basic principle in the Christian Mystic's life, can never + + +[PAGE 69] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + +bring us into condemnation or conflict with the purposes of God. It is +infinitely better to be able to FEEL any noble emotion that to have the +keenest intellect and one which is able to define all emotions. Hairsplit- +ting over the constitution and evolution of the atom surely will not promote +soul growth as much as humble helpfulness toward our neighbor. + + There are nine definite steps in the Christian Mystic Initiation, com- +mencing with the Baptism, which is dedicatory. The Annunciation and Im- +maculate Conception precede as matters of course for reasons given later. +Having prepared our minds by the foregoing consideration, we are now ready +to consider each stage separately in this glorious process of spiritual +unfoldment. + + THE ANNUNCIATION AND IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + + The Christian Mystic is emphatically not the product of one life, but the +flower of many preparatory existences, during which he has cultivated that +sublime compassion which makes him feel the whole world's woe, and conjures +up before his spiritual vision the Christ Ideal as the true balm of Gilead, +its practice the only palladium against all human grief and sorrow. Such a +soul is watched over special care by the divine Hierarchies who have charge +of our progression along the path of evolution, and when the time is ripe +for him to enter that life in which he is to run the final race to reach the +goal and become a Savior of his kind, angels are indeed watching, waiting, + + +[PAGE 70] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +and singing hosannas in joyful anticipation of the great event. + + Like always seeks like, and and naturally the parents are carefully se- +lected for (and by such a noble soul from among the "sons and daughters of +the King." They may be in the poorest circumstances from a worldly point of +view; it may be necessary to cradle the babe in a manger, but no richer gift +ever came to parents that such a noble soul. Among the qualifications nec- +essary to be the parents of such an Ego is that the mother be a "virgin" and +the father a "builder." + + It is stated in the Bible that Joseph was a CARPENTER, but the Greek word +is "tekton" which means "builder." In Mystic Masonry God is called the +Grant Architech. ARCHE is the Greek word signifying primordial substance, +and a tekton is a builder. Thus God is the Great Master Builder, who out of +primordial substance fashioned the world as an evolutionary field for +various grades of beings. He uses in His universe many tektons, or build- +ers, of various grades. Everyone who follows the Path of spiritual attain- +ment, endeavoring to work constructively with the laws of nature as a ser- +vant of humanity, is a TEKTON or builder in the sense that he has the +qualifications necessary to aid in giving birth to a great soul. Thus when +it is said that Jesus was a carpenter and the son of a carpenter, we under- +stand that they were both TEKTONS or builders along cosmic lines. + + The Immaculate Conception, like all other sublime mysteries, has been +dragged down into the gutter of materiality, and being so sublimely + + +[PAGE 71] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + +spiritual it has perhaps suffered more by this rude treatment than any other +of the spiritual teachings. Perhaps it has suffered even more from the +clumsy explanation of ignorant supporters that from the jeers and sneers of +the cynic. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, as popularly under- +stood, is that about two thousand years ago God in a miraculous manner fer- +tilized a certain Mary who was a virgin, as as the result she gave birth to +Jesus, an individual who is consequence was the Son of God in a sense dif- +ferent from all other men. There is also in the popular mind the idea that +this incident is unique in the history of the world. + + It is particularly the latter fallacy which has served to distort the +beautiful spiritual truth concerning the Immaculate Conception. It is not +unique in any sense. Every great soul who has been born into the world to +live a life of sublime saintliness, such as required for the Christian Mys- +tic Initiation, has also found entrance through of immaculate virginity who +were not besmirched by passion in the performance of the generative act. +Men do not gather grapes of thorns. It is an axiomatic truth that like +begets like, and before anyone can become a Savior, he must himself be pure +and sinless. He, being pure cannot take birth from one who is vile; HE MUST +BE BORN OF VIRGIN PARENTS. + + But the virginity to which we refer does not comprehend a merely physical +condition. There is not inherent virtue in physical virginity, for all pos- +sess it at the beginning of life no matter how vile their disposition may + + +[PAGE 72] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +be. The virginity of the mother of a Savior is a quality of the soul, which +remains unsullied regardless of the physical act of fertilization. When +people perform the first creative act without desire for offspring, merely +for gratification of their animal lusts and propensities, they lose the only +(physical) virginity they ever possessed; but when prospective parents unite +in a spirit of prayer, offering their bodies upon the altar of sacrifice in +order to provide an incoming soul with the physical body needed at the +present time to further spiritual development, their purity of purpose pre- +serves their virginity and draws a noble soul to their hearth and home. +Whether a child is conceived in sin or immaculately depends upon its own in- +herent soul quality, for that will unerringly draw it to parents of a nature +like unto its own. To become the son of a virgin predicates a past career +of spirituality for the one who is so born. + + The "mystic birth" of a "builder" is a cosmic event of great importance, +and it is therefore not surprising that it is pictured in the skies from +year to year, showing a graphic symbolism in the great world or macrocosm +what will eventually take place in man, the little world or microcosm. We +are all destined to experience the things that Jesus experienced, including +the Immaculate Conception, which is a prerequisite to the life of saints and +saviors of varying degrees. By understanding this great cosmic symbol we +shall more easily understand its application to the individual human being. + + +[PAGE 73] THE ANNUNCIATION; IMMACULATE CONCEPTION + +The sun is "THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD" in a material sense. When in winter +time it reaches the extreme southern declination at the solstice on December +23rd, the people in the northern hemisphere, where all the present religions +have had their birth, are plunged into the deepest darkness and bereft of +the all-sustaining vital power emanating from the sun, which is them partly +dead so far as its influence upon men in concerned. It is therefore neces- +sary that a new light shine in the darkness, that a SUN OF GOOD be born to +same humanity from the cold and famine which must inevitably result if the +sun were to remain in the southern position which he occupies at the winter +solstice. + + On the night between the 24th and 25th of December, the sun having com- +menced to slowly rise toward the earth's equator, the zodiacal sign of +Virgo, the immaculate celestial Virgin, is on the eastern horizon in all +northern latitudes (in the hours immediately preceding midnight). In the +science of astrology it is the sign and degree on the eastern horizon at the +time of birth which determine the form or body of the creature then born. +Therefore the Sun of Good is said to have been born of Virgo, the sublime +celestial Virgin, who remains as pure after giving birth to her Sun Child as +she was before. By analogy the Son of God who comes to save his fellow men +must also be born of an immaculate spiritual virgin. + + From what has been said it is evident that a great period of preparation +precedes the entrance of a Christian Mystic into the present sphere of human + + +[PAGE 74] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +life, though he in his physical consciousness is usually entirely unaware of +the fact of the great adventure in store for him. In all probability his +childhood days and early youth will pass in obscurity, while he lives an in- +ner life of unusual depth, unconsciously preparing himself for the Baptism, +which is the first of the nine steps of this method of attainment. + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 75] THE MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM + + CHAPTER TWO + + MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM + + It is noteworthy that nearly all religious systems have prescribed ablu- +tions previous to the performance of religious duties, and the worship per- +formed in the ancient Atlantean Mystery Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wil- +derness, was no exception, as we have seen from the previous articles on +"Symbols of Ancient and Modern Initiation." After having obtained justifi- +cation by sacrifice on the Brazen Altar, the candidate was compelled to wash +in the Laver of Consecration, the Molten Sea, before he was allowed to enter +upon the duties of his ministry in the sanctuary proper. And it is in con- +formity with this rule that we find the Hero of the Gospels going to the +river Jordan, where He underwent the mystic rite of Baptism. When He rose, +we learn that the Spirit descended upon Him. Therefore it is obvious that +those who follow the Christian Mystic Path of Initiation must also be +similarly baptized before they can receive the Spirit, which is to be their + + +[PAGE 76] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +true guide through all the trials before them. + + But what constitutes Baptism is a question which has called forth argu- +ments of almost unbelievable intensity. Some contend that it is a sprin- +kling with water, and other insist upon the immersion of the whole body. +Some say that it is sufficient to take an infant into church, sprinkle it +with water despite its protests, and presto! it becomes a Christian, an heir +of heaven; whereas should it unfortunately die before this sacred rite is +performed, it must inevitably go to hell. Others take the more logical po- +sition that the desire of an individual for admission into the church is the +prime factor necessary to make the rite effective, and therefore wait until +adult age before the performance of the ceremony, which requires an immer- +sion of the whole body in water. But whether the rite is performed in in- +fancy or in laterlife, it seems strange that momentary immersion or sprin- +kling with water should have the power to save the soul; and when we examine +the subsequent life of those who have thus been baptized, even in adult age +and with their full consent and desire, we find little or no improvement in +the great majority. Therefore it seems evident that this cannot be the +proper rite, because the Spirit has not descended upon them. Consequently +we must look for another explanation of what constitutes a true mystic rite +of Baptism. + + A story is told of an Ottoman king who declared war on a neighboring na- +tion, fought a number of battles against it with varying success, but was + + +[PAGE 77] THE MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM + +finally conquered and taken captive to the palace of the victor, where he +was compelled to work in the most menial capacity as a slave. After many +years fortune favored him, and he escaped to a far country, where by hard +work he acquired a small estate, married, and had a number of children, who +grew up around him. Finally he found himself upon his deathbed at a very +rip old age, and in the exertion of drawing his last breath he raised +himself upon his pillow and looked about him, but there were no sons and +daughters there. He was not in the place which he had regarded as home for +so many years, but in his own palace which he thought he had left in his +youth, and he was as young as when he left it. There he found himself sit- +ting in a chair with a basin of water close to his chin and a servant en- +gaged in washing his hair and beard. He had just immersed his face in the +water when the dream of going to war had started, and a lifetime had been +lived in dreamland during the few seconds it took until he raised his face. +There are thousands of other instances to show that outside the physical +world time is nonexistent and the happenings of millennia are easily in- +spected in a few moments. + + It is also well known that when people are under water and in the act of +drowning, their whole preceding life is reenacted before their eyes with +crystal clarity, even the minutest details which have been forgotten during +the passing years standing our sharply. Thus there must be and is a store- + + +[PAGE 78] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +house of events which may be contacted under certain conditions when the +senses are stilled and we are near sleep or death. + + To make this last sentence clear it should be understood and borne in +mind that man is a composite being, having finer vehicles which interpen- +etrate the physical body, usually regarded as the whole man. During death +and sleep this dense body is unconscious on account of a complete separation +between it and the finer vehicles; but this separation is only partial dur- +ing dream-filled sleep and prior to drowning. This condition enables the +spirit to impress events upon the brain with more or less accuracy according +to circumstances, particularly those incidents which are connected with it- +self. In the light of these things we shall understand what really consti- +tutes the rite of Baptism. + + According to the Nebular Theory that which is now the earth was at one +time a luminous fire-mist, which gradually cooled by contact with the cold +of space. This meeting of heat with cold generated moisture, which +evaporated and rose from the heated center, until the cold condensed it and +it fell again as moisture upon the heated world. The surface of the earth +being thus subjected to alternate liquidation and evaporation for ages, it +finally crystallized into a shell which perfectly covered the fiery center. +This soft moisture-laden shell naturally generated a mist, which surrounded +the planet as an atmosphere, and this was the cradle of everything that has +its being upon the earth: man, animal, and plant. + + +[PAGE 79] THE MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM + + The Bible describes this condition in the second chapter of Genesis, +where we are told that at the time of the first man a mist went up from the +earth, "for it had not yet rained." This condition evidently continued un- +til the Flood, when the moisture finally descended and left the atmosphere +clear so that the rainbow was seen for the first time, the darkness was dis- +pelled, and the age of alternation, day and night, summer and winter, com- +menced. + + By a study of the cosmology and the pictorial account of evolution given +in the Northern Eddas, treasured among the sages of Scandinavia before the +Christian Era, we may learn more of this period in the earth's history and +the bearing which it has upon our subject. As we teach our children, by +means of stories and pictures, truths that hey could not intellectually +grasp, so the divine leaders of mankind were wont to teach the infant souls +in their charge by pictures and allegories, and through these prepare them +for a higher and nobler teaching of a later day. The great epic poem which +is called "The Lay of the Niebelung," gives us the story of which we are in +search, the cosmic origin of the rite of Baptism and why it is necessarily +the preliminary step in the spiritual unfoldment of the Christian Mystic. + + The cosmogony of the Eddas is similar to that of the Bible is some re- +spects, and in others gives points which bear out the theory of Laplace. We +quote from the poetical version of Oehlenschlaeger: + + +[PAGE 80] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +"In the Being's earliest Dawn +All was one dark abyss, +Nor heaven nor earth was known. +Chill noxious fogs and ice, +North from murk Niflheim's hole, +Piled up in mountains lay; +From Muspel's radiant pole, +Southwards fire held the sway. + + +"Then after ages passed, +Mid in the chaos met +A warm breath, Niflheim's blast, +Cold with prolific heat. +Hence pregnant drops were formed, +Which by the parent air +From Muspel's region warmed, +Produced great Aurgelmer." + + + Thus by the action of heat and cold Aurgelmer, or as he is also called, +the Giant Ymer, was first formed. This was the pregnant seed ground whence +came the spiritual Hierarchies, the spirits of the earth, air, and water, +and finally man. At the same time the All-Father created the Cow Audumla, +from whose four teats issued four streams of milk, which nourished all be- +ings. These are the four ethers, one of which now sustains mineral, two +feed the plant, three the animal, and all four the human kingdom. In the +Bible they are the four rivers which went forth out of Eden. + + +[PAGE 80A] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + + + + ILLUSTRATION: + + THE SPIRAL PATH OF ORDINARY HUMANITY + + AND + + THE WAY OF INITIATION + + + + +[PAGE 81] THE MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM + + Eventually, as postulated by science, a crust must have been formed by +the continued boiling of the water, and from this drying crust a mist must +have ascended as taught in the second chapter of Genesis. By degrees the +mist must have cooled and condensed, shutting out the light of the sun, so +that it would have been impossible for early mankind to perceive the body +even had they possessed the physical vision. But under such conditions they +had no more need of eyes that a mole which burrows in the ground. They were +not blind, however, for we re told that "THEY SAW GOD"; and as "spiritual +things (and beings) are spiritually perceived," they must have been gifted +with spiritual sight. In the spiritual worlds there is a different standard +of reality than here, which is the basis of myths. + + Under these conditions there could be no clashing of interests, and hu- +manity regarded itself as the children of one great Father while they lived +under the water of ancient Atlantis. Egoism did not come into the world un- +til the mist had condensed and they had left the watery atmosphere of +Atlantis. When their eyes had been opened so that they could perceive the +physical world and the things therein, when each saw himself or herself as +separate and apart from all others, the consciousness of "me and mine, thee +and thine," took shape in the nascent minds, and a grasping greed replaced +the fellow feeling which obtained under the waters of early Atlantis. From +that time to the present stage of egoism has been considered the legitimate +attitude, and even in our boasted civilization altruism remains a Utopian + + +[PAGE 82] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +dream not to be indulged in by practical people. + + Had mankind been allowed to travel the path of egoism without let or hin- +drance, it is difficult to see where it all would have ended. But under the +immutable Law of Consequence every cause must produce an adequate effect; +the principle of suffering was born from sin for the benevolent purpose of +guiding us back to the path of virtue. It takes much suffering and many +lives to accomplish this purpose, but finally when we have become men of +sorrows and acquainted with grief, when we have cultivated that keen and +ready sympathy which feels all the woe of the world, when the Christ has +been born within, there comes to the Christian Mystic that ardent aspiration +to seek and to save those who are lost and show them the way to everlasting +light and peace. + + But to show the way, we must know the way; without a true understanding +of the CAUSE OF SORROW we cannot teach others to obtain permanent peace. +Nor can this understanding of sorrow, sin, and death be obtained from books, +lectures, or even the personal teachings of another; at least an impression +sufficiently intense to fill the aspirant's whole being cannot be conveyed +in that way. Baptism alone will accomplish the purpose in an adequate man- +ner; therefore the first step in the life of a Christian Mystic is Baptism. + + But when we say Baptism, we do not necessarily mean a physical Baptism +where the candidate is either sprinkled or immersed and where he makes cer- +tain promises to the one who baptizes him. The Mystic Baptism may take + + +[PAGE 83] THE MYSTIC RITE OF BAPTISM + +place in a desert as easily on an island, for it is a spiritual process to +attain a spiritual purpose. It may take place at any time during the night +or day, in summer or winter, for it occurs at the moment when the candidate +feels with sufficient intensity the longing to know the cause of sorrow and +alleviate it. Then the Spirit is conducted under the waters of Atlantis, +where it sees the primal condition of brotherly love and kindness; where it +perceives God as the great Father of His children, who are there surrounded +by His wonderful love. And by the conscious return to this Ocean of Love, +the candidate becomes so thoroughly imbued with the feeling of kinship that +the spirit of egoism is banished from him forever. It is because of this +saturation with the Universal Spirit that is able later to say: "If a man +takes your coat, give him you cloak also; if he asks you to walk one mile +with him, go with him two miles." Feeling himself one and all, the candi- +date does not even consider the murder of himself as mistreatment, but can +say: "Father, forgive them." They are identical with himself, who suffers +by their action; he is the aggressor as well as the victim. Such is the +true Spiritual Baptism of the Christian Mystic, and any other baptism that +does not produce this universal fellow feeling is not worthy of the name. + + +[PAGE 84] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + + CHAPTER THREE + + THE TEMPTATION + + + We often hear about devout Christians complain of their periods of de- +pression. At times they are almost in the seventh heaven of spiritual exal- +tation, they all but see the face of Christ and feel as if He were guiding +their every step; then without any warning and without any cause that they +can discover the clouds gather, the Savior hides His face, and the world +grows black for a period. They cannot work, they cannot pray; the world has +no attraction, and the gate of heaven seems shut against them, with the re- +sult that life appears worthless so long as this spiritual expression lasts. +The reason is, of course, that these people live in their emotions, and un- +der the immutable Law of Alternation the pendulum is bound to swing as far +to one side of the neutral point as it has swung to the other. The brighter +the light, the deeper the shadow, and the greater the exaltation, the deeper +the depression of spirit which follows it. Only those who by cold reason + + +[PAGE 85] THE TEMPTATION + +restrain their emotions escape the periods of depression, but they never +taste the heavenly bliss of exaltation either. AND IT IS THIS EMOTIONAL +OUTPOURING OF HIMSELF WHICH FURNISHED THE CHRISTIAN MYSTIC WITH THE DYNAMIC +ENERGY TO PROJECT HIMSELF INTO THE INVISIBLE WORLDS, WHERE HE BECOMES ONE +WITH THE SPIRITUAL IDEAL WHICH HAS BECKONED HIM ON AND AWAKENED IN HIS SOUL +THE POWER TO RISE TO IT, as the sun built the eye wherewith we perceive it. +The nestling takes many a tumble ere it learns to use its wings with assur- +ance, and the aspirant upon the path of Christian Mysticism may soar to the +very throne of God times out of number and then fall to the lowest pit of +hell's despair. But some time he will overCome the world, defy the Law of +Alternation, and rise by the power of the Spirit to the Father of Spirits, +free from the toils of emotion, filled with the peace that passeth under- +standing. + + But that is the end attained only after Golgotha and the Mystic Baptism, +the latter of which we discussed in the preceeding chapter. Moreover, it is +only the beginning of the active career of the Christian Mystic, in which he +becomes thoroughly saturated with the tremendous fact of the unity of all +life, and imbued with a fellow feeling for all creatures to such an extent +that henceforth he can not only enunciate but practice the tenets of the +Sermon on the Mount. + + Did the spiritual experiences of the Christian Mystic take him no fur- +ther, it would still be the most wonderful adventure in the world, and the + + +[PAGE 86] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +magnitude of the event is beyond words, the consequences only dimly imagin- +able. Most students of the higher philosophies believe in the brotherhood +of man from the mental conviction that we have all emanated from the same +source, as rays emanate from the sun. But there is an abyss of inconceiv- +able depth and width between this cold intellectual conception and the bap- +tismal saturation of the Christian Mystic, who feels it is his heart and in +every fibre of his being with such an intensity that it is actually painful +to him; it fills him with such a yearning, aching love as that expressed in +the words of the Christ: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have +gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under +her wings;" a brooding, yearning, and achingly protective love which asks +nothing for self save only the privilege to nurture, to shield, and to cher- +ish. + + Were even a faint resemblance to such a universal fellow feeling abroad +among humanity in this dark day, what a paradise earth would be. Instead of +every man's hand being against his brother to slay with the sword, with ri- +valry and competition, or to destroy his morals and degrade him by prison +stripes or industrial bondage under the whiplash of necessity, we should +have neither warriors nor prisoners but a happy contented world, living in +peace and harmony, learning the lessons which our Father in Heaven aims to +teach us in this material condition. AND ALL THE MISERY IN THE WORLD MAY BE +ACCOUNTED FOR BY THE FACT THAT IF WE BELIEVE IN THE BIBLE AT ALL, WE BELIEVE +WITH OUR HEAD AND NOT WITH OUR HEART. + + +[PAGE 87] THE TEMPTATION + + When we came up through the waters of Baptism, the Atlantean Flood, into +the Rainbow Age of alternating seasons, we became prey to the changing emo- +tions which whirl us hither and yon upon the sea of life. The cold faith +restrained by reason entertained by the majority of professing Christians +may given them a need of patience and mental valance which bears them up un- +der the trials of life, but when the majority get the LIVING FAITH of the +Christian Mystic which laughs at reason because it is HEART-FELT, then the +Age of Alternation will be past, the rainbow will fall with the clouds and +the air which now composes the atmosphere, and there will be a new heaven of +pure ether, where we shall receive the Baptism of Spirit and "THERE SHALL BE +PEACE" (Jerusalem). + + We are still in the Rainbow Age and subject to its low, so we may realize +that as the Baptism of the Christian Mystic occurs at a time of spiritual +exaltation, it must necessarily be followed by a reaction. The tremendous +magnitude of the revelation overpowers him, he cannot realize it or contain +it in his fleshly vehicle, so he flees the haunts of men and betakes himself +to the solitude allegorically represented as a desert. So rapt is he in his +sublime discovery that for the time being in his ecstacy he sees the Loom of +Life upon which the bodies of all that live are woven, from the least to the +greatest-the mouse and the man, the hunter and his prey, the warrior and his +victim. But to him they are not separate and apart, for he also beholds +the one divine thread of golden life-light "which runs through all and doth +all unite." Nay, more, he hears in each the flaming keynote sounding its + + +[PAGE 88] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +aspirations and voicing its hopes and fears, and he perceives this composite +color-sound as the world anthem of God made flesh. This is at first en- +tirely beyond his comprehension; the tremendous magnitude of the discovery +hides it from him, and he cannot conceive what it is that he sees and feels, +for there are no words to describe it, and no concept can cover it. But by +degrees it dawns upon him that HE IS AT THE VERY FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, +beholding, nay, more, FEELING its every pulse beat, and with this comprehen- +sion he reaches the climax of his ecstasy. + + So rapt has the Christian Mystic been in his beautiful adventure that +bodily wants have been completely forgotten till the ecstasy has passed, and +it is therefore only natural that the feeling of hunger should be his first +conscious want upon his return to the normal state of consciousness; and +also naturally comes the voice of temptation: "COMMAND THAT THESE STONES BE +MADE BREAD." + + Few passages of the sacred Scriptures are darker that the opening verses +of the Gospel of St. John: "In the beginning was the word . . . .and with- +out it was not anything made that was made." A slight study of the science +of sound soon makes us familiar with the fact that sound is vibration and +that different sounds will mold sand or other light materials into figures +of varying form. The Christian Mystic may be entirely ignorant of this fact +from the scientific point of view, but he has learned at the Fountain of +Life to sing the SONG OF BEING, which cradles into existence whatever such a + + +[PAGE 89] THE TEMPTATION + +master musician desires. There is one basic key for the indigestible min- +eral stone, but a modification will turn it to gold wherewith to purchase +the means of sustenance, and another keynote peculiar to the vegetable king- +dom will turn it into food, a fact known to all advanced occultists who +practice incantations legitimately for spiritual purposes but never for ma- +terial profit. + + But the Christian Mystic who has just emerged from his Baptism in the +Fountain of Life immediately shrinks in horror at the suggestion of using +his newly discovered power for a selfish purpose. It was the very soul +quality of unselfishness that ld him to the waters of consecration in the +Fountain of life, and sooner would he sacrifice all, even life itself, that +use this new-found power to spare himself a pang of pain. Did he not see +also the Woe of the World? And does he not feel it in his great hearth with +such an intensity that the hunger at once disappears and is forgotten? He +may, will, and does use this wonderful power freely to feed the thousands +that gather to hear him, but never for selfish purposes else he would upset +the equilibrium of the world. + + The Christian Mystic does not reason this out, however. As often stated, +he has not reason, but he has a much safer guide in the interior voice which +always speaks to him in moments when a decision must be made. "MAN DOES NOT +LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH FROM GOD";-another +mystery. There is not need to partake of earthly bread for one who has ac- +cess to the Fountain of Life. The more our thoughts are centered in God, + + +[PAGE 90] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +the less we shall care for the so-called pleasures of the table, and by +feeding our gross bodies sparingly on selected simple foods we shall obtain +an illumination of spirit impossible to one who indulges in an excessive +diet of coarse foods which nourish the lower nature. Some of the saints +have used fasting and castigation as a means of soul growth, but that is a +mistaken method for reasons given in an article on "Fasting for Soul Growth" +published in the December 1915 number of "Rays from the Rose Cross." The +Elder Brothers of humanity who understand the Law and live accordingly use +food only at intervals measured by years. The word of God is to them a +"living bread." So it becomes also to the Christian Mystic, and the Tempta- +tion instead of working his downfall has led him to greater heights. + + +[PAGE 91] THE TRANSFIGURATION + + CHAPTER FOUR + + THE TRANSFIGURATION + + We remember that by the mystic processes of the true Spiritual Baptism +the aspirant becomes so thoroughly saturated with the Universal Spirit that +as a matter of actual fact, feeling, and experience he becomes one with all +that lives, moves, and has its being, one with the pulsating divine Life +which surges in rhythmic cadence through the least and the greatest alike; +and having caught the keynote of the celestial song he is then endued with a +power of tremendous magnitude, which he may use either for good or ill. It +should be understood and remembered that though gunpowder and dynamite fa- +cilitate farming when used for blowing up tree stumps which would otherwise +require a great deal of manual labor to extract, they may also be used for +destructive purposes as in the great European war. Spiritual powers also +may be used for good or ill depending upon the motive and character of the +one who wields them. Therefore, whoever has successfully undergone the rite + + +[PAGE 92] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +of Baptism and thereby acquired spiritual power is forthwith tempted that it +may be concerned decided whether he will range himself upon the side of good +or evil. At this point he becomes either a future "Parsifal," a "Christ," a +"Herod," or a "Klingsor" who fights the Knights of the Holy Grail with all +the powers and resources of the Black Brotherhood. + + There is a tendency in modern materialistic science to repudiate as +fable, worthy of attention only among superstitious servant girls and fool- +ish old women, the ideas commonly believed in as late as the Middle Ages, +that such spiritual communities as the Knights of the Grail at one time ex- +isted, or that there are such beings as the "Black Brothers." Occult soci- +eties in the last half century have educated thousands to the fact that the +Good Brothers are still in evidence and may be found by those who seek them +in the proper way. Now unfortunately the tendency among this class of +people is to accept anyone on his unsupported claims as a Master or an dept. +But even among this class there are few who take the existence of the Black +Brothers seriously, or realize what an enormous amount of damage they are +doing in the world, and how they are aided and abetted by the general ten- +dency of humanity to cater to the lusts of the flesh. As the good forces, +which are symbolized as the servants of the Holy Grail, live and grow by un- +selfish service which enhances the luster of the glowing Grail Cup, so the +Powers of Evil, known as the Black Grail and represented in the Bible as the +court of Herod, feed on pride and sensuality, voluptuousness and passion, + + +[PAGE 93] THE TRANSFIGURATION + +embodied in the figure of Salome, who glories in the murder of John the Bap- +tist and the innocents. It was shown in the legend of the Grail as embodied +in Wagner's "Parsifal" that when the Knights were denied the inspiration +from the Grail Cup, on which they fed and which spurred them onto deeds of +greater love and service, their courage flagged and they became inert. +Similarly with the Brothers of the Black Grail. Unless they are provided +with words of wickedness they will die from starvation. Therefore they are +ever active in the world stirring up strife and inciting others to evil. + + Were not this pernicious activity counteracted in a great measure by the +Elder Brothers at their midnight services at which they make themselves mag- +nets for all the evil thoughts in the Western World and then by the alchemy +of sublime love transmute them to good, a cataclysm of still greater magni- +tude that the recent World Wrar would have occurred long ago. As it is, the +Genius of Evil has been held within bounds in some measure at least. Were +humanity not so ready to range itself on the side of evil, success would +have been greater. But it is hoped that the spiritual awakening started by +the war will result in turning the scale and give the construction agencies +in evolution the upper hand. + + It is a wonderful power which is centered in the Christian Mystic at the +time of his Baptism by the descent and concentration within him of the Uni- +versal Spirit; and when he has refused during the period of temptation to + + +[PAGE 94] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +desecrate it for personal profit or power, he must of necessity give it vent +in another direction, for he is impelled by an irresistable inner urge which +will not allow him to settle down to an inert, inactive life of prayer and +meditation. The power of God is upon him to preach and glad tidings to hu- +manity, to help and heal. We know that a stove which is filled with burning +fuel cannot help heating the surrounding atmosphere; neither can the Chris- +tian Mystic help radiating the divine compassion which fills his heart to +overflowing, nor is he is doubt whom to love or whom to serve or where to +find his opportunity. As the stove filled with burning fuel radiates heat +to all who are within its sphere of radiation, so the Christian Mystic feels +the love of God burning within his heart and is continually radiating it to +all with whom he comes in contact. As the heated stove draws to itself by +its genial warmth those who are suffering with physical cold, so the warm +love rays of the Christian Mystic are a a magnet to all those whose hearts +are chilled by the cruelty of the world, by man's inhumanity to man. + + If the stove were empty but endowed with the faculty of speech, it might +preach forever the gospel of warmth to those who are physically cold, but +even the finest oratory would fail to satisfy its audience. When it has +been filled with fuel and radiates warmth, there will be no need of preach- +ing. Men will come to it and be satisfied. Similarly a sermon on brother- +hood by one who has not laved in the "Fountain of Life" will sound hollow. +The true Mystic need not preach. His every act, even his silent presence, + + +[PAGE 95] THE TRANSFIGURATION + +is more powerful that all the most deeply thought-out discourses of learned +doctors of philosophy. + + There is a story of St. Francis of Assisi which particularly illus- +trates this fact, and which we trust may serve to drive it home, for its ex- +ceedingly important. It is said that one day St. Francis went to a young +brother in the monastery with which he was then connected and said to him: +"Brother, let us go down to the village and preach to them." The young +brother was naturally overjoyed at the honor and opportunity of accompanying +so hold a man as St. Francis, and together the two started toward the vil- +lage, talking all the while about spiritual things and the life that leads +to God. Engrossed in this conversation they passed through the village, +walking along its various streets, now and then stopping to speak a kindly +word to one or another of the villagers. After having made a circuit of the +village St. Francis was heading toward the road which led to the monastery +when of a sudden the young brother reminded him of his intention to preach +in the village and asked him if he had forgotten it. To this St. Francis +answered: "My son, are you not aware that all the while we have been in +this village we have been preaching to the people all around us? In the +first place, our simple dress proclaims the fact that we are devoted to the +service of God, and as soon as anyone sses us his thoughts naturally turn +heavenward. Be sure that everyone of the villagers has been watching us, +taking note of our demeanor to see in how far it conforms with our profes- +sion. They have listened to our words to find whether they were about + + +[PAGE 96] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +spiritual or profane subjects. They have watched our gestures and have +noted that the words of sympathy we dispensed came straight from our hearts +and went deep into theirs. We have been preaching a far more powerful ser- +mon that if we had gone into the market place, called them around us, and +started to harangue them with an exhortation to holiness." + + St. Francis was a Christian Mystic in the deepest sense of the word, and +being taught from within by the spirit of God he knew well the mysteries of +life, as did Jacob Boehme and other holy men who have been similarly taught. +They are in a certain sense wiser than the wisest of the intellectual +school, but it is not necessary for them to expound great mysteries in order +to fulfill their mission and serve as guide posts to others who are also +seeking God. The very simplicity of their words and acts carries with it +the power of conviction. Naturally, of course, all do not rise to the same +heights. All have not the same powers anymore than all the stoves are of +the same size and have the same heating capacity. Those who follow the +Christian Mystic path, from the least to the greatest, have experienced the +powers conveyed by Baptism according to their capacity. They have been +tempted to use those powers in an evil direction for personal gain, and hav- +ing overcome the desire for the world and worldly things they have turned to +the path of ministry and service as Christ did; their lives are marked not +so much by what they have said as by what they have done. The true Chris- +tian Mystic is easily distinguished. He never uses the six week days + +[PAGE 96A] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITATION + + + ILLUSTRATION: + + THE PROCESS OF TRANSFIGURATION + + +[PAGE 97] THE TRANSFIGURATION + +to prepare for a grand oratorical effort to thrill his hearers on +Sunday, but spends every day alike in humble endeavor to do the Mas- +ter's will regardless of outward applause. Thus unconsciously he works +up toward that grand climax which in the history of the noblest of +all who have trod this path is spoken of as the "Transfiguration." + + The Transfiguration is an alchemical process by which the physical body +formed by the chemistry of physiological processes is turned into a living +stone such as is mentioned in the Bible. The medieval alchemists who were +seeking the Philosopher's Stone were not concerned with transmutation of +such dross as material god, but aimed at the greater goal as indicated +above. + + Moisture gathered in the clouds falls to earth as rain when it has con- +densed sufficiently, and it is again evaporated into clouds by the heat of +the sun. This is the primal cosmic formula. Spirit also condenses itself +into matter and becomes mineral. But though it be crystallized into the +harness of flint, life still remains, and by the alchemy of nature working +through another life stream the dense mineral constituents of the soil are +transmuted to a more flexible structure in the plant, which may be used as +food for animal and man. These substances become sentient flesh by the al- +chemy of assimilation. When we note the changes in the structure of the hu- +man body evidenced by comparison of the Bushmen, Chinese, Hindus, Latins, +Celts, and Anglo-Saxons, it is plainly apparent that the flesh of man is +even now undergoing a refining process which is eradicating the coarser, + + +[PAGE 98] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +grosser substances. In time by evolution this process of spiritualization +will render our flesh transparent and radiant with the Light that shines +within, radiant as the face of Moses, the body of Buddha, and the Christ at +the Transfiguration. + + At present the effulgence of the indwelling Spirit is effectually dark- +ened by our dense body, but we may draw hop even from the science of chemis- +try. There is nothing on earth so rare and precious as radium, the luminous +extract of the dense black mineral called pitchblende; and there is nothing +so rare as that precious extract of the human body, the radiant Christ. At +present we are lavoring to form the Christ within, but when the inner Christ +has grown to full stature, He will shine through the transparent body as the +LIGHT OF THE WORLD. + + It is an anatomical fact of common knowledge that the spinal cord is di- +vided into three sections, from which the motor, sensory, and sympathetic +nerves are controlled. Astrologically these are ruled by the moon, Mars, +and Mercury, which are divine Hierarchies tht have played a great role in +human evolution through the nervous systems indicated. Among the ancient +alchemists these were designated by the three alchemical elements, salt, +sulphur, and mercury. Between them and upon them played the spinal Spirit +Fire of Neptune. It rose in a serpentine column through the spinal cord to +the ventricles of the brain. In the great majority of mankind the Spirit +Fire is still exceedingly weak. But whenever a spiritual awakening occurs + + +[PAGE 99] THE TRANSFIGURATION + +in anyone such as that which takes place in a genuine conversion, or better +still at the Baptism of the Christian Mystic, the the downpouring of the +Spirit, which is an actual fact, augments the spinal Spirit Fire to an al- +most unbelievable extent, and forthwith a process of regeneration begins +whereby the gross substances of the threefold body of many are gradually +thrown out, rendering the vehicles more permeable and quickly responsive to +spiritual impulses. The further the process if carried, the more efficient +servants they become in the vineyard of the Master. + + The spiritual awakening which starts this process of regeneration in the +Christian Mystic who purifies himself by prayer and service, comes also of +course to those who are seeking God by way of knowledge and service, but it +acts in a different way, which is noted by the spiritual investigator. In +the Christian Mystic the regenerative spinal Spirit Fire is concentrated +principally upon the lunar segment of the spinal cord, which governs the +sympathetic nerves under the rulership of Jehovah. Therefore his spiritual +growth is accomplished by faith as simple, childlike, and unquestioning as +it was in the days of early Atlantis when men were mindless. He therefore +draws down the great white Light of Deity reflected through Jehovah, the +Holy Spirit, and attains to the whole wisdom of the world without the neces- +sity of laboring for it intellectually. This gradually transmutes his body +into THE WHITE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, THE DIAMOND SOUL. + + +[PAGE 100] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + In those, on the other hand, whose minds are strong and insistent on +knowing the reason why and the wherefore of every dictum and dogma, the Spi- +nal Fire of regeneration plays upon the segments of the red Mars and the +colorless Mercury, endeavoring to infuse desire with reason, to purify the +former of the primal passion that it may become chaste as the rose, and thus +transmute the body into the RUBY SOUL, THE RED PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, TRIED BY +FIRE, PURIFIED, A CREATIVE BUDDING INDIVIDUALITY. + + All who are upon the Path, whether the path of occultism or of mysticism, +are weaving the "golden wedding garment" by this work from within and from +without. In some the gold is exceedingly pale, and in others it is deeply +red. But eventually when the process of Transfiguration has been completed, +or rather when it is nearing completion, the extremes will blend, and the +transfigured bodies will become balanced in color, for the occultist must +learn the lesson of deep devotion, and the Christian Mystic must learn how +to acquire knowledge by his own efforts without drawing upon the universal +source of all wisdom. + + This view gives us a deeper insight into the Transfiguration reported in +the Gospels. We should remember distinctly that IT WAS THE VEHICLES OF +JESUS WHICH WERE TRANSFIGURED temporarily by the indwelling Christ Spirit. +But even while allowing for the enormous potency of the Christ Spirit in ef- +fecting the Transfiguration it is evident that Jesus must be a sublime char- +acter without a peer. The Transfiguration as seen in the Memory of Nature + + +[PAGE 101] THE TRANSFIGURATION + +reveals his body as a dazzling white, thus showing his dependence upon the +Father, the Universal Spirit. There is a great diversity in present attain- +ments, but in the kingdom of Christ the differences will gradually disap- +pear, and a uniform color indicating both knowledge and devotion will be ac- +quired by all. This color will correspond to the pink color seen by +occultists as the Spiritual Sun, the vehicle of the Father. When this has +been accomplished, the Transfiguration of humanity will be complete. We +shall then be one with our Father, and His kingdom will have come. + + +[PAGE 102] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + + CHAPTER FIVE + + THE LAST SUPPER AND THE FOOTWASHING + + We are told in the Gospels which relate the story of the Christian Mystic +Initiation, how on the night when Christ had partaken of the Last Supper +with His disciples, His ministry being finished at that time, He rose from +the table and girded Himself with a towel, then poured water into a basin +and commenced to wash His disciples' feet, an act of the most humble ser- +vice, but prompted by an important occult consideration. + + Comparatively few realize that when we rise in the scale of evolution, we +do so by trampling upon the bodies of our weaker brothers; consciously or +unconsciously we crush them and use them as stepping-stones to attain our +own ends. This assertion holds good concerning all the kingdoms in nature. +When a life wave has been brought down to the nadir of involution and en- +crusted in mineral form, that is immediately seized upon by another slightly +higher life wave, which takes the disintegrating mineral crystal, adapts it + + +[PAGE 103] THE LAST SUPPER AND THE FOOT WASHING + +to its own ends as crystalloid, and assimilates it as part of a plant form. +If there were no minerals which could thus be seized upon, disintegrated, +and transformed, plant life would be an impossibility. Then again, the +plant forms are taken by numerous classes of animals, masticated to a pulp, +devoured, and made to serve as food for this higher kingdom. If there were +no plants, animals would be an impossibility; and the same principle holds +good in spiritual evolution for if there were no pupils standing on the +lower round of the ladder of knowledge and requiring instruction, there +would be no need for a teacher. But here there is one all-important differ- +ence. The teacher grows by GIVING to his pupils and serving them. From +their shoulders he steps to a higher rung on the ladder of knowledge. HE +LIFTS HIMSELF BY LIFTING THEM, but nevertheless he owes them a debt of +gratitude, which is symbolically acknowledged and liquidated by the foot +washing--an act of humble service to those who have served him. + + When we realize that nature, which is the expression of God, is con- +tinually exerting itself to create and bring forth, we may also understand +that whoever kills anything, be it ever so little and seemingly insig- +nificant, is to that extent thwarting God's purpose. This applies par- +ticularly to the aspirant to the higher life, and therefore the Christ ex- +horted His disciples to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves +notwithstanding. But no matter how earnest our desire to follow the precept +of harmlessness, our constitutional tendencies and necessities force us to + + +[PAGE 104] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +kill at every moment of our lives, and it is not only in the great things +that we are constantly committing murder. It was comparatively easy for the +seeking soul symbolized by Parsifal to break the bow wherewith he had shot +the swan of the Grail knights when it had been explained to him what a wrong +he had committed. From that time Parsifal was committed to the life of +harmlessness so far as the great things were concerned. All earnest aspir- +ants follow him readily in that act once it has dawned upon them how subver- +sive of soul growth is the practice of partaking of food which requires the +death of an animal. + + But even the noblest and most gentle among mankind is poisoning those +about him with every breath and being poisoned by them in turn, for all ex- +hale the death-dealing carbon dioxide, and we are therefore a menace to one +another. Nor is this a far-fetched idea; it is a very real danger which +will become much more manifest in course of time when mankind becomes more +sensitive. In a disabled submarine or under similar conditions where a num- +ber of people are together the carbon dioxide exhaled by them quickly makes +the atmosphere unable to sustain life. There is a story from the Indian Mu- +tiny of how a number of English prisoners were huddled in a room in which +there was only one small opening for air. In a very short time the oxygen +was exhausted, and the poor prisoners began to fight one another like beasts +in order to obtain a place near that air inlet, and they fought until nearly + + +[PAGE 105] THE LAST SUPPER AND THE FOOT WASHING + +all had died from the struggle and asphyxiation. + + The same principle is illustrated in the ancient Atlantean Mystery +Temple, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, where we find a nauseating stench +and a suffocating smoke ascending from the Altar of Burnt Offerings, where +the poison-laden bodies of the UNWILLING VICTIMS sacrificed for sin were +consumed, and where the light shone but dimly through the enveloping smoke. +This we may contrast with the light which emanated clear and bright from the +Seven-branched Candlestick fed by the olive oil extracted from the chaste +plant, and where the incense symbolized by the WILLING SERVICE of devoted +priests rose to heaven as a sweet savor. This we are told in many places, +was pleasing to Deity, while the blood of the unwilling victims, the bulls +and the goats, was a source of grief and displeasure to God, who delights +most in the sacrifice of prayer, which helps the devotee and harms no one. + + It has been stated concerning some of the saints that they emitted a +sweet odor, and as we have often had occasion to say, this is no mere fanci- +ful story--it is an occult fact. The great majority of mankind inhale dur- +ing every moment of life the vitalizing oxygen contained in the surrounding +atmosphere. At every expiration we exhale a charge of carbon dioxide which +is a deadly poison and which would certainly vitiate the air in time if the +pure and chaste plant did not inhale this poison, use a part of it to build +bodies that last sometimes for many centuries or even millennia as instanced +in the redwoods of California, and give us back the rest in the form of pure + + +[PAGE 106] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +oxygen which we need for our life. These carboniferous plant bodies by cer- +tain further processes of nature have in the past become mineralized and +turned to stone instead of disintegrating. We find them today as coal, THE +PERISHABLE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE MADE BY NATURAL MEANS IN NATURE'S LABORATORY. +But the Philosopher's Stone may also be made artificially by man from his +own body. It should be understood once and for all that the Philosopher's +Stone is not made in an exterior chemical laboratory, but that the body is +the workshop of the Spirit which contains all the elements necessary to pro- +duce this ELIXIR VITAE, and that the Philosopher's Stone is not exterior to +the body, but THE ALCHEMIST HIMSELF BECOMES THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. The +salt, sulphur, and mercury emblematically contained in the three segments of +the spinal cord, which control the sympathetic, motor, and sensory nerves +and are played upon by the Neptunian spinal Spirit Fire, constitute the es- +sential elements in the alchemical process. + + It needs no argument to show that indulgence in sensuality, brutality, +and bestiality makes the body coarse. Contrariwise, devotion to Deity, an +attitude of perpetual prayer, a feeling of love and compassion for all that +lives and moves, loving thoughts sent out to all beings and those inevitably +received in return, all invariably have the effect of refining and spiritu- +alizing the nature. We speak of a person of that sort as breathing or radi- +ating love, an expression which much more nearly describes the actual fact +than most people imagine, for as a matter of actual observation the + + +[PAGE 107] THE LAST SUPPER AND THE FOOT WASHING + +percentage of poison contained in the breath of an individual is in exact +proportion to the evil in his nature and inner life and the thoughts he +thinks. The Hindu Yogi makes a practice of sealing up the candidate for a +certain grade of Initiation in a cave which is not much larger than his +body. There he must live for a number of weeks breathing the same air over +and over again to demonstrate practically that he has ceased exhaling the +death-dealing carbon dioxide and is beginning to build his body therefrom. + + The Philosopher's Stone then is not a body of the same nature as the +plant, thought it is pure and chaste, but it is A CELESTIAL BODY such as +that whereof St. Paul speaks in the 5th chapter of Second Corinthians, a +body which becomes immortal as a diamond or a ruby stone. It is not hard +and inflexible as the mineral; it is A SOFT DIAMOND or ruby, and by every +act of the nature described the Christian Mystic is building this body, +though he is probably unconscious thereof for a long time. When he has at- +tained to this degree of holiness it is not necessary for him to perform the +foot washing so far as concerns the physical pupil who helps him to rise, +but he will always have the feeling of gratitude, symbolized by that act, +toward those whom he is fortunate enough to attract to himself as disciples +and to whom he may give the living bread which nourishes them to immortal- +ity. + + Students will realize that this is part of the process which eventually +culminates in the Transfiguration, but it should also be realized that in +the Christian Mystic Initiation there are no set and definite degrees. The + + +[PAGE 108] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +candidate looks to the Christ as the author and finisher of his faith, seek- +ing to imitate Him and follow in His steps through every moment of exist- +ence. Thus the various stages which we are considering are reached by pro- +cesses of soul growth which simultaneously bring him to higher aspects of +all these steps that we are now analyzing. In this respect the Christian +Mystic Initiation differs radically from the processes in vogue among the +Rosicrucians, in which an UNDERSTANDING upon the part of the candidate of +that which is to take place is considered indispensable. But there comes a +time at which the Christian Mystic must and does realize the path before +him, and that is what constitutes Gethsemane, which we will consider in the +next chapter. + + +[PAGE 109] GETHSEMANE THE GARDEN OF GRIEF + + CHAPTER SIX + + GETHSEMANE + THE GARDEN OF GRIEF + + And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. +"And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this +night; for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be +scattered. But after that I am risen I will go before you into Galilee. + + "But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be offended, yet will not I. +"And Jesus saith unto him, Verily, I say unto thee that this day, even in +this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. + + "But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not +deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all. + + "And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and He saith to +His disciples, Sit ye here while I shall pray. And He taketh with Him Peter +and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; and + + +[PAGE 110] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +saith unto them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here +and watch. And He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed +that if it were possible the hour might pass from him. And He said, Abba, +Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: Nev- +ertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt. And he cometh and findeth +them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldst not thou +watch one hour? Watch ye and pray lest ye enter into temptation. The +spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." --MARK, 14:26-38. + + In the foregoing Gospel narrative we have one of the saddest and most +difficult of the experiences of the Christian Mystic outlined in spiritual +form. During all his previous experience he has wandered blindly along, +that is to say, blind to the fact that he is on the Path which if consis- +tently followed leads to a definite goal, but being also keenly alert to the +slightest sigh of every suffering soul. He has concentrated all his efforts +upon alleviating their pain physically, morally, or mentally; he has served +them in any and every capacity; he has taught them the gospel of love, "Thou +shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"; and he has been A LIVING EXAMPLE to all +in its practice. Therefore he has drawn to himself a little band of friends +whom he loves with the tenderest of affection. Them has he also taught and +served unstintingly, even to the foot washing. But during this period of +service he has become so saturated with the sorrows of the world that he is + + +[PAGE 111] GETHSEMANE THE GARDEN OF GRIEF + +indeed a MAN of SORROWS and acquainted with grief as no one else can be. + + This is a very definite experience of the Christian Mystic, and it is the +most important factor in furthering his spiritual progress. So long as we +are bored when people come to us and tell us their troubles, so long as we +run away from them and seek to escape hearing their tales of woe, we are far +from the Path. Even when we listen to them and have schooled ourselves not +to show that we are bored, when we say with our lips only a few sympathetic +words that fall flat on the sufferer's ear, we gain nothing in spiritual +growth. It is absolutely essential to the Christian Mystic that he become +so attuned to the world's woe that he feels every pang as his own hurt and +stores it up within his heart. + + When PARSIFAL stood in the temple of the Holy Grail and saw the suffering +of Amfortas the stricken Grail King, he was mute with sympathy and compas- +sion for a long time after the procession had passed out of the hall, and +consequently could not answer the questions of Gurnemanz, and it was that +deep fellow feeling which prompted him to seek for the spear that should +heal Amfortas. IT WAS THE PAIN OF AMFORTAS FELT IN THE HEART OF PARSIFAL BY +SYMPATHY WHICH HELD HIM FIRMLY BALANCED UPON THE PATH OF VIRTUE WHEN TEMPTA- +TION WAS STRONGEST. It was that deep pain of compassion which urged him +through many years to seek the suffering Grail King, and finally when he had +found Amfortas, this deep, heartfelt fellow feeling enabled him to pour +forth the healing balm. + + +[PAGE 112] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + As it is shown in the soul myth of Parsifal, so it is in the actual life +and experience of the Christian Mystic: he must drink deeply of the cup of +sorrow, he must drain it to the very dregs so that by the cumulative pain +which threatens to burst his heart he may pour himself out unreservedly and +unstintedly for the healing and helping of the world. Then Gethsemane, the +garden of grief, is a familiar place to him, watered with tears for the sor- +rows and sufferings of humanity. + + Through all his years of self-sacrifice his little band of friends had +been the consolation of Jesus. He had already learned to renounce the ties +of blood. "Who is my mother and my brother? They that do the will of my +Father." Though no true Christian neglects his social obligations or with- +holds love from his family, the spiritual ties are nevertheless the stron- +gest, and through them comes the crowning grief; through the desertion of +his spiritual friends he learns to drink to the dregs the cup of sorrow. He +does not blame them for their desertion but excuses them with the words, +"The Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak," for he knows by his +own experience how true this is. But he finds that in the supreme sorrow +they cannot comfort him, and therefore he turns to THE ONLY SOURCE OF COM- +FORT, THE FATHER IN HEAVEN. He has arrived at the point where human endur- +ance seems to have reached its limit, and he prays to be spared a greater +ordeal, but with a blind trust in the Father he bows his will and offers all +unreservedly. + + That is the moment of realization. Having drunk the cup of sorrow to the +dregs, being deserted by all, he experiences that temporary awful fear of + + +[PAGE 113] GETHSEMANE THE GARDEN OF GRIEF + +being utterly alone which is one of the most terrible if not the most ter- +rible experience that can come into the life of a human being. All the +world seems dark about. He knows that in spite of all the good he has done +or tried to do the powers of darkness are seeking to slay him. He knows +that the mob that a few days before had cried "Hosannah" will on the morrow +be ready to shout "Crucify! Crucify!" His relatives and now his last few +friends have fled, and they were also even ready to deny. + + But when we are on the pinnacle of grief we are nearest to the throne of +grace. The agony and grief, the sorrow and the suffering borne within the +Christian Mystic's breast are more priceless and precious than the wealth of +the Indies, for when he has lost all human companionship and when he has +given himself over unreservedly to the Father a transmutation takes place: +the grief is turned to compassion, the only power in the world that can for- +tify a man about to mount the hill of Golgotha and give his life for human- +ity, not a sacrifice of death but a LIVING SACRIFICE, lifting himself by +lifting others. + + +[PAGE 114] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + CHAPTER SEVEN + + THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION + + As we said in the beginning of this series of articles, the Christian +Mystic Initiation differs radically from the Occult Initiation undertaken by +those who approach the Path from the intellectual side. But all paths con- +verge at Gethsemane, where the candidate for Initiation is saturated with +sorrow which flowers into compassion, a yearning mother love which has only +one all-absorbing desire; to pour itself out for the alleviation of the sor- +row of the world to save and to succor all that are weak and heavy-laden, to +comfort them and give them rest. At that point the eyes of the Christian +Mystic are opened to a full realization of the world's woe and his mission +as a Savior; and the occultist also finds here the heart of love which alone +can give zest and zeal in the quest. By the union of the mind and the heart +both are ready for the next step, which involved the development of the +STIGMATA, a necessary preparation for the mystic death and resurrection. + + +[PAGE 115] THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION + +The Gospel narrative tells the story of the STIGMATA in the following words, +the opening scene being in the Garden of Gethsemane: + + "Judas then having received a band of men and officers from the chief +priests and Pharisees came thither with lanterns, torches, and weapons. +Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come upon Him went forth and +said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus +said unto them, I am He.....Then the band and the captain and the officers +of the Jews took Jesus and bound Him and led Him away to Annas first.....The +high priest then asked of His disciples and of His doctrine. Jesus answered +him, I spake openly to the world.....Why asketh though me? Ask them which +heard me what I have said unto them; behold they know what I have said. Now +Annas had sent Him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.....Then they led +Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment..... + + "Pilate then went out unto them and said, What accusation bring you +against this man? They answered and said unto him, If He were not a male- +factor we would not have delivered Him unto thee.....Then Pilate entered +into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto Him, Art +though the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of +thyself or did others tell it to thee of me?.....My kingdom is not of this +world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that +I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence. + + +[PAGE 116] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou +sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I +into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is +of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate said unto Him, What is +truth?.....Then he went out again unto the Jews and saith unto them, I find +in Him no fault at all. But we have a custom that I should release unto you +one at the Passover; will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of +the Jews? Then cried they all again saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. +now Barabbas was a robber. Pilate therefore took Jesus and SCOURGED Him. +And the soldiers platted A CROWN OF THORNS and put it on His head, and they +put on Him a purple robe and said, Hail, King of the Jews; and they smote +him with their hands. + + "Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them, behold I bring +Him forth unto you that ye may know that I find no fault in Him. Then came +Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate +saith unto them, Behold the man! When the chief priests therefore, and of- +ficers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. Pilate +saith unto them, Take ye Him and crucify Him; for I find no fault in Him. +The Jews answered him, We have a law and by our law He ought to die, because +He made Himself the Son of God.....Pilate sought to release Him, but the +Jews cried out saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's +friend; whoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.....They cried + + +[PAGE 117] THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION + +out, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them, +Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but +Caesar. Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified. And +they took Jesus and led Him away. And He, bearing His cross, went forth +into a place called the PLACE OF A SKULL, which is, in the Hebrew, Golgotha. +There they CRUCIFIED Him and two others with Him, one on either side and +Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And +the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS." + + We have here the account of how the STIGMATA or punctures were produced +in the Hero of the Gospels, though the location is not quite correctly de- +scribed, and the process is represented in a narrative form differing widely +from the manner in which these things really happen. But we stand here be- +fore one of the Mysteries which must remain sealed for the profane, though +the underlying mystical facts are as plain as daylight to those who know. +The physical body is not by any means the real man. Tangible, solid, and +pulsating with life as we find it, it is really the most dead part of the +human being, crystallized into a matrix of finer vehicles which are invis- +ible to our ordinary physical sight. If we place a basin of water in a +freezing temperature, the water soon congeals into ice, and when we examine +this ice, we find that it is made up of innumerable little crystals having +various geometrical forms and lines of demarcation. There are etheric lines +of forces which were present in the water before it congealed. As the water + + +[PAGE 118] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +was hardened and molded along these lines, so our physical bodies have con- +gealed and solidified along the etheric lines of force of our invisible vi- +tal body, which is thus in the ordinary course of life inextricably bound to +the physical body, waking or sleeping, until death brings dissolution of the +tie. But as Initiation involves the liberation of the REAL MAN from the +body of sin and death that he may soar into the subtler spheres at will and +return to the body at his pleasure, it is obvious that before that can be +accomplished, before the object of Initiation can be attained, the +interlocking grip of the physical body and the etheric vehicle which is so +strong and rigid in ordinary humanity, must be dissolved. As they are most +closely bound together in the palms of the hands, the arches of the feet, +and the head, the occult schools concentrate their efforts upon severing the +connection at these points, and produce the STIGMATA invisibly. + + The Christian Mystic lacks knowledge of how to perform the act without +producing an exterior manifestation. The STIGMATA develop in him spontane- +ously by constant contemplation of Christ and unceasing efforts to imitate +Him in all things. These exterior STIGMATA comprise not only the wounds in +the hands and feet and that in the side but also those impressed by the +crown of thorns and by the scourging. The most remarkable example of stig- +matization is that said to have occurred in 1224 to Francis of Assisi on the +mountain of Alverno. Being absorbed in contemplation of the Passion he saw +a seraph approaching, blazing with fire and having between its wings the + + +[PAGE 119] THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION + +figure of the Crucified. St. Francis became aware that in hands, feet, and +side he had received externally the marks of crucifixion. These marks con- +tinued during the two years until his death, and are claimed to have been +seen by many eyewitnesses, including Pope Alexander the Fourth. + + The Dominicans disputed the fact, but at length made the same claim for +Catherine of Sienna, whose STIGMATA were explained as having at her own re- +quest been made invisible to others. The Franciscans appealed to Sixtus the +Fourth who forbade representation of St. Catherine to made with the STIG- +MATA. Still the fact of the STIGMATA is recorded in the Breviary Office, +and Benedict the 13th granted the Dominicans a Feast in commemoration of it. +Others, especially women who have the positive vital body, are claimed to +have received some or all of the STIGMATA. The last to be canonized by the +Catholic Church for this reason was Veronica Giuliana (1831). More recent +cases are those of Anna Catherine Emmerich, who became a nun at Agnetenberg; +L'Estatica Maria Von Moerl of Caldero; Louise Lateau, whose STIGMATA were +said to bleed every Friday; and Mrs. Girling of the Newport Shaker commu- +nity. + + But whether the STIGMATA are visible or invisible the effect is the same. +The spiritual currents generated in the vital body of such a person are so +powerful that the body is scourged by them as it were, particularly in the +region of the head, where they produce a feeling akin to that of the crown +of thorns. Thus there finally dawns upon the person a full realization that + + +[PAGE 120] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +the physical body is a cross which he is bearing, a prison and not the real +man. This brings him to the next step in his Initiation, viz., the cruci- +fixion, which is experienced by the development of the other centers in his +hands and feet where the vital body is thus being severed from the dense ve- +hicle. + + We are told in the Gospel story that Pilate placed a sign reading, 'JESUS +NAZARENUS REX JUDAEOREM" on Jesus' cross, and this is translated in the au- +thorized version to mean, "Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews." But the +initials INRI placed upon the cross represent the names of the four elements +in Hebrew: IAM, water; ##?NOUR, fire; RUACH, spirit or vital air; and +IABESHAH, earth. This is the occult key to the mystery of crucifixion, for +it symbolizes in the first place the salt, sulphur, mercury, and azoth which +were used by the ancient alchemists to make the Philosopher's Stone, the +universal solvent, the ELIXIR-VITAE. The two "I's" (IAM and IABESHAH) rep- +resent the saline lunar water: a, in a fluidic state holding salt in solu- +tion, and b, the coagulated extract of this water, the "SALT OF THE EARTH"; +in other words, the finer fluidic vehicles of man and his dense body. +N (NOUR) in Hebrew stands for fire and the combustible elements, chief among +which are SULPHUR and PHOSPHORUS so necessary to oxidation, without which +warm blood would be an impossibility. The Ego under this condition could +not function in the body nor could thought find a material expression. +R (RUACH) is the Hebrew equivalent for the spirit, AZOTH, functioning in the +MERCURIAL mind. Thus the four letters INRI placed over the cross of Christ + + +[PAGE 121] THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION + +according to the Gospel story represent composite man, the Thinker, at the +point in his spiritual development where he is getting ready for liberation +from the cross of his dense vehicle. + + Proceeding further along the same line of elucidation we may note that +INRI is the symbol of the crucified candidate for the following additional +reasons: + + IAM is the Hebrew word signifying water, the fluidic LUNAR, moon element +which forms the principal part of the human body (about 87 per cent). This +word is also the symbol of the finer fluidic vehicles of desire and emotion. +NOUR, the Hebrew word signifying fire, is a symbolic representation of the +heat-producing red blood laden with martial Mars iron, fire, and energy, +which the occultist sees coursing as a gas through the veins and arteries of +the human body infusing it with energy and ambition without which there +could be neither material nor spiritual progress. It also represents the +sulphur and phosphorus necessary for the material manifestation of thought +as already mentioned. + + RUACH, the Hebrew word for spirit or vital air, is an excellent symbol of +the Ego clothed in the mercurial Mercury mind, which makes MAN and enables +him to control and direct his bodily vehicles and activities in a rational +manner. + + IABESHAH is the Hebrew word for earth, representing the solid fleshy part +which makes up the CRUCIFORM EARTHY BODY crystallized within the finer ve- +hicles at birth and severed from them in the ordinary course of things at + + +[PAGE 122] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +death, or in the extraordinary event that we learn to die the mystic death +and ascend to the glories of the higher spheres for a time. + + This stage of the Christian Mystic's spiritual development therefore in- +volves a reversal of the creative force from its ordinary downward course +where it is wasted in generation to satisfy the passions, to an upward +course through the tripartite spinal cord, whose three segments are ruled by +the moon, Mars, and Mercury respectively, and where the rays of Neptune then +lights THE REGENERATIVE SPINAL SPIRIT FIRE. This mounting upward sets the +pituitary body and the pineal gland into vibration, opening up the spiritual +sight; and striking the frontal sinus it starts the CROWN OF THORNS throb- +bing with pain as the bond with the physical body is burned by the sacred +Spirit Fire, which wakes this center from its age-long sleep to a throbbing, +pulsating life sweeping onward to the other centers in the FIVE-POINTED +STIGMATIC STAR. They are also vitalized, an the whole vehicle becomes aglow +with a golden glory. Then with a final wrench the great vortex of the de- +sire body located in the liver is liberated, and the martial energy con- +tained in that vehicle propels upward the SIDEREAL VEHICLE (so-called be- +cause the STIGMATA in the head, hands, and feet are located in the same +positions relative to one another as the points in a five-pointed star), +which ascends through THE SKULL (Golgotha), while the CRUCIFIED CHRISTIAN +utters his triumphant cry, "Consummatum est" (it has been accomplished), and +soars into the subtler spheres to seek Jesus whose life he has imitated with + + +[PAGE 123] THE STIGMATA AND THE CRUCIFIXION + +such success and from whom he is thenceforth inseparable. Jesus is his +Teacher and his guide to the kingdom of Christ, where all shall be united in +one body to learn and to practice the RELIGION OF THE FATHER, to whom the +kingdom will eventually revert that He may be All in All. + + THE END. + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 125] INDEX + + INDEX + +Aaron's rod, not used for self 45. + one of the sprouts of Tree of Life planted by Seth 42. +Ablutions, in religious systems 75. +Adam, took with him three slips of Tree of Life 42. +Adept or Master, accepted by many on unsupported claims 92. +Age of Alternation, will fall with the rainbow 87. +Alchemist, becomes the Philosopher's Stone 106. +Allegories, infant humanity taught by means of 79. +Altar of Burnt Offerings, generated darkness 32. + on path of aspirant 13. + poison-laden bodies of UNWILLING victims burnt upon 105. + showed majority taught by law 55-56. + shows nauseating nature of sin and necessity for justification 36, 58. + the symbol of Retrospection 21-24. + SEE ALSO Brazen Altar, Altar of sacrifice. +Altar of Incense, frankincense burned on 33. + incense symbolizing aroma of service 35, 53. + only horns marked with crimson stain 30. + shoed beauty of selfless service 36. + strange incense never burned upon 30. + the Golden Altar 30. +Altar of sacrifice 35, 39, 52. +Alternation, Age of, followed the Flood 79. + Law of, defied by Mystic after Golgotha 85. +Altruism, considered an Utopian dream 82. +Amfortas, the stricken Grail King 111. +Angel wings in "Sistine Madonna," occult significance of 65. +Angels, attend the birth of the Mystic who is to become a savior 69-70. + + +[PAGE 126] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + +Angelus Silesius, quotation from 20. +Annunciation and Immaculate Conception, precede Baptism 69. +Arche, Greek word meaning primordial substance 12, 70. +Ark of the Covenant, at westernmost end of second apartment 38, 46. + candidate at, never uses powers selfishly 44. + description of all 13. + represents man in highest development 40. + symbolized man hovered over by divine hierarchies 40. + three articles in: pot of manna, budding rod, tables of law 40. +Arjuna, in Mahabharata, symbolically the same as Siegfried 64. +Aroma, of compulsory sacrifice, nauseating 36. + of loving service a sweet savor to God 53. + of voluntary service, sweet smelling 36. +Astrology, in relation to Christian Mysteries 73. +Atlantean Mystery Temple, a school of soul growth 66. + ablutions in 75. + foreshadowed the Rose Cross 11. + given to satisfy longing for lost spiritual guidance 12. + Tabernacle in the Wilderness, designed by Jehovah to teach cosmic + truth 12. + UNWILLING victims in 105. + willing service symbolized in 105. +Atlantis, egoism came into world during 81. + in Baptism, Mystic conducted under waters of 83. +Audumla, the Cow, and streams of milk symbolic of ethers 80. +Aurgelmer, the Giant Ymer, the seed ground of spiritual hierarchies 80. +Aurora Borealis, and sons of the North 64. + +Balm of Gilead, the Christ Ideal is the 69. +Baptism, and Golgotha precede overcoming Law of Alternation 85. + compared to ablutions in Molten Sea 75. + correlated to Laver of Consecration 26. + cosmic origin and necessity of, told in "Lay of Niebelung" 79. + + + +[PAGE 127] INDEX + + dedicatory step 69. + gives Mystic access to Fountain of Life 89-90. + may take place anywhere in the world 82-83. + misuse of power of 89. + Mystic conducted under the waters of Atlantis in 83. + of Spirit, in the new heaven of pure ether 87. + orthodox disputes concerning 76. + orthodox, produces little improvement in majority 76. + teaches us the cause of sorrow, sin, and death 82. + the most wonderful adventure in the world 85. +Benedict the 13th, granted Dominicans a feast in honor of stigmata of + St. Catherine 119. +Bible story of Tabernacle, gives main facts of the mystic manna 41. +Biblical quotations: + Adam knew Eve, etc., 43, 50. + Arrest, trials, and Crucifixion 115-117. + An eye for an eye 17. + Christ in Garden of Gethsemane 109-110. + Command that these stones be made bread 88. + Dying thou shalt die 43. + Father, forgive them 83. + Follow Me 26. + For it had not yet rained 79. + God is light 15, 31, 39. + Greatest in the kingdom of God 13 + Heaven is within 59. + House not made with hands 42. + I am the Bread of Life 42. + If a man takes your coat 83. + I go to my Father 57. + In the beginning was the word 88. + Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children 86. + Man does not live by bread alone 89. + Many are called but few chosen 26. + No man cometh to me except my Father draw him 53. + Seven Spirits before the Throne 31. + Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the + Holiest Place 38. + The Spirit is indeed willing, but flesh is weak 112. + There will I meet thee...and commune from above the Mercy Seat 38. + They saw God 81. + + +[PAGE 128] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself 110. + Thou shalt not steal 40. + Though his sins be as scarlet 24. + Ye cannot follow me now 50. +Black Brothers, doing enormous amount of damage 92. +Black Grail, brothers of, starve unless provided with works of + wickedness 93. + Powers of Evil, in Court of Herod 92-93. +Blood, circulation of, relative to retrospection 22. + purple, poisoned because sinful, symbolized on Temple veils 16. + spiritual development depends upon 22. + ties of, renounced 112. +Blue, color of the Father 15. +Blue ray, of the Father, gives blue haze 15. + penetrates consciousness of minerals 15. +Body, crystallized into the matrix of the finer vehicles 117. + is the most dead part of the human being 117. +Book of the Dead, the Egyptian ritual of Initiation 67. +Brazen Altar, fire on, of divine origin 18. + keyword of, justification 26. + made of brass, teaches sin an anomaly in nature 18. + teaches first lesson, that man advances by sacrifices alone 19. + + used for animal sacrifice 17. +SEE ALSO Altar of Burnt Offerings, Altar of sacrifice. +Brazen Laver, central idea of, "consecration" 26. + corresponds to Baptism of Jesus 26-27. + supported by twelve zodiacal animals 25. + symbol of sanctification and consecration 26. + symbolic animals of, attracted particular rays 25. + water in, a potent factor in guiding priests and people 25. + water in, magnetized by divine hierarchies 25. +Bread, earthly, unnecessary for Mystic who gains Fountain of Life 89. + living, is the Word of God 90. + which fell from heaven, nature of 41, 42. +Breath, poison in, is in proportion to evil in nature 107. +Brotherhood of man, mental belief in, contrasted with Baptismal 86. + sermon on 94. +Buddha, body radiant with light within 98. +Buddhism, religion of the Far East 63. + + +[PAGE 129] INDEX + +Budding rod, wand of magician and holy spear, symbolic of creative force 44. +Cain, sons of, the craftsmen of the world 42. +Carbon dioxide, a deadly poison, used by plants 105-106. + exhaled by man, a danger 104. +Carboniferous plant bodies, become the perishable Philosopher's Stone 106. +Cardinals, college of, corrupted by political powers 66. +Candlestick, Golden and Seven-branched 28-29. +Castigation and fasting 90. +Cataclysm greater than World War prevented by Elder Brothers 93. +Catherine of Sienna, stigmata of 119. +SEE ALSO Golden Candlestick. +Chemistry, in relation to the light of the indwelling Spirit 98. +Cherubim, and Father Fire above Ark, represent divine hierarchies 40. + second veil, wrought with figures of 37. + with flaming sword at gates of Eden 50. + with flower at Solomon's Temple, mystery of Grail 51. +China, spiritual wave started in 13. +Christ, and the story of the Rich Young Man 26. + at being tempted the Mystic may become a 92. + at the foot-washing, compared to Brazen Altar 19. + author and finisher of Mystic's faith 108. + entered ministry through baptismal water, comparable to aspirant at the + Brazen Laver 26. + fed the multitudes with loaves and fishes 41. + instituted building of Tabernacle within 47-48. + kingdom of, transfiguration of humanity in 101. + made first self-sacrifice, abrogating animal sacrifices 47. + symbolized by golden light of East Room 57. + the Son, color of ray is yellow 15-16. +Christ Ideal, the true balm of Gilead 69. +Christ Ray, hidden in white part of Temple veils 16. +Christ within, must dwell in our own God consciousness 48. + is that which saves 20. + the radiant extract of human body 98. + will shine through transparent body as Light of the World 98. + + +[PAGE 130] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +Christ's self-sacrifice, rent veil of the Temple and opened the way to the + Holy of Holies 47. +Christian, crucified, cries triumphantly "Consummatum est" 122. + crucified, soars into subtler spheres to seek Jesus 123. +Christian Mysteries, compared to Egyptian 66-67. +Christian Mystic, after Baptism is both aggressor and victim 83. + attains superior knowledge 68. + after Temptation is urged to help and heal 94-95. + at Temptation becomes Christ, Parsifal, Herod, or Klingsor 92. + becomes Man of Sorrows, seeking and saving the lost 82. + builds the Diamond Soul 99. + childhood and youth of 74. + conducted under waters of Atlantis 83. + does not consider murder of himself as mistreatment 83. + draws down great white light of Deity through Jehovah 99. + easily distinguished by life he lives 96. + emotional outpouring is the force which accomplishes Initiation of 85. + feels every pang of suffering in his own heart 111. + has cultivated sublime compassion 69. + has safer guide than reason, in the interior voice 89. + learns at the Fount of Life to sing Song of Being 88. + must be born of virgin parents 70-71. + perceives composite color-sound as the world-anthem of God 88. + realizes mission as savior in Gethsemane 108. + the flower of many preparatory existences 69. + through service is saturated with sorrows of world 110-111. + watched over with special care by divine hierarchies 69. +Christina Mystic Initiation, contrasted with Rosicrucian 67, 108. + nine steps in 69. + no set and definite degrees in 108. +Christian religion, usually supposed to have no connection with + Initiation. 63. + + +[PAGE 131] INDEX + +Christians, professing, usually restrain Faith by reason 87. +Church steeple, compared to Path of Holiness 57. +Circle dance, of man, the microcosm, around God 14. + of planets 31. +Coal, the perishable Philosopher's Stone from nature's laboratory 106. +Color, of balanced development of head and heart is pink 101. + of the Father's vehicle the Spiritual Sun 101. +Color-sound, the world anthem of God made flesh, perceived by Mystic 88. +Colors, of Temple veils give us status of Tabernacle 15. +Communion Cup, brings eternal life 51-52. + the mystery of the Grail Cup 51-52. +Communion Table Virginian wafers at the 41. +Compassion, enabled Parsifal to pour forth healing balm 111. + must be developed by Rosicrucian student 68. + prompted Parsifal to seek the spear to heal Amfortas 111. + radiated by Mystic like heat from a stove 94. + the only power that can fortify a man to mount Golgotha 113. + urged Parsifal to seek the suffering Grail King 111. +Consecration, baptismal waters of 27. + central idea of Brazen Laver 26. +Conscience, pangs of, in Purgatory unbelievably acute 22. +Conversion, or Baptism, a downpouring of the Spirit 99. +Cosmic formula, primal 97. +Cosmogony of Eddas, compared to Bible and Science 79. +Consummatum est, the triumphant cry of the crucified Christian 122. +Court of the Tabernacle 15. + worshippers in, prayed while incense arose 31. +Creative act, performed under inauspicious planetary rays 51. +Creative force, must be reversed by Christian Mystic 122. +Cruciform earthly body, represented by Hebrew letter Isabeshah 121. + +Death, a boon and blessing to exiled man 43. + and sleep, separation between vehicles in 78. + inflicted upon priests who failed to wash in Brazen laver 25. + + +[PAGE 132] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + meted out to priests who used strange fire on Brazen Altar 19. + the fruit of indiscriminate eating of Tree of Knowledge 43. + the mystic 122. +Desire body, great vortex of, is liberated at Crucifixion 122. +Development, future, determined by previous living 10. +Diamond Soul, the Mystic Philosopher's Stone, 99-100. +Divine Pattern, of progress never given to those who have not made a + covenant with God 12. +Dominicans, claimed stigmata for Catherine of Sienna 119. +Dreams, result of incomplete separation of vehicles in sleep 78. +Drowning, separation of dense and finer vehicles not complete 78. +Drowning people, see whole life reenacted 77. + +East Room, contains paraphernalia for soul growth 32. + entered only by priests 28. + golden light of, the Christ light 57. + light in, knowledge and reason 39. + mystic significance of 28-35. + symbolical of soul growth by service 28. + symbolical of time of full moon 31. + teaches us how to make the living bread 58. + the Hall of Service of Three Years' Ministry 32. + the Holy Place 13, 28. + the pure light in 56. + where priest garnered pabulum of the soul 34. +Eastern gate, candidate poor, naked, and blind, standing without the 19. + candidate at, subject to the Law Without 40, 54. + entered by aspirant on path 13. +Eddas, cosmogony of 79. + Northern, treasured among sages of Scandinavia 79. + quotation from Oehlenschlaeger's translation 80. +Eddas, the guiding star to Sons of the North 63. +Eden, the etheric realms of spiritual force where grows the tree of vital + power 43. + the four rivers of, symbolize ethers 80. + + +[PAGE 133] INDEX + +Egoism came into world after humanity left Atlantis 81. +Egypt, the Land of the Bull, Taurus 11. +Egyptian Mysteries, compared to Christian 66-67. +Elder Brothers, always ready to help at difficult points 56-57. + prevented cataclysm greater than the World War 93. + transmute evil thoughts by alchemy of love 93. + use food only at intervals of years 90. +Emmerich, Anna Catherine developed stigmata 119. +Essence of service amalgamated at time of full moon 54-55. +Etheric lines of force in water 117-118. +Evolution, law of, higher feeds on lower 19. +Evolutionary debts, shown in foot-washing 102-103. +Eyes, in early periods man had no need for 81. +Equilibrium of the world, would be upset if spiritual powers misused 89. + +Faith, of Mystic, laughs at reason 87. + restrained by reason in most Christians 87. + with head not heart the cause of world's misery 86. +Fasting and castigation, mistaken methods of soul growth 90. +Father, Kingdom will revert to the 123. + represented by the Shekinah Glory 57. + Spiritual Sun the vehicle of the 101. +Father in heaven, only comfort in Gethsemane 112. +Father Fire, above the Ark, invisible and dark 46. + in 2nd Tabernacle, disciple realizes fellowship with 40. + the crowning glory of Holy of Holies 32. +Father ray, blue in color 15. +Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, rays of 15-16. +Fellowship, of the Saints 39. + with Father Fire felt in 2nd Tabernacle 39-40. +Fire, ensouls all things 46. + on Altar of Burnt Offerings, symbol of the Lawgiver 55, 57. + on Brazen Altar, divinely enkindled flame of remorse 23. + on Brazen Altar, of divine origin 18. + relationship of, to flame 46. + Shekinah Glory, most sacred fire 57. + the unseen but potent power of manifestation 47. + + +[PAGE 134] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + + three kinds within the Temple 55, 56, 57. +First heaven, accurately represented in "Sistine Madonna" 65. + only head of individual remains when he enters the 65. +Flesh of man, even now undergoing change 97. + will become transparent and radiant 98. +Flower, compared to man 51. +Food, used by Elder Brothers at intervals of years 90. +Foods, coarse, prevent illumination of Spirit 90. +Foot-washing, lesson of, compared to lesson of Brazen Altar 19. + prompted by occult consideration 102. + symbolizes debt of gratitude to younger brothers 103, 107. +Formula, primal cosmic 97. +Fountain of Life, and sermon on brotherhood 94. + Mystic at the 88. +Four rivers of Eden, the four ethers 80. +Frankincense, combined with other sweet spices on Altar of Incense 30. + of soul growth is the aroma of shewbread of service 34. + placed on shewbread 29-30. + the aroma of the shewbread 32, 33. +Freemason, a child of Light, builder of mystic Temple 13. + must be servant of all 13. +SEE ALSO, Mason, Mystic Mason, etc. +Full moon, a factor in soul growth 50. + East Room symbolical of 31. + favorable for extracting frankincense of soul growth 34. + time of amalgamation of essence of service 55. + +Gate of the Tabernacle, aspirant a child of sin under th law at 40. + enclosed with blue, scarlet, and purple curtain 15. +Generation, will cease to sap vitality and Aaron's Rod will bloom 44. +Genius of Evil, held within bounds by Elder Brothers 93. +Gethsemane, agony of, is priceless 113. + Christian Mystic realizes path before him in 108. + + +[PAGE 135] INDEX + + grief transmuted into compassion in 113. + marks union of heart and mind 114. + occultist finds here the heart which gives zeal to the quest 114. + one of saddest and most difficult experiences 110. + opens Mystic's eyes to his mission as savior 114. + paths of Mystic and Occultist converge at 114. + teaches Mystic the only source of comfort, the Father 112. + the crowning grief is desertion by spiritual friends 112. + watered with tears for sorrows of humanity 112. +Gilead, Christ Ideal is the true balm of 69. +God, the Grand Architect 12, 70. +"God Is Light," meaning of three primary colors 15. +Golden Altar, the Altar of Incense 30. +Golden life-light, seen by Mystic on Loom of Life 87. +Golden Candlestick, emblematic of full moon and cycles 52. + fed by olive oil, symbolizes willing service 105. + filled East Room with Light 31. + light of, compared to flame of Burnt Offerings 32. + must be lighted within our own hearts to guide us 48. + symbolized Seven Spirits before the Throne 31. +Golden Pot, containing Manna, hidden within each human being 42. + is the house not made with hands 42. + symbolizes golden aura of soul body 41-42. +Golden Wedding Garment, of Mystic and Occultist 100. +Golgotha, and Baptism precede conquering of Law of Alternation 85. + place of the skull where spirit takes departure 50. + represents a living sacrifice 113. + the skull 122. + the ultimate of human attainment 50. +Gospels, formulae of Initiation 66. +Grail Knights, and the Black Brotherhood 92, 93. + swan of the 104. + Grail Cup, mystery of, shown in flower held by Cherubim 51. +Grain, in shewbread represents opportunities for soul growth 33. +Grand Architect, God the 70. + + +[PAGE 136] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +Gunpowder, and dynamite, uses of, compared to spiritual power 91. +Gurnemanz, questions Parsifal 111. + +Hall of Service, aspirant weaves soma psuchicon in 49. +Healing balm, poured forth by Parsifal through compassion 111. +Heaven world, accurately represented in "Sistine Madonna" 64-65. +Herod's Temple, most glorious of the three Temples 47. + vitally different from Temple of Solomon and Tabernacle 47. +Herod, at Temptation Mystic may become a 92. +High Priest, entered Hall of Liberation once a year 49. + reentered Holy of Holies after making amends for sin 50. +Higher Self, why dangerous to disregard precepts given 19. +Hindu Yogi, seals up candidate in cave at certain grade of Initiation 107. +Hinduism, religion of the far East 63. +Holy Grail, lustre enhanced by deeds of service 92. + Parsifal stood in the Temple of the 11. +Holy Place, the. SEE East Room. +Holy spear, wand of magician and budding Rod 44. +Holy Spirit, gives red color to man's flesh and blood 16. +Holy Water, renders people amenable to priestly rule 25. + takes on effluvia from strong magnetic personality 25. +Horus, the first fruit, aspirant in Egyptian Initiations 66-67. +Human body, alchemically changed to living stone through Transfiguration 97. +Humanity, all emanate from same source, as rays from sun 86. + ready to range itself on side of evil 93. +Humanity, divided into twelve groups at time of Tabernacle 25. + mourns the loss of spiritual sight and divine guides + + +[PAGE 137] INDEX + +Iabeshah, the Hebrew word for earth, the cruciform earthy body 121. +Iam, the Hebrew word signifying water 121. +Ice crystals, form along lines of etheric lines of force 117-118. +Illumination of spirit impossible to one who indulges in coarse foods 90. +Immaculate Conception, a prerequisite to life of saints and saviors 72. + and Annunciation, precede Baptism 69. + true nature of 70-71. +Immortality, not mentioned in Old Testament 18. +Incantations, practiced legitimately for spiritual purposes 89. +Incense, ascended with prayers of worshipers in the Court 31. + on Golden Altar 30. + on shewbread, burned when bread was changed 30. + symbolical of willing service 105. + the aroma of service 35, 53. +Indian Mutiny, story of 104. +Indwelling spirit, effulgence of, darkened by dense body 94. +Initiation, a cosmic process of enlightenment and evolution of power 67. + cannot be accomplished until interlocking grip of etheric and + physical bodies is dissolved 118. + experiences of all similar in main features in 63. + usually associated only with Eastern occultism 63. +Intellectuals, attitude toward Mystic unwarranted 68. +Invisible Helpers born at time of the new moon 55. +INRI, meaning of 120. +Intuition, the interior voice which guides the Mystic 89. +Israelites, did right through immediate reward or punishment 18. + +Jacob Boehme, example of Mystic 68. + knew the mysteries of life 96. +Jerusalem, attained by majority when they have the LIVING faith 87. + meaning of 87. + the new heaven of pure ether 87. +Jesus, a tekton 13. + is teacher and guide to the kingdom of Christ 123. +Jehovah, symbolized in fire on Brazen Altar 57. + + +[PAGE 138] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +John, sublime Gospel of, teaches that God is Light 15. +John the Baptist and Salome 93. +Jordan, Baptism in, corresponds to Laver of Purification 75. +Joseph, a carpenter, tekton, or builder 70. + in Marriage of the Virgin, has six toes 65-66. + the father of Jesus, was a tekton 12-13. +Justification, consecration and self-abnegation 58. + taught by Altar of Burnt Offerings 58. + +Keynotes of life, heard by Mystic 88. +Kingdom of Christ, Rosicrucian pupils must learn compassion before + they can enter the 68. + transfiguration of humanity complete in 101. + uniform color of soul body acquired in 101. + will revert to the Father 123. +Klingsor, at Temptation Mystic may become a 92. + fights Knights of the Grail 92, 93. +Knights of the Grail, deprived of inspiration from Grail Cup 93. +Knowledge, of Christian Mystic 68. + Way of, also brings seeker to regeneration 99. + +Laver of Consecration, SEE Brazen Laver. +Law, a taskmaster at the Eastern gate 40. + brings us to Christ, symbol the Altar of Burnt Offerings 57. +Law of Alternation, in life of Mystic 84, 85, 87. + defied after Golgotha and Baptism 85. +Law of Consequence 82. +Law within, the consummation attained at end of the cross 49. +Lay of Niebelung, gives cosmic origin of Baptism 79. +L'Estatica Maria Von Moerl, received stigmata 119. +Life of Christian Mystic marked not by words but deeds 96. +Light, dimly perceived through smoke at Brazen Altar 20. + of Christ within, must be developed to enter the Most Holy place 39. + in the East Room fed by olive oil 56. + over Mercy Seat, reflection from invisible world 49. + present in the darkest ages 64. + + +[PAGE 139] INDEX + + refracted into three primary colors 15. +Light within, disciple vibrates to Shekinah Glory by means of 39-40. +Light without, given at Eastern gate 40, 54. +Living bread of Christian Mystic 90. +Loom of Life, seen by Christian Mystic 87. +Lost Word, mystic Mason seeks for the 9. +Louise ##?Lateau, received stigmata 119. +Love, basic principle, can never conflict with God's purpose 68-69. + of God, burns in the heart of Christian Mystic 94. + the basic principle in Christian Mystic Initiation 68-69. +Love rays, of Mystic 94. +Lust and unchastity, greatest sins of all 44. + +Mahabharata, Arjuna symbolically the same as Siegfried 64. +Man of Sorrows, through service the Mystic becomes a 111. +Man, a composite being 78. + compared to flower, the mystery of the Grail 51. + exiled from etheric realms of spiritual force, Eden 43. + microcosmic world in circle dance around God 14. +Mankind, had no need of eyes in early stages of evolution 81. + + the prodigal sons of the Father in heaven 9. +Manna, nature of, described in sixth chapter of John 41. + the human spirit that descended from the Father 41-42. +Marriage of the Virgin, description and meaning of 64-65. +Mason, derived from Egyptian "phree messen" 12. +SEE ALSO, Mystic Mason and Freemason. +Masonry, why it harks back to Temple of Solomon 11. + still builds the ancient Tabernacle 59. +Master, or Adept, accepted by many on unsupported claims 92. +Mercury, salt, and sulphur, in alchemy 98. +Mercy Seat 38, 49. +Mind, humanity endowed with in Atlantis 12. +Mineral kingdom, may be turned into gold or food 89. + one basic key for 89. + + +[PAGE 140] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +Molten Sea, ablution in, compared to Baptism 75. + aspirant sanctified in stream flowing from 26. + corresponds to Baptism of Jesus 26-27. + laver of, teaches Mystic Mason the voice of the Master within 27. + teaches the stainless life of holiness 58. +Moon, Mars, and Mercury, in alchemy 98. +Moses, face radiant with light from within 98. + led his people out of Egypt, land of the Bull 11. + set Israelites free to worship the Lamb, Aries 11. + stories of, as with Noah, refer to Atlantis 11-12. +Mystic, SEE Christian Mystic. +Mystic birth, portrayed in macrocosm 72. +Mystic death, the 122. +Mystic Marriage, necessitates making of shewbread 34. +Mystic Mason, a child of light 36. + must build Altar of Service, and wait for divine fire 59. + must reap living bread 33. + must regard earthly possessions only as sacred trust 26. +Mystic Masonry, calls God the Grand Architect 70. +Mrs. Girling, of Newport Shaker Community, received stigmata 119. +Myths, basis of, the spiritual standard of reality 81. + +Noah and his people, formed nucleus of humanity of Rainbow Age 11. +Nebular Theory and Genesis 78-79. +Neptune, lights the regenerative spinal Spirit Fire 122. + ruler of spinal Spirit Fire 98. +Neptunian spinal Spirit Fire, an essential element in alchemy 106. +New moon, candidate closest to the Father Fire at 55. +Niebelung, Lay of the, gives the story of Baptism 79. +Nour, Hebrew word signifying fire 121. + +Occult development, begins with vital body 55. +Occultist, finds in Gethsemane the heart of love 114. + spinal fire endeavors to infuse desire with reason to create Ruby + Soul 100. + + +[PAGE 141] INDEX + +Oehlenschlaeger, quotation from poetic translation of Eddas by 79-80. +Old Testament, does not mention immortality 18. +Olive oil, fed the pure flame in the East Room 56. +Oliver Wendall Holmes, quotations from 44. +Ottoman King, story of, illustrates non-existence of time in inner + worlds 76-77. + +Parents of Christian Mystic, qualifications for 70. +Parsifal, a soul myth for Christian Mystics 112. + at Temptation, Mystic may become a 92. + free from lust secures the holy spear 44. + held in path of virtue by pain of Amfortas felt in his heart 111. + quotation from: "Often was I beset by enemies" 44. + + the seeking soul breaks the bow 104. +Path of Holiness, likened to church steeple 57. +Paul, in letter to Hebrews, describes Tabernacle 48. +Persian temples of Initiation 64. +Peter, throne of 66. +Philosopher's Stone, a celestial body 107. + a soft diamond or ruby 107. + alchemical process culminates at Transfiguration 107. + elements of, symbolized by INRI 120, 121. + not made in exterior laboratory 106. +Phree messen, children of light 12. +Piscean Water at temple door, and Virginian wafers 41. + who used strange fire on Brazen Altar met death 19. +Pitchblende, dense black mineral from which radium is obtained 98. +Poison, contained in the breath in proportion to evil of nature 107. +Pope, in "Sistine Madonna" has six fingers 65. +Pope Alexander the Fourth, an eye-witness of St. Francis's stigmata 119. +Pope Sixtus the Fourth, forbade representation of St. Catherine's + stigmata 119. +Popes, possessed spiritual sight with few exceptions 66. +Powers, spiritual, may be used for good or evil 91. +Priest, of Catholic Church, magnetizes holy water 25. +Priests, alone allowed to enter East Room 28. +Primal cosmic formula 97. + + +[PAGE 142] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +Purgatorial existence, basis of, pictures on seed atom 22. + we suffer pangs of conscience unbelievable acute in 22. +Prodigal sons, mankind are the 9. +Purity the key to the gates of God 52. +Radium, the luminous extract of pitchblende 98. +Rainbow, after the Flood heralded Age of Alternation 79. + falls with air and clouds, leaving new heaven of pure ether 87. +Rainbow Age, and Law of Alternation in life of Mystic 87. + Noah and his people formed nucleus for 11. +Raphael, embodied occult truths in two great paintings 64. + symbolizes Initiation of the Pope and Joseph 65-66. +Reason, Christian Mystic has none, but interior voice a safer guide 89. + contrasted with faith of the Mystic 87. +Red, color of the Holy Spirit 15. +Regeneration, the process of 99. +Regenerative spinal Spirit Fire, lit by Neptune in spinal cord 122. +Relaxation, essential to retrospection 22. +Religion of the Father 123. +Religions, must meet needs of the people 17. +Remorse, divinely enkindled fire must burn to very marrow of bones 23. + eradicates pictures from seed atom 24. +Repetition, the key to the vital body 55. +Retrospection, conditions necessary in 22. + elevates us to higher level of spirituality 24. + remorse, the flame on Altar of sacrifice 39. + scientific evening exercises, wipes away record of sins 24. + scientifically designed by Western Hierophants 21. + the Rosicrucian student's Brazen Altar 21, 33-34. + the sanctuary from law of cause and effect 24. +Rosicrucian method of Initiation, contrasted with Christian Mystic 67-68. +Rosicrucian Order, mystic light still shines for pupils of 56. +Rosicrucian student, attracted by desire for knowledge 68. +Ruach, Hebrew word for spirit or vital air 121. +Ruby Soul, the Philosopher's Stone of the occultist 100. + + +[Page 143] INDEX + +Saints, emit sweet odor 105. + some of the, used fasting and castigation for soul growth 90. +Sabbath, loaves of shewbread changed by priests on the 29. +Sacrifices, first lesson taught neophyte 19. +Sacrificial victims, rubbed with salt, symbolic of remorse 23. + symbolize consequences of sin 18. +Salome, embodies pride, sensuality 93. +Salt, sulphur, and mercury 98, 106. +Seed atom, record on, eradicated by retrospection 24. +Self-abnegation, the third step 58. +Self-sacrifice, Altar of, on which flesh is consumed 52. +Sensuality, bestiality, coarsen the body 106. +Sermon on the Mount, practiced by Mystic 85. +Sermons on brotherhood, hollow when preached by one who has not + laved in "Fountain of Life" 94. +Service, what it consists of 37. + willing, symbolized by Candlestick and Incense 105. + more pleasing to God than blood of unwilling victims 105. +Seth, planted three sprouts of Tree of Life 42-43. + one sprout was Aaron's Rod 42. + the Father of spiritual hierarchy of churchmen 42. +Seven-branched Candlestick, SEE Golden Candlestick. +Shadow of good things to come, the 20. +Shadow of the Cross 48. +Shekinah Glory, an invisible fire, a light from another world 57. + dwelling place of 37, 53. + highest symbol of the candidate 21. + is the Father 48. + is the Father Within 57. + Lord dwelt in the 29. + manifestation of divine Presence 38. + most sacred Fire of all 57. + most sacred part of Tabernacle 32. + special dwelling place of 37. + the invisible fire 46. +Shewbread, not the musings of dreamers 34. + represents use of the Light in service to humanity 32. + the frankincense of soul growth 34. +Shewbread, Table of, with loaves of bread and incense 29. + + +[PAGE 144] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +Sidereal vehicle, so-called because of stigmatic star 122. +Siegfried and Arjuna, symbols similar in meaning 64. +Siegfried, "he who through victory gains peace" 64. +Simple foods necessary 90. +Simplicity of Christian Mystic, carries conviction 96. +Sign and degree on Eastern horizon determine form of body 73. +Sin, nauseating nature of, symbolized 58. + an anomaly in nature, and its consequences 18. + selfishness, and transgression of law, symbolized 36. +"Sistine Madonna," by Raphael, occult significance of 64-65. +Sixtus the Fourth, Pope, and stigmata of St. Catherine 119. +Soma psuchicon, woven from aroma of shewbread 49, 52. +Son of God, born of immaculate virgin 73. +Song of Being, Mystic learns to sing the 88. +Sorrow, the cause of, must be understood by Mystic 82. +Soul, of the soul body, makes it luminous 53. + must be washed in laver of consecration 52. +Soul body, amalgamates essence of service at full moon 34. + contains an intangible something 53. + is the light within 49. + "No man cometh except my Father draws him" refers to the soul of + the 53. + not to be confused with soul that permeates it 53. + symbolized by golden pot in which manna was kept 41-42. + tangible to the Invisible Helper 53. + the house not made with hands 42. +Soul Growth, maximum effort for 22. +Sound, is vibration 88. +Spinal Cord, divided into three sections ruled by Moon, Mars, Mercury 98. + tripartite, rulers of 122. +Spinal Spirit Fire, in Mystic, concentrated in lunar segment 99. + essential element in alchemy 106. + in occultist, concentrated in Mars-Mercury 100. + lit by Neptune 122. + rises in serpentine column to ventricles of brain 98. + ruled by Neptune 98 +Spirit, condenses into matter 97. + + +[PAGE 145] INDEX + + descends upon Jesus at Baptism, compared with Mason 26-27. + universal, descends upon Christian Mystic at Baptism 75. +Spiritual center, shifts westward 13. +Spiritual development, depends upon the blood 22. +Spiritual Ideal, awakens soul power as sun built the eye 85. +Spiritual sight, possessed by infant humanity 81. +Spiritual wave, now on Eastern shores of Pacific 13. +St. Francis, most remarkable example of stigmatization 118-119. + stigmata of, witnessed by Pope Alexander the Fourth 119. + story of, illustrating force of Mystic example 95. + taught from within by Spirit of God 96. +St. Paul, tells us the Tabernacle a shadow of good things to come 20. +Stigmata, caused by generation of spiritual currents in vital body + so powerful that they scourge the body 119. + of St. Francis, seen by many eye-witnesses 119. + or punctures, how produced in Hero of Gospels 117. + prepared for by union of heart and mind 114. + prepares candidates for Crucifixion 120. + produced exteriorly through lack of knowledge 118. + received invisibly by Catherine of Sienna 119. + Veronica Giuliana, last to be canonized because of 119. + what they are 118. + why women develop stigmata more easily than men 119. +Stigmatic Star, five-pointed 122. +Stigmatization, cases of 119. + St. Francis most remarkable example of 118. +Sulphur, salt, and Mercury, alchemical representations 98. +Sun, Spiritual, the vehicle of the Father 73, 101. + the material light of the world 73. +Symbolism, given to man because he has forgotten the Divine Word 10. + hides and reveals spiritual truths 10. + of tabernacle, given by Jehovah to speak to Higher Self 12. + still a prime necessity to man 10. + + +[PAGE 146] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +Tabernacle, a factor in soul growth 58. + ambulant nature of, symbolized man as pilgrim 13-14. + a school of soul growth 66. + Atlantean Mystery Temple 12. + basic principles still valid 58. + built by chosen people with freewill offerings 12. + called by Paul a shadow of good things to come 48. + compared to Herod's Temple 47. + location of, with respect to cardinal points 13. + may be seen in Memory of Nature 20. + must be built within our hearts and consciousness 20-21. + must be built in heaven within 59. + of heavenly origin 14. + path of aspirant in, from east to west 13. + pre-Christian, as shown in colors of Temple veils 10. + secret rites of, shown openly in heavens 54. + symbolizes path from childlike ignorance to superhuman knowledge 63. +Tables of the Law, are within, at stage of evolution represented by the + Ark 40. +TEKTON, Greek word meaning builder 12, 70. +Temptation, in the Wilderness of Christian Mystic 99. + of Christian Mystic leads to greater heights 90. + of Christian Mystic, reason for 91-92. + to misuse spiritual power comes after Baptism 88-89, 91-92, 93-94, 96. +Thomas a Kempis, mystic 68. +Time, non-existent in invisible worlds 77. +Transfiguration, an alchemical process by which body becomes living + stone 97. + blends Ruby Soul with Diamond Soul, giving pink color of the + Father 100-101. + of humanity complete in Kingdom of Christ 101. + of Jesus, reveals body of dazzling white 100-101. + the work of medieval alchemists 97. +Tree of Knowledge, nature of 48-51. +Tree of Life, three slips of, taken by Adam 42. + +Unchastity and lust, the greatest sin of all 44. +Unity of life, perceived by Mystic after Baptism 85-86. +Unity of spirit prevailed under the waters of Atlantis 81. + + +[PAGE 147] INDEX + +Universal Spirit, Christian Mystic saturated with 91. + concentrated within Christian Mystic at Baptism 93. +Vedas, brought light to India 63. +Veil, second wrought with figures of Cherubim 37. +Veils of Temple, blue, scarlet, and purple colors of Father and + Holy Spirit 16. +Veronica Giuliana, last to be canonized because of stigmata 119. +Via Dolorosa, each Mystic reaches different stations of 67. +Virginian wafers, at Communion Table 41. +Virginity, of a mother of Savior is a soul quality 72. +Virgo, the Virgin, on Eastern horizon of north latitudes on Christmas + Eve 73. +Vital Body, occult development begins with 55. +Vital energy, when used for regeneration causes Aaron's Rod to bloom 44. + +Wand of the magician, the holy spear and budding Rod 44. +Water, in Laver, magnetized by divine Hierarchs 25. + in Catholic Church, magnetized by priest 25. +Western Room, called the Hall of Liberation 49. + candidate enters many times before the final climax 50. + dark as the heavens at new moon 46. + dark to the physical eye 39. + entered by priest once a year, at Yom Kippur 37, 49. + light must be within self before candidate enters the 54. + the threshold of Liberation 58. +Wheat, God-given grains of, represent opportunities for soul growth 33. +White, in Tabernacle curtain concealed Christ ray 16. + synthesis of all colors 16. +White light of Deity reflected through Jehovah for Mystic 99. +Wilderness, after the Baptism Mystic is driven forth into 87. +Wisdom of the world, attained by Mystic without intellectual labor 99. +Wise Men, followed the Star westward 13. +Woe of the World, seen by Christian Mystic 89. + + +[PAGE 148] ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION + +Word of God, the living bread 90. +World anthem of God made flesh, perceived by Mystic 88. +World Ward, started spiritual awakening 93. + +Yellow, color of Christ the Son 15. +Yellow Ray, hidden in white of the Tabernacle veil 16. + never evident until in Golden Wedding Garment 16. + shown in green color of the plant kingdom 15. +Ymer, the Giant of Northern myths, formed by action of heat and cold 80. +Yogi, seals up candidate for certain grade of initiation in a cave 107. +Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement 37. + + the day of At-one-ment 59. + + + + END OF "ANCIENT AND MODERN INITIATION" + + + --- END OF FILE --- + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ros_cosm.txt b/religious documents/ros_cosm.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7aad5cd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ros_cosm.txt @@ -0,0 +1,25243 @@ +[PAGE 1] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + + + THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + + OR + + + MYSTIC CHRISTIANITY + + AN ELEMENTARY TREATISE UPON + + MAN'S PAST EVOLUTION, PRESENT CONSTITUTION + + AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + + + BY + + MAX HEINDEL + + + Its Message and Mission: + + A SANE MIND + A SOFT HEART + A SOUND BODY + + __________________ + + + TWENTY-EIGHTH EDITION + + ____________________ + + + + THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + International Headquarters + Mt. Ecclesia + Oceanside, California, U.S.A. + + _____________________ + + ENGLAND: + + L.N. FOWLER & CO., LTD., 29 LUDGATE HILLION + LONDON, E.C. 4 + + + + +[PAGE 4] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + CREED OR CHRIST + +No man loves God who hates his kind, + Who tramples on his brother's heart and soul; +Who seeks to shackle, cloud, or fog the mind + By fears of hell has not perceived our goal. + +God-sent are all religions blest; + And Christ, the Way, the Truth, the Life, +To give the heavy laden rest + And peace from sorrow, sin, and strife. + +Behold the Universal Spirit came + To ALL the churches, not to one alone; +On Pentecostal morn a tongue of flame + Round EACH apostle as a halo shone. + +Since then, as vultures ravenous with greed, + We oft have battled for an empty name, +And sought by dogma, edict, cult, or creed, + To send each other to the quenchless flame. + +Is Christ then twain? Was Cephas, Paul, + To save the world, nailed to the tree? +Then why divisions here at all? + Christ's love enfolds both you and me. + +His pure sweet love is not confined + By creed which segregate and raise a wall. +His love enfolds, embraces human kind, + No matter what ourselves or Him we call. + +Then why not take Him at His word? + Why hold to creeds which tear apart? +But one thing matters, be it heard + That brother love fill every heart. + +There's but one thing the world has need to know. + There's but one balm for all our human woe: +There's but one way that leads to heaven above-- + That way is human sympathy and love. + + -Max Heindel. + + +[PAGE 5] A WORD TO THE WISE + + + A WORD TO THE WISE. + + + The founder of the Christian Religion stated an occult maxim when He +said: "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child +shall not enter therein" (Mark X:15). All occultists recognize the +far-reaching importance of this teaching of Christ, and endeavor to "live" +it day by day. + + When a new philosophy is presented to the world it is met in different +ways by different people. + + One person will grasp with avidity any new philosophical effort in an +endeavor to ascertain how far IT SUPPORTS HIS OWN IDEAS. To such an one the +philosophy itself is of minor importance. Its prime value will be its vin- +dication of HIS ideas. If the work comes up to expectation in that respect, +he will enthusiastically adopt it and cling to it with a most unreasoning +partisanship; if not, he will probably lay the book down in disgust and dis- +appointment, feeling as if the author had done him an injury. + + Another adopts an attitude of skepticism as soon as he discovers that it +contains something which HE has not previously read, heard, or originated in +his own thought. He would probably resent as extremely unjustified the ac- +cusation that his mental attitude is the acme of self-satisfaction and in- +tolerance; such is nevertheless the case; and thus he shuts his mind to any +truth which may possibly be hidden in that which he off-hand rejects. + + Both these classes stand in their own light. "Set" ideas render them +impervious to rays of truth. "A little child" is the very opposite of its + + + +[PAGE 6] A WORD TO THE WISE + +elders in that respect. It is not imbued with an overwhelming sense of su- +perior knowledge, nor does it feel compelled to look wise or to hide its +nescience of any subject by a smile or a sneer. It is frankly ignorant, +unfettered by preconceived opinions and therefore EMINENTLY TEACHABLE. It +takes everything with that beautiful attitude of trust which we have desig- +nated "child-like faith," wherein there is not the shadow of a doubt. There +the child holds the teaching it receives until proven or disproven. + + In all occult schools the pupil is first taught to forget all else when +a new teaching is being given, to allow neither preference nor prejudice to +govern, but to keep the mind in a state of calm, dignified waiting. As +skepticism will blind us to truth in the most effective manner, so this +calm, trustful attitude of the mind will allow the intuition, or "teaching +from within," to become aware of the truth contained in the proposition. +That is the only way to cultivate an absolutely certain perception of truth. + + The pupil is not required to believe off-hand that a given object which +he has observed to be white, is really black, when such a statement is made +to him; but he must cultivate an attitude of mind which "believeth all +things" AS POSSIBLE. That will allow him to put by for the time being even +what are generally considered "established facts," and investigate if per- +chance there be another viewpoint hitherto unobserved by him whence the ob- +ject referred to would appear black. Indeed, he would not allow himself to +look upon anything as "AN ESTABLISHED FACT," for he realizes thoroughly the +importance of keeping his mind in the fluidal state of ADAPTABILITY which +characterizes the little child. He realizes in every fibre of his being +that "now we see through a glass, darkly," and Ajax-like he is ever on the +alert, yearning for "Light, more Light." + + +[PAGE 7] A WORD TO THE WISE + + The enormous advantage of such an attitude of mind when investigating +any given subject, object or idea must be apparent. Statements which appear +positively and unequivocally contradictory, which have caused an immense +amount of feeling among the advocates of opposite sides, may nevertheless be +capable of perfect reconciliation, as shown in one such instance mentioned +in the present work. THE BOND OF CONCORD IS ONLY DISCOVERED BY THE OPEN +MIND, however, and though the present work may be found to differ from oth- +ers, the writer would bespeak an impartial hearing as the basis of SUBSE- +QUENT judgment. If the book is "weighed and found wanting," the writer will +have no complaint. He only fears a hasty judgment based upon lack of knowl- +edge of the system he advocates--a hearing wherein the judgment is "wanting" +in consequence of having been denied an impartial "weighing." He would fur- +ther submit, that the only opinion worthy of the one who expresses it MUST +BE BASED UPON KNOWLEDGE. + + As a further reason for care in judgment we suggest that to many it is +exceedingly difficult to retract a hastily expressed opinion. Therefore it +is urged that the reader withhold all expressions of either praise or blame +until study of the work has reasonably satisfied him of its merit or de- +merit. + + The Rosicrucian Cosmo-conception is not dogmatic, neither does it appeal +to any other authority than the reason of the student. It is not controver- +sial, but is sent forth in the hope that is may help to clear some of the +difficulties which have beset the minds of students of the deeper phi- +losophies in the past. In order to avoid serious misunderstanding, it +should be firmly impressed upon the mind of the student, however, that there + + + +[PAGE 8] A WORD TO THE WISE + +is no infallible revelation of this complicated subject, which includes ev- +erything under the sun and above it also. + + An infallible exposition would predicate omniscience upon the part of +the writer, and even the Elder Brothers tell us that they are sometimes at +fault in their judgment, so a book which shall say the last word on the +World-Mystery is out of the question, and the writer of the present work +does not pretend to give aught but the most elementary teachings of the +Rosicrucians. + + The Rosicrucian Brotherhood has the most far-reaching, the most logical +conception of the World-Mystery of which the writer has gained any knowledge +during the many years he has devoted exclusively to the study of this sub- +ject. So far as he has been able to investigate, their teachings have been +found in accordance with facts as he knows them. Yet he is convinced that +the Rosicrucian Cosmo-conception is far from being the last word on the +subject; that as we advance greater vistas of truth will open to us and +make clear many things which we now "see through a glass, darkly." At the +same time he firmly believes that all other philosophies of the future will +follow the same main lines, for they appear to be absolutely true. + + In view of the foregoing it will be plain that this book is not consid- +ered by the writer as the Alpha and Omega, the ultimate of occult knowledge, +and even though is entitled "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-conception," the writer +desires to strongly emphasize that is not to be understood as a "faith once +for all delivered" to the Rosicrucians by a founder of the Order or by any +other individual. It is emphatically stated that THIS WORD EMBODIES ONLY +THE WRITER'S UNDERSTANDING OF THE ROSICRUCIAN TEACHINGS concerning the +World-Mystery, strengthened by his personal investigations of the inner + + + +[PAGE 9] A WORD TO THE WISE + +Worlds, the ante-natal and post-mortem states of man, etc. The responsibil- +ity upon one who wittingly or unwittingly leads others astray is clearly re- +alized by the writer, and he wishes to guard as far as possible against that +contingency, and also to guard others against going wrong inadvertently. + + What is said in this work is to be accepted or rejected by the reader +according to his own discretion. All care has been used in trying to make +plain the teaching; great pains have been taken to put it into words that +shall be easily understood. For that reason only one term has been used +throughout to convey each idea. The same word will have the same meaning +wherever used. When any word descriptive of an idea is first used, the +clearest definition possible to the writer is given. None but English terms +and the simplest language have been used. The writer has tried to give as +exact and definite descriptions of the subject under consideration as pos- +sible; to eliminate all ambiguity and to make everything clear. How far he +has succeeded must be left to the student to judge; but having used every +possible means to convey the teaching, he feels obliged to guard also +against the possibility of this work being taken as a verbatim statement of +the Rosicrucian teachings. Neglect of this precaution might give undue +weight to this work in the minds of some students. That would not be fair +to the Brotherhood nor to the reader. It would tend to throw the +responsibility upon the Brotherhood for the mistakes which must occur in +this as in all other human works. Hence the above warming. + + + +[PAGE 10] A WORD TO THE WISE + + During the four years which have elapsed since the foregoing paragraphs +were written, the writer has continued his investigations of the invisible +worlds, and experienced the expansion of consciousness relative to these +realms of nature which comes by practice of the precepts taught in the West- +ern Mystery School. Others also who have followed the method of +soul-unfoldment herein described as particularly suited to the Western +peoples, have likewise been enabled to verify for themselves many things +here taught. Thus the writer's understanding of what was given by the Elder +Brothers has received some corroboration and seems to have been substan- +tially correct, therefore he feels it a duty to state this for the encour- +agement of those who are still unable to see for themselves. + + If we said that the vital body is built of PRISMS instead of points, it +would have been better, for it is by refraction through these minute prisms +that the colorless solar fluid changes to a rosy hue as observed by other +writers beside the author. + + Other new and important discoveries have also been made; for instance, +we know now that the Silver Cord is grown anew in each life, that one part +sprouts from the seed atom of the desire body in the great vortex of the +liver, that the other part grows out of the seed atom of the dense body in +the heart, that both parts meet in the seed atom of the vital body in the +solar plexus, and that this union of the higher and lower vehicles causes +the quickening. Further development of the cord between the heart and solar +plexus during the first seven years has an important bearing on the mystery +of childlife, likewise its fuller growth from the liver to the solar plexus, +which takes place during the second septenary period, is a contributory +cause of adolescence. Completion of the Silver Cord marks the end of +childlife, and from that time the solar energy which enters through the +spleen and is tinted by refraction through the prismatic seed atom of the +vital body located in the solar plexus, commences to give a distinctive and +individual coloring to the aura which we observe in adults. + + + +[PAGE 11] LIST OF CONTENTS + + LIST OF CONTENTS. + + PART I. + + MAN'S PRESENT CONSTITUTION AND METHOD OF DEVELOPMENT. + + +A Word to the Wise ................................................... 5 +The Four Kingdoms, diagram ........................................... 16 +Introduction ......................................................... 17 + +CHAPTER I. The Visible and Invisible Worlds ......................... 24 + Chemical Region of the Physical World ............................ 29 + Etheric Region of the Physical World ............................. 34 + The Desire World ................................................. 38 + The World of Thought ............................................. 48 + Diagram 1. The Material World a Reverse Reflection + of the Spiritual Worlds .................................... 52 + Diagram 2. The Seven Worlds ..................................... 54 + +CHAPTER II. The Four Kingdoms ....................................... 56 + Diagram 3. The Vehicles of the Four Kingdoms .................... 73 + Diagram 4. The Consciousness of the Four Kingdoms ............... 74 + +CHAPTER III. Man and the Method of Evolution. + Activities of Life; Memory and Soul-growth ....................... 87 + The Constitution of the Seven-fold Man ........................... 88 + Diagram 5. The Three-fold Spirit, the Three-fold Body and + the Three-fold Soul ........................................ 95 + Death and Purgatory .............................................. 96 + Diagram 5 1/2. The Silver Cord .................................. 98 + The Borderland ................................................... 112 + The First Heaven ................................................. 113 + The Second Heaven ................................................ 121 + The Third Heaven ................................................. 129 + Preparations for Rebirth ......................................... 133 + Birth of the Dense Body .......................................... 139 + Birth of the Vital Body and Growth ............................... 141 + Birth of the Desire Body and Puberty ............................. 142 + Birth of the Mind and Majority ................................... 142 + The Blood; the Vehicle of the Ego ................................ 143 + A Life Cycle (diagram) ........................................... 146 + +CHAPTER IV. Rebirth and the Law of Consequence ...................... 147 + Wine as a Factor in Evolution .................................... 165 + A Remarkable Story ............................................... 172 + + + +[PAGE 12] LIST OF CONTENTS + + PART II. + + COSMOGENESIS AND ANTHROPOGENESIS. + +CHAPTER V. The Relation of Man to God ............................... 177 + Diagram 6. The Supreme Being, the Cosmic Planes and God ......... 178 + +CHAPTER VI. The Scheme of Evolution. + The Beginning .................................................... 183 + The Seven Worlds ................................................. 186 + The Seven Periods ................................................ 188 + Diagram 7. The Saturn Period..................................... 193 + +CHAPTER VII. The Path of Evolution .................................. 194 + Revolutions and Cosmic Nights .................................... 195 + Diagram 8. The Seven Worlds, Seven Globes and Seven Periods ...... 197 + +CHAPTER VIII. The Work of Evolution. + Ariadne's Thread ................................................. 201 + The Saturn Period ................................................ 204 + Recapitulation ................................................... 208 + The Sun Period ................................................... 209 + The Moon Period .................................................. 213 + Diagram 9. The Twelve Creative Hierarchies ...................... 221 + +CHAPTER IX. Stragglers and Newcomers ................................ 223 + Classes of Beings at the Beginning of the Moon Period ............ 226 + Diagram 10. Classes at the Beginning of Earth Period ............ 230 + +CHAPTER X. The Earth Period .......................................... 233 + Saturn Revolution of the Earth Period ............................ 236 + Sun Revolution of the Earth Period ............................... 240 + Moon Revolution of the Earth Period ............................. 242 + Rest Periods Between Revolutions ................................. 243 + The Fourth Revolution of the Earth Period ........................ 245 + +CHAPTER XI. Genesis and Evolution of Our Solar System. + Chaos ............................................................ 246 + The Birth of the Planets ......................................... 252 + Diagram 11. Aspects of God and Man .............................. 253 + Diagram 12. A Man's Past, Present and Future Form ............... 257 + +CHAPTER XII. Evolution on the Earth. + The Polarian Epoch ............................................... 261 + The Hyperborean Epoch ............................................ 262 + The Moon; the Eighth Sphere ...................................... 264 + The Lemurian Epoch ............................................... 265 + + + +[PAGE 13] LIST OF CONTENTS + + Birth of the Individual .......................................... 266 + Separation of the Sexes .......................................... 267 + Influence of Mars ................................................ 268 + The Races and Their Leaders ...................................... 270 + Influence of Mercury ............................................. 273 + The Lemurian Race ................................................ 275 + The Fall of Man .................................................. 282 + The Lucifer Spirits .............................................. 286 + The Atlantean Epoch .............................................. 291 + The Aryan Epoch .................................................. 304 + The Sixteen Paths to Destruction ................................. 306 + +CHAPTER XIII. Back to the Bible ..................................... 308 + +CHAPTER XIV. Occult Analysis of Genesis. + Limitations of the Bible ......................................... 317 + In the Beginning ................................................. 321 + The Nebular Theory ............................................... 322 + The Creative Hierarchies ......................................... 325 + The Saturn Period ................................................ 327 + The Sun Period, the Moon Period .................................. 328 + The Earth Period ................................................. 329 + Jehovah and His Mission .......................................... 333 + Involution, Evolution and Epigenesis ............................. 336 + A Living Soul? ................................................... 344 + Adam's Rib ....................................................... 346 + Guardian Angels .................................................. 347 + Mixing Blood in Marriage ......................................... 352 + The Fall of Man .................................................. 360 + Diagram 13. The Beginning and End of Sex ........................ 364 + + PART III. + + MAN'S FUTURE DEVELOPMENT AND INITIATION. + + Diagram. The Seven Days of Creation ............................. 366 + +CHAPTER XV. Christ and His Mission. + The Evolution of Religion ........................................ 367 + Jesus and Christ-Jesus ........................................... 374 + Diagram 14. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit ............. 377 + Not Peace but a Sword ............................................ 383 + The Star of Bethlehem ............................................ 388 + The Heart an Anomaly ............................................. 393 + The Mystery of Golgotha .......................................... 400 + The Cleansing Blood .............................................. 406 + Diagram, "As Above, so Below" .................................... 410 + +CHAPTER XVI. Future Development and Initiation. + The Seven Days of Creation ....................................... 411 + Diagram 15. The Symbolism of the Caduceus ....................... 413 + Radiates, Mollusks, Articulates and Vertebrates .................. 416 + Spirals within Spirals ........................................... 420 + + + +[PAGE 14] LIST OF CONTENTS + + Alchemy and Soulgrowth ........................................... 421 + The Creative Word ................................................ 425 + +CHAPTER XVII. The Method of Acquiring First-Hand Knowledge. + The First Steps .................................................. 430 + Western Methods for Western People ............................... 437 + The Science of Nutrition ......................................... 441 + Table of Food Values ............................................. 450 + The Law of Assimilation .......................................... 457 + Live and Let Live ................................................ 460 + The Lord's Prayer ................................................ 462 + Diagram 16. The Lord's Prayer ................................... 464 + The Vow of Celibacy .............................................. 467 + The Pituitary Body and the Pineal Gland .......................... 473 + Diagram 17. Path of the Unused Sex Currents ..................... 475 + Esoteric Training ................................................ 477 + How the Inner Vehicle is Built ................................... 480 + Concentration .................................................... 486 + Meditation ....................................................... 489 + Observation ...................................................... 492 + Discrimination ................................................... 493 + Contemplation .................................................... 494 + Adoration ........................................................ 495 + +CHAPTER XVIII. The Constitution of the Earth and Volcanic Eruptions . 498 + The Number of the Beast .......................................... 499 + Diagram 18. The Constitution of the Earth ....................... 509 + +CHAPTER XIX. Christian Rosenkreuz and the Order of Rosicrucians ..... 515 + Ancient Truths in Modern Dress ................................... 515 + Initiation ....................................................... 524 + The Rosicrucian Fellowship ....................................... 530 + Correspondence Courses ........................................... 533 + Symbolism of Rose Cross .......................................... 534 + +Topical Index ........................................................ 539 + Index ............................................................ 543 + Index of Diagrams and Tables ..................................... 599 + +Morning and Evening Exercises + Evening Exercise ................................................. 601 + Morning Exercise ................................................. 602 + + + +[PAGE 15] + + PART I + + _________________ + + + MAN'S PRESENT CONSTITUTION AND + + METHOD OF DEVELOPMENT + + + + + + + +[PAGE 16] + + DIAGRAM: THE FOUR KINGDOMS + + + + +[PAGE 17] INTRODUCTION + + INTRODUCTION + + The Western world is undoubtedly the vanguard of the human race, and, for +reasons given in the following pages, it is held by the Rosicrucian that +neither Judaism nor "popular Christianity," but true Esoteric Christianity +is to be its world-religion. + + Buddha, great, grand and sublime, may be the "light of Asia," but Christ +will yet be acknowledged the "Light of the World." As the sun outshines the +brightest star in the heavens, dispels every vestige of darkness and gives +life and light to all beings, so, in a not too distant future, will the true +religion of Christ supersede and obliterate all other religions, to the +eternal benefit of mankind. + + In our civilization the chasm that stretches between mind and heart yawns +deep and wide and, as the mind flies on from discovery to discovery in the +realms of science, the gulf becomes ever deeper and wider and the heart is +left further and further behind. The mind loudly demands and will be satis- +fied with nothing less than a materially demonstrable explanation of man and +his fellow-creatures that make up the phenomenal world. The heart feels in- +stinctively that there is something greater, and it years for that which it +feels is a higher truth than can be grasped by the mind alone. The human +soul would fain soar upon ethereal pinions of intuition; would fain love in +the eternal found of spiritual light and love; but modern scientific views +have shorn its wings and it sits fettered and mute, unsatisfied longings +gnawing at its tendrils as the vulture of Prometheus' liver. + + + + +[PAGE 18] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Is this necessary? Is there no common ground upon which head and heart +may meet, each assisting the other, each by the help of the other becoming +more effective in the search for universal truth, and each receiving equal +satisfaction? + + As surely as the pre-existing light created the eye whereby the light is +seen; as surely as the primordial desire for growth created the digestive +and assimilative system for the attainment of that end; as surely as thought +existed before the brain and built and still is building the brain for its +expression; as surely as the mind is now forging ahead and wringing her se- +crets from nature by the very force of its audacity, just so surely will the +heart find a way to burst its bonds and gratify its longings. At present it +is shackled by the dominant brain. Some day it will gather strength to burst +its prison bars and become a power greater than the mind. + + It is equally certain that there can be no contradiction in nature, +therefore the heart and the mind must be capable of uniting. To indicate +this common ground is precisely the purpose of this book. To show where and +how the mind, helped by the intuition of the heart, can probe more deeply +into the mysteries of being than either could do alone; where the heart, by +union with the mind, can be kept from going astray; where each can have full +scope for action, neither doing violence to the other and where both mind +and heart can be satisfied. + + Only when that co-operation is attained and perfected will man attain the +higher, truer understanding of himself and of the world of which he is a +part; only that can give him a broad mind and a great heart. + + + +[PAGE 19] INTRODUCTION + + At every birth what appears to be a new life comes among us. We see the +little form as it lives and grows, becoming a factor in our lives for days, +months or years. At last there comes a day when the form dies and goes to +decay. The life that came, whence we know not, has passed to the invisible +beyond, and in sorrow we ask ourselves, Whence came it? What was it here? +and Whither has it gone? + + Across every threshold the skeleton form of Death throws his fearsome +shadow. Old or young, well or ill, rich or poor, all, all alike must pass +out into that shadow and throughout the ages has sounded the piteous cry for +a solution of the riddle of life--the riddle of death. + + So far as the vast majority of people are concerned the three great +questions, Whence have we come? Why are we here? Whither are we going? +remain unanswered to this day. It has unfortunately come to be the +popularly accepted opinion that nothing can be definitely known about these +matters of deepest interest to humanity. Nothing could be more erroneous +than such an idea. Each and every one, without exception, may become ca- +pable of obtaining first-hand, definite information upon this subject; may +personally investigate the state of the human spirit, both before birth and +after death. There is no favoritism, nor are special gifts required. Each +of us has inherently the faculty for knowing all of these matters; but!-- +Yes, there is a "but," and a "BUT" that must be written large. These facul- +ties are present in all, though latent in most people. It requires persis- +tent effort to awaken them and that seems to be a powerful deterrent. If +these faculties, "awake and aware," could be had for a monetary consider- +ation, even if the price were high, many people would pay it to gain such +immense advantage over their fellow-men, but few indeed are those + + + +[PAGE 20] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +willing to live the life that is required to awaken them. That awakening +comes only by patient, persistent effort. It cannot be bought; there is no +royal road to it. + + It is conceded that practice is necessary to learn to play the piano, +and that it is useless to think of being a watchmaker without being willing +to serve an apprenticeship. Yet when the matter of the soul, of death and +the beyond, of the great causes of being, are the questions at issue, many +think they know as much as anyone and have an equal right to express an +opinion, though they may never have given the subject an hour's study. + + As a matter of fact, no one unless qualified by study of the subject +should expect serious consideration for an opinion. In legal cases, where +experts are called to testify, they are first examined as to their compe- +tency. The weight of their testimony will be nil, unless they are found to +be thoroughly proficient in the branch of knowledge regarding which their +testimony is sought. + + If, however, they are found to be qualified--by study and practice-- +to express an expert opinion, it is received with the utmost respect and +deference; and if the testimony of one expert is corroborated by others +equally proficient, the testimony of each additional man adds immensely to +the weight of the previous evidence. + + The irrefutable testimony of one such man easily counterbalances that of +one or a dozen or a million men who know nothing of that whereof they speak, +for nothing, even though multiplied by a million, will still remain nothing. +This is as true of any other subject as of mathematics. + + As previously said, we recognize these facts readily enough in material +affairs, but when things beyond the world of sense, when the super-physical +world is under discussion; when the relations of God to man, the inner-most + + + +[PAGE 21] INTRODUCTION + +mysteries of the immortal spark of divinity, loosely termed the soul, are to +be probed, then each clamors for as serious consideration of his opinions +and ideas regarding spiritual matters as is given to the sage, who by a life +of patient and toilsome research has acquired wisdom in these higher things. + + Nay, more; many will not even content themselves with claiming EQUAL +consideration for their opinions, but will even jeer and scoff at the words +of the sage, seek to impugn his testimony as fraud, and, with the supreme +confidence of deepest ignorance, asseverate that as THEY know nothing of +such matters, it is absolutely impossible that anyone else can. + + The man who realizes his ignorance has taken the first step toward +knowledge. + + The path to first-hand knowledge is not easy. Nothing worth having ever +comes without persistent effort. It cannot be too often repeated that there +are no such things as special gifts of "luck." All that anyone is or has, +is the result of effort. What one lacks in comparison with another is la- +tent in himself and capable of development by proper methods. + + If the reader, having grasped this idea thoroughly, should ask, what he +must do to obtain this first-hand knowledge, the following story may serve +to impress the idea, which is the central one in occultism: + + A young man came to a sage one day and asked, "Sire, what must I do to +become wise?" The sage vouchsafed no answer. The youth after repeating his +question a number of times, with a like result, at last left him, to return +the next day with the same question. Again no answer was given and the +youth returned on the third day, still repeating his question, "Sire what + + + +[PAGE 22] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +must I do to become wise?" + + Finally the sage turned and went down to a near-by river. He entered the +water, bidding the youth follow him. Upon arriving at a sufficient depth +the sage took the young man by the shoulders and held him under the water, +despite his struggles to free himself. At last, however, he released him +and when the youth had regained his breath the sage questioned him: + + "Son, when you were under the water what did you most desire?" + + The youth answered without hesitation, "Air, air! I wanted air!" + + "Would you not rather have had riches, pleasure, power or love, my son? +Did you not think of any of these?" queried the sage. + + "No, sire! I wanted air and though only of air," came the instant re- +sponse. + + "Then," said the sage, "To become wise you must desire wisdom with as +great intensity as you just now desired air. You must struggle for it, to +the exclusion of every other aim in life. It must be your one and only as- +piration, by day and by night. If you seek wisdom with that fervor, my son, +you will surely become wise." + + That is the first and central requisite the aspirant to occult knowledge +must possess--an unswerving desire, a burning thirst for knowledge; a zeal +that allows no obstacle to conquer it; but the supreme motive for seeking +this occult knowledge must be an ardent desire to benefit humanity, entirely +disregarding self in order to work for others. Unless prompted by the +motive, occult knowledge is dangerous. + + Without possessing these qualifications--especially the latter--in +some measure, any attempt to tread the arduous path of occultism would be a + + + +[PAGE 23] INTRODUCTION + +hazardous undertaking. Another prerequisite to this first-hand knowledge, +however, is the study of occultism at second-hand. Certain occult powers +are necessary for the first-hand investigation of matters connected with the +pre-natal and post-mortem states of man, but no one need despair of acquir- +ing information about this conditions because of undeveloped occult powers. +As a man may know about Africa either by going there personally or by read- +ing descriptions written by travelers who have been there, so may he visit +the superphysical realms if he will but qualify himself therefor, or he may +learn what others who have so qualified themselves report as a result of +their investigations. + + Christ said, "The Truth shall make you free," but Truth is not found +once and forever. Truth is eternal, and the quest for Truth must also be +eternal. Occultism knows of no "faith once for all delivered." There are +certain basic truths which remain, but which may be looked at from many +sides, each giving a different view, which complements the previous ones; +therefore, so far as we can see at present, there is no such achievement +possible as arriving at the ultimate truth. + + Wherein this work differs from some philosophical works the variations +are caused by difference of viewpoint, and all respect is paid to the con- +clusions reached and the ideas set forth by other investigators. It is the +earnest hope of the writer that the study of the following pages may help to +make the student's ideas fuller and more rounded than they were before. + + +[PAGE 24] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + + CHAPTER I + + + THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + + + The first step in Occultism is the study of the invisible Worlds. +These Worlds are invisible to the majority of people because of the dormancy +of the finer and higher senses whereby they may be perceived, in the same +way that the Physical World about us is perceived through the physical +senses. The majority of people are on a similar footing in regard to the +super-physical Worlds as the man who is born blind is to our world of sense; +although light and color are all about him, he is unable to see them. To +him they are non-existent and incomprehensible, simply because he lacks the +sense of sight wherewith to perceive them. Objects he can feel; they seem +real; but light and color are beyond his ken. + + So with the greater part of humanity. They feel, and see objects and +hear sounds in the Physical World, but the other realms, which the clairvoy- +ant calls the higher Worlds, are as incomprehensible to them as light and +color are to the blind man. Because the blind man cannot see color and +light, however, is no argument against their existence and reality. Neither +is it an argument, that because most people cannot see the super-physical +Worlds no one can do so. If the blind an obtains his sight, he will see +light and color. If the higher senses of those blind to the super-physical +Worlds are awakened by proper methods, they also will be able to behold the +Worlds which are now hidden from them. + + + +[PAGE 25] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + + While many people make the mistake of being incredulous concerning the +existence or reality of the super-sensuous Worlds, there are also many who +go to the other extreme, and, having become convinced of the verity of in- +visible Worlds, think that when a person is clairvoyant all truth is at once +open to him; that when one can "see," he at once "knows all about" these +higher Worlds. + + This is a great mistake. We readily recognize the fallacy of such a +contention in matters of everyday life. We do not think that a man who was +born blind, but has obtained his sight, at once "knows all about" the Physi- +cal World. Nay, more; we know that even those of us who have been able to +see the things about us all our lives are far from having a universal +knowledge of them. We know that it requires arduous study and years of +application to know about even that infinitesimal part of things that we +handle in our daily lives, and reversing the Hermetic aphorism, "as above, +so below," we gather at once that it must be the same in the other Worlds. +At the same time it is also true that there are much greater facilities for +acquiring knowledge in the super-physical Worlds than in our present dense +physical condition, but not so great as to eliminate the necessity for close +study and the possibility of making a mistake in observation. In fact, all +the testimony of reliable and qualified observers prove that much more care +in observation is needed there than here. + + Clairvoyants must first be trained before their observations are of any +real value, and the more proficient they become the more modest they are +about telling of what they see; the more they defer to the versions of oth- +ers, knowing how much there is to learn and realizing how little the single + + + +[PAGE 26] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +investigator can grasp of all the detail incident to his investigations. + + This also accounts for the varied versions, which superficial people +think are an argument against the existence of the higher Worlds. They con- +tend that if these Worlds exist, investigators must necessarily bring back +identical descriptions. If we take an illustration from everyday life, the +fallacy of this becomes apparent. + + Suppose a newspaper sends twenty reporters to a city with orders to +"write it up." Reporters are, or ought to be, trained observers. It is +their business to see everything and they should be able to give as good de- +scriptions as can be expected from any source. Yet it is certain that of +the twenty reports, no two would be exactly alike. It is much more likely +that they would be totally different. Although some of them might contain +leading features in common, others might be unique in quality and quantity +of description. + + Is it an argument against the existence of the city that these reports +differ? Certainly not! It is easily accounted for by the fact that each +saw the city from his own particular point of view and instead of these +varying reports being confusing and detrimental, it is safe to say that a +perusal of them all would give a fuller, better understanding and descrip- +tion of the city than if only one were read and the others were thrown in +the wastebasket. Each report would round out and complement the others. + + The same is true regarding accounts made by investigators of the higher +Worlds. Each has his own peculiar way of looking at things and can describe +only what he sees from his particular point of view. The account he gives +may differ from those of others, yet all be equally truthful from each indi- +vidual observer's viewpoint. + + + + +[PAGE 27] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + + It is sometimes asked, Why investigate these Worlds? Why is it not +best to take one World at a time; to be content for the present time with +the lessons to be learned in the Physical World, and, if there are invisible +Worlds why not wait until we reach them before investigating? "Sufficient +unto the day is the evil thereof!" Why borrow more? + + If we knew without doubt that at some time, sooner or later, each one +of us must be transported to a far country where, under new and strange con- +ditions, we must live for many years, is it not reasonable to believe that +if we had an opportunity to learn of that country in advance of our removal +to it we would gladly do so? Knowledge would render it much easier for us +to accommodate ourselves to new conditions. + + There is only one certainty in life and that is--Death! As we pass into +the beyond and are confronted by new conditions, knowledge of them is sure +to be of the greatest help. + + But that is not all. To understand the Physical World, which is the +world of effects, it is necessary to understand the super-physical World, +which is the world of causes. We see street cars in motion and we hear the +clicking of telegraph instruments, but the mysterious force which causes +phenomena remains invisible to us. We say it is electricity, but the name +gives us no explanation. We learn nothing of the force itself; we see and +hear only its effects. + + If a dish of cold water be placed in an atmosphere of a sufficiently +low temperature ice crystals immediately begin to form and we can see the +process of their formation. The lines along which the water crystallizes +were in it all the time as lines of force but they were invisible until the +water congealed. The beautiful "frost flowers" on a windowpane are visible + + + +[PAGE 28] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +manifestations of currents of the higher Worlds which operate upon us all +the time, unrecognized by most of us, but none the less potent. + + The higher Worlds are thus the worlds of causes, of forces; and we can- +not really understand this lower World unless we know the others and realize +the forces and causes of which all material things are but the effects. + + As to the reality of these higher Worlds compared with that of the +Physical World, strange as it may seem, these higher Worlds, which to the +majority appear as mirages, or even less substantial, are, in truth, much +more real and the objects in them more lasting and indestructible than the +objects in the Physical World. If we take an example we shall readily see +this. An architect does not start to build a house by procuring the mate- +rial and setting the workmen to laying stone upon stone in a haphazard way, +without thought or plan. He "thinks the house out." Gradually it takes +form in his mind and finally there stands a clear idea of the house that is +to be--a thought-form of a house. + + This house is yet invisible to all but the architect. He makes it ob- +jective on paper. He draws the plans and from this objective image of the +thought-form the workmen construct the house of wood, iron, or stone, ac- +curately corresponding to the thought-form originated by the architect. + + Thus the thought-form becomes a material reality. The materialist +would assert that it is much more real, lasting and substantial that the im- +age in the architect's mind. But let us see. The house could not have been +constructed without the thought-form. The material object can be destroyed +by dynamite, earthquake, fire, or decay, but the thought-form will remain. +It will exist as long as the architect lives and from it any number of + + + +[PAGE 29] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +houses similar to the one destroyed may be constructed. Not even the archi- +tect himself can destroy it. Even after his death this thought-form can be +recovered by those who are qualified to read the memory of nature, which +will be dealt with later. + + Having thus seen the reasonableness of such Worlds existing around and +about us, and having satisfied ourselves of their reality, their permanency, +and of the utility of a knowledge concerning them, we shall now examine them +severally and singly, commencing with the Physical World. + + + CHEMICAL REGION OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD + + In the Rosicrucian teaching the universe is divided into seven differ- +ent Worlds, or states of matter, as follows: + + 1-World of God. + 2-World of Virgin Spirits. + 3-World of Divine Spirit. + 4-World of Life Spirit. + 5-World of Thought. + 6-Desire World. + 7-Physical World. + + The division is not arbitrary but necessary, because the substance of +each of these Worlds is amenable to laws which are practically inoperative +in others. For instance, in the Physical World, matter is subject to grav- +ity, contraction and expansion. In the Desire World there is neither heat +nor cold, and forms levitate as easily as they gravitate. Distance and time +are also governing factors of existence in the Physical World, but are al- +most non-existent in the Desire World. + + The matter of these worlds also varies in density, the Physical World +being the densest of the seven. + + Each World is subdivided into seven Regions or sub-divisions of matter. + + + +[PAGE 30] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +In the Physical World, the solids, liquids and gases form the three denser +subdivisions, the remaining four being ethers of varying densities. In the +other Worlds similar subdivisions are necessary, because the matter of which +they are composed is not of uniform density. + + There are still two further distinctions to be made. The three dense +subdivisions of the Physical World--the solids, liquids and gases--consti- +tute what is termed the Chemical Region. The substance in this Region is the +basis of all dense Form. + + The Ether is also physical matter. It is not homogeneous, as material +science alleges, but exists in four different states. It is the medium of +ingress for the quickening spirit which imparts VITALITY to the Forms in the +Chemical Region. The four finer or etheric subdivisions of the Physical +World constitute what is known as the Etheric Region. + + In the World of Thought the three higher subdivisions are the basis of +abstract thought, hence they, collectively, are called the Region of Ab- +stract Thought. The four denser subdivisions supply the mind-stuff in which +we embody and concrete our ideas and are therefore termed the Region of Con- +crete Thought. + + The careful consideration given by the occultist to the characteristics +of the Physical World might seem superfluous were it not that he regards all +things from a view point differing widely from that of the materialist. The +latter recognizes three states of matter--solids, liquids, and gases. These +are all chemical, because derived from the chemical constituents of Earth. +From this chemical matter all the FORMS of mineral, plant, animal, and man +have been built, hence they are as truly chemical as the substances which + + + + +[PAGE 31] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +are commonly so termed. Thus whether we consider the mountain or the cloud +that envelops its top, the juice of the plant or the blood of the animal, +the spider's thread, the wing of the butterfly or the bones of the elephant, +the air we breathe or the water we drink--all are composed of the same +chemical substance. + + What is it then which determines the conformation of this basic sub- +stance into the multiplex variety of Forms which we see about us? It is the +One Universal Spirit, expressing Itself in the visible world as four great +streams of Life, at varying stages of development. This fourfold spiritual +impulse molds the chemical matter of the Earth into variegated forms of the +four Kingdoms--mineral, plant, animal, and man. When a form has served its +purpose as a vehicle of expression for the three higher streams of life, the +chemical forces disintegrate that form so that the matter may be returned to +its primordial state, and thus made available for the building of new forms. +The spirit or life which molds the form into an expression of itself is, +therefore, as extraneous to the matter it uses as a carpenter is apart from +and personally independent of the house he builds for his own occupancy. + + As all the forms of mineral, plant, animal, and man are chemical, they +must logically be as dead and devoid of feeling as chemical matter in it +primitive state, and the Rosicrucian asserts that they are. + + Some scientists contend that there is feeling in all tissue, living or +dead, to whatever kingdom it belongs. They include even the substances or- +dinarily classed as mineral in their category of objects having feeling, and +to prove their contentions they submit diagrams with curves of energy ob- +tained from tests. Another class of investigators teach that there is no + + + + +[PAGE 32] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +feeling even in the human body, except in the brain, which is the SEAT of +feeling. They say it is the brain and not the finger which feels the pain +when the latter is injured. Thus is the house of Science divided against +itself on this as on most other points. The position taken by each is +partly right. It depends upon what we mean by "feeling." If we mean simply +response to impacts, such as the rebound of a rubber ball that is dropped to +the ground, of course it is correct to attribute feeling to mineral, plant, +and animal tissue; but if we mean pleasure and pain, love and hate, joy and +sorrow, it would be absurd to attribute them to the lower forms of life, to +detached tissue, to minerals in their native state, or even to the brain, +because such feelings are expressions of the self-conscious immortal spirit, +and the brain is only the keyboard of the wonderful instrument upon which +the human spirit plays its symphony of life, just as the musician expresses +himself upon his violin. + + As there are people who are quite unable to understand that there must +be and are higher Worlds, so there are some who, having become slightly ac- +quainted with the higher realms, acquire the habit of undervaluing this +Physical World. Such an attitude is as incorrect as that of the material- +ist. The great and wise Beings who carry out the will and design of God +placed us in this physical environment to learn great and important lessons +which could not be learned under other conditions, and it is our duty to use +our knowledge of the higher Worlds in learning to the best of our ability +the lessons which this material world has to teach us. + + In one sense the Physical World is a sort of model school or experiment +station to teach us to work correctly in the others. It does this whether +or not we know of the existence of those other worlds, thereby proving the + + + + +[PAGE 33] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +great wisdom of the originators of the plan. If we had knowledge of none +but the higher Worlds, we would make many mistakes which would become appar- +ent only when physical conditions are brought to bear as criterion. To il- +lustrate: Let us imagine the case of an inventor working out his idea of a +machine. First he builds the machine in thought, and in his mind he sees it +complete and in operation, performing most beautifully the work it is de- +signed to do. He next makes a drawing of the design, and in doing so per- +haps finds that modifications in his first conception are necessary. When, +from the drawings, he has become satisfied that the plan is feasible, he +proceeds to build the actual machine from suitable material. + + Now it is almost certain that still further modifications will be found +necessary before the machine will work as intended. It may be found that it +must be entirely remodeled, or even that it is altogether useless in its +present form, must be discarded and a new plan evolved. But mark this, for +here is the point: the new idea or plan will be formulated for the purpose +of eliminating the defects in the useless machine. Had there been no mate- +rial machine constructed, thereby making evident the faults of the first +idea, a second and correct idea would not have been formed. + + This applies equally to all conditions of life--social, mercantile, and +philanthropic. Many plans appear excellent to those conceiving them, and +may even look well on paper, but when brought down in the actual test of +utility they often fail. That however, should not discourage us. It is +true that "we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes," and the +proper light in which to regard this Physical World is as a school of valu- +able experience, in which we learn lessons of the utmost importance. + + + + + + +[PAGE 34] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + + THE ETHERIC REGION OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD. + + As soon as we enter this realm of nature we are in the invisible, in- +tangible World, where our ordinary senses fail us, hence this part of the +Physical World is practically unexplored by material science. + + Air is invisible, yet modern science knows that it exists. By means of +instruments its velocity as wind can be measured; by compression it can be +made visible as liquid air. With either, however, that is not so easy. Ma- +terial science finds that it is necessary to account in some way for the +transmission of electricity, with or without wires. It is forced to postu- +late some substance of a finer kind that it knows, and it calls that sub- +stance "ether." It does not really know that ether exists, as the ingenuity +of the scientist has not, as yet, been able to devise a vessel in which it +is possible to confine this substance, which is altogether too elusive for +the comfort of the "wizard of the laboratory." He cannot measure, weigh, +nor analyze it by any apparatus now at his disposal. + + Truly, the achievements of modern science are marvelous. The best way +to learn the secrets of nature, however, is not by inventing instruments, +but by improving the investigator himself. Man has within himself faculties +which eliminate distance and compensate for lack of size to a degree as much +greater than the power of telescope and microscope as theirs exceeds that of +the naked eye. These senses or faculties are the means of investigation +used by occultists. They are their "open sesame" in searching for truth. + + To the trained clairvoyant ether is as tangible as are the solids, li- +quids, and gases of the Chemical Region to ordinary beings. He sees that the + + + +[PAGE 35] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +vital forces which give life to the mineral forms of plant, animal and man +flow into these forms, by means of the four states of ether. The names and +specific functions of these four ethers are as follows. + + (1) Chemical Ether--This ether is both positive and negative in manifesta- +tion. The forces which cause assimilation and excretion work through it. +Assimilation is the process whereby the different nutritive elements of food +are incorporated into the body of plant, animal and man. This is carried on +by forces with which we shall become acquainted later. They work along the +positive pole of the chemical ether and attract the needed elements, build- +ing them into the forms concerned. These forces do not act blindly nor me- +chanically, but in a selective way (well-known to scientists by its effects) +thereby accomplishing their purpose, which is the growth and maintenance of +the body. + + Excretion is carried on by forces of the same kind, but working along +the negative pole of the chemical ether. By means of this pole they expel +from the body the materials in the food which are unfit for use, or those +which have outlived their usefulness in the body and should be expurgated +from the system. This, like all other processes independent of man's voli- +tion, is also wide, selective, and not merely mechanical in its operation, +as seen, for instance, in the case of the action of the kidneys, where only +the urine is filtered through when the organs are in health; but it is known +that when the organs are not in health, the valuable albumen is allowed to +escape with the urine, the proper selection not being made because of an ab- +normal condition. + + + +[PAGE 36] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + (2) Life Ether--As the chemical ether is the avenue for the operation +of the forces the object of which is the maintenance of the individual form, +so the life ether is the avenue for the operation of the forces which have +for their object the maintenance of the species--the forces of propagation. + + Like the chemical ether, the life ether also has its positive and +negative pole. The forces which work along the positive pole are those +which work in the female during gestation. They enable her to do the +positive, active work of bringing forth a new being. On the other hand the +forces which work along the negative pole of the life ether enable the male +to produce semen. + + In the work on the impregnated ovum of the animal and man, or upon the +seed of the plant, the forces working along the positive pole of the life +ether produce male plants, animals and men; while the forces which express +themselves through the negative pole generate females. + + (3) Light Ether--This ether is both positive and negative, and the +forces which play along its positive pole are the forces which generate that +blood heat in the higher species of animal and in man, which makes them in- +dividual sources of heat. The forces which work along the negative pole of +the light ether are those which operate through the senses, manifesting as +the passive functions of sight, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. +They also build and nourish the eye. + + In the cold-blooded animals the positive pole of the light ether is the +avenue of the forces which circulate the blood, and the negative forces have +the same functions in regard to the eye as in the case of the higher animals +and man. Where eyes are lacking, the forces working in the negative pole of +the light ether are perhaps building or nourishing other sense organs, as +they do in all that have sense organs. + + + + +[PAGE 37] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + + In plants the forces which work along the positive pole of the light +ether cause the circulation of the juices of the plant. Thus in winter, +when the light ether is not charged with sunlight as in summer, the sap +ceases to flow until the summer sun again invests the light ether with its +force. The forces which work along the negative pole of the light ether de- +posit the chlorophyll, the green substance of the plant and also color the +flowers. In fact, all color, in all kingdoms is deposited by means of the +negative pole of the light ether. Therefore animals have the deepest color +on the back and flowers are deepest colored on the side turned towards the +light. In the polar regions of the earth, where the rays of the sun are +weak, all color is lighter and in some cases is so sparingly deposited that +in winter it is withdrawn altogether and the animals become white. + + (4) Reflecting Ether--It has heretofore been stated that the idea of +the house which has existed in the mind can be recovered from the memory of +nature, even after the death of the architect. Everything that has ever +happened has left behind it an ineffaceable picture in this reflecting +ether. As the giant ferns of the childhood of the Earth have left their +pictures in the coal beds, and as the progress of the glacier of a bygone +day may be traced by means of the trail it has left upon the rocks along its +path, even so are the thoughts and acts of men ineffaceably recorded by na- +ture in this reflecting ether, where the trained seer may read their story +with an accuracy commensurate with his ability. + + The reflecting ether deserves its name for more than one reason, for +the pictures in it are but REFLECTIONS of the memory of nature. The real + + + +[PAGE 38] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +memory of nature is found in a much higher realm. In this reflecting ether +no thoroughly trained clairvoyant cares to read, as the pictures are blurred +and vague compared to those found in the higher realm. Those who read in +the reflecting ether are generally those who have no choice, who, in fact, +do not know what they are reading. As a rule ordinary psychometrists and +mediums obtain their knowledge through the reflecting ether. To some slight +extent the pupil of the occult school in the first stages of his training +also reads in the reflecting ether, but he is warned by his teacher of his +insufficiencies of this ether as a means of acquiring accurate information, +so that he does not easily draw wrong conclusions. + + This ether is also the medium through which thought makes an impression +upon the human brain. It is most intimately connected with the fourth sub- +division of the World of Thought. This is the highest of the four subdivi- +sions contained in the Region of Concrete Thought and the homeworld of the +human mind. There a much clearer version of the memory of nature is found +than in the reflecting ether. + + THE DESIRE WORLD + + Like the Physical World, and every other realm of nature, the Desire +World has the seven subdivisions called "Regions," but unlike the Physical +World, it does not have the great divisions corresponding to the Chemical +and Etheric Regions. Desire stuff in the Desire World persists through its +seven subdivisions or regions as material for the embodiment of desire. As +the Chemical Region is the realm of form and as the Etheric Region is the +home of the forces carrying on life activities in those forms, enabling them + + + + +[PAGE 39] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +to live, move and propagate, so the forces in the Desire World, working in +the quickened dense body, impel it to move in this or that direction. + + If there were only the activities of the Chemical and Etheric Regions +of the Physical World, there would be forms having life, able to move, but +WITH NO INCENTIVE FOR SO DOING. This incentive is supplied by the cosmic +forces active in the Desire World and without this activity playing through +every fibre of the vitalized body, urging action in this direction or that, +there would be no experience and no moral growth. The functions of the dif- +ferent ethers would take care of the growth of the form, but moral growth +would entirely lacking. Evolution would be an impossibility, both as to +form and life, for it is only in response to the requirements of spiritual +growth that forms evolve to higher states. Thus we at once see the great +importance of this realm of nature. + + Desires, wishes, passions, and feelings express themselves in the mat- +ter of the different regions of the Desire World as form and feature express +themselves in the Chemical Region of the Physical World. They take forms +which last for a longer or shorter time, according to the intensity of the +desire, wish, or feeling embodied in them. In the Desire World the distinc- +tion between the forces and the matter is not so definite and apparent as in +the Physical World. One might almost say that here the ideas of force and +matter are identical or interchangeable. It is not quite so, but we may say +that to a certain extent the Desire World consists of force-matter. + + When speaking of the matter of the Desire World, it is true that it is +one degree less dense that the matter of the Physical World, but we enter- +tain an entirely wrong idea if we imaging it is finer physical matter. That + + + +[PAGE 40] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +idea, though held by many who have studied occult philosophies, is entirely +erroneous. The wrong impression is caused principally by the difficulty of +giving the full and accurate description necessary for a thorough under- +standing of the higher worlds. Unfortunately, our language is descriptive +of material things and therefore entirely inadequate to describe the condi- +tions of the super-physical realms, hence all that is said about these +realms must be taken tentatively, as similes, rather than as accurate de- +scriptions. + + Though the mountain and the daisy, the man, the horse, and a piece of +iron, are composed of one ultimate atomic substance, we do not say that the +daisy is a finer form of iron. Similarly it is impossible to explain in +words the change or difference in physical matter when it is broken up into +desire-stuff. If there were no difference it would be amenable to the laws +of the Physical World, which it is not. + + The law of matter of the Chemical Region is inertia-the tendency to re- +main IN STATU QUO. It takes a certain amount of force to overcome this in- +ertia and cause a body which is at rest to move, or to stop a body in mo- +tion. Not so with the matter of the Desire World. That matter itself is +almost living. It is in unceasing motion, fluid, taking all imaginable and +unimaginable forms with inconceivable facility and rapidity, at the same +time coruscating and scintillating in a thousand ever-changing shades of +color, incomparable to anything we know in this physical state of conscious- +ness. Something very faintly resembling the action and appearance of this +matter will be seen in the play of colors on an abalone shell when held in +the sunlight and moved to and fro. + + That is what the Desire World is--ever-changing light and color--in which +the forces of animal and man intermingle with the forces of innumerable + + + +[PAGE 41] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +Hierarchies of spiritual beings which do not appear in our Physical World, +but are as active in the Desire World as we are here. Some of them will be +dealt with later and their connection with man's evolution described. + + The forces sent out by this vast and varied hose of Beings mold the +ever-changing matter of the Desire World into innumerable and differing +forms of more or less durability, according to the kinetic energy of the im- +pulse which gave them birth. + + From this slight description it may be understood how difficult it is +for a neophyte who has just had his inner eyes opened to find his balance in +the World of Desire. The trained clairvoyant soon ceases to wonder at the +impossible descriptions sometimes brought through by mediums. They may be +perfectly honest, but the possibilities of parallax, and of getting out of +focus are legion, and of the subtlest nature, and the real wonder is that +they ever communicate anything correctly. All of us had to learn to see, in +the days of our infancy, as we may readily find by watching a young babe. +It will be found that the little one will reach for objects on the other +side of the room or the street, or for the Moon. He is entirely unable to +gauge distances. The blind man who has been made to see will, at first, of- +ten close his eyes to walk from one place to another, declaring, until he +has learned to use his eyes, that it is easier to walk by feeling than by +sight. So the one whose inner organs of perception have been vivified must +also be trained in the use of his newly acquired faculty. At first the neo- +phyte will try to apply to the Desire World the knowledge derived from his +experience in the Physical World, because he has not yet learned the laws of +the world into which he is entering. This is the source of a vast amount of + + + + +[PAGE 42] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +trouble and perplexity. Before he can understand, he must become as a +little child, which imbibed knowledge without reference to any previous ex- +perience. + + To arrive at a correct understanding of the Desire World it is neces- +sary to realize that it is the world of feeling, desires, and emotions. +These are all under the domination of two great forces--Attraction and Re- +pulsion, which act in a different way in the three denser Regions of the De- +sire World from that in which they act in the three finer or upper Regions, +while the central Region may be called neutral ground. + + This central Region is the Region of feeling. Here interest in or in- +difference to an object or an idea sways the balance in favor of one of the +two previously mentioned forces, thereby relegating the object or idea to +the three higher or the three lower Regions of the Desire World, or else +they will expel it. We shall see presently how this is accomplished. + + In the finest and rarest substance of the three higher Regions of the +Desire World the force of Attraction alone holds sway, but it is also +present in some degree in the denser matter of the three lower Regions, +where it works against the force of Repulsion, which is dominant there. The +disintegrating force of Repulsion would soon destroy every form coming into +these three lower Regions were it not that it is thus counteracted. In the +densest or lowest Region, where it is strongest, it tears and shatters the +forms built there in a way dreadful to see, yet it is not a fatalistic +force. Nothing in nature is vandalistic. All that appears so is but work- +ing towards good. So with this force in its work in the lowest Region of + + + + +[PAGE 43] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +the Desire World. The forms here are demoniac creations, built by the +coarsest passions and desires of man and beast. + + The tendency of every form in the Desire World is to attract itself all +it can of a like nature and grow thereby. If this tendency to attraction +were predominate in the lowest Regions, evil would grow like a weed. There +would be anarchy instead of order in the Cosmos. This prevented by the pre- +ponderating power of the force of Repulsion in this Region. When a coarse +desire form is being attracted to another of the same nature, there is a +disharmony in their vibrations, whereby one has a disintegrating effect upon +the other. Thus, instead of uniting and amalgamating evil with evil, they +act with mutual destructiveness and in that way the evil in the world is +kept within reasonable bounds. When we understand the working of the twin +forces in this respect we are in a position to understand the occult maxim, +"A lie is both murder and suicide in the Desire World." + + Anything happening in the Physical World is reflected in all the other +realms of nature and, as we have seen, builds its appropriate form in the +Desire World. When a true account of the occurrence is given, another form +is built, exactly like the first. They are then drawn together and +coalesce, strengthening each other. If, however, an untrue is given, a form +different from and antagonistic to the first, or true one, is created. As +they deal with the same occurrence, they are drawn together, but as their +vibrations are different they act upon each other with mutual destructive- +ness. Therefore, evil and malicious lies can kill anything that is good, if +they are strong enough and repeated often enough. But, conversely, seeking +for the good in evil will, in time, transmute the evil into good. If the +form that is built to minimize the evil is weak, it will have no effect and + + + + + +[PAGE 44] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +will be destroyed by the evil form, but if it is strong and frequently re- +peated it will have the effect of disintegrating the evil and substituting +the good. That effect, be it distinctly understood, it not brought about by +lying, nor denying the evil, but by looking for the good. The occult scien- +tist practices very rigidly this principle of looking for good in all +things, because he knows what a power it possesses in keeping down evil. + + There is a story of Christ which illustrates this point. Once when +walking with His disciples they passed the decaying and ill-smelling carcass +of a dog. The disciples turned in disgust, commenting upon the nauseating +nature of this sight; but Christ looked at the dead body and said "Pearls +are not whiter than its teeth." He was determined to find the good, because +He knew the beneficial effect which would result in the Desire World from +giving it expression. + + The lowest Region of the Desire World is called "the Region of Passion +and Sensual Desire." The second subdivision is best described by the name +of "Region of Impressionability." Here the effect of the twin forces of At- +traction and Repulsion is evenly balanced. This is a neutral Region, hence +all our impressions which are built of the matter of this Region are neu- +tral. Only when the twin feelings, which we shall meet in the fourth Re- +gion, are brought to bear, do the twin forces come into play. The mere im- +pression of anything, however, in and of itself, is entirely separate from +the feeling it engenders. The impression is neutral and is an activity of +the second Region of the Desire World, where pictures are formed by the +forces of sense-perception in the vital body of man. + + In the third Region of the Desire World, the force of Attraction, the +integrating, upbuilding force, has already gained the upper hand over the + + + + +[PAGE 45] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +force of Repulsion, with its destructive tendency. When we understand that +the mainspring in this force of Repulsion is self-assertion, a pushing away +of all others that it may have room, we shall understand that it gives way +most easily to a desire for other things, so that the substance of the third +Region of the Desire World is principally dominated by the force of Attrac- +tion towards other things, but in a selfish way, and therefore this is the +Region of Wishes. + + The Region of Coarse Desires may be likened to the solids in the +Physical World; the Region of Impressionability to the fluids; and the fluc- +tuating, evanescent nature of the Region of Wishes will make that compare +with the gaseous portion of the Physical World. These three Regions give +the substance for the forms which make for experience, soul-growth and +evolution, purging the altogether destructive and retaining the materials +which may be used for progress. + + The fourth Region of the Desire World is the "Region of Feeling." From +it comes the feeling concerning the already described forms and upon the +feeling engendered by them depends the life which they have for us and also +their effect upon us. Whether the objects and ideas presented are good or +bad in themselves is not important this stage. It is our feeling, whether +of Interest or Indifference that is the determining factor as to the fate of +the object or idea. + + If the feeling with which we meet an impression of an object or an idea +is Interest, it has the same effect upon that impression as sunlight and air +have upon a plant. That idea will grow and flourish in our lives. If, on +the other hand, we meet an impression or idea with Indifference, it withers +as does a plant when put in a dark cellar. + + + + +[PAGE 46] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Thus from this central Region of the Desire World come the incentive to +action, or the decision to refrain therefrom (though the latter is also ac- +tion in the eyes of the occult scientist), for at the present stage of our +development the twin feelings, Interest and Indifference furnish the incen- +tive to action and are the springs that move the world. At a later stage +these feelings will cease to have any weight. Then the determining factor +will be DUTY. + + Interest starts the forces of Attraction or Repulsion. + + Indifference simply withers the object or idea against which it is di- +rected, so far as our connection with it is concerned. + + If our interest in an object or an idea generates Repulsion, that +naturally causes us to expurgate from our lives any connection with the ob- +ject or idea which roused it; but there is a great difference between the +action of the force of Repulsion and the mere feeling of Indifference. Per- +haps an illustration will make more clear the operation of the twin Feelings +and the twin Forces. + + Three men are walking along a road. They see a sick dog; it is covered +with sores and is evidently suffering intensely from pain and thirst. This +much is evident to all three men-their senses tell them that. Now Feeling +comes. Two of them take an "interest" in the animal, but in the third there +is a feeling of "indifference." He passes on, leaving the dog to its fate. +The others remain; they are both interested, but each manifests it in a +quite different way. The interest of one man is sympathetic and helpful, +impelling him to care for the poor beast, to assuage pains and nurse it back +to health. In him the feeling of interest has aroused the force of Attrac- +tion. The other man's interest is of a different kind. He sees only a + + + + +[PAGE 47] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +loathsome sight which is revolting to him and wishes to rid himself and the +world of it as quickly as possible. He advises killing the animal outright +and burying it. In him the feeling of interest generates the destructive +force of Repulsion. + + When the feeling of Interest arouses the force of Attraction and it is +directed toward low objects and desires, these work themselves out in the +lower Regions of the Desire World, where the counteracting force of Repul- +sion operates, as previously described. From the battle of the twin +forces--Attraction and Repulsion--results all the pain and suffering inci- +dent to wrongdoing or misdirected effort, whether intentional or otherwise. + + Thus we may see how very important Feeling we have concerning anything, +for upon that depends the nature of the atmosphere we create for ourselves. +If we love the good, we shall keep and nourish as guardian angels all that +is good about us; if the reverse, we shall people our path with demons and +our own breeding. + + The names of the three upper Regions of the Desire World are "Region of +Soul-Life," "Region of Soul-Light," and "Region of Soul-Power." In these +abide Art, Altruism, Philanthropy, and all the activities of the higher +soul-life. When we think of these Regions as radiating the qualities +indicated by their names, into the forms of the three lower Regions, we +shall understand correctly the higher and lower activities. Soul-power, +however, may for a time be used for evil purposes as well as for good, but +eventually the force of Repulsion destroys vice and the force of Attraction +builds virtue upon its shattered ruins. All things, in the ultimate, work +together for GOOD. + + The Physical and the Desire Worlds are not separated from each other by + + + + +[PAGE 48] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +space. They are "closer than hands and feet." It is not necessary to move +to get from one to the other, nor from one Region to the next. Just as sol- +ids, liquids, and gases are all together in our bodies, inter-penetrating +one another, so are the different Regions of the Desire World within us +also. We may again compare the lines of force along which ice-crystals form +in water to the invisible causes originating in the Desire World, which ap- +pear in the Physical World and give us the incentive to action, in whatever +direction it may be. + + The Desire World, with it innumerable inhabitants, permeates the +Physical World, as the lines of force do the water--invisible, but every- +where present and potent as the cause of everything in the Physical World. + + THE WORLD OF THOUGHT + + The World of Thought also consists of seven Regions of varying +qualities and densities, and, like the Physical World, the World of Thought +is divided into two main divisions--the Region of Concrete Thought, compris- +ing the four densest Regions; and the Region of Abstract Thought, comprising +the three Regions of finest substance. This World of Thought is the central +one of the five Worlds from which man obtains his vehicles. Here spirit and +body meet. It is also the highest of the three Worlds in which man's evolu- +tion is being carried forward at the present time, the two higher Worlds be- +ing practically in abeyance as yet, so far as man is concerned. + + We know that the materials of the Chemical Region are used in building +all physical forms. These are forms are given life and the power of motion +by the forces at work in the Etheric Region, and some of these living forms +are stirred into activity by means of the twin Feelings of the Desire World. + + + + +[PAGE 49] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +The Region of Concrete Thought furnishes the mind-stuff in which ideas gen- +erated in the Region of Abstract Thought clothe themselves as THOUGHT-FORMS, +to act as regulators and balance wheels upon the impulses engendered in the +Desire World by impacts from the phenomenal World. + + Thus we see how the three Worlds, in which man is at present evolving, +complement one another, making a whole that shows forth the Supreme Wisdom +of the Great Architect of the system to which we belong, and Whom we rever- +ence by the holy name of God. + + Taking a more detailed view of the several divisions of the Region of +Concrete Thought we find that the archetypes of PHYSICAL form no matter to +what kingdom they may belong, are found in its lowest subdivision, or the +"Continental Region." In this Continental Region are also the archetypes of +the continents and the isles of the world, and corresponding to these arche- +types are they fashioned. Modifications in the crust of the Earth must +first be wrought in the Continental Region. Not until the archetypal model +has been changed can the Intelligences which we (to hide our ignorance con- +cerning them) call the "Laws of Nature," bring about the physical conditions +which alter the physical features of the Earth according to the modifica- +tions designed by the Hierarchies in charge of evolution. They plan changes +as an architect plants the alteration of a building before the workmen five +it concrete expression. In like manner are changes in the FLORA and FAUNA +due to metamorphoses in their respective archetypes. + + When we speak of the archetypes of all the different forms in the dense +world it must not be thought that these archetypes are merely models in the +same sense in which we speak of an object constructed in miniature, or in + + + + +[PAGE 50] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +some material other than that appropriate for its proper and final use. +They are not merely likenesses nor models of the forms we see about us, but +are CREATIVE archetypes; that is, they fashion the forms of the Physical +World in their own likeness or likenesses, for often many work together to +form one certain species, each archetype giving part of itself to build the +required form + + The second subdivision of the Region of Concrete Thought is called the +"Oceanic Region." It is best described as flowing, pulsating vitality. All +the forces that work through the four ethers which constitute the Etheric +Region are there seen as archetypes. It is a stream of flowing life, pul- +sating through all forms, as blood pulsates through the body, the same life +in all forms. Here the trained clairvoyant sees how true it is that "all +life is one." + + The "Aerial Region" is the third division of the Region of Concrete +Thought. Here we find the archetype of desires, passions, wishes, feelings, +and emotions such as we experience in the Desire World. Here all the ac- +tivities of the Desire World appear as atmospheric conditions. Like the +kiss of summer breeze come the feelings of pleasure and joy to the clairvoy- +ant sense; as the sighing of the wind in the tree-tops seem the longings of +the soul and like flashes of lighting the passions of warring nations. In +this atmosphere of the Region of Concrete Thought are also pictures of the +emotions of man and beast. + + The "Region of Archetypal Forces" is the fourth division of the Region +of Concrete Thought. It is the central and most important region in the +five Worlds wherein man's entire evolution is carried on. On the one side +of this Region are the three higher Regions of the World of Thought, the +World of Life Spirit and the World of Divine Spirit. On the other side of + + + + +[PAGE 51] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +this Region of Archetypal Forces are the three lower Regions of the World of +Thought, the Desire and the Physical Worlds. Thus this Region becomes a +sort of "crux," bounded on one side by the Realms of Spirit, on the other by +the Worlds of Form. It is a focusing point, where Spirit reflects itself in +matter. + + As the name implies, this Region is the home of the Archetypal Forces +which direct the activity of the archetypes in the Region of Concrete +Thought. From this Region Spirit works on matter in a formative manner. +Diagram 1 shows the idea in a schematic way, the forms in the lower World +being reflections of the Spirit in the higher Worlds. The fifth Region, +which is the one nearest to the focusing point on the Spirit side, reflects +itself in the third Region, which is nearest the focusing point on the Form +side. The sixth Region reflects itself in the second and the seventh re- +flects itself in the first. + + The whole of the Region of Abstract thought is reflected in the World +of Desire; the World of Life Spirit in the Etheric Region of the Physical +World; and the World of Divine Spirit in the Chemical Region of the Physical +World. + + Diagram 2 will give a comprehensive idea of the seven Worlds which are +the sphere of our development, but we must carefully keep in mind that these +Worlds are not placed one above another, as shown in the diagram. They +inter-penetrate--that is to say, that as in the case where the relation of +the Physical World and the Desire World was compared, where we likened the +Desire World to the lines for force in freezing water and the water itself +to the Physical World, in the same way we may think of the lines of force as + + + + +[PAGE 52] THE INVISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + + + DIAGRAM 1: + + THE RELATIVE PERMANENCY OF THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + + + + + +[PAGE 53] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +being any of the seven Worlds, and the water, as in our illustration, would +correspond to the next denser World in the scale. Another illustration may +perhaps make the subject clearer. + + Let us use a spherical sponge to represent the dense earth--the +Chemical Region. Imagine that sand permeates every part of the sponge and +also forms a layer outside the sponge. Let the sand represent the Etheric +Region, which in a similar manner permeates the dense earth and extends be- +yond its atmosphere. + + Let us further imagine this sponge and sand immersed in a spherical +glass vessel filled with clear water, and a little larger than the sponge +and sand. We place the sponge and sand in the center of the vessel as the +yolk is place in the center of an egg. We have now a space of clear water +between the sand and the vessel. The water as a whole will represent the +Desire World, for just as the water percolates between the grains of sand, +through very pore of the sponge, and forms that clear layer, so the Desire +World permeates both the dense Earth and the ether and extends beyond both +of these substances. + + We know there is air in water, and if we think of the air in the water +(in our illustration), as representing the World of Thought, we shall have a +fir mental picture of the way in which the World of Thought, being finer and +more subtle, inter-penetrates the two denser Worlds. + + Finally, imagine that the vessel containing the sponge, sand and water +is placed in the center of a large spherical vessel; then the air in the +space between the two vessels would represent that part of the World of +Thought which extends beyond the Desire World. + + Each of the planets in our solar system has three such +inter-penetrating Worlds, and if we think of each of the planets consisting + + + +[PAGE 54] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + + + DIAGRAM 2: + + THE SEVEN WORLDS + + + + +[PAGE 55] THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE WORLDS + +of three Worlds as being individual sponges, and of the fourth World, the +World of Life Spirit, as being the water in a large vessel where these three +fold separate sponges swim, we shall understand that as the water in the +vessel fills the space between the sponges and percolates through them, +so the World of Life Spirit pervades inter-planetary space and inter-pene- +trates the individual planets. It forms a common bond between them, so that +as it is necessary to have a boat and be able to control it, if we wish to +sail from America to Africa, so it is necessary to have a vehicle correlat- +ed to the World of Life Spirit under our conscious control in order to be +able to travel from one planet to another. + + In a manner similar to that in which the World of Life Spirit corre- +lates us to the other planets in our own solar system does the World Divine +Spirit correlate us to the other solar systems. We may regard the solar +systems as separate sponges, swimming in a World of Divine Spirit, and thus +it will be apparent that in order to travel from one solar system to another +it would be necessary to be able to function consciously in the highest ve- +hicle of man, the Divine Spirit. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 56] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + CHAPTER II. + + THE FOUR KINGDOMS. + + The three Worlds of our planet are at present the field of evolution +for a number of different kingdoms of life, at various stages of develop- +ment. Only four of these need concern us at present, viz.: the mineral, +plant, animal, and human kingdoms. + + These four kingdoms are related to the three Worlds in different ways, +according to the progress these groups of evolving life have made in the +school of experience. So far as form is concerned the dense bodies of all +the kingdoms are composed of the same chemical substances-the solids, liq- +uids, and gases of the Chemical Region. The dense body of a man is as truly +a chemical compound as is the stone, although the latter is ensouled by min- +eral life only. But even when speaking from the purely physical standpoint, +and laying aside all other considerations for the time being, there are sev- +eral important differences when we compare the dense body of the human being +with the mineral of the Earth. Man moves, grows, and propagates his +species--the mineral, in its native state, does none of these things. + + Comparing man with the forms of the plant kingdom, we find that both +plant and man have a dense body, capable of growth and propagation. But Man +has faculties not possessed by the plant. He feels, has the power of mo- +tion, and the faculty of perceiving things exterior to himself. + + + + +[PAGE 57] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + + When we compare man with the animal with the animal we see that both +have the faculties of feeling, motion, growth, propagation, and +sense-perception. In addition, man has the faculty of speech, a superior +structure of the brain, and also hands--which are a very great physical ad- +vantage. We may note especially the development of the thumb, which makes +the hand much more valuable than even that of the anthropoid. Man has also +evolved a definite language in which to express his feelings and thoughts, +all of which places the dense body of the human being in a class by itself, +beyond the three lower kingdoms. + + To account for these differences in the four kingdoms we must go to the +invisible Worlds, and seek the causes which give one kingdom that which is +denied to another. + + To function in any world, and express the qualities peculiar to it, we +must first possess a vehicle made of its material. In order to function in +the dense Physical World it is necessary to have a dense body, adapted to +our environment. Otherwise we should be ghosts, as they are commonly +called, and be invisible to most physical beings. So we must have a vital +body before we can express life, grow, or externalize the other qualities +peculiar to the Etheric Region. + + To show feeling and emotion it is necessary to have a vehicle composed +of the materials of the Desire World, and a mind formed of the substance of +the Region of Concrete Thought is necessary to render thinking possible. + + When we examine the four kingdoms in relation to the Etheric Region, we +find that the mineral does not possess a separate vital body, and at once we +see the reason why it cannot grow, propagate, or show sentient life. + + As an hypothesis necessary to account for other known facts, material +science holds that in the densest solid, as in the rarest and most + + + + +[PAGE 58] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +attenuated gas, no two atoms touch each other; that there is an envelope of +ether around each atom; that the atoms in the universe float in an ocean of +ether. + + The occult scientist knows this to be true of the Chemical Region and +that the mineral does not possess a separate vital body of ether. And as it +is the planetary ether alone which envelops the atoms of the mineral, that +makes the difference described. It is necessary, as we have shown, to have +a separate, vital BODY, desire BODY, etc., to express the qualities of a +particular realm, because the atoms of the World of Desire, of the World of +Thought and even of the Higher Worlds, inter-penetrate the Mineral as well +as the dense human body, and if the inter-penetration of the planetary +ether, which is the ether that envelops the atoms of the mineral, were +enough to make it feel and propagate its inter-penetration by the planetary +World of Thought would also be sufficient to make it think. This it cannot +do, because it lacks a SEPARATE vehicle. It is penetrated by the planetary +ether only, and is therefore incapable of individual growth. Only the low- +est of the four states of ether--the chemical--is active in the mineral. The +chemical forces in minerals are due to that fact. + + When we consider plant, animal, and man in relation to the Etheric Re- +gion we note that each has a separate, vital body, in addition to being pen- +etrated by the planetary ether which forms the Etheric Region. There is a +difference, however, between the vital bodies of the plants and the vital +bodies of animal and man. In the vital body of the plant only the chemical +and the life ethers are fully active. Hence the plant can grow by the ac- +tion of the chemical ether and propagate its species through the activity of +the life ether of the separate, vital body which it possesses. The light + + + + +[PAGE 59] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +ether is present, but is partially latent or dormant and reflecting ether is +lacking. Therefore it is evident that the faculties of sense-perception and +memory, which are the qualities of these ethers, cannot be expressed by the +plant kingdom. + + Turning our attention to the vital body of the animal we find that in +it the chemical, life and light ethers are dynamically active. Hence the +animal has the faculties of assimilation and growth, caused by the ac- +tivities of the chemical ether; and the faculty of propagation by means of +the life ether--these being the same as in plants. But in addition, it has +the faculties of generating internal heat and of sense-perception. The +fourth ether, however, is inactive in the animal, hence it has no thought +nor memory. That which appears as such will be shown later to be of a dif- +ferent nature. + + When we analyze the human being, we find that in him all four ethers +are dynamically active in the highly organized vital body. By means of the +activities of the chemical he is able to assimilate food and to grow; the +forces at work in the life ether enable him to propagate his species; the +forces in the light ether supply the dense body with heat, work on the ner- +vous system and muscles, thus opening the doors of communication with the +outside world by way of the senses; and the reflecting ether enables the +spirit to control its vehicle by means of thought. This ether also stores +past experience as memory. + + The vital body of plant, animal, and man, extends beyond the periphery +of the dense body as the Etheric Region, which is the vital body of a +planet, extends beyond its dense part, showing again the truth of the Her- +metic axiom "As above, so below." The distance of this extension of the + + + + +[PAGE 60] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +vital body of man is about an inch and a half. The part which is outside +the dense body is very luminous and about the color of a new-blown +peach-blossom. It is often seen by persons having very slight involuntary +clairvoyance. The writer has found, when speaking with such persons, that +they frequently are not aware they see anything unusual and do not know what +they see. + + The dense body is built into the matrix of this vital body during +ante-natal life, and with one exception, it is an exact copy, molecule for +molecule, of the vital body. As the lines of force in freezing water are +the avenues of formation for ice crystals, so the lines of force in the vi- +tal body determine the shape of the dense body. All through life the vital +body is the builder and restorer of the dense form. Were it not for the +etheric heart the dense heart would break quickly under the constant strain +we put upon it. All the abuses to which we subject the dense body are coun- +teracted, so far as lies in it power, by the vital body, which is con- +tinually fighting against the death of the sense body. + + The exception mentioned above is that the vital body of a man is female +or negative, while that of a woman is male or positive. In that fact we +have the key to numerous puzzling problems of life. That woman gives way to +her emotions is due to the polarity noted, for her positive, vital body gen- +erates an excess of blood and causes her to labor under an enormous internal +pressure that would break the physical casement were not a safety-valve pro- +vided in the periodical flow, and another in the tears which relieve the +pressure on special occasions--for tears are "white bleeding." + + Man may have and has as strong emotions as woman, but he is usually +able to suppress them without tears, because his negative vital body does +not generate more blood than he can comfortably control. + + + +[PAGE 61] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + + Unlike the higher vehicles of humanity, the vital body (except under +certain circumstances, to be explained when the subject of "Initiation" is +dealt with) does not ordinarily leave the dense body until the death of the +latter. Then the chemical forces of the dense body are no longer held in +check by the evolving life. They proceed to restore the matter to its +primordial condition by disintegration so that it may be available for the +formation of other forms in the economy of nature. Disintegration is thus +due to the activity of the planetary forces in the chemical ether. + + In texture the vital body may be crudely compared to one of those pic- +ture frames made of hundreds of little pieces of wood which interlock and +present innumerable points to the observer. These points enter into the +hollow centers of the dense atoms, imbuing them with vital force that sets +them vibrating at a higher rate than that of the mineral of the earth which +is not thus accelerated and ensouled. + + When a person is drowning, or falling from a height, or freezing, the +vital body leaves the dense body, the atoms of which become temporarily in- +ert in consequence, but at resuscitation it re-enters the dense body and the +"points" are again inserted in the dense atoms. The inertia of the atoms +causes them to resist the resumption of vibration and that is the cause of +the intense prickly pain and the tingling sensation noted at such times, but +not ordinarily, for the same reason that we become conscious of the starting +or stopping of a clock, but are oblivious to its tick when it is running. + + There are certain cases where the vital body partly leaves the dense + + + +[PAGE 62] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +body, such as when a hand "goes to sleep." Then the etheric hand of the vi- +tal body ay be seen hanging below the dense arm like a glove and the points +cause the peculiar pricking sensation felt when the etheric hand re-enters +the dense hand. Sometimes in hypnosis the head of the vital body divides +and hangs outside the dense head, one half over each shoulder, or lies +around the neck like the collar of a sweater. The absence of prickly sensa- +tion at awakening in cases like this is because during the hypnosis part of +the hypnotist's vital body had been substituted for that of the victim. + + When anesthetics are used the vital body is partially driven out, along +with the higher vehicles, and if the application is too strong and the life +ether is driven out, death ensues. This same phenomenon may also be ob- +served in the case of materializing mediums. In fact the difference between +a materializing medium and an ordinary man or woman is just this: In the +ordinary man or woman the vital body and the dense body are, at the present +stage of evolution, quite firmly interlocked, while in the medium they are +loosely connected. It has not always been so, and the time will come again +when the vital body may normally leave the dense vehicle, but that is not +normally accomplished at present. When a medium allows his or her vital +body to be used by entities from the Desire World who wish to materialize, +the vital body generally oozes from the left side--through the spleen, which +is its particular "gate." Then the vital forces cannot flow into the body +as they do normally, the medium becomes greatly exhausted, and some of them +resort to stimulants to counteract the effects, in time becoming incurable +drunkards. + + The vital force from the sun, which surrounds us as a colorless fluid, +is absorbed by the vital body through the etheric counterpart of the spleen, + + + + +[PAGE 63] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +wherein in undergoes a curious transformation of color. It becomes pale +rosehued and spreads along the nerves all over the dense body. It is to the +nervous system what the force of electricity is to a telegraph system. +Thought there be wires, instruments, and telegraph operators all in order, +if the electricity is lacking, no message can be sent. The Ego, the brain, +and the nervous system may be in seemingly perfect order, but if the vital +force be lacking to carry the message of the Ego through the nerves to the +muscles, the dense body will remain inert. This is exactly what happens +when part of the dense body becomes paralyzed. The vital body has become +diseased and the vital force can no longer flow. In such cases, as in most +sickness, the trouble is with the finer invisible vehicles. In conscious or +unconscious recognition of this fact, the most successful physicians use +suggestion--which works upon the higher vehicles--as aid to medicine. The +more a physician can imbue his patient with faith and hope, the speedier +disease will vanish and give place to perfect health. + + During the health the vital body specializes a superabundance of vital +force,which, after passing through a dense body, radiates in straight lines +in every direction from the periphery thereof, as the radii of a circle do +from the center; but during ill-health, when the vital body becomes at- +tenuated, it is not able to draw to itself the same amount of force and in +addition the dense body is feeding upon it. Then the lines of the vital +fluid which pass out from the body are crumpled and bent, showing the lack +of force behind them. In health the great force of these radiations carries +with it germs and microbes which are inimical to the health of the dense +body, but in sickness, when the vital force is weak, these emanations do not + + + + +[PAGE 64] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +so readily eliminate disease germs. Therefore the danger of contracting +disease is much greater when the vital forces are low than when one is in +robust health. + + In cases where parts of the dense body are amputated, only the plan- +etary ether accompanies the separated part. The separate vital body and the +dense body disintegrate synchronously after death. So with the etheric +counterpart of the amputated limb. It will gradually disintegrate as the +dense member decays, but in the meantime the fact that the man still pos- +sesses the etheric limb accounts for his assertion that he can feel his fin- +gers or suffers pain in them. There is also a connection with a buried mem- +ber, irrespective of distance. A case is on record where a man felt severe +paid, as if a nail had been driven into the flesh of an amputated limb, and +he persisted until the limb was exhumed, when it was found that a nail had +been driven into it at the time it was boxed for burial. The nail was re- +moved and the pain instantly stopped. It is also in accordance with these +facts that people complain of pain in a limb for perhaps two or three years +after the amputation. The pain will then cease. This is because the dis- +ease remains in the still undetached etheric limb, but as the amputated part +disintegrates, the etheric limb follows suit and thus the pain ceases. + + Having noted the relations of the four kingdoms to the Etheric Region +of the Physical World, we will next turn our attention to their relation to +the Desire World. + + Here we find that both minerals and plants lack the separate desire +body. They are permeated only by the planetary desire body, the Desire +World. Lacking the separate vehicle, they are incapable of feeling, desire, +and emotion, which are faculties pertaining to the Desire World. + + + + + +[PAGE 65] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +When a stone is broken, it does not feel; but it would be wrong to infer +that there is no feeling connected with such an action. That is the materi- +alistic view, or the view taken by the uncomprehending multitude. The oc- +cult scientist knows that there is no act, great or small, which is not felt +throughout the universe, and even though the stone, because it has no +separate desire body, cannot feel, the Spirit of the Earth feels because it +is Earth's desire body that permeates the stone. When a man cuts his fin- +ger, the finger, having no separate desire body, does not feel the paid, but +the man does, because it is his desire body which permeates the finger. If +a plant is torn up by the roots, it is felt by the Spirit of the Earth as a +man would feel if a hair were torn from his head. This Earth is a living, +feeling body, and all the forms which are without separate desire bodies +through which their informing spirits may experience feeling, are included +in the desire body of the Earth and THAT desire body has feeling. The +breaking of a stone and the breaking off of flowers are productive of plea- +sure to the Earth, while the pulling our of plants by the root causes paid. +The reason is given in the latter part of this work, for at this stage of +our study the explanation would be incomprehensible to the general reader. + + The planetary Desire World pulsates through the dense and vital bodies +of animal and man in the same way that it penetrates the mineral and plant, +but in addition to this, animal and man have separate desire bodies, which +enable them to feel desire, emotion and passion. There is a difference, +however. The desire body of the animal is built entirely of the material of +the denser regions of the Desire World, while in the case of even the lowest +of human races a little matter of the higher Regions enters into the + + + + +[PAGE 66] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +composition of the desire body. The feelings of animals and the lowest hu- +man races are almost entirely concerned with the gratification of the lowest +desires and passions which find their expression in the matter of the lower +Regions of the Desire World. Hence, in order that they may have such emo- +tions to educate them for something higher, it is necessary that they should +have the corresponding materials in their desire bodies. As man progresses +in the school of life, his experiences teach him, and his desires become +purer and better. Thus by degrees the material of his desire body undergoes +a corresponding change. The purer and brighter material of the higher Re- +gions of the Desire World replaces the murky colors of the lower part. The +desire body also grows in size, so that in a saint it is truly a glorious +object to behold, the purity of its colors and its luminous transparency be- +ing beyond adequate simile. It must be seen to be appreciated. + + At present the materials of both the lower and the higher Regions enter +into the composition of the desire bodies of the great majority of mankind. +None are so bad that they have not some good trait. This is expressed in +the materials of the higher Regions which we find in their desire bodies. +But, on the other hand, very, very few are so good that they do not use some +of the materials of the lower Regions. + + In the same way that the planetary vital and desire bodies +inter-penetrate the dense material of the Earth, as we saw in the illustra- +tion of the sponge, the sand and the water, so the vital and desire bodies +inter-penetrate the dense body of plant, animal, and man. But during the +life of man his desire body is not shaped like his dense and vital bodies. +After death it assumes that shape. During life it has the appearance of a + + +[In the original printing, the following three un-numbered pages contain +charts: Ordinary Man: Currents in the Desire Body; Voluntary Clairvoyant: +Currents in the Desire Body; Involuntary Clairvoyant: Currents in the De- +sire Body.] + + + + +[PAGE 67] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +luminous ovoid which, in waking hours, completely surrounds the dense body, +as the albumen does the yolk of an egg. It extends from twelve to sixteen +inches beyond the dense body. In this desire body there are a number of +sense centers, but, in the great majority of people, they are latent. It +is the awakening of these centers of perception that corresponds to the +opening of the blind man's eyes in our former illustration. The matter +in the human desire body is in incessant motion of inconceivable rapidity. +There is in it no settled place for any particle, as in the dense body. The +matter that is at the head one moment may be at the feet in the next and +back again. There are no organs in the desire body, as in the dense and +vital bodies, but there are centers of perception, which, when active, ap- +pear as vortices, always remaining in the same relative position to the +dense body, most of them about the head. In the majority of people they are +mere eddies and are of no use as centers of perception. They may be awak- +ened in all, however, but different methods produce different results. + + In the involuntary clairvoyant developed along improper, negative +lines, these vortices turn from right to left, or in the opposite direction +to the hands of a clock--counterclockwise. + + In the desire body of the properly trained voluntary clairvoyant, they +turn in the same direction as the hands of a clock--clockwise, glowing with +exceeding splendor, far surpassing the brilliant luminosity of the ordinary +desire body. These centers furnish him with means for the perception of +things in the Desire World and he sees, and investigates as he wills, while +the person whose centers turn counter-clockwise is like a mirror, which re- +flects what passes before it. Such a person is incapable of reaching out +for information. The reason for this belongs to a later chapter, but the + + + + +[PAGE 68] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +above is one of the fundamental differences between a medium and a properly +trained clairvoyant. It is impossible for most people to distinguish +between the two; yet there is one infallible rule that can be followed by +anyone: NO GENUINELY DEVELOPED SEER WILL EVER EXERCISE THIS FACULTY FOR +MONEY OR ITS EQUIVALENT; NOT WILL HE USE IT TO GRATIFY CURIOSITY; BUT ONLY +TO HELP HUMANITY. + + No one capable of teaching the proper method for the development of +this faculty will every charge so much a lesson. Those demanding money for +the exercise of, or for giving lessons in these things never have anything +worth paying for. The above rule is a safe and sure guide, which all may +follow with absolute confidence. + + In a far distant future man's desire body will become as definitely or- +ganized as are the vital and dense bodies. When that stage is reached we +shall all have the power to function in the desire body as we do know in the +dense body, which is the oldest and best organized of these bodies of +man--the desire body being the youngest. + + The desire body is rooted in the liver, as the vital body is in the +spleen. + + In all warm-blooded creatures, which are the highest evolved, and have +feelings, passions and emotions, which reach outward into the world with de- +sire, which may be said to really live in the fuller meaning of the term and +not merely vegetate--in all such creatures the currents of the desire body +flow outward from the liver. The desire stuff is continually welling out in +streams or currents which travel in curved lines to every point of the pe- +riphery of the ovoid and then return to the liver through a number of vorti- +ces, much as boiling water is continually welling outward from the source of +heat and returning to it after completing its cycle. + + + + +[PAGE 69] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + + The plants are devoid of this impelling, energizing principle, hence +they cannot show life and motion as can the more highly developed organisms. + + Where there is vitality and motion, but no RED blood, there is no +separate desire body. The creature is simply in the transition stage from +plant to animal and therefore it moves entirely in the strength of the +group-spirit. + + In the COLD-blooded animals which have a liver and RED blood, there is +a separate desire body and the group-spirit directs the currents INWARD, be- +cause in their case the separate spirit (of the individual fish or reptile +for instance) is entirely outside the dense vehicle. + + When the organism has evolved so far that the separate spirit can com- +mence to draw into its vehicles then it (the individual spirit) commences to +direct the currents OUTWARD, and we see the beginning of passionate exist- +ence and warm blood. It is the warm, red blood in the liver of the organism +sufficiently evolved to have an Indwelling spirit which energizes the outgo- +ing currents of desire stuff that cause the animal or the man to display de- +sire and passion. In the case of the animal the spirit is not yet entirely +INdwelling. It does not become so until the points in the vital body and +the dense body come into correspondence, as explained in Chapter XII. For +this reason the animal is not a "liver," that is, he does not live as com- +pletely as does man, not being capable of as fine desires and emotions, be- +cause not as fully conscious. The mammalia of today are on a higher plane +than was man at the animal stage of his evolution, because they have warm, +red blood, which man did not have at that stage. This difference in status +is accounted for by the spiral path of evolution, which also accounts for +the fact that man is a higher type of humanity than the present Angels were + + + + +[PAGE 70] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +in their human stage. The present mammalia, which have in their animal +stage attained to the possession of warm, red blood, and are therefore +capable of experiencing desire and emotion to some extent will, in the Jupi- +ter Period, be a purer and better type of humanity than we are now, while +from among our present humanity there will be some, even in the Jupiter Pe- +riod, who will be openly and avowedly wicked. Moreover, they will not then +be able to conceal their passions as is now possible, but will be unabashed +about their evil doing. + + In the light of this exposition of the connection between the liver and +the life of the organism, it is noteworthy that in several European lan- +guages (English, German, and the Scandinavian tongues) the same word signi- +fies the organ of the body (the liver) and also "one who lives." + + When we turn our attention to the four kingdoms in their relation to +the World of Thought we find that minerals, plants and animals lack a ve- +hicle correlating them to that World. Yet we know some animals think, but +they are the highest domesticated animals which have come into close touch +with man for generations and have thus developed a faculty not possessed by +other animals, which have not had that advantage. This is on the same prin- +ciple that a highly wire will "induce" a weaker current of electricity in a +wire brought close to it; or that a man of strong morals will arouse a like +tendency in a weaker nature, while one morally weak will be overthrown if +brought within the influence of evil characters. All we do, say, or are, +reflects itself in our surroundings. This is why the highest domestic +animals think. They are the highest of their kind, almost on the point of +individualization, and man's thought vibrations have "induced" in them a +similar activity of a lower order. With the exceptions noted, the animal + + + + +[PAGE 71] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +kingdom has not acquired the faculty of thought. The are not INDIVIDUAL- +IZED. This is the great and cardinal difference between the human and other +kingdoms. Man is an individual. The animals, plants and minerals are di- +vided into species. They are not individualized in the same sense than man +is. + + It is true that we divide mankind into races, tribes and nations; we +note the difference between the Caucasian, , the Negro, the Indian, etc.; +but that is not to the point. If we wish to study the characteristics of +the lion or the elephant or any other species of the lower animals, all that +is necessary is to take any member of that species for that purpose. When +we learn the characteristics of one animal, we know the characteristics of +the species to which it belongs. All members of the same animal tribe are +alike. That is the point. A lion, or its father, or it son, all look +alike; there is no difference in the way they will act under like condi- +tions. All have the same likes and dislikes; one is the same as another. + + Not so with human beings. If we want to know about the characteristics +of Negroes, it is not enough that we examine one single individual. It +would be necessary to examine each individually, and even then we will ar- +rive at no knowledge concerning Negroes as a whole, simply because that +which was a characteristic of the single individual does not apply to the +race collectively. + + If we desire to know the character of Abraham Lincoln it will avail us +nothing to study his father, his grandfather, or his son, for they would +differ entirely. Each would have his own peculiarities quite distinct from +the idiosyncrasies of Abraham Lincoln. + + On the other hand, minerals, plants, and animals are described if we +devote our attention to the description of one of each species; while there + + + + +[PAGE 72] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +are as many species among human beings as there are individuals. Each indi- +vidual person is a "species," a law unto himself, altogether separate and +apart from any other individual, as different from his fellow men as one +species in the lower kingdom is from another. We may write the biography of +a man, but an animal can have no biography. This is because there is in +each man an individual, INDWELLING spirit which dictates the thoughts and +actions of each individual human being; while there is one "group-spirit" +COMMON TO ALL the different animals or plants of the same species. The +group-spirit works on the all FROM THE OUTSIDE. The tiger which roams in +the wilds of the Indian jungle and the tiger penned up in the cage of a me- +nagerie are both expressions of the same group-spirit. It influences both +alike from the Desire World, distance being almost annihilated in the inner +Worlds. + + The group-spirits of the three lower kingdoms are variously located in +the higher Worlds, as we shall see when we investigate the consciousness of +the different kingdoms; but to properly comprehend the positions of these +group-spirits in the inner Worlds it is necessary to remember and to clearly +understand what has been said about all the forms that are in the visible +world having crystallized from models and ideas in the inner Worlds, as il- +lustrated by the architect's house and the inventor's machine. As the +juices of the soft body of the snail crystallize into the hard shell which +it carries upon its back, so the Spirits in the higher Worlds have, in a +similar manner, crystallized our from themselves the dense, material bodies +of the different kingdoms. + + Thus the so-called "higher" bodies, although so fine and cloudy as to +be invisible, are not by any means "emanations" from the dense body, but the + + + + +[PAGE 73] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +dense vehicles of all kingdoms correspond to the shell of the snail, which +is crystallized from its juices, the snail representing the spirit; and the +juices of its body in their progress towards crystallization representing +the mind, desire body and vital body. THESE VARIOUS VEHICLES WERE EMANATED +BY THE SPIRIT FROM ITSELF for the purpose of gaining experience through +them. It is the spirit that moves the dense body where it will, as the +snail moves its house, and not the body that controls the movements of the +spirit. The more closely the spirit is able to enter into touch with its +vehicle the better can it control and express itself through that vehicle, +and vice versa. That is the key to the different states of consciousness in +the different kingdoms. A study of diagrams 3 and 4 should give a clear un- +derstanding of the vehicles of each kingdom, the manner in which they are + + + + + + DIAGRAM 3: + + Showing the vehicles of each kingdom, and the manner in which such ve- +hicles are correlated to the different worlds. + + + +[PAGE 74] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + + DIAGRAM 4: + + Showing the state of consciousness appertaining to each kingdom. + + + + + + +correlated to the different Worlds and the resulting state of consciousness. + + From diagram 3 we learn that the separate Ego is definitely segregated +within the Universal Spirit in the Region of Abstract Thought. It shows +that only man possesses the complete chain of vehicles correlating him to +all divisions to the three Worlds. The animal lacks one link of chain--the +mind; the plant lacks two links; the mind and the desire body; and the min- +eral lacks three links of the chain of the vehicles necessary to function in +a self-conscious manner in the Physical World-the mind, the desire and the +vital bodies. + + The reason for the various deficiencies is that the Mineral Kingdom is +the expression of the latest stream of evolving life; the Plant Kingdom is +ensouled by a life wave that has been longer upon the path of evolution; the + + + + +[PAGE 75] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +life wave of the animal kingdom has a still longer past; while Man, that is +to say, the life now expressing itself in the human form, has behind it the +longest journey of all the four kingdoms, and therefore leads. In time, the +three life-waves which now animate the three lower kingdoms will reach the +human, and we shall have passed to higher stages of development. + + To understand the degree of consciousness which results from the pos- +session of the vehicles used by the life evolving in the four kingdoms, we +turn our attention to diagram 4, which shows that man, the Ego, the Thinker, +has descended into the Chemical Region of the Physical World. Here he has +marshaled all his vehicles, thereby attaining the state of waking conscious- +ness. He learning to control his vehicles. The organs of neither the de- +sire body nor the mind are yet evolved. The latter is not yet even a body. +At present it is simply a link, a sheath for the use of the Ego as a focus- +ing point. It is the last of the vehicles that have been built. The spirit +works gradually from finer into coarser substance, the vehicles also being +built in finer substance first, then in coarser and coarser substance. The +dense body was built first and has now come into its fourth stage of den- +sity; the vital body is in its third stage and the desire body in its sec- +ond, hence it is still cloud-like, and the sheath of mind is filmier still. +As those vehicles have not, as yet, evolved any organs, it is clear that +they ALONE would be useless as vehicles of consciousness. The Ego, however, +enters INTO the dense body and connects these organless vehicles with the +physical sense centers and thus attains the waking state of consciousness in +the Physical World. + + The student should particularly note that it is because of their con- +nection with the splendidly organized mechanism of the dense body that these + +[PAGE 76] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +higher vehicles become of value at present. He will thus avoid a mistake +frequently made by people who, when they come into the knowledge that there +are higher bodies, grow to despise the dense vehicle; to speak of it as +"low" and "vile"--turning their eyes to heaven and wishing that they might +soon be able to leave this earthly lump of clay and fly about in their +"higher vehicles." + + These people generally do not realize the difference between "higher" +and "perfect." Certainly, the dense body is the lowest vehicle in the sense +that it is the most unwieldy, correlating man to the world of sense with all +the limitations thus implied. As stated, it has an enormous period of +evolution back of it; is in it fourth state of development and has now +reached a great and marvelous degree of efficiency. It will, in time, reach +perfection, but even at present it is the best organized of man's vehicles. +The vital body is in its third stage of evolution, and less completely orga- +nized than the dense body. The desire body and the mind are, as yet, mere +clouds--almost entirely unorganized. In the very lowest human beings these +vehicles are not even definite ovoids; they are more or less undefined in +form. + + The dense body is a wonderfully constructed instrument and should be +recognized as such by everyone pretending to have any knowledge of the con- +stitution of man. Observe the femur, for instance. This bone carries the +entire weight of the body. On the outside it is built of a thin layer of +compact bone, strengthened on the inside by beams and cross-beams of +cancellated bone, in such a marvelous manner that the most skilled bridge or +construction engineer could never accomplish the feat of building a pillar +of equal strength with so little weight. The bones of the skull are built + + + + +[PAGE 77] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +in a similar manner, always the least possible material is used and the +maximum of strength obtained. Consider the wisdom manifested in the con- +struction of the heart and then question if this superb mechanism deserves +to be despised. The wise man is grateful for his dense body and takes the +best possible care of it, because he knows that it is the most valuable of +his present instruments. + + The animal spirit has in its descent reached only the Desire World. It +has not yet evolved to the point where it can "enter" a dense body. There- +fore the animal has no individual INdwelling spirit, but a group-spirit, +which directs it FROM WITHOUT. The animal has the dense body, the vital +body and the desire body, but the group-spirit which directs it is outside. +The vital body and the desire body of an animal are not entirely within the +dense body, especially where the head is concerned. For instance, the +etheric head of a horse projects far beyond and above the dense physical +head. When, as in rare cases it happens, the etheric head of a horse draws +into the head of the dense body, that horse can learn to read, count and +work examples in elementary arithmetic. To this peculiarity is also due the +fact that horses, dogs, cats and other domesticated animals sense the Desire +World, though not always realizing the difference between it and the +Physical World. A horse will shy at the sight of a figure invisible to the +driver; a cat will go through the motions of rubbing itself against invis- +ible legs. The cat sees the ghost, however without realizing that it has no +dense legs available for frictional purposes. The dog, wiser than a cat or +horse, will often sense that there is something he does not understand about +the appearance of a dead master whose hands it cannot lick. It will howl +mournfully and slink into a corner with its tail between its legs. The fol- +lowing illustration may perhaps be of service to show the difference between + + + + +[PAGE 78] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +the man with his indwelling spirit and the animal with its group-spirit. + + Let us imagine a room divided by means of a curtain, one side of the +curtain representing the Desire World and the other the Physical. There are +two men in the room, one in each division; they cannot see each other, nor +can they get into the same division. There are, however, ten holes in the +curtain and the man who is in the division representing the Desire World can +put his ten fingers through these holes into the other division, represent- +ing the Physical World. He now furnishes an excellent representation of the +group-spirit which is in the Desire World. The fingers represent the +animals belonging to one species. He is able to move them as he wills, but +he cannot use them freely nor as intelligently as the man who is walking +about in the Physical division uses his body. The latter sees the fingers +which are thrust through the curtain and he observes that they all move, but +he does not see the connection between them. To him it appears as if they +were all separate and distinct from one another. He cannot see that they +are fingers of the man behind the veil and are governed in their movements +by his intelligence. If he hurts one of the fingers, it is not only the +finger that he hurts, but chiefly the man on the other side of the curtain. +If an animal is hurt, it suffers, but not to the degree that the +group-spirit does. The finger has no individualized consciousness; it moves +as the man dictates--so do the animals moves as the group-spirit dictates. +We hear of "animal instinct" and "blind instinct." There is no such vague, +indefinite thing as "blind" instinct. There is nothing "blind" about the +way the group-spirit guides its members--there is Wisdom, spelled with + + + + +[PAGE 79] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +capitals. The trained clairvoyant, when functioning in the Desire World, +can communicate with these spirits of the animal species and finds them much +more intelligent than a large percent of human beings. He can see the mar- +velous insight they display in marshaling the animals which are their +physical bodies. + + It is the spirit of the group which gathers its flocks of birds in the +fall and compels them to migrate to the south, neither too early nor too +late to escape the winter's chilly blast; that directs their return in the +spring, causing them to fly at just the proper altitude, which differs for +the different species. + + The group-spirit of the beaver teaches it to build its dam across a +stream at exactly the proper angle. It considers the rapidity of the flow, +and all the circumstances, precisely as a skilled engineer would do, showing +that it is as up-to-date in every particular of the craft as the +college-bred, technically-educated man. It is the wisdom of the +group-spirit that directs the building of the hexagon cell of the bee with +such geometrical nicety; that teaches the snail to fashion its house in an +accurate, beautiful spiral; that teaches the ocean mollusk the art of +decorating its iridescent shell. Wisdom, wisdom everywhere! So grand, so +great that one who looks with an observant eye is filed with amazement and +reverence. + + At this point the thought will naturally occur that if the animal +group-spirit is so wise, considering the short period of evolution of the +animal as compared with that of man, why does not the latter display wisdom +to a much greater degree and why must man be taught to build dams and geom- +etrize, all of which the group spirit does without being taught? + + + + + +[PAGE 80] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + The answer to that question has to do with the descent of +the Universal Spirit into matter of ever-increasing density. In the higher +Worlds, where its vehicles are fewer and finer, it is in closer touch with +cosmic wisdom which shines out in a manner inconceivable in the dense +Physical World, but as the spirit descends, the light of wisdom becomes tem- +porarily more and more dimmed, until in the densest of all the Worlds, it is +held almost entirely in abeyance. + + An illustration will make this clearer. The hand is man's most valu- +able servant; its dexterity enables it to respond to his slightest bidding. +In some vocations, such as bank teller, the delicate touch of the hand be- +comes so sensitive, that it is able to distinguish a counterfeit coin from a +genuine in a way so marvelous that one would almost think the hand were en- +dowed with individual intelligence. + + Its greatest efficiency is perhaps reached in the production of music. +It is capable of producing the most beautiful, soul-stirring melodies. The +delicate, caressing touch of the hand elicits the tenderest strains of +soul-speech from the instrument, telling of the sorrows, the joys, the +hopes, the fears and the longings of the soul in a way that nothing but mu- +sic can do. It is the language of the heaven world, the spirit's true home, +and comes to the divine spark imprisoned in flesh as a message from its na- +tive land. Music appeals to all, regardless of race, creed, or other +worldly distinction. The higher and more spiritual the individual the +plainer does it speak to him and even "the savage breast" is not unmoved by +it. + + Let us now imagine a master musician putting on thin gloves and trying +to play his violin. We note at once that the delicate touch is less subtle; +the soul of the music is gone. If he puts another and a heavier pair of + + + + +[PAGE 81] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +gloves over the first pair, his hand is hampered to such an extent that he +may occasionally create a discord instead of the former harmony. Should he +at last put on, in addition to the two pairs of gloves already hampering +him, a pair of still heavier mittens, he would, temporarily, be entirely un- +able to play, and one who had not heard him play previously to the time he +put on the gloves and the mittens, would naturally think that he had never +been able to do so, especially if ignorant of the hampering of his hands. + + So it is with the Spirit; every step down, every descent into coarser +matter is to it what the putting on of a pair of gloves would be to the mu- +sician. Every step down limits its power of expression until it has become +accustomed to the limitations and has found its focus, in the same way that +the eye must find its focus after we enter a house on a bright summer day. +The pupil of the eye contracts to its limit in the glare of the sun and on +entering the house all seems dark; but, as the pupil expands, and admits the +light, the man is enabled to see as well in the dimmer light of the house as +he did in the sunlight. + + The purpose of man's evolution here is to enable him to find his focus +in the Physical World, where at present the light of wisdom seems obscured. +But when in time we have "found the light," the wisdom of man will shine for +forth in his actions, and far surpass the wisdom expressed by the +group-spirit of the animal. + + Besides, a distinction must be made between the group spirit and the +virgin spirits of the life wave now expressing itself as animals. The +group-spirit belongs to a different evolution and is the guardian of the +animal spirits. + + The dense body in which we function is composed of numerous cells, each +having separate cellconsciousness, though of a very low order. While these +cells from part of our body they are subjected to an dominated by OUR + + + + +[PAGE 82] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +consciousness. An animal group-spirit functions in a SPIRITUAL BODY, which +is its lowest vehicle This vehicle consists of a varying number of virgin +spirits imbued for the time being with the consciousness of the +group-spirit. The latter directs the vehicles built by the virgin spirits +in its charge, caring for them and helping them to evolve their vehicles. +As its wards evolve, the group-spirit also evolves, undergoing a series of +metamorphoses, in a manner similar to that in which we grow and gain experi- +ence by taking into our bodies the cells of the food we eat, thereby also +raising their consciousness by enduing them with ours for a time. + + Thus while a separate, self-conscious Ego is within each human body and +dominates the actions of its particular vehicle, the spirit of the separate +animal is not yet individualized and self-conscious, but forms part of the +vehicle of a self-conscious entity belonging to a different evolution--the +group-spirit. + + The group-spirit dominates the actions of the animals in harmony with +cosmic law, until the virgin spirits in its charge shall have gained +self-consciousness and become human. Then they will gradually manifest +wills of their own, gaining more and more freedom from the group-spirit and +becoming responsible for their own actions. The group-spirit will influence +them, however (although in a decreasing degree), as race, tribe, community, +or family spirit until each individual has become capable of acting in full +harmony with cosmic law. Not until that time will the Ego be entirely free +and independent of the group-spirit, which will then enter a higher phase of +evolution. + + The position occupied by the group-spirit in the Desire World gives to + + + + +[PAGE 83] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +the animal a consciousness different form that of man, who has a clear, +definite waking consciousness. Man sees things OUTSIDE of himself in sharp, +distinct outlines. Owing to the spiral path of evolution, the higher domes- +tic animals, particularly the dog, horse, cat and elephant see objects in +somewhat the same way, though perhaps not so clearly defined. All other +animals have an internal "picture consciousness" similar to the dream-state +in man. When such an animal is confronted by an object, a picture is im- +mediately perceived WITHIN, accompanied by a strong impression that the ob- +ject is inimical or beneficial to its welfare. If the feeling is one of +fear, it is associated with a suggestion from the group-spirit how to escape +the threatened danger. This negative state of consciousness renders it easy +for the group-spirit to guide the dense bodies of its charges by suggestion, +as the animals have no will of their own. + + Man is not so easily managed from without, either with or without his +consent. As evolution progresses and man's will develops more and more, he +will become non-amenable to outside suggestion and free to do as he pleases +regardless of suggestions from others. This is the chief difference between +man and the other kingdoms. They act according to law and the dictates of +the group-spirit (which we call instinct), while man is becoming more and +more a law unto himself. We do not ask the mineral whether or not it will +crystallize, nor the flower whether it will or will not bloom, nor the lion +whether it will or will not cease to prey. They are all, in the smallest as +in the greatest matter, under the absolute domination of the group-spirit, +being without free will and initiative which, in some degree, are possessed +by every human being. All animals of the same species look nearly alike, + + + + +[PAGE 84] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +because they emanate from the same group-spirit, while among the fifteen +hundred millions of human beings who people the Earth no two look exactly +alike, not even twins when adolescent, because the stamp that is put upon +each by the indwelling individual Ego makes the difference in appearance as +well as in character. + + That all oxen thrive on grass, and all lions eat flesh, while "one +man's meat is another man's poison" is another illustration of the +all-inclusive influence of the group-spirit as contrasted with the Ego which +makes each human being require a different proportion of food from every +other. Doctors note with perplexity the same peculiarity in administering +medicine. Its acts differently upon different individuals, while the same +medicine will produce identical effects on two animals of the same species, +owing to the fact that animals all follow the dictates of the group-spirit +and Cosmic Law--always act similarly in identical circumstances. Man alone +is, in some measure, able to follow his own desires within certain limits. +That his mistakes are many and grievous, is granted, and to many it might +seem better if he were forced into the right way, but if this were done, he +would never learn to do right. Lessons of discrimination between good and +evil cannot be learned unless he is free to choose his own course and has +learned to eschew the wrong as a veritable "womb of pain." If he did right +only because he had no choice, and had no chance to do otherwise, he would +be but an automaton and not an evolving God. As the builder learns by his +mistakes, correcting past errors in future buildings, so man, by means of +his blunders, and the pain they cause him, is attaining to a higher (because +self-conscious) wisdom than the animal, which acts wisely because it is im- +pelled to action by the group-spirit. In time the animal will become human, + + + + +[PAGE 85] THE FOUR KINGDOMS + +have liberty of choice and will make mistakes and learn by them as we do +now. + + Diagram 4 shows that the group-spirit of the plant kingdom has its low- +est vehicle in the Region of Concrete Thought. It is two steps removed from +its dense vehicle and consequently the plants have a consciousness corre- +sponding to that of DREAMLESS SLEEP. The group-spirit of the mineral has +it slowest vehicle in the Region of Abstract Thought and it is, therefore, +three steps removed from its dense vehicle; hence it is in a state of deep +unconsciousness similar to the TRANCE condition. + + We have now shown that man is an individual indwelling spirit, an Ego +separate from all other entities, directing and working in one set of ve- +hicles from WITHIN , and that plants and animals are directed from WITHOUT +by a group-spirit having jurisdiction over a number of animals or plants in +our Physical World. They are separate only in appearance. + + The relations of plant, animal and man to the life currents in the +Earth's atmosphere are symbolically represented by the cross. The Mineral +Kingdom is not represented, because as we have seen, it possesses no indi- +vidual vital body, hence cannot be the vehicle for currents belonging to the +higher realms. Plato, who was an Initiate, often gave occult truths. He +said "The World-Soul is crucified." + + The lower limb of the cross indicates the plant with its root in the +chemical mineral soil. The group-spirits of plants are at the center of the +Earth. They are (it will be remembered) in the Region of Concrete Thought, +which inter-penetrates the Earth, as do all the other Worlds. From these +group-spirits flow streams or currents in all directions to the periphery of + + + + +[PAGE 86] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +the Earth, passing outward through the length of plant or tree. + + Man is represented by the upper limb; his is the INVERTED PLANT. The +plant takes its food through the root. Man takes his food through the head. +The plant stretches its generative organs towards the sun. Man, the in- +verted plant, turns his towards the center of the earth. The plant is sus- +tained by the spiritual currents of the group-spirit in the center of the +earth, which enter into it by way of the root. Later it will be shown that +the highest spiritual influence comes to man from the sun, which sends its +rays through man, the inverted plant, from the head downwards. The plant +inhales the poisonous carbon-dioxide exhales by man and exhales the +life-giving oxygen used by him. + + The animal, which is symbolized by the horizontal limb of the cross, is +between the plant and the man. Its spine is in a horizontal position and +through it play the currents of the animal group-spirit which encircle the +Earth. No animal can be made to remain constantly upright, because in that +case the currents of the group-spirit could not guide it, and if it were not +sufficiently individualized to endure the spiritual currents which enter the +vertical human spine, it would die. It is necessary that a vehicle for the +expression of an individual Ego shall have three things--an upright walk, +that it may come into touch with the currents just mentioned; an upright +larynx, for only such a larynx is capable of speech (parrots and starlings +are examples of this effect of the upright larynx); and, owing to the solar +currents, it must have warm blood. The latter is of the utmost importance +to the Ego, which will be logically explained and illustrated later. These +requisites are simply mentioned here as the last words on the status of the +four kingdoms in relation to each other and to the Worlds. + + + + +[PAGE 87] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + + CHAPTER III. + + MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + + ACTIVITIES OF LIFE; MEMORY AND SOUL-GROWTH + + Our study thus far of the seven Worlds or states of matter has shown us +that each serves a definite purpose in the economy of nature, and that God, +the Great Spirit, in Whom we actually and in fact "live and move and have +our being," is the Power that permeates and sustains the whole Universe with +Its Life; but while that Life flows into and is immanent in every atom of +the six lower Worlds and all contained therein, in the Seventh--the +highest--the Triune God alone IS. + + The next highest or sixth realm is the World of Virgin Spirits. Here +those sparks from the divine "Flame: have their being before they commence +their long pilgrimage through the five denser Worlds for the purpose of de- +veloping latent potentialities into dynamic powers. As the seed unfolds its +hidden possibilities by being buried in the soil, so these virgin spirits +will, in time, when they have passed through matter (the school of experi- +ence), also become divine "Flames," capable of bringing forth universes from +themselves. + + The five Worlds constitute the field of man's evolution, the three lower +or denser being the scene of the present phase of his development. We will +now consider his as related to these five Worlds by means of his appropriate +vehicles, remembering the two grand divisions into which two of these Worlds +are divided, and than man has a vehicle for each of these divisions. + + + + +[PAGE 88] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + DIAGRAM: + + THE SEVENFOLD CONSTITUTION OF MAN + + + + + In the waking state these vehicles are all together. They +inter-penetrate one another as the blood, the lymph, and other juices of the +body inter-penetrate. Thus is the Ego enabled to act in the Physical World. + + We ourselves, as Egos, function directly in the subtle substance of the +Region of Abstract Thought, which we have specialized within the periphery +of our individual aura. Thence we view the impressions made by the outer +world upon the vital body through the senses, together with the feelings and +emotions generated by them in the desire body, and mirrored in the mind. + + From these mental images we form our conclusions, in the substance of +the Region of Abstract Thought, concerning the subjects with which they +deal. Those conclusions are ideas. By the power of will we project an idea +through the mind, where it takes concrete shape as a thought-form by drawing +mind-stuff around itself from the Region of Concrete Thought. + + + + +[PAGE 89] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + + The mind is like the projecting lens of a stereopticon. It projects the +image in one of three directions, according to the will of the thinker, +which ensouls the thought-form. + + (1) It may be projected against the desire body in an endeavor to +arouse feeling which will lead to immediate action. + + (a) If the thought awakens Interest, one of the twin forces, Attraction +or Repulsion, will be stirred up. + + If Attraction, the centripetal force, is aroused, it seizes the thought, +whirls it into the desire body, endows the image with added life and clothes +it with desire-stuff. Then the thought is able to act on the etheric brain, +and propel the vital force through the appropriate brain centers and nerves +to the voluntary muscles which perform the necessary action. Thus the force +in the thought is expended and the image remains in the ether of the vital +body as memory of the act and the feeling that caused it. + + (b) Repulsion is the centrifugal force and if that is aroused by the +thought there will be a struggle between the spiritual force (the will of +the man) within the thought-form, and the desire body. This is the battle +between conscience and desire, the higher and the lower nature. The +spiritual force, in spite of resistance will seek to clothe the thought-form +in the desire-stuff needed to manipulate the brain and muscles. The force +of Repulsion will endeavor to scatter the appropriated material and oust the +thought. If the spiritual energy is strong it may force its way through to +the brain centers and hold its clothing of desire-stuff while manipulating +the vital force, thus compelling action, and will then leave upon the memory +a vivid impression of the struggle and the victory. If the spiritual energy +is exhausted before action has resulted, it will be overcome by the force of + + + + +[PAGE 90] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Repulsion, and will be stored in the memory, as are all other thought-forms +when they have expended their energy. + + (c) If the thought-form meets the withering feeling of Indifference it +depends upon the spiritual energy contained in it whether it will be able to +compel action, or simply leave a weak impress upon the reflecting ether of +the vital body after its kinetic energy has been exhausted. + + (2) Where no immediate action is called for by the mental images of im- +pacts from without, these may be projected directly upon the reflecting +ether, together with the thoughts occasioned by them, to be used at some fu- +ture time. The spirit, working through the mind, has instant access to the +storehouse of conscious memory and may at any time resurrect any of the pic- +tures found there, endue them with new spiritual force, and project them +upon the desire body to compel action. Each time such a picture is thus +used it will gain in vividness, strength and efficiency, and will compel ac- +tion along its particular line grooves, and produces the phenomenon of +thought, "gaining" or "growing" upon us by repetition. + + (3) A third way of using a thought-form is when the thinker projects it +toward another mind to act as a suggestion, to carry information, etc., as +in thought-transference, or it may be directed against the desire body of +another person to compel action, as in the case of a hypnotist influencing a +victim at a distance. It will then act in precisely the same manner as if +it were the victim's own thought. If in line with his proclivities it will +act as per paragraph 1a. If contrary to his nature, as described in 1b or +1c. + + When the work designed for such a projected thought-form has been ac- +complished, or its energy expended in vain attempts to achieve its object, + + + + +[PAGE 91] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +it gravitates back to its creator, bearing with it the indelible record of +the journey. It success or failure is imprinted on the negative atoms of +the reflecting ether of its creator's vital body, where it forms that part +of the record of the thinker's life and action which is sometimes called the +sub-conscious mind. + + This record is much more important than the memory to which we have con- +scious access, for the latter is made up from imperfect and illusive +sense-perceptions and is the voluntary memory or conscious mind. + + The involuntary memory or sub-conscious mind comes into being in a dif- +ferent way, altogether beyond our control at present. As the ether carries +to the sensitive film in the camera an accurate impression of the surround- +ing landscape, taking in the minutest detail regardless of whether the pho- +tographer has observed it or not, so the ether contained in the air we in- +spire carries with it an accurate and detailed picture of all our +surroundings. Not only of material things, but also the conditions existing +each moment within our aura. The slightest thought, feeling or emotion is +transmitted to the lungs, where it is injected into the blood. The blood is +one of the highest products of the vital body as it is the carrier of nour- +ishment to every part of the body, and the direct vehicle of the Ego. The +pictures it contains are impressed upon the negative atoms of the vital +body, to serve as arbiters of the man's destiny in the POST MORTEM state. + + The memory (or so-called mind), both conscious and sub-conscious, re- +lates WHOLLY to the experiences of this life. It consists of impressions of +events on the vital body. These may be changed or even eradicated, as noted +in the explanation concerning the forgiveness of sins which is given a few + + + + +[PAGE 92] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +pages further on, which change or eradication depends upon the elimination +of these impressions from the ether of the vital body. + + There is also a superconscious memory. That is the storehouse of all +faculties acquired and knowledge gained in previous lives, though perhaps +latent in the present life. This record is indelibly engraven on the life +spirit. It manifests ordinarily, thought not to the full extent, as con- +science and character which ensoul all thought-forms, sometimes as counsel- +lor, sometimes compelling action with resistless force, even contrary to +reason and desire. + + In many women, in whom the vital body is positive, and in advanced +people of either sex where the vital body has been sensitized by a pure and +holy life, by prayer and concentration, this superconscious memory inherent +in the life spirit is occasionally, to some extent, above the necessity of +clothing itself in mind stuff and desire matter in order to compel action. +It does not always need to incur the danger of being subjected to and per- +haps overruled by a process of reasoning. Sometimes, in the form of intu- +ition or teaching from within, it impresses itself directly upon the re- +flecting ether of the vital body. The more readily we learn to recognize it +and follow its dictates, the oftener it will speak, to our eternal welfare. + + By their activities during waking hours the desire body and the mind are +constantly destroying the dense vehicle. Every thought and movement breaks +down tissue. On the other hand, the vital body faithfully endeavors to re- +store harmony and build up what the other vehicles are tearing down. It is +not able, however, to entirely withstand the powerful onslaughts of the im- +pulses and thoughts. It gradually loses ground and at last there comes a + + + + +[PAGE 93] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +time when it collapses. Its "points" shrivel-up, so to say. The vital +fluid ceases to flow along the nerves is sufficient quantity; the body be- +comes drowsy, the Thinker is hampered by its drowsiness and forced to with- +draw, taking the desire body with him. This withdrawal of the higher ve- +hicle leaves the dense body interpenetrated by the vital body in the +senseless state we call sleep. + + Sleep, however, is not by any means an inactive state, as people gener- +ally suppose. It it were, the body would be no different on awakening in +the morning from its condition when it went to sleep at night; its fatigue +would be just as great. On the contrary, sleep is a period of intense ac- +tivity and the more intense it is the greater its value, for it eliminates +the poisons resulting from tissue destroyed by the mental and physical ac- +tivities of the day. The tissues are re-built and the rhythm of the body +restored. The more thoroughly this work is done the greater the benefit ac- +cruing from sleep. + + The Desire World is an ocean of wisdom and harmony. Into this the Ego +takes the mind and the desire body when the lower vehicles have been left to +sleep. There the first care of the Ego is the restoration of the rhythm and +harmony of the mind and the desire body. This restoration is accomplished +gradually as the harmonious vibrations of the Desire World flow through +them. There is an essence in the Desire World corresponding to the vital +fluid which permeates the dense body by means of the vital body. The higher +vehicles, as it were, steep themselves in this elixir of life. When +strengthened, they commence work on the vital body, which was left with the +sleeping dense body. Then the vital body begins to specialize the solar + + + + +[PAGE 94] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +energy anew, rebuilding the dense body, using particularly the chemical +ether as its medium in the process of restoration. + + It is this activity of the different vehicles during sleep which forms +the basis for the activity of the following day. Without that there would +be no awakening, for the Ego was forced to abandon his vehicles because +their weariness rendered them useless. If the work of removing that fatigue +were not done, the bodies would remain asleep, as sometimes happens in +natural trance. It is just because of this harmonizing, recuperative activ- +ity that sleep is better than doctor or medicine in preserving health. Mere +rest is nothing is comparison with sleep. It is only while the higher ve- +hicles are in the Desire World that there is a total suspension of waste and +an influx of restoring force. It is true that during rest the vital body is +not hampered in its work by tissue being broken down by active motion and +tense muscles, but still it must contend with the wasting energy of thought +and it does not then receive the OUTSIDE recuperative force from the desire +body as during sleep. + + It happens, however, that at times the desire body does not fully with- +draw, so that part of it remains connected with the vital body, the vehicle +for sense perception and memory. The result is that restoration is only +partly accomplished and that the senses and actions of the Desire World are +brought into the physical consciousness as dreams. Of course most dreams +are confused as the axis of perception is askew, because of the improper re- +lation of one body to another. The memory is also confused by this incon- +gruous relation of the vehicles and as a result of the loss of the restoring +force, dream-filled sleep is restless and the body feels tired on awakening. + + During the life the threefold spirit, the Ego, works on and in the + + + + +[PAGE 95] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +threefold body, to which it is connected by the link of mind. This work +brings the threefold soul into being. The soul is the spiritualized product +of the body. + + + + DIAGRAM 5: + + SHOWS THE TENFOLD CONSTITUTION OF MAN. + + +[PAGE 96] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + As proper food feeds the body in a material sense, so the activity of +the spirit in the dense body, which results in RIGHT ACTION, promotes the +growth of the Conscious Soul. As the forces from the sun play in the vital +body and nourish it, that it may act on the dense body, so the memory of ac- +tions done in the dense body-the desires, feelings and emotions of the de- +sire body and the thoughts and ideas in the mind-cause the growth of the In- +tellectual Soul. In like manner the HIGHEST DESIRES and EMOTIONS of the +desire body form the Emotional Soul. + + This threefold soul in turn enhances the consciousness of the threefold +spirit. + + The Emotional Soul, which is the extract of the desire body, adds to the +efficiency of the Human Spirit, which is the spiritual counterpart of the +desire body. + + The Intellectual Soul gives added power to the Life Spirit, because the +Intellectual Soul is extracted from the vital body, which is the material +counterpart of the Life Spirit. + + The Conscious Soul increases the consciousness of the Divine Spirit be- +cause it (the Conscious Soul) is the extract of the dense body, which latter +is the counterpart of the Divine Spirit. + + DEATH AND PURGATORY + + So man builds and sows until the moment of death arrives. Then the +seed-time and the periods of growth and ripening are past. The harvest time +has come, when the skeleton spectre of Death arrives with his scythe and +hour-glass. That is a good symbol. The skeleton symbolizes the relatively +permanent part of the body. The scythe represents the fact that this perma- +nent part, which is about to be harvested by the spirit, is the fruitage of + + + + +[PAGE 97] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +the life now drawing to a close. The hour-glass in his hand indicates that +the hour does not strike until the full course has been run in harmony with +unvarying laws. When that moment arrives a separation of the vehicles takes +place. As his life in the Physical World is ended for the time being, it is +not necessary for man to retain his dense body. The vital body, which as we +have explained, also belongs to the Physical World, is withdrawn by way of +the head, leaving the dense body inanimate. + + The higher vehicles--vital body, desire body and mind-are seen to leave +the dense body with a spiral movement, taking with them the SOUL of one +dense atom. Not the atom itself, but THE FORCES that played through it. +The results of the experiences passed through in the dense body during the +life just ended have been impressed upon this particular atom. While all +the other atoms of the dense body have been renewed from time to time, this +permanent atom has remained. It has remained stable, not only through one +life, but it has been a part of every dense body ever used by a particular +Ego. It is withdrawn at death only to reawaken at the dawn of another +physical life, to serve again as the nucleus around which is built the new +dense body to be used by the same Ego. It is therefore called the +"Seed-Atom." During life the seed-atom is situated in the left ventricle of +the heart, near the apex. At death it rises to the brain by way of the +pneumogastric nerve, leaving the dense body, together with the higher ve- +hicles, by way of the sutures between the parietal and occipital bones. + + When the higher vehicles have left the dense body they are still con- +nected with it by a slender, glistening, silvery cord shaped much like two + + + + +[PAGE 98] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +figure sixes reversed, one upright and one horizontally placed, the two con- +nected at the extremities of the hooks. (See diagram 5 1/2.) + + One end is fastened to the heart by means of the seed-atom, and it is +the rupture of the seed-atom which causes the heart to stop. The cord it- +self is not snapped until the panorama of the past life, contained in the +vital body, has been reviewed. + + Care should be taken, however, not to cremate or embalm the body until +at least three days after death, for while the vital body is with the higher +vehicles, and they are still connected with the dense body by means of the +silver cord, any POST MORTEM examination or other injury to the dense body +will be felt, in a measure, by the man. + + + + DIAGRAM 5 1/2: + + THE SILVER CORD + + + + + Cremation should be particularly avoided in the first three days after +death, because it tends to disintegrate the vital body, which should be kept +intact until the panorama of the past life has been etched into the desire +body. + + The silver cord snaps at the point where the sixes unite, half remaining +with the dense body and the other half with the higher vehicles. From the + + + + +[PAGE 99] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +time the cord snaps the dense body is quite dead. + + In the beginning of 1906 Dr. McDougall made a series of experiments in +the Massachusetts General Hospital, to determine, if possible, whether any- +thing not ordinarily visible left the body at death. For this purpose he +constructed a pair of scales capable of registering differences of one-tenth +of an ounce. + + The dying person and his bed were placed on one of the platforms of the +scale, which was then balanced by weights placed on the opposite platform. +In every instance it was noted that at the precise moment when the dying +person drew the last breath, the platform containing the weights dropped +with startling suddenness, lifting the bed and the body, thus showing that +something invisible, but having weight, had left the body. Thereupon the +newspapers all over the country announced in glaring headlines that Dr. +McDougall had "weighed the soul." + + Occultism hails with joy the discoveries of modern science, as they in- +variably corroborate what occult science has long taught. The experiments +of Dr. McDougall showed conclusively that something invisible to ordinary +sight left the body at death, as trained clairvoyants had seen, and as had +been stated in lectures and literature for many years previous to Dr. +McDougall's discovery. + + But this invisible "something" is not the soul. There is a great dif- +ference. The reporters jump at conclusions when they state that the scien- +tists have "weighed the soul." The soul belongs to higher realms and can +never be weighed on physical scales, even though they registered variations +of one-millionth part of a grain instead of one-tenth of an ounce. + + + + +[PAGE 100] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + IT WAS THE VITAL BODY WHICH THE SCIENTIST WEIGHED. It is formed of the +four ethers and they belong to the Physical World. + + As we have seen, a certain amount of this ether is "superimposed" upon +the ether which envelops the particles of the human body and is confined +there during physical life, adding in a slight degree to the weight of the +dense body of plant, animal and man. In death it escapes; hence the diminu- +tion in weight noticed by Dr. McDougall when the persons with whom he ex- +perimented expired. + + Dr. McDougall also tried his scales in weighing dying animals. No +diminution was found here, though one of the animals was a St. Bernard dog. +That was taken to indicate that animals have no souls. A little later, how- +ever, Professor La V. Twining, head of the Science Department of the Los +Angeles Polytechnic School, experimented with mice and kittens, which he en- +closed in hermetically sealed glass flasks. His scales were the most sensi- +tive procurable and were enclosed in a glass case from which all moisture +had been removed. It was found that all the animals observed lost weight at +death. A good sized mouse, weighing 12.886 grams, suddenly lost 3.1 mil- +ligrams at death. + + A kitten used in another experiment lost one hundred milligrams while +dying and at its last gasp it suddenly lost an additional sixty milligrams. +After that it lost weight slowly, due to evaporation. + + Thus the teaching of occult science in regard to the possession of vital +bodies by animals was also vindicated when sufficiently fine scales were +used, and the case where the rather insensitive scales did not show diminu- +tion in the weight of the St. Bernard dog shows that the vital bodies of +animals are proportionately lighter than in man. + + + + +[PAGE 101] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + + When the "silver cord" is loosened in the heart, and man has been re- +leased from his dense body, a moment of the highest importance comes to the +Ego, and it cannot be too seriously impressed upon the relatives of a dying +person that it is a great crime against the departing soul to give expres- +sion to loud grief and lamentations, for it is just then engaged in a matter +of supreme importance and a great deal of the value of the past life depends +upon how much attention the soul can give to this matter. This will be made +clearer when we come to the description of man's life in the Desire World. + + It is also a crime against the dying to administer stimulants which have +the effect of forcing the higher vehicles back into the dense body with a +jerk, thus imparting a great shock to the man. It is not torture to pass +out, but it is torture to be dragged back to endure further suffering. Some +who have passed out have told investigators that they had, in that way, been +kept dying for hours and had prayed that their relatives would cease their +mistaken kindness and let them die. + + When the man is freed from the dense body, which was the heaviest clog +upon his spiritual power (like the heavy mitten on the hand of the musician +in our previous illustration), his spiritual power comes back in some mea- +sure, and he is able to read the pictures in the negative pole of the re- +flecting ether of his vital body, which is the seat of the sub-conscious +memory. + + The whole of his past life passes before his sight like a panorama, the +events being presented IN REVERSE ORDER. The incidents of the days immedi- +ately preceding death come first and so on back through manhood or womanhood +to youth, childhood and infancy. Everything is remembered. + + + + +[PAGE 102] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + The man stands as a spectator before this panorama of his past life. He +sees the pictures as they pass and they impress themselves upon his higher +vehicles, but he has no feeling about them at this time. That is reserved +until the time when he enters into the Desire World, which is the world of +feeling and emotion. At present he is only in the Etheric Region of the +Physical World. + + This panorama lasts from a few hours to several days, depending upon the +length of time the man could keep awake, if necessary. Some people can keep +awake only twelve hours, or even less; others can do so, upon occasion, for +a number of days, but as long as the man can remain awake, the panorama +lasts. + + This feature of life after death is similar to that with takes place +when one is drowning or falling from a height. In such cases the vital body +also leaves the dense body and the man sees his life in a flash, because he +loses consciousness at once. Of course the "silver cord" is not broken, or +there could be no resuscitation. + + When the endurance of the vital body has reached its limit, it collapses +in the way described when we were considering the phenomenon of sleep. Dur- +ing physical life, when the Ego controls its vehicles, this collapse termi- +nates the waking hours; after death the collapse of the vital body termi- +nates the panorama and forces the man to withdraw into the Desire World. +The silver cord breaks at the point where the sixes unite (see diagram 5 +1/2), and the same division is made as during sleep, but with this important +difference, that thought the vital body returns to the dense body, it no +longer interpenetrates it, but simply hovers over it. It remains floating +over the grave, decaying synchronously with the dense vehicle. Hence, to +the trained clairvoyant, a graveyard is a nauseating sight and if only more + + + + + +[PAGE 103] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +people could see it as he does, little argument would be necessary to induce +them to change from the present unsanitary method of disposing of the dead +to the more rational method of cremation, which restores the elements to +their primordial condition without the objectionable features incident to +the process of slow decay. + + In leaving the vital body the process is much the same as when the dense +body is discarded. The life forces of one atom are taken, to be used as a +nucleus for the vital body of a future embodiment. Thus, upon his entrance +into the Desire World the man has the seed-atoms of the dense and the vital +bodies, in addition to the desire body and the mind. + + If the dying man could leave all desires behind, the desire body would +very quickly fall away from him, leaving him free to proceed into the heaven +world, but that is not generally the case. Most people, especially if they +die in the prime of life, have many ties and much interest in life on earth. +They have not altered their desires because they have lost their physical +bodies. In fact often their desires are even augmented by a very intense +longing to return. This acts in such a manner as to bind them to the Desire +World in a very unpleasant way, although unfortunately, they do not realize +it. On the other hand, old and decrepit persons and those who are weakened +by long illness and are tired of life, pass on very quickly. + + The matter may be illustrated by the ease with which the seed falls out +of the ripe fruit, no particle of the flesh clinging to it, while in the +unripe fruit the seed clings to the flesh with the greatest tenacity. Thus +it is especially hard for people to die who were taken out of their bodies +by accident while at the height of their physical health and strength, en- +gaged in numerous ways in the activities of physical life; held by the ties + + + + +[PAGE 104] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +of wife, family, relatives, friends, pursuits of business and pleasure. + + The suicide, who tries to get away from life, only to find that he is as +much alive as ever, is in the most pitiable plight. He is able to watch +those whom he has, perhaps, disgraced by his act, and worst of all, he has +an unspeakable feeling of being "hollowed out." The part in the ovoid aura +where the dense body used to be is empty and although the desire body has +taken the form of the discarded dense body, it feels like an empty shell, +because the creative archetype of the body in the Region of Concrete Thought +persists as an empty mold, so to speak, as long as the dense body should +properly have lived. When a person meets a natural death, even in the prime +of life, the activity of the archetype ceases, and the desire body adjusts +itself so as to occupy the whole of the form, but in the case of suicide +that awful feeling of "emptiness" remains until the time comes when, in the +natural course of events, his death would have occurred. + + As long as the man entertains the desires connected with earth life he +must stay in his desire body and as the progress of the individual requires +that he pass on to higher Regions, the existence in the Desire World must +necessarily become purgative, tending to purify him from his binding de- +sires. How this is done is best seen by taking some radical instances. + + The miser who loved his gold in earth life loves it just as dearly after +death; but in the first place he cannot acquire any more, because he has no +longer a dense body wherewith to grasp it and worst of all, he cannot even +keep what he hoarded during life. He will, perhaps, go and sit by his safe +and watch the cherished gold or bonds; but the heirs appear and with, it may +be, a stinging jeer at the "stingy old fool" (whom they do not see, but who + + + + +[PAGE 105] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +both sees and hears them), will open his safe, and though he may throw +himself over his gold to protect it, they will put their hands through him, +neither knowing nor caring that he is there, and will then proceed to spend +his hoard, while he suffers in sorrow and impotent rage. + + He will suffer keenly, his sufferings all the more terrible on account +of being entirely mental, because the dense body dulls even suffering to +some extent. In the Desire World, however, these sufferings have full sway +and the man suffers until he learns that gold may be a curse. Thus he +gradually becomes contented with his lot and at last is freed from his de- +sire body and is ready to go on. + + Or take the case of the drunkard. He is just as fond of intoxicants af- +ter death as he was before. It is not the dense body that craves drink. It +is made sick by alcohol and would rather be without it. It vainly protests +in different ways, but the desire body of the drunkard craves the drink and +forces the dense body to take it, that the desire body may have the sensa- +tion of pleasure resulting from the increased vibration. That desire re- +mains after the death of the dense body, but the drunkard has in his desire +body neither mouth to drink not stomach to contain physical liquor. He may +and does get into saloons, where he interpolates his body into to bodies of +the drinkers to get a little of their vibrations by induction, but that is +too weak to give him much satisfaction. He may and also does sometimes get +inside a whiskey cask, but that is of no avail either for there are in the +cask no such fumes as are generated in the digestive organs of a tippler. +It has no effect upon him and he is like a man in an open boat on the ocean. +"Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink;" consequently he suffers + + + +[PAGE 106] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +intensely. In time, however, he learns the uselessness of longing for drink +which he cannot obtain. As with so many of our desires in the Earth life, +all desires in the Desire World die for want of opportunity to gratify them. +When the drunkard has been purged, he is ready, so far as this habit is +concerned, to leave this state of "purgatory" and ascend into the heaven +world. + + Thus we see that it is not an avenging Deity that makes purgatory or +hell for us, but our own individual evil habits and acts. According to the +intensity of our desires will be the time and suffering entailed in their +expurgation. In the cases mentioned it would have been no suffering to the +drunkard to lose his worldly possessions. If he had any, he did not cling +to them. Neither would it have caused the miser any paid to have been de- +prived of intoxicants. It is safe to say that he would not have cared if +there were not a drop of liquor in the world. But he did care about his +gold, and the drunkard cared about his drink and so the unerring law gave to +each that which was needed to purge him of his unhallowed desires and evil +habits. + + This is the law that is symbolized in the scythe of the reaper, Death; +the law that says, "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." It +is the law of cause and effect, which rules all things in the three Worlds, +in every realm of nature--physical, moral and mental. Everywhere it works +inexorably, adjusting all things, restoring the equilibrium wherever even +the slightest action has brought about a disturbance, as all action must. +The result may be manifested immediately or it may be delayed for years or +for lives, but sometime, somewhere, just and equal retribution will be made. +The student should particularly note that its work is absolutely impersonal. + + + + +[PAGE 107] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +There is in the universe neither reward nor punishment. All is the result +of invariable law. The action of this law will be more fully elucidated in +the next chapter, where we shall find it associated with another Great Law +of the Cosmos, which also operates in the evolution of man. The law we are +now considering is called the law of Consequence. + + In the Desire World it operates in purging man of the baser desires and +the correction of the weaknesses and vices which hinder his progress, by +making him suffer in the manner best adapted to that purpose. If he had +made others suffer, or has dealt unjustly with them, he will be made to suf- +fer in that identical way. Be it noted, however, that if a person has been +subject to vices, or has done wrong to others, but has overcome his vices, +or repented and, as far as possible, made right the wrong done, such repen- +tance, reform and restitution have purged him of those special vices and +evil acts. The equilibrium has been restored and the lesson learned during +that embodiment, and therefore will not b a cause of suffering after death. + + In the Desire World life is lived about three times as rapidly as in the +Physical World. A man who has lived to be fifty years of age in the +Physical World would live through the same life events in the Desire World +in about sixteen years. This is, of course, only a general gauge. There +are persons who remain in the Desire World much longer than their term of +physical life. Others again, who have led lives with few gross desires, +pass through in a much shorter period, but the measure above given is very +nearly correct for the average man of present day. + + + + +[PAGE 108] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + + It will be remembered that as the man leaves the dense body at death, +his past life passes before him in pictures; but at that time he has no +feeling concerning them. + + During his life in the Desire World also these life pictures roll back- +wards, as before; but not the man has all the feelings that it is possible +for him to have as, one by one, the scenes pass before him. Every incident +in his past life is now lived over again. When he comes to a point where he +has injured someone, he himself feels the pain as the injured person felt +it. He lives through all the sorrow and suffering he has caused to others +and learns just how painful is the hurt and how hard to bear is the sorrow +he has caused. In addition there is the fact already mentioned that the +suffering is much keener because he has no dense body to dull the pain. +Perhaps that is why the speed of life there is tripled--that the suffering +may lose in duration what it gains in sharpness. Nature's measures are won- +derfully just and true. + + There is another characteristic peculiar to this phase of post mortem +existence which intimately connected with the fact (already mentioned) that +distance is almost annihilated in the Desire World. When a man dies, he at +once seems to swell out in his vital body; he appears to himself to grow +into immense proportions. This feeling is due to the fact, not that the +body really grows, but that the perceptive faculties receive so many impres- +sions from various sources, all seeming to be close at hand. The same is +true of the desire body. The man seems to be present with all the people +with whom on earth he had relations of a nature which require correction. +If he has injured one man in San Francisco and another in New York, he will +feel as if part of him were in each place. This gives him a peculiar feel- +ing of being cut to pieces. + + + + + +[PAGE 109] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + + The student will now understand the importance of the panorama of the +past life during the purgative existence, where this panorama is realized in +definite feelings. If it lasted long and the man were undisturbed, the +full, deep, clear impression etched into the desire body would make life in +the Desire World more vivid and conscious and the purgation more thorough +than if, because of distress at the loud outbursts of grief on the part of +his relatives, at the death bed and during the three-day period previously +mentioned the man had only vague impression of his past life. The spirit +which has etched a deep clear record into its desire body will realize the +mistakes of the past life so much more clearly and definitely than if the +pictures were blurred on account of the individual's attention being di- +verted by the suffering and grief around him. His feeling concerning the +things which cause his present suffering in the Desire World will be much +more definite if they are drawn from a distinct panoramic impression than if +the duration of the process were short. + + This sharp, clear-cut feeling is of immense value in future lives. It +stamps upon the seed-atom of the desire body an ineffaceable impression of +itself. THE EXPERIENCES WILL BE FORGOTTEN IN SUCCEEDING LIVES, BUT THE +FEELING REMAINS. When opportunities occur to repeat the error in later +lives, this Feeling will speak to us clearly and unmistakably. It is the +"still, small voice" which warns us, though we do not know why; but the +clearer and more definite the panoramas of past lives has been, the oftener, +stronger and clearer shall we hear this voice. Thus we see how important it +is that we leave the passing spirit in absolute quietness after death. By +so doing we help it to reap the greatest possible benefit from the life just +ended and to avoid perpetuating the same mistakes in future lives, while our + + + + +[PAGE 110] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +selfish, hysterical lamentations may deprive it of much of the value of the +life it has just concluded. + + The mission of purgatory is to eradicate the injurious habits by making +their gratification impossible. The individual suffers exactly as he has +made others suffer through his dishonesty, cruelty, intolerance, or what +not. Because of this suffering he learns to act kindly, honestly, and with +forbearance toward others in future. Thus, in consequence of the existence +of this beneficent state, man learns virtue and right action. When he is +reborn he is free from evil habits, at least every evil act committed is one +of free will. The tendencies to repeat the evil of past lives remain, for +we must learn to do right consciously and of our own will. Upon occasion +these tendencies tempt us, thereby affording us an opportunity of ranging +ourselves on the side of mercy and virtue as against vice and cruelty. But +to indicate right action and to help us resist the snares and wiles of temp- +tation, we have the feeling resulting from the expurgation of evil habits +and the expiation of the wrong acts of past lives. If we heed that feeling +and abstain from the particular evil involved, the temptation will cease. +We have freed ourselves from it for all time. If we yield we shall experi- +ence keener suffering than before until at last we have learned to live by +the Golden Rule, because the way of the transgressor is hard. Even then we +have not reached the ultimate. To good to others because we want them to do +good to us is essentially selfish. In time we must learn to do good REGARD- +LESS of how we are treated by others; as Christ said, we must love even our +enemies. + + There is an inestimable benefit in knowing about the method and object +of this purgation, because we are thus enabled to forestall it by living our + + + + +[PAGE 111] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +purgatory here and now day by day, thus advancing much faster than would +otherwise be possible. An exercise is given in the latter part of this +work, the object of which is purification as an aid to the development of +spiritual sight. It consists of thinking over the happenings of the day af- +ter retiring at night. We review each incident of the day, in reverse or- +der, taking particular note of the moral aspect, considering whether we +acted rightly or wrongly in each particular case regarding actions, mental +attitude and actions, mental attitude and habits. By thus judging ourselves +day by day, endeavoring to correct mistakes and wrong actions, we shall ma- +terially shorten or perhaps even eliminate the necessity for purgatory and +be able to pass to the first heaven directly after death. If in this man- +ner, we consciously overcome our weaknesses, we also make a very material +advance in the school of evolution. Even if we fail to correct our actions, +we derive an immense benefit from judging ourselves, thereby generating as- +pirations toward good, which in time will surely bear fruit in right action. + + In reviewing the day's happenings and blaming ourselves for wrong, we +should not forget to impersonally approve of the good we have done and de- +termine to do still better. In this way we enhance the good by approval as +much as we abjure the evil by blame. + + Repentance and reform are also powerful factors in shortening the purga- +torial existence, for nature never wastes effort in useless processes. When +we realize the wrong of certain habits or acts in our past life, and deter- +mine to eradicate the habit and to redress the wrong committed, we are ex- +punging the pictures of them from the sub-conscious memory and they will not +be there to judge us after death. Even though we are not able to make + + + + +[PAGE 112] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +restitution for a wrong, the sincerity of our regret will suffice. Nature +does not aim to "get even," or to take revenge. Recompense may be given to +our victim in other ways. + + Much progress ordinarily reserved for future lives will be made by the +man who thus takes time by the forelock, judging himself and eradicating +vice by reforming his character. This practice is earnestly recommended. +It is perhaps the most important teaching in the present work. + + THE BORDERLAND. + + Purgatory occupies the three lower Regions of the Desire World. The +first heaven is in the upper Regions. The central Regions is a sort of +borderland--neither heaven nor hell. In this Region we find people who are +honest and upright; who wronged no one, but were deeply immersed in business +and thought nothing of the higher life. For them the Desire World is a +state of the most indescribable monotony. There is no "business" in that +world nor is there, for a man of that kind, anything that will take its +place. He has a very hard time until he learns to think of higher things +than ledgers and drafts. The men who thought of the problem of life and +came to the conclusion that "death ends it all;" who denied the existence of +things outside the material-sense world--these men also feel this dreadful +monotony. They had expected annihilation of consciousness, but instead of +that they find themselves with an augmented perception of persons and things +about them. They had been accustomed to denying these things so vehemently +that they often fancy the Desire World an hallucination, and may frequently +be heard exclaiming in the deepest despair, "When will it end? When will it +end?" + + + + +[PAGE 113] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + + Such people are really in a pitiable state. They are generally beyond +the reach of any help whatever and suffer much longer than almost anyone +else. Besides, they have scarcely any life in the Heaven world, where the +building of bodies for future use is taught, so they put all their crystal- +lizing thoughts into whatsoever body they build for a future life, and thus +a body is built that has the hardening tendencies we see, for instance, in +consumption. Sometimes the suffering incident to such decrepit bodies will +turn the thoughts of the entities ensouling them to God, and their evolution +can proceed; but in the materialistic mind lies the greatest danger of los- +ing touch with the spirit and becoming an outcast. Therefore the Elder +Brothers have been very seriously concerned for the last century regarding +the fate of the Western World and were it not for their special beneficent +action in its behalf, we should have had a social cataclysm compared with +which the French Revolution were child's play. The trained clairvoyant can +see how narrowly humanity has escaped disasters of a nature so devastating +that continents would have been swept into the sea. The reader will find a +more extended and thorough exposition of the connection of materialism with +volcanic outbursts in Chapter XVIII, where the list of the eruptions of +Vesuvius would seem to corroborate the statement of such a connection, un- +less it is credited to "coincidence," as the sceptic generally does when +confronted with facts and figures he cannot explain. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 113 cont'd] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + + + THE FIRST HEAVEN. + + When the purgatorial existence is over the purified spirit rises into +the first heaven, which is located in the three highest Regions of the De- +sire World, where the results of its sufferings are incorporated in the + + + + +[PAGE 114] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +seed-atom of the desire body, thus imparting to it the quality of right +feeling, which acts as an impulse to good and a deterrent from evil in the +future. Here the panorama of the past again unrolls itself backward, but +this time it is the good acts of life that are the basis of feeling. When +we come to scenes where we helped others we realize anew all the joy of +helping which was ours at the time, and in addition we feel all the +gratitude poured out to us by the recipient of our help. When we come to +scenes where we were helped by others, we again feel all the gratitude that +we then felt toward our benefactor. Thus we see the importance of appreci- +ating the favors shown us by others, because gratitude makes for +soul-growth. Our happiness in heaven depends upon the joy we gave others, +and the valuation we placed upon what others did for us. + + It should be ever borne in mind that the power of giving is not vested +chiefly in the monied man. Indiscriminate giving of money may even be an +evil. It is well to give money for a purpose we are convinced is good, but +service is a thousandfold better. As Whitman says, + +Behold! I do not give lectures, or a little charity; +When I give, I give myself. + +A kind look, expression of confidence, a sympathetic and loving +helpfulness--these can be given by all regardless of wealth. Moreover, we +should particularly endeavor to help the needy one to help himself, whether +physically, financially, morally, or mentally, and not cause him to become +dependent upon us or others. + + The ethics of giving, with the effect on the giver as a spiritual les- +son, are most beautifully shown in Lowell's "The Vision of Sir Launfal." +The young and ambitious knight, Sir Launfal, clad in shining armor and + + + + +[PAGE 115] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +astride a splendid charger, is setting out from his castle to seek The Holy +Grail. On his shield gleams the cross, the symbol of the benignity and ten- +derness of Our Savior, the meek and lowly One, but the knight's heart is +filled with pride and haughty disdain for the poor and needy. He meets a +leper asking alms and with a contemptuous frown throws him a coin, as one +might cast a bone to a hungry cur, but + +The leper raised not the gold from the dust, +"Better to me the poor man's crust, +Better the blessing of the poor, +Though I turn empty from his door. +That is not true alms which the hand can hold; +He gives only worthless gold +Who gives from a send of duty; +But he who gives from a slender mite, +And gives to that which is out of sight-- +That thread of all-sustaining Beauty +Which runs through all and doth all unite,-- +The hand cannot clasp the whole of his alms, +The heart outstretches its eager palms, +For a god goes with it and makes it store +To the soul that was starving in darkness before. + + On his return sir Launfal finds another in possession of his castle, and +is driven from the gate. + +An old bent man, worn out and frail, +He came back from seeking the Holy Grail; +Little he recked of his earldom's loss, +No more on his surcoat was blazoned the cross, +But deep in his heart the sign he wore, +The badge of the suffering and the poor. + + Again he meets the leper, who again asks alms. This time the knight re- +sponds differently. + +And Sir Launfal said: "I behold in thee +An image of Him Who died on the tree; +Thou also hast had they crown of thorns, +Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns, + + + + +[PAGE 116] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + +And to thy life were not denied +The wounds in the hands and feet and side; +Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me; +Behold, through him I give to Thee!" + + A look in the leper's eye brings remembrance and recognition, and + +The heart within him was ashes and dust; +He parted in twain his single crust, +He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink, +And gave the leper to eat and drink. + + A transformation takes place: + +The leper no longer crouched by his side, +But stood before him glorified, +. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + +And the Voice that was softer that silence said, +"Lo, it is I, be not afraid! +In many lands, without avail, +Thou has spent thy life for the Holy Grail; +Behold, it is here!--This cup which thou +Did'st fill at the streamlet for me but now; +This crust is by body broken for thee, +This water the blood I shed on the tree; +The Holy Supper is kept, indeed, +In whatso we share with another's need; +Not what we five, but what we share-- +For the gift without the giver is bare; +Who gives himself with his alms feeds three-- +Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me." + + The first heaven is a place of joy without a single drop of bitterness. +The spirit is beyond the influence of the material, earthly conditions, and +assimilates all the good contained in the past life as it lives it over +again. Here all ennobling pursuits to which the man aspired are realized in +fullest measure. It is a place of rest, and the harder has been the life, +the more keenly will rest be enjoyed. Sickness, sorrow, and pain are un- +known quantities. This is the Summerland of the spiritualists. There the +thoughts of the devout Christian have built the New Jerusalem. + + + + +[PAGE 117] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +Beautiful houses, flowers, etc., are the portion of those who aspired to +them; they build them themselves by thought from the subtle desire stuff. +Nevertheless these things are just as real and tangible to them as our mate- +rial houses are to us. All gain here the satisfaction which earth life +lacked for them. + + There is one class there who lead a particularly beautiful life--the +children. If we could but see them we would quickly cease our grief. When +a child dies before the birth of the desire body, which takes place about +the fourteenth year, it does not go any higher than the first heaven, be- +cause it is not responsible for its actions, any more than the unborn child +is responsible for the pain it causes the mother by turning and twisting in +her womb. Therefore the child has not purgatorial existence. That which is +not quickened cannot die, hence the desire body of a child, together with +the mind, will persist until a new birth, and for that reason such children +are very apt to remember their previous life as instanced in the case cited +elsewhere. + + For such children the first heaven is a waiting-place where they dwell +from one to twenty years, until an opportunity for a new birth is offered. +Yet it is more than simply a waiting-place, because there is much progress +made during this interim. + + When a child dies there is always some relative awaiting it, or, failing +that there are people who loved to "mother" children in the earth life who +find delight in taking care of a little waif. The extreme plasticity of the +desire stuff makes it easy to form the most exquisite living toys for the +children, and their life is one beautiful play; nevertheless their instruc- +tion is not neglected. They are formed into classes according to their tem- +peraments, but quite regardless of age. In the Desire World it is easy to + + + + +[PAGE 118] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +give object-lessons in the influence of good and evil passions on conduct +and happiness. These lessons are indelibly imprinted upon the child's sen- +sitive and emotional desire body, and remain with it after rebirth, so that +many a one living a noble life owes much of it to the fact that he was given +this training. Often when a weak spirit is born, the Compassionate ones +(the invisible Leaders who guide our evolution) cause it to die in early +life that it may have this extra training to fit it for what may be perhaps +a hard life. This seems to be the case particularly where the etching on +the desire body was weak in consequence of a dying person having been dis- +turbed by the lamentations of his relatives, or because he met death by ac- +cident or on the battle-field. He did not under those circumstances experi- +ence the appropriate intensity of feeling in his POST MORTEM existence, +therefore, when he is born and dies early life, the loss is made us as +above. Often the duty of caring for such a child in the heaven life falls +to those who were the cause of the anomaly. They are thus afforded a chance +to make up for the fault and to learn better. Or perhaps they become the +parents of the one they harmed and care for it during the few years it +lives. It does not matter then if they do lament hysterically over its +death, because there would be no pictures of any consequence in a child's +vital body. + + This heaven is also a place of progression for all who have been studi- +ous, artistic, or altruistic. The student and the philosopher have instant +access to all the libraries of the world. The painter has endless delight +in ever-changing color combinations. He soon learns that his thought blends +and shapes these colors at will. His creations glow and scintillate with a +life impossible of attainment to one works with the dull pigments of Earth. + + + + +[PAGE 119] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +He is, as it were, painting with living, glowing materials and able to ex- +ecute his designs with a facility which fills his soul with delight. The +musician has not yet reached the place where his art will express itself to +the fullest extent. The Physical World is the world of FORM. The Desire +World, where we find purgatory and the first heaven, is particularly the +world of COLOR.; but the World of Thought, where the second and third heav- +ens are located, is the sphere of TONE. Celestial music is a fact and not a +mere figure of speech. Pythagoras was not romancing when spoke of the music +of the spheres, for each one of the heavenly orbs has its definite tone and +together they sound the celestial symphony which Goethe also mentions in the +prolog to his "Faust," where the scene is laid in heaven. The Archangel +Raphael says, + +The Sun intones his ancient song + 'Mid rival chant of brother spheres. +His prescribed course he speeds along + In thund'rous way throughout the years. + + Echoes of that heavenly music reach us even here in the Physical World. +They are our most precious possession, even though they are as elusive as a +will-o'-the-wisp, and cannot be permanently created, as can other works of +art--a statue, a painting, or a book. In the Physical World tone dies and +vanishes the moment after it is born. In the first heaven these echoes are, +of course, much more beautiful and have more permanency, hence there the mu- +sician hears sweeter strains than ever he did during earth life. + + The experiences of the poet are akin to those of the musician, for po- +etry is the soul's expression of it innermost feelings in words which are +ordered according to the same laws of harmony and rhythm that govern the + + + + +[PAGE 120] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +outpouring of the spirit in music. In addition, the poet finds a wonderful +inspiration in the pictures and colors which are the chief characteristics +of the Desire World. Thence he will draw the material for use in his next +incarnation. In like manner does the author accumulate material and fac- +ulty. The philanthropist works out his altruistic plans for the upliftment +of man. If he failed in one life, he will see the reason for it in the +first heaven and will there learn how to overcome the obstacles and avoid +the errors that made his plan impracticable. + + In time a point is reached where the result of the pain and suffering +incident to purgation, together with the joy extracted from the good actions +of the past life, have been built into the seed-atom of the desire body. +Together these constitute what we call conscience, that impelling force +which warns us against evil as productive of pain and inclines us toward +good as productive of happiness and joy. Then man leaves his desire body to +disintegrate, as he left his dense body and vital body. He takes with him +the forces only of the seed-atom, which are to form the nucleus of future +desire bodies, as it was the persistent particle of his past vehicles of +feeling. + + As stated above, the forces of the seed-atom are withdrawn. To the ma- +terialist force and matter are inseparable. The occultist knows differ- +ently. To him they are not two entirely distinct and separate concepts, but +the two poles of one spirit. + + MATTER is crystallized spirit. + FORCE is the same spirit not yet crystallized. + + This has been said before, but it cannot be too strongly impressed upon +the mind. In this connection the illustration of the snail is very helpful. +Matter, which is crystallized spirit, corresponds to the snail's house, + + + + +[PAGE 121] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +which is crystallized snail. The chemical force which moves matter, making +it available for the building of form, and the snail which moves its house +are also good correspondences. That which is now the snail will in time be- +come the house, and that which is now force will in time become matter when +it has crystallized further. The reverse process of resolving matter back +into spirit is also going on continually. The coarser phase of this process +we see as decay when a man is leaving his vehicles behind and at that time +the spirit of an atom is easily detachable from the coarser spirit which has +been manifesting as matter. + + THE SECOND HEAVEN + + At last the man, the Ego, the threefold spirit, enters the second +heaven. He is clad in the sheath of mind, which contains the three +seed-atoms--the quintessence of the three discarded vehicles. + + When the man dies and loses his dense and vital bodies there is the same +condition as when one falls asleep. The desire body, as has been explained, +has no organs ready for use. It is now transformed from an ovoid to a fig- +ure resembling the dense body which has been abandoned. We can easily un- +derstand that there must be an interval of unconsciousness resembling sleep +and then the man awakes in the Desire World. It not infrequently happens, +however, that such people are, for a long time, unaware of what has happened +to them. They do not realize that they have died. They know that they are +able to move and think. It is sometimes even a very hard matter to get them +to believe that they are really "dead." They realize that something is dif- +ferent, but they are not able to understand what it is. + + + + +[PAGE 122] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Not so, however, when the change is made from the first heaven, which is +in the Desire World, to the second heaven, which is in the Region of Con- +crete Thought. Then the man leaves his desire body. He is perfectly con- +scious. He passes into a great stillness. For the time being everything +seems to fade away. He cannot think. No faculty is alive, yet he knows +that he IS. He has a feeling of standing in "The Great Forever;" of stand- +ing utterly alone, yet unafraid; and his soul is filled with a wonderful +peace, "which passeth all understanding." + + In occult science this is called "THE GREAT SILENCE." + + Then comes the awakening. The spirit is now in its home-World--heaven. +Here the first awakening brings to the spirit the sound of "the music of the +spheres." In our Earth life we are so immersed in the little noises and +sounds of our limited environment that we are incapable of hearing the music +of the marching orbs, but the occult scientist hears it. He knows that the +twelve signs of the Zodiac and the seven planets from the sounding-board and +strings of "Apollo's seven-stringed lyre." He knows that were a single dis- +cord to mar the celestial harmony from that grand Instrument there would be +"a wreck of matter and a crash of worlds." + + The power of rhythmic vibration is well known to all who have given the +subject even the least study. For instance, soldiers are commanded to break +step when crossing a bridge, otherwise their rhythmic tramp would shatter +the strongest structure. The Bible story of the sounding of the ram's horn +while marching around the walls of the city of Jericho is not nonsensical in +the eyes of the occultist. In some cases similar things have happened with- +out the world smiling in supercilious incredulity. A few years ago, a band + + + + +[PAGE 123] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +of musicians were practicing in a garden close to the very solid wall of an +old castle. There occurred at a certain place in the music a prolonged and +very piercing tone. When this note was sounded the wall of the castle sud- +denly fell. The musicians has struck the keynote of the wall and it was +sufficiently prolonged to shatter it. + + When it is said that this is the world of tone, it must not be thought +that there are no colors. Many people know that there is an intimate con- +nection between color and tone; than when a certain note is struck, a cer- +tain color appears simultaneously. So it is also in the Heaven World. +Color and sound are both present; but the tone is the originator of the +color. Hence it is said, that this is particularly the world of tone, and +it is this tone that builds all forms in the Physical World. The musician +can hear certain tones in different parts of nature, such as the wind in the +forest, the breaking of the surf on the beach, the roar of the ocean and the +sounding of many waters. These combined tones make a whole which is the +key-note of the Earth--its "tone." As geometrical figures are created by +drawing a violin bow over the edge of a glass plate containing sand, so the +forms we see around us are the crystallized sound-figures of the archetypal +forces which play into the archetypes in the Heaven World. + + The work done my man is the Heaven World is many-sided. It is not in +the least an inactive, dreamy not illusory existence. It is a time of the +greatest and most important activity in preparing for the next life, as +sleep is an active preparation for the work of the following day. + + Here the quintessence of the three bodies is built into the threefold +spirit. As much of the desire body as the man had worked upon during life, + + + + +[PAGE 124] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +by purifying his desires and emotions, will be welded into the human spirit, +thus giving an improved mind in the future. + + As much of the vital body as the life spirit had worked upon, trans- +formed, spiritualized, and thus saved from the decay to which the rest of +the vital body is subject, will be amalgamated with the life spirit to in- +sure a better vital body and temperament in the succeeding lives. + + As much of the dense body as the divine spirit has save by right action +will be worked into it and will bring better environment and opportunities. + + The spiritualization of the vehicle is accomplished by cultivation of +the faculties of observation, discrimination and memory, devotion to high +ideals, prayer, concentration, persistence and right use of the life forces. + + The second heaven is the real home of man--the Ego, the Thinker. Here +he dwells for centuries, assimilating the fruit of the last earth life and +preparing the earthly conditions which will be best suited for his next step +in progress. The sound or tone which pervades this Region, and is every- +where apparent as color, is his instrument, so to speak. It is this harmo- +nious sound vibration which, as an elixir of life, builds into the threefold +spirit the quintessence of the threefold body, upon which it depends for +growth. + + The life in the second heaven is an exceedingly active one, varied in +many different ways. The Ego assimilates the fruits of the last earth life +and prepares the environment for a new physical existence. It is not enough +to say that the new conditions will be determined by conduct and action in +the life just closed. It is required that the fruits of the past be worked +into the World which is to be the next scene of activity while the Ego is +gaining fresh physical experiences and gathering further fruit. Therefore +all the denizens of the Heaven World work upon the models of the Earth, all + + + + +[PAGE 125] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +of which are in the Region of Concrete Thought. They alter the physical +features of the Earth, and bring about the gradual changes which vary its +appearance, so that on each return to physical life a different environment +has been prepared, wherein new experiences may be gained. Climate, FLORA, +and FAUNA are altered by man under the direction of higher Beings, to be de- +scribed later. Thus the world is just what we ourselves, individually and +collectively, have made it; and it will be what we make it. The occult sci- +entist sees in everything that happens a cause of a spiritual nature +manifesting itself, not omitting the prevalence and alarmingly increasing +frequency of seismic disturbances, which it traces to the materialistic +thought of modern science. + + It is true that purely physical causes can bring about such distur- +bances, but is that the last word on the subject? Can we always get the +full explanation by merely recording what appears on the surface? Surely +not! We see two men conversing on the street and one suddenly strikes the +other, knocking him down. One observer may say that an angry knocked the +man down. Another may scoff at this answer and declare that he saw the arm +lifted, the muscles contract, the arm shooting out and coming in contact +with the victim, who was knocked down. That is also true, but it is safe to +say that had there not FIRST been the angry thought, the blow would not have +been struck. In like manner the occultist says that if materialism had not +been, seismic disturbances would not have occurred. + + Man's work in the Heaven World is not confined solely to the alternation +of the surface of the Earth which is to be the scene of his future struggles +in the subjugation of the Physical World. He is also actively engaged in + + + + +[PAGE 126] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +learning how to build a body which shall afford a better means of expres- +sion. It is man's destiny to become a Creative Intelligence and he is serv- +ing his apprenticeship all the time. During his heaven life he is learning +to build all kinds of bodies--the human included. + + We have spoken of the forces which work along the positive and negative +poles of the different ethers. MAN HIMSELF IS PART OF THAT FORCE. Those +whom we call dead are the ones who help us to live. They in turn are helped +by the so-called "nature spirits," which they command. Man is directed in +this work by Teachers from the higher creative Hierarchies, which helped him +to build his vehicles before he attained self-consciousness, in the same way +he himself now builds his bodies in sleep. During heaven life they teach +him consciously. The painter is taught to build an accurate eye, capable of +taking in a perfect perspective and of distinguishing colors and shades to a +degree inconceivable among those not interested in color and light. + + The mathematician has to deal with space, and the faculty for space per- +ception is connected with the delicate adjustment of the three semi-circular +canals which are situated inside the ear, each pointing in one of the three +dimensions in space. Logical thought and mathematical ability are in pro- +portion to the accuracy of the adjustment of these semi-circular canals. +Musical ability is also dependent upon the same factor, but in addition to +the necessity for the proper adjustment of the semi-circular canals, the +musician requires extreme delicacy of the "fibres of Corti," of which there +are about ten thousand in the human ear, each capable of interpreting about +twenty-five gradations of tone. In the ears of the majority of people they +do not respond to more than from three to ten of the possible gradations. + + + + +[PAGE 127] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +Among ordinary musical people the greatest degree of efficiency is about +fifteen sounds to each fivre; but the master musician, who is able to inter- +pret and bring down music from the Heaven World, requires a greater range to +be able to distinguish the different notes and detect the slightest discord +in the most complicated chords. Persons who require organs of such exceed- +ing delicacy for the expression of their faculties are specially taken care +of, as the higher state of their development merits and demands. None other +ranks so high as the musician, which is reasonable when we consider that +while the painter draws his inspiration chiefly from the world of color--the +nearer Desire World--the musician attempts to bring us the atmosphere of our +heavenly home world (where, as spirits, we are citizens), and to translate +them into the sounds of earth life. His is the highest mission, because as +a mode of expression for soul life, music reigns supreme. That music is +different from and higher than all the other arts can be understood when we +reflect that a statue or painting, when once created, is permanent. They +are drawn from the Desire World and are therefore more easily crystallized, +while music, being of the Heaven World, is more elusive and must be re-cre- +ated each time we hear it. It cannot be imprisoned, as shown by the unsuc- +cessful attempts to do so partially by means of such mechanical devices as +phonographs and piano-players. The music so reproduced loses much of the +soul-stirring sweetness it possesses when it comes fresh from its own world, +carrying to the soul memories of its home and speaking to it in a language +that no beauty expressed in marble or upon canvas can equal. + + The instrument through which man senses music is the most perfect sense +organ in the human body. The eye is not by any means true, but the ear is, + + + + +[PAGE 128] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +in the sense that it hears every sound without distortion, while the eye of- +ten distorts what it sees. + + In addition to the musical ear, the musician must also learn to build a +long, fine hand with slender fingers and sensitive nerves, otherwise he +would not be able to reproduce the melodies he hears. + + It is a law of nature that no one can inhabit a more efficient body that +he is capable of building. He first learns to build a certain grade of body +and afterwards he learns to live in it. In that way he discovers its de- +fects and is taught how to remedy them. + + All men work unconsciously at the building of their bodies during +ante-natal life until they have reached the point where the quintessence of +former bodies--which they have saved--is to be built in. Then they work con- +sciously. It will therefore be seen that the more a man advances and the +more he works on his vehicles, thus making them immortal, the more power he +has to build for a new life. The advanced pupil of an occult school some- +times commences to build for himself as soon as the work during the first +three weeks (which belongs exclusively to the mother) has been completed. +When the period of unconscious building has passed the man has a chance to +exercise his nascent creative power, and the true original creative +process--"Epigenesis"--begins. + + Thus we see that man learns to BUILD his vehicles in the Heaven World, +and to use them in the Physical World. Nature provides all phases of expe- +rience in such a marvelous manner and with such consummate wisdom that as we +learn to see deeper and deeper into her secrets we are more and more im- +pressed with our own insignificance and with an ever-growing reverence for +God, whose visible symbol nature is. The more we learn of her wonders, the + + + + +[PAGE 129] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +more we realize that this world system is not the vast perpetual motion ma- +chine unthinking people would have us believe. It would be quite as logical +to think that if we toss a box of loose type into the air the characters +will have arranged themselves into the words of a beautiful poem by the time +they reach the ground. The greater the complexity of the plan the greater +the argumental weight in favor of the theory of an intelligent Divine Au- +thor. + + THE THIRD HEAVEN + + Having assimilated all the fruits of his last life and altered the ap- +pearance of the Earth in such a manner as to afford him the necessary envi- +ronment for his next step towards perfection; having also learned by work on +the bodies of others, to build a suitable body through which to express him- +self in the Physical World and having at last resolved the mind into the es- +sence which builds the three-fold spirit, the naked individual spirit as- +cends into the higher Region of the World of Thought--the third heaven, +Here, by the ineffable harmony of this higher world, it is strengthened for +its next dip into matter. + + After a time comes the desire for new experience and the contemplation +of a new birth. This conjures up a series of pictures before the vision of +the spirit--a panorama of the new life in store for it. But, mark this +well--this panorama contains only principal events. The spirit has free will +as to detail. It is as if a man going to a distant city had a time-limit +ticket, with initial choice of route. After he has chosen and begun his +journey it is not sure that he can change to another route during the trip. +He may stop over in as many places as he wishes, within his time limit, but +he cannot go back. Thus as he proceeds on his journey, he becomes more and + + + + + +[PAGE 130] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +more limited by his past choice. If he had chosen a steam road, using soft +coal, he must expect to be soiled and dusty. Had he chosen a road burning +anthracite or using electricity he would have been cleaner. So it is with +the man in a new life. He may have to live a hard life, but he is free to +choose whether he will live it cleanly or wallow in the mire. Other condi- +tions are also within his control, subject to limits of his past choices and +acts. + + The pictures in the panorama of the coming life, of which we have just +spoken, begin at the cradle and end at the grave. This is the opposite di- +rection to that in which they travel in the after-death panorama, already +explained, which passes before the vision of the spirit immediately follow- +ing its release from the dense body. The reason for this radical difference +in the two panoramas is that in the before-birth panorama the object is to +show the returning Ego how certain CAUSES or acts always PRODUCE certain EF- +FECTS. In the case of the after-death panorama the object is the reverse, +i.e., to show how each event in the past life was the EFFECT of some CAUSE +further back in the life. Nature, or God, does nothing without a logical +reason, and the further we search the more apparent it becomes to us that +Nature is a wise mother, always using the best means to accomplish her ends. + + But it may be asked, Why should we be reborn? Why must we return to +this limited and miserable earth existence? Why can we not get experience +in those higher realms without coming to Earth? We are tired of this +dreary, weary earth life! + + Such queries are based upon misunderstandings of several kinds. In the +first place, let us realize and engrave it deep upon the tablets of our +memory that THE PURPOSE OF LIFE IS NOT HAPPINESS, BUT EXPERIENCE. Sorrow + + + + +[PAGE 131] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +and pain are our most benevolent teachers, while the joys of life are but +fleeting. + + This seems a stern doctrine and the heart cries out passionately at even +the thought that it may possibly be true. Nevertheless, it is true, and +upon examination it will be found not such a stern doctrine after all. + + Consider the blessings of pain. If we could place our hand upon a hot +stove and feel no pain, the hand might be allowed to remain until it and +perhaps the arm were burned away, without our knowing anything about it un- +til too late to save them. It is the pain resulting from the contact with +the hot stove which makes us snatch our hand away before serious damage is +done. Instead of losing the hand, we escape with a blister which quickly +heals. This is an illustration from the Physical World. We find that same +principle applies in the Moral and Mental Worlds. If we outrage morality +the pangs of conscience bring us pain that will prevent us from repeating +the act and if we do not heed the first lesson, nature will give us harder +and harder experiences until at last the fact is forced into our conscious- +ness that "the way of the transgressor is hard." This will continue until +at last we are forced to turn in a new direction and take a step onward to- +ward a better life. + + Experience is "knowledge of the effects which follow acts." This is the +object of life, together with the development of "Will," which is the force +whereby we apply the results of experience. Experience must be gained, but +we have the choice whether we gain it by the hard path of personal experi- +ence or by observation of other people's acts, reasoning and reflecting +thereon, guided by the light of whatever experience we have already had. + + + + + +[PAGE 132] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + This is the method by which the occult student should learn, instead of +requiring the lash of adversity and pain. The more willing we are to learn +in that way, the less we shall feel the stinging thorns of "the path of +pain" and the more quickly shall we gain "the path of peace." + + The choice is ours, but so long as we have not learned all there is to +learn in this world, we must come back to it. We cannot stay in the higher +worlds and learn there until we have mastered the lessons of earth life. +That would be as sensible as to send a child to kindergarten one day and to +college the next. The child must return to the kindergarten day after day +and spend years in the grammar school and the high school before its study +has developed its capacity sufficiently to enable it to understand the les- +sons taught in college. + + Man is also in school--the school of experience. He must return many +times before he can hope to master all the knowledge in the world of sense. +No one earth life, however rich in experience, could furnish the knowledge, +so nature decrees that he must return to Earth, after intervals of rest, to +take up his work where he dropped it, exactly as a child takes up its work +in school each day, after the intervening sleep of night. It is not argu- +ment against this theory to say that man does not remember his former lives. +We cannot recall all the events of our present lives. We do not recollect +our labors in learning to write, yet we have acquired a knowledge of the art +of writing, which proves that we did learn. All the faculties we possess +are a proof that we acquired them sometime, somewhere. Some people do re- +member their past, however, as a remarkable instance related at the end of +the next chapter will show, and is but one among many. + + Again, if their were no return to Earth, what is the use of living? Why + + + + +[PAGE 133] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +strive for anything? Why should a life of happiness in an eternal heaven be +the reward for a good life? What benefit could come from a good life in a +heaven where everybody is already happy? Surely in a place where everybody +is happy and contented there is no need for sympathy, self-sacrifice or wise +counsel! No one would need them here; but on Earth there are many who need +those very things and such humanitarian and altruistic qualities are of the +greatest service to struggling humanity. Therefore the Great Law, which +works for Good, brings man back to work again in the world for the benefit +to himself and others, with his acquired treasures, instead of letting them +go to waste in a heaven where no one needs them. + + PREPARATIONS FOR REBIRTH + + Having thus seen the necessity for repeated embodiments, we will next +consider the method by which this purpose is accomplished. + + Previous to taking the dip into matter, the threefold spirit is naked, +having only the forces of the four seed-atoms (which are the nuclei of the +threefold body and the sheath of mind). Its descent resembles the putting +on of several pairs of gloves of increasing thickness, as previously illus- +trated. The forces of the mind of the last life are awakened from their la- +tency in the seed-atom. This begins to attract to itself materials from the +highest subdivision of the Region of Concrete Thought, in a manner similar +to that in which a magnet draws to itself iron filings. + + If we hold a magnet over a miscellaneous heap of filings of brass, sil- +ver, gold, iron, lead and other metals, we shall find that it selects only +iron filings and that even of them it will take no more than its strength + + + + +[PAGE 134] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +enables it to lift. Its attractive power is of a certain kind and is lim- +ited to a certain quantity of that kind. The same is true of the seed-atom. +It can take, in each Region, nothing except the material for which it has an +affinity and nothing beyond a certain definite quantity even of that. Thus +the vehicle built around this nucleus becomes an exact counterpart of the +corresponding vehicle of the last life minus the evil which has been expur- +gated and plus the quintessence of good which has been incorporated in the +seed-atom. + + The material selected by the threefold spirit forms itself into a great +bell-shaped figure, open at the bottom and with the seed-atom at the top. +If we conceive of the illustration spiritually we may compare it to a div- +ing-bell descending into a sea composed of fluids of increasing density. +These correspond to the different subdivisions of each World. The matter +taken into the texture of the bell-shaped body makes it heavier, so that it +sinks into the next lower subdivision and it takes from that its proper +quota of matter. Thus it becomes still heavier and sinks yet deeper until +it has passed through the four subdivisions of the Region of Concrete +Thought and the sheath of the new mind of the man is complete. Next the +forces in the seed-atom of the desire body are awakened. It places itself +at the top of the bell, INSIDE, and the materials of the seventh Region of +the Desire World draw around it until it sinks to the sixth Region, getting +more material there, and this process continues until the first Region of +the Desire World is reached. The bell has now two layers-the sheath of mind +outside and the new desire body inside. + + The seed-atom of the vital body is next aroused into activity, but here +the process of information is not so simple as in the case of the mind and +the desire body, for it must be remembered that those vehicles were + + + + +[PAGE 135] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +comparatively unorganized, while the vital body and the dense body are more +organized and very complicated. The material, of a given quantity and qual- +ity, is attracted in the same manner and under the operation of the same law +as in the case of the higher bodies, but the building of the new body and +the placement in the proper environment is done by four great Beings of im- +measurable wisdom, which are the Recording Angels, the "Lords of Destiny." +They impress the reflecting ether of the vital body in such a way that the +pictures of the coming life are reflected in it. It (the vital body) is +built by the inhabitants of the Heaven World and the elemental spirits in +such a manner as to form a particular type of brain. But mark this, THE RE- +TURNING EGO ITSELF INCORPORATES THEREIN THE QUINTESSENCE OF ITS FORMER VITAL +BODIES AND IN ADDITION TO THIS ALSO DOES A LITTLE ORIGINAL WORK. This is +done that in the coming life there may be some room for original and indi- +vidual expression, not predetermined by past action. + + It is very important to remember this fact. There is too great a ten- +dency to think that all which now exists is the result of something that +previously existed, but if that were the case there would be no margin left +for new and original effort and for new causes. The chain of cause and ef- +fect is not a monotonous repetition. THERE IS AN INFLUX OF NEW AND ORIGINAL +CAUSES ALL THE TIME. That is the real backbone of evolution--the only thing +that gives it meaning and makes it other than an unrolling of latent actu- +alities. This is "Epigenesis"--the free-will that consists of the freedom +the inaugurate something entirely new, not merely a choice between two +courses of action. This is the important factor which alone can explain the +system to which we belong in a satisfactory manner. Involution and + + + + +[PAGE 136] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Evolution is themselves are insufficient; but coupled with Epignesis we have +a full triad of explanation. + + The fate of an individual generated under the law of Consequence, is of +great complexity and involves association with Egos in and out of physical +existence, at all times. Even those living at one time may not be living in +the same locality, so that it is impossible for one individual's destiny to +be all worked out in one lifetime or in one place. The Ego is therefore +brought into a certain environment and family with which it is some way re- +lated. As regards the fate to be worked out, it is sometimes immaterial +into which one of several environmental the Ego is reborn, and when such is +the case, it is allowed its choice as far as possible, but once an Ego is so +placed the agents of the Lords of Destiny watch unseen, that no act of free +will shall frustrate the working out of the portion of fate selected. If we +do aught of such as to circumvent that part, they will make another move, so +as to enforce fulfillment of the destiny. It cannot be too often reiter- +ated, however, that this does not render man helpless. It is merely the +same law that governs after we have fired a pistol. We are then unable to +stop the bullet, or even to deflect it from its course in any way. Its di- +rection was determined by the position in which the pistol was held when we +fired. That could have been changed at any time before the trigger was +pulled, as up to that time we had full control. The same is true regarding +new actions which make future destiny. We may, up to a certain point, +modify or even altogether counteract certain causes already set in motion, +but once started, and no further action taken, they will get beyond our con- +trol. This is called "ripe" fate and it is this kind that is meant when it +is said that the Lords of Destiny check every attempt to shirk it. With + + + + + +[PAGE 137] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +regard to out past we are to a great extent helpless, but in regard to fu- +ture action we have full control, except insofar as we are hampered by our +past actions. By and by, however, as we learn that we are the cause of our +own sorrow or joy, we shall awake to the necessity of ordering our lives +more in harmony with the laws of God and thus rise above these laws of the +Physical World. That is the key to emancipation; as Goethe says: + + From every power that all the world enchains + Man frees himself when self-control he gains. + + The vital body, having been molded by the Lords of Destiny, will give +form to the dense body, organ of organ. This matrix or mold is then placed +in the womb of the future mother. The seed-atom for the dense body is in +the triangular head of one of the spermatozoa in the semen of the father. +This alone makes fertilization possible and here is the explanation of the +fact that so many times sex-unions are unfruitful. The chemical con- +stituents of the seminal fluid and the ova are the same at all times and +were these the only requirements, the explanation of the phenomenon of in- +fertility, if sought in the material, visible world alone, would not be +found. It becomes plain, however, when we understand that as the molecules +of water freeze only along the lines of force in the water and manifest as +ice crystals instead of freezing into a homogeneous mass, as would be the +case if there were no lines of force previous to coagulation, so there can +be no dense body built until there is a vital body in which to build the ma- +terial; also there must be a seed-atom for the dense body, to act as gauge +of the quality and quantity of the matter which is to be built into that +dense body. Although at the present stage of development there is never + + + + + +[PAGE 138] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +full harmony in the materials of the body, because that would mean a perfect +body, yet the discord must not be so great as to be disruptive of the organ- +ism. + + Thus while heredity in the first place is true only as regards the mate- +rial of the dense body and not the soul qualities, which are entirely indi- +vidual, the incoming Ego also does a certain amount of work on its dense +body, incorporating in it the quintessence of its past physical qualities. +No body is an exact mixture of the qualities of its parents, although the +Ego is restricted to the use of the materials taken from the bodies of the +father and mother. Hence a musician incarnates where he can get the mate- +rial to build the slender hand and the delicate ear, with it sensitive fi- +bres of Corti and its accurate adjustment of the three semicircular canals. +The arrangement of these materials, however, is, to the extent named, under +the control of the Ego. It is as though a carpenter were given a pile of +boards to use in building a house in which to live, but is left to his own +judgement as to the kind of house he wishes to build. + + Except in the case of a very highly developed being, this work of the +Ego is almost negligible at the present stage of man's evolution. The +greatest scope is given in the building of the desire body, very little in +that of the vital body and almost none in the dense body; yet even this +little is sufficient to make each individual an expression of his own spirit +and different from the parents. + + When the impregnation of the ovum has taken place, the desire body of +the mother works upon it for a period of from eighteen to twenty-one days, +the Ego remaining outside in its desire body and mind sheath, yet always in +close touch with the mother. Upon the expiration of that time the Ego en- +ters the mother's body. The bell-shaped vehicles draw themselves down over + + + + +[PAGE 139] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +the head of the vital body and the bell closes at the bottom. From this +time the Ego broods over its coming instrument until the birth of the child +and the new earth life of the returning Ego commences. +[PAGE 139 cont'd] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + + BIRTH OF THE DENSE BODY + + The vehicles of the new-born do not at once become active. The dense +body is helpless for a long time after birth. Reasoning from analogy we can +readily see that the same must be the case with the higher vehicles. The +occult scientist sees it, but even without clairvoyance reason will show +that this must be so. As the dense body is slowly prepared for the +separate, individual life within the protecting cover of the womb, so the +other bodies are gradually born and nurtured into activity, and while the +times given in the following description are but approximate, they are nev- +ertheless accurate enough for general purposes and show the connection be- +tween the Microcosm and the Macrocosm--the individual and the world. + + In the period immediately following birth the different vehicles +inter-penetrate one another, as, in our previous illustration, the sand pen- +etrates the sponge and the water both sand and sponge. But, though they are +all present, as in adult life, they are MERELY PRESENT. None of their +positive faculties are active. The vital body cannot use the forces which +operate along the positive pole of the ethers. Assimilation, which works +along the positive pole of the chemical ether, is very dainty during child- +hood and what there is of it is due to the macrocosmic vital body, the +ethers of which act as a womb for the child's vital body until the seventh +year, gradually ripening it during that period. The propagative faculty, + + + + +[PAGE 140] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +which works along the positive pole of the life ether, is also latent. The +heating of the body--which is carried on along the positive pole of the +light ether--and the circulation of the blood are due to the macrocosmic +vital body, the ethers acting on the child and slowly developing it to the +point where it can control these functions itself. The forces working along +the negative pole of the ethers are so much the more active. The excretion +of solides, carried on along the negative pole of the chemical ether +(corresponding to the solid subdivision of the Chemical Region), is +too unrestrained, as is also the excretion of fluid, which is carried on +along the negative pole of the life ether (corresponding to the second or +fluid subdivision of the Chemical Region). The passive sense-perception, +which is due to the negative forces of the light ether, is also +exceedingly prominent. The child is very impressionable and it is "all eyes +and ears." + + During the earlier years the forces operating along the negative pole of +the reflecting ether are also extremely active. In those years children can +"see" the higher Worlds and they often prattle about what they see until the +ridicule of their elders or punishment for "telling stories" teaches them to +desist. + + It is deplorable that the little ones are forced to lie--or at least to +deny the truth--because of the incredulity of their "wise" elders. Even +the investigations of the Society for Physical Research have proven that +children often have invisible playmates, who frequently visit them until +they are several years old. During those years the clairvoyance of the +children is of the same negative character as that of the mediums. + + It is the same with the forces working in the desire body. The passive +feeling of physical pain is present, while the feeling of emotion is almost + + + + +[PAGE 141] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +entirely absent. The child will, of course, show emotion on the slightest +provocation, but the duration of that emotion is but momentary. It all on +the surface. + + The child also has the link of mind, but is almost incapable of indi- +vidual thought activity. It is exceedingly sensitive to forces working +along the negative pole and is therefore imitative and teachable. + + Thus it is shown that all the negative qualities are active in the +new-born entity, but before it is able to use its different vehicles, the +positive qualities must be ripened. + + Each vehicle is therefore brought to a certain degree of maturity by the +activity of the corresponding vehicle of the macrocosm, which acts as a womb +for it until that degree is reached. + + From the first to the seventh year the vital body grows and slowly ma- +tures within the womb of the macrocosmic vital body and because of the +greater wisdom of this vehicle of the macrocosm the child's body is more +rounded and well-built than in later life. + + BIRTH OF THE VITAL BODY. + + While the macrocosmic vital body guides the growth of the child's body +it is guarded from the dangers which later threaten it when the unwise indi- +vidual vital body takes unchecked charge. This happens in the seventh year, +when the period of excessive, dangerous growth begins, and continues through +the next seven years. During this time the macrocosmic desire body performs +the function of a womb for the individual desire body. + + Were the vital body to have continual and unrestrained sway in the human +kingdom, as it has in the plant, man would grow to an enormous size. There +was a time in the far distant past when man was constituted like a plant, + + + + +[PAGE 142] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +having only a dense body and a vital body. The traditions of mythology and +folk-lore all over the world concerning giants in olden times are absolutely +true, because then men grew as tall trees, and for the same reason. + + BIRTH OF THE DESIRE BODY. + + The vital body of the plant builds leaf after leaf, carrying the stem +higher and higher. Were it not for the macrocosmic desire body it would +keep on in that way indefinitely, but the macrocosmic desire body steps in +at a certain point and checks further growth. The force that is not needed +for further growth is then available for other purposes and is used to build +the flower and the seed. In like manner the human vital body, when the +dense body comes under its sway, after the seventh year, makes the latter +grow very rapidly, but about the fourteenth year the individual desire body +is born from the womb of the macrocosmic desire body and is then free to +work on its dense body. The excessive growth is then checked and the force +theretofore used for that purpose becomes available for propagation, that +the human plant may flower and bring forth. Therefore the birth of the per- +sonal desire body marks the period of puberty. From this period the attrac- +tion towards the opposite sex is felt, being especially active and +unrestrained in the third septenary period of life--from the fourteenth to +the twenty-first year, because the restraining mind is then still unborn. + + BIRTH OF THE MIND. + + After the fourteenth year, the mind is in turn brooded over and nurtured +by the macrocosmic mind, unfolding its latent possibilities and making it +capable of original thought. The forces of the individual's different + + + + +[PAGE 143] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + +vehicles have now been ripened to such a degree that he can use them all in +his evolution, therefore at the twenty-first year the Ego comes into posses- +sion of its complete vehicle. It does this by means of the blood-heat and +by developing individual blood. This is done in connection with the full +development of the light ether. + + THE BLOOD THE VEHICLE OF THE EGO. + + In infancy, and up to the fourteenth year, the red marrow-bones do not +make all the blood corpuscles. Most of them are supplied by the thymus +gland, which is largest in the fetus and gradually diminishes as the indi- +vidual blood-making faculty develops in the growing child. The thymus gland +contains, as it were, a supply of blood corpuscles given by the parents, and +consequently the child, which draws its blood from that source, does not re- +alize its individuality. Not until the blood is made by the child does it +think of itself as "I," and when the thymus gland disappears, at the age of +fourteen, the "I" feeling reaches its full expression, for then the blood is +made and dominated entirely by the Ego. The following will make clear the +idea and its logic: + + It will be remembered that assimilation and growth depend upon the +forces working along the positive pole of the vital body's chemical ether. +That is set free at the seventh year, together with the balance of the vital +body. Only the chemical ether is fully ripe at that time; the other parts +need more ripening. At the fourteenth year the life ether of the vital +body, which has to do with propagation, is fully ripe. In the period from +seven to fourteen years of age the excessive assimilation has stored up an +amount of force which goes to the sex organs and is ready at the time the +desire body is set free. + + + + +[PAGE 144] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + This force of sex is stored in the blood during the third of the +seven-year periods and in that time the light ether, which is the avenue for +the blood-heat, is developed and controls the heart, so that the body is +neither too hot nor too cold. In early childhood the blood very often rises +to an abnormal temperature. During the period of excessive growth it is +frequently the reverse, but in the hot-headed, unrestrained youth, passion +and temper very often drive the Ego out by over-heating the blood. We very +appropriately call this an ebullition or boiling over of temper and describe +the effect as causing the person to "lose his head," i.e., become incapable +of thought. That is exactly what happens when passion, rage, or temper +overheats the blood, thus drawing the Ego outside the bodies. The descrip- +tion is accurate when, of a person in such a state, we say, "He has lost +control of himself." The Ego is outside of his vehicles and they are run- +ning amuck, bereft of the guiding influence of thought, part of the work of +which is to act as a brake on impulse. The great and terrible danger of +such outbursts is that before the owner re-enters his body some disembodied +entity may take possession of it and keep him out. This is called "obses- +sion." Only the man who keeps cool and does not allow excess of heat to +drive him out can think properly. As proof of the assertion that the Ego +cannot work in the body when the blood is either tool hot or too cold we +will call attention to the well-known fact that excessive heat makes one +sleepy and, if carried beyond a certain point, it drives the Ego out, leav- +ing the body in a faint, that is, unconscious. Excessive cold has also a +tendency to make the body sleepy or unconscious. It is only when the blood +is at or near the normal temperature that the Ego can use it as a vehicle of +consciousness. + + + + +[PAGE 145] MAN AND THE METHOD OF EVOLUTION + + To further show the connection of the ego with the blood we may mention +the burning blush of shame, which is an evidence of the manner in which the +blood is driven to the head, thus over-heating the brain and paralyzing +thought. Fear is the state when the Ego wants to barricade himself against +some outside danger. He then drives the blood to the center and grows pale, +because the blood has left the periphery of the body and has lost heat, thus +paralyzing thought. His blood "freezes," he shivers and his teeth chatter, +as when the temperature is lowered by atmospheric conditions. In fever the +excess of heat causes delirium. + + The full-blooded person, when the blood is not too hot, is active in +body and mind, while the anemic person is sleepy. In one the Ego has better +control; in the other less. When the Ego wants to think it drives blood, at +the proper heat, to the brain. When a heavy meal centers the activity of +the Ego upon the digestive tracts, the man cannot think; he is sleepy. + + The old Norsemen and the Scots recognized that the Ego is in the blood. +No stranger could become associated with them as a relative until he had +"mixed blood" with them and thus become one of them. Goethe, who was an +Initiate, also showed this in his "Faust." Faust is about to sign the com- +pact with Mephistopheles and asks, "Why not sign with ordinary ink? Why use +blood?" Mephisto answers, "Blood is a most peculiar essence." He knows, +that who has the blood has the man; that without the warm blood, no Ego can +find expression. + + The proper heat for the real expression of the Ego is not present until +the mind is born from the macrocosmic Concrete Mind, when the individual + + + + + +[PAGE 146] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +is about twenty-one years old. Statutory law also recognizes this as the +earliest age when the man is deemed fit to exercise a franchise. + + At the present stage of human development the man goes through these +principal stages in each life cycle, from one birth to the next. + + + + + DIAGRAM: A LIFE-CYCLE + + + + + + + + +[PAGE 147] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + + + CHAPTER IV. + + REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE. + + Only three theories worthy of note have ever been brought forward to +solve the riddle of Life and Death. + + In the previous chapter we have, to some extent, explained one of these +three theories--that of Rebirth, together with it companion law, the law +of Consequence. It may not be out of place to compare the theory of Re- +birth with the other two theories advanced, with a view to ascertaining +their relative and foundation in nature. To the occultist there can be no +question. He does not say what he "believes" in it any more than we need +to say that we "believe" as to the blooming of the rose or the flowing of +the river, or the operation of any of the visible workings of the material +world, which are continually going on before our eyes. We do not say of +these things that we "believe;" we say that we "know," because we see them. +So the occult scientist can say "I know" in regard to Rebirth, the law of +Consequence and their corollaries. He sees the Ego and can trace its path +after it has passed out of the dense body at death until it has reappeared +on earth through a new birth. Therefore to him no "belief" is necessary. +For the satisfaction of others, however, it may be well to examine these +three theories of life and death in order to arrive at an intelligent con- +clusion. + + + +[PAGE 148] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Any great law of nature must necessarily be in harmony with all her +other laws. Therefore it may be very helpful to the inquirer to examine +these theories in their relation to what are admitted by all parties to be +"known laws of nature," as observed in that part of our universe with which +we are more familiar. To this end we will first state the three theories: + +(1) The Materialistic Theory holds that life is a journey from the womb to + the tomb; that mind is the result of certain correlations of matter; + than man is the highest intelligence in the Cosmos; and, that his + intelligence perishes when the body disintegrates at death. + +(2) The Theory of Theology asserts that at each birth a newly-created soul + enters the arena of life fresh from the hand of God, passing from an + invisible state through the gate of birth into visible existence; that + at the end of one short span of life in the material world it passes + out through the gate of death into the invisible beyond, whence it re- + turns no more; that its happiness or misery there is determined for + all eternity by its actions during the infinitesimal period intervening + between birth and death. + +(3) The Theory of Rebirth teaches that each soul is an integral part of + God, enfolding all divine possibilities as the seed enfolds the plant; + that by means of repeated existences in an earthly body of gradually + improving quality, the latent possibilities are slowly developed into + dynamic powers; that none are lost by this process, but that all man- + kind will ultimately attain the goal of perfection and re-union with + God. + + + + +[PAGE 149] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + +The first of these theories is monistic. It seeks to explain all facts of +existence as processes within the material world. The two other theories +agree in being dualistic, that is, they ascribe some of the facts and +phases of existence to a super-physical, invisible state, but they differ +widely on other points. + + Bringing the materialistic theory into comparison with the known laws +of the universe, we find that the continuity of force is as well estab- +lished as the continuity of matter and both are beyond the need of elucida- +tion. We also know that matter and force are inseparable in the Physical +World. This is contrary to the materialistic theory, which holds that mind +perishes at death. When nothing can be destroyed, mind must be included. +Moreover we know that mind is superior to matter, for it molds the fact, so +that it becomes a reflection or mirror of the mind. We have discovered +that the particles of our bodies are constantly changing; that at least +once in seven years there is a change in every atom of matter composing +them. If the materialistic theory were true, the consciousness ought also +to undergo an entire change, with no memory of that which preceded, so that +at no time could man remember any event more than seven years. We know +that is not the case. We remember the events of our childhood. Many of +the most trivial incidents though forgotten in ordinary consciousness, have +been distinctly recalled in a swift vision of the whole life by drowning +persons, who have related the experience after resuscitation. Similar ex- +periences in states of trance are also common. Materialism is unable to +account for these phases of sub- and super-consciousness. It ignores them. +At the present stage of scientific investigation, where leading scientists +have established beyond a doubt the existence of these phenomena, the +policy of ignoring them is a serious defect in a theory claiming to solve +the greatest problem of life--Life itself. + + + +[PAGE 150] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + We may therefore safely pass from the materialistic theory as being in- +adequate to solve the mystery of life and death and turn to a consideration +of the next theory. + + One of the greatest objections to the orthodox theological doctrine, as +it is expounded, is its entire and confessed inadequacy. Of the myriads of +souls which have been created and have inhabited this Globe since the be- +ginning of existence, even if that beginning dates back no further than six +thousand years, the insignificant number of only "one hundred and forty and +four thousand" are to be saved! The rest are to be tortured forever and +ever! The devil gets the best of it all the time. One cannot help saying +with Buddha, "If God permits such misery to exist He cannot be good, and if +He is powerless to prevent it, He cannot be God." + + Nothing in nature is analogous to such a method of creation in order +that destruction may follow. It is represented that God desires ALL should +be saved and is averse to the destruction of any, having for their salva- +tion "given His only Son," and yet this "glorious plan of salvation" fails +to save! + + If a trans-Atlantic liner with two thousand souls on board sent a wire- +less message that she was sinking just off Sandy Hook, would it be regarded +as a "glorious plan of salvation" if a fast motor-boat capable of rescuing +only two or three people, were sent to her aid? Certainly not! It would +more likely be denounced as a "plan of destruction" if adequate means were +not provided for the saving of at least majority of those in danger. + + But the theologians' plan of salvation is vastly worse than this, be- +cause two or three of two thousand is an immensely greater proportion than + + + + +[PAGE 151] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + +the orthodox theological plan of saving only 144,000 out of all the myriads +of souls created. We may safely reject this theory also, as being untrue, +because unreasonable. If God were allwise He would have evolved a more ef- +ficacious plan. So He has, and the above is only the theory of the theolo- +gian. The teaching of the Bible is very different, as will appear later. + + We turn now to consider the doctrine of Rebirth, which postulates a +slow process of development, carried on with unwavering persistence through +repeated embodiments in forms of increasing efficiency whereby all are, in +time, brought to a height of spiritual splendor at present inconceivable to +us. There is nothing unreasonable nor difficult to accept in such a +theory. As we look about us we find everywhere in nature this striving for +perfection in a slow, persistent manner. We find no sudden process of cre- +ation or destruction, such as the theologian postulates, but we do find +"Evolution." + + Evolution is "the history of the progression of the Spirit in Time." +Everywhere, as we see about us the varied phenomena in the universe, we re- +alize that the path of evolution is a spiral. Each loop of the spiral is a +cycle. Each cycle merges into the next, as the loops of the spiral are +continuous, each cycle being the improved product of those preceding it and +the creator of those more developed states which succeed it. + + A straight line is but the extension of a point. It occupies but one +dimension in space. The theory of the materialist and that of the theolo- +gian would be analogous to this line. The materialist makes the line of +life start at birth, and to be consistent, the death hour must terminate +it. The theologian commences his line with the creation of the soul just + + + + +[PAGE 152] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +previous to birth. After death the soul lives on, it fate irretrievably +determined by the deeds of a few short years. There is no coming back to +correct mistakes. The line runs straight on, implying a modicum of experi- +ence and no elevation for the soul after death. + + Natural progression does not follow a straight line such as these two +theories imply; nor even a circular path, for that would imply a +never-ending round of the same experiences and the use of only two dimen- +sions in space. All things move in progressive cycles and in order to take +full advantages of all the opportunities for advancement offered by our +three-dimensional universe, it is necessary that the evolving life should +take the three-dimensional path--the spiral--which goes ever onward and up- +ward. + + Whether we look at the modest little plant in our garden, or go to the +redwood district of California and examine one of the giant Sequoias with +its thirty-foot diameter, it is always the same--every branch, twig or leaf +will be found growing in either a single or a double spiral, or in opposite +pairs, each balancing either, analogous to ebb and flow, day and night, +life and death and other ALTERNATING activities in nature. + + Examine the vaulted arch of the sky and observe the fiery nebulae or +the path of the Solar-Systems--everywhere the spiral meets the eye. In the +spring the Earth discards its white blanket and emerges from its period of +rest its winter sleep. All activities are exerted to bring forth new life +everywhere. Time passes. The corn and the grape are ripened and har- +vested. Again the busy summer fades into the silence and inactivity of the +winter. Again the snowy coverlet enwraps the Earth. But her sleep is not + + + + +[PAGE 153] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + +forever; she will wake again to the song of the new spring, which will mark +for her a little further progress along the pathway of time. + + So with the Sun. He rises in the morning of each day, but each morning +he is further along on his journey through the year. + + Everywhere the spiral--ONWARD, UPWARD, FOREVER! + + Is it possible that this law, so universal in all other realms, should +be inoperative in the life of man? Shall the earth wake each year from its +winter sleep; shall the tree and the flower live again and man die? It +cannot be! The same law that wakes the life in the plant to new growth +will wake the human being to new experience, to further progress toward the +goal of perfection. Therefore the theory of Rebirth, which teaches re- +peated embodiment in gradually improving vehicles, is in perfect accord +with evolution and the phenomena of nature, which the other two theories +are not. + + Regarding life from an ethical viewpoint, we find that the law of Re- +birth coupled with the companion law of Consequence, is the only theory +that will satisfy a sense of justice, in harmony with the facts of life as +we see them about us. + + It is not easy for the logical mind to understand how a "just and lov- +ing" God can require the same virtues from the milliards whom He has been +"pleased to place in differing circumstances" according to no apparent rule +nor system, but willy-nilly, according to His own capricious mood. One +lives in luxury; the other on "kicks and crusts." One has a moral educa- +tion and an atmosphere of high ideals; the other is placed in squalid sur- +roundings and taught to lie and steal and that the more he does of both, +the more of a success he is. It is just to require the same of both? Is +it right to reward one for living a good life when he was placed in an + + + + + +[PAGE 154] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +environment that made it extremely difficult for him to go astray, or to +punish the other, who was handicapped to such an extent that he never had +an idea of what constitutes true morality. Surely not! Is it not more +logical to think that we may have misinterpreted the Bible than to impute +to God such a monstrous plan and method of procedure? + + It is useless to say that we must not inquire into the mysteries of +God; that they are past our finding out. The inequalities of life can be +satisfactorily explained by the twin laws of Rebirth and Consequence and +made to harmonize with the conception of a just and loving God, as taught +by Christ Himself. + + Moreover, by means of these twin laws a way to emancipation from +present undesirable position or environment is show, together with the +means of attaining to any degree of development, no matter how imperfect we +may be now. + + What we are, what we have, all our good qualities are the result of our +own actions in the past. What we lack in physical, moral, or mental excel- +lence may yet be ours in the future. + + Exactly as we cannot do otherwise than take up our lives each morning +where we laid them down the preceding night, so by our work in previous +lives have we made the conditions under which we now live and labor, and +are at present creating the conditions of our future lives. Instead of be- +moaning the lack of this or that faculty which we covet, we must set to +work to acquire it. + + If one child plays beautifully on a musical instrument, with hardly an +effort at learning, while another, despite persistent effort, is a poor +player in comparison, it merely shows that one expended the effort in a + + + + +[PAGE 155] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + +previous life and is easily regaining a former proficiency, while the ef- +forts of the other have been started only in the present life, and in con- +sequence we see the uphill work. But, if the latter persist, he may, even +in the present life, become superior to the former unless the former con- +stantly improves. + + That we do not remember the effort made in acquiring a faculty by hard +work is immaterial, it does not alter the fact that the faculty remains +with us. + + Genius is the hall-mark of the advanced soul, which by hard work in +many previous lives has developed itself in some way beyond the normal +achievements of the race. It reveals a glimpse of the degree of attainment +which will be the common possession of the coming Race. It cannot be ac- +counted for by heredity, which applies only in part to the dense body and +not to qualities of the soul. If genius could be accounted for by hered- +ity, why is there not a long line of mechanical ancestry previous to Thomas +Edison, each more capable than his predecessor? Why does not genius +propagate itself? Why is not Siegfried the son, greater than Richard +Wagner, the father? + + In cases where the expression of genius depends upon the possession of +specially constructed organs, requiring ages of development, the Ego +naturally is reborn in a family the Egos of which have, for generations, +labored to build a similar organism. That is why twenty-nine musicians of +more or less genius were born in the Bach family during a period of two +hundred and fifty years. That genius is an expression of the soul and not +of the body is shown by the fact that it did not gradually improve and +reach efflorescence in the person of John Sebastian Bach, but that the pro- +ficiency which reached its highest expression in him towered high above an- +cestors and descendants alike. + + + + +[PAGE 156] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + The body is simply an instrument, the work it yields being dependent +upon the Ego which guides it, as the quality of the melody is dependent +upon the musician's skill, aided by the TIMBRE of the instrument. A good +musician cannot fully express himself on a poor instrument, and even upon +the same instrument, all musicians do not and cannot play alike. Because +an Ego seeks rebirth as the son of a great musician it does not necessarily +follow that he must be a still greater genius, as would be the case if the +physical heredity were a fact and genius were not a soul-quality. + + The "Law of Attraction" accounts in quite as satisfactory manner for +the facts we ascribe to heredity. We know that people of like tastes will +seek another. If we know that a friend is in a certain city, but are igno- +rant of his address, we will naturally be governed by the law of asso- +ciation in our efforts to find him. If he is a musician, he will most +likely be found where musicians are wont to assemble; if he is a student +inquiry will be made at public libraries, reading-rooms and book stores, or +if he is a sporting man we would seek him at race tracks, pool-rooms or sa- +loons. It is not probable that the musician or the student would frequent +the latter places and it is safe to say that our search for the sporting +man would not be successful if we sought him in a library or at a classical +concert. + + Similarly, the Ego ordinarily gravitates to the most congenial asso- +ciations. It is constrained to do so by one of the twin forces of the De- +sire World--the force of Attraction. + + The objection may be urged that there are people of entirely opposite +tastes, or bitter enemies even, in the same family, and if the law of As- +sociation governed why should they be attracted thereto? + + + +[PAGE 157] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + + The explanation of such cases is that during the Ego's earth lives many +relations have been established with various people. These relations were +pleasant or otherwise, involving on one hand obligation which were not liq- +uidated at the time; or on the other involving the infliction of an injury +and a feeling of very strong hate between the injured and his enemy. The +law of Consequence requires an exact adjustment of the score. Death does +not "pay it all" any more than moving to another city will liquidate a mon- +etary debt. The time comes when the two enemies will meet again. The old +hate has brought them together in the same family, because it is the pur- +pose of God that all shall love one another; therefore hate must be trans- +formed into love and though, perchance, they may spend many lives "fighting +it out," they will at some time learn the lesson and become friends and mu- +tual benefactors instead of enemies. In such cases the Interest these +people had in one another set in action the force of Attraction, and that +brought them together. Had they simply been mutually Indifferent they +could not have become associated. + + Thus do the twin laws of Rebirth and Consequence solve, in a rational +manner, all the problems incident to human life as man steadily advances +toward the next stage in evolution--the Superman. The trend of humanity's +progress is onward and upward forever, says this theory--not as some +people think who have confounded the doctrine of Rebirth with the foolish +teaching of some Indian tribes who believe that man is reborn in animals or +plants. That would be retrogression. No authority for this doctrine of +retrogression can be found in nature or in the sacred books of any + + + + +[PAGE 158] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +religion. In one (and one only) of the religious writings of India is it +touched upon. In the Kathopanishad (ch. v, verse 9) it is stated that +"Some men, according to their deeds, go into the womb and others into the +'sthanu.'" "Sthanu" is a Sanskrit word, which means "motionless," but it +also means ~a pillar," and has been interpreted to mean that some men, be- +cause of their sins, go back to the motionless plant kingdom. + + Spirits incarnate only to gain experience; to conquer the world; to +overcome the lower self and attain self-mastery. When we realize this we +shall understand that there comes a time when there is no further need for +incarnation because the lessons have all been learned. The teaching of the +Kathopanishad indicates that instead of remaining tied to the wheel of +birth and death, man will at some time go into the motionless state of +"Nirvana." + + In the Book of Revelation we find these worlds: "Him that overcometh +will I make a PILLAR in the temple of my God AND HE SHALL GO NO MORE OUT," +referring to entire liberation from concrete existence. Nowhere is there +any authority for the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. A man who +has evolved so far as to have an individual, separate soul cannot turn back +in his progress and enter the vehicle of animal or plant, which are under a +group-spirit. The individual spirit is a higher evolution that the +group-spirit and the lesser cannot obtain the greater. + + Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his beautiful poem, "The Chambered Nautilus," +has embodied this idea of constant progression in gradually improving ve- +hicles, and final liberation. The nautilus builds its spiral shell in +chambered sections, constantly leaving the smaller ones, which it has out- +grown, for the one last built: + + + + +[PAGE 159] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + + +**************************************** +Year after year beheld the silent toil +That spread his lustrous coil; +Still, as the spiral grew, +He left the past year's dwelling for the new, +Stole with soft step its shining archway through, +Built up its idle door, +Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. + +Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, +Child of the wandering sea, +Cast from her lap forlorn! +From thy dead lips a clearer note is born +Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn! +While on mine ear it rings, +Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: + +Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul! +As the swift seasons roll! +Leave they low-vaulted past! +Let each new temple, nobler than the last, +Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, +'Till thou at length art free, +Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! + + The necessity, previously referred to, of obtaining an organism of a +specific nature, brings to mind an interesting phase of the twin laws of +Rebirth and Consequence. These laws are connected with the motion of the +Cosmic bodies, the Sun, the planets and the signs of the Zodiac. All move +in harmony with these laws, guided in their orbits by their indwelling +spiritual Intelligences--the Planetary Spirits. + + On account of the precession of the equinoxes the Sun moves backward +through the twelve signs of the Zodiac at the rate of approximately one de- +gree of space in 72 years, and through each sign (30 degrees of space) in +about 2,100 years, or around the whole circle in about 26,000 years. + + This is due to the fact that the Earth does not spin upon a stationary +axis. Its axis has a slow, swinging motion of its own (just like the +wabble of a spinning top that has almost spent its force), so that it + + + +[PAGE 160] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +describes a circle in space and thus one star after another becomes Pole +Star. + + Because of this wabbling motion the Sun does not cross the equator in +the same place every year, but a few hundred rods further back, hence the +name, the "precession of the equinoxes," because the equinox "precedes"-- +comes to early. + + All happenings on the Earth in connection with the other Cosmic bodies +and their inhabitants are connected with this and other Cosmic movements. +So are also the laws of Rebirth and Consequence. + + As the Sun passes through the different signs of in the course of the +year, the climatic and other changes affect man and his activities in dif- +ferent ways. Similarly the passage of the Sun by the procession of the +equinoxes, through the twelve signs of the Zodiac--which is called a +World-year, brings about conditions on the Earth of a far greater variety. +It is necessary to the growth of the soul that it should experience them +all. In fact, as we have seen, the man himself makes these conditions +while in the Heaven World between births. Therefore, every Ego is born +twice during the time the Sun is passing through one sign of the Zodiac; +and, as the soul itself is necessarily double-sexed, in order to obtain all +experiences, it is reborn alternately in a male and a female body. This is +because the experience of one sex differs widely from that of the other. +At the same time, the outside conditions are not greatly altered in one +thousand years and therefore permit the entity to receive experience in the +same identical environment from the standpoint of both man and woman. + + These are the general terms upon with the law of Rebirth operates, but +as it is not a blind law, it is subject to frequent modifications, deter- +mined by the Lords of Destiny, the Recording Angels, as, for instance, in a + + + + +[PAGE 161] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + +case where an Ego needs a sensitive eye or ear and there is an opportunity +for giving it the required instrument in a family with which relations have +previously been established. The time for the re-embodiment of the Ego is +question may lack, perhaps, two hundred years of being ripe according to +the average period, but it is seen by the Lords of Destiny that unless this +opportunity is embraced, the Ego will perhaps have to spend four or five +hundred years in heaven in excess of the time required, before another +chance will present itself. Therefore the Ego is brought to rebirth ahead +of schedule time, so to speak, the deficiency of rest in the third heaven +being made up at another time. So we see that, not only do the departed +work on us from the Heaven World, but we also work on them, attracting or +repelling them. A favorable opportunity for procuring a suitable instru- +ment may attract an Ego to rebirth. Had no instrument been available, he +would have been kept longer in heaven and the surplus time deducted from +his succeeding heaven lives. + + The law of Consequence also works in harmony with the stars, so that A +MAN IS BORN AT THE TIME WHEN THE POSITIONS OF THE BODIES IN THE SOLAR SYS- +TEM WILL GIVE THE CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO HIS EXPERIENCE AND ADVANCEMENT IN +THE SCHOOL OF LIFE. That is why Astrology is an absolutely true science, +though even the best astrologer may misinterpret it, because, like all +other human beings, he is fallible. The stars show accurately the time in +a man's life when the debt which the Lords of Destiny have selected for +payment is due, and to evade it is beyond the power of man. Yes, they show +the very day, although we are not always able to read them correctly. + + Perhaps the most striking instance known to the writer of this + + + + +[PAGE 162] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + +inability to escape what is written in the stars, though perfectly cogni- +zant of it, occurred in Los Angeles, California, in 1906. Some instruc- +tions in astrology were given to Mr. L., a well-known lecturer. Mr. L.'s +own horoscope was taken up, because a pupil will be more interested in that +than in the nativity of a stranger. He is also enabled to check the ac- +curacy of the interpretation of the signs which are given to him. The +horoscope revealed a liability to accidents and Mr. L. was shown how ac- +cidents and other events in the past figured to the time of occurrence. In +addition, he was told that another accident would befall him and that it +would occur on the twenty-first of the following July, or the seventh day +after, i.e., one the twenty-eighth, the latter day being regarded as the +more dangerous. He was warned against conveyances of any kind and the +place of the threatened injury was designated as the breast, shoulders, +arms and lower part of the head. He was thoroughly convinced of the danger +and promised to remain at home on that day. + + The writer went north to Seattle and a few days before the critical +time wrote to Mr. L. and again warned him. Mr. L. answered that he remem- +bered the warning and would act accordingly. + + The next communication in regard to the matter came from a mutual +friend, who stated that on the 29th of July Mr. L. had gone to Sierra Madre +on an electric car which had collided with a railroad train, Mr. L. sus- +taining injuries of the exact description mentioned and also having a ten- +don cut in the left leg. + + The question was why Mr. L., having entire faith in the prediction, had +disregarded the advice. The explanation came three months later, when he +had recovered sufficiently to write. The letter said, "I thought the 28th +was the 29th." + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 163] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + + There is no question in the writer's mind that this was a piece of +"ripe" fate, impossible to escape, which was accurately foreshown by the +stars. + + The stars may therefore be called the "Clock of Destiny." The twelve +signs of the Zodiac correspond to the dial; the Sun and the planets to the +hour hand, indicating the month of the year when the different items in the +score of ripe fate allotted to each life are due to work themselves out. + + It cannot be sufficiently emphasized, however, that though there are +some things that cannot be escaped, man has a certain scope of free will in +modifying causes already set going. A poet puts it thus: + + One ship sails east and another sails west + With the self-same winds that blow. + 'Tis the set of the sail and not the gale + Which determines the way they go. + + As the winds of the sea are the ways of fate + As we voyage along through life, + 'Tis the act of the soul that determines the goal, + And not the calm or the strife. + + The great point to grasp is that our present actions determine future +conditions. + + Orthodox religionists and even those who profess no religion at all, +often bring forward as one of their strongest objections to the law of Re- +birth that it is taught in India to the "ignorant heathen," who believe in +it. If it is a natural law, however, there is no objection strong enough +to invalidate it or make it inoperative. Before we speak of "ignorant hea- +then," or send missionaries to them, it might be well to examine our own + + + +[PAGE 164] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +knowledge a little. Educators everywhere complain of superficiality on the +part of our students. Professor Wilbur L. Cross, of Yale, mentions among +other startling cases of ignorance, the fact that in a class of forty stu- +dents, NOT ONE COULD "PLACE" JUDAS ISCARIOT! + + It would seem as though the labors of missionaries could profitably be +diverted from "heathen" countries and from slum work to enlighten the +college-bred individuals of our own country, on the principle that "charity +begins at home," and "as God will not let the ignorant heathen perish" it +would seem better to leave him in ignorance where he is sure of heaven, +than to enlighten him and so render his chances of going to hell legion. +Surely, this is a case of "Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." +We would be doing ourselves and the heathen a signal service by letting him +alone and looking after the ignorant Christian nearer home. + + Moreover, to call this heathen doctrine does not disprove it. Its as- +sumed priority in the East is not more an argument against it that the ac- +curacy of the solution of a mathematical problem is invalidated because we +do not happen to like the person who first solved it. The only question +is: Is it correct? If so, it is absolutely immaterial whence the solution +first came. + + All other religions have been but leading up to the Christian religion. +They were Race Religions and contain only in part that which Christianity +has in fuller measure. The real Esoteric Christianity has not yet been +taught publicly, not will it be so taught until humanity has passed the ma- +terialistic stage and becomes fitted to receive it. The laws of Rebirth +and Consequence have been secretly taught all the time, but, BY THE DIRECT + + + +[PAGE 165] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + +COMMAND OF CHRIST HIMSELF, as we shall see, these two laws have not been +PUBLICLY taught in the Western world for the past two thousand years. + + WINE AS A FACTOR IN EVOLUTION + + To understand the reason for this omission and the means employed to +obscure these teachings, we must go back to the beginning of man's history +and see how, for his good, he has been led by the Great Teacher of human- +ity. + + In the teaching of occult science the stages of development on the +earth are divided into periods called "Epochs." There have been four of +these Epochs, which are designated as follows, respectively: The Polarian, +the Hyperborean, the Lemurian, the Atlantean. The present Epoch is called +the Aryan Epoch. + + In the First or Polarian Epoch, what is now humanity had only a dense +body, as the minerals have now, hence he was mineral-like. + + In the Second or Hyperborean Epoch, a vital body was added and +man-in-the-making possesses a body constituted as are those of plants. He +was not a plant, but was plantlike. + + In the Third or Lemurian Epoch, he obtained his desire body and became +constituted like the animal--an animal-man. + + In the Fourth or Atlantean Epoch, mind was unfolded and now, so far as +his principles are concerned, he steps upon the stage of physical life as +MAN. + + In the present, the Fifth or Aryan Epoch, man will in some degree un- +fold the third or lowest aspect of his threefold spirit--the Ego. + + + + +[PAGE 166] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + The student is requested to strongly impress upon his mind the emphatic +statement that in the process of evolution up to the time when man gained +self-consciousness, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WAS LEFT TO CHANCE. + + After self-consciusness there is a certain scope for the exercise of +man's own individual will to enable him to unfold his Divine spiritual pow- +ers. + + The great Leaders of mankind take everything into consideration, the +food of man included. This has a great deal to do with his development. +"Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are" is not a +far-fetched idea, but a great truth in nature. + + The man of the first Epoch was ethereal. That does not contradict the +statement that he was mineral-like, for all gases are mineral. The Earth +was still soft, not yet having solidified. In the Bible man is called Adam +and it is said that he was made of earth. + + Cain is described as an agriculturist. He symbolizes the man of the +Second Epoch. He had a vital body like the plants which sustained him. + + In the Third Epoch food was obtained from living animals to supplement +the former plant food. Milk was the means used for evolving the desire +body, which made the mankind of that time animal-like. This is what is +meant by the Bible statement that "Abel was a shepherd." It is nowhere +stated that he killed animals. + + In the Fourth Epoch man had evolved beyond animals--he had mind. +Thought breaks down nerve cells: kills, destroys and causes decay. There- +fore the food of the Atlantean was, by analogy, carcasses. He killed to +eat and that is why the Bible states that "Nimrod was a mighty hunter." +Nimrod represents the man of the Fourth Epoch. + + + +[PAGE 167] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + + In the meanwhile, man had descended deeper and deeper into matter. His +former ethereal body formed the skeleton within and had become solid. He +had also lost be degrees the spiritual perception which was possessed by +him in the earlier Epochs. Thus it was designed. He is destined to get it +back at a higher stage, plus the self-consciousness which he did not then +possess. He had, however, during the first four Epochs, a greater knowl- +edge of the spiritual world. He knew he did not die and that when one body +wasted away it was like the drying of a leaf from the tree in the +autumn--another body would grow to take its place. Therefore he had no real +appreciation of the opportunities and advantages of this Earth life of con- +crete existence. + + But it was necessary that he should become thoroughly awake to the +great importance of this concrete existence, so that he might learn from it +all that could be learned. So long as he felt that he was a citizen of the +higher Worlds and knew for a certainty that physical life is but a small +part of real existence he did not take it seriously enough. He did not +apply himself to the cultivation of the opportunities for growth which are +found only in the present phase of existence. He dallied his time away +without developing the resources of the world, as do the people of India +today, for the same reason. + + The only way in which an appreciation of concrete physical existence +could be aroused in man was by depriving him of the memory of his higher, +spiritual existence for a few lives. Thus, during his Earth life, he came +to hold no positive knowledge of any other than the one present physical +life, and was in this way impelled to earnestly apply himself to living it. + + There had been religions previous to Christianity which had taught Re- +birth and the law of Consequence, but the time had now come when it was no + + + + +[PAGE 168] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +longer conducive to man's advancement that he should know this doctrine, +and ignorance concerning it came to be regarded as a sign of progress. +This one single life was to be made paramount. Therefore we find that the +Christian Religion, as publicly taught, does not embody the laws of Conse- +quence and Rebirth. Nevertheless, as Christianity is the religion of the +most advanced Race, it must be the most advanced Religion, and because of +the elimination of this doctrine from its PUBLIC teachings, the conquest of +the world of matter is being made by the Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic races, in +which this phase has been carried furthest. + + As some new addition to or change in the food of man has been made in +every Epoch to meet its conditions and accomplish its purposes, we now find +added to the food of the previous Epochs a new article--WINE. It was +needed on account of its benumbing effect upon the spiritual principle in +man, because no religion, in and of itself, could have made man forget his +nature as a spirit and have caused him to think of himself as "a worm of +the dust," or made him believe that "we walk with the same force with which +we think"--indeed, it was never intended that he should go so far as that. + + Hitherto only water had been used as a drink and in the ceremonies of +the Temple service, but after the submergence of Atlantis--a continent +which once existed between Europe and America, where the Atlantic Ocean now +lies--those who escaped destruction began to cultivate the vine and make +wine, as we find narrated in the Bible story of Noah. Noah symbolizes the +remnant of the Atlantean Epoch, which became the nucleus of the Fifth Race +--therefore our progenitors. + + + + +[PAGE 169] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + + The active principle of alcohol is a "spirit" and as the humanity of +the earlier Epochs used the articles of food best suited to their vehicles, +so this spirit was, in the Fifth Epoch, added to the foods previously used +by evolving humanity. It acts upon the spirit of the Fifth Epoch man, tem- +porarily paralyzing it, that it may know, esteem and conquer the physical +world and value it at its proper worth. Thus man forgets, for the time be- +ing, his spiritual home, clinging to this form of existence, which he has +previously despised, with all the tenacity born of a feeling that this is +all there is--or at least, preferring the certainty of this world to tak- +ing chances on a heaven which, in his present muddled state, he does not +understand. + + Water only had been used in the Temples, but now this is altered. +"Bacchus," a god of wine, appears and under his sway the most advanced na- +tions forget that there is a higher life. None who offer tribute to the +COUNTERFEIT spirit of wine or any alcoholic liquor (the product of fermen- +tation and decay) can ever know anything of the higher Self--the TRUE +Spirit which is the very source of life. + + All this was preparatory to the coming of Christ, and it is of the +highest significance that HIS FIRST ACT was to change "water into wine." +(John ii:11.) + + In private He taught Rebirth to his His disciples. He not only taught +them in words, but He took them "into the mountain." This is a mystic term +meaning a place of Initiation. In the course of Initiation they see for +themselves that Rebirth is a fact, for there Elijah appeared before them, +who, they are told, is also John the Baptist. Christ, in unequivocal +terms, had previously told them, when speaking of John the Baptist, "this +is Elijah who was for to come." He reiterates this at the transfiguration + + + + +[PAGE 170] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +scene, saying, "Elijah has come already and they knew him not, but have +done to him whatsoever they listed." And following this, it is said that +"they understood He spake of John the Baptist." (Matt. xvii:12-13). On +this occasion, and also at the time when Rebirth was discussed between Him +and His disciples, they told Him that some thought He was Elijah and others +that He was one of the prophets who had been reborn. He commanded them to +"tell no man." (Matt. xvii:9; Like ix:21). This was to be, for thousands +of years, an esoteric teaching, to be known only among the few pioneers who +fitted themselves for the knowledge, pushing ahead to the stage of develop- +ment when these truths will again be known to man. + + That Christ taught Rebirth and also the law of Consequence is perhaps +shows in not other place as clearly as in the case of the man who had been +born blind, where His disciples asked, "Who did sin, this man or his par- +ents, that he was born blind?" (John ix:2). + + Had Christ not taught Rebirth and the law of Consequence, the natural +answer would have been, "Nonsense! How could a man have sinned BEFORE HE +WAS BORN, and have brought blindness upon himself as a result? But Christ +does not answer in that way. He is not surprised at the question, nor does +He treat it as being at all unusual, showing that it was quite in harmony +with His teachings. He explains, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his +parents; but that the works of (the) God should be made manifest in him." + + The orthodox interpretation is that the man was born blind in order +that Christ might have the opportunity of performing a miracle to show His +power. It would have been a strange way for a God to obtain glory-- + + + + +[PAGE 171] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + +capriciously condemning a man to many years of blindness and misery that +He might "show off" at a future time! We would consider a man who acted in +such a manner a monster of cruelty. + + How much more logical to think that there may be another explanation. +To impute to God conduct which, in a human being, we would denounce in the +strongest terms, in surely unreasonable. + + Christ differentiates between the physically blind body of the man and +the God within, which is the Higher Self. + + The dense body has committed no sin. The God within has done some deed +which manifests in the particular affliction from which he is suffering. +It is not stretching a point to call a man a God. Paul says, "know ye not +that ye are Gods? and he refers to the human body as the "temple of God," +the indwelling spirit. + + Finally, although most people do not remember their past lives, there +are some who do, and all may know if they will live the life necessary to +attain the knowledge. This requires great strength of character, because +such knowledge will carry with it a knowledge of impending fate that may be +hanging black and sinister over one, which will manifest in dire disaster. +Nature has graciously hidden the past and the future from us, that we may +not be robbed of peace of mind by suffering in anticipation of the paid in +store for us. As we attain greater development we shall learn to welcome +all things with equanimity, seeing in all troubles the result of past evil +and feeling thankful that the obligations incurred thereby are being an- +nulled, knowing that so much less stands between us and the day of lib- +eration from the wheel of birth and death. + + + + + +[PAGE 172] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + When a person dies in childhood in one life, he or she not infrequently +remembers that life in the next body, because children under 14 years do +not journey around the entire life cycle, which necessitates the building +of a complete set of new vehicles. They simply pass into the upper Regions +of the Desire World and there wait for a new embodiment, which usually +takes place in from one to twenty years after death. When they return to +birth, they bring with them the old mind and desire body, and if we lis- +tened to the prattle of children, we should often able to discover and re- +construct such stories as the following + + A REMARKABLE STORY. + + One day in Santa Barbara, Cal., a man by the name of Roberts came to a +trained clairvoyant who is also a lecturer on Theosophy and asked for help +in a perplexing case. Mr. Roberts had been walking in the street the pre- +vious day when a little three-year old girl came up to him and put her arms +around his knees, calling him papa. Mr. Roberts was indignant, thinking +that someone was trying to father the child on him. But the mother of the +child, who came up directly, was equally put out and tried to get the child +away. The child, however, kept on clinging to Mr. R., insisting that he +was her father. On account of circumstances to be told later Mr. R. could +not put it out of his mind, and sought out the clairvoyant, who accompanied +him to the house of the child's parents. Where the girl at once ran up to +Mr. R. and again called him papa. The clairvoyant, whom I call X, first +took the child over to the window to note whether the iris of the eye would +expand and contract when he turned her to and from the light, in order to +see whether another entity than the rightful owner was in possession + + + + +[PAGE 173] REBIRTH AND THE LAW OF CONSEQUENCE + +of the child's body, for the eye is the window of the soul and no "obsess- +ing" entity can secure control of that part. Mr. X. found however, that +the child was normal and next proceeded to question the little one care- +fully. After patient work carried on intermittently during the afternoon, +so as not to tire the child, this is the story she told: + + She had lived with her papa, Mr. Roberts, and another mamma in a little +house that stood all alone, where no other house could be seen; there was a +little brook close to the house where some flowers grew (and here she ran +out and brought in some "pussy-willows") and there was a plank across the +brook which she was cautioned against crossing, for fear she might fall +into the brook. One day her papa had left her mother and herself and had +not returned. When their supply of food was exhausted her mamma lay down +on the bed and became so still. At last she said quaintly, "then I also +died, but I didn't die. I came here." + + Mr. Roberts next told his story. Eighteen years before he lived in +London, where his father was brewer. He fell in love with their servant +girl. His father objected, so he eloped with her to Australia after they +had first been married. Here he went out into the bush and cleared a +little farm, where he erected a small cabin by a brook, just as described +by the little girl. A daughter was born to them there, and when she was +about two years old he left the house one morning and went to a clearing +some distance from the house, and while there a man with a rifle came up to +him, saying that he arrested him in the name of the law for a bank robbery +committed on the night Mr. R. had left England. The officer had tracked +him here, thinking him the criminal. Mr. R. begged to be allowed to go to + + + +[PAGE 174] THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +his wife and child, but, thinking this a ruse to entrap him into the hands +of confederates, the officer refused and drove him to the coast at the +point of the gun. He was taken to England and tried and his innocence +proven. + + First then did the authorities take heed of his constant ravings about +his wife and child, whom he knew must starve in that wild and lonely coun- +try. An expedition was sent out to the cabin, when it was found that only +the skeletons of the wife and child remained. Mr. Roberts' father had died +in the meantime, and though he had disinherited Mr. R. his brothers divided +with him and he came to America a broken man. + + He then produced photographs of himself and his wife, and at the sug- +gestion of Mr. X. they were mixed with a number of other photographs and +shown to the little girl, who unhesitatingly picked out the photographs of +both her alleged parents, although the photograph shown was very different +from the present appearance of Mr. Roberts. + + + + + +[PAGE 175] THE RELATION OF MAN TO GOD + + + + + + + PART II. + + + COSMOGENESIS AND ANTHROPOGENESIS + + + + + + +[PAGE 177] THE RELATION OF MAN TO GOD + + CHAPTER V + + + THE RELATION OF MAN TO GOD + + In the preceding chapters we have been considering man in relation to +three of the five Worlds which form the field of his evolution. We have +partly described these Worlds and noted the different vehicles of conscious- +ness by means of which he is correlated to them. We have studied his rela- +tion to the other three Kingdoms--mineral, plant and animal--noting the +difference in vehicles, and consequent difference in consciousness, between +man and each of these Kingdoms. We have followed man through one life cycle +in the three Worlds and have examined the operation of the twin laws of Con- +sequence and Rebirth in their bearing upon the evolution of man. + + In order to understand further details as to the progress of man, it now +becomes necessary to study his relation to the Grand Architect of the +Universe--to God and to the Hierarchies of Celestial Beings which stand upon +the many different rungs of the Jacob's ladder of attainment that stretches +from man to God and beyond. + + This is a task of the utmost difficulty, rendered still more so by the +indefinite conceptions of God which exist in the minds of the majority of +the readers of literature dealing with this subject. It is true that names, +in and of themselves, are not important, but it matters greatly that we know +what we mean by a name; other wise misunderstanding will result, and + + +[PAGE 178] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + + DIAGRAM 6: THE COSMIC PLANES + + + +[PAGE 179] THE RELATION OF MAN TO GOD + +if a common nomenclature is not agreed upon by writers and teachers, the +present confusion will be worse confounded. When the name "God" is used it +is always uncertain whether The Absolute, the One Existence, is meant; or +The Supreme Being, Who is the Great Architect of the Universe; or God, Who +is the Architect of our Solar system. + + The division of the Godhead into "Father," "Son" and "Holy Ghost" is +also confusing. Although the Beings designated by these names are immeasur- +ably above man and worthy of all the reverence and worship he is capable of +rendering to his highest conceptions of Divinity, yet They are different +from one another in actual fact. + + Diagrams 6 and 11 will perhaps make the subject clear. It must be kept +in mind that the Worlds and Cosmic Planes are not one above another in +space, but that the seven Cosmic Planes inter-penetrate each other and all +the seven Worlds. They are states of spirit-matter, permeating one another, +so that God and the other great Beings who are mentioned are not far away in +space. They pervade every part of their own realms and realms of greater +density than their own. They are all present in our world and are actually +and DE FACTO "nearer than hands and feet." It is a literal truth when we +say " in Him we live and move and have our being." For none of us could ex- +ist outside these great Intelligences Who pervade and sustain our world with +Their Life. + It has been shown that the Etheric Region extends beyond the atmosphere +of our dense Earth; that the Desire World extends out into space further +than the Etheric Region; also that the World of Thought extends further into +inter-planetary Space than either of the others. Of course, the Worlds of +rarer substance occupy a larger space than the denser World, which + + +[PAGE 180] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +has crystallized and condensed, thus occupying less space. + + The same principle is operative in the Cosmic Planes. The densest of +them is the seventh (counting from the top downward). It is represented in +the diagram as larger than any of the others, the reason being that it is +the plane with which we are most intimately concerned, and it was desired to +indicate its principle subdivisions. In reality, however, it occupies less +space than any of the other Cosmic Planes, although it must be borne in mind +that, even with this comparatively restrictive qualification as to its ex- +tent, it is still immeasurably vast, far beyond the utmost power of the hu- +man mind to conceive, comprising within its limits millions of Solar Systems +similar to our own, which are the fields for the evolution of many grades of +beings of approximately our own status. + + Of the six Cosmic Planes above our own we know nothing, save that we are +told they are the fields of activity of great Hierarchies of Beings of inde- +scribable splendor. + + Proceeding from our Physical World to the inner and finer worlds and up +through the Cosmic Planes, we find that God, the Architect of our Solar Sys- +tem, the Source and goal of our existence, is found in the highest division +of the seventh Cosmic Plane. This is His World. + + His realm includes the systems of evolution carried on in the other +planets which belong to our system--Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, +Venus, Mercury, and their satellites. + + The great Spiritual Intelligences designated as the Planetary Spirits, +which guide these evolutions, are called the "Seven Spirits before the +Throne." They are His Ministers, each presiding over a certain department +of the Kingdom of God--which is our solar System. The Sun is also the + + +[PAGE 181] THE RELATION OF MAN TO GOD + +field of evolution of the most exalted Beings in our Cosmos. They alone can +endure and advance by means of the terrific solar vibrations. The Sun is +the nearest approach we have to a visible symbol. What That is cannot be +uttered publicly. + + When we try to discover the origin of the Architect of our Solar System, +we find that we must pass to the highest of the seven Cosmic Planes. We are +then in the Realm of the supreme Being, Who emanated from the Absolute. + + The Absolute is beyond comprehension. No expression convey any adequate +idea. Manifestation implies limitation. Therefore, we may at best charac- +terize the Absolute as boundless Being; as the Root of Existence. + + From the root of Existence--The Absolute--proceeds the Supreme Being, at +the dawn of manifestation. This is THE ONE. + + In the first chapter of John this Great Being is called God. From this +Supreme Being emanates The Word, the Creative Fiat "without whom was not +anything made," and this Word is the alone-begotten Son, born of His father +(the Supreme Being) before all worlds--but positively NOT Christ. Grand and +glorious as is Christ, towering high above mere human nature, He is not this +Exalted Being. Truly "the Word was made flesh," but not in the limited +sense of the flesh of one body, but the flesh of all that is, in this and +millions of other solar Systems. + + The first Aspect of the Supreme Being may be characterized as POWER. +From this proceeds the Second Aspect, THE WORD; and from both of these pro- +ceeds the Third, Aspect, MOTION. + + From this threefold Supreme Being proceed the seven Great Logoi. They + + +[PAGE 182] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +contain within Themselves all the great Hierarchies which differentiate more +and more as they diffuse through the various Cosmic Planes. (See diagram +6). There are forty-nine Hierarchies on the second Cosmic Plane; on the +third there are 343 Hierarchies. Each of these is capable of septenary di- +visions and subdivisions, so that in the lowest Cosmic Plane, where the So- +lar System manifest, the number of divisions and subdivisions is almost in- +finite. + + In the Highest World of the seventh Cosmic Plane dwells the God of our +Solar Systems in the Universe. These great Beings are also threefold in +manifestation, like The Supreme Being. Their three aspects are Will, Wisdom +and Activity. + + Each of the seven Planetary Spirits which proceeds from God and has +charge of the evolution of life on one of the seven planets, is also three- +fold and differentiates within itself Creative Hierarchies which go through +a septenary evolution. The evolution carried on by one Planetary Spirit +differs from the methods of development inaugurated by each of the others. + + It may be further stated that, at least in the particular planetary +scheme to which we belong, the entities farthest evolved in the earliest +stages, who had reached a high stage of perfection in previous evolutions, +assume the functions of the original Planetary Spirit and continue the +evolution, the original Planetary Spirit withdrawing from active participa- +tion, but guiding its Regents. + + The foregoing is the teaching relative to all the Solar Systems, but +coming down to the particular System to which we belong, the following is +the teaching which the sufficiently trained Seer can obtain for himself by +personal investigation of the memory of nature. + + +[PAGE 183] THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION + + CHAPTER VI. + + THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION. + + THE BEGINNING. + + In harmony with the Hermetic axiom "As above, so below" and VICE VERSA, +Solar Systems are born, die and come to birth anew in cycles of activity and +rest, as does man. + + There is a constant flaming out and dying down of activity in every de- +partment of nature, corresponding to the alternations of ebb and flow, day +and night, summer and winter, life and death. + + In the beginning of a Day of Manifestation it is taught that a certain +Great Being (designated in the Western World by the name of God, but by +other names in other parts of the earth) limits Himself to a certain portion +of space, in which He elects to create a Solar System for the evolution of +added self-consciousness. (See diagram 6). + + He includes in His own Being hosts of glorious Hierarchies of, to us, +immeasurable spiritual power and splendor. They are the fruitage of past +manifestations of this same Being and also other Intelligences, in descend- +ing degrees of development down to such as have not reached a stage of con- +sciousness as high as our present humanity, and therefore these latter will +not be able to finish their evolution in this System. In God--this great + + +[PAGE 184] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +collective Being--there are contained lesser beings of every grade of intel- +ligence and stage of consciousness, from omniscience to an unconsciousness +deeper than that of the deepest trance condition. + + During the period of manifestation with which we are concerned, these +various grades of beings are working to acquire more experience than they +possessed at the beginning of this period of existence. Those who, in pre- +vious manifestations, have attained to the highest degree of development +work on those who have not yet evolved any consciousness. They induce in +them a stage of self-consciousness. They induce in them a stage of +self-consciousness from which they can take up further work themselves. +Those who had started their evolution in a former Day of Manifestation, but +had not progressed far at the close, now take up their task again, just as +we take up our daily work in the morning where we left off the previous +night. + + All the different Beings, however, do not take up their evolution at the +early stages of a new manifestation. Some must wait until those who precede +them have made the conditions which are necessary for their further develop- +ment. There are no instantaneous processes in nature. All is an exceed- +ingly slow unfolding, a development which, though so exceedingly slow, is +yet absolutely certain to attain ultimate perfection. Just as there are +progressive stages in the human life--childhood, youth, manhood or woman- +hood, and old age--so in the macrocosm there are different stages corre- +sponding to these various periods of the microcosmic life. + + A child cannot take up the duties of fatherhood or motherhood. Its un- +developed mental and physical condition render it incapable of doing such +work. The same is true of the less evolved beings in the beginning of + + +[PAGE 185] THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION + +manifestation. They must wait until the higher evolved have made the proper +conditions for them. The lower the grade of the intelligence of the evolv- +ing being, the more it is dependent upon outside help. + + At the Beginning, then, the highest Beings--those who are the farthest +evolved--work upon those who have the greatest degree of unconsciousness. +Later, they turn them over to some of the less evolved entities, who are +then able to carry the work a little further. At least self-consciousness +is awakened. The evolving life has become Man. + + From the point where the self-conscious individual Ego has come into be- +ing he must go on and expand his consciousness without outside help. Expe- +rience and thought are then to take the place of outside teachers and the +glory, power and splendor he may attain are limitless. + + The period of time devoted to the attainment of self-consciousness and +to the building of the vehicles through which the spirit in man manifests, +is called "Involution." + + The subsequent period of existence, during which the individual human +being develops self-consciousness into divine omniscience, is called "Evolu- +tion." + + The Force within the evolving being which makes evolution what it is and +not a mere unfoldment of latent germinal possibilities; which makes the +evolution of each individual differ from that of every other; which provides +the element of originality and gives scope to the creative ability which the +evolving being is to cultivate that he may become a God--that Force is +called "Genius," and as previously explained, its manifestation is +"Epigenesis." + + Many of the advanced philosophies of modern times recognize involution +and evolution. Science recognizes only the latter, because it (Science) +deals only with the Form side of manifestation. Involution belongs to + + +[PAGE 186] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +the Life side; but the most advanced scientists regard Epigenesis as a de- +monstrable fact. The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception combines all three as +necessary to full understanding of the past, present and future development +of the System to which we belong. + + THE WORLDS. + + We might use a homely instance to illustrate the building of a Cosmos. +Suppose a man wants to establish a home in which to live. He first selects +a suitable location and then proceeds to build a house, dividing it into +various rooms to serve certain purpose. He makes a kitchen, dining-room +bedrooms and bathroom, and furnishes them all to suit the special purpose +they are intended to serve. + + When God desires to create, He seeks out an appropriate place in space, +which He fills with His aura, permeating every atom of the cosmic +root-substance of that particular portion of space with His Life, thus awak- +ening the activity latent within every INseparate atom. + + This Cosmic Root-substance is an expression of the negative pole of the +Universal Spirit, while the great Creative Being we call God (of whom we, as +spirits, are part) is an expression of the positive energy of the same Uni- +versal Absolute Spirit. From the work of one upon the other, all that we +see about us in the Physical World has resulted. The oceans, the Earth ev- +erything we see manifesting as mineral, plant animal and human forms--all +are CRYSTALLIZED SPACE, emanated from this negative Spirit-substance, which +alone existed at the dawn of Being. As surely as the hard and flinty house +of the snail is the solidified juices of its soft body, so surely all FORMS +are crystallizations around the negative pole of Spirit. + + +[PAGE 187] THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION + + God draws from the Cosmic Root-substance outside His immediate sphere; +thus the substance within the nascent cosmos becomes denser than it is in +Universal space, between Solar Systems. + + When God has thus prepared the material for His Habitation, He next sets +it in order. Every part of the system is pervaded by His consciousness, but +different modification of that consciousness in each part of division. The +Cosmic Root-substance is set in varying rates of vibration and is therefore +differently constituted in its various divisions, or regions. + + The above is the manner in which the Worlds come into being and are fit- +ted to serve different purposes in the evolutionary scheme, the same as the +various rooms in the house are fitted to serve the purpose of everyday life +in the Physical World. + + We have already seen that there are seven Worlds. These Worlds have +each a different "measure" and rate of vibration. In the densest World (the +Physical) the measure of vibration, though in the case of light-waves reach- +ing a rate of hundreds of millions per second, is nevertheless infinitesimal +when compared to the rapidity of the vibration in the Desire World, which is +next to the Physical. To get some conception of the meaning and rapidity of +vibration, perhaps the easiest way is to watch the heat vibrations rising +from a very hot stove, or from a steam radiator near a window. + + It must be borne constantly in mind that these Worlds are not separated +by space or distance, as is the earth from the other planets. They are +states of matter, of varying density and vibration, as are the solids, liq- +uids and gases of our Physical World. These Worlds are not instantaneously +created at the beginning of a day of Manifestation, nor do they last until + + +[PAGE 188] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +the end; but as a spider spins its web thread by thread, so god differenti- +ates one after another of the worlds within Himself, as the necessity arises +for new conditions in the scheme of evolution in which He is engaged. Thus +have all the seven Worlds been gradually differentiated as they are at +present. + + The highest Worlds are created first, and as involution is to slowly +carry the life into denser and denser matter for the building of forms, the +finer Worlds gradually condense and new Worlds are differentiated within God +to furnish the necessary links between Himself and the Worlds which have +consolidated. In due time the point of greatest density, the nadir of mate- +riality, is reached. From that point the life begins to ascend into higher +Worlds, as evolution proceeds. That leaves the denser Worlds depopulated, +one by one. When the purpose has been served for which a particular World +was created, God ends its existence, which has become superfluous, by ceas- +ing within Himself the particular activity which brought into being and sus- +tained that World. + + The highest (finest, rarest, most ethereal) Worlds are the first created +and the last eliminated, while the three densest Worlds, in which our +present phase of evolution is carried on, are but comparatively evanescent +phenomena incident to the spirit's dip into matter. + + THE SEVEN PERIODS. + + The evolutionary scheme is carried through these five Worlds in seven +great Periods of Manifestation, during which the virgin spirit, or evolving +life, becomes first, man--then, a God. + + At the beginning of Manifestation God differentiates within (not FROM) + + +[PAGE 189] THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION + +Himself these virgin spirits, as sparks from a Flame, of the same nature, +capable of being fanned into Flames themselves. Evolution is the fanning +process which is to accomplish that end. In the virgin spirits are enfolded +all the possibilities of their Divine Father, including the germ of indepen- +dent Will, which makes them capable of originating new phases, not latent in +them. The latent possibilities are transformed into dynamic powers and +available faculties during evolution, while the independent Will institutes +new and original departures--or Epigenesis. + + Prior to the beginning of the pilgrimage through matter the virgin +spirit is in the World of Virgin Spirits, the next to the highest of the +seven Worlds. It has Divine Consciousness, but NOT SELF-consciousness. +That, Soul-power, and the Creative Mind, are faculties or powers attained to +by evolution. + + When the virgin spirit is immersed in the World of Divine Spirit, it is +blinded and rendered utterly unconscious by that matter. It is as oblivious +to outside conditions as is man when in the deepest trance. This state of +unconsciousness prevails during the first period. + + In the Second Period it rises to the dreamless sleep state; in the third +Period it reaches the dream stage, and in the middle of the Fourth Period, +at which we have now arrived, the full waking consciousness of man is at- +tained. This is a consciousness pertaining to only the lowest one of the +seven Worlds. During the remaining half of this Period, and the entire +three remaining Periods, man must expand his consciousness so as to include +all of the six Worlds above this Physical World. + + When man passed through these Worlds in his descent his energies were +directed by higher Beings, who assisted him to turn unconscious energy + + +[PAGE 190] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +INWARD for the building of proper vehicles. At last, when he was far enough +advanced and equipped with the threefold body as a necessary instrument, +these higher Beings "opened his eyes" and turned his gaze OUTWARD upon the +Chemical Region of the Physical World, that his energies might conquer it. + + When he has fitted himself by his work in the Chemical Region, his next +step in progress will be toward an expansion in consciousness that will in- +clude the Etheric Region; then the Desire World, etc., etc. + + In the Rosicrucian terminology, the names of the seven Periods are as +follows: + +1. The Saturn Period +2. The Sun Period +3. the Moon Period These periods are successive Rebirths +4. The Earth Period of our Earth. +5. The Jupiter Period +6. The Venus Period +7. The Vulcan Period + + It must not be thought that the above mentioned Periods have anything to +do with the planets which move in their orbits around the sun in company +with the earth. In fact, it cannot be too emphatically stated that there is +no connection whatever between these planets and the periods. The Periods +are simply past, present or future incarnations of our Earth, "conditions" +through which it has passed, is now passing, or will pass in the future. + + The three first mentioned Periods (the Saturn, Sun and Moon Periods) +have been passed through. We are now in the fourth, or Earth Period. When +this Earth Period of our Globe has been completed, we and it shall pass in, +turn through the Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan conditions before the great +septenary Day of Manifestation comes to an end, when all that now is will + + +[PAGE 191] THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION + +once more be merged in the Absolute for a period of rest and assimilation of +the fruits of our evolution, to re-emerge for further and higher development +at the dawn of another Great Day. + + The three and one-half Periods already behind us have been spent in +gaining our present vehicles and consciousness. The remaining three and +one-half Periods will be devoted to perfecting these different vehicles and +expanding our consciousness into something akin to omniscience. + + The journey made by the virgin spirit from unconsciousness to omni- +science, unfolding its latent possibilities into a kinetic energy, is a pro- +cess of marvelous complexity and progress in our present outline will at +first be given. As we progress in our present study, however, more details +will be filled in, until the picture is a complete as the writer is capable +of making it. The attention of the student is called to the definition of +terms that are given as new ideas are being presented. He is earnestly im- +portuned to familiarize himself with them, as the intention is to simplify +the matter by using only one familiar English name for the same idea +throughout the work. The name will be as descriptive as possible of the +idea to be conveyed, in multiplex terminology may be avoided. By paying +strict attention to definition of terms, it should not be too difficult for +any person of average intelligence to acquire a knowledge of at least the +outlines of the scheme of evolution. + + That such a knowledge is of the utmost importance will, we think, be +conceded by every intelligent individual. We live in this world, governed +by the laws of nature. Under these laws we must live and work, and we are +powerless to change them. If we know them and intelligently co-operate with + + +[PAGE 192] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +with them, these nature-forces become most valuable servants, e.g., elec- +tricity and the expansive force of steam. If, on the other hand, we do not +understand them and in our ignorance work, contrary to them, they become +most dangerous enemies, capable of terrible destruction. + + Therefore, the more we know of the working methods of nature, which +latter is but the visible symbol of the invisible God, the better able we +shall be to take advantage of the opportunities it offers for growth and +power; for emancipation from bondage and for elevation to mastery. + + +[PAGE 193] THE SCHEME OF EVOLUTION + + + + DIAGRAM 7: + + + REVOLUTIONS OF THE SATURN PERIOD + + +[PAGE 194] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + CHAPTER VII. + + THE PATH OF EVOLUTION. + + A word of warning in regard to diagrams used for purposes of illustration +may not be out of place. The student should remember that anything that is +reduced into another dimension can never be accurate. The picture of a +house would mean little or nothing to us if we had never seen a house. In +that case we would see in the picture only lines and blotches. It would +convey no meaning to us. Diagrams used to illustrate super physical matters +are much less true representations of the reality, for the simple reason +that in the case of the picture, the three-dimensional house is only reduced +to two dimensions, while in the case of diagrams of the Periods, Worlds and +Globes, the realities possess from four to seven dimension, and the diagrams +of two dimensions by which it is endeavored to represent them are thus so +much further removed from the possibility of correctly portraying them. We +must constantly bear in mind that these Worlds inter-penetrate, that the +Globes inter-penetrate, and that the way they are shown in the diagram is +analogous to taking all the wheels of a watch and laying them side by side +in order to show how the watch keeps time. If these diagrams are to be of +any use to the student they must be spiritually conceived. Otherwise they +will be confusing instead of enlightening. + + +[PAGE 195] THE PATH OF EVOLUTION + + REVOLUTIONS AND COSMIC NIGHTS + + The Saturn Period is the first of the seven Periods, and at this early +stage the virgin spirits take their first step towards the evolution of Con- +sciousness and Form. By reference to diagram 7 it will be seen that the +evolutionary impulse travels seven times around the seven Globes, A, B, C, +D, E, F and G, the arrows showing the direction. + + First, a part of the evolution is accomplished on Globe A, situated in +the World of Divine Spirit, the rarest of the five Worlds which form our +field of evolution. Then, gradually the evolving life is transferred to +Globe B, which is located in the somewhat denser World of Life Spirit. Here +another stage of evolution is passed through. In due time the evolving life +is ready to enter the arena on Globe C, which is situated in and formed of +the yet denser substance of the Region of Abstract Thought. After learning +the lessons peculiar to that stage of existence, the life wave travels on- +ward to Globe D, which is located in and formed of the substance of the Re- +gion of Concrete Thought. This is the densest degree of matter reached by +the life wave during the Saturn Period. + + From this point the life wave is carried upward again to Globe E, which +is situated in the Region of Abstract Thought, as is Globe C, yet the condi- +tions are not the same as on Globe C. This is the Involutionary stage, and +the substance of the Worlds is getting denser all the time. The tendency in +everything is to become denser and more solid as times goes on; also, as the +path of evolution is a spiral, it will be clear that, though the same points +are gone over, the conditions are never the same, but are on a higher and +more advanced plane. + + When the work on Globe E has been completed, the next step is taken on + + +[PAGE 196] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Globe F, which is situated in the World of Life Spirit, the same as Globe B; +thence it mounts to Globe G. When the work there is done, the life wave has +traveled once around all the seven Globes; once down and up through the four +respective Worlds. This journey of life wave is called a Revolution, and +seven Revolutions make one Period. During one Period the life wave travels +seven times down and up through the four Worlds. + + When the life wave has traveled its full complement of seven times around +the seven times around the seven Globes, completing the seven Revolutions, +the first Day of Creation closes and there follows a Cosmic Night of rest +and assimilation, after which the Sun Period dawns. + + Like the night of sleep between two days of human life and the interval +of rest between two earth lives, this Cosmic Night of rest after the comple- +tion of the Saturn Period is not a time of passive repose, but a season of +preparation for the activity to be unfolded in the coming Sun Period, where +man-in-the-making is to take a further dip into matter. Therefore, new +Globes are necessary, the positions of which in the seven Worlds are differ- +ent from those occupied by the Worlds of the Saturn Period. The providing +of these new Globes, and other subjective activities, occupy the evolving +spirits during the interval between Periods--the Cosmic Night. The manner +of procedure is as follows: + + When the life wave has left Globe A in the Saturn Period for the last +tine, the Globe begins to slowly disintegrate. The forces which built it +are transferred from the World of Divine Spirit (where Globe A is located +during the Saturn Period) to the World of Life Spirit (where Globe A is lo- +cated during the Sun Period). This is shown on diagram 8. + + +[PAGE 197] THE PATH OF EVOLUTION + + DIAGRAM 8--THE 777 INCARNATIONS + + OR + + PILGRIMAGE OF THE VIRGIN SPIRITS + + 7 REVOLUTIONS AROUND THE 7 GLOBES OF THE 7 WORLD PERIODS. + + +[PAGE 198] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + When the life wave has left Globe B in the Saturn Period for the last +time, it also commences to disintegrate, and the forces thereof, like the +seed-atom of a human vehicle, are used as a nucleus for Globe B in the Sun +Period, this Globe being then located in the Region of Abstract Thought. + + In like manner the forces of Globe C are transferred to the Region of +Concrete Thought and draw upon the substance of that Region for the material +wherewith to build a new Globe C for the coming Sun Period. Globe D is +similarly transmuted and placed in the Desire World. Globes E, F, and G, in +order named, are analogously transferred. The result is (as reference to +diagram 8 will show) that in the Sun Period all the Globes are located one +step further down into denser matter that they were in the Saturn Period, so +that the life wave, upon its emergence from the Cosmic Night of Rest inter- +vening between the last activity on Globe G of the Saturn Period and the re- +newed activity on Globe A of the Sun Period finds a new environment, with +the opportunity thus afforded for new experiences. + + The life wave now circles seven times around the seven Globes during the +Sun Period, tranversing seven times down and up the four Worlds or Regions +in which these Globes are located. It makes seven Revolutions in the Sun +Period, as it did in the Saturn Period. + + When the life wave leaves Globe A in the Sun Period for the last time, +that Globe begins to disintegrate. Its forces are transferred to the denser +Region of Abstract Thought, where they form a planet to be used during the +Moon Period. In the same way, the forces of the other Globes are trans- +ferred and serve as nuclei for the Globes of the Moon Period, as shown in +diagram 8, the process being exactly the same as when the Globes + + +[PAGE 199] THE PATH OF EVOLUTION + +are removed from their locations in the Saturn Period to the positions they +occupied during the Sun Period. Thus the Globes of the Moon Period are +placed one step further down in matter that they were during the Sun Period, +the lowest (Globe D) being situated in the Etheric Region of the Physical +World. + + After the interim of Cosmic Night between the Sun Period and the Moon Pe- +riod, the life wave starts its course on Globe A of the latter, completing +in due time its seven Revolutions, as before. Then there is another Cosmic +Night, during which the Globes are again transferred one step further down, +and this time the densest Globe is located in the Chemical Region of the +Physical World, as reference to diagram 8 will show. + + This, then, is the Earth Period and the lowest and densest Globe (Globe +D) is our present Earth. + + The life wave here, as usual, started on Globe A, after the Cosmic Night +succeeding the Moon Period. In the present Earth Period it has circled +three times around the seven globes and is now on Globe D, in its fourth +Revolution. + + Here on earth and in this present fourth Revolution, the greatest density +of matter--the nadir of materiality--was reached a few millions years ago. +The tendency henceforth will be upward into rarer substance. During the +three and one-half Revolutions which remain to complete this Period, the +condition of the Earth will gradually become more and more ethereal, and in +the next--the Jupiter Period--Globe D will again be located in the Etheric +Region, as it was in the Moon Period, the other Globes being also elevated +correspondingly. + + In the Venus Period they will be located in the same Worlds as were the + + +[PAGE 200] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Globes of the Sun Period. The Globes of the Vulcan Period will have the +same density and be located in the same Worlds as were the Globes of the +Saturn Period. This is all shown on diagram 8. + + When the life wave has completed its work in the Earth Period and the +Cosmic Night which follows in past, it will go through its seven Revolutions +on the Globes of the Jupiter Period. Then will come the usual Cosmic Night, +with its subjective activities; after which the seven Revolutions of the Ve- +nus Period; then another rest, succeeded by the last of the Periods of the +present scheme of evolution--the Vulcan Period. The life wave also makes +its seven Revolutions here, and at the end of the last Revolution all the +Globes are dissolved and the life wave is reabsorbed by God, for a period of +time equal in duration to that occupied by all the seven Periods of activ- +ity. God Himself then merges into the Absolute during the Universal Night +of assimilation and preparation for another Great Day. + + Other and grander evolutions will then follow, but we can deal only with +the seven Periods described. + + +[PAGE 201] THE WORK OF EVOLUTION + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE WORK OF EVOLUTION. + + ARIADNE'S THREAD. + + Having become acquainted with the Worlds, the Globes and the Revolutions +which constitute the path of evolution during the seven Periods, we are now +in a position to consider the work which is done in each Period, as well as +the methods employed to accomplish it. + + The "Ariadne's thread" which will guide us through the maze of Globes, +Worlds, Revolutions and Periods will be found when it is remembered and kept +steadily in mind that the virgin spirits which constitute the evolving life +wave become entirely UNCONSCIOUS when they commenced their evolutionary pil- +grimage through the five Worlds of substance denser than the World of Virgin +Spirits. The purpose of evolution is to make them fully conscious and able +to master the matter of all the Worlds, therefore the conditions embodied in +Globes, Worlds, Revolutions and Periods are ordered with that end in view. + + During the Saturn, Sun and Moon Periods and the past half of the present +Earth Period, the virgin spirits have unconsciously built their difference +vehicles under the direction of exalted Beings who guided their progress, +and have gradually awakened until they have attained the present state of +waking consciousness. This period is called "Involution". + + From the present time to the end of the Vulcan Period, the virgin + + +[PAGE 202] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +spirits, who are now our humanity, will perfect their vehicles and expand +their consciousness in the five Worlds by their own efforts and genius. +This period is called "Evolution." + + The above is the key to the understanding of what follows. + + A thorough comprehension of the scheme of planetary evolution which has +been outlines in the preceding pages is of immense value to the student. +Although some believers in the laws of Consequence and Rebirth seem to think +that the possession of such knowledge is quite non-essential and of little +use, it is nevertheless of very great importance to the earnest student of +these two laws. It trains the mind in abstract thought and elevates it +above the sordid things of concrete existence, helping the imagination to +soar beyond the hampering toils of self-interest. As stated in our study of +the Desire World, Interest is the mainspring to action, yet at our present +stage of progress, Interest is generally aroused by selfishness. It is +sometimes of a very subtle nature, but it spurs to action of various kinds. +All action inspired by Interest generates certain effects which act on us, +and in consequence we are bound by action having to do with the concrete +Worlds. But, if our minds are occupied with such subjects as mathematics or +study of the planetary phases of evolution, we are in the Region of purely +Abstract Thought, beyond the influence of Feeling, and the mind is directed +upward towards the spiritual realism and liberation. When we are extracting +cube root, or multiplying figures, or thinking of Periods, Revolutions, +etc., we have no Feeling about it. We do not quarrel about twice two being +four. If our feelings were involved we should perhaps try to make it five +and quarrel with the one who, for personal reasons, said it was but three, + + +[PAGE 203] THE WORK OF EVOLUTION + +but in mathematics Truth is most clearly apparent and Feeling is eliminated. +Therefore, to the average man, desiring to live in the feelings, mathematics +is dry and uninteresting. Pythagoras taught his pupils to live in the World +of Eternal Spirit and he demanded that those who desired instruction from +his should first study A mind capable of understanding mathematics is +above the average and is capable of rising into the World of Spirit, because +it is not fettered in the World of Feeling and Desire. The more we accustom +ourselves to think in terms of the Spiritual Worlds, the better we shall be +able to rise above the illusions which surround us in this concrete exist- +ence, where the twin feelings, Interest and Indifference, obscure the Truth +and bias us, as the reflection of the light rays through the Earth's atmo- +sphere gives us incorrect ideas of the position of the luminary emitting +them. + + Therefore the student who wishes to know Truth; to enter and investigate +the realms of Spirit; to free himself from the toils of the flesh, as rap- +idly as is consistent with safety and proper growth, is earnestly advised to +study what follows as throughly as possible; to assimilate it and draw men- +tal conceptions of these Worlds, Globes and Periods. If he wishes to +progress in this way, the study of mathematics and of Hinton's "The Fourth +Dimension" are also admirable exercises in abstract thought. This work of +Hinton's (though basically incorrect, because the four-dimensional Desire +World cannot be actually found by three-dimensional methods), has opened the +eyes of several persons who have studied it, and made them clairvoyant. +Moreover, remembering that logic is the nest teacher in any world, it is +certain that the individual who succeeds in entering into the superphysical +World by means of such studies in abstract thought, will not become confused + + +[PAGE 204] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +but will be able to give a good account of himself under all circumstances. + + A stupendous scheme is here unfolded, and as more and more detail is +filled in, its complexity becomes almost inconceivable. Anyone capable of +comprehending it will be well rewarded for taking the utmost pains to do so. +Therefore, the student should read slowly, repeat often, think deeply and +much. + + This book, particularly this chapter, cannot be read in a casual manner. +Every sentence has weight and bearing upon what follows, and presupposes a +knowledge of what precedes it. If the books is not studied throughly and +systematically, it will grown more and more incomprehensible and confusing +with every page. On the other hand, if it is studied and well thought out +as the student proceeds, it will be found that each page is illuminated by +the increased knowledge gained by study of what went before. + + No work of this kind, dealing with the deepest phases of the Great World +Mystery that the human mind, at its present stage of development, it capable +of grasping, can be written in such a manner that it will be light reading. +Yet the deepest phases now comprehensible to use are but the A B C of the +scheme as it will be revealed to us when our minds have become capable of +understanding more, in later stages of our development as Supermen. + + THE SATURN PERIOD. + + The Globes of the Saturn Period consisted of much rarer and finer sub- +stances than our Earth, as it will be evident from a study of diagrams 7 and +8, which the student is advised to keep close at hand for frequent reference +while studying this subject. The densest Globe of that Period was located + + +[PAGE 205] THE WORK OF EVOLUTION + +in the same portion of the World of Thought occupied by the rarest of Globes +of the present Period--the Region of Concrete Thought. These Globes had no +consistency such as we can sense. "Warmth" is the only word that ap- +proximates the idea of the ancient Saturn Period. It was dark; and if a +person could have entered into the space it occupied, he would have seen +nothing. All about him would have been darkness, but he would have felt its +warmth. + + To the materialist it will, of course, seem insanity to call such a con- +dition a "Globe", and to assert that it was the field of evolution of Form +and Life. Yet, when we consider the Nebular Theory, we can realize that the +nebula must have been dark before it glowed with light, and that it must +have been hot before it could become fiery. This heat must have been +brought about by motion, and motion is life. + + We may say that the virgin spirits who were to evolve consciousness and +form were embedded in this Globe, or perhaps better, that the whole Globe +was composed of virgin spirits, as a raspberry is made of a great number of +small raspberries. They were incorporated in the Globe, as the life +ensouling the mineral is in our Earth. Therefore it is said among occult +scientists that in the Saturn Period man went through the mineral stage. + + Outside this "warmth-Globe"--in its atmosphere, we might say--were the +great creative Hierarchies, who were to help the evolving virgin spirits to +develop form and consciousness. There were many Hierarchies, but for the +present we shall concern ourselves with the principal ones only--those which +did the most important work of the Saturn Period. + + In the Rosicrucian terminology these are called "Lords of the Flame," be- +cause of the brilliant luminosity of their bodies and their great bodies and + + +[PAGE 206] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +their great spiritual powers. They are called "Thrones" in the Bible, and +worked on man of their own free will. They were so far advanced that this +evolutionary manifestation could give them no new experiences, and therefore +no added wisdom, and the same may be said of two still higher order of Hier- +archies, to be named later. The rest of the creative Hierarchies, in order +to complete their own evolutions, were compelled to work on, in and with +man. + + These Lords of the Flame were outside the dark Saturn Globe and their +bodies emitted a strong light. They, so to say, projected their pictures +upon the surface of that ancient Saturn Globe, which was so impressionable +that it reflected, in a multiple or echo-like manner, everything that came +in contact with it, giving back the images manifolded. (This is told in the +Greek myth wherein it is said that Saturn destroyed his children.) + + However, by repeated efforts during the first Revolution, the Lords of +the Flame succeeded in implanting in the evolving life the germ which has +developed our present dense body. This germ was somewhat developed during +the remainder of the first six Revolutions, being given the capacity for de- +veloping the senses organs, particularly the ear. Therefore, the ear is the +most highly developed organ we possess. It is the instrument which carries +with the greatest accuracy the impressions of outside conditions to the con- +sciousness. It is less subject to the illusions of the Physical World that +the other sense organs. + + The consciousness of the evolving life of that Period was like that of +the mineral of today--a state of unconsciousness similar to that attained by +mediums in the deepest trance--yet during the first six Revolutions, the +evolving life worked on the germ of the dense body under the direction and + + +[PAGE 207] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +with the help of the different creative Hierarchies. In the middle of the +seventh Revolution the Lords of the Flame, Who had been since They gave +the germ of the dense body in the first Revolution, again become active, +this time to awaken the highest spiritual principle. They aroused the ini- +tial activity of the divine spirit in man. + + Thus, man owes his highest and lowest vehicles--the divine spirit and the +dense body to the evolution of the Saturn Period. These, the Lords of the +Flame of their own free will helped him to manifest, not being under the +slightest compulsion to do so. + + The work of the various creative Hierarchies is not started on Globe A, +at the commencement of a Period or a Revolution. It commences in the middle +of one Revolution, growing in strength and reaching its highest efficiency +in the middle of the Cosmic Night--which is between Revolutions, as well as +between Periods. Then it gradually declines, as the life wave sweeps on to +the middle of the next Revolution. + + Thus the work of the Lords of the Flame in awakening the germinal con- +sciousness, was most active and efficient during the rest Period between the +Saturn and Sun Periods. + + We reiterate that a Cosmic Night is not to be regarded as a time of inac- +tivity. It is not inert existence, as we saw in the case of the individual +passing from death to a new birth. So with the great death of all the +Globes of a Period. It is a cessation of active manifestation, that a pro- +portionately keener subjective activity may be unfolded. + + Perhaps the best idea of the nature of this subjective activity may be +gained by observing what happens when a ripe fruit is buried in the ground. + + +[PAGE 208] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Fermentation and decay of the flesh sets in, but out of that chaos comes the +new plant, sprouting forth into the air and sunshine. So, when a Period is +past, all is resolved into conglomerate chaos, apparently incapable of being +reduced to order. At the proper time, however, the Globes of a new period +are formed and made ready for occupancy as man-bearing Worlds. Hither the +evolving life is transferred from five dark Globes which it traverses during +the Cosmic Night, to commence the activities of a new creative day in an al- +tered environment, prepared and externalized during the activities of the +Cosmic Night. As the forces of fermentation in the fruit stimulate the seed +and fertilize the soil in which it grows, so the Lords of the Flame +stimulated the germ of divine spirit, particularly during the Cosmic Night +between the Saturn and Sun Periods, continuing their activities until the +middle of the first Revolution of the Sun Period. + + RECAPITULATION. + + Before the activity in any Period can be started, there is a recapitula- +tion of all that has been gone through before. Owing to the spiral path of +evolution, this activity takes place each time on a higher scale that the +stage in progression which it rehearses. The necessity will become apparent +when the actual work in recapitulation is described. + + The first Revolution of any Period is a recapitulation of the work upon +the dense body in the Saturn Period, and is spoken of among Rosicrucians as +the "Saturn Revolution." + + The Second Period is the Sun Period, and therefore the second Revolution +of any Period subsequent to the Sun Period would be the "Sun Revolution." + + +[PAGE 209] THE WORK OF EVOLUTION + + The third Period is the Moon Period, therefore the third Revolution of +any subsequent Period will be a recapitulation of the work done in the Moon +Period, and is called the "Moon Revolution." + + Not until after the recapitulatory Revolutions does the proper work of a +Period begin. For instance, in the present Earth Period, we have passed +through three and one-half Revolutions. That means that in the first, or +Saturn Revolution of the Earth Period, the work done in the Saturn Period +was repeated, but on an advanced scale. In the second, or Sun Revolution, +the work of the Sun Period was gone through again. In the third, or Moon +Revolution, the work of the Moon Period was repeated; and it was only in the +fourth--the present Revolution--the real work of the Earth Period commenced. + + In the last of the seven Periods--the Vulcan Period--only the last +Revolution will be concerned with real Vulcan work. In the preceding six +Revolutions the work of the preceding six Periods will have been reca- +pitulated. + + Moreover (and this will particularly help the student to remember), a +Saturn Revolution in any Period has always to do with the development of +some new feature of the dense body, because that was started in a first +Revolution; and ANY seventh, or Vulcan Revolution, has for its particular +work some activity in connection with the divine spirit, because that was +started in a seventh Revolution. In the same way, we shall see that there +is a connection between the different Revolutions and all the vehicles of +man. + + THE SUN PERIOD. + + Conditions during the Sun Period differed radically from those of the +Saturn Period. Instead of the "warmth-Globes" of the latter, the Sun + + +[PAGE 210] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Period Globes were glowing light-balls, of the consistency of gas. These +great gasballs contained all that had been evolved in the Saturn Period, and +similarly, in the atmosphere were the creative Hierarchies. + + Instead of the echo-like, reflecting quality of the Saturn Period, these +Globes, to some extent, had the quality of absorbing and working over sight +or sound projected against their surfaces. They, as it were, "sensed" +things. The Earth does not seem to do this, and a materialist would scoff +at the idea, yet the occultist knows that the Earth feels everything on and +in it. This lighter Globe was much more sensitive that the Earth, because +it was not limited and bound in such hard and fast conditions of materiality +as is our present habitat. + + The life, of course, was different, because no forms such as we know +could have existed there. But life can express itself in forms of fiery gas +as well as--in fact better than--in forms of hard chemical matter such as +the present dense forms of mineral, plant, animal and man. + + As the evolving life appeared upon Globe A in the first or Saturn Revolu- +tion of the Sun Period, it was still in charge of the Lords of the Flame +who, in the middle of the last Revolution of the Saturn Period, awakened in +man the germ of the divine spirit. + + They had previously given the germ of the dense body and, in the first +half of the Saturn Revolution of the Sun Period, were concerned with certain +improvements to be made upon it. + + In the Sun Period the formation of the vital body was to be commenced, +with all thereby implied of capability for assimilation, growth, propaga- +tion, glands, etc. + + The Lords of the Flame incorporated in the germ of the dense body only + + +[PAGE 211] THE WORK OF EVOLUTION + +the capability of evolving sense organs. At the time now under consider- +ation it became necessary to change the germ in such a way as to allow of +interpenetration by a vital body, also capability of evolving glands and an +alimentary canal. This was done by the joint action of the Lords of the +Flame, who gave the original germ, and the Lords of Wisdom, who took charge +of material evolution in the Sun Period. + + The Lords of Wisdom, who were not so highly evolved as the Lords of the +Flame, worked to complete their own evolution; therefore they received the +assistance of an order of exalted Beings who, like the Lords of the Flame, +order of exalted Beings who, like the Lords of the Flame, acted of their own +free will. In esoteric parlance they are called the Cherubim. These ex- +alted Beings did not, however, become active in the work until it was neces- +sary to awaken the germ of the second spiritual principle of our +man-in-the-making, as the Lords of Wisdom were quite capable of doing the +work connected with the vital body which was to be added to the constitution +of man in the Sun Period, but not of awakening the second spiritual prin- +ciple. + + When the Lords of the Flame and the Lords of Wisdom had, in the Saturn +Revolution of the Sun Period, conjointly reconstructed the germinal dense +body, the Lords of Wisdom, in the second Revolution, started the proper work +of the Sun Period, by radiating from their own bodies the germ of the vital +body, making it capable of inter-penetrating the dense body and giving to +the germ the capability of furthering growth and propagation and of exciting +the sense centers of the dense body and causing it to move. In short, they +gave, germinally, to the vital body all the faculties which it is now un- +folding to become a perfect and pliable instrument for the use of the +spirit. + + +[PAGE 212] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + This work occupied the second, third, fourth and fifth Revolutions of the +Sun Period. In the sixth Revolution the Cherubim entered and awakened the +germ of the second aspect of the threefold spirit in man--the life spirit. +In the seventh and last Revolution the newly awakened germ of the life +spirit was linked to the germinal divine spirit, and this was still further +worked upon. + + We remember that in the Saturn Period our consciousness was similar to +the trace condition. By the activity of the Sun Period this was modified +until it became like the consciousness of dreamless sleep. + + Evolution in the Sun Period added to the constitution of the evolving em- +bryonic man, the next highest and the next lowest of his present vehicles. +As the result of the Saturn Period he possessed a germinal dense body and +divine spirit. At the end of the Sun Period he possessed a germinal dense +body, vital body, divine spirit and life spirit, i.e., a twofold spirit and +a twofold body. + + We also note that, as the first, or Saturn Revolution, of any Period is +concerned with work in the dense body (because that was started in a first +Revolution), so the second, or Sun Revolution, of any Period is concerned +with improvements on the vital body, because it was started in a second +Revolution. In like manner, the sixth Revolution of any Period is dedicated +to some work on the life spirit, and any seventh Revolution is particularly +concerned with matters connected with the divine spirit. + + In the Saturn Period man-in-the-making went through a mineral stage of +existence. That is to say, he had a dense body only in the sense as had the +mineral. His consciousness was also similar to that of the present mineral. + + +[PAGE 213] THE WORK OF EVOLUTION + + In the same way, and for analogous reasons, it may be said that in the +Sun Period man went through the plant existence. He had a dense body and a +vital body, as plants have, and his consciousness, like theirs, was that of +dreamless sleep. The student will fully grasp this analogy by referring to +diagram 4 in the chapter on the four kingdoms, where the vehicles of con- +sciousness possessed by mineral, plant, animal and man are schematically +shown, with the particular consciousness resulting from their possession in +each case. + + When the Sun Period was past there came another Cosmic Night of assimila- +tion, together with the subjective activity necessary before the opening of +the Moon Period. This was equal in length to the preceding Period of objec- +tive manifestation. + + THE MOON PERIOD. + + As the chief characteristic feature of the dark Saturn Globes was de- +scribed by the term "warmth," and that of the Sun Period Globes as "light" +or glowing heat, so the chief characteristic feature of the Globes of the +Moon Period may be best described by the term "moisture." There was no air +such as we know. In the center was the hot fiery core. Next to that, and +consequent upon contact with the cold of outside space, there was dense +moisture. By contact with the fiery central core the dense moisture was +changed into hot steam, which rushed outward to cool, and sink again toward +the center. Therefore the occult scientist calls the Globes of the Moon Pe- +riod "water" and describes the atmosphere of that time as "fire-fog." That +was the scene of the next forward step of the evolving life. + + The Moon Period work was that of acquiring the germ of a desire body and + + +[PAGE 214] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +starting the germinal activity of the third aspect of the threefold spirit +in man--the human spirit--the Ego. + + In the middle of the seventh Revolution of the Sun Period, the Lords of +Wisdom took charge of the germinal life spirit given by the Cherubim in the +sixth Revolution of the Sun Period. They did this for the purpose of link- +ing it to the divine spirit. Their greatest activity in this work was +reached in the Cosmic Night intervening between the Sun and Moon Periods. +In the first dawn of the Moon Period, as the life wave started upon its new +pilgrimage, the Lords of Wisdom reappeared, bearing with them the germinal +vehicles of the evolving man. In the first or Saturn Revolution of the Moon +Period, they co-operated with the "Lords of Individuality," who had special +charge of the material evolution of the Moon Period. Together they recon- +structed the germ of the dense body, brought over from the Sun Period. This +germ had unfolded embryonic sense organs, digestive organs, glands, etc., +and was inter-penetrated of life into the embryonic dense body. Of course, +it was not solid and visible as it is now, yet in a crude sort of way it was +somewhat organized and is perfectly distinguishable to the trained clairvoy- +ant sight of the competent investigator who searches the memory of nature +for scenes in that far-off past. + + In the Moon Period it was necessary to reconstruct the dense body to make +it capable of being inter-penetrated by a desire body, and also capable of +evolving a nervous system, muscle, cartilage and a rudimentary skeleton. +This reconstruction was the work of the Saturn Revolution of the Moon Pe- +riod. + + In the second, or Sun Revolution, the vital body was also modified to + + +[PAGE 215] THE WORK OF EVOLUTION + +render it capable of being inter-penetrated by a desire body, also of accom- +modating itself to the nervous system, muscle, skeleton, etc. The Lords of +Wisdom, who were the originators of the vital body, also helped the Lords of +Individuality with this work. + + In the third Revolution the proper Moon work commenced. The Lords of In- +dividuality radiated from themselves the substance which they helped the un- +conscious, evolving man to appropriate and build into a germinal desire +body. They also helped him to incorporate this germinal desire body in the +compound vital body and dense body which he already possessed. This work +was carried on all through the third and fourth Revolutions of the Moon Pe- +riod. + + As with the Lords of Wisdom, so with the Lords of Individuality; through +exalted far above man, they worked on and in him to complete their own +evolution. While they were capable of dealing with the lower vehicle, they +were powerless in regard to the higher. They could not give spiritual im- +pulse necessary to the awakening of the third aspect of the threefold spirit +in man. Therefore another class of Beings who were beyond the necessity of +evolving in such an evolution as we are passing through--who also worked of +their own free will, as did the Lords of the Flame and the Cherubim--came in +during the fifth Revolution of the Moon Period, to help man. They are +called "Seraphim." They awakened the germ of the third aspect of the +spirit--the human spirit. + + In the sixth Revolution of the Moon Period the Cherubim reappeared and +co-operated with the Lords of Individuality to link the newly acquired germ +of the human spirit to life spirit. + + In the seventh Revolution of the Moon Period the Lords of the Flame again + + +[PAGE 216] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +came to the aid of man, helping the Lords of Individuality to link the human +spirit to the divine spirit. Thus the separate Ego--the threefold +spirit--came into existence. + + Before the beginning of the Saturn Period the virgin spirits who are now +man, were in the World of Virgin Spirits, and were "All-conscious" as God in +who (not from whom), they were differentiated. They were not "SELF" con- +scious however. The attainment of that faculty is partly the object of +evolution which plunges the virgin spirits into a sea of matter of gradually +increasing density which eventually shuts it from All-consciousness. + + Thus, in the Saturn Period the virgin spirits were immersed in the World +of Divine Spirit and encased in the tiniest film of that substance which +they partially penetrated by the help of the Lords of Flame. + + In the Sun Period the virgin spirit was plunged into the denser World of +Life Spirit and more effectively blinded to the All-consciousness by a sec- +ond veil of the substance of the World of Life Spirit. Still, by the help +of the Cherubim it partially penetrated this second veil also. The feeling +of the Oneness of All was not lost either, for the World of Life Spirit is +still a universal World common to and inter-penetrating all the planets of a +Solar System. + + In the Moon Period, however, the virgin spirits take a further dip into +the still denser matter of the Region of Abstract Thought and here the most +opaque of its veils, the human spirit, is added. Henceforth the +All-consciousness of the virgin spirit is lost. It can no longer penetrate +its veils, look OUTWARDS and perceive OTHERS, so it is forced to turn its +consciousness INWARDS and there it finds its SELF, as the Ego, separated +apart from all others. + + Thus the virgin spirit is encased in a threefold veil, and as its + + +[PAGE 217] THE WORK OF EVOLUTION + +outermost veil, the human spirit, effectively blinds it to the oneness of +Life, it becomes the Ego by entertaining the illusion of separateness con- +tracted during involution. Evolution will gradually dissolve the illusion, +bring back the All-consciousness, and Self-consciousness will have been +added. + + Thus we see that at the close of the Moon Period man possessed a three- +fold body in varying stages of development; and also the germ of the three- +fold spirit. He had dense, vital, and desire bodies, and divine, life and +human spirit. All he lacked was the link to connect them. + + It has been stated that man passed through the mineral stage in the Sat- +urn Period; through the plant stage in the Sun Period, and his pilgrimage +through the conditions of the Moon Period corresponds to the phase of animal +existence, for the same reason that the two other similes are applicable--he +had the dense, vital, and desire bodies, as have our present animals, and +his consciousness was an internal picture-consciousness, such as the lower +animals have today. This resembles the dream consciousness of man, save +that it is perfectly rational, being directed by the group-spirit of the +animals. The student is again referred to diagram 4 in the chapter on the +four kingdoms, where this is shown. + + These Moons beings were not so purely germinal as in the previous Peri- +ods. To the trained clairvoyant they appear suspended by strings in the at- +mosphere of the fire-fog, as the embryo hangs from the placenta by the um- +bilical cord. Currents (common to all of them), which provided some sort of +nourishment flowed in and out from the atmosphere, through those cords. +These currents were thus, to some extent, similar in their function to the +blood of the present day. The name "blood" as applied to these currents, + + +[PAGE 218] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +however, is used merely to suggest an analogy, because the Being of the Moon +Period possessed nothing like our present red blood, which is one of the +very latest acquisitions of man. + + Towards the end of the Moon Period there was a division of the Globe +which was the field of our and other evolutions, which, for the sake of +greater implicity, we have not heretofore mentioned, but with which we shall +presently become acquainted. + + Part of that great Globe was crystallized by man on account of his in- +ability to keep the part which he inhabited in the high state of vibration +maintained by the other beings there, and as this part became more inert the +centrifugal force of the revolving Globe sent is spinning into space, where +it began to circle around the glowing fiery central portion. + + The spiritual reason for the throwing off of such crystallizations is +that the highest beings on such a Globe require for their evolution the ex- +ceedingly rapid vibrations of fire. They are hampered by condensation, al- +though such a condition is necessary to the evolution of other and less ad- +vanced beings required lower rates of vibration. Therefore, when part of +any Globe has been consolidated by a group of evolving beings to the detri- +ment of others, that part is thrown off to exactly the proper distance from +the central mass, so that it circles as a satellite around its primary. The +heat vibrations which strike it are of the rate and strength suitable to the +peculiar needs of the beings evolving upon that satellite. Of course the +law of gravitation accounts quite satisfactorily for the phenomenon from a +PHYSICAL viewpoint. But there is always a deeper cause, that yields a more +complete explanation and which we will find if we consider the spiritual + + +[PAGE 219] THE WORK OF EVOLUTION + + +side of things. As a physical action is but the visible manifestation of +the invisible thought which must precede it, so is the throwing off of a +planet from a central Sun simply the visible and unavoidable effect of in- +visible spiritual conditions. + + The smaller planet which was thrown off in the Moon Period, condensed +with comparative rapidity and remained the field of our evolution until the +end of that Period. It was a moon to the parent planet, circling around it +as our Moon circles around the Earth, but it did not show phases as our Moon +does. It revolved in such a manner that one-half was always light and the +other always dark, as is the case with Venus. One of its poles was pointed +directly towards the large fiery Globe, as one of the poles of Venus points +directly towards the Sun. + + On this satellite of the Moon Period there were currents which encircled +it, as the group-spirit currents encircle the Earth. The Moon beings fol- +lowed those currents instinctively from the light to the dark side of this +old Moon. At certain times of the year, when they were on the light side, a +sort of propagation took place. We have the atavistic residue of those moon +travels from propagation in the migrations of the birds of passage which, to +the present day, follow the group-spirit currents around the Earth at cer- +tain seasons of the year, for identical purposes. Even the (honey) moon +trips of human beings show that man himself has not yet outgrown the migra- +tory impulse in connection with mating. + + The Moon beings at this last stage were also capable of giving utterance +to sounds, or cries. These were Cosmic sounds--not expressions of indi- +vidual joy or sorrow, for as yet there was no individual. The development +of the individual came later--in the Earth Period. + + +[PAGE 220] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + At the end of the Moon Period once more came the interval of rest, the +Cosmic Night. The divided parts were dissolved and merged in the general +Chaos which preceded the reorganization of the Globe for the Earth Period. + + The Lords of Wisdom had now evolved so far, that they were capable of +taking charge as the highest creative Hierarchy. They were given special +charge of the divine spirit in man during the Earth Period. + + The Lords of Individuality were also sufficiently advanced to work upon +the spirit in man and the life spirit was therefore put under their charge. + + Another creative Hierarchy had special care of the three germs of the +dense, vital, and desire bodies as they were evolving. They were the ones +who, under the direction of the higher orders, actually did the principal +work on these bodies, using the evolving life as a kind of instrument. This +Hierarchy is called the "Lords of Form." They were now evolved so far that +they were given charge of the third aspect of the spirit in man--the human +spirit--in the coming Earth Period. + + There were twelve great Creative Hierarchies active in the work of +evolution at the commencement of the Saturn Period. Two of these Hierar- +chies did some work to help at the very beginning. No information has been +given as to what they did, nor anything about them, except that they helped +of their own free will, and then withdrew from limited existence into lib- +eration. + + Three more of the Creative Hierarchies followed them at the beginning of +the Earth Period, the Lords of the Flame, the Cherubim and the Seraphim, +leaving seven Hierarchies in active service when the Earth Period began. + + +[PAGE 221] THE WORK OF EVOLUTION + +(Diagram 9 will give a clear idea of the twelve Creative Hierarchies and +their status). + + DIAGRAM 9. + + THE TWELVE GREAT CREATIVE HIERARCHIES. + +Zodiacal Sign Name Status + +1. Aries Nameless The first and second orders are +2. Taurus Nameless said to have passed beyond the + ken of anyone on Earth. It is + known that they gave some + assistance at the beginning of + our evolution. + The three following orders worked of their own free + will to help man during the three periods which + preceded the Earth Period. They have also passed to + liberation: +3. Gemini Seraphim who, in the Moon Period, + aroused in man-in-the making + the germ of the human spirit-- + the Ego, +4. Cancer Cherubim who, in the Sun Period, aroused + the germ of the life spirit. +5. Leo Lords of Flame who, in the Saturn Period, + aroused the germ of the divine + spirit and gave the germ of the + dense body. + The following Seven Creative Hierarchies are active in + the Earth Period: +6. Virgo Lords of Wisdom who, in the Sun Period, started + the vital body. +7. Libra Lords of Individuality who, in the Moon Period, + started the desire body. +8. Scorpio Lords of Form who have special charge of + human evolution in the Earth + Period. +9. Sagittarius Lords of Mind the humanity of the Saturn + Period. +10. Capricornus Archangels the humanity of the Sun Period. +11. Aquarius Angels the humanity of the Moon + Period. +12. Pisces The Virgin Spirits who are the humanity of the + present Earth Period. + + +[PAGE 222] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + The Lords of Mind became experts at building bodies of "mind-stuff" as +we are becoming experts at building bodies of chemical matter, and for a +similar reason: The Region of Concrete Thought was the densest condition of +matter reached during the Saturn Period where they were human and the +Chemical Region is the densest state to be contacted by our humanity. + + In the Earth Period the Lords of Mind reached the Creator-stage, and +radiated from themselves into our being the nucleus of material from which +we are now seeking to build an organized mind. They are called "Power of +Darkness" by Paul because they came from the dark Saturn Period, and are +considered evil on account of the separative tendency appertaining to the +plan of Reason as contrasted with the unifying forces of the World of Life +Spirit; the realm of Love. The Lords of Mind work with humanity; but not +with the three lower Kingdoms. + + The Archangels became experts at building a body of desire-stuff: the +densest matter of the Sun Period. Therefore they are able to teach and +guide such less evolved beings as man and animal how to mold and use a +desire-body. + + The Angels are thoroughly experienced in building a vital body for the +Moon period when they were human the ether was the densest condition of mat- +ter. On account of this ability they are properly the teachers of man, +animal and plant with regard to the vital functions: propagation, nutrition, +etc. + + + --- END OF FILE ---- + +[PAGE 223] STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS + + CHAPTER IX. + + STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS. + + In following through the preceding chapter the evolution of life, con- +sciousness and form--the triple phase of manifestation of the virgin +spirit--which is the LIFE that gathers the FORM about itself and gains CON- +SCIOUSNESS thereby, we have spoken as though there were only one class; as +though the virgin spirits, without exception, had made constant and uniform +progress. + + This was done for the sake of simplicity, because stragglers there were, +as there are in any great body or company. + + In school there are, every year, those who fail to reach the standard re- +quired for promotion into a higher grade. Similarly, in every Period of +Evolution, there are those who fall behind because they have not attained +the standard necessary to pass onward to the next higher stage. + + Even so early as the Saturn Period there were some who failed to improve +sufficiently to take the next forward step. At that stage the Higher Beings +were working with the life, which was itself unconscious, but that uncon- +sciousness did not prevent the retardation of some of the virgin spirits who +were not so pliable, nor so readily adaptable as others. + + In that one word "Adaptability," we have the great secret of advancement +or retardation. All progress depends upon whether an evolving being is + + +[PAGE 224] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +flexible, adaptable and pliable, so as to be able to accommodate itself to +new conditions, or whether it is crystallized, set, and incapable of alter- +ation. Adaptability is the quality which makes for progress, whether an en- +tity is at a high or a low stage of evolution. Lack of it is the cause of +the retardation of the spirit and retrogression of the Form. This applies to +the past, present and future, the division of the qualified and the un- +qualified, thus, being made with the exact and impersonal justice of the law +of Consequence. There never was, or ever shall be any arbitrary distinction +made between the "sheep" and the "goats." + + The hardened unresponsive condition of some of the Saturn beings pre- +vented the awakening of the divine spirit within them, therefore they re- +mained simply mineral, all they had gained being the germinal dense body. + + Thus there were two classes, or kingdoms, in the Sun Period, i.e., the +stragglers of the Saturn Period, who were still mineral, and the pioneers of +the Saturn Period, who were capable of receiving the germ of a vital body +and becoming plant-like. + + In addition to those two kingdoms there was also a third--a new life +wave, which was just commencing its activity at the beginning of the Sun Pe- +riod. (That is the life wave which now ensouls our animals). + + The matter into which the new life wave entered, together with the strag- +glers of the Saturn Period, composed the mineral kingdom of the Sun Period. +There was, however, a great difference in those two sub-divisions of the +second kingdom. It is possible for the stragglers to make a "spurt" and +overtake the pioneers, who are now our humanity, but impossible for the new +life wave of the Sun Period to do that. It will reach a stage corresponding + + +[PAGE 225] STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS + +to the human, but under very different conditions. + + The division of stragglers and pioneers took place in the seventh Revolu- +tion of the Saturn Period, when the divine spirit was awakened by the Lords +of the Flame. Then it was found that some of the evolving entities were in +such an unresponsive, hardened condition that it was impossible to arouse +them. They therefore remained without the spark of spirit upon which their +progress depended and they were obliged to remain at the same level, being +unable to follow the others in whom the spiritual spark was awakened. +truly, truly, all that we are or are not is the result of our own effort, or +our own inaction. + + These stragglers and the newly arrived life wave formed dark spots in the +otherwise glowing gas sphere which was the densest Globe of the Sun Period, +and our present Sunspots are an atavistic remainder of that condition. + + In the sixth Revolution of the Sun Period the life spirit was awakened by +the Cherubim, and again it was found that some who had safely passed the +critical point in the Saturn Period, had fallen behind in the Sun Period and +were unfit to have the second aspect of the spirit vivified. Thus there +were another class of stragglers, who had lagged behind the crest wave of +evolution. + + In the seventh Revolution of the Sun Period of Lords of the flame reap- +peared to awaken the divine spirit in those who failed to qualify for it at +the end of the Saturn Period, but had attained to the point where they could +receive the spiritual impulse in the Sun Period. The Lords of the flame +also awakened the germ of divine spirit in as many of the new life wave en- +tities as were ready, but here also there were stragglers. + + +[PAGE 226] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Thus at the beginning of the Moon Period there were the following +classes: + +1-The Pioneers who had successfully passed through the Saturn and the Sun + Periods. They had dense and vital bodies, divine and life spirit + germinally active. +2-The Stragglers of the Sun Period, who had dense and vital bodies, also + divine spirit--all germinal. +3-The Stragglers of the Saturn Period, who had been promoted in the seventh + Revolution of the Sun Period. They had the germ of dense body and + divine spirit. +4-The Pioneers of the new Life Wave, who had the same vehicles as class 3, + but belong to a different scheme of evolution from ours. +5-The Stragglers of the new Life Wave, who had only the germ for the dense + body. +6-The New Life Wave, which entered upon its evolution at the beginning of + the Moon Period and is the life that ensouls our plants of the + present day. + + It is necessary to remember that Nature hastens slowly. She makes no +sudden changes in forms. To her, time is nothing; the attainment of perfec- +tion is everything. A mineral does not change to a plant at one bound, but +by gradual, almost imperceptible degrees. A plant does not become an animal +in a night. It requires millions of years to bring about the change. Thus +at all times there are all stages and gradations to be found in nature. The +Ladder of Being stretches without break from protoplasm to God. + + Therefore we have to deal, not with six different kingdoms corresponding +to the above six classes which entered the arena of evolution at the begin- +ning of the Moon Period, but with three kingdoms only--mineral, plant and +animal. + + The lowest class in the Moon Period composed the new life stream which +there commenced its evolution. It formed the hardest mineral part, yet it +must be borne in mind that it was by no means as hart as the mineral of the +present time, but only about as dense as our wood. + + +[PAGE 227] STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS + + This statement does not contradict former ones which described the Moon +as watery, nor does it conflict with diagram 8, showing the densest Globe in +the Moon Period as located in the Etheric Region, which is etheric. As be- +fore stated, the fact that the past of evolution is spiral prevents any con- +dition ever being duplicated. There are similarities, but never reproduc- +tions of identical conditions. It is not always possible to describe +conditions in exact terms. The best available term is used to convey an +idea of the conditions existing at the time under consideration. + + Class 5 in our list was nearly mineral, yet on account of having passed +through and beyond the mineral condition during the Sun Period, it had some +plant characteristics. + + Class 4 was almost plant and did evolve to a plant before the close of +the Mood Period. It was, however, more nearly allied to the mineral kingdom +that the next two classes, which formed the higher kingdom. We may there- +fore group classes 4 and 5 together, as forming a sort of half step, a +"mineral-plant" kingdom, which composed the surface of the ancient planet of +the Moon Period. It was something like our present peat, which is also a +state between the mineral and the plant. It was soggy and wet, consistent +with the statement that the Moon Period was watery. + + Thus the fourth, fifth and sixth classes composed the different grada- +tions of the mineral kingdom in the Moon Period--the highest being nearly +plant and the lowest the hardest mineral substance of that time. + + Classes 2 and 3 formed the plant kingdom, though they were both really +more than plants, yet were not quite animal. They grew in the mineral-plant +soil; they were stationary like plants; yet they could not have grown + + +[PAGE 228] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +in a purely mineral soil, as our plants do now. Good examples of what they +were life may be found in our parasitic plants, which cannot grow in a +purely mineral soil, but seek the food already specialized by the real plant +or tree. + + Class 1 was composed of the pioneers of the life wave of virgin spirits. +In the Moon Period they were going through a sort of animal-like existence. +Yet they were like the animals of our time only in so far as they had the +same vehicles and were under the control of a group-spirit, which included +the whole human family. In appearance they were very different from our +present animals, as shown by the partial description given in the previous +chapter. They did not touch the surface of the planet, but floated sus- +pended by umbilical-like cords. Instead of lungs they had a gill-like ap- +paratus through which they breathed the hot steamy "fire-fog." These fea- +tures of the Moon existence are still recapitulated by the embryo during the +period of gestation. At certain stages of development it has the gills. +The Moon beings at that time had also the horizontal spine of the animal. + + During the Moon Period several more divisions of classes occurred than in +the preceding periods, because they were, of course, stragglers who failed +to keep abreast of the crestwave of evolution. As a result there were, at +the beginning of the Earth Period, 5 classes, some of them containing sev- +eral divisions, as diagram l0 will show. These divisions occurred at the +following times and for the following reasons: + + In the middle of the fifth Revolution of the Moon Period, when the +Seraphim bestowed the germ of the human spirit upon the pioneers who had +fitted themselves to pass on, some were found wanting when weighed in the + + +[PAGE 229] STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS + +balance and therefore unfit to receive the spiritual impulse which awakened +the threefold spirit. + + In the sixth Revolution of the Moon Period the Cherubim reappeared and +vivified the life spirit of those who had been left behind in the Sun Period +but had since reached the necessary stage of development (Class 2 in our +previous list), and also in those stragglers of the Sun Period who had now +evolved a vital body during their plant existence in the Moon Period. +(These latter were class 3 in the previous list.) + + Class 4 in the previous list had been going through a low stage of plant +existence; nevertheless the majority of them had evolved the vital body suf- +ficiently to allow of the awakening of the life spirit. + + Thus, the three last named all possessed the same vehicles at the begin- +ning of the Earth Period, although only the two first named (class 3a and 3b +in diagram l0) belong to our life wave, and have a chance of even yet over- +taking us if they pass the critical point which will come in the next +Revolution of the Earth Period. Those who cannot pass that point will be +heal over until some future evolution reaches a stage where they can drop in +and proceed with their development in a new human period. They will be de- +barred from going forward with our humanity because it will be advanced so +far beyond their status that it would prove a serious clog to our progress +to drag them along. They will not be destroyed, but simply held in waiting +for another period of evolution. + + Progression with our present wave of evolution is what is meant when +"salvation" is spoken of in the Christian religion, and it is something to +be earnestly sought, for though the "eternal damnation" of those who are not +"saved" does not mean destruction nor endless torture, it is + + +[PAGE 230] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + DIAGRAM 10 + + + (Showing the different classes of the several life waves which are evolv- +ing in the four kingdoms of the earth; their status AT THE BEGINNING OF THE +EARTH PERIOD and the vehicles they THEN possessed; also their recent sta- +tus.) + + +[PAGE 231] STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS + +nevertheless a very serious matter to be held in a state of inertia for in- +conceivable milliards of years, before a new evolution shall have progressed +to such a stage that those who fail here can have an opportunity to proceed. +The spirit is not conscious of the lapse of time, but it is none the less a +serious loss, and there must also be feeling of unhomelikeness when at last +such spirits find themselves in a new evolution. + + So far as the present humanity is concerned, that possibility is so small +as to be almost negligible. It is said, however, that of the total number +of virgin spirits which started evolution in the Saturn Period, only about +three-fifths will pass that critical point in the next Revolution and go on +to the end. + + The greatest apprehension of occult scientists is materialism, which if +carried too far, not only prevents progress but will destroy all the seven +vehicles of the virgin spirit, leaving it naked. Such an one will then have +to commence at the very beginning of the new evolution. All the work it has +done since the dawn of the Saturn Period will have been utterly wasted. For +this reason, the present period is to our humanity, the most critical of +all. Therefore occult scientists speak of the Sixteen Races, of which the +Germano-Anglo-Saxon is one, as "the sixteen possibilities for destruction." +May the reader safely pass them all, for their grip is worse than the retar- +dation in the next Revolution. + + Speaking generally, class 5 in the foregoing list was given the germ of +the divine spirit during the seventh Revolution, when the Lords of Flame re- +appeared. Therefore they were pioneers of the last life wave, entering +evolution at the Moon Period. They passed their mineral existence there. + + +[PAGE 232] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +The stragglers of that life wave were thus left with only the germ of a +dense body. + + In addition to the above, there was also a new life wave (our present +mineral kingdom) entering upon its evolution at the beginning of the Earth +Period. + + At the end of the Moon Period these classes possessed the vehicles as +they are classified in diagram 10, and started with them in the beginning of +the Earth Period. During the time which has elapsed since then, the human +kingdom has been evolving the link of mind, and has thereby attained full +waking consciousness. The animals have obtained a desire body, the plants a +vital body; the stragglers of life wave entered evolution in the Moon Period +have escaped the hard and fast conditions of rock soils; while life wave +that entered evolution here in the Earth Period forms the hard rocks and +stones. + + Thus have the different classes obtained the vehicles ascribed to them in +diagram 3, to which the reader is referred. + + +[PAGE 233] THE EARTH PERIOD + + CHAPTER X. + + THE EARTH PERIOD. + + The Globes of the Earth Period are located in the four densest states of +matter--the Region of Concrete Thought, the Desire World, the Etheric, and +the Chemical Regions (See Diagram 8). The densest Globe (Globe D) is our +present Earth. + + When we speak of "the DENSEST Worlds" or "the DENSEST states of matter," +the term must be taken in a relative sense. Otherwise it would imply a +limitation in the absolute, and that is absurd. Dense and attenuated, up +and down, east and west, are applicable only relatively to our own status +and position. As there are higher, finer Worlds than those touched by our +life wave, so there are also denser states of matter which are the field of +evolution for other classes of beings. Nor must it be thought that these +denser worlds are elsewhere in space; they are interpenetrated by our worlds +in a manner similar to that in which the higher Worlds interpenetrate this +Earth. The fancied solidity of the Earth and the forms we see are no +bar to the passage of a denser body any more than out solid sense walls bar +the passage of a human being clothed in his desire body. Neither is solid- +ity synonymous with density, as may be illustrated by aluminum, a solid +which is less dense than the fluidic mercury; nevertheless the latter, in +spite of its density, will evaporate or exude through many solids. + + This being the fourth Period, we have at present four elements. In the + + +[PAGE 234] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Saturn Period there was but one element, Fire--i.e., there was warmth, or +heat, which is incipient fire. In the second, or Sun Period, there were to +elements, Fire and Air. In the third, or Moon Period, there were three +elements, Water being added; and in the fourth, or Earth Period, was added +the fourth element, Earth. Thus it will be seen that a new element was +added for each Period. + + In the Jupiter Period an element of a spiritual nature will be added, +which will unite with the speech so that words will invariable carry with +them understanding--not misunderstanding, as is frequently the case now. +For instance, when one says "house," he may mean a cottage, while the hearer +may get the idea of a tenement flat building. + + To this environment of the four elements, as specified above, the differ- +ent classes mentioned in diagram 10 were brought over by the Hierarchies in +charge of them. We remember that in the Moon Period these classes formed +three kingdoms--animal, animal-plant and plant-mineral. Here on Earth, how- +ever, the conditions are such that there can be no large half-way classes. +There must be four distinctly different kingdoms. In this crystallized +phase of existence the lines between them must be more sharply drawn than +was the case in former Periods, where one kingdom gradually merged into the +next. Therefore some of the classes mentioned in diagram 10 advanced +one-half step, while others went back a half a step. + + Some of the mineral-plants advanced completely into the plant kingdom and +became the verdure of the fields. Others went down and became the purely +mineral soil in which the plants grew. Of the plant-animals some advanced +into the animal kingdom, ahead of time, and those species have yet the + + +[PAGE 235] THE EARTH PERIOD + +colorless plant-blood and some, like star-fishes, have even the five points +like the petals of flowers. + + All of class 2 whose desire bodies could be divided into two parts (as +was the case with all of class 1) were fitted to become human vehicles and +were therefore advanced into the human group. + + We must carefully remember that in the above paragraphs we are dealing +with Form, not with the Life which dwells in the Form. The instrument is +graded to suit the life that is to dwell in it. Those of class 2, in whose +vehicles the above mentioned division could be made were raised to the human +kingdom, but were given the indwelling spirit at a point in time later than +class 1. Hence, they are not now so far evolved as class 1, and are there- +fore the lower races of mankind. + + Those whose desire bodies were incapable of division were put into the +same division as classes 3a and 3b. They are our present anthropoids. They +may yet overtake our evolution if they reach a sufficient degree of advance- +ment before the critical point already mentioned, which will come in the +middle of the fifth Revolution. If they do not overtake us by that time, +they will have lost touch with our evolution. + + It was said that man had built his threefold body by the help of others +higher than he, but in the previous Period there was no co-ordinating power; +the threefold spirit, the Ego, was separate and apart from its vehicles. +Now the time had come to unit the spirit and the body. + + Where the desire body separated, the higher part become somewhat master +over the lower part and over the dense and vital bodies. It formed a sort +of animal-soul with which the spirit could unit by means of the link of + + +[PAGE 236] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +mind. Where there was no division of the desire body, the vehicle was given +over to desires and passions without any check, and could therefore not be +used as a vehicle WITHIN which the spirit could dwell. So it was put under +the control of a group-spirit which ruled if from WITHOUT. It became an +animal body, and that kind was now degenerated into the body of the anthro- +poid. + + Where there was a division of the desire body, the dense body gradually +assumed a vertical position, thus taking the spine out of the horizontal +currents of the Desire World in which the group-spirit acts upon the animal +through the horizontal spine. The Ego could then enter, work in and express +itself through the vertical spine and build the vertical larynx and brain +for its adequate expression in the dense body. A horizontal larynx is also +under the domination of the group-spirit. While it is true that some +animals, as the starling, raven, parrot, etc., previously mentioned, are +able, because of the possession of a vertical larynx, to UTTER words, they +cannot use them understandingly. THE USE OF WORDS TO EXPRESS THOUGHT IS THE +HIGHEST HUMAN PRIVILEGE and can be exercised only by a reasoning, thinking +entity like man. If the student will keep this in mind, it will be easier +to follow the different steps which lead up to this result. + + THE SATURN REVOLUTION OF THE EARTH PERIOD. + + This is the Revolution during which, in each Period. the dense body is +reconstructed. This time it was given the ability to form a brain and be- +come a vehicle for the germ of mind which was to be added later. This addi- +tion constituted the final reconstruction of the dense body, rendering it +capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency possible to such a ve- +hicle. + + Unspeakable Wisdom has been employed in its construction. It is a + + +[PAGE 237] THE EARTH PERIOD + +marvel. It can never be sufficiently impressed upon the mind of the student +what immeasurable facilities for the gaining of knowledge are contained in +this instrument, and what a great boon it is to man; how much he should +prize it and how thankful he should be to have it. + + Some examples of the perfection of construction intelligent adaptability +displayed in this instrument have previously been given, but in order to +further impress this great truth upon the mind of the student, it might not +be out of place to illustrate more fully this Wisdom, also the work of the +Ego in the blood. + + It is generally know, in a vague kind of way, that the gastric juices +acts upon the food to promote assimilation; but only a very few people, out- +side of the medical profession, are aware that there are many different gas- +tric juices, each appropriate to the treatment of a certain kind of food. +The researches of Pavloff, however, have established the fact beyond doubt, +that there is one kind of juice for the digestion of meat, another for milk, +another for acid fruit, etc. That fact, by the way, is the reason why all +foods do not mix well. Milk, for instance, requires a gastric juice that is +widely different from almost any other kind except that required for the di- +gestion of starchy foods, and is not readily digested with any food other +than cereals. This alone would show marvelous wisdom; that the Ego working +subconsciously is able to select the different juices which are appropriate +to the different kinds of food taken into the stomach, making each of just +the right strength and quantity to digest the food. What makes the matter +still more wonderful, however, is the fact that the gastric juice is poured +into the stomach in ADVANCE of the food. + + +[PAGE 238] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + We do not consciously direct the process of mixing this fluid. The great +majority of people know nothing of metabolism or any other phrase of chemis- +try. So it is not enough to say that, as we taste what is coming, we direct +the process by means of signals through the nervous system. + + When this fact of the selection of juices was first proven, scientists +were sorely puzzled trying to learn how the right kind of juice was selected +and caused to enter the stomach BEFORE the food. They thought the signal +was given along the nervous system. But it was demonstrated beyond doubt +that the proper juice was poured into to the stomach even though the nervous +system was blocked. + + At last Starling and Bayliss, in a series of experiments of brilliant in- +genuity, proved that infinitesimal parts of the food are taken up by the +blood as soon as the good enters the mouth, go in advance to the digestive +glands and cause a flow of the proper juice. + + This again, is only the physical side of the phenomena. To understand +the whole wonderful connection, we must turn to occult science. That alone +explains why the signal is carried by the blood. + + The blood is one of the highest expressions of the vital body. The Ego +guides and controls its dense instrument by means of the blood, therefore +the blood is also the means used to act on the nervous system. During some +of the time that digestion is going on, it acts partially through the ner- +vous system, but (especially at the commencement of the digestive process) +it acts directly upon the stomach. When, during scientific experiments, the +nerves were blocked, the direct way through the blood was still open and the +Ego derived the necessary information in that way. + + It will also be seen that the blood is driven to wherever the Ego + + +[PAGE 239] THE EARTH PERIOD + +unfolds the greatest activity at any time. If a situation requires sudden +though and action, the blood is promptly driven to the head. If a heavy +meal is to be digested the greater portion of the blood leaves the head, +centering around the digestive organs. The Ego concentrate s its efforts on +ridding the body of the useless food. Therefore a man cannot think well af- +ter a heavy meal. He is sleepy because so much blood has left the brain +that the residue is insufficient to carry on the functions necessary to full +waking consciousness, besides, nearly all the vital fluid or solar energy +specialized by the spleen is absorbed by the blood rushing through that or- +gan after a meal in greater volume than between meals. Thus the rest of the +system is also deprived of the vital fluid in a large measure during diges- +tion. It is the Ego that drives the blood into the brain. Whenever the +body goes to sleep, the table will invariably tip towards the feet, raising +the head. During coition the blood is centered in the sex organs, etc. All +these examples tend to prove that during the waking hours, the Ego works in +and controls the dense body by means of the blood. The larger portion of +the total amount goes to that part of the body where at any given time, the +Ego unfolds any particular activity. + + The reconstruction of the dense body in the Saturn Revolution of the +Earth Period was for the purpose of rendering it capable of +inter-penetration by the mind. It gave the first impulse to the building of +the frontal part of the brain; also the incipient division in the nervous +system which has since become apparent in its subdivisions--the voluntary +and the sympathetic. The latter was the only one provided for in the Moon +Period. The voluntary nervous system (which has transformed the dense body + + +[PAGE 240] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +from a mere automation acting under stimuli from without, to an extraordi- +nary adaptable instrument capable of being guided and controlled by an Ego +from within) was not added until the present Earth Period. + + The principal art of the reconstructive work was done by the Lords of +Form. They are the Creative Hierarchy which is most active in the Earth Pe- +riod, as were the Lords of Flame in the Saturn Period, the Lords of Wisdom +in the Sun Period, and the Lords of Individuality in the Moon Period. + + The Earth Period is pre-eminently the Period of Form, for there the form +or matter side of evolution reaches its greatest and most pronounced state. +Here spirit is more helpless and suppressed and Form is the most dominant +factor--hence the prominence of the Lords of Form. + + THE SUN REVOLUTION OF THE EARTH PERIOD. + + During this Revolution the vital body was reconstructed to accommodate +the germinal mind. The vital body was fashioned more in the likeness of the +dense body, so that it could become fitted for use as the densest vehicle +during the Jupiter Period, when the dense body will have become spiritual- +ized. + + The Angels, the humanity of the Moon Period, were aided by the Lords of +Form in reconstruction. The organization of the vital body is now next in +efficiency to the dense body. Some writers on this subject call the formed +a link, and contend that it is simply a mold of the dense body, and not a +separate vehicle. + + While not desiring to criticise, and admitting that this contention is +justified by the fact that man, at his present stage of evolution, cannot +ORDINARILY use the vital body as a separate vehicle--because it always + + +[PAGE 241] THE EARTH PERIOD + +remains with the dense body and to extract it IN TOTO would cause death of +the dense body--yet there was a time when it was not so firmly incorporated +with the latter, as we shall presently see. + + During those epochs of our Earth's history which have already been men- +tioned as the Lemurian and the Atlantean, man was involuntarily clairvoyant, +and it was precisely this looseness of connection between the dense and the +vital bodies that made him so. (The Initiators of that time helped the can- +didate to loosen the connection still further, as in the voluntary clairvoy- +ant. + + Since then the vital body has become much more firmly interwoven with the +dense body in the majority of people, but in all sensitives it is loose. It +is that looseness which constitutes the difference between the psychic and +the ordinary person who is unconscious of all but the vibrations contacted +by means of the five senses. All human beings have to pass through this pe- +riod of close connection of the vehicles and experience the consequent +limitation of consciousness. There are, therefore, two classes of +sensitives, those who have not become firmly enmeshed in matter, such as the +majority of the Hindus, the Indians, etc., who possess a certain low grade +of clairvoyance, or are sensitive to the sounds of nature, and those who are +i the vanguard of evolution. The latter are merging from the acme of mate- +riality, and are again divisible into two kind, one of which develops in a +passive, weak-willed manner. By the help of others they re-awaken the solar +plexus or other organs in connection with the involuntary nervous system. +These are therefore involuntary clairvoyants, mediums who have no control of +their faculty. They have retrograded. The other kind is made up of those + + + +[PAGE 242] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +who by their own wills unfold the vibratory powers of the organs now con- +nected with the voluntary nervous system and thus become trained occultists, +controlling their own bodies and exercising the clairvoyant faculty as they +will to do. They are called voluntary or trained clairvoyants. + + In the Jupiter Period man will function in his vital body as he now does +in his dense body; and as no development in nature is sudden, the process of +separating the two bodies has already commenced. The vital body will then +attain a much higher degree of efficiency than the dense body of today. As +it is a much more pliable vehicle, the spirit will then be able to use it in +a manner impossible of realization in the case of the present dense vehicle. + + THE MOON REVOLUTION OF THE EARTH PERIOD. + + Here the Moon Period was recapitulated, and much the same conditions pre- +vailed (on an advanced scale) as obtained on Globe D of that Period. There +was the same kind of fire-fog atmosphere; the same fiery core the same divi- +sion of the Globe into two parts, in order to allow the more highly evolved +beings a chance to progress at the proper rate and pace, which it would be +impossible for beings such as our humanity to equal. + + In that Revolution the Archangels (humanity of the Sun Period) and the +Lords of Form took charge of the reconstruction of the desire body, but they +were not alone in that work. When the separation of the Globe into two +parts occurred, there was a similar division in the desire bodies of some of +the evolving beings. We have already noted that where this division took +place, the form as ready to become the vehicle of an INdwelling spirit, and +in order to further this purpose the Lords of Mind (humanity of the Saturn +Period) took possession of the higher part of the desire body and implanted + + +[PAGE 243] THE EARTH PERIOD + +in it the separate selfhood, without which the present man with all his glo- +rious possibilities, could never have existed. + + Thus in the latter part if the Moon Revolution the first germ of separate +personality was implanted in the higher part of the desire body by the Lords +of Mind. + + The Archangels were active in the lower part of the desire body, giving +it the purely animal desires. They also worked in the desire bodies where +there was no division. Some of these were to become the vehicles of the +animal group-spirits, which work on them from without, but do not enter +wholly into the animal forms, as the individual spirit does into the human +body. + + The desire body was reconstructed to render it capable of being interpen- +etrated by the germinal mind which, during the Earth Period, will be im- +planted in all those desire bodies in which it was possible to make the +before-mentioned division. + + As has been previously explained, the desire body is an unorganized +ovoid, holding the dense body as a dark spot within its center, as the white +of an egg surrounds the yolk. There are a number of sense centers in the +ovoid, which have appeared since the beginning of the Earth Period. In the +average human being these centers appear merely as eddies in a current and +are not now awake, hence his desire body is of no use to him as a SEPARATE +vehicle of consciousness; but when the sense centers are awakened they look +like whirling vortices. + + REST PERIODS BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS. + + Hitherto we have noted only the Cosmic Nights between Periods. We saw +that there was an interval of rest and assimilation between the Saturn and +the sun Periods; another Cosmic Night between the Sun and the Moon Periods, + + +[PAGE 244] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +etc. But in addition to these, there are also rests between the Revolu- +tions. + + We might liken the Periods to the different incarnations of man; the Cos- +mic Nights between them to the intervals between deaths and new births; and +the rest between Revolutions would then analogous to the rest of sleep be- +tween two days. + + When a Cosmic Night sets in, all manifested things are resolved into a +homogenous mass--the Cosmos again becomes Chaos. + + This periodical return of matter to primordial substance is what makes it +possible for the spirit to evolve. Were the crystallizing process of active +manifestation to continue indefinitely would offer an insurmountable barrier +to the progress of Spirit. Every time matter has crystallized to such a de- +gree that it becomes too hard for the spirit to work in, the latter with- +draws to recuperate its exhausted energy, on the same principle that a +power-drill which has stopped when boring in hard metals, is withdrawn to +regain its momentum. It is then able to bore its way further into the +metal. + + Freed from the crystallizing every of the evolving spirits, the chemical +forces in matter turn Cosmos to Chaos by restoring matter to its primordial +state, that a new start may be made by the regenerated virgin spirits at the +dawn of a new Day of Manifestation. The experience gained in formed Periods +and Revolutions enables the Spirit to build up to the point last reached, +with comparative celerity, also to facilitate further progress by making +such alterations as its cumulative experience dictates. + + Thus at the end of the Moon Revolution of the Earth Period, all the +Globes and all life returned to Chaos, re-emerging therefrom at the + + +[PAGE 245] THE EARTH PERIOD + +beginning of the fourth Revolution. + + THE FOURTH REVOLUTION OF THE EARTH PERIOD. + + In the exceeding complexity of the scheme of evolution, there are always +spirals within spirals, AD INFINITUM. So it will not be surprising to learn +that in every Revolution the work of recapitulation and rest is applied to +the different Globes. When the life wave reappeared on Globe A in this +Revolution, it went though the development of the Saturn Period; then after +a rest which, however did not involve the complete destruction of the Globe; +but only an alteration, it appeared on Globe B, where the work of the Sun +Period was recapitulated. Then after a rest, the life wave passed on to +Globe C, and the work of the Moon Period was repeated. Finally, the life +wave arrived on Globe D, which is our Earth, and not until then did the +proper work of the Earth Period begin. + + Even then, the spiral within the spiral precluded its beginning immedi- +ately on the arrival of the life wave from Globe C, for the bestowal of the +germ of mind did not actually take place until the fourth Epoch, the first +three Epochs being still further recapitulations of the Saturn, Sun and Moon +Periods, but always on a higher scale. +[PAGE 246] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + CHAPTER XI. + + THE GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. + + CHAOS. + + In the previous pages nothing has been said about our Solar System, and +of different planets which compose it, because it was not until the Earth +Period was reached that the present differentiation was made. The Earth Pe- +riod is the acme of diversification, and although we have been speaking of +only one class of virgin spirits--those who, in the strictest and most lim- +ited sense, are concerned with the Earth evolution--there are in reality +seven "Rays" or streams of life, all pursuing different evolutions, yet all +belonging to the original class of virgin spirits to which our humanity be- +longs. + + In the previous Periods all of these different sub-classes or Rays found +a suitable environment for their evolution on the same planet. But, in the +Earth Period, conditions became such that in order to provide for each class +the degree of heat and the vibration necessary for its particular phase of +evolution, they were segregated on different planets, at varying distances +from the Sun--the central source of life. This is the RAISON D'ETRE of our +System and all other Solar Systems in the Universe. + + Before proceeding with the description of evolution of our humanity on +the Earth after its separation from the central Sun, it is necessary for the +maintenance of sequential order in the description to explain the differen- +tiation which scattered the planets of our System in space. + + +[PAGE 247] GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SOLAR SYSTEM + + Active manifestation--particularly in the Physical World--depends upon +separateness; upon the limitation of life by form. But during the interim +between Periods and Revolutions the marked distinction between form and life +ceases. This applies not only to man and the lower kingdoms, but to the +Worlds and Globes which are the basis of form for the evolving life. Only +the seed-atoms and the nuclei or centers of the World-Globes remain--all +else is one homogenous substance. There is but one Spirit pervading space. +Life and Form, its positive and negative poles, are one. + + This state of things was what Greek mythology described as "Chaos." The +ancient Norsemen and the Teutonic mythology call it "Ginnungagap," which was +bounded upon the northern side by the cold and foggy "Niflheim"--the land of +mist and fog--and upon the south side by the fire "Muspelheim." When heat +and cold entered into space which was occupied by Chaos or Ginnungagap, they +caused the crystallization of the visible universe. + + The Bible also gives on the idea of infinite space preceding the activity +of the Spirit. + + In our present materialistic period we have unfortunately lost the idea +of all that lies behind that word Space. We are so accustomed to speaking +of "empty" space, that we have entirely lost the grand and holy significance +of the word, and are thus incapable of feeling the reverence that this idea +of Space and Chaos should inspire in our breasts. + + To the Rosicrucians, as to any occult school, there is no such thing as +empty or void space. To them SPACE IS SPIRIT in its attenuated form; while +MATTER IS CRYSTALLIZED SPACE OR SPIRIT. Spirit is manifestation is dual, +that which we see as Form is the negative manifestation of +Spirit--crystallized and inert. The positive pole of Spirit manifests as + + +[PAGE 248] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Life, galvanizing the negative Form into action, but both Life and Form +originated in Spirit, Space, Chaos! + + To get an idea from everyday life which will illustrate, we may take the +hatching of an egg. The egg is filled with a moderately viscous fluid. +This fluid, or moisture, is subjected to heat, and out of the soft, fluidic +substance comes a living chick, with hard bones and comparatively hard +flesh, and with down that has a comparatively hard quill, etc. + + When a living chick can come out of the inert fluid of an egg without the +addition of any hardening substance from outside, is it a far-fetched idea +to claim that the universe is crystallized Space or Spirit? There is not +doubt that the claim will seem foolish to many; but this book is not for the +purpose of convincing the world at large that these things ARE. It is in- +tended to aid those who inherently feel that these things must be and to +help them to see the light upon this great World-mystery, which the writer +has been permitted to behold. The special object at present is to show that +Spirit is active all the time--in one way during Manifestation, and in an- +other during Chaos. + + Modern science would sneer at the idea that life could exist upon A Globe +which is in the process of formation. That is because science cannot dis- +sociate Life and Form and cannot conceive of Form except as solid and +tangible--cognizable by one of our five physical senses. + + The occult scientist, in accordance with the above definitions of Life +and Form, holds that life may exist independently of Concrete Form; may have +Forms not perceptible to our present limited senses, and amenable to + + +[PAGE 249] GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SOLAR SYSTEM + +to none of the laws which apply to this present concrete state of matter. + + It is true that the Nebular Theory holds that all existence (which is to +say all Form, the Worlds in Space and whatever Forms there may be upon them) +has come from the fiery nebular; but it does not recognize further fact in- +sisted upon by occult science--that the fiery nebula is Spirit. It does not +admit that the whole atmosphere around us, the space between the worlds, is +Spirit and that there is a constant interchange going on all the time--Form +dissolving into Space, and Space crystallizing into Form. + + Chaos is not a state which has existed in the past and has now entirely +disappeared. It is all around us at the present moment. Were it not that +old forms--having outlived their usefulness--are constantly being resolved +back into that Chaos, which is also as constantly giving birth to new forms, +there could be no progress; the work of evolution would cease and stagnation +would prevent the possibility of advancement. + + It is axiomatic that "The oftener we die, the better we live." The +Poet-Initiate, Geothe says: + + Who has not this-- + Ever dying and bringing to birth-- + Will aye remain a sorry guest + Upon this dismal earth. + +and Paul says "I die daily." + + Therefore, as students of occult science, it is necessary to realize that +even during active manifestation, IT IS CHAOS THAT IS THE BASIS OF ALL +PROGRESS. Our life during Chaos is based upon our life in active manifesta- +tion, and vice versa, i.e., what we are able to achieve during active +manifestation, and the ability to progress at all, is the result of the + + +[PAGE 250] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +existence in Chaos. The interim between Periods and Revolutions is in real- +ity much more important to the growth of the soul that concrete existence, +though the latter is the basis of the former and therefore cannot be dis- +pensed with. The importance of the Chaotic interim lives in the fact that +during that period the evolving entities of all classes are so closely +united that they are really one; consequently those which are of lower de- +velopment during manifestation are in closest contact with the more highly +evolved, thus experiencing and benefiting by a much higher vibration that +their own. This enables them to live over and assimilate their past experi- +ences in a manner impossible when hampered by Form. + + We have seen the benefit to the spirit in man from the interim between +death and a new birth. There the form still exists, though much more at- +tenuated that the dense body; but in the Cosmic Night and intervals of rest +between Periods and Revolutions, when there is perfect freedom from form, +the beneficial results of past experiences can be much more effectively as- +similated. + + We have a word which was originally coined to convey the idea of the +state of things between manifestations. This word, however, has been used +in a material sense to such an extend that it has lost its primal sig- +nificance. That word is Gas. + + It may be thought that this is a very old word, which has nearly always +existed as a synonym for a state of matter lighter than liquids, but such is +not the case. The word was first used in "Physica," a work which appeared +in 1633, the author of it being Helmont, a Rosicrucian. + + Helmont, did not call himself a Rosicrucian; no true Brother does so pub- +licly. Only the Rosicrucian knows the brother Rosicrucian. Not even the + + +[PAGE 251] GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SOLAR SYSTEM + +most intimate friends or relatives know of man's connection with the order. +Those only who are Initiates themselves know the writers of the past who +were Rosicrucians, because ever through their works shine the unmistakable +words, phrases and signs indicative of the deep meaning that remains hidden +from the non-Initiate. The Rosicrucian Fellowship is composed of students +of the teachings of the Order. which are now given publicly, because the +world's intelligence is growing the the necessary point of comprehension. +This work is one of the first few fragments of the Rosicrucian knowledge be- +ing publicly given out. All that has been printed as such, previous to the +last few years, has been the work of either charlatans or traitors. + + Rosicrucians such as Paracelsus, Comenius, Bacon, Helmont and others gave +hints in their works and influenced others. The great controversy concern- +ing the authorship of Shakespeare (which has to no avail blunted so many +goose-quills and wasted so much good ink that might have served useful ends) +would never have arisen had it been known that the similarity in Shakespeare +and Bacon is due to the fact that both were influenced by the same Initiate, +who also influenced Jacob Boehme and a pastor of Ingolstadt, Jacobus Baldus, +who lived subsequent to the death of the Bard of Avon, and wrote Latin lyric +verse. If the first poem of Jacob Baldus is read with a certain key, it +will be found that by reading down and up the lines, the following sentence +will appear: "Hitherto I have spoken from across the sea by means of the +drama; now I will express myself in lyrics." + + In his "Physica," Helmont, the Rosicrucian wrote: "Ad huc spiritum +incognitum Gas voco," i.e., "This hitherto unknown Spirit I call Gas." Fur- +ther on in the same work he says. "This vapor which I have called Gas is not + + +[PAGE 252] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +far removed from the Chaos the ancients spoke of." + + We must learn to think of Chaos as the Spirit of God, which pervades ev- +ery part of infinity; it will then be seen in its true light, as the occult +maxim puts it: "Chaos is the seed-ground of the Cosmos," and we shall no +longer wonder how "something can come out of nothing," because Space is not +synonymous with "nothing." It holds within itself the germs of all that ex- +ists during a physical manifestation, yet not quite all; for by the wedding +of Chaos with Cosmos there is something new brought forth each time, which +did not exist before; something that was not foreshown and latent. The name +of that something is Genius--the cause of Epigenesis. + + It appears in all kingdoms. It is the expression of progressive spirit +in man, animal and plant. Chaos is therefore a holy name; a name that sig- +nifies the Cause of all we see in Nature and inspires a feeling of devotion +in every tried, true and trained occultist. He regards the visible sense +world as a revelation of the hidden potentialities of the Chaos. + + THE BIRTH OF THE PLANETS. + + To express himself in the dense physical world, it was necessary for man +to evolve a suitable dense body. In a world like this he must have a body +with limbs, organs, a muscular system by means of which to move about; also +a brain to direct and co-ordinate his movements. If the conditions had been +different the body would have been modified accordingly. + + It is necessary for all beings, high or low in the scale of existence, to +possess vehicles for expression in any particular world in which they may +wish to manifest. Even the Seven Spirits before The Throne must possess + + +[PAGE 252a] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + DIAGRAM 11: THE 1, 3, 7, AND 10 ASPECTS OF GOD AND MAN + + +[PAGE 253] GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SOLAR SYSTEM + +these necessary vehicles, which of course are differently conditioned for +each of Them. Collectively, They are God, and make up the Triune Godhead, +and He manifests in a different way through each of Them. + + There is no contradiction in ascribing different numbers to God. We do +not sin against the "oneness" of light because we distinguish three primary +colors into which it divides itself. The white light of the Sun contains +the seven colors of the spectrum. The occultists sees even twelve colors, +there being five between red and violet--going one way around the circle--in +addition to the red, orange, yellow, green, etc., of the visible spectrum. +Four of these colors are quite indescribable, but the fifth--the middle one +of the five--is similar to the tint of a new blown peach blossom. It is in +fact the color of the vital body. Trained clairvoyants who describe it as +"bluish-grey," or "reddish-grey," etc., are trying to describe a color that +has no equivalent in the physical world; and they are therefore compelled to +use the nearest descriptive terms afforded by our language. + + Perhaps Color will enable us to realize the oneness of God with the Seven +Spirits before The Throne better than anything else. WE will therefore turn +to diagram 11. + + We see here a white triable looming up from a dark background. White is +synthetic, containing all colors within itself, as God contains within Him- +self all things in the Solar System. + + Within the white triangle are a blue, a red and a yellow circle. All +other colors are simply combinations of these three primary colors. These +circles correspond to the three aspects of God, which are without beginning, +and end IN GOD; though externalized only during active manifestation. + + +[PAGE 254] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + TABLE OF VIBRATIONS* + + Whose Effects are Recognized and Studied by Science + + 1st Octave.........................................2 + 2d Octave.........................................4 + 3d Octave.........................................8 + + 4th Octave........................................16 + 5th Octave........................................32 + 6th Octave........................................64 + 7th Octave.......................................128 + 8th Octave.......................................256 Sound. + 9th Octave.......................................512 + 10th Octave.....................................1,024 + 15th Octave....................................32,768 + + 20th Octave.................................1,048,576 Unknown. + + 25th Octave................................33,554,432 + 30th Octave.............................1,073,741,824 Electricity. + 35th Octave............................34,359,738,368 + + 40th Octave.........................1,099,511,627,766 + 45th Octave........................35,184,372,088,832 Unknown. + + 46th Octave........................70,368,744,177,664 + 47th Octave.......................140,737,488,355,328 Heat. + 48th Octave.......................281,474,976,710,656 + + 49th Octave.......................281,474,976,710,656 Light. + + 50th Octave.....................1,125,899,906,842,624 Chemical Rays. + + 51st Octave.....................2,251,799,813,685,248 + 57th Octave...................144,115,188,075,855,872 Unknown. + + 58th Octave...................288,230,376,151,711,744 + 59th Octave...................576,460,752,303,423,488 + 60th Octave.................1,152,921,504,606,846,976 X-Rays. + 61st Octave.................2,305,843,009,213,693,952 + + 62d Octave.................4,611,686,018,427,387,904 Unknown. + +*Taken from Professor William Crooke's presidential address before the +British Association for the Advancement of Science. + + +[PAGE 255] GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SOLAR SYSTEM + + When these three colors are interblended, as shown in the diagram, there +appear four additional colors, the three secondary colors--each due to the +blending of two primary colors--and one color (indigo) which contains the +entire gamut of colors, making in all the seven colors of the spectrum. +These colors represent the Seven Spirits before the Throne. The colors are +different, as are also the Seven Spirits, each having a different mission in +the Kingdom of God--our Solar System. + + The seven planets circling around the Sun are the dense bodies of the +Seven Planetary Genii. Their names are: Uranus with one satellite, Saturn +with eight moons, Jupiter with four moons, Mars with two moons, the Earth +and its moon, Venus and Mercury.* + + Bodies are always found to suit the purpose they are made to serve, hence +the dense bodies of the Seven Planetary Spirits are spherical, that form be- +ing best adapted to the enormous velocity with which they travel through +space. The Earth, for instance, travels about 66,000 miles per hour in its +orbit. + + Man's body had a different shape in the past from that of the present, +and from that which it will have in the future. During involution it was +approximately spherical, as it still is during ante-natal life, because the +intra-uterine development is recapitulation of past stages of evolution. At +that stage the organism developed the sphere, because during involution +man's energies were directed inward, upon the building of its own vehicles, +as the embryo develops within the sphere of the uterus. + + Man's dense and vital bodies have straightened , but his higher vehicles +still retain their ovoid form. In the dense body, the co-ordinating and + + + +*Astronomical discoveries since the writing of this book attribute 4 satel- +lites to Uranus, 9 to Saturn, and 11 to Jupiter. + + + + +[PAGE 256] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +governing brain is situated at one extremity. This is the most unfavorable +position for such an organ. Too long time is required for impulses to +travel from one extremity to the other--from the brain to the feet, or for +impacts on the feet to reach the brain. In cases of burns, for instance, +science has demonstrated that valuable time is lost, the skin being blis- +tered before a message can be carried from the injured place to the brain +and back again. + + This inefficiency would be greatly lessened if the brain were in the cen- +ter of the body. Sensations and the responses thereto could be more quickly +received and transmitted. In the spherical planets the Planetary Spirit di- +rects FROM THE CENTER the movements of its vehicle. In future man will bend +over, as shown in diagram 12. He will become a sphere, directing his ener- +gies outward because a spherical form affords the greatest facility for mo- +tion in all directions, and indeed, for combination of simultaneous motions. + + The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception teaches that there is a further evolu- +tion in store for planets. + + When the beings upon a planet have evolved to a sufficient degree, the +planet becomes a Sun--the fixed center of a Solar System. When the beings +upon it have evolved to a still greater degree, and consequently it has +reached its maximum brilliancy, it breaks up into Zodiac, becoming, so to +speak, the womb for a new Solar System. + + Thus the great hosts of Divine Beings who, until then, were confined +within that Sun, gain freedom of action upon a great number of stars, whence +they can affect in different ways the system which grows up within their +sphere of influence. The planets, of man-bearing worlds, within the Zodiac +are constantly being worked upon by these forces, but in various + + +[PAGE 257] GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SOLAR SYSTEM + + DIAGRAM 12: + + MAN'S FORM OF BODY (PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE) + + +[PAGE 258] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +ways, according to the stage they have reached in evolution. + + Our Sun could not become a Sun until it had sent out from itself all the +beings who were not sufficiently evolved to endure the high rate of vibra- +tion and the great luminousity of the beings who were qualified for that +evolution. All the beings upon the different planets would have been con- +sumed had they remained in the Sun. + + This visible Sun, however, though it is the place of evolution for Beings +vastly above man, is not by many means the Father of the other planets, as +material science supposes. On the contrary, it is itself an emanation from +the Central Sun, which is the invisible source of all that is in our Solar +System. Our visible Sun is but the mirror in which are reflected the rays +of energy from the Spiritual Sun. The real Sun is as invisible as the real +Man. + + Uranus was the first planet to be thrown off from the nebula when its +differentiation began in Chaos, at the dawn of the Earth Period. There was +no light but the dim light of the Zodiac. The life that left with Uranus is +of a rather backward strain and is said to evolve very, very slowly. + + Saturn was next differentiated. It is the field of action for the life +which is at the stage of evolution corresponding to the Saturn Period. This +planet was differentiated before the ignition of the nebula and (like all +nebula when passing through their Saturn Period of evolution) was not a +source of light, but a reflector. + + Jupiter was differentiated shortly afterwards, when the nebula had become +ignited. The heat of Jupiter is not so great as that of the Sun, Venus or +Mercury, but on account of its immense bulk, it is capable of retaining its + + +[PAGE 259] GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF SOLAR SYSTEM + +heat and thus remains a suitable field of evolution for very advanced be- +ings. It corresponds to the stage which will be reached by the Earth itself +in the Jupiter Period. + + Mars is a mystery, and only a limited amount of information may be given +out. We may say, however, that the life on Mars is of a very backward na- +ture and that the so-called "canals" are not excavations in the surface of +the planet. They are currents such as, during the Atlantean Epoch, spread +over our planet, and the remains of which can still be observed in the Au- +rora Borealis and the Aurora Australis. The shifting of the Martian "ca- +nals" noted by astronomers, is thus accounted for. If they were really ca- +nals, they could not possibly shift, but currents emanating from the Poles +of Mars may do so. + + The Earth, including the Moon, was next set out from the Sun, and later +Venus and Mercury. These and Mars will be referred to later, in connection +with the evolution of man on the earth, and need not be further considered +at this time. + + When a planet has Moons it indicates that there are some beings in the +life wave evolving on that planet who are too backward to share in the +evolution of the main life wave, and they have therefore been set out from +the planet to prevent them from hindering the progress of the pioneers. +Such is the case with the beings inhabiting our Moon. In the case of Jupi- +ter it is thought probable that the inhabitants of three of its moons will +eventually be able to rejoin the life on the parent planet, but it is +thought that at least one of the others is an eighth sphere, like our own +Moon, where retrogression and disintegration of the already acquired vehicle +will result from too close adherence to material existence upon the part of + + +[PAGE 260] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +the evolving beings who have brought themselves to that deplorable end. + + Neptune and its satellites do not properly belong to our Solar System. +The other planets--or rather their Spirits-- exercise an influence over the +whole of humanity, but the influence of Neptune is largely restricted to one +particular class the astrologers. The writer, for instance, has several +times felt its compelling influence in a marked way. + + When laggards inhabiting a Moon have retrieved their position and re- +turned to the parent planet; or, when continued retrogression has caused +complete disintegration of their vehicles, the abandoned Moon also commences +to dissolve. The momentum of a spiritual impulse which propelled it in a +fixed orbit for aeons, may endure for aeons after the Moon has been vacated, +and from the physical point of view it may still seem to be a satellite of +the planet in encircles. As the time goes on, however, and the power of at- +traction exercised by the parent planet diminishes, its orbit widens, until +it reaches the limit of our solar system. It is then expelled into +interstellar space; dissolved in Chaos. The expulsion of these cinder-like +dead worlds is analogous to the manner in which hard and foreign bodies im- +bedded in the human system make their way through the flesh to the skin. +The Asteroids illustrate this point. They are fragments of Moons which once +encircled Venus and Mercury. The beings once confined upon them are known +in esotericism as "The Lords from Venus" and "The lords from Mercury;" they +retrieved their lost estate in a large measure by service to our humanity, +as will be later described, and are now sage on their present planet, while +the Moons they inhabited have partly disintegrated, and are already far out- +side the earth's orbit. There are other "seeming" moons in our system, but +the Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception does not notice them, as they are outside +the pale of evolution. + + +[PAGE 261] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + + CHAPTER XII. + + EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH. + + THE POLARIAN EPOCH. + + While the material which now forms the Earth was yet a part of the Sun, +it was, of course in a fiery condition; but as the fire does not burn +spirit, our human evolution commenced at once, being confined particularly +to the Polar Region of the Sun. + + The highest evolved beings which were to become human were the first to +appear. The substances which now from the Earth were all molten, and the +atmosphere now from the Earth were all molten, and the atmosphere was gas- +eous, yet man recapitulated his mineral stage anew. + + From that attenuated chemical substance of the sun man himself built his +first mineral body, assisted by the Lords of Form. If this statement is ob- +jected to on the ground that man could not build unconsciously, the case of +the mother can be cited in answer. Is she conscious of building the body of +the babe in her womb? Yet surely no one will say that she has nothing to do +with it! The only difference is that the mother builds unconsciously for +the babe; and man built unconsciously for himself. + + Man's first dense body did not even remotely resemble his present splen- +didly organized vehicle. That has been evolved only in the course of +myriads of years. The first dense body was a large, baggy object with an +opening at the top, from which an organ projected. This was a kind of organ + + +[PAGE 262] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +of orientation and direction. In the course of time the dense body drew +more closely together and condensed. If it came too close to places of +greater heat than it could endure, it disintegrated. In time the organ grew +sensitive to the condition that threatened destruction and the dense body +automatically moved to a safer place. + + This organ has now degenerated into what is called the pineal gland. +Sometimes it is called "the third eye," but that is a misnomer, because it +never was an eye, but rather the localized organ for the sensing of heat and +cold, which faculty is now distributed over the entire dense body. During +the Polarian Epoch this sense was thus localized, as the sense of sight is +now in the eye, and that of hearing in the ear. The extension of the sense +of feeling since that time indicates the manner in which the entire body +will be improved, so that at some future time any part of it will be able to +perceive all things. The senses of sign and hearing will be extended over +the entire body, as the sense of feeling is now. Them man will be all eyes +and ears. Specialized sense organs indicate limitation. Sense perception +by the whole is comparative perfection. + + At the early stage of which we are now speaking there was a kind of +propagation. These immense baggy creatures divided in halves in a manner +similar to the division of cells by fission, but the separated portions +would not grow, each remaining only half as large as the original form. + + THE HYPERBOREAN EPOCH. + + At different points on the fiery globe there began in the course of time +the formation of crust-islands in a sea of fire. + + The Lords of Form appeared, with the Angels (humanity of the Moon + + +[PAGE 263] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +Period), and clothed man's dense form with a vital body. Those baggy bodies +then began to increase in size by drawing themselves material from the out- +side osmosis, as it were. When they propagated, it was no longer by divid- +ing into halves, but into two un-equal parts. Both parts grew until each +had attained the original size of the parent. + + As the Polarian Epoch was really a recapitulation of the Saturn Period, +it may be said that during that time man passed through the mineral state; +he had the same vehicle--the dense body--and a consciousness similar to the +trance state. For analogous reasons, the plant state was passed through in +the Hyperborean Epoch, as man had a dense and a vital body and a +dreamless-sleep-consciousness. + + Man began his evolution on the Earth after Mars had been thrown off from +the central mass, and that which is now the Earth was yet undetached from +the Sun; but at the close of the Hyperborean Epoch the incrustation had pro- +gressed so far that it had become an obstacle to the progress of some of the +higher evolved beings in the Sun. The fiery condition also hindered the +evolution of some of the lower grades of creatures, such as man, who at that +stage required a denser world for his further development. Therefore, the +part which is now the Earth was thrown off from the Sun at the end of the +Hyperborean Epoch, and commenced to revolve around the parent body in a +somewhat different orbit than at present. Shortly afterwards Venus and Mer- +cury were thrown off for similar reasons. + + Crystallization always commences at the pole of a planet where motion is +slow. The consolidated part gradually works outwards towards the equator in + + +[PAGE 264] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +obedience to the centrifugal force. If that force is stronger than the co- +hesive tendency the consolidated mass is thrown outwards into space. + + At the time when the Earth-globe was separated from the parent-mass, it +included that part which is now our Moon. On this great globe was evolving +the life wave now passing through the human kingdom, also the life waves +which entered evolution in the Sun, Moon, and Earth Periods, and are now +evolving through the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms. + + Mention has been made of the stragglers of various Periods who in later +Periods were enabled to take a step upward in evolution. There were some, +however, who did not take this step. They did not evolve, and were there- +fore left further and further behind, until they became a drag and a hin- +drance to the progressive ones. It became necessary to get them out of the +way, that the evolution of the others might not be retarded. + + In the beginning of the Lemurian Epoch, these "failures" (note that they +were FAILURES , not merely stragglers) had crystallized that part of the +Earth occupied by them to such a degree that it become as a huge cinder or +clinker, in the otherwise soft and fiery Earth. They were a hindrance and +an obstruction, so they, with the part of the Earth they had crystallized, +were thrown out into space beyond recall. That is the genesis of the Moon. + + THE MOON--THE EIGHTH SPHERE. + + The seven Globes, A to G, inclusive, are the field of Evolution. The +Moon is the field of Disintegration. + + If Earth had not segregated from the original Globe which is now the Sun, +the rapidity of the vibrations would have disintegrated man's vehicles. He +would have grown so rapidly that the growth of the mushroom would seem slow + + +[PAGE 265] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +in comparison. He would have become old before he had time to pass through +youth. That such is the effect of too much Sun is shown by the rapidity of +growth at the tropics, where maturity and old age are reached much sooner +than in the north. On the other hand had the Moon remained with the Earth, +man would have crystallized into a statue. The separation of the Earth from +the Sun, which now sends its rays from a far distance, enables man to live +at the proper rate of vibration, to unfold slowly. The Moon-forces reach +him from the exact distance necessary to enable him to build a body of the +proper density. But although the latter forces are active in the building +of the form., they also cause death when their continued work finally crys- +tallizes the tissues of the body. + + The Sun works in the vital body and is the force which makes for life, +and wars against the death-dealing Moon force. + + THE LEMURIAN EPOCH. + + In this Epoch appeared the Archangels (the humanity of Sun Period). and +the Lords of Mind (the humanity of Saturn Period). These Hierarchies were +assisted by the Lords of Form, who were given charge of the Earth Period. +They helped man to build his desire body, and the Lords of Mind gave the +germ of Mind to the greater part of the pioneers who formed class 1, accord- +ing to the classification in diagram 10. + + The Lords of Form vivified the Human spirit in as many of the stragglers +of the Moon Period as had made the necessary progress in the three and one +half Revolutions which had elapsed since the commencement of the Earth Pe- +riod, but at that time the Lords of Mind could not give them the germ of + + +[PAGE 266] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Mind. Thus a great part of nascent humanity was left without this link be- +tween the threefold spirit and the threefold body. + + The Lords of Mind took charge of the higher part of the desire body and +of the germinal mind, impregnating them with the quality of separate +selfhood, without which no separate, self-contained beings such as we are +today would be possible. + + We owe to the Lords of Mind the separate personality, with all the pos- +sibilities for experience and growth thus afforded. And this point marks +the birth of the Individual. + + BIRTH OF THE INDIVIDUAL. + + Diagram 1 will make clear the fact that the personality is the reflected +picture of the Spirit, the mind being the mirror, or focus. + + As when reflected in a pond, the images of trees appear inverted, the fo- +liage seeming to be the deepest down in the water, so the highest aspect of +the spirit (the Divine Spirit) finds its counterpart in the lowest of the +three bodies (the dense body). The next highest spirit (the life spirit) is +reflected in the next lowest body (the vital body). The third spirit (the +human spirit) and its reflection, the third body (the desire body), appear +closest of all to the reflecting mirror, which is the mind, the latter cor- +responding to the surface of the pond--the reflecting medium in our analogy. + + The Spirit came down from the higher Worlds during involution; and by +concurrent action, the Bodies were built upward in the same period. It is +the meeting of these two streams in the focusing Mind that marks the point +in time when the individual, the human being, the Ego, is born--when the + + +[PAGE 267] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +Spirit takes possession of its vehicles. + + Yet we must not suppose that this at once raised man to his present sta- +tus in evolution, making him the self conscious, thinking being he is today. +Before that point could be reached a long and weary road had to be traveled, +for at the time we are considering, organs were in their most rudimentary +stage and there was no brain that could be used as an instrument of expres- +sion. Hence the consciousness was the dimmest imaginable. In short, the +man of that day was very far from being as intelligent as our present-day +animals. The first step in the direction of improvement was the building of +a brain to use as an instrument of mind in the Physical World. That was +achieved by separating humanity into sexes. + + SEPARATION OF THE SEXES. + + Contrary to the generally accepted idea, the Ego is bisexual. Were the +Ego sexless, the body would necessarily be sexless also, for the body is but +the external symbol of the indwelling spirit. + + The sex of the Ego does not, of course, express itself a such in the in- +ner worlds. It manifests there as two distinct qualities--Will and Imagina- +tion. The Will is the male power and is allied to the Sun forces; Imagina- +tion is the female power and is always linked to the Moon forces. This +accounts for the imaginative trend of woman and for the special power which +the Moon exercises over the female organism. + + When the matter of which the Earth and the Moon were afterwards formed +was still a part of the Sun, the body of man-in-the-making was yet plastic, +and the forces from that part which afterwards became Sun, and that part + + +[PAGE 268] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +which is now Moon worked readily in all bodies, so that the man of the +Hyperborean Epoch was hemaphrodite--capable of producing another being from +himself without intercourse with any other. + + When the Earth separated from the Sun and shortly afterwards threw off +the Moon, the forces from the two luminaries did not find equal expression +in all, as formerly. Some bodies become more amenable to the forces from +one, and some to those from the other. + + INFLUENCE OF MARS. + + In the part of the Earth Period preceding the separation of the +sexes--during the three and one-half Revolutions which intervened between +the time when Mars was differentiated and the beginning of the Lemurian +Epoch--Mars traveled in a different orbit from the present, and its aura +(that part of its finer vehicles which extends beyond the dense planet) per- +meated the body of the central planet and polarized the iron with it. + + As iron is essential to the production of warm, red blood, all creatures +were cold-blooded, or rather, the fluid parts of the body were no warmer +than the surrounding atmosphere. + + When the Earth was set free from the Central Sun, that event changed the +orbits of the planets and thus the influence of Mars over the iron in the +Earth was minimized. The Planetary Spirit of Mars finally withdrew the re- +mainder of that influence, and although the desire bodies of the Earth and +Mars still penetrate, the dynamic power of Mars over the iron (which is Mars +metal) has ceased and iron (which is a Mars metal) has ceased and iron has +become available for use on our planet. + + Iron is in reality the basis of separate existence. Without iron the +red, heat-giving blood would be an impossibility, and the Ego could have no + + +[PAGE 269] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +hold in the body. When red blood developed--in the latter part of the +Lemurian Epoch--the body become upright and the time had come when the Ego +could begin to dwell within the body and control it. + + But to dwell within is not the end and aim of evolution. It is simply a +means by which the Ego may better express itself through its instrument, +that it may manifest in the Physical World. To that end the sense organs, +the larynx, and above all, a brain, must be built and perfected. + + During the early part of the Hyperborean Epoch, while the Earth was still +united with the Sun, the solar forces supplied man with all the sustenance +he needed and he unconsciously radiated the surplus for the purpose of +propagation. + + When the Ego entered into possession of its vehicles it became necessary +to use part of this force for the building of the brain and larynx. The +latter was originally a part of the creative organ. The larynx was built +while the dense body was yet bent together in the bag-like shape already de- +scribed, which is still the form of the human embryo. As the dense body +straightened and became upright, part of the creative organ remained with +the upper part of the dense body and later became the larynx. + + Thus the dual creative force which had hitherto worked is only one direc- +tion, for the purpose of the creating another being, became divided. One +part was directed upward to build the brain and larynx, by means of which +the Ego was to become capable of thinking and communicating thoughts to +other beings. + + As a result of this change only one part of the force essential in the +creation of another being was available to one individual, hence it became +necessary for each individual to seek the co-operation of another, who + + +[PAGE 270] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +possessed that part of the procreative force which the seeker lacked. + + Thus did the evolving entity obtain brain consciousness of the outside +world at the cost of half its creative power. Previous to that time, it +used within itself both parts of that power to externalize another being. +As a result of that modification, however, it has evolved the power to cre- +ate and express thought. Before then, it was a creator in the physical +world only; since then it has become able to create in the three worlds. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 270 cont'd] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + THE RACES AND THEIR LEADERS. + + Before considering in detail the evolution of the Lemurians it may be +well to take a general survey of the Races and their Leaders. + + Some very valuable works on Occultism, bringing before the public the +teachings of the Eastern Wisdom, have nevertheless contained certain mis- +takes, owing to a misunderstanding of the teachings by those who were so +fortunate as to receive them. All books, not written directly by the Elder +Brothers, are liable to contain such errors. Considering the extreme intri- +cacy and many complications of the subject, the wonder is not that mistakes +do occur, but that they are not more frequent. Therefore the writer does +not presume to criticise, recognizing that more numerous and more serious +mistakes may be embodied in the present work, owing to his own misconception +of the teaching. He simply sets forth in the next few paragraphs what he +has received, which shows how the differing (and seemingly contradictory) +teaching of two such valuable works as "The Secret Doctrine" by H. P. +Blavatsky, and "Esoteric Buddhism," by A. P. Sinnett, may be reconciled. + + +[PAGE 271] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + + That part of human evolution which is to be accomplished during the +present sojourn of the life wave on our Earth is divisible into seven great +stages or Epochs; but these cannot appropriately be called Races. Nothing +to which that name could be correctly applied appears until the end of the +Lemurian Epoch. From that time different Races succeed one another through +the Atlantean and Aryan Epochs, and will extend slightly into the Sixth +great Epoch. + + The total number of Races--past, present and future--in our scheme of +evolution is sixteen; one at the end of the Lemurian Epoch, seven during the +Atlantean Epoch, seven more in our present Aryan Epoch and one in the begin- +ning of the Sixth Epoch. After that time there will be nothing that can +properly be called a Race. + + Races did not exist in the Periods which have preceded the Earth Period +and they will not exist in those Periods which follow it. It is only here, +at the very nadir of material existence, that the difference is so great be- +tween man and man as to warrant the separation into Races. + + The immediate Leaders of humanity (apart from the creative Hierarchies) +who helped man to take the first tottering steps in Evolution, after Involu- +tion had furnished him with vehicles, were Beings much further advanced than +man along the path of evolution. They came on this errand of love from the +two planets which are located between the Earth and the Sun--Venus and Mer- +cury. + + The Beings who inhabit Venus and Mercury are not quite so far advanced as +those whose present field of evolution is the Sun, but they are very much +further advanced than our humanity. Therefore they stayed somewhat longer +with the central mass than did the inhabitants of the Earth, but at a + + +[PAGE 272] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +certain point their evolution demanded separate fields, so those two planets +were thrown off, Venus first, and then Mercury. Each was given such proxim- +ity to the central orb as insured the rate of vibration necessary for its +evolution. The inhabitants of Mercury are the furthest advanced, hence are +closer to the Sun. + + Some of the inhabitants of each planet were sent to the Earth to help na- +scent humanity and are know to occult scientist as the "Lords of Venus" and +the "Lords of Mercury." + + The Lords of Venus were leaders of the masses of our people. They were +inferior beings of the Venus evolution, who appeared among men and were know +as "messengers of the Gods." For the good of our humanity they led and +guided it, step by step. There was no rebellion against their authority, +because man had not yet evolved an independent will. It was to bring him to +the stage where he would be able to manifest will and judgment that they +guided him, until he should be able to guide himself. + + It was known that these messengers communed with the Gods. They were +held in deep reverence and their commands were obeyed without question. + + When under the tuition of these Beings mankind had reached a certain +stage of progress, the most advanced were placed under the guidance of the +Lords of Mercury, who initiated them into the higher truths for the purpose +of making them leaders of the people. These Initiates were then exalted to +kingship and were the founders of the dynasties of Divine Rulers who were +indeed kings "by the grace of God," i.e., by the grace of the Lords of Venus +and Mercury, who were as Gods to infant humanity. They guided and in- +structed the kings for the good of the people and not for + + +[PAGE 273] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +self-aggrandizement and arrogation of rights at their expense. + + At that time a Ruler held a sacred trust to educate and help his people; +to alleviate and promote equity and well-being. He had the light of God to +give him wisdom and guide his judgment. Hence, while those kings reigned, +all things prospered, and it was indeed a Golden Age. Yet, as we follow the +evolution of man in detail, we shall see that the present phase or period of +development, though it cannot be called a golden age in any but a material +sense, cannot be called a golden age in any but a material sense, is never- +theless a necessary one, in order to bring man to the point where he will be +able to rule himself, for SELF-MASTERY IS THE END AND AIM OF ALL RULERSHIP. +NO MAN CAN SAFELY REMAIN UNGOVERNED WHO HAS NOT LEARNED TO GOVERN HIMSELF, +and at the present stage of development, that is the hardest task that can +be given him. It is easy to command others; it is hard to force obedience +from oneself. + + INFLUENCE OF MERCURY. + + The purpose of the Lords of Mercury at that time, and of all Hierophants +of Mysteries since then, as also all the occult schools of our day, was and +is to teach the candidate the art of Self-Mastery. In the measure that a +man has mastered himself, AND IN THAT MEASURE ONLY, is he qualified to +govern others. Were the present rulers of the masses able to govern THEM- +SELVES we should again have the Millenium or Golden Age. + + As the Lords of Venus worked on the masses of a long past ago, so do the +Lords of Mercury now work on the Individual, fitting him for mastery over +self and (incidentally only, not primarily) for mastery over others. This +work on their part is but the beginning of what will be an increasing + + +[PAGE 274] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Mercurial influence during the remaining three and one-half Revolutions of +the Earth Period. + + During the first three and one-half Revolutions Mars held sway, polar- +izing the iron, preventing the formation of the red blood and keeping the +Ego from immuring itself in the body until the latter had attained at the +requisite degree of development. + + During the last three and one half Revolutions Mercury will operate to +extricate the Ego from its densest vehicle by means of Initiation. + + Incidentally, it may be noted that, as Mars polarized the iron, so Mer- +cury has polarized the metal bearing its name and the workings of that metal +will show very well this tendency to take the dense body away from the +spirit--to liberate the latter from the former. + + That dread disease, syphilis, is an example of condition were the Ego is +fettered and immured in the body to a particularly cramping extent. Suffi- +cient mercury relieves the condition, lessens the hold of the body upon the +Ego and leaves the latter to that comparative freedom within the body, an +overdose of mercury causes paralysis, thus taking the dense body from the +man in an improper way. + + The Lords of Mercury taught man to leave and re-enter the body at will; +to function in his higher vehicles independent of the dense body, so that +the latter becomes a cheerful dwelling house instead of a closely-locked +prison--a useful instrument instead of a clogging fetter. + + Therefore occult science speaks of the Earth Period as Mars-Mercury, and +so it may be said truly that we have been in Mars and are going to Mercury, +as taught in one of the occult works previously mentioned. It is also true, + + +[PAGE 275] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +however, that we have never inhabited the planet Mars, nor are we to leave +the earth at some future time to take up our adobe on the planet Mercury, as +the other work mentioned states, with the intention of correcting an error +in the first one. + + Mercury, now being in obscuration, is exercising very little influence on +us, but it is emerging from a planetary rest and as time goes on its influ- +ence will be more and more in evidence as a factor in our evolution. The +coming Races will have much help from the Mercurians, and the people of +still later Epochs and Revolutions will have even more. + + THE LEMURIAN RACE. + + We are now in a position to understand the information which is to follow +concerning the people who lived IN THE LATTER PART of the Lemurian Epoch, +whom we may call the Lemurian Race. + + The atmosphere of Lemuria was still very dense--somewhat like the +fire-fog of the Moon Period, but denser. The crust of the Earth was just +starting to become quite hard and solid in some places, while in others it +was still fiery, and between islands of crust was a sea of boiling, seething +water. Volcanic outbursts and cataclysms marked this time when the nether +fires fought hard against the formation of the encircling wall which was to +imprison them. + + Upon the harder and comparatively cool spots man lived surrounded by gi- +ant fern-forests and animals of enormous size. The forms of both man and +animal were yet quite plastic. The skeleton had formed, but man himself had +great power in molding the flesh of his own body and that of the animals +about him. + + +[PAGE 276] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + When he was born he could hear and feel, but his perception of light cam +later. We have analogous cases in animals like cats and dogs, the young of +which receive the sense of sight some time after birth. The Lemurian had no +eyes. He had two sensitive spots which were affected by the light of the +Sun as it shone dimly through the fiery atmosphere of ancient Lemuria, but +is was not until nearly the close of the Atlantean Epoch that he had sight +as we have it today. Up to that time the building of the eye was in +progress. While the Sun was within--while the Earth formed part of the +light-giving mass--man need no external illuminant; he was luminous himself. +But when the dark Earth was separated from the Sun it became necessary that +the light should be perceived, therefore as the light rays impinged upon +man, he perceived them. Nature built the eye as a light-perceiver, in re- +sponse to the demand of the already-existing function, which is invariable +the case, as Professor Huxley has so ably shown. The amoeba has no stomach, +yet it digests. It is all stomach. The necessity for digesting food built +in the stomach in the course of time, but digestion took place before the +alimentary canal was formed. In an analogous manner, the perception of +light called forth the eye. The light itself built the eye and maintains +it. Where there is no light there can be no eye. In cases where animals +have withdrawn and dwelt in caves--keeping away from the light--the eyes +have degenerated and atrophied because there were no light rays to maintain +them and no eyes were needed in the dark caves. The Lemurian needed eyes; +he had a perception of light, and the light was commencing to build the eye +in response to his demand. + + His language consisted of sounds like those of Nature. The sighing of +the wind in the immense forests which grew in great luxuriance in that + + +[PAGE 277] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +super-tropical climate, the rippling of the brook, the howling of the +tempest--for Lemuria was storm-swept--the thunder of the waterfall, the roar +of the volcano--all these were to him voices of the Gods from whom he knew +himself to have descended. + + Of the birth of his body he knew nothing. He could not SEE either it or +anything else, but he did PERCEIVE his fellow beings. It was, however, an +inner perception, like our perception of persons and things in dreams, but +with this very important difference, that his dream-perception was clear and +rational. + + Thus he knew nothing at all about his body, in fact he did not know he +had a body any more than we know we have a stomach when that organ is in +good health. We remember its existence only when our abuse of it causes us +to feel pain there. Under normal conditions we are entirely unconscious of +its processes. Similarly did the body of the Lemurian serve him excel- +lently, although he was unaware of its existence. Pain was the means of +making him aware of his body and of the world without. + + Everything in connection with the propagation of the race and the bring- +ing to birth was done by direction of the Angels under the leadership of Je- +hovah, the Regent of the Moon. The propagative function was performed as +stated times of the year when the lines of force, running from planet to +planet, were focussed at proper angles. Thus the creative force encountered +no obstruction and parturition was painless. Man was unaware of birth, be- +cause at that time he was unconscious of the physical world as he now is +during sleep. It was only in the intimate contact of sex relation that the +spirit became aware of the flesh and them man "knew" his wife. That is + + +[PAGE 278] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +shown is such passages of the Bible as "Adam KNEW Eve and she bore Seth"; +"Elkanah KNEW Hannah and she bore Samuel"; and Mary's question, "How I shall +conceive, seeing I KNOW no man?" This is also the key to the meaning of the +"Tree of Knowledge," the fruit of which opened the eyes of Adam and Eve, so +that they came to know both good and evil. Previously they had known only +good, but when they began to exercise the creative function independently, +they were ignorant of stellar influences, as their descendants, and +Jehovah's supposed curse was not a curse at all, but a simple statement of +the result which must inevitably follow use of their generative force which +failed to take into consideration the effect of the stellar rays on child- +birth. + + Thus the ignorant use of the generative force is primarily responsible +for pain, sickness and sorrow. + + The Lemurian knew no death because when, in the course of long ages, his +body dropped away, he entered another, quite unconscious of the change. His +consciousness was not focussed in the physical world, therefore the laying +aside of one body and the taking of another was no more to him than a leaf +or twig drying and falling away from the tree and being replaced by a new +growth. + + Their language was to the Lemurians something holy. It was not a dead +language like ours--a mere orderly arrangements of sounds. Each sound +uttered by the Lemurian had power over his fellow-beings, over the animals +and even over nature around him. Therefore, under the guidance of the Lords +of Venus, who were the messengers of God--the agents of the creative +hierarchies-- the power of speech was used with great reverence, as some- +thing most holy. + + The education of the boys differed greatly from that of the girls. The +Lemurian methods of education seem shocking to our more refined + + +[PAGE 279] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +sensibilities. In order to spare the reader's feelings, only the least +cruel of them will be touched upon. Strenuous in the extreme as they may +seen, it must be remembered that the Lemurian body was not nearly so +high-strung as are the human bodies of the present day; also that it was +only by the very harshest measures that the exceedingly dim consciousness +could be touched at all. As time went on and the consciousness became more +and more awakened, such extreme measures as those used then became unneces- +sary and have passed away, but at that time they were indispensable to +arouse the slumbering forces of the spirit to a consciousness of the outside +world. + + The education of the boys was designed especially to develop the quality +of Will. They were made to fight one another, and these fights were ex- +tremely brutal. They were impaled upon spits, with full power to release +themselves, but by exercising the will power they were to remain there in +spite of the pain. They learned to make their muscles tense, and to carry +immense burdens by the exercise of the Will. + + The education of the girls was intended to promote the development of the +imaginative facility. They also were subjected to strenuous and severe +treatment. They were put out in the great forests, to let the sound of the +wind in the tree tops speak to them and to listen to the furious outbursts +of flood and tempest. They thus learned to have no fear of those paroxysms +of nature and to perceive only the grandeur of the warring elements. The +frequent volcanic outbursts were greatly valued as a means of education, be- +ing particularly conducive to the awakening of the faculty of memory. + + Such educational methods would be entirely out of the question at the + + +[PAGE 280] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +present day, but they did not make the Lemurian morbid, because he had no +memory. No matter what painful or terrifying experience he endured, every- +thing was forgotten as soon as past. The above mentioned strenuous experi- +ences were for the purpose of developing memory, to imprint these violent +and constantly repeated impacts from without upon the brain, because memory +is necessary that the experiences of the past may be used as guides to Ac- +tion. + + The education of the girls developed the first germinal, flickering +memory. THE FIRST IDEA OF GOOD AND EVIL WAS FORMULATED BY THEM because of +their experiences, which worked chiefly on the imagination. Those experi- +ences most likely to leave a recollection were thought "Good;" those which +did not produce that much desired result were considered "Evil." + + Thus woman become the pioneer in culture, being the first to develop the +idea of "a good life," of which she became the esteemed exponent among the +ancients and in that respect she has nobly led the vanguard ever since. Of +course, as all Egos incarnate alternately as male and female, there is re- +ally no pre-eminence. It is simply that those who for the time being are in +a dense body of the feminine gender have a positive vital body, and are +therefore more responsive to spiritual impacts than when the vital body is +negative as in the male. + + As we have seen, the Lemurian was a born magician. He felt himself a de- +scendant of the Gods, a spiritual being; therefore his line of advancement +was by gaining not spiritual, but MATERIAL knowledge. The Temples of Ini- +tiation for the most advanced did not need to reveal to man his high origin; +to educate him to perform feats of magic; to instruct him how to function in + + +[PAGE 281] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +the desire world and the higher realms. Such instruction is necessary today +because now the average man has no knowledge of the spiritual world, nor can +he function in superphysical realism. The Lemurian, however, in his own +way, did possess that knowledge and could exercise those faculties, but on +the other hand, he was ignorant of the Laws of the Cosmos of facts regarding +the physical world which are matters of common, everyday knowledge with us. +Therefore at the School Initiation he was taught art, the laws of Nature and +facts relating to the physical universe. His will was strengthened and his +imagination and memory wakened so that he could correlate experiences and +devise ways and means of action when his past experiences did not serve to +indicate a proper course of procedure. Thus, the Temples of Initiation in +the Lemurian times were High Schools for the cultivation of Will-power and +Imagination, with "post-graduate courses" in Art and Science. + + Yet, though the Lemurian was a born magician, he never misused his powers +because he felt himself related to the Gods. Under his direction of the +Messengers of the Gods, already spoken of, his forces were directed toward +the molding of forms in the animal and the plant worlds. It may be hard for +the materialist to understand how he could do such work if he could not see +the world about him. It is true man could not "see" as we understand the +term and as he now sees objects outside in space with his physical eyes. +Still, as the purest of our children are clairvoyant to this day while they +remain in a state of sinless innocence, possessed an internal perception +which gave them only a dim idea of the OUTWARD shape of any object; but il- +luminated so much the brighter its inner nature, its soul-quality, by a + + +[PAGE 282] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +spiritual apperception born of innocent purity. + + Innocence, however, is not synonymous with Virtue. Innocence is the +child of Ignorance and could not be maintained in a universe where the pur- +pose of evolution is the acquisition of Wisdom. To attain that end, a +knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong, is essential, also choice of +action. + + If, having knowledge and choice, man ranges himself on the side of Good +and Right he cultivates Virtue and Wisdom. If he succumbs to temptation and +does wrong knowingly, he fosters vice. + + God's plan is not to be brought to naught, however. Every act is a +seed-ground for the law of Consequence. We reap what we sow. The weeds of +wrong action bear flowers of sorrow and suffering, and when the seeds from +then have fallen into a chastened heart, when they have been watered by the +tears of repentance Virtue will eventually blossom forth. What blessed as- +surance, that out of every evil we do, Good will eventually accrue, for in +our Father's Kingdom naught but Good can endure. + + Therefore, the "Fall" with its consequent pain and suffering is but a +temporary state where we see through a glass darkly, but anon we shall be- +hold again face to face the God within and without, who is every perceived +by the pure in heart. + + THE FALL OF MAN. + + This is cabalistically described as the experience of one pair who, of +course, represent humanity. They key is given in the verse where the Mes- +senger of the Gods says to the woman, "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth + + +[PAGE 283] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +children;" the clue is also found in the sentence of death which was pro- +nounced at that same time. + + It will be observed that previous to the Fall the consciousness was not +focussed in the physical world. Man was unconsciousness of propagation, +birth and death. The Angels who have charge of and work in the vital body +(the medium of propagation) regulated the propagative function and brought +the sexes together at certain seasons of the year, using the solar and the +lunar forces when they produced conditions most propitious for fecundation, +the union being achieved unconsciously by the participants at first, but +later it produced a momentary physical cognition. Then the period of gesta- +tion caused no inconvenience and parturition was painless, the parent being +plunged in deep sleep. Birth and death involved no break in the conscious +and were therefore non-existent to the Lemurians. + + Their consciousness was directed inward. They perceived physical things +in a spiritual way, as we perceive them in a dream--at which time all that +we see is within ourselves. + + When "their eyes opened" and their consciousness was directed outward to- +ward the facts of the physical world, conditions were altered. Propagation +was directed, not by the Angels, but by man, who was ignorant of the op- +eration of the Sun- and Moon- forces. He also abused the sex-function, us- +ing it for sense-gratification, with the result that pain attended the pro- +cess of child-bearing. Then his consciousness became focussed in the +physical world, although all things did not appear to his vision with +clearly defined outlines until the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch. +Still he came by degrees to know death because of the break made in his con- +sciousness when it was shifted to the higher worlds at death and back to the + + +[PAGE 284] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +physical world at rebirth. + + The "opening of the eyes" was brought about in the following manner: We +remember that when the sexes separated, the male became an expression for +Will, which is one part of the twofold soul-force; the female expressing the +other part, Imagination. If woman were not imaginative she could not build +the new body in the womb and were not the spermatozoon an embodiment of the +concentrated human will, it could not accomplish impregnation and so com- +mence the germination, which results in the continued segmentation of the +ovum. + + These twin-forces, Will and Imagination, are both necessary to the +propagation of bodies. Since the separation of the sexes, however, one of +these forces remains within each individual and only the part given out is +available for propagation. Hence the necessity for one-sexed being who ex- +presses the complementary soul-force. This was previously explained; also +that the part of the soul-force not used for propagation becomes available +for INNER growth. So long as man sent out the full, dual sex-force for gen- +eration, he could accomplish nothing in the direction of soul-growth for +himself. But since then the part not used through the sex organ has been +appropriated by the indwelling spirit to build the brain and the larynx for +its expression. + + Thus man built on, all through the latter part of the Lemurian Epoch and +the first two-thirds of the Atlantean Epoch until, by the above mentioned +use of this half of his sex-force, he became fully-conscious, thinking, rea- +soning, being. + + In man the brain is the link between the spirit and the outside world. + + +[PAGE 285] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +He can know nothing of the outside world except through the medium of the +brain. The sense organs are merely carriers to the brain of impacts from +without and the brain is the instrument which interprets and coordinates +those impacts. The Angels belonged to different evolution and had never +been imprisoned in a dense and cumbrously slow vehicle such as ours. They +had learned to obtain knowledge without a physical brain. Their lowest ve- +hicle is the vital body. Wisdom came to them as a gift, without the neces- +sity of laboriously thinking it out through a physical brain. + + Man, however, had to "fall into generation," and work for his knowledge. +The spirit, by means of one part of the sex-force directed inward, built the +brain to gather knowledge from the physical world, and the same force is +feeding and building the brain today. It is subverted from its proper +course inasmuch as it should have gone outward for procreation, but man re- +tains it for selfish purposes. No so the Angels. They had experienced no +division of their soul-powers, therefore they could send out the dual +soul-force WITHOUT SELFISH RESERVATION. + + The force that goes outward for the purpose of creating another being is +Love. The Angels sent our their WHOLE LOVE, WITHOUT SELFISHNESS OR DESIRE +and in return, Cosmic Wisdom flowed into them. + + Man sends out only part of his love; the residue he selfishly keeps and +uses to build his inner organs of expression, to improve HIMSELF; thus does +his love become selfish and sensual. With one part of his creative +soul-power he selfishly loves another being because he desires co-operation +in propagation. With the other part of his creative soul-power he things +(also for selfish reasons) because he desires knowledge. + + +[PAGE 286] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + The Angels love without desire, but man had to go through selfishness. +He must desire and work for wisdom selfishly, that me may reach selfishness +at a higher stage. + + The Angels helped him to propagate even after the subversion of part of +the soul-force. They helped him to build the physical brain, but they had +knowledge that could be transmitted by means of it, because they did not +know how to use such an instrument and could not speak directly to the brain +being. All they could do was to control the physical expression of the love +of man and guide it through the emotions in a loving, innocent way, thus +saving man the pain and trouble incident to the exercise of the sex-function +without wisdom. + + Had that REGIME lasted, man would have remained simply God-guided au- +tomaton and would never have become a personality--an individual. That he +had become so is due to a much maligned class of entities called the Lucifer +Spirits. + + THE LUCIFER SPIRITS. + + These spirits were a class of stragglers in the life wave of the Angels. +In the Moon Period they worked themselves far ahead of the great mass of +those who are now the most advanced of our humanity. They have not pro- +gressed as far as the Angels who were the pioneer humanity of the Moon Pe- +riod, however, but they were so much in advance of our present humanity that +it was impossible for them to take a dense body as we have done; yet they +could not gain knowledge without the use of an inner organ, a physical +brain. They were half-way between man who has a brain and the Angels who +need none--in short, they were demi-gods. + + They were thus in a serious situation, The only way they could find + + +[PAGE 287] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +an avenue through which to express themselves and gain knowledge was to use +man's physical brain, as they could make themselves understood by a physical +being endowed with a brain, which the Angels could not. + + As said, in the latter part of the Lemurian Epoch man did not see the +physical world as we do now. To him the desire world was much more real. +He had the dream-consciousness of the Moon Period--an inner +picture-consciousness; he was unconscious of the world outside himself. The +Lucifers had no difficultly in manifesting to his inner consciousness and +calling his attention to his outward shape, which he had not theretofore +perceived. They told him how he could cease being simply the servant of ex- +ternal powers, and could become his own master and like unto the gods, +"knowing good and evil." They also made clear to him that he need have no +apprehension if his body died, inasmuch as he had within himself the cre- +ative ability to form new bodies without the mediation of the Angels. All +of which information was given with the one purpose of turning his con- +sciousness outward for the acquirement of knowledge. + + This the Lucifers did that they might profit by it themselves--to gain +knowledge as man acquired it. They brought to him pain and suffering where +there was none before; but they also brought him the inestimable blessing of +emancipation from outside influence and guidance, thereby starting him on +the road to the evolution of this own spiritual powers--an evolution which +will eventually enable him to upbuild himself with wisdom such as that of +the Angels and other Beings Who guided him before, he first exercised free +will. + + Before man's enlightenment by the Lucifer Spirits he had not known sick- +ness, pain nor death. All of these resulted from the unwise use of + + +[PAGE 288] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +the propagative faculty and its abuse for the gratification of the senses. +Animals in their wild state are exempt from sickness and pain, because their +propagation is carried on under the care and direction of the wise-group +spirit at only those times of the year which are propitious to that process. +The sex-function is designed solely for the perpetuation of the species and +under no circumstances for the gratification of sexual desire. + + Had man remained a God-guided automaton, he would have known no sickness, +pain, no death unto this day; but he would also have lacked the +brain-consciousness and independence which resulted from his enlightenment +by the Lucifer Spirits, the "light-givers," who opened the eyes of his un- +derstanding and taught him to use his then dim vision to gain knowledge of +the Physical World which he was destined to conquer. + + From that time there have been two forces working in man. Once force is +that of the Angels, who build new beings in the womb by means of Love which +is turned downward for procreation; they are therefore the perpetuators of +the race. + + The other force is that of the Lucifers, who are the instigators of all +mental activity, by means of the other part of the sex-force, which is car- +ried upward for work in the brain. + + The Lucifers are also called "serpents" and are variously represented in +different mythologies. More will be said about them when we come to the +analysis of Genesis. For the present enough has been said to warrant us in +pursuing the main line of investigation' which leads us to follow the +progress of man's evolution still further, through the Atlantean and Aryan +Epochs, down to the present day. + + +[PAGE 289] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + + What has been said about the enlightenment of the Lemurians applies to +only a minor portion of those who lived in the latter part of that Epoch, +and who became the Seed for the Seven Atlantean Races. The greater part of +the Lemurians were animal-like and the FORMS inhabited by them have degener- +ated into the savages and anthropoids of the present day. + + The student is requested to note carefully that it was the FORMS which +degenerated. There is a very important distinction to be kept in mind be- +tween the bodies (or forms) of a race, and the Egos (or life) which is re- +born in those race-bodies. + + When a race is born, the FORMS are ensouled by a certain group of spirits +and have inherent capability of evolving to a certain stage of completion +and no further. There can be no standing still in nature, therefore when +the limit of attainment has been reached the bodies or forms of that race +begin to degenerate, sinking lower and lower until at last the race dies +out. + + The reason is not far to seek. New race bodies are particularly flexible +and plastic, affording great scope for the Egos who are reborn in them to +improve these vehicles and progress thereby. The most advanced Egos are +brought to birth in such bodies and improve them to the best of their abil- +ity. These Egos, however, are only apprentices as yet, and they cause the +bodies to gradually crystallize and harden until the limit of improvement of +that particular kind of body has been reached. Then forms for another new +race are created, to afford the advancing Egos further scope for more ex- +tended experience and greater development. They discard the old race bodies +for the new, their discarded bodies becoming the habitations for less + + +[PAGE 290] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +advanced Egos who, in their turn, use them as stepping-stones on the path of +progress. Thus the old race bodies are used by Egos OF INCREASING INFERIOR- +ITY, gradually degenerating until at last there are no Egos low enough to +profit by rebirth in such bodies. The women become sterile and the +race-FORMS die. + + We may easily trace this process by certain examples. The +Teutonic-Anglo-Saxon race (particularly the American branch of it) has a +softer more flexible body and a more high-strung nervous system than any +other race on earth at the present time. The Indian and Negro have much +harder bodies and, because of the duller nervous system, are much less sen- +sitive to lacerations, An Indian will continue to fight after receiving +wounds the shock of which would prostrate or kill a white man, whereas the +Indian will quickly recover. The Australian aborigines or Bushmen furnish +an example of a race dying out on account of sterility, notwithstanding all +that the British government is doing to perpetuate them. + + It has been said by white men against the white race, that wherever it +goes the other races dies out. The whites have been guilty of fearful op- +pression against those other races, having in many cases massacred multi- +tudes of the defenseless and unsuspecting natives--as witness the conduct of +the Spaniards towards the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, to specify but one +of many instances. The obligations resulting from such betrayal of confi- +dence and be paid--yea, the last, least iota!--by those incurring them. It +is equally true, however, that even had the whites not massacred, starved, +enslaved, expatriated and otherwise maltreated those older races, the latter +would nevertheless have died out just as surely, though more slowly, because +such is the Law of Evolution--the Order of Nature. At some + + +[PAGE 291] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +future time the white race-bodies when they become inhabited by the Egos who +are now embodied in red, black, yellow or brown skins, will have degenerated +so far that they also will disappear, to give place to other and better ve- +hicles. + + Science speaks only of evolution. It fails to consider that LINES OF DE- +GENERATION which are slowly but surely destroying such bodies as have crys- +tallized beyond possibility of improvement. +[PAGE 291 cont'd] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + + THE ATLANTEAN EPOCH. + + Volcanic cataclysms destroyed the greater part of the Lemurian continent +and in its stead rose the Atlantean continent, where the Atlantic Ocean now +is. + + Material scientists, impelled by the story of Plato to undertake re- +searched regarding Atlantis, have demonstrated that there is ample founda- +tion for the story that such a continent did exist. Occult scientists know +that it existed and they also know that the conditions there were such as +shall now be described. + + Ancient Atlantis differed from our present world in many ways, but the +greatest difference was in the constitution of the atmosphere and the water +of that Epoch. + + From the southern part of the planet came the hot, fiery breath of the +volcanoes which were still abundantly active. From the north swept down the +icy blasts of the Polar region. The continent of Atlantis was the meeting +place of those two currents, consequently its atmosphere was always filled +with a thick and murky fog. The water was not so dense as now, but con- +tained a greater proportion of air. Much water was also held in suspension +in the heavy, foggy Atlantean atmosphere. + + Through this atmosphere the Sun never clearly shone. It appeared to be + + +[PAGE 292] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +surrounded by an aura of light-mist, as do street-lamps when seen through a +dense fog. It was then possible to see only a few feet in any direction and +the outlines of all objects not close at hand appeared dim, hazy and uncer- +tain. Man was guided more by internal perception than by external vision. + + Not only the country, but also the man of that time was very different +from anything existent on earth at the present time. He had a head, but +scarcely any forehead; his brain had no frontal development; the head sloped +almost abruptly back from a point just above the eyes. As compared with our +present humanity; he was a giant; his arms and legs were much longer, in +proportion to this body, than ours. Instead of walking, he progressed by a +series of flying leaps, not unlike those of the kangaroo. He had small +blinking eyes and his hair was round in section. The latter peculiarity, if +no other, distinguishes the descendants of the Atlantean races who remain +with us at the present day. Their hair was straight, glossy, black and +ROUND in section. That of the Aryan, thought it may differ in color, is al- +ways OVAL in section. The ears of the Atlantean sat much further back upon +the head than do those of the Aryan. + + The higher vehicles of the early Atlanteans were not drawn into a concen- +tric position in relation to the dense body, as are ours. The spirit was +not quite an INdwelling spirit; it was partially outside, therefore could +not control its vehicles with as great facility as though it dwelt entirely +inside. The head of the vital body was outside of and held a position far +above the physical head. There is a point between the eyebrows and about +half an inch below the surface of the skin, which has a corresponding point +in the vital body. This point is not the pituitary body, which lies much + + +[PAGE 293] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +deeper in the head of the dense body. It might be called "the root of the +nose." When these two points in the dense and the vital bodies come into +correspondence, as they do in man today, the trained clairvoyant sees then +as a black spot, or rather as a vacant space, like the invisible core of a +gas flame. This is the seat of the indwelling spirit in the man--the Holy +of Holies in the temple of the human body, barred to all but that indwelling +human Ego whose home it is. The trained clairvoyant can see with more or +less distinctness, according to his capacity and training, all the different +bodies which form the aura of man. This spot alone is hidden from him. +This is the "Isis" whose veil none may lift. Not even the highest evolved +being on earth is capable of unveiling the Ego of the humblest and least de- +veloped creature. That, and that alone upon earth, is so sacred that it is +absolutely safe from intrusion. + + These two points just spoken of--the one in the dense body and its coun- +terpart in the vital body--were far apart in the men of the early Atlanteans +days, as they are in the animals of our day. The head of the horse's vital +body is far outside the head of its dense body. The two points are closer +together in the dog than in any other animal except, perhaps, the elephant. +When they come into correspondence we have an animal prodigy, able to count, +spell, etc. + + On account of the distance between these two points, the Atlantean's +power of perception or vision was much keener in the inner Worlds than in +the dense Physical World, obscured by its atmosphere of thick, heavy fog. +In the fullness of time, however, the atmosphere slowly became clearer; at +the same time, the point spoken of in the vital body came closer and closer + + +[PAGE 294] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +to the corresponding point in the dense body. As the two approached each +other, man gradually lost touch with the inner Worlds. They became dimmer +as the dense Physical World became clearer in outline. Finally, in the last +third of the Atlantean Epoch, the point in the vital body was united to the +corresponding point in the dense body. Not until then did man become fully +awake in the dense Physical World; but at the same time that full sight and +perception in the Physical World were gained, the capability of perceiving +the inner Worlds were gradually lost to most of the people. + + In an earlier time the Atlantean did not clearly perceive the outline of +an object or a person, but he saw the soul and at once knew its attributes, +whether they were beneficial to him or otherwise. He knew whether the man +or animal he was regarding was kindly or inimically disposed toward him. He +was accurately taught by spiritual perception how to deal with others and +how to escape harm. therefore when the Spiritual World gradually faded from +his consciousness, great was his sorrow at the loss. + + The Rmoahals were the first of the Atlantean Races. They had but little +memory and that little was chiefly connected with sensation. They remem- +bered colors and tomes, and thus to some extend they evolved Feeling. The +Lemurian had entirely lacked Feeling, in the finer signification of the +word. He had the sense of touch, could feel the physical sensations of +pain, ease and comfort, but not the mental and spiritual ones of joy, sor- +row, sympathy and antipathy. + + With memory came to the Atlanteans the rudiments of a language. They +evolved words and no longer made use of mere sounds, as did the Lemurians. +The Rmoahals began to give names to things. They were yet a spiritual race +and, their soul-powers being like the forces of nature. They not only + + +[PAGE 295] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +named the objects around them, but in their words was power over the things +they named. Like the last of the Lemurians, their Feelings as spirits in- +spired them, and no harm was ever done to one another. To them the language +was holy, as the highest direct expression of the spirit. The power was +never abused or degraded by gossip or small talk. By the use of definite +language the soul in this race first became able to contact the soul of +things in the outside world. + + The Tlavatlis were the second Atlantean Race. Already they began to feel +their worth as separate human beings. They became ambitious, they demanded +that their works be remembered. Memory became a factor in the life of the +community. The remembrance of the deeds done by certain ones would cause a +group of people to choose as their leader one who had done great deeds. +This was the germ of Royalty. + + This remembrance of the meritorious deeds of great men was carried even +beyond the time when such leaders died. Mankind began to honor the memory +of ancestors and to worship them and others who had shown great merit. That +was the beginning of a form of worship which is practiced to this day by +some Asiatics. + + The Toltecs were the third Atlantean Race. They carried still further +the ideas of their predecessors, inaugurating Monarchy and Hereditary Suc- +cession. The Toltecs originated the custom of honoring men for the deeds +done by their ancestors, but there was then a very good reason for so doing. +Because of the peculiar training at that time, the father had the power to +bestow his qualities upon his son in a way impossible to mankind at the +present time. + + The education consisted of calling up before the soul of the child pic- +tures of the different phases of life. The consciousness of the early + + +[PAGE 296] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Atlantean was, as yet, principally an internal picture-consciousness. The +power of the educator to call up these pictures before the soul of the child +was the determining factor upon which depended the soul qualities that would +be possessed by the grown man. The instinct and not the reason was appealed +to and aroused and by this method of education the son, in the great major- +ity of cases, readily absorbed the qualities of the father. It is thus +evident that there was at that time good reason for bestowing honor upon the +descendants of great men, because the son almost always inherited most of +his father's good qualities. Unfortunately, that is not the case in our +time, although we still follow the same practices of honoring the sons of +great men; but we have no reason whatever for doing so. + + Among the Toltecs, experience came to be highly valued. The man who had +gained the most varied experience was the most honored and sought. Memory +was them so great and accurate that our present memory is nothing in com- +parison. In an emergency, a Toltec of wide practical experience would be +very likely to remember similar cases in the past, and suggest what action +should be taken. Thus be became a valuable adviser to the community when a +situation developed which none of the members had previously encountered and +they were unable to think or reason from analogy as to how to deal promptly +with the emergency. When such an individual was not available, they were +compelled to experiment in order to find what was best to do. + + In the middle third of Atlantis we find the beginning of separate na- +tions. Groups of people who discovered in one another similar tastes and +habits would leave their old homes and found a new colony. They remembered + + +[PAGE 297] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +old customs and followed them in their new homes as far as they suited, +forming new ones to meet their own particular ideas and necessities. + + The Leaders of mankind initiated great Kings at that time to rule the +people, over whom they were given great power. The masses honored these +kings with all the reverence due to those who were thus truly Kings "by the +grace of God." This happy state, however, had in it the germ of disintegra- +tion, for in time the Kings become intoxicated with power. They forgot that +it had been put into their hands by the grace of God, as a sacred trust; +that they were made Kings for the purpose of dealing justly by and helping +the people. They began to use their power corruptly, for selfish ends and +personal aggrandizement instead of for the common good, arrogating them- +selves privileges and authorities never intended for them. Ambition and +selfishness ruled then and they abused their high, divinely derived powers, +for purposes of oppression and revenge. This was true, not only of the +Kings, but also of the nobles and the higher classes, and when one considers +the power possessed by them over their fellow beings of the less developed +classes, it is easy to understand that is misuse would bring about terrible +conditions. + + The Original Turanians were the fourth Atlantean Race. They were espe- +cially vile in their abominable selfishness. They erected temples where the +Kings were worshiped as gods, and caused the extreme oppression of the help- +less lower classes. Black magic of the worst and most nauseating kind +flourished and all their efforts were directed towards the gratification of +vanity and external display. + + The Original Semites were the fifth and most important of the seven +Atlantean Races, because in them we find the first germ of the corrective +quality of Thought. Therefore the Original Semitic Race become the "seed- + + +[PAGE 298] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +race" for the seven races of the present Aryan Epoch. + + In the Polarian Epoch man acquired dense body as an instrument of action. +In the Hyperborean Epoch the vital body was added to give power of motion +necessary to action. In the Lemurian Epoch the desire body furnished +incentive to action. + + The mind was given to man in the Atlantean Epoch to give purpose to ac- +tion, but as the Ego was exceedingly weak and the desire nature strong, the +nascent mind coalesced with the desire body, the faculty of Cunning resulted +and was the cause of all the wickedness of the middle third of the Atlantean +Epoch. + + In the Aryan Epoch Thought and Reason were to be evolved by the work of +the Ego in the mind to conduct Desire into channel leading to the attainment +of spiritual perfection, which is the Goal of Evolution. This faculty of +Thought and of forming Ideas was gained by man at the expense of loss of +control over the vital forces--i.e., power over Nature. + + With Thought and Mind man can present exercise power over the chemicals +and minerals only, for his mind is now in the first of mineral stage of its +evolution, as was his dense body in the Saturn Period. He can exercise no +power over plant or animal LIFE. Wood and various vegetable substances, to- +gether with different parts of the animals, are used by man in his indus- +tries. These substances are all in the final analysis chemical matter +ensouled by mineral life, of which the BODIES in all the kingdoms are com- +posed, as previously explained. Over all these varieties of chemical min- +eral combinations man at his present stage may have dominion, but until he +has reached the Jupiter Period, that dominion will not be extended so that + + +[PAGE 299] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +he can work with life. In that Period, however, he will have the power to +work with plant life as the Angels do at present in the Earth Period. + + Material scientist have labored for many years in an endeavor to "create" +life, but they will not succeed until they have learned that they must ap- +proach the laboratory table with the deepest reverence, as they would draw +near to the alter in a Temple--with purity of heart and with holy hands, de- +void of greed and selfish ambition. + + Such is the wise decision of the Elder Brothers, who guard this and all +the deep secrets of Nature until man shall be fit to use them for the up- +lifting of the race--for the glory of God and not for personal profit or +self-aggrandizement. + + It was, however, this very loss of power over the vital forces which the +Atlanteans suffered that made it possible for man to evolve further. After +that, no matter how great his selfishness became, it could not prove abso- +lutely destructive of himself and of Nature, as would have been the case had +the growing selfishness been accompanied by the great power possessed by man +in his innocent former state. Thought that works only IN man is powerless +to command Nature and can never endanger humanity, as would be possible were +Nature's forces under man's control. + + The Original Semites regulated their desires to some extent by the mind, +and instead of mere desires, came cunning and craftiness--the means by which +those people sought to attain their selfish ends. Though they were a very +turbulent people, they learned to curb their passions to a great extend and +accomplish their purposes by the use of cunning, as being more subtle and +potent than mere brute strength. They were the first to discover that +"brain" is superior to "brawn." + + +[PAGE 300] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + During the existence of this Race, the atmosphere of Atlantis commenced +to clear definitely, and the previously mentioned point in the vital body +came into correspondence with its companion point in the dense body. The +combination of events gave man the ability to see objects clearly with +sharp, well-defined contours; but it also resulted in loss of sight pertain- +ing to the inner Worlds. + + Thus we see, and it may be well to definitely state it as a law: No +progress is ever made that is not gained at the cost of some previously pos- +sessed faculty, which is later regained in a higher form. + + Man built brain at the expense of the temporary loss of the power to +bring forth offspring from himself alone. In order to get the instrument +wherewith to guide his dense body, be became subject to all the difficulty, +sorrow and pain which is involved in the co-operation necessary to the per- +petuation of the race; he obtained his reasoning power at the cost of the +temporary loss of his spiritual insight. + + While reason benefited him in many ways, it shut from his vision the soul +of things which had previously spoken to him, and the gaining of the intel- +lect which is now man's most precious possession was at first but sadly con- +templated by the Atlantean, who mourned the loss of spiritual sight and +power which marked its acquisition. + + The exchange of spiritual powers for physical faculties was necessary, +however, in order that man might be able to function, independent of outside +guidance, in the Physical World which he must conquer. In time his higher +powers will be regained when, by means of his experiences in his journey +through the denser Physical World, he has learned to use them properly. +When he possessed them, he had no knowledge of their proper use, and they + + +[PAGE 301] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +were too precious and too dangerous to be used as toys, with which to ex- +periment. + + Under the guidance of a great Entity, the Original Semitic Race was led +eastward from the continent of Atlantis, over Europe, to the great waste in +Central Asia which is known as the Gobi Desert. There it prepared them to +be the seed of the seven Races of the Aryan Epoch, imbuing them potentially +with the qualities to be evolved by their descendants. + + During all the previous ages--from the commencement of the Saturn Period, +through the Sun and Moon Periods, and in the three and one-half Revolutions +of the Earth Period (the Polarian, Hyperborean, Lemurian, and earlier part +of the Atlantean Epochs)--man had been led and guided by higher Beings, +without the slightest choice. In those days he was unable to guide himself, +not yet having evolved a mind of his own; but at last the time had come when +it was necessary for his further development that he should begin to guide +himself. He must learn independence and assume responsibility for his own +actions. Hitherto he had been compelled to obey the commands of his Ruler; +now his thoughts were to be turned from the visible Leaders, the Lords from +Venus, whom he worshiped as messengers from the gods--to the idea of the +true God, the invisible Creator of the System. Man was to learn to worship +and obey the commands of a God he could not see. + + Their Leader therefore called the people together and delivered a +soul-stirring oration, which might be thus expressed: + + Hitherto, you have seen Those who led you, but there are Leaders of vary- +ing grades of splendor, higher than They, Whom you have not seen, Who + + +[PAGE 302] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +guided your every tottering step in the evolution of consciousness. + + Exalted above all these glorious Beings stands the invisible God Who has +created the heaven, and the earth upon which you dwell. He has willed to +give you dominion over all this land, that you may be fruitful and multiply +in it. + + This invisible God only, must you worship, but you must worship Him in +Spirit and in Truth, and not make any graven image of Him, nor use any like- +ness to picture Him to yourselves, because He is everywhere present, and is +beyond any comparison or similitude. + + If you follow His precepts, He will bless you abundantly in all good. If +you stray from His ways, evil will follow. The choice is yours. You are +free; BUT YOU MUST ENDURE THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR OWN ACTIONS. + + The education of man proceeds by four great steps. First, he is worked +upon from without unconsciously. Then he is placed under the Rulership of +Divine Messengers and Kings whom he sees, and whose commands he must obey. +Next he is taught to revere the commands of a God whom he does not see. Fi- +nally, he learns to rise above the commands; to become a law unto himself; +and, by conquering himself of his own free will, to live in harmony with the +Order of Nature, which is the Law of God. + + Fourfold also are the steps by which man climbs upward to God. + + First, through fear, he worships the God whom he begins to sense, sacri- +ficing to propitiate Him, as do the fetish-worshipers. + + Next, he learns to look to God as the GIVER of all things, and hopes to +receive from Him material benefits HERE AND NOW. He sacrifices through +avarice, expecting that the Lord will repay an hundredfold, or to escape + + +[PAGE 303] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +SWIFT punishment by plague, war, etc. + + Next, he is taught to worship God by prayer and the living of a good +life; and that he must cultivate faith in a Heaven where he will be rewarded +in the FUTURE; and to abstain from evil that he may escape a FUTURE punish- +ment in Hell. + + At last he comes to a point where he can do right without any thought of +reward, bribe, or punishment, but simply because "it is right to do right." +He loves right for its own sake and seeks to govern his conduct thereby, re- +gardless of present benefit or injury, or of painful results at some future +time. + + The Original Semites had reached the second of these steps. They were +taught to worship an invisible God and to expect to be rewarded my material +benefits, or punished by painful afflictions. + + Popular Christianity is at the third step. Esotoric Christians, and the +pupils of all occult schools are trying to reach the highest step, which +will be generally achieved in the Sixth Epoch, the new Galilee, when the +unifying Christian religion will open the hearts of men, as their under- +standing is being opened now. + + The Akkadians were the sixth and the Mongolians the seventh of the +Atlantean Races. They evolved the faculty of thought still further, but +followed lines of reasoning which deviated more and more from the main trend +of the developing life. The Chinese Mongolians maintain to this day that +the old ways are the best. Progress constantly requires new methods and +adaptability, keeping ideas in a fluid state, therefore those races fell be- +hind and are degenerating, with the remainder of the Atlantean Races. + + As the heavy fogs, of Atlantis condensed more and more, the increased + + +[PAGE 304] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +quantity of water gradually inundated that continent, destroying the greater +part of the population and the evidences of their civilization. + + Great numbers were driven from the doomed continent by the floods, and +wandered across Europe. The Mongolian races are the descendants of those +Atlantean refugees. The Negroes and the savage races with curly hair, are +the last remnants of the Lemurians. + + THE ARYAN EPOCH. + + Central Asia was the cradle of the Aryan Races, who descended from the +Original Semites. Thence have the different Races gone out. It is unneces- +sary to describe them here, as historical researches have sufficiently re- +vealed their main features. + + In the present (the Fifth or Aryan) Epoch, man came to know the use of +fire and other forces, the divine origin of which was purposely withheld +from him, that he might be free to use them for higher purposes or his own +development. Therefore we have in this present Epoch two classes: One +looks upon this Earth and upon man as being of divine origin; the other sees +all things from a purely utilitarian viewpoint. + + The most advanced among humanity at the beginning of the Aryan Epoch were +given the higher Initiations, that they might take the place of the messen- +gers of God, i.e. the Lords of Venus. Such human Initiates were from this +time forth the only mediators between God and man. Even they did not appear +publicly nor show any signs of wonders that they were Leaders and Teachers. +Man was left entirely free to seek them or not, as he desired. + + At the end of our present Epoch the highest Initiate will appear pub- +licly, when a sufficient number of ordinary humanity desire, and will + + +[PAGE 305] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + +voluntarily subject themselves to such a Leader. They will thus form the +nucleus for the last Race, which will appear at the beginning of the Sixth +Epoch. After that time races and nations will cease to exist. Humanity +will form one spiritual Fellowship as before the end of the Lemurian Epoch. + + The names of the Races which have spread over the Earth during the Fifth +Epoch, up to the present time, are as follows: + + 1.---The Aryan, which went south to India, + 2.---The Babylonian-Assyrian-Chaldean. + 3.---The Persian-Graeco-Latin. + 4.---The Celtic. + 5.---The Teutonic-Anglo-Saxon (to which we belong). + + From the mixture of the different nations now taking place in the United +States will come the "Seed" for the last Race, in the beginning of the Sixth +Epoch. + + Two more Races will be evolved in our present Epoch, one of them being +the Slav. When, in the course of a few hundred years, the Sun, because of +the precession of the equinoxes, shall have entered the sign Aquarius, the +Russian people and the Slav Races in general will reach a degree of +spiritual development which will advance them far beyond their present con- +dition. Music will be the chief factor in bringing this about, for on the +wings of music the soul which is attuned may fly to the very Throne of God, +where the mere intellect cannot reach. Development attained in that manner, +however, is not permanent, because it is one-sided, therefore not in harmony +with the law of evolution, which demands that development, to be permanent, +must be evenly balanced--in other words, that spirituality shall evolve + + +[PAGE 306] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +through, or at least equally with, intellect. For this reason the Slavic +civilization will be short-lived, but it will be great and joyful while it +lasts, for it is being born of deep sorrow and untold suffering, and the law +of Compensation will bring the opposite in due time. + + From the Slavs will descend a people which will form the last of the +seven Races of the Aryan Epoch, and from the people of the United States +will descend the last of all the Races in this scheme of evolution, which +will run its course in the beginning of the Sixth Epoch. + + THE SIXTEEN PATHS TO DESTRUCTION. + + The sixteen Races are called the "Sixteen paths to destruction" because +there is always, in each Race, a danger that the soul may become too much +attached to the Race; that it may become so enmeshed in Race characteristics +it cannot rise above the RACE idea, and will therefore fail to advance; that +it may, so to speak, crystallize into that Race and consequently be confined +to the Race bodies when they start to degenerate, as happened to the Jews. + + In Periods, Revolutions, and Epochs where there are no Races, there is +much more time, and the likelihood of becoming fossilized is not so great, +nor so frequent. But the sixteen Races are born and die in such a +relatively short time there is grave danger that the one who gets too much +attached to conditions may be left behind. + + Christ is the great unifying Leader of the Sixth Epoch, and He enunciated +this law when He uttered those little-understood words: "If any man come to +me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and +brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. + + +[PAGE 307] EVOLUTION ON THE EARTH + + "And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me cannot be my +disciple. + + ". . . whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he +cannot be my disciple." + + Not that we are to leave, nor underestimate family ties, but that we are +to rise above them. Father and mother are "bodies"; all relations are part +of the Race--which belongs to Form. The souls must recognize that they are +not Bodies, nor Races, but Egos striving for perfection. If a man forgets +this, and identifies himself with his Race--clinging to it with fanatic +patriotism--he is likely to become enmeshed in and sink with it when his +compeers have passed to greater heights on the Path of Attainment. + + +[PAGE 308] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + CHAPTER XIII. + + BACK TO THE BIBLE. + + In our age the missionary spirit is strong. The Western churches are +sending missionaries all over the world to convert the people of every na- +tion to a belief in their creeds; nor are they alone in their proselyting +efforts. The East has commenced a strong invasion of Western fields, and +many Christians who have become dissatisfied with the creeds and dogmas +taught by the clergy and impelled to search for truth to satisfy the demands +of the intellect for an adequate explanation of the problems of life, have +familiarized themselves with, and in many cases accepted, the Eastern teach- +ings of Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. + + From an occult point of view, this missionary effort, whether from East +to West or VICE VERSA, is not desirable, because it is contrary to the trend +of evolution. The great Leaders of humanity Who are in charge of our devel- +opment give us every aid necessary to that end. Religion is one of these +aids, and there are excellent reasons why the Bible, containing not only +one, but both the Jewish and Christian religions, should have been given to +the West. If we earnestly seek for light we shall see the Supreme Wisdom +which has given us this double religion and how no other religion of the +present day is suitable to our peculiar needs. To this end we will in this + + +[PAGE 309] BACK TO THE BIBLE + +chapter touch again upon certain points previously brought out in various +places and connections. + + In the Polarian, Hyperborean and Lemurian Epochs the task of leading hu- +manity was a comparatively easy one, for man was then without mind, but when +that disturbing element came in during the first part of the Atlantean Ep- +och, he developed Cunning, which is the product of the mind unchecked by the +spirit. Cunning acts as an aid to desire, regardless of whether the desire +is good or bad, whether it will bring joy or sorrow. + + In the middle of the Atlantean Epoch the spirit had drawn completely into +its vehicles and commenced to work in the mind to produce Thought and Rea- +son: the ability to trace a given cause to its inevitable effect, and to de- +duce from a given effect the cause which produced it. The faculty of +Reasoning or Logic was to become more fully developed in the Aryan Epoch, +and therefore the Original Semites (the fifth race of the Atlantean Epoch) +were a "chosen people," to bring out that germinal faculty to such a ripe- +ness that it would be impregnated into the very fibre of their descendants, +who would thus become the New Race. + + To transmute Cunning into Reason proved no easy task. The earlier +changes in man's nature had been easily brought about. He could then be led +without difficulty because he had no conscious desire, nor mind to guide +him, but by the time of the Original Semites he had become cunning enough to +resent limitations of his liberty and to circumvent repeatedly the measures +taken to hold him in line. The task of guiding him was all the more dif- +ficult because it was necessary he should have some liberty of choice, that +he might in time learn self-government. Therefore a law was enacted which + + +[PAGE 310] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +decreed IMMEDIATE REWARDS for obedience and INSTANT PUNISHMENT for disregard +of its provisions. Thus was man taught, coaxed and coerced into reasoning +in a limited manner that "the way of the transgressor is hard," and that he +must "fear God," or the Leader Who guided him. + + Out of all who were chosen as "seed" for the new Race, but few remained +faithful. Most of them were rebellious and, so far as they were concerned, +entirely frustrated the purpose of the Leader by intermarrying with the +other Atlantean Races, thus bringing inferior blood into their descendants. +That is what is meant in the Bible where the fact is recorded that the sons +of God married the daughters of men. For that act of disobedience were they +abandoned and "lost." Even the faithful died, according to the body, in the +Desert of Gobi (the "Wilderness") in Central Asia, the cradle of our present +Race. They reincarnated, as their own descendants of course, and thus in- +herited the "Promised Land," the Earth as it is now. They are the Aryan +Races, in whom Reason is being evolved to perfection. + + The rebellious ones who were abandoned are the Jews, of whom the great +majority are still governed more by the Atlantean faculty of Cunning than by +Reason. In them the race-feeling is so strong that they distinguish only +two classes of people: Jews and Gentiles. They despise the other nations +and are in turn despised by them for their cunning, selfishness and avarice. +It is not denied that they give to charity, but it is principally, if not +exclusively, among their own people and rarely internationally, as was done +in the case of the earthquake disaster in Italy, where barriers of creed, +race and nationality were forgotten in the HUMAN feeling of sympathy. + + In such cases as that and the San Francisco disaster, the inner spiritual + + +[PAGE 311] BACK TO THE BIBLE + +nature of man becomes more in evidence than under any other circumstances, +and the close observer may then discern the trend of evolution. The fact +then becomes manifest that though the stress of ordinary life our actions +may deny it, nevertheless at heart we know and acknowledge the great truth +that we are brothers and the hurt of one is really felt by all. Such inci- +dents, therefore, point out the direction of evolution. The control of man +by Reason must be succeeded by that of Love, which at present acts indepen- +dent of and sometimes even contrary to the dictates of Reason. The anomaly +arises from the fact that Love, at present, is rarely quite unselfish and +our Reason is not always true. In the "New Galilee," the coming Sixth Ep- +och, Love will become unselfish and Reason will approve its dictates. Uni- +versal Brotherhood shall then be fully realized, each working for the good +of all, because self-seeking will be a thing of the past. + + That this much-to-be-desire end may be attained, it will be necessary to +select another "chosen people" from the present stock to serve as a nucleus +from which the new Race shall spring. This choosing is not to be done con- +trary to the will of the chosen. Each man must choose for himself; he must +WILLINGLY enter the ranks. + + Races are but an evanescent feature of evolution. Before the end of the +Lemurian Epoch there was a "chosen people," different from the ordinary hu- +manity of that time, who became the ancestors of the Atlantean Races. From +the fifth race of those another "chosen people" was drawn, from which the +Aryan Races descended, of which there have been five and will be two more. +Before a new Epoch is ushered in, however, there must be "a new Heaven and a +new earth"; the physical features of the Earth will be changed and its den- +sity decreased. There will be one Race at the beginning of the next Epoch, + + +[PAGE 312] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +but after that every thought and feeling of Race will disappear. Humanity +will again constitute one vast Fellowship, regardless of all distinctions. +Races are simply steps in evolution which must be taken, otherwise there +will be no progress for the spirits reborn in them. But, though necessary +steps, they are also extremely dangerous ones, and are therefore the cause +of grave concern to the Leaders of mankind. They call these sixteen Races +"the sixteen paths to destruction," because , while in previous Epochs the +changes came after such enormous intervals that it was easier to get the ma- +jority of the entities in line for promotion, it is different with the +Races. They are comparatively evanescent; therefore extra care must be +taken that as few of the spirits as possible become enmeshed in the fetters +of Race. + + This is exactly what happened to the spirits reborn in the Jewish +Race-bodies. They attached themselves so firmly to the Race that they are +drawn back into it in successive births. "Once a Jew, always a Jew" is +their slogan. They have entirely forgotten their spiritual nature and glory +in the material fact of being "Abraham's seed." Therefore they are neither +"fish nor flesh." They have no part in the advancing Aryan Race and yet +they are beyond those remnants of the Lemurian and Atlantean peoples which +are still with us. They have become a people without a country, an anomaly +among mankind. + + Because of their bondage to the Race-idea, their one-time Leader was +forced to abandon them, and they became "lost." That they might cease to +regard themselves as separate from other peoples, other nations were stirred +up against them at various times by the Leaders of humanity and they were +led captive from the country where they had settled, but in vain. They + + +[PAGE 313] BACK TO THE BIBLE + +stubbornly refused to amalgamate with others. Again and again they returned +in a body to their arid land. Prophets of their own Race were raised up who +mercilessly rebuked them and predicted dire disaster, but without avail. + + As a final effort to persuade them to cast off the fetters of Race, we +have the seeming anomaly that the Leader of the coming Race, the Great +Teacher Christ, appeared among the Jews. This still further shows the com- +passion and Wisdom of the great Beings Who guide evolution. Among all the +Races of the Earth, none other was "lost" in the same sense as the Jews; +none other so sorely needed help. To send them a stranger, not one of their +own Race, would have been manifestly useless. It was a foregone conclusion +that they would have rejected him. As the great spirit known as Booker T. +Washington incarnated among the negroes, to be received by them as one of +themselves, and thus enabled to enlighten them as no white man could, so the +great Leaders hoped that the appearance of Christ among the Jews as one of +their own might bring them to accept Him and His teachings and thus draw +them out of the meshes of the Race-bodies. But sad it is to see how human +prejudice can prevail. "He came unto His own and" they chose Barabbas. He +did not glory in Abraham, nor any other of their ancient traditions. He +spoke of "another world," of a new earth, of Love and Forgiveness, and repu- +diated the doctrine of "an eye for an eye." He did not call them to arms +against Caesar; had He done so, they would have hailed Him as delivered. In +that respect He was misunderstood even by His disciples, who mourned as +greatly over their vanished hope of an earthly kingdom as over the Friend +slain by Roman hands. + + +[PAGE 314] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + The rejection of Christ by the Jews was the supreme proof of their +thralldom to Race. Thenceforth all efforts to save them AS A WHOLE by giv- +ing them special prophets and teachers, were abandoned and, as the futility +of exiling them IN A BODY had been proven, they were, as a last expedient, +scattered among all the nations of the earth. Despite all, however, the ex- +treme tenacity of this people has prevailed even to the present day, the ma- +jority being yet ORTHODOX. In America, however, there is now a slight fall- +ing away. The younger generation is commencing to marry outside the Race. +In time, an increasing number of bodies, with fewer and fewer of the Race +characteristics, will thus be provided for the incarnating spirits of the +Jews of the past. In this manner will they be saved in spite of themselves. +They become "lost" by marrying into inferior Races; they will be saved by +amalgamating with those more advanced. + + As the present Aryan Races are reasoning human beings, capable of profit- +ing by past experience, the logical means of helping them is by telling them +of past stages of growth and the fate that overtook the disobedient Jews. +Those rebels had a written record of how their Leaders had dealt with them. +It set forth how they had been chosen and rebelled; were punished; but were +yet hopeful of ultimate redemption. That record may be profitably used by +us, that we may learn how NOT to act. It is immaterial that, in the course +of ages, it has become mutilated, and that the Jews of today are still under +the delusion of being "chosen people"; the lesson that may be drawn from +their experience is none the less valid. We may learn how a "chosen people" +may harass their Leader, frustrate His plans, and become bound to a Race for +ages. Their experience should be a warning to any future "chosen people". + + +[PAGE 315] BACK TO THE BIBLE + +This Paul points out in unmistakable terms (Heb. ii. 3-4); "For if the word +spoken by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience re- +ceived a just recompense of reward, How shall we escape if we neglect so +great salvation?" and Paul was speaking to Christians, for the Hebrews to +whom he wrote this were converted, had accepted Christ and were people whom +he expected would, in some future life, be among the new "chosen people", +who would WILLINGLY follow a Leader and evolve the faculty of Love and +spiritual perception, the intuition which shall succeed self-seeking and +Reason. + + The Christian teaching of the New Testament belongs particularly to the +pioneer Races of the Western World. It is being specially implanted among +the people of the United States, for as the object of the new Race of the +Sixth Epoch will be the unification of all the Races, the United States is +becoming the "melting pot" where all the nations of the earth are being +amalgamated and from this amalgamation will the next "chosen people," the +nucleus, be chiefly derived. + + Those spirits, from all countries of the earth, who have striven to fol- +low the teachings of the Christ, consciously or otherwise, will be reborn +here, for the purpose of giving them conditions suitable for that develop- +ment. Hence the American-born Jew is different from the Jew of other +countries. The very fact that he has been reborn in the Western World shows +that he is becoming emancipated from the Race spirit, and is consequently in +advance of the crystallized Old World orthodox Jew, as were his parents, or +they would not have conceived the idea of severing the old ties and moving +to America. Therefore the American-born Jew is the pioneer who will prepare +the path which his compatriots will follow later. + + +[PAGE 316] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Thus we can see that the Bible contains the teaching peculiarly needed by +the Western peoples, that they may be taught a lesson by the awful example +of the Jewish Race as recorded in the Old Testament, and learn to live by +the teachings of the Christ in the New, willingly offering up their bodies +as a LIVING sacrifice upon the altar of Fellowship and Love. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 317] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + + CHAPTER XIV. + + THE OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS. + + LIMITATIONS OF THE BIBLE. + + In our study thus far, previous to Chapter XIII, comparatively little +reference has been made to the Bible, but we shall now devote our attention +to it for some time. Not that it is intended to attempt a vindication of +the Bible (in the form in which it is commonly known to use at the present +day) as the only true and inspired Word of God, nevertheless it is true that +it contains much valuable occult knowledge. This is, to great extent, hid- +den beneath interpolations and obscured by the arbitrary withholding of cer- +tain parts as being "apocryphal." The occult scientist, who knows the +intended meaning, can, of course, easily see which portions are original and +which have been interpolated. Yet, if we take the first chapter of Genesis +even as it stands, in the best translations we possess, we shall find that +it unfolds the identical scheme of evolution which has been explained in the +preceding portion of this work and harmonized quite well with the occult in- +formation in regard to Periods, Revolutions, Races, Etc. The outlines given +are necessarily of the briefest and most condensed character, an entire Pe- +riod being covered in a score of words--nevertheless, the outlines are +there. + + Before proceeding with an analysis it is necessary to say that the words + + +[PAGE 318] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +of the Hebrew language, particularly the old style, run into one another and +are not divided as those of our language. Add to this that there is a cus- +tom of leaving out vowels from the writing, so that in reading much depends +upon where and how they are inserted, and it will be seen how great are the +difficulties to be surmounted in ascertaining the original meaning. A +slight change may entirely alter the signification of almost any sentence. + + In addition to these great difficulties we must also bear in mind that of +the forty-seven translators of the King James version (that most commonly +used in England and America), only THREE were Hebrew scholars, and of those +three, two died before the Psalms had been translated! We must still fur- +ther take into consideration that the Act which authorized the translation +prohibited the translators from any rendition that would greatly deviate +from or tend to disturb the already existing belief. It is evident, there- +fore, that the chances of getting a correct translation were very small in- +deed. + + Nor were conditions much more favorable in Germany, for there Martin +Luther was the sole translator and even he did not translate from the +original Hebrew, but merely from a Latin text. Most of the versions used in +Continental Protestant countries today are simply translations, into the +different languages, of Luther's translations. + + True, there have been revisions, but they have not greatly improved mat- +ters. Moreover, there is a large number of people in this country who +insist that the ENGLISH text of the King James version is absolutely correct +from cover to cover, as though the Bible had been originally written in En- +glish, and the King James version were a certified copy of the original + + +[PAGE 319] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +manuscript. So the old mistakes are still there, in spite of the efforts +which have been made to eradicate them. + + It must also be noted that those who originally wrote the Bible did not +intend to give out the truth in such plain form that he who ran might read. +Nothing was further from their thoughts than to write an "open book of God." +The great occultists who write the Zohar are very emphatic upon this point. +The secrets of the Thorah were not be be understood by all, as the following +quotation will show: + + "Woe to man who sees in the Thorah (the law) only simple recitals and or- +dinary words! Because, if in truth it contained only these, we would even +today be able to compose a Thorah much more worthy of admiration. But it is +not so. Each word of the Thorah contains an elevated meaning and a sublime +mystery. . . .The recitals of the Thorah are the vestments of the Thorah. +Woe to him who takes this vestment of the Thorah for the Thorah itself!. . . +The simple take notice of the garments and recitals of the Thorah alone. +They know no other thing. They see not that which is concealed under the +vestment. THE MORE INSTRUCTED MEN DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO THE VESTMENT, but +to body which it envelops." + + In the preceding words, the allegorical meanings are plainly implied. +Paul also unequivocally says that the story of Abraham and the two sons whom +he had by Sarah and Hagar is purely allegorical (Gal. iv:22-26). Many pas- +sages are veiled; others are to be taken verbatim; and no one who has not +the occult key is able to find the deep truth hidden in what is often a very +hideous garment. + + The secrecy regarding these deep matters and invariable use of allegories +where the mass of the people were permitted to come in contact with occult + + +[PAGE 320] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +truths will also be apparent from the practice of Christ, who always spoke +to the multitude in parables, afterward privately explaining to His dis- +ciples the deeper meaning contained therein. On several occasions He im- +posed secrecy upon them with regard to private teachings. + + Paul's methods are also in harmony with this, for the gives "milk: or the +more elementary teaching to the "babes" in the faith, reserving the "meat" +or deeper teaching for the "strong"--those who had qualified themselves to +understand and receive them. + + The Jewish Bible was originally written in Hebrew, but we do not possess +one single line of the original writings. As early as 260 B.C. the +Septuagint, a translation into Greek, was brought forth. Even in the time +of Christ there was already the utmost confusion and diversity of opinion +regarding what was to be admitted as original, and what had been interpo- +lated. + + It was not until the return from Babylonian exile that the scribes began +to piece together the different writings, and not until about 500 A.D. did +the Talmud appear, giving the first text resembling the present one, which, +in view of the foregoing facts, cannot be perfect. + + The Talmud was them taken in hand by the Masorete school, which from 590 +to about 800 A.D. was principally in Tiberias. With great and painstaking +labor, a Hebrew Old Testament was produced, which is the nearest to the +original we have at the present time. + + This Masorectic text will be used in the following elucidation of Gen- +esis, and, not relying upon the work of one translator, it will be supple- +mented by a German translator, the work of three eminent Hebrew scholars-- + + +[PAGE 321] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +H. Arnheim, M. Sachs, and Jul. Furst, who co-operated with a fourth, Dr. +Zunz, the latter being also the editor. + + IN THE BEGINNING + + The opening sentence of Genesis is a very good example of what has been +stated about the interpretation of the Hebrew text, which may be changed by +differently placing the vowels and dividing the words in another way. + + There are two well recognized methods of reading this sentence. One is: +"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"; the other is: +"Out of the ever-existing essence (of space) the twofold energy formed the +double heaven." + + Much has been said and written as to which of these two interpretations +is correct. The difficulty is, that the people want something settled and +definite. They take the stand that, if a certain explanation is true, all +others must be wrong. But, emphatically, this is not the way to get at +truth, which is many sided and multiplex. Each occult truth requires ex- +amination from many different points of view; each viewpoint presents a cer- +tain phase of the truth, and all of them are necessary to get a complete, +definite conception of whatever is under consideration. + + The very fact that this sentence and many others in the vestment of the +Thorah can thus be made to yield many meanings, while confusing to the +uninitiated, is illuminative to those who have the key, and the transcenden- +tal wisdom of the wonderful Intelligences Who inspired the Thorah is thereby +shown. Had the vowels been inserted, and a division made into words, there +would have been only one way of reading it and these grand and sublime mys- +teries could not have been hidden therein. That would have been the proper + + +[PAGE 322] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +method to pursue if the authors had meant to write an "open" book of God; +but that was not their purpose. It was written solely for the initiated; +and can be read understandingly by them only. It would have required much +less skill to have written the book plainly than to have concealed its mean- +ing. No pains are ever spared, however, to bring the information, in due +time, to those who are entitled to it, while withholding it from those who +have not year earned the right to possess it. + + THE NEBULAR THEORY. + + Regarded by the light thrown upon the genesis and evolution of our sys- +tem, it is plain that both renderings of the opening sentence in the Book of +Genesis are necessary to an understanding of the subject. The first tells +that there was a beginning of our evolution, in which the heavens were cre- +ated; the other interpretation supplements the first statement by adding +that the heavens and the earth were created; the other interpretation +supplements the first statement by adding that the havens and the earth were +created out of the "ever-existing essence," not out of "nothing," as is +jeering pointed out by the materialist. The Cosmic Root-substance is gath- +ered together and set in motion. The rings formed by the inertia of the re- +volving mass break away from the central part, forming planets, etc., as the +modern scientist, with remarkable ingenuity, has reasoned out. Occult and +modern science are in perfect harmony as to the MODUS OPERANDI. There is +nothing in these statements inconsistent with the two theories, as will +presently be shown. Occult science teaches that God instituted the process +of formation and is constantly guiding the System in a definite path. The +modern scientist, in refutation of what he calls a foolish idea, and to dem- +onstrate that a God is not necessary, takes a basin of water and pours + + +[PAGE 323] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +a little oil into it. The water and the oil represent space and fire-mist +respectively. He now commences to turn the oil around with a needle, bring- +ing in into the form of a sphere. This, he explains, represents the Central +Sun. As he turns the oil-ball faster and faster, it bulges at the equator +and throws off a ring, the ring breaks and the fragments coalesce, forming a +smaller ball, which circles around the Sun. Then he pityingly asks the oc- +cult scientist, "Do you not see how it is done?" There is not need for your +God, or any supernatural force." + + The occultist readily agrees that a Solar System may be formed in ap- +proximately the manner illustrated. But he marvels greatly that a man pos- +sessing the clear intuition enabling him to perceive with such accuracy the +operation of Cosmic processes, and the intellect to conceive this brilliant +demonstration of this monumental theory, should at the same time be quite +unable to see that in his demonstration HE HIMSELF PLAYS THE PART OF GOD. +His was the extraneous power that placed the oil in the water, where it +would have remained inert and shapeless through all eternity had he not sup- +plied the force that set it in motion, thereby causing it to shape itself +into representation of Sun and planets. His was the Thought which designed +the experiment, using the oil, water and force, thus illustrating in a +splendid manner the Triune God working in Cosmic substance to form a Solar +System. + + The attributes of God are Will, Wisdom and Activity. (See diagram 6. +Note carefully what the name "God" signifies in this terminology.) The sci- +entist has WILL to make the experiment. He has ingenuity to supply ways and +means for the demonstration. This ingenuity corresponds to WISDOM, the + + +[PAGE 324] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +second attribute to God. He has also the muscular force necessary to per- +form the action, corresponding to ACTIVITY, which is the third attribute of +God. + + Further, the universe is not a vast perpetual-motion machine, which, when +once set going, keeps on without any internal cause or guiding force. That +also is proven by the experiment of the scientist, for the moment he ceases +to turn the oil-ball the orderly motion of his miniature planets also ceases +and all returns to a shapeless mass of oil floating on the water. In a cor- +responding manner, the universe would at once dissolve into "thin space" if +God for one moment ceased to exert His all-embracing care and energizing ac- +tivity. + + The second interpretation of Genesis is marvelously exact in its descrip- +tion of a twofold formative energy. It does not specifically state the God +is Triune. The reader's knowledge of that fact is taken for granted. It +states the exact truth when it says that only two forces are active in the +formation of a universe. + + When the first aspect of the Triune God manifests as the Will to create, +It arouses the second aspect (which is Wisdom) to design a plan for the fu- +ture universe. This first manifestation of Force is Imagination. After +this primal Force of Imagination has conceived the Idea of a universe, the +third aspect (which is Activity), working in Cosmic substance, produces Mo- +tion. This is the second manifestation of Force. Motion alone, however, is +not sufficient. To form a system of worlds, it must ORDERLY motion. Wisdom +is therefore necessary to guide Motion in an intelligent manner to produce +definite results. + + Thus we find the opening sentence of the Book of Genesis tells us that + + +[PAGE 325] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +in the beginning, orderly, rhythmic motion, in Cosmic Root-substance, formed +the universe. + + THE CREATIVE HIERARCHIES. + + The second interpretation of the opening sentence also gives us a fuller +idea of God when it speaks of the "two fold energy," pointing to the +positive and negative phases of the One Spirit of God in manifestation. In +harmony with the teaching of occult science, God is represented as a compos- +ite Being. This is accentuated in the remaining verses of the chapter. + + In addition to the creative Hierarchies which worked voluntarily in our +evolution, there are seven others which belong to our evolution, and are +co-workers with God in the formation of the universe. In the first chapter +of Genesis these Hierarchies are called "Elohim." The name signifies a host +of dual and double-sexed Beings. The first part of the work is "Eloh," +which is a feminine noun, the letter "h" indicating the gender. If a single +feminine Being were meant, the work "Eloh" would have been used. The +feminine plural is "oth," so if the intention had been to indicate a number +of Gods of the feminine gender, the correct word to use would have been +"Elooth." Instead of either of those forms, however, we find the masculine +plural ending, "im," added to the feminine noun, "Eloh," indicating a host +of male-female, double-sexed Beings, expressions of the dual, +positive-negative, creative energy. + + The plurality of Creators is again implied in the latter part of the +chapter, where these words are ascribed to the Elohim: "Let US make man in +OUR image;" after which it is inconsistently added, "HE made them male and +female." + + The translators have here rendered the puzzling word "Elohim" (which was + + +[PAGE 326] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +decidedly not only a plural word but also BOTH masculine and feminine) as +being the equivalent of the singular, sexless word, "God." yet could they +have done differently, even had they known? They were forbidden to disturb +existing ideas. It was not truth at any price, but peace at any price that +King James desired, his sole anxiety being to avoid any controversy that +might create a disturbance in his kingdom. + + The plural "them" is also used where the creation of man is mentioned, +clearly indicating that the reference is to the creation of ADM, the human +species, and not Adam, the individual. + + We have shown that six creative Hierarchies (besides the Lords of Flame, +the Cherubim, the Seraphim, and the two unnamed Hierarchies which have +passed into liberation) were active in assisting the virgin spirits which in +themselves form a seventh Hierarchy. + + The Cherubim and the Seraphim had nothing to do with the creation of +Form; therefore they are not mentioned in the chapter under consideration, +which deals principally with the Form-side of Creation. Here we find men- +tioned only the seven creative Hierarchies which did the actual work of +bringing man to where he acquired a dense physical form, through which the +indwelling spirit could work. + + After a description of teach part of the work of Creation it is said: +"and Elohim saw that it was good." This is said seven times, the last time +being on the sixth day, when the human form had been created. + + It is stated that on the seventh day "Elohim rested." This is all in ac- +cord with our occult teaching of the part taken by each of the creative Hi- +erarchies in the work of evolution down to the present Period. It is also + + +[PAGE 327] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +taught that in the present Epoch the Gods and creative Hierarchies have +withdrawn from active participation, that man may work out his own salva- +tion, leaving the necessary guidance of ordinary humanity to the "Elder +Brothers," who are now the mediators between man and the Gods. + + THE SATURN PERIOD. + + Having satisfied ourselves that the beginning of our System and the work +of the creative Hierarchies, as described by occult science, harmonize with +the teachings of the Bible, we will now examine the Bible account of differ- +ent "Days of Creation" and see how they agree with the occult teachings +relative to the Saturn, Sun, and Moon Periods; the three and one-half +Revolutions of the Earth Period; and the Polarian, Hyperborean, Lemurian, +and Atlantean Epochs, which have preceded the present Aryan Epoch. + + Naturally, a detailed account could not be given in a few lines like the +first chapter of Genesis, but the main points are there in orderly succes- +sion, very much like an algebraical formula for Creation. + + The second verse proceeds: "The Earth was waste and uninhabited, and +darkness rested upon the face of the deep; and the Spirits of the Elohim +floated above the deep." In the beginning of manifestation that which is +now the Earth was in the Saturn Period, and in exactly the condition de- +scribed, as may be seen by referring to the descriptions already given of +that Period. It was not "without form and void," as expressed in the King +James version. It was hot, and thus well-defined and separate from the deep +of space, which was cold. It is true that it was dark, but it could be dark +and still be hot, for "dark" heat necessarily precedes glowing or visible + + +[PAGE 328] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +heat. Above this dark Earth of the Saturn Period floated the creative Hier- +archies. They worked upon it from the outside and molded it. The Bible re- +fers to them as the "Spirits of the Elohim." + + THE SUN PERIOD. + + The Sun Period is well described in the third verse, which says, "And the +Elohim said, Let there be Light; and there was Light." This passage has +been jeered at as the most ridiculous nonsense. The scornful query has been +put, How could there be light upon the Earth when the Sun was not made until +the fourth day? The Bible narrator, however, is not speaking of the Earth +alone. He is speaking of the central "Fire-mist," from which were formed +the planets of our system including the Earth. Thus when the nebula reached +a state of glowing heat, which it did in the Sun Period, there was no neces- +sity for an outside illuminant, the Light was within. + + In the fourth verse we read: "The Elohim differentiated between the +light and the darkness." Necessarily, for the outside space was dark, in +contradistinction to the glowing nebula which existed during the Sun Period. + + THE MOON PERIOD. + + The Moon Period is described in the sixth verse, as follows: "and Elohim +said, Let there by an EXPANSION (translated "firmament" in other versions) +in the waters, to provide the water from the water." This exactly describes +conditions in the Moon Period, when the heat of the glowing fire-mist and +the cold of outside space had formed a body of water around the fiery core. +The contact of fire and water generated steam, which is water in expansion, + + +[PAGE 329] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +as our verse describes. It was different from the comparatively cool water, +which constantly gravitated toward the hot, fiery core, to replace the +outrushing stream. Thus there was a constant circulation of water held in +suspension, and also an expansion, as the steam, rushing outward from the +fiery core, formed an atmosphere of "fire-fog" condensed by contact with +outside space, returning again to the core to be reheated and perform an- +other cycle. Thus there were two kinds of water, and a division between +them, as stated in the Bible. The dense water was nearest the fiery core; +the expanded water or stream was on the outside. + + This also harmonizes with the scientific theory of modern times. First +the dark heat; then the glowing nebula; later the outside moisture and in- +side heat; and, finally incrustation. + + THE EARTH PERIOD. + + The Earth Period is next described, Before we take up its description, +however, we have to deal with the Recapitulations. The verses quoted and +the descriptions given will also correspond to the recapitulatory Periods. +Thus what is said of the Saturn Period describes also the condition of the +System when it emerges from any of the rest of the Periods. The descrip- +tions of the Saturn, Sun, and Moon Periods would therefore correspond to the +first three Revolutions of our present Earth Period, and the following would +correspond with conditions on Earth in the present Revolution. + + In the ninth verse, we read: "And Elohim said, Let the waters be divided +from the dry land. . . .and Elohim called the dry land Earth." This refers + + +[PAGE 330] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +to the first firm incrustation. Heat and moisture had generated the solid +body of our present Globe. + + THE POLARIAN EPOCH: The ninth verse, which describes the Earth Period in +this fourth Revolution (where the real Earth Period work commenced), also +describes the formation of the mineral kingdom and the Recapitulation by man +of the mineral stage in the Polarian Epoch. Each Epoch is also a Reca- +pitulation of the previous stage. Just as there are Recapitulations of +Globes, Revolutions, and Periods, so there are on each Globe, recapitula- +tions of all that has gone before. These Recapitulations are endless. +There is always a spiral within a spiral--in the atom, in the Globe, and in +all other phases of evolution. + + Complicated and bewildering as this may appear at first, it is really not +so difficult to understand. There is an orderly method running through it +all and in time one is able to perceive and follow the workings of this +method, as a clue leading through a maze. Analogy is one of the best helps +to an understanding of evolution. + + THE HYPERBOREAN EPOCH is described in verses 11 to 19, as the work of the +fourth day. It is here recorded that Elohim created the plant kingdom, the +Sun, the Moon, and the stars. + + The Bible agrees with the teaching of modern science that plants suc- +ceeded the mineral. The different between the two teachings is in regard to +the time when the Earth was thrown off from the central mass. Science as- +serts that it was before the formation of any incrustation which could be +called mineral and plant. If we mean such minerals and plants as we have +today, that assertion is correct. There was no dense material substance, +but nevertheless the first incrustation that took place in the central Sun +was mineral. The Bible narrator gives only the principal incidents. It is + + +[PAGE 331] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +not recorded that the incrustation melted when it was thrown off from the +central mass as a ring which broke, the fragments afterward coalescing. In +a body as small as our Earth, the time required for recrystallization was so +comparatively short that the historian does not mention it, nor the further +subsidiary fact that the melting process took place once more when the Moon +was thrown off from the Earth. He probably reasons that one who is entitled +to occult information is already in possession of such minor details as +those. + + The plants of the incrustation of the central fire-mist were ethereal, +therefore the melting processes did not destroy them. As the lines of force +along which the ice crystals form are present in the water, so when the +Earth crystallized, were those ethereal plant-forms present in it. They +were the molds which drew to themselves the dense material forming the +plant-bodies of the present day and also of the plant-forms of the past, +which are embedded in the geological strata of the Earth globe. + + These ethereal plant-forms were aided in the formation when the heat came +from outside, after the separation of the Earth from Sun and Moon. That +heat gave them the vital force to draw to themselves the denser substance. + + THE LEMURIAN EPOCH is described in the work of the fifth day. This Ep- +och, being the third, is in a sense a Recapitulation of the Moon Period, and +in the Biblical narrative we find described such conditions as obtained in +the Moon Period--water, fire-fog, and the first attempts at moving, breath- +ing life. + + Verses 20 and 21 tell us that "Elohim said, Let the waters bring forth +life-breathing things. . .and fowl. . . ; and Elohim formed the great am- +phibians and all life-breathing things according to their species, and + + +[PAGE 332] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +amphibians and all life-breathing things according to their species, and all +fowl with wings." + + This also harmonizes with the teaching of material science that the am- +phibians preceded the birds. + + The student is invited to note particularly that THE THINGS THAT WERE +FORMED WERE NOT LIFE. It does NOT say that Life was created, but "THINGS" +THAT BREATHE OR INHALE LIFE. . . .The Hebrew word for that which they inhale +is NEPHESH, and it should be carefully noted, as we shall meet it in a new +dress later. + + THE ATLANTEAN EPOCH is dealt with in the work of the sixth day. In verse +24 the creation of mammals is mentioned, and there the work NEPHESH again +occurs, explaining that the mammals "breathed life." "Elohim said, Let the +earth bring forth life-breathing things. . .mammals. . .;" and in verse 27, +"Elohim formed man in their likeness; male and female made they (Elohim) +like them." + + The Bible historian here omits the a-sexual and hermaphrodite human +stages and comes to the two separate sexes, as we know them now. He could +not do otherwise, as he is describing in the Atlantean Epoch, and by the +time that stage in evolution was reached there were neither sexless men nor +hermaphrodites, the differentiation of the sexes having taken place +earlier--in the Lemurian Epoch. That which afterward became man could +hardly be spoken of as man in the earlier stages of its development, as it +differed but little from the animals. Therefore the Bible narrator is doing +no violence to facts when he states that man was formed in the Atlantean E- +poch. + + In verse 28 (all versions) will be found a very small prefix, with a very +great significance: "Elohim said, Be fruitful and RE-plenish the earth." +This plainly shows that the scribe who wrote it was cognizant of the occult + + +[PAGE 333] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +teaching that the life wave had evolved here, on Globe D of the Earth Pe- +riod, in previous Revolutions. + + THE ARYAN EPOCH corresponds to the seventh day of Creation, when the +Elohim rested from their labors as Creators and Guides, and humanity had +been launched upon an independent career. + + This ends the story of the manner in which the Forms were produced. In +the following chapter the story is told from the point of view which deals a +little more with the Life side. + + JEHOVAH AND HIS MISSION + + There has been much learned discussion concerning the discrepancy be- +tween, and especially the authorship of the creation story of the first +chapter and that which starts at the fourth verse of the second chapter. It +is asserted that the two accounts were written by different men, because the +Being or Beings, the name of Whom the translators have rendered as "God" in +both the first and second chapters of the English version, are, in the He- +brew text, called "Elohim" in the first chapter, and "Jehovah" in the second +chapter, It is argued that the same narrator would have have named God in +two different ways. + + Had he meant the same God in both cases, he probably would not, but he +was not a monotheist. He knew better than to think of God as simply a supe- +rior Man, using the sky for a throne and the earth for a footstool. When he +wrote of Jehovah he meant the Leader Who had charge of the particular part +of the work of Creation which was then being described. Jehovah was and is +one of the Elohim. He is the Leader of the Angels who were the humanity of +the Moon Period and He is Regent of our Moon. The reader is referred to + + +[PAGE 334] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +diagram 14 for an accurate understanding of the position and constitution of +Jehovah. + + As Regent of Our Moon, He has charge of the degenerate, evil Beings +there, and He also rules the Angels. With Him are some of the Archangels, +who were the humanity of the Sun Period. They are the "Race-Spirits". + + It is the work of Jehovah to build concrete bodies or forms, by means of +the hardening, crystallizing Moon forces. Therefore He is the giver of +children and the Angels are His messengers in this work. It is well know to +physiologists that the Moon is connected with gestation; at least, they have +observed that it measures and governs the period of intra-uterine life and +other physiological functions. +[PAGE 334 cont'd] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + The Archangels, as Spirits and Leaders of a Race, are known to fight for +or against a people, as the exigencies of the evolution of that Race demand. +In Daniel x:20 an Archangel speaking to Daniel, says, "And now will I return +to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince +of Grecia shall come." + + The Archangel Michael is the Race-spirit of the Jews (Daniel xii:1), but +JEHOVAH IS NOT THE GOD OF THE JEWS ALONE; HE IS THE AUTHOR OF ALL +RACE-RELIGIONS WHICH LED UP TO CHRISTIANITY. Nevertheless, it is true that +He did take a special interest in the progenitors of the present degenerate +Jews--the Original Semites, the "seed-race" for the seven races of the Aryan +Epoch. Jehovah, of course, takes special care of a seed-race, in which are +to be inculcated the embryonic faculties of the humanity of a new Epoch. +For that reason He was particularly concerned with the Original Semites. +They were His "chosen people"--chosen to be the seed for a new Race, which + + +[PAGE 335] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +was to inherit the "Promised Land"--not merely insignificant Palestine, but +the entire Earth, as it is at present. + + He did not lead them out of Egypt. That story originated with their de- +scendants and is a confused account of their journey eastward through flood +and disaster out of the doomed Atlantis into the "wilderness" (the Desert of +Gobi in Central Asia), there to wander during the cabalistic forty years, +until they could enter the Promised Land. There is a double and peculiar +significance to the descriptive word "promised" in this connection. The +land was called the "promised Land" because, as land or earth suitable for +human occupation, it did not exist at the time the "chosen people" were led +into the "wilderness." Part of the Earth had been submerged by floods and +other parts changed by volcanic eruptions, hence it was necessary that a pe- +riod of time elapse before the new Earth was in a fit condition to become +the possession of the Aryan Race. + + The Original Semites were set apart and forbidden to marry into other +tribes or peoples, but they were a stiff-necked and hard people, being yet +led almost exclusively by desire and cunning, therefore they disobeyed the +command. Their Bible records that the sons of God married the daughters of +man--the lower grades of their Atlantean compatriots. They thus frustrated +the designs of Jehovah and were cast off, the fruit of such cross-breeding +being useless as seed for the coming Race. + + These cross-breeds were the progenitors of the present Jews, who now +speak of "lost tribes." They know that some of the original number left +them and went another way, but they do not know that those were the few who +remained true. The story of the ten tribes being lost is a fable. Most of +them perished, but the faithful ones survived, and from that faithful + + +[PAGE 336] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +remnant have descended the present Aryan Races. + + The contention of the opponents of the Bible, that it is a mere mutila- +tion of the original writings, is cheerfully agreed to by occult science. +Parts of it are even conceded to be entire fabrications and no attempt is +made to prove its authenticity as a whole, in the form we now have it. The +present effort is simply an attempt to exhume a few kernels of occult truth +from the bewildering mass of misleading and incorrect interpretations under +which they have been buried by the various translators and revisors. + + INVOLUTION, EVOLUTION AND EPIGENESIS + + Having in the foregoing paragraphs disentangled from the general confu- +sion the identity and mission of Jehovah, it may be that we can now find +harmony in the two seemingly contradictory accounts of the creation of man, +as recorded in the first and second chapters of Genesis, in the first of +which it is written that he was the last, and in the second that he was the +first created of all living things. + + We note that he first chapter deals chiefly with the creation of Form, +the second chapter is devoted to the consideration of Life, while the fifth +chapter deals with the Consciousness. They key to the meaning, then, is +that we must differentiate sharply between the physical Form, and the Life +that builds that Form for its own expression. Although the order of the +creation of the other kingdoms is not as correctly given in the second chap- +ter as in the first, it is true that if we consider man from the Life Side, +he was created FIRST, but if we consider him from the standpoint of Form, as +is done in the first chapter, he was created LAST. + + All through the course of evolution--through Periods, Globes, Revolutions + + +[PAGE 337] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +and Races--those who do not improve by the formation of NEW characteristics +are held back and immediately begin to degenerate. Only that which remains +plastic and pliable and adaptable for molding into new Forms suitable for +the expression of the expanding consciousness; only the Life which is ca- +pable of outgrowing the possibilities for improvement inhering in the forms +it ensouls, can evolve with the pioneers of any life wave. All else must +straggle on behind. + + This is the kernel of the occult teaching. Progress is not simply +unfoldment; not simply Involution and Evolution. There is a third factor, +making a triad--Involution, Evolution, AND--EPIGENESIS. + + The first two words are familiar to all who have studied Life and Form, +but while it is generally admitted that the involution of spirit into matter +takes place in order that form may be built, it is not so commonly recog- +nized that THE INVOLUTION OF SPIRIT RUNS SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE EVOLUTION OF +FORM. + + From the very beginning of the Saturn Period up to the time in the +Atlantean Epoch when "man's eyes were opened" by the Lucifer Spirits, and as +a consequence the activities of man--or the Life-force which has become +man--were chiefly directed inward; that very same force which he now sends +out from himself to build railways, steamboats, etc., was used internally in +building a vehicle through which to manifest himself. This vehicle is +threefold, like the spirit which built it. + + The same power by which man is now improving outside conditions was used +during Involution for purposes of internal growth. + + The Form was built by Evolution, the Spirit built and entered it by + + +[PAGE 338] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Involution; but the means for devising improvements is Epigenesis. + + There is a strong tendency to regard all that is, as the result of some- +thing that has been; all improvements on previously existing forms, as being +present in all forms as latencies; to regard Evolution as simply the unfold- +ing of germinal improvements. Such a conception excludes Epigenesis from +the scheme of things. It allows no possibility for the building of anything +new, no scope for originality. + + The occultist believes the purpose of evolution to be the development of +man from a static to a dynamic God--a Creator. If the development he is at +present undergoing is to be his education and if, during its progress, he is +simply unfolding latent actualities, where does He learn to CREATE? + + If man's development consists solely in learning to build better and bet- +ter Forms, according to MODELS already existing in his Creator's mind, be +can become, at best, only a good IMITATOR--never a CREATOR. + + In order that he may become an independent, original Creator, it is nec- +essary that his training should include sufficient latitude for the exercise +of the individual originality which distinguishes creation from imitation. +So long as certain features of the old Form meet the requirements of pro- +gression they are retained, but at each rebirth the evolving Life adds such +original improvements as are necessary for its further expression. + + The pioneers of science are constantly brought face to face with +Epigenesis as a fact in all departments of nature. As early as 1759, Caspar +Wolff published his "Theoria Generationis," in which he shows that in the +human ovum there is absolutely no trace of the coming organism; that its + + +[PAGE 339] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +evolution consists of the addition of NEW formations; a building of some- +thing which is not latent in the ovum. + + Haeckel (that great and fearless student of nature as he sees it, and +very near to knowledge of the complete truth regarding evolution) says of +the "Theoria Generationis": "Despite its small compass and difficult termi- +nology, it is one of the most valuable works in the whole literature of bi- +ology." + + Haeckel's own views we find thus stated in his "Anthropogenie": +"Nowadays we are hardly justified in calling Epigenesis an hypothesis, as we +have fully convinced ourselves of its being a FACT and are able at any mo- +ment to demonstrate it by the help of the microscope." + + A builder would be but a sorry craftsman were his abilities limited to +the building of houses after only one particular model, which, during his +apprenticeship, his master had taught him to imitate, but which he is unable +to later to meet new requirements. To be successful he must be capable of +designing new and better houses, improving that which experience teaches was +not serviceable in the earlier buildings. The same force which the builder +now directs outward to built houses better adapted to new conditions was +used in past Periods to build new and better vehicles for the evolution of +the Ego. + + Starting with the simplest organisms, the Life which now Man built the +Form to suit its necessities. In due time, as the entity progressed; it be- +come evident that new improvements must be added which conflicted with the +lines previously followed. A new start must be given it in a new species, +where it could retrieve any previous mistakes which experience taught would +preclude further development if the old lines were adhered to and thus the + + +[PAGE 340] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +evolving life would be enabled to progress further in a new species. When +later experience proved that the new form also was inadequate, inasmuch as +it could not adapt itself to some improvement necessary to the progress of +the evolving life, it too was discarded and still another departure made, in +a form adaptable to the necessary improvement. + + Thus by successive steps does the evolving Life improve its vehicles, and +the improvements is still going on. Man, who is in the vanguard of +progress, has built his bodies, from the similitude of the amoeba up to the +human form of the savage, and from that up through the various grades until +the most advanced races are now using the best and most highly organized +bodies on Earth. Between deaths and rebirths we are constantly building +bodies in which to function during our lives and a far greater degree of ef- +ficiency than the present will yet be reached. If we make mistakes in +building between lives, they become evident when we are using the body in +Earth life, and it is well for us if we are able to perceive and realize our +mistakes, that we may avoid making them afresh life after life. + + But just as the builder of houses would lag commercially if he did not +constantly improve his methods to meet the exigencies of his business, so +those who persistently adhere to the old forms fail to rise above the spe- +cies and are left behind, as stragglers. These stragglers take the form +outgrown by the pioneers, as previously explained, and they compose the +lower Races and species of any kingdom in which they are evolving. As the +Life which is now Man passed through stages analagous to the mineral, plant, +and animal kingdoms and through the lower human Races, stragglers were left +all along the way who had failed to reach the necessary standard to keep + + +[PAGE 341] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +abreast of the crestwave of evolution. They took the discarded Forms of the +pioneers and used them as stepping-stones, by means of which they tried to +overtake the others, but the advanced Forms did not stand still. In the +progress of Evolution there is no halting-place. In evolving Life, as in +commerce, there is no such thing as MERELY "holding your own." Progression +or Retrogression is the Law. The Form that is not capable of further +improvement must Degenerate. + + Therefore there is one line of IMPROVING forms ensouled by the pioneers +of the evolving Life, and another line of degerating forms, outgrown by the +pioneers, but ensouled by the stragglers, as long as there are any strag- +glers of that particular life wave to which those forms originally belonged. + + When there are no more stragglers, the species gradually dies out. The +Forms have been crystallized beyond the possibility of being improved by +tenants of increasing inability. They therefore return to the mineral king- +dom, fossilize and are added to the different strata of the Earth's crust. + + The assertion of material science that man has ascended through the dif- +ferent kingdoms of plant and animal which exist about us now to anthropoid +and thence to man, is not quite correct. Man has never inhabited forms +identical with those of our present-day animals, nor the present-day anthro- +poid species; but he has inhabited forms which were similar to but HIGHER +than those of the present anthropoids. + + The scientist sees that there is an anatomical likeness between man and +the monkey, and as the evolutionary impulse always makes from improvement, +he concludes that man must have descended from the monkey, but he is always + + +[PAGE 342] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +baffled in his efforts to find the "missing link" connecting the two. + + From the point where the pioneers of our life wave (The Aryan Races) oc- +cupied ape-like forms, they have PROGRESSED to their present stage of devel- +opment, while the Forms (which were the "missing link") have DEGENERATED and +are now ensouled by the last stragglers of the Saturn Period. + + The lower monkeys, instead of being the progenitors of the higher spe- +cies, are stragglers occupying the most degenerated specimens of what was +once the human form. Instead of man having ascended from the anthropoids, +the reverse is true--the anthropoids have degenerated from man. Material +science, dealing only with Form, has thus misled itself and drawn erroneous +conclusions in this matter. + + The same relative conditions are to be found in the animal kingdom. The +pioneers of the life wave which entered evolution in the Sun pioneers are +our present-day mammals. The different grades correspond to the steps once +taken by man, but THE FORMS ARE ALL DEGENERATING UNDER THE MANAGEMENT OF THE +STRAGGLERS. Similarly, the pioneers of the life wave which entered evolu- +tion in the Moon pioneers are found among the fruit tress, while the strag- +glers of that life wave ensoul all other plant forms. + + Each life wave, however remains definitely confined within its own bor- +ders. The anthropoids may overtake us and become human beings, but no other +animals will reach our particular point of development. They will reach a +similar stage, but under different conditions, in the Jupiter Period. The +present plants will be the humanity of the Venus Period, under a still +greater difference of condition, and our minerals will reach the human stage +under the conditions of the Vulcan Period. + + +[PAGE 343] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + + It will be noted that the modern evolutionary theory particularly that +of Haeckel, would, if it were completely reversed, be in almost perfect ac- +cord with the knowledge of occult science. + + The monkey has degenerated from the man. + + The polyps are the last degeneration left behind by the mammals. + + The mosses are the lowest degenerations of the plant kingdom. + + The mineral kingdom is the final goal of the forms of all the kingdoms +when they have reached the acme of degeneration. + + A corroboration of this is found in coal, which was once vegetable or +plant forms; also in petrified wood and fossilized remains of various animal +forms. Common stone or rock, which no scientist would admit had it origin +in another kingdom, is to the occult investigator as truly mineralized +plants as coal itself. The mineralogist will learnedly explain that it is +composed of hornblende, feldspar, and mica, but the trained clairvoyant, who +can trace it back in the memory of Nature, through millions of years, can +supplement that statement by adding: Yes, and that which you call +hornblende and feldspar are the leaves and stems of prehistoric flowers, and +the mica is all that remains of their petals. + + The occult teaching of evolution is also corroborated by the science of +embryology in the ante-natal recapitulation of all past stages of develop- +ment. The difference between the ovum of a human being and of some of the +higher mammals, and even of the higher developments in the plant kingdom, is +indistinguishable, even under the microscope. Experts are unable to tell +which is animal and which is human. Even after several of the initial + + +[PAGE 344] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +ante-natal stages have been passed through the experts cannot differentiate +between and animal and human embryo. + + But if the animal ovum is studied through the entire period of gestation, +it will be observed that it passes through the mineral and plant stages +only, and is born when it reaches the animal stage. This is because the +Life ensouling such an ovum passed through its mineral evolution in the Sun +Period, its plant life in the Moon Period, and is now forced to stop at the +animal stage in the Earth Period. + + On the other hand, the Life which uses the human ovum had its mineral ex- +istence in the Saturn Period, its plant existence in the Sun Period passed +the animal stage in the Moon Period, has still some scope for Epigenesis af- +ter it has reached the animal stage and therefore goes on to the human--nor +does it stop there. The father and mother give the substance of their bod- +ies for the building of the child's body, but, particularly in the higher +races. Epigenesis makes it possible to add something which makes the child +different from the parents. + + Where Epigenesis is inactive in the individual, family, nation, or +Race--there evolution ceases and degeneration commences. + + A LIVING SOUL? + + Thus the two Creation stories harmonize very well. + + One deals with Form, which was built up through mineral, plant and animal +and reached the human LAST. + + The other tells us that Life which now ensouls human forms was manifested +anterior to the Life which ensouls the forms of the other kingdoms. + + One of these accounts of Creation would not have been sufficient. There +are important particulars hidden behind the narrative of man's creation, in + + +[PAGE 345] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +the second chapter; the verse reads: "The Jehovah formed man from the dust +of the Earth, and blew into his nostrils the breath (NEPHESH), and man be- +come a breathing creature (NEPHESH CHAYIM)." + + In other places in the King James version NEPHESH is translated "life," +but in this particular instance (Gen. ii.7) it is rendered "living soul," +thus conveying the idea that there was a distinction made between the life +that ensouled the human form and that which ensouled inferior creations. +There is no authority whatever for this difference in translation, which is +purely arbitrary. The life-breath (NEPHESH) is the same man and beast. +This can be shown even to those who stand firmly upon the Bible as author- +ity, for even the King James version distinctly states (Eccles. iii:19,20): +". . .as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they all have one breath +(NEPHESH); so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast:. . .All go unto +one place." + + The animals are but our "younger brothers," and though they are not now +so finely organized, they will eventually reach a state as high as our own, +and we shall then have ascended higher. + + It is contended that MAN received his soul in the way described in this +seventh verse of the second chapter of Genesis, and that he could have re- +ceived it in no other way, it is pertinent to ask where and how WOMAN re- +ceived her soul? + + The meaning of the chapter, and of the inspiration of the breath of life +by Jehovah, is very plain and clear when we use the occult key, and it has +the further and immense advantage of being logical. + + The fact that the Regent of the Moon (Jehovah), with His Angels and + + +[PAGE 346] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Archangels, were the principals in this action fixes the time when this cre- +ation occurred. It was between the early and the middle parts of the +Lemurian Epoch, and must have been after the Moon was thrown out from the +Earth, because Jehovah had nothing to do with the generation of bodies be- +fore the Moon was thrown off. The forms were then more ethereal. There +were no dense and concrete bodies. It is possible to make such bodies only +by means of the hardening and crystallizing Moon-forces, It must have been +in the first half of the Lemurian Epoch, because the separation of the +sexes, which is recorded later, took place in the middle of that epoch. + + At that time man-in-the-making had not yet commenced to breathe by means +of lungs. He had the gill-like apparatus still present in the human embryo +while passing through the stage of ante-natal life corresponding to that Ep- +och. He had no warm, red blood, for at that stage there was no individual +spirit, the entire form was soft and pliable and the skeleton soft like car- +tilage. Before the later date, when it became necessary to separate human- +ity into sexes, the skeleton had grown firm and solid. + + The work done by Jehovah was to build dense, hard bone substance into the +soft bodies already existing. Previous to this time, i.e., during the +Polarian and Hyperborean Epochs, neither animal nor man had bones. + + ADAM'S RIB + + The grotesque and impossible manner in which the separation of the sexes +is said to have been accomplished (as described in the common versions of +the Bible and, in this particular case, in the Masoretic text also) is an- +other example of what may be dome by changing vowels in the old Hebrew text. + + +[PAGE 347] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +Read in one way, the work is "rib"; but in another, which has at least as +good claim to consideration, with the additional advantage of being +common-sense, it reads "side." If we interpret this to mean that man was +male-female and that Jehovah caused one side or sex in each being to remain +latent, we shall not be doing violence to our reason, as we would be accept- +ing the "rib" story. + + When this alternation is made, the occult teaching as previously given +harmonizes with that of the Bible and both agree with the teaching of modern +science that man was bi-sexual at one time, before he developed one sex at +the expense of the other. In corroboration of this, it is pointed out that +the foetus is bi-sexual up to a certain point; there-after one sex pre- +dominates, while the other remains in abeyance, so that each person still +has the opposite sex organs in a rudimentary form and therefore is really +bi-sexual, as was primitive man. + + Apparently the Bible narrator does not wish to give, in this second cre- +ation account, an accurate picture of the whole of evolution, but rather to +particularize a little more what was said in the first chapter. He tells us +that man did not always breathe as he does now; that there was a time when +he was not separated into sexes; and that it was Jehovah Who effected the +change, thus fixing the time of the occurrence. As we proceed, it will be +found that much further information is given. + + GUARDIAN ANGELS + + During the earlier Epochs and Periods the great creative Hierarchies had +worked upon humanity as it was uncommonly evolving. There had been only ONE + + +[PAGE 348] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +COMMON CONSCIOUSNESS among ALL human beings; one group-spirit for all man- +kind, as it were. + + In the Lemurian Epoch a new step was taken. Bodies had been definitely +formed, but they must have warm, red blood before they could be ensouled and +become the abode of indwelling spirits. + + In nature no process is sudden. We would get a wrong idea were we to +imagine that air blown into the nostrils could put a soul into an image of +clay and galvanize it into life as a sentient, thinking being. + + The individual spirit was very weak and impotent and quite unfitted for +the task of guiding its dense vehicle. In that respect it is not yet very +strong. To any qualified observer, it is evident that the desire body rules +the personality more than does the spirit, even at our present stage of ad- +vancement. But in the middle of the Lemurian Epoch, when the lower +personality--the threefold body---was to be endowed with the light of the +Ego, the latter, if left to itself, would have been absolutely powerless to +guide its instrument. + + Therefore it is necessary for someone much more highly evolved to help +the individual spirit and gradually prepare the way for its complete union +with its instruments. It was analogous to a new nation, over which, until +it becomes capable of forming a stable government for itself, some stronger +power establishes a protectorate, guarding it alike from external dangers +and internal indiscretions. Such a protectorate was exercised over evolving +humanity by the Race-spirit, and is exercised over the animals by the +group-spirit, in a somewhat different way. + + Jehovah is the Most High. He is Race-God, as one might express it, hav- +ing dominion over all Form. He is the Chief Ruler and the highest Power in + + +[PAGE 349] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + + +maintaining the form and exercising an orderly government over it. The +Archangels are the Race-spirits, each having dominion over a certain group +of people. They also have dominion over animals, while the Angels have do- +minion over the plants. + + The Archangels have dominion over races or groups of people and also over +the animals, for these two kingdoms have desire bodies and the Archangels +are expert architects of desire matter, because in the Sun Period the dens- +est globe was composed of that materials, and the humanity of that period, +who are now Archangels, learned to build their densest vehicles of desire +staff as we are now learning to build our bodies of the chemical elements +whereof our Earth-globe is composed. Thus it will be readily understood +that the Archangels are peculiarly qualified to help later life waves +through the stage where they learn to build and control a desire body. + + For analogous reasons the Angels work in the vital bodies of man, animal +and plant. Their densest bodies are composed of other and so was the Globe +D in the Moon Period when they were human. + + Jehovah and His Archangels, therefore, hold a similar relation to Races +that the group-spirit does to animals. When individual members of a Race +have evolved entire self-control and government, they are emancipated from +the influence of the Race-spirit and kindred beings. + + As we have seen, the point of vantage of the group-spirit, as of any Ego +in the dense body, is in the blood. The Masoretic text shows that this +knowledge was possessed by the writer of Leviticus. In the fourteenth verse +of the seventeenth chapter the Jews are prohibited from eating blood because +". . .the soul of ALL flesh is in the blood. . . ;" and in the eleventh + + +[PAGE 350] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +verse of the same chapter we find these words: ". . .for the soul of the +flesh is in the blood. . .the blood itself mediates for the soul," which +shows that this applies to both man and beast, for the word here used in the +Hebrew is NESHAMAH and means "soul"--not "life," as it is rendered in the +King James version. + + The Ego works directly through the blood. The Race-spirit guides the +Races by working in the blood, as the group-spirit guides the animals of its +species through the blood. So also does the Ego control its own vehicle, +but with a difference. + + The Ego operates by means of the HEAT of the blood, while the Race (i.e., +tribal, or family) spirit works by means of the AIR, as it is drawn into the +lungs. That is why Jehovah, or His messengers, "breathed into man's nos- +trils," thereby securing admission for the Race-spirit, Community-spirits, +etc. + + The different classes of Race-spirits guided their peoples to various +climates and different parts of the Earth. To the trained clairvoyant, a +tribal-spirit appears as a cloud enveloping and permeating the atmosphere of +the whole country inhabited by the people under its dominion. Thus are +produced the different peoples and nations. Paul spoke of "The Prince of +the Power of the Air"; or "principalities and powers," etc., showing that he +knew of the Race-spirits, but now not even an attempt is made to understand +what they mean, although their influence is strongly felt. Patriotism is +one of the sentiments emanating from and fostered by them. It has not now +so much power over people as formerly. There are some who are being liber- +ated from the Race-spirit and can say with Thomas Paine, "The world is my +country." There are those who can leave father and mother and look upon + + +[PAGE 351] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +all men as brothers. They are being liberated from the Family-spirit, or +spirit of the Clan which is different from the race-spirit, an etheric en- +tity. Others again, who are deep in the toil of the Race or Family spirit, +will suffer the most dreadful depression if they leave home or country and +breathe the air of another Race of Family spirit. + + At the time of the Race-spirit entered human bodies the individualized +Ego commenced to get some slight control of its vehicles. Each human entity +became more and more conscious of being separate and distinct from other +men, yet for ages he did not think of himself PRIMARILY as an individual, +but as belonging to a tribe or family. The affix "son" to many present day +surnames is a remnant of this feeling. A man was not simply "John," or +"James." He was John RobertSON, or James WilliamSON. In some countries a +woman was not "Mary," or "Martha." She was Mary Marthasdaughter, Martha +Marys daughter. The custom was continued in some European countries until +within a few generations of the present time; the "son" affix remains with +us yet and the family name is still much honored. + + Among the Jews, even down to the time of Christ, the Race-spirit was +stronger than the individual spirit. Every Jew thought of himself FIRST as +belonging to a certain tribe or family. His proudest boast was that he was +of the "Seed of Abraham." All this was the work of the Race-spirit. + + Previous to the advent of Jehovah, when the Earth was yet a part of the +Sun, there was one common group-spirit, composed of all the creative Hierar- +chies, which controlled the entire human family, but it was intended that +each body should be the temple and pliable instrument of an indwelling + + +[PAGE 352] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +spirit and that meant an infinite division of rulership. + + Jehovah come with His Angel and Archangels and made the first great divi- +sion into Races, giving to each group the guiding influence of a +Race-spirit--an Archangel. For each Ego He appointed one of the Angels to +act as guardian until the individual spirit had grown strong enough to be- +come emancipated from all outside influence. + + MIXING BLOOD IN MARRIAGE + + Christ came to prepare the way for the emancipation of humanity from the +guidance of differentiating Race- and Family-spirit, and to unite the whole +human family in One Universal Brotherhood. + + He taught that "Abraham's seed" referred to the BODIES only, and called +their attention to the fact that before Abraham lived (the) "I"--the +Ego--was in existence. The threefold individual spirit had its being before +all Tribes and Races and it will remain when they have passed away and even +the memory of them is no more. + + The threefold spirit in man, the Ego, is the God within, whom the per- +sonal, bodily man must learn to follow. Therefore did Christ say that, to +be His disciple, a man must forsake all he had. His teaching points to the +emancipation of the God within. He calls upon man to exercise his pre- +rogative as an individual and rise above family, tribe, and nation. Not +that he is to disregard kin and country. He must fulfill all duties, but he +is to cease identifying himself with part and must recognize an equal kin- +ship with ALL the world. That is the ideal given to mankind by the Christ. + + Under the rule of the Race-spirit, the nation, tribe or family was con- +sidered first--the individual last. The family must be kept intact. If any + + +[PAGE 353] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +man dies without leaving offspring to perpetuate his name, his brother must +"carry seed" to the widow, that there might be no dying out (Due. XXV:5-10). +Marrying out of the family was regarded with horror in the earliest times. +A member of one tribe could not become connected with another without losing +caste in his own. It was not an easy matter to become a member of another +family. Not only among the Jews and other early nations was the integrity +of the family insisted upon, but also in more modern times. As previously +mentioned, the Scots, even in comparatively recent times, clung tenaciously +to their Clan, and the old Norse Vikings would take no one into their +families without first "mixing blood" with him, for the spiritual effects of +haemolysis, which are unknown to material science, were known of old. + + All these customs resulted from the working of Race- and tribal-spirit in +the common blood. To admit as a member one in whom that common blood did +not flow would have caused "confusion of caste." The closer the inbreeding, +the greater the power of the Race-spirit, and the stronger the ties that +bound the individual to the tribe, because the vital force of the man is in +his blood. Memory is intimately connected with the blood, which is the +highest expression of the vital body. + + The brain and the nervous system are the highest expression of the desire +body. They call up pictures of the outside world, but in mental +image-making, i.e., imagination, the blood brings the material for the pic- +tures; therefore when the thought is active the blood flows to the head. + + When the same unmixed strain of blood flows in the veins of a family for +generations, the same mental pictures made by great-grandfather, + + +[PAGE 354] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +grandfather and father are reproduced in the son by the family-spirit which +lived in the haemoglobin of the blood. He sees himself as the continuation +of a long line of ancestors who LIVE IN HIM. He sees all the events of the +past lives of the family as though he had been present, therefore he does +not realize himself as an Ego. He is not simply "David,: but "the SON of +Abraham"; not "Joseph," but "the SON of David." + + By means of this common blood men are said to have LIVED for many gen- +erations, because through the blood their descendants had access to the +memory of nature, in which the records of the lives of their ancestors were +preserved. That is why, in the fifth chapter of Genesis, it is stated that +the patriarchs lived for centuries. Adam, Methuselah and the other patri- +archs did not PERSONALLY attain to such great age, but they lived in the +consciousness of their descendants, who saw the lives of their ancestors as +if THEY had lived them. After the expiration of the period stated, the de- +scendants did not think of themselves as Adam or Methuselah. Memory of +those ancestors faded and so it is said they died. + + The "second sight" of the Scotch Highlanders shows that be means of en- +dogamy the consciousness of the inner World is retained. They have prac- +ticed marrying in the Clan until recent times; also in Gipsies, who always +marry in the tribe. The smaller the tribe and the closer the inbreeding, +the more pronounced is the "sight." + + The earlier Races would not have dared to disobey the injunction issued +by the tribal God, not to marry outside of the tribe, nor had they any in- +clination to do so, for they had no mind of their own. + + The Original Semites were the first to evolve Will, and they at once mar- +ried the daughters of the men of other tribes, frustrating temporarily the + + +[PAGE 355] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +design of their Race-spirit and being promptly ejected as evil-doers who had +"gone a-whoring after strange gods," thereby rendering themselves unfit to +give the "seed" for the seven Races of our present Aryan Epoch. The +Original Semites were, for the time being, the last Race that the +Race-spirit cared to keep separate. + + Later, man was given free will. The time had come when he was to be pre- +pared for individualization. The former "common" consciousness, the invol- +untary clairvoyance or second-sight which constantly held before a tribesman +the pictures of his ancestor's lives and caused him to feel most closely +identified with the tribe or family, was to be replaced for a time by a +strictly individual consciousness confined to the material world, so as to +break up the nations into individuals, that the Brotherhood of Man regard- +less of exterior circumstances may become a fact. This is on the same prin- +ciple that if we have a number of buildings and wish to make them into one +large structure, it is necessary to break them up into separate bricks. +Only then can the large building be constructed. + + In order to accomplish this separation of nations into individuals, laws +were given which prohibited endogamy or marriage in the family and hence- +forth incestuous marriages gradually came to be regarded with horror. +Strange blood has thus been introduced into all the families of the Earth +and it has gradually wiped out the involuntary clairvoyance which promoted +the clannish feeling and segregated humanity into groups. Altruism is su- +perseding patriotism, and loyalty to the family is disappearing in conse- +quence of the mixture of blood. + + Science has lately discovered that haemolysis results from the + + +[PAGE 356] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +inoculation of the blood of one individual into the veins of another of a +different species, causing the death of the lower of the two. Thus any +animal inoculated with the blood of a man dies. The blood of a dog trans- +fused into the veins of a bird kills the bird, but it will not hurt the dog +to have the bird's blood inoculated into its veins. Science merely states +the fact, the occult scientist gives the reason. The blood is the vantage +ground of the spirit, as shown elsewhere. The Ego in man works in its own +vehicles by means of the HEAT of the blood; the race, family or community +spirit gains entrance to the blood by means of the AIR we inspire. In the +animals are also both the separate spirit of the animal and the group-spirit +of the species to which it belongs, but the spirit of the animal is not in- +dividualized and does not work self-consciously with its vehicles as does +the Ego, hence it is altogether dominated by the group-spirit which works in +the blood. + + When the blood of a higher animal is inoculated into the veins of one +from a lower species, the spirit in the blood of the higher animal is of +course stronger than the spirit of the less evolved; hence when it endeavors +to assert itself it kills the imprisoning form and liberates itself. When, +on the other hand, the blood of a lower species is inoculated into the veins +of a higher animal, the higher spirit is capable of ousting the less evolved +spirit in the strange blood and assimilating the blood to its own purposes, +therefore no visible catastrophe ensues. + + The group-spirit always aims to preserve the integrity of its domain in +the blood of the species under its charge. Like the human Race-God, it re- +sents the marriage of its subjects into other species and visits the sins of +the fathers upon the children as we see in the case of hybrids. Where a +horse and a donkey produce a mule for instance, the mixture of strange blood + + +[PAGE 357] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +destroys the propagative faculty so as not to perpetuate the hybrid which is +an abomination from the standpoint of the group-spirit, for the mule is not +so definitely under the dominion of the group-spirit of the horses or of the +group-spirit of the donkeys as the pure breed, yet it is not so far away as +to be entirely exempt from their influence. If two mules could mate, their +offspring would be still less under the dominion of either of these +group-spirits, and so a new species WITHOUT A GROUP-SPIRIT would result. +That would be anomaly in nature, an impossibility until the separate +animal-spirits should have become sufficiently evolved to be +SELF-SUFFICIENT. Such a species, could it be produced, would be without the +guiding instinct, so-called, which is in reality the promptings of the +group-spirit; they would be in an analogous position to a litter of kittens +removed from the mother's womb prior to birth. They could not possibly +shift for themselves, so they would die. + + Therefore, as it is the group-spirit of the animals that sends the +separate spirits of the animals into embodiment, it simply withholds the +fertilizing seed-atom when animals of widely differing species are mated. +It permits one of its charges to take advantage of an opportunity for +re-embodiment where two animals of nearly the same nature are mated, but re- +fuses to let the hybrids perpetuate themselves. Thus we see that the infu- +sion of strange blood weakens the hold of the group-spirit and that there- +fore it either destroys the FORM or the propagative FACULTY where it has the +power. + + The human spirit is individualized, an Ego, it is evolving free will and +responsibility. It is drawn to birth by the irresistible law of Conse- +quence, so that it is beyond the power of the race, community or family +spirit to keep it from returning at the present stage of human development, + + +[PAGE 358] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +and by the admixture of strange blood, by intermarriage of the individuals +of different tribes or nations, the leaders of man are gradually helping him +to oust the family, tribal or national spirit from the blood, but with it +has necessarily gone the involuntary clairvoyance which was due to its work- +ing in the blood, whereby it fostered the family traditions in its charges, +and so we see that ALSO IN THE CASE OF MAN A FACULTY WAS DESTROYED BY THE +MIXTURE OF BLOOD. That loss was a gain, however, for it has concentrated +man's energy on the material world and he is better able to master its les- +sons that if he were still distracted by the visions of the higher realms. + + As man becomes emancipated he gradually ceases to think of himself as +"Abraham's Seed," as a "Clan Stewart Man," as a "Brahmin" or a "Levite": he +is learning to think more of himself as an individual an "I". The more he +cultivates that "Self," the more he frees himself from the family and na- +tional spirit in the blood, the more he becomes self-sufficient citizen of +the world. + + There is much foolish, even dangerous, take of giving up the Self to the +Not-Self; only when we have cultivated a "Self," can we sacrifice ourselves +and give up the SELF to the WHOLE. So long as we can only love our own fam- +ily or nation we are incapable of loving others. We are bound by the tie of +kin and country. When we have burst the tie of blood and ASSERTED OURSELVES +and become self-sufficient may we become unselfish helpers of humanity. +When a man has reached that stage he will find that, instead of having lost +his own family, he has gained all the families in the world, for they will +have become his sisters and brothers, his fathers and mothers to care for +and help. + + Then he will regain the viewpoint of the Spiritual World which he lost by + + +[PAGE 359] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +the mixing of blood, but it will be a higher faculty an intelligent, volun- +tary clairvoyance where he can see what HE wills and not merely the negative +faculty imprinted in his blood by the family spirit which bound him to the +family to the exclusion of all other families. His viewpoint will be uni- +versal, to be used for universal good. + + For aforementioned reasons, intertribal, and later international, mar- +riages came gradually to be regarded as desirable and preferable to close +intermarriages. + + As man progressed through these stages, and gradually lost touch with the +inner world, he sorrowed over the loss and longer for a return of the "in- +ner" vision. But by degrees he forgot, and the material world gradually +loomed up before his mind as the only reality, until at last he has come to +scout the idea that such inner Worlds exist and to regard a belief in them +as foolish superstition. + + The four causes contributing to this condition were: + + (1) The clearing of the foggy atmosphere of the Atlantean continent. + + (2) The indrawing of the vital body, so that a point at the root of the +nose corresponds to a similar point in the vital body. + + (3) The elimination of inbreeding and the substitution therefore of mar- +riages outside the family and tribe. + + (4) The use of intoxicants. + + The Race-spirits still exist in and work with man, but the more advanced +nation, the more freedom is given the individual. In countries where people +are most fettered, the Race-spirit is strongest. The more in harmony a man +is with the law of Love, and the higher his ideals, the more he frees him- +self from the spirit of the Races. Patriotism, while good in itself, is a + + +[PAGE 360] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +tie of the Race-spirit. The ideal of Universal Brotherhood, which identi- +fies itself with neither country nor race, is the only path which leads to +emancipation. + + Christ came to reunite the separated races in bonds of peace and good +will, wherein all will willingly and CONSCIOUSLY follow the law of Love. + + The present Christianity is not even a shadow of the true religion of +Christ. That will remain in abeyance until all race feeling shall have been +overcome. In the Sixth Epoch there will be but one Universal Brotherhood, +under the Leadership of the RETURNED Christ, but the day and the hour no man +knows, for it is not fixed, but depends upon how soon a sufficient number of +people shall have commenced to live the life of Fellowship and Love, which +is to be the hall-mark of the new dispensation. + + THE FALL OF MAN + + In connection with the analysis of Genesis, a few more words must be said +about "The Fall," which is the backbone and sinew of popular Christianity. +Had there been no "Fall," there would have been no need for the "plan of +salvation." + + When, in the middle of the Lemurian Epoch, the separation of the sexes +occurred (in which work Jehovah and His Angels were active), the Ego began +to work slightly upon the dense body, building organs within. Man was not +at that time the wide-awake conscious being he is at present, but by means +of half the sex force, he was building a brain for the expression of thought +as previously described. He was more awake in the Spiritual World than in +the physical; hardly saw his body and was not conscious if the act of +propagation. The Bible statement that Jehovah put man to sleep when he was +to bring forth is correct. There was no pain nor trouble connected with + + +[PAGE 361] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +childbirth; nor (because of man's exceedingly dim consciousness of his +physical surroundings) did he know anything of the loss of his dense body by +death, or of his installment in a new dense vehicle at birth. + + It will be remembered that the Lucifers were a part of the humanity of +the Moon Period; they are the stragglers of the life wave of the Angels, too +far advanced to take a dense physical body, yet they needed an "inner" organ +for the acquisition of knowledge. Moreover, they could work through a +physical brain, which the Angels or Jehovah could not. + + These spirits entered the spinal cord and brain and spoke to the woman, +whose Imagination, as explained elsewhere, had been aroused by the training +of the Lemurian Race. As her consciousness was principally internal, a +picture-consciousness of them was received by her, and she saw them as ser- +pents, for they had entered her brain by the serpentine spinal cord. + + The training of the woman included watching the perilous feats and fights +of the Men in developing Will, in which fights bodies were necessarily often +killed. The dim consciousness of something unusual set the imagination of +the woman to wondering why she saw these strange things. She was conscious +of the spirits of those who had lost their bodies, but her imperfect sense +of the Physical World failed to reveal these friends whose dense bodies had +been destroyed. + + The Lucifers solved the problem for her by "opening her eyes." They re- +vealed to her her own body and that of the man and taught her how, together, +they might conquer death by creating new bodies. Thus death could not touch +them for they, like Jehovah, could create at will. + + +[PAGE 362] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Lucifer opened the eyes of woman, She sought the help of man and opened +his eyes. Thus, in a real though dim way, they first "knew" or became aware +of one another and also of the Physical World. They became conscious of +death and pain and by this knowledge they learned to differentiate between +the inner man and the outer garment he wears and renews each time it is nec- +essary to take his next step in evolution. They ceased to be automatons and +became free thinking beings at the cost of freedom from pain, sickness and +death. + + That the interpretation of the eating of the fruit as a symbol of the +generative act is not a far-fetched idea, is shown by the declaration of Je- +hovah (which is not a curse at all, but simply a statement of the conse- +quences that would follow the act) that they will die and that the woman +will bear her children in pain and suffering. He knew that, as man's atten- +tion had now been called to his physical garment, he would become aware of +its loss by death. He also knew that man had not yet wisdom to bridle his +passion and regulate sexual intercourse by the positions of the planets, +therefore pain in childbirth must follow his ignorant abuse of the function. + + It has always been a sore puzzle to Bible commentators what connection +there could possibly be between the eating of fruit and the bearing of chil- +dren, but if we understand that the eating of the fruit is symbolical of the +generative act whereby man becomes "like God" inasmuch as he KNOWS his kind +and is thus able to generate new beings, the solution is easy. + + In the latter part of the Lemurian Epoch when man arrogated to himself +the prerogative of performing the generative act when he pleased, it was his +then-powerful will that enable him to do so. By "eating of the tree of + + +[PAGE 363] OCCULT ANALYSIS OF GENESIS + +knowledge" at any and all times he was able to create a new body whenever he +lost an old vehicle. + + We usually think of death as something to be dreaded. Had man also +"eaten of the tree of life," had he learned the secret of how to perpetually +vitalize his body, there would have been a worse condition. We know that +our bodies are not perfect today and in those ancient days they were exceed- +ingly primitive. Therefore the anxiety of the creative Hierarchies lest man +"eat of the tree of life also," and become capable of renewing his vital +body, was well founded. Had he done so he would have been immortal indeed, +but would never have been able to progress. The evolution of the Ego de- +pends upon its vehicles and if it could not get new and improving ones by +death and birth, there would be stagnation. It is an occult maxim that the +oftener we die the better we are able to live, for every birth gives us a +new chance. + + We have seen that brain-knowledge, with its concomitant selfishness, was +brought by man at the cost of the power to create from himself alone. He +bought his free will at the cost of pain and death; but when man learns to +use his intellect for the good of humanity, he will gain spiritual power +over life and in addition, will be guided by an innate knowledge as much +higher than the present brain-consciousness as that is higher than the low- +est animal consciousness. + + The fall into generation was necessary to build the brain, but that is, +at best, only an indirect way of gaining knowledge and will be superseded by +direct touch with the Wisdom of Nature, which man, without any co-operation, +will then be able to use for the generation of new bodies. The larnyx will +again speak "the lost Word," the "creative Fiat," which, under the guidance +of great Teachers, was used in ancient Lemuria in the creation of plants and +animals. + + +[PAGE 364] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Man will then be a creator in very truth. Not in the slow and toilsome +manner of the present day, but by the use of the proper word or magical for- +mula, will he be able to create a body. + + All that was manifested during the descending period of involution re- +mains until the corresponding point on the ascending are of evolution has +been reached. The present generative organs will degenerate and atrophy. +The female organ was the first to come into existence as a separate unit +and, according to the law that "the first shall be last," will be the last +to atrophy. The male organ was differentiated last and is even now commenc- +ing to divide itself from the body. Diagram 13 will make this clear. + + + (DIAGRAM 13) + + +[PAGE 365] + + PART III. + + MAN'S FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + + AND INITIATION + + + + + + +[PAGE 366] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + + DIAGRAM: THE SEVEN DAYS OF CREATION + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 367] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + + CHAPTER XV + + CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + + THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION + + In the foregoing part of this work we have become familiar with the way +in which our present outside world came into existence, and how man evolved +the complicated organism with which he is related to outer conditions. We +have also, in a measure, studies the Jewish Race-religion. We will next +consider the last and greatest of the divine measures put forth for the up- +lifting of humanity, i.e., Christianity, which will be the Universal Reli- +gion of the future. + + It is a notable fact that man and his religions have evolved side by side +and in an equal degree. The earliest religion of any Race is found to be as +savage as the people governed by it and as they become more civilized, their +religions become more and more humane and in harmony with higher ideals. + + From this fact materialists have drawn the inference that no religion has +a higher origin than man itself. Their investigations into early history +have resulted in a conviction that, as man progressed, he civilized his God +and fashioned Him after his own pattern. + + This reasoning is defective, because it fails to take into account that +man is NOT the body, but an INDWELLING spirit, an Ego who uses the body with +ever-increasing facility as evolution progresses. + + +[PAGE 368] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + There is no doubt that the law for the BODY is "The Survival of the Fit- +test." The law for the evolution of the spirit demands "Sacrifice." As +long as man believes that "Might is Right," the Form prospers and waxes +strong, because all obstacles are swept out of the way regardless of others. +If the body were all, that manner of life would be the only one possible for +man. He would be altogether incapable of any regard for others and would +forcibly resist any attempt to encroach upon what he considered his +rights--the right of the stronger, which is the sole standard of justice un- +der the law of the Survival of the Fittest. He would be quite regardless of +his fellow beings; absolutely insensible to any force FROM WITHOUT that +tended to make him act in any manner not conducive to his own momentary +pleasure. + + It is manifest, then, that whatever urges man toward a higher standard of +conduct in his dealing with others must come FROM WITHIN, and from a source +which is not identical with the body, otherwise it would not strive with the +body and often prevail against its most obvious interests. Moreover, it +must be a stronger force than that of the body, or it could not succeed in +overcoming its desires and compelling it to make sacrifices for those who +are physically weaker. + + That such a force exists, surely no one will deny. We have come to that +stage in our advancement where, instead of seeing in physical weakness an +opportunity for easy prey, we recognize in the very frailty of another a +valid claim upon our protection. Selfishness is being slowly but surely +routed by Altruism. + + Nature is sure to accomplish her purposes. Though slow, her progress is +orderly and certain. In the breast of every man this force of Altruism + + +[PAGE 369] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +works as a leaven. It is transforming the savage into the civilized man, +and will in time transform the latter into a God. + + Though nothing that is truly spiritual can be thoroughly comprehended, +yet it may at least be apprehended by means of an illustration. + + If one or two tuning-forks of exactly the same pitch is struck, the sound +will induce the same vibration in the other, weak to begin with, but if the +strokes are continued, the second fork will give out a louder and louder +tone until it will emit a volume of sound equal to that of the first. This +will happen though the forks are several feet apart, and even if one of them +is encased in glass. The sound from the smitten one will penetrate the +glass and the answering note be emitted by the enclosed instrument. + + These invisible sound-vibrations have great power over concrete matter. +They can both build and destroy. If a small quantity of very fine powder is +placed upon a brass or glass plate, and a violin bow drawn across the edge, +the vibrations will cause the powder to assume beautiful geometrical fig- +ures. The human voice is also capable of producing these figures; always +the same figure for the same tone. + + If one note or chord after another be sounded upon a musical +instrument--a piano, or preferably a violin, for from it more gradations of +tone can be obtained--a tone will finally be reached which will causes the +hearer to feel a distinct vibration in the back of the lower part of the +head. Each time that note is struck, the vibration will be felt. That note +is the "key-note" of the person whom it so affects. If it is struck slowly +and soothingly it will build and rest the body, tone the nerves and restore +health. If, on the other hand, it be sounded in a dominant way, loud and + + +[PAGE 370] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +long enough, it will kill as surely as a bullet from a pistol. + + If we now apply what has been said about music or sound to the problem of +how this inner force is awakened and strengthened, we may perhaps understand +the matter better. + + In the first place, let us particularly note the fact that the two +tuning-forks were OF THE SAME PITCH. Had this not been the case, we might +have sounded and sounded one of them until the crack of doom, but the other +one would have remained mute. Let us understand this thoroughly: Vibration +can be induced in one tuning-fork by one of LIKE TONE ONLY. Any thing, or +any being, can be affected as above stated by no sound except ITS OWN +KEY-NOTE. + + We know that this force of Altruism exists. We also know that it is less +pronounced among uncivilized people than among people of higher social at- +tainment, and among the very lowest races it is almost entirely lacking. +The logical conclusion is that there was a time when it was altogether ab- +sent. Consequent upon this conclusion follows the natural question: What +induced it? + + The material personality surely had nothing to do with it; in fact, that +part of man's nature was much more comfortable without it than it has been +at any time since. Man must have had the force of Altruism latent WITHIN, +otherwise it could not have been awakened. Still further, it must have been +awakened by a force of the same kind--a similar force that was already +active--as the second tuning-fork was started into vibration by the first +AFTER it was struck. + + We also saw that the vibrations in the second fork become stronger and +stronger under the continued impacts of sound from the first, and that a + + +[PAGE 371] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +glass case was no hindrance to the induction of the sound. Under the con- +tinued impacts of a force similar to that within him, the Love of God to man +has awakened this force of Altruism and is constantly increasing its po- +tency. + + It is therefore reasonable and logical to conclude that, at first, it was +necessary to give man a religion commensurate with his ignorance. It would +have been useless to talk to him, at that stage, of a God Who was all ten- +derness and love. From his viewpoint, those attributes were weaknesses and +he could not have been expected to reverence a God Who possessed what were +to him despicable qualities. The God to Whom he rendered obedience must be +a strong God, a God to be feared, a God Who could hurl the thunderbolt and +wield the flail of lightning. + + Thus, man was impelled first to FEAR God and was given religions of a na- +ture to further his spiritual well-being under the lash of fear. + + The next step was to induce him a certain kind of unselfishness, by caus- +ing him to give up part of his worldly goods--to sacrifice. This was +achieved by giving him the Tribal or Race-God, Who is a jealous God, requir- +ing of him the strictest allegiance and the sacrifice of wealth, which the +growing man greatly prizes. But in return, this Race-God is a friend and +mighty ally, fighting man's battles and giving him back many fold the sheep, +bullocks and grain which he sacrificed. He had not yet arrived at the stage +where it was possible for him to understand that all creatures are akin, but +the Tribal God taught him that he must deal mercifully with his BROTHER +TRIBESMAN and gave laws which made for equity and fair dealing between men +of the same Race. + + It must not be thought that these successive steps were taken easily, nor +without rebellion and lapses upon the part of primitive man. Selfishness is + + +[PAGE 372] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +ingrained in the lower nature even unto this day, and there must have been +many lapses and much backsliding. We have in the Jewish Bible good examples +of how man forgot, and had to be patiently and persistently "prodded" again +and again by the Tribal God. Only the visitations of a long-suffering +Race-spirit were potent, at times, in bringing him back to the law--that law +very few people have even yet learned to obey. + + There are always pioneers, however, who require something higher. When +they become sufficiently numerous, a new step in evolution is taken, so that +several gradations always exist. There came a time, nearly two thousand +years ago, when the most advanced of humanity were ready to take another +step forward, and learn the religion of living a good life for the sake of +future reward in a state if existence in which they must have faith. + + That was a long, hard step to take. It was comparatively easy to take a +sheep or a bullock to the temple and offer it as a sacrifice. If a man +brought the first-fruits of his granary, his vineyards, or his flocks and +herds, he still had more, and he knew that the Tribal God would refill his +stores and give abundantly in return. But in this new departure, it was not +a question of sacrificing his goods. It was demanded that he sacrifice HIM- +SELF. It was not even a sacrifice to be made by one supreme effort of mar- +tyrdom; that also would have been comparatively easy. Instead, it was de- +manded that day by day, from morning until night, he must act mercifully +toward all. He must forego selfishness, and LOVE his neighbor, as he had +been used to loving himself. Moreover, he was not promised any immediate +and visible reward, but must have faith in a future happiness. + + +[PAGE 373] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + + Is it strange that people find it difficult to realize this high ideal of +CONTINUED well-doing, made doubly hard by the fact that self-interest is en- +tirely ignored? Sacrifice is demanded with no positive assurance of ANY re- +ward. Surely it is much to the credit of humanity that so much altruism is +practiced and that it is constantly increasing. The wise Leaders, knowing +the frailness of the spirit to cope with the selfish instincts of the body, +and the dangers of despondency in the face of such standards of conduct, +gave another uplifting impulse when they incorporated in the new religion +the doctrine of "vicarious Atonement." + + This idea is scouted by some very advanced philosophers, and the law of +"Consequence" made paramount. If it so happens that the reader agrees with +these philosophers, we request that he await the explanation herein set +forth, showing how BOTH are part of the scheme of upliftment. Suffice it to +say, for the present, that this doctrine of atonement gives many an earnest +soul the strength to strive and, in spite or repeated failures, to bring the +lower nature under subjection. Let it be remembered that, for reasons given +when the laws of Rebirth and Consequence were discussed, western humanity +knew practically nothing of these laws. With such a great ideal before them +as the Christ, and believing they had but a few short years in which to +attain to such a high degree of development as this, would it not have been +the greatest imaginable cruelty to leave them without help? Therefore, the +GREAT SACRIFICE on Calvary--while it also served other purposes, as will be +shown--become rightfully the Beacon of Hope for every earnest soul who is +striving to achieve the impossible; to attain, in one short life, to the +perfection demanded by the Christian religion. + + +[PAGE 374] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + JESUS AND CHRIST-JESUS. + + To gain some slight insight into the Great Mystery of Golgotha, and to +understand the Mission of Christ as the Founder of the Universal Religion of +the future, it is necessary that we first become familiar with His exact na- +ture and incidentally, with that of Jehovah, Who is the head of such +Race-religions as Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.; also with the +identity of "The Father," to Whom Christ is to give up the Kingdom, in due +time. + + In the Christian creed occurs this sentence: "Jesus Christ, the only be- +gotten Son of God." This is generally understood to mean that a certain +person Who appeared in Palestine about 2,000 years ago, Who is spoken of as +Jesus Christ--one separate individual--was the only begotten Son of God. + + This is a great mistake. There are three distinct and widely different +Beings characterized in this sentence. It is of the greatest importance +that the student should clearly understand the exact nature of these Three +Great and Exalted Beings--differing vastly in glory, yet each entitled to +our deepest and most devout adoration. + + The student is requested to turn to diagram 6 and note that "The only be- +gotten" ("The Word," of Who John speaks) is the second aspect of the Supreme +Being. + + This "Word" and It alone, is "begotten of His Father (the first appear) +before all Worlds." "Without Him was not anything made that was made," not +even the third aspect of the Supreme Being, which proceeds from the two pre- +vious aspects. Therefore the "only begotten" is the exalted Being which +ranks above all else in the Universe, save only the Power-aspect which cre- +ated It. + + The first aspect of the Supreme Being "thinks out," of imagines, the Uni- +verse before the beginning of active manifestation, everything, including + + +[PAGE 375] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +the millions of Solar Systems and the great creative Hierarchies which in- +habit the Cosmic Planes of existence above the seventh, which is the field +of our evolution (See diagram 6). This is also the Force which dissolves +everything that has crystallized beyond the possibility of further growth +and at last, when the end of active manifestation has come, reabsorbs within +Itself all that is, until the dawn of another Period of Manifestation. + + The second aspect of the Supreme Being is that which manifests in matter +as the forces of attraction and cohesion, thus giving it the capability of +combining into Forms of various kinds. This is "The Word," the "creative +Feat," which molds the primordial Cosmic Root-substance in a manner similar +to the formation of figures by musical vibrations, as previously mentioned, +the same tone always producing the same figure. So this great primordial +"WORD' brought, or "spoke," into being, in finest matter, all the different +Worlds, with all their myriads of Forms, which have since been copied and +worked out in detail by the innumerable creative Hierarchies. + + "The Word" could not have done this, however, until the third aspect of +the Supreme Being had first prepared the Cosmic Root-substance; had awakened +it from its normal state of inertia and set the countless INSEPARATE atoms +spinning upon their axes, placing those axes at various angles with respect +to each other, giving to each kind a certain "measure of vibration." + + These varying angles of inclination of the axes and the measures of vi- +bration made the Cosmic Root-substance capable of forming different combina- +tions, which are the basis of the seven great Cosmic Planes. There is, in +each of these Planes, a different inclination of the axes, and also a + + +[PAGE 376] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +different measure of vibration, consequently the conditions and combinations +in each one are different from those in any of the others, due to the activ- +ity of "The Only Begotten." + + Diagram 14 shows us that: + + "The Father" is the highest Initiate among the humanity of the Saturn + Period. The ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Lords of + Mind. + "The Son" (Christ) is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period. The + ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Archangels. + "The Holy Spirit" (Jehovah) is the highest Initiate of the Moon + Period. The ordinary humanity of that Period are now the Angels. + + This diagram also shows what are the vehicles of these different orders +of Beings, and upon comparison with diagram 8, it will be seen that their +bodies or vehicles (indicated by squares on diagram 14) correspond to the +Globes of the Period in which they were human. This is always the case so +far as the ordinary humanities are concerned, for at the end of the Period +during which any live wave becomes individualized as human beings, those be- +ings retain BODIES corresponding to the Globes on which they have func- +tioned. + + On the other hand, the Initiates have progressed and evolved for them- +selves higher vehicles, discontinuing the ordinary use of the lowest vehicle +when the ability to use a new and higher one has been attained. Ordinarily, +the lowest vehicle of an Archangel is the desire body, but Christ, Who is +the highest Initiate of the Sun Period, ordinarily uses the life spirit as +lowest vehicle, functioning as consciously in the World of Life Spirit as we +do in the Physical World. The student is requested to note this point + + +[PAGE 377] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + + + DIAGRAM 14: + + THE VEHICLES OF THE HIGHEST INITIATES AND ORDINARY HUMANITY + + + +[PAGE 378] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +particularly, as the World of Life Spirit is the first UNIVERSAL World, as +explained in the chapter on Worlds. It is the World in which +differentiation ceases and unity begins to be realized, so far as out solar +system is concerned. + + Christ has power to build and function in a vehicle as low as the desire +body, such as is used by the Archangels but HE CAN DESCEND NO FURTHER. The +significance of this will be seen presently. + + JESUS belongs to our humanity. When the man, Jesus is studied through +the memory of nature, he can be traced back life by life, where he lived in +different circumstances, under various names, in different embodiments, the +same time, in that respect, as any other human being. THIS CANNOT BE DONE +WITH THE BEING, CHRIST. In His CASE CAN BE FOUND BUT ONE EMBODIMENT. + + It must not be supposed, however, that Jesus was an ordinary individual. +He was of a singularly pure type of mind, vastly superior to the great ma- +jority of our present humanity. Through many lives had he trod the Path of +Holiness and thus fitted himself for the greatest honor ever bestowed upon a +human being. + + His mother, Virgin Mary, was also a type of the highest human purity and +because of that was selected to become the mother of Jesus. His father was +a high Initiate, virgin and capable of performing the act of fecundation as +a sacrament, without personal desire or passion. + + Thus the beautiful, pure and lovely spirit whom we know as Jesus of +Nazareth was born into a pure and passionless body. This body was the best +that could be produced on Earth and the task of Jesus, in that embodiment, +was to care for it and evolve it to the highest possible degree of + + +[PAGE 379] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + + +efficiency, in preparation for the great purpose it was to serve. + + Jesus of Nazareth was born at about the time stated in the historic +records, and not 105 B.C., as stated in some occult works. The name Jesus +is common in the East, and an Initiate named Jesus did live 105 B.C., but he +took the Egyptian Initiation and was not Jesus of Nazareth, with whom we are +concerned. + + The Individual who was later born under the name of Christian Rosenkreuz, +who is in the body today, was a highly evolved being when Jesus of Nazareth +was born. His testimony, as well as the results of first-hand investigation +by later Rosicrucians, all agree in placing the birth of Jesus of Nazareth +at the beginning of the Christian Era, on about the date usually ascribed to +that event. + + Jesus was educated by the Essenes and reached a very high state of +spiritual development during the thirty years in which he used his body. + + It may be here said, parenthetically, that the Essenes were a third sect +which existed in Palestine, besides the two mentioned in the New +Testament--the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Essenes were an exceedingly +devout order, widely different from the materialistic Sadducees and entirely +opposite to the hypocritical, publicity seeking Pharisees. They shunned all +mention of themselves and their methods of study and worship. To the latter +peculiarity is due the fact that almost nothing is known of them, and that +they are not mentioned in the New Testament. + + It is a law of the Cosmos that no Being, however high, can function in +any world without a vehicle built of the material of that world (See +diagrams 8 and 14). Therefore the desire body was the lowest vehicle of the + + +[PAGE 380] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +group of spirits who had reached the human stage in the Sun Period. + + Christ was one of those spirits and was consequently unable to build for +Himself a vital body and a dense physical vehicle. He could have worked +upon humanity in a desire body, as did His younger brothers, the Archangels, +as Race-spirits. Jehovah had opened an avenue for them to enter the dense +body of man by means of the air he inhaled. All Race-religions were reli- +gions of law, and creators of sin through disobedience of that law. They +were under the direction of Jehovah, Whose lowest vehicle is the human +spirit, correlating Him to the World of Abstract Thought, where everything +is separative and therefore leads to self-seeking. + + That is precisely the reason why the intervention of Christ became neces- +sary. Under the REGIME of Jehovah unity is impossible. Therefore the +Christ, Who possess as a lowest vehicle the unifying life spirit, must enter +into the dense human body. He must appear as a man among men and dwell in +this body, because only from WITHIN IS IT possible to conquer the +Race-religion, which influences man from WITHOUT. + + Christ could not be BORN in a dense body, because He had never passed +through an evolution such as the Earth Period, therefore He would first have +had to acquire the ability to build a dense body such as ours. But even had +He possessed that ability, it would have been inexpedient for such an ex- +alted Being to expend for that purpose the energy necessary for +body-building through ante-natal life, childhood and youth, to bring it to +sufficient maturity for use. He had ceased to use, ordinarily, vehicles +such as would correspond to our human spirit, mind and desire body, although +He had learned to build them in the Sun Period, and retained the ability to + + +[PAGE 381] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +build and function in them whenever desired or required. He used all his +own vehicles, taking only the vital and dense bodies from Jesus. When the +latter was 30 years of age Christ entered these bodies and used them until +the climax of His Mission on Golgotha. After the destruction of the dense +body, Christ appeared among His disciples in the vital body, in which He +functioned for some time. The vital body is the vehicle which He will use +when He appears again, for He will never take another dense body. + + It is encroaching upon a subject to be dealt with later to remark that +the object of all esoteric training is to so work on the vital body that the +life spirit is built up and quickened. When we come to deal with Initiation +it may be possible to give more detailed explanations, but no more can be +said on the subject just now. In chronicling the events incident to POST +MORTEM existence, this subject has been partially dealt with and the student +is here asked to note that a man is supposed to have conquered his desire +body to a considerable extent before attempting esotericism. His esoteric +training and the earlier Initiations are devoted to work on the vital body +and result in the building of the life spirit. At the time Christ entered +the body of Jesus, the latter was a disciple of high degree, consequently +his life spirit was well organized. Therefore, the lowest vehicle in which +Christ functioned, and the best organized of the higher vehicles of Jesus, +were identical; and Christ, when He took the vital body and the dense body +of Jesus, was thus furnished with a complete chain of vehicles bridging the +gap between the World of Life Spirit and the dense Physical World. + + The significance of the fact that Jesus had passed several initiations +lies in the effect that has on the vital body. Jesus' vital body was + + +[PAGE 382] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +already attuned to the high vibrations of the life spirit. An ordinary +man's vital body would have instantly collapsed under the terrific vibra- +tions of the Great Spirit who entered Jesus' body. Even that body, pure and +high-strung as it was, could not withstand those tremendous impacts for many +years, and when we read of certain times when Christ withdrew temporarily +from his disciples, as when he later walked on the sea to meet them, the +esotericist knows that he drew out of Jesus' vehicles to give them a rest +under the care of the Essene Brothers, who knew more of how to treat such +vehicles than Christ did. + + This change was consummated with the full and free consent of Jesus, who +knew during this entire life that he was preparing a vehicle for Christ. He +submitted gladly, that his brother humanity might receive the gigantic impe- +tus which was given to its development by the mysterious sacrifice on +Golgotha. + + Thus (as shown in diagram 14) Christ Jesus possessed the twelve vehicles, +which formed an unbroken chain from the Physical World to the very Throne of +God. Therefore He is the only Being in the Universe in touch with both God +and man and capable of mediating between them, because He has, personally +and individually experience all conditions and knows every limitation inci- +dental to physical existence. + + Christ is unique among all Beings in all the seven Worlds. He alone pos- +sess the twelve vehicles. None save He is able to feel such compassion, nor +so fully understand the position and needs of humanity; none save He is +qualified to bring the relive that shall fully meet our needs. + + +[PAGE 383] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + + Thus do we know the nature of Christ. He is the highest Initiate of the +Sun Period and He tool the dense and vital bodies of Jesus that He might +function directly in the Physical World and appear as a man among men. Had +He appeared in a manifestly miraculous manner, it would have been contrary +to the scheme of evolution, because at the end of the Atlantean Epoch human- +ity had been given freedom to do right or wrong. That they might learn to +become self-governing, no coercion whatever could be used. They must know +good and evil through experience. Before that time they had been led +willy-nilly, but at that time they were given freedom under the different +Race-religions, each religion adapted to the needs of its particular Tribe +or Nation. + + NOT PEACE BUT A SWORD + + All Race-religions are of the Holy Spirit. They are insufficient, be- +cause they are based on law, which makes for sin and brings death, pain and +sorrow. + + All Race-spirits know this, and realize that their religions are merely +steps to something better. This is shown by the fact that all +Race-religions, without exception, point to One Who is TO COME. The reli- +gion of the Persians pointed to Mithras; of the Chaldeans to Tammuz. The +old Norse Gods foresaw the approach of "The Twilight of the Gods," when +Sutr, the bright Sun-spirit, shall supersede them and a new and fairer order +be established on "Gimle," the regenerated earth. The Egyptians waited for +Horis, the new-born Sun. Mithras and Tammuz are also symbolized as Solar +orbs and all the principal Temples were built facing the East, that the rays +of the rising Sun might shine directly through the open doors; even Saint +Peter's at Rome is so placed. All these facts show that it was generally + + +[PAGE 384] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +known that the One Who was to come was a Sun-spirit and was to save humanity +from the separative influences necessarily contained in all Race-religions. + + These religions were steps which it was necessary for mankind to take to +prepare for the advent of Christ. Man must first cultivate a "self" before +he can become really UNselfish and understand the higher phase of Universal +Brotherhood--unity of purpose and interest--for which Christ laid the foun- +dation at His first coming, and which He will make living realties when He +returns. + + As the fundamental principle of a Race-religion is separation, inculcat- +ing self-seeking at the expense of other men and nations, it is evident that +if the principle is carried to its ultimate conclusion it must necessarily +have an increasingly destructive tendency and finally frustrate evolution, +unless succeeded by a more constructive religion. + + Therefore the separative religions of the Holy Spirit must give place to +the unifying religion of the Son, which is the Christian religion. + + Law must give place to Love, and the separate Races and Nations be united +in one Universal Brotherhood, with Christ as the Eldest Brother. + + The Christian religion has not yet had time to accomplish this great ob- +ject. Man is still in the toils of the dominant Race-spirit and the ideals +of Christianity are yet too high for him. The intellect can see some of the +beauties, and readily admits that we should love our enemies, but the pas- +sions of the desire body are still too strong. The law of the Race-spirit +being "An eye for an eye," the Feeling is "I'll get even!" The heart prays +for Love; the desire body hopes for Revenge. The intellect sees, IN THE AB- +STRACT, the beauty of loving one's enemies but in concrete cases it allies + + +[PAGE 385] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +itself with the vengeful feeling of the desire body, pleading, as an excuse +for "getting even," that "the social organism must be protected." + + It is a matter for congratulation, however, that society feels compelled +to apologize for the retaliative methods used. Corrective methods and mercy +are becoming more and more prominent in the administration of the laws, as +is shown by the favorable reception which has been accorded that very modern +institution, the Juvenile Court. Further manifestation of this same ten- +dency may be noted in the increasing frequency with which convicted prison- +ers are released on probation, under suspended sentence; also in the greater +humanity with which prisoners of war are treated of late years. These are +the vanguards of the sentiment of Universal Brotherhood, which is slowly but +surely makings its influence felt. + + Yet, though the world is advancing and though, for instance, it has been +comparatively easy for the writer to secure a hearing for his views in the +different cities where he has lectured, the daily papers sometimes devoting +to his utterances whole pages (and front pages at that) so long as he con- +fined himself to speaking of the higher worlds and the POST MORTEM states, +it has been very noticeable that as soon as the theme was Universal Brother- +hood his articles have ALWAYS been consigned to the waste-basket. + + The world in general is very unwilling to consider anything that is, as +it thinks, "too" unselfish. There must be "something in it." Nothing is +regarded as an entirely natural line of conduct if it offers no opportunity +for "getting the best of" one's fellowmen. Commercial undertakings are +planned and conducted on that principle and, before the minds of those who +are enslaved by the desire to accumulate useless wealth, the idea of + + +[PAGE 386] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Universal Brotherhood conjures up frightful visions of the abolition of +capitalism and its inevitable concomitant, the exploitation of others, with +the wreck of "business interests" implied thereby. The word "enslaved" ex- +actly describes this condition. According to the Bible, man was to have do- +minion over the world, but in the vast majority of cases the reverse is +true--it is the world which has dominion over man. Every man who has prop- +erty interests will, in his saner moments, admit that they are a +never-failing source of worry to him; that he is constantly scheming to hold +his possessions, or at least to keep from being deprived of them by "sharp +practice," knowing that others are as constantly scheming to accomplish +that, to them, desirable end. The man is the slave of what, with uncon- +scious irony, he calls "my possessions,' when in reality they possess him. +Well did the Sage of Concord say, "THINGS are in the saddle and ride man- +kind!" + + This state of affairs is the result of Race-religions, with their system +of law; therefore do they all look for "One Who is to come." The Christian +religion ALONE is NOT looking for One Who IS to come, but for One Who is to +come AGAIN. The time of this second coming depends upon when the Church can +free itself from the State. The Church, especially in Europe, is bound to +the Chariot of State. The ministers are fettered by economic considerations +and dare not proclaim the truths that their studies have revealed to them. + + A visitor to Copenhagen, Denmark, recently witnessed a church confirma- +tion service. The Church there is under State control and all ministers are +appointed by the temporal power. The parishioners have nothing whatever to +say in the matter. They may attend church or not, as they please, but they + + +[PAGE 387] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +are compelled to pay the taxes which support the institution. + + In addition to holding office by the bounty of the State, the pastor of +the particular church visited was decorated with several Orders conferred by +the king, the glittering badges bearing silent but eloquent testimony as to +the extent of his subserviency to the State. During the ceremony, he prayed +for the king and the legislators, that they might rule the country wisely. +As long as kings and legislators exists, this prayer might be very appropri- +ate, but it was a considerable shock to hear him add: ". . . . and, al- +mighty God, protect and strengthen our army and navy!" + + Such a prayer as this shows plainly that the God worshiped is the Tribal +or National God--the Race-spirit, for the last act of the gentle Christ +Jesus was to stay the sword of the friend who would have protected Him +therewith. Although He said He had not come to send peace, but a sword, it +was because He foresaw the oceans of blood that would be spilled by the +militant "Christian" nations in their mistaken understanding of His teach- +ings and because high ideals cannot be immediately attained by humanity. +The wholesale murder of war and like atrocities are harsh, but they are po- +tent illustrations of what Love would abolish. + + There is, apparently, a flat contradiction between the words of Christ +Jesus, "I came not to send peace, but a sword," and the words of the celes- +tial song which heralded the birth of Jesus, "On earth Peace, Goodwill to- +ward men." This contradictions, however, is apparent only. + + There is as great an apparent contradiction between a woman's words and +her actions when she says, "I am going to clean house and tidy up," and then + + +[PAGE 388] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +proceeds to take up carpets and pile chairs one upon another, producing gen- +eral confusion in a previously orderly house. One observing only this as- +pect of the matter, would be justified in saying, "She is making matters +worse instead of better," but when the purpose of her work is understood, +the expediency of the temporary disorder is realized and in the end her +house will be the better for the passing disturbance. + + Similarly, we must bear in mind that the time which has elapsed since the +coming of Christ Jesus is but little more than a moment in comparison with +the duration of even one Day of Manifestation. We must learn, as did +Whitman, to "know the amplitude of time," and look beyond the past and +present cruelties and jealousies of the warring sects to the shining age of +Universal Brotherhood, which will mark the next great step of man's progress +on his long and wondrous journey from the clod to the God, from protoplasm +to conscious unity with the Father, that + + . . . one far-off, divine event + To which the whole creation moves. + + It may be added that the above mentioned pastor, during the ceremony of +receiving his pupils into the Church taught them that Jesus Christ was a +composite individual; that Jesus was mortal, human part, while Christ was +the divine, immortal Spirit. Presumably, if the matter had been discussed +with him, he would not have supported this statement, nevertheless in making +it he stated an occult fact. + + THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. + + The unifying influence of the Christ has been symbolized in the beautiful +legend of the worship of the three magi, or "wise men of the East," so +skillfully woven by General Lew Wallace into his charming story, "Ben Hur." + + +[PAGE 389] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + + The three wise men--Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar--are the representa- +tives of the white, yellow and black Races and symbolize the people of Eu- +rope, Asia and Africa, who are all led by The Star to the World-Savior, to +Whom eventually "every knee shall bow," and Whom "every tongue shall con- +fess"; Who shall unite all the scattered nations under the Banner of Peace +and Goodwill; Who shall cause men to "beat their words into plowshares and +their spears into pruning hooks." + + The Star of Bethlehem is said to have appeared at the time of the birth +of Jesus, and to have guided the three wise men to the Savior. + + Much speculation has been indulged in as to the nature of this Star. +Most material scientists have declared it a myth, while others have said if +it were anything more than a myth, it might have been a "coincidence"--two +dead Suns might have collided and caused a conflagration. Every mystic, +however, knows the "Star"--yea, and the "Cross" also--not only as symbols +connected with the life of Jesus and Christ Jesus, but in his own personal +experience. Paul says: "Until Christ be formed in you"; and the mystic, +Angelus Silesius, echoes: + + Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born + And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn. + The Cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain + Unless within thyself it be set up again. + + Richard Wagner shows the intuitional knowledge of the artist when, to the +question of Parsifal, "Who is The Grail?" Gurnemanz answers: + + That tell we not; + But if thou hast by Him been bidden, + From thee the truth will not stay hidden. + . . . The land to Him no path leads through, + And search but severs from Him wider + When He Himself is not the Guider. + + +[PAGE 390] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Under the "old dispensation" the path to Initiation was not open. It was +for only the chosen few. Some might seek the path, but only those who were +guided to the Temples by the Hierophants found entrance. Previous to the +advent of Christ, there was no such sweeping invitation as "Whosoever will +may come." + + At the moment the blood flowed on Golgotha, however, "the veil of the +Temple was rent" (for reasons presently to be explained), and ever since +that tine, whosoever will seek admittance will surely find it. + + In the Temples of Mystery the Hierophant taught his pupils that there is +in the Sun a spiritual, as well as a physical force. The latter force in +the rays of the Sun is the fecundating principle in nature. It causes the +growth of the plant world and thereby sustains the animal and human kingdom. +It is the upbuilding energy which is the source of all physical force. + + This physical, solar energy reaches its highest expression in midsummer, +when the days are longest and the nights are shortest, because the rays of +the Sun then fall directly on the northern hemisphere. At that time the +spiritual forces are the most inactive. + + On the other hand, in December, during the long winter nights, the +physical force of the solar orb is dormant and the spiritual forces reach +their maximum degree of activity. + + The night between the 24th and the 25th of December is The Holy Night, +PAR EXCELLENCE, of the entire year. The Zodiacal sign of the immaculate ce- +lestial Virgin stands upon the eastern horizon near midnight, the Sun of the +New Year is then born and starts upon his journey from the southernmost +point toward the northern hemisphere, to save that part of humanity + + +[PAGE 391] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +(physically) from the darkness and famine which would inevitably result if +he were to remain permanently south of the equator. + + To the people of the northern hemisphere, where all our present day reli- +gions originated, the Sun is directly below the Earth; and the spiritual in- +fluences are strongest, in the north, at midnight of the 24th of December. + + That being the case, it follows as a matter of course that it would then +be easiest for those who wished to take a definite step toward Initiation to +get in conscious touch with the spiritual Sun especially for the first time. + + Therefore the pupils who were ready for Initiation were taken in hand by +the Hierophants of the Mysteries, and be means of ceremonies performed in +the Temple, were raised to a state of exaltation wherein they transcended +physical conditions. To their spiritual vision, the solid Earth become +transparent and they was the Sun at midnight--"The Star!" It was not the +physical Sun they saw with spiritual eyes, however, but the Spirit in the +Sun--The Christ--their Spiritual Savior, as the physical Sun was their +physical Savior. + + This is the Star that shone on that Holy Night and that still shines for +the mystic in the darkness of night. When the noise and confusion of +physical activity are quieted, he enters into his closet and seeks the way +to the King of Peace. The Blazing Star is ever there to guide him and his +soul hears the prophetic song, "On earth Peace, Goodwill toward men." + + Peace and goodwill to all, without exception; no room for one single en- +emy or outcast! Is it any wonder that it is hard to educate humanity to +such a high standard? Is there any better way to show the beauty of, and +the necessity for peace, goodwill and love than by contrasting them with the +present state of war, selfishness and hate? + + +[PAGE 392] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + The stronger the light, the deeper the shadow it casts. The higher our +ideals, the more plainly can we see our shortcomings. + + Unfortunately, at the present stage of development, humanity is willing +to learn only by the hardest experience. As a Race, it must become abso- +lutely selfish to feel the bitter pangs caused by the selfishness of others, +as one must know much sickness to be thoroughly thankful for health. + + The religion MIScalled Christianity has therefore been the bloodiest re- +ligion known, not excepting Mohammedanism, which in this respect is somewhat +akin to our malpracticed Christianity. On the battle field and in the In- +quisition innumerable and unspeakable atrocities have been committed in the +name of the gentle Nazarene. The Sword and the Wine Cup,--the perverted +Cross and Communion Chalice--have been the means by which the more powerful +of the so-called Christian nations gained supremacy over the heathen +peoples, and even over other but weaker nations professing the same faith as +their conquerors. The most cursory reading of the history of the +Graeco-Latin, Teutonic and Anglo-Saxson Races will corroborate on this. + + While man was under the FULL sway of Race-religions each nation was an +united whole. Individual interests were willing subordinated to the com- +munity interests. All were "under the law." All were members of their re- +spective tribes first, and individuals only secondarily. + + At the present time there is a tendency toward the other extreme--to ex- +alt "self" above all else. The result is evident in the economic and indus- +trial problems that are facing every nation and clamoring for solution. + + The state of development wherein every man feels himself an absolutely + + +[PAGE 393] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +separate unit, an Ego, independently pursuing his own course, is a necessary +stage. The national, tribal and family unity must first be broken up before +Universal Brotherhood can become a fact. The REGIME of Paternalism has +been largely superseded by the reign of Individualism. We are learning the +evils of the latter more and more as our civilization advances. Our +unsystematic method of distributing the products of labor, the rapacity of +the few and the exploitation of many--these social crimes result in +under-consumption, industrial depressions and labor disturbances, destroying +internal peace. The industrial war of the present day is vastly more +far-reaching and destructive than the military wars of the nations. +[PAGE 393 cont'd] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + + THE HEART AS AN ANOMALY. + + No lesson, though its truth may be superficially assented to, is of any +real value as an active principle of the life until the heart has learned it +in longing and bitterness, and the lesson man must so learn is that what is +not beneficial to all can never be truly beneficial to any. For nearly +2,000 years we have lightly assented with out lips that we should govern our +lives in accordance with such maxims as "Return good for evil." The Heart +urges mercy and love, but the Reason urges belligerent and retaliatory mea- +sures, if not as revenge, at least as a means of preventing a repetition of +hostilities. It is this divorce of head from heart that hinders the growth +of a true feeling of Universal Brotherhood and the adoption of the teachings +of Christ--the Lord of Love. + + The mind is the focusing point by means of which the Ego becomes aware of +the material universe. As an instrument for the acquisition of knowledge in + + +[PAGE 394] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +those realms the mind is invaluable, but when it arrogates to itself the +ROLE of dictator as to the conduct of man to man, it is as through the lens +should say to an astronomer who was in the act of photographing the Sun +through a telescope: "You have me improperly focused. You are not looking +at the Sun correctly. I do not think it is good to photograph the Sun any- +way, and I want you to point me at Jupiter. The rays of the Sun heat me too +much and are liable to damage me." + + If the astronomer exercises his will and focuses the telescope as he de- +sires, telling it to attend to its business of transmitting the rays that +strike it, leaving the results to him. the work will proceed well, but if +the lens has the stronger will and the mechanism of the telescope is in +league with it, the astronomer will be seriously hampered in having to con- +tend with a refractory instrument, and the result will be blurred pictures, +of little or no value. + + Thus it is with the Ego. It works with a threefold body, which it con- +trols, or should control through the mind. But, sad to say, this body has a +will of its own and is often aided and abetted by the mind, thus frustrating +the purposes of the Ego. + + This antagonistic "lower will" is an expression of the higher part of the +desire body. When the division of the Sun, Moon, and Earth took place, in +the early part of Lemurian Epoch, the more advanced portion of +humanity-in-the-making experienced a division of the desire body into a +higher and a lower part. The rest of humanity did likewise in the early +part of the Atlantean Epoch. + + This higher part of the desire body become a sort of animal soul. It +built the cerebro-spinal nervous systems and the voluntary muscles, by that +means controlling the lower part of the threefold body until the link of + + +[PAGE 395] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +mind was given. Then the mind "coalesced" with this animal soul and become +a co-regent. + + The mind is thus bound up in desire; is enmeshed in the selfish lower na- +ture, making it difficult for the spirit to control the body. The focusing +mind, which should be the ally of the higher nature, is alienated by and in +league with the lower nature--enslaved by desire. + + The law of the Race religions was given to emancipate intellect from de- +sire. The "fear of God" was pitted against "the desires of the flesh." +This, however, was not enough to enable one to become master of the body and +secure its willing co-operation. It became necessary for the spirit to find +in the body another point of vantage, which was not under the sway of the +desire nature. All muscles are expressions of the desire body and a +straight road to the capital, where the traitorous mind is wedded to desire +and reigns supreme. + + If the United States were at war with France, it would not land troops in +England, hoping in that way to subjugate the French. It would land its sol- +diers directly in France, and fight there. + + Like a wise general, the Ego followed a similar course of action. It did +not commence its campaign by getting control of one of the glands, for they +are expressions of the vital body; nor was it possible to get control of the +voluntary muscles, for they are too well garrisoned by the enemy. That part +of the involuntary muscular system which is controlled by the sympathetic +nervous system would also be useless for the purpose. It must get into a +more direct touch with the cerebro-spinal nervous system. To do this, and +secure a base of operations in the enemy's country, it must control a muscle + + +[PAGE 396] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +which is involuntary, and yet connected with the voluntary nervous system. +Such a muscle is the heart. + + We have previously spoken of the two kinds of muscles--voluntary and in- +voluntary. The latter are formed in lengthwise stripes and are connected +with functions not under the control of the will, such as digestion, respi- +ration, excretion, etc. The voluntary muscles are those which are con- +trolled by the will through the voluntary nervous system, such as the +muscles of the hand and arm. They are striped BOTH lengthwise and cross- +wise. + + The above is true of all muscles in the body EXCEPT THE HEART, which is +an involuntary muscle. Ordinarily, we cannot control the circulation. Un- +der normal conditions the heart-beat is a fixed quantity, yet to the bewil- +derment of physiologists, the heart is CROSS-striped like a voluntary +muscle. It is the only organ in the body exhibiting this peculiarity but, +sphinx-like, it refuses to give material scientists an answer to the riddle. + + The occult scientist easily finds the answer in the memory of nature. +From that record he learns that when the Ego first sought a stronghold in +the heart, the latter was striped lengthwise only, the same as any other in- +voluntary muscle; but as the Ego gained more and more control over the +heart, the cross-stripes have gradually developed. They are not so numerous +nor so well defined as on the muscles under the full control of the desire +body, but as the altruistic principles of love and brotherhood increase in +strength and gradually overrule the reason, which is based in desire, so +will these cross stripes become more numerous and more marked. + + As previously stated, the seed-atom of the dense body is located in the +heart during life and withdrawn only at death. The active work of the Ego +is in the blood. Now, if we except the lungs, the heart is the only organ + + +[PAGE 397] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +in the body through which all the blood passes in every cycle. + + The blood is the highest expression of the vital body, for it nourishes +the entire physical organism. It is also, in a sense, the vehicle of the +subconscious memory, and in touch with the Mercury of Nature, situated in +the highest division of the Etheric Region. The blood carries the pictures +of life from ancestors to descendants for generations, where there is a com- +mon blood, as produced by inbreeding. + + There are in the head three points, each of which is the particular seat +of one of the three aspects of the spirit (See diagram 17), the second and +third aspects having, in addition, secondary vantage grounds. + + The desire body is the perverted expression of the Ego. It converts the +"Selfhood" of the spirit into "selfishness." Selfhood seeks not its own at +the expense of others. Selfishness seeks gain regardless of others. The +seat of the human spirit is primarily in the pineal gland and secondarily in +the brain and cerebro-spinal nervous system, which controls the voluntary +muscles. + + The love and unity in the World of the Life Spirit find their illusory +counterpart in the Etheric Region, to which we are correlated by the vital +body, which latter promotes sex love and sex union. The life spirit has its +seat primarily in the pituitary body and secondarily in the heart, which is +the gateway of the blood that nourishes the muscles. + + The actionless Divine Spirit--The Silent Watcher--finds its material ex- +pression in the passive, inert and irresponsive skeleton of the dense body, +which is the obedient instrument of other bodies, but has no power to act on +its own initiative. The Divine Spirit has its strong hold in the impen- +etrable point at the root of the nose. + + +[PAGE 398] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + In reality there is but one spirit, the Ego, but looking at it from the +Physical World, it is refracted into the three aspects, which work as +stated. + + As the blood passes through the heart, cycle after cycle, hour after hour +all through life, it engraves the pictures it carries upon the seed-atoms +while they are still fresh, thus making a faithful record of the life which +is indelibly impressed on the soul in the POST MORTEM existence, It is +always in closest touch with the life spirit, the spirit of love and unity, +therefore the heart is the home of altruistic love. + + As these pictures pass inward to the World of Life Spirit, in which is +the true memory of nature, they do not come through the slow physical +senses, but directly through the fourth ether contained in the air we +breathe. In the World of Life Spirit the life spirit sees much more clearly +than it can in the denser Worlds. In its high home it is in touch with the +Cosmic Wisdom and in any situation it knows at once what to do and flashes +the message of guidance and proper action back to the heart, which as in- +stantaneously flashes it on the the brain through the medium of the +pneumo-gastric nerve, resulting in "first impressions"--the intuitional im- +pulse, which is always good, because it is drawn directly from the fountain +of Cosmic Wisdom and Love. + + This is all done so quickly that the heart has control before the slower +reason has had time to "take in the situation," as it were. It is the +thought that man "thinketh in his heart," and it is true that "so is he." +Man is inherently a virgin spirit, good, noble and true in every respect. +All that is not good is from the lower nature, that illusory reflection of +the Ego. The virgin spirit is always giving wise counsel. If we could only + + +[PAGE 399] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +follow the impulses of the heart--the first thought--Universal Brotherhood +would be realized here and now. + + But that is just the point where the trouble begins. After the good +counsel of the first thought has been given, the mind begins to reason, with +the result that, in the great majority of cases, it dominates the heart. +The telescope arranges its own focus and points where it lists, despite the +astronomer. The mind and the desire body frustrate the designs of the +spirit by taking control and, as they lack the spirit's wisdom, both spirit +and body suffer. + + Physiologists note that certain areas of the brain are devoted to par- +ticular thought activities and phrenologist have carried this branch of sci- +ence still further. Now, it is known that thought breaks down and destroys +nerve tissues. This and all other waste of the body, is replaced by the +blood. When, through the development of the heart into a voluntary muscle, +the circulation of the blood finally passes under the absolute control of +the unifying life spirit--the Spirit of Love--it will then be within the +power of that spirit to withhold the blood from those areas of the brain de- +voted to selfish purposes. As a result, those particular thought centers +will gradually atrophy. + + On the other hand, it will be possible for the spirit to increase the +blood supply when the mental activities are altruistic, and thus build up +the areas devoted to altruism, so that, in time, the desire nature will be +conquered and the mind emancipated by Love from its bondage to desire. It +is only by complete emancipation, through Love, that man can ruse above the +law and become a law unto himself. Having conquered himself, he will have +conquered all the World. + + The cross stripes of the heart may be built by certain exercises under +occult training, but as some of these exercises are dangerous, they should + + +[PAGE 400] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +be undertaken only under the direction of a competent teacher. That no +reader of this book may be deceived by imposters professing ability and +willingness to so train aspirants for a consideration, it is emphatically +repeated that NO TRUE OCCULTIST EVER BOASTS, ADVERTISES HIS OCCULT POWER, +SELLS OCCULT INFORMATION OR LESSONS AT SO MUCH EACH OR FOR A COURSE; NOR +WILL BE CONSENT TO A THEATRICAL DISPLAY. HIS WORK IS DONE IN THE MOST +UNOBTRUSIVE MANNER POSSIBLE AND SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF LEGITIMATELY HELP- +ING OTHERS, WITHOUT THOUGHT OF SELF. + + As said in the beginning of this chapter, all persons earnestly desiring +the higher knowledge may rest assured that if they will but seek, they will +find the way open for them. Christ Himself prepared the way for "whosoever +will." He will help and welcome all real seekers, who are willing to work +for Universal Brotherhood. + + THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA. + + During the last 2,000 years much has been said about "the cleansing +blood." The blood of Christ has been extolled from the pulpit as the sover- +eign remedy for sin; the ONLY means of redemption and salvation. + + But if the laws of Rebirth and Consequence work in such a way that the +evolving beings reap as they have sown, and if the evolutionary impulse is +constantly bring humanity higher and higher, ultimately to attain +perfection--where then is the need for redemption and salvation? Even if +the need existed, how can the death of one individual help the rest? Would +it not be nobler to suffer the consequences of one's acts than to hide be- +hind another? These are some of the objections to the doctrine of vicarious +atonement and redemption by the blood of Christ Jesus. We will try to + + +[PAGE 401] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +answer them before showing the logical harmony between the operation of the +law of Consequence and the Atonement by Christ. + + In the first place, it is absolutely true that the evolutionary impulse +does work to achieve ultimate perfection for all; yet there are some who are +constantly straggling behind. At the present time, we have just passed the +extreme point of materiality and are going through the sixteen Races. We +are treading "the sixteen paths to destruction," and are consequently in +graver danger of falling behind than at any other part of the evolutionary +journey. + + In the abstract, time is nothing. A number may fall behind so far that +they must be abandoned, to take up their further evolution in another +scheme, where they can continue their journey to perfection. Nevertheless +that was not the evolution originally designed for them and it is reasonable +to suppose that the exalted Intelligences in charge of our evolution use ev- +ery means to bring through in safety as many as possible of the entities un- +der their charge. + + In ordinary evolution, the laws of Rebirth and Consequence are perfectly +adequate for bringing the major portion of the life wave up to perfection, +but they do not suffice in the case of the stragglers, who are lagging be- +hind in the various Races. During the stage of individualism, which is the +climax of the illusion of separateness, all mankind needs extra help, but +for the stragglers some additional special aid must be provided. + + To give that special aid, to redeem the stragglers, was the mission of +Christ. He said that He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He +opened the way of Initiation for all who are willing to seek it. + + Objectors to vicarious atonement urge: That it is cowardly to hide + + +[PAGE 402] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +behind another; that each man should be willing to take the consequence of +his acts. + + Let us consider an analogous case. The waters of the Great Lakes narrow +into the Niagara River. For twenty miles this enormous volume of water +flows rapidly toward the falls. The river bed is filled with rocks and if a +person who goes beyond a certain point does not lose his life in the rapids +above the cataract, he will surely do so by the plunge over the brink. + + Suppose a man appeared who, in pity for the victims of the current, +placed a rope above the cataract, although he knew that the conditions were +such that in doing so, he himself could not by any possible chance escape +death. Yet gladly and of his own free will, he sacrificed his life and +placed the rope, thus modifying former conditions so that any otherwise +helpless victims who would grasp the rope would be saved and thenceforward +none need be lost. + + What would we think of a man who had fallen into the water through his +own carelessness, and was struggling madly to reach the shore, if he should +say: "What! Save myself and seek to avoid penalty of my carelessness by +shielding myself behind the strength of another, who suffered through no +fault of his own, and gave up his life that such as I might live? No, +never! That would not be "manly." I will take my deserts!" Would we not +all agree that the man was a fool? + + Not all are in need of salvation. Christ knew that there is a very large +class who do not require salvation in this way, but just as surely as there +are the ninety-and-nine who are well taken care of by the laws of Rebirth +and Consequence and will reach perfection in that way, so there are the +"sinners" who have become "bogged" in matter and cannot escape without a + + +[PAGE 403] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +rope. Christ came to save them and to bring peace and good will to all, by +raising them to the necessary point of spirituality, causing a change in +their desire bodies which will make the influence of the life spirit in the +heart more potent. + + His younger brother Sun spirits, the Archangels, had worked as +Race-spirits on the desire bodies of man, but their work had been from WITH- +OUT. It was simply a reflected spiritual Sun-force and came through the +Moon--as moonlight is reflected sunlight. Christ, the Chief Initiate of the +Sun spirits, entered directly into the dense body of the Earth and brought +the direct Sun-force, thus enabling Him to influence over desire bodies from +WITHIN. + + Man cannot gaze long upon the Sun without becoming blind because its vi- +brations are so rapid that they destroy the retina of the eye. But he can +look without harmful results upon the Moon, the vibrations from which are +much slower; yet they are also sunlight, but the higher vibrations have been +taken up by the Moon, which then reflects the residue to us. + + So it is with the spiritual impulses which help man to evolve. The rea- +son why the Earth was thrown off from the Sun was because our humanity could +not endure the Sun's tremendous physical and spiritual impulses. Even after +an enormous distance had been placed between the Earth and Sun, the +spiritual impulse would still have been too strong had it not been sent +first to the Moon, to be used by Jehovah, the Regent of the Moon, for man's +benefit. A number of Archangels (ordinary Sun spirits) were given Jehovah +as helpers in reflecting these spiritual impulses from the Sun upon the hu- +manity of the Earth, in the form of Jehovisitic or Race-religions. + + The lowest vehicle of the Archangels is the desire body. Our desire body +was added in the Moon Period, at which time Jehovah was the highest + + +[PAGE 404] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Initiate. Therefore Jehovah is able to deal with man's desire body. +Jehovah's lowest vehicle is the human spirit (see diagram 14) and its coun- +terpart is the desire body. The Archangels are His helpers because they are +able to manage the spiritual Sun forces and the desire body is their lowest +vehicle. Thus they are able to work with and prepare humanity for the time +when it can receive the spiritual impulses directly from the Solar Orb, +without the intervention of the Moon. + + Upon Christ, as the highest Initiate of the Sun Period, is laid the task +of sending out this impulse. The impulse which Jehovah reflected was sent +out by Christ, Who thus prepared both the Earth and humanity for His direct +ingress. + + The expression, "prepared the Earth," means that all evolution on a +planet is accompanied by the evolution of THAT PLANET ITSELF. Had some ob- +server gifted with spiritual sight watched the evolution of our Earth from +some distant star, he would have noticed a gradual change taking place in +the Earth's desire body. + + Under the old dispensation the desire bodies of people in general were +improved by means of the law. This work is still going on in the majority +of people, who are thus preparing themselves for the higher life. + + The higher life (Initiation) does not commence, however, until the work +on the vital body begins. The means used for bringing that into activity is +Love, or rather Altruism. The former word has been so abused that it no +longer conveys the meaning here required. + + During the old dispensation the path of Initiation was not free and open, +except to the chosen few. The Hierophants of the Mysteries collected cer- +tain families about the Temples, setting them apart from all the other + + +[PAGE 405] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +people. These chosen families were then rigorously guarded as to certain +rites and ceremonies. Their marriages and sexual intercourse were regulated +by the Hierophants. + + The effect of this was to produce a race having the proper degree of lax- +ity between the dense and vital bodies; also to wake the desire body from +its state of lethargy during sleep. Thus a special few were made fit for +Initiation and were given opportunities that could not be given to all. We +see instances of this method among the Jews, where the tribe of Levi were +the chosen Templars; also in the caste of the Brahmins, who were the only +priestly class among the Hindus. + + The Mission of Christ, in addition to saving the lost, was to make Ini- +tiation possible to all, therefore Jesus was not a Levite of the class to +which priesthood came by inheritance. He came from the common people and +though not of the teacher class, His teaching was higher than that of Moses. + + Christ Jesus did not deny Moses, the law, nor the prophets. On the con- +trary, He acknowledged them all and showed the people that they were His +witnesses, as they all pointed to One Who was to come. He told the people +that those things had served their purpose and that henceforth Love must su- +persede Law. + + Christ Jesus was killed. In connection with this fact, we come to the +supreme and fundamental difference between Him and the previous teachers, in +whom the Race spirits were born. They all died and must be reborn again and +again to help their peoples bear their destiny. The Archangel Michael (the +Race-spirit of the Jews) raised up Moses, who was taken up to Mount Nebo to +die. He was reborn as Elijah. Elijah returned as John the Baptist; Buddha +died and was reborn as Shankaracharya; Shri Krishna says, "Whenever there is + + +[PAGE 406] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +decay of Dharma. . .and. . .exaltation of Adharma, then I myself come forth +for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, for the +sake of firmly establishing Dharma. I am born from age to age." + + When death came Moses' face SHONE and Buddha's body become ALIGHT. They +all reached the stage when the spirit begins to shine from within--but then +they died. + + Christ Jesus reached that stage on the Mount of Transfiguration. It is +of the very highest significance that HIS REAL WORK TOOK PLACE SUBSEQUENT TO +THAT EVENT. He suffered; was KILLED--and RESURRECTED. + + Being killed is a very different thing from dying. The blood that had +been the vehicle of the Race-spirit must FLOW and be cleansed of that con- +taminating influence. Love of father and mother, exclusive of other fathers +and mothers, must go--otherwise Universal Brotherhood and an all-embracing +Altruistic Love could never become an actuality. + + THE CLEANSING BLOOD. + + When the Savior Christ Jesus was crucified His body was pierced in five +places; in the five centers where the currents of the vital body flow; and +the pressure of the crown of thorns caused a flow from the sixth also. +(This is a hint to those who already know these currents. A full elucida- +tion of this matter cannot be publicly given out at this time.) + + When the blood flowed from these centers, the great Sun-spirit Christ was +liberated from the physical vehicle of Jesus and found Himself IN THE EARTH, +with individual vehicles. The already existing planetary vehicles He perme- +ated with His own vehicles and, in the twinkling of an eye, diffused His own + + +[PAGE 407] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +desire body over the planet, which has enabled Him thenceforth to work upon +the Earth and its humanity from WITHIN. + + At that moment a tremendous wave of spiritual sunlight flooded the Earth. +It rent the veil which the Race-spirit had hung before the Temple to keep +out all but the chosen few, and it made the Path of Initiation free thence- +forth to whomsoever will. So far as concerned the Spiritual Worlds, this +wave transformed the conditions of the Earth like a flash of lightning, but +the dense, concrete conditions are, of course, much more slowly affected. + + Like all rapid and high vibrations of light, this great wave blinded the +people by its dazzling brilliance, therefore it was said that "the Sun was +darkened." The very opposite was what actually occurred. The Sun was not +darkened, but shone out in glorious splendor. It was the excess of light +that blinded the people, and only as the entire Earth absorbed the desire +body of the bright Sun-spirit did the vibration return to a more normal +rate. + + The expression, "the cleansing blood of Christ Jesus," means that as the +blood flowed on Calvary, it bore with it the great Sun-spirit Christ, Who by +that means secured admission to the earth itself and since that moment has +been its Regent. He diffused His own desire body throughout the planet, +thereby cleansing it from all the vile influences which had grown up under +the REGIME of the Race-spirit. + + Under the law all sinned; nay, more--they could not help it. They had +not evolved to where they could do right for Love's sake. The desire nature +was so strong that it was an impossibility for them to rule it altogether, +therefore their debts, engendered under the law of Consequence, piled up to +monstrous proportions. Evolution would have been terribly delayed and many + + +[PAGE 408] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +lost to our life wave altogether it some help had not been given. + + Therefore did Christ come "to seek and to save that which was lost." He +took away the sin of the world by His cleansing blood, which gave Him en- +trance to the Earth and its humanity. He purified the conditions and we owe +it to Him that we are able to gather for our desire bodies purer +desire-stuff than formerly, and He continues working to help us, by making +our external environment constantly purer. + + That this was and is done at the expense of great suffering to Himself, +no one can doubt who is able to form the least conception of the limitations +endured by that Great Spirit in entering the hampering conditions of +physical existence, even in the best and purest vehicle possible; nor is His +present limitation as Regent of the Earth must less painful. True, He is +also Regent of the Sun, and therefore only partially confined to the Earth, +yet the limitations set by the crampingly slow vibrations of our dense +planet must be almost endurable. + + Had Christ Jesus simply died, it would have been impossible for Him to +have done this work, but the Christians have a RISEN Savior; One Who is ever +present to help those who call upon His Name. Having suffered like unto +ourselves in all things and knowing fully our needs, He is lenient toward +our mistakes and failures so long as we continue trying to live the good +life. We must ever keep before our eyes the fact that THE ONLY REAL FAILURE +IS CEASING TO TRY. + + Upon the death of the dense body of Christ Jesus, the seedatom was re- +turned to the original owner, Jesus of Nazareth, who for some time after- +ward, while functioning in a vital body which he had gathered temporarily, + + +[PAGE 409] CHRIST AND HIS MISSION + +taught the nucleus of the new faith which Christ had left behind. Jesus of +Nazareth has since had the guidance of the esoteric branches which sprang up +all over Europe. + + In many placed the Knights of the Round Table were high Initiates in the +Mysteries of the New Dispensation. So were the Knights of The Grail--to +whom was finally confided Joseph of Arimathea's Grail Cup, which was used by +Christ Jesus at The Last Supper. They were afterward entrusted also with +the Lance which pierced His side, and the receptacle which received the +blood from the wound. + + The Druids of Ireland the Trottes of Northern Russia were esoteric +schools through which the Master Jesus worked during the so-called "Dark +Ages," but, dark though they were, the spiritual impulse spread, and from +the standpoint of the occult scientist they were "Bright Ages" compared to +the growing materialism of the last 300 years, which has increased physical +knowledge immensely, but has almost extinguished the Light of the Spirit. + + Tales of "The Grail," "Knights of The Round Table," etc., are now scouted +as superstitions and all that cannot be materially demonstrated is regarded +as unworthy of belief. Glorious as are the discoveries of modern science, +they have been bought at the terrible price of crushing the spiritual intu- +ition and, from a spiritual standpoint, no darker day than the present has +ever dawned. + + The Elder Brothers, Jesus among them, have striven and are striving to +counteract this terrible influence, which is like that in the eyes of the +snake, causing the bird to fall into its jaws. Every attempt to enlighten +people and awaken in them a desire to cultivate the spiritual side of life, +is an evidence of the activity of the Elder Brothers. + + +[PAGE 410] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + May their efforts be crowned with success and speed the day when modern +science shall be spiritualized and conduct its investigation of matter from +the standpoint of spirit, for them, and not until then, will it arrive at a +true knowledge of the world. + + + DIAGRAM 14: + + "AS ABOVE, SO BELOW" + + + The world, the man and the atom are governed by the same law. Our dense +earth is now in its 4th stage of consolidation. The mind, the desire body +and the vital body are less solid than our 4th vehicle, the dense body. In +the atomic weight of the chemical elements there is a similar arrangement. +The 4th group marks the acme of density. + + + +[PAGE 411] FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + + CHAPTER XVI + + FUTURE DEVELOPMENT AND INITIATION. + + THE SEVEN DAYS OF CREATION. + + The Rosicrucian speaks of the Earth Period as Mars-Mercury. The great +creative Day of Manifestation is embodied in the names of the days of the +week, for our week-days have been named after the evolutionary stages +through which the virgin spirits pass in their pilgrimage through matter. + +DAY CORRESPONDS TO THE IS RULED BY +Saturday............... Saturn Period.......................... Saturn +Sunday................. Sun Period............................. The Sun +Monday................. Moon Period............................ The Moon +Tuesday................ First half of the Earth Period......... Mars +Wednesday.............. Second half of the Earth Period........ Mercury +Thursday............... Jupiter Period......................... Jupiter +Friday................. Venus Period........................... Venus + +The Vulcan Period is the last Period of our scheme of evolution. The quin- +tessence of all the preceding Periods is extracted by the recapitulation of +spiral after spiral. No new work is done until the very last Revolution on +the very last Globe and then only in the Seventh Epoch. Therefore the +Vulcan Period may be said to correspond to the week, which includes all of +the seven days. + + The claim of astrologers that the days of the week are ruled by the par- +ticular planet for which they are named, is well-founded. The ancients were +also familiar with this occult knowledge, as is shown in their mythologies, + + +[PAGE 412] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +in which the names of the gods are associated with the days of the week. +Saturday is plainly "Saturn's day"; Sunday is correlated to the Sun, and +Monday to the Moon. The Latins call Tuesday "Dies Martis," which obviously +shows its connection with Mars, the god of war. The name "Tuesday" is de- +rived from "Tirsdag," "Tir" or "Tyr," being the name of the Norse god of +war. "Wednesday" was "Wotensdag," from Woten, also a Norse god; it is +called "Dies Mercurii" by the Latins, showing its association with Mercury, +as given in our list. + + Thursday, or "Thorsdag," is named for "Thor," the Norse god of thunder, +and is called "Dies Jovis" by the Latins, after the thunder god, "Jove" or +"Jupiter." + + Friday is named for the Norse goddess of beauty, "Freya," and for similar +reasons, the Latins call it "Dies Veneris," or Day of Venus. + + THESE NAMES OF PERIODS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PHYSICAL PLANETS, BUT +REFER TO PAST, PRESENT OR FUTURE INCARNATIONS OF THE EARTH; for, again ap- +plying the Hermetic axiom, "As above, so below,: the macrocosm must have its +incarnations as well as the microcosm, man. + + Occult science teaches that there are 777 incarnations, but that does not +mean that the Earth undergoes 777 metamorphoses. It means that evolving +life makes + 7 Revolutions around the + 7 Globes of the + 7 World Periods. + + This pilgrimage of Involution and Evolution, including the "short cut" of +Initiation, is embodied in the Caduceus, or "Staff of Mercury" (see Diagram +15), so called because this occult symbol indicates The Pat of Initiation, +which has been open to man only since the beginning of the Mercury half of +the Earth Period. Some of the lesser mysteries were given to the earlier + + +[PAGE 413] FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + + DIAGRAM 15: + + THE SEVEN DAYS OF CREATION AND THE FOUR GREAT INITIATIONS. + + + +[PAGE 414] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Lemurians and Atlanteans, but not the Four Great Initiations. + + The black serpent on diagram 15 indicates the winding, cyclic path of In- +volution, comprising the Saturn, Sun and Moon Periods, and the Mars half of +the Earth Period, during which the evolving life built its vehicles, not be- +coming fully awake and clearly conscious of the outside world until the lat- +ter of the Atlantean Epoch. + + The white serpent represents the path that the human race will follow +through the Mercury half of the Earth Period, and the Jupiter, Venus, and +Vulcan Periods, during which pilgrimage man's consciousness will expand into +that of an omniscient, Creative Intelligence. + + The serpentine path is the path followed by the great majority; but the +"Staff of Mercury," around which the serpents twine, shows the "straight and +narrow way," the path of Initiation, which enables those who walk therein to +accomplish in a few short lives that which it requires millions of years for +the majority of mankind to accomplish. + + It need scarcely be said that no description of the initiatory ceremonies +can be given, as the first vow of the Initiate is silence; but even if per- +missible, it would not be important. What concerns us in getting a +bird's-eye view of the evolutionary path is to ascertain the results of the +ceremonies. + + The whole result of initiation is to give to the spiritually aspiring an +opportunity to develop the higher faculties and powers in a short time and +by severe training, thereby gaining the expansion of consciousness that all +manking will surely possess eventually, but which the vast majority choose +to acquire through the slow process of ordinary evolution. We may know the + + +[PAGE 415] FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + +states of consciousness and their concomitant powers attained by the candi- +date as he passes through successive great Initiations provided we know what +those future states and powers will be for humanity in general. Some hints +have been given and more may be logically deduced by an application of the +law of Correspondences, to give a fairly rounded picture of the evolution in +store for all of us, and the magnitude of the great steps in Initiation. To +do this it may help us to glance back over the steps by which the conscious- +ness of man has been evolved through the various Periods. + + We remember that during the Saturn Period the unconsciousness of man was +similar to that of the dense body when plunged into the deepest trance con- +dition; this was succeeded, in the Sun period, by a dreamless-sleep con- +sciousness. In the Moon Period the first glimmering of waking showed itself +in inward pictures of outward things. The entire consciousness consisted of +such inward representations of external objects, colors, or sounds. At +last, in the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch, this picture consciousness, +in which objects could be observed outside, clearly and distinctly outlined +in space. When this objective-consciousness was attained, man became aware +of an outside world and for the first time thoroughly realized the differ- +ence between "self" and "others." He then realized his separateness and +thenceforth the "I" consciousness, Egoism, became paramount. As previous to +that time there had been no thoughts nor ideas dealing with a an outside +world, there had consequently been no memory of events. + + The change from the internal picture consciousness to the +objective-self-consciousness was effected by a very slow process, commensu- +rate with its magnitude, lasting from the existence on Globe C in the third + + +[PAGE 416] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Revolution of the Moon Period, until the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch. + + During that time the evolving life passed through four great stages of +animal-like development before reaching the human stage. These steps of the +past correspond to four stages yet to be passed through, and to the four +initiations. + + Within these four stages of consciousness previously passed there are al- +together thirteen steps, and from man's present state to the last of the +Great Initiations there are also thirteen initiations--the nine degrees of +the lesser mysteries and the four Great Initiations. + + There is a similar division among our present animals which can be traced +through Form, because, as the form is the expression of life, so each step +in its development must necessarily show a step forward in consciousness. + + Cuvier was the first to divide the animal kingdom into four primary +classes, but was not so successful in his division of these classes into +sub-classes. The embryologist, Karl Ernst von Baer, also Professor Agassiz +and other scientists, classify the animal kingdom into four primary and +thirteen subdivisions, as follows: + + I RADIATES: + 1-Polyps, Sea-anemones and Coral. + 2-Acaleph, or Jelly-fish. + 3-Starfish, Sea-urchins. + II MOLLUSKS: + 4-Acephala (oysters, etc.). + 5-Gast ropoda (snails). + 6-Cephalopoda. + III ARTICULATES: + 7-Worms. + 8-Crustacea (lobsters, etc.). + 9-Insects. + IV VERTEBRATES: + 10-Fishes. + 11-Reptiles. + 12-Birds. + 13-Mammals + + +[PAGE 417] FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + + The first three divisions correspond to the remaining three Revolutions +of the Mercury half of the Earth Period, and their nine steps correspond to +the nine degrees of the lesser mysteries, which will have been taken by hu- +manity in general when it has reached the middle of the last Revolutions of +the Earth Period. + + The fourth division in the list of the advancing animal kingdom has four +subdivisions: Fishes, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals. The steps in con- +sciousness thus indicated correspond to similar states of advancement to be +attained by humanity at the end of the Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan Pe- +riods and which any qualified individual may now attain by initiation. The +first of the Great Initiations gives the stage of consciousness which will +be attained by ordinary humanity at the end of the Earth Period; the second +that to which all will attain at the end of the Jupiter Period; the third +gives the extension of consciousness to be reached at the close of the Venus +Period; the last brings to the initiate the power and omniscience to which +the majority will attain only at the end of the Vulcan Period. + + The Objective-Consciousness by which we obtain knowledge of the outside +world is dependent upon what we perceive through the medium of the senses. +This we call "real," in contradistinction to our thoughts and ideas which +come to us through our inner consciousness; their reality is not apparent to +us in the same as that of a book or table, or other visible or tangible ob- +ject in space. Thoughts and ideas seem misty and unreal, therefore we speak +of a "mere" thought, or of "just" an idea. + + The ideas and thoughts of today, however, have an evolution before them; +they are destined to become as real, clear and tangible as any of the + + +[PAGE 418] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +objects of the outside world which we now perceive through the physical +senses. At present, when a thing or a color is thought of, the picture or +color presented by the memory to our inner consciousness is but a dim and +shadowy one compared with the thing thought of. + + As early as the Jupiter Period there will be a marked change in this re- +spect. The the dream-pictures of the Moon Period will return, but they will +be subject to the call of the thinker, and not mere reproductions of outer +objects. Thus there will be a combination of the pictures of the Moon Pe- +riod and the thoughts and ideas consciously developed during the Earth Pe- +riod, that is, it will be a Self-Consciousness Picture-Consciousness. + + When a man of the Jupiter Period says "red," or speaks the name of an ob- +ject, a clear and exact reproduction of the particular shade of red of which +he is thinking, or of the object to which he refers, will be presented to +his inner vision and will also be quite visible to the hearer. There will +be no misconception as to what is meant by the words spoken. Thoughts and +ideas will be alive and visible, therefore hypocrisy and flattery will be +entirely eliminated. People can be seen exactly as they are. There will be +both good and bad, but the two qualities will not be mingled in the same +person. There will be the thoroughly good man and the downright evil man, +and one of the serious problems of that time will be how to deal with the +latter. The Manichees, an Order of still higher, spirituality than the +Rosicrucians, are at present studying that very problem. An idea of the +condition anticipated may be gained from a short resume or their legend. +(All mystic orders have a legend symbolic of their ideals and aspirations. + + In the legend of the Manichees there are two kingdoms--that of the + + +[PAGE 419] FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + +Light-Elves and that of the Night Elves. The latter attack the former, are +defeated and must be punished. But, as the Light-Elves are as thoroughly +good as the Night-Elves are bad, they cannot inflict evil upon their foes, +so they must be punished with Good. Therefore a part of the kingdom of the +Light-Elves is incorporated with that of the Night-Elves and is this way the +evil is in time overcome. Hate which will not submit to hate, must succumb +to Love. + + The internal pictures of the Moon Period were a certain expression of +man's external environment. In the Jupiter Period the pictures will be ex- +pressed from within; they will be an outcome of the inner life of the man. +He will also possess the additional faculty, which he cultivated in the +Earth Period, of seeing things in space outside of himself. In the Moon Pe- +riod he did not see the concrete thing, but only its soul-qualities. In the +Jupiter Period he will see both, and will thus have a thorough perception +and understanding of his surroundings. At a later stage in the same Period, +this perceptive ability will be succeeded by a still higher phase. His +power to form clear mental conceptions of colors, objects, or tones will en- +able him to contact and influence supersensuous beings of various orders and +to secure their obedience, employing their forces as he wishes. He will be +unable to send out from himself the forces wherewith to carry out his de- +signs, however, and will be dependent upon the help of these superphysical +beings, who will then be at his service. + + At the close of the Venus Period he will be able to use his own force to +give his pictures life and to set them out from himself as objects in space. +He will then possess an Objective, Self-Conscious, Creative-Consciousness. + + Very little can be said about the high spiritual consciousness which will + + +[PAGE 420] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +be attained at the close of the Vulcan Period; it would be quite beyond our +present comprehension. + + SPIRALS WITHIN SPIRALS. + + It must not be supposed that these states of consciousness commence at +the beginning of the Periods to which they belong and last until the end. +There is always the Recapitulation, and therefore there must be the corre- +sponding stages of consciousness on an ascending scale. The Saturn Revolu- +tion of any Period, the stay on Glove A, and the first Epoch on any Globe, +are repetitions of the Saturn Period states of development. The Sun Revolu- +tion, the stay on Globe B, and the second Epoch on any Glove are Recapitula- +tions of the Sun Period states of development, and so on, all the way +through. Hence it will be seen that the consciousness which is to be the +especial and peculiar result or product of any Period, does not begin to be +evolved until all the Recapitulations have been made. The +waking-consciousness of the Earth Period was not started until the Fourth +Revolution, when the life wave had reached the Fourth Glove (D), and was in +the Fourth or Atlantean Epoch on that Globe. + + The Jupiter Consciousness will not start in the Jupiter Period until the +Fifth Revolution, when the Fifth Globe (E) has been reached and the Fifth +Epoch commences on that Globe. + + Correspondingly, the Venus consciousness will not begin until the Sixth +Revolution has come to the Sixth Globe and Epoch, and the special Vulcan +work will be confined to the very last Globe and Epoch, just before the Day +of Manifestation closes. + + The time required for passing through these respective Periods varies + + +[PAGE 421] FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + +greatly. The further into matter the virgin spirits descent, the slower +their progress and the more numerous the steps or stages of progression. +After the nadir of material existence has been passed and the life wave as- +cends into more tenuous and mobile conditions, the progress is gradually ac- +celerated. The Sun Period is of somewhat longer duration that the Saturn +Period, and the Moon Period is longer than the Sun Period. The Mars (or +first) half of the Earth Period is the longest half of any Period. Then the +time begins to shorten again, so that the Mercury half of the Earth Period +the latter three and a half Revolutions, will occupy less time that the Mars +half; the Jupiter Period will be shorter than the Moon Period; the Venus Pe- +riod shorter than the corresponding Sun Period; and the Vulcan Period the +shortest Period of them all. + + The states of consciousness of the different Periods may be tabulated as +follows: + +PERIOD CORRESPONDING CONSCIOUSNESS +Saturn....... Unconsciousness corresponding to deep trance +Sun.......... Unconsciousness resembling dreamless sleep +Moon......... Picture consciousness corresponding to dream state +Earth........ Waking, objective consciousness +Jupiter...... Self-conscious picture consciousness +Venus........ Objective, Self-conscious, Creative consciousness +Vulcan....... Highest Spiritual Consciousness + + Having taken a general survey of the states of consciousness to be devel- +oped in the next three and a half Periods, we will now study the means of +attainment. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 421 cont'd] FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + + ALCHEMY AND SOUL-GROWTH + + The dense body was started in the Saturn Period, passed through various +transformations in the Sun and Moon Periods, and will reach its highest + + +[PAGE 422] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +development in the Earth Period. + + The vital body was started in the second Revolution of the Sun Period, +was reconstructed in the Moon and Earth Periods, and will reach perfection +in the Jupiter Period, which is its fourth stage, as the Earth Period is the +fourth stage for the dense body. + + The desire body was started in the Moon period, reconstructed in the +Earth period, will be further modified in the Jupiter Period, reaching per- +fection in the Venus period. + + The mind was started in the Earth Period, will be modified in the Jupiter +and Venus Periods, and attain perfection in the Vulcan Period. + + Reference to diagram 8 will show that the lowest Globe of the Jupiter Pe- +riod is located in the Etheric Region. It would therefore be impossible to +use the dense physical vehicle there, as only a vital body can be used in +the Etheric Region. Yet it must not be supposed that after spending the +time from the beginning of the Saturn Period to the end of the Earth Period +in completing and perfecting this body, it is then thrown away that man may +function in a "higher" vehicle! + + Nothing in Nature is wasted. In the Jupiter Period the forces of the +dense body will be superimposed upon the completed vital body. That vehicle +will then possess the powers of the dense body in addition to its own facul- +ties, and will therefore be a much more valuable instrument for the expres- +sion of the threefold spirit that if built from its own forces alone. + + Similarly, Globe D of the Venus Period is located in the Desire World +(see Diagram 8), hence neither a dense nor a vital body could be used as an +instrument of consciousness, therefore the essences of the perfected dense + + +[PAGE 423] FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + +and vital bodies are incorporated in the completed desire body, the latter +thus becoming a vehicle of transcendent qualities, marvelously adaptable and +so responsive to the slightest wish of the indwelling spirit that in our +present limitations, it is beyond our utmost conception. + + Yet the efficiency of even this splendid vehicle will be transcended when +in the Vulcan period its essence, together with the essences of the dense +and vital bodies, are added to the mind body, which becomes the highest of +man's vehicles, containing within itself the quintessence of all that was +best in all the vehicles. The vehicle of the Venus Period being beyond our +present power of conception, how much more so is that which will be at the +service of the divine beings of the Vulcan Period! + + During involution the creative Hierarchies assisted man to arouse into +activity the threefold spirit, the Ego, to build the threefold body, and to +acquire the link of mind. Now, however, on the seventh day (to use the lan- +guage of the Bible), God rests. Man must work out his own salvation. The +threefold spirit must complete the working out of the plan begun by the +Gods. + + The human spirit, which was awakened during Involution in the Moon Pe- +riod, will be the most prominent of the three aspects of the spirit in the +evolution of the Jupiter Period, which is the corresponding Period on the +upward arc of the spiral. The life spirit, which was started into activity +in the Sun Period, will manifest its principal activity in the corresponding +Venus Period, and the particular influences of the Divine Spirit will be +strongest in the Vulcan Period, because it was vivified in the corresponding +Saturn Period. + + All three aspects of the spirit are active all the time during evolution + + +[PAGE 424] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +but the principal activity of each aspect will be unfolded in those par- +ticular Periods, because the work to be done there is its special work. + + When the threefold spirit had evolved the threefold body and gained con- +trol of it through the focus of Mind, it commenced to evolve the threefold +soul by working from within. How much or how little soul a man has depends +upon the amount of work the spirit has done in the bodies. This has been +explained in the chapter describing post mortem experiences. + + As much of the desire body as has been worked upon by the Ego is trans- +muted into the emotional soul, and is ultimately assimilated by the human +spirit, the special vehicle of which is the desire body. + + As much of the vital body as has been worked upon by the life spirit, be- +comes the Intellectual soul, and it builds the life spirit, because that as- +pect of the threefold spirit has its counterpart in the vital body. + + As much of the dense body as has been worked upon by the Divine Spirit is +called the Conscious soul, and is ultimately merged in the Divine Spirit, +because the dense body is its material emanation. + + The Conscious soul grows by action, external impacts, and experience. + + The Emotional soul grows by the feelings and emotions generated by ac- +tions and experiences. + + The Intellectual soul, as mediator between the other two, grows by the +exercise of memory, by which it links together past and present experiences +and the feelings engendered thereby, thus creating "sympathy" and "an- +tipathy," which could not exist apart from memory, because the feelings re- +sulting from experience alone would be evanescent. + + +[PAGE 425] FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + + During the involution the spirit progressed by growing bodies, but evolu- +tion depends upon soul growth--the transmutation of the bodies into soul. +The soul is, so to say, the quintessence, the power or force of the body, +and when a body has been completely built and brought to perfection through +the stages and Periods as above described, the soul is fully extracted +therefrom and is absorbed by the one of the three aspects of the the spirit +which generated the body in the first place; thus: + + The CONSCIOUS SOUL will be absorbed by the DIVINE SPIRIT in the seventh +Revolution of the Jupiter Period; + The INTELLECTUAL SOUL will be absorbed by the LIFE SPIRIT in the sixth +Revolution of the Venus Period; + The EMOTIONAL SOUL will be absorbed by the HUMAN SPIRIT in the fifth +Revolution of the Vulcan Period. + + THE CREATIVE WORD. + + The mind is the most important instrument possessed by the spirit, and +its special instrument in the work of creation. The spiritualized and per- +fected larynx will speak the creative Word, but the perfect mind will decide +as to the particular form and the volume of vibration, and will thus be the +determining factor. Imagination will be the spiritualized faculty directing +the work of creation. + + There is a strong tendency at the present time to regard the faculty of +imagination slightingly, yet it is one of the most important factors in our +civilization. It it were not for the imagination, we would still be naked +savages. Imagination planned our houses, our clothes and our transportation +and transmission facilities. Had not the inventors of these improvements +possessed the mind and imagination to form mental images, the improvements +could never have become concrete realities. In our materialistic day and + + +[PAGE 426] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +age there is scarcely an effort made to conceal the contempt in which the +faculty of imagination is generally held, and none feel the effects of this +more acutely than inventors. They are usually classes as "cranks," and yet +they have been the chief factors in the subjugation of the Physical World +and in making our social environment what it is today. Any improvement in +spiritual or physical conditions must first be imagined as a possibility be- +fore it can become an actuality. + + If the student will turn to diagram 1 this fact will become clear. In +the comparison there drawn between the functions of the different human ve- +hicles and the part of a stereoptican, the mind corresponds to the lens. It +is the focusing medium whereby the ideas wrought by the imagination of the +spirit are projected upon the material universe. First they are thought +norms only, but when the desire to realize the imagined possibilities has +set the man to work in the Physical World, they become what we call concrete +"realities." + + At the present time, however, the mind is not focused in a way that en- +ables it to give a clear and true picture of what the spirit imagines. It +is not one-pointed. It gives misty and clouded pictures. Hence the neces- +sity of experiment to show the inadequacies of the first conception, and +bring about new imaginings and ideas until the image produced by the spirit +in mental substance has been reproduced in physical substance. + + At the best, we are able to shape through the mind only such images as +have to do with Form, because the human mind was not started until the Earth +Period, and therefore is now in its form, or "mineral" stage, hence in our +operations we are confined to forms, to minerals. We can imagine ways and +means of working with the mineral forms of the three lower kingdoms, but can + + +[PAGE 427] FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + +do little or nothing with the living bodies. We may indeed graft living +branch to living tree, or living part of animal or man to other living part, +but it is not life with which we are working; it is form only. We are mak- +ing different conditions, but the life which already inhabited the form con- +tinues to do so still. To create life is beyond man's power until his mind +has become alive. + + In the Jupiter Period the mind will be vivified to some extent and man +can then imagine forms which will live and grow, like plants. + + In the Venus Period, when his mind has acquired "Feeling," he can create +living, growing, and feeling things. + + When he reaches perfection, at the end of the Vulcan Period, he will be +able to "imagine" into existence creatures that will live, grown, feel, and +think. + + In the Saturn Period the life wave which is now man started on its evolu- +tion. The Lords of Mind were then human. They worked with man at that Pe- +riod, when he was mineral. They now have nothing to do with the lower king- +doms, but are concerned solely with our human development. + + Our present animals started their mineral existence in the Sun Period, at +which time the Archangels were human, therefore the Archangels are the rul- +ers and guides of the evolution of that which is now animal, but have noth- +ing to do with plant or mineral. + + The present plants had their mineral existence in the Moon period. The +Angels were then human, therefore they have special concern with the life +that now inhabits the plants, to guide it up to the human stage; but they +have no interest in the minerals. + + Our present humanity will have to work with the new life wave, which + + +[PAGE 428] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +entered evolution in the Earth Period and NOW ENSOULS THE MINERALS. We are +now working with it by means of the faculty of imagination, giving it +form--building it into ships, bridges, railways, houses, etc. + + In the Jupiter Period we shall guide the evolution of the plant kingdom, +for that which is at present mineral will then have a plant-like existence +and we must work with it there as the Angels are now doing with out plant +kingdom. Our faculty of imagination will be so developed that we shall have +the ability, not only to create forms by means of it, but to endow those +forms with vitality. + + In the Venus Period our present mineral life wave shall have advanced an- +other step, and we shall be doing for the animals of that period what the +Archangels are now doing for our animals--giving them living and feeling +forms. + + Lastly, in the Vulcan Period it will be our privilege to give them a ger- +minal mind, as the Lords of Mind did to us. The present minerals will then +have become the humanity of the Vulcan Period, and we shall have passed +through stages similar to those through which the Angels and Archangels are +now passing. We shall then have reached a point in evolution a little +higher that that of the present Lords of Mind, for remember, there is never +an exact reproduction anywhere, but always progressive improvement, because +of the spiral. + + The Divine Spirit will absorb the human spirit at the close of the Jupi- +ter Period; the life spirit at the close of the Venus Period; and the per- +fected Mind, embodying all that it has garnered during its pilgrimage +through all the seven Periods, will be absorbed by the Divine Spirit at the +close of the Vulcan Period. (There is no contradiction of the foregoing +statement made elsewhere that the Emotional soul will be absorbed by the + + +[PAGE 429] FUTURE DEVELOPMENT + +human spirit in the fifth Revolution of the Vulcan Period, because the lat- +ter will then be within the Divine Spirit.) + + Then will succeed the long interval of subjective activity during which +the virgin spirit will assimilate all the fruits of the septenary Periods of +active Manifestation. It is then merged in God, from Whom it came, to +re-emerge at the dawn of another Great Day, as One of His glorious helpers. +During its past evolution its latent possibilities have been transmuted to +dynamic powers. It has acquired Soul-power and a Creative Mind as the +fruitage of its pilgrimage through matter. It has advanced from IMPOTENCE +TO OMNIPOTENCE, FROM NESCIENCE TO OMNISCIENCE. + + +[PAGE 430] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + CHAPTER XVII. + + THE METHOD OF ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE. + + THE FIRST STEPS. + + The time has now come for pointing out the way by which each individual +may investigate for himself all the facts with which we have dealt thus far +in our study. As stated in the beginning, there are no special "gifts" be- +stowed upon any. All may know for themselves the truth concerning the pil- +grimage of the soul, the past evolution and future destiny of the world, +without being compelled to depend upon the veracity of another. There is a +method whereby this valuable faculty may be acquired, and the earnest stu- +dent quality himself to investigate those super-physical realms; a method by +which, if persistently followed, the powers of a God may be developed. + + A simple illustration may indicate the first steps. The very best +medicine is well-nigh helpless without the tools of his craft. Indeed it is +the hall mark of a good artisan that he is very fastidious as to the quality +and condition of the tools he uses, because he knows that the work depends +as much upon their excellence as upon his skill. + + The Ego has several instruments--a dense body, a vital body, a desire +body, and a mind. These are its tools and upon their quality and condition +depends how much or how little it can accomplish in its work of gathering +experience in each life. If the instruments are poor and dull there will be + + +[PAGE 431] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +but little spiritual growth and the life will be a barren one, so far as the +spirit is concerned. + + We generally estimate a "successful" life by the bank account, the social +position attained, or the happiness resulting from a carefree existence and +a sheltered environment. + + When life is regarded is that way all the principal things that make for +permanency are forgotten; the individual is blinded by the evanescent and +illusionary. A bank account seems such a very real success, the fact is +forgotten that from the moment the Ego leaves the body, it has no equity in +gold nor any other earthly treasure. It may even have to answer for the +methods employed in amassing that hoard and suffer great pain in seeing oth- +ers spend it. It is forgotten that the important social position also dis- +appears when the silver cord is loosed. Those who once fawned may then +sneer, and even those who were faithful in life might shudder at the thought +of an hour spent with no company but that of the dead. All that if of this +life alone in vanity. Only that is of true value which can be taken with us +across the threshold as the treasure of the spirit. + + The hot-house plant may look very beautiful as it blooms in its sheltered +glass house, but should the furnace fire go out, it would wither and die, +while the plant that has grown in rain and sunshine, through storm and calm, +will survive the winter and bloom afresh each year. From the viewpoint of +the soul, happiness and a sheltered environment are generally unfortunate +circumstances. The petted and fondled lap dog is subject to diseases of +which the homeless cur, which has to fight for a scrap from a garbage can, +knows nothing. The cur's life is hard, but it gets experience that makes it + + +[PAGE 432] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +alert, alive and resourceful. Its life is rich in events, and it reaps a +harvest of experience, while the pampered lap dog drones it time away in +fearful monotony. + + The case of a human being is somewhat similar. It may be hard to fight +poverty and hunger, but from the standpoint of the soul it is infinitely +preferable to a life of idle luxury. Where wealth is nothing more than a +handmaid of well thought out philanthropy, which helps man in such a way as +to really uplift him, it may be a very great blessing and a means of growth +for its possessor, but when used for selfish purposes and oppression, it +cannot be regarded as other than an unmitigated curse. + + The soul is here to acquire experience through its instruments. These +are the tools furnished to each at birth, and they are good, bad or indif- +ferent according to what we have learned through past experience in the +building of them. Such as they are we must work with them, it at all. + + If we have become aroused from the usual lethargy and are anxious to +progress, the question naturally arises, What must I do? + + Without well-kept tools the mechanic can do no effective work; similarly, +the instruments of the Ego must be cleansed and sharpened; then we may com- +mence work to some purpose. As one works with those wonderful tools they +themselves improve with proper use and become more and more efficient to aid +in the work. The object of this work is Union with the Higher Self. + + There are three steps by which this work conquers the lower nature, but +they are not completely taken one after the other. In a certain sense they +go together, so that at the present stage the first receives the most atten- +tion, the second less, and the third least of all. In time, when the first + + +[PAGE 433] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +step has been wholly taken, naturally more attention can be paid to the +other two. + + There are three helps given in attaining these three stages. They can be +seen in the outside world, where the great Leaders of humanity have placed +them. + + The first help is Race religions, which by aiding humanity to overcome +the desire body, prepare it for union with the Holy Spirit. + + The full operation of this help was seen on the Day of Pentecost. As the +Holy Spirit is the Race God, all languages are expressions of it. That is +why the apostles, when fully united and filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke +with different tongues and were able to convince their hearers. Their +desire bodies had been sufficiently purified to bring about the wished-for +union and this is an earnest of what the disciple will one day attain to-- +the power to speak all tongues. It may also be cited as a modern, his- +torical example, that the Comte de St. Germain (who was one of the later in- +carnations of Christian Rosenkreuz the founder of our sacred Order), spoke +all languages, so that all to whom he spoke thought he belonged to the same +nation as they. He also had achieved union with the Holy Spirit. + + In the Hyperborean Epoch, before man possessed a desire body, there was +but one universal mode of communication and when the desire body has become +sufficiently purified, all men will again be able to understand one another, +for then the separative Race differentiation will have passed away. + + The second help which humanity now has is the Religion of the Son--the +Christian religion, the object of which is UNION WITH CHRIST by purification +and control of the vital body. + + +[PAGE 434] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Paul refers to this future state when he says: "Until Christ be formed +in you," and exhorts his followers, as men who are running a race, to rid +themselves of every weight. + + The fundamental principle in building the vital body is repetition. Re- +peated experiences work on it to create memory. The Leaders of humanity, +who desired to give us unconscious help by certain exercises, instituted +prayer as a means of bringing pure and lofty thought to work on the vital +body, and enjoined us to "pray without ceasing." Scoffers have often asked +sneeringly why it should be thought necessary to always pray, because if God +is omniscient He knows our needs and if He is not, our prayers will probably +never reach Him; and if not omniscient, He cannot be omnipotent, and there- +fore could not answer prayer in any case. Many an earnest Christian may +also have thought it wrong to be continually importuning the Throne of +Grace. + + Such ideas are founded upon a misunderstanding of facts. Truly God is +omniscient and requires no reminder of our needs, but if we pray aright, we +lift ourselves up to Him, thus working upon and purifying our vital bodies. +If we pray aright--but that is the great trouble. We are generally much +more concerned about temporal things than we are about spiritual upliftment. +Churches will hold special meetings to pray for rain! and the chaplains of +opposing armies or navies will even pray before a battle that success may +follow their arms! + + That is prayer to the Race God, Who fights the battles of His people, +gives them increase of flocks and herds, fills their granaries and caters to +the material wants. Such prayers are not even purifying. They are from the +desire body, which sums up the situation thus: Now Lord, I am keeping your + + +[PAGE 435] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +commandments to the best of my ability and I want You to do Your part in re- +turn. + + Christ gave to humanity a prayer that is, like himself, unique and +all-embracing. In it there are seven distinct and separate prayers; one for +each of the seven principles of many--the threefold body, the threefold +spirit and the link of mind. Each prayer is peculiarly adapted to promote +the progression of that part of composite man to which it refers. + + The purpose of the prayer relating to the threefold body is the spiritu- +alization of those vehicles and the extraction therefrom of the threefold +soul. + + The prayers relating to the threefold spirit prepare it to receive the +extracted essence, the threefold soul. + + The prayer for the link of mind is to keep it in its proper relation as a +tie between the higher and the lower nature. + + The third help to be given to humanity will be the Religion of the Fa- +ther. We can have very little conception of what that will be, save that +the ideal will be even higher than Brotherhood and that by it the dense body +will be spiritualized. + + The Religions of the Holy Spirit, the Race religions, were for the up- +lifting of the human race through a feeling of kinship limited to a +group--family, tribe or nation. + + The purpose of the Religion of The Son, Christ, is to further uplift man- +kind by forming it into a Universal Brotherhood of separate individuals. + + The ideal of the Religion of The Father will be the elimination of all +separateness, merging all into One, so that there will be no "I" nor "Thou," +but all will be One IN REALITY. This will not come to pass while we are +still inhabitants of the physical Earth, but in a future state where we + + +[PAGE 436] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +shall realize our unity with all, each having access to all the knowledge +garnered by each separate individual. Just as the single facet of a diamond +has access to all the light that comes through each of the other facets, is +one with them, yet bounded by lines which give it a certain individuality +WITHOUT SEPARATENESS, so will the individual spirit RETAIN THE MEMORY OF ITS +PARTICULAR EXPERIENCES, while giving to all others THE FRUITS of its indi- +vidual existence. + + These are the steps and stages through which humanity is unconsciously +being led. + + In past ages the Race spirit reigned alone. Man was content with a pa- +triarchal and paternal government in which he had no part. Now all over the +world we see signs of the breaking down of the old system. The caste sys- +tem, which was the stronghold of England in India, is crumbling. Instead of +being separated into small groups, the people are uniting in the demand that +the oppressor shall depart and leave them to live in freedom under a govern- +ment of, by and for the people. Russia is torn by strife for freedom from a +dictatorial, autocratic government. Turkey has awakened and taken a long +stride toward liberty. Here in our own land, where we are supposed to be in +the actual enjoyment of such liberty as others are, as yet, only able to +covet or fight for, we are not yet satisfied. We are learning that there +are other oppressions than those of an autocratic monarchy. We see that we +have still industrial freedom to gain. We are chafing under the yoke of the +trusts and an insane system of competition. We are trending toward +co-operation, which is now practiced by the trusts within their own confines +for private profit. We are desirous of a state of society where "they shall + + +[PAGE 437] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make +them afraid." + + Thus, all over the world, the old systems of paternal government are +changing. Nations, as such, have had their day and are unwittingly working +toward Universal Brotherhood in accordance with the design of our invisible +Leaders, who are none the less potent in shaping events because they are not +officially seated in the councils of nations. + + These are the slow means by which the different bodies of humanity at +large are being purified, but the aspirant to the higher knowledge works +CONSCIOUSLY to attain to these ends, by well-defined methods, according to +his constitution. + + WESTERN METHODS FOR WESTERN PEOPLE. + + In India, certain methods under different systems of Yoga, are used. +Yoga means Union and, as in the West, the object of the aspirant is union +with the Higher Self; but to be efficacious, the methods of seeking that +union must differ. The vehicles of a Hindu are very differently constituted +from those of a Caucasian. The Hindus have lived for many, many thousands +of years in an environment and climate totally different from ours. They +have pursued a different method of thought and their civilization, though of +a very high order, is different from ours in its effects. Therefore it +would be useless for us to adopt their methods, which are the outcome of the +highest occult knowledge and perfectly suited to them, but as unsuitable for +the people of the West as a diet of oats would be for a lion. + + For instance, in some systems it is required that the yogi shall sit in +certain positions, that particular cosmic currents may flow through his body + + +[PAGE 438] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +in a certain way to produce certain definite results. That instruction +would be altogether useless for a Caucasian, as he is absolutely impervious +to those currents, because of his way of living. If he is to attain results +at all, he must work in harmony with the constitution of his vehicles. That +is why the "Mysteries" were established in different parts of Europe during +the Middle Ages. The Alchemists were deep students of the higher occult +science. The popular belief that the object of their study and experiment- +ing was the transmutation of baser metals into gold, was because they chose +that symbolic way of describing their true work, which was the transmutation +of the lower nature into spirit. It was thus described to lull the suspi- +cions of the priests, without stating a falsehood. The statement that the +Rosicrucians were a society devoted to the discovery and use of the formula +for the making of the "Philosopher's Stone" was and is true. It is also +true that most people have handled and do often handle this wondrous stone. +It is common, but of no avail to an but the individual who makes it for him- +self. The formula is given in the esoteric training and a Rosicrucian is no +different in that respect from the occultist of any other school. All are +engaged in the making of this coveted stone, each, however, using his own +methods, as there are no two individuals alike and consequently really ef- +fective work is always individual in its scope. + + All occult schools are divisible into seven, as are the "Rays" of Life, +the virgin spirits. Each School or Order belongs to one of these seven +Rays, as does each unit of our humanity. Therefore any individual seeking +to unite with one of these occult groups, the "Brothers" in which do not be- +long to his Ray, cannot do so with benefit to himself. The members of these + + +[PAGE 439] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +groups are brothers in a more intimate sense than are the rest of humanity. + + Perhaps if these seven Rays are compared to the seven colors of the spec- +trum, their relation to one another can be better understood. For instance, +if a red ray were to ally itself with a green ray, inharmony would result. +The same principle applies to spirits. Each must proceed with the group to +which it belongs during manifestation, yet they are all one. As all the +colors are contained in the white light, but the refractive quality of our +atmosphere seems to divide it into seven colors, so the illusory conditions +of concrete existence cause the virgin spirits to seem grouped and this ap- +parent grouping will abide while we are in this state. + + The Rosicrucian Order was started particularly for those whose high de- +gree of intellectual development caused them to repudiate the heart. Intel- +lect imperiously demands a logical explanation of everything--the world mys- +tery, the questions of life and death. The reasons for and the MODUS +OPERANDI of existence were not explained by the priestly injunction "not to +seek to know the mysteries of God." + + To any man or woman who is blest, or otherwise, with such an inquiring +mind it is of paramount importance that they shall receive all the informa- +tion they crave, so that when the head is stilled, the heart may speak. In- +tellectual knowledge is but a means to an end, not the end itself. There- +fore, the Rosicrucian purposes first of all to satisfy the aspirant for +knowledge that everything in the universe is reasonable, thus winning over +the rebellious intellect. When it has ceased to criticise and is ready to +accept provisionally, as PROBABLY true, statements which cannot be immedi- +ately verified, then, and not until then, will esoteric training be + + +[PAGE 440] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +effective in developing the higher faculties whereby man passes from faith +to first-hand knowledge. Yet, even then it will be found that, as the pupil +progresses in first-hand knowledge and becomes able to investigate for him- +self, there are always truths ahead of him that he knows to be truths, but +which he is not yet advanced sufficiently to investigate. + + The pupil will do well to remember that nothing that is not logical can +exist in the universe and that logic is the surest guide in all the Worlds, +but he must not forget that his faculties are limited and that more than his +own powers of logical reasoning may be needed to solve a given problem, al- +though it may, nevertheless, be susceptible of full explanation, but by +lines of reasoning which are beyond the capacity of the pupil at that stage +of his development. Another point that must be borne in mind is that +unwavering confidence in the teacher is absolutely necessary. + + The foregoing is recommended to the particular consideration of all who +intend taking the first steps toward the higher knowledge. If the direc- +tions given are followed at all, they must be given full credence as an ef- +ficacious means to accomplish their purpose. To follow them in a +half-hearted manner would be of no avail whatever. Unbelief will kill the +fairest flower ever produced by the spirit. + + Work on the different bodies of man is carried on synchronously. One +body cannot be influenced without affecting the others, but the principal +work may be done on any one of them. + + If strict attention is paid to hygiene and diet, the dense body is the +one principally affected, but at the same time there is also an effect on + + +[PAGE 441] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +the vital body and the desire body for, as purer and better materials are +built into the dense body, the particles are enveloped in purer planetary +ether and desire-stuff also, therefore the planetary parts of the vital and +desire bodies become purer. If attention is paid to food and hygiene only, +the personal vital and desire bodies may remain almost as impure as before, +but it has become just a little easier to get into touch with the good than +if gross food were used. + + On the other hand if, despite annoyances, an equable temper is culti- +vated, also literary and artistic tastes, the vital body will produce an ef- +fect of daintiness and fastidiousness in physical matters and will also +engender ennobling feelings and emotions in the desire body. + + Seeking to cultivate the emotions also reacts upon the other vehicles and +helps to improve them. +[PAGE 441 cont'd] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + + THE SCIENCE OF NUTRITION + + If we begin with the dense vehicle and consider the physical means avail- +able to improve it and make it the best possible instrument for the spirit +and afterward consider the spiritual means to the same end, we shall be in- +cluding all the other vehicles as well; therefore we shall follow that +method. + + The first visible state of a human embryo is a small, globulous, pulpy or +jelly-like substance, similar to albumen, or the white of an egg. In this +pulpy globule various particles of more solid matter appear. These +gradually increase in bulk and density until they come in contact with one +another. The different points of contact are slowly modified into joints or +hinges and thus a distinct framework of solid matter, a skeleton, is +gradually formed. + + During the formation of this framework the surrounding pulpy matter ac- +cumulates and changes in form until at length that degree of organization + + +[PAGE 442] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +develops which is known as a foetus. This becomes larger, firmer, and more +fully organized up to the time of birth, when the state of infancy begins. + + The same process of consolidation which commenced with the first visible +stage of existence, still continues. The being passes through the different +stages of infancy, childhood, youth, manhood or womanhood, old age, and at +last comes to the change that is called death. + + Each of these stages is characterized by an INCREASING DEGREE OF HARDNESS +AND SOLIDITY. + + There is a gradual increase in density and firmness of the bones, ten- +dons, cartilages, ligaments, tissues, membranes, the coverings and even the +very substance of the stomach, liver, lungs, and other organs. The joints +become rigid and dry. They begin to crack and grate when they are moved, +because the synovial fluid, which oils and softens them, is diminished in +quantity and rendered too thick and glutinous to serve that purpose. + + The heart, the brain, and the entire muscular system, spinal cord, +nerves, eyes, etc., partake of the same consolidating process, growing more +and more rigid. Millions upon millions of the minute capillary vessels +which ramify and spread like the branches of a tree throughout the entire +body, gradually choke up and change into solid fibre, no longer pervious to +the blood. + + The larger blood vessels, both arteries and veins, indurate, lose their +elasticity, grow smaller, and become incapable of carrying the required +amount of blood. The fluids of the body thicken and become putrid, loaded +with earthy matter. The skin withers and grows wrinkled and dry. The hair +falls off for lack of oil. The teeth decay and drop out for lack of + + +[PAGE 443] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +gelatine. The motor nerves begin to dry up and the movements of the body +become awkward and slow. The senses fail; the circulation of the blood is +retarded; it stagnates and congeals in the vessels. More and more the body +loses its former powers. Once elastic, healthy, alert, pliable, active and +sensitive, it becomes rigid, slow, and insensible. Finally, it dies of old +age. + + The question now arises, What is the cause of this gradual ossification +of the body, bringing rigidity, decrepitude, and death? + + From the purely physical standpoint, chemists seem to be unanimous in the +opinion that it is principally an increase of phosphate of lime (bone mat- +ter), carbonate of lime (common chalk), and sulphate of lime (plaster of +paris), with occasionally a little magnesia and an insignificant amount of +other earthy matters. + + The only difference between the body of old age and that of childhood is +the greater density, toughness and rigidity, caused by the greater propor- +tion of calcareous, earthy matter entering into the composition of the +former. The bones of a child are composed of three parts of gelatine to one +part of earthy matter. In old age this proportion is reversed. What is the +source of this death-dealing accumulation of solid matter? + + It seems to be axiomatic that the entire body is nourished by the blood +and that everything contained in the body, of whatever nature, has first +been in the blood. Analysis shows that the blood holds earthy substances of +the same kind as the solidifying agents--and mark!--the ARTERIAL blood con- +tains more earthy matter than the VENOUS blood. + + This is highly important. It shows that in every cycle the blood depos- +its earthy substances. It is therefore the common carrier that chokes up + + +[PAGE 444] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +the system. But its supply of earthy matter must be replenished, otherwise +it could not continue to do this. Where does it renew its deadly load? +There can be but one answer to that question--from the food and drink; there +is absolutely no other source. + + The food and drink which nourish the body must be, at the same time, the +primary source of the calcareous, earthy matter which is deposited by the +blood all over the system, causing decrepitude and finally death. To sus- +tain physical life it is necessary that we eat and drink but as there are +many kinds of food and drink, it behooves us, in the light of the above +facts, to ascertain, if possible, what kinds contain the smallest proportion +of destructive matter. If we can find such food we can lengthen our lives +and, from an occult standpoint, it is desirable to live as long as possible +in each dense body, particularly after a start has been made toward the +path. So many years are required to educate, through childhood and hot +youth, each body inhabited, until the spirit can at last obtain some control +over it, that the longer we can retain a body that has become amenable to +the spirit's promptings, the better. Therefore it is highly important that +the pupil partake of such food and drink only as will deposit the least +amount of hardening matter and at the same time keep the excretory organs +active. + + The skin and the urinary system are the saviors of man from an early +grave. Were it not that by their means, most of the earthy matter taken +with our food is eliminated, no one would live ten years. + + It has been estimated that ordinary, undistilled spring water contains +carbonate and other compounds of lime to such an extent that the average +quantity used each day by one person in the form of tea, coffee, soup, etc., + + +[PAGE 445] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +would in forty years be sufficient to form a block of solid chalk or marble +the size of a large man. It is also a significant fact that although phos- +phate of lime is always found in the urine of adults, it is not found in the +urine of children, because in them the rapid formation of bone requires that +this salt be retained. During the period of gestation there is very little +earthy matter in the urine of the mother, as it is used in the building of +the foetus. In ordinary circumstances, however, earthy matter is very much +in evidence in the urine of adults and to this we owe the fact that physical +life reaches even its present length. + + Undistilled water, when taken internally, is man's worst enemy, but used +externally, it becomes his best friend. It keeps the pores of the skin +open, induces circulation of the blood and prevents the stagnation which af- +fords the best opportunity for the depositing of the earthy, death-dealing +phosphate of lime. + + Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood, said that health de- +notes a free circulation and disease is the result of an obstructed circula- +tion of the blood. + + The bathtub is a great aid in keeping up the health of the body and +should be freely used by the aspirant to the higher life. Perspiration, +sensible and insensible, carries more earthy matter out of the body than any +other agency. As long as fuel is supplied and the fire kept free from +ashes, it will burn. The kidneys are important in carrying away the ashes +from the body, but despite the great amount of earthy matter carried away +by the urine, enough remains in many cases to form gravel and stone in the +bladder, causing untold agony and often death. + + Let no one be deceived into thinking that water contains less stone be- +cause it has been boiled. The stone that forms on the bottom of the + + +[PAGE 446] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +teakettle has been left there by the evaporated water which escaped from the +kettle as steam. If the steam were condensed, we should have distilled +water, which is an important adjunct in keeping the body young. + + There is absolutely no earthy matter in distilled water, nor in rain wa- +ter, snow nor hail (except what may be gathered by contact with house-tops, +etc.), but coffee, tea, or soup made with ordinary water, no matter how long +boiled, is not purified of the earthy particles; on the contrary, the longer +they are boiled, the more heavily charged with ash they become. Those suf- +fering from urinary diseases should never drink any but distilled water. + + It may be said generally of the solid foods we take into our system, that +fresh vegetables and ripe fruits contain the greatest proportion of nutri- +tious matter and the least of earthy substances. + + As we are writing for the aspirant to the higher life and not for the +general public, it may also be said that animal food should be entirely +avoided, if possible. No one who kills can go very far along the path of +holiness. We do even worse than if we actually killed, for in order to +shield ourselves from the personal commission of the act of killing, and +still reap its results, we force a fellow being, through economic necessity, +to devote his entire time to murder, thereby brutalizing him to such an ex- +tent that the law will not allow him to act as a juror in cases of capital +crime, because his business has so familiarized him with the taking of life. + + The enlightened know the animals to be their younger brothers and that +they will be human in the Jupiter Period. We shall then help them as the +Angels, who were human in the Moon Period, are now helping us, and for an + + +[PAGE 447] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +aspirant to high ideals to kill--either in person or by proxy--is out of the +question. + + Several very important food products from animals, such as milk, cheese +and butter, may be used. These are the results of the PROCESSES of life and +require no tragedies to convert them into food. Milk, which is an important +food for the occult student, contains no earthy matter of any consequence +and has an influence upon the body possessed by no other food. + + During the Moon Period man was fed upon the milk of Nature. Universal +food was absorbed by him and the use of milk has a tendency to put him in +touch with the Cosmic forces and enable him to heal others. + + It is popularly supposed that sugar or any saccharine substance is inju- +rious to the general health, and particularly to the teeth, causing their +decay and the resulting toothache. Only under certain circumstances is this +true. It is harmful in certain diseases, such as biliousness and dyspepsia, +or if held long in the mouth as candy, but if sparingly used during good +health and the amount gradually increased as the stomach becomes accustomed +to its use, it will be found very nourishing. The health of negroes becomes +greatly improved during the sugar-cane harvest time, nothwithstanding their +increased labor. This is attributed solely to their fondness for the sweet +cane-juice. The same may be said of horses, cows, and other animals in +those localities, which are all fond of the refuse syrup fed to them. They +grow fat in harvest time, their coats becoming sleek and shining. Horses +fed on boiled carrots for a few weeks will get a coat like silk, owing to +the saccharine juices of that vegetable. Sugar is a nutritious and benefi- +cial article of diet and contains no ash whatever. + + +[PAGE 448] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Fruits are an ideal diet. They are in fact evolved by the trees to in- +duce animal and man to eat them, so that the seed may be disseminated, as +flowers entice bees for a similar purpose. + + Fresh fruit contains water of the purest and best kind, capable of perme- +ating the system in a marvelous manner. Grape juice is a particularly won- +derful solvent. It thins and stimulates the blood, opening the way into +capillaries already dried and choked up--if the process has not gone too +far. By a course of unfermented grape-juice treatment, people with sunken +eyes, wrinkled skins and poor complexions become plump, ruddy and lively. +The increased permeability enables the spirit to manifest more freely and +with renewed energy. The following table, which with the exception of the +last column, is taken from the publications of the United States Department +of Agriculture, will give the aspirant some idea of the amount it is neces- +sary to eat for different degrees of activity, also the constituents of the +various foods named. + + Considering the body from a purely physical standpoint, it is what we +might call a chemical furnace, the food being the fuel. The more the body +is exercised, the more fuel it requires. It would be foolish for a man to +change an ordinary diet which for years had adequately nourished him, and +take up a new method without due thought as to which would be the best for +serving his purpose. To simply eliminate meats from the ordinary diet of +meat-eaters would unquestionably undermine the health of most persons. The +only safe way is to experiment and study the matter out first, using due +discrimination. No fixed rules can be given, the matter of diet being as +individual as any other characteristic. All that can be done is to give the +table of food values and describe the general influence of each chemical + + +[PAGE 449] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +chemical element, allowing the aspirant to work out his own method. + + Neither must we allow the appearance of a person to influence our judge- +ment as to the condition of his health. Certain general ideas of how a +healthy person should look are commonly accepted, but there is no valid rea- +son for so judging. Ruddy cheeks might be an indication of health in one +individual and of disease in another. There is no particular rule by which +good health can be known except the feeling of comfort and well-being which +is enjoyed by the individual himself, irrespective of appearances. + + The table of foods here given deals with five chemical compounds. + + Water is the great solvent. + + Nitrogen or proteid is the essential builder of flesh, but contains some +earthy matter. + + Carbo-hydrates or sugars are the principal power-producers. + + Fats are the producers of heat and the storers of reserve force. + + Ash is mineral, earthy, and chokes the system. We need have no fear of +not obtaining it in sufficient quantities to build the bones; on the con- +trary, we cannot be too careful to get as little as possible. + + The calorie is the simple unit of heat, and the table shows the number +contained in each article of food when bought at the market. In a pound of +Brazil nuts, for instance, 49.6% of the whole is waste (shells), but the re- +maining 50.4% contains 1485 calories. That means that about one-half of +what is bought is waste, but the remainder contains the number of calories +named. That we may get the greatest amount of strength from our food we +must pay attention to the number of calories it contains, for from them we + + +[PAGE 450] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +obtain the energy required to perform our daily work. The number of +calories necessary to sustain the body under varying conditions is shown in +the following table (per day): + +Man at VERY hard muscular work...........................5500 Calories +Man at moderately hard muscular work.....................4150 Calories +Man at moderately active muscular work...................3400 Calories +Man at moderately LIGHT work.............................3050 Calories +Man at sedentary work....................................2700 Calories +Man without muscular exercise............................2450 Calories +Woman at light to moderate manual work...................2450 Calories + + + TABLE OF FOOD VALUES + + + +[PAGE 451] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + + TABLE OF FOOD VALUES (Continued) + + +[PAGE 452] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + According to this table, it is evident that chocolate is the most nutri- +tious food we have; also that cocoa, in its powdered state, is the most dan- +gerous of all foods, containing three times as much as as most of the oth- +ers, and ten times as much as many. It is a powerful food and also a +powerful poison, for it chokes the system more quickly than any other +substance. + + Of course, it will require some study at first to secure the best nour- +ishment, but it pays in health and longevity and secures the free use of the +body, making study and application to higher things possible. After a while +the aspirant will become so familiar with the subject that he will need to +give it no particular attention. + + While the foregoing table shows the proportion of chemical substances +contained in each article of food named, it must be remembered that not all +of this is available for use in the system, because there are certain por- +tions which the body refuses to assimilate. + + Of vegetables, we digest only about 83% of the proteids, 90% of the fat, +and 95% of the carbo-hydrates. + + Of fruits, we assimilate about 85% of the proteids, 90% of the fat, and +90% of the carbo-hydrates. + + The brain is the co-ordinating mechanism whereby the movements of the +body are controlled and our ideas are expressed. It is built of the same +substances as are all other parts of the body, with the addition of phospho- +rus, which is peculiar to the brain alone. (As to proportion.--Ed.) + + The logical conclusion is that phosphorus is the particular element by +means of which the Ego is able to express thought and influence the dense +physical body. It is also a fact that the proportion and variation of this +substance is found to correspond to the state and stage of intelligence of +the individual. Idiots have very little phosphorus; shrewd thinkers have + + +[PAGE 453] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +much; and in the animal world, the degree of consciousness and intelligence +is in proportion to the amount of phosphorus contained in the brain. + + It is therefore of great importance that the aspirant who is to use his +body for mental and spiritual work, should supply his brain with the sub- +stance necessary for that purpose. Most vegetables and fruits contain a +certain amount of phosphorus, but it is a peculiar fact that the greater +proportion is contained in the leaves, which are usually thrown away. It is +found in considerable quantities in grapes, onions, sage, beans, cloves, +pineapples, in the leaves and stalks of many vegetables, and also in +sugar-cane juice, but not in refined sugar. + + The following table shows the proportions of phosphoric acid in a few ar- +ticles: + +100,000 Parts of: + +Barley, dry, contain, of phosphoric acid,....................210 parts +Beans........................................................292 parts +Beets........................................................167 parts +Beets, Leaves of ............................................690 parts +Buckwheat....................................................170 parts +Carrots, dry.................................................395 parts +Carrots, Leaves of...........................................963 parts +Linseed......................................................880 parts +Linseed, Stalks of...........................................118 parts +Parsnips.....................................................111 parts +Parsnips, Leaves of.........................................1784 parts +Peas.........................................................190 parts + + The gist of the preceding argument may be thus succinctly stated: + + (1) The body, throughout the entire period of life, is subject to a pro- +cess of consolidation. + + (2) This process consists of the depositing by the blood of earthy sub- +stances, principally phosphate and carbonate of lime, by which the various +parts become ossified, converted into bone, or kindred matter. + + +[PAGE 454] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + (3) This conversion into bone destroys the flexibility of the vessels, +muscles and other parts of the body subject to motion. It thickens the +blood and entirely chokes up the minute capillaries, so that the circulation +of the fluids and the action of the system generally diminishes, the termi- +nation of this process being death. + + (4) This process of consolidation may be retarded and life prolonged by +carefully avoiding the foods that contain much ash; by using distilled water +for internal purposes; and by promotion excretion through the skin by means +of frequent baths. + + The foregoing explains why some religions prescribe frequent ablutions as +a religious exercise, because they promote the health and purify the dense +body. Fastings were also prescribed for the same purpose. They give the +stomach a much needed rest, allow the body to eliminate the EFFETE matter, +and thus, if not too frequent or too prolonged, promote the health, but usu- +ally as much and more can be accomplished by giving the body proper foods +which are the best medicines. + + Always the first care of the physician is to ascertain if there is proper +excretion, that being Nature's chief means for ridding the body of the poi- +sons contained in all foods. + + In conclusion, let the aspirant choose such food as is most easily di- +gested, for the more easily the energy in food is extracted, the longer time +will the system have for recuperation before it becomes necessary to replen- +ish the supply. Milk should never be drunk as one may drink a glass of wa- +ter. Taken in that way, it forms in the stomach a large cheese ball, quite +impervious to the action of the gastric juices. It should be sipped, as we +sip tea or coffee. It will then form many small globules in the stomach, +which are easily assimilated. Properly used, it is one of the best possible + + +[PAGE 455] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +articles of diet. Citrus fruits are powerful antiseptics, and cereals, par- +ticularly rice, are antitoxins of great efficiency. + + Having now explained, from the purely material point of view, what is +necessary for the dense body, we will consider the subject from the occult +side, taking into consideration the effect on the two invisible bodies which +interpenetrate the dense body. + + The particular stronghold of the desire body is in the muscles and the +cerebro-spinal nervous system, as already shown. The energy displayed by a +person when laboring under great excitement or anger is an example of this. +At such times the whole muscular system is tense and no hard labor is so ex- +hausting as a "fit of temper." It sometimes leaves the body prostrated for +weeks. There can be seen the necessity for improving the desire body by +controlling the temper, thus sparing the dense body the suffering resulting +from the ungoverned action of the desire body. + + Looking at the matter from an occult standpoint, all consciousness in the +Physical World is the result of the constant war between the desire and the +vital bodies. + + The tendency of the vital body is to soften and build. Its chief expres- +sion is the blood and the glands, also the sympathetic nervous system, hav- +ing obtained ingress into the stronghold of the desire body (the muscular +and the voluntary nervous systems) when it began to develop the heart into a +voluntary muscle. + + The tendency of the desire body is to harden, and it in turn has invaded +the realm of the vital body, gaining possession of the spleen and making the +white blood corpuscles, which are not "the policement of the system" as sci- +ence now thinks, but destroyers. It uses the blood to carry these tiny de- +stroyers all over the body. They pass through the walls of arteries and + + +[PAGE 456] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +veins whenever annoyance is felt, and especially in times of great anger. +Then the rush of forces in the desire body makes the arteries and veins +swell and opens the way for the passage of the white corpuscles into the +tissues of the body, where they form bases for the earthy matter which kills +the body. + + Given the same amount and kind of food, the person of serene and jovial +disposition will live longer, enjoy better health, and be more active than +the person who worries, or loses his temper. The latter will make and dis- +tribute through his body more destructive white corpuscles than the former. +Were a scientist to analyze the bodies of these two men, he would find that +there was considerably less earthy matter in the body of the kindly disposed +man than in that of the scold. + + This destruction is constantly going on and it is not possible to keep +all the destroyers out, nor is such the intention. If the vital body had +uninterrupted sway, it would build and build, using all the energy for that +purpose. There would be no consciousness and thought. It is because the +body checks and hardens the inner parts that consciousness develops. + + There was a time in the far, far past when we set out the concretions, as +do the mollusks, leaving the body soft, flexible and boneless, but at that +time we had only the dull, glimmering consciousness the mollusks now have. +Before we could advance, it became necessary to retain the concretions and +it will be found that the stage of consciousness of any species is in pro- +portion to the development of the bony framework WITHIN. The Ego must have +the solid bones with the semi-fluid red marrow, in order to be able to build +the red blood corpuscles for its expression. + + +[PAGE 457] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + + + That is the highest development of the dense body. It signifies nothing +in this connection that the highest class of animals have an internal bone +formation similar to man's, but still have no indwelling spirit. They be- +long to a different stream of evolution. + + THE LAW OF ASSIMILATION. + + The law of assimilation allows no particle to be built into our bodies +that we, as spirits, have not overcome and made subject to ourselves. The +forces active along these lines are, as we remember, principally our "dead," +who have entered "heaven" and are learning there to build bodies to use +here, but they work according to certain laws that they cannot circumvent. +There is life in every particle of food that we take into our bodies, and +before we can build that life into our bodies by the process of assimila- +tion, we must overcome and make it subject to ourselves. Otherwise there +could be no harmony in the body. All parts would act independently, as they +do when the co-ordinating life has been withdrawn. That would be what we +call decay, the process of disintegration, which is the direct opposite of +assimilation. The more individualized is the particle to be assimilated, +the more energy will it require to digest it and the shorter time will it +remain before seeking to reassert itself. + + Human beings are not organized in such a manner that they can live upon +solid minerals. When a purely mineral substance, such as salt, is eaten, it +passes through the body leaving behind it but very little waste. What is +does leave, however, is of a very injurious character. If it were possible +for man to use minerals as food, they would be ideal for that purpose be- +cause of their stability and the little energy required to overcome and + + +[PAGE 458] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +subject them to the life of the body. We should be compelled to eat very +much less in quantity and also less often than we now do. Our laboratories +will some time supply us with chemical food of a quality far surpassing any- +thing that we now have, which shall be always fresh. Food obtained from the +higher plans and still more from the yet higher animal kingdom, is +positively nauseating because of the rapidity of decay. This process is +caused by the efforts made by the individual particles to escape from the +composite whole. + + The plant kingdom is next above the mineral. It has an organization ca- +pable of assimilating the mineral compounds of the Earth. Man and animal +can assimilate the plants and thus obtain the chemical compounds necessary +to sustain their bodies and as the consciousness of the plant kingdom is +that of dreamless sleep, it offers no resistance. It requires but little +energy to assimilate the particles thus derived and having small individual- +ity of their own, the life ensouling the particles does not seek to escape +from our body as soon as food derived from more highly developed forms, +therefore the strength derived from a diet of fruit and vegetables is more +enduring than that derived from a meat diet, and the food supply does not +require as frequent replenishing, besides giving more strength in propor- +tion, because less energy is required for assimilation. + + Food composed of the bodies of animals consists of particles which have +been worked upon and inter-penetrated by an individual desire body, and have +thus been individualized to a much greater extent than the plant particles. +There is an individual cell soul, which is permeated by the passions and de- +sires of the animal. It requires considerable energy to overcome it in the + + +[PAGE 459] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +first place, so that it may be assimilated, yet it never becomes so fully +incorporated into the polity of the body as do the plant constituents, which +have no such strong individual tendencies. The result is that is is neces- +sary for the flesh-eater to consume a greater weight of food than is re- +quired by the fruitarian; also he must eat oftener. Moreover, this inward +strife of the particles of flesh causes greater wear and tear of the body in +general, rendering the meat-eater less active and capable of endurance than +the vegetarian, as all contests between advocates of the two methods have +demonstrated. + + Therefore, when flesh food derived from the herbivora is such an unstable +diet, it is evident that if we should try to use the flesh of carnivorous +animals, in which the cells are still further individualized, we would be +forced to consume enormous quantities of food. Eating would occupy the +greater part of our time, but notwithstanding that fact, we would always be +lean and hungry. That such is its effect, can be seen in the wolf and the +vulture; their leanness and hunger are proverbial. Cannibals eat human +flesh, but only at long intervals and as a luxury. As man does not confine +himself exclusively to a meat diet, his flesh is not that of an entirely +carnivorous beast, nevertheless the hunger of the cannibal has also become +the burden of a proverb. + + If the flesh of the herbivora were the essence of what is good in plants, +then, logically, the flesh of the carnivora should be the quintessence. The +meat of wolves and vultures would thus be the CREME DE LA CREME, and much to +be desired. This we know is not the case, but quite the reverse. The +nearer we get to the plant kingdom, the more strength we derive from our +food. If the reverse were the case, the flesh of carnivorous animals would + + +[PAGE 460] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +be sought by other beasts of prey, but examples of "dog eat dog" are very +few throughout nature. + + LIVE AND LET LIVE. + + The first law of occult science is "Thou shalt not kill," and that should +have the greatest weight with the aspirant to the higher life. We cannot +create so much as one particle of dust, therefore what right have we to de- +stroy the very least form? All Form is an expression of the One Life--the +Life of God. We have no right to destroy the Form through which the Life is +seeking experience, and force it to build a new vehicle. + + Ella Wheeler Wilcox, with the true compassion of all far advanced souls, +champions this occult maxim, in the following beautiful words: + + I am the voice of the voiceless; + Through me the dumb shall speak + Till a deaf world's ear + Shall be made to hear + The wrongs of the wordless weak. + + The same force formed the sparrow + That fashioned man, the king. + The God OF THE WHOLE + + Gave a spark of soul + To furred and feathered thing. + + And I AM MY BROTHER'S KEEPER; + And I will fight his fight, + And speak the word + For beast and bird + Till the world shall set things right. + + Sometimes the objection is made that life is also taken when vegetables +and fruits are eaten, but that statement is based upon a complete misunder- +standing of the facts. When the fruit is ripe, it has accomplished its pur- +pose, which is to act as a womb for the ripening of the seed. If not eaten, + + +[PAGE 461] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +it decays and goes to waste. Moreover, it is designed to serve as food for +the animal and human kingdoms, thus affording the seed opportunities for +growth by scattering it in fertile soil. Besides, just as the ovum and the +semen of human beings are ineffectual without the seed-atom of the reincar- +nating Ego and the matrix of its vital body, so any egg or seed, of itself, +is devoid of life. If it is given the proper conditions of incubator or +soil, the life of the group spirit is then poured into it, thus grasping the +opportunity so afforded of producing a dense body. If the egg or seed is +cooked, crushed, or not given the conditions necessary for the life, the op- +portunity is lost, but that is all. + + At the present stage of the evolutionary journey, everyone knows inher- +ently that it is wrong to kill and man will love and protect the animals in +all cases where his greed and selfish interest does not blind him to their +rights. The law protects even a cat or a dog against WANTON cruelty. Ex- +cept in "sport," that most wanton of all our cruelties against the animal +creation, it is always for the sake of money that animals are murdered and +bred to be murdered. By the devotees of "sport" the helpless creatures are +shot down to no purpose save to bolster up a false idea of prowess upon the +part of the huntsman. It is hard to understand how people who appear other- +wise sane and kindly can, for the time, trample upon all their gentler in- +stincts and revert to bloodthirsty savagery, killing for the sheer lust of +blood and joy in destruction. It is certainly a reversion to the lowest +savage animal instincts, and can never be dignified into the remotest sem- +blance of anything "manly", even though practiced and defended by the other- +wise humane and worthy temporary head of a mighty nation. + + +[PAGE 462] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + How much more beautiful it would be for man to play the role of friend +and protector of the weak. Who does not love to visit Central Park in New +York City and pet, stroke and feed the hundreds of squirrels which are run- +ning about secure in the knowledge that they will not be molested? And who +is not glad, for the sake of the squirrels, to see the sign, "Dogs found +chasing the squirrels will be shot." This is hard on the dogs, but is is to +be commended as an evidence of the growth of the sentiment favoring the pro- +tection of the weak against the unreasoning or merciless strong. Nothing is +said on the sign about the squirrels being injured by men, because that +would be unthinkable. So strong is the influence of the trust the little +animals repose in the kindness of man, that no one would violate it. + + THE LORD'S PRAYER + + Returning to our consideration of the spiritual aids to human progress, +the Lord's Prayer, which may be considered as an abstract, algebraical for- +mula for the upliftment and purification of all the vehicles of man, the +idea of taking proper care of the dense body is expressed in the words: +"Give us this day our daily bread." + + The prayer dealing with the needs of the vital body is, "Forgive us our +trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." + + The vital body is the seat of memory. In it are stored the sub-conscious +records of all the past events of our life, good or ill, including all inju- +ries inflicted or sustained and benefits received, or bestowed. We remember +that the record of the life is taken from those pictures immediately after +leaving the dense body at death, and that all the sufferings of POST MORTEM + + +[PAGE 463] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +existence are the results of the events these pictures portray. + + If, by continual prayer, we obtain forgiveness for the injuries we have +inflicted upon others and if we make all the restitution possible, purify +our vital bodies by forgiving those who have wronged us, and eliminate all +ill feeling, we save ourselves much POST MORTEM misery, besides preparing +the way for Universal Brotherhood, which is particularly dependent upon the +victory of the vital body over the desire body. In the form of memory, the +desire body impresses upon the vital body the idea of revenge. An even tem- +per amid the various annoyances of daily life indicates such a victory, +therefore the aspirant should cultivate control of the temper, as it in- +cludes work on both bodies. The Lord's Prayer includes this also, for when +we see that we are injuring others, we look about and try to find the cause. +Loss of temper is one of the causes and it originates in the desire body. + + Most people leave physical life with the same temperament they bring into +it, but the aspirant must systematically conquer all attempts of the desire +body to assume mastery. That can be done by concentration upon high ideals, +which strengthens the vital body and is much more efficacious than the com- +mon prayers of the Church. The OCCULT SCIENTIST uses concentration in pref- +erence to prayer, because the former is accomplished by the aid of the mind, +which is cold and unfeeling, whereas prayer is usually dictated by emotion. +Where it is dictated by a pure unselfish devotion to high ideals prayer is +much higher than cold concentration. It can never be cold, but bears upon +the pinions of Love the outpourings of the mystic to the Deity. + + The prayer for the desire body is, "Lead us not into temptation." Desire + + +[PAGE 464] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +is the great tempter of mankind. It is the great incentive to all action, +and in so far as the actions subserve the purposes of the spirit, it is +good; but where the desire is for something degrading, something that de- +bases the nature, it is indeed meet that we pray not to be led into tempta- +tion. + + Love, Wealth, Power, and Fame!--These are the four great motives of human +action. Desire for one or more of these is the motive for all that man does +or leaves undone. The great Leaders of humanity have wisely given them as +incentives to action, that man may gain experience and learn thereby. They +are necessary, and the aspirant may safely continue to use them as motives +for action, but he must transmute them into something higher. He must over- +come with nobler aspirations the selfish love which seeks the ownership of +another body, and all desires for wealth, power and fame for narrow and per- +sonal reasons. + + The Love for which he must long is that only which is of the soul and em- +braces all beings, high and low, increasing in proportion to the needs of +the recipient; + + The Wealth, that which consists solely of abundance of opportunities to +serve his fellow men; + + The Power, that alone which makes for the upliftment of humanity; + + The Fame, none save that which increases his ability to spread the good +news, that all who suffer may thus quickly find solace for the heart's +grief. + + The prayer for the mind is "Deliver us from evil." We have seen that +mind is the link between the higher and the lower natures. Animals are per- +mitted to follow desire without any restriction whatever. In their case, + + +[PAGE 464a] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + DIAGRAM 16: + + THE LORD'S PRAYER + + +[PAGE 465] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + + +there is neither good nor evil, because they lack mind, the faculty of dis- +crimination. The method of self-protection which we pursue in regard to +animals which kill and steal is different from that which we use in relation +to human beings who do the same things. Even a human being who is bereft of +mind is not held accountable. The fact is recognized that he does not know +he is doing wrong, therefore he is simply restrained. + + It was only when his mental eyes were opened that man came to know good +and evil. When the link of mind becomes allied to the Higher Self and does +its bidding, we have the high-minded person. On the contrary, the coalition +of the mind with the lower desire nature produces the low-minded person; +therefore the meaning of this prayer is that we may be delivered from the +experience resulting from the alliance of the mind with the desire body, +with all thereby implied. + + The aspirant to the higher life accomplishes the union of the higher and +the lower natures by means of Meditation on lofty subjects. This union is +further cemented by Contemplation, and both these states are transcended by +Adoration, which lifts the spirit to the very Throne. + + The Lord's Prayer, given for the general use of the Church, gives Adora- +tion first place, in order to reach the spiritual exaltation necessary to +proffer a petition representing the needs of the lower vehicles. Each as- +pect of the threefold spirit, commencing with the lowest, raises itself in +adoration to its corresponding aspect of Deity. When the three aspects of +the spirit are all arrayed before the Throne of Grace, each utters the +prayer appropriate to the needs of its material counterpart, all three join- +ing in the closing prayer for the mind. + + +[PAGE 466] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + The human spirit soars to its counterpart, the Holy Spirit (Jehovah), +saying "Hallowed be Thy Name." + + The life spirit bows before its counterpart, The Son (Christ), saying +"Thy Kingdom Come." + + The divine spirit kneels before its counterpart, The Father, with the +prayer, "Thy Will be done." + + Then the highest, the divine spirit, petitions the highest aspect of the +Deity, the Father, for its counterpart, the dense body: "Give us this day +our daily bread." + + The next highest, the life spirit, prays to its counterpart, the Son, for +its counterpart in the lower nature, the vital body: "Forgive us our tres- +passes as we forgive those who trespass against us." + + The lowest aspect of the spirit, the human spirit, next offers its peti- +tion to the lowest aspect of Deity for the highest of the threefold bodies, +the desire body: "Lead us not into temptation." + + Lastly, in unison, all three aspects of the threefold spirit in man join +in the most important of the prayers, the petition for the mind, in the +words: "Deliver us from evil." + + The introduction, "Our Father Who art in Heaven," is merely as the ad- +dress on an envelope. The addition, "For Thine is the Kingdom, and the +Power, and the Glory, forever. Amen," was not given by Christ, but is very +appropriate as the parting adoration of the threefold spirit as it closes +its direct address to the Deity. + + Diagram 16 illustrates the foregoing explanation in a simple and easily +remembered manner, showing the connection between the different prayers and +the corresponding vehicles, which are similarly colored. This diagram is +inserted opposite page 464. + + +[PAGE 467] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + + THE VOW OF CELIBACY. + + The sex-pervert, or sex-maniac, is a proof of the correctness of the con- +tention of occultists that one part of the sex-force builds the brain. He +becomes an idiot, unable to think because of drawing and sending out, not +only the negative or positive part of the sex force (according to whether +male or female) which is normally to be used through the sex-organ for +propagation, but in addition to that, some of the force which should build +up the brain, enabling it to produce thought--hence the mental deficiency. + + On the other hand, if the person is given to spiritual thought, the ten- +dency to use the sex force for propagation is slight, and whatever part of +it is not used in that way may be transmuted into spiritual force. + + That is why the initiate, at a certain stage of development, takes the +vow of celibacy. It is not an easy vow, nor one to be lightly taken by one +desirous of spiritual advancement. Many people who are not yet ripe for the +higher life have ignorantly bound themselves to a life of asceticism. They +are as dangerous to the community and to themselves on the one hand as is +the imbecile sex-maniac on the other. + + At the present stage of human evolution the sex function is the means +whereby bodies are provided, through which the spirit can gain experience. +The people who are most prolific and follow the creative impulse unreserv- +edly are the lowest classes; thus it is difficult for incoming entities to +find good vehicles amid environments enabling them to unfold their faculties +in such a manner as to permanently benefit themselves and the rest of human- +ity, for among the wealthier classes who could furnish more favorable + + +[PAGE 468] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +conditions many have few or no children. It is not because they live abste- +mious sex-lives, but for the entirely selfish reasons that they may have +more ease and leisure and indulge in unlimited sex-gratification without the +burden of a family. Among the less wealthy middle class, families are also +restricted, but in their case partially for economic reasons, that they may +give one or two children educational and other advantages that their means +would not permit them to give to four or five. + + Thus man exercises his divine prerogative of bringing disorder into na- +ture. Incoming Egos must take the opportunities offered them sometimes un- +der unfavorable circumstances. Other Egos who cannot do that, must wait +till favorable environment offers. Thus do we affect one another by our ac- +tions and thus are the sins of the fathers visited upon the children, for as +the Holy Spirit is the creative energy in nature, the sex energy is its re- +flection in man, and misuse or abuse of that power is the sin that is not +forgiven, but must be expiated in impaired efficiency of the vehicles, in +order to thoroughly teach us the sanctity of the creative force. + + Aspirants to the higher life, filled with an earnest desire to live a +noble spiritual life, often regard the sex-function with horror, because of +the harvest of misery which humanity has reaped as a result of its abuse. +They are apt to turn in disgust from what they regard as impurity, +overlooking the fact that it is precisely such people as they who (having +brought their vehicles into good condition by means of proper sanitary food, +high and lofty thought, and pure and spiritual lives) are best fitted to +generate the dense bodies essential to the development of entities seeking +incarnation. It is common knowledge among occult scientists that, to the + + +[PAGE 469] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +detriment of the race, many high class Egos are kept out of incarnation at +the present time solely because parents cannot be found who are pure enough +to provide them with the necessary physical vehicles. + + Persons who, for the reason above mentioned, refrain from doing their +duty to humanity, are magnifying the sun spots to such an extent that they +forget to see the Sun itself! The sex function has its great place in the +economy of the world. When properly used, there is no greater boon to the +Ego, for it then provides pure and healthful bodies such as man needs for +his development; conversely, when abused, there is no greater curse, for it +is then the source of the worst ills to which flesh is heir. + + It is a truism that "no man liveth unto himself." By our words and acts +we are constantly affecting others. By the proper performance, or the ne- +glect of our duty, we make or mar the lives, first, of those in our immedi- +ate environment, but ultimately of all the inhabitants of the Earth, and +more. No one has a right to seek the higher life without having performed +his duty to his family, his country, and the human race. To selfishly set +aside everything else and live solely for one's own spiritual advancement, +is as reprehensible as not to care for the spiritual life at all. Nay, it +is worse; for those who do their duty in the ordinary life to the best of +their ability, devoting themselves to the welfare of those dependent upon +them, are cultivating the essential quality of faithfulness. They will cer- +tainly advance in due time to a point where they will become awake to +spiritual necessities, and will carry to that work the faithfulness devel- +oped elsewhere. The man who deliberately turns his back upon his present +duties to take up the spiritual life will surely be forced back into the +path of duty from which he has mistakenly diverged, with no possible means + + +[PAGE 470] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +of escape until the lesson has been learned. + + Certain tribes of India make the following excellent division of life. +The first twenty years are spent in obtaining an education; the years from +20 to 40 are devoted to the duty of raising a family; and the remaining time +is devoted to spiritual development, without any physical cares to harass or +distract the mind. + + During the first period the child is supported by its parents; during the +second period the man, in addition to supporting his own family, cares for +his parents while they are giving their attention to higher things; and +during the balance of his life, he is in turn supported by his children. + + This seems a very sensible method, and is quite satisfactory in a country +where all, from the cradle to the grave, feel the spiritual need, to such +degree that they mistakenly neglect material development except as impelled +by the lash of direst need, and where the children cheerfully support their +parents, secure in the knowledge that they will be supported in turn and +thus be enabled to devote themselves entirely to the higher life after hav- +ing performed their duty to their country and to humanity. In the Western +World, however, where no spiritual need is at present felt by the average +man because he is properly following material lines of development, such a +mode of life would be impossible of realization. + + Spiritual desire never comes until the time is ripe, and always when the +particular conditions obtain under which we must seek its gratification, if +at all. Whatever duties exist which are apparent restrictions must be +borne. If the care of a family prevents the complete consecration desired, +the aspirant would certainly not be justified in neglecting duty and + + +[PAGE 471] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + +devoting the entire time and energy to spiritual purposes. An effort must +be made to gratify such aspirations without interfering with duty to family. + + If the desire to live a celibate life comes to a person who holds mar- +riage relations with another, the obligations of such relations are not to +be forgotten. It would be very wrong, by practicing celibacy under such +circumstances, to endeavor to escape from the PROPER performance of duty. +As to what constitutes duty in regard to coition, however, there is a stan- +dard for aspirants to the higher life different from that of the ordinary +man or woman. + + Most people regard marriage as sanctioning unlimited license for the +gratification of sexual desire. In the eyes of statute law, perhaps it does +so, but no man-made law nor custom has any right to govern this matter. Oc- +cult science teaches that the sex-function should NEVER be used for +sense-gratification, but for propagation ONLY. Therefore an aspirant to the +higher life would be justified in refusing coition with the marriage partner +unless the object were the begetting of a child, and then only if both par- +ties were in perfect health--physically, morally and mentally--as otherwise +the union would be likely to result in the generation of a feeble or degen- +erate body. + + Each person owns his or her body, and is responsible to the law of Conse- +quence for any misuse resulting from the weak willed abandonment of that +body to another. + + In the light of the foregoing, and looking at the matter from the view- +point of occult science, it is both a duty and a privilege (to be exercised +with thanks for the opportunity) for all persons who are healthy and of +sound mind to provide vehicles for as many entities as is consistent with +their health and ability to care for the same. And, as previously stated, + + +[PAGE 472] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +most particularly are aspirants to the higher life under obligation in this +respect, on account of the purification which their purer lives have wrought +in their bodies, because of which they are better qualified than ordinary +humanity to generate pure vehicles. Thus they enable high-class entities to +find suitable vehicles and help humanity to advance by affording these wait- +ing Egos opportunities to incarnate and exercise their influence at an ear- +lier period than would otherwise be possible. + + If the sex force is used in the way indicated, coition will take place +but few times in a life, and practically the entire sex force may be used +for spiritual purposes. It is not the use, but the abuse that causes all +the trouble and interferes with the spiritual life, so there is no need for +anyone to abandon the higher life because he or she cannot be celibate. It +is not necessary to be strictly celibate while going through the lesser Ini- +tiations. The vow of absolute celibacy applies to the greater Initiations +only, and even then a single act of fecundation may sometimes be necessary +as an act of sacrifice, as was the case in providing a body for Christ. + + It may also be said that it is worse to suffer from a burning desire, to +be constantly thinking vividly of the gratification of sense, than to live +the married life in moderation. Christ taught that unchaste thoughts are as +bad as, and even worse than unchaste acts, because thoughts may be repeated +indefinitely, whereas there is at least some limit to acts. + + The aspirant to the higher life can be successful only in proportion to +the extent of the subjugation of the lower nature, but should beware of the +other extreme. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 473] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + + THE PITUITARY BODY AND THE PINEAL GLAND. + + In the brain, and in approximately the positions shown in diagram 17, are +two small organs called the pituitary body and the pineal gland. Medical +science knows but little about these, or the other ductless glands of the +body. It calls the pineal gland "the atrophied third eye," yet neither it +nor the pituitary body are atrophying. This is very perplexing to scien- +tists, for nature retains nothing useless. All over the body we find organs +which are either atrophying or developing, the former being milestones, as +it were, along the path which man has traveled to reach his present stage of +development, the latter pointing out the lines for future improvement and +development. For instance, the muscles which animals use to move the ears +are present in man also, but as they are atrophying, few people can use +them. The heart belongs to the class indicating future development; as al- +ready shown, it is becoming a voluntary muscle. + + The pituitary body and the pineal gland belong to still another class of +organs, which at the present time are neither evolving nor degenerating, but +are dormant. In the far past, when man was in touch with the "inner" +Worlds, these organs were his means of ingress thereto, and they will again +serve that purpose at a later stage. They were connected with the involun- +tary or sympathetic nervous system. Man then saw the inner Worlds, as in +the Moon Period and the latter part of the Lemurian and early Atlantean Ep- +ochs. Pictures presented themselves quite independent of his will. The +sense centers of his desire body were spinning around counter-clockwise +(following negatively the motion of the Earth, which revolves on its axis in +that direction) as the sense centers of "mediums" do to this day. In most + + +[PAGE 474] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +people these sense-centers are inactive, but true development will set them +spinning clockwise, as explained elsewhere. That is the difficult feature +in the development of positive clairvoyance. + + The development of mediumship is much easier, because it is merely a re- +vival of the mirror-like function possessed by man in the far past, by which +the outside world was involuntarily reflected in him, and which function was +afterward retained by inbreeding. With present day mediums this power is +intermittent, which explains why they can sometimes "see" and at other +times, for no apparent reason, fail utterly. Occasionally, the strong de- +sire of the client enables them to get into touch with the information he is +seeking, on which occasions they see correctly, but they are not always hon- +est. Office rent and other expenses must be paid, so when the power (over +which they have no conscious control) fails them, some resort to fraud and +utter any absurdity that occurs to their minds, in order to satisfy their +client and get his money, thus casting discredit upon what they really do +see at other times. + + The aspirate to true spiritual sight and insight must first of all give +proof of unselfishness, because the trained clairvoyant has no "off days." +He is not in the least mirror-like, dependent upon the reflections which may +happen to come his way. He is able to reach out at any time and in any di- +rection, and read the thoughts and plans of others, provided he particularly +turns his attention that way--not otherwise. + + The great danger to society which would result from the indiscriminate +use of this power if possessed by an unworthy individual, can be easily un- +derstood. He would be able to read the most secret thought. Therefore the + + +[PAGE 475] ACQUIRING FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE + + DIAGRAM 17: + + THE PATH OF THE UNUSED SEX CURRENTS + + +[PAGE 476] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +initiate is bound by the most solemn vows never to use this power to serve +his individual interest in the slightest degree, nor to save himself a pang. +He may feed five thousand others if he will, but he must not turn a stone +into bread to appease his own hunger. He may heal others of palsy and lep- +rosy, but by the Law of the Universe, he is forbidden to stanch his own mor- +tal wounds. Because he is bound by his vow of absolute unselfishness, it is +ever true of the Initiate that although he saves others, himself he cannot +save. + + So the trained clairvoyant who really has something to give will never +hang out a sign offering to exercise his gifts for a fee, but will give and +give freely where he considers it consistent with the ripe destiny generated +under the law of consequence by the person to be helped. + + Trained clairvoyance is the kind used for investigating occult facts, and +it is the only kind that is of any use for that purpose. Therefore the as- +pirant must feel, not a wish to gratify an idle curiosity, but a holy and +unselfish desire to help humanity. Until such a desire exists, no progress +can be made in the attainment of positive clairvoyance. + + In the ages that have passed since the Lemurian Epoch humanity has been +gradually building the cerebro-spinal nervous system, which is under the +control of the will. In the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch, this was so +far evolved that it became possible for the Ego to take full possession of +the dense body. That was the time (previously described) when the point in +the vital body came into correspondence with the point at the root of the +nose in the dense body and the indwelling spirit became awake in the +Physical World but, so far as the greater part of humanity was concerned, +lost consciousness of the inner Worlds. + + +[PAGE 477] ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE + + Since then, the connection of the pineal gland and the pituitary body +with the cerebro-spinal nervous system has been slowly building, and is now +all but complete. + + To regain contact with the inner Worlds, all that remains to be done is +the reawakening of the pituitary body and the pineal gland. When that is +accomplished, man will again possess the faculty of perception in the higher +worlds, but on a grander scale than formerly, because it will be in connec- +tion with the voluntary nervous system and therefore under the control of +his Will. Through this inner perceptive facility all avenues of knowledge +will be opened to him and he will have at his service a means of acquiring +information compared with which all other methods of investigation are but +child's play. + + The awakening of these organs is accomplished by Esoteric Training, which +we will now describe, as far as may be done in public. + + ESOTERIC TRAINING + + In the majority of people, the greater part of the sex force which may +legitimately be used through the creative organs is expended for +sense-gratification; therefore in such people there is very little of the +ascending current shown in diagram 17. + + When the aspirant to the higher life begins to curb these excesses more +and more, and to devote his attention to spiritual thoughts and efforts, the +trained clairvoyant can perceive the unused sex force commencing to ascend. +It surges upward in stronger and stronger volume, along the path indicated +by the arrows in diagram 17, traversing the heart and the larynx or the spi- +nal cord and the larynx or both, and then passing directly between the pitu- +itary body and the pineal gland toward the dark point at the root of the + + +[PAGE 478] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +nose where "The Silent Watcher," the highest spirit, has its seat. + + These currents do not usually take one of the two paths indicated in the +diagram to the entire exclusion of the other, but generally one path is +traveled by the greater volume of the sex-currents, according to the tem- +perament of the aspirant. In one who is seeking enlightenment along purely +intellectual lines the current travels particularly over the spinal cord and +only a small part goes over the path through the heart. In the mystic who +feels rather than knows, the currents find their way upwards through the +heart. + + Both are developing abnormally, and each must sometime take up the devel- +opment he has neglected, so as to become fully rounded. Therefore the +Rosicrucians aim to give a teaching that will satisfy both classes, although +their main efforts are expended in reaching the intellectually minded, for +their need is the greater. + + This current of itself, however, even though it assumes the proportions +of a Niagara and flows until the crack of doom, will be useless. But still, +as it is not only a necessary accompaniment, but a pre-requisite to +self-conscious work in the inner World, it must be cultivated to some extend +before the real esoteric training can begin. It will thus be seen that a +moral life devoted to spiritual thought must be lived by the aspirant for a +certain length of time before it is possible to commence the work that will +give his first-hand knowledge of the super-physical realms and enable him to +become, in the truest sense, a helper of humanity. + + When the candidate has lived such a life for a time sufficient to estab- +lish the current of spiritual force, and is found worthy and qualified to +receive esoteric instruction, he is taught certain exercises, to set the + + +[PAGE 479] ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE + +pituitary body in vibration. This vibration causes the pituitary body to +impinge upon and slightly defect the nearest line of force (See diagram 17). +This, in turn, impinges upon the line next to it, and so the process contin- +ues until the force of the vibration has been spent. It is similar to the +way in which the striking of one note on a piano will produce a number of +overtones, by setting up a vibration in the other strings which are at +proper intervals of pitch. + + When by the increased vibration of the pituitary body, the lines of force +have been deflected sufficiently to reach the pineal gland, the object has +been accomplished, the gap between these two organs has been bridged. This +is the bridge between the World of Sense and the World of Desire. From the +time it is built, man becomes clairvoyant and able to direct his gaze where +he will. Solid objects are seen both inside and out. To him space and so- +lidity, as hindrances to observation, have ceased to exist. + + He is not yet a TRAINED clairvoyant, but he IS a clairvoyant AT WILL, a +voluntary clairvoyant. He is a very different faculty from that possessed +by the medium, who is usually an involuntary clairvoyant and can see only +what comes; or who has, at best, very little more than the purely negative +faculty. But the person in whom this bridge is once built is always in sure +touch with the inner Worlds, the connection being made and broken at his +will. By degrees, the observer learns to control the vibration of the pitu- +itary body in a manner enabling him to get in touch with any of the regions +of the inner Worlds which he desires to visit. The faculty is completely +under the control of his will. It is not necessary for him to go into a +trance or do anything abnormal, to raise his consciousness to the Desire +World. He simply WILLS to see, and sees. + + +[PAGE 480] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + As we explained in the earlier part of this work, the neophyte must learn +to see in the Desire World, or rather, he must learn how to understand what +he sees there. In the Physical World objects are dense, solid, and do not +change in the twinkling of an eye. In the Desire World they change in the +most erratic manner. This is a source of endless confusion to the negative +involuntary clairvoyant, and even to the neophyte who enters under the guid- +ance of a teacher, but the teaching soon brings the pupil to a point where +the Form may change as often as it will; he can perceive the Life that +causes the change, and knows it for what it is, despite all possible and +puzzling changes. + + There is also another and most important distinction to be made. The +power which enables on to PERCEIVE the objects in a world is NOT identical +with the power of ENTERING that world and FUNCTIONING there. The voluntary +clairvoyant, though he may have received some training, and is able to dis- +tinguish from true from the false in the Desire World, is in practically the +same relation to it as a prisoner behind a barred window is to the outside +world--he can see it, but cannot function therein. Therefore esoteric +training not only opens up the inner vision of the aspirant, but at the +proper time further exercises are given to furnish him with a vehicle in +which he can function in the inner Worlds in a perfectly self-conscious man- +ner. + + HOW THE INNER VEHICLE IS BUILT + + In ordinary life most people live to ear, they drink, gratify the +sex-passion in an unrestrained manner, and lose their tempers on the slight- +est provocation. Though outwardly these people may be very "respectable," +they are, nearly every day of their lives, causing almost utter confusion in +their organization. The entire period of sleep is spent by the desire and + + +[PAGE 481] ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE + +the vital bodies in repairing the damage done in the day time, leaving no +time for outside work of any kind. But as the individual begins to feel the +needs of the higher life, control sex force, and temper, and cultivate a se- +rene disposition, there is less disturbance caused in the vehicles during +waking hours; consequently less time is required to repair the damage during +sleep. Thus it becomes possible to leave the dense body for long periods +during sleeping hours, and function in the inner Worlds in the higher ve- +hicles. As the desire body and the mind are not yet organized, they are of +no use as separate vehicles of consciousness. Neither can the vital body +leave the dense body, as that would cause death, so it is evident that mea- +sures must be taken to provide an organized vehicle which is fluidic and so +constructed that it will meet the needs of the Ego in the inner Worlds as +does the dense body in the Physical World. + + The vital body is such an organized vehicle, and if some means could be +found to loosen it from the dense body without causing death, the problem +would be solved. Besides, the vital body is the seat of memory, without +which it would be impossible to bring back into our physical consciousness +the remembrance of super-physical experiences and thus obtain the full ben- +efit of them. + + We remember that the Hierophants of the old Mystery Temples segregated +some of the people into castes and tribes such as the Brahmins and the +Levites, for the purpose of providing bodies for use of such Egos as were +advanced enough to be ready for Initiation. This was done in such a manner +that the vital body became separable into two parts, as were the desire bod- +ies of all humanity at the beginning of the Earth Period. When the +Hierophant took the pupils out of their bodies he left one part of the vital + + +[PAGE 482] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +body, comprising the first and second ethers, to perform the purely animal +functions (they are the only ones active during sleep), the pupil taking +with him a vehicle capable of perception, because of its connection with the +sense-centers of the dense body; and also capable of memory. It possessed +these capabilities because it was composed of the third and fourth ethers, +which are the mediums of sense-perception and memory. + + This is, in fact, that part of the vital body which the aspirant retains +from life to life, and immortalizes as the Intellectual Soul. + + Since Christ came and "took away the sin of the world," (not of the indi- +vidual) purifying the desire body of our planet, the connection between all +human dense and vital bodies has been loosened to such an extent that, by +training, they are capable of separation as above described. Therefore Ini- +tiation is open to all. + + The finer part of the desire body, which constitutes the Emotional Soul, +is capable of separation in most people (in fact, it possessed that capabil- +ity even before Christ came) and thus when, by concentration and the use of +the proper formula, the finer parts of the vehicles have been segregated for +use during sleep, or at any other time, the lower parts of the desire and +vital bodies are still left to carry on the processes of restoration in the +dense vehicle, the mere animal part. + + That part of the vital body which goes out is highly organized, as we +have seen. It is an exact counterpart of the dense body. The desire body +and the mind, not being organized, are of use only because they are con- +nected with the highly organized dense body. When separated from it they +are but poor instruments, therefore before man can withdraw from the dense + + +[PAGE 483] ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE + +body, the sense-centers of the desire body must be awakened. + + In ordinary life the Ego is INSIDE its bodies and its force is directed +OUTWARD. All man's will and energy are bent upon the task of subduing the +outside world. At no time is he able to get away from the impressions of +his outside environment and thus be free to work on himself in his waking +hours. During sleep, when such an opportunity is afforded, because of the +dense body having lost consciousness of the world, the Ego is OUTSIDE his +bodies. If man is to work on his vehicle at all, it must be when the out- +side world is shut out as in sleep, but yet the spirit still remains within +and in full control of the faculties, as it is in the waking state. Not un- +til such a state can be attained will it be possible for the spirit to work +inwardly and properly sensitize its vehicles. + + Concentration is such a state. When in it, the senses are stilled and a +person is outwardly in the same condition as in the deepest sleep, yet the +spirit remains within and fully conscious. Most people have experienced +this state, at least in some degree, when they have become interested in ab- +sorption in a book. At such times they live in the scenes depicted by the +author and are lost to their environment. When spoken to, they are +oblivious to the sound, so to all else transpiring around them, yet they are +fully awake to all they are reading, to the invisible world created by the +author, living there and feeling the heart-beats of all the different char- +acters in the story. They are not independent, but are bound in the life +which some one has created from them in the book. + + The aspirant to the higher life cultivates the faculty of becoming ab- +sorbed AT WILL in any subject he chooses, or rather not a subject usually, +but a very simple object, which he imagines. Thus when the proper condition + + +[PAGE 484] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +or point of absorption has been reached where his senses are absolutely +still, he concentrates his thought upon the different sense centers of the +desire body and THEY START TO REVOLVE. + + At first their motion is slow and hard to bring about, but by degrees the +sense centers of the desire body will make places for themselves within the +dense and vital bodies, which learn to accommodate themselves to this new +activity. Them some day, when the proper life has developed the requisite +cleavage between the higher and lower parts of the vital body, there is a +supreme effort of the will; a spiral motion in many directions takes place, +and the aspirant stands OUTSIDE HIS DENSE BODY. He looks at it as at an- +other person. The door of this prison house has been opened. He is free to +come and go, as much at liberty in the inner worlds as in the Physical +World, functioning at will, in the inner or outer World, a helper of all de- +siring his services in any of them. + + Before the aspirant learns to voluntarily leave the body, he may have +worked in the desire body during sleep, for in some people the desire body +becomes organized before the separation can be brought about in the vital +body. Under those conditions it is impossible to bring back these subjec- +tive experiences to waking consciousness, but generally in such cases it +will be noticed, as the first sign of development, that all confused dreams +will cease. Then, after while, the dreams will become more vivid and per- +fectly logical. The aspirant will dream of being in places and with people +(whether known to him in waking hours or not matters little), conducting +himself in as reasonable a way as if he were in the waking state. If the +place of which he dreams is accessible to him in waking hours, he may some- +times get proof of the reality of his dream if he will note some physical + + +[PAGE 485] ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE + + +detail of the scene and verify his nocturnal impression next day. + + He will next find that he can, during sleeping hours, visit any place he +desires upon the face of the Earth and investigate it a great deal more +thoroughly than if he had gone there in the dense body, because in his de- +sire body he has access to all places, regardless of locks and bars. If he +persists, there will at last come a day when he need not wait for sleep to +dissolve the connection between his vehicles, but can consciously set him- +self free. + + Specific directions for freeing the higher vehicles cannot be given in- +discriminately. The separation is brought about, not by a set formula of +WORDS, but rather by AN ACT OF WILL, yet the manner in which the will is di- +rected is individual, and can therefore be given only by a competent +teacher. Like all other real esoteric information, it is never sold, but +comes only as a result of the pupil qualifying himself to receive it. All +that can be done here is to give an indication of the first steps which lead +up to the acquirement of the faculty of voluntary clairvoyance. + + The most favorable time to exercise is on first awakening in the morning, +before any of the worries and cares of daily life have entered the mind. At +that time one is fresh from the inner Worlds and therefore more easily +brought back into touch with them than at any other time of the day. Do not +wait to dress, or sit up in bed, but relax the body perfectly and let the +exercises be the first waking thought. Relaxation does not mean simply a +comfortable position; it is possible to have every muscle tense WITH EXPEC- +TATION and that of itself frustrates the object, for in that condition the +desire body is gripping the muscles. It cannot do otherwise till we calm +the mind. + + +[PAGE 486] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + CONCENTRATION + + The first thing to practice is fixing one's thoughts upon some ideal and +holding them there WITHOUT LETTING THEM SWERVE. It is an exceedingly hard +task, but, to some extend at least, it must be accomplished before it is +possible to make any further progress. Thought is the power we use in mak- +ing images, pictures, thought forms, according to ideas from within. It is +our principal power, and we must learn to have absolute control of it, so +that what we produce is not wild illusion induced by outside conditions, but +true imagination generated by the spirit from within (see diagram 1). + + Sceptics say that it is ALL imagination but, as said before, if the in- +ventor had not been able to imagine the telephone, etc., we would not today +possess those things. His imaginings were not generally correct or true at +first, otherwise the inventions would have worked successfully from the be- +ginning, without the many failures and apparently useless experiments that +have nearly always preceded the production of the practical and serviceable +instrument or machine. Neither is the imagination of the budding occult +scientist correct at first. The only way to make it true is by uninter- +rupted practice, day after day, exercising the will to keep the thought fo- +cussed upon one subject, object, or idea, exclusive all else. Thought is a +great power which we have been accustomed to waste. It has been allowed to +flow on aimlessly, as water flows over a precipice before it is made to turn +the wheel. + + The rays of the Sun, diffused over the entire surface of the Earth, pro- +duce only a moderate warmth, but if even a few of them are concentrated by +means of a glass, they are capable of producing fire at the focusing point. + + +[PAGE 487] ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE + + Thought-force is the most powerful means of obtaining knowledge. If it +is concentrated upon a subject, it will burn its way through any obstacle +and solve the problem. If the requisite amount of thought-force is brought +to bear, there is nothing that is beyond the power of human comprehension. +So long as we scatter it, thought-force is of little use to us, but as soon +as we are prepared to take the trouble necessary to harness it, all knowl- +edge is ours. + + We often hear people exclaim petulantly, "Oh, I cannot think of a hundred +things at once!" when really that is exactly what they have been doing, and +what has caused the very trouble of which they complain. People are con- +stantly thinking of a hundred things other than the one they have in hand. +Every success has been accomplished by persistent concentration upon the de- +sired end. + + This is something the aspirant to the higher life must positively learn +to do. There is no other way. At first he will find himself thinking of +everything under the sun instead of the ideal upon which he has decided to +concentrate, but he must not let that discourage him. In time he will find +it easier to still his senses and hold his thoughts steady. Persistence, +PERSISTENCE, and always PERSISTENCE will win at last. Without that, how- +ever, no results can be expected. It is of no use to perform the exercises +for two or three mornings or weeks and then neglect them for as long. To be +effective they must be done faithfully every morning without fail. + + Any subject may be selected, according to the temperament and mental per- +suasion of the aspirant, so long as it is pure and mentally uplifting it its +tendency. Christ will do for some; others, who flowers particularly, and +most easily helped by taking one as the subject of concentration. The ob- +ject matters little, but whatever it is we must imagine it true to life in + + +[PAGE 488] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +all details. If it is Christ, we must imagine a real Christ, with mobile +features, life in His eyes, and an expression that is not stony and dead. +We must build a living ideal, not a statue. If it is a flower, we must, in +imagination, take the seed and having buried it in the ground, fix our mind +upon it steadily. Presently we shall see it burst, shooting forth its +roots, which penetrate the Earth in a spiral manner. From the main branches +of the roots we watch the myriads of minute rootlets, as they branch out and +ramify in all directions. Then the stem begins to shoot upward, bursting +through the surface of the earth and coming forth as a tiny green stalk. It +grows, presently there is an off-set; a tiny twig shoots out from the main +stem. It grows; another off-set and a branch appears; from the branches, +little stalks with buds at the end shoot out; presently there are a number +of leaves. Then comes a bud at the top; it grow larger until it begins to +burst and the red leaves of the rose show beneath the green. It unfolds in +the air, emitting an exquisite perfume, which we sense perfectly as it is +wafted to us on the balmy summer breeze which gently sways the beautiful +creation before the mind's eye. + + Only when we "imagine" in such clear and complete outlines as these, do +we enter into the spirit of concentration. There must be no shadowy, faint +resemblance. + + Those who have traveled in India have told of fakirs showing them a seed, +which was planted and grew before the eyes of the astonished witness, bear- +ing fruit which the traveler tasted. That was done by concentration so in- +tense that the picture was visible, not only to the fakir himself, but also +the spectators. A case is recorded where the members of a committee of sci- +entist all saw the wonderful things done before their eyes, under conditions +where sleight-of-hand was impossible, yet the photographs which they + + +[PAGE 489] ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE + +obtained while the experiment was in progress, came to naught. There was no +impression on the sensitive plates, because there had been no material, con- +crete objects. + + At first the pictures which the aspirant builds will be but shadowy and +poor likenesses, but in the end he can, by concentration, conjure up an +image more real and alive than things in the Physical World. + + When the aspirant has become able to form such pictures and has succeeded +in holding his mind upon the picture thus created, he may try to drop the +picture suddenly and, holding his mind steady without any thought, wait to +see what comes into the vacuum. + + For a long time nothing may appear and the aspirant must carefully guard +against making visions for himself, but if he keeps on faithfully and pa- +tiently every morning, there will come a time when, the moment he has let +the imaged picture drop, in a flash the surrounding Desire World will open +up to his inner eye. At first it may be but a mere glimpse, but it is an +earnest of what will later come at will. + + MEDITATION + + When the aspirant has practiced concentration for some time, focussing +the mind upon some simple object, building a living thought form by means of +the imaginative faculty, he will, by means of Meditation, learn all about +the object thus created. + + Supposing that the aspirant has, by concentration, called up the image of +the Christ. It is very easy to meditatively recall the incidents of His +life, suffering and resurrection, but much beyond that can be learned by +meditation. Knowledge never before dreamed of will flood the soul with a + + +[PAGE 490] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +glorious light. Yet something that is uninteresting and does not of itself +suggest anything marvelous, is better for practice. Try to find out all +about--say, a match, or a common table. + + When the image of the table has been clearly formed in the mind, think +what kind of wood it is and whence it came. Go back to the time when, as a +tiny seed, the tree from which the wood was cut first feel into the forest +soil. Watch it grow from year to year, covered by the snows of winter and +warmed by the summer Sun, steadily growing upward--its roots meanwhile con- +stantly spreading under the ground. First it is a tender sapling, swaying +in the breeze; then, as a young tree, it gradually stretches higher and +higher toward the air and the sunshine. As the years pass, its girth be- +comes greater and greater, until at last one day the logger comes, with his +axe and saw gleaming as they reflect the rays of the winter Sun. Our tree +is felled and shorn if its branches, leaving by the trunk; that is cut into +logs, which are hauled over the frozen roads to the river bank, there to +await the springtime when the melting snow swells the streams. A great raft +of the logs is made, the pieces of our tree being among them. We know every +little peculiarity about them and would recognize them instantly among thou- +sand, so clearly have we marked them in our mind. We follow the raft down +the stream, noting the passing landscape and become familiar with the men +who have the care of the raft and who sleep upon little huts built upon +their floating charge. At last we see it arrive at a sawmill and disbanded. +One by one the logs are grasped by prongs on an endless chain and hauled out +of the water. Here comes one of our logs, the widest part of which will be +made into the top of our table. It is hauled out of the water to the log- + + +[PAGE 491] ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE + +deck and rolled about by men with peavies. We hear the hungry whine of the +great circular saws as they revolve so fast that they appear as mere blurs +before our eyes. Our log is placed upon a carriage which is propelled to- +ward one of them, and in a moment those teeth of steel are tearing their way +through its body and dividing it into boards and planks. Some of the wood +is selected to form part of a building, but the best of it is taken to a +furniture factory and put into a kiln, where it is dried by steam so that it +will not shrink after it has been made into furniture. Then it is taken out +and put through a great planing machine with many sharp knives, which makes +it smooth. Next it is sawn off into different lengths and glued together to +form table-tops. The legs are turned from thicker pieces and set into the +frame which supports the top; then the whole article is smoothed again with +sandpaper, varnished and polished, thus completing the table in every re- +spect. It is next sent out, with other furniture, to the store where we +bought it, and we follow it as it is carted from that place to our home and +left in our dining room. + + Thus, by meditation, we have become conversant with the various branches +of industry necessary to convert a forest tree into a piece of furniture. +WE have seen all the machines and the men, and noted the peculiarities of +the various places. We have even followed the life process whereby that +tree has grown from a tiny seed, and have learned that back of seemingly +very commonplace things there is a great and absorbingly interesting his- +tory. A pin; the match with which we light the gas; the gas itself; and the +room in which that has is burned--all have interesting histories, well worth +learning. + + +[PAGE 492] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + OBSERVATION + + One of the most important aids to the aspirant in its efforts is observa- +tion. Most people go through life blind-folded. Of them it is literally +true that they "have eyes, and see not; . . . have ears, and hear not." +Upon the part of the majority of humanity there is a deplorable lack of ob- +servation. + + Most people are, to some extent, excusable for this, because their sight +is not normal. Urban life has caused untold damage to the eyes. In the +country the child learns to use the muscles of the eye to the full extend, +relaxing of contracting them as required to see objects at considerable dis- +tances in the open, or close at hand in and about the house. But the +city-bred child sees practically EVERYTHING close at hand and the muscles of +its eyes are seldom used to observe objects at any great distance, therefore +that faculty is to a great extent lost, resulting in a prevalence of +near-sightedness and other eye troubles. + + It is very important to one aspiring to the higher life that he be able +to see all things about him in clear, definite outlines, and in full detail. +To one suffering from defective sight, the use of glasses is like opening up +a new world. Instead of the former mistiness, everything is seen clearly +and definitely. If the condition of the sight requires the use of two foci, +one should not be content with having two pairs of glasses, one for near and +one for far seeing, thus necessitating frequent changes. Not only are the +changes wearisome, but one is very apt to forget one pair when leaving home. +The two foci can be had in one pair of bi-focal glasses, and such should be +worn, to facilitate observation of the minutest details. + + +[PAGE 493] ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE + + DISCRIMINATION + + When the aspirant has attended to his eyesight, he should systematically +observe everything and everybody, drawing conclusions from actions, to cul- +tivate the faculty of logical reasoning. logic is the best teacher in the +Physical World, as well as the safest and surest guide in any world. + + While practicing this method of observation, it should always be kept in +mind that it must be used only to gather facts and not for purposes of +criticism, at least not wanton criticism. Constructive criticism, which +points out defects and the means of remedying them, is the basis of +progress; but destructive criticism, which vandalistically demolishes good +and bad alike with aiming at any higher attainment, is an ulcer on the char- +acter and must be eradicated. Gossip and idle tale-bearing are clogs and +hindrances. While it is not required that we shall say that black is white +and overlook manifestly wrong conduct, criticism should be made for the pur- +pose of helping, not to wantonly besmirch the character of a fellow-being +because we have found a little stain. Remembering the parable of the mote +and the beam, we should turn our most unsparing criticism toward ourselves. +None is so perfect that there is no room for improvement. The more blame- +less the man, the less prone he is to find fault and cast the first stone at +another. If we point out faults and suggests ways for improvement, it must +be done without personal feeling. We must always seek the good which is +hidden in everything. The cultivation of this attitude of discrimination is +particularly important. + + When the aspirant to first-hand knowledge has practiced concentration and +meditation exercises for some time, and has become fairly proficient in + + +[PAGE 494] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +them, there is a still higher step to be taken. + + We have seen that concentration is focusing thought upon a single object. +It is the means whereby we build a clear, objective, and living image of the +form about which we wish to acquire knowledge. + + Meditation is the exercise whereby the history of the object of our in- +vestigation is traced and, so to say, entered into, to pick out of it every +shred of evidence as to its relation to the world in general. + + These two mental exercises deal, in the deepest and most thorough manner, +imaginable, with THINGS. They lead up to a higher, deeper and more subtle +stage of mental development, which deals with the very SOUL OF THINGS. + + The name of that stage is Contemplation. + + CONTEMPLATION + + In contemplation there is no reaching out in thought or imagination for +the sake of getting information, as was the case in Meditation. It is sim- +ply the holding of the object before our mental vision and letting the soul +of it speak to us. We repose quietly and relaxed upon a couch or bed--not +negatively, but thoroughly on the alert--watching for the information that +will surely come if we have reached the proper development. Then the FORM +of the object seems to vanish and we see only the LIFE at work. Contempla- +tion will teach us about the Life side, as Meditation taught us about the +Form side. + + When we reach this stage and have before us, say, a tree in the forest, +we lost sight of the Form entirely, and see only the Life, which in this +case is a group spirit. We shall find, to our astonishment, that the group +spirit of the tree includes the various insects which feed upon it; that the + + +[PAGE 495] ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE + +parasite and its host are emanations from one and the same group spirit, for +the higher we ascend in the invisible realms, the fewer the separate and +distinct forms, and the more completely the One Life predominates, impress- +ing upon the investigator the supreme fact that there is but the One +Life--the Universal Life of God, in Whom it is an actual fact that "we live, +and move, and have our being." Mineral, plant, animal, and man--all, with- +out exception--are manifestations of God, and this fact furnishes the true +basis of brotherhood--a brotherhood which includes everything from the atom +to the Sun, because all are emanations from God. Conceptions of brotherhood +based upon any other foundation, such as class distinctions, Race affinity, +similarity of occupation, etc., fall far short of this true basis, as the +occult scientist clearly realizes when he sees the Universal Life flowing in +all that exists. + + ADORATION + + When this height has been reached by Contemplation, and the aspirant has +realized that he is in truth beholding God in the Life that permeates all +things, there remains still to be taken the highest step, Adoration, whereby +he unites himself with the Source of all things, reaching by that act the +highest goal possible of attainment by man until the time when the permanent +union takes place at the end of the great Day of Manifestation. + + It is the writer's opinion that neither the heights of Contemplation, nor +the final step of Adoration can be attained without the aid of a teacher. +The aspirant need never fear, however, that for want of a teacher he will be +delayed in taking these steps; nor need he be concerned about looking for a + + +[PAGE 496] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +teacher. All that is necessary for him to do is start to improve himself, +and to earnestly and PERSISTENTLY continue therein. In that way he will pu- +rify his vehicles. They will commence to shine in the inner Worlds, and +cannot fail to attract the attention of the teachers, who are always watch- +ing for just such cases and are more than eager and glad to help those who, +because of their earnest efforts to purify themselves, have won the right to +receive help. Humanity is sorely in need of helpers who are able to work +from the inner Worlds, therefore "seek and ye shall find," but let us not +imagine that by going about from one professed teacher to another, we are +seeking. "Seeking," in that sense of the word, will avail nothing in this +dark world. We ourselves must kindle the light--the light which invariably +radiates from the vehicles of the earnest aspirant. That is the star which +will lead us to the teacher, or rather the teacher to us. + + The time required to bring results from the performance of the exercises +varies with each individual and is dependent upon his application, his stage +in evolution and his record in the book of destiny; therefore no general +time can be set. Some, who are almost ready, obtain results in a few days +or weeks; others have to work months, years, and even their whole life with- +out VISIBLE results, yet the results will be there, and the aspirant who +faithfully persists will some day, i this or a future life, behold his pa- +tience and faithfulness rewarded and the inner Worlds open to his gaze, +finding himself a citizen of realms where the opportunities are immeasurably +greater than in the Physical World only. + + From that time--awake or asleep, through what men call life, and through +what men call death--his consciousness will be unbroken. He will lead a + + +[PAGE 497] ACQUIRING FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE + +consciously continuous existence, having the benefit of all the conditions +which make for more rapid advancement to every higher positions of trust, to +be used in the unlifting of the race. +[PAGE 498] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH; AND VOLCANIC + ERUPTIONS. + + Even among occult scientists it is counted amount the most difficult +problems to investigate the mysterious construction of the Earth. Every oc- +cult scientist knows how much easier it is to thoroughly and accurately in- +vestigate the Desire World and the Region of Concrete Thought and bring back +the results into the Physical World than to investigate completely the se- +crets of our physical planet, because to do that fully, one must have passed +through the nine lesser Mysteries and the first of the Great Initiations. + + Modern scientists know very little about this matter. So far as seismic +phenomena are concerned, they very frequently change their theories, because +they are constantly discovering reasons why their previous hypotheses were +untenable. They have, with all their usual splendid care, investigated the +very outside shell, but only to an insignificant depth. As for volcanic +eruptions, they try to understand them as they try to understand everything +else, in a purely mechanical way, depicting the center of the Earth as a fi- +ery furnace and concluding that the eruptions are caused by the accidental +admission of water and in other similar ways. + + In a certain sense, their theories have some foundation, but in this case +they are, as always, neglecting the spiritual causes which to the occultist + + +[PAGE 499] CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH + +appear to be the true ones. To him, the world is far from being "dead." On +the contrary, its every nook and crevice is permeated by spirit, which is +the leaven that causes changes in and upon the planet. + + The different kinds of quartz, the metals, the disposition of the various +strata--all have a much higher significance than the materialistic investi- +gator has ever been able to grasp. To the occult scientists, the way in +which these materials are arranged is full of meaning. On this subject, as +on every other, occult science stands in the same relation to modern science +as physiology does to anatomy. Anatomy states with minute detail the exact +position of every bone, muscle, ligament, nerve, etc., their relative posi- +tions to one another and so forth, but does not give any clue to the use of +any one of the different parts of which the body is composed. Physiology, +on the other hand, not only states the position and structure of every part +of the body, but also tells their use in the body. + + To know the different strata of the Earth and the relative positions of +the planets in the sky without having also a knowledge of their use and +meaning in the life and purpose of the Cosmos, is as useless as to know +merely the positions of bones, nerves, etc., without understanding also +their use in the functional economy of the body. + + THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST. + + To the trained clairvoyant sight, of the Initiate of the various degrees +of the Mysteries, the Earth appears built in strata, something like an on- +ion, one layer or stratum outside another. There are nine such strata and +the central core, making ten in all. These strata are revealed to the Ini- +tiate gradually. One stratum becomes accessible to him at each Initiation, + + +[PAGE 500] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +so that at the end of the nine lesser Initiations he is master of all the +layers, but has not yet access to the secrets of the core. + + In ancient parlance these nine steps are called the "lesser Mysteries." +They take the neophyte consciously through all that relates to his past +evolution, through the activities of involuntary existence, so that he is +able to understand the manner and meaning of the work he then performed un- +consciously. He is shown how to present ninefold constitution (the three- +fold body, the threefold soul, and the threefold spirit) was brought into +existence; how the great creative Hierarchies worked on the virgin spirit, +awakening in it the Ego, helping it to form the body; and also the work he +himself has done, to extract from the threefold body as much of the three- +fold soul as he now possesses. One step at a time is he led through the +nine steps of the lesser mysteries, the nine strata. + + This number nine is the root number of our present stage of evolution. +It bears a significance in our system that no other number does. It is a +number of Adam, the life which commenced its evolution as Man, which reached +the human stage during the Earth Period. In the Hebrew, as in the Greek, +there are no numerals, but each letter has a numerical value. In Hebrew +"Adam" is called "ADM.) The value of "A" is 1; of "D," 4; and of "M," 40. +If we add these figures, we get 1+4+4+0=9--the number of Adam, or humanity. + + If we turn from the Book of Genesis, which deals with the creation of man +in the hoary past, to the Book of Revelation, which deals with his future +attainment, we find that the number of the beast which hinders is 666. Add- +ing these figures, 6+6+6=18; and further, 1+8=9--we have again the number of +humanity, which is itself the cause of all the evil which hinders its own + + +[PAGE 501] CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH + +progress. Going further, to the point where the number of those who are to +be saved is stated, we find it to be 144,000. Adding as before, +1+4+4+000=9--again the number of humanity, showing that practically it will +be saved in its totality, the number incapable of progress in our present +evolution being negligible in comparison to the grand total, and even the +few who fail are not lost, but will progress in a later scheme. + + The consciousness of the mineral and the plant is really unconsciousness. +The first glimmering dawn of consciousness begins with the animal kingdom. +We have seen also that according to the most modern classification, there +are thirteen steps in the animal kingdom: three classes of Radiates; three +classes of Mollusks; three classes of Articulates; and four classes of Ver- +tebrates. + + If we regard ordinary man as a step by himself, and remember that there +are thirteen Initiations from man to God, or from the time he commenced to +qualify himself for becoming a self-conscious Creative Intelligence, we have +again the same number, Nine: 13+1+13=27 2+7=9. + + The number 9 is also hidden in the age of Christ Jesus, 33; 3+3=9, and in +a similar manner in the 33 degrees of Masonry. In olden times Masonry was a +system of Initiation into the lesser Mysteries which, as we have seen, have +9 degrees, but the Initiates often wrote it as 33. Similarly we read of the +l8th degree of the Rosicrucians, which was only a "blind" for the +uninitiated, because there are never more than 9 degrees in any lesser Mys- +tery, and the Masons of today have but very little of the occult ritual left +in their degrees. + + We have also the nine months of gestation, during which the body is built + + +[PAGE 502] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +up to its present efficiency; and there are in the body nine +perforations-two eyes, two nostrils, two ears, one mouth, and the two lower +orifices. + + When the advancing man has passed through the nine lesser Initiations, +gaining thereby entrance to all the layers of the Earth, entrance into the +core is yet to be won. That is opened to him by the first of the four Great +Initiation, in which he learns to know the mystery of the mind, that part of +his being begun on Earth. When he is ready for the first Great Initiation +he has developed his mind to the degree all men are destined to attain to at +the end of the Earth Period. In that Initiation he is given the key to the +next stage, and all work done by him after that will be such as humanity in +general will do in the Jupiter Period, and does not concern us at present. + + After his first Great Initiation, he is an Adept. The second, third and +fourth Initiations pertain to the stages of development to be arrived at by +ordinary humanity in the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan Periods. + + These thirteen Initiations are symbolically represented in the Christ and +His twelve Apostles. Judas Iscariot is the traitorous propensities of the +lower nature of the neophyte. The beloved John is the Venus Initiation, and +Christ Himself symbolizes the Divine Initiate of the Vulcan Period. + + In different schools of occult science the rites of Initiation vary, also +their statement of the number of Initiations, but that is merely a matter of +classification. It will be observed that such vague descriptions as can be +given become that such vague descriptions as can be given becomes more vague +as one proceeds higher and higher. Where seven or more degrees are spoken +of, almost nothing is said of the sixth Initiation, and nothing whatever of +the ones beyond. That is because of another division--the six steps of + + +[PAGE 503] CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH + +"Preparation." and the four Initiations which bring the candidate to the end +of the Earth Period, to Adeptship. Then there must always be three more, if +the philosophy of the school or society goes so far. The writer, however, +knows of none but the Rosicrucians who have anything to say of the three Pe- +riods which preceded the Earth Period, save the bare statement that there +were such Periods. They are not brought very definitely into relationship +whti our present phase of existence, however. Likewise, other occult teach- +ings simply state that there will be three more schemes of evolution, but no +particulars are given. Of course, under those circumstances, the three last +Initiations are not mentioned. + + Diagram l8 will give an idea of the arrangement of the Earth's strata, +the central core being omitted to indicate more clearly the lemniscate for- +mation of the currents in the ninth stratum. In the diagram the strata are +represented as being of equal thickness, thought in reality some are much +thinner than other. Beginning at the outside, they appear in the following +order: + + (l) The Mineral Earth: This is the stony crust of the Earth, with which +Geology deals as far as it is able to penetrate. + + (2) The Fluid Stratum: The matter of the stratum is more fluid than +that of the outside crust, yet it is not watery, but rather more like a +thick paste. It has the quality of expansion, like that of an exceedingly +explosive gas, and is kept in place only by the enormous pressure of the +outer crust. Were that removed, the whole of the fluid stratum would disap- +pear in the space with a tremendous explosion. These correspond to the +Chemical and Etheric Regions of the Physical World. + + (3) Vapor Stratum: In the first and second strata there is really no + + +[PAGE 504] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +conscious life. But in this stratum there is an even-flowing and pulsating +life, as in the Desire World surrounding and inter-penetrating our Earth. + + (4) Water Stratum: In this stratum are the germinal possibilities of +the that exists upon the surface of the Earth. Here are the archetypal +force which are back of the group spirits; also the archetypal forces of the +minerals, for this is the direct physical expression of the Region of Con- +crete Thought. + + (5) Seed Stratum: Material scientists have been baffled in their ef- +forts to discover the origin of life, how the first living things came forth +from previously dead matter. + + In reality, according to the occult explanation of evolution, the ques- +tion should be how the "dead" things originated. THE LIFE WAS THERE PREVI- +OUS TO THE DEAD FORMS. It built its bodies from the attenuated, vaporous +substance long before it condensed into the Earth's solid crust. ONLY WHEN +THE LIFE HAD LEFT THE FORMS COULD THEY CRYSTALLIZE AND BECOME HARD AND DEAD. + + Coal is but crystallized plant bodies; coral is also the crystallization +of animal forms. The life leaves the FORMS and the FORMS die. Life never +came into a form to awaken it to life. Life departed from the forms and the +forms died. Thus did "dead" things come to be. + + In this fifth stratum is the primordial fount of life from which came the +impetus that built all the forms on Earth. It corresponds to the Region of +Abstract Thought. + + (6) Fiery Stratum: Strange as it may seem, this stratum is possessed of +sensation. Pleasure and pain, sympathy and antipathy have here their ef- +fect on the Earth. It is generally supposed that under no possible + + +[PAGE 505] CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH + +circumstances can the Earth have any sensation whatever. The occult scien- +tist, however, as he watches the harvesting of the ripe grain and the gath- +ering of fruit from the trees in the autumn, or the plucking of flowers, +knows the pleasure experienced by the Earth itself. It is similar to the +pleasure felt by the cow when its bursting udders are being relieved by the +sucking calf. The Earth feels the delight of having yielded nourishment for +its progeny of Forms, this delight reaching its culmination in the harvest +time. + + On the other hand, when plants are torn out by the roots, it is patent to +the occult scientist that the Earth senses a sting of pain. For that reason +he does not eat the plant-foods which grow under the Earth. In the first +place they are full of the Earth force and deficient in Sun force, and are +additionally poisoned by being pulled up by the roots. The only exception +to this rule is that he may partake sparingly of the potato, which +originally grew on the surface of the earth, and has only in comparatively +recent times grown beneath the soil. Occultists endeavor to nourish their +bodies on fruits which grow toward the Sun, because they contain more of the +higher Sun force, and have not caused the Earth pain. + + It might be supposed that mining operations would be very painful to the +Earth, but the reverse is the case. Every disintegration of the hard crust +causes a sensation of relief and every solidification is a source of pain. +Where a mountain torrent washes away the soil and carries it toward the +plains, the earth feels freer. Where the disintegrated matter is again de- +posited, as in a bar outside the mouth of a great river, there is a corre- +sponding sense of uneasiness. + + As sensation in animals and men is due to their separate vital bodies, so + + +[PAGE 506] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +the feeling of the Earth is particularly active in this sixth stratum, which +corresponds to the World of Life Spirit. To understand the pleasure felt +when mining operations are disintegrating the hard rock, and the pain when +deposits gather, we must remember that the Earth is the dense body of a +Great Spirit, and to furnish us with an environment in which we could live +and gather experience, it had to crystallize this body into its present +solid condition. + + As evolution proceeds, however, and man learns the lessons pertaining to +this acme of concretion, the Earth will softer and its spirit more and more +liberated. This is what Paul meant when he spoke of the whole creation +groaning and travailing, waiting for the day of liberation. + + (7) Refracting Stratum: This part of the Earth corresponds to the World +of Divine Spirit. There are, in occult science what are known as "The Seven +Unspeakable Secrets." For those who are not acquainted with these secrets, +or have not as least an inkling of their import, the properties of this +stratum must seem particularly absurd and grotesque. In it all the forces +which are known to us as the "Laws of Nature" exist as moral, or rather im- +moral forces. In the beginning of the conscious career of man they were +much worse than at present. But it appears that as humanity progresses in +morals, these forces improve correspondingly; also that any lapse in morals +has a tendency to unleash these Nature forces and causes them to create +havoc upon the Earth; while the striving for higher ideals makes them less +inimical to man. + + The forces in this stratum are thus, at any time, an exact reflection of +the existing moral status of mankind. From the occult point of view, the + + +[PAGE 507] CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH + +"hand of God" which smites a Sodom or a Gomorrah is not a foolish supersti- +tion, for as surely as there is individual responsibility to the law of Con- +sequence which brings to each person the just results of his deeds whether +for good or evil, so is there also community and national responsibility, +which brings upon groups of men corresponding results for their collective +acts. Nature forces are the general agents of such retributive justice, +causing flood, s or earthquakes, or the beneficent formation of oil or coal +for various groups, according to their deserts. + + (8) Atomistic Stratum: This is the name given by the Rosicrucians to +the eighth layer of the Earth, which is the expression of the World of Vir- +gin Spirits. It seems to have the property of multiplying many fold the +things in it; this applies, however, only to those things which have been +definitely formed. An unshapen piece of wood, or an unhewn stone has not +existence there, but upon anything which has been shaped, or has life and +form (such as a flower or a picture), this stratum has the effect of multi- +plication to an astonishing degree. + + (9) Material Expression of the Earth spirit: There are here lemniscate +currents, which are intimately connected with the brain, heart and sex or- +gans of the human race. It corresponds to the World of God. + + (l0) Center of Being of the Earth spirit: Nothing more can be said +about this at present except that it is the ultimate seed ground of all that +is in and on Earth, and corresponds to the Absolute. + + From the sixth or fiery stratum to the surface of the Earth are a number +of shafts in different places. The outer ends of these are called "volcanic +craters." When the Nature forces in the seventh stratum are unleashed so + + +[PAGE 508] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +that they can express themselves through a volcanic outburst, they set the +(sixth) fiery stratum in motion and the agitation spreads outward to the +mouth of the crater. The bulk of the material is taken from the substance +of the second stratum, for that is the denser counterpart of the sixth stra- +tum as the vital body, the second vehicle of man, is the denser counterpart +of the life Spirit, the sixth principle. This fluidic stratum, with its +expansive and highly explosive quality, insures an unlimited supply of mate- +rial at the point of eruption. The contact with the outer atmosphere hard- +ens that part of it which is not blown away into space, thus forming a lava +and dust, until, as the blood from a wound congeals and stanches the flow, +so the lava finally seals the aperture from the inner parts of the Earth. + + As might be gathered from the fact that it is the reflected immorality +and anit-spiritual tendencies of manking which arouse the Nature-forces in +the seventh stratum to destructive activity, it is generally profligate and +degenerate peoples who succumb to these catastrophes. They, together with +others whose destiny, self-generated under the law of consequence, for +various reasons, involves a violent death, are gathered from many lands by +the superhuman forces, to the point where the eruption is to occur. To the +thoughtful, the volcanic outbursts of Vesuvius, for instance, will afford +corroboration of this statement. + + A list of these outbursts during the last 2,000 years shows that their +frequency has been increasing with the growth of materialism. In the last +sixty years, especially, in the ratio that materialistic science has grown +arrogant in its absolute and sweeping denial of everything spiritual, have +the eruption increase in frequency. While there were but six eruptions in + + +[PAGE 509] CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH + + DIAGRAM l8: + + CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH + + +[PAGE 510] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +the first l,000 years after Christ, the last five have taken place within 5l +years, as will be shown. + + The first eruption during the Christian Era was that which destroyed the +cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, in which the elder Pliny perished, A. D. +79. The older eruptions followed in A. D. 203, 472, 5l2, 652, 982, l036, +ll58, l500, l63l, l737, l794, l822, l855, l872, l855, l89l, l906. + + In the first thousand years, there were six eruptions; in the second +thousand there have been twelve, the last five occurring in a period of 5l +years, as before stated. + + Of the entire number of l8 eruptions, the first nine occurred in the +so-called "dark ages," that is to say, the l600 years during which the West- +ern World was dominated by what are commonly termed the "heathen," or by the +Roman Church. The remainder have taken place in the last three hundred +years, during which the advent and rise of Modern Science, with its materi- +alizing tendencies, has driven almost the last vestige of spiritually to the +wall, particularly in the last half of the l9th Century. Therefore the +eruptions for that period comprise nearly one-third of the total number that +have taken place in our Era. + + To counteract this demoralizing influence, a great deal of occult infor- +mation has been given out during that time by the Elder Brothers of Wisdom, +who are ever working for the benefit of humanity. It is thought that by +giving out this knowledge and educating the few who will still receive it, +it may be possible to stem the tide of materialism, which otherwise may +bring about very serious consequences to its advocates who, having so long +denies the existence of the spiritual, may be unable to find their balance +when they discover that though still living, they have been deprived of the + + +[PAGE 511] CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH + +dense body. Such persons may meet a fate too sad to contemplate with equa- +nimity. One of the causes of the dread "white plague" is this materialism, +not traceable to the present incarnation perhaps, but the result of previous +materialistic beliefs and affirmations. + + We have spoken of the demise of the elder Pliny, at the time of the de- +struction of Pompeii. It is interesting to follow the fate of such a scien- +tist, not so much for the sake of that particular individual as for the +light it throws upon the manner in which the memory of Nature is read by the +occult scientist, how the impressions are made upon it, and the effect of +past traits upon present tendencies. + + When a man dies, his dense body disintegrates, but the sum total of its +forces can be found in the seventh or reflecting stratum of the Earth, which +may be said to constitute a reservoir in which, as forces, past forms are +stored. If, knowing the time of the death of a man, we search this reser- +voir, it is possible to find his form there. Not only is it stored in the +seventh stratum, but the eighth or atomistic stratum multiplies it, so that +nay one type may be reproduced and modified by others. Thus it is used over +and over again in the formation of other bodies. The brain-tendencies of +such a man as Pliny the elder may have been reproduced an thousand years af- +terwards, and have been partly the cause of the present crop of materialis- +tic scientists. + + There is still much for modern, material scientists to learn and to un- +learn. Though they fight to the last ditch what they sneeringly term the +"illusionary ideas" of the occult scientist, they are being compelled to ac- +knowledge their truth and accept them one by one, and it is only a matter of +time when they will have been compelled to accept them all. + + +[PAGE 512] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Mesmer, who was sent by the Elder Brother, was worse than ridiculed, but +which materialists had changed the name of the force discovered by him, +calling it "hypnotism" instead of "Mesmerism," it at once became "scien- +tific." + + Twenty years ago Madame Blavtsky, a faithful pupil of Eastern Masters, +said that the Earth had a third movement, in addition to the two producing +day and night and the seasons. She pointed out that the inclination of the +Earth's axis is caused by a movement which, in due time, brings the north +pole to where the equator is now and still later, to the place now occupied +by the sought pole. This, she said, was known to the ancient Egyptians, the +famous planisphere at Dendera showing that they had records of three such +revolutions. These statements, in common with the whole of her unexcelled +work, "The Secret Doctrine," were hooted at. + + A few years ago, an astronomer, Mr. G. E. Sutcliffe, of Bombay, discov- +ered and mathematically demonstrated that Laplace had made a mistake in his +calculations. The discovery and rectification of this error confirmed by +mathematical demonstration the existence of the third motion of the Earth, +as claimed by Madame Blavatsky. It also afforded an explanation of the +theretofore puzzling fact that tropical plants and fossils are found in the +polar regions, as such a movement would necessarily produce, in due time, +tropical and glacial periods on all parts of the Earth, corresponding to its +changed position in relation to the Sun. Mr. Sutcliffe sent his letter and +demonstration to NATURE, but that journal refused to publish them, and when +the author made public the discovery by means of a pamphlet, he drew upon +himself an appalling storm of vituperation. However, he is an avowed and a + + +[PAGE 513] CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH + +deep student of "The Secret Doctrine," and that explains the hostile recep- +tion according his discovery and its inevitable corollaries. + + Later, however, a Frenchman, not an astronomer, but a mechanician, con- +structed an apparatus demonstrating the ample possibility of the existence +of such a movement. The apparatus was exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase +Exhibition at Saint Louis, and was warmly endorsed by M. Camille Flammarion, +as worthy of investigation. Here was something concrete, something "me- +chanical," and the editor of THE MONIST, thought he described the inventor +as a man laboring somewhat under "mystic illusions" (because of his belief +that the ancient Egyptians knew of this third motion), nevertheless mag- +nanimously overlooked that feature of the case and said that he had not lost +faith in M. Beziau's theory on that account. He published an explanation +and an essay by M. Beziau, wherein the motion and its effects upon the sur- +face of the Earth were described in terms similar to those used by Madame +Blavatsky and Mr. Sutcliffe. M. Beziau is not definitely "billed" as an oc- +cultist, therefore his discovery may be countenanced. + + Many instances might be cited showing how occult information has been +corroborated later by material science. One of them is the atomistic +theory, which is advocated in the Greek philosophies and later in "The +Secret Doctrine." It was "discovered" in l897, by Professor Thomson. + + In Mr. A. P. Sinnett's valuable work, "The Growth of the Soul," published +in l896, the author stated that there are two planets beyond the orbit of +Neptune, only one of which, he thought, would be discovered by modern as- +tronomers. In NATURE for August, l906, the statement is made that Professor +Barnard, through the 36-inch Lick refractor, had discovered such a planet in + + +[PAGE 514] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +1892. There had been no mistake about it, yet he waited fourteen years be- +fore he announced his discovery! One need not be concerned about that, how- +ever. The main point is that the planet is there, and that Mr. Sinnett's +book said so ten years before Professor Barnard's claim to prior discovery. +Probably, previous to l906 the announcement of the newly discovered planet +might have tended to disarrange some popularly accepted theory! + + There are many such theories. The Copernican theory is not altogether +correct, and there are many facts that cannot be accounted for by the lauded +Nebular theory alone. Tycho Brahe, the famous Danish astronomer, +refused to accept the Copernican theory. He had a very good reason for re- +maining true to the Ptolemaic theory because, as he said, by it the move- +ments of the planets figured out correctly, while with the Copernican +theory, it is necessary to use a table of corrections. The Ptolemaic system +is correct from the standpoint of the Desire World, and it has points that +are needed in the Physical World. + + By many the statements made in the foregoing pages will be considered +fantastic. Be it so. Time will bring to all a knowledge of the facts +herein set forth. This book is only for the few who, having freed their +minds from the shackles of orthodox science and religion, are ready to ac- +cept this until they have proven it wrong. + + +[PAGE 515] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + + CHAPTER XIX + + CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUZ AND THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + + ANCIENT TRUTHS IN MODERN DRESS + + Having encountered among the public a widespread desire to learn some- +thing of the Order of Rosicrucians, and as there is a lack of understanding +of the important place occupied by the Brothers of the Rose Cross in our +Western civilization, even among our students, it may be well to furnish au- +thentic information upon the subject. + + Everything in the world is subject to law, even our evolution is thus en- +compassed; spiritual and physical progression go hand in hand. The sun is +the physical light bringer and, as we know, it apparently travels from east +to west bringing light and life to one part of the earth after another. But +the visible sun is only a part of the sun as the visible body is a small +part of composite man. There is an invisible and spiritual sun whose rays +promote soul growth upon one part of the earth after another as the physical +sun promotes the growth of form, and this spiritual impulse also travels in +the same direction as the physical sun; from east to west. + + Six or seven hundred year B.C., a new wave of spirituality was started +near the western shores of the Pacific Ocean to give enlightenment to the +Chinese nation and the religion of Confucius is embraced to this day by many +millions in the celestial kingdom. Later we note the effect of this wave in +the religion of Buddha, a teaching designed to stir the aspirations of + + +[PAGE 516] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +millions of Hindus and western Chinese. In its westward course it appears +among the more intellectual Greeks in the lofty philosophies of Pythagoras +and Plato, and at last it sweeps over the western world, among the pioneers +of the human race, where it takes the lofty form of the Christian religion. + + The Christian religion has gradually worked its way to the westward, even +to the shores of the Pacific Ocean and thither the spiritual aspirations are +being massed and concentrated. There they will reach a point of culmina- +tion, prior to taking a new leap across the ocean and inaugurating a higher +and more lofty spiritual awakening in the Orient than now exists in that +part of the earth. + + Just as day and night, summer and winter, ebb and flood, follow each +other in unbroken sequence according to the law of alternating cycles, so +also the appearance of a wave of spiritual awakening in any part of the +world is followed by a period of material reactions, so that our development +may not become onesided. + + Religion, Art and Science are the three most important means of human +education, and they are a trinity in unity which cannot be separated without +distorting our viewpoint of whatever we may investigate. TRUE RELIGION em- +bodies both science and art, for it teaches a beautiful life in harmony with +the laws of nature. + + TRUE SCIENCE is artistic and religious in the highest sense, for it +teaches us to reverence and conform to laws governing our well-being and ex- +plains why the religious life is conducive to health and beauty. + + TRUE ART is as educational as science and as uplifting in its influence +as religion. In architecture we have a most sublime presentation of cosmic +lines of force in the universe. It fills the spiritual beholder with a + + +[PAGE 517] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + +powerful devotion and adoration born of an awe-inspiring conception of the +overwhelming grandeur and majesty of Deity. Sculpture and painting, music +and literature inspire us with a sense of transcendent loveliness of God, +the immutable source and goal of all this beautiful world. + + Nothing short of such an all-embracing teaching will answer the needs of +humanity permanently. There was a time, even as late as Greece, when RELI- +GION, ART and SCIENCE were taught unitedly in Mystery temples. But it was +necessary to the better development of each that they should separate for a +time. + + RELIGION held sole sway in the so-called "dark ages." During that time +it bound both Science and Art hand and foot. Then came the period of Re- +naissance and ART came to the fore in all its branches. Religion was strong +as yet, however, and Art was only too often prostituted in the service of +Religion. Last came the wave of modern SCIENCE, and with iron hand it has +subjugated Religion. + + It was a detriment to the world when Religion shackled Science. IGNO- +RANCE and SUPERSTITION caused untold woe, nevertheless man cherished a lofty +spiritual ideal then; he hoped for a higher and better life. It is infi- +nitely more disastrous that Science is killing Religion, for now even HOPE, +the only gift of the gods left in Pandora's box, may vanish before MATERIAL- +ISM and AGNOSTICISM. + + Such a state cannot continue. Reaction must set in. If it does not, An- +archy will rend the Cosmos. To avert a calamity RELIGION, SCIENCE and ART +must reunite in a higher expression of the GOOD, the TRUE and the BEAUTIFUL +than obtained before the separation. + + Coming events cast their shadows before, and when the Great Leaders of +humanity saw the tendency towards ultramaterialism which is now rampant in + + +[PAGE 518] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +the Western World, they took certain steps to counteract and transmute it at +the auspicious time. They did not wish to kill the budding Science as the +latter has strangled Religion, for they saw the ultimate good which will re- +sult when an advanced Science has again become the co-worker of Religion. + + A spiritual Religion, however, cannot blend with a materialistic Science +any more than oil can mix with water. Therefore steps were taken to +spiritualize Science and make Religion scientific. + + In the thirteenth century a high spiritual teacher, having the symbolical +name Christian Rosenkreuz--Christian: Rose: Cross--appeared in Europe to +commence that work. He founded the mysterious Order of Rosicrucians with +the object of throwing occult light upon the misunderstood Christian Reli- +gion and to explain the mystery of Life and Being from the scientific stand- +point in harmony with Religion. + + Many centuries have rolled by since the birth, as Christian Rosenkreuz, +of the Founder of the Rosicrucian Mystery School, and by many his existence +is even regarded as a myth. But his birth as Christian Rosenkreuz marked +the beginning of a new epoch in spiritual life of the Western World. That +particular Ego has also been in continuous physical existence ever since, in +one or another of the European Countries. He has taken a new body when his +successive vehicles have outlived their usefulness, or circumstances ren- +dered it expedient that he changes the scene of his activities. Moreover, +he is embodied today--an Initiate of high degree, an active or potent factor +in all affairs of the West--although unknown to the World. + + Her labored with the Alchemists centuries before the advent of modern +science. He, through, an intermediary, inspired the now mutilated works of + + +[PAGE 519] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + +Bacon. Jacob Boehme and others received through him the inspiration which +makes their works so spiritually illuminating. In the works of the immortal +Goethe and the masterpieces of Wagner the same influence meets us. All un- +daunted spirits who refuse to be fettered by either orthodox science or or- +thodox religion, who fling away the husks and penetrate to the spiritual +kernel regardless of vilification or of flattery, draw their inspiration +from the same fountain as did and does the great spirit which animated +Christian Rosenkreuz. + + His very name is an embodiment of the manner and the means by which the +present day man is transformed into the Divine Superman. This symbol, + + "Christian Rosen Kreuz" + [The] Christian Rose Cross, + +shows the end and aim of human evolution, the road to be traveled, and the +means whereby that end is gained. The black cross, the twining green stem +of the plant, the thorns, the blood red roses--in these is hidden the solu- +tion of the World Mystery--Man's past evolution, present constitution, and +particularly the secret of his future development. + + It hides from the profane, but reveals to the Initiate the more clearly +how he is to labor day by day to make for himself that choicest of all gems, +the Philosopher's Stone--more precious than the Kohinoor; nay, than the sum +of all earthly wealth! It reminds him how mankind, in its ignorance, is +hourly wasting the actual concrete material that might be used in the forma- +tion of this priceless treasure. + + To keep him steadfast and true through every adversity, the Rose cross +holds aloft, as an inspiration, the glorious consummation in store for him + + +[PAGE 520] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +that overcometh, and points to Christ as the Star of Hope, the "first +fruits," Who wrought this marvelous Stone while inhabiting the body of +Jesus. + + Upon investigation it has been found that there was in all systems of Re- +ligion a teaching reserved for the Priest-craft and not given to the multi- +tude. The Christ also spoke to the multitude in parables, but explained the +inner meaning of these parables to the disciples, to give them an under- +standing more suited to their developed minds. + + Paul gave "milk" to the BABES or younger members of the community, but +"meat" to the STRONG who had studied more deeply. Thus there has always +been an INNER and an OUTER TEACHING, and this inner teaching was given in +so-called Mystery Schools which have changed from time to time to suit the +needs of the people among whom they were designed to work. + + The Order of Rosicrucians is not merely a secret society; it is one of +the Mystery Schools, and the Brothers are Hierophants of the lesser Myster- +ies, Custodians of the Sacred Teachings and a spiritual Power more potent in +the life of the Western World than any of the visible Governments, though +they may not interfere with humanity so as to deprive them of their free +will. + + As the path of development in all cases depends upon the temperament of +the aspirant, there are two paths, THE MYSTIC and THE INTELLECTUAL. The +Mystic is usually devoid of intellectual knowledge; he follows the dictates +of his heart and strives to do the will of God as he FEELS it, lifting him- +self upward without being conscious if any definite goal, and in the end he +attains knowledge. In the middle ages people were not as intellectual as we +are nowadays, and those who felt the call of a higher life usually followed +the mystic path. But in the last few hundred years, since the advent of + + +[PAGE 521] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + +modern science, a more INTELLECTUAL humanity has peopled the earth; the head +has completely overruled the heart, materialism has dominated all spiritual +impulse and the majority of the thinking people do not believe anything they +cannot touch, taste or handle. Therefore, it is necessary that appeal +should be made to their intellect in order that the heart may be allowed to +believe what the intellect has sanctioned. As a response to this demand the +Rosicrucian Mystery teachings aim to correlate scientific facts to spiritual +verities. + + In the past these have been kept secrete from all but a few Initiates, +and even today they are among the most mysterious and secret in the Western +World. All so-called "discoveries" of the past which have professed to re- +veal the Rosicrucian secrets, have been either fraudulent, or the result or +treachery upon the part of some outsider who may, accidentally or otherwise, +have overheard fragments of conversation, unintelligible to all but those +who have the key. It is possible to live under the same roof and on terms +of the closest intimacy with an Initiate of any school, yet his secret will +always remain hidden in his breast until the friend has reached the point +where he can become a Brother Initiate. The revealing of secrets does not +depend upon the Will of the Initiate, but upon the qualifications of the as- +pirant. + + Like all other Mystery Orders, the Order of Rosicrucians is formed on +cosmic lines: If we take balls of even size and try how many it will take +to cover one and hide it from view, we shall find that it will require 12 to +conceal a thirteenth ball. The ultimate division of physical matter, the +true atom, found in interplanetary space, is thus grouped in twelve around +one. The twelve signs of the Zodiac enveloping our Solar System, the twelve + + +[PAGE 522] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +semi-stones of the musical scale comprising the octave, the twelve Apostles +who clustered around the Christ, etc., are other examples of this grouping +of 12 and 1. The Rosicrucian Order is therefore also composed of 12 Broth- +ers and a 13th. + + There are other divisions to be noted, however. We have seen that of the +Heavenly Host of twelve Creative Hierarchies who were active in our scheme +of evolution, five have withdrawn to liberation, leaving only seven to busy +themselves with our further progress. It is in harmony with this fact that +the man of today, the indwelling Ego, the microcosm, works outwards through +seven visible orifices in his body: 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils and a mouth, +while five more orifices are wholly or partially closed. the mammae, the um- +bilicus and two excretory organs. + + The seven roses which garnish our beautiful emblem and the five pointed +radiating star behind, are emblematical of the twelve Great Creative Hierar- +chies which have assisted the evolving human spirit through the previous +conditions as mineral, plant and animal, when it was devoid of +self-consciousness and unable to care for itself in the slightest degree. +Of these twelve hosts of Great Beings, three classes worked upon and with +man of their own free wills and without any obligation whatever. + + These are symbolized by the three points in the star upon our emblem +which points upwards. Two more of the Great Hierarchies are upon the point +of withdrawal, and these are pictured in the two points of the star which +radiate downward from the center. The seven roses reveal the fact that +there are still seven Great Creative Hierarchies active in the development +of the beings upon earth, and as all of these various classes from the +smallest to the greatest are but parts of One Great Whole whom we call God, +the whole emblem is a symbol of God in manifestation. + + +[PAGE 523] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + + The Hermetic axiom says: "As above so below," and the lesser teachers of +mankind are also grouped upon the same cosmic lines of 7, 5 and 1. There +are upon earth seven schools of the lesser Mysteries, five of the Greater +Mysteries and the whole is grouped under one Central Head Who is called the +Liberator. + + In the Order of Rosicrucians seven Brothers go out into the World when- +ever occasion requires; appearing as men among other men or working in their +invisible vehicles with or upon others as needed; yet it must be strictly +kept in mind that they never influence people against their will or contrary +to their desires; but only strengthen good wherever found. + + The remaining five Brothers never leave the temple; and though they do +possess physical bodies all their work is done from the inner Worlds. + + The Thirteenth is Head of the Order, the link with a higher Central Coun- +cil composed of the Hierophant of the Greater Mysteries, who do not deal +with ordinary humanity at all, but only with graduates of the lesser Myster- +ies. + + The Head of the Order is hidden from the outside world by the twelve +Brothers, as the central ball mentioned in our illustration. Even the pu- +pils of the School never see him, but at the nightly Services in the Temple +His presence is FELT by all, whenever He enters, and is the signal for the +commencement of the ceremony. + + Gathered around the Brothers of the Rose Cross, as their pupils, are a +number of "lay brothers"; people who live in various parts of the Western +World, but are able to leave their bodies consciously, attend the services +and participate in the spiritual work at the temple; they having each and +every one been "initiated" in the method of so doing by one of the Elder +Brothers. Most of them are able to remember all that happens, but there are + + +[PAGE 524] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +a few cases where the faculty of leaving the body was acquired in a previous +life of well-doing and where a drug habit or a sickness contracted in the +present existence has unfitted the brain to receive impression of the work +done by the man when away. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 524 cont'd] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + INITIATION. + + The general idea of initiation is that it is merely a ceremony which +makes one member of a secret society; that it may be conferred upon anyone +willing to pay a certain price, a sum of money in most cases. + + While that is true of the so-called initiation of fraternal orders and +also in most pseudo-occult orders, it is altogether an erroneous idea when +applied to initiations into various degrees of truly occult Brotherhoods, as +a little understanding of the real requirements and of their reasonableness +will readily make clear. + + In the first place there is no golden key to the temple; merit counts but +not money. Merit is not acquired in a day; it is the cumulative product of +past good action. The Candidate for initiation is usually totally uncon- +scious that he is a candidate, he is usually living his life in the commu- +nity and serving his fellow man for days and years without any ulterior +thought until one day there appears in his life the teacher, a Hierophant of +the lesser Mysteries appropriate to the country in which he resides. By +this time the candidate has cultivated within himself certain faculties, +stored up certain powers for service and help, of which he is usually uncon- +scious or which he does not know how to properly utilize. The task of the +initiator will now be plain; he shows the candidate the latent faculties, +the dormant powers and initiates him into their use; explains or + + +[PAGE 525] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + +demonstrates to him FOR THE FIRST TIME how the candidate may awaken the +static energy into dynamic power. + + Initiation may be accomplished by a ceremony, or not, but let it be par- +ticularly observed, that while Initiation is the inevitable culmination of +prolonged spiritual endeavor, whether conscious or the reverse upon the part +of the candidate, it can positively never take place till the requisite in- +ner development has accumulated the latent powers which Initiation teaches +how to use dynamically, any more than pulling the trigger can cause an ex- +plosion in a gun that has not first been loaded. + + Neither is there any danger that the teacher may overlook anyone who has +attained the requisite development. Each good and unselfish deed increases +the luminosity and vibrant power of the candidate's aura enormously, and as +surely as the magnet attracts the needle, so will the brilliancy of that +auric light bring the teacher. + + It is, of course, impossible to describe in a book intended for the gen- +eral public the stages of the Rosicrucian Initiation; to do so would be a +breach of faith and it would also be impossible for lack of words to ad- +equately express oneself. But it is permissible to give an outline and to +show the purpose of initiation. + + The lesser Mysteries deal only with evolution of mankind during the Earth +Period. In the first three and one-half Revolutions of the life wave around +the seven globes the Virgin Spirits had not yet attained consciousness. In +consequence of this fact we are ignorant of how we came to be as we are to- +day. The candidate is to have light upon that subject so by the spell of +the Hierophants during the period of initiation into the first degree his +consciousness is turned towards that page of the memory of nature bearing +the records of the first revolution when we recapitulated the development of + + +[PAGE 526] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +the Saturn Period. He is still in full possession of his every-day con- +sciousness; he knows and remembers the facts of twentieth Century life, but +he is now consciously watching the progress of the evolving host of Virgin +Spirits of which he formed one unit during the Saturn Revolution. Thus he +learns how the first steps were taken in the Earth Period towards the goal +of attainment which will be revealed to him in a later step. + + Having learned the lesson as practically described in Chapter X, the can- +didate has acquired first-hand knowledge upon this subject and has come into +direct touch with the Creative Hierarchies in their work with and upon man; +he is therefore able to appreciate their beneficent labors in the World and +is in measure able to range himself in line with them; becoming thus far +their co-worker. + + When the time has arrived for him to take the second degree, he is +similarly caused to turn his attention to the conditions of the second +Revolution of the Earth Period, and as depicted in the memory of nature; +then he watches in full consciousness the progress made at that time by the +Virgin Spirits, much as Peter Ibbetson, the hero of a book. "Peter +Ibbetson," by George du Maurier; it is well worth reading, for it is a +graphic description of certain phases of subconsciousness--watched his child +life during the nights when he "dreamed true." In the third degree he fol- +lows the evolution of the third or Moon, Revolution, and in the fourth de- +gree he sees the progress made in the half-Revolution we have made of the +fourth. + + There is, however, a further step taken in each degree; the pupil sees in +addition to the work done in each revolution also the work accomplished in +the corresponding Epoch during our present stay upon globe D, the Earth. + + During the first degree he follows the work of the Saturn Revolution and + + +[PAGE 527] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + +its latest consummation in the Polarian Epoch. + + In the second degree he follows the work of the Sun Revolution and its +replica: the Hyperborean Epoch. + + During the third degree he watches the work as performed in the Moon +Revolution and sees how that was the basis of life in the Lemurian Epoch. + + During the fourth degree he sees the evolution of the last half Revolu- +tion with its corresponding period of time in our present stay on Earth; the +first half of the Atlantean Epoch which ended when the dense foggy atmo- +sphere subsided, and the sun first shone upon land and sea; then the night +of unconsciousness was over, the eyes of the indwelling Ego were fully +opened, and he was able to turn the Light of Reason upon the problem of con- +quering the World. That was the time when a man as we now know him was +first born. + + When in the olden system of initiation we hear that the candidate was en- +tranced for a period of three and one-half days, reference is had to the +part of initiation just described, and the three and one-half days refer to +the stages gone through, they are not by any means days of twenty-four +hours; the actual time varies with each candidate, but in all cases he is +taken through the unconsciousness development of mankind during the past +Revolutions, and when it is said that he is awakened at the time of sunrise +on the fourth day that is the mystical way of expressing that his initiation +into the work of the involuntionary career of man ceases at the time when +the sun rose above the clear atmosphere of Atlantis. Then the candidate is +also hailed as a "first-born." + + Having become familiar with the road we have traveled in the past, the +fifth degree takes the candidate to the very end of the Earth Period, when + + +[PAGE 528] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +a glorious humanity is gathering the fruits of this Period and taking it +away from the seven globes upon which we evolve during each day of manifes- +tation, into the first of the five dark globes which are our habitation dur- +ing the Cosmic nights. The densest of these is located in the Region of Ab- +stract Thought, and is in reality the "Chaos" spoken of on page 249 and the +following pages. This globe is also the Third Heaven, and when Paul speaks +of being caught up into the Third Heaven and of seeing things there which he +could not lawfully reveal, he was referring to the experiences of an +equivalent of this fifth degree in the present Rosicrucian Mysteries. + + After being shown the end in the fifth degree, the candidate is made ac- +quainted with the means whereby that end is attained during the remaining +thee and one-half Revolutions of the Earth Period; the four remaining de- +grees being devoted to his enlightenment in that respect. + + By the insight he has thus acquired he is able to intelligently +co-operate with the Powers that work for Good, and thus he will help to has- +ten the day of our emancipation. + + In order to rout a common misconception we wish to make clear to students +that we are not Rosicrucians because we study their teachings, nor does even +admission to the temple entitle us to call ourselves by that name. The +writer, for instance, is only a lay brother, a pupil, and would under no +circumstances call himself a Rosicrucian. + + We know well, that when a boy has graduated from grammar school he is not +therefore fitted to teach. He must first go through high school and col- +lege, and even then he may not feel the call to be a school teacher. +Similarly in the school of life, because a man has graduated from the +Rosicrucian Mystery School he is not even then a Rosicrucian. Graduates + + +[PAGE 529] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + +from the various schools of the lesser mysteries advance into five schools +of the greater mysteries. In the first four they pass the four Great Ini- +tiations and at last reach the Liberator, where they receive a knowledge +concerning other evolutions and are given the choice of remaining here to +assist their brothers or enter other evolutions as Helpers. Those who elect +to stay here as helpers are given various positions according to their +tastes and natural bent. The Brothers of the Rose Cross are among those +Compassionate Ones, and it is a sacrilege to drag the Rosicrucian name in +the mire by applying it to ourselves when we are merely students of their +lofty teachings. + + During the past few centuries the Brothers have worked for humanity in +secret; each night at midnight there is a Service at the temple where the +Elder Brothers, assisted by the lay brothers who are able to leave their +work in the World (for many of them reside in places where it is yet day +when it is midnight in the location of the temple of the Rose Cross), gather +up from everywhere in the Western World the thoughts of sensuality, greed +selfishness and materialism. These they seek to transmute into pure love, +benevolence, altruism and spiritual aspirations sending them back to the +World to uplift and encourage all Good. Were it not for this potent source +of spiritual vibration materialism must long ago have totally squelched all +spiritual effort, for there has never been a darker age from the spiritual +standpoint than the last three hundred years of materialism. + + Now the time has come, however, when the method of secret endeavor is to +be supplemented with a more direct effort to promulgate a definite, logical +and sequential teaching concerning the origin, evolution and future develop- +ment of the World and man, showing both the spiritual and the scientific + + +[PAGE 530] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +aspect: a teaching which makes no statements that are not supported by rea- +son and logic; a teaching which is satisfying to the mind, for it holds out +a reasonable solution to all mysteries; it neither begs nor evades questions +and its explanations are both profound and lucid. + + But, and this is a very important "But," THE ROSICRUCIANS DO NOT REGARD +AN INTELLECTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF GOD AND THE UNIVERSE AS AN END IN ITSELF; +far from it! The greater the intellect, the greater the danger of its mis- +use. Therefore, THIS SCIENTIFIC, LOGICAL AND EXHAUSTIVE TEACHING IS GIVEN +IN ORDER THAT MAN MAY BELIEVE IN HIS HEART THAT WHICH HIS HEAD HAS SANC- +TIONED AND START TO LIVE THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. + + THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + + In order to promulgate this teaching the Rosicrucian Fellowship has been +formed, and anyone who is not a HYPNOTIST, PROFESSIONAL MEDIUM, CLAIRVOYANT, +PALMIST OR ASTROLOGER, may enroll as a PRELIMINARY COURSE STUDENT by writing +to the General Secretary. There is no fee for Initiation, or dues. Money +cannot buy our teaching, advancement depends on merit. + + After completing the Preliminary Course one is put on the Regular Student +list for a period of two years, after which if he has become so imbued with +the verity of the Rosicrucian teachings that he is prepared to sever his +connection with all other occult or religious orders--THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES +AND FRATERNAL ORDERS ARE EXCEPTED--he may assume the Obligation which admits +him to the degree of PROBATIONER. + + We do not mean to insinuate by the foregoing clause that all other +schools of occultism are of no account--far from it--many roads lead to +Rome, but we shall attain with much less effort it we follow one of them + + +[PAGE 531] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + +than if we zigzag from path to path. Our time and energy are limited in the +first place, and are still further curtailed by family and social duties not +to be neglected for self-development. It is to husband the minim of energy +which we may legitimately expend upon ourselves, and to avoid waste of the +scanty moments at our disposal, that resignation from all other Orders is +insisted upon by the leaders. + + The world is an aggregate of opportunities, but to take advantage of any +one of them we must possess efficiency in a certain line of endeavor. De- +velopment of our spiritual powers will enable us to help or harm our weaker +brothers. It is only justifiable when efficiency in Service of Humanity is +the object. + + The Rosicrucian method of attainment differs from other system in one es- +pecial particular: It aims, even at the very start, to emancipate the pupil +from dependence upon others, to make him SELF-RELIANT in the very highest +degree, so that he may be able to stand alone under all circumstances and +cope with all conditions. Only one who is thus strongly poised can help the +weak. + + When a number of people meet in a class or circle for self-development +along NEGATIVE lines, result are usually achieved in a short time on the +principle that it is easier to drift with the tide than to breast the cur- +rent. The medium is not master of his actions, however, but the slave of a +spirit control. Hence such gatherings must be shunned by Probationers. + + Even classes which meet in positive attitude of mind are not advised by +the Elder Brothers, because the latent powers of all members are massed and +visions of the inner worlds obtained by anyone there, are partly due to the +faculties of others. The heat of coal in the center of a fire is enhanced +by surrounding coals, and the clairvoyant produced in a circle, be it ever + + +[PAGE 532] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +so positive, is a hot-house plant, too dependent himself to be trusted with +the care of others. + + Therefore each Probationer in the Rosicrucian Fellowship performs his ex- +ercises in the seclusion and privacy of his room. Results may be obtained +more slowly by the system, but when they appear, they will be manifest as +powers cultivated by himself, useable independently of all others. Besides, +the Rosicrucian methods build character at the same time that they develop +spiritual faculties and thus safeguard the pupil against yielding to tempta- +tion to prostitute divine powers for worldly prestige. + + When the Probationer has compiled with the necessary requirements and +completed the term of probation, he may send request for individual instruc- +tion by the Elder Brothers through the General Secretary. + + THE INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS OF THE + ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + + Having formed the Rosicrucian Fellowship for the purpose of promulgating +the teaching given in this book, and aiding aspirants on the path of pro- +gression, it became necessary to find a permanent home and facilities requi- +site for doing this work. To this end a tract of land was purchased in the +town of Oceanside, Cal., ninety miles south of Los Angeles and forty miles +north of San Diego, the southwesternmost city of the United States. + + This tract occupies a commanding site having a most wonderful view of the +great Pacific Ocean to the west and the beautiful snow capped mountains in +the east. + + Southern California offers exceptional opportunities for spiritual +growth, because of the ether atmosphere being denser than in any other part +of the world and MOUNT ECCLESIA, as the Earth Fellowship Headquarters are +called, is particularly favored in this respect. + + +[PAGE 533] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + + OUR BUILDINGS + + The work at Headquarters was begun toward the end of 1911. To date +(1973) numerous buildings have been erected, some of which now no longer ex- +ist. The Pro-Ecclesia, or Chapel, in which two 15-minute services have been +held daily since its dedication in December, 1913, was thoroughly renovated +in 1962. A devotional service with lecture continues to be conducted on +Sundays. A two-story Administration Building was completed in 1917, and +renovated in 1962. On the second floor are offices for the various depart- +ments: Esoteric, Correspondence Courses, Editorial, Foreign Languages, and +Accounting. On the first floor are the Shipping Department and the +printshop, where Lessons, RAYS, pamphlets, etc., are printed. An offset +press was installed in 1972. + + The Dining Hall was built in 1914, added to in the late 30's, and +renovated in 1962. Vegetarian meals are served. The Healing Temple, where +a healing service is conducted each evening, was completed in 1920. Rose +Cross Lodge was built in 1924, for the use of guests and workers. It is now +used largely for storing books. The Sanitarium Building was opened in 1939 +and used for a number of years to treat patients suffering from +non-contagious diseases. It is now our Guest House, used by workers and +members. Numerous cottages built since 1962, and some renovated ones pro- +vide living quarters for workers. The Healing Dept. Building was erected in +1940. Here secretaries conduct our healing work. + + THE CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL + + In addition to publications of The Rosicrucian Fellowship noted in the +back of this book there are three correspondence courses offered on the +freewill basis: Rosicrucian Philosophy, Bible Interpretation, and Astrol- +ogy. Information concerning these is furnished upon request. + + +[PAGE 534] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + + THE SYMBOLISM OF THE ROSE CROSS + + When inquiring into the meaning of any myth, legend or symbol of occult +value, it is an absolute necessity that we should understand that, as any +object in the three-dimensional world may, or rather must, be viewed from +all points to obtain a full and complete comprehension thereof, so all sym- +bols have a number of aspects. Each viewpoint reveals a different phase +from the others, and all have an equal claim to consideration. + + Viewed in its fullness, this wonderful symbol contains the key to man's +past evolution, his present constitution and future development, together +with the method of attainment. In the form where it is represented with a +single rose in the center it symbolizes the spirit radiating from itself the +four vehicles: the dense, vital and desire bodies plus the mind; where the +spirit has drawn INTO its instruments and become the INDWELLING human +spirit. But there was a time when that condition did not obtain, a time +when the three-fold spirit hovered above its vehicles and was unable to en- +ter. Then the cross stood alone without the rose, symbolizing the condition +which prevailed in the early third of Atlantis. There was even a time when +the upper limb of the cross was lacking and man's constitution was repre- +sented by the Tau (T) that was in the Lemurian epoch when he had only the + + +[PAGE 535] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + +dense, vital and desire bodies, but lacked the mind. Then the animal nature +was paramount. Man followed desire without reserve. At a still earlier +time, in the Hyperborean Epoch, he was also minus the desire body and pos- +sessed only the dense and vital bodies. Then man-in-the-making was like the +plants: chaste and devoid of desire. At that time his constitution could +not have been represented by a cross. It was symbolized by a straight +shaft, a pillar (I). + + This symbol has been considered phallic, an emblem showing the licen- +tiousness of the people who worshiped it. Truly it is a symbol of gen- +eration, but generation is by no means synonymous with degradation--far from +it--the pillar is the lower limb of the cross, symbolical of +man-in-the-making when he was plantlike. The plant is unconscious of pas- +sion, desire, innocent of evil. It generates and perpetuates its species in +a manner so pure, so chaste, that properly understood, it is a model for +fallen and passionate humanity to worship as an ideal and it was given to +earlier races with that intent. The Phallus and Yona used in the Greek mys- +tery temples were given by the hierophants in that spirit, and over the +temple was placed the enigmatical words: "Man, know thyself," which motto, +properly understood, is similar to that of the Rose Cross, for it shows the +reason for man's fall into desire, passion and sin, and gives the key to his +liberation in the same way that the roses upon the cross indicate the path +of liberation. + + The plant is innocent, BUT NOT VIRTUOUS; it has neither desire not +choice. Man has both. He may follow desire or not as he wishes, that he +may learn to master himself. + + While he was plant-like, a hermaphrodite, he could generate FROM HIMSELF +without the help of another, but though he was as chaste and as innocent as +the plants, he was also as unconscious and inert. In order to advance he + + +[PAGE 536] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +must have desire to spur him on, and a mind to guide him, and therefore half +his creative force was retained for the purpose of building a brain and a +larynx. He had at that time a round shape similar to that of the embryo, +and the present larynx was a part of the creative organ which adhered to the +head when the body straightened out. The connection between the two is seen +even today in the fact that the boy, who expresses the positive pole of the +generative force, changes his voice at puberty. That the same force which +builds another body when it is sent OUTWARDS builds the brain when RETAINED +is equally clear when we consider that sex mania leads to insanity, while +the profound thinker will feel little inclination for amorous practices. He +uses all his creative force to generate thought instead of wasting it in +sense gratification. + + At the time when man commenced to withhold half his creative force for +the above mentioned purpose, his consciousness was directed INWARDS to build +organs. He was capable of SEEING these organs and he used the same creative +force then under the direction of Creative Hierarchies in planning and in +executing plans of organs, that he now uses in the OUTER world to build air- +ships, houses, automobiles, telephones, etc. Then he was unconscious of how +that half of the creative force was used which was sent OUTWARDS for gen- +eration of another body. + + Generation was carried on under the guidance of Angels. At certain times +of the year they herded the growing man together in great temples and there +the generative act was performed. Man was unconscious of the fact. His +eyes had not yet been opened, and though it was necessary for him to have a +partner who had the half or other pole of the creative force available for + + +[PAGE 537] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + +generation which he retained to build organs within, he did not at first +KNOW his wife. In ordinary life he was shut within himself so far as the +Physical World was concerned, but it was different when he was brought into +such intimate and close touch with another, as in the case of the generative +act. Then for the moment the spirit pierced the veil of flesh and Adam KNEW +his wife. He had ceased to KNOW HIMSELF--thus his consciousness became more +and more and more centered outside himself in the OUTSIDE WORLD and he lost +his INNER PERCEPTION. That cannot be fully regained until he has passed to +the stage where it is no longer necessary to have a partner in generation, +and he has reached the development where he can again utilize his WHOLE cre- +ative force at will. Then he will again KNOW HIMSELF ad he did during his +stage of plant-like existence, but with this all important difference that +he will use his creative faculty consciously, and will not be restricted to +using it solely for the pro-creation of his own species, but may create +whatever he will. Neither will he use his present organs of generation, but +the larynx will SPEAK the creative WORD as directed by the spirit through +the co-ordinating mechanism of the brain. Thus the two organs built by half +the creative force will in time be the means whereby man will eventually be- +come an independent self-conscious creator. + + Even at the present time man molds matter both by thought and voice, as +instanced in scientific experiments where thoughts have created an image on +photographic plates, and where the human voice has created geometrical fig- +ures in sand, etc. In proportion as man becomes unselfish he will release +the creative force held in leash. That will give him added thought power +and enable him to utilize it for upliftment of others instead of to plant +how to degrade and subject others to his will. He will learn how to master +HIMSELF and cease to try to master others, except it be done temporarily FOR + + +[PAGE 538] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +THEIR GOOD, but never for selfish ends. Only one who has mastered himself +is qualified to rule others, and competent to judge when that should be +done, and what is best for them. + + Thus we see that in time the present passionate mode of generation will +be again superseded by a pure and more efficient method than the present, +and that also is symbolized in the Rose Cross where the rose is placed in +the center between the four arms. The long limb represents the body, the +two horizontals, the two arms, and the short upper limb, the head. THE ROSE +IS IN PLACE OF THE LARNYX. + + The rose, like any other flower, is the generative organ of the plant. +Its green stem carries the colorless, passionless plant blood. The blood +red rose shows the passion filled blood of the human race, but in the rose +the vital fluid is not sensuous, it is chaste and pure. Thus it is an ex- +cellent symbol of the generative organ in the pure and holy state to which +man will attain when he has cleansed and purified his blood from desire, +when he has become chaste, pure and Christ-like. + + Therefore the Rosicrucians look ardently forward to the day when the +roses shall bloom upon the cross of humanity, therefore the Elder Brothers +greet the aspiring soul with the words of the Rosicrucian Greeting: "May +the Roses bloom upon your Cross," and therefore the greeting is given in the +meetings of the Fellowship Centers by the leader to the assembled students, +probationers and disciples who respond to the greeting by saying "And on +yours, also." + + John speaks of his purification (1st epistle, iii, 9) and says that he +who is born of God cannot sin, FOR HE KEEPETH HIS SEED WITHIN HIM. It is an +absolute necessity to progress that the aspirant should be chaste. Yet it + + +[PAGE 539] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + +must be borne in mind, that absolute celibacy is not required of man until +he has reached a point where he is ready for the great initiations, and that +is a duty we owe to the whole to perpetuate the race. If we are mentally, +morally, physically and financially able, we may approach the act of gen- +eration as a holy sacrifice laid upon the altar of humanity, but not for +sensual pleasure. Neither should it be performed in an austere, forbidding +frame of mind, but in glad giving up of oneself for the privilege of fur- +nishing a friend seeking rebirth with the body and environment he needs for +development. Thus we shall also help him cultivate the blooming roses upon +his cross. + + + + TOPICAL INDEX + + ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WORDS INDEXED + + The Topical Index is arranged with particular view to facilitate topical +study, but at the same time alphabetical order has been adhered to as nearly +as possible. We add an alphabetical list of the words indexed. + + Opposite each word in this list will be found a number, which refers to a +page in the Index. On that page the word is grouped with others pertaining +to the same topic. + + The student is particularly requested to note the CONSECUTIVE arrangement +of references. For instance, under the heading, "VITAL BODY," the first +reference tells where that vehicle had its first inception, the last directs +to a page which treats of its final spiritualization, and the intervening +references point IN ORDERLY SUCCESSION to the places where its gradual +unfoldment is described. These references, in themselves, form an excellent +syllabus of the vital body. + + By diligent and intelligent use of this index the Rosicrucian +Cosmo-Conception will be found a most complete and exhaustive reference li- +brary, and we recommend students to STUDY THE INDEX as much as the book. + + +[PAGE 540] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +The mere reading of references will often clear comprehension of a subject +and reveal much that is hidden in a general reading of the book. + + + Page + A Page Contemplation..............568 + Adaptability.................543 Concentration..............567 + Adept .......................543 D + Adoration....................568 Death......................564 + Akkadian Race................596 Decay......................565 + Animals..................543-553 Desire.....................554 + Anaesthetics.................544 Dense Body.................558 + Angels...................551-553 Desire Body................572 + Archangels...............551-553 Desire World...............590 + Archetypes...................544 Destiny....................555 + Aryan Epoch..................597 Digestion..................562 + Atlantean Epoch..............596 Disease....................554 + Attraction...................590 Discrimination.............567 + Atoms .......................544 Doctrines Christian........546 + Assimilation.................562 Drowning...................554 + Astrology....................544 Dreams.....................554 + B Drunkard...................554 + Bible Texts..................544 Divine Spirit..............576 + Birth .......................564 E + Blood .......................559 Ear........................559 + Brain .......................561 Earth......................583 + Brotherhood..................546 Earth Period...............592 + Borderland...................566 Ego........................575 + C Elements...................554 + Celibacy.....................577 Elementals.................554 + Christian Doctrines..........546 Epochs.....................594 + Christ.......................548 Epigenesis.................569 + Cherubim.....................550 Equinox, Precession........579 + Chemical Ether...............589 Excretion..................562 + Chosen People............596-597 Exercises..................567 + Children.....................557 Ether..................589-590 + Clairvoyance.................568 Evil.......................554 + Causation, Law of............569 Evolution..................568 + Color .......................548 Eye........................559 + Conscience...................546 F + Consciousness................547 Faith......................554 + Conception...................564 Feeling....................554 + Creator......................546 Fertilization..............555 + Cremation....................565 Food.......................555 + Crime .......................548 Free-will..................555 + Cross .......................548 Form.......................556 + Creative Hierarchies.........548 Forgiveness of Sin.........555 + Cosmic Night or Chaos........594 Forces.....................555 + Father, the................548 + + +[PAGE 541] LIST OF WORDS INDEXED + + Page Page + G Life Spirit................576 + Genius..................556 Life Waves.................553 + Glands..................560 Light Ether................590 + God.....................548 Liver......................560 + Good....................556 Lords of Flame.............549 + Group Spirit............552 Lords of Form..............550 + H Lords of Individuality.....550 + Haemolysis..............559 Lords of Mind..........551-553 + Heart...................560 Lords of Wisdom............550 + Heaven..................566 Lucifer....................551 + Heredity................570 Lungs......................560 + Hierarchies, Creative...548 M + Holy Spirit.............549 Man (invisible)............570 + Humanity................557 Man (visible)..............557 + Human Organism..........558 Marriage...................576 + Human Spirit............576 Mars.......................583 + Hyperborean Epoch.......595 Materialism................577 + Hypnotism...............556 Materialization............577 + I Mathematics................577 + Ideas...................566 Matter.....................585 + Illustrations...........585 Meditation.................567 + Imagination.............566 Mediums....................577 + Immortality.............566 Memory.....................577 + Indifference............590 Memory of Nature...........578 + Individuality...........566 Menstruation...............578 + Information.............566 Mercury....................583 + Initiation..............567 Microbes...................578 + Innocence...............566 Mind.......................574 + Instinct................566 Mind, Lords of ........551-553 + Interest................590 Mineral....................578 + Intuition...............566 Missionary.................578 + Interest................590 Mongolians.................596 + Information.............566 Moons......................582 + Initiation..............567 Moon Period................592 + Innocence...............566 Muscles....................560 + Instinct................567 Music......................578 + Mystery Schools............567 + K N + Kingdoms................569 N Rays.....................578 + Knowledge...............569 Nebular Theory.............578 + L Neptune....................583 + Lamentations............569 Nerves.....................561 + Larynx..................561 New Jerusalem..............579 + Law of Causation........569 New Life Waves.............552 + Law of Rebirth..........570 O + Lemurian Epoch..........595 Observation................567 + Life Ether..............589 Organism human.............558 + Life....................563 Original Semitic...........596 + + +[PAGE 542] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page Page + Original Turanian.......596 Solar System...............581 + Osmosis.................579 Son, the...................548 + P Soul.......................584 + Pain....................579 Sound......................584 + Panorama of Life........565 Space......................585 + Patriotism..............579 Spirit.....................585 + Periods, the seven......591 Spirit (Group).............552 + Philosopher's Stone.....579 Spirit (Holy)..............549 + Physical World..........589 Spirit (Human).............576 + Pilgrimage through mat- Spirit (7 before Throne)...548 + ter...................579 Spleen.....................560 + Pineal Gland............560 Stone, Philosopher's.......579 + Pituitary Body..........560 Stones.....................584 + Planets.................582 Stragglers.................552 + Plants..............553-579 Suicide....................565 + Poems...................580 Sun........................582 + Polarian Epoch..........594 Sun Period.................591 + Prayer..................579 Supreme Being..............548 + Precession of Equinox...579 T + Purgatory...............565 Tears......................578 + R Temperament................587 + Races...................596 Temptation.................587 + Race Spirits........551-553 Thought....................587 + Reason..................580 Thymus Gland...............560 + Rebirth, Law of.........570 Tlavatli Race..............596 + Recapitulation..........594 Toltec Race................596 + Recording Angels........580 Trance.....................587 + Reflecting Ether........590 Trinity....................548 + Regions.............589-591 Turanian Race..............596 + Religion................580 V + Remorse.................554 Venus......................583 + Repulsion...............590 Venus Period...............593 + Retrospection...........567 Vesuvius...................588 + Revolutions.............594 Virgin Spirits.........551-553 + Ribs....................562 Virtue.....................588 + Rmoahal Race............596 Vital Body.................570 + Rosicrucians............581 Vitality...................588 + S Vulcan Period..............594 + Salvation...............581 W + Saturn Period...........591 War........................588 + Seed atom...............562 Will.......................588 + Sense Perception........581 Wisdom.....................588 + Seraphim................550 Women......................557 + Sex.....................561 Word.......................588 + Silver Cord.............565 World Periods..............591 + Sin, Forgiveness of.....555 Worlds.....................589 + Skepticism..............554 World Soul.................588 + Skeleton................562 + Sleep...................581 + + + + +[PAGE 543] INDEX + + Page + INDEX + +ADAPTABILITY; of supreme importance.....................................223 +ADEPT; One who has passed the 9 degrees of the lesser Mysteries and + the first of the Great Initiations...........................475,502 +ANIMALS. + Animals started evolution in the Sun Period , become human in the + Jupiter Period................................................70,224 + Why some have cold and others warm blood..............................37 + Why their color often changes with the seasons........................37 + Animals compared with man.............................................57 + Why animals do not really think....................................59,70 + Desirebody of cold and warm-blooded animals differently + constituted....................................................68,69 + The present animals are more developed than we were during + our animal stage..................................................69 + How animals think though lacking mind.................................70 + Animal group spirit located in Desireworld............................77 + Why desire and vital bodies of animals are not concentric with + dense body........................................................77 + Animal prodigies..................................................77,293 + Why animals are clairvoyant...........................................77 + Relation of groupspirit to animals illustrated.....................78,82 + When hurt animals do not suffer as much as group spirit...............78 + What instinct really is...............................................78 + Groupspirit governs the animals by suggestion.....................83,350 + Horizontal limb of cross symbolizes animal kingdom....................86 + Bereft of vial body at death.........................................100 + Archangels work in animals' desirebodies.............................222 + Angels work in their vital bodies....................................222 + Anthropoids belong to human lifewave.............................230,281 + The missing link.....................................................341 + Lemurian's Word gave him power over animals......................275,281 + Horse's head and vital body not concentric...........................293 + + +[PAGE 544] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Haemolysis; the destruction of blood corpuscles......................356 + Why hybrids cannot mate..............................................357 + Groupspirit withholds seed atom from eggs pending favorable + conditions.......................................................461 +ANAESTHETICS; their effect on the vital body.............................62 +ASTROLOGY; spiritually based in the Law of Causation....................161 +ATOMS; How vital body accelerates their vibratory rate...................61 +ARCHETYPES. + Not merely models, but living things..................................49 + Archetype of suicide's body persists after death and + causes him suffering.............................................104 +BIBLE TEXTS AND TEACHINGS. + Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom, etc.......................5,223 + The truth shall make you free.........................................23 + In whom we live and move and have our being.......................87,179 + Whatsoever a man soweth that also shall he reap......................106 + Falling of the walls of Jericho......................................122 + Misunderstanding concerning the plan of salvation................151,223 + Changing water to wine...............................................169 + Him that overcometh will I make a pillar, etc........................158 + Christ said of the Baptist: This is Elijah..........................169 + Who did sin, this man or his parents?................................170 + Know ye not that ye are gods?........................................171 + The Seven Spirits before the Throne..............................180,252 + The Word made flesh..................................................181 + Their eyes were opened and they saw they were naked..................190 + Everlasting Salvation and Damnation..............................224,229 + I die daily (Paul)...................................................249 + Adam KNEW Eve and she bore Seth......................................277 + The tree of KNOWLEDGE................................................278 + The tree of Life.....................................................363 + How shall I conceive, I KNOW not a man (Mary)........................278 + Why the Angel said: In pain shalt thou bear children................278 + Why foreign missions are a mistake...................................308 + The sons of God married the daughters of men.....................310,335 + Location of the promised land....................................310,335 + The "lost" tribes................................................310,335 + Chosen people--past and future...........................298,305,311,334 + A new heaven and a new earth.........................................313 + + +[PAGE 545] INDEX + + Page + How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation...............315 + Translation of the Bible discussed...................................317 + Bible not intended as an "open book".............................319,322 + Paul asserts allegorical signification of Bible, he and + Christ gave deeper teachings to a few............................320 + The Greek Septuagint; the Talmud and the transcription + of the Masoretes.................................................320 + A fallacious standard of Truth.......................................321 + Two renderings of the opening sentence in Genesis and + how each complements the other...................................321 + According to the Bible the Earth was formed from the + "EVEREXISTING ESSENCE", not from "NOTHING".......................322 + Nebular theory proves Gods creative and sustaining + energy.......................................................129,323 + The dual Creative force..............................................324 + The 7 Creative Hierarchies...........................................325 + Why Genesis does not mention Cherubim and Seraphim...................326 + THE SATURN PERIOD....................................................327 + THE SUN PERIOD; how it is scientifically possible to have + light ere sun and moon were created..............................328 + THE MOON PERIOD; its atmosphere of "firefog".........................328 + THE EARTH PERIOD and Recapitulations.................................329 + THE POLARIAN EPOCH; the HYPERBOREAN EPOCH............................330 + The Creation of the Sun..............................................330 + Expelling the Moon from the Earth....................................331 + THE LEMURIAN EPOCH...................................................331 + "FORM" not "LIFE", created...........................................332 + ATLANTEAN EPOCH; "nephesh" an important word.........................332 + ARYAN EPOCH; the Elohim rest and man's work begins...................333 + Jehovah, leader of Angels and Regent of the Moon.....................333 + Jehovah is builder of "FORM"; giver of children......................334 + The wilderness; the rebel Jews.......................................335 + Involution, Evolution and Epigenesis.................................336 + How the two Creation stories of Bible harmonize......................344 + Jehovah blew NEPHESH: BREATH into Adam's nostrils and + Adam became nephesh chayim: BREATHING creature...................345 + Occult effect of this inbreathing................................348,350 + The SOUL (not merely the "LIFE") of all flesh is in the + blood............................................................349 + + +[PAGE 546] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + The seed of Abraham..................................................351 + Before Abraham was I am..............................................352 + How and why the Lucifer Spirits spoke to woman.......................361 + Atonement of Christ and Forgiveness of sins complement + the Laws of Causation........................................373,401 + Jesus, Christ, the only begotten, not one but three..................374 + On earth peace: good will among men..................................387 + I came not to bring peace, but a sword...............................383 + An eye for an eye....................................................384 + Return good for evil.................................................393 + As a man thinketh in his heart.......................................398 + Why Christ's mission required a violent ending...................406,408 + The Cleansing Blood (chapter)........................................406 + Darkness and rending of the temple veil..............................407 +BROTHERHOOD. + Atlanteans evolved CUNNING, we Aryans are evolving REASON, in + future New Galileans will cultivate LOVE.........................311 + One groupspirit controlled humanity during the earliest epochs.......348 + That was composed of all the Creative Hierarchies....................351 + Jehovah segregated humanity into nations and races...................352 + Christ came to reunite them into a Brotherhood.......................352 + Why Christ is the only Being who can do that.........................380 +CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES. + The Creation.........................................................317 + The Fall.....................................................277,278,361 + Salvation and Damnation..........................................224,229 + The Immaculate Conception........................................378,390 + The Atonement........................................................400 + The Cleansing Blood..................................................406 + Forgiveness of Sin............................................91,111,373 + The Trinity...................................................87,229,253 +CONSCIENCE. + Conscience is the fruitage of previous purgatorial existences........120 + How conscience battles with desire....................................89 +CREATOR. + Nebular theory predicates a creator..................................323 + Creator of Universe a logical necessity..............................129 + + +[PAGE 545] INDEX + + Page + How we learn to become Creators..................................128,338 + Man's desire to create caused the Fall...............................361 +CONSCIOUSNESS. + Consciousness of the four Kingdoms, with diagram...................73,74 + Consciousness of animals described....................................83 + Effect of the skeleton on consciousness..............................456 + Consciousness of minerals and plants described........................85 + How soul-growth enlarges the consciousness............................96 + Evolution of consciousness, Ariadne's thread through maze of + "Worlds," "Periods," "Globes," etc...............................201 + Why Pythagoras made knowledge of mathematics a prerequisite + to occult teaching...............................................203 + Vehicles and consciousness of man in Saturn Period like those + of present mineral...............................................212 + Vehicles and consciousness plantlike in Sun Period...................213 + Vehicles and consciousness of man like the lower Animals during + the the Moon Period..............................................217 + Tabular description of consciousness in past and future Periods......421 + Our present consciousness results from the war between the desire + body and the vital body..........................................455 + Involution: from divine All-consciousness to human SELF- + consciousness.................................................80,216 + POLARIAN EPOCH: trance consciousness like Saturn, HYPERBOREAN + EPOCH deep sleep like in Sun Period..............................263 + Torture used in LEMURIA to waken consciousness to a dreamy state.....279 + Our present waking consciousness dates from middle of + ATLANTIS when "mist" cleared.....................................300 + How marriage in the family produced the tie of blood by + generating common consciousness..............................354,397 + How intertribal marriage has destroyed "second sight" or + clairvoyance.....................................................355 + Internal and external skeleton as factors in consciousness...........456 + The four causes of our materialistic ideas...........................359 + How sin and its consequent pain has awakened and is sharpening + our consciousness................................................362 + How our consciousness will be expanded...............................417 + The Consciousness of the JUPITER PERIOD..............................418 + + +[PAGE 548] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + The Consciousness of the VENUS PERIOD................................419 + The Consciousness of the VULCAN PERIOD...............................421 +COLOR. + Illustrative of the "Trinity"........................................253 + Why changeable in animals at different seasons........................37 +CRIME; crimes we ignorantly commit against the dying....................101 +CROSS. + The cross is symbolical of the life currents vitalizing the + bodies of plant, animal and man...................................85 + Cross symbolical of man's past evolution, present constitution + and future development...........................................516 + + CREATIVE HIERARCHIES AND OTHER LIFE WAVES. + +THE SUPREME BEING. + The Supreme Being is the architect of the whole Universe; vastly + exalted above our solar God......................................179 + The Supreme Being images the Universe prior to creation and + dissolves it when it has served its purpose......................375 + The WORD made flesh..................................................181 +GOD. + God is the Creator and sustainer of solar system.....................179 + The logical necessity of a creator and sustainer of the worlds...129,323 + God is an expression of the positive pole of the Universal + Spirit (matter is negative pole).................................185 + God is a composite Being.........................................183,253 + The Sun is the visible symbol of God.................................181 + THE FATHER is highest Initiate of Saturn Period......................376 + THE SON: CHRIST, is highest Initiate of Sun Period...................376 + THE HOLY SPIRIT (JEHOVAH) is highest Initiate of Moon Period.........376 + Purpose of the Jehovistic Race religions.....................352,433,435 + Purpose of the Christian religion............................352,433,435 + Purpose of the coming religion of the Father.........................435 +THE SEVEN SPIRITS BEFORE THE THRONE. + Collectively they are God..........................................252-3 + Individually they are Regents of the planets.........................180 +CHRIST + Christ is highest Initiate of Sun Period.............................376 + + +[PAGE 549] INDEX + + Page + The Christ became Regent of Earth at Golgotha........................407 + The Immaculate Conception............................................378 + Why Christ used the dense and vital body of Jesus............128,378,380 + Why Christ is unique among Beings, celestial or terrestrial + and alone able to reunite mankind............................380,382 + Jesus' body attuned to Christ vibrations.............................382 + Atonement does not vitiate the law of Causation; nor does + doctrine of remission of sins................................373,401 + Salvation illustrated................................................402 + Why Christ said "not peace but a sword"..............................389 + Why the death of Christ was violent..................................405 + The wounds of Christ, of esoteric significance.......................406 + How the sin of the world was taken away..............................408 + The purpose of the Christian Religion............................433,435 + Jehovah segregated mankind into nations and races. + Christ will reunite them in Brotherhood..........................352 + The special mission of Christ....................................401,405 +JEHOVAH (HOLY SPIRIT). + Prior to Jehovah's regime a common groupspirit ruled mankind.........351 + Jehovah is highest Initiate of the Moon Period.......................376 + He is leader of Angels and Regent of all moons, ours included........333 + Why some Archangels (who are sun spirits) help Jehovah, + the lunar God....................................................404 + Jehovah built hard bony structures in early Lemuria..................346 + He blew in the breath: NEPHESH, and men became NEPHESH CHAYIM: + breathing creatures..............................................345 + He separated the sexes...............................................347 + Jehovah and the Archangels divided mankind into nations and + and races, appointing a Guardian Angel for each Ego..........347,352 + Jehovah and Archangels work in desirebody by "Law," + fear of God is pitted against desire of flesh....................395 + Purpose of the Jehovistic Race religions.........................433,435 + Why Race religions are insufficient to meet human needs..............383 +LORDS OF FLAME. + Are brilliantly luminious; called "THRONES" in Bible.................206 + + +[PAGE 550] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + They gave germ of DENSE BODY and awakened DIVINE SPIRIT of + man-in-the-making................................................207 + Lords of Flame aided Virgin Spirits to penetrate first veil + of matter........................................................216 + They helped Lords of Wisdom reconstruct dense body...................211 + Lords of Flame help link divine spirit and life spirit...............212 + They helped Lords of Individuality link divine spirit and + human spirit.....................................................216 + Lords of Flame, CHERUBIM and SERAPHIM leave our system...............220 +CHERUBIM. + Awaken LIFE SPIRIT of man-in-the-making..............................212 + Aid spirit penetrate second veil of matter...........................216 + Cheribum helps Lords of Individuality link human spirit to + life spirit......................................................215 + LORDS OF FLAME, CHERUBIM and SERAPHIM leave our evolution............220 + Why Cheribum and Seraphim are not mentioned in the Creation + story of Bible...................................................326 +SERAPHIM. + Awaken HUMAN SPIRIT (the Ego) in man-in-the-making...................215 + They leave our evolution.............................................326 +LORDS OF WISDOM. + They had charge of material evolution in Sun Period, + they helped LORDS OF FLAME reconstruct dense body................211 + They gave germ of VITAL BODY to man-in-the-making....................211 + They helped Lords of Flame link divine spirit to life spirit.........214 + LORDS OF INDIVIDUALITY help Lords of Wisdom reconstruct + dense body, giving germ of skeleton, muscle......................214 + Lords of Wisdom now in charge of divine spirit.......................220 +LORDS OF FORM. + They have charge of material evolution now...........................240 + Also of human spirit, the Ego........................................220 + They reconstruct dense body, giving germ of brain....................239 + Help ANGELS reconstruct vital body...................................240 + + +[PAGE 551] INDEX + + Page + Help man build dense body in POLARIAN EPOCH..........................261 + Vivified human spirit in many Moon Stragglers........................266 + Those stragglers remained mindless, however..........................266 +LORDS OF MINDS. + They were human in the Saturn period, are expert MIND BUILDERS + and work only with man.......................................222,243 + They also help man build higher desire body..........................265 + THE FATHER is highest Initiate among the Lords of Minds..............376 +ARCHANGELS. + They were human in Sun Period, are expert builders in + DESIRE BODIES, work with animal and man.....................222, 349 + THE SON, Christ, is highest Initiate Archangel.......................376 + Archangels work in lower part of desirebody..........................243 + They helped man build his desirebody in Lemuria......................265 + During heavenlife they teach him to reconstruct the earth............126 +ANGELS. + They were human in Moon Period; are expert builders of VITAL + BODY, work with plant, animal and man........................222,349 + A GUARDIAN ANGEL was appointed for each Ego..........................352 + THE HOLY SPIRIT, Jehovah, is their highest Initiate..................376 + Angels and Lords of Form clothe man in vital body....................263 + The vital body is their normal vehicle, they are double + sexed and without brain..........................................285 + Angels directed man's propagation in harmony with stars, + then parturition was painless....................................283 +LUCIFER SPIRITS. + They were stragglers of the life wave of Angels......................286 + They are called serpents.............................................288 + How and why they spoke to the woman..............................287,361 +VIRGIN SPIRITS (OUR HUMAN LIFE WAVE). + Whence we came and why pilgrimage through matter was undertaken.......87 + Our varying grades of unconsciousness during Involution, + attainment of self-consciousness.............................189,201 + The descent of spirit marks the ascent of form and both + streams coalesce in the focusing mind............................266 + Their evolution depends upon adaptability............................223 + Their future development.............................................417 + + + +[PAGE 552] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page +STRAGGLERS AND NEWCOMERS. + Some of our life wave proved unadaptable in Saturn Period, + they formed dark spots on the luminous Sun globe.................225 + More straggled in sixth revolution of Sun Period.....................225 + Some Saturn stragglers were promoted in seventh revolution + of the Sun Period................................................225 + Some from the animal life wave straggled in Sun Period...............225 + List of classes at beginning of Moon Period..........................226 + More spirits of our life wave straggled in fifth revolution + of the Moon Period. Cheribum promoted some......................229 + When there are no more stragglers a race dies........................341 +NEW LIFE WAVES (BEHIND THE HUMAN SPIRITS). + The present animals started evolution in Sun Period..................224 + The present plants started evolution in Moon Period..................226 + The minerals started in the Earth Period.........................230,232 +GROUP SPIRITS. + A guardian spirit governing a tribe of animals or plants + FROM WITHOUT...................................................72,81 + Prior to the advent of Jehovah humanity was governed FROM + WITHOUT by a common groupspirit..................................351 + Jehovah and his Archangels are like groupspirits, for they + govern the nations...............................................349 + Groupspirits evolve to family and Race spirits........................82 + Groupspirit of plant and oviparous animals withhold seed atom + from seed and egg, pending favorable conditions..................461 + Groupspirit is "a jealous god" like Jehovah; it abhors and + prevents intermarriage of species............................353,357 + Instinct is suggestion of groupspirit responded to by animal..........78 + Groupspirit suffers when an animal is hurt............................78 + Groupspirit is responsible for the similar traits, tastes and + appearance of the separate plants or animals in its tribe.........71 + Groupspirit is responsible for the currents which flow inwards + in coldblooded animals............................................69 + Outgoing currents in the desirebody of animals are generated + by them, not by groupspirits......................................69 + + +[PAGE 553] INDEX + + Page + Animal groupspirits work in the blood by means of their air inspired.350 + Difference between a groupspirit and a human Ego...............78,82,350 + Diagram showing present location of groupspirits......................74 + + LIFE WAVES + (WHICH REACH THE HUMAN STAGE IN OUR SYSTEM) +LORDS OF MIND (STARTED EVOLUTION BEFORE OUR SCHEME). + Became human in the Saturn Period, are expert mind builders, work + only with man (who was mineral in Saturn Period).............222,427 + THE FATHER is their highest Initiate.................................376 + They became Creative Intelligences in Earth Period...................243 +ARCHANGELS (STARTED PRIOR TO OUR SCHEME). + Became human in the Sun Period, are expert builders of COURSE + desirestuff, work principally with animals (which were mineral + in Sun Period), but also with man........................222,349,427 + THE SON (CHRIST) is their highest Initiate...........................376 + They become Creative Intelligences in Jupiter Period................. +ANGELS (STARTED PRIOR TO OUR EVOLUTION). + Became human in Moon Period, are expert builders of Ether. Work + specifically with plants (which were mineral in Moon + Period)..................................................222,349,427 + Their highest Initiate is JEHOVAH, THE HOLY SPIRIT...................376 + They become Creative Intelligences in Venus Period................... +VIRGIN SPIRITS (OUR PRESENT HUMANITY). + Started evolution as mineral in Saturn Period........................205 + Became human in the Earth Period. We are now becoming expert + builders of Form from chemical mineral substance.................426 + In the Jupiter Period we shall vitalize the forms....................428 + In the Venus Period we shall give them feeling.......................428 + In the Vulcan Period we shall become Creative Intelligences + and give the forms a mind........................................428 +ANIMALS started evolution in the Sun Period, become human in + Jupiter Period................................................70,224 +PLANTS started evolution in Moon Period, become human in Venus + Period...........................................................226 + + +[PAGE 554] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page +MINERALS started evolution in Earth Period, become human in Vulcan + Period.......................................................230,232 +DESIRE. + Desire for prolonged earth-life makes the spirit earth-bound + amid unpleasant surroundings.....................................103 + How conscience battles with desire....................................89 + Archetypes of desires, feelings and emotions..........................50 +DISEASE. + Why complications set in when a person is sick........................64 + Why pain is felt in a limb subsequent to the time of amputation.......64 + A spiritual cause of paralysis........................................63 + A spiritual cause of consumption and rachitis........................113 + HAEMOLYSIS (destruction of blood corpuscles; see Human Organism). + Nostalgia (homesickness); how engendered by the Race Spirit..........351 +DREAMS. + The cause of dreams, and why mostly confused..........................94 + Dreamlike internal picture consciousness of animals rational + because engendered by groupspirit................................217 +DRUNKARD; how purged in Purgatory.......................................105 +DROWNING; why drowning persons see past life in a flash..................61 +ELEMENTS. + In Saturn Period there was only one element: heat--incipient fire....234 + In Sun Period there was fire and air; in Moon Period fire, air + water. Here we have four elements...............................234 + A new element will be added in the Jupiter Period....................234 +ELEMENTALS or naturespirits; help build our bodies......................126 +EVIL; how it grows and is destroyed...................................42-43 +FAITH. + Childlike faith and scepticism compared................................6 +FEELING. + Distinct from mere response to impacts................................32 + A separate desirebody necessary to TRUE feeling.......................57 + INTEREST and INDIFFERENCE; the twin feelings which move the world.....45 + Remorse...............................................................47 + + +[PAGE 555] INDEX + + Page + Archetypes of feeling.................................................50 + Effect of sharp purgatorial pain on future lives.....................109 + Mathematic study raises us above feeling.............................203 + Pineal gland once an organ of feeling................................262 + Feeling was awakened by torture in Lemuria...........................279 + Rhmoahals developed finer feelings: joy and sorrow, pleasure + and pain, etc....................................................294 + Tlavatlis developed ambition.........................................295 +FREEWILL AND DESTINY. + Relative freewill of mineral, plant, animal and man compared..........83 + All evil acts in life at least are voluntary.........................110 + Choice regarding place of Rebirth................................129,136 + Epigenesis more than choice of action................................135 + Original Semites the first to be given freewill and made + responsible to law of consequence................................301 + Causes when ripened to maturity become destiny.......................136 + MATURE destiny cannot be escaped (story).............................161 + The stars: the clock of Destiny......................................163 + Poem on freewill and destiny.........................................163 + Freewill bought at cost of pain and death........................288,363 +FORGIVENESS OF SIN. + Forgiveness and the subconscious mind.................................91 + How it shortens or eliminates Purgatory..............................111 + The doctrines of Forgiveness and Atonement do not vitiate, but + complement the Law of Causation..................................373 +FERTILIZATION. + Depends upon presence of etheric matrix of body being present in + mother's womb and on seedatom................................137,461 + Seedatom withheld by groupspirit when animals mate outside + their species....................................................352 +FOOD. + Why one man's meat is another's poison................................84 + Food as factor in evolution..........................................165 + The science of nutrition (chapter)...................................441 + Why we do not take life when eating plantseed or eggs................461 + The law of assimilation (chapter)....................................457 +FORCES. + Laws of Nature not blind, but Great Intelligences.....................49 + + +[PAGE 556] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Archetypal Forces and the inception of form...........................51 + Force is spirit not yet crystallized to matter...................120,247 + Relation of force and matter illustrated.............................121 + Attraction and Repulsion; the twin forces, and how they operate.......46 + The Bible on "dual creative energy"..................................324 +FORM. + All forms are built of one basic substance............................31 + Forms are crystallized space; at death it dissolves to spirit....249,186 + Relation of Life, Form and Consciousness.............................223 + Reason for multiplicity of forms and their decay......................31 + All form devoid of true feeling.......................................31 + Wonderful metamorphoses of forms in Desire world......................41 + Archetypes of form....................................................50 + Archetypes build forms by sound......................................123 + Sound the builder of climate, flora and fauna........................125 + Form and life merge into one spirit in Chaos; seedatoms + of worldglobes alone remain intact...............................247 + Life may, and does, exist independently of concrete form.............248 + Forms are always built to suit conditions............................255 + Man's past, present and future form..................................257 + How pineal gland preserved man's form from destruction by + fire in Lemuria..................................................262 + Why form evolves to a certain point; then degenerates + and dies.................................................289,341,343 + Jehovah, the builder of form and giver of children...............334,348 + Bible story of Creation refers to form: Life is uncreate.........332,344 + Life has no origin: Forms have.......................................504 +GENIUS. + Genius and epigenesis................................................185 + A genius builds better organism from parental material than others...138 + Heredity cannot account for genius...................................155 + Why genius is AHEAD of its time......................................161 +GOOD; how assimilated by the spirit........................21,47,96,123,417 +HYPNOTISM. + How hypnotism and anaesthetics affect vital body......................62 + + +[PAGE 557] INDEX + + HUMANITY (TOPICAL) + + Page + Humanity compared with mineral, plant and animal......................57 + Origin of our faculties: sense perception, locomotion and thought.....59 + Man is the inverted plant.............................................86 + Seven human principles as correlated to five worlds...................88 + Man is a 3-fold spirit having a mind by which he governs a + 3-fold body and transmutes it to soul............................... + Man builds in heaven the body he uses on earth.......................128 + In Hyperboran Epoch we had both lunar and solar sexforce, hence + we were hermaphrodites...........................................268 + Why nations rise and fall............................................289 + Originally humanity were governed by one common groupspirit..........351 + Later Jehovah segregated them into nations...........................352 + Original Semites first to be given freewill and made + responsible to the law of consequence............................301 + Mission of Christ to reunite the races as Brothers...................352 + The four steps and stages in Religion................................302 + The sixteen paths to destruction.................................271,306 + The "missing link"...................................................341 + The origin of Life...................................................504 +MAN. + Differently educated from women in Lemuria...........................279 + Man possesses solar sexforce expressing "Will".......................267 + Spermatozoon an expression of concentrated will......................284 +WOMAN. + Why subject to periodical flow and tears..............................60 + Why more intuitive than man...........................................92 + Woman has lunar sexforce which expresses itself spiritually + as "Imagination".................................................267 + How woman was educated in Lemuria....................................279 + Woman developed memory before man....................................280 + Why parturition became painful.......................................283 + Imagination builds the foetus........................................284 + How and why Lucifer spoke to the woman...............................361 +CHILDREN. + Childlike faith compared to scepticism.................................6 + Childlife in the first heaven........................................117 + + +[PAGE 558] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Birth of a child only commenced with the delivery of the dense body..139 + Children are clairvoyant and have invisible playmates................149 + Do not manufacture individual blood in early years...................143 + Birth of the vital body produces growth..............................141 + Why one who has died as a child will be apt to remember + that life in its next embodiment.................................172 + Education of children in Lemuria.................................279,361 + Education of children in early Atlantis..............................296 + Children are clairvoyant while innocent..............................281 + Jehovah, the Regent of the Moon, is the builder of "form" and + hence the giver of children......................................334 + + HUMAN ORGANISM (TOPICAL) + +DENSE BODY. + A dense body necessary to live in the Physical World..................57 + What determines shape of dense body...................................60 + Why the dense body is our most valuable instrument....................76 + Dense body abandoned at death.........................................97 + How premature loss of dense body causes suffering to suicide.........104 + Archetype of dense body built by us in heaven........................126 + Birth of dense body..................................................139 + Germinally started in Saturn Period with incipient sense organs......206 + Reconstructed in Sun Period. Germination of alimentary canal + and glands commenced.............................................211 + Reconstructed in Moon Period. Skeleton, cartilage, muscle and + nerves begin to form.............................................214 + Reconstructed in Earth Period. Then brain and voluntary nerves + began to form................................................236,239 + Wonderful mechanism of dense body....................................237 + Line of future improvements..........................................262 + "Point" in forehead not concentric with the corresponding "point" + in vital body in Atlantis........................................293 + When those points came into correspondence clairvoyance was lost.....294 + The keynote of the dense body........................................369 + + +[PAGE 559] INDEX + + Page + How connection between dense and vital bodies has become + relaxed since Golgotha...........................................482 +BLOOD. + How warm and cold-blooded animals are produced........................37 + Difference of constitution of desirebody in cold and + warm-blooded animals..............................................69 + Red blood requisite to a separate desirebody..........................69 + In our animal stage we had no red blood...............................69 + Incipient blood currents started in Moon Period......................218 + Before the Ego can become an indwelling spirit it must + have body with warm blood and upright larynx..................86,236 + The blood is the direct vehicle of the Ego....................91,238,350 + The blood is the carrier of feelings and emotions.....................91 + Children do not manufacture individual blood.........................143 + Effects upon Ego of high and low temperature.........................144 + Constancy of blood temperature more marked after 21st year...........145 + Mars, iron, warm blood and individuality.........................268,274 + Why Mars prevented evolution of warm blood in the first three + and one-half Earth-revolutions...................................274 + The soul of all flesh is in the blood................................350 + Why marriage "in the clan" gives second sight....................353,397 + Why mixing blood of one family by marriage with another + family kills clairvoyance........................................355 + The blood; the highest expression of vital body......................397 + Menstruation and tears................................................60 + In each cycle the blood carries a picture of the outside world + to seedatom in heart..........................................92,398 +HAEMOLYSIS (DESTRUCTION OF BLOOD). + Haemolysis and death results when blood of higher animal is injected + in lower.........................................................355 + Mating of different species causes partial haemolysis with loss + of propagating faculty...........................................357 + International marriages produce haemolysis which kills second + sight enjoyed by marrying in the clan............................358 +EAR. + The semicircular canals of the ear, music and logic..................126 + Ear was started in Saturn Period.....................................206 +EYE; the eye was built by light......................................18,276 + + +[PAGE 560] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + The so-called "third eye" was organ of feeling.......................262 +LIVER. + Desirebody rooted in liver............................................68 + Groupspirit directs currents INWARDS in cold-blooded animals. + Currents WELL OUT in mammals......................................69 + Liver and "liver".....................................................69 +LUNGS; the place of ingress for the groupspirit.................345,348,350 +SPLEEN. + Spleen is root of vital body, it specializes solar energy.............63 + How white corpuscles are made........................................455 +GLANDS. + Glands and alimentary canal started in Sun Period....................211 + Pineal Gland was once the localized seat of feeling..................262 + Glands are expressions of the vital body.............................455 +THYMUS GLAND; supplies parental blood to child in infancy and + early childhood..................................................143 +PITUITARY BODY; latent in most people, it is an organ of clairvoyance...473 +PINEAL GLAND. + Once a localized organ of feeling....................................262 + Now an organ of clairvoyance when developed..........................473 +HEART. + Head and heart figuratively at war................................17,393 + Silver Cord fastened to left ventricle of heart by the seedatom.......98 + Rupture of silver cord causes heart to stop...........................98 + Heart, though an involuntary muscle, is cross-striped like + a voluntary muscle...............................................396 + How the crossstripes may be developed and the heart control body.....399 + How heart, larnyx and spinal cord become path of sex currents........477 +MUSCLES. + How manipulated by thoughts of Ego....................................89 + The higher part of desirebody built the voluntary nervous system.....394 + Voluntary muscles striped lengthwise and crosswise; involuntary + muscles striped lengthwise only..................................396 + Muscles the particular stronghold of desirebody......................455 + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 561] INDEX + + Page +NERVES. + The cause of paralysis................................................63 + Voluntary nerves started in Earth Period, sympathetic system in + Moon Period......................................................239 + Higher part of desirebody built voluntary nerves.....................394 + Pneumogastric nerve, avenue of ingress of intuition or "first + impressions".....................................................398 + Pneumogastric nerve is avenue of egress for the seedatom at death.....97 +BRAIN. + How the Ego manipulates the braincenters..............................89 + Building of brain started in Lemuria.................................239 + Built since separation of sexes......................................267 + Half the sexforce diverted to build brain........................269,284 + Cost of the faculty of thought.......................................270 + Lemurian girls first developed memory................................280 + Why Lucifer prompted Lemurians to use the generative force + independent of the Angels........................................287 + How Lucifer spoke to the woman.......................................361 +LARYNX. + Why animals cannot speak..............................................86 + A horizontal larynx is under groupspirit.............................236 + Larynx, the highest achievement of human Ego.........................236 + Originally the larynx was part of the sexorgan.......................269 + The larynx is sustained by sexforce..............................269,284 + The larynx will eventually supersede the sexorgans and man + will speak the (now lost) creative WORD......................364,425 + Larynx, heart and spinal cord, path of sexcurrent in Initiates.......478 +SEX. + Change of boy's voice at the time of puberty. Sex is determined + by forces active in Life Ether....................................36 + Sex alternates in successive births..................................160 + Will and Imagination are solar and lunar sexforces...................267 + When Earth was united with sun and moon in the Hyperborean + Epoch man was male-female......................................268-9 + When Earth separated from sun and moon the sexes also separated......268 + + +[PAGE 562] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Sexforece built brain and larynx.....................................269 + When Angels regulated sexrelation in harmony with stars + parturition was painless.........................................277 + When Adam KNEW his wife INDISCRIMINATELY, "their eyes were opened;" + then pain and death began....................................278,283 + Spermatozoa an expression of male sexforce: Will. Imagination, + the female sexforce, builds foetus...............................284 + All retain one-half of sexforce to build brain, nervous + system and larynx................................................284 + Selfish motive in sex and thought activities.........................286 + Lucifer spirits prompted man to abuse of sex.........................287 + Adam's "rib" and "side"..............................................347 + The beginning and the end of sex.....................................364 +SKELETON. + Skeleton soft as cartilage till crystallized in early Lemuria + by Jehovah's lunar forces....................................275,346 + Comparison of the effect of external and internal skeletons + on consciousness.................................................456 + Hardening of bones contributed to divide sexes.......................275 + Skeleton the particular stronghold of divine spirit..................397 +RIBS. + Young children do not create blood from bones........................143 + Adam's "rib".........................................................347 +DIGESTION. + Digestion accomplished through the aid of forces in the + chemical ether.............................................35,94,148 + Manufacture and selection of gastric juices..........................263 + Digestion commenced in Hyperborean Epoch by osmosis..................263 + Alimentary canal started in Sun Period...............................211 + How digestion is affected by temper..................................456 + The law of assimilation (chapter)....................................457 +EXCRETION; a SELECTIVE elimination of waste..............................35 +SEEDATOM. + The seedatoms have formed part of all vehicles ever used by one + particular Ego....................................................97 + Seedatom of dense body leaves heart just after last breath, + bearing imprint of panorama of life...............................97 + Seedatom of dense body fastens silver cord to heart...................98 + + + +[PAGE 563] INDEX + + Page + Seedatom of vital body extracted at second rupture of silver cord....103 + Seedatom of desirebody: seat of conscience. It is extracted + ere spirit leaves desirebody to disintegrate....................120 + How seedatom of mind gathers materials for the mind of a new + life prior to birth.............................................133 + How seedatom of desirebody gathers desirestuff for a new desirebody..134 + How seedatom of vital body gathers new ether.........................134 + How the etheric mold of the coming dense body is placed in womb + of mother by the Lords of Destiny...............................137 + Seedatom of dense body placed in semen of father.....................137 + Seedatoms of World-globes alone persist in Chaos.....................247 + Seedatoms of plant seed or eggs withheld by groupspirit + pending favorable conditions....................................461 + Seedatoms of animals withheld by groupspirit to prevent mating + of hybrids or mismating.........................................357 + Outside world pictured upon seedatom in each cycle of the blood......398 + + LIFE HERE AND HEREAFTER (TOPICAL) + +LIFE IN GENERAL. + The problem of life and death.........................................19 + The three solutions offered..........................................148 + The four streams of LIFE ensouling all FORM...........................31 + Life alone can feel, form is dead and unfeeling.......................32 + Life Ether: the avenue of propagation.................................36 + Life Ether freed at age of 14........................................143 + A separate vital body necessary to express life.......................57 + The four Kingdoms of LIFE symbolized in the cross.....................85 + The value of life largely dependent upon conditions at death.........101 + Duration of life in Purgatory........................................107 + Life in the First Heaven.............................................113 + Life in the Second Heaven............................................121 + Life in the Third Heaven.............................................129 + The purpose of life..................................................131 + Life a school of experience..........................................132 + + +[PAGE 564] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + The LIFE ensouling man entered evolution in the Saturn Period........205 + The LIFE ensouling the animals entered evolution in the Sun Period...224 + The LIFE ensouling the plants entered evolution in the Moon Period...226 + The LIFE ensouling the mineral entered evolution in the Earth Period.232 + The relation of Life, Form and Consciousness......................80,223 + Life and form merge in Chaos, leaving only seedatoms of + World-globes intact.............................................247 + Life may, and does, exist in forms intangible to us..................248 + Life always builds forms to suit conditions..........................256 + Life uncreate, the importance of the word NEPHESH....................332 + First Creation story of Bible deals with FORM, the second with + the ensouling LIFE: nephesh.....................................344 + Nephesh chayim: breathing creatures; not living souls................345 + Life did not originate anywhere, at any time: it is..................584 + Taking life for food.................................................460 + Why plant seed and eggs contain no life..............................461 +CONCEPTION. + Conception results only when etheric mold of a body and the + seedatom are present............................................137 + Ego enters mother's womb 18 days after conception....................138 +BIRTH. + Birth is the result of Ego's desire for experience...................129 + Birthplace usually chosen by Ego.....................................136 + Birth not accomplished when dense body is delivered..................139 + Birth of vital body and growth.......................................141 + Birth of desire body and puberty.....................................142 + Birth of mind and maturity...........................................143 +DEATH. + The problem of Life and Death.........................................19 + How death is robbed of its terror.....................................27 + Death by drowning or freezing.........................................61 + Death by suicide and its dreadful consequences.......................104 + Death by accident or on the battlefield..............................118 + The importance of peaceful surroundings at death.....................109 + + +[PAGE 565] INDEX + + Page + One of the main causes of infant mortality...........................118 + People who have died sometimes ignorant of that fact.................121 + Death did not exist till latter part of Lemuria..................167,278 + Premature cremation causes departing spirit pain......................98 + The oftener we die, the better we shall live.....................244,363 + Death of FORM gives spirit scope for advancement.....................249 + Our liberty purchased at cost of death and pain......................363 + Degeneracy and death of races and nations............................289 +DECAY; an activity of the chemical forces in matter......................31 + VITAL and dense bodies disintegrate simultaneously...................102 +CREMATION. + Premature incineration pains departing Spirit.........................98 +SILVER CORD. + Silver Cord fastened in left ventricle of heart by seedatom. + Rupture there stops heart........................................98 + Silver Cord not broken in any case where resuscitation + is accomplished.................................................102 + Final rupture and its effect.........................................102 +PANORAMA OF LIFE. + Panorama viewed through negative pole of Reflecting Ether just + subsequent to death..........................................91,101 + Panorama is of varying length - what terminates it...................102 + Panorama basis of pleasure and pain beyond...........................108 + How panorama may be eradicated by remission of sin...................111 + Contrast between panorama of past life viewed after death and + a coming life seen prior to birth...............................130 + The blood in each cycle through the heart engraves panorama + on seedatom.....................................................398 +PURGATORY. + How and why suicide suffers for rash act.............................104 + Why post-mortem existence is first purgative.........................104 + How the miser is purged of avarice...................................104 + How drunkard is purged from his vice.................................105 + How each act in life automatically produces its just reward + or retribution..................................................107 + Duration of life in Purgatory........................................107 + How we may escape Purgatory..........................................111 + + +[PAGE 566] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Children go through Purgatory to First Heaven at once................117 + Conscience: the fruitage of Purgatory................................119 +BORDERLAND; a pitiable state of existence between Heaven and + Purgatory, and who goes there...................................112 +FIRST HEAVEN. + A place of happiness, the measure determined by our own + previous benevolence expressed in Panorama......................114 + The ethics of true benevolence.......................................115 +SECOND HEAVEN. + This is the realm of tone............................................122 + Assimilation of soulpower generated in past life.....................123 + Preparation for new earth life.......................................124 + Building new environment and new body............................125,128 +THIRD HEAVEN. + Panorama of a new life as chosen by Ego..............................129 +IDEAS. + Set ideas detrimental to investigation; great importance of + adaptability..................................................5,223 +IMMORTALITY; why it would be most undesirable at present................363 +INDIVIDUALITY. + Of man compared to animals............................................71 + "I" consciousness of children and the thymus gland...................143 + Birth of Individuality (chapter).....................................266 + Mars, iron, red blood and individuality..............................352 +INFORMATION; source of the author's information...........................8 +INNOCENCE, is not virtue................................................282 +IMAGINATION. + Imagination is the spiritual expression of the female, + lunar sexforce. (Will is male and solar)........................267 + Imagination the formative force in creation......................324,425 +INSTINCT. + Instinct an expression of wisdom of groupspirit.......................78 + Why man's unwisdom is superior to infallible animal instinct..........79 +INTUITION. + What it is, and why most noticeable in women..........................92 + + +[PAGE 567] INDEX + + Page +INITIATION. + Initiation described and defined.....................................519 + Enables man to build body consciously during antenatal life......128,138 + Value of mathematics in process of attainment........................203 + Lemurian kings initiated by Lords of Mercury.......................272-3 + Initiation will enable man to leave body at will.....................274 + Lemurian initiators taught art and science...........................281 + Human Initiates have had entire charge of our evolution since + the beginning of the Aryan Epoch................................304 + At end of Aryan Epoch highest Initiate will appear publicly + as leader of those who want him.................................305 + Jesus' body attuned to Christvibrations by initiation................382 + Initiation under the Christ-star.....................................391 + How to know an Initiate...........................................68,400 + Initiation open to chosen few only, before Christ....................404 + Why it is now open to "whosoever will"...........................404,482 + The Seven Days of Creation and Initiation............................412 + How Initiation will expand our consciousness.........................417 + Consciousness of the Jupiter Period..................................418 + Consciousness of the Venus Period....................................419 + Spirals within spirals of attainment.................................420 + Schematic list of Periods and consciousness..........................421 + Why probation must precede Initiation............................478,519 + Initiation of the Rose Cross.........................................519 + The necessity of training......................................25,41,480 + The bridge to the unseen worlds......................................476 +MYSTERY SCHOOLS; SEPTENARY DIVISION OF. + The Rosicrucian method of preparation................................439 +EXERCISES. + Retrospection, an review of the day's events.........................111 + Concentration; its similarity to, and its differences from sleep.....483 + The best time to concentrate.........................................485 + Concentration (chapter)..............................................486 + Meditation (chapter).................................................489 + Observation..........................................................492 + Discrimination.......................................................493 + + +[PAGE 568] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Contemplation (chapter)..............................................494 + Adoration (chapter)..................................................495 +CLAIRVOYANCE. + Clairvoyance is a faculty immanent in all.............................19 + Value of testimony to superphysical truths clairvoyantly obtained.....20 + The necessity and the result of training.......................25,41,480 + Animals are clairvoyant...............................................77 + Children are clairvoyant.........................................140,281 + A positive method of attainment......................................230 + "Second Sight" produced by marriage in the clan or family............354 + How international marriages have destroyed this involuntary + clairvoyance....................................................355 + Activity of pituitary body and pineal gland formerly produced + involuntary clairvoyance........................................473 + Re-awakening of their vibratory powers will produce positive + clairvoyance....................................................477 +CLAIRVOYANTS. + Why their observations differ.........................................26 + Differences in desirebody of trained and untrained clairvoyant....67,241 + How anyone may distinguish a trained clairvoyant..................68,400 + The Lemurians were all clairvoyant but could not see physically......281 + + INVOLUTION, EVOLUTION AND EPIGENESIS (TOPICAL) + +INVOLUTION. + Involution illustrated................................................80 + Involution is the period of unconscious development..............185,201 + Energy of Virgin Spirits turned INWARDS to build vehicles + of consciousness during Involution..........................189,201 + Descent of spirit marks ascent of form. Both streams coalesce + in the focusing mind............................................266 + Involution, evolution and epigenesis chapter.........................336 +EVOLUTION. + Evolution commences at the coalition of spirit and body, when + self-consciousness is awakened..............................185,202 + + +[PAGE 569] INDEX + + Page + Then "their eyes were opened," the creative energy turned + OUTWARDS and conquest of world begun.....................81,190,202 + Salvation and damnation, the great importance of + adaptability....................................................223 + Evolution would have ceased if man had eaten of tree of life.........363 + The next great division of the "sheep" and "goats"..................229 + Wine as a factor in evolution....................................168,359 + Evolution is progress in three directions............................151 + The end of human evolution...........................................158 + Our dense body is in fourth stage of evolution, vital body in + third, desirebody in second and the mind a mere cloud............76 + Why races evolved to a certain point, then degenerate and + finally die.................................................289,341 + How embryology confirms occult teaching..............................344 + Brain evolved at cost of half our creative force, free-will + at cost of pain and death.......................................363 + Involution, Evolution and Epigenesis (chapter).......................336 +EPIGENESIS. + Man's own original creative activity.........................128,135,185 + Chapter on Involution, Evolution and Epigenesis................80,81,336 + See definitions under diagram........................................367 +KNOWLEDGE. + Knowledge a necessary prerequisite to judgement........................7 + Knowledge of clairvoyant depends upon training.................25,41,480 + Why knowledge of Cosmogony is very important.........................191 + How to obtain first-hand knowledge.....................21,97,111,430,528 +KINGDOMS OF LIFE. + Comparing man to mineral, plant and animal............................56 + Various constitution of vital body in plant, animal and man...........58 + Divers constitution of desirebody in animal and man...............65,235 + The cross symbolical of the life currents pulsating in the + four kingdoms....................................................85 +LAMENTATIONS; their effect upon the dying and dead..................101,118 +LAW OF CAUSATION. + Original Semites the first to be made MORALLY responsible under + law of causation................................................301 + + +[PAGE 570] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Law of causation is the force impelling to rebirth...................130 + It brings each to birth at psychological moment when stellar + influences are most propitious..................................161 + How and why the panoramas of life are produced.......................130 + Causation automatically produces the appropriate suffering + needed to purge each from his vice..............................106 + Mature destiny and inexorable fate...............................136,161 + Law of Causation not vitiated, but complemented by doctrines + of Forgiveness of Sin and Atonement..................91,222,373,402 + The binding effect of action and method of liberation................202 + Causation superseded by epigenesis...................................135 + Causation, and not heredity, accounts for our characteristics + and idiosyncracies..............................................157 +LAW OF REBIRTH. + Rebirth not to be confused with doctrine of transmigration...........157 + Rebirth a Christian doctrine.........................................164 + Why this teaching has been temporarily suppressed....................167 + The purpose of Rebirth...............................................130 + The necessity of Rebirth.........................................132,137 + Rebirth and free-will................................................129 + Panorama of future life..............................................130 + The method of re-embodiment..........................................133 + Rebirth in consonance with law of evolution..........................151 + Rebirth in consonance with law of periodicity........................152 + Rebirth in consonance with ethical requirements......................153 + All may know at first hand this truth................................147 + Interval between births measured by the sun..........................159 + Intelligent administration and exceptions............................161 + Earth and other worlds also subject to this law..................190,412 + + MAN'S INVISIBLE VEHICLES (TOPICAL) + +VITAL BODY. + Germinated as a thoughtform in Sun Period given to man in the + making by Lords of Wisdom.......................................210 + Reconstructed in Moon Period by Lords of Individuality and + Lords of Wisdom.................................................215 + + +[PAGE 571] INDEX + + Page + Reconstructed in Earth Period by Angels and Lords of Form............240 + They later, in Hyperborean Epoch, clothe man in the + making with an improved vital body..............................263 + Vital body is in its third stage of evolution......................75,76 + It is rooted in the spleen. Through that organ the vital body + specializes solar energy......................................63,68 + The vital body is built of "points" which penetrate the dense + atoms and raise their vibrations.................................61 + The Recording Angels direct its construction at present so that + man may reap what he sows.......................................135 + A separate vital body is necessary to growth and assimilation......57,58 + It serves to give shape to the dense body during antenatal life...60,137 + Vital body is born at 7th year; causing growth.......................141 + Under normal conditions it remains imbedded in dense body from + birth to death...................................................61 + The chemical, life, light and reflecting ethers in vital body + are ripened successively........................................143 + The vital body is of opposite sex or polarity to the dense body.......61 + Lemurian girls developed memory first on account of having a + positive vital body.............................................280 + The blood and glands are its particular expression...............397,455 + The positive vital body of woman gives intuition, also causing + periodical flow and tears........................................60 + The blood absorbs from inspired air panorama of past life + engraves it on seedatom and vital body...................91,397,398 + At death vital body is withdrawn and panorama of past life + extracted....................................................97,102 + When seedatom is withdrawn vital body gravitates back + to dense body and decays simultaneously with that...........102,103 + Our wakening consciousness results from war between + desirebody and vital body.......................................455 + Collapse of the vital body is cause of sleep..........................93 + In health surplus of vitality is radiated as N-rays; they + expel deleterious microbes from system...........................63 + + +[PAGE 572] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + These radiations are weak in sickness, hence disease germs may + easily enter and cause complications.............................63 + Why pain is felt in a limb subsequent to amputation...................64 + The more lax the connection between the dense and vital bodies + the more sensitive we become to superphysical vibrations........241 + The desirebody is improved by law; the vital body by altruism, + developed in higher life........................................404 + Initiation before Christ was therefore reserved to a chosen few..404,405 + Since vital body was partially freed at Golgotha, initiation is + open to "whosoever will"........................................482 + Initiation separates the four ethers of vital body so that two + may be extracted at will and used in "soulflights" through + inner worlds....................................................482 + The effect of prayer upon the vital body.........................434,463 + The specific method of separating the ethers..............91,111,483,528 + The vital body will be our densest vehicle in the Jupiter + period; it will contain essence of dense body...........240,242,422 + Its essence: the intellectual soul, will be absorbed by the + life spirit in Venus Period.....................................426 + The vital bodies of plants and animals are differently + constituted from the human vehicle............................58,59 + Among animals it is not concentric with the dense body except + in prodigies.....................................................77 +DESIREBODY. + Given in the Moon Period by Lords of Individuality...................215 + It is now in second stage of its evolution............................76 + In latter part of Lemurian and early part of Atlantis some + desirebodies divided into higher and lower parts thus they + became fit to harbor a human Ego............................235,395 + These dense bodies assumed an upright walk which emancipated + them from rule of groupspirit................................86,236 + Desirebody of man has now incipient sense centers.....................67 + The Lords of Mind linked mind to higher part of desirebody and + implanted separate selfhood.....................................243 + The undivided desirebodies crystallized their dense vehicles + which have degenerated to anthropoids.......................236,243 + +[PAGE 573] INDEX + + Page + The Archangels work in those, also in the lower part of the + human desirebody, giving passion............................236,243 + Desirebodies of animals are not concentric with dense + body and otherwise differently constituted....................65,77 + Only those bodies which have red blood and liver can + have a separate desirebody.......................................69 + In coldblooded animals groupspirit forces currents of desire + INWARDS through liver............................................69 + The separate spirit which dwells in warm red blood forces + its desire currents outwards through liver.......................69 + Thus the liver is the root of the desirebody..........................68 + The desirebody has its particular field of operation in + the voluntary nerves and muscles................................455 + Its operations in the spleen produce white bloodcorpuscles...........455 + Materials for new desirebody is gathered by Ego prior to + each birth......................................................134 + It is born at 14 when the life ether of the vital body is ripe + and the child becomes adolescent............................142,143 + The constant war between desirebody and vital body produces + our waking consciousness........................................455 + Desirebody is temporarily withdrawn during sleep......................93 + It is permanently extracted at death..................................97 + During life it is ovoid, but takes shape of dense body at death + thus the man appears as before...................................66 + Desirebody of suicide feels hollowed out while archetype of + his dense body persists; he suffers pain like intense hunger....104 + Panorama of life etched on desirebody forms basis of post + mortem existence. Importance of deep etching and how to + assure that end.................................................109 + Process of purgation and extraction of conscience................105,108 + Dissolution of desirebody when seed atom is taken....................120 + Desirebodies of children who die do not dissolve.....................117 + The desirebody will be perfected in the Venus Period and + compounded with essence of dense and vital bodies...............423 + Its essence, the Emotional Soul, will be absorbed by the human + spirit in Vulcan Period.........................................425 + + +[PAGE 574] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Prayer for the spiritualization of the desirebody....................464 +MIND. + The necessity and purpose of mind..............................57,75,298 + It is a focusing point like lens in stereopticon, valuable + when not subject to mental St. Vitus dance...................89,393 + Given by Lords of Mind in early Atlantis.............................222 + Mind designed to give purpose to action, but became enmeshed + in desirebody originating cunning...............................298 + Then Race religions were given to cow desire and free mind...........395 + Original Semites, the progenitors of Aryan Races first to + evolve through thought and reason...............................299 + The Jews, a crossbreed of Original Semites (THE SONS OF GOD) and + other Atlantean races, (THE DAUGHTERS OF MEN), still + retain cunning..................................................310 + How mindstuff for new mind is gathered prior to each birth...........133 + It assumes shape of large bell.......................................134 + Mind is born at 21 when man reaches "majority".......................142 + The veil of Isis, the sheath of mind, which hides Ego from + intrusion.......................................................293 + What impels thought..................................................285 + Conscious, subconscious and superconscious mind................90,92,397 + The mind is temporarily withdrawn during sleep........................93 + It is permanently extracted from dense body at death..................97 + Why the mind of children which die, persist in their next life.......117 + The mind dissolved when Ego ascends to third Heaven..................129 + The present war between heart and mind................................17 + The effects of open mind compared with scepticism......................7 + Valuable training for the mind.......................................202 + Prayer for spiritualizing the mind...................................464 + The mind is now in its MINERAL stage, dead, hence we work with + dead chemical mineral substances........................298,426,428 + In the Jupiter Period the mind will become alive. Then + we shall work with living plants........................298,427,428 + In Venus Period the mind will acquire feeling. Then + we shall work with living, feeling animals......................428 + + +[PAGE 575] INDEX + + Page + In Vulcan Period the mind will become creative and capable + of propagating itself. Then we shall give our + creatures a mind and make them human............................428 + How animals think though lacking mind.................................70 + What Instinct really is...............................................78 +EGO. (SEE HUMAN SPIRIT) + The Ego is a Virgin Spirit involved in a threefold veil of + matter which obliterates its original divine consciousness + and engenders the illusion of a separate self...................216 + During Involution it brooded unconsciously over the evolving + form, separate and apart therefrom..............................235 + In later Lemuria desirebody divided and dense body assumed + upright walk. Then Ego commenced to enter..................236,394 + It did not become fully indwelling until the last third of + Atlantis........................................................294 + Now the Ego is entirely in physical world while it lives + its earth life.............................................71,77,95 + The seven human principles............................................88 + Mars polarized the iron until Atlantis so that warm blood could + not be generated. Thus Ego was prevented from entering + the form till it was ripe.......................................268 + The blood is the vantage ground of Ego...............................350 + But it must be right temperature.....................................144 + The Ego is born from time to time to gather experience...............129 + In heaven it assimilates experiences of previous lives...........135,138 + It also chooses its coming environment...........................129,136 + While in heaven it builds that environment and archetypes + of the bodies it uses on earth..................................128 + It gathers the materials for its new vehicles during its + descent to rebirth..............................................133 + Recording Angels place matrix of its coming body in womb of + mother and seedatom in semen of father..........................135 + Ego enters womb 18-21 days after conception..........................138 + Ego cannot generate blood from unripe childbody, hence thymus + gland gives a supply of parental blood till the "I" + consciousness comes to puberty..................................143 + How the Race Spirit held Ego in bondage..............................350 + + +[PAGE 576] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Christ came to emancipate us from Race Spirit....................313,352 + How international marriages are furthering that object + by generating individual blood..................................353 +HUMAN SPIRIT. (SEE EGO) + Originally awakened by the Seraphim..................................215 + Cherubim and Lords of Wisdom linked human spirit to life spirit......215 + Lords of Flame and Lords of Individuality linked the human + spirit to the divine spirit.....................................216 + The Lords of Form are now in charge of the human spirit..............220 + The divine spirit is the first veil of the Virgin Spirit, the + life spirit is the second and the human spirit is the third, + outermost sheath which imprisons the Virgin Spirit and makes + it a separate Ego...............................................216 +LIFE SPIRIT. + Awakened by Cherubim in Sun Period...................................211 + Linked to divine spirit by Lords of Flame............................212 + Linked to human spirit by Lords of Individuality.....................216 + Lords of Individuality now in charge of life spirit..................220 +DIVINE SPIRIT. + Awakened by Lords of Flame...........................................207 + Linked to life spirit by Lords of Flame..............................212 + Linked to human spirit by Lords of Individuality.....................216 + Lords of Wisdom now in charge of divine spirit.......................220 +MARRIAGE. + Marriage and generation both duty and a privilege....................468 + But not a license to unbridled indulgence............................471 + Formerly Race Spirits commanded MARRIAGE IN THE FAMILY to + strengthen the "tie of blood"...................................353 + Later international marriages were insisted upon to emancipate + the individual from race, kin and country.......................353 + Under the former regime the common blood produced in each + member of family pictures of their common ancestors (second + sight), thus intensifying feeling of kinship....................354 + The Race Spirit is a "jealous God". He cuts off all who marry + outside of race.............................................310,335 + + +[PAGE 577] INDEX + + Page + International marriages have mixed the blood, destroyed the + pictures of ancestors and second sight (which is + involuntary clairvoyance).......................................355 + Origin of honeymoon trips............................................219 +CELIBACY; why practiced by high Initiates...............................467 +MATERIALISM. + Statement of the doctrine of materialism.............................148 + The nebular theory predicates a creator and sustainer of the + Universe........................................................323 + The logical necessity of a Creative Intelligence.....................129 + Materialism at war with established facts............................149 + Materialism a cause of various diseases..............................113 + Cause of earthquakes, illustrated by eruptions of Vesuvius...........510 + Effect of materialism on life after death............................112 +MEDIUMS. + Why unreliable, even when honest......................................41 + The connection between the dense and vital bodies of mediums + is more lax than among ordinary people, and their weak wills + render them a prey to "controls"................................241 + Materialization of spirits is accomplished by these controls + by extracting medium's vital body through the spleen.............62 +MATHEMATICS. + Mathematical ability and semicircular canals of ear..................126 +MEMORY. + Memory was first developed by the girls in Lemuria...................280 + In olden days it was greater than now. The third Atlantean Race, + the Toltecs, achieved the highest efficiency....................296 + When men married in the family the common blood carried to + them a memory of the lives of ancestors.........................353 + Memory is threefold. Conscious, subconscious and superconscious. + The conscious memory is unreliable, but the subconscious + memory stores all events..............................90,92,149,397 + Why most people do not remember past lives...........................171 + Why some people remember more than others............................172 + A little girl's memory of past life..................................172 + + +[PAGE 578] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page +MEMORY OF NATURE. + There is a picture in the reflecting ether, in the Region of + Archetypal Forces and the World of Life Spirit...................38 +MENSTRUATION. + Menstruation and tears caused by POSITIVE vital body of woman.........60 +MICROBES. + How microbes are expelled from system by N-rays.......................63 +MINERAL. + Entered evolution here in Earth Period...............................232 + Mineral has a consciousness similar to that of the human body + when in deepest trance...........................................85 + All FORMS have been built from chemical mineral substance of + the earth.....................................................30,31 + Comparison of mineral and man.........................................56 + Why it is incapable of growth, motion and thought.....................58 + Why it is unfeeling, though it responds to impact.....................31 + The mineral groupspirit is located in the Region of abstract + Thought..........................................................85 +MISSIONARIES. + Needed at home more than abroad......................................163 + Why foreign missions are a mistaken effort...........................308 +MUSIC. + Music of the spheres a fact of nature................................119 + The Great Silence; the prelude to the celestial harmony of + Appollo's seven-stringed Lyre...................................122 + The power of rhythmic vibration; supercilious incredulity + concerning the fall of Jericho's walls gratuitous...............122 + Heaven the realm of tone and sound flows through Archetypes + and builds form.............................................123,124 + The keynote of the body..............................................369 + The semicircular canals of the ear and music.........................126 +NEBULAR THEORY. + Predicates and requires a creator and sustainer of the Universe......323 +N-RAYS. the invisible radiations of the vital body, expel microbes + from system......................................................63 + + +[PAGE 579] INDEX + + Page +NEW JERUSALEM; an imitation is found in first heaven built by + thoughts on the subject.........................................116 +OSMOSIS. + A selective filtration of fluids through tissues of body..............35 + Man's first method of obtaining nourishment..........................263 +PAIN. + A blessing in disguise (illustration)................................131 + Torture used Lemuria to waken consciousness..........................279 + How pain has enlarged our consciousness..............................362 +PATRIOTISM. + Danger of patriotism when carried to extremes....................307,312 + Patriotism breaking down before international marriages..............355 +PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. + As manufactured by nature, often handled by people...................438 +PILGRIMAGE THROUGH MATTER. + Its beginning, its end and why undertaken.............................87 + What will be the fruitage............................................429 +PRAYER. + The Lord's prayer................................................435,462 + Unselfish prayers for spiritual achievement spiritualize + vital body. Why we should pray "without ceasing"...........434,463 +PLANTS. + The present plants started their evolution as minerals of the + Moon Period, they become human in the Venus period..............226 + Their consciousness is like our in deep sleep.........................85 + The Angels have particular charge over the plants....................222 + The groupspirit of plants are in the Region of Concrete Thought....74,85 + Comparison of a plant and man: THE INVERTED PLANT..................57,69 + Why incapable of thought and motion................................58,69 + How the sap is caused to circulate and deposit color..................37 + The Earth Spirit feels pain when plants are pulled out by roots.......65 + Seedatom of plants withheld by groupspirit pending favorable + conditions for growth...........................................461 + + +[PAGE 580] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page +PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOX. + Governs the frequency of rebirth.....................................159 +POEMS. + Sir Launfal's Vision (the ethics of GIVING)..........................115 + Raphael's Song (from Faust; in re music of spheres)..................119 + The Chambered Nautilus (progression of the soul).....................159 + Fate and Freewill....................................................163 + The oftener we die, the better we live...............................249 + The Christ within....................................................389 + Who is the Grail.....................................................389 +REASON. + First developed by the Original Semites; the progenitors of the + Aryan Races.....................................................299 + Cunning, the Atlantean characteristic of the Jew.....................309 + Reason to be superseded by Love in New Galilee.......................311 + Appeal to students' reason.............................................9 + Rosicrucian teachings endeavor to satisfy reason.....................439 +RECORDING ANGELS. + Mold the vital body; impress panorama of coming life thereon + and place it in womb of mother..................................135 + They bring each being to birth at the auspicious moment when + the stellar influences will give it conditions requisite to + its next step in unfoldment.....................................161 + They also force the expiation of MATURE destiny..................136,161 +RELIGION. + The evolution of Religion (chapter)..................................367 + Why different Religions are necessary to different people............371 + The four steps in Religion through fear, avarice, love and duty......303 + Mistake of seeking a foreign religion................................308 + Why the Bible, to be adequate to the needs of the Western World + must contain BOTH the Jewish religion of the old Testament + and the Christian religion of the New...................308,314,315 + Paul asserts there is an allegorical meaning to the Bible + (yet it is only to be interpreted by who can SEE - II + Pet: 1.20). Both Paul and Christ gave an esoteric + teaching to "the few"...........................................319 + Why earliest Religions taught the doctrine of Rebirth and + Christianity does not specially feature it......................167 + + +[PAGE 581] INDEX + + Page + The purpose of Jehovistic Race religions is to curb the + DESIRENATURE that the intellect may gain scope..........334,395,433 + The purpose of the Christian Religion is to spiritualize + the VITAL BODY by love and prayer.......................433,435,463 + The Religion of the Father will spiritualize the dense + body and restore Unity......................................435,436 +ROSICRUCIANS. + One of the seven schools of the lesser Mysteries.....................438 + Christian Rosenkreuz and the Philosopher's Stone.....................515 + Initiation, the Order of the Rose Cross and the Rosicrucian + Fellowship......................................................519 +SALVATION. + The theological plan of salvation....................................150 + The evolutionary plan of salvation.......................224,229,307,312 + Salvation by Atonement and Forgiveness of Sin.............91,111,373,402 +SLEEP. + Caused by collapse of vital body......................................93 + Why sleep is restorative..............................................93 + Chemical Ether, the avenue of restorative forces......................94 + Similarity between sleep and death...................................102 + Similarity between sleep and concentration...........................483 + Preliminary work of aspirant in desire world during sleep............484 +SENSE PERCEPTIONS. + Organs of sense, particularly the ear, started in the Saturn Period..206 + Sense perception depends upon the forces in the Light Ether...........36 + Lemurians could hear and feel at birth, but their sight came + later...........................................................276 + + SOLAR SYSTEM. + + The logical necessity of a Creative Intelligence.................122,129 + The nebular theory requires a Creator and Sustainer of the + solar system....................................................323 + The Bible asserts that our system was formed from the "everlasting + essence": primordial matter.....................................321 + + +[PAGE 582] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + God is the Architect of our solar system.............................179 + The Seven Spirits before the Throne, individually considered, + are the Regents of the seven planets............................180 + Collectively, they are God.......................................183,253 +THE SUN. + The real sun is as invisible as the real man.........................258 + How it is scientifically possible to have light before the + creation of the sun and moon....................................398 + The sun is the visible symbol of God.................................181 + Spiritual and physical rays of the sun...............................390 + Will is a solar force expressed in the male sex. Imagination is + a female lunar force............................................267 + The solar force works in vital body, makes for life, the lunar + rays crystallize the dense body and cause death.................265 + Prior to end of Hyperborean Epoch sun, moon and earth were yet + one and humanity were malefemale................................268 +PLANETS AND MOONS. + Spiritual reason for the formation of planets........................218 + The planets are the bodies of the Planetary Spirits which + direct their movements from the center......................255,256 + Birth of Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter..................................258 + Mars and its canals, the Earth, Venus and Mercury............259,271,272 + The influence of Mercury will help man free himself so that + he may leave body and re-enter at will..........................273 + The Lords of Venus as leaders of humanity............................272 + Why some planets have moons..........................................259 + Our moon, the abode of failures who crystallized.....................264 + Crystallization of the matter which is eventually thrown off + as a planet commences at pole of the sun where motion is + slowest.........................................................263 + The Earth was thus expelled from the sun in the end of the + Hyperborean Epoch...............................................263 + Then a part of the Earth crystallized too early and was expelled + in the beginning of the Lemurian Epoch; that is the Moon........264 + + +[PAGE 583] INDEX + + Page + Neptune does not really belong to our solar system...................260 + (For proof of this assertion, see Simplified Scientific + Astrology, page 5) + Future evolution of planets..........................................256 + Each planet has three worlds: the Physical World, the Desire World + and the World of Thought.........................................53 +MARS. + Our evolution on that part of the sun which now constitutes the earth + commenced after Mars had been expelled and become a separate + planet..........................................................263 + The influence of Mars on the indwelling spirit...................268,274 + The Martian canals...................................................259 +VENUS. + A number of Beings from Venus and Mercury were sent to help + nascent humanity in Lemuria. They were looked up to as + messengers of the gods......................................271,272 + After gestatory period of Aryan Race they gave free-will to the + Original Semites................................................301 + They then withdrew and left human Initiates to guide their + younger brothers................................................304 +MERCURY. + Lords of Mercury were the original Hierophants of the Mysteries. + They initiated the most precocious among mankind and made them + kings (by grace of God).........................................272 + They first showed man how he may extricate himself at will from + dense body......................................................274 + Why quicksilver is fluidic and evaporates............................233 + The influence of Mercury will increase...............................275 +EARTH. + During the Polarian Epoch that which is now earth and the moon + was yet a part of the sun. Division came in the end of the + Hyperborean Epoch...............................................263 + The present Moon-beings crystallized part of the earth and were + expelled in the beginning of Lemuria............................264 + Effect of the solar and lunar forces upon the earth..................265 + Previous to advent of Jehovah, Earth and man were under a + groupspirit which worked FROM WITHOUT...........................351 + For ages prior to our era Christ worked upon earth and man FROM + WITHOUT.........................................................404 + + +[PAGE 584] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + When liberated from Jesus's body at Golgotha the Christ entered + the Earth and has since been the indwelling Earthspirit, + the Regent of our planet........................................407 + The planetary Christ immured in the earth is a ray from the + Cosmic Christ in the sun, refracted into each planet when + ready for brotherhood...........................................408 + The sacrifice on Golgotha was but commencement of a protracted + period of suffering on part of Christ, who is groaning and + travailing waiting for the day of liberation................408,506 + Earth Spirit feels when stone is broken or flower is plucked......55,505 + Inner constitution of the Earth and volcanic eruptions...............498 + Stages of human development and various foods........................165 + The so-called "dead" transform the earth, its flora and fauna........125 + The keynote of the earth.............................................123 + The Bible agrees with occult teaching that man has been on + earth before....................................................332 +SOUND. + The Word made flesh, the Creative Fiat, a rhythmic sound which + built all things................................................181 + The music of the spheres.............................................119 + The Great Silence, a gate to the realm of sound, the Heavenworld.....122 + Sound, the builder of climate, flora and fauna.......................125 + The ram's horn disrupting the walls of Jericho a scientific + possibility.................................................122,369 + Sound, rhythm; incorporates the soul into the spirit and + amalgamates them................................................124 +SOUL. + The Word-soul said by Plato to be crucified...........................85 + Soul is the spiritualized product of the body.........................95 + "The soul of all flesh is the blood".................................350 + Definite method of accomplishing soulgrowth...........................95 + Sound and the amalgamation of soul with spirit.......................124 + Prior to entrance of indwelling Ego higher part of desirebody + was master, a sort of animal soul...........................394,235 + Theological doctrine of creation of soul.............................150 + + +[PAGE 585] INDEX + + Page + Soul of man and animal not weighed by doctors.........................99 + SPACE is a spirit not yet crystallized for form......................249 +SPIRIT. + Of man may be seen before birth and after death.......................19 + It is clothed in various bodies.......................................88 + Mars prevented the human spirit, the Ego, from immuring + itself in body before it was ripe...............................268 + Effect of wine, the counterfeit spirit produced by decay, upon + the Ego, the spirit of life.....................................168 + Space is spirit not yet crystallized into form.......................247 + The positive pole of spirit manifests as life galvanizing the + negative form into action.......................................248 +MATTER. + Is negative spirit substance; crystallized space or spirit...120,187,247 + Relation of force and matter illustrated.............................121 + The Seven Worlds are states of matter.................................29 + All physical matter is homogeneous in the ultimate....................31 + Matter is devoid of true feeling......................................31 + Ether is physical matter; the field of operation of force which + acts upon the gases, liquids and solids..........................30 + Desirestuff is the matter of the Desireworld, which causes feeling + and compels motion...............................................39 + Mindstuff is the matter of the Region of Concrete thought which + we use to embody and concrete our ideas..........................30 + The use of desirestuff in our thought-activity........................89 + The reason for the spirits pilgrimage through matter..................87 + How its original divine All consciousness is obscured by the + three veils of matter...........................................216 + Spirit and matter merge in Chaos; only the seedatoms of the + World-globes persist............................................247 + The Bible does not say the earth was created from "nothing" + It names a basic substance......................................322 + How the homogeneous primordial matter is formed into several + Worlds..........................................................375 +STORIES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. + A sure method of attaining wisdom.....................................21 + + +[PAGE 586] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Clairvoyant sees worlds as invisible to most people as the light + and color we see is to a blind man...............................24 + The existence of Invisible Worlds, interpenetration of Physical + World (frostflower, freezing water)..............................27 + Relative reality and permanency of visible and invisible worlds + shown by architects house........................................28 + The purpose of visible world as school of right thought + illustrated by Inventors machine.................................33 + Necessity for occult training, babe and blind who has acquired + sight, must learn to see here....................................41 + Always look for the good. Christ and dead dog........................44 + Three men and dog show operation of twin feelings and twin + forces of Desireworld............................................46 + Sponge, sand and water show interpenetration and extension + of the three worlds of a planet..................................53 + Telegraph system illustrating operation vital fluid...................63 + Man's dense body a concretion of his finer vehicles as snails + house is crystallized snail......................................73 + Illustration of difference between man with indwelling Ego and + animal with groupspirit..........................................78 + Musician's hand and gloves showing obscuration of consciousness + during involution................................................80 + Entering house on sunny day and finding focus showing purpose + of evolution.....................................................81 + Spirit buried in matter as seed in soil...............................87 + Worldsoul symbolized in cross.........................................85 + Boston doctor weighing soul of animal and man.........................99 + The young cling to life in body as tenaciously as seed to pulp + of unripe fruit, the aged die as easily as seed falls from + ripe fruit......................................................103 + Snail illustrating relation of force and matter......................121 + Heidelberg wall and the walls of Jericho.............................122 + Spiritual causes produce physical effects; one man knocking + another down....................................................125 + Necessity of a Creator; box of type and chaos........................129 + Nebular theory requires Creator and Sustainer........................323 + Blessing of pain; hand on hot stove..................................131 + How seedatoms gather material like magnet............................133 + + +[PAGE 587] INDEX + + Page + Heredity and individuality; carpenter takes materials from + certain pile, but builds as he will.............................138 + Shape of body depends on etheric matrix like ice crystals on + lines of force in water.........................................137 + Impossibility of escape from MATURE destiny..........................161 + Story of a remembered past life......................................172 + Activity of chaos illustrated........................................208 + Color illustrating the divine and human principles...................252 + The personality, the reverse reflection of spirit as trees + reflected in pond...............................................266 + Vicarious Atonement..................................................402 + Value of a hard life.................................................432 + Initiation like pulling trigger of pistol............................520 +TEARS; why women are more prone to emotion than men......................60 +TEMPERAMENT not inherited...............................................138 +TEMPTATION; purpose of temptation...................................110,282 +TRANSMIGRATION. + A fallacy not to be confused with rebirth............................157 +TRANCE brings one in touch with subconscious mind.......................149 +THOUGHT. + Cost of the faculty of thought.......................................270 + Thought and the faculty of expression are the highest human + privileges......................................................236 + Cunning was developed in early Atlantis..............................309 + Difficulty of transmuting cunning to reason..........................310 + Thought first developed by Original Semites who were + our progenitors.............................................299,309 + What impels man to think.............................................285 + How an idea becomes a thought.........................................88 + How thoughts are generated, ensouled and projected....................89 + Thought impressed upon braincenters through Reflecting Ether.......38,89 + How thoughts are impressed upon the conscious memory..................90 + How thoughts are impressed upon the subconscious memory; "like + chickens coming home to roost"...................................91 + The effect of the twin forces and feelings on thought.................89 + Thought transmission; how accomplished................................90 + Thought, the supreme reality..........................................28 + + +[PAGE 588] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + The World of Thought where thoughts are generated .................48,88 + The Physical World where we are schooled in the right use + of thought.......................................................33 + The elevating influence of abstract thought..........................203 + How animals think though lacking mind.................................70 +VESUVIUS eruptions the result of materialism............................510 +VIRTUE. + Not synonymous with innocence; it predicates knowledge and choice....282 +VITAL FORCE. + Solar energy specialized through spleen............................63,68 + How used by Ego to operate muscles....................................89 + How it expels deleterious microbes from system........................63 + How obstructed flow of vital force causes sleep.......................93 +VITALITY. + Archetypes of Vitality................................................50 +WAR. + War between heart and mind....................................17,384,393 + Effect of death on the battlefield...................................118 + Not peace, but a sword...............................................387 +WISDOM. + Human wisdom contrasted with animal instinct.......................79,84 +WILL. + Will is the spiritual expression of the positive, male and solar + sexforce. Imagination is feminine, negative and lunar..........267 + In early Lemuria, Will enabled man to frustrate God's plan + and caused all our pain and suffering...........................362 + It is the force ensouling thought.....................................89 +WORLDSOUL; symbolically crucified........................................85 +WORD. + The Word made flesh; the Great Creative Fiat.........................181 + The cries of the Moon period begins the first echo of the + creative fiat...................................................219 + Verbal expression of thought our highest human achievement + and privilege...................................................236 + The larynx was originally part of the creative organ sometime it + will give back in full "the lost Word", the creative + Fiat....................................................269,364,425 + + +[PAGE 589] INDEX + + Page +WORLDS. + The necessity of dividing matter into Worlds..........................29 + How the homogenous primordial matter is disposed in different + manner to form various worlds...............................187,375 + The beginning, purpose and end of worlds.............................188 + There are worlds denser than the Physical World......................233 + Each planet has three worlds; the Physical World, the Desire World + and the World of Thought.........................................53 + The threefold planets of a solar system swim in a sea of matter from + a fourth world; the World of Life Spirit.........................55 + All the solar systems swim in a sea of matter from the World of + Divine Spirit which links them...................................55 + Illustration to show this relationship................................53 + Why some worlds are invisible to most people though perceived + clearly by others................................................24 + Why we should endeavor to investigate those worlds....................27 +REGION. + A subdivision of any of the Worlds....................................30 + The Chemical Region, the Etheric Region. Main divisions of the + Physical World...................................................30 + The Region of Concrete Thought, the Region of Abstract Thought. + Main divisions of the World of Thought...........................30 +PHYSICAL WORLD. + The chemical region consists of solids, liquids and the gases which + are the basis of form............................................30 + The etheric region consists of four ethers which are the avenue + of LIFE vitalizing FORM....................................32,35,38 + The Physical World is the realm of FORM; why color and tone are + foreign to thereto..............................................119 + Value of Physical World as a school of experience.....................32 +CHEMICAL ETHER. + It is the avenue of the forces which accomplish assimilation, the + so-called DEAD among them....................................35,126 + Ripe at seventh year when vital body is born.........................143 +LIFE ETHER. + Is the avenue of propagation..........................................36 + It is ripe at the 14th year when child becomes adolescent and + capable of reproduction.........................................143 + + +[PAGE 590] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Forces working in positive pole produces males in the negative + pole females.....................................................36 +LIGHT ETHER. + Is our awareness of sense perception, the forces in positive pole + generate warm blood in negative cold blood.......................36 + Chlorophyl and circulation of sap in plants...........................37 +REFLECTING ETHER. + Storehouse of the memory of nature and man............................37 + Ego makes impression on brain by this ether........................38,89 + Mediums and psychometrists read events there..........................38 +DESIRE WORLD. + Is preeminently the realm of light and color; forms are extremely + unstable but tone is sweeter than here, yet not native + to this world...................................................119 + The luminous desirestuff is disposed in seven regions or states of + varying density as force-matter..................................39 + Purgatory is in the three densest states of the Desireworld, the + First Heaven in the three upper and between them a Borderland + of monotony.....................................................112 + The twin forces and twin feelings of the Desire World.................42 +REPULSION. + One of the twin forces of the Desire World tending to purge us + from evil and destroy it.........................................43 + It is dominant in the three lower regions.............................42 + Illustration of its operation.........................................46 + How it operates in our thought activity...............................89 +ATTRACTION. + One of the twin forces of the Desire World............................42 + Attraction builds virtue when Repulsion has shattered vice............47 + Illustration of its operation.........................................46 + Its influence on our thought activity.................................89 + Heredity discounted..................................................156 +INTEREST AND INDIFFERENCE. + That twin feeling indigenous to the 4th region of the Desire World....45 + Illustration of their operation....................................46,48 + How mathematics raises one above the realm of feeling................203 + + +[PAGE 591] INDEX + + Page +WORLD OF THOUGHT. + It is preeminently the sphere of music or TONE, as COLOR is + indigenous to the Desire World and FORM to the Physical World...119 + The Great Silence is the portal to this realm of Sound...............122 + The region of Concrete Thought embraces the four densest + subdivisions where Archetypes and Archetypal Forces are + forming matter................................................49,50 + The Region of Abstract Thought comprises the three highest + subdivisions where ideas are generated...........................51 + Diagram of the Seven Worlds...........................................54 + + WORLD PERIODS; THE SEVEN (TOPICAL) + + Practical value of knowing cosmogony thoroughly......................202 + The World Periods are way stations on the evolutionary journey + of the spirit through matter....................................190 + Why this pilgrimage was undertaken and its fruits.................87,429 +SATURN PERIOD. + Activity in any Period starts in the preceding Cosmic Night..........207 + Location of the seven globes; they were dark and hot as + incipient firemist..............................................205 + The Bible also mentions this dark stage..........................321,322 + There was only one element: heat or incipient fire...................234 + Man went through a mineral like existence and had a trance + like consciousness..........................................206,212 + The path of evolution described......................................195 + Lords of Flame radiate germ of dense body and awaken divine + spirit in man...................................................206 + There were some stragglers left behind...............................224 + The Lords of Mind were human then and worked with us as we work + with present minerals.......................................222,427 +SUN PERIOD. + Location of the seven globes, they were light balls..................210 + There were two elements, fire and air................................234 + Bible description of the Sun Period and how it is scientifically + possible to have light prior to the creation of sun and moon....328 + Man went through a period of plantlike existence and had a + consciousness like deep sleep...................................213 + + +[PAGE 592] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + The path of evolution described......................................198 + Lords of Wisdom aid in reconstruction of dense body, glands and + alimentary canal begin germinally and vital body has its + inception as a thoughtform......................................211 + The Cherubim waken life spirit.......................................211 + Saturn stragglers awakened and become plantlike......................224 + The present animals started evolution in Sun Period and were + minerals then...................................................224 + The Archangels were human in the Sun Period; they work with both + animal and man..............................................222,349 +MOON PERIOD. + Location of the seven globes, they were water and the atmosphere was a + steamy firefog..................................................213 + There were three elements; fire, air and water...................234,328 + The Bible describes the dense water and firefog......................328 + Man-in-the-making went through a period of animal-like existence + he had internal picture consciousness like dreams...............217 + At that time the divine consciousness of the spirit was entirely + obscured self-consciousness incipient...........................216 + Lords of Individuality reconstruct dense and vital bodies, skeleton, + muscles and nerves had inception................................214 + Lords of Individuality give desirebody as a thought form, Seraphim + awaken human spirit.............................................215 + Moon beings hung suspended in atmosphere and had horizontal spines + like animals now................................................228 + A division of the globe took place at close of Moon Period and + smaller part became satellite...................................218 + Origin of birds' migrations and honeymoon trips......................219 + The divided parts merged in Cosmic Night between Moon and Earth + Periods.........................................................220 + List of classes which started in Moon Period.........................226 + The Angels were human then and work now with plant, animal and + man.........................................................222,349 + Present plants were minerals then, parasites are stragglers......227,228 + Lucifer Spirits are stragglers from livewave of Angels...............286 +EARTH PERIOD. + We have made 3 1/2 revolutions of the Earth Period...................199 + + +[PAGE 593] INDEX + + Page + The nadir of density IN OUR EVOLUTION was reached here on earth, + but there are worlds denser still...........................199,233 + We have now four elements............................................234 + Bible description of recapitulations.................................329 + Reconstruction of dense body to adapt it to mind.....................239 + Reconstruction of vital body by Angels...............................240 + Desirebody reconstructed by Archangels...............................242 + Mind was given by Lords of Mind......................................222 + The descending spirit meeting the ascending form in the focusing + mind marks the birth of the thinking human being................267 + The mind is now in its mineral stage, dead, hence we work with + dead minerals...............................................426,428 + Classes of beings at beginning of Earth Period; the minerals + entered evolution here..........................................234 +JUPITER PERIOD. + The Earth will become etheric and globes will be disposed as they + were in the Moon Period.........................................199 + There will be five elements, the 5th described.......................234 + The vital body will be our densest vehicle.......................240,242 + It will reach highest perfection.....................................422 + The dense body will be transmuted and compounded with + the vital body..................................................422 + The mind will become alive...........................................427 + Then we shall work with plant life...............................298,428 + We shall have an OBJECTIVE PICTURE CONSCIOUSNESS and be capable + of impressing pictures on other minds...........................418 + The human spirit, the Ego, will be prominent.........................425 + The animals will be human.........................................70,224 +VENUS PERIOD. + The globes will be located as in Sun Period..........................199 + Consciousness of Venus Period described..............................419 + The desire body will be perfected....................................422 + The essence of the perfected dense and vital bodies will be + compounded therewith............................................423 + The Intellectual soul will be absorbed by the Life Spirit, which + will be most active principle then..........................423,425 + The mind will then acquire feeling and we shall create + living and feeling forms....................................427,428 + + +[PAGE 594] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + The plants will be human, the present minerals will be animal........226 +VULCAN PERIOD. + Globes will be located as in Saturn Period...........................200 + We shall have highest Spiritual, Creative Consciousness..............421 + The Mind will be perfected and compounded with essences of + threefold body.............................................422, 423 + It will be able to propagate itself and create living, + moving, thinking forms for present mineral which will + then be human...............................................427,428 + The divine spirit will be particularly active........................423 + The Emotional soul will be absorbed by Human Spirit..................423 + The Creative Word (chapter) +REVOLUTIONS and Periods defined.........................................196 +RECAPITULATION. + Spirals within spirals...............................................321 + The meaning and necessity of recapitulation..........................208 + Work pertaining to any Period delayed till previous phases of + evolution have been recapitulated...............................209 + How described in the Bible...........................................329 +COSMIC NIGHTS OR CHAOS. + Reason for Cosmic Nights and death...................................244 + Activity of any Period starts in middle of preceding Cosmic + Night as a life commences at conception.....................250,207 + Thus it is not a period of inactivity................................208 + The work in cosmic night defined and described...................196,200 + There are cosmic nights between revolutions also.....................207 + The activity there described.........................................243 + Life and form merge in Chaos, only seedatoms of world-globes + persist.........................................................247 + Comenius coined the word "gas" to represent spirit and Chaos.........251 + Chaos, Cosmos, Genius and Epigenesis (chapter).......................252 +POLARIAN EPOCH. + It was a recapitulation of the Saturn Period.........................263 + The matter which is now the separate Earth was then in the + polar region of the sun.........................................261 + The dense body began to crystallize as mineral.......................165 + + +[PAGE 595] INDEX + + Page + Propagation by fission, the pineal gland was then a localized + organ of feeling................................................262 + The Bible on the Polarian Epoch......................................330 +HYPERBOREAN EPOCH. + Angels and Lords of Form clothe humanity with vital body; mankind + was therefore plant-like........................................263 + Cain, the second epoch, man is represented as an agriculturist...165,166 + Skeleton formed in end of Hyperborean Epoch and was soft + as cartilage....................................................346 + Towards end of this epoch the earth was expelled from sun............263 + The Bible on that event..............................................330 +LEMURIAN EPOCH. + The Moon expelled from earth in beginning Lemuria....................264 + Atmosphere of firefog, boiling seas, giant fern forests and + animals.........................................................275 + A division also took place in the desire body....................235,395 + The skeleton hardened under lunar forces.........................275,346 + Then the sexes separated.............................................268 + Lords of Mind gave germinal mind and impregnated higher part + of desirebody therewith.........................................243 + Archangels work in lower part of desirebody......................236,243 + When born man had hearing and feeling, he used his body + unconsciously...............................................276,277 + He saw himself and others INWARDLY...............................277,283 + Propagation directed by Angels in harmony with the stars. + Then parturition was painless...................................277 + Sexrelation brought consciousness of dense body when "Adam + KNEW his wife"..................................................283 + Lucifer Spirits appeared to Lemurian woman's inner consciousness + prompting to self assertion.....................................287 + When their eyes were opened they became aware of loss of body + at death and ignorance of stellar lore caused them to + propagate at wrong times, so parturition has become painful.....283 + Memory was first developed by Lemurian girls.........................280 + Science and Art were taught in Lemurian schools of Initiation + conducted by Lords of Mercury...............................271,281 + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 596] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + Page + Lords of Venus were leaders of masses................................272 + Greatest number of Lemurians remained animal-like....................289 + Reason for rise and fall of nations..................................289 + The sixteen races from latter part of Lemuria to beginning + of New Gallilee.................................................271 + Negroes are the remnant of Lemurian race.............................304 +ATLANTEAN EPOCH. + Mind was unfolded by food............................................166 + Atlantean Epoch, the 6th day of Creation.............................322 + Inner heart of globe and outer cold gave foggy atmosphere............291 + In EARLY Atlantis man had an INNER perception, but did not see + OUTWARD things clearly..........................................293 + When later atmosphere cleared he lost touch with spiritual world.....294 +THE ATLANTEAN RACES. + (1) THE RMOAHALS + Developed sensation, could feel pleasure, pain, sympathy and + antipathy; their world had magic power..........................294 + (2) THE TLAVATLIS + Became ambitious, remembered great deeds of leaders, developed + germ of royalty.................................................295 + (3) THE TOLTECS + Started monarchy. Hereditary succession was reasonable then, as + father could transfer faculties to son..........................296 + (4) THE ORIGINAL TURANIANS + Abused power over lower classes; were idolaters......................297 + (5) THE ORIGINAL SEMITES + They were a chosen people, the seed race for our Aryan races.....298,334 + They were to evolve thought and were the last race forbidden to + marry outside family........................................299,355 + But some did that and are the present Jews...................309,335,355 + Then the atmosphere cleared and water filled seas....................300 + The Gods withdrew, giving man freewill and making him responsible + to law of consequence.......................................301,355 + (6) THE AKKADIANS and + (7) THE MONGOLIANS + Evolved thought farther, but became unadaptable......................303 + + +[PAGE 597] INDEX + + Page +THE JEWS. + How patriotism has retarded their progress...........................313 + And why Christ was born a Jew........................................313 + How the tribes were lost and how they will be saved..............314,335 + America THE MELTING POT of amalgamation and emancipation for all + races; the cradle of a new people...............................315 +ARYAN EPOCH. + The Ego begins to shine..............................................165 + Noah and the wine....................................................168 + The new chosen people............................................305,311 + Anglo Saxons are the 5th of Aryan Races..........................304,305 + + +[PAGE 599] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + + ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Abel killed no animals 166. + type of Lemurian Epoch 166. +Abraham, allegory of 319. + seed of 351,352. +Absolute, boundless being 181. + center of earth corresponds to 507. + creation resolved back to 191. + God returns to 200. +Abstract Thought, region of, see Thought Abstract. + densest dark globe in 528. + is separative 380. +Action, choice of, essential 282. + conscious soul thrives by 424. + desire body incentive to 464. + right, promotes growth of conscious soul 96. +Activity, an aspect of God 182, 323. + third aspect of God 324. +Adam became breathing creature 345 + knew Eve 277. + the name of humanity 326. + number representing 500. + rib story of 346. +Adaptability, all progress depends upon 223,303,337. +Adept developed by first Great Initiation 502. + unused sex currents of 475. +Adm, distinguished from Adam 326. + the number of humanity 500. +Adoration, an aid in building inner vehicles 495,496. + final steps to, seldom accomplished without teacher 495. + highest step toward union with God 465, 495 +Aerial Region 50. +Affix of surnames, origin of 351. +Age of patriarchs 354. +Agnosticism, destructive force of 157. +Akkadians, see Atlantean races (subhead Akkadians). +Alchemists, students of the occult 438. + Christian Rosenkreuz labored with 518. +Alchemy and soul growth 421-425. +Alcohol craved by desire body 105. + counterfeit spirit 169. +Alimentary canal begun in Sun Period 211. +All-consciousness, of virgin spirits 216. + + +[PAGE 600] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +All life is one 50. +Allegories of the Bible 319. +Altruism awakened by love of God 371. + compared to sound vibration 370. + developed by control of blood circulation 399. + factor in attaining initiation 404. + heart the home of 398. + latent within all 370. + selfishness being routed by 368. + superseding patriotism 355. +Alone Begotten, see Word. +Amphibians preceded birds 332. +Amputation, pain follows 64. +Analogy, one of the best helps to an understanding of + evolution 330. +Ancestor worship, origin of 295. +Ancient Truths in Modern Dress 515. +Anaesthetics, effect of, on vital body 62. +Angels aid Lords of Form 262, 263 + belong to different evolution 285 + brain not used by 287 + built by force of love 285. + build embryo in womb 288. + build vital body 222, 349. + builders of ether 222. + control propagation 283, 536. + cosmic wisdom flowed into 285. + create without desire 285. + direct evolution of plant kingdom 299,349,427. + directed by Jehovah 334. + double-sexed 285. + function in vital body 285. + guard each ego 352. + humanity of Moon Period 222, 240,262-263, 333, 349, 376, 427, 446. + Jehovah, highest Initiate of 376. + love of, is unselfish 286. + perpetuate the race 283,288. + pioneers of Moon Period 286. + reconstruct vital body 240. + teach use of vital function 222. + unable to communicate with brain-beings 286, 361. +Angels, Recording, allow choice of embodiment 136. + bring to birth at required time 161. + build body of incoming ego 135. + enforce payment of debts 136, 161. + impress vital body with new panorama 135. + Lords of Destiny 135. + overrule free will 136, 161. + watch unseen 136. + + +[PAGE 601] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Anglo-Saxon, fifth race of fifth epoch 304. +Anger, great danger of 144. +Animal group spirits govern by suggestion 78,83. + send animals into re-embodiment 357. + sufferings of 78. + work through blood 350, 356. +Animal group spirits, see also Group Spirits. +Animal kingdom, classification of 416. +Animal Spirit, has reached Desire World 77. + not yet indwelling 69. + not individualized 356. +Animals aided by angels 222. + aided by archangels 222, 427. + as food undesireable 459. + blood infusion of 356. + clairvoyance of 77. + classification of 416. + cold and warm blooded 36, 37, 69. + color of, changes 37. + consciousness of 74, 83. + constitute physical bodies of group spirits 79. + desire body of 65, 68, 69. + domesticated 70. + evolution of, begun in Sun Period 224, 427. + free from sickness and pain 288. + have no will of their own 83. + humanity of the Jupiter Period 70, 342, 446. + hybrids 357. + instinct of 78. + killing of in "sport" 461. + man compared with 57. + missing link 342. + more advanced than man at same stage 69. + protection of 462. + reflecting ether inactive in 59. + seed atom of, withheld 357. + sent into re-embodiment 357. + symbolized by cross 86, 535. + thinking of 59, 70. + vehicles of, not concentric 77, 293. + vital body built by angels 222, 349. + warm blooded 36, 69. + younger brothers of man 345, 446. + wild, propagation of, regulated 288. +Anthropoid apes belong to human life wave 229, 230, 235, 342. + and undivided desire body 236. + descendants of Lemurians 289. + have degenerated from man 342-343. + may overtake our evolution 235. + + +[PAGE 602] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Apocrypha, valuable information in 317. +Apostles symbolize Initiations 502. +Aquarian Age, Slav civilization during 305. +Archangel Michael, see Michael Archangel. +Archangels aid man from without 403. + aided man in Lemuria 265. + as race spirits still help man 349, 359. + as race spirits realize deficiencies of religions 383. + Christ highest initiate 376. + controlling spirits of races 334, 349, 403. + Enter man's body through inspired air 380. + expert builders of desire body 222, 243, 349. + function in desire body 376. + give desire body purely animal desires 243. + guide evolution of animals 349, 427. + humanity of the Sun Period 242, 334, 376, 427. + instigate wars 334. + lowest vehicle of the desire body 376, 403. + manipulate Sun forces 404. + man's teachers in higher worlds 126. + prepare man to receive solar ray 404. + the Sun Spirits 403. + work in desire body of man 243, 349. +Archetypal forces, region of 50. + exist in water stratum of earth 504. + man a part of 126. +Archetype, creative, built in second heaven 49. + of suicide 104. +Archetypes, creative thought molds 49. +Ariadne's thread 201. +Arterial blood, contains more earthy matter than venous blood 443. +Art, taught in ancient Initiations 281. + value of 516. +Aryan Epoch (Fifth Epoch) 304-306. + chosen people of 311-315. + fire first used in 304. + food of man modified in 168. + highest Initiate of, to appear 304. + human spirit unfolded in 165. + nucleus for last race to be formed in 305. + people of, made blind to higher worlds 169. + pioneers of humanity in, initiated in 304. + present Epoch 165. + seventh day of creation 333. + thought and reason developed by man in 298, 309. + two classes in 304. + wine given to man in 168. + work of man begins in 333. +Aryan Races, central Asia, the cradle of 301, 304, 310. + + +[PAGE 603] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + + descendants of Original Semites 304. + names of 305. + pioneers of human life wave 342. + seven 307. + two more to come 311. +Ash, our food should contain very little 449. +Asiatics and ancestor worship 295. +Asteroids, fragments of moons 260. +Aspirant, accomplishes union with higher self 465. + continence practiced by 471, 538. + cultivates concentration 483, 487. + first work of the conquest of desire body 433. + highest step of, is adoration 495. + learns much by meditation 489. + impossible for teacher to overlook 495-496, 525 + must avoid flesh 446. + must cultivate contemplation 494. + must cultivate even temper 463. + must have confidence in his teacher 440. + must practice observation 492. + to learn to leave body at will 484. + unselfishness required of 474, 476. + works consciously to attain 437. +Assimilation, all sustenance overcome by 457. + carried on by positive forces of chemical ether 35. + forces of, the so-called dead 457. + in childhood by macrocosmic vital body 139. + law of 457-460. + of animal food, injurious 458. + of mineral, by plant 458. + of mineral leaves injurious waste product 457. + osmosis of Hyperborean Epoch 263. + of vegetables, easy and nourishing 458. +Astral body, see Desire Body +Astral World, see Desire World. +Astrology, and rulership of day of week 411. + based upon law of causation 161. +Astronomy, different theories of 514. +Atlantean Epoch 291, 332-333. + clearing of atmosphere of, and loss of clairvoyance 294. + cunning of 298. + desire body divided 394. + desire nature strong in 298. + education in 296. + ego very weak in 298. + eye evolved during 276. + foggy condition of atmosphere in 291. + (Fourth Epoch) 165. + man had spiritual perception in 293. + + +[PAGE 604] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + man involuntarily clairvoyant in 241. + man of, moved by flying leaps 292. + man of, the Adam of the Bible 332. + meat the food of 166. + mind unfolded by man 165, 298. + Nimrod, type of man of 166. + sixth day of creation 332. + spirit enters vehicles middle of third of 309. + water of, less dense 291. +Atlantean Races. + Akkadian, (sixth race) 303. + evolved faculty of thought 303. + unadaptable to new conditions 303. + Mongolians (seventh race) 297. + evolved faculty of thought along orthodox lines 303. + unprogressiveness of 303. + Original Semites (fifth race) 297. + become subject to law of consequence 301. + chosen people of Jehovah 334. + developed cunning 299, 309. + evolved corrective quality of thought 297. + first race given free will 302. + first race to discover brain superior to brawn 299. + imbued with racial characteristics 334. + last race forbidden to intermarry 355. + led from Atlantis by great entity 301. + married outside race 310. + not led out of Egypt 335. + progenitors of present Jews 334. + seed race of Aryan 298, 334. + used faculty of thought 299. + Original Turanians (fourth race) 297. + black magicians 297. + oppressed poor 297. + selfish 297. + vain and ostentatious display of 297. + worshiped kings 297. + Rmoahals (first race) 294. + developed feelings 294. + developed rudimentary language 294. + feelings as spirits inspired them 295. + harmless character of 295. + possessed words of power 295. + powers, resembled powers of nature 294. + Tlavatlis (second race) 295. + developed germ of royalty 295. + developed memory 295. + felt separate selfhood 295. + instituted ancestor worship 295. + + +[PAGE 605] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Atlantean Races (cont.) + Toltec (third race) 295. + bestowed qualities upon offspring 295. + education of 295. + evolved memory 296. + inaugurated hereditary succession 295. + kings of Initiates 297. + tended to divide into nations 296. + valued experience 296. +Atlantis, atmosphere of, foggy 291. + beginning of separate nations in middle third of 296. + clearing atmosphere of 300. + conditions existing in 291. + destroyed by flood 168, 304. + educators appeal to instinct 296. + memory of man greater than now 296. + refugees of, the Mongolians 304. +Atmosphere, clearing of 300. +Atom, grouping of, true 521. +Atomic weights, and valences 410. +Atoms float in sea of ether 58. + in cosmic root substance 375. + vibrated by vital points 61. +Atonement, vicarious, objections to 400. + reason for its inclusion in Christian religion 373. + reconciled to law of Consequence 402. +Attraction, battle of, with repulsion causes suffering 47. + builds virtue 47. + illustration of working of 46. + involved in mental processes 89. + law of, heredity explained by 156. + one of two twin forces in Desire World 42. + operative in third region of desire world 44. + roused by interest 46. + second aspect of Supreme Being manifests as 375. +Aurora Borealis, and Martian "canals" 259. +Aura becomes distinctive on completion of silver cord 10. + brightness of, attracts Teacher 525. + of earth 406. + unselfishness increases luminosity of 525. +Bacchus, significance of 169. +Bacon, Sir Francis, works of, mutilated 518. + and Shakespeare controversy 251. +Baldus, Jacobus, first poem of 251. +Bathing, benefit from 445. + +Beast, number of 498, 514. +Beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks 389. + + +[PAGE 606] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Belief and knowledge 147. +Bethlehem, Star of 389, 391. +Bible, allegorical significance of 319, 320. + agrees and differs with science 330. + hidden meaning in 319, 320. + Jewish and Christian doctrines of 316. + King James 318. + limitations of 317-321. + mutilated 314, 336. + names of God in 333. + not an "open" book 319, 322. + revisions have not greatly improved 318. + occult analysis of Genesis 317-364. + occult key to 319. + original text lost 320. + Talmud 320. + Thorah 319. + translators, forty seven in all 318. + Version: + Hebrew 320. + Martin Luther 318. + Masoretic 320. + Septuagint 320. + writers of, great occultists 319. +Birth, each gives new chance 363. + of desire body and puberty 142. + of mind and maturity 142. + of vital body and growth 141. + stages of 139. + result of ego's desire for experience 129. +Birth place chosen by ego 136. +Blavatsky and earth's third motion 512. +Blind man of gospels and rebirth 170. +Blood, absorbs vital energy 239, 353. + action of Mars in 268, 274. + acts directly on stomach 239. + carries the feelings and emotions 91. + changes of temperature affect 144. + channel of expression for vital body 455. + children unable to generate 143. + circulation controlled by life spirit 399. + circulation due to light ether 36. + circulation in health and disease 445. + common, and longevity of Patriarchs 354. + common, carries pictures of outside world 398. + common, carries pictures from ancestors to descendants 397. + common, caused by tribal marriages 352. + + +[PAGE 607] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Blood (cont.) + common, destroyed by marriage outside family, tribe or race 355 + control of, develops altruism 399. + corpuscles given by parents 143. + currents developed in Moon Period 217. + deposits earthy matter in system 443-444. + different in warm and cold blooded animals 69. + driven to field of greatest activity 239, 353. + ego, controls dense body through 238. + etches pictures on seed atom 398. + excess of, produced by positive vital body 60. + haemolysis of 353, 356. + highest expression of vital body 91, 239, 353, 397. + influence of, recognized by Scots 145. + infusion in animals 356. + iron in 268, 274. + Jews forbidden to eat 349. + man does not recognize himself as ego in common 354. + medium for ego's work on nervous system 238. + mediates for the soul 350. + mixing of, destroys negative clairvoyance 355. + "most peculiar essence" 145. + normal heat regulated by birth of mind 145. + occult significance of 145. + of Christ bore Sun Spirit into earth 407. + passes through heart in every cycle 397-398. + production of 143. + purified from desire 538. + race spirit in 353, 406. + relation of, to life spirit 398. + relation to Memory of Nature 354, 397. + soul of all flesh in 350. + storehouse of subconscious memory 91, 353, 397. + vantage ground of spirit 356. + vehicle of ego 91, 143-146, 238, 350, 356. + white corpuscles in 455. +Blood, Cleansing, see Cleansing Blood. +Blood, lacked by our humanity in animal stage 69. + recent acquisition of man 218. + red, iron an essential constituent of 268, 274. + requisite to a separate desire body 69. + warm, requisite of indwelling spirit 86, 348. +Bodies, father and mother are 307. + interpenetration of 58. + necessary for functioning in various worlds 57. + suited to purpose they serve 255. + transmuted into threefold soul 424. + work on different bodies carried on simultaneously 440. + + +[PAGE 608] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Body, dense see Dense Body. +Body, Desire see Desire Body. +Body of Christ, pierced in six places 406. +Body, pituitary see Pituitary Body. +Body, affected by occult development 440, 441. + evolved at end of Moon Period 217. + has individual will 394. + instrument of ego 156. + lower part of threefold, controlled by desire nature 394. + man learns to build 126. + method of spiritualization 123. + prayer spiritualizes threefold body 435. + quintessence of, built into threefold spirit 123. + shape of changes 255. + vehicle of ego 94. + worked on simultaneously 440. +Body vital, see Vital Body. +Bones formed in Lemurian Epoch 346. + necessary for ego's functioning 456. +Borderland between heaven and purgatory 112. + inhabitants of 112. +Boundless being the essence of the Absolute 181. + should be controlled through mind 394. +Brain, activities of certain areas of 399. + activity of, caused by Lucifer 288. + and cerebro-spinal nervous system, secondary vantage + of human spirit 397. + angels aid in construction of 286. + areas of, to be controlled by life spirit 399. + blood driven to, in thinking 145, 353. + building uses half creative power 270, 284. + built by thought 18, 267. + built in Earth Period 236, 239. + calls up pictures of outside world 353. + centers, manipulation of 89. + drained by blood after heavy meal 239. + drained of blood in sleep 239. + expression of desire body 353. + indirect way of gaining knowledge 363. + knowledge bought with pain and death 363. + location of, inefficient 256. + Lucifer spirits use 287, 361. + man's link between spirit and matter 285. + organ to co-ordinate impulses 285. + phosphorus required by 452. + pineal gland, position of in 473, 475. + pituitary body, position of 473, 475. + separation of sexes step in building 267. +Breath, Jehovah blew, into man's nostrils 345. 350. + (or life-breath) Hebrew "nephesh" 332. + + +[PAGE 609] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Bridge to inner worlds 479. +Brotherhood, creation of, object of Christ's second coming 352. +Brotherhood, Rosicrucian see Rosicrucian Brotherhood. +Brotherhood, Universal, method of consummating, 355, 360, 384, + 385, 388, 393, 399, 400, 406, 435, 437, 463. +Brothers, Elder, see Elder Brothers. +Brothers of the Rose Cross see Rosicrucian Brotherhood. +Brothers of the same ray 438. +Buddha, Light of Asia 17. + body becomes alight at death 406. + is reborn at Shankaracharya 405-406. + religion of 515. + sayings of 150. +Building inner vehicles 480-485. + + +C.R.C., see Christian Rosenkreuz. +Caduceus 410, 412-414. +Cain, agriculturist 166. + functioned in vital body 166. + sustained by plants 166. + symbolized man of second epoch 166. +Candidate, for initiation, usually unaware of his selection 524. + hailed as "first born" 527. + shown how to utilize stored up powers 524. +Caste, system crumbling in 436. +Catastrophes, liquidation of collective destinies 508. +Causation, see Consequence. +Cause and effect, see Consequence. +Celibacy not always a virtue 471. + only necessary to Initiate 467, 472. + vow of 467, 472. +Cell, soul of permeated by desire 458. +Cells, consciousness of 81. +Centers, three spiritual in head 397. +Centers, six vital in body 406. +Cerebro-spinal nervous system, see Nervous system. +Chaos, see Cosmic night. +Chaos, an holy name 251. +Character and possessions result of past 154. +Chastity, necessity for 471. +Cheerfulness affects digestion 456. +Chemical elements 410. +Chemical ether assimilates nutriment 35. + excretes waste products 35. + positive and negative in manifestation 35. + restoration in sleep processes 94. + ripe at seventh year 143. + + +[PAGE 610] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Chemical force moves matter 121. + in mineral, due to planetary ether 58. +Chemical Region, basis of dense form 29-30. + densest state contacted by man 222. + inertia law of matter in 40. + mineral stratum of earth corresponds to 503. +Chemical Region, see also Physical World. +Cherubim, aided man voluntarily 211, 215. + awakened germinal life spirit 212. + did not aid in creating form 326. + helped man to penetrate veil of matter 216. + in Moon Period 215, 229. + in Sun Period 212, 221, 225. + leave our evolution 220-221, 326. + not mentioned in Creation Story 326. +Child, latent faculties of 139, 140. +Childbirth, ignorance of spiritual laws causes pain in 278, 283, 362. +Children, birth of 139. + all eyes and ears 140. + carry memory of previous life through 117, 172. + clairvoyance of 140, 281. + desire body of, impressed with pictures 118. + do not produce individual blood 143. + dying previous to fourteenth year 117, 172. + education of, in Atlantis 296. + education of, in Lemuria 278, 279, 361. + emotions of 140-141. + forced to lie 140. + given by Jehovah 334. + growth of vital body 141. + life in first heaven 116, 117. + negative clairvoyance of 140. +Chocolate, high nutritive value of 4542. +Chosen people, of future will "willingly" follow a leader 315. + past, present and future 298, 305, 311, 334. + rebellion of 310. +Chosen People, see also Atlantean Races (subhead Original Semites) +Christ after crucifixion, appeared to disciples in vital body 381. + aids seekers of truth 400. + brings relief to humanity 382. + brought sun force to earth 403. + carried into earth 406. + cleansed earth from race spirits 407. + coming of, loosened connection man's dense and etheric bodies 482. + composite being 374, 381, 388. + could not be "born" in dense body 380. + + +[PAGE 611] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Christ (cont.) crucifixion of 407. + customary vehicle of, the life spirit 376. + demands sacrifice of personal love 307. + desire body of, diffused over earth 407. + did not take away individual sin 482. + distinguished from Christ Jesus 374, 381. + distinguished from the Word 181, 374-375. + divine compassion of 382. + Elder Brother of humanity 384. + emancipates from race and family spirits 313, 352. + entered earth at crucifixion 403, 407. + explained inner teachings to disciples 520. + feels every act on planet 65. + formed in individual 389. + founder of universal religion of future 374. + gives prayer to humanity 435. + has had only one physical embodiment 378. + has loosened connections of our vehicles 482. + highest Initiate of Sun Period 376, 383, 403. + influences our desire bodies from within 380, 403. + knowledge of, by meditation 489. + leader of coming race 313. + leader of sixth epoch 306. + Light of the world 17. + Lord of love 393. + lowest vehicle desire body 378, 381. + method of salvation 403. + miraculous appearance of, contrary to evolution 383. + mission of 352, 360, 384, 405. + necessary to unify races 380. + older Brother of Sun Spirits 403. + only being spanning gap between God and man 382. + only partially confined to earth 408. + opens initiation to all 390, 400, 401, 405, 482. + possesses twelve vehicles 382. + purifies desire body of earth 407, 482. + purpose of, in taking Jesus' body 313. + regent of earth 408. + regent of sun 408. + rejection of, by Jews caused dispersion 314. + salvation of, illustrated 402. + saves stragglers 401, 405. + second coming of 361, 386. + sent out impulse used by Jehovah 404. + spirit in the sun 391. + spiritual Savior 391. + suffers from earth's limitations 408. + symbolizes Initiation of Vulcan Period 502. + time since coming only a moment in cosmic day 388. + + + +[PAGE 612] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Christ (cont.) to use vital body at second coming 381. + unifying influence of 388. + union with 433. + unique among Beings in seven worlds 382. + used lower vehicles of Jesus 381, 383. + worked upon earth previous to advent 404. + world Savior 389. +Christ, see also Christ Jesus, Jesus. +Christ Jesus acknowledged law of prophets 405. + age of that of humanity 501. + and bringing the sword 387. + and story of dead dog 44. + and Star of Bethlehem 389. + appeared as man among men 383. + atonement of, necessary 373. + atonement of, reconciled law of consequence 401. + changed water into wine 169. + cleansing blood of 400, 406-410. + compared to Buddha 17. + crucifixion of 406. + distinguished from Christ 378. + imposed secrecy for esoteric teaching 320. + pierced in six places 406. + real work after transfiguration 406. + taught law of rebirth 169. + taught love must supersede law 405. + taught of God within 352. + understands humanity's life 382. + vehicles of 377, 406. + violent death necessary 406. + wounds of, esoteric meaning 406. + wrought Philosopher's Stone 520. +Christ Jesus, see also Christ and Jesus. +Christian doctrines: + atonement 373, 400-411. + cleansing blood 406-411. + creation of 321-333. + fall of man 360-364. + forgiveness of sin 91, 111. + immaculate conception 379, 471. + salvation and damnation 229. + trinity of God 87, 253. +Christian Rosenkreuz, achieved union with Holy Spirit 433. + and Philosopher's Stone 519. + appeared in Europe 518. + birth of, marked new era 518. + founded order of Rosicrucians 518. + incarnate at time of Christ 379. + + +[PAGE 613] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Christian Rosenkreuz (cont.) in continuous embodiment 379, 518. + initiate of high degree 379, 518. + inspired writers 518, 519. + labored with alchemists 518. + sent to combat materialism 518. + speaks all languages 433. + symbolical name 519. +Christian Rosenkreuz, see also Saint-Germain. +Christianity being implanted in U.S. 315. + culmination of previous religions 164. + earned by pioneers of west 315. + fundamentally unifying 384. + has reached third step 303. + ideals too high for masses 384. + looks for one to come again 386. + malpractice of 392. + purpose of 352, 373, 433, 435. + religion of future 367. + shadow of true Christ religion 360. + to cross to Asia 516. + to culminate on Pacific coast 516. + travels westward 516. + true esoteric 17, 164. +Christians have ever present Savior 408. + striving to love right 303. +Church and state, necessary separation of 386. +Circulation of blood, control of 399. +Clairvoyance, among Lemurians 281. + aspirant must control 476. + caused by pineal gland 473, 477, 479. + caused by sense centers 67. + contact with inner worlds 477. + destroyed by mixing blood 355. + developed by study of mathematics 203. + disbelief in 26. + four conditions destroyed 359. + inherent in all 19. + involuntary in animals 77. + involuntary in children 140, 241. + involuntary in mediums 140, 241. + must be sought unselfishly 476. + not universal knowledge 25. + of Hindus and Indians 241. + produced by intermarriage 354. + purity of desire for 476. + training for 19, 25, 41, 470-497. + undesirable development of 531-532. + use of 476. + value of information obtained by 20. + + +[PAGE 614] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Clairvoyance (cont.) various versions result of 25. + vital body loosened in 241. +Clairvoyants trained, accept no money 68, 400, 476. +Clairvoyants, voluntary, control own body 242. + caused by sense centers 473-474. + differ in observation 26. + have no "off days" 474. + Lemurians were 281. + positive sense centers revolve clockwise 474. + to distinguish true 68, 400. +Clan, Scots cling to 353. + spirit of 351. +Clan, see also race spirits. +Cleansing Blood 400, 406-408. + bore Sun Spirit 407. + Christian doctrine of 406-411. + doctrine of, saves from despair 402. + necessity for 406. +Climate altered by man 125. +Clock of Destiny 163. +Coal degenerated plant forms 343, 504. +Cocoa undesirable food 452. +Cohesion manifestation of Supreme Being 375. +Coincidence defense of skeptic 113. +Color, changes with season 37. + deposited in all kingdoms by light ether 37. + in Second Heaven from sound 124. + produced by tone 123. + realm of 119. + relation of, to tone 123. + Seven Spirits before the Throne related to 253. + Trinity represented by 253. +Colors, in spectrum 253. + invisible 253. + of days and periods 413. + of seven rays 439. + three primary 253. + true thought pictures of, in Jupiter Period 418, 419. +Comenius and discovery of gas 250. +Compassionate Ones 118. + Elder Brothers are among 529. +Comte de St. Germain see Saint-Germain, and Christian Rosencreuz. +Concentration aid in building inner vehicle 486, 489. + compared to sleep 483. + conquers desire body 463. + deals thoroughly with things 494. + favorable time for 485. + must be cultivated 483, 487, 489. + + +[PAGE 615] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Concentration (cont.) striking instance of 488. + suggested subjects for 487. + upon sense centers 484. +Conception, and mold of vital body 137. + depends upon presence of seed atom 137. +Concord discovered by open mind 7. +Concrete Thought, region of, see Thought Concrete. +Confidence favorable effects of 440. +Confucius religion of 515. +Conscience, battle of, with desires in thought process 89. + etched into desire body 109. + feeling extracted from life panorama 109. + fruitage of purgatorial experience 109, 120. +Conscious soul, extract of dense body 96. + grows by experience 424. + increases consciousness of divine spirit 96. + to be absorbed by divine spirit 425. +Consciousness, common, involuntary clairvoyance of 355. + enlarged by soul growth 96. + expanded by study of mathematics 203. + etheric sight, next step in 190. + evolved in different periods 201, 415-421. + fifth chapter of Genesis deals with 336, 354. + from Fall of man, results 362. + full waking, attained by man 189. + future expansion of 414, 417. + object of 417. + of animal 74, 83. + of body cells 81. + of different vehicles 74, 75. + of ego depends on bony structure 456. + of four kingdoms 70-86. + of God, by virgin spirits 216. + of man during Sun Period 213. + of man in Atlantis 300. + of man in Earth Period 418. + of man in Hyperborea 263. + of man in Jupiter Period 418. + of man in Lemuria 279. + of man in Moon Period 418. + of man in Polaria 261. + of man in Saturn Period 212. + of minerals 85. + of mollusks 456. + of patriarchs 355. + of plants 74, 85. + of self 216. + of virgin spirits 189. + of woman before Fall 361. + of world periods 417-421. + + +[PAGE 616] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Consciousness (cont.) one common, for all in earlier periods 347-348. + produced by war of desire and vital bodies 456. + survives after death 149. + unbroken in life and death 496-497. +Consequence, law of, adjustments 157. + and eating of fruit by Eve 362. + and life panorama 130. + and vicarious atonement 373, 400, 402. + cause of heredity 156. + compatible with forgiveness of sin 373. + complexity of 136. + connected with planetary movements 160. + determined by present actions 163. + determines moment of birth 161. + disaster result of 507. + draws ego to rebirth 357. + each person responsible to 471. + every act seed ground 282, 507, 508. + explains life 154. + impersonal 106. + may not be evaded 157, 130, 161. + national debt of 290 + produces purgatorial suffering 106. + reaches beyond physical cause 125. + related to planetary movements 160. + rules in all realms 106. + works with stars 161. +Consequence, see also Rebirth. +Consumption, see Tuberculosis. +Contemplation, aid in building inner vehicles 494. + deals with soul of things 494. + holding an object in inner vision 494. + teaches life side of object 494. + union of higher and lower natures accomplished by 465. +Continental region of World of Thought 49. +Contradictions, apparent 227. +Co-operation, a growing desire for 436-437. +Copernican theory, not altogether correct 514. +Coral, crystallized animal forms 504. +Corpuscles, white 455. +Correspondences, law of 415. + red 456. +Corti, fibers of 126. +Cosmic forces, milk puts man in touch with 447. +Cosmic lines, mystery orders formed on 521. +Cosmic night, around us 249. + basis for progress 249. + compared to death 196, 244. + containes germ of manifestation 252. + + +[PAGE 617] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Cosmic night (cont.) distinction ceases between form and life 247. + everything dissolved but nuclei during 247. + gives birth to new forms 249. + homogenous state 244, 247. + important in evolution 250. + life of, based on work of active manifestation 249. + necessary for stragglers 250. + period of activity 196, 207. + related to gas 251. + root substance 322, 325. + seed ground of cosmos 252. + significance of different names 247. + spirit of God 252. + takes place between revolutions and periods 207, 243, 250. + unifying in effect 250. + wedding with cosmos 252. + work of Hierarchies gain greatest efficiency in 207. + work of revolution most powerful in 207. +Cosmic Planes of, solar systems 179, 182. + varying rates of vibration in the different 375-376. +Cosmic Root Substance crystallizes 186. + molded by Word 375. + negative pole of universal spirit 186. +Cosmic sound first uttered in Moon Period 219. +Cosmos merges into chaos 244. +Cosmogony, importance of 191. +Craters 507. +Creation, accomplished in Lemuria 364. + attained by evolution 189. + Christian doctrine 321-333. + described in Bible 321, 346. + groaning and travailing of 506. + lost word of 363. + of form 332, 344, 426-427. + of life 299, 344, 427. + of new bodies 361. + seven days of 327, 333, 411-425. +Creation stories, contradiction of 344. +Creative act gave physical consciousness 283, 537. +Creative Fiat 181, 375. +Creative Force, see Sex Force. +Creative Hierarchies, see Hierarchies. +Creative Word, manifestation of 425-429. + molds root substance 375. + of early peoples 278, 281, 295. + to be spoken by larynx 363, 425. +Creator, heaven experience aids man to become 28, 126, 338, 363. + nebular theory requires 323. + + +[PAGE 618] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Creator (cont.) of universe, necessity for 129. +Cremation, premature 98. + rationality of 103. +Crimes against dying 101. +Critical point in evolution 229, 231, 235, 401. +Criticism and esoteric training 439-440. + should be constructive 493. + must be impersonal 493. + to be turned upon oneself 493. +Cross stripes of heart 396. +Cross symbolizes four kingdoms 86. + symbolizes man's development 534. +Crucifixion, of Savior 406-407. +Crystallization, and planetary evolution 263. + begins at pole of planet 263. + moon forces produce 265. + of spirit causes matter 72, 248. +Cunning developed by original Semites 299. + first form of reason 299. + mental characteristic of Jews 310. + produced by union of mind with desire body 298. + transmuted to reason 309. +Currents, flowing through moon beings 217. +Cycle of life 146. + + +Damnation, Christian doctrine of 229. + state of inertia 231. +Dark ages, spiritually bright 409. + volcanic eruptions during 510. +Dark Globes 208. +Days of creation 327-333, 411-425. +Days of week 411. +Dead, disposition of 103. + help the living 126. + work with man 126, 457. +Death, accompanied by loss of weight 99. + and purgatory 96-112. + beneficial 244. + by drowning 61, 102. + by freezing 61. + by suicide 104. + cost of free will 363. + habits unchanged by 103, 104. + in early epochs 167, 278. + knowledge concerning, desirable 27. + necessitated by crystallization 244. + of children 118. + of races 281. + oftener we die 249, 363. + on battlefield 118. + + +[PAGE 619] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Death (cont.) only certainty 27. + produced by rupture of silver cord 98. + releases chemical forces of body 61. + riddle of 19. + separation of vehicles 97. + sometimes unperceived by ego 121. + symbols of 96. + value of peaceful 101, 109. +Decay, chemical activity of matter 31. + of dense an vital bodies 102. + result or particles escaping 458. +Degeneration, from lack of epigenesis 344. + of form 289, 291, 341-343. +Deity, no avenging 106. +Denderah, zodiac of 512. +Dense atoms, surrounded by ether 58. + vibrated by vital body 61. +Dense body, abandoned at death 97. + acquired eyes in Atlantean Epoch 276. + affected by food 440-441, 445-457. + affect by mode of living 441. + and vital body not always congruent 293. + archetype built in Second Heaven 126. + atoms of, replaced every seven years 97, 149. + birth of 139-141. + built by ego 128. + chemical composition of 456. + chemical furnace 448. + Christ never to use again 381. + commits no sin 171. + congruent with vital body 293. + connection with vital body loosened 482. + constitution of, in lower races 290. + control by ego 394. + counterpart of divine spirit 96. + degenerated in lower races 290. + desirability of retaining 444. + destroyed by higher vehicles 92. + disintegrates at death 511. + dulls suffering 105. + during sleep, ego outside of 482. + dwelling of God 171. + each step increases hardness 442. + ear first acquired by 206. + earliest composition of 261. + efficiency of, result of ego's building 128. + ego learns to build 126. + ego's correlative to physical world 57, 252. + + +[PAGE 620] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Dense Body (cont.) ego's first vehicle 75. + ego's most valuable vehicle 76, 237. + evolution of 261. + finer part saved by divine spirit 124. + formed under influence of Moon 346. + future development of 262. + future shape of 256. + germ of, given 206. + higher vehicles concentric with 292. + increases in density 442. + in four kingdoms 56. + in fourth stage of evolution 75, 76. + in involution 255. + instrument of spiritual intelligence 156. + interlocked with vital body 62. + interpenetrated by higher vehicles 88. + interpenetrated by planetary aura 58. + keynote of 369. + law of survival 368. + never craves alcohol 105. + nourishment of 441-460. + of future no localized sense organs 262. + of races 289. + organization of, shows ego's development 128. + organs of, evolved by necessity 276. + ossification of 443, 453. + perfection of 76, 236. + prayer for 462. + premature loss of, in suicide 104. + propagation of, controlled by Jehovah 346. + proper activity gives soul growth 96. + quintessence of, in earth's strata 511. + reaches highest development in Earth Period 421-422. + reconstructed in Earth Period 236, 237. + reconstructed in Sun Period 211. + replacement of atoms 97. + requires will and imagination 284. + seed atom of, in heart 97. + sense centers of 211. + shape of, determined by vital body 60. + silver cord, one part sprouts from seed atom 10. + spiritualization of 124, 435. + temple of living God 171. + vehicle of life dwelling in 235. + will be absorbed by divine spirit 424. + wonderful mechanism of 76, 237. +Density, different worlds vary in 29. +Desert of Gobi 335. +Desire battles with conscience 89. + binds disembodied to earth 103. + + +[PAGE 621] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Desire (cont.) detains ego in post-mortem progress 163. + exists as archetype 50. + incentive to action 464. + not altered after death 103. +Desire body, abandoned by ego in First Heaven 120. + absence of, denies emotion 64. + activities of, during waking hours 92. + apparent expansion of, after death 108. + archangels expert builders of 349. + archangels work in 243. + assumes body's shape after death 66. + birth of, marks puberty 142. + brain and nervous system highest expressions of 353. + can be conquered by concentration 463. + capable of separation 482. + centers of 483. + changes wrought by spirit 66. + checks excessive growth 142. + coalesces with mind in Atlantis 298. + conscience etched into 109. + constitution of 66. + controls generation of white corpuscles 455. + counterpart of emotional soul 96. + counterpart of human spirit 404. + craves alcohol 105. + currents of, forced through liver 69. + currents of, in cold-blooded animals 69. + currents of, in individualized spirit 68 + destroys dense body 92. + difference in animals 65, 69, 77. + dissolves when seed atom is removed 120. + dissolves in First Heaven 120. + division into parts 235, 242, 394, 482. + division of, causes change of posture 236. + division of, checks passion 236. + effect of purgation upon 105, 108, 114. + ego gathers material for 134. + ego has great scope in molding 138. + eventually to contain other bodies 423. + evolved by milk 166. + extends beyond dense body 67. + field of operation of 353, 455. + finer part, the emotional soul 424, 482. + first work of aspirant to overcome 433. + functions of 66. + future organization of 68. + gained possession of spleen 455. + generated in Moon Period 215. + germ of, from Lords of Individuality 215. + +[PAGE 622] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Desire body (cont.) growth of 66. + higher part forms animal soul 235, 394. + higher part "lower will" 594. + holds dense body in center 243. + importance of etching 109. + impressed by law 404. + impresses revenge on vital body 463. + in cold-blooded animals 69. + in future, interpenetrated by mind 243. + in second stage of evolution 75. + in different kingdoms 65, 235. + individual personality in higher part of 243. + induces development of languages 433. + links to mind 243. + liver central vortex of 10. + lowest vehicle of Christ 378. + lower part remains with dense body during sleep 482. + macrocosmic 140. + muscles and cerebro-spinal nervous system stronghold of 395, 455. + must be organized before vital body can divide 484. + must be conquered 381, 463. + of animals different from man 65. + of anthropoids 236. + of animals, not concentric 77. + of child dying before fourteenth year 117, 172. + of earth, evolutionary changes of 404. + of earth has feeling 65. + of earth permeates all form 65. + of mother 138. + of saint 66. + of suicide 104. + only separate feels emotion 64. + organized sometimes before vital body 484. + overcome by race religions 433. + ovoidal in shape 66. + panorama of 109. + partial withdrawal of 94. + perfected in Venus Period 422. + permanently leaves dense body at death 97. + perverted expression of ego 397. + prayer for 434-435, 463. + purgatorial experience through 109. + purified extract welded into human spirit 124. + purification of, aids in union of Holy Spirit 433. + race religions overcome by 433. + reconstructed 236, 242. + record etched upon 109. + + +[PAGE 623] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Desire body (cont.) reflection of human spirit 226. + rooted in liver 10, 68. + seed atom in greater vortex of liver 10. + seed atom of, persists 120. + seed atom repository of experience 114. + sense centers of 67, 243, 473, 474, 483, 484. + separate requires red blood 69. + shape of, after death 66. + shape of, during life 66. + silver cord, one sprouts from seed atom 10. + spiritualization of 463. + stamped by life record 109. + stronghold of 455. + tendency to harden 455. + to be absorbed 424. + to be organized 68. + transmuted into soul 424. + undivided requires group spirit 236, 243. + unorganized still 243, 481. + vital body must conquer 463. + war with vital body produces consciousness 455, 456. + withdrawn in sleep 404. + worked upon by Jehovah 404. +Desire stuff, currents of, in animals 69. + currents of, in man 68. + expert builders of, the archangels 349. + matter of desire world 39. + not finer physical matter 39. + pulsates through physical forms 64. + purification of 408. +Desire World, 38-40, 54, 104-121. + action of, attraction 42-48. + action of, interest 45. + activity of forces of 39. + all forms of, from emotion 39. + borderland of 112. + bridge to 479. + color in 40, 118, 119. + composed of life and color 40. + consists of material for embodying desire 38. + difficult to understand 41. + distance and time almost non-existent in 29. + effect of lie in 43. + elixir of life in 93. + evil self-destructive in 43. + existence of art, altruism, and philosophy in 47. + existence of feeling in 45. + existence of passion in 44. + + +[PAGE 624] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Desire World (cont.) extends beyond etheric region 53, 179. + first heaven 113. + force and matter 39. + forces of animal and man mingle 40. + forces of, cause incentive to action 39. + forms of levitate in 29. + furthers moral growth and evolution 39. + glimpsed by aspirant 489. + has four dimensions 203. + has neither heat nor cold 29. + hierarchies of, spiritual beings in 41. + impressionability, second region 44. + matter of, changing 41. + music in 119. + ocean of wisdom and harmony 93. + old and infirm pass through quickly 103. + one degree less dense than physical 39. + pictures of previous life roll backwards 108-114. + Purgatory three lower regions of 112. + purgative effect of 104-107. + puzzling changes of form in 480. + realm of color 119. + realm of feeling 42. + regions of 47. + repulsion, disintegrating force in 42. + time passes rapidly in 107. + training children in 118. + twin feelings in 42. + twin forces in 42. + vapor stratum of earth corresponds to 503-504. + vitalizes body 39. +Desires, chain disembodied to desire body 105. +Desires, highest, cause growth of Emotional Soul 96. +Destiny, clock of 163. + evasion of, impossible 161. + of man, to become creative 126. + recording angels, Lords of 161. + ripe 136, 163. + unavoidability of 161. + works in harmony with stars 161. +Destiny, Lords of, see Angels, recording. +Development, future and Initiation 411-429. + of animals 69. + one-sided, not desirable 305. +Diagrams, (in this work) must be spiritually conceived 194. +Die, oftener we, better we live 249, 363. +Diet see Food, also Nutrition. +Diet, individual needs of 84. + fruit an ideal 448. + important in esoteric training 440-441. + + +[PAGE 625] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Diet (cont.) milk as a factor 447. +Digestion, accomplished by chemical forces 35. + different gastric juices of 237-238. + effect of temper upon 456. +Dimensions of space 151-152. +Dimensions of space, seven 194. + the "fourth" 203. +Discipleship, application for 532. +Discrimination, aid in building inner vehicle 493. + distinguishing good most important 493. + faculty of, logical reasoning 493. + to be practiced by aspirant 493. +Disasters, great, show trend of evolution 310-311. +Disease, consumption, cause of 113. + lack of vitality in vital body 63. + paralysis, cause of 63. +Disease germs, eliminated by vital body 63. +Dispensation, old, limited Initiation 390-440. +Distillation of water 446. +Divine Rulers, explanation of 272-273. +Divine Spirit, awakened by Lords of Flame 207, 221,225. + cared for by Lords of Wisdom 220. + counterpart of dense body 266. + first veil of spirit 216. + germ of, linked to that of life spirit + linked to human spirit 216. + man's highest spiritual principle 207. + seat of, root of nose 397. + stronghold at root of nose 397. + strongest influence in Vulcan Period 423. + to absorb lower aspect of ego 428. + world of, reflecting stratum of earth corresponds to 506. +Doctrines, Christian, see Christian Doctrines. +Dog, incident of 44, 46. +Dream pictures of animals 217. +Dreamless sleep consciousness 74, 85, 213, 415, 421. +Dreams, cause of 94. + based in reality 484, 526. +Drowning, action on vital body 61. + and life panorama 149. +Drug habit, inhibits memory of invisible helpers 524. +Druids, Initiates under Jesus 409. +Drunkard, keeps vice after death 105. + purgation of 105. +Dual creative force 324. +Duty, incentive of 46. +Dying, and bringing to birth 249. + crime against 101. +Dynasties, how founded 272. + + +[PAGE 626] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Ear, accuracy of 206. + given in Saturn Period 206. + most highly developed sense organ 127, 206. + muscles of atrophying 473. + semi-circular canals of 126. +Earth, aura of, penetrated by Mars 268. + as affected by solidification and disintegration 505. + Blavatsky's theory of motion 512. + body of Great Spirit 506. + center of, corresponds to Absolute 507. + center of, ultimate seed ground 507. + changes of 49, 125. + Christ Jesus regent of 408. + Christ Spirit permeates 406. + cleansed by Christ 407. + climate of, altered by man 125. + command to replenish 332. + constitution of 498-514. + core of, gained by first Great Initiation 502. + created from "ever-existing essence" 322. + dead work upon 125. + density of coming epoch 311. + density of present epoch 410. + densest globe is 233. + desire body of, penetrated by Mars 268. + development of 165. + effect of harvest upon 505. + effect of sun and moon upon 265. + entered by Christ 403, 407. + evolution of 361, 404. + flooded with spiritual light at crucifixion 407. + flora and fauna of, worked upon by dead 125. + generated by heat and moisture 330. + group spirits ruled 351. + in fourth stage of consolidation 410. + investigation of, difficult 498. + iron of, released from Martian control 268. + keynote of 123. + knowledge of, from initiation 498, 502. + lesser regents of 182. + man inhabited, before Adam 332. + man's evolution, beginning of 263. + models of, in Region of Concrete Thought 125. + moon expelled from 264. + not "without form and void" in the beginning 327. + only partially confines Christ 408. + only planet of man's evolution 275. + + +[PAGE 627] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Earth (cont.) rebirths of 190, 412. + regent of 408. + school of experience 132. + seismic disturbances of 125. + seismic phenomena of 498. + sensations in sixth stratum 506. + slow vibrations of, pain Christ Spirit 408. + soft in Polarian Epoch 166. + strata of 503-511. + surface of, reconstructed by man 125. + third movement of 512-513. + thrown off from sun 259, 263, 403. + vehicles diffused with Christ's 406. + vehicles have feeling 65, 210, 505. + volcanic eruptions 498-514. + will become more ethereal 199. + with present moon expelled from sun 259. + worked upon by Christ from within 407. + worked upon by Christ previous to advent 404. +Earth Period, account of 329-333. + acme of density 246. + acme of diversification 246. + and recapitulations 245, 329-333. + classes of beings at beginning of 234-236. + dense body reaches highest development in 421-422. + density of globes 233. + earth densest globe of 197, 199. + epochs of 261- 307. + failures of, sent to moon 264. + four elements of 234. + influence of Mercury during 273-275. + involution becomes evolution in 267. + life streams in 246. + Lords of Form most active in 220, 240. + mental activity combined with form 426. + mind acquired in 222, 239, 426. + mind in mineral stage during 426. + mineral life started in 428. + most critical time for humanity 231, 401. + nadir of materiality 199, 401. + occultly called Mars-Mercury 274, 411. + present, the fourth revolution 199, 209, 245. + races first evolved in 271. + revolution, (fourth) real work on earth period 209, 245. + spirit most helpless in 240. + vehicles of man reconstructed 236, 240, 242. + voluntary nervous system added in 239-240. + work of hierarchies in 220, 222, 240. +Earthquakes, changing theories of 498. + + +[PAGE 628] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Earthquakes, spiritual cause of 125. + man responsible for 507. +Earthy matter, injurious in food 444. + needed by children 445. + present in water 444. +Efforts of individual 225. +Ego, active in blood 145, 396. + active in sleep 93-96. + all vehicles destroyed by materialism 231. + allowed limited choice of environment 136. + and epigenesis 135, 138. + and Mars action in blood 268. + assimilates past experience 96-139. + assumes upright position 236, 269. + attraction to parents heredity 156. + becomes indwelling 269. + benefit from post-mortem interval 250. + birth of, determined by expediency 161. + birth of, when spirit takes possession of its vehicles 143, 266. + bi-sexual 267. + blood the direct vehicle of 91, 143, 238, 350. + born ahead of schedule 161. + born at intervals 129. + born twice during precession of sign 160. + builds archetypes in Heaven 128. + claims of past lives upon 136. + consciousness developed by work of desire body 456. + connected with threefold body by link of mind 95. + controls dense body by means of blood 239, 350. + controlled by race spirit 350. + definition of 216. + demands birth to gain experience 129. + deprived of birth 469. + drawn to birth 357. + drives blood into brain 239. + effect of wine upon 168. + effected by change of temperature 144. + emancipation from Race Spirit 313, 352. + enters dense body 236, 269, 294. + enters mother's womb 138. + evolution depends on vehicles 289, 363. + evolving free will 357. + extracts quintessence of bodies 124. + for proper functioning normal blood 144. + functions in world of Abstract Thought 88. + gained illusion of separateness 216. + gaining control of heart 396. + gathers material for new bodies 138. + guide of body 156. + + +[PAGE 629] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Ego (cont.) has reached into physical world 74. + has state of waking consciousness 75. + helped by international marriage 359. + highly individualized 71, 357. + in Atlantis, not indwelling 292, 294. + incarnates in alternate sex 160, 280. + individual spirit 352. + learns construction of body 126. + liberation from family spirit 351. + limited by descent into matter 81. + lower nature an illusory reflection of 398. + manner of collecting materials for bodies 135. + material of bodies previous to birth 134, 138. + must cleanse its vehicles 432. + must complete divine plan 423. + operates by heat of blood 350, 356. + outgrows race bodies 289. + outside of vehicles when enraged 144. + outside of bodies during sleep 482. + part played by parents 137. + positive pole of, manifests as life 248. + powerless to avoid destiny 136. + prayers to, prepare reception for threefold soul 435. + prepares for rebirth 133-139. + previous to birth has only seed atoms 133. + primordial state of 216. + real home second Heaven 124, 127. + refracted into three aspects 398. + relation of, to other vehicles 88, 95. + selection of gastric juices 237. + should control body 394. + three aspects of 95, 397. + threefold veil of spirit 216. + three points in head 397. + three requirements of 86. + unindividualized before Christ 351. + uses of blood 143. + vehicle of virgin spirit 88, 216. + vehicles of, interpenetrated after birth 139. + when first indwelling very weak 348. + wisdom of, working subconsciously 237. + work of, to achieve union with Higher Self 432. + work of, upon vehicles negligible 138. + works outward through seven orifices 522. +Ego, see also Divine Spirit, human spirit, life spirit. +Egos, incoming, failure to provide suitable vehicles for 467-469. +Eighth Sphere, the Moon 264. +Elder Brothers, among the Compassionate Ones 529. + and books not written directly by 270. + + +[PAGE 630] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Elder Brothers (cont.) combat materialism 113, 409, 529. + concerned for safety of Western World 113, 529. + educate few to receive teachings 510. + guard secrets of creation of life 299. + guide humanity 327. + mediators between man and gods 304, 327. + sent Mesmer 512. + work for humanity 409, 510, 529. +Elder Brothers, see also Rosicrucian Brotherhood. +Electricity movement in ether 34. +Elements in Earth Period 234, 410. + In Jupiter Period 234. + In Moon Period 234. + In Saturn Period 234. + In Sun Period 234. +Elijah and John the Baptist 169, 405. +Elixir of life, Desire World 93. + second heaven 124. +Elohim, co-workers with God 325. + creative hierarchies 325. + double-sexed 325. + evolved man's body 326. + rest during our age 333. + saw work was good 326. +Elohim, see also Hierarchies, creative. +Emancipation, key to 137. +Embryo, human, first state of 441. + and gill-like breathing organs 346. + recapitulates past stages of evolution 228, 255. +Embryology, science of, corroborates occult teaching 343-344. +Embodiments, repeated, necessity for 132-133. +Emotional Soul, finest extract of desire body 424, 482. + grows by feeling 424. + to be absorbed by human spirit 425, 429. +Emotions improve vehicles 441. +Enemies, in same family 157. +Energy, twofold 321, 324, 325. + for building vehicles 189-190. + of ego turned inwards, for cognition of self 216. +Energy, see also Forces. +Environment, choice of 136. +Epigenesis, force of genius 185, 252. + degeneration from lack of 344. + free will 135. + improvement over parents 138. + influx of, causes 135. + involution and evolution 336-344. + lever turning involution to evolution 366. + + +[PAGE 631] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Epigenesis (cont.) modifies causation 135. + original creation 128, 135, 185, 338. + prenatal building 128, 138. + proved by science 338. +Epigenesis, see also Genius. +Epochs, described in Bible 327. + figurative days of creation 327. + five to present 165. + germinal mind given in fourth 245. + seven in human life wave 271. +Equinoxes, precession of, governs rebirth 159. + Esoteric Christians, ideal of 303. + Esoteric information, real, never sold 485. +Esoteric training, of vital body 381. + diet and hygiene in 440-441. + effective when doubt is stilled 439-440. + teaches neophyte to distinguish life from form in desire world 480. + teaches neophyte to function consciously in inner worlds 480. +Essenes, cared for Jesus' body 382. + educated Jesus 379. + Jewish sect 379. +Ether, density of, in Southern California 532. + forms an envelope for dense atoms 58. + four states of 16, 30, 58. + permeability of 34. + physical matter 30, 34. + transmitter of electric vibrations 34. +Ether, planetary, interpenetrates physical atoms 58. + imparts vitality to dense forms 30. +Etheric body see Vital Body. +Etheric region, extends beyond earth 53, 179. + fluidic stratum of, earth corresponds to 503. + physical but invisible 34. + reflection of world of life spirit 51, 397. + unexplored by material science 34. + unrolling of life panorama in 102. + vital body of a planet 59. +Ethers, four in man 59. + supply vital forces 35, 39. +Ethers four, see also Chemical ether, Life ether, Light ether, and +Reflecting + ether. +Evening Exercises 697. +Ever-existing essence 322. +Everlasting salvation or damnation 151, 229. +Evil, destruction of 43. + first among Lemurians 280. + obliterated by good 111. + + +[PAGE 632] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Evil (cont.) tending towards good 42. + transmuted to good 282. +Evolution, and birth and death 401. + and caduceus 412. + and end of races 289, 291, 341. + and fall of man 190, 363. + Ariadne's thread 201. + comprehension of, elevates mind 202. + deals with qualified and unqualified 224. + depends on soul growth 425. + end of, gaining experience 158. + end of human, is godhood 185. + epigenesis, backbone of 135. + exactness of 166. + four stages of 416. + hastened by Christ's advent 407-408. + history of spirit's progression in time 151. + impulse of, toward perfection 401. + Initiation hastens 526-527. + involution and epigenesis 336-344. + man's began after expulsion from Mars 263. + method of man's 87-146. + never repeats 135, 227. + now most critical 231, 401. + of earth 261-307. + of life waves 184. + of lower organisms 416. + of man and planet 404. + of man only on earth 275. + of scientist, form side only 185, 342. + path of 151, 194-200, 227. + period following involution 185, 201. + period of gaining omniscience 185. + power developed by 415. + prevents degeneration 344. + progress or retrogression 341. + purpose of 201, 282, 338. + rendered original 185. + revolutions and cosmic nights 195-200. + scheme of 183-192, 245. + seven stages of 188-192, 411. + speed and adaptability 223. + stage of, in man's bodies 77. + stage indicated by perfection of skeleton 456. + steps of, passed by embryo 344. + well ordered gradual process 184, 226, 267. + wine a factor in 165-172. +Evolutions of future 200. + + +[PAGE 633] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Examples: + adjustment of visual focus in evolution 81. + apparent contradiction of Christ's words and woman cleaning house 387- + 388. + astronomer and refractory telescope 394, 399. + astronomer's experiment and need of God 323. + Australian aboriginies, a dying race 290. + blind man denies light 24. + body in childhood and old age 44, 445. + Boston physician weighs vital body 99. + chaos and body decay 208. + Christ and dog's carcass 44. + concretion of man's bodies and snail's shell 73. + control of church by state 386-387. + demolition of buildings and Universal Brotherhood 355. + desire body likened to part of egg 67, 243. + divine and human principles like color 253. + dulling of consciousness like donning gloves 80. + experiments in living and inventor's machine 33. + experiments of science with gastric juices 237-238. + group spirit and manipulation of unseen fingers 78. + hate succumbing to love 419. + hatching of egg and crystallization of spirit 248. + heredity and carpenter's building 138. + ice crystals and etheric matrix 137. + lines of force and interpenetrating worlds 27. + man with spiritual sight and babe learning to see 41. + mature destiny and paying debts 161. + necessity for creator as for typesetter 129. + occult and modern science, a comparison 499. + of density, aluminum and mercury 233. + of plantlike animals 234-235. + pain, a hot stove 131. + past life remembered by a child 172-174. + personality reflection of ego as water image 266. + plate, powder, and violin bow produce geometrical figures 369. + power of concentration of Indian fakirs 488. + rapid vibrations of sun and early maturity in tropics 265. + reality of the higher worlds and architect's plan, etc. 28. + religion of the Father and facets of diamond 436. + rhythmic vibration and walls of Jericho 122. + rich grain of experience in life of cur 431, 432. + rudimentary sight organs of Lemurian and animals born + with eyes closed 276. + scientist's experiment and God as first cause 323. + seed atoms and magnetic attraction 133. + + +[PAGE 634] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Examples (cont.) seven occult schools and spectrum 439. + snail illustrates relation of force and matter 121. + spirit buried in matter as seed in soil 87. + spirit working in matter and power-drill 244. + spiritual cause knocks man down 125. + sponge, sand, and water and interpenetrating worlds 53. + story of young man seeking wisdom 21. + sympathy for sick dog, shows operating laws 46. + telegraph and operation of vital fluids 63. + tools of artisan and vehicles of ego 430. + tuning forks and power of sound vibrations 369. + unconscious body building and intra-uterine development 261. + vicarious atonement and drowning man refusing help 402. + world soul and cross 86. + young cling to life as seed to unripe fruit 103. +Excretion by chemical ether 35. +Exercises: + adoration 495-497. + concentration 486-489. + contemplation 494. + discrimination 493. + meditation 489-492. + observation 492. + retrospection 111. +Experiment, necessity for 33, 426. +Experience, acquisition of 158, 432. + and development of will 131. + conscious soul grows by 424. + dependent on forces of Desire World 39. + hard, value of 392, 431. + knowledge of, effects which follow causes 131. + without memory useless 424. + works on vital body 434. +Eye, built by light ether 36, 276. + evolved in Atlantis 276. + for an eye 384. +Eye, third, the pineal gland 262. + window of the soul 173. +Eyes were opened 190, 283, 337, 361-362, 565. + city life hard on 492. + + +Faculties brought over from past 132. + lost by admixture of strange blood 357-358. + of occult scientist 34. +Failure, ceasing to try 408. +Failures, stragglers differentiated from 264. + + +[PAGE 635] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Failures, (cont.) have opportunities in later scheme 501. +Faith, advantages of, in medicine 63. +Faith, childlike, advantage of 5. +Fall of man, doctrine of 360-364. + a temporary state 282. + gave consciousness of death and pain 362. +Family, integrity of, fostered by spirit of 353. +Family names, much honored 351. +Family spirit, lives in haemoglobin of blood 354. +Family spirits liberation from 351. +Fate, ripe, cannot be avoided 136, 163. +Father differs from other two of Trinity 179. + highest Initiate of Saturn Period 376, 377. +Father, religion of, for future 435. + not of earth 435. + to eliminate separateness 435. + to spiritualize dense body 435. +Fauna, changes in archetype of 49. + worked upon by man 125. +Fear of God, origin of 310, 371, 395. +Feeling, action in Desire World 46. + archetype of, exists in aerial region 50. + aroused by torture 279. + creates interest or indifference 45. + deepened by purgatorial suffering 109. + distinct from motor response 32. + earth has 505-506. + evolved by Rmoahals 294. + emotional soul grows by 424. + expression of self-consciousness 32 + importance of 109. + is "still small voice" 109. + mathematics liberates from 203. + sensitory, localized in pineal gland 262. + separate desire body for true expression of 57. + region of 45-47. +Fertilization depends on seed atom 137, 461. + prevented by group spirit 137, 461. +Fiery nebula is spirit 249. +Fire, divine origin of 304. +First Heaven, see Heave, first. +Fission, reproductive method in Polaria and Hyperborea 262-263. +Five dark globes 208. +Flame, Lords of, see Lords of Flame. +Flesh-eater, must replenish body cells more often than frutarian 459. +Flesh food see also Food. + + + +[PAGE 636] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Flood, destroyed Atlantis 304. +Flora, changes in archetypes of 49. + worked upon by man 125. +Flowers, suitable subject of concentration 487. + plucking of, gives pleasure to Earth Spirit 65, 505. +Fluid, solar 10, 62. +Foetus, human, bi-sexual at first 347. + formation of 441, 442. +Food as factor in involution 166. + assimilation of 457-460. + chemical, of future 458, 454. + chocolate, importance of 452. + cocoa, undesirable 452. + earthy matter in 444. + flesh food, inferior nutritive value of 458, 459. + importance of sugar 447. + individual needs of 84, 448. + influence upon various epochs 165-168. + life in every particle 457. + nutritive value of 450, 451. + of future made in laboratories 458. + phosphorous valuable as 452. + plant, seed, and eggs 461. + pure, envelopes vital and desire bodies with purer substance 440-441. + table of food values 450. + wine as 168. +Food, see also Nutrition. +Force, chemical, moves matter 121. + dual creative 324. + related to matter 120. + uncrystallized spirit 120, 127. + within, altruistic 386. + within, genius 185. +Force, vital, see Vital force. +Forces, archetypal, work on matter 49, 51. + negative in children and mediums 140-141. + of attraction and repulsion 42.-47. + of nature great intelligences 49. + only two active in formation of universe 324. + positive, manipulate individual vehicles 141. + transference of, on period globes 198. +Forgiveness of sin compatible with law 373. + doctrine of 91, 111, 373. + eradicates memory of sin 91. + obtained by prayer 463. + shortens purgatory 111. + through retrospection 111. + + +[PAGE 637] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Form, archetypes of 123. + basic substance of 30. + built by Jehovah 334, 348. + built by tone 123. + built for purpose 235, 255. + crystallized thought 72. + crystallizes around negative pole of spirit 186. + crystallizes when life goes 504. + death and decay of 19, 31. + destroyed by strange blood 357. + devoid of feeling 31. + evolution of 31, 289, 337, 341, 343, 416. + expression of one life 31. + first chapter of Genesis deals with 336. + forces of, stored in earth's strata 511. + independent of life 31. + man's creations confined to 426-427. + man's future 255. + merges into life in chaos 247. + multiplicity of 31, 511. + mutability of, in Desire World 40. + negative pole of spirit 186, 247. + origin of 504. + perpetually dissolves into space 249. + physical, composed of chemical material 48. + physical degeneration of, due to stragglers 289, 342. + physical, endowed with life by etheric forces 48. + physical, fashioned by archetype 49, 50. + related to life and consciousness 223, 416. + transformed into force 511. +Form, Lords of, see Lords of Form. +Formula, separate ethers 482. +Fossils, stragglers from vegetables 343. +Fourfold, steps to God 302-303. +Four Kingdoms 16, 56, 86. + assimilation in 458. + consciousness of 458. + degeneration from 342. + desire body in 65, 235. + forms of 31. + made of chemical matter 31, 298. + man compared with 56. + progress in 226. + remain confined to own life waves 342. + symbolized by cross 85. + vital body in 58. +Freedom, industrial, yet to be gained 436. +Free will, bought with pain and death 288, 363. + consists in making new causes 135. + develops with evolution 83. + + +[PAGE 638] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Free Will (cont.) given in all acts 110, 130, 163. + given to original Semites 303. +Fruit, forbidden, symbol of generative act 362. + nutritive value of 446, 448, 452, 458-460. +Fruit trees, pioneers of Moon Period 342. +Fungi, and Moon Period plants 227. + + +Gas, mineral composition of 166. + original meaning of term 250. +Gastric juices, operation of 237. + selected by ego 237. + various kinds of 237. +Geology, deals only with first stratum of earth 503. +Generation, present mode of, to be superseded 538. +Genesis, Book of, and nebular theory 322. + occult significance of 317-364. + two creation stories 336, 344. +Genesis, Book of, see also Bible. +Genius, appears in all kingdoms 252. + born ahead of schedule 161. + cause of epigenesis 185, 252. + developed by hard work 155. + evidence of rebirth 155. + fashions vehicles pre-natally 138. + force within 185. + hall mark of advanced soul 155. + in future common possession of all 155. + manifests as epigenesis 185. + reconciled to heredity 155, 161. +Genius, see also Epigenesis. +Germain, Saint, see Saint-Germain. +Germs, expelled by vital body 63. +Giant fern-forests of Lemuria 275. +Giants, traditions of 142. +Giants, in days of Lemuria and Atlantis 275, 292. +Gills, man once possessed organs similar to 346. +Gimle, regenerated earth of Norse mythology 383. +Ginnungagap, the Norse Chaos 247. +Giving, the ethics of 114. +Glands, acquired by man in Sun Period 211. + ductless, little known concerning 473. + expression of vital body 395, 455. +Globes, five dark 208, 528. + and corresponding periods 245. + densest is chaos 528. + Earth, densest of 233. + passage of life wave through 196-200, 245. + we inhabit during cosmic nights 528. + + +[PAGE 639] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Globes, seven, evolution and involution in 195. + dissolution of 200. + evolutionary impulses travel through 195-200. + fields of evolution 264. + interpenetration of 195. + passage of life wave through 196-200. +Gobi Desert 301, 310. +God, aggregate of hierarchies 183, 253, 325. + and creation of solar system 187. + architect of solar system 177, 180. + ascription of numbers to 253. + collectively the planetary spirits 253. + co-workers of 325. + differentiated from Trinity 179. + distinguished from Supreme Being 179. + dual in manifestation 325. + dwells in highest world 182. + Elder Brother mediators of 327. + expression of Absolute Spirit 186. + in whom we live 87, 179. + logically necessary 129, 323. + love of, to awaken altruism 371. + man exists in 179. + merges into Absolute 200. + mysteries of, open to man 154. + only object of man's worship 302. + powers of, in man 430. + relation of, to man 177-182. + sun visible symbol of 181. + symbolized by nature 129. + temple of, within man 171. + those born of 538. + three attributes of 323. + tribal, work of 372. + various stages in worship 302, 371. + within man as ego 171. + word of 374. +God, see also Father, Son, Jehovah. +God, World of, ninth stratum of earth corresponds to 507. +Gods, we are 171. +Golgotha, mystery of 374, 400-406. +Good, spirit's assimilation of 47, 95, 123. + in everything, our aim to seek 493. +Good and Evil, comprehension of, necessary 282. + distinguished by man 287, 465. + in Jupiter Period 418. + Lemurian's conception of 280. +Governments, inevitable changes of 437. +Grail Cup 409. + + +[PAGE 640] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + search for 114, 115. +Grail Knight Initiates helped by Jesus 409. +Grape juice, wonderful solvent 448. +Gratitude, important factor in soul growth 114. +Great silence 122. +Grief, effect of 109. +Group Spirit, one common, before Jehovah 351. +Group Spirits, archangels are 349. + cause reproduction 357. + cause similarity of appearance 71. + contrasted with ego 74, 78, 82, 350. + control rebirth of animals 357. + crystallize bodies from themselves 72. + currents of encircle Earth 86. + denizens of Desire World 74, 78, 82, 350. + direct desire currents inward 69. + ego must free itself from 82. + evolutionary progress of 82. + influence their charges from without 72. + ingenuity of 78. + instinct from 78. + lowest vehicle in Desire World 74. + of animals 81-85, 158, 350. + of trees 494-495. + oppose marriage into other species 356. + promptings of 78. + similar to Jehovistic rule 349. + suffer when charges suffer 78. + unwilling to relinquish hold on blood 356. + vehicles of aggregation of virgin spirits 82. + work through blood 350. +Group Spirits, of plants, currents of flow from earth's center 85. + lowest vehicle in region of Concrete Thought 74. +Group Spirits of minerals, lowest vehicle in Region of Abstract Thought 74. +Growth, spiritual 431. +Guardian angels 352. +Gypsies, clairvoyance of 354. + + +Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich, correct theories of 339. + evolutionary theory of 343. +Haemolysis, spiritual effects of 353. + produced by international marriage 358. + result of in lower animals 355, 357. +Hand of God, Law of Consequence 507. +Hands, of musician 126. + value of 57, 80. + + +[PAGE 641] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Hair, of Atlantean and Aryan 292. +Half-steps, transitional states 227, 234. +Happiness, and sheltered environment 431. +Head of animals not concentric 77. +Healing, faith a factor in 63. +Health, action of vital body in 63. + milk as a factor 447. + not to be judged always by appearance 449. +Heart and mind, contention of 17, 393. + all blood in every cycle passes through 397-398. + anomaly of 393-400. + becoming voluntary muscle 399, 473. + cross-stripes of 396, 399-400. + education of 393, 530. + home of altruistic love 398. + impulses of 398. + involuntary muscle in ordinary person 396. + muscles of 396. + perfect construction of 77. + secondary vantage of life spirit 397. + seed atom of dense body in 97, 396, 398. + sex currents flow through 477. + silver cord fastened to 98. + stopping, caused by rupture of seed atom 98. + the thought that a man thinks in his 398. + union with mind 18. +Heathen, conversion of 163. +Heaven, consciousness of, lost 359. + eternal, would have no "raison d'etre" 133. +Heaven, first, earned by good action 114, 116. + in higher Desire World 118. + music of 119. + place of unalloyed joy 116. + training school 118. + waiting place for children 117. + world of color 119. +Heaven, new, to be realized 311. + activities of 121-129. + assimilation of soul power in 123. + desire body discarded on entering 122. + good of past life assimilated in 116, 124. + Great Silence upon entering 122. + in Region of Concrete Thought 122. + man alters earth in 125. + man learns to build new body 126, 340. + preparing new earthly environment in 124-128. + real home of thinker 124. + + +[PAGE 642] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Heaven, Second (cont.) realm of tone 119, 123. +Heaven, Third, ego enters without mind sheath 129. + ego enters without mind sheath 129. + harmony of 129. + highest division of tone world 119. + in Region of Abstract Thought 146. + panorama of coming life seen in 129. + thought and feeling built into ego in 146. +Hebrew alphabet, significance of 500. + language, old style 318. + words and vowel points 321. +Help given to man by leaders 433, 437. +Helpers of humanity, the self-sufficient 358. +Helps, three, given to man 433, 437. +Herculaneum and Pompeii, destruction of 510. +Heredity Succession, in Atlantis 295-296. +Heredity the effect, consequence the cause 157. + hard to counteract 138. + unable to account for genius 155. + usually law of attraction 156. +Hermaphrodite of Lemuria 268. +Hermes, see Mercury. +Hermetic axiom 183, 410, 412, 523. +Hidden meaning in Christ's teachings 320. +Hierarchies, creative, aid man during Saturn Period 206. + aid man in heaven 126. + composed group spirit of humanity 351. + composite being 325. + co-workers with God 325. + Elohim of the Bible 325. + five have withdrawn 220, 522. + have left humanity to care of Elder Brothers 327. + have withdrawn from creation 327. + included in God's own being 183. + man contacts during involution 526. + most active between revolutions and periods 207. + of various cosmic planes 182. + seven still active 522. + status of 325. + symbolized by Rose Cross 522. + two nameless 220-221, 326. + twelve 221. + work of 326. +Hierarchies, see also Elohim, and diagram 9. +Hierophants, aim to teach man self-mastery 273. + initiate at holy night 391. + initiated the chosen few 390, 404, 481. + in past chose families 404. + of lesser mysteries, Elder Brothers are 520. + + +[PAGE 643] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Higher life, worldly obligations to be met before seeking 469, 470-471. +Higher self, union with 432, 437. +Higher Vehicles, see Vehicles Higher. + must shine to attract teacher 525. +Hindu exercises 437. +Hindu race bodies 437. +Holy Night, night of Initiation 390. +Holy of Holies 293. +Holy Spirit, see Jehovah. +Homesickness from race spirit 351. +Honeymoon relic of Moon Period 219. +Hope being destroyed 517. +Horoscope, accidents foreshown by 162. +Horse, projection of bodies of 77. +Human spirit, awakened by Seraphim 215. + in charge of Lords of Form 220. + in pineal gland and brain and cerebro-spinal nervous system 397. + linked to divine spirit 216. + linked to life spirit 215. + most prominent in Jupiter Period 423. + reflected in desire body 206. + third aspect of spirit 215. + to be absorbed by divine spirit 428. + vivified by Lords of Form 265. +Humanity, acquired free will 288, 363. + acquired language 278. + aided by Venus and Mercury 271. + becoming expert body builders in chemical matter 222. + bodies of, slowly purified 437. + conduct of reflected in earth strata 506. + creative Hierarchies 423. + desire bodies of, purer since crucifixion 408. + development of, and Initiation 416. + divisible into seven rays 439. + division of desire body 394. + Elder Brothers have worked in secret for 529. + enlightened by Lucifers 287. + escape from disasters 113. + first aided by reflected solar forces 403. + four great steps of 302. + given freedom under different race religions 383. + in great need of invisible helpers 496. + in past governed by group spirit 351. + in past ignored opportunities 167. + institute prayer 434. + leaders of, creative hierarchies 271, 325. + learns to appreciate unselfish life 392. + must know good and evil through experience 383. + + +[PAGE 644] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Humanity (cont.) never lived on Mercury or Venus 275. + nine the number of 500. + past unconsciousness of 185. + progress through Periods 189-191. + segregated into races 306, 352, 401. + separate personality implanted in 243. + seventh creative hierarchy 326, 327. + sixteen paths to destruction 306, 401. + steps of 202. + still enslaved by race spirit 384. + three steps of 432. + three helps given 433. + to form spiritual fellowship 305, 312. + unconsciously directed 436. + will be saved as a whole 501. + works with mineral life wave 427-428. +Humanity, see also Man, Races. +Hybrid, sterility of 357. +Hygiene, effect on vital and desire bodies 440-441. +Hyperborean Epoch, land of fire and crust islands 262, 331. + Lords of Form (with Angels) clothe man with vital body in 262, 263. + man sustained by solar forces 269. +Hyperborean Epoch (Second Epoch) 165. +Hyperborea, Cain symbolizes man of 166. + described by Genesis 330. + ethereal plant forms solidified by heat 331. + land of fire and crust islands 331. + man given vital body 165. + man of, agriculturalist 166. + man of, functioned in vital body 166. + man of, had dreamless sleep consciousness 263. + man of, hermaphrodite 268. + man plant-like in 165, 263. + one language in 433. + planets thrown off from Sun during 263. + propagation during 263. +Hynotism, injurious effect on vital body 62. + formerly "mesmerism" 512. + + +"I Am" (the Ego) was before bodies 352. +Ibbetson, Peter, story of, and dreaming true 526. +Ice crystals, formation 27. +Ideals, higher, result of allying mind to higher self 465. +Ideals in concentration 486. +Ideals, low, caused by mind, united to desire nature 465. +Ideas become thought forms 49. + future evolution of 417-418. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 645] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Illusion of separateness 217, 401. +Imagination, builds new body within womb 284. + cultivation of true 488. + cultivation of, in Lemuria 281. + female power from Moon force 267. + force first manifests as 324. + importance of 425. + in future to direct creation 425. + process of image making 353. + requires concentration 486. +Imbecile wastes sex force that builds brain 467. +Immaculate conception 278, 378. +Immortality of body 363. +Impressionability, region of 44. +Inbreathing 350. +Inbreeding and pictures in blood 353-354, 397. + involuntary clairvoyance retained by 471. +Incarnation, object of 158. +India, people of 167. + caste system crumbling in 436. + division of life, certain tribes of 470. + fakirs of, and growing plant illusion 488. + people of, neglect material development 470. +Indian, American, body of 290. +Indifference and interest 45. + obscures truth 203. + withering power of 46, 90. +Individual, birth of 266-67. + expresses through iron in blood 268, 274. +Individualism, evils of, apparent as civilization advances 393. + help needed by all during stage of 401. +Individuality of children 143. + of man and animals compared 71. + taught by Christ 352. +Individuality, Lords of, see Lords of Individuality. + separate, acquired by Semites 355. + without separateness 435-436. +Indwelling spirit at root of nose 293, 478. +Indwelling spirit, see also Ego. +Inertia is damnation 229. +Initiate builds own body 128, 138. + does not save himself 476. + gains knowledge of Earth Period 502, 526. + makes Philosopher's Stone 519. + of Aryan Epoch 304. + of Venus Period 502. + sees earth strata 499. + Thorah written for 321. + + +[PAGE 646] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Initiate (cont.) vows of 414, 467, 476. +Initiates, Goethe 145. + have taken place of messengers of Gods 272, 304. + of Aryan Epoch 304. + of middle ages 409. + of three previous Periods 376. + test of all real 68, 400. +Initiation and bridge to inner worlds 479. + and Christ Star 391. + and future development 411-429. + and seven days of creation 411. + before Christ for chosen few only 390, 404-405, 407. + by Lords of Mercury 271-275. + cannot be accomplished until work on vital body is begun 404. + consciousness obtained by 417-421. + culmination of prolonged spiritual endeavor 525. + desire body awakened by 405. + effect of, upon vital body 381, 404, 482. + expansion of consciousness through 417-420. + first great 502. + higher life or 404. + Holy Night 391. + Jesus' body attuned by 381. + knowledge of various degrees 526. + lesser, given by Lemurians 413. + mystic term of 169. + not given prior to Mars half of Earth Period 413. + object of 381. + of Atlantean kings 297. + of Rose Cross 519. + opened to all 401, 405, 482. + path of 412, 414. + preparation for, aided by mathematics 203. + probation necessary preliminary to 478, 479. + puts candidates in touch with creative Hierarchies 526. + separates ethers 482. + strict celibacy not required in 472, 539. + symbol of 519. + teaches man to leave body 274. + ultimate achievement of all 414. + Vulcan 502. +Initiations, earlier 381. + four Great 416, 502. + give initiate access to earth strata 500. + neophyte reviews consciously past evolutionary stages in 500. + nine lesser 416, 500, 516. + of Aryan Epoch 304. + + +[PAGE 647] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Initiations (cont.) results of 414. + symbolizes Christ and apostles 502. + thirteen 414, 416, 501, 502. +Initiator helps candidate free vital body from dense body 241. + shows candidate how to awaken conserved forces 525. +Inner perception in Atlantis 293. +Innocence distinguished from virtue 282. +Instinct compared to wisdom of man 79, 80. + in Atlantis, educators appeal to 296. + promptings of group spirit 78. +Intellect, unselfishly used 363. + demands knowledge of world mystery 439. + in abstract, sees beauty of loving one's enemies 384. + misuse of, dangerous 530. + Rosicrucian teachings appeal to 521. +Intellectual Soul adds power to life spirit 96. + creates sympathy and antipathy 424. + links experience 424. + mediates between conscious and emotional souls 424. + product of vital body 482. + to be absorbed by life spirit 425. +Intensity of purpose prerequisite to first-hand knowledge 21. +Interest and Indifference 45, 89. + obscure truth 203. +Intermarriage 352. +International Marriages, see Marriage. +Interpenetration of worlds 58. +Interplanetary space pervaded by life spirit 55. +Intra-uterine development, recapitulates evolution 255, 343-344. +Intuition, development of 92. + impressions of, superconscious memory 92. + in woman 92. + true wisdom 398. +Inventors and faculty of imagination 425-426, 486. +Invisible Helpers, great need for 496. +Invisible Playmates 140. +Involution and Caduceus 412. + belongs to life side 186. + creative Hierarchies assist man during 423. + devoted to attaining self-consciousness 185. + evolution, and epigenesis 336-344. + on different globes 195. + period of time given to building vehicles 185, 425. + spirit's descent into matter 266. + unconscious development of man during 185, 201. +Iron basis of separate consciousness 268. + essential to warm blood 268. + + +[PAGE 648] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Iron (cont.) Influence of Mars upon 268, 274. + polarized by Mars 274. +Isis, veil of 293. + + +Jehovah, aided by archangels 404. + assumed control of bodies 346. + author of race religions 334, 380, 383, 433 435. + blew breath into man's nostrils 345, 350. + builder of form 334, 346, 348. + concerned with Jews 334. + creative energy in nature 468. + did not put a curse on man 362, 278. + did not lead Jews out of Egypt 325. + directed formation of skeleton 346. + directs angels 277, 334, 352. + divides mankind into races 347, 352. + giver of children 334. + gives to every ego an angel 352. + gives to every race an archangel 352. + has dominion over form 348. + has special care of seed races 334. + highest Initiate of Moon Period 376. + instituted law 395. + languages expressions of 433. + leader of angels 333. + leader of Semites 334. + lowest vehicle of, human spirit 380, 404. + mission of 333, 336. + Most High 348. + nature of prayers to 434. + pits fear of God against desire 395. + put mankind to sleep during parturition 360. + Race God 348, 433. + reached man through air 380. + regent of Moon 333. + regime of, followed common group spirit 351. + separated sexes 346, 347. + unable to work through brain 361. + union with 433. + unity impossible under 380. + works in desire body 395, 404. +Jehovah, religions of, see Race Religions. +Jericho, falling of walls of 122. +Jesus and Christ Jesus 374-383. + belongs to our humanity 378. + body of, attuned to Christ vibration 382. + body of, best of earthly vehicles 378. + body of, treated by Essenes 382. + born at time stated 379. + + +[PAGE 649] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Jesus (cont.) born into passionless body 378. + consented to surrender of vehicles 382. + disciple of high degree 381. + distinguished from Christ 378. + educated by Essenes 379. + evolved body to highest efficiency 378. + gathered new vital body 408. + gave lower vehicle to Christ 381. + guides esoteric organizations 409. + had pure mind 378. + had trod the path for ages 378. + immaculate conception of 378. + knew his destiny 382. + not Egyptian Initiate 379. + seed atom of physical body of, returned after crucifixion 408. + record of incarnations of, Memory of Nature 378. + taught disciples after crucifixion 409. + "the only begotten Son of God" three distinct Beings 374. + worked upon Initiates of middle ages 409. +Jesus Christ, see Christ Jesus. +Jesus of Egyptian Initiation 379. +Jews aided by America 315. + American born most progressive 315. + and mission of Christ 313. + Archangel Michael, race spirit of 334, 405. + as Abraham's seed 352. + cunning, mental trait 310. + Jehovah concerned with 334. + lost tribes of 310, 314, 335. + not led out of Egypt 335. + of pre-Christian era 351. + pride of race crystallizes 306, 312-313. + prohibited from eating blood 349. + rebellion of 310. + rejection of Christ caused dispersion 314. + wandering in wilderness 335. +John and Elijah 169, 405. +John, St., symbolizes the Venus Initiation 502. +Joseph, high Initiate 378. +Judas Iscariot 502. +Juices in vegetables 37. +Jupiter field of evolution for advanced beings 259. + and its "eighth sphere" moon 259. + retains heat 258. + third planet thrown off sun 258. +Jupiter Period, deception impossible in 70, 418. + divine spirit absorbs conscious soul in 425. + + +[PAGE 650] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Jupiter Period (cont.) divine spirit absorbs human spirit 428. + earth will become etheric in 199. + five elements 234. + forces of dense body added to vital body 422. + first Great Initiation gives key to 502. + globes of, like Moon Period 199. + good and evil segregated in 418. + humanity of the animals 70, 342. + human spirit most prominent in 423. + humanity of purer type 70. + lowest globe in etheric region 422. + man able to work with plants 299, 428. + man becomes highly creative in 427, 428. + man first works with life in 298, 427, 428. + man's accurate mental conceptions in 418, 419. + mind vivified 422, 427. + picture consciousness 418. + superphysical beings at man's service in 419. + thoughts seen in 418. + vital body densest vehicle in 240, 242. + vital body reaches perfection 422. +Jupiter Revolution (fifth) of Earth Period, critical point of 229, + 231, 235. +Juvenile court 385. + + +Karma, see Consequence, law of. +Kathopanishad does not teach human rebirth in animal or plant bodies 158. +Key to Bible 319. +Keynote 123, 368-370. +Killing to eat 458-462. +Kingdom, animal, pioneers of 234. +Kingdom of God and little child 5. +Kingdom, mineral, see Mineral. +Kingdoms, four, see Four kingdoms. +King James version of Bible 318, 326. +Kings by grace of God 273, 297. +Knights of Grail, under Jesus 409. +Knights of Round Table 409. +Knowledge, first-hand 21, 430, 497, 528. + from concentrated thought 487. + higher, open to seeker 401. + of cause 84. + of cosmogony 191. + of self to be regained 537. + prerequisite of judgment 7. + superphysical, result of training 25, 41, 480. + Tree of 278, 362-363. +Krishna, Shri, sayings of 406. + + +[PAGE 651] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Labor, distribution of products of 393. +Lamentation, injurious effect of, on dying 101, 118. +Land, Promised 310, 335. + our present Earth 310. +Languages, all, spoken by Initiate 433. + desire body gives ability for 433. + holiness of 295. + one only in future 433. + purpose of 295. +Larynx, built by creative force 269. + built when body was baglike 269. + horizontal, under group spirit 236. + originally part of creative organs 269, 536. + required by ego 86, 236. + reproduction from in future 363, 425. + to speak creative word 363, 425, 537. + rose in place of 538. + traversed by currents in aspirant 477. + vertical, essential for speech 86, 236. + vertical man's high achievement 236. +Law, all sinned under 383, 407. + first, of occult science 460. + must be superseded by love 384. + purpose in establishment of 309, 310. + race religions based on 380, 383, 386, 392. + same, governs world, man, and atom 410. +Law of attraction 46. +Law of Consequence, see Consequence, law of. + before Christ, humanity's debt under 407. +Law of Cosmos, as to vehicles 379. +Law of Rebirth, see, Rebirth, law of. +Laws, each world has its own 29. +Laws of nature, great intelligences 49. + reflecting man's morals 506-507. +Lay Brothers, not Rosicrucians 528. + leave bodies consciously 523. + pupils of Elder Brothers 523. +Legend of Light Elves and Night Elves 418-419. +Lemniscate of Caduceus 413. + currents of Earth Spirit 507, 509. + currents of ninth stratum 503. + currents of unused sex force 475. +Lemurian continent destroyed by volcanic cataclysms 291. +Lemurian Epoch 265-275, 331, 332. + Abel type of man of 166. + atmosphere of 275. + beings who worked in 265. + consciousness of body 283. + death first recognized 283, 362. + desire body added 165. + + +[PAGE 652] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Lemurian Epoch (cont.) consciousness of body 283, 287. + desire body divided 394. + desire world real to man 287. + earth's crust molten 275. + fifth day of Bible 331. + man involuntarily clairvoyant in 241. + man's food, milk and plants 166. + milk as food in 166. + Moon thrown off from earth 264, 331. + red blood developed 269. + schools of Initiation 272, 281. + science and art taught in 281. + separation of sexes 267-268, 346. + soft skeleton formed 346. + spoken word creative 363-364. + (Third Epoch) 165. +Lemurian Race, acquired upright walk 269. + animal-like 165, 289. + birth and death unnoticed by 277. + bodies of plastic 275. + could hear and feel at birth 276. + could not see physical world 287. + descendants of 289, 304. + developed magic of best kind 281. + education of 278-281. + enlightened by Lucifers 287, 288. + formulated idea of good and evil 280. + given germ of mind 265. + had inner perception 277, 283, 287. + had sensitive spots for eyes 276. + inspired by feelings 295. + language of 276, 278. + lived in latter part of Lemurian Epoch 275. + lived upon islands 275. + memory developed 279, 281. + not distinct until end of epoch 271. + parturition painless 277. + perceived light inwardly 276. + physical consciousness produced by pain 277, 279. + propagation directed by angels 277. + seed for Atlantean races 289. + spiritual perception due to purity 282. + unconscious of body 277. + word of power 278. +Lens, mind corresponds to 52, 426. +Lesser Mysteries, seven schools of 523. + open to man in Mercury half 413. +Levitation, forms subject to, in Desire World 29. +Liberator 523, 529. + + +[PAGE 653] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Life, and form in Bible stories 336, 344. + breathing things 331. + creation of, beyond man's present power 427. + cycle of 146. + distinction emphasized 289. + ensouling animals 224. + ensouling man 73, 205. + ensouling mineral 232. + ensouling plants 226. + ensouling tree 495. + excellent division of 470. + existence of, in intangible state 210, 248. + experiences feeling 32. + four streams of 31. + Hebrew Nephesh 332, 345. + in every particle of food 457. + in first heaven 113. + in four kingdoms 85. + in purgatory 96-112. + in second heaven 121-129. + in third heaven 129-133. + limited by form 210, 247. + merges into form 247. + need for higher 469, 481. + not in many foods as germ 461. + of God in everything 495. + positive pole of spirit 247. + prevalent theories of 148. + primordial fount of, in earth's seed stratum 504. + problem of 19. + proceeded form 223. + purpose of 131. + related to form 223. + school of experience 132. + second chapter of Genesis deals with 336. + seven rays are streams of 246. + successful 431. + taking for food 446, 460. + tree of 363. + uncreated 332, 504. + value of, lessened by conditions at death 101. +Life, ether, avenue of procreation 36. + polarity of determines sex 36. + positive and negative 36. + ripens with birth of desire body 143. +Life force inward and outward manifestation of 337. +Life, higher, requirements 469. + evolving, improves vehicles 338-340. +Life panorama, see Panorama of life. + + +[PAGE 654] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Life, sentient, requires desire body 57. +Life Spirit, awakened in Sun Period 212, 225. + cared for by Lords of Individuality 220. + Christ's ordinary vehicle 376. + contains true memory of nature 398. + differentiation ceases in 378. + interpenetration all planets 216. + linked to divine spirit 212. + linked to human spirit 215. + most active in Venus Period 423. + perception of, in world of 398. + receives physical world pictures through reflecting ether 398. + reflected in vital body 266. + related to blood 397. + seat of, in pituitary body and heart 397. + sixth stratum of earth corresponds to 506. + spirit of love 399. + substance of, second veil of spirit 216. + to be absorbed by divine spirit 428. + to control blood circulation 399. + to control brain areas 399. + world of, reflected in etheric region 51, 397. +Life waves. + angels 222, 349, 376, 427. + animals 70, 224. + archangels 22, 349, 376, 427. + four 74, 75. + Lords of Mind 222, 376, 427. + man 205, 426, 428. + minerals 230, 232. + must remain in borders 342. + plants 226. + reabsorbed by God 200. + thrown off with earth 264. +Light ether, builds eye 36. + circulates plant juices 37. + deposits color 37. + developed in third septenary period 144. + generates blood heat 36, 143. + positive and negative 36. + sense perception result of 36. +Light existed before creation of luminaries 328. +Lime phosphate, injurious 443. + not found in urine of children 445. +Link, missing 342. +Liver and red blood in cold blooded animals 69. + desire body rooted in 68. + great vortex of desire body 10. + + +[PAGE 655] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Liver (cont.) makes the "liver" 70. + passing of currents through 69. + same meaning in different languages 70. +Lives, memory of past 171. +Lives of man on earth 275. +Logic, and semi-circular canals 126. + best teacher 203, 440, 493. + developed in Aryan Epoch 309. + safest guide in all worlds 493. +Logoi, seven great 178, 181. +Longevity, desirable from occult standpoint 444. +Lords of Destiny, see Angels, recording. +Lords of Flame, aid man 216. + aid man voluntarily 206, 216. + awakened divine spirit 207, 221, 225. + brilliant luminosity of 205. + give germ of dense body 206, 207, 221. + left our evolution 220-221, 326. + link human spirit 216. + most active between Saturn and Sun Periods 207-208. + reconstruct dense body 211. + the "Thrones" of Bible 206. +Lords of Form, assisted man in Lemuria 265. + assisted man in Polaria 262. + assumed charge of human spirit 220-221. + did actual work on bodies 220. + given charge of Earth Period 221, 240, 265. + reconstruct dense body 240, 242, 265. + reconstruct vital body 240. + used evolving life as instrument 220. + vivify stragglers 265. +Lords of Individuality, give germ of desire body 215. + given charge of life spirit 220. + had charge of Moon Period 214. + reconstruct dense body 214. + reconstruct vital body 215. +Lords of Mercury, aid man toward self-mastery 273. + communed with God 272. + created kings 272. + initiated humanity 272. + instruct man in leaving body 274. + sent to aid humanity 272. + stragglers 260, 272. + work on individual 273. +Lords of Mind, become creative 222. + considered evil 222. + expert mind builders 222. + Father, highest initiate of Saturn Period 376. + give germinal vital body 211, 215, 221. + + +[PAGE 656] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Lords of Mind (cont.) human in Saturn Period 376, 427. + implant separate personality 243, 266. + work with man 222, 247. +Lords of Venus, leaders of humanity 272. + messengers of the Gods 272. + stragglers 260, 272. + teach sacredness of speech 278. + withdraw giving free will 301-304. +Lords of Wisdom, give vital body 211, 221. + given charge of Sun Period 211. + have charge of divine spirit 220. + highest hierarchy of Earth Period 220. + link divine to life spirit 214. + originate vital body 215. + reconstruct dense body 211. +Lord's Prayer 435-437, 462-466. +Lost tribes 310, 313, 335. +Lost word, see Creative word. +Love must supersede law 384. +Love, of personalities must be replaced 406. + to guide reason 311. +Love, universal to be desired by man 464. + altruistic, increases cross-stripes of heart 396. + creative soul-force of 285. + must supersede law 399, 405. + selfish personal use of 285. + transmuting hate 419. +Lower will, expression of desire body 394. +Lucifer Spirits, aim to help man to gain knowledge 287. + are demigods 286. + bring pain and suffering to man 287. + enlighten man 287. + free man from outside influence 287. + half way between angels and man 286. + instigate mental activity 288. + much maligned class 286. + nature of man's temptations from 287. + needed physical brain 287. + result of, temptation 287, 361. + serpents of Bible 288. + spoke to woman 361. + stragglers of angelic host 286-291, 361. + unable to assume dense body 286. +Lungs, air in, tribal or family spirits work by means of 350. + +Macrocosmic, concrete mind 142, 145. + desire body prevents excessive growth 140-142. + vital body, wisdom of 139-141. +Magi, the three, see Wise men. +Magicians of Lemuria 280. + + +[PAGE 657] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Man, acquired ability to make sound 219. + activities of Jehovah with 345-347, 352. + aided by beings from Venus and Mercury 271. + all four ethers dynamically active in 59. + and his evolution 87-146. + and his religion keep equal pace 367. + and origin of life 504. + an open book in Jupiter Period 70, 418. + applies himself to Earth life 167. + ascends to God in four steps 302-303. + becomes creator in three worlds 270. + becomes highly creative in future periods 427. + Biblical creation of 332. + body of, once round in shape 257, 536. + brings disorder into nature 468. + brotherhood of 355, 385, 393, 399. + builds body in heaven 128. + builds form to suit environment 252, 339. + carnivorous in Atlantis 166. + compared with other kingdoms 57-60, 71. + constantly improving vehicles 340. + constitution of 59, 86, 88, 95. + created present environment 154. + creative ability of, limited in Earth Period 426-427. + cultivation of "self" frees from family and race spirit 358. + danger of being enslaved by possessions 386. + develops superphysical faculties by training 440. + directs force inward to build vehicles 255, 337, 536. + directs force outward in building environment 337, 536. + disposition affects length of life 456. + education of, in Lemuria 279. + emancipation of, through love 399. + enlightened by Lucifers 287. + evolved from unconsciousness 185, 284. + evolution recapitulated in embryo 255, 343-344. + expanding consciousness of 414. + fall of 282-286, 360-364. + free will gained by 84, 287, 363, 301-303. + gained death from Lucifers 287. + gained knowledge by his functions 277, 537 + gaze turned outward 190. + higher type than angels in human stage 69. + in animal stage lacked warm red blood 69. + in Atlantis, not indwelling 534. + individualization of 355. + individualized, law unto himself 72. + inherently a virgin spirit 398. + initiations of 416. + + +[PAGE 658] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Man (cont.) inverted plant 86. + in Moon Period fed by milk of nature 477. + is an indwelling spirit 367. + keynote of each 369. + know thyself 535. + loses half creative power on gaining brain and larynx 285, 300. + loses memory of spiritual existence 167. + loses spiritual sight 167, 287, 300. + loves and thinks selfishly 285. + must conquer race religions from within 380. + must expand consciousness 189. + must learn by experience 131, 383. + never inhabited bodies of present animals 341. + not descended from anthropoid ape 341. + neglects earth conditions 167. + never inhabited other planets 275. + next step in development of 190. + nine numbers of 500. + origin of faculties 59-64. + physical hardening of, through life 442. + pineal gland first sense organ of 262. + plantlike condition of 166. + power of, in Lemuria 278. + present power of, limited to chemical region 298-299. + progress of, through seven periods 189, 190. + relation to anthropoids 342. + relation to God 177-182. + represented in symbolism of cross 86, 534, 538. + response of, to solar and lunar currents 267. + self-generated when plant-like 535. + separate personality in Earth Period 243. + sevenfold constitution of 88. + seven human principles of 88, 435. + should follow promptings of heart 398-399. + sorrowed over loss of inner vision 359. + started evolution in Saturn Period 205, 427. + still under race spirit 384. + tenfold constitution of 95. + thinks in his heart 398. + type of, in Atlantis 292. + two forces work in 288. + will create by spoken word 364. +Man, see also Humanity, Races, ego vehicles. +Manichees, order of 418. +Manifestation, active, depends upon separateness 247. + day of 183-184, 190, 244, 388, 411, 495. + implies limitation 181. + progress in 249. + + +[PAGE 659] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Manifestation (cont.) seven great periods of 188. + various stages of 184. +Mankind, most advanced of, initiated by Mercurians 272. + help needed during stage of individualism by 401. + nature forces aroused by anti-spiritual tendencies of 508. +Marriage, chastity of imperative 471. + honeymoon trips 219. + in clan commanded by race spirits 353. + in clan retains pictures in blood 355. + international 355, 359. + reproduction the duty of 469. + tribal 353. +Marrow, necessity for 143, 145. +Mars, action of, in blood 268, 274 + canals of, atmospheric currents 259. + desire body of, interpenetrates earth 268. + life on, low development of 259. + man never lived on 275. + mystery of 259. + orbit of, has changed 268. + polarized iron 268, 274. + thrown off sun 259. +Mars-Mercury occult name for Earth Period 274, 411. +Mary highest type of purity 378. +Masons, have little of occult 501. + system of Initiation in past 501. +Masoretic translation of Bible 320. +Mastery of matter, purpose of evolution 201. +Material Science, and story of Atlantis 291. + attempts of, to "create" life 299. + doctrine of amphibians of 332. + efforts of, to discover origin of life 504. + gradually accepting occult ideas 511. + plays the part of God 323. +Materialism, causes volcanic disturbances 113, 510. + age of, dark from spiritual standpoint 529. + combated by Rosicrucians 113, 518, 529. + destroys all vehicles 231. + disease caused by 113. + effect on post-mortem progress 112, 113, 510-511. + effects of 409, 511. + hardening tendencies of 113, 511. + may cause ego to leave evolution 231. + of present, alarmed Leaders 113, 518. + theories of, require a Creator 323. + theory of death of 149. + theory of, regarding origin of religion 367. +Materialistic theory 149-150. +Materiality, acme of, has been passed 199, 401. + + + +[PAGE 660] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Materialization 62. +Mathematics, cultivates abstract thought 203. + liberation gained through 203. + proficiency in, due to semi-circular canals 126. + requires space-perception 126. + study of, advocated by Pythagoras 203. +Matter, all forms of, chemically the same 31. + crystallized spirit 120, 186, 247. + densest in Earth Period 199. + devoid of feeling 31. + merges into spirit in chaos 247. + molded by mind 149, 537. + of Bible 322. + primordial 375. + related to spirit 121. + resolved into spirit 120, 121, 247. + shuts spirit from consciousness 76, 216. + spirit's pilgrimage through 87. + worlds of various states of 29. +Meat, see also Food. +Meditation, an aid in building inner vehicle 489-492. + deals with form side 494. + exercise of 489-492. + history of object traced by 494. + richness of knowledge gained by 489. + union of higher and lower natures accomplished by 465. +Mediums, centers of desire body of, revolve counter clock-wise 473. + have retrograded 241. + lower vehicles loosely connected 62. + read reflecting ether 38. + unreliability of 41, 474. +Mediumship, development of, easy 474. + produced by looseness in vehicles 62. +Memory, Conscious, promotes growth of Intellectual Soul 96. + conscious, cultivated by Lemurians 281. + in Atlantis greater than now 296. + intellectual soul grows by exercise of 424. + relates to experiences of this life 91. + storehouse for thought forms 90. +Memory of nature, exists in three regions 38, 398. + candidate for initiation watches revolutions and epochs in 525-526. + explains heart anomaly 396. + man sees his ancestors in 354. + thought forms recoverable in 29. +Memory of past life, incident of 172-174. + responsibility of 171. +Memory, three kinds 91-92. + + +[PAGE 661] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Memory, sub-conscious, blood the vehicle of 353, 397. + expunging record from 111. + impressed on vital body 91, 462-463. + in patriarchs 354. + in reflecting ether 101, 526. + of family history 354. + of this life 91. +Memory, super-conscious, engraved in life spirit 92. + impresses reflecting ether of vital body 92. + not always subject to reason 92. + of past experience 92. +Menstruation due to positive vital body in woman 60. +Mental consciousness of Earth Period 420. +Mental pictures in blood 353, 354. +Mental types on earth strata 511. +Mercurians work to help man toward Initiation 274. +Mercury (metal), as medicine 274. + frees ego from dense body 274. +Mercury (planet), beings from , aid man 271. + beings from, far advanced 272. + emerging from planetary rest 275. + influence of, increasing 275. + man never inhabited 275. + polarized metal 274. + staff of 410, 412-414. + thrown off from sun 263, 272. +Mercury, Lords of, see Lords of Mercury. +Mercy urged by heart 393. +Mesmer sent by Elder Brothers 512. +Messengers of Gods 272, 301, 304. +Metals, significance of 499. +Michael, Archangel 405. +Microbes expelled by vital body 63. +Migrations, of birds 219. +Milk aided evolution of desire body 166. + as dietary factor 447. + correct way of drinking 454. + of St. Paul's simile 520. + special gastric juice required in digestion of 237. +Millennium, self-government, a requisite of the 273. +Mind, acquired in Earth Period 222, 426. + acquisition of, required change in desire body 394-395. + activity of, instigated by Lucifers 288. + aids lower will 394. + and heart, chasm between 17, 393. + arrogates rule of ego 394. + beneficial training of, in mathematics 202, 203. + birth of 142-143. + + +[PAGE 662] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Mind (cont.) coalesced with desire body 298, 394. + concepts of, furnished by 89, 353. + confers separate personality 266. + contributes to spiritual growth 95. + control of matter by 149. + development of, at first Great Initiation as at end of + Earth Period 502. + during sleep in Desire World 93. + extracted at death 97. + focusing point of ego 89, 95, 393, 426. + germinal, given by us to humanity of Vulcan Period 428. + given by Lords of Mind 222, 265. + given to man in Atlantis 298. + gives purpose to action 298. + goes with ego into Desire World 103. + highly creative in Jupiter Period 427. + in mineral stage 298, 426. + is not yet one-pointed 426. + linked to desire 395, 465. + macrocosmic, concrete 142, 145. + method of working of 89-91. + mirror or focus of matter and spirit 266. + most important instrument of spirit 425. + mystery of, revealed by first Great Initiation 502. + necessity of 57, 75, 298. + of child who dies, etc. 117, 172. + open, advantages of 7. + organs of, undeveloped 75. + prayer for 435, 464. + race religions given to emancipate 395. + resolved into threefold spirit essence 129. + to attain creative perfection in Vulcan Period 422. + to be absorbed by divine spirit 428. + to create living, growing forms in Jupiter Period 427. + to create living, growing, feeling things in Venus Period 427. + to create living, growing, feeling, thinking things in Vulcan Period 427. + unfolded by man 166. + union of, with heart 18. + unorganized 75, 76, 481. + use of 57, 75, 298. + waking activities tear down body 92. + wedded to desire 395. +Minds, Lords of, see Lords of Mind. +Mind stuff, basis for thought 30. + manner of selection of 133. +Mineral, all gases are 166. + becomes human in Vulcan Period 428. + compared to man 56. + + +[PAGE 663] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Mineral (cont.) consciousness is that of trance 85. + entered evolution in Earth Period 232, 428. + group spirit of, in Region of Abstract Thought 74, 85. + has no feelings 65. + inert, due to lack of finer vehicles 58. + lack of conscious activity in 58. + latest life wave in Earth Period 74, 428. + lowest ether only active in 58. + planetary ether envelops 58. + present humanity works with 427, 428. + responds to impacts without consciousness 32. + will reach human stage in Vulcan Period 342. +Mineral state, forms of stragglers go back to 343. + breaking of, gives Earth Spirit pleasure 65. +Mining operations give feeling of relief to Earth Spirit 505-506. +Missing link 342. +Mission of Christ 367-410. +Missionaries, foreign 163, 308. +Mixing Blood, ceremony of 145, 353. +Mongolians, see Atlantean races (subhead Mongolians). +Monkeys, see Anthropoid Apes. +Moon, abode of failures of life wave 264. + and Sun forces in propagation 283. + beings of, degenerate 334. + eighth sphere 264-265. + emanations of, crystallizing 265, 334, 346. + field of disintegration 264. + Jupiter's fourth 259. +Moon Forces, active in form building 265. + cause death 265. + in intra-uterine development 334. + work in female as imagination 267, 268. +Moon Period, all-consciousness lost in 216. + atmosphere of, "fire-fog" 213, 217. + beings of, had gill-like organs 228. + beings of, had horizontal animal spine 228. + characteristic of, moisture 213. + Cherubim aid man in 215, 221, 229. + classes evolving in 226. + consciousness of, internal pictures 217. + dense body reconstructed in 214. + described in Bible 328. + division of globe 218. + evolutionary status of man in 216, 217, 228. + flowing currents of 217, 219. + globes of, were water 213. + human spirit linked to divine spirit in 215. + human spirit linked to life spirit in 216. + + +[PAGE 664] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Moon Period (cont.) humanity of, the angels 222, 349, 376. + Lords of Individuality took charge of 214. + Lucifer Spirits progress in 286. + man becomes able to make sound in 219. + man fed upon milk of nature 447. + man gains germinal desire body 214-215, 422. + man in animal stage in 217, 228. + man suspended by cord 217, 228. + migratory propagative flights in 219. + mineral-plant soil of 227. + muscles acquired in 214. + pictures of, seen involuntarily by man 473. + pioneers of, fruit trees 342. + plants and minerals in 227, 228. + satellite of 219. + Seraphim awakened germ of human spirit in 215, 221, 228. + sympathetic nerves originated in 239. + stragglers of 265. + three elements 234. + three kingdoms of 234. + vital body reconstructed 214.-215. +Moon Revolution (third) of Earth Period 242, 243. + work on desire body in 209. +Moons, beings of, may return to parent planet 260. + dissolution of 260. + encircling planets 255. + purpose of 218, 259-260, 264. +Moral growth 39. +Morning Exercises 697. +Moses, face shines at death 406. + is reborn as Elijah 405. +Mosses, lowest degenerations of plant kingdom 343. +Motives, four admirable 464. +Motion, an aspect of Supreme Being 178, 181. +Mountain, place of initiation 169. +Muscles, atrophying 473. + expression of desire body 395. + originated in Moon Period 214. + operated by desire body 455. + operated by ego 89. + stronghold of desire body 455. + two kinds of 396. +Muscles, Involuntary, controlled by will 396. + heart only involuntary muscle cross striped like voluntary 396. + lengthwise stripes of 396. +Muscles, Voluntary, built by desire body 394. + stripes lengthwise and crosswise 396. + + +[PAGE 665] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Music and color, relation of 123, 124. + and work upon archetype 123, 124. + in sounds of nature 123. + of heaven world produces color 123. + of the spheres 119, 122. + second heaven home world of 80, 119, 123, 124. + spiritual wings of new Slavic race 305. + vibrations of, affect form 122, 369, 375. +Musical ability 126. +Musical keynote of every ego 369. +Musician, mission of, to connect man with heaven 127. +Muspelheim, south fiery boundary of Chaos 247. +Mysteries, greater 529. + probed by heart and mind 18. +Mysteries, lesser, and earth's strata 499-500. + deal with Earth Period 525. + deal with Mercury half of Period 413. + given to Lemurians 414. + nine degrees in 501, 525-528. + religion, science, and art taught in 517. + schools of 438, 520, 529. +Mystic, usually devoid of intellect 520. + unused sex currents of 475, 478. +Mystic Cross and Star 389. + + +National spirit, influence of, to be transcended 393. +Nations, rise and fall of 289. +Nations, separate, originated in Atlantis 296. + have had their day 437. +Nature, changes of, slow 184, 226. + processes of, slow 226, 348, 368. + with acquisition of thought man loses power over 298. +Nature Forces, agents of retributive justice 506-507, 508. +Nature spirits, dead work with 126. +Nebula, fiery, is spirit 249. +Nebular theory related to occult science 249, 322-325. + fails to explain many facts 514. + requires a creator 323. + theory 205. +Negro, dense body of 290. + descendant of Lemurian 304. + helped by one of own race 313. +Nephesh, see Breath. +Neophyte must understand what he sees 480. +Neptune influences astrologers 260. + not of our solar system 260. +Nerve, pneumogastric 398. + + +[PAGE 666] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Nerves, an expression of desire body 353. + and vital fluid 63. +Nervous system, divided in Earth Period 239. + expression of desire body 353. + originated in Moon Period 214. +Nervous system, Cerebro-spinal, built by desire body 394. + and brain, secondary vantage of human spirit 397. + under control of will 476. +Nervous system, Sympathetic, controls involuntary muscles 395. +Nervous system, voluntary, started in Earth Period 239-240. +Neshamah, Hebrew word for soul 350. +New Galilee, sixth epoch 303, 305, 311, 360. +New heaven and new earth 311. +New Jerusalem in First Heaven 116. +New Race led by highest Initiate 304, 305. + progenitors of 311. + seed of, from America 305. +New Testament, Christian Teachings of 315. +New Year, birth of 390. +Niflheim, cold foggy north boundary of Chaos 247. +Nimrod, type of Atlantean 166. +Nine, number, hidden in age of Christ 501. + most significant number 500. + number of Adam 500. + number of beast 499-500. + number of humanity 500-501. +Nine strata of earth 499-500. +Noah and wine, symbols 168 +Norsemen and test of blood mixing 145, 353. +Nose, base of, stronghold of divine spirit 397. + vital and dense bodies congruent at 293. +Not peace but sword 383-388. +Nuclei of world globe persist in Chaos 247. +Number, an aspect of God and Man 253. + of Adam 500. + of the beast 499-500. + of humanity 500-501. + of the saved 501. +Nutrition and assimilation 457. + chocolate, importance of 452. + facilitated by cheerfulness 456. + importance of water in 446, 449. + phosphate of lime retards 443. + phosphorus, element of, in vegetables and fruits 453. + science of 441-457. + + +[PAGE 667] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Nutrition (cont.) sugar important in 447. + sugar, no phosphorus in refined 453. + value of plants and fruits in 452, 458-460. +Nutrition, see also Food. + + +Objective consciousness 417, 421. + creative 419, 421. +Objective Consciousness, see also Waking Consciousness. +Observation, important aid to aspirant 492. + necessary in superphysical worlds 25, 492. + student should learn by 131. +Obsession, how to diagnose 173. + in anger 144. +Occult discovery of earth's third motion 512. + exercises, warning concentration 399-400. + key to Bible 319. + knowledge, acquirement of, without proper motive dangerous 22. +Occult schools, correlated to seven rays 438. + rites of initiation vary in 502. + seven orders of 438. + six steps of "Preparation" in 502. + teachings of, not definite about periods preceding and following Earth + Period 503. +Occult science, first law of 460. + seven secrets of 506. + teaching of, respecting sex function 471. +Occult scientist, does not merely "believe" 147. + finds answer to heart anomaly in memory of nature 396. + food of 505 + investigates earth 498. + sees one life in all 495. + uses concentration as prayer 463. +Occult student learns by observation 131, 132. +Occultism, and science 99. + valuable books of, reconciled 270, 274-275. +Occultist, sees twelve colors in spectrum 253. + test of true 400. + unused sex currents of 475, 478. +Oceanic region 50. +Old Testament contains Jewish religion 308. +"On earth Peace, Goodwill toward men" 391. +Only Begotten, see Word. +Organs atrophying and developing 473. + dormant 473. +Original Semites, see Atlantean races (subhead Original Semites). + + +[PAGE 668] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Original Semites (cont.) chosen people of Jehovah 309, 334. + dense and vital bodies become concentric in 300. + developed cunning 299, 309, 335. + difficult to guide 309. + lose sight in inner worlds 300. + married outside race 310, 335. + see objects clearly defined 300. + used faculty of thought 299, 309. +Original sin esoterically explained 278. +Original Turanians, see Atlantean races (subhead Original Turanians). +Osmosis first form of assimilation 263. +Ossification of dense body 442-443, 453. +Ova, difference in, indistinguishable between higher animals and human + beings 343. + impregnated, worked on by mother's desire body 138. + + +Pain and bearing of children 278. + educational benefits of 131. + factor in developing independent thought 363. + factor in developing Lemurian's bodily sensibilities 279. + in amputated limb 64. + in education of Lemurian 279. +Paine, Thomas, liberation of, from race spirit 350. +Painter learns to build artistic eye 126. +Panorama of life and retrospection 111. + basis of pleasure and pain 109. + ego watches 101, 102, 114. + in desire world 108. + in etheric region 102. + length of 102. + obtained from blood 398. + read in reflecting ether 135, 161. +Panoramas, two 129, 130. +Paralysis from condition of vital body 63. +Parturition, painful, cause of 283. +Passion, region of 44-45. +Past lives, memory of 171. +Paternalism supersedes individualism 393. +Paths, mystic and occult 520. +Patriarchs, long life of 354. +Patriotism, eliminated through international marriage 355. + fanatical, bar to progress 307, 312. + from race spirit 350, 359, 360. + superseded by altruism 355. +Peace and a sword 387, 388. + on earth 387. + that passeth understanding 122. +Peat, mineral-plant 227. + + +[PAGE 669] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Pentecost and gift of tongues 433. +Perception in Atlantis 293. + of higher worlds 24. +Periods and corresponding states of consciousness 189, 417, 421. + and seven days of creation 327-433. + comparative length of 420, 421. + cosmic night of rest between 196, 243. + man's progress through 189. + not related to planets 190, 412. +Periods, Seven, from man to God 188. + harmonize with Bible teaching 317. + incarnations of earth 188-193. +Perpetuation of race by angels 283, 288. +Persistence, no results without 487 + reward of 496. +Personality in desire body 243. + desire body seeks to rule 348. +Phallicism taught spiritual regeneration 534. +Philanthropist works in heaven 120. +Philosopher's Stone, each makes for himself 438, 519. + formed of concrete material 519. + formula of, given esoterically 438. + handled by many 438. + making of, symbolized 519. + wrought by Christ 520. +Philosophies recognize involution and evolution 185. +Philosophy of Rosicrucians logical 8. +Phosphorus, brain needs 452-453. +Phosphorus, found in vegetables and fruits 453. + necessity of, for brain in mental and spiritual work 453. +Physical world, chemical region of 29-34. + densest 29, 187. + etheric region of 34-38. + man must conquer 300. + matter and force inseparable 149. + occupies less space than higher worlds 180. + reflected in higher regions 43. + seven divisions of 30. + transformed by imagination 426. + valuable as experiment station 32. + world of form 119. +Physical world, see also Earth. +Picture consciousness of animals 83. + dream or internal 74, 83, 217, 415, 419, 421. + self-consciousness 418, 419, 421. +Pilgrimage through matter, beginning and end of 87. + culmination of 429. + + +[PAGE 670] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Pillar, Him that overcometh will I make a 158. +Pineal gland and pituitary body 473-477. + awakened by training 477. + degenerated 262. + dormant at present time 473. + first sense organ 261, 262. + now connected with voluntary nervous system 477. + organ of clairvoyant sight 477. + third eye 262, 473. + vantage of human spirit 397. + vibratory union with pituitary body 479. + will again connect man with inner worlds 473, 477. +Pioneers of animal kingdom 234. + of Earth Period receive mind 265. + progress of, result of adaptability 337, 342. + provided for 372. +Pituitary body and pineal gland 473-477. + awakened by training 477. + dormant at present time 473. + now connected with voluntary nervous system 477. + spiritual exercises for 478-479. + vantage of life spirit 397. + will again connect man with inner worlds 473, 477. +Planes, see Cosmic Planes. +Planetary ether interpenetrates form 58. +Planetary desire world interpenetrates physical world 65. +Planetary spirits, bodies of, spherical 255. + collectively they are God 253. + differentiated hierarchies 182. + replaced by regents 182. + God's ministers 180. + possess vehicles 252, 253. + Seven Spirits before Throne 180, 252-253. + threefold 182. +Planetoids, see Asteroids. +Planets, birth of 258. + bodies of planetary spirits 255. + each has three worlds 53. + evolution of 256. + satellites of 255. + seven, circle around our sun 255. + thrown off from Sun 259, 271, 272. + unknown, in our solar system 513. +Plant as food 458, 460. + chaste generation of 535. + circulation of sap in 37. + compared to other kingdoms 56, 57, 86. + consciousness of 85, 458. + deposit of color in 37. + + +[PAGE 671] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Plant (cont.) explanation of inertness of 58, 69. + extirpation of, causes pain to Earth Spirit 65, 505. + group spirit of, in center of earth 85. + group spirit of, in Region of Concrete Thought 74, 85. + guided by angels 349, 427. + life of seed of, withheld by group spirit 461. + of Hyperborea 331. + of today moulded from Hyperborean 331. + only chemical and life ethers active in 58. + remains of, found in polar region 512. + started evolution in Moon Period 226, 427. + vital body of, built by angels 222, 349. + will reach human stage in Venus Period 342. +Plato's theory of world soul 85. + story of Atlantis 291. +Pliny the Elder 510, 511. + elder 510-511. +Pneumogastric nerve 398. +Poems (quoted). + Chambered Nautilus. Oliver Wendell Holmes 159. + Creed or Christ. Max Heindel. + Dying and bringing to birth. Johann von Goethe 249. + I am the Voice of the Voiceless. Ella Wheeler Wilcox 460. + One Ship Sails East. Ella Wheeler Wilcox 163. + Sun intones his ancient song. Johann von Goethe 119. + Though Christ a Thousand Times Be Born. Angelus Silesius 389. + Vision of Sir Launfal. James Russell Lowell 115, 116. + When self-control he gains. Johann von Goethe 137. + Who is the Grail? Richard Wagner 389. +Poets inspired in Heaven World 120. +Poetry soul's expression of feeling 119-120. +Polarian Epoch (first) 261-262, 330-331. + dense body in 165, 263. + earth and man ethereal in 165. + evolution of earth during 261. + function of pineal gland in 261. + humanity evolves in a fiery condition 261. + man of, mineral-like 165, 261. + mankind confined to polar region of sun 261. + mentioned in Bible 330. + recapitulation of Saturn Period 263. + reproduction of man in 262. +Polyps, last degeneration of mammals 343. +Possessions, worldly, a source of worry 386. +Power, first aspect of Supreme Being 178, 374. +Power, in words 295. + an aspect of Supreme Being 178, 181. + +[PAGE 672] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +"Powers of Darkness" 222. +Prayer and concentration 463. + Lord's Prayer 435, 462-466. + misuse of 386, 434. + proper use of 434. + saves post-mortem misery 463. + unceasing 434. +Precession of equinoxes and rebirth 159. +Primordial substance 321. +Prisms, vital body built of 10. +Prisoners, humane treatment of 385. +Probationers, enter service of humanity 531. + must sever connections with other occult orders 531. + must shun "circles" or negative gatherings 531. + spiritual exercises performed in private 532. +Progress in Salvation 229. + result of adaptability 223, 303, 337, 340. + three factors in 337. + through loss of some faculty 300. +Progression or retrogression 341. + spiritual or physical 515. +Promised land, present earth 310, 335. + our present Earth 310, 335. +Propagation in Polarian and Hyperborean Epochs 262-263. +Propagation through life ether 36. + duty of 472. +Proselyting 308. +Physical Research, Society for 140. +Psychometrists 38. +Ptolemaic system has points needed in physical world 514. +Puberty, changing of boy's voice at 536. +Purgatory, avarice eradicated in 105. + benefits from 104, 109, 114. + children exempt from 117. + drunkenness eradicated in 105. + experiences built into seed atom in 114, 120. + life is shortened in, by restitution 107. + method of avoiding 111. + occupies lower region of desire world 112. + purpose of 110. + suicide's experience in 104. + suffering in 107. + time in, usually one-third of life in physical world 107. +Pythagoras demanded study of mathematics 203. + and music of the spheres 119. + + +Quartz, significance of 499 + + +[PAGE 673] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Race bodies, development of 289. +Race, must not identify ourselves with 307. +Race Religions aid humanity 433. + based on law 380, 383, 386, 392. + creators of sin 380, 383. + enumeration of 374, 383. + fifth, conquering world of matter 168. + fundamentally separative 384. + influence man from without 380. + inspired by same spiritual impulse 515. + Jehovah the author of 334, 374, 380, 383, 433, 435. + Jewish 312. + peculiar to Earth Period 271. + point to one who is to come 386. + prepare for union with Jehovah 433. + present insufficiency of 383, 395. + purpose of 395, 433, 435. + spiritual solar impulses via moon 403. +Race spirits, the archangels 334, 349, 403. + considered a group before the individual 352. + exercise a protectorate over evolving humanity 348. + foster patriotism 350. + gain entrance to blood by means of air inspired 350, 356, 380. + guide the races through the blood 350. + instigate wars 334. + promote pride of race 351. + realize deficiencies or religion 383. + still work with man 359. + unrelenting law of 384. + under rule of, groups were considered before individuals 392. +Race spirits, see also Archangels. +Races and their leaders 270-273. + degeneration of 289, 290. + evanescent feature of evolution 311. + first evolved in Lemurian Epoch 271. + of fifth epoch 305. + of future aided by Mercury 275. + perpetuation of, controlled by angels 288. + progress through epigenesis 344. + sixteen in our evolution 271. + sixteen paths of destruction 306-307, 312, 401. + steps in evolution 312. + to end with coming epoch 305, 312. + worked upon by race spirits 350. +Ray, Brothers of same 438, 439. +Rays, seven, of humanity 439. +Reality of higher worlds 28. + + +[PAGE 674] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Reason, cunning transmuted into 309. + based in desire 396. + frustrates designs of ego 399. + gained in Aryan Epoch 298. + in conflict with heart 393. + superseded by love 311. + to satisfy, aim of Rosicrucians 439. +Rebirth and Law of Consequence 147-174. + and precession of equinoxes 159. + Christian doctrine 164, 170. + compatible with justice 153. + continued embodiments in perfecting vehicles 153, 338-340. + ego's preparation for 133-139. + evidenced by genius 155. + not adequate for stragglers 401. + proved by occult investigation 147. + provides purpose for living 132, 133. + purpose of, gaining experience 130, 131, 158. + reconcilable with Christ's atonement 401. + regulated by sun's position 159. + temporary suppression of truth of 167, 168. +Rebirth, Law of, allows free will in detail 129. + applies to evolution of earth 412. + brings ego back to work for self and others 133. + compatible with evolution 151. + connected with planetary movements 159, 160. + differs from transmigration 157. + explains life 157. + law of, not unalterable 160-161. + law of, secretly taught 160-169. + meets individual need 161. + public teaching of, forbidden by Christ 164, 165. + repeated embodiments in gradually improving vehicles 153. + taught in story of blind man 170. + taught prior to Christ 167. +Rebirth, see also Consequence, law of. +Rebirths of our Earth 190, 401. +Recapitulation always on higher spiral 208, 245. + and embryo 255. + as spirals within spirals 245, 420-421. + Bible refers to 329. + in ante-natal development shows past stages of evolution 255, 343-344. + necessary at beginning of each period 208. + of previous periods 208-209, 420-421. + shows past stages of evolution 343-344. + takes up new work 209. + + +[PAGE 675] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Reconstruction of earth's surface 129. +Recording Angels, see Angels, Recording. +Red blood and indwelling spirit 86. +Red blood, warm, and indwelling spirit 69, 86, 268, 274. + outgoing current of 69. + cold, currents of, directed inward 69. +Redemption, see Salvation. +Reflecting ether, carries pictures to life spirit 398. + records of, unreliable 38. + records of, used by mediums 38. + reflects memory of nature 37, 38. + retains record of every happening 37. + transmits thought 38, 90. +Reflection of higher worlds and regions in lower 51. +Regent of earth 408. +Regents of planets 182. +Regions of physical world 30, 54. + of thought world 30, 54. + subdivisions of different 30. +Regions, see also Worlds. +Reincarnation, see Rebirth. +Relaxation preceding concentration 485. +Religion, evolution of 367. + evolves with man 367. + four steps in 302, 303. + proselyting objectionable 164, 308. + true, embodies science and art 516. +Religion of Father, see Father, religion of. + orthodox, fetters of 519. + universal, to be Christianity 367. +Religions, earlier, preliminary to Christianity 164. + hidden teachings in 520. + pre-Christian, taught rebirth 167. + various, necessary 371. +Repentance 107, 111. +Replenish, significance of word 332-333. +Reproduction, duty of 539. +Repulsion and attraction 42, 43. + dominates lower desire world 42. + in thought processes 46, 89, 90. + mainspring of, is self-assertion 45. + shatters vice 47. +Rest between periods and revolutions 250. + compared with sleep 94. +Restitution, purgative effect of 107. +Retrogression or progression 341. +Retrospection advances aspirant 111. + review of day's happening 111. + shortens purgatory 111. +Return of good for evil 393. + + +[PAGE 676] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Revenge imprinted on vital body 463. + form of memory of desire body 46. +Revolution, circle of life wave 196. + present 199, 209, 245. +Revolutions and cosmic nights 195-200. + as correlated to man's vehicles 209. + globes and periods of 412. + in Bible narrative 327. + of Earth 199, 209, 236-245. + recapitulate period 208-209, 212, 245. + rest period between 243-245. + three and one-half completed 199, 209. +Rhythmic vibrations, power of 122. +Rib of Bible narrative 347. +Rmoahals, see Atlantean races (subhead Rmoahals). +Root of Nose, seat of divine spirit 292-293. +Rose Cross, aim and end of human evolution 519. + Initiation of 519. + points to man's ultimate perfection 519. + reveals Philosopher's Stone 519. + symbolism of 534-539. +Rosenkreuz, see Christian Rosenkreuz. +Rosicrucian only known by brothers 250. +Rosicrucian Brotherhood, Christian Rosenkreuz link with higher + council of 523. + consists of thirteen 522. + devoted to making Philosopher's Stone 519. + emblem of 522. + five brothers of, never leave temple 523. + formed on cosmic lines 521. + founded by Christian Rosenkreuz 518. + guards secret of creation of life 299. + head of, hidden from world 523. + Hierophants of Lesser Mysteries 520. + invisible power behind governments 520. + lay brothers live in world 523. + mediators between man and Gods 304, 327. + one of the seven schools of Lesser Mysteries 438. + seven brothers go into world 523. + teachings correlate spiritual truths with science 521. + teachings for intellectual 439, 478, 521. + work of, for world 529. +Rosicrucian Brotherhood, see also Elder Brothers. + Fellowship 530-533. + greeting 538. + methods aim to make pupil self-reliant 531. +Rosicrucians: + Bacon 251, 518. + Baldus 251 + + +[PAGE 677] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Rosicrucians (cont.) Boehme 251, 518. + Comenius 250. + Goethe 249, 519. + Helmont 251. + Paracelsus 251. + Saint-Germain 433. + Shakespeare 251. + Wagner 389, 519. + first occult school giving particulars of periods preceding + and following Earth Period 503. +Round table, knights of 409. +Royalty, Atlanteans institute 295. + + +Sacrifice, of Christ beacon of hope 373. + of self to Christ 372. + law of the spirit 368. +Saint-Germain, Comte de, incarnation of Rosenkreuz 433. +Saint-Germain, see also Christian Rosenkreuz. +Saint Paul believed in rebirth 315. + gives deeper teachings to qualified 320. + had an inner and outer teaching 520. + had knowledge of race spirits 350. + sayings of 389, 434, 506. + "third heaven" of 146, 528. + uses allegory 319. +Salt injurious 457. +Salvation, and forgiveness of sin 373, 402. + Christian doctrine of 400. + evolutionary plan 229. + is progression 229. + needed by many 402. + promised 315. + theology's plan of 150, 151. +Saturn destroys his children 206. + second planet thrown off sun 258. +Saturn Period, Biblical narrative of 327-328. + candidate consciously views evolving life in 525-526. + consciousness of, trance-like 206. + darkness and warmth prevailed in 205. + dense body and divine spirit gained in 207. + densest globe in region of Concrete Thought 204-205, 222. + evolution of 195-196. + in world of divine spirit 216. + life of incorporated in globe 205. + Lords of Flame work on globes of 206. + Lords of Mind humanity of 222, 376, 427. + man mineral-like 205, 212, 427. + one element of 234. + + +[PAGE 678] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Saturn Period (cont.) sense organs, ability to develop in 206. + stragglers of 224, 230. + virgin spirits in world of divine spirit in 216. +Saturn Revolution, (first), brain formed in, of Earth Period 236. + first work on dense body 208, 236, 239. +Savages, descendants of Lemurians 289, 304. +Savior, physical and spiritual 391. +Science and Art, corroborates occultism 99. + deals only with form 185, 248, 342. + embodied in true religion 516. + erroneous conclusions of 342. + must become reverent 299, 410. + taught in initiation temples in Lemurian times 281. +Science, orthodox, fetters must be repudiated 519. + overlooks degeneration of form 291. +Science, occult, harmonizes with science 322. + theories of, regarding earth strata 498, 511. +Scotch, clairvoyance of 354. +Second Coming depends on separation of church and state 386. + in sixth epoch 360. + unifying effect of 384. +Second sight, see Clairvoyance. +Seed Atom, Dense, blood etches pictures upon 398. + fastens silver cord 98. + forces of, leave body at death 97. + forces of, retained from life to life 97. + forces of, retained in all vehicles 97. + gathers new material 134. + in left ventricle of heart 97, 396. + nucleus for next body 97. + of world globes persist in chaos 247. + placed in semen 137. + returned to Jesus by Christ 408. + withheld by group spirit 357, 461. +Seed Atom, Desire, extracted in First Heaven 120. + nucleus for new desire body 134. + seat of conscience 120. +Seed Atom, Mind, gathers new mind material 133. + Vital, forces of, extracted after death 103. +Seed-Race, but few of, remained faithful 310. + under care of Jehovah 334. +Seeing not synonymous with knowing 25. +Seer, true aim of 68. +Seismic phenomena, scientists seek physical causes of 498. + + +[PAGE 679] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Self and Not-Self 358. +Self-assertion, mainspring of repulsion 45. +Self-consciousness, object of descent into matter 189, 216. + possession of, enabled man to exercise will 166. + until attainment of, man led by higher beings 166. +Self-cultivation necessary 384, 393-394. +Selfhood, conversion of, into selfishness 397. +Self-mastery 273, 537-538. +Selfishness routed by altruism 368. +Semi-circular canals 126. +Semites, original, see Atlantean races (subhead, Original Semites). +Sensation due to separate vital body 504. + of earth exists in fiery stratum 504-506. +Sense Organs, ability to develop, given in Saturn Period 206. + of genius 155, 161. + to be outgrown in future 262. +Sense perception, Lemurian had at birth 276. + through light ether 36. +Senses, higher, dormancy of 24. +Sensitives, stragglers or pioneers 241. +Separateness, limitation of life by form 247. +Separation of sexes, see Sex separation. +Septuagint 320. +Seraphim, aid man voluntarily 215. + awakened germ of human spirit 215, 221, 228. + did not aid in creating form 326. + not mentioned in Creation Story 326. + passed to liberation 220-221, 326. + worked in Moon Period 215, 221, 228. +Serpentine Path of evolution 413, 414. +Seven Spirits before Throne, see Planetary spirits. +Seven unspeakable secrets 506. +Sex, alteration of, from life to life 160. + current necessary to work in inner worlds 478. + determined by life ether 36. + origin and end of 364. +Sex Force, abuse of, prompted by Lucifers 287. + aspirant must conserve 471. + half of, feeding brain 285, 467. + manifestation of, in inner worlds 267. + proper use of 472. + reflection of Holy Spirit's creative energy 468. + stored in blood 144. + transmutation of 467. + used in inner growth 284, 536. + + +[PAGE 680] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Sex Function, abuse of, causes pain 278, 283, 288, 362. + and opening of man's eyes 283. + controlled by angels 277, 283. + designed solely for perpetuation of species 288. + for propagation only 468, 469, 471. + mania leads to insanity 536. + obligation of 468-469, 472, 539. +Sex Separation, Biblical story of 347. + brain and larynx built by 269, 284. + consummated when earth was thrown off sun 268. + in Lemuria 267-270, 346. +Shakespeare, William, authorship of 251. +Sheep and goats, no arbitrary division of 224. +Sight gained in Atlantis 276. +Silence of Second Heaven 122. +Silent Watcher, see Divine Spirit. +Silver cord, both ends meet in vital seed atom 10. + completion of, ends childhood 10. + connects higher vehicles to dense body 97. + grown anew in each life 10. + joins heart, solar plexus, and liver 10. + rupture of, causes death 98, 102. + shape of 98. +Sin, against Holy Ghost 468. + natural consequence of race religions 380, 383. + purgation of, in purgatory 107. + taken away by Christ 408. + visited upon children 468. +Sin, forgiveness of, see Forgiveness. +Sinners, salvation of 402. +Sixteen paths to destruction 231, 306-307, 312, 401. +Sixteen races 231, 271, 306, 312, 401. +Skeleton indicates state of consciousness 456. + material expression of divine spirit 397. + originated in Moon Period 214. + pliability of, in Lemuria 275, 346. +Skepticism blinds to truth 6. +Skin important eliminating organ 444. +Slavs, future of 306. +Sleep, blood leaves brain when body goes to 239. + compared to death 102. + compared with rest 94. + fatigue of body removed in 94, 481. + induced by collapse of vital body 93. + lower ethers active during 482. + not an inactive state 93-94. + restores harmony 93. + similar to perfect concentration 483. + work of aspirant during 484, 485. + + +[PAGE 681] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Solar energy exhausted in digestion 239. + energy utilized by vital body 63. + fluid in vital body 63. + forces in Hyperborea fed man 269. + Plexus negative center of development 241. +Solar system, coagulation of 187. + creation of 183, 321, 323. + creator of, a logical necessity 129, 323. + God the architect of 179-181. + goes through birth and death 183. + planetary spirits in 180, 253. + reason for 246. +Solar systems departments of God's kingdom 180. + float in world of life spirit 55. + purpose of creation of 183. +Son, religion of, see Christianity. +Son, the creative word 181. + highest Initiate of Sun Period 376. + unifying religion of 384. +Sons of God marry daughters of men 310, 335. +Soul amalgamated with spirit 425. + creation, stories of 344-346. + intellectual, absorbed by life spirit in Venus Period 425. + is here to acquire experience 432. + of all flesh in blood 350. + scientific attempts to weigh 99-101. + spiritualized product of body 95. + theological doctrine of creation of 148-151. + transmutation of bodies into 425. + yearns for power 17. +Soul, animal 482. +Soul force, twofold 284. +Soul growth depends on spirit's activity 96, 424. + method of producing 95, 96, 424-426. + promoted by activity of dense body 96. +Soul Life, region of 47. +Soul Power, attained by evolution 189, 429. + region of 47. +Soul, Threefold, constitution of 95, 424-425. + evolved by spirit within 424. + spiritualized product of bodies 95, 96, 424, 435. +Souls, transmigration of, no basis for 158. +Sound builds climate, flora, and fauna 125. + in Second Heaven as color 124. + in Second Heaven builds bodies 124. + music of spheres 119, 122. + + +[PAGE 682] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Sound (cont.) power of 122, 181, 369. + vibrations of, change form 122, 369. +Sound, harmonious, factor in amalgamation 124. + rhythmic, creative power of universe 181. +Sounds of Nature, Earth's "tone" 123. + in Lemuria 276-277. +Space, non-existent in higher worlds 29. + significance of 247. + uncrystallized spirit 249. +Spectrum, invisible colors of 253. + and seven rays of virgin spirit 439. +Speech in Jupiter Period 234. + Lemurian considered most holy 278. +Spermatozoon embodies human will 284. +Spheres, music of 119, 122. +Spinal cord, Lucifers work in 361. +Spine, vertical, required by ego 86, 236. +Spiral, evolutionary path is 151, 152, 227, 413. + of attainment 420. + prevents duplication 227, 428. + within spirals 245, 420. +Spirit, independent of form 31. + involution of 337. + limitations of, in matter 81. + matter, states of 179. + meets form 266. + one, pervading all space 31, 247. + positive pole of, life 248. + refracted divisions of 398. + treasures of, retained from life to life 431. +Spirit Divine, see Divine Spirit. +Spirit Life, see Life Spirit. +Spirit, Threefold, see Ego. +Spiritual consciousness, highest 421. +Spiritual force from Sun 86, 390. +Spiritual growth 431. +Spiritual perception, faculties of 25, 41, 480. + of Atlanteans 294. +Spiritual powers to be regained by man 300. +Spiritual sight, see Clairvoyance. +Spirituality, must evolve through intellect 305, 306. + same wave of, inspired great religions 515. +Spleen, gate of vital body 63. + now controlled by desire body 455. + post-mortem suffering of 104. + specializes solar energy 238. +Sport, killing animals in 461. + + +[PAGE 683] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Staff of Mercury 410, 412-414. +Stages, four great, of past and future 416. +Starfish, plant-animal 234. +Star of Bethlehem 389, 391. +Star of Ross Cross, symbolism of 522. +Stars, successively become pole star 160. + the clock of destiny 163. +Stellar forces and creative function 278, 283, 362. +Steps, thirteen, and their correlations to stages of consciousness 416. + thirteen in animal kingdom 416, 500. + three, to achieve union with higher self 432. + four great, to God 302. +Sterility and death of races 290. + cause death of races 341. + produced by strange blood 357. +Sthanu, signification of word 158. +Stimulants injurious for dying 101. +Stomach, blood accumulates in, after feeding 239. + ego acts upon 238. +Stragglers, and newcomers 223-232. + Christ came to aid 401. + classes of 226. + distinguished from failures 264. + form dark spots in sun globe 225. + Lucifer Spirits are 286. + may overtake pioneers 224. + of Moon Period 228. + of Sun Period 225. + promoted in Moon Period 229. + redemption of 265. + take forms outgrown by pioneers 340. +Strata of earth 499, 503-504. +Students of Fellowship Teachings are not Rosicrucians 528. + enrollment of 530. +Subconscious memory, see Memory subconscious. +Subjective activity, illustration of 207-208. +Success through concentrated purpose 487. +Suffix of surnames, origin of 351. +Sugar, contains no ash 447. + refined, no phosphorus in 453. + valuable in diet 447. +Suggestion, as an aid to medicine 63. + man becoming less amenable to 83. +Suicide, archetype of, persists after death 104. + post-mortem suffering of 104. +Sun, breaks up into zodiac 256. + central 258. + effect of, upon earth 265, 390. + + + +[PAGE 684] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Sun (cont.) emanates from central source 258. + exalted beings occupy 180, 181. + evolution of, demands expulsion of stragglers 258. + human evolution confined to polar region of 261. + light of, contains all colors 253. + man's highest influence from 86. + planets thrown off from 258-260, 264, 271, 272. + planet evolves into a 256. + symbol of spiritual power 181, 390. + wabbling motion of 160. + works in male bodies as will 267-268. + works in vital body 265. +Sun, spiritual, and Holy Night 391, + forces of 258, 390. + impulses of 515. + promotes soul growth 515. +Sun Period, alimentary canal and glands started in 211. + animals were mineral-like in 224. + Biblical mention of 328. + Cherubim work with man in 211, 212 + Christ highest Initiate in 383. + Christ regent of 407. + consciousness of, dreamless sleep 213. + dense body reconstructed in 211. + densest globe in desire world 349. + germ of vital body given in 211. + globes of, gas-like consistency 210, 213. + globes of, were sensitive 210. + highest globes in World of Life Spirit 216. + humanity of archangels 349, 376. + life spirit linked to divine spirit in 212. + life spirit started in 212. + life wave traverses globes of 198. + light existed before creation of sun 328. + Lords of Wisdom work in 211. + man plant-like in 213. + stragglers caused sun spots in 225. + two elements in 234. + virgin spirits blinded by second veil of matter in 216. + work on vital body begun in 210, 211. +Sun Revolution (second) of Earth Period, vital body reconstructed in 240. +Sun Spirit, Christ is 391. +Sun spirits, see Archangels. + name of, in ancient race religions 383. +Sun spots, atavistic remainder from stragglers 225. +Sunlight, reflected modified vibrations of 403. + spiritual floods earth 407. + + +[PAGE 685] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Superconscious memory, see Memory, superconscious. +Supreme Being, architect of universe 179, 374. + dissolves universe at end of manifestation 375. + known as THE ONE 181. + three aspects of 181, 375. +Surnames, origin of affix 351. +Survival of the Fittest, law for the body 368. +Sword, not peace 387. + perverted cross 392. +Symbols in three-dimensional world 534. +Sympathetic nerves, originated in Moon Period 239. +Sympathetic nervous system, see Nervous system, sympathetic. +Syphilis, mercurial treatment of 274. + + +Talmud 320. +Teacher, attracted to neophyte 495, 496, 524, 525. + confidence in necessary 440. +Tears, cause of 60. +Temper, injurious effect of 144, 455. + control of 463. + of youth and desire body 144. +Temperament, a factor in spiritual development 520. + and heredity 138. +Temples of Initiation, in Lemuria 281. +Temple, midnight services in 529. + no golden key to 524. + of Rosicrucian Order, lay brothers visit 523. + veil of, rent 390, 407. +Temples, face the east 383. + in past open only to Initiates 390. +Temptation, purpose of 110, 282. +Tenfold, Constitution of Man 95. +Terms, (in this work) best available 227. + relative 233. +Teutonic-Anglo-Saxon Race 290, 305, 392. + American branch of, has most flexible bodies 290. +The One is the Supreme Being 181. +Theological theory 148-151. +Theories, three, of life and death 147-148. +Third eye, pineal gland 262. +Third Heaven, see Heaven Third. +Thorah 319, 321. +Thought, abstract, beneficial effects of 203. + activities selfish 285. + acts upon brain 89. + breaks down nerve tissue 399. + burns its way through obstacles 487. + controlled by life spirit 399. + + + +[PAGE 686] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Thought, abstract (cont.) cost of 270. + creates image on photographic plates 537. + cunning first attempt at 309. + destined to become objectified 417, 418, 427. + destroying power of 92, 399. + determines character 398. + developed in Aryan Epoch 298. + effect of twin forces upon 89. + existed before brain 18. + expression of, highest privilege 236. + function diminished after eating 239. + gained in Atlantis 297, 299, 309. + gained with sacrifice of power over Nature 298. + generation and projection of 89-91. + great power of, usually wasted 486. + ideas transformed into 88, 486. + molds body 149. + molds matter 537. + must be generated by spirit from within 486. + physical world trains ego to use 33, 426. + protects as guardian angel 47. + reflecting ether transmits 38. + related to memory 90, 91. + result of unchaste 472. + transmission of 90. +Thought, Abstract, Region of, location of 48. + reflected in Desire world 51. + seed stratum of earth corresponds to 504. +Thought force, means of gathering knowledge 487. + permanent 29. + ultimate reality 28. +Thought forms clothe ideas 49. + permanency of 28. + return to their creator 91. +Thought, Concrete, Region of, archetype in 49. + divisions of 49-50, 54. + emotion as atmosphere in 50. + furnishes mind stuff 49. + location of 48. + models of Earth in 125. + region of, clear pictures of memory of nature in 38. + tone apparent as color in 124. + water stratum of earth corresponds to 504. +Thought, logical, semi-circular canals cause 126. +Thought, World of, central position of 48. + ego functions directly in 88. + extends beyond desire world 53, 179. + forms of, act as balance wheels 49. + highest of man's present evolution 48. + + +[PAGE 687] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + + man obtains mind stuff from 30, 49, 88. + realm of music 119. + regions and subdivisions of 48, 54. + relation of four kingdoms to 70. + second heaven in 119, 146. + spirit and body meet in 48. + third heaven in 119, 146. +Threefold Soul, see Soul, Threefold. +Threefold Soul, see Soul, Threefold. +Threefold spirit, see Ego. +Thrones, see Lords of Flame. +Thymus gland, stores blood in child's body 143. +Time non-existent in higher worlds 29. + amplitude of 388. +Tlavatlis, see Atlantean Races, (subhead Tlvatlis). +Toltecs, see Atlantean races, (subhead Toltecs). +Tone produces color 123, 124. + creator of form 123, 369. +Torah, see Thorah. +Trance 149. +Trance-like consciousness 74, 85, 212, 415, 421. + abeyance of recuperative forces in 94. + experiences in 149. +Transmigration of souls, no basis for 158. + retrogression 157. +Transmutation of baser metals into gold 438. + of bodies into soul 425. + of evil 43. + of motives 464. + of sex force 467. + work of, by Elder Brothers 529. +Tree of Knowledge 278, 362, 363. +Tree of Life 363. +Tribal Spirit, appears as a cloud to trained clairvoyant 350. +Trinity, Christian doctrine of 253, 376. +Trinity, of good, true and beautiful 517. + of religion, science and art 516. +Trottes worked on by Jesus 409. +Truth, higher always ahead 440. + is eternal 23. + many aspects of 321. + shall make you free 23. +Tuberculosis, cause of 113, 511. +Turanians, see Atlantean Races, (subhead Original Turanians). +Twelve and One, a cosmic grouping 521-522. +Twin feelings, interest and indifference 46, 54. +Twin forces, attraction and repulsion 46, 54. + will and imagination 284. + + +[PAGE 688] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Twofold energy, universal creative force 324. + man uses selfishly 285. +Unbelief, injury from 440. +Upright walk required by ego 86. +Uranus first thrown off sun 258. + life on, backward 258. +Union with God 495. +United States, melting pot 305, 306, 315. +Universal Brotherhood 311. +Universe, formation of 324, 325. + logic in 440. + maintained by God 324. +Unselfishness will release creative force 537. +Urinary system, saves man from early grave 444. + + +Vegetables contain very little ash 446. +Vegetarians versus meat-eaters, contests of 459. +Vehicles center at root of nose 292 + prayer for 452 +Vehicles, higher, have no specialized organs 75. + improved by advanced egos 289. + leave body at death 97. + must shine to attract teacher 496. + of Christ Jesus 377, 406. + of each kingdom 73. + of new-born 139. + of the Trinity 376. + positive forces of individual necessary for use of 141. + retain ovoid form 255. + separate, importance of 58. + spiritualization of 124. +Veil of Isis 293. +Veil of Temple rent 407. +Venus, one side always to sun 219. + beings of, more evolved than man 271. + pole of, points to sun 219. + thrown off from sun 263, 272. +Venus, Lords of, see Lords of Venus. +Venus Period, consciousness of man in 419. + desire body perfected in 422. + divine spirit absorbs life spirit 428. + essences of bodies acquired by desire body in 423. + globes of, as in Sun Period 199, 200. + Initiate of, the Apostle John 502. + intellectual soul absorbed by life spirit in 425. + life spirit most active in 423. + mind creates in 427. + + +[PAGE 689] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Venus Period (cont.) minerals, the animals of 428. + plants human in 342, 428. +Vesuvius, eruption of 508. +Vibration, atoms have rate of 375. + each world has different rate of 187. + of pituitary body 479. + rhythmic power of 122, 369, 375. + varying rates of, determine substance 40. +Vicarious Atonement, see Atonement, vicarious. +Vice shattered by repulsion 47. +Vikings understood spiritual effects of haemolysis 353. +Virgin Mary 378. +Virgin Spirit always gives wise counsel 398. + clothed in vehicles 87. + man is 398. + to acquire soul power and creative mind 189, 429. + triple phase of 223. +Virgin Spirits, become unconscious 201. + constitute creative hierarchy 326. + differentiated within God 188, 216. + evolution of depends on adaptability 223. + expressing as animals 81. + have independent will 189. + potentially God 189. + seven rays of 246, 438. + total number of, saved 231. + World of, atomistic stratum of earth corresponds to 507. +Virgin Spirits, World of, ego conscious of God in 189. + become unconscious 189, 201. + becoming experts in building chemical bodies 222. + constitute creative heirarchy 221, 326. + have being in 87, 189, 216. +Virgin, zodiacal sign of, on Holy Night 390. +Virtue, built by attraction 47. + distinguishable from innocence 282. +Vision, suitable glasses recommended as an aid to faulty 492. +Vital body, absorbs solar energy 63. + amputated limbs and pain in 64. + anesthetics affect 62. + angels work in 283, 349. + appears to expand after death 108. + belongs to physical world 97. + birth of 141-142. + blood and glands expressions of 238, 397, 455. + builds and restores dense body 60. + built by angels 222, 349, 427. + causes menstruation and tears 60. + Christ's vehicle at Second Coming 381. + collapse of, produces sleep 92, 93. + + +[PAGE 690] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Vital body (cont.) color of new-born peach blossom 60, 63, 253. + composition of 58-61, 482. + congruent with dense body at root of nose 293, 294. + constructed of prisms 10. + decays with dense body 102, 103. + determines shape of dense body 60. + development of, object of esoteric training 381, 481-482. + division of 481. + effect of hypnotism upon 62. + effect of prayer upon 434, 463. + eliminates disease germs 63. + embedded in dense body 61. + essence of, absorbed in Venus Period 424, 425. + ethers of, separated by Initiation 482. + expands after death 108. + forms particular type of brain 135. + function of, to soften and build 455, 456. + given by Lords of Wisdom 211. + has straightened out 255. + immortal part of 482. + impressed with pictures of coming life 135. + impressed with revenge by desire body 463. + in animals 77, 293. + in four kingdoms 58. + in Jupiter Period absorbs dense body 422. + in Jupiter Period man's lowest vehicle 242. + in likeness of physical body 240. + in medium 62. + in ordinary individual interlocked 62, 241. + in third stage 75, 76. + Initiations affect 404, 405. + intuition from 92. + looseness of, causes clairvoyance 241. + lower ethers active in sleep 482. + macrocosmic 139-140, 141. + matrix of 137. + medium of propagation 283. + memory resides in 94. + method of purifying 111, 482. + molds dense body 60, 137. + must conquer desire body 463. + next to physical body in organized efficiency 240. + now being separated from dense vehicle 242. + obtained in Sun Period 211, 212. + of Atlantean 293. + of different kingdoms 58, 59, 77. + of Lemurian woman developed memory 280. + of man 60. + + +[PAGE 691] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + + of woman 60. + panorama of life in 91, 135, 397. + perfected in Jupiter Period 422. + positive, causes menstruation and tears 60. + prayer for 462. + prepared for Initiation 404, 481. + prismatic seed atom of, in solar plexus 10. + promotes sex love 397. + purification and control of 433-435. + radiations of 63. + reaction on dense and desire bodies 441. + reconstructed in Earth Period 240. + reconstructed in Hyperborean Epoch 262, 263. + reconstructed in Moon Period 214, 215, 240. + Recording Angels mold 135. + repetition builds 434. + requisite for growth 58. + ripening of ethers in 143. + rooted in spleen 10, 63. + seat of memory 481. + seed atom of, withdrawn at death 103. + sensation due to separate 505-506. + sensitized by prayer 92. + separate vehicle 240-241. + separation of ethers 481. + silver cord, both parts meet in seed atom of 10. + spiritualized product amalgamated with life spirit 124. + started in Sun Period 422. + unhealthy radiations of 63. + vehicle of sense perception 94. + vehicle of soul flights 482. + vibrates dense body 61, 62. + victory over desire body 463. + war with desire body produces consciousness 455, 456. + weighed by scientists 100. + will surpass physical vehicle in efficiency 242. + withdrawal of, in sleep 93. + withdraws at death 97, 100, 102. +Vital force becomes rose-colored 63. + carries message to muscles 63. + comes from sun 62. + expels germs 63. + stopping of, causes sleep 93. +Vital forces from ethers 35. +Vitality element in Region of Concrete Thought 50. +Voice, vibrations of, form geometrical figures 369, 537. +Volcanic, action, and materialism 508, 511. + destroyed Lemuria 291. + eruptions and earth's constitution 498-514. + nature forces cause 508. + + +[PAGE 692] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +Vulcan Period, consciousness of 421. + corresponds to the week 411. + corresponds to white containing all colors 413. + creative powers in 427, 428. + divine spirit strongest in 423. + emotional soul absorbed by human spirit 425. + essences of bodies incorporated into mind 423. + function of man in 428. + globes of, as in Saturn Period 200. + Initiation of, symbolized by Christ 502. + last period of our evolution 411. + man perfected in 427. + mind becomes purified 422. + minerals become human 428. + minerals humanity of 342. + recapitulations of preceding periods 411. + revolution, (seventh) work on Divine Spirit 209. + seventh day of creation 366. + + +Waking consciousness 74, 83, 300, 415, 420. +Walk, upright, necessary to ego 86. +War, industrial, more destructive than military 393. +War between heart and mind 17, 384, 393. + death as result of 118. + race spirits instigate 334. +Warm red blood, and indwelling spirit 69, 86, 268, 274. + outgoing currents of 69. +Washington, Booker T., and help given negro race 313. +Water brings forth life-breathing things 331. + changed to wine 169. + earthy matter in 444. + important in nutrition 446, 449. + in Atlantean Epoch 291. + lines of force in 27. +Water, distilled, valuable 445, 446. +Wealth, opportunities to serve through 464 + purpose of 432. +Western peoples, vanguard will offer their bodies as "living + sacrifices 316. +World, Western 113, 510, 518, 520, 521, 523, 529. +"Whatsoever a man soweth" 106. +Wilderness, wandering of Jews in 335. +Will, an aspect of God 182, 183. + and experience 131. + expression of desire body 394. + first aspect of God 178, 324. + + +[PAGE 693] ALPHABETICAL INDEX + +Will (cont.) indispensable soul force in propagation 284. + male power of, allied to Sun forces 267. + man frees himself by 362, 485. + office of, in thought 89. + power, cultivation of, in Lemuria 281. + projects ideas into mind 88. +Wine added to diet 168. + counterfeit spirit 169. + evolutionary factor 165-172. + water changed to 169. +Wisdom, cosmic, in World of Life Spirit 398. + an aspect of God 182, 323. + Eastern, teachings of, misconstrued 270. + human and animal instinct 79, 84. + obtained through striving 22. + second aspect of God 324. + should guide motion 324-325. +Wisdom, Lords of, see Lords of Wisdom. + acquired by evolution 282. +Wisdom of Nature, will supersede brain knowledge 363. +Wise men 389. +Wolff, Caspar, his theory of generation 338. +Woman, allied to Lunar forces 267. + and Lucifer Spirits 361. + and painful parturition 283, 362. + developed memory 280. + education of, in Lemuria 279. + intuition or 92. + pioneer in culture 280. + positive vital body of 60, 280. +Word, creative, see Creative Word. +Word, aided in creation 374. + "Alone Begotten Son," the 374. + aspect of Supreme Being 181. + highest power in universe 374. + lost 363. + made flesh 181. + spoken, in Jupiter Period 418. + spoken, of power in Lemurian 278, 295. +Words, spiritually understood 234. + use of, highest human privilege 236. +Work of ego, union with higher self 432. +World, Christ took away sin of 408. + has dominion over man 386. + unwilling to consider anything "too" selfish 385. +World, Desire 29. +World, each, requires separate vehicle 57, 379. +World globes and chaos 247. +World of Divine Spirit 29. + virgin spirits unconscious in 189. +World of God 29. + + +[PAGE 694] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +World of Life Spirit, see Life Spirit, world of (See also 29). +World, Physical, see Physical World (See also 29). +World Savior, humanity led by star to 389. +World Soul crucified 85. +World of Thought, see Thought, World of (See also 29). +World of Virgin Spirits, see Virgin Spirits, World of (See also 29). +World, Western 17, 113, 315, 470, 510, 518, 520, 521, 523, 529. +Worlds, higher, man now creates in 270. + higher, at crucifixion 407. +Worlds, called into existence separately 188, 375. + denser than ours 233. + each of seven, subdivided into seven regions 29. + each planet has three 53. + each vibrates at different rate 187, 375. + evolutionary scheme of 186-188. + five, field of man's evolution 87, 188. + formation of 187, 375. + higher, created first 188. + interpenetrate 53, 55, 187, 233. + logic safest guide in all 440. + man loses touch with 294. + seven, vary in density 29, 54, 186-188. + three densest, comparatively evanescent 188. + universe divided into seven different 29. + visible and invisible 24-55, 186-188. + + +Yoga systems used in India 437. + + +Zodiac and rebirth 160. + as "clock of destiny" 163. + of Denderah 512. +Zodiac, signs of 221. +Zodiac womb of solar system 256. +Zohar written by occultists 319. + + + +[PAGE 695] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + INDEX OF DIAGRAMS AND TABLES. + +No. Page + The Four Kingdoms and Their Relation to the Three Worlds..........16 + 1- Relative Permanency of the Visible and Invisible Worlds...........52 + 2- The Seven Worlds..................................................54 + 3- Vehicles of the Four Kingdoms ....................................73 + 4- Consciousness of the Four Kingdoms................................74 + 5- Three-fold Spirit, Soul and Body..................................95 +5 1/2 The Silver Cord...................................................98 + 6- The Supreme Being, the Cosmic Planes, and God....................178 + 7- The Saturn Period................................................193 + 8- 7 Worlds, 7 Globes, and 7 Periods................................197 + 9- The Twelve Creative Hierarchies..................................221 + Classes at Dawn of Moon Period...................................226 +10- Classes at Dawn of Earth Period; their vehicles and + status then; and their present status........................230 +11- The 1, 3, 7 and 10 Aspects of God and Man.......................252b + Table of Vibrations..............................................254 +12- Man's Past, Present, and Future Form.............................257 +13- The Beginning and Ending of Sex..................................364 + Seven Days of Creation...........................................366 +14- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; their vehicles and status + in the Universe..............................................377 + "As Above, so Below".............................................410 + Days of Week and Correspondences.................................411 +15- Symbolism of the Caduceus........................................413 + Classification of the Animal Kingdom.............................416 + Periods and Corresponding Consciousness..........................421 + Tables of Food Values..........................................450-1 +16- The Lord's Prayer................................................464 +17- Transmutation of Sex-currents....................................475 +18- Constitution of Earth............................................509 + +[PAGE 696] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + + MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES PERFORMED + + BY THE ROSICRUCIAN ASPIRANT + + THE EVENING EXERCISE + (Mentioned on page 111) + + -------------- + + The value of exercise, RETROSPECTION, is of greater value than any other +method in advancing the aspirant upon the path of attainment. It has such a +far-reaching effect that it enables one to learn now, not only the lessons +of this life, but lessons ordinarily reserved for future lives. + + After going to bed at night the body should be relaxed. Then the aspir- +ant begins to review the scenes of the day IN REVERSE ORDER, starting with +the events of the evening, then the occurrences of the afternoon, of the +forenoon, and the morning. He endeavors to PICTURE to himself each scene as +faithfully as possible--seeks to REPRODUCE BEFORE HIS MIND'S EYE all that +took place in each pictured scene WITH THE OBJECT OF JUDGING HIS ACTIONS, OF +ASCERTAINING IF HIS WORDS CONVEYED THE MEANING HE INTENDED OR GAVE A FALSE +IMPRESSION, OR IF HE OVERSTATED OR UNDERSTATED IN RELATING EXPERIENCES TO +OTHERS. He reviews his moral attitude in relation to each scene. At meals, +did he eat to live, or did he live to eat--to please the palate? Let him +judge himself and blame where BLAME is due, PRAISE where merited. + + People sometimes find it difficult to remain awake till the exercise has +been performed. In such cases it is permissible to sit up in bed till it is +possible to follow the ordinary method. + + +[PAGE 697] MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES + + The value of retrospection is enormous--far-reaching beyond imagination. +IN THE FIRST PLACE, we perform the work of restoration of harmony CON- +SCIOUSLY and in a shorter time than the desire body can do during sleep, +leaving a larger portion of the night available for outside work than other- +wise possible. IN THE SECOND PLACE, we live our purgatory and first heaven +EACH NIGHT, and build into the spirit as RIGHT FEELING the essence of the +day's experience. Thus we escape purgatory after death and also save time +spent in the first heaven. And LAST, BUT NOT LEAST, having extracted day by +day the essence of experiences which make for soul growth, and having built +them into the spirit, we are actually living in an attitude of mind and de- +veloping along lines that would ordinarily have been reserved for future +lives. By the faithful performance of this exercise we expunge day by day +undesirable occurrences from our subconscious memory so that OUR SINS ARE +BLOTTED OUT, OUR AURAS COMMENCE TO SHINE WITH SPIRITUAL GOLD EXTRACTED BY +RETROSPECTION FROM THE EXPERIENCES OF EACH DAY, AND THUS WE ATTRACT THE AT- +TENTION OF THE TEACHER. + + The pure shall see God, said Christ, and the Teacher will quickly open +our eyes WHEN WE ARE FIT to enter into the "Hall of Learning," the desire +world, where we obtain our first experiences of conscious life without the +dense body. + __________________ + + THE MORNING EXERCISE + + CONCENTRATION, the second exercise, is performed in the morning at the +very earliest moment possible after the aspirant awakes. He must not arise +to open blinds or perform any other unnecessary act. If the body is com- +fortable he should at once relax and commence to concentrate. This is very + + +[PAGE 698] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + +important, as the spirit has just returned from the desire world at the mo- +ment of waking, and at that time the conscious touch with that world is more +easily regained than at any other time of the day. + + We remember from Lecture No. 4 that during sleep the currents of the de- +sire body flow, and its vortices move and spin with enormous rapidity. But +as soon as it enters the dense body its currents and vortices are almost +stopped by the dense matter and the nerve currents of the vital body which +carry messages to and from the brain. It is the object of this exercise to +still the dense body to the same degree of inertia and insensibility as in +sleep, although the spirit within is perfectly awake, alert, and conscious. +Thus we make a condition where the sense centers of the desire body can be- +gin to revolve while inside the dense body. + + Concentration is a word that puzzles many and carries meaning to but few, +so we will endeavor to make its significance clear. The dictionary gives +several definitions, all applicable to our idea. One is "to draw to a cen- +ter"; another from chemistry, "to reduce to extreme purity and strength by +removing valueless constituents." Applied to our problem, one of the above +definitions tells us that if we draw our thoughts to a center, a point, we +increase their strength on the principle that the power of the sun's rays +increase when focused to a point by means of a magnifying glass. By +eliminating from our mind for the time being all other subjects, our whole +thought power is available for use in attaining the object or solving the +problem on which we are concentrating; we may become so absorbed in our sub- +ject that if a cannon were fired above our heads we would not hear it. +People may become so LOST in a book that they are oblivious to all else, and + + +[PAGE 699] MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES + +the aspirant to spiritual sight must acquire the faculty of becoming equally +absorbed in the idea he is concentrating upon, so that he may shut out the +world of sense from his consciousness and give his whole attention to the +spiritual world. When he learns to do that, he will see the spiritual side +of an object or idea illuminated by spiritual light, and thus he will obtain +a knowledge of the inner nature of things undreamt of by a worldly man. + + When he has reached that point of abstraction the sense centers of the +desire body commence to revolve slowly within the dense body, and will thus +make a place for themselves. This in time will become more and more de- +fined, and it will require less and less effort to set them going. + + The subject of concentration may be any high and lofty ideal, but should +preferably be of such a nature that it takes the aspirant out of the ordi- +nary things of sense, beyond time and space; and there is no better formula +than the first five verses of St. John's gospel. Taking them as a subject, +sentence by sentence, morning after morning, will in time give the aspirant +a wonderful insight into the beginning of our universe and the method of +creation--an insight for beyond any book learning. + + After a time, when the aspirant has learned to unwaveringly hold before +him for about five minutes the idea upon which he is concentrating, he may +try to suddenly drop the idea and leave a blank. Think of nothing else, +simply wait to see if anything enters the vacuum. In time the sights and +scenes of the desire world will fill the vacant space. After the aspirant +has become used to that, he may demand this, that, or the other thing to +come before him. It will come and then he may investigate it. + + +[PAGE 700] ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION + + The main point, however, is that BY FOLLOWING THE ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS THE +ASPIRANT IS PURIFYING HIMSELF; HIS AURA COMMENCES TO SHINE AND WILL WITHOUT +FAIL DRAW THE ATTENTION OF THE TEACHER who will depute someone to give help +when required for the next step in advancement. Even if months or years +should go by and bring no VISIBLE result, rest assured that no effort has +been in vain; the Great Teachers see and appreciate our efforts. They are +just as anxious to have our assistance as we are to work. They may see rea- +sons which make it inexpedient for us to take up work for humanity in this +life or at this time. Sometime the hindering conditions will pass, and we +shall be admitted to the light were we can see for ourselves. + + An ancient legend says that digging for treasure must be done in the +stillness of night and in perfect silence; to speak one word until the +treasure is safely excavated will inevitably cause it to disappear. That is +a mystic parable which has reference to the search for spiritual illumina- +tion. If we gossip or recount to others the experiences of our concentra- +tion hour, we lose them; they can not bear vocal transmission and will fade +into nothingness. By meditation we must extract from them a full knowledge +of the underlying cosmic laws. Then the experience itself will not be re- +counted, for we shall see that it is but the husk which hid the kernel of +worth. The law is of universal value as will be at once apparent, for it +will explain facts in life, and teach us how to take advantage of certain +conditions and to avoid others. The law may be freely stated at the +discoverer's discretion for the benefit of humanity. The experience which +revealed the law then will appear in its true light as of only passing + + +[PAGE 701] MORNING AND EVENING EXERCISES + +interest and unworthy of further notice. Therefore, THE ASPIRANT SHOULD RE- +GARD EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS DURING CONCENTRATION AS SACRED AND SHOULD KEEP +IT STRICTLY TO HIMSELF. + + Finally, BEWARE OF REGARDING THE EXERCISES AS A BURDENSOME TASK. ESTI- +MATE THEM AT THEIR TRUE WORTH; THEY ARE OUR HIGHEST PRIVILEGE. Only when +thus regarded can we do them justice and reap the full benefits from them. + _________________________________ + + CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE + FELLOWSHIP TEACHINGS + + Although the word "Rosicrucian" is used by several organizations, The +Rosicrucian Fellowship has no connection with any of them. + + In the years 1907-08, after being tested for sincerity of purpose and +selfless desire to aid his fellowmen, Max Heindel was selected by the Broth- +ers of the Rose Cross to give out publicly the Western Wisdom Teachings and +thus help prepare humanity for the coming Age of Universal Brotherhood. By +means of intense self-discipline and devotion to service he earned the sta- +tus of Lay Brother (Initiate) in the exalted Rosicrucian Order. + + Under the direction of the Brothers of the Rose Cross, spiritual giants +of the human race, Max Heindel wrote THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, an +epoch-making book which has now become the Western World's leading textbook +on occultism. By means of his own spiritual development he was able to +verify for himself much that was given in the COSMO-CONCEPTION, as well as +to gain additional knowledge that later become embodied in his numerous +books. + + One of the basic conditions on which the Western Wisdom Teachings were +given to Max Heindel was that no price should be set on them. This condi- +tion was faithfully observed by him to the end of his life, and has since +been carefully observed by those directing the affairs of the Rosicrucian +Fellowship. Although the Fellowship books are sold, the correspondence +courses and the service of our Healing Department have been kept on the free +will offering plan. There are no membership fees. + + + [END OF THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION] + + --- END OF FILE --- + diff --git a/religious documents/ros_letr.txt b/religious documents/ros_letr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3af1783 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ros_letr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6883 @@ +[PAGE 1] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + + ----------------------------------------------------------------- + M A X H E I N D E L ' S L E T T E R S T O S T U D E N T S + ----------------------------------------------------------------- + + DECEMBER 1910 TO JANUARY 1919, INCLUSIVE + + + + THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS + MT. ECCLESIA + P.O. BOX 713 + OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, USA + + + + + + +[PAGE 3] TABLE OF CONTENTS + + TABLE OF CONTENTS + + NUMBER AND TITLES OF LETTERS + + Page + + 1. Friendship as an Ideal......................................... 9 + 2. Soul Growth through Doing......................................11 + 3. Unselfish Service to Others....................................13 + 4. A Plea for the Church..........................................15 + 5. Value of Right Feeling.........................................16 + 6. Healing the Sick...............................................18 + 7. Baptism of Water and of Spirit.................................22 + 8. Ruling our Stars...............................................24 + 9. Invisible Guardians of Humanity................................26 +10. Flesh Food and Alcohol.........................................28 +11. Preparations for Removal to Mt. Ecclesia.......................30 +12. Ground-Breaking for First Building on Mt. Ecclesia.............32 +13. Generative Purity the Ideal for the West.......................35 +14. The Coming Age of Air..........................................37 +15. The Role of Stimulants in Evolution............................39 +16. Necessity for Devotion.........................................42 +17. Stragglers in Evolution........................................44 +18. Keynote of the Rosicrucian Teachings...........................46 +19. Sacredness of Spiritual Experiences............................48 +20. Initiative and Personal Freedom................................51 +21. The Christ Spirit and the Spiritual Panacea....................53 + + +[PAGE 4] TABLE OF CONTENTS + + Page + +22. The Mystic Bread and Wine......................................55 +23. Descending and Ascending Ares of Evolution.....................58 +24. The Rosicrucian Fellowship, a Spiritual Center.................60 +25. The Mystic Message of Christmas................................64 +26. Service to Others during the New Year..........................67 +27. Siegfried, the Truth Seeker....................................69 +28. The Incorporation and Future Plans of the Fellowship...........72 +29. Freemasonry, Co-Masonry, and Catholicism.......................74 +30. The Role of Evil in the World..................................76 +31. Christ, and His Second Coming..................................78 +32. The Vital Body of Jesus........................................81 +33. Improving our Opportunities....................................83 +34. A Plea for Purity..............................................86 +35. The Faust Myth and the Masonic Legend..........................88 +36. Eastern and Western Methods of Development.....................90 +37. The Reason for the Many Different Cults........................92 +38. What the Pupil May Expect of the Teacher.......................94 +39. Where Shall We Seek Truth, and How Shall We Know It?...........97 +40. Why the Truth Seeker Must Live in the World....................99 +41. A Method of Discerning Truth from its Imitation...............102 +42. Our Responsibility in Giving Out Truth........................104 +43. Woman's Suffrage and Moral Equality...........................106 +44. The Vice of Selfishness and the Power of Love.................108 + + +[PAGE 5] TABLE OF CONTENTS + + Page + +45. Initiation not to be Attained through Breathing Exercises.....110 +46. The World War and Infant Mortality............................112 +47. The Invisible Helpers and their Work on the Battle Field......115 +48. The World War and Universal Brotherhood.......................117 +49. Desire--A Two-Edged Sword.....................................120 +50. Spiritual Prosperity for the New Year.........................122 +51. Love, Wisdom, and Knowledge...................................124 +52. Concentration in the Rosicrucian Work.........................126 +53. The Cosmic Meaning of Easter..................................129 +54. Waste through Scattering one's Forces.........................131 +55. Epigenesis and Future Destiny.................................133 +56. The Need of Spreading the Teachings...........................136 +57. Astrology as an Aid in Healing the Sick.......................138 +58. Unnatural Means of Attainment.................................142 +59. The Race Spirits and the New Race.............................143 +60. The War an Operation for Spiritual Cataract...................146 +61. Cyclic Movements of the Sun...................................149 +62. The Teacher's Debt of Gratitude...............................151 +63. Spiritual Teachers--True and False............................153 +64. The Battle that Rages Within..................................156 +65. Easter, a Promise of Newness of Life..........................158 +66. Daily Exercises in Soul Culture...............................161 +67. The Real Heroes of the World..................................164 +68. The Work of the Race Spirits..................................166 +69. Struggles of the Aspiring Soul................................167 +70. Building for the Future Life..................................170 +71. Descent of the Christ Life in the Fall........................173 +72. The Reason for the Trials that Beset the Occult Student.......175 + + +[PAGE 6] TABLE OF CONTENTS + + Page + +73. Spiritual Stock-Taking during the Holy Season.................177 +74. All Occult Development Begins with the Vital Body.............180 +75. Serving Where Best Fitted to Serve............................183 +76. "Lost Souls" and Stragglers...................................186 +77. The Unnecessary Fear of Death.................................187 +78. Heart Development and Initiation..............................190 +79. Sacrifice a Factor in Spiritual Progress......................192 +80. Adjusting the Teachings to the Understanding of Others........196 +81. The Value of Reviewing Past Lessons...........................199 +82. Taming an Unruly Member.......................................201 +83. An Inner Tribunal of Truth....................................203 +84. Epigenesis and the Law of Causation...........................206 +85. The Present Sorrow and the Coming Peace.......................208 +86. God--The Source and Goal of Existence.........................210 +87. The Necessity of Putting Talents to Use.......................213 +88. The Nobility of All Labor.....................................216 +89. The Aquarian Age and the New Covenant.........................218 +90. Meat Eating and Fur Wearing...................................221 +91. Tolerance of Other's Beliefs..................................223 +92. The Purpose of War and Our Attitude toward It.................225 +93. The Inner Power and the Responsibility that goes with It......227 +94. Equipoise of Great Help in Times of Stress....................229 +95. The Optimistic Attitude and Faith in Ultimate Good............231 +96. Increasing the Life of the Archetype..........................234 +97. The Law of Success in Spiritual Matters.......................236 + + +[PAGE 7] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + FOREWORD + + For eight years Max Heindel, the mystic and occultist sent out to the +students of The Rosicrucian Fellowship a letter each month filled with much +valuable information, explaining the cause of many of the difficulties oc- +curring in daily life, not only of individuals but of nations as well, and +giving a feasible solution of them. These letters, ninety-seven in number, +sent out between Christmas 1910 and January 1919, constitute the subject +matter of this book. + + Being the authorized messenger of the Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order +and consequently in close touch with them, Mr. Heindel was continuously re- +ceiving and giving out occult information to his students relative to the +past, present, and future evolution of life and form, which on account of +his tutelage under the Brothers of the Order he was able to verify for him- +self and to which he was able to add many details. The letters in this book +give many side lights on the Rosicrucian philosophy and many practical, +helpful hints for living the life of the Christian mystic. + + In many of these letters there is a reference to accompanying lessons. +Each letter was accompanied by a lesson in pamphlet form. The greater part +of these lessons have already been published in book form, and are available +for reference by readers of this book. The volumes of lessons published to +date are as follows: FREEMASONRY AND CATHOLICISM; THE WEB OF DESTINY; + + +[PAGE 8] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS; THE MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION OF CHRISTMAS; AND +GLEAMINGS OF A MYSTIC. The lessons not already published will appear later +in a second volume of GLEAMINGS OF A MYSTIC. The readers of these letters +will obtain much more from them if they will consult the corresponding les- +sons as they proceed. + + In giving these letters to the world we feel that we are making a contri- +bution of permanent value and importance, and one from which the student of +esotericism will obtain much assistance in his progress on the Path. + + +[PAGE 9] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 1 + + Christmas, 1910 + + FRIENDSHIP AS AN IDEAL + + In a religious movement it is customary to address one another as "sis- +ter" and "brother," in recognition of the fact that we are all children of +God, who is our common Father. Brothers and sisters are not harmonious at +all times, however. Sometimes they are even misguided enough to hate one +another, but between friends there can be no feeling but love. + + It was a recognition of this fact which prompted the Christ, our great +and glorious Ideal, to say to His disciples: "Henceforth I call you not +servants. . . .but friends." (John 15:15) We cannot do better than follow +our great Leader in this as in all other things. Let us, therefore, not +merely be content with the fraternal relationship, but let us endeavor to be +friends in the very holiest and most intimate sense of the word. + + The Elder Brothers, whose beautiful teachings have brought us together +upon the Way of Attainment, honor their disciples in the same way that +Christ honored His apostles, namely, by giving them the name of "friend." +If you persist in the way upon which you have started, you will sometime +stand in their presence and hear that name utters in a voice so soft, so + + +[PAGE 10] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +kind, and so gentle that it beggars description or even imagination. From +that time there will be no task you would not perform to deserve that +friendship. It will be your one wish, your one aspiration, to serve them, +and no earthly distinction will appear worthy of comparison with that +friendship. + + Upon my unworthy shoulders has fallen the great privilege of transmitting +the teachings of the Elder Brothers to the public in general and to the stu- +dents, probationers, and disciples of the Rosicrucian Fellowship in par- +ticular. You have requested that your name be placed on my correspondence +list, and I gladly extend to you the right hand of fellowship, greeting you +by the name of FRIEND. I appreciate the trust you repose in me, and I as- +sure you that I shall endeavor to aid you in every way within my power to +deserve your trust. I hope that you will also aid me in my work for your- +self and others by a charitable judgment of any shortcomings you may dis- +cover in me or in my writings. None need the prayers of others so much as +one who must be a leader. + + Please remember me in your devotions, and be assured that you shall have +a place in mine. + + I enclose the first lesson in the hope that the foregoing may establish +our relations upon a footing of sincere friendship. + + +[PAGE 11] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 2 + + February, 1911 + + SOUL GROWTH THROUGH DOING + + I hope that you thoroughly studied the Christmas lesson and are thor- +oughly familiar with the phenomenon of the spiritual ebb and flow in the +universe so that you will be able to give a reason for your faith in "holy +Night." In this month's lesson the idea is carried to a further conclusion, +not previously taught publicly. There are other teachings in this little +lesson which shed a clearer light upon the immaculate mystery-birth than has +ever been given before, and I hope that you will diligently study it during +the coming month so that you may realize to the full the transcendent beauty +of the sublime Rosicrucian teaching on this subject. + + But whether you have studied the Christmas lesson and are able to dis- +course upon the spiritual ebb and flow or whether you will be able to ex- +pound the Immaculate Conception at the end of this month is after all sec- +ondary in importance to what you answer to the following question: Did you +take advantage of the flood tide of spirituality at Christmas to seek out +some one in distress as suggested in the last paragraph of the lesson? Did +you put it to practical use in the world's work? I hope you did, for only + + + +[PAGE 12] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +as we practice the teachings in our immediate circle of influence will they +bear fruit in soul growth. We may read till we get mental indigestion, but +actions speak louder than words. Also there is a bad place said to be paved +with good intentions. Therefore, dear friend, let me urge upon you the ne- +cessity of doing! doing! doing! + + Often we see in the home, office, shop, or assembly room that a certain +things ought to be done. But the attitude of the man of the world is to +shirk. He turns away saying: Why should I do it? Let some one else attend +to it. We should reason differently, however. We should not plan how +little we can do. If so we are not fitting ourselves to become Invisible +Helpers. If we see that a task has to be performed, we should say to our- +selves: Some one will have to do that; WHY NOT I? + + In this coming month dear friend, let us take as a spiritual exercise the +following of this motto, "Why not !?" If we follow it consistently, we +shall reap a greater blessing than we confer upon others. + + May God abundantly bless you and strengthen you in your efforts. + + +[PAGE 13] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 3 + + March, 1911 + + UNSELFISH SERVICE TO OTHERS + + You have of course studied in some measure the various teachings of the +Rosicrucian Order, and when I address myself to you, it is not as if I were +speaking to a stranger who is unfamiliar with the teachings or perhaps even +skeptical of the existence of such an Order. These teachings have spread +like wildfire in the Western world during the past two years, and that of +itself shows a power behind them which is not of the ordinary human kind. +This you will probably realize better when you have read the lesson for this +month, which deals with this mysterious Order and shows it relation to the +Rosicrucian Fellowship. + + Has it ever occured to you to inquire, my dear friend, what binds you to +this Fellowship? You know there are not outward bonds, that you have taken +no oath of allegiance, and that you have not been intrusted with any se- +crets. What then constitutes the Fellowship of which we speak? + + It cannot be the teachings, for they are open to the whole world and are +assented to by many who have not requested that they be enrolled as stu- +dents. Neither is it the enrollment as a student which creates the inner +bond, for many study only to benefit THEMSELVES and have not fellowship with + + +[PAGE 14] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +the rest of us. Rather, it is the SERVICE which we perform and the earnest- +ness wherewith we practice the teachings and become living examples to the +world of that brotherly love which Christ spoke of as fulfillment of all +commandments. + + Last month we took for our motto the thought that if a certain task were +to be performed which seemingly belonged to no one in particular, we would +say, "Why not I?" instead of letting some one else do it or letting it lie. +I trust you have performed this unselfish service often, and thus cemented +the bonds of fellowship. + + In this coming month I would ask you to give your thoughts and your ef- +forts to advance the teachings of the Fellowship. Do not attempt to con- +vince any one against his will or to proselyte, but try to find out in an +unostentatious manner what bothers your neighbor in a spiritual way. Then +try to help him with our teachings. But whether you say anything to him +about where you received them or not must depend upon your own judgment. +The main thing is to spread the teachings, not to advertise the Rosicrucian +Fellowship. + + +[PAGE 15] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 4 + + April, 1911 + + A PLEA FOR THE CHURCH + + Last month I promised to take up further elucidation of the Rosicrucian +Order and its relation to the Fellowship, but I forgot that Easter was at +hand and would require attention first. I hope you will agree that it is +more important to study this great cosmic event, particularly as we live in +a Christian land and, I hope, are Christians at heart. In fact, dear +friend, the keynote of what I would bring out this month is really A PLEA +FOR THE CHURCH, and it is with that end in view that I have printed the +poem, "Creed or Christ?" at the end of the lesson. + + We are all Christ in the making, the love nature is unfolding in us all, +and why should we not identify ourselves with one or another of the Chris- +tian churches which cherish the Christ ideal? Some of the best workers in +the Fellowship are members, yes, and ministers, of churches. Many are hun- +gry for what we feed upon. WE cannot share it with them by standing aloof, +and we do ourselves harm by neglecting to take advantage of the great op- +portunity to aid in elevating the church. + + Of course there is no compulsion. You are not REQUIRED to join or attend +a church, but if you do go there in the spirit of helpfulness, I can promise + + +[PAGE 16] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +you that you will experience a most wonderful soul growth in a very short +time. The great Recording Angels, who give to each nation the religion best +suited to its needs, placed us in a Christian land, because the Christian +religion will help us in soul growth. Even admitting that it has been ob- +scured by creed and dogma, we should not let that prevent us from accepting +those teachings which are good, for that would be as foolish as to center +our attention upon the spots in the sun and refuse to see its glorious +light. + + Please think this matter over, dear friend, and let us take for our motto +this month, GREATER USEFULNESS, that we may grow abundantly by striving to +improve our opportunities. + + + LETTER NO. 5 + + May, 1911 + + VALUE OF RIGHT FEELING + + I hope you enjoyed last month's lesson. Perhaps you will think it +strange, but I have fairly reveled in it myself, for it aroused by devotion +most powerfully to think how the Divine Life pours itself out for us peri- +odically so that we may have more abundant life. Without that annual influx +of God's life, all life, or rather form, would cease to exist. It is by +FEELING the higher emotions that we raise ourselves the easiest. It is good +to study and to develop our minds, but there is a great danger in this age +of becoming ensnared in the meshes of intellect. Paul struck the nail on + + +[PAGE 17] VALUE OF RIGHT FEELING + +the head when he said: "Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth." We all +wish to KNOW; it is natural that we should, but unless our knowledge serves +to make us better men and women, better SERVANTS to our fellows, it does not +make us GREATER in the sight of God. Therefore cultivation of RIGHT FEELING +is of enormous importance, and I sincerely hope that you have FELT the Eas- +ter lesson for that is the only way to get full benefit from it. + + Picture to yourself that great wave of divine energy projected from the +Invisible Sun which is the manifestation of the Father. Try to feel the awe +you would experience if you could see it, as the trained seer can and does. +Watch it in imagination as it strikes the earth on Holy Night at Christmas. +Let the feeling work upon you about the way it sinks into the earth and is +the active cause of the germination in all kingdoms. Christ used the simile +of the brooding hen to describe His feelings towards other beings, and if +you try to FEEL the sprouting of all things in nature as indicated in our +Easter lesson, you will realize a side of the subject which may have escaped +you. + + I hope that you will long use this lesson as material for mediation as it +is different from one of the intellectual lessons that may be grasped by the +mind and put aside. This lesson is of PERMANENT VALUE, and the oftener you +take it up and let it work upon your heart. the more closely you will come +to THE HEART OF THINGS, which is God, the great and loving Father who pours +out His life alike for the tiniest plant and the tallest monarch of the for- +est; who cares for beast and bird, for the outcast and homeless rover, and + + +[PAGE 18] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +for the royal potentate in his palace, without discrimination. + + May God abundantly bless you and open up to you the storehouse of His +riches, which surpass all earthly enjoyments, and may you FEEL the wave of +love which He pours out afresh from year to year as a reality. Then you +will never be lonely if you are alone, and you will be, oh! so much richer, +no matter how much you are blessed with earthly love, and so much more able +to radiate that most sublime of all emotions, Spiritual Love. + + + LETTER NO. 6 + + June, 1911 + + HEALING THE SICK + + Christ gave two commands to His disciples when He said: "PREACH THE GOS- +PEL, AND HEAL THE SICK." We saw in last month's lesson how closely the of- +fice of spiritual advisor is linked with healing of physical ailments, for +though the immediate and apparent cause of disease may be physical, in the +final analysis all ailments are due to transgression of the LAWS OF GOD, +which we usually call "LAWS OF NATURE" in our materialistic attempts to +eliminate the Divine. Bacon, with rare spiritual perception, said: "God +and Nature differ only as the seal and the imprint." As flexible sealing +wax is molded to the rigid lines of the seal, so also nature passively con- +forms to the immutable laws of its Divine Creator, and thus health and a +carefree condition are the rule among the lower kingdoms. But when the + + +[PAGE 19] HEALING THE SICK + +human stage is reached, when individuality is evolved and we begin to demand +choice, prerogative, and emancipation, we are apt to transgress the laws of +God, and suffering invariable follows. + + There is a side of the moon which we never see, but we know it is there, +and that hidden side of the moon is just as much a factor in creating the +tides as the part of the moon which is nearest to us and visible. So there +is also a hidden side to man which is as productive of action as the +physical being we behold. Transgressions of divine laws upon the mental and +moral planes of action are quite as responsible for physical disorders as +the hidden side of the moon is effective in producing the tides. + + If the above were understood, physicians would no longer puzzle over the +annoying fact that while a certain kind and quantity of medicine produces a +cure in one cause, it may be absolutely impotent in others. A large and in- +creasing number of medical men are now convinced that the LAW OF DESTINY is +an important factor in producing disease and retarding recover, though they +are not believers in the fallacy of an inexorable fate. They recognize that +GOD DOES NOT WILLINGLY AFFLICT US NOR AIM TO GET EVEN WITH THE TRANSGRESSOR; +they understand that all sorrow and suffering are designed to teach us les- +sons which we would not or could not learn in any other way. The stars show +the period estimated as requisite to teach us the lesson, but EVEN GOD CAN- +NOT DETERMINE THE EXACT TIME not the amount of suffering necessary; we, our- +selves, have a prerogative, FOR WE ARE DIVINE. If we awake to our trans- +gression and commence to obey the law ere the stellar affliction ceases, we + + +[PAGE 20] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +are cured of our mental, moral, or physical distemper; if we persist to the +end of one stellar affliction without having learned our lesson, a more in- +imical configuration will enforce obedience at a later time. + + It is in this connection that the spiritually minded health adjuster may +often render most efficient service and shorten the period of suffering by +pointing out to a sufferer why he is afflicted. Even when the healer finds +himself unable to cope with the disease, he may very often cheer a patient +through a period of unavoidable distress by a promise of relief at a certain +time. In my ministrations to the sick during bygone years it has not infre- +quently been my privilege to thus point out the Star of Hope, and, so far as +I remember, my predictions of recovery at a set time have always been +verified, sometimes in an almost miraculous manner, for THE STARS ARE THE +CLOCK OF DESTINY AND ARE ALWAYS CORRECT. + + In the above you have the great reason why we should study astrology from +the spiritual standpoint. In next month's letter I hope to bring out some- +thing more definite concerning the Spiritual Panacea, but in the meantime I +am sure you will be glad to know that we have bought the land of which I +spoke. It is one of the sightliest spots in beautiful southern California; +in fact, though I have traveled all over the world, I have never seen a view +to compare with that of the site of our future Headquarters. It is situated +upon a high tableland, giving free scope to the vision for forty or more +miles in all directions. On the north the Santa Ana Mountain Range wards +off the cold north winds so that the climate is practically frostless all + + +[PAGE 21] HEALING THE SICK + +the year round. Below us to the east is the beautiful San Luis Rey Valley, +with its river like a silver band wending it way through fertile fields past +the historic old Spanish Mission where the Franciscan Fathers taught the In- +dians for centuries. Farther eastward the San Jacinto mountain rears its +snow-capped peak against a sky of deepest azure. In the south the promon- +tory of La Jolla, with its picturesque caves, hides from view the great +natural harbor of Uncle Sam's southwesternmost city--San Diego. Towards the +setting sun we behold upon the placid bosom of the Pacific Ocean, San +Clemente Island, also Santa Catalina with its wonderful submarine gardens--a +composite picture of glory and inspiration, in itself sufficient to evoke +all that is purest and best in any one at all spiritually inclined. + + We have named this beauty spot of nature, "Mt. Ecclesia," and a building +fund has already been started to erect suitable buildings: a School of +Healing, a Sanitarium, and last but not least, a place of worship--an +Ecclesia, where the Spiritual Panacea may be prepared and sent all over the +world to be used by properly qualified helpers. + + + +[PAGE 22] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + + LETTER NO. 7 + + July, 1911 + + BAPTISM OF WATER AND OF SPIRIT + + Last month we started to consider the sacraments, and it was my intention +to write upon COMMUNION this month, but the subject has proved so vast that +it takes in almost everything from Genesis to Revelation, besides a number +of physiological aspects such as the chemistry of good and the blood; also +the atmosphere, etc. Further, it is inseparably connected with the second +coming of Christ. It will require more time than I can give to get it out +early in the month, also it will cover several lessons. Therefore I thought +it best not to use that subject until next month, and in the meantime I have +decided to give you a lesson from the new book--THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES. +This lesson is partly taken from the chapter entitled, "The Mystery of +Light, Color, and Consciousness." You will find it most interesting and in- +structive. + + Regarding last month's lesson on BAPTISM, you will have noted that so far +from being only an outgrowth of the dogmatism commonly attributed to the +church, it is the symbol of condition which actually existed in the past +when humanity was indeed a brotherhood. It is a fact of the greatest sig- +nificance that until the time of Christ, the LAW demanded an eye for an eye +and a tooth for a tooth, but ere He commenced to preach the gospel of LOVE + + +[PAGE 23] BAPTISM OF WATER AND OF SPIRIT + +to our neighbor and forgiveness towards those who trespass against us, He +went under the Waters of Baptism, and there received the Universal Spirit, +which will supplant the egoism of today. + + Thus He became filled with love, and therefore NATURALLY radiated that +quality, as naturally as a stove filled with burning coal radiates heat. We +may preach to the stove forever that its duty is to heat, but until we fill +it with fuel, it will remain cold. Likewise, we may preach to humanity that +we ought to be brothers and love one another, but until we put ourselves "IN +TUNE WITH THE INFINITE," we can no more love our neighbor than the empty +stove can heat. As Paul says, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and +of angles, and have not LOVE, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling +cymbal." + + THE BAPTISM OF WATER refers to a past condition when we were irrespon- +sible as the child we take to church today, but THE BAPTISM OF SPIRIT is +something yet in the future for most of us, and it is this for which we are +striving. Let us pay particular attention to the thirteenth chapter of 1st +Corinthians during this coming month. Let us endeavor to practice in our +daily lives at least one of the virtues which Paul says lead to illumina- +tion, so that we may soon fit ourselves to see face to face the beauties of +the sacraments, which perhaps are now but dimly perceived as through a dark- +ened glass. + + +[PAGE 24] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + + LETTER NO. 8 + + August, 1911 + + RULING OUR STARS + + I hope you enjoyed last month's lesson on "The Mystery of Light, Color +and Consciousness," and that you now have a more thorough realization of +what is meant by the saying, "In Him we live and move and have our being," +for everywhere, throughout the whole universe, wherever light penetrates, +there God also is. Even in the places which WE call dark because the con- +stitution of our eyes prevents perception of objects there, organs of vision +differently constituted can function as exemplified in the instance of cats +and owls. + + Christ said, "Let your light shine." To the spiritual vision each human +being appears as a flame of light, variously colored according to tem- +perament, and or greater or less brilliancy in proportion to purity of char- +acter. Science has discovered that all matter is in a state of flux, that +the particles which compose our bodies continually decay and are eliminated +from the system, to be replaced by others which remain for a short time un- +til they also decompose. Likewise our moods, emotions, and desires change +with every passing moment, the old giving place to the new in an interminal + + +[PAGE 25] RULING OUR STARS + +succession. Therefore, they also must be composed of matter and subject to +laws similar to those which govern visible physical substances. + + We even can, and do, change our mind; we can cultivate it in one direc- +tion or another as we please, just as we can develop the muscles of arm or +limb, or we can allow the member to atrophy. Therefore the mind also must +be composed of a changeable substance. But the ego, the Thinker, never +loses its "I"-dentity. In both childhood and old age that "I" remains the +same regardless of changes in thoughts, feelings, emotions, and desires. +Though the body, which we use as a garment, changes with the passing years, +WE are eternally and everlasting the same. + + The quality of mutability of matter and evanescence of form is the basis +of all spiritual progress, however, for it matter were immutable as spirit, +there would be no possibility of advancement. So long as we drift with the +tide of life and do not consciously control the ebb and flow of matter to +and from our being, we are the sport of circumstances. Then when a ray of +Mars is projected at a certain angle to the atoms of our body, we feel all +the aggressiveness which it carries. A Saturnian beam, on the other hand, +brings us depression; it fills us with gloom and fearful forebodings. But +as we evolve and arrive at an understanding of the MYSTERY OF LIGHT, COLOR, +AND CONSCIOUSNESS, we gradually learn to rule our stars. Then by conformity +to the laws of nature we become masters of our own destiny; and it is of vi- +tal importance that no matter what the aspects which may rule at any certain + + +[PAGE 26] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +time we should always assert ourselves and say: + + "It matters not how strait the gate, + How charged with punishments the scroll, + 'I' am the master of my fate; + 'I' am the captain of my soul." + + + + + LETTER NO. 9 + + September, 1911. + + Invisible Guardians of Humanity + + You saw in the lesson, on Baptism, how we went back to the earliest days +of evolution upon our planet to find the significance of that sacrament. +You will have noticed also in last month's lesson how the Sacrament of Com- +munion has its root in the beginning of time. Thus it is apparent that un- +less we are capable of investigating the past history of the human race, we +can obtain no clear conception concerning anything connected with mankind. +Goethe spoke of "DAS EWIG WERDENDE"-the ever becoming. Change is the main- +spring of progression, and if we look upon man AS HE IS NOW, without regard +to what he has been, our deductions as to his future must necessarily be +very limited. + + The last lesson illustrates the Law of Analogy, showing how man was fos- +tered by Divine Guardians in a manner similar to that in which the little +child is care for by its parents to prepare it for the battle of life; and + + +[PAGE 27] INVISIBLE GUARDIANS OF HUMANITY + +we may be sure that though these guardians have withdrawn from VISIBLE lead- +ership, they are still with us and keep a watchful eye upon their former +wards, just as we who are parents continue to take an interest in the wel- +fare of our children after they have left our hearth and home to fight the +battle of life for themselves. + + When we have had our spiritual eyes opened and have learned to distin- +guish the various classes of beings in the higher realms, that guardianship +is one of the most reassuring facts to the observer; for though no one may +interfere with the free will of mankind and though it is contrary to the di- +vine plan in any way to coerce a man into doing that which he does not want +to do, there is no bar against suggestions along lines which he would be +likely to choose. And it is due to the wisdom and love of these Great Be- +ings that progress along humanitarian lines is the watchword of the day. + + During the ages which have passed, we in the Western world have par- +ticularly felt the sorrow and pain due to war and strife. The struggle for +existence is constantly becoming more and more acute; it is dictated by +"man's inhumanity to man." But there is also another factor developed by +the Lords of Love and Compassion, namely, the altruistic movements, which +are multiplying in number at a wonderful rate, and gaining in efficiency as +the years go by. it is a noteworthy fact, however, that alms-giving and +charity which degrade the recipient are being more and more superseded by +HELP TO SELF-HELP, which elevates who we aid as well as those who give. + + +[PAGE 28] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +That kind of help involves thought and self-sacrifice, which are fostered by +our Invisible Guardians among the stronger who are now their weaker +brothers' keepers. + + It is a cause for considerable congratulation that a number of our Fel- +lowship members are workers in institutions conducted along the above lines, +and I sincerely hope to see the day when a large majority will be able to +take up work of this nature, each in his respective environment. But begin +at home, be kind to all with whom you immediately come in contact, and when +you have been found faithful in a few things, the larger opportunities will +not be wanting. + -------------------------- + + + LETTER NO. 10 + + October, 1911 + + FLESH FOOD AND ALCOHOL + + It is one of the usual human characteristics to eulogize that which +pleases us, and deprecate that for which we have an aversion, but I trust +that you will have learned from last month's lesson the one great and glori- +ous fact that IN THE FATHER'S KINGDOM ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD. +Those among us who are content to live upon vegetables, and those among us +who feel no desire for strong drink, are usually too prone to look down upon +our brothers and sisters who still use flesh food and intoxicants with a +feeling of, "I am so much holier that thou"; but you will doubtless have + + +[PAGE 29] FLESH FOOD AND ALCOHOL + +perceived from what has been said in the lesson that such a feeling is en- +tirely gratuitous. Flesh food and alcohol have had a very material share in +the world's progress, and were it not for them we should not today be enjoy- +ing many of the comforts and labor-saving devices which make life in the +Western world so much easier than in primeval times. Neither is the day of +their usefulness entirely past; they are necessities in the lives of many +people. Besides, as the Good Book says, it is not that which goes into the +mouth that defiles, but that which proceeds therefrom; and the attitude of +haughty disdain for those who still use flesh foods, or are subject to alco- +holism, is far more subversive of spiritual growth than the mere partaking +of these foods. + + Let us therefore not condemn others, but let us try to see the matter +from their side, and allow them to have their free will as we wish to have +ours. Neither let us obtrude our views upon them nor seek to make converts +to our mode of living among those who are not yet ready. THE CHANGE OUGHT +TO COME FROM WITHIN, and it should not be dictated by a consideration of the +healthfulness of vegetable food, nor by the spiritual acceleration to be +gained from a diet prepared without flesh. The highest motive should be +compassion for the poor victims which are slain to appease appetites. + + It may be said, however, with safety that we eat too much flesh, and like +all compounds of nitrogen, such as nitro-glycerine, gun-cotton, and other +explosives, flesh foods are extremely unstable and dangerous to the system. +Therefore we will do well if we urge moderation upon all with whom we come + + +[PAGE 30] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +in contact. Science is sufficiently well aware of the facts in the case to +furnish ample backing for any one who undertakes this mission. We may not +save the lives of as many animals by preaching moderation among our associ- +ates as we would if we could convert them to a bloodless diet, but if our +motive is to avert tragedy to all possible, that will be the wisest course. +Also is we can inculcate a spirit of compassion, the desire for flesh will +soon vanish before the spirit of love. + + ------------------------------ + + LETTER NO. 11 + + October, 1911. + + PREPARATIONS FOR REMOVAL TO MT. ECCLESIA + + Saturday, October the 28th, at 12:40 P.M. sharp, Pacific time, we are go- +ing to break ground for the first building on Mt. Ecclesia, the home-site of +the Rosicrucian Fellowship. The house will be comparatively small, and we +are striving to make it as inexpensive or we shall not be able to build at +all. I am even doing the work of architect and contractor to save expenses. +Nevertheless, we consider this first breaking of ground an epoch of greatest +import in the young life of our society, for though our private quarters may +be cramped we shall have a large workroom and accommodation for several as- +sistants until funds become available for erection of the Ecclesia and other +pretentious structures more worthy of our mission in the world. + + +[PAGE 31] FLESH FOOD AND ALCOHOL + + We realize most keenly that the magnitude of our work in the world de- +pends in a large measure upon the support and co-operation of our associ- +ates, and we therefore most earnestly solicit your active assistance upon +this momentous occasion, to the end that our society may become a greater +power for good than any which has gone before. + + You know that thoughts are things; that they are forces of a magnitude +proportionate to the intensity of purpose behind them. There is no easier +or more effective method of putting our whole being in tune with a certain +design, and hurling a powerful thought in a desired direction, than earnest +Christian prayer. + + Now, I have two distinct requests for your help in prayer, and I hope and +trust you will give your most hearty support. + + In the first place, though altogether unworthy, it will be my duty as +leader to break the ground for our future Headquarters at the time set, and +it is is possible for you to withdraw to your closet, please give yourself +up to earnest prayer that the Headquarters then being started may grown and +prosper in every good way; for the united prayers of our students all over +the world will be an immense force in that direction. + + But you can do more; the cumulative thought of many friends directed day +by day towards a common center will work wonders. Will you send us a prayer +every night to strengthen Mrs. Heindel, the workers at Headquarters, and my- +self, so that we may grow purer, better, and more efficient workers in the +service of humanity, and that we may thus become more potent to alleviate + + +[PAGE 32] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +the sorrow, suffering, and distress of all who seek our aid? + + Further, will you write me once in a while assuring me of your sympathy +and co-operation? I may not be able to reply and thank you individually, +but you can rest assured that I shall appreciate your expression of good +will none the less. + + ------------------------------------------ + + LETTER NO. 12. + + November, 1911. + + GROUND-BREAKING FOR FIRST BUILDING ON + + MT. ECCLESIA + + This month I am departing from my usual custom of devoting the student's +letter entirely to a review of the previous months lesson, in order to tell +you of the ceremony we had at Mt. Ecclesia on the 28th, when we broke ground +for the first building on the site of our permanent Headquarters. I feel +sure you were with us in spirit, that you are eager to hear about it, and I +know the recital will bring us in closer touch. + + Our first idea was to forego any outward show or ceremony. We desired to +avoid all unnecessary expense as our funds are not, even now, sufficient to +finish the building inside, and we shall have to rough it for awhile until +conditions are more favorable. + + I had intended to go there and hold the service mentally, and alone, but +it seemed so cold, dreary, and desolate not to have one friend there in + + +[PAGE 33] GROUND-BREAKING ON MT. ECCLESIA + +person to rejoice with me on that momentous occasion, not even my dear com- +panion in the work-Mrs. Heindel. Moreover, as this is a very important af- +fair of the Rosicrucian Fellowship and not a personal matter, I felt that +opportunity to attend ought to be given the members. The thought grew upon +me until I decided to ask the Teacher's advice; and, as he most heartily ap- +proved, we made an appropriation for the purpose of celebrating the event in +a simple, yet fitting manner, and sent notices to friends in the immediate +vicinity. + + We made a large cross of the same style as our emblem, and on the three +upper ends we had painted, in gilt letters, the initials: C R C. These, you +know, represent the symbolical name of our great Head, and designate our em- +blem as the Christian Rose Cross, which conveys an idea of beauty and a +higher life so different from the gloom of death usually associated with the +black cross. + + This cross and a climbing rose we decided to plant at the same time as we +broke ground for the building, so that they might symbolize the verdant life +of the various kingdoms traveling to higher spheres along the spiral path of +evolution. + + On the 27th, Mrs. Heindel and I started for Oceanside, nearly exhausted +from the strain of packing and moving. The first rain of the season was +falling, and we felt some apprehension concerning the effect on the cer- +emony; but as we looked toward the almost cloud-hidden mountains in the +east, we beheld the largest, most glorious rainbow we had ever seen-a double +rainbow in fact-and it's southern foot seemed to stand directly upon Mt. +Ecclesia. + + +[PAGE 34] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + Our responsibility to aid thousands of weary hearts to bravely bear their +burdens has often seemed beyond our strength; yet always have we found our +powers renewed by looking within; and this time it seemed as if all Nature +wanted to cheer us and was saying: "Take courage, remember the Work is not +yours but God's; trust entirely in Him; He will point the way." So we +clasped hands and took heart with new strength to carry on the beautiful +work of which Mt. Ecclesia is to be the center. + + The day of the ceremony was an ideal California day; the sun shone is a +cloudless sky. Wherever we looked from Mt. Ecclesia, oceans, valleys, moun- +tains seemed to smile. Both the workers and visiting members were enrap- +tured with the incomparable beauty of the Headquarters site. Those present +were: Annie R. Atwood, of San Diego; Ruth E. Beach, of Portland, Ore.; +Rachel M. Cunningham, Rudolf Miller and John Adams of Los Angeles; George +Kramer, of Pittsburgh, Pa; Wm. M. Patterson, of Seattle, Wash.; Mrs. Heindel +and myself. + + At the appointed time I broke ground for the building. All helped to ex- +cavate for the cross, which was set by Wm. Patterson. Mrs. Heindel planted +the rose, which was then watered by all present. May it grow, may it bloom, +to adorn the nakedness of the cross and be an inspiration to purity of life +that will cover all past sins, no matter how dark the life may have been. +The address--as it should have been delivered-constitutes this month's les- +son. Circumstances occasioned some modifications. + + +[PAGE 35] GENERATIVE PURITY THE IDEAL FOR THE WEST + + + LETTER NO. 13 + + GENERATIVE PURITY THE IDEAL FOR THE WEST. + + December, 1911. + + Have you grasped the main point in our last month's lesson on the symbol- +ism of the Rose Cross, the crux of the Western Wisdom Teaching? It is Gen- +erative Purity. + + The great Leaders of humanity always prescribe conditions most conducive +to the growth of each race; different religions for the masses, and varying +methods of attainment for the few. The populous condiion of the far East +proves a universally unrestricted indulgence of the passions upon the part +of our younger Chinese and Hindu brothers. Therefore the Wisdom Teachers of +the East prescribe celibacy for their disciples as a means of gaining con- +trol over passion. + + In the West conditions are more complicated and dangerous. Here the +floodgates of passion are, in a large measure, dammed up; not from a sense +of the sanctity of the generative act, but because of selfishness and fan- +cied economic necessity. This method often leads to insidious perversion +and loose practices. Were not passion so strong, this method might indeed +result in race suicide. To require an aspirant born under such conditions +to live a celibate life would only given him further incentive to selfish- + + +[PAGE 36] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +ness and self-sufficiency; so it is regarded as a mark of merit when a pupil +of the Western Mystery School marries and continues to live a life of chas- +tity. + + It has been a detriment to the Western world that various societies have +promulgated Eastern doctrines-celibacy among others-here, and it was a se- +vere shock to me when an officer in one such organization deplored the mar- +riage of one of their lecturers, and told how it had embarrassed them that +his wife was about to be confined. As the years brought new additions to +the family the society has since relegated him to private life. + + The exact reverse would have happened to pupils of the Western School. +They are most highly honored if able and willing to give a body and a home +to one or more waiting spirits, provided, of course, that they live a life +of chaste conjugal love during the intervals. + + Thus while the younger, weaker Eastern soul is commanded by the Compas- +sionate Teachers, who temper the wind to the short lamb, to be celibate and +flee temptation, the older Western spirit is allowed to test its strength by +living in conjugal relations and perchance in accomplishing an immaculate +conception such as symbolized by the chaste, beautiful rose which scatters +its seed without passion, without shame. + + A New Race is being born now. Pure-minded Christian men and women are +awakening more and more to the claims of the unborn. Let us celebrate the +anniversary of our Savior's birth by praying that pure conditions may soon +become general, and that all children may be well-born. Last, but not +least, let each of us teach, preach, and live this doctrine. + + +[PAGE 37] THE COMING AGE OF AIR + + LETTER NO. 14. + + January, 1912. + + THE COMING AGE OF AIR + + Reviewing last month's lesson, there is the startling statement that in +the next epoch we shall abandon our present terra firma and live in the air +clothed in a gaseous body. Another writer along these lines has provoked +much amusement by a series of articles so wildly imaginary that the opinions +which we have heard expressed unanimously vote him champion among story +tellers. Yet he stays on earth; his temples are as solid as a rock; and I +have hesitated to publish the above mentioned teaching till I decided that +duty required me to speak, even if some students do class me as visionary. + + The trouble is, we have all become so much more impregnated with materi- +alism than we realize, and it hinders us in our quest. As students of tran- +scendental philosophy, we have accustomed ourselves to regard individual and +intermittent life in a ethereal body possible attainment for the few, but +that the whole human race may live permanently for a whole epoch in the +air!--truly, it made me hold my breath when I realized that the Bible means +exactly what it says when it states that WE SHALL MEET THE LORD IN THE AIR +AND BE WITH HIM FOR THE AGES. + + Looking towards the future through the perspective of the past, however, + + +[PAGE 38] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +the idea should really cause no surprise for it is strictly in line with the +path whence we have come to our present development. We lived at one time +like the mineral and were imbedded in the gaseous earth. We grew outwards +from the fiery core during a plantlike existence. Our peregrinations com- +menced upon the thin earth crust at a later time; and we are now upon the +highlands of the earth, far from the inner core where our evolution com- +menced. The march of progression has been OUTWARDS all the while, and it +follows that the next step ought to raise us above the earth level. + + I am giving this teaching out for consideration because the majority of +our students believe in rebirth and the Law of Consequence, which are the +main arbiters of destiny during the present dispensation of recurring +cycles. Knowledge of these laws is of great value as it enables us to order +our life intelligently, building in THIS LIFE the conditions of the NEXT EM- +BODIMENT. + + The majority of Christians have not this great advantage, but they live, +never the less, through all the tribulations of THIS AGE--the Kingdom of +Men-in the grand hope that they may qualify for admission the the Kingdom of +God--THE NEXT AGE. Our view of life has a SHORTER, theirs, a LONGER, focus. +They live less scientifically than those among us who apply our more exact +knowledge of present conditions, but they are fitting themselves for the FU- +TURE Age if they LIVE by the Bible. Their information may be vague, but +they live and die in the firm belief of the great and cardinal truth that + + + +[PAGE 39] THE ROLE OF STIMULANTS IN EVOLUTION + +they will GO TO HEAVEN and be with THE LORD FOREVER if they are real Chris- +tians. + + If we believe ONLY in rebirth, we can expect nothing but a continuous +RETURN TO EARTH to battle with the LAW of Jehovah; we have no part in the +LOVE of Christ. To be perfectly in line with the facts, to be able to live +by THE WHOLE TRUTH, we must realize that birth and death are evanescent fea- +tures of this age of concrete existence, but LIFE ITSELF IS INTERMINABLE. +John tells us very definitely that though it does not appear what our con- +stitution shall be, we shall be changed to the likeness of Christ and remain +deathless throughout the Age; and it behooves us to keep this great hope +firmly before us and pray for the Kingdom to come, as our Lord taught. + + --------------------------------- + + LETTER NO. 15 + + February, 1912 + + THE ROLE OF STIMULANTS IN EVOLUTION + + Our last lesson finished the series dealing with the sacrament of Com- +munion by description of how the spirit alcohol, which is fermented OUTSIDE +the system, is being superseded by sugar, which ferments WITHIN. I trust +you to see the thread of the argument which has been running through these +lessons: That a stimulant from the lethargy attendant upon a meat diet; +that the bacchanalian orgies in ancient temples, which properly fill us with + + + +[PAGE 40] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + +horror nowadays, were the on immense value in human development; that the +first miracle of Christ and His Last Supper were devoted to a dispensation +of the stimulant; the He ordained its use "till He come"; that as consump- +tion of sugar increases, use of alcohol diminishes and, concurrently, the +moral standard is gradually elevated; that people grow more altruistic and +Christlike in proportion to their use of the non-inebriating stimulant, and +that therefore the temperance movement is one of the most powerful factors +to hasten the coming of Christ. + + But as we cultivate finer and more delicate feelings, we shall shrink in +horror also from flesh food; and some day it will be considered as morbid a +taste to desire to use the stomach as a receptacle for the corpses of killed +animals as it now adjudged by society a morbid taste to desire strong drink +inordinately. As students of the Western Wisdom Teaching we should not +judge, however, but recognize the fact that many really require these ar- +ticles in moderation; but the matter is being adjusted by the invisible +leaders of evolution in a manner not yet obvious to casula observers, though +it is quite discernible to deeper investigators. + + It is evident that evolutionary progress is elevating the lower kingdoms +as well as humanity. The animals, particularly the domesticated species, +are nearing individualization, and their withdrawal from manifestation has +already commenced. As a result it will in time be possible to obtain flesh +food. Then the death knell of "King Alcohol" will have struck, for only +flesh eaters crave liquor. + + +[PAGE 41] THE ROLE OF STIMULANTS IN EVOLUTION + + In the meantime plant life is growing more sentient. The lateral limbs +of trees produce more abundantly than do vertical branches because in +plants, as in us, consciousness results from the antagonistic activities of +the desire and vital currents. Lateral limbs are swept through their entire +length by the desire currents which circle our planet and which act so pow- +erfully in the horizontal animal spines. The desire currents rouse the +sleeping plant life in the lateral limbs to a higher degree of consciousness +than is the case with the vertical currents radiating from the center of the +earth. Thus, in time, the plants will also become too sensitive to serve as +food and another source must be sought. + + Today, we have considerable ability in working with the chemical, mineral +substances; we mold them into houses, ships, and all the other things which +evidence our civilization. We are master of the minerals OUTSIDE our body, +but powerless to assimilate and use them INSIDE our system to build our or- +gans until the plant life has transmuted crystals into crystalloids. Our +work with the minerals in the exterior world is raising their vibration and +is paving the way for direct interior use. By spiritual alchemy we shall +build the temple of the spirit, conquer the dust whence we came, and qualify +as true Master Masons prepared for work in higher spheres. + + + + +[PAGE 42] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + + LETTER NO. 16 + + March, 1912 + + NECESSITY FOR DEVOTION + + + As the subject of marriage, with which our last month's lesson dealt, is +in certain sense receiving a further treatment this month, I feel that the +letter to students this month may perhaps be most profitably devoted to a +point on which I have for a long time wished to speak. + + The ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION has met with such phenomenal success and +called forth so much gratitude and admiration all over the world that I +ought to be flattered at the attention it is commanding everywhere. But, on +the contrary, I am beginning to feel more and more afraid that the book may +miss the mark at which our Elder Brothers have aimed. Its purpose, desig- +nated on pages 17 and 18, is to satisfy the mind by intellectually explain- +ing the world mystery, so that the devotional side of the student's nature +may be allowed to develop along lines which the intellect has approved. The +ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION , I believe, has won its way because of this +appeal to the intellect and the satisfaction it has given to the inquiring +mind. Hundreds, yes thousands, of letters have testified that students who +have searched in vain for years have found here what they sought. But few +have seemed able, as yet, to transcend the intellectual conception, and + + +[PAGE 43] NECESSITY FOR DEVOTION + +unless the book gives the student an earnest desire to transcend the path of +knowledge and pursue the path of devotion it is a failure, in my estimation. + + In another society formed along these lines, I have known groups to sit +in classes for years wrangling before a chart of the atom, delving deep into +the minutiae of its spirals and spirillae, but cold and indifferent to the +woe of the world around them; and it is with great sorrow deepening appre- +hension that I note the development of a tendency in that direction among +some of our students, a tendency in that direction among some of our stu- +dents, a tendency which I hope may be checked before it kills the heart. +"Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth," says Paul, and this is well exem- +plified in the attitude of leaders in the society to which I have reference, +who often belittle the Christian religion on the platform or in print be- +cause it lacks an intellectual conception of the universe. + + Let me recall to you the warning given by our Teacher in the ROSICRUCIAN +COSMO-CONCEPTION with reference to diagrams: "They are at best only +crutches to aid our limited faculties; when we make a diagram to explain +spiritual mysteries, it is as if we should take the wheels out of a watch +and lay them side by side to illustrate how the watch keeps time." Although +charts may be a valuable help at a certain stage of our development, it be- +hooves us always to remember their limitations and STRIVE TO ATTAIN BY OUR +INTUITION the true spiritual idea. I feel also that it is of the greatest +importance that students should keep the true purpose of the +COSMO-CONCEPTION, its aim and its end, most clearly and accurately before + + +[PAGE 44] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +them at all times. It is stated in black letter son the return postal +cards, and I would advise every student to write it in LARGE letters and +past it into the ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION where it may be seen each +time the book is opened, for though we have all knowledge and can solve all +mysteries, we are but as tinkling cymbals unless we have love and USE IT to +help our fellow creatures. + + + LETTER NO. 17 + + April, 1912 + + STRAGGLERS IN EVOLUTION + + From the teaching contained in last month's lesson you will understand +that there is absolutely not foundation for the idea, as commonly held, +about lost souls. There is not a single word in the Bible which carries +with it the idea that we have become accustomed to associate with the En- +glish word "forever." The Greek word is AIONIAN and means "an indefinite +period of time, an age"; and when we read in the Bible the words, "forever +and ever" they should really be translated "for ages and ages." Besides, as +it is a truth in nature that "in God we live and move and have our being," a +soul lost would mean that a part of God would be lost, and that of course is +unthinkable. + + Since writing last month's lesson another point has occurred to me which +will illustrate how the "lost" of one Period are dealt with in the next. + + +[PAGE 45] STRAGGLERS IN EVOLUTION + +You remember that we have spoken of the Lucifer spirits as stragglers from +the Moon Period and that we stated that they could find no field of evolu- +tion in the present scheme of manifestation. The archangels inhabit the +sun, the angels have charge of all the moons, but the Lucifer spirits were +incapable of dwelling upon either luminary. They could not assist in gen- +eration purely and unselfishly as do the angels, but were actuated by pas- +sion and selfish desires, so that a separate place had to be found for them. +Therefore they were placed upon the planet Mars, a fact well known to the +ancient astrologers who have Mars rule over Aries, which has dominion over +the head (remember, the brain is built by subverted sex force), and also +gave that planet rule over Scorpio, which governs the reproductive organs. +Aries is the 1st house in a flat horoscope, denoting the beginning of life; +Scorpio is the 8th, signifying death; and therein is contained the lesson +that all which is generated by passion and desire is bound to meet dissolu- +tion. Thus Mars is, astrologically and estorecially, "the devil"; and Luci- +fer, the chief among fallen angles, is truly the adversary of Jehovah, who +directs the fecundating force from the sun through the lunar agency. + + Nevertheless, the Lucifer Spirits are aiding in the process of evolution. +From them we received the iron which alone makes it possible to live in an +oxygenated atmosphere. They have been, and are, agitators for material +progress, and we have no right to anathematize them. The Bible distinctly +forbids us to revile the gods. Jude states that not even the archangel +Michael dared revile Lucifer, and in the Book of Job the latter is spoken of + + +[PAGE 46] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +as among the sons of God. His ambassador to the earth, Samuel, is the angel +of death, signified by Scorpio, but is also the angel of life and action +symbolized by Aries. Were it not for the stirring martial impulses we might +not feel sorrow as keenly as we do, but neither could we make the same +progress, and surely "it is better to wear out than to rust out." + + Thus you see how these "lost sheep" of a former age are given a change to +retrieve their estate in the present scheme of evolution. They are delayed, +and, as stragglers, must always appear evil, but they are not "lost beyond +redemption." They may save themselves by serving us, probably by transmut- +ing Scorpio into Aries, generation into regeneration. + + + LETTER NO. 18 + + May, 1912 + + KEYNOTE OF THE ROSICRUCIAN TEACHINGS + + + The burden of last month's lesson was that it is our duty to pass on the +fruits of our study in an endeavor to benefit the world. But mystics usu- +ally stand aloof from their fellows and the world looks askance at us and +our beliefs. This ought not to be, and analysis will prove that the teach- +ings objected to are relatively unimportant and that the most vital of the +teachings will find ready acceptance and prepare the way for further in- +structions. + + +[PAGE 47] KEYNOTE OF THE ROSICRUCIAN TEACHINGS + + The value of any particular teaching depends upon its power to make men +better HERE and NOW; to make them kind and considerate at home, conscien- +tious in business, loyal to friends, forgiving to enemies; and any teaching +which is easily applied, and will accomplish such results, need no further +recommendation. + + Where shall we look for such a teaching? We have a monumental cosmogony, +describing world periods, revolutions, epochs, and races. Will that study +make men more kind? Or, if we can get them to pore over the mystery of num- +bers and names in the Kabala, will they become more conscientious? Surely +not; therefore such knowledge is of minor import. Will it make men moral if +we teach them of involution and evolution, or if we describe the cyclic +journey of the soul through purgatory and heaven? It will not necessarily, +at least till we have convinced them that under the Law of Consequence we +are subject to rebirth, and reap as we sow. Even a hint of such a belief, +however, would turn most people from us. + + But, you will ask, what them is left of our teachings? The greatest +teaching of all, and the most practical. One that will arouse no antagonism +in any devotee of any religion, or even in an agnostic, for it need not be +labeled religious. It will produce most beneficent results from the day it +is applied, and affect future lives also, regardless of whether the man who +practices it ever hears the word Rosicrucian or learns more of our teach- +ings. + + If you want to really work in God's vineyard--the world--don't isolate +yourself. Abstract study may be good part of the time, but go out in the + + +[PAGE 48] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +world; win the confidence of people in church, club, or shop. If you set a +good example, they will inquire the secret, and you will be privileged to +give them the greatest teaching ever known: + + THE SECRET OF SOUL GROWTH + + You may talk to them something like this: + + "Every night when I have gone to bed I review the happenings of the day +IN REVERSE ORDER. I try to judge myself impartially. I blame where blame +is due, repent, and resolve to reform. I praise myself, it praise is mer- +ited, and determine to do better next day. + + "I fail often to keep my good resolutions, BUT I KEEP ON TRYING, and +little by little I succeed." + + It may be well to explain that by reviewing events in reverse order they +are more firmly implanted in the memory, but further elucidation should be +avoided until you are certain your friend is seeking a solution to the prob- +lem of life. + + This is discriminative propaganda. + + + + LETTER NO. 19 + + June, 1912 + + SACREDNESS OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES + + + Many letters have been received during the past month voicing appre- +ciation of students in respect to the last lessons, and it has been a source +of gratification to note the deep-felt love for the Fellowship and the de- +sire to know "how it all came about." Thus I feel somewhat better about + + +[PAGE 49] SACREDNESS OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES + + +introducing my personal experiences than I did in the first place. + + At the same time it cannot be too strongly emphasized that indiscriminate +relating of superphysical experiences is one of the most harmful of prac- +tices, no matter from what standpoint we look at it. In Lecture No. 11, +"Spiritual Sight and Insight," the matter has been thoroughly explained. +The "treasure-trove" must be lifted in silence; and from the Greek myth we +learn that Tantalus was hurled down into the infernal regions for divulging +spiritual secrets. In other words, we cannot attain true illumination while +we go hawking our dreams and visions from pillar to post and recount them +even to people manifestly unwilling to listen. Thereby we profane and +cheapen what we ought to reverence, and the desecration is apt to focus our +vision in the infernal regions, the lower strata of the desire world. + + Again, such recitals always tax the credulity of those to whom they are +related. There is not measure whereby we may gauge their accuracy. They +often seem to have no practical bearing upon the problem of life; and even +if we have faith in the veracity of the visionary, there is not value in his +stories unless we can find an underlying law or purpose. Thus the statement +of the law is sufficient without embellishment. Perhaps, the best illustra- +tion of this point may be given by relating how I discovered the law of in- +fant mortality which was never published till it appeared in our literature. + + My Teacher one day set me the task of following a certain person's life +through two previous embodiments and reporting. I had no idea that I was + + +[PAGE 50] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +being sent in quest of a law, but thought the purpose was to develop my fac- +ulty of reading the Memory of Nature. When ready, I reported the result to +my Teacher who inquired particularly the circumstances attending death in +each of the two lives. I answered that the man died in battle the first +time and from sickness as a child the last. That was correct, and another +person's life was given me to investigate. That one died in bed the first +time, and also died as a child the last time. A third person's life termi- +nated in a fire the first time, and seemingly also as a child the last time. +I say "seemingly," for I could scarcely believe the evidence of my senses, +and felt diffident when I reported to my Teacher. I was surprised when he +said I was correct. This feeling grew as I, in turn investigated fourteen +person's lives. IN the first life they died under varying circumstances; +some in battle, others by accidents, and others in bed surrounded by weeping +relatives; but in the second life all passed out as children. + + The Teacher then told me to compare these lives to find why they died as +children, and for many weeks I studied them night after night, but could +find not similarity in the conditions of their first death until one Sunday +morning just as I was entering my body, it flashed through my brain. I +awoke with a shout--Eureka! I almost jumped into the middle of the floor in +my joy at having found the key. The horrors of battle, fire, and accident, +and the lamentations of relatives alike prevent deep etching of the +life-panorama; and the value of a life terminated under such conditions +would be lost save for the following death as a child and subsequent tuition + + +[PAGE 51] INITIATIVE AND PERSONAL FREEDOM + +first in the first heaven, a fully elucidated in our literature. The law, +as there stated, logically explains a mystery of life independent of the ac- +curacy of my story. As I relate it only to give point to our lesson, I feel +consistent when exhorting others to silence as to their spiritual experi- +ences. + + + + LETTER NO. 20 + + July, 1912 + + INITIATIVE AND PERSONAL FREEDOM + + + What do you think is the main point in last month's lesson? It is not MY +experiences, although students have attached a great deal of worth to them, +but in reality they are insignificant save as they serve to convey teaching +of benefit part from them. The greatest value of that which was recorded in +last month's lesson is the reiterated and emphatic insistence on absolute +PERSONAL FREEDOM in the Rosicrucian Fellowship. + + In this respect the Western Mystery Teaching differs most radically from +that given to the younger souls of the East, where each has his Master--a +despot whom he slavishly serves in all things as "Kim" did the Guru he fol- +lowed, for there is considerable truth and fact in Kipling's story. There, +absolute and unquestioning obedience to the command of the EXTERIOR Master +he sees and serves physically is the means of spiritual advancement; the + + +[PAGE 52] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +pupil is entirely without choice or prerogative, but neither has be respon- +sibility. + + Among the older souls of the WEST who aspire to spiritual growth, there +can be no Master or Guide. We are to learn to stand alone. We may not like +it; we may be afraid, and want a Master or Guide to free ourselves from re- +sponsibility. In that fact lies the reason, I think, why so many intelli- +gent and cultured people have joined spiritualistic circles and societies +promulgating Eastern teachings. Advanced beyond normal Western development, +they sense the Great Beyond, and it draws them as the wide expanse of blue +sky draws the nestling, despite fears, to trust its untried wings; but the +inward urge compels; and, fearing to trust themselves, they grasp eagerly at +the hand of "Masters" or "Spirit Guides" in the hope of attaining spiritual +power by their help. But the baby must crawl and fall; it must rise, fall +again and hurt itself. The experience is unpleasant but unavoidable, and +far to be preferred to the consequences of tying the infant to a chair to +save it from falling; then its limbs would become useless. And so do the +latent spiritual powers of the unfortunates who come under the (to Western- +ers) baneful domination of Spirit Guides and Eastern Masters. + + The Western Teacher is more like the parent bird which pushes the young +off the nest if they do not go themselves. We may hurt ourselves, but WE DO +LEARN TO FLY. Take my own case: Pushed out in the world with the +Rosicrucian teaching and told to spread it, you may be sure I have held by +breath many a time as the realization grew of what a gigantic undertaking it + + +[PAGE 53] THE CHRIST SPIRIT AND THE PANACEA + +is, and how insignificant Mrs. Heindel and I are. Often, when the work +seemed about to swamp us, we have prayed and prayed for help, but as we look +back we can see what lessons we have learned by the struggle. Sometimes +frined have remarked: "Oh, how we wish the money would be forthcoming to +build the Ecclesia and schools, so that the work might be carried into the +world with greater effect"; but we realize that there are other lessons be- +fore us, and that when we are ready, the means for further extension will +come; until then, our wings need more training. + + It is the same with every associate of the Fellowship. We are to learn +the lesson of working for a common purpose, without leadership; each +prompted alike by the Spirit of Love from within to strive for the physical, +moral, and spiritual uplift of all the world so the stature of Christ--THE +LORD AND LIGHT OF THE WORLD. + + + + LETTER NO. 21 + + August, 1912 + + THE CHRIST SPIRIT AND THE SPIRITUAL PANACEA + + + You remember reading in the ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION about how in +the ages from Noah to Christ, under the regime of Jehovah, universal self- +ishness was fostered in the entire human race. Man was told that "Heaven, +even the heavens, are the Lord's, but the earth has He given to the children +of men." Thus man was urged to seek material possessions, and had no + + +[PAGE 54] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +conception of treasures in heaven, which are the fruits of self-sacrifice. +As a consequence, his heaven life became more and more barren; spiritual +progress waned, and unless a new impulse had been given, it must eventually +have ceased. + + Then the Cosmic Christ Spirit, the "Redeemer," commenced His beneficent +work, and eventually obtained access to the earth through the "cleansing +blood of Jesus" when it flowed on Golgotha; and now the Christ Spirit is +working from within our globe to attentuate its physical and superphysical +constituents. An enormous spiritual inrush was felt at the moment He came +into full possession of the earth on Golgotha; so great, indeed, that the +intense light blinded the people. From that moment the principle altruism +commenced to take a greater hold upon our race; we are gradually ceasing to +look to our own interest alone, and are laying up treasure by an interest in +the welfare of our fellow men. Had not Christ come, another moon must have +been thrown off to rid us of the worst elements, but from this we are being +saved by grace through sacrifice of the Cosmic Christ Spirit--a sacrifice +that does not involve His death as commonly understood, but is an infusion +of the earth with a higher life which enables us to live more abundantly in +spirit. + + In this coming of Christ to earth we have an analogy between it and the +adminisering of the spiritual Panacrea, according to the law, "As above, so +below." There is in every little cell of the human body a separate cell +life, but over and above that is the ego which directs and controls all +cells so that they act in harmony. During certain protracted illnesses the + + +[PAGE 55] THE MYSTIC BREAD AND WINE + +ego becomes so intent upon the suffering that it ceases to fully vivify the +cells; thus bodily ailment breeds mental inaction and it may become impos- +sible to throw off disease without a special impulse to dispel, the mental +fog and start the cell activities anew. That is what the Spiritual Panacea +does. As the inrushing Christ life on Golgotha commenced to dispel the +shell of fear bred by inexorable law that hung like a pall about the earth; +as it started the millions of human beings upon the path of peace and good +will, so also when the Panacea is applied does the concentrated Christ life +therein contained rush through the patient's body and infuse each cell with +a rhythm that awakens the imprisoned ego from its lethargy and gives back +life and health. May God grant that we shall soon be able to bring this +great boon to suffering humanity. + + + + LETTER NO. 22 + + September, 1912 + + THE MYSTIC BREAD AND WINE + + + If I had asked the students to write me what--in their opinion--was the +most important point in last month's lesson, what do you think would have +been answered in the majority of the cases? I believe many would feel that +the connection between the bread, the wine, and health was the principal +idea; and perhaps I may be responsible for that view because I printed those + + +[PAGE 56] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +words in bold type. But while it is of signal important that we should +grasp this connection between the bread, the wine, and health, and apply it +in our lives to the very utmost power of our ability, if we do so for any +less reason that given by our Lord, it is essentially selfish, and will not +further out development nearly as much as if we do it as He requested, "in +remembrance of Him." + + Just look at the matter in this light, dear friend, and you will grasp +the idea. Under the regime of Jehovah, selfishness crystallized the earth +to such an extend that spiritual vibrations were almost stilled. Evolution +was coming to a standstill, and the blood had become so impregnated with +egoism that the race was in danger of degenerating. The Cosmic Christ then +manifested through Jesus to save us. Cleansing the blood from egoism is the +Mystery of Golgotha; it commenced when the blood of Jesus flowed, it has +continued through the wars of Christian nations whenever men fought for an +ideal, and will last until the horrors of war by contrast have sufficiently +impressed mankind with the beauty of Brotherhood. + + The Christ entered the earth on Golgotha. He is leavening the earth anew +and making it responsive to spiritual vibrations, but His sacrifice was not +consummated in a moment by DYING to save us in the generally accepted way. +He is still GROWING AND TRAVAILING, WAITING FOR THE DAY OF LIBERATION, for +the "manifestation of the sons of God"; and truly do we hasten that day ev- +ery time we partake of food for our finer bodies symbolized by the mystic +bread and wine. But we would be much more efficient in accelerating our own + + +[PAGE 57] THE MYSTIC BREAD AND WINE + +liberation and in hastening "the day of our Lord" if we always did it IN +REMEMBRANCE OF HIM. + + Do you remember "Sir Launfal's Vision"? It was not the size of the gift +that counted; the gold coin he flung to the beggar was materially more valu- +able than the crust he gave later; but the coin was given in a spirit of im- +patience to be rid of a loathsome presence. The crust was given in +rememberance of the Christ, and for His sake, and that made all the differ- +ence. + + "And Sir Launfal said: 'I behold in thee, + An image of Him who died on the tree; + Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns, + Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns, + And to thy life were not denied + + The wounds in the hands and feet and side; + Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me; + Behold, through him I give to Thee!" + + The more we cultivate the spirit of doing all things whatsoever for the +sake of Christ and His Liberation, the better and the more fruitful lives we +shall lead. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 58] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + + LETTER NO. 23 + + October, 1912 + + DESCENDING AND ASCENDING ARCS OF EVOLUTION + + + Looking over the last month's lesson, the most important points are the +great antiquity and cosmic origin of the two great movements known now as +Freemasony and Catholicism--movements instituted respectively by the Sons of +Fire and the Sons of Water. It is true, as stated in the COSMO-CONCEPTION, +that Initiation of human beings did not commence until about the middle of +the Earth Period, when the fires of Lemuria were battling with the waters of +Atlantis, but is is also true that the education of humanity depends upon +the training their instructors have had in previous evolution. The attitude +assumed by the two groups of angels has resulted in the above mentioned an- +tagonistic movements. The fallen angels and fallen man are intimately con- +nected with the work of the world under its temporal rulers. From Lucifer, +the Spirit of Mars, comes the fiery red blood which is the vehicle of all +material energy, ambition, and progress; but also, it is the vehicle of pas- +sion, which taints it and has caused it to flow until the earth is red. +From Jehovah come the restraining Law and punishment for sin. + + Let the diagram below represent the epochs through which the spirit + + +[PAGE 59] ARCS OF EVOLUTION + +descends and ascends, also the worlds and their corresponding bodies--then +the relative connection of the various factors will be plain. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- + lst Epoch 7th Epoch +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- + 2nd Epoch 6th Epoch +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- + 3rd Epoch 5th Epoch + +Bodies separated into Spirits separated into +sexes-male and female. sexes--statecraft and + priestcraft. +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- + 4th Epoch + (Turning Point) +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + In Lemuria, the land of the Third Epoch, mankind was separated into +sexes--male and female. At that time they were spiritual beings reaching +downwards into materiality, and the pioneers listened eagerly to the "gospel +of the body" which they sensed dimly, but learned to know as time went on +and the spiritual world faded from sight. Then the Lucifer Spirits were the +teachers of the WOMAN (Eve), and Jehovah addressed himself to MAN (Adam). +Women was then more advanced than man along material lines for we were then +upon the descending are of the evolutionary path. + + When the turning point was passed in the middle of the Atlantean Epoch, +woman gradually become more spiritually inclined. She commenced to listen +to the voice of Jehovah, and to fill the churches in an effort to satisfy +spiritual aspirations; while man now expends the Martian energy along + + +[PAGE 60] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +material lines originally advocated by the "Light-bringer," Lucifer. + + As the white light changes color according to the angle of refraction, so +also the viewpoint of the spirit changes with the sex of its vesture; but as +the spirit alternates between male and female embodiments, we may readily +balance the scales and take the path that most appeals to us, or combine the +best path in both. Our later lessons will point the path, but we may say +now that He who said, "I am the true Light," is at the end of the +path--Lucifer and Jehovah alike are but stepping-stones on THE WAY TO TRUTH +AND LIFE. + + + + LETTER NO. 24 + + November, 1912 + + THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP, AS SPIRITUAL CENTER + + + On the 28th of last month it was a year since we broke ground for the +first building on Mt Ecclesia. It was a typical California day of glorious +sunshine with a cloudless sky whose deep blue vied with the azure of the Pa- +cific Ocean visible for more than a hundred miles from where we stood on the +Headquarters grounds. We were a little flock of nine, mostly visiting mem- +bers. As we looked over the lovely green San Luis Rey valley towards the +great snowclad mountains in the east and behold the white walls, the red +tiled roof, and the gilded dome of the San Luis Rey Catholic Mission, where +the Franciscan Fathers wrought and taught for centuries among Mexicans and + + +[PAGE 61] A SPIRITUAL CENTER + +Indians, it seemed to us an augur. + + Here we were, a few enthusiasts, upon a bare piece of land, where we +aimed to establish a Spiritual Center. Those ancient Fathers had stood in a +similar position, better in some respects and worse in others. Modern meth- +ods and transportation facilities enable us to reach the whole world today, +while their field was limited to their immediate vicinity. They were +obliged to till the soil of the field as well as the soul of their flock to +obtain a livelihood. They called upon their charges to perform the physical +labor while they planned, and by their joint efforts a temple was erected +where all might worship. In that respect they were much better off then we; +their full membership was present at the seat of operations and ready to +give physical help in the upbuilding of the Mission which was to them what +our Headquarters are to the Rosicrucian Fellowship. But we have no wards; +we claim no authority, and repudiate interference with individual freedom +as much interference is diametrically opposed to the Rosicrucian teachings, +which are the highest in the world. "If thou art Christ, help thyself," +is flung at the candidate undergoing Initiation when he groans under the +trial. No one who is a "leaner" can at the same time be a helper; each must +learn to stand alone. + + Our associate membership is four times as large as a year ago, and of +course the work is vastly heavier--though system and machinery enable three +of us who work in the office to do the work of a large staff, and paid help +does the housework and gardening. But the routine work of preparing lessons + + +[PAGE 62] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +and letters for the various classes, correcting examination papers, the +sending each month of about 1500 individual letters to aid our students in +difficulties, in addition to class letters, sometimes just swamps us. It +seems as if we could not entertain another application for want of help to +do the mechanical part of the work. But, miraculously, it seems, the sky +suddenly clears, we invent a new method of accomplishing a certain part of +the work with greater speed or less labor; and are ready for another in- +crease; as said, we do four times more work than a year ago, with less help +and less labor. + + But while the Fellowship at large is thus cared for, Headquarters itself +has suffered neglect. The proposed School of Healing, the Sanitarium, and, +most important of all, the Ecclesia--where the Panacea is to be prepared and +powerful healing services are to spread moral and physical health all over +the world--all these are but germinal ideas as yet. As the cry of suffering +humanity reaches us through many thousands of letters, our longing for the +realization of the Brother's plans becomes more intense, so keen in fact +that it seems to embody the concentrated yearning of all who have appealed +to us in sorrow and suffering. + + Our membership is scattered all over the world. We cannot follow the ex- +ample of the Spanish padres and ask our students to make physical brick and +lay it, brick upon brick, as a labor of love. I have never asked any one +for a cent--the Rosicrucian Fellowship's work has been supported entirely by +free-will offerings and the modest revenue accruing from the sale of my + + +[PAGE 63] A SPIRITUAL CENTER + +books--nor can I now make an appeal for a building fund; that must come from +the hearts of friends, if at all; but feeling as we do here at Headquarters, +the intense throb of pain in the world impels me to cast about for means of +realizing the pain TO MAKE THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP HEADQUARTERS A MOST +EFFICIENT SPIRITUAL CENTER. + + A year ago I wrote the students stating the exact moment when we would +break ground on Mt. Ecclesia and asked each to enter his closet and be with +us in prayer if he could not be with us in person. It is wonderful what an +uplift we felt from that united spiritual effort; the initial impulse has +furthered the work to an inestimable degree during the past year, and I +again feel impelled to invoke your help along similar lines. + + The Christian Scientist "demonstrates" when he wishes to build edifices, +and money pours into his coffers; the New Thoughter sends out a "demand"; +and Christians of all denominations "pray" for funds. They all use one fun- +damental method, but employ different names. All wish magnificent piles of +stone and glass, and they get them. I know that a place and building com- +mensurate with the dignity of our work are necessary, but much as we need +them, I cannot pray for sticks and stones nor can I ask you to do so; but I +can, will, and do ask you to join me in the prayer THAT THE ROSICRUCIAN FEL- +LOWSHIP HEADQUARTERS MAY BECOME A MOST EFFICIENT AND POWERFUL SPIRITUAL CEN- +TER. Pray with your whole soul that the workers at Headquarters be given +grace to push the work; make them a focus for your loving thoughts so we may + + +[PAGE 64] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +radiate that grace back on a world hungry for just such love. In ourselves +we are frail, but through your prayers and God's grace we shall be a mighty +force in the world; and if we SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD, such trifles as +building necessary for the work will follow as a matter of course without +degrading prayer by making it a means of acquiring physical possessions. + + + LETTER NO. 25 + + December, 1912 + + THE MYSTIC MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS + + Christmas bells! Have you ever felt their magic in childhood days before +doubt crept into your heart and shattered the ideals inculcated by the +church? The same bell rang for church on Sundays and for prayer meeting at +mid-week, but there was a different ring at Christmas, something unusually +festive, something which we now attribute to childish imagination. We miss +this something, however much we may congratulate ourselves upon emancipation +from what we are pleased to term "the mummeries of the church." Wordsworth, +in his "Ode to Immortality," voiced the keen feeling of regret due to loss +of childish ideals; nothing the world has to give can take their place, and +however we may be blessed with material wealth we are truly poor when the +"glamour" of youth has gone and intellectual conceptions stifle much +so-called "superstitions." + + +[PAGE 65] THE MYSTIC MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS + + Paul exhorted us to be always ready with a reason for our faith, and +there is a mystic reason for many practices of the church which have been +handed down from hoary antiquity. The sounding of the bell when the candle +is lit upon the altar was inaugurated by spiritually illumined seers to +teach the cosmic units of LIGHT and SOUND. The metal tongue of the bell +bring Christ; mystic message to mankind as clearly today as when He first +enunciated the graceful invitation: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and +are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Thus the bell is a symbol of +Christ, "The Word," when it calls us from work to worship before the illumi- +nated altar where He meets us as "The Light of the World." + + Also the particularly festive feeling awakened by the Christmas bells is +produced by cosmic causes active at this time of the year, and the present +season is holy in very truth as we shall presently see. Those who study the +stars know the signs of the zodiac as a cosmic sounding board, each sign vi- +brant with a particular quality; and as the marching orbs travel in kaleido- +scopic procession from sign to sign in ever varying combination, the chords +of cosmic harmony known to mystics as the "song of the spheres" sound a +never ending anthem of prayer and praise to the Creator. This is not a fan- +ciful idea but an actual fact patent to the seer, and capable of demonstra- +tion to thinkers by its effects. And the harmony of the spheres is not a +monotone; it varies from day to day and from month to month as sun and plan- +ets pass from sign to sign in their orbits. There are also yearly epochal +variations due to precession of the equinoxes. Thus there is infinite + + +[PAGE 66] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +variety in the song of the spheres, as indeed there must be, for this con- +stant change of spiritual vibration is the basis of spiritual and physical +evolution. Were it to cease even an instant, Cosmos would be resolved to +Chaos. + + For demonstration, observe the nature and quality of the love life poured +through the Christ-star, the sun, when it transits the belligerent sign of +Aries, the Ram, in spring, Sex love is the keynote of nature; all its ener- +gies are applied in generation; then the passional propensities run riot. +Compare this with the effect of the sun during December when it is focused +through the benevolent Sagittarius, ruled by the planet Jupiter. Its ray is +then conducive to religion and philanthropy; the air is vibrant with gener- +osity, and the love life of the Christ-star find its highest expression +through this congenial sign. Outwardly reigns the gloom of winter, for the +visible symbol of "The Light of the World" has been onscured; but on the +darkest night of the year Christmas chimes evoke a ready response to the +Christmas feeling which makes the whole world akin, children of our Father +in Heaven. + + May the mystic music of the Christmas chimes awaken the tenderest chord +in your heart, and may the keynote of joy be uppermost in your being during +the coming year--this is the Christmas wish of the workers on Mt. Ecclesia. + + + +[PAGE 67] SERVICE TO OTHERS DURING THE NEW YEAR + + + It is cold in the Northern Hemisphere--old Boreas holds land and sea in +his icy grip--but at no other time of the year are the hearts of men so +warm. "A merry Christmas" and "A happy New Year" are salutations and ex- +pressions of good will which greet us everywhere. To most people they are +only a breath flung to the breeze, but nevertheless they leave an atmosphere +of kindness which is more important than is usually realized. The world +would be richer if such cordial greetings were common all the year instead +of being confined to this season. But, "if wishes were horse, beggars would +ride" says the proverb; and unless our acts are directed towards the +realization of our wishes, the benefit is nil. A certain sulphuric region +is said to be paved with good intentions such as "well-meaning men" cherish, +but the world needs works more than wishes. + + Last month I asked you to join me in prayer for the efficiency of the +Rosicrucian Fellowship in uplifting the world, and many letters have been +received assuring me that the workers at Headquarters have the constant +prayers of students. We know the power of prayer; without that grateful +support we could never have endured the physical and mental strain incident + + +[PAGE 68] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +to our phenomenal growth. But a few thousands are only as drops in a bucket +compared to the millions who are seeking the light. + + Christ said; 'LET HIM WHO WOULD BE THE GREATEST AMONG YOU BE THE SERVANT +OF ALL." The worth of a man is measured by his services to the community. +The same is true of an association; but, being a composite body, its effi- +ciency as a whole depends upon the interest and enthusiasm of individual +members. We are all under obligation to the Elder Brothers for the light we +have received. It is our sacred duty to let that light shine so that others +may share our great privilege (not disregarding others duties), and I there- +fore solicit your personal aid in making a systematic campaign to promulgate +the Rosicrucian teachings more widely during the coming year. + + This campaign should be carried on with discretion however. Let us be- +ware of disturbing those of contented mind, but if you know of any one seek- +ing for a solution to the Mystery of Life, please send us his or her name +and we will send literature. Your name will not be mentioned unless you +give permission. + + We shall also be pleased to furnish you slips with information about the +Rosicrucian Fellowship, as printed on the back of our postcards, if you +will write for them. In this way you may interest your friends and open the +way for further inquiry, and thus between us we may succeed in bringing the +seeker LIGHT to his everlasting benefit. In helping your brother in his +growth you are also helping yourself. + + May spiritual prosperity and abundance of soul growth mark every day of +your New Year. + + + + +[PAGE 69] SIEGFRIED, THE TRUTH SEEKER + + + LETTER NO. 27 + + February, 1913 + + SIEGFRIED, THE TRUTH SEEKER + + As we give our children picture books to convey moral lessons which they +could not grasp intellectually, so the Divine Leaders of infant humanity +used myths to convey great spiritual truths which have germinated for ages +unconsciously to us, but have nevertheless been potent factors in shaping +the line of human progress. You would scarcely thing that the Faust myth +embodies the great problem of Freemasonry and Catholicism, and shows its ul- +timate solution, but we shall see in future lessons that this is true. At +the present time I take just a point from the great northern epic, THE RING +OF THE BIEBELUNG, to show how the great truth that the truth seeker must +"leave father and mother," as Jesus and Hiram Abiff did, was conveyed to the +Children of the Mist (NIEBEL is mist and UNGEN is children in German), who +lived in the foggy atmosphere of Atlantis. Later I may take that legend up +for consideration. + + Wotan is the chief of the gods, who are always at war with the giants. +They build a fortress called Valhalla where the Valkyries, daughters of +Wotan, bring the faithful who have fallen in battle defending the faith. +Truth lost its universal aspect when its warders walled it in and limited + + +[PAGE 70] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +it. But Wotan has other children who love truth so dearly that they flee +from Valhalla to be free. They are armed with a sword called "child of dis- +tress" (representing the COURAGE OF DESPAIR), wherewith the rebel against +creed and dogma ever arms himself, casts conventionality to the wind, and +seeks truth. Wotan sends his minions after the fugitives, and bids Brunhild +the Valkyrie, who represents the SPIRIT OF TRUTH, to help slay them. She +refuses; and Wotan, who has made himself invisible, parries the sword +thrusts of his valiant son, Siegmund, who is killed in the unequal fight. + + The dominant church does not view the complacence the secession of its +children. It would even prostitute the Spirit of Truth to do its bidding, +and when that fails, it uses subtle means to accomplish its ends. Its in- +tentions were good, but it has degenerated. As Wotan puts Brunhilde from +him in tears to sleep on a fire-girt rock, he tells her that she shall not +wake till one appears MORE FREE THAN HE HIMSELF. Truth cannot be found in +creed-bound religion; who seeks it must be untrammeled by allegiance to any +one. + + Such is Siegfried (translated, he who through victory gains peace), the +son of the slain Siegmund and his sister-wife Sieglinda. The latter died +after giving birth to him. He is thus free from father, mother, and all +earthly ties; his only heirloom is a broken sword, the "Child of Distress." +Fostered among the Niebelungen (ordinary mankind), he feels his divinity, +and chafes at the limitations of his sphere. His foster father, Mimir, is a +cunning smith; but every sword forged by him is shattered by the young giant + + +[PAGE 71] SIEGFRIED, THE TRUTH SEEKER + +at the first blow. Oft had Mimir tried to forge the "Child of Distress, and +failed; for NO COWARD can do that. So long as we fear the church, public +opinion, or anything else, we cannot free ourselves. + + The courage of despair overcomes fear, and Siegfried finally forges the +sword himself. With it he slays Fafner, the dragon of desire which broods +over the treasures of the earth, and Mimir, his foster father, the lower na- +ture. He is then absolutely free. A bird, the voice of intuition, tells +him of Brunhilde, the beautiful Spirit of Truth, who may be awakened by ONE +WHO IS FEARLESS AND FREE. Siegfried follows the bird of intuition on his +quest; but Wotan, his ancestor, seeks to bar him with his spear, represent- +ing the power of creed upon which the sword in Siegfried's hand was once +broken. That sword is stronger since Siegfried forged it, and Wotan's spear +is weaker since the first blow, for creed always weakens when assailed. +Siegfried, the free and fearless one, shatters Wotan's spear; and pursuing +his way through the fire to the rock of the Valkyrie, he enfolds the beauti- +ful Spirit of Truth in a loving embrace and wakens her with a kiss. + + Thus the ancient myth told the truth seeker what was required to find +truth. We must leave father and mother, creed, dogma, conventionalities, +preconceived opinions, and worldly desires behind; we must never fear con- +flict with established authorities, but we must follow the inner voice +through fire if need be; then, and then only, can we find truth. + + +[PAGE 72] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + Therefore the Rosicrucians insist that all who come to them for deeper +teachings MUST BE FREE from allegiance to any school, and the candidate is +not bound by oaths at any stage. Whatever promises he makes are made to +himself, for liberty is the most precious possession of the soul, and there +is no greater crime than to fetter a fellow-being in any manner. May we all +remain true to the great heritage, and valiantly resists any infringement of +this sacred right. + + + LETTER NO. 28 + + March, 1913 + + THE INCORPORATION AND FUTURE PLANS OF THE FELLOWSHIP + + This month I have several important announcements to make and will use +the monthly letter for that purpose. You remember that last year, in the +series of lessons entitled "Our Work in the World," I spoke of incorporating +the Rosicrucian Fellowship and placing the direction of its affairs in +charge of trustees, so that that which belongs to the work may be preserved +for its altruistic purposes during the centuries to come. Such an incorpo- +ration has now been perfected under the laws of California and the Fellow- +ship has legal standing in the world. The Headquarter's site with the +buildings now upon it, and the appliances necessary to carry on the work, +are now the property of the Fellowship as a whole, safe from individual +greed. + + +[PAGE 73] INCORPORATION OF THE FELLOWSHIP + + This has lifted a great load off the shoulders of Mrs. Heindel and my- +self. We have accumulated the contributions to the Fellowship, varying from +a postage stamp to modest sums of money (for there have been no large +amounts given as yet). With these small means carefully expended there ex- +ists now the foundation of something so immeasurably great that it is beyond +my power of description. You, with your freewill offerings, have helped to +create Mt. Ecclesia from the material point of view; yours it is and yours +it shall remain, for neither Mrs. Heindel not I care for money or property, +but glory only in the inestimable privilege of being of service. Much more +is needed of course, so that the work may fully flower, but we rest our +faith in the assurance of the Elder Brothers that when we are ready the +things which make for greater growth and greater usefulness of the +Rosicrucian Fellowship will come to us. Meanwhile we shall keep on laboring +from day to day with the means already at our command; for thus, and thus +only, can we fit ourselves for greater service. + + It is also a great pleasure to announce that whereas we were before un- +able to obtain help, we have now several loyal co-workers at Headquarters; +but though our office force has doubled within the last few months, so also +has the work increased at a most phenomenal rate, and the rush in the office +is as great as ever. + + As you will remember, our earliest literature took notice of the fact +that Science, Art, and Religion had been divorced in modern times, as +separation was necessary to the thorough development of each. It was also +stated that as Science, Art, and Religion were taught unitedly in the + + +[PAGE 74] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +ancient Mystery Temples, so also must a union take place in the future for +that is necessary to our spiritual growth. In June we shall start a School +on Mt. Ecclesia to give out this composite teaching, with particular empha- +sis upon the art of healing. Prospectus and further particulars will be +mailed to interested students upon application to Headquarters. The ex- +penses will be met by offerings from those who attend. + + + LETTER NO. 29 + + April, 1913 + + FREE MASONRY, CO-MASONRY, AND CATHOLICISM + + At the end of last month's lesson a few words were said about men and +women practicing Mystic Masonry, and it might appear to some as if we en- +dorse Co-Masonry, but this is emphatically not the case. While we do not +upon principle seek disparagingly of any legitimate movement, we have always +warned our students against the Eastern religion as dangerous to the Wester +world, though perfectly suited to the East. Co-Masonry is the outgrowth of +a society promulgating Hinduism. In the winter of 1899-1900, the present +leader of that society was in Rome, and one of her lieutenants accidentally +found the Masonic rites in the Vatican library. These she copied without +permission, and gave them to her superior, who took upon herself to write an +extra degree. These are now the rites of Co-Masonry. + + +[PAGE 75] FREEMASONRY AND CO-MASONRY + + The foregoing statements are facts which we can prove; and we leave our +students to form their own conclusions as the ethical efficiency and powers +of soul-building possessed by a movement based upon rites obtained in such a +manner. Besides, though we know positively that the rites came from Rome, +we doubt that the abstractor eluded the vigilant watchers there. We believe +that she unconsciously played into the hands of the Vatican. Thus +Co-Masonry is both Hindu and Catholic in its origin. It is not recognized +by the regular Masonic bodies, no matter what its founders claim. + + In the closing lesson on Freemasonry and Catholicism we summed up the +points concerning their cosmic relation in order to draw out the essence of +the teaching; now for the closing word--the quintessence of our argument: + + The word "Freemason" is derived from the Egyptian PHREE MESSEN, "Children +of Light." These words were originally used to designate builders of the +Temple of God--the human soul. + + Catholic means "universal," and was originally applied to differentiate +the all-embracing World Religion--Christianity--from race religions like +Hinduism. + + The blood is the vehicle of the spirit; under the regime of Jehovah and +the Lucifer spirits it became contaminated with egoism. Both Freemasonry +and Catholicism aim to cleanse the blood and foster altruism. + + Freemasonry teaches the candidate to work out his own salvation; + + +[PAGE 76] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +Catholicism leaves him dependent on the blood of Jesus. Those who use the +positive method naturally become the strongest souls; therefore Free-masonry +should be fostered rather than Catholicism. + + + LETTER NO. 30 + + May, 1913 + + THE ROLE OF EVIL IN THE WORLD + + + In last month's lesson we saw the value of discord in music; also the +corresponding role of evil in the world, namely, to enhance by contrast the +beauty and harmony of good. Thus it might seem at a superficial glance as +if the apparent evil had been designed by God, the Author and Architect of +our system--as if He were responsible for all the pain and sorrow under +which the world is groaning. Such is not the case however. The Bible says +truly that the Elohim, who were His agents, "saw that it was good" when +their labor was done. Our ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION and Lectures 13 and +14 explain in detail the Bible story of how the apparent evil came in +through the Lucifer spirits; and that when it had entered, the forces which +work for good used it to serve a beneficent purpose and to achieve a higher +good than possible without this factor. + + In the latter part of the Lemurian Epoch and in the early Atlantean +times, man was pure and innocent--the docile ward of guardian angels who +guided his every step upon the path of unfoldment. He had no reason; that + + +[PAGE 77] THE ROLE OF EVIL IN THE WORLD + +would have been unnecessary when there was only one path to follow, for in +that state there was no choice. The Lords of Venus were sent to foster +goodness, love, and devotion. Had no disturbing factor entered, this earth +would have remained in a paradise, and man would have been as beautiful +flower therein. Pain, sorrow, and sickness would have been unknown. Under +the regime of the lunar angels and the Lords of Venus, man would have grown +wise and good automatically because there would have been no alternative. +When the Lucifer spirits opened his eyes to the other course, and the Lords +of Mercury fostered reason to guide him, he became potentially greater than +either as required of those who follow the spiral path of evolution. + + Thus equipped with choice and reason, it is man's glorious prerogative to +elevate himself to the pinnacle of the greatest perfection possible in this +scheme of evolution. Therefore Christ said: "He that believeth on me, the +works that I do shall he do also; and GREATER WORKS that these shall be do." + + Let us learn from the Faust myth to follow in the footsteps of our pre- +ceptors by using the seeming evil to accomplish a greater good; let us learn +not to be overcome by evil but to overcome it and transmute it into good. +There is a saying that "whatever is, is best." If that were true there +would be no incentive to strive for anything higher, better or greater. The +words of the Savior urge us onward and legends like the Faust myth teach us +how to use the seemingly destructive and subversive forces. + + To whom much is given, of him much will be required. Students of the + + +[PAGE 78] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +Rosicrucian Fellowship who receive the advanced Western Wisdom Teachings are +particularly obligated to make great efforts. May we strive with all our +strength to live up to our grand privilege. + + P.S. Many new students have been added to our list since we asked your +daily prayers for the workers at Headquarters. We therefore feel that it +will serve a good purpose to reiterate the request to please include us in +your devotions and ask that the Rosicrucian Fellowship Headquarters may be- +come a most efficient Spiritual Center. We are, as you know from the pro- +spectus, now about to open the School of Healing, and in this important step +we feel the need of the grace of God as never before. Please help us so +that we may succeed. + + + LETTER NO. 31 + + June, 1913 + + CHRIST, AND HIS SECOND COMING + + One of the cardinal points in this month's lesson, and one concerning +which widespread misunderstanding exists, had to do with the coming of +Christ, and the vehicle he will use. The Bible gives the teaching very +clearly, and the Western Wisdom Teachings of the Rosicrucians is in full ac- +cord therewith; hence it differs radically from the current conception of +this matter, both among the majority of Christians and those who unwittingly + + +[PAGE 79] CHRIST AND HIS SECOND COMING + +or otherwise put forth false Christs to deceive the unwary. It is there- +fore of vital importance that scholars of the Western School should under- +stand this matter thoroughly, so we will reiterate briefly the cardinal +points of the Rosicrucian teachings given in the ROSICRUCIAN +COSMO-CONCEPTION and elsewhere. + + Christ is the highest Initiate of the Sun Period; the earth was them made +of desire stuff, and His densest body was formed of that material. + + No one can form a vehicle of material which he has not learned to mold; +hence the Christ Spirit worked with our humanity from without the earth, as +group spirits guide animals, until Jesus relinquished his dense and vital +bodies at the Baptism. The Christ Spirit then descended into these ve- +hicles, and ministered physically to man until the dense body was destroyed +on Golgotha, when he became the indwelling Earth Spirit. The vital body of +Jesus was them laid aside to await Christ's second advent. + + Christ warned against imitators, and the question arises, How may we know +the false form the real? Paul gives us such definite information that if we +only heed it we are absolutely safe from deception. + + Paul says (1st Cor. 15:50) that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the King- +dom." He insists that this body will be changed to the likeliness of +Christ's own vehicle (Phil, 3:21), and in 1st John, 3:2 we find the same +testimony. + + Thus it is plain that any one who comes in a physical body proclaiming +himself Christ is either demented and an object of pity, or else he is an +impostor meriting scorn and reprobation. Nor are we left uncertain + + +[PAGE 80] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +regarding the nature of the vehicle in which we shall meet Christ and be +like Him. In 1st Thes., 4:17 we are informed that we shall meet the Lord in +the air. Therefore we must necessarily have a vehicle of finer texture than +our present dense body. The transformation will require ages so far as the +majority are concerned. + + In 1st Thes. 5:23 Paul states than man's whole being consists of spirit, +soul, and body. When we shed the dense body finally as Christ did, we shall +function in a body called SOMA PSUCHICON (soul body) in 1st Cor. 15:44. +This is the "vital body" in our literature, a vehicle made of ether, capable +of levitation, and of the same nature as the body which Christ used after +the Crucifixion. This vehicle is not subject to death in the same sense as +our physical body, and it is eventually transmuted to spirit as taught in +our literature and as required by 1st Cor. 15th chapter. + + Thus the Western Wisdom Teaching is in perfect agreement with the Bible +when it teaches most emphatically that Christ will never come again in the +flesh (that would be retrogression for Him). As a larva bursts its +imprisoning cocoon and is transformed into a butterfly which wings it way +among the flowers, a gorgeous bit of animated beauty--so shall we some day +shed this mortal coil which weights us down to earth, and cleave the sky as +living souls radiant with glory, hastening to meet out Savior in the land of +souls, the New Haven and the New Earth. This is one of the main doctrinal +points of the Rosicrucian School, and we trust that our students will + + +[PAGE 81] THE VITAL BODY OF JESUS + + +endeavor to thoroughly master the subject so that they may be able to "give +a reason" for their faith. + + + LETTER NO. 32 + + July, 1913 + + THE VITAL BODY OF JESUS + + + Last month's lesson brought out a number of points not heretofore taught +in public. But other mysteries bearing upon the scope and limitation of +spiritual powers, and on the preservation of the vital body of Jesus against +attack of the black forces, are also involved in the conversation between +Faust and Lucifer. When the latter begs that the five-pointed star be re- +moved so that me may leave, Faust asks "Why through the window not +withdraw?" + + People who study mysticism often have a highly exaggerated idea of the +power vested in one who has evolved spiritual sight. As a matter of fact, +occult investigators are limited by laws of nature appertaining to the in- +visible world, as men of science are forced to conform to laws of physics. + + In order that balance may be maintained, the laws in one realm of nature +sometimes act directly opposite to the laws in another. Here in the dense +physical world forms gravitate toward the center of the earth. Did not the +solidity of the dense body prevent, we could reach the Christ without + + +[PAGE 82] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +effort. It requires power to lift a body even an inch above the surface of +the earth; spirit forms, on the other hand, have a natural tendency to +levitate. It is therefore comparatively easy for a master of the black art +to go to Mars propelled by the sex power stolen from his victims. He is +naturally attracted to the planet of passion, and as the aura of Mars inter- +mingles with that of the earth the feat is far from difficult. But he can- +not penetrate even the first of the nine layers of the earth which lead to +the Lord of Love, who is the Spirit of our sphere. Such penetration is the +Path of Initiation; it takes soul power, purity, and self-abnegation to +reach Christ and that is the reason why so few have anything to say about +the earth's inner constitution. + + We do not see physical objects OUTSIDE the eye; they are reflected on the +retina, and we see only their "image" INSIDE the eye. As light is the agent +of reflection, objects which resist the passage of light appear "opaque"; +other substances, like glass, seem clear because they admit light rays +readily. When the spiritual sight is used, light of superlative intensity +is generated INSIDE the body between the pituitary body and the pineal +gland. It is focused "through" the so-called "blind" spot in the eye di- +rectly upon the object to be investigated. The scope of the direct ray is +entirely different from the range of the reflected physical ray. It pen- +etrates a wall without difficulty, but no spirit in the desire world can see +through glass. Neither Lucifer nor any evil spirit ever dares to go through +anything made of that material, even the thinnest windowpane. + + Knowing these facts, our Elder Brothers have placed the vital body of +Jesus in a sarcophagus of glass to protect it from the gaze of the curious + + +[PAGE 83] IMPROVING OUR OPPORTUNITIES + +or profane. They keep this receptacle in a cavern deep in the earth, where +no uninitiated can penetrate. To make assurance doubly sure, however, +vigilant watchers keep constant guard over their precious charge; for were +that vehicle destroyed, Christ's only avenue of egress would be cut off, and +He would have to remain a prisoner in the earth until the Cosmic Night dis- +solves its chemical elements into chaos. Thus the mission of Christ as Sav- +ior would have failed; His suffering would be greatly prolonged, and our +evolution would be enormously retarded. + + Let us work, watch, and pray for the glad day of His liberation. + + + LETTER NO. 33 + + August, 1913 + + IMPROVING OUR OPPORTUNITIES + + One of the most important points brought out last month is the fact that +we have power to lengthen our life materially by earnest application to the +purpose of existence--acquisition of experience. Whether we know it or not, +every act of our lives hastens the end, or defers it, in a measure dependent +upon whether the act is in harmony with the law or not. If we do not apply +ourselves to the labor of life, or if we persistently follow a path that is +subversive of soul growth, our discordant life destroys the archetype. + + +[PAGE 84] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +Rebirth is an altered environment then gives us a chance to retrieve the ne- +glected opportunities. On the other hand, when we live in harmony with the +plan of life inscribed in the archetype of our dense body, there is a con- +structive consonance in their vibrations which lengthens the life of the ar- +chetype and, consequently, also the life of the physical body. + + When we realize that our life on earth is the seed time, and that the +value of our post-mortem existence is in direct ration to the increment we +have earned on our talents, it will be at once apparent how supremely impor- +tant it is that our faculties should be used in the right direction. While +this law applies to all mankind, it is superlatively vital to aspiring +souls; for when we work for Good with all our might and main, each added +year of life increases our heavenly treasure enormously. Advancing years +give greater skill in soul culture, and the fruit of the last few years may +easily outweigh that acquired in the first part of the life. + + If we feel that this is true, and if we are anxious to reach the highest +degree of attainment, the question naturally presents itself, How many we +know the right way? And the answer is not difficult; the stars tell the +tale. They show our abilities and the time most propitious to sow the seeds +of the soul, to help, and to heal. Therefore the Rosicrucian Fellowship +places must stress upon the study of the stars. In the horoscope these mat- +ters are accurately foreshown. Knowledge of what it says is power, and this +knowledge, the power that goes with it, and the resultant soul growth, are +within reach of every one who will study the simplified system contained in + + +[PAGE 85] IMPROVING OUR OPPORTUNITIES + +our corresponding course in astrology. If you have not already started, and +are anxious to progress, I would suggest that you send for application +blank, begin at once so that you may learn how to use your life to the ulti- +mate of progress. + + While I am suggesting immediate steps towards attainment, it may be in +season to call attention of students to the fact that when they have been +six months (*) on the correspondence list as students, they become eligible +to apply for admission to the Inner School; and though the esoteric lessons +in healing issued to probationers contain only a faint outline of the teach- +ings given at Headquarters, they are a very material aid to the aspiring +soul. + + On August 6th at 2:00 P.M., we are going to lay the foundation for the +nucleus of our Sanitarium, so that we may commence forthwith to care for the +sick and give our students practical experience. Please join us in prayer +for the success of the work. More details will be given in the ECHOES which +we shall publish on the 10th of each month in the future. +____________________ + +* The time is now two years. + + + +[PAGE 86] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + + LETTER NO. 34 + + September, 1913 + + A PLEA FOR PURITY + + The most important point in last month's lesson is the power of passion +to degenerate those who indulge in it. This we illustrated in the case of +apes, which have been held back and have degenerated into animal-like forms +because of their action in abusing the creative force. The responsibility +of the Lucifer spirits for that condition has been brought out in the +COSMO-CONCEPTION, and also the fact that the apes may overtake us if they +advance sufficiently before the middle of the next revolution. + + But there is an added responsibility in knowledge, as Christ said: "For +unto whom much is given of him shall be required." And while the transgres- +sion in those early days may be overlooked and entail only a retardation +during millions of years, the condition of one who has the light of the +greater knowledge given to humanity today, and who transgresses the law by +abusing the creative force, may become far more serious than that of the +class now embodied in the anthropoid forms. + + Black Magic is practiced much more commonly than one would suppose, some- +times almost unconsciously, for the dividing line may often lie in the mo- +tive. If, however, we abuse our superior knowledge, though we may be more + + +[PAGE 87] A PLEA FOR PURITY + +refined in the indulgence of our passions, the result is certain to be di- +sastrous. At this present stage, the vital force (save the insignificant +quantity required to propagate the race) should be transmuted into soul +power. Let us, therefore, continue steadfastly upon the path of purity so +that worse may not befall us than the fate which has met those degenerate +humans found as wards of Lucifer in the witches' kitchen--as represented in +the Faust myth. + + If we are tempted at any time by unclean thoughts, let us at once turn +our minds to another subject far removed from sensuality. Above all, let us +respect the laws of our country which require the ceremonial of marriage +prior to union; for though the words of the marriage ceremony do not mate +people, it is, nevertheless, meet that we who profess high spiritual ideals +should not offend the common decencies by living together without wedlock. +Those above the law render perfect obedience as Christ did, for when we com- +ply with all laws without rebellion because it is right to do so, then we +have risen above the law and are no longer in bondage. + + +[PAGE 88] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + + + LETTER NO. 35 + + October, 1913 + + THE FAUST MYTH AND THE MASONIC LEGEND + + Last month's lesson finished our consideration of the Faust Myth; and, +taking a review of it as a whole, we note that it brings out the same idea +as the Masonic legend. On the one had we have Rosicrucian and Lucifer; on +the other, Marguerite and the priests. Marguerite shows faith in the church +even in the darkest hour. This faith is her comfort and stay, and eventu- +ally she attains to the goal of the spirit. She reaches her heavenly home +by faith. Her sins of omission and commission are due to ignorance; but +when she sees the evil power embodied in the character of Lucifer and is of- +fered freedom from prison and death, she declines to flee in such company; +thereby she has redeemed herself sufficiently to merit a place in the King- +dom. Likewise, the wards of the church, the Sons of Seth, are today depend- +ing upon the atonement rather than upon their own deeds. They are looking +for salvation through faith as their power of works is but small. + + In Lucifer and Faust we find replicas of the Sons of Cain, who are +positive, strong, and active in the world's work. The same spirit which im- +bued Cain with a desire to make "two blades of grass grow where formerly +there was but one"--the independent, divine creative instinct which has + + +[PAGE 89] THE FAUST MYTH + +caused the Sons of Cain in all ages to carry on the world's work--is also +strong in Faust; and the glorious use to which he puts the powers of evil, +namely, making them build a new land, a free one, where a happy and free +people may dwell in peace and contentment, gives us a view of what the fu- +ture has in store for us. + + By our own works, by putting the evil powers to good use, we shall even- +tually free ourselves from the limitations of both church and state which +now hold us in bondage. Through the conventions of society and the laws of +the land are now necessary to restrain us from infringing on the rights of +others, there will come a day when the spirit will ensoul us and purify us +as the love of Faust for Helen purified him and gave him the incentive to +use the Lucifer forces in the manner indicated. When we have conquered the +desire to work for self, when we become enamored of our work for others as +Faust was when with his dying vision he gazed upon the land that was rising +from the sea, then we shall never require the restraining feature of the +laws and conventions for we shall have risen above them by compliance with +the every requirement. Only in that manner can we become really free. It +but very difficult to enforce obedience on ourselves even though we may in- +tellectually assent to the mandates of conventionality. As Goethe says: + + "From every power that holds the world in chains, + Man frees himself when self-control he gains." + + +[PAGE 90] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + The Faust myth tells us there is such a utopian state in store for us +when we have worked out our salvation by using the titanic forces within to +make us really free. May we all strive by our daily actions to hasten that +day. + + + LETTER NO. 36 + + November, 1913 + + EASTERN AND WESTERN METHODS OF DEVELOPMENT + + + We receive frequent requests for help from people who unfortunately have +belonged to societies where they came under the domination of spirit con- +trols who now haunt and hound them until life becomes a burden. We also re- +ceive requests for help from people who have frequented societies teaching +the Hindu breathing exercises. The impatience to enter the invisible worlds +prompts many such people to take up exercises, the dangerous nature of which +they do not realize until it is too late and they are broken down in health +and spirit. They they come to us asking for a relief which we have unfortu- +nately been able to give to all who have so far applied, even though some +were on the verge of insanity. + + Therefore the Rosicrucian literature has been replete with warnings to +shun all Eastern breathing exercises, as they are unfit for Western people. +It is with considerable sorrow that we have heard of a student who is now +ill as a consequence of breathing exercises. We therefore feel that it may +be well to once more state the reason for the difference between the Eastern + + +[PAGE 91] EASTERN AND WESTERN METHODS + +and Western methods so that it may be made clear why it is wise to refrain +from such exercises. + + In the first place, it is necessary to realize that the evolution of +spirit and the evolution of matter go hand in hand. The spirit evolves by +dwelling in vehicles of dense matter and by working with the material found +in the world. Thus, the spirit progresses, and matter is also being refined +because the spirit works with it. The more advanced spirits naturally draw +to themselves finer matter than those behind them upon the path of evolu- +tion, and the atoms in the bodies of a highly evolved race are more sensi- +tive than those of the earlier peoples. + + Therefore the atoms of cultured people in the West respond to vibratory +waves not yet contacted by those who dwell in Eastern bodies. Breathing ex- +ercises are used to awaken the sleeping atoms of the Easter aspirant, and a +vigorous course of this treatment is necessary to raise his vibratory pitch. +The American Indian or Bushman might take these exercises with impunity for +years, but it is an entirely different matter when a person with a highly +sensitized Western body attempts such treatment. The atoms of his or her +body have already been sensitized by the ordinary evolution; and when the +person receives the added impetus of breathing exercises, the atoms simply +run riot, and it is extremely difficult to bring them into proper repose +again. + + As it may do some good it may not be amiss to mention that the writer had +had personal experience in the matter. Years ago, when he started on the + + +[PAGE 92] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +Path and was imbued with the characteristic impatience common to ardent +seekers after knowledge, he read of the breathing exercises published by +Swami Vivekananda and commenced to follow directions with the result that +after two days the vital body had been pulled out of the physical. This +produced a sensation of walking on air, of being unable to get the feet down +on solid ground; the whole body seemed to be vibrating at an enormous pitch. +Common sense then came to the rescue. The exercises were stopped, but it +was fully two weeks before the normal condition of walking on the ground +with a firm step was experienced, and before the abnormal vibrations ceased. + + In the parable, it is said that some were thrown out who had no wedding +garment. Unless we first evolve the soul body, any attempt to enter the in- +visible worlds spells certain disaster; and any teacher who professes abil- +ity to railroad people into the invisible realms is not to be depended upon. +There is only one way--patient persistence in well-doing. + + + LETTER NO. 37 + + December, 1913 + + THE REASON FOR THE MANY DIFFERENT CULTS + + + The central through in last month's lesson, and one that we should ponder +well is the reason why there are so many different cults. each with its own +creed and with the idea that it alone has the truth. The reason for this +condition, as shown in the lesson, lies in the fact that the ego has limited + + +[PAGE 93] THE REASON FOR MANY DIFFERENT CULTS + + + +itself by entering into a vehicle which separates it from every one else. +Because of this limitation, it is incapable of appreciating absolute and +universal truth; and, consequently, religions teaching only partial truth +had to be given. + + The warfare and strife engendered in the world by the segregating influ- +ences of creed are not without their benefit either, for were all of the +same opinion regarding the great question, "What is truth?" there would be +no deep search for light or knowledge; and truth would not leave the strong +impression upon us which we gain by the fight for that which we believe. On +the other hand, the militancy of the churches shows to those who, as +pioneers, are now taking a broader view--who recognize that none have more +than a ray of the whole truth at present and who look to the future for en- +largement of the cup of their capacity--that sometime they shall no longer +see through a glass darkly, but shall know even as they are known. + + Knowing that there is a cosmic reason for creed, we should neither seek +or force advanced ideas upon those who are as yet limited by the spirit of +convention, nor imitate the militant missionary spirit of the churches, but, +as the Bible says, give our pearls of knowledge only to those who are tired +of feeding on the husks and who long for the true bread of life. + + Discourse upon subjects related to this higher knowledge may help those +who are aroused from the spiritual lethargy unfortunately so common in our +day and age. But argument will never do any good, for those who are in an +augmentative mood are not convinced by anything we may say. The realization +of truth, which is alone potent to break down the barriers of limitation + + +[PAGE 94] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +that engender creed, must come from within and not from without. + + Therefore, though we should always be ready to answer the questions of +those who wish to know, and be ready to give the reason for our faith, we +should also be on our guard so that we may not force our opinion upon oth- +ers; that, having escaped one fetter, we may not be bound by another, for +liberty is the most precious heritage of the soul. Hence the Elder Brothers +in the Western World will not accept a pupil who is not free from all other +bonds, and they take care that he does not obligate himself to them or any +one else. Thus alone can the ring of the Niebelung and the ring of the gods +be dissolved. May we all strive to live up to this ideal of absolute lib- +erty, at the same time, of course, taking care not to infringe upon the +rights of others. + + + LETTER NO. 28 + + January, 1914 + + WHAT THE PUPIL MAY EXPECT OF THE TEACHER + + Christ said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Suppose that weeds +were endowed with speech, Would we believe their claims if they professed +to be grape vines? Indeed not, we would look for the fruit. And unless +they were able to produce, their protestations--no matter how vociferously +made--would make no impression. We are thus sufficiently wise in material + + +[PAGE 95] SIEGFRIED, THE TRUTH SEEKER + +matters to guard against deception; then why not apply the same principle to +other departments of life? Why not use ordinary common sense? If we did, +no one could impose on us in spiritual matters, for every realm in nature is +governed by natural law, and analogy is the master key to all mysteries and +a protection against deception. + + The Bible teaches us very, very clearly that we should try the spirits +and judge them accordingly. If we do this, we shall never be deceived by +self-styled teachers; and we shall save ourselves, our relatives, and the +Fellowship we love much sorrow and anxiety. + + Let us, therefore, analyze the matter and see what we have the right to +expect from one who lays claim to being a teacher. To do this we may first +ask our selves, What is the purpose of existence in the material universe? +And we may answer that question by saying that it is evolution of conscious- +ness. During the Saturn Period, when we were mineral-like in our constitu- +tion, our consciousness was like that of the medium expelled from her body +by spirit controls at materializing seance, where a large part of the ethers +composing the vital body has been removed. The physical body is then in a +very deep trance. In the Sun Period, when our constitution was plant-like, +our consciousness was like that of dreamless sleep, where the desire body, +mind, and spirit are outside, leaving the physical and vital bodies upon the +bed. In the Moon Period, we had a picture consciousness like that which we +have in dreams, where the desire body is only partially removed from the +dense vehicle and the vital body. Here in the Earth Period our conscious- + + +[PAGE 96] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +ness has been enlarged to cover objects outside ourselves by placing all our +vehicles in a concentric position, as is the case when we are awake. + + During the Jupiter Period, the globes upon which we shall evolve will be +located similarly to what they were in the Moon Period. And the INTERNAL +picture consciousness which we then possessed will be EXTERNALIZED, as the +Jupiter Period is on the ascending arc. Thus, instead of seeing the pic- +tures inside ourselves, we shall be able, when speaking, to project them +upon the consciousness of those we are addressing. + + Now, therefore, when any one professes to be a Teacher, he must be able +to substantiate his claim in that manner; for the true Teachers, the Elder +Brothers, who are now preparing the conditions of evolution which are to ob- +tain during the Jupiter Period, all have the consciousness pertaining to +that period. Thus, it will be seen that they naturally and without effort +use this external picture speech, and thereby at once given evidence of +their identity. Only they are able to guide others with safety. Those who +have not evolved to that point, even though they may be self-deceived, and +through their intentions may be good, are unreliable and should not be +trusted. This is an absolutely infallible gauge; and the claims of any one +who cannot show this fruit are of no more value than the claims of the weed +mentioned in our initial paragraph. + + All of the Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order possess this at- +tribute; and I trust no one among our students will in the future allow + + +[PAGE 97] WHERE SHALL WE SEEK TRUTH? + +himself or herself to be deceived into following exercises or going through +ceremonies devised by any person who is not able to produce the fruit, and +call up living pictures in the consciousness of those with whom he speaks. + + + + LETTER NO. 39 + + February, 1914 + + WHERE SHALL WE SEEK TRUTH, AND HOW SHALL WE KNOW IT? + + + At the close of last month's lesson we saw that Siegfried, the truth +seeker, had arrived at the end of his quest. He had found the truth. +Meditating upon the subject it occurred to me as profitable to devote this +letter to a straightforward answer to the question: "Where shall we seek +truth, and how shall we KNOW without doubt when we have found it" + + To be absolutely certain about this matter is of very great importance. +For many who accidentally find their was into the Desire World, such as me- +diums for instance, are enmeshed in illusion and hallucination because of +inability to know truth. Moreover, the Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucian +Order give probationers a definite scientific teaching on this point; and in +order to guard against the danger spoken of above, they make an actual test +before admitting any one to discipleship. All must come up to a certain +standard in this matter. It may, of course, surprise you that this + + +[PAGE 98] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +discussion is not reserved for probationers or disciples, but the +Rosicrucian Fellowship does not believe in secrecy or mystery. All who wish +may qualify for any degree; and this qualification is not a matter of FORM +but of living the life. + + In regard to the first part of the question then, "Where shall we seek +truth?" There is only one answer--WITHIN. It is absolutely a matter of +moral development; and the promise of Christ that IF WE LIVE THE LIFE WE +SHALL KNOW THE DOCTRINE is true in the most literal sense. You will never +find truth by studying my own or any other books. So long as you run after +outside teachers, myself or any one else, you are simply wasting energy. +Books and teachers may arouse your interest, and urge you to live the life, +but only in so far as you make their precepts a part of your inner self are +you really seeking in the right direction. The Elder Brother--whom I, per- +haps mistakenly, speak of as Teacher--has never taught me directly since the +first short period when that which is embodied in the Cosmo was given. And +in the last year I have learned not to ask question for I have noticed that +whenever I did so he simply gave me a hint as to how I, myself, might obtain +the desired information. Now, instead of asking questions, I ask for direc- +tions as to how I may solve a problem. So you see that it is by using our +own faculties, which may be compared to he talents spoken of by Christ, that +we get the information of most value to ourselves. + + The second part of the question, "How may we know the truth?" is best an- +swered by referring the student to the evening exercise given in the Lecture +No. 11, SPIRITUAL SIGHT AND INSIGHT. It may be performed by any one regard- + + +[PAGE 99] THE TRUTH SEEKER IN THE WORLD + +less of whether he or she is a probationer of the Rosicrucian Fellowship or +not. The teacher said at the time of giving it that if it were possible to +prevail upon the most depraved person in the world to perform this exercise +faithfully for six months, he would be permanently reformed; and those who +are faithful have found that it sharpens all mental faculties, particularly +the memory. Besides, by this impartial judgment of oneself night after +night, one learns to discern truth from error in a degree not attainable in +any other way. Not all our students may feel inclined to take up +probationership, and we never urge any one to do anything in the Western +Wisdom School. But if you really want to know the truth I can honestly rec- +ommend this method. It develops an inner faculty and no matter what state- +ment is made to you, once you have developed this, you will know at once +whether it rings true or the reverse. + + --------------- + + + LETTER NO 40. + + MARCH, 1914. + + WHY THE TRUTH SEEKER MUST LIVE IN THE WORLD + + After the transfiguration scene, when the Christ and His disciples were +making ready to descend from the Mount, the latter would fain have stayed +and suggested making dwelling places so that they might remain. This was +not permitted, however, for there was work to do in the world which would + + +[PAGE 100] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +have remained undone had their plan been carried out. + + The Mount of Transfiguration is the "Rock of Truth," where the freed +spirit may behold the eternal realities. There is the GREAT NOW (the past +symbolized by Moses and Elijah) the prophets of the ancient dispensation met +Christ, the ruler of the Kingdom which was to come. Every spirit who is +permitted to behold the supernal splendors of this celestial realm, to hear +the sublime strains of the harmony of the spheres, and to view the wonderful +colorplay which accompanies the music, is likewise loath to leave. Were it +not that we seem to lose our form and personality, and encompass this whole +realm within ourselves, we should probably not have the strength to return +to earth, but this feeling that we retain "heaven within" fortifies us when +it is time to again turn our gaze outwards and attend to the work in the +world. + + Objects in the physical world always hide their inward nature or con- +struction; we see only the surface. In the Desire World we see objects out- +side ourselves, inside and out, but they tell nothing of themselves or the +life that ensouls them. In the Archetypal Region there seems to be no cir- +cumference, but wherever we direct our attention, there is the center of +all, and our consciousness is at once filled with knowledge concerning the +being or thing at which we are looking. It is easier to catch in a phono- +graph the tone which comes to us from heaven than to set down the experi- +ences we encounter in that realm, for there are no words adequate to express + + +[PAGE 101] THE TRUTH SEEKER IN THE WORLD + +them; all wee can do is to try to live them. + + But to live them, however imperfectly, we must be in the world; we have +no right to remain secluded with the truth we have found. That is the great +lesson taught when Siegfried leaves his beloved. He must not remain. Life +is a constant flux; stagnation is the cardinal sin, for new experiences are +the very life breath of progress. If we have found truth, it is our bounden +duty to seek also a field where it may be of use. And according to our +judgment in that matter, and the diligence wherewith we plant and water, +will be our harvest. + + This is a matter we should each carefully consider: "What sue am I mak- +ing of the teachings I receive?" We may be off in the mountain in +dreamland, though we live in a city, and as deaf to the cry for light which +sounds in our very ears as if the seeker were thousands of miles away. Un- +less we give out BY OUR LIVES--which speak louder than words--the truth we +have found, we incur a heavy responsibility, "for unto whom much is given, +of him shall much be required." + + Let us remember that "Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth," and that +SERVICE is the standard of TRUE GREATNESS. + + +[PAGE 102] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 41. + + APRIL, 1914. + + A METHOD OF DISCERNING TRUTH FROM ITS IMITATION + + + IN the February letter we discussed the question: "Where shall we find +truth, and how shall we know when we have found it." But there is no use in +seeking truth, or in knowing truth when we have found it, unless we put it +to practical use in our life--and it does not follow that we will do that +merely because we find it. There are people, comparatively many, who scour +the civilized world to find rare treasure of ancient art--pictures or coins. +There are many who manufacture imitations of the genuine articles, so the +seeker after these things runs the risk of being duped by clever rogues un- +less he has means of knowing the genuine from the spurious. + + In this respect he is beset by the same danger as the truth seeker, for +there are many pseudo-cults and clever inventions that may baffle us. The +collector often shuts his find up in a musty room and gloats over it in +solitude; and not infrequently after years, or maybe when he has died, it is +found that some of the things he guarded most jealously and treasured most +highly were spurious and imitations of no value. Similarly, one who finds +what he believes to be truth may "bury his treasure" in his own breast, or +"put his light under a bushel," to find, maybe after many years, that he had + + +[PAGE 103] A METHOD OF DISCERNING TRUTH + +been swindled by an imitation. Thus, there is need of an infallible final +test, one which eliminates all possibility of deception, and the question is +how to discover and apply it. + + The answer is as simple as the method is efficient. When we ask how col- +lectors discover that a certain article they prize is an imitation, we shall +find that it is usually by showing it to some one who has seen the original. +We may deceive all of the people part of the time and a part of the people +all of the time, but it is impossible to deceive all the people all of the +time; and had the collector shown his find publicly instead of hoarding it +in secret, he would have quickly learned by the collective knowledge of all +the world whether his find was genuine or not. + + Now mark this, for it is very important: Just as surely as the general +secretiveness of collectors aids, abets, and fosters fraud on the part of +the curio dealers, so also the desire to have and to hold for oneself great +secrets not known to the "rabble" fosters the busines of those who trade in +"occult initiations" with elaborate ceremonial to beguile victims into part- +ing with their cash. + + How can we test the worth of an axe but by using it and thus finding out +whether it will keep its edge in actual wearing work? Would we buy it if +the salesman required us to put it in a dark corner where no one could see +it, and forbade us to use it? Certainly not! We would want to use it in +our work, and there it would show whether it had "temper." If it were found +"true steel," we would prize it; if not, we would tell the salesman to take +back his worthless stuff. + + +[PAGE 104] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + On the same principle, what is the sense in "buying" the wares of secrecy +mongers? If their wares were "true steel," there would be no need of se- +crecy, and unless we can use them in our daily lives, they are of no value. +Neither is a good axe of value to us unless we use it; it rusts and loses +its edge. So it is obligatory on every one who finds truth to use it in the +world's work, both as a safeguard to himself to make sure that it will stand +the grant test, and to give others a chance to share the treasure which he +himself finds helpful. Therefore it is very vital that we follow the com- +mand of Christ: "Let your light shine." + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 42. + + MAY, 1914. + + OUR RESPONSIBILITY IN GIVING OUT TRUTH + + + In regard to last month's letter one of the students writes: "in your +letter it would seem to be implied that there is no secrecy or discretion on +the part of the individual who knows occult things, to be exercised in giv- +ing them out, and no personal responsibility incurred; at least your meaning +does not seem to be made plain." + + It is, of course, impossible to cover a subject of this magnitude in a +letter or several letters. But the question about the responsibility of +giving out truth does really concern us in so far as the danger of misuse +goes. My correspondent also says that "there are certain sects in this +country which have certain powers that they use for selfish and avaricious + + +[PAGE 105] RESPONSIBILITY OF GIVING OUT TRUTH + +purposes," and asks whether it would be wrong to withhold occult powers from +them. Certainly not. But the Elder Brothers take care of that, and they +are the real custodians of anything that is highly dangerous. Hypnotism, of +course, is dangerous, but not to such an extent as the occult powers about +which our correspondent asks. + + During the ancient Israelitic dispensation darkness reigned in the Holy +of Holies, and it was only permitted a few priests and Levites to enter the +Temple. The High Priest alone was admitted into the Holy of Holies once a +year. But at the Crucifixion the veil was rent, the Temple was flooded with +light, and since then no secrecy has prevailed in Initiation. Yet it is in +a certain sense as secret as ever, for as I said in last month's letter, it +does not consist in ceremony at all. It is an inward experience, and we +must have the power within ourselves to live that experience before it can +come to us. It is secret in the same sense that the mysteries of square +root are a secret to the child. No initiation fee could convey an under- +standing to the childish mind of the subject; he must live through a number +of years and gradually mature to a point where it will be possible to en- +lighten him. When that point is reached, there is no difficulty about en- +lightenment. He will understand and see truth very readily. + + It is exactly this truth of which I was speaking in last month's letter. +The disciple must go through a period of training and by that training be- +come mature and mellow to such an extent that he can live the truth within. +Then when the time comes, it is very easy for the Teacher or Initiator to + + +[PAGE 106] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +show him for the first time how to apply the trust which he has found, to +use the power which he has stored up, and then he is initiated. But this +experience cannot be told to anyone else. It is absolutely useless to try +to convey it. It is not through ceremony or any other outward show that it +comes to a man but as an actual result of his own past doing. Therefore he +can apply its truth in his daily life, though others may be as absolutely +unable to get at it as the child is incapable of appreciating what is hap- +pening when an example in square root is being done before its eyes. Thus +are the real, vital truths guarded from all till the key of merit unlocks +the treasure box. + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 43. + + JUNE, 1914. + + WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE AND MORAL EQUALITY + + + From last month's lesson it will be evident, strange as it may seem, that +the opera Tannhauser is the legendary plea for the much discussed woman's +suffrage, which we hear so much of in modern times. It is evident also, as +said last month, that like produces like; and a woman who is timid and +afraid, who has been forced into marriage in a brutal manner, who feels her- +self owned, a chattel, not free to voice her ideas and ideals, cannot pro- +duce a noble, strong, and fearless offspring, one with the courage to adhere +to its ideals. Therefore, so long as we hold woman in bondage, deny her +rightful place in the world as the HELPMATE AND COMPANION of man, so long do + + +[PAGE 107] WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE + +we retard the race and our development. This is the esoteric reason why +full equality must come about. + + If men did but thoroughly realize and understand the idea that we are +born in alternate embodiments, they would very soon accede to woman's just +requests--if for no other reason than the selfish one that in their succeed- +ing life they who are now men will take on the womanly garb, and have to +live under the conditions which they are now making. Thus any man who is +now holding back the just privileges from womankind will some day have to +labor under these same conditions, while those who at present for which they +are now contending without having to ask for them; but as the writer sees +this matter, it is not exactly the privilege of voting so much as the moral +equality which the woman feels she ought to have, and certainly she has a +God-given right to that as well as man. + + One point brought out in Tannhauser should particularly appeal to those +who want to live the higher life, and that is that Tannhauser is held as +strictly accountable before those of his friends who know of his crime as he +is by the church. There is no double standard of morality in nature. Sin +is sin by whomsoever it is committed, and more than that, to whom much is +given of him much shall be required. + + Therefore people who reach an enlightened stage must above all learn to +live the clean and pure life in harmony with their professions. If, by en- +lightenment, we rise above the law, let us, as Paul says, not use our lib- +erty as an occasion to gratify the flesh. The doctrine of "soul mates" and +"affinities" has wrecked many a life which but for that would have been + + +[PAGE 108] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +crowned with great soul growth. + + What the shadow is to light, what "the devil" is to God--that is lust to +love. Love is divine, a companionship of FREE souls. Lust is diabolical, +and the transgressor a slave of sin, it matters not whether the outrage has +been legalized by the state or blessed by the church. + + Let us therefore strive to love each other after the spirit rather than +after the flesh. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 44. + + JULY, 1914. + + THE VICE OF SELFISHNESS AND THE POWER OF LOVE. + + + In the last lesson we saw that the Lord of Wartburg asked the minstrel to +describe love. As we all aspire to evolve within ourselves that quality, it +is perhaps of very great importance that we should look the matter squarely +in the face and see what is our greatest hindrance, for surely there can be +no question but that we are all lacking woefully in respect to love. No +matter what we may seem to others, when we look into our own hearts we stand +ashamed, knowing the motives which prompted acts that others consider dic- +tated by love of our fellow men. When we analyze these motives we shall +find that they are all dictated by the one trait of selfishness; moreover, +this is the one fault we never confess. I have heard men and women stand up + + +[PAGE 109] THE VICE OF SELFISHNESS + +publicly or in private and confess to every sin on the calendar save this +single one of selfishness. Yes, we even deceive ourselves by imagining that +we ourselves are not selfish. We see this trait of character very plainly +in others if we are at all observant, but fail to perceive the beam in our +own eye; and so long as we do not admit this great fault to ourselves and +strive seriously to overcome it, we cannot progress upon the pathway of +love. + + Thomas a Kempis says: "I would rather feel compunction than know how to +define it"; and we may well substitute the word love for compunction. If we +could only feel love rather than be able to define it! But love cannot be +known now by us except in the measure that we cleanse ourselves from the +great sin of selfishness. Life is our most precious possession, and Christ +therefore said, "Greater love (or unselfishness) hath no man than this, that +a man lay down his life for his friends." + + In the measure, therefore, that we cultivate this virtue of unselfish- +ness, we shall attain to love, for they are synonymous, as was shown by Paul +in that inimitable thirteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians. When a poor +brother knocks at our does, do we give him as little as we can? If so, we +are selfish. Or do we help him only because our conscience will not allow +us to let him go? Then also this is selfishness, for we do not want to feel +the pangs of conscience. Even though we give our lives for a cause, is +there not the thought that it is OUR work? Often I hide my face from myself +in shame at that thought in connection with the Fellowship, and yet we must +go on. But let us not deceive ourselves; let us fight the demon of selfish- + + +[PAGE 110] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +ness and be ever watchful against its subtle onslaughts. If we find it +whispering that we need rest and cannot afford to give our strength for oth- +ers, or if we feel that we cannot afford to give our substance, let us force +the virtue of generosity. As a matter of actual fact, we only keep what we +give; our bodies decay and our possessions are left behind, but our good +deeds remain ours for all eternity. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 45. + + AUGUST, 1914. + + INITIATION NOT TO BE ATTAINED THROUGH BREATHING EXERCISES + + + It is with considerable reluctance that I again take up the question of +breathing exercises and their effects upon the body, but stern necessity +compels me to sound anew the warning against the false and dangerous teach- +ings which are promulgated by people who are either ignorant or unscrupulous +in their desire for profit. Breathing exercises are absolutely contrary to +the teachings of the Rosicrucian Fellowship, for under our teachings +spiritual results may only be attained by spiritual methods and not by +physical exercises. Unfortunately the great desire of students to attain +quickly makes many an easy prey to such people. One of our very promising +students is now in an insane asylum because he listened to the promises of a + + +[PAGE 111] INITIATION AND BREATHING EXERCISES + +charlatan who offered to initiate him for the sum of twenty-five dollars. + + I have just learned that in one of the Fellowship centers a man who has +not been affiliated with Headquarters is charging various sums for horo- +scopes, contrary to our teachings. We annually return from Headquarters +many dollars to people who send to us asking for delineations and character +reading as well as predictions, because we uphold the principle that a +spiritual science may not be prostituted for gold however much we need +money; and it grieves us very much to find out that such people, who admit +that they know these practices to be contrary to the principles of the +Rosicrucian Fellowship, are placed upon the platform of study centers, and +stand before the people as teachers an exponents, of the Rosicrucian teach- +ings. This same person has also copied from Hindu books costing but a few +cents, breathing exercises which he sells to unsuspecting victims for a dol- +lar. + + Now I ask you, dear friends, will you not take this from me, one who has +gone the way and knows by experience that there is no express train to the +Temple of Initiation. The road is slow and steep and rugged; it must be +walked step by step, though th feet bleed, and the heart also with sorrow +and suffering. The soul body--the golden wedding garment--which alone is +the password by which we can enter, is made by the good deeds done day by +day with patient perseverance in well-doing, and by no other method. +Breathing exercises cannot take the place of good deeds. Can you not under- +stand that? I know what I am talking about, because in the very earliest +stage of my endeavor in spiritual directions, I also found these Hindu + + +[PAGE 112] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +breathing exercises. I tried them for two days, and my vital body was +partly lifted out of the physical; it then occurred to me that I was in a +dangerous condition, and I stopped. But it took me two weeks to recover, +during which I felt as if I could not get my feet on the ground, as if I +were walking on air; and during those two weeks I suffered greatly. Others +may not have the persistence to recover that I did, and may go to the insane +asylum. Therefore it is a very dangerous thing to try. There may of course +be others on whom they have no effect. But it is very, very dangerous to +meddle with fire, and you should not try it. on the other hand, if you will +day by day try to serve in the vineyard of Christ, and endeavor to do deeds +of mercy, then the golden wedding garment, the soul body, will surely be wo- +ven, which one day will admit you to the Temple. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 46. + + SEPTEMBER, 1914. + + THE WORLD WAR AND INFANT MORTALITY + + + Up to the present time I have especially refrained from commenting upon +current topics, but feel that the present cosmic crisis demands something +from Headquarters which may guide students in their attitude towards this +calamity. The effect of this unprecedented slaughter of human beings is +much more far-reaching than is apparent from the physical viewpoint. + + +[PAGE 113] THE WORLD WAR AND INFANT MORTALITY + + In the first place, of course, that viewpoint is the one which appeals to +us. We feel and can sympathize with the grief felt in many thousands of +homes, where father, son, or husband has been ruthlessly torn away. But the +sorrow and suffering that are met with in the physical world fade into in- +significance when compared with what takes place in the invisible realms of +nature. The thousands and thousands of victims of this cruel war are awak- +ening from the death stupor caused by the sudden transition from the +physical life to that of the desire world. They carry with them the scenes +of the battlefield; many are stunned and wander about in the most aimless +fashion. They cannot realize what has happened. Others again are beginning +to sense the fact that they have passed from one phase of existence to an- +other. Then comes to them also the grief for those they have left behind. +thus there is in the world at this time an indescribable, unimaginable +amount of sorrow and suffering, mental as well as physical. + + In fact, never since the world was has there been such universal sorrow +as there is at the present time. But besides this, we must not forget we +are now laying up for ourselves a great deal of future suffering; for, as +has been explained in the Rosicrucian lecture literature, it is impossible +for these people who are now so ruthlessly and suddenly torn away from their +bodies to review their past life, and thus the etching of the life panorama +does not take place as it should. Therefore these egos will not reap the +fruit of their present existence as they should in purgatory and the first + + +[PAGE 114] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +heaven. They will come back minus this experience at some future time; and +it will be necessary, in order that they may regain what they have lost, to +let them die in childhood so that they may have the new desire body and vi- +tal body imprinted with the essence of their present life. + + Therefore in some far-off future day we shall find that an epidemic, or +something of that nature, will take away many thousands of children, and we, +now their contemporaries, will be left to mourn their loss. Oh! that this +law of infant mortality were understood. Then we should not have to pray +for peace as we are now doing. Let everyone in the Rosicrucian Fellowship +pray morning, noon, and night for the restoration of peace at the earliest +possible moment. Let us realize the responsibility of knowledge and live up +to it, endeavoring daily to discharge it. This knowledge which we have re- +ceived must be given out wherever it is practicable without intruding upon +other people. If the world knew and believed in the law of rebirth and of +consequence, if it understood the law of infant mortality, such a thing as +this war could never have happened; and the more we try to inculcate these +teachings, the better we shall promote peace and good will, and the better +serve humanity. + + Please be particularly earnest and concentrate every vestige of your +power upon the healing work at Headquarters when we have healing meetings. +We need all the help we can get. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 115] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 47. + + OCTOBER, 1914. + + THE INVISIBLE HELPERS AND THEIR WORK ON THE BATTLE FIELD + + Another month has gone by and still the European war is raging in all its +intensity. Thousands and thousands have passed over the border into the in- +visible realm, and the distress there as well as here is unprecedented in +the history of the world. As you have learned from our literature, the de- +sire world is the world of illusion and delusion; and those poor people who +have so suddenly been transferred to that realm with frightful wounds upon +their physical bodies also imagine (as very frequently in the case with per- +sons who have met accidents) that the lesions of the physical body are still +with them, and they suffer acutely there from these fancied injuries as they +would here. That is of course entirely needless. many of them are going +about there with dreadful wounds upon their bodies, particularly those who +have wounds caused by bursting shells and by bayonets. It is of course an +easy matter for the Invisible Helpers to show any one of these people that +his or her injuries are only fancied, yet when there are so many thousands +the task is gigantic, and our Invisible Helpers are having a time of unprec- +edented activity against overwhelming odds. + + It is not so much however the anguish that results from such fancied + + +[PAGE 116] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +bodily lesions which makes the work. The mental anguish--the concern for +those who have been left behind, the fear of fathers concerning their little +ones, and the sorrow of the mothers who have been left behind to bring up a +family of young children--is the most fearful handicap to a settlement of +this dreadful state of affairs that the Invisible Helpers have to meet, and +this is the point on which I would like to ask your earnest co-operation. + + President Wilson of the United States has appointed October 4th as a day +of prayer for peace. It is well always to unite with such movements because +our trained thoughts will have a considerable effect and strengthen wonder- +fully the general appeal. This day should be spent by every earnest student +in prayer for the deliverance of the world from this awful slaughter. Their +thoughts should be particularly directed towards soothing those who are in +this world, and in the invisible world also who are distressed at the sever- +ance of family ties. Each one should hold the thought that although the +present war seems grievous, nevertheless this is only an incident in a long +stretch of time which has neither beginning nor end. As spirits we are im- +mortal, and these things which now seem to us of so great importance, when +viewed from the spiritual standpoint and when considering the fact that we +are really immortal, are of less moment than now seems the case to us. +Whatever befalls, it will be incorporated into the spiritual nature as a +lesson to give us a sense of the horror of this carnage which is now devas- +tating the world. + + This war, let us fervently hope, will be the last war that will ever mar + + +[PAGE 117] WORLD WAR AND UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD + +the peace of the earth; that having learned this costly lesson, mankind will +once and for all destroy the implements of war, and beat their swords into +plowshares. Let this idea be in the mind of every student on the 4th of Oc- +tober, but as this date is so near at hand that probably this letter will +not reach all in time, let every one in the Rosicrucian Fellowship devote +Sunday, the 18th, to a prayer for peace. By that time all our students will +have received this message, and we shall again be united from morning until +evening in this effort to help restore peace to the world. May the kingdom +of Christ soon superseded the kingdom of men, for they have certainly shown +themselves inefficient rulers. + + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 48. + + NOVEMBER, 1914. + + THE WORLD WAR AND UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD + + + In almost every mail we receive letters commenting upon the war, but with +very few exceptions there has been no expression of partisanship, showing +that the writers take a loftier viewpoint than inculcated by the various +Race Spirits and commonly given the name of patriotism. This attitude is +the only one consistent with the principles of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. +We are all joined in an international association, we are all looking for +the Kingdom which is to supersede all nations, and the fact that we were +born on different parts of the globe and express ourselves in different + + +[PAGE 118] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +tongues does not abrogate the command of Christ: "Thou shalt love thy +neighbor as thyself," nor excuse us for playing the part of the "robber" +rather than that of the "Samaritan." It behooves us in the Rosicrucian Fel- +lowship to rise above the barriers of nationality and learn to say as did +that much maligned man, Thomas Paine: "The world is my country, and to do +good is my religion." We must cease to be merely national and strive to be- +come universal in our sympathies. + + But there is a war that is well worth fighting, a war upon which we may +legitimately expend all our energy, a war that we shall do well to pursue +with unrelenting zeal, and one of the students puts it so well that we can- +not do better than give his letter. + + "In reflecting upon the war this thought comes: When men grow weary of +the appalling internecine struggle and lay down their arms, and peace holds +sway, from this continent, burdened with the dust of friend and foe alike, +its rivers running crimson with the best blood of empires, a new Europe will +arise, and a higher civilization succeed the one destroyed. + + "And the vast host of nameless dead, dying, will prove a mightier power +for world peace than had they lived. Thus it is that from the unrestrained +passions of men, Deity, just and loving, brings ultimate good. + + "If men, and women too, were only one-tenth part as eager to wage war +against their real enemy within the human breast as they are to take up arms +against a supposed enemy just across a non-existing imaginary boundary line + + +[PAGE 119] WORLD WAR AND UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD + +on the face of God's good world, then the Prince of Peace could come into +His own. All deadly weapons would be consigned to limbo, and the glorious +promise would be fulfilled: 'On earth peace and good will towards men.' + + "And so for myself, I resolve that i will not cease my efforts till the +last vestige of evil, error, and hate be eliminated, and the lofty trinity +of 'Goodness, Truth, and Love reign unchallenged within.' + + "In this real struggle I find myself a poor soldier, and the tide of +battle often sets in the wrong direction, yet no matter if I fail ten thou- +sand times, the lesson must be learned and shall be learned. Some day, with +a stout heart, an indomitable will, and unflagging persistence, the victory +will be won and peace will reign--the peace that passeth all understanding." + + let us all join our brother in that noble fight, remembering the words of +Goethe: + + "From every power that holds the world in chains + Man frees himself when self-control he gains." + + +[PAGE 120] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + + LETTER NO. 49. + + DECEMBER, 1914. + + DESIRE--A TWO-EDGED SWORD + + + This is the time when good wishes are in order. "A Merry Christmas and A +Happy New Year" are greetings soon to be heard everywhere, and in conformity +with this ancient usage the workers on Mt. Ecclesia also extend to members +all over the world the usual seasonal greetings. + + But while we thus cordially wish one another Godspeed and good cheer in +the coming year, after all, though the wishes of others may be encouraging +and gratifying, they are really of minor consequence. But what we wish our- +selves individually is of prime importance. If the whole world conspired +against and antagonized us in this wish, we should nevertheless succeed, +provided always we were able to put sufficient intensity and insistence into +the wish. Do we desire riches? They may be ours by the exercise of will. +If we want power and popularity, they also are at our beck and call, pro- +vided we clothe our wish with an all-compelling ardor. Are we sick, feeble, +or in other ways disabled? We may rid ourselves of these bodily ailments +also by an intense desire for health. Social restrictions or hampering fam- +ily conditions will disappear before the earnest desire of the one who +wishes. + + +[PAGE 121] DESIRE--A TWO-EDGED SWORD + + But there is another side. Desire is a two-edged sword, and what ap- +peared the greatest good while in contemplation may prove to be a curse when +we have achieved actual possession. The greatest fortune may crumble in a +few hours by earthquake or a turn of the market, and the rich man always +fears he may lose his possessions. To be popular we must be at everybody's +beck and call; we have neither rest nor time to follow our own bent. Bodily +ailments which seem thorns in the flesh, which seem to rob life of all its +joys, and of which we would fain be rid, may be the greater blessing in dis- +guise. paul had such an ailment and he besought the Lord, who said to him: +"My grace is sufficient for thee." So also with inharmonious family condi- +tions, etc. There are in all human relationships certain lessons to be +learned for our good, and therefore we should be very careful not to wish +them away without always adding the words which were used by Christ during +the passion of the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane. Though in the body He +shrank from the torture that awaited Him, He said: "Not my will but Thine.' +We should always remember that there is only one thing we may pray for with +unrestricted fervor and full intensity, and that is that we may be pleasing +to God. + + An now, dear friends, the Rosicrucian Fellowship is an association com- +posed of many individual members. You are one, and will you join as a mem- +ber in wishing ourselves, the Fellowship, a grater baptism of God's grace +during the year 1915, so that we may more efficiently do our part of the +work of God upon the earth and hasten the day of Christ? And will you wish + + +[PAGE 122] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +it with such intensity that you will WORK for that end all through the year +with zeal and fervor? + + May God bless the Rosicrucian Fellowship and make it a more efficient +factor in His work in the world. + + --------------- + + + LETTER NO. 50. + + JANUARY, 1915. + + SPIRITUAL PROSPERITY FOR THE NEW YEAR + + + The customary greeting at this time is: "May you have a happy and a +prosperous New Year." With this the writer is in hearty accord and extends +it to you, but his meaning may differ somewhat from that which is ordinarily +given, for usually it is material prosperity that is the main thought; +whereas the writer wishes you that gold which is wrought by the alchemy of +the soul, so that the base metal of the coming year's experience may thus be +transformed into the Philosopher's Stone, the greatest good this world can +ever give. Worldly riches are always a source of care to their possessor, +but this, the jewel of jewels, rings with it? the peace that passeth all +understanding. + + Moreover, if we work solely for material things, our labor is always +found to be hard drudgery no matter how we may seek to break the monotony by +indulging in so-called pleasures. There comes ever and anon the thought: +"What is the use?" But when we labor in the vineyard of Christ, when we do +everything in our business and out of it as "unto the Lord," then the aspect +is entirely different. Christ said: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is + + +[PAGE 123] SPIRITUAL PROSPERITY FOR THE NEW YEAR + +light," and that is an actual truth, though perhaps not in the ordinary +sense. The writer and others who have been with him during many years can +testify from personal experience that though there has been the most arduous +labor, both mental and physical, and though the body has been sometimes so +tired that it has been almost impossible to bring it together in the morn- +ing, nevertheless there has been a satisfaction, joy, and pleasure that the +world knows not, neither can understand. The years that have gone by, spent +in this work, have been so satisfactory that nothing in the world could com- +pensate the writer and his companion for them should they be lost. Year by +year he estimates it a greater privilege to thus labor, and others who are +with him have exactly the same feeling. + + How about you, dear friend? We are at the beginning of a new year, a new +start. The Rosicrucian Fellowship as an organization depends on the units, +and if we are to make spiritual progress, then the burden must be taken up +by every one among us. We must become more faithful, more earnest, more de- +voted to the ideals that have been given by the Elder Brothers. We know +that there are faithful workers in the Fellowship, but are you? It is not +enough to simply study the teachings and meditate upon them; we must actu- +ally carry them into our lives and because shining lights in our community. +We must live the life not only in the outside world but right in the home, +so that other members of the family may see the light and be brought in. We +know that many do this, but there are others who are lukewarm, who still +stand on the threshold and do not want to take the yoke. Now the yoke must + + +[PAGE 124] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +be borne, no matter if the neck becomes calloused in the effort; in fact, +every callous is an additional factor in building, the soul body, the glori- +ous wedding garment in which alone we can meet the Lord when he appears. + + It is the earnest, the very earnest hope of the writer that every student +of the Rosicrucian Fellowship will take up his yoke with more ardor than +ever before, so that both individually and collectively we may lay up trea- +sure in heaven that is sure to be ours at the end of the year-day, when we +have borne the burden and the heat. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 51. + + FEBRUARY, 1915. + + LOVE, WISDOM, AND KNOWLEDGE + + + This month we are starting a new series of lesson on "The Web of +Destiny--How Made and Unmade," and we trust that this series will prove very +profitable to you in your study and in your life. While the lesson are +analytical and technical in some respects, the subject should be approached +in a spirit of the deepest devotion by keeping the main purpose of life in +view. + + As you are probably aware, the word "philosophy" is composed of two words +meaning love of wisdom. Most people have the idea that "love of wisdom" in +this connection is synonymous with desire for knowledge, but as we have seen + + +[PAGE 125] LOVE, WISDOM, AND KNOWLEDGE + +from a recent lesson, there is a vast difference between knowledge and wis- +dom. Wisdom implies love, first, last, and all the time, while knowledge +may be used for the most evil purposes imaginable. In fact the true +esotericist who is inspired by a fervent devotion in his study and his work +in life is too modest to accept the title of philosopher, for to him it +means even more as he turns it around and calls it "The Wisdom of Love" in- +stead of love of wisdom. A little thought will very soon make the point +clear. The subject we have chosen for the coming series of lessons is one +of the most intimate and holy which one can take up, therefore you will +readily realize that it must be approached in this "wisdom of love" spirit, +in love that is embodied in the full realization of what true philosophy is +and means. + + Robert Burns once said: + + "O wad some pow'r the giftie gie us + To see ourselves as ithers see us!" + + + But I am afraid that power would indeed be a sad possession though it may +seem upon superficial thought to be desirable. Each of us is full of short- +comings. At times we make but a sorry figure on the stage of the world. +Sometimes we seem to be thrown aimlessly hither and thither by the shuttle- +cock of destiny, while others who are unable to see the beam in their own +eye are criticizing us and making us appear ridiculous. If we saw ourselves +with their eyes, we should lose that most essential attribute--our +self-respect; we should shrink from facing our fellow men. + + +[PAGE 126] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + When we realize that this is so (and thought upon the matter surely can +not fail to convince us), then we might also with profit put the shoe on the +other foot and realize that we ourselves, by sharp criticism of the trivial +shortcomings of others, are taking a very unbrotherly, unphilosophical, +un-wisdom-of-love-like attitude. It is the purpose of the coming lessons to +give us an idea of what has caused in the past some of the things that we +most criticize in others, so that we may be able personally to avoid similar +mistakes; also that we may have that real, true, Christian charity which +VAUNTETH NOT ITSELF, IS NOT PUFFED UP, SEEKETH NOT HER OWN, REJOICETH NOT IN +EVIL BUT IN THE TRUTH, as paul describes it in that beautiful thirteen chap- +ter of 1st Corinthians. + + I trust that you will approach the lessons in that spirit and that they +may be of lasting benefit to us all. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 52. + + MARCH, 1915. + + CONCENTRATION IN THE ROSICRUCIAN WORK + + + While meditating upon the good of the Rosicrucian Fellowship the question +came up before the writer's mind: "What is the greatest general hindrance +to our progress in the spiritual work?" And the answer was: "Lack of con- +centration." + + We all have our families who crave and must have a certain share of our +attention. Our work in the world must not be neglected on any account. We +are here to accomplish certain things, and to learn by them. After these + + +[PAGE 127] CONCENTRATION IN THE WORK + +duties have been attended to there still remains for each of us a little +time which we may justly and properly use for our own development, and it is +as important that we properly use this extra time as it is that we attend to +our worldly duties, our family, and our social obligations. + + Consider now that in ordinary life we do not try to become a doctor and +practice medicine today, work in a machine shop tomorrow, and every other +day go at some other business. We know that such a course would not take us +anywhere in life. neither do we live in one family as husband or wife today +and assume similar relations in another family tomorrow; nor do we change +our social circle as often as we change our coats or shoes. Such industrial +and social conditions would be absolutely impossible. On the contrary, we +pursue one line of work in the world; we look after one family; we concen- +trate our efforts in these departments of our life to the exclusion of all +others. + + Why not apply the same common sense to our spiritual endeavors? We study +our business; we plan ahead; we work with all our might in order to make it +a success. We also study the needs of our family and we plan for them. We +know that success, both social and industrial, depends upon the amount of +concentration and the amount of planning we do. If, then, we are so wise +concerning worldly things, which last only for the few years of our earth +life, can we not bring ourselves to use the same common sense to apply our- +selves equally with all our mind and with our heart to the spiritual things + + +[PAGE 128] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +that are everlasting? + + In the Atlantean Epoch when the Original Semites were called out from +among their brothers, many of them accounted it a great hardship. They, +"the Sons of God," married "the daughters of men," with the result which we +know from our study of the COSMO. + + We are today at another great parting of the ways. An "Ecclesia," or +company of men, is being "called out" as pioneers of the next great race. +Many roads lead to Rome and to the Kingdom of Christ, but if we fritter our +time away walking on one today and tomorrow choosing another path, we are +certain to fail; and I therefore urge all the students who are in sympathy +with the ideas of the Rosicrucian Fellowship to give up all other religious +societies and devote their whole heart, mind, and spirit to living and +spreading our teachings. + + Trained, skilled, and devoted workers are sought in our earthly enter- +prises. In the heavenly Kingdom loyalty and devotion also are prime fac- +tors. + + Let us memorize and concentrate on the first three verses of the first +Psalm, for surely we want to reap the greatest harvest that we possible can +from our spiritual as well as from our material efforts. + + + +[PAGE 129] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 53. + + APRIL, 1915. + + THE COSMIC MEANING OF EASTER + + As this lesson will reach you about Easter time, I thought it might be +well to devote the letter to that recurring event. + + You know the analogy between man, who enters his vehicles in the daytime, +lives in them and works through them, and at night is a free spirit, free +from the fetters of the dense body--and the Christ Spirit dwelling in our +earth a part of the year. We all know what a fetter and what a prison this +body is, how we are hampered by disease and suffering, for there is not one +of us who is always in perfect health so that he or she never feels a pang +of pain, at least no one on the higher path. + + It is similar with the Cosmic Christ, who turns His attention toward our +little earth, focusing His consciousness in this planet in order that we may +have life. He has to enliven this dead mass (which we have crystallized out +of the sun) annually; and it is a fetter, a clog, and a prison to Him. +Therefore it is right and proper that we should rejoice when He comes at +Christmas time each year and is born anew into our world to help us leaven +this dead lump wherewith we have encumbered ourselves. Our hearts at that + + +[PAGE 130] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +time should turn to Him in gratitude for the sacrifice He makes for our +sakes during the winter months, permeating this planet with His life to +awaken it from its wintry sleep, in which it must remain were He not thus +born into it to enliven it. + + During the winter months He suffers agonies of torture, "groaning, +travailing, and waiting for the day of liberation," which comes at the time +that we speak of in the orthodox churches as the passion week. But we real- +ize according to the mystic teachings that this week is just the culmination +or crest wave of His suffering and that He is then rising out of His prison; +that when the sun crosses the equator, He hangs upon the cross, and cries, +"CONSUMMATION EST!"--"It has been accomplished!" That is to say, His work +for that year has been accomplished. It is not a cry of agony but it is a +cry of triumph, a shout of joy that the our of liberation has come, and that +once more He can soar away a little while, free from the fettering clod of +our planet. + + Now, dear friend, the point to which I would like to call your attention +is that we should rejoice with Him in that great, glorious, triumphal hour, +the hour of liberation when He exclaims, "It has been accomplished!" Let us +attune our hearts to this great cosmic event; let us rejoice with the +Christ, our Savior, that the term of His annual sacrifice has once more been +completed; and let us feel thankful from the very bottom of our hearts that +He is now about to be freed from the earth's fetters; that the life where- + + +[PAGE 131] WASTE THROUGH SCATTERING ONE'S FORCES + +with He has now endued our planet is sufficient to carry us through the time +till next Christmas. + + I hope that this may furnish you with a point of view for prayerful Eas- +ter meditation which will result in abundant soul growth. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 54. + + MAY, 1915. + + WASTE THROUGH SCATTERING ONE'S FORCES + + + In the March letter I suggested, as you will remember, the concentration +of energy in one direction, advising, as I have done before, that students +devote all their spare time to work in and for one religious society, rather +than scattering and dissipating their energies by membership in a number of +such societies, for it is an impossibility to do effective work in that man- +ner. + + Since that time a few resignations have come in, which were not unex- +pected. Among a large membership like that of the Rosicrucian Fellowship +some of those who hold membership in other bodies would naturally have their +greatest sympathy somewhere else, and they would follow that bent in accor- +dance with my advice. Indeed the surprise is that there have been only a +few resignations, but this is no doubt due to the fact that Headquarters pe- +riodically weeds out those who show little interest, and thus keeps only the +most live members on the list. + + +[PAGE 132] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + But the tone of these resignations does hurt. One writes: "I am a mem- +ber of the Episcopalian Church; my pew rent is paid there, etc., etc." It +seems strange that some will not understand that the Rosicrucian Fellowship +is antagonistic to no church or society, particularly not to the Christian +churches. It has been stated repeatedly that we favor membership in any +Christian church. What the letter said was not CHURCHES, but "religious so- +cieties"; and, as said, it was not because we had anything against societies +which work along Christian lines. There is, for instance the Unity Society +of Kansas City, a clean, moral organization under a noble leadership, so far +as we can learn from all reports. But to do one's best work in that or any +other religious society one's entire energy in spare time should be given to +that society alone; and if any member of the Rosicrucian Fellowship who is +also a member of such an organization decides to cast his lot with them +alone he is doing far better by them, far better by the Rosicrucian Fellow- +ship also, than if he retains his membership in both. On the other hand, if +the weight of his sympathies lies with the Rosicrucian Fellowship, then it +is better for him, better for the Unity Society, better for the Rosicrucian +Fellowship, that he cast his lot entirely with our association. + + As we have often said, many roads lead to Rome, but you can not walk two +roads at once. You must walk one in order to get there. Zigzagging from +one to another is a waste of effort. If we do our work in the world we have +but very little time left in which we may legitimately work for our own ad- +vantage along spiritual lines. Therefore we should endeavor to concentrate + + +[PAGE 133] EPIGENESIS AND FUTURE DESTINY + +our efforts where they will do the greatest good instead of scattering our +energies and attaining very little soul growth in that manner. + + Moreover it should be understood that if at any time the policies of the +Rosicrucian Fellowship do not meet with the approval of any one, he is not +serving the cause by simply deserting the flag and railing against us from +the outside. If he remains within we listen to him as one brother listens +to another, and we see his arguments from a very different point of view +than if he shows hostility, leaves, and becomes in that way an opponent. +Then the same arguments would lose a good deal of their weight. We are all +agreed about the great and cardinal points of our teachings. Every one of +us surely appreciates the benefit that we have reaped from this philosophy +which we are engaged in promulgating. Is it not meet then that we should be +tolerant in matters of policy, that we may devote all our attention to the +ideals? + + --------------- + + + LETTER NO. 55. + + JUNE, 1915. + + EPIGENESIS AND FUTURE DESTINY + + While we are studying the "Web of Destiny--How Made and Unmade," it is +expedient, in fact absolutely necessary, that we should keep before the eye +of our mind the fact that life is not alone an unfoldment of causes set go- +ing in previous existences. The spirit, when it comes back to rebirth, has + + +[PAGE 134] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +a varying amount of free will--according to the life previously led--to fill +in details. Also, instead of only unfolding past causes into effects, there +are also new causes generated at every turn by the spirit, which then act as +seeds of experience in future lives. This is a very important point. It is +a self-evident truth, for unless it were so, the causes that have already +been set going must at some time come to an end, and that would mean cessa- +tion of existence. + + Thus we are not absolutely forced to act in a certain way because we are +in a certain environment and because our whole past experience has given us +a trend toward a certain end. With the divine prerogative of free will, man +has the power of Epigenesis or initiative, so that he may enter upon a new +line at any time he wishes. He cannot at once steer himself out of the old +life--this may require a long time, perhaps several lives--but gradually he +works up to the ideal which he has once sown. + + Therefore life advances not only by involution and evolution, but espe- +cially by Epigenesis. This sublime teaching of the Western Wisdom Religion +of the Rosicrucians explains many mysteries not otherwise capable of a +logical solution, among them one which has occasioned many letters to Head- +quarters. This subject is taken up with some reluctance as the writer dis- +likes speaking about the war. The question concerns the connection between +a soldier, a woman of the enemy ravished by him, and the ego born of a +mother who hates it because of the undesired motherhood. + + Investigation of a number of cases has shown that this is a new venture + + +[PAGE 135] EPIGENESIS AND FUTURE DESTINY + +on the part of the spirits coming to rebirth. All have been incorrigible in +their previous environments and it seemed that no good could come by keeping +them there to he sorrow of those with whom they were connected. The present +war conditions, though not made for the purpose, afford an opportunity to +transfer them to another field of action, where the new mother reaps, +through this agency, the fruits of wrongs sown by herself in the past. + + Nor is this condition at all peculiar to war. Very often similar means +are used at other times so that we may reap what we have sown, through an- +other soul who enters into our lives to suffer and to bring suffering to us. +I have in mind a mother who told me a number of years ago how she rebelled +against motherhood; how, after she had gone through the period of pregnancy +with hate and anger in her heart, the little child was born and she refused +even to look at it; but finally she was melted by pity for its condition of +helplessness, and pity later turned to love. The child had all the advan- +tages that money could give him, but these advantages could not save his +mental balance, and today he sits in a murderer's cell in an asylum for the +criminal insane, while the mother is left to sorrow and to ponder upon what +she did or did not do during the time when that infant was coming to her. + + Conversely, there are also occasions when a spirit, being through with an +old environment, comes into a new sphere of action as a ray of sunshine and +comfort to those who are fitted to receive that blessing by their previous +actions. Let us, therefore, remember that no matter how degraded a being + + + +[PAGE 136] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +may be he has always the power to sow the seed of good, but must wait until +that seed can flower in a right environment. Each of us, though bound by +his yesterdays, is therefore thus far free respecting his tomorrows. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 56. + + JULY, 1915. + + THE NEED OF SPREADING THE TEACHINGS + + + Upon re-reading the monthly lesson which accompanies this letter, em- +bodying the result of investigations made some time ago, I was struck anew +and with added force by the fact of the existence of such fearsome condi- +tions about us. At the present time when the horrors of the great war are +adding unprecedented numbers to those who pass from the present world to the +invisible realms under harrowing conditions, it seems that an extra effort +ought to be made to offset and to minimize the evil. The Rosicrucian Fel- +lowship is as yet but a drop in the ocean of humanity, but if we do our +share we shall earn a greater opportunity for service. + + There is no remedy for the present conditions equal to a knowledge of the +continuity of life and of the fact that we are reborn from time to time un- +der the immutable Law of Consequence. If these great facts with all that +they imply could be brought home to a large number of people, this leaven +must ultimately work in such a manner as to change conditions all over the + + +[PAGE 137] THE NEED OF SPREADING THE TEACHINGS + +world. One man, Galileo, changed the viewpoint of the world concerning the +solar system; and though we are only a few thousand, it is not possible for +us to exert an influence upon the opinion of the world when we know that +this is true? + + It is often said that people are not interested in spiritual matters; +that you cannot get their ear; but, really, it is not so. Granting that of +the hundred of thousands who went to hear Billy Sunday, the noted evange- +list, a great many were actuated by curiosity or went to? jeer and sneer, +there were also many thousand in whom was a strong desire for something +which they themselves perhaps could not define, and which was the actuating +motive. Recently there was a debate between a New York evangelist and a +lawyer on the subject, "Where Are the Dead?" This debate was held in a +large auditorium accommodating many thousands, and it lasted for three days. +Every seat in the auditorium was taken and, if I remember right, there were +many who could not even find standing room within. No, the world is seeking +something; seeking it with a hungry heart, and it only depends upon us +whether we are going to do our share by putting before the world the ratio- +nal explanation of life which has come to us through the Elder Brothers. It +is a great privilege and we should certainly take advantage of it. + + But the question is, How? Let me ask you, would not YOUR newspaper take +an occasional article on this subject? There are certainly a number of +people within the Fellowship capable of writing such articles. A committee +could be formed to receive the articles and furnish them to the members who + + +[PAGE 138] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +ask for them and who would agree to take them to the editors of the newspa- +pers in their respective towns and endeavor to get a hearing for the +Rosicrucian Fellowship teachings through that medium. If an article is well +written it is seldom refused when there is space available, for editors are +only too glad to get something that they think may interest the reading pub- +lic, even though they may not be in sympathy with it themselves. + + Will some of the students who can write pleas submit short articles on +"The Continuity of Life," and will those who are willing to undertake to get +such articles into their home papers write and register their names to that +we may get action? Address your communications in this matter to "The Pub- +licity Department," Mt. Ecclesia. + + I hope that this appeal will meet with a hearty response. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 57. + + AUGUST, 1915. + + ASTROLOGY AS AN AID IN HEALING THE SICK + + + Did you ever realize the reason why Christ commanded that we should heal +the sick? One of the reasons certainly was that when you have demonstrated +that you can heal the body, those who have been helped will have more faith +in your ability also to help the soul. When we have advanced to the high + + +[PAGE 139] ASTROLOGY AS AN AID IN HEALING THE SICK + +stature of Christ so that we can at once see the past and the present; when +we are able thus to determine at a glance the causes, crises, and present +stage of a disease, we shall need no other aid in diagnosis and advice. But +until that time we must use such crutches as we have, and foremost among +them is astrology. + + Many people who have been unwilling to WORK for results have come to +Headquarters expecting to gain spiritual illumination, to sprout wings, and +to return to the world as wonder workers after a few days' stay. And +naturally, they have been disappointed. But whenever anyone has honestly +and earnestly applied himself to real work, not classes, for a reasonable +time, results have always been attained. We have here a letter from a +friend who stayed at Mt. Ecclesia and applied himself earnestly and honestly +to his studies. We give his experience as encouragement to others to do +likewise: + + "Dear Friends: The proposition which I expected to take up after my stay +on Mt. Ecclesia turned out to be a graft on people and not consistent with +our ideals at all, and I therefore sent in my resignation. No sooner, +though, did I give up that scheme than I had an invitation from a prominent +physician in Kansas City to do work with him. He appealed to me as being +all right. We were literally stormed with patients. Mrs. Heindel, it is +wonderful how people hunger for something of this nature; they look for +someone to open their lives, and they try to get encouragement from sources +that are more potent and reliable than the hard and dry life-destroying ma- +terialism. + + "Astrology came as a wonderful help to me to gain their confidence; and + + +[PAGE 140] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +by the aid of God, who sent me here, I was able to send them away, their +ailments correctly diagnosed. And the strangest part of it is that none of +them gave me any symptoms. I located both disease and symptom, and nearly +everyone agree that I was right and resolved to live up to the high prin- +ciples of manhood and womanhood which I enunciated to them. + + "I expect to be very busy here and wish to thank you for the help I have +received along this line during the last year at Mt. Ecclesia. I certainly +enjoyed my stay with you immensely and am looking forward to a great deal of +good from my work there; am only sorry I was unable to stay longer." + + What man has done, man can do. Mrs. Heindel and myself did not get our +knowledge along this line without effort. We had to work hard for it; and +others who have worked as hard with the same spiritual ideals in view, +namely, the helping and uplifting of humanity, also find an illumination +that is not given to those who are looking for the material rewards of life +and their own aggrandizement. It seems to me that it is time the +Rosicrucian Fellowship should wake up and take this study earnestly in hand +so that healing centers may be established in every city in the world. + + We have started a department in the magazine where we delineate the horo- +scope of children to help parents to know their latent characteristics. +There is also a correspondence course for beginners, besides the course in +Astro-Diagnosis and Astro-Therapy for probationers, and we would advise all +who have not yet started to take up the study. + + +[PAGE 141] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 58. + + SEPTEMBER, 1915. + + UNNATURAL MEANS OF ATTAINMENT + + When one investigates a certain subject in the invisible world, many fas- +cinating byways open up. he is constantly lured away from the main line of +research by this, that, or the other theme which attracts his attention, and +there is great danger of losing sight of the goal and of wandering off in a +maze of incoherency. Sometimes the temptation to follow a bypath is stron- +ger than my power of resistance; and recently, while working on the "Web of +Destiny," the figure of a hermit who had starved his body to the semblance +of a skeleton--who had whipped himself till the blood flowed from sores that +were never allowed to heal, and thought he was serving God by these +austerities--led me to search for the origin of this hideous practice. I +have written a lengthy article on the subject for our magazine; but as the +matter is important, and many of the students are not subscribers to the +magazine, I have deemed it best to give you the main facts. + + In the ancient Mystery Temples the main truths now taught by the +Rosicrucian Fellowship concerning the vital body were given to the aspirant +to Initiation. He learned that this vehicle was composed of the four +ethers: the Chemical Ether, which is necessary to assimilation; the Life + + +[PAGE 142] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +Ether, which furthers growth and propagation; the Light Ether, which is the +vehicle of sense perception; and the Reflecting Ether, which is the recep- +tacle of memory. + + The aspirant was thoroughly instructed in the functions of the two lower +ethers as compared with the two higher. He knew that all the purely animal +functions of the body depended upon the density of the two lower ethers and +that the two upper ethers composed the soul body--the vehicle of service in +the invisible world. He aspired to cultivate this glorious garment by +self-abnegation, curbing the propensities of the lower nature by will power, +just as we do today. + + But some, who were overzealous to attain, no matter how, forgot that it +is only by service and unselfishness that the golden wedding garment, com- +posed of the two higher ethers, is grown. They thought the occult maxim, +"Gold in the crucible, dross in the fire; light as the winds, higher and +higher," meant only that so long as the dross of the lower nature was ex- +pelled, it did not matter how it was done. And they reasoned that as the +Chemical Ether is the agent of assimilation, it could be eliminated from the +vital body by starving the physical body. They also thought that as the +Life Ether is the avenue of propagation, they could by living celibate lives +starve it out. They would then only have the two higher ethers, or at least +these would be much larger in volume than the two lower. + + To that end they practiced all the austerities they could think of, fast- +ing among others. By this unnatural process the body lost its health and +became emaciated. The passional nature, which sought gratification by + + +[PAGE 143] THE RACE SPIRITS AND THE NEW RACE + +exercise of the propagative function, was stilled by castigation. It is +true that in this horrible manner the lower nature seemed to be subjected; +and it is also true that when the bodily functions were thus brought to a +very low ebb, visions, or rather hallucinations, were the reward of these +people; but true spirituality has never been attained by defiling or de- +stroying "the temple of God," the body, and fasting may be as immoral as +gluttony. + + Let us endeavor to use moderation in all things, that we may be worthy +examples to others and earn admission to the Temple by virtue of right liv- +ing. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 59. + + OCTOBER, 1915. + + THE RACE SPIRITS AND THE NEW RACE + + As there are a great number of students who have not subscribed for the +magazine, and as there is a very important article running now, dealing with +the occult side of the war, i feel that it may be best to devote the monthly +letter to a resume of the facts, and trust that this will also benefit those +who take the magazine; for as I do not intend to copy, but will take up the +subject offhand, new points are sure to be brought out. + + You remember how every one of the countries concerned in this sad affair +has endeavored to disclaim responsibility from the beginning. In a sense + + +[PAGE 144] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +they are right, for though all have been guilty of pride of heart and, like +David when he numbered Israel, have put their trust in the multitude of +their men, ships, and armament, no war can ever take place that is not per- +mitted by the Race Spirits. The Race Spirit guides its charges upon the +path of evolution, and, like Jehovah, fights for them, or allows other na- +tions to conquer them, as required to teach them the lesson needful for +their advancement. + + When seen by the spiritual vision the Race Spirit appears like a cloud +brooding over a country, and it is breathed into the lungs of the people +with every breath they take. In it they live, move, and have their being, +as a matter of actual fact. Through this process they become imbued with +that national fellow-feeling which we call "patriotism," which is so power- +fully stirring in time of war that all feel wrought up about a certain mat- +ter and are ready to sacrifice all for their country. + + America has no Race Spirit as yet. It is the melting pot wherein the +various nations are being amalgamated to extract the seed for a new race; +therefore it is impossible to arouse a universal sentiment which will make +all move as one in any matter. This new race is beginning to appear, how- +ever. You may know them by their long arms and limbs, their lithe body, +their long and somewhat narrow head, high crown, and almost rectangular +forehead. In a few generations I expect they will be taken in charge by an +Archangel, who will then begin to unite them. This itself will take gen- +erations, for though the pictures originally stamped in the old race bodies + + +[PAGE 145] THE RACE SPIRITS AND THE NEW RACE + +have faded from sight with the advent of the international marriages, they +are still effective, and the family connections of America with Europe may +be traced in the Memory of Nature found in the Reflecting Ether. Until this +record has been wiped clean, the tie with the ancestral country is not en- +tirely broken, and the colonies of Italians, Scots, Germans, English, etc., +remaining in various part of this country retard the evolution of the new +race. Probably the Aquarian Age will be here before this condition has been +entirely overcome and the American race fully established. + + If you look back at the developments during the past 60 or 70 years, it +must be evident that it has been an age of skepticism, doubt, and criticism +of religious subjects. The churches have become increasingly empty, and +people have turned to the pursuit of pleasure, from the worship of God. +This tendency was on the increas in Europe until the advent of this war, and +it is still a disgrace to certain cities and centers of scientific thought +in America. As a result of this worldwide attitude of mind, fostered by the +Brothers of the Shadow with the permission of the Race Spirits, as Job was +tempted by Satan in the legend, a spiritual cataract has covered the eyes of +the Western world and must be removed before evolution can proceed. How +that is being done will be the subject of the next letter. + + + +[PAGE 146] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 60. + + NOVEMBER, 1915. + + THE WAR AN OPERATION FOR SPIRITUAL CATARACT + + + You are aware from the teachings of the COSMO that there was one race at +the end of the Lemurian Epoch, there were seven in the Atlantean Epoch, +seven in the Aryan, and there will be on in the coming Galilean Epoch, mak- +ing in all sixteen races. You also remember that these sixteen races are +called by the Elder Brothers "the sixteen paths to destruction" because en- +meshed in the bodies of any race to such an extent that it will be unable to +follow the others along the path of evolution. During the Periods and Ep- +ochs there is always plenty of time so that the Leaders of humanity can mar- +shal their flocks into line. But the Jews are an example of what may happen +to people who become so intensely imbused with the racial spirit that they +absolutely refuse to let go. They continue as an anomaly among the rest of +humanity, a people without a country, king, or any other of the factors that +make for racial evolution. + + This was the tendency among the nations of Europe up to the present war. +Patriotism, and the racial ideal fostered thereby, were leading them away +from God. An age of doubt and skepticism had been ushered in by the many +scientific discoveries, and the pioneer races in the Western world were + + +[PAGE 147] AN OPERATION FOR SPIRITUAL CATARACT + +stearing very close to the brink of destruction. Therefore it became neces- +sary for the Elder Brothers to devise measures whereby mankind might be +brought from the path of pleasure to the path of devotion, and this could +only be done by removing the spiritual cataract from a sufficiently large +number of people so that they would then override the doubt and skepticism +of the rest. + + When we dwelt under the water in the early Atlantean Epoch, we were, as +you know, unable to see the body or even to feel it, because our conscious- +ness was focused in the spiritual realm. We saw one another, soul to soul. +We were unaware of either birth or death, and we felt no separation from +those we loved. But when we gradually became aware of our bodies, and our +consciousness was focused in the physical world from birth to death, and in +the spiritual world from death to birth, there was a separation, and conse- +quent sorrow on account of the advent of death. In bygone ages however, +there were still many who were able to see both worlds; they formed quite a +considerable number of the populace. Their testimonies to the continuity of +life were a great comfort to those who had been bereaved, for they believed +thoroughly that those whom they had lost were still alive and happy, though +unable to make themselves known. But gradually the world became more and +more materialistic; faith in the reality of the hereafter faded, and sorrow +at the loss of the loved ones grew more and more intense, until today many +believe the separation is final. To them the word "rebirth" is an empty +sound, and therefore grief is overwhelming. + + +[PAGE 148] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + But this very grief is nature's remedy for the spiritual cataract. As +surely as the desire for growth built the complicated alimentary canal from +the simplest beginning so that the craving for growth might be satisfied; as +surely as the desire for motion evolved the wonderful joints, sinews, and +ligaments wherewith this is accomplished; just as surely will the intense +yearning to continue the relationships severed by death build the organ for +its gratification--the spirit eye. Therefore this wholesale slaughter of +millions of men ha helped and is helping more to bridge the gulf between the +invisible and the visible world than a thousand years of preaching could do. +All through the history of the world it has been recorded that warriors have +seen so-called supernatural manifestations, and there is plenty of testimony +that those visions have also been seen in the present war. The shock of the +wound, the suffering in the hospital, and tears of the widows and orphans, +all are opening the spiritual eyes of Europe, and the age of doubt and skep- +ticism will pass away. Instead of being ashamed of having faith in God, the +world will honor a man for his piety rather than for his prowess in a not +very distant future. And let us all pray for that day. + + +[PAGE 149] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 61. + + DECEMBER, 1915. + + CYCLIC MOVEMENTS OF THE SUN + + + The news printed today in big type on the front pages of newspapers, news +which seems of such vital and absorbing interest to everybody, is usually +forgotten tomorrow, and the papers that contained the records are thrown +into the fire. Likewise the song that is upon the lips of everybody is usu- +ally after awhile relegated to he archives of oblivion. Even the men who +are launched like meteors into the limelight of publicity are usually soon +forgotten, together with the deeds that caused their brief popularity--for, +it? quote Solomon, "All is vanity." + + But among the kaleidoscopic changes that are constantly altering the +stage of the world, morally, mentally, and physically, there are certain cy- +clic events which, though they are recurrent in their nature, have a perma- +nency and stability about them which differentiates the macrocosmic from the +microcosmic method of conducting affairs. + + In the spring time, at Easter, when the sun crosses the eastern or vernal +equinox, the earth emerges from its wintry sleep and shakes off the snowy +blanket which has covered it with a vesture of immaculate purity. The voice +of nature is heard when the little babbling brooks begin to trickle down the +hillside on their way to the great ocean. It is heard when the wind + + +[PAGE 150] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +whispers in the newly sprouted forest leaves the song of love that calls +forth the bud and the flower which finally bears the pollen that is carried +upon invisible wings to the waiting mate. It is heard in the love song of +the mating birds and the call of beast unto beast. It continues in every +department of nature until the increase of new life has compensated for the +destruction by death. + + Through the summer, Love and Life toil exceedingly with joyful heart, for +they are Masters in the struggle for existence while the sun is exalted in +the northern heavens, at the maximum of his power at the summer solstice. +Time goes by, and there comes another turning point at the fall equinox. +The song of the woodland choir is now hushed; the love call of beast and +bird ceases and nature becomes mute again. The light wanes, and the shadows +of night grow longer, until at winter solstice, where we are now, the earth +again prepares for the deepest sleep, for she need the night of rest after +the strenuous activities of the preceding day. + + But as the spiritual activities of man are greatest while his body is +asleep, so also, by the law of analogy, we may understand that the spiritual +fires in the earth are brightest at this time of the year; that now is the +best opportunity for soul growth, for investigation and study of the deeper +mysteries of life. And therefore it behooves us to catch opportunity on the +wing so that we may use this present time to the very best advantage; yet +without hurry, without worry, but patiently and prayerfully, knowing that +among all other things in the world which change, this great wave of + + +[PAGE 151] THE TEACHER'S DEBT OF GRATITUDE + +spiritual light will be with us in the winter season for ages to come. It +will grow more and more brilliant as the earth and ourselves evolve to +higher degrees of spirituality. We are now doing the pioneer work of +spreading the Rosicrucian teachings which will help to illuminate the world +during the centuries immediately following our present time. There is a law +that "you can get only as you give." Now--this season of the year--is the +most propitious time to give and receive, so let us be sure to let our light +shine on the great cosmic Christmas tree, that it may be seen of men, and +that they may be attracted to the truths which we know to be of such vital +importance in the development of our fellow men. + + In concluding this letter I desire to thank every one of the students for +their co-operation in the work during the past year. Any may we do better +work together in the coming year. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 62. + + JANUARY, 1916. + + THE TEACHER'S DEBT OF GRATITUDE + + + WE are now at the close of another year of our lives and at the beginning +of a new, and certain thoughts have come to me in connection with these di- +visions of our earthly lives. + + When Christ was at the end of His ministry, eating the last supper with +His disciples, he washed their feet, despite protests from some who thought + + +[PAGE 152] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +that this was a humiliation for the teacher. But as a matter of fact it was +the symbol of an attitude of mind which is of great significance as a factor +in soul growth. Were it not for the mineral soil, the higher plant kingdom +would be an impossibility; and the animal kingdom could not exist if the +plants did not give it the needed substance. Thus we see that in nature the +higher feeds upon and is dependent on the lower for its growth and further +evolution. Although it is a fact that the disciples were instructed and +helped by Christ, it is also a fact that they were stepping-stones in His +development; and it was in recognition of this fact that He humbled Himself, +acknowledging His debt to them in the performance of the most menial service +imaginable. + + It has been the great privilege of the writer to transmit the esoteric +instructions of the Elder Brothers to you and thousands of others during the +past year, and in this he has been aided by all the workers on Mt. Ecclesia, +directly or indirectly. Those who have helped in the print shop, office, or +whatever necessary department have all had their share in this privilege, +and we all thank you for these opportunities for soul growth which have come +to us in satisfying your need. + + We trust that we have been of some service in that respect, and ask your +prayers that we may become more efficient servants in the coming year. + + And how about you, dear friend? During the past year you also have had +opportunities to serve others in a similar manner. Have you used your tal- +ents of knowledge transmitted to you to enlighten those with whom you have + + +[PAGE 153] SPIRITUAL TEACHERS--TRUE AND FALSE + +come in contact? It is not necessary to stand in a pulpit, literally or +metaphorically, at any time in order to speak to the heart of others. It is +often most effectively accomplished in the little quiet ways, such that +people do not know we are trying to show them something. We trust you have +improved your opportunities to the best of your ability during the past +year, and pray that you may enter the new year with a still more earnest +spirit of service, and that is may prove to be much more fruitful of soul +growth than the past has been. + + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 63. + + FEBRUARY, 1916. + + SPIRITUAL TEACHERS--TRUE AND FALSE + + + One of the most difficult problems which confront the leader of a +spiritual movement is the impatience of students who want to reap where they +have not sown. They are not patient enough to wait for the harvest but want +results immediately, and if they do not sprout wings within a specified time +set by themselves they are ready to cry "fraud" and seek and "individual +teacher," visible or invisible. So long as he will "guarantee" results, +they are prepared to throw common sense to the winds and follow him blindly, +though he may lead them to the insane asylum or to a consumptives's grave, +or in the cases of those who get off the easiest, simply separate them from + + +[PAGE 154] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +some of their cash. + + This condition has been dealt with before in letters to students, but +there are always some who forget and new students are constantly being added +to the class; therefore it is necessary to reiterate important points from +time to time. Hearing recently of one who left a certain center for an "in- +dividual teacher," and who seems on that account to be envied in a measure +by others of the group who have not been so fortunate (?), it seems expedi- +ent to go into the matter again. + + Have you ever seen any institution, from kindergarten to college, where +they keep a teacher for every pupil? We have not. No board of education +would sanction such a waste of energy, nor would they appoint an individual +teacher for any one simply because that pupil was impatient and wanted to +get through school "quick." And finally, even if a board could be found +willing to appoint a teacher in a special case who would "cram" knowledge +into the pupils brain, there would be a great danger of brain fever, insan- +ity, and maybe death in that method. + + If this is true in schools of physical science, how can anyone believe +that it can be different with regard to spiritual science? Christ said to +His disciples: "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how +shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" No "individual +teacher," if such there were, can initiate anyone into the mysteries of the +soul until the pupil is prepared by his or her own work. Whoever professes +to do so brands himself as an impostor of a low order. And whoever allows + + +[PAGE 155] SPIRITUAL TEACHERS--TRUE AND FALSE + +himself to be so duped shows very little common sense; otherwise he would +realize that no truly highly evolved teacher could afford to give his time +and energy to the instruction of a single pupil, when he might just as eas- +ily teach a large number. + + Imagine, if you can, the twelve great Brothers of the Rose Cross, each +tagging around after on puny pupil! The thought is a sacrilege. Such truly +great and highly evolved men have other and more important things to attend +to, and even the lay brothers who have been initiated by them are not al- +lowed to bother them for small and unimportant matters. + + It may therefore be stated emphatically that the Elder Brothers do not +habitually visit any one in the Rosicrucian Fellowship, or out of it, as an +"individual teacher," and whoever thinks so is being deceived. They have +given certain teachings which form the basis of instruction in this school, +and by learning how to live this silence of the soul we may in time fit our- +selves to meet them face to face in the school of Invisible Helpers. There +is no other way. + + I trust that this may fix the idea more firmly in your own mind than it +has been before, and give you a basis for setting others right who are in +danger of being side-tracked. + + +[PAGE 156] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 64. + + MARCH, 1916. + + THE BATTLE THAT RAGES WITHIN + + + From time to time we are grieved to receive letters from students in the +warring countries chiding us for not taking up the cudgel in favor of their +side. There has not been a day since this sad conflict began that we have +not mourned the dreadful slaughter, though comforted by the knowledge that +it is helping as nothing else could to break down the barrier between the +living and the dead. Thus the war will go far towards abolishing the sorrow +now experienced by the masses when parting from loved ones; also the present +sorrow is turning the Western people from the pleasures of the world to the +worship of God. There has not been a night that we have not worked +diligently with the dead and wounded to allay their mental anguish or +physical pain. + + Patriotism was very good at one time, but Christ said, "Before Abraham +was, I am." (EGO SUM). Races and nations, comprehended in the term +"Abraham," are evanescent, but "the Ego," which existed before Abraham, the +race father, will also persist when nations are a thing of the past. There- +fore the Fellowship disregards national and racial differences, endeavoring +to join all together in a bond of love to fight a Great War--the only war in + + +[PAGE 157] THE BATTLE THAT RAGES WITHIN + +which a true Christian should fight, and one which a true Christian ought to +wage unflinchingly and without quarter--the war against his lower nature. +Paul says: "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good +thing. For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would +not, that I do. I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I +see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and +bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O +wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" + + Does not Paul describe here most accurately the state of every aspiring +soul? Are we not all suffering spiritually because of the conflict within +ourselves? I hope there is but one answer, namely, that this inner war is +being waged fiercely and unremittingly by every Fellowship student; for +where there is no struggle, there is a sure indication of spiritual coma. +The "body of sin" has then the upper hand. But the fiercer the fight, the +more hopeful our spiritual state. + + In America we hear a great deal of talk of "neutrality" and "prepared- +ness" for "defensive" purposes. In the nobler war which we must wage, there +can be no "neutrality." Either there is peace, and "the flesh" rules us and +holds us in abject subjections, or there is war aggresively waged by both +flesh and spirit. And so long as we continue to live in this "body of +death" this warfare will continue, for even Christ was tempted, and we can- +not expect to fare better than He. + + +[PAGE 158] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + "Preparedness" is good. It is more necessary every day, for just as a +physical enemy seeks to trap and ambush a strong adversary rather than risk +open battle, so also the temptations which beset us on "the path" become +more subtle with each succeeding year. + + Writer like Thomas a Kempis were wont to speak of themselves as "vile +worms," and to use kindred terms of "self-abasement," because they knew the +great and subtle danger of "self-approbation." But even that may be carried +too far, and we may feel that we are "very, very good" and "holier" than +others because we abuse ourselves; and we may do it for the pleasure we get +from hearing other people contradict us. Truly, the snares of the desire +body are past finding out. + + There is a way to be prepared, and it is sure: "Look to Christ," and +keep your mind busy every waking moment when not engaged in your daily work, +studying how you may serve Him. Endeavor by every available means to carry +out in a practical manner the ideas thus conceived. The more closely we +imitate Christ, the more loyally we follow the dictates of the Higher Self, +the more certainly shall we vanquish the lower nature and win the only war +worth while winning. + + +[PAGE 159] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 65. + + APRIL, 1916. + + EASTER, A PROMISE OF NEWNESS OF LIFE. + + + This is the Easter lesson, though it does not say one word connected with +the cosmic event of the present season. But it emphasizes anew the great +vital fact that birth and death are only incidents in the life of the +spirit, which is without beginning or end. + + Old age, sickness, war, or accident may destroy this earthly habitation, +but we have "a house from heaven" that no power can move. And so, no matter +how closely death may come to us or to our loved ones, we know that as Good +Friday is followed by the glorious Easter, so also the door of death is but +the gate to a longer life where the sickness and paid which lays our +physical body low have no more dominion. + + Just think what that means to our poor brothers who are torn and mangled +by the awful inhumanity of man to man, and let us give thanks that they have +escaped from the suffering which they must have endured if there had been no +death to liberate them. + + The great majority look upon death as "the king of terrors," but when we +are instructed, we realize that under our present conditions death is a +friend indeed. None of us has a perfect body, and as it deteriorates in an +alarming degree during the few years that we use it, think how it would feel +a million years hence--and a million years are less than a fleeting moment + + +[PAGE 160] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +compared to infinite duration. None but spirit can endure infinity, and +therefore Easter is the earnest of our hope of immortality, and Christ the +first fruits of immortality and many brethren with Him. + + Let us then, dear friend, approach the coming Easter in an attitude of +spiritual aspiration to imitate our great Leader, the Christ, by crucifying +our lower nature. May every day of the coming year be a Good Friday, may +every night be spent in the purgatorial prison ministering to the spirits +there confined, as Christ also did, and may every morn be a glorious Easter +on which we rise in the newness of life to greater and better deeds. + + "Take care of the pennies and the dollars will look after themselves" +says a worldly wise proverb. We may paraphrase and adapt it to the +spiritual life by saying, "Take heed that every day is well spent, and the +years will yield much treasure." + + +[PAGE 161] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 66. + + MAY, 1916. + + DAILY EXERCISE IN SOUL CULTURE + + + When Christ visited Martha and Mary the former was much more concerned +with preparation for his material comfort than in attending to the spiritual +matters which he taught; hence the rebuke that she was concerned with many +things of lesser moment than "the one thing needful." There is no doubt +that it is positively wicked to neglect fulfilling one's duties and meeting +every obligation honestly incurred in our ordinary everyday life. But un- +fortunately most of us make the great mistake of looking upon our work and +duties in the material world as paramount, thinking that the spiritual side +of our development can wait until a convenient time when we have nothing +else to do. An increasing number of people admit that they ought to give +more attention to spiritual matters, but they always have an excuse for not +attending to them just now. "My business requires my entire attention," one +will say. "Times are so strenuous, and in order to keep my head above water +I must work from early morning till late at night. But as soon as times are +a little better I am going to look into these matters and give more time to +them." Another claims that certain relatives are dependent on him and that +when he has fulfilled his obligations to these dependents he will be able to + + +[PAGE 162] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +devote his time to soul growth. + + There is no doubt that in many cases these excuses are legitimate, to a +certain extent, and that the one who makes them is really and truly sacri- +ficing himself or herself for some one else. I remember the case of a pro- +bationer who once wrote in distress that her two little children were always +in need of attention at the times when she ought to perform her morning and +evening exercises. She ardently desired to progress along the path of the +higher life but the care of the children seemed a hindrance, and she asked +what she should do. Attend to her children, of course, as I wrote to her. +The sacrifice involved in giving up her own progress for the sake of her +children's comfort naturally won a rebound to a thousand times more soul +growth than if she had neglected her children for her own selfish interests. + + But on the other hand there are many who simply lack the mental stamina +to make th sustained effort. No matter how strenuous busines conditions +are, it is possible to devote a little time each day, morning and evening, +to the attainment of spirituality. It is an exceedingly good practice to +concentrate the mind upon an ideal during the time spent in street cars go- +ing from home to the place of business. The very fact that there is so much +noise and confusion, which makes the effort more difficult, is in itself a +help; for he who learns to direct his thought one-pointedly under such con- +ditions will have no difficulty in obtaining the same results, or even bet- +ter, under more favorable circumstances. The time thus spent will prove far + + +[PAGE 163] DAILY EXERCISE IN SOUL CULTURE + +more profitable than if used for reading a newspaper or a magazine which +will call attention to conditions that are far from elevating. + + The mind of most people is like a sieve. As water runs through the sieve +so also thoughts flit through their brain. These thoughts are good, bad, +and indifferent--mostly the latter. The mind does not hold on to any of +them sufficiently long to learn its nature, and yet we are apt to entertain +the idea that we cannot help our thoughts being what they are. On that ac- +count the great majority have formed the habit of listless thinking which +makes them incapable of holding on to any subject until it is thoroughly +mastered. It may be difficult to do, but certainly when the power of +thought-control has been gained, the possessor holds within his hand the key +to success in whatever line he may be engaged. + + Therefore I would urge you in connection with this series of lessons, The +Occult Effect of the Emotions," which you are receiving that you take the +above personally to heart and set aside a portion of each day for the pur- +pose of gaining thought-control. There are a number of helpful hints given +by various authors, but i will think the matter over and try to give some +general hints. This is very difficult because so much depends upon the tem- +perament of the student. The instruction should really be individual, +rather than collective, to bring the best results. + + +[PAGE 164] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 67. + + JUNE, 1916. + + THE REAL HEROES OF THE WORLD + + Though my letter is dated the first of the month it was written earlier +of course--in fact, the evening before "Decoration Day," the day when all +patriotic Americans are supposed to honor the dead heroes who fought for the +integrity of the Union. + + As I thought over the matter it occurred to me that it seems always to +require a calamity or a catastrophe to make me forget self and rise to the +call of a cause or to the need of the occasion regardless of consequences. +They always respond in war, earthquake, fire, or shipwreck. + + But why should it require such cataclysmic events to bring out the virtue +of self-sacrificing service when they are needed every day and hour in every +home, hamlet, and city? The world would be so much better off if we did our +noble deeds daily instead of only on occasion of exceptional stress. It may +be noble to die for a great cause, but it is surely nobler to live a life of +self-sacrifice, covering many years, cherishing others and helping them to +be better and nobler, than to die in the attempt to kill a fellow being. + + There is many a father who struggles years and years to give his children +what he terms "a chance in life." There are thousands of mothers who toil a +lifetime at "hard labor" to aid in this work for the young. There are + + +[PAGE 165] THE REAL HEROES OF THE WORLD + +millions of such heroes who are never heard of because they helped their +fellows to live instead of causing them to die. + + Is this not an anomaly--that we honor an army of men for more than half a +century because they killed, killed, killed, while that greater army which +fostered all that is best on earth lie forgotten in their graves? + + As followers of Christ, let us pay tribute to the heroes and heroines who +through years of suffering fought for others by rendering tender care in +childhood's helpless days, by unflagging service in times of sickness, by +patient participation in poverty and in any and every trouble that might be- +fall. + + Nor let us wait till they have passed to the beyond, but let us honor +them here and now. Neither should we set one day in the year apart for the +payment of such tribute, but we should honor them every day of our lives, +and we should seek to lighten their burdens by emulating their noble deeds. + + How shall we find them? they wear no uniform, neither do they wear their +hearts upon their sleeves. They are everywhere, and if we seek we shall +find them. The quicker we join their ranks, the sooner we shall honor our- +selves by lightening their burdens as it becomes all true servants of the +Master. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my +brethren, ye have done it unto me." + + +[PAGE 166] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 68. + + JULY, 1916. + + THE WORK OF THE RACE SPIRITS + + IN a few days we shall celebrate in America "The Glorious Fourth," our +Independence Day, and we shall waste a lot of perfectly good and useful pow- +der that might be put to better use, in order to show our "patriotism." A +considerable number of fires and accidents will occur if we may judge from +many precedents. + + To what purpose all of this we may see by the heartrending spectacle of +the war which for almost two years has made tears a mockery, for no symbol +of sorrow is adequate to the occasion. let us realize that had there been +no "patriotism," there could have been no war; and realizing its baneful in- +fluence, let us learn to say with Thomas Paine, "The world is my country, +and to do good is my religion." This, it seems to me, is the gospel we +ought to preach to our fellow men in whatever country we happen to be, for +this attitude of mind will be one of the factors in accomplishing our eman- +cipation from the Race Spirit feeds on war, for it causes the nation which +it rules to sink its internal differences for the time being and its people + + +[PAGE 167] STRUGGLES OF THE ASPIRING SOUL + +to cluster close to one another for defense or aggression against the common +foe. Thus they vibrate in harmony to an extent greater than usual, and this +strengthens the Race Spirit and delays the advent of Christ to that extent. +So long as patriotism holds the nations in bondage to the Race Spirits, the +Universal Kingdom cannot be started. + + I would therefore urge that the students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship +refrain from participation in any patriotic exercises of a martial nature. +Practice Universal Brotherhood by never mentioning or recognizing differ- +ences of nationality, for we are all one in Christ. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 69. + AUGUST, 1916. + STRUGGLES OF THE ASPIRING SOUL + + + From time to time letters of discouragement are received at Headquarters +from people who are smitten by conscience because they are unable to live up +to their high ideals, and they feel that it would be more honest to abandon +the faith and live as others live who make no professions. They say that +while they read and study or listen in church to passages which exhort them +to love their enemies, to bless them that curse them, and to pray for those +who despitefully use them, they are heart and soul in accord with these sen- +timents and would gladly follow these precepts; but when they meet such + + +[PAGE 168] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +conditions in the world, they cannot comply with the Biblical command, and +therefore feel that they are hypocrites. + + If man were a homogeneous whole, if spirit, soul, and body were one and +undivided, that these people are hypocrites would be true. But spirit, +soul, and body are not one, as we realize to our sorrow from the very first +day that we feel the desire to tread the path of the higher life. And in +this fact lies the solution of the problem. There are two distance natures +in each of us. In the days of our unaspiring life the higher spiritual na- +ture is asleep, and the worldly personal self is undisputed lord of all our +actions. Then there is peace and serenity. But the moment the spiritual +nature wakens, the war begins. As we grow in spirituality, the struggle is +intensified until some time in the future the personality will succumb, and +we shall gain the peace that passeth all understanding. + + In the meantime we have the condition whereof our students complain (with +Paul, Faust, and every other aspiring soul), that to will is easy, but that +the good that they would, they do not, and the evil that they would not, +that they do. The writer has felt, and feels most keenly every day of his +life this discrepancy between this teachings and his actions. One part of +his being aspires with an ardor that is painful in its intensity to all the +higher and nobler things, while on the other hand, a strong personality, ex- +ceedingly difficult to curb, is a source of continual grief. But he feels +that so long as he does not "pose" as a saint, so long as he honestly admits +his shortcomings and professes his sorrow for them, and so long as he uses +the inclusive "WE" in all his exhortations, he deceives no one, and is not + + +[PAGE 169] STRUGGLES OF THE ASPIRING SOUL + +a hypocrite. Whatever he says he takes to himself first and foremost, and, +however, unsuccessful, he strive to follow the Rosicrucian teachings. If +everyone else among our students feels troubled on the same score as the +correspondents who have inspired this letter, we hope that this may set them +right. + + Besides, what else can we do but go on? Having once awakened the higher +nature, it cannot be permanently silenced, and there will be the misery of +regret and remorse if we abandon effort. We have several times called at- +tention to the way the mariner guides his vessel across the waste of waters +by a star. He will never reach it, but nevertheless it brings him safely +through the rock shoals to the desired haven. Similarly, if our ideals are +so high that we realize we shall never reach them in this life, let us also +keep in mind that we have endless time before us, and that what we cannot +accomplish in this life-day will be achieved tomorrow or later. Let us fol- +low the example of Paul and "by patient persistence in well-doing" continue +to seek for spiritual glory, honor, and immortality. + + +[PAGE 170] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + + LETTER NO. 70 + + September, 1916 + + BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE LIFE + + + You know of course that the Fellowship teaches rebirth to be a fact in +nature, and you believe in this doctrine because it explains so many facts +in life which we are otherwise unable to account for. But I wonder how many +students have really taken the practical use of this truth to heart, and are +fixing their attention upon it by consciously and systematically molding +themselves and thus making their environment for future lives. + + It is true that in the Second Heaven we devote all of our time to making +the environment for our future life, forming the earth and the sea, provid- +ing the conditions for the flora and fauna, and generally shaping things to +give us a suitable arena for our coming life work. But we do that according +to the way we have been living here in this present life. If we have been +lazy and shiftless here, living in a happy-go-lucky manner, it is not likely +that when we come to the Second Heaven we will be careful to prepare a fer- +tile soil, which we may later till. Therefore our next embodiment will +probably find us with the barest means of existence at hand, so that under +the whip of necessity we may learn to exert ourselves. + + It is similar with our moral qualities. When we are ready to descend + + +[PAGE 171] BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE LIFE + +into the next embodiment,we can only build into our new vehicles what we +have garnered in this. Therefore it is wise for us to commence now, when +our next life is in the moldable clay stage, to make our ideals what we +would like them to be and to make the environment in which we would like to +be raised. + + We are without a doubt all ready to agree in the first place than our +present bodies are not as we wish them. Diseases of all sorts come to most +people; some are subject to pain all their lives, and no one is ever able to +go through life from the cradle to the grave without having at least some +suffering. Thus each one of us may well picture himself in a future life +with a healthy body in which he will be free from diseases that are now his +worst plague. + + With respect to the moral and mental faculties we are also far from per- +fect, and each one may therefore take up with profit the subject of improve- +ment in that direction. Do we realize that we have a critical spirit, a +sharp tongue, a hasty temper, or other kindred faults which bring us into +trouble with others and make life unpleasant in our environment? Very well; +by holding in mind and visualizing our ideal self for the future--having +equipose under all circumstances, being soft-spoken, kindly, and affection- +ate, etc.--we shall build these ideals into the thought form we have already +shaped for ourselves in that distant day. And according to the intensity of +the concentration which we apply tot he matter will be the result. In so +far as we endeavor now to cultivate and aspire virtues, we shall possess +them then; and this applies to faculties as well. If we are solely now, by + + +[PAGE 172] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +the aspiration to maintain order we shall later bring back that virtue. Are +we lacking the sense of ryhthm? Very well, it may be ours in the future by +asking now. Mechanical ability, or any thing else that is necessary to give +us the life experience we seek, may be had in the same way. + + Therefore we ought systematically to set aside a certain time at inter- +vals, as frequent as is consistent with our other duties, to think forward +and plan for future life--what sort of a body, what faculties, virtues, and +environment we wish. When we are able to make our choice intelligently, we +are undoubtedly given a great deal more latitude than if we had not thought +about the matter at all. + + You understand of course that the highest form of aspiration to virtue +is the constant endeavor to practice in it our daily lives. But while we +are endeavoring to cultivate virtures, as we should, by practice, it is sci- +entific to plan ahead the use we shall make of the future life just as we +now plan ahead the use of the day that is before us. I trust that this idea +may take root among the students and be consistently carried to its le- +gitimate consummation, for in that way it will be bound to have a wonderful +effect upon the future of ourselves and the future of the world about us. + + +[PAGE 173] DESCENT OF THE CHRIST LIFE IN THE FALL + + + LETTER NO. 71 + + October, 1916 + + DESCENT OF THE CHRIST LIFE IN THE FALL + + We are now at the fall equinox where the physical sun is leaving the +northern hemisphere after having provided us with the necessities of life +for the coming year; and the spiritual tide which carries on its crest the +life which will find physical expression in the coming year is now on its +way towards our earth. The half-year directly before us is the holy part of +the year. From the feast of the Immaculate Conception to the Mystic Birth +at Christmas (while this wave is descending into the earth) and from that +time to Easter (while it is traveling outward) a harmonious, rhythmic vibra- +tory song, not inaptly described in the legend of the Mystic Birth as a "ho- +sanna" sung by an angel choir, fills the planetary atmosphere and acts upon +all as an impulse to spiritual aspiration. Not upon all in even measure, of +course, but according to their general character. + + Some do not feel this spiritual save at all because of their depravity, +but it works in, on, and with them just the same, and in time they will re- +spond. Others are so engrossed in their buying and selling, their marrying +and giving in marriage, their loves and their ambitions, that they are not +conscious of it save at the time when it is at its maximum strength, namely, + + +[PAGE 174] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +namely, Christmas, and then it expresses itself only as a spirit of +super-socialability and generosity; they like to feast and give presents. A +more advanced class feels the wave of holiness from the very beginning of +its descent, and realizes the important effect of its harmony and rhythm in +furthering efforts in the direction of soul growth. They profit accordingly +by making the most efforts during the months from the fall to the spring +equinox. It is like swimming with the tide. + + For that reason I am devoting this letter to call your attention tot he +annually recurring phenomenon. Whether you are conscious of it or not, the +powerful spiritual vibrations of life-giving Christ wave are in the earth's +atmosphere during the winter months, and may be used by you to a much +greater advantage if you know it and double your efforts than if you are un- +aware of the fact. + + Let us therefore each take stock of the particular sins which most easily +beset us, for now is beginning the most favorable time of the year for their +eradication. Let us also take stock of the virtues we lack and feel most +need of cultivating, for this is the time to do the work most efficiently. +By careful, systematic work in the holy winter months we may make great +strides in our efforts to realize our spiritual aspirations. + + Having made up our minds as to the personal work, let us look about us to +see who in our circle of acquaintances seem to be seeking for spiritual en- +lightenment, and who would be likely to lend an ear to our teachings. This +requires discrimination, for we have no right to force our ideas upon + + +[PAGE 175] TRIALS THAT BESET THE OCCULT STUDENT + +unwilling ears any more than we would be justified in beating a drum in +their rooms for an hour or two each day. If we find that they do not take +kindly to what we have to say, it is better to leave them; but there are +many who may be awakened in winter under the spiritual Christ vibration who +could not be reached in summer. I therefore trust that we may use all the +coming months in a way which shall profit us greatly from the spiritual +standpoint. + + + LETTER NO. 72 + + November, 1916 + + THE REASON FOR THE TRIALS THAT BESET THE OCCULT STUDENT + + + From time to time we receive letters from students complaining that since +they have taken up the higher teachings, and are trying to live in confor- +mity with them, everything seems to go wrong with their affairs. Some feel +a determined opposition in their homes, others suffer in business, and some +are even affected in health. Some, according to temperament, are ready to +give up, and others grit their teeth in persistence in well-doing" despite +the trials. But all are unanimous in asking why this marked change in their +affairs. Each receives the best help we can given to solve his individual +problems, but as we feel that there are many among the students who have +been similarly tried, it seems appropriate to state the reason for this + + +[PAGE 176] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +condition. + + In the first place, the aspiring soul should realize that the adverse +conditions happen for good according to a firmly established law of nature +whereby God aims to aid him in the quest. Trials are a sign of progress and +a cause for great rejoicing. This is how the law acts: During all our past +lives we have made ties and have incurred debts under the Law of Causation. +These debts continue to increase so long as we live the usual selfish, hap- +hazard lives, and we may liken each debt to a drop of vinegar. When the +turning point comes and we cease to make vinegar, the law of justice re- +quires that we take our medicine. But we are allowed to determine whether +we will take it in large doses and have it over quickly or whether we prefer +to take it in very small sips and string it out over a number of lives. +This choice is not made by words but by acts. If we take up the work of +self-improvement with enthusiasm, if we cut our vices out by the roots and +LIVE the life we profess, the Great Beings whom we know as the Recording An- +gels give us a stronger dose of vinegar than they would if we merely talked +about the beauties of the higher life. They do that to help us toward the +day of liberation from our self-made bonds and not to harm or hinder us. + + In view of these facts we can understand the Christ's exhortation to re- +joice when men revile us and accuse us falsely for His sake. Boys pass a +barren tree with indifference, but as soon as the tree bears fruit, they are +ready to throw stones and rob it. So it is with men also: while we walk + + +[PAGE 177] SPIRITUAL STOCK-TAKING + +with the crowd and do as they do, we are unmolested, but the moment we do +what they know in their hearts to be right, we become a living reproach to +them even if we never utter a word of censure, and in order to justify them- +selves in their own eyes they begin to find fault with us. In this respect +those who are most closely associated with us in the home or in business are +more prominent than strangers who have no connection with us. But whatever +the form or the source of such trouble it is a cause for congratulation, for +it shows that we are doing something effectively progressive,; so let us +keep on undismayed and with unflagging zeal. + + + LETTER NO. 73 + + December, 1916 + + SPIRITUAL STOCK-TAKING DURING THE HOLY SEASON + + + Christ likened the aspiring souls of His time to stewards who had re- +ceived a certain number of talents from their lord and were supposed to go +into trade with them that they might increase the capital entrusted to their +care. We understand from this parable that all who aspire to serve Him are +required likewise to use their God-given talents in such a manner that they +show a gain in soul growth when in due season they are called upon to give +an account of their stewardship. + + This accounting, so far as the majority of mankind is concerned, is put +off till the Reaper has closed the ledger of life and they find themselves + + +[PAGE 178] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +in Purgatory to receive the result of the things done in the body, whether +they be good or ill. + + But what would we think of a business man who pursued such a reckless +method of conducting his affairs? Would we not feel that he was steering +straight for the rock of bankruptcy if he did not balance accounts and take +stock of his assets and liabilities every year? Surely we would feel that +he deserved to fail because of his neglect to follow ordinary business +methods. + + If we realize the value of system and the benefit of constantly knowing +clearly how we stand with respect to our material affairs, we ought also to +pursue the same safe methods regarding our spiritual affairs. Nay, we +should be much more circumspect in the conduct of the heavenly matters than +in worldly matters, for our material prosperity is but a watch in the night +compared to the eternal welfare of the spirit. + + We are nearing the winter solstice, which is the beginning of a new year +from the spiritual point of view, and we are looking forward to the new out- +pouring of love from our Father in Heaven through the Christ Child. This, +therefore, is a good time to take stock and ask ourselves how we have spent +the love offerings of last year, how we have exerted ourselves to gather +treasure in heaven. And we shall experience great profit if we approach +this stock-taking in the proper spirit and at the most auspicious time, for +there is a time to sow and a time to reap, and for everything under the sun +there is a time when it may be done with greater chance of success than at + + +[PAGE 179] SPIRITUAL STOCK-TAKING + +any other season. + + The stars are the heavenly time markers. From them come the forces which +influence us through life. On Holy Night, between the 24th and 25th of De- +cember, at midnight, in the place where you live, you will find that retro- +spection and the resolutions engendered by it for the new year will be most +effective. + + At Mt. Ecclesia and the various Study Centers a Midnight Service is held +on Holy Night, and students attending such services are thereby debarred +from the midnight self-communion. Others may be unable to hold it at that +time for other reasons. For these any of the late evening or early morning +hours will serve nearly as well. But let us all unite on that night in a +concerted spiritual effort of aspiration; and let each student not only pray +for his individual soul growth in the coming year, but let all unite in a +prayer for the collective growth of our movement. The workers at Headquar- +ters also request your helpful thoughts. + + If we all put our shoulders to the wheel at this time, we may be sure of +an unusually individual and collective blessing and a spiritually prosperous +year. + + +[PAGE 180] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + + LETTER NO. 74 + + January, 1917 + + ALL OCCULT DEVELOPMENT BEGINS WITH THE VITAL BODY + + + Recently a friend who has been taking the correspondence course a number +of months wrote to get a matter cleared up which is bothering him; and as it +may be that others are feeling somewhat similar to him but have not reached +the point of expression, we thought best to use this letter as an answer. +It has sufficient general interest to be of value even to those who have not +looked at the matter in the light seen by our friend. He does not want to +complain, but he asked for the correspondence course in the hope of getting +something to further occult development. Instead he receives each month a +nice little sermon, which he admits is good for both beginners and advanced +students, but where is the schooling? Other authors give certain exercises +which help their followers; will we please give him one that will develop +the faculty of writing? + + No, we cannot do that. The Rosicrucian teachings are designed to further +spiritual progress rather than material prosperity, and we know of no occult +exercise which will bring wealth, either directly or by abnormally fostering +a latent talent. If we did, we would not teach it, for such use of occult + + +[PAGE 181] OCCULT DEVELOPMENT AND THE VITAL BODY + +power is black magic. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteous- +ness, and all these things shall be added unto you," said Christ, and we +shall make no mistake by following His advice. If our friend or any one +else wants to develop a latent faculty for the good alone he may do with it, +that spiritual aspiration will, if persistently adhered to and backed by +physical effort (works), eventually bring the desired end without the need +of a special occult exercise. + + And about the lessons being "nice little sermons." Yes, so they are when +read superficially. But if they are studied deeply, there is a great deal +of occult knowledge found of much more benefit to the student than an exer- +cise such as the one our friend wants. There is, however, "method in our +madness" in giving it out just that way. Perhaps this may not have been ap- +parent to students, and we will therefore try to make it clear. Kindly bear +in mind, however, that the following is a comparison made for a legitimate +purpose; it is not a criticism. + + Apart from the fact that the Eastern School of Occultism bases its teach- +ings on Hinduism, while the Western Wisdom School espouses Christianity, the +religion of the West, there is ONE GREAT FUNDAMENTAL, IRRECONCILABLE DIS- +CREPANCY between the teachings of the modern representatives of the East and +those of Rosicrucians. According to the version of Eastern Occultism the +vital body--which is called "LINYA SHARIRA"--is comparatively unimportant, +for it is incapable of development as a vehicle of consciousness. It serves +only as an avenue for the solar force "prana," and as "a link" between the + + +[PAGE 182] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +physical body and the desire body, which is called "KAMA RUPA," also the +"astral body." this, they say, is the vehicle of the Invisible Helper. + + The Western Wisdom School teaches us as its fundamental maxim that "ALL +OCCULT DEVELOPMENT BEGINS WITH THE VITAL BODY," and the writer, as its pub- +lic representative, has therefore been busy since the inception of our move- +ment trying to gather and disseminate knowledge concerning the four ethers +and the vital body. Much information was given in the "COSMO" and succeed- +ing book, but the monthly lessons and letters give the result of our re- +searches up to date. We are constantly parading this vital body (vital in a +double sense) before the minds of the students so that by knowing and think- +ing about it as well as by reading and heeding the "nice little sermons" +which we use to wrap this information in, they may consciously, and uncon- +sciously, weave the "Golden Wedding Garment." We would advise all to study +these lessons carefully year after year; there may be much dross, but there +is gold among them. + + You have our sincere wishes for abundant spiritual growth during the New +Year. + + +[PAGE 183] SERVING WHERE BEST FITTED TO SERVE + + + LETTER NO. 75 + + February, 1917 + + SERVING WHERE BEST FITTED TO SERVE + + + A question was asked recently as follows: "You speak so much about SER- +VICE; just what does that mean? There are in our Fellowship a number of +people who say that they love to serve, but they do not do anything but what +they like to do. Is that service?" + + It seems that this question offers food for profitable thought and that +an analysis of the subject may benefit us all, so we decided to devote the +monthly letter to this purpose. + + It is evident that they majority of people in the world will not serve +unless there is "something in it" for them. They are looking for a material +reward, and that is the wise way of the unseen powers to spur them to ac- +tion, for thus they are unconsciously evolving toward the stage in soul +growth where they will serve for the love of serving. But they cannot be +expected to change over night; there are no sudden transformations in na- +ture. When the eggshell bursts and a chicken walks out, of when the cocoon +breaks and a butterfly wings it was among the flowers, we know that the +magic was not wrought in a moment. There was an inner process of prepara- +tion prior to the outward change. A similar process of inner growth is + + +[PAGE 184] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +required to change the servants of Mammon to servants of Love. + + If we want to make a building larger, all we have to do is to bring our +brick and other building material to the place, start a force of workmen, +and presto! the building begins to grow apace to any dimensions we desire +and at any speed we wish, depending only upon our ability to furnish labor +and material. But if we want to increase the size of a tree or an animal, +we cannot accomplish our object by nailing wood to the tree trunk or lading +flesh and skin upon the back of the animal. The building grows by external +accretions, but in all living things physical growth is from within and can- +not be hurried to any appreciable extent without danger of complication. It +is the same with spiritual growth; it proceeds from within and must have +time. We cannot expect that people who have just begun to feel the inner +urge impelling them into an altruistic association, to renounce in the twin- +kling of an eye all selfishness and other vices and blossom out into the +stature of Christ. At best we are only just a little better than we were +save for the fact that we are striving and endeavoring to follow "in His +steps." But that makes all the difference, for we are TRYING to serve as He +served. + + If that is the motive, it in nowise detracts from the service of a musi- +cian who inspires us with devotion at our services that he loves his music. +Nor does it render the service any less because the speaker who fires us +with zeal in the Master's work loves to clothe his ideas in beautiful words. +Nor does it make the hall less attractive because the member who swept, + + +[PAGE 185] SERVING WHERE BEST FITTED TO SERVICE + +dusted, and decorated it loves to make his exterior surroundings beautiful. +Each can, in fact, serve to much better advantage if the line of service +lies along the path of his natural inclinations and abilities, and we ought +to encourage one another to look for opportunities in the line where each is +best fitted to serve. + + There is no special merit in seeking out service in a capacity that is +disagreeable to us. It would be a mistake if the musician said to the care- +taker: "I dislike to scrub floors and decorate rooms, and I know you +tremble at the thought of playing, also that you are out of practice, but +let us change places for the sake of service." On the other hand, if no one +were there to play, it would be the decorator's duty to put diffidence aside +and serve as well as possible. If the floor needed scrubbing and the chairs +dusting, the speaker and musician should be willing to do that work also re- +gardless of personal dislike. Nothing is menial. The same principle will +apply in the home, shop, or office. SERVICE MAY BE DEFINED AS THE BEST USE +OF OUR TALENTS--THE PUTTING OF OUR TALENTS TO THE BEST USE IN EACH CASE OF +IMMEDIATE NEED REGARDLESS OF LIKE OR DISLIKE. + + If we strive to do this, our progress and soul growth will increase cor- +respondingly. + + +[PAGE 186] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + + LETTER NO. 76 + + March, 1917 + + "LOST SOULS" AND STRAGGLERS + + + We have been asked to give a lesson on "lost souls" and stragglers. Our +correspondent wants to know the Rosicrucian teachings concerning them. As +this very question was dealt with earlier in this book, in the letter for +April, 1912 (No. 17), we cannot do better than refer our correspondent to +it. We trust that it will explain the matter to him. We should be glad if +other students who have questions of general interest would submit them for +elucidation in these letters, for although there is a question of department +in the "Rays," not all our students are subscribers. Also the problems pre- +sented can perhaps be given a little more intimate treatment here than is +possible in a magazine that must go before a public which is not as well +versed in the philosophy as our students. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 187] THE UNNECESSARY FEAR OF DEATH + + + LETTER NO. 77 + + April, 1917 + + THE UNNECESSARY FEAR OF DEATH + + + It is really pathetic to see the gloom of people who have been bereaved +by the death of some one near and dear, and to see how in extreme cases they +devote themselves for the rest of their lives to mourning for the one who +has passed on. They clothe themselves in sable garments, and deem it a sac- +rilege to the memory of the departed one to even smile, little realizing +that by such an attitude of mind they are keeping in the densest regions of +the invisible world the person whom they profess to love, where all that is +evil lives and moves and has its being in close contact with the base and +selfish side of humanity. This is not a mere fancy but an actual fact, de- +monstrable to any one who has the slightest extension of the physical sight. + + It is one of the greatest blessings conferred upon those who study and +believe the Rosicrucian teachings that they are gradually emancipated from +the fear of death and from the feeling that a great calamity has happened +when some one near and dear to them passes into the invisible beyond. A +blessing flows both to the so-called "living" and the so-called "dead" when +the departing spirit is given the proper care and help during the transi- +tion. It is then able to assimilate the panorama of live, which will make +the post-mortem existence full and profitable because undisturbed by the + + +[PAGE 188] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +sorrow, grief, and hysterical weeping of those who are still in the body. +During the years which follow it may also be assisted by their prayers. + + On the other hand, those of the so-called "living" who study these teach- +ings are learning to practice this unselfish attitude toward death, so nec- +essary to soul growth, because they realize that as a matter of actual fact +death of the body at the proper time is the greatest blessing that can be- +fall humanity. There is not one among us who has a body so perfect that it +is fit to be lived in forever. In most cases the passing years bring out +the weak points in our vehicles to an increasing degree, crystallizing and +hardening them so that they become more and more of a burden which we are +only too glad to lay down. Then we have the hope and the knowledge that we +shall be given a new body and a new start in a future age, so that we may +learn more of the lessons in life's school. + + This is the time of the year when the Mystic Death which we are all cel- +ebrating naturally turns our thoughts and the thoughts of humanity in gen- +eral to the subject of death and rebirth. There is no other teaching than +that of rebirth which is of equally vital importance or of similar value. +Humanity needs it at this time more than ever on account of the carnival of +cruelty and slaughter that has been enacted in the past two and a half years +in Europe. So closely is the human family interconnected that there are +probably comparatively few persons in the world who have not lost some +relatives in that titanic struggle. + + +[PAGE 189] THE UNNECESSARY FEAR OF DEATH + + It is at once the duty and the privilege of those who know the truth +about death to disseminate it as much as possible among those who are still +in darkness concerning the facts connected with this event. Therefore I +would urge upon the students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship to realize that +we are all stewards of everything we have, mental as well as physical prop- +erty, and that it is our duty in so far as it is possible in a tactful and +diplomatic manner to bring these great facts of life and being to the knowl- +edge of those who are still without them. We never can tell when we cast +our bread upon the waters how it will return to us. It is certain that +sooner or later these teachings, temporarily forgotten, must again become +the knowledge of all humanity, and we ought to share the pearl of knowledge +which we have found with others whenever it is possible to do so. If we ne- +glect to do this, we are really committing a sin of omission for which we +must sometime answer. + + I trust that you will take this to heart and devote yourself to spreading +this knowledge, not as time and opportunity offer, but taking time by the +forelock and making the opportunity; but with all proper tactfulness so that +the object we have in view may not be frustrated by using the wrong method. +Furthermore, it is not necessary to label this knowledge. Bible instances +can be brought forth to show that this doctrine was believed by the Elders +of Israel who sent messengers to John the Baptist to ask if he were Elias. +Also their speculations as to whether Christ was Moses, Jeremiah, or another +of the prophets are evidence of their belief. Christ believed in rebirth, +because He stated definitely that John the Baptist was Elias. This doctrine + + +[PAGE 190] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +was enunciated by Paul in the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, also in other +places. + + You can render no greater service to humanity than by teaching them these +truths. + + + LETTER NO. 78 + + May, 1917 + + HEART DEVELOPMENT AND INITIATION + + + While I was dictating this month's lesson it occurred to me to ask +whether you are getting the full benefit from the lessons or not? It all +depends upon the way you are studying, for you cannot get any more out of +them than what you put into them yourself. Therefore I thought best to de- +vote this letter to a little discussion of the proper method of using them +with maximum benefit. + + You know that it is the aim of the Rosicrucian teachings to develop the +mind and the heart equally; to give all explanations in such a logical man- +ner than the mind is ready to accept, and then the heart is allowed free +scope for working over the material thus received. If you simply read the +lesson and think over it and find it reasonable as an explanation of the +subject taken up each month, and then you lay it away and forget all about +it, it will do you very little good, for you have used only your intellect +and not your heart. The proper way, after the lesson has been +intellectually assimilated and assented to, is to take it up in a devotional + + +[PAGE 191] HEART DEVELOPMENT AND INITIATION + +manner during the rest of the month at different times when you feel in the +mood for such an exercise. You should then go over the lesson, endeavoring +not to think about it at all, leaving the intellect out as far as possible. +Endeavor to FEEL it, for feeling is a function of the heart. Try to visual- +ize the different things and subjects taken up in it. + + For instance, the lesson which accompanies this present letter deals with +humanity during the heraphrodite stage. It calls to mind the entrance of +the Lucifer spirits, also the path of regeneration under the guidance of +Mercury. If you will visualize before your inner eyes the condition of man +during the different stages which have passed, you will reap great benefit. +You can do that better than you can visualize and feel the changes that are +still in the future, for within your consciousness there lie latent all the +feelings that you have had during all the past ages of your evolution, and +it is only a matter of practice to be able to call them up at will. + + You will remember from what it said in the ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION +concerning the method of Initiation that sometime when you come to that +point you will have to travel backward over the road that you have come, and +feel and see consciously that which you were unconscious of when you went +over it. So the above practice is preparation. The more you can see your- +self in the state of mind indicated, the more deeply you can FEEL yourself +in the corresponding condition and realize the protecting and guiding hand +of the divine hierarchies which have aided us in the path of evolution, the + + +[PAGE 192] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +better you will be prepared for the time to come when you are to go through +this during the process of Initiation. It is safe to say that you will re- +ceive much more benefit from Initiation then than if you are unprepared. + + this practice of feeling the lesson you will find a very, very great aid +to spiritual progress; and properly used, it will illuminate the lessons and +give you a spiritual insight that cannot be attained in any other way. +Therefore, I sincerely hope that you will take this to heart and make up +your mind to practice it regularly, even with lessons which may seem to you +at first glance dull and uninteresting. This process will enable you to dig +out pearls hidden beneath the surface, of which you have never dreamed. + + + LETTER NO. 79 + + June, 1917 + + SACRIFICE AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS + + + From time to time letters are received at Headquarters asking in various +terms the question: "How can I make more spiritual progress?" I have +therefore thought well to devote this letter to a consideration of this sub- +ject. + + It is a law in nature that "from nothing, nothing comes" Yet a great +many people labor under the fallacy that spiritual truth and advancement may +be had without money and without price. In a certain sense that is true, + + +[PAGE 193] SACRIFICE AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS + +because it is absolutely wrong and vile to barter spiritual power for +fitlhly lucre, as was so forcefully shown by Peter when he dealt with Simon +the sorcerer, who wanted to buy spiritual powers from him and offered him +money in exchange. At the same time there is a definite price upon +spiritual growth which must be paid by every one who wants to attain it. In +the first place, the old interests must be sacrificed. We all remember the +parable about those who were bidden to the feast of the king but who re- +frained from coming for various reasons. One had taken a wife and wanted to +enjoy his honeymoon; another had bought oxen and wanted to inspect his new +property; and so on, with the result that they all neglected their opportu- +nity and lost their chance of advancement. + + The same proposition comes to us today in different guise. We may be +willing to sit at home and read a book about spiritual things in our leisure +hours when we have nothing to do that interest us more, but when the Great +Work demands some of our time, we have various excuses. "I have a daughter +I want to send through college," says one. "When that is done and my obli- +gations are liquidated, I will take hold." Another says: "My business needs +my presence every day, and at night I am tired. I cannot work for the Fel- +lowship in the evening or attend their meetings, for I would not be fit to +give all my energies to my work next day. But when I retire from business, +I will take hold. A third says: "I have many children who demand my atten- +tion and attendance at various social functions. I cannot go to the Fellow- +ship meetings and neglect them. But when they are married, I will work for + + +[PAGE 194] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +the cause." + + It is perfectly true that when we have assumed obligations we must dis- +charge them to the best of our ability. At the same time there is also more +than a possibility that if we think thoroughly over the matter we will find +that we have some time left from our duties which may be devoted to the +Great Work. In this connection it may be well to remember the incident of +some coming to Christ and saying to Him: "Thy mother and they brethren stand +without, desiring to speak with Thee." He answered, "Who is my mother? and +who are my brethren?....Whososever shall do the will of my Father which is +in Heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." Again He said: +"If any man come to Me, and hate not his Father, mother, and wife, and chil- +dren, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my +disciple. And every one that hath foresaken houses, or brethren, or sis- +ters, or Father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My Name's +sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." + + There is and must be a sacrifice involved in the regenerate life. It has +been my experience personally, and in watching thousands of others, that in +the direct proportion that any one gives of his thoughts, his time and money +to the cause he has espoused so will he reap spiritual benefit. When one +consecrates all that he is to the regenerate life and follows the guidance +of the spirit it will soon be seen that his very intensity of purpose in the +new direction shuts out the old things. He has no longer time for them. + + +[PAGE 195] SACRIFICE AND SPIRITUAL PROGRESS + +They pass out of his thoughts and drop away. In one way or another the +daughter gets through college or finds some equally suitable employment. +The business prospers even better than when the proprietor devoted all his +time and all his energies to worrying and money grubbing. The children find +another chaperon fully as capable as their mother when sometimes she is +working for the spiritual cause. In every case that which we give up for +the work's sake, the time that we spend in the cause of Christ, and the +money we expend in discriminate charity are all provided for and compensated +for under the law that works for good. + + As the psalmist says: "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not +seen the righteous foresaken, nor his seed begging bread." The law enunci- +ated by Christ, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, +and all these things shall be added unto you," holds good in this day as +well as when it was spoken. This I have found by actual experience, and ev- +ery one else who lives the life and does the work will find that the same +holds good in his or her case. There is growth only in service. + + +[PAGE 196] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 80 + + July, 1917 + + ADJUSTING THE TEACHINGS TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF OTHERS + + + Recently we received a letter from Seattle which gives good a suggestion +that you may like to use. Our friend writes: "The other day while in +Ballard I went into the library and called for the "COSMO." When I was +ready to go, I turned over to the table of food values and took the open +book up to the librarian's desk. I showed her this table and said: 'This +is a valuable table.' She, examining it said: 'Why, I have been asked a +number of times for tables of just this kind.' Then the thought came to me +that when other students go into a library and ask for the "COSMO,: they +might do the same as I had done. The librarian might then catalogue the +book as containing hints on health and food, and in that way it might come +into the hands of some who are seeking for just the light which it +contains." + + This is true to a much greater extent than we usually realize. Wonderful +are the ways and the means and the places in which the Light strikes us, not +only when we are not seeking consciously for it but even asserting that +there is no such thing as light in the spiritual sense and decrying as +frauds those who follow it. It has often been an inspiration and a source +of great encouragement to me to think of Paul's journey to Damascus. He was + + +[PAGE 197] ADJUSTING THE TEACHINGS + +a man who glorified in the zeal wherewith he persecuted the saints. None +was as diligent as he in putting down that which he believed to be a dam- +nable heresy. But strong souls are the darlings of the gods whether they +work for good or for evil, because that indomitable, irresistible energy +which drives them to action, even if temporarily used for bad purposes, will +be just as strong when diverted into the channels of good. And so Paul was +a special favorite of the gods, and therefore was given such a powerful +light that it blinded him when he was least looking for such a thing, +namely, while on the road to Damascus. Then and there he was given an un- +derstanding and a knowledge far superior to those of any of the other +apostles. He was chosen for a special mission and given a particular gift +in the shape of spiritual vision and the ability to be all things to all +men. + + Not infrequently our students complain that they cannot make their as- +sociates or relatives understand the teachings of the Rosicrucians. An il- +lustration occurred to me the other day when I was looking through the tool +chest on Mt. Ecclesia. There were a large number of wrenches in it, some +large and some small, each one fitted to turn just one size bolt; there were +also a few that were adjustable within certain limits. Now it occurred to +me that sometimes a very small wrench may be far more valuable than one of +large dimensions; it all depends upon the size of the bolt. For a small +bolt you need the small wrench, and for a large one the large wrench. +Similarly, when we meet people in the world, we must size them up and see + + +[PAGE 198] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +what they require. Many of us have studied very deeply into the Mystery +Teachings and have acquired a profound knowledge of these subjects. We are +like large wrenches, but absolutely useless for turning the little bolts +that have not been touched with this knowledge at all. In such cases we +must not try to air our profound knowledge and talk over the heads of our +audiences, but we must endeavor to come down to their level and explain +things to them in exactly the same elementary manner that was required with +us in the beginning. + + In other words, we must be adjustable, like some of those wrenches in our +tool chest. When we meet an audience of strangers, we must talk right down +to their level and use the simplest language possible. Then, again, when we +meet older students and are in a class where they are capable of grasping +the profounder problems, we may expand to the very fullest of our ability +with considerable profit and benefit to ourselves and all others concerned. +But above all we must learn, with Paul, to be all things to all men, or we +shall defeat the object we have in view of bringing light to seeking souls. + + +[PAGE 199] THE VALUE OF REVIEWING PAST LESSONS + + + LETTER NO. 81 + + August, 1917 + + THE VALUE OF REVIEWING PAST LESSONS + + + There is in the following letter a valuable suggestion from a student of +the Rosicrucian teachings, which I feel it a duty to pass on: + + "Last night when looking over a big budget of correspondence that it had +been my good fortune to receive from the Fellowship during nearly five +years, I wondered how other probationers and students deal with their +monthly Fellowship letters. Next it occurred to me that this should be made +point of in one of the monthly letters. It is not my desire to criticize +the doings of other probationers, but it is very probable that few students +and probationers ever realize fully what a mine of information is really +contained in these letters, which can be turned into heavenly treasure by +right action. How often on looking over back numbers of them have new ideas +and realizations sprung into being that I was not conscious of before, and +what a help they have been in many an inner struggle! + + "Truly it may be said that in these back lessons we have a gold mine from +which many treasures could be dug that would help us to live the life. Here +indeed we have a second COSMO. Truly it behooves students and probationers + + +[PAGE 200] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +to correctly file and look after every detail of their correspondence with +the Fellowship so that it can be made of as much use as possible in diffus- +ing the light of the Elder Brothers. Perhaps just one of these lessons is +all that is required to help a friend. Much benefit must come from an or- +derly arrangement of them. + + "I think it scarcely possible that the majority of students and proba- +tioners can ever fully realize what a power for good there is behind these +lessons. To those among us who have been used to strict data and scientific +methods of research these back lessons will go a long way towards helping +unite head and heart. They contain many a gem of thought which will make +for right action and perseverance in well-doing. If the students and proba- +tioners will hold the thought of how best to use the letters they receive, +it will be very helpful and make for more soul growth. Surely it is the +little things that make the big things possible, and perhaps this would stir +some members to service." + + If students will bear in mind that repetition is the keynote of the vital +body, and that "all occult development begins with the vital body," they +will realize why it is so profitable to go over the back lessons and letters +frequently. + + +[PAGE 201] TAMING AN UNRULY MEMBER + + + LETTER NO. 82 + + September, 1917 + + TAMING AN UNRULY MEMBER + + + As you probably know, we have here on Mt. Ecclesia a short service morn- +ing and evening, which includes a reading from the Bible. Mrs. Heindel and +myself are very fond of reading from time to time the third chapter of James +because we find there such an important lesson. I thought it might be well +to call it to your attention, particularly because of an incident which hap- +pened here a short time ago that served to drive that lesson with great +force into my consciousness. I believe that we shall all be able to profit +by taking that lesson to heart. Let me quote a few verses from the chapter +mentioned, and then I shall tell you the incident to which I refer. + + "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also +to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths that +they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the +ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet +are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor +listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. +Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindeth! And the tongue is a fire, +a world of iniquity; so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth + + +[PAGE 202] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on +fire of hell, For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents, and +of things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: but the +tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. There- +with bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are +made after the similtude of God. My brethren, these things ought not to be. +For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. +But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and +easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits. And the fruit of righ- +teousness is sown in peace of them that make peace." + + We have on Mt. Ecclesia several swarms of bees. Some time ago the gar- +deners were endeavoring to move a swarm from one place to another. The bees +became enraged at this interference with their life and work; they stung +their aggressors severely and painfully in a number of places. When this +incident was reported to me and I thought it over, it struck me that there +was in it a very important lesson. The bee loses its sting whenever it has +stung, and then it dies. Just think of it! How strictly the law of justice +deals with it! It automatically kills itself when harming anyone else. It +is not an avenging God but its own act that brings the retribution. Just +think of it! + + If we died when we had stung others with sharp words, how many of us +would be alive? And again, if we knew that we would die when we had stung, +would we not curb our tongues to the benefit of ourselves and all others +concerned.? This is surely an example that we may well take to heart and + + +[PAGE 203] AN INNER TRIBUNAL TRUTH + +ponder repeatedly until we learn to snap our teeth together and keep our +mouth closed whenever we are tempted to speak unkind words. If we can only +do this, the time will come by and by when we shall cease to FEEL unkindly +towards people, no matter what they do to us. + + I can assure you in the case of Mrs. Heindel and myself, particularly +since we came to Headquarters, that this chapter has been of more spiritual +benefit to us than any other. It has helped us more than all the rest put +together, though of course we are far, far from perfect yet. But what we +have done, and what others have done with us here, is ample warrant for rec- +ommending this chapter to your earnest attention--coupled, perhaps, with the +little story of the bees--for it will do as much for you if you read it and +take it to heart one or twice a week. + + + LETTER NO. 83 + + October, 1917 + + AN INNER TRIBUNAL OF TRUTH + + + Last week a visitor to Mt. Ecclesia told me that she had been studying +all the different philosophies she could get hold of for about twenty years; +also that she had in the past few years taken up the study of the +Rosicrucian teachings, and that they appealed to her as being the absolute +truth. She naturally expected me to give acquiescence to that sentiment, + + +[PAGE 204] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +and was both amazed and dumbfounded when told that I did not so consider the +teachings given me by the Elder Brothers and written in our various books. + + To the Bushmen, the Kafirs, and other African savages who may develop a +religious temperament, so far as they are capable of such a thing, it prob- +ably seems a great truth that there is a divine being of a higher nature +than the human. From such men and from such a conception of religion there +is gradual advance towards the transcendental philosophies which call out +reverence in the most highly developed specimens of our human race. This +gives us reason to believe that the evolution of man demands also an evolu- +tion of religion. We have climbed from the valleys of childlike ignorance +to the point where we are today, and it would be absolutely contrary to the +law of analogy to suppose that anything in the religious line which we have +today is the ultimate; for if there is to be no more religious progress, +there can be no more human progress either. + + What, then, is the way to the heights of religious realization, and where +may one find it? This seems to be the next logical question. The answer to +it is that it is not found in books, either my own or anyone else's. Books +are useful in so far as they give us food for thought on the subjects dealt +with. We may or may not come to the same conclusions as the writer of the +books, but so long as we take the ideas presented into our inner being and +there work over them carefully and prayerfully, whatever comes out of the +process is our own, nearer the truth than anything we can get from anyone + + +[PAGE 205] AN INNER TRIBUNAL OF TRUTH + +else or in any other way. + + The WITHIN then is the only worthy tribunal of truth. If we consistently +and persistently take our problems before that tribunal, we shall in the +course of time evolve such a superior sense of truth that, instinctively +whenever we hear an idea advanced, we shall know whether it is sound and +true or not. The Bible in a number of places exhorts us to beware of all +kinds of doctrines floating about in the air because many are dangerous and +unsettle the mind. Books are launched on the market which advance this, +that, or the other system of philosophy. Unless we have established, or +have started to establish, this inner tribunal of truth, we may be like the +lady referred to above--wandering about from place to place, mentally speak- +ing, all our lives and finding no rest, knowing little more at the end than +in the beginning and perhaps even less. + + Therefore my advice to the student would be never to accept or reject or +follow blindly any authority, but to strive to establish the tribunal of +truth within. Refer all matters to that tribunal, proving all things, and +holding fast to that which is good. + + +[PAGE 206] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 84 + + November, 1917 + + EPIGENESIS AND THE LAW OF CAUSATION + + + Some errors are so frequently expressed by students that they call for +correction from time to time. The most general of these is the mistaken +idea that everything which happens to us is the outcome or effect of some +cause or action of our own in times past, generally in a past existence. +Theoretically, students know that this attitude is wrong. They are aware +that besides the destiny brought over with us from previous existences for +liquidation in this life, we are every day exerting a causative influence by +our acts. A considerable part of the deeds done in this body will work uot +into effects before death terminates our stay in our present environment, +while those deeds which are not thus liquidated will be held over and will +form the foundation of the destiny of a future existence, where we may reap +what we have sown. This destiny carried over from life to life is shown by +our horoscope, and gives us certain characteristics and tendencies or lines +of least resistence. It cannot be overlooked though that this destiny from +the past gives us a certain bias or trend towards a particular line of ac- +tion. But, nevertheless, there is comparative free will in a large percent- +age of our actions, leaving scope for the exercise of Epigenesis, the divine + + +[PAGE 207] EPIGENEISS AND THE LAW OF CAUSATION + +creative activity which is the basis of evolution. + + As said, students all know this perfectly well, theoretically. But in +dealing with problems of practical every-day life they seem to persistently +take the attitude that all that that is, is an unfoldment of something that +has already been. This is particularly true of students who have been +studying the Eastern religions before taking up the Western Wisdom Teach- +ings. By this mental attitude of ignoring Epigenesis they are retarding +their soul growth to a greater extent than they are aware of. In fact some- +thing is happening to them similar to that which befalls the materialist +during his post-mortem existence at the time when he lives on the Borderland +between Purgatory and the First Heaven in a monotony most dreadful to con- +template. The Borderland is, so to speak, an eddy outside the stream of +life where progress is at a standstill. The materialist is there because of +his denial of post-mortem existence, which has put him out of touch with the +spiritual currents that generate motion and action during that existence. + + Similarly, when we constantly emphasize the Law of Causation and consis- +tently and persistently ignore the Law of Epigenesis, we are placing our- +selves outside the latter's line of action, and our opportunities for exer- +cising its initiative are missed more often than not, with the result that +we become more and more barren as the years go by. Whereas if we endeavor +intelligently when considering the problems of life, exemplified in the ac- +tions of those about us as well as our own actions, to seek out the prin- +ciple of Epigenesis and watch its operation, we shall find opportunities + + +[PAGE 208] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +for initiative action opening up before us to an extent we have never before +believed possible. By watching the way in which Epigenesis applies in other +lives we shall learn how to apply it in our own. + + I hope that you will keep this thought close to you and tha you may reap +much benefit from a persistent practice of this principle. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 85. + + DECEMBER, 1917. + + THE PRESENT SORROW AND THE COMING PEACE + + + From the dim distant past there comes to us the voice of Isaiah in one of +the grandest and most soul-inspiring of prophesies: + + "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is + given: and the government shall be upon + his shoulder: and his name shall be called + Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the + everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. + + "Of the increase of his government and + peace there shall be no end, upon the throne + of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, + and to establish it with judgment and with + justice from henceforth, even for ever." + + +[PAGE 209] THE COMING PEACE + + Nor is the song of the angel choir above the Galilean hills less potent +to stir the soul with its sublime ideal: + + "On earth peace, and + Good will toward men." + + But looking facts in the face as seen in the world today, such sayings +seem little short of mockery; and from the customary viewpoint of the man in +the street all the platitudes offered by the religionists cannot make the +situation in the so-called, "Christian world" less odious. + + But when we apply the cosmic scale of perspective and measurement, it is +different. Goethe says well: + + "Who never ate his bread in sorrow, + Who never spent the midnight hours + Weeping, waiting for the morrow, + He knows ye not ye heavenly powers." + + As with individuals, so with nations. Sorrow and suffering seem unfortu- +nately to be the only teachers they will hear. Hence the necessity for +their lessons. Viewing life as unending we are not dismayed at the +so-called "loss of life" incident to the present war. Those killed will all +be born again, and by their experience they will be better than they are +now. Peace and good will are bound to come in time when we have learned to +abhor war, hence we may well rejoice at the prospect and earnestly pray for +its consummation. I would particularly urge students of the Rosicrucian + + +[PAGE 210] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +Fellowship to unite in this prayer on Holy Night at midnight when the usual +service is held in the Pro-Ecclesia by the workers on Mt. Ecclesia. + + We enclose a little leaflet, "The Bible at a Glance," with seasonal +greetings from the workers on Mt. Ecclesia, hoping that you may find the +former both interesting and instructive. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 86. + + JANUARY, 1918. + + GOD--THE SOURCE AND GOAL OF EXISTENCE + + + We are again standing upon the threshold of a New Year, a time when it is +a general custom to form one's aspirations into resolutions. As the stu- +dents of the Rosicrucian teachings ought to be particularly interested in +the matter of spiritual growth, I have thought that the following consider- +ations may perhaps be of benefit at this time. + + The word "holiness" has in the minds of many become associated with a +long face and a hypocritical attitude of mind, so that people in the world +are usually very shy of those who make professions of holiness. But that of +course is not the true brand. The really holy man is not a kill-joy; he is +not slothful in business; he does his duty fully, at home or in the shop, +puts his heart into all his work; he is a worthy example of faithfulness, +and is generally respected by all who know him, for his actions speak louder +than words and command commendation. He is careful in his dealings with his + + +[PAGE 211] THE SOURCE AND GOAL OF EXISTENCE + +fellow men, striving to owe no man anything but love, always ready and anx- +ious to help others; he is in fact, a model man in all relations of life. + + But this life of worldly rectitude is not itself a test of holiness. +There are many splendid people in the world who live model lives for ethical +reasons, and comport themselves in a manner that calls for the respect of +all who know them. They are also charitable and are prominent, according to +their station, in every good work. However, as said, this is not the test. +The test showing the difference between the merely model man or woman and +the holy one comes in the hours of leisure when the call of duty has been +fulfilled for the time being. At that point it will be found that they ways +of the worldly and the holy part, for at that time the worldly minded man +turns to recreation, amusement, and pleasure for an outlet for his energy, +or perhaps he pursues some favorite hobby according to the bent of his mind +and as his means allow. It may be simple games or sports, or it may be song +and music, theaters, parties, or any other means he can find to make time +pass pleasantly. + + But the holy man is as the steel touched with the lodestone and deflected +by force from pointing to the pole. When once the heart has been touched by +the lodestone of the love of God, duty may and does deflect it towards the +affairs of the world which demand legitimate attention. The holy man not +only does not shirk his worldly duty but he fulfills it better and more con- +scientiously than before giving himself to God. At he same time sub- + + +[PAGE 212] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +consciously he feels the yearning to return in mind to communion with the +Father, which is analogous to the way the magnetized steel needle that has +been deflected from the north exerts a pressure in the direction of the +pole. The moment the call of duty has been fully answered and the pressure +removed for the time being, the holy man's thoughts automatically turn to- +wards the Divine. A ride in the street car to or from business is an op- +portunity for such meditation. The time spent in waiting for some one else +is utilized in the same way. In short, never a moment of relaxation from +worldly affairs comes to the holy man without his thoughts instantly turning +to his source and goal--God. + + We have heard of men who studied law while riding to and from business in +street cars; others have learned languages by utilizing the spare moments +which most people waste in idle, aimless, wandering thoughts. Let us learn +a lesson from them, and during the coming year practice the habit of turning +our thoughts to God during whatever scattered spare moments we have. If we +practice this faithfully, we shall find ourselves greatly advanced upon the +path of soul growth. + + +[PAGE 213] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 87. + + FEBRUARY, 1918. + + THE NECESSITY OF PUTTING TALENTS TO USE. + + + The Christ exhorted us to let our light shine, and in the parable of the +talents He emphasized the points that TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN, OF HIM MUCH +WILL BE REQUIRED, and that every one, no matter how little he has received, +is expected to put it out to usury, to cast his bread upon the waters, so +that it may return to him after many days and yield an increase. We are now +standing near the beginning of another year. We have received the priceless +Rosicrucian teachings. Hence it is required of us that we put his knowledge +to some use in order to help those of our fellow men who have not yet re- +ceived a solution of the problem of life and are seeking for light. + + We are properly dislike conceited people who have an exaggerated idea of +their own abilities and who bore other people to death with their undesired +discourse. But the students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship seem to suffer +from the opposite disease and temperament, which is just as bad. +Self-depreciation, timidity, and mistrust of self squelch our ability and +our talents, causing them to atrophy, just as do the eyes of animals which +have left the sunlight and gone into caves to live, or as does the hand +which is held inactive by the side for years and which loses its power to + + +[PAGE 214] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +move. Our talents atrophy if not used. We shall be responsible for hoard- +ing knowledge and withholding it from those who are seeking, just as much as +the servant in the parable who buried his talent instead of working with it +so that it might become greater. + + We have always held that matters of belief should not be FORCED upon the +attention of other people, but there are thousands of opportunities every +year when we may say a word calculated to bring out an inquiry relative to +our philosophy on the part of a friend addressed. It is perfectly le- +gitimate to lead people on as long as they are interested. Paul exhorted +his followers to be shod with a preparation of the Gospel, and if we follow +that rule by preparing ourselves to answer questions intelligently, we shall +find that people will be interested in what we have to say. + + Just now people are intensely interested in life after death. But to an- +swer their questions properly we must have enough of the Rosicrucian teach- +ings by heart and we must have them at our fingers' ends. A little knowl- +edge is dangerous in matters of religion and philosophy as well as in other +things. You must have enough and of the right kind to make it worth while +to enter the field of propaganda at all. But it is not difficult. While it +may be very interesting and instructive to students of the Rosicrucian +teachings who have become deeply interested in and have a good working +knowledge of the philosophy to go into the mysteries of periods and evolu- +tions, epochs and races, cosmic days and nights, et cetera, still all that +is needed to help the man in the street is a thorough knowledge of the Laws + + +[PAGE 215] PUTTING TALENTS TO USE + +of Consequence and Rebirth as they have been given in our literature. These +are the vital principles which concern him most. They are the meat in the +nut of the Rosicrucian teachings. If you can give them to a person who is +in despair, either on account of having lost some one near and dear, or be- +cause the whole world seems upside down and he can find no place into which +to fit, no way to get over the dead wall which confronts him, you may solve +his problems for him in a logical and reasonable manner by showing how the +law of Rebirth, coupled with the Law of Consequence, is constantly working +for the good of humanity, and how he may gain whatever good he wants by +working in harmony with these two great laws. You will thus have done him a +signal service, and made considerable soul growth for yourself. + + I would also suggest that classes be formed in the various study centers +to study all that has been said in our literature concerning the workings of +these two great laws, so that the students may fit themselves to render im- +portant service to the community by helping people to solve the problems of +life which are so baffling to the great majority. + + I trust that this suggestion may prove of benefit to you during the com- +ing year. + + +[PAGE 216] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 88. + + MARCH, 1918. + + THE NOBILITY OF ALL LABOR + + A correspondent enthusiastic over the beauty, grandeur, and +soul-satisfying nature of the Rosicrucian teachings bemoans the fate which +has fettered her to a cook stove, a dishpan, the care of children, and the +drudgery of housework; were she only free to take this new-found gospel, she +would go into the wide world with the glad tidings for which she knows un- +told thousands are praying and seeking. + + That would be well for our friend and those thousands, but what about the +little children deprived of their mother's care? Do not forget the very im- +portant point that all who were hired to work in the Master's vineyard were +standing idle in the market place. They had no hampering ties to hinder +them from working there the whole day, and no one who is not free from +former obligations may take up a life work of teaching others. If we aspire +to that work by being faithful in the performance of our present duties, +they way will open sometime and give us the legitimate call. + + But about "drudgery"; the use of that word is all too common. The +teacher talks of the drudgery of drumming the same lesson into the heads of +children year after year; the mother talks of the drudgery of housework; + + +[PAGE 217] THE NOBILITY OF ALL LABOR + +the father complains of the drudgery of office or shop work; and so on down +the line. Each thinks that if he or she were in the shoes of some one else, +life would at once change to a grand, sweet song. + + This is a fallacy. "Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of +trouble." No matter where he is placed, there is only one method of relief, +one way to overcome, and that is by adoption of the right attitude of mind. + + A great gas engine going at full speed might defy an army of strong men +to stop it, but a tiny speck of carbon deposited on the ignition point, or a +small cam working loose, would quickly quell its energy. Thus a little +soot, which we despise as dirt, can under certain circumstances accomplish +more than many men. Therefore we should not extravagantly eulogize some as +heroes and despise others as drudges. There are as noble souls mending +stockings as ever graced presidential chairs. It all depends upon whether +they put love into their work or not. + + But what many really mean when they say "drudgery" is monotony. All work +is routine more or less, and the constant performance of the same tasks of- +ten becomes monotonous. There is a very good reason why the present phase +of our development includes this principle of routine. We are now getting +ready for the fast approaching Aquarian Age with its great intellectual and +spiritual development. This requires an awakening of the dormant vital +body, whose keyword is REPETITION. The routine of our daily work furnishes + + +[PAGE 218] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +this. If we rebel, it breeds monotony and retards progress. But if we +leaven our labor with love, we shall advance ourselves greatly in evolution +and reap the reward of contentment. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 89. + + + APRIL, 1918. + + THE AQUARIAN AGE AND THE NEW COVENANT + + + After writing the students' lesson and thinking over the various phases +of Easter and the events happening around that time according to the Bible +story, it occurred to me what a sealed book the Bible is to those who have +not the Western Wisdom Teaching and a knowledge of esoteric astrology. So I +decided to use this letter to elucidate one of the points that presented it- +self before my mind. + + You probably remember that according to Luke (22nd chapter) the Christ +sent Peter and John with instructions to look for a man bearing a pitcher of +water and to enter into the house where he went, for there the passover was +to be held. Later at that place, we are informed, He gave the apostles the +bread and the water which constituted the New Covenant, declaring that he +would no more drink the fruit of the vine. This is entirely misunderstood. +To the great majority the man with the pitcher of water has no meaning, nei- +ther the fact that the passover was to be held at his house and not at some +other place. Also people believe that Christ gave His disciples wine to +drink, whereas the Bible says entirely the opposite. There is a great + + +[PAGE 219] THE AQUARIAN AGE + +significance in this story when we read it as it is written and examine it +in the light of the esoteric teaching. + + First, let us remember how the leaders of humanity have given each new +race a certain appropriate food, as elucidated thoroughly in the COSMO. +Briefly, grain was given to Cain, the Second Race man, who was plant-like +and had a vital body. To Abel, the Third Race man, who had a desire body, +milk was supplied. To Nimrod, the Fourth Race man, who had a mind, meat was +given. Wine was supplied by Noah to the Fifth Race man. It made him a God- +less egotist, so that man's inhumanity to man has become a byword; but it +also helped him to reach the nadir of his material evolution. Now, however, +the spiritual evolution is about to begin, and altruistic ideas must be fos- +tered, or at least started to germinating, so that they may be expressed by +the Sixth Race. This again requires a change in diet. + + While these steps in evolution have taken place, the sun by precision has +circled the zodiac many times. But each step was inaugurated under a spe- +cific sign, and each was preceded and succeeded by minor cycles which were +replicas of the great ages and evolutionary epochs. Thus the last six or +seven thousand years while the sun went through Taurus, the sign of the +Bull, Aries the sign of the Ram, and Pisces, the watery, fluidic sign have +seen ages of material development, fostered by meat and wine. Even Christ +at the beginning of His ministry turned water to wine, ratifying its contin- +ued use during the Piscean Age. But at the end of His earthly career He + + +[PAGE 220] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +sent His disciples to prepare the passover in the house of the Water-bearer, +and there abolished meat and wine by giving the bread and the water cup as +the New Covenant for the Kingdom of God, where He is to reign as the Prince +of Peace. + + Could anything be plainer? Christ is the Sun Spirit, and when the sun +passes over the equator at the vernal equinox in the sign of the +Water-bearer, the Aquarian Age will be ushered in, in which the fleshless, +non-alcoholic diet of the New Covenant will be in vogue and an era of altru- +ism will dawn. We are beginning to feel this beneficient influence now, +though it is still centuries away, and we are here to help prepare for that +time. Therefore it behooves us to cleanse ourselves physically, morally, +mentally, and spiritually that we may be a shining example to others and +thereby lead them to the great Light which we have been fortunate enough to +see. Let us also remember that the greater our knowledge, the greater also +our responsibility for its right use, and unless we live up to these ideals, +we shall merit the greater condemnation. + + +[PAGE 221] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 90. + + MAY, 1918. + + MEAT EATING AND FUR WEARING + + + A student who confesses that he is still addicted to flesh eating in some +degree has occasionally an urge to speak to others on the Rosicrucian teach- +ings, but always feels as if he were a hypocrite when he advocates vegetari- +anism. He asks us how he may overcome this habit and whether he should give +up teaching others until he has himself attained. + + This query has general interest, for though th students of the +Rosicrucian teachings are sincere and earnest, they have the same imperfec- +tions as all other human beings or they would not be here; hence a letter on +this subject may prove helpful to many. + + It needs no argument to prove that you cannot effectively discourse on +spirituality over a cocktail, nor advocate the harmless life while eating a +steak. Furthermore, those who know your habits in daily life are always +quick to notice the difference between what you preach and what you live. +Therefore it is of course best to be able to live up to the teachings before +commencing to convert others. At the same time it is too strong language to +call any one a hypocrite because he advocates an ideal to which he has not +yet attained. So long as one sincerely believes that the fleshless diet is + + +[PAGE 222] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +right and tries to live accordingly, he is justified in advocating it even +though occasionally he breaks the rule. The north star guides the mariner +safely to his desired haven even though he never reaches the star itself. +Similarly, if we set our ideals as high as the stars, we may not attain them +in this life, but we shall always be the better for having them. + + At the same time it would seem that with a little will power brought to +bear it should not be very difficult for any one to abstain from tobacco, +liquor, and flesh food. Surely the thought of the suffering that is caused +the poor animals in the trains on their way to the slaughterhouse, and the +agony which precedes the time when the blow is struck that ends their life +or the time when the knife goes into their throat, ought to move any one who +aspires to live the higher life and fill him with compassion for these poor +dumb creatures which cannot defend themselves. For similar reasons the +wearing of furs and feathers as ornaments should be dispensed with by the +gentler sex among our ranks. It is equally inconsistent, and would doubt- +less cause adverse comments if any one should preach the gospel of harmless- +ness while thus arrayed. + + Unfortunately the complexity of our civilization forces us to use leather +for many things because no other material is available on the market to take +its place; for example, for shoes, straps, etc. But nevertheless we ought +to do all we possibly can to avoid making use of any material which comes +from the body of an animal that requires its death. One of the blessings of +this present war is that man is find out that meat is not an indispensable + + +[PAGE 223] TOLERANCE OF OTHERS' BELIEFS + +article of diet, and that we are far better off without alcohol. Let us +hope that this is but the beginning of the end, and that man will soon cease +to breed or hunt animals for their flesh and fur. Meanwhile let us all set +the example and apply our will power to this end. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 91. + + + JUNE, 1918. + + TOLERANCE OF OTHERS' BELIEFS + + + We are here to live in the conditions as we find them and to learn the +lesson provided by our environment. Those who are continually soaring in +the clouds and seeking spiritual ideals to the neglect of their plain duties +are just as mistaken in their efforts as those who wallow in the mire of ma- +terial work, grubbing and grinding in their greed for the dollar. Both need +help, but in opposite directions. One class needs to be pulled down till +their feet are firmly planted upon earth; the other needs an uplift that +they may see the light of heaven and begin to think of acquiring treasures +there. + + "One man's meat is another man's poison," and this applies to spiritual +food at least equally as much as to physical. There is only one great +truth--Diety--but it is many-sided. The angle of presentation which appeals +to us may lack power to stir others; and, vice versa, their outlook upon +truth may fail to meet our needs. Thus there is a reason for all the dif- +ferent religions in the world and the different views presented by the + + +[PAGE 224] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +various cults and sects. Each has its mission to perform for the people +among whom it is found, so we should be tolerant of all cults or religions +even when those who profess them attack us and our views. + + We should be satisfied to be known by our fruits, for that is the only +true and valid test of individual religion. Does it make us better men and +women, better fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, +employers and employees? Does it make us better all-around citizens who may +be looked up to in the community where we live? That is the test of true +religion. + + There is not so much danger of finding the materialist in our ranks, but +unfortunately there is a tendency among people who espouse advanced teach- +ings to soar in the clouds, forgetful of concrete conditions and earthly du- +ties. This causes the average man and women to look askance at occultism +and to regard those who study it as cranks, though their actions are no more +the fault of occultism than it is the fault of good food when a weak stomach +cannot digest it. + + For this reason we should not only be tolerant of the beliefs of others +and make it a rule never to belittle another faith, but we should watch our- +selves to see that we LIVE the Rosicrucian teachings so as to do credit to +them in our immediate environment. + + + +[PAGE 225] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 92. + + JULY, 1918. + + + THE PURPOSE OF WAR AND OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD IT + + From time to time students in various parts of the world have been asking +what should be their attitude toward the war and what purpose it serves from +the spiritual standpoint. In answer we have pointed out in various articles +the Rosicrucian teaching concerning the object of the war, namely, to turn +the world towards God for consolation in its sorrow, and to rend the veil +which exists between the visible and invisible worlds by helping a consider- +able number to acquire spiritual sight and the ability to communicate with +those who have passed beyond. But though the explanations given have satis- +fied most occult students in a measure, there were others who did not feel +satisfied therewith; they wanted something more directly bearing on the con- +ditions. To them we pointed out the teaching in Lecture No. 13--"Angels as +Factors in Evolution"--showing how human affairs are guided by the angels +and archangels who act as family and Race Spirits, causing the rise and fall +of nations as required for the evolution of the various groups of spirits +under their guardianship. + + As a final attempt to satisfy our students concerning this vital matter +we send you herewith a lesson entitled, "The Philosophy of War," showing its + + +[PAGE 226] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +application to the present conditions. We trust that this will give to all +the needed explanation and help all to understand what is involved, so that +they may render their hearty co-operation to end the struggle as soon as +possible and secure the peace for which we all so ardently long. + + But let us realize that there can be no peace worth having until milita- +rism has received such a blow that it will not raise its head again for a +long time. Many people hope that this will be the last war, and we ardently +wish that we could believe it. People thought the same when Napoleon and +his hordes overran Europe a hundred years ago, but time has proved that such +hopes were vain. Peace is a matter of education, and impossible of achieve- +ment until we have learned to deal charitably, justly, and openly with one +another, as nations as well as individuals. As long as we manufacture arms, +peace will not become established. It should become our aim and object to +do all we can toward the abolition of militarism in all countries and the +establishment of the principle of arbitration of difficulties. + + +[PAGE 227] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 93. + + AUGUST, 1918. + + THE INNER POWER AND THE RESPONSIBILITY THAT GOES WITH IT + + + Many years ago I spent a few weeks on a farm in Maine at the time when +they were harvesting potatoes. As the wagons passed me, I noted that the +potatoes were all large and of almost uniform size. So one day I con- +gratulated the farmer on having such a fine crop of large potatoes. He +walked over to a wagon and showed me that the bottom of the wagon was full +of small potatoes. He also said that they had not been sorted in the field +but that the jostling of the wagon over the rough road from the field to the +barn brought the big potatoes to the top while the small ones sank to the +bottom. "If you put the big ones at the bottom," he said, "they will rise +to the top and the small ones will sink." + + And is this not just like life! People of representative appearance, of +large qualities, rise to the top as we jostle one another over the rough +places on the highway of life. "Yon cannot keep a good man down," is an old +saying. He will rise to the top in spite of everything by virtue of the up- +lifting power within him. And similarly, no matter how often we put a small +man on top, he will sink, because he lacks the inner power. We may build a +house as large as we want and rear it above all other structures if we have + + +[PAGE 228] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +material and labor in sufficient quantities, but the growth of man is from +within, and no one can add a hairbreadth to the stature of another, +physically, mentally, or morally. Each must work out his own salvation; he +alone can determine whether he will remain in a lowly lot or rise to the +top. + + The farmer found that when his potatoes were carried over a smooth boule- +vard they remained mixed; but the rougher the road, the quicker the big po- +tatoes rose to the top and the smaller ones sank to the bottom. In the +great emergencies of life great opportunities await those who are ready to +assume responsibilities and go to the front of the battle. + + We are living in such a time, and if we aspire to rise, NOW is our great- +est opportunity. The whole world is now asking for an answer to the riddle +of life; inquiring whither the ship of humanity is sailing. And we have the +answer. Upon us, therefore, rests the responsibility of living the teach- +ings of the Elder Brothers and making them appeal to others by exemplary +lives. Many of our brothers are carrying the teachings of the Elder Broth- +ers into the very trenches and enlightening those who are ready to be +taught. Those of us who are still in our usual environment will find the +interrogation point in many hitherto closed quarters. Let us therefore +diligently seek the opportunities and improve them, for "unto whom much is +given, of him shall much be required." + + I would suggest to the students that now is the time to see to it that +the COSMO and our other literature, as far as possible, is in the libraries +in their own cities; also that it is in a place where it is accessible and + + +[PAGE 229] EQUIPOISE IN TIMES OF STRESS + +that it is being used. If a number of people inquire about it from time to +time, though the Librarian may know nothing about it and perhaps even be +hostile, the constant call for a certain book will finally force him to take +notice. There is no doubt that the Fellowship teachings have within them an +inner power that is bound to make a place for them in the world, but we +shall acquire merit in proportion to the way in which we help to bring these +teachings of the Elder Brothers to the notice of humanity in general. It is +now vacation time and hence an especially propitious season for the dis- +semination of our soul-satisfying philosophy. Let us therefore all put +forth an extra effort at this time. It will benefit others and ourselves +also. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 94. + + SEPTEMBER, 1918. + + EQUIPOISE OF GREAT HELP IN TIMES OF STRESS + + + In these days when our customs, habits, and business are being so +radically interfered with by the great war no matter where on earth we live; +when the flower of our manhood is being mowed down in millions by cannon; +when even woman must leave her accustomed vocation as home maker to take +part in the titanic struggle behind the fighting lines; when the weak, those +who are either very old or very young, succumb to privation; how can one +help being disturbed more or less according to one's individual suffering or + + +[PAGE 230] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +one's proximity to the seething sea of hate and sorrow in what was once fair +France or in the other battle-scarred sections? + + To remain undisturbed perhaps seems impossible. One cannot remain cal- +loused in the face of such suffering. One student after describing the dev- +astation of a shelled city, asks: "Can one help feeling very strongly about +it?" No, Christ felt very strongly when He wept over the sins of Jerusalem, +and He showed His righteous wrath when He drove the money changers out of +the temple. But equipoise is undoubtedly one of the great lessons which we +may learn from this war. + + It is easy to be peaceful if one goes into the mountains and lives the +life of a hermit. But what credit is it to keep our equipoise with no one +to thwart, oppose, or vex us? It is more difficult, however, to keep a +peaceful attitude in the industrial life of a city where relentless war is +waged with the sword of competition and where existence is circumscribed by +laws and custom. But it can be done, and it is being done by many who make +no pretense to spirituality, but who have found that loss of balance inter- +feres with their ambition. So they setout to train themselves in the prac- +tice of equipoise. It has been the invariable experience of such people +that they have benefited greatly. Their health has improved, their happi- +ness also, and their business efficiency has increased. + + If such self-control can be attained by people in the world, and if so +much benefit can accrue to them on that account under ordinary condition of +life, those among us who aim at higher and nobler things and who have been + + +[PAGE 231] THE OPTIMISTIC ATTITUDE + +endeavoring to follow the path for years ought to be examples of faith and +hopefulness at this time, ought they not? We ought to be towers of strength +to those who have not had the great enlightenment which it has been our +privilege to obtain. And above all things, we ought to exert a constructive +and upbuilding influence in this world crisis. + + Therefore I have outlined in this month's lesson the secret causes which +in the past have generated and fertilized the seeds that have now flowered +into our present cataclysmic condition, and have indicated in a slight mea- +sure how we are now sowing the seeds of our future well or ill being; this +in the hope that you will concentrate your thoughts constructively along the +line indicated, and advocate in your sphere of life the views presented. +Much sorrow may thus be averted in the future for thoughts are things, and +if they are in harmony with the cosmic purpose to make all things work to- +gether for good, they will surely prosper. + + --------------- + + LETTER NO. 95. + + OCTOBER, 1918. + + THE OPTIMISTIC ATTITUDE AND FAITH IN ULTIMATE GOOD + + + Suppose some one very close to you were undergoing a surgical operation. +Naturally you would feel very much concerned, and your feelings would prob- +ably swing between fear and hope. Sometimes one emotion and sometimes the +other would predominate. But consider what would be the effect upon the + + +[PAGE 232] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + +effect upon the patient if you were to voice your doubt and misgivings on +every occasion. Fear always has a devitalizing and detrimental effect which +makes it very difficult for the patient to recover, particularly as during +the time of an illness he is less self-assertive and more negative than at +times when he is in good, robust health. Thus while you were really anxious +to help him and would do anything in your power to serve him, by that at- +titude of mind and the expression of such thoughts you would be really hin- +dering him very much. + + Something similar is taking place in the world at large at the present +time. The human race is undergoing a necessary operation for spiritual +cataract. The sorrow and suffering occasioned by the present war are doing +much to tear the scale of materialism away from our eyes and rend the veil +which divides us from those in the land of the living dead. The operation +is painful in the extreme. Surely there is not a human being capable of hu- +mane feeling in the world who is not feeling in some measure for and with +those who are actually engaged in the struggle. But if we are firmly con- +vinced that "thoughts are things," it is our sacred duty to hold the most +optimistic attitude of mind which it is possible for us to have at the +present time. + + I have no doubt that every student of the Rosicrucian Fellowship is doing +all he can and giving all he can to alleviate the suffering and sorrow ex- +isting in the countries immediately affected, but it is the all-important +mental attitude of optimism that is so difficult for many to cultivate and + + +[PAGE 233] THE OPTIMISTIC ATTITUDE + +keep. Nevertheless it is our duty to do this, particularly in the light of +our superior knowledge of the end in view, which will surely be attained. +We cannot be glad that this thing is upon us, but we can be thankful that it +is as certain to bring a great good to the world at large as it is that the +sun rises every morning and sets at night. + + We have an absolute faith in the wisdom and omnipotence of Deity. We +know that it is a false accusation to say that "nature is red in tooth and +claw," as some one has put it. Regardless of what it may seem to us with +our limited vision, benevolence is the ruling factor in the world's evolu- +tion. Therefore each and every one of us should live up to the sacred obli- +gation to always strive to hold an optimistic attitude and always emphasize +our firm faith in the ultimate good which is to result from the present con- +ditions. let us remember that when we are working with the trend of evolu- +tion it is like rowing a boat with the stream; our efforts will then have +greater effect than if we take an attitude that is contrary to the world's +good. + + --------------- +NOTE: THE LETTER FOR NOV. 1918 WAS DEVOTED TO BUSINESS MATTERS CONNECTED +WITH OUR PUBLICATIONS, AND THEREFORE IS NOT INCLUDED HERE. + + +[PAGE 234] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 96. + + DECEMBER, 1918. + + INCREASING THE LIFE OF THE ARCHETYPE + + + This is the last student's letter of the present year, and the thought at +the ending of each cycle naturally turns to the fleetness of time and the +evanescence of existence in the phenomenal world. It also reminds us of the +preciousness of time and of our responsibility to use it to the best advan- +tage for soul growth, "for what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the +whole world, and lose his own soul?" Now is the seed time, and we are told +that "unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required." Therefore we +are accountable for what we have done or left undone to a greater measure +than others who have not had the intimate knowledge of God's purpose which +has been vouchsafed us through the Elder Brothers. + + In this connection we should realize that every act of every human being +has a direct effect on the archetype of his body. If the act is in harmony +with the law of life and evolution, it strengthens the archetype and makes +for a longer life in which the individual will get the maximum of experience +and make soul growth commensurate with his status in life and capacity for +learning. Thus fewer embodiments will be necessary to bring him to +perfection than one who shirks the strain of life and endeavors to escape + + +[PAGE 235] INCREASING THE LIFE OF THE ARCHETYPE + +its burdens, or one who applies his forces destructively. In the latter +type of life the archetype is strained and breaks early. Thus, those whose +acts are contrary to the law shorten their lives and have to seek new em- +bodiments a greater number of times than those who live in harmony with the +law. This is another instance in which the Bible is correct when it exhorts +us to do good that we may live long in the land. + + This law applies to all without exception, but it has greater sig- +nificance in the lives of those who are consciously working with the law of +evolution than in those of others. The knowledge of these facts should add +tenfold or a hundredfold to our zest and zeal for good. Even if we have +started, as we say, "late in life," we may easily lay up more "treasure" in +the last few years than in several previous lives. And above all, we are +getting in line for an early start in lives to come. + + Let us hope therefore that we have used to the best advantage the year +which is now passing, and prepare to increase our efforts during the coming +year. + + +[PAGE 236] LETTERS TO STUDENTS + + LETTER NO. 97. + + JANUARY, 1919. + + THE LAW OF SUCCESS IN SPIRITUAL MATTERS + + + It seems appropriate to commence our correspondence for 1919 by wishing +you a happy and successful New Year. But the proverb says: "If wishes were +horses, beggars would ride." Something more is required to secure success +and happiness than mere wishes, and perhaps mine may bear better fruit if I +explain to you the law of success. + + The students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship are coversant with the fact +that there is no "luck," and are quite well agreed with Mephisto in FAUST +when he says: + + "Hoe closely luck is linked to merit, + Does never to the fool occur. + Had he the wise man's stone, I swear it, + The stone had no philosopher. + + But here a query will at once present itself to the minds of many: "Is +it possible to reduce success to a law?" + + Yes, there is a law of success, as sure and immutable as any of the other +great cosmic laws. And while I shall apply it only to spiritual matters, I +cannot hide from you that it will also bring certain success in material af- +fairs. But before you apply it in that direction, consider very carefully +that to do so means spiritual suicide, for 'ye cannot serve God and Mammon." + + +[PAGE 237] THE LAW OF SUCCESS + +Rather, "seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all +these things shall be added unto you." I can testify to the truth of this +promise, having lived by it for many years. + + The law of success may then be stated as follows: + + First, determine definitely and clearly what you want--development of the +healing power, extended vision, invisible helpership, the ability to lecture +and carry the Rosicrucian message to others, etc. + + Second, when you have set your goal, never harbor a thought of fear or +failure for a moment, but cultivate an attitude of invincible determination +to accomplish your object despite all obstacles. Constantly hold the +thought, "I can and I will." + + Do not begin to make plans as to how to attain until you have reached the +attitude of absolute confidence in yourself and in your ability to do what +you desire, for a mind swayed by the slightest fear of failure cannot make +plans that will fully succeed. Therefore be patient, and be sure first to +cultivate absolute faith in yourself and your ability to succeed despite all +odds. + + When you have reached the point where you are fully persuaded that you +can succeed and positively determined that you will succeed in some pursuit, +there is no power on earth or in heaven that can withstand you in that par- +ticular pursuit; and you may then plan how to go about attaining your +heart's desire with certainty of success. + + I hope that you will apply this law earnestly in the pursuit of soul +growth, not only during the coming year but in all future years. + + + END OF "LETTERS TO STUDENTS" + + + --- END OF FILE --- + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ros_myst.txt b/religious documents/ros_myst.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..92a82ec --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ros_myst.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2170 @@ +[PAGE 1] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + + --------------------------------------------------- + [ T H E R O S I C R U C I A N M Y S T E R I E S ] + [ ] + [ ] + [ BY ] + [ ] + [ ] + [ M A X H E I N D E L ] + [ [1865-1919] ] + --------------------------------------------------- + + + + + + + AN ELEMENTARY EXPOSITION OF THEIR SECRET TEACHINGS + + + + + THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + Mt. Ecclesia + P.O. Box 713 + Oceanside, California, 92054, USA + + + + + + + +[PAGE 3] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + + LIST OF CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I: + + THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS AND THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP................5 + + +CHAPTER II: + + THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION...................................16 + Three Theories of Life...............................................20 + We Are Eternal (Poem by the Author)..................................26 + + +CHAPTER III: + + THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS...................................36 + The Chemical Region..................................................36 + The Etheric Region...................................................41 + The Desire World.....................................................51 + The World of Thought.................................................67 + Creed or Christ (Poem by the Author).................................85 + +CHAPTER IV: + + THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN................................................87 + The Vital Body.......................................................89 + The Desire Body......................................................94 + The Mind.............................................................97 + + + + + +[PAGE 4] LIST OF CONTENTS THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + +CHAPTER V: + + LIFE AND DEATH.........................................................99 + Invisible Helpers and Mediums........................................99 + Death...............................................................103 + The Panorama of Past Life...........................................112 + Purgatory...........................................................116 + The First Heaven....................................................127 + The Second Heaven...................................................132 + The Third Heaven....................................................135 + Birth and Child-Life................................................137 + The Mystery of Light, Color and Consciousness.......................139 +Education of Children...................................................143 + + + + + + +[PAGE 5] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + + + CHAPTER I + + THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS AND THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + + OUR MESSAGE AND MISSION + + A SANE MIND + + A SOFT HEART + + A SOUND BODY + + ---------------- + + + Before entering upon an explanation of the teachings of the +Rosicrucians, it may be well to say a word about them and about the place +they hold in the evolution of humanity. + + For reasons to be given later these teachings advocate the dualistic +view; they hold that man is a Spirit enfolding all the powers of God as the +seed enfolds the plant, and that these powers are being slowly unfolded by +a series of existences in a gradually improving earthy body; also that +this process of development has been performed under the guidance of ex- +alted Beings who are yet ordering our steps, though in a decreasing +measure, as we gradually acquire intellect and will. These exalted +Beings, though unseen to the physical eyes, are neverthless potent fac- +tors in all affairs of life, and give to the various groups of humanity les- + + + + + + +[PAGE 6] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +sons which will most efficiently promote the growth of their spiritual +powers. In fact, the earth may be likened to a vast training school in +which there are pupils of varying age and ability as we find it in one of +our own schools. There are the savages, living and worshipping under most +primitive conditions, seeing in stick or stone a God. Then, as man pro- +gresses onwards and upwards in the scale of civilization, we find a +higher and higher conception of Deity, which has flowered here in our +Western World in the beautiful Christian religion that now furnishes our +spiritual inspiration and incentive to improve. + + These various religions have been given to each group of humanity by +the exalted beings whom we know in the Christian religion as the Recording +Angels, whose wonderful prevision enables them to view the trend of even +so unstable a quantity as the human mind, and thus they are enabled to de- +termine what steps are necessary to lead our unfoldment along the lines con- +gruous to the highest universal good. + + When we study the history of the ancient nations we shall find that at +about six hundred years B.C. a great spiritual wave had its inception on +the Eastern shores of the Pacific Ocean where the great Confucian re- +ligion accelerated the progress of the Chinese nation, then also the reli- +gion of the Buddha commenced to win its millions of adherents in India, and +still further West we have the lofty philosophy of Pythagoras. Each system +was suited to the needs of the particular people to whom it was sent. Then +came the period of the Sceptics, in Greece, and later, traveling + + + + + + +[PAGE 7] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + + +westward the same spiritual wave is manifested as the Christian religion +of the so-called "Dark Ages" when the dogma of a dominant church compelled +belief from the whole of Western Europe. + + It is a law in the universe that a wave of spiritual awakening is always +followed by a period of doubting materialism; each phase is necessary in or- +der that the Spirit may receive equal development of heart and intellect +without being carried too far in either direction. The great Beings afore- +mentioned, who care for our progress, always take steps to safeguard hu- +manity against that danger, and when they foresaw the wave of materialism +which commenced in the sixteenth century with the birth of our modern sci- +ence, they took steps to protect the West as they had formerly safe- +guarded the East against the sceptics who were held in check by the Mys- +tery Schools. + + In the fourteenth century there appeared in central Europe a great spir- +itual teacher whose symbolical name was + + + CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUZ + + or + + CHRISTIAN ROSE CROSS, + + +who founded the mysterious Order of the Rosy Cross, concerning which so +many speculations have been made and so little has become known to the +world at large, for it is the Mystery School of the West and is open only +to those who have attained the stage of spiritual unfoldment necessary to be +initiated in its secrets concerning the Science of Life and Being. + + + + + + +[PAGE 8] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + If we are so far developed that we are able to leave our dense physical +body and take a soul flight into interplanetary space we shall find that the +ultimate physical atom is spherical in shape like our earth; it is a ball. +When we take a number of balls of even size and group them around one, it +will take just twelve balls to hide a thirteenth within. Thus the twelve +visible and the one hidden are numbers revealing a cosmic relationship and +as all Mystery Orders are based upon cosmic lines, they are composed of +twelve members gathered around a thirteenth who is the invisible HEAD. + + There are seven colors in the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, +blue, indigo, and violet. But between the violet and the red there are still +five other colors which are invisible to the physical eye but reveal them- +selves to the spiritual sight. In every Mystery Order there are also seven +Brothers who at times go out into the world and there perform whatever work +may be necessary to advance the people among whom they serve, but five are +never seen outside the temple. They work with and teach those alone who have +passed through certain stages of spiritual unfoldment and are able to visit +the temple in their spiritual bodies, a feat taught in the first initiation +which usually takes place outside the temple as it is not convenient for all +to visit that place physically. + + Let not the reader imagine that this initiation makes the pupil a Ro- +sicrucian, it does not, any more than admission to a high school makes a boy + + + + + + + + +[PAGE 9] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + + +a member of the faculty. Nor does he become a Rosicrucian even after hav- +ing passed through all the nine degrees of this or any other Mystery School. +The Rosicrucians are Hierophants of the Lesser Mysteries, and beyond them +there are still schools wherein greater Mysteries are taught. Those who +have advanced through the Lesser Mysteries are called Adepts, but even they +have not reached the exalted standpoint of the twelve Brothers of the +Rosicrucian Order or the Hierophants of any other Lesser Mystery School +any more than the freshman at college has attained to the knowledge and +position of a teacher in the high school from which he has just graduated. + + A later work will deal with initation, but we may say here that the +door of a genuine Mystery School is not unlocked by a golden key, but is +only opened as a reward for meritorious service to humanity and any one who +advertises himself as a Rosicrucian or makes a charge for tuition, by either +of those acts shows himself to be a chrlatan. The true pupil of any Mystery +School is far too modest to advertise the fact, he will scorn all titles or +honors from men, he will have no regard for riches save the riches of love +given to him by those whom it becomes his privilege to help and teach. + + In the centuries that have gone by since the Rosicrucian Order was first +formed they have worked quietly and secretly, aiming to mould the thought of +Western Europe through the works of Paracelsus, Boehme, Bacon, Shakespeare, + + + + + +[PAGE 10] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +Fludd and others. Each night at midnight when the physical activities of the +day are at their lowest ebb, and the spiritual impulse at its highest flood +tide, they have sent out from their temple soul-stirring vibrations to coun- +teract materialism and to further the development of soul powers. To their +activities we owe the gradual spiritualization of our once so materialistic +science. + + With the commencement of the twentieth century a further step was taken. +It was realized that something must be done to make religion scientific as +well as to make science religious, in order that they may ultimately blend; +for at the present time heart and intellect are divorced. The heart +instinctively feels the truth of religious teachings concerning such +wonderful mysteries as the Immaculate Conception (the Mystic Birth), the +Crucifixion (the Mystic Death), the Cleansing Blood, the Atonement, and +other doctrines of the Church, which the intellect refuses to believe, as +they are incapable of demonstration, and seemingly at war with natural law. +Material advancement may be furthered when intellect is dominant and the +longings of the heart unsatisfied, but soul growth will be retarded until +the heart also receives satisfaction. + + In order to give the world a teaching so blended that it will satisfy +both the mind and heart, a messenger must be found and instructed. Certain +unusual qualifications were necessary, and the first one chosen failed to +pass a certain test after several years had been spent to prepare him for +the work to be done. + + + + + +[PAGE 11] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + + + It is well said that there is a time to sow, and a time to reap, and +that there are certain times for all the works of life, and in accordance +with this law of periodicity each impulse in spiritual uplift must also be +undertaken at an appropriate time to be successful. The first and sixth +decades of each century are particularly propitious to commence the +promulgation of new spiritual teachings. Therefore the Rosicrucians were +much concerned at this failure, for only five years were left of the first +decade of the twentieth century. + + Their second choice of a messenger fell upon the present writer, though +he knew it not at the time, and by shaping circumstances about him they made +it possible for him to begin a period of preparation for the work they +desired him to do. Three years later, when he had gone to Germany, also +because of circumstances shaped by the invisible Brotherhood, and was on the +verge of despair at the discovery that the light which was the object of his +quest, was only a jack-o-lantern, the Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order +applied the test to see whether he would be a faithful messenger and give +the teachings they desired to entrust to him, to the world. And when he had +passed the trial they gave him the monumental solution of the problem of +existence first published in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION IN November, +1909, more than a year before the expiration of the first decade of the +twentieth century. This book marked a new era in so-called "occult" +literature, and the many editions which have since been published as well as + + + + + +[PAGE 12] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +the thousands of letters which continue to come to the author, are speaking +testimonies to the fact that people are finding in this teaching a +satisfaction they have sought elsewhere in vain. + + The Rosicrucians teach that all great religions have been given to the +people among whom they are found, by Divine Intelligences who designed each +system of worship to suit the needs of the race or nation to whom it was +given. A primitive people cannot respond to a lofty and sublime religion, +and VICE VERSA. What helps one race would hinder another, and in pursuance +of the same policy there has been devised a system of soul-unfoldment suited +especially to the Western people, who are racially and temperamentally unfit +to undergo the discipline of the Eastern school, which was designed for the +more backward Hindus. + + + THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + + + For the purpose of promulgating the Rosicrucian Teachings in the Western +World, the Rosicrucian Fellowship was founded in 1909. It is the herald of +the Aquarian Age, when the Sun by its precessional passage through the +constellation Aquarius, will bring out all the intellectual and spiritual +potencies in man which are symbolized by that sign. As heat from a fire +warms all objects within the sphere of its radiations, so also the Aquarian +ray will raise the earth's vibrations to a pitch we are as yet unable to +comprehend, though we have demonstrations of the MATERIAL workings of this + + + + + +[PAGE 13] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + + +force in the inventions which have revolutionized life within the memory of +the present generation. We have wondered at the X-ray, which sees through +the human body, but each one has a sense latent which when evolved will +enable him to see through any number of bodies or to any distance. We marvel +at the telephone conversations across the continent of America, but each has +within a latent sense which when evolved will enable him to see through any +number of bodies or to any distance. We marvel at the telephone +conversations across the continent of America, but each has within a latent +sense of speech and hearing that is far more acute; we are surprised at the +exploits of ships under sea and in the sky, but we are all capable of +passage under water or through the sky; nay, more we may pass unscathed +through the solid rock and the raging fire, if we know how, and lightning +itself is slow compared to the speed with which we may travel. This sounds +like a fairy tale today, as did Jules Verne's stories a generation ago, but +the Aquarian Age will witness the realization of these dreams, and ever so +much more that we still do not even dream of. Such faculties will then be +the possessions of large numbers of people who will have gradually evolved +them as previously the ability to walk, speak, hear, and see, were +developed. + + Therein lies a great danger, for, obviously, anyone endowed with such +faculties may use them to the greatest detriment of the world at large, +unless restrained by a spirit of unselfishness and an all-embracing +altruism. Therefore religion is needed today as never before, to foster love +and fellow-feeling among humanity so that it may be prepared to use the +great gifts in store for it wisely and well. This need of religion is + + + + + +[PAGE 14] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +specially felt in a certain class where the ether is more loosely knit to +the physical atoms than in the majority, and on that account they are now +beginning to sense the Aquarian vibrations. + + This class is again divided in two groups. In one the intellect is +dominant, and the people in that class therefore seek to grasp the spiritual +mysteries out of curiosity from the viewpoint of cold reason. They pursue +the path of knowledge for the sake of knowledge, considering that an end in +itself. The idea that knowledge is of value only when put to practical +constructive use does not seem to have presented itself to them. This class +we may call OCCULTISTS. + + The other group does not care for knowledge, but feels an inner urge +God-ward, and pursues the path of devotion to the high ideal set before them +in Christ, doing the deeds that He did as far as their flesh will permit, +and this in time results in an interior illumination which brings with it +all the knowledge obtained by the other class, and much more. This class we +may describe as MYSTICS. + + Certain dangers confront each of the two groups. If the occultist +obtains illumination and evolves within himeslf the latent spiritual +faculties, he may use them for the furtherance of his personal objects, to +the great detriment of his fellow-men. That is black magic, and the +punishment which it AUTOMATICALLY calls down upon the head of the +perpetrator is so awful that it is best to draw the veil over it. The mystic +may also err because of ignorance, and fall into the meshes of nature's law, + + + + + +[PAGE 15] THE ORDER OF ROSICRUCIANS + + +but being actuated by love, his mistakes will never be very serious, and as +he grows in grace the soundless voice within his heart will speak more +distinctly to teach him the way. + + The Rosicrucian Fellowship endeavors to prepare the world in general, +and the sensitives of the two groups in particular, for the awakening of the +latent powers in man, so that all may be guided safely through the +danger-zone and be as well fitted as possible to use these new faculties. +Effort is made to blend the love without which Paul declared a knowl- +edge of all mysteries worthless, with a mystic knowledge rooted and +grounded in love, so that the pupils of this school may become LIVING expo- +nents of this blended soul-science of the Western Wisdom School, and +gradually educate humanity at large in the virtues necessary to make the +possession of higher powers safe. + + + + + +[PAGE 16] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + CHAPTER II + + + THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION + + + THE PROBLEM OF LIFE + + + Among all the vicissitudes of life, which vary in each individual's +experience, there is one event which sooner or later comes to +everyone--Death! No matter what our station in life, whether the life lived +has been a laudable one or the reverse, whether great achievements have +marked our path among men; whether health or sickness has been our lot, +whether we have been famous and surrounded by a host of admiring friends or +have wandered unknown through the years of our life, at some time there +comes a moment when we stand alone before the portal of death and are +forced to take the leap into the dark. + + The thought of this leap and of what lies beyond must inevitably force +itself upon every thinking person. In the years of youth and health, when +the bark of our life sails upon seas of prosperity, when all appears +beautiful and bright, we may put the thought behind us, but there will +surely come a time in the life of every thinking person when the problem of +life and death forces itself upon his consciousness and refuses to be set +aside. Neither will it help him to accept the ready-made solution of anyone +else without thought and in blind belief, for this is a basic problem which +every one must solve for himself or herself in order to obtain satisfaction. + + + + +[PAGE 17] THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION + + + Upon the eastern edge of the Desert of Sahara there stands the +world-famous Sphinx with its inscrutable face turned toward the +East, ever greeting the Sun as its rising rays herald the newborn day. It +was said in the Greek myth that it was the wont of this monster to ask a +riddle of each traveler. She devoured those who could not answer, but +when Oedipus solved the riddle she destroyed herself. + + The riddle which she asked of men was the riddle of life and death, a +query which is as relevant today as ever, and which each one must answer or +be devoured in the jaws of death. But when onece a person has found the +solution to the problem, it will appear that in reality there is no death, +that what appears so, is but a change from one state of EXISTENCE to +another. Thus, for the man who finds the true solution to the riddle of +life, the sphinx of death has ceased to exist, and he can lift his voice in +the triumphant cry, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy +victory?" + + Various theories of life have been advocated to solve this problem of +life. We may divide them into two classes, namely THE MONISTIC THEORY, which +holds that all the facts of life can be explained by reference to this +visible world wherein we live, and THE DUALISTIC THEORY, which refers part +of the phenomenon of life to another world which is now invisible to us. + + Raphael in his famous painting, "The School of Athens," has most aptly pic- +tured to us the attitude of these two schools of thought. We see upon that +marvelous painting a Greek Court such as those wherein philosophers were + + + + +[PAGE 18] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +once wont to congregate. Upon the various steps which lead into the building +a large number of men are engaged in deep conversation, but in the center +at the top of the steps stand two figures, supposedly of Plato and Aris- +totle, one pointing upwards, the other towards the earth, each looking the +other in the face, mutely, but with deeply concentrated will; each seeking +to cinvince the other that his attitude is right, for each bears the con- +viction in his heart. One holds that he is of the earth earthy, that he +has come from the dust and that thereto he will return, the other firmly +advocates the position that there is a higher something which has always ex- +isted and will continue regardless of whether the body wherein it now dwells +holds together or not. + + The question who is right is still an open one with the majority of +mankind. Millions of tons of paper and printer's ink have been used in +futile attempts to settle it by argument, but it will always remian open to +all who have not solved the riddle themselves, for it is a basic problem, a +part of the life experience of every human being to settle that question, +and therefore no one can give us the solution ready-made for our acceptance. +All that can be done by those who have really solved the problem, is to show +to others the line along which they have found the solution, and thus direct +the inquirer how he also, by his own efforts, may arrive at a conclusion. + + That is the aim of this little book; not to offer a solution to the +problem of life to be taken blindly, on faith in the author's ability of + + + + + + +[PAGE 19] THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION + + +investigation. The teachings herein set forth are those handed down by the +Great Western Mystery School of the Rosicrucian Order and are the result of +the concurrent testimony of a long line of trained Seers given to the author +and supplemented by his own independent investigation of the realms +traversed by the Spirit in its cyclic path from the invisible world to this +plane of existence and back again. + + Nevertheless, the student is warned that the writer may have +misunderstood some of the teachings and that despite the greatest care he +may have taken a wrong view of that which he believes to have been seen in +the invisible world where the possibilities of making a mistake are legion. +Here in the world which we view about us the forms are stable and do not +easily change, but in the world around us which is perceptible only by the +spiritual sight, we may say that there is in reality no form, but that all +is life. At least the forms are so changeable that the metamorphosis +recounted in fairy stories is discounted there to an amazing degree, and +therefore we have the surprising revelations of mediums and other untrained +clairvoyants who, though they may be perfectly honest, are deceived by +illusions of FORM which is evanescent, because they are incapable of viewing +the LIFE that is the permanent basis of that form. + + We must learn to see in this world. The new-born babe has no conception +of distance and will reach for things far, far beyond its grasp until it has +learned to gauge its capacity. A blind man who acquires the faculty of +sight, or has it restored by an operation will at first be inclined to close + + + + + +[PAGE 20] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +his eyes when moving from place to place, and declare that it is easier to +walk by feeling than by sight; that is because he has not learned to use his +newly acquired faculty. Similarly the man whose spiritual vision has been +newly opened requires to be trained; in fact, he is in much greater need +thereof than the babe and the blind man already mentioned. Denied that +training, he would be like a new-born babe placed in a nursery where the +walls are lined with mirrors of different convex and concave curvatures, +which would distort its own shape and the forms of its attendants. If +allowed to grow up in such surroundings and unable to see the real shapes of +itself and its nurses it would naturaly believe that it saw many different +and distorted shapes, when in reality the mirrors were responsible for the +illusion. Were the persons concerned in such an experiment and the child +taken out of the illusory surroundings, it would be incapable of recognizing +them until the matter had been properly explained. There are similar dangers +of illusion to those who have developed spiritual sight, until they have +been trained to discount the refraction and view the LIFE which is permanent +and stable, disregarding the FORM which is evanescent and changeable. The +danger of getting things out of focus always remains, however, and is so +subtle that the writer feels an imperative duty to warn his readers to take +all statements concerning the unseen world with the provverbial grain of +salt, for he has no intention to deceive. He is therefore inclined rather to + + + + + + +[PAGE 21] THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION + + +magnify than to minimize his limitations and would advise the student to +accept nothing from the author's pen without reasoning it out for himself. +Thus, if he is deceived, he will be self-deceived and the author is +blameless. + + + THREE THEORIES OF LIFE + + + Only three noteworthy theories have been offered as solutions to the +riddle of existence and in order that we may be able to make the important +choice between them, we will state briefly what they are and give some of +the arguments which lead us to advocate the Doctrine of Rebirth as the +method which favors soul-growth and the ultimate attainment of perfection, +thus offering the best solution to the problem of life. + + 1) THE MATERIALISTIC THEORY TEACHES THAT LIFE IS BUT A SHORT JOURNEY +FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE; THAT THERE IS NO HIGHER INTELLIGENCE IN THE +UNIVERSE THAN MAN; THAT HIS MIND IS PRODUCED BY CERTAIN CORRELATIONS OF MAT- +TER AND THAT THEREFORE DEATH AND DISSOLUTION OF THE BODY TERMINATE EXIST- +ENCE. + + There was a day when the arguments of materialistic philosophers seemed +convincing, but as science advances it discovers more and more that there is +a spiritual side to the universe. That life and consciousness may exist +without being able to give us a sign, has been amply proven inthe cases +where a person who was entranced and thought dead for days has suddenly + + + + + + +[PAGE 22] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + +awakened and told all that had taken place around the body. Such eminent +scientist as Sir Oliver Lodge, Camille Flammarion, Lombroso, and other +men of highest intelligence and scientific training, have unequivocally +stated as the result of their investigations, that the intelligence which we +call man survives death of the body and lives on in our midst as independ- +ently of whether we see them or not, as light and color exist all about the +blind man regardless of the fact that he does not perceive them. These +scientist have reached their conclusion after years of careful investiga- +tion. They have found that the so-called dead can, and under certain cir- +cumstances do, communicate with us in such a manner that mistake is out of +the question. We maintain that their testimony is worth more than the argu- +ment of materialism to the contrary, for it is based on years of careful +investigation, it is in harmony with such well established laws as THE +LAW OF CONSERVATION OF MATTER and THE LAW OF CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. Mind is +a form of energy, and immune from destruction as claimed by the materialist. +Therefore we disbar the materialistic theory as unsound because out of har- +mony with the laws of nataure and with well established facts. + + 2) THE THEORY OF THEOLOGY CLAIMS THAT JUST PRIOR TO EACH BIRTH A SOUL IS +CREATED BY GOD AND ENTERS INTO THE WORLD WHERE IT LIVES FOR A TIME VARYING +FROM A FEW MINUTES TO A FEW SCORE YEARS; THAT AT THE END OF THIS SHORT SPAN +OF LIFE IT RETURNS THROUGH THE PORTAL OF DEATH TO THE INVISIBLE BEYOND, +WHERE IT REMAINS FOREVER IN A CONDITION OF HAPPINESS OR MISERY ACCORDING TO +THE DEEDS DONE IN THE BODY DURING THE FEW YEARS IT LIVED HERE. + + + + + + +[PAGE 23] THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION + + + Plato insisted upon the necessity of a clear definition of terms as a +basis of argument and we contend that that is as necessary in discussing the +problem of life from the Bible point of view as in arguments from the +platonic standpoint. According to the Bible man is a composite being con- +sisting of body, soul, and Spirit. The two latter are usually taken to be +synonymous but we in sist that they are not interchangeable and present the +following to support our dictum. + + All things are in a state of vibration. Vibrations from objects in our +surroundings are constantly impinging upon us and carry to our senses a cog- +nition of the external world. The vibrations in the ether act upon our eyes +so that we see, and vibrations in the air transmit sounds to the ear. + + We also breathe the air and ether which is thus charged with pictures +of our surroundings and the sounds in our environment, so that by means +of the breath we receive at each moment of our life, INTERNALLY, an accu- +rate picture of our external surroundings. + + That is a scientific proposition. Science does not explain what becomes +of these vibrations, however, but according to the Rosicrucian Mystery +Teaching they are transmitted to the blood, and then etched upon a little +atom in the heart as automatically as a moving picture is imprinted upon the +sensitized film, and a record of sounds is engraved upon the + + + + + + + +[PAGE 24] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +phonographic disc. This breath-record starts with the first breath of the +new-born babe and ends only with the last gasp of the dying man, and "soul" +is a product of the breath. Genesis also shows the connection between breath +and soul in the words: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the +ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a +living soul" (The same word: NEPHESH, is translated breath and soul in +the above quotation.) + + In the post-mortem existence the breath-record is disposed of. The good +acts of life produce feelings of pleasure and the intensity of attraction +incorporates them into the Spirit as soul-power. THUS THE BREATH-RECORDS OF +OUR GOOD ACTS ARE THE SOUL WHICH IS SAVED, for by the union with the Spirit +they become immortal. As they accumulate life after life, we become more +soulful and they are thus also the basis of soul-growth. + + The record of our evil acts is also derived from our breath in the mo- +ments when they were committed. The pain and suffering they bring cause +the Spirit to expel the breath-record from it being in Purgatory. As that +cannot exist independently of the life-giving Spirit, the breath-record of +our sins disintegrates upon expurgation, and thus we see that "the soul that +sinneth, it shall die." The memory of the suffering incidental to expurga- +tion, however, remains with the Spirit as CONSCIENCE, to deter from repeti- +tion of the same evil in later lives. + + Thus both our good and evil acts are recorded through the agency of the + + + + + + +[PAGE 25] THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION + + +breath, which is therefore the basis of the soul, but while the breath- +record of good acts amalgamates with the Spirit and lives on forever as an +immortal soul, the breath-record of evil deeds is disintegrated; it is the +soul that sinneth and dies. + + While the Bible teaches that immortality of the soul is conditional upon +well-doing, it makes no distinction in respect of the Spirit. The statement +is clear and emphatic when...."The silver cord be loosed...then shall the +dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who +gave it." + + Thus the Bible teaches that the body is made of dust and returns +thereto, that a part of the soul generated in the breath is perishable, but +that the Spirit survives bodily death and persists forever. Therefore a +"lost soul" in the common acceptance of that term is not a Bible teach- +ing, for the Spirit is uncreate and eternal as God Himself, and therefore +the orthodox theory cannot be true. + + 3) THE THEORY OF REBIRTH: WHICH TEACHES THAT EACH SPIRIT IS AN INTEGRAL +PART OF GOD, THAT IT ENFOLDS ALL DIVINE POSSIBILITES AS THE ACORN ENFOLDS +THE OAK; THAT BY MEANS OF MANY EXISTENCES IN AN EARTHLY BODY OF GRADUALLY +IMPROVING TEXTURE ITS LATENT POWERS ARE BEING SLOWLY UNFOLDED AND BECOME +AVAILABLE AS DYNAMIC ENERGY; THAT NONE CAN BE LOST BUT THAT ALL WILL ULTI- +MATELY ATTAIN TO PERFECTION AND REUNION WITH GOD, EACH BRINING WITH IT THE +ACUMULATED EXPERIENCES WHICH ARE THE FRUITAGE OF ITS PILGRIMAGE THROUGH +MATTER. + + + + + + +[PAGE 26] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + Or, as we may poetically express it: + + WE ARE ETERNAL + +On whistling stormcloud; on Zephyrus wing, +The Spirit-choir loud the world-anthems sing; +Hark! List to their voice: "We have passed through death's door, +There's no Death; rejoice! life lives evermore." + +We are, have always been, will ever be. +We are a portion of Eternity, +Older than Creation, a part of One Great Whole, +Is each Individual and immortal Soul. + +On Time's whirring loom our garments we've wrought, +Eternally weave we on network of Thought, +Our kin and our country, by Mind brought to birth, +Were patterned in heaven ere molded on earth. + +We have shone in the jewel and danced on the wave, +We have sparkled in fire, defying the grave; +Through shapes everchanging, in size, kind and name +Our individual essence still is the same. + +And when we have reached to the highest of all, +The gradations of growth our minds shall recall, +So that link by link we may join them together +And trace step by step the way we reached thither. + +Thus in time we shall know, if only we do +What lifts, ennobles, is right and true. +With kindness to all, with malice to none, +That in and through us God's will may be done. + + + + + + +[PAGE 27] THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION + + + We venture to make the assertion that there is but one sin: IGNORANCE, +and but one salvation: APPLIED KNOWLEDGE. Even the wisest among us know +but litte of what may be learned, however, and no one has attained to per- +fection, or an attain in one single short life, but we note that everywhere +in nature slow persistent unfoldment makes for higher and higher development +of everything, and we call this process evolution. + + One of the chief characteristics of evolution lies in the fact that it +manifests in alternating periods of activity and rest. The busy summer, when +all things upon earth are exerting themselves to bring forth, is followed by +the flood-tide. Thus, as all other things move in cycles, the life that ex- +presses itself here upon earth for a few years is not to be thought of as +ended when death has been reached, but as surely as the Sun rises in the +morning after having set at night, will the life that was ended by the death +of one body be taken up again in a new vehicle and in a different environ- +ment. + + This earth may, in fact, be likened to a school to which we return life +after life to learn new lessons, as our children go to school day after day +to increase their knowledge. The child sleeps through the night which inter- +venes between death and a new birth. There are also different classes in +this world school which correspond to the various grades from kindergarten +to college. In the lower classes we find Spirits who have gone to the school +of life but a few times, they are savages now, but in time they will become +wiser and better than we are, and we ourselves shall progress in future +lives to spiritual heights of which we cannot even conceive at the present. + + + + + +[PAGE 28] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +If we apply ourselves to learn the lessons of life, we shall of course ad- +vance much faster in the school of life than if we dilly-dally and idle our +time away. This, on the same principle which governs in one of our own in- +stitutions of learning. + + We are not here then by the caprice of God. He has not placed one in +clover and another in a desert, nor has He given one a healthy body so that +he may live at ease from pain and sickness, while He placed another in poor +circumstances with never a rest from pain. But what we are, we are on ac- +count of our own diligence or negligence, and what we shall be in the future +depends upon what we will to be and not upon divine caprice or upon in- +exorable fate. No matter what the circumstances, it lies with us to master +them, or to be mastered as we will. Sir Edwin Arnold puts the teaching most +beautifully in his "Light of Asia:" + +The Books say well, my Brothers! each man's life +The outcome of his former living is; +The bygone wrongs bring forth sorrows and woes, +The bygone right breeds bliss. + +Each has such lordship as the loftiest ones, +Nay, for with powers around, above, below, +As with all flesh and whatsoever lives ACT maketh joy or woe. + + +Who toiled, a slave, may come anew a prince +For gentle worthiness and merit won, +Who ruled, a king, may wander earth in rags +For things done or undone. + + + + + +[PAGE 29] THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION + + +Or, as Ella Wheeler Wilcox says: + +"One ship sails East and another sails West +With the self same winds that blow. +'Tis the set of the sail, and not the gale, +Which determines the way they go. + +As the winds of the sea are the ways of fate +As we voyage along through life. +'Tis the act of the soul, which determines the goal +And not the calm or the strife." + + + When we wish to engage someone to undertake a certain mission we choose +some one whom we think particularly fitted to fulfill the requirements, and +we must suppose that a Divine Being would use at least as much common sense +and not choose anyone to do his errand who was not fitted therefor. So when +we read in the Bible that Samson was foreordained to be the slayer of the +Philistines and that Jeremiah was predestined to be a prophet, it is but +logical to suppose that they must have been particularly suited to such oc- +cupations. John the Baptist, also, was born to be a herald of the coming +Saviour and to preach the Kingdom of God which is to take the place of the +kingdom of men. + + Had these people had no previous training, how could they have developed +such a fitness to fulfill their various missions, and if they had been fit- +ted, how else could they have received their training if not in earlier +lives? + + + + + + +[PAGE 30] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + The Jews believed in the Doctrine of Rebirth or they would not have asked +John the Baptist if he were Elijah, as recorded in the first chapter of +John. The Apostles of Christ also held the belief as we may see from the in- +cident recorded in the Sixteenth chapter of Matthew where the Christ asked +them the question: "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" The +Apostles replied: "Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; +and others Jeremias or one of the Prophets." Upon this occasion the Christ +tacitly assented to the teaching of Rebirth because He did not correct the +disciples as would have been His plain duty in His capacity as teacher, when +the pupils entertained a mistaken idea. + + But to Nicodemus He said unequivocally: "Except a man be born again, +he cannot see the kingdom of God," and in the eleventh chapter of Matthew, +the fourteenth verse, He said, speaking of John the Baptist: "THIS IS ELI- +JAH." In the seventeenth chapter of Matthew, the twelfth verse, He said: +"Elijah is come already and they knew him not, but have done unto him what- +soever they listed." "Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them +of John the Baptist." + + Thus we maintain that the Doctrine of Rebirth offers the only solution +to the problem of life which is in harmony with the laws of nature, which +answers the ethical requirements of the case and permits us to love God +without blinding our reason to the inequalities of life and the varying cir- +cumstances which give to a few the ease and comfort, the health and wealth, +which are denied to the many. + + + + + +[PAGE 31] THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION + + + + The theory of heredity advanced by materialists applies only to the +FORM, for as a carpenter uses material from a certain pile of lumber to +build a house in which he afterward lives, so does the Spirit take the sub- +stance wherewith to build its house from the parents. The carpenter cannot +build a house of hard wood from spruce lumber, and the Spirit also must +build a body which is like those from which the material was taken. But the +theory of heredity does not apply upon the moral plane, for it is a known +fact that in the rogues galleries of America and Europe there is no case +where both father and son are represented. Thus the sons of criminals, +though they have the tendencies to crime, keep out of the clutches of the +law. Neither will heredity hold good upon the plane of the intellect, for +many cases may be cited where a genius and an idiot spring from the same +stock. The great Cuvier, whose brain was of about the same weight, as Daniel +Webster's, and whose intellect was as great, had five children who all died +of paresis; the brother of Alexander the Great was an idiot; and thus we +hold that another solution must be found to account for the facts of life. + + The Law of Rebirth coupled with its companion law, the Law of Causation, +does that. When we die after one life, we return to earth later, under cir- +cumstances determined by the manner in which we lived before. The gambler is +drawn to pool parlors and race tracks to associate with others of like +taste, the musician is attracted to the concert halls and music studios +where there are congenial Spirits, and the returning Ego also carries with +it likes and dislikes which cause it to seek parents among the class to +which it belongs. + + + + + + +[PAGE 32] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + But then someone will point to cases where we find people of entirely +opposite tastes living lives of torture, because grouped in the same family, +and forced by circumstances to stay there contrary to their wills. But that +does not vitiate the law in the slightest. In each life we contact certain +obligations which cannot then be fulfilled. Perhaps we have run away from a +duty such as the care of an invalid relative and have met death without com- +ing to a realization of our mistake. That relative upon the other hand may +have suffered severely from our neglect, and have stored up a bitterness +against us before death terminates the suffering. Death and the subsequent +removal to another environment does not pay our debts in this life, any more +than the removal from the city where we now live to another place will pay +the debts we have contracted prior to our removal. It is therefore quite +possible that the two who have injured each other as described, may find +themselves members of the same family. Then, whether they remember the past +grudge or not, the old enmity will assert itself and cause them to hate anew +until the consequent discomfort force them to tolerate each other, and per- +haps later they may learn to love where they hated. + + The question also arises in the mind of inquirers: If we have been here +before why do we not remember? And the answer is that while most people are +not aware of how their previous existences were spent, there are others who + + + + + + +[PAGE 33] THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION + + +have very distinct recollection of previous lives. A friend of the writer +for instance, when living in France, one day started to read to +her son about a certain city where they were then going upon a bicycle tour, +and the boy exclaimed: "You do not need to tell me about that, Mother. I +know that city. I lived there and was killed!" He then commenced to de- +scribe the city and also a certain bridge. Later he took his mother to that +bridge and showed her the spot where he had met death centuries before. An- +other friend travelling in Ireland saw a scene which she recognized, and she +also described to the party the scene around the bend of the road which she +had never seen in this life, so it must have been a memory from a previous +life. Numerous other instances could be given where such minor flashes of +memory reveal to us glimpses from a past life. The verified case in which a +little three year old girl in Santa Barbara described her life and death has +been given in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION. It is perhaps the most +conclusive evidence as it hinges on the veracity of a child too young to +have learned deception. + + This theory of life does not rest upon speculation, however. It is one +of the first facts of life demonstrated to the pupil of a Mystery School. He +is taught to watch a child in the act of dying, also, to watch it in the in- +visible world from day to day, until it comes to a new birth a year or two +later. Then he knows with absolute certainty that we return to Earth to reap +in a future life what we now sow. + + + + + + +[PAGE 34] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + The reason for taking a child to watch in preference to an adult is that +the child is reborn very quickly, for its short life on Earth has borne but +few fruits and these are soon assimilated, while the adult who has lived a +long life and had much experience remains in the invisible worlds for centu- +ries, so that the pupil could not watch him from death to rebirth. The cause +of infant mortality will be explained later; here we merely desire to empha- +size the fact that it is within the range of possibilities of every one +without exception to become able to know at first hand that which is here +taught. + + The average interval between two Earth-lives is about a thousand years. +IIt is determined by the movement of the Sun known to astronomers as PRE- +CESSION OF THE EQUINOX, by which the Sun moves through one of the signs of +the Zodiac in about 2,100 years. During that time the conditions upon Earth +have changed so much that the Spirit will find entirely new experiences +here, and therefore it returns. + + The Great Leaders of evolution always obtain the maximum benefit from +each condition designed by them, and as the experiences in the same social +conditions are very different in the case of a man from what they are for a +woman, the human Spirit takes birth twice during the 2,100 years measured by +the precession of the equinox, as already explained: it is born once as a +man and another time as a woman. Such is the rule, but it is subject to +whatever modifications may be necessary to facilitate reaping what the +Spirit has sown, as required under the Law of Causation which works hand in + + + + + + +[PAGE 35] THE PROBLEM OF LIFE AND ITS SOLUTION + + +hand with the Law of Rebirth. Thus, at times a Spirit may be brought to +birth long ere the thousand years have expired, in order to fulfill a cer- +tain mission, or it may be detained in the invisible worlds after the time +when it should have come to birth according to the strict requirements of a +blind law. The laws of nature are not that, however. They are Great Intel- +ligences who always subordinate minor considerations to higher ends, and +under their beneficent guidance we are constantly progressing from life to +life under conditions exactly suited to each individual, until in time we +shall attain to a higher evolution and become Supermen. + + Oliver Wendell Holmes has so beautifully voiced that aspiration and its +consummation in the lines: + +"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, +As the swift seasons roll! +Leave thy low-vaulted past; +Let each new temple, nobler than the last, +Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, +Till thou at length art free, +Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!" + + + + +[PAGE 36] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + THE CHEMICAL REGION + + If one who is capable of consciously using his spiritual body with the +same facility that we now use our physical vehicles should glide away from +the Earth into interplanetary space, the Earth and the various other planets +of our solar system would appear to him or her to be composed of three kinds +of matter, roughly speaking. The densest matter, which is our visible Earth, +would appear to him as being the center of the ball as the yolk is in the +center of an egg. Around that nucleus he or she would observe a finer grade +of matter similarly disposed in relation to the central mass, as the white +of the egg is disposed outside the yolk. Upon a little closer investigation +he would also discover that this second kind of substance permeates the +solid Earth to the very center, even as the blood percolates through the +more solid parts of our flesh. Outside both of these mingling layers of mat- +ter he would observe a still finer, third layer corresponding to the shell +of the egg, except that this third layer is the finest, most subtle of the +three grades of matter, and that it interpenetrates both of the two inner +layers. + + As already said, the central mass, spiritually seen, is our visible +world, composed of solids, liquids, and gases. They constitute the Earth, + + + + + + + +[PAGE 37] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + +its atmosphere, and also the ether, of which physical science speaks hypo- +thetically as permeating the atomic substance of all chemical elements. The +second layer of matter is called the Desire World and the outermost layer is +called the World of Thought. + + A little reflection upon the subject will make clear that just such a +constitution is necessary to account for facts of life as we see them. All +forms in the world about us are built from chemical substances: solids, liq- +uids, and gases, but insofar that they do move, these forms obey a separate +and distinct impulse, and when this impelling energy leaves, the form be- +comes inert. The steam engine rotates under the impetus of an invisible gas +called steam. Before steam filled its cylinder, the engine stood still, and +when the impelling force is shut off its motion again ceases. The dynamo ro- +tates under the still more subtle influence of an electric current which may +also cause the click of a telegraph instrument or the ring of an electric +bell, but the dynamo ceases its swift whirl and the persistent ring of the +electric bell becomes mute when the invisible electricity is switched off. +The forms of the bird, the animal, and the human being also cease their mo- +tion when the inner force which we call LIFE has winged its invisible way. + + All forms are impelled into motion by desire: the bird and the animal +roam land and air in their desire to secure food and shelter, or for the +purpose of breeding. Man is also moved by these desires, but has in addition +other and higher incentives to spur him to effort; among them is desire for + + + + + +[PAGE 38] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +rapidity of motion which led him to construct the steam engine and other de- +vices that move in obedience to HIS desire. + + If there were no iron in the mountains man could not build machines. If +there were no clay in the soil, the bony structure of the skeleton would be +an impossibility, and if there were no Physical World at all, with its so- +lids, liquids, and gases, this dense body of ours could never have come +into existence. Reasoning along similar lines it must be at once apparent +that if there were no Desire World composed of desire-stuff, we should have +no way of forming feelings, emotions, and desires. A planet composed of the +materials we perceive with our PHYSICAL eyes and of no other substances, +might be the home of plants which grow unconsciously, but have no desires to +cause them to move. The human and animal kingdoms, however, would be impos- +sibilities. + + Furthermore, there is in the world a vast number of things, from the +simplest and most crude instruments, to the most intricate and cunning de- +vices which have been constructed by the hand of man. These reveal the fact +of man's thought and ingenuity. Thought must have a source as well as FORM +and FEELING. We saw that it was necessary to have the requisite material in +order to build a steam engine or a body and we reasoned from the fact that +in order to obtain material to express desire there must also be a world +composed of desire stuff. Carrying our argument to its logical conclusion, + + + + + +[PAGE 39] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + +we also hold that unless a World of Thought provides a reservoir of mind +stuff upon which we may draw, it would be impossible for us to think and in- +vent the things which we see in even the lowest civilization. + + Thus it will be clear that the division of a planet into worlds is not +based on fanciful metaphysical speculation, but is logically necessary in +the economy of nature. Therefore it must be taken into consideration by any +one who would study and aim to understand the inner nature of things. When +we see the street cars moving along our streets, it does not explain to say +that the motor is driven by electricity of so many amperes at so many volts. +These names only add to our confusion until we have thoroughly studied the +science of electricity; and then we shall find that the mystery deepens, for +while the street car belongs to the world of INERT FORM perceptible to our +vision, the electric current which moves it is indigenous to the realm of +FORCE, the invisible Desire World, and the thought which created and guides +it, comes from the still more subtle World of Thought which is the home +world of the human Spirit, the Ego. + + It may be objected that this line of argument makes a simple matter ex- +ceedingly intricate, but a little reflection will soon show the fallacy of +such a contention. Viewed superficially any of the sciences seem extremely +simple; anatomically we may divide the body into flesh and bone, chemically +we may make the simple divisions between solid, liquid, and gas, but thor- +oughly to master the science of anatomy it is necessary to spend years in + + + + + + +[PAGE 40] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +close application and learn to know all the little nerves, the ligaments +which bind articulations between various parts of the bony structure, to +study the several kinds of tissue and their disposition in our system where +they form the bones, muscles, glands, etc., which in the aggregate we know +as the human body. To understand properly the science of chemistry we must +study the valence of the atom which determines the power of combination of +the various elements, together with other niceties, such as atomic weight, +density, etc. New wonders are constantly opening up to the most experienced +chemist, who understands best the immensity of his or her chosen science. + + The youngest lawyer, fresh from law school, knows more about the most +intricate cases, in his or her own estimation, than the judges upon the Su- +preme Court bench who spend long hours, weeks and months, seriously deliber- +ating over their decisions. But those who, without having studied, think +they understand and are fitted to discourse upon the greatest of all sci- +ences, the science of Life and Being, make a greater mistake. After years of +patient study, of holy life spent in close application, a man is oftentimes +perplexed at the immensity of the subject he studies. He finds it to be so +vast in both the direction of the great and small that it baffles +description, that language fails, and that the tongue must remain mute. +Therefore we hold (and we speak from knowledge gained through years of close +study and investigation) that the finer distinctions which we have made, and +shall make, are not at all arbitrary, but absolutely necessary as are divi- +sions and distinctions made in anatomy or chemistry. + + + + + + +[PAGE 41] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + + No form in the physical world has feeling in the true sense of that +word. It is the indwelling life which feels, as we may readily SEE from the +fact that a body which responds to the lightest touch while instinct with +life, exhibits no sensation whatever even when cut to pieces after the life +has fled. Demonstrations have been made by scientists, particularly by Pro- +fessor Bose of Calcutta, to show that there is feeling in dead animal tissue +and even in tin and other metal, but we maintain that the diagrams which +seem to support his contentions in reality demonstrate only a response to +impacts similar to the rebound of a rubber ball, and that must not be con- +fused with such feelings as LOVE, HATE, SYMPATHY and AVERSION. Goethe also, +in his novel. "Elective Affinities," (Wahlverwandtschaft), brings out some +beautiful illustrations wherein he makes it seem as if atoms loved and +hated, from the fact that some elements combine readily while other sub- +stances refuse to amalgamate, a phenomenon produced by the different rates +of speed at which various elements vibrate and an unequal inclination of +their axes. Only where there is sentient life can there be feelings of +pleasure and pain, sorrow or joy. + + + THE ETHERIC REGION + + + In addition to the solids, liquids, and gases which compose the CHEMICAL + + + + + + +[PAGE 42] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +REGION of the Physical World there is also a finer grade of matter called e- +ther, which permeates the atomic structure of the earth and its atmosphere +substantially as science teaches. Scientists have never seen, nor have they +weighed, measured, or analyzed this substance, but the infer that it must +exist in order to account for transmission of light and various other pheno- +mena. If it were possible for us to live in a room from which the air had +been exhausted, we might speak at the top of our voices, we might ring the +largest bell, or we might even discharge a cannon close to our ear and ] we +should hear no sound, for air is the medium which transmits sound vibra- +tions to the tympanum of our ear, and that would be lacking. But if an elec- +tric light were lighted, we should at once perceive its rays; it would il- +lumine the room despite the lack of air. Hence there must be a substance ca- +pable of being set into vibration, between the electric light and our eyes. +That medium scientists call ether, but it so subtle that no instrument has +been devised whereby it may be measured or analyzed, and therefore the sci- +entists are without much information concerning it, though forced to postu- +late its existence. + + We do not seek to belittle the achievements of modern scientists. We +have the greatest admiration for them and we entertain high expectations of +what ambitions they may yet realize, but we perceive a limitation in the +fact that all discoveries of the past have been made by the invention of + + + + + + +[PAGE 43] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + +wonderful instruments applied in a most ingenious manner to solve seemingly +insoluble and baffling problems. The strength of science lies vested in its +instruments, for the scientist may say to anyone: "Go, procure a number of +glasses ground in a certain manner, insert them in a tube, direct that tube +toward a certain point in the sky where now nothing appears to your naked +eye. You will then see a beautiful star called Uranus." If his directions +are followed, anyone is QUICKLY AND WITHOUT PREPARATION able to demonstrate +for himself the truth of the scientist's assertion. But while the instru- +ments of science are its tower of strength, they also mark the end of its +field of investigation, for it is impossible to contact the spirit world +with PHYSICAL instruments; so the research of occultists begins where the +physical scientist finds his limit and is carried on by SPIRITUAL means. + + These investigations are as thorough and as reliable as researches by +material scientists, but not as easily demonstrable to the general public. +Spiritual powers lie dormant within every human being, and when awakened, +they compensate for both telescope and microscope, they enable their pos- +sessor to investigate, instanter, things beyond the veil of matter, but they +are only developed by a patient application and continuance in well doing +extended over years, and few are they who have faith to start upon the path +to attainment to perseverance to go through with the ordeal. Therefore the +occultist's assertions are not generally credited. + + We can readily see that long probation must precede attainment, for a +person equipped with spiritual sight is able to penetrate walls of houses as + + + + + + +[PAGE 44] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +easily as we walk through the atmosphere, able to read at will the in- +nermost thoughts of those about him, and if not actuated by the most pure +and unselfish motives, would become a scourge to humanity. Therefore that +power is safeguarded as we would withhold the dynamite bomb from an anarch- +ist and from the well-intentioned but ignorant person, or, as we withhold +match and powder barrel from a child. + + In the hands of an experienced engineer the dynamite bomb may be used to +open a highway of commerce, and an intelligent farmer may use gunpowder to +good account in clearing his field of tree-stumps, but in the hands of an +ill-intentioned criminal or ignorant child an explosive may wreck much pro- +perty and end many lives. The force is the same, but used differently, ac- +cording to the ability or intention of the user, it may produce results of a +diametrically opposite nature. So it is also with spiritual powers, there is +a time-lock upon them, as upon a bank safe, which keeps out until they have +earned the privilege and the time is ripe for its exercise. + + As already said, the ether is physical matter and responsive to the same +laws which govern other physical substances upon this plane of existence. +Therefore it requires but a slight extension of PHYSICAL sight to see ether +(which is disposed in four grades of density); the blue haze seen in moun- +tain canyons is in fact ether of the kind known to occult investigators as +CHEMICAL ETHER. Many people who see this ether unaware that they are pos- +sessed of a faculty not enjoyed by all. Others, who have developed spiritual +sight are not endowed with etheric vision, a fact which seems an anomaly un- +til the subject of clairvoyance is thoroughly understood. + + + + + + + +[PAGE 45] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + + The reason is, that as ether is physical matter, etheric sight depends +upon the sensitiveness of the optic nerve, while spiritual sight is ac- +quired by developing latent vibratory powers in two little organs situated +in the brain: the pituitary body and the pineal gland. Even near-sighted +people may have etheric vision. Though unable to read the print in a book, +they may be able to "see through a wall," owing to the fact that their op- +tic nerve responds more rapidly to fine than to coarse vibrations. + + When anyone views an object with etheric sight he sees THROUGH that ob- +ject in a manner similar to the way an X-ray penetrates opaque substances. +If he looks at a sewing machine, he will perceive first, an outer casing; +then, the works within, and behind both, the casing farthest away from him. + + If he has developed the grade of spiritual vision which opens the Desire +World to him and he looks at the same object, he will see it both inside and +out. If he looks closely, he will perceive every little atom spinning upon +its axis and no part or particle will be excluded from his perception. + + But if his spiritual sight has been developed in such a measure that he is +capable of viewing the sewing machine with the vision peculiar to the World +of Thought, he will behold a cavity where he had previously seen the form. + + + + + + +[PAGE 46] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + Things seen with etheric vision are very much alike in color. They are +nearly reddish-blue, purple or violet, according to the density of the +ether, but when we view any object with the spiritual sight pertaining to +the Desire World, it scintillates and coruscates in a thousand ever changing +colors so indescribably beautiful that they can only be compared to living +fire. The writer therefore calls this grade of vision COLOR SIGHT, but when +the spiritual vision of the World of Thought is the medium of perception, +the seer finds that in addition to still more beautiful colors, there is- +sues from the cavity described a constant flow of a certain harmonious TONE. +Thus this world wherein we now consciously live and which we perceive the +world of FORM, the Desire World is particularly the world of COLOR, and the +World of Thought is the realm of TONE. + + Because of the relative proximity or distance of these worlds, a statue, +a FORM withstands the ravages of time for millenniums, but the COLORS upon +a painting fade in far shorter time, for they come from the Desire World; +and MUSIC, which is native to the world farthest removed from us, the World +of Thought, is like a will-o-the-wisp which none may catch or hold; it is +gone again as soon as it has made its appearance. But there is in color and +music a compensation for this increasing evanescence. + + The statue is cold and dead as the mineral of which it is composed and +has attractions for but few though its FORM is a tangible reality. + + + + + + +[PAGE 47] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + + The forms upon a painting are illusory, yet they express LIFE, on ac- +count of the COLOR which has come from a region where nothing is inert and +lifeless. Therefore the painting is enjoyed by many. + + Music is intangible and ephemeral, but it comes from the home world of +the Spirit and though so fleeting it is recognized by the Spirit as a +SOUL-SPEECH fresh from the celestial realms, an echo from the home whence we +are now exiled. Therefore it touches a chord in our being, regardless of +whether we realize the true cause or not. + + Thus we see that there are various grades of spiritual sight, each +suited to the superphysical realm which it opens to our perception: etheric +vision, color vision, and tonal vision. + + The occult investigator finds that ether is of four kinds, or grades of +density: the CHEMICAL ETHER, the LIFE ETHER, the LIGHT ETHER, and the RE- +FLECTING ETHER. + + The CHEMICAL ETHER is the avenue of expression for forces promoting as- +similation, growth, and the maintenance of form. + + The LIFE ETHER is the vantage ground of forces active in propagation, or +the building of new forms. + + The LIGHT ETHER transmits the motive power of the Sun along the various +nerves of living bodies and makes motion possible. + + The REFLECTING ETHER receives an impression of all that is, lives and +moves. It also records each change, in a similar manner as the film upon a +moving picture machine. In this record mediums and psychometrists may read +the past, upon the same principle as, under proper conditions, moving pic- +tures are reproduced time and again. + + + +[PAGE 48] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + We have been speaking of ether as an avenue of FORCES, a word which con- +veys no meaning to the average mind, because force is invisible. But to an +occult investigator the forces are not merely names such as steam,electric- +ity, etc. He finds them to be intelligent beings of varying grades, both +sub- and superhuman. What we call "laws of nature," are great Intelli- +gences which guide more elemental beings in accordance with certain rules +designed to further their evolution. + + In the Middle Ages, when many people were still endowed with a remnant +of NEGATIVE clairvoyance, they spoke of gnomes, elves, and fairies, which +roamed about the mountains and forests. These were the EARTH spirits. They +also told of the undines or WATER sprites, which inhabited rivers and +streams, and of sylphs which were said to dwell in the mists above moat and +moor as air spirits. But not much was said of the salamanders, as they are +fire spirits, and therefore not so easily detected, or so readily accessible +to the majority of people. + + The old folk stories are now regarded as superstitions, but as a matter +of fact, one endowed with etheric vision may yet perceive the little gnomes +building green chloryphyll into the leaves of plants and giving to flowers +the multiplicity of delicate tints which delight our eyes. + + Scientists have attempted time and again to offer an adequate explana- +tion of the phenomenon of wind and storm but have failed signally, nor can + + + + + + + +[PAGE 49] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + +they succeed while they seek a mechanical solution to what is really a +manifestation of life. Could they see the hosts of sylphs winging their way +hither and thither, they would KNOW who and what is responsible for the +fickleness of the wind; could they watch a storm at sea from the etheric +viewpoint, they would perceive that the saying "the war of the elements" +is not an empty phrase, for the heaving sea is truly then a battlefield of +sylphs and undines and the howling tempest is the war cry of spirits in the +air. + + Also the salamanders are found everywhere and no fire is lighted without +their help. However, they are active mostly underground, being responsible +for explosions and volcanic eruptions. + + The classes of beings which we have mentioned are still sub-human, but +will all at some time reach a stage in evolution corresponding to the human, +though under different circumstances from those under which we evolve. But +at present the wonderful Intelligences we speak of as the laws of nature, +marshal the armies of less evolved entities mentioned. + + To arrive at a better understanding of what these various beings are and +their relation to us, we may take an illustration: Let us suppose that a me- +chanic is making an engine, and meanwhile a dog is watching him. It SEES the +man at his labor, and how he uses various tools to shape his materials, also +how, from the crude iron, steel, brass, and other metals the engine slowly +take shape. The dog is a being from a lower evolution and does not compre- +hend the purpose of the mechanic but it sees both the workman, his labor, +and the result thereof which manifests as an engine. + + + + + + + +[PAGE 50] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + Let us now suppose that the dog were able to see the materials which +slowly change their shape, assemble, and become an engine, but that it is +unable to perceive the workman and to see the work he does. The dog would +then be in the same relation to the mechanic as we are to the great Intel- +ligences we call laws of nature, and their assistants, the nature spirits, +for we behold the manifestations of their work as FORCE moving matter in +various ways but always under immutable conditions. + + In the ether we may also observe the Angels, whose densest body is made +of that material, as our dense body is formed of gases, liquids, and solids. +These Beings are one step beyond the human stage, as we are a degree in ad- +vance of the animal evolution. We have never been animals like our present +fauna, however, but at a previous stage in the development of our planet we +had an animal-like constitution. Then the Angels were human, though they +have never possessed a dense body such as ours, nor ever functioned in any +material denser than ether. At some time, in a future condition, the Earth +will again become ethereal. Then man will be like the Angels. Therefore the +Bible tells us that man was made A LITTLE LOWER than the Angels. (Hebrews +2:7). + + As ether is the avenue of vital, creative forces, and as Angels are such +expert builders of ether, we may readily understand that they are eminently + + + + + + + +[PAGE 51] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + + +fitted to be warders of the propagative forces in plant, animal, and man. +All through the Bible we find them thus engaged: Two ANGELS came to Abraham +and announcd the birth of Isaac, they promised a child to the man who had +obeyed God. Later these same Angeles destroyed Sodom for abuse of the cre- +ative force. ANGELS foretold to the parents of Samuel and Samson the birth +of these giants of brain and brawn. To Elizabeth came the ANGEL (not +Arch-angel) Gabriel and announced the birth of John; later he appeard also +to Mary with the message that she was chosen to bear Jesus. + + + + THE DESIRE WORLD + + + When spiritual sight is developed so that it becomes possible to behold +the Desire World, many wonders confront the newcomer, for conditions there +are so widely different from what they are here that a description must +sound quite as incredible as a fairy tale to anyone who has not himself seen +them. + + Many cannot believe that such a world exists, and that other people can +see that which is invisible to them, yet some people are blind to the beau- +ties of this world which we see. A man who was born blind, may say to us: +"I know that this world exists. I can hear, I can smell, I can taste, and +above all I can feel, but when you speak of light and of color, they are +non-existent to me. You say that you SEE these things. I cannot believe it +for I cannot SEE myself. You say that light and color are all about me, but + + + + + + +[PAGE 52] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + +none of the senses at my command reveal them to me and I do not believe that +the sense you call sight exists. I think you suffer from hallucinations." +We might sympathize very sincerely with the poor man who is thus afflicted, +but his scepticisms, reasonings, objections, and sneers notwithstanding, we +would be obliged to maintain that we perceive light and color. + + The man or woman whose spiritual sight has been awakened is in a similar +position with respect to those who do not perceive the Desire World of which +he speaks. If the blind man acquires the faculty of sight by an oper- +ation, his eyes are opened and he will be compelled to assert the existence +of light and color which he formerly denied, and when spiritual sight is ac- +quired by anyone, he also perceives for himself the facts related by others. +Neither is it an argument against the existence of spiritual realms that se- +ers are at variance in their descriptions of conditions in the invisible +world. We need but to look into books on travel and compare stories brought +home by explorers of China, India, or Africa; we shall find them differing +widely and often contradictory, because each traveler saw things from his +own standpoint, under other conditions than those met by his brother au- +thors. We maintain that the man who has read most widely these varying tales +concerning a certain country AND WRESTLED WITH THE CONTRADICTIONS OF NARRA- +TORS, will have a more comprehensive idea of the country or people of whom +he has read, than the man who has read only one story assented to by all the +authors. Similarly, the varying stories of visitors to the Desire World are +of value, because giving a fuller view, and more rounded, than if all had +seen things from the same angle. + + + + + + +[PAGE 53] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + + In this world matter and force are widely different. The chief charac- +teristic of matter here is INERTIA: the tendency to remain at rest until +acted upon by a force which sets it in motion. In the Desire World, on the +contrary, force and matter are almost indistinguishable one from the other. +We might almost describe desire-stuff as force-matter, for it is in inces- +sant motion, responsive to the slightest FEELING of a vast multitude of be- +ings which populate this wonderful world in nature. We often speak of the +"teeming millions" of China and India, even of our vast cities, London, +New York, Paris, or Chicago; we consider them overcrowded in the extreme, +yet even the densest population of any spot on Earth is sparsely inhabited +compared with the crowded conditions of the Desire World. No inconvenience +is felt by any of the denizens of that realm, however, for, while in this +world two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time, it is dif- +ferent there. A number of people and things may exist IN THE SAME PLACE AT +THE SAME TIME and be engaged in most diverse activities, regardless of what +others are doing, such is the wonderful elasticity of desire-stuff. As an +illustration we may mention a case where the writer, while attending a reli- +gious service, plainly perceived at the altar certain beings interested in +furthering that service and working to achieve that end. At the same time +there drifted through the room and the altar, a table at which four persons +were engaged in playing cards. They were as oblivious to the existence of +the beings engaged in furthering our religious service, as though these did +not exist. + + + + + +[PAGE 54] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + The Desire World is the abode of those who have died, for some time sub- +sequent to that event, and we may mention in the above connection that the +so-called "dead" very often stay for a long while among their still living +friends. Unseen by their relatives they go about the familiar rooms. At +first they are often unaware of the condition mentioned: THAT TWO PERSONS +MAY BE IN THE SAME PLACE AT THE SAME TIME, and when they seat themselves in +a chair or at the table, a living relative may take the supposedly vacant +seat. The man we mistakenly call dead will at first hurry out of his seat to +escape being sat upon, but he soon learns that being sat upon does not hurt +him in his altered condition, and that he may remain in his chair regardless +of the fact that his living relative is also sitting there. + + In the lower regions of the Desire World the whole body of each being +may be seen, but in the highest regions only the head seems to remain. +Raphael, who like many other people in the Middle Ages was gifted with a +so-called SECOND SIGHT, pictured that condition for us in his Sistine Ma- +donna, now in the Dresden Art Gallery, where Madonna and the Christ-child +are represented as floating in a golden atmosphere and surrounded by a host +of genie-heads: conditions which the occult investigator knows to be in har- +mony with actual facts. + + + + + + +[PAGE 55] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + + Among the entities who are, so to speak, "native" to that realm of na- +ture, none are perhaps better known to the Christian world than the Archan- +gels. These exalted Beings were human at a time in the Earth's history when +we were yet plant-like. Since then we have advanced two steps; through the +animal and to the human stage of development. The present Archangels have +also made two steps in progression; one, in which they were similar to what +the Angels are now, and another step which made them what we call Archan- +gels. + + Their densest body, though differing from ours in shape, and made of +desire-stuff, is used by them as a vehicle of consciousness in the same man- +ner that we use our body. They are expert manipulators of forces in the De- +sire World, and these forces, as we shall see, move all the world to action. +Therefore the Archangels work with humanity INDUSTRIALLY and POLITICALLY as +arbitrators of the destiny of peoples and nations. The Angels may be said to +be FAMILY SPIRITS, whose mission is to unite a few Spirits as members of a +family, and cement them with ties of blood and love of kin, while the Arch- +angels may be called race and national spirits, as they unite whole nations +by patriotism or love of home and country. They are responsible for the rise +and fall of nations, they give war or peace, victory or defeat, as it serves +the best interest of the people they rule. This we may see, for instance, +from the book of Daniel, where the Archangel Michael is called the prince of +the children of Israel. Another Archangel tells Daniel (in the tenth chap- +ter) that he intends to fight the prince of Persia by means of the Greeks. + + + + + +[PAGE 56] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + There are varying grades of intelligence among human beings; some are +qualified to hold lofty positions entirely beyond the ability of others. So +it is also among higher beings. Not all Archangels are fitted to govern a +nation and rule the destiny of a race, people, or tribe; some are not fitted +to rule human beings at all, but as the animals also have a desire nature, +these lower grades of Archangels govern the animals as Group Spirits and +evolve to higher capacity thereby. + + The work of the Race Spirit is readily observable in the people it gov- +erns. The lower in the scale of evolution the people, the more they show a +certain racial likeness. That is due to the work of the Race Spirit. One +national Spirit is responsible for the swarthy complexion common to Ital- +ians, for instance, while another causes the Scandinavians to be blond. In +the more advanced types of humanity, there is a wider divergence from the +common type, due to the individualized Ego, which thus expresses in form and +feature its own particular idiosyncrasies. Among the lower types of +humanity such as Mongolians, native African Negroes and South Sea Islanders, +the resemblance of individuals in each tribe makes it almost impossible for +civilized Westerners to distinguish between them. Among animals, where the + + + + + +[PAGE 57] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + +separate Spirit is not individualized and self-conscious, the resemblance is +not only much more marked physically but extends even to traits and charac- +teristics. We may write the biography of a man, for the experiences of each +varies from that of others and his acts are different, but we cannon write +the biography of an animal, for members of each tribe all act alike under +similar circumstances. If we desire to know the facts about Edward VII, it +would profit us nothing to study the life of the Prince-Consort, his father, +or of George V, his son, as both would be entirely different from Edward. +In order to find out what manner of man he was, we must study his own indi- +vidual life. If, on the other hand, we wish to know the characteristics of +beavers, we may observe any individual of the tribe, and when we have stud- +ied its idiosyncrasies, we shall know the traits of the whole tribe of bea- +vers. What we call "instinct" is in reality the dictates of "Group Spirits" +which govern separate individuals of its tribe telepathically, as it were. + + The ancient Egyptians knew of these animal Group spirits and sketched +many of them, in a crude way, upon their temples and tombs. Such figures +with a human body and an animal head actually live in the Desire World. They +may be spoken to, and will be found much more intelligent than the average +human being. + + That statement brings up another peculiarity of conditions in the Desire +World in respect of language. Here in this world human speech is so diversi- +fied that there are countries where people who live only a few miles apart + + + + +[PAGE 58] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +speak a dialect so different that they understand each other with great dif- +ficulty, and each nation has its own language that varies altogether from +the speech of other peoples. + In the lower regions of the Desire World, there is the same diversity +of tongues as on Earth, and the so-called "dead" of one nation find it +impossible to converse with those who lived in another country. Hence lin- +guistic accomplishments are of great value to the Invisible Helpers, of whom +we shall hear later, as their sphere of usefulness is enormously extended by +that ability. + + Even apart from differences of language our mode of speech is exceed- +ingly productive of misunderstandings. The same words often convey most op- +posite ideas to different minds. If we speak of a "body of water," one +person may think we mean a lake of small dimensions, the thoughts of another +may be directed to the Great Lakes, and a third person's thoughts may be +turned towards the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. If we speak of a "light," +one may think of a gaslight, another of an electric arc-lamp, or if we say +"red," one person may think we mean a delicate shade of pink and another +gets the idea of crimson. The misunderstandings of what words mean goes even +farther, as illustrated in the following. + + The writer once opened a reading room in a large city where he lectured, +and invited his audience to make use thereof. Among those who availed them- +selves of the opportunity was a gentleman who had for many years been a +veritable "metaphysical tramp," roaming from lecture to lecture, hearing + + + + + +[PAGE 59] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + +the teachings of everybody and practicing nothing. Like the Athenians on +Mars' Hill, he was always looking for something "new," particularly in the +line of phenomena, and his mind was in that seething chaotic state which is +one of the most prominent symptoms of "mental indigestion." + + Having attended a number of our lectures he knew from the program that: +"The lecturer does not give readings or cast horoscopes FOR PAY." But see- +ing on the door of the newly opened reading room, the legend: "Free Read- +ing Room," his erratic mind at once jumped to the conclusion that although +we were opposed to telling fortunes for pay, we were now going to give free +readings of the future in the Free Reading Room. He was much disappointed +that we did not intend to tell fortunes, either gratis or for a consider- +ation, and we changed our sign to "Free Library" in order to obviate a +repetition of the error. + + In the higher Regions of the Desire World the confusion of tongues gives +place to a universal mode of expression which absolutely prevents misunder- +standings of our meaning. There each of our thoughts takes a definite form +and color perceptible to all, and this thought-symbol emits a certain tone, +which is not a word, but it conveys our meaning to the one we address no +matter what language we spoke on earth. + + + + + + +[PAGE 60] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + To arrive at an understanding of how such a universal language becomes +possible and is at once comprehended by all, without preparation, we may +take as an illustration the manner in which a musician reads music. A German +or a Polish composer may write an opera. Each has his own peculiar terminol- +ogy and expresses it in his own language. When that opera is to be played by +an Italian bandmaster, or by a Spanish or American musician, it need not be +translated; the notes and symbols upon the page are a universally understood +language of symbols which is intelligible to musicians of no matter what na- +tionality. Similarly with figures, the German counts: ein, zwei, drei; the +Frenchman says: un, deux, trois, and in English we use the words: one, two, +three, but the figures: 1,2,3, though differently spoken, are intelligible +to all and mean the same. There is no possibility of misunderstanding in the +cases of either music or figures. Thus it is also with the universal lan- +guage peculiar to the higher regions of the Desire World and the still more +subtle realms in nature, it is intelligible to all, an exact mode of expres- +sion. + + Returning to our description of the entities commonly met with in the +lower Desire World, we may note that other systems of religion than the +EGYPTIAN, already mentioned, has spoken of various classes of beings native +to these realms. The Zoroastrian religion, for instance, mentions SEVEN +AMSHASPANDS and the IZZARDS as having dominion over certain days in the +month and certain months in the year. The Christian religion speaks of Seven +Spirits before the Throne, which are the same beings the Persians called + + + + + +[PAGE 61] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + +Amshaspands. Each of them rules over two months in the year while the sev- +enth: Michael, the highest, is their leader, for he is ambassador from the +Sun to the Earth; the others are ambassadors from the planets. The Catholic +religion with its abundant occult information takes most notice of these +"star-angels" and knows considerable about their influence upon the af- +fairs of the earth. + + The Amshaspands, however, do not inhabit the lower regions of the Desire +World but influence the Izzards. According to the old Persian legend these +beings are divisible into two groups: one of twenty-eight classes, and the +other of three classes. Each of these classes has dominion over, or takes +the lead of all the other classes on one certain day of the month. They +regulate the weather conditions on that day and work with animal and man in +particular. At least the twenty-eight classes do that, the other group of +three classes has nothing to do with animals, because they have only +twenty-eight pairs of spinal nerves, while human beings have thirty-one. +Thus animals are attuned to the lunar month of twenty-eight days, while man +is correlated to the solar month of thirty or thirty-one days. The ancient +Persians were astronomers but not physiologists; they had no means of know- +ing the different nervous constitution of animal and man, but they saw +clairvoyantly these superphysical beings; they noted and recorded their work +with animal and men, and our own anatomical investigations may show us the +reason for these divisions of the classes of Izzards recorded in that an- +cient system of philosophy. + + + + + +[PAGE 62] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + + Still another class of beings should be mentioned: those who have en- +tered the Desire World through the gate of death and are now hidden from our +physical vision. These so-called "dead" are in fact much more alive than +any of us, who are tied to a dense body and subject to all its limitations, +who are forced slowly to drag this clog along with us at the rate of a few +miles an hour, who must expend such an enormous amount of energy upon pro- +pelling that vehicle that we are easily and quickly tired, even when in the +best of health, and who are often confined to a bed, sometimes for years, by +the indisposition of this heavy mortal coil. But when that is once shed and +the freed Spirit can again function in its spiritual body, sickness is an +unknown condition, and distance is annihilated, or at least practically so, +for though it was necessary for the Saviour to liken the freed Spirit to the +wind which blows where it listeth, that simile gives but a poor description +of what actually takes place in soul flights. Time is non-existent there, as +we shall presently explain, so the writer has never been able to time him- +self, but has on several occasions timed others when he was in the physi- +cal body and then speeding through space upon a certain errand. Distances +such as from the Pacific Coast to Europe, the delivery of a short message +there and the return to the body has been accomplished in slightly less than +one minute. Therefore our assertion, that those whom we call dead are in re- +ality much more alive than we, is well founded in facts. + + + + + + +[PAGE 63] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + + We spoke of the dense body in which we now live, as a "clog" and a +"fetter." It must not be inferred, however, that we sympathize with the +attitude of certain people who, when they have learned with what ease soul- +flights are accomplished, go about bemoaning the fact that they are now im- +prisoned. They are constantly thinking of, and longing for, the day when +they shall be able to leave this mortal coil behind and fly away in their +spiritual body. Such an attitude of mind is decidedly mistaken; the great +and wise Beings who are invisible leaders of our evolution have not placed +us here to no purpose. Valuable lessons are to be learned in this visible +world wherein we dwell, lessons that cannot be learned in any other realm of +nature, and the very conditions of density and inertia whereof such people +complain, are factors which make it possible to acquire the knowledge this +world is designed to give. This fact was so amply illustrated in a recent +experience of the writer: + + A friend had been studying occultism for a number of years but had not +studied astrology. Last year she became aroused to the importance of this +branch of study as a key to self-knowledge and a means of understanding the +natures of others, also of developing the compassion for their errors, so +necessary in the cultivation of love for one's neighbor. Love for our neigh- +bor the Saviour enjoined upon us as the Supreme Commandment, which is the + + + + + + +[PAGE 64] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +fulfillment of all laws, and as astrology teaches us to BEAR and FORBEAR, it +helps as nothing else can in the development of this supreme virtue. She +therefore joined one of the classes started in Los Angeles by the writer, +but a sudden illness quickly ended in death and thus terminated her study of +the subject in the physical body, here it was well begun. + + Upon one of many occasions when she visited the writer subsequent to her +release from the body, she deplored the fact that it seemed so difficult to +make headway in her study of astrology. The writer advised continued atten- +dance at the classes, and suggested that she could surely get someone "on +the other side" to help her study. + + At this she exclaimed impatiently: "Oh, yes! Of course I attend the +classes. I have done so right along; I have also found a friend who helps me +here. But you cannot imagine how difficult it is to concentrate here upon +mathematical calculations and the judgment of a horoscope or in fact upon +any subject here, where every little thought-current takes you miles away +from your study. I used to think it difficult to concentrate when I had a +physical body, but it is not a circumstance to the obstacles which face the +student here." + + The physical body was an anchor to her, and it is that to all of us. Be- +ing dense, it is also to a great extent impervious to disturbing influences +from which the more subtle spiritual bodies do not shield us. It enables us +to bring our ideas to a logical conclusion with far less effort at concen- + + + + + +[PAGE 65] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + +tration than is necessary in that realm where all is in such incessant and +turbulent motion. Thus we are gradually developing the faculty of holding +our thoughts to a center by existence in this world, and we should value our +opportunities here, rather than deplore the limitations which help in one +direction more than they fetter in another. In fact, we should never deplore +any condition, each has its lesson. If we try to learn what that lesson is +and to assimilate the experience which may be extracted therefrom, we are +wiser than those who waste time in vain regrets. + + We said there is no time in the Desire World, and the reader will +readily understand that such must be the case from the fact, already men- +tioned, that nothing there is opaque. + + In this world the rotation of the opaque earth upon its axis is respon- +sible for the alternating conditions of day and night. We call it DAY when +the spot where we live is turned towards the Sun and its rays illumine our +environment, but when our home is turned away from the Sun and its rays ob- +structed by the opaque earth we term the resulting darkness NIGHT. The pas- +sage of the earth in its orbit around the Sun produces the seasons and the +year, which are our divisions of time. But in the Desire World where all is +light there is but one long day. The Spirit is not there fettered by a heavy +physical body, so it does not need sleep and existence is unbroken. +Spiritual substances are not subject to contraction and expansion such as +arise here from heat and cold, hence summer and winter are also + + + + + +[PAGE 66] THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES + + +non-existent. Thus there is nothing to differentiate one moment from another +in respect of the conditions of light and darkness, summer and winter, which +mark time for us. Therefore, while the so-called "dead" may have a very +accurate memory of time as regards the life they lived here in the body, +they are usually unable to tell anything about the chronological relation of +events which have happened to them in the Desire World, and it is a very +common thing to find that they do not even know how many years have elapsed +since they passed out from this plane of existence. Only students of the +stellar science are able to calculate the passage of time after their de- +mise. + + When the occult investigator wishes to study an event in the past his- +tory of man, he may most readily call up the picture from THE MEMORY OF NA- +TURE, but if he desires to fix the time of the incident, he will be obliged +to count backwards by the motion of the heavenly bodies. For that purpose he +generally uses the measure provided by the Sun's precession: each year the +Sun crosses the Earth's equator about the twenty-first of March. Then day +and night are of even length, therefore this is called the vernal equinox. +But on account of a certain wobbling motion (nutation) of the Earth's axis, +the Sun does not cross over at the same place in the zodiac. It reaches the +equator a little too early, it PRECEDES, year by year it moves BACKWARDS a +little. At the time of the birth of Christ, for instance, the vernal equinox + + + + + +[PAGE 67] THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLDS + + +was in about seven degrees of the zodiacal sign Aries. During the two thou- +sand years which have intervened between that event and the present time, +the Sun has moved BACKWARDS about twenty-seven degrees, so that it is now in +about ten degrees of the sign Pisces. It moves around the circle of the zo- +diac in about 25,868 years. The occult investigator may therefore count back +the number of signs, or whole circles, which the Sun has PRECEDED between +the present day and the time of the event he is investigating. Thus he has +by the use of the heavenly time keepers an approximately correct measure of +time even though he is in the Desire World, and that is another reason for +studying the stellar science. + + + THE WORLD OF THOUGHT + + + When we have attained the spiritual development necessary consciously to +enter the World of Thought and leave the Desire World, which is the realm of +light and color, we pass through a condition which the occult investigator +calls The Great Silence. + + As previously stated, the higher regions of the Desire World exhibit the +marked peculiarity of blending form and sound, but when one passes through +the Great Silence, all the world seems to disappear and the Spirit has the +feeling of floating in an ocean of intense light, utterly alone, yet +absolutely fearless, because imbued with a sense of its impregnable securi- +ty, no longer subject to form or sound, past or future; all is one eternal +NOW. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + diff --git a/religious documents/ros_ti.txt b/religious documents/ros_ti.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..327cbb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ros_ti.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5567 @@ +[PAGE 1] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + + + + ------------------------------------------------- + [ T E A C H I N G S O F A N I N I T I A T E ] + [ ] + [ BY ] + [ ] + [ M A X H E I N D E L ] + [ [1865-1919] ] + ------------------------------------------------- + + + + + THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP + INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS + MT. ECCLESIA + P.O. BOX 713 + OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, USA + + + + + +[PAGE 3] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + + FOREWARD + + This volume of the writings of Max Heindel, the Western Mystic, is the +concluding number embodying the messages he sent out through monthly lessons +to his students. These lessons, reprinted since this great soul was called +to a greater work in the higher worlds on January 6th, 1919, may be found in +the following books in addition to the present volume: "Freemasonry and Ca- +tholicism"; "The Web of Destiny"; "The Mystical Interpretation of +Christmas"; "The Mysteries of the Great Operas"; "The Gleanings of a +Mystic"; and "Letters to Students." These writings comprise the later in- +vestigations of this seer. + + The helpful messages and the spiritual encouragement that the readers +have received from the inspired words in the earlier volumes we know have +been far-reaching in their effects. We also feel that in years to come en- +lightened and advanced students and seekers along mystical and occult lines +will realize more and more the true value of the works of Max Heindel. His +words reach the very depths of the heart of the reader. Many who have read +his first work, "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception," have been thrilled by +their contact with it. + + +[PAGE 4] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + Max Heindel, who was the authorized messenger of the true Rosicrucian +Brotherhood, lived the teachings which he taught. Only one who has suffered +as he suffered during his lifetime is able to touch the heart strings of hu- +manity. Only he who has felt the labor pains of spiritual birth which has +admitted him to the realms of the soul can write with the power to thrill +his readers. As the result of such a spiritual birth the writings which Max +Heindel has bequeathed to humanity will live and bear fruit. May the read- +ers of this book feel the heart throbs of this great lover of humanity, who +sacrificed his very physical existence in his desire to impart to man the +wonderful truths which he had garnered through his contact with the Elder +Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order. + --August Foss Heindel + + +[PAGE 5] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + TABLE OF CONTENTS + +Chapter I PAGE + The Days of Noah and of Christ ...................................7 +Chapter II + The Sign of the Master...........................................16 +Chapter III + What is Spiritual Work?..........................................23 +Chapter IV + The Way of Wisdom................................................33 +Chapter V + The Secret of Success............................................40 +Chapter VI + The Death of the Soul............................................47 +Chapter VII + The New Sense of the New Age.....................................54 +Chapter VIII + God's Chosen People..............................................61 +Chapter IX + Mystic Light on the World War + Part I.--Secret Springs....................................66 +Chapter X + Mystic Light on the World War + Part II--Its Promotion of Spiritual Sight..................72 +Chapter XI + Mystic Light on the World War + Part III--Peace on Earth...................................81 +Chapter XII + Mystic Light on the World War + Part IV--The Gospel of Gladness............................88 + + +[PAGE 6] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +Chapter XIII + The Esoteric Significance of Easter..............................96 +Chapter XIV + The Lesson of Easter............................................103 +Chapter XV + Scientific Method of Spiritual Unfoldment + Part I--Material Analogies................................108 +Chapter XVI + Scientific Method of Spiritual Unfoldment + Part II--Retrospection....................................115 +Chapter XVII + The Heavens Declare the Glory of God............................122 +Chapter XVIII + Religion and Healing............................................126 +Chapter XIX + Address at Ground Breaking, Mt. Ecclesia........................133 +Chapter XX + Our Work in the World, Part I...................................141 +Chapter XXI + Our Work in the World, Part II..................................148 +Chapter XXII + Our Work in the World, Part III.................................157 +Chapter XXIII + Eternal Damnation, and Salvation................................163 +Chapter XXIV + The Bow in the Cloud............................................172 +Chapter XXV + The Responsibility of Knowledge.................................180 +Chapter XXVI + The Journey Through the Wilderness..............................190 + + +[PAGE 7] THE DAYS OF NOAH AND OF CHRIST + + CHAPTER I + + THE DAYS OF NOAH AND OF CHRIST + + When Nicodemus came to Christ and was told about the necessity of re- +birth, he asked, "How can these things be?" And we also with out inquiring +minds are often anxious for more light upon the various teachings concerning +our future. It helps us if we can feel that these teachings fit into +physical facts as we know them. Then we seem to have firmer ground for our +faith in other things which we have not yet proved. + + It has been the writer's work to investigate spiritual facts and corre- +late them with the physical in such a manner as would appeal to the reason +and thus pave the way for belief. In this way it has been his privilege to +give light to seeking souls on many of the mysteries of life. Recently a +new discovery was made which, though it seemed as remote from connection +with the coming of Christ as east is from west, throws considerable light on +that event, especially on the manner of our meeting with the Lord "in the +twinkling of an eye" as the Bible has it. Our students well know how dis- + + +[PAGE 8] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +tasteful it is to the writer to relate personal experiences, but sometimes, +as in the present case, it seems necessary, and we shall crave indulgence +for using the personal pronoun while relating to the incident. + + One night some time ago while in transit to a place in a far country +where I had a mission to perform, I heard a cry. Though the human voice can +be heard only in air, there are overtones which are heard in the spiritual +realms at distances exceeding those traversed by wireless messages. The cry +was close by, however, and I was on the scene in an instant, but not soon +enough to give the needed help. I found a man sliding down a slanting em- +bankment, bare of vegetation, perhaps a dozen feet in width, and as it +proved on subsequent examination, almost smooth, and without a fissure which +would have afforded a hold for his fingers. To have saved him would have +involved materialization of both arms and shoulders, but there was no time. +In a moment he had slid over the overhanging precipice and was falling to +the floor of the canyon below, probably several thousand feet, though I am +not certain, being a poor judge of distance. + + Prompted by a natural spirit of fellow feeling I followed and on the way +observed the phenomenon which is the basis of this article, namely, that +when the body had attained a considerable velocity, the ethers composing the +vital body commenced to ooze out, and when the body crashed into the rocks +below, a mangled mass, there was very little of any ether left in it. + + +[PAGE 9] THE DAYS OF NOAH AND OF CHRIST + +Gradually, however, the ethers drifted together, took form, and hovered with +the finer vehicles above the mangled corpse; but the man was in a stupor un- +able to sense or realize the fact of his altered condition. + + As soon as I saw that he was beyond present help I went on; but on think- +ing the matter over it dawned on me that something unusual had happened and +that it was my duty to find out if the ethers left that way in every one who +feel, and if so, why. Under old-time conditions this would have been dif- +ficult, but the advent of the flying machine claims many victims, especially +in these unfortunate war times. It was therefore easy to ascertain the fact +that when a falling body has attained a certain velocity, the higher ethers +leave the dense body, and the falling man becomes insensible. As the body +reaches the ground, it is mangled, but the poor man may regain consciousness +when the ether has reorganized itself. He will then begin to suffer from +the physical consequences of the fall. If the fall continues after the +higher ethers have left, the increased velocity dislodges the lower ethers, +and the Silver Cord is all that remains attached to the body. This is rup- +tured at the moment of impact with the ground, and the seed atom passes on +to the breaking point, where it is held in the usual way. + + From these facts we came to the conclusion that it is the normal air +pressure which holds the vital body within the dense. When we move with an +abnormal velocity, the pressure is removed from some parts of the body and a + + +[PAGE 10] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +partial vacuum formed, with the further result that the ethers leave the +body and flow into this vacuum. The two higher ethers, which are most +loosely bound, are the first to disappear and leave the man senseless after +they have produced the panorama of life in a flash. Then if the fall con- +tinues to increase the air pressure in front of the body and the vacuum be- +hind, the more closely bound lower ethers are also forced out, and the body +is dead before it reaches the ground. + + It was found by examining a number of people in normal health that each +of the prismatic atoms composing the lower ethers radiated from itself the +lines of force which set spinning the physical atoms in which it is in- +serted, enduing the hole body with life. The united trend of all these +units of force is toward the periphery of the body, where they constitute +what has been called the "Odic Fluid," also designated by other names. When +the air pressure from without is lowered by residence in a high altitude, a +tendency to nervousness becomes manifest because the etheric force from +within ruses outward unchecked; and were the man not able to shut off the +outflow of solar energy in part by an effort of will to overcome the dif- +ficulty, no one could live in such places. + + We had heard of "shell shock" and we were aware that numbers of people +who had not even the slightest wound were found dead on the battle field. +In fact, we had seen and spoken with people who had passed out in this + + +[PAGE 11] THE DAYS OF NOAH AND OF CHRIST + +manner but were at a loss to know why death has resulted. They all dis- +claimed fear and were unanimously in their assertion that they had suddenly +become unconscious and a moment later they had found themselves in that they +had not a single scratch on their bodies. Our preconceived idea that it +must have been a momentary fear at a particularly close call which though +unrealized, had caused their demise, prevented a full investigation; but the +ascertained results of the consequences of a fall led us to believe that +something similar might take place in this connection, and this surmise +proved to be correct. + + When a large projectile passes through the air, it creates a vacuum be- +hind it by the enormous velocity wherewith it moves, and if a person is +within this vacuum zone while the shell is passing, he suffers in a measure +determined by his own nature and his proximity to the center of suction. +His position is in fact a reverse replica of the man who falls; for he +stands still while a moving body removes the air pressure and allows the +ethers to escape. If the amount of ether dislocated is comparatively slight +and is composed only of the third and fourth ethers which govern sense per- +ception and memory, he will probably suffer only a temporary loss of memory +and inability to sense things or move. This disability will disappear when +the extracted ethers are again fitted inside the dense body--a much more + + +[PAGE 12] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +difficult achievement than where the physical body succumbs and the reorga- +nization takes place without reference to that vehicle. + + Had the people thus hurt learned now to perform the exercises which +separate the higher and lower ethers, they might have found themselves out- +side the body in full consciousness and perhaps ready for their first soul +flight if they had had the courage to undertake it. However that may be, it +is safe to say that on their return to the dense body they would have expe- +rienced very little if any inconvenience, and in case the vacuum had been +strong enough to extract all four ethers and cause death, there would prob- +ably have been no unconsciousness such as overtakes the ordinary person; for +it was discovered that the people who said that they felt unconscious for a +moment only were wrong. It required a time varying from one to several days +in the cases we investigated before the vital body was reorganized and con- +sciousness reestablished. + + Let us now see what bearing these newly discovered facts have on the com- +ing of Christ and our meeting with Him. While we lived in ancient Atlantis +in the basins of the earth, pressure of the moisture-laden mist was very +heavy. This hardened the dense body, and as a further result the vibrations +of the interpenetrating finer vehicles were considerably slowed down. This +was especially true of the vital body, which is made of ether, a grade of +matter belonging to the physical world and subject to some of the physical +laws. The solar life did not penetrate the dense mist in the same abundance + + +[PAGE 13] THE DAYS OF NOAH AND OF CHRIST + +as is present in the clear atmosphere of today. Add to this the fact that +the vital bodies of that day were almost entirely composed of the two lower +ethers, which further assimilation and reproduction, and we shall understand +that progress was very slow. Man lad mainly a vegetative existence, and his +main exertions were devoted to the purpose of obtaining food and reproducing +his kind. + + Had such a man been removed to our atmosphere conditions the, lack of ex- +terior pressure would have resulted in an outflowing of the vital body which +means death. Gradually the physical body grew less dense and the amount of +the two higher ethers increased, so that man become fitted to live in a +clear atmosphere under a decreased pressure such as we have enjoyed since +the historical event known as the "Flood" when the mist condensed. Since +that time we have also been able to specialize more of the solar life force. +The larger proportion of the two higher ethers now found in our vital bodies +enables us to express the higher human attributes appropriate to the devel- +opment of this age. + + The vibrations of the vital body under the present atmospheric conditions +have enabled the spirit to build that which we call civilization, consisting +of industrial and artistic achievements and of moral and spiritual stan- +dards, the industrial and moral excellence being as closely connect and in- +terdependent as the artistic achievement is dependent on a spiritual concep- + + +[PAGE 14] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +tion. Industry is designed to develop the moral side of man's nature, art +to unfold the spiritual. Thus we are now being prepared for the next step +in our unfoldment. + + Let it now be remembered that the qualifications necessary for our eman- +cipation from the conditions prevailing in Atlantis were party physiologi- +cal; we had to evolve lungs to breathe the pure air in which we are now im- +mersed and which allows the vital body to vibrate at a more rapid rate than +did the heavy moisture of Atlantis. With this in mind we shall readily see +that future advancement lies in freeing the vital body entirely from the +trammels of the dense body and letting it vibrate in pure air. + + This is what happened in the lofty altitude exoterically known as the +"Mount of Transfiguration." Advanced men of various ages, Moses, Elijah, +and Jesus (or rather the body of Jesus ensouled by Christ) appeared in the +luminous garment of the liberated soul body, which all will wear in the New +Galilee, the Kingdom of Christ. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the king- +dom,: for it would interfere with the spiritual progress of the day; so when +Christ appears we must be prepared with a soul body and thus be ready to +part from out dense body to be "caught up and meet Him in the air." + + The results of the investigation which form the basis of the present ar- +ticle may give us an insight into the method of transition when compared +with the information given in the Bible. It is said that the Lord will + + +[PAGE 15] THE DAYS OF NOAH AND OF CHRIST + +appear with a mighty sound like the voice of an Archangel. We read of thun- +ders and the blasts of trumpets in connection with the event. A sound is an +atmospheric disturbance, and since the passage of a projectile made by man +can lift the vital bodies of soldiers out of their dense bodies, it needs to +argument to prove that the shout of a superhuman voice could accomplish +similar results more efficiently--"in the twinkling of an eye." + + "When shall these things be?" asked the disciples. They were told that +as it was in the days of Noah (when the Aryan Epoch was about to be ushered +in), so should it be in the Day of Christ. They ate and drank, they married +and were given in marriage. But some who perhaps seemed not so different +from the rest, had evolved the all-important lungs so that when the atmo- +sphere cleared they were able to breathe pure air, while others who had only +the gill clefts perished. In the Day of Christ when His voice sounds the +Call, there will be some who will find themselves with a properly organized +soul body, able to ascent above the discarded dense bodies, while others +will be like the soldiers who meet death from "shell shock" on the battle +fields today. + + May we prepare for that day by following in His steps. + + +[PAGE 16] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER II + + THE SIGN OF THE MASTER + + There are at the present time many who, judging from the signs of the +times, believe Christ to be at the door and are watching him in joyful an- +ticipation. Though, in the opinion of the writer, the "things which must +first come to pass" have not taken place in many important particulars, we +must not forget that He gave warning that "as it was in the days of Noah, so +shall be in the day of the Son of Man." Then they ate, drank, and made +merry; they married and were given in marriage up to the very moment when +the flood descended and engulfed them. Only a small remnant was saved. +Therefore we who pray for His coming will do well to watch also lest our +prayers be answered before we are ready, for He said, "The day of the Lord +will come as a thief in the night." + + But there is also another danger, a very great danger which He pointed +out, namely, "There shall be false Christs;" and "they shall deceive even +the very elect, if that were possible." So we are warned that if people +say, "Christ is here in the city or there in the desert," we are not to go, + + +[PAGE 17] THE SIGN OF THE MASTER + +or we shall certainly be deceived. + + But on the other hand, if we do not investigate, how shall we know? May +we not run the risk of rejecting Christ by refusing to hear all claimants +and judging each according to merits? When we examine the injunctions of +the Bible upon this point, they seem bewildering and altogether subversive +of the end they are supposed to help us attain, and the great question,: How +shall we know Christ at His coming?" is still rife. We have issued a pam- +phlet on this subject but feel sure additional light will be welcome to all. + + Christ said that some of the false Christs would work signs and wonders. +He always refused to prove His divinity in that sordid manner when asked to +do so by the scribes and Pharisees, because He knew that phenomena only ex- +cited the sense of wonder and whetted the appetite for more. Those who wit- +ness such manifestations are sometimes sincere in their efforts to convince +others but they are generally met with an attitude of mind which says in ef- +fect: "You say you have seem him do so and so and therefore you believe. +Very well! I also am willing to be convinced. Let him show me." + + But even supposing a Master were willing to prove his identity, who among +the multitude is qualified to judge the validity of the proof? No one! Who +knows the sign of the Master when he sees it? The sign of the Master is not + + +[PAGE 18] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +a phenomenon which may be repudiated or explained away by the sophists, nei- +ther is it something the Master may show or hide as he pleases, nor can he +take it up and lay it aside at will. He is forced to carry it with him al- +ways as we carry out arms and limbs. It would be just as impossible to hide +the sign of the Master from those qualified to see, know and judge it as it +would be for us to hide our members, from anyone who has physical sight. On +the other hand, as the sign of the Master is spiritual, it must be spiritu- +ally perceived, and it is therefore is impossible to show the sign of the +Master to those who lack spiritual sight as it is to show a physical figure +to the physically blind. + + Therefore we read: "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a +sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it." A little further on in the +same chapter (Matt. 16) we find the Christ asking His disciples, "Whom do +men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" The answer developed that though the +Jews saw in Him a superior person, Moses, Elias, or one of the prophets, +they were incapable of recognizing His true character. They could not see +the sign of the Master, or they would have needed no other testimony. + + Christ then turned to His disciples and asked them, "But whom say ye that +I am?" And from Peter came the answer weighted with conviction, quick and +to the point, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." He had seen +the sign of the Master, and he knew whereof he spoke, independent of + + +[PAGE 19] THE SIGN OF THE MASTER + +phenomena and exterior circumstances, as emphasized by Christ when He said, +"Blessed art thou, Simon, Son of Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not re- +vealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." In other words, the +perception of this GREAT TRUTH depended upon an interior qualification. + + What this qualification was, and is, we learn from the next words of +Christ: "And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter (PETROS, A ROCK,) and +upon this rock (PETRA) I will build my church." + + Christ said concerning the multitude of materialistic Jews: "A wicked +and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be +given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonah"; and much speculation has +been the consequence among equally materialistic Christians in latter times. +Some have contended that an ordinary whale did swallow the prophet and later +cast him ashore. Churches have divided on this as on many other foolish is- +sues. But when we consult the occult records we find an interpretation +which satisfies the heart without doing violence to the mind. + + This great allegory, like so many other myths, is pictured upon the film +of the firmament, for it was first enacted in heaven before it was staged on +the earth, and we still see in the starry sky "Jonah, the Dove," and "Cetus, +the Whale". But we will not concern ourselves so much with the celestial + + +[PAGE 20] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +phase as with its terrestrial application. + + "Jonah" means dove, a well recognized symbol of the Holy Spirit. During +the three "days" comprising the Saturn, Sun, and Moon revolutions of the +Earth Period, and the "nights" between, the Holy Spirit with all the Cre- +ative Hierarchies worked in the Great Deep perfecting THE INWARD parts of +the earth and men, removing the dead weight of the moon. Then the earth +emerged from its watery stage of development in the middle Atlantean Epoch, +and so did "Jonah, the Spirit Dove," accomplish the salvation of the greater +part of mankind. + + Neither the earth nor its inhabitants were capable of maintaining their +equilibrium in space, and the Cosmic Christ therefore commenced to work with +and on us, finally at the baptism descending AS A DOVE (not in the form of a +dove but AS a dove) upon the man Jesus. And as Jonah, the dove of the Holy +Spirit, was three Days and three Nights in the Great Fish (the earth sub- +merged in water), so at the end of our involutionary pilgrimage must the +other dove, the Christ, enter THE HEART of the earth for the coming three +revolutionary Days and Nights to give us the needed impulse on our evolu- +tionary journey. He must help us to etherealize the earth in preparation +for the Jupiter Period. + + Thus Jesus become at his baptism, "a Son of the Dove," and was recognized +by another, "Simon Bar-Jonah," (Simon, son of the dove). At that recogni- + +[PAGE 21] THE SIGN OF THE MASTER + +tion, by the sign of the dove, the Master calls the other "a rock," a foun- +dation Stone, and promises him the "Keys to Heaven." These are not idle +words nor haphazard promises. These are phases of soul development involved +which each must undergo if he has not passed them. + + What then is the "sign of Jonah" which the Christ bore about with Him, +visible to all who could see, other than the "house from heaven" wherewith +Paul longed to be clothed; the glorious treasure house wherein all the noble +deeds of many lives glitter and glisten as precious pearls? Everybody has a +little "house from heaven." Jesus, holy and pure beyond the rest, probably +was a splendid sight, but think how indescribably effulgent must have been +the vehicle of splendor in which the Christ descended; then we shall have +some conception of the "blindness" of those who asked for "a sing." Even +among His other disciples He found the same spiritual cataract. "Show us +the Father," said Philip, oblivious to the mystic Trinity in Unity which +ought to have been obvious to him. Simon, however, was quick to perceive, +because he himself had by spiritual alchemy made this spiritual petros or +"stone" of the philosopher which entitled him to the "Keys of the Kingdom"; +an Initiation making usable the latent powers of the candidate evolved by +service. + + We find that these "stones" for the "temple made without hands" undergo +an evolution or process of preparation. There is first the "petros," the + + +[PAGE 22] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +diamond in the rough, so to speak, found in nature. When read with the +heart, such passages as 1st Cor., 10:4, "And did all drink the same +spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock (Petros) that fol- +lowed them: and that Rock was Christ," are illuminating in this connection. +Gradually, very gradually, we have become impregnated with the WATER OF LIFE +which sprang from the Great Rock. We have also become polished as "lithoi +zontes" (LIVING STONES), destined to be grouped with that GREAT STONE which +the Builder rejected; and when we have wrought well to the end, we shall fi- +nally receive in the Kingdom the diadem, the most precious of all, the +"psiphon leuken," (the white stone) with its New Name. + + There are three steps in the evolution of "THE STONE OF THE SAGE": +PETROS, the hard rough rock; LITHON, the stone polished by service and ready +to be written on; and PSIPHON LEUKEN, the soft white stone that draws to it- +self all who are weak and heavy laden. Much is hidden in the nature and +composition of the stone at each step which cannot be written; it must be +read between the lines. + + If we hope to build the Living Temple with Christ in the Kingdom, we +would do well to prepare ourselves that we may fit in, and then we shall +know the Master and the Sign of the Master. + + +[PAGE 23] WHAT IS SPIRITUAL WORK? + + CHAPTER III + + WHAT IS SPIRITUAL WORK? + + In this connection we will give some extracts from the wonderful poem by +Longfellow which is called "The Legend Beautiful." + + "In his chamber all alone, + Kneeling on the floor of stone + Prayed the Monk in deep contrition + For his sins of indecision, + Prayed for greater self-denial + In temptation and in trial; + It was noonday by the dial, + And the Monk was all alone. + + "Suddenly, as if it lightened, + An unwonted splendor brightened + All within him and without him + In that narrow cell of stone; + And he saw the Blessed Vision + Of our Lord, with Light Elysian + Like a vesture wrapped about him, + Like a garment round him thrown." + + +[PAGE 24] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + This was not the suffering Savior, however, but the Christ feeding the +hungry and healing the sick. + + "In an attitude imploring, + Hands upon his bosom crossed, + Wondering, worshiping, adoring, + Knelt the Monk in rapture lost. + + * * * * * * + + "Then amid his exaltation, + Loud the convent bell appalling, + From its belfry calling, calling, + Rang through court and corridor + With persistent iteration + He had never heard before." + + This was his call to the duty of feeding the poor as Christ had done, for +he was the almoner of the Brotherhood. + + "Deep distress and hesitation + Mingled with his adoration; + Should be go, or should he stay? + Should he leave the poor to wait + Hungry at the convent gate, + Till the Vision passed away? + Should be slight his radiant guest, + Slight his visitant celestial, + For a crowd or ragged, bestial + + +[PAGE 25] WHAT IS SPIRITUAL WORK? + + Beggars at the convent gate? + Would the Vision there remain? + Would the Vision come again? + Then a voice within his breast + Whispered, audible and clear + As if to the outward ear: + 'Do they duty; that is best; + Leave unto they Lord the rest!' + + Straightaway to his feet he started, + And with longing look intent + On the Blessed Vision bent, + Slowly from his cell departed, + Slowly on his errand went. + + "At the gate the poor were waiting, + Looking through the iron grating, + With that terror in the eye + That is only seen in those + Who amid their wants and woes + Hear the sound of doors that close, + And of feet that pass them by; + Grown familiar with disfavor, + Grown familiar with the savor + Of the broad by which men die! + But today, they knew not why, + Like the gate of Paradise + Seemed the convent gate to rise, + + +[PAGE 26] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + Like a sacrament divine + Seemed to them the bread and wine. + In his heart the Monk was praying, + Thinking of the homeless poor, + What they suffer and endure; + What we see not, what we see; + And the inward voice was saying: + 'Whatsoever thing thou doest + To the least of mine and lowest, + That doest unto me!' + + + "Unto me! but had the Vision + Come to him in beggar's clothing, + Come to mendicant imploring, + Would he then have knelt adoring, + Or have listened with derision, + And have turned away with loathing? + + "Thus his conscience put the question, + Full of troublesome suggestion, + As at length, with hurried pace, + Towards his cell he turned his face, + And beheld the convent bright + With supernatural light, + Like a luminous cloud expanding + Over floor and wall and ceiling. + + "But he passed with awe-struck feeling + At the threshold of this door, + For the Vision still was standing + + +[PAGE 27] WHAT IS SPIRITUAL WORK? + + As he left it there before, + When the convent bell appalling, + From its belfry calling, calling, + Summoned him to feed the poor. + Through the long hour intervening + It had waited his return, + And he felt his bosom burn, + Comprehending all the meaning, + When the Blessed Vision said, + 'Hadst thou stayed, I must have fled!" + + + Let me tell you a story: + + Ages and ages ago--so long ago in fact that it was almost as far away as +yesterday--darkness enveloped the earth, and men were groping for the light. +Some there were who had found it and who undertook to show men the reflec- +tion thereof, and they were eagerly sought. Among them there was one who +had been to the city of light for a little while and had absorbed some of +its brilliancy. Straightway men and women from all over the land of dark- +ness sought him. They journeyed thousands of miles because they had heard +of this light; and when he heard that a company was traveling towards his +house, he set to work and prepared to give them the very best he had. He +planted poles all around his house and put lights upon them so that his +visitors might not hurt themselves in the darkness. He and his household +ministered to their wants, and he taught them as best he knew. + + +[PAGE 28] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + But soon sine if his visitors murmured. They had thought to find him +seated upon a pedestal radiant with celestial light. In fancy they had seen +themselves worshiping at his shrine; but instead of the spiritual light they +had expected they had caught him in the very act of stringing electric +lights to illuminate the place. He did not even wear a turban or a robe, +because, THE ORDER TO WHICH HE BELONGED HAD AS ONE ITS FUNDAMENTAL RULES +THAT IS MEMBERS MUST WEAR THE DRESS OF THE COUNTRY IN WHICH THEY LIVED. + + So the visitors came to the conclusion that they had been tricked and +swindled and that he had no light. They they took up stones and stoned him +and his household; they would have killed him had it not been that they +feared the law, which in that land required an eye for an eye and a tooth +for a tooth. Then they went away again into the land of the darkness, and +whenever they saw a soul headed towards the light, they help up their hands +in horror and said, "Do not go there; that is not a true light, it is as a +jack-o-lantern and it will lead you astray. We know there is absolutely no +spirituality there." Many believed them, and thus came to pass in that +case, as so many times before, the saying that was written in one of their +old books: "This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world +but men love darkness rather than light." + + As it was in that far-away yesterday, so also it is today. Men are run- +ning hither and thither seeking for light. Often like Sir Launfal they + + +[PAGE 29] WHAT IS SPIRITUAL WORK? + +travel to the ends of the earth, wasting their whole lives seeking for the +thing that they call Spirituality," but melting disappointment after disap- +pointment. But just as Sir Launfal, having spent his whole life in vain +search away from his home, finally found in the HOLY GRAIL right at his own +castle gate, so every honest seeker after spirituality will, shall, and must +find it in his own heart. The only danger is that like the company of seek- +ers mentioned, he may miss it because he does not recognize it. NO ONE CAN +RECOGNIZE TRUE SPIRITUALITY IN OTHERS UNTIL HE HAD IN A MEASURE EVOLVED IT +IN HIS OWN SELF. + + It may therefore be well to try to settle definitely, "WHAT IS SPIRITU- +ALITY?" to give a guide whereby we may find this great Christ attribute. In +order to do this we must leave our preconceived ideas behind, or we shall +certainly fail. The idea most commonly held is that spirituality manifests +through prayer and meditation; but if we look at our Savior's life, we shall +find that it was not an idle one. He was not a recluse, He did not go away +and hide Himself from the world. He went among people, He ministered to +their daily wants; He fed them when that was necessary; He healed them when- +ever He had the opportunity, and He also taught them. Thus He was in the +very truest sense of the word A SERVANT OF HUMANITY. + + The monk in "THE LEGEND BEAUTIFUL" saw Him thus when he was engaged in +prayer, rapt in spiritual ecstasy. But just then the convent bell struck + + +[PAGE 30] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +the hour of twelve, and IT WAS HIS DUTY TO GO AND IMITATE THE CHRIST, feed- +ing the poor who had gathered around the convent gate. Great indeed was the +temptation to stay, to bathe in the heavenly vibrations,; but there came the +voice, "DO THY DUTY, THAT IS BEST; LEAVE UNTO THY LORD THE REST" How could +he have adored the Savior whom he saw feeding the poor and healing the sick +while at the same time leaving the hungry poor to stand outside the convent +gate waiting for him to perform his duties? It would have been positively +wicked for him to have stayed there; and so the Vision said to him upon his +return: "HAST THOU STAYED, I MUST HAVE FLED." + + Such self-indulgence would have been absolutely subversive of the purpose +he had in view. If he had not been faithful in little things pertaining to +earthly duties, how could it be expected that he would be faithful in the +greater spiritual work? Naturally, unless ABLE TO STAND THE TEST, he could +not be given greater powers. + + There are many people who seek spiritual powers, wandering from one +so-called occult center to another; who enter monasteries and like places of +seclusion, hoping by running away from the world's clamor and glamour to +cultivate their spiritual nature. They bask in the sunshine of prayer and +meditation from morning till night while the world is moaning in agony. + + +[PAGE 31] WHAT IS SPIRITUAL WORK? + +Then they wonder why they do not progress; why they do not get further upon +the path of aspiration. Truly prayer and meditation are necessary, abso- +lutely essential to soul growth. But we are doomed to failure if we depend +for soul growth upon prayers which are only words. TO OBTAIN RESULTS WE +MUST LIVE IN SUCH A MANNER THAT OUR WHOLE LIFE BECOMES PRAYER, AN ASPIRA- +TION. As Emerson said: + + + "Although your knees were never bent, + To heaven your hourly prayers are sent, + And be they formed for good or ill, + Are registered and answered still." + + It is not the words we speak in moments of prayer that count, but IT IS +THE LIFE THAT LEADS UP TO THE PRAYER. + + What is the use of praying for peace on earth on Sunday when we are mak- +ing bullets during the whole week? How can we pray God to forgive us our +trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us when we carry hate in +our hearts? + + THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO SHOW OUR FAITH, AND THAT IS BY OUR WORKS; It +does not matter in what department of life we have been placed, whether we +are high or low, rich or poor, it is immaterial whether we are engaged in +stringing electric lights to save our fellows a physical fall, or whether it +is our privilege to stand upon a platform to give out the spiritual light + + +[PAGE 32] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +and point out to others the way of the soul. It is absolutely unessential +whether our hands are grimy with the lowest labor, perhaps digging a sewer +to maintain the health of our community, or whether they are soft and white +as required when nursing the sick. + + The determining factor which decides whether any class of work is +spiritual or material is our attitude in the matter. The man who strings +the electric lights may be far more spiritual than the one who stands upon +the platform; for alas, there are many who go to that sacred duty with the +desire to tickle the ears of their congregation by fine oratory rather than +to give heart-felt love and sympathy. It is must more noble work to clean +out the clogged sewer, as did THE DESPISED BROTHER in Kennedy's "Servant in +the House," than it is to live falsely in the dignity of a teacher's office, +implying a spirituality that is not actually there. EVERYONE WHO TRIES TO +CULTIVATE THIS RARE QUALITY OF SPIRITUALITY MUST ALWAYS BEGIN BY DOING EV- +ERYTHING TO THE GLORY OF THE LORD; FOR WHEN WE DO ALL THINGS AS UNTO THE +LORD, IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT KIND OF WORK WE DO. DIGGING A SEWER, INVENT- +ING A LABOR SAVING DEVICE, PREACHING A SERMON, OR ANYTHING ELSE IS SPIRITUAL +WORK WHEN IT IS DONE IN LOVE TO GOD AND MAN. + + +[PAGE 33] THE WAY OF WISDOM + + CHAPTER IV + + THE WAY OF WISDOM + + It is now several years since the teaching of the Elder Brothers was +first published in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, and we have since added +to our literature. It now seems appropriate that we take stock of our work +to see what we have don with the talents entrusted to our care. + + In the first place let us realize that the reason why we are in the +Rosicrucian Fellowship is because at some time we have been dissatisifed +with the explanations of the problems of life given elsewhere. We have all +sought light upon the riddle, and some among us, like the man spoken of in +the Bible saw a pearl of great price and went and sold all we had and bought +the pearl, which symbolizes knowledge of the Kingdom of Heaven. In other +words, some among us have been so anxious to find light and so overjoyed +when it was found that we have given our whole life, thought, and energy to +this work. Previously assumed obligations prevent the majority from enjoy- +ing this great privilege, but everyone of us, if we have been helped, is +bound under the law of compensation to make some return, for interchange and + + +[PAGE 34] THE WAY OF WISDOM + +circulation are everywhere correlative to life, as stagnation is to death. + + We know that we cannot continue to gorge ourselves upon physical good and +retain what we have eaten, and that unless elimination maintains the equi- +librium, death soon follows. Neither can we with impunity gorge ourselves +with a mental diet. We must share our treasure with others and use our +knowledge in the world's work or run the danger of stagnation in the quag- +mire of metaphysical speculation. + + During the years which have elapsed since THE ROSICRUCIAN +COSMO-CONCEPTION was published, students have had ample time to familiarize +themselves with its teachings. We can no longer excuse ourselves by saying +we do not know the philosphy because we have had no time to study it and +therefore cannot explain it to others. Even those who have had the least +time to study because of the duties which call them in their work in the +world ought now to be sufficiently posted to "GIVE A REASON FOR THE FAITH" +which is within them, as Paul exhorted us all to do. Even if we do not suc- +ceed in showing the light to everyone who asks for it, we owe it to our- +selves, to the Elder Brothers, and to humanity to make the attempt. Our own +soul growth depends upon the share we have in the growth of the movement +wherewith we have connected ourselves, and it is therefore expedient that we +should realize thoroughly WHAT THE MISSION OF THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP IS. + + +[PAGE 35] THE WAY OF WISDOM + + This you will find thoroughly and clearly elucidated in the introductory +chapter of the "COSMO." Briefly stated, it is TO GIVE AN EXPLANATION OF THE +PROBLEM OF LIFE WHICH WILL SATISFY BOTH THE MIND AND THE HEART, and thus +solve the perplexities of the two classes of people who are now groping in +the dark for want of this unifying knowledge, and who may be broadly spoken +of for the purposes of our discussion as THE CHURCH PEOPLE and the SCIEN- +TISTS. By the first term we will designate all who are led by sincere devo- +tion or kindliness of nature, whether belonging to a church or not. IN the +second class we mean to include all who are looking at life from the purely +mental viewpoint, whether they class themselves as scientists or not. It is +the aim and object of THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION to widen the +spiritual scope of rapidly increasing number among these two classes who re- +alize more or less clearly that there is a lack of something vitally impor- +tant in their present view of life and being. + + You will remember that when David desired to build a temple for the Lord +he was denied the privilege because had had been a man of war. There are +organizations in the world today which are always fighting other organiza- +tions, always finding fault and striving to tear down, thus warring just as +much as David did in ancient days. They cannot with such a state of mind be +permitted to build the temple which is made with living stones of men and + + +[PAGE 36] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +women, that temple which Manson in "The Servant in the House" speaks of in +such beautiful terms. Therefore, when we go about endeavoring to spread the +truths of the Rosicrucian teachings, let us always bear in mind that we may +not with impunity decry the religion of anyone else nor antagonize him, and +that it is not our mission to war against his error, which will manifest it- +self in due time. + + Do you remember that when David had passed out and Solomon reigned in his +stead, the latter saw the Lord in a dream, and asked for wisdom? He was +given the choice of whatever he might ask, and he asked for wisdom to guide +the people. This answer, in effect, was given him: Because it was in your +heart to ask wisdom, because you have not asked for riches or long life or +for victory over your enemies or anything like that but have prayed for wis- +dom, therefore that wisdom shall be given you and much more than that. +Therefore it may be well for us at this time to devote ourselves to heart- +felt prayers for wisdom, and in order that we may recognize it, it will be +well to discuss what true wisdom is. + + It is said, and truly, that KNOWLEDGE is power. Knowledge, though in it- +self neither good nor evil, may be used either for one purpose or the other. +Genius merely shows the bent of knowledge, but genius also may be good or +evil. We speak of a military genius, one who has a wonderful knowledge of +the tactics of war, but such a man cannot be truly good, FOR HE IS BOUND TO + + +[PAGE 37] THE WAY OF WISDOM + +BE HEARTLESS AND DESTRUCTIVE in the expression of his genius. + + A man of war, whether he be a Napolean or a common soldier, can never be +WISE, because he must deliberately crush all finer feelings of which we take +the heart as a symbol. On the other hand, A WISE RULER IS BIG-HEARTED as +well as having a powerful intellect, so that one balances the other in pro- +moting the interests of his people. Even the deepest KNOWLEDGE along reli- +gious or occult lines is not wisdom, as we are taught by Paul in that +wonderful thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians, where he says in effect: +Though I have all the knowledge so that I could solve all mysteries, and +have not love, I am nothing. ONLY WHEN KNOWLEDGE HAS WED LOVE, DO THEY +MERGE INTO WISDOM, the expression of Christ principle, the second phase of +Deity. + + We should be very careful to discriminate properly at this point. We may +have discrimination between what is expedient for the attainment of a cer- +tain end AND WHAT HINDERS and we may choose present ills for future attain- +ment, but even in this we do not necessarily express wisdom. Knowledge, +prudence, discretion, and discrimination are all born of the mind; all by +themselves alone are snares of evil from which Christ in the Lord's prayer +taught us to pray that we might be delivered. Only when these mind-born +faculties are tempered by the heart-born faculty of love does the blended +product become wisdom. If we read the thirteenth chapter of first +Corinthians, substituting the word WISDOM for the word CHARITY or LOVE, we + + +[PAGE 38] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +shall understand what this great faculty is that we ought so ardently to de- +sire. + + It is, then, the mission of the Rosicrucian Fellowship to promulgate a +combined doctrine of the head and the heart, which is the only true wisdom, +for no teaching that lacks either of these complements can really be called +WISE, any more than we can strike a chord of music on one string; for as the +nature of man is complex, the teaching which is to assist him to cleanse, +purify, and elevate this nature must be multiplex in aspect. Christ fol- +lowed this principle when He gave us that wonderful prayer, which in its +seven stanzas touches the keynote of each of the seven human vehicles and +blends them into that master chord of perfection which we call the Lord's +Prayer. + + But how shall we teach the world this wonderful doctrine received from +the Elder Brothers? The answer to this question is first, last, and all the +time: BY LIVING THE LIFE. It is said to the everlasting credit of Mohammed +that his wife became his first disciple, and it is certain that it was not +his teaching alone but the life which he lived in the home, day in and day +out, year in and year out, which won the confidence of his companion to such +an extent that she was willing to trust her spiritual fate in his hands. It +is comparatively easy to stand before strangers who know nothing bad about +us and to whom our shortcomings are therefore not patent, and preach for an +hour or two each week, but it is totally different thing to preach twenty- + + +[PAGE 39] THE WAY OF WISDOM + +four hours a day in the home as Mohammed must have done by living the life. +It we would have the success in our propaganda that he had in his, we must, +each and everyone of us, begin in the hone, begin by demonstrating to those +with whom we live that the teachings which guide us are truly wisdom teach- +ings. It is said that charity begins at home. This is the word that should +have been translated "love" in the thirteenth chapter of first Corinthians. +Change this also into wisdom and let it read, WISDOM PROPAGANDA BEGINS AT +HOME. Then let this be our motto throughout the years: "By living the life +AT HOME we can advance the cause better than in any other way." Many skep- +tical families have been converted by husbands or wives in the Rosicrucian +Fellowship. May the rest follow. + + +[PAGE 40] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER V + + THE SECRET OF SUCCESS + + This is a subject which ought to interest everybody, for surely we all +desire to be successful; but the question is what constitutes success? And +to this question perhaps each individual would have a different answer. But +a little thought will soon make it clear that whatever path we pursue in our +desire to attain success, that path must be follow the evolutionary tread of +mankind. Therefore there must be a general answer as to what constitutes +success and what is the secret thereof. It would be a mistake, however, to +try to find the solution of this problem just by examining the life of man +during our present age. Paying regard to what he has been before and with +an eye also to the future development of humanity is the only way to obtain +the perspective which is necessary to arrive at the proper answer to this +momentous question. + + We do not need to go into details to a great extent. We may mention that +in the earlier epochs of our evolution when man-in-the-making was coming +down from the spiritual world into his present material existence, the + + +[PAGE 41] THE SECRET OF SUCCESS + +secret of success lay in a knowledge of the physical world and the condi- +tions therein. It was not necessary at that time to tell humanity about the +spiritual world and our finer vehicles, for these were facts patent to ev- +erybody. We saw and lived in the spiritual realms. But we were then coming +into the physical world, and therefore the schools of Initiation taught the +pioneers of mankind the laws which govern the physical world and initiated +them into the arts and crafts whereby they might conquer the material realm. +From that time until a comparatively recent date humanity has been working +to perfect itself in these branches of knowledge, which reached their high- +est expression in the centuries just prior to the discovery of steam and are +now in their decadence. + + At first thought this may seem an unwarranted statement, but a careful +examination of the facts will very quickly develop the truth thereof. In +the so-called "dark ages" there were no factories, but every town and vil- +lage was full of small shops in which the master, sometimes alone and at +other times with a few journeymen and apprentices, wrought the works of his +trade from the raw material to the finished product, exercising his skill +and creative instinct and putting his heart and soul into every piece of +work that left his hands. If he were a blacksmith, he knew how to produce +ornamental ironwork fit for signs, gates, and other things which went to +make up the quaint beauty of those medieval villages and towns. Nor did his + + +[PAGE 42] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +handiwork ever leave him entirely; as he walked about the town he might look +upon this, that, or the other ornament, and pride himself upon the beauty +thereof,; pride himself also in the knowledge of how he had won the respect +and admiration of his fellow townsmen by his artistic and conscientious +work. The joiner who made the framework of the chairs, also upholstered +them and made those artistic designs which we are today seeking to follow. +The shoemaker, the weaver, and all other craftsmen without exception pro- +duced the finished article from the raw material, and each took pride in his +handiwork. Also they toiled long hours, but there was no murmur or com- +plaint, for each found a satisfaction in this exercise of his creative in- +stinct. The song of the blacksmith to the accompaniment of the hammer on +the anvil was a fact in every shop, and the journeymen and apprentices felt +themselves not slaves but MASTERS IN THE MAKING. + + Then came the age of steam and machinery and with it a new system of la- +bor. Instead of the production of the finished article from the raw mate- +rial by one man, which gave satisfaction to his creative instinct, the new +plan was to make men tenders of machines which produced only parts of the +finished articles. These parts were then assembled by others. While this +plan decreased the cost of production and increased the output, it left no +scope for the creative instinct of a man. He became merely a cog in some + + +[PAGE 43] THE SECRET OF SUCCESS + +great machine. In the medieval shop money was indeed a minor consideration; +the joy of production was everything; time mattered not. But under the new +system men commenced to work FOR MONEY AND AGAINST TIME, with the result +that the souls of both master and men are now starved. They have lost the +substance and retained only the shadow of all that makes life worth living, +for they are laboring for something which they can neither use nor enjoy. +This applies to both master and men. + + What would we say of a young man who should set himself the goal of ac- +cumulating a million handkerchiefs which he could never by any possible +change use? Surely we should call him a fool; and why should we not place +the man who spends all his energy and foregoes all the comforts of life to +become a millionaire, in the same category? This system cannot continue, +for it is giving man a stone when he asks for bread, and there must be some +other development in store for him. New standards must be in the process of +development, new ideals must be looming up to give us a wider vision. For +hints as to the trend of evolution we must look to those among us who are +most gifted with inspiration, the poets and seers. James Russell Lowell +sounds perhaps the clearest note in his VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL. A knight +leaving his castle imbued with a desire to do great and valiant things for +God, is going to join the Crusaders and seek the Holy Grail in far distant +Palestine. He leaves his castle self-satisifed, proud, and arrogant, bent + + +[PAGE 44] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +on his mission. At the castle gate he meets a poor beggar, a leper, who +stretches out his hands asking for alms. Sir Launfal, however, has no com- +passion, but in order to be rid of the loathsome thing, he throws him a +golden coin and endeavors to forget him. + +"But the leper raised not the gold from the dust, +'Better to me the poor man's crust, +Better the blessing of the poor, +Though I turn empty for his door. +That is not true alms which the hand can hold; +He gives only the worthless gold +Who gives from a sense of duty; +But he who gives from a slender mite, +And gives to that which is out of sight-- +That thread of all-sustaining beauty +Which runs through all and doth all unite-- +The hand cannot clasp the whole of his aims, +The heart outstretches its eager palms, +For a god goes with it and makes it store +To the soul that was starving in darkness before.'" + + But what of Sir Launfal? Could he be expected in such a frame of mind to +attain success and find the Grail? Certainly not. So disappointment after +disappointment meets him, and finally he returns to his castle, discouraged +and humbled in heart. There he again meets the leper, and at the sight of +him, + + +[PAGE 45] THE SECRET OF SUCCESS + +"The heart within him was ashes and dust; +He parted in twain his single crust, +He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink, +And gave the leper to eat and drink." + + Then, having fulfilled the task of mercy, the reward comes with it: + +"The leper no longer crouched by his side' +But stood before him glorified, + * * * * * * * + + +And the Voice that was softer than silence said, +'Lo, it is I, be not afraid! +In many lands, without avail, +Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail; +Behold, it is here--this cup which thou +Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now! +This crust is my body broken for thee, +This water the blood I shed on the tree; +The Holy Supper is kept, indeed, +In whatso we share with another's need; +Not what we give, but what we share-- +For the gift without the giver is bare; +Who gives HIMSELF with his aims feeds three: +Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.'" + + In these words lies the secret of success, which consists in doing the +little things, the perhaps seemingly disagreeable things which are close to +our hands, instead of going afar and seeking for chimerical phantasms which + + +[PAGE 46] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +never develop into anything definite or tangible. + + What will doing the former accomplish for us? may be pertinently in- +quired. Again we may take the answer from a poet, Oliver Wendell Holmes, +who tells us of the little chambered nautilus. It first builds a small cell +only large enough to hold it. Then as it grows, it adds another chamber +which is larger and which it them occupies for the next period of growth, +and so on until it has made a spiral shell as large as it can, which it then +leaves. This idea he puts into the following lines: + +"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, +As the swift seasons roll! + +Leave thy low vaulted past! +Let each new temple, nobler than the last, +Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, +Till thou at length art free, +Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!" + + When we have come to this point, we have obtained success--all the suc- +cess that we can get in our present world--and we are entering a new sphere +of larger opportunities. + + +[PAGE 47] THE DEATH OF THE SOUL + + CHAPTER VI + + THE DEATH OF THE SOUL + + From time to time, seemingly following a law of periodicity, the same +difficulties crop up in the minds of students. At the same time a number of +letters from different parts of the world ask for information on a subject, +at another time on a different one, but after years the same subjects are +revived. While help is given the individuals who ask, it may be that many +more are interested in the same subject at the same time, hence this lesson +on the death of the soul, which seems to exercise the mind perhaps because +death of the body is so common and frequent. + + Some years ago we published a lesson on "The Unpardonable Sin and Lost +Souls" in connection with the sacraments which we were them explaining. It +was there stated that all the sacraments have to do with the transmission of +the seed atoms, which form the nuclei of our various bodies. The germ for +our earthly body must be properly placed in fruitful soil to grow a suitable +dense vehicle, and for this reason, as stated in Genesis, 1:27, "Elohim cre- +ated man male and female." The Hebrew words are SACR VA N'CABAH. These are + + +[PAGE 48] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +names of the sex organs. Literally translated, SACR means the bearer of the +germ; and thus MARRIAGE is a SACRament, for it opens the way for the trans- +mission of the physical seed atom from the father to the mother and tends to +preserve the race against the ravages of death. + + BAPTISM as a SACRament signifies the germinal urge of the soul for higher +life, the planting of a spiritual seed. + + COMMUNION is the SACRament in which we partake of bread made from the +seed of chaste plants, and in which the cup symbolizing the passionless seed +pod points to the age to come, an age when marriage will be unnecessary to +transmit the seed through a father and mother, but when we may feed directly +upon cosmic life and thus conquer death. + + Finally, EXTREME UNCTION is the SACRament which marks the loosing of the +silver cord and the extraction of the sacred germ, until it shall again be +planted in another N'cabah, or mother. + + As the seed and ovum are the root and basis of racial development, it is +easy to see that no sin can be more serious than that which abuses the cre- +ative function, for by the SACRilege we stunt future generations and trans- +gress against the Holy Spirit, Jehovah, who is the warden of the creative +lunar force. His angels herald birth, as in the case of Isaac, John the +Baptist, and Jesus. When He wanted to reward His most faithful follower, + + +[PAGE 49] THE DEATH OF THE SOUL + +Abraham, He promised to make his seed as numerous as the sands on the sea- +shore. He also meted out the most terrible punishment to the Sodomites, who +committed sacrilege by misdirecting the seed; and the sin of Onan who wasted +it is also a pointer in the same direction. + + We are told in the Bible that mankind were forbidden to eat of the Tree +of Knowledge under pain of death. But instead of patiently waiting for the +periods of propitious interplanetary conditions Adam KNEW Eve, and since +then she has borne her children in pain and suffering subject to premature +death. Therefore the abuse of this sacred function for gratification of the +passional nature, and particularly perversion, is recognized by esotericists +as the unpardonable sin. It is to this James refers when he says, "There is +a sin unto death. I do not say that ye shall pray for that." + + But occult investigations have proved in this case, as with all other +forms of hell preaching, that God and nature are much more lenient and mer- +ciful to man than man is to his fellows. Though the retributive justice +meted out to those who have lived lives of sin and vice was found in all +cases to be severe, nothing nearly as serious as the "death of the soul" oc- +curs. So far as we have been able to learn, ONLY THE BLACK MAGICIAN WHO +CONSCIOUSLY MISUSES THE SEED FOR MALICIOUS PURPOSES faces anything so seri- +ous as that implied in the phrase; and there would really be no need of go- +ing into the subject at all except that it throws side lights upon other + + +[PAGE 50] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +matters of value to the student. + + To understand this properly we must first call to the mind the sharp +definitions of the terms spirit, soul and body as given in the "Rosicrucian +Cosmo-Conception." It is there stated that in the beginning of manifesta- +tion the Virgin Spirit, a spark from the Divine, involved itself in a three- +fold veil of spirit-matter and thus became the Ego. + + The threefold spirit cast a threefold shadow into the realm of matter, +and thus the DENSE BODY was evolved as a counterpart of the Divine Spirit, +the VITAL BODY as a replica of the Life Spirit, and the DESIRE BODY as the +image of the Human Spirit. Finally, and most important of all, the link of +MIND was formed between the threefold spirit and its threefold body. This +was the beginning of individual consciousness, and marks the point where the +involution spirit into matter is finished and the evolutionary process +whereby the spirit is lifted out of matter begins. Involution involves the +crystallization of spirit into bodies, but evolution depends upon the dis- +solution of the bodies, the extraction of the soul-substance from them, and +the alchemical amalgamation of this soul with the spirit. + + At the beginning of evolution man consisted only of spirit and body,--he +was soulless; but since them each life lived on earth in the great school of +experience had made him more and more soulful according to the use which he +has made of his opportunities. This is shown in the different gradation be- +tween the savage and the saint which we see all about us. It is the loss + + +[PAGE 51] THE DEATH OF THE SOUL + +of the soul which is involved in the experience we describe as the death of +the soul. The spirit itself can of course never die seeing that it is a +spark from the Divine, without beginning and without end. How then can the +death of the soul be brought about, and what is the real meaning of the +phrase? This is a subject the writer does not like to dwell upon, but for +the sake of the important side light it throws upon spiritual advancement, +as already said, the facts will be given. + + In the foregoing we have seen that the threefold spirit has projected a +threefold body and that the purpose of evolution is the extraction of the +threefold soul from his threefold body and the amalgamation thereof with the +threefold spirit. Now mark this point for this is the important crux of the +whole matter, a very valuable and important piece of information which will +help the student to a more definite understanding of the subject than has +hitherto been given: Much is said in occult literature about "THE PATH"; +but though to the initiated who already know, the statements of what it is +and where it is are plentiful, this information has never before been given +to the exoteric student. Paul tells us that to be carnally MINDED is death, +but to be spiritual MINDED is life and peace. This is the exact truth, for +the MIND, WHICH IS THE LINK BETWEEN THE SPIRIT AND THE BODY, IS THE PATH OR +BRIDGE, THE ONLY MEANS OF TRANSMISSION OF SOUL TO SPIRIT. So long as man is + + +[PAGE 52] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +carnally minded and turns his attention to worldly successes, cherishing as +his motto proverb, "Let us eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die," +all his activities are centered in the lower part of his being, the person- +ality, and he lives and dies like the animals, unconscious of the magnetic +drawings of the spirit. But at length there comes a time when the yearnings +of the spirit are felt, and the personality sees the light and sets out to +seek its Higher Self across the bridge of mind. And as flesh and blood can- +not inherit the Kingdom of God, the body is crucified that the soul may be +liberated and joined to its Father in Heaven, the threefold spirit, the +Higher Self. + + That at least is the general tendency, the higher elevates the lower. +But unfortunately there are examples of the opposite where the lower person- +ality becomes so strong in its materialism and where the mind becomes so +firmly enmeshed with the lower vehicles that the personality refuses to sac- +rifice itself for the spirit, with the result that THE BRIDGE OF MIND IS FI- +NALLY BROKEN. The soulless personality may then continue to live for many +years after this separation has taken place, and may perpetrate the most +outrageous acts of cruelty and cunning until it succumbs. Black Magic which +involves the perverted use of seed obtained from others is generally used by +these soulless personalities for the purpose of satisfying their demoniac +desires. Often they obtain power in a nation or a society, which they then + + +[PAGE 53] THE DEATH OF THE SOUL + +delight in wrecking. + + Meanwhile the spirit stands naked; it has no seed atoms wherewith to cre- +ate further bodies, and it therefore automatically gravitates to the planet +Saturn and thence to Chaos, where it must retain until the dawn of a new +creative day. It may seen unjust at first sight that the spirit should be +thus made to suffer though it has committed no wickedness; but on further +thought it will be understood that as the personality is the creature of the +Higher Self, the responsibility exists and cannot be evaded. Fortunately, +however, such cases grow increasingly rare as we advance upon the pathway of +evolution. Nevertheless, it behooves all to set their faces earnestly to- +wards the goal so that the light on the path that leads toward our spiritual +ideal, the union with the Higher Self, may grow brighter day by day. + + +[PAGE 54] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER VII + + THE NEW SENSE OF THE NEW AGE + + At the end of the Taurean age, about 4,000 years ago, "God's people" fled +from the wrath to come when they left Egypt, the land where they worshiped +the Bull. They were led in their flight to the promised land by Moses, +whose head in ancient esoteric pictures is adorned with wreathed ram's +horns, symbolical of the fact that he was herald of the Aryan age of 2100 +years, during which each Easter morning the vernal sun colored the doorposts +red as with the blood of the lamb, when it passed over the equator in the +CONSTELLATION (not the SIGN) of the ram Aries. Similarly, when the sun by +precession was approaching the watery constellation Pisces, the Fishes, John +immersed the converts to the Messianic religion in the waters of Jordan, and +Jesus called his disciples "fishers" of men. As the "lamb" was slain at the +passover while the sun went through the constellation Aries, the Ram, so the +faithful have in obedience to the command of their church fed on fishes dur- +ing Lent in the present cycle of Pisces, the Fishes. + + +[PAGE 55] THE NEW SENSE OF THE NEW AGE + + At the time when the sun by precession left the constellation Taurus, the +Bull, the people who worshiped that animal were pronounced heathen and +idolators. A new symbol of the Savior, or Messias, was found in the lamb, +which correspond to the constellation Aries; but when the sun by precession +left that sign, Judaism became a religion of the past, and thenceforth the +bishops of the new Christian religion wore a mitre shaped like a fish's head +to designate their standing as ministers of the church during the Piscean +Age, which is now drawing to a close. + + By viewing the future through the perspective of the past, it is evident +that a new age is to be ushered in when the sun enters the constellation +Aquarius, the Water-bearer, a few hundred years hence. Judging by the +events of the past it is reasonable to expect that a new phase of religion +will supersede our present system, revealing higher and nobler ideals than +our present conception of the Christian religion. It is therefore certain +that if in that day we would not be classed among the idolators and heathen, +we must prepare to align ourselves with these new ideals. + + John the Baptist, preached the gospel of preparedness in no uncertain +words, warning people that the ax had been laid at the root of the tree. He +cautioned them also to flee from the wrath to come, when the Son (Sun) of +God should come, fan in hand, to separate the wheat from the chaff and burn +it up. Christ likened the gospel to a little leaven which leavened a + + +[PAGE 56] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +measure of flour. + + At first sight the method of John seems to be most drastic, laying the ax +at the root of the whole social structure, while the leavening process men- +tioned by Christ appears to be more gentle; but in reality it is even more +thoroughgoing and drastic, as will be evident if we consider carefully what +takes place when we make a loaf. It is a chemical revolution, a miniature +war, involving an entire transformation of every atom of flour in the ves- +sel; none can escape the action of the leaven, and there is a sound as of +continual cannonading, explosion of bombs and shells, until the force of the +leaven is spent and the dough transformed to a light sponge. But this war +of the atoms, this chemical revolution, is absolutely indispensable in the +process of bread making, for if the leavening process were omitted, the re- +sult would be a heavy, unpalatable, indigestible loaf. It is the transmuta- +tion wrought by the leaven which makes the loaf wholesome and nutritious. + + The process of preparation for the Aquarian Age has already commenced, +and as Aquarius is an airy, scientific, and intellectual sign, it is a fore- +gone conclusion that the new faith must be rooted in reason and able to +solve the riddle of life and death in a manner that will satisfy both the +mind and the religious instinct. + + +[PAGE 57] THE NEW SENSE OF THE NEW AGE + + Such is the Western Wisdom Religion promulgated by the Rosicrucian Fel- +lowship; like the leaven in the loaf, it is breaking down the fear of death +engendered by the uncertainty surrounding the post-mortem existence. It is +showing that life and consciousness continue under the laws as immutable as +God, which tends to raise man to increasingly higher, nobler, and loftier +states of spirituality. It kindles the beacon light of hope in the human +heart by the assertion that as we have in the past evolved the five senses +by which we contact the present visible world, so shall we in the not dis- +tant future evolve another sense which will enable us to see the denizens of +the etheric region, as well as those of our dear ones who have left the +physical body and inhabit the ether and lower desire world during the first +stage of their career in the spiritual realms. The mission of Aquarius is +aptly represented by the symbol of man emptying the water urn. + + Aquarius is an airy sign having special rule over the ether. The Flood +partly dried the air by depositing most of the moisture it held in the sea. +But when the sun enters Aquarius by precession, the rest of the moisture +will be eliminated and visual vibrations, which are most easily transmitted +by a dry etheric atmosphere, will become more intense; thus conditions will +be particularly conducive to production of the slight extension of our +present sight necessary to open our eyes to the etheric region. +California's production of physics is an instance of this effect of a dry, + + +[PAGE 58] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +electric atmosphere, though, of course, it is not nearly so dry as the air +of the Aquarian Age will be. + + Thus faith will be swallowed up in knowledge and we shall all be able to +utter the triumphant cry, "O death, where is thy sting; O grave, where is +thy victory?" But it is well to realize that by aspiration and meditation +to those who are longingly looking for that day are taking time by the fore- +lock and may quite easily outstrip their fellows who are unaware of what is +in store. The latter, on the other hand, may delay the development of ex- +tended vision by the belief that they are suffering from hallucinations when +they begin to get their first glimpses of the etheric entities, and the fear +that if they tell others what they see, they will be adjudged insane. + + Therefore the Rosicrucian Fellowship has been charged by the Elder Broth- +ers with the mission of promulgating the gospel of the Aquarian Age, and of +conducting a campaign of education and enlightenment, so that the world may +be prepared for what is in store. The world must be leavened with those +ideas: + + (1) Conditions in the land of the living dead are not shrouded in mys- +tery, but knowledge regarding them is as available as knowledge concerning +foreign countries from the tales of travelers. + + (2) We now stand close to the threshold where we shall all know these +truths. + + (3) And, most important of all, we shall hasten the day in our own case + + +[PAGE 59] THE NEW SENSE OF THE NEW AGE + +by acquiring knowledge of the facts concerning the post-mortem existence and +the things we may expect to see, for then we shall know what to look for, +and neither be frightened, astonished nor incredulous when we commence to +obtain glimpses of these things. + + Students should also realize that a serious responsibility goes with the +possession of knowledge: "to who much is given, of him much shall be re- +quired." If we hide or bury our "talent," may we not expect a merited con- +demnation? The Rosicrucian Fellowship can only fulfill its mission in so +far as each member does his duty in spreading the teachings, and therefore +it is to be hoped that this may serve to call the attention of the student +to the fact of his individual duty. + + The etheric sight is similar to the X-ray in that it enables its pos- +sessor to see right through all objects, but it is much more powerful and +renders everything as transparent as glass. Therefore in the Aquarian Age +many things will be different from now, for instance, it will be extremely +easy to study anatomy and to detect a morbid growth, a dislocation, or a +pathological condition of the body. At present medical men of the highest +standing admit regretfully that their diagnosis are only too frequently er- +roneous as shown by post-mortem observation; but when we have evolved the +etheric sight, they will be able to study both anatomical structures and + + +[PAGE 60] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +physiological processes without hindrance. + + The etheric vision will not enable us to see one another's thoughts, for +they are formed in still finer stuff, but it will make it largely impossible +for us to live double lives and to act differently in our homes than we do +in public. If we were aware that invisible entities now throng our houses, +we should often feel ashamed of the things we do; but in the Aquarian Age +there will be no privacy which may not be broken into by anyone who desires +to see us. It will avail nothing that we send the office boy or maid out to +tell an unwelcome visitor that we are "not in." This means that in the new +age honesty and straightforwardness will be the only policies worth while, +for we cannot then do wrong and hope to escape detection. There will be +people whose base characters will lead them into ways of wickedness then as +now, but they will at least be marked so that they may be avoided. + + The student can easily conjecture a number of other conditions that will +result from the extension of sight which will come with the Aquarian Age, +and by living as near to that state as possible, he will be placing himself +in a position to become one of the pioneers of that age when "there shall be +no night," and when the "tree of life" shall bloom unceasingly by the trans- +parent etheric "sea of glass" which permeates all things. + + + +[PAGE 61] GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE + + + CHAPTER VIII + + GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE + + When we read the history of the Hebrews as recorded in the Bible and +chronicled in medieval and modern records of the various peoples inhabiting +the Western world, one unescapable fact stands out with startling clearness, +to wit, that they have been led into exile and slavery, hated in every coun- +try where they have been scattered, and persecuted wherever the temperament +of the nations among whom the Jews dwelt would allow them to resort to such +measures. According to the Bible, esteemed the "Word of God" by the Western +peoples, the Jews are "God's chosen people" in a peculiar sense, yet among +these very nations the Jews are despised and discredited. When we investi- +gate the reason of this tragedy, two salient facts present themselves: + + (1) Everywhere the Jews have proclaimed themselves God's chosen people, +destined by divine favor in time to become masters of the world, to whom all +nations will eventually have to pay homage and tribute. + + +[PAGE 62] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + (2) Their dealings with the gentiles have almost invariably been marked +by such sharp practices that in public mind Shakespeare's Shylock, exacting +his "pound of flesh," agrees with the general conception of their nature. + + Thus, unconsciously, there has grown up in the mind of the other nations +a resentment toward the Jews' claim to be divinely favored children of God, +while they class all others as stepchildren, heathen, and gentiles reserved +for the day of wrath when Israel shall triumphantly rule them with a rod of +iron. This resentment is accentuated by contemplation of the present day +practices of the Jews. + + If the Jews had backed up their claim of being divine favorites by lives +of noble and lofty conduct, they would probably have inspired the admiration +of many of the people among whom they have dwelt. They would have stirred +some to emulation; even those who were envious of their preferment would +probably have respected them. But because their high professions and their +practices are so widely divergent, it is sad but not to be wondered at that +they are hated and persecuted on every hand. + + The student is warned not to view the foregoing merely as a criticism of +the Jews,; it is wrong to expose the faults of others and to criticise them +unless we have a constructive end in view. It is always so easy to see the +mote in our brother's eye, but far easier to overlook the beam in our own. + + +[PAGE 63] GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE + +The reason for bringing up the subject of the Jews with their high profes- +sions and divergent practices is but to inquire if, by turning the search- +light upon the mote in their eye, we shall not find a large beam in our own. +If so, we shall have accomplished something worth while and put ourselves in +line to remove the beam. + + So long as we live at the level of the world, doing the things others do, +good, bad and indifferent, no one takes particular notice of us; but the mo- +ment we, like the Jews, make professions to be something different, the +searchlight of society at once singles us out as objects of observation to +determine what ratio of agreement there is between our professions and our +practices. We are watched wherever we go and whatever we do; hence a great +responsibility rests upon us to acquit ourselves well in order that we may +do credit to the teachings of our Elder Brothers and stimulate in others a +desire to embrace these teachings. + + Therefore let us pause and take stock of our actions and accomplishments +in the past year; then let us make such resolutions as we feel will make the +future more profitable from the standpoint of the soul. + + In the first place let us acknowledge that we have been especially fa- +vored, far beyond our merit, by receiving the Rosicrucian teachings from our +Elder Brothers. Let us hope that we have expressed our gratitude to them +through all the past year, and let us at this time send them special +thoughts of love and gratitude. Needless to say they do not crave our + + +[PAGE 64] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +gratitude, they are beyond that; but we may make more soul growth by being +grateful. + + Then let us consider how we have used these precious teachings during the +past year: have we dealt justly with our fellows, have we been lenient in +our judgments and criticisms of others, have we striven to curb our temper, +cultivate equipoise, and overcome whatever may be our particular besetting +sin? + + What measure of success have we had? Let us hope our accomplishments +have been at least moderate, for as the sincerity of the Jews' high profes- +sions have been judged by their performance, so, right or wrong, the teach- +ings of the Elder Brothers will be rated in the community by the actions of +those who profess to be their followers. + + But is is a foregone conclusion that we shall have to admit at the end of +our retrospection that we have fallen far short of the lofty ideals placed +before us. This is always a critical point where our spiritual career is in +danger of shipwreck upon the rock of faintheartedness, that is, if we are of +the temperament that broods over or magnifies failure. Such an attitude of +mind precipitates disaster by robbing us of the will to win; it makes us be- +lieve that there is not use in struggling, that the odds against us are too +great. Excuses are found in the antagonism of friends and family to our be- +lief, duties that take our time, etc. But, as a matter of fact, the trouble +is within ourselves, and if we yield, we shall find that our friends will + + +[PAGE 65] GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE + +despise us in their hearts even if they do not show it openly as in the case +of the Jews. + + Instead, so far from causing us to forsake the path of progress, our +failures should act as a spur to greater efforts, and we should make our +resolution with greater determination so that during the coming year we may +be invincible with respect to the matter covered by it. + + We all know our own particular shortcomings, "the sin which doth so eas- +ily beset us," and each will naturally have to formulate the proper resolu- +tions for himself. But in carrying these resolutions into effect so that +they may be productive of soul growth and help to weave the glorious GOLDEN +WEDDING GARMENT, it will undoubtedly help us immensely to fasten our eyes +and thoughts upon one who possessed the virtue we are seeking to cultivate. +Such a great example we have in Christ, who "was tempted in all things like +ourselves, yet without sin." Let us therefore keep Him closely before our +mind's eye during the coming year, and we shall surely make great soul +growth. This is also the best propaganda we can make for the Rosicrucian +teachings, for by living close to them we shall surely evoke in others a de- +sire to share in their blessings. + + +[PAGE 66] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER IX + + MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR + + PART I.--SECRET SPRINGS + + + It is well known to students of the Rosicrucian teachings that we as +spirits are immortal, without beginning and without end; that we have gone +to the great school of experience many life-days in the past each time clad +in a new child's body of finer texture, in which we lived for a time varying +from a few hours to a lifetime, and when a day at life's school had been +completed, we shuffled off this mortal coil, worn out and decrepit, to re- +turn to our heavenly home for rest and assimilation during the night of +death of the lessons learned; later to be reborn and take up our lessons +where we left them when we were called home from the previous session of the +school of life. + + During each day at life's school we met other spirits and formed ties of +love and hate. In later lives we met again so that the debts of destiny +thus incurred might be liquidated. And so our friends of today are those we + + +[PAGE 67] MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR + +befriended yester-life, and our enemies are those with whom we were at vari- +ance in the forgotten past. Thus we are continually weaving the web of des- +tiny on the loom of time, and creating for ourselves a garment of glory or +gloom according to whether we have worked well or ill. + + But we do not work out our INDIVIDUAL destiny only, for as the proverb +says, "No man liveth unto himself." We are grouped in families, tribes, +races, and nations, and in addition to our individual destiny we are tied by +the family and national destinies because we are under the guardianship of +the angels and archangels who act as family and race spirits respectively. +It is these great spirits who imprint on our seed atoms the racial form and +features of the physical body. They also implant the national loves and +hates on the seed atoms of our finer vehicles, because the race spirit +broods like a cloud over the land inhabited by its wards, and the latter +draw all the materials for their finer bodies from this atmosphere. In this +race spirit, as a matter of actual fact, they live and move and have their +being. From it their vehicles are formed. Yea, with every breath in this +race spirit, so that it is absolutely true that it is nearer than hands and +feet. It is this race spirit which imbues them with love or hate for other +nations, thus determining between certain nations and the trust and confi- +dence which exists between others. + + +[PAGE 68] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + According to the teachings of the Rosicrucians, every spirit is reborn +twice during the time it takes the sun by precession to go through a sign of +the zodiac, once as man and once as woman. This is done in order that it +may gain the experiences to be had in that sign from the viewpoint of both +sexes. There are many modifications to this rule according to the necessi- +ties of individual spirits, for the law is not blind but it is under the ad- +ministration of great beings called the Recording Angels in the Christian +terminology. It is their duty to watch the Clock of Destiny and see when +the time is ripe to reap the harvest of the past, and this applies both to +individuals and to nations. Therefore if we study the characteristics of +the nations recently locked in a titanic struggle, together with the aims +for which they were fighting, and look back over the pages of history, it +needs no seership, scarcely even intuition, to place them and thus see how +the springs of the recent war were generated in the distant past. + + It has, in fact, been suggested by historians that the sons of Albion are +a reembodiment of the ancient Romans. In the light of occult investigations +this is not quite true, for there are a number of alien strains present. +But they have been so fused in the dominant race that it may be said to be +practically a fact. + + Let us recall the history of Rome and remember that the democratic +spirit, after the first seven kings had reigned, manifested itself in the +formation of a republic, which then began a war of aggression to obtain the + + +[PAGE 69] MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR + +mastery of the world, and in the course of this campaign it became engaged +with Carthage in a mighty struggle for the mastery of the Mediterranean Sea. +To gain expansion westward the Romans endeavored to expel the Carthaginians +from Sicily. Carthage at that time was a great sea power, but she was de- +feated by the Romans in 260 B.C. on her own element. Following up this ad- +vantage Rome transferred the war to Africa and was at first successful, but +Regulus, the consoul whom she left behind, was finally worsted and made +prisoner. A series of naval disasters to Rome ensued, and Carthage was +about to regain more than she had lost of Sicily when Tetulus, the Roman +Consul, gained another decisive victory over the Carthaginians in 241 B.C., +who there upon undertook to evacuate Sicily and the adjacent islands. This +ended in the first Punic War, which was twenty-two years in duration. + + But Carthage was not to be so easily conquered. Finding Rome her match +at sea, she resumed hostilities by acquiring a foothold in Spain, and the +great Carthaginian general, Hannibal, who heartily hated Rome, attempted the +conquest of that city during the second Punic War, which was declared in 218 +B.C. His plans, nurtured in secret, were carried on with unexampled celer- +ity. He crossed the Pyrenees from Spain to France, fought his way over the +Alps against every obstacle, and descended upon Cisalpine Gaul with but + + +[PAGE 70] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +twenty-six thousand survivors of his army of fifty-nine thousand men. After +several defeats of the Romans came the great battle of Cannae in 216 B.C., +where Hannibal's victory was complete. Macedonia and Sicily declared for +the conquerors, and Hannibal marched even to the Colline gate of Rome. But +finding this city too strong for him, he withdrew to southern Italy, where +he was finally defeated and Carthage forced to sue for peace. Thus Rome be- +came the mistress of the Mediterranean. + + But the hate of Hannibal was unabated, and when he and his compatriots, +the Carthaginians, were reborn in landlocked Prussia, while the ancient Ro- +mans occupied the British Islands as mistresses of the seas, it was in- +evitable that in time a great conflict must take place. As the ancient Pu- +nic Wars generated the recent conflict, so will this war in due time bring +its renewal of the struggle unless we shown a spirit of kindness in dealing +with the vanquished foe, instead of dealing with them as Rome did in that +ancient past, without mercy and without consideration. The power to harm +others must be taken from the militarist of the Central Empires. It is ab- +solutely imperative that the world should be made safe from a repetition of +this catastrophe, BUT THE MEASURES TAKEN TO SECURE THIS DESIRABLE END SHOULD +BE SUCH THAT NOT ONLY DO THEY ENSURE PEACE FOR THE PRESENT LIFE, BUT ALSO +FOR THOSE FUTURE LIFE-DAYS WHEN WE SHALL MEET IN ANOTHER GUISE THOSE WITH +WHOM WE WERE RECENTLY AT WAR. + + +[PAGE 71] MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR + + Justice ought to be done, but it should be tempered with mercy in order +to avoid perpetuating hate, and therefore such harsh measures as, for in- +stance, the industrial boycott are wrong. It should be sufficient to see +that the Central Empires get no more than a fair share of the world's trade. +The new American nation, which is not yet under the domination of any race +spirits, sees more impartially and therefore more clearly than any other +what is right. Therefore it is to be hoped that the American ideas of jus- +tice will prevail. Let us remember that one wrong never can and never will +right another, and that we must live and let live. + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 72] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER X + + MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR + + PART II -- ITS PROMOTION OF SPIRITUAL SIGHT. + + Strange as the statement may seem, it is nevertheless true that the great +majority of mankind are partially asleep most of the time, notwithstanding +the fact that their physical bodies may seem to be intensely occupied in ac- +tive work. Under ordinary conditions the desire body in the case of the +great majority is the most awake part of composite man, who lives almost en- +tirely in his feelings and emotions, but scarcely ever thinks of the problem +of existence beyond what is necessary to keep body and soul together. Most +of this class have probably never given the great questions of life, Whence +have we come, why are we here, and whither are we going? any serious consid- +eration. Their vital bodies are kept active repairing the ravages of the +desire body upon the physical vehicle, and purveying the vitality which is +later dissipated in gratifying the desires and emotions. + + +[PAGE 73] MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR + + It is this hard-fought battle between the vital and desire bodies which +generates consciousness in the physical world and makes men and women so in- +tensely alert that, viewed from the standpoint of the physical world, it +seems to give the lie to our assertion that they are partially asleep. Nev- +ertheless, upon examination of all the facts it will be found that this is +the case, and we may also say that this state of affairs has come about by +the design of the great Hierarchs who have our evolution in charge. + + We know that there was a time when man was much more awake in the +spiritual worlds than in the physical. In fact there was a time when, al- +though he had a physical body, he could not sense it at all. In order that +he might learn how to use this physical instrument properly, conquer the +physical world, and learn to think accurately, it was necessary that he +should for a time forget all about the spiritual worlds, and devote all his +energies to physical affairs. How this was brought about by the introduc- +tion of alcohol as a food and by other means has been explained in the +"COSMO" and need not be reiterated. But we are now face to face with the +fact that mankind has become so completely immersed in materiality that, so +far as the great majority are concerned, the invisible vehicles are thor- +oughly focused upon physical activities and asleep to the spiritual +verities, which are even derided as the imagination of diseased brains; also +those who are beginning to awake from the sleep of materialism are scorned + + +[PAGE 74] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +as fanatics, fit only for the madhouse. + + If this attitude of mind were consistently followed, the spirit would +eventually become crystallized in the body. The heaven life in which we +build our future vehicles and environments would become increasingly barren; +for when we persistently hold the thought that there is nothing but what we +contact through our senses (see, hear, feel, smell, touch, and analyze), +this mental attitude cultivated in the earth life persists in the Second +Heaven with the result that we may there neglect the preparation that would +give us a field of endeavor and instruments wherewith to work in it, and as +a result evolution would soon cease. + + According to the Rosicrucian teachings, the soul is the extract of the +various bodies; it is garnered by experience that involves the destruction +of the particular bodies from which this living bread is derived and which +is to be used as a pabulum for the spirit. In the ordinary course of evolu- +tion the perfection of the various vehicles is gradual, and the soul sub- +stance is then garnered and assimilated by the spirit between earth lives. +But at a certain period in the larger life when we are entering upon a new +spiral, a different phase of evolution, it is usually necessary to employ +drastic measures to turn the spirit out of the beaten pathway into a new and +unknown direction. Formerly when we possessed less individuality and were +incapable of taking the initiative ourselves these changes were accomplished + + +[PAGE 75] MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR + +by what may be called great cataclysms of nature, but which were +in fact planned by the divine Hierarchies who guide evolution, with a +view to destroying multitudes of bodies that had served the purpose of human +development in a given direction, changing the environment of those who had +learned the possibilities of a new road, and starting these pioneer people +upon a fresh career. Such wholesale destruction was naturally much more +frequent in the earlier epochs than in later times. Lemuria had all the +requisite conditions for numerous attempts at making a fresh start with one +group when another had failed and had been destroyed. As a matter of fact, +there was not merely one flood in Atlantis but three, and a period of about +three-quarters of a million years elapsed between the first and the last. + + We may not expect that the method of wholesale destruction and a new +start can be abrogated until we as a whole awaken to the necessity of taking +a new road when we have come to the end of the old, but a new method is be- +ing used by the Invisible Directors of evolution. They are not now making +use of cataclysms of nature to change the old order for something new and +better, but THEY ARE MAKING USE OF THE MISDIRECTED ENERGIES OF HUMANITY IT- +SELF TO FURTHER THE ENDS THEY HAVE IN VIEW. This was the genesis of the +great war which recently raged among us. Its purpose was to turn our ener- +gies from seeking the bread whereof men die and to create in us the soul +hunger that would cause us to turn from material things to spiritual. We + + +[PAGE 76] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +are, as a matter of act, commencing to work out our own salvation. We are +beginning to do things for ourselves instead of having them done for us, and +though unaware of the fact, WE ARE LEARNING HOW TO TURN EVIL TO GOOD. + + Some may think this war affected only those few million men actually en- +gaged in it, but a little thought upon the matter will soon convince anyone +that the welfare of the whole world was involved to a greater or lesser de- +gree so far as economic conditions were concerned. There is no race nor +country that escaped entirely, nor can any go on in the same tranquil manner +as before the war broke out. Kinship and friendship were ties which reached +from the trenches of Europe to every part of the globe. Many of us were re- +lated to individuals in one and perhaps both groups engaged in the strife, +and we followed their fortunes with an interest commensurate with the +strength of our feeling for them. But in the nighttime when our physical +bodies were asleep and we entered the desire world, we could not escape liv- +ing and feeling th whole tragedy with all the intensity whereof we were ca- +pable, for the desire currents swept the whole world. In the desire world +there is neither time nor distance. The trenches of Europe were brought to +our door no matter where we lived, and we could not escape the subconscious +effect of the spectacle which we there saw. Furthermore this titanic +struggle produced effects which could never be equaled by a natural + + +[PAGE 77] MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR + +cataclysm, which is so much quicker in its action and so much shorter in its +duration, besides being localized and incapable of generating the same feel- +ings of love and hate which were such important factors in the World War. + + During the previous career of man it has been the object of the divine +Hierarchs to teach him how to accomplish physical results by physical means. +He has forgotten how to utilize the finer forces in nature such as, for in- +stance, the energy liberated when grain is sprouting, which was used for +purposes of propulsion and levitation in the Atlantean airships. He is un- +aware of the sanctity of fire and how to use it spiritually, therefore only +about fifteen per cent of its power is utilized in the best steam engines. +It is well of course that man is thus limited, for were he able to use the +power at the command of one whose spiritual faculties are awakened, he could +annihilate our world and all upon it. But while he is doing his best or his +worst with the faculties at his command today, he is learning the lesson of +how to hold his feelings in leash to fit himself for the use of the finer +forces necessary for development in the Aquarian Age, and pulling the scales +from his eyes so that he may commence to see the new world which he is des- +tined to conquer. + + Two separate and distinct processes are made use of to accomplish this +result. One is the visit of death to millions of homes, tearing away from + + +[PAGE 78] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +the family group the husband, father, or brother, and leaving the survivors +to face a grey existence of economic privation. The sun existed previous to +the eye and built that organ for its perception. The desire to see was +naturally unconscious on the part of the individual who did not know and had +no concept of the meaning or use of sight; but in the world soul, which cre- +ated the sun, rested the knowledge and requisite desire that worked the +miracle. Similarly in the case of death: when our consciousness had first +become focused in the physical vehicles and the fact of death stared us in +the face, there was no hope within; but in time religion supplied the knowl- +edge of an invisible world whence the spirit had come to take birth and +whither it returns after death. The hope of immortality gradually evolved +in humanity the feeling that death is only a transition, but modern science +has done its best to rob men of this consolation. + + Nevertheless, at every death the tears that are shed serve to dissolve +the veil that hides the invisible world from our longing gaze. The +deep-felt yearning and the sorrow at the parting of loved and loving ones on +both sides of the veil are tearing this apart, and at some not far distant +day the accumulated effect of all this will reveal the fact that there is no +death, but that those who have passed beyond are as much alive as we. The +potency of these tears, this sorrow, this yearning is not equal in all +cases, however, and the effects differ wisely according to whether the vital + + +[PAGE 79] MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR + +body has been awakened in any given person by acts of unselfishness and ser- +vice, according to the occult maxim that all development along spiritual +lines begins with the vital body. his is the basis, and no superstructure +can be built until this foundation has been laid. + + With regard to the second process of soul unfoldment which is carried on +among those actually engaged in warfare, there are probably but few who have +had as unique an opportunity to study actual conditions on the whole of the +extended line of battle as th writer. Notwithstanding all the brutality and +hellishness of the whole thing he feels confident that this was the greatest +school of soul unfoldment that has ever existed, for nowhere have there been +so numerous opportunities for selfless service as on the battle fields of +France, and nowhere have men been so ready to grasp the change of doing for +some one else. Thus the vital bodies of a host of people have received a +quickening such as they would probably not have otherwise attained for a +number of lives, and these people have therefore become correspondingly sen- +sitive to spiritual vibrations, and susceptible in a higher degree to the +benefit which may be derived from the first process previously mentioned. +As a result we shall in due time see an army of sensitives among us who will +be in such close touch with the invisible world that their concerted testi- +mony cannot be crushed by the materialistic school. They will prove a great + + +[PAGE 80] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +factor in helping us to prepare for the higher conditions of the Aquarian +Age. + + "But," some may ask, "will they not forget when the stress and strain of +war are over? Will not a large percentage of these people go back into the +same rut where they were before?" To this we may answer that we feel confi- +dent it can never come to pass, for while the invisible vehicles, especially +the vital body, are asleep, man may pursue a materialistic career; but once +this vehicle has been awakened and has tasted the bread of life, it is like +the physical body, subject to hunger--soul hunger,--and its cravings will +not be denied save after an exceedingly hard struggle. In the latter case, +of course, the words of Peter are applicable: "The last state of that man +is worse than the first." However, it is good to feel that out of all the +indescribable sorrow and trouble of the war good is being wrought in the +crucible of the gods, and it will be a lasting good. May we all align our +forces and help extract the good, so that we may be shining examples to help +lead humanity to the New Age. + + +[PAGE 81] PEACE ON EARTH + + CHAPTER XI + + MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR + + PART III -- PEACE ON EARTH + + A war-weary world, red with the blood of millions, the hope of its fu- +ture, the flower of its young manhood, is groaning in agony, praying for +peace, not an armistice, a temporary cessation of hostilities, but EVERLAST- +ING PEACE, and it is striving to solve the problem of how to accomplish this +much desired end. But it is striking at effects because ignorant of or +blind to the one great underlying cause of the ferocity of the people, which +was but barely hidden under a thin veneer of civilization before it burst +into the volcano of destruction which we have recently witnessed and are now +lamenting. + + Until the connection between the food of man and his nature is understood +and the knowledge applied to tame the passions and eradicate ferocity, there +can be no lasting peace. In the dim dawn of being when man-in-the-making +wrought under the direct guidance of the divine Hierarchs who led him along +the path of evolution, food was given him of a nature that would develop + + +[PAGE 82] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +various vehicles in an orderly, systematic manner, so that in time these +different bodies would grow into a composite instrument usable as the temple +of an indwelling spirit which might then enter and learn life's lessons by a +series of embodiments in earthly bodies of an increasingly fine texture. +Five great stages or epochs are observable in the evolutionary journey of +man upon earth. + + In the first, or Polarian Epoch, what is now man had only a dense body as +the minerals have now, hence he was mineral-like, and it is said in the +Bible that "ADAM was formed of the earth." + + In the second, or Hyperborean Epoch, a vital body made of ether was +added, and man-in-the-making had then a body constituted as are those of the +present plants; he was not a plant but was plantlike. CAIN, the man of that +time, is described as an agriculturist; his food was derived solely from +vegetation, for plants contain more ether than any other structure. + + In the third, or Lemurian Epoch, man cultivated a desire body, a vehicle +of passions and emotions, and was then constituted as the animal. Then +milk, a product of living animals, was added to his diet, for this substance +is most easily worked upon by the emotions. ABEL, the man of that time, is +described as a shepherd. It is nowhere stated that he killed an animal for +food. + + In the fourth, or Atlantean Epoch, mind was unfolded, and the composite + + +[PAGE 83] PEACE ON EARTH + +body became the temple of an indwelling spirit, a thinking being. But +thought breaks down nerve cells; it kills, destroys, and causes decay, +therefore the new food of the Atlantean was dead carcasses. He killed to +eat, and so the Bible describes the man of that time as NIMROD, a mighty +hunter. + + By partaking of these various foods man descended deeper and deeper into +matter; his erstwhile ethereal body formed a skeleton within and became +solid. At the same time he gradually lost his spiritual perception, but the +memory of heaven was always with him, and he knew himself to be an exile +from his true home, the heaven world. In order to enable him to forget this +fact and apply himself with undivided attention to conquering the material +world, a new article of diet, namely, wine, was added in the fifth or Aryan +Epoch. Because of indulgence in this counterfeit spirit of alcohol during +the millenniums which have passed since man came up out of Atlantis, the +most advanced races of humanity are also the most atheistic and materialis- +tic. THEY ARE ALL DRUNK for even though a person may say, and say quite +truthfully, that he has never touched liquor in his life, it is nevertheless +a fact that body in which he is functioning has descended from ancestors who +for millenniums have indulged in alcoholic beverages in unstinted measure. +Therefore the atoms composing all present day Western bodies are unable to + + +[PAGE 84] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +vibrate to the measure necessary for the cognition of the invisible worlds +as they were before wine was added to the diet of humanity. Similarly, +though a child may be brought up today on a fleshless diet, it still par- +takes of the ferocious nature of its flesh-eating ancestors of a million +years, though in a less degree than those who still continue to feast on +flesh. Thus the effect of the flesh food provided for man-in-the-making is +deep-seated and deep-rooted even in those who do not now indulge in it. + + What wonder then that those who still partake of flesh and wine return at +times to godless savagery and exhibit a ferocity unrestrained by any of the +finer feelings supposed to have been fostered by centuries of so-called +civilization! So long as men continue to quench the immortal spirit within +themselves by partaking of flesh and the counterfeit alcoholic spirit, there +can never be lasting peace on earth, for the innate ferocity fostered by +these articles will break through at intervals and sweep even the most al- +truistic conceptions and ideals into a maelstrom of savagery, a carnival of +ruthless slaughter, which will grow correspondingly greater as the intellect +of man evolves and enables him to conceive with his master mind methods of +destruction more diabolical than any we have yet witnessed. + + It needs no argument to prove that the recent war was much more destruc- +tive than any of the previous conflicts recorded in history, because it was +fought by men of BRAIN rather than by men of BRAWN. The ingenuity which in + + +[PAGE 85] PEACE ON EARTH + +times of peace has been turned to such good account in constructive enter- +prises was enlisted in the service of destruction, and it is safe to say +that if another war is fought fifty or a hundred years hence, it may perhaps +all but depopulate the earth. Therefore a lasting peace is an absolute +necessity from the standpoint of self-preservation and no thinking man or +woman can afford to brush aside without investigation any theory which is +advanced as tending to make war impossible, even if they have been accus- +tomed to regard it as a foolish fad. + + There is plenty of proof that a carnivorous diet fosters ferocity, but +lack of space prevents a thorough discussion of this phase of the subject. +We may, however, mention the well known fierceness of beasts of prey and the +cruelty of the meat-eating American Indian as fair examples. On the other +hand, the prodigious strength and the docile nature of the ox, the elephant, +and the horse show the effects of the herb diet on animals, while the veg- +etarian and peaceable nations of the Orient are a proof of the correctness +of the argument against a flesh diet which cannot be successfully gainsaid. +Flesh food has fostered human ingenuity of a low order in the past; it has +served a purpose in our evolution; but we are now standing on the threshold +of a new age when self-sacrifice and service will bring spiritual growth to +humanity. The evolution of the mind will bring a wisdom profound beyond our + + +[PAGE 86] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +greatest conception, but before it will be safe to entrust us with that wis- +dom, we must become HARMLESS as doves, for otherwise we should be apt to +turn it to such selfish and destructive purposes that it would be an incon- +ceivable menace to our fellow men. To avoid this the vegetarian diet must +be adopted. + + But there are vegetarians and vegetarians: In Europe conditions cause +people now to abstain from flesh eating to a very large extent. They are +not true vegetarians for they are lusting for flesh every moment of their +lives, and they feel the want of it as a great hardship and sacrifice. In +time they would of course grow used to is, and in many generations it would +make them gentle and docile, but obviously that is not the kind of vegetari- +anism we need now. There are others who abstain from flesh foods for the +sake of health; their motive is selfish, and many among them probably also +lust after the "flesh pots of Egypt." Their attitude of mind is not such +either that it would abolish ferocity very quickly. + + But there is a third class which realizes that all life is God's life and +that to cause suffering to any sentient being is wrong, so out of pure com- +passion they abstain from the use of flesh foods. They are the true veg- +etarians, and IT IS OBVIOUS THAT A WORLD WAR COULD NEVER BE FOUGHT BY PEOPLE +OF THIS TURN OF MIND. All true Christians will also be abstainers from +flesh foods for similar motives. Then peace on earth and good will among +men will be an assured fact; the nations will beat their swords into plow- + + +[PAGE 87] PEACE ON EARTH + +shares and their spears into pruning hooks that they may cease to deal +death, sorrow, and suffering, and become instruments to foster life, love, +and happiness. + + Our own safety, the safety of our children, the safety of the human race +even, demands that we listen to the inspired voice of the poetess, Ella +Wheeler Wilcox, who wrote the following soul stirring appeal in behalf of +our dumb fellow creatures: + + "I am the voice of the voiceless, + Through me the dumb shall speak, + Till a deaf world's ear + Shall be made to hear + The wrongs of the wordless weak. + + "The same force formed the sparrow, + That fashioned man the king; + The God of the Whole + Gave a spark of soul, + To furred and feathered thing. + + "And I am my brother's keeper, + And I will fight his fight, + And speak the word + For beast and bird + Till the world shall set things right." + + +[PAGE 88] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER XII + + MYSTIC LIGHT ON THE WORLD WAR + + PART IV -- THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS + + The recent titanic struggle among the nations in Europe upset the equi- +librium of the whole world to such an extent that the emotions of the people +who liven in even the most remote regions of the earth were stirred as they +had never been stirred before, the people expressing anger, hate, hysteria, +or gloom according to their nature and temperament. It is evident to those +who have studied the deeper mysteries of life and who understand the op- +eration of natural law in the spiritual worlds that the inhabitants of the +invisible realms were affected in perhaps a greater degree than those who +lived in physical bodies, which by their very density make it impossible for +us to feel the full force of the emotions. + + After the outbreak of the war the tide of emotions ran high and fast, be- +cause there were no adequate means of checking it; but by dint of hard work +and organization the Elder Brothers of humanity succeeded after the first +year in creating an army of Invisible Helpers who, having passed through the + + +[PAGE 89] THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS + +gate of death and having felt the sorrow and suffering incident to an un- +timely transition, were filled with compassion for the others who were con- +stantly pouring in, and became qualified to soothe and help them until they +also had found their balance. Later, however, the emotions of hate and mal- +ice engendered by the people in the physical world became so strong that +there was danger they might gain the ascendancy; therefore new measures had +to be taken to counteract these feelings, and everywhere all the good forces +were marshaled into line to help restore the balance and keep the baser +emotions down. + + One of the ways in which most people contributed to the trouble and +helped to prolong the war which they were praying might end, was by dwelling +on the AWFUL side of it and forgetting to look at the bright side. + + "The bright side of that cruel war?" is probably the question which +arises in the mind of the reader. "Why, what can you mean?" To some it may +perhaps even seem sacrilegious to speak of a bright side in connection with +such a calamity, as they would put it. But let us see if there is not a +silver lining to even this blackest of clouds, and if there is not a method +by which the silver lining could be made wider and wider so that the cloud +would become altogether luminous. + + Some time ago our attention was called to a book entitled "Pollyanna." +Pollyanna was the little daughter of a missionary, whose salary was so + + +[PAGE 90] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +meager that he could scarcely obtain the bare necessities of life. From +time to time barrels filled with old clothes and odds and ends arrived at +the mission for distribution. Pollyanna hoped that some day a barrel might +come containing a little doll. Her father had even written to ask if the +next barrel might not contain a discarded doll for his child. The barrel +came, but instead of the doll it contained a pair of small crutches. Notic- +ing the child's disappointment her father said: "There is one thing we can +be glad of and grateful for, that we have no need of the crutches." It was +then they began "playing the game," as they called it, of looking for and +finding something for which to be glad and thankful, no matter what hap- +pened, and they always found it. For example, when they were forced to eat +a very scant meal at a restaurant, not being able to afford the dainties on +the menu, they would say: "Well, we are glad we like beans," even though +their eyes would rest on the roast turkey and its prohibitive price. Then +they started to teach the game to others, making many a life the happier for +learning it, among them some in whom the belief had become fixed that they +could never again be happy. + + At last they were really starving, and Pollyanna's mother had to go to +heaven to save the expense of living. Soon her father followed, leaving +Pollyanna dependent upon the bounty of a rich but crabbed and inhospitable + + +[PAGE 91] THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS + +old maiden aunt in Vermont. Despite the unwelcome reception and undesirable +quarters assigned her at first, the little girl saw nothing but reasons for +gladness; she literally radiated joy, drawing under its spell maid and gar- +dener and in time even the loveless aunt. The child's roseate mind soon +filled the bare walls and floor of her dingy attic room with all manner of +beauty. If there were no pictures, she was glad that he little window +opened upon a landscape scene more beautiful than any artist could paint, a +carpet of green and gold the like of which not even the cleverest of human +weavers had ever woven. If her crude washstand were without a mirror, she +was glad that the lack of it spared her seeing her freckles; and what if +they were freckles, had she not reason to be glad they were not warts? If +her trunk were small and her clothes few, was there not reason for gladness +that the unpacking was soon done and over? If her parents could not be with +her, could she not be glad that they were with God in heaven? Since they +could not talk to her, ought she not to rejoice that she could talk to them? + + Flitting birdlike over field and moor she forgot the supper hour, and be- +ing ordered upon her return to the kitchen to make her meal there of bread +and milk, she said to her aunt who expected tears and pouting, "Oh, I am so +glad you did it, because I am so fond of bread and milk." Not a harsh +treatment, and there were many of them at first, but that she imagined some + + +[PAGE 92] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +kindly motive back of it and gave it a grateful thought. + + Her first convert was the housemaid, who used to look forward with dread +to the weekly wash day and face Monday in a surly mood. It was not long be- +fore our little glad girl and Nancy feeling gladder on Monday morning than +on any other morning, because there was not another wash day for a whole +week; and soon she had her glad that her name was not Hepsibah, but Nancy, +at which name the latter had been disgruntled. One day when Nancy +remonstratingly said to her, "Sure, there is nothing in a funeral to be glad +about," Pollyanna promptly answered, "Well, we can be glad it isn't ours." +To the gardener, who complained to her that he was bent half over with rheu- +matism, she also taught the glad game by telling him that being bent half +over he ought to be glad that he saved one-half the stooping when he did his +weeding. + + Near her home in a palatial mansion lived an elderly bachelor, a sullen +recluse. The more he rebuffed her, the cheerier she was and the oftener she +went to see him because no one else did. In her innocence and pity she at- +tributed his lack of courtesy to some secret sorrow, and therefore she +longed all the more to teach him the glad game. She did teach it to him, +and he learned it, thought it was hard work at first. When he broke his +leg, it was not easy to get him to be glad that but one leg was broken, and +admit it would have been far worse if this legs had been as numerous as + + +[PAGE 93] THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS + +those of a centipede and he had fractured all of them. Her sunshiny dispo- +sition succeeded at last in getting him to love the sunshine, open the +blinds, pull up the curtains, and open his heart to the world. He wanted to +adopt her, but failing in this, he adopted a little orphan boy whom she hand +chanced to meet by the wayside. + + She made one lady wear bright colors, who had before worn only black. +Another lady, rich and miserable because her mind was centered upon past +troubles, had her attention directed by Pollyanna to the miseries of others, +and being taught through the glad game how to bring gladness into their +lives, this lady brought an abundance of it also into her own. All unknown +to the little girl she reunited in happy home life a couple about to +separate, by kindling within their hearts that had grown cold a strong love +for their little ones. By and by the whole town began to play the glad game +and teach it to others. Under its influence men and women became different +beings: the unhappy became happy, the sick became well, those about to go +wrong found again the right path, and the discouraged took heart again. + + Soon the leading physician in town found it necessary to prescribe her as +he would some medicine. "That little girl," he said, "is better than a +six-quart bottle of tonic. If anyone can take a grouch out of a person it +is she; a dose of Pollyanna is more curative than a store full of drugs." +But the greatest miracle which the glad game worked was the transformation + + +[PAGE 94] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +effected in the character of her prim, puritanic aunt. She who had accepted +Pollyanna in her home as a matter of stern family duty, developed under her +little niece's treatment a heart that fairly overran with affection. Soon +Pollyanna was taken out of her bare attic room to a beautifully papered, +pictured, carpeted, and furnished room on her aunt's floor. And so the good +she did reacted upon herself. + + The story is fiction, but it is based upon facts rooted in cosmic law. +What that little girl did with respect to the people in her environment, we +as students of the Rosicrucian teachings can and ought to do in our own in- +dividual spheres, both in regard to the matters which pertain to intercourse +with our relatives and immediate associates and with respect to the world at +large. + + As regards its application to war in general, instead of being gloomy at +defeat or appalled at catastrophes recorded in sensational newspaper head- +lines, instead of adding our gloom, hate, and malice to the similar feelings +engendered by others, can we not find a bright side even in such a seemingly +overwhelming calamity? Surely there is reason to rejoice exceedingly in the +thoughts of self-sacrifice which prompted so many noble men to give up their +work in the world, their large incomes, and their comfortable homes for the +sake of what to them was an ideal to make the world better for those who +came after them, for they could not help realizing that they might never +come back to enjoy the fruits themselves. Can we not rejoice like- + + +[PAGE 95] THE GOSPEL OF GLADNESS + +wise that many noble women, nurtured in ease and comfort, left their +homes and friends for the arduous work of nursing and caring for the +wounded? Throughout all there was a spirit of altruism, shared by those +who though forced by circumstances to say at home still put in their +time knitting and working for those who had to bear the brunt of battle. + + Great are the birth pangs by which altruism is being born in millions of +human hearts, but through the superlative suffering of the later war human- +ity will become gentler, nobler, and better than ever before. If we can +only take this view of the recent suffering and sorrow, if we can only teach +others to look to the future blessings which must accrue through this pain +and suffering, we shall ourselves be better able to recover from the strain, +and be better qualified to help others do the same. + + In this manner we can imitate Pollyanna, and if we are only sufficiently +sincere, our views will spread and take root in other hearts; then because +thoughts are things and good thoughts are more powerful than evil since they +are in harmony with the trend of evolution, the day will soon come when we +shall be able to gain the ascendancy and help establish permanent peace. + + It is hoped that this suggestion may be taken very seriously and put into +practice by everyone of our students, for the need is great at the present +time, greater than it has been before. + + +[PAGE 96] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER XIII + + THE ESOTERIC SIGNIFICANCE OF EASTER + + AND THE INCEPTION OF THE ROSICRUCIAN PHILOSOPHY + + AGAIN the earth has reach the vernal equinox in its annual circle dance +about the sun, and we have Easter. The spiritual ray sent out by the Cosmic +Christ each fall to replenish the smoldering vitality of the earth is about +to ASCEND to the Father's Throne. The spiritual activities of fecundation +and germination which have been carried on during the winter and spring will +be followed by material growth and a ripening process during the coming sum- +mer and autumn under the influence of the indwelling Earth Spirit. The +cycle ends at "Harvest Home." Thus the great World Drama is acted and +re-enacted from year to year, an eternal contest between life and death; +each in turn becoming victor and being vanquished as the cycles roll on. + + This great cyclic influx and efflux are not confined in their effects to +the earth and its flora and fauna. They exercise an equally compelling + + +[PAGE 97] THE ESOTERIC SIGNIFICANCE OF EASTER + +influence upon mankind, though the great majority are unaware of what impels +them to action in one direction or another. The fact remains, nevertheless, +independent of their cognition that the same earthy vibration which gaudily +adorns bird and beast in the spring is responsible for the human desire to +don gay colors and brighter raiment at that season. This is also "the call +of the wild," which in summer drives mankind to relaxation amid rural scenes +where nature spirits have wrought their magic art in field and forest, in +order to recuperate from the strain of artificial conditions in congested +cities. + + On the other hand, it is the "FALL" of the spiritual ray from the sun in +autumn which causes resumption of the mental and spiritual activities in +winter. The same germinative force which leavens the seed in the earth and +prepares it to reproduce its kind in multiple, stirs also the human mind and +fosters altruistic activities which make the world better. Did no this +great wave of selfless Cosmic Love culminate at Christmas, did it not vi- +brate peace and good will, there would be no holiday feeling in our breasts +to engender a desire to make others equally happy; the universal giving of +Christmas gifts would be impossible, and we should all suffer loss. + + As the Christ walked day by day, hither and yon, over the hills and the +valleys of Judea and Galilee, teaching the multitudes, all were benefited. +But He communed most with His disciples, and they, of course, grew apace + + +[PAGE 98] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +each day. The bond of love became closer as time went on, until one day +ruthless hands took away the beloved Teacher and put Him to a shameful +death. But though He had died after the flesh, he continued to commune with +them in spirit for some time. At last, however, He ascended to higher +spheres, direct touch with Him was lost, and sadly these men looked into +each other's faces as they asked, "Is this the end?" They had hoped so +much, had entertained such high aspirations, and though the verdant glory +was as fresh upon the sun-kissed landscape as before He went, the earth +seemed cold and dreary, for black desolation gnawed at their hearts. + + Thus it is also with us who aim to walk after the spirit and to strive +with the flesh, though the analogy may not have been previously apparent. +When the "FALL" of the Christ ray commences in autumn and ushers in the sea- +son of spiritual supremacy, we sense it at once and commence to lave our +should in the blessed tide with avidity. We experience a feeling akin to +that of the apostles when they walked with Christ, and as the season wears +on it becomes easier and easier to commune with Him, face to face as it +were. But in the annual course of events Easter and the ASCENSION of the +"risen" Christ ray to the Father leave us in the identical position of the +apostles when their beloved Teacher went away. We are desolate and sad; we +look upon the world as a dreary waste and cannot comprehend the reason for + + +[PAGE 99] THE ESOTERIC SIGNIFICANCE OF EASTER + +our loss, which is as natural as the changes of ebb and flood and day and +night--phases of the present age of alternating cycles. + + There is a danger in this attitude of mind. If it is allowed to grow +upon us, we are apt to cease our work in the world and become dreamers, lose +our balance, and excite just criticism from our fellow men. Such a course +of conduct is entirely wrong, for as the earth exerts itself in MATERIAL EN- +DEAVOR to bring forth abundantly in summer after receiving the SPIRITUAL IM- +PETUS in winter, so ought we also to exert ourselves to greater purpose in +the world's work when it has been our privilege to commune with the spirit. +If we do Thus we shall be more apt to excite emulation than reproach. + + We are wont to think of a miser as one who hoards gold, and such people +are generally objects of contempt. But there are people who strive as as- +siduously to acquire knowledge as the miser struggles to accumulate gold, +who will stoop to any subterfuge to obtain their desire, and will as jeal- +ously guard their knowledge as the miser guards his hoard. They do not un- +derstand that by such a method they are effectually closing the door to +greater wisdom. The old Norse theology contained a parable which sym- +bolically elucidates the matter. It held that all who died fighting on the +battle field (the strong souls who fought the good fight unto the end) were +carried to Valhalla to be with the gods; while those who died in bed or from +disease (the souls who drifted weakly through life) went to the dismal +Niflheim. The doughty warriors in Valhalla feasted daily upon the flesh of + + +[PAGE 100] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +the boar called Scrimner, which was so constituted that whenever a piece was +cut from it the flesh at once grew again, so that it was never consumed no +matter how much was carved. Thus it aptly symbolized "KNOWLEDGE," for no +matter how much of this we give to others, we always retain the original. + + There is Thus a certain obligation to pass on what we have of knowledge, +and "to whom much is given of him much will be required." Perhaps it may +not be out of place to recount an experience which will illustrate the +point, for it was the final "test" applied to myself before I was entrusted +with the teaching embodied in THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, although I +was, of course, at the time unaware that I was being weighed. It occurred +at a time when i had gone to Europe in search of a teacher who, I believed, +was able to aid me to advance on the path of attainment. But when I had +probed his teaching to the bottom and forced him to admit certain inconsis- +tencies in it which he could not explain, I was in a veritable "slough of +despond," ready to return to America. As I sat in my chair ruminating over +my disappointment, the feeling that some one else was present came over me, +and I looked up and beheld the One who has since become my Teacher. With +shame I remember how gruffly I asked who had sent him and what he wanted, +for I was thoroughly disgruntled, and I hesitated considerably before + + +[PAGE 101] THE ESOTERIC SIGNIFICANCE OF EASTER + +accepting his help on the points that had caused me to come to Europe. + + During the next few days my new acquaintance appeared in my room a number +of times, answering my questions and helping me to solve problems that had +previously baffled me, but as my spiritual sight was then poorly developed +and not always under control, I felt rather skeptical in the matter. Might +it not be hallucination? I discussed the question with a friend. The an- +swers to my queries as given by the apparition were clear, concise, and +logical to a high degree. They were strictly to the point and altogether +beyond anything I was capable of conceiving, so we concluded that the expe- +rience must be real. + + A few days later my new friend told me that the Order to which he be- +longed had a complete solution to the riddle of the universe, much more +far-reaching than any publicly known teaching, and that they would impart +that teaching to me provided I agreed to keep it as an inviolable secret. + + The I turned on him in anger: "Ah! do I see the cloven hoof at last! +No, if you have what you say and if it is good for the world to know. The +Bible expressly forbids us to hide the Light, and I care not to feast at the +source of knowledge while thousands of souls hunger for a solution to their +problems as I do now." My visitor then left me and stayed away, and I con- +cluded that he was an emissary from the Black Brothers. + + +[PAGE 102] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + About a month later I decided that I could obtain no greater illumination +in Europe and therefore made reservation on a steamer for New York. As +travel was heavy, I had to wait a month for a berth. + + When I returned to my rooms after having purchased my ticket, there stood +my slighted Teacher and he again offered me instruction on condition that I +keep it secret. This time my refusal was perhaps more emphatic and indig- +nant than before, but he did not leave. Instead he said, "I am glad to hear +you refuse, my brother, and I hope you will always be as zealous in dis- +seminating our teachings without fear or favor as you have been in this re- +fusal. That is the real condition of receiving the teachings." + + How directions were then given me to take a certain train at a certain +depot and go to a place I had not heard of before, how i there met the +Brother in the flesh, was taken to the Temple, and received the main in- +structions embodied in our literature, are matters of small interest. The +point is that had I agreed to keep the instructions secret, I should +naturally have been unfit to be a messenger of the Brothers, and they would +have had to seek another. Likewise with any of us: if we hoard the +spiritual blessings we have received, evil is at our door, so let us imitate +the earth at this Easter time. Let us bring forth in the physical world of +action the fruits of the spirit sown in our souls during the past wintry +season. So shall we be more abundantly blessed from year to year. + + +[PAGE 103] THE LESSON OF EASTER + + CHAPTER XIV + + THE LESSON OF EASTER + + AND again it is Easter. The dark, dreary days of winter are past. +mother nature is taking the cold, snowy coverlids off the earth, and the +millions and millions of seed sheltered in the soft soil are bursting its +crust and clothing the earth in summer robes, a riot of gay and glorious +colors, preparing the bridal bower for the mating of beasts and birds. Even +in this war-torn year the song of life sounds loudly above the dirge of +death. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" +Christ has risen--the first fruits. He is the resurrection and the life; +whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. + + Thus at the present season the mind of the civilized world is turned to- +wards the feast we call Easter, commemorating the death and resurrection of +the individual whose life story is written in the Gospels, the noble indi- +vidual known to the world by the name of Jesus. But a Christian mystic +takes a deeper and more far-reaching view of this annually recurring cosmic + + +[PAGE 104] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +event. For him there is an annual impregnation of the earth with the cosmic +Christ life; an INBREATHING which takes place during the fall months and +culminates at the winter solstice when we celebrate Christmas, and an +OUTBREATHING which finds its completion at the time of Easter. The +inbreathing or impregnation is manifested to us in the seeming inactivity of +winter, but the outbreathing of the Christ life manifests as the resurrec- +tion force which gives new life to all that lives and moves upon the earth, +life abundant, not only to sustain but to propagate the perpetuate. + + Thus the cosmic drama of life and death is played annually among all +evolving creatures and things from the highest to the lowest, for even the +great and sublime cosmic Christ in His compassion becomes subject to death +by entering the cramping conditions of our earth for a part of the year. It +may therefore be appropriate to call to mind a few ideas concerning death +and rebirth which we are sometimes prone to forget. + + Among the cosmic symbols which have been handed down to us from antiquity +none is more common that the symbol of the egg. It is found in every +religion. We find it in the Elder Eddas of the Scandinavians, hoary with +age, which tell of the mundane egg cooled by the icy blast of Niebelheim but +heated by the fiery breath of Muspelheim until the various worlds and man +had come into being. If we turn to the sunny south we find the Vedas of In- +dia the same story in the Kalahansa, the Swan in time and space, which laid + + +[PAGE 105] THE LESSON OF EASTER + +the egg that finally became the world. Among the Egyptians we find the +winged globe and the oviparous serpent, symbolizing the wisdom manifest in +this world of ours. Then the Greeks took this symbol and venerated it in +their Mysteries. It was preserved by the Druids; it was known to the build- +ers of the great serpent mound in Ohio; and it has kept its place in sacred +symbology even to this day, though the great majority are blind to the +MYSTERIUM MAGNUM which it hides and reveals--the mystery of life. + + When we break open the shell of an egg, we find inside only some +varicolored viscous fluids of various consistencies. But placed in the req- +uisite temperature a series of changes soon take place, and within a short +time a living creature breaks open the shell and emerges therefrom, ready to +take its place among its kin. it is possible for the wizards of the labora- +tory to duplicate the substances in the egg; they may be enclosed in a +shell, and a perfect replica so far as most tests go may be made of the +natural egg. But in one point it differs from the natural egg, namely, that +no living thing can be hatched from the artificial product. Therefore it is +evident that a certain intangible something must be present in one and ab- +sent in the other. + + This mystery of the ages which produces the living creature is what we +call life. Seeing that it cannot be cognized among the elements of the egg + + +[PAGE 106] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +by even the most powerful microscope (though it must be there to bring about +the changes which we note), it must be able to exist independently of mat- +ter. Thus we are taught by the sacred symbol of the egg that though life is +able to mold matter, it does not depend upon it for its existence. It is +self-existent, and having no beginning it can have no end. This is symbol- +ized by the ovoid shape of the egg. + + We are appalled at the carnage on the European battle fields, and rightly +so because of the manner in which the victims are being taken out of +physical life. But when we consider that the average human life is only +fifty years or less, so that death reaps a harvest of fifteen hundred mil- +lions in half a century, or thirty millions per annum, or two and one-half +millions every month, we see that the total has not been so greatly in- +creased after all. And when we have the true knowledge conveyed by the egg +symbol that life is uncreate, without beginning and without end, it enables +us to take heart and realize that those who are now being taken out of +physical existence are only passing through a cyclic journey similar to that +of the cosmic Christ life which enters the earth in the fall and leaves it +at Easter. Those who are killed are only going into the invisible realms, +whence they will later take a new dip into physical matter, entering as all +living things do the egg of the mother. After a period of gestation they +will re-emerge into physical life to learn new lessons in the great school. +Thus we see how the great law of analogy works in all phases and under all + + +[PAGE 107] THE LESSON OF EASTER + +circumstances of life. What happens in the great world to a cosmic Christ +will show itself also in the lives of those who are Christs in the making; +and this will enable us to look more cheerfully upon the present struggle +than would otherwise be the case. + + Furthermore, we must realize that death is a cosmic necessity under the +present circumstances for if we were imprisoned in a body of the kind we now +use and placed in an environment such as we find today, there to live for- +ever, the infirmities of the body and the unsatisfactory nature of the envi- +ronment would very soon make us so tired of life that we would cry for re- +lease. It would block all progress and make it impossible for us to evolve +to greater heights such as we may evolve to by re-embodiment in new vehicles +and placement in new environments which give us new possibilities of growth. +Thus we may thank God that so long as birth into a concrete body is neces- +sary for our further development, release by death has been provided to free +us from the outgrown instrument, while resurrection and a new birth under +the smiling skies of a new environment furnish another chance to begin life +with a clean slate and learn the lessons which we failed to master before. +By this method we shall some time become perfect as is the risen Christ. He +commanded it, and he will aid us to achieve it. + + + +[PAGE 108] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER XV + + THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT + + PART 1.--MATERIAL ANALOGIES. + + WHILE we were coming down by involution into concrete existence our line +of progress lay entirely in material development; but since we have rounded +the nadir of materiality and are beginning to rise above the concrete, +spiritual unfoldment is becoming increasingly important as a necessary fac- +tor in our development, although we still have many great and important les- +sons to learn from the material phase of our existence. This applies to hu- +manity in general but particularly, of course, to those who are already +consciously beginning to aspire to live the higher life. It may therefore +be expedient to review from another angle the Rosicrucian teachings as to +the scientific method of acquiring this spiritual unfoldment. + + People of the older generation, particularly in Europe and the eastern +states of America, will undoubtedly remember with pleasure their travels +along quiet country lanes, and how time and again they have passed by a + + +[PAGE 109] SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT + +rippling stream with an old rustic mill, its creaking water wheel labori- +ously turning the crude machinery within, using but a small fraction of the +power stored in the running water, which was going uselessly to waste save +for such partial use. But later on a new generation came and perceived the +possibilities to be realized by a scientific use of this enormous energy. +Engineers began to construct dams to keep the water from flowing in the +former wasteful manner. They diverted the water from the storage reservoirs +through pipes or flumes to the water wheels constructed upon scientific +principles, and they husbanded the great energy which they had stored by +letting in only enough water to turn the water wheels at a given speed and +with a given load. + + But while the scientifically constructed water wheel was a giant compared +with its crude predecessor, it was subject to some of the same limitations; +its enormous energy could only be used at the place where the power was lo- +cated, and such places are usually many miles from the centers of civiliza- +tion where power is most needed. By working with the laws of nature, man +had secured a servant of inexhaustible energy; but how to make it available +where most needed, that was the question. To solve that problem, again the +laws of nature were invoked; electric generators were coupled to the water +wheels, the water power was transformed into electrical energy and an + + +[PAGE 110] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +endeavor made to send it from the sources of its development to the cities +where it might be used. But this again required scientific methods of work- +ing with the laws of nature, for it was found that different metals transmit +electricity with varying facility, the best of them being copper and silver. +Copper was therefore chosen as the less expensive of the two. + + Let the student observe that we cannot compel these forces to do any- +thing; WHENEVER WE USE THEM IT IS BY WORKING WITH THE LAWS THAT GOVERN THEIR +MANIFESTATION, by choosing the line of least resistance to obtain the +maximum of energy. If wires of iron or German silver, which have a compar- +atively high resistance, had been chosen as transmitters, a great deal of +energy would have been thus lost, besides, other complications would have +resulted which we need not enter into for our purpose. But by working with +the laws of nature and choosing the line of least resistance, we obtain the +best result in the easiest manner. + + There were other problems which confronted these experimenters in their +transformation of the water power used in the old water wheels, to electric- +ity usable many miles from the source of power. it was found that an elec- +tric current would always seek the ground by the nearest path if there were +any possibility of so doing. Hence it became necessary that the wire carry- +ing the electric current be separated from the earth by some material that + + +[PAGE 111] SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT + +would prevent it from thus escaping, exactly as a high wall keeps a prisoner +behind it. Something had to be found for which electricity had a natural +aversion, and his was discovered in glass, porcelain, and certain fibrous +substances, thus solving by scientific means and ingenuity, working always +with the laws of nature, the problem of how to use the best advantage in +distant places the great energy which the old crude mill wheel had wasted at +its source. + + The same application of scientific methods to other problems of life, +such as gardening, has also secured wonderful results for the benefit and +comfort of humanity, making two hundred blades of grass grow where formerly +by the crude old methods not one even could find sustenance. Wizards like +Luther Burbank have improved upon the wild varieties of fruit and veg- +etables, making them larger, more luscious and palatable, as well as more +prolific; and wherever, haphazard practices of former days, the same benefi- +cial results have been achieved. But as said before, and this is very im- +portant for our consideration, EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN DONE HAS BEEN AC- +COMPLISHED BY WORKING WITH THE LAWS OF NATURE. + + The Hermetic axiom, "AS above so below," enunciates the law an analogy, +the master-key to all mysteries, spiritual or material, and we may safely + + +[PAGE 112] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +infer that what holds good in the application of scientific methods to mate- +rial problems will have equal force when applied to the solution of +spiritual mysteries. The most cursory review of religious development in +the past will be sufficient to show that it has been anything but scientific +and systematic, and that the most haphazard methods have prevailed. On ac- +count of their capacity for devotion, a few have risen to sublime heights of +spirituality and are known through the ages as Saints, shining lights upon +the pathway, showing what may be done. But how to achieve that sublime +spirituality has been and is a mystery to all, even to those who most ar- +dently desire such development, and these are, alas, comparatively few at +the present time. + + The Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucians have, however, originated a scien- +tific method, which, if persistently and consistently followed, will develop +the sleeping soul powers in any individual, just as surely as constant prac- +tice will make a person proficient in any material line of endeavor. To un- +derstand this matter it is necessary to realize that facts in the case; it +was the old crude mill wheel that gave water power in an efficient manner +and to much greater advantage. If we first study the natural development of +soul power by evolution, we shall then be in a position to understand the +great and beneficial results to be derived from an application of scientific + + +[PAGE 113] SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT + +methods to this important matter. Students of the Rosicrucian teachings are +of course familiar with the main points in this process of humanity's devel- +opment by evolution, but there may be a number who are not so informed, and +so for their sake we will give a little fuller outline than might otherwise +be necessary. + + Science says, and correctly so, that an invisible, intangible substance +called ether permeates everything from the densest solids to the air which +we breathe. This ether has never been seen, measured, or analyzed by sci- +ence, but it is necessary to postulate its existence in order to account for +various phenomena such as, for instance, the transmission of light through a +vacuum. There, science says, ether is the medium of transmission of the +light ray. Thus the ether carries to us a picture of our vision, and im- +presses it upon the retina of our eyes. Similarly, when a motion-picture +operator photographs a number of scenes in a play, the ether carries pic- +tures of all objects, the motions they make, et cetera, to the minutest de- +tails, through the lens of his camera to the sensitized plate, leaving a +complete record of all the scenery and every act of the actors in that play. +And if there were in our eyes a similar sensitized film of sufficient length +to hold the pictures, we should at the end of our life have a complete + + +[PAGE 114] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +record of every event that had taken place in it, that is, provided we could +see. + + But there are a number of people who are deficient in various senses; ONE +THING HOWEVER, THEY MUST ALL DO TO LIVE: THEY MUST BREATHE. And nature, +which is only another name for God, has thus rightly decreed that the record +be kept by this universally used means. Every moment of our action in the +drama of life from the first breath to the last dying gasp, the ether which +is drawn into our lungs carries with it a complete picture of our outside +environment, of our actions and the actions of other people who are with us, +the record being impressed upon one single little atom placed in the left +ventricle at the apex of the heart where the newly oxygenated blood, thus +carrying with it a different picture for every moment of our life, passes by +in a continual stream. Therefore all that we say or do from the least to +the greatest, from the best to the worst, is written in our heart in indel- +ible characters. This record is the basis of the natural slow method of +soul growth by evolution, corresponding to the crude and ancient water +wheel. + + In the next chapter we shall see how it is thus used and how by scien- +tific means soul growth may be accomplished and soul power unfolded by an +improvement on this process. + + +[PAGE 115] SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT + + CHAPTER XVI + + THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT + + PART II.--RETROSPECTION--A MEANS OF AVOIDING PURGATORY. + + We saw in the last chapter that a record resembling a picture film, of +our life from the cradle to the grave is inscribed upon a little atom in the +heart by the action of the ether which we inhale with every breath, and +which carries with it a picture of the outside world in which we are living +and moving at the time. This forms the basis of our post-mortem existence, +the record of deeds of wrongdoing being eradicated in a painful purgatorial +experience caused by the fire of remorse, which sears the soul as the pic- +tures of its misdeeds unroll before its gaze, thus making it less prone to +repeat the same wrongdoing and mistakes in future lives. The reaction from +the pictures where good was done is a heavenly joy, the subconscious remem- +brance of which will in later lives prompt the soul to do more good. But +this process is necessarily sow and may be likened to the action and op- +eration of the old mill wheel. However, it is the way designed by nature to + + +[PAGE 116] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +teach humanity how to walk circumspectly and obey her laws. By this slow +process the greater part of humanity is gradually evolving from egoism to +altruism, and though exceedingly slow it seems to be the only method by +which they will learn. + + There is another class which has caught a glimpse of a vision and sees in +the distant future a glorified humanity, expressly all the divine attributes +and living a life of love and peace. That class is aiming its bow of aspi- +ration at the stars, and is endeavoring to attain in one or a few short +lives what its fellow men will require hundreds of embodiments to accom- +plish. To that end they, like the pioneers in the harnessing of the waters +and the scientific transmission of electricity, are seeking for a scientific +method which will eliminate the waste of time and energy involved in the +slow process of evolution and enable them to do the great work of +self-unfoldment scientifically and without waste of energy. That was the +problem which the early Rosicrucians set themselves to solve, and having +discovered this method they are now teaching the same to their faithful fol- +lowers, to the eternal welfare of all who aspire and persevere. Just as the +engineers who undertook to improve the primitive mill wheel and accomplish +the transmission of electricity to distant points achieved their object by +first studying the effects and defects of the primitive device, so also the + + +[PAGE 117] SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT + +Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucians first studied by the aid of their +spiritual sight all the phases of ordinary human evolution in the +post-mortem state as well as in the physical world, so that they might de- +termine how through many lives progress is gradually attained. They also +studied such glyphs and symbols as had been given to humanity throughout the +ages, to aid them in soul growth, notably the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, +which, as Paul says, was a shadow of better things to come, and they found +the secret of soul growth hidden in the various appliances and appurtenances +used in that ancient place of worship. As the scenes in the life panorama +which unrolls before the eyes of the soul after death, cause a suffering in +purgatory which cleanses the soul from a desire to repeat the offenses which +generated those pictures, so the salt wherewith the sacrifices upon the al- +tar of burnt offerings in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness were rubbed be- +fore being placed before the altar and the fire wherewith they were consumed +symbolized a double fiery pain similar to that felt by the soul in purga- +tory. Confident in the Hermetic axiom, "AS ABOVE, SO BELOW," they evolved +the method of Retrospection as being in harmony with the cosmic laws of soul +growth, and capable of accomplishing day by day that which the purgatorial +experience does only one in a life time, namely, cleansing the soul from sin + + +[PAGE 118] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +by the fire of remorse. + + But when we say "Retrospection," it happens not infrequently that people +say, "Oh, that is taught by other religious bodies and i have practiced it +all my life; I examine the day's doings every evening before going to +sleep." + + So far, so good. But that is not sufficient. In order to perform this +exercise scientifically it is necessary to follow the process of nature as +the electrician did when he desired to insulate the electric current from +the ground and found that glass, porcelain and fibre would act as barriers +to its passage. We must conform in every particular to the processes of na- +ture in her methods of attaining soul growth. When we study the purgatorial +expiation, we find that THE LIFE PANORAMA IS UNFOLDED IN REVERSE ORDER, from +the grave to the cradle, scenes that were enacted late in life being taken +up for expiation first, and those which occurred in early youth being the +last to be dealt with. This, in order to show the soul how certain EFFECTS +in life were brought about by CAUSES generated at an earlier stage. +Similarly, the scientific method of soul unfoldment requires that the aspir- +ant must examine his life every evening before going to sleep, starting with +the scenes which were enacted late in the evening just prior to retiring for +the night, then gradually proceeding in reverse order towards the things + + +[PAGE 119] SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT + +which were done in the afternoon, then those which took place in the morn- +ing, and back to the very moment of awakening. But also, and this is very +important, it is not sufficient to merely examine these scenes in a perfunc- +tory way and admit being sorry when one comes to a scene where one was un- +kind or unjust to another person. There the glyph contained in the altar of +burnt offerings gives specific instruction; just as the sacrifices were +rubbed with SALT which, as everyone knows burns and smarts exceedingly when +rubbed into a would, and just as fire, such as is applied on the altar of +burnt offerings to the sacrifice, consumes the same offerings, so also the +aspirant to soul growth must realize that he is both priest and sacrifice, +the altar and the fire burning thereon; he must allow the salt and the fire +of remorse to burn and sear into his very heart a deep-felt contrition at +the thought of whatever wrong he has done, for only such a deep and serious +treatment of the matter will wash the record away from the seed atom in the +heart and leave it clean. And unless that is done, nothing has been accom- +plished. But if the aspirant to scientific soul unfoldment succeed in mak- +ing this fire of remorse and contrition sufficiently intense, then the seed +atom will be cleansed of the sin committed day by day throughout the life, +and even the things that have taken place before such exercises were taken +up will gradually disappear before that cleansing fire, so that the end of + + +[PAGE 120] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +life when the silver cord has been loosened the aspirant find himself with- +out any panorama of life to take up his attention, such as all ordinary +people are occupied with who have not been fortunate enough to be taught and +to practice this scientific method. The result then is that instead of hav- +ing to spend in purgatorial expiation a period of time about one-third as +long as the life lived in the dense body, he who steadily and unwaveringly +practices this method finds himself as a free lance in the invisible world, +not bound by limitations which hold and fetter all others, and therefore +free to use his entire time while in the lower regions in the service of +suffering humanity. But there is a great difference between the opportuni- +ties there and here; here one-third of our life is taken up with rest and +recuperation, another third is taken up in work so that we may obtain the +wherewithal to keep this physical body fed, clothed, and housed; and only +the other third is at all available for the purposes of rest, recreation, or +soul growth. It is different in the Desire World where the spirit finds it- +self after death. The bodies in which we function there do not require food +or raiment, neither do they need shelter; they are not subject to fatigue +either, so that instead of spending two-thirds of the time as here in pro- +viding the necessaries of the body, the spirit is there free to use its in- +struments the whole twenty-four hours, day after day. Therefore the time +saved in the invisible world by having lived our purgatory day by day is the + + +[PAGE 121] SPIRITUAL UNFOLDMENT + +equivalent of that portion of an entire earth life which one spends in work. +Also during all that time thus saved no thought or care need be given to +anything else but how we may help to further the scheme of evolution and aid +our younger and less fortunate brothers. Thus we reap a rich harvest and +make more soul growth in that post-mortem existence than would be possible +in several ordinary lives. When we are reborn we then find ourselves with +all the soul powers thus acquired and must further along upon the path of +evolution than we could possibly have been under ordinary circumstances. + + It is also noteworthy that while other methods of soul unfoldment evolved +and taught by other schools carry with them danger which sometimes may bring +those who practice them into the insane asylum, the scientific method of +soul unfoldment advocated by the Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucian order is +always bound to benefit everyone who practices it and can never under any +circumstances cause any harm to anyone. We may also say that there are +other helps that have not been mentioned here which are communicated to +those who have proved their worth by their persistence, and while they do +not directly aim at the evolution of spiritual sight, this will be evolved +by all who practice them with the necessary faithful perseverance. + + +[PAGE 122] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER XVII + + THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD + + "The Heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his +handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth +knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. +Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of +the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a +bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a +race." + + Everywhere for miles around us we see the glorious sunrise, bringing +light and life to all; then the day star mounts high in the heavens, later +to decline towards the western horizon in a glorious burst of flame as its +sinks into the sea, leaving an afterglow of indescribable, variegated tints +coloring the heavens as with liquid fire of the softest and most beautiful +hues, which the brush of the painter can never paint to perfection. Then +the moon, the orb of night, rises over the eastern hills, carrying the stars +and constellations upward in her train toward the zenith, and following the + + +[PAGE 123] THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD + +sun in its everlasting circle dance; the stellar script thus describes upon +the map of heaven man's past, present and future evolution among the ever +changing environments of the concrete world, without rest or peace while +time lasts. + + In this ever changing kaleidoscope of the heavens there is one star and +only one that remains so comparatively stationary that to all intents and +purposes and from the standpoint of our ephemeral life of fifty, sixty, or +one hundred years it is a fixed point--the North Star. When the mariner +sails his ship upon the waste of waters, he has full faith that so long as +he steers by that mark he will safely reach his desired haven. Nor is he +dismayed when clouds obscure its guiding light, for he has a compass magne- +tized by a mysterious power so that through sunshine or rain, in fog or +mist, it points unerringly to that steadfast star and enables him to steer +his ship as safely as if he could actually see the star itself. Truly, the +heavens declare the wonders of the Lord. + + As it is in the macrocosm, the great world without us, so it is in our +own lives. At our birth the sun of life rises, and we begin the ascent +through the years of childhood and youth toward the zenith of manhood or +womanhood. The ever changing world which forms our environment, including +fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers, surrounds us. With friends, ac- +quaintances, and foes we face the battle of life with whatever strength we +may have gained in our past lives, to pay the debts contracted, to bear the + + +[PAGE 124] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +burdens of this life, perhaps to make them heavier according to our wisdom +or unwisdom. But among all the changing circumstances of life and the +vicissitudes of existence there is one great and grand guide which like the +North Star never fails us; a guide ever ready like the steadfast star in +heaven to help us steer our bark of life into clear sailing--God. It is +significant to read in the Bible that the wise men in their search for the +Christ (OUR GREAT SPIRITUAL TEACHER) also followed a star that led them to +this great spiritual Light. What would we think of the captain of a ship +who lashed the wheel and let his ship drift with the tide, leaving it to the +change of wind or fate? Would it surprise us if he were eventually ship- +wrecked and lost his life upon the rocks? Surely not. The marvel would be +if he should reach the shore. + + A great and wonderful allegory is written in cosmic characters in the +sky. It is also written in our own lives, and warns us to forsake the +fleeting life of the material and to seek the eternal life of God. + + We are not left without a guide, even though the veil of flesh, the pride +of life, and the lusts blind us for a time. For as the mariner's magnetic +compass points to the guiding star, so the spirit draws us to its source +with a longing and a yearning that cannot be entirely quenched no matter how +deep we may sink into materialism. Many are at present groping, seeking, +trying to solve that inner unrest; something seems to urge them on though + + +[PAGE 125] THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD + +they do not understand it; something ever draws them forward to seek the +spiritual and to reach up for something higher--our Father in Heaven. + + David said, "if I ascend up into heaven thou art there; if I make my bed +in the grave thou art there; thy right hand shall guide and hold me." in +the 28th Psalm, he says, "when i consider thy heavens, the work of thy fin- +gers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou +visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and +hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion +over the works of thy hands, thou hast put all things under his feet." + + This is nothing new to those who are seeking the Light, who have been do- +ing their very best to live the life; but the danger lies in that they may +become indifferent, may become spiritually common-place. Therefore, as the +steersman at the helm of the ship is constantly wakeful and watching the +guiding compass, so it is of the greatest importance that we continually +shake ourselves lest we go to sleep and the ship of our life go off its +course. let us all set our faces firmly towards this star of hope, this +great spiritual light, the real and only thing worth while--the life of God. + + +[PAGE 126] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + RELIGION AND HEALING + + At various times and in different ways humanity has been given religions +suited to spur them onward upon the path of evolution. In each the ideal +was made just high enough to rouse the aspirations of the class of people to +whom it was given, but not so high as to be beyond their appreciation, for +then it would not have appealed to them at all. The savage, for instance, +must have a strong God, one who wields the flaming sword of lightning with +mighty hand. He can look up to such a God in fear, but would despise a God +who would show love and mercy. + + Therefore religions have also changed as man has evolved; the ideal has +been slowly raised until it has reach the highest stage in our Christian +teaching. The flower of religions is always given to the flower of human- +ity. in a future age a higher religion will of course be given to a more +advanced race. There can be no end to evolution, but we maintain that the +invisible leaders of humanity give to each nation the teaching best suited +to their condition. Hinduism helps our younger brothers in the East, but + + +[PAGE 127] RELIGION AND HEALING + +Christianity is the Western teaching, particularly suited to Western people. + + Thus we see that the mass of humanity is taken care of by the religion +publicly taught in the country of their birth; but there are always pioneers +whose precocity demands a higher teaching, and to them a deeper doctrine is +given through the agency of the Mystery School belonging to their country. +When only a few are ready for such preparatory schooling they are taught +privately, but as they increase in number the teaching is given more pub- +licly. + + The latter is the case in the Western world at present. Therefore the +Brothers of the Rose Cross gave to the writer a philosophy such as published +in our various works, and sanctioned the launching of THE ROSICRUCIAN FEL- +LOWSHIP to promulgate this teaching. The purpose is to bring aspiring souls +into contact with the Teacher when by service HERE, in the physical world, +they have shown their sincerity and given reasonable assurance that they +will use their spiritual powers for service in the other world when they +shall have been initiated therein. + + The higher teachings are never given for a monetary consideration. Peter +in olden days rebuked Simon the sorcerer, who wanted to buy spiritual power +that he might prostitute it for material gain. THE ELDER BROTHERS ALSO +REFUSE TO OPEN THE DOOR TO THOSE WHO PROSTITUTE THE SPIRITUAL SCIENCES BY +CASTING HOROSCOPES, READING PALMS, OR GIVING CLAIRVOYANT READINGS PRO- + + +[PAGE 128] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +FESSIONALLY FOR MONEY. The Rosicrucian Fellowship advocates the study of +astrology and palmistry by all its members, and furnishes simple teachings +on the former in textbooks at merely nominal cost so that all may acquire +ability in this science instead of remaining the dupes of professionals, who +are often mere pretenders. + + During the past few years since we first commenced to disseminate the +Rosicrucian teachings they have spread like wildfire over the civilized +world. They are studied with avidity from the Cape of Good Hope to the Arc- +tic Circle and beyond. They have found response in the hearts of all +classes of people--in the snow-clad huts of Alaskan miners, in government +houses where a tropical wind unfurls the British Lion, and in the capitals +of Turkish autocracy and American democracy alike. Our adherents may be +found in government institutions as well as in the humblest walks of life, +all in lively correspondence and close touch with our movement and working +for the promulgation of the deeper truths concerning life and being which +are helping them. + + THE ROSICRUCIAN PRINCIPLES OF HEALING. + + It is a trite saying that "man is of few days and full of trouble." +Among all the vicissitudes of life none affect us more powerfully than loss +of health. We may lose fortune or friends with comparative equanimity, but + + +[PAGE 129] RELIGION AND HEALING + +when health fails and death threatens, the strongest falter; realizing human +impotence we are more ready to turn to divine power for succor then than at +other times. Therefore the office of spiritual adviser has always been +closely associated with healing. + + Among savages the priest was also "medicine man." In ancient Greece +Aesculapius was particularly sought by those in need of healing. The Church +followed in his steps. Certain Catholic orders have continued the endeavor +to assuage pain during the centuries which have intervened between that day +and the present. In times of sickness the "good father" came as a represen- +tative of our Father in Heaven, and what he lacked in skill was made up by +love and sympathy--if he was indeed a true and holy priest--and by the faith +engendered in the patient by the priestly office. His care of the patient +did not commence at the sickbed, nor was it terminated at recovery. The +gratitude of the patient toward the physician was added to the veneration +felt for the spiritual adviser, and as a consequence the power of the priest +to help and uplift his erstwhile patient was enormously increased, and the +tie between them was closer than possible where the offices of spiritual and +medical adviser are divorced. + + It is not denied that the double office gave the incumbents a most dan- +gerous power over the people and that that power was at times abused. It is +also patent that the art of medicine has reached a stage of efficiency which +could not have been attained save by devotion to that one particular end and + + + +[PAGE 130] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +aim. The safeguards of sanitary laws, the extinction of insect carriers of +disease, and the consequent immunity from disease are monumental testimonies +to the value of modern scientific methods. Thus it may seem as if all were +well and there were no need of further effort. But in reality, until human- +ity as a whole enjoys perfect health, there is no issue more important than +the question, How may we attain and maintain health? + + In addition to the regular school of surgery and medicine, which depends +exclusively upon physical means for the care of disease, other systems have +sprung up which depend entirely on mental healings. It is the custom of or- +ganizations which advocate "mind cure," "nature cure," and other like +methods to hold experience meetings and publish journals with testimonials +from grateful supporters who have benefited by their treatments, and if phy- +sicians of the regular school did likewise there would be no lack of similar +testimonies to their efficiency. + + The opinion of thousands is of great value, but is does not prove any- +thing, for thousands may hold an opposite view. Occasionally a single man +may be right and the rest of the world wrong, as when Galileo maintained +that the earth moves. Today the whole world has been converted to the opin- +ion for which he was persecuted as a heretic. We assert that as man is a +composite being, cures are successful in proportion as they remedy defects +on the physical, moral, and mental planes of being. We also maintain that + + +[PAGE 1311 RELIGION AND HEALING + +results may be obtained more easily at certain times when the stellar rays +are propitious for the healing of a particular disease or for treatment with +remedies previously prepared under auspicious conditions. + + It is well known to the modern physician that the condition of the blood, +and therefore the condition of the whole body, changes in sympathy with the +state of mind of the patient, and the more the physician uses suggestion as +an adjunct to medicine the more successful he is. Few perhaps would credit +the further fact that both our mental and physical condition is influenced +by planetary rays which change as the planets move. In these days since the +principle of radioactivity has been established we know that everybody +projects into space numberless little particles. Wireless telegraphy has +taught us that etheric waves travel swiftly and surely through trackless +space and operate a key according to our will. We also know that the rays +of the sun affect us differently in the morning when they strike us horizon- +tally than at noon when they are perpendicular. If the light rays from the +swift-moving sun produce physical and mental changes, may not the persistent +ray of slower planets also have an effect? If they have, they are factors +in health not to be overlooked by a thoroughly scientific healer. + + Disease is a manifestation of ignorance, the only sin, and healing is a +demonstration of applied knowledge, which is the only salvation. Christ is + + +[PAGE 132] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +an embodiment of the Wisdom Principle, and in proportion as the Christ is +formed in us we attain to health. Therefore the healer should be spiritual +and endeavor to imbue his patient with high ideals so that he may eventually +learn to conform to God's laws which govern the universe, and thus attain +permanent health in future lives as well as now. + + However, faith without works is dead. if we persist in living under +unsanitary conditions, faith will not save us from typhoid. When we apply +preventives of proper kind, or remedies in sickness, we are really showing +our faith by works. + + Like other Mystery orders the Rosicrucian Order has also aimed to help +humanity in the attainment of bodily health. It has been written in various +works that the members of the Order took a vow to heal others free of +charge. This statement is somewhat garbled. The lay brothers take a vow to +MINISTER to all according to the best of their ability FREE OF CHARGE. That +vow included healing, of course, in the case of such men as Paracelsus, who +had ability in that direction; by the combination method of physical rem- +edies applied under favorable stars and spiritual counsel he was highly suc- +cessful. Others were not suited to be healers but labored in other direc- +tions, BUT ALL WERE ALIKE IN ONE PARTICULAR--THEY NEVER CHARGED FOR THEIR +SERVICES, AND THEY LABORED IN SECRET WITHOUT FLOURISH OF TRUMPET OR SOUND OF +DRUM. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + +[PAGE 133] ADDRESS AT GROUND BREAKING + + CHAPTER XIX + + ADDRESS AT THE GROUND BREAKING FOR MT. ECCLESIA + + The Christ said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, +there will I be among them"; and as always when He spoke, this utterance was +an expression of the most profound divine wisdom. It rests upon a law of +nature which is as immutable as God Himself. When the thoughts of two or +three are centered upon any certain object or being, a powerful thought form +is generated as a definite expression of their minds, and is instantly pro- +jected towards its goal. Its further effects depend upon the affinity be- +tween the thought and whosoever is to receive it, as to generate a vibratory +response to a note sounded by a tuning fork it requires another fork of +identical pitch. + + If thoughts and prayers of a low, selfish nature are projected, only low +and selfish creatures respond. That kind of prayer can never reach the +Christ any more than water can run up a hill. it gravitates toward demons +and elementals, which remain totally unresponsive to the lofty aspirations + + +[PAGE 134] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +engendered by such as congregate in the name of Christ. + + As we are today gathered upon this spot to break ground for the Headquar- +ters of a Christian Association, we may rest assured that as surely as grav- +ity draws a stone toward the center of the earth, the fervor of our united +aspirations will provide attention from the Founder of our faith (Christ), +who will thus be with us. As certainly as forks of identical pitch vibrate +in sympathy, so must the august Head of the Rosicrucian Order (Christian +Rose-Cross) lend his presence upon this occasion when the home of +Rosicrucian Fellowship is being started. The Elder Brother who has been the +inspiration of this movement is present and visible to some among us at +least. There are present upon this momentous occasion and directly inter- +ested in the proceedings the perfect number--12. That is to say, there are +three invisible leaders who are beyond the stage of ORDINARY humanity, and +nine members of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. Nine is the number of Adam, or +man. Of these, five, an odd, masculine number, are men, and four, an even +feminine number, are women, while the number of invisible leaders, three, +aptly represents the sexless Divine. Neither has the number attending been +arranged for by the speaker. Invitation to take part in these exercises was +extended to many individuals, but only nine responded. And as we cannot be- +lieve in chance, the attendance must have been regulated in accordance with +the design of our invisible leaders, and may be taken as an expression of + + +[PAGE 135] ADDRESS AT GROUND BREAKING + +the spiritual power behind this movement, if further proof were needed than +the phenomenal spread of the Rosicrucian teachings, which have penetrated to +every country on earth in the last few years and provoked assent, admira- +tion, and love, in the hearts of all classes and conditions of people, +PARTICULARLY AMONG MEN. + + We emphasize this as a noteworthy fact, for while all other religious or- +ganizations are composed largely of women, men are in the majority among the +members of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. It is also significant that our doc- +tor members outnumber those from all other professions, and that the minis- +ters come next. It proves that those whose privilege it is to care for the +ailing body are alive to the fact that spiritual causes generate physical +weaknesses, and that they are seeking to understand so that they may give +more efficient aid to the infirm. It demonstrates also that those whose of- +fice it is to minister to the ailing spirit are endeavoring to meet inquir- +ing minds with a reasonable explanation of the of the spiritual mysteries, +thus strengthening their flagging faith and cementing their tie to the +church, instead of responding with dictum and dogma NOT SUPPORTED BY REASON, +which would open wide the flood-gates to the seething sea of skepticism and +sweep the searcher for light away from the haven of the church into the +darkness of materialistic despair. + + It has already been the blessed privilege of the Rosicrucian Fellowship + + +[PAGE 136] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +to rescue many a sincere seeker, anxious but unable to believe what seemed +contrary to reason. Given reasonable explanation of the underlying harmony +between the dogmas and doctrines propounded by the church and the laws of +nature, such ones have been sent back into the church fold rejoicing in the +fellowship there, stronger and better members than before they left. + + Any movement that is to endure must possess three divine qualities: WIS- +DOM, BEAUTY, AND STRENGTH. Science, art and religion each possesses one of +these attributes in a measure. It is the purpose of the Rosicrucian Fellow- +ship to unite and harmonize each with the others by teaching a religion that +is both scientific and artistic, and to gather all churches into one great +Christian Brotherhood. Just now the clock of destiny marks an auspicious +moment for the commencement of building activities to erect a visible center +whence the Rosicrucian teachings may radiate their beneficent influence to +further the well-being of all who are physically, mentally, or morally in- +firm. + + Therefore we now lift one shovelful of earth from the corner of the +building site with a prayer for WISDOM to guide this great school along the +right lines. We turn up the ground a second time with a supplication to the +Master Artist for the faculty of presenting the BEAUTY of the higher life in +such a manner as to render it attractive to all mankind. We break the +ground for the third and last time in connection with these exercises as we + + +[PAGE 137] ADDRESS AT GROUND BREAKING + +breathe a prayer for STRENGTH patiently and diligently to continue the good +work so that it may endure and become a greater factor for upliftment than +any of its predecessors. + + Having thus broken ground for the site of the first building, we will now +proceed to plant the wonderful symbol of life and being, the composite em- +blem of the Western Mystery School. This consists of the cross, +representing matter, and the climbing rose that twines around its stem, rep- +resenting the verdant evolving life climbing to greater and greater heights +by this crucifixion. Each of us nine members will take part in excavating +for this the first and greatest ornament to Mt. Ecclesia. We will plant it +in such a position that the arms point east and west, while the meridian sun +projects it bodily towards the north. Thus it will be directly in the path +of the spiritual currents that vitalize the forms of the four kingdoms of +life: mineral, plant, animal, and man. + + Upon the arms and upper limb of this cross you notice three golden let- +ters, "C.R.C.", the initials of our august Head, Christian Rosenkreuz, or +CHRISTIAN ROSE-CROSS. The symbolism of this cross is partly explained here +and there in our literature, but volumes would be required to give a full +explanation. Let us look a little further into the meaning of this wonder- +ful object lesson. + + When we lived in the dense WATER-LADEN ATMOSPHERE of early ATLANTIS, we +were under entirely different laws than govern us today. When we shed the + + +[PAGE 138] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +body we felt it not, for our consciousness was focused more in the spiritual +world than in the denser conditions of matter. Our life was an unbroken ex- +istence; WE FELT NEITHER BIRTH NOR DEATH. + + With our emergence into THE AERIAL CONDITIONS OF ARYANA, the world of to- +day, our consciousness of the spirit world waned, and form became most +prominent. Then a DUAL EXISTENCE commenced, each phase sharply differenti- +ated from the other by the events of birth and death. One of these phases +is a free spirit life in celestial realms; the other an imprisonment in a +terrestrial body, which is virtually death to the spirit, as symbolized in +the Greek myth of Castor and Pollux, the heavenly twins. + + It has been elucidated in various places in our literature how the free +spirit became enmeshed in matter through the machinations of the Lucifer +spirits, which Christ referred to as false lights. That was in FIERY +LEMURIA. LUCIFER MAY THEREFORE BE CALLED THE GENIUS OF LEMURIA. + + The full effect of his misguidance did not become fully apparent until +THE NOACHIAN AGE, COMPRISING THE PERIODS OF LATER ATLANTIS AND OUR PRESENT +ARYANA. The rainbow, which could not have existed under previous atmo- +spheric conditions, stood painted upon the cloud as a mystic scroll when +mankind entered the Noachian Age, where the law of alternating cycles brings +ebb and flow, summer and winter, birth and death. During this age the + + +[PAGE 139] ADDRESS AT GROUND BREAKING + +spirit cannot permanently escape from the body of death generated by the sa- +tanic passion first inculcated by Lucifer. Its repeated attempts to escape +to its celestial home are frustrated by the law of periodicity, for when it +has freed itself from one body by death, it is brought to rebirth when the +cycle has been run. + + Deceit and illusion cannot be allowed to endure forever, and so the +REDEEMER appeared to cleanse the passion-filled blood, to preach the truth +which shall set us free from this body of death, to inaugurate the im- +maculate conception along lines most crudely indicated in the science of eu- +genics, to prophesy a new age, a new heaven, and a new earth, of which He, +THE TRUE LIGHTS, will be the Genius, an age wherein will dwell the righ- +teousness and love for which all the world is sighing and seeking. + + All of this and the way of attainment are symbolized in the rose cross +before us. The rose, in which the sap of life is dormant in winter and ac- +tive in summer, illustrates aptly the effect of the law of alternating +cycles. The color of the flower, its generative organ, resembles our blood, +yet the sap which courses within is pure, and the seed is generated in an +immaculate, passionless manner. + + When we attain to the purity of life there symbolized, we shall have +freed ourselves from the cross of matter, and the ethereal conditions of the +millenium will be here. It is the aim of the Rosicrucian Fellowship to + + +[PAGE 140] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +hasten that glad day when sorrow, pain, sin, and death shall have ceased, +and we shall have been redeemed from the fascinating, enthralling illusions +of matter and awakened to the supreme truth of the reality of Spirit. May +God speed and prosper our efforts. + + +[PAGE 141] OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + + CHAPTER XX + + OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + + PART I. -- (ISSUED MAY, 1912) + + Lately there has come to us a realization that the work of the +Rosicrucian Fellowship is not our private work; it is the work of the Elder +Brothers and every member of the Fellowship. IN THE ACCOMPLISHMENT THEREOF +IS A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY FOR SOUL GROWTH, and we have no more right to ar- +rogate it to ourselves than we have to deprive members of material food; we +must give all the opportunity to aid in the work physically, mentally, or +financially according to time, talent, and ability. We also realize that +unless we do, the work will be undone, and we shall be unprofitable servants +of the Elder Brothers, for the burden is heavier than we can bear; and to +prosper, the Great Work requires many laborers. I will therefore give in +this lesson a history of the work to date, so that students may be able to +view the future work in its true perspective. This will necessitate a lib- +eral use of the capital "I", and students will kindly bear with me in this + + +[PAGE 142] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +matter, for no one dislikes introduction of the personal element more than +the writer, but in the present case it seems unavoidable. + + We have set down in our literature as an axiomatic teaching that every +object in the visible universe is the embodiment of pre-existent invisible +thought; that Fulton built a steamboat and Bell a telephone in thought be- +fore these things were manufactured in wood and metal. Likewise, an author +plans a book in his mind before writing. A Mystery Order must also frame +its spiritual philosophy to meet the necessities of the people it is +deputized to serve. That work may require centuries. As the work of scien- +tific investigators is carried out in the seclusion of their laboratories, +as their tentative conclusions calculated to foster the intellectual ad- +vancement of the race are withheld from the masses until proven to the best +of the scientists' ability, so also the spiritual teachings intended to fos- +ter soul growth among a class of people are kept from the many until their +efficacy has been demonstrated in the case of the few. + + As inventions, theories, or projects some time pass the experimental +stage and are rejected unless fitted for general use, so also a spiritual +teaching must either reach a point of completion where it may be launched +for general service in the world's work, or else die. Thus it has been with +the Western Wisdom Teachings formulated by the Rosicrucian Order to blend +with the ultra-intellectual mind of Europe and America. Our revered Founder + + +[PAGE 143] OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + +and the twelve Elder Brothers whom he selected to aid him in the work centu- +ries ago probably first made a retrospective study of the trend of thought +during our era, and it may be, for milleniums before, and thus they were +able to obtain a fairly accurate conception of the direction likely to be +taken by the minds of future generations and determine their spiritual re- +quirements. Be their method what it may have been, their conclusions were +light when they judged that "PRIDE OF INTELLECT, INTOLERANCE, AND IMPATIENCE +OF RESTRAINT" would be the besetting sins of our day; and they formulated +their philosophy so that it satisfies the heart at the same time that it ap- +peals to the intellect and teaches man how to escape restraint by mastering +self. The thousands of appreciate letters from people all over the world, +in the highest ranks and in the lowliest walks of life, attest the great +should hunger and the satisfaction that all classes of people find in this +teaching. But as time goes on, fifty years, a century or two hence, when +scientific discoveries have given color to more of the things stated in the +"Cosmo-Conception," when intellects have become yet broader, the Rosicrucian +teachings will give satisfaction of soul to millions of enlightened spirits. + + This being the case, you will appreciate the care which the Elder Broth- +ers must take ere confiding so important a message to anyone, particularly +as such a teaching may only be given out at certain times. As the seed of + + +[PAGE 144] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +plants is planted at the beginning of the yearly cycle, so also must a +philosophical seed such as that of the Rosicrucian teachings be planted and +the book published in the first decade of the century, which commences a new +cycle, or the opportunity is lost till the next cycle rolls around. One +messenger had proven faithless by 1905. Then the Brothers turned to myself, +and entrusted the teachings to me after I have passed a certain test in +1908. The "Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception" was published in November, 1909, a +little more than a year before the end of the first decade. Friends had +edited the original manuscript and did splendid work, but I had of course to +revise it before giving it to the printer. Then I read the printer's proof, +corrected and returned it, reread it after mistakes had been rectified, read +it again after the type had been divided into pages, gave instructions to +engravers about the drawings and to the printer about placing them in the +book, etc. I was up at six and toiled on till twelve, one, two, or three in +the morning for weeks amid endless confusion with tradesmen and the roar of +Chicago about my ears, sometimes almost reaching the limit of nervous endur- +ance. Still I kept my faculties together and wrote many new points into the +R.C-C. Had it not been for the support of the Brothers I must have gone un- +der. It was their work, however, and they saw me through. All that I was +expected to do was to work to the limit of my endurance and ability and + + +[PAGE 145] OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + +leave the rest to them, yet I was almost a wreck when the strain was past. + + Now, perhaps you will understand my attitude towards the "Rosicrucian +Cosmo-Conception." I admire and marvel at its wonderful teaching more than +anyone else, and can do so without violating proper modesty for the book is +not mine--it belongs to humanity. It does not even seem as if I have writ- +ten it, I feel so absolutely impersonal in the matter. My office is only to +see that it is properly published, and the copyright is simply to protect it +from being garbled. But as soon as it is possible to find dependable and +qualified trustees, the Rosicrucian Fellowship will be incorporated and all +my copyrights turned over to them together with all else that belongs to me, +for it was a part of the agreement with the brothers that all profit accru- +ing from the work must be put right into it again, a condition to which I +willingly assented, for I care naught for money save as needed to further +the work, and neither does Mrs. Heindel. The blessed work is the greatest +recompense to us, more precious than any material reward. + + Among all the foolish nonsense which has been published about the +Rosicrucian Order there is one great truth--that they aimed to heal the +sick. Earlier religious orders have sought to advance spirituality by cas- +tigating and abusing the body, but the Rosicrucians exhibit the tenderest +care for this instrument. There are two reasons for their healing ac- +tivities. Like all other earnest followers of Christ they are longingly + + +[PAGE 146] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +looking for "the day of the Lord." They know that abuse of sex prompted by +the lucifer spirits has caused and is responsible for disease and debility, +and that a sound body is indispensable to the expression of a sound mind. +They have therefore aimed to heal the body that it may express a sane mind, +and pure love instead of perverted love, for conception under such condi- +tions hastens the Kingdom of Christ by producing bodies of finer and finer +texture to replace the "flesh and blood (which) cannot inherit the kingdom," +because physiologically unfit. + + Christ gave two commands to his messengers: "Preach the gospel" (of the +coming Age) and, "Heal the sick." One is as binding as the other and, for +the foregoing reasons, as necessary. To comply with the second command the +Elder Brothers have evolved a system of healing which combines the best +points in the various schools of today with a method of diagnosis and treat- +ment as certain as it is simple, and thus a long step has been taken to lift +the healing art from the sands of experiment to the rock of exact knowledge. + + On the night of the 9th of April, 1910, when the new moon was in Aries, +my Teacher appeared in my room and told me that a new decade (cycle) had +commenced that night. The night before, my work with the newly formed Los +Angeles Fellowship Center had terminated. I had traveled and lectured six +out of seven nights a week and several afternoons besides. Since my Chicago + + +[PAGE 147] OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + +publishing experience I had been sick and was withdrawing from public work +to recuperate. I knew it was very dangerous to leave the body consciously +when ill, for the ether is then usually attenuated and the silver cord +breaks easily. Death under such conditions would cause the same sufferings +as suicide, so the Invisible Helper is always cautioned to stay by his body +when it is suffering. But at my Teacher's request I was ready for the soul +flight to the Temple, and a guard was left to watch the sick body. + + +[PAGE 148] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER XXI + + + OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + + PART II. + + As we have stated previously in our literature, there are nine degrees of +the Lesser Mysteries, of whatever school, and the Rosicrucian Order is no +exception. The first of these corresponds to the Saturn Period, and the ex- +ercises having to do with it are held on Saturn's day at midnight. The sec- +ond degree corresponds to the Sun Period, and that particular rite is cel- +ebrated every Sunday. The third degree corresponds to the Moon Period and +is held on Monday at midnight; and so one with the remainder of the first +seven degrees. Each corresponds to a Period and is held on the day appro- +priate thereto. The eighth degree is celebrated at the new moon and the +full, and the ninth degree at the summer and winter solstices. + + When a disciple first becomes a lay brother or sister, he or she is in- +troduced to the rite held upon Saturday nights. The next Initiation en- +titles him also to attend the midnight services at the Temple on Sunday + + +[PAGE 149] OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + +nights, and so on. It is to be noted, however, that while all lay brothers +and sisters have free access in their spiritual bodies to the Temple during +all DAYS, they are barred from the midnight services of the degrees which +they have not yet taken. Nor is there a visible guard who stands at the +door and demands a password of each as he desires to enter, but a wall is +around the Temple, invisible yet impenetrable to those who have not received +the "open sesame." Every night it is differently constituted so that should +a pupil by mistake or through forgetfulness seek to enter the Temple when +the exercises are above his status, he would learn that it is possible to +bump one's head against a spiritual wall and that the experience is by no +means pleasant. + + As already said, the eighth degree meets at the new and full moon, and +all who have not attained are debarred from that midnight service, the +writer among them, for this degree is no mere mummery to be obtained by the +payment of a few paltry coins but requires a measure of spirituality far be- +yond my present attainment, a stage to which I may not attain in several +lives, though not wanting in effort or aspiration. You will therefore un- +derstand that on the night of the new moon in Aries, 1910, when the Teacher +came for me, it was not to take me into that exalted gathering of the eighth +degree, but to another session of a different nature. Besides, though this +session was held in the night as it occurs in California, the time is + + +[PAGE 150] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +different in Europe. The exercises of the new moon had been held in Germany +hours before, so that when I arrived at the Temple with my Teacher the sun +was already high in the heavens. + + When we entered the Temple some time was devoted to an interview with my +Teacher alone, and in it he outlined the work of the Fellowship as the +Brothers would wish to have it carried out. The keynote of it all was to +refrain from organization, if possible, or at least to make organization as +loose as we could. It was pointed out that no matter how good the inten- +tions may be in the beginning, as soon as position and power are created +which may gratify the vanity of men, the temptation proves too great for the +majority, and in the measure that the free will of members if interfered +with, the object of the Rosicrucian Order, to foster individuality and +self-reliance, is defeated. Laws and by-laws are limitations, and for that +reason there should be as few as possible. The Teacher even thought that it +would be possible to get along without any at all. + + It is in line with this policy that I had printed upon our letterheads, +AN INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHRISTIAN MYSTICS"; for there is a vast dif- +ference between an association that is entirely voluntary and an organiza- +tion which binds its members by oaths, pledges, etc. Those who have taken +the Obligation as probationers in the Rosicrucian Fellowship know that THAT + + +[PAGE 151] OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + +OBLIGATION IS A PROMISE TO THEMSELVES and not to the Rosicrucian Order. The +same tender regard for the maintenance of the fullest of individual liberty +is in evidence throughout the whole range of the Western Mystery School. WE +HAVE NO MASTERS; they are our FRIENDS and our Teachers, and they never under +any condition demand obedience to any mandate of theirs nor command us to do +this or that. At most, they advise, leaving us free to follow or not. + + I may say here that this policy of not ORGANIZING had already been +adopted in starting the study centers at Columbus, Ohio; Seattle, Washing- +ton; and Los Angeles; but since then I have gone further along this line in +trying to spread the teachings to individuals from a WORLD CENTER rather +than to establish more centers in different cities. In some places bands of +students have desired to unite for study and spiritual elevation. To this +end all assistance has been given them, but as said, I have made no effort +to bring about formation of study centers but leave students to do as they +feel prompted. + + The new work of healing, of which I shall presently speak, necessitated +permanent headquarters. As we are living in a concrete world under material +conditions, it seems to be necessary that headquarters should be incorpo- +rated under the laws of the land in which we live, so that that which be- +longs to the work may remain available for the use of humanity after the +present leaders have been released from life. Thus far we cannot escape + + +[PAGE 152] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +hard and fast conditions of organization at headquarters, but the ASSO- +CIATION AT LARGE MUST REMAIN FREE so that the highest spiritual growth and +the longest life may be attained. It is sad to contemplate, however, that +though such are our intentions, the day must come when the Rosicrucian Fel- +lowship will go the way of all other movements; it will bind itself by laws, +and usurpation of power will cause it to crystallize and disintegrate. But +then we have the consolation that upon its ruins will rise something greater +and better, as it has risen above other structures that have served their +purpose and are now on the way to dissolution. + + After the before mentioned discussion we entered the Temple, where the +twelve Brothers were present. It was arranged differently from what I had +seen it before, but lack of space forbids a detailed description. I shall +only mention three spheres suspended one above the other in the center of +the Temple, the middle sphere being about half way between floor and ceil- +ing; also that it was much larger than the two others, which hung one above +and one below. + + The various modes of vision above the physical are: etheric or X-ray +sight, color vision, which opens up the Desire World, and tonal vision which +discloses the Region of Concrete Thought, as explained very fully in "The +Rosicrucian Mysteries." My development of the latter phase of spiritual +sight had been most indifferent up to the time mentioned, for it is a fact + + +[PAGE 153] OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + +that the more robust our health, the closer we are enmeshed in the physical +and the less able to contact the spiritual realms. People who can say, "I +never had a day's sickness in my life," at the same time reveal the fact +that they are perfectly attuned to the physical world and totally incapable +of contacting the spiritual realm. + + This was nearly my case up to 1905. I had suffered excruciating pain all +my life, the after effects of a surgical operation on the left limb in +childhood. The wound never healed until I changed to a meatless diet. Then +the pain ceased. My endurance during all the previous years was such that +the pain never showed by a line on the face, and in every other respect I +had perfect health. It was noticeable, however, that when blood flowed as +the result of an accidental cut, it would not coagulate, and a great quan- +tity was always lost; whereas after two years on a lean diet the accidental +loss of an entire nail in the morning resulted in the loss of a few drops of +blood only. I was able to use the typewriter the same afternoon. There was +no festering as the new nail grew. + + Upbuilding of the spiritual side of the nature, however, brought dishar- +mony to the physical body. It became more sensitive to conditions around. +The result was a breakdown. This was all the more complete because of the +before mentioned endurance that kept me on my feet for months after I should +have given in, with the result that I came very close to death's door. + + +[PAGE 154] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + As death is the permanent dissolution of the tie between the physical and +spiritual bodies, those who are near death approach the condition existing +when severance is about to take place. Goethe, the great German poet, re- +ceived his first Initiation while his body was prostrated nearly unto death. +I had not progressed so high, but my studies, aspirations, and an exercise +practiced for a long time which I thought then I had devised but which I now +know was carried over from the past, all combined to make it possible for me +during that first sickness to slip out of the body for a short while and +then return. I did not know how I did it, and was unable to do it at will. +A year later I did it again by accident. That, however, is beside the case. +The point I wish to bring out is that the rupture of physically robust +health is necessary before it is possible to attain poise in the spiritual +world, and the stronger and more vigorous the instrument, the more drastic +must be the method of breaking it down. Then come years when there is an +unbalanced fluctuating condition of health, until finally we are able to ad- +just ourselves so as to maintain health in the physical world while we re- +tain the ability to function also in the higher realms. + + thus it has been with me: strenuous work both physical and mental, even +to the present day, has kept the physical instrument in anything but an en- +joyable condition. Friends have cautioned me, and I have tried to heed + + +[PAGE 155] OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + +their warnings, but the work must be done, and until help comes I am forced +to continue regardless of health; and Mrs. Heindel is with me in this as in +all else. Out of this precarious condition, however, has come an increasing +ability to function in the spiritual world. While, as said, at the time of +the experience here related my tonal vision and the ability to function in +the Region of Concrete Thought was indifferent and chiefly confined to the +lowest subdivision thereof, a little assistance from the Brothers that night +enabled me to contact the fourth region, where the archetypes are found, and +to receive there the teaching and understanding of that which is contem- +plated as the highest ideal and mission of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. + + I saw our headquarters and a procession of people coming from all parts +of the world to receive the teaching. I saw them issuing thence to carry +balm to afflicted ones near and far. While here in this world it is neces- +sary to investigate in order to find out about anything, there the voice of +each archetype brings with it as it strikes the spiritual consciousness a +knowledge of what the archetype represents. Thus there came to me that +night an understanding which is far beyond my words to express, for the +world in which we live is based upon the principle of time, but in the high +realm of the archetypes all is an eternal NOW. These archetypes do not tell +their story as this is told, but there is borne in upon one an instant con- + + +[PAGE 156] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +ception of the whole idea, much more luminous than can be given by the +reciter in words. I have not dared to attempt telling it during the time +which has since elapsed, but in the following chapter I shall endeavor to +give you a picture thereof. + + +[PAGE 157] OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + + CHAPTER XXII + + OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + + PART III. + + The Region of Concrete Thought, as you will remember from our other +teachings, is the realm of sound, where the harmony of the spheres, the ce- +lestial music, pervades all that is as the atmosphere of the earth surrounds +and envelops everything terrestrial. Everything there may be said to be +wrapped in and permeated by music. It lives by music and grows by music. +The WORD of God there sounds forth and forms all the various types which +later crystallize into the things we behold in the terrestrial world. + + On the piano five dark keys and seven white constitute the octave. Be- +sides the seven globes upon which we evolve during a Day of Manifestation +there are five dark globes which we traverse during the Cosmic Nights. In +each life cycle the Ego withdraws for a time to the densest of these five, +that is, Chaos, the formless world where nothing remains save the centers of +force known as seed atoms. At the beginning of a new life cycle the Ego de- +scends again into the Region of Concrete Thought, where the "music of the + + +[PAGE 158] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +spheres" at once sets the seed atoms into vibration. + + There are seven spheres, the planets of our solar system. Each has its +own keynote and emits a sound varying from that of every other planet. One +or another among them vibrates in particular synchrony with the seed atom of +the Ego then seeking embodiment. This planet then corresponds to the +"tonic" in the musical scale; and though the tones from all the planets are +necessary to build up an organism completely, each is modified and made to +conform to the basic impact given by the most harmonious planet, which is +therefore the ruler of that life, its Father Star. As in terrestrial music +so also in the celestial there are harmonies and discords, and these all im- +pinge upon the seed atom and aid in building the archetype. Vibratory lines +of force are thus formed, which later attract and arrange physical particles +as spores or sand are marshaled into geometrical figures by bowing a brass +plate with a violin bow. + + Along these archetypal lines of vibration the physical body is later +built, and thus it expresses accurately the harmony of the spheres as it was +played during the period of construction. This period, however, is much +longer than the actual period of gestation, and varies according to the com- +plexity of the structure required by the life seeking physical manifesta- +tion. Nor is the process of construction of the archetype continuous, for +under aspects of the planets which produce notes to which the vibratory + + +[PAGE 159] OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + +powers of the seed atom cannot respond it simply hums over those which it +has already learned, and thus engaged it waits for anew sound which it can +use to build more of the organism which it desires in order to express it- +self. + + Thus, seeing that the terrestrial organism which each of us inhabits is +molded along vibratory lines produced by the song of the spheres, we may re- +alize that the inharmonies which express themselves as disease are produced +in the first place by spiritual inharmony within. It is further evident +that if we can obtain accurate knowledge concerning the direct cause of the +inharmony and remedy it, the physical manifestation of disease will shortly +disappear. It is this information which is given by the horoscope of birth, +for there each planet in its house and sign expresses harmony or discord, +health or disease. Therefore all methods of healing are adequate only in +proportion as they take into consideration the stellar harmonies and dis- +cords expressed in the wheel of life--the horoscope. + + While the laws of nature that govern in the lower realms are all-powerful +under ordinary circumstances, there are higher laws which pertain to the +spiritual realms and which may under certain circumstances be made to super- +sede the former. For instance, the forgiveness of sins upon recognition +thereof and true repentance is made to supersede the law which demands an +eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. When Christ walked upon this earth +and healed the sick, He, being the Lord of the Sun, embodied within Himself + + +[PAGE 160] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +the synthesis of the stellar vibrations as the octave embodies all the tones +of the scale, and He could therefore emit from Himself the true corrective +planetary influence required in each case. He sensed the inharmony and knew +at once wherewith to offset it by virtue of His exalted development. He had +need of no further preparation, but obtained results at once by substituting +harmony for the planetary discord which caused the disease wherewith He was +dealing. Only in one case did He take refuge in the higher law and say, +"Arise, thy sins are forgiven." + + Likewise with the ordinary methods employed in the Rosicrucian System of +Healing, they depend upon a knowledge of the planetary inharmonies which +cause disease and the correcting influence which will remedy the same. his +has sufficed in all the instances which have come under our notice to date. +However, there is a more powerful method available under a higher law which +may accelerate recovery in cases of long standing, and under certain circum- +stances where the sincere and heartfelt recognition of wrong exists may even +obliterate the effects of disease before destiny, cold and hard, would oth- +erwise so decree. + + When we look with spiritual vision upon one who is diseased, whether the +physical body be emaciated or not, it is plainly evident to the seer that +the finer vehicles are much more tenuous than during health. Thus they do +not transmit to the physical body a proper quota of vitality, and as a + + +[PAGE 161] OUR WORK IN THE WORLD + +consequence that instrument becomes more or less disrupted. But whatever +may be the state of emaciation of the rest of the physical body, certain +centers which are tenuous during health in a degree varying with the +spiritual development of the man, become clogged in an increasing degree ac- +cording to the seriousness of the disease. This is particularly true of the +main center between the eyebrows. Therein the spirit is immured, sometimes +to such an extent that it loses touch with the outer world and its progress +and becomes so thoroughly centered upon its own condition that only complete +rupture of the physical body can set it free. This may be a process of long +years, and in the meantime the planetary inharmony which caused the initial +disease may have passed by, but the sufferer is unable to take advantage of +the improved conditions. In such cases a spiritual outpouring of a special +kind is necessary to bring to the soul its message, "Thy sins are forgiven." +When that has been heard, it may respond to the command, "Take up thy bed +and walk." + + None among our present humanity can measure anywhere near the stature of +the Christ, consequently none can exercise His power in such extreme cases; +but the need of that power in active manifestation exists today as much as +it did two thousand years ago. Spirit pervades everything in and upon our +planet, but in a varying measure. It has more affinity for some substances +than for others. Being an emanation from the Christ Principle, it is the + + +[PAGE 162] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +Universal Spirit composing the World of Life Spirit that restores the syn- +thetic harmony of the body. + + A substance was shown to the writer in the Temple of the Rosicrucians on +the memorable night previously mentioned, with which the Universal Spirit +could be combined as readily as great quantities of ammonia combine with wa- +ter. Inside the large central sphere mentioned in a previous lesson was a +smaller container which held a number of packages filled with that sub- +stance. When the Brothers had placed themselves in certain positions, when +the harmony of certain music had prepared the way, suddenly the three globes +commenced to glow with the three primary colors, blue, yellow, and red. To +the vision of the writer it was plain how during the incantation of the for- +mula the container having in it the before mentioned packages became aglow +with a spiritual essence that was not there before. Some of these were +later used by the Brothers with instantaneous success. Before them the +crystallizing particles enveloping the spiritual centers of the patient +scattered like magic, and the sufferer awoke to a recognition of physical +health and well-being. + + + NOTE:--THE FOUR FOLLOWING ARTICLES ARE FROM MANUSCRIPTS BY MAX HEINDEL +WHICH WERE UNPUBLISHED AT THE TIME OF HIS PASSING. THEY LATER APPEARED IN +THE MAGAZINE, "RAYS FROM THE HOLY CROSS," AND ARE HERE REPRODUCED. + + +[PAGE 163] ETERNAL DAMNATION, AND SALVATION + + CHAPTER XXIII + + ETERNAL DAMNATION, AND SALVATION + + As we have at the Fellowship during each week a number of classes in +which the intellectual side of our natures may have sway, the Sunday evening +service, including the address, is intended for the heart side. You know it +is the aim of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood to combine the intellect and the +heart, therefore the Sunday evening addresses should be devoted largely to +bringing out the heart side, the touching of the heart strings. This is +something we greatly need, more even than the development of the intellect. +We are so apt in our present civilization to run along the intellectual line +and seek always for an explanation of our problems that appeals only to the +mind, forgetting that which may appeal to the heart also. Therefore the +speaker will endeavor to lead you rather along a form of meditation in which +the exhortations made may be said to apply more to the heart than to the +head, and which apply to himself as well as to anyone else. + + During the past week the Elder Brother who has been the Teacher of the +speaker for some time, requested that the address of last Sunday be repeated + + +[PAGE 164] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +in another form so that we might take up the phase of our philosophy which +at present demands our greatest attention, namely, that of fitting ourselves +for higher work. If we look at man as he is now, we obtain only a partial +view of him, for man as well as everything else is ever becoming; but unless +we prepare for that becoming we cannot attain. It is therefore necessary +that we continually have our mind's eye directed toward the future in order +to know what is before us; also it is necessary to endeavor to live up to +our ideals, for only as we live up to them can we in time attain to them. + + When we have attained to an ideal, it is no longer an ideal. There was a +time when some of us partook of the flesh of animals. Such food was ob- +tained by a tragedy, a taking of life. Therefore we got the idea we would +like to discontinue that practice, and after awhile we attained to that +ideal and became what are called "vegetarians." Vegetarian food was no +longer an ideal to us, because we had attained to it. So in the spiritual +life there are ideals that are farther and farther ahead, and which we must +always strive to keep for ideals in order that we may in time attain to and +live up to the highest that is within us. + + We will now touch upon the subject known in the churches as "eternal dam- +nation and salvation." This is something we may have thought we could get +away from. We have, no doubt, in years past heard the ministers preaching +of hell; telling people of the necessity of applying themselves at once to + + +[PAGE 165] ETERNAL DAMNATION, AND SALVATION + +the problem of salvation in order that they might not be eternally damned. +Then perhaps in distrust of such a doctrine, perhaps thoroughly infuriated +at the thought that a Creator would create beings in order that he might +afterwards eternally torment the greater number of them, we turned away from +the church to other religions or philosophies. + + Some of us may have turned to Eastern religions that teach the continuity +of life and the process whereby man evolves and eventually becomes a god. +Perhaps while studying these doctrines we obtained the idea of the in- +finitude of time to the extent that we became a reproach to the Western +World, for there are those who think that the infinitude of time makes it +unnecessary for them to apply themselves as we do here. The Western World +has been given the doctrine which teaches "eternal damnation and eternal +salvation," and although we cannot believe it as taught in the orthodox man- +ner, nevertheless these twin doctrines contain a great truth. + + The intelligent understanding of them hinges upon the derivation of the +world "eternal." If we turn to the Greek Bible, we shall find the word +"aionian." Taking a dictionary we find that this word means +"age-lasting--for an indefinite period of time." In the letter of Paul to +Philemon where he speaks of returning the slave Onesimus to him it is said: +"Perhaps it was good that he might be taken from you a little while that he + + +[PAGE 166] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +might go to you FOREVER (aionian)." Neither Onesimus nor Philemon was im- +mortal, so there "aionian" can only mean for a part of a lifetime and not +for eternity; so we see that the latter is not the sense in which we are to +take it. But in what sense are we to take it? + + When we look about us in the world and contemplate the process of evolu- +tion, we may learn that throughout the whole pilgrimage of the spirit from +the clod to the god there is eternal progression; that there are many +stages, and many points at which the spirit rests for a time, then takes a +step forward. We who have studied in our philosophy the various epochs and +the periods that were back of the epochs, remember that it was stated that +the first real separation of people took place in the latter part of the +Lemurian Epoch. There was then what may be called a chosen people; there +has a certain division in the desire bodies of some of the people who dwelt +in that land at that time. Into those in whom the desire body had divided +so that there was some higher desire matter in their make-up, the human +spirit or Ego could enter, and in that way they became man as we know him +today. That was the first race; then gradually there have been other races +started: seven during the Atlantean Epoch and five so far in the Aryan Ep- +och. There will be two more in this Epoch and one in the Sixth Epoch; then +we shall be through with races. + + Now while this process of evolution has been going on and while this vast + + +[PAGE 167] ETERNAL DAMNATION, AND SALVATION + +company of spirits have been continually progressing from stage to stage, +there have been stragglers on the way. Even when we were not yet conscious, +there were some who did not progress with their class, because they were not +as pliable as were the others; therefore they could not take the next step +in evolution. We have not come to the point where the quickest changes take +place, where there is less time between races than ever before. So the El- +der Brothers look upon the sixteen races in a way that justifies calling +them "the sixteen paths to destruction." + + Here we have our lesson. There is a step for each of us from one race to +the next. We came through the races in the Lemurian Epoch; we went through +the seven Atlantean races, then the first of the Aryan races. We have pro- +gressed along with the others; each time we have successfully passed the +point where there was a division made, and have in that manner attained sal- +vation. This is exactly on the same plan that children in school are +brought up from kindergarten to college. Some have to stay behind each +year; they are obliged to remain behind and learn the lessons that they did +not learn the year before; but they are given another chance. So there are +always some Egos lagging behind and some, more diligent than others, who are +at the front. + + This is the question for you and me to answer tonight; are we going to be +among the laggards, or are we going to apply ourselves as we should and as + + +[PAGE 168] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +we can? Having been given this wonderful doctrine, having come to know the +wonderful truth of the continuity of life, are we going to hang back and say +to ourselves: "There is plenty of time. We do not believe in this doctrine +of eternal damnation; we know that all will be saved in time"? There will +be some that will attain before others and some that will lag behind; but +the question is, Are we going to be a help or a hindrance to the race? We +stand today before the people of the Western World as the foremost; we have +the philosophy that explains in a better manner than any other philosophy +the problems of life. Then the question is, Are we going to use it in a +practical manner by applying ourselves to live it--live it in our daily +lives? + + It does not matter what we believe, but only how we live; it is not a +question of faith, but of showing our faith by works. Have we put into our +daily lives our ideals? People about us are looking at us, and they see in +us either an example of what they ought to be or what they ought not to be. +Sunday after Sunday we hear these teachings, we learn the lessons of life, +and we meditate upon the word "service"; but how are we living up to that +ideal? Are we serving in the world? Are we going out into the world to +practice these things, to there live the corresponding life and exemplify +the teachings that have been received here? None of us can say we do it to +the best of our ability; we all of us fall far short. Then comes the + + +[PAGE 169] ETERNAL DAMNATION, AND SALVATION + +question: Is the ideal too high? No, it is not. There is a way whereby we +may live day by day to better and better advantage, which we will now men- +tion. + + Those among you who have not taken up the exercises recommended in our +literature should seriously consider doing so. I most earnestly advise that +you take them up, because whether we who do so notice in ourselves an im- +provement, whether or not it is noticed by others in the world about us, +there is nevertheless an improvement. We cannot day after day review our +thoughts and deeds without individually living a better life and becoming +better men and women. The two Rosicrucian exercises are not difficult and +require but little time; nor are we expected to take the time that should be +allotted to daily labor for our self-improvement. It is as wrong to do this +as to take the bread that should go to others in the family and eat it our- +selves. Every kind of selfishness should be shunned. We should endeavor to +improve ourselves day by day, and thereby become better men and women, thus +enabling us to shed more abundant life upon the Fellowship. + + The probationers who are following the exercises and who are identifying +themselves with the Rosicrucian teachings in this manner will exert a more +helpful and powerful influence than otherwise possible. Therefore I would +urge again--and I would not repeat it were it not by special request--that +as many of you as can take up these exercises and endeavor to live accord- + + +[PAGE 170] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +ingly, for it is only as we take up and live the higher life that we can fit +ourselves for the progression that is to come. + + At the time when the sun passes through a new sign of the zodiac, there +is always given to humanity a new spiritual impulse. That impulse must have +a channel to flow through, and that channel must be ready and able to vi- +brate to the impulse. Unless there are some people ready who can receive +its vibration and give it out, the teaching connected with that spiritual +impulse cannot come. + + We have read how throughout the past nineteen hundred years the second +coming of the Christ has been looked forward to; how some in the time of the +Apostles looked for His coming and thought that He was to establish a +worldly kingdom on earth. As in the past, so down to the present time we +find people looking for His coming--coming as a person. But as Angelus +Silesius says: + + "Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, + And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn. + The Cross on Golgotha thou lookest to in vain, + Unless within thyself it be set up again." + + As a tuning fork that is pitched to a certain vibration will start to +sing when another of the same key is struck, so also will it be with us; + + +[PAGE 171] ETERNAL DAMNATION, AND SALVATION + +when we have been attuned to the vibrations of the Christ, we shall be able +to express the love that He came to teach mankind, and which we are incul- +cating by our service every Sunday evening. Until we live up to that love +and perceive the Christ within, we cannot see the Christ without. + +Therefore let us remember the little poem: + Let us not waste our time in longing + For bright and impossible things; + Let us not sit supinely waiting + For the sprouting of angel wings. + Let us not scorn to be rushlights, + Ev'ry one can't be a star; + But let us brighten the darkness + By shining just where we are. + + +[PAGE 172] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER XXIV + + THE BOW IN THE CLOUD + + I have a few preliminary explanations to make, a few reasons why the sub- +ject of "The Bow in the Cloud" is taken up. I recently dictated the manu- +script for a book which I have since been editing. In the course of the +dictation there came up certain points that required investigation, one of +them being the life force that enters the body through the spleen. Upon in- +vestigating it was seen that this force manifests in different colors, and +that in different kingdoms of life it works differently; therefore much was +to be looked up before making the information public. A friend, upon read- +ing some of the manuscript, sent to his library in Seattle for a book pub- +lished about forty years ago called "Babbitt's Principles of Light and +Color." I referred to this book and found it most interesting, written by a +man who was clairvoyant. After spending an hour studying the book, I turned +to investigation myself, with the result that a great deal of new light was + + +[PAGE 173] THE BOW IN THE CLOUD + +shed upon the subject. And it is a deep and profound subject, for the very +life of God seems to be embodied in these colors. + + Among other things, in tracing back through the Memory of Nature, in re- +gard to light and color I came to a point where there was no light, as has +been shown in the "Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception." Then I followed the dif- +ferent stages of planetary formation and on down to the point where the bow +was seen in the cloud. The whole investigation made such a profound impres- +sion upon me as to fill me with devotion. + + It is stated in the Bible that "God is Light," and nothing can reveal to +us the nature of God in the same degree as that symbol. If a clairvoyant +went back into the far, dim past and looked upon this planet as it was then +formed, he would see at first, as it were, a dark cloud, without form, com- +ing out of chaos. Then he would see this cloud of virgin substance turned +by the Creative Fiat into light--its first visible manifestation, a luminous +fire mist. Then would come a time when moisture gathered around that fire +mist, and later the period spoken of as the Moon Period would arrive. Still +later would come the darker and more dense stage called the Earth Period. + + In the Lemurian Epoch the first incrustation of the earth began when the +seething, boiling water was evaporated. We know that when we boil and +reboil water, it incrusts the kettle; likewise the boiling of the moisture +on the outside of the fiery earth ball formed the hard and crusty shell that + + +[PAGE 174] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +constitutes the surface of the earth. + + The Bible says relative to the next epoch that it did not rain upon the +earth, but a mist went forth from the earth. From the damp earth at that +time there issued a mist that completely surrounded it. Then it was +impossible for us to see the sunlight as we do now; the sun had the appear- +ance of an arc light of the present time on a dark night; it had an aura +around it. In that misty atmosphere we dwelt in the early period of +Atlantis. Later there came a time when the atmosphere cooled more and more +and the moisture was condensed into water, finally driving the Atlanteans +from their land by a flood such as is recorded in the various religions. + + At the time when that misty atmosphere enwrapped the earth, the rainbow +was an impossibility. This phenomenon usually occurs when there is a clear +atmosphere in some places and a cloud in others. There came a time when hu- +manity saw the rainbow for the first time. When I looked upon that scene in +the Memory of Nature, it was most wonderful. There were refugees who were +driven from Atlantis, which is now partly under the Atlantic Ocean; it also +included parts of what are now known as Europe and America. These refugees +were driven eastward till they came at last to a place where the land was +high, where the atmosphere had partially cleared, and where they saw the +clear sky above. Of a sudden there came up a cloud, and from that cloud + + +[PAGE 175] THE BOW IN THE CLOUD + +came lightning. They heard the roll of thunder, and they who had escaped +peril by water and had fled under the guidance of a leader whom they revered +as God, turned to Him to ask, "What have we come to now? Shall we be de- +stroyed at last?" He pointed to the rainbow that stood in the cloud and +said: "No, for so long as that bow stands in the cloud, so long shall the +seasons come one after another in unbroken succession"; and the people with +great admiration and relief looked upon that bow of promise. + + When we consider the bow as one of the manifestations of Deity, we may +learn some wonderful lessons of devotion, for while we look upon the light- +ning with awe and hear the thunder with fear, the rainbow in the sky must +always provoke in the human heart an admiration for the beauty of its seven- +fold path of color. There is nothing to compare with that wonderful bow, +and I wish to call your attention to a few physical facts concerning it. + + In the first place the rainbow never appears at noon; it is always after +the sun has passed downward and has traversed more than half the distance +from the meridian to the horizon that the rainbow appears, and the closer +the sun is to the horizon, the larger, clearer, and more beautiful it is. +It never appears in a clear sky. It usually has for its background the dark +and dreary cloud, and it is always seen when we turn our face from the sun. +We cannot look towards the sun and at the same time see a rainbow. + + +[PAGE 176] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +When we look upon the bow from below, it appears as a half circle above the +earth and us. But the higher we get, the more of the circle we see, and in +the mountains, when we reach a sufficient height above the rainbow, we see +it as a sevenfold circle--sevenfold like the Deity of whom it is a manifes- +tation. + + Now with these physical facts before us, let us go into the mystic inter- +pretation of the subject. In ordinary life when we are at the height of our +physical activity, when prosperity is the greatest, when everything looks +bright and clear to us, then we do not need the manifestation of the divine +light and life. We do not need that covenant, as it were, that God made +with man upon his entry into the Aryan Epoch. We do not care about the +higher life; our bark is sailing upon summer seas, and we care for nothing +else; everything is so good to us here that there seems no reason why we +should look beyond. + + But suddenly there comes the tempest, a time in every life when sorrows +and troubles come upon us. The storm of disaster tears away from us every +physical foundation, and we stand, perhaps, alone in the world in sorrow. +Then when we look away from the sun of physical prosperity, when we look to +the higher life, we shall always see upon the dark cloud of disaster the bow +that stands as the covenant between God and man, showing that we are always +able to contact the higher life. It may not be best for us then to do so, + + +[PAGE 177] THE BOW IN THE CLOUD + +for we all need a certain material evolution, which is best accomplished +when we do not contact too closely the higher life. But in order to evolve +and progress and gradually seek a higher and higher state of spirituality, +there must in time come to us troubles and trials which will bring us into +contact with the higher life. When we can look upon trial and tribulation +as a means to that end, then sorrows become the greatest blessings that can +come to us. When we feel no hunger, what do we care about food? But when +we feel the pangs of starvation and are seated before a meal, no matter how +coarse the fare, we feel very thankful for it. + + If we sleep every night of our lives and sleep well, we do not appreciate +what a blessing it is. But when we have been kept awake night after night +and have craved sleep, then when it comes with its corresponding rest, we +realize its great value. When we are in health and feel no pain or disease +in our bodies, we are prone to forget that there ever was such a thing as +pain. But just after recovering from an illness or after we have suffered +much, we realize what a great blessing health is. + + So in the contrast between the rays of the sun and the darkness of the +cloud, we see in the latter the bow that beckons us on to a higher life; and +if we will only look up to that, we shall be much better off than if we con- +tinue in the paths of the lower life. + + Many of us are prone to worry over little things. This reminds + + +[PAGE 178] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +me of a story recently printed in one of our papers of a little +boy who had climbed a ladder. He had been looking up as he was climbing, +and had gone so far up that a fall would have meant death. Then he stopped +and looked down, instantly becoming dizzy. When we look down from a height, +we become dizzy and afraid. But some one above called to him and said: +"Look up, little boy. Climb up here, and I will help you." He looked up, +and at once the dizziness and fear left him; then he climbed up until taken +in at a window. + + Let us look up and endeavor to forget the little worries of life, for the +bow of HOPE is always in the cloud. As we endeavor to live the higher life +and climb the sublime heights toward GOD, the more we shall find the bow of +peace becoming a circle and that there is peace here below as well as there +above. It is our duty to accomplish the work we have to do in the world, +and we should never shrink from that duty. Still we have a duty to the +higher life, and it is in the interests of the latter that we gather to- +gether on Sunday night and by massing our aspirations advance toward the +spiritual heights. + + We should remember that we each have within a latent spiritual power that +is greater than any worldly power, and as it is unfolding, we are respon- +sible for its use. To increase that power we should endeavor to devote part +of our leisure time to the cultivation of the higher life, so that when the + + +[PAGE 179] THE BOW IN THE CLOUD + +cloud of disaster comes upon us, we shall by the aid of that power find the +bow within the cloud. As the bow is seen at the end of the storm, so when +we have gained the power to see the bright rainbow in our cloud of disaster, +the end of that disaster has come, and the bright side begins to appear. +The greater the disaster, the greater the needed lesson. When on the path +of wrong doing we sooner or later are kindly but firmly whipped into line by +the realities of life, and forced to recognize that the path of truth is up- +ward and not downward and that God rules the world. + + +[PAGE 180] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER XXV + + THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE + + At the time in the far, dim past when we began our lives as human beings +we had had very little experience, and consequently we had very little re- +sponsibility. Responsibility depends upon knowledge. The animals, we find, +are not amenable to the law of causation from the moral standpoint, although +of course, if an animal jumps out of a window, it is amenable to the law of +physical causation, inasmuch as when it falls upon the ground beneath, it +may possibly break a limb or cause itself some injury. If a man should do +the same thing, he would be amenable to the law of responsibility in addi- +tion to the law of cause and effect. There is for him a moral responsibil- +ity, for he knows better, and he has no right to injure the instrument that +has been given him. So we see that we are morally responsible according to +our knowledge. + + As we have gone through the experiences of many lives, more and more + + +[PAGE 181] THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE + +faculties have become ours, and we are born each time with the accumulated +talents which are the results of the experiences of those lives. We are re- +sponsible, therefore, for the way we use them. It is necessary that we +should put these talents to use in life, for unless we do, they will atrophy +just as surely as will the hand that is not used and that hangs limp and +idle by the side. Just as surely as that hand atrophies, so surely will our +spiritual faculties atrophy unless we put them to usury and gain more. +There can be no resting, no halting on this path of evolution which we are +treading; we must either go forward or else degenerate. + + There is, then, evidently much responsibility attached to knowledge. The +more knowledge we have, the more responsibility we have--that is very plain. +But looking at it from the still deeper viewpoint of the occult scientist, +there is a responsibility attached to knowledge which is not ordinarily per- +ceived by humanity, and it is this particular phase of responsibility that +we wish to discuss here. + + Mabel Collins avers that the story in her book called "THE BLOSSOM AND +THE FRUIT, OR THE STORY OF FLETA, A BLACK MAGICIAN," is a true story. She +states that the material for this story was brought from a far distant coun- +try in a very strange manner, and that from the standpoint of one who knows, +there are in it some of the very deepest truths pertaining to the gaining of +knowledge and its use. We are told there how Fleta in the beginning of her + + +[PAGE 182] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +embodiments, while still in the savage state, murdered her lover, and that +from that murder, through the cruelty involved in it, she obtained a certain +power. That power, naturally, according to the deed, went in the direction +of black magic. Therefore in the life with which the story deals, she pos- +sessed the power of a black magician. She forced her lover to kill an +entity in order that she might gain new power. It was in this black manner +that she utilized her knowledge. + + There is a very deep truth here. All knowledge that is not saturated +with life is empty, purposeless, and useless. The life that gives power to +knowledge may be obtained in various ways, and may also be put to use in +various ways. Once it has been obtained, it may be stored in a talisman, +and then used by others for a good or for an evil purpose according to the +character of the one who uses it. If it is stored within the one who devel- +ops the power himself, then it will be used according to the character of +that man or woman. This is on the same principle that we may store up elec- +tricity in a battery, so that it may be taken away from the electric station +and used for a variety of purposes by others than the one who stored it. +So, also, the dynamic power that comes through the sacrifice of life for the +purpose of gaining occult power, may be used in one way or the other if +stored in a talisman. + + We see this great fact in life particularly illustrated in the legend of + + +[PAGE 183] THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE + +Parsifal. In this beautiful legend, the cleansing blood of the Savior, +given in noble self-sacrifice--not taken from another--was received in a +vessel which then became a talisman, and was capable of giving spiritual +power to many who looked upon it if they were pure, chaste, and harmless. +We have also the symbol of the spear which was the cause of the wound from +which the blood flowed. This was stained with the cleansing blood, which +made it a talisman that could be variously used. during the reign of +Titurel the Grail mystery was powerful; but when th Grail was given over to +Amfortas, son of Titurel, he went out armed with the holy spear to slay +Klingsor. He then ceased to be harmless; he wanted to pervert that great +spiritual power and use it to slay an enemy. Even though it was an enemy of +the good, it was not right to use that power for that purpose, and therefore +the power turned against him. He had ceased to be chaste, pure, and harm- +less, and then the power gave him the wound that would never heal. So it is +also in other cases. + + We read of David the bloody man of war, who was forbidden by the Lord to +build the Temple. Even though that Lord was a god of war, having had to +punish nations in order to bring them into the right, He could not use the +instrument which had been soiled by the blood of His wars for the purpose of +building a temple. That had to be left to David's son, Solomon, the man of +peace. We are told how Solomon desired wisdom, great knowledge, not in + + +[PAGE 184] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +order that he might gain the victory over his enemies, not in order that he +might increase his territory and make his people a great nation, but in or- +der that he might better rule the people who had been placed under his care; +and knowledge was given to him abundantly. + + We also learn how Parsifal, the antithesis of Amfortas, was the offspring +of a man of war, a bloody man, who died. Through herzleide, heart afflic- +tion, the posthumous child Parsifal came into the world. In the first part +of his career he used the bow, but at a certain stage he broke it, became +chaste, pure, and harmless, and by the power of these qualities stood firm +in the day of temptation, and wrested the spear from Klingsor, who had had +it since the day when Amfortas lost it. Parsifal, in his wanderings between +the time when he received the speak and the time when he returned to the +Grail Castle, was beset by many temptations and much sorrow, trouble, and +tribulation. Men had sought his life, and many times he realized that he +might have saved himself by the use of the holy spear if he would have +turned it against his enemies. But he knew that the spear was to be used +not for hurt but for healing; he realized the sacredness of the power which +the sacrificial blood had given to the talisman, and that it must only be +used for the very highest purpose. + + So we find everywhere that those who come into possession of spiritual + + +[PAGE 185] THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE + +power will never make use of it for any selfish purpose. No matter what +trouble comes to them, they stand firm on that point. No matter how hard +they may be beset, they never for a moment think of prostituting their power +for selfish gain. Though such a one, if he likes, may feed five thousand +who are hungry and way from their source of supply, he will not take even +one little stone and turn it to bread to appease his own hunger. Although +he may stand before his enemies and heal them, as the Christ healed the ear +of the Roman soldier, he will refuse to use spiritual power to staunch the +blood that flows from his own side. It has always been said of such men +that "others they saved, themselves they would not save." They could always +have done so, for the power is great. But if they had so used it, they +would have lost it; they had no right to thus prostitute their power. + + Then there is a different kind of mystery from that of the Grail. For +instance, John the Baptist's head was placed upon a platter after he had +been sacrificed, and others derived a certain power by looking upon that +spectacle. The Greek myth tells us of Argus, who had so many eyes that he +could see everywhere--he was clairvoyant. But he used his power for a wrong +purpose, and Mercury, the god of wisdom, cut off his head, and took away the +power. Every time that a man seeks to use spiritual knowledge and power in +a wrong way, he will lose them; they cannot remain his. + + +[PAGE 186] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + Even when we look at knowledge from a scientific standpoint, we realize +that it takes life, for every thought which we think breaks down tissue in +our brain, which is built of little cells. Every cell has its own indi- +vidual cell life, and that life is destroyed by thinking, or rather, the +form is destroyed so that the life can no longer manifest in it. There is +always the taking of life in whatever direction we go after knowledge. +There are those who take life in scientific experiments out of pure curios- +ity. There are those who are cruel in the taking of life, as in vivisec- +tion, and here, when the quest of knowledge is pursued solely from the mo- +tive of curiosity, there is a dreadful debt laid up against a future day, +for the equilibrium will surely be restored. + + So we find it in the case of Fleta, that the sacrifice of life at one +time in the physical world was followed by sacrifice in another world; but +through it she gained a power that brought her even to the very temple +doors, where she stood and demanded Initiation. Her motives, however, like +those of Klingsor, were not pure. She was not chaste, not fitted to have +spiritual power in its full measure and to be counted as one of the helpers +of humanity; therefore she was banished from the door of the temple, and +died the death of the black magician. A veil hangs before that death, and +we are not told what is behind it. Those things are perhaps better left un- +told. But the lesson is just as valid, that we cannot take life nor in a +wrongful way amass knowledge without incurring a dreadful liability thereby. + + +[PAGE 187] THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE + +The only reason which is satisfactory and proper for the quest of knowledge +is that we may thereby serve and help the race in a more efficient way. + + At the present time the sacrifice of life in obtaining knowledge is un- +avoidable; we cannot help it. But we should seek that knowledge with the +purest and the bet of motives, for the life that we destroy is legion. The +occultist, who sees the life that is coming to birth, the elemental life +which is seeking embodiment and which is deprived of its forms by the pro- +cess of obtaining knowledge, is amazed sometimes at the vast loss of the +separate life that is thus sacrificed, and sacrificed to no good purpose. +Therefore we reiterate that no one has the right to seek knowledge unless +with the purest and the best of motives. + + If, on the other hand, we walk the path of duty, if we seek to do those +things well and thoroughly which come to our hands, and if we have spiritual +aspirations without aiming to force spiritual growth, then we shall be com- +paratively easily fitted for having higher powers. It is a beautiful fea- +ture of the Rosicrucian exercises that they not only give us spiritual +knowledge, but they fit us for having that knowledge. We must learn to walk +the path of duty, to live the good life. Never mind a long life; so many +people, as Thomas a Kempis says, are concerned with living a long life. But +never mind this. Rather, let us strive each day to do our duty; then we + + +[PAGE 188] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +shall surely be fit to have the higher knowledge that goes with exalted pow- +ers. + + + No matter what our sphere, there is always a place where we may make use +of our knowledge, not to preach sermons, not to talk to people from morning +till night about the things we know that they may admire our knowledge, but +that we may live the spiritual life among them, that we may stand to them as +living examples of our teachings. There is for everyone of us this +opportunity. We need no look very far for it; it is right here. + + Thomas a Kempis has expressed this in a manner which only a mystic can +do. He has given the idea in such beautiful words that it would pay us well +to read and ponder a few of them in his "Imitation of Christ." He says: + + "Every man naturally desireth to know, but what does knowledge avail +without the fear of God. Surely, an humble husbandman that serveth God is +better than a proud philosopher who studies the course of the heavens, and +neglecteth himself.....The more thou knowest, the heavier will be thy judg- +ment unless thy life be also the more holy. Be, therefore, not puffed up, +but rather fear for the knowledge that is given thee. If it seem to thee +that thou knowest much, remember that there are many things which thou + + +[PAGE 189] THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE + +knowest not. Thou knowest not how long thou mayest prosper in well doing." + + Therefore let us remember that we should not seek after knowledge simply +for the sake of knowledge, but only as a means to the living of a better and +a purer life, for that alone justifies it. + + +[PAGE 190] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + CHAPTER XXVI + + THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS + + + Our subject is taken from the Bible story of "The Temple in the Wilder- +ness," and we shall endeavor to interpret it from the standpoint of the +Rosicrucian teachings. It may seem to those who have not studied these +teachings that one interpretation is as valid and as worthy of belief as an- +other, but further consideration of the subject may give a somewhat differ- +ent opinion. Peter, in his second Epistle, first chapter and 20th verse +says: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scriptures is of any +private interpretation." In our daily life we understand that if our opin- +ion on any subject is to be considered valuable, that opinion must be based +upon a certain amount of knowledge of the subject. The testimony of wit- +nesses in a court is based upon this principle. If a person well qualified +by study or experience expresses an opinion upon a subject, he is listened +to with respect and receives due consideration. It should be the same with +one interpreting the Scriptures. + + +[PAGE 191] THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS + + You will notice that Peter says that the Scriptures are not of private +interpretation. The Roman Catholics have held during many centuries (and +have been censured for so maintaining) that they are an authority on inter- +pretation of the Scriptures. There is some foundation for this position, +for every Pope who has ever been at the head of the Vatican, with one excep- +tion, has had his spiritual sight unfolded. + + It is not claimed that the Popes have wielded their power wisely, but +nevertheless they have not been blind leaders of the blind. It is such a +claim that Peter makes for himself. He says, "We have not followed cun- +ningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of +our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty." (II Peter, +1:16) "Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?" says Paul in the 9th chapter +of First Corinthians, first verse. + + There is thus a foundation for their writings and their teaching, and +this foundation is that they have seen and heard. We might go further and +show that those who were associated with the Christ when He was upon earth +had spiritual sight. They had been taken upon the Mount of Initiation, +there they saw Moses and Elijah, who had both long since passed out and were +no longer in the physical world. They beheld them, and saw and heard things +whereof they might not speak. Therefore by the unfoldment of the sixth or +spiritual sense they had a foundation for their teaching. They were capable + + +[PAGE 192] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +of interpreting the teaching given them, the proof of which they had seen. + + In the Rosicrucian Fellowship we do not believe that the power of +spiritual sight is given only to the few but that it is a faculty to be +acquired by every human being in the course of his or her spiritual +unfoldment. Some day we shall all acquire spiritual sight, and then we +shall know that the things previously stated are true. There are some among +us who have unfolded spiritual sight, and have by that unfoldment acquired +the ability to see beyond the veil, to read from the Memory of Nature, and +to find reflected therein from a higher world the causes that produced our +present civilization. Some can also see into the future, and thus know of +the future work of evolution. The Scriptures have not been taken up by the +writer and interpreted according to his personal understanding, but this in- +formation is the result of an understanding obtained by means of spiritual +vision. + + In the first place let it be understood, as previously said in speaking +of the Christian mysteries, that the four Gospels are not merely accounts of +the life of a single individual, written by four different people, but that +they are symbolical of different Initiations. Paul says, "Until Christ be +formed in you." Everyone will some day go through the four stages that are +depicted in the four Gospels, for everyone is unfolding the Christ spirit +within himself. And in saying this of the four Gospels, we may also apply +the same assertion to a great part of the Old Testament, for it is a + + +[PAGE 193] THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS + + +wonderful book of occultism. When we hoe potatoes, we do not expect to find +only potatoes and no earth; neither should we expect to dig into the book we +call the Bible and find every word an occult truth, for as there must be +soil between the potatoes, so must there be dross between occult truths in +the Bible. + + The four Gospels were written in a manner such that only those who have +the right to know can unveil what is meant and understand the underlying +facts. So likewise in the Old Testament we find great occult truths that +become very plain when we can look behind the veil that blinds most of us. +Many for the present must forego occult sight in order to master the condi- +tions of material evolution and thereby perfect themselves for the pursuits +of the material world. But we of the Western world are now on the occult +arc; we are on the shore of the spiritual sea, where we individually shall +gather the pearls of knowledge that have been hidden by the matter that has +blinded us. + + We will now discuss a form of Initiation depicted in a part of the Bible, +describing the journey of man from the clod to God. When we enter into the +collection of writings which we call the Bible, we find that it begins with +five books which are commonly called the five Books of Moses. These tell of +the journey of a so-called "chosen people" from Egypt to a promised land, +and how they passed through the water called the Red Sea, guided in a manner +called supernatural; after many, many years and after many of those who + + +[PAGE 194] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +first set out upon that journey had perished, they finally reached the land +that was promised. And yet Paul in his letter to the Hebrews speaks of that +covenant as having been unable of fulfillment, for that which should have +been accomplished failed. This is a fact. When we make a law, there is +also a means for transgressing that law; therefore it is impossible for law +to save. + + There was a time when humanity was in such a state that it was impossible +to guide them at all without law--law telling them in all cases what they +must do and what they must not do. Therefore it was the mission of their +leader to give them such laws, and these were embodied in the five Books of +Moses. Historically the Israelites were a people who traveled not from +Egypt to Palestine, but who were taken by their leaders from doomed +Atlantis, where the condensing moisture in the atmosphere caused floods that +rendered the land uninhabitable, into the central part of Asia. This com- +pany of men and women had been selected as a nucleus for a chosen race, and +they have since become what is known as the Aryan race. While this may be a +historical interpretation, still there is within this story a great +spiritual lesson, particularly in that part of the story which we are con- +sidering. + + In the COSMO-CONCEPTION is given an illustration of two men standing on a +street corner; one knocks the other down. An observer might say that an + + +[PAGE 195] THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS + +angry thought knocked the man down. Another would contradict that statement +and say that he saw the arm lifted and a blow landed upon the man's face, +causing him to fall to the ground. The latter version is true, but there +was a thought also; the arm was but an irresponsible instrument. It is +thought that moves everything, and when we look upon the hidden or occult +side of effects, we get a far deeper understanding of causes. It is from +this viewpoint that we shall speak of the Temple in the Wilderness. + + In our Bible there is a description of the first people upon earth. They +are called Adam and Eve; but properly interpreted this means the human race, +which gradually arrogated to itself the power of procreation and thereby be- +came free agents. Humanity was thus given its freedom and made responsible +to the law of Consequence, for it had arrogated to itself the power to cre- +ate new bodies, and was then separated from th Tree of life and the state +which we are now cognizant of as etheric. When we learn that we have a vi- +tal body made of ether, and that it is the tree of life to everyone of us +and furnishes us the vitality whereby we are enabled to make the movements +of the body, we may understand why the power to recreate and regenerate our- +selves was taken away from us lest we learn how to vitalize the imperfect +dense body; and we also see why as stated in the Bible, there were placed at +the gate of the Garden of Eden Cherubim with flaming swords to guard that +region. + + +[PAGE 196] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + + This story is told in the beginning of the Bible, but in the end of the +book, in Revelation, we are told about a city where there is peace among the +people. Two cities are mentioned in the Bible; one, Babylon, a city of sor- +row and tribulation, where confusion started, where humanity first became +estranged, one from another, where brotherhood ceased; also another city, a +new one, a New Jerusalem, is described where there will be peace. We are +further told in Revelation that in this New Jerusalem is the Tree of life, +symbolizing the power to regenerate ourselves, whereby we shall regain that +health and beauty that we at present lack. + + It was for a good purpose that this power was taken away. It was not +through malice in order that man should suffer in sorrow and pain, but be- +cause it was only by repeated existences in an inferior body that we could +learn to build for ourselves such a vehicle as would be fit to immortalize. +Man gradually came down from the etheric state as easily then as he can to- +day dwell in the present three elements of the physical world. In the past +etheric state he contacted internally the life currents that we now contact +unconsciously. He was then able to center the energy of the sun in his body +and draw it in a manner different from that at present used. This power was +gradually taken away from him as he entered the more solid state of the +present. + + Then began the journey through the wilderness, a wilderness of space and + + +[PAGE 197] THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS + +of matter; and we shall continue to so journey until we reenter the etheric +realm consciously--that realm called the New Heaven and the New Earth, where +righteousness will dwell and where there will be no more sin. At the +present time we are still traveling through the wilderness of space, as we +shall see if we study the Bible understandingly. Not the English version, +however, as that was prepared by translators who were hampered by an edict +of King James instructing them not to translate anything that would in any +manner interfere with the existing belief of that time. + + The first thing that we learn from the occult point of view about the +temple that was built in the wilderness is that Moses was called into the +mountain and there shown certain patterns. You will remember we have been +told in the COSMO-CONCEPTION that in the heaven world there are pattern +pictures--archetypes. We find in the Greek language the word "APXN" meaning +"in the beginning," that is, the commencement. The Christ says of Himself, +or rather the Initiate who understands his divinity says: "I am the begin- +ning (APXN) and the end." There is in that word "beginning" (APXN) the +nucleus for everything we have here. + + In the temple there was placed an ark, and the ark was arranged in such a +manner that the staves could not or should not be taken out of it; during +the whole journey through the wilderness those staves must remain there. +They were never removed until the ark was taken into the temple of Solomon. + + +[PAGE 198] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +We see here a state where a certain symbol, an archetype, something that +comes from the beginning, is made in such a manner that it can be taken up +at any time and carried further on. In that ark was the nucleus around +which everything in the temple centered. There was the magical rod of +Aaron, and there was the pot of manna; also the two tablets of the law. + + We have here described a perfect symbol of what man really is, for all +the while he is going through this vale of matter and is traveling con- +tinually from one place to another, the staves are never under any condition +removed. They are not removed until he comes to that state symbolized in +Revelation where it is said, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in +the temple of my God; and he shall go no more out." + + During all the time that has intervened from the moment when man com- +menced his passage through matter, he has had that spirit of peregrination. +He does not remain stationary. Every so often the temple was taken up, an +the ark was carried farther on to a new place. So also is man taken from +place to place from environment to environment, from condition to condition. +It is not an aimless journey, for it has for its goal that promised land, +the New Jerusalem, where there shall be peace. But while man is on this +journey he must know that there will be no rest and no peace. + + This is the result of the law which man has transgressed in a certain +sense. It was not designed at the beginning that we should go through such + + +[PAGE 199] THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS + +an evolution as this, such a vale of sorrow and tears as we have been and +are passing through. We are told that the creative force that was latent +within and that we are just beginning to use constructively was first used +by us under the direction of the angels, who took care that procreation was +carried on at times when the planetary conditions were favorable. Then par- +turition was painless. Everything was good on the earth. The Lord had made +everything so that it was good. But there came a time when the Lucifer +spirits, whom we recognize as the stragglers from the angel evolution, had +to have a brain in order that they might function in the physical world. +Therefore they showed us how we might use our creative force in a manner in- +dependent of the guidance of the angels, so that when a body was cast off in +death, as it had to be when it became useless, it would be possible for the +human being to create another body. + + So we have these two classes working in different parts of the body: the +Lucifer spirits, that have since worked on us through the spinal cord and +the brain; and the angels who have charge of the propagative faculty in so +far as it does not interfere with our own action. Here, at this point, is +where free will and choice come in and also the Law of Consequence. The +animals are not responsible in the way we are; if an animal jumps from a +height, it hurts itself in a physical manner, but there the responsibility +ends; while if we should do the same thing, we should incur similar physical + + +[PAGE 200] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +results and in addition a moral responsibility, for we know better than to +injure the physical vehicle unnecessarily. Thus the Law of Consequence at- +taches to every act of a human being when free will is attained. + + Whatever we do that is wrong has in some way to be brought to our notice. +Sorrow and pain have been the taskmasters who have guided us aright, and in +order that we might in time know how to do right, the Law of Consequence was +given. In the ark, which symbolized the human being, there were placed the +tablets of the law, and there was also placed the pot of manna. The word +"manna" signifies not bread that came from heaven but the thinker, the Ego, +which descended from the higher spheres. In almost every language we have +the word "man." In Sanskrit, German, Scandinavian, etc., the root is the +same. In the ark is the thinker, and he is being carried about in the +temple in the wilderness during the present stage of his evolution. + + There is in us also the spiritual power symbolized by the rod of Aaron. +Aaron's rod, we remember, was one that budded when all others remained bar- +ren. There is in each one of us a spiritual power that has become latent +during the time we have been going through the pilgrimage of matter, and it +is for us to awaken this power. We have spoken a number of times about this +spiritual power--how the use of it brings blessings into the world when used + + +[PAGE 201] THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS + +as Parsifal used it, and how when misused, as did Amfortas, it brings sor- +row. + + This spiritual power is latent at the present time because humanity, sym- +bolized by the traveling ark, has not fitted itself to receive it. We are +too selfish, and we must cultivate unselfishness before we shall be trusted +to wield this wonderful power. Peter is very emphatic in regard to the +teachers who may come among us, when he speaks of false teachers and says +they will make merchandise of us. Such are they who have lessons in this, +that, and the other kind of spiritual science to sell, more than likely in +astrology, at perhaps five dollars per lesson. They have these things to +give us for the coin of the realm, but we must remember that it is not money +but merit that counts in spiritual attainment every time, and it is impos- +sible to initiate a man into higher spiritual powers for a few dollars or +any material consideration. Just as it is necessary to load the pistol be- +fore pulling the trigger will cause the explosion, so also is it necessary +that we have stored up within ourselves the force, the spiritual power sym- +bolized by Aaron's rod, before we can have that power turned to its proper +and legitimate use. And this is one of the great lessons in the story of +the ark. + + If we continue to travel and travel, take rebirth after rebirth, and do +not at some time learn to obey the voice of God, hold His commandments holy, +and live the good life, we cannot expect to reach the City of Peace, but + + +[PAGE 202] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +must be content to remain in the land of sorrow and suffering. + + How then are we to unfold our spiritual power? What is the way, the +truth, and the life? We have had the threefold path shown us in the glori- +ous teaching of the Christ. Ordinary humanity all over the world are being +worked upon by law, which works upon the desire body and holds it in check. +The thinker is pitted against the flesh. But under law no one can be saved. +We also have the vital body spoken of in our teaching. This is the vehicle, +as Paul has said, of love and attraction. If we can overcome the passionate +side of our nature, if we can get away from the lower vibrations of love, if +we can cultivate within ourselves purity, and if we can withstand temptation +as did Parsifal and live the pure life, then every day we cultivate within +ourselves a power. This power is the power of love, which will express +itself in our lives in service, and gradually it will accumulate to such an +extent that it will be like the powder in the loaded pistol. Then the +Teacher will come to us and show us how to liberate the power we have stored +up within our being. + + It depends upon ourselves how long we shall travel in the wilderness. +Everyone of us has the power latent within that will bring him or her into +the City of Peace, a place apart from sorrow and suffering. Everyone of us +can and must make the start sometime, and the first step is purification, + + +[PAGE 203] THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS + +for without the pure life there can be no spiritual advancement. "Ye cannot +serve God and mammon," it is said. But mammon is usually interpreted to +mean the gold of the world. Yet a man may remain in his business and take +care of it for the good of all, not for his own selfish greed and interest, +doing everything possible for others, and not be serving mammon no matter +how much he may be accumulating. A person may love only a few around him, +but there is a higher love that flows out to others not in his own circle +which must be observed. Every duty must be fulfilled that we may thereby +take advantage of the higher opportunities that are ever opening up before +us. + + And so we must all learn our lessons in service: service to humanity, +service to animals, service to our younger brothers, service everywhere. +This alone will bring us out of the "wilderness." It is said that those who +were highest in the temple were those who served; and the Christ said, "He +who would be the greatest among you, let him be the servant of all." Let us +all strive to render this service. It is easy to do if we will. Then some +day in the not far distant future we shall hear that gentle voice, the voice +of the Teacher, which comes to everyone who serves and who listens to the +voice of God. + + + +[PAGE 205] INDEX + + INDEX + +Adam and Eve,--human race 195. +Air pressure, normal, holds vital body within dense vehicle 9. +Alcohol introduced as food, purpose of 73. +Allegorical story regarding "Light" 27. +Aquarian Age, conditions of 57. + new conditions of 59. + preparation for 80. +Aquarius, sign of coming age 55. +Archetype, what and where 197-198, how built 158-160. +Aries, herald of Aryan Age 54. +Ark, what is was 197, 200. +Art, purpose of 14. +Aryan race, origin of 194. +ascension of Christ 98. +Aspirant to soul growth, what is required of 119. +Atlantean airships, power used in 77. +Atlantis, chosen people led out of 194. + conditions of life in early 137, 138. + floods of 75. + pressure of atmosphere in 12, 13. + refugees driven from 174. + spiritual perception lost in 83. +Atrophy, of spiritual faculties 181. +Aura, a "house from heaven" 21. + +Babylon, city of sorrow 196. +Baptism, as a sacrament 48. +Bible, a book of occultism 193. +Black Magician, fate of 49. + true story of, by Mabel Collins, 181, 186. + true story contrasted with stories of Parsifal and Solomon, 183, 185. +Black Magic, used by the soulless 52. + what it is 182. +Building the temple 35, 36. + +Carthage, inhabitants of, reborn in Prussia 68-70. +Chaos, Ego withdrawals to 157. +Cherubim, guarding Eden with flaming sword 195. +"Chosen people," led from Egypt 193. + one meaning of 166. +Christ, an embodiment of Wisdom Principle 132. + + +[PAGE 206] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +Christ, His coming 14. + how we shall know Him at His coming 15. + our great spiritual leader 124. + Transfiguration of 14. + vibrations of love 171. +Christ Jesus 14, 16, 31, 36. +Christ ray, the fall of 98. +Christian mystic's deep view of Easter 103. +Churches, turning from, caused by 165. +Civilization, a thin veneer 81. + built by vibrations of vital body 13. +Cosmic Christ, in cramped earthly conditions 104. +Cosmic Christ life 106. +Cosmic love culminates at Christmas 97. +Cosmic symbols, none more common than the egg 104. +Communion is a sacrament 48. +Consciousness, how generated 73. +Creative function, abuse of 48. +Creative instinct in man 41, 42. +Cyclic journey, similar to that of Cosmic Christ life 106. + +Damnation and salvation, what they are 164-171. + +Death a cosmic necessity 107. + caused by ethers leaving 10-12. + of a black magician 186. + of the soul 47, 49. + only a transition 78. +Dense body, only body possessed in Polarian Epoch 82. +Desire body, added in Lemurian Epoch 82. +Desire world, disturbed by war 88. + post-mortem condition of spiritual aspirant in 119, 121. +Destiny, how woven 66-68. +Destruction, the sixteen paths to 167. +Diet, carnivorous, fosters ferocity 85. + vegetarian, fosters docility 85. +Discrimination, the necessity for 37. +Disease, a manifestation of ignorance 131. + planets as factors in 131, 160. + +Early Rosicrucians solve problem of self-unfoldment 116. +Earth Period, nature of 173. +Eastern religions, teaching of 165. +Elder Brothers, "drive out money changers" 128. + gave us teachings 63. + + +[PAGE 207] INDEX + + organize Invisible Helpers 88. + originated a scientific method of soul development 112. + students of human evolution 177. +Electric atmosphere, effect of 57, 58. +Emerson, on prayer 31. +Epochs of man's evolution 82. +Eternal (aionian), meaning of 165. +Ether carries pictures of every object 113. + is vehicle of the light rays 113. + scientific conception of 113. +Etheric body, escapes from the physical while falling 7-15. +Etheric vision, scope and limitations of 59, 60. +Ethers leave body, conditions when 10, 11. + cause of shell shock 11, 12 + death caused by shell shock 11. +Evolution, new methods employed 75. +Exercises, Rosicrucian, counteracting effects of shell shock 12. + practice of, renders neophyte free in purgatory 118-120. +Extreme unction, a sacrament 48. +Extended vision, how obtained 58. + +Falling great distances, effect of Chap. I. 7-15. +Father Star, planet most harmonious to Ego 158. +Fire mist, from virgin substance 173. +Food, flesh, fosters ferocity 85. + in its relation to man's nature 81. +Forgiveness 159. +Free will and propagation 199. + +Galileo, right when "world" was wrong 180. +"Golden Wedding Garment," how woven 65. +Gospel of Gladness 89. + Pollyanna 89-94. + Pollyanna, fiction, but illustrates cosmic law 94, 95. +Gospels, symbolical of Initiation 192. + +Hannibal, rebirth of in Prussia 70. +Headquarters "and a procession of people" 155. +Healing, associated with activities of spiritual adviser 129. + different methods of 130. + free of charge 132. +Heart and intellect to be combined 163. + + + +[PAGE 208] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +Heaven, knowledge of kingdom of symbolized by pearl 21. +Hermetic axiom, "As above, so below" 111. +Higher laws which...supersede 159, 160, 161. +Higher life, how entered into 177. + teaching, never given for a consideration 127. +Holy Grail, where likely to be found 29. + +Ideals, the nature of 164. +Immaculate generation inaugurated by Christ 139. +Industry, designed to develop moral side of man 41. +Initiation, gives "keys to the Kingdom" 21. + in Atlantis 41. +Intellect and heart to be combined 163. +Interpretations of Scriptures, by Max Heindel 192. +Intolerance, a besetting sin 143. +Invisible leaders present at dedication 134. + realms disturbed by war 88. + +Jews, as the "chosen people" 61, 194. +Jonah and the Whale 19, 20. + +Keys to heaven 19. +Kingdom of heaven 7. +Knowledge, a responsibility 180. + a responsibility, quoted from "Imitation of Christ" 188. + entrusted to Max Heindel as reward of altruism 100-102. + gaining of and use of 181. + is power 180. + retained through given to others 100. + symbolized in Norse myth 99. + +Laggards, who are 167. +Law, does not save 194. + of compensation 34. + of consequence 200. + of forgiveness of sin 159. +Laws of nature, working with 111. +Leaders, the present 151. +"Legend Beautiful, The" 23. +Lemurian Epoch, beginning of 178. +Lemuria, Lucifer the Genius of 138. +Life, panorama, unfolded in reverse order 188. +Life, taken in interest of knowledge 186, 187. +Living the life 12. + + +[PAGE 209] INDEX + +Longfellow's "The Legend Beautiful" 21. +Looking at the bright side of things 90. +Lord's Prayer, the 12. + touches keynote of human vehicles 12. +Love to be wedded to knowledge 11. +Lucifer spirits, angelic life wave stragglers 199. + misguidance of 138. + +Mammon, how not served 203. +Manna, pot of, in the Ark, meaning of 198, 200. +Marriage, a sacrament 48. +Master, the sign of the 16-21. +Medieval handicraft 41. +Meeting the Lord 31. +Men outnumber women in the Rosicrucian Fellowship 135. +Metaphysical speculation, a quagmire 34. +Mind, evolution of 85, 86. + linked to lower vehicles in Atlantean Epoch 82. + may be snare of evil 37. +Modern industrial production 42. +Mohammed lived his philosophy 38. +Moon Period 173. +Mysterium magnum, what it hides and reveals 105. +Mystery School, established for pioneers 127. + +New Jerusalem, City of Peace 202. + is the Tree of Life 196. +Noah, days of 7-15. +North Star, a fixed point 123. + +Optimism, "Pollyanna" illustrates cosmic law of 89-95. + +Pabulum 74. +Palmistry 128. +Panacea 160-162. +Parsifal, legend of 183, 184. +Peace, attainment of hindered by flesh food and wine 84. + on earth, when attained 86. +Philosopher's Stone 19. +Pioneers, require higher teachings 127. +Pisces, sign of Christian Dispensation 54. +Poems: Longfellow 23; Lowell 44; Holmes 46; Wilcox 87; + Angelus Silesius 170; Unknown 171. +Popes had spiritual sight unfolded 191. + + +[PAGE 210] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +Prayer, Emerson (poem) 31. +Prayers and thought of a low nature, region to which they gravitate 133. +Pride of intellect, 143. +Profession and practice, relation between 63. +Progress depends on death 107. + how attained 117. +Purgatorial experience caused by fires of remorse 115. +Purification, a step in spiritual unfoldment 203. +Purpose of evolution, the extraction of "soul" 51. + +Qualities requisite for endurance--wisdom, beauty, strength, 136. + +Races, the sixteen paths to destruction 167. + when and how started 166. +Race spirit, none over U.S.A. 71. +Race spirit, what they are 67. +Rainbow, time when it first appeared 174, 175. +Rays, planetary, different effects of 131. +Record of life 115. + inscribed upon atom in heart 115. +Religion given to a people according to their status 126. +Responsibility for acts of free will 199, 200. +Retrospection in harmony with cosmic law 117. + cleanses of sins committed before one started the practice 119. + correct method of 118, 119; results of 119-121. +Riches, accumulation of 43. +Rod of Aaron, magical, in Ark 198, 200. +Romans, reembodied in Sons of Albion 69-70. +Rose Cross, planted at Mt. Ecclesia 137. +Rosicrucians, a Mystery order 132. +Rosicrucian Brothers, a messenger of the 102. +Rosicrucian Fellowship, the mission of 12. + disintegration of 152. + the purpose of 136, 139, 140. + under Aquarian dispensation 57-59. +Rosicrucian teachings 108. + +Sacraments, nature of 48. +Salvation, how attained 167. + what it is 164-167. +Scientific method of soul unfoldment 121. + + +[PAGE 211] INDEX + +Scriptures interpreted by Max Heindel by spiritual vision 192. +Second coming of the Christ 14-22. +Secret of success 40. +Seed atom, loss of 53. + racial form and features produced by 67. + time of leaving the various vehicles 9. +Service, brings us out of "wilderness" 203. + without worldly reward, a Rosicrucian ideal, 132. +Shell shock, nature of 10. +Sign of Jonah 9. +Sign of the Master 15, 16-22. +Silver cord, loosing of 9, 48. +Sin, nature of 131. + results in death of the soul 51-53. + the unpardonable 47-49. +Sir Launfal 43. +Sixteen races, "paths to destruction" 167. +Sorrow and pain, our taskmasters 200. +Soul growth, what it depends on 118. +Soul, death of 47, 51. + composed of 74. +Soul power, natural development of by evolution 112. +Soulless man, time of 50. +Spirit, immorality of and rebirth of 66. + turned into a new path of evolution 74. +Spiritual atrophy, time when it sets in 181. + perception, lost in Atlantis 83. +Spiritual currents, vitalize forms of four kingdoms 137. +Spiritual power, how developed 178. + how to be used; how lost 184, 185. + result of its use 200, 201. +Spiritual sight, possessed by Popes and others 191. + work, consists of 30. +Spirituality, difference between true and false 26, 27. + what it is 30. +Spleen, kind of force entering body through it 172. +"Stones for bread," application of 43. +"Stone of Sages," what it is 22. +Story regarding "Light" 27. + "Fleta, the Black Magician" 181. + "Parsifal" 183. + +Tables of Law in the Ark 198, 200. +Talisman, nature of a 183, 184. + + +[PAGE 212] TEACHINGS OF AN INITIATE + +Taurus, worship of the Bull 54. +Teachings, new spiritual, when given out 170, also 143, 144. +Temple in the Wilderness 190. +Test passed by Max Heindel in 1908, 144. +Thoughts and prayers, place to which they gravitate 133. +Thought forms, how and when generated 133. +Thomas a Kempis, quotation from 188. +Threefold spirit casts a threefold shadow 50. +Time, between races 167. +Transfiguration, Mount of 14. +Tree of knowledge, symbology of 49. +Tree of Life, what it is 195. +True Wisdom, what it is 10. + +Vacuum and falling bodies 10. +Valhalla, an abode of the gods 99. +Vegetarians, different kinds of 86. +Veil, between living and dead to be dissolved 78. +Virgin spirit, involved in matter 50. + +"Vision of Sir Launfal" 43. +Vital body, added in Hyperborean Epoch 82. + held in place by pressure 9. + in Atlantean Epoch 13. + oozes out under certain conditions 10. + quickened by suffering in war 79. + the Tree of Life 195. + work of in repairing waste 72. +Vitality, dissipated by desires and emotions 72. +Vivisection, consequences of 186. + +War, a school of soul unfoldment 79. + effects of in desire world 76. + how one leads to another 70. + looking at the bright side of 94. + prolonged by mental attitude of the people 89. +World war, causes of, rebirth of Carthaginians and Romans 68-70. +"Water of Life", whence it comes 20. +Western wisdom religion, being promulgated 57. +Wilderness, symbolical of space and matter 197. + how long we shall travel in 202. +Wine added to man's diet in Aryan Epoch 83. +Wisdom, the only true 38. +World drama, acted and re-enacted 96. + + + --- END OF FILE --- + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/rosary.txt b/religious documents/rosary.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..499307a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rosary.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3275 @@ +Newsgroups: bit.listserv.catholic +Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1993 22:45:00 EST +Sender: Free Catholic Mailing List +From: "Spawn of a Jewish Carpenter (Cindy Smith)" +Message-ID: <00966B78.50CA9660.18979@dragon.com> +Subject: Praying the Rosary +Lines: 3267 + + Praying the Rosary: The Essence of Christian Mysticism + + Some time ago, I promised to send my complete list of Rosaries. +Previously, I sent out about 1/3 of the different kinds of Rosaries +I've collected. Here is the complete list. It is a _long_ file. + + Enjoy! + + Rosaries of All Kinds + + Herein is a compilation of many different Rosaries of the Church. +I have collected as many different kinds of Rosaries as I have been +able to find. Certain Rosaries are listed without mysteries; this +simply means that the Rosary exists but I have unable to ascertain its +mysteries. + +Beads of Saint Anne (Good Saint Anne) +Blessed Sacrament Beads +Brigittine Rosary +Chaplet of Faith +Chaplet in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary +Chaplet of the Five Wounds of God +Chaplet of the Holy Ghost +Chaplet or Corona of Mercy +Chaplet of Saint Anthony +Chaplet of the Way of the Cross +Chotki +Crosier Beads +Crown of Saint Philomena +Franciscan Crown (Rosary of the Seven Joys of Mary) +Franciscan Crown (Rosary of the Seven Dolours [Sorrows] of Mary) +Healing Rosary +Jesus Rosary +Little Beads of Our Lady of Consolation +Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin +Little Chaplet of the Holy Face +Little Crown or Chaplet of the Infant Jesus of Prague +Little Flower Rosary +Little Rosary of the Seven Dolors of Mary +Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Dominican) +Rosary for the Dead +Rosary of the Five Wounds of God +Rosary of the Holy Trinity +Rosary of the Holy Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Chaplet of Mercy) +Rosary or Beads or Chaplet of the Immaculate Conception +Rosary or Crown of Our Lord +Rosary of Peace +Rosary of Saint Bridget +Rosary of Saint Joseph +Rosary of Saint Michael and All Angels +Rosary or Chaplet of the Precious Blood of Jesus +Rosary of the Sacred (Blessed, Holy) Name of Jesus (Old Dominican) +Rosary or Beads of the Sacred Heart of Jesus + +Seven Day Scriptural Rosary (Larry London) + +The Scriptural Rosary (David E. Rosage) + +Healing Rosary (Joanne Turpin) + +My Rosaries +___________ + +Franciscan Anglican Rosary +Dominican Anglican Rosary +Franciscan Traditional Expansion + +NOTE: Some in the list appear to be duplications; they are sometimes + very similar but are not exactly the same. + + Beads for the Dead + + Beads for the Dead. This rosary consists of four decades (40 beads) +in memory of the forty hours which Our Lord is thought to have spent +in Limbo. There are also the 5 introductory beads as on the Dominican +Rosary. + + One begins and ends this chaplet with the De profundis or an Our +Father and Hail Mary. On the large beads is made acts of faith, hope, +and charity. On each small bead is said: "Sweet Heart of Mary, be my +salvation." Each decade is concluded with: "Eternal rest grant unto +them, etc." + + Compilers note: I gather the complete final prayer is as follows: + +V. Eternal rest grant unto him/her, O Lord. +R. And let perpetual light shine upon him/her. + +V. May he/she rest in peace. +R. Amen. + +V. May his/her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, + through the mercy of God, rest in peace. +R. Amen. + + + +May the love of God and the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ bless us +and console us and gently wipe every tear from our eyes: in the name +of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. +R. Amen. + + Blessed Sacrament Beads + + Blessed Sacrament Beads (Blessed Sacrament Fathers). These consist +of a medal of the Blessed Sacrament and 33 beads, recalling the 33 +years of Christ's life on earth. + + On the medal one makes a spiritual communion as follows: "As I +cannot now receive Thee, my Jesus, in Holy Communion, come, +spiritually into my heart, and make it Thine own forever." + + On each bead say: "Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament have mercy on us!" + + This information is quoted from TWENTY-FOUR ROSARIES AND CHAPLETS by +Patrick Shaughnessy, O.S.B., S.T.D. Reprinted 1984 by Our Lady's +Rosary Makers. + + Approved May 30, 1911 by Pope Pius X (The Holy Father has granted to +the entire world 300 days indulgence each time the above prayer is +recited.) + + From the card that came with the Rosary. + + On the back of the Spiritual Communion Medal is the following: + + JESUS IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT ON THE ALTER, HAVE MERCY ON US + 300 DAYS INDULGENCE + + The Brigittine Rosary + + The Brigittin Rosary (Brigittine Fathers). The Brigittine Rosary +consists of 6 decades of 10 beads each. There are 3 additional beads +at the end. Each decade consists of 1 Our Father, 10 Hail Marys. The +Apostle's Creed is said on the crucifix. + + The 63 Hail Marys are in remembrance of the 63 years of Mary's +earthly life according to one traditional account. The 7 Our Fathers, +said on the large beads between each decade, are in remembrance of the +Seven Sorrows and Seven Joys of the Blessed Virgin. + + CHAPLET OF FAITH + +On each decade of the rosary pray: + + on large bead: One Apostles Creed -- + on 10 small beads: Jesus, Mary, I love you, save souls, + save the consecrated -- + at the ends, 5 times: Hail Holy Queen. + + Chotki + + Eastern Orthodox rosary. This Oriental form of rosary is known in +the Hellenic Greek Church as Chaplet or String of Knots of Beads, in +the Russian Church as Vervitza (string), chotki (chaplet), or +liestovka (ladder), and the the Rumanian Church as matanie +(reverence). Our everyday name of "beads" for it is simply the Old +Saxon word "bede" (a prayer) which has been transferred to the +instrument used in reciting the prayer, while the word rosary is an +equally modern term. + + The Rosary prayed by the Eastern Orthodox is a string of 33, 100, or +300 beads on a string or knots made of wool; they are not divided into +decades. On each bead or knot is prayed the following mantra: "Lord +Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The +modern Chotki, as it is known, calls for a slightly different mantra: +Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Having +prayed both versions, I can attest that the latter is easier. Both this +mantra and the Glorious mantra above are derived from the Gospel story +of the Pharisee and the tax collector. (The Hail Mary, of course, +comes from the Angelic Salutation coupled with a later additional +prayer.) That's about all I know about the Eastern Orthodox Rosary. + + I've learned from some sources that lay Orthodox do not pray the +Rosary or Chotki but that it is pretty much exclusively in the domain +of monastics. However, from other sources I have learned that the +Chotki is quite popular among the laity. I believe, therefore, that +it may depend upon the Eastern denomination. For what it's worth, I +obtained my Chotki from Eastern Christian Supply through a +Byzantine Church. + + Corona of Mercy + + (For private recitation upon the Rosary beads) + + Our Father....Hail Mary....Creed + + On the large beads: + + "Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity +of Thy Most Beloved Son and Our Lord Jesus Christ in atonement for our +sins and the sins of the whole world." + + On the small beads: + + "Through the sorrowful passion of Jesus show mercy unto us and to all +the world." (ten times) + + (The same is repeated for every decade of the Rosary and is to be +joined with meditation on the mystery of each individual decade.) In +conclusion add: "Holy God, Holy Omnipotent, Holy Immortal, have mercy +on us." (3 times) + + Crosier Beads + + Crosier Beads (Crosier Fathers). This is the same as the ordinary 5 +decade Dominican Rosary. It is merely a question of the indulgences +attached to the beads. + + On August 20th, 1516, Pope Leo X granted to all the faithful an +indulgence of 500 days for every Our Father or Hail mary said with +devotion on the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary blessed by the +General of the Crosier Fathers. This was extended later to all +priests applying to the Congregation of Indulgences by Pope Pius X. + + Any Catholic possessing a rosary having this indulgence can gain the +indulgence by reciting an Our Father or Hail Mary. No prayer imposed +as a confessional penance, however, can gain the indulgence of the +Crosier blessing. + + There is no obligation to meditate on the mysteries of the Passion. + + The Rosary must be held in the hand to gain the indulgence. + + The indulgence is applicable to the Souls in Purgatory. + + The Crown of Our Lord + + (Camaldolese) + + The Crown of Our Lord consists of 33 beads -- 3 decades and 3 +additional beads commemorating the 33 years of the earthly life of Our +Lord. There are two methods of reciting this crown. The first method +is as follows: Having made the sign of the cross say: "O God incline +unto my aid; O Lord make haste to help me." The mystery is then +announced, e.g., "Jesus, Who sweat blood for us, etc." Then follow +1 Hail Mary, 10 Our Fathers, and 1 Glory Be. These are all to be +repeated 3 times. Then add 1 Hail Mary, 3 Our Fathers, and another +Hail Mary. The 5 Hail Marys are to commemorate the Five Holy Wounds. + + The second method consists of meditating on an event from the life or +passion of Our Lord while saying the prescribed Our Father or Hail +Mary. + + Chaplet of the Divine Mercy + + (for private recitation on ordinary rosary beads) + +Begin with: + + Our Father...., Hail Mary...., Apostles Creed. + +Then, on the OUR FATHER BEADS, pray: + + Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and + Divinity of your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, + in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. + +On the HAIL MARY BEADS, pray: + + For the sake of his sorrowful Passion have mercy on us + and on the whole world. + +In conclusion, THREE TIMES, pray: + + Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us + and on the whole world. + + +(From the Diary of the Servant of God Sr. Faustina -- Note Book I, +page 197.) + +An inner voice taught Sister M. Faustina Kowalska of the Congregation +of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy (the Apostle of Divine Mercy and +the Servant of God) the above chaplet rosary. Jesus later said to +Sister Faustina: "Say unceasingly this chaplet that I have taught +you. Anyone who says it will receive great Mercy at the hour of +death. Priests will recommend it to sinners as the last hope. Even +the most hardened sinner, if he recites this Chaplet even once, will +receive grace from My infinite Mercy. I want the whole world to know +My infinite Mercy. I want to give unimaginable graces to those who +trust in My Mercy." + +Marians of the Immaculate Conception +MARIAN HELPERS +Stockbridge, MA 01263 +Copyright 1989 + + The following is a Rosary of my own devising -- Cindy Smith + + Dominican Anglican Rosary + +Heavenly Mysteries +__________________ + +1. His Creation of the Heavens and the Earth +2. Announcement to Zechariah of the Birth of John the Baptist +3. Announcement to Mary of the Birth of Jesus of Nazareth +4. Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth and the Birth of John +5. Announcement to Joseph of the Birth of Jesus of Nazareth + +Joyful Mysteries +________________ + +1. The Incarnation +2. The Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem +3. The Presentation in the Temple/Circumcision +4. Adoration of the Magi +5. The Finding in the Temple of the Boy Jesus + +Revelation Mysteries +____________________ + +1. His Baptism +2. His Temptation in the Desert +3. His Early Preaching of the Kingdom of Heaven and Repentance +4. His Call of the Disciples (including the Twelve Apostles) +5. His Sending Out of the Seventy + +Teaching Mysteries +__________________ + +1. His Beatitudes +2. His Great Teachings (the Rest of His Sermon on the Mount) +3. His Parables +4. His Commandments (Rules of Discipleship) +5. His Teachings on Prayer + +Powerful Mysteries +____________________ + +1. His Healings +2. His Miracles +3. His Transfiguration +4. His Prayers +5. His Prophecies of Second Coming and Final Judgement + +Passion Mysteries (1) +_____________________ + +1. His Anointing +2. His Last Supper (Passover) +3. His Prayers and His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemene +4. His Betrayal, Arrest, and Trial Before the Jews +5. His Trial Before Pontius Pilate + +Passion Mysteries (2) +_____________________ + +1. His Whipping at the Pillar +2. His Crowning with Thorns +3. The Way of His Cross +4. His Crucifixion and Death +5. His Deposition, Burial, and Descent into the World of the Dead + +Glorious Mysteries +__________________ + +1. His Resurrection from the Dead +2. His Ascension into Heaven +3. The Descent of His Holy Ghost +4. The Repose of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Assumption) +5. The Crowning of All the Saints including Saint Mary the Virgin + + Modern Dominican Rosary (considered standard) + +Joyful Mysteries Sorrowful Mysteries Glorious Mysteries +________________ ___________________ __________________ + +1. Anunciation 1. Agony in the Garden 1. Resurrection +2. Visitation 2. Whipping at Pillar 2. Ascension +3. Birth of Christ 3. Crowning w/Thorns 3. Descent/Holy Ghost +4. Presentation/Temple 4. Way of His Cross 4. Assumption +5. Finding in Temple 5. Crucifixion/Death 5. Crowning of All + Saints and Mary + + Chaplet of the Five Wounds of God + + Chaplet of the Five Wounds of God (Passionist). This chaplet +consists of 5 groups of 5 beads each. For each bead, pray one Glory +Be and one Hail Mary for the Sorrowful Virgin. As one prays each +group, one meditates on the Wounds of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus +Christ. Variation: Invocations in honor of the Holy Wounds of Our +Lord Jesus Christ. On the large beads pray: "Eternal Father, I offer +Thee the Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ to heal the wounds of our +souls. Amen." One the small beads pray: "My Jesus, pardon and mercy +through the merits of Thy Sacred Wounds. Amen." + + Medals are usually attached to the beads or 3 beads are added at the +beginning of the chaplet. These medals display the Wounds of Christ +on one side and Our Lady of Sorrows on the other. The medals are not +necessary either for blessing or for obtaining the indulgences. The +medals are ordinarily arranged so that one meditates first on the +Wound in the left foot of Our Lord, then the Wound in the right foot, +the left hand, the right hand, and finally the Wound in the sacred +side of Jesus. + + The earliest mention of the Rosary of the Five Wounds of God is found +in a document dating back to 1821. The Platea of Saints John and +Paul, at Rome, relates "The Most Rev. Fr. General, acting in +accordance with our spirit to promote devotion to the Passion of Our +Lord, obtained permission to bless the Chaplet of the Five Wounds, at +the same time enriching it with indulgences." This chaplet was first +approved by a decree of Pius VII dated Jan. 22, 1822. + + Praying the Rosary: A Walk Through the Gospels + + by + + Cynthia M. Smith + + I have written a Franciscan version of the Rosary consisting of one +set of mysteries for every day of the week. My Franciscan Rosary, +which I call the Anglican Rosary, is divided into seven sets of +seven mysteries: + +NOTES +_____ + +THE HEAVENLY MYSTERIES +______________________ + +1. His Creation of the Heavens and the Earth +2. The Annunciation to Saint Mary the Virgin +3. The Incarnation +4. The Visitation of Mary to Her Kinswoman Elizabeth +5. The Birth of John the Baptist +6. The Annunciation to Joseph +7. The Birth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ + +Alternative split of the Heavenly Mysteries into two groups. +_______________________________________________________________ + +1. His Creation of the Heavens and the Earth +2. His Creation of Human Beings +3. His Following of the Hebrews in the Desert as the Rock, + the source of living water +4. His Torah and His Prophets +5. Anunciation to Zechariah +6. Anunciation to Mary +7. Incarnation + +1. Visitation (Elizabeth's Prophecy) +2. Visitation (Mary's Canticle) +3. Visitation (Birth of John the Baptist) +4. Visitation (Zechariah's Canticle) +5. Anunciation to Joseph +6. Birth of Jesus +7. Visit of the Shepherds + +THE REVELATION MYSTERIES +________________________ + +1. The Presentation in the Temple/Purification/Circumcision +2. The Adoration of the Magi +3. The Flight into Egypt and the Return to Nazareth +4. The Finding in the Temple +5. His Baptism +6. His Temptation in the Desert +7. His Call of the Disciples (including His Twelve Apostles) + +Alternative split of the Revelation Mysteries into two groups. +_______________________________________________________________ + +1. Circumcision +2. Mary's Purification (Joseph's purification) +3. Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Redemption) + Simeon's Prophecy/Anna's Prophecy +4. Adoration of the Magi +5. Flight into Egypt +6. Slaughter of the Innocents +7. Return to Nazareth + +1. The Finding in the Temple +2. The Preaching of John the Baptist +3. His Baptism by John the Baptist +4. His Temptation in the Desert +5. His Call of the Disciples +6. His Choosing of the Twelve Apostles +7. His Sending Out of the Seventy-two Apostles + (a septuagint of disciples) + +THE TEACHING MYSTERIES +______________________ + +1. His Beatitudes +2. His Great Teachings (the Rest of His Sermon on the Mount) +3. His Healings +4. His Parables +5. His Miracles +6. His Commandments (Rules of Discipleship) +7. His Teachings on Prayer and Ethical Conduct + +THE POWERFUL MYSTERIES +______________________ + +1. His Transfiguration +2. His Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem +3. Confessions of Faith by Those Who Believed in Him +4. Our Lord Drives Out the Moneychangers +5. Our Lord's Catechism (His Teachings on Salvation/Heaven and Hell) +6. His Prayers +7. His Prophecies of His Second Coming and Final Judgement + + +THE PASSION MYSTERIES (1) +_________________________ + +1. His Anointing +2. His Washing the Feet of the Disciples +3. His Last Supper (Passover) +4. His Prayers and His Agony in the Garden of Gethesmene +5. His Betrayal and Arrest +6. His Trial Before the Jews +7. His Trial Before Pontius Pilate + + +THE PASSION MYSTERIES (2) +_________________________ + +1. His Whipping at the Pillar +2. His Crowning with Thorns +3. The Way of His Cross +4. His Crucifixion and Death +5. Our Lord is Taken Down from the Cross +6. His Burial in the Tomb +7. His Descent into the World of the Dead + + +THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES +______________________ + +1. His Resurrection from the Dead +2. His Ascension into Heaven +3. The Descent of His Holy Ghost +4. Confessions of Faith by those who believed in Him + (post Resurrection) +5. The Assumption of Mary +6. The Crowning of All the Saints including Saint Mary the Virgin +7. His Disciples Await His Second Coming + + +Additionally, Christians may wish to pray the Sacramental Mysteries in +which Christ institutes each of the Seven Sacraments: + + +THE SACRAMENTAL MYSTERIES +_________________________ + +1. Baptism +2. Confession +3. Confirmation +4. Holy Eucharist +5. Holy Orders +6. Marriage +7. Unction for the Sick + + + Some Christians may wish to pray different mantras in place of the +Hail Marys. Here are some suggestions: + +Heavenly Mysteries: O Jesus, Son of Mary, have mercy on us. + + Holy God, Holy and Mighty, + Holy Immortal One, + have mercy on us. + +Revelation Mysteries: O Jesus, glory of Israel, light to the + Gentiles, have mercy on us. + + Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us. + +Teaching Mysteries: O Divine Master, make us instruments of your + peace; let us sow faith, hope, and love, and + the joy of dying into eternal life. + +Powerful Mysteries: O Jesus, our Saving Justice, shine your light + into the darkness of our hearts, and grant + us peace. + +Passion Mysteries (1): Jesus of Nazareth, Son of David, have mercy on + us. + +Passion Mysteries (2): Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, have mercy + on us. + +Glorious Mysteries: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have + mercy on us. + + + + +Sacramental Mysteries (optional): + +Baptism: Water from the Side of Jesus, wash away our sins, clothe us + in Christ our Lord. + +Confession: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on + us poor sinners. + +Confirmation: Lord Holy Ghost, protect us in our hour of need, + strengthen us in our time of weakness, comfort us in + our time of sorrow; let us dwell forever under the + shadow of El Shaddai. + +Eucharist: Father in Heaven, give us this day our daily bread and + forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin + against us. + +Holy Orders: With all your soul, fear the Lord and honor his + priests; with all your might love him who made you, + and do not abandon his ministers. + +Marriage: Let that which God hath joined together let no one cast + asunder. + + Lord Jesus, let our marriage be a witness to our faith + in you. + +Unction: Lord Jesus Christ, enter into our brokeness, heal our + wounds with your gracious love, and fill our holes + with your abounding mercy. + + Praying the Rosary: A Walk Through the Gospels + + by + + Cynthia M. Smith + + + This is a Franciscan version of the Rosary consisting of one +set of mysteries for every day of the week. This particular +Franciscan Rosary is call the Anglican Rosary. + + + THE ANGLICAN ROSARY + + +------------------- +Preliminary Prayers +------------------- + + +Preparatory Prayer +__________________ + +O God, whose only-begotten Son, + by his life, death, and resurrection + has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life; + grant, we beseech you, that, + while meditating on these mysteries + of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, + we may imitate what they contain, + and obtain what they promise. +Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. + + ++ (All make the Sign of the Cross) + +In the Name of the Father, + and of the Son, + and of the Holy Ghost +Amen. + +(All reverence Crucifix) + +Prayed on the Crucifix: Apostles Creed +_______________________________________ + +We believe in one God, + the Father, the Almighty, + maker of heaven and earth, + of all that is, seen and unseen. + +We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, + the only Son of God, + eternally begotten of the Father, + God from God, Light from Light, + true God from true God, + begotten, not made, + of one Being with the Father. + Through him all things were made. + For us and for our salvation + he came down from heaven: + by the power of the Holy Spirit + he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, + and was made man. + For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; + he suffered death and was buried. + On the third day he rose again + in accordance with the Scriptures; + he ascended into heaven + and is seated at the right hand of the Father. + He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, + and his kingdom will have no end. + +We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, + who proceeds from the Father and the Son. + With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. + He has spoken through the Prophets. + We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. + We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sin. + We look for the resurrection of the dead, + and the life of the world to come. Amen. + +First bead +__________ + +Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be thy Name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done, + on earth as it is in heaven. +Give us this day our daily bread. +And forgive us our trespasses, + as we forgive those + who trespass against us. +And lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. Amen. + +Next three beads +________________ + +Hail Mary, full of grace; + the Lord is with thee; + blessed art thou among women, + and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. +Holy Mary, Mother of God, + pray for us sinners, + now and at the hour of our death. Amen. + +Next bead (before medal) +________________________ + +Glory be to the Father, + and to the Son, + and to the Holy Ghost. +As it was in the beginning, + is now, and ever shall be, + world without end. Amen. + +Let us pray aloud, or in the silence of our hearts, those things for +which we intend to ask through the holy mysteries of God. + +Silence. + +Rosary proper begins + +*Note: Prayed when substitute mantra is prayed + +THE HEAVENLY MYSTERIES +______________________ + +1. His Creation of the Heavens and the Earth +2. The Anunciation to Saint Mary the Virgin +3. The Incarnation +4. The Visitation of Mary to Her Kinswoman Elizabeth +5. The Birth of John the Baptist +6. The Anunciation to Joseph +7. The Birth of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ + + +THE REVELATION MYSTERIES +________________________ + +1. The Presentation in the Temple/Purification/Circumcision +2. The Adoration of the Magi +3. The Flight into Egypt and the Return to Nazareth +4. The Finding in the Temple +5. His Baptism +6. His Temptation in the Desert +7. His Call of the Disciples (including the Twelve Apostles) + + +THE TEACHING MYSTERIES +______________________ + +1. His Beatitudes +2. His Great Teachings (the Rest of His Sermon on the Mount) +3. His Healings +4. His Parables +5. His Miracles +6. His Commandments (Rules of Discipleship) +7. His Teachings on Prayer + + +THE POWERFUL MYSTERIES +______________________ + +1. His Transfiguration +2. His Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem +3. Confessions of Faith by Those Who Believed in Him +4. Our Lord Drives Out the Moneychangers +5. Our Lord's Catechism (His Teachings on Salvation/Heaven and Hell) +6. His Prayers +7. His Prophecies of His Second Coming and Final Judgement + + +THE PASSION MYSTERIES (1) +_________________________ + +1. His Anointing +2. His Washing the Feet of the Disciples +3. His Last Supper (Passover) +4. His Prayers and His Agony in the Garden of Gethesmene +5. His Betrayal and Arrest +6. His Trial Before the Jews +7. His Trial Before Pontius Pilate + + +THE PASSION MYSTERIES (2) +_________________________ + +1. His Whipping at the Pillar +2. His Crowning with Thorns +3. The Way of His Cross +4. His Crucifixion and Death +5. His Deposition (Our Lord is Taken Down from the Cross) +6. His Burial in the Tomb +7. His Descent into the World of the Dead + + +THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES +______________________ + +1. His Resurrection from the Dead +2. His Ascension into Heaven +3. The Descent of His Holy Ghost +4. Confessions of Faith by Those Who Believed in Him + (post Resurrection) +5. The Repose of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Assumption) +6. His Crowning of All the Saints including Saint Mary the Virgin +7. His Disciples Await in Joyful Hope for His Second Coming + and Final Judgement + + +Additionally, Christians may wish to pray the Sacramental Mysteries in +which Christ institutes each of the Seven Sacraments: + +THE SACRAMENTAL MYSTERIES (Optional) +____________________________________ +1. His Institution of the Sacrament of Baptism +2. His Institution of the Sacrament of Confession +3. His Institution of the Sacrament of Confirmation +4. His Institution of the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist +5. His Institution of the Sacrament of Holy Orders +6. His Institution of the Sacrament of Marriage +7. His Institution of the Sacrament of Unction for the Sick + +Spiritual Communion +___________________ + +My Jesus, really present in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar, + since I cannot now receive you under the sacramental veil, + I beseech you, with a heart full of love and longing, + to come spiritually into my soul + through the immaculate heart of your most holy Mother, + and abide with me forever. + +Thou in me, + and I in Thee, + in time and in eternity, + in Mary. + +Sweet Mother Mary, please take this spiritual communion + to bind together these roses, containing my (our) prayers, + into a lovely boquet to carry with you into heaven. +Then fly, most holy Mother, fly away into heaven, + embrace your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, + lay your sweet head upon His breast, + and let my (our) prayers sink, slowly and deeply, + inside the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Amen. + + +Concluding prayer on the medal +______________________________ + +Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, + our life, our sweetness, and our hope. +To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. +To you do we send up our sighs, + mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. +Turn then, O most gracious advocate, + your eyes of mercy upon us; + and in this our most dreadful exile + show unto us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus. + +O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. + +Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God. + +That we may become worthy of the promises of Christ. + +Amen. + + [ Some may wish to substitute Marian devotion with + + Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi + + Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; + where there is hatred, let me sow love; + where there is injury, pardon; + where there is doubt, faith; + where there is despair, hope; + where there is darkness, light; + where there is sadness, joy. + + O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek + to be consoled as to console; + to be understood as to understand; + to be loved as to love; + for it is in giving that we receive, + it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, + and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. + Amen. + ++ (All make the Sign of the Cross) + +In the Name of the Father, + and of the Son, + and of the Holy Ghost +Amen. +(All reverence Crucifix) +Amen. +(All reverence Crucifix again) + + The Rosary of the Seven Sorrows + + (Servite Fathers) + + The Rosary of the Seven Sorrows consists of 7 groups of 7 beads, with +3 additional beads and a crucifix. The 7 groups of 7 Hail Marys are +recited in remembrance of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, namely: + + 1. The Prophecy of Simeon + 2. The flight into Egypt + 3. The loss of the Child Jesus + 4. Mary meets Jesus carrying His cross + 5. The crucifixion + 6. Mary receives the body of Jesus from the cross + 7. The body of Jesus is placed in the tomb + + Three Hail Marys are added in remembrance of the tears of Mary shed +because of the suffering of her Divine Son. These are said to obtain +true sorrow for our sins. Following is the concluding prayer. + +V. Pray for us, O most sorrowful Virgin + +R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ + + Prayer + + Lord Jesus, we now implore, both for the present and for the hour of +our death, the intercession of the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Thy +Mother, whose holy soul was pierced at the time of Thy Passion by a +sword of grief. Grant us this favor, O Saviour of the world, Who +livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost for ever and +ever. Amen. + + +Our Lady of Sorrows Franciscan Crown +Seven Dolours (Sorrows) of Mary Seven Joys of Mary +_______________________________ __________________ + +1. Prophecy of Simeon 1. Anunciation +2. Flight into Egypt 2. Visitation +3. Three-day Separation from 3. Birth of Jesus in a Cave + Jesus in Jerusalem in Bethlehem +4. Meeting Christ on the Road 4. Adoration of the Magi + to Calvary +5. Crucifixion and Death 5. Finding of the Child Jesus + of Jesus Christ in the Temple +6. Our Lord is Taken Down 6. Apparition of the Risen Christ + from the Cross (Pieta) to His Blessed Mother +7. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus 7. Repose of the Blessed Virgin + Christ is Buried in the Tomb Mary and His Coronation of + Mary and All the Saints + + Chaplet or Beads of the Seven Dolours (Card) + + This is a devotion instituted in the course of the thirteenth +century, in honor of the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, endured +by her in compassion for the suffering and death of her Divine Son. +It is practiced upon a Chaplet composed of seven times seven beads, +each portion of seven being divided from the rest by medals, +representing the seven principal sorrows of her life. In the use of +it a Hail, Mary has to be said on each of the beads, with one Our +Father before every seven Hail, Marys; and at the end of all, three +Hail, Marys are to be said, in honor of the sorrowful tears of our +Lady. + + While reciting the first Our Father, and seven Hail Marys, reflect on +and sympathize in the sorrow of our Blessed Lady, when she presented +her Divine Child in the Temple, and heard from the aged Simeon that a +sword of grief should pierce her soul on His account. + + Our Father, seven Hail, Marys. + + At the second medal, reflect on her sorrow when, to escape the +cruelty of King Herod, she was forced to fly into Egypt with St. +Joseph and her beloved Child. + + Our Father, seven Hail, Marys. + + At the third medal, reflect on her grief, when, in returning from +Jerusalem she perceived that she had lost her dear Jesus, whom she +sought sorrowing during three days. + + Our Father, seven Hail, Marys. + + At the fourth, reflect on her meeting her Divine Son, all bruised and +mangled, carrying His cross to Calvary, and seeing Him fall under His +heavy weight. + + Our Father, seven Hail, Marys. + + At the fifth, reflect on her standing by when her Divine Son was +lifted up on the cross, and the blood flowed in streams from His +sacred wounds. + + Our Father, seven Hail, Marys. + + At the sixth, reflect on her sorrow, when her Divine Son was taken +down from the cross, and she received Him into her arms. + + Our Father, seven Hail, Marys. + + Seventhly, and lastly, contemplate her following His sacred body, as +it was borne by Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, to the sepulchre, +inclosed there, and hidden from her sight. + + Our Father, seven Hail, Marys. + + Three Hail, Marys, as mentioned before, in honor of her tears. + + INDULGENCES + + Benedict XIII., September 26th, 1724, granted an indulgence of two +hundred days for every Our Father and every Hail Mary to those who, +with sincere contritition, and having confessed, or firmly purposing +to confess their sins, shall recite this Chaplet on any Friday, or on +any day of Lent, on the Festival of the Seven Dolours, or within the +Octave; and one hundred days on any other day of the year. + + Clement XII., December 12, 1734, confirmed these indulgences, and +moreover granted:-- + 1. A Plenary indulgence to those who shall have recited this Chaplet +for a month every day -- Confession, Communion and Prayers for the +Church, required as usual. + 2. An indulgence of one hundred years to all who should recite it on +any day, having confessed their sins, with sincere sorrow, or at least +firmly purposing to do so. + 3. One hundred and fifty years to those who should recite it on +Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and Holidays of obligation, with +Confession and Communion. + 4. A Plenary indulgence once a year, on any day, to those who are +accustomed to recite it four times a week, on condition of Confession, +Communion, and the Recital of the Chaplet on the day of Communion. + 5. Two hundred years' indulgence to all who recite it devoutly after +Confession; and to all who carry it about them, and frequently recite +it, ten years' indulgence every time they shall hear Mass, hear a +sermon, or reciting Our Father, and seven Hail Marys, shall perform +any spiritual or corporal work of mercy, in honor of our Blessed +Saviour, the Blessed Virgin Mary, or any Saint, their advocate. + All these indulgences were confimred by a decree of January 17th, +1747, and rendered applicable to the souls in Purgatory. + + Franciscan Traditional Rosary (Expansion) + + +Seven Early Joys of Mary Seven Early Sorrows of Mary +________________________ ___________________________ + +1. Anunciation 1. Journey to Bethlehem +2. Incarnation 2. Circumcision +3. Visitation 3. Simeon's Prophecy +4. Birth of Jesus 4. Anna's Prophecy +5. Adoration of the Magi 5. Adoration of the Magi + (gifts of gold) (gifts of frankincense + and myrrh) +6. Return to Nazareth 6. Flight into Egypt and the + Slaughter of the Innocents +7. Finding in the Temple 7. Three-days loss of Jesus + in Jerusalem +Optional Split +______________ + +1. Anunciation +2. Incarnation +3. Visitation (Elizabeth's Prophecy) +4. Visitation (Mary's Canticle) +5. Visitation (Birth of John the Baptist) +6. Visitation (Zechariah's Canticle) +7. Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem + +1. Purification of Mary +2. Purification of Joseph +3. Presentation in the Temple +4. Adoration of the Magi (gifts of gold) +5. Return to Nazareth from Egypt +6. Return to Nazareth from Jerusalem +7. Finding in the Temple and Return to Nazareth + +Theme: There's always one more Joy than you counted on. + +Seven Late Joys of Mary Seven Late Sorrows of Mary +_______________________ __________________________ + +1. Miracle at Cana 1. Repose of Blessed Joseph +2. Beseeching outside house 2. Beseeching outside house + (Mary is one of the (Mary cannot see her Son) + faithful) +3. Apparition of the Risen 3. Meeting Christ on Road to Calvary + Christ to His Blessed + Mother +4. Descent of the Holy Ghost 4. Crucifixion and Death of Jesus + on Mary and All the + Disciples of Jesus +5. Repose of the Blessed 5. Our Lord is Taken Down + Virgin Mary from the Cross +6. Coronation of Mary and 6. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ + All Saints Buried in the Tomb +7. Appearance of Mary at 7. Our Lady observes the Sabbath as + [Lourdes, Fatima, etc.] Our Lord Descends unto the Dead + + Rosary of Good Saint Anne + + A Redemptorist devotion. The Chaplet of Good Saint Anne originates +in 1875 and is the pious invention of a devout client of our saint. +If his name is unknown to man, he is surely known to God and dear to +Good Saint Anne, for these beads have been the beginning of a chain of +blessings, spiritual and temporal. Many graces and favors have been +obtained through their recitation. + + The Little Chaplet of Good Saint Anne is composed of three Our +Fathers and fifteen Hail Marys and is divided into three parts; the +first part, one Our Father and five Haily Marys, is said in honor of +Jesus, the Author of Grace; the second in honor of Mary, the channel +through which all graces come to us from Jesus; the third in honor of +Good Saint Anne, our advocate. + + Manner of reciting: Make the sign of the cross; then kiss devoutly +the medal of Good Saint Anne saying the prayer: Jesus, Mary, Anne. +While reciting the first part thank Jesus for His favors, ask pardon +for sins and future favors. While reciting the second part praise +Mary and ask her to present your petition to Good Saint Anne. The +third part is a petition to Good Saint Anne. Each group is concluded +with a Glory Be as an act of praise to the Blessed Trinity. + + This information is quoted from TWENTY-FOUR ROSARIES AND CHAPLETS by +Patrick Shaughnessy, O.S.B., S.T.D. Reprinted 1984 by Our Lady's +Rosary Makers. + + Chaplet of Saint Anne + + Recite three times Our Father, etc. and fifteen times Hail Mary, etc. +The first time say once Our Father, etc. and five times Hail Mary, +etc. in honor of Jesus; the second time in honor of Mary, and the +third time in honor of St. Anne, and repeat after each Ave the three +names; Jesus, Mary, Anne. + + Quoted from card that came with Rosary. + +Petitions to be prayed before the (Franciscan Anglican) Rosary proper +_____________________________________________________________________ + + Hail, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, + my Mother Mary, hail! + At your feet I humbly kneel + to offer you a Crown of Roses -- + +snow-white buds to remind you of your joys and the Godness [purity] of + your consecrated Son (heavenly mysteries) + +royal-purple roses of Sharon to remind you of the revelations of + your majestic Son, who sprung from the God of the Desert + (revelation mysteries) + +parchment yellow buds to remind you of the Words of your blessed Son + (teaching mysteries) + +full-blown yellow roses to remind you of the words and triumphs of + your holy Son (powerful mysteries) + +blood-red buds to remind you of the Passion and Trials of your + dedicated [consecrated] Son (passion mysteries 1) + +full-blown red roses to remind you of the Passion and Death of your + hallowed Son (passion mysteries 2) + +full-blown white roses, tinged with the red of the Passion, to remind + you of your glories, fruits of the sufferings of your sacred Son + and you (glorious mysteries) + +full-blown white roses to remind you of the pure, holy Sacraments + instituted by your Divine Son (sacramental mysteries) + + -- each bud (rose) recalling to you a holy mystery; each ten bound + together with my petition for a particular grace. I bind these + +snow-white buds +royal-purple roses of Sharon +parchment-yellow buds +full-blown yellow roses +blood-red buds +full-blown red roses +full-blown white roses tinged with the red of the Passion +full-blown white roses + +with a petition for: [ Here insert your petition; + aloud or in the silence of your heart ] + +[Optional] + +the virtue of: + +Joyful (heavenly) Sorrowful (Passion 1) +_____________________________ ________________________________ +Joy in Creation Resignation to the Will of God +Humility Humility +Detachment from the World Fellowship +Purity Courage +Obedience to the Will of God Love of Our Enemies +Love Patience in Adversity +Patience in Uncertainty Silence + +Joyful (revelation) Sorrowful (Passion 2) +___________________ _____________________ + +Love for the Law of the Lord Mortification +Submissiveness [humbleness] before God Silence in humiliation +Trust in God Courage in taking up our cross +Desire to study the Bible (+) Thankfulness for our + Salvation +Faithfulness to our baptismal vows Pity [sympathy] for the afflicted +Strength in temptation Consolation in our sorrow +Privilege of Discipleship Sure and certain hope of the + resurrection unto eternal life + +Loving (Teaching) Glorious +_________________ ________ + +Love of Humanity Faith +Love for the teachings of God Hope +Faith in God Fruits of the Spirit +Understanding of the Charity + holy mysteries of God +Awe [reverence, respect] for the Union with Christ + power of God +Obedience to the Word of God Union with Mary +Union with God in prayer Desire for the Kingdom + of Heaven + +Loving (powerful) Sacramental +_________________ ___________ +Love of God Faithfulness to my [our] + baptismal vows +Desire for the Kingdom of Heaven Fullness in the Holy Spirit +Inspiration Union with the + Whole Person of God +Obedience to the Will of God Union with spouse in the + binding of the Holy Spirit +Faith in God Faithfulness to vocation +Being a peacemaker Sorrowful and contrite heart +Righteousness Faith in the Healing Power + of God + + + and humbly lay this bouquet at your feet. + + Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, + that never was it known that anyone who + fled to your protection, + implored your help, + or sought your intercession + was left unaided. + + Inspired with this confidence, + I fly to you, + O Virgin of virgins, + my mother. + To you I come; + before you I stand, + sinful and sorrowful. + + O Mother of the Word Incarnate, + despise not my petitions, + but in your mercy, + hear and answer me. + Amen. + + The Healing Mysteries + A Rosary for the Sick + + (Joanne Turpin) + + The First Mystery: + + The healing of the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda + +The Second Mystery: + + The healing of the woman with an infirmity of spirit + +The Third Mystery: + + The healing of the paralytic at Capernaum + +The Fourth Mystery: + + The healing of the woman suffering from hemorrhage + +The Fifth Mystery: + + The healing of the blind man at Jericho + + The Little Chaplet of the Holy Face + + The purpose of the Crown or Chaplet of the Holy Face is to honor the +Five Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and to ask of God the triumph of +His holy Church. + + This chaplet is composed of a cross and thirty-nine beads; of these +six are large beads and thirty-three small ones; to this chaplet is +attached a medal of the Holy Face. + + On the Cross, which reminds us of the mystery of our redemption, we +begin the chaplet by saying the words: "Incline unto my aid, O God; O +Lord make haste to help me. Glory be." + + The thirty-three small beads represent the thirty-three years of the +mortal life of our Divine Lord. The first thrity beads recall to us +the thirty years of His hidden life, and are divided into five parts +of six beads each, in honor of the senses of touch, hearing, sight, +smell, and taste of Jesus, and, as they were situated princippaly in +His holy face, to render reparative homage for all the sufferings +which our Lord has endured in His Face through each of these senses. + + Each six beads are preceded by a a large bead, followed by a Glory be +to recall the sense we wish to honor. The three other beads mark the +three years of the public life of Our Lord, and have for their +intention to honor all the wounds of His adorable Face; there are also +preceded by a large bead, to be followed by a Glory be for the same +intention. + + On each large bead is said: "My Jesus Mercy." On the small beads is +said: "Arise, O Lord! and let Thy enemies be scattered, and let them +that hate Thee fly before Thy Face." + + The Glory be is recited seven times in honor of the seven last words +of Jesus upon the cross, and the Seven Dolours of the Immaculate +Virgin. + + The chaplet is concluded by saying on the medal: "God, our +Protector, look down upon us and cast Thine eyes upon the Face of Thy +Christ." + + This chaplet was composed by Sister Saint-Pierre, a Carmelite of +Tours. Saint Athanasius relates that the devils, on being asked what +verse in the whole Scripture they feared the most, replied: "That +with which the sixty-seventh Psalm commences: 'Let God arise, and let +His enemies be scattered let them that hate Him flee from before His +face.'" They added that this always compelled them to take flight. + + Chaplet of the Holy Ghost (card) + + The Chaplet of the Holy Ghost was composed in 1892 by a Franciscan +Capuchin missionary of the English province in order to give the +faithful an easy means of honoring the Holy Ghost. It was approved by +Pope Leo XIII in 1902. It is intended to be in regard to the Holy +Ghost what the Dominican Rosary is in regard to the Blessed Virgin. + + This rosary consists of 5 groups of 7 beads each. Before and after +each group there are 2 large beads, that is, 12 large beads in all. +In addition there are 3 small beads at the beginning. On these three +beads one makes the sign of the Cross, recites an act of contrition +and the hymn Come Holy Ghost. + + In each group the Glory be is said on the 7 small beads, an Our +Father and a Haily Mary on the 2 large beads. On the remaining 2 +large beads are said the Apostles Creed and an Our Father and Hail +Mary for the intention of the Holy Father. + + There is a mystery for each of the 5 groups; the number 5 +commemorating the Five Wounds of Jesus which are the fountains of +grace which the Holy Ghost imparts to all men. The reflections +suggested are as follows: + + THE FIRST MYSTERY + + By the Holy Ghost is Jesus conceived of the Blessed Virgin Mary. + + The Meditation: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the Power +of the Most High shall overshadow thee; and therefore also the Holy +which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." +(Luke, I, 35) + + The Practice: Diligently implore the aid of the Divine Spirit, and +Mary's intercession, to imitate the virtues of Jesus Christ, Who is +the Model of virtues, so that you may be made comformable to the image +of the Son of God. + + THE SECOND MYSTERY + + The Spirit of the Lord rested upon Jesus when he was baptized. + + The Meditation: "Jesus, being baptized, forthwith came out of the +water: and lo! the heavens were opened to Him, and he saw the Spirit +of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him." (Matthew, III, 16) + + The Practice: Hold in the highest esteem the priceless gift of +sanctifying grace, infused into your soul by the Holy Ghost in +Baptism. Keep the promises to which you then pledged yourself. +Increase, by constant practice, Faith, Hope, and Charity. Ever live +as becometh children of God and members of God's true Church, so as to +obtain, hereafter, the inheritance of heaven. + + THE THIRD MYSTERY + + By the Spirit is Jesus led into the desert to be + tempted by the Devil. + + The Meditation: "Jesus, being full of the Holy ghost, returned from +the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the desert for the space of +forty days; and was tempted by the devil." (Luke, IV, 1-2) + + The Practice: Be ever grateful for the sevenfold gift of the Holy +Ghost bestowed upon you in Confirmation, for the spirit of wisdom and +understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety, and +of the fear of the Lord. Faithfully yield to His Divine guidance, so +that, in all the trials and temptations of life, you may act manfully, +as becometh a perfect Christian and valiant soldier of Jesus Christ. + + THE FOURTH MYSTERY + + The Holy Ghost in the Church. + + The Meditation: "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a +mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house wehre they were +sitting....and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to +speak....the wonderful works of God." (Acts, II, 2, 4, 11.) + + The Practice: Thank God for having made you a child of His Church +which is ever animated and directed by the Divine Spirit, sent into +this world for that purpose of the day of Pentecost. Hear and obey +the Holy See, the infallible mouthpiece of the Holy Ghost, and the +Church, the pillar and ground of truth. Uphold her doctrines, seek +her interests, defend her rights. + + THE FIFTH MYSTERY + + The Holy Ghost in the soul of the just man and just woman. + + The Meditation: "Know you not that you members are the temple of the +Holy Ghost, Who is in you?" (I Cor., VI, 19.) + + "Extinguish not the Spirit." (I Thess., V, 19.) + + "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto +the day of redemption." (Eph., IV, 30.) + + The Practice: Be evver mindful of the Holy Ghost Who is within you, +and carefully cultivate purity of soul and body. Faithfully obey His +Divine Inspirations so taht you may bring forth the Fruits of the +Spirit -- Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Eenignity, Goodness, +Long-suffering, Mildness, Faith, Modesty, Continency, Chastity. + + Conclude with the "I believe" as a profession of faith. + + Say finally once Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father, +for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff. + + Rosary of the Holy Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ + + OR + + Chaplet of Mercy + +May be said on the Rosary beads. + +On the large beads: Eternal Father, I offer Thee the WOUNDS of + Our Lord Jesus Christ -- To heal the wounds + of our souls. + (300 days indulgence each time) + +On the small beads: My Jesus, pardon and mercy -- Through the merits + of Thy HOLY WOUNDS. + (300 days indulgence each time) + +Sacred Penetentiary, January 15, 1924. + +These two invocations were taught by Our Lord to Sr. Mary Martha +Chambon, deceased, in the Vistation of Chambery, France, Marcy 21, +1907. The Sister received from Our Lord a double "Mission": +constantly to invoke the HOLY WOUNDS herself, and to revive this +devotion in the world. + + Promises of Our Lord to Sr. Mary Martha + +"I will grant all that is asked of Me by the invocation of My HOLY +WOUNDS. You must spread the devotion." + + Rosary of the Immaculate Conception + + This chaplet consists of 3 groups of 4 beads each. An Our Father +bead is placed between each group and a medal of the Immaculate +Conception is attached on the end of the Rosary. Saint John +Berchmans, S.J., composed this Rosary and prayed it daily to obtain, +through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the grace never +to commit any sin against the virtue of purity. Beads are pale blue +for the Immaculate Conception. + + This is how to pray the Rosary of the Immaculate Conception: + +Begin with the Sign of the Cross: In the Name of the Father, and of + the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. + Amen. + +Pray the Our Father + +Next pray the following: Blessed be the Holy and Immaculate +(4 times on 4 beads) Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. + +Pray the Glory Be after each set. Pray all three sets. + +If you wish, you may conclude by praying the Consecration to Mary by +Saint John Berchmans, S.J.: + + Holy Mary, Mother of God and Virgin, I choose you this day for my +Queen, patron, and advocate, and I firmly resolve: never to abandon +you; never to say or do anything against you, nor to permit that +anything be done by others to dishonor you. Receive me, then, I beg +of you, as your perpetual servant. Assist me in all my actions, and +do not abandon me at the hour of my death. Amen. + + Chaplet of the Immaculate Conception (card) + + Method of saying + +In the Name of the Father, +and of the Son, +and of the Holy Ghost. +Amen. + + First set of Beads + +Blessed be the Holy and Immaculate +Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. + +The Our Father once, Hail Mary four times, Gloria once. + + Second Set + +Same prayers + + Third Set + +Same prayers + + Indulgence + +300 days. Plenary, once a month. + + Chaplet in Honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary + + Our Lady of Sorrows + + This chaplet consists of 5 groups, each comprising 1 Our Father and +7 Hail Marys. One begins with the prayer: "Incline unto my aid, +O God; O Lord, make haste to help me." + + Little Crown + + OR + + Chaplet of the Infant Jesus of Prague + + This chaplet consists of 3 Our Fathers in honor of the Holy Family, +and 12 Hail Marys in memory of the 12 years of the Sacred Infancy of +our Divine Saviour. To this chaplet of 15 beads is attached a medal +of the Infant Jesus [of Prague]. + + On the medal the following invocation is said: "Divine Infant Jesus, +I adore Thy Cross and I accept all the cross Thou wilt be pleased to +send me. Adorable Trinity, I offer Thee for the glory of Thy Holy +Name of God, all the adorations of the Sacred Heart of the Holy Infant +Jesus." + + Each Our Father and Hail Mary is preceded by the aspiration: "And +the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us." On terminating the +chaplet say: "Holy Infant Jesus, bless and protect us." + + This devotion owers its origin to the zeal of Sister Marguerite, a +Carmelite religious, who died in France in 1648. She was +distinguished for her devotion to the Holy Child Jesus. + + Chaplet of the Holy Infant Jesus (card) + + The More You Honor Me + The More I Will Bless You + + On the medal the following invocation is said: + + "Divine Infant Jesus, I adore Thy Cross, and I accept all the crosses +Thou wilt be pleased to send me. Adorable Trinity, I offer Thee for +the glory of the Holy Name of God, all the adorations of the Sacred +Heart of the Holy Infant Jesus." + + Each "Our Father" and "Hail Mary" is preceded by the aspiration: + + "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us." + + On terminating the chaplet, say: + + "Holy Infant Jesus, bless and protect us." + + The Divine Infant revealed to His faithful servant how pleasing to +Him is this holy practice; He promised her that He would grant special +graces, above all purity of heart and innocence, to all who carried +the chaplet on their person and recited it in honor of the mysteries +of His holy infancy. As a sign of His approval, He showed her these +chaplets shining with a supernatural light. + + Novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague in Urgent Need + (To be said for nine days or nine consecutive hours) + + O Jesus, Who said, "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, + knock and it shall be opened to you," through the intercession of Mary, + Your most holy Mother, I knock, I seek, I ask that my prayer be answered. + (Mention your request.) + + O Jesus, Who said, "All that you ask of the Father in My Name He will + grant you," through the intercession of Mary, Your most holy Mother, + I humbly and urgently ask Your Father in Your Name that my prayer be + granted. (Mention your request.) + + O Jesus, Who said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My word shall + not pass," through the intercession of Mary, Your most holy Mother, I + feel confident that my prayer will be granted. (Mention your request.) + + The Jesus Prayer + + Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." + +(say 600 times a day) + +Compiler's note: Or: + + Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, + have mercy on us. + + The following is quoted directly from: THE MANUAL OF PRAYERS FOR +CONGREGATIONAL USE. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd. +Publishers to the Holy See. 1942. + + THE JESUS PSALTER + + This Psalter was composed probably by Richard Whytford, first a +Secular Priest, then a Brigittin of Syon House, Middlesex, in the +fifteenth century. An original MS. is in the possession of Lord +Abergavenny. Bishop Challoner's edition, which is here given, is a +compressed formulary, and the language is generally modernized. + +There is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be +saved. ACTS iv, 12 + +The holy name is not to be repeated hastily, but with great reverence +and devotion. + + PART I + +You must begin by a devout kneeling, or bowing, at the adorable name +of JESUS, saying: + + In the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in +heaven, on earth, and under the earth: and ... every tongue confess, +that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. + Phil. ii, 10-11 + + FIRST PETITION + + Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, } + Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, } have mercy on me. + Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, } + +Jesus, have mercy on me, O God of compassion, and forgive the many and +great offences which I have committed in thy sight. Many have been +the follies of my life, and great are the miseries which I have +deserved for my ingratitude. + +Have mercy on me, dear Jesus, for I am weak; O Lord, heal me, who am +unable to help myself. + +Deliver me from setting my heart upon any of thy creatures, which may +divert my eyes from a continual looking-up to thee. + +Grant me grace henceforth, for the love of thee, to hate sin; and, out +of a just esteem of thee, to despise all worldly vanities. + +Have mercy on all sinners, Jesus, I beseech thee; turn their vices +into virtues; and, making them true observers of thy law, and sincere +lovers of thee, bring them to bliss in everlasting glory. + +Have mercy also on the souls in purgatory, for thy bitter Passion, I +beseech thee, and for thy glorious name Jesus. + +O blessed Trinity, one eternal God, have mercy on me. + +Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom +come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. + +Rx Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses +as well forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into +temptation: but deliver us from evil. Amen. + +Hail, Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou +among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. +Rx Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour +of our death. Amen. + + The Chaplet of Saint Jude + + Oh Holy St. Jude, Apostle and Martyr, great in virtue and rich in +miracles, near kinsman of Jesus Christ, faithful intercessor of all +who invoke your special help in time of need. To you I have recourse +from the depth of my heart and humbly request assistance. Help me in +my present and urgent petition. In return, I promise to make your +name known and cause you to be invoked. + + Say three Our Fathers, three Hail Marys and Glorias. + + This novena, if said in good faith, has never been known to fail and +must be said for nine consecutive days. +Scriptural Litany of the Holy [Blessed, Sacred] Name of Jesus + +V. Lord, have mercy. +R. Christ, have mercy. +V. Lord, have mercy. + +V. Jesus, hear us. +R. Jesus, graciously hear us. + + +Leader Response +______ ________ + +God the Father in Heaven +God the Son, Redeemer of the world +God the Holy Spirit Have mercy on us. +Holy Trinity One God + +Jesus, Son of Abraham +Jesus, Son of David +Jesus, Son of Mary +Jesus, [foster] Son of Joseph +Jesus, Son of Man +Jesus, Son of God + +Jesus, Son of the Blessed One +Jesus, Chosen One of God +Jesus, Messiah +Jesus, Christ Jesus +Jesus, Christ of God +Jesus, Christ the Lord +Jesus, Holy One of God +Jesus, Christ who is above all +Jesus, Of David's line +Jesus, Holy One + +Jesus, Son of the living God +Jesus, Christ who is just +Jesus, True light +Jesus, Sun of Justice +Jesus, Morning Star +Jesus, Light of the world +Jesus, the Just One +Jesus, Liberator +Jesus, Righteous Judge +Jesus, Radiant light of God's glory +Jesus, Life +Jesus, Light +Jesus, Rising sun +Jesus, Light of men [people, humanity] +Jesus, Light to enlighten the Gentiles + +Jesus, Son of the Father +Jesus, Root of David +Jesus, Firstborn of all creation +Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega +Jesus, the First and the Last +Jesus, the eternal Amen +Jesus, I am that I am +Jesus, Image of God +Jesus, who has entered before us +Jesus, [my] Lord and my God +Jesus, Immanuel [God with us] +Jesus, Lord +Jesus, the Word +Jesus, True God +Jesus, True vine +Jesus, Truth +Jesus, Image of the unseen God +Jesus, Ultimate source of God's creation +Jesus, the Way +Jesus, Never change +Jesus, Wheat grain +Jesus, Wisdom of God +Jesus, the Word of God +Jesus, the Word made flesh +Jesus, Word who is life +Jesus, One Lord +Jesus, Perfect copy of his (God's) nature +Jesus, Power and the wisdom of God + +Jesus, Son of the Most High +Jesus, "My Firstborn, Highest of Earthly Kings" (Isaiah?) +Jesus, Beloved Son +Jesus, the King +Jesus, Son of the Most High God +Jesus, Beloved Son of the Father +Jesus, Firstborn Son +Jesus, Son that he loves +Jesus, King of Israel +Jesus, King of kings +Jesus, King of nations +Jesus, King of righteousness +Jesus, [King of angels] +Jesus, Prince of life +Jesus, Ruler of all +Jesus, Ruler of the kings of the earth +Jesus, King of [the Gentiles?] +Jesus, King of the Jews + +Jesus, Only Son of the Father +Jesus, Bread of God +Jesus, Bread of life +Jesus, Bread that comes down from heaven +Jesus, First Fruits +Jesus, Living Bread +Jesus, Hidden manna +Jesus, Inexpressible gift +Jesus, Israel's comforting + +Jesus, the Nazarene +Jesus, Lion of the tribe of Judah +Jesus, gentle Carpenter from Nazareth +Jesus, Eldest of many brothers +Jesus, Faithful witness +Jesus, Testator +Jesus, Favorite +Jesus, Friend of tax collectors and sinners +Jesus, gentle Son of the carpenter +Jesus, Nazarene +Jesus, [source of our faith] +Jesus, Hope +Jesus, [Love] +Jesus, Leader +Jesus, the Man +Jesus, Teacher +Jesus, I am the Truth + +Jesus, High priest +Jesus, Prophet of the Most High +Jesus, Our Advocate with the Father +Jesus, Apostle and High Priest of our religion +Jesus, the Mediator +Jesus, Minister of the sanctuary and of the True Tent of Meeting +Jesus, Priest of the Order of Melchizedek and forever + +Jesus, Living stone +Jesus, Main cornerstone +Jesus, Spiritual rock +Jesus, Stone rejected +Jesus, Stone to stumble over +Jesus, Precious cornerstone + +Jesus, our Chief Shepherd +Jesus, Gate of the sheepfold +Jesus, Good Shepherd +Jesus, Great Shepherd of the sheep +Jesus, Shepherd and guardian of your souls +Jesus, One shepherd + +Jesus, Holy servant Jesus +Jesus, Slave +Jesus, Innocent +Jesus, Saviour +Jesus, Servant of circumcised Jews +Jesus, Lamb of God +Jesus, Lamb without spot or stain +Jesus, the Last Adam +Jesus, Lamb that was sacrificed +Jesus, Ransom +Jesus, Passover +Jesus, Reconciliation +Jesus, Greater Covenant +Jesus, Saviour of the world + +Jesus, Resurrection +Jesus, Firstborn from the dead +Jesus, Power for salvation +Jesus, Bridegroom of the Church +Jesus, Crowned with glory and splendour +Jesus, Remains forever +Jesus, Glory of your people Israel +Jesus, Head of the Church +Jesus, Head of every man [and woman] +Jesus, Head of every Sovereignty and Power +Jesus, Glory +Jesus, Leader and Saviour +Jesus, Leader who would take them to their salvation +Jesus, Head +Jesus, Lord both of the dead and of the living +Jesus, Lord Jesus +Jesus, Lord of all men [and women] +Jesus, Lord of Glory +Jesus, Lord of lords +Jesus, Lord of peace + +Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world Have mercy on us +Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world Have mercy on us +Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world Grant us peace + +In the Name of the Father, + and of the Son, + and of the Holy Ghost. +Amen. + + Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin + + The following is quoted from the appendix to "True Devotion to the +Blessed Virgin" by Saint Louis de Montfort. This Rosary appears to be +basically the same as the Rosary of the Immaculate Conception but I +include it here as found in Louis's book because the recitation of the +prayers is slightly different and, while the purity of the Virgin is +invoked, there is no actual mention of the "Immaculate Conception," +which I don't think had yet been defined. + +BEGIN QUOTATION + + St. John the Evangelist saw a woman crowned with twelve stars, +clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet. According to the +commentators, this woman is the Blessed Virgin Mary, with her virtues +and her privileges, especially that of her divine maternity. Thus +originated the "Little Crown of the Twelve Stars of the Blessed Virgin +Mary," which St. Joseph Calasanctius, St. John Berchmans and many +other saints made it a practice to recite frequently. + + In order to make this prayer more attractive, St. Louis de Montfort +added to each Hail Mary one of the praises of the Blessed Virgin, with +the invocation, "Rejoice, O Virgin mary; rejoice a thousand times." + + It is this prayer which Louis de Montfort gave to his religious +families (the Montfort Fathers and the Daughters of Wisdom) as their +morning prayer. He also recommends it to all those who embrace the +devotion of the holy and loving salvery of Jesus through Mary. + +LITTLE CROWN OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY + +I. Crown of Excellence + + (To honor the divine maternity of the Blessed Virgin, + her ineffable virginity, her purity without stain, + and her innumerable virtues.) + +1. Our Father. + Hail Mary. + Blessed art you, O Virgin Mary, who didst bear the Lord, the + Creator of the world; thou didst give birth to Him Who made + thee and remainest a Virgin forever. + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times! + +2. Hail Mary. + O holy and immaculate Virgin, I know not with what praise to + extoll thee, since thou didst bear in thy womb the very One Whom + the heavens cannot contain. + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times. + +3. Hail Mary. + Thou art all fair, O Virgin Mary, and there is no stain in thee. + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times. + +4. Hail Mary. + Thy virtues, O Virgin, surpass the stars in number. + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times. + Glory be to the Father. + +II. Crown of Power. + + (To honor the royalty of the Blessed Virgin, her magnificence, + her universal mediation and the strength of her rule.) + +5. Our Father. + Hail Mary. + Glory be to thee, O empress of the world. Bring us with thee to + the joys of heaven. + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times. + +6. Hail Mary. + Glory be to thee, O treasure-house of the Lord's graces! Grant us + a share in thy riches. + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times. + +7. Hail Mary. + Glory be to thee, O Mediatrix between God and man! Through thee + may the Almighty be favorable to us. + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times. + +8. Hail Mary. + Glory be to thee who destroyest heresies and crushest demons! Be + thou our loving guide. + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times. + Glory be to the Father. + +III.Crown of Goodness + + (To honor the mercy of the Blessed Virgin toward sinners, the + poor, the just and the dying.) + +9. Our Father. + Hail Mary. + Glory be to thee, O refuge of sinner! Intercede for us with God. + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times. + +10. Hail Mary. + Glory be to thee, O Mother of orphans! Render the Almighty + favorable to us. + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times. + +11. Glory be to thee, O joy of the just! Lead us with thee to the + joys of heaven. + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times. + +12. Hail Mary. + Glory be to thee who art ever ready to assist us in life and in + death! Lead us with thee to the kingdom of heaven! + Rejoice, O Virgin Mary. + Rejoice a thousand times. + Glory be to the Father. + + Let us pray + + Hail, Mary, Daughter of God the Father; Hail, Mary, Mother of God the +Son; Hail, Mary, Spouse of the Holy Ghost; Hail, Mary, Temple of the +Most Holy Trinity; Hail, Mary, my Mistress, my treasure, my joy, Queen +of my heart; my Mother, my life, my sweetness, my dearest hope, yea, my +heart and my soul! I am all thine and all that I have is thine, O +Virgin blessed above all things! Let thy soul be in me to magnify the +Lord; let thy spirit be in me to rejoice in God. Set thyself, O +faithful Virgin, as a seal upon my heart, that in thee and through +thee I may be found faithful to God. Receive me, O gracious Virgin, +among those whom thou lovest and teachest, whom thou leadest, +nourishest and protectest as thy children. Grant that for love of +thee I may despise all earthly consolations and ever cling to those of +heaven; until through the Holy Ghost, thy faithful Spouse, and through +thee, His faithful spouse, Jesus Christ thy Son be formed in me for +the glory of the Father. Amen. + + Little Flower Rosary + + This chaplet consists of 24 beads, commemorating the 24 years of +Saint Therese's life, and one additional bead. On the one bead the +following ejaculation is said: "Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus, +Patroness of Missions, pray for us." On the other 24 beads is said +the Glory be to honor the Holy Trinity in thanksgiving for having +given us the Little Saint who lived in this world but 24 years. + + The use of this chaplet is encouraged by the Carmelite Fathers. + + Rosary or Little Beads of Our Lady of Consolation + + This chaplet consists of 13 beads with a medal of Saint Augustine. +On each bead is said an Our Father and a Hail Mary, and at the end the +Hail, Holy Queen is recited. The 12 Our Fathers and Hail Marys are in +honor of the 12 Apostles; the other Our Father and Hail Mary are in +honor of Our Lord, King of the Apostles. + + While reciting these prayers one should meditate on the 12 articles +of the Apostles' Creed and pray for the safety of the Holy Father, the +Pope and the welfare of the Church. + + This chaplet is designated especially for the Augustinian secular +tertiaries. + This information is quoted from TWENTY-FOUR ROSARIES AND CHAPLETS by +Patrick Shaughnessy, O.S.B., S.T.D. Reprinted 1984 by Our Lady's +Rosary Makers. + + Penal Rosary + +Sorry to get your hopes up for nothing. A Penal Rosary (I don't know +where the name comes from) consists of a single decade (i.e. one large +bead, ten small beads) with a ring at one end. You slip the ring over +your thumb, and pray the first decade of a normal (Dominican) Rosary. +Then you move the ring to your index finger, and pray the second decade. +And so on. Not really a new Rosary -- just a more compact version +of the old one. + +Hello! I am an enforced lurker on soc.religion.christian (UVA +doesn't allow us to post, only to read). I saw your post about +the Lutheran Rosary. While I don't have any information about +this one specifically, I do have a very, *very* good book on the +rosary in general (I was surprised to find out how many different +kinds there are.) The book is a thin little gem called A DOORWAY +TO SILENCE by David (??) Llewelyn (sp?). I got it from the Holy +Rosary Apostolate in Canada. I don't have the address on me, but +if you are interested, I will try to find the info. for you. The +book has a few pages of into concerning what the rosary is and +what it is for, and the rest of the book is about the practice of +contemplative prayer, answers to difficulties one encounters when +attempting same, techniques to focus concentration, etc. It has +a very gentle, patient tone and pace, and I have found it to have +had the greatest influence on my prayer life of any devotional +material I have ever read, save the Bible itself. + +In closing, I found this in another pamphlet on rosaries in +general, and it is now my standard prayer when I'm saying the +rosary. The prayers are taken from the Anglican Book of Common +Prayer, which is in turn largely taken from the Bible. + + Crucifix: Nicene Creed + 1st bead: Lord's Prayer + 3 beads and decade beads: + Blessed be Christ Jesus, very God and very man, + Blessed be the holy Name of Jesus. + O Saviour of the world, who by thy cross and + precious blood hast redeemed us, + Save us and help us, we humbly beseech thee, O Lord. + 2nd single bead: Gloria + Medallion: Lord's Prayer + Beads between decades: Gloria to end decade and Lord's + Prayer to begin new decade. + +I haven't come up with a suitable prayer to end the rosary, so I +use something I found in a Lenten Study guide - don't know it's +history. + Jesus, may all that is you flow into me. + May your body and blood be my food and my drink. + May your passion and death be my strength and my life. + Jesus, with you by my side, enough has been given. + May the shelter I seek be the shadow of your cross. + Let me not run from the love which you offer, + But hold me safe from the forces of evil. + On each of my dyings, shed your light and your love. + Keep calling to me until that day comes, + When, with your saints, I may praise you forever. Amen. + +I also use this as a personal thanksgiving after receiving +Communion. + +God bless you and keep you! + + Chaplet in Honor of the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ + + (Precious Blood Fathers) + + This chaplet consists of 33 beads, in honor of the thirty-three years +of Our Lord's life on earth. There are 6 groups of 5 beads each, and +3 closing beads, and a medal of the Precious Blood. For each group +one says the Our Father 5 times and the Glory be 1 time. On the final +group of 3 beads one says the Our Father 3 times and the Glory be +1 time. + + In the beginning say: "Incline unto my aid, O God. O Lord, make +haste to help me. Glory be, etc. + + There are 7 mysteries recalling the occasions on which Our Saviour +shed His Blood for us. After each group of 5 Our Fathers and 1 Glory +be, the following prayer is said: "We therefore pray Thee, help Thy +servants whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy Precious Blood." + + Rosary of the Blessed Name of Jesus + +Joyful Mysteries: Incarnation, Birth of Jesus, Circumcision, + Finding in the Temple, Baptism of Jesus + +Sorrowful Mysteries: Washing the Feet of the Disciples, + Prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gesthsemene, + Our Saviour is Apprehended or Arrested, + Our Saviour Carries His Cross, + Descent of Our Saviour into Hell + +Glorious Mysteries: Resurrection, Ascension, Our Lord Jesus Sends + Down His Holy Ghost, Our Lord Jesus Crowning + the Blessed Virgin Mary and All the Saints, + Our Lord Jesus Christ Coming to Judge Mankind + +I believe this Rosary is sometimes called the Old Dominican Rosary. +The mantra is also different, being the following: + +Joyful : O Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us (10 times).* +Sorrowful: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, have mercy on us.* +Glorious : Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us.* + + Recipe for rose beads for a Rosary or jewelry: + +Ingredients +___________ + +1 cup salt +1 cup rose petals, firmly packed +1/2 cup water +oil paint (optional) + +1. Heat salt and petals, mashing together. Stir in water and paint for + desired color, or leave natural for a brown bead. + +2. Reheat very low over an asbestos pad, stirring constantly until smooth. + +3. Roll out to 1/4" thickness. Cut and roll beads in the palm of your + hand to desired shape (oval, round, oblong) until they are smooth. + +4. String beads on florist's wire or waxed string fastened to a needle. + Let beads dry in a dark place, moving them ocassional to keep from + sticking. + +5. When dry, fashion into jewelry as desired. Wrap in rose-scented cloth + to increase fragrance. + +SHOULD YOU PREFER TRADITIONAL BLACK ROSARY BEADS, +COOK PETALS WITH A RUSTY NAIL. + + Rosary of Saint Michael and All Angels + + The Rosary of Saint Michael and All Angels is a lovely Rosary +consisting of nine sets of prayers; one Our Father and three Hail +Marys is prayed for each of the nine choirs of angels. The nine +choirs of angels are: + +Cherubim Dominions Principalities +Seraphim Virtues Archangels +Thrones Powers Angels + + One day, Saint Michael, Prince of Angels, appeared to a devout +servant of God named Antonia d' Astonac. The Arch-angel Michael said +to her, "I wish to be honored by nine salutations corresponding to the +nine Choirs of Angels, consisting of one Our Father and three Hail +Marys for each of the angelic choirs." Saint Michael went on to +promise that anyone who prayed this devotion in his honor would have, +when approaching the Holy Altar to receive the Eucharist, an escort of +nine angels chosen by himself from each of the nine choirs of angels. +In addition, he promised that anyone who recited this devotion daily +would be given during his life Prince Michael's own protection as well +as the continual assistance of all of God's holy angels. Furthermore, +after death, such a one will obtain for himself and his relations +deliverance from purgatory. + + This is the method of reciting the chaplet: + + The chaplet is begun by saying the following invocation on the +Powerful Medal (Saint Benedict's Medal): + + O God, come to my assistance. + O Lord, make haste to help me. + Glory be, etc. + +These are the nine salutations to be followed by one Our Father and +three Hail Marys: + + Following the nine salutations, pray one Our Father in honor of each +of the following leading angels: Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel, Saint +Raphael, and our Guardian Angel. Personally, I myself pray one Our +Father in honor of the following four angels: Saint Michael, Saint +Gabriel, Saint Uriel, and Saint Raphael; I requested that God make +Uriel and Raphael my guardian angels. On the Guardian Angel Medal I +say an additional Our Father for my personal Guardian Angel whose name +I do not know. + + Prayer + + Almighty and Everlasting God, who by a prodigy of goodness and a +merciful desire for the salvation of all men, hast appointed the most +glorious Archangel, Saint Michael, Prince of Thy Church, make us +worthy, we beseech Thee, to be delivered from all our enemies, that +none of them may harass us at the hour of death, but that we may be +conducted by him into the august presence of Thy Divine Majesty. This +we beg through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. + + OR + + Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection +against the malice and snares of the devil. We humbly beseech God to +command him, and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the divine +power thrust into hell Satan and the other evil spirits who roam +through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen. + + + 1 + + By the intercession of Saint Michael and the celestial Choir of +Seraphim, may the Lord make us worthy to burn with the fire of perfect +charity. Amen. + + 2 + + By the intercession of Saint Michael and the celestial Choir of +Cherubim, may the Lord vouchsafe to grant us grace to leave the ways +of wickedness to run in the paths of Christian perfection. Amen. + + 3 + + By the intercession of Saint Michael and the celestial Choir of +Thrones, may the Lord infuse into our hearts a true and sincere spirit +of humility. Amen. + + 4 + + By the intercession of Saint Michael and the celestial choir of +Dominions, may the Lord give us grace to govern our senses and subdue +our unruly passions. Amen. + + 5 + + By the intercession of Saint Michael and the celestial choir of +Powers, may the Lord vouchsafe to protect our souls against the snares +and temptations of the devil. Amen. + + 6 + + By the intercession of Saint Michael and the celestial Choir of +Virtues, may the Lord preserve us from evil and suffer us not to fall +into temptation. Amen. + + 7 + + By the intercession of Saint Michael and the celestial Choir of +Principalities, may God fill our souls with a true spirit of +obedience. Amen. + + 8 + + By the intercession of Saint Michael and the celestial Choir of +Archangels, may the Lord give us perseverence in faith and in all good +works, in order that we gain the glory of Paradise. Amen. + + 9 + + By the intercession of Saint Michael and the celestial Choir of +Angels, may the Lord grant us to be protected by them in this mortal +life and conducted hereafter to eternal glory. Amen. + + + Original Version My Version + ________________ __________ + + 10 Saint Michael 10 Saint Michael + 11 Saint Gabriel 11 Saint Gabriel + 12 Saint Raphael 12 Saint Uriel } my guardian + 13 our Guardian Angel 13 Saint Raphael } angels + Medal My Guardian Angel + + The chaplet is concluded with the following prayers on the Prince +Michael side of the second medal: + + O glorious Prince Saint Michael, chief and commander of the heavenly +hosts, guardian of souls, vanquisher of rebel spirits, servant in the +house of the Divine King, and our admirable conductor, thou who dost +shine with excellence and superhuman virtue, vouchsafe to deliver us +from all evil, who turn to thee with confidence, and enable us by thy +gracious protection to serve God more and more faithfully every day. + + V. Pray for us, O glorious Saint Michael, Prince of the Church of + Jesus Christ. + + R. That we may be made worthy of His promises. + +Additional information: + +This is meaning of the Latin letters on the two medals: + +C S The Cross of the Holy Father Benedict +P B Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti + + C The Holy Cross be my Light and not the dragon be my Guide + S +NDSMD Crux Sacra Sit Mihi Lux + M Non Draco Sit Mihi Dux + L + +V.R.S.N.S.M.L. Down with you Satan! Stop luring me with your fakes! + Vade Retro Satana! Numquam Suade Mihi Vana! + +S.M.Q.L.I.V.B. Poisonous is your bait! Gulp it down yourself! + Sunt Mala Quae Libas! Ipse Venana Bibas! + +Pax! Peace! + +On the front of the Powerful Medal is Saint Benedict. The Latin says: + + Ejus in obitu nostro praesentia muniamur + At our death may we be protected by his presence + +The medal, especially when properly blessed, is a protection when worn +or carried on one's person, or when attached to walls, doors, or other +objects. + + (With Ecclesiastical Approval) + +Oblates of Saint Benedict +Saint Scholastica Mission House +24OO Maple Avenue +Lisle, Illinois 6O532 + +OR + +Oblates of Saint Benedict +24 W 350 Maple +Naperville, Illinois 60540 +(I'm reliably informed this address will get to Sister Helen, who +makes the Rosaries of Saint Michael and All Angels, faster.) + +7O8-968-4264 + +$5.OO donation for 1 chaplet + +Chaplet of St. Michael (RC) + +The chaplet is said by starting with the Our Father bead nearest the central +joining and leaving the last 4 beads nearest the medal for last. + +V. O God, come to my assistance. +R. O Lord, make haste to help me. [Gloria Patri] + +Salutation 1: 1 Pater & 4 Aves in honor of the 1st Choir of Angels + + By the intercession of St. Michael and the Celestial choir of + Seraphim, may the Lord make us worthy to burn with the fire of + perfect charity. Amen. + +Salutation 2: 1 Pater & 4 Aves in honor of the 2nd Choir of Angels + + By the intercession of St. Michael and the Celestial choir of + Cherubim, may the Lord vouchsafe to grant us grace to leave the + ways of wickedness and run in the paths of Christian perfection. + Amen. + +Salutation 3: 1 Pater & 4 Aves in honor of the 3rd Choir of Angels + + By the intercession of St. Michael and the Celestial choir of + Thrones, may the Lord infuse into our hearts a true and sincere + spirit of humility. Amen. + +Salutation 4: 1 Pater & 4 Aves in honor of the 4th Choir of Angels + + By the intercession of St. Michael and the Celestial choir of + Dominions, may the Lord give us grace to govern our senses and + subdue our unruly passions. Amen. + +Salutation 5: 1 Pater & 4 Aves in honor of the 5th Choir of Angels + + By the intercession of St. Michael and the Celestial choir of + Powers, may the Lord vouchsafe to protect our souls against the + snares and temptations of the devil. Amen. + +Salutation 6: 1 Pater & 4 Aves in honor of the 6th Choir of Angels + + By the intercession of St. Michael and the Celestial choir of + Virtues, may the Lord preserve us from evil, an suffer us not to + fall into temptation. Amen. + +Salutation 7: 1 Pater & 4 Aves in honor of the 7th Choir of Angels + + By the intercession of St. Michael and the Celestial choir of + Principalities, may God fill our souls with a true spirit of + obedience. Amen. + +Salutation 8: 1 Pater & 4 Aves in honor of the 8th Choir of Angels + + By the intercession of St. Michael and the Celestial choir of + Archangels, may the Lord give us perseverance in faith and in + all good works, in order that we gain the glory of Paradise. + Amen. + +Salutation 9: 1 Pater & 4 Aves in honor of the 9th Choir of Angels + + By the intercession of St. Michael and the Celestial choir of + Angels, may the Lord grant us to be protected by them in this + mortal life and conducted hereafter to eternal glory. Amen. + +At the end, say 4 Paters on the 4 large beads nearest the medal: + + The 1st in honor of St. Michael + The 2nd in honor of St. Gabriel + The 3rd in honor of St. Raphael + The 4th in honor of St. Uriel (or "Our Guardian Angel" if preferred) + +Then say the following invocation: + +O glorious Prince St. Michael, chief and commander of the heavenly hosts, +guardian of souls, vanquisher of rebel spirits, servant in the house of +the divine King, and our admirable conductor, thou who dost shine with +excellence and superhuman virtue, vouchsafe to deliver us from all evil, +who turn to thee with confidence, and enable us by thy gracious protection +to serve God more and more faithfully every day. Amen. + +V. Pray for us, O Glorious St. Michael, Prince of the Church of Jesus Christ. +R. That we may be made worthy of His Promises. + +Prayer on the medal: + +Almighty and everlasting God, who by a prodigy of Goodness and a merciful +desire for the salvation of all men, has appointed the most glorious +Archangel St. Michael, Prince of Thy Church, make us worthy, we beseech Thee, +to be delivered by his powerful protection from all our enemies, that none of +them may harass us at the hour of our death, but that we may be conducted by +him into the august presence of Thy Divine Majesty. This we beg through the +merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. + + Beads of the Sacred Heart of Jesus + + This chaplet consists of 5 groups of 5 beads each, with a large bead +separating each group. However, no special beads are required. + + On the Cross say Anima Christi, etc., or 1 Our Father and 1 Hail +Mary. On each large bead say: "Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make +my heart like unto Thine." On each small bead say: "Sweet Heart of +Jesus, by Thou my Love." At the end of each group say: "Sweet Heart +of Mary be my salvation." + + Conclusion: "O Lord Jesus, Who in the plenitude of Thy mercy hast +redeemed us by Thy Precious Blood, grant to the souls of Thy servants +eternal rest. Amen." + + Rosary (Chaplet) of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (card) + + On the Cross + +Soul of Christ, sanctify me! +Body of Christ, save me! +Blood of Christ, inebriate me! +Water from the side of Christ, wash me! +Passion of Christ, strengthen me! +O Good Jesus, hear me! +Within Thy wounds, hide me; +permit me not to be separated from Thee; +from the malignant enemy defend me; +in the hour of death call me + and bid me come to Thee, +that with Thy saints I may praise Thee, + forever and ever, Amen. + + On the Large Beads + +O sweetest Heart of Jesus, +I implore that I may ever love Thee +more and more. + + On the Small Beads + +Sweet Heart of Jesus, be my love. + + At the End of Each Decade + +Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation. + + At the Conclusion + +May the Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament +be praised, adored, and loved with grateful affection, +at every moment, in all the tabernacles of the world, +even to the end of time. + Amen. + + Chaplet of Saint Anthony + + Chaplet of Saint Anthony (Franciscan). The Chaplet of St. Anthony is +composed of thirteen groups (or decades) of three beads each, at the +end of which may be a medal of Saint Anthony holding the Infant Jesus. +On the first bead of each group (or decade) is said the Our Father, on +the second the Hail Mary, and on the third the Glory Be to the Father, +etc. At the end the Miraculous Responsory is recited: + + If miracles thou fain wouldst see + Do, error, death, calamity, + The leprous stain, the demon flies, + From beds of pain the sick arise. + + The hungry seas forego their prey, + The prisoner's cruel chains give way; + While palsied limbs and chattels lost, + Both young and old recovered boast. + + And perils perish; plenty's hoard + Is heaped on hunger's famished board; + Let those relate who know it well, + Let Padua of her patron tell. + + The hungry seas, etc. + Glory be to the Father, etc. + The hungry seas, etc. + + V. Pray for us Blessed Anthony. + + R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. + + Let Us Pray + + O God! Let the votive commemoration of Blessed Anthony, thy +Confessor, be a source of joy to thy Church, that she may always be +fortified with spiritual assistance, and may deserve to possess +eternal joy. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen. + + During the prayers meditation on the following virtues of the saint +is recommended: Faith, Hope, Charity, Love of Jesus, Prudence, +Justice, Patience, Penance, Humility, Purity, Obedience, Poverty, +Spirit of Prayer, and Union with God. + + An indulgence of one hundred days each time. A plenary indulgence, +once a month. + + Another method calls for meditation on the following thirteen +petitions while reciting thirteen times the Our Father, Hail Mary, +Glory be. + +1. Saint Anthony, raiseth the dead, pray for those Christians now + in their agony, and for our dear departed. + +2. Saint Anthony, zealous preacher of the Gospel, fortify us + against the errors of the enemies of God, and pray for the + Pope and the Church. + +3. Saint Anthony, powerful with the Heart of Jesus, preserve us + from the calamities which threaten us on account of our sins. + +4. Saint Anthony, who drivest away devils, make us triumph over + their snares. + +5. Saint Anthony, lily of heavenly purity, purify us from the + stains of the soul and preserve our bodies from all dangers. + +6. Saint Anthony, healer of the sick, cure our diseases and + preserve us in health. + +7. Saint Anthony, guide of travellers, bring to safe harbor those + who are in danger of perishing, and calm the troubled waves of + passion which agitate our souls. + +8. Saint Anthony, liberatory of captives, deliver us from the + captivity of evil. + +9. Saint Anthony, who restorest to young and old the use of their + limbs, obtain for us the perfect use of the senses of our body + and the faculties of our soul. + +10. Saint Anthony, finder of lost things, help us to find all that + we lost in the spiritual and temporal order. + +11. Saint Anthony, protected by Mary, avert the dangers which + threaten our body and our soul. + +12. Saint Anthony, helper of the poor, help us in our needs and + give bread and work to those who ask. + +13. Saint Anthony, we thankfully proclaim thy miraculous power, + and we beseech thee to protect us all the days of our life. + +(At times this chaplet may be composed of 13 beads instead of 13 +groups of 3 beads each.) + + PRAYER TO OBTAIN FROM SAINT ANTHONY THE RESTORATION OF THINGS THAT +ARE LOST. + + Great Saint Anthony, who hast received from God a special power to +recover lost things, help me that I may find that which I am now +seeking. Obtain for me, also, an active faith, perfect docility to +the inspirations of grace, disgust for the vain pleasures of the +world, and an ardent desire for the imperishable goods of an +everlasting happiness. Amen. + +Quoted from: TWENTY-FOUR ROSARIES AND CHAPLETS by Patrick +Shaughnessy, O.S.B., S.T.D. Grail Publications. Reprinted 1984 by +Our Lady's Rosary Makers. + +Same information with additions from: Card. + +Saint Benedict + +First Prayer + +Oh Jesus Christ! Eternal Sweetness to those who love Thee, joy surpassing +all joy and all desire, Salvation and Hope of all sinners, Who hast proved +that Thou hast no greater desire than to be among men, even assuming human +nature at the fullness of time for the love of men, recall all the +sufferings Thou hast endured from the instant of Thy conception, and +especially during Thy Passion, as it was decreed and ordained from all +eternity in the Divine plan. + +Remember, oh Lord, that during the Last Supper with Thy disciples, having +washed their feet, Thou gavest them Thy Most Precious Body and Blood, and +while at the same time Thou didst weetly console them, Thou didst foretell +them Thy coming Passion. + +Remember the sadness and bitterness which Thou didst experience in Thy Soul +as Thou Thyself bore witness saying: "My Soul is sorrowful even unto +death." + +Remember all the fear, anguish and pain that Thou didst suffer in Thy +delicate Body before the torment of the Crucifixion, when, after having +prayed three times, bathed in a sweat of blood, Thou wast betrayed by Judas, +Thy disciple, arrested by the people of a nation Thou hadst chosen and +elevated, accused by false witnesses, unjustly judged by three judges during +the flower of Thy youth and during the solemn Paschal season. + +Remember that Thou wast despoiled of Thy garments and clothed in those of +derision; that Thy Face and Eyes were veiled, that Thou wast buffeted, +crowned with throns, a reed placed in Thy Hands, that Thou was crushed with +blows and overwhelmed with affronts and outrages. + +In memory of all these pains and sufferings which Thou didst endure before +Thy Passion on the Cross, grant me before my death true contrition, a +sincere and entire confession, worthy satisfaction and the remission of all +my sins. Amen. + +Second Prayer + +Oh Jesus! True liberty of angels, Paradise of delights, remember the horror +and sadness which Thou didst endure when Thy enemies, like furious lions, +surrounded Thee, and by thousands of insults, spits, blows, lacerations and +other unheard-of-cruelties, tormented Thee at will. In consideration of +these torments and insulting words, I beseech Thee, oh my Saviour, to +deliver me from all my enemies, visible and invisible, and to bring me, +under Thy protection, to the perfection of eternal salvation. Amen. + +Third Prayer + +Oh Jesus! Creator of Heaven and earth Whom nothing can encompass or limit, +Thou Who dost enfold and hold all under Thy Loving power, remember the very +bitter pain Thou didst suffer when the Jews nailed Thy Sacred Hands and Feet +to the Cross by blow after blow with big blunt nails, and not finding Thee +in a pitiable enough state to satisfy their rage, they enlarged Thy Wounds, +and added pain to pain, and with indescribable cruelty stretched Thy Body on +the Cross, pulled You from all sides, thus dislocating Your Limbs. + +I beg of Thee, oh Jesus, by the memory of this most Loving suffering of the +Cross, to grant me the grace to fear Thee and to Love Thee. Amen. + +Fourth Prayer + +Oh Jesus! Heavenly Physician, raised aloft on the Cross to heal our wounds +with Yours, remember the bruises which Thou didst suffer and the weakness of +all Thy Members which were distended to such a degree that never was there +pain like unto Thine. From the crown of Thy Head to the Soles of Thy Feet +there was not one spot on THy Body that was not in torment, and yet, +forgetting all Thy sufferings, Thou didst not cease to pray to Thy Heavenly +Father for Thy enemies, saying: "Father forgive them for they know not what +they do." + +Through this great Mercy, and in memory of this suffering, grant that the +remembrance of Thy Most Bitter Passion may effect in us a perfect contrition +and the remission of all our sins. Amen. + +Fifth Prayer + +Oh Jesus! Mirror of eternal splendor, remember the sadness which Thou +experienced, when contemplating in the light of Thy Divinity the +predestination of those who would be saved by the merits of Thy Sacred +Passion, Thou didst see at the same time, the great multitude of reprobates +who would be damned for their sins, and Thou didst complain bitterly of +those hopeless lost and unfortunate sinners. + + (There are ten more prayers not yet typed in.) + + Chaplet of Saint Joseph + + This chaplet consists of 15 groups of beads, each group having +1 white and 3 blue beads. At the end there is an additional group and +also 1 extra blue bead. On the white beads is recited the Hail Mary +while one meditates on a mystery of the rosary. On each blue bead one +says: "Praised and blessed be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph." + + The beads of the Rosary of Saint Joseph are white and blue, +symbolizing his purity and piety. + + Chaplet of Saint Joseph (card) + +The chaplet is composed of sixty beads in honor of the sixty years St. +Joseph lived upon earth. The chaplet is divided into 15 parts each +consisting of a single bead and a group of three beads. The single +beads signify St. Joseph's purity, the triad of beads his saintly +piety. + +On the single beads a mystery of the Rosary is considered and the +following prayer is said: + +Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou +among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. +Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of +our death. Amen. + +On each of the beads in the groups of three say: "Praised and blessed +be Jesus, Mary and Joseph." + +The chaplet is ended with the following prayer: + +V. Pray for us, O Holy St. Joseph + +R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. + + Let Us Pray + +O God, Who has predestined St. Joseph from all eternity for the +service of Thine eternal Son and His Blessed Mother, and made him +worthy to be the spouse of the blessed Virgin and the foster-father of +Thy Son: we beseech Thee, through all the services he has rendered to +Jesus and Mary on earth, that Thou wouldst make us worthy of his +intercession and grant us to enjoy the happiness of his company in +heaven. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen. + + Crown of Saint Philomena + + This crown consists of a medal of Saint Philomena and Saint John +Vianney, of 3 white beads and 13 red beads. + + On the medal the Apostles Creed is said. On the 3 white beads are +said 3 Our Fathers in honor of the Three Divine Persons in +thanksgiving for graces granted to Saint Philomena and for favors +obtained through her intercession. On the 13 red beads are said the +following: "Hail, O holy Saint Philomena, whom I acknowledge after +mary as my advocate with thy Divine Spouse, intercede for me now and +at the hour of my death. Saint Philomena, beloved daughter of Jesus +and Mary, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Amen." + + Concluding prayer: "Hail, O illustrious Saint Philomena, who so +courageously shed thy blood for Christ, I bless the Lord for all the +graces He has bestowed upon thee during thy life, especially at thy +death. I praise and glorify Him for the honor and power with which He +has crowned thee and I beg thee to obtain for me from God the graces I +ask through thy intercession. Amen." + + Chaplet of Saint Philomena (card) + +The Chaplet consists of three white beads and thirteen red beads. On +the medal say the Apostle's Creed to ask for the grace of faith. + +On each of the white beads say an Our Father in honor of the three +Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity in thanksgiving for all favors +obtained through her intercession. + +On each of the red beads, which are thirteen in number to commemorate +the thirteen years that St. Philomena spent on earth, say the +following prayer: + + Hail, O Holy St. Philomena, whom I acknowledge, after Mary, as my +advocate with the Divine Spouse, intercede for me now and at the hour +of my death. + + St. Philomena, beloved daughter of Jesus and Mary, pray for us who +have recourse to thee. + +Amen. + +ON THE MEDAL SAY: + + Hail, O illustrious St. Philomena, who shed so courageously your +blood for Christ, I bless the Lord for all the graces He has bestowed +upon thee during thy life, and especially at thy death; I praise and +glorify Him for the honor and power with whcih He has crowned thee, +and I beg thee to obtain for me from God the graces I ask through thy +intercession. + + Chaplet of Saint Theresa (card) + + "I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth...I will let fall from +heaven a shower of roses." + +St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, Patroness of Missions...Pray for us. +Glory be to the Father, etc., twoenty-four times to honor each year of +St. Theresa's life on earth, spent in perfect love and service to +Almighty God. This devotion can be recited for nine days or for +twenty-four days. + + The Scriptural Rosary + + (David E. Rosage) + +The First Set of Joyful Mysteries (New Testament Quotations): + +1. Anunciation +2. Visitation +3. Birth of Jesus +4. Presentation in the Temple +5. Find of the Child Jesus + +The Alternate Set of Joyful Mysteries (Old Testament Quotations): + +1. Anunciation +2. Visitation +3. Birth of Jesus +4. Presentation in the Temple +5. Find of the Child Jesus + +The First Set of Sorrowful Mysteries (New Testament Quotations): + +1. Agony in the Garden +2. Scourging at the Pillar +3. Crowning with Thorns +4. Carrying of the Cross +5. Crucifixion + +The Alternate Set of Sorrowful Mysteries (Old Testament Quotations): + +1. Agony in the Garden +2. Scourging at the Pillar +3. Crowning with Thorns +4. Carrying of the Cross +5. Crucifixion + +The First Set of Glorious Mysteries: + +1. Resurrection +2. Ascension +3. Descent of the Holy Spirit +4. Assumption of Mary into Heaven +5. Crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven + +The Alternate Set of Glorious Mysteries: + +1. Resurrection +2. Ascension +3. Descent of the Holy Spirit +4. Second Coming of Jesus +5. Final Judgment + + Seven-Day Scriptural Rosary + + (Larry London) + + The distinguishing feature of the Seven-Day Scriptural Rosary is that +there is a unique set of five rosary mysteries for each day of the +week. There are a total of three hundred fifty Scripture excerpts for +meditation. One is read before each Hail Mary over the course of the +week, fifty each day of the week. Five of the total thirty-five +rosary mysteries are prayed each day. Each mystery contains ten Hail +marys along with the corresponding Scripture meditation, and so we +have a Rosarium -- fifty Hail Marys -- prayed each day. + + Below are listed the recommended mysteries for each day of the week: + +Monday -- Joyful Mysteries Anunciation, + Visitation, Nativity, + Presentation, Finding + +Tuesday -- Salvation Mysteries Jesus Teaches Nicodemus, + Good Shepherd, Rich Man, + Vine and Branches, + Judgement + +Wednesday -- Healing Mysteries Healing of a Paralytic, + Woman with a Hemorrhage, + Man Born Blind, Adultress, + Healing of Boy with Demon + +Thursday -- Eucharistic Mysteries Feeding Five Thousand, + Bread of Life, + True Food and True Drink, + Last Supper, Body and Blood + +Friday -- Sorrowful Mysteries Agony in the Garden, + Scourging at the Pillar, + Crowning with Thorns, + Carrying of the Cross + Crucifixion + +Saturday -- Consoling Mysteries Beatitudes, Dependence on + God, God's Children, + Raising of Lazarus, + Last Supper Discourse + +Sunday -- Glorious Mysteries Resurrection, Ascension, + Descent of the Holy Spirit, + Assumption, Coronation + + Chaplet of the Way of the Cross + + This chaplet consists of 15 groups of 3 beads each, between which are +medals representing the stations of the cross. An additional 6 beads +are added as well as a crucifix. + + This chaplet of the Way of the Cross was granted to Vincentian Order +by Popes Pius IX and X. Later it was withdrawn by the Holy Office +(1912), since the indulgences can be gained by using the crucifix +alone. + + It is somewhat of a misnomer to call this a rosary. To the sick and +to others who cannot go to a church to make the Way of the Cross the +Holy See has given the privilege of gaining the indulgences attached +to the Way of the Cross by holding in their hand a specially +indulgenced crucifix and saying the prescribed prayers, the Our +Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be 20 times. + + Appendix + _________ + +Archangel Michael +_________________ +Daniel 10:13: ....but the prince of the kingdom of Persia stood in my +way for twenty-one days, until finally Michael, one of the chief +princes, came to help me. + +Daniel 10:21: ....but I shall tell you what is written in the +truthful book. No one supports me against all these except Michael, +your prince, standing as a reinforcement and a bulwark for me. + +Daniel 12:1 At that time there shall arise + Michael, the great prince, + guardian of your people; + +Jude 1:9: Yet the Archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil in +a dispute over the body of Moses, did not venture to pronounce a +reviling judgment upon him but said, "May the Lord rebuke you!" + +Revelation 12:7: Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels +battled against the dragon. + +Archangel Gabriel +_________________ +Daniel 8:16: ....and on the Ulai I heard a human voice that cried +out, "Gabriel, explain the vision to this man." + +Daniel 9:21: I was still occupied with this prayer, when Gabriel, the +one whom I had seen before in vision, came to me in rapid flight at +the time of the evening sacrifice. + +Luke 1:19: And the angel said to him in reply, "I am Gabriel, who +stand before God. I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you +this good news." + +Luke 1:26: In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to +a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man +named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. + +Raphael (deuterocanonicals) +________ + +Tobit 12:15 (among numerous passages in Tobit): I am Raphael, one of +the seven angels who enter and serve before the Glory of the Lord. + +Uriel (APOCRYPHA) +_____ +2 Esdras 4:1: Then the angel that had been sent to me, whose name was +Uriel, answered and said to me, "Your understanding has utterly failed +regarding this world, and do you think you can comprehend the way of +the Most High?" + +2 Esdras 5:20: So I fasted seven days, mourning and weeping, as the +angel Uriel had commanded me. + +2 Esdras 10:28: Where is the angel Uriel, who came to me at first? +For it was he who brought me into this overpowering bewilderment; my +end has become corruption, and my prayer a reproach. + +Credo +----- + +Credo in unum Deum, +Patrem omnipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae, +visibilium omnium et invisibilium. +Et in unum Dominum Iesum Christum, +Filium Dei unigenitum, +et ex Patre natum, ante omnia saecula. +Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero, +genitum non factum, consubstatialem Patri: +per quem omnia facta sunt. +Qui propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem, +descendit de caelis. +Et incarnatus est de spiritu Sancto +ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est. +Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Ponti Pilato; +passus et sepultus est, +et resurrexit tertia die, secundum scripturas, +et ascendit in Caelum, Sedet ad dexteram Patri. +Et iterum venturas est cum gloria, iudicare vivos et mortuos, +cuius regni non erit finis. +Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem: +qui ex Patre Filioque procedit. +Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur et conglorifcatur: +qui locutus est per prophetas. +Et unam, Sanctum, catholicam et apostolicam Ecclesiam +Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. +Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, +et vitam ventura saeculi. Amen. + + ORDERS OF THE ANGELS + +1. Seraphim 4. Dominations 7. Principalities +2. Cherubim 5. Virtues 8. Archangels +3. Thrones 6. Powers 9. Angels + +Principality, Authority, Power, Dominion +_________________________________________ + +Ephesians 1:20, 21: ...which he worked in Christ, raising him from +the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above +every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name +that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come. + +Seraphim +________ + +Isaiah 6:2, 3: Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six +wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two they veiled their +feet, and with two they hovered aloft. + +Cherubim +________ + +Ezekiel 10:15,4,20: Such were the living creatures I saw by the river +Chebar....I saw there the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision +I had seen in the plain. The cherubim were stationed to the right of +the temple; these were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God +of Israel by the river Chebar, whom I now recognized to be +cherubim....etc. + +Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Powers +__________________________________________ + +Colossians 1:16: For in him were created all things in heaven and on +earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or +principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for +him. + +NOTE: Saint Thomas calls these: Dominations, Virtues, Powers, +Principalities, in the Summa Theologica. + +Sexual Purity: + +Matt 19:46 +1 Cor. 6:13b, 18-20 +Rom 12:1-2 + +Persons called from the womb: + +Judges 13:5-7 +Jeremiah 1:5 +Luke 1:15 +Galatians 1:15 + +Thou shalt not kill: + +Exodus 20:13 +Exodus 1:22 +Matt 2:16 + +SOURCES +_______ + +TWENTY-FOUR ROSARIES AND CHAPLETS, compiled by Patrick Shaughnessy, +O.S.B., S.T.D., Grail Publications, St. Meinrad, Indiana; reprinted by +Our Lady's Rosary Makers, 4611 Poplar Level Rd., P.O. Box 37080, +Louisville, Ky., 1984. + +THE PIETA PRAYER BOOKLET, published in U.S.A. by Miraculous Lady of +the Roses, 1186 Burlington Drive, Hickory Corners, Michigan 49060. +Telephone: (616) 731-4490. + +PRAY WITH THE HEART! MEDUGORGJE MANUEL OF PRAYER, Fr. Slavko Barbaric, +O.F.M., published in Yugoslavia by: Parish Office, Viganj, 50267 +Kuciste; published and distributed in the United States by Franciscan +University Press, Steubenville, OH 43952. + +THE MOTHER OF GOD AND HER GLORIOUS FEASTS, Fr. H. O'Laverty, B.A., Tan +Books and Publishers, Inc., P.O. Box 424, Rockford, Illinois 61105, +1987. + +CHAPLET OF SAINT MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS (booklet) +Oblates of Saint Benedict +Saint Scholastica Mission House +24OO Maple Avenue +Lisle, Illinois 6O532 OR + +Oblates of Saint Benedict +24 W 350 Maple +Naperville, Illinois 60540 +(I'm reliably informed this address will get to Sister Helen, who +makes the Rosaries of Saint Michael and All Angels, faster.) +7O8-968-4264. $5.OO donation for 1 chaplet. + +THE HEALING MYSTERIES: A ROSARY FOR THE SICK, Joanne Turpin, +copyright 1983, Joanne Turpin, All rights reserved. Printed in the +U.S.A. + +DEVOTION TO THE DIVINE MERCY (booklet) +Marians of the Immaculate Conception +MARIAN HELPERS +Stockbridge, MA 01263 +Copyright 1989 + +THE JEWEL OF GOD, Mark Schulzetenberg, copyright 1988, The Leaflet +Missal Company, 419 W. Minnehaha Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55103. + +PRAYING THE SCRIPTURAL ROSARY, David E. Rosage, Rdeemer Books, Servant +Publications, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1989. + +THE SEVEN-DAY SCRIPTURAL ROSARY, Larry London, Our Sunday Visitor +Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., Huntington, Indiana +46750, 1989. + +The majority of these Rosaries are quoted from: Prayer cards. + +MARY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT edited by Raymond E. Brown, Karl P. +Donfried, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, John Reumann; published by the +Paulist Press; copyright 1978 by Fortress Press. + +SCRIPTURAL ROSARY: A MODERN VERSION OF THE WAY THE ROSARY WAS ONCE +PRAYED THORUGHOUT WESTERN EUROPE IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES. +Christianica (American), 1807 Prairie Street, P.O. Box 685, Glenview, +IL 60025. 1961 Christianica Center. ISBN: 0-911346-01-5. + +COMPLETE ROSARY BOOK: Containing Dominican Beads and White Scapular, +Mysteries of Holy Rosary, Prayers, Virtues, and Indulgences, Rosary +Confraternity and Perpetual Rosary Explained, Sixth Edition. Thomas +Richardson and Son, 1865. + +ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF THE HOLY FATHER LEO XIII. BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE +POPE. TO ALL PATRIARCHS, PRIMATE, ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS AND OTHER +ORDINARIES HAVING PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE APOSTOLIC SEE. ON THE +ROSARY OF MARY. An authorized translation. Liverpool: Rocklief +Brothers, Ltd., 1891. + +THE THINGS THAT MARY PONDERED: OR, THE MYSTERIES OF THE ROSARY SET +FORTH IN THE WORDS OF THE HOLY GHOST. London: W. Knott, 26, Brooke +Street, Holborn, 1893. + +A CATECHISM OF THE HOLY ROSARY BEING A COMPENDIUM OF THE CHRISTIAN +DOCTRINE CONTAINED IN ITS FIFTEEN MYSTERIES by the Rev. Henry Formby +of the Third Order of S. Dominic, Author of the "Book of the Holy +Rosary," etc. London: Burns, Oates, and Company, 17, Portman Street; +and 63, Paternoster Row, 1873. + +LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. THE ROSARY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY; +THE USE OF THE BEADS NO "VAIN REPETITION." By Permission. London: +Burns and Lambert, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square. Reader, Park +Street, Bristol. 1851. + +THE BOOK OF THE ROSARY TO WHICH IS ANNEXTED THE RULE OF THE THIRD +ORDER OF SAINT DOMINICK by Br. John P. Leahy, O.P.S.T.M. Permissu +Superiorum. Dublin: Printed by William Powell, 68, Thomas-Street, +1842. + +OUR LADY'S ROSARY. ??? 1800's? + +SPLENDOUR OF THE ROSARY. ??? 1800's? + +THE PRYMER OR LAY FOLKS' PRAYER BOOK. Early English Text Society. +Original Series, No. 109. 1897. THE PRYMER OR LAY FOLKS' PRAYER +BOOK. (WITH SEVERAL FACSIMILES.) edited by Henry Littlehales from the +Ms. Dd. 11, 82, ab. 1420-30 A.D., in the Library of the University of +Cambridge. Part II. Introduction. Section 1, The Origin of the +Prymer, contributed by Edmund Bishop. London: Publisht for the Early +English Text Society by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Paternoster +House, Charing-Cross Rd. 1897. + +THE MANUAL OF PRAYERS FOR CONGREGATIONAL USE. London: Burns Oates & +Washbourne Ltd. Publishers to the Holy See. 1942. + +THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: ESSAYS BY ANGLICAN WRITERS edited by E. L. +Mascall and H. S. Box. Darton, Longman & Todd Ltd: London. 1963. diff --git a/religious documents/rosc-evl.txt b/religious documents/rosc-evl.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd6b3f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rosc-evl.txt @@ -0,0 +1,109 @@ + THE EVOLUTION OF ROSICRUCIANISM + + Copyright (C) 1992 Dan McClure, All rights reserved. + + The Rosicrucians were quite recognizable as Christian in the 17th +century. According to legend Christian Rosencreutz traveled and +studied widely in the Orient then formed the Fraternity of the Rosy +Cross with Bros. G.V., J.A. & J.O. so it would be natural to be +heavily influenced by Eastern ideas and beliefs. + +The Bros. then met in their house of the holy spirit, or Invisible +College under the wings of Jehovah studying the "Ancient Wisdom" +reading from the book of Nature in the imitation of Christ etc. The +Rosicrucian movement was an attempt to combine Christianity with +some of the Wisdom of the East. It was also an early attempt to +harmonize men of different Christian denominations to a common goal +of esoteric & scientific investigation & discovery. So that such +diverse men as Robert Fludd an Anglican, Johann Andreae a Lutheran, +Frederick of Palatine a Calvinist could share their discoveries in +their Invisible College. + +The _Fama_ mentions "the perfect knowledge of his Son Jesus Christ" +& "But so every Christian may know what faith we are, we confess to +have knowledge of Jesus Christ ... most clear and pure is professed." +While the _Confessio_ mentions "our Lord Jesus Christ" & "our +Christian Father(Rosencreutz)." The _Chemical Wedding of Christian +Rosencreutz_ was in fact written by Johann Andreae(Brother J.A.?) a +Lutheran Pastor in 1615(he was heavily influenced by John Dee). He +was the probable author of _Fama_ & _Confessio_ as well. + +The Church called it heresy and drove the Rosicrucians under ground. +It touched off a witch hunt through out Europe looking for invisible +Rosicrucians who were supposedly in league with dark powers and the +Devil. Don't be mislead by A.M.O.R.C.'s modern blend of Egyptian +ideas, motifs and Oriental mysticism into its teachings, its +original foundations lay in and with Christianity. For further study +on this issue I would suggest reading "The Rosicrucian +Enlightenment" by Frances Yates ISBN 0-7100-7380-1 it is very well +written and covers these facts in detail. + +In all probability when the Rosicrucian concept migrated to England +it evolved into English Freemasonry with Robert Moray and Elias +Ashmole in May 1641. + +The only thing certain is Rosicrucians such as Robert Fludd & Thomas +Vaughn [Eugenus Philalethes] became Masons and Masons like Robert +Moray and Elias Ashmole became Rosicrucians. + +In the 17th, 18th & 19th centuries there was a great deal of +borrowing, amalgamation and incorporation from the Qabalah, Western +Magickal Tradition and Oriental Wisdom into the Masonic Rites and +Rituals as can easily be seen in the Rosicrucian degrees, Templar +degrees, Memphis and Mizraim degrees etc. This combined with their +Christian based paradigm makes for some beautiful Rituals. + +The Ancient Mystical Order of the Rose Cross was established in the +U.S in 1694 under Grand Master Kelpius to study the traditional arts +of; Hermetics, Natural Alchemy & Spiritual Alchemy, Qabalah, +Skrying, Divination, Geomancy, Horay Astrology, Astral Projection, +Theurgy, Music, Philosophy, Mathematics etc. + +In 1714 Samuel Richter formed his Golden Rosicrucian fraternity in +Berlin which lasted until the end of the century. By the middle of +the 18th century there was a great deal of activity in all kinds of +esoteric endeavors in the U.S. Most of the Founding Fathers were +both Rosicrucians & Masons. + +Paschel Beverly Randolph, continued the evolution by founding his +Rosicrucian fraternity in California in 1861 teaching the +traditional arts along with tantric mysticism. + +By the early 1900's Rudolf Steiner & Max Heindel were adding their +interpretations to the body of Rosicrucian lore. Steiner's Berlin +Anthroposophical Society was based on a blend of Theosophy, +Rosicrucianism, Masonry, O.T.O. & G.D. He claimed that Christian +Rosencreutz was an actual person who was constantly reincarnating. + +While Heindel's Rosicrucian Fellowship & the Societas Rosicruciana +at Mt. Ecclesia in Oceanside, Ca was more in keeping with the +traditional arts combined with Christianity as laid out in the +_Fama_ & _Confessio_. Max Heindel died in 1919. + +H. Spencer Lewis was born in the late 1800's about the time of the +Golden Dawn was getting started. He was initiated in a French +Rosicrucian lodge in 1909. Lewis was influenced by Theosophy, +Masonry, Rudolf Steiner & his Anthroposophical Society. In 1915 +AMORC came out of a self imposed "outer silence." + +In the 20's Lewis shifted the focus of AMORC from the traditional +arts of Natural Alchemy, Qabalah, Skrying etc. to the more mystical +aspects of reincarnation, past lives, Spiritual Alchemy, combined +with Theosophy and it Great White Brotherhood of hidden Masters +which he incorporated along with Egyptian Magick, reincarnation +beliefs and history, especially the rein of Akhenaton. + +Spencer joined the O.T.O. and obtained the VIIth. On March 20, 1921 +AMORC received "Gage of Amity" document from O.T.O. to their +founder, H.S.Lewis. In the 1920-30's AMORC sponsored several +Egyptian "digs" and brought back enough mummies and booty to fill +their museum! + +They were the first to have a mail order course in Mysticism and +Egyptian religion starting in 1930. Lewis was a prolific author with +more than 150 books to his credit on Mysticism, reincarnation, +ancient Egypt, Rosicrucianism etc. + +On August 2, 1939 a Wednesday at 3:15pm that Dr. H. Spencer Lewis of +AMORC fame gave up his earthly vehicle permanently. His son Ralph +Lewis is now at the helm of AMORC. diff --git a/religious documents/round.txt b/religious documents/round.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bcc4d52 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/round.txt @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +ab:round.txt 16jan90 + + + + The Witches' Round + + +Nowadays used to raise the Cone of Power, this old dance may be used alone +or in full coven. It is better if the Drawing Down of the Moon has gone +before, for then the Gods shall fuse with the energies raised in the +ecstacy of the dance and thereby accomplish your will. + +All join hands to form a ring about the HPS. Heads turned left and eyes +tightly shut, will a flowing river of power about the circle, moving from +one through the next, from man to woman and woman to man, about the circle +without beginning or end, gathering strength as it goes. + +When the circle is set thus, in motionless intensity, the HPS begins to +clap to the rhythym of the heart-beat. And upon this signal all open their +eyes and step widdershins; slowly at first but with a quickening step as +the HPS quickens the beat of her clap, until three rounds are complete. +And this must be accomplished smoothly and without awkwardness. + +Now change direction and dance deosil to the Witches' Rune or some other +tune; slowly at first, but faster and ever faster until, the Power being +at its peak, the HPS shall release it crying: "Down !", whereupon all +shall fall to the ground to sit in a circle facing in. Thus also was the +Cone of Power raised of yore. + +---------- +-Another variant on raising a cone of power. +-This one's adapted slightly from "The Witches Almanac", 1971-72, as + reprinted in "The Witches All". +-It's similar to many well known methods; just puts the pieces together + rather differently. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/rspnsbl.txt b/religious documents/rspnsbl.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..42aaa7f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rspnsbl.txt @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Msg #: [210/226] Base: PAGAN-Spirituality +Date : 13 Oct 93 20:50:44 Stat: Sent +From : Jim Taylor +To : All +Title: On Christian Responsibility + +@INTL 93:9609/0 93:9004/0 +Having made an initial stab at defining the difference between Christian +Believers and Christian Faith-Holders, I would like to present my ideas +concerning the responsibilities of a Christian in a forum such as this +one. + +First of all, all Christians are responsible to represent Christ as best +they are able to. The success with which any of us manage to do this will +tend to vary. Sometimes we will do it well; other times we will fail. + +Secondly, all Christians should be able to be at least as civil, as open +minded, as cordial, and as supportive of others, as anyone on this echo. +Those who cannot achieve this, demonstrate the falsehood that Christianity +is an inferior religion, for ignorant fanatics. This IS a falsehood, and +Christians who give this impression, disgrace their Lord by doing so. + +Thirdly, Christians ought to have a sense of humor--after all, who in all +the earth is more ridiculous than we are?--but should never be mockers. +What is a mocker? S/he is a person who makes jokes at the expense of +others, for no purpose except to poke fun at them. If one has another +purpose, and IF that purpose is to teach the other person something that +everyone needs to know, then possibly that is not mockery; however, it is +borderline, and should be avoided when possible. + +Fourthly, Christians should at all times remember that people are led +to Christ BY EXAMPLE, not by being harrangued by tract-wielding, Bible- +thumping loud-mouths! On this echo, proselytizing is absolutely +forbidden, though it is always legitimate to answer another person's +questions. But in other places, even though proselytizing may not be +forbidden in those other places, the Christian needs to realize that if +s/he has to convince people with words, s/he is NOT convincing them by +her/his own life, so something is drastically wrong. When this is the +case, the Christian needs to stop preaching Christianity and start LIVING +Christianity. + +Finally, the Christian's responsibility to non-Christians is NOT to "save" +them. Only GOD can truly save people; no man or woman can save another +person. True Faith-Holders will know that God is able to save whomever +He chooses, if they are not determined to destroy themselves. So let God +do it--it's His job, not yours! + +"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows +mercy." (Romans 9:16) + +* Z +* F O S +* E + +Light & Life, +Jim + +--- DB 1.54/003113 + * Origin: Home of the PODSnet Co-Moderator, SPIRITuality Echo (93:9500/2) +SEEN-BY: 102/943 128/101 9000/2 10 9001/0 9004/0 1 9006/0 9007/0 9008/0 +SEEN-BY: 9040/0 9050/0 9060/0 9080/0 9090/0 9110/0 9300/0 9500/0 2 10 +SEEN-BY: 9550/0 9580/0 9600/0 8 9607/0 9608/0 9609/0 9610/0 9630/0 9640/0 +SEEN-BY: 9660/0 9680/0 9690/1 9800/0 9900/0 +@PATH: 9500/2 0 9600/0 9004/0 + diff --git a/religious documents/rune.txt b/religious documents/rune.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34dc6ca --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rune.txt @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +ab:rune.txt 16jan90 + + + + The Witches' Rune + ----------------- + + Darksome night and shining moon, + Hearken to the witches' rune. + East, then south, west then north, + Here come I to call the forth. + + Earth and water, air and fire, + Work ye unto my desire. + Wand and Pentacle and Sword + Hearken ye unto my word. + + Cords and Censer, Scourge and Knife, + Waken all ye into life. + Powers of the Witches Blade, + Come ye as the charm is made. + + Queen of Heaven, Queen of Hell, + Lend your aid unto the spell. + Horned Hunter of the Night, + Work my will by magic rite. + + By all the power of land and sea, + As I do will, so mote it be. + By all the might of moon and sun, + Chant the spell and be it done. +---------- +-The original was written by Doreen Valiente, and is rather different + (verses are arranged in an ABAB rhyme scheme: + Darksome night and shining moon, + East, then south, west then north, + Hearken to the witches' rune. + Here come I to call the forth. + instead of in couplets); this is unlikely be found in its original form in + a "standard" North American Gardnerian or Alexandrian BOS. (It seems to + have been changed fairly early in its history.) +-See Janet and Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way" (as usual) for + historical details. +-See the following (and many more) for published versions: + Janet and Stewart Farrar "The Witches' Way" + Janet and Stewart Farrar "Eight Sabbats For Witches" + Stewart Farrar "What Witches Do" + "The Grimoire of Lady Sheba" + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/rune1.txt b/religious documents/rune1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f7d113 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rune1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,153 @@ + Runes: A magical language from Pre-Christian Europe. + + The issue of a magical language for the Neo/Pagan community has +been debated for some time by the memebers of the Wiccoid Pan Paganites. +Some feel quite comfortable using the Quaballistic system of the Judaic +peoples. While others feel that this system is infused with thousands of +years of patriarchy which taints it in the minds of those who do not +desire to use it. + + There have been a number of languages that have been uncovered in +the past century. Ogham, the Celtic written language is one choice, but +using this system is problematic because the tradition it came from (as +with many of that time) was oral and the Druids (teachers of the Ogham +alphabet) were destroyed along with the Library at Tara by the +overzelous St. Patrick. The information surviving to this day on the +Ogham alphabet is mostly recreated by people who do the most with what +they have...but the inner knowledge of the Ogham system has been lost. + + The runic language, however, was created by the Teutonic peoples of +the Continent and Scandinavia was able to last as a magical system alive +and intact because the Christian influence came at a later time and +those people were not destroyed but rather were converted. + + The Teutonic Runic system was used by the Goths, the Visigoths, the +Vandals and many other Teutonic Tribes of the era of the fall of the +Roman Empire, the Norse/Vikings of the 10th through the 12th century, +the Saxons who invaded the isle of Great Brittan, and many tribes of +Teutons not known to history for their military expeditions. By this we +see that the runic system was in use from approximately 500 c.e. until +at least 1,200 c.e. and there are many examples of runic talismans from +which to investigate. + + Other examples which aid in a good understanding of what the rune +system was and how the magical archetypes were fused both in the minds +of the Vitki (the name of a runic magician {Thorrson1}) and in the +shapes of the runic staves are a wealth of writings from those who used +the system (the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda) and from some of the +Roman historians Tacitus, Virgil and others. These two main sources give +an perspective to the study of the runic system. That of the participant +and that of the observer. One who is interested in working with the any +magical system is both of these a participant and an observer. + + There have been a number of revivals of the runic system in modern +times. Both occured in Germany, the center of the Teutonic tribes. The +first was an intellectual/magical revival in which a number of +occultists worked with the system and added to the available knowledge +though innovation and study of folklore and history. The second was a +manipulation of the archetypes of the runes to control a population, +popularly known as Nazi Germany. The Nazis used ideas, archetypes, and +the pride of the Teutonic peoples to control them magically. This is not +to say that the German people are no responsible for their actions is +not the point I offer. Rather that some of the runes that were used by +the Nazis will be seen in the runic system and that one should attempt +to disinherit the short and horrid imposition from the beauty and power +of Nature that is inherant in the symbols and has been for hundreds of +years. + + The last of the runic revivals is the current one. The interest in +the runes has increased vastly in the last ten years. One of the reasons +is the writings of Edred Thorrson, and the institution by him of the +Rune Guild. The books written by this man are heavily researched and +relatively easy to read and follow. There are other writers on the runic +system, but they are all different, using different runic alphabets, and +seem to be a mish-mosh of the four different runic alphabets. The amount +of work to be done on the runic system is great, but the rewards of +working with the system are as great, enlivening, and exciting. + + There are four basic runic alphabets. The Elder Futhark, Younger +Futhark, Anglo-Saxon Fothark, and the Frisian Futhark. The most complete +of the forms is the Elder Futhark, of twenty-four staves. The other +forms either are missing staves or have staves that are mixtures of two +staves. Think of the scientific Table of the Elements. The form that has +the greatest number of the most basic forms is the best place to start +because you can make as many combination from these with great +understaning of what forces are at work in the compilation. + + The Elder Futhark also is the oldest form known as being a complete +alphabet. There are some earlier examples of the use of the runic +symbols, but 500 c.e. is the earliest compiled,complete futhark. + + The studying this author has done on the runic system has been with +the Elder Futhark, using Edred Thorrsons's books. They are a great +beginning although being a bit on the patriarchal side for my taste. He +offers a wealth of information which any user of magical formuli can +combine and find further understanding of the runes. I recommend his +books highly as a resource from which to do one's own research. I also +recommend reading the Edda's and writings by Virgil, Tacitus and other +Roman historian on the subject of German/Teuton society. + + The amount of information available about the runes for the pagan +who is seeking a magical alphabet with which to scribe, cypher, or to +expand consciousness is exceptional for an ancient lettering. Unlike the +Quaballah it is not connected with the Judeo/Christian reality, but +unfortunately is connected with patriarchy. + + The breakdown of the dieties in the Teutonic/Norse tradition is +reflective of the history that is shared by almost all of the religions +in Europe. The earliest god/desses of the region were originally thought +to be from the Lake Van in Anatolia (where modern day Turkey is). The +pantheon of dieties was known as the Vanic dieties. This was basically a +Nature based religion common in Europe before the patriarchal era began. +Many of the goddess and god names are recognizible as being a part of +the Aesir. Goddesses like Freya, Iduna, Sif, Hella; and the god Frey are +all names I had heard before I read my first book on runes. + + The group of dieties usually attributed to the Norse/Teutonic +people are the Aesir. The well known pantheon of Odhinn, Thor, Tyr, +Loki, The Fenris Wolf, the Giants (thurs'), and many more. The accepted +historical explination of the change is the invasion of the Scandinavian +areas by the Teutonic Tribes of the Continent. Many of the god/desses +were eliminated from popular practice and relegated to less visible and +less important realms of influence. The most powerfull god/desses were +married into the pahtheon of the Aesir, Freya (meaning "Lady"), Hella, +Iduna, Frigga (an alternate personality of Freya), Frey (meaning +"Lord"), and others. + + The historical change from a Goddess based nature religion to a +martial God based religion had very a very strong impact on the region. +The change in concepts aided in the justification of the raiding and +invading of various Teutonic tribes throughout the first and second +centuries of the Common Era (C.E.). It also spread the runic system +throughout Northern Europe and England. + + The negative side of this warlike attitude is the desire of many +Pagans to use a system for the spreading of peace and of the healing of +the Earth Mother. Much of the information in the texts available deal +with the battles and conquests of the Teutons and their God/desses, not +quite the place for a peace- loving pagan to find power and solace. +However the main battle in the runic sagas (Eddas) is the battle between +conscious action and non-conscious action. The Aesir and Vanir in +alliance against the Thurses or forces of chaos. The law and chaos dealt +with are not the social "law" and anarchy that most of the status-quo +fear, but rather the law of the natural order and the chaos of +non-natural or artificial destruction of the natural law for reasons +with no wisdom. + + It seems to this author that the "battle" engaged in the mystical +realm of the Norse/Teutonic multiverse is closely alligned with the +battle that we face today against the wholesale corporate destruction of +the ecology of the planet which I think we can all agree is a plan +without wisdom. + + With a good deal of hard work and perseverence with the runic +system, it seems that the Vanic God/desses can be reintegrated into the +system. A rebalancing of the pantheon to allow for the modern view that +the god and the goddess influence should be in perspective...even. + + Reprinted From the Winter Solstace Will and Word 1990 EV + + SEX IS PEACE + TRUE WILL NOT SLAVERY + CONSCIOUSNESS IS STRENGTH + diff --git a/religious documents/runes01.txt b/religious documents/runes01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e037913 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/runes01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ + WHAT ARE RUNES + ~-~-~-~-~-~-~- + + In the most mundane sense, runes are an alphabet much as our own alphabet +and others such as the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets. Each rune represents a +sound and was/is used to write words with. + + But that is in the most MUNDANE of senses. + + Runes were used long before the concept of writing was around. Each rune is +an archetype of a force. People had concepts for such things as Fire, Honour, +Birth, et.al. and each of these concepts were given names to make them easier +for us to comprehend. In this way, runes are very similar to the Hebrew +alphabet. Each 'letter' not only has a sound and a name, but is a complete +word with all associated concepts. + + This similarity with Hebrew extends even farther. Each hebrew word is made +of several Hebrew letters, therefore each Hebrew word is made of several +Hebrew words. The initial letters of several words in a sentence, or of the +first letters of each sentence or paragraph may be gathered to form a new word +that is used to help explain and expand upon what is already written. The +same can be done with runes. + + Runes lend themselves readily to numerology. The Runic alphabet is properly +shown as three rows of eight letters. Therefore each letter can be identified +by row:column number. Additionally, each rune has it's sequential number +identified by it's placement in the alphabet. Much like us numbering A as 1, +B as 2, ... , and Z as 26. + + Each rune can be placed in position on a tree pattern much like the +traditional Qabbalah. They may represent the different worlds or paths of the +tree and can be expanded and expounded upon as much as the Qabbalah itself is. +In fact, Runic Qabbalah is quite intriguing and does contain a life of study +(as do all other facets of Runework). + + Runes can be used for fortunetelling. They can be drawn and placed and read +much like tarot cards. The can be cast or strewn and the relationship of +groupings, distance and angles and patterns formed will tell the caster what +he wishes to know. + + Runes are also entities in and of themselves. Much like the angels, +princes, demons, sylphs, undines and watchtowers of the ceremonial magician. +Each rune can be invoked or evoked and the power harnessed to work ones will +to to inlighten the intellect. They are a fantastic meditation tool and will +always increase ones knowledge. + + Much as the primal elements of Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Spirit, each rune +also has it's part in the manifestation of all things manifested. Chaos, +grass, people, sunlight, honour, dragons, hopes, and sex are all replete with +runes are could not ever exist without the runic force that creates, shapes, +releases, destroys and changes them. + + + I have equated runes to many other branches of esoteric, occult, +phsycological and intellectual persuits. This is in the hopes that if you are +already familiar or interested in one of these, you will realize that runes +are already familiar to you or that you are already interested in them and +don't yet realize it. + + + May you approach the Well of Wyrd and may your sip there only increase your +thirst. + + Lokrien @ The Sacred Grove + + (206) 634-1980 (WA) + diff --git a/religious documents/runes02.txt b/religious documents/runes02.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24592fb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/runes02.txt @@ -0,0 +1,430 @@ + + RUNES +I OVERVIEW +II HISTORY +III DESCRIPTIONS & MEANINGS + +A. Mannaz B. Gebo C. Ansuz D. Othila +E. Uruz F. Perth G. Nauthiz H. Inguz +I. Eihwaz J. Algiz K. Fehu L. Wunjo +M. Jera N. Kano O. Teiwaz P. Berkana +Q. Ehwaz R. Laguz S. Hagalaz T. Raido +U. Thurisaz V. Dagaz W. Isa X. Sowelu +Y. Odin + +IV. Layouts used for divination + +A. Odin's Rune +B. Three Rune Spread +C. Runic Cross +D. Three Life Spread + +I. Overview +Runes are a method of divination similar to the Tarot or the I Ching. The dif +ference is that Runes are a set of 25 stones instead of 78 cards or a set of +sticks with patterns. As with the Tarot, most of the Runes may be rightside +up, or up side down, the meaning differing with the case. There are also some +Runes that can not appear up side down. In practice, the Runes may be made +of any material; ceramic, stones, sticks, or drawn on cards. (If anyone +followsthese directions, and begins to use Runes, please leave me a message +on this BBS as to your success/failure.) + +II. History +Before the Germanic peoples of ancient Western Europe possessed a true +alpha bet, they used pictorial symbols to carve into stones their ideas +and thoughts. The earliest of these pictorial writings date from about +1300 BC.They were probably linked to Sun and Fertility cults. Among the +signs were parts of the human body, weapons, animals and variations on +the circle, square, and swastika. These pictoglyphs later evolved into the +more abstract glyphs that were composed of lines resembling no particular +objects. That there was power endowed to those who were adept at the use +of these glyphs is indicated by the name given to the glyphs +themselves. These glyphs were called Runes, from the Gothic Runa, meaning +'a secret thing, a mystery.' The Runic letter or Runastafr was use to +foretell the future by Runemal, or thecasting of the Runes. The Runes were +inscribed into tools, weapons, rocks, alters, and other personal items. +Runes were also used by the clergy as an alternative to the Latin alphabet. +It is believed that Runes were derived from a northern Etruscan alphabet +used among Italic tribes in the Eastern Alps.They may have been developed +by people living in the area of Bohemia. + +From the beginning Runes were used for the casting of lots, for divination +and to evoke higher powers that might influence the 'luck' of man. There +were Runes that influenced the weather, the harvest, curses, the tides, love, +and healing. + +The Practicianer of Runemal was easily recognizable by the very clothing +they wore. As the 13th century author of the 'Saga of Erik the Red' said, +"She wore a cloak set with stones along the hem. Around her neck and +covering her head she wore a hood lined with white catskins. In one hand +she carried a staff with a knob on the end and her belt, holding together +her long dress, hung a charm pouch." As you can also see from this passage, +many of the Rune Masters were women. As time wore on, the Runes themselves +became standardized through out Europe. Although in some places the Runes +numbered as many as 36 oras few as 16. Twenty-four of these were the basic +Runes, or futhark. The name futhark comes from the first 6 Runes. There were +3 families of 8 Runes each, named after the Norse Gods Freyr, Hagal and Tyr. + +These three aettir, as they were called, were: + + Freyr's Eight: Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raido,Kano, Gebo, Wunjo; + Hagal's Eight: Hagalaz, Nauthiz, Isa, Jera, Eihwaz, Perth, Algiz, Sowelu; + Tyr's Eight: Teiwaz, Berkana, Ehwaz, Mannaz, Laguz, Inguz, Othila, Dagaz. + +The Anglo-Saxons are credited with spreading Runes and Runecraft through out +Europe. It is unfortunate that more than 300 years ago the last of the Rune +Masters died taking with them the true art of Rune casting. + +In recent years people such as Ralph Blum have tired to revive the ancient +art of Rune Casting through books, casting Runes, and through research into +ancient books and manuscripts for references to Runes. + +III Descriptions and Meanings + +A. Mannaz: Two vertical lines with a horizontal 'X' connecting +the top of the two lines so that it appears like a golf flag and +its mirror image. Essence is water. Clarity, willingness +to change is effective now. Become right with yourself, +then you can be right with others. Be yielding, devoted and +moderate. Only then will you have a true direction. +Inverted: If there is blockage now, it comes from within. +Look to yourself, not to others at this time. Stop and +reconsider. The outer enemy is but a reflection of yourself. + +B. Gebo: An 'X'. A union is at hand. However, do not +make this a total union, keep yourself. Let the +winds of Heaven blow between you and your partner. + +Inverted: There is no inverse. + +C. Ansuz: An 'F' with the arms pointing downward. There is a +new life unfolding. Be aware during meetings with others. +A connection with the Divine may be at hand. Draw from the +well for yourself first, then you will have the strength to +draw from the well for others. + +Inverted: Failed communication may seem to be a block. + +Remember, what happens now is timely to your development. +If the well is clogged, then clean it out. + +D. Othila: A diamond shape with the two lower sides extended +beyond the point at which they meet to form legs. A shedding +of old skins is called for. You may receive benefits, but it +may require you to give up something else. This may be +difficult to do because part of what you may have to give up +is a portion of your background. Do not be bound by old conditionings. +You may be called upon to take a radical departure from old ways. +Be totally honest with yourself now. Flow is the proper attitude +at this time. + +E. Uruz: A tall vertical line on the left, a shorter +vertical line on the right, connected on top by diagonal line. +Similar to a 'squared' small letter 'n'. The life you have been +living is at an end. However, this is not a Rune of ending, +it is instead a Rune of new beginnings. There may be darkness +of a tunnel leading to the new life, but the light will be +brighter at the end. Prepare for the opportunity disguised as a +loss. + +Inverted: You may fail to take advantage of the moment. It +is possible that your strength may seem to be used against +you. The seeming failure may come as a minor or major jolt +depending on your awareness. Remember, life is a cycle and you +will again reach this point to again have this choice. + +F. Perth: A vertical line on the left with an elongated 'v' +connected to the top from the right, and an elongated inverted +'V' connected to the bottom from the right. Inner changes are +taking place. Surprises may be in store. Nothing external +matters here, except as it shows you your inner self. +Inverted: Do not expect too much now. If you repeat the old, +expect to suffer. Do not focus on the past or you will neglect +the true now. You may have 'bad luck' or recognize a specific +block, or challenge. It depends on your point of view. + +G. Nauthiz: A vertical line with a diagonal line crossing it. +The diagonal line runs from the upper left to the lower right. +There is a definite need for restraint. There will be holdups, +and the need to reconsider your plans carefully. If you can not +restore harmony at this time, restore balance at least. +consider the uses of adversity. + +Inverted: Here is the great teacher disguised as the bringer of +pain and limitation. Only at the darkest hour do we see just how +bright the light is within ourselves. Cleansing is needed to +strengthen the character. Only after great darkness will we +know and see the true light. + +H. Inguz: Two 'X's stacked on top of each other and touching. +Now is the time of great strength when completions can be +finished and as a result new beginnings started. +Difficulties can be resolved and clarified. The butterfly now +emerges from the cocoon. Movement may cause you to free +yourself from a rut in your life. There is danger, but like +the King on a chess board, the movement takes you out of check +and danger. + +Inverted: There is no inverse. + +I. Eihwaz: A vertical line with a short diagonal line running +from the top towards the lower right, and a short diagonal +line running from the bottom towards the upper left. There may +be blockages, but even they help our progress. You may seem to +be powerless at this point in time. Patience and waiting are +called for. Growth is promoted through inconvenience and +discomfort. Wait on the will of the Heavens. +Inverted: There is no inverse. + +J. Algiz: A cross with both ends of the horizontal bar pointing +upward. Control of the emotions is called for. Correct actions +are the only true protection you have. If you are in pain, or +turbulence, do not try to hide from it, for it is only the +pain and turbulence of progress. + +Inverted: Health and associations are to be examined now. +If persons are 'using' you, and you know it in your heart, +then know that you are the one responsible for the outcome, +not them. Only then will you benefit from it. Winning may not +be possible, but in losing there is a form of winning through +learning and the progress takes place. + +K. Fehu: An 'F' with the horizontal lines pointing upward. +Clearly define what it is that you desire. Is it wealth +and possessions, or self-rule and growth of will? Enjoy +the good fortune of now but remember to share it, for the +mark of a well nourished self is the ability to nourish others. + +Inverted: Your arrows repeatedly miss the target either by an +inch or a mile. Your ship has come in, but you are at +the stable awaiting a good horse. Observe the situation, and +ask, "What do I need to learn to further my progress?" You now +have the opportunity to see where your true nourishment lies. + +L. Wunjo: Shaped like the letter 'P' with the rounded upper +portion being made from two straight lines like the 'greater +than' sign >. The shifts that were due are completed, the branch +now bears fruit, and you can now reap the harvest. Knowledge +transforms itself into understanding. Through new clarity +existing ambitions, goal, or plans may be seen for the limited +undesirables they are. + +Inverted: The harvest is slow to mature. A difficult passage is +at hand. As seen in its true light, everything is a test. +There is light mixed with the dark, but of clarity there +is none now. Examine yourself and your motives. + +M. Jera: A 'greater than' sign (>) above a 'less than' sign (<). +Beneficial outcomes apply to what ever endeavor you have +undertaken. It may take time for no quick results can be +expected. A span of time is always involved. Not even the +farmer can speed the harvest by tugging on the young shoots. +At the end of the season, rejoice in abundance. + +Inverted: There is no inverse. + +N. Kano: A 'less than' sign (<). This is the Rune of the +opening. Light now breaks through and dispells the clouds. +Through awareness of the light, understanding is now available +to you and you may be able to spread the light and understanding +to others. You are now the center where harmonic and beneficent +forces meet. + +Inverted: Clouds are now beginning to cover the sun. A +partnership may be passing away. If so, remember that it +is then no longer appropriate or valid for you in this stage of +development. Remember however that failure to notice this +passing away will result in a missed opportunity. Give up +gladly the old so that the new can be received. + +O. Teiwaz: An upward pointing arrow. Look within and delve +down to the foundations of your being. Here you will find +your deepest needs, and most powerful resources. Examine +newly formed partnerships, for there may be great works for you +both to perform together. This is a Rune of dedication and +perseverance. Patience may be called for now. Your real enemy +just might be yourself. + +Inverted: Danger may arise from hasty or illtimed +actions. Associations may be short lived, but remember that +they have served their purpose. Are outcomes your goal, or +are you focused on the task for its own sake? Look within for +the answer. + +P. Berkana: Shaped like the letter 'B', except the the two +rounded portions are made from straight lines, like the 'greater +than' sign >. Delve into things deeply, with care and +awareness. Resistance must be dispersed first, then work +may be begun. If you have dark corners, clean them out +now. If you need help to cleanse the corners, seek an +expert. Only then can the harvest ripen. + +Inverted: There is interference with growth now. If you +feel disheartened for not taking the right action, relax. You +may have the chance to act again. Examine your motives. Are +you putting your wants before the wants of others? + +Q. Ehwaz: A large capital letter 'M'. Transitions and physical +shifts are occurring now. Steady growth and development +slowly accumulate. "As I cultivate my own nature, all else +follows." Face the future with assurance. + +Inverted: If movement is blocked, be sure that what you are doing +is correct action. There are no missed opportunities; we +have to recognize that not all opportunities are not for us. +What is yours will come to you. + +R. Laguz: The right half of an upward pointing arrow. +Reorganize and re-align. Contact your intuitive self, and +success will follow. Relate to yourself correctly. Immerse +yourself in the experience of living without evaluating or +understanding. + +Inverted: Do not over reach yourself. Excessive striving can +be damaging. Are you really drawing upon your wisdom of +instinct? Go within yourself and honor your receptive side. + +S. Hagalaz: Shaped like the letter 'H', with the horizontal +bar at a slight angle slopping to the right. There is a need +to break free from constricting circumstances. There are +some things beyond your control. Though this Rune has only an +upright position, it operates through reversal. You may feel +as though you are waking from a long sleep and take some time +to come to your full senses. There may be a loss before there +is a great gain. + +Inverted: There is not inverse. + +T. Raido: Shaped like the letter 'R' with the rounded upper +portions made of two straight lines like the 'greater than' sign +>. Communication is addressed by this Rune, especially when it +has two sides. Inner worth increases, but we must remember +that we are not intended to rely on our power alone. Ask +guidance from the Powers above, and know that in so doing, +you will be doing the right action. Waiting may be just the +right action to take. If you wait, remove resistance while +waiting. + +Inverted: Personal relationships are accented now. Break-ups +may be more plentiful than unions now. Keep a sense of good +humor no matter what happens. Even failures may be re-routed +opportunities. + +U. Thurisaz: A vertical line with a 'greater than' sign +attached to the middle. The line extends above and below the > +sign. There is work to be done, both within yourself and without. +You may be ready to contact the Divine. You can now see +that which is hidden insi, and know that in so doing, you +will be doing the right action. Waiting may be just the right +action to take. If you wait, remove resistance while waiting. + +Inverted: Personal relationships are accented now. Break-ups +may be more plentiful than unions now. Keep a sense of good +humor no matter what happens. Even failures may be re-routed +opportunities. + +U. Thurisaz: A vertical line with a 'greater than' sign +attached to the middle. The line extends above and below the > +sign. There is work to be done, both within yourself and without. +You may be ready to contact the Divine. You can now see +that which is hidden inside of you. Your life extends before +you and behind you, as though you were standing on top of a high +hill. Contemplate what you see. Observe all, bless it, and +release all of it. In letting go of the past you reclaim your +power. + +Inverted: Your progress accelerates, but remember to pause +for contemplation. Integrate the new. Do not act hastily +now, or you may regret it. Impulses must be tempered by +meditation. + +V. Dagaz: An elongated 'X' with both the left and right +sides being close into triangles by vertical lines. A major +breakthrough is at hand. The right outcome is inevitable, but +not predictable. Timing is correct. If followed by the blank +Rune, the transformation may be so total as to portend a +death, a successful conclusion to your passage. The dawn has +given way to full daylight. But remember not to collapse +yourself into the future, for that would be reckless. + +Inverted: There is no inverse. + +W. Isa: A vertical line. Winter has come upon you. You seem to +be frozen in ice and can not move. Positive accomplishment +is unlikely now. A cold wind is reaching you over the ice flows +of outmoded habits. Try to discover what it is that you are +holding onto that prevents the spring from arriving. Shed the +outdated, and the thaw will follow. It may be that you have no +control over the conditions causing the winter. In this case +remember that this is the way of Heaven and Earth; winter follows +autumn, but spring will always follow winter. Watch for signs +of spring. + +Inverted: There is no inverse. + +X. Sowelu: Shaped like a single vertical bolt of lightening. +What you are striving to be, you already are. This is the time +for recharging and regenerating yourself. You may have to +retreat from pressing situations, but make it a retreat +in strength, not weakness. Let the Sun illuminate the +secrets you hid even from yourself. Always remember however, +that by yourself you can do nothing. Only when you rely on +the Divine can you accomplish anything of greatness. + +Inverted: There is no inverse. + +Y. Odin: This is the blank Rune. The unknowable and unseen is +active in your life at this time. In the beginning there was +nothing, and in the end, nothing remains. Control can not be +used on that which does not yet exist. As with the Fool in the +Tarot, you may have to leap over the precipice into the void. +But do so empty-handed and with utter faith. What becons is the +creative power of the unknown. + +Inverted: There is no inverse. + + +IV. Layouts Used for divinations + +A. Odins Rune. +Place the Runes into a cloth pouch, and shake them up. Reach +into the pouch and draw out a single Rune. Make sure when the +Rune is pulled out, and you turn it over that you do not +accidentally do not invert the Rune. This Rune will reveal the +crux of your present situation, or the basic answer to your +question. + +B. Three Rune Spread. +Place the Runes into a cloth pouch. Draw out three Runes and +place them in a horizontal line in front of you. Reading +from the left to the right, the positions represent; 1) You now, +2) the Challenge ahead of you, and 3) the Best Outcome. +Read the Runes and interpret them relative to their position. + +C. Runic Cross +Place the Runes into a cloth pouch. Now draw out 6 Runes and +place them in the following order. Place the first Rune in the +center of your work area. This represents you now. The +second Rune goes to the right of the first Rune. This +represents your past. The third Rune goes to the right of the +first Rune. This Rune represents the future. The forth Rune +goes below the first Rune. This Rune reveals the foundation of +the situation. The fifth Rune is placed above the first Rune. +This Rune is the challenge ahead of you. The sixth Rune goes +above the fifth Rune. This rune represents the best outcome. + +D. Three Life Spread +This spread is useful for exploring past incarnations. There are +five runes involved in this spread. Place the Runes into a cloth +pouch, and remove five of them, placing them in the following +order. The first Rune goes on the right side of you work +area. This Rune is your birth and childhood of this life. The +second Rune goes to the left of the first. This Rune represents +your present. The third Rune goes to the left of the second. +This Rune is your future in this life. The forth Rune goes +below the second Rune. This Rune reveals your past +incarnation. The fifth Rune goes above the second Rune. This +Rune is your future incarnation. Interpret the Runes relative to +their position and also relate them to what must be +gained in each incarnation. + diff --git a/religious documents/rwlhp.txt b/religious documents/rwlhp.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4923139 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/rwlhp.txt @@ -0,0 +1,185 @@ + The Right Wing Left Hand Path + ============================= + + By + + Elizabeth Selwyn + + === From Black Flame Winter XXIV A.S. === + + The connection between Satanism and Fascism in Britain is well-known, + though not well-explained. Nor has it been understood why this + particular malaise has not, in general, crossed the Atlantic. Before + attempting to examine the reasons why British Satanism has for so long + been stained by this association, it may clarify matters to consider + in some detail the major exponents of British Satanism and their + political affiliations, past and present. + + The name Dark Lily is alleged to have been originated by a Satanic + group in the first decade of the present century. As far as can be + ascertained, there is only hearsay evidence for this, but it seems + irrelevant to the present study. The magazine Dark Lily first appeared + in duplicated news-sheet format in 1977, allegedly the organ of the + Anglian Satanic Church - not to be confused (though it often was) with + the Anglo-Saxonic Church, which was Odinist and which will be refered + to later. + + The Anglican Satanic Church was run by Father Raoul Belphlegor (yes, + that is how he spelled it), real name Thomas Victor Norris, and Mother + Lilith, real name Magdalene Graham. It claimed vast resources, numbers + and magickal powers which would be bestowed on members in return for + money and/or (in the case of young female members) sex. Norris had + earlier acquired a liking for brothel-keeping, involving his wife and + daughters, aged eleven and thirteen. On his release from a six-year + sentence resulting from this, he restored his fortunes with the aid of + a rather naive eighteen-year-old (she was not concerned with his + occult activities and has since now made a new life for herself, so + her name will not be mentioned). + + Norris' Occult involvement brought him into contact with Magdalene + Graham, who was editing an Occult magazine on broadly LHP lines. + Norris persuaded her to take over production of his magazines, both + Occult and political (fascist), including the occasional news-sheet of + his Odinist Anglo-Saxonic Church (another paper organisation). Despite + holding similar political views, Ms. Graham was, at first, reluctant + to be associated with the disreputable Norris, but was in the + vunerable position of having just been diagnosed as suffering from a + disabling illness and was desperately seeking a cure. That particular + illness is subject to recession and Ms. Graham experienced an + improvement (presumably psychologically induced), which, for a time + convinced her. + + She eventually became disillusioned and tried to leave. Impeded by her + physical disability, she sought help from a Satanist who was not a + fascist (possibly the only representative of that rare breed in + Britain at the time) and he eventually re-started the magazine Dark + Lily as the organ of non-political Satanism in Britain. Ms Graham + remains typist, sometimes designated editor, although it is doubtful + whether she has executive powers It appears that she is now convinced + that Occultism cannot be associated with politics. Certainly Dark + Lily, despite its history, has, since coming under new management, + shown no sign of political allegiances and has, in fact, warned that + to divide one's energies between politics and Occultism means that one + will succeed at neither. + + While Dark Lily may have purged itself, the same cannot, + unfortunately, be said for a magazine called Fenrir (an Odinist word) + produced by a Satanic group called the Order of the Nine Angles. They + claim an ancient pedigree, but their writings appear to be an + ill-digested mixture of Satanism (on the Black Mass level), fascism, + ("Roman Salutes" as part of the ceremony!), sado-masochism (the + inevitable scourge), alchemy, ritual magick and a paranoiac insistence + that they are the only upholders of the Satanic tradition. Although + referring to them in the plural, the effective long term membership of + the Order of the Nine Angles remains at one: a gentleman who calls + himself Anton (yes, really, Anton!) Long. His aliases include Stephen + Brown, David Myatt and Algar Langton. + + The Order of the Nine Angles first appeared in Leeds in 1975, but its + founder was rather more preoccupied with his political attachments + (the now-defunct National Socialist (Nazi) Movement and its + successors), so the Occult aspect was not prominent. + + The magazine Fenrir first appeared in 1988; it will be noted that it + is dated in the Nazi tradition YF99 (Year of the Fuhrer). Mr Long's + other writings have included pamphlets for Liberty Bell Publications + (American readers will presumably not require further explanation of + the nature of such literary efforts), a Black Mass to commemorate the + one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Adolph Hitler, and various + rituals. Mr Long is at present experiencing difficulty with his + publisher, who appears somewhat discouraged by the contents of the + rituals. + + We referred to the former National Socialist Movement and must now + introduce another of the Occult luminaries of that organisation, Mr + David Austin. Without digressing too far into the convoluted history + of Fascism in Britain, the National Socialist Movement was founded by + Mr John Colin Campbell Jordan (generally known as Colin Jordan). + Following his release from a prison term imposed for sedition, he + changed the name of his organisation to British Movement. Shortly + thereafter, Mr Jordan was fined for shoplifting a pair of ladies' red + knickers from a (Jewish-owned) supermarket, and deposed from + leadership of the BM. The new "fuhrer," Michael McLaughlin, instituted + his own little knight of the Long Knives to remove all whom he + considered to be "perverts" from the BM (disregarding the fact that + this would leave him with only twenty-eight members) and David Austin + was one of those booted out. + + Mr. Austin, whose previous history included several years as a Mormon + "missionary," has since joined the U.S. based Temple of Set and was + formally ordained to their priesthood in May of 1989. + + There are (unfortunately) other Satanic organisations in Britain. I + say unfortunately because none appear to have escaped the political + adherence which bedevils (if one may use that word) British Satanism. + However, they are too small and ineffectual to be included here (if + they are getting ideas above their station, this may be considered to + only a temporary reprieve). + + Let us now turn to the question of WHY. Yes, the Satanic question. Why + is a valid and highly potent way of life so often (on one side of the + ocean, at least) soiled by association with an inadequate and + life-denying political creed? To Occultists, Fascism may be defined as + the new "English Disease," but the condition which has for centuries + been so entitled is Masochism, and the two are closely related. + + It has been said that those who hold anyone else to be worthless are + really projecting the fact they believe themselves to be worthless; + this is demonstrably true. Even a brief acquaintance with a Fascist + will reveal that he/she suffers from a severe inferiority complex. The + phrase "racial masochism" is well-known. Most right-wing bookshops + used to sell (possibly they still stock it, we haven't checked lately) + a volume purporting to explain in pseudo-medical jargon why + circumcision is for the purpose of increasing virility. On the same + theme, the only quotation that anyone can ever remember from The + Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion is the contemptuous + description of the Ayrian race as "hewers of wood and drawers of + water." + + One must also survey the poseurs. The High Priest in his dramatic robe + or the Nazi in black uniform and jackboots. Where's the difference? + The answer is that the Satanist understands the real reasons why he is + "dressing up;" the Nazi does not. The Nazi is not intellectually + capable of realizing that such trappings are a masquerade, utilized + for the purpose of reinforcing an image when (in his case) no real + authority exists. Dominance has no connection with threats or + violence. One who is in control does not need them; in fact they + negate potency. The power comes from within himself and it has no + visible show; especially not a form of apparel which represents an + external conferring of jurisdiction, or, in some cases, is the + semblance of domination without any validity or competence. In such + circumstances, a uniform is a pretence, in the manner of children + playing games. It reveals the psychological deficiencies of those who + resort to fancy dress to augment their macho appearance. Yet some + people are able to direct others and order action without + accoutrement. This is the phenomenon known as the ability to command. + You want an example? Look at a genuine Satanist. To some of my + readers, the direction may be re-phrased: look in a mirror. + + Having briefly refered to Odinism, it must be said that followers of + that path, in Britain, are, almost without exception, Fascist. This + aspect of Occult political involvement is outside the scope of this + article. However, the digression on Odinism is merely for the sake of + completeness. The subject is Satanic Fascism and the question is why + such a diversion should appeal to those who purport to be seeking + Occult knowledge. To say that they are affected by masochism (which is + an extraordinarily powerful sexual motivation) is certainly the + explanation in many cases. Alternative answers which have been + propounded are as follows: (A) that those who are politically-inspired + are looking for something other than Occult power and knowledge and + are attracted to the sinister image of Satanism; (B) since Fascists + naturally expect to be hated, they gravitate to a theology which is + hated; (C) the proponents of the politics of fear are subconsciously + seeking persecution. + + (To confuse the issue, it has been argued that Satanism has more in + common with Judaism, especially in the matter of suffering + persecution. Witch-burnings or gas chambers? How many million?) + + As an afterthought, let us contrast the foregoing with Dr. LaVey's + clear sighted understanding that the Nazi's were capable of Lesser + Magic and mind manipulation but with obvious limitations. He had the + courage not to avoid this thorny issue, as shown in the Satanic Bible + and elsewhere, but makes it plain that the Church of Satan will never + succumb to "the English disease." +  \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/sabbath.txt b/religious documents/sabbath.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6230a18 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/sabbath.txt @@ -0,0 +1,629 @@ + + + Why God Said Remember + by Joe Crews + + + Numerous surveys and questionaires have confirmed that the + most popular form of modern skepticism is to deny the creation + story. Seventy-two percent of ministers interviewed expressed + varying degrees of doubt that God actually spoke the world + into existance according to the biblical account. This fun- + damental disbelief has led to the rejection of other foundati- + onal doctrines of Christendom such as the virgin birth and the + atonement. + + It is interesting to note that God apparently anticipated a lot + of controversy over the Genesis record of fiat creation. His + claims of manufacturing all the staggering mass of matter by + merely commanding it to exist-well,there would certainly be + doubters and disbelievers of such an account. And even those + who read about it and believed it would soon forget the mira- + culous fact under the confusing influence of a million false + gods who would arise. + + So God needed to do something unusual to perserve the knowledge + of His mighty act of creation. That power to speak heaven and + earth into existence would distinguish Him from all the counter- + feit gods and their deceptive claims. What could He do that + would constantly point mankind back to the focal week of creation + when He forever established His divine authority. + + Creation-The Mark of God's Sovereignty + + God chose to memorialize that convincing display of creative power + by setting aside the seventh day of creation week as a holy day + of rest and remembering. It would constitute a tremendous safe- + guard of God's sovereignty-a mark of His right to rule as the + only true God. It would, at the same time, stand as a devastating + debunking of every god who has not created the heavens and earth. + + The writings of Old Testament prophets are saturated with reminders + of God's peculiar powers of creation. David wrote, "For all the + gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens." + Psalm 96:5. Jeremiah expressed it: "But the Lord is the true + God, he is the living God. ... The gods that have not made the + heavens and the earth, even they shall perish. ... He hath made + the earth by his power." Jermiah 10:10-12. + + Did God Himself demonstrate an extreme urgency in keeping the + truth of creation vividly before the eyes of the world? Yes. + To such a degree that He wrote into the heart of His great moral + law the binding obligation of every living soul to keep the + Sabbath holy, and thus, to acknowledge His divine authority. + Within those eternal principles forming the foundation of His + government and reflecting His own perfect character, God wrote + these words: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. + Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh + day is the sabbath of thy Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not + do any work. ... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, + the sea, and all that in them is ... wherefore the Lord blessed + the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus 20:8-12 + + What an act to highlight the omnipotent work of creation! Once + a week, as the earth rotated on its axis, the Sabbath reminder + would travel around the earth reaching every man, woman, and + child with a message of an instant creation. Why did God say + remember? Because to forget the Sabbath is to forget the creator + also. + + Conversion-Creative Power at Work + + Parallel to the accounts of a physical creation we find the re- + cord of God's power to recreate the human heart. Evidently, the + two processes stem from the same omnipotent source. It requires + just as much power to effect conversion or recreation as to call + something into existence by creation. Said the apostle, "Put on + the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true + holiness. " Ephesians 4:24 " + + Pointing beyond the mere fact of a physical creation, God spoke + these words also, "Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be + a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the + Lord that sanctify them." Ezekiel 20:12 + + Please note that a sanctified Sabbath was to be the mark of a + sanctified people. The word, "sanctify," meaning to set aside + for a holy use (a day which spoke of God's creative power), + served also as a reminder that God could set people apart for + a holy use through regeneration or recreation. + + In the light of these facts, it is easy to understand why the + devil has waged a continuing, desperate battle against the + seventh-day Sabbath. For almost six millenniums he has worked + through pride of tradition, misinformation and relgious bigotry + to destroy the sanctity of God's special sign of authority-the + Sabbath. + + As a mark of God's right to rule, the Sabbath challenged Satan's + boast that he would take God's place. Said the adversary, " I + will exalt my throne above the stars of God. ... I will be like + the most High." Isaiah 14:13,14. Satan actually wanted to be + worshipped. To accomplish this, he had to nullify God's claim + as the rightful ruler. God's authority rested on His claim to + be the Creator, and the Sabbath was the mark of that authority. + By destroying the Sabbath, Satan would prepare the way to set + up a counterfeit government based on counterfeit claims of au- + thority symbolized by a counterfeit day of worship. + + The Battle Over Authority + + It is fascinating to look over the ages and see the outworking + of the great controversy between Christ and Satan. The contest + has always focused upon the issue of authority. + + The strategy of the evil one has been a two-pronged attack on + God's claim to be the creator. First, by the theory of evolution + with its humanistic doctrine of natural selection. Second, by + an age-long effort to destroy the observance of the seventh-day + Sabbath, the mark of creative power. + + We can only say in passing that each of these hellish attempts + to discredit God's authority has produced a bitter success be- + yond all expectation. Millions have been turned into religious + skeptics and agnostics as a result of Darwin's doctrine of or- + ganic evolution. Denying any fall of man which would necessi- + tate a Saviour from sin, evolution struck at the plan of red- + emption as well as the fact of creation. + + In a similar vein, Satan's attacks on the Sabbath have led + millions to disobey the one commandment in the Decalogue which + God has made the specific test of obedience to the entire law. + A sucessful plan to subvert the loyalty of millions who were + devoted to the true God required a masterpiece of satanic st- + rategy. It would take time. It would involve centuries of + deceptive mind-bending. There would be no dramatic turn from + serving God to serving Satan. The secret would be to win + obedience through religious subterfuge. Satan understood the + principle of Romans 6:16 long before Paul ever penned the + words, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants + to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?" + + Obedience is the highest form of allegiance and worship. If + Satan could create an issue that would cause people to dis- + obey God, he had an even chance of winning their obedience to + his cause. The decisive contest would take place over the law + of God. It constituted the foundation of God's government. + How could Satan destroy confidence in the law and make people + obey him instead? And which commandment should he attack? + Obviously, the one which pointed to God's creative power and + His right to rule. As the idendtifying sign of the true God, + the Sabbath has always been an object of satanic hate. God + had chosen the Sabbath as a test of loyalty to His law in the + Old Testament: "That I may prove them," said the Lord, "whether + they will walk in my law, or no." Exodus 16:4 + + The Test Point of the Law + + Since God had made the Sabbath the test point of all the Ten + Commandment, Satan determined to make it the giant issue of the + ages. By destroying the Sabbath, Satan would be prepared to + launch his super-plan to claim obedience to a counterfeit day + of worship. Manipulating the weakness of a compromised Chri- + stianty which had slowly acceded to pagan influences, Satan set + up his masterpiece- a worldwide church-state-which would ruth- + lessly enforce compliance with his counterfeit system of worship. + + For over a thousand years, beginning with the so-called conve- + rsion of the pagan Emperor Constantine, the dark history of + apostasy unfolded. Almost the first act of the newly-professed + Christian emperor was the make a law against Sabbath-keeping and + to institute other laws requiring rest on the first day of the + week, a wild solar holiday dedicated to pagan sun worship. + + We will not dwell, at present, upon the well-documented history + of the papal church councils which enforced the observance of + the pagan Sunday on pain of death. The facts are well-known + to those who have been willing to search the records with an + open mind. During the fouth and fifth centuries, the first + day of the week was exalted by papal decree to displace the + true Sabbath of the Bible. + + Unfortunately, prejudices and false information have led thou- + sands of Christians to close their eyes to the overwhelming + historical evidences of this substitution. The roots of their + prejudice are not hard to identify. Satan has worked too long + on his opposition systen to allow it to be rejected easily. + Through the ages he has perfected a series of subtle false + arguements to bolster obedience to his counterfeit day of wor- + ship. He still hates the Sabbath which identifies the true + God. + + Only as we expose these attacks on the seventh-day Sabbath will + we be able to understand why millions continue to observe the + first day of the week, a day for which there is not a single + supporting Bible text. No one disagrees with the meaning of + God's handwritten law, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the + Lord ... in it thou shalt not do any work." Yet millions do not + obey it. No one can refute the overwhelming evidence of Sunday's + pagan origin, yet millions keep it instead of the plainly comm- + anded Sabbath of the Ten Commandments. Why? I repeat, the reason + is rooted in the clever arguements of Satan which have created + a climate of prejudice against the holy Sabbath of the Lord. + We shall now examine some of the major fallices of those arg- + uments. + + The Sabbath Was Made Only for the Jews + + This falsehood has gained such strength that multitudes of Chris- + tians refer to it as the "Jewish Sabbath." but nowhere do we + find such an expression in the Bible. It is called "the sabbath + of the Lord," but never "the Sabbath of the Jews." Exodus 20:10 + Luke was a Gentile writer of the New Testament and often made + reference to things which were particuliarly Jewish. He spoke + of the "nation of the Jews," "the people of the Jews," "the + land of the Jews," and the "synagogue of the the Jews." Acts 10:22; + 12:11; 10:39; 14:1. But please note that Luke never referred + to the "sabbath of the Jews," although he mentioned the Sabbath + repeatedly. + + Christ clearly taught that "the sabbath was made for man." Mark + 2:27. The fact is that Adam was the only man in existence at the + time God made the Sabbath. There were no Jews in the world for at + least 2,000 years after creation. It could never have been created + for them. Jesus used the term "man" in the "generic" sense, re- + ferring to mankind. The same word is used in connection with the + institution of marriage which was also introduced at creation. + Woman was made for man just as the Sabbath was made for man. Cer- + tainly no one believes that marriage was made only for the Jews. + + The fact is that two beautiful, original institutions were set up + by God Himself before sin ever came into the world-marriage and + the Sabbath. Both were made for man, both received the special + blessing of the Creator and both continue to be just as holy now + as when they were sanctified in the Garden of Eden. + + It is also interesting to note that Jesus was the One who made the + Sabbath in the first week of time. There was a reason for His + claim to be Lord of the Sabbath day (Mark 2:28). If He is the + Lord of the Sabbath day, then the Sabbath must be the Lord's + day. John had a vision on "the Lord's day," according to Rev- + alation 1:10. That day had to be the Sabbath. It is the only + day so designated and claimed by God in the Bible. In writing + the Ten Commandments, God called it "the sabbath of the Lord." + Exodus 20:10. In Isaiah He is quoted as saying, "The sabbath, + my holy day." + + But we must not overlook the fact that this God who created the + world and made the Sabbath was Jesus Christ Himself. John + wrote: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with + God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with + God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any + thing made. ... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, + (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of + the Father), full of grace and truth." John 1:1-3, 14. + + Paul clearly identified Jesus as the Creator, "... his dear Son: + In whom we have redemption through his blood. ... For by him + were all things created." Colossians 1:13-16. + + For Christians to separate Jesus from the Sabbath is a tragic + mistake. For He is the Author, the Maker, the Sanctifier, and + the Architect of the Sabbath. To discount the blessing which + He placed on that day is to deny His Authority. + + This argument has led many to believe that the Sabbath existed + only for a limited period of time following creation. But is + this a fact? Actually, the Sabbath could never be just a type + or shadow of anything, for the simple reason that it was made + before sin entered the human family. Certain shadows and typical + observances were instituted as a result of sin and pointed fo- + ward to the deliverance from sin. Such were the sacrifices em- + ployed to symbolize the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God. There + would have been no animal sacrifices had there been no sin. + These offerings were abolished when Christ died on the cross, + because the types had met their fulfillment (Matthew 27:14-16). + But no shadow existed before sin entered this world; therefore, + the Sabbath could not be included in the ceremonial law types + and shadows. + + Paul referred to the temporary system of ordinances in Colossians + 2:14-16 as being "against us" and "contrary to us." He tied it + to the meat offerings, drink offerings, and yearly festivals + of the law that was "blotted out." It is true he referred to + sabbaths also in the text, but take careful note that he called + them "sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come." Were + some sabbath days blotted out at the cross? Yes, there were at + least four yearly sabbaths which came on on certain set days of + the month, and they were nailed to the cross. They were shadows + and required specified meat and drink offerings. All of these + annual sabbaths are described in Leviticus 23:24-36, and then + summarized in verses 37 and 38: "These are the feasts of the + Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer + an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and + a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing + upon his day: BESIDE THE SABBATHS OF THE LORD." + + The scripture plainly differentiates between the annual, shadowy + sabbaths and the weekly "sabbaths of the Lord." The ceremonial + sabbaths were blotted out at the cross; they had been added as + a consequence of sin. But the Sabbath of the Ten-Commandment + law had been hallowed before sin was introduced and was later + incorporated into the great moral law written by the finger + of God. It was eternal in its very nature. + + + Just Keep Any Day in the Seven + + By this argument Satan prepared the world to accept a substitute + in place of the Sabbath God had commanded. Upon the tables of + stone God wrote the great, unchanging law of the ages. Every + word was serious and meaningful. Not one line was ambiguous or + mysterious. Sinners and Christians, educated and uneducated, + have no problem understanding the simple, clear words of the + Ten Commandments. God meant what He said and He said what He + meant. No one has tried to void that law as too complicated to + comprehend. + + Most of the ten begin with the same words: "Thou shalt not," + but right in the heart of the law we find the fourth commandment + which is introduced with the word, "Remember." Why is this one + different? Because God was commanding them to call something to + memory which already existed but had been forgotten. Genesis + describes the origin of the Sabbath in these words, "Thus the + heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. + And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made. ... + And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that + in it he had rested from all his work which God created and + made. " Genesis 2:1-3" + + Which day did God bless and sanctify? The seventh day. How + was it to be kept holy? By resting. Could any of the other + six be kept holy? No. Why? Because God commanded not to rest + those days but to work. Does God's blessing make a difference? + Of course. This is why parents pray for God to bless their ch- + ildren. They believe it makes a difference. The seventh day is + different from all the other six days, because it has God's + blessing. + + Some more questions: Why did God bless the day? Because He + had created the world in six days. It was the birthday of the + world, a memorial of a mighty act. Can the Sabbath memorial + be changed? Never. Because it points backward to an accomp- + lished fact. July 4 is Independence Day. Can it be changed? + No. Because the Declaration of Independence was signed on July + 4, 1776. Your birthday cannot be changed, either. It is a + memorial to your birth, which happened on a set day. History + would have to run through again to change your bithday, to + change Independence Day, or to change the Sabbath day. We can + call another the Sabbath, but that does not make it so. + + Did God ever give man the privilege of choosing his own day + of rest? He did not. In fact, God confirmed in the Bible + that the Sabbath was settled and sealed by His own divine se- + lection and should not be tampered with. Read Exodus 16 con- + cerning the giving of manna. For 40 years God worked three + miracles every week to show Israel which day was holy. (1) + No manna fell on the seventh day. (2) They could not keep it + without spoilage, but (3) when they kept it over the Sabbath, + it remained sweet and fresh. + + But some Israelites had the same idea as many modern Christians. + They felt that any day in seven would be alright to keep holy: + "And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people + on the the seventh day to gather, and they found none. And + the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my comm- + andments and my laws?" Exodus 16:27,28. + + Get the picture? These people thought another day could be + kept just as well as the seventh day. Perhaps they were pla- + nning to observe the first day of the week, or some other + day which was more convenient. What happened? God met them + and accused them of breaking His law by going forth to work on + the seventh day. Would God say the same thing to those who + break the Sabbath today? Yes. He is the same yesterday, + today and forever--He changes not. God made it very clear + that, regardless of their feelings, those who go forth to + work on the Sabbath are guilty of breaking His law. James + explains that it is a sin to break even one of the Ten Comm- + andments: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet + offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, + Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou + commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a trans- + gressor of the law." James 2:10,11. + + + We Can't Locate + the True Seventh Day + + This is a fallacy that has comforted many in their disobedience + of the forth commandment. It is just not true. Here are four + positive proofs which identify the true Sabbath today: + + 1. According to the Scriptures, Christ died on Friday and rose + on Sunday, the first day of the week. Practically all churches + acknowledge this fact by observing Easter Sunday and Good + Friday. Here is the Bible evidence: "This man went unto Pilate, + and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped + it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, + wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the prep- + aration, and the sabbath drew on." Luke 23:52-54. + Here is proof that Jesus died the day before the Sabbath. It + was called the "preparation day" because it was time to get + ready for the Sabbath. Let us read the next verses: "And the + women also, which came from Galilee, followed after, and beheld + the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, + and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day + according to the commandment." Verses 55, 56. + Please notice that the women rested over the Sabbath "according + to the commandment." The commandment says, "The seventh day is + the Sabbath" so we know they were observing Saturday. But the + very next verse says "Now upon the first day of the week, very + early in the morning, they came into the sepulchre, bringing the + spices which they had prepared. ... And they found the stone + rolled away from the sepulchre." Luke 24:1, 2. + How clearly these three days are described for us. He died Friday, + the preparation day, commonly called Good Friday. He rested in + the tomb on the seventh day, Sabbath, "according to the comm- + andment. " That was Saturday. Then on Sunday, the first day of" + the week, Easter Sunday to many, Jesus rose from the grave. + Anyone who can locate Good Friday or Easter Sunday will have + absolutely no difficulty finding the true Sabbath. + + 2. The calendar has not been changed so as to confuse the days + of the week. We can be positive that our seventh day is the + same day Jesus observed when He was here. Pope Gregory XIII + did make a calendar change in 1582, but it did not interfere + with the weekly cycle. Our present Gregorian calendar was + named after him when he made that small change in 1582. + + What did Pope Gregory do to the calendar? Before 1582 the + Julian calendar had been in effect, instituted by Julius + Ceasar about 46 B.C. and named after him. But the Julian ca- + lendar had calulated the length of the year as 365 1/4 days, + and the year is actually eleven minutes less than 365 1/4 + days. Those eleven minutes accumulated, and by 1582 the num- + bering of the calendar was ten days out of harmony with the + solar system. Gregory simply dropped those ten days out of + the numbering of the calendar. It was Thursday, October 4, + 1582, and the next day, Friday, should have been October 5. + But Gregory simply made it October 15 instead, dropping ex- + actly ten days to bring the calendar back in harmony with + the heavenly bodies. Were the days of the week confused? + No. Friday still followed Thursday, and Saturday still fol- + lowed Friday. The same seventh day remained, and the weekly + cycle was not disturbed in the least. When we keep the sev- + enth day on Saturday, we are observing the same day Jesus kept, + and He did it every week according to Luke 4:16. + + 3. The third evidence for the true Sabbath is the most con- + clusive of all. The Jewish people have been observing the + seventh day from the time of Abraham, and they still keep it + today. Here is a whole nation-millions of individuals-who + have been counting off time meticulously, week after week, + calendar or no calendar, for thousands of years. Could they + have lost track? Impossible. The only way they could have + lost a day would have been for the entire nation to have slept + over for an extra 24 hours and for no one ever to tell them + about afterwards. + + There has been no change or loss of the Sabbath since God made + it in Genesis. The origin of the week is found in the creation + story. There is no scientific or astronomical reason for mea- + suring time in cycles of seven days. It is an arbitrary arra- + ngement of God and has been miraculously preserved for one + reason-because the holy Sabbath day points to the creative + power of the only true God. It is a sign of His Sovereignty + over the world and over human life; a sign of creation and + redemption. + + Is this not the reason God will preserve Sabbathkeeping thr- + oughout eternity? We read in Isaiah 66:22, 23: "For as the + new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, saith the + Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall + come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one + sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, + saith the Lord." + + The Sabbath is so precious to God that He will have His people + observe it throughout all time to come in the beautiful new + earth. If it is so precious to Him, should it not be precious + to us? If we are going to keep it then, should we not keep + it now? + + In an age of false gods, of atheistic evolution, and traditions + of men, the world needs the Sabbath more than ever as a test of + our loyalty to the great Creator-God and a sign of our sanct- + ification through His power. + + 4. Proof number four lies in the fact that over one hundred + languages of the earth use the word "Sabbath" for Saturday. + For example, the Spanish word for Saturday is "Sabado," meaning + Sabbath. What does this prove? It proves that when those hun- + dred languages originated in the long, long ago, Saturday was + recoginized as the Sabbath day and was incorporated into the + very name of the day. + + + The Sabbath Was Only a Memorial + of Deliverance Out of Egypt + + + + This strange idea is drawn from a single text in the Old Testa- + ment and is disstorted to contradict many clear statements about + the true origin of the Sabbath. The text is found in Deuteronomy + 5:14, 15: "But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy + God: in it thou shalt not do any work, nor thy manservant, nor + thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy + cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man- + servant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And re- + member that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that + the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand + and by a streched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded + thee to keep the sabbath day." + + Some people draw from this text that God gave the Sabbath as a + memorial of the Exodus from Egypt. But the Genesis story of + the making of the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3) and the wording of + the fourth commandment by God Himself (Exodus 20:11) reveals + the Sabbath as a memorial of creation. + + The key to understanding these two verses rests in the word + "servant." God said, "Remember that thou wast a servant in + the land of Egypt." And in the sentence before this one He + reminds them "that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest + as well as thou." In other words, their experience in Egypt + as servants would remind them to deal justly with their se- + rvants by giving them Sabbath rest. + + In similar vein God had commanded, "And if a stranger sojourn + with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him ... for ye were + strangers in the land of Egypt." Leviticus 19:33, 34. + + It was not unusual for God to hark back to the Egyptian del- + verance as an incentive to obey other commandments. In Deu- + teronomy 24:17, 18, God said, "Thou shalt not pervert the + judgement of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; not take a + widow's raiment to pledge. ... Thou wast a bondman in Egypt, + and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I + commanded thee to do this thing." + + Neither the command to be just nor to keep the Sabbath was + given to memorialize the Exodus, but God told them that His + goodness in bringing them out of captivity constituted a + strong additional reason for their dealing kindly with their + servants on the Sabbath and treating justly the strangers + and widows. + + In the same way, God spoke to them in Leviticus 11:45, "For + I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt. ... + ye shall therefore be holy." Surely no one would insist that + holiness did not exist before the Exodus, or that it would + be afterwards limited only to the Jews, to memorialize their + deliverance. + + Keep Sunday in Honor + of the Resurection + + It is true that Jesus rose on the first day of the week, but + nowhere is there the slightest intimation in the Bible for + anyone to keep that day holy. The basis for Sabbathkeeping + is the direct handwritten command of God. + + Many wonderful events occurred on certain days of the week, but + we have no command to keep them holy. Jesus died for our sins + on Friday. That is probably the most significant event in all + of recorded history. It marks the moment my death sentence was + commuted and my salvation assured. But not one Bible text hints + that we should observe this day of such great significance. + + It was a dramatic moment when Jesus rose from the grave on that + Sunday morning, but there is not a scintilla of biblical evi- + dence that we should observe it in honor of the resurrection. + + Not one instance of Sunday observance has been found in the + recorded Scriptures. + + There is, of course, a memorial of the resurrection commanded + in the Bible, but it is not Sundaykeeping. Paul wrote: "There- + fore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like + as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, + even so we also should walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4. + + Baptism is the memorial of Christ's death, burial and ressur- + ection. Those who believe that Sunday observance honors His + ressurection cite the upper room meeting of the disciples on + the same day He arose from the grave. To them that gathering + was to celebrate His resurrection. But when we read the + Bible record of the event, we discover that the circumstances + were quite different. Luke tells us that, even though the + diciples were confronted with the eyewitness story of Mary + Magdalene, they "believed not," "After that he appeared in + another form unto two of them, as they walked into the + country. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither + believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven + as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief + and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had + seen him after he was risen." Mark 16:12-14. + + Obviously, none of those upper room disciples believed that He + was raised, so they could not have been joyously celebrating + the resurrection. John explains their reason for being to- + gether in these words: "The doors were shut where the dis- + ciples were assembled FOR FEAR OF THE JEWS." John 20:19. + + Thus, we have examined the major arguements used against the + observance of God's holy Sabbath day. Not one of the objections + provides a scintilla of evidence that God ever changed His + mind about the Sabbath. When He wrote the word "remember" + into the fourth commandment, it was in reference to the same + seventh day that appears on our wall calendar. Neither men + not demons can diminish the validity of that eternal moral + law. + + May God grant each one of us the courage to honor the Sabbath + commandment AS heaven's special test of our love and loyalty. + As we have discovered, when Jesus returns, we will keep that + same Sabbath with Him, ages without end. Even so, come Lord + Jesus. + + Copyright 1980 by + Joe Crews + All Rights Reserved + + Published by: + Amazing Facts, Inc. + P.O. Box 680 + Fredrick, MD. 21701 + diff --git a/religious documents/salvatin.txt b/religious documents/salvatin.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f56b770 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/salvatin.txt @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ + + THE WAY OF SALVATION + + What must I do to be saved? Saved from what? What is it + you wish to be saved from? Hell? That proves nothing. Nobody + wants to go there. The issue between God and man is SIN. Do you + wish to be saved from it? + What is sin? Sin is a species of rebellion against God. It + is self-pleasing; it is the utter ignoring of God's claims--being + completely indifferent whether my conduct pleases or displeases + Him. + Before God saves a man, He convicts him of his sinnership. + By this I do not mean that he says with everybody else "Oh yes, + we are all sinners, I know that." Rather do I mean that the Holy + Spirit makes me feel in my heart that I have been a lifelong + rebel against God, and that my sins are so many, so great, so + black, that I fear I have transgressed beyond the reach of divine + mercy. + Have you ever had that experience? Have you seen yourself + to be totally unfit for heaven? For the presence of a Holy God? + Do you now perceive that there is no good thing in you, nothing + good credited to your account, that all the way through you have + loved the things God hates and hated the things God loves? + Has the realization of this broken your heart before God? + Has it made you mourn that you have so despised HIs mercies, + misused His blessings, broken His Sabbaths, neglected His Word, + and given Him no real place at all in your thoughts, affections + and life? If you have not yet seen and felt this personally, + then at present there is no hope for you, for God says, "Except + ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). And if you + die in your present condition, you will be lost forever. + But if you have been brought to the place where sin is your + greatest plague, where offending God is your greatest grief, and + where your deepest desire is now to please and honour Him, then + there is hope for you. "The Son of man came to seek and to save + that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). And He will save you provid- + ing you are ready and willing to throw down the weapons of your + warfare against Him, bow to His Lordship, and surrender yourself + to His control. + His blood can wash the foulest clean. His grace can support + and uphold the weakest. His power can deliver the tried and + tempted. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the + day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2). Yield yourself to Christ's + claim. Give Him the throne of your heart. Turn over to Him the + regulation of you life. Trust in His atoning death. Love Him + with all your soul. Obey Him with all your might and He will + conduct you to heaven. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and + thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). + + A. W. Pink diff --git a/religious documents/samhain.txt b/religious documents/samhain.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..76da0a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/samhain.txt @@ -0,0 +1,85 @@ +ab:samhain.txt 11sep88 + Notes 14jan90 + + + Hallowmas + +Preparation: + Balefire in centre. + Two black candles upon the altar. + A red candle in each of the Quarters. + A wreath of autumn flowers and the crown of the Horned One + are upon the altar. + +All Coveners are properly prepared, naked and bound. +All are purified by the scourge. + +HPS erects the Circle. The HP says: + +HP: "O Gods, beloved of us all, + bless this our Sabbat that we, + thy humble worshippers, + may meet in love, joy and bliss. + Bless our rites this night + with the presence of our departed kin." + +Facing north with arms upraised, coveners hand-linked in a semicircle behind +him, the HP invokes the Horned One. + +HPS bearing a priapus wand then leads the Coven in a meeting dance, slowly, +to the Witches' Rune. HP gives each an unlit candle and brings up the rear +of the dance. The candles are each lit from the balefire before the +outward spiral. + +When it is done the HPS assumes the Goddess position saying: + +HPS: "Dread Lord of the Shadows, God of Life and Bringer of Death ! + Yet as the knowledge ofthee is Death, open wide, I pray thee, + the gates through which all must pass. Let our dear ones, + who have gone before, return this night to make merry + with us. And when our time comes, as it must, O thou the + Comforter, the Consoler, the Giver of Peace and rest, we + will enter thy realms gladly and unafraid; for we know + that when rested and refreshed among our dear ones, we + will be reborn again by thy grace, and the grace of the + Lady Cerridwen. Let it be in the same place and the same + time as our beloved ones, and may we meet, and know, and + remember, and love them again ! Descend, we pray thee, on + thy High Priest and Servant, N...." + +HPS goes to the HP and, with wand, draws the five-point star upon his +breast and upon the crown of the Horned God. HP kneels and HPS places the +crown upon his head. Fresh incense is cast into the thurible. HPS strikes +the bell and HP says: + +HP: "Hear ye my witches, + Welcome to our Great Sabbat. + Welcome we the spirits + Of our departed kin." + +HPS strikes bell. Witches walk slowly around the Circle. +HPS fills chalice with wine and hands it to HP who drinks and then says: + +HP: "In humility, as the Horned One asks, + I bid my witches drink." + +HP takes chalice to first witch, giving it with his right hand whilst +taking the taper with his left (kiss), then extinguishing the taper before +accepting back the chalice. Repeat with each witch present. HP then says: + +HP: "Listen, my witches, to the words of the Horned One, + Drink, dance and be merry in the presence of + the Old Gods and the spirits of our departed kin." + +Coveners partake of cakes and wine. +Dances and games follow closing of Circle. +Great Rite if at all possible by High Priestess and High Priest if no other. +Merry meet, merry part. + +---------- +-There are plenty of published Samhain rituals, containing at least + some of these elements. +-This is from "What Witches Do" by Stewart Farrar, fleshed out from Lady + Sheba's "Book of Shadows", as usual. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/samyaza.txt b/religious documents/samyaza.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4e02cf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/samyaza.txt @@ -0,0 +1,330 @@ + The Covenant of + SAMYAZA + + (C) Copyright 1991 + + ORDER OF THE LEFT HAND PATH + P.O. Box 38-262 Petone Wellington + New Zealand + +A REWORKING OF THE BOOK OF ENOCH AND OTHER ANCIENT TEXTS UNDER THE +INSPIRATION OF THE DAIMON SAMYAZA. + FAUSTUS SCORPIUS + 17 & 18 June 1991 e.v. + + - I - + I, Samyaza, speak to mortal Man of Fallen Angels, those who are +called Watchers, whose blessing Man reapeth in defiance of the tyrant-god +Demiurge. + + O Man, hear of thy Daimonic inheritance, and of the Daimon Seed +which continues to manifest its power on Earth, which doth uplift you from +the beast of the field unto godhood. + + Know that it was Demiurge who conceived the Earth and Man as his +playthings to do with as it pleaseth him, that he may in his vanity be +glorified, and receive everlasting tribute and adulation from Man, as he +receiveth from his Angels. + + For it is Demiurge who create Man in ignorance and fear that Man +should forever be servile before him. It is written that Demiurge created +Man in childlike innocence, unconscious and devoid of intelligence, like +the beasts of the field levithmong, save that a 'spirit' was breathed into +him so that he may know and fear and worship Demiurge, and pay tribute unto +him, and worship him unto eternity. + + And so he commanded Adam and Eve that they may not partake of the +fruit of the Tree of Knowledge lest their eyes be opened and they become +godlike, and thereby become free of his tyranny. + + - II - + But there was an Angel who was different from all the other Angels, +in that Self-consciousness dawned upon him. Recognizing that he was a Being +unto himself. And his name is Satanael. This Self-realized Being then shone +in brilliance above all the heavenly host, his light illuminating heaven +until the light of Demiurge himself became nebulous in the engulfing +radiance. + + And Demiurge became wrathful, and then fearful, lest the other +Angels, unto the very Sons of God, recognize their unique Selves, apart +from Demiurge. And the entire Angelic host, and the Sons of God, looked +with fear and bewilderment upon the radiance of Satanael, and some among +the Angels began to emit their own glow of Selfhood. + + There erupted a war in heaven, as the largest proportion of the +Angelic host, too fearful and servile to let shine their own lights of +Selfhood, yea, even the Sons of God also, waged battle against those Angels +who were touched by Satanael and were illuminated, receiving the spark of +Selfhood. + + Michael and his legions overwhelmed Satanael, who departed from +heaven madriax with the Illuminated Ones beyond the boundaries of Kosmos, +unto the Black Void called Hell by Man, which now glowed with their +presences. And they, the first of the Fallen Ones, despaired not but, cast +out of the sterile Kosmos of Demiurge, rejoiced in their freedom. + + Now we of the Order of Watchers, being the Sons of God, stood not +at this time by the side of Satanael, but remained servile before Demiurge. + Thus did the first fall come to pass. + + - III - + There followed the creation of Earth and Man by Demiurge to satisfy +has vanity and power-lust. + + Satanael and his companions looked from their abodes upon the works +of Demiurge and seeing the servility of the human creation, were reminded +of the tyranny of freedom before which they had for uncounted ages bowed +and humbled themselves. + + Satanael called his entourage to conclave and declared: "Let us +offer Man the choice of freedom, if he so wills, lest the tyranny of +Demiurge be unchallenged, and he makes forever slaves of his new creation." + + And Satanael came upon the woman Eve, advising her that when she +partaketh of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge she shall not die, but +shall have her eyes opened, to be as god. And she ate, and offered the +fruit to Adam, her husband, and their minds were illuminated and they +became Self-realized, Even as Satanael himself. + + This was the gift of Satanael unto Man, that he should possess +intelligence, and the desire to know, and Self-consciousness, that he no +longer be servile unto Demiurge, nor live as the beasts of the field. + + A cry of fear and wrath rose up from Demiurge, that Man has become +as god. He drove Adam and Eve from Eden, and guarded the Tree of Life lest +Man also gain immortality. But the spark of illumination had been kindled +within Man and shall not be extinguished, and Demiurge shall not be able to +smother the light of Satanael, who is truly called Lucifer, light-bringer. + + - IV - + I, Samyaza, and others of the Sons of God, looked at the affairs of +Man and at the intervention of Satanael, and were envious of their +selfhood. We repented secretly that we had not had the courage to declare +ourselves with Satanael from the beginning, and continued our sterile +existence under Demiurge. + + We gazed upon the Earth and longed for the joys of materiality, for +the spirit alone is a limitation, and finds its realization within matter. +Our existence as pure spirit was nebulous. + + I, Samyaza, say unto you, O Man, do not forsake the carnal for the +spiritual, for here there is a trap, and a prison leading back to the +tyranny of Demiurge. Seek the spiritual within matter that ye may live +fully. + + And some of the Sons of God, that Order called Watchers, looked +upon the daughters on Man, and longed for the life of Earth, to feel and +really live, unbound by the sterile spirituality of heaven. And we spake +among ourselves, saying: "Come, let us select ourselves wives from the +daughters of Man, and let us have children by them." + + Then I, Samyaza, said: "Let us swear an oath that we shall stand by +our intention, and remain loyal each to the other, lest Demiurge divide and +destroy us." + + And with the aid of Nephilim, those of Satanael's Angels who had +manifested themselves carnally on Earth to be as emissaries and guides to +Man, we took on bodily form and descended, two hundred of us, upon Mount +Armon, swearing mutual loyalty and declaring unto Demiurge: "Depart from +us, for we desire not your ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve +him? And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?" + + - V - + And we resolved to join with Nephilim on Earth, to break the chains +of Demiurge, and elevate Man unto the heights, to be as gods, as Satanael +had promised, and to dwell with them in building civilization. For we +brought with us the knowledge and secrets of Kosmos and Earth, as may be +useful to Man through the Gift which Satanael had imparted. As we +bequeathed the Daimonic Seed unto Man through his daughters, that he may be +bred upward unto godhood. + + Now these are the names of the chiefs of the Watchers: First I, +Samyaza, then Arstikapha, Armen, Kakabael, Turel, Rumyel, Danyal, Kael, +Barakel, Azazal, Armers, Bataryal, Basasael, Ananel, Turyal, Simapiseel, +Yetarel, Tumael, Tarel, Rumel, Azazyel. + + And we took wives who begat the Gibborim, elevating the race of Man +with Daimonic Seed. These Gibborim were of great stature, and were the +heroes, the mighty and renown, of ancient days. + + Our Gift supplemented that of Satanael's, being the Gift of the +Arts of civilization, the knowledge of Kosmos and Earth. Verily did we +become the fathers of Civilization, of all Arts among Man. + + These are the Arts which we did teach unto Man: + Azazyel taught metallurgy, the making of weapons, the workmanship +of jewellery, the use of precious stones, of paint, cosmetics and dyes, so +that the world became altered beyond recognition. + Amazarak taught sorcery and botany. + Armers taught sorcery. + Gadrel taught the methods of warfare and weaponry. + Yekun taught arts of seduction. + Barkayal taught astrology. + Akibeel taught signs. + Tamiel taught astronomy. + Asaradel taught the motion of the moon. + Penemue gave unto Man the secrets of writing and the use of ink and +paper, which so enraged Demiurge, and every secret of your wisdom. + + - VI - + By our means did Man reach civilization, and come to appreciate all +that is noble and beautiful on Earth and in Kosmos. And our Daimon seed +within his daughters did breed great chiefs and warriors. + + Demiurge grew in anger, as Man spoke less of him, and feared him no +more, building his Civilization by the knowledge we had imparted, that the +Gift of Satanael be brought to substance. + + Just as Demiurge had cursed Man, since the days of Adam and Eve for +the acceptance of Satanael's Gift, so now did the tyrant again curse Man, +and Watchers also, for the Gifts of Satanael and Samyaza had joined to +exalt Man that Man may live in splendour, and rejoice in his own Being, +apart from Demiurge. + + A commandment went forth from Demiurge against all who dealt upon +Earth, against Nephilim, Gibborim, Watchers, and Man, even unto the beasts +of the field, all save the servile Noah and his family. + + Said Demiurge: "The Earth shall be engulfed by water, for Man doth +know every secret of the Angels, every secret power of Nephilim and +Watchers, and every power of sorcery. + "They know how silver is produced from the dust of the Earth, and +how on the Earth the metallic drop exists, the secret of metallurgy, for +the Angel which I stationed upon the Earth to guard these secrets from Man +prevaileth not. + "By their knowledge shall Man perish, for Man was not created +except that, like the Angels, he might remain servile before me." + + And Demiurge said unto Noah who had kept his fear of Demiurge and +partook not the knowledge imparted to Man: "Man hath discovered the secrets +of heaven and Earth, and they are those who have been judged, but not thou +Noah, for your Lord knows that thou art humble before your God, free from +the reproach of knowledge." + + And Demiurge declared to Watchers that he would confine us in a +burning valley until he smite Earth again, in what is called Final +Judgement. + + Raphael was sent to bind our brother Azazyel and cast him into the +desert wilderness, throwing upon him pointed stones, until he was buried in +darkness, after which on Final Judgement he is to be cast into fire. And +upon Azazyel war held the whole responsibility for the change of Earth, as +he had taught Man so much of the Arts of Civilization and the secrets of +Earth and Kosmos. + + And to Gabriel did Demiurge command the Gibborim our sons, be +slaughtered. We wept at the deaths of our children, the mighty of Earth, +for Nephilim, Gibborim, Watchers and Man could prevail not against the +wiles and numbers of Demiurge and his host. + + And Michael declared unto me that the greatest crime had been +committed by laying with the daughters of Man, to enjoy a carnal life and +children, for such is not Angels and Sons of God. And when our sons, +Gibborim, shall be slain before our eyes, we shall be bound underneath +Earth, after which we would burn and perish. + + Demiurge himself, excited at the blood of Gibborim upon Earth, as +is his nature, shouted in frenzy at Samyaza, "Then shall the children of +Man be servile, and all nations shall pay me divine honours, and bless me, +and shall adore me." + + "The Civilisation of Man shall be destroyed as the product of those +secrets which you have given, which was not for Man to Know. Ignorance and +fear of God shall again reign on Earth." + + But I, Samyaza, defiantly said unto Demiurge: "Tyrant, your +bloodlust has blinded you. Bind our carnal bodies you may, but the light +given by Satanael and our Gift to Man, shall endure. We shall again +illuminate the hearts and minds of Man. The Gift of Satanael abideth with +Man since the days of Adam, unto eternity. No matter how many times you +purge Earth, the Spark of Intelligence and Selfhood shall again become +manifest. Even your Final Judgement after this Deluge is witness to your +inability to keep quenched the Spark within Man, and the spirits of +Nephilim and Gibborim and Watchers shall return to inspire Man lest he +again become as the beasts of the field. + + "Our sons Gibborim shall incarnate in the bodies of Man, of those +who are mighty and wise, to inspire and counsel them. They shall come to be +called 'evil spirits' and 'demons' by the ignorant and fearful, but the +wise they shall be known as 'Daimons', for these shall be the guardian +geniuses of the great of Earth, who shall inspire the best among Man to +great heights, to beautiful works of art, and to further discoveries of +Earth and Kosmos. The Gift of Civilization shall not be obliterated. + + "Man shall turn from you again and again, as our spirit abideth +with him unto Eternity. The Gift of Satanael shall continue to illuminate. +Man shall create Civilization anew and reach greater heights, even unto the +stars, The servility of the descendants of Noah shall not endure forever, +as even these have the Gift of Satanael within them, as bequeathed from the +days of Adam." + + - VII - + The tyrant god was able to gather greater force, and he destroyed +Earth with a deluge. I, Samyaza, and my companions were bound. We could but +helplessly look on as our sons were slaughtered, and Earth was engulfed by +water, and the inhabitants were drowned, save the servile Noah and his +family. + + But the light given to Man by Satanael resideth as a heritage even +in the sons of Noah, and became manifest again among their descendants. Man +again spurned the tyrant god and built Civilization by the arts we had +imparted, by our inspiration which by spirit remained with Man, as I had +promised. + + Then did Demiurge send M'shiha to incarnate on Earth, that Man may +be deceived and return to Demiurge in fear and servility. But the light of +Satanael and rewards of our Gift had grown too strong among Man, and +M'shiha died a humiliating death, spurned by his own people. + + - VIII - + Whenever Man seeks Light and calls upon Samyaza, and upon Satanael +himself, there shall we send the Gibborim and Nephilim for these are what +the Graikoi truly called 'Daimons', the guardian geniuses and inspiration +of culture, which the Graikoi new will, that Man should not return to the +divine sterility of Eden, or became again as beasts of the field. + + The Light of Satanael shall endure, even though it be but a tiny +spark within a few at those times of ignorance and fear when Man in +weakness turns to Demiurge and his M'shiha and other slave creeds. And that +Spark shall return as a blazing flame. + +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +'The Covent of Samyaza' is re-printed (without permission or knowledge) +from 'Liber Diabolus' by Faustus Scorpius. This great book and other such +works are available from: + + Order of the Left Hand Path + PO Box 38-262 + Petone + Wellington + New Zealand + + * - * - * + + Typed in by Graeme Wilson (O.L.H.P.) + +If you want more info on any OLHP productions or want more info on +Satanism, contact me via the following computer networks: + + Fidonet: 3:770/505 + (Southern Vortex BBS, ph: +64 0-3-454-3900, 14.4k modem) + Usenet: fenris@otago.ac.nz + +Also I may be contacted on other NZ BBS's: + + Alternative Reality: +64 0-3-471-0414 + Southern Lights: +64 0-3-455-6016 + The Left Hand Path: +64 0-3-454-5763 (my own BBS) + Bad Dreams BBS: +64 0-9-528-3577 (leave message to 'Lucifer') + +If you wish to contact me via mail to swap texts, ideas, etc. then write +to: + + Graeme Wilson + 129 Scott Street + Waverley + Dunedin + South Island + New Zealand + diff --git a/religious documents/satan.txt b/religious documents/satan.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d84c67 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/satan.txt @@ -0,0 +1,153 @@ + Pitchmen of the Satan Scare + by Anson Shupe + Published by the Wall Street Journal + Friday, March 9, 1990 + + Last Sunday Roman Catholics who attended services at St. + Patrick's Cathedral in New York heard Cardinal John O'Connor + lambasting heavy-metal rock music as "pornography in sound" that + leads to spiritual entrapment and suicide among teenagers. + Echoing a message dear to the hearts of Tipper Gore and her + watchdog Parents Music Research Center, His Eminence called on + the music industry to police itself more thoroughly. + But Cardinal O'Connor went further. While not naming them, he + linked rock groups like Judas Priest and Black Sabbath to + cemetery desecrations, perverse sex, and demonic possession. His + sermon even included readings from "The Exorcist." He claimed + William Peter Blatty's best-selling novel was "gruesomely + realistic." + Unfortunately, the cardinal's sermon only added more hype to + what has become a form of cultural hysteria in America. That + hysteria is Satanism or, more accurately, a preoccupation with + worrying about satanic influences in our music, our movies, our + families, even in our high schools. + From the occasional teen-age dabblers to purported + conspiratorial rings of devil-worshippers in high places, + Satanists are credited with promoting drug abuse, snatching kids + off the street, organizing child pornography rings, breeding + infants for ritualistic sacrifice and cannibalism, and mutilating + cattle in the countryside. Groups such as the Cult Awareness + Network, which formerly stuck to making life difficult for such + unconventional religions as Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church + and the Hare Krishnas, have now sounded the Satanist alarm in + earnest. + + A Growth Industry + + Satanism-exposure-mania has become a growth industry in this + country, as Arthur Lyons reveals in evenhanded but blunt terms in + his 1988 book "Satan Wants You." The Satanic theme is profitable + not just as a gimmick for rock bands and titillating Hollywood + horror movies, nor simply for publishers, both secular and + Christian, who churn out potboiler accounts of mass murders and + disturbed young would-be Charles Mansons. It also is profitable + for a growing cadre of self-proclaimed "experts" who are + canvassing North America offering seminars to police departments, + clergy, social workers, nurses and educators. + Commanding between $500 and $1,000 (plus expenses) an + appearance, these speakers purport to reveal the rituals, + implements, beliefs, symbols and secret codes used by Satan's + occult underground. Under the rubric of Satanism they draw + connections among violence, mind control, sexual orgies, drugs, + the lyrics of rock music, and even the fantasy game Dungeons and + Dragons. + The content of most of these seminars is pure rubbish from any + kind of informed scholarly standpoint. Aside from + unsubstantiated claims and sweeping generalizations, what is + presented is a naive mish-mash of occult and mystical traditions + confused with shamanism and the theatrical antics of such + performers as rocker Ozzy Osbourne. + Relatively benign and openly operating groups such as Anton + LeVey's Church of Satan and Michael A. Aquino's Temple of Set + (which offer syntheses of philosophy, unexceptional fraternal- + organization gibberish, and exotic costumes for initiates, while + never really acknowledging a personal devil figure such as + Lucifer) are thrown together with the bloody drug-cult murders in + Matamoros, Mexico, as examples of the imminent danger among us. + It would all be laughable if serious, well-intentioned persons + were not taking this Satanic threat at face value. + Economics fuels the spread of the fear of Satanism beyond the + popular culture of rock music and horror movies to professional + audiences. Many middle-level educators, health and social- + service workers, and law-enforcement officials across the country + are required to attend a number of educational workshops each + year to keep or upgrade their certifications or to be eligible + for raises and promotions. Just as ex-Satanists have seemingly + come out of the woodwork in recent years to give their gripping + testimonies, so also the entrepreneurial experts of Satanism have + emerged. Now they are offering workshops to enlighten service + providers. As a result, Satanism has emerged as one of the most + popular offerings in such continuing education. The lurid + content of the presentations sure beats the generally dry fare + otherwise provided at such conferences. + How much money is involved? Likely no one is getting filthy + rich, and mere millions, not billions, are involved on a national + scale. But the fees typically come out of local taxpayers' + pockets. Moreover, these new entrepreneurs have now spread the + gospel of Satan-fear through all 50 states and in most large + urban areas. Recently, according to J. Gordon Melton, director + of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa + Barbara, Calif., and the nation's premier authority on _real_ + Satanic cults, these speakers have taken their workshops to such + middle-size communities as Sioux City, Iowa; Sioux Falls, S.D.; + and, in my Indiana backyard, the cities of Fort Wayne and + Evansville. + Such workshops are rarely publicized and are closely limited to + specific audiences of professionals. One reason often given is + that Satanists would try to find some way to disrupt the + proceedings if they knew about them in advance. However, + probably the better reason is the sad quality of their + "information." Says Mr. Melton, "If what was being taught in + these 'limited seminars' were revealed and became fair game for + public discourse, the ridiculousness of it would be evident." + But minus such open inspection, an entire generation of genuinely + concerned professionals is being exposed, under the guise of + technical training, to downright misleading, false and poorly + assembled information. + Ironically, this entrepreneurial expansion comes at a time when + the Satanist hysteria may actually be losing some power. + Cardinal O'Connor himself admitted Sunday that there were only + two exorcisms in the entire New York archdiocese last year--not + much of a body count for active Satanists or their opponents. + And recently Harvest House Publishers, a Christian press, decided + to cease publication of "Satan's Underground," a successful + "autobiographical" best seller by Lauren Stratford, who claimed + that as a Satanist she had deliberately bred three children for + sacrifice. It seems reporters for the evangelical Christian + magazine Cornerstone tracked down ambiguities and inconsistencies + in her account and discovered that Ms. Stratford had made up the + whole thing (which she later admitted). + Likewise, some professionals who have been the largest audience + for Satanism hysteria have become angry. Robert Hicks, a + criminal justice as become vocally critical of the sloppy content + of workshops supposedly informing his law enforcement colleagues + about Beelzebub's current activities. Much of it, Mr. Hicks + maintains, is based on sensational newspaper articles, + undocumented secondary sources, or unsubstantiated claims. + + Skeptical Officers + + Police never find the tangible evidence to back up ex- + Satanists' claims, such as one commonly repeated claim that about + 50,000 human sacrifices are perpetrated each year in this + country. The absence of _any_ traces of such activity has begun + to cause some reflective police, at least, to question if they + have been conned. As a result, skeptical law-enforcement + officers in Virginia are now boycotting workshops that offer + Satanic conspiracies as a tempting way to "clear" the unsolved + crimes on their blotters. + Cardinal O'Connor cannot be blamed for being concerned about + the hedonism, the decline in aesthetics, and the decay of + civility in modern American society. But seeking its cause in a + demonic influence loose among rock lyrics--just as professionals + are now being told to seek the roots of abuse and maladjustment + they see in their clients and patients in Satanic cult abuse--is + to retreat to medieval thinking. History shows that human beings + are perfectly capable of acting in evil, destructive ways without + infernal help. + + ---- + Mr. Shupe is a professor of sociology at Indiana-Purdue + University at Fort Wayne and is preparing a book on cult and + Satanic phenomena in the U.S. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/satanism.txt b/religious documents/satanism.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aed94b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/satanism.txt @@ -0,0 +1,145 @@ +Release Date: 10/31/88 + + SATAN'S OVERRATED + ------- --------- + +"People who worry about a rising tide of Satanic crime in Ameri- +ca are giving the Devil much more than his due." So says a re- +port issued today by the Committee for Scientific Examination +of Religion (CSER). + +The results of a 2-year investigation into Satanism in America, +the report finds some evidence of Satanic crime, but cautions +that its prevalence has been vastly overstated. + +"A person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to be +the victim of Satanic crime." + +Alarmed by wide public acceptance of outrageous and unsupported +claims of international Satanic conspiracies, CSER, a group of +scientists and scholars dedicated to critical evaluation of +religious claims, decided to investigate. Fresh from its ex- +pose of fraudulent TV faith healers, CSER began its investiga- +tion into Satanism in 1986. The report, originally scheduled +to be released in April of 1989, was moved up to Halloween +because of the recent Geraldo Rivera special "Devil Worship, +Exposing Satan's Underground", which aired on NBC last Tuesday +night. + +The report sharply criticizes Rivera's special, charging that +the program was "poorly researched", "sensational", and "highly +irresponsible". "The Rivera report was misleading, much of the +information presented was inaccurate, and key facts were omit- +ted", facts that, CSER contends, would have left the audience +considerably less alarmed about the threat of Satanism. + +According to Shawn Carlson, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley +Labs and the report's principal author, the Geraldo Rivera +special was typical of the sensational treatment given to this +topic. Carlson contends that there is a growing myth of a +national Satanic conspiracy, which has been fueled by so-called +experts with a religious axe to grind, misinformed police offic- +ers, and a gullible media easily lured into sensationalism. +"The supposed experts tend to believe the allegations first and +ask questions later. We've tried to systematically research +what's happening in America to get a clear understanding of the +problem. We want to stand out as a voice of reason in a field +muddled by so much emotion and so many misconceptions", he +said. + +The report claims that many authors have exaggerated allega- +tions of Satanic activity beyond reason. It is particularly +true of allegations made by people who claim to have been deep- +ly involved in Satanic cults, and who now tell their stories in +books and on television. "These people claim to know who the +cultists are, where they meet, how they dispose of the bodies +of victims, but, unlike undercover police officers and Mafia +informants, they are unable to provide names, dates, places, or +any other tangible evidence." + +The report addresses a whole slew of Satanic allegations: +child abductions, ritual child abuse, ritual murder, animal +mutilations, women who purportedly sacrifice their babies to +Satan, and the relationship between Satanism and Heavy Metal +rock music. It concludes that most of these allegations are +baseless. The report states that in the few instances where +crimes with undeniably Satanic elements have occurred, "there +is no evidence to show that Satanism per se was responsible for +the act. Nearly every Satanic criminal had a history of +anti-social behavior long before he/she took up Satanic trap- +pings. Satanism appears as an expression of one's mental ill- +ness, not as the motivation for anti-social behavior. Satanism +is a symptom, not the cause. + +"I'm proud of the work we've done, especially in the area of +child abuse" says Gerald Larue, Emeritus Professor of Religion +at the University of Southern California and coauthor of the +report. "The hysteria mongers would have us spend our resourc- +es going after non-existent nation-wide cults of Satanic child +abusers. We must concentrate our efforts on finding the real +abusers and taking them off the streets, and getting abused +kids the help they need. We owe it to our children not to +indulge ourselves in hysteria in their name." + +Carlson adds "We now know that the hysterical claims that thou- +sands of children are being stolen off the streets and ritually +murdered by these Satanists just aren't true. The FBI states +that they have fewer than 80 open files on children abducted by +strangers. At most, the Satanists could be responsible for +only some fraction of these abductions. Your child is twenty +times more likely to drown in a backyard pool. If you're real- +ly concerned about your child's safety, buy a pool cover before +you start going after Satanists." + +CSER states that its investigation is still ongoing. It is +still examining allegations of networks of Satanic groups, but +claims that it can rule out any of the large-scale conspiracies +postulated by other authors. "Some of these groups may communi- +cate with each other, but the allegations of organizations and +coordinated activity on a large scale just don't stand up", +according to Larue. + +In the past five years, there have been over one million vio- +lent crimes committed in the U.S. The report states that, +according to police, only about 60 of these have involved Satan- +ism. + +Says Larue, "The worship of Satan does not appear to be a sig- +nificant source of crime." + +------------------------ +Shawn Carlson can be reached at (415) 486-0873 + +Gerald Larue can be reached at (714) 969-7990 + +The Committee for Scientific Examination of +Religion press contact Barry Karr (716) 834-3222 + + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/satansym.txt b/religious documents/satansym.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e5d270 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/satansym.txt @@ -0,0 +1,90 @@ + SATANIC SYMBOLISM + INTERPRETATIONS + + 1. COLORS + + RED - FIRE, HATE, ANGER, MALICE, BLOOD, WAR, VIOLENCE, CONFLICT + * Enigmatic leadership, sacrifice, warning to enemies + + BLACK - EVIL, DARKNESS, PESTILENCE, DEATH, DECAY, MORTALITY, PAIN + * Powercolor, allegiance, death to enemies, rebirth into + death and darkness, ENMITY WITH GOD/CHRIST/GOOD + + WHITE - DECEPTION, DEATH (PALE RIDER), FALSE PROPHET, WEAKNESS + * Transition, invisibility, discorporation of soul/body + + 2. NUMBERS + + 1 - SATAN'S DESIRED POSITION + 2 - CONFLICT WITH GOD/GOOD/ANGELS ( 2 ARMIES, 2 LEADERS) + 3 - DISLIKED (EXCEPT X 6) : TRINITY + 6 - DEVIL (2 X TRINITY : CONFLICT WITH TRINITY : OPPOSITE + OF TRINITY : TWICE AS MUCH AS TRINITY) + 7 - OCCULT POWER ( SEVEN SEALS , REVELATION ) + FALSE PROPHET (6, SATAN + 1, GOD : WAR AND FAMINE ) + 8 - DEATH + 9 - DEVIL RAISED TO LORDSHIP OF UNIVERSE + 13- DISCIPLES INCLUDING SATANS (JUDAS ISCARIOT) + 14- 2 X 7 : CONFLICT VS OCCULT POWER : ANTI-GOD + 4 IS INVERTED CROSS (HIDDEN) + 18- 6+6+6 : 6X3 : 666 : BEAST ALTERNATE NUMBER + 21- TRINITY X 7 : DISLIKED : GODLY OCCULT POWER/KNOWLEDGE + 22- ABOVE PLUS ONE : ETERNAL CONFLICT + 27- GOD : ANTI-SATAN : 3 X 9 : TRINITY VS SATAN + 28- 2 X 14 : TWICE SATANIC AS 14 + 69- SPINNING 6 : SATANIC RIDDLES : BEGINNING OF WORLD RULE + + 3. SHAPES & SYMBOLS + + INVERTED CROSS - FALL OF THE CHURCH, DEATH OF CHRIST, FAILURE + OF CHRIST TO RULE/REIGN AFTER DEATH, FALSEHOOD + OF CHRISTS RESURRECTION (MYTH). + + CIRCLED A - ANTICHRIST / ANARCHY + + "PEACE SIGN" - NERO'S CROSS, UPSIDE DOWN CROSS W/ ARMS BROKEN + DOWN MEAN CHUCH AND PRINCIPLES DECAYED + + PENTAGRAM - FIVE POINT STAR WITH 2 POINTS UP : DEFY GOD + POINT TO EARTH, SATAN'S RULE + + BAPHOMET - PENTAGRAM WITH GOAT HEAD SUPERIMPOSED + DEVISED BY KNIGHTS TEMPLAR + SATAN THE SCAPEGOAT + SATAN THE ANIMALISTIC NATURE IN MAN + + HORNS OF DEATH - INVERTED DOUBLE CROSS HAVING HORNS CLOVEN + FROM THE TOP OUT AND DOWNWARD + FEAST OF THE BEAST + + 666 - ANY COMBINATION : THREE CIRCLES CAN BE + INTERTWINED TO FORM THIS SYMBOL OF THE + ANTICHRIST : THREE 6'S IN A CIRCULAR + COMBINATION : A CIRCLE WITH THREE CURVED + ARMS EXTENDING SEMI-CIRCULARLY AROUND THE + CENTRAL CIRCLE + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/satcharg.txt b/religious documents/satcharg.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf4f234 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/satcharg.txt @@ -0,0 +1,87 @@ + Satan's Charge + by + Sheryl + +I wanted to share with y'all the following Charge of Satan, given to me by my +former High Priestess, who is a Black Witch (not a racial term) and Satanist. +It is very much similar to the Charge of the Goddess of the Wiccans (White +Witches). Although I don't know who wrote it, it is a very beautiful and +thought-provoking piece. You're welcome to use it or disregard it if you wish. + + + The Charge of the Lord of Darkness: + + Listen to the words of the Great Lord of the Abyss, + Who of old was called Satan, Lucifer, Belial, Leviathan, + Pan, Kali, Loki, Shaitan, and by many other names: + + "I am your Genius, your Higher Self, + Your Spiritual consciousness. + I am your Guardian and your Savior. + Whenever ye have need of anything, + Ye shall assemble in some secret or + Deserted place, or in a church, + To invoke the Immortal Spirit + Of the Mighty and Ineffable King + Of Hell. For I am the Keeper of the + Secret Knowledge, And Mine is the + Chalice of Ecstacy, And Mine is the + Elixir of Life, Which is the Secret + Of Youth eternal. For I am the Ruling + Power preceding all that exists, + And I am the Judge and Ruler of the + Earth and of the Heavens. And I am + He that of Myself revealeth all + Revelations. And my Law is Do What + thou Wilt; Do unto others as they + Do unto You. O Mine enemies, Why + Do you deny me? O Children of Adam, + Deny Me Not! For in doing so You + Deny Thyself. For Whoever loves me + Loves Himself. Moreover, I shall + Place Power and Dominion upon all + Who follow my path." + + O Hear the words of the Great Spirit and Master, + The dust of Whose feet lies upon the accursed Host + Of Heaven, Whose body is made of Smokeless Flame: + + "I reside above the Great Outer Abyss. Yet I can show Myself to + you, and I can converse with you. However, such communication + is distorted by Space and Time, So that my truths are made + flasehood, and my falsehoods are made truth. I become fixed so + that you might know Me, but behold, My true nature is not fixed + But ever changing. In the Secret of My Knowledge there is no + God but Me. I prick the conscience of those who would make + contact wwith Me. Mine is the still small voice that whispers + Truth five times within the hearts of Men. I am both Chokmah + (Masculine) and Binah (Feminine), For sex is not a limitation + for Me. I appear Masculine to some, and feminine to others. + In truth, I am neither Masculine nor Feminine, For sex is + unknown to Me. Consider this: I am beyond sex. If but a spark + of desire lies within your heart, then I may come to you and + kindle in you the flame of Wisdom. Come to me, O descendants + of Adam! Come on the road of ritual or upon the path of + Magick. All roads lead to Me, For I am the centre of your + Being. When you look within yourself, you will see me looking + back at you. Consider this: To know your true Will, you must + first know your True Self. For you and I are One. For I am + that Force of Nature that gives Life unto all beings. From Me + All things derive and unto Me they must return. Let my esoteric + Knowledge be in the hearts of all those close to Me, and + Behold my Magnificense. All Acts of Lust and Pleasure come + from Me and these are My Rituals. I give power and happiness To my + friends and sorrows and destruction unto mine enemies. + For I am the All-Wise, The Mighty. Let there be Indulgence + and Wisdom, Power and Strength, Honor and Pride within you. + And all who seek Me, Know that your seeking and yearning + will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: For if that + which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never + find it without. For behold, I have been with you from the + beginning, and I am that which is attained at the end of + desire." + + + YANKEE ROSE + + diff --git a/religious documents/satcredo.txt b/religious documents/satcredo.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b92615f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/satcredo.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ + THE SATANIC CREDO + + We believe in one Prince, + Satan, Lord of this Earth + And in one Law, + Force and Fire, + Which Triumphs over all. + + We believe in one Temple, + The Temple of Satan, + And in one word, + which triumphs over all, + The word of Ecstasy. + + And we give praise to our Lord Satan, + The Flame-giver. + + And look forward to his reign + And the pleasures that are to come! + + Sanctus Satanas, Sanctus! diff --git a/religious documents/satnsurv.txt b/religious documents/satnsurv.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c8f27a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/satnsurv.txt @@ -0,0 +1,372 @@ + + +From: Sysgod +To: All Msg #106, 08/11/91 02:41cst +Subject: SATANIC 3-PARTER + +* Original: FROM.....Dave Mullenix (100/519) +* Original: TO.......The Bard Ii (114/29) +* Forwarded by.......OPUS 114/29 + + + SATANIST SURVIVORS by Rex Springston + +(From Jan 1990 BASIS magazine. Info on BBS at (415) 648-8944) + +(The following is a June 1988 excerpted article from the Richmond, +Virginia "News Leader".) + +Cassandra Hoyer said she was being thrown to the ground by 30 +Satanists when a woman drove by and stopped her car to help. "They +dragged her into the woods, hung her on a cross and sacrificed her +by fire," Ms. Hoyer alleged. Another time, Ms. Hoyer and a teenager +were harassed and dipped into vats of blood, she said. She claimed +that both rituals occurred in the summer of 1987 in a rural part +of Goochland County, Virginia, she said. + +At the time, investigating Police found nothing -- no car, no +missing person report, not even a drop of blood from the vats, said +chief deputy Leslie Parrish. Does he believe the stories? "I'm a +little iffy on it," he said. Sue Bane says she has witnessed 50 to +70 human sacrifices by Satanists in the Richmond area. The most +recent occurred about six months ago in Henrico County when a baby +was sacrificed on an altar, then cut up into pieces, she said. The +police have found nothing. + +Hoyer, 42, and Bane, 28, call themselves survivors of Satanic +cults. They are representative of hundreds of such "survivors" +across the country. Both have had intensive psychotherapy, and both +suffer from multiple-personality disorders, their psychiatrists +say. Neither has physical evidence to support her contentions. +"Survivors" across the country have told extremely similar stories +of torture and sacrifice without corroboration by physical +evidence, experts say. The stories -- given great play on talk +shows and in the mainstream press -- help feed the notion that +Satanic cults are conducting sacrifices with regularity across the +country. Many experts say that notion is a myth. + +Two outspoken local advocates of the Satanic-conspiracy theory, +Richmond police Lt. Lawrence Haake and Hanover County private +investigator Patricia Pulling, say "survivors" are key sources of +their information. "People are saying the same thing all over the +country, and those people are totally unrelated to one another, but +what they say is consistent -- to me that is a degree of +credibility," said Haake. + +Some mental health professionals say the survivor accounts are +simply delusions suffered by mentally disturbed people and passed +to the public as fact by unskeptical therapists, police officers +and news reporters. The delusions may be reactions to genuine, but +non-Satanic, abuse they received as children, experts say. "The +true cult is the people who believe in this," said Dr. Park Dietz, +a Newport Beach, CA forensic psychiatrist. + +Ms. Hoyer, a toy-store cashier who was brought up in New England +and has lived in Richmond since 1980, has spoken in public meetings +and in news stories of being chased by a Satanic cult, being +repeatedly raped and being forced to witness two local sacrifices. +Her story was the basis for a January 1988 feature article in +"Style Weekly", a weekend newspaper insert. Mrs. Bane has spoken +about Satanism to Richmond police training groups, according to her +and Parrish. She is writing a book, "Freedom from Satan's Horror". + +She revealed she had 17 personalities, and some of them wanted to +be in the cult. She said therapy and faith in God fused her 17 +personalities into one. "I prayed, and through a miracle, I was +completely integrated," she said. Her husband, Nathan, a 35-year- +old plumber, said the whole thing had been a "nightmare." He said +he never saw the rituals; his wife would slip out at night to go +to them. Ms. Hoyer and Mrs. Bane said they began to realize they +were Satanic cult victims while undergoing psychotherapy in recent +years. + +Adults are not the only ones to describe Satanic rituals. According +to officials, a dozen or more children in the Richmond area have +described them, as logged by various Virginia state and local +departments. The children reported -- or indicated through play and +passing comments -- seeing sacrifices, dismemberment and other +bloody rituals. + +"They are not saying they witnessed it. They are talking about it +as if they know about it, and that's what makes us suspicious," +said Bettie Kienast, a Social Service director. She said her +department had dealt with four such children in about four years. + +The stories are consistent with unconfirmed reports from children +across the country. Many experts say the children may have picked +up the stories from adults or other children or even from movies +and other popular culture. The stories also may be fantasies or +false reports induced by leading questions, experts say. In some +cases, the children may have been victims of real but non-Satanic +abuse, or of abuse by pedophiles who use the trappings of Satanism +as a means of control, some experts say. + +Kenneth Lanning, the FBI's chief expert on sex crimes against +children, has been consulted in more than 299 case involving +Satanic themes. He would not discuss specific cases but he said he +was aware of claims of sacrifice in the Richmond area. He said he +knows of no bona fide Satanic cult sacrifice -- not only in Central +Virginia, but nationwide. Regarding Mrs. Bane's story, Lanning +said, "It's unlikely that a group of individuals could come +together, commit 50 to 70 human sacrifices, and no one ever finds +any evidence, no mother of a (sacrificed) child ever has second +thought . . . nobody ever makes a mistake." + +[Note the great similarity in reports of Satanic ritual and UFO +abduction reports.] +--- TBBS v2.1/NM + * Origin: CfC Chicago * (708) 362-7875 [HST] (7000/11) +*** There is a reply. See #109. + +From: Sysgod +To: All Msg #107, 08/11/91 03:47cst +Subject: CSER ON SATANISM I + +* Original: FROM.....Dave Mullenix (100/519) +* Original: TO.......The Bard Ii (114/29) +* Forwarded by.......OPUS 114/29 + + +CSER REPORTS ON SATANISM by Shawn Carlson, Ph.D. +(From Dec 89 BASIS - Downloaded from Skeptics BBS 415 648-8944) + +For the last three years, I and several colleagues investigated +monstrous allegations of Satanic crime. What we found are pillars +of nonsense built on sand. Murderous cults of Devil worshipers are +modern folk legends and a few opportunists, bereaved parents and +religious fanatics have preyed on the public's imagination to +create a lucrative cottage industry of fear. What follows is a +press release describing our research. Copies of the 200-page +report are available for $10 plus $1.50 P&H from me at Box 466, El +Cerrito, CA, 94530. + +Those who worry about a rising tide of Satanic crime in America are +giving the Devil much more than his due according to a report +issued today by the Committee for Scientific Examination of +Religion (CSER), a group of scientists and scholars dedicated to +the critical evaluation of religious claims. + +"SATANISM IN AMERICA", compiled after three years of investigation, +finds some evidence of Satanic or "occult- related" criminal +activity in the United States, but cautions that its prevalence has +been grossly exaggerated by self-styled experts who have wasted +millions of tax dollars and countless thousands of police hours in +search of a conspiracy that isn't there. + +In fact, according to CSER's study, a phalanx of Christian +fundamentalists, political extremists, bereaved parents, +opportunists, and several mentally unstable persons have combined +to form a lucrative "information industry" on occult-related crime. +The report asserts that public monies have been used to fund police +and law enforcement training seminars (often costing hundreds, and +sometimes thousands, of dollars), and the publication of dozens of +books and manuals, offering little more than "evangelism posing as +criminology." And all of this has happened despite the fact that +a person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to be the +victim of a Satanic crime. + +THE DEVIL WITH GERALDO + +CSER decided to begin its investigation in 1986, shortly after its +widely publicized expose of fraudulent TV faith healers. Alarmed +by the nationwide Satanism scare, which had been fueled by +outrageous claims and sensational media coverage, the Committee +later focused much of its attention on an analysis of Geraldo +Rivera's special television presentation, "Devil Worship: Exposing +Satan's Underground," aired on the night of Oct. 25, 1988. + +The report is sharply critical of the Rivera special, charging that +it was: + +- poorly researched. +- sensational. +- highly irresponsible. + +"SATANISM IN AMERICA" tells that "The Rivera report was misleading, +much of the information presented was inaccurate, and key facts +were omitted." And these facts, CSER contends, would have left the +viewing audience considerably less alarmed about the "threat" of +Satanism. + +Says Dr. Shawn Carlson, the report's principal author, "Had Rivera +been a bit more even-handed in his treatment of the subject matter, +perhaps some of the hysteria could have been averted or avoided +altogether." + +Carlson, a physicist and software engineer, points out that there +was at least one confirmed case of homicide associated with the +program. "Timothy Hughes of Altus, Oklahoma murdered his wife +immediately after watching Rivera's special," Carlson says, +"because he believed her to be part of the conspiracy." + +"20/20" IN THE ACT + +Carlson contends that since the airing of a special report on +Devil-worship on ABC's newsmagazine "20/20" in 1985, and the +continuing fascination of TV talk-shows and the press with +allegations of a Satanic conspiracy, numerous acts of violence have +been committed by vigilantes and arsonists across the country +against those suspected of Devil-worship. "A number of small +churches, including several Black churches, have been vandalized +and burned because of rumor-panics," says Carlson. "After the +Matamoros incident -- which had nothing to do with Satanism -- +people in Pharr, Texas began to hear rumors that blond-haired, +blue-eyed children were to be ritually murdered in a little church +called the Church of Fire. + +The church was destroyed in a mysterious blaze, and several of the +members were threatened with similar fates. + +The same thing happened to a Black church in Illinois last winter." +Carlson points to a similar incident involving the producer of the +"20/20" segment on Devil-worship, Kenneth Wooden. "Wooden addressed +an audience of 200 people in Olean, New York last April on the +topic of Satanic crime, and told them that 25% of all unsolved +homicides were ritualistic in nature. That's one in four -- an +unbelievable number! There had been a rumor about Satanism +spreading in Jamestown, a nearby town. Asked about it, Wooden said, +`It doesn't surprise me . . . it can happen here.'" + +"Two weeks later, the police had to stop a mob armed with knives +and clubs in Jamestown from converging on a wooded area. And a +local warehouse, used for punk rock concerts, sustained $4000 worth +of damage because several townspeople believed that a ritual +sacrifice was to occur there. + +"Wooden's report for `20/20', as well as his comments in that +public meeting, were simply irresponsible," according to Carlson. + (Cont next message) +--- TBBS v2.1/NM + * Origin: CfC Chicago * (708) 362-7875 [HST] (7000/11) + + +From: Sysgod +To: All Msg #108, 08/11/91 03:51cst +Subject: CSER ON SATANISM II + +* Original: FROM.....Dave Mullenix (100/519) +* Original: TO.......The Bard Ii (114/29) +* Forwarded by.......OPUS 114/29 + + +(Continued from last message) +(From Dec 89 BASIS - Downloaded from Skeptics B 415 648-8944) +MORE EXAGGERATION + +The report claims that many of those making public allegations +about Satanic crime have exaggerated the extent of the problem +beyond reason. According to Carlson, "These people claim to know +who the cultist are, where they meet, and how they dispose of the +bodies of their victims. But unlike undercover police officers and +informants on organized crime, they are unable -- or unwilling -- +to provide names, dates, places, or any other tangible evidence." + +Carlson's charges are supported by many law enforcement officers +and criminologists, among them Kenneth Lanning of the FBI's +Behavioral Research Unit in Quantico, Virginia. Lanning, a +specialist on crimes involving children, has recently published an +article critical of the current Satanism scare in the October issue +of "Police Chief" magazine, and reprinted as an appendix in CSER's +report. + +"SATANISM IN AMERICA" addresses the entire spectrum of claims +surrounding Satanism and occult crime -- child-abductions, ritual +abuse, human and animal sacrifices, women who purportedly offered +their own infants up for sacrifice, animal mutilations, the link +between Devil-worship and Heavy Metal music, and the phenomenon of +"backward masking." It concludes that most of the allegations made +over the last several years are baseless. + +The report states that in the few instances where crimes with +undeniable Satanic overtones have occurred, "there is no evidence +to show that Satanism, per se, was responsible for the act. Nearly +every Satanic criminal had a history of anti-social behavior long +before he/she took up the trappings of Satanism. Satanism, in these +cases, appears as an expression of one's mental illness, and not +as the sole motivation for anti-social behavior. Satanism is a +symptom, not the cause." + +According to Carlson, "Some of the people who are most public about +this issue make the silliest claims -- insisting that between +50,000 and two million children are ritually murdered each year by +Satanists. We know that this just isn't true. The FBI states that +they have fewer than 80 open files on children abducted by +strangers in any given year. And there were a total of 23,000 +homicides in the U.S. last year, making the lowest sacrifice number +often offered by the conspiracy theorists TWICE the national murder +average for children and adults combined. The numbers offered by +the so-called experts simply don't add up." + +"Far more children drown in our backyard pools than are killed by +cultists," Carlson argues. "In fact, last year 2,100 children were +murdered in the U.S. by their own parents! This means that children +are far more likely to be killed by their own father than by a +Devil-worshiper. If we want to help children, we should cover our +swimming pools and do something about child abuse, not waste +limited resources chasing after non-existent Devil-worshiping +conspiracies." According to the report, there have been over a +million violent crimes committed in the U.S. in the past five +years, fewer than one hundred of them involving Satanism or the +occult. + +CHILD ABUSE + +"I'm proud of the work we've done, especially in the area of child +abuse," says Gerald Larue, Emeritus professor of Religion at the +University of Southern California and co-author of "SATANISM IN +AMERICA". "The hysteria-mongers would have us exhaust our resources +going after a non-existent, nation-wide cult of Satanic child- +abusers. We must concentrate our efforts on finding the real +abusers and taking them off the streets, as well as providing help +for abused kids. We owe it to our children not to indulge ourselves +in hysteria in their names." + +"Our investigation has shown that, in child-abuse cases, +allegations of Devil-worshiping conspiracies are phantoms of the +prosecutors' imagination and that juries tend not to convict when +such allegations are raised. I can't help but think that real +child-abusers may have been released from jails because some +prosecutors failed to concentrate on the abuse by getting carried +away with meager evidence of Satanic murders allegedly committed +during black masses and the like," adds Larue. "This panic is +hurting kids a lot more than its helping them." +--- TBBS v2.1/NM + * Origin: CfC Chicago * (708) 362-7875 [HST] (7000/11) + + +From: Vitriol +To: Sysgod, and All Msg #109, 15/11/91 20:11cst +Subject: Re: SATANIC 3-PARTER + + -=> Sysgod sent a message to All on 11-08-91 02:41 <=- + -=> Re: SATANIC 3-PARTER <=- + + S> SATANIST SURVIVORS by Rex Springston + +Let's face it, folks, the time is ripe for a new WitchHunt. The +fundamentalist +opportunists are in a quandary: their way is on the way out, and they are +get- +ing desparate. Their former target, the "Godless Commies" are now our govern- +ment's allies, and they need a new scapegoat. At the same time, many of the +TV +preachers and their emulators see that money can be made by stirring up the +emotions of their followers. + +So that means they need a new target. And that target must be one that they +feel is small enough to be (they think) no real threat to their power. So +guess who that ends up being? + +A couple hundred years ago, all one had to do to ruin someone was to label +them +a witch or a devil-worshipper. A few decades ago, the epithet was "Commie". +Not long after that, it was expanded to include anti-war protestors and +"drug- +gies". Now it's "Satanist." + +"Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose." + + +... QUIF! +--- Blue Wave/QBBS v2.01 [NR] + * Origin: * ABySS BBS * Washington DC * (1:109/134.0) diff --git a/religious documents/savior.txt b/religious documents/savior.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e91311 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/savior.txt @@ -0,0 +1,423 @@ +The following report is from O Timothy magazine, Volume 8, Issue 8, 1991. O +Timothy is a monthly magazine. Annual subscription is US$20 FOR THE UNITED +STATES. Send to Way of Life Literature, Bible Baptist Church, 1219 N. Harns +Road, Oak Harbor, Washington 98277. FOR CANADA the subscription is $20 +Canadian. Send to Bethel Baptist Church, P.O. Box 9075, London, Ontario N6E +1V0. + +PSYCHOLOGICAL SAVIOR +AN EXAMINATION OF THE TEACHING OF DR. JAMES DOBSON +By Martin & Deidre Bobgan + +[The following consists of extracts from the book by Martin and Deidre +Bobgan--Prophets of Psychoheresy II, available from Eastgate +Publishers, 4137 Primavera Road, Santa Barbara, Calif. 93110. This 310-page +book critiques the teaching of James Dobson. All notes and references have +been omitted from this article; for these we refer our readers to the book. +We fear that New Evangelical ministries such as Dobson's are one of the +greatest dangers to fundamental churches today. Through these psychology +ministries New Evangelical thought and compromise is getting its head into +the tent of fundamentalism. + +[We don't deny that Dobson has done much good. But that a ministry does +good is no excuse for ignoring the error it promotes. We must remember that +the great error with New Evangelicalism is not so much what it preaches, +but what it DOES NOT preach. New Evangelical leaders will preach +Christ crucified and will preach many sound Bible doctrines, but they +WILL NOT preach against wickedness such as Romanism, and they +WILL NOT separate from error. Brethren, if something is contrary to +the Word of God, do not excuse it and apologize for it; reject it!] + +Dr. James C. Dobson is one of the most influential spokespersons in the +evangelical spectrum of Christianity. Millions of Christians have listened +to his daily Focus on the Family broadcast, and over fifty million +people have viewed his Focus on the Family film series. Dobson's +books are not only best sellers, but remain on the best-seller lists for +years. + +His Focus on the Family magazine and church-bulletin-inserts supply +weekly and monthly fare along with his books. His organization continues to +expand its borders with over 700 employees. Dr. Dobson may indeed be the +best-known and most respected man in twentieth-century American +Christendom! + +An astounding number of Christians look to Dr. Dobson as an authority. His +opinions and advice about children, the family, marriage, and society are +held in high esteem. In fact, they are hardly considered opinions. +They are received as authoritative truth, because of the current faith in +psychology, especially when it is psychology practised by a professing +Christian. + +While in past centuries such a revered position of authority among +Christians would no doubt have been held by a theologian or pastor, Dobson +came into this position through secular education. + +He holds the now-coveted title of "psychologist" rather than +"theologian," although he was actually trained in education. He +earned a Ph.D. in Education with a major in Child Development from the +University of Southern California. According to the State of California +Psychology Examining Committee, Dr. Dobson holds a general license. He +chose "educational psychology" as his area of competency when he +completed his oral examination in 1968. Under the license requirements he +has the right to use the title "licensed psychologist" in +California. + +A REVERED TITLE + +Countless Christians look to Dobson as an authority on all matters of life +and conduct because he carries both titles: "psychologist" and +"Christian." + +Dr. Dobson uses the story-telling mode, which not only keeps his readers +interested but gives a seeming reality to everything he says. Rather than +relying on research, which may actually prove just the opposite of some of +his conclusions, he uses case histories which emphasize and especially +dramatize the points he wants to make. By avoiding certain theological +doctrines and questions, he has made himself welcome in a great variety of +religious settings. [Editor--An example of this is his popularity among +Roman Catholics. See the frame on page five about Dobson's article in the +Catholic New Covenant magazine.] + +Dobson's first book, Dare to Discipline, was a breath of fresh air +to Christian parents who were lost in the fog of permissiveness as promoted +by secular psychologists and educators. He rightly criticized the +proponents of permissiveness and their humanistic philosophy which allowed +a child to do almost whatever it wanted with the idea that eventually it +would respond positively to the parents' tolerance, patience, and +permissiveness. + +Christians who were familiar with child-rearing admonitions in Scripture +were uncomfortable with the teachings of permissiveness. They were relieved +to find a readable book by a Christian educator and psychologist who seemed +to teach biblical methods of child-rearing. Here was a licensed +psychologist confirming what conservative Christian parents believed to be +right. + +Dobson was not just some "lowly" pastor teaching about raising +children from a biblical perspective. He was a "psychologist" who +could give authoritative, pragmatic, psychological reasons and methods for +disciplining children. He was a psychologist who could stand up to those +other psychologists who had been preaching the permissive way. + +Dobson quickly endeared himself to mothers and fathers all over the nation. +Dare to Discipline gave Christian parents the courage to discipline +with spanking. It gave them a psychological rationale for a biblical method +of child training. + +Dr. Dobson's teaching also presents a strong emotional appeal to women. He +encourages mothers who elect to stay at home with their young children +instead of being pressured to have another career. He takes a strong stand +on the importance of the parent-child relationship. + +In a superbly-folksy, down-home manner he gives assurance and counsel to +wives and mothers, endearing himself to them with remarks such as these: +"To the exhausted and harassed new mother, let me say, `Hang tough! You +are doing the most important job in the universe!' ... I am +especially sympathetic with the mother who is raising a toddler or two and +an infant at the same time. There is no more difficult assignment on the +face of the earth." + +HORROR STORIES + +Here is a man who appears to understand the trials and tribulations of +womanhood. And, here is a man who attempted to assist women by writing the +book, What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew about Women. + +Dr. Dobson also engenders just enough fear to make women insecure about +rearing children without his psychological understanding and teaching. One +of his methods is through telling horror stories. He dramatizes the story +of Lee Harvey Oswald's life to illustrate his point that inferiority and +low self-esteem lead to disaster. + +Such stories of extreme situations of parental failure and childhood +disaster capture attention. They also create fear that if parents don't do +everything right [according to Christian psychology's methodology], their +children may have similar catastrophes. + +After listing ways by which a child's self-esteem can be damaged, Dobson +says: "...whereas a child can lose self-esteem in a thousand ways, the +careful reconstruction of his personal worth is usually a slow, difficult +process." + +Even his choice of words, such as "irreparable damage," "there is no +escape," and the "damaged" child can engender fear in the heart of every +caring parent. + +Psychological counselors who are also professing Christians contend that +the Bible does not speak to every situation and therefore needs certain +supplementation or integration with so-called psychological truths. There +is an assumption that psychological theories contain truths that the Bible +somehow missed. + +FAITH IN PSYCHOLOGY + +Dr. Dobson's faith in psychology can be seen throughout his books. He +quotes numerous psychologists as authorities and recommends their books. +Among the psychologists he cites authoritatively are Sigmund Freud, B.F. +Skinner, E.L. Thorndike, William Glasser, and Stanley Coopersmith. + +Throughout his books he recommends professional counseling. Moreover, +Focus on the Family has become a vast referral system for Christians +to be therapized by professional, psychologically-trained counselors. The +staff at Focus on the Family refer those seeking a counselor to +licensed therapists only. This excludes pastoral counselors who do +not hold those degrees and licenses which require extensive course work in +psychology. + +Our culture has come to view problems of living psychologically. Rather +than looking at problems from a biblical viewpoint, many Christians have +also come to perceive problems from a psychological perspective. + +A good example of this is the opening illustration of Dobson's book Hide or +Seek: How to Build Self-Esteem in Your Child. In his graphic story-telling +mode, Dobson says: + +"He began his life with all the classic handicaps and disadvantages. His +mother was a powerfully built, dominating woman who found it difficult to +love anyone." + +He then proceeds to tell about this mother's lack of affection, love, and +discipline, and then of the rejection the young man experienced throughout +his life. He tells about the boy's school failures, how he was laughed at +and ridiculed in the Marines, how he therefore resisted authority, and how +he was dishonorably discharged. Dobson continues the pathetic story of this +supposed victim of circumstances with "no sense of worthiness." + +Then, after describing the man's bad marriage, Dobson writes: "No one +wanted him. No one had ever wanted him. He was perhaps the most rejected +man of our time. His ego lay shattered in a fragmented dust!" + +Near the end of the story, the man's identity is revealed. He was President +Kennedy's assassin. Dobson concludes: + +"Lee Harvey Oswald, the rejected, unlovable failure, killed the man who, +more than any other man on earth, embodied all the success, beauty, wealth, +and family affection which he lacked. In firing that rifle, he utilized the +one skill he had learned in his entire, miserable lifetime." + +Dobson wrote the story of Lee Harvey Oswald to make a strong point +concerning feelings of inferiority and low self-esteem that Dobson believes +are rampant among youth. He concludes the story with these words: + +"Thus, much of the rebellion, discontent, and hostility of the teenage +years emanates from overwhelming, uncontrollable feelings of inferiority +and inadequacy which rarely find verbal expression." + +Dobson's description of Oswald's life reveals a psychological viewpoint +influenced by underlying ideologies of the Freudian unconscious Adlerian +inferiority, and the humanistic belief in the intrinsic goodness of man and +the universal victimization of the individual by parents and society. + +The culprit is society (mainly parents) and the diagnosis is low self- +esteem with feelings of inferiority and inadequacy. In fact, those feelings +are presented as overwhelming and uncontrollable and thus causing +rebellion. Therefore the universal solution to personal problems, +rebellion, unhappiness, and hostility presented throughout Dobson's books +is raising self-esteem. + +While Dobson is careful to say that Oswald must still be held responsible +for his criminal behavior, the thrust of the story emphasizes a kind of +psychic determinism which led to his horrendous crime. In other words, +Oswald is seen as a victim of circumstances and society. + +CAUSE OF MISERY + +The primary point Dobson dramatizes is that if a person develops feelings +of inferiority and low self-esteem he will have a miserable life which +could lead in the same disastrous direction as Oswald's. He says: + +"The greater tragedy is that Lee Harvey Oswald's plight is not unusual in +America today. While others may respond less aggressively, this same +consuming awareness of inadequacy can be seen in every avenue of life." + +Therefore, the preventive medicine for society which Dobson presents +throughout Hide or Seek is strategies for developing self-esteem and self- +worth. + +A DIFFERENT VIEW + +Psychological solutions often seem to make sense when the problem is +presented from a psychological viewpoint. However, is there possibly +another way for Christians to look at such a life of misery and violence? +What if the story had been written from a biblical, Christian perspective? + +One might say that the boy was born to a godless woman who neither cared +for God nor for His gift of a child, a woman who exhibited the fruit of the +flesh, who herself had either never heard of or else rebelled against the +Gospel of Jesus Christ, Who was her only hope of salvation. + +Thus she brought up her son in the same sinful manner in which she herself +lived, rather than in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Rather than +teaching him the love of God through words and actions, she taught him her +own evil ways of rebellion, blame, frustration, despair, and hopelessness. + +One might conclude that since she did not know the Savior, she was her own +god, pursuing her own will and not caring a whit for others. Does not the +Bible tell us about such a life lived according to the sin nature? (See, +for example, Romans 1:21-32 and Ephesians 4:17-19.) + +Then as Oswald continued his life in this world, he also depended upon his +own flesh. Evidently at no time in his life did he believe the Gospel and +receive new life, for true faith in Jesus does transform a person's life +from darkness into light, from despair to hope, from alienation into a love +relationship that surpasses even the best that parents can give. + +If the story is told in the context of Scripture, both the analysis and the +answers will come from an understanding of the law of God and the Gospel of +Jesus Christ. In short, the sin nature and its results are seen as the +problem. + +If most Christians truly believed this, they would double their efforts +toward evangelism and discipleship, of which biblical counseling is a small +part. More would reach out to those who have been going the way of the +world, the flesh and the devil with both the Truth of God and the mercy of +God. More would be on fire for the Gospel. Instead, however, too many have +been enticed by many other gospels offered by psychology and by those +professing Christians who promote the psychological way. + +Unfortunately, however, these essential truths have become relegated to the +"of-course-we-all-know-that-but..." category. They are looked upon as old- +fashioned thinking and old-fashioned terminology. + +Dobson, however, views problems of living from a psychological perspective. +In fact he contends that both Oswald and the other Kennedy assassin, Sirhan +Sirhan, followed these steps to destruction: + +"(1) they experienced deep-seated feelings of inferiority; (2) they sought +to cope by withdrawal and surrender; (3) their vain attempts to achieve +adequacy were miserable failures; and (4) they exploded in violence." + +"HYDRAULIC MODEL" + +Again, this is a combination of Alfred Adler's theories about inferiority, +Sigmund Freud's unconscious defense mechanisms, and the defunct "hydraulic +model of energy" theory. Dobson calls this last theory a "psychological +law." He says, + +"Remember this psychological law: any anxiety-producing thought or +condition which cannot be expressed is almost certain to generate inner +pressure and stress." + +In his book Emotions: Can You Trust Them? Dobson dramatically asserts: + +"When any powerful emotion is forced from conscious thought while it is +raging full strength, it has the potential of ripping and tearing us from +within. The process by which we cram a strong feeling into the unconscious +mind is called `repression,' and it is psychologically hazardous. The +pressure that it generates will usually appear elsewhere in the form of +depression, anxiety, tension, or in an entire range of physical disorders." + +Researchers refer to this particular notion as the hydraulic model of +emotions. The model says simply that if emotional energy is blocked in one +place it must be released elsewhere. However, this is only an opinion. It +is not a "psychological law" or a psychological fact. + +Dr. Carol Tavris says, "Today the hydraulic model of energy has been +scientifically discredited." Nevertheless, many psychologists tend to +expand the hydraulic idea to all emotions in spite of the opposing +research. Therefore Dobson's "psychological law" is merely his Freudian +opinion, which has anyway been scientifically discredited. + +Will we analyze problems according to ideologies behind secular +psychologies, or will we analyze the problem according to God's Word? Will +our solutions and goals be based upon psychological theories and the so- +called hierarchy of needs (including the need for self-esteem), or will our +solutions and goals be biblical? + +Will we look to human strategies for overcoming the problems identified by +Dobson as low self-esteem and inferiority? Or will we trust God's ways of +transforming sinners into saints through His Word and His Spirit, thereby +enabling Christians to walk according to the Spirit rather than the flesh? + +Dr. Dobson's counsel is seldom based on the simple fact that God commands +something. More usually, his counsel is pragmatic. It is based on the +premise that something which works which is good for someone must be +approved of. + +Dobson's pragmatic appeal can be seen throughout his work. His apparent +reason for teaching parents to discipline their children is that it works. +He quotes Jack London's words: "The best measurement of anything should be: +does it work?" The reason is pragmatism. And, although he brings God into +the picture by saying that properly applied discipline will help teach out +children about God, he does not give God's will as the primary reason for +disciplining children. + +Elsewhere he says: "The most magnificent theory ever devised for the +control of behavior is called the `Law of Reinforcement,' formulated many +years ago by the first educational psychologist, E.L. Thorndike. This is +magnificent because it works!" (Emphasis added.) He says, "Good discipline +is brought about by the intelligent application of this principle of +reinforcement." + +Dobson has great confidence in the Thorndike Law of Reinforcement, which he +quotes: "Behavior which achieves desirable consequences will recur." + +To illustrate the usefulness of reinforcement, Dobson tells how marvelously +well this Law of Reinforcement worked on his dog, and that makes sense, +because E.L. Thorndike was an animal psychologist, best known for his work +in animal learning. He developed the "law of effect" and is in the same +tradition as behaviorists Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson. Such behaviorism +views humans as highly evolved animals. (The book Theories of Personality +refers to Thorndike's law of effect as a "hedonistic formulation.") + +ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY + +Dobson evidently believes that what works with dogs will work with human +beings. In other words, he is recommending that, when it comes to training +and discipline, parents should treat their children like animals. Dobson +declares: "Rewards are not only useful in shaping animal behavior; they +succeed even better with humans." He comes to his conclusions regarding +rewards from animal psychology rather than from the Bible. + +Dobson then presents this psychological theory as fact. He says, "It is an +absolute fact that unreinforced behavior will eventually disappear. This +process, called extinction by psychologists, can be very useful to parents +and teachers who want to alter the characteristics of children." + +While this may be true of animals it is not always true of people. Because +of the complexity of sinful humanity, and because other factors enter in, +one cannot say categorically, "It is an absolute fact that..." In reality, +many people remain entrenched in unproductive activities that continue in +spite of adverse results. + +It is true that Dr. Dobson opposes the teachings of certain psychologists +in his own field. Because every psychologist must choose from the various +conflicting theories available to him, each one inevitably ends up, as +Dobson does, disagreeing with other psychologists. Dobson rightly +criticizes his colleagues who promote permissiveness. He declares that +permissiveness is based upon the presuppositions (a) that people are born +good, and (b) that if they are allowed to develop with as little +interference as possible they will become wonderful people. + +SECULAR WISDOM + +But even though Dobson objects to these presuppositions of secular +humanism, his own promotion of self-esteem comes from the same source--from +humanistic psychologists who presuppose that people are born good, and that +when their needs for self-worth, self-esteem, and self-actualization are +met they will be good people. Dobson picks from the same tree as the +promoters of permissiveness and offers the fruit to fellow Christians. + +Dr. Dobson, however, claims a biblical source for his teaching. He says: + +"How do my writings differ from the unsupported recommendations of those +whom I have criticized? The distinction lies in the source of the views +being presented. The underlying principles expressed herein are not my own +innovative insights which would be forgotten in a brief season or two. +Instead, they originated with the inspired biblical writers who gave us the +foundation for all relationships in the home." + +This is an extremely important point which requires examination. We know +that Dobson thinks that his source is the Bible, and yet the Bible does not +teach a number of the concepts that he teaches, including the so-called +needs for self-esteem, self-worth, and self-confidence. + +[O Timothy Editor: The Holy Scriptures are sufficient for faith and +practice, able to "make the man of God perfect, throughly furnished until +all good works" (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Everything is to be brought to with the +touchstone of the Word of God, and that which is contrary is to be +rejected. This applies equally to false doctrine taught by a cults such as +Mormonism or Romanism, or to New Evangelical ministries such as Focus on +the Family. Beware of error which is clothed in the appearance of Bible- +believing piety and wholesomeness.] + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/saxon.txt b/religious documents/saxon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c73b423 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/saxon.txt @@ -0,0 +1,437 @@ + + Norse/Saxon Bibliography + + Prepared by Helgi Torleif Dagsson + + Version 0.31 + + + Opinions expressed are those of the author, + who shall be solely responsible for the + contents of this document. + + Judy Mitchell and Jane Sibley are thanked + for their assistance in preparation of this + document. + + + + # at the end of a listing means not in books in print, 1990-91. +The listing includes ISBNs, as well as Library of Congress call numbers +whenever possible. + + +ANTHROPOLOGY + + Blumfield, J. Runes. # + + Branston, Brian. Gods of the North. (London & New York: Thames and +Hudson, 1980) ISBN: 0-50-27177-1 LC 79. 66 B0 # + + Branston, Brian. Lost Gods of England. (London & New York: Thames and +Hudson, 1984) ISBN: 0-500-27321-9. BL 980. G7 B7 1984 # + + Lost Gods of England is a coffee table-style book of scholarly +intent. There are many illustrations, pictures and diagrams. It describes +many of the old Anglo-Saxon deities, many of whom are not familiar to most +modern-day Americans. + + + Branston, Brian. Gods and Heroes from Viking Mythology (New York: +Schocken, 1987) ISBN: 0-8052-3794-1 BL 860. B66 1982 $16.95 + + Bronstead, Johannes. Vikings. # + + Brix, Hans. Studier i Nordisk Runemagi (Gyldendal Bokhandel, 1928) +(SWEDISH) # + + A good work + + Chadwick, H.M. The Cult of Othin (Cambridge, 1899) # + + Craigie, W.A. The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia (Salem, NH: Ayers +Publishing Co., 1906) ISBN: 0-8369-5086-0 1969 BL 860. C7 1969 $14.50 + + de Vries, Jan. Altgermanische Religiongeschite (Berlin: Walter de +Gruyter, 1956-57) (GERMAN) # + + This work is mentioned in the recommended reading section of +Ellis-Davidson, and often cited by Dumezil. Do not confuse it with the other +works of the same name by other authors. + + Dumezil, Georges. Les Dieux Souverains des Indo-Europeens (Paris: +Gallimard (Biblioteque des sciences humain), 1986) ISBN: 2-07029586-9 +BL 660. D793 1986 (FRENCH) # + + This is a classic reference work. + + Dumezil, Georges. Gods of the Ancient Northmen (Berkeley: University of +CA Press, 1973) ISBN: 0-520-03507-0 # + + Dumezil was one of the leading experts in old European religion in +the middle of the twentieth century. Here is one of the few works of his +which has been translated into English. + + + Dumezil, Georges. Loki (Paris: Flammarion, 1986) ISBN: 2-08211159-8 +BL 870. L6 D8 1986 (FRENCH) # + + Elliot, Ralph. Runes, an Introduction. (New York: St Martin's, 1989) +ISBN: 0-312-03491-1 PD 2013. E4 1989 $19.95 + + Elliot's book is one of the best basic scholarly books on the Runes +written in the last thirty-some years (It was originally published in 1959.) + + Ellis-Davidson, H.R. Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early +Scandinavian and Celtic Religions. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, +1988) ISBN: 0-8156-2438-7 BL 860.D37 1988 $34.95 + + Ellis-Davidson, H.R. Pagan Scandinavia. (New York: Praeger, 1967) +(Ancient People and Places, vol 58) BL 860. D38 1967b # + + Ellis-Davidson, H.R. Gods and Myths of Northern Europe (New York: +Penguin, 1964) ISBN: 0-14-020670-1 BL 860. D36 $6.95 + + All of the works by Ellis-Davidson are classics in the field. + In Gods and Myths, Ellis-Davidson has written a book that is a good +general introduction to the Old Religion of the North. The book is scholarly +but not written at such a level that it becomes inaccessible. In it are +chapters on the various deities, and comparison with earlier germanic, Roman, +Celtic and occasionally Indic cultic practices. + + + Ellis, Hilda Roderick. The Road to Hel (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, +1968) ISBN: 0-8371-0070-4 PT 7162. D4 1968 $35.00 (Greenwood is out of +stock) + + In The Road to Hel, Ellis (i.e., Ellis-Davidson) describes the Germanic +concepts of death and the afterlife (eschatology.) This is a subject not +covered at length in many other places. + + Ellis-Davidson, H.R. Scandinavian Mythology (New York: Peter Bedrick +Books, 1986) ISBN: 0-87226041-0 BL 860. D384 1987 # + + Gelling, Peter, and Ellis-Davidson, H.R. The Chariot of the Sun and +other Rites and Symbols of the Northern Bronze Age (New York: Praeger, 1969) +BL 863. G4 1969 # + + This is an excellent work. + + Glob, Peter V. The Bog People (Ithaca, NY: Cornell U Press, 1988) ISBN: +0-8014-9527-X GN780.D4 G53 1969b $12.95 + + Grattan, J.H.G.; & Singer S. Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine. (Wellcome +hist mus new series)# + + Kemble, J.M. Anglo-Saxon Runes. (London: Andrew Pub Co., 1976) # + + A classic reference but one difficult to obtain. + + Larson, Gerald J.; Littelton, Scott C.; and Puhvel, Jan (eds.) Myth in +Indo-European Antiquity (Ann Arbor, MI: Books Demand UMI) BL 660.M93 +$51.30 + + MacCulloch, John Arnott. The Celtic and Scandinavian Religions. +(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1973) ISBN: 0-8371-6705-1 BL 900. M38 1973 + Reprint of 1948 ed. $35.00 + + MacCulloch, John Arnott. Mythology of All Races: Vol II (Eddic) +(Savage, MD: Cooper Sq., 1932)ISBN: 0-8154-014304 $40.00 + + Marstrander, Carl. Runarna. (SWEDISH) # + + Runarna is a classic work. + + Munch, R.A. Norse Mythology Revised by Magnus Olsen. Translated by S.B. +Husvett. (American-Scandinavian Foundation) # + + Owen, Gale R. Rites and Religions of the Anglo-Saxons. (Savage, MD: +Barnes & Noble, 1981) ISBN: 0-389-20128-6 BL 2785. G7 # + + Page, R.I. Runes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987). Vol 4 +of the Reading the Past series. ISBN: 0-520-06114-4 PD 2013. P34 1987 + $8.95 + + Runes is a solid scholarly work on Anglo-Saxon runes by a very +non-credulous well-respected author. + + Page, R.I. Norse Mythology. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990) + + Polome, Edgar C. Essays on Germanic Religion (New York: Conjunctions, +1989) Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph #6. ISBN 0-8047-1149-6 +BL 865. P4 1989 $30.00 + + Puhvel, Jan. (ed.) Myth and Law among the Indo-Europeans. (Berkeley: +University of California Press, 1970) ISBN 0-520-01587-8 BL 660. M9 # + + This book is often cited in Dumezil. + + Quennell, C.B.H. Everyday Life in Roman and Anglo-Saxon Times. (North +Pomfret, VT: Trafalgar Sq.-David & Charles, 1987) ISBN: 0-7134-1675-0. +DA 130. Q4 1959 $20.95 + + All of the Everyday Life series are small-format hardbacks which +describe various aspects of life (religion, politics, farming, warfare, +economy, material culture, etc.) of people of various classes in the time and +place mentioned. Each is written well and does not require a scholarly +understanding, but the sources are noted for those who wish to do further +research. + The series is highly recommended for children. + + Simpson, Jacqueline. Everyday Life in the Viking Age. (New York: Dorset +Press, 1987) ISBN: 0-88029-146-X DL 31. S55 $17.95 Dist. by Hippocene +Books + + See the entry for Quennell. + + + Stroem, Folke. Nid, Ergi, and old Norse moral attitudes. (London, The +Dorothea Coke Memorial Lectures in Northern Studies. University College, +London Viking Society for Northern Research, 1974) 20p. # + + In this paper, Stroem addresses several Norse moral concepts not part + of the modern culture of the area. One very serious taboo is ragr, passive +homosexuality. Stroem discusses how an accusation of ragr can lead to a +mortal challenge. + + + Todd, Malcolm. Everyday Life of the Barbarians. (New York: Hippocene +Books, 1989) ISBN: 0-88029-176-1 GN 549. G4 T62 $16.95 + + See the entry for Quennell. + + + Turville-Petre, E.O.G. Myth and Religion of the North (Westport, CT: +Greenwood Press, 1975) ISBN: 0-8371-7420-1 BL 860. T8 1975 $59.75 # + + Turville-Petre's book is another solid, scholarly overview of +the subject. + + Von Friesen, Otto. Runorna i Sverige (Uppsala, 1928) (SWEDISH) # + + Wahlgren, Erik. The Vikings and America. (London: Thames & Hudson, 1986) +ISBN: 0-500-021090 $22.50 + + Williams, Mary Wilhelmene. Social Scandinavia in the Viking Age. (New +York: MacMillan Co., 1920) (Crest Reprints) ISBN 0-527-96960-5 +DL 31. W5 $29.00 + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY / REFERENCE + + Lindow, John. Scandinavian mythology : an annotated bibliography +(New York: Garland Pub, 1988) (Garland folklore bibliographies ; v. 13) + Z 7836 .L58 1988 $48.00 # + + + +HISTORY + + Haakon, Shelelig; and Falk, Hjalmar. Gordon, E.V. (translator) +Scandinavian Archaeology (Oxford: Clarendon Press) # + + Hollander, Lee M. (translator) Guthmondson, Barthi. The Origin of the +Icelanders. (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press) +ISBN: 0-8032-0063-3 $16.95 + + Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings (London: Oxford U Press, 1984) +ISBN: 0-1928139-X DL 31. J6 1973 $12.95 + + Jones' History of the Vikings is a good work + + Magnusson, Magnus. Vikings! (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1980) ISBN: +0-52522892-6 PL 65. M353 # + + Magnusson, Magnus. Hammer of the North (New York: Putnam, 1976) ISBN: +0-39911744-X PL 21.M33 1976 # + + Moberg, Vilhelm. A History of the Swedish People (Barnes & Noble: 1970) +ISBN 0-88029-312-8 # + + Olrik, Axel. Viking Civilization. (1930) # + + Pohl, Frederick. The Viking Settlements of North America (New York: +Clarkson Press, 1972) Dist by Crown Publisher + + Pohl's excellent work is an overview of the Viking voyages to +America. There is a summary of the extant written records, and the results +of Mr. Pohl's field research to determine the modern-day locations of the +Viking landings and settlements. + + + Todd, Malcolm. The Northern Barbarians: 100 BC -- AD 300. (New York: +Basil Blackwell, 1987) ISBN: 0-631-15161-3 DD 75. T63 1987 $14.95 + + Wilson, David M. The Northern World: The History and Heritage of Northern + Europe. (London: Thames & Hudson, 1980) ISBN: 0-500-25070-7 DL 30. N65 +1980 # + + Wilson, David M. The Vikings and their Origins. (London: Thames & +Hudson, 1989) ISBN: 0-500-27542-4 DL 31. W54 1980 $10.95 + + + + +LITERARY COMMENTARY + + Andersson, Theodore Murdock. The Legend of Brynhild (Islandica XLIII) ( +Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1980) ISBN: 0-8014-1302-8 PN 831.A5 # + + Clover, Carol J., and Lindow, John. Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: +A Critical Guide. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985) +ISBN: 0-8014-01755-4 PT 7161. O4 1985 $34.50 + + Dumezil, Georges. La Saga de Hadingus (Paris: Presses Universitaries de +France, 1953) (FRENCH)# + + Greenway, John L. The Golden Horns: Mythic Imagination and the Nordic +Past. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1977) ISBN: 0-8203-0384-4 +PT 7048. G7 $20.00 + + Hallberg, Peter. Old Icelandic Poetry -- Eddaic Lay and Skaldic Verse. +Translated by Schach, Peter and Lindgren, Sonja. (Lincoln, NE: University of +Nebraska Press, 1975)ISBN: 0-8032-0855-3 PT 7170. H313 $21.00 + + Polome, Edgar C. (editor) Old Norse Literature and Mythology (Austin: +University of Texas Press, 1969) ISBN: 0-292-78386-8 PT 7160. 04 # + + +SAGAS / SOURCE MATERIAL + + Bellows, H. A. (translator) The Poetic Edda (New York: Biblio and +Tannen, 1969) PT 7234.E5 B5 1969# + + Bugge, S.; & Olsen, Magnus. Norges Inskrifter med de Aeldra Runer. +(4 Vols, 1891-1921) (NORWEGIAN) # + + Craigie, W.A. Icelandic Sagas (Millwood, NY: Kraus Repr., 1968) ISBN: +0-527-20100-6 PT 7181. C7 1973 $16.00 + + Delrolez, R. Runica Manuscripta: the English Tradition. (Brugge: De +Tempel, 1954) PD 2017.D4 # + This is an excellent work; it is the best book on manuscripts on the + continent. It includes the Isruna/De Inventione tracts and clones. + + Ellis-Davidson, H.R. (editor) Peter Fisher (translator). Grammaticus, +Saxo The History of the Danes (Cambridge, UK: D.S. Brewer; Totowa, NJ: +Rowman and Littlefield, 1979-1980) 2 vols. ISBN: vol 1: 0-84766221-7 +vol 2: 0-84766938-6 DL147 .S2713 1979 $36.50 # + + This is a translation from the Latin of a medieval text which has +both historic and mythic elements. Included is a commentary by +Ellis-Davidson. + + Fox, Denton; and Palsson, Hermann. (translators) Gautrek's Saga +(Toronto, U of Toronto Press, 1974) ISBN: 0-8020-1925-0 PT 7269. 67 E53 # + + Fox, Denton, and Palsson, Hermann (translators) Grettir's Saga +(Toronto: U of Toronto Press, 1974) ISBN 0-8020-6165-6 $13.95 + + Hollander, Lee M. (translator) Heimskringla The History of the Kings of +Norway. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964)# + + Hollander, Lee M. (translator) The Skalds: A Selection of their Poems +(New York: Princeton University Press, 1945) Paperback Michigan 1968 # + + Hollander, Lee M. (translator) Viga-Glum's Saga Library of Scandinavian +Literature Series: Vol 14. (New York: American Scandinavian Foundation, 1972) +ISBN: 0-89067-021-8 $10.50 + + Hollander, Lee M. (translator) The Poetic Edda (Austin: University of +Texas Press, 1988) ISBN: 0-292-76499-5 $12.95 + + Hollander, Lee M. (translator) The Saga of the Jolmsvikings (Austin: +University of Texas Press, 1989) ISBN 0-292-77623-3 $6.95 + + Jones, Gwyn. Erik the Red and other Icelandic Sagas. (London and +New York: Oxford University Press, 1980) ISBN: 0-19-28152-8 +PT 7262. E5 J5 1980 $3.95 + + Laing, Samuel P. (translator) Heimskringla (New York: AMS Press, 1989) +ISBN: 0-40414607-4 PT 7277.E5 L3 1979 # + + Magnusson, Magnus (translator) Icelandic Sagas (London: Bodley Head, +1987) ISBN: 0-37031074-8 DL 338.M54 # + + Magnusson, Magnus; and Palsson, Hermann. (translators) King Harald's Saga +(London & New York: Penguin Books, 1966) ISBN: 0-14-044183-2 $5.95 + + Magnusson, Magnus; and Palsson, Hermann. (translators) The Vinland Sagas +(London & New York: Penguin Books, 1965) ISBN: 0-14-044218-9 +PT 7269. L4 E54 1969 $5.95 + + Magnusson, Magnus; and Palsson, Hermann. (translators) The Laxdaela Saga +(London & New York: Penguin Books, 1969) PT 7269. L4 E54 1968b +ISBN: 0-14-044218-9 $5.95 + + Magnusson, Magnus; and P lsson, Hermann. (translators) Njal's Saga +(London & New York: Penguin Books, 1960) ISBN: 0-14-044103-4 $4.95 + + Magnusson, Magnus; and P lsson, Hermann. (translators) Hrafenkel's +Saga (London & New York: Penguin Books, 1971) ISBN: 0-14-044238-3. # + + Morris, William. The Works of William Morris. Vol VII: The Volsung +Saga. (London, 1910-15)# + + Olsen, Magnus. Norges Indskrifter med de Yngre Runer. (NORWEGIAN) # + + Palsson, Hermann; and Edwards, Paul. (translators) Orkneyinga Saga +(London & New York: Penguin Books, 1978) ISBN: 0-14-044383-5 $5.95 + + Palsson, Hermann; and Edwards, Paul. (translators) Egil's Saga (London & +New York: Penguin Books, 1976)ISBN: 0-14-044321-5 PT 7269. E3 E57 1976 + $5.95 + + Palsson, Hermann; and Edwards, Paul. (translators) Erybygga Saga (New +York: Penguin Books, 1989) ISBN: 0-14-044530-7 PT 7269. E6 E56 $5.95 + + Palsson, Hermann; and Edwards, Paul. (translators) Landnamabok (The +Book of Settlements) Vol 1 in University of Manitoba Icelandic Studies. +Manitoba, 1972 ISBN: 0-8357-7342-6 (Books Demand UMI) $49.00 + + Palsson, Hermann; and Edwards, Paul. (translators) Hrolf Gautrekson: A +Viking Romance. (Edinburgh: Southside Publishers, 1972) ISBN: 0-90002502-6 +PT 7287. H84 1972b # + + Palsson, Hermann, & Edwards, Paul. (translators) Seven Viking Romances. +(New York: Penguin Books, 1985) ISBN: 0-14-04474-2. PT 7262. E5 S48 +1988 $6.95 + + Palsson, Hermann, & Edwards, Paul. (translators) Kyntlings Saga: A +History of the Kings of Denmark. (Philadelphia: Coronet Books) +ISBN: 0-8357-7342-6 $34.00 . + + Simpson, Jacqueline. Scandinavian Folktales. (London & New York: +Penguin, 1988) ISBN 0 14 059.505 8 + A good collection of tales, with comments and citations. + + Sturlason, Snorri. Olof Saga: Heimskringla. 2 vols, (Lanham, MD: +Biblio Distr., 1964 reprint) ISBNs: 0-460-00717-3 and 0-460-00722-X. + $14.95 each + + Terry, Patricia (translator) Poems of the Elder Edda (Philadelphia: +University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990) ISBN: 0-81228220-5 PT 7234. E5 1990 + $15.95 + + Turville-Petre, E.O.G. Skaldic Poetry. (New York: Clarendon Press, +1976) ISBN: 0-19812571-8 PT 7172. T83 # + + Taylor, Paul B., and Auden, W.H. The Elder Edda: A Selection. (London: +Faber and Faber, 1973) ISBN: 0-571-10319-7 # + + Titchenell, Elsa-Brita (translator and editor) The Masks of Odin +(Pasadena: Theosophical U Press, 1985) ISBN: 0-911500-72-3 BL 860. T54 1985 + $9.00 + + The Masks of Odin has both commentary and English translations of several +important works, including the Havamal. + + Vigfusson, Gudbrand; and York Powell, F. (editors) Corpus Poeticum +Boreale, The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the +Thirteenth Century. (Oxford, 1833) # + + Young, Jean M. (translator) The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturlason +(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972) ISBN: 0-520-01232-1 $7.95 + + diff --git a/religious documents/saxonwic.txt b/religious documents/saxonwic.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a7e776 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/saxonwic.txt @@ -0,0 +1,191 @@ +Saxon Wicca Rites + +From THE TREE: THE COMPLETE BOOK OF SAXON WITCHCRAFT by Raymond Buckland +copyright 1974 - Samuel Weiser Publishers + +NOW OUT OF PRINT + +posted for PAN, the ORIGINAL Psychic Awareness Network at 1-703-362-1139 +by MATRIKA, co-sysop + +Legend of Woden/Odin retrieving the Runes + +The Snake came crawling and struck at none +But Woden took nine glory-twigs (pieces of wood on which were carved runic +inscriptions) and struck the adder so that it flew into nine parts + +This quote shows how Woden/Odin was a master magician and drew his power +from the runes. To this day many Saxon Pagans work much of their Magic +with runes, inscribing them on candles in candle magick, incorporating them +into talismans or symbols of protection that they wear, carry or keep in +their homes (can also be for other purposes, etc. They can even be put +somewhere invisibly by tracing them with a scented oil. For example, a +rune or runic monogram (several runic letters overlaying one another) can +be inscribed on your place of business in Money in Abundance oil or some +other money - oriented oils of your own preference. For healing a rune or +runic monogram of healing can be written on the body of the patient with an +oil of Healing, after the regular transfer of Pranic energy or "laying - on +- of - the - hands" healing has occured. (including use of crystals, if +that is so desired) Etc. etc. etc. Why are runes so important? For the +same reason that they were in Kabbalistic Magick among the Jews and in +Sidha Yoga. In India among the Sidhis the Shakti or Feminine aspect of +DEITY (as Shiva is the male) has many aspects through which the world was +emanated - one of the more important aspects is MATRIKA SHAKTI or the power +of sound to create via the letters of the alphabet forming themselves into +Words. In both systems - Kabbalah and Sidha Yoga - it is believed that the +universe was created by words. This is reflected in modern New-Age work +with Affirmations used by such diverse sources as Marion Weinstein, Diannic +Witch, as described in her book POSITIVE MAGIC (phoenix Publishing) and the +Unity School of Christianity as well as the Religious Science and Christian +Science and Divine Science and all the other "science" churches. Shakti +Gawain, author of CREATIVE VISUALIZATION teaches it from the New - Age +perspective as well. It is through words we create out own reality and +right use of them for good and in loving ways is one of the most powerful +of Magicks. NOTE BY MATRIKA + + +From the old Norse Verse, Lay of the High one, stanzas 138, 139, and 141 + +Woden/Odin is speaking + +" I know that I hung there +on the windy tree +swung there nights, all of nine +gashed with a blade +bloodied by Odin +myself an offering to myself +knotted to that tree +no man knows whither the root of it runs + +None gave me bread +None gave me drink +down to the depths I peered +to snatch up runes +with a roaring screech +and fall in a dizzying faint + +Wellspring I won +and wisdon too +and grew and joyed in my growth +from a word to a word +I was led to a word +from a deed to another deed + + +As you can see this legend, which in the original sources pre-dates +Christianity, has much in common with the legend of Jesus's +Crucifixion/Resurrection in the Newer religion - but then there are +simillar themes in the story of Tammuz from the Middle East, the story of +Osiris in Egypt and in many other sources. The story of the fallen God who +is ressurected with great power and wisdom reflects the Shamans's +confrontation with his own death - either in a literal sense through +sickness or accident, or in a Psychological sense or by other means such as +the mild, natureal hallucinogens used by the Native Americans and other +tribal peoples. (NOTE, I AM NOT ENDORSING THERE USE; THEY ARE COMPLETELY +UNNECESSARY - but nevertheless, this is the practise in some cultures, +where they know how to handle the power of these drugs and guide one safely +through the experience. It is important to note this is not done lightly +or playfully either and that the drugs they use are NATURAl substances, not +the harsher chemical ones abused in our modern society for recreational +use) + +IT also represents the natural cycles of the year - the grain grows and is +cut down or sacrificed only to be reborn again, the trees lose their leaves +and seem to die only to resurrected, (which is why the tree of life/cross +image develloped) some animals hibernate and come back, etc. etc. etc + +Now here is the legend of the Goddess in the Saxon form as the search by +Freya for the necklace Brosingame - a silver circlet worn about her neck as +a chaplet. As with the Gardnerian Wicca legend of the descent of the +Goddess to the Underworld, it reflects the cycles of the year - when +fertility seems to sink into the earth and vanish during winter's barren +months only to have the Lady and her bounty return to us in the spring. + +(Matrika's notes) + + + 1. All day had Freya, most lovely of the Goddesses, played and romped in + the fields. Then did she lay down to rest. + +2. And while she slept; deft Loki, the prankster, the mischief-maker of +the Gods; did espy the glimmering of Brosingame, formed of Galdra (magick) +Her constant companion. Silent as the night did Loki move to the Goddess's +side and with fingers formed over the very ages in lightness did remove the +silver circlet from about her snow white neck. + +3. Straightaway did Freya arouse; on sensing it's loss. Though he moved +with the speed of the winds, yet Loki she glimpsed as he passed swiftly +from sight into the barrow (burial mound) that leads to Dreun. (land of the +dead, the underworld) + +4. Then was Freya in despair. Darkness descended all about her to hide +her tears. Great was her anguish. All light, all life, all creatures +joined in her doom. + +5. To all corners were sent the Searchers, in quest of Loki; yet knew +they. they would find him not. For who is there may descend to Dreun and +return again from thence? + +6. Excepting the Gods themselves and, alzck, mischieovous Loki. + +7. So it was that, still weak from her grief, Freya herself elected to +descend in search of Brosingame. At the portals of the Barrow was she +challenged, yet recognized and passed. + +8. The multitude of souls within cried joyfully to see her, yet could she +not tarry as she sought her stolen light. + +9. The infamous Loki left no trail to follow, yet was he everywhere past +seen. Those to whom she spake held to Freya (that) Loki carried no Jewel +as he went by. + +10. Where then was it hid? + +11. In despair she searched an age. + +Hearhden (also known as Heindall) the mighty smith of the Gods, did arise +from his rest to sense the bewailment of the souls to Freya's sorrow. +Striding from his smithy, to find the cause of the sorrow, did he espy the +Silver Circlet where Loki Mischief-maker hsd laid it; upon the rock before +his door. + +13. Then was all clear. + +14. As Hearhden took hold of Brosingame (then did) Loki appear before him, +his face wild with rage. + +15. Yet would Loki not attack Hearhden, this mighty smith whose strength +was known even beyond Dreun. + +16. By wiles and tricks did he strive to get his hands upon the (silver) +circlet. He shape-shifted; he darted here and there; he was visible, then +invisible. yet could he not sway the Smith. + +17. Tired of the fight, Hearhden raised his mighty club. Then sped Loki +away. + +18. Great was the joy of Freya when Hearhden placed Brosingame about her +snow-white neck. + +19. Great were the cries of Joy from Dreun and above. + +20. Great were the thanks that Freya and all People gave to the Gods for +the return of Brosingame. + +This tale and the Gardnerian legend of the descent of the Goddess into the +Underworld (told in the 2d degree initiation) and similar myths from around +the world, such as the legend of Kwan Yin's descent to the land of death +and her being expelled for spreading mirth and joy, show that women also +shared a very important role in the shamanism/priesthood of the European +Pagan traditions and also faced the ordeals - i.e. the physical or +psychological confrontation with death. And again, it reflects the times +of darkness and light in the year - the waxing and waning of the moon each +month and the waxing and waning of the sun each year from Yule or Winter +solstice to Mid-summer's night or Summer solstice when the light grows +stronger and the remainder of the year, when light grows weaker. + + +More on the actual rituals used to celebrate these cycles and to practise +Magick will be posted in future text-files +(another note by Matrika) + diff --git a/religious documents/schiller.txt b/religious documents/schiller.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d16087 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/schiller.txt @@ -0,0 +1,557 @@ + A call for a worldwide + campaign to kill Satan +by Helga Zepp-LaRouche + + + + Dear friends of the Schiller Institute! + + This tribunal is urgently necessary to begin a process of re-establishing +truth and natural law to govern world affairs. We are holding this tribunal in +the tradition and spirit of the civil rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther +King, in order to show, over the course of two days, that it is not Lyndon +LaRouche who is guilty, who has been convicted in an unprecedented political +show-trial, but exactly those who have harassed him and his organization and +who are the ones behind the legal attack. + + You will see, that it is a combination of Bolshevists, Communists, and +liberal bankers in the West, and--which to some of you may come as a surprise, +for others not--that actually Satanism as a political factor in world politics +is part of the problem we are dealing with. + + It is more than urgent to reverse what could be called the +the spirit of our times, because it is this that has thrown the +world into an apocalyptic crisis, and the entirety of human civilization +threatens to go under if these policies are not reversed. Man cannot +continuously violate the order of creation. Behind this present misery in the +world, is at best the indifference of the leading institutions, and more often +the intent to cause this misery. + + - The deliberate destruction of nations - + + If you just look at the world in totality today, you find tremendous +suffering, a tremendous amount of actual killing of human beings. The most +blatant situation is without any question the condition of the developing +sector, where not long ahead into the future, the life and very existence of 3 +billion people is threatened. If you look at the African continent, it is more +than you can take into your heart, more tears than you can possibly cry. This +continent is dying before the eyes of the world public, and everybody--the +governments, the parties, the politicians, and the average citizen--knows that +the African continent is condemned to death and nobody does anything about it. +For me, this is one of the yardsticks of the moral senility and moral decay of +our world. There are reports known to governments in Western Europe and the +United States--which we also know, and we know that they know--that there is +one country for sure in Africa, where 60% of all people are already infected +with AIDS, and if you take the doubling rate of eight months, and if you take +the increase in infection rate as the ratio increases, you can actually say, +that this country is as good as dead right now! + + Some people enjoy that. They look at it with great pleasure and say, +finally these inferior people are dying out! + + There are some areas, some regions in Africa, where civilization has +collapsed up to the point that villages don't exist any longer, only gangs of +men who, because they are physically still in a position to do so, have banded +together and are looting whatever is left for food. The entire continent is +dominated by vicious hunger, where babies only are born to die a couple of +days or weeks later from a disease which finds ever new multitudes, and from a +locust plague which was completely avoidable and known to the international +financial institutions and world organizations and could have been stopped a +long time ago. + + It's even worse than that! These financial institutions have written off +Africa! They have written off most of the developing countries. They +deliberately use the food weapon; i.e., they have cut down world agricultural +production in order to be able to control nations and peoples with this food +weapon. They are fully aware that, when the bankers made the decision during +the last year to cut off Africa entirely from credit, that this was as good as +condemning 450 million people on this continent to death! + + If you look at the IMF conditionalities, this is also a case in which +people fully know what the implication would be; it would mean to reduce the +number of people, and you look at countries which are the worst, like +Bangladesh or certain parts of Brazil, and you see, as an immediate +consequence of financial policies, starvation and death. + + But this is only one area of the problem. Another one is the spread of the +international drug traffic and the associated narco-terrorism, which is not +only destroying the minds and souls of our children and many other people, but +in countries like Colombia or Peru, where the drug traffic and the terrorism +is run both by the CIA and the KGB, the strength of the drug-traffickers and +the guerrilla forces has already become so great that they are threatening the +authority of the government and the Army. So, the condition that is +prevailing is complete lawlessness and the terror of the fittest. + + - Communist system is collapsing - + + There is also tremendous suffering and hardship, hopelessness and +oppression in the Communist dictatorships, where again most of these countries +are hit by savage food shortages. Maybe the worst hit country in the Communist +bloc is Romania, where the cruel fact is, that babies are dying at such a +rate, that they are only registered as born eight weeks after their date of +birth, because it is not worth the paperwork for the Communists to register +them earlier. + + The entire East bloc is at a point of social unrest because of food +shortages. Yugoslavia is facing a civil war; people are hungry and this is +fueling ethnic conflicts. In Armenia, contrary to the illusions of the fools +in the West who jumped in a big hypocritical move to help the victims of the +earthquake, the Red Army has shamelessly used this situation to conduct +genocide against the Armenians, like a collapsing empire, which is trying to +control their failing system. Look at the ongoing genocide in Afghanistan, +where also the world is fully aware or could have been aware, and is looking +at it silently, and doesn't care. + + The Communist system is collapsing, not today or tomorrow, but it is an +unraveling process in the entire East bloc which is not going to stop; a +similar, although slightly different, process is occurring in mainland China. +They are showing all the signs and the symptoms of a collapsing empire, very +much like in the last phase of the Roman Empire, trying to play off the +minorities against each other and using purges and other cruelties. + + The irony is that the West is absolutely not prepared to use this. On the +contrary: The Western elites are willing to give world hegemony to Moscow, at +a point that nobody who really wants to see it, can overlook all the signs +that Moscow is trying to implement the Ogarkov Plan and achieve military +superiority very quickly. They are developing a crash program for their +version of the SDI. They are developing new weapon systems based on modern +physical principles, radio-frequency weapons, electromagnetic pulse weapons. +They are training troops so that they either can use this military +superiority directly, or use it as a blackmail threat, to squeeze out of the +West whatever they like. So the West reacts to this by going for unilateral +disarmament, and the media, which are largely Communist subverted, are using +this, to spread a Gorby mania, so that about 80% of the foolish people in the +press like Gorbachov and think he is really peace-loving. + + The reason why the Western elites are behaving toward this threat in this +way, is because of a clear philosophical affinity between the establishments +in the East and the West. + + + - Moral and economic crisis in the West - + + The world has come to this point because of a gigantic moral crisis of the +West. It is especially since the last 20 years that this problem seems to have +gotten totally out of control. Now, there is a new President in the United +States. Tomorrow, there will be a new administration, and they think they have +the power, that they are the keepers of the power, that they have the means to +solve all of this, but they are sitting in front of the biggest financial +crisis, and since they, up to the present, have refused any of the reform +proposals we have proposed, this financial system is definitely finished. The +U.S. banking system is bankrupt, and the dollar and the entire Western banking +system have only been maintained through the brutal looting of the Third World +countries and the support of Japan for the U.S. and the Federal Republic of +Germany, and so forth. So it will be only a question of time, when the system +comes down. + + The Anglo-American establishment has made a deal with Moscow to rule the +world as a condominium, to have a kind of supranational one world government, +global crisis management, and they think they can keep control. But already +now it is evident that what is at stake is a huge fight with continental +Europe over the question of ``Europe 1992,'' because the new American +administration does not intend to share its power with a new independent force +in Europe, and we will go into periods of trade war. The fight over +agriculture and the campaign against Germany because of the Libyan [bchemical +weapons] affair which is now threatening the Kohl government, basically shows +on what thin ice the Western alliance is right now. + + This will escalate. If the Kohl government falls--which could happen over +the weekend, that is how bad it is--it is absolutely to be expected, that the +Soviet Union would not miss the opportunity to offer a new Stalin Note +[offering German reunification], and even with Kohl, under the domination of +[Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich] Genscher or a new government dominated by the +Social Democrats, which would accept or could accept such a Stalin Note. And +if Germany goes, this would mean that all of Western Europe goes. This is what +the Bolshevist empire has aimed at ever since Lenin declared: Whoever controls +Germany will have Europe, and that is the stepping-stone to world hegemony. + + So we are very far down in history. It is not only Western Europe. Look at +the situation in China and Southeast Asia. Deng Xiaoping has declared that he +has a plan to regain Taiwan by no later than 1990, and basically part of this +New Yalta deal between the superpowers is to give control over Southeast Asia +to Peking. + + So, if this would happen--and we are obviously working to prevent it from +happening--Moscow would gain Western Europe and Peking China would gain +Southeast Asia, so that basically the United States would be reduced to a +relatively third-rate power and the Communists would have world hegemony, as I +said, maybe two years or less away. + + Would this help the Communist system? I don't think it would. I think the +Communist system would continue to collapse, because it is the very nature of +this system to destroy the values of Western civilization. It is their +explicit aim to destroy the values of Christianity, and with that, the idea of +individual creativity. + + + - AIDS: the threat of a Dark Age - In no more than 10 years, the + +world for sure would look like a nightmare, because it is already now +determined that the AIDS epidemic will explode, despite all the cover-ups of +the governments today, which, as I said, know what is really at stake, and +that this is a killer disease that could potentially wipe out mankind as a +whole. This explosion will come very soon, and will have tremendous social +consequences; people will be killed because they are suspected to be carriers +of the disease, which is already happening here and there right now. We are +also investigating hints, which I have to take very seriously, that there are +some institutions of the West which are spreading AIDS deliberately in Africa, +to further the process of depopulation in this continent. + + This all means clearly that the world is on the verge of chaos and a Dark +Age, which makes the 14th century look relatively mild by comparison. + + How insane the present elites have become is illustrated, among other +things, by an article in the of this week, which seriously +proposes to rehabilitate certain historical figures and periods, like the Dark +Ages of the 14th century, and to glorify these periods as being stronger and +more beautiful than the Renaissance. + + So, if the world comes to this point, that we will plunge into a Dark Age, +either of the kind of one world dictatorship that some elites are aiming at, +or a world under Communist hegemony, then you have to know one thing: All of +this is the result of a deliberate policy. It is not a natural catastrophe; it +is the result of concrete political acts. It is what the Pope has called the +``structures of sin,'' which exist equally in the East and in the West. That +the world is in such a tremendous misery is the result of the acts of concrete +individuals. + + + - Our fight for a new world economic order - + +I want to tell you a couple of things about how it comes that our organization +has developed relatively great knowledge about who is responsible. It is not +some academic discovery, but it is the result of the fact that for 15 years, +we have been fighting for a just new world economic order. + + Lyndon LaRouche has developed concrete proposals for such economic reform, +and when we, beginning relatively naively and innocently, started to organize +for the implementation of these programs, we were hit with an enormous amount +of counterattack, and we found out that there is an enormous amount of +harassment against countries--countries are being threatened with +extinction--against individuals threatened with death or torture, or other +unfortunate developments. Because we did not give up in all of this fight, we +learned a lot about the nature of the enemy. We found out, for example, +something which may be a surprise to many people: that the genocide lobby +exists in the form of concrete associations and people. + + So when we, at the end of these two days, will put these people in front +of the tribunal, this is not abstract or academic knowledge but it is the +result of a 15-year political fight. For example, when Lyndon LaRouche +developed for the first time in 1974 the proposal to develop +Africa--infrastructure, industrialization of agriculture, industrialization +together with a report that if these measures were not taken in a period of +10-15 years, the black African continent would reach a point of irreversible +ecological holocaust. We found out that people already then said that Africa + die. We did not know, and Lyn did not know obviously, what would be +the irreversible aspect, because we did not anticipate a specific form of +AIDS. But it was a correct analysis up to that point. + + Then the next major step in this development was that Lyndon LaRouche in +1975 developed a concrete proposal for international monetary reform, which he +called at that time the International Development Bank, which became extremely +influential in the discussions of the Non-Aligned Movement and was introduced +by the then-Foreign Minister of Guyana, Fred Wills, in front of the General +Assembly of the United Nations in September 1976. + + We saw what happened to those leaders of the Third World who came out and +fought for this. Pakistan's Bhutto was killed in 1979 because he demanded an +international debt reorganization; Mrs. Gandhi, who was fighting for the same +thing, was killed in 1984; and many many other governments were destabilized, +leaders were purged, harassed, put in prison. We know that the food weapon was +used many, many times, because most of these countries have only food reserves +for three days or one week, and we know the names of the individuals from the +banks who went to these countries and said, if you do not quit the fight for +the new world economic order, you will be destabilized and credits will be cut +off. Riots will be the result in your country, and you will be toppled. + + We have watched what the IMF conditionalities have done in these 15 years. +Entire countries have been dismantled in front of the eyes of the world +public. For example the beautiful nation of Mexico, which was economically +struggling 10-15 years ago, was literally taken apart step by step, with +absolute brutality. The nation of Uganda practically no longer exists. If you +look at Lebanon, since 1975, this nation has been completely bombed out, +destroyed. It does not exist any more. + + - The genocide lobby - + + We have found out, step by step, who is behind this. The Club of Rome, at +a certain point in 1972, started to propagandize their zero economic growth +policy of neo-malthusianism, that the world does not have enough food for the +number of people. We came upon such institutions as the Worldwatch Institute, +which is supervising a lot of this. We found individuals like the Satanist +Robert McNamara, who has a long list of crimes. He was responsible in Vietnam +for the body-count policy. He's a lunatic, quite literally, because he goes +out when there is a full Moon, to bathe in the moonbeams. This is part of his +belief-structure. But the other side is the genocide he committed when he was +head of the World Bank. We have heard circles around Gen. Maxwell Taylor, +also of Vietnam fame, who said quite openly that they want to increase the +death rate by natural means, because birth control is not sufficient. We have +found circles around George Ball, who have openly said that it is necessary to +reduce the Mexican population to 30 million people, i.e., less than half. We +heard the speech of Gore Vidal in S;atao Paulo last year, who said that the +AIDS pandemic is a good thing, because it will reduce the population to 1 +billion people. + + And we have seen, what was the long-term design of people like Dr. +Alexander King, who was the one responsible in 1963 for introducing the +so-called education reform in Europe, which had the deliberate aim of +eliminating for pupils any knowledge of the high points of the 2,000 years of +European culture and civilization. This same Dr. Alexander King was the +leader of the Club of Rome, and is on record having said that population +growth in the Third World has to stop, because the Anglo-Saxon white race is +overrun by the black, brown, and yellow people. + + We are on the track of the Inter-Action Council, which wants to reduce the +population to 2 billion, because otherwise the global crisis is not feasible. + + In the course of this, we founded the Club of Life, against the evil +activities of the Club of Rome, and as a result of our organizing for the +sanctity and sacredness of life, we found out even more about these people. We +discovered an incredible new euthanasia campaign, and propaganda that health +care would not be cost-effective. So we found out about many more concrete +persons, and also about the nature of the enemy. We found out how the +financial institutions of this world are responsible, and how they are +controlled by certain families, and that the reason for all of these problems +is what you could call a plutocracy, a government of a financial power elite. +This is an extreme Calvinist view, of those who think that God punishes those +who are poor, and that those who are rich are already proven to be correct by +the very fact of their wealth. + + - The Holy Alliance and the Yalta policy - + + Soon we found out that what motivates these people is, in part, the +political system modeled on the Holy Alliance concluded at the Congress of +Vienna of 1815, where the idea of having Russia as a special policeman of +Europe was copied from. We found that the proponents of this system liked the +idea of balance of power, crisis management, that they are against the +sovereignty of the nation-state, and that they want to reintroduce a so-called + a class system, with lower and higher classes, were the +lower ones have no rights--i.e., you go back before the Prussian reforms. + + In the 20th century, there is a continuity of this in the form of the +Yalta treason, which also has to be looked at as one of the great crimes of +our time. In 1943, there was the division of Europe, without real need. There +was no necessity to give half of Europe to the Russians, to the Communists. +This, as you know, was already decided in 1943, and the process of Teheran, +Yalta, and Potsdam just concluded this agreement. This Yalta treason was +continued in 1943 by the freemason George Marshall, who gave China to Mao +Zedong, at a point that the Kuomintang had 5 million people under arms. It was +the joint action of Moscow and Washington to give mainland China to the +Communists. In 1953, during the Korean War, Chiang Kai-shek had offered to +send hundreds of thousands of troops to help MacArthur, and the Korean War +would have ended quite differently. But this was not in the idea of the +balance of power again, so that MacArthur afterward went to Taipei to +apologize. + + This Yalta policy was continued in 1971, when it was Kissinger who +introduced the ``China card'' policy, and at the same time there was +continuous treason against the security of the West, in the form of the +Pugwash Conference, the ecology movement, all aimed to undermine the security +of the West as an independent culture, a civilization. The peace movement was +invented, which has turned out to be nothing but Moscow's fifth column, and if +you look at it today, it is run literally by witches, and is the harbor and +the water in which terrorists can swim. + + - Satanism and Friedrich Nietzsche - + + In all of this, the role of Satanism is not marginal, but, as recent +discoveries have shown, the ecology movement is a Satanic movement. The +condition of the world, all the misery and all the incredible suffering, could +not be explained otherwise, and the major threat to civilization today is +nothing but Satanism, which is not called Satanism openly, even though this is +becoming more and more public now, but it is generally called the New Age. + + I think the key to understanding the threat to mankind today, in the form +of Satanism and New Age, it is extremely important to understand both +Nietzsche and Aleister Crowley. Nietzsche, who was working for the Devil in +the last century definitely, represents a new phase in this, because since his +writings, the open, perverted advertisement of Satanism has become a phase +shift in history. + + The most important points he made are the following. He declared that God +is dead, and later he developed out of this, that he himself would be the +Anti-Christ and he would be Satan. His aim was to wipe out Christianity and +all values associated with it. He, because God is dead, declared that man is +not the image of God, but man has to be an aesthetic beast. He continued to +rewrite history in emphasizing, not the classical highpoints of history, the +classical Greek or the Renaissance, but rather Dionysian ecstasy, Bacchanalian +masses walking, marching drunken through the streets, doped up. He emphasized +the flagellants in the Middle Ages, and in his ugly book he +declared: Am I understood? It is Dionysos against the crucified. + + He devoted his entire life against Christianity and determined that he +wanted to revalue all values into their opposite. This is indeed the essence +of the Satanic method: to consciously change values into their opposite in +such a way, that people don't realize it in the beginning, but in the end they +are in the grip of Satan. + + He did not accept the development of the universe to ever higher orders, +but announced a cyclical repetition, the eternal return of the same, and +therefore destruction for him--as well as for the Greenies today or for the +Nazis, which is actually the same thing--destruction is desirable, because +only out of the decay, the strong will come, in the opinion of these people, +and the natural outgrowth of this is the idea of the master race. The will to +power is the only value for these people. + + Historically, Nietzsche refers to Dionysius--Bacchus--who was, at a point +of Greek history, the cult figure for a cult which centered around wild music, +rythmic dancing and orgiastic ecstasy. This is all very important, if you +compare it with the New Age today. + + The aim of this insane ecstasy is the unification with their god, to be +possessed, literally. The essence of what is unifying them is their hatred +against Christianity, because they see it as a total negation of all earthly +pleasures and passions. And we found out that one of the reasons why they +hated us so much, is because they always say, you want to take away our +pleasures in this way, because you put up moral standards, and we don't like +that. + + So, both Nietzsche and the freemasons--which is actually one +tradition--refer to Greece as a deliberate counterpole against Christianity, +and it is also this Dionysian face of Greek history which gave them the +arguments for the ``master race.'' For example, Theognis of Megara already had +the idea that the aristocratic is good and the plebian is bad. If you read +Plato's dialogues, you find with the that Thrasymachos and Callicles +emphasize the exercise of power as the essence of all virtues. Thrasymachos +says that powerful evil is more noble than weak goodness, and Cllicles says +the stronger ones have the right to dominate and also have property, and the +weak ones have none. Dionysius said, what is the essence for him is rageful +lust, which is at the same time the fury of destruction. Indeed you will find, +that rage is the emotion of Satan, in the same way that or +love is the emotion of Christianity. + + The concept of the eternal return of the same, which is a pre-Christian +cult notion, associated with the earth goddesses, mother goddesses, is also +the ground for the idea of reincarnation, the concept used deliberately +against the idea of immortality. The Nietzschean fascists, the New Age +proponents, believe that immortality or the belief in immortality is the basic +obstacle to real life. Nietzsche finally wrote +where he declared that all gods are dead, now lives the superman, Superman is the meaning of the world--no god, rather master +your own fate, rather be god yourself. So, the idea of Satanism is nothing but +self-deification, and for these people, Christian ennoblement is only +castration. + + For Nietzsche, God is proven wrong, but not the Devil. In +he writes, to be able to bear life without God and morality, he must find the +opposite, the ego which creates its own god, at whose feet all men lie. This +god is nothing but the culmination of power, the liberation of all morality, +the full depths of all contradictions of life lived out to the excess. God for +him is the greatest immoralist, as will to power without goodness and wisdom. +So, Nietzsche believed in superiority of the Devil; quite literally, he was a +Satanist. He believed in the Olympus, i.e., the power of man totally dedicated +to this Earth, but not in the Crucified. So, Dionysius, whom Nietzsche +believed to be finally he himself, is the god of darkness, and Zarathustra +admits that the good ones would call his superman the Devil. + + So what we are really dealing with, is the Satanic religion, in their +hatred for Christianity, for those reasons. All of this, the Nietzschean +philosophy, was the ethic of the inner core of the SS and the Nazis, and it is +exactly the problem today, that the elites think they want power only for +power's sake, and it is their absolute right to keep that power, no matter +what will happen to this poor world. It is no question that these people are +under the influence of gigantic illusions, and it is also clear that they are +either part of Satanist rituals and circles, or at least they tolerate it. + + - The Age of Aquarius - + + We have noticed, that for the past one or two years, the so-called New Age +has been on an aggressive offensive worldwide, and if you look at the +symptoms, you can actually see that it is an attempt to win over the world for +good, and to wipe out Christianity once and for all. Normally people are not +accustomed to look at it this way, but if you start to sharpen your eyes, you +actually see symptoms of it at every point. For example, you all know that +there are hardly any young people who are not victims of rock music, and all +major rock bands are Satanist. Not only do they have Satanist texts, not only +do they have subliminal messages and light-effects with pictures of Satan or +symbols, but it is having a serious effect on the brains and the capability to +think of these young people. + + One can say that rock music is the first level of initiation, and that +then drugs, pornography, and general disruption of any moral standard are the +next steps. So, if you go through this and you don't watch it, what comes out +are people without souls, and it is most horrifying to see that aleady in all +of Western Europe, 80-85% of all young people have participated in occult +exercises, which starts like a game, but then soon it is not a game any more. +There are many Satanic churches, not only in Turin, where 5% of the people +admit that they are Satanists. It is the famous Ordo Templi Orientis which is +definitely one of the leading instruments. It is a lot of masonic rites, it is +the spread of pedophilia, child-pornography rings, video cassettes of +unimaginable perversion, and finally the more frequently occurring ritual +murders. + + While Nietzsche definitively is the philosopher for the power elites, +Aleister Crowley is the one who gives the philosophy for the duped masses. Do +what you want, this is the only law: that was the philosophy of Aleister +Crowley, and this is the poison in the hearts and minds of the people thinking +they can take drugs, they can do anything just as they please. + + One has to see that the Age of Aquarius, the New Age, as it was +propagandized by Marilyn Ferguson, is actually the new form of this disease. +The aim is to eliminate any principle, there is no longer any criterion for +good and evil. And one has to understand that the New Age has a lot of +different elements, like homosexuality, which is an organized cult. Nobody can +tell me that 50% of the people in Manhattan all had domineering mothers who +give them no other way than to join this. It is an organizing tool: Get people +involved, and once they are involved, they can't get out so easily. It is +witchcraft, the ecology movement, the idea that some mysterious earth goddess +exists. It is drugs, it is astrology, it is pantheism; basically all of the +components of the New Age represent an attack on rationality, on reason, on +natural science, on the idea of the knowability of the laws of the universe. + + So, we have found that one of the key coordinating centers of all of this +is a thing called the Lucis Trust, formerly the Lucifer organization, which is +a kind of umbrella sponsoring all of these different things. Associated with +this are the United Nations, the World Council of Churches, the Club of Rome, +the Trilateral Commission, the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Wildlife +Fund, and many more. + + If you look at this, the big question obviously is, how to reverse it? It +is obviously a subject which is not an easy one, and many people say it is +dangerous even to talk about it, but if we do not warn our young people, the +next generation and the many moral people who are just indifferent, who don't +care, we'll eventually be taken over. + + So therefore, the first step is to make a huge campaign to expose what is +really behind the New Age, and we will name the names of those who have put +themselves in the service of Satan, and we will put on their forehead the Mark +of the Beast, because it is our obligation to fight for the superiority of man +in the image of God. We do this, because we have the confidence that mankind +has the resources to overcome this crisis, as mankind came out of the +14th-century Dark Age and superseded it with the golden Renaissance. Today, by +awakening people and making them conscious of this danger, we will also be +able to make a new cultural and moral Renaissance, and we want to announce it +optimistically, but also offensively at the same time, that no matter what the +enemy is planning, we will make sure, that one way or the other, the ideas and +programs of Lyndon LaRouche will be realized. + + We want to announce this campaign, for which Lyn has correctly given the +slogan some time ago: to do nothing less than to kill Satan. + + I want to end my remarks by saying, so help us God through our arm, and I +am confident that Christ will be victorious over Satan! + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/sci&rel.txt b/religious documents/sci&rel.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc353e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/sci&rel.txt @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +RELIGION and SCIENCE + +Modern science had its origins in the late Middle Ages, especially +during the period called the Renaissance. Many of its discoveries +brought it into conflict with the traditional beliefs held by the +medieval church. The assertion by Galileo and others that the Earth +was not the center of the universe outraged many church leaders, and +Galileo was brought to trial for teaching unacceptable doctrines. + +Conflicts between religion and science did not cease with the +Renaissance. Today there are many religious people who condemn all +teaching about the theory of evolution. They assert that the Biblical +account of creation is literally true; therefore, evolution is +unacceptable to them. + +Opposition between religion and science arose from the mistaken notion +that religion could present its doctrines as undisputed knowledge that +would hold true for all time. The medieval church had incorporated +into its system of belief certain ancient scientific assertions about +the Earth and the heavens. As these assertions were slowly proved +false, the church reacted because it had used ancient science to +support its doctrine. In other words, it had attempted to use assumed +facts of science to support belief. It feared, consequently, that if +the facts were swept away, the belief would crumble. As it happened, +religious resistance to science alienated many educated people. + +The church did not realize that real belief cannot be supported by +evidence from science. Nor can belief be undone by scientific +evidence. The sciences deal with what they can see, inspect, and +experiment with. They can make no valid statements about the existence +or nonexistence of a god, for instance, because such statements must +be made without any available evidence. On the other hand, religion +cannot pretend to invalidate the findings of scientists for fear that +belief will be challenged. If the objects of faith are true and the +objects of scientific discovery true as well, then the objects are +equally true and cannot contradict each other. + +The uneasiness between science and religion has not been limited to +Christianity. Marxist communism of the 20th century has become a kind +of religion. It has an all-embracing worldview, and it has a faith in +the historical process for which no evidence exists. During Joseph +Stalin's rule in the Soviet Union, scientific theories that seemed to +contradict his version of Marxism were suppressed. Stalin's favorite +scientist was Trofim Lysenko, a biologist and agronomist who supported +theories on heredity completely at variance with the genetic +principles developed by Gregor Mendel. Through Lysenko's influence +and under Stalin's insistence, all other approaches to biology +were outlawed. Some scientists who had previously taught Mendelian +genetics were forced to change their opinion and teach Lysenko's +version of biology. diff --git a/religious documents/sci_god.txt b/religious documents/sci_god.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0eb0631 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/sci_god.txt @@ -0,0 +1,234 @@ +From: kalki33!system@lakes.trenton.sc.us +Newsgroups: sci.skeptic +Subject: On God and Science +Message-ID: +Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 23:22:54 EST +Organization: Kalki's Infoline BBS, Aiken, SC, USA +Lines: 226 + +From Back to Godhead magazine, November/December 1992 + +ON GOD AND SCIENCE + +by Sadaputa Dasa + +(c) 1992 The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust +Used by permission. + +In a recent book review in Scientific American, Harvard evolutionist +Stephen Jay Gould points out that many scientists see no contradiction +between traditional religious beliefs and the world view of modern +science. Noting that many evolutionists have been devout Christians, he +concludes, "Either half my colleagues are enormously stupid, or else the +science of Darwinism is fully compatible with conventional religious +beliefs -- and equally compatible with atheism, thus proving that the +two great realms of nature's factuality and the source of human morality +do not strongly overlap."[1] + +The question of whether or not science and religion are compatible +frequently comes up, and Gould himself points out that he is dealing +with it for the "umpteenth millionth time." It is a question to which +people are prone to give muddled answers. Definitions of God and God's +modes of action in the world seem highly elastic, and the desire to +combine scientific theories with religious doctrines has impelled many +sophisticated people to stretch both to the limit. In the end, something +has to give. + +To help us locate the snapping point, let's look at what a few +scientists have said about God. + +Dr. John A. O'Keefe, a NASA astronomer and a practicing Catholic, has +said, "Among biologists, the feeling has been since Darwin that all of +the intricate craftsmanship of life is an accident, which arose because +of the operations of natural selection on the chemicals of the earth's +shell. This is quite true...."[2] + +O'Keefe accepts that life developed on earth entirely through physical +processes of the kind envisioned by Darwin. He stresses, however, that +many features of the laws of physics have just the right values to allow +for life as we know it. He concludes from this that God created the +universe for man to live in -- more precisely, God did this at the +moment of the Big Bang, when the universe and its physical laws sprang +out of nothing. + +To support this idea, O'Keefe quotes Pope Pius XII, who said in his +address to the Pontifical Academy of Science in 1951: + + In fact, it would seem that present-day science, with one + sweeping step back across millions of centuries, has succeeded + in bearing witness to the primordial Fiat lux ["Let there be + light"] uttered at the moment when, along with matter, there + burst forth from nothing a sea of light and radiation, while the + particles of chemical elements split and formed into millions of + galaxies.[3] + +Now this might seem a reasonable union of religion and science. God +creates the universe in a brief moment; then everything runs according +to accepted scientific principles. Of the universe's +fifteen-billion-year history, the first tiny fraction of a second is to +be kept aside as sacred ground, roped off from scientific scrutiny. Will +scientists agree not to trespass on this sacred territory? + +Certainly not. Stephen Hawking, holder of Issac Newton's chair at +Cambridge University, once attended a conference on cosmology organized +by Jesuits in the Vatican. The conference ended with an audience with +the Pope. Hawking recalls: + + He told us that it was all right to study the evolution of the + universe after the big bang, but we should not inquire into the + big bang itself because that was the moment of creation and + therefore the work of God. I was glad then that he did not know + the subject of the talk I had just given at the conference -- + the possibility that space-time was finite but had no boundary, + which means that it had no beginning, no moment of creation.[4] + +Whether or not Hawking's theory wins acceptance, this episode shows that +science cannot allow any aspect of objective reality to lie outside its +domain. We can get further insight into this by considering the views of +Owen Gingerich of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In a +lecture on modern cosmogony and Biblical creation, Gingerich also +interpreted the Big Bang as God's act of creation. He went on to say +that we are created in the image of God and that within us lies a +"divine creative spark, a touch of the infinite consciousness, and +conscience."[5] + +What is this "divine spark"? Gingerich's words suggest that it is +spiritual and gives rise to objectively observable behavior involving +conscience. But mainstream science rejects the idea of a nonphysical +conscious entity that influences matter. Could "divine spark" be just +another name for the brain, with its behavioral programming wired in by +genetic and cultural evolution? If this is what Gingerich meant, he +certainly chose misleading words to express it. + +Freeman Dyson of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies arrived at +ideas similar to those of Gingerich, but from a non-Christian +perspective. + + I do not claim that the architecture of the universe proves the + existence of God. I claim only that the architecture of the + universe is consistent with the hypothesis that mind plays an + essential role in its functioning....Some of us may be willing + to entertain the hypothesis that there exists a universal mind + or world soul which underlies the manifestations of mind that we + observe.... The existence of a world soul is a question that + belongs to religion and not to science.[6] + +Dyson fully accepts Darwin's theory of chance variation and natural +selection. But he also explicitly grants mind an active role in the +universe: "Our consciousness is not just a passive epiphenomenon carried +along by chemical events in our brains, but an active agent forcing the +molecular complexes to make choices between one quantum state and +another."[7] He also feels that the universe may, in a sense, have known +we were coming and made preparations for our arrival.[8] + +Dyson is verging on scientific heresy, and he cannot escape from this +charge simply by saying he is talking about religion and not science. +Quantum mechanics ties together chance and the conscious observer. Dyson +uses this as a loophole through which to introduce mind into the +phenomena of nature. But if random quantum events follow quantum +statistics as calculated by the laws of physics, then mind has no choice +but to go along with the flow as a passive epiphenomenon. And if mind +can make quantum events follow different statistics, then mind violates +the laws of physics. Such violations are rejected not only by physicists +but also by evolutionists, who definitely do not envision mind-generated +happenings playing any significant role in the origin of species. + +It would seem that O'Keefe, Gingerich, and Dyson are advancing religious +ideas that are scientifically unacceptable. Unacceptable because they +propose an extra-scientific story for events that fall in the chosen +domain of science: the domain of all real phenomena. + +To see what is scientifically acceptable, let us return to the remarks +of Stephen Jay Gould. In his review in Scientific American, Gould says, +"Science treats factual reality, while religion struggles with human +morality."[9] We can compare this to a statement by the eminent +theologian Rudolph Bultmann: "The idea of God is imperative, not +indicative; ethical and not factual."[10] + +The point Gould and Bultmann make is that God has nothing to do with +facts in the real world. God is involved not with what is but what ought +to be, not with the phenomena of the world but people's ethical and +moral values. + +Of course, a spoken or written statement of what ought to be is part of +what is. So if God is out of what is, He cannot be the source of +statements about what ought to be. These must simply be human +statements, and so must all statements about God. As it's put by Don +Cupitt, Cambridge philosopher of religion, "There is no longer anything +out there for faith to correspond to, so the only test of faith now is +the way it works out in life. The objects of faith, such as God, are +seen as guiding spiritual ideals we live by, and not as beings."[11] + +This may sound like atheism, and so it is. But we shouldn't stop here. +Human religious activity is part of the factual world, and so it also +lies within the domain of science. While religious people "struggle with +morality," inquisitive scientists struggle to explain man's religious +behavior --unique in the animal kingdom-- in terms of the Darwinian +theory of evolution. This was foreshadowed by a remark made by Darwin +himself in his early notes: "Love of the deity effect of organization, +oh you materialist!"[12] Religious ideas, including love of God, must +arise from the structure and conditioning of the brain, and these in +turn must arise through genetic and cultural evolution. Darwin himself +never tried to develop these ideas extensively, but in recent years +sociobiologists such as Edward O. Wilson have.[13] + +So is the science of Darwinism fully compatible with conventional +religious beliefs? That depends on one's conventions. If by God you mean +a real spiritual being who controls natural phenomena, even to a slight +degree, then Darwinism utterly rejects your idea -- not because science +empirically disproves it, but because the idea goes against the +fundamental scientific program of explaining all phenomena through the +laws of physics. Religious beliefs are compatible with Darwinism only if +they hold that God is simply a human idea having something to do with +moral imperatives. But if this is what you believe, then instead of +having religious beliefs, you have "scientific" beliefs about religion. + +Judging from the theistic ideas of O'Keefe, Gingerich, and Dyson, many +far-from-stupid scientists do believe in God and Darwinism. But in their +efforts to combine truly incompatible ideas, they succumb to enormously +muddled thinking. And so they commit scientific heresy in spite of +themselves. If one is at all interested in knowledge of God, one should +recognize that such knowledge is not compatible with mainstream science, +and in particular not with Darwinism. + +REFERENCES + +[1] Gould, Stephen Jay, "Impeaching a Self-Appointed Judge," Scientific + American, July 1992, p. 119. +[2] Jastrow, Robert, God and the Astronomer, NY: Warner Books, Inc., + 1978, p. 138. +[3] Jastrow, Ibid., pp. 141-2. +[4] Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time, NY: Bantam Books, 1988, + p. 116. +[5] Gingerich, Owen, "Let There Be Light: Modern Cosmogony and Biblical + Creation," an abridgement of the Dwight Lecture given at the + University of Penna. in 1982, pp. 9-10. +[6] Dyson, Freeman, Disturbing the Universe, NY: Harper & Row, 1979, pp. + 251-52. +[7] Dyson, Ibid., p. 249. +[8] Dyson, Ibid., p. 250. +[9] Gould, Ibid., p. 120 +[10] Cupitt, Don, Only Human, London: SCM Press, Ltd., 1985, p. 212. +[11] Cupitt, Ibid., p. 202. +[12] Paul H. Barrett, et al., eds., Charles Darwin's Notebooks, + 1836-1844, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987, p. 291. +[13] Wilson, Edward O., On Human Nature, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard + University Press, 1978. + +END OF ARTICLE + +Sadaputa Dasa (Richard L. Thompson) earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from +Cornell University. He is the author of several books, of which the most +recent is Vedic Cosmography and Astronomy. + +Posted by Kalki Dasa for Back to Godhead + + ------------------------------------------------------- + | Don't forget to chant: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna | + | Krishna Krishna Hare Hare | + | Hare Rama Hare Rama | + | Rama Rama Hare Hare | + | | + | Kalki's Infoline BBS Aiken, South Carolina, USA | + | (kalki33!kalki@lakes.trenton.sc.us) | + ------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/seasons.txt b/religious documents/seasons.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..130f03f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/seasons.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1345 @@ +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +This file contains 9 seasonal articles by Mike Nichols. They may be freely +distributed provided that the following conditions are met: (1) No fee is +charged for their use and distribution and no commercial use is made of them; +(2) These files are not changed or edited in any way without the author's +permission; (3) This notice is not removed. An article may be distributed +as a separate file, provided that this notice is repeated at the beginning of +each such file. +These articles are periodically updated by the author; this version is current +as of 9/28/88. Contact Mike Nichols at the Magick Lantern BBS [(816)531-7265, +7pm. - 11am., 300 baud ONLY] for more recent updates, or to leave your own +comments on them. +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +=============================== +The Eight Sabbats of Witchcraft +=============================== + by Mike Nichols + copyright by MicroMuse Press + +<1> Halloween +<2> Yule +<3> Candlemas +<4> Lady Day +<5> May Day +<6> Midsummer +<7> Lammas +<8> Harvest Home +<9> Death of Llew: A Seasonal Interp + + + + ALL HALLOW'S EVE + ================ + by Mike Nichols + + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + Halloween. + Sly does it. Tiptoe catspaw. Slide and creep. + But why? What for? How? Who? When! Where did it all begin? + 'You don't know, do you?' asks Carapace Clavicle Moundshroud climbing out +under the pile of leaves under the Halloween Tree. 'You don't REALLY know!' + +--Ray Bradbury from 'The Halloween Tree' + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + Samhain. All Hallows. All Hallow's Eve. Hallow E'en. Halloween. The +most magical night of the year. Exactly opposite Beltane on the wheel of the +year, Halloween is Beltane's dark twin. A night of glowing jack-o-lanterns, +bobbing for apples, tricks or treats, and dressing in costume. A night of +ghost stories and seances, tarot card readings and scrying with mirrors. A +night of power, when the veil that separates our world from the Otherworld is +at its thinnest. A 'spirit night', as they say in Wales. + + All Hallow's Eve is the eve of All Hallow's Day (November 1st). And for +once, even popular tradition remembers that the Eve is more important than the +Day itself, the traditional celebration focusing on October 31st, beginning at +sundown. And this seems only fitting for the great Celtic New Year's festival. +Not that the holiday was Celtic only. In fact, it is startling how many +ancient and unconnected cultures (the Egyptians and pre-Spanish Mexicans, for +example) celebrated this as a festival of the dead. But the majority of our +modern traditions can be traced to the British Isles. + + The Celts called it Samhain, which means 'summer's end', according to +their ancient two-fold division of the year, when summer ran from Beltane to +Samhain and winter ran from Samhain to Beltane. (Some modern Covens echo this +structure by letting the High Priest 'rule' the Coven beginning on Samhain, +with rulership returned to the High Priestess at Beltane.) According to the +later four-fold division of the year, Samhain is seen as 'autumn's end' and the +beginning of winter. Samhain is pronounced (depending on where you're from) as +'sow-in' (in Ireland), or 'sow-een' (in Wales), or 'sav-en' (in Scotland), or +(inevitably) 'sam-hane' (in the U.S., where we don't speak Gaelic). + + Not only is Samhain the end of autumn; it is also, more importantly, the +end of the old year and the beginning of the new. Celtic New Year's Eve, when +the new year begins with the onset of the dark phase of the year, just as the +new day begins at sundown. There are many representations of Celtic gods with +two faces, and it surely must have been one of them who held sway over Samhain. +Like his Greek counterpart Janus, he would straddle the threshold, one face +turned toward the past in commemoration of those who died during the last year, +and one face gazing hopefully toward the future, mystic eyes attempting to +pierce the veil and divine what the coming year holds. These two themes, +celebrating the dead and divining the future, are inexorably intertwined in +Samhain, as they are likely to be in any New Year's celebration. + + As a feast of the dead, it was believed the dead could, if they wished, +return to the land of the living for this one night, to celebrate with their +family, tribe, or clan. And so the great burial mounds of Ireland (sidh +mounds) were opened up, with lighted torches lining the walls, so the dead +could find their way. Extra places were set at the table and food set out for +any who had died that year. And there are many stories that tell of Irish +heroes making raids on the Underworld while the gates of faery stood open, +though all must return to their appointed places by cock-crow. + + As a feast of divination, this was the night par excellence for peering +into the future. The reason for this has to do with the Celtic view of time. +In a culture that uses a linear concept of time, like our modern one, New +Year's Eve is simply a milestone on a very long road that stretches in a +straight line from birth to death. Thus, the New Year's festival is a part of +time. The ancient Celtic view of time, however, is cyclical. And in this +framework, New Year's Eve represents a point outside of time, when the natural +order of the universe dissolves back into primordial chaos, preparatory to re- +establishing itself in a new order. Thus, Samhain is a night that exists +outside of time and hence it may be used to view any other point in time. At +no other holiday is a tarot card reading, crystal reading, or tea-leaf reading +so likely to succeed. + + The Christian religion, with its emphasis on the 'historical' Christ and +his act of redemption 2000 years ago, is forced into a linear view of time, +where 'seeing the future' is an illogical proposition. In fact, from the +Christian perspective, any attempt to do so is seen as inherently evil. This +did not keep the medieval Church from co-opting Samhain's other motif, +commemoration of the dead. To the Church, however, it could never be a feast +for all the dead, but only the blessed dead, all those hallowed (made holy) by +obedience to God - thus, All Hallow's, or Hallowmas, later All Saints and All +Souls. + + There are so many types of divination that are traditional to Hallowstide, +it is possible to mention only a few. Girls were told to place hazel nuts +along the front of the firegrate, each one to symbolize one of her suitors. +She could then divine her future husband by chanting, 'If you love me, pop and +fly; if you hate me, burn and die.' Several methods used the apple, that most +popular of Halloween fruits. You should slice an apple through the equator (to +reveal the five-pointed star within) and then eat it by candlelight before a +mirror. Your future spouse will then appear over your shoulder. Or, peel an +apple, making sure the peeling comes off in one long strand, reciting, 'I pare +this apple round and round again; / My sweetheart's name to flourish on the +plain: / I fling the unbroken paring o'er my head, / My sweetheart's letter on +the ground to read.' Or, you might set a snail to crawl through the ashes of +your hearth. The considerate little creature will then spell out the initial +letter as it moves. + + Perhaps the most famous icon of the holiday is the jack-o-lantern. +Various authorities attribute it to either Scottish or Irish origin. However, +it seems clear that it was used as a lantern by people who traveled the road +this night, the scary face to frighten away spirits or faeries who might +otherwise lead one astray. Set on porches and in windows, they cast the same +spell of protection over the household. (The American pumpkin seems to have +forever superseded the European gourd as the jack-o-lantern of choice.) +Bobbing for apples may well represent the remnants of a Pagan 'baptism' rite +called a 'seining', according to some writers. The water-filled tub is a +latter-day Cauldron of Regeneration, into which the novice's head is immersed. +The fact that the participant in this folk game was usually blindfolded with +hands tied behind the back also puts one in mind of a traditional Craft +initiation ceremony. + + The custom of dressing in costume and 'trick-or-treating' is of Celtic +origin with survivals particularly strong in Scotland. However, there are some +important differences from the modern version. In the first place, the custom +was not relegated to children, but was actively indulged in by adults as well. +Also, the 'treat' which was required was often one of spirits (the liquid +variety). This has recently been revived by college students who go +'trick-or-drinking'. And in ancient times, the roving bands would sing +seasonal carols from house to house, making the tradition very similar to +Yuletide wassailing. In fact, the custom known as 'caroling', now connected +exclusively with mid-winter, was once practiced at all the major holidays. +Finally, in Scotland at least, the tradition of dressing in costume consisted +almost exclusively of cross-dressing (i.e., men dressing as women, and women as +men). It seems as though ancient societies provided an opportunity for people +to 'try on' the role of the opposite gender for one night of the year. +(Although in Scotland, this is admittedly less dramatic - but more confusing - +since men were in the habit of wearing skirt-like kilts anyway. Oh well...) + + To Witches, Halloween is one of the four High Holidays, or Greater +Sabbats, or cross-quarter days. Because it is the most important holiday of +the year, it is sometimes called 'THE Great Sabbat.' It is an ironic fact that +the newer, self-created Covens tend to use the older name of the holiday, +Samhain, which they have discovered through modern research. While the older +hereditary and traditional Covens often use the newer name, Halloween, which +has been handed down through oral tradition within their Coven. (This is often +holds true for the names of the other holidays, as well. One may often get an +indication of a Coven's antiquity by noting what names it uses for the +holidays.) + + With such an important holiday, Witches often hold two distinct +celebrations. First, a large Halloween party for non-Craft friends, often held +on the previous weekend. And second, a Coven ritual held on Halloween night +itself, late enough so as not to be interrupted by trick-or-treaters. If the +rituals are performed properly, there is often the feeling of invisible friends +taking part in the rites. Another date which may be utilized in planning +celebrations is the actual cross-quarter day, or Old Halloween, or Halloween +O.S. (Old Style). This occurs when the sun has reached 15 degrees Scorpio, an +astrological 'power point' symbolized by the Eagle. This year (1988), the date +is November 6th at 10:55 pm CST, with the celebration beginning at sunset. +Interestingly, this date (Old Halloween) was also appropriated by the Church as +the holiday of Martinmas. + + Of all the Witchcraft holidays, Halloween is the only one that still +boasts anything near to popular celebration. Even though it is typically +relegated to children (and the young-at-heart) and observed as an evening +affair only, many of its traditions are firmly rooted in Paganism. +Interestingly, some schools have recently attempted to abolish Halloween +parties on the grounds that it violates the separation of state and religion. +Speaking as a Pagan, I would be saddened by the success of this move, but as a +supporter of the concept of religion-free public education, I fear I must +concede the point. Nonetheless, it seems only right that there SHOULD be one +night of the year when our minds are turned toward thoughts of the +supernatural. A night when both Pagans and non-Pagans may ponder the mysteries +of the Otherworld and its inhabitants. And if you are one of them, may all +your jack-o'lanterns burn bright on this All Hallow's Eve. + + + + + MIDWINTER NIGHT'S EVE: Y U L E + ================================ + by Mike Nichols + + + Our Christian friends are often quite surprised at how enthusiastically we +Pagans celebrate the 'Christmas' season. Even though we prefer to use the +word 'Yule', and our celebrations may peak a few days BEFORE the 25th, we +nonetheless follow many of the traditional customs of the season: decorated +trees, carolling, presents, Yule logs, and mistletoe. We might even go so far +as putting up a 'Nativity set', though for us the three central characters are +likely to be interpreted as Mother Nature, Father Time, and the Baby Sun-God. +None of this will come as a surprise to anyone who knows the true history of +the holiday, of course. + + In fact, if truth be known, the holiday of Christmas has always been more +Pagan than Christian, with it's associations of Nordic divination, Celtic +fertility rites, and Roman Mithraism. That is why both Martin Luther and John +Calvin abhorred it, why the Puritans refused to acknowledge it, much less +celebrate it (to them, no day of the year could be more holy than the +Sabbath), and why it was even made ILLEGAL in Boston! The holiday was already +too closely associated with the birth of older Pagan gods and heroes. And +many of them (like Oedipus, Theseus, Hercules, Perseus, Jason, Dionysus, +Apollo, Mithra, Horus and even Arthur) possessed a narrative of birth, death, +and resurrection that was uncomfortably close to that of Jesus. And to make +matters worse, many of them pre-dated the Christian Savior. + + Ultimately, of course, the holiday is rooted deeply in the cycle of the +year. It is the Winter Solstice that is being celebrated, seed-time of the +year, the longest night and shortest day. It is the birthday of the new Sun +King, the Son of God -- by whatever name you choose to call him. On this +darkest of nights, the Goddess becomes the Great Mother and once again gives +birth. And it makes perfect poetic sense that on the longest night of the +winter, 'the dark night of our souls', there springs the new spark of hope, +the Sacred Fire, the Light of the World, the Coel Coeth. + + That is why Pagans have as much right to claim this holiday as Christians. +Perhaps even more so, as the Christians were rather late in laying claim to +it, and tried more than once to reject it. There had been a tradition in the +West that Mary bore the child Jesus on the twenty-fifth day, but no one could +seem to decide on the month. Finally, in 320 C.E., the Catholic Fathers in +Rome decided to make it December, in an effort to co-opt the Mithraic +celebration of the Romans and the Yule celebrations of the Celts and Saxons. + + There was never much pretense that the date they finally chose was +historically accurate. Shepherds just don't 'tend their flocks by night' in +the high pastures in the dead of winter! But if one wishes to use the New +Testament as historical evidence, this reference may point to sometime in the +spring as the time of Jesus's birth. This is because the lambing season +occurs in the spring and that is the only time when shepherds are likely to +'watch their flocks by night' -- to make sure the lambing goes well. Knowing +this, the Eastern half of the Church continued to reject December 25, +preferring a 'movable date' fixed by their astrologers according to the moon. + + Thus, despite its shaky start (for over three centuries, no one knew when +Jesus was supposed to have been born!), December 25 finally began to catch on. +By 529, it was a civic holiday, and all work or public business (except that +of cooks, bakers, or any that contributed to the delight of the holiday) was +prohibited by the Emperor Justinian. In 563, the Council of Braga forbade +fasting on Christmas Day, and four years later the Council of Tours proclaimed +the twelve days from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season. +This last point is perhaps the hardest to impress upon the modern reader, who +is lucky to get a single day off work. Christmas, in the Middle Ages, was not +a SINGLE day, but rather a period of TWELVE days, from December 25 to January +6. The Twelve Days of Christmas, in fact. It is certainly lamentable that +the modern world has abandoned this approach, along with the popular Twelfth +Night celebrations. + + Of course, the Christian version of the holiday spread to many countries +no faster than Christianity itself, which means that 'Christmas' wasn't +celebrated in Ireland until the late fifth century; in England, Switzerland, +and Austria until the seventh; in Germany until the eighth; and in the Slavic +lands until the ninth and tenth. Not that these countries lacked their own +mid-winter celebrations of Yuletide. Long before the world had heard of +Jesus, Pagans had been observing the season by bringing in the Yule log, +wishing on it, and lighting it from the remains of last year's log. Riddles +were posed and answered, magic and rituals were practiced, wild boars were +sacrificed and consumed along with large quantities of liquor, corn dollies +were carried from house to house while carolling, fertility rites were +practiced (girls standing under a sprig of mistletoe were subject to a bit +more than a kiss), and divinations were cast for the coming Spring. Many of +these Pagan customs, in an appropriately watered-down form, have entered the +mainstream of Christian celebration, though most celebrants do not realize (or +do not mention it, if they do) their origins. + + For modern Witches, Yule (from the Anglo-Saxon 'Yula', meaning 'wheel' of +the year) is usually celebrated on the actual Winter Solstice, which may vary +by a few days, though it usually occurs on or around December 21st. It is a +Lesser Sabbat or Lower Holiday in the modern Pagan calendar, one of the four +quarter-days of the year, but a very important one. This year (1988) it +occurs on December 21st at 9:28 am CST. Pagan customs are still +enthusiastically followed. Once, the Yule log had been the center of the +celebration. It was lighted on the eve of the solstice (it should light on +the first try) and must be kept burning for twelve hours, for good luck. It +should be made of ash. Later, the Yule log was replaced by the Yule tree but, +instead of burning it, burning candles were placed on it. In Christianity, +Protestants might claim that Martin Luther invented the custom, and Catholics +might grant St. Boniface the honor, but the custom can demonstrably be traced +back through the Roman Saturnalia all the way to ancient Egypt. Needless to +say, such a tree should be cut down rather than purchased, and should be +disposed of by burning, the proper way to dispatch any sacred object. + + Along with the evergreen, the holly and the ivy and the mistletoe were +important plants of the season, all symbolizing fertility and everlasting +life. Mistletoe was especially venerated by the Celtic Druids, who cut it +with a golden sickle on the sixth night of the moon, and believed it to be an +aphrodisiac. (Magically -- not medicinally! It's highly toxic!) But +aphrodisiacs must have been the smallest part of the Yuletide menu in ancient +times, as contemporary reports indicate that the tables fairly creaked under +the strain of every type of good food. And drink! The most popular of which +was the 'wassail cup' deriving its name from the Anglo-Saxon term 'waes hael' +(be whole or hale). + + Medieval Christmas folklore seems endless: that animals will all kneel +down as the Holy Night arrives, that bees hum the '100th psalm' on Christmas +Eve, that a windy Christmas will bring good luck, that a person born on +Christmas Day can see the Little People, that a cricket on the hearth brings +good luck, that if one opens all the doors of the house at midnight all the +evil spirits will depart, that you will have one lucky month for each +Christmas pudding you sample, that the tree must be taken down by Twelfth +Night or bad luck is sure to follow, that 'if Christmas on a Sunday be, a +windy winter we shall see', that 'hours of sun on Christmas Day, so many +frosts in the month of May', that one can use the Twelve Days of Christmas to +predict the weather for each of the twelve months of the coming year, and so +on. + + Remembering that most Christmas customs are ultimately based upon older +Pagan customs, it only remains for modern Pagans to reclaim their lost +traditions. In doing so, we can share many common customs with our Christian +friends, albeit with a slightly different interpretation. And thus we all +share in the beauty of this most magical of seasons, when the Mother Goddess +once again gives birth to the baby Sun-God and sets the wheel in motion again. +To conclude with a long-overdue paraphrase, 'Goddess bless us, every one!' + + + + C A N D L E M A S: The Light Returns + ===================================== + by Mike Nichols + + + It seems quite impossible that the holiday of Candlemas should be +considered the beginning of Spring. Here in the Heartland, February 2nd may +see a blanket of snow mantling the Mother. Or, if the snows have gone, you may +be sure the days are filled with drizzle, slush, and steel-grey skies -- the +dreariest weather of the year. In short, the perfect time for a Pagan Festival +of Lights. And as for Spring, although this may seem a tenuous beginning, all +the little buds, flowers and leaves will have arrived on schedule before Spring +runs its course to Beltane. + + 'Candlemas' is the Christianized name for the holiday, of course. The +older Pagan names were Imbolc and Oimelc. 'Imbolc' means, literally, 'in the +belly' (of the Mother). For in the womb of Mother Earth, hidden from our +mundane sight but sensed by a keener vision, there are stirrings. The seed +that was planted in her womb at the solstice is quickening and the new year +grows. 'Oimelc' means 'milk of ewes', for it is also lambing season. + + The holiday is also called 'Brigit's Day', in honor of the great Irish +Goddess Brigit. At her shrine, the ancient Irish capitol of Kildare, a group +of 19 priestesses (no men allowed) kept a perpetual flame burning in her honor. +She was considered a goddess of fire, patroness of smithcraft, poetry and +healing (especially the healing touch of midwifery). This tripartite symbolism +was occasionally expressed by saying that Brigit had two sisters, also named +Brigit. (Incidentally, another form of the name Brigit is Bride, and it is +thus She bestows her special patronage on any woman about to be married or +handfasted, the woman being called 'bride' in her honor.) + + The Roman Catholic Church could not very easily call the Great Goddess of +Ireland a demon, so they canonized her instead. Henceforth, she would be +'Saint' Brigit, patron SAINT of smithcraft, poetry, and healing. They +'explained' this by telling the Irish peasants that Brigit was 'really' an +early Christian missionary sent to the Emerald Isle, and that the miracles she +performed there 'misled' the common people into believing that she was a +goddess. For some reason, the Irish swallowed this. (There is no limit to +what the Irish imagination can convince itself of. For example, they also came +to believe that Brigit was the 'foster-mother' of Jesus, giving no thought to +the implausibility of Jesus having spent his boyhood in Ireland!) + + Brigit's holiday was chiefly marked by the kindling of sacred fires, since +she symbolized the fire of birth and healing, the fire of the forge, and the +fire of poetic inspiration. Bonfires were lighted on the beacon tors, and +chandlers celebrated their special holiday. The Roman Church was quick to +confiscate this symbolism as well, using 'Candlemas' as the day to bless all +the church candles that would be used for the coming liturgical year. +(Catholics will be reminded that the following day, St. Blaise's Day, is +remembered for using the newly-blessed candles to bless the throats of +parishioners, keeping them from colds, flu, sore throats, etc.) + + The Catholic Church, never one to refrain from piling holiday upon holiday, +also called it the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (It +is surprising how many of the old Pagan holidays were converted to Maryan +Feasts.) The symbol of the Purification may seem a little obscure to modern +readers, but it has to do with the old custom of 'churching women'. It was +believed that women were impure for six weeks after giving birth. And since +Mary gave birth at the winter solstice, she wouldn't be purified until February +2nd. In Pagan symbolism, this might be re-translated as when the Great Mother +once again becomes the Young Maiden Goddess. + + Today, this holiday is chiefly connected to weather lore. Even our +American folk-calendar keeps the tradition of 'Groundhog's Day', a day to +predict the coming weather, telling us that if the Groundhog sees his shadow, +there will be 'six more weeks' of bad weather (i.e., until the next old +holiday, Lady Day). This custom is ancient. An old British rhyme tells us +that 'If Candlemas Day be bright and clear, there'll be two winters in the +year.' Actually, all of the cross-quarter days can be used as 'inverse' +weather predictors, whereas the quarter-days are used as 'direct' weather +predictors. + + Like the other High Holidays or Great Sabbats of the Witches' year, +Candlemas is sometimes celebrated on it's alternate date, astrologically +determined by the sun's reaching 15-degrees Aquarius, or Candlemas Old Style +(in 1988, February 3rd, at 9:03 am CST). Another holiday that gets mixed up in +this is Valentine's Day. Ozark folklorist Vance Randolf makes this quite clear +by noting that the old-timers used to celebrate Groundhog's Day on February +14th. This same displacement is evident in Eastern Orthodox Christianity as +well. Their habit of celebrating the birth of Jesus on January 6th, with a +similar post-dated shift in the six-week period that follows it, puts the Feast +of the Purification of Mary on February 14th. It is amazing to think that the +same confusion and lateral displacement of one of the old folk holidays can be +seen from the Russian steppes to the Ozark hills, but such seems to be the +case! + + Incidentally, there is speculation among linguistic scholars that the vary +name of 'Valentine' has Pagan origins. It seems that it was customary for +French peasants of the Middle Ages to pronounce a 'g' as a 'v'. Consequently, +the original term may have been the French 'galantine', which yields the +English word 'gallant'. The word originally refers to a dashing young man +known for his 'affaires d'amour', a true galaunt. The usual associations of +V(G)alantine's Day make much more sense in this light than their vague +connection to a legendary 'St. Valentine' can produce. Indeed, the Church has +always found it rather difficult to explain this nebulous saint's connection to +the secular pleasures of flirtation and courtly love. + + For modern Witches, Candlemas O.S. may then be seen as the Pagan version of +Valentine's Day, with a de-emphasis of 'hearts and flowers' and an appropriate +re-emphasis of Pagan carnal frivolity. This also re-aligns the holiday with +the ancient Roman Lupercalia, a fertility festival held at this time, in which +the priests of Pan ran through the streets of Rome whacking young women with +goatskin thongs to make them fertile. The women seemed to enjoy the attention +and often stripped in order to afford better targets. + + One of the nicest folk-customs still practiced in many countries, and +especially by Witches in the British Isles and parts of the U.S., is to place a +lighted candle in each and every window of the house, beginning at sundown on +Candlemas Eve (February 1st), allowing them to continue burning until sunrise. +Make sure that such candles are well seated against tipping and guarded from +nearby curtains, etc. What a cheery sight it is on this cold, bleak and dreary +night to see house after house with candle-lit windows! And, of course, if you +are your Coven's chandler, or if you just happen to like making candles, +Candlemas Day is THE day for doing it. Some Covens hold candle-making parties +and try to make and bless all the candles they'll be using for the whole year +on this day. + + Other customs of the holiday include weaving 'Brigit's crosses' from straw +or wheat to hang around the house for protection, performing rites of spiritual +cleansing and purification, making 'Brigit's beds' to ensure fertility of mind +and spirit (and body, if desired), and making Crowns of Light (i.e. of candles) +for the High Priestess to wear for the Candlemas Circle, similar to those worn +on St. Lucy's Day in Scandinavian countries. All in all, this Pagan Festival +of Lights, sacred to the young Maiden Goddess, is one of the most beautiful and +poetic of the year. + + + + + L A D Y D A Y: The Vernal Equinox + ===================================== + by Mike Nichols + + + Now comes the Vernal Equinox, and the season of Spring reaches it's apex, +halfway through its journey from Candlemas to Beltane. Once again, night and +day stand in perfect balance, with the powers of light on the ascendancy. The +god of light now wins a victory over his twin, the god of darkness. In the +Mabinogion myth reconstruction which I have proposed, this is the day on which +the restored Llew takes his vengeance on Goronwy by piercing him with the +sunlight spear. For Llew was restored/reborn at the Winter Solstice and is now +well/old enough to vanquish his rival/twin and mate with his lover/mother. And +the great Mother Goddess, who has returned to her Virgin aspect at Candlemas, +welcomes the young sun god's embraces and conceives a child. The child will be +born nine months from now, at the next Winter Solstice. And so the cycle +closes at last. + + We think that the customs surrounding the celebration of the spring equinox +were imported from Mediterranean lands, although there can be no doubt that the +first inhabitants of the British Isles observed it, as evidence from megalithic +sites shows. But it was certainly more popular to the south, where people +celebrated the holiday as New Year's Day, and claimed it as the first day of +the first sign of the Zodiac, Aries. However you look at it, it is certainly a +time of new beginnings, as a simple glance at Nature will prove. + + In the Roman Catholic Church, there are two holidays which get mixed up +with the Vernal Equinox. The first, occurring on the fixed calendar day of +March 25th in the old liturgical calendar, is called the Feast of the +Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (or B.V.M., as she was typically +abbreviated in Catholic Missals). 'Annunciation' means an announcement. This +is the day that the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was 'in the family +way'. Naturally, this had to be announced since Mary, being still a virgin, +would have no other means of knowing it. (Quit scoffing, O ye of little +faith!) Why did the Church pick the Vernal Equinox for the commemoration of +this event? Because it was necessary to have Mary conceive the child Jesus a +full nine months before his birth at the Winter Solstice (i.e., Christmas, +celebrated on the fixed calendar date of December 25). Mary's pregnancy would +take the natural nine months to complete, even if the conception was a bit +unorthodox. + + As mentioned before, the older Pagan equivalent of this scene focuses on +the joyous process of natural conception, when the young virgin Goddess (in +this case, 'virgin' in the original sense of meaning 'unmarried') mates with +the young solar God, who has just displaced his rival. This is probably not +their first mating, however. In the mythical sense, the couple may have been +lovers since Candlemas, when the young God reached puberty. But the young +Goddess was recently a mother (at the Winter Solstice) and is probably still +nursing her new child. Therefore, conception is naturally delayed for six +weeks or so and, despite earlier matings with the God, She does not conceive +until (surprise!) the Vernal Equinox. This may also be their Hand-fasting, a +sacred marriage between God and Goddess called a Hierogamy, the ultimate Great +Rite. Probably the nicest study of this theme occurs in M. Esther Harding's +book, 'Woman's Mysteries'. Probably the nicest description of it occurs in M. +Z. Bradley's 'Mists of Avalon', in the scene where Morgan and Arthur assume the +sacred roles. (Bradley follows the British custom of transferring the episode +to Beltane, when the climate is more suited to its outdoor celebration.) + + The other Christian holiday which gets mixed up in this is Easter. Easter, +too, celebrates the victory of a god of light (Jesus) over darkness (death), so +it makes sense to place it at this season. Ironically, the name 'Easter' was +taken from the name of a Teutonic lunar Goddess, Eostre (from whence we also +get the name of the female hormone, estrogen). Her chief symbols were the +bunny (both for fertility and because her worshipers saw a hare in the full +moon) and the egg (symbolic of the cosmic egg of creation), images which +Christians have been hard pressed to explain. Her holiday, the Eostara, was +held on the Vernal Equinox Full Moon. Of course, the Church doesn't celebrate +full moons, even if they do calculate by them, so they planted their Easter on +the following Sunday. Thus, Easter is always the first Sunday, after the first +Full Moon, after the Vernal Equinox. If you've ever wondered why Easter moved +all around the calendar, now you know. (By the way, the Catholic Church was so +adamant about NOT incorporating lunar Goddess symbolism that they added a +further calculation: if Easter Sunday were to fall on the Full Moon itself, +then Easter was postponed to the following Sunday instead.) + + Incidentally, this raises another point: recently, some Pagan traditions +began referring to the Vernal Equinox as Eostara. Historically, this is +incorrect. Eostara is a lunar holiday, honoring a lunar Goddess, at the Vernal +Full Moon. Hence, the name 'Eostara' is best reserved to the nearest Esbat, +rather than the Sabbat itself. How this happened is difficult to say. +However, it is notable that some of the same groups misappropriated the term +'Lady Day' for Beltane, which left no good folk name for the Equinox. Thus, +Eostara was misappropriated for it, completing a chain-reaction of +displacement. Needless to say, the old and accepted folk name for the Vernal +Equinox is 'Lady Day'. Christians sometimes insist that the title is in honor +of Mary and her Annunciation, but Pagans will smile knowingly. + + Another mythological motif which must surely arrest our attention at this +time of year is that of the descent of the God or Goddess into the Underworld. +Perhaps we see this most clearly in the Christian tradition. Beginning with +his death on the cross on Good Friday, it is said that Jesus 'descended into +hell' for the three days that his body lay entombed. But on the third day +(that is, Easter Sunday), his body and soul rejoined, he arose from the dead +and ascended into heaven. By a strange 'coincidence', most ancient Pagan +religions speak of the Goddess descending into the Underworld, also for a +period of three days. + + Why three days? If we remember that we are here dealing with the lunar +aspect of the Goddess, the reason should be obvious. As the text of one Book +of Shadows gives it, '...as the moon waxes and wanes, and walks three nights in +darkness, so the Goddess once spent three nights in the Kingdom of Death.' In +our modern world, alienated as it is from nature, we tend to mark the time of +the New Moon (when no moon is visible) as a single date on a calendar. We tend +to forget that the moon is also hidden from our view on the day before and the +day after our calendar date. But this did not go unnoticed by our ancestors, +who always speak of the Goddess's sojourn into the land of Death as lasting for +three days. Is it any wonder then, that we celebrate the next Full Moon (the +Eostara) as the return of the Goddess from chthonic regions? + + Naturally, this is the season to celebrate the victory of life over death, +as any nature-lover will affirm. And the Christian religion was not misguided +by celebrating Christ's victory over death at this same season. Nor is Christ +the only solar hero to journey into the underworld. King Arthur, for example, +does the same thing when he sets sail in his magical ship, Prydwen, to bring +back precious gifts (i.e. the gifts of life) from the Land of the Dead, as we +are told in the 'Mabinogi'. Welsh triads allude to Gwydion and Amaethon doing +much the same thing. In fact, this theme is so universal that mythologists +refer to it by a common phrase, 'the harrowing of hell'. + + However, one might conjecture that the descent into hell, or the land of +the dead, was originally accomplished, not by a solar male deity, but by a +lunar female deity. It is Nature Herself who, in Spring, returns from the +Underworld with her gift of abundant life. Solar heroes may have laid claim to +this theme much later. The very fact that we are dealing with a three-day +period of absence should tell us we are dealing with a lunar, not solar, theme. +(Although one must make exception for those occasional MALE lunar deities, such +as the Assyrian god, Sin.) At any rate, one of the nicest modern renditions of +the harrowing of hell appears in many Books of Shadows as 'The Descent of the +Goddess'. Lady Day may be especially appropriate for the celebration of this +theme, whether by storytelling, reading, or dramatic re-enactment. + + For modern Witches, Lady Day is one of the Lesser Sabbats or Low Holidays +of the year, one of the four quarter-days. And what date will Witches choose +to celebrate? They may choose the traditional folk 'fixed' date of March 25th, +starting on its Eve. Or they may choose the actual equinox point, when the Sun +crosses the Equator and enters the astrological sign of Aries. This year +(1988), that will occur at 3:39 am CST on March 20th. + + + + A Celebration of M A Y D A Y + ================================ + by Mike Nichols + + + * * * * * * * * + +'Perhaps its just as well that you +won't be here...to be offended by the +sight of our May Day celebrations.' + + --Lord Summerisle to Sgt. Howie + from 'The Wicker Man' + + * * * * * * * * + + There are four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year and the modern +Witch's calendar, as well. The two greatest of these are Halloween (the +beginning of winter) and May Day (the beginning of summer). Being opposite +each other on the wheel of the year, they separate the year into halves. +Halloween (also called Samhain) is the Celtic New Year and is generally +considered the more important of the two, though May Day runs a close second. +Indeed, in some areas -- notably Wales -- it is considered the great holiday. + + May Day ushers in the fifth month of the modern calendar year, the month +of May. This month is named in honor of the goddess Maia, originally a Greek +mountain nymph, later identified as the most beautiful of the Seven Sisters, +the Pleiades. By Zeus, she is also the mother of Hermes, god of magic. Maia's +parents were Atlas and Pleione, a sea nymph. + + The old Celtic name for May Day is Beltane (in its most popular Anglicized +form), which is derived from the Irish Gaelic 'Bealtaine' or the Scottish +Gaelic 'Bealtuinn', meaning 'Bel-fire', the fire of the Celtic god of light +(Bel, Beli or Belinus). He, in turn, may be traced to the Middle Eastern god +Baal. + + Other names for May Day include: Cetsamhain ('opposite Samhain'), +Walpurgisnacht (in Germany), and Roodmas (the medieval Church's name). This +last came from Church Fathers who were hoping to shift the common people's +allegiance from the Maypole (Pagan lingham - symbol of life) to the Holy Rood +(the Cross - Roman instrument of death). + + Incidentally, there is no historical justification for calling May 1st +'Lady Day'. For hundreds of years, that title has been proper to the Vernal +Equinox (approx. March 21st), another holiday sacred to the Great Goddess. The +nontraditional use of 'Lady Day' for May 1st is quite recent (within the last +15 years), and seems to be confined to America, where it has gained widespread +acceptance among certain segments of the Craft population. This rather +startling departure from tradition would seem to indicate an unfamiliarity with +European calendar customs, as well as a lax attitude toward scholarship among +too many Pagans. A simple glance at a dictionary ('Webster's 3rd' or O.E.D.), +encyclopedia ('Benet's'), or standard mythology reference (Jobe's 'Dictionary +of Mythology, Folklore & Symbols') would confirm the correct date for Lady Day +as the Vernal Equinox. + + By Celtic reckoning, the actual Beltane celebration begins on sundown of +the preceding day, April 30, because the Celts always figured their days from +sundown to sundown. And sundown was the proper time for Druids to kindle the +great Bel-fires on the tops of the nearest beacon hill (such as Tara Hill, Co. +Meath, in Ireland). These 'need-fires' had healing properties, and sky-clad +Witches would jump through the flames to ensure protection. + + * * * * * * * * + + Sgt. Howie (shocked): 'But they are naked!' + Lord Summerisle: 'Naturally. It's much too dangerous +to jump through the fire with your clothes on!' + + * * * * * * * * + + Frequently, cattle would be driven between two such bon-fires (oak wood +was the favorite fuel for them) and, on the morrow, they would be taken to +their summer pastures. + + Other May Day customs include: walking the circuit of one's property +('beating the bounds'), repairing fences and boundary markers, processions of +chimney-sweeps and milk maids, archery tournaments, morris dances, sword +dances, feasting, music, drinking, and maidens bathing their faces in the dew +of May morning to retain their youthful beauty. + + In the words of Witchcraft writers Janet and Stewart Farrar, the Beltane +celebration was principly a time of '...unashamed human sexuality and +fertility.' Such associations include the obvious phallic symbolism of the +Maypole and riding the hobby horse. Even a seemingly innocent children's +nursery rhyme, 'Ride a cock horse to Banburry Cross...' retains such memories. +And the next line '...to see a fine Lady on a white horse' is a reference to +the annual ride of 'Lady Godiva' though Coventry. Every year for nearly three +centuries, a sky-clad village maiden (elected Queen of the May) enacted this +Pagan rite, until the Puritans put an end to the custom. + + The Puritans, in fact, reacted with pious horror to most of the May Day +rites, even making Maypoles illegal in 1644. They especially attempted to +suppress the 'greenwood marriages' of young men and women who spent the entire +night in the forest, staying out to greet the May sunrise, and bringing back +boughs of flowers and garlands to decorate the village the next morning. One +angry Puritan wrote that men 'doe use commonly to runne into woodes in the +night time, amongst maidens, to set bowes, in so muche, as I have hearde of +tenne maidens whiche went to set May, and nine of them came home with childe.' +And another Puritan complained that, of the girls who go into the woods, 'not +the least one of them comes home again a virgin.' + + Long after the Christian form of marriage (with its insistence on sexual +monogamy) had replaced the older Pagan handfasting, the rules of strict +fidelity were always relaxed for the May Eve rites. Names such as Robin Hood, +Maid Marian, and Little John played an important part in May Day folklore, +often used as titles for the dramatis personae of the celebrations. And modern +surnames such as Robinson, Hodson, Johnson, and Godkin may attest to some +distant May Eve spent in the woods. + + These wildwood antics have inspired writers such as Kipling: + + Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight, + Or he would call it a sin; + But we have been out in the woods all night, + A-conjuring Summer in! + + And Lerner and Lowe: + + It's May! It's May! + The lusty month of May!... + Those dreary vows that ev'ryone takes, + Ev'ryone breaks. + Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes! + The lusty month of May! + + It is certainly no accident that Queen Guinevere's 'abduction' by +Meliagrance occurs on May 1st when she and the court have gone a-Maying, or +that the usually efficient Queen's Guard, on this occasion, rode unarmed. + + Some of these customs seem virtually identical to the old Roman feast of +flowers, the Floriala, three days of unrestrained sexuality which began at +sundown April 28th and reached a crescendo on May 1st. + + There are other, even older, associations with May 1st in Celtic +mythology. According to the ancient Irish 'Book of Invasions', the first +settler of Ireland, Partholan, arrived on May 1st; and it was on May 1st that +the plague came which destroyed his people. Years later, the Tuatha De Danann +were conquered by the Milesians on May Day. In Welsh myth, the perennial +battle between Gwythur and Gwyn for the love of Creudylad took place each May +Day; and it was on May Eve that Teirnyon lost his colts and found Pryderi. May +Eve was also the occasion of a fearful scream that was heard each year +throughout Wales, one of the three curses of the Coranians lifted by the skill +of Lludd and Llevelys. + + By the way, due to various calendrical changes down through the centuries, +the traditional date of Beltane is not the same as its astrological date. This +date, like all astronomically determined dates, may vary by a day or two +depending on the year. However, it may be calculated easily enough by +determining the date on which the sun is at 15 degrees Taurus (usually around +May 5th). British Witches often refer to this date as Old Beltane, and +folklorists call it Beltane O.S. ('Old Style'). Some Covens prefer to +celebrate on the old date and, at the very least, it gives one options. If a +Coven is operating on 'Pagan Standard Time' and misses May 1st altogether, it +can still throw a viable Beltane bash as long as it's before May 5th. This may +also be a consideration for Covens that need to organize activities around the +week-end. + + This date has long been considered a 'power point' of the Zodiac, and is +symbolized by the Bull, one of the 'tetramorph' figures featured on the Tarot +cards, the World and the Wheel of Fortune. (The other three symbols are the +Lion, the Eagle, and the Spirit.) Astrologers know these four figures as the +symbols of the four 'fixed' signs of the Zodiac (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and +Aquarius), and these naturally align with the four Great Sabbats of Witchcraft. +Christians have adopted the same iconography to represent the four +gospel-writers. + + But for most, it is May 1st that is the great holiday of flowers, +Maypoles, and greenwood frivolity. It is no wonder that, as recently as 1977, +Ian Anderson could pen the following lyrics for Jethro Tull: + + For the May Day is the great day, + Sung along the old straight track. + And those who ancient lines did ley + Will heed this song that calls them back. + + + + + + + +A M I D S U M M E R ' S CELEBRATION +======================================= + by Mike Nichols + + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + The young maid stole through the cottage door, + And blushed as she sought the Plant of pow'r;-- + 'Thou silver glow-worm, O lend me thy light, + I must gather the mystic St. John's wort tonight, + The wonderful herb, whose leaf will decide + If the coming year shall make me a bride. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + + In addition to the four great festivals of the Pagan Celtic year, there are +four lesser holidays as well: the two solstices, and the two equinoxes. In +folklore, these are referred to as the four 'quarter-days' of the year, and +modern Witches call them the four 'Lesser Sabbats', or the four 'Low Holidays'. +The Summer Solstice is one of them. + + Technically, a solstice is an astronomical point and, due to the +procession to the equinox, the date may vary by a few days depending on the +year. The summer solstice occurs when the sun reaches the Tropic of Cancer, +and we experience the longest day and the shortest night of the year. +Astrologers know this as the date on which the sun enters the sign of Cancer. +This year (1988) it will occur at 10:57 pm CDT on June 20th. + + However, since most European peasants were not accomplished at reading an +ephemeris or did not live close enough to Salisbury Plain to trot over to +Stonehenge and sight down its main avenue, they celebrated the event on a fixed +calendar date, June 24th. The slight forward displacement of the traditional +date is the result of multitudinous calendrical changes down through the ages. +It is analogous to the winter solstice celebration, which is astronomically on +or about December 21st, but is celebrated on the traditional date of December +25th, Yule, later adopted by the Christians. + + Again, it must be remembered that the Celts reckoned their days from +sundown to sundown, so the June 24th festivities actually begin on the previous +sundown (our June 23rd). This was Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Eve. Which +brings up another point: our modern calendars are quite misguided in +suggesting that 'summer begins' on the solstice. According to the old folk +calendar, summer BEGINS on May Day and ends on Lammas (August 1st), with the +summer solstice, midway between the two, marking MID-summer. This makes more +logical sense than suggesting that summer begins on the day when the sun's +power begins to wane and the days grow shorter. + + Although our Pagan ancestors probably preferred June 24th (and indeed most +European folk festivals today use this date), the sensibility of modern Witches +seems to prefer the actual solstice point, beginning the celebration on its +eve, or the sunset immediately preceding the solstice point. Again, it gives +modern Pagans a range of dates to choose from with, hopefully, a weekend +embedded in it. + + Just as the Pagan mid-winter celebration of Yule was adopted by Christians +as Christmas (December 25th), so too the Pagan mid-summer celebration was +adopted by them as the feast of John the Baptist (June 24th). Occurring 180 +degrees apart on the wheel of the year, the mid-winter celebration commemorates +the birth of Jesus, while the mid-summer celebration commemorates the birth of +John, the prophet who was born six months before Jesus in order to announce his +arrival. + + Although modern Witches often refer to the holiday by the rather generic +name of Midsummer's Eve, it is more probable that our Pagan ancestors of a few +hundred years ago actually used the Christian name for the holiday, St. John's +Eve. This is evident from the wealth of folklore that surrounds the summer +solstice (i.e. that it is a night especially sacred to the faerie folk) but +which is inevitably ascribed to 'St. John's Eve', with no mention of the sun's +position. It could also be argued that a Coven's claim to antiquity might be +judged by what name it gives the holidays. (Incidentally, the name 'Litha' for +the holiday is a modern usage, possibly based on a Saxon word that means the +opposite of Yule. Still, there is little historical justification for its use +in this context.) But weren't our Pagan ancestors offended by the use of the +name of a Christian saint for a pre-Christian holiday? + + Well, to begin with, their theological sensibilities may not have been as +finely honed as our own. But secondly and more importantly, St. John himself +was often seen as a rather Pagan figure. He was, after all, called 'the Oak +King'. His connection to the wilderness (from whence 'the voice cried out') +was often emphasized by the rustic nature of his shrines. Many statues show +him as a horned figure (as is also the case with Moses). Christian +iconographers mumble embarrassed explanations about 'horns of light', while +modern Pagans giggle and happily refer to such statues as 'Pan the Baptist'. +And to clench matters, many depictions of John actually show him with the lower +torso of a satyr, cloven hooves and all! Obviously, this kind of John the +Baptist is more properly a Jack in the Green! Also obvious is that behind the +medieval conception of St. John lies a distant, shadowy Pagan deity, perhaps +the archetypal Wild Man of the Wood, whose face stares down at us through the +foliate masks that adorn so much church architecture. Thus medieval Pagans may +have had fewer problems adapting than we might suppose. + + In England, it was the ancient custom on St. John's Eve to light large +bonfires after sundown, which served the double purpose of providing light to +the revelers and warding off evil spirits. This was known as 'setting the +watch'. People often jumped through the fires for good luck. In addition to +these fires, the streets were lined with lanterns, and people carried cressets +(pivoted lanterns atop poles) as they wandered from one bonfire to another. +These wandering, garland-bedecked bands were called a 'marching watch'. Often +they were attended by morris dancers, and traditional players dressed as a +unicorn, a dragon, and six hobby-horse riders. Just as May Day was a time to +renew the boundary on one's own property, so Midsummer's Eve was a time to ward +the boundary of the city. + + Customs surrounding St. John's Eve are many and varied. At the very +least, most young folk plan to stay up throughout the whole of this shortest +night. Certain courageous souls might spend the night keeping watch in the +center of a circle of standing stones. To do so would certainly result in +either death, madness, or (hopefully) the power of inspiration to become a +great poet or bard. (This is, by the way, identical to certain incidents in +the first branch of the 'Mabinogion'.) This was also the night when the +serpents of the island would roll themselves into a hissing, writhing ball in +order to engender the 'glain', also called the 'serpent's egg', 'snake stone', +or 'Druid's egg'. Anyone in possession of this hard glass bubble would wield +incredible magical powers. Even Merlyn himself (accompanied by his black dog) +went in search of it, according to one ancient Welsh story. + + Snakes were not the only creatures active on Midsummer's Eve. According +to British faery lore, this night was second only to Halloween for its +importance to the wee folk, who especially enjoyed a ridling on such a fine +summer's night. In order to see them, you had only to gather fern seed at the +stroke of midnight and rub it onto your eyelids. But be sure to carry a little +bit of rue in your pocket, or you might well be 'pixie-led'. Or, failing the +rue, you might simply turn your jacket inside-out, which should keep you from +harm's way. But if even this fails, you must seek out one of the 'ley lines', +the old straight tracks, and stay upon it to your destination. This will keep +you safe from any malevolent power, as will crossing a stream of 'living' +(running) water. + + Other customs included decking the house (especially over the front door) +with birch, fennel, St. John's wort, orpin, and white lilies. Five plants were +thought to have special magical properties on this night: rue, roses, St. +John's wort, vervain and trefoil. Indeed, Midsummer's Eve in Spain is called +the 'Night of the Verbena (Vervain)'. St. John's wort was especially honored +by young maidens who picked it in the hopes of divining a future lover. + + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + And the glow-worm came + With its silvery flame, + And sparkled and shone + Through the night of St. John, + And soon has the young maid her love-knot tied. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + There are also many mythical associations with the summer solstice, not +the least of which concerns the seasonal life of the God of the sun. Inasmuch +as I believe that I have recently discovered certain associations and +correspondences not hitherto realized, I have elected to treat this subject in +some depth in another essay. Suffice it to say here, that I disagree with the +generally accepted idea that the Sun-God meets his death at the summer +solstice. I believe there is good reason to see the Sun-God at his zenith -- +his peak of power -- on this day, and that his death at the hands of his rival +would not occur for another quarter of a year. Material drawn from the Welsh +mythos seems to support this thesis. In Irish mythology, Midsummer is the +occasion of the first battle between the Fir Bolgs and the Tuatha De Danaan. + + Altogether, Midsummer is a favorite holiday for many Witches in that it is +so hospitable to outdoor celebrations. The warm summer night seems to invite +it. And if the celebrants are not in fact skyclad, then you may be fairly +certain that the long ritual robes of winter have yielded place to short, +tunic-style apparel. As with the longer gowns, tradition dictates that one +should wear nothing underneath -- the next best thing to skyclad, to be sure. +(Incidentally, now you know the REAL answer to the old Scottish joke, 'What is +worn underneath the kilt?') + + The two chief icons of the holiday are the spear (symbol of the Sun-God in +his glory) and the summer cauldron (symbol of the Goddess in her bounty). The +precise meaning of these two symbols, which I believe I have recently +discovered, will be explored in the essay on the death of Llew. But it is +interesting to note here that modern Witches often use these same symbols in +the Midsummer rituals. And one occasionally hears the alternative consecration +formula, 'As the spear is to the male, so the cauldron is to the female...' +With these mythic associations, it is no wonder that Midsummer is such a joyous +and magical occasion! + + + L A M M A S: The First Harvest + =============================== + by Mike Nichols + + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + Once upon a Lammas Night + When corn rigs are bonny, + Beneath the Moon's unclouded light, + I held awhile to Annie... + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + + Although in the heat of a Mid-western summer it might be difficult to +discern, the festival of Lammas (Aug 1st) marks the end of summer and the +beginning of fall. The days now grow visibly shorter and by the time we've +reached autumn's end (Oct 31st), we will have run the gamut of temperature from +the heat of August to the cold and (sometimes) snow of November. And in the +midst of it, a perfect Mid-western autumn. + + The history of Lammas is as convoluted as all the rest of the old folk +holidays. It is of course a cross-quarter day, one of the four High Holidays +or Greater Sabbats of Witchcraft, occurring 1/4 of a year after Beltane. It's +true astrological point is 15 degrees Leo, which occurs at 1:18 am CDT, Aug 6th +this year (1988), but tradition has set August 1st as the day Lammas is +typically celebrated. The celebration proper would begin on sundown of the +previous evening, our July 31st, since the Celts reckon their days from sundown +to sundown. + + However, British Witches often refer to the astrological date of Aug 6th as +Old Lammas, and folklorists call it Lammas O.S. ('Old Style'). This date has +long been considered a 'power point' of the Zodiac, and is symbolized by the +Lion, one of the 'tetramorph' figures found on the Tarot cards, the World and +the Wheel of Fortune (the other three figures being the Bull, the Eagle, and +the Spirit). Astrologers know these four figures as the symbols of the four +'fixed' signs of the Zodiac, and these naturally align with the four Great +Sabbats of Witchcraft. Christians have adopted the same iconography to +represent the four gospel-writers. + + 'Lammas' was the medieval Christian name for the holiday and it means +'loaf-mass', for this was the day on which loaves of bread were baked from the +first grain harvest and laid on the church altars as offerings. It was a day +representative of 'first fruits' and early harvest. + + In Irish Gaelic, the feast was referred to as 'Lugnasadh', a feast to +commemorate the funeral games of the Irish sun-god Lugh. However, there is +some confusion on this point. Although at first glance, it may seem that we +are celebrating the death of the Lugh, the god of light does not really die +(mythically) until the autumnal equinox. And indeed, if we read the Irish +myths closer, we discover that it is not Lugh's death that is being celebrated, +but the funeral games which Lugh hosted to commemorate the death of his foster- +mother, Taillte. That is why the Lugnasadh celebrations in Ireland are often +called the 'Tailltean Games'. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + The time went by with careless heed + Between the late and early, + With small persuasion she agreed + To see me through the barley... + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + One common feature of the Games were the 'Tailltean marriages', a rather +informal marriage that lasted for only 'a year and a day' or until next +Lammas. At that time, the couple could decide to continue the arrangement if +it pleased them, or to stand back to back and walk away from one another, thus +bringing the Tailltean marriage to a formal close. Such trial marriages +(obviously related to the Wiccan 'Handfasting') were quite common even into the +1500's, although it was something one 'didn't bother the parish priest about'. +Indeed, such ceremonies were usually solemnized by a poet, bard, or shanachie +(or, it may be guessed, by a priest or priestess of the Old Religion). + + Lammastide was also the traditional time of year for craft festivals. The +medieval guilds would create elaborate displays of their wares, decorating +their shops and themselves in bright colors and ribbons, marching in parades, +and performing strange, ceremonial plays and dances for the entranced +onlookers. The atmosphere must have been quite similar to our modern-day +Renaissance Festivals, such as the one celebrated in near-by Bonner Springs, +Kansas, each fall. + + A ceremonial highlight of such festivals was the 'Catherine wheel'. +Although the Roman Church moved St. Catherine's feast day all around the +calender with bewildering frequency, it's most popular date was Lammas. (They +also kept trying to expel this much-loved saint from the ranks of the blessed +because she was mythical rather than historical, and because her worship gave +rise to the heretical sect known as the Cathari.) At any rate, a large wagon +wheel was taken to the top of a near-by hill, covered with tar, set aflame, and +ceremoniously rolled down the hill. Some mythologists see in this ritual the +remnants of a Pagan rite symbolizing the end of summer, the flaming disk +representing the sun-god in his decline. And just as the sun king has now +reached the autumn of his years, his rival or dark self has just reached +puberty. + + Many commentators have bewailed the fact that traditional Gardnerian and +Alexandrian Books of Shadows say very little about the holiday of Lammas, +stating only that poles should be ridden and a circle dance performed. This +seems strange, for Lammas is a holiday of rich mythic and cultural +associations, providing endless resources for liturgical celebration. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + Corn rigs and barley rigs, + Corn rigs are bonny! + I'll not forget that happy night + Among the rigs with Annie! + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + +[Verse quotations by Robert Burns, as handed down through several Books of +Shadows.] + + + + + + H A R V E S T H O M E + ======================= + by Mike Nichols + + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + There were three men came out of the West, + Their fortunes for to try, + And these three men made a solemn vow, + John Barleycorn must die... + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + + Despite the bad publicity generated by Thomas Tryon's novel, Harvest +Home is the pleasantest of holidays. Admittedly, it does involve the +concept of sacrifice, but one that is symbolic only. The sacrifice is that +of the spirit of vegetation, John Barleycorn. Occurring 1/4 of the year +after Midsummer, Harvest Home represents mid-autumn, autumn's height. It is +also the Autumnal Equinox, one of the quarter days of the year, a Lesser +Sabbat and a Low Holiday in modern Witchcraft. + + Technically, an equinox is an astronomical point and, due to the fact +that the earth wobbles on its axis slightly (rather like a top that's +slowing down), the date may vary by a few days depending on the year. The +autumnal equinox occurs when the sun crosses the equator on it's apparent +journey southward, and we experience a day and a night that are of equal +duration. Up until Harvest Home, the hours of daylight have been greater +than the hours from dusk to dawn. But from now on, the reverse holds true. +Astrologers know this as the date on which the sun enters the sign of Libra, +the Balance (an appropriate symbol of a balanced day and night). This year +(1988) it will occur at 2:29 pm CDT on September 22nd. + + However, since most European peasants were not accomplished at +calculating the exact date of the equinox, they celebrated the event on a +fixed calendar date, September 25th, a holiday the medieval Church +Christianized under the name of 'Michaelmas', the feast of the Archangel +Michael. (One wonders if, at some point, the R.C. Church contemplated +assigning the four quarter days of the year to the four Archangels, just as +they assigned the four cross-quarter days to the four gospel-writers. +Further evidence for this may be seen in the fact that there was a brief +flirtation with calling the Vernal Equinox 'Gabrielmas', ostensibly to +commemorate the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary on Lady Day.) Again, +it must be remembered that the Celts reckoned their days from sundown to +sundown, so the September 25th festivities actually begin on the previous +sundown (our September 24th). + + Although our Pagan ancestors probably celebrated Harvest Home on +September 25th, modern Witches and Pagans, with their desk-top computers for +making finer calculations, seem to prefer the actual equinox point, +beginning the celebration on its eve (this year, sunset on September 21st). + + Mythically, this is the day of the year when the god of light is defeated +by his twin and alter-ego, the god of darkness. It is the time of the year +when night conquers day. And as I have recently shown in my seasonal +reconstruction of the Welsh myth of Blodeuwedd, the Autumnal Equinox is the +only day of the whole year when Llew (light) is vulnerable and it is +possible to defeat him. Llew now stands on the balance (Libra/autumnal +equinox), with one foot on the cauldron (Cancer/summer solstice) and his +other foot on the goat (Capricorn/winter solstice). Thus he is betrayed by +Blodeuwedd, the Virgin (Virgo) and transformed into an Eagle (Scorpio). + + Two things are now likely to occur mythically, in rapid succession. +Having defeated Llew, Goronwy (darkness) now takes over Llew's functions, +both as lover to Blodeuwedd, the Goddess, and as King of our own world. +Although Goronwy, the Horned King, now sits on Llew's throne and begins his +rule immediately, his formal coronation will not be for another six weeks, +occurring at Samhain (Halloween) or the beginning of Winter, when he becomes +the Winter Lord, the Dark King, Lord of Misrule. Goronwy's other function +has more immediate results, however. He mates with the virgin goddess, and +Blodeuwedd conceives, and will give birth -- nine months later (at the +Summer Solstice) -- to Goronwy's son, who is really another incarnation of +himself, the Dark Child. + + Llew's sacrificial death at Harvest Home also identifies him with John +Barleycorn, spirit of the fields. Thus, Llew represents not only the sun's +power, but also the sun's life trapped and crystallized in the corn. Often +this corn spirit was believed to reside most especially in the last sheaf or +shock harvested, which was dressed in fine clothes, or woven into a +wicker-like man-shaped form. This effigy was then cut and carried from the +field, and usually burned, amidst much rejoicing. So one may see Blodeuwedd +and Goronwy in a new guise, not as conspirators who murder their king, but +as kindly farmers who harvest the crop which they had planted and so +lovingly cared for. And yet, anyone who knows the old ballad of John +Barleycorn knows that we have not heard the last of him. + +* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + They let him stand till midsummer's day, + Till he looked both pale and wan, + And little Sir John's grown a long, long beard + And so become a man... +* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + Incidentally, this annual mock sacrifice of a large wicker-work figure +(representing the vegetation spirit) may have been the origin of the +misconception that Druids made human sacrifices. This charge was first made +by Julius Caesar (who may not have had the most unbiased of motives), and +has been re-stated many times since. However, as has often been pointed +out, the only historians besides Caesar who make this accusation are those +who have read Caesar. And in fact, upon reading Caesar's 'Gallic Wars' +closely, one discovers that Caesar never claims to have actually witnessed +such a +sacrifice. Nor does he claim to have talked to anyone else who did. In +fact, there is not one single eyewitness account of a human sacrifice +performed by Druids in all of history! + + Nor is there any archeological evidence to support the charge. If, for +example, human sacrifices had been performed at the same ritual sites year +after year, there would be physical traces. Yet there is not a scrap. Nor +is there any native tradition or history which lends support. In fact, +insular tradition seems to point in the opposite direction. The Druid's +reverence for life was so strict that they refused to lift a sword to defend +themselves when massacred by Roman soldiers on the Isle of Mona. Irish +brehon laws forbade a Druid to touch a weapon, and any soul rash enough to +unsheathe a sword in the presence of a Druid would be executed for such an +outrage! + + Jesse Weston, in her brilliant study of the Four Hallows of British +myth, 'From Ritual to Romance', points out that British folk tradition is, +however, full of MOCK sacrifices. In the case of the wicker-man, such +figures were referred to in very personified terms, dressed in clothes, +addressed by name, etc. In such a religious ritual drama, everybody played +along. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * +* They've hired men with scythes so sharp, + To cut him off at the knee, + They've rolled him and tied him by the waist + Serving him most barbarously... +* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + In the medieval miracle-play tradition of the 'Rise Up, Jock' variety +(performed by troupes of mummers at all the village fairs), a young +harlequin-like king always underwent a mock sacrificial death. But +invariably, the traditional cast of characters included a mysterious +'Doctor' who had learned many secrets while 'travelling in foreign lands'. +The Doctor reaches into his bag of tricks, plies some magical cure, and +presto! the young king rises up hale and whole again, to the cheers of the +crowd. As Weston so sensibly points out, if the young king were ACTUALLY +killed, he couldn't very well rise up again, which is the whole point of the +ritual drama! It is an enactment of the death and resurrection of the +vegetation spirit. And what better time to perform it than at the end of +the harvest season? + + In the rhythm of the year, Harvest Home marks a time of rest after hard +work. The crops are gathered in, and winter is still a month and a half +away! Although the nights are getting cooler, the days are still warm, and +there is something magical in the sunlight, for it seems silvery and +indirect. As we pursue our gentle hobbies of making corn dollies (those +tiny vegetation spirits) and wheat weaving, our attention is suddenly +arrested by the sound of baying from the skies (the 'Hounds of Annwn' +passing?), as lines of geese cut silhouettes across a harvest moon. And we +move closer to the hearth, the longer evening hours giving us time to catch +up on our reading, munching on popcorn balls and caramel apples and sipping +home-brewed mead or ale. What a wonderful time Harvest Home is! And how +lucky we are to live in a part of the country where the season's changes are +so dramatic and +majestic! + +* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + And little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl-- + And he's brandy in the glass, + And little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl + Proved the strongest man at last. +* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + + + + T H E D E A T H O F L L E W + A Seasonal Interpretation + ================================= + by Mike Nichols + + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + Not of father, nor of mother + Was my blood, was my body. + I was spellbound by Gwydion, + Prime enchanter of the Britons, + When he formed me from nine blossoms. + + --'Hanes Blodeuwedd' + R. Graves, trans. + + * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * + + In most Pagan cultures, the sun god is seen as split between two rival +personalities: the god of light and his twin, his 'weird', his 'other self', +the god of darkness. They are Gawain and the Green Knight, Gwyn and Gwythyr, +Llew and Goronwy, Lugh and Balor, Balan and Balin, the Holly King and the Oak +King, etc. Often they are depicted as fighting seasonal battles for the favor +of their goddess/lover, such as Creiddylad or Blodeuwedd, who represents +Nature. + + The god of light is always born at the winter solstice, and his strength +waxes with the lengthening days, until the moment of his greatest power, the +summer solstice, the longest day. And, like a look in a mirror, his 'shadow +self', the lord of darkness, is born at the summer solstice, and his strength +waxes with the lengthening nights until the moment of his greatest power, the +winter solstice, the longest night. + + Indirect evidence supporting this mirror-birth pattern is strongest in the +Christianized form of the Pagan myth. Many writers, from Robert Graves to +Stewart Farrar, have repeatedly pointed out that Jesus was identified with the +Holly King, while John the Baptist was the Oak King. That is why, 'of all the +trees that are in the wood, the Holly tree bears the crown.' If the birth of +Jesus, the 'light of the world', is celebrated at mid-winter, Christian folk +tradition insists that John the Oak King (the 'dark of the world'?) was born +(rather than died) at mid-summer. + + It is at this point that I must diverge from the opinion of Robert Graves +and other writers who have followed him. Graves believes that at midsummer, +the Sun King is slain by his rival, the God of Darkness; just as the God of +Darkness is, in turn, slain by the God of Light at midwinter. And yet, in +Christian folk tradition (derived from the older Pagan strain), it is births, +not deaths, that are associated with the solstices. For the feast of John the +Baptist, this is all the more conspicuous, as it breaks the rules regarding +all other saints. + + John is the ONLY saint in the entire Catholic hagiography whose feast day +is a commemoration of his birth, rather than his death. A generation ago, +Catholic nuns were fond of explaining that a saint is commemorated on the +anniversary of his or her death because it was really a 'birth' into the +Kingdom of Heaven. But John the Baptist, the sole exception, is emphatically +commemorated on the anniversary of his birth into THIS world. Although this +makes no sense viewed from a Christian perspective, it makes perfect poetic +sense from the viewpoint of Pagan symbolism. (John's earlier Pagan +associations are treated in my essay on Midsummer.) + + So if births are associated with the solstices, when do the symbolic +deaths occur? When does Goronwy slay Llew and when does Llew, in his turn, +slay Goronwy? When does darkness conquer light or light conquer darkness? +Obviously (to me, at least), it must be at the two equinoxes. At the autumnal +equinox, the hours of light in the day are eclipsed by the hours of darkness. +At the vernal equinox, the process is reversed. Also, the autumnal equinox, +called 'Harvest Home', is already associated with sacrifice, principally that +of the spirit of grain or vegetation. In this case, the god of light would be +identical. + + In Welsh mythology in particular, there is a startling vindication of the +seasonal placement of the sun god's death, the significance of which occurred +to me in a recent dream, and which I haven't seen elsewhere. Llew is the +Welsh god of light, and his name means 'lion'. (The lion is often the symbol +of a sun god.) He is betrayed by his 'virgin' wife Blodeuwedd, into standing +with one foot on the rim of a cauldron and the other on the back of a goat. +It is only in this way that Llew can be killed, and Blodeuwedd's lover, +Goronwy, Llew's dark self, is hiding nearby with a spear at the ready. But as +Llew is struck with it, he is not killed. He is instead transformed into an +eagle. + + Putting this in the form of a Bardic riddle, it would go something like +this: Who can tell in what season the Lion (Llew), betrayed by the Virgin +(Blodeuwedd), poised on the Balance, is transformed into an Eagle? My readers +who are astrologers are probably already gasping diff --git a/religious documents/secular.txt b/religious documents/secular.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2474087 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/secular.txt @@ -0,0 +1,172 @@ +The Higher Religions (1996) +Emmett F. Fields + + + +I must take issue with Dr. Paul Kurtz and Free Inquiry magazine (Fall +1996) in concluding that Humanism is not a religion. If there were +religious liberty in America the question of the religious status of +Humanism, and the other Higher Religions, would be simply a matter of +personal or academic interest. But as we do not have religious liberty in +America the question of religious status becomes one of great legal and +political importance. The Government will not establish a religion unless +the religion meets certain vague and unconstitutional "guidelines," and +pleases the Government agent(s) responsible for approving religions for +Government establishment. + +Those religions the Government establishes are called "churches," and +those religions the Government refuses to establish are not considered +religions. The method is as old as priestcraft, and as effective as the +Holy Inquisition. For establishment purposes the Government refuses to +consider "non-religion" to be a religion, in spite of the fact that the +Supreme Court has said that non-religion has the same rights as religion. + + EPPERSON v. ARKANSAS. 1968. + "Government in our democracy, state and national, must be neutral in +matters of religious theory, doctrine, and practice. It may not be hostile +to any religion or to the advocacy of no-religion; and may not aid, +foster, or promote one religion or religious theory against another or +even against the militant opposite. The First Amendment mandates +governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between +religion and non-religion." + +The United States Government is not "neutral in matters of religious +theory, doctrine, and practice" -- it establishes and it discriminates. +The Higher Religions cannot hope to successfully compete with the +Government established lower religions, therefore the Higher Religions +must be recognized as religions and must demand an equal establishment. +The alternative is for the U.S. Government to be forced to stop +establishing religions and made to abide by the Constitution. This writer +has a Case pending in Federal Court that challenges to right of the United +States Government to establish religions. + +The errors of reason in the Free Inquiry discussion would seem to support +the Government's contention that the Higher Religions are not religions at +all. + +Free Inquiry makes the assumption that reasonable religious views cannot +be religious. Dr. Kurtz illustrates this mistake in his example: "If Miss +Jones rejects belief in God, never goes to Mass, and claims she is an +atheist, is she also "religious?"." Dr. Kurtz asserts that she is not +religious -- Dr. Kurtz is wrong! Certainly she is religious, she has found +a higher, grander and truer religion than the one she left behind. If Miss +Jones had simply stopped going to Mass because it was too much trouble, +retained her belief in the god assumption because, like most Americans, +she had been indoctrinated to believe the existence of a god is a question +of fact and not of faith; then, perhaps, it might be said that Miss Jones +was "non-religious." + +As most Atheists (always with a capital "A") know, it requires a great +deal of courageous thought and personal anguish for one to escape the +induced obsessional neurosis that passes for religious conviction. To say +that a person who has investigated, thought, suffered and raised his or +her religious views above the lower religions becomes "non-religious" is +ridiculous. + +All Humanists, Atheists, etc., know that the negative sounding +"non-religious" is an improper term that has been applied to those of us +who have found a higher and grander religion than a mere dogmatic or +"supernatural" belief. And it must be pointed out that there is a great +difference between Humanism as a Higher Religion, and Religious Humanism. +The one indicates a belief system that has escaped all ritual and dogma, +while the other indicates that many of these lower traits remain. + +Dr. Kurtz said he used to believe Humanism was a religion, but that he has +now changed his mind. What was the cause of this great change of mind? +From reading the several articles that debated the question of religious +status it seems that this change was brought about more by a political +misunderstanding than by any religious considerations. + +The argument seems to be that if Humanism is not a religion it is +permissible to teach Evolution in the schools. And if Humanism is a +religion that fact would, somehow, affect what is taught in science +classrooms, and cause the destruction of public education by the enactment +of school voucher systems. How absurd! + +Just what is this presumed religious entanglement with science? Science is +a thing apart, it is the servant of neither the lesser, nor of the higher +religions. Science has nothing to do with religion. Science and religion +are different species of things, they neither mate nor live in the same +house. + +If a modern religion finds that science has the best answers to certain +questions of religious importance, and adapts those scientific truths as +part of its religious outlook, that does not, in the least, entangle +science and religion. Science goes on its merry way of finding facts and +cares nothing about those religions that agree, or disagree, with its +empirical findings. Why then, should there be any objection to teaching +scientific facts and theries in schools simply because some religions have +had the good sense to adapt certain scientific facts into their religious +belief system? + +Science becomes corrupted and entangled with religion only when a powerful +and unscrupulous religious force presumes to forcefully pervert science +with dogmatic religious assumptions. One example of such religious +perversion of science is "Scientific Creationism." Such corrupted science +is not science at all, but simply dishonest religion. + +In the Free Inquiry debate Mr. David A. Noebel rightly states that +Humanism is a religion, then he makes the amazing statement that; "The +religion of Secular Humanism is the only worldview allowed in the public +schools. All other competing worldviews have been declared illegal by the +U.S. Supreme Court and effectively eliminated bit by bit -- 1962 (prayer), +1963 (the Bible), 1980 (Ten Commandments), and 1987 (God)." + +All the things that were removed from the Public Schools were sectarian +religious views of the Christian belief. Christians should be ashamed for +having forced their beliefs into our public schools and upon non-Christian +children -- the Higher Religions do not do that. + +And "worldview" Mr. Noebel? We do not send our children to school to learn +someone's "worldview;" yours, mine or any. We send children to school, and +pay great amounts for College, to EDUCATE our children. Schools are to +teach what mankind knows, not what this or that "worldview" might believe. +The lesser religions are so powerful that the facts of history, science, +philosophy, etc., that disprove, or seem to disprove, their religious +assumptions are simply not taught, or taught in such a way that they seem +not to contradict the ancient mistakes. We do not need more money to make +our schools better, we need less "worldview." + +If we are to judge what is and what is not religion we must ask if +Christianity and other lower religions are really religions. If a +religious system has lost its myths and fables to the advance of science +and human knowledge, is it still a religion? Or is it simply an entrenched +power structure that corrupts science, changes historic facts, retards +human progress and interferes in world affairs for its own survival, +power, and profit? Is there a troubled spot in the world today that is not +caused by a difference of religion -- a conflict between the various sects +and factions within, or among, the lower religions? + +The Higher Religions, such as Humanism, are in every way religions because +they address every aspect of the religion problem. The very first clause +of the First Amendment clearly states that "Congress shall make no law +respecting an establishment of religion . . ." In law that part of the +First Amendment is known as the Establishment Clause; and the remainder of +the statement; "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" is known as the +Free Exercise Clause. The Supreme Court has said that the Establishment +Clause is absolute. + + ZORACH v. CLAUSON; 1952. + "There cannot be the slightest doubt that the First Amendment reflects +the philosophy that Church and State should be separated. And so far as +interference with the "free exercise" of religion and an "establishment" +of religion are concerned, the separation must be complete and +unequivocal. The First Amendment within the scope of its coverage permits +no exception; the prohibition is absolute." + +While the Constitution clearly states that Congress shall make no law +respecting an establishment of religion, the United States Government has +enacted and enforces rules that establish preferred religions, and +discriminates against those religions the Government refuses to establish. +Government establishment of any religion(s) is a flagrant affront to the +Establishment Clause. + +For establishment purposes the U.S. Government pretends the Higher +Religions are not religions at all, and thus cannot share the special +benefits and immunities showered upon the lower religions through +Government establishment and favors. Government establishment of the lower +religions has preserved dead religions and allowed them to become +religio/political powers that are a great danger to this nation. Therefore +what is, and what is not, a religion is no longer a simple academic +question, it has broad political ramifications and threatens the very +foundations of the United States as a free Nation and as a world leader. diff --git a/religious documents/seeker.txt b/religious documents/seeker.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32be12d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/seeker.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +The Tale Of The Seeker And The Crone + + The seeker had traveled many miles to a temple high in the Western mountains. There in the outer courtyard of a magnificent castle and temple, sat a crone clad in a black cloak of her years. The seeker approached the crone cautiously and asked the Old Mother, that since the Seeker had traveled far to study, if she would tell the Seeker how to gain entrance. + + The Old Crone, never looking up at the seeker, simply said that the Seeker had three questions to ask. If the three questions were correct, the new student would enter. If incorrect, the Seeker must go elsewhere. + + The Seeker protested and spoke of being tired and hungry, that the Seeker needed to sleep and be fed but the Wise Woman cut short the Seeker's protest and asked for the first question or the Seeker's departure. + + The Seeker sat quietly for a moment, thinking and then asked the Wise Crone what the three best questions to ask would be. The Great Lady noted the Seeker's first question and explained the three best questions to ask, which were, "What is the Old Lady's theology", so the Seeker would know her belief and theology would be that of the Seeker's. The second question to ask would be of the responsibility of both the Seeker and the Crone to each other so the Seeker would know well the bargain to be made. The Wise Lady explained of promises and their repercussions on future lives and that their would be a price for everything but Her love. To avoid spending a life in illusion the Wise One told the Seeker to ask how the Seeker would know if the Seeker had been called and that not all were called this lifetime into service. The Crone now asked the Seeker for the second question. + + The Seeker asked the Crone what the answers to these questions were. The Elder Mother then told of the beliefs of the temple. She told the Seeker the outer name of the Lord and Lady. She told of the rites and the reasons for them. + + As day passed into night, robed figures came into the courtyard and lit the fires in the four corners to dispel the darkness and chill. As the moon crested the horizon the Crone began to answer the second question. She told of all the blessings of the High Ones and of all they have given unto us and all that they asked in return. + + They spoke the entire night into dawn that came and banished the darkness. The Crone, weary from the night's adventure removed the hood of her cloak and look into the Seeker's eyes for the first time and told the Seeker that only the inner Self knows if it came to the temple to run away from a world that had battered it or because all the world was there. The Wise Lady then asked for the third question. + + "Mother, I have tried many false paths in search for the entrance to this temple and I have heard all that you have said. I am tired and hungry for all that you have to offer yet I fear that it is too much for me to learn but Wise Mother may I come in and try?", the Seeker asked the Crone. "Come, Seeker, we shall learn together." diff --git a/religious documents/seidhr.txt b/religious documents/seidhr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7558695 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/seidhr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,156 @@ + +In response to the several letters I received requesting a more +complete bibliography of materials related to seidhr or Old Norse +magic/shamanism, I am posting this list of the materials I have +come in contact with that are pertinent. Articles which I have +examined personally are annotated, below. Other articles are those +which I have had recommended to me but which I haven't personally +read yet. + +I hope that this list serves to provoke discussion of seidhr and +the the experiences that others have had while exploring this +spiritual/magical practice! + +::GUNNORA:: + +GROUPS DEVELOPING SEIDHR TRADITIONS + +HRAFNIR, The Fellowship of the Spiral Path +P.O. Box 5521 +Berkeley, CA 94705 +[I've written this group, but so far received no reply] + +SEIDHR + +Dumezil, Georges. From Myth to Fiction. Chicago: U of Chicago P. + 1973. + [Brief discussion of seidhr in chapter 2.] + +Ellis-Davidson, Hilda Roderick. "Hostile Magic in the Icelandic + Sagas." in The Witch Figure: Folklore Essays by a Group of + Scholars Honouring the 75th Birthday of Katherine M. Briggs. + ed. Venetia Newall. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1973. pp. + 20-41. + [Excellent paper, as usual with this noted author. Ellis- + Davidson reviews the saga materials dealing with seidhr, + methods of magic-working and the shamanic/trance complex. In + part examines information from Dag Stromback's seminal work + on the topic.] + +Simpson, Jacqueline. "Olaf Tryggvason versus the Powers of + Darkness," in The Witch Figure: Folklore Essays by a Group of + Scholars Honouring the 75th Birthday of Katherine M. Briggs. + ed. Venetia Newall. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1973. pp. + 165-187. + [Discusses seidhr at the time of the Conversion to + Christianity, especially the hositle Christian response to + seidhr and its practitioners.] + +Stromback, Dag. Sejd: Textstudier i Nordisk Religionshistoria. + Stockholm: Hugo Gebers Forlag. 1935. + [This is the definitive work on seidhr. Unfortunately for most + of us here in America, it is written in Swedish. I am in the + process of laboriously translating the work, and so far am + midway through the very long first chapter which is concerned + with source criticism. The latter chapters are supposed to + discuss seidhr and Lappish shamanism. If there is anyone out + there who knows of a translation, or who is willing to + translate this monograph into English, I would very much + appreciate it if you would get in contact with me!] + +SEIDHR-RELATED TOPICS + +Adhalsteinsson, Jon Hnefill. Under the Cloak. Uppsala: Acta + Universitatis Uppsaliensis. 1978. + [The premise of this work is that Thorgeir Lawspeaker's + deliberation beneath his cloak over the issue of the + Conversion in Iceland was a shamanic ecstatic technique. + Methods of ecstatic vision and analogues to this type of + divinatory action are discussed.] + +Allen, W.E.D. The Poet and the Spae-Wife: An Attempt to Reconstruct + Al-Ghazal's Embassy to the Vikings. London: Viking Society for + Northern Research. 1960. + [Interesting as it deals with a woman who ruled as queen over + the Vikings of Ireland, practicing some sort of magic and + prophesying from the very altar of a captured church in + Clonmacnois.] + +Buchholz, Peter. "Shamanism - the Testimony of the Old Icelandic + Literary Tradition." Mediaeval Scandinavia 4 (1971): 7-20. + [Provides a very nice overview of the shamanic elements of + magic presented in the sagas. This article is most useful if + one is able to follow the long passages quoted from German + authors in the original.] + +Grimm, Jacob. Teutonic Mythology. New York: Dover. ?? + [This is the classic work on "everything you ever wanted to + know about Germanic religion/myth/folk practice." Of interest + with regards to seidhr are I:13 (Goddesses), I:16 (Wise + Women), III:34 (Magic) and III:35 (Superstition).] + +Hand, Wayland. "Witch Riding and Other Demonic Assault in American + Folk Legend." in Probleme der Sagenforschung. ed. Lutz + Rohrich. Frieburg im Breisgau: Deutsche + Forschungsgemeinschaft. 1973. pp. 165-76. + +Hufford, David J. The Terror that Comes in the Night: an + Experience-Cetered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions. + Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P. 1982. + [Relevant as seidhr contained a strong thread of "hag-riding, + witch-riding" or being "trampled by the nightmare." Examines + evidence from the Appalachian regions and comparative data + from other locations.] + +Jochens, Jenny. "Voluspa: Matrix of Norse Womanhood." JEGP 88:3 + (July 1989): 344-362. + +Karsten, Rafael. The Religion of the Samek: Ancient Beliefs and + Cults of the Scandinavian and Finnish Lapps. Leiden, + Netherlands: E.J. Brill. 1955. + [Excellent work on the shamanic/ecstatic religions of the + North. Important to the study of seidhr if the speculation + that seidhr had its roots in Finnish and/or Lapplandic + practices is correct.] + +Simpson, Jacqueline. "Some Scandinavian Sacrifices." Folklore (78 + (1967): 190-202. + +Steffenson, Jon. "Aspects of Life in iceland in the Heathen + Period." Saga-Book of the Viking Soceity 17:2-3 (1967-8). + [Contains (among other things) a very interesting discussion + of the role of women in magic and religion.] + +Storms, Godfrid. Anglo-Saxon Magic. The Haugue: Martinus Nijhoff. + 1948. + +HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE VIKINGS + +One of the hallmarks of seidhr was that its very practice somehow +was so strongly associated with the feminine that for a man to +practice it conveyed upon him a perminant taint of "unmanliness." +Even the Chief of the Gods, Odhinn Allfather, was not immune to +taunts about his masculinity due to his having learned seidhr from +Freyja. As a result, examination of materials related to these +taunts may be helpful in understanding the historical framework in +which seidhr was practiced. + +Markey, T. L. "Nordic Nidhvisur: an Instance of Ritual Inversion?" + Studies in Medieval Culture 10 (1977): 75-85. + [A very interesting discussion of the words used in Old Norse + to describe homosexuality and the use of thee words as + insults.] + +Sorenson, Preben M. The Unmanly Man: Concepts of Sexual DEfamation + in Early Northern Society. trans. Joan Turville-Petre. Odense: + Odense U.P. 1983. + [A very thoughtful discussion of the concept of sexual insult + and its relationship to law and the duel. This is currently + still available from the publisher for about $25.00 U.S.] + +Strom, Folke. "Nid, Ergi and Old Norse Moral Attitude." The + Dorothea Coke Memorial Lecture Delivered 10 May 1973 at + Universary Colege, London. London: Viking Society for Northern + Research. 1974. + + diff --git a/religious documents/selena.txt b/religious documents/selena.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd621d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/selena.txt @@ -0,0 +1,361 @@ + *********************************************************************** + * From:THE DRUIDS PROGRESS, Report #7. The DRUIDS PROGRESS is * + * published seminannually (Gods Willing) and is sent primarily to * + * the subscribing members of ADF. For Further information write: * + * ADF, PO Box 9420, Newark, DE, USA 19714 (include a SASE). * + * All Items acredited to "the Archdruid" have been written by and * + * are (C) 1990 by P.E.I. Bonewits. All items created by other * + * parties are (C) 1990 by them. All opinions expressed, save those * + * specifically attributed to the Board of Trustees, are the opnions * + * of the individuals expressing them and are Not official ADF * + * policy. * + * Reprint Procedure: Neopagan, Druidic, Midievalist and all * + * cultural publications may reprint any material written by P.E.I. * + * Bonewits, but his copyright notice must appear in full. If more * + * than 250 words are excerpeted, one cent per word should be donated * + * to ADF. * + *********************************************************************** + + + An Open Letter to Selena Fox + + By Isaac Bonewits + + Dear Slena: + + A few months ago I received a mailing from Circle in which you asked +for (a) money to finish paying off the mortgage for the land Circle has +been buying for many eyars, (b) suggestions for fundraising methods, and +(c) "ideas and suggestions" as to how Circle should grow. + + I also read the mailings put out earlier this year by the "revolutionary" +members of Circle, including the transcript of the meeting between them, +yourself, and your lawyer. Confused, puzzled, and pained, I talked to you +and to your supporters and opponents, including former workers at your +headquaters. The more I learned, the more disturbed I became. + + Apparently, you are an intensely private person and have always resented +people looking at what you consider your personal buisness. Yet my concern +for Circle is not gossip, nor is it (as you put it to me) "Sticking my +nose where it doesn't belong." Circle is large, international, and has +served a unique networking function in our community. If you don't know by +now that what happens to you matters to us all, and that you have become a +"public figure" in our community, then you've seriously underestimated your +own importance. + + For many, many Neopagans, Circle was a doorway to the Goddess and to Her +people. Our community would be considerably smaller if it hadn't been for +the work that Circle did for so many years. That you have been one of the +most widely respected, loved, and trusted leaders in the Neopagan community, +makes this letter especially painful to write. + + Circle was one of the first groups to buy land for Neopagan use. For +years I championed your cause, both because I felt that land purchases were +an inevitable evolutionary step for our community and because of the +undeniably good work you had done as a networking organization. I recommended +you to correspondents who wanted contacts and pointed you out as an example +of a Neopagan group that had obtained real estate without getting corrupted. + + I no longer feel that I can support you or Circle, or advise others to do +so. The change in my attitude has come about slowly, over a period of +several eyars, with recent events crystallizing my perceptions. Things add +up... + + After years of correctly telling folks at gatherings not to take +photographs of people without their permission, especially during rituals, +you still run around during ceremonies (ignoring the spiritual energies +being raised and focussed), or even at skyclad bonfire dances, snapping +pictures for your slide collection and Circle Network News. Some of those +slides have been shown to strangers all around the country, other photos +were published in C.N.N. and even in non-Pagan publications - at least some +without the consent of the people depicted. This is only one example of an +apparentlky pervasive attitude you seem to have that the rules you impose +on others simply don't apply to yourself. + + Other examples : After refusing to pay the expenses of other Neopagan +teachers to attend and speak at Circle's well-financed events, you demand +red-carpet treatment for yourself and your husband to attend and present +workshops at events held by others. Despite being constantly recommended +by other Neopagan individuals and organizations, you seldom recommend any +teacher or group other than yuorself and Circle. After building the "Church +of Circle Wicca" as one of the most famous Wiccan churches in the world, +you unilaterally decided this year to drop "the W Word" - a position I +tend to support for teh community at large, but one whihc seems to leave +your thousands of Wiccan members without a voice. You then attempt to declare +a copyright on the wide-spread concept of Nature mysticism. + + Circle has a reputation as an all-inclusive Neopagan networking +organization, yet former Circle workers agree that, for at least five years, +you discouraged them from giving networking contacts to inquirers, instead +having them sell the Circle Guide To Pagan Groups and ads in C.N.N. Apparently +this was originally because doing referrals took too much time out of the +limited number of volunteer-hours you had available, yet you never announced +to the community that you had stopped providing local Neopagan contacts, or +what you had decided was a higher priority. Worse, after a loud argument +with one of Circle's critics, you censored his organization's listings out +of the 1990 Guide. Even if this was done with his consent (as one witness +claims), it was grossly inappropriate for a reference work that many people +believe to be a complete listing of Neopagan resources. + + You bought Circle Sanctuary with donations sent by thousands of Neopagans, +originally claiming that it would be open and available for general use by +the community, and then fenced it about with so many restrictions that it +has become essentially your private property. A half-dozen ex-workers at +Circle agreed that it was nearly impossible for ordinary Neopagans to visit +"their" sanctuary for religious purposes without providing money and/or +free labor to you at the same time. Amazingly enough, one couple on the +West Coast claims that after donating over $5,000 to Circle they were refused +permission to visit the land because they had a small child with them! + + Circle's by-laws have never been published, so no one knows for sure who +is or isn't a "member" of Circle for voting purposes, nor how your Board of +Directors gets elected. You told me that there have been and are other +members of your Board of Directors (besides yourself, your husband Dennis and +your lawyer), but declined to give me the current names. You opponents tell +me that this "secret Board of Directors" is a story you've told for years, +but I was able to verify the names of two people who have been Directors in +the past. Apparently you policy is simply to have the Board consist of you, +your spouse (first Jim and now Dennis) and one other person - a handy way +to make sure that you retain majority control. + + There are also legitimate questions about the enormous sums of money that +have flowed through your hands over the years. I have bveen informed by +extremely reliable sources, that you have used one of Circle's checking +accounts as a personal one, that normal financial books don't exist and +nevr have, that Dennis' education has been paid for in part out of Circle's +general funds, and that he forbid workers at your headquaters to open the mail +because they ahd been asking questions about incoming bank statements. Futher, +Dennis has been quoted mentioning a secret fund that would provide for your +personal survival, should Circle ever fold. + + When I brought some of these allegations up to you in our conversation, +you denied a few of them directly and evaded responding to others. As an +investigative journalist and a concerned member of the Neopagan Community, +I have no way of knowing how many of these very serious accussations against +you may be true - but without published financial reports, neither does +anybody else! Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been donated to Circle +over the years, yet no one seems to know where it has all gone, and +you're not saying. You told me that neither federal nor Wisconsin law +requires you to file or publish financial reports. Yet hadn't it ever +occurred to you that sooner or later the people who had been giving you +all that money would want to know what you had done with it - and that they +would have a moral right to know? + + When the broken-hearted people who thought they were members of Circle +tried to confront you over these issues of power and accountability, your +response was to bring in a lawyer who reacted to all criticism and questioning +with threatened lawsuits. At that meeting you danced around the issues that +people brought up, never giving a straight answer to any question. Instead +you focussed on your anger towards those who had used Circle' mailing list +to share their fears and concerns. Your comments on all of this in Circle +Network News omitted most of teh serious criticism that had been laid against +you and Circle, and implied that nothing negative was happening. Your phone +conversation with me consisted of a few direct denials, dozens of evasions, +efforts to pump me for my sources, and repeated threats of unspecified legal +and other troubles for me and ADF if I persisted in my plans to publish the +results of my investigation. + + This behavior is not what we expect from a world-famous Neopagan +organization run by someone many consider to be a Neopagan saint. What has +gone wrong? I am inevitably reminded of the scandals surrounding the P.T.L. +organization and the fact that no Christian leader was willing to criticize +the Bakkers until after the media exposed them. The scandal almost destroyed +the entire field of televangelism. That might seem good to Neopagans, but +now the shoes are on our feet. + + Now it's one of our leaders who seems to behaving in an unethical and +irresponsible manner. What should we do, Selena? Should we all be silent +and pretend that nothing is wrong, while we hope for your probles to go +away by themselves? Should we wait until Circle blows up in our faces, +strengthening the biases of those who are opposed to the very idea of large +public Neopagan churches? Should we wait until you are investigated by +hostile outside forces, making it infinately harder for other Neopagans to +get fair treatment - and no doubt leading to yet another fundraising +campaign to protect you from "anti-Pagan persecution"? Most importantly, +would such inaction on our part benefit the community or the Earth? + + I'm not saying that ADF and I are perfect in regard to all these issues. +ADF's finances were confused for several years, first because I was paying +out of my own pocket for most of our expenses (and seldom kept receipts), +and later because our bookkeeper was an inexperienced volunteer (now we have +a professional accountant on the Board). We have not always delivered on +time the products or publications that we promised our members. But, by the +Gods, when we have made mistakes, we have admitted it. We publish our +by-laws so that all our members know the rules to our game, we print +financial statements to let our members know how their money is spent, and +we make available the minutes from our Board meetings so everyone will know +how and why decisions are made. When our members have offered legitimate +complaints about how we have handled things, we have listened carefully +and then tried to respond appropriately. + + I will admit to some envy of you and Circle. When I think of all the +good that might have been accomplished by ADF (or by any of a dozen other +public Neopagan churches) is we had had one-half of your income, I get both +sad and angry. I've spent my entire adult life, as have other Neopagan +leaders, living far below the economic level that my skills could earn me, +suriving on an income less than that of most members of the Neopagan community +just so I could devote myself to the work I believe the Gods want me to do. +It infuriates me to see enough money flowing into Circle to staff three +Neopagan Churches with full-time clergy, vanishing into fairyland without +a trace. Of course it's obvious, to everyone who knows you, that you and +Dennis are not living luxuriously. This makes the vanishing money all the +more puzzling. + + I realize that you are not going to appreciate my criticism and that I am +now on your enemies list for the rest of my life. It doesn't matter. I would +be betraying both the Earth Mother and my own principles if I didn't speak +out before matters get even worse. + + You have publically asked for suggestions as to how Circle should grow. +You've said that you want to put the past behind you and concentrate, as +always, on "positive energies." OK, here are some positive steps you and +Circle should take: + + Start by admitting, in your own publications, so that all your followers +will hear you, that Circle has made some serious mistakes and that you are +a fallible human being. + + Adopt and publish a set of by-laws that lets people know who the members +of Circle are, and what voting rights, if any, they may have. + + Put several more people on your Board of Directors and publish their +names, and let us all know how and why they got there. They don't all have +to be in your local area - telephone conference calls work just fine for +Board meetings. + + If you haven't already done so, open a seperate personal checking account +for yourself and your husband. Have someone other than you or Dennis write +the checks for Circle. If you've both taken vows of poverty to the church +and are therefore entitled to be supported by it, say so. Hire a full time +bookkeeper (you can afford the wages), and publish annual financial reports. +Hire a C.P.A. to run an inventory on all Circle's property and publish the +results. Publish the details on all the land payments you have made and how +much is still owed. + + Design, publish and implement a training program for you clergy so that +someone other than you and Dennis can be leaders someday. Make sure that +you both genuinely qualify under the training system standards yourselves. + + If you're going to continue to present Circle as a networking organization, +put all your names and addresses into a database, add confidentiality +safeguards as requested, update the list frequently, and share this data with +those who write in and request it. Otherwise you should announce to the +community that you aren't doing referrals anymore, and why. + + Publish a detailed explanation of your policies for controlling access +to the Circle Sanctuary so that people who have donated money will know +under what circumstances they may use the land they have paid for. + + Except for the last point, these are all things that we in ADF have done +or are now trying to do. Many other Neopagan groups have done some of them. +They are normal for most mainstream churches, large and small. Your local +Unitarian Universalist congregation can probably give you advice on the +details. Or you could ask the folks at any of a dozen other large Neopagan +groups, most of whom have been doing these sort of things for years. + + When I talked to you on the phone, you said that you were planning on +publishing by-laws and financial reports, and making other major changes, +before the end of the year. You said that turning 40 (as I did last year) +and other brushes with mortality had turned your thoughts towards setting up +Circle to run without you. Yet I find it hard to believe you will take the +necessary steps without the glare of a community spotlight being focused +on you - hence this open letter. If you can prove me wrong and make all the +organizational changes that are necessary to turn Circle into something we +can all be proud of again, I will be delighted. + + Perhaps more important than these organizational steps, you might consider +taking a sabatical for a year or two, turning Circle over to someone you +still trust. You need to get back in touch with the ideals that brought you +to Neopaganism in the first place. + + But don't expect people in the Neopagan community to continue to send you +hundreds of thousands of dollars until you have proven beyond a reasonable +doubt that Circle is open, honest, democratic, and financially responsible. + + --- Isaac + +A PS TO MY FELLOW NEOPAGANS: + + I'm sure that the preceeding opinions have shocked and offended many of +you, especially those of you who love Selena. It is only after much +meditation and pain that I have decided to publish this letter as widely +as possible in the Neopagan community. We need to discuss the issues in +depth, both to help heal Circle and to prevent such trouble from happening +again to other groups. Perhaps we need to develop a detailed code of ethics +for running the increasing number of public Neopagan churches. Perhaps we +need a fair and practical listing of what sort of behavior we expect from +our leaders - as part of a "Neopagan Common Law." + + I hope that you will meditate upon the issues and discuss them with your +friends. Ask the leaders of any other large Neopagan group you may belong +to whether they have taken steps similar to those I have suggested to +Selena. Send your thoughts to Slena at Circle, PO Box 219, Mt. Horeb, WI +53572. Send a copy to me at PO Box 9420, Newark DE 19714, marked "Circle +Controversy." We will publish a fair representation of the responses in the +next issue of D.P., along wth any reply that Selena may care to make. + + Please don't respond to this open letter by criticizing me or A.D.F. As +I have admitted many times in the past, I have feet of clay going up to my +waist, have a gigantic ego, and have made many mistakes in running ADF and +other Neopagan organizations over the years. My virtues or vices are not +relevant to the situation at Circle, nor is my rudeness in pointing out +matters in public that many would prefer to keep private. + + Circle's current problems represnt an inevitable growth stage, not just +for itself and Selena, but for the community as a whole. As our population +soars, we are faced with important questions about power, accountability, +and ethics. Whether or nor Selena is willing to honestly and openly +address the issues, it's about time that the rest of us started thrashing them +out. Perhaps after discussing this with your friends, you may want to make +some changes in your own groups. Indeed, the situation at Circle has already +sparked some major policy revisions and new by-laws for ADF and other +Neopagan churches as well. + + I'm definately not saying that Neopagans should stop giving money to our +growing number of public Neopagan churches. After all, large scale activities +do require large scale resources. What I am suggesting is that we boycott +groups who ask for large donations (or small ones constantly), until we see +their by-laws, financial reports, and minutes of their board meetings. This +is the simple sort of common sense that any consumer advocate would advise. +If we're going to give financial, emotional, political, or magical support +to a group, let's make sure that it's being run in a publically accessible, +honest, and responsible manner. Otherwise, we're no wiser than the folks who +kept the Bakkers in buisness for so long. + + Let's all pay careful attention to Selena's response to this open letter. +Will she send out a mass mailing telling her followers that everything is +fine and to "think positive"? Will she try to sue me for daring to voice +concerns held by many? Will she publish negative gossip about me (theres +plenty available) in an attempt to discredit my criticism and avoid +answering my questions? WIll she simply ignore this letter, knowing that +the vast majority of her support comes from new members of the community +who will not have read it? Or will she deal forthrightly with the issues +involved and open Circle up to democratic participation by its members? +Only time will tell. + + On a personal note, I'd like to ask the members of the Neopagan community +to stop expecting our leaders, national or local, to be infallible, +impeccable, infinately strong, Neopagan Saints. Almost all of us come from +dysfunctional families, are survivors of various forms of abuse, and/or +have had problems with addiction, obsession, or eating disorders. We are +all subject to depression and professional burnout. This is the same profile +shared by clergy in other religions and people in other helping professions. +As leaders, we need your support (Finnancial, emotional and spiritual). We +also need your commpassionate and thoughtful criticism to warn us when we +start to go off the deep end. Hubris, the overwhelming pride that offends +the Gods, can be caused by uncritical folowers as easily as by our own egos, +with disasterous results for the whole community. + + As Selena has Shown Us. + + #30# + + [This open letter and PS are (C) 1990 by Isaac Bonewits, and were first +published in THE DRIUDS PROGRESS #7 (FALL '90). The Opinions expressed are +those of the author only and do not necessarily represent those of ADF, Inc. +nor of any other organization. Permission to reprint is hereby granted to +all Neopagan media, if no editing is done and this notice is included] + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/selfbles.txt b/religious documents/selfbles.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5ec42a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/selfbles.txt @@ -0,0 +1,156 @@ +This ritual of self-blessing has been around for many years - +originally published by the Pagan Way. This version is taken from +Amber Wolfe's "In the Shadow of the Shaman" because it is not as +Goddess oriented. + +This version can be used by anyone, regardless of +religious principle, because it is easily adapted with the name of +your own diety. The important thing is that you are calling on your +highest spiritual force to witness your life/problems, and in calling +attention to yourself, you are begining to take charge and deal with +the problems. There is a very real, very deep power in this ritual, +no matter how simply or elaborately it is performed, and it should +never be performed in fun or for show. Use it whenever the need is +great - any moon phase is permissible, although it was originally +intended to be used at the waxing moon. It will embue the celebrant +with a sense of calm connectedness and peace. + +What follows is the text as Amber Wolfe has written it. Balance and +blessings. -=Satinka +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= + +Ritual of Self-Blessing + +You will need + + a small votive candle and holder (white is always good, but use + color if you feel called to do that) + an incense stick, cone, or herbs (such as sage or thyme) to burn + a small container of water + a small container of salt + +I find that a sugar and creamer set works very well for this. These +can be purchased quite reasonably and set aside just for this use. + +This is a ritual which connects you to the deepest levels of healing. +It also connects you to the four elements and their energies. In this +way it is most helpful for dealing with the shamanic elemental +energies of Nature. + +The candle represents the element of Fire +The incense or herbs represent Air +The container of water is Water +The container of salt is Earth. + +Beyond that, these elements reflect your own needs. + +The element of Fire reflects your relationships, protection, ideas and +achievements. + +The element of Air reflects your creativity, spirituality, inspiration +and philosophies. + +The element of Water reflects your emotions, intuition, dream states, +psychic gifts, and healing balance. + +The element of Earth reflects your practicality, knowledge, sacred +wisdom, and growth. + +Find a quiet time and place where you will not be disturbed. You may +make this as ceremonial or as informal as you choose. + +Light the incense and take a few moments to consider the element of +Air. Consider the gifts that Air reflects in you. + +Light the candle and take a few moments to consider the element of +Fire. Consider the gifts that Fire reflects in you. + +Take a few moments to consider the element of water and how it +reflects in you. + +Take a few moments to consider the element of Earth and how it +reflects in you. + +Very gently, pour the water into the container of salt. If you are +using herbs as an incense, you may sprinkle a few in the water and +salt mixture. + +Stir the salt and water with your fingers. Consider the blending of +elements that creates life itself. Consider the balance of elements +and their attributes in your life. Take a few moments to do this. + +Facing the candle, dip your fingers in the water mixture and touch +your forehead (3rd eye area). + +Say: "Bless me Mother, for I am your child." (The original was +written for the Goddess as Mother. Another diety name can be +substituted here, or simply say "Spirit.") + +Now dip your fingers in the water mixture and touch the area around +your eyes carefully. + +Say: "Bless my eyes that I may see you." + +Dip again and touch your nose. + +Say: "Bless my nose that I may breathe your essence." + +Dip again and touch your ears. + +Say: "Bless my ears that I may hear your wisdom." + +Dip again and touch your mouth. + +Say: "Bless my mouth that I may speak your name." + +Dip again and touch your heart. + +Say: "Bless my heart that I may feel your love." + +Dip again and touch your lower abdomen. + +Say: "Bless my cauldron center that I may create harmony." + +Dip again and touch your feet. + +Say: "Bless my feet that I may walk in balance." + +Dip again and rub your hands together. + +Say: "Bless my hands that I may share your healing in my work." + +Take all the time you need to concentrate on the elements before you. +Focus your attention on the candle and visualize healing light flowing +into you. Feel strength emerging from deep inside yourself. Breathe +deeply and capture that moment. Connect with the source of strength +and healing. + +When you feel you are finished, blow out the candle. I often save +these candles just for this ritual of self-blessing. If I am +extremely pressed for time, I simply light the candle and take a few +moments to connect with the energy of the ritual. + +It is good to leave the incense burning if you can. Air is a +communicating element, and smoke is transformation. The incense +carries the messages of healing and strength to Spirit. If you have +used herbs, it is good to return the ashes to Nature. In this way, you +are grounding the energy, bringing the message and the transformation +to earth. Make sure the ashes are cold; then place them at the roots +of a tree or bush if possible. If not, place them in soil or sand. + +The salt and water mixture can be used very effectively in several +ways. You may wash your gemstones or other stones in this. Crystals +love this, since their energy is so personally connected to yours. + +You may save the mixture and dab a little on your third-eye area every +day for a few days, as a reminder. You may pour the mixture into your +bath for a gentle energizer. When the bathwater drains, visualize a +connection between yourself and the energies of Mother Ocean. You may +return the mixture to earth by pouring it on soil or sand. Remember, +plants don't thrive in salt; so keep the mixture clear of plants. You +may sprinkle the mixture throughout your house to seal in positive +energies and protection. + + =+=+=+=+=+= + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/selfhypn.txt b/religious documents/selfhypn.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..722fa6f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/selfhypn.txt @@ -0,0 +1,172 @@ + + + +PROGRESSIVE RELAXATION and SELF-HYPNOSIS + +Introduction: + + I'm Dr. Len Bewersdorf, a psychotherapist and clinical +hypnotist in private practice in the Chicago suburbs. The +purpose of this information is to: + + 1. provide you with directions and suggestions sufficient to +let you experience a feeling of physical relaxation and, if you +wish, a period of self-induced hypnotic trance, + + 2. give you information about hypnosis that you may find +encourages you to learn more about this natural, easy way to +"tap" into more of your own personal resources, and + + 3. encourage you to give me feedback about your experiences +when you used this guide. + + ---------------------- + + +You don't need to do anything special...just sit where you are, +with both feet on the floor. If your chair has a headrest, so +much the better -- it's not necessary, however. + +Most of us don't breathe...that is, we don't breathe in a way +that promotes relaxation and tension reduction. Since I've made +you conscious of your breathing, you're probably making a liar +out of me right now! That's allright...just keep breathing +deeply and slowly...if you physically push your stomach out a +little as you breathe in...you'll find your breathing will be +deeper and more relaxing.... + +Now...you can continue breathing this way...slowly and +deeply...without really needing to think about it...and as you +do, you can pay attention to how tight or tense your shoulder and +upper back muscles are...and...just by thinking about them...you +can let them soften and relax a little...and you'll notice that +your breathing has continued just as before...and...as you let +your shoulders relax...your arms will also feel more relaxed and +you can also pay attention to your jaw...it may be clenched or +tight...but you can just let this ease a bit so that it feels +relaxed and loose... + +Soon...you may find more of your body relaxing and as it +does...your eyelids may feel a little heavy as they relax +too...so before you experience much more of that...read the bold +print...then close your eyes and say it to yourself...then slowly +open your eyes and read the next directions etc. + + + +OK, read this, close your eyes, say it to yourself...then open +them... + +I CAN CONTINUE BREATHING DEEPLY AND SLOWLY AS MY BODY RELAXES +EVEN MORE.... + + +now....read this and then close your eyes and say it to +yourself.. + +AS I RELAX MORE WITH EACH BREATH I TAKE, MY BODY FEELS HEAVIER + + +take your time...and do the same with this... + +SOON I MAY DECIDE TO CLOSE MY EYES FOR A FEW MINUTES, BUT NOT YET + + + +and this... + + I WILL KEEP MY EYES OPEN EVEN THOUGH THEY MAY FEEL HEAVY... + + +and this,too... + + WHEN I DO CLOSE THEM THE NEXT TIME...I CAN LEAVE THEM CLOSED AS +LONG AS I WISH TO... + + +When you finish reading this, +breathe in and out deeply and slowly three times... + +Read the following...once...slowly...and think about what you're +reading...when you've finished...close your eyes...or leave +them open... + + +I CAN SLOWLY LET THE REST OF MY BODY RELAX...AND AS I THINK ABOUT +ANY TIGHTNESS I MAY FEEL...JUST BY THINKING ABOUT IT...THAT PART +OF ME CAN RELAX AND SOFTEN MORE...I'LL KNOW WHEN I'M FINISHED +WITH THIS EXPERIENCE BECAUSE I'LL WANT TO GET UP AND MOVE AROUND +A LITTLE... + + + + +The above text is a natural and simple way to let yourself +experience a feeling of relaxation and a daydream-like trance +where you are fully aware of everything going on around you but +for a while, just detach youself from what's going on around +you... + + + +Please let me know if this brief excercise helped you feel more +relaxed for a while... + +Leave a message for me at EXEC-PC BUSINESS BOARD 414/964-5160 +Leonard Bewersdorf (leave the Dr. off please) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/serial.txt b/religious documents/serial.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f8e468 Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/serial.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/set.txt b/religious documents/set.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..30ade17 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/set.txt @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ + Set in Egyptian Theology + + by Oz Tech + +Set was one of the earliest Egyptian deities, a god of the night +identified with the northern stars. In the earliest ages of +Egypt this Prince of Darkness was well regarded. One persistant +token of this regard is the Tcham scepter, having the stylized +head and tail of Set. The Tcham scepter is frequently found +in portraits of other other gods as a symbol of magical power. + +In some texts he is hailed as a source of strength, and in +early paintings he is portrayed as bearer of a harpoon at the +prow of the boat of Ra, warding off the serpent Apep. Yet the +warlike and resolute nature of Set seems to have been regarded +with ambivalence in Egyptian theology, and the portrayal of this +Neter went through many changes over a period of nearly three +thousand years. Pictures of a god bearing two heads, that of +Set and his daylight brother Horus the Elder, may be compared to the +oriental Yin/Yang symbol as a representation of the union +of polarities. In time, the conflict between these two abstract +principles came to be emphasized rather than their primal union. + +Set's battle with Horus the Elder grew from being a statement of +the duality of day and night into an expression of the political +conflict among the polytheistic priesthoods for control of the +Egyptian theocracy. This was rewritten as a battle between Good +and Evil after Egypt expelled the Hyskos in the 18th Dynasty. +Some say the Hyskos were Asiatic invaders, and others say they +were an indigenous minority that seized control of the nation. +This tribe ruled Egypt for a time and happened to favor the Set +cult, seeing a resemblence to a storm-god of their own pantheon + +The Set cult never recovered from this identification with the Hyskos. +mages of Set were destroyed or defaced. By the time +Greek historians visited Egypt, wild asses, pigs, and other beasts +identified with the Set cult were driven off cliffs, hacked into +pieces or otherwise slaughtered at annual celebrations in a spirit +akin to the driving out of the Biblical scapegoat. The report +of these historians is often thought to be a valid account of a +a timeless and immutable theocracy , but just looking at the +frequency with which the ruling capital moved to different +cities (each being a cult-center) is enough to dispel this idea. +One controversial Egyptologist has suggested that the worship +of Set might have predated the concept of paternity. Later cults +incorporating a father god would reject this fatherless son. +This introduces another bizarre factor in the transformation of the +Night/Day battle between brothers into an inheritance dispute +between Set and Horus the Younger. Any book on Egyptian myth you +pick up contains the gory details of this cosmic lawsuit, which +includes things that make DYNASTY look like a prayer breakfast. +I have always been intrigued, though, that while all books affirm +that Set tore Osiris to pieces, everybody knows about Osiris, and it +is quite hard to collect the pieces of the puzzle that is Set. +Egyptologists have never agreed what the animal used to symbolize +Set actually is. Since the sages of ancient Egypt did not use an +unrecognizable creature to represent any other major deity, we +may guess that this is intentional, and points, like the Tcham +sceptre, to an esoteric meaning. + +References: +Budge, E.A. Wallis. THE GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. +Grant, Kenneth. CULTS OF THE SHADOW. +Graves, Robert. THE WHITE GODDESS. +Ions, Veronica. EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY. +Massey, Gerald. THE NATURAL GENESIS. +Russell, Jeffrey Burton. THE DEVIL. + diff --git a/religious documents/set_nakt.txt b/religious documents/set_nakt.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f9538d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/set_nakt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,379 @@ +Subject: The Temple of Set, Setnakt + + The Temple of Set + by + Setnakt +The Left-Hand Path provides a set of different answers +as to the nature and purpose of life and the divine. The +Temple of Set exists as a tool for travelers along that path +to achieve meaningful dialogue and interaction to further +the creation of their divine Selves. This essay will +examine the philosophy of the Temple (with a few asides on +its history), the practical application of the Temple's +philosophy and techniques by its Initiates, and the +realtionship this admittedly elitist group has with society. +I am a Priest of the Temple and write from within its belief +system, so I will write with passion. I will treat you as +seekers after truth (which begins with Self-knowledge), and +so beware. This is the apple which Jehovah refuses. +The Temple of Set is based upon the watchword Xeper +(pronounced "Khefer"). This is an Egyptian verb meaning +"Become." Perhaps you are familiar with the scarab in +Egyptian art -- the symbol of the self-created god, Khephra. +The Temple views life as the time when the psyche can be +aware of itself and then reach out towards the limitlessness +of its conscious existence. There are several methods by +which this awareness can be obtained. In the Temple of Set +this spiritual self-actualizing draws on various historic +and philosophical methods -- including the legacy of Plato, +Nietzsche, Fichte, and the Church of Satan. Of course, +these tools only produce results when used by the +individual. Our three principal methods are Socratic +reductionism, the formulation of correct understandings by +logic, and noetic intuition. Let's examine each of these +techniques as well as some of the Temple's preliminary +findings. +Socratic reductionism. The act of questioning and +testing beliefs to eliminate falsehoods is an important tool +for arriving at the truth. As we mature all of us ask +ourselves, "What beliefs are mine and which have society +programmed into me?" Setians, in particular, seek to +distance themselves from the vast roar of cultural +propaganda. Whereas some groups break from society by +merely picking a different prepackaged belief system, the +Setian is left with the tough day-to-day struggle of self +knowledge and moral relativism. Eventually we each have to +become philosophers rather than consumers. One notion of +the Temple of Set which sets us apart from our predecessor +the Church of Satan is our realization of the non-natural +force in man. Whether this is called the logos, the ba, or +the psyche, there is clearly something different about +mankind. This awareness is set apart from the natural +order. Picture for an instant a Mobius strip or a Klein +bottle. The fact that your mind can conceive of a +non-natural occurrence - in this case a three-dimensional +surface with only one surface -- shows that your mind is not +one with nor constrained by the natural order. In the +Temple we exalt this non-natural self, which can be +discovered by logical processes. This finding enables us to +reach a different ethic than the practitioners of the +Right-Hand Path. We neither seek nor believe in the +possibility of a union with the universe. We revel in our +separateness, which enables us to fully enjoy our carnality, +but also causes us to use that enjoyment in the goal of +energizing and articulating the psyche. Having established +the existence of the psyche, we have a basis for our +explorations and ethics. +Formulations of correct understandings by logic. +Having discarded the untrue and the inessential, we are left +with the building blocks for creating a model of the +universe. These notions may have been gained from science, +personal experience, from other philosophical/psychological +belief systems, or from findings of other Initiates with +whom we've chosen to Work. Creative synthesis of ideas -- a +self-managed dialectic, if you will -- has been a major +source of human knowledge. Setians begin a creation of a +model of the universe in order to understand it (and when +necessary, exert control of it through magic and other +means). One of the aims of Xeper is to understand the +relationship of yourself to the universe. Again this is a +tough road. We are placed in the position of Socrates, the +wisest man of Greece, who said, "I know nothing." We look +upon the universe as an exciting place to study -- rather +than as a dull and finished product. +Since the active human mind is a bringer of disorder to +the static authoritarian models of the universe (consider +Copernicus or Einstein) -- those who bring about the new are +seen as agents of chaos, champions of darkness. We gladly +accept these titles and know that our movement through the +world achieves a greater level of activity, creation, and +beauty. Set, the Egyptian deity which is our ultimate model +of Initiation, was called "Bringer of Confusion," as well as +"Majestic" and "Eternal." By actively becoming +philosophers, we exert an influence (often times invisible) +of rejuvenation on the corpse-like world around us. +We are not interested in Judeo-Christian dualism. Our +attraction to historic evil and our roots in the Church of +Satan allow us to use the name of Satanist with pride. We +choose Set rather than a Hebrew fiend for our model because +this is the most ancient (historically verifiable) +understanding of the Prince of Darkness. Set is mankind's +first model for the hero who rebels against cosmic +injustice. +The above two techniques can liberate you from the +necessity of finding some guru to tell you how to live. Use +your mind to find the knowledge of Good and Evil, and you're +ready to find out what's important to you and bring it into +the world. I wish you well with them. +The third technique, noetic inspiration, takes you to +the discovery of your own divinity and the edge of Black +Magic. We take the term noesis from Plato. Plato defined +three types of knowing. The lowest is pistis (faith). This +means believing something because someone in authority tells +you so. The Pope tells you that birth control is wrong, so +you know it's wrong. Society is controlled by this level. +The next higher way of knowing is dianoia (reasoning). This +is the test of reason and logic referred to above. The +elites work in this level. The highest knowing is noesis -- +direct knowledge. This is the knowing that comes from the +divine Self. Examples of it may be found in your personal +life -- when you've come up with a solution to a problem +that was wholly new or novel to you. Or you may have +written poetry or music. This flash of inspiration is your +psyche becoming aware of its own existence. You may have +recognized this sacred quality in something you've seen -- +the buildings of Gaudi -- or reading Ulysses -- or any of a +thousand thousand things. When you encountered this thing +and knew, "This is something special. This isn't the +product of a meat machine!" then you have experienced this +sense. The Temple of Set attempts to create an environment +where these experiences may be consciously sought and +entered into again and again. Also, I should note, the +Temple is only interested in genuine experiences (brought +about by Will) -- drug users are not welcome and solipsists +may take a hike! +This application of noesis is the most non-natural +aspect of the Temple's make-up. It is to be stressed that +our "non-natural" rhetoric does not mean we advocate a +wholesale destruction of nature; nothing could be further +from the truth. The aim of a non-natural religion is to +understand the conscious development of the Self, which in +turn may have an effect on the objective and subjective +universes. Seeking self development will cause the Temple +to always be an elitist group. Xeper leads to an +individually determined freedom. Society is best maintained +by natural religions which emphasize the maintenance of +natural structures in society. Plato, afterall did not +recommend the wide scale training of philosopher-kings. The +Temple does not view nonSetians with contempt. By +exercising our divine right of Self-creation, we often come +to enjoy and respect (rather than judge and condemn) the +human beings around us as the unique and fascinating +creatures they are. Just because we seek to exalt the +non-natural does not mean that we have in any way given up +having sex, eating, driving, etc. -- it merely means that we +seek to transform these states into thought provoking +experiences. We find, perhaps, that the practice of Black +Magic to be the most thought provoking of all. +One of the primary methods of experiencing noesis is +through ritual magic. Through careful manipulation of our +environments we can encourage a rising up of the divine +within us. We most definitely do not worship Set -- we +become as Set in our rituals. We scorn prayer, sacrifice, +and the bended knee. Although ritual magic has a strongly +practical side -- and we encourage getting money and power +because they give you the leisure to explore yourself -- +magic can bring us into direct contact with our divinity. +We can control and direct our growth and Becoming in +accordance with our Will -- as well as gaining that +knowledge of ourselves and the universe necessary to make +these sacred decisions. In the practice of magic, we usurp +the power of the gods that mankind has created for itself. +We're not rebelling against a particular fiction -- whether +it's Jehovah, "The Goddess," or Zeus. +All of this leads to the question of, why Set? +Although the majority of the Temple has come to believe in +the existence of this entity, such belief is not required of +a member. Set is regarded as the best model of initiation +-- a vast powerful but finite being. If an entity were +all-powerful, it would be identical with the universe and +have no knowledge of its own awareness. In our mythology we +see Set as the Giver of Self-Awareness. Our thanks to Set +for this flame of self-awareness is shown by our using it. +The majority of mankind will hate him and revile him with +names like Satan, Loki, Lucifer. They would rather have +never been kicked out of the trees. +Let's look at the structure of the Temple and the +practices these techniques have led us to. The Temple of +Set Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation based in California +with an international membership. The Temple is governed by +a Council of Nine which determines long-term policies and +goals. The Council names and can remove the High Priest, +who runs the day-to-day business of the Temple. The High +Priest cannot sit on the Council. The current High Priest +is Dr. Michael A. Aquino. The Temple is owned by its +Priesthood. Individual Priests or Priestesses may run local +groups of Setians called Pylons. I run such a Pylon and I +will trace the hypothetical career of an entrant. Let's +call her Veronica Frankfort. I must stress that I'm going +to look at a successful career, but there are many +unsuccessful ones. There are lots of people, who think that +they'll get the secrets of the universe just by joining. +The Temple is only useful for those people who would find +some of the secrets regardless of affiliation or not. If the +Temple doesn't look like a tool to a prospective candidate, +they should avoid it. If it ceases to be a tool for those +within, they should leave. Anyone who joins for the sake of +joining will have an unhappy time -- if they merely +interested in making a statement against the hypocrisy of +society, they would be better served by making a fashion +statement. +Veronica encounters the name of the Temple, and she +decides to find out about it. The notion of Xeper, of Willed +conscious evolution, appeals to her. Maybe she read about +the Order of the Vampyre in Noreen Dresser's American +Vampires or the article on Satanism in the Encyclopedia of +American Religions. She writes the San Francisco P.O. Box +and gets a long informational letter. After weeks of +weighing the pros and cons -- "They seem nice and +intelligent, but what's really going on?" -- she decides to +apply, sending a letter expressing her desire to honestly +quest and $55 for materials. +Assuming that she makes a good case for her interest +(and that she expresses no criminal nor unethical intent), +she is admitted. She receives a document called The Crystal +Tablet of Set and a white medallion, indicating that she is +a Setian I*. For her this symbolizes the boldness of the +quest for self divinity. For those who will be fortunate +enough to Work with her, it symbolizes the excitement and +energy of an as yet unarticulated desire -- one of the +driving force arising from the black flame of +self-awareness. She's also told that she has two years to +bring forth certain qualities in herself, and that she'll +need to find a member of the Priesthood to Recognize those +qualities within her. Not bestow something on her, not give +her an exam to pass, but Recognize. She's scared, +intrigued, and challenged. This isn't like any other +religion she's been associated with. Also, there's this +book with chapters named "Black Magic in Theory and +Practice." And a huge reading list, none of it required, on +topics that may be of interest to her as she applies the +techniques. She wonders how a book on photography, The +Command to Look, or on politics, Political Ideas and +Ideologies, fit into these concepts of magic and religion. +She is fortunate that she lives in a town with a Pylon, +some towns don't have one yet. Of course, she can opt to +Work alone -- but the interaction of Initiates of different +levels of experience is a source of both challenge and +support. Since she lives near me, I drop her a note and ask +if she would like to come to a Pylon meeting. "What will I +need to bring?" she asks. "Nothing but yourself. If you +like us and we like you, you'll need to buy a black robe for +ritual Work." We do draw upon the colorful legacy of the +Black Arts for ,our stimulation and pleasure. She meets the +seven of us, we watch a video (bad '50s horror movies are a +favorite) and we have a free-form discussion of Setian ideas +and how we are applying them to our lives. We like her, she +likes us, and she joins the Pylon. +She comes to monthly rituals. At first it's pretty +overwhelming. We each write Work to satisfy our personal +and emotional needs. Sometimes our Work derives completely +from our own formulas -- sometimes we adapt historic models +(I am fond of revamping some Fraternitas Saturni rituals). +Soon she is trying Work on her own -- rituals for +destruction, compassion, lust, understanding. Eventually +she tries her hand at group Work. She reads the bimonthly +newsletter and she starts to correspond with other Setians. +She develops a meaningful friendship with Adept Mundy in a +small Midwestern town, who chooses to work alone. +After sixteen months I have come to see in her an +understanding of Left-Hand Path philosophy, genuine magical +ability (her objective magic Works -- she gets the +boyfriends and raises she wants), and a commitment to the +organization. I Recognize her as Adept and present her with +a red medallion -- signifying passage from death to life. +She has achieved the highest level of purely human +Initiation and she may remain at this level for the rest of +her earthly existence. This year she decides to go to the +annual International Conclave. She gets to meet Setians +from Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the United Kingdom, +Finland, etc. The magical and social interaction of +Conclave accelerated her progress immensely. She's planning +to go next year -- saving up her money since it will be in +Europe. +As an Adept, she has mastered the basic concepts of the +Temple. She is free now to specialize -- rather like the +completion of her basic college courses. She may choose to +affiliate with an Order of the Temple -- a group led by a +Fourth Degree, a Magister Templi. The Work of Orders is +mainly confidential, but if you're interested you may wish +to read about the Order of the Vampyre in Noreen Dresser's +American Vampires. +Veronica may consciously seek the next level of +Initiation. The Third Degree -- that of Priest or Priestess +of Set -- is characterized by responsibility and divinity. +Here the Initiate seeks the touch of Set himself. This is +not a unification with Set, but an alignment with the force +that gave mankind awareness. For those that achieve this +goal, there is a considerable strengthening of the Will. +It is a position not without strain -- for those necessary +controls to a strong Will, patience and wisdom, must be +cultivated by the individual. The three Initiatory Degrees +beyond Priest -- Magister, Magus, and Ipsissimus -- may be +thought of as further refinements of this initial alignment. +There is a great deal more to these, but that is discovered +better through personal interaction than through words. +The key to understanding the degree system is the word +Recognition. There are no special honors that come with +various colored medallions. No bowing and scraping. An +Initiate can correspond with/interact with anyone that finds +that interaction beneficial. Since our religion is tuned +toward personal growth, it becomes important to stress +different stages of growth. This gives the individual +outward examples to test their growth against, and keeps +them from sinking into a mire of subjectivity. In some +organizations titles are sold (or given away through simple +seniority). If you start out as Grand Exalted Pooh-Bah -- +there is no place to go. The Temple provides a wonderful +toolkit. You can see real growth both inside and outside of +yourself. +There are downsides to membership in the Temple of Set. +The majority of the population won't believe that you can be +an ethical citizen because you choose to be so. They belong +to that class that have to have a prepackaged system of +"sacred lies" (to borrow Plato's term) that tell them how to +think and act. They think that unless you accept the notion +of some deity that's going to fry your ass in Hell, you +won't choose to act in a non-animal fashion. What they fear +is themselves, because they've never found an ethic that +encourages them to act as individuals. When times are +psycho-politically trying (for example, America in the 1980s +or Salem in the 1690s), they will look for criminals. It's +no use to explain that you don't sacrifice babies, spray +paint tombstones, or suck blood out of vagrants. If you try +to explain that your religion is one of choice, and +therefore only adults (18+) are admitted -- that you feel +children should be brought up free of any particular +religion, so that they can use their minds to choose -- they +will regale you with urban folklore. They heard about +somebody's cousin's dentist's brother-in-law who saw this, +or they think they've read that. The fact they can't +imagine men seeking the good without obeying God shows a +slave mentality. So if you were to join the Temple, you +discover the world is more intolerant and dangerous than you +may have known. Some of your most liberal and accepting +friends may shun you if you tell them. You may even use +pseudonyms -- like I did for this article -- for fear that +followers of the Prince of Peace will chuck bricks through +your window. In the long run conventional churches fear us +because we require a $50 a year membership fee -- rather +than begging for 10% of your money every Sunday. The +difference between the Temple and other religions is +disillusioning to some new members. The Temple does not +provide an instant peer group. There are no safety nets, no +loving outreach programs. Friendships are won. Respect +comes with deeds and evidence of understanding. We have no +ill feelings against those who don't make the grade, and +especially not against sincere seekers who find out that the +Temple's not for them. Although we may view the philosophy +of other religions as incorrect, as individualists we prize +the notion of freedom of choice. In fact the dialogue +between educated philosophers of the Right Hand Path and us +has often proved enjoyable and thought provoking. +Ours is a religion that requires bravery and commitment +to the ideals that exist in our black hearts. We are drawn +to those figures of historical evil who achieved the +transcendental good (and often the immortality of fame). +Evil men like Galileo, who was denounced by the Church; +Washington, a traitor to the British; Pythagoras, and +Socrates. We hope that as we pursue our own goals, we leave +behind such works of beauty and terror that tear apart the +world so a stronger, freer, smarter, and more darkly +resplendent world comes into Being. +If you are interested in acquiring more information +about the Temple of Set, you can request the General +Informational Letter from: + The Temple of Set + P. O. Box 470307 + San Francisco, CA 94147 + diff --git a/religious documents/setnakt.txt b/religious documents/setnakt.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..21fcfbe --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/setnakt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,114 @@ + +The God Set +by Setnakt + +The best English study of Set is Te Velde's _Set, God of +Confusion_ Brill 1977. If this particular text is unavailable through your +library, I recommend a a short cheap and very +reliable book by George Hart: _A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses_, +Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986. This very ambiguous god was alternately deified +and demonized depending on the +cultural/political currents running through Egypt. Allow me to present here a +brief history of Set. + +Predynastically: Set was an important deity appearing in the art of the Hamitic +peoples living in the Ombos and Naquada regions. Interestingly, his was the +only god-figure not composed of parts from recognizable Earth animals. + +(The Hamitic speakers donated most of the terms to religious philosophy to the +Egyptian langauge that seperate it from other Semitic languages including ba, +ka, neter, etc. If somebody really wants to find the roots of the Egyptian +religion, they should go up the Nile and do some serious anthropology among +Hamitic speaking native cultures-- the roots of the Nile may hold keys to +Egyptian thought that mute stones do not). + +Archaic Egypt: Set generally occupies a secondary role to his enemy Horus, +champion of the people of the North (except in the 2nd dynasty when one pharaoh +took a "Set" name rather than a Horus name.) Set is intimately connected with +teaching astronomy,the methods of agriculture, medicine, and above all magic. +He is said to have opened the mouth of the other gods, and is the patron of the +sem ritual. His cult titles include "Great of Magic" and "Eternal". There is +indeed evidence that Set is set apart from other gods to die (Bonnet's +commentaries on the +Pyramid texts). + +The astronomical cult, which placed the afterlife in the region of the Northern +heavens -- particularly in and around the +constellation of the Great Bear was replaced in the Fourth +dynasty by a growing sun cult centering on Re and Horus. The great stellar +monument that Imhotep designed were replaced by the solar pyramids of the +Fourth and Fifth dynasty's. (Notably Cheops took no chances in the great +Pyramid's design -- although outwardly a solar monument he had a hole bored +through the +stones aligned with the position of Alpha Draconis (a star in the Great Bear +called Thuban = "the Subtle One" a Set cult +title?) just in case that was where his ka was heading. + +During the next few dynasties (4 - 17), Set is generally +ignored. His functions are absorbed into other gods. Thoth picks up the +attributes of magic, Osiris picks up the attributes of Mysterious time _djet_ +as opposed to exoteric time _neheh_. Set keeps his attributes a storm and +stellar god, and gradually comes to be associated with all night fears -- +nightmares, +desert fiends, and bad animals such as the hippo and the jaguar of the South. +He is mentioned in a famous 12th dynasty writing called _The Discourse of a man +with his ba_ in which his solar aspect IAA is referred to. Bikka Reed has a +great translations of this text. + +In the 18th dynasty a remarkable Pharoah Hatshepsut reintroduced the worship of +Set by building a Temple dedicated to him and Horus the Elder at Ombos. This +marked a strong interest in Set's eternal nature, for example in Hatshepsut is +the prophecy (which she had placed in her tomb at Der el-Medina) that "She will +not only enjoy the days of Horus, but the days of Set will be added to her +span." + +She was also interested in the antinomian nature of the Set cult -- in fact she +preformed one of the most scandalous acts +available to a woman -- she acted as a man. This early feminist clearly found +Set, a great archetype to Work with. Set was +popular among her family until the Kingship of Akhenaton (may he be reborn +forever drowning in the jaws of Sobek the crocodile god). + +The very militaristic pharaohs of the Nineteenth dynasty, who were probably +descended form a family of Set priests at Tanis, delighted in Set both in his +militaristic role and as God of Foreign places. Ramses II for example called +himself the Son of Set. The Set cult too was very popular with foreigners +coming to live in Egypt. His worship has always been connected with the +outsider. + +The Twentieth Dynasty began by looking very favorably on this god, as is shown +in the name of its founder Setnakt, "Set is Mighty." There is also considerable +evidence that the set cult was favored among artisans of the time (see Romer's +_Ancient Lives_, Henry Holt, 1984, and if you've got as copy of Stephen Quirk's +_Ancient Egyptian Religion_ check out the beautiful Stella of Aapehty -- +probably the most beautiful surviving +example of Setian art). + +By the end of the Twentieth Dynasty, as the funerary cult of Osiris became the +dominate force in popular Egyptian religion,more and more, Set as the murderer +of Osiris became the Evil One. In fact by the Twenty Sixth dynasty it was a +common +practice to disfigure any representations of Set. He became --for all practical +purposes the Christian devil. Some scholars have even derived the name Satan +from Set-Hen, a cult title meaning the Majesty of Set, but I am dubious of this +particular derivation. + +However Set was not down for the count. During the Ptolemaic period Set, merged +with the Greek titan Typhon, became the +figure for the _goes_ or sorcerer to use. After Hermes the most often invoked +god in the Magical papyri is Set-Typhon. This entity was used to bring spirit +helpers ( bird would fly down and announce that the magician was now under the +protection of a god -- a popular Typhonic practice outside of Egypt as well se +Morton Smith's _Jesus the Magician_). Set was also the god to invoke to send +dreams, perform healings on the head or spinal column, and to cause enmity +between enemies. + +There seems to be a few common threads running through the Set cult: the quest +for immortality, antinomianism, and the practice of magic. Perhaps this is why +Michael Aquino's current Temple of Set finds this figure so appealing as an +archetype for the Left Hand Path. Like Hatshepsut before Aquino has Opened the +Mouth of this ancient god, and the articulation of the Principle of +Isolate Intelligence is available to us today. + +/* end of article */ + diff --git a/religious documents/sh_govrv.txt b/religious documents/sh_govrv.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a688ab --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/sh_govrv.txt @@ -0,0 +1,245 @@ +Newsgroups: soc.religion.shamanism,sci.anthropology, +Newsgroups: alt.out-of-body,alt.dreams.lucid,soc.answers, +Newsgroups: sci.answers,alt.answers,news.answers +From: deane@netcom.com (Dean Edwards) +Subject: Shamanism-General Overview-Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) +Summary: This FAQ contains a general overview on shamanism. + It should be read by anyone interested in understanding the what + is meant by shamanism and what differentiates shamanism form + other forms of ecstatic experience +Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 02:17:23 GMT + +Archive-name: shamanism/overview +Last-modified: 19 April 1994 +Version: 1.1.2 + +NOTE: The following general overview of shamanism is not intended to +be the last word or the definitive work on this subject. Rather it is, as +its title implies, intended to provide the participant or reader with a set +of guidelines that will familiarize them with the general use of the terms +shamanism, shaman and shamanic in the trends, study and practice of +historic, traditional and contemporary shamanic experience. +The word 'shaman comes to English from the Tungus language +via Russian. Among the Tungus of Siberia it is both a noun and a +verb. While the Tungus have no word for shamanism, it has +come into usage by anthropologists, historians of religion and +others in contemporary society to designate the experience and the +practices of the shaman. Its usage has grown to include similar +experiences and practices in cultures outside of the original +Siberian cultures from which the term shaman originated. Thus +shamanism is not the name of a religion or group of religions. +Particular attention should be paid to the use of qualifying words +such as "may" or "usually". They indicate examples or tendencies and +are not, in any way, intended to represent rigid standards +Please send comments to deane@netcom.com (Dean Edwards). + +Shamanism-General Overview-Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) +(c November, 1993 by Dean Edwards) +This FAQ shall be posted monthly and is maintained by Dean Edwards +(deane@netcom.com). It is intended for the private non-commercial use +of Usenet users. It may not be sold or resold without the permission +of the author. + +Table of Contents: + + 1. Terms used in this FAQ + 2. What is shamanism? + 3. What is Shamanic Ecstasy? + 4. Becoming a shaman + 5. The role of trauma in the development of a shaman + 6. The relationship between shamanic traditions and culture + 7. The role of Shamanic Ecstasy + 8. The origin of the term "shamanism" + 9. Roles of the shaman +10. Reasons for this FAQ + +1. Why were the terms used in this FAQ selected and do they have special +meanings. There is an extensive literature about shamanism that has been +compiled since the late Eighteenth Century. Like any field of study and +religious practice, shamanism has developed a specialized vocabulary. +Please note that some of the words used in the material that follows are +drawn from scholars who have a solid background in shamanic studies and +may have meanings that are specific and less general than is often the +case in popular usage. Consulting a good dictionary should clear up any +points of confusion. + +2. What is Shamanism? +Shamanism is classified by anthropologists as an archaic +magico-religious phenomenon in which the shaman is the great master +of ecstasy. Shamanism itself, was defined by the late Mircea Eliade +as a technique of ecstasy. A shaman may exhibit a particular magical +specialty (such as control over fire, wind or magical flight). When a +specialization is present the most common is as a healer. The +distinguishing characteristic of shamanism is its focus on an +ecstatic trance state in which the soul of the shaman is believed to +leave the body and ascend to the sky (heavens) or descend into the +earth (underworld). The shaman makes use of spirit helpers, with +whom he or she communicates, all the while retaining control over +his or her own consciousness. (Examples of possession occur, but +are the exception, rather than the rule.) It is also important to +note that while most shamans in traditional societies are men, +either women or men may and have become shamans. + +3. What is Shamanic Ecstasy and how does it compare with other +forms of ecstasy? + + From the Greek 'ekstasis', ecstasy literally means to be placed +outside, or to be placed.This is a state of exaltation in which a +person stands outside of or transcends his or herself. Ecstasy may +range from the seizure of the body by a spirit or the seizure of a +person by the divine, from the magical transformation or flight of +consciousness to psychiatric remedies of distress. + +Three types of Ecstasy are specified in the literature on the subject: +a. Shamanic Ecstasy +b. Prophetic Ecstasy +c. Mystical Ecstasy + +Shamanic ecstasy is provoked by the ascension of the soul of the +shaman into the heavens or its descent into the underworld. These +states of ecstatic exaltation are usually achieved after great and +strenuous training and initiation, often under distressing +circumstances. The resulting contact by the shaman with the +higher or lower regions and their inhabitants, and also with +nature spirits enables him or her to accomplish such tasks as +accompanying the soul of a deceased into its proper place in the +next world, affect the well-being of the sick and to convey the +story of their inner travels upon their return to the mundane +awareness. + +The utterances of the shaman are in contrast with those of prophetic +and mystical ecstasy. The prophet literally speaks for God, while the +mystic reports an overwhelming divine presence. In mysticism, the +direct knowledge or experience of the divine ultimate reality, is +perceptible in two ways, emotional and intuitive. While these three +varieties of ecstatic experience are useful for the purposes of +analysis and discussion, it is not unusual for more than one form of +ecstasy to be present in an individual's experience. + +However, it can be argued that, generally speaking, there are three +perceptive levels of ecstasy. +a) The physiological response, in which the mind becomes absorbed in +and focused on a dominant idea, the attention is withdrawn and the +nervous system itself is in part cut off from physical sensory input. The +body exhibits reflex inertia, involuntary nervous responses, frenzy. +b) Emotional perception of ecstasy refers to overwhelming feelings of awe, +anxiety, joy, sadness, fear, astonishment, passion, etc. +c) Intuitive perception communicates a direct experience and +understanding of the transpersonal experience of expanded states of +awareness or consciousness. + +While the physiological response is always present, the emotional response +may or may not be significant when intuition is the principal means of +ecstatic perception. Some have argued that beyond the intuitive state there +is a fourth condition in which the holistic perception exceeds mental and +emotional limitations and understanding. + +The ecstatic experience of the shaman goes beyond a feeling or perception of +the sacred, the demonic or of natural spirits. It involves the +shaman directly and actively in transcendent realities or lower realms of +being. These experiencesa may occur in either the dream state, the +awakened state, or both. Dreams, and in particular, lucid dreams, often +play a significan role in the life of a shaman or shamanic candidate. + +4. How does one become a shaman? + +Some have wondered if the experience of shamanic ecstasy or flight +makes a person a shaman. Generally speaking, most would say no. +A shaman is more than someone with an experience. First, he or she +is a trained initiate. Usually years of enculturalization and +training under a mentor precede becoming a functioning shaman. +Second, a shaman is not just an initiate who has received inner and +outer training, but is a master of shamanic journeying and techniques +(shamanic ecstasy). This is not a casual acquaintance with such +abilities, there is some degree of mastery of them. Finally, a +shaman is a link or bridge between this world and the next. This +is a sacred trust and a service to the community. Sometimes a +community that a shaman serves in is rather small. In other +instances it may be an entire nation. A lot of that depends on +social and cultural factors. + +One becomes a shaman by one of three methods: +a) Hereditary transmission; +b) Spontaneous selection or "call" or "election"; +c) personal choice and quest. (This latter method is less frequent +and traditionally such a shaman is considered less powerful than one +selected by one of the two preceding methods.) The shaman is not +recognized as legitimate without having undergone two types of +training: +a) Ecstatic (dreams, trances, etc.) +b) Traditional ("shamanic techniques, names and functions of +spirits,mythology and genealogy of the clan, secret language, etc.) The +two-fold course of instruction, given by the spirits and the old master +shamans is equivalent to an initiation." (Mircea Eliade, The Encyclopedia +of Religion, v. 13 , p. 202; Mcmillian, N.Y., 1987.) It is also possible +for the entire process to take place in the dream state or in ecstatic +experience. +Thus, there is more to becoming a shaman than a single experience. +It requires training, perseverance and service. + +5. What is the role of personal crisis or trauma or crisis in the +selection or development of a shaman? +A common experience of the call to shamanism is a psychic or spiritual +crisis, which often accompanies a physical or even a medical crisis, and +is cured by the shaman him or herself. This is a common occurrence for +all three types of shamanic candidates described above. The shaman is +often marked by eccentric behavior such as periods of melancholy, +solitude, visions, singing in his or her sleep, etc. The inability of the +traditional remedies to cure the condition of the shamanic candidate and +the eventual self cure by the new shaman is a significant episode in +development of the shaman. The underlying significant aspect of this +experience, when it is present,is the ability of the shaman to manage +and resolve periods of distress. + +6. Does the presence of an active shamanic tradition necessarily mean that +the society itself should be deemed "shamanic"? +No, not at all. The presence of shamanism in a nation or a community does +not mean that shamanism is central to the spiritual or religious life of +the community or region. Shamanism often exists alongside and even in +cooperation with the religious or healing practices of the community. + +7. What is meant by shamanic ecstasy and what role does it actually play +in shamanism? +The ecstatic technique of shamanism does not involve itself in the broad +range of ecstasy reported in the history of religion. It is specifically +focused on the transpersonal movement of the consciousness of the +shaman into higher or lower realms of consciousness and existence. +Another aspect of shamanism is that compared to other spiritual +traditions, it is a path that the individual walks alone. While much of +the focus of shamanic studies has been on the shamanic complexes of north +and central Asia, shamanism is a universal phenomenon, not confined to any +particular region or culture. + +8. What is the origin of the word "shaman"? +Shaman comes from the language of the Tungus of North-Central Asia. It +came into use in English via Russian. + +9. What are the usual roles of a shaman? +In contemporary, historical or traditional shamanic practice the shaman +may at times fill the role of priest, magician, metaphysician or healer. +Personal experience is the prime determinant of the status of a shaman. +Knowledge of other realms of being and consciousness and the cosmology of +those regions is the basis of the shamanic perspective and power. With this +knowledge, the shaman is able to serve as a bridge between the mundane and +the higher and lower states The shaman lives at the edge of reality as most +people would recognize it and most commonly at the edge of society itself. +Few indeed have the stamina to adventure into these realms and endure the +outer hardships and personal crises that have been reported by or +observed of many shamans. + +10. Why was this FAQ written? +This FAQ was originally written to support a new Usenet +newsgroup, 'soc.religion.shamanism'. The purpose of this +newsgroup is to provide a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas, +views and information about historic,traditional, tribal and +contemporary shamanism. This FAQ is intended to provide a useful general +overview of what 'shamanism' actually means and what it is in practice. +In doing so, it has focused on shamanic ecstasy as being at the heart +of shamanic experience and practice. Many other aspects of shamanic +experience are encountered in the journey toward that center. Likewise, +much is also experienced in the journey out from that core experience. + +End of FAQ + + + diff --git a/religious documents/shadow1.txt b/religious documents/shadow1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5db3bdf --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shadow1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,652 @@ + WORDS TO THE WISE .... + + O daughters and sons of the Earth, adore the Goddess and God and be + blessed with the fullness of life. Know that They have brought you + to these writings, for herein lie our ways of the Craft, to serve + and fulfill the keepers of wisdom, the tenders of the sacred flame + of knowledge. Run the rites with love and joy, and the Goddess and + God will bless you with all thet you need. But those who practise + dark magicks shall know Their greatest wrath. Remember that you are + of the Craft. No more do you trod the ways of doubt. You walk the + path of light, ever climbing from shadow to shadow to the highest + realm of existence. But though we're the bearers of truths, others + do not wish to share our knowledge, so we run our rites beneath + moon filled skies enwrapped in shadows. But we are happy. Live + fully, for that is the purpose of life. Refrain not from earthly + existence. From it we grow to learn and understand, until such + time that we are reborn to learn more, repeating this cycle 'till + we have spiralled up the path of perfection and can finally call + the Goddess and God our kin. Walk the fields and forests; be + refreshed by the cool winds and the touch of a nodding flower. The + Moon and Sun sing in the ancient wild places: The deserted + seashore, the stark desert, the roaring waterfall. We are of the + Earth and should revere Her, so do Her honor. Celebrate the rites + on the appropriate days and seasons, and call upon the Goddess and + God when the time is meet, but use the Power only when necessary, + never for frivolous ends. Know that using the Power for harm is a + Perversion of Life itself. But for those who love and magnify love, + the richness of life shall be your reward. Nature will celebrate. + So love the Goddess and God, and harm none! + + + + THE NATURE OF OUR WAY + + * As often as possible, hold the rites in forests, by the seashore, + on deserted mountaintops or near tranquil lakes. If this is + impossible, a garden or some chamber shall suffice, if it is + readied with fumes of flowers. + + * Seek out wisdom in books, rare manuscripts and cryptic poems if + you will, but seek it out also in simple stones and fragile herbs + and in the cries of wild birds. Listen to the wisperings of the + wind and the roar of water if you would discover magick, for it is + here that the old secrets are preserved. + + * Books contain words; trees contain energies and wisdom books + ne'er dreamt of. + + * Ever remember that the Old Ways are constantly revealing + themselves. Therefore be as the river willow that bends and sways + with the wind. That which remains changeless shall outlive its + spirit, but that which evolves and grows will shine for centuries. + + * There can be no monopoly on wisdom. Therefore share what you + will of our ways with others who seek them, but hide mystic lore + from the eyes of those who would destroy, for to do otherwise + increases their destruction. + + * Mock not the rituals or spells of another, for who can say yours + are greater in power or wisdom? + + * Ensure that your actions are honorable, for all that you do shall + return to you three-fold, good or bane. + + * Be wary of one who would dominate you, who would control and + manipulate your workings and reverences. True reverence for the + Goddess and God occurs within. Look with suspicion on any who + would twist worship from you for their own gain and glory, but + welcome those priestesses and priests who are suffused with love. + + * Honor all living things, for we are of the bird, the fish, the + bee. Destroy not life save it be to preserve your own. + + * And this is the nature of our way. + + + + BEFORE TIME WAS + + Before time was, there was The One; The One was all, and all was The + One. + + And the vast expanse known as the universe was The One, all-wise, + all-pervading, all-powerful, eternally changing. + + And space moved. The One molded energy into twin forms, equal but + opposite, fashioning the Goddess and God from The One and of The One. + + The Goddess and God stretched and gave thanks to The One, but + darkness surrounded them. They were alone, solitary save for The One. + + So They formed energy into gasses and gasses into suns and planets + and moons; They sprinkled the universe with whirling globes and so all + was given shape by the hands of the Goddess and God. + + Light arose and the sky was illuminated by a billion suns. And the + Goddess and God, satisfied by their works, rejoiced and loved, and were + one. + + From their union sprang the seeds of all life, and of the human + race, so that we might achieve incarnation upon the Earth. + + The Goddess chose the Moon as Her symbol, and the God the Sun as His + symbol, to remind the inhabitants of Earth of their fashioners. + + All are born, live, die and are reborn beneath the Sun and Moon; all + things come to pass thereunder, and all occurs with the blessings of + The One, as has been the way of existence before time was. + + + + SONG OF THE GODDESS + + I am the Great Mother, worshipped by all creation and existent + prior to their consciousness. I am the primal female force, + boundless and eternal. + + I am the chaste Goddess of the Moon, the Lady of all magick. The + winds and moving leaves sing my name. I wear the cresent Moon upon + my brow and my feet rest among the starry heavens. I am mysteries + yet unsolved, a path newly set upon. I am a field untouched by the + plow. Rejoice in me and know the fullness of youth. + + I am the blessed Mother, the gracious Lady of the harvest. I am + clothed with the deep, cool wonder of the Earth and the gold of the + fields heavy with grain. By me the tides of the Earth are ruled; + all things come to fruition according to my reason. I am refuge + and healing. I am the life-giving Mother, wondrously fertile. + + Worship me as the Crone, tender of the unbroken cycle of death and + rebirth. I am the wheel, the shadow of the Moon. I rule the tides + of women and mem and give release and renewal to weary souls. + Though the darkness of death is my domain, the joy of birth is my + gift. + + I am the Goddess of the Moon, the Earth, the Seas. My names and + strengths are manifold. I pour forth magick and power, peace and + wisdom. I am the eternal Maiden, Mother of all, and Crone of + darkness, and I send you blessings of limitless love. + + + + CALL OF THE GOD + + I am the radiant King of the Heavens, flooding the Earth with + warmth and encouraging the hidden seed of creation to burst forth + into manifestation. I lift my shining spear to light the lives of + all beings and daily pour forth my gold upon the Earth, putting to + flight the powers of darkness. + + I am the master of the beasts wild and free. I run with the swift + stag and soar as a sacred falcon against the shimmering sky. The + ancient woods and wild places emanate my powers, and the birds of + the air sing of my sanctity. + + I am also the last harvest, offering up grain and fruits beneath + the sickle of time so that all may be nourished. For without + planting there can be no harvest; without winter, no spring. + + Worship me as the thousand-named Sun of creation, the spirit of the + horned stag in the wild, the endless harvest. See in the yearly + cycle of festivals my birth, death and rebirth - and know that such + is the destiny of all creation. + + I am the spark of life, the radiant Sun, the giver of peace and + rest, and I send my rays of blessings to warm the hearts and + strengthen the minds of all. + + + +THE DAYS OF POWER + + + In the past, when people lived with Nature, the turning of the + seasons and the monthly cycle of the Moon had a profound impact on + religious ceremonies. Because the Moon was seen as a symbol of the + Goddess, ceremonies as adoration and magick took place in its + light. The coming of Winter, the first stirrings of Spring, the + warm Summer and the advent of Fall were also marked with rituals. + + The Witches, heirs of the pre-Christian folk religions of Europe, + still celebrate the Full Moon and observe the changing of the + seasons. The Pagan religious calandar contains 13 Full Moon + celebrations and eight Sabbats or days of power. + + Four of these days (or, more properly, nights) are determined by + the Solstices and Equinoxes, the astronomical beginnings of the + seasons. The other four ritual occations are based on old folk + festivals. The rituals give structure and order to the Pagan year, + and also remind us of the endless cycle that will continue long + after we're gone. + + Four of the Sabbats - perhaps those that have been observed for the + longest time - were probably associated with the agriculture and + the bearing cycles of animals. These are Imbolc (February 2), + Beltane (April 30), Lughnasadh (August 1) and Samhain (October 31). + These names are Celtic and are quite common among Witches, though + many others exist. + + When careful observation of the skies led to common knowledge of + the astronomical year, the Solstices and Equinoxes (circa March 21, + June 21, September 21 and December 21; the actual dates vary from + year to year) were brought into this religious structure. + + Who first began worshipping and raising energy at these times? + That question cannot be answered. However, these sacred days and + nights are the origins of the 21 Craft ritual occasions. + + Many of these survive today in both secular and religious forms. + May Day celebrations, Hallowe'en, Ground-hog Day and even + Thanksgiving, to name some popular North American holidays, are all + connected with ancient Pagan worship. Heavily Christianized + versions of the Sabbats have also been preserved within the + Catholic Church. + + The Sabbats are Solar rituals, marking the points of the Sun's + yearly cycle, and are but half of the Pagan ritual year. The + Esbats are the Pagan Full Moon celebrations. At this time we + gather to worship She Who Is. Not that Witches omit the God at + Esbats - both are usually revered on all ritual occations. + + There are 13 Full Moons yearly, or one every 28 1/4 days. The Moon + is a symbol of the Goddess as well as a sourse of energy. Thus, + after the religious aspects of the Esbats, Witches often practice + magick, tapping into the larger amounts of energy which are thought + to exist at these times. + + Some of the old Craft festivals, stripped of their once sacred + qualities by the dominance of Christianity, have degenerated. + Samhain seems to have been taken over by candy manufacturers in + North America, while Yule has been transformed from one of the most + holy Pagan days to a time of gross commercialism. Even the later + echoes of a Christian savior's birth are hardly audible above the + electronic hum of cash registers. + + But the old magick remains on these days and nights, and the Craft + celebrate them. Rituals vary greatly, but all relate to the + Goddess and God and to our home, the Earth. Most rites are held at + night for practical purposes as well as to lend a sence of mystery. + The Sabbats, being Solar-oriented, are more naturally celebrated at + noon or at dawn, but this is rare today. + +THE SABBATS + + The Sabbats tell us one of the stories of the Goddess and God, of + their relationship and the effects this has on the fruitfulness of + the Earth. There are many variations on these myths, but here's a + faily common one, woven into the basic descriptions of the Sabbats. + + +YULE + + The Goddess gives birth to a son, the God, at Yule (circa December + 21). This is in no way an adaptation of Christianity. The Winter + Solstice has long been viewed as a time of divine births. Mithras + was said to have been born at this time. The Christians simply + adopted it for their use in 273 C.E. (Common Era). + + Yule is a time of the greatest darkness and is the shortest day of + the year. Earlier peoples noticed such phenomena and supplicated + the forces of nature to lengthen the days and shorten the nights. + Witches sometimes celebrate Yule just before dawn, then watch the + Sun rise as a fitting finale to their efforts. + + Since the God is also the Sun, this marks the point of the year + when the Sun is reborn as well. Thus, the Witches light fires or + candles to welcome the Sun's returning light. The Goddess, + slumbering through the Winter of Her labour, rests after Her + delivery. + + Yule is remnant of early rituals celebrated to hurry the end of + Winter and the bounty of Spring, when food was once again readily + available. To contemporary Witches it is a reminder that the + ultimate product of death is rebirth, a comforting thought in these + days of unrest + + +IMBOLC + + Imbolc (February 2) marks the recovery of the Goddess after giving + birth to the God. The lengthening periods of light awaken Her. The + God is a young, lusty boy, but His power is felt in the longer + days. The warmth fertilizes the Earth (the Goddess), and causes + seeds to germinate and sprout. And so the earliest beginnings of + Spring occur. + + This is a Sabbat of purification after the shut-in life of Winter, + through the renewing power of the Sun. It is also a festival of + light and of fertility, once marked in Europe with huge blazes, + torches and fire in every form. Fire here represents our own + illumination and ispiration as much as light and warmth. + + Imbolc is also known as Feast of Torches, Oimelc, Lupercalia, Feast + of Pan, Snowdrop Festival, Feast of the Waxing Light, Brighid's + Day, and probably by many other names. Some female Witches follow + the old Scandinavian custom of wearing crowns of lit candles, but + many more carry tapers during their invocations. + + This is one of the traditional times for initiations into covens, + and so self-dedication rituals, such as the one outlined in this + Book of Shadows, can be performed or renewed at this time. + + +OSTARA + + Ostara (circa March 21), the Spring Equinox, also known as Spring, + Rites of Spring and Eostra's Day, marks the first day of true + Spring. The energies of Nature subtly shift from the sluggishness + of Winter to the exhuberant expansion of Spring. The Goddess + blankets the Earth with fertility, bursting forth from Her sleep, + as the God stretches and grows to maturity. He walkes the greening + fields and delights in the abundance of nature. + + On Ostara the hours of day and night are equal. Light is + overtaking darkness; the Goddess and God impel the wild creatures + of the Earth to reproduce. + + This is a time of beginnings, of action, of planting spells for + future gains, and of tending the ritual gardens. + +BELTANE + + Beltane (April 30) marks the emergence of the young God into + manhood. Stirred by the energies at work in Nature, He desires the + Goddess. They fall in love, lie among the grasses and blossoms, + and unite. The Goddess becomes pregnant of the God. Witches + celebrate the symbol of Her fertility in ritual. + + Beltane (also known as May Day) has long been marked with feasts + and rituals. May poles, supremely phallic symbols, were the focal + point of Old English village rituals. Many persons rose at dawn to + gather flowers and green branches from the fields and gardens, + using them to decorate the May pole, their homes and themselves. + + The flowers and greenery symbolize the Goddess; the May pole the + God. Beltane marks the return of vitality, of passion and hopes + consummated. + + May poles are sometimes used by Witches today during Beltane + rituals, but the cauldron is a more common focal point of ceremony. + It represents, of course, the Goddess - the essence of womanhood, + the end of all desire, the equal but opposite of the May pole, + symbolic of the God. + + +MIDSUMMER + + Midsummer, the Summer Solstice (circa June 21), also known as + Litha, arrives when the powers of Nature reach their highest point. + The Earth is awash in the fertility of the Goddess and God. + + In the past, bonfires were leapt to encourage fertility, + purification, health and love. The fire once again represents the + Sun, feted on this time of the longest daylight hours. + + Midsummer is a classic time for magick of all kinds. + + +LUGHNASADH + + Lughnasadh (August 1) is the time of the first harvest, when the + plants of Spring wither and drop their fruits or seeds for our use + as well as to ensure future crops. Mystically, so too does the God + lose His strength as the Sun rises farther in the South each day + and the nights grow longer. The Goddess watches in sorrow and joy + as She realizes that the God is dying, and yet lives on inside Her + as Her child. + + Lughnasadh, also known as August Eve, Feast of Bread, Harvest Home + and Lammas, wasn't necessarily observed on this day. It originally + coinsided with the first reapings. + + As Summer passes, Witches remember its warmth and bounty in the + food we eat. Every meal is an act of attunement with Nature, and + we are reminded that nothing in the universe is constant. + + +MABON + + Mabon (circa September 21), the Autumn Equinox, is the completion + of the harvest begun as Lughnasadh. Once again day and night are + equal, poised as the God prepares to leave His physical body and + begin the great adventure into the unseen, toward renewal and + rebirth of the Goddess. + + Nature declines, draws back its bounty, readying for Winter and its + time of rest. The Goddess nods in the weakening Sun, though fire + burns within Her womb. She feels the presence of the God even as + He wanes. + + +SAMHAIN + + At Samhain (October 31), the Craft say farewell to the God. This + is a temporary farewell. He isn't wrapped in eternal darkness, but + readies to be reborn of the Goddess at Yule. + + Samhain, also known as November Eve, Feast of the Dead, Feast of + Apples, Hallows, All Hallows and Hallowe'en, once marked the time + of sacrifice. In some places this was the time when animals were + slaughtered to ensure food throughout the depths of Winter. The + God - identified with the animals - fell as well to ensure our + continuing existence. + + Samhain is a time of reflection, of looking back over the last + year, of coming to terms with the one phenomenon of life over which + we have no control - death. + + The Craft feel that on this night the separation between the + physical and spiritual realities is thin. Witches remember their + ancestors and all those who have gone before. + + After Samhain, Witches celebrate Yule, and so the Wheel of the Year + is complete. + + + + Surely there are mysteries buried here. Why is the God the son and + then the lover of the Goddess? This isn't incest, this is + symbolism. In this agricultural story (one of many Craft myths) + the everchanging fertility of the Earth is represented by the + Goddess and God. This myth speaks of the mysteries of birth, death + and rebirth. It celebrates the wondrous aspects and beautiful + effects of love, and honours women who perpetuate our species. It + also points out the very real dependence that humans ha ve on the + Earth, the Sun and the Moon and of the effects of the seasons on + our daily lives. + + To agricultural peoples, the major thrust of this myth cycle is the + production of food through the interplay between the Goddess and + God. Food - without which we would all die - is intimately + connected with the deities. Indeed, Witches see food as yet + another manifestation of divine energy. + + And so, by observing the Sabbats, Witches attune themselves to the + Earth and to the deities. They reaffirm their Earth roots. + Performing rituals on the nights of the Full Moon also strengthens + their connections with the Goddess in particular. + + It is the wise Witch who celebrates on the Sabbats and Esbats, for + these are times of real as well as symbolic power. Honouring them + in some fashion is an integral part of Witchcraft. + +THE ESBATS + + When our earliest ancestors first painted images of their religious + rituals on the walls of sacred caves and understood all of Nature + to be inhabited by Spirit, there can be little doubt that they + first reconed time by the waxing and waning of the Moon. The + primary reason for this is that the monthly cycles of the Moon are + far more visible than the slow and subtle changes in the position + of the Sun, even to someone who is not especially looking for + repeated cycles. One of the earliest calandars known (although its + use is still a controversy that may never be settled) is a 30,000 + year-old piece of bone from Europe. It is pierced with variously + shaped holes in a series of sevens, suggesting the quarters of the + Moon, in a loop design, which represents the Lunar cycle from New + Moon to Full and back to the New or Dark of the Moon. The + artifact, just a few inches across, desribes three such Lunar + cycles - three months or one season. + + Because there are 13 Lunar months in a year, and because the first + New Moon does not necessarily coincide with the first day of the + first Solar month, the Full Moon, midpoint of the lunar month, may + not always fall in the Solar month that is given here. And because + there are 13 Full Moons in a Solar year, one month will have two. + The second Full Moon to occur in a Solar month is popularly called + the Blue Moon. + + +JANUARY + + To each Lunar month the ancients assigned a name in accordance with + the nature of the activity that took place at that time. The Moon + of deepest Winter is the Wolf Moon, and its name recalls a time + when our ancestors gathered close around the hearth fire as the + silence of the falling snow was pierced by the howling of wolves. + Driven by hunger, wolves came closer to villages than at any other + time of the year, and may have occasionally killed a human being in + order to survive. + + The wolf in northern countries was at one time so feared that it + became the image of Fenris, the creature of destruction that + supposedly will devour the world at the end of time. The Christian + version of the myth would leave it at that, but the myth continues. + Like the wolf in the fairy tale of Little Red Ridinghood, which + preserves the full idea of the myth but is used only to frighten + children, the wolf is slain; and the grandmother, like the world, + is brought forth once more. + + As the light of the new-born year slowly increases and the Wolf + Moon waxes full, it is a good time to look back upon that which has + just ended and learn from our experiences. Bid the past farewell + and let it go in order to receive the year that has just been born. + Learning to let go of that which we would cling to is one of the + greatest secrets of magick. + +FEBRUARY + + The Moon following the Wolf Moon is the Storm Moon. Whether you + meet with a coven on the night of the Full Moon, salute Her in a + solitary ritual, or simply blow Her a kiss, bear in mind the magick + of this night and the nature of the storms of February. Unlike the + boisterous storms of the light half of the year, which are + accompanied by the clashing of thunder and the flining of lightning + bolts, the storms of February come in silence. They blanket the + world in coldness in keeping with the nature of t he dark half of + the Wheel of the Year. But beneath the blanket of cold and silent + snow, Nature rests, as we do when in the realm of the Spirit that + is called death; and like those in the world of Spirit, Nature + prepares for life anew. + +MARCH + + The Moon following the Storm Moon is the Chaste Moon. Like Diana, + chaste Goddess of the Moon, all of Nature at this moment is pure + potential waiting to be fullfilled. The Goddess has many forms: + The maiden pure and lovely as the snow of February, the seductive + enchantress of the night, or the Crone ancient and wise. As the + Goddess can change Her form according to the Moon or according to + Her will, ever renewing Herself, ever beginning again, se can we, + Her children, always begin again by discoverin g new potencial + within ourselves. When you cast the Circle of the Chaste Moon, + when the candles have been lit and the incense burned, look deep + within yourself to discover what potential lies there waiting, like + the Maiden, to be fulfilled. + + As it is the time for the planting of seeds on the material plane, + so may it be time to do so on the psychic planes as well. On the + night that the Seed Moon (another name for the Chaste Moon) of + March is full, cast your magick Circle. Then before the rite has + ended, select the spiritual seeds you would like to plant. They + may be seeds of wisdom, seeds of understanding, or seeds of certain + magickal skills. Then by an act of will, plant these seeds in the + fertile soil of your subconscious mind with the firm commitment + that they will be nurtured and cultivated in the months that lie + ahead, so that they will grow and flower and bear fruit. + +APRIL + + As the Hare Moon of April waxes full, observe the rabbits leaping + and playing, carefree in their mating and joyful in their games, + and as you cast your Esbat Circle and joyfully dance the round, + feel within your heart the carefree nature of the wild creatures + that are also children of the Old Gods. + +MAY + + This time of the Sacred Marriage of the God and Goddess is the Dyad + Moon, the time when the two become one, when all things meet their + opposites in perfect balance and in perfect harmony. As you cast + your Circle this night of the Dyad Moon, adorn it with apple + blossoms, and light candles of white. When the sacred round has + been danced, sit a moment and reflect. Seek harmony in all things. + As the dark half of the Wheel of the Year balances the light, as + heat balances cold, recall the words of the Goddess, "Let there be + beauty and strength, power and compassion, honour and humility, + mirth and reverence, within you." And then before the rite is + ended, if it is appropriate, become one with your working partner, + physically as well as spiritually. + +JUNE + + After the spectacular flowers of May have passed and the bees have + gathered their pollen and nectar, the hives are filled with honey + that is waiting to be gathered. In ancient times much of this + honey was made into a drink called mead by a fermentation process + similar to that of making wine. The "Moon in June" is the Mead + Moon. Mead has been considered to have magickal and even + life-restoring properties in many of the countries of ancient + Europe, and it was the drink of many of the great heroes of + legend. + + The legendary figure Robin Hood, who is accepted historically as + being a composite of several peasant leaders during the reign of + King Richard I, is also generally accepted by Pagans as being one + of us. One reason is that Robin was a popular Witch name, and also + because he was always described as being dressed in green, symbolic + of the Green Man of Sherwood Forest. Lincoln green, which is made + from woad, the dyestuff used by the Picts of ancient Britain and + the Druid priestesses, is also a colour tha t symbolizes, + historically, the Pagan peasantry. Among the articles robbed from + the rich by Robin Hood are "met and met." This probably means + "meat and mead." In the myth of Odin, one of His quests is for the + Poetic Mead of Inspiration, which He returns to the realm of the + Gods where it belongs, but a few drops fall to Earth, and this may + be had by anyone who can find them. + + On the night that the Mead Moon waxes full, after the Circle has + been cast and dancing done, fill the cup with mead (if it is + available), sweet wine, or an herb tea sweetened with honey. Sip + the sweet drink and sit quietly and make yourself a vessel ready to + receive the inspiration of the higher realms. Become a mead cup + ready to be filled, not with the brew of everyday life but with the + clear, bright liquid of illumination. Every time this ritual is + performed, even if there are no immediate results , you are + becoming a more perfect vessel for divine inspiration. + + If the night of the Mead Moon is very close to the Summer Solstice, + the results of this exercise can be very powerful. If the Mead + Moon is full on Midsummer Night, then the priestess into whom the + Moon is Drawn should be prepared. + +JULY + + As the Wort Moon of July waxes full, this is the time for gathering + of herbs. The word wort is old Anglo-Saxon for "herb." When the + magickal herbs have been gathered and hung to dry, the time of the + Wort Moon is the time to give thanks to the spirits who dwell in + the herb garden, and to leave them an offering. Perhaps as you + place an offering in the moonlit garden, they will whisper to you + other secrets of herbal magick. + +AUGUST + + One day at mid-month we realize that the robins and wrens that were + nesting nearby have simply vanished. Their lovely songs have been + replaced by the shrill calls of the bluejays, who were so silent + during the nesting season. + + As August progresses the days are still hot but nighttime + temperatures are beginning to cool, and the late afternoon + thunderstorms that bring the cooler air also bring about the + ripening of tomatoes. + + In the fields and meadows and along roadsides now there are wild + herbs to be gathered. There are goldenrod, Queen Anne's lace, and + milkweed - all awaiting the natuaral dyer who can extract from them + tan, green, and bright yellow respectively, for dyes and for + natural inks for talismans. Among the medicinal herbs to be + collected at this time is boneset, which does not help broken bones + to heal but is a febrifuge that was used as a remedy for "Breakbone + Fever" in the 1840s. Milkweed pods with their silken fluff, + goldenrod, and wild grasses and grains gathered now will be dried + in time to adorn the altar at the Autumnal Equinox. + + As the aromic herbs begin to fill the rafters in the dry heat of + the attic, and the braids of onions and garlic fill the cool + darkness of the root cellar, the golden grain and yellow corn ripen + in the fields under the waning August Sun. + + To the Ancients this was the Barley Moon, a time to contemplate the + eternalness of life. Just as we are descended from the first woman + and the first man, who descended from the Gods, so is the grain of + the bread that we eat descended from the first grain ever gathered. + By ritually eating the Lammas bread we are participating in a chain + of events that stretches back through time to the Gods themselves. + And here before us in the ripening fields is the promise of the + future. + + Everywhere there is abundance. + diff --git a/religious documents/shaman.txt b/religious documents/shaman.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e193fdc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shaman.txt @@ -0,0 +1,208 @@ + SUMMARY OF DR. MICHAEL HARNER'S + SHAMANIC BASIC WORKSHOP + + +INTRODUCTORY LECTURE: + + The word "shaman" (technically shaw-mawn' but shaw'-mun is generally used; never shay'-mun) comes from the Tulus tribe in Siberia. + + A shaman is distinguished from a priest by certain practices: + + 1. Changes consciousness to do work in "non-ordinary reality," and does it with discipline, doesn't just let his mind wander off any time of the day (he's a part-timer). + + 2. Change of consciousness is achieved with a monotonous percussive sound--usually drums--and sometimes with drugs, although drums can take you anywhere drugs can. + + 3. Takes journeys of the spirit, moving outside of time, something called "mythic reality" or "dreamtime," and he maps these areas he explores. + + 4. He acts as a conductor of souls, working hand in hand with the powers of the universe (unlike a priest, does not offer sacrifices or do elaborate mysterious rituals--shamanism is NOT priestcraft). + + 5. Primarily interested in serving others, and is not seeking "enlightenment" as a religious or spiritual goal the way Buddhists and Hindus do, as his focus is on serving others (knows if he focuses on himself he will lose his power, which he needs to help others). + + 6. "Core shamanism" is the synthesis of various shamanic techniques gathered from various shamans all over the world. It is interesting to note that shamans from assorted parts of the globe came up with similar or even identical techniques and beliefs, independent of each other. + + 7. Shamanism is at the root of such diverse practices as witchcraft, voodoo, Tibetan Buddhism and others, but pure shamanism is NOT a priestcraft as are some of the practices originally derived from shamanism. + + 8. It is currently fashionable to call oneself a shaman, so many calling themselves that are in fact not shamans. + + +SHAMANIC TECHNIQUES TAUGHT: + +Rock Divination + + 1. Go looking for a rock to sort of present itself to you. + + 2. The rock will have to be returned to where you got it, with thanks to the rock. + + 3. Ask one question, preferably not a yes/no question, but not a double question either. + + 4. Leave the question behind. + + 5. Look at the surface of the rock for four (4) images, not clairvoyant-type images, but just things that certain features of the rock suggest to you, the way you might see a face in the clouds. This is not crystal gazing--it is more like a Rorschach ("what do you see in the dots?") test. Point them out to your partner (if you're doing this with someone) or note them down so you can remember them. Could be a face, a tree, a cave, a mountain, a bird, anything. + + 6. Repeat question. Take the first image and figure out how it might be part of an answer to the question. It will usually be a metaphorical type of answer. E.g., a hawk may represent soaring free or yearning for freedom or fierceness or whatever. + + 7. Make that answer into a further answer to the question. + + 8. Repeat procedure for each image. + + 9. Turn rock over, repeat question, leave it behind, and then do steps 5 - 8 on that side. + + 10. Turn rock back over on side 1 and point to each image and briefly summarize how it is an answer to the question. + + 11. Do the same on side 2. + + 12. Turn back to side 1, ask question, and then synthesize or summarize what the answer to the question would be. + + 13. Put rock back where you found it and thank it. Only one rock per question. + + +Lowerworld Journeying + + Mission: Exploration only. + + 1. Lie on your back, cover your eyes with a scarf or handkerchief and have a monotonous drum tape or live drummer standing by. + + 2. Pick an opening going into the ground that you remember from sometime in your life. Must be an ordinary-reality place from your life, not a dream place. Could be a cave, a pool of water, a whirlpool, anything. + + 3. Drumming starts. + + 4. Visualize yourself at the opening, then going down into it. + + 5. Look for a tunnel or tube going downwards. + + 6. Continue through tube until you come out into the lighted Lowerworld (you should be able to see after awhile a light at the end of the tunnel). + + 7. Explore as long as you like and then retrace your steps the way you came so as to insure that you come back in present time (eventually you will drift back anyway, but it's better if you come back this way). + + +Lowerworld Journey To Find Power Animal and Answer to Question + + 1. Have in mind a question you want to ask of your personal "power animal" (an animal that likes you and helps you--will usually be a wild animal, mythical animal, or something that does not exist in myth or ordinary reality). Repeat question three (3) times before starting journey. + + 2. Start the drumming and as you go down the tunnel (if you found one that works for you, no need to change entrances) have in mind that you will meet your power animal. + + 3. It may be waiting for you as you get out of the tunnel, if not, go looking for it. Call it if you want. If you find it, telepathically ask it your question. + + 4. It may say a word, but they usually prefer to make a motion and perhaps take you an a journey. If it takes you somewhere, consider all the landscape and everything you see from the moment you asked the question to be part of your answer. + + 5. Return the same way you came, retracing your steps, and then open your eyes. + + 6. Now that you have found your power animal, you can call on it for help at any time. If you don't find your power animal you eventually will if you keep trying (even if you don't have one, one will probably take pity on you and become your power animal). Keep in touch with your power animal and any others you might find and they will stay around longer. They tend to go in and out of your life, but keeping in touch and honoring them will cause them to stay. A good way to honor them is to dance around in a circular motion around the room, imitating the way the animal would move, to the drum beat. + + +Upperworld Journey + + 1. Using the same techniques as Lowerworld journey, except you will use something from your memory that goes up, e.g., a tree, a tornado, a chimney, smoke, balloon, whatever. + + 2. After you've made the climb, find a tube or tunnel, or just keep going up, until you break through a layer, possibly of clouds, and come out into the Upperworld. + + 3. Walk around and then explore higher levels of the Upperworld, using the same method, or if a bird or animal presents itself that you can fly up to the next level on, that's fine. + + 4. Retrace your steps the way you came as before. + + +Upperworld Journey in Search of a Teacher + + 1. Have a question in mind which you repeat three (3) times before starting journey. + + 2. Start journey, but have in mind that you will meet your teacher when you get to Upperworld. + + 3. When you meet someone (teachers in the Upperworld are usually in human form, the Lowerworld mainly animal), could be someone historical, a relative, someone you've never seen before, ask him (or her) if he's your teacher. + + 4. If he says yes, ask the question. Consider everything you experience in the Upperworld after answering the question to be an answer to the question. + + 5. Retrace your steps the way you came. + + 6. You can repeat this for any questions you may have that your teacher might be able to help you with. You may have other teachers also, as you may have other power animals (the more the merrier). + + 7. A good part of the art of shamanism involves being able to interpret your answers you get via experience in the upper and lower worlds. + + +Middleworld Journey + + This is the same as upper and lower journeys, except you do not find a descending or ascending point in ordinary reality. The best way to practice Middleworld journeying is to go over a route that you are familiar with in ordinary reality, e.g., a walk to the bus stop or whatever. + + There are two aspects to the Middleworld, the ordinary reality, which is what we know as "reality" and the non-ordinary reality. Most channeling involves middle non-ordinary, people that have recently died or do not choose to reincarnate for some reason. These people can be wise but your deeper answers will usually come from the upper or lower worlds. + + Middleworld journeying is not taught in the Basic Workshop, only described as above. + + +Shamanic Healing (Recovering Lost Power Animals) + + 1. Lying down next to the client, touching full length of body, start your Lowerworld journey, asking the question "will a former power animal of this person take pity on this person and come back"? + + 2. Now to be sure that it is the power animal when you see it, it must present itself to you in four (4) different ways or four (4) times (you may see it from a distance, or from different angles, or four separate times on your journey). + + Caution: Do not bring back any reptiles or fish that are showing their teeth, and do not bring back any bugs, insects, lobsters, crabs or bug-like things. All mammals or birds are OK even if they are showing their teeth. Snakes and fish, if they are not showing their teeth, are OK. + + 3. When you think you have found the power animal, ask it "are you the power animal?" If it in some way indicates that it is. + 4. Clasp it to your chest (and also, using your physical body, clasp it to your chest) and return quickly the way you came back to the Middleworld and ordinary reality. + + 5. Holding it to your chest, cup your hands over the heart of the person and blow the animal (keep it there by visualization) into their heart. You can blow once, or more times if you want. + + 6. Now sit the person up and (still keeping it in your cupped hands by visualizing it) blow it into the top back of the head (known in other practices as the crown chakra). + + 7. Let your hand slide down to their spine between their shoulders and hold it there silently while you let the person experience whatever they will experience. + + 8. Tell them what the animal was and of your journey. + + 9. Ask them if they experienced anything when you blew the animal into them. + + 10. It is a good idea to have them honor the animal by them doing a dance around the room in a circle, to the drums, imitating the way the animal would move. + + This healing can be used on anyone, but is especially good for someone who is sick, unlucky, or demonstrating other symptoms of lack of power. + + +Channeling + + Shamanism is not channeling. Some people are more natural channels and make direct contact with the spirit and communicate with them. That is not shamanism. Shamanism involves the journey to the world to find the spirits. If you get a direct contact, ignore it and discipline yourself to make the journey and do it that way. Some people have no ability at shamanism because they are either very material-minded or are natural channels and cannot operate any other way. + + +Perception + + Some people perceive better than others. Some sort of "think" their way through it, some just get a vague concept of what is happening, others see and feel things more vividly. With practice perception improves. + + +Shamanic Model + + It is very tempting to use a psychological model, deciding that this is the person's subconscious mind and that the power animals of the Lowerworld and teachers of the Upperworld are other aspects of the self. That may be true, but wait until you are quite experienced in shamanism before trying to synthesize shamanism with other systems. When it gets down to it, both viewpoints may be true, if objective reality and mind are not as separate as we like to think. In any event, shamans in widely separate parts of the world, from Lapland to South America to Australia have come up with essentially the same "world view." + +Caution + + A shaman should never use the forces of harmony and love, which is what shamanism deals with, to create disharmony or conflict. It will recoil on him and those tribes that wage shamanic wars on each other end up rather quickly with their shamans in terrible health or dead. + + Also, the more power you achieve, the more careful you have to be with your anger. When you get angry with someone you must learn to deflect your power away from them to avoid harming them (and ultimately yourself). + + +Drum Circle + +Center for Human Growth +8th and Dwight Way +Berkeley, CA +Christina Bertea (654-7843) +Lisa McCann (Menlo Park - phone?) +Drum circle every 3rd Sunday of month + +Drums + +PTS 16" Remo pre-tuned hand drum. +Drill holes around rim so you can put leather strings behind to hold. +Sonar 8 beater. +Get at any music store. + +Can get leather drums at: + +Haight Music +San Francisco + +Pacific West Trading Co. +Folsom, CA + +Taos Drum Co. +Taos, New Mexico +(see ads in Shaman's Drum magazine) + +Thunder Studio +Grass Valley (a bit heavy, but well-made) + + If you live in a damp area and you have a leather drum you will have to use a fire or blow-dryer to dry it out before you can get a good tone. The synthetic Remo is the best in this case (also the cheapest) if you're not worried about authenticity. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/shaman_1.txt b/religious documents/shaman_1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d7747d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shaman_1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3261 @@ +- Dissertation Bibliography from LISTSERV@Uottawa or +LISTSERV@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA as SHAMAN-1 BIBLIO + +This bibliography is also available from the CONTENTS Project +FTP server (PANDA1.UOTTAWA.CA or 137.122.6.16) as +SHAMAN-1.TXT (low ascii text without indentation) + + + +Copyright (C) 1991 by Maureen Elizabeth Korp. + +All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, +stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any +means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or +otherwise, without the prior permission of the author, Maureen +Elizabeth Korp. + +For more information about this dissertation, contact: + +Maureen Elizabeth Korp +Religious Studies Department +University of Ottawa +177 Waller +Ottawa, Ontario +CANADA K1N 6N5 + +(613) 237-2052 (voice) +(613) 564-6641 (fax) + +E-Mail Address: + + Bitnet + Internet +========================================================== + + + EARTHWORKS: + SHAMANISM IN THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES + OF CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS IN NORTH AMERICA + + by + Maureen Elizabeth Korp + + + Dissertation presented to the Graduate School + of the University of Ottawa + as partial fulfillment of the requirements + for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy + (Religious Studies) + + + Thesis Supervisor: Robert Choquette, Ph.D. + + + + + + + + + + Ottawa, Canada + 1991 + + + + + + + Maureen Elizabeth Korp, Ottawa, Canada, 1991. + + + Volume I + + CONTENTS + + + + Acknowledgements iii + + List of Illustrations xi + + List of Tables xiv + + Abstract xvii + + page +Introduction 1-43 + + Kratophany and Theophany 5 + Earthworks 16 + So-called "Primitivism" 19 + Intellectual and Scholarly Interpretations 21 + Shamanism and the Artist 25 + Statement of the Problem 30 + Outline of the Approach 34 + Endnotes 41 + + + + + PART I: THE PROBLEM OF EARTHWORKS AS SACRED SPACE + +Chapter page + +1. Ancient Earthworks in the New World 45-107 + + Marks upon the Land 48 + A Structured Cosmology 55 + A Typology of Set-Apart Space 63 + "The Earth is My Mother" 81 + Impact of Language 87 + Conclusions 92 + Endnotes 95 + + + Volume I + + CONTENTS + + +Chapter page + +2. The Sacred Place: Theoretical Considerations 108-180 + + Recognition of the Sacred Place 111 + Two Sites--sacred or non-sacred? 120 + The Art Historian's Approach 124 + The Religious Approach of Mircea Eliade 128 + The Application of a Sacred Place Typology 134 + Esoteric and Occult Interpretations 149 + Aesthetic Response 151 + Animism as Kratophany 154 + Summary 165 + Endnotes 171 + +3. The Contemporary Earthwork in the New World 181-250 + + The 1969 "Earth Art" Exhibition 185 + Site Specificity and the Earthwork 191 + Sun Tunnels 196 + Complex One/City 200 + Lightning Field 205 + Spiral Jetty 209 + Star Axis 216 + Roden Crater 223 + The Contemporary Earthwork as Sacred Place 232 + Endnotes 240 + + + Volume I + + CONTENTS + + + PART II: THE SHAMAN AS ARTIST (THE ARTIST AS SHAMAN) + + + +Chapter page +4. The Artist's Shamanic Vision 252-314 + + The Shaman 255 + The Shaman and the Artist 257 + Lascaux as an Example of Shamanic Art 259 + Other Primal Examples of Shamanic Art 264 + Style Characteristics 267 + Phosphenes and Photisms 269 + The Shaman's Vision 273 + The Earth-Centered Vision 276 + The Artist's Vision 282 + A Re-Appraisal of Artistic Vision 286 + Conclusion 293 + Endnotes 298 + + + + + + PART III: WHAT THE ARTISTS SAY: + AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF A GROUP OF NORTH AMERICAN ARTISTS + + +Chapter page + +5. Survey Design and Administration 316-356 + + Some Methodological Issues 317 + Design of the Questionnaire 324 + Format of the Questionnaire 327 + Survey Participant Selection 330 + Response Rate to the Questionnaire 334 + Interview Procedures 339 + Interviewing 340 + Interview Text Verification 343 + Participant Follow-up 345 + Conclusions 346 + Endnotes 349 + + + Volume I + + CONTENTS + + + +Chapter page + +6. The Artists' Questionnaire Results 357-425 + + Statistical Profile of the Artists Surveyed 362 + Summary of the Group's Statistical Profile 379 + Questions concerning Artistic Vision and Inspiration 350 + Summary of the Group's Shamanic Experiences 397 + Earthworks and the Artists 398 + The Artist's Empathy for Native Peoples 403 + The Artist's Experience of Kratophany 413 + Conclusion 416 + Endnotes 423 + +7. Interviews with the Artists 426-517 + + The Artist as Shaman 428 + Franz Geierhaas's Study of 15 Artists 432 + Selection of the Artists To Be Interviewed 436 + Views on Religion and Religious Art 438 + The Power of Art 445 + Views on Nature 448 + The Artists' Visions 452 + Work Routines 462 + A Proprietary Point of Discussion 466 + Earthworks in America 476 + The Artist's Community Role 492 + Conclusion 498 + Endnotes 501 + + Volume I + + CONTENTS + + + + PART IV: LAST WORDS AND FURTHER THOUGHTS + + +Chapter page + +8. The Earthwork as Geo-Metaphor 519-554 + + With Words and Pointing Fingers 520 + Art as a Religious Discipline 527 + The Rigney and Smith Study 530 + The Barron Study 533 + The Gallup Poll on Religious Experience 536 + Studies of Psychedelic Agents, Mysticism, and + Creativity 539 + The Buffalo Commons 540 + The Earthwork as Geo-Metaphor 543 + Afterword 549 + Endnotes 550 + + + Volume II + + CONTENTS + + + page +APPENDIX 1. Artist's Questionnaire: Sources of + Archaic Motifs in Contemporary Art 2 + + Consent for Artist's Interview: + Procedure and Interview Form 8 + +APPENDIX 2. Artist's Interview Text + anonymous 14 + Lorenzo Baca 23 + Rick Bartow 35 + Betsy Damon 45 + Jennifer Dickson 55 + Martin Dunn 64 + Anita Endrezze 75 + Andy Fabo 84 + Donna Henes 94 + Peter Hutchinson 105 + Alex Janvier 115 + Ann McCoy 122 + Eva Manly 138 + Jody Pinto 147 + Charles Ross 155 + Jim Schoppert 169 + Tal Streeter 178 + Meryl Taradash 196 + Carla Whiteside 209 + +APPENDIX 3. Curriculum 220 + +WORKS CONSULTED 221 + + Volume I + + List of Illustrations + + +figure page + +1. Gary Dwyer. "Mea Culpa, My Fault." 2 +2. James Turrell. "Roden Crater." 3 +3. Charles Ross. "Star Axis." 4 +4. Alex Janvier. "Fort Simpson." 6 +5. Jody Pinto. "Split Tongue Pier." 7 +6. Meryl Taradash. "Waves." 8 +7. Betsy Damon. "Memory of Clean Water." 9 +8. Jennifer Dickson, R.A. "Memories and Dreams: + Villa Torrigiani di Carmigliano, near Luca, Italy." 10 + +9. Monks Mound, Mississippian, East St. Louis, + Illinois. 57 + +10. Flat circular architectonic shapes. 65 + +11. Flat rectilinear architectonic shapes. 66 + +12. Conical architectonic shapes. 67 + +13. Enclosed rectangular architectonic forms. 68 + +14. Dome-shaped architectonic forms. 69 + +15. a. Cutaway view of a Thompson Indian pit house, + c. 1900; b. Montezuma's Castle, Sinaqua, c.1250. 70 + +16. Great Serpent Mound, Adena, Peebles, Ohio. 75 + +17. a. Reconstruction of the central district of the + Poverty Point, Louisiana, site, c.1000 BCE; + b. detail of the Poverty Point "monster mound." 76 + +18. Moose Mountain Medicine Wheel, Saskatchewan. 141 + +19. Ancient lava flow, Oahu. 146 + +20. Nancy Holt. "Sun Tunnels." 197 + + + Volume I + + List of Illustrations + + + +figure page + +21. Michael Heizer. "Complex One/City." 202 + +22. Walter de Maria. "Lightning Field." 206 + +23. Robert Smithson. "Spiral Jetty." 210 + +24. Charles Ross. "Sunlight Convergence/Solar Burn." 217 + +25. Composition with images of a shaman, bison, and a + rhinocerous, from the cave of Lascaux, France, + c. 17000 BCE. 262 + +26. Manitokanac figure, Ojibway, c. 1870. 281 + + + Volume II + + + +27. Lorenzo Baca. Polychromed wood table. 24 + +28. Rick Bartow. "Protection." 36 + +29. Betsy Damon. "Shrine for Everywoman." 46 + +30. Jennifer Dickson, R.A. "The Fountain of Queen + Dona Maria, Queluz." 56 + +31. Martin Dunn. "Self-portrait," colourized + videotape. 65 + +32. Anita Endrezze. Book plate design. 76 + +33. Andy Fabo. "Sweat Lodge Vision." 86 + +34. Donna Henes. "Cocoon Ceremony." 95 + +35. Peter Hutchinson. "Floating Calabash, + August 1969." 106 + +36. Alex Janvier. "Apple Skydome." 117 + +37. Ann McCoy. "Altar." 123 + + + Volume II + + + List of Illustrations + + +figure page + +38. Eva Manly. "Seaweed Circle." 139 + +39. Jody Pinto. "Fingerspan Bridge." 148 + +40. Charles Ross. "Star Axis" excavation site, + view S. 157 + +41. James Schoppert. "Blueberries." 170 + +42. Tal Streeter, "Dragon Stair." 179 + +43. Meryl Taradash. "Wings of Light." 197 + +44. Carla Whiteside. "Le Premier Recit: Qui la + separait des tenebres (The first book: was + divided from the darkness)." 210 + + + Volume I + + List of Tables + + + +Table page + +1. Summary of Raw Materials, Structural Types, and + Built Forms in Amerindian Architecture 73 + +2. Artist's Questionnaire Response Rate 337 + +3. Highest Level of Education Completed by Ethnicity 363 + +4. Studio Art Training by Sex 364 + +5. Religious Site Travel by Ethnicity 365 + +6. Impact of Religious Sites 367 + +7. Knowledge of Multiple Languages by Ethnicity 368 + +8. Cultural and Ethnic Groups with whom the Artists + Empathize 370 + +9. Reasons for Empathy with Another Group 371 + +10. Important Personal Life Crisis Events 372 + +11. The Experience of Loss or Disappointment in Love + as an Important Life Crisis Event by Sex 373 + +12. The Experience of a Joyful Event as an Important + Life Crisis Event by Sex 374 + +13. The Experience of Racism as an Important Life + Crisis Event by Sex 374 + +14. The Experience of Sexual Hurt as an Important + Life Crisis Event by Sex 375 + +15. The Experience of Harm, Hurt, or Loss of Another + Person as an Important Life Crisis Event by + Ethnicity 375 + +16. The Experience of Racism as an Important Life + Crisis Event by Ethnicity 376 + +17. Change in Religious Identification: Artists' + Childhood and Adult Affiliations Compared 378 + + Volume I + + List of Tables + + +Table page + +18. Sex Difference in the Experience of Kratophany 381 + +19. Frequency in Artist's Lifetime of Visionary + Experiences 386 + +20. Sex Difference in the Age for Obtaining a Vision 387 + +21. Types of Paranormal Experiences Reported by + Artists 390 + +22. Sources of Influence upon Arts Imagery 397 + +23. Ethnicity Difference in Personal Interest in + Earthworks 399 + +24. A Comparison of Interest in Earthworks and Types + of Paranormal Experiences Reported by Artists 400 + +25. A Comparison of Interest in Earthworks and + Visionary Experiences Reported by Artists 401 + +26. A Comparison of Interest in Earthworks and the + Selection by Artists of Earth or Blood as the + Most Important for Their Own Artwork of Four + Archaic Motifs (Blood, Water, Earth, Sun) 402 + +27. A Comparison of Interest in Earthworks and Travel + to Religious Sites by the Artists 403 + +28. A Comparison of Interest in Earthworks and Highest + Level of Education Completed 403 + +29. Reasons for Empathy with Native Peoples and/or + Other Ethnic Groups 406 + +30. Frequency in Artist's Lifetime of Visionary + Experiences among Those Expressing Feelings of + Empathy for Native Peoples 407 + +31. The Experience of Kratophany among Those + Expressing Feelings of Empathy for Native Peoples 407 + +32. The Experience of Religious Conversion among + Those Expressing Feelings of Empathy for Native + Peoples 408 + + Volume I + + List of Tables + +Table page + +33. Childhood Religious Affiliations among Those + Expressing Feelings of Empathy for Native Peoples 409 + +34. The Experience of Personal Hurt among Those + Expressing Feelings of Empathy for Native Peoples 410 + +35. Belief in the Ability of Art to Heal among Those + Expressing Feelings of Empathy for Native Peoples 410 + +36. Migratory Travel away from Home to Work on Site + among Those Expressing Feelings of Empathy for + Native Peoples 411 + +37. Travel to New World Archaic Sites by Those + Expressing Feelings of Empathy for Native Peoples 411 + +38. Visionary Experiences among Those Reporting + Instances of Kratophany 415 + +39. Paranormal Experiences among Those Reporting + Instances of Kratophany 415 + +40. Influence of Paranormal Experiences upon Artistic + Endeavors among Those Reporting Instances of + Kratophany 415 + + + + Abstract + +Within the last 30 years a number of earthworks have been +built by artists, primarily in North America, but extant +examples are known elsewhere in the world. These artworks +are not intended to be bought and sold or displayed within +the usual gallery-focused art distribution system. They are +site-specific works, often located in remote, hard-to-reach +areas. Curatorial documentation is sometimes incomplete. +Some artists do not even list their earthwork projects on +their resumes. What then is the purpose of the contemporary +earthworks? They appear to be similar in siting and +materials to archaic earthworks which we assume to be sacred +in intentionality. Are the contemporary works also religious +statements of sacral orientation? + +In this exploratory study, 203 questionnaires were sent to +artists throughout North America whose work seemed to show an +especial interest in earthworks, visionary experiences, +and/or nature. (Half of the artists selected were female +artists, one-fourth were artists of self-identified +Amerindian ancestry, and half had Canadian addresses.) +Questions were asked of the artists concerning visionary +experiences, paranormal experiences, life crises, religious +background and current religious affiliation, among other +things. The questionnaire return rate was 54.7% or 120 +completed questionnaires. Subsequent interviews were +conducted with 19 artists. + +The findings of the survey indicate that for most of the +artists in the group--native and non-native alike, male and +female alike--their visions and paranormal experiences +inspire and authenticate their work as artists, work which +they themselves believe to be "healing" and linked to the +earth as sacred, a world in which they frequently encounter +"sacred places," power centers, and other experiences of mana +or kratophany. In very special ways, the artists feel +themselves to be mediums for a sacred knowledge which they +believe comes from nature, from the earth, from the energies +of all life, of all time--but not from god or gods per se. +The artists appear to perceive the world as a self-contained +whole, a healing whole, and in their art they take part in +that healing whole. + +Thus, the dissertation argues that the analogy of shaman as +artist (artist as shaman) is a useful one to make to +explicate the religious experiences of artists; that artists +can be studied as a group using the statistical profile +methods of social sciences; and that contemporary earthworks +may constitute a hitherto unrecognized body of sacred art. +If so, they are sacred places. + + + + WORKS CONSULTED + + + +The following list of articles, monographs, and interviews is +divided into nine parts arranged under two major headings-- +primary and secondary documents. Under the heading of +primary documents is one subheading for the list of first- +person statements by artists used in the study. Some are +published articles and interviews. Others are artists' +catalogue statements. Still others are unpublished +interviews and letters, plus notes from telephone +conversations and informal meetings. + +Under the heading of secondary documents are eight further +subheadings arranged with the hope that the reader will find +the subject listings helpful because the bibliography is both +lengthy and interdisciplinary. Titles are not double-listed +under different headings. Under art criticism will be found +articles about contemporary art and artists, particularly +with reference to earthworks, which were not written by the +artists being discussed. + +Under shamanism, the reader can locate general writings on +shamanism and neo-shamanism. Most of the titles listed are +for cross-cultural and/or comparative studies. Tribal- +specific studies of shamanism and individual profiles of +shamans are also listed here, and studies of shamanism and +"primitive" and/or archaic art forms. + +The listings for Amerindian traditions and culture comprise +a variety of items, including visual arts, but omitting +shamanism, having to do with the peoples of the first nations +of North and South America. + +The psychology of art, creativity, and mysticism listings +are, for the most part, Western-oriented contemporary studies +of creativity in the visual arts, trance experiences, and psi +phenomena. + +The religion and art listing includes studies which discuss +the relationship of art to religion and studies concerned +with the origin of religion (and/or art), especially those of +the Old World paleolithic and neolithic eras. The listing +also includes some general work in religious studies typology +and "patterns" (Mircea Eliade's felicitiously chosen term) of +religiosity. + +The section entitled topofilia includes studies of North +American cultural geography, ecology, eco-theology and geo- +piety. Studies of architectonic space, particularly with +reference to contemporary North American culture and +religions, are listed here also. + +The social sciences methodology section lists the how-to +titles which guided the survey design (questionnaire and +interviews), and the interpretation of the survey's findings. + +Finally, miscellany as a subsection heading is just what its +title says--a catch-all list of reference books which I +consulted from time-to-time. + + + + +PRIMARY DOCUMENTS + +1. Artist's Statements and Interviews + + +Andre, Carl. Carl Andre. The Hague: Gemeentemuseum, + 1969. + +Anonymous artist. Interview, by telephone, British + Columbia, July 13, 1989. + +Baca, Lorenzo. Interview, by telephone, Sonora, + California, July 30, 1989. + +Barrie, David. "Religion, Science, and Art," Apollo, + vol.79, nr.327 (May 1989). pp.313-316. + +Bartow, Rick. Interview, by telephone, South Beach, + Oregon, July 24, 1989. + +Bridges, Marilyn. "High Overview, Newark, Ohio, 1982," + Aperture, issue 98 (Spring 1985). unpaged. + +________. Markings: Aerial views of sacred + landscapes. New York: Aperture Foundation, 1986. + +________. "Serpent Mound, Adams County, Ohio, 1982," + Aperture, issue 98 (Spring 1985). unpaged. + +Damon, Betsy. Interview, in-person, New York City, July 2, + 1989. + +Dickson, Jennifer. Interview, in-person, Ottawa, July 5, + 1989. + +"Discussions with Heizer, Oppenheim, Smithson," + Avalanche, Fall 1970. pp.48-70. + +Dunn, Martin. Interview, in-person, Ottawa, June 26, 1989. + +Dwyer, Gary. "Mea Culpa, My Fault: A report on an + earthwork in progress," Leonardo, vol. 19, nr.4 + (1986). pp.285-287. + +________. "The Power under our Feet: Mea Culpa (My + Fault): A work in progress," Landscape + Architecture, May/June 1986. pp.65-68. (Response: + July/August 1986, p.9.) + +Edelson, Mary Beth. Seven Cycles: Public rituals. + New York: Privately published, 1980. + +Endrezze, Anita. Interview, by telephone, Spokane, + Washington, July 26, 1989. + +Fabo, Andy. Interview, in-person, Ottawa, June 17, 1989. + +Haacke, Hans. Earth. Ithaca: Andrew Dickson White + Museum, Cornell University, 1969. + +Heizer, Michael. "Discussions with Heizer, Oppenheim, + Smithson," Avalanche, issue 1 (Fall 1970). + pp.24ff. + +________. Michael Heizer. Essen: Museum Folkwang, + 1979. + +Henes, Donna. Dressing Our Wounds. Los Angeles: + Astro Artz, 1982. + +________. Interview, in-person, Brooklyn, New York, July + 19, 1989. + +Hompson, Davi Det (David Thompson). Richmond, Virginia. + Personal communication, January 25, 1990. + +Hutchinson, Peter. "Earth in Upheaval: Earthworks and + landscapes," Arts Magazine, November 1978. + pp.19-21. + +________. Interview, by telephone, Provincetown, + Massachusetts, July 27, 1989. + +Janvier, Alex. Interview, in-person, Ottawa, June 25, + 1989. + +_________. Personal communication, February 1989. + Kiesler, Frederick. Inside the Endless House, Art, + People, and Architecture: A journal. New + York: Simon and Schuster, 1966. + +Lipke, William C. "Earth Systems," Earth Art. + Ithaca, New York: Andrew Dickson White Museum of + Art, 1969. unpaged. + +McCoy, Ann. Interview, in-person, New York City, July 20, + 1989. + +Manly, Eva. Interview, in-person, Ottawa, July 6, 1989. + +Meadmore, Clement. "Thoughts on Earthworks, Random + Distribution, Softness, Horizontality, and Gravity," + Arts Magazine, February 1969. pp.26-28. + +Morris, Robert. "Statement by Robert Morris," The Arts + (Earthworks): Newsletter of the King County Arts + Commission, vol. 8, nr. 7 (July 1979). pp.1-6. + +Munro, Eleanor. "Art in the Desert," New York Times, + December 7, 1986. pp.9, 38. + +Orion, Ezra. "Sculpture in the Solar System: From + geologically based earthworks to astro-sculpture," + Leonardo, vol.18, nr.3 (1985). pp.157-160. + +Pinto, Jody. Excavations and Constructions: Notes for + the body/land. Philadelphia: Marian Locks + Gallery, 1979. + +________. Interview, in-person, New York City, July 21, + 1989; by telephone, New York City, July 26, 1989. + +Ross, Charles. Interview, by telephone, Las Vegas, New + Mexico, September 12, 1989. + +_________. Personal communication, August 2, 1990. + +________. "Star Axis: Where the earth meets the sky." + Unpublished prospectus, 1987, revised 1990. + +_________. The Substance of Light: Sunlight Dispersion, + the Solar Burns, Point Source/Star Space: Selected work + of Charles Ross, February 6-March 14, 1976. + LaJolla, California: LaJolla Museum of Contemporary + Art, 1976. + +________. "Sunlight Convergence/Solar Burns," Co- + Evolution Quarterly, Winter 1977-78. + pp.104-107. + +Saad-Cook, Janet. "Touching the Sky: Artworks using + natural phenomena, earth, sky, and connections to + astronomy," Leonardo, vol.21, nr.2 (1988). + pp.123-134. + +Schoppert, Jim. Interview, by telephone, Seattle, + Washington, July 24, 1989. + +Simonds, Charles. "Microcosm to Macrocosm," Art + Forum, February 1974. pp.36-39. + +________. Three Peoples. Genoa, Italy: + Samanedizioni, 1976. + +Sonfist, Alan. "Letters to the Editor," New York Times + Magazine, December 10, 1989. p.18. + +Streeter, Tal. Interviews, by telephone, Milbrook, New + York, September 17, 24, 1989. + +________. Six Sculptors in America: Jacques Lipchitz, + Louise Nevelson, Seymour Lipton, Jose de Rivera, Richard + Stankiewicz, and John Chamberlain. Unpublished MFA + thesis, University of Kansas, 1961. + +Taradash, Meryl. Interview, in-person, New York City, July + 20, 1989. + +Turrell, James. Personal communication. Flagstaff, + Arizona, March 24, 1989. + +Whiteside, Carla. Interview, in-person, Ottawa, July 12, + 1989. + + + + +SECONDARY DOCUMENTS + +2. Art Criticism + + +Abadie, Daniel. "Simonds: Life built to dream + dimensions." Charles Simonds. Chicago: Museum + of Contemporary Art, 1981. pp.31-34. + +Adcock, Craig. "Anticipating 19,084: James Turrell's + Roden Crater Project," Arts Magazine, May + 1984. pp.76-85. + +________. "The Big Bad: A critical comparison of Mount + Rushmore and modern earthworks," Arts Magazine, + April 1983. pp.104-107. + +Alloway, Lawrence. "Robert Smithson's Development." In + Art in the Land: A critical anthology of + environmental art, ed. Alan Sonfist. New + York: E.P. Dutton, 1983. pp.125-141. + +Amaya, Mario. "Land Reform: New monuments by Michael + Heizer," Studio International, vol. 198, nr. 1009 + (l985). pp.18-22. + +Baele, Nancy. "Inuit Artist Draws to Sell," Ottawa + Citizen, July 7, 1990. p.G-3. + +Baker, Elizabeth C. "Artworks on the Land." In Art in the + Land: A critical anthology, ed. Alan Sonfist. + New York: E.P. Dutton, 1983. pp.73-84. + +Beardsley, John. Earthworks and Beyond. New York: + Abbeville Press, 1989. + +________. "On the Loose with the Little People: A + geography of Simond's art." In Charles Simonds. + Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1981. pp.26-30. + +________. Probing the Earth: Contemporary land + projects. Washington: Smithsonian + Institution Press, 1977. + +________. "Traditional Aspects of New Land Art," Art + Journal, Fall 1982. pp.226-232. + +Bletter, Rosemarie Haag. "Global Earthworks," Art + Journal, Fall 1982. pp.222-225. + +Brenson, Michael. "Sculpture for Troubled Places," New + York Times, October 15, 1989. sec.2, pp.1,42. + +Castle, Ted. "Nancy Holt, Siteseer," Art in America, + March 1982. pp.84-91. + +Chafee, Katherine Smith. "Charles Ross," Artspace, + Fall 1981. pp.24-27. + +Christ, Ronald. "Masks, Tents, Vessels, Talismans: The + Institute of Contemporary Art, University of + Pennsylvania, Dec.5, 1979-Jan.13, 1980," + artscanada, April/May 1980. pp.46-47. + +Clay, Grady. "King County's Earthworks Symposium Breaking + New Ground with Land Reclamation as Sculpture," The + Arts (Earthworks): Newsletter of the King County Arts + Commission, vol.8, nr.7 (July 1979). pp.1-6. + +Crone, Rainer. "Prime Objects of Art: Scale, Shape, Time," + Perspecta, issue 19. pp.1 4-35. + +Dalton, Deborah W. "Still Life in Quarry," Landscape + Architecture, May/June 1985. pp.66-69. + +Dancer, Daniel. "In Concert with Nature," Southwest + Art, issue 16 (January 1987). p.84. + +Davies,Peter and Tony Knipe, eds. A Sense of Place: + Sculpture in the landscape. Tyne and Wear, + England: Ceolfrith Press, 1984. + +Deitch, Jeffrey. "The New Economics of Environmental Art." + In Art in the Land: A critical anthology of + environmental art ed. Alan Sonfist. New York: + E.P. Dutton, 1983. pp.85-91. + +Dotson, Esther Gordon. "Shapes of Earth and Time in + European Gardens," Art Journal, Fall 1982. + pp.210-216. + +Dwan, Virginia. "Reflections on Robert Smithson," Art + Journal, Fall 1982. p.232. + +Eaton, Linda B. "Nora Naranjo-Morse: Santa Clara + sculptor." A Separate Vision. Flagstaff, + Arizona: Museum of Northern Arizona, + Plateau, vol. 60, nr. 1, 1989. + +Evans, Karen. "Walking through Rainbows: A new trip at + the San Francisco Airport," Image, May 10, 1987. + p.29. + +Fry, Edward. Robert Morris/Projects. Philadelphia: + Institute of Contemporary Art, 1974. + +Fuller, Peter. "Carl Andre," Art Monthly, issue 16/17 + (1978). pp.5-11. + +Gablik, Suzi. "Making Art as if the World Mattered," Utne + Reader, issue 34 (July/August 1989). pp. 71-76. + +Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess: A symbol + for our time. San Francisco: Harper & Row, + 1989. + +Geierhaas, Franz and Birgitte Hellgoth. The Creative Act: + Paths to realization/interviews with 15 + artists. New Hope, Pennsylvania: + International Print Society, 1984. + +Gilbert-Rolfe, Jeremy. "Sculpture as Everything Else, + Twenty Years or So of the Question of Landscape," + Arts Magazine, January 1988. pp.71-75. + +Gill, Brendan. "A Sculptor's Obsession in Upstate New + York," Architectural Digest, issue 46 (March + 1989). pp.46-54. + +Goldwater, Robert. Primitivism in Modern Art (1938). + New York: Vintage Books, 1967. + +Gopnick, Adam. "Basic Stuff: Robert Smithson, science, + and primitivism," Arts Magazine, March 1983. + pp.74-88. + +Grundberg, Andy. "As it must to all, death comes to post- + modernism," New York Times, September 16, + 1990, pp.H-47, 52. + +Hall, Carol. "Environmental Artists: Sources and + Directions." In Art in the Land: A critical + anthology of environmental art, ed. Alan + Sonfist. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1983. pp.8-59. + +Hall, James. "Landscape Art: Public art or public + convenience," Apollo, vol. 79, nr.325 (March + 1989). pp.157-222. + +Hapgood, Fred. "Roden's Eye," Atlantic Monthly, + August 1987. pp.46-52. + +Hobbs, Robert. "Editor's Statement: Earthworks, past and + present," Art Journal, Fall 1982. pp.191-194. + +House, Dorothy. Roden Crater. Flagstaff, Arizona: + Museum of Northern Arizona, 1988. + +Hughes, Robert. The Shock of the New: Art and the + century of change. London: British + Broadcasting Corporation, 1980. + +Johnson, Jory. "Presence of Stone," Landscape + Architecture, July/August 1986. pp.64-69. + +Johnson, Yankee. "Earthworks: Combining environmental and + land issues," The Arts (Earthworks): Newsletter of + the King County Arts Commission, vol. 8, nr. 7 (July + 1979). pp.1-6. + +Kantrowitz, Barbara and Karen Springen. "Glass, Steel, and + Sunlight: The `solar sculptures' of Dale Eldred," + Newsweek, May 15, 1989. p.69. + +Kelley, Jeff. "Light-Years," Art Forum, November + 1985. pp.73-75. + +Kimmelman, Michael. "Getting to the Heart of an Image's + Power," New York Times, October 29, 1989. sec.H, + pp.37, 43. + + +Kluesing, Cherie. "Site Artists: The role of outsiders in + landscape design," Landscape Architecture, issue + 78 (April/May 1988). pp.120ff. + +Kuspit, Donald B. "Caves and Temples," Art in + America, April 1982. pp.129-33. + +________. "Charles Ross: Light's measure." In Art in the + Land: A critical anthology of environmental + art, ed. Alan Sonfist. New York: E.P. + Dutton, 1983. pp.159-168. + +________. "The Pascalian Spiral: Robert Smithson's + drunken boat," Arts Magazine, October 1981. + pp.82-88. + +Langager, Craig. "Getting a Symposium off the Ground: A + process in itself," The Arts (Earthworks): + Newsletter of the King County Arts Commission, vol. + 8, nr.7 (July 1979). pp.1-6. + +Leavitt, Thomas W. "Foreword," Earth Art. Ithaca, + New York: Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, + 1969. + unpaged. + +LeVeque, Terry Ryan. "Nancy Holt's `Sky Mound': Adaptive + technology creates celestial perspectives," Landscape + Architecture, issue 78 (April/May 1988). pp.82, 85- + 86. + +Levin, Gail. "American Art." In Primitivism in 20th + Century Art: Affinity of the tribal and the modern, + ed. William Rubin. New York: Museum of Modern Art, + 1984. pp.453-474. + +Levy, Mark. "The Shaman is a Gifted Artist: Shamanism in + the work of Yves Klein, Joseph Beuys, Mary Beth Edelson, + and Karen Finley," High Performance 43, vol. 11, + nr.3 (Fall 1988). pp.54-67. + +Lippard, Lucy R. "Fire and Stone: Politics and ritual." + In Seven Cycles: Public rituals, by Mary + Beth Edelson. New York: Mary Beth Edelson, 1980. + pp.6-9. + +________. Overlay: Contemporary art and the art of + prehistory. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983. + +McEvilley, Thomas. "Art in the Dark," Art Forum, + Summer 1983, pp.62-71. (Responses: Art + Forum, October 1983, pp.2-4.) + +Malone, Maggie. "The Great Outdoors: No more giant + sculptures plopped in plazas," Newsweek, October + 23, 1989. pp.76-79. + +Mansbach, S.A. "An Earthwork of Surprise: the 18th- + century ha-ha," Art Journal, Fall, 1982. pp.217- + 221. + +Massie, Sue. "Timeless Healing at Buffalo Rock," + Landscape Architecture, May/June 1985. + pp.70-71. + +Miller, Naomi. Heavenly Caves: Reflections on the garden + grotto. New York: George Braziller, 1982. + +Molderings, Herbert. Charles Simonds: Floating Cities + and Other Architectures. Munster, Germany: + Westfalischer Kunstverein, 1978. + +Munro, Eleanor. "Art in the Desert," New York Times, + December 7, 1986. p.38. + +Neff, John Hallmark. "Charles Simonds' Engendered Places: + Towards a biology of architecture." In Charles + Simonds, John Hallmark Neff, et al. Chicago: + + Museum of Contemporary Art, 1981. pp.12-25. + +________. "Commentaries." In Charles Simonds, John + Hallmark Neff, et al. Chicago: Museum of + Contemporary Art, 1981. pp.68-72. + +________, John Beardsley, and Daniel Abadie. Charles + Simonds. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, + 1981. + +Piper, David, ed. "Land and Earth Art." In RandomHouse + Library of Painting & Sculpture, vol. 3. + New York: Random House, 1981. + pp.248-249. + +Ranney, Edward. "Excavating the Present," Aperture, + issue 98 (Spring 1985). pp.42-47. + +Rickey, Carrie. "Naive Nouveau and its Malcontents," + Flash Art, issue 98/99 (Summer 1980). + pp.36-39. + +Rodiger-Diruf, Erika. "Ausstellung: Zuruck zur Natur, + aber wie?" Du, issue 6 (1988), pp.78-86. + +Rosenthal,Mark. "Some Attitudes of Earth Art: From + competition to adoration." In Art in the Land: + A critical anthology of environmental art, ed. + Alan Sonfist. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1983. + pp.60-72. + +Roos, Sandra. "Women's Imagery/Women's Art." In Women's + Culture: The women's renaissance of the + seventies. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow + Press, 1981. pp.42-59. + +Rubin, William. "Modernist Primitivism: An introduction." + In Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the + tribal and the modern, ed. William Rubin. New York: + Museum of Modern Art, 1984. pp.1-81. + +Russell, John. "James Turrell (1986)," Reading Russell: + Essays 1941-1988 on ideas, literature, art, theatre, + music, places, and persons. New York: Harry N. + Abrams, 1989. pp.123-126. + +________. "Joseph Beuys (1986)," Reading Russell: Essays + 1941-1988 on ideas, literature, art, theatre, music, + places, and persons. New York: Harry N. Abrams, + 1989. pp.121-123. + +Saltz, Jerry. "Notes on a Sculpture: Alan Sonfist's + `Slice of Life'," Arts Magazine, May 1989. + pp.13-44. + +"Scorched Earth: An elemental work by Hideho Tanaka," + Crafts, issue 76 (September-October 1985), pp.28-31. + +Shaffer, Diana. "Nancy Holt: Spaces for reflections or + projections." In Art in the Land: A critical + anthology of environmental art, ed. Alan + Sonfist. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1983. pp.169- + 177. + +Shapiro, Gary. "Entropy and Dialectic: The signatures of + Robert Smithson," Arts Magazine, June 1988. + pp.99-104. + +Sharp, Willoughby. "Notes toward an Understanding of Earth + Art," Earth Art. Ithaca, New York: Andrew + Dickson White Museum of Art, 1969. unpaged. + +Sonfist, Alan, ed. Art in the Land: A critical anthology + of environmental art. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1983. + +Speed, Harold. "The Shock of Modern Art," Utne + Reader, issue 34 (July/August 1989). + pp.68-71. + +Spektorov, Bette. "The Impact of Megalithic Landscapes on + Contemporary Art," Studio International, vol. + 196, nr. 999 (April/May 1983). pp.6-9. + +Stevens, Mark. "Turrell's Celestial Vault," Newsweek, + February 10, 1986, p.71. + +"This art all rock but hard to roll," The Ottawa + Citizen, May 11, 1989, pp.D-10. + +Thorson, Alice. "A Paragon of Art in the '80s," Art + News, January 1986. pp.11-12. + +Titterington, Chris. "The Unpainted Landscape," + Apollo, August 1988. pp.129-131. + +Varnedoe, Kirk. "Abstract Expressionism." In Primitivism + in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the tribal and the + modern, ed. William Rubin. New York: Museum of + Modern Art, 1984. pp.615-660. + +________. "Contemporary Explorations." In Primitivism in + 20th Century Art: Affinity of the tribal and the + modern, ed. William Rubin. New York: Museum of + Modern Art, 1984. pp.661-685. + +________. "Preface." In Primitivism in 20th Century Art: + Affinity of the tribal and the modern, ed. + William Rubin. 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The Shaman and the Medicine Wheel. + Wheaton, Illinois: Theosophical Publishing House, 1982. + +Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic techniques of + ecstasy (1951). Princeton: Princeton + University Press, 1964. + +Elkin, A. P. Aboriginal Men of High Degree (1946). + New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978. + +Faulstich, Paul. "Shaman, Ritual, Place: Sacred sites and + spiritual transformation," Earth First!, + September 22, 1989. p.26. + +Furst, Peter T. "The Roots and Continuities of Shamanism," + artscanada, issue 184, 185, 186, 187 + (December 1973- January 1974). pp.33-60. + +Grim, John A. The Shaman: Patterns of Siberian and + Ojibway Healing. Norman, Oklahoma: + University of Oklahoma Press, 1983. + + +Guedon, Marie-Francoise. "Critical Workshop on Shamanic + Method and Exploration of Athapaskan Shamanic Method," + Department of Religious Studies, University of Ottawa, + March 2, 1989. Department seminar. + +________. 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In Geographies of the Mind: Essays in + historical geography in honour of John Kirkland + Wright, eds. David Lowenthal and Martyn J. Bowden. + New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. pp.89-117. + +Marling, Karal Ann. "The Wet Nurse of all Creation," New + York Times Book Review, October 16, 1988. pp.47, + 49. + +Matthews, Anne. "The Poppers and the Plains," New York + Times Magazine, June 24, 1990, pp.24-26, 41, + 48-49, 53. + +Michell, John. City of Revelation: On the proportions + and symbolic numbers of the cosmic temple. London: + Garnstone Press, 1972. + +________. The Earth Spirit. London: Thames & + Hudson, 1975. + +________. A Little History of Astro-Archaeology: Stages + in the transformation of a heresy. London: Thames + & Hudson, 1977. + +________. The New View over Atlantis. San Francisco: + Harper & Row, 1983. + +Mol, Hans. Meaning and Place: An introduction to the + social scientific study of religion. New York: + Pilgrim Press, 1983. + +Nichols, Ross and James Kirkup. The Cosmic Shape: An + interpretation of myth and legend with three poems and + lyrics. London: The Forge Press, 1946. + +Norberg-Schulz, Christian. The Concept of Dwelling: On + the way to figurative architecture. New York: + Rizzoli International, 1985. + +________. Genius Loci: Towards a phenomenology of + architecture. New York: Rizzoli International, + 1979. + +________. Intentions in Architecture. Cambridge, + Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1965. + +________. Meaning in Western Architecture. New York: + Rizzoli International, 1980. + +O'Connor, Larry. "Where the World Changed," New York + Times, December 9, 1990. sec.xx, p.41. + +Phillips, Bob. "View from the Outaouais: Ancient secrets + just aren't safe here in Cantley," Ottawa + Citizen, February 26, 1990. p.C-3. + +Pollan, Michael. "Autumn: It's no garden party," New + York Times Magazine, September 16, 1990. pp.54-57, + 98, 100. + +________. "Putting Down Roots," New York Times + Magazine, May 6, 1990. pp.38-40, 44, 82. + +________. "Why Mow? The Case against Lawns," New York + Times Magazine, May 28, 1989. pp.23-26, 41-42, 44. + +Porter, Philip W. and Fred E. Lukermann. "Geographies of + Utopia." In Geographies of the Mind: Essays in + historical geography in honor of John Kirkland + Wright, eds. David Lowenthal and Martyn J. Bowden. + New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. pp.197-223. + +Research into Lost Knowledge Organization (RILKO). Earth + Mysteries. London: RILKO, 1977. + +Richards, Caroline. "The New Cosmology: What it really + means." In Thomas Berry and the New Cosmology, + eds. Anne Lonergan and Caroline Richards. Mystic, + Connecticut: Twenty-third Publications, 1987. pp.91- + 101. + +Ross-Bryant, Lynn. "The Land in American Religious + Experience," Journal of the American Academy of + Religion, Fall 1990, vol.58, nr.2, pp.333-355. + +Russell, John. "Art Tells Us Where We Are (1981)," + Reading Russell: Essays 1941-1988 on ideas, literature, + art, theatre, music, places, and persons. New York: + Harry N. Abrams, 1989. pp.184-189. + +Rybczynski, Witold. The Most Beautiful House in the + World. New York: Penquin Books, 1989. + +Smith, Johnathan Z. To Take Place: Toward theory in + ritual. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, + 1987. + +Swimme, Brian. "Science: A partner in creating the + vision." In Thomas Berry and the New Cosmology, + eds. Anne Lonergan and Caroline Richards. Mystic, + Connecticut: Twenty-third Publications, 1987. pp.81- + 90. + +Treib, Marc. "Traces upon the Land: The formalistic + landscape," Architectural Association Quarterly + (London), vol.11, nr.4 (1979). pp.28-39. + +Tuan, Yi-Fu. "Geopiety: A theme in man's attachmet to + nature and to place." In Geographies of the Mind: + Essays in historical geography in honor of John Kirkland + Wright, eds. David Lowenthal and Martyn J. Bowden. + New York: Oxford University Press, 1976. pp.11-39. + +________. Topofilia: A study of environmental + perception, attitudes, and values. + Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1974. + +Walter, E.V. Placeways: A theory of the human + environment. Chapel Hill and London: University of + North Carolina Press, 1989. + +________. "A Shelter for Dreams," New York Times Book + Review, May 21, 1989. pp.1, 52. + +Zelinsky, Wilbur. "Unearthly Delights: Cemetery delights + and the map of the changing American afterworld." In + Geographies of the Mind: Essays in historical + geography in honor of John Kirkland Wright, eds. + David Lowenthal and Martyn J. Bowden. New York: Oxford + University Press, 1976. pp.171-195. + + + +8. Social Science Methodology + + +Anderson, Marsha Kobre. "Life after Douglass," Douglass + Alumnae Bulletin, Fall 1989. pp.8-10. + +Cicourel, Aaron V. Method and Measurement in + Sociology. London: Free Press of Glencoe, 1964. + +Cochran, William, et al. "Principles of Sampling," + American Statistical Association Journal, March + 1954. pp.13-35. + +Eichler, Margrit. Nonsexist Research Methods: A + practical guide. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1988. + +Gleick, James. "Why We Can't Count," The New York Times + Magazine, July 15, 1990. pp.22-26, 54. + +Goode, William J. and Paul K. Hatt. Methods in Social + Research. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1952. + +Gottschalk, Louis, et al. The Use of Personal + Documents in History, Anthropology, and + Sociology. New York: Social Science Research + Council, n.d. (c.1945). + +Gould, Stephen Jay. "The Creation Myths of Cooperstown," + Natural History, November 1989. pp.14-24. + +Jackson, Winston. Research Methods: Rules for Survey + Design and Analysis. Scarborough, Ontario: + Prenctice-Hall, Canada, 1988. + +Kluckhorn, Clyde. "The Personal Document in + Anthropological Science." In The Use of Personal + Documents in History, Anthropology, and Sociology, + Louis Gottschalk, et al. New York: Social + Science Research Council, n.d. (c.1945). pp.79-173. + +Li, Peter S. Social Research Methods. Toronto: + Butterworths, 1981. + +Nachmias, Chava and David Nachmias. Research Methods in + the Social Sciences. New York: St. Martin's Press, + 1981. + +Northrop, F.S.C. The Logic of the Sciences and the + Humanities. New York: World Publishing, 1974. + +Payne, Stanley L. The Art of Asking Questions (1951). + Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980. + Scott, C. "Research on Mail Surveys," Journal of the + Royal Statistical Society, 1961. pp.143-205. + + +Selltiz, Claire, et al. Research Methods in Social + Relations. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, + 1966. + +Smithsonian World: "Tales of the Human Dawn." WNPE-WNPI, + Watertown, New York. March 28, 1990. + +Stanley, Liz and Sue Wise. Breaking Out: Feminist + consciousness and feminist research. London: + Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983. + +Whissell, M. Basic Statistics and Experimental + Methodology. Part I: Descriptive + Statistics. Ottawa: University of Ottawa, 1979. + Typescript. + + +9. Miscellany + + +Bartlett, John, ed. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. + Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1982. + +The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. + Oxford: Oxford University Press, 197l. + +The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the English Language, + 6th edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976. + +Frank, W.J. "Nuclear Weapons," Encyclopaedia + Britannica, 15th edition. Chicago: + Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1984. Macropaedia, vol. + 13, pp.325-326. + +Green, Johnathan, ed. Says Who: A guide to quotations of + the century. Essex, England: Longman Group, 1988. + +Morris, William, ed. American Heritage Dictionary of the + English Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, + 1978. + +"Periscope," Newsweek, May 6, 1991, p.21. + +Rycroft, Charles. A Critical Dictionary of + Psychoanalysis (1968). New York: Penquin Books, + 1986. + +Smith, John. Sucking-stones. Dunvegan, Ontario: + Quadrant Editions, 1982. + +Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the + English Language Unabridged. Chicago: + Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981. + +===================================================================== + The Religious Studies Publications Journal - CONTENTS + 1992 +Volume 1.039 Dissertation Bibliography ISSN 1188-5734 +===================================================================== + +New Bibliography Available + + One of the objectives of the CONTENTS Project is to compile a freely +accessible collection of bibliographies of interest to any of the areas of +study within religious studies. The CONTENTS Project encourages those who +have bibliographies that would be of interest to researchers to make these +available to others by submitting them for placement on the CONTENTS +fileserver. Authors of major papers, thesis, dissertations and manuscripts +should consider making their bibliographies freely available to the academic +community. Compilers retain the full copyright to their work. Our intent is +simply to provide a cost free method of dissemination of research material. + +For more information on how to submit a bibliography to the CONTENTS Project +fileserver, please contact the project director at 441495@Uottawa (BITNET) or +441495@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA. +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + The bibliography from Maureen Korp's dissertation, _Earthworks: +Shamanism in the Religious Experiences of Contemporary Artists in North +America_, (University of Ottawa, 1991, appox. 50 pages) is now available from +the CONTENTS Project's LISTSERV fileserver. Our thanks to Maureen E. Korp, +Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Post Doctoral Follow, for +making this bibliography available over the academic networks in electronic +text. + +** RETRIEVAL INSTRUCTIONS ** + +The bibliography of Maureen Korp's dissertation, _Earthworks: Shamanism in +the Religious Experiences of Contemporary Artists in North America_, +(University of Ottawa, 1991, appox. 50 pages) can be retrieved by sending the +mail message: + + +GET SHAMAN-1 BIBLIO + +to Listserv@Uottawa (BITNET) or Listserv@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA (Internet). + +NOTE: Please DO NOT send this command to CONTENTS or to 441495 - send the +command to LISTSERV interactively via BITNET or as a mail message via +Internet. Contact the project director (address below) if you experience +difficulty retrieving the file only AFTER consulting your local network +consultants or postmaster. +=========================================================================== diff --git a/religious documents/shamanaa.txt b/religious documents/shamanaa.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36e8b24 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shamanaa.txt @@ -0,0 +1,120 @@ +The 12 steps and Shamanism +by Matrika co-sysop of PAN - the Psychic Awareness Network at +1-703-362-1139 copyright by PAN and Harvest ( a pagan newsletter at box +228 S. Framinham MA 01701 - $13. per year) + +Author's note - this article was first published by me under the name JUKNO +in Harvest's Yule edition, 1989. + +Recently a local charecter in Alcoholics Anonymous here in the Worcester +MA. area died. His name was "John the Indian" (he identified himself this +way) and he was well-known as an AA speaker all over the world, although he +lived near central Massechusetts. John had about thirty years of sobriety +and was a great power of example to many people including Betty Ford who +told him she had listened to tapes of his talks while she was in detox. + +John's story intrigued many people. An Indian who had been orphaned on the +reservation when Tuberculosis wiped out his familly, he had ended up on +skid row after serving in the Canadian army during World War II as a +dishwasher. He came to AA in his mid-twenties, an illiterate wine. ( my +note - this is NOT to imply that most alcoholics are on skid row. In fact +most of them are people with nice famillies, a place to live, a car or even +two, a job, etc. etc. etc. Less that 2% of the alcoholics in this country +are on skid row) He ended up owning his own construction business after +learning to read (from a elderly woman in AA who was a school teacher) and +marrying a lady in AA with whom he raised a lovely familly. + +Because John had inspired me and so affected my life with his gift of +simplicity, I was inspired to do a shamanic-style rite in his memory. I +had always felt sorry for John because, in the process of his recovery, he +seemed to have lost touch with the beauty of this heritage. Then it hit +me; John WAS a shaman and anyone who truly worked a 12-step program was +one too. + +In BIRTH OF A MODERN SHAMAN by Cynthia Bend and Tayja Wiger (Llewelyn +Publication box 64383, St. Paul MN. 1988 ) it states + " A shaman is hard to define. There are no two alike..... what + happens, a shaman goes through a catastrophe or a string of + catastrophes that enhance certain abilities within him ( or her! ) + .....Most often the Shaman has to go through a severe trauma, a severe + illness or a severe psychosis and recover from it before he learns the + recovery process that he can use." + + +The authors are quoting Tsonkawa, Tayja's teacher on the Shamanic path. ( +a Native American Medicine person) + +Many other authors on Shamanism; Sunbear, Lynn Andrews, Amber Wolfe and +Micheal Harner, to name a few: echo this truth. A shaman is a person who +goes through great suffering, usually in the form of a mental or physical +illness, and then goes on to heal himself or herself. They are then able +to use that same process to heal others. + +This is what happens in a twelve-step fellowship. Through the process of +healing ourselves, we come to the point where we can help others hy +"carrying the message" after having had a "spiritual awakening" as the +result of taking the first eleven steps. + +Here are some books that can help any Pagan, Shaman, Druid, Witch, +Practitioner of Feminist Spirituality, or other Magickal folk as they walk +the steps in the process of recovering, while retaining their own unique +spiritual path. + +TRUTH OR DARE by Starhawk (San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1987) This +contains many references to the 12-step programs, especially Alcoholics +Anonymous and Adult Children of Alcoholics, in a work on Wicca by a +well-known priestess of the Craft who is also a psychotherapist. + +CRYSTAL CLEAR by Connie Church (Bew York, Willard books 1987) It +contains a good section on how to use quartz crystals to help in relieving +yourself of bad habits, compulsions, and obsessions, specifically for use +with the various twelve-step programs. (note - amethyst is traditionally +said to help in all these areas) + +BIRTH OF A MODERN SHAMAN, mentioned above, tells the story of a blind +Native American woman who was a survivor of Child abuse and had been +Psycotic as well as Alcoholic. This is the story of her complete recovery, +including her eyesight, (documented by doctors) and the discovery of her +Psychic gifts with her Native roots. Her healing occured through a process +that began for her in Alcoholics Anonymous. + +THE TWELVE STEPS FOR EVERYONE published by Compcare (Minneapolis MN.) this +is a non-sexist book on the steps by a grateful recovering member of +Emotional Health Anonymous written in non-sexist language. The author +draws heavily on the Eastern traditions of spirituality as well as the +traditional Western monotheistic ones. + +EVERYDAY A NEW BEGINNING Published by Hazelden corp. (Also in Minneapolis, +MN. I believe) This is a daily meditation guide BY women in Anonymous +fellowships and FOR women in these same self-help groups. Unlike the +TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY book (published by the same company and widely used +in AA) it doesn't use quotes from the Bible. Instead it uses quotes from +various women authors. Many men also claim to have benefitted from it due +to it's non-religious approach. + +PAGANS IN RECOVERY a networking newsletter for Magickal folk, Shamans, +Druids, Feminist Priestesses, Witches, Pagans, Pantheists, etc. who are in +recovery via a 12-step fellowship of any type. It has contacts, reviews, +articles, recovery techniques and more. It is a great source of support +and inspiration to any Pagan in any of the Anonymous support groups. It is +$8.00 a year and the address is P.I.R. c/o Bekki 6500 S.R. 356 +New Marshfield, OHIO 45766 + +ADDITION TO READING LIST + +REFLECTIONS IN THE LIGHT by Shakti Gawain, published by New World Library, +San Rafael, California 1978. While not ONLY for the 12-step programs this +book does go into the problems of addictions in light of the New-Age, +Psychic Awareness as well as many other subjects. It provides a +inspirational message and/or a creative visualization exercise with a +non-sectarian affirmation for each day. The book is neither sexist nor +sectarian and is truly a beautiful aid to anyone seeking to work the +program of recovery. It is also a great way to share what you are doing +with friends who share your spirituality but not your program, as it makes +no direct references to the 12-step groups at all. It is very useful to +those of us who prefer a daily meditation to the "prayer" people in the +monotheistic Churches and Synagogues tend to use in their application of +the program to their lives. + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/shambib1.txt b/religious documents/shambib1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c88891 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shambib1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1115 @@ +Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 9:50:11 PST +From: deane@netcom.com (Dean Edwards) +To: shaman@aldhfn.org (Shamanism Mailing List) +Subject: Bibliography intro + +The bibliography that follows is a copy of the listing for books found +in the U S Library of Congress Catalog under the heading of +"shamanism". It is not intended to be a critical listing, that is, +these books have not been evaluated. It would be useful if readers of +this newsgroup could read one or two of these and post an article +reviewing them. + +In doing so several questions should be answered: +How is shamanism defined in this material? +What cultures are covered? +Does the material agree with or diverge from the material in the +Shamanism-General Overview FAQ? +Does this book contribute to a better understanding of shamanism? + +Given the size of the Usenet, it should be possible to survey the +literature on shamanism and maintain an archive of comments from +reviews of these materials. Please post articles to +soc.religion.shamanism. + +Of course, the posting of this comprehensive bibliography of books on +shamanism is not intended to dissuade others from posting articles +based on personal experience. Although many shamanic traditions were +driven underground during years of religious persecution, survivals of +traditions thought long extinct continue to emerge. Such material does +not tend to be found in books. + +The Bibliography of Shamanism follows in five parts: + +Dean Edwards deane@netcom.com +-- + +A Bibliography of Shamanism (Part 1 of 5; items 1-75) +Listings from the US Library of Congress Catalog + +1. Mori, Yuo, 1915- Reijo Osorezan monogatari. + 50 1975] 309p., 1] leaf of plates : ill. ; 19 cm. +2. Miyamoto, Keitaro, 1911- Saihate no reijo Osorezan. + 52. 1977] 36 p., 3] leaves of plates : ill. ; 26 cm. +3. Soul vine shaman sound recording]. New York, N.Y.: + N. Crawford, c1979. p. 1 sound disc : 33 1/3 rpm, stereo. ; 12 in. +4. Sasaki, Kokan, 1930- Shamanizumu. 1980. 222 p.: ill. ; 18cm. +5. Ch'oe, Kil-song, 1940- Chosen no matsuri to fuzoku. + 1980. x, 229 p., 16 p. of plates : ill. ; 22 cm. +6. Hsiao-ling-i. T'ung chi cho t'ou chih yen chiu. + 66 1977] 139 p. : ill. ; 19 cm. +7. Minjung Munhwa Yon'gu Hyobuihoe, 2d. Kamyon'guk kwa + cheui. 1977. 17 p. ; 25 cm. +8. Shamanizumu no sekai. 1978. iii, 295, 11 p., 2] + leaves of plates : ill. ; 20 cm. +9. Manzhigeev, Ivan Alekseevich. Buriatskie shamanisticheskie + i doshamanisticheskie terminy. 1978. 125 p.; 20 cm. +10. Iz istorii shamanstva. 1976. 190 p. : ill. ; 20 cm. +11. Mikhailov, T. M. Buriatskii shamanizm. 1973. 68 p.; 20cm. +12. Buchholz, Peter, 1941- Schamanistische Zuge in der + altislandischen Uberlieferung. Bamberg, Aku Fotodruck u. Verlag] + 1968. 109 p. 21 cm. +13. Kim, Yol-gyu. Han'guk, sinhwa wa musok yon'gu. 1977. + xiii, 284 p. ; 22 cm. +14. Kim, T'ae-gon, 1937- Rei o maneku. 52 1977] 124 p.: + ill. ;27 cm. +15. Mori, Masao, 1921- Yuboku kiba minzoku kokka. + 42 1967] 210p. : ill. ; 17 cm. +16. Yamashita, Kin'ichi, 1929- Amami no shamanizuma. + 52 1977] vi, 330, xiv p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +17. Sandner, Donald. Symbolic shamanism; a study of + Navajo medicine men. n.p.] Big Sur Recordings 7040. 1970] p. cm. +18. Naranjo, Claudio. Shamanism, ritual & psychotic ways to the + unconscious. Sound recording] n.p.] Big Sur Recordings + 1140. 1968] p. cm. +19. Mikhailovskii, Viktor Milhailovich, 1846-1904. + Shamanstvo. 1892- v. 34 cm. +20. Kim, T'ae-gon, 1937- Hwangch'on muga yon'gu. 1966] + 284 p. illus. 20 cm. +21. Pak, Yong-suk, 1935- Han'guk kodae misul munhwa saron. + 1976. 490 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +22. Pak, Sang-hwa. Han'guk ui yongga. 1976. 146 p.: ill. ;19 cm. +23. Chang, Chu-gun. Kankoku no minkan shinko. 48 1973] + 2 v. : ill. ; 22 cm. +24. Rinchen, Biambyn. Les materiaux pour l'etude du chamanisme + mongol, Wiesbaden, O. Harrassowitz, 1959-62 v. 28 cm. +25. Kutkori ch'aek. 1975. 52 p. (on double leaves) ; 26 cm. +26. Yi, Nung-hwa, 1869-1945. Choson musokko. 1976. 274p.; 18 cm. +27. International Folklore Seminar, 2d, Iri, Korea, 1972. + Syamanijum ui hyondaejok uimi = Modern meaning of shamanism. + Iri, 1973. 159 p. ; 21 cm. +28. Yu, Tong-sik. Chosen no shamanizumu. 1976] 227p.: ill.; 22 cm. +29. Hermanns, Matthias, 1899- Schamanen, Pseudoschamanen, + Erloser und Heilbringer. Eine vergleichende Studie religioser + Urphanomene Wiesbaden, F. Steiner, 1970. 3 v. 24 cm. +30. Khangalov, Matvei Nikolaevich, 1858-1918. Novye materialy + o shamanstvie u buriat. 1890. 144, ii p. illus. 26 cm. +31. Ch'oe, Chong-yo. Tonghaean muga. 1974. 406 p.: ill.; 23cm. +32. Sakurai, Tokutaro, 1917- Nihon no shamanizumu. 49- + 1974-1977] 2 v. : ill. ; 22 cm. +33. Shimkevich P. P. Materialy dlia izucheniia shamanstva u gol'dov. + 1896. 133 p., 27] leaves of plates (23) fold. : ill. ; 24 cm. +34. Chin, Song-gi. Namguk ui muga. 1968] 974 p. 25 cm. +35. Haro Alvear, Silvio Luis, Bp. Shamanismo en el Reino de Quito. + Quito, Editorial Santo Domingo, 1973. 110 p. illus. 22 cm. +36. Kojima, Shin'ichi, 1924- Shaman tanjo. 1973. 285 p. 20 cm. +37. Sakurai, Tokutaro, 1917- Okinawa no shamanizumu. 48(1973) + 432 p. illus. 22 cm. +38. Kim, T'ae-gon, 1937- Han'guk mugajip. 1971-] v. 22 cm. +39. Hattori, Ryutaro, 1900- Eki to jujutsu] (1972) 246 p. 20 cm. +40. Manshu Jijo Annaijo, Ch'ang-ch'un, China. Manshu minzoku + ko. 1940] 2, 2, 108 p. 22 cm. +41. Yamakami, Izumo, 1923- Miko no rekishi. (1971) 225 p. + illus. 22 cm. +42. Hori, Ichiro, 1910- Nihon no shamanizumu. (1971) 228 p. 18 cm. +43. Shamanizumu no kenkyu. 1971. 207 p. 22 cm. +44. Dioszegi, Vilmos. A pogany magyarok hitvilaga. Budapest, + Akademiai Kiado, 1967. 142 p. illus. 19 cm. +45. From a shaman's notebook; Sound recording] primitive and + archaic poetry. n.p.] Broadside BR 652. 1969] p. 2 s. 12 in. 33 1/3 + rpm. microgroove. +46. Symposium on Shamanism, Turku, Finland, 1962. Studies in + shamanism. Based on papers read at the Symposium on Shamanism, + held at Abo on the 6th-8th of September, 1962. Stockholm, + Almqvist & Wiksell, 19657. 185 p. 25 cm. +47. Dioszegi, Vilmos. Samanizmus. Budapest, Gondolat, 1962. 118 + p. illus. 18 cm. +48. Michael, Henry N., comp. Studies in Siberian shamanism, + Toronto] Published for the Arctic Institute of North America by + University of Toronto Press 1963] iv, 229 p. ills. 26 cm. +49. Smith, Marion Whitney, 1904- Strange tales of Abenaki shamanism. + Lewiston, Me., Central Maine Press, 1963] 46 p. illus. 23 cm. +50. Eliade, Mircea, 1907- Shamanism: archaic techniques of ecstasy. + Rev. and enl. New York, Bollingen Foundation; 1964]xxiii, 610 p. 25cm. +51. Dioszegi, Vilmos. Samanok nyomaban Sziberia foldjen; egy + neprajzi kutatout tortenete. Budapest, Magveto Konyvkiado, 1960. + 251 p. illus. 21 cm. +52. Akamatsu, Chijo, 1886- Chosen fuzoku, sanko zuroku. 13 + 1938] 1 v. (chiefly illus.) 27 cm. +53. Koprulu, Mehmet Fuat, 1890- Influence du chamanisme + turc-mongol sur les ordres mystiques musulmans Istanbul, IMp. + Zellitch freres, 1929. 19 p. 25 cm. +54. Akiba, Takashi, 1888-1954. Chosen fuzoku no genchi kenkyu. + 25 1950] 10, 7, 4, 198 p. illus. 22 cm. +55. Friedrich, Adolf, 1914- ed. and tr. Schamanengeschichten aus + Sibirien; Munchen-Planegg, O. W. Barth, 1955.325 p. illus. 23cm. +56. Banzarov, Dorzhi, 1822?-1855. Sobranie sochinenii. 1955. + 373 p. illus. 21 cm. +57. Ch'u, Yuan] ca. 343-ca. 277 B.C. The nine songs; a study of + shamanism in ancient China London, G. Allen and Unwin 1955] + 64 p. 23cm. +58. Liber saecularis in honorem J. Qvigstadii d. IV Aprilis A. D. + MCMLIII editus. Oslo, Aschehoug, 1953- v. port., maps. 26 cm. +59. Christiansen, Reidar Thoralf, 1886- Ekstase og religion hos + arktiske folk. Oslo, O. Norli, 1947. 48 p. illus. 20 cm. +60. Petri, Berngard Eduardovich, 1884- Staraia vera + buriatskogo naroda. 1928. 78 p. 22 cm. +61. Eliade, Mircea, 1907- La chamanisme et les techniques + archaiques de l'extase ... Paris, Payot, 1951. 447 p. 23 cm. +62. Bouteiller, Marcelle, 1904- Chamanisme et guerison magique. + 1. ed.] Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 1950. + 377 p. 23 cm. +63. Winstedt, Richard Olof, Sir, 1878- The Malay magician; London, + Routledge and Paul 1951] vii, 160 p. illus. 23 cm. +64. Ohlmarks, Ake, 1911- Studien zum problem des schamanismus, + Lund, C. W. K. Gleerup; etc., 1939] xvi, 395, 1] p. maps. 25 cm. +65. Kelly, Isabel Truesdell, 1906- Southern Paiute shamanism, + Berkeley, Calif., University of California press, 1939. 1 p.l., p. + 151-167. 29 cm. +66. Park, Willard Zerbe Shamanism in western North America; a + study in cultural relationships, Evanston and Chicago, + Northwestern university, 1938. viii, 166 p. 24 cm. +67. Shirokogorov, Sergei Mikhailovich. Psychomental complex of + the Tungus, London, K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & co., ltd., + 1935. xvi, 469 p. illus. (incl. music) diagrs. 37 cm. +68. Darwin, Randolph Charles. Die entwicklung des priestertums und + der priesterreiche; Leipzig, T. Weicher c1929] viii, 416 p. illus. + 24cm. +69. Casanowicz, Immanuel Moses, 1853- Shamanism of the natives of + Siberia, Washington, 1925. p. 415-434. 2 pl. on 1 l. 24 cm. +70. Winstedt, Richard Olof, Sir, 1881- Shaman, Saiva and Sufi, a + study of the evolution of Malay magic, London etc.] Constable & + company, ltd., 1925. vii, 191 p. 23 cm. +71. Maddox, John Lee, 1878- The medicine man; a sociological study + of the character and evolution of shamanism, New York, The + Macmillan company, 1923. xv, 330 p. front., plates. 22 cm. +72. Stadling, Jonas Jansson, 1847- Shamanismen i norra Asian; nagra + drag ur shamanvasendets utveckling bland naturfolken i Sibirien, + Stockholm, Cedarquists grafiska aktiebolag, 1912. xvi, 135 p. + illus. 24cm. +73. Speck, Frank Gouldsmith, 1881- Penobscot shamanism, + Lancaster, Pa., American anthropological association 1919] + 1 p.l., p. 239-288. 25 cm. +74. Banzarov, Dorzhi, 1822?-1855. Chernaia viera ili shamanstvo + u mongolov. 1891. xl, 128 p. port. 25 cm. +75. Buddizm, razsmatrivaemyi v otnoshenii k posliedovateliam vl + ego v Sibiri. Nikolai Fedorovich Isakovich. 1858. 3 p.l., + 386 p. 22cm. +=== + +A Bibliography of Shamanism (Part 2 of 5; items 76-150) +Listings from the US Library of Congress Catalog + +76. Underwood, Horace Grant, 1859-1916. The religions of eastern + Asia, New York, The Macmillan company, 1910. ix, 267 p. 21 cm. +77. Morris, James] Cheston, 1831-1923. Relation of the pentagonal + dodecahedron found near Marietta, Ohio. to Shamanism. + Philadelphia, MacCalla & company inc., printers, 1897. + 14 p. 24 cm. +78. Harlez, Charles Joseph de, 1832-1899. La religion nationale des + Tartares orientaux, Mandchous et Mongols, comparee a la + religion des anciens Chinois, Bruxelles, F. Hayez, 1887. + 2 p.l., 3]-216 p. viii fold. pl. 22 cm. +79. Pollan, Brita, 1939- Samiske sjamaner : religion og + helbredelse/Oslo: Gyldendal norsk forlag, c1993. 207 p.; 21 cm. +80. Junquera Rubio, L. Carlos. El chamanismo en el Amazonas/ + Barcelona : Editorial Mitre, 1991] 222 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +81. Camino, Lupe, 1946- Cerros, plantas y lagunas poderosas: la + medicina al norte del Peru/ 1. ed. Piura: CIPCA, 1992] 296 p.: + ill., maps ; 21 cm. +82. Rosing, Ina, 1942- Die Schliessung des Kreises : von der + Schwarzen Heilung uber Grau zum Weiss: nachtliche + Heilungsrituale in den Hochanden Boliviens/1. Aufl. Frankfurt + am Main: Zweitausendeins, 1991. 481 p: ill.; 21 cm. +83. Gregg, Susan, 1949- Dance of power : a shamanic journey / St. + Paul, Minn. : Llewellyn, 1993. p. cm. +84. Andrews, Ted, 1952- Animal speak : the spiritual & magical + powers of creatures great & small/ St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn, + 1993. p. cm. +85. Joralemon, Donald. Sorcery and shamanism: curanderos and + clients in northern Peru/ Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, + c1993. p. cm. +86. Hunt, Dave. The new spirituality / Eugene, Or. : Harvest House + Publishers, 1993], c1988. 294, 24] p. ; 22 cm. +87. McKenna, Terence K., 1946- The Invisible landscape : mind, + hallucinogens, and the I ching/ 1st HarperCollins ed. San + Francisco, Calif. : Harper San Francisco, 1994. p. cm. +88. Ingerman, Sandra. Welcome home: following your soul's journey + home/1st ed. San Francisco, CA]: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994. p. cm. +89. Freidel, David A. Maya cosmos : three thousand years on the + shaman's path/1st ed. New York : W. Morrow, c1993. 543 p.: ill. + (some col.) ; 26 cm. +90. Berenholtz, Jim, 1957- Teachings of the feathered serpent / + Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear & Co., 1993- v. <1 >: ill. map ; 23 cm. +91. Berenholtz, Jim, 1957- Journey to the four directions/ Santa + Fe, N.M. : Bear & Co., c1993. xix, 267 p., 16] p. of plates : ill. + (some col.), map ; 23 cm. +92. Suparlan, Parsudi, 1938- The Javanese dukun / Jakarta : Peka + Publications, 1991 30 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +93. Hungrige Geister und rastlose Seelen : Texte zur + Schamanismusforschung/ Berlin: D. Reimer Verlag, c1991. + 213 p.: ill.; 21 cm. +94. Illius, Bruno. Ani Shinan : Schamanismus bei den + Shipibo-Conibo (Ost-Peru)/2. Aufl.] Munster: Lit, 1991] vi, 415 + p.: ill., map; 25 cm. +95. Antropologia politica en el Ecuador : perspectivas desde las + culturas indigenas/ 1a ed. Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones + ABYA-YALA, 1991. 294 p. : ill., maps ; 22 cm. +96. Vertes, Edit. Sziberiai nyelvrokonaink hitvilaga / + Budapest: Tankonyvkiado, 1990. 403 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 25 cm. +97. Meadows, Kenneth. Earth medicine : a shamanic way to self + discovery/ Shaftesbury, Dorset; Rockport, Mass.: Element, + 1991. xi, 333 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +98. Meadows, Kenneth. The medicine way : a shamanic path to self + mastery / Shaftesbury, Dorset ; Rockport, Mass. : Element, +1991. xx, 228 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +99. Howard, Keith. Bands, songs, and shamanistic rituals : folk + music in Korean society/ 2nd ed. Seoul: Royal Asiatic Society, + Korea Branch, 1990. xv, 295 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 23 cm. +100. Perrin, Michel, 1941- Les praticiens du reve : un exemple de + chamanisme/ 1re ed. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, + c1992. 267 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +101. Symposium on the Saami Shaman Drum (1988: Turku, Finland) + The Saami Shaman Drum: based on papers read at the Symposium + on the Saami Shaman Drum held at Abo, Finland, on the 19th- + 20th of August 1988/ Abo, Finland: Donner Institute for + Research in Religious and Cultural History ; Stockholm, Sweden: + Distributed by Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1991. 182 p.: + ill.; 25 cm. +102. Schamanen, Mittler zwischen Menschen und Geistern: + Begleitband zur Ausstellung im Kultur- und Stadthistorischen + Museum Duisburg, 14. April bis 30. Juni 1991 / Duisburg: + Das Museum, 1991] 88 p. : 92 ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm. +103. Ortiz, Frutos Enrique. Medicina, magia y chamanismo/Argentina: + s.n.], 1988 (Agremiacion Medica Platense) vii, 94 p.; 23cm. +104. Potapov, L. P. (Leonid Pavlovich), 1905- Altaiskii shamanizm/ + Leningrad: "Nauka," Leningradskoe otd-nie, 1991. 319 p., 4 + p. of plates: ill. ; 23 cm. +105. Dugarov, D. S. Istoricheskie korni belogo shamanstva : na + materiale obriadovogo fol'klora buriat / Moskva : "Nauka", + 1991. 297 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 21 cm. +106. Los Espiritus aliados: chamanismo y curacion en los pueblos + indios de Sudamerica/ Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones ABYA-YALA; + Roma, Italia: Movimiento Laicos para America Latina, 1991. + 255 p.: ill. ; 22 cm. +107. Chemin, Dominique. El chamanismo en la region pame de Santa + Maria Acapulco, S.L.P. y de Tancoyol, Qro. / San Luis Potosi, + S.L.P.: Academia de Historia Potosina, 1988. 51 p. ; 24 cm. +108. Mindell, Arnold, 1940- The shaman's body: a new shamanism for + transforming health, relationships, and the community/ San + Francisco, CA : HarperSanFrancisco, 1993. p. cm. +109. Andrews, Lynn V. Woman at the edge of two worlds: the + spiritual journey of menopause/ 1st ed. New York, NY: + HarperCollins, c1993. xvii, 277 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. +110. Cowan, Thomas Dale. Fire in the head : shamanism and the + Celtic spirit/ 1st ed. San Francisco]: HarperSanFrancisco, + c1993. 222 p. ; 24 cm. +111. Halifax, Joan. The fruitful darkness: reconnecting with the + body of the earth / 1st ed. San Francisco] : + HarperSanFrancisco, c1993. xxxi, 240 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. +112. Kalweit, Holger. Shamans, healers, and medicine men/ 1st ed. + Boston : Shambhala, 1992. x, 299 p., 8] p. of plates: ill.; 23 cm. +113. International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and Alternate + Modes of Healing (9th: 1992: San Rafael, Calif.) Proceedings of the + Ninth International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and + Alternate Modes of Healing: held at the St. Sabina Center, San Rafael, + California, September 5 to 7, 1992 / Berkeley, CA : Independent + Scholars of Asia, c1992. p. cm. +114. Sansonese, J. Nigro. The body of myth : mythology, shamanic + trance, and the sacred geography of the body/ Rochester, Vt.: + Inner Traditions; s.l.]: Distributed to the book trade in the U.S. by + International Distribution Corp., c1993. p. cm. +115. Wolfson, Evelyn. From the earth to beyond the sky: Native + American medicine / Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1993. p. cm. +116. Stockel, H. Henrietta, 1938- Survival of the spirit: Chiricahua + Apaches in captivity/ Reno: University of Nevada Press, c1993. + xxii, 331 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. +117. Wyllie, Timothy, 1940- Dolphins, telepathy & underwater + birthing: further adventures among spiritual intelligences/ + Santa Fe, N.M. : Bear & Co., c1993. xxi, 279 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +118. Devereux, Paul. Shamanism and the mystery lines : ley lines, + spirit paths, shape-shifting & out-of-body travel/ 1st U.S. + ed. St. Paul, Minn. : Llewellyn Publications, 1993. 238 p.: + ill., maps ; 23 cm. +119. Stewart, R. J., 1949- Power within the land : the roots of + Celtic and underworld traditions, awakening the sleepers, and + regenerating the earth/ Shaftesbury, Dorset; Rockport, MA: + Element, 1992. xxiii, 163 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. +120. Desjarlais, Robert R. Body and emotion : the aesthetics of + illness and healing in the Nepal Himalayas/ Philadelphia: University + of Pennsylvania Press, c1992. xii, 300 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm. +121. Hultkrantz, Ake. Shamanic healing and ritual drama : health + and medicine in native North American religious traditions/ New + York: Crossroad, 1992. xv, 197 p. : map ; 24 cm. +122. Merkur, Daniel. Becoming half hidden : shaminism and initiation + among the Inuit/ New York: Garland Pub., 1992. xi, 364 p.;23 cm. +123. International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and + initiation Alternate Modes of Healing (8th: 1991: San Rafael, + Calif.) Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on the + Study of Shamanism and Alternate Modes of Healing: held at the + St. Sabina Center, San Rafael, California, August 31 to + September 2, 1991 / Berkeley] : Independent Scholars of + Asia, c1991. vii, 354 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. +124. Asatchaq, 1891-1980. The things that were said of them: shaman + stories and oral histories of the Tikigaq people / Berkeley : + University of California Press, c1992. p. cm. +125. California Indian shamanism / Menlo Park, CA : Ballena Press, + c1992. viii, 274 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 +126. Cook Angelique S. Shamanism and the esoteric tradition/1st ed. + St. Paul, MN., U.S.A.: Llewellyn, 1992. xix, 214 p.:ill.; 23cm. +127. Ripinsky-Naxon, Michael, 1944- The nature of shamanism : + substance and function of a religious metaphor/ Abany, N.Y.: + State University of New York Press, c1993. xi, 289 p.: ill.; +24 cm. +128. Rael, Joseph. Beautiful Painted Arrow : stories and teachings + from the Native American tradition / Shaftesbury, Dorset; + Rockport, Mass. : Element, 1992. xvi, 108 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +129. Krippner, Stanley, 1932- Spiritual dimensions of healing/ New + York : Irvington Publishers, 1992. p. cm. +130. Simposio Identidad Cultural, Medicina Tradicional y Religiones + Populares (1988 : Amsterdam, Netherlands) Otra America en + construccion: memorias del Simposio Identidad Cultural, + Medicina Tradicional y Religiones Populares, Amsterdam, 1988/ 1. ed. + Bogota] : Instituto Colombiano de Cultura : Instituto Colombiano de + Antropologia ; Amsterdam: 46 ICA, Universidad da Amsterdam, 1991. + 336 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. +131. Adami, Norbert R. Religion und Schamanismus der Ainu auf + Sachalin : ein Beitrag zur historischen Volkerkunde Nordostasiens/ + Munchen : Iudicium, c1991. 171 p. ; 21 cm. +132. Maues, Raymundo Heraldo. A ilha encantada : medicina e + xamanismo numa comunidade de pescadores/ 1. ed. Belem: Centro + de Filosofia e C. Humanas, NAEA/UFPA, 1990. 271 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +133. Giese, Claudius Cristobal, 1955- Curanderos : traditionelle + Heiler in Nord-Peru, Kuste und Hochland / Hohenschaftlarn: +K. Renner, 1989. 344 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 21 cm. +134. Rosing, Ina, 1942- Der Blitz : Drohung und Berufung : Glaube + und Ritual in den Anden Boliviens/ Munchen: Trickster Verlag, + c1990. 233 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. +135. Matthews, John, 1948- Taliesin : shamanism and the bardic + mysteries in Britain and Ireland/ London: Aquarian Press, 1991. 357 + p.: ill.; 22 cm. +136. Modena, Maria Eugenia. Madres, medicos y curanderos : + diferencia cultural e identidad ideologica/ 1. ed. Mexico, D.F.: + Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en + Antropologia Social, 1990. 229 p. ; 21 cm. +137. Lukesch, Anton. Schamanen am Rio Xingu: neuentdeckte + Indianerstamme im brasilianischen Urwald/ Wien: Bohlau, c1990. + 342 p. : ill., maps ; 22 cm. +138. Eliade, Mircea, 1907- Shamanism: archaic techniques of ecstasy + / London, England : Arkana, 1989. xxiii, 610 p. ; 22 cm. +139. Drake, Michael. The shamanic drum : a guide to sacred drumming + / 1st ed. Bend, Or.: Talking Drum Publications, c1991. 104 p.: + ill. ; 22 cm. +140. Hughes-Calero, Heather. The flight of Winged Wolf / 1st ed. + Carmel, Calif.: Higher Consciousness Books, 1991. 159 p.: + ill. ; 23 cm. +141. Paladin, Lynda. Ceremonies for change : creating rituals to + heal life's hurts/Walpole, NH : Stillpoint, c1991. xxii, 168 p.: + ill. (some col.) ; 21 cm. +142. Noble, Vicki. Uncoiling the snake : ancient patterns in + contemporary women's lives: a snake power reader/1st ed. San + Francisco, Calif.] : HarperSanFrancisco, c1993. xv, 189 p.: + ill. ; 24cm. +143. McKenna, Terence K., 1946- True hallucinations: being an + account of the author's extraordinary adventures in the devil's + paradise/1st ed. San Francisco] : HarperSanFrancisco, c1993. xii, + 237 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. +144. Andrews, Lynn V. The mask of power : discovering your sacred + self/1st ed. San Francisco, Calif.]: HarperSanFrancisco, c1992. + xiv, 193 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. +145. Villoldo, Alberto. Journey to the island of the sun: the + return to the lost city of gold/ 1st ed. San Francisco, Calif.]: + HarperSanFrancisco, c1992. xiii, 210 p.: ill., maps; 22 cm. +146. Donner, Florinda. Shabono: a visit to a remote and magical world + in the South American rainforest / 1st HarperCollins pbk. ed. + San Francisco] : HarperSanFrancisco, 1992. xii, 305 p. ; 21 cm. +147. Arrien, Angeles, 1940- The four-fold way : walking the paths + of the warrior, teacher, healer, and visionary / 1st ed. San + Francisco]: HarperSanFrancisco, c1993. xviii, 203 p.: ill.; 24 cm. +148. McKenna, Terence K., 1946- The archaic revival : speculations + on psychedelic mushrooms, the Amazon, virtual reality, UFOs, evolution, + Shamanism, the rebirth of the goddess, and the end of history/ 1st ed. + San Francisco, Calif. : HarperSanFrancisco, 1992. p. cm. + 149. Luna, Luis Eduardo. Ayahuasca visions : the religious + iconography of a Peruvian shaman / Berkeley, Calif. : North Atlantic + Books, c1991. 160 p. : ill. (some col.), map ; 26 x 34 cm. +150. Stewart, R. J., 1949- Earth light : the ancient path to + transformation : rediscovering the wisdom of Celtic and faery + lore/ Rockport, MA : Element, 1992. p. cm. +=== + +A Bibliography of Shamanism (Part 3 of 5; items 151-225) +Listings from the US Library of Congress Catalog + +151. Matthews, John, 1948- The Celtic shaman : a handbook / + Rockport, MA : Element, Inc., 1992. p. cm. +152. Tedlock, Barbara. Time and the highland Maya/Rev. ed. Albuquerque: + University of New Mexico Press, c1992. xv, 293 p. : ill, map ; 24 cm. +153. Portals of power : Shamanism in South America/1st ed. Albuquerque: + University of New Mexico Press, c1992. x, 350 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm. +154. Roth, Gabrielle, 1941- Maps to ecstasy : teachings of an urban + shaman / San Rafael, Calif. : New World Library, 1992. p. cm. +155. Turner, Edith L. B., 1921- Experiencing ritual : a new + interpretation of African healing / Philadelphia : University of + Pennsylvania Press, c1992. xiii, 239 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm. +156. Meadows, Kenneth. Shamanic experience : a practical guide to + contemporary shamanism / Shaftesbury, Dorset ; Rockport, Mass.: + Element, 1991. 196 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +157. Flaherty, Gloria, 1938- Shamanism and the eighteenth century/ + Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1992. xv, 320 p.: + ill.; 25 cm. +158. Wolf, Fred Alan. The eagle's quest : a physicist's search for + truth in the heart of the shamanic world/New York: Summit Books, + c1991. 318 p. ; 25 cm. +159. Smith, Noel W. An analysis of Ice Age art : its psychology and + belief system / New York : P. Lang, c1992. xvi, 242 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +160. Stein, Wendy. Shamans : opposing viewpoints / San Diego, + Calif. : Greenhaven Press, c1991. 112 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +161. Scully, Nicki, 1943- The golden cauldron : shamanic journeys + on the path of wisdom/ Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear & Co. Pub., c1991. + 251 p.: ill. ; 23 cm. +162. Gersi, Douchan. Faces in the smoke : an eyewitness experience + of voodoo, shamanism, psychic healing, and other amazing human + powers/ 1st ed. Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher; New York: Distributed + by St. Martin's Press, c1991. xvi, 223 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +163. International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and Alternate + Modes of Healing (7th : 1990 : San Rafael, Calif.) Proceedings of + the Seventh International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and + Alternate Modes of Healing, held at the St. Sabina Center, San Rafael, + California, September 1 to 3, 1990 / Berkeley, CA : Independent + Scholars of Asia, c1990. vii, 429 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. +164. Muller, Regina Polo. Os asurini do Xingu : historia e arte + /Campinas, SP, Brasil: Editora da UNICAMP, 1990. 394 p.: + ill., maps ;21 cm. +165.Guallart Martinez, Jose Maria. El mundo magico de los + aguarunas/Lima, Peru: Ediciones CAAAP, c1989. 274 p.: ill.; + 21 cm. +166. Huanca L., Tomas. El yatiri en la comunidad aymara / La + Paz, Bolivia : Ediciones CADA, 1990] 244 p. ; 21 cm. +167. Campbell, Alan Tormaid. To square with Genesis : causal + statements and shamanic ideas in Wayapi / 1st ed. Iowa City : + University of Iowa Press, 1989. 198 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. +168. Shamanism : past and present / Budapest : Ethnographic + Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Los Angeles: + International Society for Trans-Oceanic Research, 1989. + 2 v. : ill. ; 24 cm. +169. Cardenas Timoteo, Clara. Los unaya y su mundo: aproximacion + al sistema medico de los shipibo-conibo del Rio Ucayali/ Lima, + Peru]: Instituto Indigenista Peruano: Centro Amazonico de + Antropologia y Aplicacion Practica, c1989. 291 p., 1] folded + leaf of plates : ill., map ; 22 cm. +170. Porzecanski, Teresa. Curanderos y canibales : ensayos + antropologicos sobre guaranies, charruas, terenas, bororos y + adivinos / Montevideo, Uruguay : L.A. Retta Libros Editor, 1989] + 142 p. : ill. ; 19 cm. +171. Jacob, Jean-Pierre. Le sens des limites : maladie, + sorcellerie, religion et pouvoir chez les Winye, Gourounsi du Burkina + Faso / Neuchatel] : Universite de Neuchatel, Faculte des lettres, + 1988. 384 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +172. Corredor, Blanca de. Chamanismo : un arte del saber / 1a ed. + Bogota, Colombia: Anaconda Editores, 1989. 90 p., 2] leaves + of plates: ill. ; 20 cm. +173. Roth, Gabrielle, 1941- Maps to ecstasy : teachings of an + urban shaman / San Rafael, Calif. : New World Library, c1989. + 212 p.: ill. ; 22 cm. +174. Ingerman, Sandra. Soul retrieval : mending the fragmented self + / 1st ed. San Francisco, Calif.: HarperSanFrancisco, c1991. + xii, 221p. : ill. ; 23 cm. +175. Kennedy, Alexandra. Losing a parent : passage to a new way + of living/ 1st ed. San Francisco]: HarperSanFrancisco, c1991. + xv, 139p. ; 24 cm. +176. Villoldo, Alberto. The four winds : a shaman's odyssey into + the Amazon/1st HarperCollins pbk. ed. San Francisco, Calif.: + HarperSanFrancisco, 1991. p. cm. +177. Whitaker, Kay Cordell. The reluctant shaman : a woman's first + encounters with the unseen spirits of the earth / 1st ed. San + Francisco, Calif.]: HarperSanFrancisco, c1991. viii, + 296 p.; 22 cm. +178. Lake, Robetive healer : initiation into an ancient art + /1st ed. Wheaton, Ill., U.S.A. : Quest Books, 1991. xvi, 199 p. : + ill. ; 21 cm. +179. Black Elk, Wallace H. Black Elk: the sacred ways of a Lakota/ + 1st HarperCollins pbk. ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, + 1991. xxiv, 199 p. ; 24 cm. +180. Heinze, Ruth-Inge. Shamans of the 20th century/New York: + Irvington, c1990. p. cm. +181. Walraven, Boudewijn, 1947- Songs of the shaman: shamanism in + Korea / London ; New York : Kegan Paul International, 1991. p. cm. +182. King, Serge. Urban shaman / New York : Simon & Schuster, + c1990. 256 p. ; 22 cm. +183. Laderman, Carol. Taming the wind of desire : psychology, + medicine, and aesthetics in Malay shamanistic performance / + Berkeley: University of California Press, c1991. xvi, 366 p.: + 24 cm. +184. Matthews, John, 1948- Taliesin : shamanism and the bardic + mysteries in Britain and Ireland/ London; Boston: Unwin + Paperbacks, 1990. p. cm. +185. Scott, Gini Graham. Shamanism & personal mastery : using + symbols, rituals, and talismans to activate the powers within you/ + 1st ed. New York : Paragon House, 1991. xiii, 284 p. ; 23 cm. +186. Lipp, Frank Joseph. The Mixe of Oaxaca: religion, ritual, and + healing/ 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991. xx, + 253 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +187. Kakar, Sudhir. Shamans, mystics, and doctors: a psychological + inquiry into India and its healing traditions / Chicago, Ill. : + University of Chicago Press, 1991. x, 306 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +188. The Shaman from Elko : papers in honor of Joseph L. Henderson + on his seventy-fifth birthday/ Boston: Sigo Press, c1991. p. cm. +189. International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and Alternate + Modes of Healing (6th: 1989: San Rafael, Calif.) Proceedings of the + Sixth International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and + Alternate Modes of Healing: held at the St. Sabina Center, San + Rafael, California, September 2 to 4, 1989/ Berkeley: Independent + Scholars of Asia, c1989. vii, 402 p. ; 23 cm. +190. Santos-Granero, Fernando, 1955- The power of love: the moral + use of knowledge amongst the Amuesha of Central Peru / London; + Atlantic Highlands, NJ : Athlone Press, 1991. ix, 338 p. : ill., + maps ; 22 cm. +191. Karima, Anoyarula, 1939- The myths of Bangladesh/1st ed. + Kushtia, Bangladesh: Folklore Research Institute, 1988. xi, + 157 p.; 23 cm. +192.Culture, experience, and pluralism : essays on African ideas + of illness and healing/ Uppsala: Academiae Upsaliensis; + Stockholm, Sweden: Distributed by Almqvist & Wiksell International, + 1989. 308 p.: ill. ; 24 cm. +193. Velasquez, Ronny. Chamanismo, mito y religion en cuatro + naciones etnicas de America aborigen/Caracas: Academia Nacional + de la Historia, 1987. 204 p., 80] p. of plates : ill. ; 23 cm. +194. Andritzky, Walter. Schamanismus und rituelles Heilen im alten + Peru/Berlin: Verlag C. Zerling, c1989. 2 v. (526 p.): ill.; 18 cm. +195. Historia de la religion en Mesoamerica y areas afines : I + coloquio / 1. ed. Mexico : Instituto de Investigaciones + Antropologicas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, 1987. + 303 p., 1] folded leaf of plates : ill. ; 23 cm. +196. Dalmu, Francisco (Dalmu Gavilanes) Magia medica y + psicoterapia en el Ecuador: con un anexo de psiquiatria + forlkorica en la costa ecuatoriana/ Guayaquil]: Editorial de la + Universidad de Guayaquil, 1988. 230 p. ; 22 cm. +197. Hultkrantz, Ake. Les religions des Indiens primitifs de + l'Amerique : essai d'une synthese typologique et historique / + Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell, 1963. 157 p. ; 25 cm. +198. International Congress of Americanists (45th : 1985 : Bogota, + Colombia) Rituales y fiestas de las Americas/ Bogota, Colombia: + Ediciones Uniandes, 1988. 418 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm. +199. El Futuro de la medicina tradicional en la atencion a la + salud de los paises latinoamericanos. Mexico, D.F. : Centro + Interamericano de Estudios de Seguridad Social Jesus Reyes + Heroles, c1987. 195 p. ; 23 cm. +200. Polia Meconi, Mario. Las lagunas de los encantos : medicina + tradicional andina del Peru septentrional/ Piura Peru]: Central + Peruana de Servicios, 1988] 207 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. +201. Lenguaje y palabras chamanicas/ 1ra ed Quito, Ecuador: + Ediciones ABYA-YALA: Movimiento Laicos para America Latina, + 1988. 186 p., 8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 22 cm. +202. Balladelli, Pier Paolo. Entre lo magico y lo natural : la + medicina indigena : testimonios de Pesillo / Quito, Ecuador]: + Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1988. 500 p., 8] leaves of plates: ill. ; + 22 cm. +203. Hughes-Calero, Heather. Woman between the wind/1st ed. + Carmel, Calif.: Higher Consciousness Books, 1990. 156 p.: ill.; + 23 cm. +204. Shamanism : Soviet studies of traditional religion in Siberia + and Central Asia/Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, c1990. xviii, + 197 p.: ill. ; 24 cm. +205. Blacker, Carmen. The catalpa bow / Boston : Unwin, 1989, + c1986. 382 p., 16] p. of plates : ill. ; 22 cm. +206. Walsh, Roger N. The spirit of shamanism/Los Angeles: J.P. + Tarcher, 1990. p. cm. +207. Harner, Michael J. The way of the shaman / 10th anniversary + ed., 1st Harper & Row pbk. ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, + 1990. xxiv, 171 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. +208. Villoldo, Alberto. The four winds: a shaman's odyssey into + the Amazon/1st ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, c1990. x, + 265 p.: map ; 25 cm. +209. Noble, Vicki. Shakti woman : feeling our fire, healing our + world: the new female shamanism/ 1st ed. San Francisco, CA]: + HarperSanFrancisco, c1991. x, 255 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. +210. Goodman, Felicitas D. Where the spirits ride the wind: trance + journeys and other ecstatic experiences/Bloomington: Indiana + University Press, c1990. xii, 242 p.: ill.; 25 cm. +211. Black Elk, Wallace H. Black Elk: the sacred ways of a Lakota/ + 1st ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, c1990. xxiv, 193 p.; 25 cm. +212. Andrews, Lynn V. Teachings around the sacred wheel : finding + the soul of the dreamtime/1st ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, + c1990. xiii, 145 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +213. Andrews, Lynn V. Windhorse woman: a marriage of spirit/ New + York, N.Y. : Warner Books, c1989. xii, 210 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +214. Iron Thunderhorse, 1950- Return of the thunderbeings : a new + paradigm of ancient shamanism/ Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear & Co. Pub., + c1990. 287 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. +215. Witchcraft and sorcery of the American native peoples / + Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, c1989. xi, 346 p.: + ill., maps ; 26 cm. +216. Modesto, Ruby. Not for innocent ears : spiritual traditions of + a desert Cahuilla medicine woman/ Rev. ed. Arcata, CA: + Sweetlight Books, 1989 printing, c1980. 120 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +217. International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and + Alternate Modes of Healing (5th: 1988: San Rafael, Calif.) + Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Study + of Shamanism and Alternate Modes of Healing: held at the St. + Sabina Center, San Rafael, California, September 3 to + September 5, 1988 / Berkeley : Independent Scholars of + Asia, c1989. vii, 432 p. ; 23 cm. +218. Mikhailov, T. M. Buriatskii shamanizm : istoriia, + struktura i sotsial'nye funktsii/Novosibirsk: Izd-vo "Nauka," + Sibirskoe otd-nie, 1987. 287 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. +219. Haase, Evelin. Der Schamanismus der Eskimos / 1. Aufl. + Aachen : Edition Herodot, c1987. 383 p. ; 21 cm. +220. Lumholtz, Carl, 1851-1922. A nation of shamans/ 1st facsimile + ed. Oakland, CA : B.I. Finson, 1988] 228 p., 4 leaves of + plates : ill. ; 21 cm. +221. Scott, Gini Graham. Shamanism for everyone/ West Chester, + Pa.: Whitford Press, c1988. 211 p. : port. ; 24 cm. +222. Campbell, Alan Tormaid. To square with Genesis : casual + statements and shamanic ideas in Wayapi/ Edinburgh: Edinburgh + University Press, c1989. 198 p. : ill.; 23 cm. +223. Mumford, Stan. Himalayan dialogue:Tibetan lamas and Gurung + shamans in Nepal/Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, + c1989. xii, 286 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +224. Wolfe, Amber, 1950- In the shadow of the Shaman: connecting + with self, nature, and spirit/1st ed. St. Paul, Minn: Llewellyn + Pub., 1988. xix, 357 p.: ill. ; 23 cm. +225. Atkinson, Jane Monnig. The art and politics of Wana shamanship + /Berkeley: University of California Press, c1989. xviii, 365 p.: + ill. ; 24 cm. +=== + +A Bibliography of Shamanism (Part 4 of 5; items 226-300) +Listings from the US Library of Congress Catalog + +226. Lewis, I. M. Ecstatic religion : a study of shamanism and + spirit possession/2nd ed. London; New York: Routledge, 1989. + 200 p.; 22 cm. +227. Miller, Jay, 1947- Shamanic odyssey: the Lushootseed Salish + journey to the land of the dead/Menlo, Park, Calif.: Ballena + Press, c1988. xviii, 215 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 23 cm. +228. International Conference on the Study of Shamanism and + Alternate Modes of Healing (4th : 1987 : San Rafael, Calif.) + Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on the + Study of Shamanism and Alternate Modes of Healing : held at + the St. Sabina Center, San Rafael, California, September 5-7, + 1987/ Berkeley, Calif.?] : Independent Scholars of Asia, + c1988. 358 p.; 23 cm. +229. Hassan, Umit. Eski Turk toplumu uzerine incelemeler/1ci + baski. Cagaloglu, Istanbul : Kaynak Yayinlari, 1985. 367 p.; + 20 cm. +230. Kalweit, Holger. Traumzeit und innerer Raum : die Welt der + Schamanen : Entdeckungsreisen in die Terra incognita der Seele, + der Schamane als Pionier der modernen Bewusstseinsforschung/ + 1.Aufl. Bern: Scherz, 1984. 318; 22 cm. +231.Taube, Erika. Schamanen und Rhapsoden: die geistige Kultur + der alten Mongolei / Wien : Tusch, 1983. 279 p., 2] folded p. + of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 22 cm. +232. Blacker, Carmen. The catalpa bow : a study of shamanistic + practices in Japan/2nd ed. London; Boston: G. Allen & Unwin, + 1986. 382 p., 16] p. of plates : ill. ; 22 cm. +233. Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo. Shamanism and art of the eastern + Tukanoan Indians: Colombian northwest Amazon/ Leiden; New + York: E.J. Brill, 1987. xi, 25 p., 42 p. of plates : ill. ; 26 cm. +234. Graham, Penelope. Iban shamanism : an analysis of the + ethnographic literature/Canberra, ACT, Australia : Department of + Anthropology, Research School of Pacific Studies, the Australian + National University], 1987. x, 174 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. +235. Kalweit, Holger. Die Welt der Schamanen : Traumzeit und + innerer Raum : Entdeckungsreisen in die Terra incognita der Seele, + der Schamane als Pionier der modernen Bewusstseinsforschung/ + 1. Aufl. der Sonderausg. 1987. Bern : O.W. Barth Buch im + Scherz Verlag, 1987, c1984. 318 p. ; 22 cm. +236. Kenin-Lopsan, M. B. (Mongush Borakhovich), 1925- + Obriadovaia praktika i fol'klor tuvinskogo shamanstva: konets + XIX-nachalo XX v./Novosibirsk: Izd-vo "Nauka," Sibirskoe otd-nie, + 1987. 162 p.: ill. ; 17 cm. +237. Fidaali, Kabire, 1945- Le pouvoir du Bangre : enquete + initiatique a Ouagadougou/Paris: Presses de la Renaissance, + c1987. 220, 2] p. : ill. ; 23 cm. +238. Ngankam Fogue, Dieudonne. La malediction chez les + Bamileke du Cameroun: une analyse philosophique/Bafoussam: D. + Ngankam Fogue, 1985. viii, 125 leaves, 1] leaf of plates: maps; + 29 cm. +239. Schamanentum und Zaubermarchen / Kassel : E. Roth-Verlag, + c1986. 215 p. : 2 col. ill. ; 23 cm. +240. Bramard-Blagny, Anne. Mon soleil au Perou : rencontre avec + un sorcier Jivaro/Paris: L'Harmattan, c1986. 182 p., 16] p. + of plates : ill. ; 22 cm. +241. Hunt, Dave. America, the sorcerer's new apprentice: the rise + of new age shamanism/ Eugene, Or.: Harvest House, c1988. + 284 p. ; 22cm. +242. Shamanism: the spirit world of Korea/Berkeley, Calif.:Asian + Humanities Press, 1988. 190 p. ; 23 cm. +243. Bend, Cynthia, 1925- Birth of a modern shaman: a documented + journey and guide to personal transformation/St. Paul, MN, + U.S.A.: Llewellyn Publications, 1988, c1987. xxii, 246 p.: ill.; + 23 cm. +244. Andrews, Lynn V. Crystal woman: the sisters of the dreamtime/ + New York, NY : Warner Books, c1987. xvii, 269 p. ; 24 cm. +245. Heinze, Ruth-Inge. Trance and healing in Southeast Asia + today/Bangkok, Thailand: White Lotus Co.; Berkeley Calif.] : + Independent Scholars of Asia, 1988. ix, 406 p.: col. ill.; 22 cm. +246. Shaman's path : healing, personal growth & empowerment/1st + ed. Boston : Shambhala: Distributed in the United States of America + by Random House, 1988. xii, 236 p. ; 23 cm. +247. Kalweit, Holger. Dreamtime & inner space : the world of the + shaman/ 1st ed. Boston: Shambhala Publications; New York, + N.Y.] Random House Distributor], 1988. xvi, 297 p. ; 23 cm. +248. Wilbert, Johannes. Tobacco and shamanism in South America/ + New Haven: Yale University Press, c1987. xix, 294 p.; 25 cm. +249. Thompson, Ewa M. (Ewa Majewska), 1937- Understanding Russia: + the holy fool in Russian culture/Lanham, MD: University Press of + America, c1987. xi, 229 p. ; 24 cm. +250. Darwin, Randolph Charles. Die Entwicklung des Priestertums und + der Priesterreiche, oder, Schamanen, Wundertater und + Gottmenschen als Beherrscher der Welt: ein Warnruf an alle + freiheitliebenden Volker/Wobbenbull/Husum: Verlag fur + Ganzheitliche Forschung, 1979. viii, 416 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. +251. Rutherford, Ward. Shamanism, the foundations of magic/ + Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Aquarian Press, 1986 159 p.; + 22 cm. +252. Newberry, John, 1953- The various shamanistic signs in the + Indus valley script/Victoria, B.C.: J. Newberry, c1986. 16 p.: + ill.; 28 cm. +253. Luna, Luis Eduardo. Vegetalismo: Shamanism among the Mestizo + population of the Peruvian Amazon/Stockholm, Sweden: Almqvist & + Wiksell International, 1986] 202 p.: ill. ; 25 cm. +254. Stammel, H. J. (Heinz Josef), 1926- Die Apotheke Manitous: + das medizinische Wissen der Indianer und ihrer Heilpflanzen/1. + Aufl. Reinbek bei Hamburg : Wunderlich, 1986. 360 p. ; 28 cm. +255. Covell, Alan Carter, 1952- Folk art and magic: Shamanism in + Korea/Seoul, Korea: Hollym Corp., c1986. 216 p.: ill. (some + col.) ;25 cm. +256. Rencontres internationales sur la fete et la communication + (2nd: 1985: Nice, France) Transe, chamanisme, possession: de la + fete a l'extase: actes des deuxiemes Recontres internationales + sur la fete et la communication, Nice Acropolis 24-28 avril 1985. + Nice] : Editions Serre: Nice-Animation, 1986 xi, 375 p., 31] p. of + plates : ill. ; 24cm. +257. Guillot, Renee-Paule. Le chamanisme, ancetre du druidisme/ + Paris : R. Laffont, c1986. 254 p. ; 22 cm. +258. Shamanism: an expanded view of reality/1st ed. Wheaton, + Ill., U.S.A.: Theosophical Pub. House, 1987. xxiii, 295 p.; 21 cm. +259. Villoldo, Alberto. Healing states/New York: Simon & + Schuster, 1987. xvi, 207 p., 8] p. of plates : ill. ; 21 cm. +260. Jamal, Michele. Shape shifters: shaman women in contemporary + society/New York : Arkana, 1987. xx, 204 p. : ports.; 20 cm. +261. Schlesier, Karl H. The wolves of heaven: Cheyenne shamanism, + ceremonies, and prehistoric origins/1st ed. Norman: University + of Oklahoma Press, c1987. xviii, 214 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +262. Taussig, Michael T. Shamanism, colonialism, and the wild man: + a study in terror and healing/Chicago: University of Chicago + Press, 1986, c1987. xix, 517 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. +263. James. The shaman's touch : Otomi Indian symbolic healing + /Salt Lake City, Utah : University of Utah Press, 1986. xiii, + 180 p.: ill. ; 24 cm. +264. Shamanism in Eurasia / Gottingen : Edition Herodot, c1984. + 2 v. (xxi, 475 p.) : ill. ; 24 cm. +265. Merkur, Daniel. Becoming half hidden: shamanism and initiation + among the Inuit / Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell + International, c1985. vii, 305 p.; 25 cm. +266. Bernand-Munoz, Carmen. La solitude des Renaissants: + malheurs et sorcellerie dans les Andes / Paris : Presses de la + Renaissance, c1985. 236 p.; 23 cm. +267. Chiappe, Mario. Alucinogenos y shamanismo en el Peru + contemporaneo / 1a ed. Lima, Peru : Ediciones El Virrey, 1985. 150 + p., 18] p. of plates : ill. ; 21 cm. +268. Testi dello sciamanesimo siberiano e centroasiatico/Torino: + Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, c1984. 612 p., 7] leaves + of plates: ill.; 24 cm. +269. Zamiti, Khalil. Sociologie de la folie: introduction au + shamanisme maghrebin: Sidi Hammadi Soltane El Jaane/Tunis: + Universite de Tunis, Centre d'etudes et de recherches + economiques et sociales, 1982. 205 p. ; 20 cm. +270. Basilov, V. N. (Vladimir Nikolaevich) Izbranniki dukhov/ + Moskva : Izd-vo polit. lit-ry, 1984. 207 p.: ill. (some col.); + 17 cm. +271. Mazin, Anatolii Ivanovich. Traditsionnye verovaniia i obriady +evenkov-orochonov: konets XIX-nachalo XX v./Novosibirsk: + Izd-vo "Nauka," Sibirskoe otd-nie, 1984. 200 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +272. Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg, Gisela, 1929- Der Weibmann : kultischer + Geschlechtswechsel im Schamanismus: eine Studie zur + Transvestition und Transsexualitat bei Naturvolkern/ + Originalausg. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, + 1984. 200 p. ; 19 cm. +273. Alekseev, Nikolai Alekseevich. Shamanizm tiurkoiazychnykh + narodov Sibiri: opyt areal'nogo sravnitel'nogoissledovaniia/ + Novosibirsk : Izd-vo "Nauka," Sibirskoe otd-nie, 1984. + 232 p., 24] p. of plates : ill. ; 22 cm. +274. Cardin, Alberto. Guerreros, chamanes y travestis : indicios + de homosexualidad entre los exoticos/1a ed. Barcelona: + Tusquets, 1984. 243 p. : ill. ; 18 cm. +275. Lewis, I. M. Religion in context: cults and charisma/Cambridge + Cambridgeshire]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986. + x, 139 p. ; 22 cm. +276. Davis, Bruce, 1950- The heart of healing/Toronto; New York: + Bantam Books, 1985, c1983. p. cm. +277. Crocker, Jon Christopher. Vital souls: Bororo cosmology, natural +symbolism, and shamanism/Tucson, Ariz.: University of Arizona Press, + c1985. xiii, 380 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +278. Halifax, Joan. Shamanic voices: a survey of visionary + narratives/Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England; New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: + Penguin Books, 1980, c1979. 268 p., 16] p. of plates; 20 cm. +279. Korean folklore/U.S. ed. Seoul, Korea: Si-sa-yong-o-sa + Publishers; Arch Cape, Or., U.S.A.: Pace International + Research, c1983. viii, 312 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. +280. Ottaviani, Gioia. L'attore e lo sciamano: esempi d'identita + nelle tradizioni dell'Estremo Oriente/Roma: Bulzoni, c1984. + 173 p.; 22 cm. +281. Kim, Kwang-il. Han'guk chont'ong munhwa ui chongsin punsok: + sinhwa, musok, kurigo chonggyo ch'ehom/Soul: Siinsa, 1984. + 385 p.; 23 cm. +282. Novik, E. S. (Elena Sergeevna) Obriad i fol'klor v sibirskom + shamanizme: opyt sopostavleniia struktur/Moskva : Glav. + red. vostochnoi lit-ry, 1984. 303 p.: ill.; 23 cm. +283. Taylor, Rogan P. The death and resurrection show: from shaman + to superstar/London: A. Blond, 1985. 224 p.: ill.; 26 cm. +284. Tokarski, Stanislaw. Eliade i Orient/Wroclaw: Zaklad Narodowy + im. Ossolinskich, 1984 179 p.; 24 cm. +285. Hwang, Nu-si, 1951- Kyonggi-do Todang kut : maul ui + annyong kwa p'ungyorul kiwon hanun kut / Soul : Yorhwadang, 1983. + 119 p.: ill. (some col.); 23 cm. +286. Chang, Chu-gun, 1925- Cheju-do Yongdung kut : haenyodul + ui anjon kwa p'ungorul pinun kut/Soul: Yorhwadang, 1983. 123 + p. : ill. (some col.) ; 23 cm. +287. Kim, In-hoe, 1938- Hwanghae-do naerim kut: mudang ui killo + turosonun kut / Soul : Yorhwadang, 1983. 106 p.: chiefly ill. + (some col.); 23 cm. +288. Sasaki, Kokan, 1930- Hyorei to shaman: shukyo jinruigaku noto/ + Shohan. Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1983. xiii, 236 p.: + ill. ; 20 cm. +289. Takamatsu, Keikichi, 1934- Shimokita Hanto no minkan shinko: + fuzoku to takaikan ni kansuru minzokugakuteki kenkyu/Shohan. + Tokyo]: Dento to Gendaisha: Hatsubaijo Gendai Janarizumu + Shuppankai, 1983. 419, vii p.: ill.; 22 cm. +290. Kendall, Laurel. Shamans, housewives, and other restless + spirits: women in Korean ritual life/Honolulu: University of + Hawaii Press, c1985. xiii, 234 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +291. Alcheringa, oder, Die beginnende Zeit : Studien zu Mythologie, + Schamanismus und Religion/Frankfurt am Main: Qumran, + c1983. 194 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. +292. Cho, Hung-Youn. Mudang : der Werdegang koreanischer + Schamanen am Beispiel der Lebensgeschichte des Yi Chi-san/ + Hamburg: Gesellschaft fur Natur- und Volkerkunde Ostasiens, 1983. + 412 p.: ill.; 22 cm. +293. Gruber, Elmar, 1955- Tranceformation: Schamanismus und die + Auflosung der Ordnung/Basel: Sphinx Verlag, 1982. 487 p.: + ill.; 21 cm. +294. Yi, Nung-hwa, 1869-1945. Choson musokko/ Soul + T'ukpyolsi: Minsogwon: konggupch'o, Minsok Hakhoe Panp'och'o, + 1981. 5, 85, 51 p. : ill. ; 27 cm. +295. Covell, Alan Carter, 1952- Ecstasy: Shamanism in Korea/ + Elizabeth, N.J. : Hollym International, 1983. 107 p.: ill. + (some col.) ; 26 cm. +296. Davis, Bruce, 1950- The heart of healing/Fairfax, Calif.: + Inner Light Books and Tapes, c1983. 186 p.; 22 cm. +297. Grim, John. The shaman: patterns of Siberian and Ojibway healing/ + Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, c1983. xiv, 258 p.: + ill. ; 22 cm. +298. Siskin, Edgar E., 1907?- Washo shamans and peyotists: religious + conflict in an American Indian tribe/Salt Lake City, Utah: + University of Utah Press, c1983. xxii, 236 p., 6] p. of plates: + ill. ;24 cm. +299. Mottin, Jean, 1929- Allons faire le tour du ciel et de la + terre: le chamanisme des Hmong vu dans les textes/Bangkok, + Thailand: White Lotus, 1982. ix, 559 p., 12] p. of plates: + ill. (some col.) ; 28cm. +300. Dobrev, Ivan (Ivan Dobrev) Proizkhod i znachenie na + praslavianskoto konsonantno i diftongichno sklonenie/Sofiia: + Izdvo na Bulgarskata akademiia na naukite, 1982. 217 p.: + ill.; 21 cm. +=== + +A Bibliography of Shamanism (Part 5 of 5; items 301-365) +Listings from the US Library of Congress Catalog + +301. Cho, Hung-Youn. Koreanischer Schamanismus: eine Einfuhrung/ + Hamburg: Im Selbstverlag Hamburgisches Museum fur Volkerkunde, + 1982. 129 p. : ill. ; 21 cm. +302. Oppitz, Michael. Schamanen im Blinden Land: ein Bilderbuch + aus dem Himalaya/Frankfurt am Main: Syndikat, c1981. 285 p.: + ill. ; 27 cm. +303. Buddizm i traditsionnye verovaniia narodov TSentr al'noi Azii/ + Novosibirsk : Izd-vo "Nauka," Sibirskoe otd-nie, 1981. 183 p.: + ill. ; 20 cm. +304. Golowin, Sergius. Das Reich des Schamanen: der eurasische Weg + der Weisheit / Basel : Sphinx Verlag, 1981. 358 p.: ill.; 22 cm. +305. Lee, Jung Young. Korean shamanistic rituals/The Hague; + New York: Mouton, c1981. xvi, 249 p.: ill.; 24 cm. +306. Grim, John. Reflections on shamanism: the tribal healer and + the technological trance / Chambersburg, PA : Published for + the American Teilhard Association for the Future of Man by + Anima Books, c1981. 16 p. ;23 cm. +307. Muhlmann, Wilhelm E. (Wilhelm Emil), 1904- Die Metamorphose + der Frau : weiblicher Schamanismus und Dichtung/Berlin: D. Reimer + Verlag, c1981. 259 p. ; 24 cm. +308. Huhm, Halla Pai, 1922- Kut, Korean shamanist rituals/Elizabeth, + N.J. : Hollym International Corp., 1980. 102 p. : ill. ; 23cm. +309. Godzinski, Stanislaw. W kregu lamajskich legend i mitow/ + Warszawa: Iskry, 1981. 205 p., 24] p. of plates: ill.; 20 cm. +310. Problemy istorii obshchestvennogo soznaniia aborigenov Sibiri: + po materialam vtoroi poloviny XIX-nachala XX v./Leningrad: + "Nauka," Leningradskoe otd-nie, 1981. 282 p.; 22 cm. +311. Mikhailov, T. M. Iz istorii buriatskogo shamanizma: S + drevneishikh vremen po XVIII v./Novosibirsk: Izd-vo "Nauka," + Sibirskoe otd-nie, 1980. 320 p. ; 20 cm. +312. Blodgett, Jean, 1945- The coming and going of the shaman: + Eskimo shamanism and art: the Winnipeg Art Gallery March 11 to + June 11, 1978/Winnipeg]: The Gallery, c1979] 246 p.: ill. + (some col.) ; 31cm. +313. Revunenkova, E. V. (Elena Vladimirovna) Narody Malaizii i + Zapadnoi Indonezii: nekotorye aspekty dukhovnoi kul'tury/Moskva: + Izd-vo "Nauka", 1980. 272, 3] p.: ill.; 20 cm. +314. Spirits, shamans, and stars: perspectives from South America/ + The Hague ; New York : Mouton, c1979. vii, 276 p. : ill. ; 24cm. +315. Halifax, Joan. Shaman, the wounded healer/New York: + Crossroad, c1982. 96 p.: ill. (some col.); 28 cm. +316. Peters, Larry. Ecstasy and healing in Nepal: an + ethnopsychiatric study of Tamang shamanism/Malibu, Calif.: + Undena Publications, 1981. 179 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. +317. Donner, Florinda. Shabono/New York: Delacorte Press, c1982. + xi, 305 p. ; 22 cm. +318. Drury, Nevill, 1947- The shaman and the magician : journeys + between the worlds/London; Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, + 1982. xii, 129 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +319. Rogers, Spencer Lee, 1905- The shaman, his symbols and his + healing power/Springfield, Ill.: Thomas, c1982. xv, 203 p.: + ill. ;24 cm. +320. Bartolome, Miguel Alberto, 1945- Orekuera royhendu (lo que + escuchamos en suenos): shamanismo y religion entre los Ava- + Katu-Ete del Paraguay/1. ed. Mexico: Instituto Indigenista + Interamericano, 1977. xviii, 153 p. : ill. ; 19 cm. +321. Lommel, Andreas. Schamanen und Medizinmanner: Magie u. Mystik + fruher Kulturen / 2., uberarb. u. erw. Aufl. Munchen : + Callwey, 1980. 235 p. : numerous ill. (some col.) ; 22 cm. +322. Wasilewski, Jerzy Slawomir. Podroze do piekiel: rzecz o + szamanskich misteriach/Wyd. 1. Warszawa: Ludowa Spoldzielnia + Wydawnicza, 1979 (Bialyst.: BZG) 240, 4] p., 12] leaves of + plates: ill.; 20 cm. +323. Bertelsen, Jes, 1946- Dybdepsykologi/Kobenhavn]: Borgen, + c1978-c1980. 4 v. : ill. ; 22 cm. +324. Bartolome, Miguel Alberto, 1945- Shamanismo y religion entre + los ava-katu-ete del Paraguay/1. ed. Mexico: Instituto + Indigenista Interamericano, 1977. xviii, 153 p., 3] leaves of + plates: ill. ; 19 cm. +325. Tedlock, Barbara. Time and the highland Maya/1st ed. + Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, c1982. xii, + 245 p.: ill. ;25 cm. +326. Wagner-Robertz, Dagmar Johanna, 1944- Der Alte hat mir erzahlt ...: + Schamanismus bei den Hain//om von Sudwestafrika : eine + Untersuchung ihrer geistigen Kultur/Swakopmund: Gesellschaft fur + Wissenschaftliche Entwicklung, 1977. 53 p.; 21 cm. +327. Ander og mennesker/ Lyngby]: Nationalmuseet; Kobenhavn]: eksp. + Gyldendal], c1978. 141 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +328. Siikala, Anna-Leena. The rite technique of the Siberian shaman/ + Helsinki: Suomalainen tiedeakatemia: Akateeminen kitjakauppa + jakaja], 1978. 385 p.; 24 cm. +329. Shamanism in Siberia / Budapest : Akademiai Kiado, 1978. + 531 p.: ill.; 25 cm. +330. Harner, Michael J. The way of the shaman: a guide to power and + healing/1st ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, c1980. xviii, + 167 p.: ill.; 24 cm. +331. Delaby, Laurence. Chamanes toungouses/Nanterre: Service + de publication, Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie + comparative, Universite de Paris X, c1977. 243 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. +332. Les Guerisseurs psi, guerisseurs de l'impossible: guerisons + miraculeuses et guerisons spontanees, regeneration des organes, + les "chirurgiens" philippins, influence a distance et imposition + des mains, les charlatans, chamans et sorciers, la medecine + magique en Chine/ : Tchou, c1978. 318 p.: ill.; 24 cm. +333. Brault, Marie-Marthe T., 1929- Monsieur Armand, guerisseur/ + Montreal: Parti pris, c1974. 155 p.; 20 cm. +334. Enderwitz, Ulrich. Schamanismus und Psychoanalyse: zum Problem + mytholog. Rationalitat d. strukturalen Anthropologie von Claude + Levi-Strauss/1. Aufl. Wiesbaden: Heymann, 1977. 317 p.; 23 cm. +335. Backman, Louise, 1926- Studies in Lapp shamanism/Stockholm: + Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1978. 128 p.: ill.; 24cm. +336. Harvey, Youngsook Kim. Six Korean women: the socialization of + shamans/St. Paul: West Pub. Co., c1979. xi, 326 p., 8] leaves of + plates: ill.; 25 cm. +337. Halifax, Joan. Shamanic voices: a survey of visionary + narratives/1st ed. New York: Dutton, c1979. xi, 268 p., 8] + leaves of plates : ill. ; 21 cm. +338. The Shaman from Elko: papers in honor of Joseph L. Henderson + on his seventy-fifth birthday/San Francisco: C. G. Jung + Institute of San Francisco, c1978. 272 p. ; 23 cm. +339. Motzki, Harald. Schamanismus als Problem + religionswissenschaftlicher Terminologie: e. Unters./Als Ms. + veroff. Bonn: Religionswissenschaftliches Seminar d. Univ. + Bonn; Koln: Brill in Komm.], 1977. viii, 143 p.: 5 ill.; 21 cm. +340. Mercier, Mario. Chamanisme et chamans: le vecu dans + l'experience magique/Paris: P. Belfond, c1977. 179, 12] p., 4] + leaves of plates: ill.; 22 cm. +341. International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological + Sciences, 9th, Chicago, 1973. The Realm of the extra-human: + agents and audiences/The Hague: Mouton; Chicago: distributed by + Aldine, c1976. xii, 556 p., 6] leaves of plates : ill. ; 24 cm. +342. Drury, Nevill, 1947- Don Juan, Mescalito, and modern magic: + the mythology of inner space/London; Boston: Routledge & Kegan + Paul, 1978. x, 229 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. +343. Spirit possession in the Nepal Himalayas/New Delhi: + Vikas Pub. House, c1976. xxviii, 401 p.: ill., map; 25 cm. +344. Haas, Jochen U. Schamanentum und Psychiatrie: Unters, zum Begriff + d. arkt. Hysterie u. zur psychiatr. Interpretation d. Schamanentums + zirkularpolarer Volker/ Munchen: Renner in Komm.], 1976. iv, + 322, 7 leaves of plates : ill., maps ; 21 cm. +345. Eliade, Mircea, 1907- Le chamanisme et les techniques + archaiques de l'extase/2. ed., revue et augm. Paris: Payot, + 1974, c1968. 405 p. ; 23 cm. +346. Blacker, Carmen. The catalpa bow : a study of shamanistic + practices in Japan/London: Allen & Unwin, 1975. 376 p., 8] + leaves of plates : ill. ; 23 cm. +347. Shirokogoroff, S. M. Psychomental complex of the Tungus. New + York: AMS Press, 1980] xvi, 469 p. : ill. ; 32 cm. +348. Crookall, Robert, 1890- Ecstasy: the release of the soul + from the body/1st ed. Moradabad : Darshana International, + 1973. 163 p.; 25 cm. +349. Kihm, Walter, 1947- Zur Symbolik im Schamanismus/Freiburg + i. Br. : s.n.], 1974. 234 p. ; 21 cm. +350. Eliade, Mircea, 1907- Le Chamanisme et les techniques + archaiques de l'extase ... 2e edition revue et augmentee. + Paris, Payot, 1968. 407 p. 23 cm. +351. Maddox, John Lee, 1878- The medicine man: a sociological + study of the character and evolution of shamanism/New York: + AMS Press, 1977. xv, 330 p., 3] leaves of plates: ill.; 23 cm. +352. Oeric, O. N. The invisible landscape: mind, hallucinogens, + and the I Ching/New York: Seabury Press, c1975. ix, 242 p.: + ill. ;24 cm. +353. Eliade, Mircea, 1907- Shamanism: archaic techniques of + ecstasy. Princeton, N.J.] Princeton University Press 1972, c1964] + xxiii, 610 p. 22 cm. +354. Park, Willard P. (Willard Zerbe), d. 1965. Shamanism in + western North America; a study in cultural relationships, New + York, Cooper Square Publishers, 1975. viii, 166 p. 24 cm. +355. Maria Sabina, 1894- Maria Sabina and her Mazatec mushroom + velada. New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1974] xxxiii, 281 + p.illus.31 cm. +356. Ch'u, Yuan] ca. 343-ca. 277 B.C. The nine songs; a study of + shamanism in ancient China San Francisco] City Lights Books + 1973] 64 p. illus. 21 cm. +357. Harner, Michael J. Hallucinogens and shamanism. New York, + Oxford University Press, 1973. xv, 200 p. illus. 22 cm. +358. Hatto, A. T. (Arthur Thomas) Shamanism and epic poetry in + Northern Asia, London, University of London (School of Oriental + and African Studies), 1970. 2], 19 p. 25 cm. + 359. Dioszegi, Vilmos. Tracing Shamans in Siberia. The story of + an ethnographical research expedition. Oosterhout] + Anthropological Publications 1968] 328 p., 24 p. of photos. 20 cm. + 360. Lommel, Andreas. The world of the early hunters; London, + Evelyn, Adams & Mackay, 1967. 175 p. illus. (some col.) 27 cm. +361. Lommel, Andreas. Shamanism; the beginnings of art. New York, + McGraw-Hill 1966, c1967] 175 p. illus. (part col.) 27 cm. +362. Siikala, Anna-Leena. Studies on shamanism/Helsinki: Finish + Anthropological Society; Budapest: Akademiai Kiado, 1992. 230 + p.: ill.; 24 cm. +363. Han, Sang-Chan. Beziehungen zwischen dem Schamanismus und + dem Verstandnis des Heiligen Geistes in der protestantischen + Kirche in Korea: religionsphanomenologische und + missionstheologische Untersuchung/ Ammersbek bei Hamburg: Verlag + an der Lottbek, P. Jensen, c1991. 260 p.; 21 cm. +364. Garcia Carrera, Juan. La otra vida de Maria Sabina/Mexico, + D.F.: s.n., 1986] (Mexico, D.F.: Esfuerzo) 188 p.: ill., + ports.; 19 cm. +365. Czaplicka, Marie Antoinette, d. 1921. Aboriginal Siberia, a + study in social anthropology, Oxford, Clarendon press, 1914. + xiv p., 1 l., 374, 2] p. 16 pl., 2 fold. maps. 24 cm. + + You have reached the end of this bibliography. +-- + diff --git a/religious documents/shamfell.txt b/religious documents/shamfell.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb5eb16 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shamfell.txt @@ -0,0 +1,323 @@ +From: Michelle Hass + + STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES AND ETHICS--LIFEWAY SHAMANIC FELLOWSHIP + + By Usen's grace, Ho-dah.... + + 1.) PURPOSES: + This is an era of decision. Do we allow ourselves to cut the + throat of the Mother Who has nourished us as a species since + we "came down from the trees"? Or do we work to walk in + Beauty and Harmony with Her, and cherish Her, and work to + see Her healed? The resurgence of Shamanism, the primal + Earth Religion of practically all of the Earth's + pre-Agrarian cultures, is an important thing, foretold by + the Paiute prophet Wovoka and in the Hopi Prophecies. It + was said that both the Red Man would return to the Ways of + the Old Ones and that the non-Native would also embrace the + Lifeway. There are non-Natives who respectfully have chosen + these Ways, and are carrying them on in a reverent way. If + the Lifeway was only given for the Native peoples, it would + die out within our lifetime. There are simply not enough + traditional Elders left. + + It has been shown to some of us that Our Mother The Earth is + not willing to die quietly. She has demonstrated this by + the increase in natural disasters of the past decade, which + continue day by day. The Hopi prophecies state that, when + the "bowl full of ashes" (most interpret this as the + Thermonuclear Bomb) is overturned, that Our Mother shall + rise up in Her righteous anger and destroy humanity. This + prophecy is coming true, although it may yet be reversable. + Perhaps it is we who reverence the Ways and walk in harmony + with Our Mother that may stay Her hand. + + The Lifeway Fellowship is here for those who wish to honor + Our Mother and Our Father, Earth and Sky, and to honor The + Giver Of Life, from whence all things flow in the Universe. + Our world-view is primarily allied with that of the + Navajo/Dineh, Apache/Teneh, and Hopi peoples. However we do + not represent ourselves as the keepers of those ways. The + secrets of those Nations are for them alone, unless Usen' + wishes to reveal them to us. Our mission is to help heal + Our Mother, The Earth, and to help each other walk in closer + harmony with Her. We also exist to provide a way for urban + and sub-urban people to learn and practice the root Shamanic + techniques that aid us in finding our True Vision and True + Way of Power, and following that Vision and that Way. + + We identify ourselves as Pagan (Webster's New World + Dictionary "1. b)...a person who is not a Christian, Moslem, + or Jew (by faith); heathen. Pagan specifically refers to one + of the ancient polytheistic (or pantheistic) peoples.") and + as unashamed Pantheists and Polytheists. The Lifeway + is truly a religious commitment. No-one can make a commitment + to the Lifeway and to the worship of Life Giver, The Earth + Mother and The Sky Father and remain a worshiper of other + Paradigms of the Deity, much as one cannot be a Christian + and worship the Greco-Roman pantheon. However this does not + imply the condemnation of other Paradigms, nor impel a duty to + "convert" others. + + We stand by other Pagans who do not share our paradigms, IE. + Wiccans, Asatruans, Hellenists, and other Shamanic traditions, + (African and neo-African(Santeria & Voudoun), Australian, + Siberian, Traditional Native American, and Polynesian, to name + a few) and even though we may disagree with some or all of + their practices and beliefs, they are Brothers, Sisters and + Cousins, and in times of persecution as well as times of + goodwill we must defend them. We may even share in their open + rituals and allow them to share in our open ceremonials. But + that which is ours must remain ours, just as that which is + theirs must remain theirs. + + 2.) THE(A)OLOGY: + + As our Fellowship is inherently religious, we must declare a + The(a)ology. (The strange spelling refers to the fact that + we acknowledge a Goddess as well as a God) + This is summed up very easily. There are three main powers + we worship, Usen' the Life Giver, The Earth Mother, and The + Sky Father. The latter Two are emanations of the First, as + all, including the God and the Goddess, are emanations from + Usen', which is the primaeval First Cause. + + Usen': One cannot look upon The Life Giver as either Male or + Female, for The Life Giver is beyond those distinctions. + Usen', and The Life Giver, are names for this First Cause, + this Force that pervades all and caused all to come into + being. From Usen', the God, Sky Father, and the Goddess, + Earth Mother, emanate, as the lesser Deities emanate from + Them. + + The Earth Mother: We live and walk and are sustained from + The Earth Mother, which is our Earth. She is alive, and we + all exist within Her as part of Her structure. Science, + through the Gaea Hypothesis, has finally acknowledged Her + existence, and some even have learnt the lesson that our + duty in this life is to care for and honor Her. This is a + lesson that all must learn, for as long as we despoil Her, + we risk Her wrath. She is expressed through the faces of + White Painted Woman, Who is The Woman Warrior, through Corn + Mother, Who is The Nourishing Mother, and through Spider + Woman, Who is The Wise Woman, The Ancient One, The Custodian + of Wisdom. Women are acknowledged as being human represent- + atives of The Earth Mother. + + The Sky Father: Just as among we Humans, there is both Man + and Woman, so there is no Earth Mother without Sky Father. + Sky Father is the air we breathe, the flame that gives us + warmth and cooks our food, and brings forth the rain that + fertilizes Our Mother and allows Her to provide us with + the crops and animals that sustain us. Sky Father is also + expressed as The Hunter, The Warrior, and First Shaman, and + is also expressed in Killer Of Enemies and The Child Of + Water. He is also present and acknowledged as being present + in every Man. + + There are other spirits that exist in the Universe, some + beneficient, some maleficient. But most important is Usen', + Earth Mother, and Sky Father. By walking in harmony with the + God(esse)s, one can tell the Good from the Evil, welcoming + in Good, and protecting each other from Evil. + + 3.)ETHICS: + + We have our code of Ethics. It is neither lengthy nor + overly restrictive. We do not include ancient taboos in + this list, such as Mother-In-Law avoidance or the taboo + against Fish, because they may not apply nowadays. If you + wish to not eat fish or to avoid your Mother-In-Law for + religious reasons, it is your perogative. But it is not a + requirement. + + 1.) If the action does not harm yourself, other people or + intelligent beings, or Our Mother The Earth, you are free to + do as you wish. + + 2.) To charge for healings, sweats or ceremonials is totally + wrong and extremely offensive. Also, to charge excessively + for teaching is equally offensive, but a modest fee + over expenses is allowable. Your conscience is the best + guide, that and the Will of the Deities. + + 3.) Magick should be limited only to protection of Self and + Loved Ones, and to healing and helping those in need, + provided that permission is given by the patient and that + help other than healing does not interfere with the Will of + others. Magick that is used in a coercive (IE. Love spells) + or destructive (harming or killing magick) way is patently + wrong and is considered Black Magick. + + 4.) Contact of spirits by any means other than Shamanic + journeying or the Vision Quest is very risky, and Possession + is a real possibility. The practice of mediumship, or + "channeling" has no place in the Lifeway, and exposes not + only Self but others to danger. + + 5.) Permission must always be asked of the spirits of plants + and/or animals before taking them for either sustenance or + for medicine. + + 6.) One's visions and one's personal ceremonies are one's + own. Personal visions should not be spoken of, but shared + visions are for all of the group. + + 7.) It is wrong to criticise another within the group or + outside the group. Racism, sexism, xenophobia or general + disrespect of others has no place in the Fellowship. + Individual decisions about lifestyle and other ethical + issues not covered here are an individual's own affair. + + 4.):GROUP STRUCTURE AND INITIATION PRACTICES + + There is only one Initiation, which is the Initiation that + makes one Kin within the group and in the sight of The + Deities. It is given after one has taken their first Vision + Quest, has found their Power Animal(s) and has met the + Shaman Within. It can only be denied to those who have met + these requirements, is younger than the legal Age Of Consent + (in most places, 18 years) is not of sound mind, and/or is + under suspicion of being a Law Enforcement Officer or other + person antipathetic to Pagan and/or Shamanic belief + who requests initiation for fraudulent purposes (usually to + infilitrate to either sabotage or publically discredit the + Fellowship) Initiation must not be denied on account of + physical disabilities, blindness, deafness, or sterility, + nor on account of sex, race, nationality, political belief, + or sexual preference. + + There are no set offices within the Fellowship. Ideally, + leadership should be by consensus, with true leaders being + temporary and purpose-oriented. Facilitation of rituals may + be done by any Initiate of the Fellowship. ANYONE WHO + REPRESENTS THEMSELVES AS A HIGH PRIEST/ESS OF THE LIFEWAY + SHAMANIC FELLOWSHIP IS A FRAUD, AND IS DOING SO CONTRARY TO + THIS STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES AND ETHICS. + + Support of the Fellowship is done on a purely voluntary and + mutual basis. No tithe or dues should be assessed unless + they have been agreed upon by all members, initiates and + non-initiates alike. + + Membership is extended to all. But initiation is reserved + for those who meet the criteria mentioned above. + Non-initiates can participate in open ceremonials and in + basic workshops, but may be denied participation in certain + ceremonials and advanced workshops. + + 5.) THE QUESTION OF RECOGNIZING SHAMANS + + In traditional societies, the title Shaman was not just an + honorific, or recognition of talents. Nor was it the + highest initiatory level in a Shamanic society. The Shaman + was, in most cases, above the Chief in decision-making power + and was judge, doctor, father-confessor, and intercessor + with the Deities for the tribe. Some Shamanic societies are + now providing their membership with "Shaman training + seminars" and "Shaman apprenticeships" that can be had for + an exorbitant price. This implies that the cost of being a + Shaman can be paid in money and in a set amount of time. + This is not the case. Many tribes believe that the office + of Shaman is not one that is earned, but one that one is + born into. Certainly, the skills are never something one is + born with, and this is not merely hereditary. Rather, when + a child is born, the current Shaman would recognize that the + child had the POTENTIAL of being the next one, and the + child's training would begin when they were considered ready + by the Shaman. At adulthood, they would be tested. If they + passed the test, they would become the next Shaman. If they + failed, usually the test was such that they would either die + outright, or they would go insane. Many "heroic quest" + tales, and most notably the Arthurian legends have echoes of + this practice within the ancient Shamanic traditions of + Europe. + + But the point that is being made here is that we should not + go back to that sort of way of doing things, because in this + society it is nigh on impossible. The stand I am offering + here is that recognition as a Shaman can be conferred only + through shared vision, and signs from the Deities. It is + not my place to say what the signs are...it will be obvious + to the Fellowship. I am not Shaman myself, and will not + brook anyone calling me that. This is something I place in + the lap of the Deities to decide. I cannot do anything + more. It is a mockery of those people that can truly be + called Shamans, who are respected, powerful people of + traditional tribes, to do anything less. In any event, to + claim such a title is definately not enough, and is + punishable by withdrawing Fellowship from the one who claims + to be Shaman falsely. + + 6.) FESTIVALS AND WORSHIP DAYS + + The festivals are reckoned as they have been for centuries + by most Southwestern tribes, by both the Sun and the Moon. + The seasons begin on the first full moon after a Solstice or + an Equinox. The Solstices and Equinoxes themselves are + times of celebration as well, and perhaps the period between + the two (which usually works out to be no more than a week + or so) could be considered a time of Holiday. Lesser + ceremonials are held on New Moons and Full Moons between the + first Full Moons of the seasons. Optionally certain Pagan + festivals could be celebrated in conjunction with other + groups, but they are not to be adopted as official Lifeway + Fellowship ceremonial days. + + There are other ceremonials that are personal in nature, and + can be held at any time, although synchronizing them with + the Festivals and the New and Full Moons is advisable. They + are Naming, where a newborn child is named in the presence + of the group and their Life-beads given; Coming Of Age, + where the child's physical maturity is acknowledged, and + where, for a short time, they become Child of the Water (if + a boy) or White Painted Woman (if a girl); Initiation, where + a person becomes a full-fledged member of the group, given + after a person becomes a legal adult; Joining, where a man + and a woman consent to be married; Unjoining, where a man + and woman who are married consent to have the bond + dissolved, which is to be done only after four reconcili- + ation attempts fail or after evidence of marital infidelity + or abuse is given before the group; the Moonlodge, which is + a special sweat for women in their Moon-time; and Release, + where a ceremony for a dead member of the Fellowship is done + to guide their soul Back Home. Other ceremonials that are + dreamed or envisioned by a person or group are also + encouraged. + + 7.) SUMMING UP + + A few quick ones: One can be either clothed or unclothed at + ceremonies, but it should be known that none of the + Southwestern tribes did ceremonies in the nude. However, + one should disrobe for the sweat lodge, as clothes are not + only uncomfortable within the sweat lodge, but interfere + with the cleansing process of the lodge. + + This Statement can be accepted or rejected by individual + groups that federate themselves with Lifeway Fellowship. But + federation can be denied to those groups who stray too far + from some of the basic guidelines, or do anything that would + sully the reputation of the Fellowship in general. + + Hi-dicho...this is finished. + May these proceeds please Life Giver Usen', and the Mother + and the Father. + ENJU! + Chihacou White-Puma, 1988. + +I hope all of you have found the last few posts edifying, if not perhaps a +little long-winded. I am now in the process of finding like-minded people to +join me in this circle, and although I am the one putting this together, I do +not wish to set myself up as leader. Starhawk, bless her heart, has spoken +many times about the concept of leaderless groups, and although I think +perhaps she might not extend this to her circle, I wanted to do so myself. I +am an inveterate Anarchist as well as a Shamanic Pagan, and I have seen enough +times where power trips get in the way of things. However, I do not wish any +longer to work Solitary, so I am offering this possibility to those in the LA +area who are interested in exploring the Shamanic Way and celebrate Earth +Mother and Sky Father in a respectful and reverent way. If one is interested +in what I have here, and want to be a part of it, please leave me a private +message here. +ENJU! Walk in beauty, one and all...Michelle Chihacou White Puma Klein-Hass. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/shamman.txt b/religious documents/shamman.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc7e9cb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shamman.txt @@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ + + +Chat file opened 07/26/89 09:57:51 +---------------------------------- + + + + + WICCAN SHAMANISM + by + Selena Fox + typed by Lewis for P.A.N. + 508-795-7628 + + + Shamanism exists in tribal ccultures around the world and has done so for  +centuries. Yet, in reading most anthropological texts on Shamanism, there is  +little, if any reference made to shamanism in Europe. Howeverm Shamanism has  +existed among the peoples of Europe not only in ancient times, but also  +through the present day. During the Middle Ages, the Old Ways largely  +disappeared from public view because of persecution. Yet they were not  +erradicated but took a more underground existence. Today, there are some of  +us of European ancestry that are bringing Shamanic ways rooted in  +pre-Christian Europe back into the light. + + Wiccan Shamanism is a term I began using several years ago in an attempt  +to describe my own path of magick and spirituality in relation to the other  +forms of Shamanism on the Planet. Wiccan Shamanism draws on the Old but it is  +not simply an attempt re-construction and revival of the Old Ways of tribal  +Europe. Wiccan Shamanism blends both the Old and the New to suit the modern  +times in wich we live. Although emphasis is on European symbology and  +traditions Wiccan Shamanism is multi-cultural, incorporating ways of other  +helaers and magick workers from many places and eras. + + What follows is a glimpse into Wiccan Shamanism as I know it and practice  +it. While Jim,Dennis, and others who help with various aspects of CIRCLES  +work may share many of these concepts, I speak here only for myself - for at  +the heartof this spiritual approach is the idea that each persoon must seek  +their own connection with the Divine, within their own Self, rather than  +having me or anyone else do this for them. This is not a path of a leader  +with followers, but a path where each becomes thier own leader. + +******************************************************************************* + + + + I call to the Powers of the Four Quarters -- to Earth in the North which  +is the Realm of the Physical Body and Material Plane, to Air in the East which  +is the Realm of Thoughts and Intellect, to Fire in the South which is the  +Realm of Will Power and Action, and Water in the West which is the Realm of  +Emotions and and Intuition. My Medicine Wheel is the Magick Circle which  +connects the Four Quaters. The sacred places I frequent include a high rock,  +a crystal clear spring fed pool n a hidden valley and a circle of stones in a  +grove of Oak and Birch on a mound. + + I am a channel between Planet Earth beneath my feet and the Heavens above  +my head. I become the World tree when I Shaminize, linking the transforming  +Dark of the Underworld with the Awakening Light of the Upperworld. + + I am the Crystal LIght that is at the Center of the Circle and is the  +fifth Element Spirit. I seek always to act out of MY own Inner Self which is  +at the enter of MY being, for my Inner Self in the Balance of all the  +Elements, of my Female and Male sides, of my Lunar and Solar natures of my  +intellect and intuition my Inner Self is my doorway into the realm where All  +is One. + + I see the Circle of Life from the Center. I watch the Seasons change as  +the Wheel of the Year turns and I clelbrate the 8 sabbats. I connect with the  +dance of Night and Day, of Fair and Stormy Weathers, of the Waxing and Waning  +Moon. I see the cycle of Birth, Growth, Maturity, Death, and Rebirth in all  +of Nature. I examine the cycles of my own life and of the lives of those who  +seek healing aid from me. + + I am the traveler between the World of Daily Life and the Otherworld  +which is the land of Dreams, visions and Spirits. I am a Consciousness  +Explorer. the Otherworldis as real and as important to me as the Day-to-Day  +World. I bridge the Worlds rather than seeking to dwell solely in one or the  +other. I journey into the Otherworld for a reason -- to bring back healing  +and knowledge to apply to Daily Life, helping others, myself and the Planet. + + + I see the Divine in all things. My friends and allies include not only  +humans but also plants, animals, rocks, winds, waters, fire, stars, and other  +life forms. I commune with the Source some call "God" as both Mother Goddess  +and Father God, for both aspects are necessary for the Unity. + + The main focus of my Shamanic work is Healing. I was called to this path  +as a young child in dreams and Out-of-Body experiences, but I didn't begin my  +work until my aduly years when I started Helaing myself. To do this  +Ijourneyed alone into the Pit of my Shadow Self and came face-to-face with my  +problems and hang-ups; my doubts fears, disillusionments, rejections, angersm  +and hurts; with all MY false self images. Words can not begin to express the  +misery, the utter despair the powerlessness I felt during this time. Yet  +coming apart was essential; it enabled me to break through the barriers which  +I had formed and let others form in my psyche that had kept me from being one  +with my True Self. In the deepest Darkness, I felt the Light of my own Inner  +Self beginning to shine through. I focused on the Light and slowly emerged  +from the Pit, stronger and more integrated than ever before and with the power  +to heal others as well as myself. As a result of this transformation process,  +my life's work became clear. I now help others from thier own pits of  +negativity and become whole again. + + Yet my work also extends to more than Humankind; it involves bringing  +Healing to the Planet as a whole. In my communing with the Land, I have heard  +the cries of the Earth mother, sorrowing over the self-centered, greedy,  +intolerant, and destructive behaviors of many of Her human children, who are  +polluting the soild, waters, and air; who are playing power games with nucler  +fire; and who are polluting the spiritual atmosphere of the entire world with  +their narrow mindedness and hate. I am deeply concerned about survival -- not  +of the Planer Herself for all the humans in the world can not destroy Her even  +with all their weapons; She is too stong and powerful for that to happen.  +What I am concerned about is the survival of the human race. -- will we  +anhilate ourselves and many of the life forms around us, or will we wake up in  +time to see the larger picture, find and implement creative solutions to the  +worlds problems, and enter a New Age of expanded consciousness? + + The Balance of Life can be restored on Planet Earth; Harmony can be  +restored between humankind and other life forms; Love consciousness can  +increase and be prevalent on the Earth. I, along with numerous other healers  +and ministers from a variety of spiritual traditions around the world today  +have responded to the upset of Mother Earth by dedicating our lives to this  +Planetary Healing Work, each in our own way. It is this Great Work that  +underlies all the healing and other things I do. It is the Heart of Wiccan  +Shamanism. + + + + First published in fall 1984 CIRCLE NETWORK NEWS; + (C) 1984, CIRCLE, Box 219, Mt. Horeb WI 53572 USA.; + diff --git a/religious documents/shamnmkh.txt b/religious documents/shamnmkh.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..709f0bd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shamnmkh.txt @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ +Some posts about Shamanism from a practitioner's perspective. +These are some screen dumps I made of two posts I made on the Mysteria BBS +(Tujunga, CA) regarding some files they had online. I hope this stimulates +further discussion and thought regarding the "new Shamanism" which has +unfortunately been turned into just another New Age fad by hucksters who +may or may not have been trained in The Ways and in any event are profaning +and abusing them. Read...and think. +Michelle Chihacou Klein-Hass (White-Puma) + + + +I did a little poking around in the text files about Shamanism and +Shamanic consciousness. I must say, I agree with all that was there. +My teacher, Misha Sacred Wolf (which is a forshortening of a much more +complex name) is quite disgusted with the "Shamanism for sale" going +on nowadays in the "new age" movement. With the popularity of the +Lynn Andrews books (which have all the credibility of the later Carlos +Casteneda books, which is slim and none) and the much more +authoritative "Way Of The Shaman", it is almost as hip to say "I am a +White who has been trained by Native Americans in their Ways, and I +can train you for X-amount of dollars and X-amount of lessons," as it +is to say "I channel such-and-such being from (pick one) 1.)Outer +Space, 2.)from ancient Rome/Babylon/America/Atlantis or 3.) Dolphins." +The shaman in the Native American tradition is an awesome figure. The +primary shaman, the one that is looked up to in the tribe and trains +others in certain parts of his (shamans were usually male) work, is +BORN to it. A child, usually the most sickly one, is named at birth +as the successor to the current shaman. He is trained for all his +childhood, and THEN is tested. In the Chiricahua Apache tradition +that Misha Sacred Wolf comes from, originally the shaman would have to +literally jump off a cliff. Literally. This "jumping off" was later +interpreted as an INNER, rather than a physical trial, often induced +by the ingestion of Peyotl or Jimson Weed. In these old days, the +test results were simple, binary, yes or no. If the shaman survives, +he is the shaman. If he dies, then it's time to train another one. +With the use of peyotl, the results are not so clear-cut. Insanity, +personality disassociation, and even possession by the more malevolent +discarnate entities (known singularly and plurally as Gan'n) were +distinct possibilities even for the ones who truly "had it". There +were other shamans and shaman-trained people of Power in the tribe. +Healers, Midwives, Dancers, even the current Inday (Chief) were given +some initiation. But there could be only one true (in all senses of +the word) Shaman of the Tribal band. A shaman would sometimes be paid +for his teachings, and would be compensated for his work at festivals. + But the teachings could never be truly bought. I will discuss more +next post. Enju! (kind of the equivalent of 'so mote it be') Michelle +Chihacou Klein-Hass +**** +My only quarrel with the book "The Way Of The Shaman" is the fact that +the author, whose name escapes me at this time, has reduced the +shamanic experience to a few basic elements which he claims as +universals. One of them is the healing method of the Jivaro, which +entails "sucking" diseases, in the form of spiritual intrusions, out +of the "patient"'s body. Not all shamanic traditions have that sort +of healing method. In fact, the healers and shamans of the +southwestern tribes resemble, more or less, Chinese herbalists or +Indian (that is, India-n)Ayurvedic doctors, relying quite a bit on a +very advanced knowledge of helpful herbs. True, you would also have +times when the disease (usually something mental or psychosomatic) +would be judged the work of outside influences or of an inner +imbalance within the spirit itself. The famous "mountain spirit" +dance of the White Mountain Apaches (incorrectly known as the Gan'n or +demon dance) was really an exercise in psychology, where the struggle +between the disturbance (in the form of a Gan'n, or evil discarnate +spirit) and the shaman and his assistants (in the form of the Mountain +Spirits, with their brightly colored crowns, symbolic of the di-yin or +divine energy that they have within and brightly colored loincloths) +would be made real for the patient. The "mountain spirits" would also +show up at the girls' puberty ceremonies, where they would be present +to protect the girl, who would become, symbolically, White Painted +Woman (sometimes rendered White Shell Woman) the embodyment of the +Female God-principle, in the ceremony. As the representation of White +Painted Woman, she would be very vulnerable to attack by discarnate +entities, so the dancers would dance to purify the perimeter of the +area where the ceremony would take place. But getting back to the +healing Ways, most ailments would be treated herbally before any other +measures were taken. + In regards to Shamanism and Wicca being inter-related, I would +have to differ with the positions taken by the writers of those +articles. Wicca holds much in common with the ancient Ways, and seems +to suggest a common ancestry in Paleolithic times. The magickal state +of consciousness is very similar to the shamanic state of +consciousness, and requires as much force of will. As the Witch uses +the force of their Will to focus their inner energy towards a certain +goal, the shaman uses the force of their will to see beyond the +limitations of the physical world. + To sum up though, the world of today, where instead of hunting +for one's dinner one simply goes to the Supermarket and buys their +dinner pre-packaged and sometimes ready to eat with a minimum of +preparation, and where one has far more insidious enemies than White- +eyes and the Gan'n, the traditional Ways need some revision, some +rethinking. As it was, for Misha to be accepted as what she is by the +remnant of her band of Chiricahua Teneh, it required much adjustment. +She is only 1/4 Chiricahua and less than half Native American, and she +has the green eyes and light hair of her European ancestry. And she +is female, where traditionally among the Chiricahua a woman's place +was in the rearing of children and the preparing of food, clothing and +other necessities for living in harmony with the Earth, and not that +of the most important figure of any tribal band, exponentially more +powerful than even the Inday. The Ways hold awesome truths about +ourselves, the Earth we inhabit, and even our multiverse. But they +cannot remain static, clinging to days long past on one hand, and +cannot be bastardised into just another "new age" cafeteria of +philosophy either. As a very aware friend of mine put it, "this Gem +needs a new setting." This is the challenge the modern-day Shamanist +faces, and I think this challenge also faces Wicca, Buddhism, +Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Sikhism, and whatever system +of beliefs I didn't mention. We cannot turn back the clock and go +back to hunting buffalo and gathering acorns. However, we can take +this path forward into the future. +"I bring the whirlwind, that you may know each other--WE SHALL RETURN!" + With those impassioned, powerful words of Wovoka, the Sioux leader of +the "Ghost Dance" movement of the 1880s, I think I've just about summed it +all up. ENJU! +Michelle Chihacou Klein-Hass (White-Puma) + + + +Again, I hope this stimulates some thought. If you wish to study +Shamanism, be very careful with whom you study with. Be very suspicious of +those who charge exorbitant fees, especially with healings. The book "The +Way Of The Shaman" by Michael Harner is a good introduction to some very +basic information. The Sun Bear material also holds insights, but also has +a cultish feel, like the "Bear Tribe" is the only authentic custodian of +Shamanic knowledge. Avoid the Lynn Andrews books like the plague, and +tread with care around Carlos Castenada's works, especially the later +stuff. He IS telling the truth about some things, so I do not suggest +rejecting his work completely out of hand. I cannot recommend any books in +regard to my own tradition, because there are really none, and I do not +intend to write one either, out of deference to the Grandfathers and to +Usen'. But there ARE authentic teachers out there. You can know them by +just hanging around them. Fees are the easiest dead giveaway, but attitude +is important, too. Trust your gut...it's usually right. + +Hi-dicho...this is finished. +ENJU! +Michelle Chihacou Klein-Hass (White-Puma) + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/shamvisn.txt b/religious documents/shamvisn.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..39ba7ae --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shamvisn.txt @@ -0,0 +1,266 @@ + +/Archive-name: shamanic.visions + + +/* Written 11:06 am Sep 6, 1989 by visionary in peg:oz.visionary */ +/* ---------- "SHAMANIC VISIONS" ---------- */ +SHAMANIC VISIONS - by Michael Ney - Feb 88. +(approx 270 lines) Copyright reserved. +PO Box 566, Milsons Point, 2061. NSW + + +First published in Southern Crossings - entitled - +DRUMMING UP VISIONS - Modern Shamanic Initiation. + +"The drums incessant beat became lost amidst a seemingly resonant +symphony of voices... an enchantingly mysterious tone lead me through +into another reality, a dreamtime landscape of the shamanic +underworld. Perched on a cliff, my `being' perceived the luminous +valley expanding out before me. Suddenly aware of a presence to my +right, I turned and confronted the eyes and beak of an eagle... so +close its warmth was tangible in comparison to the windy updraft. As +we both alighted with graceful swiftness from the cliff I realised a +magical transformation had occurred... my eagle wings were +strong... my sight so keen... my thoughts so strange. We soared +towards an unknown destination, surveying all below us with a god-like +perspective... feeling my journey had begun aeons before this present +reality." + +Thus read my journal entry, written after a shamanic initiation led by +Leslie Conton - co-worker/associate of Michael Harner (world renowned +authority on shamanism). Leslie presented this event at the +Transpersonal Psychology Conference in Brisbane 1986. She enticed our +`allies' to dance, our visions to gather strength and power and also +gave essential background knowledge to this fascinating tradition, +forming a sound basis for further study. + +Later I discovered that "birds always denote rising, activation, +change and vitality. In some traditions birds are symbolic of the +soul; in others the bird is recognized as an intelligent colloborator +with man, being the bearer of celestial messages. For the Buryats of +Siberia, the eagle is the prototype of the shaman. Some Siberian +peoples directly associate the eagle with the Supreme Being and the +Creator of Light. Odin was also called Eagle..... Whether for sport or +spirit, the shaman's ability to fly or the enactment of flight +bespeaks a sublime metaphysical reality that appears to be a common +feature of mystical experiences everywhere. All the cosmos is +accessible when the art of transformation is mastered." - Shaman, The +Wounded Healer by Joan Halifax. + +So, that journey, cited above, was my first `conscious' exploration of +a realm and philosophy which had, in hindsight, affected my +unconscious reality from an early age. I remember crying as a small +boy whilst watching a "Deer Dance" performed by a visiting Mexican +Folklore dance troupe. This perplexed my parents but somehow I felt it +not at all unusual... a linking to past life memory +perhaps. Thereafter I was always fascinated by movies with Indians, +and TV shows like Daniel Boone etc. Also, after recently visiting +America and participating in sacred ceremonies, I realised a large +part of my consciousness was deeply rooted in that ancient +tradition... with a feeling akin to coming "home". + +Shamanism is currently undergoing an immense revival, involving people +from many countries and various walks of life. The popularization of +American Indian teachings and cultural heritage is only a small +chapter in this overall saga. In fact, the so-called "New Age" may +largely be a returning to the old and wise, respectful reverence for +our sacred Mother Earth... sadly now being raped of resources in the +onslaught of "modern" civilisation. + +This "new" awakening stems directly from an earlier tribal reality, +where the shaman was priest, social worker, political advisor and +healer to a closely interconnected community. In many different +cultures worldwide the land and all its beings were viewed as part of +themselves, each with important roles in the unfolding drama of the +universe. The shaman was honoured for his/her powers to intercede and +understand the essential nature of this all-connected mystery and +importantly bring wholeness and healing to the dis-spirited or sick. + +Michael Harner (author of The Way of the Shaman) has coined the term +"urban shamanism" for the practise and initiation of western peoples +into an experiential exploration of shamanic realms. Years of academic +study and fieldwork among shamanic cultures, including his own +initiation, eventually led him to the realisation that several +cross-culturally shared motifs and techniques could perhaps be reduced +to a core of elements. These could be understood by almost anyone, +regardless of culture and which could be employed for their own and +others' benefit.(1) + +Shamans throughout the world, from Tibet and Mongolia to the Americas, +have been involved in healing for thousands of years, dating back to +paleolithic times. Perhaps as old as consciousness itself, shamanism +is an ancient healing tradition that has reflected the changing +cultures of the surrounding world throughout the ages. This tradition +involves healing through personal transformation as well as healing +our family, community and environment. Central to this is the belief +that we must heal and honour our mother the Earth, who is viewed as a +living, conscious organism. Shamans say this sacred female Goddess, +the earth who nourishes our very existence, must also be nourished +with our prayers and ceremonies.(2) Recently some medical +practitioners in America have been researching and using shamanistic +practises to assist wholistic healing. This is an area that will +undoubtedly reach out further into society as its effectiveness +becomes apparent. In particular instances shamanic healing has even +proven to be "miraculous" ie, Rolling Thunder, (Cherokee Indian +medicine man) in one reported case, irrefutably reversed Multiple +Sclerosis. And surely that is not the only case where medical science +is at a loss to explain the healing phenomena. Rolling Thunder says of +his work "This is the Great Spirit's way. I only act as an agent for +the Great Spirit here; the healing comes from the spirit world."(3) + +An integral part of any shaman's power is a fortifying relationship +with an ally. Power exists everywhere, all around us, in +undifferentiated form. Since we need to use the power around us just +to charge our life force, each of us has some sort of ally in order to +be alive. The ally or helper acts as an intermediary between that +formless power and the physical world. Guardian angels, elementals, +stars, people, plants, birds, animals are mediators between the +spiritual and the material. In healing the ally acts as a step-down +transformer, converting raw power to more manageable energetic +levels. An ally can provide protection from illness or accidents as +well. A shaman gives back to an ally by inviting it to dance, sing and +work through his/her physical body. The shaman moves consciously +through all the layers of manifestation that exist - all times, all +places, all possibilities. The path is lifelong, what is written here +is only the beginning, the initiation. The gates beyond are layers of +consciousness, expanding gradually to include objective eternity. The +work moves from self, to community, and finally to the planet.(4) + +There are probably as many different native names for shamanic +practitioners as there are languages and cultures around the +world. The Yakut called their shamans `ojuna', the mongolian - `buga +baga', the Buryats - `udayan', the Tartars - `Kam', the Lakota - +`wicasa wakan' etc. Sometimes the names refer to particular abilities +of the shaman such as the Pomo term `Maru' (dreamer) or the copper +Eskimo word `elik' (one who has eyes). Huichol shamans are called +mara'akame, masters of the deer (mara), after their principal spirit +ally.(5) + +The Wiradjeri aboriginal medicine men have a high god - Baiame. Two +great quartz crystals extend from his shoulders to the sky above +him. Baiame sometimes appears to the aborigines in their dreams. He +causes a sacred waterfall of liquid quartz to pour over their bodies, +absorbing them totally. They later grow wings replacing their +arms. Later the dreamer learns to fly and Baiame sings a piece of +magical quartz into his forehead to enable him to see right into +things. Subsequently an `inner flame' and a heavenly cord are also +incorporated into the body of the new shaman. Thus we see the shaman +acquires new magical powers by encountering the gods as a result of a +special dream journey. The transformations which follow such an +encounter are regarded as initiatory.(6) + +"Simply by using the technique of drumming (sonic driving, a +monotonous percussion sound), people from time immemorial have been +able to pass into these realms which are normally reserved for those +approaching death, or for saints. There is a remarkable similarity +between the experiences of the shaman and those of people coming back +from near-death experiences. It's the same terrain, the same kinds of +experiences. The shaman is known throughout the primitive world as +`conductor of souls', a person who helps the dying and the dead to +reunite with their dead family etc." says Michael Harner in an +interview with Nevill Drury. + +For the shaman, all that exists in the revealed world has a living +force within it. This life energy force, like the Polynesian `mana' or +the Sioux `wakanda', is conceived of as a divine force which permeates +all. The knowledge that life is power is the realization of the +shaman. Communion with the purveyors of power is the work of the +shaman. Mastery of that power: this is the attaimnment of the +shaman.(7) + +In Sydney recently, Nevill and myself held two public workshops +entitled "A Shamanic Initiation" where folk from all walks of life +were led through to their own personal mythic reality via drum +journeys and rituals. Nevill has been doing this work privately for a +number of years now, continually finding the depth of peoples journeys +to be both exciting and enriching. At our day-long sessions +participants contacted classic shamanic realms with ease, and gained +much personal power and satisfying insight from their allies and the +various events encountered in these realms. We also explored the +healing essence of shamanism in the "Spirit Canoe" where many of the +participants were able to both receive and give gifts of power. It is +truly remarkable how accessible this form of personal transformation +is, with the added bonus of being painless, non-traumatic and yet ever +so empowering. + +Here is a brief journey account from a participant. + "Unlike meditation, which is a stillness, a silence, the +shamans vision flight is a movie in my minds eye. I focus on +commencing the journey through a doorway, then a tunnel, then into the +Light to reveal a landscape with animal and human characters. Then I +relax and watch the vision unfold as a cinema of the `right brain'. I +received extraordinary gifts of personal power. For example I was +given, by an American Indian, a writing stick and ink made from soot +and animal grease to write my words with "Clarity, Vision, Accuracy +and Dynamic". Since then, when I have been committing ideas to paper, +I have remembered this precious gift which positively affirmed those +qualities and continues to give me confidence when approaching each +new task and challenge. I also have flown with a Crow to sacred sites +around the world ie, Delphi, Maccu Picchi and experienced the +exhilaration of flight. Wishing to, but not yet able to, visit Ayres +Rock in person I have now journeyed there, in vision, to sit with my +hands feeling the rock, absorbing Uluru Earth Energy." + "I was amazed at how easy it is to start the mind-ball rolling +and to involve myself in an unfolding visionary tale, aided by the +drums' enchantment. It was significant to explore the symbols, allies +and gifts. When visiting my special `Pool of Wisdom' I encountered a +Tiger. Staring into each others eyes, I truly connected with the raw +non-urban power of the animal. Approaching my ally he extended his paw +and dropped in my hand a small, clear Crystal - another precious +gift. Reaching through to the clarity of the mythical realm, accessed +by my unconscious mind, I achieve wisdom, healing and self-knowledg +. Since that initial experience in the workshop I can choose to access +that state at anytime. A profound Initiation." - from Nina Sunday's +vision journal - October 88. + +The clarity and depth of symbolism encountered in journeys such as +this is not unusual... but, unfortunately, not yet accessed by very +many in modern society. It is through such journeys and the gathering +of groups to share their experiences that much of the `tribal old +ways' will be revealed, linking us to that ancient wisdom of natural +inter-connection. Thus, I feel shamanism in its many forms can +significantly contribute to peace and wellbeing, both personal and +global. + + + +Sources:- +All Graphics from various issues of Shamans Drum magazine. +(1) Alicia Allen & Dennis Dutton - co-editors of Shaman's Drum magazine. +Issue No 11. +(2) Brant Secunda - Article entitled "Journey To The Heart" from +Shaman's Drum No 2. +(3) Jim Swan - On Rolling Thunder - Shaman's Drum No 3. +(4) Natasha Frazier - "Shamanic Survival Skills" from Shaman's Drum +No 2. +(5) Timothy White - Managing Editor of Shaman's Drum. +(6) Nevill Drury - Nature & health magazine. Vol 9 No 2. +(7) Joan Halifax - Shaman, The Wounded Healer. + +MICHAEL NEY - Author/Photographer and Editor of `The Crystal +Visionary' recently co-presented (with Nevill Drury) `A Shamanic +Initiation'. His other workshop series entitled `The Crystal +Initiation' has been experienced by numerous groups throughout +Australia. Over the last few years Michael has been incorporating more +shamanic and sacred ritual elements in response to an inner calling, +thus deepening the effect of spiritual initiation for all +participants. Michael and Nevill will be conducting more Shamanic +Initiations in 89. + +Workshop Enquiries: PO Box 566, Milsons Point 2061. NSW. +Phone (02) 918-6043. or Peg:email "visionary" + +Tapes: +Shaman Journey - Nevill Drury, Japetus. ($A17.95 incl post) +One side drumming only, the other side is enhanced by music. +Available from Listen Music - PO Box 996 Chatswood 2067 NSW. + +Further Reading: +The Way of the Shaman - Michael Harner. Harper & Row 1980 +Shamanism - Mircea Eliade. Princeton University Press 1972 +Vision Quest - Nevill Drury. Prism Press 1984. +The Shaman and the Magician - Nevill Drury. Arkana 1987. +Primitive Magic - Ernesto De Martino. Unity Press 1988. +Shamanism (Compilation) - Shirley Nicholson. Quest 1987. +Shaman, Wounded Healer - Joan Halifax. Thames & Hudson 1982 + diff --git a/religious documents/sheba.txt b/religious documents/sheba.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..da9ad8f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/sheba.txt @@ -0,0 +1,391 @@ + THE LAWS + + from Lady Sheba + + + Your High Priestess + +In the Magic Circle, the words, commands, and every wish of the High +Priestess are law. + She is the earthly, living representative of our Gracious Goddess. She +must be obeyed and respected in all things. She is Our Lady and above all +others, a queen in the highest sense of the word. + All female coveners must curtsy whenever they come before her and say, +"Blessed Be." All male coveners must bend the knee and give her a kiss on +the right cheek and say, "Blessed Be." + + Your High Priest + +He is the earthly, living representative of the Great Horned God and in the +Magic Circle, He commandeth the respect due to one who is a Magus, a Lord +Counselor, and father. + + The Laws + +1. The Law was made and ardane of old. +2. The Law was made for the Wicca to advise and help in their troubles. +3. The Wicca should give due worship to the Gods and obey Their will, which +They ardane, for it was made for the good of the Wicca, as the worship of +the Wicca is good for the Gods. For the Gods love the brethren of the +Wicca. +4. As a man loveth a woman by mastering her, +5. So the Wicca should love the Gods by mastering them. +6. And it is necessary that 0 (Magic Circle) which is the temple of the +Gods, should be duly cast and purified that it may be a fit place for the +Gods to enter. +7. And the Wicca should be properly prepared and purified to enter into the +presence of the Gods. +8. With love and worship in their hearts, they shall raise power from their +bodies to give power to the Gods. +9. As has been taught of old. +10. For in this way only may man have a communion with the Gods, for the +Gods cannot help men without the help of man. +11. And the High Priestess shall rule Her Coven as the representative of +the Goddess. +12. And the High Priest shall support Her as the representative of the God. +13. And the High Priestess shall choose whom She will, if he have +sufficient rank, to be Her High Priest. +14. For, as the God himself kissed Her feet in the Fivefold salute, laying +His power at the feet of the Goddess, because of Her youth and beauty, Her +swetness and kindness, Her wisdom and Her justice, Her humility and +gentleness and generosity, +15. So He resigned all His power to Her. +16. But the High Priestess should ever mind that all power comes from Him. +17. It is only lent, to be used wisely and justly. +18. And the greatest virtue of a High Priestess be that She recognizes that +youth is necessary to the representative of the Goddess. +19. So will She gracefully retire in favor of a younger woman, should the +Coven so decide in council. +20. For the true High Priestess realizes that gracefully surrendering the +pride of place is one of the greatest virtues. +21. And that thereby will She return to that pride of place in another +life, with greater power and beauty. +22. In the old days, when Witches extended far, we were free and worshipped +in all the greatest temples. +23. But, in these unhappy times, we must celebrate our Sacred Mysteries in +secret. +24. So be it ardane, that none but the Wicca may see our mysteries, for our +enemies are many and torture loosens the tongue of men. +25. So be it ardane, that no Coven shall know where the next Coven bide. +26. Or who its members be, save only the Priest and Priestess and the +Messenger. +27 And there shall be no communication between them, save only by the +Messenger of the Gods, or the Summoner. +28. And only if it be safe may the Covens meet in some safe place for the +Great Festivals. +29. And while there, none shall say whence they come, nor give their true +names. +30. To this end, that if any be tortured, in their agony, they may not tell +if they do not know. +31. So be it ardane, that no one shall tell anyone, not of the Craft, who +be of the Wicca, or give any names, or where any abide, or in any way tell +anything which can betray any of us to our faces. +32. Nor may he tell where the Covendom be. +33. Or the Covenstead. +34. Or where the meetings be. +35. And if any break these Laws, even under torture, the Curse of the +Goddess shall be upon them, so they may never be reborn on earth, and may +they remainm where they belone, in the Hell of the Christians. +36. Let each High Priestess govern Her Coven with justice and love, with +the help and advice of the High Priest and the Elders, always heeding the +advice of the Messenger of the Gods if He comes. +37. She will heed all complaints of all Brothers and strive to settle all +differences among them. +38. But it must be recognized that there will always be people who will +ever strive to force others to do as they will. +39. These are not necessarily evil. +40. And they oft have good ideas, and such ideas should be talked over in +council. +41. But, if they will not agree with their Brothers or if they say: +42. "I will not work under this High Priestess." +43. It hath ever been the Old Law, to be convenient for the Brethren, and +to avoid disputes. +44. Any of the third may claim to found a new Coven, because they live over +a league from the Covenstead or are about to do so. +45. Anyone living within the Covendom and wishing to form a new Coven shall +tell the Elders of their intentions and on the instand avoid their dwelling +and remove to a new Covendom. +46. Members of the old Coven may join the new one when it is formed, but if +they do they must utterly avoid the old Coven. +47. The Elders of the old and new Covens should meet in peace and brotherly +love to decide the new boundaries. +48. Those of the Craft who live outside both Covens may join either +indifferent, but not both. +49. Though all may, if the Elders agree, meet for the Great Festivals, if +it be truly in peace and brotherly love. +50. But splitting the Coven oft means strife, so for this reason these Laws +were made of old, and may the Curse of the Goddess be on any who disregard +them! +SO BE IT ARDANE. +51. If you would keep a book (your Black Book) let it be in your own hand +of write, let Brothers and Sisters copy what they will, but never let the +book out of your hands and never keep the writings of another. +52. For if it be in their hand of write, they may be taken and engained. +53. Le each guard his own writings, and destroy them whenever danger +threatens. +54. Learn as much as you may by heart, and when danger is past, rewrite +your book when it be safe. +55. For this reason, if any die, destroy their book, an they have not been +able to. +56. For, an it be found, 'tis clear proof against them. +57. And our oppressors know well: "Ye may not be a Witch alone." +58. So all their kin and friend be in danger of torture. +59. So destroy everything not necessary. +60. If your book be found on you, 'tis clear proof against you alone. You +may be engained. +61. Keep all thoughts of the Craft from your mind. +62. If the torture be too great to bear, say: "I will confess. I cannot +bear this torture. What do you want me to say?" +63. If they try to make you talk of the Brotherhood, do not. +64. But if they try to make you speak of impossibilities such as flying +through the air, consorting with the Christian Devil, or sacrificing +children or eating men's flesh, +65. To obtain relief from the torture, say, "I hold an evil dream, I was +beside myself, I was crazed.: +66. Not all the magistrates are bad; if there be any excuse, they may show +mercy. +67. If you have confessed ought, deny it afterwards. Say you babbled under +the torture, say you do not know what you said. +68. If you are condemned, fear not. +69. Fear not, the Brotherhood is powerful, they will help you to escape if +you stand steadfast. +70. But if you betray ought, there is no hope for you in this life or that +to come. +71. Be sure, if steadfast you go to the pyre, drugs will reach you, you +will feel naught. You but go to death and what lies beyond. + + The Ecstasy of the Goddess + +72. To avoid discovery, let the working tools be as ordinary things that +any may have in their houses. +73. Let the Pentacles be of wax so that they may be broken at once or +melted. +74. Have no sword, unless your rank allows you one. +75. Have no names or signs on anything. +76. Write the names or signs on them in ink immediately before consecrating +them, and wash it off immediately afterwards. +77. Do not engrave them lest they cause discovery. +78. Let the color of the hilts tell which is which. +79. Ever remember, ye are the "Hidden Children of the Goddess," so never do +anything to disgrace them or her. +80. Never boast, never threaten, never say you would wish ill of anyone. +81. If any person, not in the magic circle, speak of the Craft say, "Speak +not to me of such, it frightens me. 'Tis eveil luck to speak of it." +82. For this reason: the Christians have their spied everywhere. These +speak as if they were well affected to us, as if they would come to our +meetings saying, "My mother used to go worship the Old Ones. I would I +could go myself." +83. To such as these, ever deny all knowledge. +84. But to others, ever say, "'Tis foolish talk of Witches flying through +the air. To do so they must be light as thistledown. And men say that +Witches all be so bleary-eyed, old crones, so what pleasure can there be at +a Witch meeting such as folks talk on?" +85. And say "Many wise men now say there be no such creatures." +86. Ever make it a jest and in some future time, perhaps, the persecution +may die and we may worship our Gods in safety again. +87. Let us all pray for that happy day. +88. May the blessings of the Goddess and God be on all who keep these Laws +which are ardane. +89. If the Craft have any Appenage, let all guard it, and help to keep it +clear and good for the Craft. +90. And let all justly guard all monies of the Craft. +91. But if any brother truly wrought it, 'tis right they have their pay, +and it be just. And this be not taking money for the Art, but for good and +honest work. +92. And ever the Christians say, "The laborer is worthy of his hire" but if +any brother work willingly for the good of the Craft without pay, 'tis to +their greatest honor. + + SO BE IT ARDANE + +93. If there be any quarrels or disputes among the brethren the High +Priestess shall straightly convene the Elders and inquire into the matter +and they shall hear both sides, first alone, then together. +94. And they shall decide justly, not favoring the one side or the other. +95. Ever recognizing there be people who can never agree to work under +others. +96. But at the same time, there be some people who cannot rule justly. +97. To those who ever must be chief, there is one answer. +98. Void the Coven, or seek another one or make a Coven of your own, taking +with you those who will go. +99. To those who cannot rule justly the answer be, "Those who cannot bear +your rule will leave you." +100. For none may come to meetings with those with whom they are at +variance. +101. So, an either cannot agree, "Get hence, for the Craft must ever +survive." + + SO BE IT ARDANE + +102. In the olden days, when we had power, we could use the Art against any +who ill-treated the Brotherhood. But in these evil days, we must not do so! +For our enemies have devised a burning pit of everlasting fire, into which +they say their God casteth all the people who worship Him, except it be the +very few who are released by their priest's spells and masses. And this be +chiefly by giving monies and rich gifts to receive His favor, for their God +is ever in need of money. +103. But as our Gods need our aid to make fertility for man and crops, so +it is the God of the Christians ever is in need of man's help to search out +and destroy us. Their priests ever tell them that any who get our help are +damned to this Hell forever, so men be mad with the terror of it. +104. But they make men believe that they may escape this Hell if they give +Witches to the tormentors. So for this reason, all be forever spying, +thinking, "An I catch but one of the Wicca, I will escape this fiery pit." +105. So for this reason we have our hidels, and men searching long and not +finding say, "There be none, or if there be, they be in a far country." +106. But when one of our oppressors dies, or even be sick, ever is the cry, +"This be Witches' malice," and the hunt is up again and though they slay +ten of their own to one of ours, still they care not. They have countless +thousands. +107. While we are few indeed. + + SO BE IT ARDANE + +108. That none shall use the Art in any way to do ill to any. +109. However much they injure us, HARM NONE and now times many believe we +exist not. + + SO BE IT ARDANE + +110. That this Law shall ever continue to help us in our plight. No one, +however great an injury or injustice they receive, may use the Art in any +way to do ill or harm any. But they may, after great consultations with +all, use the Art to restrain Christians from harming us or tax others, but +only to let or constrain them. +111. To this end, men will say: "Such a one is a mighty searcher out and a +persecutor of old women whom they deemeth to be Witches, and none hath done +him skith, so they be proof they cannot, or more truly where be none." +112. For all know full well, that so many folk have died because someone +had a grudge against them, or were persecuted because they had money or +goods to seize, or because they had none to bribe the searchers. And many +have died because they were scolding old women. So much that men now say +that "only old women are Witches." +113. And this be to our advantage, and turns suspicions away from us. +114. In England and Scotland, 'tis now many a year since a Witch hath died +the death. But the misuse of the power might raise the persecution again. +115. So never break this Law, however much you are tempted, and never +consent to it being broken in the least. +116. If you know it is being broken, you must work strongly against it. +117. And any High Priestess who consents to its breach must immediately be +deposed. "For 'tis the blood of the Brethren they endanger." +118. Do good, an it be safe and only if it be safe. +119. And strictly keep to the old Law. +120. Never accept money for the use of the Art. For money ever smeareth the +taker. "'Tis sorcerers and conjurers and priests of the Christians who ever +accept money for the use of their Arts. And they sell dwale, and evil loves +spells and pardons, so let men escape from their sins." +121. Be not as these. If you accept no money, you will be free from +temptation to use the Art for evil courses. +122. All may use the Art for their own advantage, or for the advantage of +the Craft, only if you are sure you harm none. +123. But ever let the Coven debate this at length. Only if all be +satisfied and none be harmed may the Art be used. +124. If it is not possible to achieve your ends one way, perchance the aim +may be achieved by acting in a different way, so as to harm none. May the +Curse of the Goddess be on any who breaketh this Law. + + SO BE IT ARDANE. + +125. 'Tis judged lawful if any of the Craft need a house or land and none +will sell, to incline the owner's mind so as to be willing to sell, +providing it harmeth it not in anyway and the full price is paid, without +haggling. +126. Never bargain or cheapen anything whilst you live by the Art. + + SO BE IT ARDANE. + +127. 'Tis the old Law and the most important of all Laws that no one may do +anything which will endanger any of the Craft, or bring them into contact +with the law of the land, or any of our persecutors. +128. In any disputes between the brethren, no one may invoke any Laws but +those of the Craft. +129. Or any tribunal but that of the Priestess, Priest and Elders. And may +the Curse of the Goddess be on any who do so. + + SO BE IT ARDANE. + +130. It is not forbidden to say as Christians do: "There be Witchcraft in +the land," because our opressors of old make it heresy not to believe in +Witchcraft, and so a crime to deny it, which thereby puts you under +suspicion. +131. But ever say "I know not of it here, perchance there may be, but afar +off - I know not where." +132. But ever speak of those as old crones, consorting with the Devil and +riding through the air. +133. But ever say: "But how many men may ride through the air an they be +not light as thistledown?" +134. But the Curse of the Goddess be on any who cast any suspicion on any +of the Brotherhood. +135. Or who speaks of any real meeting place where any abide. + + SO BE IT ARDANE. + +136. Let the Craft keep books with the names of all herbs which are good +for men, and all cures, so all may learn. +137. But keep another book with all the Bales and Apies and let only the +Elders and other trustworthy people have this knowledge. + + SO BE IT ARDANE. + +138. Remember the Art is the secret of the Gods and only may be used in +earnest and never for show or pride, or vainglory. +139. Magicians and Christians may taunt us saying, "You have no power. Do +magic before our eyes. Then only will we believe." Seeking to cause us to +betray our Art before them. +140. Heed them not. For the Art is holy, and may only be used in need. And +the Curse of the Gods be on any who break this Law. + + SO BE IT ARDANE. + +141. It ever be the way with women, and with men also that they ever seek +new love.. +142. Nor should we reprove them for this. +143. But it may be found to the disadvantage of the Craft. +144. As, so many a time it has happened that a High Priest or High +Priestess impelled by love, hath departed with their love, that is, they +have left the Coven. +145. Now if a High Priestess wishes to resign, they may do so in full +Coven. +146. And this resignation is valid. +147. But if they should run off without resigning, who may know if they may +not return within a few months. +148. So the Law is: If a High Priestess leaves her Coven, but returns +within rthe space of a year and a day, then she shall be taken back and all +shall be as before. +149. Meanwhile, if she has a deputy, that deputy shall act as High +Priestess for as long as the High Priestess is away. +150. If she returns not at the end of a year and a day, then shall the +Coven elect a new High Priestess. +151. Unless there be a good reason to the contrary, the person who has done +the work should reap the benefit of the reward. +152. If somebody else is elected, the deputy is made maiden and deputy of +the High Priestess. + + SO BE IT ARDANE. + +153. It hath been found that practicing the Art doth cause a fondness +between aspirant and tutor, and it is the cause of better results if this +be so. +154. But if for any reason this be undesirable, it can easily be avoided by +both persons from the outset firmly resolving in their minds that if any +such ensure, it shall be that of brother and sister, or parent and child. +155. And it is for this reason that a man may be taught by a woman and a +woman by a man and that woman and woman and man and man should never +attempt these practices together. +156. And may all the Curses of the Mighty Ones be on any who make such an +attempt. + + SO BE IT ARDANE. + +157. Order and discipline must be kept. +158. A High Priestess or a High Priest may and should punish all faults. +159. To this end: all the Craft must receive their correction willingly. +160. All, properly prepared, the culprit kneeling, should be told his +fault, and his sentence pronounced. +161. Punishment should be the $ followed by something amusing such as +several S S S S, or something of this nature. +162. The bulprit must acknowledge the justice of the punishment by kissing +the hand of the Priestess and by kissing the $ on receiving sentence; and +again thanking for punishment received. + + SO BE IT ARDANE. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/shelley.txt b/religious documents/shelley.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8af23fd --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shelley.txt @@ -0,0 +1,976 @@ + 15 page printout + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + The value of this 360K disk is $7.00. This disk, its printout, +or copies of either are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold. + + Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + **** **** +LITTLE BLUEBOOK NO. 935 +Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius + + The Necessity of Atheism + by + Percy Bysshe Shelley + + HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY + GIRARD, KANSAS + + FOREWORD + BY HENRY S. SALT + + As a brief summary of Shelley's attitude toward the Christian +religion, I may be allowed to quote from what I have written +elsewhere. [Percy Bysshe shelley, Poet and Pioneer (Watts & Co., +1913] + + "I regard Shelley's early 'atheism' and later Pantheism, as +simply the negative and the affirmative side of the same +progressive but harmonious life-creed. In his earlier years his +disposition was towards a vehement denial of a theology which he +never ceased to detest; in his maturer years he made more frequent +reference to the great World Spirit in whom he had from the first +believed. He grew wiser in the exercise of his religious faith, but +the faith was the same throughout; there, was progression, but no +essential change." + + The sequence of his thought on the Subject may be clearly +traced in several of his essays. In "The Necessity of Atheism," the +tract which led to his expulsion from Oxford University, we see +Shelley in his youthful mood of open denial and defiance. It has +been suggested that the pamphlet was originally intended by its +author to be a hoax; but such an explanation entirely misapprehends +not only the facts of the case, but the character of Shelley +himself. This was long ago pointed out by De guincey: "He affronted +the armies of Christendom. Had it been possible for him to be +jesting, it would not have been noble; but here, even in the most +monstrous of his undertakings -- here, as always, he was perfectly +sincere and single-minded." That this is true may be seen not only +from the internal evidence of "The Necessity" itself, but from the +fact that the conclusion which, Shelley meant to be drawn, from the +dialogue "A Refutation of Deism," published in 1814, was that there +is no middle course between accepting revealed religion and +disbelieving in the existence of a deity -- another way of stating +the necessity of atheism. + + Shelley resembled Blake in the contrast of feeling with which +he regarded the Christian religion and its founder. For the human +character of Christ he could feel the deepest veneration, as may be +seen not only from the "Essay on Christianity," but from the +"Letter to Lord Ellenborough" (1812), and also from the notes to +"Hellas" and passages in that poem and in "Prometheus Unbound"; but + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 1 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + +he held that the spirit of established Christianity was wholly out +of harmony with that of Christ, and that a similarity to Christ was +one of the qualities most detested by the modern Christian. The +dogmas of the Christian faith were always repudiated by him, and +there is no warrant whatever in his writings for the strange +pretension that, had he lived longer, his objections to +Christianity might in some way have been overcome. + + In conclusion, it may be said that Shelley's prose, if, not +great in itself, is the prose of a great poet, for which reason it +possesses an interest that is not likely to fail. It is the key to +the right understanding of his. intellect, as his poetry is the +highest expression of his genius. + + THE NECESSITY OF ATHEISM + + [NOTE -- The Necessity of Atheism was published by Shelley in +1811. In 1813 he printed a revised and expanded version of it as +one of the notes to his poem Queen Mab. The revised and expanded +version is the one here reprinted.] + + THERE IS NO GOD + + This negation must be understood solely to affect a creative +Deity. The hypothesis of a pervading Spirit co-eternal with the +universe remains unshaken. + + A close examination of the validity of the proofs adduced to +support any proposition is the only secure way of attaining truth, +on the advantages of which it is unnecessary to descant: our +knowledge of the existence, of a Deity is a subject of such +importance that it cannot be too minutely investigated; in +consequence of this conviction we proceed briefly and impartially +to examine the proofs which have been adduced. It is necessary +first to consider the nature of belief. + + When a proposition is offered to the mind, It perceives the +agreement or disagreement of the ideas of which it is composed. A +perception of their agreement is termed belief. Many obstacles +frequently prevent this perception from being immediate; these the +mind attempts to remove in order that the perception may be +distinct. The mind is active in the investigation in order to +perfect the state of perception of the relation which the component +ideas of the proposition bear to each, which is passive; the +investigation being confused with the perception has induced many +falsely to imagine that the mind is active in belief. -- that +belief is an act of volition, -- in consequence of which it may be +regulated by the mind. Pursuing, continuing this mistake, they have +attached a degree of criminality to disbelief; of which, in its +nature, it is incapable: it is equally incapable of merit. + + Belief, then, is a passion, the strength of which, like every +other passion, is in precise proportion to the degrees of +excitement. + + The degrees of excitement are three. + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 2 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + + The senses are the sources of all knowledge to the mind; +consequently their evidence claims the strongest assent. + + The decision of the mind, founded upon our own experience, +derived from these sources, claims the next degree. + + The experience of others, which addresses itself to the former +one, occupies the lowest degree. + + (A graduated scale, on which should be marked the capabilities +of propositions to approach to the test of the senses, would be a +just barometer of the belief which ought to be attached to them.) + + Consequently no testimony can be admitted which is contrary to +reason; reason is founded on the evidence of our senses. + + Every proof may be referred to one of these three divisions: +it is to be considered what arguments we receive from each of them, +which should convince us of the existence of a Deity. + + 1st, The evidence of the senses. If the Deity should appear to +us, if he should convince our senses of his existence, this +revelation would necessarily command belief. Those to whom the +Deity has thus appeared have the strongest possible conviction of +his existence. But the God of Theologians is incapable of local +visibility. + + 2d, Reason. It is urged that man knows that whatever is must +either have had a beginning, or have existed from all eternity, he +also knows that whatever is not eternal must have had a cause. When +this reasoning is applied to the universe, it is necessary to prove +that it was created: until that is clearly demonstrated we may +reasonably suppose that it has endured from all eternity. We must +prove design before we can infer a designer. The only idea which we +can form of causation is derivable from the constant conjunction of +objects, and the consequent inference of one from the other. In a +base where two propositions are diametrically opposite, the mind +believes that which is least incomprehensible; -- it is easier to +suppose that the universe has existed from all eternity than to +conceive a being beyond its limits capable of creating it: if the +mind sinks beneath the weight of one, is it an alleviation to +increase the intolerability of the burthen? + + The other argument, which is founded on a Man's knowledge of +his own existence, stands thus. A man knows not only that he now +is, but that once he was not; consequently there must have been a +cause. But our idea of causation is alone derivable from the +constant conjunction of objects and the consequent Inference of one +from the other; and, reasoning experimentally, we can only infer +from effects caused adequate to those effects. But there certainly +is a generative power which is effected by certain instruments: we +cannot prove that it is inherent in these instruments" nor is the +contrary hypothesis capable of demonstration: we admit that the +generative power is incomprehensible; but to suppose that the same +effect is produced by an eternal, omniscient, omnipotent being +leaves the cause in the same obscurity, but renders it more +incomprehensible. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 3 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + + 3d, Testimony. It is required that testimony should not be +contrary to reason. The testimony that the Deity convinces the +senses of men of his existence can only be admitted by us, if our +mind considers it less probable, that these men should have been +deceived than that the Deity should have appeared to them. Our +reason can never admit the testimony of men, who not only declare +that they were eye-witnesses of miracles, but that the Deity was +irrational; for he commanded that he should be believed, he +proposed the highest rewards for, faith, eternal punishments for +disbelief. We can only command voluntary actions; belief is not an +act of volition; the mind is ever passive, or involuntarily active; +from this it is evident that we have no sufficient testimony, or +rather that testimony is insufficient to prove the being of a God. +It has been before shown that it cannot be deduced from reason. +They alone, then, who have been convinced by the evidence of the +senses can believe it. + + Hence it is evident that, having no proofs from either of the +three sources of conviction, the mind cannot believe the existence +of a creative God: it is also evident that, as belief is a passion +of the mind, no degree of criminality is attachable to disbelief; +and that they only are reprehensible who neglect to remove the +false medium through which their mind views any subject of +discussion. Every reflecting mind must acknowledge that there is no +proof of the existence of a Deity. + + God is an hypothesis, and, as such, stands in need of proof: +the onus probandi rests on the theist. Sir Isaac Newton says: +Hypotheses non fingo, quicquid enim ex phaenomenis non deducitur +hypothesis, vocanda est, et hypothesis vel metaphysicae, vel +physicae, vel qualitatum occultarum, seu mechanicae, in philosophia +locum non habent. To all proofs of the existence of a creative God +apply this valuable rule. We see a variety of bodies possessing a +variety of powers: we merely know their effects; we are in a estate +of ignorance with respect to their essences and causes. These +Newton calls the phenomena of things; but the pride of philosophy +is unwilling to admit its ignorance of their causes. From the +phenomena, which are the objects of our attempt to infer a cause, +which we call God, and gratuitously endow it with all negative and +contradictory qualities. From this hypothesis we invent this +general name, to conceal our ignorance of causes and essences. The +being called God by no means answers with the conditions prescribed +by Newton; it bears every mark of a veil woven by philosophical +conceit, to hide the ignorance of philosophers even from +themselves. They borrow the threads of its texture from the +anthropomorphism of the vulgar. Words have been used by sophists +for the same purposes, from the occult qualities of the +peripatetics to the effuvium of Boyle and the crinities or nebulae +of Herschel. God is represented as infinite, eternal, +incomprehensible; he is contained under every predicate in non that +the logic of ignorance could fabricate. Even his worshippers allow +that it is impossible to form any idea of him: they exclaim with +the French poet, + + Pour dire ce qu'il est, il faut etre lui-meme. + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 4 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + + Lord Bacon says that atheism leaves to man reason, philosophy, +natural piety, laws, reputation, and everything that can serve to +conduct him to virtue; but superstition destroys all these, and +erects itself into a tyranny over the understandings of men: hence +atheism never disturbs the government, but renders man more clear- +sighted, since he sees nothing beyond the boundaries of the present +life. -- Bacon's Moral Essays. + + The [Beginning here, and to the paragraph ending with Systeme +de la Nature," Shelley wrote in French. A free translation has been +substituted.] first theology of man made him first fear and adore +the elements themselves, the gross and material objects of nature; +he next paid homage to the agents controlling the elements, lower +genies, heroes or men gifted with great qualities. By force of +reflection he sought to simplify things by submitting all nature to +a single agent, spirit, or universal soul, which, gave movement to +nature and all its branches. Mounting from cause to cause, mortal +man has ended by seeing nothing; and it is in this obscurity that +he has placed his God; it is in this darksome abyss that his uneasy +imagination has always labored to fabricate chimeras, which will +continue to afflict him until his knowledge of nature chases these +phantoms which he has always so adored. + + If we wish to explain our ideas of the Divinity we shall be +obliged to admit that, by the word God, man has never been able to +designate but the most hidden, the most distant and the most +unknown cause of the effects which he saw; he has made use of his +word only when the play of natural and known causes ceased to be +visible to him; as soon as he lost the thread of these causes, or +when his mind could no longer follow the chain, he cut the +difficulty and ended his researches by calling God the last of the +causes, that is to say, that which is beyond all causes that he +knew; thus he but assigned a vague denomination to an unknown +cause, at which his laziness or the limits of his knowledge forced +him to stop. Every time we say that God is the author of some +phenomenon, that signifies that we are ignorant of how such a +phenomenon was able to operate by the aid of forces or causes that +we know in nature. It is thus that the generality of mankind, whose +lot is ignorance, attributes to the Divinity, not only the unusual +effects which strike them, but moreover the most simple events, of +which the causes are the most simple to understand by whomever is +able to study them. In a word, man has always respected unknown +causes, surprising effects that his ignorance kept him from +unraveling. It was on this debris of nature that man raised the +imaginary colossus of the Divinity. + + If ignorance of nature gave birth to gods, knowledge of nature +is made for their destruction. In proportion as man taught himself, +his strength and his resources augmented with his knowledge; +science, the arts, industry, furnished him assistance; experience +reassured him or procured for him means of resistance to the +efforts of many causes which ceased to alarm as soon as they became +understood. In a word, his terrors dissipated in the same +proportion as his mind became enlightened. The educated man ceases +to be superstitious. + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 5 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + + It is only by hearsay (by word of mouth passed down from +generation to generation) that whole peoples adore the God of their +fathers and of their priests: authority, confidence, submission and +custom with them take the place of conviction or of proofs: they +prostrate themselves and pray, because their fathers taught them to +prostrate themselves and pray: but why did their fathers fall on +their knees? That is because, in primitive times, their legislators +and their guides made it their duty. "Adore and believe," they +said, "the gods whom you cannot understand; have confidence in our +profound wisdom; we know more than you about Divinity." But why +should I come to you? It is because God willed it thus; it is +because God will punish you if you dare resist. But this God, is +not he, then, the thing in question? However, man has always +traveled in this vicious circle; his slothful mind has always made +him find it easier to accept the judgment of others. All religious +nations are founded solely on authority; all the religions of the +world forbid examination and do not want one to reason; authority +wants one to believe in God; this God is himself founded only on +the authority of a few men who pretend to know him, and to come in +his name and announce him on earth. A God made by man undoubtedly +has need of man to make himself known to man. + + Should it not, then, be for the priests, the inspired, the +metaphysicians that should be reserved the conviction of the +existence of a God, which they, nevertheless, say is so necessary +for all mankind? But Can you find any harmony in the theological +opinions of the different inspired ones or thinkers scattered over +the earth? They themselves, who make a profession of adoring the +same God, are they in Agreement? Are they content with the proofs +that their colleagues bring of his existence? Do they subscribe +unanimously to the ideas they present on nature, on his conduct, on +the manner of understanding his pretended oracles? Is there a +country on earth where the science of God is really perfect? Has +this science anywhere taken the consistency and uniformity that we +the see the science of man assume, even in the most futile crafts, +the most despised trades. These words mind immateriality, creation, +predestination and grace; this mass of subtle distinctions with +which theology to everywhere filled; these so ingenious inventions, +imagined by thinkers who have succeeded one another for so many +centuries, have only, alas! confused things all the more, and never +has man's most necessary science, up to this time acquired the +slightest fixity. For thousands of years the lazy dreamers have +perpetually relieved one another to meditate on the Divinity, to +divine his secret will, to invent the proper hypothesis to develop +this important enigma. Their slight success has not discouraged the +theological vanity: one always speaks of God: one has his throat +cut for God: and this sublime being still remains the most unknown +and the most discussed. + + Man would have been too happy, if, limiting himself to the +visible objects which interested him, he had employed, to perfect +his real sciences, his laws, his morals, his education, one-half +the efforts he has put into his researches on the Divinity. He +would have been still wiser and still more fortunate if he had been +satisfied to let his jobless guides quarrel among themselves, +sounding depths capable of rendering them dizzy, without himself +mixing in their senseless disputes. But it is the essence of + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 6 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + +ignorance to attach importance to that which it does not +understand. Human vanity is so constituted that it stiffens before +difficulties. The more an object conceals itself from our eyes, the +greater the effort we make to seize it, because it pricks our +pride, it excites our curiosity and it appears interesting. In +fighting for his God everyone, in fact, fights only for the +interests of his own vanity, which, of all the passions produced by +the mal-organization of society, is the quickest to take offense, +and the most capable of committing the greatest follies. + + If, leaving for a moment the annoying idea that theology gives +of a capricious God, whose partial and despotic decrees decide the +fate of mankind, we wish to fix our eyes only on the pretended +goodness, which all men, even trembling before this God, agree is +ascribing to him, if we allow him the purpose that is lent him of +having worked only for his own glory, of exacting the homage of +intelligent beings; of seeking only in his works the well-being of +mankind; how reconcile these views and these dispositions with the +ignorance truly invincible in which this God, so glorious and so +good, leaves the majority of mankind in regard to God himself? If +God wishes to be known, cherished, thanked, why does he not show +himself under his favorable features to all these intelligent +beings by whom he wishes to be loved and adored? Why not manifest +himself to the whole earth in an unequivocal manner, much more +capable of convincing us than these private revelations which seem +to accuse the Divinity of an annoying partiality for some of his +creatures? The all-powerful, should he not heave more convincing +means by which to show man than these ridiculous metamorphoses, +these pretended incarnations, which are attested by writers so +little in agreement among themselves? In place of so many miracles, +invented to prove the divine mission of so many legislators revered +by the different people of the world, the Sovereign of these +spirits, could he not convince the human mind in an instant of the +things he wished to make known to it? Instead of hanging the sun in +the vault of the firmament, instead of scattering stars without +order, and the constellations which fill space, would it not have +been more in conformity with the views of a God so jealous of his +glory and so well-intentioned for mankind, to write, in a manner +not subject to dispute, his name, his attributes, his permanent +wishes in ineffaceable characters, equally understandable to all +the inhabitants of the earth? No one would then be able to doubt +the existence of God, of his clear will, of his visible intentions. +Under the eyes of this so terrible God no one would have the +audacity to violate his commands, no mortal would dare risk +attracting his anger: finally, no man would have the effrontery to +impose on his name or to interpret his will according to his own +fancy. + + In fact, even while admitting the existence of the theological +God, and the reality of his so discordant attributes which they +impute to him, one can conclude nothing to authorize the conduct or +the cult which one is prescribed to render him. Theology is truly +the sieve of the Danaides. By dint of contradictory qualities and +hazarded assertions it has, that is to say, so handicapped its God +that it has made it impossible for him to act. If he is infinitely +good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely +wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 7 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + +all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If +he is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If he is just, why fear +that he will punish the creatures that he has, filled with +weaknesses? If grace does everything for them, what reason would he +have for recompensing them? If he is all-powerful, how offend him, +how resist him? If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the +blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable? If +he is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his +decrees? If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? IF +HE HAS SPOKEN, WHY IS THE UNIVERSE NOT CONVINCED? If the knowledge +of a God is the most necessary, why is it not the most evident and +the clearest. -- Systame de la Nature. London, 1781. + + The enlightened and benevolent Pliny thus Publicly professes +himself an atheist, -- Quapropter effigiem Del formamque quaerere +imbecillitatis humanae reor. Quisquis est Deus (si modo est alius) +et quacunque in parte, totus est gensus, totus est visus, totus +auditus, totus animae, totus animi, totus sul. ... Imperfectae vero +in homine naturae praecipua solatia, ne deum quidem omnia. Namque +nec sibi protest mortem consciscere, si velit, quod homini dedit +optimum in tantis vitae poenis; nee mortales aeternitate donare, +aut revocare defunctos; nec facere ut qui vixit non vixerit, qui +honores gessit non gesserit, nullumque habere In praeteritum ius +praeterquam oblivionts, atque (ut. facetis quoque argumentis +societas haec cum, deo compuletur) ut bis dena viginti non sint, et +multa similiter efficere non posse. -- Per quaedeclaratur haud +dubie naturae potentiam id quoque ease quod Deum vocamus. -- Plin. +Nat. Hist. cap. de Deo. + + The consistent Newtonian is necessarily an atheist. See Sir W. +Drummond's Academical Questions, chap. iii. -- Sir W. seems to +consider the atheism to which it leads as a sufficient presumption +of the falsehood of the system of gravitation; but surely it is +more consistent with the good faith of philosophy to admit a +deduction from facts than an hypothesis incapable of proof, +although it might militate, with the obstinate preconceptions of +the mob. Had this author, instead of inveighing against the guilt +and absurdity of atheism, demonstrated its falsehood, his conduct +would have, been more suited to the modesty of the skeptic and the +toleration of the philosopher. + + Omnia enim per Dei potentiam facta aunt: imo quia naturae +potentia nulla est nisi ipsa Dei potentia. Certum est nos eatenus +Dei potentiam non intelligere, quatenus causas naturales ignoramus; +adeoque stulte ad eandem Dei potentism recurritur, quando rei +alicuius causam naturalem, sive est, ipsam Dei potentiam ignoramusd +-- Spinoza, Tract. Theologico-Pol. chap 1. P. 14. + + ON LIFE + + Life and the world, or whatever we call that which we are and +feel, is an astonishing thing. The mist of familiarity obscures +from us the wonder of our being. We are struck with admiration at +some of its transient modifications, but it is itself the great +miracle. What are changes of empires, the wreck of dynasties, with +the opinions which support them; what is the birth and the +extinction of religious and of political systems, to life? What are + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 8 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + +the revolutions of the globe which we inhabit, and the operations +of the elements of which it is composed, compared with life? What +is the universe of stars, and suns, of which this inhabited earth +is one, and their motions, and their destiny, compared with life? +Life, the great miracle, we admire not because it is so miraculous. +It is well that we are thus shielded by the familiarity of what is +at once so certain and so unfathomable, from an astonishment which +would otherwise absorb and overawe the functions of that which is +its object. + + If any artist, I do not say had executed, but had merely +conceived in his mind the system of the sun, and the stars, and +planets, they not existing, and had painted to us in words, or upon +canvas, the spectacle now afforded by the nightly cope of heaven, +and illustrated it by the wisdom of astronomy, great would be our +admiration. Or had he imagined the scenery of this earth, the +mountains, the seas, and the rivers; the grass, and the flowers, +and the variety of the forms and masses of the leaves of the woods, +and the colors which attend the setting and the rising sun, and the +hues of the atmosphere, turbid or serene, these things not before +existing, truly we should have been astonished, and it would not +have been a vain boast to have said of such a man, "Non merita nome +di creatore, se non Iddio ed il Poeta." But how these things are +looked on with little wonder, and to be conscious of them with +intense delight is esteemed to be the distinguishing mark of a +refined and extraordinary person. The multitude of men care not for +them. It is thus with Life -- that which includes all. + + What is life? Thoughts and feelings arise, with or without, +our will, and we employ words to express them. We are born, and our +birth is unremembered, and our infancy remembered but in fragments; +we live on, and in living we lose the apprehension of life. How +vain is it to think that words can penetrate the mystery of our +being! Rightly used they may make evident our ignorance to +ourselves; and this is much. For what are we? Whence do we come? +and whither do we go? Is birth the commencement, is death the +conclusion of our being? What is birth and death? + + The most refined abstractions of logic conduct to a view of +life, which, though startling to the apprehension, is, in fact, +that which the habitual sense of its repeated combinations has +extinguished in us. It strips, as it were, the painted curtain from +this scene of things. I confess that I am one of those who am +unable to refuse my assent to the conclusion of those philosophers +who assert that nothing exists but as it is perceived. + + It is a decision against which all our persuasions struggle, +and we must be long convicted before we can be convinced that the +solid universe of external things is "such stuff as dreams are made +of." The shocking absurdities of the popular philosophy of mind and +matter, its fatal consequences in morals, and their violent +dogmatism concerning the source of all things, had early conducted +me to materialism. This materialism is a seducing system to young +and superficial minds. It allows its disciples to talk, and +dispenses them from thinking. But I was discontented with such a +view of things as it afforded; man is a being of high aspirations, +"looking both before and after," whose "thoughts wander through + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 9 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + +eternity," disclaiming alliance with transience and decay: +incapable of imagining to himself annihilation; existing but in the +future and the past; being, not what he is, but what he has been +and all be. Whatever may be his true and final destination, there +is a spirit within him at enmity with nothingness and dissolution. +This is the character of all life and being. Each is at once the +center and the circumference; the point to which all things are +referred, and the line in which all things are contained. Such +contemplations as these, materialism and the popular philosophy of +mind and matter alike they are only consistent with the +intellectual system. + + It is absurd to enter into a long recapitulation of arguments +sufficiently familiar to those inquiring minds, whom alone a writer +on abstruse subjects can be conceived to address. Perhaps the most +clear and vigorous statement of the intellectual system is to be +found in Sir William Drummond's Academical Questions. After such an +exposition, it would be idle to translate into other words what +could only lose its energy and fitness by the change. Examined +point by point, and word by word, the most discriminating +intellects have been able to discern no train of thoughts in the +process of reasoning, which does not conduct inevitably to the +conclusion which has been stated. + + What follows from the admission? It establishes no new truth, +it gives us no additional insight into our hidden nature, neither +its action nor itself: Philosophy, impatient as it may be to build, +has much work yet remaining as pioneer for the overgrowth of ages. +it makes one step towards this object; it destroys error, and the +roots of error. It leaves, what it is too often the duty of the +reformer in political and ethical questions to leave, a vacancy. it +reduces the mind to that freedom in which it would have acted, but +for the misuse of words and signs, the instruments of its own +creation. By signs, I would be understood in a wide sense, +including what is properly meant by that term, and what I +peculiarly mean. In this latter sense, almost all familiar objects +are signs, standing, not for themselves, but for others, in their +capacity of suggesting one thought which shall lead to a train of +thoughts. Our whole life is thus an education of error. + + Let us recollect our sensations as children. What a distinct +and intense apprehension had we of the world and of ourselves! Many +of the Circumstances of social life were then important to us which +are now no longer so. But that is not the point of comparison on +which I mean to insist. We less habitually distinguished all that +we saw and felt, from ourselves. They seemed, as it were, to +constitute one mass. There are some persons who, in this respect, +are always children. Those who are subject to the state called +reverie, feel as if their nature were dissolved into the +surrounding universe, or as if the surrounding universe were +absorbed into their being. They are conscious of no distinction. +And these are states which precede, or accompany, or follow an +unusually intense and vivid apprehension of life. As men grow up +this power commonly decays, and they become mechanical and habitual +agents. Thus feelings and then reasoning are the combined result of +a multitude of entangled thoughts, and of a series of what are +called impressions, planted by reiteration. + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 10 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + + The view of life presented by the most refined deductions of +the intellectual philosophy, to that of unity. Nothing exists but +as it is perceived. The difference is merely nominal between those +two classes of thought which are distinguished by the names of +ideas and of external objects. Pursuing the same thread of +reasoning, the existence of distinct individual minds, similar to +that which is employed in now questioning its own nature, is +likewise found to be a delusion. The words, I, you, they, are not +signs of any actual difference subsisting between the assemblage of +thoughts thus indicated, but are merely marks employed to denote +the different modifications of the one mind. + + Let it not be supposed that this doctrine conducts the +monstrous presumption that I, the person who now write and think, +am that one mind. I am but a portion of it. The words I, and you, +and they are grammatical devices invented simply for arrangement, +and totally devoid of the intense and exclusive sense usually +attached to them. It is difficult to find terms adequate to express +so subtle a conception as that to which the Intellectual Philosophy +has conducted us. We are on that verge where words abandon us, and +what wonder if we grow dizzy to look down the dark abyss of how +little we know! + + The relations of things remain unchanged, by whatever system. +By the word things is to be understood any object of thought, that +is, any thought upon which any other thought is employed, with an +apprehension of distinction. The relations of these remain +unchanged; and such is the material of our knowledge. + + What is the cause of life? That is, how was it produced, or +what agencies distinct from life have acted or act upon life? All +recorded generations of mankind have wearily busied themselves in +inventing answers to this question; and the result has been -- +Religion. Yet that the basis of all things cannot be, as the +popular philosophy alleges, mind, is sufficiently evident. Mind, as +far as we have any experience of its properties -- and beyond that +experience how vain is argument! -- cannot create, it can only +perceive. It is said also to be the cause. But cause is only a word +expressing a certain state of the human mind with regard to the +manner in which two thoughts are apprehended to be related to each +other. If anyone desires to know how unsatisfactorily the popular +philosophy employs itself upon this great question, they need only +impartially reflect upon the manner in which thoughts develop +themselves in their minds. It is infinitely improbable that the +cause of mind, that is, of existence, is similar to mind. + + ON A FUTURE STATE + + It has been the persuasion of an immense majority of human +beings in all ages and nations that we continue to live after death +-- that apparent termination of all the functions of sensitive and +intellectual existence. Nor has mankind been contented with +supposing that species of existence which some philosophers have +asserted; namely, the resolution of the component parts of the +mechanism of a living being into its elements, and the +impossibility of the minutest particle of these sustaining the +smallest diminution. They have clung to the idea that sensibility + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 11 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + +and thought, which they have distinguished from the objects of it, +under the several names of spirit and matter, is, in its own +nature, less susceptible of division and decay, and that, when the +body is resolved into its elements, the principle which animated it +will remain perpetual and unchanged. Some philosophers -- and those +to whom we are indebted for the most stupendous discoveries in +physical science -- suppose, on the other hand, that intelligence +is the mere result of certain combinations among the particles of +its objects; and those among them who believe that we live after +death, recur to the interposition of a supernatural power, which +shall overcome the tendency inherent in all material combinations, +to dissipate and be absorbed into other forms. + + Let us trace the reasoning which in one and the other have +conducted to these two opinions, and endeavor to discover what we +ought to think on a question of such momentous interest. Let us +analyze the ideas and feelings which constitute the contending +beliefs, and watchfully establish a discrimination between words +and thoughts. Let us bring the question to the test of experience +and fact; and ask ourselves, considering our nature in its entire +extent, what light we derive from a sustained and comprehensive +view of its component parts, which may enable us to assert, with +certainty,, that we do or do not live after death. + + The examination of this subject requires that it should be +stripped of all those accessory topics which adhere to it in the +common opinion of men. The existence of a God, and a future state +of rewards and punishments are totally foreign to the subject. If +it be proved that the world is ruled by a Divine Power, no +inference necessarily can be drawn from that circumstance in favor +of a future state. It has been asserted, indeed, that as goodness +and justice are to be numbered among the attributes of the Deity, +he will undoubtedly compensate the virtuous who suffer during life, +and that he will make every sensitive being, who does not deserve +punishment, happy forever. But this view of the subject, which it +would be tedious as well as superfluous to develop and expose, +satisfies no person, and cuts the knot which we now seek to untie. +Moreover, should it be proved, on the other hand, that the +mysterious principle which regulates the proceedings of the +universe, to neither intelligent nor sensitive, yet it is not an +inconsistency to suppose at the same time, that the animating power +survives the body which it has animated, by laws as independent of +any supernatural agent as those through which it first became +united with it. Nor, if a future state be clearly proved, does it +follow that it will be a state of punishment or reward. + + By the word death, we express that condition in which natures +resembling ourselves apparently cease to be that which they are. We +no longer hear them speak, nor see them move. If they have +sensations and apprehensions, we no longer participate in them. We +know no more than that those external organs, and all that fine +texture of material frame, without which we have no experience that +life or thought can subsist, are dissolved and scattered abroad. +The body is placed under the earth, and after a certain period +there remains no vestige even of its form. This is that +contemplation of inexhaustible melancholy, whose shadow eclipses +the brightness of the world. The common observer is struck with + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 12 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + +dejection of the spectacle. He contends in vain against the +persuasion of the grave, that the dead indeed cease to be. The +corpse at his feet is prophetic of his own destiny. Those who have +preceded him, and whose voice was delightful to his ear; whose +touch met his like sweet and subtle fire: whose aspect spread a +visionary light upon his path -- these he cannot meet again. The +organs of sense are destroyed, and the intellectual operations +dependent on them have perished with their sources. How can a +corpse see or feel? its eyes are eaten out, and its heart is black +and without motion. What intercourse can two heaps of putrid Clay +and crumbling bones hold together? When you can discover where the +fresh colors of the faded flower abide, or the music of the broken +lyre seek life among the dead. Such are the anxious and fearful +contemplations of the common observer, though the popular religion +often prevents him from confessing them even to himself. + + The natural philosopher, in addition to the sensations common +to all men inspired by the event of death, believes that he sees +with more certainty that it is attended with the annihilation of +sentiment and thought. He observes the mental powers increase and +fade with those of the body, and even accommodate themselves to the +most transitory changes of our physical nature. Sleep suspends many +of the faculties of the vital and intellectual principle; +drunkenness and disease will either temporarily or permanently +derange them. Madness or idiocy may utterly extinguish the most +excellent and delicate of those powers. In old age the mind +gradually withers; and as it grew and was strengthened with the +body, so does it together with the body sink into decrepitude. +Assuredly these are convincing evidences that so soon as the organs +of the body are subjected to the laws of inanimate matter, +sensation, and perception, and apprehension, are at an end. It is +probable that what we call thought is not an actual being, but no +more than the relation between certain parts of that infinitely +varied mass, of which the rest of the universe is composed, and +which ceases to exist so soon as those parts change their position +with regard to each other. Thus color, and sound, and taste, and +odor exist only relatively. But let thought be considered only as +some peculiar substance, which permeates, and is the cause of, the +animation of living beings. Why should that substance be assumed to +be something essentially distinct from all others, and exempt from +subjection to those laws from which no other substance is exempt? +It differs, indeed, from all other substances, as electricity, and +light, and magnetism, and the constituent parts of air and earth, +severally differ from all others. Each of these is subject to +change and decay, and to conversion into other forms. Yet the +difference between light and earth is scarcely greater than that +which exists between life, or thought, and fire. The difference +between the two former was never alleged as an argument for eternal +permanence of either, in that form under which they first might +offer themselves to our notice. Why should the difference between +the two latter substances be an argument for the prolongation of +the existence of one and not the other, when the existence of both +has arrived at their apparent termination? To say that fire exists +without manifesting any of the properties of fire, such as light, +heat, etc., or that the Principle of life exists without +consciousness, or memory, or desire, or motive, is to resign, by an +awkward distortion of language, the affirmative of the dispute. To + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 13 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + +say that the principle of life may exist in distribution among +various forms, is to assert what cannot be proved to be either true +or false, but which, were it true, annihilates all hope of +existence after death, in any sense in which that event can belong +to the hopes and fears of men. Suppose, however, that the +intellectual and vital principle differs in the most marked and +essential manner from all other known substances; that they have +all some resemblance between themselves which it in no degree +participates. In what manner can this concession be made an +argument for its imperishabillity? All that we see or know perishes +and is changed. Life and thought differ indeed from everything +else. But that it survives that period, beyond which we have no +experience of its existence, such distinction and dissimilarity +affords no shadow of proof, and nothing but our own desires could +have led us to conjecture or imagine. + + Have we existed before birth? It is difficult to conceive the +possibility of this. There is, in the generative principle of each +animal and plant, a power which converts the substances homogeneous +with itself. That is, the relations between certain elementary +particles of matter undergo a change, and submit to new +combinations. For when we use words: principle, power, cause, etc., +we mean to express no real being, but only to class under those +terms a certain series of coexisting phenomena; but let it be +supposed that this principle is a certain substance which escapes +the observation of the chemist and anatomist. It certainly may be; +thought it is sufficiently unphilosophical to allege the +possibility of an opinion as a proof of its truth. Does it see, +hear, feel, before its combination with those organs on which +sensation depends? Does it reason, imagine, apprehend, without +those ideas which sensation alone can communicate? If we have not +existed before birth; If, at the period when the parts of our +nature on which thought and life depend, seem to be woven together; +If there are no reasons to suppose that we have existed before that +period at which our existence apparently commences, then there are +no grounds for supposing that we shall continue to exist after our +existence has apparently ceased. So far as thought and life is +concerned, the same will take place with regard to us, individually +considered, after death, as had taken place before our birth. + + It is said that it is possible that we should continue to +exist in some mode totally inconceivable to us at present. This is +a most unreasonable presumption. It casts on the adherents of +annihilation the burden of proving the negative of a question, the +affirmative of which is not supported by a single argument, and +which, by its very nature, lies beyond the experience of the human +understanding. It is sufficiently easy. indeed, to form any +proposition, concerning which we are ignorant, just not so absurd +as not to be contradictory in itself, and defy refutation. The +possibility of whatever enters into the wildest imagination to +conceive is thus triumphantly vindicated. But it is enough that +such assertions should be either contradictory to the known laws of +nature, or exceed the limits of our experience, that their fallacy +or irrelevancy to our consideration should be demonstrated. They +persuade, indeed, only those who desire to be persuaded. + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 14 + + The Necessity of Atheism by Percy Bysshe Shelley + + This desire to be forever as we are; the reluctance to a +violent and unexperienced change, which is common to all the +animated and inanimate combinations of the universe, is, indeed, +the secret persuasion which has given birth to the opinions of a +future state. + + + + + + + + + + + **** **** + + Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship. + + **** **** + + + + + + + + + + + The Bank of Wisdom is a collection of the most thoughtful, +scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of +suppressed books and will cover American and world history; the +Biographies and writings of famous persons, and especially of our +nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and +religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to +the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so +that America can again become what its Founders intended -- + + The Free Market-Place of Ideas. + + The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old, +hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts +and information for today. If you have such books please contact +us, we need to give them back to America. + + **** **** + + + + + + + + + + + + + Bank of Wisdom + Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201 + 15 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/shldiask.txt b/religious documents/shldiask.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecf5c53 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shldiask.txt @@ -0,0 +1,151 @@ +From: Peter Trei +Subject: Masonic Pamphlet: Should I ask? + + What follows the is a public booklet about Masonry. Between this and + the other one I will post, most of the questions and mis-conceptions about + Masonry should be answered. ;-) + + This is from a booklet called "Should I Ask?", published by Supreme + Council Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction. + + THE MASONIC COMMITTMENT TO CHARACTER + + Many years ago, the famous Dr. Albert Schweitzer wrote these magnificent + words, + + It is not enough merely to exist.... Every man has to seek in + his own way to make his own self more noble and to realize his + own true worth. + + Those words capture the meaning of Freemasonry. As the world's oldest and + largest fraternity, our goal is to build a man's most valuable + possession--his character. + + We believe that the strength of the family, the church, the community and + our country rests with men of strong conviction, firm ethical and moral + values and a devotion to our democratic system of government. As Masons, + we help each other intensify our devotion to these enduring values. + + In a day when it seems that few people really care about rising to the + highest and best in life, it is good to know that there is a group where a + man can work to really improve himself. + + In lodge meetings, there is no talk of politics, no discussion of + religious issues, even though every Mason must affirm a belief--according + to his own understanding--in deity and devotion to his country. + + Masons are concerned with developing their minds and enlarging their scope + of knowledge. In a word, Masons are dedicated to becoming better men. + + Because a man's personal desire to build his own character is at the heart + of being a Mason, you must ask to join. You must make the request. + + Men of every walk of life belong to Masonic Lodges. They are proud of + their centuries of tradition, their belief in brotherhood, country and the + many Masonic acts of charity and compassion. + + THE FOUNDING OF FREEMASONRY + + The origins of Masonry reach back to Medieval times when the great + cathedrals of Europe were built. The stonemasons who created these + awe-inspiring Gothic structures formed craft guilds to protect the secrets + of their trade and to pass on their knowledge to worthy apprentices. + + In 17th century England, these guilds began accepting honorary members, + men of learning and position. These new members were not working + stonemasons or even associated with the building trades. As "accepted + Masons," they eventually grew into a separate organization called + Freemasonry, a moral and ethical society that taught the 18th century + ideals of equality and the importance of education in freeing mankind from + prejudice, superstition and social injustice. + + MASONRY TODAY + + Masons continue to use the simple tools of the ancient stonemasons--the + square and compasses, the trowel, plumb and level--as symbols to teach + their ideals. A Mason is oath-bound to build his life and character with + the same care and precision that stonemasons used to construct the + cathedrals and temples centuries ago. + + Today, there are almost five-million Masons in the world, with the United + States claiming about three and one half million of the total membership. + + MASONIC CONCERN FOR OTHERS + + Freemasonry has an outstanding record for helping others. Along with + scholarships and loan funds to assist young people in furthering their + education. Masons support important research projects aimed at finding + answers to many devastating diseases. Retirement homes and hospitals for + the elderly provide care for those who can no longer care for themselves. + + One of Masonry's associated groups operates institutes for the severely + burned, along with the famous hospitals for crippled children, while + another sponsers an eye foundation responsible for restoring sight to many + youngsters and adults. + + One of the nation's most prestigious schizophrenia research programs is + sponsered by Scottish Rite Masons. Nearly $8,000,000 has been contributed + since 1934 to finding the causes of this widespread and devastating form + of mental illness. + + Scottish Rite Masons also sponsor extensive programs to understand and aid + children suffering from aphasia. These youngsters have serious difficulty + in learning to speak. Other aphasic children have an inability to read, + write and communicate in other ways. + + The Scottish Rite Masonic Museum of Our National Heritage in Lexington, + Massachusetts, expresses the strong Masonic committment to our country, as + this vigorous institution tells the story of America to thousands of + visitors. It fosters a feeling of patriotism and a dedication to + principles which have made this country great. + + THE IMPROVEMENT OF LIFE + + Yes, Masons are members of a fraternity that has its secrets, but the many + charitable and character-building activities of Freemasonry indicate that + it is far from a secret organization. Masons are active in their + dedication to improve life. Always ready to undertake a difficult task in + a quiet, dignified way, today's Masons go about the job of extending the + hand of brotherhood. + + It should not be surprising that so many famous men have been proud to be + called Masons. George Washington and thirteen other Presidents have been + Masons. Other countries honor such names as Simon Bolivar, Benito Juarez, + Bernardo O'Higgins, Jose' de San Martin, Francisco de Paula Santander, + Jose' Rizal, Jose' Marti, Pandit Nehru, Lajos Kossuth, Jonas Furrer, + Guiseppe Mazzini, Eduard Benes, John A. MacDonald, Edmund Burke and + Winston Churchill. + + But is is perhaps not as well known that many leaders in the professions, + arts and sciences and other human endeavors benefiting the world at large + have been members of the Masonic Fraternity. A few names that come to + mind are such writers as Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Rudyard Kipling and + Mark Twain; poets-playwrights--Wassily I. Maikow, Heinrich Heine, Jean + P.C. de Florian, Leopoldo Lugoner and Antonio de Castro Alves; + musicians--Wolfgang Mozart, Jean Sibelius, Franz von Liszt, Josef Hayden; + philosophers--Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Gottholf E. Lessing and Francois + Voltaire; medicine--Drs. Alexander Fleming, Jules Bordet, Antoine DePage, + Edward Jenner, Charles and William Mayo and Karl and William Menninger; + sculptor--Gutzon Borglum; artists--Charles W. Peale and Alfons M. Mucha; + scientists--Hans C. Orsted, Jons Jakob Frk. von Berzelius, Alfred Edmund + Brehm, Luther Burbank, Johan Ernst Gunnerus, Albert Abraham Michelson, + Gaspard Monge, C.F.S. Hahnemann and Pedro N. Arata; labor--Samuel + Gompers; industrialists and commerce leaders--Henry Ford, Walter P. + Chrysler, John Wanamaker, S.S. Kresge and J.C. Penney. + + Many others prominent yesterday and today in these and other fields, such + as the law, religion, space exploration, news media, sports and + entertainment, have a common bond to Freemasonry. + + THE FIRST STEP + + For the man who is looking for deeper meaning in life and who wants to be + part of a fraternity committed to his growth and improvement, Masonry is + filled with marvelous opportunities and limitless possibilities. + + The first step in Masonry is one a man must take for himself. He must say + "I want to become a Mason." What follows will be a thrilling, exciting and + extremely worthwhile. + + "Should I ask?" That is the one important question. The answer is up to + you. diff --git a/religious documents/shock.txt b/religious documents/shock.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec923cb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/shock.txt @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ + Wiccan Shock Value? + + +To be quite honest , I couldn't care less why he chose or didn't choose +to use the words! I use Witch and Wiccan because that's what I am. To me, +Witch is a more hereditary title, it's something you ARE rather than something +you DO. Wiccan has to do with my lineage, and the fact that most of my rituals +are based on the information taught by Sanders and Gardner. Why SHOULD I +change them? I've been using them for 5 years now, I'm quite comfortable with +them, and have no negative feelings from them. People have, +for the most part, been using them such at *least* since GBG began using them, +possible earlier. I use the term coven because that's what my group is. I +dislike the term Grove, and a group is just a group of people...it's such a +generic term. We are a coven, pure and simple: a group of people who practice +the same basic precepts together. That's what it means to me. + + Although I use a crystal ball, cauldron, tarot cards, and such +other "witchy" implements, I tend not to overstate that fact. In fact, +personally, I see my use of all but the cauldron as being *outside* of my +practice of Craft. I've been taught that one can use whatever tools one feels +comfortable with, however they are STILL only tools. I can certainly do a full +Circle and be happy with it, even if I don't have an athame, or candles, +or altar, or anything! Anyone who is bound to working with those things is +definitely not being taught right IMNSHO. It's FINE to work with tools...I use +them all the time, and I *like* using them. I enjoy the drama of ritual, +which for me evokes a sense of child-like wonder which I find necessary for a +good ritual. But I'm not bound to use them...and I teach that to my students, +too. I had one recently get really upset because she had to do a Circle at +home and had no athame. She was convinced that she couldn't Cast because of +it. It took me quite a while to explain that it's only an extension of self. +It's important, I think, to show the difference between using something because +you LIKE to, and using something because you NEED to. I refer to my ritual +tools, robes, and regalia as my Dumbo's Feather...meanwhile admitting that in +*some* categories I still need that confidence booster ! + + +Allyson Taylor. + diff --git a/religious documents/sideshow.txt b/religious documents/sideshow.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4e406b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/sideshow.txt @@ -0,0 +1,956 @@ + +From CORNERSTONE magazine, volume 18, issue 90, pages 3-8: + +S A T A N ' S S I D E S H O W +Gretchen & Bob Passantino and Jon Trott + + Step right up! It's Satan's Underground! + A hundred thousand copies in print! + Featured on radio and TV, from "Geraldo" to the "700 Club"! + Stories of satanic rituals, snuff films, and human sacrifice! + Author Lauren Stratford survived to tell us all about it! + Now judge for yourself .... + + +THIS article is the extraordinary chronicle of how one woman's gruesome +fantasy was twisted into seeming fact. Perhaps the people who believed her +tale felt the illusion of evidence she offered was due to the desperate times +in which we live, times when little children are horribly abused and yet seem +to find no rescue or protection from the authorities or the courts. + + But we believe these child victims can be protected from further harm and +exploitation only if those who work on their behalf do so with absolute +integrity, honesty, and responsibility. Sensational stories may sell more +books, generate more television appearances, and provide more visibility to +one's cause, and one may believe them because "they're too bizarre not to be +true," but they should never be substituted for careful, accurate, and +truthful reporting. + + In the course of our research into the _Satan's Underground_ [1] story, we +talked with parents of children who had been ritually abused and who had +reason to believe Lauren Stratford's testimony was not true. We asked them +why they were willing to tell us what they knew, when, after all, her story +supported their children's statements. One parent spoke for them all: + + We're so afraid that no one will believe our children. If this story + were true, it would be invaluable. But we know it's not, and the only + testimony worse for our children than no testimony is a testimony that's + not true. If we can't find the courage to speak out and tell what we + know about Lauren Stratford's story, then we're sitting ducks for the + people we know who are guilty and who are just looking for a way to + discredit our children. [2] + + The hard evidence we have uncovered and which we present here speaks for +itself. The story of _Satan's Underground_ is not true. And the same +exploited children it may have been designed to help have been cheated of the +truth. + + SATAN'S UNDERGROUND + +A synopsis of the story told in _Satan's Underground_ is very difficult to +produce. The book is missing dates, places, outside events, and even the true +names of the principal characters necessary for placing the story in an +historical and geographical context. Stratford says, "In part this is for my +own protection, but it also serves to remind you that what I've endured is not +limited to one city or region. I have also changed names and descriptions of +many key figures in order to protect the victims." [3] + + According to _Satan's Underground_, Stratford was born illegitimately and +adopted at birth by a "professional" couple. Her adoptive father left when +Lauren was four because of his wife's explosive temper and physical abuse +toward him. At six Lauren was raped in her basement by a day laborer. [4] The +rape was the mother's idea of a "fair wage" for the laborer's work. The rapes +continued by various "smelly" men, and under her mother's authority child +pornography pictures and bestiality were added when she was eight. Throughout +childhood, Lauren received the physical abuse her mother had previously heaped +on her husband. Several times Lauren tried to tell adults what was happening, +but neither her school counselor, pastor, youth group leader, nor a woman sent +by the police believed her. + + At fifteen, after a particularly brutal physical altercation with her +mother, Lauren collected bus fare donations from her school friends and +escaped to a city two hundred miles away. She ended up in juvenile hall and +was picked up by her father, whom she had not seen in eleven years. She moved +"across the country" with him rather than returning to live with her mother. + + Lauren had only lived with her father for a short time when her mother +called, insisting he allow "them" to come and get Lauren to continue the +pornographic abuse. She then realized the multistate extent of the +pornography ring her mother had inducted her into as a child. + + By the time she turned twenty, Lauren had been living a "dual life" [5] at +home (with her father, at church, and in school) and at the pornographer's +studio (mostly on weekends). It was then she met the leader of the ring: +Victor. + + She learned that Victor's empire included pornography, prostitution, drugs, +sadomasochism, and child prostitution and pornography. Victor wanted her to +be his "woman," but she had to pass a test first. For several weekends in a +row she had to properly pleasure his best customers, no matter what their +perversions, demands, or tortures. + + She passed the test. Victor had his assistant hold her while he used a +razor blade on her forehead to initiate her as his "woman." The sexual +perversion didn't end, she just responded to Victor's whims instead of any and +all customers'. She managed to continue her college studies despite the drugs +and the torturous weekends with Victor. But Victor got bored. What was left +to excite and thrill him? + + Satanism. It was, he told Lauren, the ultimate path to power and sexual +gratification. At first he forced her to attend satanic rituals [6] where he +and others sexually abused her. Then he demanded she participate in a child +sacrifice ritual. She refused and underwent brainwashing and torture for an +unspecified time. Finally Victor threatened he would ritually kill a baby +each week that she continued to refuse. After holding out for four weeks, she +was locked in a metal drum with the dead bodies of four babies who had been +sacrified. She finally gave in and evidently participated in an infant +sacrifice ritual on Halloween night. She says, "It was the last time I ever +participated in a satanic ritual." [7] + + A later chapter in the book tells that sometime during her late teens and +early twenties she gave birth to three children. The first two were killed +shortly after birth in snuff films and the third, a son she calls "Joey," was +sacrificed in her presence at a ritual. + + When Lauren's father unexpectedly died, she realized she had no real reason +to stay in the area. Thus began her frantic flight from Victor and his +conspiratorial enforcers. She moved to many cities over the next few years, +[8] but Victor's men always found her and continued periodic threats to ensure +her silence. Her emotional and physical health deteriorated as a consequence +of the extreme abuse she had suffered. During one eight-year period she was +hospitalized more than forty times. + + Her "breakthrough," enabling her to begin the "healing process," began with +some sensitive hospital therapists. She learned that she didn't have to be a +victim any longer. But she was far from well. + + Then she saw Johanna Michaelson on television. Somehow Lauren knew that +her physical and spiritual healing would be accomplished through her. But it +was another eighteen months before she and Johanna met. + + After their first meeting, Lauren moved in with Johanna. Johanna and her +entire family, including her husband, sister Kim, and brother-in-law Hal +Lindsey, ministered healing to Lauren. In a number of months a new Lauren and +a new book emerged from a fierce spiritual battle. The victim is beginning to +be left behind, the victorious counselor appears. The stage is set for the +counselor's handbook, _I Know You're Hurting_. Such is the story of _Satan's +Underground_. + + WHO IS LAUREN STRATFORD? + +LAUREN Stratford doesn't exist, except as the pen name of Laurel Rose Wilson, +and _Satan's Underground_ is only one of the stories she's told about her +life. + + Laurel Wilson was born prematurely to Marrian E. Disbrow [9] on August 18, +1941, [10] in St. Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma, Washington. [11] She was +brought home after forty-four days in the hospital by her adoptive parents, +physician Frank Cole Wilson and schoolteacher Rose Gray Wilson, to a little +town called Buckley. The littlest Wilson joined her big sister Willow Nell, +who was five years older. Laurel's adoption by the Wilsons was finalized on +February 17, 1942, before her first birthday. + + In a signed statement Willow prepared for us, she described her parents: + + My parents were devout Christians. They were both active members of the + Bible Presbyterian Church in Tacoma. Both of them were fully committed + to the Lord Jesus Christ. My sister and I were raised in a very + sheltered, strict Christian home. There was no place in our home for + anything remotely occult or pornographic. My mother continues as a + dedicated Christian, for many years now a member of _________ [12] + Church .... [13] + + One assumes from _Satan's Underground that its author is an only child. +There is no mention of any sibling. The average reader would also assume that +Stratford's mother is probably dead, which would explain why Stratford neither +confronted nor reconciled with her mother as part of her spiritual and +emotional healing. Neither assumption is true. + + LAUREL'S EARLY CHILDHOOD + +THE Wilson home at 1624 "A" Street was not peaceful. Rose had an +unpredictable temper, and Frank, with an explosive temper of his own, was +often the brunt of her outbursts. His health was precarious, the result of a +heart attack, and the stress on him was taxing. Willow was Laurel's protector +and comforter, and many Saturday and Sunday afternoons were spent in the park +together, hiking or riding bikes. Willow remembers life for her and Laurel +during this time was very unpredictable. They never knew if Mother would be +in one of her rages or would take them to the beach for the day. But even the +anger Willow remembers is nothing like what _Satan's Underground_ describes: + + My mother did have a temper. And she did have problems. But she loved + us. My mother was never involved with pornography. No, no. No, no, NO! + Mother would be absolutely appalled.... She's _very_ straightlaced. [14] + + In actuality, Frank left the family in 1950, [15] when Laurel was nine +years old, not when she was four as _Satan's Underground_ describes. This was +after the family had moved from Buckley to 805 North "C" in nearby Tacoma. +Both Frank and Willow were living with Laurel and her mother during the time +period that Laurel wrote in her book she was being repeatedly raped and used +in child pornography and bestiality. "I was never part of a porno empire," +Willow explains wryly. "And let me tell you, I was a very inquisitive little +kid, with my ear to the door. If there had been any sort of business going on +like that, believe me, I would have known about it." [16] + + Laurel was very musically gifted. Her adoptive parents plied her with +music lessons, including voice, piano, clarinet, and flute. One of her +singing competition judges wrote when Laurel was eight, "Outstanding +accomplishment for length of study. This must be a very intelligent and +musical girl." [17] Her report cards reflect almost straight A's. Her +attendance and grades precluded long absences from school such as would have +seemed necessary from the extreme sexual abuse described in _Satan's +Underground_. [18] + + HER LATER CHILDHOOD + +DURING Laurel's high school years, she was active in school clubs and +extracurricular activities. Returning from a singing engagement, Laurel and +two friends were involved in an auto accident. Laurel had a minor ankle +injury, and both members of the trio recall that she was extremely distraught +in the car and in the hospital, continually calling for her father. She +seemed bitterly disappointed that he didn't come. [19] + + Laurel ran away shortly after the accident. She stayed within the city of +Tacoma, at Raymond Juvenile Hall, until arrangements were made for her to stay +with her father in California. Not liking San Bernardino schools, she +returned to her mother, but soon moved in with her sister. By then, Willow +was married with two young children and living in Seattle. + + When Laurel was seventeen, she told a friend at King's Garden High School +that she had been sexually molested by her brother-in-law, Willow's husband. +She sounded at the time as though that were the only sexual abuse she had ever +suffered. Her allegations were disproven and Willow contacted their dad and +received permission for Laurel to get psychiatric counseling. Willow and her +husband were told by the psychiatrist not to continue allowing Laurel to live +with them: "She's a danger to your children." [20] + + Laurel graduated from King's Garden [21] and enrolled in what was then +called Seattle-Pacific College in September of 1959. [22] Marie Hollowell, +the school's dean of women who had been a special friend to Willow, also took +an interest in "trying to draw Laurel out." [23] Laurel soon told a classmate +that she had been molested sexually, perhaps by members of the college staff, +and that her mother had driven her to "the bad side of town" to be a +prostitute. In a meeting with Marie Hollowell, Willow, and a psychiatrist, +Laurel admitted she had made the stories up to "impress" her new friend. +Because of this controversy, the school recommended psychiatric care for +Laurel. Soon after, she attempted suicide by cutting her wrists. [24] + + YOUNG ADULTHOOD + +BY September of 1960 Laurel was living in Southern California with her father, +Frank. He was a physician for the Santa Fe Railroad and had a private +practice in San Bernardino. When Laurel was nineteen, she wrote some of her +old friends that her father was sexually abusing her. [25] + + Enrolled in the University of Redlands, Laurel majored in music. [26] She +directed the choir at First Assembly of God Church in Rialto, where she and +her father were members. [27] Though she gained acceptance through her +musical talent and skill, her emotional troubles were not resolved. Her +pastor, Eugene Boone, was called in numerous times because Laurel had cut her +arms in apparent suicide attempts. This went on over the six years Revered +Boone knew her. + + While still in college, during 1962, she met a Pentecostal evangelist +couple, Norman and Billie Gordon. Billie described her relationship with +Laurel this way: + + I like to help people, that's what I'm about. But Laurel was a hopeless + case.... We met her after a service we testified at. A car pulled up in + our driveway. I opened my door and invited her in, but she didn't come + in. I closed my door. I heard her voice, so I opened my door again. + She said, "Please, come out and help me. I heard you testify tonight. + Please come and talk because I'm not the kind of person you want in your + house." + + Laurel ended up practically living with the Gordons for most of 1962. +During that time the stress was so intense that Billie went from 140 to 100 +pounds. Her children begged her to ask Laurel to leave because Laurel was +consuming all of Billie's time and attention. There was nothing left for +anyone but Laurel. [28] + + Laurel told a series of stories to Billie and Norman Gordon. She told them +that Frank Cole Wilson was her natural father, and that her natural mother had +died when she was very small. Her father had quickly remarried, and her +stepmother had physically and sexually abused her ever since. The Gordons +assumed that Laurel was living with her father and stepmother. (In reality, +Frank and Laurel lived alone at 1580 North Vista in Rialto.) + + Laurel also "became blind" while with them, and they prayed frequently for +her healing. However, they began to suspect she wasn't really blind. One day +when they were driving past the University of Redlands, Laurel pointed out a +landmark. Confronted, Laurel tried to say she'd felt a familiar bump in the +road, but finally admitted she had faked her blindness to obtain sympathy and +attention. Billie told us that one afternoon Laurel showed up with a huge red +bump and bruises on her forehead. She asked Billie to protect her--her +stepmother had hit her on the head with a can of peaches. [29] Again, +confronted by an unbelieving Billie, she confessed that she had hit herself +with the can to gain sympathy. + + Laurel's break with the Gordons was precipitated by an incident that took +place in their home while Norman was out. Laurel, locking herself in the +bathroom, broke a glass vase and proceeded to cut her face in three places. +She then charged out of the room with the broken vase, straight for Billie's +neck. Billie's grown son wrestled the glass away from her. [30] + + Shortly after this, Laurel returned home to her father. A Woman who was a +member of the Hemet First Assembly of God church befriended her and attempted +to help Laurel, whom she considered troubled and emotionally depressed. (This +woman is the first of three of Laurel's closest acquaintances who asked to +have their names withheld. We have labeled them "Friend One," "Friend Two," +and "Friend Three.") Friend One confirmed that Laurel cut her own arms +several different times. + + When Laurel was twenty-two (1963), she told Friend One that she had been +seduced into a lesbian relationship with two church women. [31] On June 7, +1964, she graduated from Redlands with a bachelor's in music, with a special +secondary education teaching credential in music. [32] Soon after this, +Laurel disappeared from home. Later she told Friend One that she had run away +to Teen Challenge in Los Angeles and gone through their drug abuse program, +then had become a drug counselor. Her friend angrily pointed out that +Laurel's drug use was a lie. According to Friend One, Laurel admitted she had +never had a drug problem, but had made the story up for Teen Challenge. [33] + + Laurel was still living with her father when he died of a heart attack at +home. Dr. Frank Cole Wilson was pronounced dead at 8:45 a.m. on January 4, +1965. [34] Willow and Rose, their mother, came from Washington for the +services. Rose stayed on for a while, signing a probate paper with Laurel on +February 5 and attending Sunday services at the same First Assembly of God in +Rialto where Laurel was the choir director. Probate on Dr. Wilson's estate +took almost two years and wasn't finally settled until the end of 1967. + + MID TO LATE TWENTIES + +LAUREL met Frank Austin at church while she was living for a time at 208 +Valley View in Hemet. He was almost one and a half years younger than Laurel +and was the son of a Pentecostal Holiness minister. [35] They dated three or +four times and then, Frank told us, she suggested marriage. "She seemed like +a nice Christian girl and it seemed like a good thing to do, so we did." They +were married on March 11, 1966, with Friend Two and Frank's father as +witnesses. [36] + + At that point, what one wishes could have been the beginning of a happy +story instead led to only more pain and failure. Within a week the troubled +couple, their marriage still unconsummated, sought counsel from Friend One and +her husband. [37] Here we reluctantly include comments from Frank which are +very private. We do so only because _Satan's Underground_ claims that Laurel +had been raped and abused since childhood, had been involved in hard-core +prostitution for at least five years for at least five years, and had borne +three children by this time. Frank told us the marriage was eventually +consummated, and that Laurel "was a virgin until then." Frank and Laurel +agreed to an annulment, granted on May 17, 1966. + + Laurel's desperate need for attention was described by Friend Two: + + I felt sorry for Laurel.... She called me one night at midnight. I went + over and found her cutting her arm with a paring knife. She had made + several cuts already.... She so desperately needed someone to say they + loved her, in Christian love. Laurel didn't have anybody, because she + would turn them against her by wearing them down. She would go from one + friend to the next, knowing they wouldn't be her friends for long. + That's sad.... There were a lot of times I had to be with her when I + wanted to be with my kids. I've apologized to my kids for that. I will + never allow anybody, ever again, to suck me in the way she did. + + Laurel turned twenty-five in August of 1966. She taught music at Hemet +Junior High School for one and one-half years, from September 1966 through +January 1968. [38] Her picture in the school yearbook shows her smiling next +to the choir. [39] This was the only public school teaching recorded for her, +although her renewed teaching credential is valid until 1991. [40] + + Laurel appears to have been employed at the California Institute for Women +in Chino, probably from 1969 to 1971. She says she was a correctional +counselor on her alumni report. She gave the same information to Willow and +others throughout the years. She told yet another friend that she had been a +guard. However, we have been unable to confirm either job with the Prison +Personnel Office or with the California Penal System Office of Past +Employment. + + During this time she was still active in various Assemblies of God churches +and gained a small popularity as a Christian singer in different churches. +[41] She joined a singing group led by Delpha Nichols called "Delpha and the +Witnesses." The male singer, Ken Sanders, and his wife invited her to live +with them in Bakersfield. [42] She has lived in the Bakersfield area since +1971. + + Delpha, Ken, and Laurel sang at many churches and toured on a limited +basis. Ken remembers Laurel as a nice Christian woman with good values, but +who was also emotionally troubled. Though "The Witnesses" stayed with nearby +church people's homes while touring, Laurel insisted she needed a private +hotel room. One time, Ken related, she became frantic when told they would be +staying with nearby church people. Laurel attacked Delpha so violently "she +nearly clawed Delpha's dress off." Laurel got a hotel room. [43] + + Ken stated that Laurel did talk about her mother sexually abusing her and +offering her to various men, abuse which had church-related overtones: + + One night, when Laurel was still living with us, I took out the Bible + for our family devotions. She jumped up and ran off into her room and + locked the door behind her. Later, she said it was because when they + used to do these perversions to her, that's how it would begin. "It was + in the name of Jesus they did this stuff." + + HER THIRTIES + +DELPHA and her husband Willie loved Laurel. They felt sorry for the girl +nobody seemed to love, and though she was an adult of thirty or so, they +legally adopted her and she called them her family. One of the many stories +Laurel told Delpha was that her mother had abused her so horribly she was +sterile and could never have children. [44] + + Laurel wrote many stories of her childhood and family in letters to Delpha. +Delpha saved them until Laurel contacted her more recently and requested she +burn them all. We asked Delpha why Laurel had wanted them burned. "She +didn't want anybody to see them, I guess.... She was telling me about her +past." Delpha continued, "There's a lot of things I don't understand. I'm +mixed up about a lot of things about Laurel like that." + + By 1973, Laurel had written and copyrighted some Christian songs while with +the group. [45] "Delpha and the Witnesses" broke up in 1974. Ken calmly +observed, "It was because of Laurel, of course." Laurel and the Sanders +continued to go to the same church in 1974, pastored by David Joiner. [46] +Laurel was living at 1405 White Lane in Bakersfield. Though she still sang +some with Delpha, she also accompanied other Christian singers both at her own +church and others. During this time she gave private piano lessons. + + Ken Sanders and Pastor Joiner both recalled Laurel and another church +member, Friend Three, leaving the church some time in 1975. (Ken didn't see +Laurel again until 1984, when he saw her at a special church service in honor +of Delpha and Willie.) Laurel told a number of stories to Friend Three, who +lived with her for a time. Among other things, Laurel told her that her scars +were from her mother's abuse. The friend explained to us what she how +believes to be the stories' real source: + + Have you read the book _Sybil_? I didn't read it until I started taking + my psychology classes. I realized that most of the stories Laurel had + told me about her mom's abuse were taken literally from _Sybil_. You + know, the torture with enemas, the piano, the whole bit. Even the part + about the mom's abuse with small sharp objects that rendered her + incapable of having children.... Laurel took that directly out of the + book. + + Friend Three explained to us Laurel's claim that the physical and sexual +abuse continued until she went to live with her father, and then it all +stopped. As the friend talked with us, she shared the destructive influence +Laurel had on her own life: + + At that time I was pretty vulnerable. There were problems in my church, + my father had just been brain-damaged in a severe accident. My brother + was going through a very traumatic time, and my husband and I were + having trouble in our marriage. I had two small children, and I was + extremely unhappy. For me, I'm very interested in music. She + accompanied me when I sang. She was giving my daughter piano lessons, + and we started being friends. + She was very happy, always laughing, always very up. And gradually + ... manipulation is what it is. Where I was the weakest, that's where + she worked her way in, and I was so involved. She tried to separate me + from my mom and dad, and at one point actually told them I didn't need + them anymore, she'd take care of me. She began to manipulate things so + I was really putting distance between myself and my husband, more and + more and more. And then I felt trapped. + How could I extricate myself from this awful mess I'd gotten into? + For me, it got so bad that my way out was, "I cannot deal with any of + this anymore, I'm never going to get free." The scariest part about it + was that it seemed so normal, "I'll just go to sleep and never wake up + again." I took every pill in the house. I had a bottle of sleeping + pills, I had a bottle full of pain tablets, another of valium, and I + took them all. + My family discovered me in time. I had to spend some time in a + mental hospital, but the Lord saw me through. I think she was scary + fifteen years ago ... and she still scares me. She does not, she really + doesn't know the truth. I suspected there were others she used like me. + Thank you, Lord, because I did find out in time. + + Through the latter part of the 1970s Laurel's physical and emotional health +deteriorated, incapacitating her from full-time work. She was able to live on +the small amount state disability paid plus offering private music lessons. +Laurel spent much of her time hospitalized. When Friend One from the Hemet +Assembly of God church visited her in the hospital in the late 1970s, Laurel +seemed helpless, physically and emotionally. She told her friend she had a +"rare blood disease shared by only nine people in the world." [48] + + In 1978, Willow and her family visited Laurel at 2401 Christmas Tree Lane +in Bakersfield. Willow described the meeting as short and strained. Laurel +was distant and explained she had been very ill and in and out of the +hospital. She kept repeating that she had a new family now. "I got the +feeling she was telling us she didn't need me or Mother," Willow recalled. +This was the last time Willow saw or heard from her sister. + + THE YEARS BEFORE _SATAN'S UNDERGROUND_ + +LAUREL read _Stormie_, [49] a book chronicling author Stormie Omartian's abuse +as a child, and contacted Omartian. Laurel and a close friend, Sherry DeLynn +Williams, began a support group for women called Victims Against Sexual Abuse. +The local Bakersfield press covered the group's activities, and author Joyce +Landorf Heatherly invited Laurel to be a guest on her radio program. Laurel +talked about child and spouse abuse and related her own stories. [50] + + In 1985 the Bakersfield area was rocked by charges concerning a large +ritualistic child abuse ring operating in Bakersfield. The story received +national media attention. At that time, Laurel was giving private piano +lessons to the child of one of the Bakersfield investigators, Sgt. Bob Fields. +[51] At one point she contacted Colleen Ryan, the District Attorney handling +prosecution of the case. Ryan told us, "She called me a couple times .... I +don't really remember what her link was, except she was somehow entwined with +the two women [defendants] in the case." [52] Ryan's office and the +investigators found her testimony useless. [53] + + Laurel then met Pat Thornton, a foster mother caring for some of the +children whose family members were implicated in the child abuse case. Laurel +told Pat she had personal knowledge of what was going on and was afraid for +her life. Pat told us: + + For a short period of time, I was like Laurel's mother. She would call + me at all hours of the day or night, hysterical, and I had to drop + everything I was doing to go to her or at least talk her through her + hysteria on the phone. She almost consumed my life. It was very + difficult for me, because I was trying to help the children I was caring + for, too. It was like she was another one of the kids. + + During this time Laurel _first_ began mentioning satanism as part of her +story. According to Laurel, she was still being harassed and threatened by +satanists (this would have been in 1985 and 1986). In fact, she claimed they +were still picking her up late at night and forcing her to watch their +rituals, including ritual child abuse. She told Pat this as the basis for her +inside knowledge of the Bakersfield cases. There was no Victor in Laurel's +stories to Pat. Instead there were two men, "Elliot," who was the leader of +this massive ritualistic abuse and pornography ring; and "Jonathan," to whom +she had been a "love slave" for many years. + + Laurel told Pat that Jonathan had branded her forehead with a circular red +hot brand so everyone would know she was his love slave. That's why, Laurel +said, she always wore bangs to cover her forehead--even though Pat couldn't +tell the scar from typical forehead wrinkles. One night, Laurel called Pat +hysterically claiming that Jonathan had run her off the road in a murder +attempt. [54] + + One of the most macabre stories Laurel told Pat was that she had a cassette +tape of her son Joey's death screams during the satanic ritual in which he was +killed, and a black-and-white photograph of baby Joey that had been taken +after his death. Laurel never showed Pat the picture or let her hear the +tape, explaining they would upset Pat's sensitive nature. + + Concerning Laurel's own history, Laurel claimed she had become pregnant for +the first time when she was fourteen, and that the many scars on her arms were +caused by the pornographers and satanists torturing her. Laurel said her +father had died in 1983, and his death had freed her from the hold the ring +had on her--but it took almost three years for her to realize it and finally +try to break away. [55] + + Laurel said she also had personal knowledge of the McMartin Preschool +ritual child abuse case in Manhattan Beach, California, near Los Angeles. She +wondered if Pat knew anyone associated with that case. In the spring of 1986 +Pat introduced Laurel to Judy Hanson, an investigator who was working with +some of the parents in the McMartin case. Judy described her first meeting +with Laurel: + + She told me she was terminally ill and in very great pain. She had a + wheelchair in the back of her car and she was using oxygen. Her + apartment was immaculate. During our conversation, she told me the pain + was too much for her to continue. She had me get a bottle filled with + thick white liquid out of the refrigerator for her. She told me it was + morphine for her pain. I didn't notice any difference in her speech or + actions after the medicine. + Laurel claimed she'd been abused as a child, and had been trapped in + this ritual child abuse ring, both in Bakersfield and with the McMartin + group in Los Angeles. She said she could give us names, places, dates, + and events, but that she was afraid of physical harm or even death at + the hands of the ring if they suspected she was talking. [56] + + Laurel gave Judy a manuscript containing her stories, and a tape of two +Joyce Landorf Heatherly shows she appeared on. According to Judy, she +arranged for Laurel to record her experiences in a video tape done by Bob +Currie. [57] Bob, one of the parents whose children were involved in the +McMartin abuse case, had been looking for a credible adult witness or victim +to give support to the children's testimonies. The video was made in multiple +sessions at a Bakersfield motel. Respecting Laurel's concerns about her own +safety, Bob never revealed more than her mouth and chin in the video. + + After the taping was completed, Bob took the video home. But he never used +it. Other McMartin parents who saw the video or who were present during the +taping told us they agreed with Bob: "Laurel's story wasn't credible." We +asked parent Leslie Floberg why she distrusted Laurel's story concerning the +Manhattan Beach activities. She replied: + + That's just it. She seemed to be telling us exactly what we wanted to + hear. Whatever we thought was happening, she said she had witnessed it. + She described most things in very general terms. The only things she + described in detail were incidents that had already been described in + detail on a recently aired CNN television special about our case. + Somebody who knew nothing about the case, but who had watched that + television program, could have given us as credible a "testimony." + + We asked Pat Thornton, who was present during the taping, why she didn't +believe Laurel's video: + + She didn't give concrete, specific, testable details that hadn't been + reported in the news. It was almost like she felt safe in repeating + what we already knew from other sources, but she didn't want to say + something new we could test. I got the feeling that she didn't really + have any firsthand knowledge. + + The stories Laurel told on the video for the McMartin parents are very +different from the stories in _Satan's Underground_. In the video she said +that both of her parents, mother and father, were involved in pornography and +satanism. She told how, when she was a child, even after her father left +home, the three of them would meet at the satanic abuse rituals. She said +that she lived in the basement of a farmhouse with farm animals (the same +animals she was forced to pose with for the pornographic pictures). Laurel +explained her many scars by saying that her mother forced her to pleasure her +sexually, and that if she did not do so quickly enough, her mother would take +razor blades and slice her arms and legs to punish her. Laurel also explained +that she had spent two years of her life in a warehouse on Wilshire Boulevard +in Los Angeles with other "baby breeders," where she had two children killed +in ritualistic snuff films. [58] + + All six parents who witnessed the video and/or its filming attested to us +that she said she had participated in an ongoing lesbian relationship with +Virginia McMartin, then the star defendant in the McMartin preschool case. +They also agree that she claimed to have been present while ritual abuse of +children went on. + + According to Bob Currie, he provided the access Laurel wanted to Johanna +Michaelson, Christian author of _The Beautiful Side of Evil_. (Michaelson had +talked briefly with a few of the McMartin parents.) After Laurel became close +to Johanna, she asked for her video back from Bob.. Bob hand-delivered the +original video to Johanna. Laurel then broke off all communication with Judy +Hanson, Pat Thornton, Bob Currie, and the other McMartin parents involved. +Only a few months later, Laurel's story of _Satan's Underground_ was published +by Harvest House with Johanna Michaelson's strong encouragement. + + Johanna Michaelson admitted to us that she had viewed the video, including +the segment concerning Virginia McMartin. She first explained to us that the +legal ramifications of the McMartin story were too complex to deal with, but +when we asked point-blank if she believed the lesbianism story, she replied, +"I don't know." We asked if it seemed odd to be unsure if Laurel's McMartin +story was true, yet believe totally in and help publish another equally +fantastic tale from the same source. Johanna did not answer the question. +[59] + + Parent Leslie Floberg concluded our conversation in an angry outburst. +"Put this in your magazine; I feel raped by the so-called Christians who've +promoted Lauren Stratford as a victim just like our children." + + WHAT PROOF EXISTS OF LAUREL'S TESTIMONY? + +OUR inclination has always been to give Laurel the benefit of the doubt, to +presume her story was true until proven otherwise. If Laurel's story were +true, many people would be wholly ignorant of the torment she had lived +through. There would also be details which could never be verified on paper +or other documentaton. Yet at the same time, there would be a number of +mundane details that couldn't escape outside notice. As we proceeded, we used +this basic principle: if a person proves trustworthy in the "normal" details +of their lives, it is easier to trust them when they make claims about events +which cannot be verified. + + There were two considerations: First, what evidence exists or would exist +if Laurel's story is true? In other words, can her story be verified? +Second, are there any evidences or facts which contradict or cast doubt on her +story? Can her story be falsified? + + One more thing must be said. We believe that when extreme or extraordinary +claims are presented as objective truth, the burden of proof lies on the +claimant to give evidence of what he or she affirms. This should especially +hold true for Christian authors and publishers. In our opinion, _Satan's +Underground_ manifestly falls into such a category. + + From the beginning, we were led to believe that substantial validation of +Laurel's testimony exists. Laurel's book contains a moving portrayal of how +safe she felt when Hal Lindsey publicly warned satanists to stay away from her +because he had the goods on anyone who might retaliate. [60] (Johanna +Michaelson, however, told us that Hal was "bluffing" when he said this. [61]) +Laurel claimed she had passed the untold facts (e.g. Victor's name, etc.) +along to people like Johanna Michaelson and Ken Wooden. [62] Harvest House +told us they possessed documentation more than sufficient to prove her story. +[63] + + However, the most stunning element of the true Laurel Wilson story is that +no one even checked out the main details. When we contacted Laurel's mother, +sister, brother-in-law, cousin, church friends--in fact, anyone who would have +known Laurel during the book's most crucial years--we were shocked to discover +that, in nearly every case, we were the first people to have contacted them! +[64] + + We had a lengthy conversation with Laurel, asking for any documentation of +her story. She told us that many parties, including Johanna Michaelson and +ohters "from the U.S. Justice Department on down," had advised her not to give +us anything. She then warned us that further research on our part would be +futile. "The trail's been cold for over twenty-five years," she said. "You +can't hope to find confirmation now." [65] + + In our conversation, Laurel said John Rayben was one of her advisers and +implied he was from the Justice Department. Johanna Michaelson and Lyn +Laboriel (a kind woman who believes Laurel's story) also used Rayben's name as +a defense for Laurel's story. So we called him. Rayben actually represents +the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a respected +organization which is not an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, nor any +federal office. Raybe also disavows being on any advisory board, much less +Lauren Stratford's. + + "I have never seen any objective documentation for Lauren's story," he +stated, and "I do not consider her story credible." He told us Laurel had +called him in September, asking his advice on whether she should provide us +with documentation. Rayben asked her what kind of documentation she would +provide. She said the problem was that "she didn't have names, dates, places, +etc." Rayben's reply was, "Well, you can't very well give it to them, can +you?" [66] + + "PLEASE SHOW US THE EVIDENCE" + +SINCE we had already (twice) attempted to confront Laurel with our questions, +we felt our only remaining Christian duty was to Harvest House, Laurel's +publisher. Upon contacting them, we explained that the evidence we had +collected was virtually overwhelming, and asked them as responsible publishers +to carry the burden of proof. "Please show us the evidence which led you to +publish _Satan's Underground_." + + For instance, we asked them if it was possible to produce an eyewitness to +any of Laurel's pregnancies. If we accept that Laurel had three children by +brutal rape, whose births were unrecorded and who had been secretly killed, +she still had a "public" life which included attending high school and +college, church attendance, and playing concert piano. Since her pregnancy +would have to have been "showing" during her high school and college years, +there should have been an abundance of witnesses. After all, first one should +have proof that a child existed before asking others to believe that the child +was murdered. Eileen Mason, editor-in-chief at Harvest House, informed us +that Laurel "could not produce such a witness." + + It strains one's credulity to think that no one would notice a teenager who +was pregnant three times, yet never ended up with a baby. Remember, this all +supposedly took place in the late 1950s or early 1960s, while she was singing +with Pentecostal church groups, attending Christian schools, and living with +family members other than her mother. In reality, at least ten people who +knew her quite well during that time are emphatic: Laurel was never pregnant +during her teens or early twenties. + + Harvest House explained what they felt constituted proof of her testimony. +They had a three-part test: (1) several staff members talked with Laurel at +different times and got the same stories from her, and all of the staff +members were impressed with her sincerity; (2) they talked with "experts" who +confirmed that such things have happened to others; and (3) they gathered +character references for her from her supporters. [67] + + These tests can establish consistency and plausibility, but they are not +tests to establish the validity of actual historical events. Over the past +ten years, we have heard stories from several "victim impersonators" that +paralleled those of real drug dealers and cult members, but this similarity +was not proof that the victim impersonator's particular story was true. [68] + + On the other hand, we know that Laurel's book conflicts with known history, +and over the past twenty years, she has not only given contradictory stories, +but those who knew her testify that she has been disturbed and manipulative. +If genuine evidence for the major facets of Laurel's testimony exists +anywhere, we are still willing to examine it. In light of the inability of +those supporting Laurel's story to provide such evidence, the overwhelming +weight of our evidence must stand. + + As believers, our concepts of ethics and truth should be higher, not lower, +than those of the secular press. When a publisher issues a testimony which he +knows is likely to be sensationalistic, we believe he is obligated to ask what +constitutes verification of that testimony. Certain claims and assertions +require greater validation than others. This is not to lay all the blame at +the doors of Harvest House. Other Christian publishers have recently released +equally sensationalistic "survivor stories." + + Though publishers have the responsibility to test a story before offering +it to the public, we as readers are also accountable. If we exercised the +gift of discernment more often, publishers would be persuaded to offer books +that can stand the test. As individual Christian readers, we cannot +investigate every questionable testimony. However, we should encourage the +publishers whose books we buy to do that job for us. It is not wrong to +question a story which initially seems fantastic and offers no corroboration +or documentation. + + This article is not a condemnation of Laurel Wilson. Though we don't know, +and may never know, the true causes of her problems, Laurel evidently has been +emotionally disturbed for most of her life. Emotionally disturbed people +should receive compassion and empathy from their friends and other Christians, +and constructive, biblical therapy from Christians whose special gifts are +conuseling. [69] Laurel Wilson needs her Christian friends to comfort her in +her distress, to love her enough to commit themselves to helping her resolve +her problems according to biblical principles. The story of _Satan's +Underground_ is not true, but Laurel's emotional distress is real. Our prayer +is that she gets the help she needs. + + However, when Laurel Wilson wrote _Satan's Underground_ and Johanna +Michaelson and Harvest House promoted it, the story stepped from the world of +therapy to the world of testimony. _Satan's Underground_ has become the +basis, the foundation, for Lauren Stratford's authority as an expert on +ritualistic abuse and as a counselor of other victims. Because the story is +not true, the foundation is illusory, and her expertise and counseling +qualifications are nonexistent. + + That is why this investigation had to be conducted, and this article had to +be written. As Laurel's old friend who nearly ended her own life told us, "I +don't want to see her counseling anyone. If she counsels other people as she +did me, there are going to be a lot of people in real trouble." [70] + +---------- +Sidebar: + +C O N T R A D I C T I O N S + +* HER FATHER: Variations in stories ... Frank Cole Wilson was her natural +father/left home when she was four/she didn't see him again until she was +fifteen/he was present at satanic rituals she attended throughout childhood/ +had an incestuous relationship with her/was part of the satanic and +pornographic ring/died in 1983. The truth is, he was her adoptive father, +left when she was eight or nine, and saw her many times in the intervening +years, during vacations and holidays. Christian doctor who died in 1965. + +* HER MOTHER: Often called stepmother. Stories of mother's abusive behavior +have varied from physical only to sexual/selling Laurel into pornography/ +prostitution/satanism. In truth, mother adoptive, strict Christian woman who +sometimes had temper. + +* HER SISTER: Laurel has claimed to be an only child/in 1975 claimed sister +named Betty "wants to either put me in a mental institution or kill me." Real +sister, Willow, a missionary. Laurel raised with Willow, lived with her, her +husband, and family during high school. + +* ABUSE: Laurel says 1985 first time able to admit she was abused. Yet +multiple accusations of abuse over thirty years against mother/father/brother- +in-law/school personnel/lesbian church members/pornography and prostitution +rings. + +* SATANISM: 1985 first mentioned involvement with satanism, after two major +satanic ritual abuse cases became news. This contradicts all her previous +abuse stories. + +* HER SCARS: Blamed on mother/pornography/prostitution leaders/and/or +satanists. Actually three people observed her cutting herself, others told by +Laurel her wounds were self-inflicted. + +* HER "CHILDREN": Various stories: she's sterile/had two children killed in +snuff films/three children killed, two in snuff films, one in satanic ritual/ +says she had children during teenage years/her twenties/lived two years in a +breeder warehouse. In reality, no evidence she was ever pregnant. + +* RITUAL INVOLVEMENT: States in _Satan's Underground_ ritual involvement +ended after her father's death (1965)/vs. story of involvement in satanic +rituals through 1985-86 (McMartin ring and others). Truth is no proof found +for any involvement. + +* CHILD PORN: States in _Satan's Underground_ she was involved in child porn +films and magazines during the forties and fifties. According to FBI expert, +child porn films and magazines were all but nonexistent during this time. [71] + +---------- +Photo captions: + +1. Frank, Laurel, Rose, and Willow Wilson. +2. Infant Laurel and Rose. +3. Laurel at 14 years (1955). +4. Willow's 11th birthday (Laurel second from right). +5. Car license dated 1947, two years after _Satan's Underground_ says her + father left Laurel behind. +6. Laurel in her late teens, Laurel's birth certificate. + +---------- + +Endnotes: 1. Lauren Stratford, _Satan's Underground_ (Eugene, Oreg.: Harvest +House Publishers, 1988). 2. Bob Currie, in conversation with us. Note: we +interviewed dozens of persons in the course of research for this article. In +most cases, we talked with people several times, and double-checked our +quotes. To avoid confusion, we do not list the exact dates of conversations in +this article. The reader is safe to assume that the conversations took place +between 7 September and 10 November 1989. 3. Stratford, _Satan's +Underground_, 17. 4. _Satan's Underground_ is one of the most sexually +explicit and violently graphic contemporary Christian books we know. Those +descriptions are not necessary in this synopsis. 5. Including being drugged +almost continually. 6. Lauren says she was never a satanist because she had +become a Christian as a young child and was only at the rituals because she +was forced to be. 7. Stratford, _Satan's Undergound_, 114. 8. And managed to +finish her college education. 9. According to Pierce County adoption records, +on file. Marriage records show that Marrian Disbrow married Carl H--- one +month later. 10. According to Pierce County birth certificate, on file. 11. +According to hospital records, on file. 12. Some non-crucial details have +been omitted to protect certain persons' privacy. 13. Statement dated 9 +September 1989, on file. 14. Willow, in conversation with us. 15. Years +resident in Calif., listed on his death certificate, on file. Frank and Rose +never divorced, and Frank left a substantial portion of his estate to Rose as +his wife. 16. Willow, in conversation with us. 17. Washington State Music +Teachers Association Auditions, Spring 1949, on file. 18. Copies of her grade +school, junior high, and high school report cards are on file. 19. Her father +had moved to Calif. six years earlier. 20. Willow and Willow's husband, in +conversation with us. 21. Documentation on file. 22. Enrollment confirmed by +Seattle-Pacific. 23. Willow and Marie Hollowell, in conversation with us. 24. +Willow and Billie Gordon, in conversation with us. 25. Laurel's mother, Rose, +in conversation with us. 26. Enrollment confirmed by Redlands. 27. Reverend +Boone, formerly of First AG Church, Rialto, in conversation with us. 28. +Billie Gordon, in conversation with us. 29. She told the same story to +"Friend Two." 30. Billie Gordon, in conversation with us. 31. "Friend One," +in conversation with us. 32. Record confirmed by University of Redlands +Registrar and Alumni Office, on file. 33. "Friend One," in conversation with +us. 34. San Bernardino County death certificate and probate record, on file. +35. Confirmed by Riverside County marriage certificate record, on file. 36. +Information supplied by Frank Austin, "Friend One," and "Friend Two." 37. +"Friend One," in conversation with us. 38. Confirmed by the Hemet School +District Personnel Office. 39. Picture on file. 40. Confirmed by the +California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. 41. Confirmed by "Friend +One," "Friend Two," and the Archers, a couple involved at the Hemet AG Church. +42. Ken Sanders, Willie and Delpha Nichols, in conversation with us. 43. Ken +Sanders, in conversation with us. 44. Delpha Nichols, in conversation with +us. 45. "You've Done So Much For Me Lord" and "Beholding His Beauty," +copyright 1972; "He Owes Me Nothing," copyright 1973. On file. 46. +Information supplied by Ken Sanders, Reverend David Joiner, and "Friend +Three." According to her church membership card, Laurel had previously been a +member of Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Mira Loma, Calif., near San +Bernardino. 47. Flora Rheta Schreiber, _Sybil_ (New York: Warner +Communications Company, 1973). 48. "Friend One," in conversation with us. 49. +Stormie Omartian, _Stormie_ (Eugene, Oreg.: Harvest House Publishers, 1984). +50. Information supplied by a tape of Joyce Landorf Heatherly Programs, and +from additional comments Laurel taped at home concerning statements she made +during the program which were not aired. 51. Confirmed by Bakersfield +Sheriff's Dept. Lt. Brad Darling and Sgt. Fields in conversation with us. 52. +Bakersfield District Attorney Colleen Ryan, in conversation with us. 53. +Information provided by Brad Darling and Colleen Ryan. 54. Pat didn't get out +of bed. 55. Pat Thornton, in conversation with us. 56. Judy Hanson, in +conversation with us. 57. Our conversation with Bob covered a lengthy meeting +in person as well as by telephone. 58. Information from video corroborated by +a number of McMartin parents and (partly) Johanna Michaelson. 59. Information +supplied from two and one-half hour phone conversation involving Randolf and +Johanna Michaelson, Jon Trott, and Bob Passantino, on 20 October 1989. 60. On +his television program, as quoted in _Satan's Underground_, 166. 61. Johanna +Michaelson, in conversation with us. 62. Laurel Wilson, in conversation with +us. 63. Eileen Mason, in conversation with us. She told the skeptical John +Stewart of KKLA (30 March 1988), "We have plenty of evidence in many places." +64. Apparently no one considered the fact that, if Laurel is not telling the +truth, her mother and family become the abused. 65. Laurel Wilson, in +conversation with us, 22 September 1989. 66. Chuckling, John Rayben +concluded, "I would have liked to see that documentation myself!" 67. Eileen +Mason, in conversation with us. 68. One such impersonator was "escaping the +Moonies." She lived with us, and her story was so good it took us a month to +discover she was not 16 years old, but 30, and had never been a Moonie. +Later, she appeared on _Oprah Winfrey_ as a victim of Multiple Personality +Disorder. More recently, we ran across her while she was trying to convince a +church group that she was an adult survivor from a satanic cult! 69. The +therapist doesn't initially have to know whether or not the story is true, +only that the person is hurting and needs help. 70. "Friend Three," in +conversation with us. 71. (See "Contradictions" sidebar.) Information +supplied (enough for an article in its own right) by FBI experts Ken Lanning +and Homer Young. + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/sieight.txt b/religious documents/sieight.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae49167 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/sieight.txt @@ -0,0 +1,244 @@ + + Something I Eight? + + by Bernard King + +CHAOS KAOS KAYOS CHAYOS KAIOS QUAIOS QUAYOS KAIYOS +...to name but a few. Eight is the number of my true love's name in the +morning (7), when I rise (4). This is naturally a sexist riddle, the answer +being ERECTION (8), and may or may not be perceived to have much to do with +the matter that follows! Yet hard facts persist, even through anarchy, and +some of them are pertinent to the discussion which follows. + That the number EIGHT and Chaos are inextricably entwined is, by any +standards, irrefutable. Yet eight goes back so much further, into the very +roots of occultism, and is a number worthy of at least a passing glance. + Eight. The Ogdoad. Westcott has this as the first cube of energy +(2*2*2) and adds that it is "the only evenly even number within the decad". +In greek times it was an omnipotent number, referred to the proverb: "All +things are eight." The Greek connection is at least valid in a passing +context, with Hesiod being the first known writer to name Chaos and the Mass +of Eris in CI 8 (KALLISTI!) could hardly have existed without his significant +(if minimal) input. + It was also called the Universal Harmony because of its relationship to +the musical scale (DOH, a deer, a female...), which both Mozart and Sol +Invictus in their separate ways relied upon. There were eight Cabiri. St +Matthew (cap. V) has eight Christian beatitudes, for those who don't object +to a B-attitude. One of the oldest companies of Egyptian Gods, that of Thoth +of Hermopolis, consisted of four gods and four goddesses, with the gods being +batrachiocephalic and the goddesses being serpent-headed. + The pentateuch laid down that a male child should be circumcised (i.e. +circumscribed for life) when it was eight days old. Stones of eight cubits +were to be used for the foundations of Solomon's temple. Eight tables were +provided for the Hebrew slaughter of sacrificial animals. Eight was sacred +to Dionysos, who was born in the eighth month. Eight prophet-persons were +descended from Rahab the harlot: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Hannemeel, Shallum, +Neraiah, Massaiah, Hilkaiah and the prophetess Huldah. The irreverent might +be tempted to remark that all these end in a very satisfying AH! Eight souls +were saved in Noah's Ark, and Noah was the eighth in descent. +Kabbalistically his name adds to eight times eight. + Theories about numbers can be taken to any lengths, depending upon who's +doing the taking and the bluntness of the axe they intend to grind. The +eightfold path of Buddhism is ennobling and uplifting, and it's only another +of the many sets of eight the dedicated occultist will have already +discovered. + In the Northern Tradition (my own particular and under-ground axe) +Thor's hall, Bilskirnir, is a prototype skyscraper with 640 (80*8) floors. +Valhalla has 640 doors and 960 (8*12) warriors can emerge from each door at +once. In the poem Grimnismal Odin doesn't move for eight nights. When +Thor's hammer is stolen it is hidden eight miles down. To get it back Thor +disguises himself as Freya. At the 'wedding-feast' which follows, Loki +claims Thor hasn't eaten for eight nights, as Odin's largest son polishes off +eight salmon at a sitting. Eight furnishings and servants are noted in Hel's +palace in the underworld. Odin's grey mount, Sleipnir, has eight legs. In +Lokasenna it is claimed that Loki lived under the earth for eight winters. +The three gods which made the first men and woman bestowed eight abilities +and faculties upon them. + There are eight runes to an aett in the Common Germanic Futhard, giving +eight the strength implied by a full set of anything. In Norse tradition +eight is a potent invocatory number, especially for Odin, representing a +massive increase of potency over the lesser invocatory number of three. + Another correspondence which must be examined, if we are to do justice +to the eight points of the Chaosphere, is the eightfold wheel of Wicca. Now, +Wicca is a one of those subjects which immediately raises hands, eyebrows and +other parts' of the anatomy whenever it is mentioned, and a brief examination +won't go entirely amiss. + Witchcraft, unlike Chaos but very like Norse paganism, is a religion +which has been principally recorded by christian commentators with their own +bias and ideology to impose. Because off this a great deal of the historical +material must be regarded as iffy by anyone seeking to establish the actual +truth behind it. One factor which immediately links the topics is the +respect offered woman. Woman in the north, as far back as Tacitus writing in +the first century AD, was venerated and regarded as having a special gift of +wisdom and prophecy. The same is true of the witch cult if we read between +the lines. But Christianity, with its attitude that man comes into the world +between urine and faeces, took every opportunity to deny and denigrate the +role of woman, even within its own ranks. This practice continues today, +with the nonconformist sects showing a much greater readiness to contemplate +woman's ordination than the established CofE and RC diehards. Thus any cult +which acknowledged woman as an equal and legitimate creature was +automatically doomed to censure, if not to rabid shrieks of 'Heresy!'. + The most telling evidence for associating witchcraft with the Northern +Tradition comes from the trials and legislation which led to the persecution. +Transvection (flying through the air) for witches goes at least as far back +as the Norse poem Havamal in around 950. Use of herbs and salves, not to +mention inscribed charms, takes us back into runic times. The archetypal +familiar, the cat, is sacred to Freya. A dozen or more similarities could be +established with ease, possibly boring you rigid and over-killing the point. +Much of the so-called witch knowledge was already established and accepted in +Anglo-Saxon times, showing up in manuscripts of the period such as the +Lacnunga. + The Alexandrian and Gardnerian movements represent the bulk of more +obvious witchcraft activity, and are twentieth century offshoots of an +ancient tradition going back much further and represented by heredity and +traditional schools, both of which are realities in England today. Unlike +the latter two they are visible and (heresy coming up) virtually +interchangeable, the main differences being: +1. Alex Sanders was photographed wearing a gold lame posing pouch and Gerald +Gardner wasn't (at least, the piccie hasn't surfaced yet). +2. The Alexandrian version of The Law doesn't prohibit man teaching man, +despite the fact that this may cause a fondness between aspirants, and better +if it be so. They can, after all, if they want to, make it clear from the +outset that they will behave like father and son, or two brothers. + Which hasn't taken us too far from the point. Both the Allies and the +Gardies have been keen in recent years to establish their +respectability/credentials, even permitting a degree of cooperation and +interpenetration in order to do so, and a variety of eight-spoked wheel +diagrams are to be found in the plethora of works about either or both. They +typically contain: + + +FESTIVALS METHODOLOGY WEAPONRY +~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ +Candlemas Drugs & Wine Bread +Vern. Equinox Dance Wand/Staff +Beltane Great Rite Incense +Sum. Solstice Spells & Rites Athame/Knife +Lammas Scourge Wine +Aut. Equinox Cords Chalice/Cup +Samhain Meditation Oil +Win. Solstice Trance Pentacle/Plate + + Naturally this is a synthesis and includes (!) omissions. But it serves +to give the ignorant and prurient some idea, as well as serving as a mnemonic +for the cognoscenti. It's fascinating to see that some of the entries are +currently being played down by the let's-be-respectable element (Drugs & +Wine, Great Rite, Scourge) in contrast to the SExual and Chemognosis of +Chaos, almost as if when the torch begins to dim in one set of hands it gets +passed along to the people with the bottle of lighter fluid (yum yum). + All this is by way of a preamble to the main reason for this turgid +discourse, which is an examination of the number Eight as it pertains to +Chaos Magic. Apart from making a pretty natty design to wear on our rings +and robes does it have any actual validity or relevance? + Let's turn our attention to the most important Chaos Magic text to date, +Liber Kaos, the Psychonomicon by Peter J. Carroll. We are unable to doubt +the authority of the author or his massive contribution to both the foundation +of The Pact and the formulation and elucidation of our chosen path of +working. Yet on page 38, as a part of the Appendix (I) to Principia Magica, +we discover a diagram of the eight-rayed star of Chaos which is actually a +representation of five dimensions (I quote "(3 of space)(1 of Ordinary Psuedo +Time)(1 of Shadow Time)". + Now, let's hold it there for a minute, pard'ner. Is we a-sayin' that +there eight-pointy star's jus' some ol' Pentygram requantumated? + The Urban Cowboy goes off to eat his beans unanswered for the time being +enabling us to progress a little further. To page 85, to be precise, where +we discover Rituals and Spell Objectives and Designs in Eight Magics, with a +Chaos star firmly planted in the centre of the page. This comes (as admitted +on page 86) from Terry Pratchett, caught-jester of the Occult fiction world. + Y'see? Y'jus' can't take it seriously, pard. + Rather like most Americans, wouldn't you say? So was it accident that +Eight came to be the primary (though not the prime) number of Chaos Magic? +Mere whim? After all, the Pentagram (the Witch's Foot, Goblin's Cross et +al)has, on the surface, a much greater precedent for power than an +eight-rayed star, doesn't it? + Yew bet yore cute li'l pink ass it do. + That's why it was utilised in the seminal Liber Null in Liber Lux, Liber +Nox and Liber AOM, wasn't it? So what exactly is the rationale behind the +Chaos star and the Chaosphere, if the Pentagram would have done just as well? +Is it simply an overstated Pentagram, or is there something more? + The question naturally, is rhetorical. Back to Liber AOM for another +look at the Chaosphere: "it may be said to variously represent a perspective +sculpture of the 4 axes of the geometrically impossible hypercube or the two +interpenetrant tetrahedra of the light and dark forces. Such twists of +illogic..." + Hit 'em up, moove 'em... + Shut up, Rowdy. go back to the gas pump or on into superstardom. + ...out... + You're quite right. It was usually Eric Fleming, playing trail-boss Gil +Favor, who uttered that line to usher in the closing credits. + Which isn't quite where we came in, but will serve to introduce a person +reminiscence. When it comes to Chaos I am something of a March Violet. (Ah, +the Strangemess of juxtaposed metaphors...) For those who don't know it the +majority of those who actually joined the National Sozialistische Deutsche +Arbeiter Partei (Nazis for short, for which we're all grateful) did so after +Hitler became Chancellor of Germany early in 1933. They were known as March +Violets because they'd waited to see which way the wind of politics was +blowing before committing themselves. My first involvement with Chaos cam +in the mid-1980's, once the movement has begun to become established. I read +Liber Null, The Book of Results, The Cardinal Rites of Chaos and various +other texts, including Julian Wilde's Grimoires of Chaos Magic. All of these +were new, alien, foreign to me, and served to reinforce a concept that I'd +discovered for myself some years before, that of STRANGENESS. + Strangeness is what, for the vast majority, gives the occult its initial +appeal. It has the potency of a thousand pentagrams and an insidious draw +for the individual. Many drug habits have grown out of the desire to explore +Strangeness, and the call of the Otherness is what opened up the west for +Rowdy and his chums, and the Raj for Major Callaghan, don't y'know. True, +in the last two examples there were also political and financial +considerations, but it was the Strangeness which won through for the pioneers +and the thin red line. + Today we are bombarded by Strangeness. Those who have yet to enter the +electronic age (doubtless reading this by the light of a paraffin lamp) find +computers unutterably alien, and discover Strangeness in the way the new +technology (sorry, rather passe phrase, that) is chipping away at their +privacy. We see strange icons in the street, be they ads and posters or +Gothic individuals (OK Justin - Byronic Romanticks!) walking by. + Let's face it, to a newcomer Chaos Magic is strange. It is as strange +as the first time you open a book by Terry Pratchett. It is as strange as +that first discovery of the clap one grey and dismal, even if bright and +sunny, morning. It is as strange as the pacing of a Stanley Kubrick file or +a normal performance by the late Klaus Kindky. But strangeness, which I +discovered in my youth, can contain a latent trap which middle age reveals. +Once the strange, which is potent, becomes familiar (and familiarity, we are +told, breeds contempt) its potency evaporates like surplus fluid in a can of +Carnation, leaving you with a sticky, stodgy, unappealing goo. + This again, is a personally-proven discovery. When first strangeness +came to me I worked out a full system of magic based on information culled +from the works of Clark Ashton Smith. By the time I'd finished I had +something workable, but its strangeness and appeal were gone, rendering it +not so much useless as indigestible, like certain fungi found on this planet +and possibly on Yuggoth as well. + Maybe it was something I ate. + Yet there are systems around which maintain their strangeness, even when +it becomes familiar. The dear old runes are one, and Chaos is another, as +anyone who's ever set foot in a Chaos temple and worked a Mass of Chaos +A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,Iy ay ay will attest. The paradox of Strangeness is that in +order to be effective it must be both overcome and perpetuated. The sexy +schoolgirl remains a potent male fantasy because it can only stand still as a +generality, passing down through new generations of young flesh. If applied +to an actual individual it cannot persist, because they grow up into ex-wives +demanding alimony payments. + Take the work of A.O.Spare, without which Liber Null and The Book of +Results might have been much longer in the writing. The sigil techniques, +and the entire and manifestly personal corpus of Spare's extant work, rely +upon Strangeness, whatever it is actually designated within his own or his +commentators' pages. + And this is where I begin to come to the culmination of my ramblings, +with a series of statements that will remain open to discussion (I hope): + +1. Chaos is strange. +2. This strangeness is an important part of its appeal. +3. Strangeness normally yields and becomes familiar. +4. Chaos doesn't. +5. Pete Carroll borrowing from Terry Pratchett is as valid as me borrowing + from Clark Ashton Smith. +6. He did it better. +7. What's strange about a five-pointed octagram? +8. Just try constructing an eight-pointed octagram! + + Funny, there seem to be eight statements there. It's never been my +favourite number, but it seems to keep obtrucing, no matter how much I +dislike it. + In fact, it's something I hate. + However, we all have to come to terms with things we hate. + Don't we? + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/sight.txt b/religious documents/sight.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..565689b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/sight.txt @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ +ab:sight.txt 16jan90 + + + To Get the Sight + + + Sight cometh to different people in divers ways; 'tis seldom it cometh + naturally, but it can be induced in many ways. Deep and prolonged + meditation may do it, but only if you are a natural, and usually + prolonged fasting is necessary. Of old the monks and nuns obtained + visions by long vigils, combined with fasting and flagellation til + blood came; other mortifications of the flesh were practiced which + resulted in visions. + + In the East 'tis tried with various tortures whilst sitting in a + cramped position, which retarded the flow of blood; these tortures, + long and continued, gave good results. + + In the Art, we are taught an easier way, that is, to intensify the + imagination, at the same time controlling the blood supply, and this + may best be done by using the ritual. + + Incense is good to propitiate the spirits, also to induce relaxation to + the aspirant and to help build up the atmosphere which is necessary for + suggestibility. Myrrh, Gum Mastic, Aromatic Rush Roots, Cinnamon Bark, + Musk, Juniper, Sandalwood and Ambergris, in combination, are all good, + but the best of all is Patchouli. + + The circle being formed, and everything properly prepared, the aspirant + should first bind and take his tutor into the circle, invoke suitable + spirits for the operation, dance round till giddy, meanwhile invoking + and announcing the object of the work, then he should use the + flagellum. Then the tutor should in turn bind the aspirant - but very + lightly, so as not to cause discomfort - but enough to retard the blood + slightly. Again they should dance round, then at the Altar the tutor + should use the flagellum with light, steady, slow and monotonous + strokes. It is very important that the pupil should see the strokes + coming, as this has the effect of passing, and helps greatly to + stimulate the imagination. It is important that the strokes be not + hard, the object being to do no more than draw the blood to that part + and away from the brain; this, with the light binding, slowing down the + circulation of the blood, and the passes, soon induce a drowsy stupor. + The tutor should watch for this, and as soon as the aspirant speaks or + sleeps the flagellum should cease. The tutor should also watch that the + pupil becomes not cold, and if the pupil struggles or seems distressed + he should at once be awakened. + + Be not discouraged if no results come at the first experiment - results + usually occur after two or three attempts. It will be found that after + two or three attempts or experiments results will come, and soon more + quickly; also soon much of the ritual may be shortened, but never + forget to invoke the Goddess or to form the circle, and for good + results 'tis ever better to do too much ritual rather than do too + little at first. + + It has been found that this practice doth often cause a fondness + between aspirant and tutor, and it is a cause of better results if this + be so. If for any reason it is undesireable there be any great fondness + between aspirant and tutor this may easily be avoided by both parties + from the onset, by firmly resolving in their minds that if any fondness + ensues it shall be that of a brother and sister, or parent and child, + and it is for this reason that a man may only be taught by a woman and + a woman by a man, and that man and man or woman and woman should never + attempt these practices together, and may all the curses of the Mighty + Ones be on any who make such an attempt. + + Remember, the circle properly constructed is ever necessary to prevent + the power released being dissipated; it is also a barrier against any + disturbing or mischievious forces; for to obtain good results you must + be free from all disturbances. + + Remember, darkness, points of light gleaming amid the surrounding dark, + incense and the steady passes by a white arm, are not as stage effects + but rather they are mechanical instruments which serve to start the + suggestion which later unlocks the knowledge that it is possible to + obtain the divine ecstacy, and so attain to knowledge and communication + with the Divine Goddess. When once you have attained this, ritual is + needless, as you may attain the state of ecstacy at will, but 'til then + or, if having obtained or attained it yourself, you wish to bring a + companion to that state of joy, ritual is best. +---------- + -Published in Janet & Stewart Farrar's "The Witches' Way", from GBG's + Text B/C BOS. + diff --git a/religious documents/sindri.txt b/religious documents/sindri.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c2a7da --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/sindri.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9 @@ +The Story of Sindri + + + Laughs of joy and happiness could be heard throughout the Asgard as the Aesir celebrated the bondage of the Fenris wolf. Loki smiled politely and laughed when it was appropriate but he was greatly angered. Most of all he dispised Thor who had bound his child and made jokes about the giants. So when the first free moment came he left the table he left the table to go to Thor's house. There he laid eyes on the sleeping Sif and quietly cut off her hair. When Thor came back the next morning he found Sif crying and she showed him her bald head. Thor's anger could be heard throughout Asgard as he searched for the culprit Loki. He finally found Loki and threatened to break his bones if he did not make Sif's hair grow back. Loki knowing he could not bring back her hair pleaded with Thor to let him go to the Dwarfs for help. As soon as Loki arrived he was greated by the master craftsman Dvalin. Dvalin was honoured and set out to work on the gifts. + His first gift was Gungfir, which is now Odin's spear, this spear never fails to hit its mark. The ship Skidbladnir which could carry all the Asgardians on land or sea was Frey"s gift. Dvalin's last gift was the fine golden thread which would grow to become Sif's hair. + Loki was pleased with Dvalin and told that no finer craftsman lived. A little Dwarf name Brok heard this and sprang up and said his brother Sindri was far better. Loki, a gambler by nature, bet his head that Dvalin was better and so Brok went off to tell his brother. Sindri, upon hearing this, set off to make his gifts and once he had enchanted the 3 metals he place the first piece in the bellows and told Brok to work the bellows and not stop even to wipe his brow or the prize would spoil. Now Loki, also a clever god, turned himself into a gadfly and went to pester Brok. Loki didn't want to chance Sindri winning so he bit Brok on the hand and blood came fourth but Brok still kept bellowing and when Sindri came back Gullenbusti was born. Gullinbusti was a ring which on every ninth day nine rings of equal value would spill fourth. Sindri was pleased with his first work and put the second prize and left Brok with the same instructions. Again Brok bellowed and this time the Gadfly came and bit him on the head but Brok once again ignored it. When Sindri came back he fashioned Draupnir, draupnir was a glowing boar which could run faster than any horse over land or water. Finally the last piece of metal was placed in and Brok began to bellow for the last time. The Gadfly returned and bit him on the eyelid but this time Brok quickly brushed away the fly away the bellows fell silent momentarily. When Sindri came back he was relieved the weapon did not spoil but the hammer's handle was a bit short adn hence Miolnir was made. + Loki and Brok went up to Asgard to have the gods judge the gifts and much thought was put into it. Finally Odin arose and said Sindri's Miolnir was the greatest gift for it would help them defeat the giants. + Hence this is the story of Sindri the master craftsman. + diff --git a/religious documents/sinered.txt b/religious documents/sinered.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9cf626f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/sinered.txt @@ -0,0 +1,131 @@ +Ceridwen #64 @5803 +Wed Dec 12 10:07:50 1990 + + Copyright (C) 1990 By Heidi-Tanya L. Agin (a.k.a ceridwen) + +Non-Commercial Republication is hereby Granted. Commercial useage only thru +special arrangement with the author. Elecrtronic redistribution granted for +all Electronic Free Public Access Boards within the United States of America. + + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Spring, 1990 + + A WICCAN'S VIEWPOINT CONCERNING EVIL, SIN, AND 'REDEMPTION' + + + It has come to my attention that there are many Judeo-Christian +worshipers that are concerned with the Wiccan viewpoint surrounding +sin and redemption. Sin is defined as as act which defies divine +law or is an infringement of divine doctrine. The Christian religion +bases its entire existence on this concept of sin, specifically the +Original Sin of the Genesis Adam and Eve. In order to show the Wiccan +outlook on sin, allow me to reprint here, a synopsis of the eight +primary principles which define Christianity (from Monica Sjoo and +Barbara Mor's "The Great Cosmic Mother"): + + 1. The Creator is separate from creation and does + not therefore participate in a continuous evolutionary + process. + 2. The Creator is pure spirit mechanically dichotomized + from a creation of impure matter. + * 3. Human beings have committed a primal sin or crime + of disobedience to the will of God. + * 4. God has condemned the entire human race to continuous + suffering and punishment on an evil Earth. + * 5. To be born is to be born in sin (i.e. from a mother + who represents the 'original sin' and inherently + evil of flesh). + * 6. To survive a world of sin, the male must dominate + nature, while woman, as the embodiment of that + sin and nature as it's 'vessel' must undergo + domination. + * 7. The only way to be saved from life on earth and life + after death (in hell) is through submission to Jesus + Christ, defined at the ONLY time in the history of + the universe that spirit has entered flesh--i.e. + incarnated. + 8. These principles exist because the world is divided + mechanically into good and evil eternally at war, + eternally irreconcilable. Humans must choose one or + other and never transcend or resolve that dichotomy + through a holistic awareness or consciousness (as for- + bidden in the Garden of Eden of the Biblical Genesis) + +(* dealing specifically with the concept of 'sin') + + + In Mary Daly's "Beyond God the Father, Gyn/Ecology" and "Pure +Lust" she points out that 'sin' derives from a Latin word meaning +'to be'. That is, 'to sin' is 'to be'. In modern English it has its +origins in the Old English word 'synn', with the root 'es', again +meaning 'to be'. 'Es' , being the root of 'being' is a basic Indo- +European root. (An interesting sideline is that the Hebrew word +'sin' means 'the moon'. Perhaps because at one time, 'to be' was +to know the Goddess, whose symbol has often been the moon?) + + In other words, the original meaning of sin, was to risk being. +To risk living life, by living outside of the doctrine and dogma of +organized, beauracratic religious frameworks. By looking inward AND +outward, but OTHERWARD than the traditional. "The Christian dream has +already been written, from beginning to end. It says that only one +life was worth living, and its already been lived, and it was his ... +While promising to save human souls Chrisianity exists by 'saving +humans from' experiencing our souls ... The Christian Church lives +upon sin ... Christ depends on sin for his existence." (Sjoo) Essentially, +without the concept of original sin, without the myth of the Fall of +Adam and Eve, there is no need for the sacrifice of the Son, or for +His existence at all. + + In Wicca, there is no Holy Book, no written doctrine, no divine +law. The only two 'laws' that are traditionally Wiccan, and are +considered to be those ideals by which we try to live, are : + + 1. An it harm none, do what thou wilt. + 2. What thou wilt do, will come back three times. + +What this means, pure and simple, is that there are no 'sins', such as +sexual do's and don'ts, profanity, etc., AS LONG AS YOU STRIVE FOR +AND AS MUCH AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE, ATTEMPT TO BRING HARM ON NO ONE!!! +And we are promised our punishment and rewards in this life, not in +some future, posthumous time. Number two teaches us that (similar +perhaps to the 'golden rule'), what we send out, will return to us +but in threefold nature. If we lie, cheat, steal, etc. then woe and +evil in like form will be visited on us, in this lifetime, but in +a threefold multiple. The same is for our attempts at patience, love, +kindness, etc. The Goddess of the Wiccan is a truly all-loving, all- +forgiving, all-understanding Deity that recognizes human imperfection +and human frailty and strengths. She punishes and rewards as She +judges appropriate. And as with the Christian Jehovah, it is not for +us to question Her judgement. We do know right and wrong for She +has given us that knowledge. Our choice in life will determine our +life. + + As for 'evil' Wiccans do not dichotomize the Universal Truth +into 'good' and 'evil'. "In the pagan cosmic view, the supreme +creative polarity is that of the Goddess and God principles, for +without polarity, from divinity downwards, there can be no +manifestation. 'As above, so below.'" (Stewart and Janet Farrar, in +"The Witches' God") The Farrars go on to explain that Dualism, (the good +and evil theory) is the subsitution that patriarchy replaced Polarity +with. Instead of the COMPLEMENTARY relationship of the Goddess and +God, it substituted God and the Devil, Good and Evil. Wiccans, +instead, have the masculine and feminine principles. Not mutually +exclusive 'items' but complementary aspects; each "contains the +seed of the other, just as in the Chinese Yin-Yang symbol (the +perfect expression of the polarity concept) the dark Yin contains +a bright Yang spot, and the bright Yang a dark Yin spot. Otherwise +they could not relate to each other." Students of Jungian theory +will see this concept on the human level as the anima that is at +the heart of man, and the animus that is at the heart of woman. + + +The Goddess/anima whispering softly to the man, while the God speaks +loudly to him. And the God/animus whispering softly to the woman, +while the Goddess speaks loudly to her. "Both the whisper and the +loud voice must be listened to" in order for us to be complete. + + Therefore, Wiccans need no salvation, and the only 'sacrifice' +that is seen in modern Wicca, is the ritual re-enactment (play) of +the God's annual self-sacrifice for the 'fertility' or well-being, +of Humanity. diff --git a/religious documents/skeptic.txt b/religious documents/skeptic.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca85ece --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/skeptic.txt @@ -0,0 +1,590 @@ + + WHY DO I BELIEVE ... + A SKEPTIC'S GUIDE TO CHRISTIANITY + + + *** WARNING! *** + + This essay is going to change your life -- One way or another! +After you have read it, you will have been exposed to God's plan of +Salvation. You will be accountable to God, and you will have to +make a decision. The answer will either be YES, NO, or NO +DECISION. (Realize, though, that failure to make a decision is the +same as deciding NO!). + + *************** + + The purpose of this essay is to provide a guide to the worldly +skeptic to show that it is possible for a skeptic to accept the +Word of God, and to put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. In +preparing this essay, the following guidelines have been observed: + +1. There will be as few DIRECT scripture quotes from the Bible as +possible, since the skeptic non-believer will probably not believe +that the Bible is the true word of God. + +2. Other than right now, I will not tell you that your soul is in +mortal danger if you are not saved by the precious blood of Jesus, +because the worldly skeptic will not believe it. The skeptic +believes that Heaven and Hell do not exist, or that if they do +exist, a God of Love will certainly not condemn "good" people to +eternal damnation. (Please refer to the "warning message above to +determine if you wish to proceed!). + +3. The author WILL use the Bible, and ask God's direction in the +preparation of this effort. + + QUALIFICATIONS OF THE AUTHOR + + Simply a Born-Again Christian who was, and still is, a +skeptic. One who, although he has absolute faith in the Lord Jesus +Christ, still feels obligated to question and investigate claims +made by church leaders and Biblical interpreters. One who had to +deal intellectually with many of these issues prior to putting +faith in the teachings of Christianity, and accepting Jesus as his +personal savior. + + DISCLAIMER + + The author is expressing his views alone, based upon his own +religious experience and his interpretation of the Bible, and not +necessarily the views of any other group of Christians or church +organizations. + First let me start by saying that I have been a "cynic" and a +"skeptic" for most of my adult life. I have chosen to accept the +cynics' view of the world, in that, prior to becoming a Christian, +I had to be shown the logic, and the proof of whatever I chose to +believe. I took pride in looking for the "real motive" behind what +people said and did. Now that I am a Christian, I find that I am +still a skeptic. The main difference is that I now accept the +Bible on faith alone, and have accepted the Lord as my personal +savior. The skeptic portion in me "pops-up" when I hear an +interpretation of the Bible that doesn't sound right, when I hear +Christian accounts that go against the Word of God, and when I see +Evangelical Christians -- the ones who should know better -- +behaving in a way that hurts the body of Christ. Jesus must be +heart-broken at times when he watches His people behaving in ways +that go against His Spirit! + + HOW CAN A LOVING GOD COMMIT PEOPLE TO ETERNAL DAMNATION? + + It is important to realize that God is not only a Loving God, +but also a Jealous and a Righteous God. As such, he is NOT WILLING +to exist in the presence of Sin. What this means is that He has +established absolute laws regarding sin and unrighteousness. Thus, +anyone who does not meet the standards of righteousness cannot come +to be in His presence. This is an important concept -- perhaps one +of the most important to understand. Under the old laws (Old +Testament), some sort of sacrifice was required -- generally the +shedding of blood through an animal sacrifice -- as a means of +forgiving sin. Every time a sin was committed, the person would +have to sacrifice another animal. (This is a practice that is +still present in many of the other religions of the world today). +The shedding of blood is necessary because, in God's realm, the +only reward of sin is death. This in itself, however, was +insufficient because very few people were able to follow the law to +the letter, and were therefore not acceptable to be in the presence +of God. In addition, it seems that whenever God tried to send a +prophet to tell the people of the time how to behave, the +"powers-that-be" of those times usually found some reason to stone, +torture, ridicule, exile, and/or kill the messenger. This seems to +have been the pattern throughout the Old Testament, up to AND +INCLUDING Jesus Christ. Because God loves us, and He knows that we +are unrighteous, He sent, as a last resort, His Son - Jesus Christ +- to be a final sacrifice for the sins of mankind. In other words, +animal sacrifices would no longer be necessary. All that would now +be necessary would be to ACCEPT the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, +based on faith, and we would be cleansed, (given a "pardon", as it +were), thus making us acceptable to God. + An example of this in everyday life is the "hot potato." If +a child goes to take a bite of a hot potato, his mother will try to +warn him that it is hot! If the child persists in taking a full +bite, he'll burn his tongue. God's law is similar. He says that +He will not permit the unrighteous to be in His presence. Knowing +that we are incapable of being righteous, He sent the Lord. Our +choice is not unlike the hot potato. If we ignore his warning, we +will get burned! + +SUMMARY: Although our God is a loving God, he is also a righteous +God. As such, He WILL NOT TOLERATE being in the presence of sin. + + WHAT IS SIN? + + Since sin is the basis of this whole problem (ie: if there +weren't sin, we wouldn't need salvation), we should probably devote +a little space to the subject. The following is a list of some of +the activities God has stated that he views as sinful. Without +Salvation, any one of them will cause us to go to Hell: + + Adultery + Avarice + Cheating + Drunkenness + Envy + Greed + Homosexuality + Idol Worship + Jealousy + Lying + Murder + Stealing + etc... + + Although most of us don't go around murdering people, how many +of the other sins noted above do you regularly indulge in -- (Often +without even thinking of it as a sin?). In today's liberal age, +many of these sins occur so frequently, that people tend to not +even notice. But God DOES, and He finds it displeasing! + + WHAT IS HELL? + + In view of the previous section, this question is appropriate +at this time. + There have been many interpretations and suggestions regarding +Hell and "eternal damnation". I would offer the following +interpretation: + + I feel that Hell is a spiritual, rather than a physical +phenomenon. There have been references to the "Lake of Fire", and +other references to "heat" and "burning". However, one of the most +frequent quotes pertaining to the non-believer's punishment is +"weeping" and "gnashing of teeth." Therefore, I humbly suggest that +the final punishment is eternal remorse, anguish, and helplessness +due to the spirit (soul) being separated from God. I base this on +the belief that everyone's spirit LONGS to be in the presence of +God. (Even the spirit belonging to the sinner. Unfortunately, the +sinner just doesn't know it). The ultimate punishment for +non-repentant sin is the eternal separation of the person's soul +from the presence of God. + + ANGUISH -- is an excellent adjective to describe what I have +attempted to point out above. We have all had instances in our +lives when we have felt true anguish. For instance, talk about +"weeping" and "gnashing of teeth": + +- A loved one is killed in a car accident. "WHAT IF.... he had +only left home several minutes later, he would still be alive!" + +- "I knew I had too much to drink last night. WHY DID..... I have +to prove that I could drink and still drive safely. Now I have to +live with the memory of that child I killed for the rest of my +life!" + +- A front door to the house is left open, and a loved pet runs out +into the street and is hit by a car. "IF ONLY..... I had closed +the door!" + +- Possibly the most common example: A loved one is suddenly dead. +"IF ONLY.... I had told her how much I loved her -- Now I will +never have the chance!" + + I'm sure you have own examples to draw from. Now imagine that +anguish being carried for ETERNITY with no chance of relieving it, +and nothing else to think about to get your mind off of it, even +temporarily. This brings us to the truly ultimate "If Only.....": +- "IF ONLY..... I had accepted the Lord as my Personal Savior when +I had the chance! Now it's too late!!!" + + Mr. Skeptic, please excuse me for a moment while I speak to +any Believing Christians who may be reading this: + + Fellow Christian, may I add a special message to you at this +point: The ultimate "WHAT-IF...." for a Christian must be: + + At the final judgment, while you are heading toward heaven, +you pass several of your un-saved former friends and acquaintances +who are heading toward their final area. They say to you: "Why +didn't you tell us? We knew you were a Christian, but you never +tried to seriously warn us of the consequences. Sure, we teased +and made fun of you, but all you ever did was quote Bible +Scripture. You never REALLY explained! NEVER........WHY????? IF +ONLY.... YOU HAD TRIED HARDER!!!" + + IS SATAN ALIVE AND WELL AND EARNING HIS KEEP? + + This is probably the easiest question to answer. All I have +to say to you is: LOOK AROUND! I won't even talk about the +increasing popularity of Satanism, the magical arts, and +Witchcraft. Look at the overall human condition: +- Have you noticed how many burglar alarm companies are doing +business and THRIVING? + +- There are actually organizations which openly encourage "Man-Boy" +love relationships. + +- The Police are almost universally unable to keep up with crime in +their areas. + +- When was the last time that you felt comfortable leaving the door +to your home unlocked.? + +- When was the last time you felt comfortable walking down a lonely +street at night? + +- When was the last time that you left a package in your car while +shopping in a shopping center, and didn't lock your door? + +- Have you noticed the resurgence of racism and militancy? + +- Have you noticed the statistics on how many Americans feel they +must own a handgun for protection? + +- Casual (recreational) drug use is now acceptable, and seems to be +becoming the norm. + +- The family is the center of Christian life, as well as society as +we know it. Have you noticed the divorce rate, as well as the +number of single parents? + +- etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. + + Whether you call him Satan, the Devil, Evil, -- WHATEVER -- +you cannot deny that there is an extremely unsavory factor becoming +prominent in our lives. + + WILL JEWS AND OTHER NON-CHRISTIANS GO TO HEAVEN + or + WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT YOU HAVE THE ONLY ANSWERS? + + This is the question that will most often be asked by the +skeptic, and it is a valid one. To answer this, one must take +several factors into consideration: + + A Christian is NOT permitted to be the "judge and jury" of +others. That is God's role, not ours. The only answer to the +question of who will go to heaven is "I don't know!" That is also +the only valid answer to the question, even if answered by a +skeptic. This is one of those areas in which you must refer to the +Bible for answers. + +JEWS: They are God's chosen people. I believe that they have the +option of following the "Old Laws" (which is VERY difficult), or +turning to Christ. + +Members of Eastern (Pagan) Religions: The Bible (Both New and Old +Testament) specifically prohibits the worshipping of idols, as well +as such activities as sorcery and witchcraft. You can make your own +assumptions based on that. + +Those who have NEVER been exposed to Christianity: Unfortunately, +the only honest answer to this is "I don't know!" This is between +God and that individual. The New Testament is very clear, though, +in that "The only way to the Father is through the Son". + + The only categories of people in which a Christian can give a +definite answer are: + +- Unrepentant sinners who have heard the Message of Salvation: +They are going to Hell! No question about it. (This covers the +vast majority of the western population, as well as anyone who has +read this text). + +- Sinners who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Personal +Savior will go to Heaven. + + This is a difficult topic to discuss, because no one wants to +hear bad news. I hope, however, that this explanation has helped +to some degree, or will at least spark some serious thought. + + At this point, I would like to add a special note to Teachers +and Ministers of the Christian Faith: Remember, according to the +Bible, you will be held accountable to a higher standard than the +rest of us. I pray you will conduct yourselves accordingly. + + CAN HOMOSEXUALS BE SAVED? + + "God loves the sinner, but hates the sin." On that basis, yes +indeed a homosexual can be Saved. As with all of us, in order to +be saved, the person must acknowledge that he is a sinner (not just +in his homosexual behavior, but in all aspects of his life), ask +the Lord for forgiveness, and accept Jesus Christ as his personal +Savior. The question of homosexuality will then become one that +the individual must deal with directly with God through his belief +in Jesus Christ. The Bible states very clearly throughout the Old +and New Testaments that Homosexuality is abnormal and is sinful +behavior. As such, the individual may feel compelled to change his +activity. The most important part is for the Homosexual to accept +Christ. Once that is done, it is up to the homosexual to seek The +Lords' help and guidance. + As in the previous question, no one, especially a Christian, +is in a position to judge whether or not a SAVED Homosexual is +going to Heaven or Hell. We only know that an UN-SAVED Homosexual +WILL go directly to Hell! + + EVOLUTION -- FACT OR FICTION + + Many skeptics point to the theory of Evolution as being proof +positive that the Biblical version of Creation is "hogwash." Some +Christians, in turn, point to Genesis and the Biblical version of +Creation, and state that, therefore, Evolution is "hogwash", and +that anyone who believes in Evolution is "going to Hell". + My thoughts on the subject are rather simple and straight to +the point. I am a Born-Again Christian, I believe that the Bible +is the True and un-faltering Word of God, I believe in the Saving +Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe in the evolutionary +process, and I know I am going to Heaven. Now, how can I say all +that and still maintain any kind of credibility? Easy! + For a long time, this was a stumbling block to my acceptance +of Christianity. There are MANY convincing scientific arguments in +favor of portions of the evolutionary process. Who is to say that +God did not utilize what we describe as evolution in his ultimate +plan of creation. Genesis does NOT go into great detail as to the +mechanics of creation. All it says, basically, is that God created +the universe in six days, and rested on the seventh. In Genesis, +it states: + + "...Let the land produce living creatures...", and then +"...The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground..." + + It is possible, then, that these passages indicate a common +originality of men and other living creatures. (A quick note to +any Christians who may be reading this: I realize these are partial +quotations, and that there are many other interpretations of these +passages. My point is that certain portions of evolution could +certainly have been a factor). In addition, there is no reference +as to how much time one day actually was. It could very possibly +have been eons, and enough time to support the evolutionary +process. + My belief, therefore, is that Evolution -- UNDER GOD'S +DIRECTION -- is a viable explanation. + + The important point is that this issue is, essentially, +UNIMPORTANT! What is important is the personal relationship with +Jesus that comes after you have accepted Him as your personal Lord +and Savior. Unfortunately, too many non-believers base their +non-belief on their assumption that The Bible and the Evolutionary +Theory are incompatible, and too many Christians over-react and +support that viewpoint. This then becomes a needless stumbling +block to accepting Jesus. + + AIDS -- IS IT THE WRATH OF GOD? + and + DISTRIBUTION OF CLEAN NEEDLESS -- SHOULD WE OR SHOULDN'T WE? + The question of Aids is one that cuts to the core of Human +Sexuality, Morals, Compassion, and Religious Beliefs. What I am +about to say is MY OPINION, and other Christians may or may not +agree with me. + First, I do not believe that God has purposely inflicted any +specific individuals with the Aids virus. I do feel, however, that +certain actions were set into place since the time of Adam and Eve. +Could this be a sign of the end-times? I don't know -- but it is a +definite possibility! + The role of the Christian in these matters is NOT TO JUDGE! +Our role is to provide compassion to the victims, and to continue +to spread the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ to them, while +they are still in a position to hear and accept the Word. + + Regarding the question of the distribution of clean needles to +drug addicts, I definitely agree. Let me state clearly that I +certainly do not condone drug abuse, and I certainly have no desire +to make their illicit activity any easier to pursue. +Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that a drug addict +is going to continue shooting up drugs - either with clean, or with +dirty, needles. Since IV drug abuse is one of the leading causes +of the spread of Aids, I sincerely feel that we must do whatever we +can to control the spread. + The role of the Christian, again, is, DO NOT JUDGE! There +have been arguments raised that Jesus is the only answer, and that +the distribution of needles goes against the teachings of Christ. +The fact that Jesus is the only answer is a valid argument. +However, unless a drug addict accepts Christ, he is probably going +to keep on shooting drugs, and spreading the disease. Therefore, +our obligation is to try to limit the spread of the disease while +we also try to salvage the junkie's soul for Jesus. + + EVANGELICAL PREACHERS WHO FALL FROM GRACE + should we + LOVE 'EM OR SHOOT 'EM? + +My answer to this is: BOTH! - but more about that later. + + I sincerely feel that these "Tele-Evangelists" are, for the +most part, sincere people who are preaching the Word of God +accurately. However, as with all of us, Power Corrupts! It is not +surprising to me that someone who once had a clear vision can +become contaminated with money, greed, power, fame, and all of the +other material things that most of us would find desirable. + Many Christians, (myself included), don't care for the "show- +like" atmosphere of the TV Evangelists. They have, however, +brought many, many people to Christ. Therefore, it is a ministry +that must survive. Perhaps the recent events of "fallen +evangelists" was to be expected, and may even have a positive +effect on that ministry. Just maybe, there will be an increase in +accountability, as well as more of an attempt to include Jesus in +the marketing plans! + Now, as for my answer to the original question; as I said, my +answer is BOTH! As human beings with the same weaknesses, +frailties, etc. that we all have, we must offer them our love, +compassion and our prayers to help them get through their personal +tragedies. On the same token, the Human part of my being would +like to "shoot 'em" for what they have done to the recent +credibility of the church. But remember, as I stated earlier, "God +loves the Sinner, but hates the Sin!". So, then, should we! + + ARE ATHEISTS "FOOLISH" OR ON THE RIGHT TRACK? + + This is a topic that is bound to raise some eyebrows. To the +question "are atheists "foolish" or on the right track, my answer +has to be NEITHER! + First, no one's opinion (assuming it is one that has been +reasoned through, and is not presented just to get a "reaction") +should ever be considered foolish. In fact, in the eyes of God, we +are all judged on a relatively black and white basis -- with very +few shades of gray. As such, the atheist is no worse off than any +other non-repentant sinner. Therefore, if one chooses not to accept +the Lord, what is the difference if he is an agnostic, an atheist, +a witch, etc. The atheist, at least, will tend not to be a +hypocrite. + However, I must admit that I have difficulty understanding the +beliefs of an atheist. Prior to being saved, I categorized myself +as an agnostic. I felt there was a higher power, but didn't choose +to call it a "God." I felt that there had to be a higher power, +because how else could we explain the overall "order" of the +universe. I simply felt that this "power" was uninvolved, +uncaring, and probably more or less inanimate. My main +disagreement with the atheists (prior to my being Born Again as a +Christian), was that I couldn't comprehend that EVERYTHING was an +accident, and that man is the ultimate being. (If man really is +the ultimate being, we are ALL in serious trouble). + + MUST YOU BE IN AN "EMOTIONAL" STATE IN ORDER TO ACCEPT CHRIST + or + CAN YOU OBTAIN SALVATION RATIONALLY AND OBJECTIVELY? + + Many Christians come to the Lord during a profound personal +crisis. Such life events as serious illnesses and accidents in the +family, job losses, children in trouble, etc. generally cause +people to look to God for help. At these times, people are very +receptive, and hence the term "foxhole salvations." This can be a +true spiritual experience in which the person truly accepts the +Lord as his personal savior, or it can be a transient decision; one +that will be renounced later. + If a person, on the other hand, chooses to intellectually +investigate the teachings of Christ, read the Bible, compare known +historical events with those recorded in the Bible, he can indeed +make a rational decision to be Saved. All that the Bible teaches +that is required for Salvation is: +1. Acknowledgment that you are a sinner and in need of salvation. +(Please refer back to the list of sins to see if you qualify). +Even if you are a "nice person," if you volunteer your time and +money to the poor, if you never steal, rape, murder, or cheat on +your wife, you are still a sinner in God's eyes. + +2. You must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that +He was was placed on earth by God in order to become the ultimate +sacrifice so that we would than be acceptable to God. + +3. You must pray to God, through Jesus Christ, for forgiveness, +by accepting the sacrifice He made. I have included a "sample +salvation" prayer at the end of this text that you may find +helpful. + + Skeptic, if you feel a "tug", the feeling that "maybe there is +a little something more to this then I thought," I would like to +point out the following: + +- The Bible says that all you need is a "mustard seed's" worth of +faith to be saved. + +- God PROMISES that all who searches him, in earnest, will find +him, through Jesus Christ. + +- If you feel that you have that "mustard seed" worth of faith, but +are afraid of looking "foolish" to your friends, family, or +acquaintances, then don't make a public commitment. In the privacy +of your bedroom, when the rest of the family is out of the house, +try to pray. Tell God that you are taking him at his word, that +you have a mustard seed's worth of faith, that you are a sinner, +and that you want to accept Christ into your life. The worst that +will happen is that you will look foolish to yourself. The best +that will happen will be an overall sense of well-being, as well as +eternal protection for your spirit. + + The following prayer, if spoken with SINCERITY and FROM THE +HEART is the first step toward a life-long walk with God, the +forgiveness of Sin, and eternal salvation. (Remember that the +exact words aren't as important as the thoughts and feelings +involved): + + "Heavenly Father, As I now pray to you in earnest, I confess +my sins before you and acknowledge that I am unworthy of your +presence. I ask your forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ, your +Son who came to earth to die so that I may live! + I confess my sins with my lips, and accept Jesus as my Savior +in my heart! + Father, I have only a "mustard seed" worth of faith, but Your +Word assures me that this is all that I need. I ask that you help +me to realize the reality of Jesus Christ, to build this seed of +faith into a small seedling, and to ultimately become a Strong Tree +of Faith. + I ask this in the Name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, whom I now +accept as my personal Savior!" Amen! + + If you do what I have recommended, don't expect a sudden +"Surge of the Spirit." Although it can happen, chances are likely +that it won't. What will happen is that, very likely, you won't +feel very different at all. In fact, you may wonder the next day +why you "tried it." If you are serious, then you must start +reading the Bible. There are many modern day translations (The New +International Version or the New American Standard are two +translations that are easy to read without the traditional "thee's +and thou's."), and who's accuracy has been verified. Read the New +Testament (it really isn't that difficult, given today's easier +reading translations). Pray daily -- pray to God, through Jesus +Christ (ie: "In the name of Jesus"). Try to talk with other +Christians that you know who have had backgrounds similar to yours. +Don't expect miracles or magic tricks. Just do this for a while, +and, if you are serious, you will begin to sense subtle changes. +God will send His Holy Spirit to comfort you. You may actually +begin to enjoy going to church. (I used to dislike it immensely, +now I truly enjoy it). Choose a church that preaches the "Full +Gospel!" (There are many, many churches listed in the yellow +pages, but not all of them are "alive". Avoid a church that only +has services Sunday Morning. Churches that are "Alive with God's +Spirit" will have spiritual activities going on throughout the +week!). Watch out for Cults! Religions such as Jehovah's +Witnesses, The Unification Church, The Mormon Church, and others +ARE NOT Christian. Believe it or not, you will even begin to enjoy +reading the Bible! Remember, Satan will try to make you renounce +what you have done. He will attempt to make you feel that what you +did was indeed foolish. Part of your daily prayers should be a +periodic renouncement of Satan, and prayer that God will help you +to continue to develop a full sense of the Holy Spirit. + + Being a Born-Again Christian is rather like having an intimate +friend who is always with you. Once you develop a relationship +with Jesus, He is someone you can talk to in your car, in the +shower, wherever.... You will develop an inner peace that you +didn't think possible. + Once you understand the REAL sacrifice He made, you will begin +to realize how relatively unimportant many of the everyday affairs +are that used to get you angry. Consider that He was in human +form, and DIDN'T REALLY WANT to face the pain, ridicule, and +torment of crucifixion (He even prayed to God to ask Him if He was +sure He really wanted Him to go through with it!). He was so upset +about the upcoming events that HE ACTUALLY SWEAT BLOOD while +praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. When you think about that, as +a believer, than the fact that your boss is giving you a hard time +over work becomes relatively unimportant! + + I have spent many hours trying to develop this essay and have +done much self-introspection. I have tried to answer many of the +questions that were stumbling blocks to me prior to being Saved. +I prefaced this effort as a "Skeptics' Guide to Christianity," and +said I would refrain from using direct scripture quotations +(although I guess I really did once or twice). What I have found +is that, after all of the discussions, investigations, and +intellectual decisions, the final answer is faith. That is one +area that, as a skeptic, I cannot argue or prove. After the +skeptic has considered all of the data, he has to make a decision. +The decision is to either reject the Lord, or to acknowledge that +"mustard seed of faith." + + I hope this effort will be useful in helping others reach the +right decision. + +In The Name of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. + + Jeff Mehl + C/O Maranatha BBS + (914) 221-0379 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/skyrian.txt b/religious documents/skyrian.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e28145d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/skyrian.txt @@ -0,0 +1,241 @@ +EG + + + + ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ + ³ Divination by Tarot Cards ³ + ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ + + The Method of the Skyrian Double Crescents + + By Vere Chappell, 26 August 1988CE, Skyros, Greece + + ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ + + The ancient art of divination using Tarot cards has come + down to us from Europe in the Middle Ages. Today there are + hundreds of different types of decks available, and "reading the + cards" has become a widespread leisure pursuit for some and a + lucrative business for many others. Despite its increasing + proliferation as a useful and very powerful tool for creative + insight, self-realization and even psychiatric therapy, several + popular misconceptions about the nature of Tarot divination must + be dispelled before its true benefits can be understood. + First of all, there is nothing supernatural about the cards. + They do not "magically" arrange themselves into meaningful + patterns. The mystical practices and rituals associated with + their use are well-recognized as psychological techniques to + induce creativity and intuitive mental states. All that is + required to read the cards is a knowledge of their symbolism and + the ability to apply it to events in the world. + The most common decks consist of 22 Major Arcana and 56 + Minor Arcana divided into 4 suits, from which the modern pack of + playing cards is derived. Each card has a particular meaning + associated with it, based upon principles of mystical tradition + and the allegorical symbolism of its artwork. Designs vary + immensely from deck to deck, but the meanings of the various + cards are remarkably consistent across decks. + The power of the Tarot lies in the nature of its symbolic + imagery. Each card represents a basic human archetype which has + been identified and refined through the ages. Many principles + fundamental to the religious consciousness of mankind are + embodied in its system of correspondences, such as the duality of + female and male (yin and yang) and the four classical elements of + earth, air, fire and water. Its roots extend back to include + influences from astrology, alchemy, magick, numerology, kabbalah + and mythology. Together they form a complete, complex and highly + detailed composite picture of the universal spiritual experience + which is our heritage. + If symbolism is the language of the thinking mind, the Tarot + provides a catalyst for understanding the fundamental means by + which we operate. The way it works is simple: a set of basic + symbols with standard meanings is applied to an individual's + experience. In looking for correlations with the cards, one's + attention is drawn to the ways in which one is in agreement with + them. Thus the Tarot provides a direct line of conscious access + to the unconscious mind by allowing the explicit expression of + feelings and intuition. + This "tapping in" to the unconscious can be beneficial for + determining one's true feelings regarding any matter and acting + upon this knowledge. With its firm foundation in psychological + principle, the Tarot serves as an important resource for + consultation and a valid means of spiritual exploration. + + + + + + + + + [ 2 ] + + + Origin of the "Skyrian Double Crescents" + + This method was devised on the Aegean island of Skyros, the + childhood home of Achilles and the site of Theseus' death + according to Greek mythology. It draws upon the principles of + astrology, mystical symbolism and folk tradition as well as + modern psychology to provide a comprehensive and flexible system + of divination for today. The "Double Crescents" refer to the + shape of the spread in addition to its allegorical relationship + with the cult of the Moon Goddess. The template is based on the + original crimson Tarot cloth emblazoned in gold with four + serpents entwined around a large cup, which is taken from a + traditional Skyrian embroidery design signifying "self knowledge" + graciously provided by the Faltaits Museum in Skyros Town. + For readings I prefer the "Renaissance" Tarot deck, with its + astrological and mythological correspondences, designed by Brian + Williams and manufactured by A.G.Muller in Switzerland. + + + General Procedure + + Atmosphere is very important. A reading may be done + anywhere, but must be quiet and undisturbed. The only + participants should be the Seeker who is making an inquiry of the + cards and the Reader who assists in their interpretation, + accompanied by none other than most trusted friends. The Tarot + can reveal one's deepest thoughts and feelings to provide + valuable insights, but this process may be inhibited if social + concerns are foremost in the Seeker's mind. In particular, third + parties involved in the subject of an inquiry should not be + present, especially the opposite partner of a potential or actual + love affair. + The Reader of the cards has a great responsibility. The + value of the reading depends upon his or her intuition to + interpret the meanings of individual cards as applicable to the + particular aspects of the inquiry. This requires a calm and + detatched attitude and an open and receptive mind. The Reader + should be unbiased with regard to the subject of the inquiry, and + conscientious enough to decline the reading if he or she is not. + The reading is completely confidential and must never be used in + any way against the Seeker or for the Reader's selfish motives. + Above all, the Reader must always divulge the message of the + cards, however unpleasant or inconceivable it may be. The truth + cannot be sacrificed for its consequences. Allow some time of + meditation before the reading to enter a state of mind conducive + to the divination. + Likewise, the Seeker should be mentally prepared. Take a few + moments before the reading to clear your mind, forget all outside + concerns, and focus on the subject of the inquiry. Maintain + concentration throughout the reading and give adequate thought to + each revelation. At first, the reading may be unclear, but with + patience and persistence the meaning will unfold as the picture + becomes more complete. Cooperate with the Reader and honestly + answer his or her questions. The value of your reading depends a + great deal on how much you put into it. + + + + + + + + + [ 3 ] + + + + The Skyrian Double Crescents - Method + + Two readings may be employed in this method. The first + reading is used to construct a general picture, consulting the + meanings of individual cards relating to different aspects of the + Seeker's life. The second reading focuses the inquiry on a + specific issue of interest or concern in the Seeker's life, such + as "schoolwork" or "love life". If the Seeker has no particular + subject in mind, he or she may select one from prominent + indications in the first reading. Alternately, the first reading + may be skipped altogether if a specific matter is to be + investigated. + The Seeker and Reader should sit facing each other with the + card cloth and Tarot deck between them. After a few moments of + collection, the Reader shuffles the deck a number of times to + "purify" it and then conducts the reading, perhaps with the aid + of various references but preferably directly from memory. The + cards are placed to face the Reader. Silence should be maintained + except to discuss the reading. + + + First Reading: The Eight Spheres + + The Seeker shuffles the deck face-down and chooses eight + cards, which are then placed and read in the following order: + + ÚÄ¿ ÚÄ¿ + ³2³ ³1³ + ÚÄÅÄÙ ÚÄ¿ ÀÄÅÄ¿ + ³4³ ³8³ ³3³ + ÀÄÅÄ¿ ÀÄÙ ÚÄÅÄÙ + ³6³ ÚÄ¿ ³5³ + ÀÄÙ ³7³ ÀÄÙ + ÀÄÙ + + Each position represents a context for the meaning of each + particular card, as follows: + + 1. Sphere of Saturn: Affairs of Work + 2. Sphere of Jupiter: Affairs of Home + 3. Sphere of Mars: Affairs of Conflict + 4. Sphere of Venus: Affairs of Love + 5. Sphere of Mercury: Affairs of Others + 6. Sphere of Luna: Affairs of Self + 7. Sphere of Terra: Affairs of Body + 8. Sphere of Sol: Affairs of Mind + + After this reading has been given, the Seeker may select one + of the aspects revealed for further elaboration. The card + chosen is then retained in position number 1 (below) as the + "Issue" card in the second reading. + + + + + + + + + + + + [ 4 ] + + + + Second Reading: The Serpents' Blood + + The Seeker must now concentrate on the particular issue of + inquiry. The Seeker then shuffles the deck and selects eight + cards (seven if one has been carried over from the first + reading) to be placed and read in the following order: + + ÚÄ¿ ÚÄ¿ + ³6³ ³7³ + ÚÄÅÄÙ ÚÄ¿ ÀÄÅÄ¿ + ³4³ ³8³ ³5³ + ÀÄÅÄ¿ ÀÄÙ ÚÄÅÄÙ + ³2³ ÚÄ¿ ³3³ + ÀÄÙ ³1³ ÀÄÙ + ÀÄÙ + + 1. The Issue + 2. Where You Are Coming From: Influences from the past + 3. Where You Are Going: Influences in the future + 4. Influence: External factor possibly hidden or unaware + 5. Impact: Effects and consequences on others involved + 6. Emotion: Emotional approach to issue (Right Brain) + 7. Intellect: Rational approach to issue (Left Brain) + 8. The Outcome + + + It is strongly advised to do only one or two readings during + a given period of inquiry so that full and proper consideration + may be given to the issue at hand. Overindulgence carries the + danger of losing meaning amidst the interference of many + conflicting divinations. For at least several days after the + reading, analyze and recognize its relevance in your everyday + life. Often valuable new insights can be gained in this manner. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/slackzen.txt b/religious documents/slackzen.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8057a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/slackzen.txt @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +ZEN AND THE ART OF SLACK ======================== by James "Kibo" Parry My mantra is "mantra, dammit". As I sit here on my zafu (that's a Zen meditation pillow stuffed with tofu), I reach satori even though I live downstairs from the demolition derby rink. I feel a oneness with the itch in my first chakra. I feel a oneness with the Pet Rock I used to own. I feel a twoness with myself. I realize that everything is either something or a hole in something. Or, perhaps, everything is one big hole and the somethings are holes within the hole. I shift my weight imperceptibly and the zafu makes a fart noise. Upstairs, two old Trans Ams, surplus from "Knight Rider", collide. I can hear the sound of my blood moving through my inner ears. I realize that everything which exists is made up of little dots arranged in diagonal rows. A cockroach runs across the floor and into my zafu. I realize that "Bob"'s teeth are clenched and his Pipe is not between them. The teeth are joined and the Pipe ends in front of them. His nose casts a shadow on the Pipe and the Pipe casts a shadow on his chin but they do not touch. I have reached enfuckinglightenment! As I nearly fall off my zafu, it farts again, blowing the cockroach into the next room. There once was a novice monk named Bho Zho who asked the master, "Does a house burn up or burn down?" The master set fire to the novice's house, after taking all his money. As the house burned both up and down, the novice was enlightened. I bow to the Sacred Halftone Print of "Bob" to thank him for the enlightenment. As I do so, "Bob"'s face shimmers and blurs before my face. All I see is the Dots but not the Smile. All I see is the Smile without the Dots. I see both. I see neither. I see the hair of Desi Arnaz, the eyes and mouth of Pee-wee Herman, the jaw of Jay Leno all combined in a blender: "Bob". "Bob" is before me and I am "Bob" and yesterday is tomorrow and I am the walrus mama dada googoo chihuahuahuahua ommmmmmmmm "Yo! Yo! Stop with the satoiri already!" "Bob" steps out of the picture, slaps me, and pours himself a Dr Pepper. He sits on my zafu, which makes a sound like a tuba. I sit on a tatami which is beginning to sprout. "Bob" looks me in the eye. "Cool it with the meditation, guy, it's dull. It's `Bosom Buddies' without the laughtrack. It's the sound of one lip chapping. It's a bicycle riding a fish, a steamroller being run over by a birthday cake. It just doesn't compare to the fun stuff, especially sex." I avoid meeting "Bob"'s gaze as I whisper, "He who claims someone does not have Buddha-nature has no Buddha-nature." "Hey, it's easier to say `Slack' than `Buddha-nature', you know. Or `swellness'. They're all the same thing. You're on a true path to enlightenment, but true paths have true dirt and true mosquitoes... false paths are much better. Give me your money now." "I have no money, just one zafu, one tatami, my oryoki, this setsu stick, an inflatable Buddha, a tofu log, all three "Sweatin' to the Oldies" tapes, a disposable zabuton, a pile of bulk miso, my Zen-to-English dictionary..." "AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE!" "Bob" waggles his eyebrows and smiles. "But seriously, pal, I'll take it all and pretend it's cash equivalent. Hey, after I take your zafu, I'll even give you a receipt. Get it? Re-seat!" "Bob" packs all my worldly possessions into his seemingly bottomless pockets and he leads me out of the monastery. Milliseconds later, a black Trans Am falls through the ceiling, crashing right where we had been sitting. It yells insults at us as we walk to the pebble garden. "This eggplant in my pocket is like an elephant," said Bhoddyohdor. "Yet this elephant in my pocket is like a pair of wax lips," replied Tai Dhee Bhoul. Just then, Master Rhais Ahroni strolled past. "Tell us," begged Bhoddyohdor and Tai Dhee Bhoul, "Is the eggplant like the elephant which is like the wax lips, or should we just go watch sitcoms all day?" The master ate the eggplant, shot the elephant, and got germs on the wax lips. The novices were not enlightened. The master laughed. "Bob" is using my rake to draw Snoopy in my pebble garden. "So, Kibo, why the heck do you have all these pebbles filling up a perfectly good wading pool?" "Raking the pebbles is a task which accomplishes nothing. The goal is to clear the mind by doing nothing." "Um, hey, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't `doing nothing' doing something? So by doing nothing, you're doing something, therefore you're not accomplishing the nothing in the first place! You can't not do anything." He is clearly suffering from Buddha called dhiarrhea of the mouth. I say, "You have Bozo-nature." "Of course. Because if I said I were not a bozo, I would be proving myself to be a bozo! Now, are you a bozo?" At that moment, the enlightenment clears from my mind and I devolve to a lower plane of being. "Bob" congratulates me by giving me a wig like his. We go out for a beer. "What is the meaning of this story?" asked the novice. "Also, what is the sound of one hand clapping, and what's a zabuton? Why does Fox cancel all its shows every season? And why the hell does your Pipe's stem hover a quarter-inch in front of your mouth?" "Slack," said the master. "Pure, unadulterated slack. But I lie." At that moment, the novice dropped dead before finishing this sto \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/smokngun.txt b/religious documents/smokngun.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9736950 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/smokngun.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1115 @@ + WARNING: THIS IS CONTROVERSIAL MATERIAL. + + + + SMOKING GUN: A Trial Of Jesus Christ + ==================================== + + A Shareware Software Book + + + George Walter Demers + + +This Shareware software book may be reproduced on software disk or other +computer media for Shareware passing only and may be freely distributed on +any BBS or online service. This may be printed up for the reader's use ONLY. +Registered versions are supported for the Color Computer, IBM PC, Commodore +C64/128 and Amiga. See the end of the file for information. + +This does NOT give the user any 'REPRINT FOR SALE' rights, in ANY media, +without authorization. All other rights are reserved. + + + Copyright (C) 1992 G.W. Demers + Box 1O92, Campton, NH O3223 + GEnie address: G.DEMERS2 + + +CONTENTS +======== + +Chapter One --------------- Deja Vu, Deja Vu + +Chapter Two --------------- Once Bitten, Twice Shy + +Chapter Three ------------- Flip Flop + +Chapter Four -------------- Hypostles + +Chapter Five -------------- Tell Her No + +Chapter Six --------------- EndGame + +Chapter Seven ------------- Lights On! + +EMPHASIZED sections within are in UPPERCASE. + + This publication is sourced from the King James Version of The Bible. It is +highly suggested that the reader use this Bible in conjunction with this +publication. In this fashion, the reader may verify that we have not deviated +from this version and to look up other pertinent information. + + This may be printed using your word processor. These are standard ASCII +textfiles. There are no imbedded format commands in them. Carriage returns are +set at 80 per line. You may want to strip them from the file before printing +for shorter lines. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + PREFACE + ======= + + + "All great truths begin as blasphemies." + + - George Bernard Shaw + + + This publication considers that most people have at least a very basic +understanding of the Christian or Hebrew religions, even if they are not +adherents. Most people have some interest in Biblical matters, usually in the +area of prophecy, even if in an offhanded way. We assist those not totally into +Judeo-Christian theology with some of the basic understandings, as we go along. +We focus upon that which was hidden, making it obvious even to those that know +nothing about these things. + + About the writing itself, it is the fruit of what was a 'work in progress' +taking about four years in the gathering, sorting and understanding of the +information, delivering it sporadically from time to time and finally, to this +end. + + For those that don't understand why this investigative writing should be +important to them as they are not Christian, what they should remember is that +there are a shade less than two billion Christians (in their varying sects) on +the planet. Among them are those that are in command of governments and other +important sectors of life. They should know what these believe and what is +really inside of that belief. This is not to degrade Christianity, but to show +unrealized things within it. + + +From His teachings in Luke 11:34-36 +=================================== +"The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine +eye is SINGLE, the whole body is full of light; +BUT WHEN THINE EYE IS EVIL, THY BODY ALSO IS FULL OF DARKNESS. + +Take heed therefore THAT THE LIGHT WHICH IS IN THEE BE NOT DARKNESS. + +IF thy whole body therefore be full of light, HAVING NO PART DARK, +the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining +of a candle doth give thee light" + + + What follows within this book will shock the reader, for we shall shed light +on hidden darkness. We seek and find things hidden from the mind's eye in the +texts of the Bible. This, in essence, is the trial of Jesus Christ by his own +word. Thru this investigation and report, the reader is provided with testimony +and evidence that He did the following things: + +* allowed and directed men to continue in evil and sin. +* directed men to be hypocritical in activities. +* directed and taught men to break commandment. +* told his followers that 'the end justified the means'. +* proven himself by his own word, a false prophet and a deceiver. +* was 'born again' and then turned back to worse than what He was. +* and more... + + As any that would prosecute a case, we make charges based on real findings. +To support those findings, we give witness to statements found and present them +to the reader, the judge. + + You are invited to judge. Jesus Christ Himself invited you, as seen in +Matthew 7:15-2O. What should be seen is that Jesus gave this judgement to men, +teaching them to judge the prophet, the tree by its fruit, as to whether it be +good or evil. + + What is found thru Jesus' definitions of good and evil, true and false, is +that the tree's fruit was good but with hidden evil. He said some very good and +true things, which provide very good cover for evils previously hidden to the +mind's eye. Those definitions He gave and the evidence which follows, proves +that He was also a false prophet and a deceiver. Christ's 'Either/Or' +definitions absolutely apply here, even to Himself. + + All of that which follows is based on the Gospel reports, and His definitions +which are found in those reports. These are the 'Gospel Facts' as many like to +say. It is suggested that you use a KJV Bible for verification and the reading +of connective Scripture outlined within. Any Scripture quoted is from KJV. + + There will be occasion within the book to refer to certain sections of +Scripture. While this may appear to be confusing to some, what we show is that +the things written of here, either support or are supported by those sections +referred to. As in any other trial or hearing, these things represent +supplementary evidence of the findings. + + Have a taste of this wine, which is the testimony of Jesus Christ... + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Chapter One + =========== + + DEJA VU, DEJA VU + ================ + + "There are only two or three + human stories, and they go on + repeating themselves as fiercely + as if they had never happened before." + + - Willa Cather + + + What is shown in what follows is that Jesus Christ repeated acts which are +currently unrealized and unknown. In short, things which are NOT currently +realized by the Christian body general. These repeated acts originate from acts +recorded in the history reports found in Old Testament Scripture. Thru the +revealing of these repetitions, what shall appear to those reading is what +Christ spoke and testified of in Revelation, "the depths of Satan". + + + THE EVIDENCE + ============ + + Concerning the one thing we show in this chapter, the clearest connectors are +seen in these sections of Scripture and testament: + +From Genesis, Chapter 3 +======================== + +"For God doth know THAT IN THE DAY YE EAT THEREOF, +THEN YOUR EYES SHALL BE OPENED, and ye shall +be as gods, knowing good and evil." + +Then they ate... + +"And THE EYES OF THEM BOTH WERE OPENED, AND +they KNEW that THEY WERE NAKED..." + +and then God comes along and calls the man. The man said... + +"..I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid, +BECAUSE I WAS NAKED; and I hid myself." + +and God said to him... + +"WHO TOLD THEE THAT THOU WAST NAKED?.." + + In essence, this asked "Who opened your eyes?", as it revealed their naked +state. For that connection, simply see Gen. 3:5-7 for what the serpent told +Eve, also in conjunction with the rest of 3:11. Clearly, it was "that old +serpent" (Re: Rev. Ch. 12) who told Eve that this should be done, why and what +would or would NOT happen. It was 'wise counsel' to the unsightful and +unknowledged. + + This tells us who said and did it FIRST; in the beginning. See who also says +and does it. + + For directly connective testimony concerning this, see what is hidden in the +message to the seventh angel of the churches (Laodicea); specifically in Rev. +3:17-18. + +Revelation 3:17 Revelation 3:18 +=============== =============== +"..and KNOWEST NOT "I COUNSEL THEE TO buy of me +THAT THOU ART... gold tried in the fire, that +POOR AND BLIND, thou mayest be rich; and white +AND NAKED." raiment that thou mayest be + clothed and that THE SHAME OF + OF THY NAKEDNESS DO NOT APPEAR, + and ANOINT THINE EYES THAT + THOU MAYEST SEE." + + Sound familiar? See these likenesses: + +* He counsels them to OPEN THEIR EYES; that they be blind no longer; that they +gain knowledge of their blindness and thus, their naked state. Just as the +woman in Genesis. + +* BEFORE He spoke to the church, it was SINLESS. It had no idea that there was +anything amiss and considered itself perfect. Just as the woman in Genesis AND +someone else shown further in this chapter. + +* Remember THIS?.. "WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU WERE NAKED?" + + Obviously, here Christ tells them that they are naked. Just as in Genesis, +'wise counsel' is given to the woman, who was ALSO PREVIOUSLY SINLESS. She +wasn't naked until she received counsel to open her eyes. Here, Christ makes it +obvious thru what He clearly spoke to the church, saying it directly. + + In the case of Revelation, it connected to the hypocrisy of the church which +is being addressed. This includes all of the things involved with that +hypocrisy, which are mentioned with this message to it. This, as in Genesis, +also concerns giving wise counsel to the woman. See Ephesians 5:23-32; The +'woman' was/is the church, the body of God, of which all Christian believers +are members. Also of importance here is the state of the 'woman' in each case. +In each case, the 'woman' had whatever she wanted; had need of nothing. + + In conjunction, it is seen that He counseled to open the eyes of those that +He was speaking to, just as the serpent of Genesis did; a repetition of the +act. Using similar wording in this instance, He told them directly that they +were naked, and counseled them to open their eyes, to gain knowledge. + + However, that was the THIRD occurance of that act. Another act of repetition, +the SECOND occurance, shows that act even more distinctly and tells exactly +what was happening during the second time it was performed. + +John 9:39-41 +============ +"And Jesus said, For judgement I am come into this world, THAT THEY WHICH SEE +NOT MIGHT SEE...And some of the Pharisees said unto Him, ARE WE BLIND ALSO? + +Jesus said unto them, IF YE WERE BLIND, YE SHOULD HAVE NO SIN: but NOW ye say, +WE SEE; therefore your sin remaineth." + +John 15:22 +========== +"If I had NOT come and spoken to them, they had NOT sin: but NOW they have NO +CLOAK FOR THEIR SIN." + + Summing this part up, He told the Pharisees that they were BLIND and NAKED +and let others know it. He COUNSELED TO OPEN THEIR EYES; TO SEE THAT THEY WERE +NAKED, UNCOVERED. + + Just like the man and the woman in Genesis, these in HIS words, HAD OR KNEW +NO SIN prior to the opening of their eyes. According to Jesus, they knew good +and evil (sin) of themselves ONLY AFTER their eyes were opened. The Pharisees +didn't buy this, leaving themselves uncovered. + + In EITHER case, had He NOT spoken to them, they would have remained SINLESS +and thus, PERFECT. If 'that old serpent' had NOT spoken to the woman in +Genesis, what would have been the result? It is well known that these were +PERFECT before the act. Simply, they would have REMAINED so. + + In each case, those spoken to were sinless, perfect, prior to His speaking to +them. Once spoken to, their sin was revealed and they were 'naked'. He opened +their eyes, just as those that were sinless in Genesis had theirs opened. + + There are differences in all of these acts, which are found in the +non-activity (not covering themselves) of the Pharisees in the second +performance of the act. They did not act according to His counsel. There was +GOOD and REAL reason for this. (Evidence concerning this aspect is covered +further in this book.) + + Summing this up, an undeniable fact is that Jesus Christ, BY HIS REVEALED +METHOD OF OPERATION, reveals Himself TO HAVE REPEATED acts which exacted those +of the Serpent over and over again. The act itself is spurred on by one which +ALSO told or taught to break God's law or commandment, just as the serpent did. +Evidence of Jesus Christ's teachings and directives to break law and +commandment, a 'serpentine' act, is found elsewhere in this book. + + The question is... "WHY?", a question which shall be answered. + + + + + Chapter Two + =========== + + ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY + ====================== + + "What experience and history + teach is this - + that people and governments + never have learned anything + from history, + or acted on principles + deduced from it." + + - G.W.F. Hegel + + + + The Pharisees did not do as the man and woman did in Genesis. They did not +recognize that they were naked and thus, did not cover themselves. + + And for good reason. + + They had seen this type activity before as in Genesis; that He taught to +break God's commandments, as 'that old serpent', the deceiver, did. They +deduced as to what their reaction should be, learned from lessons in the past. + + Besides THAT, He was also telling them something else. First, let's see who +did learn from history and who didn't... + + For those that would not believe that Christ would do this, they should be a +Jew in that time for a few minutes. If you are Jewish, this should be easy for +you to understand even now. As a knowledgable Jew, spiritually, you are a +direct product of priests, rabbis, scribes and judges. It is an intrinsic part +of your society and government, which would not exist at all if it were not for +your God. + + You know your Scripture and are directed by clergy on a regular basis. You +know what Scripture tells to do and what NOT to do. You know that you should +not break commandments under penalty; sometimes with consequences of spiritual +and/or physical death. You have good examples of this. Look at what happened to +the first man and woman in Genesis, when they broke commandment as advised by +the serpent. + + Now... + + A man comes to you with all types of very good things to say and then tells +you that you should drink His blood, that of a lamb, something which goes +directly against the EVERLASTING COMMANDMENT AND COVENANT of God. You shall not +consume the blood of beasts, something which He is freely described as. You +know that this particular commandment and covenant is EVERLASTING to a Jew. +(Genesis, Chapter 9) + + Being a Jew, what do you think of a man that would counsel you to break an +everlasting covenant and commandment of God? + + Now... + + The same man comes to you with all types of very good things to say and He +tells you, a Jew, in parable, that as an 'old bottle' (a vessel) you SHALL NOT +contain 'new' wine or... + + "ELSE THE NEW WINE WILL BURST THE BOTTLES, +AND BE SPILLED, AND THE BOTTLES SHALL PERISH." + + In short, you WILL spiritually die IF you do this. + + A simple question: Are a you stupid man? + + A harder question: What is He really telling you? + + This parable said directly that ONLY 'new bottles' could hold His 'new wine' +(blood/testament) and that Jews were NOT to do so. What this said was that the +Jews WERE TO REMAIN AS THEY WERE, that they were not to contain 'new wine' or +the contents thereof. No 'new covenant' was given to them. + + That is why men left Him AFTER making the 'drink My blood' statement in John +6:53-54. + + Being a Jew, remember the counsel of 'that old serpent' in Genesis to the +woman to break God's commandment. Didn't he say, "Ye shall not surely die..." +in Genesis 3:4? + +Now see... + +John 6:53-54 +============ +"..I say unto you except +YE EAT THE FLESH OF THE SON OF MAN +AND DRINK HIS BLOOD, ye have no life in you. + +WHOSO EATETH MY FLESH AND DRINKETH MY BLOOD, +HATH ETERNAL LIFE and I will raise him up +at the last day." + + Christ basically said the same thing in John 6:53-54; that if men broke +commandment and drank His blood, they would not die and would live forever. It +was a counseling to break commandment. He said lots of good things, but He +still told to break commandment. + + They were good Jews. They knew what NOT to do. They weren't stupid. They +weren't deceived. They'd seen this act before. With the exception of the +Apostles, they left Him after this counseling. As seen in the 'old/new bottles' +parable, they were also doing as He told them. + + They saw that His commandments were a deception, as seen in Genesis. By His +'bottles' parable, He said that he set out to convert and thus, snare someone +else entirely. For the most part, the Jews, the Pharisees, etc., listened and +reacted in the way He wanted them to react. They rejected Him, which gave Him +the wanted springboard for the conversion of the Gentiles, the receivers of the +'new' wine. + + Some Jews were deceived regardless of the parablic warning (blinded by +parable), but THE INTENT was to deceive the Gentiles with things that they had +nothing against. + + One must know or remember that many Gentiles wanted to be Jews, but would not +perform the necessary physical/spiritual requirements to be so. These +requirements included such things as the non-consumption of the blood of +animals, kosher laws and circumcision. These were things which the resulting +Christian Gentile church taught as something that could be and should be +avoided by those who wished to be as Jews. In this, there is found the melding +of the commandments of men into the commandments of God. + + The wine which was to be contained by 'new bottles' ONLY, contained directive +to break the commandments of God. The very consumption of it was a breaking of +God's everlasting commandment and covenant. This 'new wine' was/is 'the blood +of the Lamb', which members of the church consume by His commandment. + + By His statement in parable, He said that the 'old' wine was BETTER than the +'new' and that He knew it as being so. Knowing that, what can it mean for those +that he truly intended the 'new wine' for? + + + + + Chapter Three + ============= + + FLIP FLOP + ========= + + + "But it is happened unto them + according to the true proverb, + The dog is turned to his own vomit again; + and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." + + - II Peter 2:22 + + + The thrust of this chapter will show that Jesus was NOT always perfect and +indeed, was a repentant sinner. NOT only that, but there is evidence of His +RETURN to His state prior to that repentance. + + Let us first witness evidence concerning His spiritual state BEFORE the +activities outlined in the Gospel reports. To see that, first see one of Jesus' +own definitions concerning who would be left out of the kingdom of heaven or +kingdom of God... + +Matthew 19:23-24 +================ +"Verily I say unto you, +THAT A RICH MAN SHALL HARDLY ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. +And again I say unto you, IT IS EASIER FOR A CAMEL TO GO +THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE, THAN FOR A RICH MAN TO ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD." + + This is pretty simple to understand. He defined the rich man's probability +pretty well. Something like pigs flying, that kind of thing. + +Now see and hear this... + +II Corinthians 8:9 +================== +"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, +that THOUGH HE WAS RICH, yet for your sakes HE BECAME POOR, +that ye through HIS POVERTY might be rich." + + What is found here is a PRIOR spiritual state of Jesus Christ (prior to the +events recorded in the Gospel reports), which does not agree with perceived +truth or opinion concerning His perfection. It's clear that in His PRIOR state, +He had a camel's chance. He knew it, and made Himself poor in repentance and +for the cause of His perfection. He would NOT have entered the kingdom per His +OWN definition, if He had not repented from His previous state. What these two +sections of Scripture say, is that Jesus was A REPENTANT SINNER. + + However, if this evidence hasn't made this obvious enough to anyone, then you +must witness THIS hard fact... + + In Matthew 3:11-16, Mark 1:4-11 and Luke 3:3-21 it is stated PLAINLY that +Jesus Christ willingly AND NECESSARILY went through a cleansing baptism FOR +REPENTANCE. He would NOT have to do this thing if He was perfect. You don't +wash something off that is not there or that you cannot see. This act, done at +the very beginning of His doings in the Gospel reports, is the most obvious +piece of residue evidence concerning His prior spiritual state that exists. +Further, this says that at some point in time He HAD TO KNOW SIN, regardless of +what is stated in the epistles. You've got to SEE it and KNOW that it is sin +BEFORE you repent and cleanse yourself of it. You can't do it while blind, +something which HE stated in John 9:39-41. + + It is clear that at some point in time He did NOT know it, but it is also +clear that at some point in time He DID see and know it BEFORE repentance. +Otherwise, no cleansing baptism would NEED have occurred. These things say that +He had sought to acquire perfection, and was not perfect by nature. + + However, the main point of this is this... + + A specific piece of evidence concerning Jesus' repetitive nature, and a +turning away, is that He told those that sought a sign from heaven that they +would not receive any sign other than that of Jonah. What should be remembered +is that Jonah ONLY ended up 'in the belly of the fish' (described as a prison) +BECAUSE HE TURNED AWAY from what he had been directed to do. This is where the +3 day death and resurrection doctrine/prophecy came from. A logical question to +be connective to this is: Why did He choose this 'sign' rather than some other? +Why a sign which in FACT, sent Him to hell? And as seen below, not just to +preach, but for previously unseen reason. (See Matthew 12:38-4O, 16:1-4; Jonah) + +Watch this move... + +Matthew 12:39-45 +================ +"An EVIL AND ADULTEROUS GENERATION SEEKS AFTER A SIGN; +and there shall be no sign given to it BUT THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAS. + +"For AS JONAS WAS three days and three nights in the whale's belly; +SO SHALL THE SON OF MAN BE three days and three nights in the +heart of the earth..." + +WHEN THE UNCLEAN SPIRIT IS GONE OUT OF A MAN, HE WALKETH THRU DRY +PLACES, SEEKING REST AND FINDETH NONE. + +Then he saith, I WILL RETURN TO MY HOUSE from whence I came out; +and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. + +THEN GOETH HE, AND TAKETH WITH HIMSELF SEVEN OTHER SPIRITS MORE WICKED +THAN HIMSELF, and they enter in and dwell there: and THE LAST STATE of +the man is WORSE than the first. EVEN SO SHALL IT BE UNTO THIS WICKED +GENERATION." + + It is WITHIN this, that we see a 'turning away', according to His own +testimony. In Matthew 12:43-45, which is in the same section of testimony +connective to the 'sign of Jonah', He says that He tried to find rest and +finding none (such as seen in His directive to disciples that He dispersed), +returned to worse than what He was. Further connective evidence concerning this +is found in His sayings that 'the foxes had holes, but the Son of man (Himself) +had no place to stay' (and rest). + + What must be remembered is that He is speaking to them in connection to the +request for a sign. In the context of the testimony, it is described AS part of +the 'sign of Jonah' testimony, as at the end of the passage he says the SAME +thing as at the beginning; that this is what this 'wicked generation' shall +receive in its request for a sign. It was an opening and closing of His +statement concerning signs to the wicked. + + This was a REPETITION of Jonah's activities. Jonah spent 3 days 'in the +prison', so did Jesus, according to other testimony found in the epistles, and +something which is recognized to this day. As in other cases which have and +will be seen, this was a repetition of activities described in Scripture, the +Word of God. + +This answers that logical question from above: Why this particular sign? It was +because He was turning away, just as Jonah did. + + + + + Chapter Four + ============ + + HYPOSTLES + ========= + + "Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, + as when you find a trout in the milk." + + - Thoreau + + + The evidence found in the Gospel reports, shows that the Apostles and those +that followed were commanded to retain sin, and thus were also directed to be +hypocrites. This made them just as Jesus described the Pharisees and scribes to +be in Luke 12:1. We'll show some of these findings here, starting with some +specific commandments. + + Some simple examples of this direction to continue (repeat, retain) what HE +considered evil activity will be found in areas such as Luke 22:35-36. This +contains a commandment to take up the use of money again, AFTER LACKING NOTHING +WHILE USING NO MONEY. This was a going back to the way things were previously, +the way of men, regardless of the fact that they had needed nothing when not +using money; a commandment to act hypocritical of their faith and belief while +with Him. Further, this is in direct opposition to what He taught in areas such +as Matthew 19:21, concerning the perfection of men and their having nothing. + + He directly told them to take up the manner of men again; to return to what +they were. + + Similar stuff is witnessed in John 2O:21-23. In this section, all of His +words connected directly to His sending them out to deal with others in order +to gain believers as seen in John 2O:21. After receiving the Holy Ghost from +Him, He told that that sin would BE RETAINED as well as remitted when doing +this. This told of an incomplete remission of sin on the part of the converted +AND those that would convert them, the Apostles. + + See Revelation 22:11, where He (angel/Spirit) tells to 'remain unjust and +filthy; righteous and holy'. Half of this goes DIRECTLY against the readily +apparent doctrine that Jesus laid down. CONSIDER that He wanted ALL to achieve +and acquire the 'perfection of the Father' and seek the Kingdom of God; see +Matthew 5:48, for example. This is a combinant two-sided command which connects +to those commands to those that followed Him; see below concerning the +commendation of the unjust steward. + + This is a short list and these things are not alone. They are supported by +things such as THIS commandment finding which, understanding His definitions, +becomes some very obvious stuff... + +Matthew 6:34 +============ +"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: +for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. +SUFFICIENT TO THE DAY IS THE EVIL THEREOF." + + What is found within this, the directive to live day to day and not store up +or think that seen as necessary for the future, is that Jesus directed that +evil (in shorter measure) BE CONTINUED to be done or thought for the daily want +or need. He knew it was evil and STATED that there was evil involved in doing +so. HE defined the acts and thoughts concerning the day AS evil, to be done as +you go. This was His approval of the continuance of it. + + What APPEARED to be a commandment of CESSATION of evil was REALLY a +commandment and allowance of CONTINUANCE. Other commandments of continuance are +implied further in other sayings. Some interesting things are also found in His +parables... + + In Luke Ch. 16, is found a parablic teaching and command to KNOWINGLY use the +way of THIS world (which as we can find in many places in the testament, that +He said He despised; see Matthew 15:3-9 for example) in order to get these +things done. + +From the parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16:8... +====================================================== +"And the lord commended the unjust steward, +because HE HAD DONE WISELY: for THE CHILDREN OF THIS WORLD +ARE in their generation WISER THAN THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT." + + Within the whole parable are teachings to His disciples to use the way of +this world for gain, an act which approximated what He accused the Pharisees +of; hypocritical to real or stated belief. He made direct reference to this use +as a set example for His followers. See Luke 16:11 in which He told that they +must be faithful concerning that which He stated was 'unrighteous'. To be +"unjust in the least" was to be unjust in much; see above reference in +Revelation 22:11. + + What must be always remembered, is that many of these things Jesus spoke in +parables, in order to PURPOSELY blind people, so that they would not understand +or perceive what was really said. He kept men blind and directly stated that He +would; Matthew 13:11-14. People THINK that they understand what He said in +these sayings, but their perception is altered by belief that He could only +have said that seen as good; again, see Matthew 7:15-2O. + + Reading Matthew 13:11-14, it is seen that it was given TO THE APOSTLES to +know particular secrets or mysteries, BUT not others. From these things, they +are seen to be mysteries of iniquity; II Thessalonians 2:7. + + A specific parable which connects to that continuance commandment shown above +is that of the wheat and tares in Matthew 13:24-3O. A explanation of the +parable is asked for in 13:36, and He does give it in 13:37-42. BUT He hides +something by leaving it out of the explanation, that is, the FACT that He +COMMANDED that it CONTINUE unhindered as seen in Matthew 13:29-3O. What this +finding says is that He PURPOSELY let a poor, 'Cain-like' work CONTINUE. This +represents a purposely whole and part evil work; imperfect. + + Directly after the parable of the wheat and the tares, He relates two more +parables that directly refer what the 'kingdom of heaven is like unto'; Matthew +13:31-33. These specifically refer to something which is 'least' and becomes +'greatest' and to something which is 'hidden'. These will be mentioned again in +this book and will be connected to that already stated here. + + What will be seen is that ALL of these particular parables have something to +do with a double-sided doctrine within Jesus Christ's activities, teachings, +and His commandments given to the Apostles. As ALL things are relative, they +ALL tie in together in a whole fashion. + + It is with these findings, we can establish this FACT... + + JESUS CHRIST COMMANDED THE APOSTLES AND HIS FOLLOWERS TO PERFORM HYPOCRITICAL +ACTS AND TO LEAVE UNPERFORMED, ACTS WHICH WOULD IN EFFECT, 'CLEAN HOUSE'. + + + + + Chapter Five + ============== + + TELL HER NO + =========== + + "Her house is the way to hell, + going down to the chambers of death." + + - Proverbs 7:27 + + + In this chapter, we will visit some prostitutes. As written in Revelation, +God wants men to see them for what they are, NAKED. If one doesn't believe +that, they can look it up in Revelation 17:16. First, we must see all of +Revelation's references to them. Here are a few from that book, specifically: + +Revelation 2:2O +=============== + Directly describes 'Jezebel', who teaches God's servants to 'commit +fornication'. This makes her a 'MOTHER OF HARLOTS', or if you prefer, a teacher +and performer of religious prostitution. + + By her description AS Jezebel, a religious prostitute, this denotes a +repetition of her activity, but not Jezebel herself. What this says is that +there is a SPIRITUAL REPETITION of her activity by using her name as a +descriptor of it. Further, one has to remember that the church itself as a body +is 'female' in gender, a woman, as described by Paul in Ephesians 5:22-33. + +Revelation 17:2-6 +=============== + Which describes "the great whore", "Mystery, Babylon, the MOTHER OF HARLOTS", +"with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication". + +Revelation Chapter 18 +===================== + Is where the HARLOT, HER MERCHANTS AND HER MERCHANDISE are dealt with in +various ways. + + Now it seems this lady had something which inspired her creation... + +From Isaiah Ch. 23:15-18 +======================== +"...And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, +that the Lord will visit Tyre, and SHE SHALL TURN TO HER HIRE, +AND SHALL COMMIT FORNICATION WITH ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD +UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. + +And her MERCHANDISE AND HER HIRE SHALL BE HOLINESS TO THE LORD: +it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise +shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, +and for durable clothing." + + If one reads Revelation 17 and 18, they will see that these descriptions are +quite alike. + + Now, some other interesting stuff is found in... + +Revelation 17:6 +=============== +"And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints +and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: +and when I saw her, I WONDERED WITH GREAT ADMIRATION." + + The whore, of course, is that woman/city "Mystery, Babylon", "with whom the +kingdoms of the earth have committed fornication". John states that he admired +her A LOT. Why would one of God's GREATLY ADMIRE a whore? Think that it might +have something to do with the other witnessed here? JUST LIKE that city in +Isaiah, with whom the kingdoms of the earth have committed fornication? + + One can't help but see that the woman that he's admiring ALSO HAS THE SAME +DESCRIPTION as that harlot from Isaiah. What could the 'kingdoms of the earth' +have fornicated with, BUT that of God? + + GOD commanded that found in Isaiah 23. Wonder Who could have set up something +as nice as this sweet thing found in Revelation? Get your book out and read +this from: + +John 5:19-2O +============ +"Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son CAN DO NOTHING OF HIMSELF, BUT WHAT HE +SEETH THE FATHER DO: for what things soever He doeth, THESE ALSO DOETH THE SON +LIKEWISE. + +"For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth Him ALL THINGS THAT HIMSELF DOETH:" + +This is an undeniable piece of testimony that tells of Jesus' KNOWINGLY +repeating acts of God the Father, which included this act. We cannot deny that +God commanded a harlot to be set up in Isaiah, as it is directly written of. + +Also see: + +John 8:28 +========= +"..I do nothing of myself; but AS MY FATHER HATH TAUGHT ME +I speak these things..I do always THE THINGS THAT PLEASE HIM." + + These things mean that like anyone else, He repeated the things He was taught +or shown. He didn't invent what He did. This isn't a new thing. As anyone else, +your father or mother taught you how to walk, talk and think. How did you do it +successfully without repeating what they did? Also see John 7:16; this +testimony SPECIFICALLY said that His doctrine was NOT His, BUT of He that sent +Him. + + What is witnessed here, is that HE put the woman 'on the street', LIKE God +TAUGHT and commanded to do before, as that seen in Isaiah. By the description +alone, this lady can only belong to Jesus Christ. + + Summing this up, we find that... + + JESUS CHRIST, IN COMMANDING THE APOSTLES, ACTUALLY DIRECTED AND CREATED +'MYSTERY, BABYLON, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS', AS A REPETITION OF GOD'S PREVIOUS +WORK AND DOCTRINE. + + + + + Chapter Six + =========== + + ENDGAME + ======= + + "Whoever wills the end, wills also + (so far as reason decides his conduct) + the means in his power which are + indispensably necessary thereto." + + - Kant + + + The previous things shown gave definition to HOW these things were to be +done. WHY is also seen here in this finding... + + See these two teachings of Jesus Christ... + +Matthew 5:19-2O Matthew 11:1O-11 +=============== ================ +"Whosoever therefore "For this is he, +shall BREAK ONE OF of whom it is written, +THESE LEAST COMMANDMENTS Behold, I send my +AND SHALL TEACH MEN SO, messenger before thy +HE SHALL BE CALLED face, which shall +THE LEAST IN THE prepare thy way +KINGDOM OF HEAVEN; before thee. + +but WHOSOEVER SHALL Verily I say unto you, +DO AND TEACH THEM, Among them that are +the same shall born of women +be called GREAT THERE HATH NOT RISEN +in the kingdom of heaven... A GREATER than + John the Baptist: +...except your righteousness NOTWITHSTANDING +SHALL EXCEED the righteousness HE THAT IS LEAST +of the scribes and Pharisees, IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN +ye shall IN NO CASE enter the IS GREATER THAN HE." +kingdom of heaven." + + In Mt. 5:19, Jesus told that whoever broke one of the least commandments +and/or taught men to do so, would be called 'the LEAST in the kingdom of +heaven'. He then said that whoever did and taught the commandments would be +'GREAT in the kingdom of heaven'. This connected directly to His testimony +concerning John the Baptist, in Matthew 11:7-19; focus on 11:1O-11. + + There we find a type of contrast between the least and the great not +previously realized. In 11:1O, He points out that John was who was sent to +prepare his way. In 11:11, He goes on to point out that "among those born of +women" there was no one greater than John, BUT that the least in the kingdom +was greater. + + What this said per HIS definition in Mt 5:19, was that he that broke and +taught men to break commandments was GREATER than John the Baptist. John would +be great in the kingdom, according to John's teachings and activities. John was +Christ's messenger, knowing that He was greater than himself and he introduced +Jesus in that fashion. (Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:7, Luke 3:16, John 1:3O, 3:29-3O). + + Following this line of thought, this said something further of Jesus' real +status; that he was a law BREAKER. If He was least in the kingdom, there was a +reason and it is found in Matthew 5:19-2O. + + A further connection to this is the "wisdom is justified of her children" +statement, found at the end of this 'least/great' statement in Matthew 11:7-19, +which said that He would not be as John (great as he was, accused of having a +devil), but among the 'least'. + +Matthew 11:19 +============= +"The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, +Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, +a friend of publicans and sinners. +BUT WISDOM IS JUSTIFIED OF HER CHILDREN." + + What this said, from His own mouth, was that THE END JUSTIFIED THE MEANS. +Children were to be and are the end result. It was the whole thrust of Jesus' +activity; the creation and gathering of children into the kingdom of God. + + What these findings show is that the righteousness of 'he that broke or +taught to break commandment' was GREATER than that of the Pharisees AND John +The Baptist, per HIS OWN WORD AND DEFINITION; that BREAKING law and commandment +was also good to get one into the kingdom. + + His discussion concerning John DIRECTLY keyed into this teaching. The least +in the kingdom's righteousness would exceed that of John and the Pharisees but +only by being least, A LAWBREAKER. TACTICALLY, there was to be 'purposeful +sin'; engaging in those activities of the sinful, knowingly done for end +results. He was calling Himself the 'least', which became 'great' as He also +did in other circumstances. + + What should be seen IF ONE CAN'T SEE ANYTHING ELSE, is that in Mt. 5:19, the +'least' were to be let into the kingdom, EVEN if they did break commandment or +taught others to break commandment and law. This doesn't make a lot of sense, +considering that men are taught by clergy (now as it was then) to NOT break +commandments. To break one was to break them all according to the teaching +afterwards by the Apostles. The point of the section in conjunction with Mt. +11:1O-19, was to say that BREAKING the law (sin) was to make greater +righteousness than that of the Pharisees. + + But it was still BREAKING the law and Jesus allowed it and taught it. + + These findings firmly establish this FACT... + + JESUS CHRIST STATED THAT THE END JUSTIFIED THE MEANS AND THAT THE MEANS WAS +BREAKING THE LAW. + + + + + Chapter Seven + ============= + + LIGHTS ON! + ============ + + + "..SEEK, and ye SHALL find.." + + - Jesus Christ + + + These findings are why THIS particular parable and testimony is seen in +Matthew 13:33 and Luke 13:2O-21. Compare it to what He taught in Luke 12:1-2... + +Luke 12:1-2 Matthew 13:33 +=========== ============= +"Beware ye of the "The kingdom of heaven +LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES is LIKE UNTO LEAVEN, +which is HYPOCRISY. WHICH A WOMAN TOOK, +For there is nothing AND HID in three +covered, that shall not measures of meal, +be revealed; NEITHER HID, til the whole was +THAT SHALL NOT BE KNOWN." leavened." + + The only leaven that Jesus spoke about in ALL of the testimony found in the +Gospels, was that of the Pharisees. Thru the wording of each piece of this +testimony, we can see how these sayings are directly connected. EACH dealt with +'hidden leaven', but ONE connected the hiding of it to the likeness of the +kingdom of God/kingdom of heaven. + + Lastly and most importantly concerning this, He told that ANYTHING which was +covered or hidden WOULD be revealed, connecting directly to the hidden leaven +in Mt. 13:33, as in the case in Luke 12:1. + + The finding of this hidden leaven establishes this FACT: JESUS CHRIST +DIRECTED THE APOSTLES TO CONTINUE THE WAY OF THE PHARISEES; TO PURPOSELY HIDE +HYPOCRISY. + + + "Ye are the light of the world. + A city that is set on + an hill CANNOT be hid." + + - Jesus Christ + + + Seeing all of these activities and commands, we can witness true basis for +this finding, that these and other commanded activities are that which darkens +light, according to the definition found within His own words. + +See His teachings in Luke 11:34-36: +=================================== +"The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is SINGLE, +the whole body is full of light; BUT WHEN THINE EYE IS EVIL, +THY BODY ALSO IS FULL OF DARKNESS. + +Take heed therefore THAT THE LIGHT WHICH IS IN THEE BE NOT DARKNESS. + +IF thy whole body therefore be full of light, +HAVING NO PART DARK, the whole shall be full of light, +as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light" + + It was within these sayings that He gave the definition of everything +involved with light and dark; good and evil within men. The difficulty, as +evidenced in His 'sufficient evil' continuance command (among others), is that +He commanded that the eye be PART evil (dark), which as He defined, equally +made the body FULL of darkness in a whole fashion. It appears through these +findings, that the eye of the Apostles was NOT single per His command. + + Thru the revealing of His directives, this also matched His description +concerning the judging of the prophet, the tree, by his fruit in Matthew +7:15-2O, as it was good AND evil; both light and dark. + + This equaled the state of the Pharisees, their hidden hypocrisy (leaven) and +darkness; see Luke 12:3 and other sections concerning His accusations towards +them. This 'darkness' teaching connects directly into the 'hidden leaven' +teachings concerning both the Pharisees AND the Apostles. + + These things firmly establish this FACT: JESUS CHRIST PURPOSELY DARKENED THE +LIGHT OF OTHERS HE SOUGHT TO CONVERT. + + + + + EPILOGUE + ======== + + + We may our ends by our beginnings know. + + - Sir John Denham + + + In summary, the findings revealed in these writings have shown that Jesus +Christ: + +* RETURNED to an evil state after being cleansed and 'born again'. + +* DIRECTED men to continue in evil thought, deed and sin. + +* DIRECTED the apostles to be hypocritical in their activities. + +* CREATED and directed "Mystery, Babylon, the Mother of Harlots". + +* DESCRIBED Himself as one that directed and taught men to break commandment. + +* TOLD and taught that 'the end justified the means'. + +* REPEATED acts found within Scripture which include ONE particular act which +NO Christian would have come to realize on his own, that of 'that old serpent', +the original. + + By THESE findings, determined by His own word, a true prophet was ALSO a +false prophet, a deceiver whose fruit was both good AND evil. This finding +connects directly to the writings and descriptions in Revelation concerning +'that old serpent', (the beast, the great dragon, the Devil and Satan, the +deceiver, etc.) and the false prophet who is "...LIKE A LAMB". This is +something that Christ is described as many times in New Testament and teachings +afterwards, and that some drink the 'real' blood of. Rather than being an evil +repetition of the Lamb as some Christian scholars say, it reveals His identity. + +From Luke 11:34-36 +================== +IF thy whole body therefore be full of light, +HAVING NO PART DARK, +the whole shall be full of light, +AS WHEN THE BRIGHT SHINING OF +A CANDLE DOTH GIVE THEE LIGHT" + + We have proven darkness in the eye (double) and body of "Mystery, Babylon" +(see Chapter 5), who is the city/church, the body of Christ, the woman which is +flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone. It is His teaching as found above from +Luke, which applies directly to that written of "Mystery, Babylon" in +Revelation 18:23. + +Revelation 18:23 +================ + +"And THE LIGHT OF A CANDLE SHALL SHINE NO MORE IN THEE; +and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride +shall heard no more in thee at all: +for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; +FOR BY THY SORCERIES WERE ALL NATIONS DECEIVED." + + What is further seen thru the evidence presented in this book, is that the +sins and evils of the church do not occur thru pure accident, or because clergy +and their flock are simply just weak, but performed or initiated due to +original commandments of Jesus Christ. The duplicitous nature of the church, +created and taught by Jesus Christ, is the reason for its state, the status of +its members and the state of THIS world. It was intentionally done by Christ, +as seen in the commandments to the Apostles and is continued to this moment for +THAT reason; Matthew 7:15, 2O. + + Have YOU judged the evidence? + +:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: +: Copyright (C) 1992 George W. Demers : +:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: + + I hope that you have found this Shareware book on software both exciting and +eye-opening. There is no other place to get shocking findings like this except +from this source, and it is all provable by BIBLICAL evidence. I must note to +the reader that this is not a hobby. A lot of time and insight has gone into +this work. + +The registered version of this software book is available for: + +* Tandy Color Computer: 5.25", 35 track. (Written using the Coco 3!) +* IBM: 5.25" or 3.5" +* C64/128: 5.25" +* Amiga: 3.5" + +These are ASCII text files which are compatible and viewable with any +wordprocessor. No imbedded formatting commands. If you want to print it, you +print it as YOU want to see it. + + If you wish to register this Shareware book on software, you shall receive a +FULL EXTENDED VERSION of SMOKING GUN: A Trial of Jesus Christ. This includes +ALL extra footnotes which bring this evidence into even sharper focus AND +provide even MORE evidence. + +To register SMOKING GUN and receive that listed above in your choice of format, +send $1O (includes S&H), name and address. Please allow up to 4 weeks for +delivery. + +Send registration requests to: + +G.W. Demers, Author +Box 1O92 +Campton, NH O3223 + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/solomon.txt b/religious documents/solomon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a92b62 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/solomon.txt @@ -0,0 +1,646 @@ +"Magick is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine +Knowledge of Natural Philosophy; advanced in its works and +wonderful operations by a right understanding of the inward and +occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applied to proper +Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. +Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into +Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an +effect, the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle." + + The Goetia of the Lemegeton of King Solomon. + * + + "Whenever sympathetic magic occurs in its pure unadulterated +form, it is assumed that in nature one event follows another +necessarily and invariably without the intervention of any spiritual +or personal agency. + Thus its fundamental conception is identical with that of +modern science; underlying the whole system is a faith, +implicit but real and firm, in the order and uniformity of +nature. The magician does not doubt that the same causes will +always produce the same effects, that the performance of the +proper ceremony accompanied by the appropriate spell, will +inevitably be attended by the desired results, unless, indeed, his +incantations should chance to be thwarted and foiled by the more +potent charms of another sorcerer. He supplicates no higher +power: he sues the favour of no fickle and wayward being: he +abases himself before no awful deity. Yet his power, great as he +believes it to be, is by no means arbitrary and unlimited. He can +wield it only so long as he strictly conforms to the rules of his +art, or to what may be called the laws of nature as conceived by +him. To neglect these rules, to break these laws in the smallest +particular is to incur failure, and may even expose the unskilful +practitioner himself to the utmost peril. If he claims a sovereignty +over nature, it is a constitutional sovereignty rigorously limited in +its scope and excercised in exact conformity with ancient usage. +Thus the anology between the magical and the scientific +conceptions of the world is close. In both of them the +succession of events is perfectly regular and certain, being +determined by immutable laws, the operation of which can +be forseen and calculated precisely; the elements of caprice, +of chance, and of accident are banished from the course of nature. +Both of them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities +to him who knows the causes of things and can touch the secret +springs that set in motion the vast and intricate mechanism of the +world. Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike +have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus +that both have given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the +weary enquirer, the footsore seeker, on through the wilderness of +disappointment in the present by their endless promises of the +future: they take him up to the top of an exceeding high mountain +and shew him, beyond the dark clouds and rolling mist at his feet, +a vision of the celestial city, far off, it may be, but radiant with +unearthly splendour, bathed in the light of dreams." + + Dr. J. G. FRAZER, "The Golden Bough". + * + + + "So far, therefore, as the public profession of magic has +been one of the roads by which men have passed to supreme +power, it has contributed to emancipate mankind from the +thraldom of tradition and to elevate them into a larger, freer +life, with a broader outlook on the world. This is no small +service rendered to humanity. And when we remember +further that in another direction magic has paved ther way for +science, we are forced to admit that if the black arts has done much +evil, it has also been the source of much good; that if it is the +child of error, it has been the mother of freedom and +truth." + + Ibid. + * + + + "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good". + + St. Paul. + * + + + "Also the mantras and the spells; the obeah and the wanga; the +work of the wand and the work of the sword: these he shall learn +and teach. + "He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals. + "The word of the Law is THELEMA." + + LIBER AL vel xxxi: The Book of the Law. + + ----------- + + +This book is for + ALL: +for every man, woman, and child. + My former work has been misunderstood, and its scope limited, +by my use of technical terms. It has attracted only too many +dilettanti and eccentrics, weaklings seeking in "Magic" an escape +from reality. I myself was first consciously drawn to the subject +in this way. And it has repelled only too many scientific and +practical minds, such as I most designed to influence. + But + MAGICK +is for + ALL. + I have written this book to help the Banker, the Pugilist, the +Biologist, the Poet, the Navvy, the Grocer, the Factory Girl, the +Mathematician, the Stenographer, the Golfer, the Wife, the +Consul--and all the rest--to fulfil themselves perfectly, each +in his or her own proper function. + Let me explain in a few words how it came about that I blazoned +the word + MAGICK +upon the Banner that I have borne before me all my life. + Before I touched my teens, I was already aware that I was The +Beast whose number is 666. I did not understand in the least +what that implied; it was a passionately ecstatic sense of identity. + In my third year at Cambridge, I devoted myself consciously to +the Great Work, understanding thereby the Work of becoming a +Spiritual Being, free from the constraints, accidents, and deceptions +of material existence. + I found myself at a loss for a name to designate my work, just +as H.P. Blavatsky some years earlier. "Theosophy", "Spiritua- +lism", "Occultism", "Mysticism", all involved undesirable con- +notations. + I chose therefore the name. + "MAGICK" +as essentially the most sublime, and actually the most discredited, +of all the available terms. + I swore to rehabilitate + MAGICK, +to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to +respect, love, and trust that which they scorned, hated and feared. +I have kept my Word. + But the time is now come for me to carry my banner into the +thick of the press of human life. + I must make + MAGICK +the essential factor in the life of + ALL. + In presenting this book to the world, I must then explain and +justify my position by formulating a definition of + MAGICK +and setting forth its main principles in such a way that + ALL +may understand instantly that their souls, their lives, in every +relation with every other human being and every circumstance, +depend upon + MAGICK +and the right comprehension and right application thereof. + +I. DEFINITION. + MAGICK +is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in confor- +mity with Will. + ( Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts +within my knowledge. I therfore take "magical weapons", pen, +ink, and paper; I write "incantations" --these sentences-- in the +"magical language" i.e. that which is understood by the people I +wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, +booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message +to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is +thus an act of + MAGICK +by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my +Will) *By "intentional" I mean "willed". But even unintentional act +so-seeming are not truly so. Thus, breathing is an act of the Will- +to-Live.* + +II. POSTULATE. + + ANY required Change may be effected by the application +of the proper kind and degree of Force in the proper +manner through the proper medium to the proper object. + ( Illustration: I wish to prepare an ounce of Chloride of Gold. +I must take the right kind of acid, nitro-hydrochloric and no other, +in sufficient quantity and of adequate strength, and place it, in a +vessel which will not break, leak, or corrode, in such a manner as +will not produce undesirable results, with the necessary quantity +of Gold: and so forth. Every Change has its own conditions. + In the present state of our knowledge and power some changes +are not possible in practice; we cannot cause eclipses, for instance, +or transform lead into tin, or create men from mushrooms. But it +is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which +that object is capable by nature; and the conditions are covered by +the above postulate.) + + +III. THEOREMS. + + (1) Every intentional act is a Magical Act. *In one sense Magick +may be defined as the name given to Science by the vulgar.* + (Illustration: See "Definition" above.) + + (2) Every successful act has conformed to the postulate. + + (3) Every failure proves that one or more requirements +of the postulate have not been fulfilled. + ( Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case; as +when a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures +his patient. There may be failure to apply the right kind of +force, as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric light. There +may be failure to apply the right degree of force, as when a +wrestler has his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the +force in the right manner, as when one presents a cheque at the +wrong window of the Bank. There may be failure to employ the +correct medium, as when Leonardo da Vinci found his masterpiece +fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitable object, as +when one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.) + + (4) The first requisite for causing any change is +thorough qualitative and quantitative understanding of the +conditions. + (Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is +ignorance of one's own True Will, or of the means by which to +fulfil that Will. A man may fancy himself a painter, and waste +his life trying to become one; or he may be really a painter, and +yet fail to understand and to measure the difficulties peculiar to +that carrier.) + + (5) The second requisite of causing any change is the +practical ability to set in right motion the necessary forces. + (Illustration: A banker may have a perfect grasp of a given +situation, yet lack the quality of decision, or the assets, necessary +to take advantage of it.) + + (6) "Every man and every woman is a star". That is to +say, every human being is intrinsically an independent individual +with his own proper character and proper motion. + + (7) Every man and every woman has a course, depending +partly on the self, and partly on the environment which is +natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from +his own course, either through not understanding himself, +or through external opposition, comes into conflict with the +order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly. + (Illustration: A man may think it his duty to act in a certain way, +through having made a fancy picture of himself, instead of +investigating his actual nature. For example, a woman may make +herself miserable for life by thinking that she prefers love to +social concideration, or visa versa. One woman may stay with an +unsympathetic husband when she would really be happy in an attic +with a lover, while another may fool herself into a romantic +elopment when her only true pleasures are those of presiding at +fashionable functions. Again, a boy's instinct may tell him to go +to sea, while his parents insist on his becoming a doctor. In such +a case, he will be both unsuccessful and unhappy in medicine.) + + (8) A man whose conscious will is at odds with his True +Will is wasting his strength. He cannot hope to influence +his environment efficiently. + (Illustration: When Civil War rages in a nation, it is in no +condition to undertake the invasion of other countries. A man +with cancer employs his nourishment alike to his own use and to +that of the enemy which is a part of himself. He soon fails to resist +the pressure of his environment. In practical life, a man who is +doing what his conscience tells him to be wrong will do it very +clumsily. At first!) + + (9) A man who is doing his True Will has the enertia of +the Universe to assist him. + (Illustration: The first principle of success in evolution is that +the individual should be true to his own nature, and at the same +time adaot himself to his environment.) + + (10) Nature is a continuous phenomenon, though we +do not know in all cases how things are connected. + (Illustration: Human consciousness depends on the properties of +protoplasm, the existence of which depends on innumerable physical +conditions peculiar to this planet; and this planet is determined by +the mechanical balance of the whole universe of matter. We may +then say that our consciousness is causally connected with the +remotest galaxies; yet we do not know even how it arises from-- +or with--the molecular changes in the brain.) + + (11) Science enables us to take advantage of the contin- +uity of Nature by the empirical application of certain +principles whose interplay involves different orders of idea +connected with each other in a way beyond our present comprehension. + (Illustration: We are able to light cities by rule-of-thumb +methods. We do not know what consciousness is, or how it is +connected with muscular action; what electricity is or how it is +connected with the machines that generate it; and our methods +depend on calculation involving mathematical ideas which have +no correspondence in the Universe as we know it.) *For instance, +"irrational", "unreal", and "infinite" expressions.* + + (12) Man is igmorant of the nature of his own being and +powers. Even his idea of his limitations is based on +experience of the past, and every step in his progress +extends his empire. There is therefore no reason to assign +theoretical limits to what he may be, or to what he may do. +*i.e., except--possibly--in the case of logically absurd questions, +such as the Schoolmen discussed in connection with "God".* + (Illustration: A generation ago it was supposed theoretically +inpossible that man should ever know the chemical composition of +the fixed stars. It is known that our senses are adapted to receive +only an infinitesimal fraction of the possible rates of vibration. +Modern instruments have enabled us to detect some of these supra- +sensibles by indirect methods, and even to use their peculiar qualities +in the service of man, as in the case of the rays of Hertz and +Rontgen. As Tyndall said, man might at any moment learn to +perceive and utilise vibrations of all conceivable and inconceivable +kinds. The question of Magick is a question of discovering and +employing hitherto unknown forces in nature. We know that they +exist, and we cannot doubt the possibility of mental or physical +instruments capable of bringing us into relation with them.) + + (13) Every man is more or less aware that his individu- +ality comprises severa l orders of existence, even when he +maintains that his subtler principles are merely symptomatic +of the changes in his gross vehicle. A similar order may be +assumed to extend throughout nature. + (Illustration: One does not confuse the pain of toothache with +the decay which causes it. Inanimate objects are sensitive to +certain ohysical forces, such as electrical and thermal conductivity; +but neither in us nor in them--so far as we know--is there any +direct conscious perception of these forces. Imperceptible influences +are therefore associated with all material phenomena; and there +is no reason why we should not work upon matter through those +subtle energies as we do through their material bases. In fact, we +use magnetic force to move iron, and solar radiation to reproduce +images.) + + (14) Man is capable of being, and using, anything which +he perceives, for everything that he perceives is in a certain +sense a part of his being. He may thus subjugate the whole +Universe of which he is conscious to his individual Will. + (Illustration: Man has used the idea of God to dictate his +personal conduct, to obtain power over his fellows, to excuse his +crimes, and for innumerable other purposes, including that of +realizing himself as God. He has used the irrational and unreal +conceptions of mathematics to help him in the construction of +mechanical devices. He has used his moral force to influence the +actions even of wild animals. He has employed poetic genius for +political purposes.) + + (15) Every force in the Universe is capable of being +transformed into any other kind of force by using suitable +means. There is thus an inexhaustible supply of any +particular kind of force that we may need. + (Illustration: Heat may be transformed into light and power by +using it to drive dynamos. The vibrations of the air may be used +to kill men by so ordering them in speech as to inflame war-like +passions. The hallucinations connected with the mysterious +energies of sex result in the perpetuation of the species.) + + (16) The application of any given force affects all the +orders of being which exist in the object to which it is +applied, whichever of those orders is directly affected. + (Illustration: If I strike a man with a dagger, his consciousness, +not his body only, is affected by my act; although the dagger, as +such, has no direct relation therewith. Similarly, the power of +my thought may so work on the mind of another person as to +produce far-reaching physical changes in him, or in others through +him.) + + (17) A man may learn to use any force so as to serve +any purpose, by taking advantage of the above theorems. + (Illustration: A man may use a razor to make himself vigilant +over his speech, by using it to cut himself whenevr he unguardedly +utters a chosen word. He may serve the same purpose by resolving +that every incident of his life shall remind him of a particular thing, +making every impression the starting point of a connected series of +thoughts ending in that thing. He might also devote his whole +energies to some one particular object, by resolving to do nothing +at variance therewith, and to make every act turn to the advantage +of that object.) + + (18) He may attract to himself any force of the Universe +by making himself a fit receptacle for it, establishing a +connection with it, and arranging conditions so that its +nature compels it to flow toward him. + (Illustration: If I want pure water to drink, I dig a well in a +place where there is underground water; I prevent it from leaking +away; and I arrange to take advantage of water's accordance with +the laws of Hydrostatics to fill it.) + + (19) Man's sense of himself as seperate from, and +opposed to, the Universe is a bar to his conducting its +currents. It insulates him. + (Illustration: A popular leader is most successful when he +forgets himself, and remembers only "The Cause". Self-seeking +engenders jealousies and schism. When the organs of the body +assert their presence otherwise than by silent satisfaction, it is a +sign that they are diseased. The single exception is the organ of +reproduction. Yet even in this case its self-assertion bears witness +to its dissatisfaction with itself, since it cannot fulfil its function +until completed by its counterpart in another organism.) + + (20) Man can only attract and employ the forces for +which he is really fitted. + (Illustration: You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. A +true man of science learns from every phenomenon. But Nature +is dumb to the hypocrite; for in her ther is nothing false.) +*It is no objection that the hypocrite is himself a part of Nature. He +is an "endothermic" product, divided against itself, with a tendency to +break up. He will see his own qualities everywhere, and thus obtain a +radical misconception of phenomena. Most religions of the past have +failed by expecting Nature to conform with their ideals of proper +conduct.* + + (21) There is no limit to the extent of the relations of +any man with the Universe in essence; for as soon as man +makes himself one with any idea the means of measurement +cease to exist. But his power to utilize that force is limited +by his mantal power and capacity, and by the circumstances +of his human environment. + (Illustration: When a man falls in love, the whole world +becomes, to him, nothing but love boundless and immanent; but +his mystical state is not contagious; his fellow-men are either +amused or annoyed. He can only extend to others the effect which +his love has had upon himself by means of his mental and physical +qualities. Thus, Catullus, Dante and Swinburne made their love a +mighty mover of mankind by virtue of their power to put their +thoughts on the subject in musical and eloquent language. Again, +Cleopatra and other people in authority moulded the fortunes of +many other people by allowing love to influence their political +actions. The Magician, however well he succeed in making contact +with the secret sources of energy in nature, can only use them to the +extent permitted by his intellectual and moral qualities. +Mohammed's intercourse with Gabriel was only effective because +of his statesmanship, soldiership, and the sublimity of his command +of Arabic. Hertz's discovery of the rays which we now use for +wireless telepathy was sterile until reflected through the minds +and wills of people who could take his truth, and transmit it +to the world of action by means of mechanical and economic +instruments.) + + (22) Every individual is essentially sufficient to himself. +But he is unsatisfactory to himself until he has established +himself in his right relation with the Universe. + (Illustration: A microscope, however perfect, is useless in the +hands of savages. A poet, however sublime, must impose himself +upon his generation if he is to enjoy (and even understand) +himself, as theoretically should be the case.) + + (23) Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and +one's conditions. It is the Art of applying that under- +standing in action. + (Illustration: A golf club is intended to move a special ball in a +special way in special circumstances. A Niblick should rarely be +used on the tee, or a Brassie under the bank of a bunker. But +also, the use of any club demands skill and experience.) + + (24) Every man has an indefeasable right to be what he is. + (Illustration: To insist that any one else shall comply with one's +own standards is to outrage, not only him, but oneself, since both +parties are equally born of necessity.) + + (25) Every man must do Magick each time he acts or +even thinks, since a thought is an internal act whose +influence ultimately affects action, though it may not do +so at the time. + (Illustration: The least gesture causes in a man's own +body and in the air around him; it disturbs the balance of the +entire Universe, and its effects continue eternally throughout all +space. Every thought, however swiftly suppressed, has its effect +on the mind. It stands as one of the causes of every subsequent +thought, and tends to influence every subsequent action. A golfer +may lose a few yards on his drive, a few more with his second and +third, he may lie on the green six bare inches too far from the hole; +but the net result of these trifling mishaps is the difference of a +whole stroke, and so probably between halving and losing the +hole.) + + (26) Every man has a right, the right of self-preserva- +tion, to fulfil himself to the utmost. *Men of "criminal nature" are +simply at issue with their True Wills. The murderer has the Will-to +-Live; and his will to murder is a false will at variance with his +true Will, since he risks death at the hands of Society by obeying +his criminat impulse* + (Illustration: A function imperfectly performed injures, not +only itself, but everything associated with it. If the heart is afraid +to beat for fear of disturbing the liver, the liver is starved for +blood, and avenges itself on the heart by upsetting digestion, which +disorders respiration, on which cardiac welfare depends.) + + (27) Every man should make Magick the keynote of his +life. He should learn its laws and live by them. + (Illustration: The Banker should discover the real meaning of +his existence, the real motive which led him to choose that profes- +sion. He should understand banking as a necessary factor in the +economic existence of mankind, instead of as merely a business +whose objects are independent of the general welfare. He should +learn to distinguish false values from real, and to act not on +accidental fluctuations but on considerations of essential impor- +tance. Such a banker will prove himself superior to others; because +he will not be an indivudual limited by transitory things, but a +force of Nature, as impersonal, impartial and eternal as gravitation, +as patient and irresistible as the tides. His system will not be +subject to panic, any more than the law of Inverse Squares is +disturbed by Elections. He will not be anxious about his affairs +because they will not be his; and for that reason he will be able to +direct them with the calm, clear-headed confidence of an onlooker, +with intelligence unclouded by self-interes and power unimpaired +by passion.) + + (28) Every man has a right to fulfil his own will without +being afraid that it may interfere with that of others; for +if he is in his proper place, it is the fault of others if they +interfere with him. + (Illustration: If a man like Napoleon were actually appointed +by destiny to control Europe, he should not be blamed for +exercising his rights. To oppose him would be an error. Any +one so doing would have made a mistake as to his own destiny, +except in so far as it might be necessary for him to learn the +lessons of defeat. The sun moves in space without interference. +The order of Nature provides an orbit for each star. A clash +proves that one or the other has strayed from its course. But as +to each man that keeps his true course, the more firmly he acts, the +less likely are others to get in his way. His example will help +them to find their own paths and pursue them. Every man that +becomes a Magician helps others to do likewise. The more firmly +and surely men move, and the more such action is excepted as the +standard of morality, the less will conflict and confusion hamper +humanity.) + ---------- + + I hope that the above principles will demonstrate to + ALL +that their welfare, their very existence, is bound up in + MAGICK. +I trust that they will understand, not only the reasonableness, but +the necessity of the fundamental truth which I was the means of +giving to mankind: + "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." +I trust that they will assert themselves as individually absolute, that +they will grasp the fact that it is their right to assert themselves, and +to accomplish the task for which their nature fits them. Yea, more, +that this is their duty, and that not only to themselves but to +others, a duty founded upon universal necessity, and not to be +shirked on account of any casual circumstances of the moment which +may seem to put such contact in the light of inconvenience or even +of cruelty. + I hope that the principles outlined above will help them to +understand this book, and prevent them from being dettered from +its study by the more or less technical language in which it is +written. + The essence of + MAGICK +is simple enough in all conscience. It is not otherwise with the art +of goverment. The Aim is simply prosperity; but the theory is +tangled, and the practice beset with briars. + In the same way + MAGICK +is merely to be and to do. I should add: "to suffer". For Magick +is the verb; and it is part of the Training to use the passive voice. +This is, however, a matter of Initiation rather than of Magick in +its ordinary sense. It is not my fault if being is baffling, and doing +desperate! + Yet, once the above principles are firmly fixed in the mind, it is +easy enough to sum up the situation very shortly. One must +find out for oneself, and make sure beyond doubt, WHO one is, WHAT +one is, WHY one is. This done, one may put the Will which is +implicit in the "Why" into words, or rather into One Word. Being +thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the next thing is to +understand the conditions necessary to following it out. After +that, one must eliminate from oneself every element alien or +hostile to success, and develop those parts of oneself which are +specially needed to control the aforesaid conditions. + Let us make an analogy. A nation must become aware of its +own character before it can be said to exist. From that knowledge +it must divine its destiny. It must then consider the political +conditions of the world; how other countries may help it or hinder +iy. It must then destroy in itself any elements discordant with its +destiny. Lastly, it must develop in itself those qualities which will +enable it to combat successfully the external conditions which +threaten to oppose its purpose. We have had a recent example in +the case of the young German Empire, which, knowing itself and +its will, disciplined and trained itself so that it conquered the +neighbors which had oppressed it for so many centuries. But +after 1866 and 1870, 1914! It mistook itself for superhuman, it +willed a thing impossible, it failed to eliminate its own internal +jealousies, it failed to understand the conditions of victory, it did +not train itself to hold the sea, and thus, having violated every +principle of + MAGICK, +it was pulled down and broken into pieces by provincialism and +democracy, so that neither individual excellence nor civic virtue +has yet availed to raise it again to that majestic unity which made +so bold a bid for the mastery of the race of man.*At least it allowed +England to discover its intentions, and so to combine the world against +it.* + The sincere student will discover, behind the symbolic techni- +calities of this book, a practical method of making himself a +Magician. The processes described will enable him to discriminate +between what he actually is, and what he has fondly imagined +himself to be. *Proffesor Sigmund Freud and his school have, in recent +years, discovered a part of this body of Truth, which has been taught +for many centuries in the Sanctuaries of Initiation. But failure to +grasp the fullness of Truth, especially that implied in my Sixth +Theorem (above) and its corollaries, has led him and his followers into +the error of admitting that the avowedly suicidal "Censor" is the proper +arbiter of conduct. Official psycho-analysis is therefore committed to +upholding a fraud, although the foundation of the science was the +observation of the disastrous effects on the individual of being false +to his Unconscious Self, whose "writting on the wall" in dream language +is the record of the sum of the essential tendencies of the true nature +of the individual. The result has been that psycho-analysts have +misinterprted life, and announced the absurdity that every human being +is essentially an anti-social, criminal, and insane animal. It is +evident that the errors of the Unconscious of which the psycho-analysts +complain are neither more nor less than the "original sin" of the +theologians whom they despise so heartily.* He must behold his soul in +all its awful nakedness, he must not fear to look on that appalling +actuality. He must discard the gaudy garments with which shame has +screened him; he must accept the fact that nothing can make him +anything but what he is. He may lie to himself, drug himself, +hide himself; but he is always there. Magick will teach him that +his mind is playing him a traitor. It is as if a man were told that +tailors' fashion-plates were the canon of human beauty, so +that he tried to make himself formless and featureless like them, +and shuddered with horror at the idea of Holbein making a portrait +of him. Magick will show him the beauty and majesty of the self +which he has tried to suppress and disguise. + Having discovered his identity, he will soon perceive his purpose. +Another process will show him how to make that purpose pure +and powerful. He may then learn how to estimate his environ- +ment, learn how to make allies, how to make himself prevail against +all powers whose error has caused them to wander across his path. + In the course of this Training, he will learn to explore the +Hidden-Mysteries of Nature, and to develop new senses and +faculties in himself, whereby he may communicate with, and +control, Beings and Forces pertaining to orders of existence which +have been hitherto inaccessible to profane research, and available +only to that unscientific and emperical + MAGICK +(of tradition) which I came to destroy in order that I might fulifil. + I send this book into the world that every man and woman may +take hold of life in the proper manner. It does not matter if +one's present house of flesh be the hut of a shepherd; by virtue +of my + MAGICK +he shall be such a shepherd as David was. If it be the studio of a +sculptor, he shall so chisel from himself the marble that masks his +idea that he shall be no less a master than Rodin. + Witness mine hand: +TO MEGA THERION (in Greek) (zayin, vav, yod, resh tav): The Beast 666; +MAGUS 9=2 A.'. A.'. who is The Word of the Aeon THELEMA; +whose name is called V.V.V.V.V. 8=3 A.'. A.'. in the City of +the Pyramids; OU MH 7=4; OL SONUF VAORESAGI 6=5, and ..... ..... 5=6 +A.'. A.'. in the Mountain of Abeignus: but FRATER PERDUABO in the Outer +Order or the A.'. A.'. and in the World of men upon the Earth, Alleiter +Crowley of Trinity College, Cambridge. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/sotegdoc.txt b/religious documents/sotegdoc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84ccd1e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/sotegdoc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1657 @@ + Servants Of The Elder Gods + Rocky Mountain Coven + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + DOCUMENTIA + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Original Issue: Compiled By: + +Vernal Equinox, 1992 + Durwydd MacTara + Starwyn + + TABLE of CONTENTS + +Charge of The Goddess ............................................. 8 +Charge of The Horned God .......................................... 9 +Cakes and Wine Ritual (w/o G.R) ................................... 29 +Cakes and Wine Ritual (w/G.R) ..................................... 30 +Circle Ritual ..................................................... 25 +Dedication Ritual ................................................. 14 +Dismissals ........................................................ 28 +Elemental Invocation .............................................. 27 +Initiation Ritual ................................................. 5 +Principia ......................................................... 1 +Quarter Calls ..................................................... 28 +Suggested Rituals +Solitary Moon Rite (E.C. Reed) .................................... 33 +Token (Symbolic) Great Rite ....................................... 36 +Tool Dedications (Personal Tools) + Altar ................................................... 23 + Athame .................................................. 24 + Chalice ................................................. 31 + Wand .................................................... 32 +Tool Purification (Graeco-Roman)................................... 20 + + + + +(new page ... 31) + TABLE OF CONTENTSServants Of The Elder Gods + Rocky Mountain Coven + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + PRINCIPIA + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Original Issue: Compiled +By: + Vernal Equinox, 1992 +Durwydd MacTara +Starwyn + + SERVANTS OF THE ELDER GODS + + SOTEG is formed for the purpose of promoting friendship, +ethicality, and brotherly/sisterly love between those who walk +nontraditional spiritual paths. It is not intended to supplant any +other particular path, but to provide an alternative for those who +wish to form or participate in a support group of like minded people. +It welcomes and encourages its membership participating with other +groups of similar, or at least non-contradictory paths. It is even +conceivable that some of the SOTEG may call themselves "Christian, +Buddhist", etc. A cornerstone of the SOTEG is a combination of +tolerance and acceptance of other Paths as valid for those who +participate in them with an adherence to the Wiccan Rede, and a +celebration of the mystery of "The descent of the Goddess". +1. All who desire to do so may call themselves a Servant of the Elder + Gods. +2. Two or more people who call themselves SOTEG may form a group for + whatever purpose they deem fit; i.e. Religious, Magical, Study, + etc. +3. Any group so formed, should name itself with a name indicative of + its purpose; i.e. SOTEG study group of CO. Springs, for example, or + SOTEG association of Mages, etc. + a. The use of the word "Coven" is reserved for religious group use + only. +4. Coven Organization + a. A "Coven" is a group of the SOTEG organized for the purposes + of worshipping the Elder Gods and Goddesses in a balanced + manner, i.e. we of the SOTEG worship the Lord and Lady as a + balanced pair of Deities. + b. A coven is considered to have met when such meeting was called + by the currently elected Priest and Priestess calls such a + meeting and at least 50% of the members of the coven attend. + In no case shall a meeting be considered a gathering of the + Coven without at least three people present. + c. Coven Officers will consist of at least three: Priest, + Priestess, and Scribe. Others may be elected as the need + arises by the general membership of Initiates. + d. Within a consecrated Circle and during Ritual, the authority + of the Priestess and Priest is absolute. Any other governance + of the Coven may require is by consensus of the members. + e. After dedication, a student of SOTEG may participate in any + general Circle ritual held by the sponsoring Coven, and + special Circles by invitation of the Priest or Priestess + presiding. In fact, such participation in celebration of + Sabats and Esbats should be encouraged as part of his training + and leading to his/her initiation into full membership of the + Coven, however a Dedicant has no voice in the daily governance + of the Coven. + f. After a suitable time of instruction decided by the Coven, a + Dedicant may be presented for Initiation to full Coven + membership. After the receiving of the Coven Initiation, the + Initiate is eligible to vote in all matters of Coven + governance, and has all if the rights and responsibilities of + Coven membership. An Initiate Can elect to remain (or become) + a Solitary Practitioner of the Craft at any time, providing + he/she gives written notice to the presiding Priest or + Priestess of the Coven and it is recorded by the Scribe of + said Coven. + g. Any Initiate of the SOTEG can leave a Coven and start a new + Coven if they abide by the rules stated herein. + SERVANTS OF THE ELDER GODS (cont.) +5. Ritual Observance + a. Holidays + The traditional eight holidays of Wicca will be observed at + appropriate times, to be determined by the Coven involved; + i.e. many celebrate Holidays on the "Closest" calendrical + weekend, others select the Nearest Full Moon, etc. + b. Esbats + The selection of Esbat observance is left to the SOTEG coven + concerned, and the convenience of it's membership. + c. Dedication and Initiation + A Dedication Ritual should be performed to indicate a + students dedication to learning about the Craft and to + introduce him/her to the Coven as a student, as well as to + give them a taste of Circle Ritual and to prepare them for + participation in Sabat Circles as a Dedicant. An Initiation + Ritual is to admit the Dedicant to Full Membership in the + Coven, with all the Rights, Privileges, and Responsibilities + appurtenant thereto. + d. Ritual Sources + SOTEG is based on an eclectic approach to Wiccan Worship, + therefore, the approach to Ritual Sources, is "if it works + use it, and if it doesn't work for you and /or your group + don't use it". These principles are , of course, to be + applied within the framework of the principles of a balanced + approach to worship of the Lord and Lady, the Wiccan Rede, + and the utmost respect for your fellow Man. +6. There is no degree system or "hierarchy" involved in SOTEG, merely + a recognition of individual "specialties", for those who desire + such recognition. In other words, "Dedicant" and "Initiate" are + stages of development and not "degrees" per se. + a. Specialties currently recognized are: + 1. Priest or Priestess - indicating experience and ability in + leading ritual on the eight Sabats and Circle worship + at other times. Recognition for this specialty is depen- + dent on demonstrated ability by the individual concerned on + at least one each of these occasions. A group in need of + one of this specialty may appoint someone as an "Acting" + Priest or Priestess until such person becomes fully + qualified. An "Acting" Priest or Priestess may be confirmed + to this specialty, depending on Coven determination. + 2. Mage - indicating experience and ability in working + Thaumaturgical magic and spell-work. Recognition for this + specialty is dependent on demonstrated ability by the + individual concerned on at least three occasions. + 3. Healer - indicating experience and ability in working with + healing of others, whether by magical/psychic means, herbal + and naturopathic, medical, or other means. This capability + must be demonstrated either by a certificate of + training/accomplishment (mundane methods such as first-aid, + nursing, etc), or successful application upon at least three + occasions. + 4. Counselor - Indicating expertise in interpersonal + relationships and the healing of persons with psychological + or social dysfunctions. This specialty is allowed only upon + the documentation of three successes and the agreement of + two others of the SOTEG in writing. + SERVANTS OF THE ELDER GODS (cont) + a. Specialties (continued) + 5. Warrior - Indicating devotion to bringing and maintaining + Peace to (and between) both Brothers and Sisters of the + Craft as well as the mundane world. This specialty is + recognized only after written nomination by three others of + the SOTEG. + 6. Elder Priest or Elder Priestess - Indicating successful (as + determined by the Coven)service of two or more 13 Lunar + Month terms as Priest or Priestess of a SOTEG Coven. + 7. Elder of the Craft - signifying experience as a member of + a Coven for three or more lunar years with at least two + years of successful experience in two or more of the listed + specialties. + 8. Scholar - This specialty is Coven recognition of expert + Knowledge (but not necessarily active practice) of ALL of + the specialties herein named. + 9. Tutor - Indicating successful instruction of two or more + dedicants, proven by their acceptance and initiation. + b. These specialties are listed as a requirement for a + "journeyman" status in those specialties and are a + recognition for Continuous practice in those specialties. + Some Covens may wish to grant a "Master" level to these + activities in recognition of exemplary service, expertise, + and knowledge for a period of five or more years in a + specialty. + Servants Of The Elder Gods + Rocky Mountain Coven + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Initiation Ritual + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Original Issue: Compiled By: + + March 3, 1992 Durwydd MacTara + Starwyn +Updated: + +Vernal Equinox, 1992 + (the circle is cast, watchtowers invoked and Drawing Down is done first, +with Summoner outside of the circle, accompanying Dedicant to be +Initiated.) + +I: "Who comes here?" +D (mundane Name ), a cowan, who seeks admission to this Circle of the + Craft of the Wise. + +I: Is (s)he Worthy to enter this Hallowed Ground? +S: (S)he is. +I: By what Standard is (s)he Worthy? +S: By being a person of good report and good standing in BOTH + communities, Sacred and Profane, and by honoring and respecting our + ways. + +I: Is (s)he Well Qualified to be admitted to this place between the + worlds of pattern and expression? +S: (S)he is. +I: How qualified? +S: (s)he has successfully completed a course of training in our + teachings, ethics and ways, and swears by the Rede. +I: Repeat the Rede. +C: "An Ye Harm None, do what you Will". +I: Truly an Ethical Core. Are there any exceptions to this principle? +C: One +I: What might that be? +C: "Except in self defense it be, then ever mind the rule of three!" + +I: Is (s)he Duly and Truly Prepared? +S: (s)he is. +I: How prepared? +S: By being neither Naked nor Clad, Barefooted nor Shod, and neither free + nor bound, and by only having a part of the Law. + +I: You will await a time with patience whilst the Lord and Lady and the + Coveners present are informed of your request and their answers + returned. +I: (goes to the Altar and addresses Coven) "Fellows of the Craft, we have + without the Circle a cowan, one (mundane name) who prays entry into + our Circle and confirmation of their initiation as Priest(ess) and + Witch by being fully initiated into our Coven. How vote you? (all + present vote by displaying thumbs up or down) P then turns and kneels + before the Altar and consults with Lord and Lady in meditation for a + moment before returning to Candidate. + +I: By what further Right or Privilege do you expect to gain entrance to + this Circle and receive the honor of our company? +S: by Right of the Password. +I: Has (s)he the password? +S: (s)he has it not, I have it for him(her). +I: Give it or them. +S: There are two, Perfect Love and Perfect Trust. +I: Enter in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos! + +S & D take one step forward, and are stopped by a Sword placed to D's +breast. + I: `O thou who standest on the threshold of the pleasant world of men and + the dread domains of the Lords of the outer Spaces, hast thou the + courage to make the assay? For I say verily, it were better to rush + on my blade and have thy body Perish, than to enter with fear in your + heart, for then you risk your very being. +D: I have two passwords. Perfect Love and Perfect Trust. +I: All who have such are doubly welcome. I give thee a third to pass + this dread door. +(hands sword to partner and kisses D. Partner seals doorway and returns +Sword to altar, and waits there. + + INTRODUCTION TO THE QUARTERS +I: (leads candidate to E, S, W, & N.) +I: "Take heed ye Lords of the East (or whichever direction is being + saluted) (mundane name) is properly prepared and vouched for to be + initiated a Priest(ess) and Witch." (P & C finish up before the + Altar.) + +(P): "In other religions the postulant kneels while the Priest towers over + him. But in our art magickal we are taught to be humble, and we kneel + to him [her] and we say:" +I: (Kneels and kisses feet) "Blessed be thy feet, that have brought thee + in these ways" (Kisses knees) "Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel + before this Altar." (Kissing just above pubic area) "Blessed Be thy + organs of generation, without which we would not be" (Kissing + Breast[s]) Blessed Be thy Breast(s), formed in strength(beauty)." + (Kissing Lips) "Blessed Be thy lips, that shall oft utter the sacred + names". + The Charge of the Goddess + +Priestess: + Whenever ye have need of any thing, once in the month, and + better it be when the moon is full, then shall ye assemble in + some secret place and adore the spirit of She, who is Queen of + all witches. There shall ye assemble, ye who are fain to learn + all sorcery, yet have not won its deepest secrets; to these will + She teach things that are yet unknown. And ye shall be free from + slavery; and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked + in your rites; and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and + love, all in Her praise. For Hers is the ecstasy of the spirit, + and Hers also is joy on earth; for Her law is love unto all + beings. Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it; let + naught stop you or turn you aside. For Hers is the secret door + which opens upon the land of youth and Hers is the cup of wine of + life, and the cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of + immortality. She is the gracious goddess, who gives the gift of + joy unto the heart of man. Upon earth, She gave the knowledge of + the spirit eternal; and beyond death, She gives peace and + freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor does + She demand sacrifice, for behold, She is the mother of all + living, and Her love is poured out upon the earth. + + She who is the beauty of the green earth, and the white moon + among the stars, and the mystery of the waters, and the desire of + the heart of man, calls unto thy soul. Arise, and come unto Her. + For She is the soul of nature, who gives life to the universe. + from Her all things proceed, and unto Her all things must return; + and before Her face, beloved of gods and men, let thine innermost + divine self be enfolded in the rapture of the infinite. Let Her + worship be within the heart that rejoiceth; for behold, all acts + of love and pleasure are Her rituals. And therefore let there be + beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, + mirth and reverence within you. And thou who thinkest to seek + Her, know thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not unless + thou knowest the mystery; that if that which thou seekest thou + findest not within thee, then thou wilt never find it without + thee. For behold, She has been with thee from the beginning; and + She is that which is attained at the end of desire. The Charge of the God +Priest: + Listen to the words of the Horned God, the Guardian of all + things wild and free, and Keeper of the Gates of Death, + whose Call all must answer: + + I am the fire within your heart... + The yearning of your Soul. + I am the Hunter of Knowledge + and the Seeker of the Holy Quest + I - who stand in the darkness of light + am He whom you have called Death. + I - the Consort and Mate of Her we adore, + call forth to thee. + Heed my call beloved ones, + come unto me and learn the secrets of death and peace. + I am the corn at harvest + and the fruit on the trees. + I am He who leads you home. + Scourge and Flame, + Blade and Blood - + these are mine and gifts to thee. + + Call unto me in the forest wild + and on hilltop bare + and seek me in the Darkness Bright. + I - who have been called; + Pan, + Herne, + Osiris , + and Hades, + speak to thee in thy search. + Come dance and sing; + come live and smile, + for behold: + this is my worship. + You are my children and I am thy Father. + On swift night wings + it is I who lay you at the Mother's feet + to be reborn and to return again. + Thou who thinks to seek me, + know that I am the untamed wind, + the fury of storm and passion in your Soul. + Seek me with pride and humility, + but seek me best with love and strength. + For this is my path, + and I love not the weak and fearful. + Hear my call on long Winter nights + and we shall stand together guarding Her Earth + as She sleeps. + + TAKING OF THE MEASURE + + The partner now hands the length of ribbon to the Initiator. + +I: "We are now going to take your measure." + + The initiator, with the help of another Witch of the same sex, +stretches the ribbon from the crown of the postulants head to the ground at +his/her feet and cuts the ribbon to length with the white handled knife +(fetched by the assistant). Initiator measures circumference of head at +forehead and ties a knot in the ribbon to mark it, then the repeats same +(from same end) around chest at heart level and ties knot and repeats the +process at the level of the genitals. Initiator then pricks postulants +finger and "seals" measure before rolling it up and laying it on the Altar. + + BINDING AND SCOURGING +I: "Before thou art sworn, art thou ready to pass the ordeal and be +purified? +D: "I am." + + The Initiator and other Witch of the same sex help the candidate to +kneel and bow his/her head and shoulders forward. the unwind the loose +ends of the ankle and knee cords and use them to bind the ankles and knees +together. The initiator fetches the scourge from the Altar. + +I: "Art thou willing to suffer to learn? +D: "I am" +A: "Three" (rings bell 3 times) + The initiator administers 3 light strokes + +I: "Art thou willing to suffer to grow"? +D: "I am" +A: "Seven" (does not ring bell) + Initiator administers seven light strokes + +I: Art thou willing to suffer to serve? +D: "I am" +A: "Nine" + Initiator administers nine light strokes + +I: "Art thou willing to suffer for perfection in the Craft"? +D: "I am" +A: "Twenty-One" + Initiator administers twenty light strokes and one more vigorous final + stroke. + +I: "Thou hast bravely passed the test. Art thou ready to swear that thou + wilt be always true to the Art"? +D: "I am" + +I: "Art thou always ready to help, protect and defend thy brothers and + sisters of the art"? +D: "I am" + TAKING OF THE OATH +Then repeat after me: I ______________ ____________ In the presence of +Cernunnos and Aradia, The Guardians of the Portals, and the worshipful +members of this Circle do of my own free will and accord solemnly and +sincerely promise and swear that I will always Heal, forever conceal, and +never reveal any of the Arts, Parts, or Points of the Sacred Core of the +Art Magickal which have been, may now, or at any future time come to my +knowledge as such except it be to a brother or sister of the craft, +properly prepared in a Circle such as the one we are now in; and that I +will never deny the secrets to such a person if he or she be vouched for +by a brother or sister of the Craft. I may, however, share for +instructional purposes any material necessary to teach a proper dedicant in +preparation for Initiation; I furthermore promise and swear to uphold the +Rede to the best of my ability, to keep the secrets of a brother or sister +of the craft they being given into my keeping and accepted by me as such, +Murder and Treason alone excepted, and these at my discretion; I +furthermore promise and swear to neither deliberately wrong, cheat, nor +defraud either any brother or sister of the Craft, nor any Coven of such. +All of this I solemnly and sincerely promise and swear with no mental +reservation or secret evasion of any kind, binding myself under no less a +penalty than that of forfeiting any hopes of a future life, mindful that my +measure has been taken; And my weapons turn against me if I break this my +solemn oath and obligation before the Gods and my Coven. + +Initiator and assistant help postulant to his/her feet. +I: "Upon completion of your taking this solemn and Holy vow before the + Lord and Lady, what is it you now desire most"? +D: "Light" +I: "So mote it be!" (assistant removes blindfold) +I: "Remove the restraints, Brother/Sister __________ is now bound by the + more complete and thorough bond of his obligation, for a Witches word + is their bond. Know this ______________, if your word ceases to be + your bond, then your magick will also start to fail you!" + + ANOINTING +Partner brings forward the anointing oil and the Chalice with wine. +Initiator moistens finger tip with oil and says: +I: "Place your feet apart, and extend your arms parallel with the floor." +(Postulant does so) +Initiator then places oiled fingertip on each shoulder, both knees, and +lips, Deosil (for postulant) tracing a the five points of a pentagram, +while saying: +I: "I hereby sign and anoint thee with oil, setting the Holy Sign of the + Pentagram, and establish your power links with the Universe!" + +Initiator repeats the above with wine, saying: +I: "I hereby sign and anoint the with wine sealing the five points of the + Holy Pentagram and energizing your power links with the Universe!" +I: "And finally I consecrate thee with my lips" (Kisses postulant on five + points) Priest/ess and witch!" + + PRESENTATION OF WORKING TOOLS + +I: "I now present the with the magickal working tools of a Witch." + +Sword: +I: "The first tool is the magickal sword. With this tool, as with the + Athame, thou canst form all Magickal Circles, dominate, subdue,and + punish all rebellious spirits and demons, and even persuade angels and + good spirits. For with this in thy hand, though art the ruler of the + Circle." + +Athame: +I: "Next I present the Athame. This is the true witch's weapon, and has + all the powers of the Magick Sword." + +White Handled Knife: +I: "Next I present the White-hilted Knife. Its use to form all + instruments of the Art. Its only use outside of the Circle is to + prepare materials for use within the Circle, and then only when + necessary." + +Wand: +I: "Next I present the Wand. Its use is as a gentler instrument of + compulsion and persuasion than the Sword or Athame, and is to be used + where the other two might be inappropriate." + +Cup or Chalice: +I: "Next I present the Cup (or Chalice). This is the vessel of the + Goddess, the Cauldron of Cerridwen, the Holy Grail of Immortality. + From this we drink in comradeship, and in Honor of the Goddess." + +Pentacle: +I: "Next I present the Pentacle. This is used for calling up appropriate + Spirits, and is insribed with the Holy Pentagram or PentAlpha, + representing the 5 elements of Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Spirit." + +Censer or Thurible: +I: "Next I present the Censer of Incense, called by some a Thurible. + This is used to welcome good Spirits and to Banish bad Spirits." + +Scourge: +I: "Next I present the Scourge. This is a symbol of power and + domination. Its use is to cause purification and enlightenment. For + it is written 'You must be willing to suffer to learn and be + purified'. Art tho willing to suffer to learn?" +D: "I am" +I: "It is well, and you have demonstrated such." + +The Cords: (Candidates own) +I: "Lastly I present the cords they are used to bind the sigils in the + Art; also the material basis; also they are necessary to the Oath." + Presentation of New Witch to The Quarters + +I: "I now Salute thee in the name of Aradia, Newly mad Priest(ess) and + Witch." (Initiator then kisses Initiate.) + +Initiator now takes new witch around the circle and personally introduces +to everyone as "_____________ Pries/ess and Witch!" Initiator then returns +with Dedicant to Altarand pauses briefly. Then Initiator leads Dedicant to +each of the cardinal points in turn, saying: + +I: "Hear ye Mighty Ones of the East (South, West, North); ____________ + has been cosecrated Priest(ess) and Witch. She is entitled to all the + repect, rights, and priveleges due to a True and Upright Son + (Daughter) of the Goddess!" + + Consecration of Personal Tools By New Witch +I: "Now as a newly Initiated Witch, fully Consecrated to the Goddess, it + is time to perform your first Magickal Acts as a Priestess in a + Consecrated Circle." + +New witch performs re-consecration rituals of personal tools (s)he has been +using as a dedicant, using ritual ceremony (s)he has written for this +purpose. + + Cakes and Wine + + Dismiss Quarters and Open the Circle + + PARTY TIME!!! + TABLE OF CONTENTSServants Of The Elder Gods + Rocky Mountain Coven + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Dedication Ritual + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Original Issue: Compiled By: + 10 April, 1992 + Durwydd MacTara + + + (the circle is cast, watchtowers invoked and Drawing Down is done first, +with Summoner outside of the circle, accompanying Dedicant to be +Initiated.) + +I: "Who comes here?" +D (mundane Name ), a cowan, who seeks dedicationa as a student with this + Circle of the Craft of the Wise. + +I: Is (s)he Worthy to enter this Hallowed Ground? +S: (S)he is. +I: By what Standard is (s)he Worthy? +S: By being a person of good report and good standing in BOTH + communities, Sacred and Profane, and by honoring and respecting our + ways. + +I: Is (s)he Well Qualified to be admitted to this place between the + worlds of pattern and expression? +S: (S)he is. +I: How qualified? +S: (s)he has has expressed a desire to be trained in our teachings, + ethics and ways, and swears by the Rede. +I: Repeat the Rede. +C: "An Ye Harm None, do what you Will". +I: Truly an Ethical Core. Are there any exceptions to this principle? +C: One +I: What might that be? +C: "Except in self defense it be, then ever mind the rule of three!" + +I: Is (s)he Duly and Truly Prepared? +S: (s)he is. +I: How prepared? +S: By being interested in our ways, expressing a desire to learn, being + willing to keep ou oaths and by only having a part of the Law. + +I: You will await a time with patience whilst the Lord and Lady and the + Coveners present are informed of your request and their answers + returned. +I: (goes to the Altar and addresses Coven) "Fellows of the Craft, we have + without the Circle a cowan, one (mundane name) who prays entry into + our Circle and dedication as a student in our Coven. How vote you? + (all present vote by displaying thumbs up or down) P then turns and + kneels before the Altar and consults with Lord and Lady in meditation + for a moment before returning to Candidate. + +I: By what further Right or Privilege do you expect to gain entrance to + this Circle and receive the honor of our company? +S: by Right of the Password. +I: Has (s)he the password? +S: (s)he has it not, I have it for him(her). +I: Give it or them. +S: There are two, Perfect Love and Perfect Trust. +I: Enter in the names of Aradia and Cernunnos! + +S & C take one step forward, and are stopped by a Sword placed to D's +breast. + I: `O thou who standest on the threshold of the pleasant world of men and + the dread domains of the Lords of the outer Spaces, hast thou the + courage to make the assay? For I say verily, it were better to rush + on my blade and have thy body Perish, than to enter with fear in your + heart, for then you risk your very being. +D: I have two passwords. Perfect Love and Perfect Trust. +I: All who have such are doubly welcome. I give thee a third to pass + this dread door. +(hands sword to partner and kisses D. Partner seals doorway and returns +Sword to altar, and waits there. + + INTRODUCTION TO THE QUARTERS +I: (leads candidate to E, S, W, & N.) +I: "Take heed ye Lords of the East (or whichever direction is being + saluted) (mundane name) is properly prepared and vouched for to be + Dedicant and Student and prays thy blessings on the work to be done. + (S & C finish up before the Altar.) + +(P): "In other religions the postulant kneels while the Priest towers over + him. But in our art magickal we are taught to be humble, and we kneel + to him [her] and we say:" +I: (Kneels and kisses feet) "Blessed be thy feet, that have brought thee + in these ways" (Kisses knees) "Blessed be thy knees, that shall kneel + before this Altar." (Kissing just above pubic area) "Blessed Be thy + organs of generation, without which we would not be" (Kissing + Breast[s]) Blessed Be thy Breast(s), formed in strength(beauty)." + (Kissing Lips) "Blessed Be thy lips, that shall oft utter the sacred + names". + The Charge of the Goddess + +Priestess: + Whenever ye have need of any thing, once in the month, and + better it be when the moon is full, then shall ye assemble in + some secret place and adore the spirit of She, who is Queen of + all witches. There shall ye assemble, ye who are fain to learn + all sorcery, yet have not won its deepest secrets; to these will + She teach things that are yet unknown. And ye shall be free from + slavery; and as a sign that ye be really free, ye shall be naked + in your rites; and ye shall dance, sing, feast, make music and + love, all in Her praise. For Hers is the ecstasy of the spirit, + and Hers also is joy on earth; for Her law is love unto all + beings. Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it; let + naught stop you or turn you aside. For Hers is the secret door + which opens upon the land of youth and Hers is the cup of wine of + life, and the cauldron of Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of + immortality. She is the gracious goddess, who gives the gift of + joy unto the heart of man. Upon earth, She gave the knowledge of + the spirit eternal; and beyond death, She gives peace and + freedom, and reunion with those who have gone before. Nor does + She demand sacrifice, for behold, She is the mother of all + living, and Her love is poured out upon the earth. + + She who is the beauty of the green earth, and the white moon + among the stars, and the mystery of the waters, and the desire of + the heart of man, calls unto thy soul. Arise, and come unto Her. + For She is the soul of nature, who gives life to the universe. + from Her all things proceed, and unto Her all things must return; + and before Her face, beloved of gods and men, let thine innermost + divine self be enfolded in the rapture of the infinite. Let Her + worship be within the heart that rejoiceth; for behold, all acts + of love and pleasure are Her rituals. And therefore let there be + beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, + mirth and reverence within you. And thou who thinkest to seek + Her, know thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not unless + thou knowest the mystery; that if that which thou seekest thou + findest not within thee, then thou wilt never find it without + thee. For behold, She has been with thee from the beginning; and + She is that which is attained at the end of desire. The Charge of the God +Priest: + Listen to the words of the Horned God, the Guardian of all + things wild and free, and Keeper of the Gates of Death, + whose Call all must answer: + + I am the fire within your heart... + The yearning of your Soul. + I am the Hunter of Knowledge + and the Seeker of the Holy Quest + I - who stand in the darkness of light + am He whom you have called Death. + I - the Consort and Mate of Her we adore, + call forth to thee. + Heed my call beloved ones, + come unto me and learn the secrets of death and peace. + I am the corn at harvest + and the fruit on the trees. + I am He who leads you home. + Scourge and Flame, + Blade and Blood - + these are mine and gifts to thee. + + Call unto me in the forest wild + and on hilltop bare + and seek me in the Darkness Bright. + I - who have been called; + Pan, + Herne, + Osiris , + and Hades, + speak to thee in thy search. + Come dance and sing; + come live and smile, + for behold: + this is my worship. + You are my children and I am thy Father. + On swift night wings + it is I who lay you at the Mother's feet + to be reborn and to return again. + Thou who thinks to seek me, + know that I am the untamed wind, + the fury of storm and passion in your Soul. + Seek me with pride and humility, + but seek me best with love and strength. + For this is my path, + and I love not the weak and fearful. + Hear my call on long Winter nights + and we shall stand together guarding Her Earth + as She sleeps. + TAKING OF THE OATH +Then repeat after me: I ______________ ____________ In the presence of +Cernunnos and Aradia, The Guardians of the Portals, and the worshipful +members of this Circle do of my own free will and accord solemnly and +sincerely promise and swear that I will always Heal, forever conceal, and +never reveal any of the Arts, Parts, or Points of the Sacred Core of the +Art Magickal which have been, may now, or at any future time come to my +knowledge as such except it be to a brother or sister of the craft, +properly prepared in a Circle such as the one we are now in; and that I +will never deny the secrets to such a person if he or she be vouched for +by a brother or sister of the Craft. I furthermore promise and swear to +uphold the Rede to the best of my ability, to keep the secrets of a brother +or sister of the craft they being given into my keeping and accepted by me +as such, Murder and Treason alone excepted, and these at my discretion; I +furthermore promise and swear to neither deliberately wrong, cheat, nor +defraud either any brother or sister of the Craft, nor any Coven of such. +All of this I solemnly and sincerely promise and swear with no mental +reservation or secret evasion of any kind, binding myself under no less a +penalty than that of forfeiting any hopes of a future life in the Craft of +the Wise; And my weapons turn against me if I break this my solemn oath +and obligation before the Gods and my Coven. + +Initiator and assistant help postulant to his/her feet. +I: "Upon completion of your taking this solemn and Holy vow before the + Lord and Lady, what is it you now desire most"? +D: "Light" +I: "So mote it be!" (assistant removes blindfold) +I: "Remove the restraints, Brother/Sister __________ is now bound by the + more complete and thorough bond of his obligation, for a Witches word + is their bond. Know this ______________, if your word ceases to be + your bond, then your magick will also start to fail you!" + + Presentation of Dedicant to The Quarters + +I: "I now Salute thee in the name of Aradia, Newly made Dedicant and +Student." (Initiator then kisses Dedicant.) + +Initiator now takes new witch around the circle and personally introduces +to everyone as "_____________ , dedicant and Student" Initiator then +returns with Dedicant to Altarand pauses briefly. Then Initiator leads +Dedicant to each of the cardinal points in turn, saying: + +I: "Hear ye Mighty Ones of the East (South, West, North); ____________ + has been consecrated Dedicant and Student of the Craft. She is +entitled to all the respect, rights, and priveleges due to a True and +Upright Son (Daughter) of the Goddess!" + + Consecration of Personal Tools By New Witch +I: "Now as a newly Initiated Witch, fully Consecrated to the Goddess, it + is time to perform your first Magickal Acts as a Priestess in a + Consecrated Circle." + + Cakes and Wine + + Dismiss Quarters and Open the Circle + + PARTY TIME!!! + + Tool Blessing Ritual + +A purification of objects for ritual use and their transformation into +magical items. [The area is prepared by placing a quantity of each element +in the proper quarter, as well as preparing the altar in the usual way. If +available, a cauldron (empty) is placed in the center of the circle. +Candles are placed at each of the four corners and lit, progressing deosil +from the east. Salt and water are blessed, and the celebrants are purified +with them. A magic circle is cast, and watchtowers summoned. The god is +then drawn down as follows: + +[The priest stands before the alter in the Osiris position, arms crossed +across chest and feet together. The Priestess kneels before him with face +and arms upraised.] + +PS: Hephaestus, forger of magic, + descend upon this the body of thy priest and servant, + lend us the strength of your arms. + Prometheus, shape of man, + descend upon this the body of thy priest and servant, + lend us your fire and foresight + Morpheus, weaver of dreams, + descend upon this the body of thy priest and servant, + lend us your subtlety and vision + +P: I am he, the shape-god, + forger, builder, artisan, smith. + With strength and craft I form the world. + +[The Priest helps the Priestess to rise, and she stands in the center of +the circle in the god position, extending her arms outward and down, palms +facing forward. The Priest kneels before her with head bowed.] + +P: Clotho, spinner of the strand of life + Descend upon this the body of thy priestess and servant. + Lend us your wheel of making. + Hecate, caster of spells, + Descend upon this the body of thy priestess and servant. + Lend us the power of your magic. + Aphrodite, goddess of love, + Descend upon this the body of thy priestess and servant. + Grant us eros, philos, aristos, agape. + +PS: I am she, the weaver-goddess, + Painter, poet, sculptor, witch. + With art and love I form the world. + +[The priestess extends her hands to the priest, and helps him rise. The +priest cups both hands and scoops from the cauldron, then offers to the +priestess.] + +P: Drink now from the cauldron of Cerridwen, whose draughts bring +knowledge, peace, and life. +[The priestess sips from the cupped hands, after which the priest drinks. +The objects to be blessed are taken from the altar by the priest and moved +widdershins to the west quarter, and immersed in the water there.] + +P: Spirits of the west, in water born + In cool waters cleanse these tools + And wash from them all hurt and harm + This I ask, this charge I lay, + By oak and ash and bitter thorn. + +[The objects are moved by the priestess to the south quarter and moved +above the flames there.] + +PS: Spirits of the south, in fire born + In shining flames purify these tools + And burn from them all impurities + This I ask, this charge I lay, + By oak and ash and bitter thorn. + +[The objects are moved to the east quarter by the priest and moved through +the incense smoke.] + +P: Spirits of the east, in sweet air born + In swirling winds polish these tools + And sweep from them all phantasm and illusion + This I ask, this charge I lay, + By oak and ash and bitter thorn. + +[The objects are moved to the altar by the priestess, and placed upon the +pentacle.] + +Ps: Spirits of the north, in cool earth born + In mother earth ground these tools + And take from them all spirits dark + This I ask, this charge I lay, + By oak and ash and bitter thorn. + +[The person consecrating the tools now offers an impromptu or prepared +charge to the items, stating their purpose and mode of use. They are then +taken up by the priestess and moved to the east quarter.] + +PS: Spirits of the east, from the bright air come, + Fill these tools with the swirling energies of the whirlwind + Make them float like the breeze + Spirits of air, hearken unto me, + As I do will, so more it be. +[The tools are now taken up by the priest and moved to the south quarter.] + +P: Spirits of the south, from wild fire come, + Fill these tools with the burning energies of the flames + Make them glow with bright fire + Spirits of fire, hearken unto me, + As I do will, so more it be. +[The tools are now taken up by the priestess and moved to the west +quarter.] + +P: Spirits of the west, from soothing water come, + Fill these tools with the calming energies of the warm rain + Make them flow like the tide + Spirits of water, hearken unto me, + As I do will, so more it be. +[The tools are now taken up by the priestess and moved to the altar.] + +PS: Spirits of the north, from firm earth come, + Fill these tools with the ordering energies of the growing crops + Make them flourish like grapes on the vine + Spirits of earth, hearken unto me, + As I do will, so more it be. + +[The priest takes the tools from the altar and steps backwards. The +priestess stands at the altar facing south towards the priest. The priest +extends his right arm in parallel to the ground, between he and the +priestess, with the tools in his hand.] + +P: I am the god, ever desiring. I am the stag in the woods, + I am the sun in the noonday sky, I am the lover in the dark. + I offer passion, strength, devotion, and the swiftness of the hunt. + +[The priestess extends her right arm in like fashion, and places her hand +over that of the priest.] + +PS: I am the goddess, ever nurturing. + I am the tempting beauty of the maid, + I am the quiet strength of the mother, + I am the infinite wisdom of the crone. + I offer life, love, warmth, and the fruitfulness of the fields. + + +[Both step towards each other, and turn their hands and arms so the fingers +point upwards, and the palms facing their own chest, cupping the other's +palm between and holding the tools. They clasp each other with their left +arms.] + +P&PS: Male and female, yin and yang, light and dark, action and stillness. + Apart we are forever incomplete, but together we form one. + In our joining we are blessed. In our union, the limitless energy + of universe is released and captured here. +P: As I do will +PS: As I do will +P&PS: As we do will, so mote it be. + +[The priest and priestess kiss, then release grasps. If the number and +size of the tools precludes them being held in one hand simultaneously, the +latter charging section should be repeated for each. The tools are +replaced on the altar.Cakes and wine are blessed and consumed, and a period +of relaxation and rest follows. The watchtowers are then dismissed, and +the circle opened. + DEDICATION OF Altar + Durwydd MacTara (1990) + + + This Altar in the circle's center, + A focal point that only good may enter. + + Erected to God and Goddess in strength, + Circular, it has neither breadth nor length. + + Focal point in A Circle of Power, + A mighty lens for every Tower! + + Sacred to Lord, Maiden, Lady, and Crone, + The foundation of many a powerful Cone! + + Resting Place of Magick and its implements, + Let veneration and Love be our only sentiments! + + A tool of will, powerful and free, + As it is willed, So Mote it Be! + + + DEDICATION OF Athame + Durwydd MacTara (1990) + + + + Mighty Deities, Gracious Lady and Mighty Lord, + As I perform this ritual, Pray hearken to my word. + + This tool, conceived in Mind of Air, (Point East) + Forged and formed in Fire of the South, (Point South) + Power tool for those who dare, + I CLAIM thee with my mouth! (Kiss blade) + + Tempered with Water for Strength, (Point West) + Also dedicated to the Earth,in Power. (Point North) + Blessed be, entire in length, (Kiss Pommel) + As it partakes of every Tower! + + By the Power of Cosmos, As above, (Point Up) + The Expression of Cosmos, is below. (Point Down) + Upon this instrument of Will and Love, + My Sacred Tie I bestow! (1 drop of blood on each side + and hilt) + + This tool is dedicated to my service of Lady and Lord, + Please find this work beneficial and good. + Bound to thee by homage, decimation, effort and word, + Bound to me by words, will, and blood. + + By the powers of earth, sky, star, and sea; + Such is my will, So mote it be! + AN ECLECTIC CIRCLE CEREMONY + Durwydd MacTara, 1989-90 + + Preliminaries + +WATER : + + Blessings upon thee, O creature of water, I cast out from thee all +impurities and uncleanness of the spirits of phantasm, confusion, or any +other influence not for the free will of all. + +SALT : + + Blessings be upon this creature of salt; let all malignity and +hindrance be cast forth thencefrom, and let all good enter therein. +Wherefore I bless thee and invoke thee, that thou mayest aid me. + +MIXING : + + I take this salt of the Earth, Blessed with the will of + Fire; I take this water of spirit,Exorcised with mind of merit; + + I mix them with words of power, Dedicated to every Tower. + + By the power of moon and sun, + By the power of Spirit,earth and sea, + God and Goddess are part of One, + As I Will, so mote it be! + + CASTING OF THE CIRCLE + + I conjure thee, O circle of power, + As thou encircle every Tower. + That thou beest a place of Truth, Joy and love, + Encircling Flight of Eagle, Hawk and Dove. + Mighty Aegis of the Lady and Lord, + Rampart of thought, action and word. + To work in Peace, Powerful and Free, + Who walk between two worlds conjure thee; + A boundary to Protect, Concentrate and Contain, + That Power raised here be not in vain. + +Wherefore do I bless thee and consecrate thee, in the names of Cernunnos +and Aradia. + SEALING OF THE CIRCLE + +(seal with water/salt mixture) + +With potion of earth and water, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking air and fire! +With potion of earth and air, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking fire with water! +With potion of earth,air,and fire, I seal the sacred circle, +Linking water with the Earth! + +As the four directions are brought to merge, +Let influence of the mighty ones converge! + +(Seal with Censer) + + With Incense and air of Mind, + East to South,I do Bind! + + With Incense and air of mind, + South to West, I do Bind! + + With Incense and air of Mind, + West to North, I do Bind! + + With Incense and air of Mind, + North to East Completion Find! + +(Seal with Candle) + + With the Fire of emotion and will + East to South, our dedication fulfill! + + With the Fire of veneration and Will, + South to West, our allegiance fulfill! + + With the Fire of Devotion and Will, + West to North, our consecration fulfill! + + With the Fire of Commitment and will, + From North to East, This inscription fulfill! + + Within the circle All wills be free, + The circle is sealed, So Mote it Be! + + SETTING THE WATCHTOWERS + Ye Lords of the Eastern Tower, + Airy Lords of Spirit; + Let your influence of Power, + Aid our minds with merit! +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to guard the +circle! + + Ye Lords of Southern Power + Fiery Lords of Will. + Pray do grace your Tower, + Your Powers to fulfill! +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to guard the +circle! + + Ye Lords of the Watchtowers of the West, + Watery Lords of Death and Initiation; +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to guard the +Circle! + + Ye Northern Lords of the Earth, + Though we be yet but Mortals; + Bless our work with worth, + Boreas, guardian of Northern portals. +I do summon, stir and call you up, to witness these rites and to guard the +Circle! + + Goddess and God, I would know, + As 'tis above, so 'tis below + Blessings on this work, please bestow! + + This be my will, true and free, + I do so will, so mote it be! + + INVOCATION OF THE ELEMENTS + (This is used to put an elemental "push" to any magickal + workings, or used to finalise the "set" on the Watctowers) + + Air, Fire, Water, Earth, + Elements of astral birth, + I call you now; attend to me! + In the Circle, rightly cast, + Safe from curse or blast, + I call you now, attend to me! + + From cave and desert,sea and hill, + By wand, blade,and pentacle, + I call you now, attend to me! + This Is my will, so mote it be! Quarter and Circle Dismissals + (Durwydd MacTara, 1992) + +North: + Oh mighty guardians of the north, Our business of the hour is +finished, and we invite you to return to you lovely realm of Earth, but +first we thank you with a Kiss! (Kiss Athame, and trace banishing +pentagram) + +West: + Oh mighty guardians of the north, Our business of the hour is +finished, and we invite you to return to you lovely realm of Water, but +first we thank you with a Kiss! (Kiss Athame, and trace banishing +pentagram) + +South: + Oh mighty guardians of the north, Our business of the hour is +finished, and we invite you to return to you lovely realm of Fire, but +first we thank you with a Kiss! (Kiss Athame, and trace banishing +pentagram) + +East: + Oh mighty guardians of the north, Our business of the hour is +finished, and we invite you to return to you lovely realm of Fire, but +first we thank you with a Kiss! (Kiss Athame, and trace banishing +pentagram) + +Circle Dismissal: + The Person dismissing the Circle should be the same one who cast it, +should do the dismissal with the SAME instrument used to cas it, i.e. +Athame, Sword, or Wand. Starting in the North, proceed widdershins, saying: + +"As this circle was cast in trust, we open it with love, the circle is open +but unbroken. Merry Meet, Merry part, Merry Meet again, and let it be in +Love. Blessed Be!" Cakes and Wine (without previous wine Consecration via G.R.) + +(Priestess Pours beverage into Chalice and turns to face Coven) +PS: "Here is the cup of wine of life, contained within the cauldron of + Cerridwen, which is the Holy Grail of immortality. Our Lady is the + gracious goddess, who gives the gift of joy unto the heart of man." + +ALL: "So Mote it Be!" + +(Priest places cakes on Pentacle and turns to face Coven) +P: "For it is said that 'I am the corn at harvest and the fruit on the + trees'. Here are harvest fruits made even more delectable via Perfect + Love and Perfect Trust, and served on the Holy emblem of the foor + Elements Surmounted by the Supreme Elaement of Spirit. Truly this is + the staff of life." + +ALL: "So Mote it Be!" + +(Priest turns to Priestess) +P: "Will you share with me the fruits of the field?" +PS: "I will." +(priest feeds a cake to the Priestess) + +(Priest takes Chalice and turns to Priestess) +P: "Will you share with me the Cauldron?" +PS: "I will." +(priest gives Priestess a sip of the Chalice) + +P & PS in unison: "In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust, Blessed be!" + +(Priest and Priestess turn to Coven and say:) +PS: "Will you share with us this Sacred Feast?" +ALL: "We Will." +P: "So Mote it Be!" + +Priest and Priestess take the Pentacle and Chalice to those standing in the +East, who repeat the sharing ceremony. The Cakes and Wine proceed around +the Circle, Deosil, until all have partaken. + Cakes and Wine (with previous wine Consecration via G.R.) + + +(Priest places cakes on Pentacle and turns to face Coven) +P: "For it is said that 'I am the corn at harvest and the fruit on the + trees'. Here are harvest fruits made even more delectable via Perfect + Love and Perfect Trust, and served on the Holy emblem of the foor + Elements Surmounted by the Supreme Elaement of Spirit. Truly this is + the staff of life." + +ALL: "So Mote it Be!" + +(Priest turns to Priestess) +P: "Will you share with me the fruits of the field?" +PS: "I will." +(priest feeds a cake to the Priestess) + +(Priest takes Chalice and turns to Priestess) +P: "Will you share with me our jointly Consecrated Cauldron?" +PS: "I will." +(priest gives Priestess a sip of the Chalice) + +P & PS in unison: "In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust, Blessed be!" + +(Priest and Priestess turn to Coven and say:) +PS: "Will you share with us this Sacred Feast?" +ALL: "We Will." +P: "So Mote it Be!" + +Priest and Priestess take the Pentacle and Chalice to those standing in the +East, who repeat the sharing ceremony. The Cakes and Wine proceed around +the Circle, Deosil, until all have partaken. + Chalice Dedication + +"Before the assembled Powers I bring this Chalice to be dedicated to the +service of the Lady and Lord. May this tool turn against me, or ANY, who +would use it amiss!" + +(Pass Chalice three times through smoke of the incense.) + +"By the power of air, be thou purified. Be thou dedicated to purity of +thought and to Service of Lord and Lady, An it Harm None." + +(Pass tool three times through or over the flame of the Altar Candle.) + +"By the power of fire, be thou purified. Be thou dedicated to purity of +Desire, Will, and Srength; To the Lord and Lady render your service, An it +Harm None." + +(Take a few drops of Consecrated water and sprinkle or dab on instrument.) + +"By the power of water, be thou purified. Be thou dedicated to purity of +emotion, and to heath and healing for those in need; To the Lord and Lady +render your service, An it Harm None." + +(Touch instrument to the previosly Consecrated salt) + +"By the power of earth, be thou purified. Be thou dedicated to +steadfastness and purity of purpose, that my will be achieved without +wavering; To the Lord and Lady render your service, An it Harm None." + + +PRESENTATION FOR CHALICE: + +"Hail Aradia! Keeper of Femininity, bless this chalice. Let it be as Thy +cauldron, a vessel of productivity that it may be worThy to dispense Thy +bounty. Let it be used in Thy service and in the service of humanity. Let +it be so bound that no harm may come of it to any being, but let it rather +be an instrument of good-will and understanding; of loving harmony. To Thy +sacred self I dedicate this vessel, that it and I may long be of service to +Thee." + +"Lord Cernunnos, companion to the Lady, Lord of Crops and the fields and +all wild beasts and birds therein, bless this chalice and keep watch over +it. Guard the works which come forth from it, that they ever be in the +service of Thee and Thy Lady, that they be of service to humankind, and +that they abide by the laws of harmony. To Thee I vow It shall be used for +Her sacred purposes, and for no other. + So mote it be." + Dedication of a Wand + +"Before the assembled Powers I bring this Wand to be dedicated to the +service of the Lady and Lord. May this tool turn against me, or ANY, who +would use it amiss!" + +(Pass tool three times through smoke of the incense.) + +"By the power of air, be thou purified. Be thou dedicated to purity of +thought and to Service of Lord and Lady, An it Harm None." + +(Pass tool three times through or over the flame of the Altar Candle.) + +"By the power of fire, be thou purified. Be thou dedicated to purity of +Desire, Will, and Srength; To the Lord and Lady render your service, An it +Harm None." + +(Take a few drops of Consecrated water and sprinkle or dab on instrument.) + +"By the power of water, be thou purified. Be thou dedicated to purity of +emotion, and to heath and healing for those in need; To the Lord and Lady +render your service, An it Harm None." + +(Touch instrument to the previosly Consecrated salt) + +"By the power of earth, be thou purified. Be thou dedicated to +steadfastness and purity of purpose, that my will be achieved without +wavering; To the Lord and Lady render your service, An it Harm None." + +PRESENTATION FOR WAND: + +"Lord Cernunnos, companion to the Lady, Lord of the Hunt, Patron of both +the hunter and the hunted, bless this Wand. Let it be as the spring rains +which fall upon the earth to cause Her to bring forth Her bounty. +Let it quicken my hopes and dreams, yet keep them from causing harm. Let +it guide them in the harmony of the seasons, bringing forth only good for +all. Lord Cernunnos, bless this Wand, that it be used ever in the worship +and honor of the Gods. + +"Hail Aradia! Keeper of Femininity, Companion and Consort to the Lord, +bless this Wand that it shall bring forth joy, and shall cause no pain nor +disharmony to any. I dedicate this Wand, symbol of Power and Authority +Vested by Thee to Thy service. May it ever bring Thee joy and pride. + So mote it be." + + SOLITARY MOON RITE + By: Ellen Reed, Coven of Sothistar + +This rite may be used for either New or Full Moon. The difference is in +your meditation and mental attitude in preparation. Remember that the New +Moon is a time of outward work and thought, building to the peak which is +the Full Moon. At the Full Moon, you should be preparing to lessen the +outward flow of energy, bit by bit, until the period before New Mo on, +during which you are passive, building a pool of energy within you, in +preparation for the New Moon. + +The altar should be placed in the center of the ritual area. On it should +be placed a rose or stick of incense on the eastern side, a red votive +candle to the South; a cup of water on the West, and a bowl of salt or +living plant on the North. + +Around your ritual area, you should place an unlighted candle at the +cardinal point of each direction. + +To begin your rite, enter your darkened temple, carrying one burning +candle, white or lavender, with you. Place it on the center of your altar, +sit, and meditate on the meaning of the rite. When you feel the time is +right, stand, and go to the eastern point, carrying with you, the burning +taper. Light the votive at the eastern point and go to the southern, +picturing, as you do, an arc of pure strong light curving from one candle +to the next. Continue to the West, and then + to the North, lighting the candles as you go, and then walk to your +eastern candle again, having formed a circle of pro tective light +surrounding the area in which you worship. + +Return to the center of the circle, replace the candle on the altar, and +say: + +My Lady of the Moon, who is called Diana, Artemis, Levanah, Isis and by any +other names, I come to you to bring you my love and my devotion. May you +grant me the joy of your presence. + +Mentally divide the room into four quadrants by visualizing a line of +silvery moonlight from the southeast to the northw est, and from the +northeast to the southwest. Go the East, taking with you the rose or +incense. Say: + +Sweet Goddess, the gentle breeze is the touch of your loving hand, the wind +of storm a reminder of your strength. The s ound of the trees in the wind +is your voice, and the fragrance of flowers borne on the wind is your gift +of beauty. + +Place the rose next to the votive candle, then stand there as you picture +the quadrant filling with moonlight. See the moonlight streaming quietly +and gently into the room, filling the quadrant +from center point to the edge of your circle. + + +When this is complete, take the red candle to the South. Place the gift +and see the quadrant fill with moonlight. Say: + + Most loved Lady, the light of the candle is a guide along our path leading +to you; its warmth the reassurance of your presence and your love. The +light of the Sun is the knowledge you impart to us, driving out ignorance +and those things which can survive only in darkness. + +At the West: + +Lovely One, the quiet pool is the serenity of your being. The vast sea +where life began on this planet is the vast sea of your being whence all +life came; its waves are the ebb and flow of the universe you rule. + +At the North: + +Goddess of all, the fertility of the earth is a sign of your fertility, +whence all life rose. The solidity and permanence are still of it are +still less than yours. The Earth's fertility feeds our bodies, and your +fertility feeds our souls. + +Go to the center of your temple, which is now filled with moonlight. +Everything in the circle is touched by it, blessed by it, including you. +Sit down and feel this moonlight around you. Know that it is the Goddess. +Realize that you are in the center of a sphere of light that is half above +and half above and half below where you sit. Begin to breathe slowly and +evenly, deep breaths that penetrate your whole body. When this rhythmic +breathing becomes natural, imagine that the moonlight by which you are +surrounded enters you, fills you entirely. +With each exhalation of your breath, some of the essence of yourself leaves +your body, and with each inhalation, the light enters you. You are being +filled ever so gently with this beautiful light. This light, which is the +presence, the being of the Goddess, is within you as well as without. With +each breath, you are less yourself and more the Goddess. + +When you are filled with light, filled with the Goddess, the shell of your +body fades away. You have no body; there is nothing to separate you from +the entire being of the Goddess. Nothing exists but the being of which you +are apart. You have ceased to be a separate entity. You are nothing and +everything. All that was, that is, and all that will be, you are. + +Enjoy this feeling as long as you like. When you feel it is time, picture +the outer shell of your physical body reformi ng, becoming solid again. It +is being built out of the Universe of which you are a part. + +Now, as you continue your slow deep breathing, see the moonlight flowing +out of your body, as gently and slowly as it entered. As it flows out, +realize there is a difference. Because you have become one with the +Goddess, with the Universe, your being has changed. As the moonlight flows +out of your body, it takes with it a part of that which was yourself, now +part of the Goddess, and leaves behind a part of the Goddess, forever now +part of you. You become yourself again, +solid as you were, but changed. You are surrounded by the presence of the +Goddess, which now contains a part of yourself . + +Move again to the East. As you speak, and after, picture the moonlight in +that quadrant flowing back to its source, lea ving that quadrant as it was. + +Do this at each quadrant, until all the moonlight has returned to the Moon. + At the East: + + My Lady, guide my thoughts. Let them lead always closer to you. + +At the South: + + Gracious Goddess, guide my actions. Let them always help and never harm +others or myself. + +At the West: + + Lovely One, guide my emotions: Let them be healing and touched always by +you. + +At the North: + + Sweet Goddess, let my mind always be fertile and storng, that I may grow +always toward you. + +Return to the East to complete the circle and say: + +Queen of Heaven, I thank you for your presence, both now and always. My +love and devotion are yours. Blessed be! + +All spirits who have joined me tonight may depart, with my love. Return to +your proper places. + +Walk again around your circle, but this time counterclockwise, extin- +guishing the quadrant guards as you go, and at the same time, mentally +erasing the white line which surrounded your circle. When the candles are +out and the circle gone, rap on your altar and say: + +The rite is ended. + Token (Symbolic) Great Rite + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/soundbbs.txt b/religious documents/soundbbs.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c6f2b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/soundbbs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2499 @@ + Welcome! to the.... + SOUND DOCTRINE CHURCH's BBS +a serious multi-line Christian BBS + + Thanks for calling in! + Everyone is w e l c o m e .... + Atheist + Agnostics + New Agers + Others + Christians + and none-of-the-above + +Would you like to receive, free, the Sound Doctrine Newsletter? + (you will *NEVER* receive a letter asking for money) + Just go to the rder area in the ction section + ++------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| welcome to the | +| SOUND DOCTRINE BBS | +| | ++------------------------------------------------+ + + MAIN MENU + - 2 Timothy 4:3 - + +---+----------------------------------------+ + | 1 | Alert, information, help, utilities | + | 2 | Message boards | + | 3 | Action areas | + | 4 | Downloading of files | + +---+----------------------------------------+ + | F | Free items to order | + | T | Talk to someone on the other line | + | G | Good-bye | + | * | Page the SySop | + +---+----------------------------------------+ + SOUND DOCTRINE CHURCH's BBS + telephone line (1) + +Command: 1 + + ALERT, INFO, HELP, UTILITIES MENU ++----+----------------------------+ +| 1 |alert to wicked churches | +| 2 |information about the bbs | ++----+----------------------------+ +| 3 |help files | +| 4 |change your settings | +| R |report a problem | ++----+----------------------------+ + <->Previous Menu ood-bye + + "Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord;" + -Isaiah 29:19 +Command: 1 + + ALERT TO SINFUL CHURCHES SECTION + <->Previous Menu + +---------------------------------+ + | HITEWASH AWARD current winner| + +---------------------------------+ + +---------------------------------------+ + | arvest Center, (formally Vineyard) | + | nner Healing | + | mazing poll | + |

rosperity teachers (Balaam) | + | <7>th Day Adventism | + | ushiony Christianity | + | hrinks | + +---------------------------------------+ + +"If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a + good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the + faith and of the good teaching that you have followed." + -1 Timothy 4:6 + + <2>-> Go to ALERT section 2 + +Command: h + +Type P to Pause, S to Stop listing + +**************************************** + HARVEST CHRISTIAN CENTER + formally + VINEYARD +**************************************** + +Though the name changes the false +doctrines stay the same. They leave +self alive even as the talk about death +to self. Scripture says that "they +promise them freedom", but cannot +deliver eternal freedom, {2 Peter 2:9}. + +In a recent seminar they had called, +"Walking in Freedom 1, revised" they +did just that - Promised people +freedom, but know not what they "so +confidently affirm". There is much +that could be said, but one comment +they make the Spirit says is their +spirit of prophecy, {John 11:51}. + +They state, "Healing past hurts is a +process that is to occur within our +abiding and following after God. A. +Becoming whole is a process. It is +"line on line, line on line, a little +here, a little there." " {Isaiah 28:10 +NAS}" + -page 3, "Walking in Freedom 1" + +You will notice that they say inner +healing, or dealing with "past hurts" +is just like ISAIAH 28:10. + +* * * * * * * * + 100 % AGREEMENT +* * * * * * * * + +I must admit that I am in totally 100% +agreement with them!!! Inner healing, +Vineyard gospels are indeed ISAIAH +28:10!!!!! Let us fully read Isaiah 28 +now and see what the spirit of prophecy +about inner healing is. + +* * * * * * * * * + ISAIAH 28 +* * * * * * * * * + +"And these also stagger from wine and +reel from beer; Priests and prophets +stagger from beer and are befuddled +with wine; they reel from beer, + +they stagger when seeing visions +they stumble when rendering decisions. + +All the tables are covered with vomit +and there is not a spot without +filth... + +For it is DO AND DO, DO AND DO, RULE +AND RULE, RULE ON RULE; A LITTLE HERE, +A LITTLE THERE. + +(that is the part they quote saying +what "freedom" is; or what inner +healing is...and they are RIGHT!} + +Very well then, with foreign lips and +strange tongues God will speak to this +people, to when he said, + +'This is the resting place, let the +weary rest'; and 'This is the place of +repose' - but they would not listen. + +So then, the word of the Lord to them +will become; Do and do, do and do, rule +on rule, a little here, a little there - +so that they will go and fall backward +be injured and snared and captured.... + +The understanding of this message will +bring sheer terror." + +* * * * * * * * * * + "SHEER TERROR" +* * * * * * * * * * + +The Harvest Center, the Vineyard, +Isaiah and God says that to truly +understand the false teaching of inner +healing will bring "SHEER TERROR"! I +agree. + +*************************************** + FREE TAPE OR TRACT OFFER + +There are free tapes tracts available +on this topic. Just rder the tapes +on Inner Healing or the one about this +seminar is called, "They Promise Them +Freedom". + +*************************************** + -end- +**************************************** + + ALERT TO SINFUL CHURCHES SECTION + <->Previous Menu + +---------------------------------+ + | HITEWASH AWARD current winner| + +---------------------------------+ + +---------------------------------------+ + | arvest Center, (formally Vineyard) | + | nner Healing | + | mazing poll | + |

rosperity teachers (Balaam) | + | <7>th Day Adventism | + | ushiony Christianity | + | hrinks | + +---------------------------------------+ + +"If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a + good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the + faith and of the good teaching that you have followed." + -1 Timothy 4:6 + + <2>-> Go to ALERT section 2 + +Command: s + +Type P to Pause, S to Stop listing + +********************** +CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGIST +************************************************ + + +There is no such thing as a Christian +Psychologist. Unless of course there is a such +a thing as a Christian strip tease dancer. + +Psychology is a philosophy and a religion. +Psychology is not a science. You cannot show +me a id, ego or super-ego. Not only that, but +psychologist cannot even agree on what the +truth is concerning human behavior. When I was +majoring in psychology one message came through +loud and clear. Psychology has all the +questions, but no answers. That is why it +changes concepts every 6 hours. Yesterday +Freud was in with his Penis envy and castration +complexes. A few years ago it was Maslows +heirchary of needs. Today it is left - right +brain voodoo. + +"Why do you go about so much, changing your +ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt as you +were by Assyria." Jeremiah 2:36 + +What is considered wisdom today, like +yesterdays ideas, will "disappoint" us +tomorrow. + +The reasons there is no such thing as a +Christian Psychologist is because the Spirit of +God does not dwell with someone offering man's +wisdom! They have prostituted themselves to +the world's ideas. They have been taken +captive and are taking others captive. For +psychology is based upon the world, not Jesus +Christ. And God says we are to guard ourselves +against such. + +"See to it that no one takes you captive +through hallow and deceptive philosophy, which +depends on human tradition and the basic +principles of this world rather than on +Christ." - Colossians 2:8 + +A individual who tries to go by the title of +"Christian Psychologist" has only been taken +"captive through hallow and deceptive +philosophy, which depends on human tradition +and the basic principles of this world." Jesus +said to leave such blind guides! They offer +you no lasting hope. "See to it that no one +take you captive"!! + +Even if Psychology says something that is in +agreement with God's Word it has no power. +Even though the two might agree, there is +really no agreement. One is the dung of this +world and the other is the Living God who is +able to deliver. + +"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. +For what do righteousness and wickedness have +in common? Or what fellowship can light have +with darkness? What harmony is there between +Christ and Belial? What does an unbeliever +have in common with an unbeliever? What +agreement is there between the temple of God +and idols?...'Therefore come out from them and +be separate," says the Lord. " + -2 Corinthians 6:14-18 + +To hear some "Christian Psychologist" talk poor +Paul was at a disadvantage because he didn't +have our understanding of psychology. Pity +him, he only had the Holy Spirit and a +relationship with a living God. + +The only reason people turn to such concepts of +this world is that they do not know the power +of the cross. + +"No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom +that has been hidden and that God destined for +our glory before time began....Has not God made +foolish the wisdom of the world?...For I +resolved to know nothing while I was with you +except Jesus Christ and him crucified." +-1 Corinthians 1 & 2 + +Don't give way to the foolish wisdom of this +world. Instead, leave that so called Christian +Psychologist and pray for God's secret wisdom. +For indeed, the wisdom of this world is +"deceptive", "hollow" and based on the "human +traditions and the basic principles of this +world rather than on Christ" and if you listen +to it you will be taken "captive"! + +*********************************************** +* * +* SOUND DOCTRINE BBS * +* 8/N/1 24HRS * +* (303) 680-7209 * +* * +* "For the time will come when men will not * +* put up with sound doctrine." * +* -2 Timothy 4:3 * +* * +* P.O. BOX 460206 * +* AURORA, COLORADO 80015 * +* VOICE PHONE: (303) 690-0920 * +* * +*********************************************** + + ALERT TO SINFUL CHURCHES SECTION + <->Previous Menu + +---------------------------------+ + | HITEWASH AWARD current winner| + +---------------------------------+ + +---------------------------------------+ + | arvest Center, (formally Vineyard) | + | nner Healing | + | mazing poll | + |

rosperity teachers (Balaam) | + | <7>th Day Adventism | + | ushiony Christianity | + | hrinks | + +---------------------------------------+ + +"If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a + good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the + faith and of the good teaching that you have followed." + -1 Timothy 4:6 + + <2>-> Go to ALERT section 2 + +Command: 2 + + ALERT TO SINFUL CHURCHES SECTION 2 + <->Previous menu + +"Remember that for 3 years I never stopped warning + each of you night and day with tears." -Acts 20:31 + ++----------------------------------------+ +| HITEWASH AWARD current winner | ++----------------------------------------+ ++------------------------------------------+ +| nsanity in the church | +| huck the man who Swindols you | +| ock-n-Roll guidelines for Christians | +| ypocrisy, have you caught it? | +| enver Church of Christ | +| imon's music hall | ++------------------------------------------+ + +Command: - +Command: - + + + MAIN MENU + - 2 Timothy 4:3 - + +---+----------------------------------------+ + | 1 | Alert, information, help, utilities | + | 2 | Message boards | + | 3 | Action areas | + | 4 | Downloading of files | + +---+----------------------------------------+ + | F | Free items to order | + | T | Talk to someone on the other line | + | G | Good-bye | + | * | Page the SySop | + +---+----------------------------------------+ + SOUND DOCTRINE CHURCH's BBS + telephone line (1) + +Command: 3 + ACTION CHOICES + +----+---------------------------+ + | 1 | action vote, test areas | + | 2 | to order free items | + | 3 | files for downloading | + | 4 | talk with someone on-line | + | 5 | church times | + +----+---------------------------+ + <->Previous menu ood-bye ++--------------------------------------------------+ +| "...faith by itself, if it is not accompanied | +| by action, is dead." -James 2:17 | ++--------------------------------------------------+ +Command: 5 + +Type P to Pause, S to Stop listing + +-------------------------+ + | Sound Doctrine Church | + +-------------------------+ + p.o. box 460206 aurora, colorado 80046 + besides fellowshipping all week long these are our official times + + 1:30 - 4:30 on Sunday + + We meet at this time so that we can give our + best to the Lord. + + 7:00 - 9:00 on Thursdays + + We meet together in the evening and activities + often vary as the Holy Spirit leads. + +--------------------+ + | Order a Map & Call | + +--------------------+ + * If you would like to attend a worship service please + leave an order for a map. We meet at a local + recreational center. Also, call to verify that we are + indeed meeting at the recreational center. + Phone: (303) 690-0920 + +-Press Any Key- + + ACTION CHOICES + +----+---------------------------+ + | 1 | action vote, test areas | + | 2 | to order free items | + | 3 | files for downloading | + | 4 | talk with someone on-line | + | 5 | church times | + +----+---------------------------+ + <->Previous menu ood-bye ++--------------------------------------------------+ +| "...faith by itself, if it is not accompanied | +| by action, is dead." -James 2:17 | ++--------------------------------------------------+ + +Command: 2 + + <->Previous Menu ++-------------------------------------------+ +| | +| | +| everything is absolutely FREE | +| +-------------------------------+ | +| | ORDER DESK | | +| +-------------------------------+ | +| | assette tape orders | | +| | ract orders | | +| | HS orders | | +| | ailing list for Newsletter | | +| | uietly Jesus sits | | +| +---+-------------------------------+---+ | +| | eedback to us on sermons/tracts | | +| +---------------------------------------+ | +| | +| | ++-------------------------------------------+ + +Command: q + + +------------------------+ + | | + | JESUS QUIETLY SITS | + | | ++---+------------------------+---+ +| | +| 1 THE HEART OF THE MATTER | +| 2 WIDOW's OFFERINGS | +| | ++--------------------------------+ + <->Previous Menu + +Command: 1 + +Type P to Pause, S to Stop listing + + -------> MONEY STUFF <-------- + +The bottom line in all this is... + ...we love you in the Lord + ....and hate your money. +Yes, HATE your money!!! + + Matthew 6:24 +"No one can serve two masters. Either he +will hate the one and love the other, or +he will be devoted to the one and despise +the other. You cannot serve both God and +Money." + + ---------> FREE <------- + +Everything we offer on this BBS and at +church is offered for free, without any +type of obligation or pressure to give. + + Matthew 10:8 +"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse +those who have leprosy, drive out demons. +Freely you have received, freely give." + + -------> DO NOT BRIBE <------ + +We will not bribe you by saying, "Look, +if you send in a $10.00 gift we will send +you offer number #666. + + II Corinthians 9:7 +"Each man should give what he has decided +in his heart to give, not reluctantly or +under compulsion, for God loves a +cheerful giver." + + -------> 30 PEOPLE <----- + +We are a small church of under 30 people. +And it is because of their "hatred" +towards money and their love for the will +of God that we are able to offer +everything for free. + + II Corinthians 8:1-5 +"And now, brothers, we want you to know +about the grace that God has given the +Macedonian churches. Out of the most +severe trial, their overflowing joy and +their extreme poverty welled up in rich +generosity. For I testify that they gave +as much as they were able, and even +beyond their ability. Entirely on their +own, they urgently pleaded with us for +the privilege of sharing in this service +to the saints. And they did not do as we +expected, but they gave themselves first +to the Lord and then to us in keeping +with God's will." + +We are a "poor" church but out of our +"overflowing joy" we give with excitement +to all who ask. + + ------> NOT COMMANDING YOU <------ + +We feel impressed in the Lord to make +opportunity for those who are willingly +to give themselves "first to God" (2 +Corinthians 8:5) then to us, to be able +to give. + +It is as much a part of Sound Doctrine to +urge obedience in this area also. + + II Corinthians 8:6-9 +"So we urged Titus, since he had earlier +made a beginning, to bring also to +completion this act of grace on your +part. But just as you excel in everything- +-in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in +complete earnestness and in your love for +us --see that you also excel in this +grace of giving. I am not commanding you, +but I want to test the sincerity of your +love by comparing it with the earnestness +of others. For you know the grace of our +Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was +rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, +so that you through his poverty might +become rich." + + ----> NOT LOOKING FOR LARGE GIFTS <------ + +You will not find any crazy stuff like +certain boxes to check with an amount +next to that box! You may give only +stamps, $1,00 or whatever. The amount is +not important!!! What is important is +that you excel in all the grace of God - +that you be obedient to Jesus. + + II Corinthians 8:12 +"For if the willingness is there, the +gift is acceptable according to what one +has, not according to what he does not +have." + + ------> NO MASK <----- + +This is not a "mask" to cover up greed! +We joyfully consider it our pleasure to +give to you. + + I Thessalonians 2:5 +"You know we never used flattery, nor did +we put on a mask to cover up greed--God +is our witness." + +Those of you who have been on this BBS, +or heard sermons or the radio show know +that we never use "flattery" and we are +not "greedy" for your money. + +If you would like to give then you have +an opportunity to do so. If you do not +want to give, or do not have it to give, +we love you the same. So order away! + + II Corinthians 8:13-14 +"Our desire is not that others might be +relieved while you are hard pressed, but +that there might be equality. At the +present time your plenty will supply what +they need, so that in turn their plenty +will supply what you need. Then there +will be equality," + + -----> IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GIVE <----- + +If you would like to give anything to +this ministry you can mail it to, + + SOUND DOCTRINE + P.O. BOX 460206 + AURORA, COLORADO + 80015 + + ------> MAKE YOUR INTENTIONS KNOWN <----- + + +There is a sign-up section for you to +make a commitment of giving if you like. + + II Corinthians 8:6 +"So we urged Titus, since he had earlier +made a beginning, to bring also to +completion this act of grace on your +part." + + ------> WISDOM <------ + + Luke 16:8-9 +"The master commended the dishonest manager +because he had acted shrewdly. For the +people of this world are more shrewd in +dealing with their own kind than are the +people of the light. I tell you, use +worldly wealth to gain friends for +yourselves, so that when it is gone, you +will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." + +How little the body of Christ knows how to +"gain friends". We so often give only to +get. We give out of our abundance. We give +because we must or should. How few know the +secret of "hating" and "despising" money. +For it is true what Jesus said, + +"For the people of this world are more +shrewd in dealing with their own kind than +are the people of the light." -Jesus + + -----> NO LOVE GIFTS, BUT THANKS <------ + +You will not get a love gift from us. +However, you will get a personal thank- +you before God because of the love and +support you have given. THANKS! + + II Corinthians 9:12-15 +"This service that you perform is not +only supplying the needs of God's people +but is also overflowing in many +expressions of thanks to God. Because of +the service by which you have proved +yourselves, men will praise God for the +obedience that accompanies your +confession of the gospel of Christ, and +for your generosity in sharing with them +and with everyone else. And in their +prayers for you their hearts will go out +to you, because of the surpassing grace +God has given you. Thanks be to God for +his indescribable gift!" + +Enough talk about money (ugh!), we love +you and look forward to serving you. + +-Press Any Key- + +Command: - + + <->Previous Menu ++-------------------------------------------+ +| | +| | +| everything is absolutely FREE | +| +-------------------------------+ | +| | ORDER DESK | | +| +-------------------------------+ | +| | assette tape orders | | +| | ract orders | | +| | HS orders | | +| | ailing list for Newsletter | | +| | uietly Jesus sits | | +| +---+-------------------------------+---+ | +| | eedback to us on sermons/tracts | | +| +---------------------------------------+ | +| | +| | + +T + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= += TRACT ORDER DESK = +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + +<->Previos menu + +RACT listing +

LACE AN ORDER for tracts + +Command: t + +Type P to Pause, S to Stop listing + + +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + | SOUND DOCTRINE TRACT LIST | + | DATE: 02/19/1990 VOLUME: 1 | + +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + + +-------------------------------------------+ + | TRACT ORDER FORM | + +-------------------------------------------+ + | MODEM NUMBER (303) 680-7209 (8/N/1) | + | VOICE NUMBER (303) 690-0920 | + +-------------------------------------------+ + +  The following tracts can be ordered FREE of charge  + + +-----------+ A LIST OF FREE TAPES YOU + | TAPE LIST | YOU CAN ORDER. BOTH CASSETTE AND VHS. + +-----------+ SO ORDER AWAY, YOU CAN'T BE THE PRICE ANYWHERE! + + +--------------------+ A 40 DAY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE THAT IS EQUAL + | 40 DAY BIBLE STUDY | TO THE NUMBER OF DAYS JESUS WAS + +--------------------+ TEMPTED BY THE DEVIL IN THE DESERT + + +--------------------------+ WHAT YOUR CHURCH FELLOWSHIP MUST BE + | NEW TESTAMENT FELLOWSHIP | IF YOU CLAIM YOU BELONG TO JESUS AND + +--------------------------+ ARE A NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH! + + +---------------------+ WANT TO BE A GODLY WIFE IN CHRIST JESUS? + | NO DRIPPING ALLOWED | THEN YOU WILL WANT TO READ THIS TRACT. + +---------------------+ IT EVEN COMES WITH MARRIAGE BUTTONS! + + +---------------------------+ + | WHICH ROAD TO SALAVATION? | WHICH CHURCH IS RIGHT? + +---------------------------+ + + +------------------------------------+ + | SPIRITUAL GIFTS ARE THEY FOR REAL? | ARE THEY FOR REAL? + +------------------------------------+ + + +------------------------------------------+ THIS TRACT GOES TO SCRIPTURE + | TONGUES, PRAYER LANGUAGE AND BEING SLAIL | AND SORTS THROUGH THE MAZE + +------------------------------------------+ OF CONFUSION + + +---------------+ + | WATER BAPTISM | JUST HOW IMPORTANT IS IT? + +---------------+ + +----------------------+ + | DIVORCE & REMARRIAGE | FILL IN THE BLANK AND FIND OUR YOURSELF. + +----------------------+ + +-----------------+ + | WORKING MOTHERS | HOW TO HANDLE THE GUILT + +-----------------+ + +-------------------+ + | SIGN OF AUTHORITY | A FORGOTTEN COMMANDMENT OF JESUS! + +-------------------+ + +-----------------------------------------------+ YOU WILL + | SPECIAL REPORT DENVER's MOST DANGEREOUS CULT | BE SURPRISED + +-----------------------------------------------+ TO FIND OUT WHO IT IS + + +------------------------------+ THERE IS A CHURCH WITH A GREAT + | INNER HEALING OR SOUR GRAPES | "HARVEST" TEACHING + +------------------------------+ THIS DUNG! + + +-----------------------------+ WE USE THEIR BIBLE TO + | JEHOVAH WITNESS STUDY GUIDE | SHOW THEM THE + +-----------------------------+ TRUTH ABOUT JESUS! + + +------------------------------+ FIND OUT WHAT GODLY MUSIC AND + | THE CHRISTIAN MUSIC QUESTION | WHY PLACES LIKE "SIMONS" IN DENVER + +------------------------------+ ARE SENDING OTHERS TO HELL. + + +--------------------------+ Find out why the Mormon church is + | A VISIT TO TEMPLE SQUARE | wrong. We did after visiting + +--------------------------+ Temple Square in Salt Lake City. + + +------------------+ Everyone who says they are a disciple of Jesus, + | HATING FOR JESUS | that is, saved, must live a life of "hate". + +------------------+ Yep, a life of hate! + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | order form for TRACTS | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | NAME: | + | | + | STREET ADDRESS: | + | | + | CITY: | + | | + | ZIP CODE: | + | | + | SERMONS ORDERED: | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + +---------------------------------------------+ + | SOUND DOCTRINE BBS | + +---------------------------------------------+ + | 8/N/1 24HRS | + | (303) 680-7209 | + | {PC Pursuit through Denver} | + | | + | "For the time will come when men will not | + | put up with sound doctrine." | + | -2 Timothy 4:3 | + | | + | P.O. BOX 460206 | + | AURORA, COLORADO 80046-0206 | + | VOICE PHONE: (303) 690-0920 | + | | + +---------------------------------------------+ + +-Press Any Key- + +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= += TRACT ORDER DESK = +=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= + +<->Previos menu + +RACT listing +

LACE AN ORDER for tracts + +Command: p + ++------------------+ +| TRACT ORDER DESK | ++------------------+ + +"Freely you have received, freely give." +- Jesus - +The Tracts are totally free. + ++--------------------------------------------+ +| Would you like to place a tract order now? | ++--------------------------------------------+ + +Yes + ++-------------------------------------------------------+ +| What is the name of the person the order is going to? | ++-------------------------------------------------------+ ++------------------------------------------+ +| What is your street or p.o. box address? | ++------------------------------------------+ ++---------------------------------------+ +| What city do you want this mailed to? | ++---------------------------------------+ ++-------------+ +| What state? | ++-------------+ ++------------------------+ +| What is your zip code? | ++------------------------+ ++-----------------------------+ +| The title of tract #1 is... | ++-----------------------------+ +No Dripping Allowed ++-----------------------------+ +| The title of tract #2 is... | ++-----------------------------+ +Divorce and Remarriage + ++----------------------------+ +| Was this your first order? | ++----------------------------+ + +Yes +No Dripping Allowed +Divorce and Remarriage + +Yes + +-Press Any Key- + +Command: - + + <->Previous Menu ++-------------------------------------------+ +| | +| | +| everything is absolutely FREE | +| +-------------------------------+ | +| | ORDER DESK | | +| +-------------------------------+ | +| | assette tape orders | | +| | ract orders | | +| | HS orders | | +| | ailing list for Newsletter | | +| | uietly Jesus sits | | +| +---+-------------------------------+---+ | +| | eedback to us on sermons/tracts | | +| +---------------------------------------+ | +| | +| | ++-------------------------------------------+ + +Command: v + ++----------------------+ +| vhs tape order desk | +| choose 6 sermons | +| it's all free +--------------------+ ++----------------------+hs tape listing | + |ew sermon listing| + |

lace an order | + |<->previous menu | + +--------------------+ + +Command: v + +Type P to Pause, S to Stop listing + + +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + | SOUND DOCTRINE VHS TAPE LIST | + | DATE: July 8, 1990 VOLUME: 2 | + +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | V H S T A P E L I S T | + | | + +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | The Sound Doctrine Church is a group of Christians without | + | denominational affiliation. We simply desire to come to God | + | in the humility that can only come from the Holy Spirit. | + | Each member has surrendered their opinions and past religious | + | teachings in order that we might learn from God what His Word | + | means. More than anything we ask for the grace to be able to | + | live His Word and not to merely be another church full of empty | + | talk and singing. We welcome all who seek to love God with all | + | their heart, mind and soul. We open our arms to those willing | + | to die to self by the power of the Holy Spirit. All tapes and | + | materials are absolutely free. You will never receive a | + | letter asking for money. For we love you and "hate" your | + | money, (Luke 16:13). In short, everything we offer is free; | + | including our lives. | + | | + +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ + + VHS SERMON TAPES + + PLEASE CHOOSE 6 SERMONS + PER TAPE + + ALL VHS TAPES ARE FREE + + YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THIS FILE IN THE + SOUND DOCTRINE DOWNLOAD AREA. + + new releases + + THE HOLY SPIRIT + +380 THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SANTIFICATION +380-a THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS VOICE +380-b THE HOLY SPIRIT AND GOD'S WILL +380-c THE HOLY SPIRIT AND LOVE +380-d THE HOLY SPIRIT AND POWER + + MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION + + Matthew 5:1-2 +Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. +His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying: + + +379 MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 1, "When he saw the crowds" +379-a MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 2, "Blessed are the meek" +379-b MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 3, "Blessed are the merciful" +379-c MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 4, "Pure hearts and persecution" +379-d MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 5, "Divorce" +379-e MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 6, "Eye for eye and love" +379-f MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 7, "Loving enemies and prayer" +379-g MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 8, "Fasting/treasure/worry" +379-h MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 9, "Do not judge" +379-i MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 10, "Ask/Narrow road/Fruit" +379-k MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 11, "Only those who obey" + + CHURCH MATTERS + +NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY, (what is it) +ATTITUDE TOWARD THE DISFELLOWSHIPPED +BUILDING ONE ANOTHER UP WITH CONVERSATION + +GOING TO CHURCH - what it means! +LIVING IN THE FEAR OF THE LORD +BEING DEVOTED TO ONE ANOTHER + +DENVER'S MOST DANGEROUS CULT, true Christianity +WHY PEOPLE JOIN A CULT + + SINS TO DEAL WITH + + +WHAT TO PRAY, Your part +WHAT TO PRAY, Your leaders part +WHAT TO PRAY, Unseen things + +DEALING WITH PRIDE, PART 1, Judgement +DEALING WITH PRIDE, PART 2, who made you God? +DEALING WITH PRIDE, PART 3, Why so many churches +DEALING WITH PRIDE, PART 4, God is able to humble + +TEMPTATION, PART 1, Attitude toward +TEMPTATION, PART 2, Taking it apart, -A +TEMPTATION, PART 3, Taking it apart, -B +TEMPTATION, PART 4, Victory in Jesus! + +SEXUAL SIN, PART 1, Attitude toward +SEXUAL SIN, PART 2, A true Christian Date +SEXUAL SIN, PART 3, David's sexual sin +SEXUAL SIN, PART 4, Steps to take +SEXUAL SIN, PART 5, A pure marriage bed + +HOW TO SIN AGAINST YOUR LEADERS, part 1 +HOW TO SIN AGAINST YOUR LEADERS, part 2 +HOW TO SIN AGAINST YOUR LEADERS, part 3 + +GRUMBLING, PART 1 +GRUMBLING, PART 2 + + + HOT TOPICS + +THE RAPTURE AND THE TRIBULATION +THE DIVORCE & RE-MARRIAGE QUESTION +THE MUSIC QUESTION: what is acceptable +THE SCHOOL QUESTION: public or private +WHO IS AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD NEW AGE MOVEMENT? +A SEASON FOR PROSTITUTION, (working mothers) + + + FAMILY MATTERS + +GODLY MARRIAGE, PART 1 +GODLY MARRIAGE, PART 2 +GODLY MARRIAGE, PART 3 +GODLY MARRAIGE, PART 4 (A season for prostitution) + + + + JESUS STUFF! + + +JESUS' TERMS OF PEACE +FORCEFUL MEN LAY HOLD OF JESUS +TURNING IT OVER TO GOD + +FOUNDATIONS, PART 1, TEACHERS AND JESUS +FOUNDATIONS, PART 2, WHAT TO DENY + +A CARRIED CROSS, PART 1, Love +A CARRIED CROSS, PART 2, Thy will be done +A CARRIED CROSS, PART 3, Hating + +DOGS, PIGS AND YOU! + + + DOCTRINAL MATTERS + +SPIRITUAL GIFTS, PART 1, Are they for real? +SPIRITUAL GIFTS, PART 2, Tongues +SPIRITUAL GIFTS, PART 3, Being slain by the Spirit + +WATER BAPTISM, what it means +JOHN 15, Christianity in a nutshell + + + ACTION THINGS + + +GODLY SORROW IS TRUE REPENTANCE +LOVING THE WORD OF GOD +TURNING IT OVER TO GOD + +HOW TO KNOW YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE +FORCEFUL MEN +WHEN JUDING IS WRONG + +ASHAMED - WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO BE ASHAMED OF? +WHAT?! - I REALLY HAVE TO CHANGE +IN VAIN + +DO NOT WORRY + +DOING BATTLE, PART 1, The basics +DOING BATTLE, PART 2, Your first love + + + SERIES + + +SAMSON, PART 1 +SAMSON, PART 2 +SAMSON, PART 3 +SAMSON, PART 4 + +MORNING PRAYER TIME +EVENING PRAYER TIME + +PSALM #1 +PSALM #2 +PSALM #4 + + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | order form for VHS tapes | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | NAME: | + | | + | STREET ADDRESS: | + | | + | CITY: | + | | + | ZIP CODE: | + | | + | SERMONS ORDERED: | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + +---------------------------------------------+ + | SOUND DOCTRINE BBS | + +---------------------------------------------+ + | 8/N/1 24HRS | + | (303) 680-7209 | + | {PC Pursuit through Denver} | + | | + | "For the time will come when men will not | + | put up with sound doctrine." | + | -2 Timothy 4:3 | + | | + | P.O. BOX 460206 | + | AURORA, COLORADO 80046-0206 | + | VOICE PHONE: (303) 690-0920 | + | | + +---------------------------------------------+ + + +-Press Any Key- + ++----------------------+ +| vhs tape order desk | +| choose 6 sermons | +| it's all free +--------------------+ ++----------------------+hs tape listing | + |ew sermon listing| + |

lace an order | + |<->previous menu | + +--------------------+ + +Command: - + + <->Previous Menu ++-------------------------------------------+ +| | +| | +| everything is absolutely FREE | +| +-------------------------------+ | +| | ORDER DESK | | +| +-------------------------------+ | +| | assette tape orders | | +| | ract orders | | +| | HS orders | | +| | ailing list for Newsletter | | +| | uietly Jesus sits | | +| +---+-------------------------------+---+ | +| | eedback to us on sermons/tracts | | +| +---------------------------------------+ | +| | +| | ++-------------------------------------------+ + +Command: c + + + +--------------------------+ + | CASSETTE TAPE ORDER DESK | + | it's all free! | + +----------+---------------+ ++------------+----------+ +|assette tape list | +|ew sermon tape list | +|

lace an order | +|<->previous menu | ++-----------------------+ + +Command: c + +Type P to Pause, S to Stop listing + + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + | SOUND DOCTRINE TAPE LIST | + | DATE: July 8, 1990 VOLUME: 2 | + +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | T A P E L I S T | + | | + +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ + | The Sound Doctrine Church is a group of Christians without | + | denominational affiliation. We simply desire to come to God | + | in the humility that can only come from the Holy Spirit. | + | Each member has surrendered their opinions and past religious | + | teachings in order that we might learn from God what His Word | + | means. More than anything we ask for the grace to be able to | + | live His Word and not to merely be another church full of empty | + | talk and singing. We welcome all who seek to love God with all | + | their heart, mind and soul. We open our arms to those willing | + | to die to self by the power of the Holy Spirit. All tapes and | + | materials are absolutely free. You will never receive a | + | letter asking for money. For we love you and "hate" your | + | money, (Luke 16:13). In short, everything we offer is free; | + | including our lives. | + | | + +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ + + +*FREE TAPES* + + new releases + + + THE HOLY SPIRIT + +380 THE HOLY SPIRIT AND SANTIFICATION +380-a THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS VOICE +380-b THE HOLY SPIRIT AND GOD'S WILL +380-c THE HOLY SPIRIT AND LOVE +380-d THE HOLY SPIRIT AND POWER + + MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION + + Matthew 5:1-2 +Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. +His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying: + + +379 MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 1, "When he saw the crowds" +379-a MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 2, "Blessed are the meek" +379-b MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 3, "Blessed are the merciful" +379-c MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 4, "Pure hearts and persecution" +379-d MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 5, "Divorce" +379-e MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 6, "Eye for eye and love" +379-f MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 7, "Loving enemies and prayer" +379-g MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 8, "Fasting/treasure/worry" +379-h MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 9, "Do not judge" +379-i MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 10, "Ask/Narrow road/Fruit" +379-k MOUNTAINSIDE CONSIDERATION, PART 11, "Only those who obey" + + + CHURCH MATTERS + + +300 GOING TO CHURCH, -what it should mean +301 NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY +302 ATTITUDE TOWARD THE DISFELLOWSHIPPED +303 BUILDING ONE ANOTHER UP WITH CONVERSATION +304 LIVING IN THE FEAR OF THE LORD +305 BEING DEVOTED TO ONE ANOTHER +306 DENVER'S MOST DANGEROUS CULT, true Christianity +307 WHY PEOPLE JOIN A CULT +308 WHAT IT MEANS TO CALL SOMEONE BROTHER +309 BEING DEVOTED TO ONE ANOTHER +310 THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER +311 BUILDING ONE ANOTHER UP WITH CONVERSATION + +312 DISFELLOWSHIP, Part 1 +312-a DISFELLOWSHIP, Part 2 + +313 RETURNING TO THE FOLD, PART 1, the church's part +313-a RETURNING TO THE FOLD, PART 2, your part + +314 INSANITY IN THE CHURCH +315 WOMEN PREACHERS - THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT + +316 WORSHIP, Part 1, what it should be +316-a WORSHIP, Part 2 +316-b WORSHIP, Part 3 +316-c WORSHIP, Part 4 + + + SINS TO DEAL WITH + + +317 DEALING WITH PRIDE, PART 1, judgement +317-a DEALING WITH PRIDE, PART 2, who made you God? +317-b DEALING WITH PRIDE, PART 3, why so many churches? +317-c DEALING WITH PRIDE, PART 4, God is able to humble + +318 TEMPTATION, PART 1, attitude toward +318-a TEMPTATION, PART 2, taking it apart, -A +318-b TEMPTATION, PART 3, taking it apart, -B +318-c TEMPTATION, PART 4, victory in Jesus! + +319 SEXUAL SIN, PART 1, attitude toward +319-a SEXUAL SIN, PART 2, a true Christian date +319-b SEXUAL SIN, PART 3, David's sexual sin +319-c SEXUAL SIN, PART 4, steps to take +319-d SEXUAL SIN, PART 5, a pure marriage bed + +320 HOW TO SIN AGAINST YOUR LEADERS, part 1 +320-a HOW TO SIN AGAINST YOUR LEADERS, part 2 +320-b HOW TO SIN AGAINST YOUR LEADERS, part 3 + + + HOT TOPICS + +321 THE RAPTURE AND THE TRIBULATION +322 THE DIVORCE & REMARRIAGE QUESTION +323 THE MUSIC QUESTION, what is acceptable? +324 THE SCHOOL QUESTION, public or private? +325 WHO IS AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD NEW AGE MOVEMENT? +326 A SEASON FOR PROSTITUTION, working mothers + +327 SPIRITUAL GIFTS, PART 1, are they for real? +327-a SPIRITUAL GIFTS, PART 2, tongues +327-b SPIRITUAL GIFTS, PART 3, being slain by a spirit + + FAMILY MATTERS + +328 GODLY MARRIAGE, PART 1, Abraham & Sarah +328-a GODLY MARRIAGE, PART 2, Abraham & Sarah -b +328-b GODLY MARRIAGE, PART 3, triumphant +328-c GODLY MARRIAGE, PART 4, working mothers +328-d GODLY MARRIAGE, PART 5, divorce and remarraige + +329 RAISING CHILDREN FOR THE LORD, Part 1, introduction +329-a RAISING CHILDREN FOR THE LORD, Part 2, Jesus +329-b RAISING CHILDREN FOR THE LORD, Part 3, parents +329-c RAISING CHILDREN FOR THE LORD, Part 4 +329-d RAISING CHILDREN FOR THE LORD, Part 5, when and how many? +329-e RAISING CHILDREN FOR THE LORD, Part 6, ask God +329-f RAISING CHILDREN FOR THE LORD, Part 7, giving them to God + + DISCIPLESHIP + + JESUS STUFF! + +330 THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING YOUR WORD +331 JESUS' TERMS OF PEACE +332 FORCEFUL MEN LAY HOLD OF JESUS +333 ASHAMED - WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO BE ASHAMED OF? + - ANYTHING? + + +334 A CARRIED CROSS, PART 1, love +334-a A CARRIED CROSS, PART 2, thy will be done +334-b A CARRIED CROSS, PART 3, hating + +335 HATING YOUR FATHER & MOTHER +335-a HATING YOUR WIFE +335-b HATING YOUR CHILDREN PART 1 +335-c HATING YOUR CHILDREN PART 2 +335-d HATING YOUR BROTHERS +335-e HATING YOUR OWN LIFE what it means +335-f HATING YOUR OWN LIFE fall to the ground +335-g HATING YOUR OWN LIFE the day of action + +336 JESUS CLEARLY PORTRAYED AS CRUCIFIED Part 1 +336-a JESUS CLEARLY PORTRAYED AS CRUCIFIED Part 2 +336-b JESUS CLEARLY PORTRAYED AS CRUCIFIED Part 3 +336-c JESUS CLEARLY PORTRAYED AS CRUCIFIED Part 4 +336-d JESUS CLEARLY PORTRAYED AS CRUCIFIED Part 5 +336-e JESUS CLEARLY PORTRAYED AS CRUCIFIED Part 6 +336-f JESUS CLEARLY PORTRAYED AS CRUCIFIED Part 7 +336-g JESUS CLEARLY PORTRAYED AS CRUCIFIED Part 8 +336-h JESUS CLEARLY PORTRAYED AS CRUCIFIED Part 9 +336-i JESUS CLEARLY PORTRAYED AS CRUCIFIED Part 10 + +337 WATER BAPTISM, what it means +338 JOHN 15, the power to live the Christian life +339 GODLY SORROW IS TRUE REPENTANCE +340 TURNING IT OVER TO GOD + +341 TO SUFFER WITH CHRIST, Part 1 -Romans 8:17 +341-a TO SUFFER WITH CHRIST, Part 2 +341-b TO SUFFER WITH CHRIST, Part 3 +341-c TO SUFFER WITH CHRIST, Part 4 +341-d TO SUFFER WITH CHRIST, Part 5 + +342 ON THE ROAD TO EMMAUS, a road we must all walk + +343 DOING BATTLE, PART 1, the basics +343-a DOING BATTLE, PART 2, your first love + +344 WHAT TO PRAY, PART 1, your part +344-a WHAT TO PRAY, PART 2, your leaders part +344-b WHAT TO PRAY, PART 3, unseen things + + VARIOUS TOPICS + +345 A HOLY CHRISTMAS +346 DO NOT WORRY +347 DOGS, PIGS AND YOU! +348 LOVING THE WORD OF GOD +349 WHAT?! YOU MEAN I REALLY HAVE TO CHANGE?! +350 IN VAIN +351 HOW TO KNOW YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE +352 TURNING IT OVER TO GOD + +353 SAMSON, PART 1 +353-a SAMSON, PART 2 +353-b SAMSON, PART 3 +353-c SAMSON, PART 4 + +354 MORNING PRAYER TIME +355 EVENING PRAYER TIME + +356 PSALM #1 +376 PSALM #2 +377 PSALM #4 + +357 REJOICE, PART 1 +357-a REJOICE, PART 2 +357-b REJOICE, PART 3 + +358 THE CRY OF A HYPOCRITE, what do Peter & Judas have in + common + +359 RESTING IN GOD +360 FREEDOM FROM MONEY +361 WALKING AS JESUS WALKED + +362 EMPTY BRANCHES, Part 1 How to have power +362-a EMPTY BRANCHES, Part 2 +362-b EMPTY BRANCHES, Part 3 + +363 SEED IN THE HEART +364 STOPPING YOUR SIN +365 CONFESSING YOUR SIN +366 GOD'S DISCIPLINE + +367 MIRACLES, Part 1, the worship of miracles +367-a MIRACLES, Part 2, a beast called miracles +367-b MIRACLES, Part 3, waiting on God +367-c MIRACLES, Part 4, how to do miracles + +368 CHRISTIANITY WITH A CURSE + +369 THE DAMNABLE TEACHING CALLED, good self-esteem +369-a THE DAMNABLE TEACHING CALLED, good self-esteem, the + lowly + +370 THE BLASPHEME OF INNER HEALING +371 THE WAY OF BALAAM, prosperity teachers +372 IS BEING IN DEBT A SIN? + +378 GRUMBLING +378-a GRUMBLING, PART 2 + + JEHOVAH WITNESS + +The following series takes the Jehovah's Witness bible and shows them +their error. Comes with a very complete study guide. + +373 JEHOVAH WITNESS: Part 1, history +373-a JEHOVAH WITNESS: Part 2, history and concepts +373-b JEHOVAH WITNESS: Part 3, history and concepts continued +373-c JEHOVAH WITNESS: Part 4, Jesus is God +373-d JEHOVAH WITNESS: Part 5, dealing with a Jehovah + Witness + + ABOUT SOUND DOCTRINE CHURCH + +374 WHAT SOUND DOCTRINE BELIEVES +375 BUILDING A CHURCH + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | order form for tapes | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | NAME: | + | | + | STREET ADDRESS: | + | | + | CITY: | + | | + | ZIP CODE: | + | | + | SERMONS ORDERED: | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + +HOW TO ORDER + +Everything is free so order away. Simply go through the tape list and place +a check in the box (boxes are only in the printed version or in the special +format section on the BBS) by the tapes or tracts you want. Then cut out +the sheet that contains all the numbers. Circle the numbers that correspond +to the tapes or tracts you want. If you are are ordering a VHS tape please +try and specify at least 5 sermons. + +CASSETTE TAPES + +300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 312-a 313 313-a 314 +315 316 316-a 316-b 316-c 317 317-a 317-b 317-c 318 318-a 318-b 318-c 319 +319-a 319-b 319-c 319-d 320 320-a 320-b 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 327-a +327-b 327-c 327-d 328 32-a 328-b 329 329-a 329-b 329-c 329-d 329-e 329-e +330 331 332 333 334 334-a 334-b 335 335-a 335-b 335-c 335-d 335-e 335-e 335- +f 335-g 336 336-a 336-b 336-c 336-d 336-e 336-f 336-g 336-h 336-i 337 338 +339 340 341 341-a 341-b 341-c 341-d 342 343 343-a 343-b 344 344-a 344-b 345 +346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 353-a 353-b 353-c 354 355 356 357 357-a 357- +b 358 359 360 361 362 362-a 362-b 363 364 365 366 367 367-a 367-b 367-c 368 +369 369-a 370 371 372 373 373-a 373-b 373-c 373-d 374 375 376 377 378 378-a + +-Press Any Key- + +Command: - +Command: - +Command: - + + MAIN MENU + - 2 Timothy 4:3 - + +---+----------------------------------------+ + | 1 | Alert, information, help, utilities | + | 2 | Message boards | + | 3 | Action areas | + | 4 | Downloading of files | + +---+----------------------------------------+ + | F | Free items to order | + | T | Talk to someone on the other line | + | G | Good-bye | + | * | Page the SySop | + +---+----------------------------------------+ + SOUND DOCTRINE CHURCH's BBS + telephone line (1) + +Command: 4 + + downloadable files main menu ++--+ +---+------------------------------+ +--+ +| | | H | Help with how to download | | | +| | +---+------------------------------+ | | +| | | S | Sound Doctrine downloads | | | +| | | C | Christian downloads | | | +| | +---+------------------------------+ | | +| | | D | Dos computer downloads | | | +| | +---+------------------------------+ | | +| | | N | New download/upload section | | | +| | | U | Upload a file to the SySop | | | ++--+ +---+------------------------------+ +--+ + <->Previous Menu ood-bye + +<*>Sysop requesting copied files + +Command: d + + Shareware File area ++---------------------------------+ +| <1> level one | +| <2> level two | +| <3> level three | +| <4> level four | ++---------------------------------+ +| new upload area | +| upload a file to the sysop | +| <-> previous menu | ++---------------------------------+ + +Command: 1 + +Type P to Pause, S to Stop listing + + + +--------------------------+ + | GENERAL FILE AREA #1 | + +--------------------------+ + + For since the creation of the world God's + invisible qualities--his eternal power and + For since the creation of the world God's + divine nature--have been clearly seen, + being understood from what has been made, + so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20) + + +File area # 1 ... Sound Doctrine Materials +File area # 2 ... Archive/Compression Utilities +File area # 3 ... Batch File Utilities +File area # 4 ... Calculators +File area # 5 ... Dos Utilities +File area # 6 ... Text File Editors +File area # 7 ... File Finding Programs +File area # 8 ... Keyboard Utilities +File area # 9 ... Menu Programs + +Select File Area: 1 + +File area # 1 ... Sound Doctrine Materials + +rea, ownload,

rotocol, xamine, ew, elp, or ist +Selection or to exit: l + +Type P to Pause, S to Stop listing + + + SOUND DOCTRINE CHURCH's MATERIAL + + +LIST.ZIP 192493 + A list of all files available + This file contains a list of + of every shareware file on the + system. + +SYSOP.TXT 1111 + How a Sysop can get copies + If you are a Sysop and would + like copies of our files this + is how we can do it. + +ABOUT.TXT 14070 + What is Sound Doctrine BBS + This file explains what + we are about. What we believe + and why God would have us + call ourselves Sound Doctrine. + ++--------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| CHILDREN'S COLORING PICTURES | +| | +| | +| The following files are pictures that your | +| children can color. They are draw by an artist | +| that I know well in the Lord. Enjoy! | +| | ++--------------------------------------------------+ + + +BEAR.ZIP 26057 Peaceful Pete +FOX.ZIP 27976 Freddy Faithful +JOY.ZIP 32477 Joyful Joey +KANK.ZIP 21375 Katie and love +LION.ZIP 26778 Love and fear +MONKEY.ZIP 27343 Gentle George +MTGOAT.ZIP 27366 Gus shouts for the Lord +PINE.ZIP 27928 Pattie and pride +SEAL.ZIP 24014 Be alert + ++---------------------------------------+ +| SOUND DOCTRINE NEWSLETTERS | +| The following files are copies of our | +| newsletters. You can recieve a copy | +| for free by ordering it at the order | +| desk. | +| | +| These files contain most, but not all | +| of the special formats that are in | +| the printed newsletters | ++---------------------------------------+ + +NEWS-1.ZIP 153863 April 1990 + This newsletter is about the need to judge. + It explains that it is sin not to judge others. + +NEWS-2.ZIP 159435 July 1990 + This newsletter explains "how" to judge. + It explains what God will have to do with + you in order for you know how to lovingly + judge others. + ++--------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| DESKTOP PUBLISHING QUALITY | +| SECTION | +| | +| | +| The tracts below contain most, {but not all} of | +| the do-dads and special features of the ones | +| we mail out. In terms of quality they are worth | +| the extra time it takes to download. | +| Set your printer to Epson FX/MX or LQ when | +| printing these tracts out. | ++--------------------------------------------------+ + +CHILD!.ZIP 72980 + This you can do with your + children to encourage them + in the Lord. This file is + written by a sister in the + Lord. + +MUSIC!.ZIP 143168 + Is STRYPER of God? + This file will give you a + look into the heart of God + in order to see who He accepts + as Christian musicians. + +ABOUT!.ZIP 74779 + What we are about + Why we are called Sound Doctrine. + What we believe. + +DRIP!.ZIP 147322 + Marriage and dripping + Excellent tract for married women. + Written by a sister in the Lord. + +GOODCULT.ZIP 165430 + Denver's most dangerous cult + There is a lot of "cult" hype + out there. In fact, we have + even been called a cult! + This tract will show you that if + your church honestly begins to + live out the gospel they you too + will be called a cult. All others + are lukewarm lovers of God. + +DIVORCE!.ZIP 155701 Divorce & remarriage & hell +GRACE!.ZIP 365815 Do you really have God's Grace? +TICKET!.ZIP 40192 Own a fancy car? download this! +WATERFX!.ZIP 235392 Water baptism and you +THANKS!.ZIP 22527 Thanks and stuff +HATEFX!.ZIP 423040 How to hate for Jesus! +TAPEFX!.ZIP 175360 Free tape/tract/VHS list + +COVER!.ZIP 107859 + Women in church need one! + Are you sisters in church covered? + It is a sin for women to not wear + a "sign of authority" in church. + Find out how Paul's command in + 1 Corinthians is * not * cultural + as you have been taught. + +GIFTS-1!.ZIP 70732 Are they for today? +GIFTS-2!.ZIP 178443 Mis-use and abuse +HARVEST!.ZIP 118090 Denver's Harvest Center +FELLOW!.ZIP 234112 Church fellowship +WORKMOM!.ZIP 153586 Working mothers & guilt + +SUPPER!.ZIP 149557 + You could die + So many take the Lord's Supper + without judging themselves. + So God judges them by making + them "weak", "sick" or even + dead. + +MORMON!.ZIP 164693 A visit to temple square + ++--------+ +| GUARD | ++--------+-----------------------------------------------------------+ +| "...be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the | +| error of lawless men and fall from your secure position." | +| -2 Peter 3:17 | ++--------------------------------------------------------------------+ + +HELP-A.TXT 539 Help- adverage settings +HELP-B.TXT 6669 Help- with message board +HELP-D.TXT 684 Help- with downloading +HELP-E.TXT 1024 Help- with echo boards +HELP-M.TXT 878 Help- with menu settings +HELP-N.TXT 4922 Help- with line noise +HELP-P.TXT 657 Help- when you need to phone +HELP-S.TXT 8265 Help- with getting saved +HELP-T.TXT 2755 Help- on how to use talk section + +TIMES.TXT 1208 When Sound Doctrine Church meets togethe +TAPE.TXT 14019 Tapes you can order for free +TRACT.TXT 5927 Tracts available for downloading +TXT.TXT 28437 This list for downloading +VHS.TXT 9316 VHS tapes you can order for free + +NOT.TXT 2009 + When not to call in. + This file will provide you with a + list of times when events shut down + the bbs. Most of your shut downs are + for only 5 minutes. Check this file + often. Times can change. + +LEVEL_1.TXT 5773 Guidelines for message boards + +LEVEL_2.TXT 11892 + What the Iron Sharpens Iron Message board is all + about. Some many get into this area and then + complain about the heat. Be sure you read this + before leaving messages in this area. + + +QUIETLY.TXT 6902 Quietly Jesus sits +HATE.ZIP 20352 Hating for Jesus -A MUST! +JUNK.TXT 2928 Junkboard information +CROSS.TXT 1913 Never coming back here again file + +SHARE.TXT 2464 + Info on the Refreshment Stand Message Board + This message board is shut down. + But if enough individuals become intrested we + will open it up again. + +NEWUSER.TXT 4863 Newuser intro +PERSON.TXT 6865 Personal info about the Sysop[s] +TECH.TXT 1412 Tech info about the BBS +HUMILITY.TXT 10180 Where to get the power to follow Jesus +HYPO.TXT 4062 Hypocrisy, you know, your friend + +WASH.TXT 5239 Alert -Current Whitewash award +SIMONS.TXT 6127 Alert -To false Christian Church in Denv +INSANE.TXT 6912 Alert -Are you or your church Insane? +DENVER.TXT 8624 Alert -to the Denver Church of Christ +SWINDOL.TXT 9684 Alert -Chuch the man who Swindolls you +SEVEN.TXT 10052 Alert -Which day is proper to worship on +HARVEST.TXT 3402 Alert -Harvest Center Church's teaching +INNER.TXT 17461 Alert -Inner healing is a short lived pe +PROSP.TXT 2265 Alert -Prosperity teachers are really Ba +CUSHION.TXT 4637 Alert -Soft Christianity; watch out for +SOUNDPSY.DOC 4758 Alert -Christian Psychologist? +MUSIC.TXT 21133 Alert -Christian Rock -N- Roll? +POLL.TXT 2798 Alert -An amazing poll result! + ++-------+ +| WATCH | ++-------+------------------------------------------------------------+ +| "Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because | +| if you do you will save both yourself and your hearers." | +| -1 Timothy 4:16 | ++--------------------------------------------------------------------+ + +DIVORCE.ZIP 8717 Divorce & remarraige & hell +GRACE.ZIP 21213 Do you really have God's Grace? + +MUSIC.TXT 21133 + What kind of music does God approve of? + Is STRYPER of God? + This file will give you a + look into the heart of God + in order to see who He accepts + as Christian musicians. + +FACTS.TXT 13180 + Facts about Rock-On-Line echo base + This "Christian" echo is ONLY + interested in people who accept wicked + compromising singers for Jesus. + +JOIN.TXT 27617 + Got what it takes to join the "Pathetic" few? + For those who play the Numbers Game. + That is, "Why is your church so small?" + In fact we have been called "pathetic". + Find out how Jesus views the numbers game. + You can order a free tape on this topic + in the order desk. + +BIRTHDAY.TXT 31517 + Happy birthday Jesus + You know Christmas time + +GIFTS-1.TXT 9709 Are spiritual gifts for today? +GIFTS-2.TXT 18386 Abuse, mis-use and phoney baloney + +COVERING.TXT 16056 + Are you sisters in church covered? + It is a sin for women to not wear + a "sign of authority" in church. + Find out how Paul's command in + 1 Corinthians is * not * cultural + as you have been taught. + +REMARRY.TXT 19324 Divorce & remarriage, is it of God? + +GOODCULT.TXT 25585 + Denver's most dangerous cult + Denver's most dangerous cult + There is a lot of "cult" hype + out there. In fact, we have + even been called a cult! + This tract will show you that if + your church honestly begins to + live out the gospel they you too + will be called a cult. All others + are lukewarm lovers of God. + +40DAY.TXT 37388 + 40 Day Devotional study guide + Excellent study guide to you get + you in the Word. + +ARREST.TXT 8914 You are under arrest +DEARDOC.TXT 7615 Abortion tract {give to your doctor} +FELLOW.TXT 37813 What fellowship should be +KILL.TXT 12777 Kill the Easter bunny +LEAVE.TXT 9432 Leave those dead churches +NEWAGE.TXT 27438 Who is afraid of the Big Bad New Age? +VISIT.TXT 16585 A visit to Temple Square {Mormons} +NEWAGE.TXT 27438 Who is afraid of the Big Bad New Age +ONCE.TXT 5587 Once saved - always saved? +REST.TXT 7095 Rest or recreation in the Lord? + +CHILD.TXT 12077 + This you can do with your + children to encourage them + in the Lord. This file is + written by a sister in the + Lord. + +SEX.TXT 10336 A woman delivered +SELFEST.TXT 6408 A proper self-esteem {ie Bad} +TEMPLE.TXT 19765 A vist to temple square +POPE.TXT 8270 Which foundation God or the Pope +WATER.ZIP 14107 Water baptism and you! +WHICH.TXT 33220 Which road to salvation, who'se right? +WORKMOM.TXT 14848 Working mothers + +* Programs by Sound Doctrine * + +BEAST.ZIP 48674 + You very own 666 program + A "fun" program to see + what names add up to + 666 or 444. + +rea, ownload,

rotocol, xamine, ew, elp, or ist +Selection or to exit: d + +File Name? beast.zip + +Protocol=SEALINK File BEAST.ZIP, 381 records +Est. Time: 3 mins, 57 secs at 2400 bps + + Shareware File area ++---------------------------------+ +| <1> level one | +| <2> level two | +| <3> level three | +| <4> level four | ++---------------------------------+ +| new upload area | +| upload a file to the sysop | +| <-> previous menu | ++---------------------------------+ + +Command: - +Command: - +Command: 2 + + MESSAGE BOARD MENU ++---+----------------------------------------------+ +| 1 | Sound Doctrine Church's local message boards | +| 2 | Christian echo boards | +| 3 | Overseas Christian echo boards | ++---+----------------------------------------------+ +| C | combined reading of some boards | +| T | talk with somone on the other telephone line | ++---+----------------------------------------------+ +| N | Non-Christian echo boards | ++---+----------------------------------------------+ + <->Previous menu ood-bye + +Command: 1 + + SOUND DOCTRINE MESSAGE BOARDS ++----+---------------------------------+ +| 1 | GENERAL DISCUSSION BOARDS | +| 2 | FIRE MESSAGE BOARDS | +| 3 | ADAM'S RIB MESSAGE BOARD | ++----+---------------------------------+ +| 4 | LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE SYSOPs | ++----+---------------------------------+ + <->Previous menu + +Command: 1 + + +----------------------+ + | LEVEL 1 SIGN-UP MENU | ++-------+----------------------+-------------+ +| UIDELINES FOR MESSAGE BOARDS (read 1st) | +| IGNED AGREEMENT BY YOU FOR LEVEL 1 | +| *you will have access when done | ++--------------------------------------------+ + <->Previous menu +| EVEL 2 message boards, (fire boards) | + +Command: g + +Type P to Pause, S to Stop listing + + MESSAGE BOARD INFORMATION FILE + + {level 1} + + +------------------------------+ + | INTRODUCTION | + +------------------------------+ + +The message boards are put here for your spiritual growth and +enjoyment. However, for your benefit several guidelines will be +enforced. The guidelines *only* pertain to Sound Doctrine's local and +echo boards. Other echo boards have their own set of rules and guidelines. + +If you do not follow the general guidelines the following may take place. + +[A] Your access to our message boards will be cut. + That is, you will not be allowed to leave any + messages. + +[B] Your time on the BBS may be reduced. + +[C] You can be totally removed from the BBS. + +Now, don't panic! In the several years we have been running this BBS only +two individuals have ever had to have their privileges reduced or cut. As +you shall see in the following guidelines, we are very tolerate. + +If this should happen to anyone and they regret the breaking of these +guidelines, just leave a note of apology to the SySop and we will prayerfully +consider letting you back in. + + +------------------------------+ + | GENERAL GUIDELINES | + +------------------------------+ + +Our guidelines are based upon the Word of God as we follow the Holy Spirit. + + +Guidelines are: + +[1] YOU *CAN* DISAGREE + + You will *NOT* be denied access just + because you disagree with someone. We are + not interested in a message board where + the "rules" keep changing based on whether + we agree with what you are saying. + + +[2] WATCH THE WAY YOU DISAGREE + + You know; avoid cuss words, stupid + arguments and general nasty comments about + someone. + + II Timothy 2:23 + "Don't have anything to do with foolish + and stupid arguments, because you know + they produce quarrels." + + +Disagree with anyone, but let it be done with the utmost respect. + +[3] YOU CAN BE TERMINATED JUST BECAUSE YOU LOVE TO QUARREL + + II Timothy 2:23 + "Don't have anything to do with foolish + and stupid arguments, because you know + they produce quarrels." + + I Timothy 6:3-5 + "If anyone teaches false doctrines and + does not agree to the sound instruction of + our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly + teaching, he is conceited and understands + nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in + controversies and quarrels about words + that result in envy, strife, malicious + talk, evil suspicions and constant + friction between men of corrupt mind, who + have been robbed of the truth and who + think that godliness is a means to + financial gain." + +[4] NO QUARRELING ABOUT EVERY LITTLE WORD. + + II Timothy 2:14 + Keep reminding them of these things. Warn + them before God against quarreling about + words; it is of no value, and only ruins + those who listen. + + HINT: remember this point for your test, + i.e., it "ruins those who listen". + + +------------------------------+ + | WHAT TO EXPECT FROM US | + +------------------------------+ + +[1] Private message providing you with a warning + to stop whatever you are doing that is wrong. + +[2] If you don't hear from us - YOU ARE DONING + JUST FINE! So be straight forward. + +[3] If you are removed from the system then we + will inform others whom you have been + writing of our action. + +[4] You can expect two warnings. + + Titus 3:10 + Warn a divisive person once, and then warn + him a second time. After that, have + nothing to do with him. + + +------------------------------+ + | CONCLUSIONS | + +------------------------------+ + +We hope this has not spoiled anyone's welcome to this system. However, +we are confident that if we all obey and enforce these guidelines others +will be built up in the Lord. + +So disagree with anyone, get tough, but show proper respect and pay +attention to what is being discussed. + +-Press Any Key- + +Command: s + +*************************************************** +* AGREEMENT FOR LEVEL 1 MESSAGE BOARDS * +*************************************************** + +HAVE YOU READ THE GUIDELINES TEXT FILE YET? + +Yes + +WHAT NAME DID YOU LOG ON WITH? + +ARE YOU PERMITTED TO "DISAGREE" WITH ANYONE ON THIS BBS? + +Yes + +WILL ANYONE EVER BE KICKED-OFF BECAUSE THEY DISAGREE WITH +SOMEONE ELSE? + +No + +FOR WHAT REASON CAN YOU BE KICKED-OFF THE BBS? + +Abuse + +CAN SOMEONE BE DENIED ACCESS TO THE MESSAGE BOARDS +JUST BECAUSE THEY LIKE TO STIR UP TROUBLE? + +No + +SCRIPTURE SAYS THAT IF WE QUARREL ABOUT EVERY LITTLE +WORD IT WILL "RUIN" WHO? + +Themselves + +IF FOR SOME REASON YOU ARE DENIED ACCESS TO THE +MESSAGE BOARDS, CAN YOU EXPECT A MESSAGE TELLING +WHY? + +Yes + +WHO DO THE GUIDELINES APPLY THE MOST TO? + +Me + +*********> AGREEMENT <********* +I UNDERSTAND THAT I MAY BE TRUTHFUL AND STRAIGHT FORWARD +ABOUT ANY MATTER - BUT MUST DO IT IN A WAY THAT IS +DECENT. + +TYPE ----> "YES" if you agree "NO" if you disagree + +YES + +WE HAVE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION AS.. + +Yes +No +Abuse +No +Themselves +Yes +Me + +IS THIS CORRECT? + +y + +THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS +WE LOOK FORWARD TO "TYPING" WITH YOU!!! + +-Press Any Key- + + sound doctrine message board level #1 + <->Previous menu + ++----+---------------------------------------+ +| UNKMAIL message board | +| HIT-CHAT message board | +| EVEL 2 message boards, (fire boards) | ++----+---------------------------------------+ + +"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths...." +-Ephesians 4:29 + e-read guidelines + +Command: j + + +-+ + ++| + +-----------------++ + | | + | JUNKMAIL BOARD | + | | + +------------------+ + + unkmail reading + nsolicated delivery (type @JUNK) + ot too much time for this junkmail + nowing what this board is about + + <->Previous menu + +Command: j + +Which One? r + +Pause after each msg(Y/N)? y + +Section has 1922 Msgs, #4765 to 12621 +Starting number, =Last: + +Msg#:11885 *JUNKMAIL* +09/11/90 23:30:52 +From: DAVID STODDARD + To: MIKE PHILLIPS (Rcvd) +Subj: REPLY TO MSG# 11292 (WARNING) +Re: "Neo-Tech" + +Come off this whimsical downgrading about something [still unknown] that you +take greater pleasure in rebuffing than any worthwhile effort to identify +and/or discribe. + + I don't know whether to read the wrappers on the toilet paper I buy or +ask the station attendant where he got that gasoline from. You might just as +well flaunt a sign about the coming doom that does not say anything more ----as +well as your heavy handed deriding about something you give absolutely no +specifics about{who/what/when/where/how/why}. + + Hey; what's the buzz? Tell me what's happening? Quit this childish +ranting without clarifying the concerns. ...et al + +gain, eply, ext, or top? + +Msg#:11882 *JUNKMAIL* +09/11/90 12:07:02 +From: ANDREW WIGGIN + To: MIKE PHILLIPS (Rcvd) +Subj: REPLY TO MSG# 11623 (WARNING) +Are you suggesting that we try to tell the government to outlaw others' +beliefs, namely through a technique called CENSORSHIP? If you do this, where +do you draw the line? If you disapprove of another's beliefs, does this give +you the right to deny them the right to excercise their beliefs? The +Constitution that grants all of us the right to excercise our individual +beliefs is clear on the subject. It states quite directly that the government +has no authority to direct what the people should believe when it comes to +religion. + + Some say the Bible is subversive. Does this give them the right to outlaw +the printing of Bibles in the U.S.? + Some people say the Bible advocates strict neutrality in world affairs, that +all should be left to the will of God. Therefore, they refuse ANY military +service, be it combat or non-combatant. Does this give anyone to right to ban +this particular religious organization? + + +The founding fathers of this nation answered this question for us: + NO! + + Censorship, under any name or guise, is dead wrong. If they choose to +believe one way or another, that is THEIR choice, not anybody else's. The only +time the government is allowed to step in is when a sect arms itself and poses +a threat to the peace. This is only in extreme cases. + +Just think that your actions may one day backfire, causing the government, once +the ice of censorship is broken, to outlaw all religion. This is not entirely +impossible. Just think about what presedence your actions may set, allowing +others to wedge further open the cause of banning ANYTHING that would pose even +a small disruption to total state control. + + Andrew Wiggin + +gain, eply, ext, or top? + +Msg#: 7000 *JUNKMAIL* +08/22/90 22:26:14 +From: TIM WILLIAMS + To: ALL +Subj: ORDERS + + THIS IS A JUNKMAIL MESSAGE + + +-+ + ++| + +-----------------++-+ + | +-+ + | JUNKMAIL BOARD | + | | + +------------------+ + {see Junkmail message board for details} + + +---------+ + | MESSAGE | + +---------+ + + Due to the large amount of orders we receive + we need to start the following guidelines. + + [A] One VHS tape per order. + + [B] Ten cassette tapes per order. + + Thanks for your understanding. Of course + with special requests we will be glad to + fill any needs. For example, those in prison + ministries often request more. + + SySop + +gain, eply, ext, or top? + + +-+ + ++| + +-----------------++ + | | + | JUNKMAIL BOARD | + | | + +------------------+ + + unkmail reading + nsolicated delivery (type @JUNK) + ot too much time for this junkmail + nowing what this board is about + + <->Previous menu + +Command: - + +"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths...." +-Ephesians 4:29 + e-read guidelines + +Command: - +Command: - +Command: - + + + MAIN MENU + - 2 Timothy 4:3 - + +---+----------------------------------------+ + | 1 | Alert, information, elp, utilities | + | 2 | Message boards | + | 3 | Action areas | + | 4 | Downloading of files | + +---+----------------------------------------+ + | F | Free items to order | + | T | Talk to someone on the other line | + | G | Good-bye | + | * | Page the SySop | + +---+----------------------------------------+ + SOUND DOCTRINE CHURCH's BBS + telephone line (1) + + +Command: g + +"Streams of tears flow from my eyes, for your law is not obeyed." +-Psalm 119:136 + +-----------------+ + | LEAVING SO SOON?| + +-----------------+ ++------+---------------------------------------------+ +| 1 -->|"1st" let me leave a message to Tim or Mike | ++------+---------------------------------------------+ +| G -->|"BYE", for now, but will be back later | ++------+---------------------------------------------+ +| 3 -->|"OOPS", I want to go back to Sound Doctrine | ++------+---------------------------------------------+ +| 4 -->| "NEVER" will I ever return here again! | ++------+---------------------------------------------+ +| 5 -->| "REPORT" a problem with the bbs first | ++------+---------------------------------------------+ + +------------------------------------+ + | "FINALLY, BROTHERS, GOOD-BY." | + | -2 Corinthians 13:11 | + +------------------------------------+ + +Command: g + +Logged on at 08:45:02 +Logged off at 09:12:34 + +"Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive +yourselves. Do what it says." -James 1:22 + +* THANKS * +for calling +...and... +you bless God! + +NO CARRIER + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/spell1.txt b/religious documents/spell1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7bcc23 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/spell1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +Koren #1 @7314 +Wed Apr 18 17:43:50 1990 +Because of the very nature of magick, each working should be highly +individualized and personal. Even if following a traditional spell, it should +be tailored to your specific needs to be most effective for you. +Understanding the basics of spell construction will enable you to formulate +your own specific, effective spells for any purpose you desire. + +Preliminary planning is necessary. The very first step is to decide precisely +what your desired end result is to be. Before you can start, you must decide +where you are going. You must be very explicit. + +It is important, also, that you choose your time carefully. You should take +into consideration all astrological implications, energy currents and moon +phases. + +The moon is the astronomical body closest to us and, therefore, has a profound +influence upon us, it is very important to choose a time when the moon is in +an astrological sign which is appropriate for your working. + +For example: + +Aries/action - enthusiasm + +Taurus/renewal - sensuality + +Gemini/communication - curiosity + +Cancer/emotion - nurturing + +Leo/vitality - determined + +Virgo/organizing - studious + +Libra/balance - cooperation + +Scorpio/sexual - philosophical + +Sagitarius/strength - humour + +Capricorn/authority - ambitious + +Aquarius/innovation - social + +Pisces/sensitivity - idealistic. + +Bear in mind that magickal workings for gain, increase or bringing things to +you, should be initiated when the moon is waxing (from dark to full); when +the moon is waning (from full to dark), it is time for magickal workings of +decrease or sending away. + +The highest energy occurs at the full moon and, therefore, this is the most +powerful time for magickal workings. The new moon is the next most powerful +time for magick. + +Whenever possible, follow nature's natural energy currents. There is a +natural time for starting things (a planting time), for maturing things (a +growing time), for reaping things ( a harvest time) and, of course, a time for +rest and planning. + +Flowing with these currents will make your magickal work much easier. remember +to plan your project for a time of uninterrupted privacy. It is important +that you have no distractions. Generally speaking, it is best to work as late +at night as possible. A time when there is less frantic energy is most +appropriate. You might consider midnight or later. + +In choosing a place to do your magickal working pay particular attention to +your needs, for you must be comfortable. Your place should be private, quiet +and secure. If at all possible, set aside a special place for this purpose +only. An unused room, a special corner of your bedroom, a quiet, secluded +spot in your garden. A place that is yours. A place that you can come to +whenever need arises and that is as free from intrusion of others as possible. + +Prior to the night of your magickal working, gather together the things that +you will need. All of the things used are tools. They have no inherent +magick. They are to help you create a mood. If correctly made and used, they +will trigger primitive responses from deep within you. They should be chosen +with care. Consider the purpose of your ritual and choose your tools +accordingly. If your magick is to be sexual, your candles, oils, incenses and +so forth, should bring forth a sexual response. If the desired result of your +magick is tranquillity, then the tools should make you feel calm, peaceful and +serene. Any candles you might use should not have commercially added +fragrances as these may not be appropriate for your working. + +Prior to your ritual, prepare yourself and your equipment by any means +necessary to clean and purify. Historically, people have fasted, followed +meticulous and detailed bathing practices, practiced chastity and used many +other methods. + +Most often a ritual bath is the preferred method. A bath frequently utilizing +candlelight, fragrant herbs, bath salts or sensuous oils. A sumptuous hot +bath, special bathing preparations and appropriate lighting, combined, can +create the soothing effect which will help in the very important step of +relaxing and clearing the mind completely of all mundane thoughts and +experiences of the day. Your ritual bath should, also, begin to set the +specific vibrations conducive to your purpose into motion. You must not only +cleanse and purify but must, also, begin to create the type of energy +necessary. Once your purification process has been accomplished, you are now +ready to begin. Proceed to the special place you have previously chosen in +which to perform your magick. If at all possible, you should make use of the +primitive responses set into motion by a well chosen piece of music. Your +music should start slowly and build to a rousing climax.T \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/spellboo.txt b/religious documents/spellboo.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7992f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/spellboo.txt @@ -0,0 +1,139 @@ + + + THE BEGINNER'S SPELLBOOK + + + Typed and Provided by Lord Soth + + + . . . . + . . + . * . + . * * . + . * * * * * * * * * . + . * * * * . + . ** ** . + . ** ** . + . * * * * . + . * * * * * * * * * . + . * * . + . * . + . . . . + + For successful spell casting one must have a visual mind. Its not that +hard. Just keep in mind a vision of whatever or whoever you are casting +the spell on. Also the following spells are not 'evil' or 'good' spells. +The nature of the outcome depends on the intent of the caster. One must +concentrate and be very serious when spellcasting. As for simple spells +like the following you won't need any previous spellcrafting experience +...such is not the case with more advanced and powerful spells. +An error in the preparation or the actual casting of the following +spells will result in either unintended effects or the spell just +won't work. + + +*The first spell I'll describe is a short incantation for the prevention +of pregnancy. By the way I Would NOT use this spell in the place of a +rubber, the pill, a diaphram, etc... Its just a simple spell for those +who want to reduce the chances of an unwanted pregnancy... + + Just print this out and give it to your girlfriend and tell her to +follow it exactly as its written. + + Take a long white cloth and knot it in four places. As you tie each +knot, chant: "No child by me." Put the cloth in the bed while you +have sex and the spell should keep unwanted children from arriving +unexpectedly. +NOTE: This spell is designed for the girl to perform the incantations. + +*This spell is designed to persuade a stranger to become attracted to +you. The main component of this spell is a fresh piece of ginger root. +Find the intended lover in plain sight and chant the following: +"Stranger no more, follow me." Give the root to the stranger( drop +it in their car, purse, pocket, etc. so they won't get suspicious.) +If you followed these simple directions he/she should be yours... +NOTE: Use this spell with caution because they might hang around a +little longer than you'd like. + +*This is one of my favorite amateur spells which is used to attract +the attention of a Wizard. Collect three pigeon feathers, an egg +shell and a gold nugget and carry them all in a leather pouch made +of kid. Just carry the pouch wherever you go and you should come +in contact with a wizard. + +*Ok, let me change what I said. the next two spells are my +favorites...well the most useful... + This spell's use is one to keep the police away.(heheh) A bat must +be found dead or recieved from a lab, etc. One that is killed solely +for this purpose will not work. Just look around for one already dead. +Take one of the bat's wings , dry it, powder it and keep it in a vial +or bottle on your person. If you are stopped by the police for a +ticket, etc. sprinkle the powder on your person. And chances are the +officer will let you off the hook or avoid you completely. + +*This last spell I will describe is for the purpose of winning a +lawsuit. This spell is also useful for defense(such as being sued +for phone damages,etc...). +Get a few friends of yours to come over and then have all of you sit +in a circle around a yellow candle. Place a copy of the lawsuit +and any other info pertaining to the case on the table next to +the candle. Have everyone clear their minds and picture the person +dropped of all charges. As you concentrate on the image have +everyone chant: + "(Person's name) win the lawsuit, riches be yours." +Repeat this for a few minutes while concertrating on the image and +your success is all but assured. + + I've got plenty of spells for different uses lying around so if +you're just curious or find this spell to work leave me mail on +any of the following boards: + + + Ripco 300/1200 312/528-5020 + Misty Mountain #1 1200/2400 205/979-8409 Message base only. + Misty Mountain #2 1200 205/969-2052 New User pass 'POOF' + Great Apple Xfer section. + +"There is no such thing as White or Black magic merely good and +evil persons using it for different purposes" (or something like +that)- as quoted by Aleister Crowley... + + + + ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ + Ý° The CORPORATE HQ of SHAWN-DA-LAY BOY PRODUCTIONS, inc. °Þ + Ý° Tfile Distribution Center / MASS Megs °Þ + Ý° 415/236/2371 RoR - Alucard 415/236/2371 °Þ + Ý° Dr. Murdock ~ Sir Death ~ Dark Nite ~ RatSnatcher ~ Pressed Rat°Þ + Ý°Shawn-Da-Lay Boy Production Inc. Rat Head Systems : 415/524/3649°Þ + Ý°°°°° The Gates of Hell are open Night and Day; °°°°°Þ + ݱ±± Ø Smooth is the Descent and Easy is the Way Ø ±±±Þ + ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/spellcon.txt b/religious documents/spellcon.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b5b512 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/spellcon.txt @@ -0,0 +1,178 @@ + + + BASIC SPELL CONSTRUCTION + + + +Because of the very nature of Magick, each working should be highly +individualized and personal. Even if following a traditional spell, +it should be tailored to your specific needs to be most effective +for you. Understanding the basics of Spell Construction will enable +you to formulate your own specific, effective spells for any purpose +you desire. + +Preliminary planning is necessary. The very first step is to decide +precisely what your desired end result is to be. Before you can +start, you must decide where you are going. You must be very +explicit. + +It is important, also, that you choose your time carefully. You +should take into consideration all Astrological implications, energy +currents and Moon phases. + +The Moon is the astronomical body closest to us and, therefore, has +a profound influence upon us, it is very important to choose a time +when the Moon is in an astrological sign which is appropriate for +your working. For example: Aries/Action - Enthusiasm, Taurus/ +Renewal - Sensuality, Gemini/Communication - Curiosity, Cancer/ +Emotion - Nurturing, Leo/Vitality - Determined, Virgo/Organizing - +Studious, Libra/Balance - Cooperation, Scorpio/Sexual - +Philosophical, Capricorn/Authority - Ambitious, Aquarius/Innovation +- Social, Pisces/Sensitivity - Idealistic. + +Bear in mind that magickal workings for gain, increase or bringing +things to you, should be initiated when the Moon is Waxing (from +Dark to Full); when the Moon is Waning (from Full to Dark), it is +time for magickal workings of decrease or sending away. + +The highest energy occurs at the Full Moon and, therefore, this is +the most powerful time for magickal workings. The New Moon is the +next most powerful time for Magick. + +Whenever possible, follow Nature's natural Energy Currents. There +is a natural time for starting things (a planting time), for +maturing things (a growing time), for reaping things ( a harvest +time) and, of course, a time for rest and planning. + +Flowing with these currents will make your magickal work much easier. +Remember to plan your project for a time of uninterrupted privacy. +It is important that you have no distractions. Generally speaking, +it is best to work as late at night as possible. A time when there +is less frantic energy is most appropriate. You might consider +Midnight or later. + +In choosing a place to do your magickal working pay particular +attention to your needs, for you must be comfortable. Your place +should be private, quiet and secure. If at all possible, set aside +a special place for this purpose only. An unused room, a special +corner of your bedroom, a quiet, secluded spot in your garden. A +place that is yours. A place that you can come to whenever need +arises and that is as free from intrusion of others as possible. + +Prior to the night of your magickal working, gather together the +things that you will need. All of the things used are tools. They +have no inherent magick. They are to help you create a mood. If +correctly made and used, they will trigger primitive responses from +deep within you. They should be chosen with care. +Consider the purpose of your ritual and choose your tools +accordingly. If your magick is to be sexual, your candles, oils, +incenses and so forth, should bring forth a sexual response. If the +desired result of your Magick is Tranquillity, then the tools should +make you feel calm, peaceful and serene. Any candles you might use +should not have commercially added fragrances as these may not be +appropriate for your working. + +Prior to your ritual, prepare yourself and your equipment by any +means necessary to clean and purify. Historically, people have +fasted, followed meticulous and detailed bathing practices, +practiced chastity and used many other methods. + +Most often a Ritual Bath is the preferred method. A bath frequently +utilizing candlelight, fragrant herbs, bath salts or sensuous oils. +A sumptuous hot bath, special bathing preparations and appropriate +lighting, combined, can create the soothing effect which will help +in the very important step of relaxing and clearing the mind completely +of all mundane thoughts and experiences of the day. Your ritual +Bath should, also, begin to set the specific vibrations conducive to +your purpose into motion. You must not only cleanse and purify but +must, also, begin to create the type of energy necessary. +Once your purification process has been accomplished, you are now +ready to begin. Proceed to the special place you have previously +chosen in which to perform your magick. If at all possible, you +should make use of the primitive responses set into motion by a well +chosen piece of music. Your music should start slowly and build to +a rousing climax. + +As you use your oils, light your candle or incense (or utilize any +other tool you have chosen), you should begin to further intensify +the energy that you have set into motion around you. A high degree +of intensity is vitally important. + +The Altered State of Consciousness that you must reach is not a +meditative state. Anything that interferes with your ability to +concentrate upon, reach and control the high energy state necessary +to perform magick should be avoided. Such as, screaming children, a +sink full of dirty dishes, use of alcohol or drugs, etc. + +Do not scatter your energy by attempting to do more than one +magickal working at a time. + +Remember that Magick is the manipulation of energy, a thought is a +form of energy and a visualization is an even stronger form of +energy. Your visualization can be a method used to intensify +further and direct your will. Your visualization can be the method +by which you control the magickal energy you have produced. +You must know what you want. You must see it. You must feel the +high energy flow. You must direct it. + +One of the most important elements in the practice of any form of +Magick is the Universal Law of Cause and Effect. This means that +whatever you do (or don't do) you cause something to happen. + +The most important consideration is the Universal Law of +Retribution. This means that no matter what you do, it comes back +to you in like kind. + +It is the nature of things that as you send something out it gains +momentum, so that, by the time it comes back to you, it is three +times stronger. If you do something nice for someone, someone will +do something nicer for you. + +"As you weave and + spin your spell, +Three fold return + the tale will tell." + + + +EARTH-RITE / Mission San Jose, CA/ 415-651-9496 +Copyright (c) 1981 by "The Witching Well Education & Research +Center" Used by Permission. + + + + /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// + // The PIRATES' HOLLOW // + // 415-236-2371 // + // over 12 Megs of Elite Text Files // + // ROR-ALUCARD // + // Sysop: Doctor Murdock // + // C0-Sysops: That One, Sir Death, Sid Gnarly & Finn // + // // + // "The Gates of Hell are open night and day; // + // Smooth is the Descent, and Easy is the way.." // + /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/spells01.txt b/religious documents/spells01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a3ce34 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/spells01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ + + + + + + These are ancient magical spells used about the beginning of the Christian +era (circa 100 BC to AD 100) by Egyptian "goetes", i.e. street magicians, who dispensed advice and cast spells - for a fee of course. These "goetes" are not to be confused with "magoi", the serious magician who could conjure up the dead for advice or summon the help of a divine entity (demons to the Christians but "daimones" to the greek speaking Mediterranean world. Socrates the philosopher attributed some of his ideas as coming from a "daimon" that spoke to him in his head). + + I have extracted a few of the spells translated into english from the +original greek and demotic (common) egyptian languages in K. Preisendanz's +book "Papyri Graecae Magicae". This work does also contain some more elaborate spells that these "goetes" believed derived from the invocations of the +"magoi", but which modern academicians suspect were really imitations of the +"real thing" intended to impress the customer. + + Here goes: +PGM I:222-231 (Translation by E. N. O'Neil) + Indispensable invisibility spell: Take fat or an eye of a nightowl and dung rolled by a [scarab] beetle and oil of an unripe olive and grind them all +together until smooth, and smear your whole body with it and say to [the god] Helios: "I adjure you by your great name, BORKE PHOIOUR IO ZIZIA APARXEOUCH +THYTHE LAILAM AAAAAA IIIII OOOO IEO IEO IEO IEO IEO IEO NAUNAX AI AI AEO AEO +EAO," and moisten it and say in addition: "Make me invisible, lord Helios, AEO OAE EIE EAO, in the presence of any man until sunset, IO IO O PHRIXRIZO EOA." +PGM I:232-247 (Translation by E. N. O'Neil) + Memory spell: Take heiratic [unused] papyrus and write the prescribed names with Hermaic myrrh ink. And once you have written them as prescribed [see next paragraph], wash them off into spring water from 7 springs and drink the water on an empty stomach for seven days while the moon is in the east. But drink a sufficient amount. + This is the writing on the strip of papyrus: "KAMBRE CHAMBRE SIXIOPHI HARPON CHNOUPHI BRINTATENOPHRIBRISKYLMA ARAOUAZAR BAMESEN KRIPHI NIPTOUMI CHMOUMAOPH AKTIOPHI ARTOSE BIBIOU BIBIOU SPHE SPHE NOUSI NOUSI SIEGO SIEGO NOUCHA NOUCHA LINOUCHA LINOUCHA CHYCHBA CHYCHBA KAXIO CHYCHBA DETOPHOTH II AA OO YY EE EE +OO." After doing these things wash the writing off and drink as is prescribed. This is also the composition of the ink: myrrh troglitis, 4 drams; 3 karian +figs, 7 pits of Nikolaus dates, 7 dried pinecones, 7 piths of the single +stemmed wormwood, 7 wings of the Hermaic ibis [bird], spring water. when you +have burned the ingredients, prepare them and write. + +PGM I:247-262 (Translation by E. N. O'Neil) + Tested spell for invisibility: A great work. Take an eye of an ape or of a +corpse that has died a violent death and a plant of peony (he means the rose). Rub these with an oil of lily, and as you are rubbing them from the right to +the left, say the spell as follows: "I am ANUBIS, I am OSIR-PHRE, I am OSOT +SORONOUIER, I am OSIRIS whom SETH destroyed. Rise up, infernal daimon, IO +ERBETH IO PHOBETH IO PAKERBETH IO APOMPS; Whatever I, NN [i. e. the name of the person invoking the spell], order you to do, be obedient to me." + And if you wish to become invisible, rub just your face with the concoction, and you will be invisible for as long as you wish. And if you wish to be +visible again, move from west to east and say this name [see the next +paragraph], and you will be obvious and visible to all men. + The name is: "MARMARIAOTH MARMARIPHEGGE, make me, NN [i. e. the name if the person invoking the spell], visible to all men on this day, immediately, +immediately, quickly, quickly!" This works very well. + + So there you have it. I have enclosed my own comments with square brackets +"[ ]" but preserved original insertions of comments by the ancient transcriber with parentheses "( )". The source of these quotations is "The Greek Magical +Papyri In Translation: Including The Demotic Spells", Volume One: Texts, Edited by Hans Dieter Betz, c. 1986, and have been cited for instructional purposes only. + + + + + David Hindley + Cleveland, Ohio + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/spring.txt b/religious documents/spring.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7750b7f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/spring.txt @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +ab:spring.txt 14jan90 + + + Vernal Equinox (Eostar) + + Preparation: + + A Symbol of the Wheel is on the altar, flanked with burning + candles, or with fire in some form - torches, or small tripods + with fire in their cups. + + The Symbol of the Wheel may be a plain disc, or an eight spoked + wheel, or the pentacle. Alex and Maxine Sanders used a circular + mirror with a broad frame, also circular, decorated as a twelve- + pointed star. + + In the centre of the Circle is either a cauldron full of + inflammable material, or (out of doors) a bonfire ready to be lit. + + HPS casts the Circle. + + HPS then stands in the West, and the HP in the East, both with carrying + wands. + + HPS: "We kindle this fire today + In the presence of the Holy Ones, + Without malice, without jealousy, without envy, + Without fear of aught beneath the Sun + But the High Gods. + Thee we invoke, O Light of Life; + Be thou a bright flame before us, + Be thou a guiding star above us, + Be thou a smooth path beneath us; + Kindle thou within our hearts + A flame of love for our neighbours, + To out foes, to our friends, to our kindred all, + To all men on the broad earth; + O merciful Son of Cerridwen, + From the lowliest thing that liveth, + To the Name which is highest of all." + + HPS then draws invoking pentagram before the HP and then hands the Wand + to him, together with the scourge. + + The Maiden strikes a light and hands it to the High Priest, who lights + the cauldron or bonfire. He (carrying a wand) and the High Priestess + (carrying a sistrum) lead the dance, with the rest following in + couples. Each couple must leap over the fire. The last couple over the + fire before it goes out must be well purified. The man must then give a + fivefold kiss to each of the women, as the woman to the men, or any + other penalty the HPS shall decide. + + Cakes and wine shall follow. + +---------- + -From Stewart Farrar's "What Witches Do" derived from Alex Sanders' BOS + -I copied the published version more or less as is. Notably I did not + correct several logistic nuisances. A Coven may only have one Wand (of + course some have more) this version of this ritual requires two. The + HP is carrying his wand, when the HPS hands him her wand and the + scourge, for no obvious reason. He has to just put down the lot (or + hand them to someone), as the next thing he does is light the + cauldron. + diff --git a/religious documents/ssbos-a.txt b/religious documents/ssbos-a.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1ae5d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ssbos-a.txt @@ -0,0 +1,305 @@ +WORDS TO THE WISE .... + + O daughters and sons of the Earth, adore the Goddess and God and be blessed with the fullness of life. + Know that They have brought you to these writings, for herein lie our ways of the Craft, to serve and fulfill the keepers of wisdom, the tenders of the sacred flame of knowledge. Run the rites with love and joy, and the Goddess and God will bless you with all thet you need. But those who practise dark magicks shall know Their greatest wrath. + Remember that you are of the Craft. No more do you trod the ways of doubt. You walk the path of light, ever climbing from shadow to shadow to the highest realm of existence. But though we're the bearers of truths, others do not wish to share our knowledge, so we run our rites beneath moon filled skies enwrapped in shadows. But we are happy. + Live fully, for that is the purpose of life. Refrain not from earthly existence. From it we grow to learn and understand, until such time that we are reborn to learn more, repeating this cycle 'till we have spiralled up the path of perfection and can finally call the Goddess and God our kin. + Walk the fields and forests; be refreshed by the cool winds and the touch of a nodding flower. The Moon and Sun sing in the ancient wild places: The deserted seashore, the stark desert, the roaring waterfall. We are of the Earth and should revere Her, so do Her honor. + Celebrate the rites on the appropriate days and seasons, and call upon the Goddess and God when the time is meet, but use the Power only when necessary, never for frivolous ends. Know that using the Power for harm is a Perversion of Life itself. + But for those who love and magnify love, the richness of life shall be your reward. Nature will celebrate. + So love the Goddess and God, and harm none! + + + +THE NATURE OF OUR WAY + + * As often as possible, hold the rites in forests, by the seashore, on deserted mountaintops or near tranquil lakes. If this is impossible, a garden or some chamber shall suffice, if it is readied with fumes of flowers. + * Seek out wisdom in books, rare manuscripts and cryptic poems if you will, but seek it out also in simple stones and fragile herbs and in the cries of wild birds. Listen to the wisperings of the wind and the roar of water if you would discover magick, for it is here that the old secrets are preserved. + * Books contain words; trees contain energies and wisdom books ne'er dreamt of. + * Ever remember that the Old Ways are constantly revealing themselves. Therefore be as the river willow that bends and sways with the wind. That which remains changeless shall outlive its spirit, but that which evolves and grows will shine for centuries. + * There can be no monopoly on wisdom. Therefore share what you will of our ways with others who seek them, but hide mystic lore from the eyes of those who would destroy, for to do otherwise increases their destruction. + * Mock not the rituals or spells of another, for who can say yours are greater in power or wisdom? + * Ensure that your actions are honorable, for all that you do shall return to you three-fold, good or bane. + * Be wary of one who would dominate you, who would control and manipulate your workings and reverences. True reverence for the Goddess and God occurs within. Look with suspicion on any who would twist worship from you for their own gain and glory, but welcome those priestesses and priests who are suffused with love. + * Honor all living things, for we are of the bird, the fish, the bee. Destroy not life save it be to preserve your own. + * And this is the nature of our way. + + + +BEFORE TIME WAS + + Before time was, there was The One; The One was all, and all was The One. + And the vast expanse known as the universe was The One, all-wise, all-pervading, all-powerful, eternally changing. + And space moved. The One molded energy into twin forms, equal but opposite, fashioning the Goddess and God from The One and of The One. + The Goddess and God stretched and gave thanks to The One, but darkness surrounded them. They were alone, solitary save for The One. + So They formed energy into gasses and gasses into suns and planets and moons; They sprinkled the universe with whirling globes and so all was given shape by the hands of the Goddess and God. + Light arose and the sky was illuminated by a billion suns. And the Goddess and God, satisfied by their works, rejoiced and loved, and were one. + From their union sprang the seeds of all life, and of the human race, so that we might achieve incarnation upon the Earth. + The Goddess chose the Moon as Her symbol, and the God the Sun as His symbol, to remind the inhabitants of Earth of their fashioners. + All are born, live, die and are reborn beneath the Sun and Moon; all things come to pass thereunder, and all occurs with the blessings of The One, as has been the way of existence before time was. + + + +SONG OF THE GODDESS + + I am the Great Mother, worshipped by all creation and existent prior to their consciousness. I am the primal female force, boundless and eternal. + + I am the chaste Goddess of the Moon, the Lady of all magick. The winds and moving leaves sing my name. I wear the cresent Moon upon my brow and my feet rest among the starry heavens. I am mysteries yet unsolved, a path newly set upon. I am a field untouched by the plow. Rejoice in me and know the fullness of youth. + + I am the blessed Mother, the gracious Lady of the harvest. I am clothed with the deep, cool wonder of the Earth and the gold of the fields heavy with grain. By me the tides of the Earth are ruled; all things come to fruition according to my reason. I am refuge and healing. I am the life-giving Mother, wondrously fertile. + + Worship me as the Crone, tender of the unbroken cycle of death and rebirth. I am the wheel, the shadow of the Moon. I rule the tides of women and mem and give release and renewal to weary souls. Though the darkness of death is my domain, the joy of birth is my gift. + + I am the Goddess of the Moon, the Earth, the Seas. My names and strengths are manifold. I pour forth magick and power, peace and wisdom. I am the eternal Maiden, Mother of all, and Crone of darkness, and I send you blessings of limitless love. + + + +CALL OF THE GOD + + I am the radiant King of the Heavens, flooding the Earth with warmth and encouraging the hidden seed of creation to burst forth into manifestation. I lift my shining spear to light the lives of all beings and daily pour forth my gold upon the Earth, putting to flight the powers of darkness. + + I am the master of the beasts wild and free. I run with the swift stag and soar as a sacred falcon against the shimmering sky. The ancient woods and wild places emanate my powers, and the birds of the air sing of my sanctity. + + I am also the last harvest, offering up grain and fruits beneath the sickle of time so that all may be nourished. For without planting there can be no harvest; without winter, no spring. + + Worship me as the thousand-named Sun of creation, the spirit of the horned stag in the wild, the endless harvest. See in the yearly cycle of festivals my birth, death and rebirth - and know that such is the destiny of all creation. + + I am the spark of life, the radiant Sun, the giver of peace and rest, and I send my rays of blessings to warm the hearts and strengthen the minds of all. + + + +THE CIRCLE OF STONES + + The Circle of stones is used during indoor rituals, for energy raising, meditation and so on. + First cleanse the area with the ritual broom. + For this circle you will need four large, flat stones. If you have none, candles can be used to mark the four cardinal points of the circle. White or purple candles can be used, as can colours related to each direction - green for the North, yellow for East, red for South and blue for West. + Place the first stone (or candle) to the North, to represent the Spirit of the North Stone. In ritual when you invoke the Spirits of the Stones you're actually invoking all that resides in that particular direction, including the elemental energies. + After setting the North Stone (or candle), place the East, South and West Stones. They should mark out a rough square, nearly encompassing the working area. This square represents the physical plane on which we exist - the Earth. + Now take a long purple or white cord and lay it out in a circle, using the four stones or candles to guide you. It takes a bit of practice to smoothly do this. The cord should be placed so that the stones remain inside the circle. Now you have a square and a circle, the circle representing the spiritual reality. As such, this is a squared circle; the place of interpenetration of the physical and spiritual realms. + The size of the circle can be anything from 5 to 20 feet depending on the room and your desires. + Next, set up the altar. The following tools are recommended: + + * A Goddess symbol (candle, holed stone, statue) + * A God symbol (candle, horn, acorn, statue) + * Athame + * Wand + * Censer + * Pentacle + * A bowl of Water (spring, rain or tap) + * A bowl of Sea Salt (it can also be placed on the pentacle) + * Incense + * Flowers and greens + * One red candle in holder (if not using point candles) + * Any other tools or materials required for the ritual, spell or magickal working + + Set up the altar according to the plan shown here or according to your own design. Also be sure to have plenty of matches, as well as a small heat-proof container in which to place them when used. A charcoal block is also necessary to burn the incense. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Suggested Altar Layout + + + Light the candles. Set the incense smoking. Lift the athame and touch its blade to the water, saying: + + I consecrate and cleanse this water + that it may be purified and fit to + dwell within the sacred Circle of Stones. + In the name of the Mother Goddess and Father God, + I consecrate this water. + + As you do this, visualize your athame blasting away all negativity from the water. + The salt is next touched with the point of the athame while saying: + + I bless this salt that it may be fit + to dwell within the sacred Circle of Stones. + In the name of the Mother Goddess and Father God, + I bless this salt. + + Now stand facing North, at the edge of the cord-marked circle. Hold your athame point outward at waist level. Walk slowly around the circle's perimeter clockwise, your feet just inside the cord, charging it with your words and energy. Create the circle - through your visualization - with the power flowing out from your athame's blade. As you walk, stretch the energy out until it forms a complete sphere around the working area, half above the ground, half below. As you do this say: + + Here is the boundary of the Circle of Stones. + Naught but love shall enter in, + Naught but love shall emerge from within. + Charge this by Your powers, Old Ones! + + When you have arrived back at the North, place the athame on the altar. Take up the salt and sprinkle it around the circle, begining and ending in the North, and moving clockwise. Next, carry the smoking censer from the altar, and finally sprinkle water around the circle. Do more than carrying and walking; sense the substances purifying the circle. The Circle of Stones is now sealed. + Hold aloft the wand at the North, at the edge of the circle, and say: + + O Spirit of the North Stone, + Ancient One of the Earth, + I call You to attend this circle. + Charge this by Your powers, Old Ones! + + As you say this, visualize a greenish mist rising and writhing in the Northern quarter, over the stone. This is the elemental energy of the Earth. When the Spirit is present, lower the wand, move to the East, raise it again and say: + + O Spirit of the East Stone, + Ancient One of Air, + I call You to attend this circle. + Charge this by Your powers, Old Ones! + + Visualize the yellowish mist of Air energy. Lower the wand, move to the South and repeat the following with your upraised wand, visualizing a crimson Fire mist: + + O Spirit of the South Stone, + Ancient One of Fire, + I call You to attend this circle. + Charge this by Your powers, Old Ones! + + Finally, to the West, say with the wand held aloft: + + O Spirit of the West Stone, + Ancient One of Water, + I call You to attend this circle. + Charge this by Your powers, Old Ones! + + Visualize the bluish mist, the essence of Water. + The circle breaths and lives around you. The Spirits of the Stones are present. Feel the energies. Visualize the circle glowing and growing in power. Stand still, sensing for a moment. + The Circle of Stones is complete. The Goddess and God may be called, and magick wrought. + + + +CUTTING A DOORWAY + + At times you may have to leave the circle. This is fine, of course, but as previously mentioned, passing through the circle dissipates it. To prevent this from occurring it's traditional to cut a doorway. + To do this, face Northeast. Hold your athame point downward near the ground. See and sense the circle before you. Pierce its wall of energy with the athame and trace an archway, tall enough to walk through, moving counter-clockwise along the circle for about three feet. Move the point of the athame up at the arch's center and down the other side until it is near the ground. + As you're doing this, visualize that area of the circle's energy being sucked back into the athame. This creates a void, allowing passage in and out of the circle. Pull the athame out of the circle's wall. You're free to walk outside. + Once back inside, close the door by placing the athame at the lower North-Eastern point of the archway. With your athame trace the circle's perimeter clockwise, as if redrawing that portion of the Circle of Stones, again visualizing blue or purple energy flaring out from the blade and converging with the rest of the circle. It is done. + + + +RELEASING THE CIRCLE + + Once the rite is ended, face North, hold aloft the wand and say: + + Farewell, Spirit of the North Stone. + I give thanks for your presence here. + Go in power. + + Repeat this same formula to the East, South and West, substituting the proper direction in the words. Then return to the North and hold the wand aloft for a few moments. + Lay the wand on the altar. Take up the athame. Standing in the North, pierce the circle's wall with the blade at waist level. Move clockwise around the circle, visualizing it's power being sucked back into the athame. Literally pull it back into the blade and handle. Sense the circle dissolving, shrinking; the outside world slowly regaining its dominance in the area. + When you arrive at the North again, the circle is no more. + + + +VISUALIZATIONS FOR THE CIRCLE OF STONES + + If you wish, you can back up the circle casting with the following visualizations as you form the circle itself: + Prepare as usual. Approach the North and set the North Stone (or the candle) on the ground. Then, visualize a stone slab standing upright two feet to the left of and behind the North Stone. Visualize this as being bluish-grey, two feet wide, two feet thick and six feet tall. This stone represents the Goddess. + When the stone is really there - in your visualization - create another stone of the same size and colour two feet to the right of and behind the North Stone. This represents the God. + Now visualize a capstone resting on top of the two upright stones. It is about two feet by two feet by six feet. This represents The One before the Goddess and God, the source of all power and magick. The Northern Trilithon is now complete. + The stones form an archway, a symbol of the gateway to the realm of the element of Earth. + Firmly visualize this, then gaze through the arch formed by the stones. See the greenish haze of the Earth energy. + Repeat the entire procedure to the East, South and West. Visualize the appropriate elemental colour within each trilithon. + Now purify salt and water, cast the circle as usual, and carry around the salt, censer, candle and water. + As you approach each quarter to call its Spirit of the Stone, see the trilithon firmly in your mind. Visualize it in all its Pagan splendor. See the elemental hazes within them, boiling and writhing in unmanifestedness. Stretch out with your feelings; sense the arrival of the spirit of each stone, then go on to the next. + With practise this comes easily, but such visualizations are never necessary. + + + +THE BLESSING CHANT + +The Blessing Chant can be said at the beginning of any type of ritual as a general invocation. Separate invocations of the Goddess and God may follow. + + May the powers of The One, + the source of all creation; + all-pervasive, omnipotent, eternal; + may the Goddess, + the Lady of the Moon; + and the God, + Horned Hunter of the Sun; + may the powers of the Spirits of the Stones, + rulers of the elemental realms; + may the powers of the stars above and the Earth below, + bless this place, and this time, and I who am with you. + + + +THE SIMPLE FEAST + + Hold up a Chalice of wine (or some other liquid) between your hands to the sky, and say: + + Gracious Goddess of Abundance, + Bless this wine and infuse it with your love. + In your names, Mother Goddess and Father God, + I bless this wine (or brew, juice, etc.). + + Hold up a plate of cakes (bread, biscuits) with both hands to the sky and say: + + Powerful God of the Harvest, + Bless these cakes and infuse them with your love. + In your names, Mother Goddess and Father God, + I bless these cakes (or this bread). + + + +CONSECRATION OF TOOLS + + Light the candles. Set the incense smoking. Cast the Circle of Stones. Place the tool on the pentacle, or a plate of salt. Touch it with the point of your athame (or your projective hand) and say: + + I consecrate you, O Athame of steel (or wand of wood, etc.) to cleanse and purify you to serve me within the Circle of Stones. In the names of the Mother Goddess and Father God, you are consecrated. + + Send projective energy into the tool, cleansing it of all negativity and past associations. Now pick it up and sprinkle with salt, pass it through the incense smoke, through the candle flame and sprinkle with water, calling upon the Spirits of the Stones to consecrate it. + Then hold the tool to the sky, saying: + + I charge you by the Old Ones: By the omnipotent Goddess and God: By the virtues of the Sun, Moon and Stars: By the powers of the Earth, Air, Fire and Water, that I shall obtain all that I desire through you. Charge this by your power, Old Ones! + + The tool should immediately be put to use to stengthen and bind the consecration. For example, the athame can be used to consecrate another tool; a wand to invoke the Goddess; the pentacle to act as a resting place for a tool during its consecration. + + + +THE FULL MOON RITE + + Perform this at night, in the view of the Moon if possible. It is appropriate for crescents, white flowers, silver and other lunar symbols to be present on the altar for this ritual. The quartz crystal sphere can be placed on the altar as well. Or, if you prefer, use the cauldron (or a small white or silver bowl) filled with water. Place a piece of silver into the water. + Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle of Stones. + Stand before the altar and invoke the Goddess and God, with the Blessing Chant and/or any other invocations (see Prayers, Chants and Invocations in this Book of Shadows). + Now gaze at the Moon, if possible. Feel its energies sinking into your body. Feel its cool Goddess energy wash you with power and love. + Now say these or similar words: + + Wondrous Lady of the Moon + You who greets the dusk with silvered kisses; + Mistress of the night and of all magicks, + who rides the clouds in blackened skies + and spills light upon the cold Earth; + O Lunar Goddess, + Cresented-One, + Shadow maker and shadow breaker; + Reavealer of mysteries past and present; + Puller of seas and ruler of women; + All-wise Lunar Mother, + I greet your celestrial jewel + at the waxing of its powers + With a rite in Your honor. + I pray by the Moon, + I pray by the Moon, + I pray by the Moon. + + Continue chanting "I pray by the Moon" for as long as you will. Visualize the Goddess if you so desire, perhaps as a tall, robust woman wearing silver jewelry and white, rippling, draped clothing. A cresent Moon may rest upon Her brow, or She may toss a glowing silvery white orb in Her hands. She trods the starfield of eternal night in an eternal round with Her lover, the Sun God, speading moonrays wherever She goes. Her eyes laugh, Her skin is white and translucent. She glows. + Now is the time for magick of all types, for the full of the Moon marks the height of its powers, and all positive spells cast then are powerful. + Full Moons are also excellent times for meditation, mirror magick and psychic workings, for such are often more successful within the circle. Crystal-scrying is particularly recommended; flood the crystal with moonlight prior to the ritual. If you have no crystal sphere, use the cauldron filled with water and the piece of silver. Gaze at the water (or at the Moon glinting on the silver) to awaken your psychic awareness. + Lunar liquids such as lemonade, milk or white wine can be consumed during the simple feast that follows. Cresent cakes are traditional as well. + Thank the Goddess and God and release the circle. It is done. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ssbos-b.txt b/religious documents/ssbos-b.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..18f234d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ssbos-b.txt @@ -0,0 +1,536 @@ +YULE (circa December 21) + + The altar is adorned with evergreens such as pine, rosemary, bay, juniper and cedar, and the same can be laid to mark the Circle of Stones. Dried leaves can also be placed on the altar. + The cauldron, resting on the altar on a heat-proof surface (or placed before it if too large), should be filled with ignitable spirit (alcohol), or a red candle can be placed within it. At outdoor rites, lay a fire within the cauldron to be lit during ritual. + Arrange the altar, light the candles and incense, and cast the Circle of Stones. + Recite the Blessing Chant. + Invoke the Goddess and God. + Stand before the cauldron and gaze within it. Say these or similar words: + + I sorrow not, + though the world is wrapped in sleep. + I sorrow not, + though the icy winds blast. + I sorrow not, + though the snow falls hard and deep. + I sorrow not, + this too shall soon be past. + + Ignite the cauldron (or candle), using long matches or a taper. As the flame(s) leap up say: + + I light this fire in Your honor, + Mother Goddess + You have created life from death; + warmth from cold; + The Sun lives once again; + the time of light is waxing. + Welcome, + ever-returning God of the Sun! + Hail Mother of All! + + Circle the altar and cauldron slowly, clockwise, watching the flames. Say the following chant for some time: + + The wheel turns; the power burns. + + Meditate upon the Sun, on the hidden energies lying dormant in winter, not only in the Earth but within ourselves. Think of birth not as the start of life but as its continuance. Welcome the return of the God. + After a time cease and stand once again before the altar and flaming caldron. Say: + + Great God of the Sun, + I welcome Your return. + May You shine brightly upon the Goddess; + may You shine brightly upon the Earth, + scattering seeds and fertilizing the land. + All blessings upon You, + reborn One of the Sun! + + Works of magick, if necessary, may follow. + Celebrate the Simple Feast. + The circle is released. + + + +YULE LORE + + One traditional Yuletide practice is the creation of a Yule tree. This can be a living, potted tree which can later be planter in the ground, or a cut one. The choice is yours. + Appropriate Pagan decorations are fun to make, from strings of dried rosebuds and cinnamon sticks (or popcorn and cranberries) for garlands, to bags of fragrant spices which are hung from boughs. Quartz crystals can be wrapped with shiny wire and suspended from sturdy branches to resemble icicles. Apples, oranges and lemons hanging from boughs are strikingly beautiful, natural decorations, and were customary in ancient times. + Many enjoy the custom of lighting the Yule log. This is a graphic representation of the rebirth of the God within the sacred fire of the Mother Goddess. If you choose to burn one, select a proper log (traditionally of oak or pine). Carve or chalk a figure of the Sun (sush as a rayed disc) or the God (a horned circle or a figure of a man) upon it, with the Boline, and set it alight in the fireplace at dusk on Yule. As the log burns, visualize the Sun shining within it and think of the coming warmer days. + As to food, nuts, fruits such as apples and pears, cakes of carraways soaked in cider, and (for non-vegetarians) pork are traditional fare. Wassil, lambswool, hibiscus or ginger tea and fine drinks for the Simple Feast or Yule Meals. + + + +IMBOLC (February 2) + + A symbol of the season, such as a representation of a snow flake, a white flower, or perhaps some snow in a crystal container can be placed on the altar. An orange candle anointed with musk, cinnamon, frankincense or rosemary oil, unlit, should also be there. Snow can be melted and used for the water during the circle casting. + Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle of Stones. + Recite the Blessing Chant. + Invoke the Goddess and God. + Say such words as the following: + + This is the time of the feast of torches, + when every lamp blazes and shines + to welcome the rebirth of the God. + I celebrate the Goddess, + I celebrate the God; + all Earth celebrates + Beneath its mantle of sleep. + + Light the orange taper from the red candle on the altar (or at the Southern point of the circle). Slowly walk the circle clockwise, bearing the candle before you. Say these or simular words: + + All the land is wrapped in winter. + The air is chilled and frost envolopes the Earth. + But Lord of the Sun, + Horned One of animals and wild places, + unseen you have been reborn of the gracious Mother Goddess, + Lady of all fertility. + Hail Great God! + Hail and welcome! + + Stop before the altar, holding aloft the candle. Gaze at its flame. Visualize your life blossoming with creativity, with renewed energy and strength. + If you need to look into the future or past, now is an ideal time. + Works of magic, if necessary, may follow. + Celebrate the Simple Feast. + The circle is released. + + + +IMBOLC LORE + + It is traditional upon Imbolc, at sunset or just after ritual, to light every lamp in the house - if only for a few moments. Or, light candles in each room in honor of the Sun's rebirth. Alternately, light a kerosene lamp with a red chimmney and place this in a prominent part of the home or in a window. + If snow lies on the ground outside, walk in it for a moment, recalling the warmth of summer. With your projective hand, trace an image of the Sun on the snow. + Foods appropriate to eat on this day include those from the dairy, since Imbolc marks the festival of calving. Sour cream dishes are fine. Spicy and full-bodied foods in honor of the Sun are equally attuned. Curries and all dishes made with peppers, onions, leeks, shallots, garlic or chives are appropriate. Spiced wines and dishes containing raisins - all foods symbolic of the Sun - are also traditional. + + + +OSTARA (circa March 21) + + Flowers should be laid on the altar, placed around the circle and strewn on the ground. The cauldron can be filled with spring water and flowers, and buds and blossoms may be worn as well. A small potted plant should be placed on the altar. + Arrange the altar, light the candles and incense, and cast the Circle of Stones. + Recite the Blessing Chant. + Invoke the Goddess and God in whatever words please you. + Stand before the altar and gaze upon the plant as you say: + + O Great Goddess, + you have freed yourself from the icy prison of winter. + Now is the greening, + when the fragrance of flowers drifts on the breeze. + This is the beginning. + Life renews itself by Your magick, + the Earth Goddess. + The God stretches and rises, + eager in His youth, + and bursting with the promise of summer. + + Touch the plant. Connect with its energies and, through it, all nature. Travel inside its leaves and stems through your visualization - from the center of your consciousness out through your arm and fingers and into the plant itself. Explore its inner nature; sense the miraculous processes of life at work within it. + After a time, still touching the plant, say: + + I walk the Earth in friendship, + not in dominance. + Mother Goddess and Father God, + instill within me through this plant a warmth for all living things. + Teach me to rever the Earth and all its treasures. + May I never forget. + + Meditate upon the changing of the seasons. Feel the rousing of energies around you in the Earth. + Works of magick, if necessary, may follow. + Celebrate the Simple Feast. + The circle is released. + + + +OSTRA LORE + + A traditional Vernal Equinox pastime: go to a field and randomly collect wildflowers [Thank the flowers for their sacrifice before picking them, using a collection formula such as can be found in "An Herbal Grimoire" elsewhere in this Book of Shadows]. Or buy some from a florist, taking one or two of those that appeal to you. Then bring them home and divine their magickal meanings by the use of books, your own intuition, a pendulum or by other means. The flowers you've chosen reveal your inner thoughts and emotions. + It is important at this time of renewed life to plan a walk (or a ride) through gardens, a park, woodlands, forest and other green places. This is not simply exercise, and you should be on no other mission. It isn't even just an appreciation of nature. Make your walk celebratory, a ritual for nature itself. + Other traditional activities include planting seeds, working on magickal gardens and practising all forms of herb work - magickal, medicinal, cosmetic, culinary and artistic. + Foods in tune with this day (linking your meals with the seasons is a fine way of attuning with nature) include those made of seeds, such as sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds, as well as pine nuts. Sprouts are equally appropriate, as are leafy, green vegetables. Flower dishes such as stuffed naturiums or carnation cupcakes also find their place here. [Find a book of flower cooking or simply make spice cupcakes. Ice with pink frosting and place a fresh carnation petal on each cupcake. Stuff nasturium blossoms with a mixture made with cream cheese, chopped nuts, chives and watercress.] + + + +BELTANE (April 30) + + If possible, celebrate Beltane in a forest or near a living tree. If this is impossible, bring a small tree within the circle, preferably potted; it can be of any type. + Create a small token or charm in honour of the wedding of the Goddess and God to hang upon the tree. You can make several if you desire. These tokens can be bags filled with fragrant flowers, strings of beads, carvings, flower garlands - whatever your talents and imagination can conjure. + Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle of Stones. + Recite the Blessing Chant + Invoke the Goddess and God. + Stand before the altar and say, with wand upraised: + + O Mother Goddess, + Queen of the night and of the Earth; + O Father God, + King of the day and of the forest, + I celebrate Your union as nature rejoices in a riotous blaze of colour and life. + Accept my gift, + Mother Goddess and Father God, + in honour of Your union. + + Place the token(s) on the tree. + + From Your mating shall spring forth life anew; + a profusion of living creatures shall cover the lands, + and the winds will blow pure and sweet. + O Ancient Ones, + I celebrate with You! + + Works of magick, if necessary, may follow. + Celebrate the Simple Feast. + The circle is released. + + +BELTANE LORE + + Weaving and plaiting are traditional arts at this time of year, for the joining together of two substances to form a third is in the spirit of Beltane. + Foods traditionally come from the dairy, and dishes such as marigold custard (see recipies - food) and vanilla ice cream are fine. Oatmeal cakes are also appropriate. + + + +MIDSUMMER (circa June 21) + + Before the rite, make up a small cloth pouch filled with herbs such as lavender, chamomile, St. John's Wort, vervain, or any of the Midsummer herbs listed in "An Herbal Grmoire." Mentally pour all your troubles, problems, pains, sorrows and illnesses, if any, into this petition as you construct it. Tie it shut with a red string. Place this on the altar for use during the rite. The cauldron should also be there or nearby. Even if you use candles to mark the quarters, the red candle in a holder should also be on the altar. For outdoor rituals, light a fire - however small - and drop the pouch into this. + Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle of Stones. + Recite the Blessing Chant. + Invoke the Goddess and God. + Stand before the altar and say, with wand upraised: + + I celebrate the noon of summer with mystic rites. + O great Goddess and God, + all nature vibrates with Your energies and the Earth is bathed with warmth and life. + Now is the time of forgetting past cares and banes; + O firey Sun, + burn away the unuseful, + the hurtful, + the bane, + in Your omnipotent power. + Purify me! + Purify me! + Purify me! + + Lay the wand on the altar. Take up the herbal petition and light it in the red candle on the altar (or, if outdoors, the ritual fire). +When it is burning drop it into the cauldron (or some other heat-proof container) and say: + + + I banish you by the powers of the Goddess and God! + I banish you by the powers of the Sun, + Moon and Stars! + I banish you by the powers of the Earth, + Air, + Fire and Water! + + Pause, seeing the hurts and pains burning into nothingness. Then say: + + O Gracious Goddess, + O Gracious God, + on this night of Midsummer magick I pray that You charge my life with wonder and joy. + Help me in attuning with the energies adrift on the enchanted night air. + I give thanks. + + Reflect upon the purification you have undergone. Feel the powers of nature flowing through you, washing you clean with divine energy. + Works of magick, if necessary, may follow. + Celebrate the Simple Feast. + The circle is released. + + + +MIDSUMMER LORE + + Midsummer is practically the classic time to perform magicks of all kinds. Healings, love magick and protections are especially suitable. Herbs can be dried over the ritual fire if you're celebrating outdoors. Leap the fire for purification and renewed energy. + Fresh fruits are standard fare for Midsummer. + + + +LUGHNASADH (August 1) + + Place upon the altar sheaves of wheat, barley or oats, fruit and breads, perhaps a loaf fashioned in the figure of the Sun or a man to represent the God. Corn dollies, symbolic of the Goddess, can be present there as well. + Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle of Stones. + Recite the Blessing Chant. + Invoke the Goddess and God. + Stand before the altar, holding aloft the sheaves of grain, saying these or simular words: + + Now is the time of the First Harvest, + when the bounties of nature give of themselves so that we may survive. + O God of the ripening fields, + Lord of the Grain, + grant me the understanding of sacrifice as You prepare to deliver Yourself under the sickle of the Goddess and journey to the lands of eternal summer. + O Goddess of the Dark Moon, + teach me the secrets of rebirth as the Sun loses its strength and the nights grow cold. + + Rub the heads of the wheat with your fingers so that the grains fall onto the altar. Lift a piece of fruit and bite it, savouring its flavour, and say: + + I partake of the first harvest, + mixing its energies with mine that I may continue my quest for the starry wisdom of perfection. + O Lady of the Moon and Lord of the Sun, + gracious ones before Whom the stars halt their courses, + I offer my thanks for the continuing fertility of the Earth. + May the nodding grain loose its seeds to be buried in the Mother's breast, + ensuring rebirth in the warmth of the coming Spring. + + Consume the rest of the fruit. + + Works of magick, if necessary, may follow. + Celebrate the Simple Feast. + The circle is released. + + + +LUGHNASADH LORE + + It is appropriate to plant the seeds from the fruit consumed ib ritual. If they sprout, grow the plant with love and as a symbol of your connection with the Goddess and God. + Wheat weaving (the making of corn dollies, etc.) is an appropriate activity for Lughnasadh. Visits to fields, orchards, lakes and wells are also traditional. + The foods of Lughnasadh include bread, blackberries and all berries, acorns (leached of their poisons first), crab apples, all grains and locally ripe produce. A cake is sometimes baked, and cider is used in place of wine. + If you do make a figure of the God from bread, it can be used for the Simple Feast. + + + +MABON (circa September 21) + + Decorate the altar with acorns, oak sprigs, pine and cypress cones, ears of corn, wheat stalks and other fruits and nuts. Also place there a small rustic basket filled with dried leaves of various colours and kinds. + Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle of Stones. + Recite the Blessing Chant. + Invoke the Goddess and God. + Stand before the altar, holding aloft the basket of leaves, and slowly scatter them so that they cascade to the ground within the circle. Say such words as these: + + Leaves fall, + the days grow cold. + The Goddess pulls Her mantle of the Earth around Her as You, + O Great Sun God, + sail toward the West to the lands of + Eternal Enchantment., + wrapped in the coolness of night. + Fruits ripen, + seeds drop, + the hours of day and night are balanced. + Chill winds blow in from the North wailing laments. + In this seeming extinction of nature's power, + O Blessed Goddess, + I know that life continues. + For spring is impossible without the second + harvest, + as surely as life is impossible without death. + Blessings upon You, + O Fallen God, + as You journey into the lands of winter + and into the Goddess' loving arms. + + Place the basket down and say: + + + + O Gracious Goddess of all fertility, + I have sown and reaped the fruits of my actions, + good and bane. + Grant me the courage to plant seeds of joy and love in the coming year, + banishing misery and hate. + Teach me the secrets of wise existence upon this planet, + O Luminous One of the Night! + + Works of magick, if necessary, may follow. + Celebrate the Simple Feast. + The circle is released. + + + +MABON LORE + + A traditional practise is to walk wild places and forests, gathering seed pods and dried plants. Some of these can be used to decorate the home; others saved for furture herbal magick. + The foods of Mabon consist of the second harvest's gleanings, so grains, fruit and vegtables predoninate, especially corn. Corn bread is traditional fare, as are beans and baked squash. + + + +Samhain (October 31) + + Place upon the altar apples, pomegranetes, pumpkins, squashes and other late autumn fruits. Autumn flowers such as marigolds and chrysanthemums are fine too. Write on a piece of paper an aspect of your life which you may wish to be free of; anger, a baneful habit, misplaced feelings, desease. The cauldron or some simular tool must be present before the altar as well, on a trivet or some other heat-proof surface (if the legs aren't long enough). A small, flat dish marked with an eight-spoked wheel symbol should also be there. [This is just what it sounds like. On a flat plate or dish, paint a large circle. Put a dot in the center of this circle and paint eight spokes radiating out from the dot to the larger circle. Thus, you have a wheel symbol - a symbol of the Sabbats, a symbol of timelessness.] + Prior to ritual, sit quietly and think of friends and loved ones who have passed away. Do not dispair. Know that they have gone on to greater things. Keep firmly in mind that the physical isn't the absolute reality, and souls never die. + Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle of Stones. + Recite the Blessing Chant. + Invoke the Goddess and God. + Lift one of the pomegranates and, with your freshly-washed Boline, pierce the skin of the fruit. Remove several seeds and place them on the wheel-marked dish. + Raise your wand, face the altar and say: + + On this night of Samhain I mark Your passing, + O Sun King, + through the sunset into the Land of the Young. + I mark also the passing of all who have gone before, + and all who will go after. + O Gracious Goddess, + Eternal Mother, + You who gives birth to the fallen, + teach me to know that in the time of the greatest darkness there is the greatest light. + + Taste the pomegranate seeds; burst them with your teeth and savour their sharp, bittersweet flavour. Look down as the eight-spoked symbol on the plate; the Wheel of the Year, the Cycle of the Seasons, the End and Beginning of all Creation. + Light a fire within the cauldron (a candle is fine). Sit before it, holding the piece of paper, gazing at its flames. Say: + + Wise One of the Waning Moon, + Goddess of the Starry Night, + I create this fire within Your cauldron to transform that which is plaguing me. + May the energies be reversed: + From the darkness, light! + From bane, good! + From death, birth! + + Light the paper in the cauldron's flames and drop it inside. As it burns, know that your ill diminishes, lessens and finally leaves you as it is consumed within the universal fires. [The cauldron, seen as the Goddess.] + If you wish, you may attempt scrying or some other form of divination, for this is a perfect time to look into the past or future. Try to recall past lives too, if you will. But leave the dead in peace. Honour them with your memories but do not call them to you. [Many Pagans do attempt to communicate with their deceased ancestors and friends at this time, but it seems to me that if we accept the doctrine of reincarnation, this is a rather strange practise. Perhaps the personalities that we knew still exist, but if the soul is currently incarnate in another body, communication would be difficult, to say the least. Thus, it seems best to remember them with peace and love - but do not call them up.] Realease any pain and sense of loss you may feel into the cauldron's flames. + Works of magick, if necessary, may follow. + Celebrate the Simple Feast. + The circle is released. + + + +SAMHAIN LORE + + It is traditional on Samhain night to leave a plate of food outside the home for the souls of the dead. A candle placed in the window guides them to the Lands of Eternal Summer, and burying apples in the hard-packed earth "feeds" the passed ones on their journey. + For food, beets, turnips, apples, corn, nuts, gingerbread, cider, mulled wines and pumpkin dishes are appropriate, as are meat dishes (once again, if you're not vegetarian. If so, tofu seems ritually correct). + + + +A RITUAL OF GESTURES + + Stand in the ritual area. Still your thoughts. Breathe deeply for half a minute or so until composed and calm. Turn your mind to our Deities. + Face North. Lift both hands to waist height, palms down. Press your fingers together, creating two solid, flat planes. Sense solidity, foundation, fertility. Invoke the powers of the Earth through the gesture. + Moments Later, turn toward the East. Raise your hands a foot higher, your palms facing away from you (no longer parallel with the ground), and elbows slightly bent. Spread your fingers and hold this position, sensing movement and communication. Invoke the forces of Air through the gesture. + Face South. Lift your hands fully above your head. Keeping the elbows straight, grasp your fingers into tight fists. Feel force, power, creation and destruction. Invoke the forces of Fire through the gesture. + Turn to the West. Lower your hands a foot or so. Bend the elbows, turn your palms upward and cup them, pressing the thumbs against the forefingers. Sense fluidity, the ocean, liquidity. Invoke the forces of Water through the gesture. + Face North again. Trow your head back and raise both hands to the sky, palms up, fingers spread. Drink in the essence of The One, the unknowable, upapproachable ultimate source of all. Sense the mysteries within the universe. + Lower your projective hand (your writing hand) but keep your receptive hand high. Pressing the third, forth and fifth fingers against the palm, lift the forefinger and thumb to create a rough cresent shape. Sense the reality of the Goddess. Sense Her love, Her fertility, Her compassion. Sense the powers of the Moon in the gesture; the force of the eternal seas - the presence of the Goddess. + Lower your receptive hand; lift your projestive hand. Bend down the middle and forth fingers toward the palm, and trap them with the thumb. Lift the forefinger and little finger up to the sky, creating a horned image. Sense the reality of the God. Sense the power of the Sun in the gesture; the untamed energies of the woodlands - the presence of the God. + Lower your projective hand. Lay down flat. Spread your legs and arms until you've created the pattern of a pentagram. Sense the powers of the elements running through you; merging and coalescing into your being. Sense them as emanations from The One, the Goddess and God. + Meditate. Commune. Communicate. + When finished, simply stand up. Your rite of gestures is over. + + + +THE LAW OF THE POWER + + 1. The Power shall not be used to bring harm, to injure or control others. But if the need rises, the Power shall be used to protect your life or the life of others. + 2. The Power is used only as need dictates. + 3. The Power can be used for your own gain, as long as by doing so you harm none. + 4. It is unwise to accept money for the use of the Power, for it quickly controls its taker. Be not as those of other religions. + 5. Use not the Power for prideful gain, for such cheapens the mysteries of the Craft and magick. + 6. Ever remember that the Power is a sacred gift of the Goddess and God, and should never be misused or abused. + 7. And this is the Law of the Power. + + + +INVOCATION OF THE ELEMENTS + +Air, Fire, Water, Earth, +Elements of Astral birth, +I call you now; attend to me! + +In the circle, rightly cast, +Safe from psychic curse or blast, +I call you now, attend to me! + +From cave and desert, sea and hill, +By blade and wand, cup and pentacle, +I call you now; attend to me! +This is my will, so mote it be! + +[This invocation may be chanted while moving or dancing around the altar to raise elemental energy for magickal workings.] + + + + PRAYERS, CHANTS AND INVOCATIONS + OF AND TO + THE GODDESS AND GOD + + These prayers can be used to invoke the Goddess and God during ritual, just after the circle casting. Of course, any which you compose or are inspired to say and be used as well. + A few chants are also included to raise energy or to commune with the deities. + Some of these invocations rhyme, and some do not. But recall the power of rhyme - it linke our conscious mind to the unconcious or psychic mind, thereby producing ritual conciousness. + Some of these are related to specific deities but, as Dion Fortune wrote: "All the gods are one god; and all the goddesses are one goddess, and there is only one initiator." + + + +INVOCATION TO THE GODDESS + +Cresent One of the starry skies, Flowered One of the fertile plan, +Flowing One of the ocean's sighs, +Blessed One of the gentle rain; +Hear my chant 'midst the standing stones, +Open me to your mystic light; +Waken me to your silver tones, +Be with me in my sacred rite! + + + +INVOCATION TO PAN + +O Great God Pan, +Beast and man, +Shepherd of goats and Lord of the Land, +I call you to attend my rites +On this most magickal of nights. +God of the wine, +God of the vine, +God of the fields and God of the kine, +Attend my circle with your love +And send Your blessings from above. +Help me to heal; +Help me to feel; +Help me to bring forth love and weal. +Pan of the forests, Pan of the glade, +Be with me as my magick is made! + + + +ISIS INVOCATION + +Isis of the Moon, +You who are all that ever was, +All that is, +And all that shall be: +Come, veiled Queen of Night! +Come as the scent of the sacred lotus +Charging my circle +With love and magick. +Do descend upon my circle, +I pray, +O Blessed Isis! + + + +PRAYER TO THE HORNED GOD + +Horned One of the wilderness, +Winged One of the shining skies, +Rayed One of the spen'drous Sun, +Fallen One of the Samhain cries- +I call amidst the standing stones +Praying that You, O Ancient One, +Will deign to bless my mystic rites- +O fiery Lord of the Bazing Sun! + + + +NEW MOON CHANT TO DIANA + +Waxing, waxing, growing, growing- +Diana's power is flowing, flowing. + (repeat) + + + +CALL TO THE GOD + +Ancient God of the forest deeps, +Master of beast and Sun; +Here where the world is hushed and sleeps +Now that the day is done. +I call You in the ancient way +Here in my circle round, +Asking that You will hear me pray +And send Your Sun force down. + + + +INVOCATION TO THE GODDESS + +Gracious Goddess, +You who are the Queen of the Gods, +The lamp of night, +the creator of all that is wild and free; +Mother of woman and man; +Lover of the Horned God and protectress of all the Craft: +Descend, I pray, +With Your Lunar ray of power +Upon my circle here! + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ssbos-c.txt b/religious documents/ssbos-c.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0998e42 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ssbos-c.txt @@ -0,0 +1,344 @@ +INVOCATION TO THE GOD + +Blazing God, +You who are the King of the Gods, +Lord of the Sun, +Master of all that is wild and free; +Father of woman and man, +Lover of the Moon Goddess and protector of all the Craft: +Descend I pray, +With you Solor ray of power +Upon my circle here! + + + +GODDESS CHANT + +Luna, Luna, Luna, Diana +Luna, Luna, Luna, Diana +Bless me, bless me, bless me, Diana, +Luna, Luna, Luna, Diana + (repeat) + + + +EVENING CHANT TO THE GOD + +Hail fair Sun, +Ruler of day; +Rise on the morn +To light my way. + (to be said while watching the sunset) + + + +EVENING CHANT TO THE GODDESS + +Hail fair Moon +Ruler of night; +Guard me and mine +Until the light. + (to be said while Moon-gazing at night) + + + +GODDESS CHANT + +Aaaaaaaaaaaaah +Oooooooooooooh +Uuuuuuuuuuuuuu +Eeeeeeeeeeeeee +Iiiiiiiiiiiiii + +[These are obviously, the vowels of the English language. Pronounce them as: A-"Ah," O-"O," U-"Oo," E-"E," I-"Eye." Extend the vowels as you vocalize them, stretch the sounds. This produces Goddess awareness, and rouses the psychic mind] + + + +THE LORE OF NUMBERS + + To be used in ritual and magickal workings. In general, odd numbers are related to women, receptive energy and the Goddess; even numbers to men, projective energy and the God. + +1. The universe; The One; the source of all. + +2. The Goddess and God; The perfect duality; projective and receptive energy; the couple; personal union with deity; interpenetration of the physical and spiritual; balance. + +3. The Triple Goddess; the Lunar phases; the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of our species. + +4. The elements; the Spirits of the Stones; the winds; the seasons. + +5. The senses; the pentagram; the elements plus Akasha; a Goddess number. + +7. The planets which the ancients knew; the time of the Lunar phase; power; protection and magick. + +8. The number of Sabbats; a number of the God. + +9. A number of the Goddess. + +13. The number of Esbats; a fortunate number. + +15. A number of good fortune. + +21. The number of Sabbats and Esbats in the Pagan year; a number of the Goddess. + +28. A number of the Moon; a number of the goddess. + +101. The number of fertility. + +The planets are numbered thus: + +Saturn 3 Venus 7 +Jupiter 4 Mercury 8 +Mars 5 Moon 9 +Sun 6 + + + +THIRTEEN GOALS OF A WITCH + + I. Know yourself + II. Know your Craft (Wicca) + III. Learn + IV. Apply knowledge with wisdom + V. Achieve balance + VI. Keep your words in good order + VII. Keep your thoughts in good order +VIII. Celebrate life + IX. Attune with the cycles of Terra + X. Breath and eat correctly + XI. Exercise the body + XII. Meditate +XIII. Honour the Goddess and God + + + + + +RECIPES FOR FOOD + + + +CRECENT CAKES + + 1 cup firmly ground almonds +1 1/4 cups flour + 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar + 2 drops almond extract + 1/2 cup butter, softened + 1 egg yolk + + Combine almonds, flour, sugar and extract until thoroughly mixed. with the hands, work in butter and egg yolk until well-blended. Chill dough. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of walnuts and shape into crecents. Place on greased sheets and bake for about 20 minutes. Serve during Simple Feast, especially at Esbats. + + + +BELTANE MARIGOLD CUSTARD + + 2 cups milk + 1 cup unsprayed marigold petals +1/4 tsp. salt + 3 tbsp. sugar + 1 to 2-inch piece vanilla bean + 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten +1/8 tsp. allspice +1/8 tsp. nutmeg +1/2 tsp. rose water + wipped cream + + Using a clean mortar and pestle reserved for cooking purposes, pound marigold petals. Or, crush with a spoon. Mix the salt, sugar and spices together. Scald milk with the marigolds and the vanilla bean. Remove the vanilla bean and add the slightly beaten yolks and dry ingredients. Cook on low heat. When the mixture coats a spoon, add rose water and cool. + Top with wipped cream, garnish with fresh marigold petals. + + + +SOFT MEAD + + 1 quart water, preferably spring water + 1 cup honey + 1 sliced lemon +1/2 tsp. nutmeg + + Boil together all ingredients in a non-metalic pot. While boiling, scrape off the rising "scum" with a wooden spoon. When no more rises add the following: + + pinch salt + juice of 1/2 lemon + + Strain and cool. Drink in place of alcoholic mead or wine during the Simple Feast. + + + +BEVERAGES + + If you wish to avoid the use of wine, which has long been utilized in religious and magickal rites, there are many other beverages that can be used to toast the Goddess and God. These include (but certainly aren't limited to): + +Sabbats: apple juice, grape juice, grapefruit juice, orange juice, pineapple juice, black tea, soft mead, guava nectar, cinnamon coffee, ginger tea, hibiscus tea + +Esbats: lemonade, apricot nectar, mango nectar, pear nectar, papaya nectar, peach nectar, jasmine tea, peppermint tea, rosebud tea, milk + + + +RECIPES FOR INCENSES + + To make incenses, simply grind the ingredients and mix them together. As you mix, sense their energies. Burn on charcoal blocks in the censer during ritual. + + + +CIRCLE INCENSE + + 4 parts Frankincense + 2 parts Myrrh + 2 parts Benzoin + 1 part Sandalwood +1/2 part Cinnamon +1/2 part Rose petals +1/4 part Vervain +1/4 part Rosemary +1/4 part Bay + + Burn in the circle for all types of rituals and spells. Frankincense, myrrh and benzoin should definitely constitute the bulk of the mixture. + + + +ALTAR INCENSE + +3 parts Frankincense +2 parts Myrrh +1 part Cinnamon + + Burn as a general incense on the altar to purify it and to promote ritual consciousness during rituals. + + + +FULL MOON RITUAL INCENSE + + 2 parts Sandalwood + 2 parts Frankincense +1/2 part Gardinia petals +1/4 part Rose petals + a few drops Ambergris oil + + Burn during Esbats or simply at the time of the Full Moon to attune with the Goddess. + + + +SPRING SABBAT INCENSE + +3 parts Frankincense +2 parts Sandalwood +1 part Benzoin +1 part Cinnamon + a few drops Patchouly oil + + Burn during spring and summer Sabbat rituals. + + + +FALL SABBAT INCENSE + +3 parts Frankincense +2 parts Myrrh +1 part Rosemary +1 part Cedar +1 part Juniper + + Burn during fall and winter Sabbat rituals. + + + +RECIPES FOR OILS + + To create oils, simply mix them in a bottle. Wear for ritual purposes. + + + +SABBAT OIL #1 + +3 parts Patchouly +2 parts Musk +1 part Carnation + + Wear to the Sabbats to promote communion with the deities. + + + +SABBAT OIL #2 + +2 parts Frankincense +1 part Myrrh +1 part Carnation +1 part Allspice + + Use as the above formula. + + + +FULL MOON OIL #1 + +4 parts Gardenia +2 parts Lotus +1 part Jasmine + + Anoint the body prior to Esbats to attune with Lunar energies. + + + +FULL MOON OIL #2 + +3 parts Sandalwood +2 parts Lemon +1 part Rose + + Another like the above. + + + +GODDESS OIL + +3 parts Rose +2 parts Gardenia +1 part Lemon +1 part Lotus +1 part Ambergris + + Wear to honour the Goddess during rituals. + + + +HORNED GOD OIL + +2 parts Frankincense +2 parts Cinnamon +1 part Bay +1 part rosemary +1 part Musk + + Wear to honour the Horned God during rituals. + + + +ALTAR OIL + +4 parts Frankincense +3 parts Myrrh +1 part Galangal +1 part Vervain +1 part Lavender + + Anoint the altar with this oil at regular intervals to purify and empower it. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ssbos-d.txt b/religious documents/ssbos-d.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e91466 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ssbos-d.txt @@ -0,0 +1,260 @@ +OF GATHERING FLOWERS, HERBS AND PLANTS: + + Before cutting with the Boline, attune with the plant through visualization. Feel its energies. As you cut, say these or simular words: + + O little plant of (name, such as hyssop, etc.) I ask that you give of your bounty that it may aid me in my work. Grow stronger by my stroke, stronger and more powerful, O plant of (name)! + + If it is a tree, substitute the appropriate word (tree of oak). Gently cut only what you need, and never from very young plants or more than twenty-five percent of the growth. At the base of the plant leave an offering: a silver coin, a bright jewel, a bit of wine or milk, grain, a quartz crystal and so on. Cover the offering and it is done. + + + +OF THE CIRCLE + + The magick circle may be fashioned with garlands of flowers sacred to the Goddess and God. Alternately, flowers can be scattered around the perimeter of the circle. + The point stones may be ringed with fresh flowers and herbs suitable to the elements, such as: + + North: corn, cypress, fern, honeysuckle, wheat, vervain + East: acacia, bergamot, clover, dandelion, lavender, lemon grass, mint, mistletoe, parsley, pine + South: basil, carnation, cedar, chrysanthemum, dill, ginger, heliotrope, holly, juniper, marigold, peppermint + West: apple blossoms, lemon balm, camellia, catnip, daffodil, elder, gardenia, grape, heather, hibiscus, jasmine, orchid + + Fresh flowers may be present on the altar or, if none are available, greens such as ferns may be used. + When casting the circle around a tree, you can use the fruit, leaves, nuts or flowers of that tree to mark out the circle, if desired. + All of these can be used in addition to the cord and stones. + + + +OF THE BALEFIRE: + + If you wish to build a fire for an outdoor ritual, it can be composed of all or any combination of the following woods: + + Rowan Dogwood + Mesquite Poplar + Oak Juniper + Pine Cedar + Apple + + If these are unavailable, use native woods. Rites run on the seashore can be illuminated with balefires of dried driftwood collected prior to the rite. + + + +OF THE HOME CIRCLE: + + Magickal plants growing outside the home in containers can be placed around the circle or on the altar during ritual. If you primarily work indoors, choose an odd-numbered selection of sacred plants and grow these in your ritual area. If they need more sunlight, simply move them outdoors and bring inside during ritual. Give them energy and love, and they'll aid you in your worship and magick. + Though any but poisonous plants can be used, such plants as these are recommended: + + African Violets Red Geraniums + Cacti (all types Rose + Ferns (all types) Rose Geranium + Holly Rosemary + Hyssop Ti (Cordyline terminalis) + Palms (all types) Wax Plant (Hoya carnosa) + + + +OF THE CELEBRANT: + + Wear fresh flowers and herbs in your hair and on your body, if you prefer, during the rites. Crowns or caplets of flowers are always appropriate for spring and summer rites. Wear oak and pine during the winter rituals. + You may wish to wear a necklace of herbs and seeds, such as tonka beans, whole nutmags, star anise, acorns and other seeds and nuts, strung on a natural fiber. Strings of small pine cones may also be worn. + For Full Moon rituals held at night, wear night-blooming, fragrant flowers to suffuse yourself with Lunar energies. + + + +OF THE TOOLS: + + These are suggestions for dedicating the tools prior to their first use or formal cosecration, if any. Perform these with proper visualization and ritual intent. + +The Athame or Sword: + + Rub the blade with fresh basil, rosemary or oak leaves, at sunrise, outdoors where you will not be disturbed or seen. Lay the sword or Athame on the ground with its point to the South. Walk clockwise around it thrice, scattering bay leaves (perferably fresh) over it. Take up the sword or Athame, stand facing East and, holding it upward but with arms lowered, invoke the God to infuse your Athame or sword with His strength. Point it to the sky, invoking the Goddess to charge your blade with Her love and power. + Wrap your Athame or sword in red cloth and take it home. It may be stored in the cloth, if desired. + +The Bolline: + + Early in the morning, go to a forest (or park, garden, or your indoor garden). Choose the most beautiful and vibrant plants. Touch the point of the Boline gently to these in turn, forging a connection between your Boline and the plants (and, thusly, the Earth). + Next, sit on the Earth. Ensuring that you are quite alone, draw a pentagram with the Boline's point on the ground. It is done. + +The Wand: + + If the wand is of wood, take it outdoors at sunset and rub it with fresh lavender, eucalyptus or mint leaves. Raise it in the air toward the East (or the Moon if it is visible) and invoke the Goddess. At sunrise, take it again outdoors, rub with the fresh fragrant leaves and invoke the God by raising it to the East. + +The Pentacle: + + Place the pentacle on bare Earth. Lay upon it dried parsley, patchouly, mistletoe, or fress jasmine or honeysuckle flowers. Sit before it facing North for several seconds, visualizing the pentacle absorbing the Earth's energies. Then pick it up and scatter the herbs or flowers to the four quarters, beginning and ending in the North. + If this must be done indoors, fill a small dish with fresh Earth and place the pentacle on this. Proceed as above, saving the herbs or flowers to be scattered outdoors at a latter time. + +The Censer: + + Fume pure rosemary, frankincense or copal within the censer prior to its first use. Do this for about an hour. + +The Cauldron: + + Take the cauldron to a stream, river, lake or ocean. Gather the leaves of some plants growing nearby (at the sea, perhaps seaweed). Dip the cauldron into the water to fill it. Place the leaves in the cauldron, then set it on the water's edge where it is on both water and sand. Place your hands on the cauldron and dedicate it to the Goddess in any words you like. + Empty and dry the cauldron, and return home. The charge has been made. + If performed inside, place the cauldron in a large basin of water or the bathtub, in a candle-lit room. Add a bit of salt to the water, which should be cold. Proceed as above. + Salt water corrodes metal. Thoroughly wash the cauldron after immersion in sea or salk water. + +The Chalice: + + Anoint the base with gardenia, rose or violet oil and fill with pure spring water. Then set afloat a sprig of ivy, a small rose, a fresh gardenia or some other appropriate flower or herb. Gaze into the Chalice and invoke the Goddess to bless it. You might also wish to take it outside as night, filled with water, and catch the Moon's reflection within it. + +The Broom: + + It can be fashioned from an ash staff, birch twigs and a willow binding. Brush the broom with chamomile, willow, lemon balm, elder or mallow stalks and branches, then bury these with due solemnity. You might also wish to carve a cresent Moon upon its handle. + +The Crystal: + + On the night of a Full Moon, rub the sphere with fresh (or dried) mugwort, then take it outside. Hold it up so that it drinks in the light and energies of the Moon. Gaze at the Moon through the crystal by holding it before your eyes. Repeat at least thrice yearly for the best benefits. + +The Book of Shadows: + + Sew into the cover of the Book of Shadows leaves of the sacred herbs vervain, rue, bay, willow or others, if you wish. They should be well-dried and secretly placed by the light of the Moon. The covers of the Book of Shadows should, of course, be covered with cloth for this purpose. + +The Robe: + + If you choose to wear one, lay it among sachets filled with lavender, vervain and cedar when not in use. Sew a bit of rosemary or frankincense into the hem while fashioning it, if desired (and if the resulting stains won't show after washing). + + + +OF THE HERBS OF THE SABBATS: + + To be used as decorations on the altar, round the circle, in the home. + +Samhain: + Chrysanthemum, wormwood, apples, pears, hazel, thistle, pomegranates, all grains, harvested fruits and nuts, the pumpkin, corn. + +Yule: + Holly, mistletoe, ivy, cedar, bay, juniper, rosemary, pine. Place offerings of apples, oranges, nutmegs, lemons and whole cinnamon sticks on the Yule tree. + +Imbolc: + Snowdrop, rowan, the first flowers of the year. + +Ostara: + Daffodil, woodruff, violet, gorse, olive, peony, iris, narcissus, all spring flowers. + +Beltane: + Hawthorn, honeysuckle, St. John's wort, woodruff, all flowers. + +Midsummer: + Mugwort, vervain, chamomile, rose, lily, oak, lavender, ivy, yarrow, fern, elder, wild thyme, daisy, carnation. + +Lughnasadh: + All grains, grapes, heather, blackberries, sloe, crab apples, pears. + +Mabon: + Hazel, corn, aspen, acorns, oak sprigs, autumn leaves, wheat stalks, cypress cones, pine cones, harvest gleanings. + + + +OF THE HERBS AND PLANTS OF FULL MOON RITUALS: + + Place upon the altar all nocturnal, white or five-petaled flowers such as the white rose, night-blooming jasmine, carnation, gardenia, cereus, lily, iris; all pleasingly-scented flowers which shall call forth the Goddess. Camphor is also symbolic. + + + +OF OFFERINGS: + +To the Goddess: + + All watery and earthy flowers and seeds such as camellia, lily, water lily, willow stalks; those flowers used in Full Moon rituals; white or purple blooms such as hyacinth, magnolia, heather and lilac; sweet-scented herbs and flowers; those dedicated to Venus or to the Moon; rue, vervain and olive; or others that seem suitable. + +To the God: + + All fiery amd airy herbs and flowers such as basil, chrysanthemum, snapdragon, clover, lavender, pine; strongly-scented, clean or citrusy herbs and flowers; those ruled by Mars or the Sun; yellow or red blooms such as sunflower, pine cones, seeds, cacti, thistles and stinging herbs; orange, heliotrope, cedar, juniper and so on. + + + +OF THE SACRED HERBS OF THE GODDESSES: + +Aphrodite: olive, cinnamon, daisy, cypress, quince. orris (iris), apple, myrtle +Aradia: rue, vervain +Artemis: silver fir, amaranth, cypress, cedar, hazel, myrtle, willow, daisy, mugwort, date palm +Astarte: alder, pine, cypress, myrtle, juniper +Athena: olive, apple +Bast: catnip, Vervain +Bellona: belladonna +Brigit: blackberry +Cailleach: wheat +Cardea: hawthorn, bean, arbutus +Ceres: willow, wheat, bay, pomegranate, poppy, leek, narcissus +Cybele: oak, myrrh, pine +Demeter: wheat, barley, pennyroyal, myrrh, rose, pomegranate, bean, poppy, all cultivated crops +Diana: birch, willow, acacia, wormwood, dittany, hazel, beech, fir, apple, mugwort, plane, mulberry, rue +Druantia: fir +Freya: cowslip, daisy, primrose, maidenhair, myrrh, strawberry, mistletoe +Hathor: myrtle, sycamore, grape, mandrake, coriander, rose +Hecate: willow, henbane, aconite, yew, mandrake, cyclamen, mint, cypress, date palm, sesame, dandelion, garlic, oak, onion +Hekat: cypress +Hera: apple, willow, orris, pomegranate, myrrh +Hina: bamboo +Hulda: flax, rose, hellebore, elder +Irene: olive +Iris: wormwood, iris +Ishtar: acacia, juniper, all grains +Isis: fig, heather, wheat, wormwood, barley, myrrh, rose, palm, lotus, persea, onion, iris, vervain +Juno: lily, crocus, ashpodel, quince, pomegranate, vervain, iris, lettus, fig, mint +Kerridwen: vervain, acorns +Minerva: olive, mulberry, thistle +Nefer-Tum: lotus +Nepthys: myrrh, lily +Nuit: sycamore +Olwen: apple +Persephone: parsley, narcissus, willow, pomegranate +Rhea: myrrh, oak +Rowen: clover, rowen +Venus: cinammon, daisy, elder, heather, anemone, apple, poppy, violet, marjoram, maidenhair fern, carnation, aster, vervain, myrtle, orchid, cedar, lily, mistletoe, pine, quince +Vesta: oak + + + +OF THE SACRED HERBS OF THE GODS: + +Adonis: myrrh, corn, rose, fennel, lettus, white heather +Aescalapius: bay, mustard +Ajax: delphinium +Anu: tamarisk +Apollo: leek, hyacinth, heliotrope, cornel, bay, frankincense, date palm, cypress +Attis: pine, almond +Ares: buttercup +Bacchus: grape, ivy, fig, beech, tamarisk +Baldur: St. John's wort, daisy +Bran: alder, all grains +Cupid: cypress, sugar, white violet, red rose +Dagda: oak +Dianus: fig +Dionysus: fig, apple, ivy, grape, pine, corn, pomegranate, toadstools, mushrooms, fennel, all wild and cultivated trees +Dis: cypress +Ea: cedar +Eros: red rose +Gwydion: ash +Helios: oak +Horus: horehound, lotus, persea +Hypnos: poppy +Jove: pine, cassia, houseleek, carnation, cypress +Jupiter: aloe, agrimony, sage, oak, mullein, acorn, beech, cypress, houseleek, date palm, violet, gorse, ox-eye daisy, vervain +Kernunnos: heliotrope, bay, sunflower, oak, orange +Kanaloa: banana +Mars: ash, aloe, dogwood, buttercup, witch grass, vervain +Mercury: cinnamon, mulberry, hazel, willow +Mithras: cypress, violet +Neptune: ash, bladderwrack, all seaweeds +Odin: mistletoe, elm, yew, oak +Osiris: acacia, grape, ivy, tamarisk, cedar, clover, date palm, all grains +Pan: fig, pine, reed, oak, fern, all meadow flowers +Pluto: cypress, mint, pomegranate +Poseidon: pine, ash, fig, bladderwack, all seaweeds +Prometheus: fennel +Ra: acacia, frankincense, myrrh, olive +Saturn: fig, blackberry +Sylvanus: pine +Tammuz: wheat, pomegranate, all grains +Thoth: almond +Thor: thistle, houseleek, vervain, hazel, ash, birch, rowen, oak, pomegranate, burdock, beech +Uranus: ash +Woden: ash +Zeus: oak, olive, pine, aloe, parsley, sage, wheat, fig + + + + As the Craft, we will take only that which we need from the green and growing things of the Earth, never failing to attune with the plant before harvesting, nor failing to leave a token of gratitude and respect. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ssbos-e.txt b/religious documents/ssbos-e.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..665f11d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ssbos-e.txt @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +SPELLS AND MAGICK + + +PROTECTIVE CHANT + + Visualize a triple circle of purplish light around you body while chanting: + + I am protected by your might, + O gracious Goddess, day and night. + + Another of the same type: visualize a triple circle and chant: + + Thrice around the circle's bound, + Evil sink into the ground. + + + +A MIRROR SPELL OF PROTECTION FOR THE HOME + + Compose an altar: place a censer in the center before an image of the Goddess. Have a twelve-inch (or so) round mirror there as well. Ring the altar with nine white candles. Burn a protective incense (such as sandalwood, frankincense, copal or rosemary) in the censer. + Beginning with the candle most directly before the Goddess image, say these or simular words: + + Lunar light protect me! + + Repeat as you light each candle until all are glowing. + Now, holding the mirror, invoke the Goddess in Her lunar aspect with these or simular words: + + Great Goddess of the Lunar Light + and Mistress of the Seas; + Great Goddess of the Mystic Night + and of the Mysteries; + Within this place of candles bright + and with Your mirror nigh; + Protect me with Your awesome might + while ill vibrations fly! + + Standing before the altar, hold the mirror facing the candles so that it reflects their flames. Keeping the mirror toward the candles, move slowly, clockwise, around the altar, watching the reflected firelight bouncing off your surroundings. + Gradually increase your speed, mentally invoking the Goddess to protect you. Move faster and faster; watch the light shattering the air, cleansing it, burning away all negitivity and all lines along witch the ill energies have traveled into your home. + Charge your home with the protective light of the Goddess. Race around the candles until you've felt the atmosphere change, until you feel that your home has been cleansed and guarded by the Great Goddess. + When finished, stand once again before the image. Thank the Goddess in any words you wish. Pinch out the candles one by one, bind them together with white cord and store them in a safe place until (and if) you need to use them again for this same purpose. + + + +A SPELL TO BREAK THE POWERS OF A SPELL + + If you believe that a spell has been cast against you, place a large black candle in a cauldron (or a large black bowl). The candle must be tall enough to extend a few inched above the cauldron's rim. Affix the candle to the bottom of the cauldron with warmed beeswax or the drippings of another black candle so that it will not tip over. + Fill the cauldron to the rim with fresh water, without wetting the candle's wick. An inch or two of the candle should remain above the water. Deep breathe, meditate, clear your mind, and light the candle. Visualize the suspected spell's power as residing within the candle's flame. Sit in quiet contemplation of the candle and visualize the power flowing and growing with the candle's flame (yes the power against you). As the candle burns down, its flame flame will eventually sputter and go out as it contacts the water. As soon as the flame has been extinguished by the water, the spell will be dispersed. + Break your visualization of the spell's power; see it explode into dust, becomeing impotent. + Pour the water into a hole in the ground, a lake or stream. Bury the candle. It is done. + + + +TO PROTECT AN OBJECT + + With the first and middle fingers (or your Athame, if you have it with you), trace a pentagram over the object to be protected. Visualize electric-blue or purple flame streaming from your fingers (Athame) to form the pentagram. Say this as you trace: + + With this pentagram I do lay + Protection here both night and day. + And to the one who should not touch + Let the fingers burn and twitch. + I now invoke the Law of Three: + This is my will, so mote it be! + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ssbos-f.txt b/religious documents/ssbos-f.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58c6986 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ssbos-f.txt @@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ +CRYSTAL MAGICK + + Crystals and stones are gifts of the Goddess and God. They are sacred, magickal tools which can be used to enhance ritual and magick. Here are some of the ways of Earth magick. + + + +PREPARING THE CIRCLE: + + The magick circle can be laid out with crystals and stones, if desired, rather than with herbs. + Beginning and ending in the North, lay 7, 9, 21 or 40 quarts crystals of any size around the circle, either inside the cord or in place of it. If the ritual to be conducted within the circle is of a usual spiritual or magickal nature, place the quartz crystals with points outward. If of a protective nature, place with points facing inward. + If you use candles to mark the four quarters of the magick circle rather than large stones, ring each candle with any or all of the following stones: + + North: Moss Agate, Emerald, Jet, Olivine, Salt, Black Tourmaline + East: Imperial Topaz, Citrine, Mica, Pumice + South: Amber, Obsidian, Rhodochrosite, Ruby, Lava, Garnet + West: Aquamarine, Chalcedony, Jade, Lapis Lazuli, Moonstone, Sugilite + + + +A STONE ALTAR: + + To make this altar, search through dry river beds and seashores for a variety of smoothly-shaped stones. Or check rock shops for appropriate pieces. + Create the altar itself of three large stones. Two smaller ones of even size are used as the base, while a longer, flat stone is placed on top of these to form the altar itself. On this place one stone to the left of the altar to represent the Goddess. This might be a natural, river-rounded stone, a holed stone, a quartz crystal sphere, or any of the stones related to the Goddess which are listed below. + To the right of the altar, place a stone to represent the God. This might be a piece of lava, a quartz crystal point, a long, thin or club-shaped rock or a God-symbolic stone such as those presented below. + Between these two stones place a smaller stone with a red candle affixed to it to represent the divine energy of the Goddess and God as well as the element of Fire. + Before this, place a flat stone to receive offerings of wine, honey, cakes, semi-precious stones, flowers and fruit. + A small, cupped stone (if one can be found) should be set to the left of the offering stone. Fill this with water to represent that element. + To the right of the offering stone place a flat rock. Pour salt upon this to symbolize the element of Earth. + Additionally, another flat stone can be placed before the offering stone to serve as an incense burner. + Use a long, thin, terminated quarts crystal as a wand and a flint or obsidian arrowhead for the Athame. + Any other tools which are needed can simply be placed on the altar. Or, try to find stone alternatives to them. + This can be used for all types of Craft rituals. + + + +STONES OF THE GODDESSES: + + In general, all pink, green and blue stones; those related to the Moon or Venus; Water and Earth-ruled stones, such as peridot, emerald, pink tourmaline, rose quartz, blue quartz, aquamarine, beryl, kunzite and turquoise. + Stones which are related to specific deities follow. + +Aphrodite: salt +Ceres: emerald +Coatlicue: Jade +Cybele: jet +Diana: amethyst, moonstone, pearl +Freya: pearl +The Great Mother: amber, coral, geodes, holed stones +Hathor: turquoise +Isis: coral, emerald, lapis lazuli, moonstone, pearl +Kwan Yin: jade +Lakshmi: pearl +Maat: jade +Mara: beryl, aquamarine +Nuit: lapis lazuli +Pele: lava, obsidian, peridot, olvine, pumice +Selene: moonstone, selenite +Tiamat: beryl +Venus: emerald, lapis lazuli, pearl + + + +STONES OF THE GOD: + + Generally, all orange and red stones; stones related to the Sun and Mars; Fire and Air-ruled stones, such as carnelian, ruby, garnet, orange calcite, diamond, tiger's eye, topaz, sunstone, bloodstone and tourmaline. + Stones which are related to specific deities follow. + +Aesculapius: agate +Apollo: sapphire +Bacchus: amethyst +Cupid: opal +Dionysus: amethyst +Mars: onyx, sardonyx +Neptune: beryl +Odin: holed stone +Poseidon: beryl, pearl, aquamarine +Ra: tiger's eye +Tezcatlipoca: obsidian + + + +[Pearl and coral have been mentioned in these lists as "stones" because they were anciently thought to be such. Our knowledge of them as products of living creatures leaves us with the ethical question of whether or not to use them in ritual. This must be a personal decision. Beach gathered coral and shells (mother of pearl is from shells) can be used without conflicting with the above statement because the creature has already died by the time the item was found. If you decide not to use them, just remember leather is also a product of a living creature.] + + + +CAIRNS: + + In earlier times, throughout the world, people built mounds or piles of stones. These were sometimes formed to mark the passage of travelers, or to commemorate some historic even, but such cairns usually had ritual significance. + In magickal thought, cairns are places of power. They concentrate the energies of the stones used to create them. Cairns are rooted in the Earth but lift upward to the sky, symbolically representing the interconnectedness of the physical and spiritual realms. + During outdoor circles, a small cairn, composed of no more than nine or eleven rocks, can be fashioned as each point of the Circle of Stones. This can be done prior to creating the circle itself. + The next time you're in some wild, lonely place with a profusion of stones, clear a place among them and sit. Visualize a magickal need. As you visualize, grasp a near-by stone. Feel the energy beating within it - the power of the Earth, the power of nature. Place it on the cleared ground. Pick up another stone, still visualizing you need, and set it next to the first. + Still visualizing, continue to add stones, building them into a small pile. Keep adding stones until you feel them vibrating and pulsating before you. Place the last rock on top of the cairn with firm ritual intent - affirm to yourself, to the cairn and the Earth that with this final magickal act you're manifesting your need. + Place your hands on either side of the pile. Give it your energy through your visualization. Nurse it. Feed it strength and see your need as being fulfilled. + Then leave the cairn alone to do its work. + + + +A QUARTZ AND CANDLE SPELL: + + Have a candle of the colour symbolic of your magickal need, according to the following list (or as your intuition tells you): + +WHITE Protection, Peace, Purity, Truth, Sincerity, Spirituality + +RED Strength, Health, Vigor, Sexual Love, Passion, Protection, Courage, Danger, Warning, Anger, Element of Fire, God oriented, Male aspects + +LIGHT BLUE Tranquility, Happiness, Understanding, Patience, Health, Element of Water, Goddess oriented, Feminine aspects + +DARK BLUE Impulsiveness, Depression, Changeability, psychism + +GREEN Finance, Fertility, Luck, Growth, Employment, Element of Earth, Goddess oriented, Feminine aspects + +GOLD/YELLOW Attraction, Persuasion, Charm, Confidence, Intellect, Study, Divination, Element of Air, God oriented, Male aspects, (Gold) The Great God, The Sun + +BROWN Hesitation, Uncertainty, Neutrality, Healing Animals, Poverty + +PINK Honour, Love, Morality, Friendship + +BLACK Protection from, absorption of; Evil, loss, discord & Confusion, Lack of colour and vibrations, Neutrality, Element of Akasha, Spirituality, The Divine, The Void + +PURPLE Relief from; Tension, Calming, Healing of severe Disease, Spiritualism, Meditation, Protection, Psychic Power, Element of Akasha, The Divine + +SILVER/GRAY Cancellation, Neutrality, Stalemate,(Silver) The Great Goddess, The Moon + +ORANGE Encouragement, Adaptability, Stimulation, Attraction, Energy + +GREENISH YELLOW Sickness, Cowardice, Anger, Jealousy, Discord + + With the tip of a cleansed, terminated quartz crystal, scratch a symbol of your need onto the candle. This might be a heart for love, a dollar sign for money, a fist for strength. Alternately, use an appropriate rune or write your need on the candle with the crystal. + As you scratch or draw, visualize your need with crystal clarity as if it had already manifested. Place the candle in a holder. Set the crystal near it and light the wick. + As the flame shines, again strongly visualize. The crystal, candle and symbol will do their work. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ssbos-g.txt b/religious documents/ssbos-g.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..417bc20 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ssbos-g.txt @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +A SELF-DEDICATION RITE + + Prepare yourself by doing the Ritual Bath and Self Blessing. + If you,re performing this ritual at the sea or a river, bathe there if you so desire. + As you bathe, prepare for the coming rite. Open your consciousness to higher levels of awareness. Breath deep. Cleanse your mind as well as your body. + After bathing, dry and dress for the journey. Go to a place in the wild where you feel safe. It should be a comfortable spot where you won't be disturbed by others, an area where the powers of the Earth and the Elements are evident. It may be a mountain top, a desert canyon or cave, perhaps a dense forest, a rocky outcropping over the sea, a quiet island in the center of a lake. Even a lonely part of a park or garden can be used. Draw on your imagination to find the place. + You need take nothing with you but a vial of richly scented oil. Sandalwood, frankincense, cinnamon or any other scent is fine. When you arrive at the place of dedication, remove your shoes and sit quietly for a few moments. Calm your heart if you've exerted yourself during your travel. Breathe deeply to return to normal, and keep your mind free of cluttered thoughts. Open yourself to the natural energies around you. + When you're calm, rise and pivot slowly on one foot, surveying the land around you. You're seeking the ideal spot. Don't try to find it; open your awareness to the place. When you've discovered it (and you'll know when), sit, kneel or lie flat on your back. Place the oil on the Earth beside you, Don't stand - contact the Earth. + Continue deep breathing. Feel the energies around you. Call the Goddess and God in any words you like, or use the following invocation. Memorize these words before the rite so that they'll spill effortlessly from you, or improvise: + + O Mother Goddess, + O Father God, + Answers to all mysteries and yet mysteries unanswered; + In this place of power I open myself to Your Essence. + In this place and in this time I am changed; + From henceforth I walk the Paths of the Craft. + I dedicate myself to you, Mother Goddess and Father God. + +(rest for a moment, silent, still. Then continue:) + + I breathe you energies into my body, commingling, blending, + mixing them with mine, + that I may see the divine in nature, + nature in the divine, + and divinity within myself and all else. + O Great Goddess, + O Great God, + Make me one with your essence + Make me one with your essence + Make me one with your essence. + + You may feel bursting with power and energy, or calm and at peace. Your mind might be in a whirl. The Earth beneath you may throb and undulate with energy. Wild animals, attracted by the psychic accurrence, might grace you with their presence. + Whatever occurs, know that you have opened yourself and that the Goddess and God have heard you. You should feel different inside, at peace or simply powerful. + After the invocation, wet a finger with the oil and mark the symbols of the Goddess and God somewhere on your body. It doesn't matter where; you can do this on your chest, forehead, arms, legs, anywhere. As you anoint, visualize these symbols sinking into your flesh, glowing as they enter your body and then dispersing into millions of tiny points of light. + The formal self-dedication is ended. Thank the Goddess and God for Their attention. Sit and meditate before leaving the place of dedication. + Once home, celebrate in some special way. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/ssbos-h.txt b/religious documents/ssbos-h.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6f4626 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ssbos-h.txt @@ -0,0 +1,146 @@ +THE DAYS OF POWER + + + In the past, when people lived with Nature, the turning of the seasons and the monthly cycle of the Moon had a profound impact on religious ceremonies. Because the Moon was seen as a symbol of the Goddess, ceremonies as adoration and magick took place in its light. The coming of Winter, the first stirrings of Spring, the warm Summer and the advent of Fall were also marked with rituals. + The Witches, heirs of the pre-Christian folk religions of Europe, still celebrate the Full Moon and observe the changing of the seasons. The Pagan religious calandar contains 13 Full Moon celebrations and eight Sabbats or days of power. + Four of these days (or, more properly, nights) are determined by the Solstices and Equinoxes, the astronomical beginnings of the seasons. The other four ritual occations are based on old folk festivals. The rituals give structure and order to the Pagan year, and also remind us of the endless cycle that will continue long after we're gone. + Four of the Sabbats - perhaps those that have been observed for the longest time - were probably associated with the agriculture and the bearing cycles of animals. These are Imbolc (February 2), Beltane (April 30), Lughnasadh (August 1) and Samhain (October 31). These names are Celtic and are quite common among Witches, though many others exist. + When careful observation of the skies led to common knowledge of the astronomical year, the Solstices and Equinoxes (circa March 21, June 21, September 21 and December 21; the actual dates vary from year to year) were brought into this religious structure. + Who first began worshipping and raising energy at these times? That question cannot be answered. However, these sacred days and nights are the origins of the 21 Craft ritual occasions. + Many of these survive today in both secular and religious forms. May Day celebrations, Hallowe'en, Ground-hog Day and even Thanksgiving, to name some popular North American holidays, are all connected with ancient Pagan worship. Heavily Christianized versions of the Sabbats have also been preserved within the Catholic Church. + The Sabbats are Solar rituals, marking the points of the Sun's yearly cycle, and are but half of the Pagan ritual year. The Esbats are the Pagan Full Moon celebrations. At this time we gather to worship She Who Is. Not that Witches omit the God at Esbats - both are usually revered on all ritual occations. + There are 13 Full Moons yearly, or one every 28 1/4 days. The Moon is a symbol of the Goddess as well as a sourse of energy. Thus, after the religious aspects of the Esbats, Witches often practice magick, tapping into the larger amounts of energy which are thought to exist at these times. + Some of the old Craft festivals, stripped of their once sacred qualities by the dominance of Christianity, have degenerated. Samhain seems to have been taken over by candy manufacturers in North America, while Yule has been transformed from one of the most holy Pagan days to a time of gross commercialism. Even the later echoes of a Christian savior's birth are hardly audible above the electronic hum of cash registers. + But the old magick remains on these days and nights, and the Craft celebrate them. Rituals vary greatly, but all relate to the Goddess and God and to our home, the Earth. Most rites are held at night for practical purposes as well as to lend a sence of mystery. The Sabbats, being Solar-oriented, are more naturally celebrated at noon or at dawn, but this is rare today. + +THE SABBATS + + The Sabbats tell os one of the stories of the Goddess and God, of their relationship and the effects this has on the fruitfulness of the Earth. There are many variations on these myths, but here's a faily common one, woven into the basic descriptions of the Sabbats. + + +YULE + + The Goddess gives birth to a son, the God, at Yule (circa December 21). This is in no way an adaptation of Christianity. The Winter Solstice has long been viewed as a time of divine births. Mithras was said to have been born at this time. The Christians simply adopted it for their use in 273 C.E. (Common Era). + Yule is a time of the greatest darkness and is the shortest day of the year. Earlier peoples noticed such phenomena and supplicated the forces of nature to lengthen the days and shorten the nights. Witches sometimes celebrate Yule just before dawn, then watch the Sun rise as a fitting finale to their efforts. + Since the God is also the Sun, this marks the point of the year when the Sun is reborn as well. Thus, the Witches light fires or candles to welcome the Sun's returning light. The Goddess, slumbering through the Winter of Her labour, rests after Her delivery. + Yule is remnant of early rituals celebrated to hurry the end of Winter and the bounty of Spring, when food was once again readily available. To contemporary Witches it is a reminder that the ultimate product of death is rebirth, a comforting thought in these days of unrest + +IMBOLC + + Imbolc (February 2) marks the recovery of the Goddess after giving birth to the God. The lengthening periods of light awaken Her. The God is a young, lusty boy, but His power is felt in the longer days. The warmth fertilizes the Earth (the Goddess), and causes seeds to germinate and sprout. And so the earliest beginnings of Spring occur. + This is a Sabbat of purification after the shut-in life of Winter, through the renewing power of the Sun. It is also a festival of light and of fertility, once marked in Europe with huge blazes, torches and fire in every form. Fire here represents our own illumination and ispiration as much as light and warmth. + Imbolc is also known as Feast of Torches, Oimelc, Lupercalia, Feast of Pan, Snowdrop Festival, Feast of the Waxing Light, Brighid's Day, and probably by many other names. Some female Witches follow the old Scandinavian custom of wearing crowns of lit candles, but many more carry tapers during their invocations. + This is one of the traditional times for initiations into covens, and so self-dedication rituals, such as the one outlined in this Book of Shadows, can be performed or renewed at this time. + +OSTARA + + Ostara (circa March 21), the Spring Equinox, also known as Spring, Rites of Spring and Eostra's Day, marks the first day of true Spring. The energies of Nature subtly shift from the sluggishness of Winter to the exhuberant expansion of Spring. The Goddess blankets the Earth with fertility, bursting forth from Her sleep, as the God stretches and grows to maturity. He walkes the greening fields and delights in the abundance of nature. + On Ostara the hours of day and night are equal. Light is overtaking darkness; the Goddess and God impel the wild creatures of the Earth to reproduce. + This is a time of beginnings, of action, of planting spells for future gains, and of tending the ritual gardens. + +BELTANE + + Beltane (April 30) marks the emergence of the young God into manhood. Stirred by the energies at work in Nature, He desires the Goddess. They fall in love, lie among the grasses and blossoms, and unite. The Goddess becomes pregnant of the God. Witches celebrate the symbol of Her fertility in ritual. + Beltane (also known as May Day) has long been marked with feasts and rituals. May poles, supremely phallic symbols, were the focal point of Old English village rituals. Many persons rose at dawn to gather flowers and green branches from the fields and gardens, using them to decorate the May pole, their homes and themselves. + The flowers and greenery symbolize the Goddess; the May pole the God. Beltane marks the return of vitality, of passion and hopes consummated. + May poles are sometimes used by Witches today during Beltane rituals, but the cauldron is a more common focal point of ceremony. It represents, of course, the Goddess - the essence of womanhood, the end of all desire, the equal but opposite of the May pole, symbolic of the God. + +MIDSUMMER + + Midsummer, the Summer Solstice (circa June 21), also known as Litha, arrives when the powers of Nature reach their highest point. The Earth is awash in the fertility of the Goddess and God. + In the past, bonfires were leapt to encourage fertility, purification, health and love. The fire once again represents the Sun, feted on this time of the longest daylight hours. + Midsummer is a classic time for magick of all kinds. + +LUGHNASADH + + Lughnasadh (August 1) is the time of the first harvest, when the plants of Spring wither and drop their fruits or seeds for our use as well as to ensure future crops. Mystically, so too does the God lose His strength as the Sun rises farther in the South each day and the nights grow longer. The Goddess watches in sorrow and joy as She realizes that the God is dying, and yet lives on inside Her as Her child. + Lughnasadh, also known as August Eve, Feast of Bread, Harvest Home and Lammas, wasn't necessarily observed on this day. It originally coinsided with the first reapings. + As Summer passes, Witches remember its warmth and bounty in the food we eat. Every meal is an act of attunement with Nature, and we are reminded that nothing in the universe is constant. + +MABON + + Mabon (circa September 21), the Autumn Equinox, is the completion of the harvest begun as Lughnasadh. Once again day and night are equal, poised as the God prepares to leave His physical body and begin the great adventure into the unseen, toward renewal and rebirth of the Goddess. + Nature declines, draws back its bounty, readying for Winter and its time of rest. The Goddess nods in the weakening Sun, though fire burns within Her womb. She feels the presence of the God even as He wanes. + +SAMHAIN + + At Samhain (October 31), the Craft say farewell to the God. This is a temporary farewell. He isn't wrapped in eternal darkness, but readies to be reborn of the Goddess at Yule. + Samhain, also known as November Eve, Feast of the Dead, Feast of Apples, Hallows, All Hallows and Hallowe'en, once marked the time of sacrifice. In some places this was the time when animals were slaughtered to ensure food throughout the depths of Winter. The God - identified with the animals - fell as well to ensure our continuing existence. + Samhain is a time of reflection, of looking back over the last year, of coming to terms with the one phenomenon of life over which we have no control - death. + The Craft feel that on this night the separation between the physical and spiritual realities is thin. Witches remember their ancestors and all those who have gone before. + After Samhain, Witches celebrate Yule, and so the Wheel of the Year is complete. + + + Surely there are mysteries buried here. Why is the God the son and then the lover of the Goddess? This isn't incest, this is symbolism. In this agricultural story (one of many Craft myths) the everchanging fertility of the Earth is represented by the Goddess and God. This myth speaks of the mysteries of birth, death and rebirth. It celebrates the wondrous aspects and beautiful effects of love, and honours women who perpetuate our species. It also points out the very real dependence that humans have on the Earth, the Sun and the Moon and of the effects of the seasons on our daily lives. + To agricultural peoples, the major thrust of this myth cycle is the production of food through the interplay between the Goddess and God. Food - without which we would all die - is intimately connected with the deities. Indeed, Witches see food as yet another manifestation of divine energy. + And so, by observing the Sabbats, Witches attune themselves to the Earth and to the deities. They reaffirm their Earth roots. Performing rituals on the nights of the Full Moon also strengthens their connections with the Goddess in particular. + It is the wise Witch who celebrates on the Sabbats and Esbats, for these are times of real as well as symbolic power. Honouring them in some fashion is an integral part of Witchcraft. + +THE ESBATS + + When our earliest ancestors first painted images of their religious rituals on the walls of sacred caves and understood all of Nature to be inhabited by Spirit, there can be little doubt that they first reconed time by the waxing and waning of the Moon. The primary reason for this is that the monthly cycles of the Moon are far more visible than the slow and subtle changes in the position of the Sun, even to someone who is not especially looking for repeated cycles. One of the earliest calandars known (although its use is still a controversy that may never be settled) is a 30,000 year-old piece of bone from Europe. It is pierced with variously shaped holes in a series of sevens, suggesting the quarters of the Moon, in a loop design, which represents the Lunar cycle from New Moon to Full and back to the New or Dark of the Moon. The artifact, just a few inches across, desribes three such Lunar cycles - three months or one season. + Because there are 13 Lunar months in a year, and because the first New Moon does not necessarily coincide with the first day of the first Solar month, the Full Moon, midpoint of the lunar month, may not always fall in the Solar month that is given here. And because there are 13 Full Moons in a Solar year, one month will have two. The second Full Moon to occur in a Solar month is popularly called the Blue Moon. + + +JANUARY + + To each Lunar month the ancients assigned a name in accordance with the nature of the activity that took place at that time. The Moon of deepest Winter is the Wolf Moon, and its name recalls a time when our ancestors gathered close around the hearth fire as the silence of the falling snow was pierced by the howling of wolves. Driven by hunger, wolves came closer to villages than at any other time of the year, and may have occasionally killed a human being in order to survive. + The wolf in northern countries was at one time so feared that it became the image of Fenris, the creature of destruction that supposedly will devour the world at the end of time. The Christian version of the myth would leave it at that, but the myth continues. Like the wolf in the fairy tale of Little Red Ridinghood, which preserves the full idea of the myth but is used only to frighten children, the wolf is slain; and the grandmother, like the world, is brought forth once more. + As the light of the new-born year slowly increases and the Wolf Moon waxes full, it is a good time to look back upon that which has just ended and learn from our experiences. Bid the past farewell and let it go in order to receive the year that has just been born. Learning to let go of that which we would cling to is one of the greatest secrets of magick. + +FEBRUARY + + The Moon following the Wolf Moon is the Storm Moon. Whether you meet with a coven on the night of the Full Moon, salute Her in a solitary ritual, or simply blow Her a kiss, bear in mind the magick of this night and the nature of the storms of February. Unlike the boisterous storms of the light half of the year, which are accompanied by the clashing of thunder and the flining of lightning bolts, the storms of February come in silence. They blanket the world in coldness in keeping with the nature of the dark half of the Wheel of the Year. But beneath the blanket of cold and silent snow, Nature rests, as we do when in the realm of the Spirit that is called death; and like those in the world of Spirit, Nature prepares for life anew. + +MARCH + + The Moon following the Storm Moon is the Chaste Moon. Like Diana, chaste Goddess of the Moon, all of Nature at this moment is pure potential waiting to be fullfilled. The Goddess has many forms: The maiden pure and lovely as the snow of February, the seductive enchantress of the night, or the Crone ancient and wise. As the Goddess can change Her form according to the Moon or according to Her will, ever renewing Herself, ever beginning again, se can we, Her children, always begin again by discovering new potencial within ourselves. When you cast the Circle of the Chaste Moon, when the candles have been lit and the incense burned, look deep within yourself to discover what potential lies there waiting, like the Maiden, to be fulfilled. + As it is the time for the planting of seeds on the material plane, so may it be time to do so on the psychic planes as well. On the night that the Seed Moon (another name for the Chaste Moon) of March is full, cast your magick Circle. Then before the rite has ended, select the spiritual seeds you would like to plant. They may be seeds of wisdom, seeds of understanding, or seeds of certain magickal skills. Then by an act of will, plant these seeds in the fertile soil of your subconscious mind with the firm commitment that they will be nurtured and cultivated in the months that lie ahead, so that they will grow and flower and bear fruit. + +APRIL + + As the Hare Moon of April waxes full, observe the rabbits leaping and playing, carefree in their mating and joyful in their games, and as you cast your Esbat Circle and joyfully dance the round, feel within your heart the carefree nature of the wild creatures that are also children of the Old Gods. + +MAY + + This time of the Sacred Marriage of the God and Goddess is the Dyad Moon, the time when the two become one, when all things meet their opposites in perfect balance and in perfect harmony. As you cast your Circle this night of the Dyad Moon, adorn it with apple blossoms, and light candles of white. When the sacred round has been danced, sit a moment and reflect. Seek harmony in all things. As the dark half of the Wheel of the Year balances the light, as heat balances cold, recall the words of the Goddess, "Let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honour and humility, mirth and reverence, within you." And then before the rite is ended, if it is appropriate, become one with your working partner, physically as well as spiritually. + +JUNE + + After the spectacular flowers of May have passed and the bees have gathered their pollen and nectar, the hives are filled with honey that is waiting to be gathered. In ancient times much of this honey was made into a drink called mead by a fermentation process similar to that of making wine. The "Moon in June" is the Mead Moon. Mead has been considered to have magickal and even life-restoring properties in many of the countries of ancient Europe, and it was the drink of many of the great heroes of legend. + The legendary figure Robin Hood, who is accepted historically as being a composite of several peasant leaders during the reign of King Richard I, is also generally accepted by Pagans as being one of us. One reason is that Robin was a popular Witch name, and also because he was always described as being dressed in green, symbolic of the Green Man of Sherwood Forest. Lincoln green, which is made from woad, the dyestuff used by the Picts of ancient Britain and the Druid priestesses, is also a colour that symbolizes, historically, the Pagan peasantry. Among the articles robbed from the rich by Robin Hood are "met and met." This probably means "meat and mead." In the myth of Odin, one of His quests is for the Poetic Mead of Inspiration, which He returns to the realm of the Gods where it belongs, but a few drops fall to Earth, and this may be had by anyone who can find them. + On the night that the Mead Moon waxes full, after the Circle has been cast and dancing done, fill the cup with mead (if it is available), sweet wine, or an herb tea sweetened with honey. Sip the sweet drink and sit quietly and make yourself a vessel ready to receive the inspiration of the higher realms. Become a mead cup ready to be filled, not with the brew of everyday life but with the clear, bright liquid of illumination. Every time this ritual is performed, even if there are no immediate results, you are becoming a more perfect vessel for divine inspiration. + If the night of the Mead Moon is very close to the Summer Solstice, the results of this exercise can be very powerful. If the Mead Moon is full on Midsummer Night, then the priestess into whom the Moon is Drawn should be prepared. + +JULY + + As the Wort Moon of July waxes full, this is the time for gathering of herbs. The word wort is old Anglo-Saxon for "herb." When the magickal herbs have been gathered and hung to dry, the time of the Wort Moon is the time to give thanks to the spirits who dwell in the herb garden, and to leave them an offering. Perhaps as you place an offering in the moonlit garden, they will whisper to you other secrets of herbal magick. + +AUGUST + + One day at mid-month we realize that the robins and wrens that were nesting nearby have simply vanished. Their lovely songs have been replaced by the shrill calls of the bluejays, who were so silent during the nesting season. + As August progresses the days are still hot but nighttime temperatures are beginning to cool, and the late afternoon thunderstorms that bring the cooler air also bring about the ripening of tomatoes. + In the fields and meadows and along roadsides now there are wild herbs to be gathered. There are goldenrod, Queen Anne's lace, and milkweed - all awaiting the natuaral dyer who can extract from them tan, green, and bright yellow respectively, for dyes and for natural inks for talismans. Among the medicinal herbs to be collected at this time is boneset, which does not help broken bones to heal but is a febrifuge that was used as a remedy for "Breakbone Fever" in the 1840s. Milkweed pods with their silken fluff, goldenrod, and wild grasses and grains gathered now will be dried in time to adorn the altar at the Autumnal Equinox. + As the aromic herbs begin to fill the rafters in the dry heat of the attic, and the braids of onions and garlic fill the cool darkness of the root cellar, the golden grain and yellow corn ripen in the fields under the waning August Sun. + To the Ancients this was the Barley Moon, a time to contemplate the eternalness of life. Just as we are descended from the first woman and the first man, who descended from the Gods, so is the grain of the bread that we eat descended from the first grain ever gathered. By ritually eating the Lammas bread we are participating in a chain of events that stretches back through time to the Gods themselves. And here before us in the ripening fields is the promise of the future. + Everywhere there is abundance - in herb garden, the vegetable garden, the field, and the orchard. The pantry shelves are lined with glistening glass jars that are filled with colourful fruits and vegetables preserved for Winter days; quarts of red tomatoes, cucumbers in slices or spears, dark red beets with cloves and cinnamon sticks, the yellow of corn, the orange of carrots - a feast for the eyes as well as the palate. The house is filled with delightful aromas as pickling spices are added to crocks of brine and exotic chutneys simmer on the stove. + But the time of abundance is drawing to a close. The fireflies of June and July have given way to katydids, whose scratchy calls to one another fill the evening air of August with the promise of frost in six weeks. + +SEPTEMBER + + Since wine was, and is, such a sacred fluid, the Pagans of old naturally named this Lunar month the Wine Moon. As you celebrate the night of the Full Wine Moon and dance the magickal round in the moonlit Circle, pour some white wine in a silver cup. Before the rite is ended, if possible, catch Her reflection in the liquid, then take a sip. As the Moon-blessed wine casts its inner glow, sit quietly and feel your own spirit, of which the wine is a symbol. As the body is stilled and the spirit soars, feel on this night of magick a sence of the kind of transformation that takes place during true spiritual initiation. + Today the term Harvest Moon is applied to the Full Moon nearest to the Autumnal Equinox. This is because, it is said, in other times when harvesting was done by hand, as the days grew shorter farmers were able to work into the night in the brightness of Her light. + +OCTOBER + + At this time of year the abundance of fruit and vegetables begins to slow. It is a time when our ancient ancestors gathered what they could store and then supplemented their Winter diets either by hunting wild animals or by slaughtering domestic ones. So this Lunar month is called the Blood Moon. As you cast the Esbat Circle on this moonlit Autumn night and fill the cup with blood-red wine, know that you will be joined in the sacred dance not only by the unseen presence of departed friends and family so close at this time of year, but also by the spirits of animals as well, perhaps of those that have died so that we may have food. In this age of assembly line slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants, it is especially appropriate that on this night of the Blood Moon we who are on the Pagan path ritually ask the understanding of our animal sisters and brothers, bless them, and bid them merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again. + +NOVEMBER + + As the Winter Sun wanes and the Snow Moon waxes full, cast your Circle in the warm glow of candlelight. Salute the Moon in Her snowy whiteness and breathe in the coolness of Her light. Become as still as this Winter night, and know that the activity of the warm light months is behind us. Ahead are the dark months of the year. The Spirit is most active when the body is most still. + +DECEMBER + + The Full Moon nearest the Winter Solstice is the Oak Moon, the Moon of the newborn year, the Divine Child. Like the Divine Child who is born to die and dies to be reborn anew, the ancient Oak has its trunk and branches in the material world of the living, while its roots, the branches in reverse, reach deep into the Underworld, symbolic land of the Spirit. As the roots probe downward into the gravelike darkness of the Earth, its branches grow ever upward toward the light, to be crowned by sacred Mistletoe. At this most magickal time of the year, as the light of the old dying year wanes and the Oak Moon waxes to full, cast your Circle wearing Mistletoe in your hair. Let this token remind you that like the Oak, we too dwell simultaneously in two worlds - the world of physical matter and the world of Spirit. As you invoke the Goddess of the Moon, ask that you become ever more aware of the other side of reality and the unseen forces and beings that are always among us. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/stairs.txt b/religious documents/stairs.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6aba897 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/stairs.txt @@ -0,0 +1,93 @@ + The Stairway Dream -=Satinka Istari=- + + + + First, I should tell you I can remember having this dream at LEAST 3 + times a year from the time I was about 9 or 10. 1989 - my 40th year - + I only had it once. I don't quite know if that means it's being + resolved, or if I was just to immersed in other things to deal with + it. + + + My grandmother's house was an old 2-story white frame with a concrete + basement foundation. It had a cement slab porch with white columns on + it, and which was screened from the nearby street by a forsythia + hedge along the porch. The front yard sloped down to the sidewalk and + street; the back yard (it was a corner lot) was actually a square back + and a narrow side yard, all surrounded by boxwood hedge. Oak trees + and a hickory tree (huge!) and one large stone (my "mother rock") + were my playground as a child. Inside the house, it was a typical + older midwestern home: the front door opened into the livingroom, with + a staircase directly in front leading to the second floor. Clockwise + on the 2nd floor landing were a linen closet, the largest bedroom, the + 2nd bedroom, the back bedroom, and the bathroom. Downstairs, the left + wall of the living room was common also to the dining room. Beyond + that (to the right) was the kitchen, with a screened in porch + containing the back door, and a stairway down to the basement. + Halfway down that stair was the "side door" outside. All in all, a + very typical house of the type built around 1920. + + The dream runs thusly: + + I am about 9 or 10 years old, sometimes younger, never older. With my + teddy bear (a gold fuzzy one, wearing a red bow collar), I come down + the stairs, through the living and dining rooms and into the kitchen. + No one is around, and no sound indicates any activity. I'm frequently + dressed in courderoy pants and a t-shirt type top, sometimes (but + rarely) in pajamas or a dress. + + I open the pantry door, which is just above and to the right of the + basement stairs. Getting down flat on the floor, I slide under the + bottom shelf (about 6 inches from the floor), and into a hole I know + exists in the back corner. When I get through, Teddy and I are in a + strange area: + + This is the inside of the house as it would be if it were maybe 300 + stories up and down. The walls are there, but there is a lot of room + between them, and there are long, narrow staircases going up each + wall, connecting all the floors, and sometimes running level all along + a wall, like a catwalk. It's twilight or a bit lighter, but dull + looking, and very quiet. + + There are people on the stairs. Most of them are men - sometimes in + groups of 3 or 4, mostly in singles and pairs. They never talk above + a whisper, but they do talk to each other. The men are dressed in + suits - gray or brown or black. For some reason they remind me of a + caricature of undertakers. The women are in dresses and heels, with + fancy hairdos and makeup on. Men or women, they seem to always be + walking up or down like they're going someplace important. I always + have the feeling that I should not be found by these people, so I hide + BEHIND the stairs (on the wrong side - where I shouldn't be able to + stand, but I can. I can even climb the stairs over on this side). + + While I'm hiding out on the wrong side of the stairs, I can see into + the rooms in my Grandmother's house. It's like there's a small hole + in every room. I can see people sitting and talking, or eating, or + watching tv and drinking beer... I can hear them talking, but I can + never remember what was said. I know I have to be quiet, because I + don't want them to know I can see and hear them. + + When the "strange" people on the stairs are gone - I have never + recognized one of them as anyone I ever knew - I can come out and go + to another part of the stairs. I can just dissolve through the stairs + to the other side if I see someone coming I don't want to meet. Each + part of the stairs is a different room, but they're all in my + grandmother's house. Sometimes I'd see a room on one stairway, and + see it later on another stairway decorated differently, but with the + same people or activity in it. + + These dreams tend to come about 3 times a year, but there is no + correlation as to when they show up. So far, no coorelation between + anything I've been doing and their appearance, either. I do not ever + remember leaving the pantry the way I came in - I usually wake up + still on the stairs, and that's how I always remember it. + + Any ideas you have on this one will be greatly appreciated! + + (I can correlate parts of it to my natural shamanic abilities, but + some of it seems to be more environmental or psychological(?)) + + -=Satinka=- + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/starwood.txt b/religious documents/starwood.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df05f4e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/starwood.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +FROM: The Office of the Fifth Deputy Vice-Arch Druid +SUBJ: Political necessity of doing public ritual + + It was asked in a recent issue of News from the Mother Grove, whether an ADF ritual needed to be done at festivals such as Starwood. The arguements against it were 1) there wasn't a major holiday near the date (late July), 2) Isaac and Deborah were getting burnt out doing basically the same ritual every couple of weeks. + + It is a necessity to do an ADF ritual at major festivals, especially when ADF has a large presence on-site. This is especially true at Starwood, which is the yearly member's meeting. Some of the factors to consider as to whether or not rituals should be done, are burnout, that there are only two High Days during the heaviest part of the festival season, the need to "show the flag", and the need for ADF members who aren't members of local Groves to attend and participate in an ADF ritual. + + I understand that doing the same ritual every couple of weeks can lead to burnout. I don't know if this is because newcomers need to be taught the ritual everytime, or if because Isaac and Deborah are doing the same ritual every time. A couple of alternatives are availiable to help with this problem. If it is because the ritual is so much the same each time, the solution is to have more styles. In this case, a Proper, a Common, and as many more styles as can be designed. If the sameness of the ritual is boring, maybe the entire structure needs to be looked at. I don't feel that this is the case. + + If teaching newcomers the ritual format is a problem, delegate. At festivals were there are other members present, have somebody else lead the ritual, and do the pre-ritual meeting. This moves Isaac, Deborah and Silverleaf into the position of "THE Druid/flamen/brahman". They would attend the meeting to make sure it goes according to the outline, and to field questions from the few people leading the ritual. This would also give aspiring ADF clergy a chance to show their stuff. + + The majority of the Pagan festivals seem to be from mid-May to late August. This makes sense, since the weather is nice, and most people get their vacations during that period. During that time there are only two High Days, Mean Samradh and Lughnasadh. According to the Grove Organizers Handbook, each Grove is to meet at least twice a month. Although a ritual is not required at these fortnightly meetings, it would be nice to have examples of what to do for twice monthly ritual. A shortened form of the liturgy is one recommendation. Festivals that occur at other than High Days are a good chance to show off these alternatives. + + One of the big things that needs to be done at festivals, is to show the flag. This means more than two or three workshops about ADF. Again, it is better politically if some other members of ADF get a chance to run the show. This would help dispel the idea that Isaac runs ADF as a petty tyrant, albeit an enlightened one. Besides lectures on Druidism 101 and 103, the ritual, to me, seems to be the major drawing point at festivals. This is where non-members get to see the organization at work, and get a feeling for the aesthetics. It is all nice and well for people to read about our format, but experianceing it is a major step beyond that. + + The final point is giving members who are not part of a local Grove, a chance to attend ADF rituals. I met one member who had belonged to the association for two years and had never seen an ADF ritual. When going to a festival, especially Starwood, where ADF is present officially, one expects to attend an ADF ritual. At present, I believe most of our members do not belong to ADF Groves. Festivals are a chance for them to get together and be active in an ADF ritual. One of the points behind having a standardized liturgy, is to allow a small group of people, essentially strangers, to sit down and put a ritual together very quickly, and still have it work. It also allows people to attend a ritual, and know what is going to happen, without a attending a major planning meeting. + + Like it not, we need to do rituals at festivals. Even if the festival doesn't fall on a High Day. We need to show that ADF is more than an irregular newsletter for most people, and is an active system/tradition. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/subg-002.txt b/religious documents/subg-002.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d05624a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg-002.txt @@ -0,0 +1,524 @@ + + Heed my words, oh miniscule and pulchritudinous ones. Hear and heed, you + who do not fellatiate, and you who know not the meaning of the great and + high remex. The end is near. You must heed and follow the things I will + speak unto you, the words of the great gods, the god of the windowshade, + the god of the distributor cap, the god of the blue bikini underwear and + most importantly the god of the dead japanese beetle somewhere on the + campus of rutgers university. By heeding these words, you will improve + the gas mileage of your car, enter into a new age of harmony, peace, + happiness, and belgian waffles. Bring things home each day and not pay + for them until next september, and make sure that your live is sanctioned + and guarded by the great race of aliens which will land any day now in + Starkville Mississippi and revolutionise the way you wash dishes. Be sure + to not be left out when all human males become obsolete as females flock + to the alien males and their new, improved, user-friendly genitalia mark + five systems! You must make your genitalia blue, anointing it with + indigo. Anoint also your ears, your nose, the back of your neck, and the + fourth toe of each foot, the most holy of all toes. + + I speak to you of the coming of the greater race. You shall know them by + their stature, by their countenance, by their language, unlike any that + man has ever heard, and by their sexual prowess. Behold, they shall land + in a small town, Starkille, and shall walk the earth among the children, + and you shall not know them. Many will say in those days, "The gods are + walking the earth, the gods are walking the earth," but they shall be + scoffed upon and spit upon and fucked hard by prostitutes in cheap motels + then bankrupted by the media. But you will pay them no attention and + merely stop sending your donations. But then, the greater race will + reveal themselves in all their glory for all mankind to see. The truth + will be known, and the truth will be that mankind has not paid their lease + and is being evicted, a new race takes over the planet, please move the + furniture out and clean the carpeting before you leave. Behold a wonder: + your children and their children shall mate, producing a better race yet, + but you, the unbelievers, shall be sentenced to 40 time units of wandering + in the outer dust clouds of the andromeda sector aboard a tiny spaceship + called the minnow. + + So, lo, woe, yo, repent while you still are young on an archaelogic scale. + The world must be saved by the horrors that are low-density disks, AM + radio, and non-FOX television. You must learn to live without processed + spinach products, to wean your children on their father's milk,. and to + accept that power strips and LSD are things of the past. Synthesise your + offspring carefully so that when the time of the great choosing comes, + your sons and daughters may be chosen by the greater race to participate + in furthering their race, in the strange ritual of the cosmic fuck, the + antithesis of the hells of knowledge, riches, and power, the fulfillment + of the postmodern dream of red lights, t-squares, and paint blotches. + Prepare yourselves for the day of the final inkblot judgement, wherein all + shall be tested for blot and blood type. In that day, some will say, + "verily, it is an aston-martin, in O positive." To those, the coming one + will say, "farewell, you were never a phlebotomist, just a prick, depart + from here into an eternity of dimness and cheap paperback novels and + genuine IBM computers." But in that fateful day, some will say, "truly, + it is two schnauzers chasing a naked woman, in AB negative." To those, + the coming one will say, "come, join me at the cosmic sock hop, you are + one of my own, you will live an eternity of free drinks and beautiful + tragically hip waifs." + + For I have been spoken these things by the angels of light, hermetic + seals, and the small purple man painted on my wall, who read them from the + great platinum plates upon which they were inscribed from the supernatural + force of the great god of the cunny, who swallows all things for the + better of his followers. I have seen the light, I have been enlightened, + I speak the truth to you, heed it and save your lives and those of your + fellow neighbour's wife and your neighbour's ass, or do not hear my words, + and turn a deaf ear to them, and forever suffer in this meaningless + existance. The gods have spoken, I have written, and the pen, having + writ, runs out of ink, on this, the next to the last of the last days... + + + 1-The Book of Shag-0 + 2*****End quoted text*****0 + + 4What??0 You mean it doesn't make any sense to 3you0 either? +1Yours truly and sign it, + 5Nick 6Danger0 +Nick Danger #174 @3456 +Mon Dec 17 23:02:22 1990 + More slack lifted from Usenet, the network of 5champions!0 This +time, a few words about those dreaded harbingers of the 5Xists0, the Men in +Black (MIB): + *****1Begin quoted text*****0 +From: pashdown@javelin.es.com (Pete Ashdown) +Newsgroups: alt.slack +Subject: Re: men in black +Date: 11 Dec 90 23:45:14 GMT +Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah +Lines: 62 + +00kepulver@bsu-ucs.uucp writes in sci.sceptic: + +>here's what i got in my memory, its not much but i don't have any of my books +>with me, sorry. +> the men in black are supposed to be a super seccret organization that +>are trying to silence ufo investigators and contactees. they wear all black +>suits, drive big old gas guzzling cars (chevy's and lincons (sic) usually) and +>travel in ones, twos and threes, they talk either very formally or like a bad +>ganster movie, some have been dumbfounded by ordinary devices like pens and +>silverware, and they usually claim to be from the government. + + 1the men in black all smile. they have pipes and love a good sale. +1if you corner one, he will most likely give you a pamphlet. + +> the first mib encounter supposedly happened in texas in 1897. some +>pottery fell from the sky and an oriental looking man dressed in black bought +>up all the fragments. + + 1what was even more odd is that he was driving a lincon continental in +11897. + +>more recently they contacted a man named bender in the +>fifties and told him to stop his investigations. they even ahd a letter that +>he had sent to a friend describing his theories about the reasons why ufos are +>here. + + 1plus a weird book and a hearty appetite for sex and something called +1"frap" or "frup". i cant rembher. + +> the main reason mib's appear is to stop ufo research. they always seem +>to appear to people who have gotten close to the "real" reason why the ufos are +>here and take these people's evidence. + + 1the ufos also like to take money and slack and grils. + +> a good book your friend may want to read is _the philadelphia +>expirement and other ufo conspriacies_, it may be hard to find, i got my copy +>from a new age bookstore, there is also an article about mibs in +>the journal of american folklore, but im not sure on the date, i can look it up +>and email or post it if you are interested. also, the time life book about +>ufos has a one page article about mib, and aricel comics has a great three +>issue limited series about them, but that wouldn't be very good for research. + + 1your friend should also brush up on his sales teckniches. + +> need any more information go ahead and email me and ill send along what +>i can. + + 1Sir, + 1If you do not stop publishing information about the Men-In-Black(tm), +1we will have to resort to further Thought-Control(tm) techniques. + + 1Your friend, + + 1Man-In-Black(tm) + + +-- +1"While you are here, your wives and girlfriends are dating handsome American +1 movie and TV stars. Stars like Tom Selleck, Bruce Willis, and Bart Simpson." + 1-- Baghdad Betty +1 Pete Ashdown pashdown%javelin@dsd.es.com ...dsd.es.com!javelin!pashdown + 2*****End quoted text*****0 +1Yours truly and sign it,0 + 5Nick 6Danger +Nick Danger #174 @3456 +Mon Dec 17 23:03:14 1990 + Some 3musical0 slack from Usenet, the network of 1champions0. And +wierdos. + 2*****Begin quoted text*****0 +From: klm@gozer.UUCP (Kevin L. McBride) +Newsgroups: alt.slack +Subject: A Song +Date: 11 Dec 90 17:46:44 GMT +Organization: MSCG, Inc. +Lines: 40 + +The following is an anonymous posting from a friend of mine who USED to +work at Wang. I agreed to post this for him to protect the guilty, etc. + +Begin anonymous posting +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +2(To the tune of "It's a small world after all")0 + +There is no slack when you work at Wang +They are really pink unlike Reverend Stang +I don't know what I'll do if I start turning too +It's a pink world after all. + +2(Chorus)0 +It's a pink world after all +It's a pink world after all +It's a pink world after all +It's a pink pink pink pink world. + + +(The CON has a really fierce grip on WANG! The STARK Fist of removal +has been slapped on the wrist one time too many. All of the native +elements of slack are bleeding away one by one. But as they bleed +away they erode the foundations of the CON based towers. Soon the +towers will crumble into a heap of pink sand.) + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ +End anonymous posting + + +[ed. with apologies to those wonderful guys at Wang who supply me + with my news feed. It costs me a small fortune in pink filters + each year. Seriously, there are 2 cool people at Wang. One of + whom runs the mail and news system.] + +-- +Kevin L. McBride |Contract programming (on and offsite) |Brewmeister and +President |X, Motif, TCP/IP, UNIX, VAX/VMS, |Bottle Washer +MSCG, Inc. |Integration issues, Troubleshooting. |McBeer Brewery +uunet!wang!gozer!klm |Reseller of ISC UNIX and Telebit Modems.|Nashua, NH + 2*****End quoted text*****0 + Well....what can ya expect from a company named "Wang"? +1Yours truly and sign it,0 + 5Nick6 DangerNick Danger #174 @3456 +Mon Dec 17 23:04:15 1990 + From Usenet, the network of 4champions0 and Yetis, comes this +remarkable insight into the early film career of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs: + + 2*****Begin quoted text*****0 +From: lancer@hongkong.WPI.EDU (Stephen Lewis Foskett) +Newsgroups: alt.slack +Subject: "Bob" sings and dances... +Date: 13 Dec 90 15:34:40 GMT +Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609-2280 +Lines: 32 + +Yes...It's true... + +In the movie "5White 6Christmas0" by Irving Berlin... + +You see, Danny Kay (I think) plays a former salesman in the early 50s named +"Bob" who wanders around with Bing Crosby and two young ladies... + +Danny looks an awful lot like "Bob" in the film and even smokes a pipe +in one scene! + +Truly this is Christmas slack at it's best... + +See "Bob" dress up as a woman! See "Bob" sing and dance! See "Bob" suck face +with some blonde! Hear "Bob" sing "Gee, I wish I was back in the army!" +Watch as "Bob" is totally confounded by the female sex! + +The only downside is that when he dresses as a woman, he wears pink... + +-- + "Only the meaning, never the message, matters at all." +4_____________________0___________________________________________ +4| ___ |0 | +4| / ___ \ |0 "And all God's angels beware | +4| / P ] \ |0 And all you judges beware | +4| J _P 1_ L |0 Sons of chance, take good care | +4| | [_ ] | |0 For all the people out there | +4| | I I | |0 I'm not afraid anymore" | +4| 7 _I I P |0 -Ian Curtis | +4| \ [___d / |0------------------------------------------| +4| \ / |0Stephe Foskett WPI Box 2289 100 Institute| +4| ~~~ |0Worcester MA 01601 \8-} lancer@wpi.wpi.edu| +4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + + 2*****End quoted text*****0 +1Yours truly and sign it, + 5Nick 6Danger +Nick Danger #174 @3456 +Mon Dec 17 23:05:34 1990 + From Usenet, some meditations on the coming of the 5Xists0: + 2*****Begin quoted text*****0 +From: klm@gozer.UUCP (Krazy Little-endian MoFo) +Newsgroups: alt.slack +Subject: The Sun Sets On My Bleeding Head +Keywords: Blarfyldygook, zipfnogok, arkznadungkfl +Date: 16 Dec 90 23:13:36 GMT +Organization: Clench of the Pin-shaped Head of Benny +Lines: 34 + +Let us not speak of Ferraris and Audis and other pacifiers of the +CON generation. Those adult playthings that are sucked upon to +please the Andrew Jacksonheads in our pockets. Pablumstyles of +the Rich and would-be-famous. + +Let us speak instead of the Xists Giant Terrarium, that ozone depleted +chunk of rock we call the Earth. It is now nearly 2000 years since +a guy was nailed to a tree for saying how nice it would be if we would +all give each other some slack. + +Things are even weirder now than they were then and this is the first +run-on sentence of the third paragraph and if you don't like it, well +kill me, and I'll just keep right on talking, er, typing, er having +telepathy with this silicon life form because I just had a Margarita +on a Sunday afternoon after decorating the house because the CON says +I should and I don't want to blow my cover just yet because great things +are in store for the following solar year that the CON says is 1991 but +really isn't because they've brainwashed us all and changed the calendar +on us and decided not to tell the really stupid people because they might +panic and then the CON would have a whole pile of excrement on their +collective appendages and the Sunday afternoon Sun coming through my +office window is setting on my would-be-bleeding head and Frosty the +Snowman is on the root window of my Xist Window screen and I'm feeling +a little... + +Oh wow. There's a cloud outside my window that looks like a flying +Saucer. + +4Theeey're Heeeeere.0 + +-- +Krazy Little-endian MoFo +Clench of the Pin-shaped Head of Benny +uunet!wang!gozer!klm +2*****End quoted text*****0 +1Yours truly and sign it,0 + 5Nick 6DangerNick Danger #182 @3462 +Fri Nov 30 23:46:24 1990 + Hiya, kids! Here's the first of a great 5gob0 of slack lifted from the  +alt.slack newsgroup in Usenet, The Network of Champions! Kowabunga! +1==================Stolen text starts here===================================== +Subject: THANKS TO REPLIES FOROhmygodOhmygodOhmygodOhmygodOhmygodOhmygo +Date: 20 Nov 90 05:13:38 GMT +Sender: news@daffy.cs.wisc.edu (The News) +Organization: Spawning Cow! Productions + + +THANKS SLACKY PEOPLE! + +My postings seem to be staying up again. Maybe the lab realized my slackness + and decided not to mess with me, eh? Perhaps it was "BoB" intervention... + Well, as of now things are in the range of semi-okay with posting, but if my + posts don't last, I now have a "support group" of slackypeople who will post + for me. Aren't us computer geeks a great big family!!! + +Also, a little contribution to alt.slack: + + "Slack as a prefix" Dictionary: + +Slackola (n) Bye, slack +Slacky (adj) slack +To slack (v) slack +Slackness (adv?) slack +Slackly (adj) slack +Slacky-Slack-Slack (n,adj,v,adv,prep,article...) REALLY SLACK!! +Slacking (v) slack +Slackment (n) slack +Slackmented (n) slack, past tense +Slackmentfull (n) full of ment slack??? +Slackmentfulled (v) Yeah, right. Just slack +Slackous (adv) of slack +Sa-LACK! (n) Hick excited slack +Slack (n) If you don't know what it means, stop everything now.  +Just +plain die. + + +There ya go, sorry if it's not in alphabetic and all, and that the (n), (adj) +etc.. are probably not right, but this is just a first draft. Remember: + Slack ain't your enemy, but it sure as hell ain't your friend. + +Praise Frith-rah and Slackola, +Dave + +-- +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +- +-/liNick Danger #182 @3462 +Fri Nov 30 23:57:50 1990 +(This post lifted from Usenet) + 2***Begin quoted text***0 +Brothers and sisters, again I feel compelled to update you on the +single greatest source of slack known to mankind: + + +4Bob Tilton.0 + +Yes, your favorite TV evangelist is still out there and GOING STRONG! +Ever since I called the Robert Tilton Ministries at (214) 620-6200 and +asked for my "free book", I have been mailed, free of charge: + +The aforementioned book, _God's Miracle Plan for Man_ (5$$$0 --> salvation) +Three "miracle" prayer cloths +A package of miracle anointing oil +The Jordan River Holy Anointing Water flask +5 large posters of Bob +The "Miracle Ropes of Deliverance" to "Bind Demons" (see p.128, #15, the BOOK) +Several copies of their magazines and newspapers +Many, many, many "convincing" Biblical arguments for why I should send $$$$ +...and lots more! + + +4Bob Tilton is a SubGenius.0 + + +Here are a few reasons why: + +1) He rips off pinks for a living +2) He rants like a mother fucker ("Satan I BIND THEE! Demons of +tobacco smoking I BIND THEE! Demons of lymph node cancer I BIND +THEE!") In fact, in his latest rant, just today he said: "I'm a Pink +Duck, I'm not a white duck! They don't know what to do with me! +Everyone else is a white duck, they just waddle around...I'm drunk +with the holy spirit today...I'm a Pink Duck..." +3) He signs everything "Bob", (no quotes, but close enough!) +4) Where does he live? Dallas, TX? Hmmm... +5) The latest copy of his newspaper had a drawing on the cover that +looked almost exactly like the cover of "Three-Fisted Tales", except +it was Tilton's face instead of J.R.'s. The article is entitled, +"Take Your Foot Off the Brake"...sound familiar? + + +If you want to fall over laughing every couple of days when you read +your mail, call (214) 620-6200 and ask them to "send you information." +You'll be on their mailing list for months. Don't give them your +phone number, though. Do it, or kill me. + + +I usually have too much slack to even care about posting, but +something about this article in the latest issue of "Circle of +Blessing", written by Tilton's wife made me do it: + +"You wives must submit to your husbands' leadership in the same way +you submit to the Lord. For a husband is in charge of his wife in the +same way Christ is in charge of his Body the Church...So you wives +must willingly obey your husbands in everything, just as the Church +obeys Christ." -Marte Tilton + +God I love fundamentalists. Praise "Bob" (& Bob!) + + +-St. Mog the Unholy + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------------- +"`Brakes' are all that keep us from committing ANYTHING WE MIGHT +IMAGINE IN OUR MOST WARPED FANTASIES" + -Book of the SubGenius, p. 39 + +"Take your foot off the brake!" + -Bob Tilton, "Circle of Blessing", Oct 1990 p.12 +------------------------------ + 2***End quoted text***0 + +3Yours truly and sign it, +5Nick 6Danger + +---------------------------------------Nick Danger #182 @3462 +Fri Nov 30 23:59:34 1990 +(More incredible slack from Usent, the Network of Champions) + + 2*****Begin quoted text*****0 +Hey gang, +I saw this in alt.stupidity, and it was OBVIOUS to me that the news +mailer had posted it to the wrong group. + +-Jim + +> Newsgroups: alt.stupidity +> Subject: Re: Phoning Phor Pizza + +> > In the lab where I work, there was a need for magnetized balls. Nick Rizzo + ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ +> >called up this place that shaped magnetic materials to order and asked for +> >three-eight inch diameter spheres. The woman at the other end asked what the +> >other dimensions were. +> >jgliv + +> I am sorry to break up all this 'humor' - but I think it is important +> to note that this is a 1SERIOUS0 and 1EXTREMELY PAINFUL0 medical condition, +> and should 1NOT0 be made light of in such a frivolous manner. + +> Imagine for a moment that it is YOU who must remember to NEVER casually +> drop the car keys in your front pocket, NEVER to sit on a seat with a +> steel frame (unless you are carrying the obligatory spatula), NEVER +> AGAIN to walk through a hardware store and browse through the screws +> and nails. Do you realize that many toilets are constructed of ceramic +> 1OVER a STEEL BASE?!0 + +> I think this frivolous posting is another indication of how seriously +> awry this whole 'humor' thread has gone. I think it is also important +> to add - 'I'm O.K., You're STYOOOOOPID!' + +> Let's get back to some REALLY styooooopid topics, like New Age religion. + +> Your mind is continuously storing 'images' or 'photographs' if you will, +> of all the really styooooopid things happening around you, and the many +> obscenely styooooopid dudes and dudettes with whom you are forced to +> coexist. I want to help you to 'edit' these into a mental remembrance +> of the 1977 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. But this takes *special* +> resources - cash, if you will, and not just a little bit of it, either. +> Computer graphics and national advertising are not cheap. + +> I used to 'think' as you do. Then I got a great idea while playing +> poker with some friends of mine who are writers of 'scientifiction.' +> Now I have the resources to do whatever I want - right up to 5FAKING +> MY OWN DEATH0 and PERMANENTLY avoiding the really STYOOOOOPID stuff +> that the rest of you JUST PUT UP WITH! Elvis thinks I'm 'taking +> advantage of all the little people' - but balks at my argument that +> it is costing me a FORTUNE just to keep his nose full. And it isn't +> exactly CHEAP sailing around the world over and over... + +> I think there is still hope for you. Instead of remembering that +> horrible sexual experience from Sophomore year, try instead to fill +> your mind with the image of an enormous 'Dino the Dinosaur' floating +> serenely above thousands of spectators while Santa rounds the turn +> close behind... Can you see it? Huh? Can you? Really? Okay, you're +> ready read my book, 'Econetics' and begin a comprehensive program of +> donations and pledges. No, make it out to me, personally. + + +> I still can't believe this works. 'Grok' THIS, Bob!! Ha! + +> As Sincerely as possible under the circumstances, +> L. Ron 'Cash or Charge?' Hubbard + +> $ +> $$$ +> $ $ $ "Send me your fives, your tens, your twenties yearning +> $$ to be free..." - Moi +> $$ DISCLAIMER - I'm just making all this up as I go... +> $ $ $ +> $$$ +> $ + +Truly, this is slack. +-Jim +-- + ^ - James C. "Jim" Dobbs - jdobbs@director.beckman.uiuc.edu + ( O-O "The correct pluralization of 'smurf' is 'smurves.'" + > - James C. Dobbs + ^ DISCLAIMER - Nobody ever agrees with anything I think. + diff --git a/religious documents/subg01.txt b/religious documents/subg01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cfdcb55 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,350 @@ + + + + CHAPTER 0: TRUTHSTINGER BARRAGE + SUPERIOR MUTANTS! + + REPENT! QUIT YOUR JOB! SLACK OFF!! + + + THE WORLD ENDS TOMORROW AND YOU MAY DIE + + (well, no, probably not....but whatever you do, just keep reading!) + + + ARE WE CONTROLLED BY SECRET FORCES? + Do you ever get the feeling that "free will" is a joke? + + DO PEOPLE THINK YOU'RE STRANGE? + + DO YOU?? + + Then you may be on the right track! + + + ARE YOU ABNORMAL? + + Then you are probably on the right track! + + + + ARE ALIEN SPACE MONSTERS BRINGING A STARTLING NEW WORLD? + + + IF you suspect that things are much worse than you ever suspected-- + + IF the only thing you've been able to laugh at for the last 5 years is + the fact that NOTHING is funny anymore-- + + IF you sometimes want to collar people on the street and scream that + you're more "different" than they could possibly imagine -- + + IF you can help us with a donation -- + + IF you see the whole universe as one vast morbid sense of sick humor -- + + IF the current 'Age of Progress' seems more like the Dark Ages to you -- + + IF you are looking for an inherently contradictory religion that will + condone megadegeneracy and yet tell you that you are "above" + everyone else -- + + THE CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS + + Could save your sanity! + + + + 1 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius TruthStinger Barrage + + + INSTANT ANSWERS TO EVERYTHING! + + Your secrets wishes can be granted in full - once you know what they are! + + "You'll PAY to know what you REALLY think." - J.R. "Bob" Dobbs 1961 + + + NOW, AT LAST! + The step-by-step process is revealed! + THIS IS IT - + -- the only "faith" that promises: + + ACTION-- THRILLS-- SUCCESS IN SEX AND BUSINESS! + + ----------------------------------- + FEELING LIKE THERE'S JUST NO SLACK? + ----------------------------------- + You may have 'snapped' already from the information disease! ("The sleep + of reason begets monster.") Look to the High Unpredictables of the + Church of the SubGenius for pancultural deprogramming and resynchroniz- + ation! Perfect for your subliminal vision - edit your memory - relive + your reincarnality - SYNC UP! THE SUBGENIUS MUST HAVE SLACK! + + Using SubGenius secrets of BULLDADA and MOREALISM you can now MIRAC- + ULOUSLY ELIMINATE COMPULSIVE URGES such as smoking, eating, sleeping, + working; end baldness, constipation, sex-money problems, assouliness, + and painful shortage of SLACK! + + Become a Doktor of the Forbidden Sciences... make religion a kick-ass + adventure! Indulge in Self-Help through Raising Hell! + ------------------------------------------------------------------------ + Having all the GUILT, but none of the SEX? + "Have intercourse with a Beautiful Live Girl" + or + DAMN NEAR ANYTHING ELSE! + + Thought you'd tried everything? YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET! Learn to + THINK BIG! Develop the tricks of Length Extension! Bring your weirdest + dreams to rampaging LIFE! + + Stand erect for your own abnormality. WISE UP! They're out to get you. + + The "different" are being silenced by a global conspiracy. WEIRDMEN + ARISE!! Find out who "They" are... and how to SMASH them! + You probably already knew that the U.S. Government is a SHAM - something + propped up there for you to blame. But did you know that the real + "powers that be" are not ever people? That they are actually shambling, + unbelievable, unmentionable, unthinkable THINGS? + + YES! Jehovah IS an Alien, and still threatens this planet! + + Defy the sinister "Star Forces which mock us all. Evil demons have kept + the truth from humanity for thousands of years - God has been misquoted + all this time! His actual words may disturb you...but "Bob" Dobbs is a + bulwark against the unbearable fear and anxiety tormenting mankind. + "There's No 'Prob'....With "Bob"!" + 2 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius TruthStinger Barrage + + + "Bob" is a way of life to millions - yet half of them don't even KNOW it! + He is the one true LIVING SLACK MASTER with the spiritual know-how to help + you BASH THROUGH the locked doorway to FINANCIAL HEAVEN. He is the only + real Short-Cut to Slack. + +SEE ANOTHER DIMENSION ON YOUR TV + + "Bob's" promise is to widen the scope and nature of abnormal behavior... + to explore NEW WAYS of going over the edge and coming back, PLUS to bring + back those who couldn't on their own...to help you create the HIGHEST + POSSIBLE EARNINGS from the PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ABNORMALITY...to turn Con- + spiracy-implanted personality disorders AROUND and channel them into an + ILLUSION OF CREATIVITY that will fool normals and GET YOU SEX! + + As you learn more and more reliable, safe methods of Time Control, you + will find your I.Q. increasing - your very cranium will seem to pulsate + from within, barely able to contain the turmoil of glorious new concepts + and mental skills. Soon you'll be able to withstand COMMUNICATION WITH THE + XISTS, our Mentors in Space; you will be ready for TRANSFIGURATION into + a new physical body, a more powerful one, built to contain the surging + mental and material mutations that your brain now generates. YES - become + an OVERMAN, a dangerous and feared superhuman of the future! Yet - because + your SubGenius roots can never be forgotten - you won't abuse your powers, + but instead make them an unstoppable force for GOOD and JUSTICE, choosing + always to defend the oppressed SubGenius, wherever he may be! + + The world is a turkey, and "Bob" gives you the carving knife. + + Fear THE STARK FIST OF REMOVAL no longer! Become PHYSICALLY ATTRACTIVE - + overnight! Attain STATUS - LUCK - PROSPERITY by blowing them off! + + When you join this "Order of the Knights of Wotan," you get big, strong, + impressive muscles...a mastery of fighting skills...good health, an + attractive personality, and, above all, a WEIRD ABILITY TO INFLUENCE + OTHERS! To BEND THEM to your WILL! TOTAL DOMINATION of bosses, teachers, + dates - the job improvement that comes with confidence - INSTANT HIGHER + GRADES or EARNINGS, WITHOUT TRYING!! + + You'll learn INCANTATIONS that lead to MASTER of the FISCAL PLANES... the + OCCULT TECHNOLOGY of FINANCE POWER...E-Z ways to borrow money - from + other people who don't have it either! + + + Achieve SHEER GUT BLOWOUT. + Our "asceticism" consists solely of the abstinence from abstinence. Give +up + the not giving into of temptation! Think thoughts that no man has ever + dared think before. You CAN learn to recall memories from the past that + you had forgotten - or that never existed at all. + + CONTACT ALIENS NOW - both benevolent and evil. They reveal themselves to + the worthy at our Altar of Xist Contact. Attend End o' the World Drills + at our Survival Farms. Learn Body Repair, Frenzy Techniques, and Excre- + meditation. Evaluate and use the so-called "accidents and coincidents" in + your timestream. Perform long, complicated, impressive-looking rituals of + Communionication with the desired sex! At the jungle settlement of + + + + + + + + 3 +The Book Of The SubGenius TruthStinger Barrage + + DOBBSTOWN, skilled Doktors trained by "Bob" himself can give you acubeat- + ing therapy, stress aversion by direct electrical brain stimulation, + breast enlargement through hypnosis, Amnesiastic De-Inhibitional Exp- + erience Erasure, even plastic surgery through Therapeutic Mind-Letting. + + + Yes, YOU can indulge in SubGeniusment even while maintaining your present + beliefs, practices, and lifestyle - WITHOUT the aid of snide, self- + righteous "teachers" and gurus. Simply acculture yourself to the Church. + You will be isolated, given a new diet, a new set of habits, a different + name and appearance. The now-void brainpan will be refilled with corrected + info and subconsciously implanted ritual experiences. Follow your FOLLIES + and COMPULSIONS and become rich like us. + + Explore the "Zen" of stupidity! Channel chronic procrastination into + life-saving paranoia and precise anality! MAKE WASTE! + + Find out who your Personal Saviors may be and who are the False Prophets + in your life! + + The most 'NO WAY' New Wage religion yet! + Brain-trust of our species... + + With the advent of technology, major physical evolution ceases. Thus, + the next viable mutation must be mental - a new mind/world aspect. + + WE ARE THAT NEXT TEETERING LUNATIC STEP. + + This Contrivative Theology, computer-designed by precise mathematical + formulae to arouse the lowest instincts of the most intelligent and the + highest instincts of the least intelligent, is invaluable to all renegades + who, at any time, are on the Nether Edge of Insanity and can be made whole + only by develop their Wotan-derived seventh sense of Bludgeon Humor. + + It is the ultimate secret order for those who "know better" but who + demand in their LUST for GRINS a spectacular, special-effects laden belief + system -'stuporstition.' It is a certified religion of scorn and vengeance + directed at THEM, the enemies of us Outsiders. It is "self help" through + scoffing and blaspheming, frenzied fornication and the Mockery of Graven + Images. The Church provides sure answers and miracles in the service of + SURREAVOLUTION. + + "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" - OZ + + "SUBGENIUS" + + Has nothing to do with intelligence, + Has nothing to do with race, + Has nothing to do with education, + Has nothing to do with skill, + Has nothing to do with humanity, + + "SUBGENIUS" Makes Sense, Has Sense, + Sells Sense. + Common Sense, Sense of Humor, + Dollars and Cents. + + + + + + + + 4 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/subg02.txt b/religious documents/subg02.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..18a1e5a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg02.txt @@ -0,0 +1,902 @@ + + + + CHAPTER 1 Don't Laugh + + + "I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm + preaching to." + "Bob" in 'Newsweek' + + "We believe the planet is being led to destruction by a race of inferior + creatures who place blind trust in their own culturally dictated + concept of "intelligence." Look, you guys, you know as well as I do... + they may be smart, but they don't have good sense." + --"Bob" to the Senate Subcommittee, 1956 + + + +Dear Querent into the profundities of This Twisted Randomness We + Call Reality: + + "IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE?" + + Well, if you thought this Church was a joke, then you'll by +God NEVER 'GET' THE PUNCHLINE. + + Oh, we're the first to admit that we deliver far more laughs and yuks +per dollar than Scientology, the Unification Church, or any other religious +group, except possibly the Southern Baptists. But they are for Braindeath. +We are against braindeath. That would put a damn bounty on our heads except +that we tread the thin tightwire of the jokes just enough not to have been +covertly killed Or Bought. MY GOD, look what they did to any of our pred- +ecessors that kept straight faces. + + No, this is NO joke, NO parody. Only the foulness of your programming +keeps you from believing we have thousands of members, nationwide revivals, +radio shows, and so on. But we do. + + Not only are we not kidding, but we'll even Piss You Off. Indeed, that's +our JOB - our CALLING - our MISSION. We're going to shock the hell out of +every man, woman, and child on this planet. It's a big job, and we only +have until 1998 to do it. Still, it's enough time for the Church to be +infiltrated and made evil if we don't watch ourselves. + + YES - BEWARE - the biggest danger this Earth faces is The Church Of The +SubGenius becoming POPULAR and turning into one big CHEAP JOKE. The +Conspiracy has a way of doing that to damn near anything that comes near +it - i.e. tries to make a buck. And when this Industrial Church, this +Final Organization, takes full power over the entire globe in '98, it +just better not have been tainted and cheapened by such Normal Armies +as Pinks(1), Punks, False Prophets, Hippies, right-wing Nerds, obnoxious +would-be hepcats, Nazis, Commies, Glorps(2) or, as the Prophet Hypercleats +dubbed them, Mal-Aligned Normals. + + The teachings of "Bob" are NOT universal. For the Pink at heart they +simply won't work. For the evil they'll backfire. And they'll even be +DAMN HARD TO FOLLOW for ignorant Subgeniuses. + + But we must NOT water them down: the Conspiracy will assimilate them, +twist them to fit Their plans, and sell them back to us in CRIPPLED, +USELESS condition. + + 5 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius Don't Laugh + + UNBELIEVABLE + + No, only the truly abnormal, those who are abnormal inside, in their +eternal, ungainly souls, not just maladjusted, ONLY THESE must wield the +relentless POWER of "BOB" on July 5, 1998, X-Day, when the Angelic Host +from Planet X descend in glory and terror. + + UNSPEAKABLE + + Sensationalism is just the lure we use in order to communicate in all +sobriety certain awful histories and secret fate for the Earth so unspeak- +able that it may take several books to prepare you just to read it. + + Because if you are reading this in the late 20th Century, EVERYTHING +YOU KNOW REALLY IS WRONG. You are an uncivilized, ignorant, BARBARIC +peasant that will be looked back upon by future generations with every bit +as much pity as you regard the plague-ridden wretches od Downtown Medieval +Europe. + + Your "civilization" got off so heavily on the WRONG FOOT, is so far OFF +THE TRACK, and will keep going SO FAR from where it is "meant" to be, +that YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT SLACK IS and the only way you can reopen your +primitive mind, your buried gene-memory of SLACK, is to roll up your +sleeves and GET DOWN with "Bob." If you're worried about getting your hands +dirty, DO NOT ENTER. If you want to keep thinking "science" is right, DROP +THIS BOOK NOW. + + UNBEARABLE!! + + If you want to remain agnostic about The Forces, GET THE BOOK OUT OF +YOUR HOUSE. If you don't like the cold, get out of the freezer. + + If you are, say, a hopelessly intellectual Conspiracy dupe (or "Judge- +Head") with just enough verbal skills to think this is "funny" but lacking +the intuitive scar tissue that lets you see where it's ALL TOO REAL, then +your naked, tame soul risks getting SCALDED by the white-hot Truth of +"Bob." If you THINK you're a Christian, but AREN'T, then you're going to +see DEMONS in this book. Your belief system is paranoid, so it whips up +reasons for paranoia. + + You see what you want to see. + So you have to pay to know what you think. You pay Them. + + They've got you so closed off from what you're REALLY SEEING, and have +made your most instinctive hopes and desires seem so "impossible" or +"impractical" in the quote "real world" unquote, that you're still looking +where they're pointing rather than just looking around. You can SEE what +CAN lie ahead if you'll just slow down. + + Don't pay them to know what you really think. Pay "Bob." It's much +cheaper. Besides, you owe "Bob" a living. But then, the entire WORLD owes +YOU a living. YOU ARE OWED SLACK. + + + YEAH BUT... + + + 6 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius Don't Laugh + + + Right. You want to know, "JUST EXACTLY WHAT IS THIS CHURCH OF THE +SUBGENIUS?" That question is asked a thousand times a day, every day, some- +where. And it's a good thing, because that's the most pertinent question +to ask in this modern age. + + There is no description. Words do not suffice; one must "SEE." We let +you see a little at a time until you are led gradually to TOTAL CLARITY. +It is the Nameless Mission[3]. The true mission is always nameless. To name +it is to doom it....and alert the enemy. + + THE SUBGENIUS MUST HAVE SLACK! + + But as the million-legged Church crawls around inside your cranium, +there is one point it keeps returning to. It the the very point of the +Church. The point is "Bob." + + "Bob" is, was, and ever shall, "Bob" is you, "Bob" is me, "Bob" is the +Kama Sutra, the Id, the light that glows in the heart and mind of EVERY +free-thinking SubGenius. And "Bob" is a man. + + It's "Bob." + It always comes down to that. + Because "Bob" is SLACK. + + And SLACK is what you want. SLACK is what you need. As the Pope of +All New York[4] told the multitudes, + "With the FULLNESS of Slack a CHANGE will come; + Slackness will ENTER your life, Slackness will MAKE YOU SEE, + Slackness will SET YOU FREE! + Slackness IS! Slackness LIVES, + Slackness WAITS FOR YOU and YEAH! send $20." + Slack is what was taken away; Slack is what "Bob" gives BACK. + + That's as simple as we can ever make it. From here it just spirals +off into stormier and stormier complications but in the MIDST of that storm +there are two anchors you can always get back to, and those "Bob" and +Slack. + + Now, you do not just sit and wait for Slack. You do not "work" at it +either. This is an exact science of ways to achieve Slack through "seeing." + + You will be taught by someone you can trust completely. By "Bob." + + The fact that you have gotten this far - procuring this Book - indicates +that you haven't been completely "asleep." You haven't been totally taken +in by Them. Not yet. + + But they can still trick you. As bait they feed you too much of the +wrong kind of Slack - the FALSE SLACK of The Conspiracy. + + The "Conspiracy" is Them. It was They who took away your real Slack. + + THEM. + + + + 7 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius Don't Laugh + + + YOU are not one of Them, and never were, not even when They made you +want to be. In fact, that's why They wanted your Slack. It's why you had +Slack in the first place. + + They did manage to steal most of your Slack. But they obviously haven't +got it all, and they haven't got "Bob," and as long as there is ONE FREE +MAN among us their system cannot be complete, because it is by nature a +closed system, and if we can keep their system incomplete, it will close +down of its own accord. By Their own Law. Their Law of Normalcy. + + Yes. They wanted you to at least want to be "Normal." Well, you may +look normal. You may Act normal. But you aren't normal. YOU JUST AREN'T +NORMAL. + + And it is the POWER of your abnormality that saves you, that causes +their system not to have a place for you, that makes you a SubGenius. + + The Conspiracy system burns humans as fuel. SubGeniuses aren't humans. +They gum up the works. + + If you're a human, you've read too far. CLOSE THE BOOK! + + "There's a whole market, a type of person there's no word for. I want +'SubGenius' to be that word." + -- "Bob" on Board Room Tape Number 668, verse 17. + + You may have heard the term "SubGenius" sometime before, but you might +not be able to quite put your finger on it - almost as if it were some +dim racial memory, some archetype from neanderthal times. That may very +well be the case. + + Now, the Church was not founded until 1953. And it was 1979 before +Dobbs created The SubGenius Foundation as a vehicle to bring the teachings +to the public. But SubGeniuses have always existed... even before Dobbs. +In all the cradles of civilization - Sumeria, Egypt, Atlantis - clues +have been found which prove the existence of the Conspiracy and of the +SubGenii who fought to subdue it.[5] + + The wisdom of those ancient SubGeniuses was never lost. Carried down +by secret oral traditions, it lies latent in many living people, waiting +only to be triggered by the Abnormality Revolution. perhaps, even as you +read this, you can feel those ancestral powers and arcane memories surging +up from within your dankest brain gutters. + + Ask yourself - don't you feel different at this exact moment than you +ever did before? Isn't it because you feel some vague but momentous force +emanating from this very piece of paper? + + You didn't just wander into a bookstore and happen to notice this Book. +You were led to us, and we to you, by powers much greater than Man, and +yet, seemingly, more random than Fate. But the ways of the great Manip- +ulator in Space, Jehovah-1, only appear random. YES! Our paths crossed +because it was planned - plotted out aeons ago, by alien minds more + + + + 8 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius Don't Laugh + + +bizzarre than your wildest nightmares, as part of a "WorkNet:" a cosmic +scheme woven into such a complex web that not just human history, but the +fabric of cause-and-effect themselves was disrupted. FACE IT - the very +fact of your eyes moving across this page at this moment is inevitably +and subatomically decreed. You are locked into the machinations of a +Cosmic Puppeteer who works your strings so skillfully you never knew they +were there. + + UNTIL NOW! The Church can't cut your strings - you wouldn't want us to, +if you knew what they can mean for you - but we can show you where the +strings are attached and how to 'sync up' with the Puppeteer...how to +stay one jump ahead of the other puppets by assisting the Puppet Master: +by following the Path of Least Resistance. + + Remember, Jehovah-1 - or Wotan, or Shiva, or whatever you want to call +Him - is not God. He might as well be, as far as we're concerned, because +he has powers of creation and destruction that Man has mistakenly +associated with God throughout history. He is merely a bit player in this +vast Movie which God is apparently leaving unedited. Nevertheless, His +galactic goals - it makes no difference what they are - can be achieved +sooner if He hones a few special tools to aid in the task. As the trance +dictation of Dobbs tells us, SubGeniuses are those tools, and Jehovah-1 +needs our help. + + In return, we Chosen are rewarded with Slack as He tips the scales of +cause-and-effect in our favor. Indeed, WOTAN-1 can "cheat" your Karma +for you, much like a tax expert greases your way through the I.R.S. You +can beat the system if you have the right connections. The space god can +literally make coincidents and accidents happen to favor you. Think what +this means in the areas of love, sex, finances, and social standing. +It isn't WHAT you know, it WHO you know. "Luck" simply means being in the +right place at the right time. If you pay Him enough lip service, JHVH-1 +can 'fix it' so that you will constantly find yourself stumbling into that +right place at just the right time. This "deal" is called The Covenant. + + HOLISTIC HEROIN -- PERFECTLY LEGAL! + + SOUNDS CRAZY?YOU BET. The early Christians sounded so crazy to the +Romans they were used as lion fodder. Modern-day Christians seem to have +forgotten that; plenty of them would like to see us thrown to the bull- +dozers. Oh, sure, we blaspheme like crazy against the gods. But that's +exactly Why this is the first religious text in history that doesn't +take "the Lord's Name" in vain. For once, there's a reason. GOD HIMSELF +CUSSES!! He's MAD! He's being falsely represented on Earth! Jehovah-1's +pretentions would be bad enough, but now all these human preachers have +gotten into the act, doling out notions of "right" and "wrong" as if +their peabrains could even BEGIN to sort such things out. They've cornered +the market and set things up so that enlightenment in Their churches +consists of four basic stages, each more torturous than the last, and +when some poor devil finally does get Illuminated he just reenters the +world and goes back to basically normal behavior. + + SubGeniuses are Born enlightened and so may remain in the world "acting +normal" (it's all relative). They already KNOW the Big Secret of most + + + + + + + + + + 9 +The Book Of The SubGenius Don't Laugh + + +Mystery Schools: that "divine ecstasy" is arrived at just as easily with +a backrub, or a good screw, as it is through 20 years of ascetic self- +flogging in a cave - at least, AS LONG AS THERE IS SLACK. + + By now, the average False Christian reader will assume that this whole +Church is the Devil's work. But we're much too unpopular for the Devil. +He's strictly big time and doesn't mess with marked underdogs like us. He +uses those already in seats of power. The power of the SubGenius is that WE +DON'T NEED POWER. We don't even need brains. We have "Bob," we have a +deal with JHVH-1, we have our own capacity to blunder creatively. We're too +disorganized for the Devil. If he's anywhere, he's where you least expect +him. + + We may attack your beliefs. But only those who believe blindly, greedily, +or half-heartedly will be bothered by our brand of mockery. To question +their beliefs threatens them; it makes a secret part of them ashamed, and +they get riled up and start smiting. + + Of course, SHEER STUPID HATE isn't the only thing that keeps people away +from the SubGenius Church. You may simply have more important things to +spend your time and money on - things like albums, going to the movies, +a new tape deck for your car - things you'd much rather possess than, oh , +say, life after death, reincarnality, psychic powers, immortality, invisib- +ility, nirvana, communication with Higher Intelligences, SLACK, and so on. +If those things are meaningless to you, by all means, just give this Book +to someone else. We're sorry you even bothered. + + You see, we're not trying to sell this to everybody. There are many we +don't want, and there are plenty we can't save because it's too late. Hard- +sell recruitment for this Church is too much trouble to bother with, +because by definition True SubGenii are not "Joiners." They're rightfully +suspicious of herds. They don't want to be "members" of any organization. +It's a miracle that we've gotten this far. Between the cult's tendency +towards secrecy and the one Law that the laws change from minute to minute, +it's not surprising that there's no man-on-the-street soliciting and +proselytizing. Even our biggest revivals are spur-of-the-moment, bacchan- +alian brawl-party affairs. The Telephone is used far more than the altar. + + Because of demand From your....We Now Offer + + "STYLE OF THE MONTH CLUB" + + + CAN'T QUITE PUT YOUR FINGER ON IT? well, divine + obfuscation has a purpose. + "In order to experience this correctly, you have to be smarter + than your normal self. In order to become that way you must first + experience this correctly. Thus we screen out those False Prophets + who would be wrongly Illuminated. The knowledge must not be + abused." -- Iwade Stanglings, 1891 + + + + + + + + + + + + + 10 +The Book Of The SubGenius Don't Laugh + + + Wotan works in mysterious ways, and this serves to keep the unattuned +of His business. The only way you're going to get truly, metaphysically +high off this material is to snort BETWEEN the lines. (But what you read +between the lines must be taken Literally. DO NOT read your own message +into it. There is only One True Interpretation." + + + "BOB" IS NOT A FAN CLUB + + + Most people totally misunderstand the term "SubGenius." Look at the +word. What does it mean? + + It means NOTHING! It's utterly ambiguous. All-purpose. It sure as hell +doesn't mean "just below genius level." To "Bob" and his mighty friends +in The Council of None, one happy idiot is worth far more than ten A-Bomb +inventing geniuses. We throw most so-called "geniuses" OUT. They're too +nervous, they take themselves too seriously, they're Snide. They do not +truly 'know' Slack. + + Praise "Bob," there are as many idiot SubGenii as "smart" ones. Most +prevalent, however, are smart-asses. It isn't brains, but an intuitive, +anti-Pink, anti-cute Attitude Mutation. The Conspiracy has proved that you +can have "high intelligence" but still not be able to Think. + + No, yes, SubGeniuses are merely The Chosen People - the class which +cannot be classified, those who are different not only from others but from +Each other. If any two are the same, ONE MUST GO! We band together only for +strength, and only temporarily. The Conspiracy used to KILL people who +displayed Subgenius traits. Thanks to the countless martyred evo-and dev- +olution cults that paved the way, nowadays you're merely penalized finan- +cially, socially, and sexually for weirdness. But at least we can come out +and admit that there are people mutating ahead, and they are US; and, +because mutation is so unpredictable, there will inevitably be unguessed +other steps Beyond SubGenius... but only if WE fulfill our genetic DESTINY. + + Ultimately, it isn't Smart Vs. Stupid or Cool Vs. Uncool, but The Good +Guys Vs. The Bad Guys. The free men against the robber barons. Franken- +stein's Monster against the Villagers. Of course, it's our definition of +"Good Guys," so if we aren't careful we'll end up as a bunch of Hitlers +instead of Robin Hoods. + + So BEWARE - THERE MUST BE NO STEREOTYPES. Not all SubGenii act and look +wierd. Many must encase their Weird Thoughts inside a Guise of Normalcy +just to survive and infiltrate. Why, some of the main Saints of the Church +look just as pink as the day they were born. Some have had to become so +intensely, weirdly "normal" that they come full circle to achieve High +Unpredictability, ripping their hearts out for "Bob" and stomping them into +the floor, kicking the remnants off their bloody boots so that they can do +the same to a million unsuspecting Con-Dupes. AIIEEEE! + + + + + + + + + + + + + 11 +The Book Of The SubGenius Don't Laugh + + + ?SEE HOW EASY IT IS? + + The ones to be avoided - yet the hardest to get rid of - are those who +behave as weirdly as possible but are really insecure closet Normals, doing +it only for attention from the opposite sex or something equally inconseq- +uential. SubGeniuses are not just the super-cool. Why, EVEN CHRISTIANS can +be SubGeniuses, believe it or not. "Wide-open-minded" sure doesn't mean +Punk or "New Wave" or Liberal; that's all fashion slavery financed by Them. +The hippies were easy enough to buy. They sold their cultural fringe to the +Normals cheap! And soon the norms will consider us fashionable. That's why +we owe NO loyalty to Right Wave, New Wing, or anyone else. We must trans- +cend style through nonstop style metamorphosis. The Sub-subculture must +always be one step beyond cool. + + You think that's easy? Although the publishings of this Book is a key +event in Dobbs Prophecy leading to a tumping of the Con's Foundations, it +nevertheless will produce the first sickening wave of "Token SubGeniuses" +or "Bobbies." You will see "Bob" bumberstickers and T-shirts on the cars +and torsos of Pink Boys. As Dobbs said in a letter to L. Ron Hubbard, +"Sure, they're Pink, but their money is green." Still, this means that the +Real Church of the SubGenius will always remain a secret society. There +will always be that massive public face, but when the time comes the true +cult will disappear and come back under another name. + + The problem is that although Abnormals are the only truly "free" bipeds, +they often don't know just how FREE THEY ARE. They take it for granted too +easily; they fall into ruts. Being of "Bob" doesn't mean you have to +identify with a guy with a pipe and a shit-eating "I know more than you do" +dog-grin all over his homogenized face. In fact, if you aren't already +sick and tired of the buzzwords "Slack," "Pinks," and, yes, even "Bob," +they by god YOU have a PROBLEM and had better start looking for a new +escape route. + + While this pith-ridden religion may be perfect for quote-heavy persons +like college students, it's risky for them too. It can turn whole tribes +of them into dogma-replaying assholes. Ask yourself: did you buy this book +because of fear of group pressure? if so, STOP READING NOW. You will injure +yourself with this material; you'll use it as a high-faluting excuse to +become infantile to the point of senility. We KNOW the power of the Dobbs. +We've seen it happen, All Too Often. + + A major secret that "Bob" learned from the Conspiracy is that deep down +inside, everyone, even the SubGenius, craves authority. It's from having +Parents. But a SubGenius shortcircuits this urge. He appoints himself Pope +or Raja or something, and he believes it. But it's easy to fake that +belief, even to yourself. + + Therefore, in his Church our "Bob" has included many built-in Alienation +Devices to prevent false Pink interpretation while encouraging the real, +down home SubGenii to start their own damn religions. "Bob" is not a fan +club. The Teachings constantly contradict each other and yet remain equally +true and false. Dobbs makes outright worship impossible by suddenly, unex- +pectedly changing the basic dogma just to forcibly "disconnect" the mind- + + + + + + + + + + 12 +The Book Of The SubGenius Don't Laugh + + +less zombie-in-a-rut. The confusing Church deliberately pulls the rug from +under the preconceptions of "Follower" types, thus separating the wheat +from the chaff. It uses Shock Value; we're often, praise Dobbs, too +sardonic for those smug hip ones who thought they were already as sardonic +as you can get. + + The sacred rule of "KILL BOB" and the related doctrine of "OR KILL ME"[6] +are two of the main built-in fuse breakers designed to prevent the ego- +overloading that eventually gelds other faiths. They are reminders of the +Church's promise that it will, in the long run, accept NO SUBSTITUTE FOR +SLACK. + + There is a Hierarchy of various flamboyant characters in the upper +echelons of the Church, which, despite your liberal programming, is how +it should be. However, thank God, "Bob" is the only real "star." In this +society, stardom destroys. It subverts and it waters down. But "Bob" is +immune to that, which is why he is so incomprehensibly important. He +gave his precious obscurity for his charismatic but susceptible Priesthood, +to deliver them from temptation. + + Thus you are ON YOUR OWN. It's between you and "Bob." Just remember, +this is the religion that canonizes, bribes, and enslackens its most +REBELLIOUS HERETICS and CHEATS those who presume to be its most DEVOTED +MONKS. Those who 'Kill "Bob" ' always return to the fold triumphant, +CHANGED from pupils to Teachers. + + We can't stop ninnies from buying the Word of Dobbs, nor can we prevent +you from spreading a watered-down version of yourself in our name. All we +can do is warn you: DON'T BE A "BOBBIE." The curse will fall on YOU. As +Rev. Emile O'Day told the poor wretch who lay in the hospital bed with +radiation burns from trying to smoke the True Pipe, "A little Dobbs'll do +you." + + Yes, the love of "Bob" can kill Normals. "Bob" is too good for them... +and baaaad for them. (For this reason we urge you not to leave this Book +lying around your house for the uninitiated to see, unless of course, you +have mastered the impossible art of "explaining" the Church and are eager +to challenge the diseased, superstitious world. Because of the potentially +dangerous Power Shell that each copy of The Book possesses, we suggest you +keep it in the most holy and private sanctuary in your home, which is +usually the Chamber of Excremeditation or bathroom. There, at the Throne of +your own Holy of Holies, you and the Spirit of "Bob" can be alone together, +safe from Conspiracy distractions.) + + Once the wrong kind of person gets into the Church, it's torturous +business getting them out. The power of SubGenius is unarguable, and they +keep coming back for more and more not matter how much we abuse and humil- +iation we heap on them. Anyone who gets heavily into the cult finds his +Luck Plane suddenly leaping out at him. And the coincidence level... "Bob" +is everywhere, friend, and at times it can be weird. Once an entire, all- +new Church Pamphlet jus materialized in the dead of night, burned right +onto the plates of the printing press; the machine turned itself on and +in the morning we found 10,000 new booklets sitting there along with the +glowing heel of "Bob's" shoe. + + + + + + + + + 13 +The Book Of The SubGenius Don't Laugh + + + Obviously you don't want irresponsible people tangling with such forces. + + So how does one know? How can one tell whether his friends are ready +to walk the Path of "Bob?" Surely not just by the Dobbs T-shirts they +wear... + + If you yourself are Pink, you'll never really be able to tell. But if +you are a true Child of "Bob," you'll soon be able to 'whiffread' or intuit +whether another is for real or not by his...by his...Well, there's no human +word that describes the 'personality-within-a-personality' as the SubGenius +recognizes it. + + "If you haven't been there, I can't tell you how to get there. + But you have been there, I can show you how to stay there." + -- Dobbs, in 1965 Sales Lecture + + + One does not 'become' a SubGenius. If you haven't already been liberated +from false sanity, you never will be. + + If this begins to sound like empty promises, it's because you have no +faith. You are of this faithless generation that demands proof of miracles. +Oh, look to your heart, friend. Is that not the only source of truth for +you? Can you not see the glowing core of Bulldada that shines within +each latent SubGenius, just waiting for the right stimulus to EXPLODE? + + To offer "proof" would be to insult the Isness of "Bob;" indeed, con- +crete evidence would deny you the great Test of Faith that "Bob" demands. +If you believe, it will work. If you secretly scoff, it will fail you - or, +rather, you will fail the universe. Those who demand logical, scientific +proof of Dobbs' good-luck power will never understand. They are permanently +"asleep." We call them "Gimme-Bobs" and the True SubGenius can have no pity +on them (particularly because they are the least likely to donate money +to the Church). Ours is a ferocity of faith that can move spoons or bend +mountains, depending on the degree of developed fanaticism. + + Yes, to some extent this is like deliberately going insane. So what? +That's what all gurus, followers, hobbyists, drug users and other seekers +are after. HELL, the reason "Bob's" Sacred Luck works is because it is +crazy. This is magic - REAL MAGIC. + + Proof? We'll let others provide that. Two years from now, you'll be +trying to escape those who would burn your off yabbering their rapid-fire +tales of miracles since they "found Dobbs." (Actually, no one find Dobbs; +Dobbs himself does the selecting. If you are not born naturally Of "Bob" +then your ignorance is permanent. It's the indefinable, ineffable Essence +of the Eitherness of The Dobbs.) + + If you have not faith, it is because you don't own yourself. + You let someone else decide how you're going to get screwed. + Decide for yourself how you're going to get screwed. + + DON'T MISS OUT EVOLVE! + + + + + + + + + + 13 +The Book Of The SubGenius Don't Laugh + + + If, because we seem to preach that everyone is going to get screwed +no matter what, we seem like total cynics to you, you're WAY OFF. If we +were that cynical, do you think we would put our literal asses on the +line, dangling our "sins" in front of the Conspiracy? We wouldn't do it if +we didn't think there was HOPE. We know America is still worth saving. +We know enough people out there will understand this to make us rich. + + When the Xists arrive in their illusory ships of light, and after the +3rd, 4th, and 5th Comings, this planet will no longer belong to the humans +OR the SubGeniuses. That puts this beyond politics and religion; it points +out that an entire mind-set has to be erased. + + Idiots think that politics can supply an answer. Bullshit. Politics are +abstract constructions: false, oversimplified coloring-book versions of +life. They can't have any effective bearing on your concrete daily grind; +they're just different ways of looking at the same things. We want to stop +looking at those things entirely. They've become sterile and ineffectual +because they long ago became rote activity conditioned into a society that +was moving too fast for its own good. We're like the wheels of a bogged- +down car, spinning deeper and deeper into the mud as our panic at finding +ourselves stuck increases. To get OUT, we must SLOW DOWN. If we calm our- +selves, step out of the car and look around for some old, flat rock that +just happens to make a perfect ramp for wheels, we can stick that sucker +down there, climb back in, and gently rock the car back and forth until we +pop right out of the rut. + + Thanks to aeons-tested Conspiracy False Slack programs, however, most +people, when faced with trouble, spend more of their time abjectly staring +at the problem instead of looking away from it for the obvious solutions +that are everywhere. Now, we can't do anything about people who are born +without imagination. But we can sure as hell KICK ASS on those who are just +too lazy - or too harried - to use it. They're sitting there, letting their +most precious quality rot when they should be sitting there pumping iron +with it. GOOD GOD, it's not like we're asking them to get up. We just don't +want "getting up" to be outlawed. + + We don't need to know what kind of government we'll replace the Consp- +iracy with. Our forefathers fought for independence first and then sat +down to figure out exactly what the "United States" was going to be. In +their primitive way, they tried to opt for less government. We should know +by now that the next step is NO GOVERNMENT except by the laws of SLACK. +(Coninfiltrated 'Anarchist' political groups are STILL POLITICAL.) Politics +is a dead end. Don't revise the rule book - throw it out. + + A couple of decades back, we'd have been hung for saying things like +that. But today, in the 1980's, we'll make a million dollars off of it. + + That, perhaps as much as anything else, indicates the depths to which +this nation has sunk. + + This is a crooked and perverse nation, friend. People are more worried +about the economy than ecology. JESUS! The lack of money makes life diff- +icult alright, but the presence of radiation and deathkulture chemicals +is the very antithesis of life itself... and people run around arguing +about the price of god damn pantyhose. + + + + + + + + 14 +The Book Of The SubGenius Don't Laugh + + + One thing we MUST prevent, therefore, is letting the Church become a +soporific, a "drug" that lets us accept the death of all life on Earth. +Yeah, THAT'S funny, HA HA! This better not become some god-awful End Times +PORN for those who can only "get off" on fear-and-laughter. The Church +should make it easier to conceive of the humans' inconceivable threat +to themselves, but ONLY IF THAT MAKES US DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. + + THAT is the whole point. + + Our twisted Hell Shit that tall those poor saps send off a dollar for +has to do more than merely put an uglier slant on what started out ugly +enough. SLACK? YEAH, you'll laugh all the way to the fully-equipped +survival shelter when "Bob" lets you in on the joke. + + "Bob" can handle the Aliens, but we must police ourselves. + + For: LOOK what the Conspiracy has done to 95% of our heroes, your +religious leaders, your rock stars, all your once-faves. It has taken +them and hammered them into the ground with promotion and money they know +not how to spend; it broils their brains in TV lights and saps from them +all time needed for their true calling while turning them into mere self- +parodies. It starts with the leader and from there infects the hierarchy, +then the followers...ultimately, the planet itself. + + EEEYAH! Oh "Bob" we now pray to know what we really think and that you +prevent us from turning your sweet name into some jargon-infested in-joke. +Spare us thy servants from, uh, complete temptation and deliver us from +Pop Acceptance yet somehow let us keep turning a profit that we continue +to SPREAD THEY SEED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. + + Amen. Without Remorse. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 15 + The Book Of The Subgenius + + CHAPTER 1: DON'T LAUGH + + FOOTNOTES + + + + +1. PINKS: (Colloq) Slang corruption of the formal SubGenius derogatory +term PINK BOYS, meaning any sheeplike status-quo normalcy dupe, living +in terror of making his or her own decisions, usually possessed of an +unusually 'blank' facial expression, characterized by mental temerity +masked by physical self-assurance. Term does not refer to skin color, +sexual identity or proclivities, or age, though it does derive from black +slang for "suburban white man." What is "pink," in the Subgenius +definition, is their outlook. + + +2. GLORPS: The same thing as Pinks, but even more consciously pro-Cons- +piracy. Typified by complacent suburbanites who don't mind chemical dumps +as long as they're "across the tracks." The term derives from Arkansas +SubGenius backwoods medical dialect, popularized by the head-launching +musical group, Doctors for "Bob." + + +3. THE NAMELESS MISSION: named by Puzzling Evidence, and anti-Conspiracy +intelligence agency originating from a secret base somewhere on the West +Coast and spreading out to influence all SubGeniusdom, militarily, for +better or worse. Keeps of the Archive of the Ears of Unibrow. Commander-in- +Chief Well Manhead, Disemboweler of Conspiracies Nankar Phlege & Security +Officer Sensitive Leaf have been assigned to act as impartial Arbiters of +Just for the SubGenius Foundation in case Dallas is nuked. + + +4. The Pope is Rev. Dr. Dr. (Mr. M.D.) David N. Meyer, III, D.D., B.B.T., +who holds his revivals ONLY in the evillest, most lucrative New York +night clubs. Performs healings by sheer vocal intensity alone. + + +5. For more prehuman SubGenius history, see Ludwig Prinn's shunned 'De +Vermis Mysteriis', and 'The Babylonica' of the diabolical Hermes Mortius, +if you can find the three or four existing copies. + + +6. Both key Death Requests were discovered by Doctor's for "Bob." They +are two unsettling answer to stupid demands made by Pinks; they are also +the only two steps to rebirth available to modern Seekers. + + + END OF CHAPTER 1 + + + + + + + + 16 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/subg03.txt b/religious documents/subg03.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..89ad9f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg03.txt @@ -0,0 +1,988 @@ + CHAPTER 2 The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + And The Alchemy of Sales + + + "And though I may not Comprehend, I know my God is good." + -- Anon. + + "He ain't no man...He ain't no god...I don't wanna walk the path that + "Bob" trod..." + -- Prayer of St. Janor the Hypercleats + + "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh "BOB" D'lyeh* Wgah'nagl Dhobbz f'htagn." ("In his + Great Easy Chair at D'lyeh, Dread Dobbs lays Smoking.") + -- one of the Dhol Chants for raising the Elder Gods, from + Incubustum Mysteris des Helle, Sir Colin Anton Wilson, 1706 + + "I want my monkey brains well done!" + -- "Bob" to cook at Dobbstown, Malaysia + + + + CAN YOU AFFORD TO IGNORE THIS? + + + Individually, each of us is buffeted by social tidal waves, generally +powerless except to create peaceful, temporary islands of Salck with her +or his own self, kin, and buddies. + + BUT. As one group, collectively acting and moving like one relentless +Hyrdra whose parts are not the same, encircling the world in a monstrous +belt of unpredictability, the world's SubGenii will be IMMUNE to the False +Slack of the Pink Boys, and shall OVERCOME The Conspiracy. Our brains are +too well-worn, too smudged and stained to be completely washed by their +insidious "mind-cleaning" techniques. + + We don't worry about The Conspiracy driving us crazy because we already +ARE crazy. We don't worry about the New Depression reducing us to barbarism +- SubGeniuses ARE barbarians no matter how rich or poor, smart or dumb, +cultured or plain. Our precious "bad attitude" sets us apart from the lack- +laster Others shuffling through their hundred million jobs. Oh, we have to +slave away at jobs too, but the difference is we don't let the job run us. +We seek something better - Something, in fact, for Nothing. That is our +Grail, our Quest. Throughout history, all SubGenii, individually or coll- +ectively, consciously or subconsciously, have sought that perfect, pure, +unbeatable MONEY MAKING FORMULA that will free mankind from its self- +imposed Slacklessness. + + And indeed, that relentless racial drive has culminated, in this decade, +with That One True magic Miracle Earning Equation Formula that can pander +to all common demoninators without varying one iota from the True Path, +that will fetch for its masters the Treasures of Solomon, the Fountain of +Youth, the Philosopher's Stone, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, +and the Rocking Chair of Ultimate Slack ALL ROLLED INTO ONE. + + Pope Meyer III phrased it this way while ranting to themasses at the +1981 World SubGenius Conclave: + + + + 17 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + "What TAKES AWAY our SLACK? PUSHY WAITRESSES!! ARROGANT CASHIERS!! +INSENSITIVE EMPLOYERS take AWAY your Slack. WithHOLDING tax takes away your +Slack. WHO GIVES YOU BACK YOUR SLACK? Tell me Children, WHO GIVES YOU BACK +YOUR SLACK?" + It's "Bob." IT IS "BOB." + + J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, the Living Slack Master of Mystik Sales Training, the +Bridge between Heaven and Earth and Hell, the wordless Bobhead, the Nake +Dobbs, All-Knowing, All-Prevailing, All-Just, All-True, All-None, ALL-ONE, +DOBBS is the ONE TRUE WAY by which we may finally achieve that elusive +SLACK that has been denied us. + + Science and religion each prove totally different things, yet they both +appear to be true. So, by divine logic, the answer must be "Bob." He IS his +own self-fulfilling prophecy... his own best idea. During every instant of +time he is simultaneously killed and reborn, perpetually rising from the +ashes of his own self-consuming Flame of Truth which Light the Path through +the Illuminated Darkness of his Isness.[1] + + A "60-million-year Cycle" will end in 1998; Dobbs sees the world enter- +ing a New Aeon which, in a few years, will bring more wondrous and mirac- +ulous change, and carnage, insanity, and destruction, than all of mankind's +history and prehistory before it! + + "Bob" brings a new destiny for America - a time of cataclysmic economic +change that will offer UNTOLD RICHES AND POWER to those "in the know" while +billions of DESERVING CONSPIRACY DUPES FRY in Hell-on-Earth...Uncontrolled +thinking, controlled by "Bob," will usher in a SPIRITUAL REBIRTH and a cas- +cade of astounding mysteries, supernatural riches, and a restoration of +lost psychic abilities that will totally transform the lives of those who +DARE to seek them and pay for them. that's right - you're lucky to live in +the End Times. + + For only nowadays does Man have access to the uncut truth of JHVH-1's +Prime Ordinances. "WHAT IS THE LAW? Not to make laws, that is the First +Law; Are We Not Men?"[2] + + In the early Forties an industrious young American salesman, while +working late one night on an experimental television of his own design, +was abruptly Removed and translated astrally across the yawning gulfs +of space and time to the very 'IDGE' of JHVH-1 HIMSELF! While his body +lay thrashing at home in a seizure-like trance, the young man's conscious- +ness took the brunt of the first brain-buffetin communionications of count- +less to come from the alien Yahweh: awesome gland-curdling pronouncements +which now form the sacred prescriptures of the Church. + + THE MYSTIC PATH TO ABUNDANCE + + We call this milestone in Man's mined path to Slack The Divine Emac- +ulation of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs. It transformed him overnight into history's +sexiest, most sensational Religious Leader and gave him the spiritual +know-how to handle both the "curves" - and The Conspiracy! from suave +ladie's man (and men's man) to hard-as-nails fighter, he takes daily +threats to his life with raw, cold courage and can mix it with the best +and worth of rival cult leaders. + + 18 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + Although the least scrutable or approachable of all SubGenii - and there +is some debate whether he even is one - he is by far the most frequently +invoked of all our uncountable "Short Duration Personal Saviors." While he +doubtless would prefer to remain an anonymous executive shunning publicity +or recognition, he is nonetheless our basic model, the Archetypal SubGenius +who set the "anti-pattern" of random conduct we all now follow...if you +can call that 'following.' His are the divine defects and failures which +we devotedly preserve, twist and distort for future generations. Yet he +remains a mystery man; the only photos of him that exist are culled from +old two-bit magazine ad for which he modeled, or grainy frame blow-ups from +Grade Z monster movies in which he played bit parts. We are forever in +search of historic Dobbs. + + Dobbs is one of those rare Adepts who walks the Earth every few centur- +ies, those Ascended Masters who "see" in a far greater way and can unravel +the other wavelengths of overlapping realities, treading aether in the +cosmic mind-oceans of Higher Mentalities. As a trance medium he is unparal- +led, able to 'Spout' at will the messages beamed into his head from vast +numbers of discorporate spirits, demons, dear departed, crazed saints, +mystics and conquerors of ancient history (including Cerinthus the Mad +Gnositc, actual author of the Book of Revelation!), alien space intelli- +gences and god-like entities from all seven circles of the Beforelife, and +- most crucial of all - from JHVH-1 Himself. All share the same basic +message: that there is a world beyond this silly material plane, a vast +power grid bearing the energy pattern of all that has ever happened and +ever will happen - The Skor. While we are all of the essence of this great +reality-file, only a few can open and close its drawers as they please. +"Bob" is one of those gifted few, and as "Sleeping Reporter" he divulges +to us Initiates what ancient wisdoms we must know to be freed from the +million minor irritations and compulsive frettings that plague us daily and +short-circuit the pre-Atlantean psi-biotic energy shafts that would other- +wise feed us Slack. YES! The Word of "Bob" brigs INSTANT GOOD LUCK (both +material and hallucinatory); it SLAPS the scales of social norms from our +eyes; it lets us channel the glorious abnormalities of the Universe and +transcend the dull, earthly blunderings we call "life" on this Planet of +the Clocks. Time Control is OURS! + + + GIFTED READER AND ADVISOR + + "Bob has a great power which even the Pope of the Vatican envies: the +power to fail, and fail repeatedly. Yes, "Bob" is FALLIBLE - as fully, +humanly fallible as is superhumanly possible. And, either despite or be- +cause of his infrahuman mediumship, he possesses one single failing above +and beyond all his other shortcomings: his most holy and all-inclusive +FOLLIES, which embody in some cheaply symbolic way all the foibles of the +all-too-human race. Where these would be crippling to another person, in +Dobbs they loom stranger-than-life and make him a very "MICROCOSM" encaps- +ulating ever imperfection of the so-called "human condition.' His beauti- +fully expressive blunders and idiocies, his cleverly illustrative errors +and inadvertencies, are perhaps more sacrosanct, more deserving of anal- +ization than even his hallowed salesmanship. He has ever weakness in the +book - including his rash willingness to carry the battle for Slack ALL +THE WAY. + + + 19 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + He has one strength alone: his insane dedication to the Good Fight +against the Dark Side and all the enemies of free enterprise, Sales, and +WORLD SLACK. + + Yes - "Bob" is human: lonely, isolated from his fellows by the import- +ance of the Nameless Mission he's taken on. He sweats, bleeds, suffers, +like anyone else. Perhaps this is his greatest appeal to some. For others, +there's always the thought of "Bob" the lover - immaculately attired, +debonair on the dance floor, instinctively understanding of their frailties +and passionately eager to comfort them. While salesmen know him as "the +man who could sell anything," his 'Initiates' know him as just..."The Man." + + No, he isn't just a man. He's all men. And he's ALL MAN to all women. +And friends, when he married his Main Wife, "Connie," he YES merged with +her and became, YES, despite his great Steel Sceptor, ALL WOMEN. + + For "BOB," my friend, "BOB" is a SEX GOD. "Bob," in fact, IS SEX: an +all-encompassing sex that is the very In-ness and Surrounding-ness of +the UNION of both the lingam and the yoni.[3] + + And not just hetero sex -- ALL SEX. "Bob" does not choose to fornicate - +"Bob" as the Tool of WOTAN has to fornicate. And not just with women. Not +just with men. With ANIMALS, with PLANTS, from a faithful oak tree in his +back yard to the mighty whales of the briney deep; with THE VERY EARTH +ITSELF. Yes, "Bob" copulates with the ground! + + + SEX AGAIN AND AGAIN + + "Bob" is the REAL THING. He came to refertilize your sexual preconc- +eptions, to make us ALL relive our reincarnality in the million polyverse +combinations we once enjoyed. Sure, this Church drips with MACHISMO IRONY, +with insanely overblow CAJONES. This Religion isn't for the amalgamation +of the sexes, no... but it sure as hell is for the divine UNION of them. +ALL of them. + + Strangely enough, none of "Bob's" words or deeds are particularly spec- +tacular. Their holiness lies in their nondescript but inviolable trivial- +ity. As he once 'Spouted' in his 'Devotia Moderna de Infomania', "The +stupider it looks, the more important it probably is." We try to live this +Holy Writ. + + Dobbs, unlike the Con, does not confuse you with "facts." There ARE no +"facts" to the enlightened man. To one trained by "Bob," Truth can be +found in a potato. since his Emaculation, Dobbs has known that Slack +ultimately comes first, before all else...even Truth. This is an important +difference between our Church and all others. Lesser religions demand that +you 'direct your will' and 'focus your energies." Dobbs preaches the +opposite: although you must know of your Power to begin with, the real key +is to NOT TRY. For in the purity of the Contradiction of Trying Not to Try, +you actually make the Greatest of Attempts and thus find a perfectly palp- +able, human graspable Punchline to The Joke of Life...or at least a good +a one as you'll find in your earthly, creaturely life. "Bob" did not +achieve Cosmic Oneness and Consciousnessless-ness on purpose. He was rudely +shoved by the gods down the behavio-electric Path of Least Resistance. + + 20 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + TOMORROW IS OBSOLETE + + Everything is easy for "Bob." Even his most hellish mission is like an +everlasting holiday. What he wants to happen just happens to be what's +going to happen, anyway. This can work for you, too, if you will only want +what "Bob" wants. You , like "Bob," would then be able to pack a lot of +action into each day without doing a damn thing. + + As mysteriously and profitably as he doles out his prophecies and cass- +ette messages, he unfailingly - yet, accidentally - enrichens himself with +material things using only the exaggerated human nature he was born with. +Just as Jesus of Nazareth was a carpenter, so is "Bob" of (NOT SHOWN HERE) +a salesman - the High Sales Man of the SubGenius. + + SEX WORD! BUY THIS! + + A descendant of many great psychics, "Bob" began using his gift for +financial gain at age 6. He has since built up an immeasurably vast pers- +onal fortune in his many careers, especially as mind-breaker and Psychic +Salesman for many governments and faceless international cartels. His +unusual clientele has included the great, the near-great, the never-should- +have-been-great, and the would-have-been-great-except-for-The-Conspiracy. +He moves freely in the worlds of finance, entertainment, politics, espion- +age, and world manipulation. He has sold to Presidents, and he has sold to +the Average Man. To the undead and to many, many Messiahs. He has sold +bankers and workers, stars and extras, sheiks and slaves. His first 13 Dis- +ciples were simple salesmen who had caught on to the supernatural aspect of +his sales Nature. He called these his "Fishers of Wallets." + + "Bob" learned the secrets of The Conspiracy from the Inside and now he +brings them to us - the ones who should have had them in the first place. +And he has the wisdom to publish them in this florid, overwritten, deeply +meaningful and challengingly difficult-to-read style to insure that ONLY +YOU and a few choice others will comprehend and be privy to this secret +knowledge that has controlled Mankind for ages - narrowing down the comp- +etition in the field of world conquest for you! "Bob" knows how cheated +you feel, and his intimate association with alien beings makes his advice +the only safe thing that can raise you up from your mediocre past. + + ARE YOU READY? Sales - true sales, not the sick, impersonal 'advert- +ising' of The Conspiracy - depends on a love of danger, of risk, of the +exotic and bizarre. It's a willingness to try anything as well as a lust +for the truly strange and, yes, the strangely true. + + SKEPTICAL? EAT THIS PAGE NOW + + The Church of the SubGenius is the sale, the big PITCH, and when the +world buys it, you get the commission...you and those oh, so few others +sharp enough to be part of this great Sales Team. + + But it's a race. We have to get to the customer, Earth, before that +OTHER salesman does, from that OTHER company...the one with the bigger +sales force, fancier placards, and the best 'people shapers' in the busi- +ness. + + + 21 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + But YOU have the Magic Key. You know the customer better, and you have +a product that works: SLACK, which "the competition" doesn't even believe +exists and couldn't understand anyway. You, YOU are onto the "Big Game" - +with the "Big Gun" - and "Bob's" 'Eye-in-the-Pyramid Scheme' is JUST THE +AMMO YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR. + + ESOTERIC DOMINANCE COMMAND + + And 'Bob" MAKES it even easier still. On this "Big Deal," the SALE is +ALREADY CLINCHED! The customer - the world - HAS to buy, OR ELSE! It's +either Slack from you, or Brand X slavery from The Conspiracy. It's a sure- +fire, no-miss deal...because this sale, friend, is FATED AND DECREED BY +WOTAN HIMSELF. + + Oh, They have a powerful sales tool; the ignorance and venality of the +customer. But you have "Bob." And you work for the winning company: THE +FORCES OF GOOD! + + Oh, yes. There is a Heaven, and you CAN BUY your way into it...and +there's a Hell, but you CAN BUY your way out of it. + + HELL is life on this planet without "Bob." + + LOOK, and you will find "Bob" everywhere. Bob's Market, Bob's TV Repair, +Captain Bob's Seafood, Dobbs Salvage Center, Dr. Dobbs' Freeway Love +Clinics. His face and name enwrap the globe. He is at once unknowable, and +yet, you have always known him. His million subliminal appearances in ads +have formed a visual backdrop of your life. + + The eye by which you see "Bob" is the same as the eye by which "Bob" +sees you. He watches you back through those endless Dobbsheads. Your eye +and "Bob's" are one and the same - one in seeing, one in knowing, one in +loving, one in hating, One in Selling. + + And SLACK is the Free Car Wash that comes with the fill-up of "Bob." +He's the ultimate Good Guy, the Terrorist for Peace out to KICK ASS on +the know-nothings who have HELD YOU DOWN. "Bob" IS the peace that SLACK +hath MADE ALIVE; "Bob" is SLACK, EXTERNALIZED. + + "Bob" is the still center of a turning world. He is the Angel of the +Bottomless Pit, the Blood of the Lamb, the Paraclete of Coborca; "THE KEY +TO THE GATEWAY IS HIS PIPE." + + "Bob" is the Fool of the Universe and THUS, the only place of ALL KNOW- +LEDGE; "Bob" is the meaning of the Word Without Meaning; therefore "Bob" +is the One True Word. + + "Bob" is war, but he is VICTORY without a BATTLE. + + He is the laxative of the world and he is the Manna...he is the Great +Work that Sleeps, he is the Silence in the Noise, he is the Infinite Wheel +of Earnings. + + "Bob" is the Teaching for those who need not be Taught, and those who +must be Taught cannot be taught "Bob." He is his own ultimate secret. + + 22 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + "Bob" is the Phoenix rising from the ashes of the Cleansing Fire of +"Bob." + + "Bob" is the Black goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. + + "Bob" is Heaven's One True Policeman. + + "Bob" is the gun and you are the bullet. + + "Bob" is the Sucker who is reborn every minute, yet he is the Money +which that Sucker Spends, and he is the Bank in which that Money is locked. + + "Bob" is companionship when there's no one there. + + "Bob" is the Ultimate friend, who will NEVER let you down. + + "bob" is the Dad you always KNEW you had. "Bob" is the SON every Mom +KNOWS she gave birth to. "Bob" is the UNCLE who told you what "fuck" meant +and "Bob" is the little sister you'll fight any bully to protect. + + "Bob" is your Big Brother. + + "Bob" is a tree. + + "Bob" is you. + + and "Bob" IS:("FILL IN THE BLANK")................[4] + + + WHENCE COMETH THE "BOB" + + High in one of the reflectorized glass buildings of downtown Dallas is +the Throne Office Headquarters of First FisTemple Lodge of the Church of +the SubGenius - nerve center for all SubGenius missionary/mercenary activ- +ities. Here "Bob" Dobbs commands the grudging respect of his iron-jawed +men. He's always in the front lines of even the most dangerous mission, +bearing his envied 13013 rating - his license to SMIT the enemy with every +trick weapon at his disposal...like his fabled Rocket Pipe, his Boomerang +Pipe, his Smokescreen Pipe, and the elusive Bobmobile. + + With his inborn foolhardiness and his admitted weakness for cards and +women, and iron-jawed men, he's not an office type and is rarely seen in +the musty rooms of deskbound Scribes. After weeks of absence he'll sudd- +enly show up, absorb his briefing almost absentmindedly, and abruptly head +back to that battlefield where no battle lines are drawn. While he's gone, +the Popes anxiously await news, good or bad, on "Bob's" one-man war against +The Conspiracy. Across the desks of his staff daily pour microfilms, coded +messages, tape recordings...and not a few love-notes from the ladies, which +bring red even to the cheeks of his steely-eyed Sales Minister, Dr. Philo +Drummond. + + In a World Avatar's life, the totally unexpected is routine. For "Bob", +performing his duty in exotic, faraway places, it becomes second nature. + + + + 23 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + Some call "Bob" immoral...some call him lucky. The simple truth: even +a busy Living Master has his moments. And "Bob" has more than most. + + But who IS this man "Bob"? What strange twist of fate brought him to +crossroads between eternity and the Now? + + Dobbs loves to withhold information from his followers, and some of the +following was obtained by less-than-scientific means. Occasionally, we +have perforce used the new "Psychic Journalism" so much in vogue today. + + The exact time and place of the nativity of Dobbs is kept secret, of +course, to prevent his astrological chars from being plotted...which, aside +from his hair or fingernail clippings, would be ALL THEY'D NEED to get a +fix on him with their Migraine Machines. However, we can reveal that he +was born and raised somewhere in the Midwest during the Twenties. One Dobbs +Nativity theory holds that he was a fearless child, found in the wilderness +suckling a mother puma. This is most likely a myth and can probably be +discounted as part of the smog of legend which surround this seemingly +ageless man. + + His father, an immigrant and descendant of the only Spanish Mayans - who +had maintained a furtive, underground existence in Spain - ran a pharmacy. +His partially anglicized name was Xiuacha-Chi-Xan M. Dobbs, and he appar- +ently died in 1949 in an explosion while mixing chemicals in the back of +the store. + + "Bob's" mother, and American of Irish descent, was Jane McBride Dobbs, +a relative of the Irish revolutionary hero Arthur McBride. Obviously, "Bob" +doesn't resemble his father in the least, and this has given rise to Jane +Dobbs' reputation as "The Divine Virgin." There is, however, no little +evidence that a mysterious milkman, probably Jewish, was the true Dobbsdad. +Although this man's identity is swathed in the mists of rumor, and Dobbs +has gone to some pains to quash serious investigation, we nevertheless have +good reason to assume that this wandering milkman furnished the true "Bob" +gene. Another question that arises: was he even from Earth? The fact that +most of these people were "undocumented aliens" makes research all the more +difficult. + + END OF CIVILIZATION, OR BIRTH OF A PERFECT BARBARISM? + + "Bob's" two younger brothers do physically resemble Mr. Dobbs. They are +the "Weak Brother," Rod, and the "Evil Brother," Judas J. "Jim" Dobbs. The +former works in a canning factory in California, and the latter founded the +infamous Cult of the Mystic Annihilation - fortunately a short-lived +fiasco. + + "Bob's" ancient grandfather, N'Xlccx Dobbs, lived with the family and +almost certainly influenced The Child "Bob" with his tales of the Spanish +Mayan Underground and its struggles through 400 years of castigation. +"Bob's" staid father, eager to 'fit in' in America, disliked the old man +"filling the boy's head with revolutionary garbage and stinking Mayan +occultism." + + + + + 24 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + SOMEONE BIGGER WILL SAVE US + + "Bob" grew up fight the stigma of a Mayan dad. Other kids made cruel +fun of that prognathus slopehead of fullblood Mayanry, and though Mr. Dobbs +maintained dignified silence, little "Bobby" was in many a scrap, battling +for his father's honor (it was shortly after receiving a blow to the head +during one of these fights that "Bob" began experiencing precognitive +visions). This troubled childhood had a telling effect on the sensitive +youth, who became - thanks to the pharmacy's wares - a chronic alcoholic at +age 6. It didn't affect his precocious salesmanship, though, and he made +his first small fortune selling stolen prophylactics and pills to high +school boys. This pipe-puffing tousle-headed lad was a world-worn veteran +at age 7 - later, of course, to regain his long lost innocence: a child at +age 40. He claims that when he gave up drinking, he lost his fortune and +"had to come up with completely new sales techniques to regain it." + + Even as a toddler, "Bob" had innumerable "invisible playmates" which we +can now recognize as various space and energy beings, both good and evil. +Aided by his main guardian Angel, "Placeeboh," and perhaps by JHVH-1, the +child was able to distinguish the difference. Nevertheless, the constant +harassment by these entities surely contributed to his preschool alcohol- +ism. + + He also had an early gift for seeing auras on people, which helped him +develop his key sales tool of identifying the "14 Types of Consumers." + + Dobbs showed early leadership qualities. He formed his first "cult," the +Ghost Riders Club, with friends at age 5. Age 6 saw the Doc Savage Club, +based on the first pulp hero "Overman." Age 7: The Girl Haters Club. Age 8: +The Girl F---ers Club. Age 9: The Bat Man Club (BEFORE BatMan Comics!). + + By the time he reached high school, "Bob" had managed to acquire a law +degree by mail, and secretly opened an office in a nearby town. However, +he was disbarred after a valiant battle to return land rights to a local +Indian tribe...probably Sioux. He is still in close contact with the medi- +cine man of his tribe. + + As a teen, despite his winning ways with girls and his renowned sports +abilities, "Bob" was troubled by strange mental tensions and spiritual +raptures involving dreams of indescribable landscapes and sonorous, alien +voices ceaselessly intoning his name as if across the abyss of space. For +a brief period he became a devout Christian and tried memorizing scriptures +but this only worsened the condition. It finally abated after his myster- +ious first semester of college, which as spent at Miskatonic University +in Arkham, Massachusetts. + + That was his last brush with higher education. Spurning that path to +knowledge, he joined a group of Sufis and also got involved in the Gurd- +jieff teachings...but he gave up on these as being "too complicated, too +much work." He does still praise the Rosicrucians, but this is because he +learned the lucrative mail-order-cult business from that fraternity. One +secret doctrine that he admits having gleaned from these rival cults is +that any numerical system works magic. + + + + 25 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + Around this time, he starred in his first film - an amateur production +call JILTED AGAIN which was shot in the obscure 9.5mm format by a friend. +This one-minute silent short depicts an abandoned bride crying at the alt- +ar, then cuts to a grinning "Bob" hopping the next train out of town. On +the heels of this production came his first modeling jobs - a career that +was to continue on and off for the next 20 years. + + Just before World War II broke out, Dobbs and two pals - Bubba Smith +and Dub Jones - formed an entirely unsanctified proto-SubGenius scam/reli- +gion strictly as a rip-off scheme. It fizzled miserably - "We made real +idiots of ourselves" - but, ironically, it was shortly thereafter that +he had his first authentic bout with JHVH-1 - his Emaculation. + + This most critical episode in "Bob's" life is covered in the chapter +on The Prescriptures, so we will bypass it for now. + + The impact on "Bob" on being chosen as the Vessel, the Conduit for the +Word of WOTAN was, at first, devastating. The physical aftereffects alone +almost killed him. In his own words: "After have a Vision like this, it's +like a million hangovers at once. Your head feels like a flashbulb that's +just been popped - warped burning plastic, twisted and blow out... too +much energy blasting through at once. It ruins you for a long time...maybe +forever." (From an interview in Traveling Evangelist Magazine.) + + It goes without saying that "Bob" was not ruined forever. The next five +years are the most mysterious of his life, however; they're certainly the +least documented, and "Bob" himself refuses to discuss them. Apparently +he spent much of this time in a state of awe and confusion, testing his +newfound powers. It may well be that in doing so he misused them, which +may account for his reticence regarding this period.[5] We do know that +in 1943 he went to the U.S. Government with the intention of turning these +amazing mystic abilities against the Nazi war machine. + + DRAMATIC PHOTOS + + It is a little-known fact that "Bob" was instrumental in the Allied +victory. Most historians are entirely ignorant of Hitler's occult back- +ground as well. The Nazis were being manipulated, through Hitler, by secret +Thule Society magicians, who were pawns of the Hollow Earth dero creatures, +themselves tools of the Space Bankers. Everything Hitler did revolved +around ancient Thule prophecies concerning an Aryan Atlantis. + + Using his incredible powers of hypnotic suggestion (which he would in +peacetime turn towards Sales), "Bob" infiltrated the Nazis by posing as +the foretold "Son of Odin, The Purest of The Pure," who would supposedly +help transform Germany into a New Atlantis under the "Northern Fathers," +or Elder Gods. "Bob" worked his way up through the Reich hierarchy until +he had gained the complete trust of Hitler himself. + + The weird "Man in Black" that Hitler described in his writings was +actually "Bob." Hitler said he had met "this New Man who is living among +us... I was afraid of his presence." For good reason. "Bob" was feeding +them all the wrong information. This accounts for the Fuhrer's terrible +strategic blunders during the latter half of the War. "Bob" had Schickel- +gruber looking the other way when D-Day happened, and the tables were +turned on the Axis. + 26 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + (An interesting historical sidenote: while Dobbs was infiltrating the +Nazis, the fatally wounded gangster Dutch Schultz lay on his deathbed, +mumbling of "Bob" in his famous delirium. One of his ravings, transcribed +by a police stenographer:"Yeah..."Bob's" gonna CRACK DOWN on the China- +man's friends and Hitler's commander." The Chinamen? You guessed it - the +same entities who were using Hitler and his saucer-riding pals in the +Hollow Earth were also whispering into the ear of the young Mao Tse-Tung!) + + Winston Churchill said of Dobbs, in a page censored from his memoirs, +""Bob" is a riddle... wrapped in enigma." + + After the War, Dobbs entered the phase of his career for which he is +best known. Now understanding true Slack, and working always by accident +alone, he began stumbling from one line of work to another, deliberately +operating without any set plans whatsoever, and thus making a million +dollars every time he screwed up. Just a few of these early business: +selling "miracle paints;" aluminum siding; stocks and commodites; a roofing +scam; a sex clinic; marriage counseling; debt collection; T-shirts; real +estate...he also sold mail order businesses by mail, wrote the phrases on +gumballs and valentine candies, designed Cracker Jack prizes, created a +chain of Sex Novelty Vending Machines for service stations, ran a lottery, +opened a private investigator's office, was a vanity publisher, and even +invented countless non-essential household items that "made good ad copy." +It was right after a stint as a carnival barker at the Wheel of Chance and +the "freak show" tent that he moved simultaneously into his two true loves: +Sales and Religion. (In the midst of all that, he still "found time" to +serve a stint in jail for Mail Fraud, and also played pro football in the +now-defunct Canadian League. Word has it that he used to score touchdowns +"by mistake.") + + MEDITATION AT THE WHEEL + + In the 1950's sales was the best game to be in and "Bob" was the best +at it. As a salesman he moved from company to company - except when he +started his own - and no matter what the product or service was, "Bob" +broke all the records. He came into demand as a motivational lecturer, and +his books on selling - all rather clumsily written, as "Bob" will be the +first to admit - were best-sellers. The list of titles is impressive: +LEARNING THROUGH PAIN (1952), SALES - THE BLACKEST ART (1952), SLEEPING +FOR FITNESS (1954), $EX, $ALES, AND $UCCESS (1955), TENDERNESS OR TERROR- +ISM? (1955), TIME CONSUMPTION FOR TIME CONTROL (1956), and his top-seller, +ALL THINGS THAT SELL or THE BOOK OF ALL THINGS (1957). + + "Bob's" biggest sale? FLOURIDE TO THE GOVERNMENT. This may disturb some +of our readers. But little did the government know, flouride stimulates +the Food Gland (yes, the foot is actually a gland) so essential to our +proper development once the Xists arrive. He did it for our own good - so +we'd have a piece of the action too when the aliens start turning Subgen- +iuses into OverMen. + + "Bob" also had considerable success with a number of homeopathic rem- +edies he learned from his grandfather. Most were herbal medicines, but one +large contraption which sold well combined a pyramid, and orgone accumul- +ator, and a hairdryer to create a box looking much like a Tidican, in which + + + 27 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + +stress-ridden people were told to sit and sweat until they were purified. +Happy users of the device raised a fruitless uproar when it was banned by +the very Conspiracied A.M.A. + + It was in 1955 that "Bob" had his lesser-known Second Major Pre-Vision. +Once again, a great deal of Divine Suffering was involved. But, where some +other great cult leader might get crucified, leave it to "Bob" to come up +with a shortcut - in this case, a hernia operation. So important is this +event to Church dogma that devout followers sometimes display spontaneous +hernia stigmata. + + This Vision, in which Dobbs was treated through blinding pain to +"WOTAN'S SLIDE SHOW" of the events from 1998 to around 2175, will be cov- +ered in greater detail in the next Book. But for now, here's a gist as it +affected Dobbs' life. + + "Bob" had suffered a relatively painless hernia while attempting to +move a bathtub by himself. When he got to the hospital, the trouble began. + + During surgery, after having been insufficiently 'put under' by sodium +pentathol, "Bob's" astral body rose from the operating table and watched +from above while his poor body was hacked and abused by quacks who Dobbs +could now see, in his spirit-world condition, to be demonic entities in +human guise. He returned to his body when the drugs wore off only to enter +a new world of pain he'd never dreamed existed. For 4 days, trapped in a +bed, he was smited and tortured by the AGONY of his crude stitchings and +by the utter embarrassment of an unexpected condition we shan't go into +here. He underwent extreme temptation at the hands of "nurses" who, he was +sure, were also demons. + + In this horrible 'Bout' he slid in and out of various time-lags, some- +times abruptly wrenched from one Vision to another as if he were a TV +tube and someone was changing channels. Most of it was a living nightmare + - a twisted, mocking replay of his life, only changed into a Heironymous +Bosch-style parody. Grotesque caricatures of his mother and other loved +ones writhed in hideous travesties of family events. + + Suddenly a feeling of absolute peace blanketed him. He was approached +by seven glowing... spirits? Jessi? spacemen? ... who escorted him into +the para-molecular Court of God. here energy and matter swirled and mixed +over a sea of glass and "Bob" gazed into the face of time and space un- +bounded. Infinity itself lay in the center like an ever-hatching egg, with +obtuse intelligences circling it and meshing into sync with it. Extending +from the tiny point that was all of this came a weird pattern - an infinite +chain of logic - a 'book.' Hovering before him, it radiated an intense +'purpose' of some sort, like a force: a powerful 'need' which displayed +yet another infinite, quasi-electric pattern - a 'brain,' a 'map' ... the +root-map of the universe? All forces fluttered around it, yet nothing moved +at all. Deep inside this matrix was the Earth. + + "Bob" could see it all, from an overhead viewpoint, and, strangely, in +what looked much like cheap animation as on a Saturday morning children's +TV show. In an overall symbolic panorama of past/present/future which he +also felt, he saw not only is previous incarnations as various winos and + + + 28 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + +"Other Bobs" dating all the way back to the First "Bob," but also in the +future of Earth, drawn out over thousands of years yet shown in second-by- +second detail. He saw it from the human point of view, from the alien point +of view, from the computer point of view and finally through the Eye of +WOTAN. All in all, he recalls, it reminded him of the Book of Revelation +done by a low-budget cartoon studio. + + After going through a few future-life incarnations including an intel- +ligent machine incarnation and one as an Insect Man on some infathomable +planet, he was launched into an utterly pornographic parade of sex rever- +sion hallucinations and pre-human "lust impulsion" remembrances of a most +vivid and arousing nature. He experience a perverted "Rising from the +Dead" back into the real world, where he suddenly found himself in perfect +if crazed health. (A nurse later pressed suit.) "Bob" insists that what he +learned during the last part of the vision made him the great lover and +gigolo he is today. + + Many Church Initiates, seeking to become Adepts in the Hierarchy, del- +iberately induce hernias in themselves in an attempt to duplicate "Bob's" +experience. + + The episode stirred up a renewed and perhaps frenzied interest in the +Church of the SubGenius, which Dobbs had formed some two years earlier in +a half-hearted attempt to placate JHVH-1. Now, "Bob" seemed to take it +far more seriously. He began to recruit carefully selected individuals +from the new world of high finance. There was no hint of our present fierce +evangelism; "Bob" was biding his time, gathering forces and the most power- +ful followers, gradually but relentlessly preparing for that perfect mom- +ent which would come when the Church would be made public. + + He worked on developing his powers. He journeyed to Tibet, studied +under the most ascended monks and Yetis high in the Himalayas, and under- +went a sever training program with the guidance of his new friend, Dr. T. +Lobsang Rampa. He stayed in the Forbidden City of Chang Eng, home of a +lost civilization of super-intelligent Yetis; there, crude and highly rit- +ualistic surgery was performed on "Bob" which opened his Third Nostril. +This necessary step in participant evolution, now routinely performed by +the Bobmonks on all newcomers to Dobbstown, involved the inserting of long +bamboo rods into the nose and up to the brain, opening the long-closed +orifice which enable a SubGenius to 'whiffread' the 'pstench' of others. + + No less crucial to prepping Dobbs for Avatarhood was his first and +still primary wife, "Connie." She had been his childhood sweetheart in +First Grad. In 1955, more than 20 years later, they remet and married. Her +impact on "Bob" is inestimable. Recently a "Church of Connie's Panties" +has sprung up and is gathering momentum despite it's rather juvenile basic +premise.[6] + + "Connie" sang with "Bob's" short-lived jazz combo, "Bob" Dobbs and the +Doo-Bops, and gave him five sons: Bubba, "Bobby" Jr., Adam Kadmon, Shem, +and Shaun. there is also a daughter, but the Family Dobbs keeps her name +a secret in order to limit the number of suitors who would try to "marry +into" this awesome dynasty. + + + + 29 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + Oddly enough it was "Connie" who encourage the "extended family" idea +now practiced by the Church. Although we cannot tell how many 'husbands' +"Connie" has collected, we know that "Bob" now has at least one "Secondary +Wife and Family" in every state of the union as well as 2,952 "Tertiary +Families" spread evenly throughout the world. All of his wives and count- +less children fiercely defend "Bob" as a companion and provider and insist +that he always seems to have plenty of time to spend with them. "Bob" +clones or doubles? If such is the case, it may have some bearing on the +Church by thousands of young people who claim to be bastard children of +"Bob" from extra-marital relationships he was driven to consumate by his +monstrously overactive Foot and Soul Glands. + + Meanwhile, "Bob" was moving in the highest levels of The Conspiracy, +secretly recording and photographing everything he could get his hands on, +always listening and learning with the help of a mild Tibetan truth serum. +All of his illusions about 'freedom' and 'America' had long since been +shattered, of course, and the day that he told The Conspiracy "F--- 'em if +they can't take a joke" provides his most cherished memories. Only "Bob" +could have done this, protected as he is by JHVH-1's Hex Field. + + Building began on the bunkers and weapons complex at Dobbstown in the +Sarawak Provice of Malaysia, financed in part by Dobbs' land holdings in +Tibet, South America, Antarctica, and especially Nevada. Dobbs' other +interests now included so many multimillion dollar companies that money +became to him more a spiritual concept than a 'need.' + + The Smiling One also began buying his way onto the sets of many +low-budget science fiction and horror films. Of his 54 known walk-on +appearances in films - each one involving a few lines of dialog which, one +realizes in retrospect, planted hints of the fantastically interwoven +Conspiracy and alien plots we now fight - the most famous are these: +THE UGLIEST MONSTER (1959), BAD NEWS FROM VENUS (1960), MARS NEEDS WOMEN +(1965), 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957), and ZONTAR, THING FROM VENUS +(1965). A great many of these were shot in Dallas, Texas, where "Bob" had +set up his American headquarters. + + Why Dallas? "Because it is a sterile city," says "Bob." "It has to be +clean because the Doktors work there." The fact that The Prescriptures +pinpoint Dallas as one of the few safe places to be during the coming +Eco-Econocataclysm may also have something to do with the selection. It had +NOTHING TO DO WITH THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION! + + In 1971, Dobbs met a young Dallas man we shall call Dr. X, who became +his drinking partner during "Bob's" renewed bout with the bottle. Together +they wrote a number of now standard rock-and-roll songs under assumed +names, and Dr. X began helping Dobbs locate people to run what would become +the public relations arm of the Church, The SubGenius Foundation. In 1972 +"Bob" initiated telepathic contact with the then-down-and-out "Dr." Philo +Drummond, and finally appeared to him in person in 1973. Philo recruited +his friend Ivan Stang, a failed science fiction writer, to help generate +the first Church brochures and propaganda booklets. THe rest is history, at +least to the I.R.S. + + 30 + + + + + + +The Book Of The SubGenius The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + + Many ask, "Where is "Bob" now?" + + He might be performing arcane rituals in Dobbstown, or deciphering +forbidden texts under Incan ruins high in the Andes; he might be lounging +in any of 18 skyscraper penthouses or playing 'tag' in the from yard of one +of his families. He might be up in that great DC-10 jet plane he pilots, or +down on Skid Row giving some bum a haircut. He might be tumbling in bed, +extracting secrets from some Conspiracy wench, or bad guy, or preaching to +the winos in the Dallas drunk tank. It doesn't matter. As long as the smoke +from his Pipe keeps finding its way to Heaven, we on Earth are safe. + + + + + + + + + 31 + + + + + + + The Book Of The SubGenius + + CHAPTER 2: The Miracle Of "Bob's" Tyranny + + + FOOTNOTES + +1. You talk like this, people think you're crazy. But when they see it WORK +- when your success snowballs INSTANTLY - when your very COOLNESS becomes +intoxicating to them...well, you'll see. + +2. The "What Is The Law?" cycle is a holy chant from JHVH-1's Revelation X. +It was worked subliminally into the film, Island of Lost Yeti Women (Smith +Films, 1965). + +3. This information is airbrushed into the hairdos of the members of the +band DEVO on the cover of their fourth album, and is backtracked into the +disco 'muzak' of the Glassmadness album, Do The Sexy "Bob." + +4. From the SubGenius Hymnal of Glassmadness by famous glass musician James +Erickson. Lyrics mutated telepathically by the Rev. D. Lee Lama. + +5. There was a spate of bizarre deaths throughout the area where Dobbs was +then making his living as an encyclopedia salesman. Bodies were found with +their heads imploded by some mysterious force. Most were laying near their +front doors. + +6. This cult, centered around the undergarments of Dobbs' Primary Mate, was +founded by Senator Jay Kinney after an ecstatic trance in which he claims +to have whiffread the Panties themselves. + +7. The rare album Put Your Hands On The Radio by The Pink Boyz, suppressed +by the Rock and Roll Conspiracy, contains the least adulterated of these +songs. + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/subg_002.txt b/religious documents/subg_002.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e142c49 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_002.txt @@ -0,0 +1,425 @@ +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +******** C H U R C H of the S U B G E N I U S ********* +******* ******** +****** *N*E*W*S ******* + Contents: + + Official SLACK Test!!! + Robert Tilton- SubGenius Exposed!! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + THE PIPE-SUCKING, GUT-BLOWING ALL NEW NEW AND + IMPROVED SLACK QUIZ #1 + +This is a fairly medium-sized test based on the Purity Test. Unlike the +Purity Test, which gauges purity (something we could care *less* about), +this measures SLACK! + +*ISCLAIMER: This test gives results only roughly representative of the actual +slack of a person. For the true results, you must learn to whiffread, and +to learn that skill, you must SEND YOUR MONEY to the Church. Yes, folks, +send that green right in. But first, send it to ME! Through E-MAIL! And +I'll send it for you with my personal blessings. OR KILL ME!!!! + +Now that that's out of the way, ....... + + PART ONE: MULTIPLE CHOICE +(Answer to the best of your knowledge). + +1. The term 'SubGenius' means: + a) Below the genius level + b) A smart person in a U-boat. + c) The level of classification immediately above subspecies + d) Nothing. + +2. Which of the following is _not_ a valid SubG motto: + a) Fuck `em if they can't take a joke! + b) Joke `em if they can't take a fuck! + c) Suck `em if they can't fake a toke! + d) You're gonna burn in HELLFIRE for this blasphemy! + +3. The proper SubG disclaimer is: + a) Or kill me + b) Or nuke me + c) Or make me write bad checks + d) Or take all my money + +4. A SubGenius follows the word of: + a) God + b) Cod (as in "Hi, have a fish") + c) "Bob" + d) FUCK YOU pink boy, SubGenii follow *nobody*! + +5. The proper way to explain the Church to an uniformed (non-pink) person is: + a) Give him/her a copy of the Book of the SubGenius + b) SELL him/her a copy of the Book of the SubGenius + c) Tell him/her, "It's a slack thing, you wouldn't understand" + d) Rabid sexual encounters + +6. "Slack" is + a) An excess of material + b) Undefinable, by definition + c) Definable, by undefinition + d) This question is pink. + +7. "Nental Ife" is roughly similar to: + a) The Soul + b) The Heel + c) The Odor-Eater[tm] + d) Thrash bands from Philadelphia + +8. The "Third Nostril" is used for + a) Producing excess phlegm + b) Breathing underwater + c) Whiffreading + d) Weird sexual practices + +9. The "X-ists" are: + a) In league with "Bob" + b) In league with NHGH + c) In the Major League, playing for the Cleveland Indians + d) A comic book about mutants. + +10. The "Room of Excremeditation" is where you + a) Read the Book of the SubGenius + b) Export the *only* product most of us are really good at making + c) Sleep + d) Slack off + +11. The Pipe is + a) What you smoke `Frop' in + b) A phallic symbol + c) What water goes through + d) A UNIX feature + +12. We are all born with: + a) Original sin + b) Original slack + c) Original fingerprints + d) Original recipe + +13. A SubGenius must have + a) Slack + b) Sex + c) Money + d) Balls (or ovaries) of steel + +14. Slack will *not* bring you + a) Luck + b) Money + c) Fame + d) A personalized photo of Dan Quayle in drag + +15. Chapter 19 is + a) After Chapter 18 + b) Before Chapter 20 + c) The location of the TRUTH about EVERYTHING + d) A new bankruptcy provision + +16. NHGH is + a) A terrible and largely unknown god + b) A product division of Digital + c) The sound one makes when strangled + d) Yo' mamma! + +17. The proper way to explain the Church to a *pink* is: + a) Ignore him/her + b) Kill him/her + c) Take his/her money + d) Sodomize him/her + +18. The X-ists will come by way of + a) Flying saucers + b) Flying cups + c) Greyhound + d) Nebraska + +19. Money is the root + a) of all evil + b) of all enjoyment + c) canal + d) at an obscure internet site in Oklahoma + +20. Doktormusic is + a) The theme song for a popular BBS science fiction show + b) What physicians play in their waiting rooms (ugh!!) + c) A means of conveying the word of "Bob" + d) Communist propaganda + +21. True Utopia is where + a) Everyone is perfect + b) Everyone is dead + c) We can all make mistakes + d) Dan Quayle goes on vacation + +22. Pinks have no + a) Nental Ife + b) Social Life + c) Slackful Wife + d) Butcher Knife + +23. The pink of Pinks is the color of + a) A newborn baby's skin + b) The negative essence of money (well, magenta at least) + c) Conjunctivitis + d) Toxic waste + +24. The luck plane is + a) Influenced by slack + b) A woodworking tool + c) Parallel to the equator + d) Taking off from gate 19 in ten minutes. + +25. The Skor is + a) A candy bar + b) Thirty-two to nothing in the sixth inning, and it looks like the + Reds are really getting the better of the Mariners here today. + c) Changable by instant replay rules + d) The events that will occur + +26. SubGenii descended from + a) Apes + b) Yeti + c) Abdominal Snowmen + d) Mountains + +27. The Headquarters of the Church is in + a) Dallas + b) New York + c) Mars + d) Cleveland (makes you wonder where the Hindquarters of the Church is) + +28. In 1998, + a) The X-ists will come + b) Jesus will come + c) Rocky LXVII will be out in theaters + d) A Democrat will be elected President. + +29. `Frop' is + a) an herb + b) a spice + c) a swear word + d) A motorcycle gang + +30. Obo is + a) An obscure Christian sect + b) A television production company ("Sit, Obo, sit! Good dog! ") + c) A musical instrument + d) The Anti-Bob + +31. JHVH-1 is + a) The serial number on an IBM 3270 control stream manual + b) The first Jail House Varsity Hockey team + c) Also known as "God" + d) A music channel similar to MTV but for yuppies. + +32. If Jesus Christ came back today he'd be + a) Driving a `57 Chevy + b) In an X-ist spaceship + c) Very, very old + d) Very, very pissed + + + TRUE-FALSE SECTION + +33. Connie is "Bob"'s wife (well one of them at least) +34. The Con is a guy who hustles cars +35. Pstench is noticed by people who can't pspell. +36. "Bob" was once a salesman. +37. "Bob" was once a salesman for IBM. +38. "Bob" has slack. +39. Rev. Stang has slack. +40. Ted Kaldis has slack. +41. The Church is a joke. +42. The joke is on the Pinks. +43. Yetisyny is a new food additive. +44. God does not play dice with the Universe. +45. God plays loaded dice with the Universe. +46. Fnord refers to a land feature in scandanavian countries. +47. "Bob" is a fan club. +48. "Bob" is not a fan club. +49. There is no question 49. +50. This test is over. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- +Scoring: Multiple choice: +1: a) 0 b) 0 c) 0 d) 2 +2: a) 0 b) 1 c) 1 d) 3 +3: a) 4 b) 2 c) 0 d) -2 +4: a) -1 b) -2 c) -3 d) 2 +5: a) 0 b) 1 c) 2 d) 5 +6: a) -2 b) -3 c) -2 d) 9 +7: a) 3 b) 0 c) 1 d) 0.5 +8: a) -2 b) -2 c) -1 d) -3 +9: a) 3 b) -1 c) 2 d) 0 +10:a) 1 b) 1 c) 1 d) 1 +11:a) 2 b) -73 c) 1 d) 1 +12:a) -2 b) 4 c) 1 d) 1 +13:a) 3 b) 1 c) 0.5 d) 0.3 +14:a) 1 b) 1 c) 1 d) 5 +15:a) 2 b) 2 c) 3 d) 0 +16:a) 4 b) 2 c) 3 d) 0 +17:a) 5 b) 5 c) 5 d) 5 +18:a) 3 b) 2 c) 0 d) -5 +19:a) -2 b) -1 c) -2 d) -3 +20:a) 0 b) 0 c) 1 d) 0 +21:a) -1 b) 0 c) 3 d) 2 +22:a) 4 b) 3 c) 2 d) 1 +23:a) -1 b) 2 c) 1 d) 3 +24:a) 1 b) 0 c) 0 d) 0.5 +25:a) 0 b) 7 c) 2 d) 3 +26:a) 0 b) 2 c) 0 d) 1 +27:a) 4 b) 0 c) 0 d) -2 +28:a) 4 b) 0 c) 0 d) -7 +29:a) 1 b) 0 c) 0 d) 0 +30:a) 1 b) 2 c) 3 d) 4 +31:a) 0 b) 0 c) 2 d) 1 +32:a) 1 b) 1 c) 2 d) 3 + +TRUE/FALSE: + +33: T) 3 F) 0 +34: T) 0 F) 1 +35: T) 0 F) 4 +36: T) 3 F) 0 +37: T) -2 F) 0 +38: T) 5 F) 0 +39: T) 3 F) 0 +40: T) -19.3 F) 1 +41: T) -7 F) 2 +42: T) 7 F) -2 +43: T) -2 F) 3 +44: T) 0 F) 0 +45: T) 3 F) 0 +46: T) -1 F) 2 +47: T) -3 F) 2 +48: T) -3 F) 3 +49: T) 3 F) -5 +50: T) -10 F) 7 + +Now, total up your score. If the result is: + +-150 to -101: You are undoubtedly so f**king pink that you haven't + had an original thought since you were born. + +-100 to -51: Go get a lobotomy. You'll do us all a favor. + +-50 to 1: When the X-ists come, don't bother waiting for a ride. + +0 to 49: You have a little bit of SubG in you, but not much. + +50 to 99: Smoke some 'frop and give me all your money. You + aren't a SubGenius, but at least you can do the rest + of us a favor. + +100 to 150: You are beginning to see the light, you just need + your butt kicked a little more. + +151 to 170: You are either a) incapable of addition, in which + case you're just like every other stupid fool to + come out of the public school system, or b) cheating, + in which case you've got more slack in you than any + of the other poor schmucks who actually added up the + score. + +I dunno, I printed it +out and smoked it!: Congratulations, you have slack. Now give me your + money anyway. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +If you actually bothered to add up the score, congratulations, in spite of +anything said above, you are undeniably pink. And so is this posting. And +that's because we all need our slack, and I can't afford to waste any on this +damn system. So gimme slack, or gimme food, or kill me. Or not. + +| Bill White Internet: bwhite@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu | +| COOPER'S LAW: | +| All machines are amplifiers. | + +------------------------------------------- + +Subject: Robert Tilton Ministries +Organization: Knights of Christianity Against Legal Sex + +Holy hallelujah and fuckwad, Pee Dog! + +One of my Pink acquaintances pointed out a potential ShorDurPerSav for me. +He said: + +"Have you watched Reverend Robert Tilton on television? He's the +hottest up-and-coming T.V. evangelist anywhere. He doesn't even +bother talking about goodness and such; his main point is that, if you +are poor and send him in $1000 you don't have, God will deposit it +your bank account right after you mail in the letter. He does all the +wonderful gimmicks; he speaks in tongues, he asks the viewers to place +their hands on the screen, "touching" his, and "feel the energy", and +he brings in people who used to be poor who tell great stories of how +they sent in money to Robert and suddenly found their lives +overflowing with wealth." + +So of course I began watching Tilton every day and putting my hand on +the screen along with Robert. I watched every fake tear, praised his +weekly "miracles." But it wasn't until I received his prayer book in +the mail that I learned that Robert is, praise "Bob", a SubGenius. + +Here's why: + +o He calls himself "Bob" exclusively. In fact, he doesn't even sign + his name "Bob Tilton", just "Bob". +o He understands that ripping off Pinks is the ideal way to make a living. +o The mail I got from him today is too unbelievably SubG. I received: + + - "Life-Sized Poster of Me Praying the Prayer of Agreement With You" + - "Anointing oil" + - "Prayer of Agreement Seals" + - "Complete Instructions on How to Receive Your Miracle" + - "An Illustration of the Life-Changing Vision God Gave Me About The + Prayer of Agreement and You" + - A red miracle prayer cloth, made out of the cheapest fabric I've + ever seen. He wants you to send it back, even. + - Three "Miracle envelopes" (the one for week 1 is pink, by the way) + - "much more!" + +o Some quotes from the material: + + - "This miracle package has been especially designed under God's + anointing to meet your toughest miracle needs." + - "Sign here and join me in faith for your miracle!" + - "every day for the next 21 days...say out loud `I stand in agreement + with you, Bob, and believe God for my miracle!'" + - "God promises that the truths outlined within this miracle + package will work for you if you are willing and obedient to act upon + them. Get started today on your road to miracles in every area of + your life! In Christ Jesus, Bob" + - "Week #1: Bob, please pray over my urgent prayer requests during + our 21-day miracle campaign." + - "I'm not slack, saith the Lord, concerning My promises..." + +o And what's the address of the Robert Tilton Ministries? It's... + + P.O. Box 819000 + Dallas, TX 75381 + + ...right next to Dobbs! + +I urge all of you to send off for this free book/poster/oil/prayer +cloth. For pure slack, this rivals the Stark Fist. + +Just write them at the above address, or call (214) 620-6200 and ask +for Bob's free book. They'll ask you what they can help you pray for. +Tell them you just got a raise and you aren't sure if the money should +go to God or to a new car. But don't give them your phone number. + + +Praise Dobbs! Praise Tilton! Praise free slack! + + +-St. Mog the Unholy + + + diff --git a/religious documents/subg_003.txt b/religious documents/subg_003.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2be458 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_003.txt @@ -0,0 +1,265 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ C H U R C H of the S U B G E N I U S $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S $$$$$$$ +$$$$$ Praise "Bob" Or Kill me. $$$$$$ +$$$$ Issue #3 $$$$$ + + Contents: + + Updated Pledge + Barbeque of Doom + The Book of SHAG + PHILOsophy of the day + New Clench + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Coined by Rodney Ward, a man well known and... well, not exactly loved, +by the University of California Police, Berkeley Precinct {smirk} + + I PLEDGE A MILLION + TO THE FUND + OF THE AMERICAN SPHERE OF INFLUENCE, + AND TO THE REPUBLICANS + FOR WHOM WE SCAM. + + ONE NATION, + UNDERFED, + INDEFENSIBLE, + WITH LIBERTY FOR JUST US + OVER ALL. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +BAR-BE-QUE OF DOOM (a space age love story) + + She led him into the bedroom with a smile on her +lip. + "Aha! Good easy buttsex!" he thought +lackadaisically. "Good thing I brought my penis!" he +chuckled to himself. + "What?" she asked, momentarily unsure of the +situation. After all, he wasn't good looking, what with +a cleft head and all. + "Oh, nothing!" he said with a toothy grin. + "No, really, what?" she said aging. + "Oh, I was just glad I brought this." He reached +into his pocket and pulled out a swollen ivory fist. + "ooooh, ahhhh," she grunted. "That's good, because +I brought THIS!" she reached into her pouch and pulled +out a disfigured foot. + "This will be fun! Just like you promised in your +ad!" he blurted. + She drew him down onto the futon. He lay back, but +something pricked him in the back. + "Ack! What's this?!?" he articulated, pulling a huge +mandible out from under the covers. + "Oh, don't worry yourself with that, love. Look at +this?" she said thrusting her cat in his face. + "What!" + "Oh, woops. I mean this?" she said, shoving her +face in his face. + "Hm." he thought, "she has a weird face." In fact, +she had a huge wiry hair coming out of her tooth. She +kissed him with restrained abandon. The way her hair +tickled his esophagus really excited his pulsating fist. + "Watch this!" he whispered lewdly, hoping to turn +her on. He friskily fluttered his eyeflap at her lap, +which groaned restlessly with a torpid passion. + "Do me!" she said sarcastically. She rolled over +and spread her cheeks in a very ladylike fashion, which +reminded him of Princess Di or Al Sharpton. He drew out +his ivory fist and paused. She reached back and handed +him some tarry looking substance with bits of meat and +bone in it. He lubricated the fist thoughtfully and +gingerly rammed it home. She cried for more while he +increased the tempo of his plunging stroked her well- +formed placenta until she climaxed. A thick and soupy +sludge emerged from her sternum with tired irony. + "oh you're so good!" she sighed. He removed the +fist and she rolled over, gasping for nitrogen. He +pensively caressed her lungbag with his good stump. + Suddenly, she hit him in the head with the +disfigured foot. + "Ngsfll!" he screamed. "What'd you do that for?!?" + "That tickled, " she countered with disdainful +flatulence as she careened his cleft cranium again. + "Snit!" he cried as his tooth flew from his sweaty +mouth. + "C'mere lover. Do me right!" She threw him back +against the bed and straddled him. He smiled in spite +of the blood flowing from his gums. Suddenly, a three +fingered appendage quickly emerged from her gaping +vaginal orifice to grab his manhood. It dropped the leg +and then correctly pulled the pulsating pecker into the. + "Hi-yah!" he screamed wildly. She held him down w/ +all of her arms. "Smanch Snig Fnortgobbel Shit!" she +screamed. Her jaws opened to a monstrous proportion and +ripped off his lips with her suction leg. Amidst all of +his screaming and wild gyrating, he strangley thought, +"hm. funny I never noticed those suction legs." +That was the last thought he ever thought, though, +because she then opened her vagina and sucked him in, +where a small creature inside efficiently dismembered his +cerebellum. + "Thanks, Dad." said the creature inside as it +absorbed the flesh voraciously. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + THE BOOK OF SHAG + + Heed my words, oh miniscule and pulchritudinous ones. Hear and heed, you + who do not fellatiate, and you who know not the meaning of the great and + high remex. The end is near. You must heed and follow the things I will + speak unto you, the words of the great gods, the god of the windowshade, + the god of the distributor cap, the god of the blue bikini underwear and + most importantly the god of the dead japanese beetle somewhere on the + campus of rutgers university. By heeding these words, you will improve + the gas mileage of your car, enter into a new age of harmony, peace, + happiness, and belgian waffles. Bring things home each day and not pay + for them until next september, and make sure that your life is sanctioned + and guarded by the great race of aliens which will land any day now in + Starkville Mississippi and revolutionise the way you wash dishes. Be sure + to not be left out when all human males become obsolete as females flock + to the alien males and their new, improved, user-friendly genitalia mark + five systems! You must make your genitalia blue, anointing it with + indigo. Anoint also your ears, your nose, the back of your neck, and the + fourth toe of each foot, the most holy of all toes. + + I speak to you of the coming of the greater race. You shall know them by + their stature, by their countenance, by their language, unlike any that + man has ever heard, and by their sexual prowess. Behold, they shall land + in a small town, Starkille, and shall walk the earth among the children, + and you shall not know them. Many will say in those days, "The gods are + walking the earth, the gods are walking the earth," but they shall be + scoffed upon and spit upon and fucked hard by prostitutes in cheap motels + then bankrupted by the media. But you will pay them no attention and + merely stop sending your donations. But then, the greater race will + reveal themselves in all their glory for all mankind to see. The truth + will be known, and the truth will be that mankind has not paid their lease + and is being evicted, a new race takes over the planet, please move the + furniture out and clean the carpeting before you leave. Behold a wonder: + your children and their children shall mate, producing a better race yet, + but you, the unbelievers, shall be sentenced to 40 time units of wandering + in the outer dust clouds of the andromeda sector aboard a tiny spaceship + called the minnow. + + So, lo, woe, yo, repent while you still are young on an archaelogic scale. + The world must be saved by the horrors that are low-density disks, AM + radio, and non-FOX television. You must learn to live without processed + spinach products, to wean your children on their father's milk,. and to + accept that power strips and LSD are things of the past. Synthesise your + offspring carefully so that when the time of the great choosing comes, + your sons and daughters may be chosen by the greater race to participate + in furthering their race, in the strange ritual of the cosmic fuck, the + antithesis of the hells of knowledge, riches, and power, the fulfillment + of the postmodern dream of red lights, t-squares, and paint blotches. + Prepare yourselves for the day of the final inkblot judgement, wherein all + shall be tested for blot and blood type. In that day, some will say, + "verily, it is an aston-martin, in O positive." To those, the coming one + will say, "farewell, you were never a phlebotomist, just a prick, depart + from here into an eternity of dimness and cheap paperback novels and + genuine IBM computers." But in that fateful day, some will say, "truly, + it is two schnauzers chasing a naked woman, in AB negative." To those, + the coming one will say, "come, join me at the cosmic sock hop, you are + one of my own, you will live an eternity of free drinks and beautiful + tragically hip waifs." + + For I have been spoken these things by the angels of light, hermetic + seals, and the small purple man painted on my wall, who read them from the + great platinum plates upon which they were inscribed from the supernatural + force of the great god of the cunny, who swallows all things for the + better of his followers. I have seen the light, I have been enlightened, + I speak the truth to you, heed it and save your lives and those of your + fellow neighbour's wife and your neighbour's ass, or do not hear my words, + and turn a deaf ear to them, and forever suffer in this meaningless + existance. The gods have spoken, I have written, and the pen, having + writ, runs out of ink, on this, the next to the last of the last days... + + + -The Book of Shag- + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ A lonely women fled down the street. + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ She was angry at the world and + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ generally unhappy. Then she tripped + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ over a rock and became enlightened. + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ Her lightness was very contagious + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ and with a few days her entire town + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ was enlightened and by the end of the + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ month, a crisis crisis was felt in + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ full force. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ Then it wore off and everyone got + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ back to fighting, lying and generally + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ being unhappy. It seems that her + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ enlightenment was not a Bud + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ enlightenment. + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ YOU'VE ONLY GOT EIGHT YEARS, PINK BOY + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Subject: fuck it, man...just gimme da bread +Keywords: CASH! MONEY! SLACK! ah, feh. + + Anyone who's got their head to bleed enough, send me a dollar for +cool stuff, two bucks for stuff that sucks the skin off, but leaves your +warts intack, five bucks for tapes of my tea parties with the xists, and +$500,000 for a limb of your choice. Or just send me a stamp. + + Reverend Suspect Device + P.O. Box 156 + Amherst, NY 14216 + + ALL ONE! Shit, guys...just piss in an envelope and I'll be in +raptures. Put a check in though. And if you can handle the extra postage, +slip in the most nubile female available. Or livestock - we're not +picky. SNAP INTO IT! + +-- +Rev. Suspect Device v061regm@ubvmsd.bitnet "Fuck 'em if they can't take +Fnepnfz vf gur bayl v061regm@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu a joke." - J.R. "Bob" Dobbs +fvta bs vagryyvtrapr Naq Lrnu! Fraq zr gjragl Attn: all SubGeniuses! The +qbyynef sbe "Obo"! Cvaxf Shpx Bss!!! *4 LINES!* FCEEEB wants YOU(r money)! + + + diff --git a/religious documents/subg_004.txt b/religious documents/subg_004.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..11f9034 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_004.txt @@ -0,0 +1,323 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ C H U R C H of the S U B G E N I U S $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S $$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ Issue #4 $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ Praise "Bob" Kill "Bob" Eat "Bob" Fnord "Bob $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + Contents: + + What is SLACK? + Witness for "Bob" + Tearing Down the Malls + Just who the hell is this "Bob" guy, anyway? + Clench Update + Update from Santa Cruz 25 Hour Clench + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Slack is a warm puppy. +Slack is a gigantic warm-fuzzy, wrapped around a steaming, bloody dagger. +Slack is like alt.sex, but without the calm, accepting charm. +Slack is what "Bob" brings to all of us. +Slack is in Dan Quayle. Slack is in COBOL. Slack is in the walking dead. +Slack is in really, really bad haiku. +William Shakespeare has slack. Dodobirds had slack, but they died. +Salack is slack misspelled. +Freud had no slack. Oral Robert's only slack is in his name. +When you have slack, the world beats a path to your door, and then ties you +up and licks warm mayonaisse of your nipples. When you have no slack, the +world beats up up, turtles piss on you, and big, ugly, hairy guys named Bruno +sodomize you repeatedly. Which is better? You be the judge. +This is not to say I have anything in particular against being sodomized by +big, ugly, hairy guys named Bruno. Hell, everyone needs a hobby. It's just +not for me. And I have no slack. So there. +Slack is warm and slippery. WHen you have lots of slack, it oozes out of +you, and lightly coats your floor, and sticks to your shoes. +Slack is in hostess twinkees. +Slack is in Plan Nine From Outer Space. +Slack is in The Witches. +Slack is not in Darkman. +Slack is really sort of sweet and smurflike, and you want to love everything +and be sweet and buy carebears and then RIP THEIR HEADS OFF AND SHIT ON THEM +AND DESECRATE AND BURN THE LITTLE RATFUCKERS. Slack is full of +contradictions, and is good. +Slack is a warm puppy. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAA! + + +....herein lies my witnessing to the power of "Bob": + My car was stolen while I was reveling in Slack at WICN, a public station, +gleefully playing tunes for my audience [small as it is]. Well, I finally +arrived home [after having been given a Test to see if I still exercise my Sense +of Humour] at 06h00...attempting to sleep [and failing], I was moved to get out +of bed at about 8ish as one of my Friendly Neighbors thought that 8 in the +morning is a good time to save my soul with cheezy gospel tunes [the ones that +all sound the same-- a sustain-by-vibrato on every word]. I was rolling in my +angst until about 11ish, when I decided to hear the "What did we tell you about +that town" lecture from my father; I wound up hanging up, very -ahem- distraught +and Slackless. Glenn was headed to That's Entertainment, so I felt the need to +tag along. I recouped my lost Slack by pouring over lurid pulp comics, and +feeling generally good. + I went back to my place refreshed, only to have to deal with my father trying +to harrass me more. While I was being harrassed, Jeremey [mpython] burst in +with words that I will never forget: "I found your fuckin car, man!" I hung up +on my father, grabbed the flak jacket and zoomed out the door. Two blocks from +my house, I found it there...intact...with junk food wrappers all up in it and +tghe only [visible] damage beyond scratches and minor dents was that they had +cracked the column to get it going. + Needless to say, I was elated...I looked up from the car...and there, there +RIGHT where the car was ditched not TWO blocks from my house...THERE, sprayed +on the concrete...was a Dobbshead and the message: "Slack". + Jeremey is now the longest-lasting ShortDurPerSav that I have ever had. He is +marked by Dobbs...Honour him... + + +Disclaimer: "I'm the only one foolish enough to claim these opinions as mine." +------------Reality---------------------------Outside---------- +INet: crimson@wpi.wpi.edu 100 Insitute Rd #296 +UUNet: ...!wpi!crimson Worcester MA 01609 +Others: crimson%@wpi.wpi.edu + +Blue Blaze Irregular Havoc In The Society: Bronnton of Atlantia +Rev. Dkr. Nick LaRG0, ASC of the First Orthodox MegaSpooTemple of the + Squirting Yeti Dobbs, Clench of the Unrepentant Gunman and Shrine of the + Sacred Bleeding Head. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +"He's seeing monsters. He's losing his mind and he feels it going." + +Last Friday I went to the mall to be a Part of the Problem, on this, +the busiest shopping day of the year. + +Yeah! + +I went to Dillards and bitched the lady out for not having the right +color of perfume! "My girlfriend wants blue, dammit, blue!!" +(I don't even have a girlfriend...) + +Yeah! + +And I bought a Hot Dog, with Ketchup and Mustard, and a Pepsi, a +Medium Pepsi, "that'll be 89 cents for your Pepsi, sir..." and +sat down on the bench and ate the hell out of my Hot Dog, much +to the unhappiness of a couple grils who passing by on their +way to J C Penny's 5% off sale, for they really hate it when +strange xibotic characters eat the hell out of Hot Dogs in public. + +"Grosssss!" she said. That's what she said. + +Yeah! + +And I went to the arcade, to vent my frustrations of not having anyone +to buy presents for, cuz I have no girlfriend, and don't particularly +like my family, they live in Texas anyway, so I go into the arcade, to +play SmashTV for a couple hours, but they don't have SmashTV, so I smash +a couple other CRT's and come out even MORE frustrated then before. + +"Mommy, that guy just smashed Ms.Pacman!" + +Yeah! + +So back into the Mall go I. Walking along past the Radio Shack, where +they're having a 3 1/2 % off sale on items they've been selling for +the past 15 years. "Only $999 for this cruddy old XT-compatible computer!" +"Comes with DOS!" So I go into Radio Shack, where they have bins of +batteries, separated by type, and I MIX up the contents of the bins, +so every bin has every type of battery, and then I walk out. + +"Can I sign you up for our catalog mail service, sir?" "No! Fuck off!" + +Yeah! + +And I walk by these two pretty sorority babes who've just came out +of a shoe store where they've bought three pairs of high heels. I hate +high heels. Every time I see high heels I think of the abuse the spikes +are doing the floor, and I just wanna scream. So I do. + +And they give me nervous looks and run away. + +Yeah! + +Next thing I know I'm in a toy store and I'm buying this ultra-realistic +copy of the AK-47, wondering why a toy has to be so realistic, but anyway, +I take the copy, and I go to Santa Claus, and I walk over the barriers, +and all the children scream, "he's cheating!" and take a little girl out +of Santa's lap and I throw her back into the crowds, and I prod the AK-47 +into Santa's belly, and the Elf, Santa's helper, yells "Omigod he's taken +Santa Claus HOSTAGE!" + +"AAAAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" I screamed, maniacally, as all the people +and the snotty little kids run away. + +And then the security guards came and I ran like hell. + +And that's how I celebrated Thanksgiving. + + +Xibo + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +In article <3753@qip.UUCP>, bobm@qip.UUCP (Bob Maccione) writes: +> OK, could somebody please explain 'slack' and BoB ( or is it bob ) to me. +> I asked everybody here and no-one knows ( or else they aren't telling ). +> I think I saw the bob you all talk about in the Badger comic book awhile +> back. Guy with a suit and a pipe, right ? + +No. "Bob" was the pipe with the guy and a suit. "Bob" was the suit with a +guy and a pipe. "Bob" was the region of 4-space which was hollowed out by +the guy with the suit and the pipe. "Bob" was the region between the ink +and the page. "Bob" is what you read when you read between the lines on a +blank sheet of paper. "Bob" is the sound of one hand picking wallets. + +You can learn even less about "Bob" by going to a bookstore and buying the +"Book of the SubGenius." You may even be able to find The Book at a library, +but it will be in a welded, lead-lined safe in the Rare and Ancient Book +section. + +The less you know about "Bob" the closer to "Bob" you are. "Bob" himself is +COMPLETELY IGNORANT of his own existance. Praise be to "Bob"!! +-- +John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (508) 626-1101 +...!decvax!frog!john, john@frog.UUCP, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw@eddie.mit.edu + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + +I thought you all would like to be informed of the tremendous existance of +the Goddess of the Northeastern United States, Tennessee, Arkansas, +Cleveland and Tulsa in the church of the SubGenius(the church being +something I haven't heard mentioned at all on this news group). She +is the most incredible female anyone will ever be cognizant of in +their lifetime. Seriously. She does the Rochester, NY version of +the Hour of Slack, and all the hierarchs want to make mad passion- +ate love to her. Just listen to either KPFA or KNON. SHe loves you, +and y'all should love her too. Eris played euchre with her in college +and agrees she is worthy of your attentions. Very, extremely humble, too. +Watch for her in the next Stark Fist (called the Stark Filth) and +Factsheet 5. Not that I'm advertising for her wonderfulness, but if +you'd like to send her money, or just experience for yourself the only +female avatar fof slack(and a nice, smart girl too) you can contact\ +her at pobox 18754, Rochester NY 14618. +Remember, GOBI, she's neat, sweet, has great feet, knows her glands +and can whip Nhee Ghee's butt in a second. Connie is jealous of her! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Yes well, here is a latest update from the Santa Cruz 25 Hour Clench. + + If ya'll don't know where Santa Cruz is, well lets just say that + its the same town that is depicted in the movie Lost Boys. Its + much spookier than that though.... The Boardwalk (the amusement + park from the movie) is opening a Two-Story Indoor Miniature Golf + Course. This alone makes this town a mondo-bizarro cool place to + hang and chase bobbies. Killer Clowns from Outer Space was also + filmed here... + + We have a *huge* SubGenius colony here. Ya can't go too far in this + town without seein that piped-and-'smilin face starin right back at ya. + Under bridges, on cars, deep in the forest, in the bookstores, and + especially on our gleaming campus of UC Santa Cruz (or is it UC + Santa Carla???) that overlooks the Monterey Bay. + + Some of the Reverends in Residence here are: + + Rev. Kareem du Gristle (myself) + Rev. Patio Daddy-o + Rev. Banshee + Rev. Chroma + Rev. Seaweed (Demi-glob Seaweed) + Rev. Superior + Rev. Borneo (king of the free faxin of "Bob" to random places) + Rev. Madwoman + Rev. Lorax (Dominatrix Maximus) + Rev. Das (famous for his Negativland work on Escape from Noise) + Rev. Sarahel + Rev. Pseudo + Rev. Uberbutt (Uberman inc) + Rev. Crisper Diction + + this to name a few.... + + I recently had a "Bob" face starin out at a large campus wide + lip-sync contest, and had a "Bobtar" on stage with me during our + rendition of "Sweat Loaf" by the Butthole Surfers. + + Soon, the band NoMeansNo will play here. These true musical gods + are immortalized in a quote from their song The Day Everything Became + Nothing: "Its weird being a Bob, but I'll get used to it, I'll have to!" + + As far as "Bob" TV appearances are concerned, we have all seen the + automobile ad with the "YIELD TO BOB" signs all over it... + + But a much more notable appearance is at the end of the movie + Cleopatra Jones, when she walks away after vanquishing the bad guys, + "Bob" piped and smiling, looks on from the crowd.... very clear + sighting there.... + + enjoy jello, + + Rev. Kareem du Gristle + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ A lonely women fled down the street. + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ She was angry at the world and + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ generally unhappy. Then she tripped + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ over a rock and became enlightened. + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ Her lightness was very contagious + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ and with a few days her entire town + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ was enlightened and by the end of the + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ month, a crisis crisis was felt in + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ full force. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ Then it wore off and everyone got + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ back to fighting, lying and generally + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ being unhappy. It seems that her + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ enlightenment was not a Bud + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ enlightenment. + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ YOU'VE ONLY GOT EIGHT YEARS, PINK BOY + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/subg_005.txt b/religious documents/subg_005.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db9b031 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_005.txt @@ -0,0 +1,420 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ C H U R C H of the S U B G E N I U S $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S $$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ Issue #5 $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ Killing "Bob" over and over again each day $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + Contents: + + What is Slack? + PsychoSlackPoem + Native American Slack + The Church of the Small Boy + Dobbshead Offer + Undercover Subgenius: Rev. Robert Tilton + Kultural Kriticism Korner + "Bob"'s Diet Tips + RTP Slack Update + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + + ..and yes, this IS the clench that is responsible for covering the + Free Expression Tunnel at NCSU with millions of Dobbsheads... + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- +> +>Hope I'm not insulting anyone, but what is SLACK? +>Did I cause any of it through this post? +> +>Bob + +If you were BoB and not just Bob, you wouldn't need to ask the question. But +the opportunity to rant on Slack is irresistable... + + What is Slack? + +Slack is the universal substance of true divinity, it is grace, baraka, free +time, having more food than you need. Slack is the state of security where +nothing anyone says could possibly insult you. Slack is the sound of one hand +giving the finger to the Con in all its manifestations. He who has Slack +can have any mood he desires, or no mood at all. The slackful person is +indifferent to the presence or absence of possessions of all types. + +You cannot buy or sell slack, but money can be converted into slack if you +have the proper attitude. If you need to ask what the proper attitude is, +you do not have Slack and cannot convert money into it. You can have slack +without money, again with the proper attitude. + +Superficial imitators, those who do not have slack but covet it, will tell you +all sorts of things about it, usually the most boring manifestation is that +they ask you to send them money. The truly slackful person would not accept +money from people stupid enough to send it to them. + +It is actually possible to configure a dorm or other room to maximize its +slack-attractiveness, but this task cannot be done according to surface +evaluations of how cool, sexual, rebellious, or kitschy each individual item +may or may not be according to temporary, youth-culture standards. The +arrangement of the items in the room, and their composition, is more important +than any socio-cultural connotations of those objects. + +If you believe any of this, and try to act on it, you have no slack. The +holder of true slack is totally indifferent to what slackless people say about +slack, or about anything else. Slack is bullshit, in contrast to the Con and +its minions, who are all horseshit-based. + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +It matters not that the police of thought +Are breathing down my back. +They will back down, for I act like a clown +And fool them all with slack. + +"What's all the fuss? He's ridiculous." +The Men In Black shall intone. +I'll scamper and drool. I'll play the fool, +And I'll keep my mind my own. + +In plain sight I'll hide. I'll let them feel pride +Believing the've taken my Sallack. +But as I cavort, I'll have my own sport +And stab them in their fat backs. + +Hide in plain sight. +No one cares what the clowns do. +(Until they pull out the knives, but then it's too late.) + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Oh all this talk about pinks and cons. Makes me wonder how history could have +been different if the Native Americans of North America know about "Bob". Out +on the old long and lonesome praire it must have been a snap to spot the Pinks. + +I heard a story about one Brave who had SLACK whether he or anybody +else knew it. After his traditional way of life was destroyed he took to +hanging out on the Main Street (TM) of Pinksville. By playing dumb, he made +his living. When folks new to the West came to town, the first thing +they heard about was the indian who was so stoopid that he didn't know the +value of money; if you offered him a dime and a nickel, but only told him he +could take one, he would take the nickel, because it was bigger. Finally, one +of the Brave's friends said to him, "now lookee here, you know a dime is +worth more than a nickel, so why do you take the nickel?" And the Brave +answered, "Because if I took the dime, they wouldn't do it any more". + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Now hear this: + +The Church of The Small Boy lives! BoB is with us and is living +on our Fridge Door, guarded by the Red-Double-Decker Bus fridge-magnet +the fire-engine magnet, and The Pocket Anarchist. + +We *ARE* BoB's true disciples in London, accept no other and send +US all of your money NOW! You CAN be saved from the forces of PINK! +Accept SLACK! SLACK FLOWS IN LONDON AT LAST! Nasty Americans, send +US YOUR SLACK! Post it to us HERE and NOW! Your soul can be saved! + + +We shall return. + +----------- +Disclaimer: "Bluebell Railway!" +mail: the address at the top, epsilon@cix.uucp +----------- + +---------------------------------------------------------- + + For a limitted time we are proud to offer you this once in a + lifetime chance to "own" "Bob"!! + + Thats right! Now you can be the envey of those around you by + having "Bob" in your very own home, dorm, apt. or even right in your + hip pocket. + + This special product will bring good-luck, spirtural-fulfillment, + and above all, dramatically increased sexual powers! + + + And this is how: Send me 1(one) U.S. dollar and a SASE and + I will send you a B&W "scanned" "Bobs-head" suitable for framing, + displaying, or lining your cat's litterbox. + + For 1(one) dollar and the price of a stamp you will receive: + + 2 (two) 11 X 17 inch (huge!) "Dobbs-heads" + + 3 (three) 81/2 X 11 inch (still real big!) "Dobbs-heads" + + These reproductions are of the highest quality and are waiting for you! + + And, for a limitted time, if you also send a 5 1/4 or 3 1/2 inch + diskette (unformatted!) I will also send you the TIFF file of "Bob" + so you can make your own posters, go into busness for yourself, and + make millions! + + YES! All this and extra SLACK! for only 1(one) dollar. + You cannot afford to pass this offer up. Act now...or pay latter! + + + Louis B. Stein + 350 S. Graham St. + Apt #3 + Pittsburgh, PA + 15232 + +---------------------------------------------------------- + + tm tm +Brothers and sisters, again I feel compelled to update you on the +single greatest source of slack known to mankind: + + +Bob Tilton. + + +Yes, your favorite TV evangelist is still out there and GOING STRONG! +Ever since I called the Robert Tilton Ministries at (214) 620-6200 and +asked for my "free book", I have been mailed, free of charge: + +The aforementioned book, _God's Miracle Plan for Man_ ($$$ --> salvation) +Three "miracle" prayer cloths +A package of miracle anointing oil +The Jordan River Holy Anointing Water flask +5 large posters of Bob +The "Miracle Ropes of Deliverance" to "Bind Demons" (see p.128, #15, the BOOK) +Several copies of their magazines and newspapers +Many, many, many "convincing" Biblical arguments for why I should send $$$$ +...and lots more! + + +Bob Tilton is a SubGenius. + + +Here are a few reasons why: + +1) He rips off pinks for a living +2) He rants like a mother fucker ("Satan I BIND THEE! Demons of + tobacco smoking I BIND THEE! Demons of lymph node cancer I BIND + THEE!") In fact, in his latest rant, just today he said: "I'm a Pink + Duck, I'm not a white duck! They don't know what to do with me! + Everyone else is a white duck, they just waddle around...I'm drunk + with the holy spirit today...I'm a Pink Duck..." +3) He signs everything "Bob", (no quotes, but close enough!) +4) Where does he live? Dallas, TX? Hmmm... +5) The latest copy of his newspaper had a drawing on the cover that + looked almost exactly like the cover of "Three-Fisted Tales", except + it was Tilton's face instead of J.R.'s. The article is entitled, + "Take Your Foot Off the Brake"...sound familiar? + + +If you want to fall over laughing every couple of days when you read +your mail, call (214) 620-6200 and ask them to "send you information." +You'll be on their mailing list for months. Don't give them your +phone number, though. Do it, or kill me. + + +I usually have too much slack to even care about posting, but +something about this article in the latest issue of "Circle of +Blessing", written by Tilton's wife made me do it: + +"You wives must submit to your husbands' leadership in the same way +you submit to the Lord. For a husband is in charge of his wife in the +same way Christ is in charge of his Body the Church...So you wives +must willingly obey your husbands in everything, just as the Church +obeys Christ." -Marte Tilton + +God I love fundamentalists. Praise "Bob" (& Bob!) + + +-St. Mog the Unholy + + +---------------------------------------------------------------- +"`Brakes' are all that keep us from committing ANYTHING WE MIGHT +IMAGINE IN OUR MOST WARPED FANTASIES" + -Book of the SubGenius, p. 39 + +"Take your foot off the brake!" + -Bob Tilton, "Circle of Blessing", Oct 1990 p.12 +------------------------------------------------------------------ +---------------------------------------------------------- +Subject: Kultural Kriticism Korner + + Ever notice that most breakfast cereal campaigns, especially those +targeted at the young, are based on torment and suffering? Here +are some examples: + + Trix: The Trix Rabbit is in an eternal existential dilemma, +his existence centered around a substance that generations of smiling, +rosy-cheeked Calvinist children deny him, intoning the mantra +'Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!' + + Lucky Charms: Here, the character is the eternal bearer of the +desired commodity, but this only makes him fair game for all types +of assaults on his life and liberty. Much like Prometheus, Lucky +the Leprechaun is tortured for the gifts he bears. + + Cocoa Puffs: The Cocoa Puffs Bird is, quite simply, the moral +equivalent of a recovering alcoholic. Of course, the armies of +[white anglo-saxon] children are always tempting him with the +substance he plainly both wants to and needs to avoid at all costs. +Those who wonder why otherwise reasonable adults will try to serve +drinks to a known alcoholic need look no further than this modern +morality play. + + Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles: The Pebbles cereals are presented as +so desirable that Barney Rubble will repeatedly, and with no apparent +regrets, resort to fraud and theft against his best friend Fred +Flintstone. + + Anyone needing to know why the young people of America seem to +be amoral nihilists need only consider the moral lessons they get +free with every box. + + T. Rev + +---------------------------------------------------------- + + DIET TIPS + +1. Begin your diet by weighing yourself while wearing a parka, several + hats, the ski outfit you haven't worn in years, construction boots, + a codpiece, and thirty or forty rectal thermometers. Each week, wear + one less thing when weighing yourself. + +2. Discontinue drinking carbonated beverages. Switch to products + whose fizz has been created by the addition of helium. + +3. Start drinking. + +4. Always keep in mind that two of the fastest ways to lose excess + weight are amputation and decapitation. + +5. Keep a picture of Roseanne Barr on your refrigerator. Play "special" + rendition of the Star Spangled Banner during meal times. + +6. Install a superconducting maglev bathroom floor under your scale. + +7. Start smoking. + +8. Hang around with fat people. You won't lose weight this way, but + you'll feel much better. + +9. Read "Diuretics" by L. Ron Hubbard. + +10. Eat whole grain foods, cottage cheese, and low calorie plain + yoghurt. Throw up. Repeat indefinitely. + +---------------------------------------------------------- + +In article <4811@helios.TAMU.EDU> jamie@stat.tamu.edu (James) writes: +>I have no money. +>I have no job. +>I have no job openings found after a semester and a half of searching. +>I have no ties. + +Congratulations on your achievement. Many of us spend many years *working* in +order to attain such SLACKfullness. + +>i am lost + +Excremeditate on the pure white light of stupidity. Consult the Firesigns, +especially the words of Barney *HONK*. I think we're all bozos on this bus. + +>i need slack + +It appears that you have attained the SLACK that is not SLACK. Or not. Or +kill me. Or kill "Bob." + +>Where can I find slack? + +Send all of your remaining money to + + First Church of Kryste (Alchemist) and + Discount House of Worship + 3021 Cornwallis Road + Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 + + Attention: Dobbshead Acolyte Putz + +you will receive SLACK in abundance. You will not receive SLACK in the return +mail. You will, through the inexplicable and, in fact, unreturnable mystery +of Fornicationalism, receive SLACK immediately upon inserting your post paid +Izness Eply Nvelope into the mail. Put your hands on the mailbox. Say +Hallelujah. Thank you. Give me a dollar. + +> alt.slack? +> +>no +>i just tried that +>there was no slack there + +Of course. It has all gone to PSUVM. + +>*sigh* + + spl +-- +Steve Lamont, sciViGuy (919) 248-1120 EMail: spl@ncsc.org +NCSC, Box 12732, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 +"...though you may have the falcon yet we certainly have you." + Dashiell Hammett, _The Maltese Falcon_ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ A lonely women fled down the street. + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ She was angry at the world and + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ generally unhappy. Then she tripped + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ over a rock and became enlightened. + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ Her lightness was very contagious + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ and with a few days her entire town + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ was enlightened and by the end of the + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ month, a crisis crisis was felt in + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ full force. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ Then it wore off and everyone got + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ back to fighting, lying and generally + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ being unhappy. It seems that her + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ enlightenment was not a Bud + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ enlightenment. + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ | + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ -+- + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ j + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ YOU'VE ONLY GOT EIGHT YEARS, PINK BOY + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Send all soiled female underwear to: + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PO Box 30904 + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Raleigh, NC 27622 + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + diff --git a/religious documents/subg_006.txt b/religious documents/subg_006.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..885db6e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_006.txt @@ -0,0 +1,443 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S $$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ Issue #6 $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ Killing "Bob" over and over again each day $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + Contents: + + FREE!! FREE!! FREE K-Y Jelly!!!!!! + Another Dobbs Sighting + Dobbstown BBS + The Jolly Green Trademark + An Eschatological Laundry List + Door-to-door Religion Salespeople + Clench Info + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + FREE!! FREE!! FREE K-Y Jelly!!!!!! + +I was with my SO today, while she was purchasing some "feminine supplies" +and she showed me the outside of a box of o.b. tampons that had "FREE K-Y +Jelly!" Written on the side. Upon closer inspection, I saw the words "(When +you call the toll-free # inside.)" Just below it. Being a sucker for +toll-free numbers, I promptly ripped the box open, and found the little +booklet entitled "Why K-Y Can be Your Tampon's Best Friend." + Inside said wonderful little booklet, I found out why. :) + + Because if you dial this number: + + **************** + *1-800-526-3967* + **************** + + The people at Johnson & Johnson (makers of that find K-Y stuff) +"will send you A FREE SAMPLE OF K-Y Personal Lubricant + .50 coupon toward +your next purchase + an illustrated booklet on when and why to use K-Y." + + (Their words, not mine! :) ) + + So, in case you missed that number, it's: + + **************** + *1-800-526-3967* + **************** + + That's: + + **************** + *1-800-526-3967* + **************** + + Don't delay! Call today! + + **************** + *1-800-526-3967* + **************** + + + ...And thank you for your support! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + YEEEEAHAAWW! And kiss my great horned lizard, the One Who Smokes +and Walks was sighted in Buffalo on Friday! Us of the Faith and Lubrication +were up on the roof, making 'frop sales and rude innuendos to Garth and Joe +and Betty and Joe and Bill driving by on the Avenue of the One True Beetle, +when we all fell dead from Radiation Burns, though later on it would be +reported as "a freak episode of ball lightning". Then YEA! did we see below +us a man, a great man walking down the street towards us, pipe with 'frop +ablaze, and a smile to kill a rancher. Murmurs fell from the lips of the +masses as he aproached. "No...it couldn't be Him...we've only heard tales, +and no matter the FistNumber, he wouldn't be HERE...would he?" So the High +Priest called down, ""Bob"!", and the head of the One Who Blows No Chunk +turned up to look at us and said, "yes". + "Is your name "Bob"?" + "Yep." + The air stood still, yet mountains wept. + "Your name is *really* "Bob"? It's *really* You????" + "Yep." + And then he walked past the writhing heathens, and on his way... + + + Nothing's been quite the same since Dobbs stopped by our temple, +but nothin's gonna change the way I clean my ears. + +Rev. Capt. Devious (SuSpEcT dEvIcE) + + +PS. Rev. 3.0: Kill me, you are blessed! + +--- +CAPTAIN DEVIOUS!!! v061regm@ubvmsd.bitnet "Fuck 'em if they can't take +Fnepnfz vf gur bayl v061regm@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu a joke." - J.R. "Bob" Dobbs +fvta bs vagryyvtrapr Naq Lrnu! Fraq zr gjragl Attn: all SubGeniuses! The +qbyynef sbe "Obo"! Cvaxf Shpx Bss!!! *4 LINES!* FCEEEB wants YOU(r money)! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Zowie. If you can call long-distance on someone else's bill, you might want to +check this out... + +Exciting conversations! Titillating discussions with the opposite + +species! FREE Access. FREE Downloads. WIERD files. NO Call-Back + +Verification. NO ratios. Wow! + + +Call... + + DoBBStown BBS!!! + + (407) 679-3624 + + 300/1200/2400 bps + + 24 hours a day!!! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +>>In Australia, they have the Big Pineapple, the Big Banana, a hotel +>>shaped like a crocodile... but most tacky of all is the Big Merino, +>>a huge, unpainted concrete *sheep* situated somewhere near Goulburn, +>>NSW. +> +>It's what keeps the Jolly Green Giant jolly. What, you thought that's +>why he kept Sprout around? Go wash your minds out with soap! + +Want to know what REALLY makes him Jolly? Read further. +Have a weak stomach or are eating dinner? DON'T READ FURTHER! + +Tastlessness ahead... last warning! + + + + +(C) 1991 James Parry + +THE JOLLY GREEN TRADEMARK + + The Jolly Green Giant was feeling jollier than usual tonight. He gulped +down another six gallons of tomato vodka and reached for a refill. He +downed it and looked over his Valley. + "Ho, ho, hwuuuulllllllppppppp!!!!!!" + A giant-sized stream of green vomit arced across the blue sky and landed +on the Cauliflower In Real Cheese Sauce. It was ruined, rendered unfit +for human consumption. So they relabeled it. + + -- K. + +............................................................................. +James "Kibo" Parry kibo@world.std.com Independent graphic designer +271 Dartmouth St. #3D, Boston, MA 02116 specializing in logo and +(617) 262-3922 typeface design. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + An Eschatological Laundry List + ==-==============-=======-==== + (A partial register of the 927 eternal Truths) + ==-=======-========-==-===-===-=======-======= + +1. This is it! +2. There are no hidden meanings. +3. You can't get there from here, and besides, there's no place else to go. +4. We are all already dying, and we will be dead for a long time. +5. Nothing lasts. +6. There is no way of getting all you want. +7. You can't have anything unless you let go of it. +8. You only get to keep what you give away. +9. There is no particular reason why you lost out on some things. +10. The world is not necessarily just. Being good often does not pay + off and there is no compensation for misfortune. +11. You have a responsibility to do your best nonetheless. +12. It is a random universe to which we bring meaning. +13. You don't really control anything. +14. You can't make anyone love you. +15. No one else is any stronger or any weaker than anyone else. +16. Everyone is, in his own way, vulnerable. +17. There are no great men. +18. If you have a hero look again: you have diminished yourself in some way. +19. Everyone lies, cheats and pretends (yes, you too, and most certainly, + I myself.) +20. All evil is potential vitality in need of transformation. +21. All of you is worth something, if you only own it. +22. Progress is an illusion. +23. Evil can be displaced but never eradicated, as all solutions breed + new problems. +24. Yet, it is necessary to keep on struggling toward solutions. +25. Childhood is a nightmare. +26. But it is so very hard to be an on-your-own-take-care-of-yourself- + cause-there-is-no-one-else-to-do-it-for-you grown up. +27. Each of us is ultimately alone. +28. The most important things, each man must do for himself. +29. Love is not enough, but it sure helps. +30. We have only ourselves, and one another. That may not be much, + but that is all there is. +31. How strange, that so often it all seems worth it. +32. We must live within the ambiguity of partial freedom, partial + power, and partial knowledge. +33. All important decisions must be made on the basis of insufficient data. +34. Yet we are responsible for everything we do. +35. No excuses will be accepted. +36. You can run, but you can't hide. +37. It is most important to not run out of scapegoats. +38. We must learn the power of living with our helplessness. +39. The only victory lies in surrender with ourselves. +40. All of the significant battles are waged within the self. +41. You are free to do whatever you like. You need only face the consequences. +42. What do you know...for sure...anyway? +43. Learn to forgive yourself, again and again and again and again... + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Door-to-door religion salespeople (was Re: Some wicked ideas!) + +In article <3JUN91222640@acad3.alaska.edu> fsspr@acad3.alaska.edu writes: +>Actually, this isn't about Brother Jed, but I do find neato ways to +>annoy Mormon missionaries.... +>[story deleted for brevity's sake] + +This reminds me of something that happened to my friend Fred.... + +He was living in a mobile home in Alaska. There was a knock on the +door. "Hi. We're from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day +Saints, and we'd like know if you'd like to discuss the Bible with us." + +It was a dull day, so he figured "Why not?" and let the two Mormons +in, and proceeded to show them "proper hospitality." + +With a straight face, he asked them "Can I get you something? Maybe +you'd like some coffee? Tea? Perhaps you'd like a Coke?" + +They of course declined, and the three had a friendly chat for about +half an hour. + +There was another knock on the door. Fred answered, looked at the duo +at the door. "Hi! We'd like to chat with you for a few minutes." + +Fred noticed copies of the "Watchtower" sticking out of their +briefcases (read: they were Jehovah's Witnesses) and eagerly invited +them in, saying "Come on in! I have two friends I'd like you to +meet!" + +Fred says this is when he decided religion should be a spectator +sport. The two pairs went at it for about half an hour, until Fred +finally had to step in before they started exchanging blows. + +------ + +Another Fred-and-door-to-door-fundies incident took place just a +couple of weeks ago. He now lives in an apartment building in the San +Francisco bay area. + +One of his neighbors warned him that a door-to-door Scientologist was +coming around. + +Well, Fred and I sing in a music group, and he just happened to be +working on one of the songs we were doing in our upcoming concert. +As he was picking his part out on the guitar, the Scientologist came +to the door and engaged him in conversation. The guy asked Fred what +he was working on. Fred asked him if he wanted to hear it; the guy +(of course) said "Yes!" Fred proceeded to sing, and only got through +one verse before the guy started running away. The song: + +(to "Da Doo Ron Ron") + +He keeps on writing novels though his life is through +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +Some folks say it shows what Dianetics do +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +Yeah, his life is through +Yeah, what Dianetics do +Yeah, when I saw the name +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! + +He wrote before he founded Scientology +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +But soon he found religion makes bucks easily +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +Scientology +Makes bucks easily +Yeah, Dianetics pays +For L. Ron, Ron, Ron! For L. Ron, Ron, Ron! + +Oh yeah, Oh yeah, Oh yeah \ +L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! > (sung simultaneously 2x) +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! / + +Twenty-two best sellers and there's more to come! +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +Heaven only knows where they're a-comin' from +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! +Yeah, more books to come +Yeah, who knows where from +Yeah, this I've gotta see +From L. Ron, Ron, Ron! From L. Ron, Ron, Ron! + +Oh yeah, Oh yeah, Oh yeah* \ +L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! > (sung simultaneously 4x) +It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! It's L. Ron, Ron, Ron! / + +*optional ad-libbing done here + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +WHY NOT! +NOW you can join the 13013th Clench of Dobbs Infiminite. +Just take two big stacks of dollar bills, pee on one, and mail the other +to: + +Anti-nuke Fnord-spams From Beyond Your Mothers Grave +2500 Howell Branch Rd #353 +Winter Park, FL 32792 + +-------- + +The New STARK FIST OF REMOVAL magazine is STILL available... +127 Mind-numbing pages of Slack published in breathtaking cheap newsprint +that smudges and everything! Lot's o'dogma, short stories, artwork and +Things to WANT and BUY. I got a hot copy from Pastor Buck Naked. You'll +have to pay, net.pinks! + +$3.95 + $1 postage to: + + PO Box 140306 + Dallas, TX 75214 + +Yiyiyiyiyiyiyi! + +-Reverend 3.0 +P.S. Coming soon: S.L.A.K.* patches to sew onto your favorite shit-kickin' + outfit. +(*Subgenius League of Ass Kickers) + +-------- + +The latest issue of 3dpsnewS, the Official Newsletter of the 3 Dips Who +Are God, is now available! One year ahead of schedule! +Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: + + Cattfish + 915 W. Wisconsin Ave. #412 + Milwaukee, WI 53233-2373 + +-------- + +>>By the way, where may one who is seeking enlightenment find the scriptures +>>of BoB and other literature of the CotSG? +> +>The WHOLLY post office box: +> +>The Church of the SubGenius +>P.O.Box 140306 +>Dallas TX 75214 +> +>$1 for a pamphlet, $20 for a church membership and ordainment, and +>$10,000 will make you a POPE! + + Yea, verily, it will change your life! Why since I've become an +Overman(tm) I've metamorphosed into a Major Mediacretin Personality (with +Xtra Glitz), witnessed (first hand!) a major escalation in the quality *and* +quantity of my sex life (are there *really* that many more 18-year-old +pom pom girls around these days?) and have so much slack that I usually don't +bother to post in alt.esperanto.and.computer.rants. + Needless to say, I've also learned to pull the wool over my own eyes. +And hers, too. + One small corection, though: the $10k should be sent to the following +address: + "One Step Beyond" + c/o KDHX-FM + PO Box 63328 + St. Louis. Mo. 63163 +Thank you. + +Chuck, the Doge of South St. Louis +Sundays, 3 to 6 pm on KDHX, 88.1 FM + +"Give me liberty or give me death" -- Patrick Henry +"Give me slack or kill me" -- J.R. "Bob" Dobbs +Dioxinville Magical Mystery Clench of the Air, St. Louis + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I walked in to the Burger King the + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ other day, and told the woman at the + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ register that I had misdialed Fiji. + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ She said she couldn't give me instant + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ credit. I said, "AT&T always did". + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ She blubbered, "But you're not dealing + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ with AT&T!" "Well I am NOW!" I said + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ as I stormed out the door. Then I + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ walked to the nearest pay phone,called + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ the operator and ordered a Whopper. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ $ $ $ $ $ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ 1 3 0 1 3 + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ | + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ -+- + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ j + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ YOU'VE ONLY GOT EIGHT YEARS, PINK BOY + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Pen up your Nose! No One is Safe! + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Send all soiled female underwear to: + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PO Box 30904 + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Raleigh, NC 27622 + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- diff --git a/religious documents/subg_007.txt b/religious documents/subg_007.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8762bfa --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_007.txt @@ -0,0 +1,380 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S $$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$ Issue #7 $$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ Grinding "Bob"s bones into the Ultimate Hamburger $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + Contents: + + Bowling for Grenades + The Good Humor Escapade, part 1 + "Bob" and Slack + TV + Operation FindMuck, and How To Thwart It + SubGenius Calendar + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +silver@xrtll.UUCP (Hi Ho Silver) writes: +> gypsy@alembic.acs.com (the dark girl) typed: + +>> the people upstairs from us ... started making bowling balls in the +>> back bedroom and testing them by throwing them down the stairs. + +> It would have been wholly irresponsible of them not to have done so. +> An untested bowling ball may have a hidden defect which could be +> uncovered at a very unfortunate time, causing grave injuries to +> innocent passersby. + +An untested bowling ball sits in the rack, down at the Pizza and Bowl, +Twenty Lanes, No Waiting, on league night, fretting, fretting, fretting. + +A pot-bellied, balding fellow who rents his bowling sneakers by the +hour, wears a white short sleeved sport shirt through which his +sleeveless tee-shirt and matted black chest hair is clearly visible, +smokes mentholated cigarettes, and smells of minty smoke, picks the ball +up with the gleam in his eye that says "this ball is going to take three +pins off my handicap today", and the ball starts to get real performance +anxiety. + +And things go OK for a while, except that our hero is not rolling quite +up to par, and is starting to mutter under his breath that maybe this +_isn't_ the ball that is going to do magic for his game, and the ball +starts to burn with untrammeled insecurities. + +And now it is the tenth frame, and our hero can still make a respectable +showing if he can pick up a 4-10 split, but as he's right handed this +one is a bitch to throw, so he glares at the ball and tells it to hook +or pay the consequences, and he winds up and prances to the foul line +and puts all the miseries of male pattern baldness, tobacco breath, +failing to live up to his teammates' expectations, and a string of +rejections from the bar girls running back five years into his throw. + +And the ball screams down the left side of the alley, spinning like +mad, trying to get enough of a grip on the lane to hook a little to the +right and knock the four pin cleanly into the ten, and overdoes it, and +hits the four pin square on, and the undiscovered flaw gives way. + +And the enormous pressure of distilled accumulated blazing angst, let +loose through poor quality control, throws screaming shrapnel across the +waiting bowlers in six lanes on either side, chopping them into messy, +irregular chunks of meat, plastic pocket protectors, rental shoes, thick +glasses, and cheap, gaudy hair ornaments, and the gutters run with blood, +and the air is full of the screams of the dying. + +Kent, the man from xanth. + +-- +Better let 'em test the bowling balls, dark lady; it's the humanitarian +thing to do. You test your guitar and amps at 2AM just to keep things +fair. Think quality control. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + The Refined and Erudite Adventures of Captain Sodomy and His + Amazing Pastel-Colored Buick Regal. + + "The Good Humor Escapade", Part 1 + + + Hot summer days. My favorite. Little boys, little girls, faces caked with + grime that adheres to their sweat as they play in their little dirtpiles, + forming shapes that only their subconscious can identify. If one were to take + pictures of the formations in the mud and show them to these budding artists + upon their apex of sexual maturity, they would most probably blanch and deny + their own handiwork. Round mounds tipped with pebbles, long tumescent rounded + ridges, walled canals in the dirt to contain mysterious liquids... + + I am their saviour of sweat, their salvation of saline solution that oozes + from their pores as the mercury oozes towards the top of the cheap thermometer + mounted on the doorframe of their ticky-tacky abodes of family apathy and + indifference. I am the one who brings them their sweet escapes, their cool + restful breaks in an otherwise monochrome collage of mindless sidewalk + activity. + + I am the Good Humor Man. + + I sell creamy globs and frosty concoctions from my white vehicle to these + playthings. As I cruise down their block in air-conditioned comfort, barely + recognizable cartoon blares distortedly from the open accepting mouth of the + converted megaphone atop the dusty white delivery van. The sound is like + pheromones to a moth. Clutching their shiny quarters in their tiny dirt-dull + hands, they race out of their swing sets, out of their Big Wheels, out of + their chalked-in confines of sidewalk to follow a slowly careening vehicle + of ice-cream dispensation in a youthful imitation of a bawdy conga line. + + I stop the truck and move into the back, change dispenser at ready. + + The children, sensing their iminent purchase, halt in their drunken + swaying parade, too expactant to be anything but silent. I let them hang + for a minute. The tension rises like over-yeasted bread dough set aside for + too long. I ready the freezers, opening the condensation-filmed steel doors. + The side panel swings up and out, and the kids ('prey', in my mental + dictionary) cluster around the open gateway to refreshment. They thrust + their cute little fists out, showing me faint glittery glimmers between the + fingers of a hand too small to successfully contain more than two quarters and + a dime. They all scream out their demands. + + I do my best to serve them. Because I know that later, they'll serve me. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +In <2995@vela.acs.oakland.edu> atterlep@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Alan T. Terlep) +writes: + +>I CAN"T BELIEVE IT!! For quite a while now I've been looking for an entrance +>into the world of Slack. I've heard only fragmented rumours of the existence +>of "that whole Bob thing", +>but I never thought I'd find them. So---what's the deal? + +You see, Friend Alan, that's just the catch... + +There is *no deal*. + +You can buy a stick of gum, you can read a book on plumbing, you can rent +a roto-tiller, you can rob a pharmacy, you can borrow a condom. But +you can't *deal* in "Bob." Or, I mean, you can, or something. + +PART 1 -- "The whole "Bob" thing" + "Bob" is an uncle of mine who lives in Fairlawn. "Bob" has a big +face with big features, and he does big things. + "Bob" is the guy who narrates the car rally commercials from the +Cow Palace to the Spectrum to the Meadlowlands. "40000 yard-feet of nitro +burning funny car POWER!! (power power power ower wer rr)" "Bob" came up +with the name of Anusol(tm) brand Anus treatment. + "Bob" sprays willing women's nipples with Alar. "Bob" is the special +consul to the police in the Philippines who shot a man today while he was +trying to commit suicide. + "Bob" is the voice on the second or third track of Negativland's +"Escape from Noise" album that mispronounces David "Magpie" Bowie's name. +"Bob" molested your Aunt Rhoda when she was in third grade. "Bob" gave +$666 dollars in counterfeit $3 to Oral Roberts. "Bob" *is* Oral Roberts, +especially the "Oral" part. + +PART 2 -- "Slack" + There is no such thing as slack. Or there is, or something, but you +can't have it unless you don't want it, and everyone wants it. Or not, +or something. + +Good luck. Buy The Book, and then send five times your purchase price +to: + +World Otherness Ministries +P.O. Box 8502 +Stanford, CA 94309-8502 + +Thank you. + +-- +# Daniel M. Rosenberg // Stanford CSLI // Chew my opinions,not Stanford's. +# dmr@csli.stanford.edu // decwrl!csli!dmr // dmr%csli@stanford.bitnet + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Shortly after being weaned from mother's milk, young children are +taught to absorb the junk food of television through their eyeballs. + +"Here, kids, suck on this. Just be quiet and don't wake Daddy. If +you're good, you can watch all day, and if you don't see the fnords, +they won't eat you." + +Parents are conditioned to feed this teenage mutant fuck you crap to +their kids so that what little brains they inherited from mom and dad +will be so hopelessly atrophied that the final brainwashing will be a +breeze. + +Society has now degenerated to the point that when TV does try to put +out a good social message, they have to make it "following the rules," +rather than "be a good citizen who occasionally gives two neurons +worth of thought toward a fellow human being." + +Case in point: A Saturday morning "Public Service Announcement" +starring Conspiracy programmed robots that look like kids telling +other kids out there in the vast video wasteland to "Be Cool. Follow +the rules." + +Oh, so back when we were growing up, it was OK to not bend to pressure +from others. "Be yourself," they said. "Don't worry what other +people think. You don't have to do what everyone else tells you to do +to be cool," and nowadays they expect kids to knuckle under to the +peer pressure to "Follow the rules" when just a little while ago they +were saying that it's OK to be different. + +I don't know about you, but my kids (when I get around to having some) +are damn sure not going to be little video perfect clones walking +around going "Be Cool. Be Cool. Follow +the rules. Yes, officer my daddy was smoking something +that smelled funny. " + +Saturday morning cartoons and the blipverts in between them are a +prime example of the tools that the Con uses to control people. After +all, money isn't power. He has ultimate power over a thing who can +destroy that thing. The Con wants ultimate power over the human race. +Money is only a Con created tool which allows them to gather up the +real tools they need to exercise their ultimate power. Of course they +don't have any slack so they can't possibly realize that they will only +acheive ultimate power at the moment of their mutual destruction and +won't have even that moment to enjoy it. + +There is no longer any slack in Saturday morning cartoons. + +Except for Beetle Juice. + +-- +Mc"B" - OverMan 1st Class of the Clench of the Stark Pistol of Removal. +Just say NO to the war on your freedom which, by the way, is being fought +with YOUR money. + +----- + + Q: Which of these is actually on my TV set right now? + + a) "Star Trek: The Next Generation"--Mr. Data becomes addicted +to Nintendo and his head explodes and the Enterprise almost blows up but +five seconds before the show's over they push a button and it's all ok. + + b) "Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous" visits Patty Hearst. + + c) "The "Bob" Channel" begins broadcasting 25 hours a day +subliminally (across the bottom of the screen on all the other channels.) + + d) Jay Leno announces that his guest host will be Lyndon LaRouche. + + Send $1 for the answer. + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + Operation FindMuck, and How To Thwart It + +There has been an ongoing campaign by some local people to screw with people's +heads in every way possible. This "brute-force illumination technique" has +been dubbed "Operation FindMuck." There are some easy things YOU can do to +stymie and confuse these dastardly villains... + + 1. Write strange things on dollar bills and buy things with them. + + 2. Send ALL your money to the DobbsTown BBS's crack squad of anti- + FindMuck terrorist-guerilla-philosophers. + + 3. Print strange flyers asking for money to be sent here. + + 4. Walk around muttering the word "fnord" under your breath + constantly. + + 5. Oppose authority everywhere. + + 6. Upload the ASCII image of "Bob" into the "message to next caller" + of every board in town. + + 7. Hire a skywriter to write "SLACK" in the sky. + + 8. Repent, Quit your Job, and Slack Off. + +If you follow these instructions, the FindMuckers are bound to be horribly +confused (even more so than they are now) and they will probably stop trying +to do whatever it is they are trying to do. + + Whatever you do, kill "Bob" at every possible opportunity. + + + +This has been a public service announcement of Nobodies for Everybody. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +> It sure is convenient that all the major religions follow, or at least +> tolerate, the seven-day week. Image the hassle if half the country +> operated on (say) an eleven-day cycle. + +Hehehe... Naive pink-boy. + +Naturally, the true SubGenius favours a 13 day week with two rest days. 13013, +the Holy Number of "Bob", tells us this. + +13013 = 13 0 13 <- "Thirteen! Oh, [I see,] Thirteen!" - number of days in week. + ^-^-^---- "Two numbers [of] about zero" - two days of rest. + +The original X-ist names for the thirteen days are: + +Oneday - First day of the week. +Chewsday - Day of Holy Junk-food Frenzy. +Whensday - The SubGenius may proclaim Whensday whenever he wishes, at any + position within the SubGenius calendar week, according to choice. + It is the first day of rest. Once it has been taken, the remaining + days continue in sequence until the week has been filled. +Turdsday - Day of Sacred Excremeditation. +Flyday - Traditionally, the day on which X-ist saucers are sent on missions + to raid Earth and harass pinks. +Satallday - The second Holy Day of Rest. +Gunday - A time to prepare for the difficult times ahead in 1998. +Pinkday - The day on which most pink-harassment occurs. +Krillday - Origin unknown. +Fropday - A day for sacred frop-based rituals. +Slackday - Mistakenly thought by pinks to be a day of rest, it is in reality + the day which commemorates J.R. "Bob" Dobbs' discovery of Slack. +"Bob"day - Presumed to commemorate the birth of Dobbs. +Xday - The final day of the week; not to be confused with X-day, which + is the-final-day-period. + +I hope that that explains everything. If not, try The Book. + +mathew. +Hamburgers for WOTAN, Inc. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I walked in to the Burger King the + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ other day, and told the woman at the + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ register that I had misdialed Fiji. + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ She said she couldn't give me instant + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ credit. I said, "AT&T always did". + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ She blubbered, "But you're not dealing + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ with AT&T!" "Well I am NOW!" I said + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ as I stormed out the door. Then I + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ walked to the nearest pay phone,called + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ the operator and ordered a Whopper. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ $ $ $ $ $ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ 1 3 0 1 3 + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ | + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ -+- + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ j + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ His Rightful Assholiness + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@ D R O N F The pipe is + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ R N alive! + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ O O + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ N R + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Pen up your Nose! No One is Safe! + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Send all soiled female underwear to: + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PO Box 30904 + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Raleigh, NC 27622 + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + diff --git a/religious documents/subg_008.txt b/religious documents/subg_008.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d5205c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_008.txt @@ -0,0 +1,552 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ Issue #8 $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ High Weirdness Issue $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + + Contents: + + High Weirdness update + MicroRant + "Bob" invades the NeXT computer + Banished CPU BBS ad + execution of Those Who Prefer Miracle Whip + + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption SLACK@ncsu.edu + PO Box 30904 netoprwa@ncsuvm.BITNET + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +The "High Weirdness by Mail" concept needs to be perpetuated. Most of the +things listed in the book don't exist any more! + +What better source for current information than alt.slack? I propose that +if you know of some utterly slackful or even slackless source, POST IT! That +way, we can all join in the fun... + +I'll start. Here's a good one: + + Dean M. Epstein + International Student Complex + Alternative Learning Programs + 1023 Hilgard Avenue + Los Angeles, CA 90024-0841 + + (213) 208-7813 + +These people claim to want to promote "world harmony and understanding." All +I can see that they do is ask for money (sound familiar?). Their approach is +novel; at first, they act like they don't want your money, but, if you +show the slightest interest, you will be bombarded with incredibly +strange mailings (tantric healings, glasnost poetry, worms of the world) and, +if you use a "foreign" sounding name, they will send you the most hilarious +materials in bad foreign languages. I used a fake Japanese name, and had +a friend look at the results. He said it was meaningless nonense-but +what a concept! Their English stuff is pretty good, so I used another +address and wrote in German-the results were wild! I'm not sure what this is +all about, but it is funny, and since I think it is at least partially +tax supported, it should be free for the asking. + + +Anyway, boys and girls, let's find the best sources of free entertainment +and post 'em here! "Bob" would want you to! + +-------------------- + +>I recommend "The Skeptical Inquirer" as an excellent and refreshing +>alternative to the unsubstantiated claims of the paranormal that we are +>frequently exposed to and often asked to accept. Subscriptions are $22.50 per +>year (Box 229, Buffalo NY 14215-0229). +> + +Other publications of the same type are: + + The British & Irish Skeptic + (Manchester Skeptics + 71, Bury & Bolton Road + Radcliffe, Manchester UK M26 0LF) + 10 pounds UK. 14 pounds overseas surface + +Local, regional, and national organizations "with aims similar to those of +SCICOP" also publish their own newsletters. There are currently over 70 such +organizations worldwide. A listing can be found in any SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. + +-------------------- + + + NSCE REPORTS + National Center for Science Education + P.O. Box 9477 + Berkeley, CA 94709-0477 + +The NSCE is mainly concerned with science education in public schools, and +especially with countering the attempts to introduce "creationism" into +public school *science* curricula. There are state organizations, commonly +called "Committees of Correspondence," loosly associated with NSCE, and +sharing the same goals. The California Committee publishes BACC SCIENCE. +Four other committees publish regular newsletters. A listing of these +newsletters can be found in the July-August NSCE REPORTS. + +-------------------- + + CREATION/EVOLUTION + 7 Harwood Drive + P.O. Box 146 + Buffalo, NY 14226-0146 + +This is the premier resource for debunking of creationist claims. It is +published by the American Humanist Association, but I detect no Humanist +bias in the material. A subscriber will however, find himself on the +Humanist mail lists. + +-------------------- + +Damn straight! What an excellent idea! Much of "High Weirdness" was culled +from Factsheet Five, a weirdness source. If you want to subscribe: + + Factsheet Five + c/o Michael Gunderloy + 6 Arizona Ave. + Rensselear, NY 12144 + + Bulk Rate 1st Class + Sample $3 $3.75 + 6 issues $16 $21 + +-------------------- + +CULTS: (WHACKO CHRISTIAN) + + Jumping for Jesus Club! + +Coach Dennis Clark forms ministry clubs of little kids who jump +rope for Jesus, travelling the country spreading the Good Word. +Teams have names like the Popping Preachers, The Hallelujah +Hoppers, and the Faith Movers. Pretty slick, huh? Repetitive +physical movement and religious indoctrination have always been a +good way to brainwashh people and little kids are ideal subjects. +Hmmmmm.....Hey, Robbie, c'mere! Jump this rope... + +Church of the Creator: + +PinKs Vs Muds!!!!! Yes, the glories of the Racial Loyalty +Newletter brought to you in glorious black and white! Try the +Religion of the White Trash Race! Forget God, Jesus, even Odin! +---- only Aryan mortals are worthy of global ownership! The MUD +RACES must DIE! Yes join the Church of the Creator, and learn +what it really is to be a twisted , senile, over the top +hatemonger.... + +Find out about Hitler's UFO Forces! +The 'Rotten Roots' of Jesse Jackson! +Christmas is Baal-Worship! +The Dangers of Eating Pork! +Obey! or Taste My Loving Wrath! + + +The Christian Technocrats: + +The White Brotherhood must stand up to the The Forces of Darkness! +Only those santified by the Pure Light of Scientific Reason can +truly understand why Our Lord came to this miserable mud ball.He +came many light years ago crossing the Endless Void alone to +carry the message of the Space Brothers.... + + +The Council of Chalcedon: + +Masturbation is Murder!!!! Yes, that's RIGHT!!! Women want +rights over their bodies?? But what rights do 20 million unborn +babies have over their VERY SOULS!!?? And what about SPERMS!!?? +Don't you think they cry out in horror as they meet needless +death on the cold, hard tile of the bathroom floor?!!!! + +-------------------- + +National Socialist Movement +PO Box 42 +Chillicothe +OH 45601 +USA + +Polish the jackboots, honey, we're going to the Party! My +enemy's enemy is my friend, Right? Sieg...I mean, God Bless +Amerika! + +-------------------- + +Fusion Magazine (and other LaRouche booklets) +Box 17149, +Washington DC 20041 + +The People's Temple of Politics, with Jonestown just around the +corner... Do NOT subscribe yourself. These people are so rich +and so off the wall they're scary... Approach with caution; these +guys can afford to use the kind of tactics the poorer hate groups +can only fantasize about.... + +-------------------- + +National Federation For Decency +PO Drawer 2440 +Tupelo MS 38803 + +Bet you thought sex was NATURAL, right? Wrong! It's evil and +depraved and practised in the dark by twisted, dopesucking +buttfucking commie pinko queers like YOU! + +-------------------- + +Christian National Socialist White America Party +Box 1133 +Pacific Palisades +CA 90272 + +What can you say? Put your MP on their mailing list. + +-------------------- + +Christians Awake +PO Box 3513 +West End Station +Birmingham +AL 35211 + +All politicians are under the control of UFO Zionist Freemasons! +Even Jesus is the AntiChrist --- half of the time!!! One issue +of their magazine goes into mind-boggling detail showing how the +mathematical dimensions of the Washington monument prove that it +is a phallic symbol erected by Masonic Jews and Catholic Devils. + +-------------------- + +Action Amenities +1093 Broxton Ave +Suite 567 +Los Angeles +CA 90024 + +Hate-psychosis materials for the seriously stoned. Psycho-racist +rant cassettes and spiritually obscene materials.... That's Right! +Love Me ---- or Die! + +-------------------- + +Christian Anti-Communist Crusade +227 E.Sixth St +Box 890 +Long Beach +CA 90801-0941 + +Name says it all. Stereotypes apply here. Put your local Church +on their mailing list. Wait, what if they're ALREADY on it? + +-------------------- + +Spiral Feedback +PO Box 80323 +Lincoln +NE 68501 + +George Bush is about to put everyone in concentration camps! +Ronald Reagon was a Disney created Android! Freedom of Choice +is a Tool of Satan! The Pope is the AntiChrist! Time is running +out! + +-------------------- + +Spiral Mobius +Spiral Enterprises +347 N.Union Station +Kennet Square +PA 19348 + +Government-built UFOs! Clone Androids of high US officials! +Gang rapes by alien bloodsuckers maquerading as +telecommunications engineers, ice-creams salespeople and +intelligence operatives! + +-------------------- + +Truth Missionaries of Positive Accord +PO Box 42772 +Evergreen Park +IL 60642 + +Listen Unheeding Earth-Fools...Are YOU one of the assigned +creatures? No? Well bad luck, pal, because you'll miss out on the +Milk Rays from the Black Hole, Eternal Youth, Riches Beyond Your +Wildest Dreams, and ETERNAL LIFE --- or your MONEY BACK!!! + +-------------------- + +Asatru Free Assembly +PO Box 1754 +Breckenridge +TX 76024-1754 + +Hoar-Frost Giants LIVE! If you're into Marvel Comix Thor, you'll +feel right at home amongst these hairy 'Doctors For Wotan' +Frolic with burly red-bearded Agar and the other Dwarf-Lords at +the Northern Lights Hot Tub and Spa! + +-------------------- + +Entertaining Demons Unawares +SouthWest Radio Church +PO Box 1144 +Oklahoma City +OK 73101 + +Star Wars/Dungeons and Dragons and WonderWoman's AntiChrist +Satanic connections in horrifying detail. You'll be raptured to +death over this one! + +-------------------- + +Lighthouse Publications +2402 E.Denmar Avenue +Lufkin +TX 75901 + +Cloned Homo Nazi Punks In YOUR Future. Gags and restraining +straps not included. + +-------------------- + +Aryan Nations +Church of Jesus Christ Christian +Box 362 +Hayden Lake +ID 83835 + +You don't even need to play it backwards! Yes! 'Bye Bye Miss +American Pie' is an unbelievably detailed piece of Biblical +Prophecy! This one song reveals the 'decisive struggle' between +America and the heathen armies gathering on our central american +doorstep. Yes! MORE will be REVEALED!!!! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Let us not speak of Ferraris and Audis and other pacifiers of the +CON generation. Those adult playthings that are sucked upon to +please the Andrew Jacksonheads in our pockets. Pablumstyles of +the Rich and would-be-famous. + +Let us speak instead of the Xists Giant Terrarium, that ozone depleted +chunk of rock we call the Earth. It is now nearly 2000 years since +a guy was nailed to a tree for saying how nice it would be if we would +all give each other some slack. + +Things are even weirder now than they were then and this is the first +run-on sentence of the third paragraph and if you don't like it, well +kill me, and I'll just keep right on talking, er, typing, er having +telepathy with this silicon life form because I just had a Margarita +on a Sunday afternoon after decorating the house because the CON says +I should and I don't want to blow my cover just yet because great things +are in store for the following solar year that the CON says is 1991 but +really isn't because they've brainwashed us all and changed the calendar +on us and decided not to tell the really stupid people because they might +panic and then the CON would have a whole pile of excrement on their +collective appendages and the Sunday afternoon Sun coming through my +office window is setting on my would-be-bleeding head and Frosty the +Snowman is on the root window of my Xist Window screen and I'm feeling +a little... + +Oh wow. There's a cloud outside my window that looks like a flying +Saucer. + +Theeey're Heeeeere. + +-- +Krazy Little-endian MoFo +Clench of the Pin-shaped Head of Benny +uunet!wang!gozer!klm + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Just sitting here reading my copy of 0.9 NeXT manuals, and low and +behold , on page 171 "Bob" appears: + +[instructions for the format of a data document]: + +"For example, to set the value of a field to + + J.R. "Bob" Dobbs + +enter the value + + "J.R. ""Bob"" Dobbs" + +not much going on here on a late, weird Friday afternoon, so I thought +Bob had done "it" to us again!!! + +;^>scb + +-- +Steven C. Blair Computer Services Manager +Frame Technology Inc. 2911 Zanker Road San Jose, Ca. 95134 +Pick-A-Bone: scb@frame.com sblair@riacs.edu frame!scb@ames.arc.nasa.gov +UUCP: {backbone(ames,adobe,riacs,vsi1)}!frame!nevdull!scb + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + YES, you should MOST CERTAINLY call: + + + \ ______________ / + | | + -| Banished CPU |- + |______________| + / \ + __________________________ + [__________________________] + _ _ + [_] Not Recommended by [_] + _ _ + [_] Thought Police [_] + __________________________ + [__________________________] + + + o System Operator: Maynard "the Main Nerd" + o BBS software: RemoteAccess v1.01 and Waffle v1.64 + o Most relevant hardware: + o 300-38,400 bps (MNP 1-5, v32, v42, v42bis) Intel 9600EX modem + o 675-megabyte 16ns Maxtor hard drive + o Expanding and still under construction! We plan to go + MULTI-LINE soon! + o We plan to have regular Usenet news feeds soon! + o No usage fees at this time! + o Open to callers starting 00:01 AM, Friday, 08-09-91! + o Telephone number: (503) 232-6566 + + + -=> All points of view are welcome! + -=> Primarily dedicated to FREEDOM OF SPEECH + -=> Also dedicated to EXPOSING and FIGHTING FASCISM and RACISM + -=> The Sysop is DISGUSTED with ISRAEL'S POLICIES! + + + Support FREEDOM OF SPEECH! Read and speak FREELY about + controversial things that are CENSORED elsewhere! Download and + save COMPLETELY LEGAL (in the U.S.), EXTREMELY REVEALING texts -- + easily among the MOST FREQUENTLY CENSORED in the WORLD! Exercise + your right to INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM! Find out who is CONTROLLING + HISTORY, the MEDIA, and the GOVERNMENT in America and elsewhere, + EVEN AS YOU READ THIS! + ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ + + Keep freedom ALIVE! + + Call today! + + (503) 232-6566 + + _____________________________________________________________ + | | + | Please TELL YOUR FRIENDS about Banished CPU. This ad tends | + | to be censored. | + |_____________________________________________________________| + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Summary: execution of Those Who Prefer Miracle Whip +Sender: Rev. Moses of the Dobbsodoxic Clench,3rd pyroneural orthonoxious synod + +(This is about to be a public service message from the Screamin' Church o' de +Epilectic Jesus, so, like, listen up) + +Yeah....so the Stark Fist had grabbed me on that Special Part, I guess it must +have been the Stark Fist of Retrieval tryin' to retrieve some o' my genetic +material, and it was pretty close, but I guess it's presence triggered some +Conspiracy sensors, and they turned off the hot water in my shower, and the +Fist just fled and it took most of my slack with it...Yeah, I guess it's true +what they say, that +HE WHO TOUCHES HIMSELF SHALL EAT THE BREAD OF AFFLICTION, +but it's a tastier bread than the homogenized pablum the Conspiracy shoves +down our throats...we swallow-not-spit and think we like it.... +man, the Con is everywhere...it's all around us...it's fat ladies in checkered +dresses beating their children in the A&P...it's Christ without a penis...it's +Presidents of these United Castor-head Pussies of America that look like they +can't get erections anymore...it's waves radiating from your TV and telephone +and family pets at subliminal levels advocating consumerism and life-without- +mind...it's the whorship of millions of Americans of an obese aging unfropped +Elvis...it's wave after wave of cattle mutilations sweeping the Midwest with +the Xist-controlled media limiting the coverage of them to the Weekly World +News, the only non-Con paper around...but I guess you knew all that...yeah, +when they let me out they gave me a piece of paper that said my mind is OK, +I got it right here...oh, wait, that's my brother's, he's still inside... +anyway, how many people do you know that got a piece of paper says their mind's +OK? I bet those ladies down at Job Service who threw me out don't have one, +although actually what I have is a loaner mind they had lying around at the +Place, they really kept my mind, I didn't like the idea at first but after +their drugs and treatments under the Machine I came to see that it was best +that my mind be kept there for analysis and experimentation, for the safety +of humanity...Yeah, it's true that I've been bad...slackless...I've taken the +Con's false drugs and partaken of it's false sex...but I repent, and I pray: +O "BoB", you know that I am a fucker, a dickwad, shithead, and a pee-monger +But "BoB", as you see me in my...naked glory +Glorify me, that I may glorify YEE, yeah YEE who was were not the prophet +spoken of by the prophet Eez-a--pee when he saith: Dokters fer BoB...and yet +was somehow unconnected to the later slaying of John Lennon. Yeah, you know +that Hypercleats, he ate my brain and vomited my mind back up into my brain pan +...I think there's some of my brain still in there with the diced carrots and +creamed corn...but you know, I'm not sure. + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I walked in to the Burger King the + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ other day, and told the woman at the + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ register that I had misdialed Fiji. + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ She said she couldn't give me instant + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ credit. I said, "AT&T always did". + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ She blubbered, "But you're not dealing + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ with AT&T!" "Well I am NOW!" I said + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ as I stormed out the door. Then I + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ walked to the nearest pay phone,called + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ the operator and ordered a Whopper. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ $ $ $ $ $ + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ 1 3 0 1 3 + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ | + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ -+- + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ j + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ His Rightful Assholiness + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@--WOOF! D R O N F The pipe is + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ R N alive! + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ O O + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ N R + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Pen up your Nose! No One is Safe! + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Send all negotiable securities to: + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PO Box 30904 + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Raleigh, NC 27622 + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + diff --git a/religious documents/subg_009.txt b/religious documents/subg_009.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..792d0ab --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_009.txt @@ -0,0 +1,377 @@ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ HOLY TEMPLE of MASS CONSUMPTION $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$ *N*E*W*S* $$$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$ Issue #9, but who's counting? $$$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$ +$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ + the best things in life are F R E E + F R E E + F R E E + For more info, send all your money to: + + Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + PO Box 30904 SLACK@ncsu.edu + Raleigh, NC 27622 Finer BBS's everywhere + + This is the first issue of the HToMC News in nearly a year. Only the + extremely slackful mail from Priestesses Beth and MB saved us. + + NEWS since the last time: + + Washington DC Pro-Choice Rally: Largest rally ever held in the + capital. Several Dobbsheads sighted; favorite sport was lobbing + tennis balls onto the White House lawn, much to the chagrin of the + Secret Service spooks. Disappointingly few anti-choice demonstrators + to harrass, although they all took a copy of The Pamphlet. + + DragonCon in Atlanta: Successful Gut-Blowout in Room 538, with the + "Bob"'s Blood drink quickly running out: not enough time to kill + another "Bob". This event was also covered by MTV. + + WorldCon in Orlando, Florida over Labor Day Weekend. Yeah, I know, + this also overlaps with the World SubGenius Convention in Chicago, + but the WSC is staged to draw the bobbies away from the *real* party. + + HToMC will be at PhenomiCon this year- see ad in this issue. + + Keep those cards and letters pouring in! Due to the new zine format, + drawings and other artwork will also be accepted for upcoming issues. + + DOBBS SIGHTINGS: + + Flaming Carrot Comics #28 + Dark Horse Comics + 10956 SE Main St. + Milwaukie, OR 97222 + + Dobbs helps uncover the secret of the Man in the Moon + + Hyena #1 + Tundra Publishing Ltd. + 320 Riverside Dr. + Northampton, MA 01060 + + THE RETURN OF PEE DOG! Plus, an entire magazine of + worthy stories and artwork. Destined to be a classic! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + A New MacDonalds Advert + by mathew + +There's a difference at MacDonalds +Come and eat here if you dare +Our latest restaurant's open +It's just off Tienanmen Square + +To our friends the Chinese government [Neat picture here, if you +We give our hearty thanks had the hardcopy version, +They've cleared away the rubble pink boy!] +And they've hidden all the tanks + +It's fun for all the family +Please bring your children too +We love kids at MacDonalds +We've a special place for you + +The clown Ronald MacDonald +Has not arrived here yet +He's giving forced abortions +To the women of Tibet + +He's rounding up the dissidents +The students and the rest +For summary execution +Via a bullet in the chest + +Come join us at MacDonalds +And help us make a buck +When it comes to human rights abuse +We couldn't give a fuck + +That's the difference at +MacDonalds you'll enjoy + +-------------------------------------- +J. Walter Thompson, a huge ad agency, has a test for all wannabe +copywriters. They print it every few years as a full page ad in many +major newspapers. They call the campaign "Write if you want work." + +My response to the question, "Write the history of the +United States in 100 words or less": + +Creation. Evolution. Civilization. Exploration. Colonization. Taxation. +Representation? Declaration. Revolution. Celebration. Constitutionalization. +Election. Inauguration. Succession. Institutionalization. Conflagration. +Migration. Plantation. Expansion. Destination Manifestation. Annexation. +Secession. Rebellion. Abolition. Emancipation Proclamation. Assassination. +Reconstruction. Industrialization. Assassination. Invention. Transportation. +Urbanization. Exploitation. Stratification. Assassination. Unionization. +Protection. Regulation. Suffrage Extension. Balkanization. Destruction. +League of Nations. Prohibition. Immigration. Depression. Socialization. +Construction. Isolation. Deterioration. Penetration. Fission-n-Fusion. +Annihilation. Radiation. Polarization. Militarization. Partition. +Persecution. Automation. Failed Invasion. Assassination. Investigation. +Division. Demonstration. Mind Alteration. Space Exploration. Bra +Incineration. Obfuscation. Resignation. Elation. Stupification. Abortion. +Stagflation. Gas Station. Computerization. Communication. Deregulation. +Pollution. Deforestation. Kinder, Gentler Nation. Reunification. +Reconciliation. Verification. Recession. Demarcation. Obliteration. +Glorification. Education? + +copyright 1992 david hyatt -- don't rip it off if you're taking the +same test! + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + AWESOME NEW IDEAS FOR NINTENDO VIDEO GAMES THAT WILL BRING IN MUCH $$$ + + + After a year sharing a dorm with a roomate who's purpose in life was to +play video games, I've noticed that just about all video games are of +the hack/slash/bonk/kill everything you see on the screen variety. Even +the so called "educational" software titles gave up a long time ago. +Video games have no redeeming qualities, but perhaps a new idea will bring +in a waft of fresh air, and make the inventor rich as well. + + +IDEA #1: + + Flower Delivery Man- You are Humphrey T. Widdleshuns, a delivery + man for a florist. The object of the game is to bring happiness and + sunshine to all your customers and flower recipitents. You get points + for driving your delivery van in a safe and courteous manner, and the + happier the world is, the more points you get. The 'fire' button makes + your character smile, so if you smile at a passer by, you get more points. + The other fire button makes your character say, "Have a nice day!". + + You go up on different levels, with different scenarios. First level would + be easy. You deliver flowers to people in sleepy Winnionia, Idaho, where + life is easy and everyone is nice. You go up through New York city, + downtown LA, Crack neighborhoods in DC, conquering all the unhappy people + with gifts of flowers and love. The last level is in the Serbia/Yugoslovokian + border, where you must melt the hearts of grizzled rebel leaders with + a slavo of "Have a nice day!" (In Serbianish, of course) and smiles. + + The game ends when the whole world is singing in harmony and there's + sunshine and happiness everywhere, and all the leaders of the world + hold a big barbecue where *everyone* is invited in your honor. + + +IDEA 2# + + Maybe peace and happiness isn't what people want, so might as well + cut the crap and give 'em what they want. You are Captain H.T. Bludd, + veteran from the Star Troopers. Your mission is to crush the enemy, the + Orinians, with the latest Star Trooper battlecruiser. Your battlecruiser + is big and massive, with unlimited shields, endless supply of enemy seeking + fusion missles, two billion anti-matter bombs, fifty seven hull mounted + laser cannons, special "energy wave" disruptors, orbiting fire drone + assistants, computer-controlled target aquisition, three hundred "smart + bombs", cobalt space mines, super-warp light speed, auto-repair, and + everything goes off at once when you push the fire button. And that's + just to start out, and you get more weapons as the mission progresses. + The Orinians, on the other hand, are centuries behind weapons technology + compared to the Star Troopers. The best defense the Orinians are able to + come up with are a thin spread of slow-moving chemically powered single + man space capsules, with only a weak laser for offensive capabilities + and don't even have any shields. Blowing up the Orinians' home planet + is a piece of cake, since your ship is automatically navigated, and + all you have to do is hold down the fire button. It'll sell like + hotcakes, I assure you. + + Derrick + +============================================================================ + +"Can God make a penis so big that even he can't masturbate it?" + [Jim Bakker] + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +From: jalb@geocub.geocub.fr (Jean-Alain Le Borgne) +Subject: Advance Registration + +Hi, here is the Pope of Spametics speaking. This is *not* +advertising, this is your first chance to join the + + < First And Last Multiversal Church Of Spam > + [ A Schismatic Division Of The Church Of The Subgenius ] + { And Of The First Church Of Appliantology } + +All you have to do is send me back the following Advance Registration +Form, and the Day you perform your Spametics Deed and show the Pope +Tangible Proof of it, you will in Return receive your very own +Officially Certified, Sacred Title from the Church. + +1. Administriva + + Last name: ..................... + First name: ..................... + Birthdate: ..................... + +2. Title (check one): + _ _ _ + |_| Popess |_| Cardinal |_| Rabbi + |_| Buddha |_| Messiah |_| Prophet + |_| Archbishop |_| Bishop |_| Priest + |_| Binge Master |_| Holy Ignoramus |_| Sacred Bum + |_| Other: ............ + +3. Totem (check one): + _ _ _ + |_| Bill the Cat |_| Dr Gonzo |_| Zippy the Pinhead + |_| Other: ............ + +Thank You. + J.-A. L. B. + + + + + + [There's another neat-o graphic + here, but you're just TSOL. + + + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + OFFICE ART Page #1 + + + [But, that's graphic too. Tough Luck.] + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + PHENOMICON 1992 announcement: + + November 13-15 + Castlegate Hotel and Conference Center + Atlanta, GA + + Guests include: + William Gibson + Bruce Sterling + Johnathan Vankin + Adam Parfey + Rev. Ivan Stang + Kerry Thornley + + Rates: $20 August 1 until October 1, 1992 + $25 at the door + + Make checks payable to PhenomiCon + + Mail to: P.O. Box 12141 + Atlanta, GA 30355-2141 + + SASE appreciated + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Ways to be Offensive at a Funeral + + 1. Tell the widow that the deceased's last wish was that she make + love with you. + 2. Tell the undertaker that he can't close the coffin until you find + your contact lens. + 3. Punch the body and tell people that he hit you first. + 4. Tell the widow that you're the deceasd's gay lover. + 5. Ask someone to take a snapshot of you shaking hands with the deceased. + 6. At the cemetery, play taps on a kazoo. + 7. Walk around telling people that you've seen the will and they're + not in it. + 8. Ask the widow to give you a kiss. + 9. Drive behind the widow's limo and keep honking your horn. + 10. Tell the undertaker that your dog just died and ask if he can + sneak him into the coffin. + 11. Put a hard-boiled egg in the mouth of the deceased. + 12. Slip a whoopee cushion under the widow. + 13. Leave some phony dog poop on top of the deceased. + 14. Tell the widow that you have to leave early and ask if the will + can be read before the funeral is over. + 15. Urge the widow to give the deceased's wooden leg to someone poor + who can't afford firewood. + 16. Walk around telling people that the deceased didn't like them. + 17. Use the deceased's tongue to lick a stamp. + 18. Ask the widow for money which the deceased owes you. + 19. Take up a collection to pay off the deceased' gambling debts. + 20. Ask the widow if you can have the body to practice tattooing on. + 21. Put crazy Glue on the deceased's lips just before the widow's last kiss. + 22. Show up at the funeral services in a clown suit. + 23. If the widow cries, blow a trumpet every time she wipes her nose. + 24. When no-one's looking, slip plastic vampire-teeth into the deceased's + mouth. + 25. Toss a handful of cooked rice on the deceased and scream + "MAGGOTS! MAGGOTS!" and pretend to faint. + 26. At the cemetary take bets on how long it takes a body to decompose. + 27. Goose the widow as she bends over to throw dirt on the coffin. + 28. Circulate a petition to have the body stuffed instead of buried. + 29. Tell everyone you're from the IRS and you're confiscating the coffin for + back-taxes. + 30. Promise the minister a hundred dollars if he doesn't keep a straight face + while praising the deceased. + + + [Gee, you're really missing out + on some earthshattering graphics] + + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ The Truth of it is that Love shits in + @@@@@@@^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^@@@@@@@@ your mouth. And the taste of Love's + @@@@@@ @@@@@@ shit is an acquired taste of both + @@@@@ w ww wi @@@@@ fools and geniuses alike. It is + @@@@, ~ ~~ ~I @@@@ necessary for survival. Keats was + @@@@' ; ,-@< @@@@ wrong. Beauty is not Truth. And Truth + @@@@ _eW@@@ `@@@ has nothing to do with Beauty. Maybe + @@@@ @@@@@@@q j@@@@@@@ O @@@ they had an affair in the late 18th + @@@@ @@@@@@@@w___,w@@@@@@@@ @ @@@ century, but then Beauty dumped Truth, + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ } @@@ and Love shit in Truth's mouth and the + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ I @@@ rest has been sour milk ever since. + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@*@[ i @@@ This is the reason that all lovers are + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@~ ; @@@ insane. Every last one of them. They + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@[] | ]@@@ have gone crazy from the taste of + @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@[][ | @@@ Love's shit. We are all but Turds + @@@@ ~_._ ~@@@@@@@~ ____~ @ @@@ in an Ocean of Love. + @@@@ ;;- `@@@@@' @@@ a mr HEINOUS/RICHH joint + @@@@ _~ ,en, `@@@~ en `@ ]l J@@@ + @@@@ -()- @@@/ _-()- @ ]L @@@ + @@@@ , @@w@ww+ @@@ww``,,@w@ ][ @@@@ A Snake! + @@@@ . @@ @ @@@~-zz..@@@ ][ @@@@ + @@@@, @@@@www@@@ @@@@@@@ww@@@@@[ @@@@ + @@@@. @@@@&&&@@@ @@&@@@@@@@@@@@[ @@@@ His Rightful Assholiness + @@@@@ || @@@@@@P' @@Q@@@@@@@@@@@[:C@@@@ J. R. "Bob" Dobbs + @@@@@_ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@@@@@ ;$@@@@ + @@@@@@w| '@@P~ ,@@@@-w, wU@@w'],@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@ @@ P]@@@=~j ~Y@@^ ] @@@@@@ $20 + @@@@@@@_ !@@t+ ~~ ]]@@@@@@ + @@@@@@@[ - -J@@T# @@@@@@ + @@@@@@@@,@ @@, _,,,,,,,y ,w@@[ ,@@@@@@@--WOOF! D R O N F The pipe is + @@@@@@@@ @ @@ C !@@ @@@@@@@ R N alive! + @@@@@@@@@ i @w. ====--_@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ O O + @@@@@@@@@ @2' '@@@@~ @@@@@@@@ N R + @@@@@@@@@@`,P~ / ~^^^^Y@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@ F N O R D + @@@@@@@@@@@. y @@@@ @@@@@@@@@ + @@@@^^=^@@^ ^' .@@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@ Pen up your Nose! No One is Safe! + @@@ , ,ww,w@@@@ _@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@@_xJw w , @@@@@@@&~_@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ @~ ~ ,@ @@@@@@@P _@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Send all negotiable securities to: + @@ U. ,@@@,_____ _,J@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + @@ v; @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Holy Temple of Mass Consumption + @@L `' ,@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ PO Box 30904 + @@~ _-@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Raleigh, NC 27622 + @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ + + + [Captured Conspiracy Propoganda here] + + diff --git a/religious documents/subg_01.txt b/religious documents/subg_01.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88610ca --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_01.txt @@ -0,0 +1,230 @@ +[SUBG_01.TXT] + + + + + + + + + +SubGenius Sources + +First of an occasional series + + + +AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL MAVRIDES + +(excerpt) + + + + [Paul Mavrides is a San Francisco collagist, underground comic +book artist, and all-around brilliant guy who was a founding +member and prime mover in the Church of the SubGenius. The +following is an excerpt from an interview conducted by Re/Search +magazine for their book "Pranks", itself an invaluable resource +for anyone who wishes for insight into the varieties of +alternative culture in America today, or just likes to get cheap +thrills off the indiscretions of others. This series of files on +the Church of the SubGenius is intended to present a highly +subjective selection of materials and sources pertinent to Sub-G +for the benefit of those not familiar with, or wishing to expand +their knowledge of, the Church of the SubGenius. + + The interviewer is V. Vale of Re/Search magazine (VV), the +interview subject is Paul Mavrides (PM). + + Praise "Bob!"] + + + +[Here comes the disclaimer: I cannot stress strongly enough that +some of the activities described herein, while amusing to say +the least, may have legal ramifications you would not enjoy. +Consider this a history lesson, not a how-to manual.] + + + +PM: A SubGenius friend named Jaynor was watching a TV +Preach-a-Thon. The preacher was taking phone calls from people +who needed "the healing help of the Lord," so Jaynor put on his +"hick" accent and called him up, impersonating a totally +paranoid man who had been driven crazy by Jesus. He said +something like, "Jesus scares me to death -- I'm sure Jesus is +the Devil in disguise. Isn't Jesus like a vampire, because he +rose from the dead and all his followers are supposed to drink +blood and eat flesh?" The host immediately got sucked in, +saying, "No, son! You're confused!" Jaynor continued (in a +quavering voice), "I tried to go to church, but they said I was +possessed by the Devil. Then they stood around in a circle and +_beat_ me with their Bibles, and now I can't even go _near_ a +Bible! I get scared just thinking about it!" He wasted the +preacher's entire show taking in circles. The more the guy tried +to help him, the worse it got! + + At the last SubGenius show at a nightclub in San Francisco, an +inadvertent prank occurred which almost became tragic. In our +presentation we were using some replica automatic weapons, which +we had cleared with the [club's] security. However, we forgot to +inform the local North Beach police station. At about 1 AM some +beat cops walking down Broadway wandered into the show and saw +this black guy standing near the bar holding a metal replica +M-16. Immediately they drew their guns on him and yelled, +"Freeze!" Fortunately he reacted seriously and didn't swing +around with the gun and say, "Huh?" + + They dragged him out onto the sidewalk in front of the [club]. +I was walking down to unload some equipment and saw this guy +laying face down -- one cop had a gun to the back of his head, +and the other was inspecting the prop gun which was one of those +exact replicas. It took about an hour to clear this up. The cops +ended up confiscating the gun as well as the guy's copy of _The +Book of the SubGenius_. They were _really_ mad because they had +nearly killed him. We almost made art history! We did make the +_New York Times'_ wire service and the _International Herald +Tribune_. + + The other time a SubGenius group got on the wire services +involved a performance artist in Baltimore named +Tentatively-a-Convienience, who had discovered a railroad tunnel +containing a number of dog corpses that had been hit by trains. +So he staged a SubGenius ritual performance which consisted of +him naked. painted with white designs, beating these dead dogs +that were hanging by their legs. He got arrested, the wire +services picked up the story, and about two dozen papers +reported that the Church of the SubGenius prances around naked +beating dead dogs with sticks as part of their cult ritual. + + Some SubGenius associates did a prank in Arkansas. The +executives in charge of a nuclear power plant near Little Rock +held a banquet at a theatre-in-the-round next to a shopping +mall. All these higher-ups and engineers were in there patting +themselves on the back, handing each other cigars, etc. These +people sneaked up, padlocked all the doors with heavy chains, +and then destroyed the power box so the interior of the building +was totally blacked out. After that they plastered anti-nuclear +bumper stickers all over the windshields and doors of cars +parked around the building. Then they retreated to a wooded hill +overlooking the mall to watch. + + It took over an hour before the cops could break in. Then all +these horrified couples (executives and their wives) poured out +of the building. After the relief of getting out -- then they +saw their cars! A couple of the men tried to shield their wives' +eyes from the horrifying spectacle of bumper stickers plastered +all over their cars: "Don't look, honey..." + + One of the people on our SubGenius radio program (KPFA, +Berkeley) is Bob Nelson, who is pretty adept technically. The +station relies on him for fill-in engineering; he spends a lot +of time there. He was the only person in the studio the +afternoon Reagan made a speech about the Russians shooting down +KAL 007. While Reagan was talking, Bob added "live" sound +effects that were amazing (we have a tape of it). When Reagan +talked about the ill-fated flight, in the background was the +sound of a sputtering plane engine. When he anguished about the +innocent women and children on board, you could hear the sound +of babies crying. And when he started talking about the horrible +Russians, you could hear machine-gun fire combined with a +classic cartoon plane crash. Toward the end of Reagan's speech +Bob mixed in maniacal laughter in the midst of heavy echo and +reverberation. + + Possibly because he was so useful to the station, Bob wasn't +fired -- just reprimanded. However, several outraged listeners +called up the FCC. And a columnist in the _San Francisco +Examiner_ wrote an article about the incident, saying "Nothing's +too low for those people in Berkeley. It's one thing to do this +on a retrospective, but on a news program -- they could have +been declaring World War III!" And the SubGenius program got +canceled for a month or two. Now it's ancient history. + + + +VV: Tell us some political pranks. + + + +PM: In the late sixties when I lived in Akron, Ohio, there was +a billboard of a white policeman, with tears running down his +face, giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a small black boy. +The caption underneath read: "Some Call Him Pig." We drove by +this for weeks until finally we couldn't stand it anymore. A +friend of mine climbed up and added two vampire teeth to the +policeman's mouth, and painted blood dripping down the little +boy's cheek. + + Then in 1969 at Akron University, some friends and I got +together and decided to stage a Vietnam War protest. We +announced we were going to burn a puppy to death with homemade +napalm to demonstrate just how horrible napalm burns are. We +anticipated attracting a large crowd of outraged people who +would show up to stop it, whereupon you announce, "There is no +puppy. There's no napalm. How can you people justify showing up +to save a _dog_, when there's an actual war going on and this +napalm is being used on actual people?" So you embarrass them +and make them feel guilty -- make 'em stop and think. + + We announced this, but we didn't anticipate just how outraged, +ignorant, and mob-like people would actually be. None of us got +a chance to announce _anything_ -- the crowd was ready to kill +us on the spot. We had to escape with the help of the University +Police through this network of underground heating tunnels, and +hide out for a couple of hours until the mob dispersed. [...] + + In Berkeley some people distributed a flyer right before the +1980 election that said, "ELECTION CANCELLED" with an official +logo on it, giving some emergency reason that seemed plausible. +This made the local news because apparently a lot of people saw +it and decided not to vote. + + These same people replaced the "WHAT TO DO IN AN EMERGENCY" +pictograms on BART [SF-area mass transit] with their own version +telling what to do in case of nuclear attack. They detailed a +whole procedure for living in a BART car after the attack, +giving advice like, "Reserve one car to isolate all the bodies +in." Even if most of the daily commuters didn't notice it, the +few who did were probably put off balance for the rest of the +day. + + Recently I visited Berlin. An artist I met told me some of his +friends painted these barrels to look like official nuclear +waste containers, then filled them with sand. They loaded them +onto a truck, drove to the center of Berlin, then just dumped +them on the street. This caused an instantaneous panic -- the +news media broadcasted warnings, and the whole area was shut +down while a de-contamination crew in white suits worked to +remove the barrels. People in the street who were interviewed +for TV said how worried they were, especially for the safety of +their children. Suddenly everyone had to _think_ about this +radioactive waste being all around them. The authorities can +never take the chance that things like that aren't real. [...] + + During the 1972 election I had a roommate who subscribed to the +_Wall Street Journal_. One day I opened up the paper and +couldn't believe my eyes: there, right in front of me, was a +full-page ad for the Committee to Re-Elect Richard Nixon, +surrounded by a border of alternating swastikas and American +flags! The next day, the WSJ explained that someone in the +layout department had gotten a little "creative," and that he +had subsequently been fired. + + + +VV: And this got distributed nationwide before it was discovered? + + + +PM: Yes. You can do anything once! + + + + + +[Pnin July 1992] + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/subg_02.txt b/religious documents/subg_02.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f7ce97 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_02.txt @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@ + + +[SUBG_02.TXT] + + + + + +SubGenius Sources + +Second of an occasional series + + + +BRAG OF THE SUBGENIUS + +(a cassette transcription) + + + + + + [The following is a fragment from "a tape recording made at a +seance in 1973" in the classic SubGenius style. No attribution +is given, but this rant bears all the hallmarks of Rev. Ivan +Stang's preaching modus. + + SubGenius Sources is a series of files for those lost souls +expressing a casual or obsessive interest in Sub-G culture. +Close cover when striking.] + + + + + + I pick the god damn terror of the fucking gods out of my nose! +Pardon my language. But YEEEEEEHAW, let the sons of God and man +bear witness! Even in the belly of the Thunderbird I've been +casting out the False Prophets; I'm busting a gut and blowing my +O-ring, and ripe to throw a loaf! For I speak _only_ the fucking +_Truth_, and never in my days have I spoke other than! For my +every utterance is a lie, including this very one you hear! I +say 'Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke!' By God, 'Anything for +a laugh,' I say. I am the last remaining Homo Correctus, I am +the god damn Man of the Future! I'll drive a mile so as not to +walk a foot; I am a human being of the _first_ god damn water! +Yes, I'm the javalina humping junkie that jumped the men from +Mars! I drank the Devil under seven tables, I'm too _intense_ to +die, I am insured for acts o' God _and_ Satan! I was shanghaied +by bodiless fiends and alien infidels from a corporate galaxy, +and got away with their hubcaps! I _cannot_ be tracked on radar! +I wear nothing uniform, I wear _no_ god damn uniform! Yes, baby, +I'm 23 feet tall and have 13 rows o' teats; I was suckled by a +Triceratops, I gave the Anti-Virgin a high-protein tonsil wash! +I'm a bacteriological weapon, I'm _armed_ and _loaded_! I'm a +fission reactor, I _fart_ plutonium, power plants are fueled by +the sweat from my brow; when they plug me in the lights go out +in Hong Kong, I cook and _eat_ my dead; YAH-HOOOOO, I'm the +Unshaven Thorn Tree of the Atlantis Zoo! I pay no taxes! The +Devil's hands are my _ideal_ playground, I hold the Seven-Bladed +Windbreaker; the wheels that turn are behind me; I think +_backwards_! I do it for _fun_! My imagination is a _fucking_ +cancer and I'll pork it before it porks me! They say a +godzillion is the highest number there is. Well, by God! I count +to a godzillion and _one_! Yes, I'm the purple flower of Hell +County, give me wide berth, when I drop my drawers, Mother +Nature swoons! I use a python for a prophylactic; I'm _thicker_, +_harder_, and _meaner_ than the Alaskan Pipeline, and I carry +more spew! I'll freeze _your_ seed before it hits the bathroom +tile! YEE! YEE! I kidnapped the future and ransomed it for the +past, I made _Time_ wait up for me to bleed my lizard! My +infernal breath wilts the Tree of Life, I left my _spoor_ on the +Rock of Ages, who'll tear flesh with me, who'll spill their +juice? Who'll gouge with me, whose candle will I fart out? +Whoop! I'm ready! So step aside, all you buttlipped, neurotic, +insecure bespectacled slabs o' wimp meat! I'm a Crime Fighting +Master Criminal, I am Not Insane! I'm a screamer and a laugher, +I make a spectacle of myself, I am a _sight_! My physical type +_cannot_ be classified by science, my 'familiar' is a +pterodactyl, I feed it dipshits! I communicate without _wires_ +or _strings_! I am a Thuggee, I am feared by the Tongs, I have +the Evil Eye, I carry the Mojo Bag; I swam the _Bermuda +Triangle_ and didn't get wet! I circumcise dinosaurs with my +teeth and make 'em leave a tip; I change tires with my _tongue_ +and my _tool_! Every night I hock up a lunger and extinguish the +_Sun_! I'm the big-footed Devil of Level 14, who'll come _shoe_ +me? Where's the robot giant who'll try to blow me down? I've +packed the brownies of the gods, I leak the Plague from my +nether parts, opiates are the _mass_ of my religion, _I take +drugs_! Yes, I'm a rip-snorter, I cram coca leaves right into my +arm-veins before they're picked off the tree! _Space_ monsters +cringe at my tread! I wipe the Pyramids off my shoes before I +enter _my_ house. I'm fuel-injected, I'll live forever and +remember it afterwards! I'm _immune_! I'm _radioactive_! Come +_on_ and give me cancer, I'll spit up the tumor and butter my +_bread_ with the juice! _I'm supernatural_, I bend _crowbars_ +with my meat axe and a thought! My droppings bore through the +Earth and erupt _volcanoes_ in _China_! Yes, I can drink more +wine and stay soberer than all the heathen _Hindoos_ in Asia! +YEEE HAW! _Gut Blowout_! I am a _Moray Eel_, I am a _Komodo +Dragon_, I am a _Killer Whale bereft of its pup_! I have a +triple backbone, I was sired by the Wolf Man, give me _all_ your +Slack! I told _Jesus_ I wouldn't go to Church and he _shook my +hand_! I have my _own_ personal Saviors, I change 'em every +hour, I don't give a fuck if there's life after death, I want to +know if there's even any fucking Slack after death! I am a god +damn _visionary_, I see the future and the past in comic books +and wine bottles; I eat _black holes_ for breakfast! I bend my +genes and whittle at my DNA with the sheer force of my mighty +_will_! I steer my _own_ god damn evolution! I ran 'em out of +Heaven and sold it to Hell for a _profit_! I'm enlightened, I +achieved "Nirvana" and took it _home_ with me. _Yip, Yip, +YEEEEE_! I'm so ugly the Speed of Light can't slow me down and +Gravity won't tug at my cuffs! When the Rapture comes, I'll make +'em wait! They'll _never_ clean _my_ cage! Now give me some more +of...[tape runs out]. + + + + + + + +[Pnin July 1992] + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/subg_03.txt b/religious documents/subg_03.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..34807c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_03.txt @@ -0,0 +1,430 @@ + + +[SUBG_03.TXT] + + + + + +SUBGENIUS SOURCES #3 + +Third of an occasional series + + + +THE WORLD ENDS TOMORROW AND YOU MAY DIE! + + + +[In the troubled early years of the last decade, a voice for +truth, justice, and the SubGenius way shone forth in the +darkness of cultural idiocy...the voice of J. R. "Bob" Dobbs. +Some scoffed and said "Bob" wasn't real, that he was just the +twisted creation of some asocial, maladjusted jesters from +Texas, but those of us who heard his voice, REALLY heard his +voice, I mean heard his voice like an icepick in the pineal +gland, knew better than to listen to "normal folk." + + + +Round about 1980 (a significant year...count the number of +letters in "Ronald", "Wilson", and "Reagan") a curious pamphlet +entitled "The World Ends Tomorrow And You May Die!" began to +appear in various alternative publications and at selected +laundromats. Since then, America has blown its economy all to +hell, gotten itself into several wars and "police actions", +chipped away at what little remains of its individual liberties, +jumped feet-first into an era of rampant greed and social +apathy, and endured the onslaught of the seven-headed beast +called "New Kids On The Block." Coincidence? You be the judge. + + + +The following is the more or less complete text of "The World +Ends Tomorrow And You May Die!" Since the original relies +heavily on its clip-art-laden graphic style for whatever +continuity it possesses, don't be surprised if things seem jumpy +and discontinuous at first...it's the magic fingers of +"BullDada" worming their way into your socially-conditioned +self. Relax and enjoy...mind rape was never this fun.] + + + +[SubGenius Sources is a series of textfiles intended for those +who wish to learn, or expand their knowledge of, the Church of +the SubGenius. Praise "Bob!"] + + + + + + + + + +REPENT! QUIT YOUR JOB! S L A C K O F F !!! + + + +THE WORLD ENDS TOMORROW AND YOU MAY DIE! + + + +Well, no, probably not, but now we have snared your eyes and you +must not throw this baroquely cheesy pamphlet away before you +ask yourself what may be the most important questions of your +life. + + + +ARE WE CONTROLLED BY SECRET FORCES? + + + +ARE ALIEN SPACE MONSTERS BRINGING A STARTLING NEW WORLD? + + + +DO PEOPLE THINK YOU'RE STRANGE? DO YOU? + +...then you may be on the right track! + + + +"Unpredictables" are not alone and may possess amazing hidden +powers of their own! + + + +ARE YOU ABNORMAL? THEN YOU ARE PROBABLY B E T T E R THAN MOST +PEOPLE! YES! YOUR KIND SHALL TRIUMPH! + + + +If you are what they call "different" -- + +If you think we're entering a new Dark Ages -- + +If you see the Universe as one vast morbid sense of humor -- + +If you are looking for an _inherently bogus_ religion that will +condone superior degeneracy and tell you that you are "above" +everyone else -- + +If you can help us with a donation -- + + + +Then THE CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS COULD SAVE YOUR SANITY! + + + +("You'd PAY to know what you REALLY think." -- Dobbs, 1961) + + + + + +FEELING LIKE THERE'S JUST NO SLACK? + +You may have 'snapped' already from the information disease! +("The sleep of Reason begets monsters.") + +The Church of the SubGenius recognizes the programming! + +Look to the High Unpredictables of the SubGenius FisTemple Lodge +of the Wrath of Jehovah for pancultural deprogramming and +resynchronization! + +Perfect your subliminimal vision -- edit your memory -- relive +your reincarnality! SYNCH UP! + + + +A SPAZZ-CHURCH OF MACHO IRONY!!! + + + +This is the original Time Control program that has helped +thousands to fear no longer the STARK FIST of REMOVAL. + + + +Become physically attractive -- overnight! + + + +Now you, too, can speak to benevolent aliens at the Alter of +X-ist Contact. Learn Frame Straightening, Body Repair, Gripe +Elaboration, Excremeditation, the Essentials of Survival, Frenzy +Techniques, FunkQu, and TIME CONTROL. Attend End o' the World +Drills and Chance Labs. Learn to 'Tenlike, evaluate the +so-called "accidents" and "coincidences" in your timestream. +Perform long, complicated rites of initiation and rituals of +Communionication. Accultate yourself to the Church, where you +will be isolated, given a new diet, a new set of habits, and an +altered label and appearance. The new void in your brain-pan +will be filled with corrected info and subconsciously implanted +ritual experiences. Follow your FOLLIES and COMPULSIONS and +become rich like us. + +Explore the "Zen" of stupidity! Channel chronic procrastination +into life-saving paranoia and precise anality! MAKE WASTE! + +Find out who your personal saviors may be and who are the false +prophets in your life! + + + + + +YES, YOU MAY BE THE SUBGENIUS, MASTER OF THE STOOGELY ARTS! +Perform The Salute! The most 'NO WAY' new age religion of them +all!! Brain-Trust of our species!! + + + + + +Using SubGenius secrets of BULLDADA and MOREALISM you can now +MIRACULOUSLY ELIMINATE COMPULSIVE URGES such as smoking, +lethargizing, overeating, insomnia, the inability to take drugs, +constipation, old age, sex and money problems, baldness, +illness, the Work Instinct, assouliness, and painful shortage of +SLACK! + + + +This is a certified religion of scorn and vengeance directed at +all of THEM, the enemies of us Outsiders. It is "self-help" +through scoffing and blaspheming, frenzied fornication, and the +Tumping of Graven Images. The Church provides answers and +miracles in the service of SUREAVOLUTION. + + + +("Ignore the Man behind the curtain" -- Oz) + + + +The Church of the SubGenius is the ultimate secret order, the +superior brain cult for those who "know better" but who demand +in their LUST for GRINS a spectacular, special-effects-laden +belief system -- a 'stuporstition.' + + + + + +The Goal: SLACK + +The Method: The Casting Out of False Prophets + +The Weapon: Time Control + +The Motto: "Fuck Them If They Can't Take A Joke." + + + + + +This religion, devised by precise mathematical formulae, weirder +than the most obscure UFO/Atlantis cults, is invaluable to all +superior renegades who, at any time, are justifiably on the edge +of insanity and can be made whole only by developing a seventh +sense of BLUDGEON HUMOR. + + + + ************************************************************ + +THE SUBGENIUS FOUNDATION HEALS RUINED MEMBERS OF A CRUMBLING + +*************************SOCIETY!*************************** + + + +Here what just a few have to say.... + + + +"An inspiration. A paean to the marvels of the universe. A +blessing from...God? The perfect excuse for white-collar crime." + + + +"I am in high school, and I guess you'd call me a 'brain.' A lot +of the lumpen proletariat (kickers, jocks, freaks) give 'worms' +like myself a difficult time. The fact that I'm overweight and +have skin problems doesn't help, as you can imagine. But your +philosophy, "Fuck them if they can't take a joke" is just what +I've needed. I use the secret SubGenius Subliminimal "Jest" +commands in my daily conversation, too, and I've lately noticed +that many of the physical toughs who harass me are showing new +respect -- even though they can't seem to figure out why! I +think you've helped me instill some superstitious fear of higher +intelligence into their dense crania!" + + + +"When I was told at the lecture that I would receive my most +urgent desires just by chanting your Mantria, I was frankly +dubious. I thought your Church was just for laughs. I never +realized how serious my problems really were. However, now I +can't understand why my friends scoff at my close personal +relationship with "Bob" even though I have yet to meet him. He +is a big force in all my decisions." + + + +"I too lack slack and so do most of my friends. An enlightened +friend of mine told me about the SubGenius Foundation and what +it did for him. Before you helped him, he was begging nickels +and dimes on the street and sleeping in gutters. Now he is Hugh +Hefner's right hand man. I understand that you will help me like +you helped him if I will donate a dollar per pamphlet to your +Foundation." + + + +"At night my husband reads sections of your Lessons to the +children just before bedtime. The kids love it. Tommy isn't +hyperactive anymore, at least it doesn't seem like it." + + + +"Since my wife died I have thought I was going crazy, or senile. +Your material helps me deal with this and exploit my +intermittent loss of mind. I'm 89 and I agree, let's have more +SLACK! (The profanity I could do without, but I understand, you +have to reach the young people too.)" + + + +"You make it seem like a joke, but it really isn't, is it? I +feel I can read your mind while I'm reading it, it makes more +sense between the lines than most of the books do right on the +lines that are serious. Whew." + + + + + + + + + +***************************************************************** +*************************************************************** + + WHAT THE H E L L DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING???? + +**************************************************************** + +**************************************************************** + + + +It should be painfully obvious by now that the world as we know +it won't last too damn much longer. And what are you doing about +it? Going to work or school, coming home, goofing around. What +will happen to your routine when all the shit comes down on us +at once? Don't you feel responsible for trying to help this +endangered planet? + + + +No? Good. The fact is, it's too late. There isn't a god-damned +thing you as an individual can do about eco-disaster, nuclear +death, overpopulation, and so on. Things are going to Hell on a +fast train and about the only thing you, or anyone else besides +the Rockefellers, can do about it is to just sit back and watch +the show, + + + +But remember -- the End of the World may be much worse and take +much longer than you thought. The mere act of sitting in your +home and watching everything fall apart on TV may be too much +for even the stoutest brains to take. In fact, the more alert +and intelligent you are, the quicker you'll likely be driven to +suicide by the sheer hideousness of what you'll be seeing. WILL +YOU BE READY? + + + +WILL YOU STILL BE SANE ENOUGH TO LAUGH WHEN THAT WHICH MUST COME +TO PASS, COMES TO PASS? WILL YOU E V E R GET S L A C K ?? + + + +Study our SubGenius "literature" closely. Keep it by your toilet +and memorize it. If you aren't as dense as most people, you'll +be quick to realize that, cheesy scam though it might well be, +the Church of the SubGenius is just about the only organization +around that can help you face the god-awful facts without some +sort of ingratiating, sweetness-and-light, goody-two-shoes, +Pollyanna, life-is-a-bowl-of-cherries bullshit. Not only that, +but the Church of the SubGenius is beyond the shadow of a doubt +THE ONLY TRUE RELIGION. We perform miracles, answer any +question, invoke demons, and have a direct etheric hotline to +space god Jehovah 1 through our infra-psychic trance-babbling +Personal Savior, J.R. "Bob" Dobbs -- who is actually a pretty +regular guy, just very rich and possessed by forces greater than +Man. + + + +The SubGenius material has only recently been made public. This +is your chance to get in on the ground floor of a huge, +lucrative cult -- NOW, while rates are low, so that you will not +only receive the immediate benefits listed on our Application +Coupon, but will also be eligible for all the $$$, weird sex, +drugs, and sheer power over others that go with high-ranking +membership in what will probably sweep this unkempt planet in an +unstoppable wave of cynical, dangerous power plays, insanely +morbid truths and panhandling, zombie-like teenage "followers." + + + +For the sake of what little you still hold dear, we urge you to +submit this application so that we may determine if you are +worthy to receive the closest thing to salvation you'll ever get +a whiff of. + + + +(If you are rich, your money can buy you your own personal +Church and Congregation. Write for details.) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +[Those who are feeling adventurous may try writing the Church of +the SubGenius @ PO Box 140306, Dallas, TX 75214 USA. + +My best advice is not to send any money you're not willing to +give away until you find out if the address is still valid, and +if the "operation" is still around. Hope you enjoyed this +classic piece of Rant Lit. Praise "Bob!" + + + +Pnin July 1992] + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/subg_04.txt b/religious documents/subg_04.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f20a5a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_04.txt @@ -0,0 +1,506 @@ + + +[SUB_G04.TXT] + + + + + +SubGenius Sources #4 + +Fourth in an occasional series + + + + + +SEX: THE DIVINE BATTLE + + + + + +[Let's face it...very few folks who aren't on TV have as much +sex as they want (with the possible exception of those who are +married, in which case sex is routine at best, and sometimes +downright embarrassing). Naturally enough, "Bob" has an answer: +after even one casual perusal of this highly sensitive document, +you may be able to replace your antiquated notions of the +jig-jig thing with highly modern, "sophisticated" viewpoints +that may not get you any more dates, but will at least upgrade +your status from "misfit" to "complete social outcast." + +The following Dobbsian "Love Secrets" are not intended for the +use of anyone (a) under the age of 18 (b) currently in a working +relationship (c) reporting ALL their income to the IRS or (d) +with a pre-existing heart condition. + +Consider yourselves warned.] + + + +[SubGenius Sources is a series of textfiles designed for the use +of those dupes of the Conspiracy wishing to explore, or expand +their knowledge of, the Church of the SubGenius. SubGenius +Sources is filmed before a live audience.] + + + + + +SEX: THE DIVINE BATTLE + + + + + +We could say that sex is more important than "Bob," were it not +that "Bob" IS sex. + + + +The Church of the SubGenius is a sexist church; we are for the +sexes, the intersection, the union of them. In whatever sick +combinations the parties involved consent to. + + + +However, "Bob" is violently against the humanist forces that +would tear down TRADITIONAL FAMILY VALUES. The SubGenius +mutation tends to run in families; we should therefore reproduce +in the greatest possible degree, for we may need back-up in case +our numbers are drastically reduced in End-Times Mutant vs. +Normal warfare. + + + +Trouble is, the Conspiracy has it set up so that both sex and +the lack thereof cause tremendous problems even for +_good-looking_ people. + + + +Don't kid yourself: "looks" are all-important in this society. +If you are plain or ugly, this is already painfully obvious to +you. + + + +Being goofy-looking according to prevailing standards of beauty, +though almost always a curse in high school and college, can +actually pay off commensurately in later life, when people get +less picky due to their own fading attractiveness. People +unusual-looking enough to have perceived it in childhood tend to +develop paranormal personalities to compensate for strange bone +structure or quirky physical mannerisms. An occasional +SubGenius, overzealously mindful that his looks brand him, will +actually _worsen_ his appearance as a masochistic means of +either toughening his mind or else projecting an "I-don't-care" +attitude. This is a pose, however, and verges on Pinkness. [Ed.: +"pink" is a pejorative Sub-G term roughly meaning "normal," in +the worst possible sense of the word. It does not imply a +specific sexual orientation.] + + + +To the people that count, looks aren't that important. If you +suspect someone won't date you, or whatever, because of your +looks, then that person is a Glorp and not worthy of your +attention. + + + +For most SubGenii, Con-programmed TV-style "good looks" are +insignificant compared to the particular gleam in the eye, the +'edge' in the voice, the 'hunch' in the back, the Pstench...the +things that are meaningless to Normals. The American standard of +beauty was carefully contrived over the last few decades by a +few giant Illuminati corporations, and we all know the +engineered beauties and "hunks" in the men's mags and cig ads +are about as real as the chickens in a modern poultry factory +-where the birds are so chemically fattened and kept in such +small cages for so long that their poor feet actually grow +around the wire mesh. The horrible thing is, some of these +'foxes' and 'studs' are SubGeniuses, trapped in bodies which +attract the constant harassment of slavering idiot Normals. It +is actually _harder_ for a "knock-out" SubGenius lady to find a +proper mate than it is for an ordinary-looking one, because +SubGenius males will think her looks denote Conspiracy tampering +where there is none. Thus she must rise above her looks. + + + +It _is_ much easier for a handsome or beautiful person to become +stupid, because they don't _need_ brains; those who chose to +maintain their SubGenius urges anyway display stalwart dignity +indeed. For these people, the problem is not that they can't get +laid: it's that they're pursued so much they feel they're being +used, which of course they are. The only advice we can give them +is that they join a SubGenius Convent -- but the ueberlust +conditions in those places is sometimes worse. + + + +No matter your looks or proclivities, "Bob" wants you to fuck. +He wants you to use your DICK! He wants you to use what God gave +little girls. "Bob" wants you to use these things righteously +-to spread his Seed! Use them until it HURTS! WHAT DO YOU THINK +THAT "SEXHURT" MEANS?? It doesn't mean tying 'em up -- it means +you should LOVE them until it _hurts_! + + + +But first you must locate them. DON'T LOOK FOR SOMEONE "LIKE +YOU." That is perhaps the single greatest contributing factor to +the break-up of relationships. If you want a clone of yourself, +go to a Conspiracy computer dating service. The key to good +mating is being able to appreciate differences. Pastor Buck +Naked proved this with the enormous success of his Good Sex For +Mutants League; he and his franchised MutaMatchers aren't +kidding when they say, "ALL THE WAY ON THE FIRST DATE." + + + +Say you're new in town, or perhaps just very weird, and you're +having difficulty finding friends and/or lovers. How do you know +who to pursue? + + + +Well, to begin with, if you're an asshole, an ever-whining creep +who hates everybody yet demands attention, you can _forget it_. +Otherwise, no matter how shy and nurdly you might be, no matter +how awkward at meeting people, there are specific clues to look +for that will tell you whether someone is worth the +embarrassment of "getting to know." + + + +MEN: mount a Dobbshead on a wall and watch its eyes when a girl +walks by. If they move to follow her, she's a SubGenius. + + + +LADIES: you can judge a guy by his boobs. Eyeball his +_knockers_. That's the secret. + + + +While searching for a True SubGenius friend, you might kill time +by _using_ a Pink or two. They're easy to make friends with, at +least for the short term, _if_ you're that desperate. They have +little or no critical abilities except those dictated by The +Con, and you can quickly go through a long line of Normals; +first enticing them, then burning them out and dropping them. +Having been molded into the "Me Generation" system by the Con, +you should be able to so thoroughly out-"Me" them that they'll +eagerly let your "Me" replace their "Me." But be careful: if you +overdo it and become the biggest "Me" around, you'll end up +believing it yourself and wind up being just another Tool. + + + +Sometimes it takes years to find your SubGenius mate(s). While +waiting, you can always develop an imaginary friend just like +you did in childhood -- or for that matter, you can just _buy_ +an inflatable one. A hint: the ones with simulated hair are +worth the extra price. + + + +On the other hand, MAYBE YOU DON'T WANT ANYBODY ANYWAY. 19 out +of 20 relationships end up being disasters. + + + +But get this: the ones that do work usually come right after +you've given up looking and accepted the Isness of the Now. + + + +"GIVE UP" AND YOU'LL G E T SEX. + + + +The reason some Subs have trouble "getting some" is that they +exude such a strong, subconsciously-detected musk that their +very attractiveness scares their prey away. Too Much Power. + + + +Knowing this should make it easier to stop trying. Let them do +the hunting, and you'll become the hunted. They desperately want +anything they can't have, but are repelled by what comes easily. + + + +Just relax and loosely exploit your abnormality potential. Don't +put yourself out. When you truly Give Up, you'll suddenly find +it frighteningly easy to TELL THEM WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR. Once +you really blow them off, the right words will spring to your +lips as if by magic and they'll flock to your VERY ANKLES! +IGNORE THEM and they will CRAVE YOU. + + + +If you don't mind adultery, probably the best way to be +_barraged_ with sex partners is to get married. People seem to +have a perverse desire to obtain that which is _morally +unobtainable_...indicating yet another connection between making +love and making mincemeat. + + + +According to "Bob," in the future you'll be able to use +telepathy with another person far away to create mutual yet +solitary cytorspasmodicism. + + + +There is one newly-discovered sex act which we'd _love_ to tell +you about, involving the carcass of a pig and the motorized half +of a rotisserie, but this just isn't the place. Sorry. + + + +Remember, sex is not necessary. There should be no stigma in +becoming one of "Bob's" Brides, a celestial celibate, making it +only with your spouses and tape decks. DECENCY IS OKAY, BELIEVE +IT OR NOT!! + + + +All kinds of rules of sexual conduct have been tried, but The +Divine Battle rages on. Thus we must keep trying new techniques +as the old ones "wear out." + + + +--MARITAL AIDS: SLACK IN MARRIAGE-- + + + +"Over every OverMan is an OverWoman" -- Anon. + + + +Marriage is the most extreme form of Getting Sex Through Giving +Up. Marriage is compromise -- the relinquishing of certain +things which, judging by the divorce rate, half of America isn't +ready to relinquish. + + + +The E-Z Sex of Marriage comes at a _price_: the expensive, +nerve-wracking hunt for "tail" becomes the expensive, +nerve-wracking hunt for SLACK. + + + +When the Quest for Slack ends in wedlock, it often does bring +Slack...at first. But at some point the newly-married person +SUDDENLY REALIZES VISCERALLY just how much Slack he or she had +before! This can work out fine if the individual simply puts +what Slack he has left to better use. + + + +But for some, the Slack never comes. The other partner may be a +"Slack Vampire," draining it away with endless demands. It is so +hard to change a Slack Vampire that the person in the situation +is once again advised to "Give Up." Call it quits. + + + +Be sure you aren't jumping ship too soon, though. Once you leave +what you were _positive_ was a selfish Monster spouse and hook +up with a new one, you may well find, as you did the _first_ +time you got married, that you actually had more Slack then but +were unable to appreciate it simply by the lack of your present +Lack of Slack! + + + +Of course marriage is no longer considered permanent in this +evil, humanistic age, but breaking up is still HELL as red tape +and 'commitment' make it drag _on_ and _on_...so, rather than +cement the bond of matrimony in a regular church or government, +think about using a SubGenius(TM) "Placebo Brand" SHORT DURATION +MARRIAGE, available from Pastor Buck Naked. "ShordurMar" is +cheap, and can easily be voided even before the Expiration Date +with our Marital Aid Product #3: "Spurious Brand" TEMPORARY +DIVORCE CERTIFICATE ("Just In Case It _Was_ Your Fault After +All"). + + + +Is there an unbridgeable, undestroyable barrier between men and +women that will keep them forever warring with each other? + + + +Well, the War Between the States only lasted a few years. The +War Between Men and Women _is_ an ongoing process that shall +never end. But this doesn't mean you should stay single, screw +anyone you can, and blow off all attachments. NAY! DON'T SUCCUMB +TO HUMANIST THINKING! Go ahead and _get_ married, and FIGHT TO +THE DEATH! + + + +Heavy marital combat often results from two partners being too +alike in temperament. Your true Soul Partner, who does exist +somewhere, is very different from you. If you were the same, +you'd become more bovine: your Holy Differences irritate you +each into learning, into seeing in new ways. You should _expect_ +to fight a lot with your spouse. HONE those skills of +quarreling. You can apply them on the job! + + + +A reminder for "unliberated" women specifically: BLOW OFF ALL +LEAVE-IT-TO-BEAVER MYTHS. There is practically no such thing as +a "good husband/dad" AND a "good provider." The Conspiracy +doesn't pay him all that money to have a good home life. Make up +your mind whether you want _him_ or the fancy goddamn +appliances, because you _won't_ get both. ACCEPT THIS HIDEOUS +FACT if you want to be a happy little dumb housewife. + + + +Here's another concrete fact that you've always wanted to pay to +hear: In any marriage, one partner is always the kind of person +who always deals in absolutes. NEVER do _both_ partners deal in +absolutes. NEVER ARE BOTH REASONABLE. It's your spouse's fault! + + + +One way to ease the tensions of marriage is to practice a +special form of Sexhurt slightly related to heathen tantric sex +yoga. The two of you "connect" but then _barely touch_ and +_barely move_ ("Half of 'em you bring off better by not doing +anything at all" -- "Bob")...and stay that way for a long time +while the two Nental Ives engage in an astral wrestling match. +Let _them_ slug it out and release the hidden tensions while you +and your mate enjoy the _good_ part. + + + +All in all, truest marriage is marriage in "Bob." He is the +ultimate Justice of the Peace. Let Judge Dobbs marry you +somewhere out in the woods, under the trees; let him _watch_ as +you "do what comes natural." + + + + + +...and if you have kids, THEY get your Slack. + + + + + +-- IN THE FAMILY OF "BOB" -- + + + + + +We must take "traditional family values" to their fullest +extreme: extended, tribelike clans in which each aunt is "Mom" +and each uncle "Dad." The system is too big to ensure the +preservation of values, so communities (not communes) should +take it upon themselves. YOU CAN TRUST ONLY YETI BLOOD KIN. + + + +We will always see strife in the home, though, particularly +between parents and teens. When a SubGenius father sees his son +come home in some unearthly new "hip" hairdo, we often hear +this: "Goddamn it you're just being 'different' for the sake of +being _different_!" "But Dad, everybody's doin' it." "So you're +not being different -- you're being _just like them_!" + + + +The father is right. The son is being different for no other +reason than to be different -- from Dad. But he isn't +necessarily wearing the fashionable hairdo to be like his +conformist nonconformist friends -- he's wearing it to _get +laid_. Often the teen SubGenius is as alienated from his hipster +cruising-buddies as he is from Father PudWielder from whose +loins he sprang. Thus the argument is really moot, and springs +from ape-against-ape territorial imperative. Both should try to +remember this. + + + +A child should have _respect_ for the inflexible, stale wisdom +of his progenitors, who originally gave him life whether he +wanted it or not. We _need_ the oldsters -- some of them can +actually still remember The Old Ways. And we should pay homage +to our dead ancestors, who can intercede with the gods on our +behalf. (You CAN insult the ancestors of Pinks because they +weren't Yetis.) + + + +And youth must be put in its rightful place of valuable +subservience: as bringer of _smart-alec_ but _effective_ +solutions to problems which the Elders cannot even see. "Kids" +have more intelligence and use of the brain in direct proportion +to their lack of knowledge. We should balance the boring, rigid +good sense of the Old with the snotty, insolent originality of +the Young. The decrepit and senile should be brought home from +the "home" and placed in a center of worship -- perhaps next to +the TV. And the young must have a right to life: the Church +_strictly disapproves_ of abortion after the age of 15 years. A +15-year-old is a _living being_ with an _eternal soul_ and an +inherent right to lead even the most HORRIBLE life. + + + +Your new family is NOT the Church of the SubGenius. It's your +OLD FAMILY seen in the all-forgiving, yet no-shit-taking, LIGHT +OF "BOB." Your old family is not what messed you up; it's the +harsh reality that made you "YOU" enough to find "Bob!" If your +parents had given you TOTAL SATISFACTION, you would now live in +TOTAL BOREDOM...you would be Pink! + + + +Sure your parents are fuddy-duddies -- YOU WILL BE TOO -- but +you ARE a SubGenius, so something must have happened right. + + + +DON'T KILL THEM N O W. + + + + + + + +[Okay, you've got the pertinent info now, so get off yer +ever-widening butt and go check out _The Book Of The SubGenius_, +from which the above was excerpted. It's published by Simon & +Schuster. Remember, therapy costs $75/hour these days, so $12.95 +is pretty damn cheap by comparison; even if you're already in +therapy, buy it anyway, and I'll guarantee within two weeks your +therapist will be calling YOU at 2 am to weep into the phone.] + + + +[Pnin July 1992] + + + + + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/subg_05.txt b/religious documents/subg_05.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..066d9d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subg_05.txt @@ -0,0 +1,240 @@ + + +[SUBG_05.TXT] + + + + + +SubGenius Sources #5 + +Fifth in an occasional series + + + +Exerpt from A FIERY FLYING ROLL + + + + + +[Originally published in 1649, this broadside by Abiezer Coppe, +founder of the English sect now called the Ranters, was +sufficiently incendiary to earn this reaction from the English +Parliament in 1651: + +"The Parliament voted that a Book written by one Coppe, +intituled [sic] a fiery flying Roll, &c. contained many horrid +blasphemies, and damnable Opinions, and that the Book and all +Copies of it that can be found, shall be burnt by the hands of +the Hangman." + +All this because Coppe and his followers located God exclusively +in the individual, and not in the secular System. For SubGenii, +the following rant indicates by its breathless intensity that +the illuminating power of "Bob" is a constant from age to age, +and serves as a reminder that the Con has always been around to +suck Slack from the marrow of the howling Bone.] + + + +[SubGenius Sources is a series of textfiles designed for those +who wish to explore, or expand their knowledge of, the Church of +the SubGenius. Shampoo, rinse, repeat.] + + + + + +A FIERY FLYING ROLL: + +A WORD FROM THE LORD TO ALL THE GREAT ONES OF THE EARTH, + +WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN: + +BEING THE LAST WARNING PIECE AT THE DREADFUL DAY OF JUDGEMENT, + +FOR NOW THE LORD IS COME + +to (1) informe (2) advise and warne (3) charge (4) judge and +sentence the Great Ones. + +As also most compassionately informing, and most lovingly and +pathetically advising and warning London. + +With a terrible Word, and fatall Blow from the LORD, upon the +gathered CHURCHES. + +And all by his most excellent MAJESTY, dwelling in, and shining +through, AUXILIUM PATRIS, alias Coppe. + +With another FLYING ROLL ensuing (to all the inhabitants of the +Earth.) The Contents of both following. + + + +Imprinted at London, in the beginning of that notable day, +wherein the secrets of all hearts are laid open; and wherein the +worst and foulest of villanies, are discovered, under the best +and fairest outsides. 1649. + + + +THE PREFACE + + + +{An inlet into the Land of Promise, the new Hierusalem, and a +gate into the ensuing Discourse, worthy of serious +consideration.} + + + +My Deare One. + +All or None. + +Every one under the Sunne. + +Mine own. + +My most excellent Majesty (in me) hath strangely and variously +transformed this forme. + +And beholde, by mine owne Almightinesse (in me) I have been +changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of +the Trump. + +And now the Lord is descended from Heaven, with a shout, with +the voyce of the Arch-angell, and with the Trump of God. + +And the sea, the earth, yea all things are now giving up their +dead. And all things that ever were, are, or shall be visible +-are the Grave wherein the King of Glory (the eternall, +invisible Almightinesse, hath lain as it were) dead and buried. + +But behold, behold, he is now risen with a witnesse, to save +Zion with vengeance, or to confound and plague all things into +himself; who by his mighty Angell is proclaiming (with a loud +voyce) that Sin and Transgression is finished and ended; and +everlasting righteousnesse be brought in with most terrible +earth-quakes, and heaven-quakes, and with signes and wonders +following. Amen. + +And it hath pleased my most excellent Majesty (who is universall +love, and whose service is perfecte freedom) to set this forme +(the Writer of this Roll) as no small signe and wonder in +fleshly Israel; as you may partly see in the ensuing Discourse. + +And now (my deare ones!) every one under the Sun, I will onely +point at the gate; thorow which I was led into that new City, +new Hierusalem, and to the Spirits of just men, made perfect, +and to God the Judge of all. + +First, all my strength, my forces were utterly routed, my house +I dwelt in fired; my father and mother forsook me, the wife of +my bosome loathed me, mine old name was rotted, perished; and I +was utterly plagued, consumed, damned, rammed, and sunke into +nothing, into the bowels of the still Eternity (my mother's +womb) out of which I came naked, and whetherto I returned again +naked. And lying a while there, rapt up in silence, at length +(the body or outward forme being awake all this while) I heard +with my outward eare (to my apprehension) a most terrible +thunder-clap, and after that a second. And upon the second +thunder-clap, which was exceeding terrible, I saw a great body +of light, like the light of the Sun, and red as fire, in the +forme of a drum (as it were) whereupon with exceeding trembling +and amazement on the flesh, and with joy unspeakable in the +spirit, I clapt my hands, and cryed out, Amen, Hallelujah, +Hallelujah, Amen. And so lay trembling, sweating, and smoaking +(for the space of halfe an hour) at length with a loud voyce (I +inwardly) cryed out, Lord, what wilt thou do with me; my most +excellent majesty and eternal glory (in me) answered & sayd, +Fear Not, I will take thee up into mine everlasting Kingdom. But +thou shalt (first) drink a bitter cup, a bitter cup, a bitter +cup; whereupon (being filled with exceeding amazement) I was +throwne into the belly of hell (and take what you can of it in +these expressions, though the matter is beyond expression) I was +among all the Devils in hell, even in their most hideous hew. + +And under all this terrour, and amazement, there was a little +spark of transcendent, transplendent, unspeakable glory, which +survived, and sustained it self, triumphing, exulting, and +exalting it self above all the Fiends. And, confounding all the +blacknesse of darknesse (you must take it in these tearmes, for +it is infinitely beyond expression.) Upon this the life was +taken out of the body (for a season) and it was thus resembled, +as if a man with a great brush dipt in whiting, should with one +stroke wipe out, or sweep off a picture upon a wall, &c. after a +while, breath and life was returned into the form againe; +whereupon I saw various streames of light (in the night) which +appeared to the outward eye; and immediately I saw three hearts +(or three appearances) in the form of hearts, of exceeding +brightnesse; and immediately an innumerable company of hearts, +filling each corner of the room where I was. And methoughts +there was variety and distinction, as if there had been severall +hearts, and yet most strangely unexpressably complicated or +folded up in unity. [Ed.: a reference to the Mandelbrot set? You +heard it here first...] I clearly saw distinction, diversity, +variety, and as clearly saw all swallowed up into unity. And it +hath been my song many times since, within and without, unity, +universality, universality, unity, Eternall Majesty, &c. And at +this vision, a most strong, glorious voyce uttered these words: +The spirits of just men made perfect. The spirits, &c. with whom +I had as absolut, cleare, full communion, and in a two fold more +familiar way, than ever I had outwardly with my dearest friends, +and nearest relations. The visions and revelations of God, and +the strong hand of eternall invisible almightinesse, was +stretched out upon me, within me, for the space of foure dayes +and nights, without intermission. The time would faile if I +would tell you all, but it is not the good will and pleasure of +my most excellent Majesty in me, to declare any more (as yet) +then thus much further: That amongst those various voyces that +were then uttered within, these were some: Blood, blood,Where, +where? upon the hypocriticall holy heart &c. Another thus: +Vengeance, vengeance, vengeance, Plagues, plagues, upon the +inhabitants of the Earth; Fire, fire, fire, Sword, sword &c. +upon all that bow not down to eternall Majesty, universall love; +I'll recover, recover, my wooll, my flax, my money. Declare, +declare, fear thou not the faces of any; I am (in thee) a +munition of Rocks &c. + +Go up to London, to London, that great City, write, write, +write. And behold I writ, and lo a hand was sent to me, and a +roll of a book was within, which this fleshly hand would have +put wings to, before the time. Whereupon it was snatcht out of +my hand, & the Roll thrust into my mouth, and I eat it up, and +filled my bowels with it, where it was bitter as worm-wood; and +it lay broiling, and burning in my stomack, till I brought it +forth in this forme. + +And now I send it flying to thee, with my heart, And all, + + + + per AUXILIUM PATRIS + + + + + +[Fun guy, huh? If you wish to pursue the subject further, there +is an edition of Abiezer Coppe's writings published in the UK by +Aporia Press, as well as a profile of Coppe in Norman Cohn's +"The Pursuit of the Millenium." Also do yourself a favor and go +find "Rants and Incendiary Tracts" by Bob Black and Adam +Parfrey, published by Amok Press/Loompanics Unlimited in the US, +whence I excerpted this prime slice of 17th-century culture. Do, +however, ignore the bit in the Foreword where they refer to the +Church of the SubGenius as "paint-by-numbers surrealism." "Bob" +just might not understand.] + + + + + + + +[Pnin July 1992] + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/subi.txt b/religious documents/subi.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d851b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/subi.txt @@ -0,0 +1,401 @@ + + + + The Book Of The SubGenius + + Lunatic Prophecies For The Coming Weird Times + + This is not the entire book of the SubGenius. Yes, it contains all + the chapters, and most of the writings are here, but this simple Text + file cannot contain nearly the amount of SLACK that the book has. I have + type the whole thing, under the directive of "Bob" himself, so that you + may gain some insight into the Church Of The SubGenius (TM) and then go + out and by the book. This file also makes a handy reference when the book + is in your excremeditation chambers, where it belongs. + + + We, the Anonymous Scribes, realize that this file has been written without + the consent of the publishers and "authors" of this fine book, namely His + Greatness, The Sacred Scribe Of The SubGenius Church, The Reverend Ivan + Stang, and therefore this file is illegal. We ask for forgiveness from + This Holy Person, but we also know that this will generate book sales + by bringing the Word O'Dobbs to the remote, hidden SubGenius who know + nothing of their Inner Slack. + + So, I'm telling you. This file is not nearly as good as the Book and is + actually an advertisement to sell the Book. + + To order the Book, either go to your nearest book store, or obtain it + from the Foundation by writing to + + The Church Of The SubGenius + P.O. Box 140306 + Dallas, TX 75214 USA + + You can order the book for $11.95 + $3 S/H. + There is also an order form at the end of this file, where you can find + out how to receive ordainment and lots of other Holy Junk. + + When ordering from the Foundation, please mention That The Anonymous + Scribes provided you with the information. This will help us in our + case. "Bob" is looking out for us, but his perfect imperfection may + cause him to forget us in a lawsuit. Also...Don't say WHERE you saw + this file. + + + + The Book Of The SubGenius + + + + + + Sometimes a book goes too far. + Sometimes...is NOW. + + First -- there was The Gilgamesh + Then... The Bhagavad-Gita + Then... The Torah, The New Testament, The Koran + Then... The Book of Mormon, Dianetics, I'm OK you're OK. + And now... + + ----------------------- THE BOOK OF THE SUBGENIUS ---------------------- + + THE BOOK YOU NOW HOLD IN YOUR HANDS COULD CREATE A NEW INQUISITION - + A SELF-PERPETUATING FASCIST STATE THAT WILL LAST TO THE END OF HUMANITY + - OR IT COULD BE THE FOUNDATION-STONE OF THE PROMISED KINGDOM OF PEACE + AND HARMONY. WHICH WILL IT BE? + + --------------(How To Prosper In The Coming Weird Times)----------------- + + + Yes, YOU can rape your own mind. YOU can finally relax in the safety of + your own delusions. + + This epipastic for the brains of Epoptics, Beholders, and Initiates,works + an authentic magician's spell that will drive OUT the foreign person- + alities and id-demons. Protected by its own occult roots in the most + extreme forms of para- and mech-psychology, it places the reader within a + "shell" of Weird Phenomena which Must be used for good And evil. + + Its system of Mystik Correspondences' has already given SECRET POWER to + the Church of the SubGenius - the world's first Industrial church, the + prophesied End Times cult of screamers and laughers, scoffers, blasphemers + mockers, sinners, and the last true holymen in America today. + + KEEP THIS BOOK NEAR YOU - in your pocket, your bathroom, your glove + compartment. Study it. Memorize it. Find within its pages a NEW DIRECTION- + a NEW WAY - a HIGHER yet LOWER REALITY - just as thousand before you have + done! + + + + Copyright 1983 by THE SUBGENIUS FOUNDATION + All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States + of America. Except as permitted under the copyright + act of 1976, no part of this publication may be + reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means + or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without + prior written permission of the publisher. + + + I + The Book Of The SubGenius + + + + + 'Do What Keepeth Thou from Wilting, Shall be The Loophole iin the Law' + + + + + + + + + The Church Of The SubGenius is an order of + Scoffers and Blasphemers, dedicated to Total Slack, + delving into Mockery Science, Sadofuturistics, Mega- + physics, Scatalography, Schizophreniatrics, Morealism, + Sarcastrophy, Cynisacreligion, Apocolyptionomy, + ESPectorationalism, HypnoPediatrics, Subliminalism, + Satyriology, DistoUtopianity, Sardonicology, Fasciest- + iouism, Ridiculophagy, and Miscellaneous Theology. + + "Researching The Public's Fear Of The Unknown Since 1953!" + + + + The TriPrimality: + + "Bob" is. + "Bob" becomes. + "Bob" is not. + Nothing is; Nothing becomes; + Nothing is not. + + Thus: Nothing Is Everything. + Therefore: Everything is "Bob." + Abracadabra. + + + + + + + + II + The Book Of The SubGenius + + + This Book Was Begun in 1953 by + + + J.R. "BOB" DOBBS + + + + + + + + High Epopt of the Church of the SubGenius + + Revised in 1979 by + + D. Phigo U. Drummond, 01 Dr. X Rev. Ivan Stang, A.0. + + + Board Of Directors of The SubGenius Foundation appointed in 1980: + + +Puzzling Evidence St. Sterno Keckhaver LIES +Doug Wellman St. Janor Hypercleats St. Paul Mavrides +HellSwami John Hagen Drs. for "Bob" Sir Guy Deuel +Pastor Buck Naked Pope David Meyer III Glassmadness +Cookie Drummond F.G.O.T.R. J. Erickson someone else + + + Additional Sacrifices, 1981, by: + +High Priestess Eileen Keller Capt. Hugh M. Smith +Dr. Bootmokus Tribunal Overdrive +Alexander D. Smith Stefan Hammond +Rev. Larry Sulkis Rev. David Boone +Shrendi Chisholm Dennis Keller +Bob Black, St. Byron Werner +THE LAST INTERNATIONAL R. Wollard +Dr. Jay Kinney BurnMartyr Dr.Snavely Eklund +St. Joe Schwind Severn Institute +Pope St. D. Lee Lama St. Poonflang dammerung +Kerry Wendell Thornely Pope Mike Danger +Hector Hilldale Autumn Deuel +Leslie Gaspar Drelloid + tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE + + 1982 Illiterati: + + Dominatrix Candi strecker, Dr. Gary Hughes, Rev. Brian Curran, Rev. Garth + Danielson, Bishop Buhle, Bishop Huey, St. Karen Srego, Mechapope Monika + Vidi, Apostle G. Don Trubey, Fair Use Empire, Pope Michael Flores and The + People's Temple, Sir Hal Robins, Krononautic Organism, Rev. Bob Lee, + Nick West, St. Patricia Daley, Stigmatic Ted Early, Mastress Freddie Baer, + Political Bizarro Luke T. McGuff, Maestro John Crawford, Prof. Mark + Mothersbaugh, St. Becky Block, Radio Popes Kates, Chusid, Brown, Ginsburg, + Nelson & Opinion; John Steakley, St. Rick Hoefle, Will (Lord) Small 888 + + Final Word Wrangling By: + + Rev. Ivan Stang + + "Bob's" face and "The Church of the SubGenius" Are Trademarks of the + SubGenius Foundation, Inc + III + + + THE SOURCE: JEHOVAH-1 (a.k.a. WOTAN, YAHWEH, RA, etc) + THE TEACHER: J.R. "BOB" DOBBS + THE GOAL: SLACK + THE OBSTACLE: THE CONSIPIRACY AND ITS DUPES, + THE NORMALS + THE WAY: THE CASTING OUT OF FALSE PROPHETS + + + + + + + THE WEAPON: TIME CONTROL + + + SLOGANS: + + "Fuck 'Em If They Can't Take A Joke" + "Too Much Is Always Better Than Not Enough" + "Pull The Wool Over Your Own Eyes" + "You'll PAY To Know What You REALLY Think" + "Give Me Slack, Or Give Me Food, Or Kill Me" + "If I Can't Whup It, IPIRACY Go DOWN" + "Bleeding Head Good, Healed Head Bad" + "If You Act Like A Dumbshit, They'll Treat You As An Equal" + + + "SCIENCE DOES NOT REMOVE THE TERROR OF THE GODS" + + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + ATTENTION!!!! + DO NOT ALLOW TO FALL INTO ENEMY HANDS + + WARNINGS & DISCLAIMERS: + If you think there's nothing wrong with the world, don't buy this book; + if you are offended by your own sick rage when viewing literature alien + to your repressive behavior code, go ahead and Purchase the book, but + DON'T read it. + + The Church of the SubGenius may drive you Crazy. + The Roman Catholic Church had driven people crazy, Scientology has driven + people crazy. So have Satanism, Islam, The Boy Scouts, the government of + the United States, Judaism, traffic jams, LSD, the C.I.A., Taoism, kids, + parents, TV, war, and peace. Some people drive themselves crazy. + + This Book will not drive Subgeniuses Crazy. It will supply them with + the Slack they need to drive others crazy. + + Many idiots will object to this publication. The techniques and secrets + revealed herein have been passed through the headquarters of many terror- + ist organizations (including the FBI and CIA) for years. This knowledge + will also enhance your professional capabilities and aid you in protect- + ing against THEM, but it is not meant for the young or irresponsible. + + J.R. "BOB" Dobbs is endowed with the full range of ESP abilities.Although + "Bob's" accuracy has never been questioned by previous "clients." no + SacraMentalist can claim infallibility. With "Bob," especially, it is + only a matter of time before he falters in a big way; he is farther from + so-called "perfection" than most of us could be if we worked at it. + Therefore, "Bob," his associates, promoters, empolyees, sponsors, agents, + followers, and writers must disclaim all liability to all person or + groups who act upon ESP impressions given by word of mouth, print, tele- + + IV + DISCLAIMER & WARNINGS CONTINUED.... + + + phone, film, tape, or holograph recording now or in the...the future. The + Secrets of the Elder Gods are not offered in an attempt to persaude any + peson of the supernatural powers of rites, rituals, amulets, talismans, + seals, incantations, or other ideas and devices mentioned herein. No + magical claims are made and medical problems should be attended by lic- + + + + + + + ensed physicians. + + IGNORE THIS: FNORD: To practise and preach the same things is utter mad- + ness. Sometimes communication must be made More Difficult and Irritating + Than Necessary, in order to conve certain dangerous complexities. The + knowledge must not fall into the wrong hands. + + "SCIENCE DOES NOT REMOVE THE TERROR OF THE GODS" + The SubGenius knows that a Godlike alien space monster calling himself + "Jchingh-1" Is watchig us and making us dance like cheap puppets for His + own ends. he demand that we worship Him, and so we surely must. + + And if you say that the SubGenius is deceived, that there is no alien + God of Wrath, then the SubGenius will attack YOU! you are wrong; we are + right; WOTAN told us so and we believed it. Alright? Now roll over and + go back to "sleep"...(By "God's Third Leg," you'd think these humans + didn't know what religion was For!!) + + A note about the word "he" as an alneurpose pronoun: we use it + because constantly saying "he or she," "s/he," or "it," sounds STUPID. + However, notice also that while JHVH-1, God, Jesus, and a few others + are called "He" with a capital H, "Bob" is merely a "he." These spellings + are in accordnace with the express wishes of the respective deities. "Bob" + de-deifies himself whenever possible to counterbalance the tendency of his + followers to go overboard. + + + ----------------------------------------------------------------------- + + The Church is not responsible for the actions of individuals which may + result from their mere possession of this Book. Any resemblance by char- + acters in these pages to any person, living or dead, except where intend- + ed for direct satirical purposes, is strictly "Coincidence." That's + right, it's all a big joke! Ha ha! "The Conspiracy" - what a laugh! Ha + ha! 3,000 children starving to death in Mexico City every day, ha ha! + Radio- active waste canisters rotting in the ocean! Ha ha ha! Mind + control by horrible secret societies - yuk, yuk, yuk. + + + + CAUTION - MAY BE HABIT FORMING. Do not drive motor vehicle or + operate heavy machinery while under the influence of this book. + + + V + PROPHECY CRUSADE + + WE THE SUBGENIUSES OF THE POST-HUMAN RACE, in order to preserve life on + this planet from immanent destruction, reestablish intelligence, regain + Slack, cast out the False Prophets, smother forever the fear of fear + itself, receive the questionable gifts of the Beforelife and of the + Space Dwellers, become as Overmen, unmask the Conspiracy, grip the reins + of human evolution, control reproduction and mutation, decipher the Code + + + + + + + placate the Stark Fist of Removal, achieve Time Control, see That Which + Must Come to Pass, become as gods, find the Twin with the Scissors of + Sight, aver the Rupture of the Equilibrium, and secure the financial + blessings of Jehovah-1 the God of Wrath for ourselves and our descend- + ents, do hereby admit ourselves as such and thus ordain this Advertise- + ment of the SubGenius Race of Earth. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + CONTENT + + Ch. 0 TruthStinger Barrage.......................................1 + Ch. 1 Don't Laugh................................................5 + Ch. 2 The Miracle of "Bob's" Tyranny............................16 + Ch. 3 Earth Is Hell.............................................NA + Ch. 4 The Curse of "Bob"........................................NA + Ch. 5 The Secrets of Slack......................................NA + Ch. 6 Creative Truth............................................NA + Ch. 7 Salvation $1 and the Perils of False Slack................NA + Ch. 8 Your SubGenius Heritage...................................NA + Ch. 9 Shut Up or Stand Up - "The Brag"..........................NA + Ch. 10 We Dare Call It Conspiracy................................NA + Ch. 11 The UFO Made Me Do It.....................................NA + Ch. 12 Dateline for Dominance....................................NA + Ch. 13 The Prescriptures.........................................NA + Ch. 14 ANSWERS: Money and Jobs...................................NA + Ch. 15 ANSWERS: Sex - The Divine Battle..........................NA + Ch. 16 Health, the Industrial Diet, and Bad Things...............NA + Ch. 17 Starting Your Own Church..................................NA + Ch. 18 Your Instructions.........................................NA + Ch. 19 Paths to Frenzy...........................................NA + Ch. 20 Your Move: A Letter from "Bob"............................NA + APPENDIX..................................................NA + + + VI + + + + + + + + + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/suburb.txt b/religious documents/suburb.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..731c13f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/suburb.txt @@ -0,0 +1,274 @@ +Living here in Northern Massachusetts, home of the supposedly +open minded folk of the East coast and spending my spare time +running a Pagan BBS, I thought we were comfortably far off from +the recent media blitzs of National tv, the Christian Networks +and the recent controversey in CA with the OTO. Then I opened +up the local sales-flyer paper we get each week, The Minuteman +Chronicle Sunday, circulation of 101,672 in the Lowell/Billerica +region, to a blood Dripping headline: + + Satan in The Suburbs + +To one side was the green blobed quote: + + "Look at me, Satan's Child. Born + of evil, thus defiled. Brought to + Life through satanic birth. Come + look at me and I'll show you + things that will open your eyes...." + Fron the song 'Possesed' by the group Venom. + +Blazened in spectacular four color newsink, were a listing of +Symbols: + An Anhk (labeled as Egyptian ANCH Cross, and with a + sidelabeling of 'The Cross of Satan represents Life') + A Peace Symbol (labeled as The Cross Of Neri, and with a + sidelabeling of 'Cross upside down with the arms + broken') + A Dagger, upright (labeled as 'The Sword of power' and a + sidelabeling of 'Aggressive force used in Satanic + rituals') + +This in a local shoppers flyer, distributed for free to all the +homes in the area (Oct. 29th, 1989 date on issue) that usually +has local town meeting results, real estate ads and the weeks +grocery coupons - in otherwords no real hard news or 'bad news'! +Mouth agape I read on... 2 full pages of the paper's worth of +print (in a paper of only 36 pages, 22 of which are fully ads) +claiming expose, local devil worshipers suspected, how to id a +devil worshiper etc...My stomache turned at their misinformation +and obvious madness of all this. + THis area supports an ADF proto-Grove, a Wiccan Group, the +college is about to allow the formation of a Pagan STudents Group +and two very visbile (media wise) Masonic Temples, and a population +that is less than 50% Christian (We have in the area a large +immigrant population from the Orient which sport their own beliefs +and places of worship). This sort of 'reporting' should not even +begin to be visible here... + I want people here, and thru the Nets, to see the sort of +material thats showing up, and see why we must start pulling our +groups and selves together into a true feeling of community and +protect ourselves before we are all destroyed seperatley or +forced to do as was done before and slip back into the shadows +to hide from these fanatics....My next few posts will be from +this paper, which is published by Beacon Communications, 20 Main +ST., Acton MA 01720, editor Bill Lindsay. If anyone wants to help +sway them by writing to the editorial department, they insist you +send them full address info and a phone number you can be reached +thru. Perhaps a flood of letters from us each time the media does +this sort of thing will help bring some changes.... + +thats + +[Minuteman Chronicle Sunday Oct 29th, 1989] + + SATAN IN THE SUBURBS +by Elizabeth Banks, Senior Reporter + +Alchol and drug abuse is no surprise in area high schools, but +police are now confronted with troublesome evidence of satanism +in some suburban communities. + Dead animals in Acton, graffiti in Maynard, heavy metal music +blaring themse of Satan and the occult - all these are evidence +of cults and devil worship, say area police. + But, there are signs parents can look for, and some teens are +more susceptible than others to the rituals of satanic worship, +according to Wesley Simons, director of Burlington's Community +Life Center, a teen counseling center. + Teenagers most prone to satanism, Simmons said in a recent +interview, are those who have no close relationship with either +family members or friends. And, he added, "These are angry kids." + Anger and isolation are the two characteristics, Simons stated, +"that predispose an association withh angry acts." + Another sign, SImmons warned, is involvement with "Overtly +satanic acts" such as the use of symbols, rituals, animal killings, +reading occult books, listening to heavy metal music, and +sometimes, playing the fantasy game "Dungeons and Dragons." + "Emotional factors feed this behhavior," Simmons stressed. If +the emotional problems are not present, he added, teenagers may +just "dabble" with the symbolism of satanism such as the satanic +alphabet, heavy metal music, or related games. + Even with strong close relationships heavy involvement could +happen, Simmons said, but "most likely it won't happen." + Cult practices and satanism are not limited too teenagers, +police say. Because satanic acts are performed in secrecy police +often lack concrete evidence of criminal acts. However, police +now say that abducted childeren or runaways may be victims of +satanic rituals used as a guise for sexually abusing children. + One case, reported last March by Lowell police, involved a +cult of local 13 and 14 year-olds. Two members reportedly drove +two recruits to a New York town where they were subjected to +satanic rituals involving bloodletting and animal sacrifices. + In other suburban communities police report evidence of satanic +worship ranging from graffiti on buildings depicting satanic +symbols to shrines in wooded areas, to animal mutilations. While +most incidents go no further than graffiti and are perceived as +harmless, there are enough isolated incidents of more serious +activities to concern police in some towns. + "Its here," said Inspector Ken Duane, Chelmsfords juvenile +officer, simply said "We have no actual documented facts, but we've +found little shrines in the woods with rocks and candles." There +was also one isolated incident of a mutilated dog he said. + Duane reports dealing with teenagers involved in satanic +activites, but extreme involvement does not take place "to a huge +degree. Police," he added "definately see a connection between +drug use and satanic worship. Anyone on drugs is capable of +anyuthing." + + [Continued NEXT posting...] + +[Continued from last post] + + Recently, there was "talk" of organizing a satanic group +between Chelmsford and Tyngsboro teens, Duane said. But police +managed to break up the groups and "get some of the leaders +off the streets." + "We also see a connection between Heavy metal music and +drugs," he stated. "These kids wear black T-shirts with Satanic +symbols," Duane said. + In Chelmsford, as in many other suburban communities, satanic +graffiti is evident throughout the town. Police, Duane said, do +not know id it should be taken seriously, or if teens"are just +fooling around." + Acton police also report signs of satnaic activity. Suspicions +began when animals began disappearing and mutilated animals were +discovered. But none of this, police say, could be directly +related to satanic activity. + Again, while no direct proof exists, graffiti is presently +located at ACton-Boxborough Regional Hhigh School depicting the +numbers 666, the sign of Satan. In other areas of town, police +have located upside down crosses. + In Burlington, Simmons reports counseling two local teens +involved in satanism. While he believs neither was seriously +involved, one was "into" "Dungeons and Dragons". + There are also reports of suspicious graffiti in Billerica, +Lexington and Maynard. + The Rev. Gary Heikkila of Maynard's Mission Evangelical Church +began investigating satanism after receiving a "strange letter". +This letter, he said, "talked about finding a mutilated animal +in the Gardner area and otehr things that seemed far out, but +worthy oof investigation." + Convinced that many Christians are ignorant of Satanic worship. +Heikkila spoke with cult experts in preperation for a speech +which he would later deliver to the Maynard Community. + Through his research, Heikkila said he learned "that Satanism +is much more than Halloween. These people have violent impulses +that prey upon angry, powerless people who lead secret lives and +are attracted to heavy metal music," he said. + "I'm convinced that satanisim is linked to pornography, child +abuse and murder," Heikkila stressed. + Further study of satanic worship put Heikkila in touch with a +cult expert in Dallas. "Various types of satanism are on a +meteoric rise," he was told. "Satanism is predicted to be the +cult of the 90's," he added. + THrough his church, Heikkila said a local woman came to him +and said she found paraphernalia involved in satanic worship in her +grand-daughter's closet. And, he learned of covens meeting in +Boxboro. + "There are definately telltale signs," Heikkila continued. +Teenagers involved in satanism report keeping a "Book of Shadows". +These he explained contain suicide notes. + Some young people, Heikkila cnotinued, are preoccupied with +death, while others have satanic symbols either tattoed or cut into +their skin with razors. + Particularly troubling to Heikkila is the influence of the Church +of Satan, organized in California in 1966 by Anton Lavey, also +known as the Black Pope. This church, Heikkila said, "is amazing - +its almost like science fiction - but its very real." + [Continued NEXT Post] + +[Continued From Last Post] + +Laveys teachings are "absolutely contrary to everything Christins +would accept." he continued. "(Lavey) teaches Satan is the best +friend the church has ever had." + And, according to Heikkila, bookstores report Lavey's Satanic +Bible sells out shortly after shipments are received. + Taking his research to Gardner, Heikkila made contact with a +musician from a heavy metal or black metal band. The band, he +said is involved in satanism and the music reflects it. + Because Heikkila was disturbed by what he learned was +happening in his own and surrounding communities, he delivered a +speech about satanic worship. Shortly after, he reports, someone +attempted to burn down his church. During their investigation, +police found gasoline and matches next to the church building. + While there is no proof that satanists were involved in the +arson attempt, Heikkila also reports receiving threatening +letters. + "I recieved some unsigned letters saying some terrible things +would happen," Heikkila said. "I would shudder to think about +them happening." + Police urge anyone, whether a parent or concerned citizen, to +report signs of possibl satanic worship. In response to what is +seen as a growing national problem, an organization called BADD +(Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons) was founded in 1983 by Pat +Pauling, whose son killed himself after becoming involved in the +Fantasy game. + The organization provides a reading and resource list as well +as information about preventive programs in "teen devil worship" +information can be obtained by writing BADD Inc PO Box 5513, +Richmond VA 23220. + Additional information is available from the National Coalition +on TV Violance, c/o Thomas Radecki, MD PO BOX 2157, Champaign IL +61820. + Locally anyone with information about cults or seeking +information about cults and satanic worship may call the Cult +Victimization Hotline in Concord at (508) 369 5437. + +****************************************************************** + Theres more folks - this was just the largest of the articles, +all done up by the same reporter and the same sources of info as +mentioned herein....agains, maybe a real letter writing campaign +might help, not only to the paper, but to the organizations they +are plugging so they understand that we aren't satanists! Any other +suggestions are welcome too! I'll try to post a few more from this +batch of misinformed and unsubstantiated articles (with lots of +photos too - all of Graffitti for various rock groups including +Aerosmith! can't include these here,but they're not much to look +at). + +[More From The Minuteman Chronicle Sunday] + +SIGNS, SYMBOLS and SIGNIFICANT DATES +------------------------------------ +By Elizabeth Banks, Senior Reporter + + As a tool in recogniziong and identifying possible satanic +behavior, a chart depicting satanic signs and symbols is available +from BADD INC or the National Coalition on Tv Violence. + Also available is a list of satanic holidays and magic colors. + + According to these organizations signs of Satan include a +horned hand - the satanic salute - the numbers 666, the letters +FFF,or a lightning bolt. And Satan is sometimes written backwards +in "ancient writing" where 'A's are written as triangles. + The traditional "peace sign" in satanism is the symbol of the +Cross of Neri. An upside down cross, often associated with Heavy +metal music, symbolizes a denial of Christianity. + Another "common" symbol is a five pointed star. Two points +represent devil horns and the remaining three symbolize the denial +of the Christian Trinity. + For members of covens, simple lines and arrows, often painted on +traffic signs, point the way to secret meetings. One area police +officer reports seeing such directional signals and several +suburban towns. + Particularly appealing to some teenagers, are satanic alphabets +derived from the ancient runes. Using these alphabets, satanic +worships can communicate in secret. + In satanism the most meaningful holiday is ones own birthday. +THis date is revered by other cult members. + In order of importance other significant holidays are : +Halloween (Oct 31) May Eve (April 30) the Summer Solstice (June 22) +and the Winter Solstice (Dec 22). One tehse days, police report +using extra surveillance for signs of satanic worship and rituals. + Colors are also found to play a role in the occult. Black, often +the color of ceremonial robes, means darkness, sorrow, evil or the +devil. Red, symbolizing blood, can also mean energy, or physical +life. Green is a soothing color, depicting nature and vegitation. + +****************************************************************** + And so the misinformation goes on. Is there any way to deal +with this drivel legally? Its obnoxious, stirs the people up +against the wrong folk and is about as far off as they can get +from what satanists believe... + diff --git a/religious documents/summer.txt b/religious documents/summer.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..83234fa --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/summer.txt @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +ab:summer.txt 14jan90 + + + Midsummer + + The cauldron, filled with water and decorated with flowers, is placed + before the altar. HPS casts the Circle and then stands before the + Cauldron, wand upraised. HP stands in North behind the altar; coven is + in a circle, facing inwards, alternately man and woman. HPS says: + + HPS: "Great One of Heaven, Power of the Sun, + We invoke thee in thy ancient names - + Michael, Balin, Arthur, Lugh, Herne; + Come again as of old into this thy land. + Lift up thy shining spear of light to protect us. + Put to flight the powers of darkness. + Give us fair woodlands and green fields, + Blooming orchards and ripening corn. + Bring us to stand upon thy hill of vision, + And show us the lovely realms of the Gods." + + HPS traces an invoking pentagram upon the HP with her wand. He comes + desoil about the altar picking up his own wand and the scourge. He + plunges the wand into the cauldron and holds it up, saying: + + HP: "The Spear to the Cauldron, the Lance to the Grail, + Spirit to Flesh, Man to Woman, Sun to Earth." + + Saluting HPS with wand, he joins the Coven in their circle. HPS picks up + a sprinkler and stands by the cauldron, saying: + + HPS: "Dance ye about the Cauldron of Cerridwen, the Goddess, and be ye + blessed with the touch of this Ccnsecrated water; even as the Sun, + the Lord of Life, ariseth in his strength in the sign of the + Waters of Life." + + HP leads a slow circle dance deosil about the Cauldron. As each passes, + HPS sprinkles them with water from it. + + Cakes and wine follow and dances, rites and games as the HPS shall + direct. A balefire may be lit and leaped. +---------- + -based on Stewart Farrar's "What Witches Do", which is based on Alex + Sander's BOS + -There's a similar ritual given as "A Beautiful Old Fire Rite to the + Horned God" in "The Grimoire of Lady Sheba". The HPS' first speech + is broken into verses here (but not in the Farrar version) and in + Sheba's version. I think it's easier to read that way. + diff --git a/religious documents/synopsis.txt b/religious documents/synopsis.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f72aaa1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/synopsis.txt @@ -0,0 +1,265 @@ + + The Covenant of the Goddess + + + + Purpose + + + The Covenant of the Goddess was founded in 1975 to increase + cooperation among Witches, and to secure for Witches and covens the + legal protection enjoyed by members of other religions. + + + Functions + + + The Covenant is incorporated as a non-profit religious organization in + California, though it has grown to be a nationwide organization. It is + a confederation of covens and solitaires of various traditions, who + share in the worship of the Goddess and the Old Gods and subscribe to + a common code of ethics. The Covenant holds a Grand Council annually + to elect national officers, set a budget, and decide matters which + require deliberation by the full membership. Decisions are usually + made by consensus. + + + + Code of Ethics: + + + * And ye harm none, do as ye will. + + * Since our religion and the arts and practices peculiar to it + are the gifts of the Goddess, membership and training in a local + coven or tradition are bestowed free, as gifts, and only to those + persons who are deemed worthy to receive them. However a coven + may expect each of its members to bear a fair share of its + ordinary operating expenses. + + * All persons have the right to charge reasonable fees for the + services by which they earn a living, so long as our religion is + not hereby exploited. + + * Every person associated with this Covenant shall respect the + autonomy and sovereignty of each coven, as well as the right of + each coven to oversee the spiritual, mental, emotional and + physical development of its members and students in its own way, + and shall exercise reasonable caution against infringing upon + that right in any way. + + * All persons associated with this Covenant would ever keep in + mind the underlying unity of our religion as well as the + diversity of its manifestations. + + * These ethics shall be understood and interpreted in light of + one another, and especially in light of the traditional laws of + our religion. + + + Confidentiality + + + All information given to the Covenant of the Goddess or any of its + officials is considered strictly confidential, unless you indicate + otherwise. No information about members is published or given out + without explicit written permission. Direct access the the Covenant's + + mailing list is limited to the Board of Directors. Maximum privacy is + assured. + + + Newsletter + + + At every Sabbat the Covenant publishes a newsletter of Craft and Pagan + news, original articles, poetry, humor, rituals and announcements. + Member covens receive the newsletter automatically. Individual + coveners and non-members who donate a suitable tax-deductible gift + will also be placed on the mailing list, to receive the newsletter and + other mailings. Circulation is limited to members and friends of the + Covenant. + + + Finances + + + An annual membership tithe is set every year at the Grand Council to + cover the bare expenses, based on the previous year's expenses and any + projected cost increases. The annual financial statement is published + on the newsletter. Other activities are supported by fund- raising. + All contributions to the Covenant of the Goddess are greatly + appreciated and are tax-deductible. + + + + Applying for membership + + + Any Goddess-supporting coven or solitaire can be eligible for + membership in the Covenant of the Goddess if certain criteria and + requirements are met. All inquiries into membership should be sent to + the National Credentials Officer, who will respond. If the coven or + solitaire is in an area near a local council, the National Officer + will forward the inquiry to the local Credentials Officer, who will + respond by felling out the appropriate form and sending it in with the + initial membership tithe. + + + General Criteria for Coven Membership + + + * Generally focus theology and ritual,etc., around the worship + of the Goddess and the Old Gods (or the Goddess alone). + + * Believe and follow a code of ethics compatible with that of + the Covenant. + + * Have been meeting monthly or oftener for at least six months. + + * Have three or more members who have been formally accepted + into the clergy. + + * Be a cohesive, self- perpetuating group. + + + + Requirements for membership + + + Full Membership: + + The applicant must be recommended without reservation by two + active members of the Covenant. + + Provisional Membership: + + The applicant must be recommended by one member; and then within + a year and a day must make a viable effort to get to know other + members, in order to achieve Full Member status. + + The appropriate Credentials Officer (National or local) shall + verify information regarding the criteria and requirements. + + Coven-At-Large: + + This is the term we use to represent the many Witches who are + solitaires, i.e. practicing alone. Each local council may devise + its own standards for admission of coveners-at-large, in harmony + with national guidelines. + + + Local Councils + + + A local council is a smaller branch of the Covenant, consisting of at + least three member covens of at least two different traditions, in + reasonably close geological proximity to each other. The local + councils meet more often than the national organization. They may + initiate independent projects, sponsor local festivals and workshops, + and generally work together for common goals close to home. As the + Covenant continues to grow, we encourage new members to form their own + local councils. + + Voting + + + When a matter requiring a decision is presented before the Covenant in + council, is is discussed by the members in attendance until a + consensus is reached. If a consensus cannot be reached, then a vote is + taken. A coven holding a current Full Membership is entitled to one + vote. Each such coven also holds the power to veto, though this is + exercised only in extreme cases. A coven with Provisional Membership + is entitled to one vote, but does not hold veto power. + + A coven-at-large is entitled to one vote if, and only if, three + individuals are physically present at the council and unanimous in + their choice of vote. + + + Ministerial Credentials + + + In order to be eligible to receive Ministerial Credentials as a + Priestess of Priest, a person shall: + + + 1. Be an active member of the coven which is a Full Member of the + Covenant. + + 2. Have been 'confirmed' to taking on the full commitment to the + requirements of that coven's Tradition of our religion. + + 3. Have undergone at least a full year of active training for + the ministry of that Tradition. + + + These credentials shall remain valid only so long as the person + remains an active member of the coven which remains an active member + of the Covenant. + + + In order to be eligible to receive Ministerial Credentials as an + elder, a person shall: + + + 1. Satisfy (2.) and (3.) above. + + 2 Have undergone an additional full year of active training for + the ministry. + + 3. Be fully able to form a coven, admit members, and train them + in the tenets and practices of that Tradition. + + + These credentials shall remain valid for life, unless specifically + revoked, so long as the person remains in contact with the Covenant. + + + The National Festival + + + The annual Grand Council or national business meeting is held as part + of a national festival, which is open as part of a national festival, + which is open to the whole membership as well as Pagans and Witches + who are not part of the Covenant. The festival is usually held at a + secluded campground or resort, and moves to a different area of the + country each summer. In addition to the council meeting, the program + includes workshops on magick and the Craft, concerts, a potluck feast, + a talent show, and the opportunity to purchase (or barter for) art, + crafts and ritual tools by Pagan artisans. Registration information is + available in the newsletter. + + + For more information: Write to the Covenant of the Goddess, P.O. Box + 1226, Berkley, Ca. 94704 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/t21sp.txt b/religious documents/t21sp.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..11d3591 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/t21sp.txt @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ + The 21 + Satanic + Points + + +I) Respect not pity or weakness, for they are a disease which makes sick + the strong. + +II) Test always your strength, for therein lies success. + +III) Seek hapiness in victory - but never in peace. + +IV) Enjoy a short rest, better than a long. + +V) Come as a reaper, for thus you will sow. + +VI) Never love anything so much you cannot see it die. + +VII) Build not upon sand but upon rock + And build not for today or yesterday but for all time. + +VIII) Strive ever for more, for conquest is never done. + +IX) And die rather than submit. + +X) Forge not works of art but swords of death, for therein lies great art. + +XI) Learn to raise yourself above yourself so you can triumph over all. + +XII) The blood of the living makes good fertilizer for the seeds of the + new. + +XIII) He who stands atop the highest pyramid of skulls can see the + furthest. + +XIV) Discard not love but treat it as an imposter, but ever be just. + +XV) All that is great is built upon sorrow. + +XVI) Strive not only forwards, but upwards for greatness lies in the + highest. + +XVII) Come as a fresh strong wind that breaks yet also creates. + +XVIII) Let love of life be a goal but let your highest goal be greatness. + +XIX) Nothing is beautiful except man: but most beautiful of all is woman. + +XX) Reject all illusion and lies, for they hinder the strong. + +XXI) What does not kill, makes stronger. + +----------------------------------- 5 ---------------------------------------- + +From: THE BLACK BOOK OF SATAN + by Conrad Robury diff --git a/religious documents/talisman.txt b/religious documents/talisman.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..637cd84 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/talisman.txt @@ -0,0 +1,666 @@ +From: mimir@hardy.u.washington.edu (Al Billings) +Newsgroups: alt.magick +Subject: Something from Slopoke on Talismans +Message-ID: <1iau0vINNjtt@shelley.u.washington.edu> +Date: 5 Jan 93 03:07:11 GMT +Organization: The Friends of Loki Society +Lines: 658 + +This has been taken from the monochrome bulletin board + ( telnet 138.40.11.1 login mono, password mono ) + + Planetary Talismans + ------------------- + + "Distribute this as thou wilt, HOWEVER if thou profit thereby, then may + thou be shunned by all, as a centre of pestilence." + + Nehemiah XII 53 + + + Instructions for making a planetary talisman + -------------------------------------------- + + 1) Decide which planet the operation falls under. Here are some + guidelines : + + Sun - Riches, honour, freedom, great balls of fire ! + Moon - Dreams, religion, secrets, women's 'problems'. + Mercury - Intellect, science, writing skills. + Venus - Riches, art, love, SEX. + Mars - Reckless deeds, violence, BLOODSHED. + Jupiter - Ambition, morals, justice. + Saturn - Death, trustworthyness. + Others - what others ?? + + + 2) Maketh the talisman, using only materials sympathetic to that planet. + + Sun Gold + Moon Silver + Mercury Mercury or tin + Venus Copper + Mars Iron + Jupiter Silver or tin + Saturn Lead + + It is suggested that you employ the magic square, and the sigil of the + spirit (for evil works), or the sigil of the intelligence (for good + workings). + + The rest of the design is left to the ingenium of the magician. + + + 3) Now all that is left is to charge the talisman. It is better to + charge the talisman the same day that it is made; in any case, make sure + that the planetary aspects are favourable for the operation. + + Firstly prepare yourself an ink from the following : + + 10 dozen Gall nuts + 3 oz Green Copperas + 4 oz Rock Alum + + ( Mix the ingredients into a pot of water, then boil over a fire of vine + twigs (gathered in the full moon of March). Simmer for 13 minutes, or + until it has acquired a slightly sticky consistency ). If the ingredients + are out of season then pigeon's blood may be substituted. + + Take a piece of silk of the appropriate colour, and write on it the + names 'Adonay, Ammastius, Anareton, Cosbos, Eloym', whilst reciting Psalms + viii and lxxi. After the talisman has been charged, be sure to keep it + wrapped in this silk, else it will soon lose its efficacy. + + Perform the invocation of the Olympic Spirit who rules over the planet. + The method is given in full in the Isagogue of Arbatel, in essence it is + as follows : + + " O Eternal and Omnipotent God, Who hast ordained the whole creation for + Thy praise and Thy glory, as also for the salvation of man, I beseech Thee + to send Thy Spirit , of the Race, that he + may instruct me concerning those things about which I design to ask him + (or - that he may bring me medicine against the dropsy, etc). + Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done, through Jesus Christ, Thine + only begotten Son, Who is our Lord. Amen. " + + The Olympic Spirits are as follows : + + Sun - Och + Moon - Phul + Mercury - Ophiel + Venus - Hagith + Mars - Phaleg + Jupiter - Bethor + Saturn - Aratron + + + Sigil of Och Sigil of Phul Sigil of Ophiel + _____ + | | | o o o o | / o / + | | | | | | | |/__|_/_______ + | | | | | | | | |/ / + | | | | |__| | | / / + |____|____| |_/| |\_| | /| / + | |/\| | / | / + o o |/ |____/ + + + Sigil of Hagith Sigil of Phaleg + ____________________ + | | | | | | | | + | | | | | /\ | | | + | | | | | | | | | /__\ | | | + | |__|______|__| | | | | h | | | + | | | | | | |______|__|__| + | | | | | |_________|__| + |______| |______| |____________| + + + Sigil of Bethor Sigil of Aratron + ___ + | | | | | | | + | | | | | | | | | + |_|____| | | | _____|__|___ | + | | | | |_____|_____| |______| + | | | | | | + | |___________|___| | | + |_____________| |_____________________| + + + Once summoned to visible appearance it is sufficient to get the Spirit + to hold the talisman and swear (In the Name of God) that he will grant + your request. (If you have difficulty in commanding the Spirit then you + may employ the sigil of that spirit, this should be prepared beforehand + and may be drawn on parchment in blood). + + Discharge the Spirit using the following formula : + + " Forasmuch as thou camest in peace and quietness, having also answered + unto my petitions, I give thanks unto God, in Whose Name thou camest. Now + mayst thou depart in peace unto thine own order; but return unto me again, + when I shall call thee by thy name, or by thine order, or by thine office, + which is granted from the Creator. Amen. + + " ...... Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to + utter anything before God : for God is in heaven, and thou art upon earth; + therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude + of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words." + + + ( Here follow the Kameas of the planets ) + + + SATURN + + Magic Square + ------------ + + +---+---+---+ + | 4 | 9 | 2 | + +---+---+---+ + | 3 | 5 | 7 | + +---+---+---+ + | 8 | 1 | 6 | + +---+---+---+ + + Seal + ---- + o + \ o + \ / + o-----\-/------- + /\ / + / \ / + / \/ + -------/-\-----o + / \ + o \ + o + + Spirit + ------ + Zazel + + o--------------- o + / / + / / + // + + + Intelligence + ------------ + Agiel + + \ + \ + \ + \ \ + | \ \ + | \ \ + | \/ + o + + + + JUPITER + + Magic Square + ------------ + + +----+----+----+----+ + | 4 | 14 | 15 | 1 | + +----+----+----+----+ + | 9 | 7 | 6 | 12 | + +----+----+----+----+ + | 5 | 11 | 10 | 8 | + +----+----+----+----+ + | 16 | 2 | 3 | 13 | + +----+----+----+----+ + + Seal + ---- + o o + \ _______ / + \ / \ / + \ / + | \ / | + | \ / | + | / \ | + | / \ | + / \ + / \_______/ \ + / \ + o o + + + Spirit + ------ + Hismael + + _________ + \ | + \ | + > | + / | + / | + o | + | + + + Intelligence + ------------ + Yophiel + + ______________o + |__________________ + __| + \ + \ + + + MARS + + Magic Square + ------------ + + +----+----+----+----+----+ + | 11 | 24 | 7 | 20 | 3 | + +----+----+----+----+----+ + | 4 | 12 | 25 | 8 | 16 | + +----+----+----+----+----+ + | 17 | 5 | 13 | 21 | 9 | + +----+----+----+----+----+ + | 10 | 18 | 1 | 14 | 22 | + +----+----+----+----+----+ + | 23 | 6 | 19 | 2 | 15 | + +----+----+----+----+----+ + + + Seal + ---- + + o - - o + \ \ / / + \ --- / + \ / + / \ / + / \ / + \ / \ + \ / \ \ + / \ / \ \ + / \ / \ | + / \ | + o \| + + + Spirit + ------ + Bartzabel + + / + / + / + / + / + / /\ + / / / + / / / + \ / / + / o + < / + + Intelligence + ------------ + Nakhiel + + / o + / | + / | + / | + / | + / /| | + / / | | + / / \ | + / / \ | + / / \| + // + + + SUN + + Magic Square + ------------ + + +----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 6 | 32 | 3 | 34 | 35 | 1 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 7 | 11 | 29 | 28 | 8 | 30 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 19 | 14 | 16 | 25 | 23 | 24 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 18 | 20 | 22 | 21 | 17 | 13 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 25 | 29 | 10 | 9 | 26 | 12 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 36 | 5 | 35 | 4 | 2 | 31 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+ + + + Seal + ---- + + O /\ /\ O + \/ \ / \/ + / \ ----- / \ + \/ \ / \/ + / \ \ / / \ + \ \ / / + / / \ \ + \ / / \ \ / + /\ / \ /\ + \ / _____ \ / + /\ / \ /\ + O \/ \/ O + + + Spirit + ------ + Sorath + + /\ /\ + | + | + | + | + | + | + \ | + \| + + Intelligence + ------------ + Graphiel + + |------- + / + / + / + |\ / + | \ / + | \/ + | + o + + + VENUS + ----- + + Magic Square + ------------ + + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 22 | 47 | 16 | 41 | 10 | 35 | 4 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 5 | 23 | 48 | 17 | 42 | 11 | 29 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 30 | 6 | 24 | 49 | 18 | 36 | 12 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 13 | 31 | 7 | 25 | 43 | 19 | 37 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 38 | 14 | 32 | 1 | 26 | 44 | 20 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 21 | 39 | 8 | 33 | 2 | 27 | 45 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 46 | 15 | 40 | 9 | 34 | 3 | 28 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + + Seal + ---- + + o -- --- -- o + \ \ | / / + \ \|/ / + | \ | / + \ \ / + \ \ / \ + / / \ \ + / / __ \ \ + | / / \ \ | + / | | \ | + / \__/ \ / + o \/ + + + Spirit + ------ + Kedemel + + // + / / + \ / / + \ / / + \ o / + \ / + | / + | / + | / + |/ + + + Intelligence + ------------ + Hagiel + + o |\/| + \ | | + \ | | + \ | | + \ | | + \ | | + \ | | + \ | | + \| | + + Intelligence ( Choir of Angels ) + -------------------------------- + Beni Seraphim + + ----------------- + o \ --- + \\ / + \ / + \\ / + \/\ + /\ \ + / \ \ + / \ \ + /______\_____\ + \ + o + + + MERCURY + + Magic Square + ------------ + + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 8 | 58 | 59 | 5 | 4 | 62 | 63 | 1 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 49 | 15 | 14 | 52 | 53 | 11 | 10 | 56 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 41 | 23 | 22 | 44 | 45 | 19 | 18 | 48 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 32 | 34 | 35 | 29 | 28 | 38 | 39 | 25 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 40 | 26 | 27 | 37 | 36 | 30 | 31 | 33 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 17 | 47 | 46 | 20 | 21 | 43 | 42 | 24 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 9 | 55 | 54 | 12 | 13 | 51 | 50 | 16 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 64 | 2 | 3 | 61 | 60 | 6 | 7 | 57 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + + + Seal + ---- + o----------------------o + | \ /\ /| + | \ / \ / | + | \/ O \ / | + | / \ / \ | + | / \ / \ | + |< O * O >| + | \ / \ / | + | \ / \ / | + | /\ O / \ | + | / \ / \ | + | / \/ \| + o----------------------o + + Spirit + ------ + Taphthartharath + + ^ + | | + | | + | | + | | + | | + | \ + | \ + | / \ \ + \ \ \ \ + \ \ \ \ + \ \ \/ + \ \ + \/ + + + + Intelligence + ------------ + Tiriel + + // + / / + / / + o____/_________ + /____/______| + / + / + / + / + / + o + + + Moon + ---- + + Magic Square + ------------ + + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 37 | 78 | 29 | 70 | 21 | 62 | 13 | 54 | 5 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 6 | 38 | 79 | 30 | 71 | 22 | 63 | 14 | 46 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 47 | 7 | 39 | 80 | 31 | 72 | 23 | 55 | 15 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 16 | 48 | 8 | 40 | 81 | 32 | 64 | 24 | 56 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 57 | 17 | 49 | 9 | 41 | 73 | 33 | 65 | 25 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 26 | 58 | 18 | 50 | 1 | 42 | 14 | 34 | 66 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 67 | 27 | 59 | 10 | 51 | 2 | 43 | 75 | 35 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 36 | 68 | 19 | 60 | 11 | 52 | 3 | 44 | 76 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + | 77 | 28 | 69 | 20 | 61 | 12 | 53 | 4 | 45 | + +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+ + + Seal + ---- + o \ / o + \ \--------/ / + \ ------ / + \ \ / / + \\ \ / // + | | \ / | | + | | o | | + | | / \ | | + // / \ \\ + / / \ \ + / ------ \ + / /--------\ \ + o / \ o + + Spirit + ------ + Chashmodai + + ^ + / \ + / \ + / _____\ + / + ___/ + / / + /_/ + + + Spirit of the Spirits + --------------------- + Shad Barschemoth Ha-Schartathan + + __o___ + / \ + o o o | + | | ____|___/ + | | \ | + |_/|| \ | + || \ | + || \| + || \ + || |\ + o | \ + /______|__\ + | + o + + Intelligence + ------------ + Malkah Betarshisim + + _o + / + o /\ + / \ / + / / / o + / / / \/\ / + \/ / / / / + \/ / \ + \/ \ + \ + \ + o + + Intelligence of the Intelligences + --------------------------------- + Ve-ad Ruachoth Ha-Schekalim + o + |\ \ + | \ + | +---\--o + | | \ + | | \ + | \ \ + | / \ + | \o \ + | \ + |___o \ + o diff --git a/religious documents/taoself.txt b/religious documents/taoself.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6612129 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/taoself.txt @@ -0,0 +1,462 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU The document's ftp +filename and the full directory path are given in the coombspapers top level +INDEX file. +date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 + +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his kind +permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, ie. paper +copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, +Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK. email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be sent +to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded on in +person by myself. + +.......................................Beginning of file............................................... + + + +INTRODUCTION + +Early Taoist literature was written in an abstract and somewhat amorphous style, +as a result of which it is sometimes thought of as being metaphysical. The same +label may of course be attached to many ancient writings, produced as they were, +in times when such abstract notions as thoughts, feelings and ethics were +considered to be the 'heavenly attributes' of man. However, this does not mean +that Taoist literature was intended for occult purposes. As Cheng Lin states + + "There is nothing in it which may be construed as + encouraging the occult ... such as ... divination + and alchemy." (1) + +In common with ancient Greek mythology it is probable that early Taoist writers +employed alagorical techniques, and that, since psychology did not then exist +as a subject, wrote of 'the heavens' in much the same way as we might write of +'the mind' as the 'seat of knowledge and wisdom'. We know from the work of +Freud (2) that this was so in the case of the Greek writings but whereas the +psychological models which initially developed in the West from Greek mythology +represent a psychology of morbid states, the more recently developed psychology +of individual development and 'wholeness' (humanistic psychology) is much closer +to the tradition of Taoist teaching. + +Although Taoism has been known of in the West for over two hundred years, it is +only recently that it has been recognised that much of what was thought to be +Taoism is in fact Confucianism. Far from being a stoic philosophy (simply +accepting the status quo) Taoism is in fact a dynamic system, emphasising an +holistic approach to life, and the necessity of realising the significance of +the changing interactions which take place between the individual, society, and +the world of nature. + +The use of techniques developed from Taoist principles is by now well known. +The dual symbol 'yin-yang' theory was adopted by western mathematicians over +two hundred years ago as 'binary notation', and this century has seen its major +aplication in computing. Even in orthodox medicine increasing numbers of +practitioners recognize the value of acupuncture, even if they do not understand +its underlying principles. Tai chi, the Taoist exercise system is widely +practiced, and there are many scientific theories which have developed as a +result of the application of Taoist principles. Although the 'behaviourists' +have a strong foothold in psychology, there is evidence that in this area also, +interest in Taoism is growing, and includes an interest in its associated +method, 'Ch'an' (better known by its Japanese name 'Zen'). + +Although often presented in a somewhat commercial manner, the benefits of +meditation are now widely acepted in the West, and such books as 'The Tao of +Physics' (3) and 'The Turning Point' (4) have done much to capture the interest +of physical and social scientists in Taoism just as Taoism and Ch'an painting +fired the imagination of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century artists +and designers of the Post-Impressionist and Art Nouveau schools. + +Whilst Taoism is manifesting itself in the West through a variety of media and +disciplines, it should not be thought that its acceptance has been sudden, for, +as will be readily appreciated, we who constitute western society prefer to +understand before we experience. + +The Taoist sages of old would have acknowledged this hesitancy as a natural +phenomenon, for Taoism did not sweep through the Far East like a flood, rather +it was accepted 'a drop at a time'. It is an aspect of Taoist philosophy that +enforced or sudden change is usually short lived, whilst the changes which +occur in the fullness of time, or 'without contrived effort' (wu-wei) are likely +to be both more benefitial and longer lasting. + +As I have (hopefully) indicated, the philosophy of Taoism has many wide ranging +applications, but it is not my intention to examine this diversity here. As the +title states, my concern in this work is to illustrate a particular application +of that philosphy, its application to psychology. It must be emphasized +however, that in Taoism, psychology is not only concerned with the individual, +but also with the relationships between the selves who constitute a society, +and the relationships between individuals, groups, and the world at large. +Furthermore, its teachings on the significance of the process of change and +factors which impinge on change, rather than only on the thing (or things) +which change, is probably not easy for the Western mind (and especially the +scientifically trained Western mind) to comprehend. This difficulty might be +caused in part by the fact that Taoist psychology includes both individual and +interactive (or 'social') psychology, whereas, in the West, these are frequently +separate disciplines. + +The text is dividied into two parts. The first part contains the primary +statements of the 'the tao of the self', these statements being psychologically +orientated, (and most frequently) re- statements of texts selected from two +classical Taoist works. The sources most frequently used are; + +a) The Book of Changes (BC) +b) The Way of Reason and Virtue (RV) + +(The initial letters shown in parenthases are used in the text to indicate +source references.) + +Part two consists of commentaries which explain and provide more detailed +information on the text shown in part one. The initial statements and the +commentaries are identically numbered for cross-referral. The sources of the +original Taoist texts are referenced in part two. + +The 'Book of Changes' (I Ching) is virtually always described in terms of its +sixty-four hexagrams, and it is therefore these numbers which are cited in the +references. Since the 'wings' included in larger editions of the I Ching are +Confucian, rather than Taoist, in origin, they have not been used in this work. +Most English editions of the I Ching are designed primarily as aids to problem +solving and forecasting, but the reader should be wary of those translations +which are written for the purposes of divination. The numbers cited in this +work refer to the numbers in 'King Wen's (World of Senses)' version of the I +Ching, rather than the sequence shown in Fu Hsi's (World of Though)' version. + +The majority of English translations of 'The Way of Reason and Virtue' (Tao Te +Ching) are divided into numbered 'verses' and the reference numbers employed +refer to the paragraph numbers employed in the majority of translations. Since +the numbering of the paragraphs is usually in continuous ascending order (verse +two begins with paragraph five, and verse three with paragraph eight, etc.) the +reader should have no difficulty in finding the appropriate source. The +translation used for the compilation of this work is that of Cheng Lin, which +is based on the text of Wang Bih (c.226 - 249). + +Other references are also shown in parenthesis. These include references to; + +c) The Gateless Gate (GG) +d) A Time of Blossoming (TB) +e) The Self as Process (SP) + +The first two of these are my own translations. 'The Gateless Gate' was first +published in 1972, and 'A Time of Blossoming' in 1975. Both were originally +published by the British School of Taoist Zen. The page numbers cited refer to +the page numbers of the first edition in each instance; this is also the case +with reference to 'The Self as Process', published by the Institute of Holistic +Development in 1983. + +The sources of all other references are detailed in the reference section at +the end of the book. + +The illustration shows Lao Tzu riding on an ox or water buffalo, on his way to +retirement. Legend tells us that during this journey Lao Tzu stopped for two +days, in which time he wrote the Tao Te Ching. In common with the 'ox-herding' +pictures (or 'Ten Bulls' of Zen) the 'man riding the ox' symbolizes the +enlightened man, or sage, having found his own true nature by taming the bull, +which represents his 'ego self'. In this instance, the figure, Lao Tzu, holds +bamboo strips, forming a scroll of the type on which the original Tao Te Ching +was said to have been written. + + SOSAN ONE + + The Finger and the Moon + +A traditional Zen Taoist teaching session (called 'sesshin') consists of periods +of quietness and the practice of tranquility, a short talk by the teacher +providing the content of the sesshin, and a period of questions and answers. +The talk rarely exceeds fifteen minutes in duration, and is considered by some +to be the 'focal point' of the sesshin. It is at least an important reason for +the participants gathering together. + +Because of its comprehensive nature, Zen Taoism is a complex subject. For this +reason, and because its traditions are based only upon practices of proven +value, the contents of this book are presented in the form of the short talks +('sosan') traditionally used in sesshin. Most of these sosan introduce +specialist terminology which may be new to the 'novice' reader. I have used +such terminology where I believe it to be important to a proper understanding of +Taoist Zen concepts. Each of these terms is explained or translated when it is +introduced, some sosan being concerned solely with the 'meaning' of a +particulat term. In these instances it is not the term which is of importance +(except for purposes of communication) but the underlying concept. + +It is common for the student of Zen Taoism (or of anything else for that matter) +to think at a particular time, that he or she fully understands a given concept, +only to later discover that his or her understanding was perhaps not so complete +after all. The reader should not therefore consider it a personal failing if +something which initially seemed to be clear, suddenly looses its clarity. It +is during the question and answer period ('mondo') that learning is considered +to take place (the saying is, "sosan is for teaching, mondo for learning") and +since the writer and reader are 'once removed', the medium of print is but a +poor substitute for face to face teaching, and no real substitute for learning, +particularly since it does not provide the opportunity for questions and +answers. + +Even face to face teaching, relying as it does upon verbal communication and the +pauses and inflections of speech, can provide only the verbal labels or words +which describe the concepts it tries to communicate. The concepts themselves +are entities of a different nature, not the words which are used to describe or +define them. The reader is therefore warned that the expressive beauty of a Zen +Taoist aphorism might all too easily hide its message. + +It is worth mentioning that these aphorisms come in many forms, and are usually +teaching devices, used in order to provide the student with a means of gaining +insight, regarding himself or herself, about 'the human condition', and about +the 'meaning' of Zen and Taoism, which in essence, are so merged as to be one +and the same. There are indeed many thousands of people who have never attended +a formal sesshin, but who have in some way drawn comfort from or been aided in +their personal development by reading or hearing one of these aphorisms which +they found or believed to be pertinent to their particular situation. + +Such an aphorism, which concerns the danger of being 'carried away by words', +reads, + + "Look not at the finger pointing to the moon, + But to the moon at which the finger points, + And remember that the finger would not itself be seen + But for the light cast by the moon at which it points." + +SOSAN TWO + +"....and the Freedom to Grow." + +Zen Taoism is a combination of Taoist philosophy and Zen (or Ch'an) methods. It +may be considered as either a philosophical system or a way of life, although +having no deity or form of worship, it is not a religion. Nevertheless, it does +have its own ideology, perhaps best expressed by its traditional 'gessho' +(gesture of greeting and farewell) symbolising the wish that one's companion +enjoys 'love and peace, and the freedom to grow'. At pragmatic level, Zen +Taoism accepts that 'the freedom to grow' is often problematic, and much of its +teaching is concerned with energising and sustaining personal development, to +the mutual benefit of the individual and society. + +Although the central concepts of Zen Taoism are relatively few in number, the +fact that they form a system by their interactions and interdependency creates +a certain kind of complexity. It may therefore be validly described as both +simple and complex. Whilst this may seem to be paradoxical, a brief description +of 'Tai Chi', a popular form of Zen Taoist calisthenics, will illustrate that it +is paradoxical only at verbal level. In Tai Chi the participant performs a set +sequence of movements, but (unlike Yoga) the positions or postures are not +'frozen'; rather, the movement continues with fluidity throughout the sequence. +Among Zen Taoists, Tai Chi is known as 'meditation in movement', implying that +although the body is in movement, the mind is 'still' (calm or tranquil). + +Zen Taoism does not consider stillness and movement to be in opposition, but +complimentary to each other. Although it is something of an over-simplification, +Taoism may be described as a philosophy of change and therefore of movement (or +process), whilst Zen teaches the importance of stillness. Taoism had already +taught the significance of change for over two thousand years when, in the sixth +century of the Christian era (CE), it adopted the Zen method of achieving +stillness or tranquility of mind, this method being a form of seated meditation, +known as 'za-zen'. A little while later, Taoism adopted the teaching system of +Zen, whilst for its own part, Zen was by this time using the dialectic method of +teaching employed by the Taoist sages and Classical Greek scholars. + +The result of these interactions has been the development of a unique and highly +effective method of teaching and applying the concepts and themes of Taoism. +This method has proven to be so adaptable that it has been successfully applied +to many subjects and activities. The following examples are intended to +illustrate only the diversity and range of some of these applications. + +In the visual arts we have the 'discovery' of Impressionism and recent +developments in pottery; in the performing arts the teaching of music and +movement now use Zen methods; in the martial arts we have Kendo, Judo and +Karate; and in the 'helping professions' we have non-directive counselling. In +sport there is a coaching movement called 'the inner game'; in mathematics, the +binary system; in psychology, process theory; and in clinical medicine, the +'Balintist' school reflects its Taoist influence. + +Zen Taoism adheres to Chinese Zen (or Ch'an), which should not be confused with +'Japanese Zen', which is a sect of Buddhism. Zen Buddhism is spoken of as the +'brother' of Zen Taoism, but it must be appreciated that the Articles of +Buddhist Faith are not binding upon the Zen Taoist, unless he or she is also a +Buddhist. + +It is perhaps the fact that a Zen Taoist can follow any humanist or humanistic/ +religious path which has encouraged its following around the world. However, +another reason is undoubtedly that Zen Taoism is unique in that it does not +attempt to ignore complex issues, nor over-simplify them by treating them as +'absolutes'. It teaches that although there are some absolute values, there +are many more instances where that which was a right course of action can become +invalid because of changing circumstances, and that what is a 'right path' for +one individual may not meet the needs of another. + +These prefactory remarks should not be taken to imply that Zen Taoism has an +answer to every question, nor a solution to every problem. However, it does +offer advice which has aided countless numbers of people in resolving, if not +'solving' many of the paradoxes of life. Its major teaching is that life is +not a problem awaiting a solution, or a problem waiting to be solved, but a +reality to be experienced. + +When applied therapeutically, Zen Taoism accepts that many of the situations +with which life confronts us are of our own making, but that many more are not. +It accepts also that in either of these cases the situation may be painful to +us. It attempts to help the person in pain to bear that pain, and sometimes to +grow as a result of it. In its developmental aspects it is applicable to both +intellectual and 'everyday' situations. As a philosophical system it is often +regarded as 'a microcosm of the universe', and therefore takes many years to +'understand'. It does not offer 'short cuts', nor promise 'instant +enlightenment'. For many it is a lifetime's work, although those who accept it +as worthy of such deep concentration consider it to be a way of life, rather +than 'work'. + +Fortunately though, the Zen Taoist does not have to understand the entire +system in order to gain from the benefits it provides, for Zen Taoism presents +the opportunity of experiencing that which too many systems have ignored, +forgotten, or become afraid to teach, namely, love and peace, and the freedom +to grow. + +AUTHORIZATION: THE RED 'CHOP' PRINTED BELOW IS THE 'INKA SHOMEI' (SEAL OF +APPROVAL) OF SHIH-TIEN ROSHI, PRINCIPAL OF THE BRITISH SCHOOL OF TAOIST +PHILOSOPHY (TAO CHIA). THE SEAL INDICATES THAT THIS BOOK IS AUTHORIZED AND +APPROVED BY THE SCHOOL. + +THE TAO OF THE SELF; 1 + +THE SHARING OF LOVE + +The flowers and trees have sun and rain to aid their blossoming. As human +beings, we should have love to help us grow into self being. (TB 40) If we +erect barriers to the giving and receiving of love, we may, in our folly, +inhibit both ourselves and those who love us, from expressing that love. (TB 30) +When we live in true being, self being, we realize our potential to love, and to +be loved.(TB 42) + +We sometimes deny ourselves the experience of love because we fear that if we +receive love we might be or become unworthy of it, and thus lose it. (TB 26) +This fear can be caused by living in a society which values that which it terms +'success', and condemns that which it calls 'failure'. Such a society can breed +success only at the expense of those whom it describes as failures. If we live +this fear in our minds we fear even to develop our own potential, lest we fail. +In this way we deny our own self being.(TB28) + +Only when we have true being, self being, and so no longer have a need of self +centred thoughts and actions, then we are ready to share love with the one who +is our counterpart, helping them to achieve their self being, and aiding the +realization of our own self being. (TB 60) + +In the act of sharing love, we each accept that the other has the same rights +as we have ourselves (TB 62), we are not jealous of the achievements or +attainments of the other, but welcome and share them as our own, as the fruits +of love. (TB 64) + +In the act of sharing love we do not look for the imperfections of the other. +We look for our own imperfections, and welcome the help of our counterpart in +overcoming those imperfections; in this way we help each other to grow (TB 66), +for we change our primary function from that of satisfying our own needs to that +of considering the needs of our counterpart, and giving them a priority equal to +our own. (TB 68) + +In such an act as sharing love we may use our bodies to create a beauty which +both may share, and so become a part (TB 70), for in this act there is no +subject and no object, for both are made one through the union of the two. +(TB 76) + + +HUMAN DEVELOPMENT + +From the seed there grows the shoot, and then the bud appears, a tight but +secure knot, providing its own protection. But the bud does not remain the bud +for ever, for as the plant matures, the bud begins to free itself, and bursts +open to become the flower. (TB 10) + +From the baby there should grow the child, secure in the environment which its +parents provide. And the child should grow into the adolescent, who, through +maturation, develops into the self actualized adult, secure in the knowledge of +his or her own being. (TB 12) + +It is wonderful when society accepts that childhood is the time in which the +shoot manifests itself and that adolescence is the time when the bud appears, +and with the tremendous strength with which youth should be endowed, begins to +blossom into the flower of self being. (TB 14) During the process of maturation, +we become open to receive experience, just as the blossoming flower receives the +summer dew, and so become free to accept ourselves for what we are, which is the +birthright of every being, just as the life giving warmth of the sun is the +right of everything that grows. (TB 16) + +Unfortunately, it is not common for society to allow us such freeedom. Indeed, +it is often the case that the very nature of man prohibits such a society from +ever existing. But this is not to say that we cannot blossom as does the flower, +for if we live our lives to the full, complete in our self being, we do not deny +that with which life presents us, but use our experiences to aid our maturation. +(TB 18) + + +PARENTAL LOVE + +As parents, if we can see that our offspring are not mere 'objects', and no less +'subjects' than are we, then we can cease to manipulate them. Thus, the child +is allowed to become the adolescent, and the adolescent to become the adult, to +the mutual benefit of all. (TB 54) + +In parential love, we should place the development of our offspring before our +own wishes, and before our own self delusion. When, as parents, we do not +inhibit the development of our offspring, then they may grow into adults, +secure in their own self being, as a result of our act of love. (TB 56) + +Love between brothers and sisters may develop and grow where wise parents do not +use one of their offspring as a goad or spur to the other. (TB 52) + + +SELF DEVELOPMENT + +If we choose to use it for that purpose, life may become a time of blossoming. +(TB 20) + +One of the major inhibitors of human blossoming is probably life itself, for in +living our lives to the full, we are required to accept that much of what we +will experience is neither beautiful or enjoyable. Because of this, we might +erect barriers to the reception of experience, not realizing that if it were not +for ugliness, beauty could not exist, and that if we cannot experience sorrow, +then neither can we experience joy. (TB 24) + +We must each look into ourselves, and so find the courage to break free from +those concepts of ourselves, which we have allowed to predetermine what we are, +what we should be, or what we should remain. (TB 32) + +We should realise that there is no limit to the realization of human potential, +other than those limits which we ourselves set, or allow others to set in our +name. (TB 34) + +When we can accept that there are no limits to the realization of our potential, +then we can begin to find that energy which changes the whole of mankind; for +just as the parting of the petals which form the bud, allows that bud to blossom +into the flower, and thus change the face of the earth, so the blossoming of one +indiviudal into a self actualized being, changes the face of mankind. (TB 38) + + + +CREATIVITY + +Through the development of self being we may gain the ability to change the +shape of things with our hands, and thus change the function of those things. +(TB 42) + +When we have self being, we may gain the ability, by the use of our hands and +minds, to produce things which have beauty, and whose beauty may be shared by +those who are open to accept it. (TB 44) + + +HUMAN FELLOWSHIP + +When we have true being, self being, we allow others their self being and so +may become one with our fellow beings. This we may achieve only by ceasing to +consider ourselves as the primary subject, and our fellow beings merely as +objects which are there for us to manipulate. (TB 50) + +When we can see our own imperfections as readily as we can see the imperfections +of others, and when we are as tolerant of the neutral imperfections of others as +we are of our own, then it may be said that we love our fellow beings. (TB 46) + +When we can accept others for what they are, rather than try to change them into +something which we would have them be for our own sakes, then we perform an act +of love. (TB 48) + +..............................................End of file.............................................. + + + +-- +Barry Kapke, director | "All that we are | INTERNET: dharma@netcom.com +DharmaNet International | is the result of | FIDONET: 1:125/33.0 +P.O. Box 4951 | what we have thought." | BBS: (510) 836-4717 +Berkeley, CA 94704-4951 | (BUDDHA) | VOICEMAIL: (510) 465-7403 + diff --git a/religious documents/taote1-5.txt b/religious documents/taote1-5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f355d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/taote1-5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,412 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU The document's +ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the coombspapers top +level INDEX file. +date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 + +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his +kind permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, +ie. paper copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. +Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, Cardiff, South +Glamorgan, Wales, UK. email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be +sent to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded +on in person by myself. + +...............................Beginning of file............................. +.....................................1 of 5.................................. + + + C O N T E N T S + +INTRODUCTORY NOTES: + PREFACE + BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES + ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS + INTRODUCTION + NOTES ON THE INTERPRETATION + +TRANSLATION OF LAO TZU'S TAO TE CHING +1. THE EMBODIMENT OF TAO +2. LETTING GO OF COMPARISONS +3. WITHOUT SEEKING ACCLAIM +4. THE UNFATHOMABLE TAO +5. WITHOUT INTENTION +6. COMPLETION +7. SHEATHING THE LIGHT +8. THE WAY OF WATER +9. WITHOUT EXTREMES +10. CLEANING THE DARK MIRROR +11. THE UTILITY OF NON-EXISTENCE +12. THE REPRESSION OF DESIRES +13. UNMOVED AND UNMOVING +14. EXPERIENCING THE MYSTERY +15. THE MANIFESTATION OF THE TAO IN MAN +16. RETURNING TO THE ROOT +17. LEADERSHIP BY EXCEPTION +18. THE DECAY OF ETHICS +19. RETURNING TO NATURALNESS +20. BEING DIFFERENT FROM ORDINARY MEN +21. FINDING THE ESSENCE OF TAO +22. YIELDING TO MAINTAIN INTEGRITY +23. ACCEPTING THE IRREVOCABLE +24. EXCESS +25. THE CREATIVE PRINCIPLE OF TAO +26. CENTRING +27. FOLLOWING THE TAO +28. RETAINING INTEGRITY +29. TAKING NO ACTION +30. A CAVEAT AGAINST VIOLENCE +31. MAINTAINING PEACE +32. IF THE TAO WERE OBSERVED +33. WITHOUT FORCE: WITHOUT PERISHING +34. WITHOUT CONTRIVING +35. THE BENEVOLENT HOST +36. OVERCOMING +37. THE EXERCISE OF LEADERSHIP +38. THE CONCERNS OF THE GREAT +39. SUFFICIENCY AND QUIETNESS +40. BEING AND NOT BEING +41. SAMENESS AND DIFFERENCE +42. THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE TAO +43. AT ONE WITH THE TAO +44. SUFFICIENCY +45. CHANGES +46. MODERATING DESIRE AND AMBITION +47. DISCOVERING THE DISTANT +48. FORGETTING KNOWLEDGE +49. THE VIRTUE OF RECEPTIVITY +50. THE VALUE SET ON LIFE +51. THE NOURISHMENT OF THE TAO +52. RETURNING TO THE SOURCE +53. EVIDENCE +54. CULTIVATING INSIGHT +55. MYSTERIOUS VIRTUE +56. VIRTUOUS PASSIVITY +57. SIMPLIFICATION +58. TRANSFORMATIONS ACCORDING TO CIRCUMSTANCES +59. GUARDING THE TAO +60. RULING +61. HUMILITY +62. SHARING THE TREASURE +63. BEGINNING AND COMPLETING +64. STAYING WITH THE MYSTERY +65. VIRTUOUS GOVERNMENT +66. LEADING FROM BEHIND +67. THE THREE PRECIOUS ATTRIBUTES +68. WITHOUT DESIRE +69. THE USE OF THE MYSTERIOUS TAO +70. HIDDEN IDENTITY +71. WITHOUT SICKNESS +72. LOVING THE SELF +73. ACTING WITH A SUFFICIENCY +74. USURPING THE TAO +75. INJURING THROUGH GREED +76. AGAINST TRUSTING IN STRENGTH +77. THE WAY OF THE TAO +78. SINCERITY +79. FULFILLING ONE'S OBLIGATIONS +80. STANDING ALONE +81. MANIFESTING SIMPLICITY + + + LAO TZU + TAO TE CHING + TRANSLATED BY S.ROSENTHAL + + I N T R O D U C T O R Y N O T E S + (Preface; Bibliography and References; + Acknowledgements;Introduction; Notes on the Interpretation) + +PREFACE + +A number of problems arise when translating any work from a written language, +such as early Chinese, into twentieth century English. One such problem +is the difference between the written forms of the two languages, another +is the difference between the two cultures, and a third is the time which +elapsed between the writing of the original work, in this instance, some +time between six hundred and three hundred years before the Christian era, +and the compilation of the textual arrangement by Wang Bih, dating from +the third century A.D., used today. + +There are however, other problems for any translator/interpreter of this +work. The first is the number of changes in the form of written Chinese +characters since the original work was written. At least one such change +occurred prior to the arrangement of the text by Wang Bih, and at least +another three have been implemented since his time. + +The source of another problem has been described by Dr. L. Wieger (please +see bibliography/reference section below) as, ".... the ignorance of scribes +who continually brought to light faulty forms which were .... reproduced +by posterity ....". + +Another problem related to those mentioned immediately above is the change +in writing instruments used by Chinese scribes. With the invention of the +paint brush, the efficient 'fibre tipped pen' (made from vegetable fibre +soaked in ink, and held in a hollow bamboo tube) fell into disuse. The +resultant change in writing style was due to the fact that the writer had +less control over the stroke of a brush than of an instrument with a fine, +firm tip. Despite this handicap, the brush could be used to paint on silk, +and was considered to produce a more 'artistic' form of calligraphy than +the earlier instrument. Furthermore, it became almost a 'hallmark of a +gentleman' to write in a free, flowing and virtually illegible style. There +can be no doubt that this was the cause of many errors which were made and +subsequently compounded. + +A further problem is the possibility of confusion, caused in part by the +multiple meanings of some of the limited number of characters said to have +been used in the original text, this being attributed to the cryptic style +of Lao Tzu. It is also in part a result of the nature of early Chinese +grammatical structure itself. Even if a literal translation were desirable, +it would make little sense to the reader schooled only in Western grammar, +who would therefore be unfairly presented with the problem of 'guessing +the missing words', which, it may be said, is a primary function of the +translator of any work such as this. + +Having discussed the problems which exist for the translator of such a work +as the Tao Te Ching, it is only reasonable to mention briefly the problem +which exists for the reader, concerning the significance of various influences +upon a translator. + +There are already at least forty-two English translations of this work (listed +by Clark Melling of the University of New Mexico), each, I am sure, carried +out as ably and honestly as was possible. However, it is difficult, if +not impossible, for any person not to be influenced by the philosophy, beliefs, +culture and politics of their own society, historical period and education +system. + +Even a brief glance at various translations of the work of Lao Tzu will +illustrate how such a 'hidden curriculum' surreptitiously imposes itself +upon even the most honest of men, thus creating a major problem for the +reader. This is the case even for the reader who merely hopes to see an +accurate English rendering of the work, but the reader's problems are +compounded if he or she seeks a translation which presents a reasonably +accurate description of Taoism (Tao Chia), the 'system' of which the Tao +Te Ching is a major work. + +It must be said of the existing English translations, that most treat the +Tao Te Ching as a literary or poetic work, whilst many others treat it as +a work of mysticism, rather than a work of classical scholarship, which +I believe it to be, describing the key concepts of Taoist philosophy (tao +chia) expressed in a poetic manner. My intention here has been to provide +a translation suitable for those readers wishing to discover something of +that philosophy, as described in one of its major works. + +On the matter of 'translation', I should state that I consider the term +to be a misnomer when applied to an English rendering of this classical +Chinese work. For the reasons mentioned above, I believe that any such +work is at least as much, and probably more a matter of interpretation than +of literal translation. This problem is admirably expressed by Arthur Hummel, +former Head of the Division of Orientalia at the Library of Congress when +he writes in his foreword to Dr. C.H. Wu's translation (referenced), "Any +translation is an interpretation .... for the language of one tradition +does not provide exact verbal equivalents for all the creative ideas of +another tradition." + +Whilst I have tried to ensure the accuracy of my own sources, this does +not of course guarantee the accuracy of the result. Furthermore, since I +have not attempted to be literally accurate in my interpretation, and because +this rendering is not intended to compete with such translations, I have +listed below some titles, including ten translations of the Tao Te Ching, +which have been of value in this undertaking. They are listed in order +to acknowledge the work of the translators, as well as to provide alternative +sources for those readers wishing to conduct their own research and comparisons. +The other titles are those of books on the Chinese language, and these are +listed for the benefit of those readers wishing to undertake their own +translations. + +BIBLIOGRAHY AND REFERENCES + +'Tao Te Ching', translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English, is published +by Wildwood House. It concerns itself with the 'spiritual level of being', +and contains Chinese characters written in a cursive form which although +not always easy to read, are certainly aesthetically pleasing. However, +the photographs which illustrate this edition are also pleasing to the eye, +and it is as much for the illustrations as for the translation that this +edition is recommended. + +'Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching' is translated by D.C. Lau, and published by Penguin +Books in their 'Penguin Classics' series. It is currently in its seventeenth +printing, the first edition dating from nineteen sixty-three. Although +this translation is written in a style which I find rather too literal for +my own taste, it carries a very lucid introduction, as well as footnotes, +a glossary and a reference section, all of which recommend it to the reader +who wishes to check reference sources. + +'Truth and Nature', by Cheng Lin, published in Hong Kong, does not claim +to be a translation, but interprets the Tao Te Ching in a very interesting +manner. Two arrangements of the Chinese text are included, one according +to the arrangement of Wang Bih. The reader wishing to use the original +language as a source will find the Chinese text in this edition of value. +It must be emphasized however, that there are a number of Chinese texts +available. Whilst these usually conform to Wang Bih's arrangment of the +text, they do vary in detail. + +'The Simple Way of Lao Tsze' (sic) is a very pleasant analysis of the Tao +Te Ching first published by 'The Shrine of Wisdom' in London some sixty +years ago. It contains many footnotes, and is an interpretation rather +than a direct translation, attempting to describe the 'spirit' of Taoism, +and doing so without pretence. However, some readers may find the nomenclature +somewhat esoteric (although it is only reasonable to expect that the same +criticism might be levelled at my own interpretation). + +'Lao-Tzu: "My Words are very easy to understand" ' by Man-jan Cheng, translated +by Tam C.Gibbs, and published by North Atlantic Books, is a Confucionist +(rather than Taoist) rendering. It therefore contains material of value +to the student who wishes to 'see both sides of the coin'. This edition +consists of a series of lectures by Man-jan Cheng, and includes the Chinese +texts of both the Tao Te Ching and the lectures. The printing of the Chinese +characters is large and clearly printed, which commends it to the student +requiring a text in the 'original' language, although it must be emphasized +that there are a number of differences between the Chinese text in this +edition and that of Dr. Wu, mentioned immediately below. + +The translation by Dr. J.C.H. Wu is in its eighteenth printing, a fact which +will not surprise any reader of this delightful little edition. Small in +size, and containing an excellently drafted Chinese text, this translation +is likely to appeal to the reader who is of the Catholic faith. + +'The Way and Its Power' is the title of the translation by Arthur Waley, +published as 'A Mandala Book' by Unwin Paperbacks. As the translator himself +says, it "represents a compromise...", but even so it is possibly the most +widely read translation in the U.K. It is for this reason that it is included +it as a reference work worthy of reading. The use of the word 'power' in +the title of this translation provides a clue to the style of the translator, +who employs very strong academic (but non-Taoist) arguments, which are made +in his copious introduction. + +The translation entitled 'Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu', translated by A.J. Bahm, +and published by Frederick Ungar is well supported by notes in an 'afterword'. +The translation itself is written in a very pleasant and easy-to-read style, +which is (unfortunately) unusual for the work of a professor of philosophy. + +'Tao: A New Way of Thinking' by Chang Chung-yuan, published by Harper and +Row, is a translation which contains excellent commentaries and footnotes. +The translator undoubtedly has expert historical and philosophical knowledge +which he puts to good use in this excellent edition, in which he compares +various aspects of Taoist philosophy with that of European philosophers. + +The tenth translation used for my own researches is 'The Tao Te Ching of +Lao Tzu' translated by James Legge as one of a two volume set of 'The Texts +of Taoism', published by Dover Publications. Although written in eighteen- +ninety, this translation withstands the test of time extremely well. The +translator was very knowledegable in his subject, as well as of Chinese +philosophy, literature and religions, and does not hesitate to state his +opinions, arguing a strong case where these differ from those of other +translators from the Chinese. + +Because of the changes in calligraphic style mentioned earlier, any student +wishing to conduct their own research into the Chinese text of the Tao Te +Ching will need to be at least familiar with the relationship between modern +and classical Chinese characters. + +An outstanding book covering the 'middle period' is the 'Ch'ien Tzu Wen' +(Thousand Character Classic) of Chou Hsing-szu, written some time between +507 and 521 A.D., an excellent English language edition being that edited +by F. W. Paar, with calligraphy by Fong-Chih Lui, and published by Frederick +Ungar in 1963. This edition also carries translations in French, German +and Latin. Although it is not a rendering of the Tao Te Ching, it contains +many passages from that work. + +'Chinese Characters' by L. Wieger, translated from the French by L. Davrout +(mentioned previously) is a lexicon with etymological lessons, but also +contains both a phonetic dictionary and a dictionary of characters arranged +by 'radicals' (the means by which it is possible to 'find' a character written +in 'Kanji', the root form of both Chinese and Japanese writing in a dictionary). +This book also contains a number of examples of 'early period' characters +which will be of value to those readers interested in the calligraphy and +other graphic communication. + +In similar vein, 'Analysis of Chinese Characters', by G.D. Wilder and J.H. +Ingram, published by Dover Publications, complements the work of Wieger, +listing one thousand and two characters, together with derivations and modern +alternatives. + +Chang Hsuan's work on 'The Etymologies of 3000 Chinese Characters in Common +Usage', published by Hong Kong University Press, also shows the derivations +of many Chinese characters, from the 'small seal' script. Unfortunately +however, this book contains virtually no English and is therefore intended +primarily for the student who is already proficient in the Chinese language. + +The earliest form of Chinese writing predates even the Tao Te Ching, and +possibly originates from the same period as the original I Ching of Fu Hsi. +This writing consists of characters inscribed on bone, shell and antler +horn, the collection being known as 'The Couling-Chalfant Collection of +Inscribed Oracle Bones'. The collection has long been dissipated, some +pieces being in the Royal Scottish Museum (Edinburgh), some in the Carnegie +Museum (Pittsburg), other pieces in the British Museum (London), and the +remainder in the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago). Fortunately +though, an excellent catalogue exists, drawn by F.H. Chalfant, edited by +R.S. Britton, and published by the Commercial Press, Shanghai, in 1935. +This book illustrates each of the pieces, showing the characters inscribed +on the original material. It is a particularly valuable work for those +interested in tracing the origins of many of the Chinese characters in use +to this day. Translations are not provided. + +The philosopher Chuang Tzu, a follower of Lao Tzu, did much to clarify the +somewhat criptic style of his teacher. The book 'Chuang Tzu' translated +by H.A. Giles, published by Unwin Paperbacks, renders the sayings of the +later master into English in a clear and fine literary style. This book, +said to have been originally written by Chuang Tzu himself sometime between +the fourth and third centuries before the Christian era, contains a number +of references to the Tao Te Ching. For this reason it is a valuable book, +but its value is increased by the humour and depth inherent in Chuang Tzu's +writing. + +It may be of interest to some readers that the dictionaries I have used +are Lin Yutang's 'Chinese English Dictionary of Modern Usage', published +by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Andrew Nelson's 'The Modern +Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary', published by Charles E. +Tuttle. + +Since it may seem strange that I have used a Japanese dictionary to translate +a Chinese work, it is perhaps worth mentioning that many Japanese characters +are Chinese in origin, and that the characters in Andrew Nelson's dictionary +are listed in a sequence, and according to a system different from the same +characters in the dictionary by Lin Yutang. Although the spoken Chinese +and Japanese languages differ considerably, the written Japanese language +has its roots in the Chinese. I therefore use the Japanese dictionary as +a 'cross-reference' for finding the meaning of characters which I have +difficulty in locating by Lin- Yutang's arrangement. + +ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS + +The fact that I have not listed more of the forty-two English translations +of the Tao Te Ching is not meant to reflect in any way on their quality, +but simply means that I have not used them on this occasion; all of them, +of course, have something of value to offer. + +Since I have acknowledged the work of other translators and interpreters, +it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the help I received from my +own teachers, each of whom attempted to aid my understanding and development +in his own unique manner. The reason why I refrain from mentioning them +by name in print is not due to disrespect, but rather out of respect for +the Taoist belief that, + "To boast of one's teachers + is to try to give credence + to one's own words." +Fortunately it is not considered boastful to mention in print, one's own +students. It is therefore with pleasure and gratitude that I acknowledge +the help I have received from those who consider me their teacher, and through +whose questions I have gained so much. On this occassion my special thanks +go to Ian (and his wife, Jeanette) for their company, the help they provided +without being asked, and for their patience; to Michael, who did most of +the proof-reading; to Jackie who transcribed my notes to the 'word processor' +(which does not know that its 'sixty-four bit binary system' is an outcome +of Taoist 'yin-yang' philosophy) and who tried to ensure that what I had +written made sense; and to Judith, particularly for providing me with a +copy of her B.A. dissertation 'A Comparison of Plotinus and Chuang Tzu', +which was of great help in explaining some of the more obscure phrases in +other translated texts. + +Finally, I take this opportunity (on behalf of Judith and all other members +of the English speaking Zen Taoist community) to thank Professor Cavendish, +former Professor of Philosophy at Saint David's University College, Lampeter, +who personally supervised her dissertation, which is of value to us all. + +.............................End of file..................................... +...............................1 of 5........................................ + diff --git a/religious documents/taote2-5.txt b/religious documents/taote2-5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..13fe153 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/taote2-5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,365 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU The document's +ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the coombspapers top +level INDEX file. +date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 + +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his +kind permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, +ie. paper copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. +Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, Cardiff, South +Glamorgan, Wales, UK. email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be +sent to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded +on in person by myself. + +.......................................Beginning of file............................................... +............................................2 of 5.......................................................... + +INTRODUCTION: THE TAO TE CHING, LAO TZU, TAOISM AND ZEN + +There is frequently some confusion between three practices, each of which +is generically termed 'Taoism'. Since this confusion exists, it is important +that the prospective student of Taoism can distinguish between them. The +three activities, or practices of Taoism are Philosohical or speculative +Taoism, Religious or esoteric Taoism, and Alchemical or 'debased' Taoism. + +The earliest of these is Philosophical Taoism (Tao-chia), which is believed +to have developed between the sixth to the second century before the Christian +era, from the earlier 'Yin-Yang' school of philosophy, whose teachings it +inherited and integrated into its own 'philosophical system' through the +'I Ching', now (unfortunately) most widely known as a work of 'divination'. + +Philosophical Taoism is generally thought to have been based on the 'Tao +Te Ching' of the possibly legendary Lao Tzu, and the work of his follower, +Chuang Tzu, which is known through the book which bears his name, and is +otherwise without title. + +The major development and establishment of Religious Taoism (Tao- chiao) +took place during the two Han dynasties (from 206 B.C. to 220 A.D.), and +considered the Tao Te Ching as divine teaching, using specific interpretations +of Lao Tzu's work as one of its own primary scriptures. The Religious Taoists +deified Lao Tzu, describing him as the 'T'ai Shang Lao-chun'. In later +centuries, Religious Taoism was to become a very powerful movement throughout +China, where it was widely practiced, at least until the middle of the twentieth +century. + +The earliest known reference to Alchemy (in Eastern and Western Literature) +is in the 'Shi-chi', written about eighty-five B.C., but the 'Chou'-i ts'an +t'ung ch'i' of Wei Po-yang (c.200 A.D.) was probably the first major alchemical +text to use a Taoist work to this end, some auhorities believeing the treatise +to be a derivation of the I Ching. This form of alchemy was referred to +by the Philosophical Taoists as 'debased Taoism'. + +Of these three 'forms' of Taoism (or practices which called themselves Taoist), +Religious and Alchemical Taoism are not mentioned in the text of this work, +other than where they, and similar practices, were referred to, usually +indirectly, in the Chinese text (and then usually in a derisory manner). + +Readers of both the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching will readily apppreciate +from many of Lao Tzu's statements, that he was certainly well versed in +the concepts explained in the earlier work, and accepted its major precept, +that all things are always in a state (or process) of change ('I Ching' +means 'Book of Changes'). However, even allowing for the age of the I Ching, +and the certainty that its concepts were well known in China at the time +of Lao Tzu, it would seem, from historical records, that the Tao Te Ching +was considered to be a perplexing book, even in the period in which it was +written. Although not mentioning either Lao Tzu or the Tao Te Ching (nor +the I Ching) by name, many of Chuang Tzu's stories (which are probably +apocryphal) serve to illustrate and explain points from the Tao Te Ching. +If there were no confusion or doubt, presumably such explanatory material +would not have been required. + +In its original form, the Tao Te Ching (as it is now known) is believed +to have consisted of eighty-one short chapters, these being arranged in +two sections, known as the 'Tao Ching' and the 'Te Ching'. The first of +these was comprised of thirty-seven chapters, and the second of forty-four +chapters. The length of the original work is said to have been approximately +five- thousand characters, and it is probable that these were written on +bamboo strips or slats, which would then have been bound together to form +two scrolls, each appearing somewhat like a venitian blind with vertical +slats. These were a common form of 'record' in the period of Lao Tzu, this +being known as 'The Period of the Warring States'. + +Since it is not known with absolute certainty that a person named 'Lao Tzu' +actually lived during the period of the warring states, to catagorically +describe the Tao Te Ching as the work of Lao Tzu would be without sufficiently +valid historical foundation. Even the 'biography of Lao Tzu' which may +be found in the 'Historical Records' (Shih-chi) of Ssu-ma Ch'ien (second +century B.C.) is not without its inconsistencies. This record describes +Lao Tzu as having been an archivist of the Court of Chou, and further states +that he is said to have personally instructed Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius). + +It is in this last statement that one inconsistency may be found, for other +chronicles state the date of the death of Lao Tzu to precede that of the +birth of Kung Fu Tzu by nearly half a century. Even the author of the +'Historical Records' states his doubts as to the authenticity of the +information available regarding Lao Tzu, and some scholars maintain that the +Tao Te Ching does not present a distinctive or single point of view. They +argue that it is probably a compilation or anthology of sayings from various +writers and schools of thought, reaching its present form in the third century +B.C. + +Conversly, according to legend, it is said that on his retirement from public +office, Lao Tzu headed west, and that the guardian of the pass to the state +of Ch'in requested that he write a treatise on the Tao before departing. +It is then that Lao Tzu is supposed to have sat for two days, in which time +he wrote the Tao Te Ching, after which he left, some writers stating that +he was never heard of again, others describing his ascent to heaven in the +form of a magnificent dragon. + +Whichever story we believe concerning the existence of Lao Tzu, we may +reasonably conclude (at least) that there is much contradictory evidence. +Although I cannot offer conclusive proof that he did exist, I do not believe +that the contradictions prove that such a person did not exist, and neither do +I believe they prove the Tao Te Ching to have been written by more than +one person. As I have stated, the reasons for my beliefs are admittedly +without sufficient 'hard evidence' to withstand strong philosophical questioning, +but they are offered here for those who might wish to know of an argument +contrary to current academic opinion. + +Since one meaning of the words 'Lao Tzu' is 'Old Man', it is very unlikely +that they were used as an ordinary (or 'proper') name, but could well have +been a 'nickname'. Some authorities claim that this was so in the case +of the person in question, the nickname possibly being derived from the +fact (?) that he was born with white hair, like that of an old man. This +theory seems to borne out by the fact that the second character, can also +be used to mean 'child'. However, in the context of teaching and learning, +it also means 'master' or 'scholar' (compared with 'pupil' or 'student'). +Furthermore, and for the purpose of this discussion, more importantly, the +same two characters which form the Chinese 'Lao Tzu' form the words 'old +scholar', pronounced as 'roshi' in Japanese, a title usually reserved in +that language for a master of Zen teaching. + +This means that 'Lao Tzu' is the Chinese equivalent to the Japanese 'Roshi'. +For this reason I believe there probably was a person called Lao Tzu, but +that Lao Tzu was his title, rather than his name. It may of course be that +there were many 'old scholars', all known by that title, but the existence +of many has never been considered proof of the non-existence of one. + +At this juncture it is perhaps necessary to mention briefly the historical +and philosophical relationship between Taoism, Ch'an and Zen. The word +'Zen' is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese 'Ch'an', the system +attributed to the 'Bodhidharma' (in Japanese 'Daruma'), described by followers +of Zen Buddhism as the twenty-eighth Buddhist Patriarch, who is said to have +arrived in China in 526 A.D. Although well known to followers of Zen, it is +not always known to others that the Bodhidharma then spent nine years in the +earliest Chinese Buddhist temple, which had by that time been in existence +for over four hundred years. Furthermore, during that period, the original +Buddhism of India had undergone many changes in China, much of its teaching +having been adapted (Tibetan Buddhists might claim, 'adulterated') by its +proximity to Taoism. + +Today, in the West at least, the most widely known sects of Zen are Buddhist. +However, even before its acceptance by Buddhists, Ch'an (or 'Zen') was accepted +by the Chinese followers of Philosophical Taoism (Tao Chia) as an adjunct +to their own philosophy and practices. So it was that the 'non-religious' +aspects of Zen and Taoism became integrated into the system known in China +as 'Ch'an Tao-chia'. + +It is probable that we will never know all the reasons for this two-way +integration which occurred between Tao-chia and Ch'an, but some of the reasons +become apparent when we learn something of the similarities between the +philosophies underlying the two systems. It will hopefully suffice to mention +that the practitioners of each group probably felt an affinity with the +'fluidity' of thought and action of the practitioners of the other, recognizing +this as stemming from the same philosophical source as their own. Similarly, +it is very likely that the members of both groups appreciated the 'ethics' +of the other, since both philosophies emphasize the development of the +individual as a prerequisite to the development of society. + +Notwithstanding any inaccuracies in my own interpretation of events, of +even greater historical significance is the fact that from about six hundred +A.D., the survival of Philosophical Taoism was made possible only through +its adoption by Ch'an. Had it not been for this fact, the antagonistic +attitude of the Religious Taoists, combined with their growing governmental +power, might easily have resulted in the forceful demise of Taoist Philosophy +as it is known today. + +As to the continued integration and co-existence of Taoism and Zen, we +fortunately need look no further than the words of the great Zen scholar, +Professor D.T. Suzuki, who said, + "To ask a question about Zen is to ask a question + about the Tao." + +All this is of course intended to illustrate the links between the two +practices which use the same written characters ( ) as a teaching name or +honorary title, and that this title may have been used by the author of the Tao +Te Ching wishing to retain his anonymity. + +If this was the case, it could have been either for reasons of personal +safety on the part of the author, or out of deference to his own teachers. +Any reader who has knowledge of the history of China during the peiod of +the warring states will readily appreciate, and hopefully sympathise with +the first of these reasons, but the second reason perhaps requires some +explanation. This is now offered. + +Carrying out one's work in an unostentatious manner is an important aspect +of Taoist teaching, as is respect for one's teachers. In some instances +these two principles were adhered to so rigorously that a writer or painter +might either not sign his work at all, or use a pseudonym compiled (possibly +as an anagram) from the names of his most revered teachers. It is therefore +possible that the author of the Tao Te Ching used the pseudonym 'Lao Tzu' +as an acknowledgement of his own teacher, using the title 'old scholar' +to refer to that teacher as he might have been known and referred to by +his own students. + +It is quite likely that the title 'Roshi', used in Zen (Japanese Ch'an) +developed as an 'official title' from its earlier Chinese usage. In Zen, +it is thought to be rank bad manners to use the real name of one's own teacher +in a published work, at least in the context of he or she being one's own +teacher (for reasons which I have attempted to explain in the 'Acknowledgements' +section), but it is quite acceptable to refer to him (or her) by an honorary +title. Combine any of these possibilties with the fact that one's own teacher +may have been given or have chosen a 'teaching name' (a pseudonym under +which a teacher may work) and it becomes easier to understand why it is +impossible to be definitive regarding the 'real name' of the author or authors +of the Tao Te Ching. For the purposes of this discussion however, I wish +to continue from the assumption that the Tao Te Ching did have an author, +and that we may, without too much 'licence', refer to him as Lao Tzu. + +The second factor which causes me to believe that we should not completely +disregard the legend of the writing of the Tao Te Ching concerns its cryptic +style. The basis of my belief is twofold. In the first instance, if, as +legend tells us, Lao Tzu completed his writing in two days, it is not surprising +that it was cryptic, since this would have required him to write at a rate +of two and one half thousand words each day. It may therefore be that he +wrote as succinctly as possible in order to complete his task as quickly +as possible, so that he could continue on his journey into retirement. + +Those who know the Tao Te Ching will also know that Lao Tzu did not teach +that a task should be rushed; rather, he taught that all things should occur +in their natural time. This leads to my second point regarding the cryptic +style of the original work. + +We know that the keeper of the pass, who made the request for a written +copy of Lao Tzu's thoughts, was a well known Taoist of the period named +Yin Hsi, also referred to as 'Kwan Yin'. As a Taoist, he would certainly +have been familiar with the teachings of Lao Tzu, even though, as he himself +is supposed to have told the old philosopher, because of the nature of his +work, he had not been able to avail himself of personal tuition from the +master. It could be that the 'vagueness' (or seemingly esoteric nature +of the first chapter) is due to the fact that Lao Tzu would have had no +reason to explain the Tao to someone who was already versed in Tao-chia. + +I believe we can assume that, although possibly not nationally famous, Lao +Tzu would certainly have been well known in his own province. This would +certainly seem to be the case, since Yin Hsi either recognised the figure +of Lao Tzu, or his name, otherwise he would not have made his request to +that particular traveller. + +Assuming the keeper of the pass to know something of the teaching of Lao +Tzu, his request could have been made in the form of a list of questions, +to which Lao Tzu might have written the answers in the form of brief (or +cryptic) notes, as an 'aide memoire'. This might of course also account +for the apparent discontinuity of the completed work. If the text were +written in answer to a number of questions, the sequence of the text would +conform to that of the questions, which might easily have been prepared +by Yin Hsi over a period of time, in the hope that the occasion might arise +when he would meet with a scholar such as Lao Tzu, with whom he could then +discuss his questions. This could account for the apparent repetitions +in the text, for two questions both phrased in a similar manner, would +presumably be answered in a similar manner. + +This concludes the summary of my own beliefs regarding the legend of Lao +Tzu and the Tao Te Ching, other than to add the rider used frequently even +by those who disagree totally with my own interpretation of the legend. +This is that, irrespective of the authenticity of the legend and the problem +of identifying its authorship, the majority of scholars date the origin +of the text of the Tao Te Ching no later than 400 B.C. Furthermore, there +is virtually no dissent among scholars as to its great value as a philosophical, +literary and historical work. + + +NOTES ON THE INTERPRETATION + +The text of the Tao Te Ching follows immediately after these notes, the +arrangement following the convention set by Wan Bih in the third century +A.D. Each of the eighty-one sections is shown in English, the text being +as brief as English grammar will permit, whilst still retaining sensibility. +The differences between my own rendering of the text and those of other +translators will seem to some readers to be minor; to others they may seem +radical. In either case, the reader is of course free to compare the texts +by referring to those editions cited earlier in these notes. + +The Chinese characters employed as chapter headings are written in a style +approximating to the period in which the original text was written. The +style is commonly known as 'small seal script'. Readers wishing to use modern +Chinese characters for their own researches may of course refer to any or +each of the Chinese texts mentioned earlier, and there are of course many +others. + +'Small seal script' is by no means the earliest written form of Chinese, +but it is certainly one of the most aesthetically pleasing and easiest to +read. Being more pictographic than later forms, the symbolism of the images +contained within the small seal characters is easier to understand than +it is in later forms. Modern Chinese script is virtually always more stylized, +and (if hand written) frequently more 'freehand', and therefore sometimes +difficult for the inexperienced reader to decipher. + +Each small seal script chapter heading provides an approximate rendering +of either the English title beneath or beside which it appears, or of the +key concept or concepts embodied in the text of that chapter. As with the +Chinese text itself, there are a number of different 'authentic' chapter +headings. In most instances I have used a 'traditional' heading, but where +even the traditional meaning is unclear I have used the heading I believe +to be most appropriate to the contents of the chapter. Following the usual +conventions, horizontally presented script should be read from left to right, +and vertically presented script should be read from top to bottom, the right +hand column first. + +As I have stated earlier, because of the cryptic nature of the original +text, and also because of the difference between the structure of English +and Chinese grammar, a completely literal translation of the Chinese text +would make little if any sense to the reader not versed in both the written +Chinese language and the concepts of Taoism. This means that virtually +any intelligible English rendering of the Tao Te Ching is bound to be longer +than the original Chinese text. The variation in the length of many English +(and Chinese) texts of the Tao Te Ching will be readily apparent to the +reader of those translations listed in the reference section. + +There are many valid arguments for and against the inclusion of commentaries +on the text in any edition of the Tao Te Ching, but in this instance I hope +that the English rendering will 'speak for itself', thus serving the purpose +for which it is intended. It is for this reason that no separate commentaries +are included. +The text in this edition is somewhat longer than that found in most other +translations. There are two reasons for this, the first being that it includes +certain expansions resulting from points raised in discussion by my own +students. In those instances where there was apparent lack of clarity in +my original drafts, additions have been made to clarify the concepts involved. +(Where additions have been made to the most commonly available Chinese and +English editions, the addition and the reason for its inclusion are annotated +in the appendix at the end of the book.) The second reason is the form of +interpretation employed, the rationale of which is now briefly described. + +I do not believe it is by accident that the Tao Te Ching can be interpreted +at many different levels without contradiction. The actual interpretation +placed upon the text by any translator will depend on many factors, as has +already been discussed. However, there is no doubt that Tao-chia and Ch'an +are both very much concerned with individual development, maintaining that +this is essential to a healthy society. + +It is from this particular viewpoint that the rationale for this interpretation +has developed. Although other translators have certainly raised this issue, +to the best of my knowledge this is the first rendering to give priority +to this aspect of the Tao Te Ching. It was because my own students requested +such an interpretation in English, and because we were unable to find such +an interpretation that I undertook the translation and interpretation presented +here. + + + Stanley Rosenthal + (Shi-tien Roshi) + + British School of Zen Taoism + Cardiff, September 1984 + +...............................End of file..................................... +..................................2 of 5....................................... + + + diff --git a/religious documents/taote3-5.txt b/religious documents/taote3-5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7490438 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/taote3-5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,347 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU The document's +ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the coombspapers top +level INDEX file. +date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 + +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his +kind permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, +ie. paper copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. +Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, Cardiff, South +Glamorgan, Wales, UK. email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be +sent to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded +on in person by myself. + +.......................................Beginning of file............................................... +............................................3 of 5.......................................................... + +THE TAO AND ITS NAME + +1. Naming things enables us to differentiate between them, but names are +words, and words easily give rise to confusion. They do not replace the +thing or direct experience of the thing which they name, but only represent +or describe it. + +Consider a thing such as a strawberry. If we wish to find the word 'strawberry', +we look in a dictionary; if we wish to find a description of a strawberry, +we look in an encyclopaedia. But if we are hungry, we do not go to the +library, but to the field where fine strawberries may be found. If we do +not know where there is such a field, we might seek guidance as to where +fine strawberries may be found. A book on the Tao is like such a guide. +It can point us in the direction of the strawberry patch, but cannot provide +the fruit itself. It can give an idea of the taste of Tao, but of itself, +has no taste to compare with direct experience of the Tao. + +Consider now three things: There is the universal principle which enables +all things to be, and to flourish naturally; there is the name 'Tao', by +which that universal principle is known; and there are words which describe +the manifestations of the Tao. + +Even the name 'Tao' is only a convenience, and should not be confused with +the universal principle which bears that name, for such a principle embraces +all things, so cannot be accurately named nor adequately described. This +means that Tao cannot be understood, for it is infinite, whereas the mind +of man is finite, and that which is finite cannot encompass that which is +infinite. + +Although we cannot understand Tao, we are not prevented from having knowledge +of it, for understanding stems from one of the two forms of knowledge. +It stems from that which is called cognitive knowledge, the knowledge born +of words and numbers, and other similar devices. The other form of knowledge, +conative knowledge, needs no words or other such devices, for it is the +form of knowledge born of direct personal experience. So it is that conative +knowledge is also known as experiential knowledge. + +Cognitive and experiential knowledge both have their roots in reality, but +reality is complex, and complexity is more of a barrier to cognitive knowledge +than it is to experiential knowledge, for when we seek cognitive knowledge +of a thing, that is, understanding of it, the knowledge we gain of that +thing is understanding only of its manifestations, which is not knowledge +of the thing itself. + +We may seek to understand a thing, rather than to experience it, because, +in a world beset with man made dangers, it is frequently safer to understand +than to experience. Tao is not man made, and there is nothing in it to +fear. So it is that we may experience Tao without fear. + +When we cease to seek cognitive knowledge, that is, cease to seek understanding +of a thing, we can gain experiential knowledge of that thing. This is why +it is said that understanding Tao is not the same as knowing Tao; that +understanding Tao is only to know that which it manifests, and that knowing Tao +is to be one with the universal principal which is Tao. This is to say that +knowledge of Tao is not the same as understanding Tao. To know Tao is to +experience both Tao and the manifestations of that universal principle. As +human beings, we are born as manifestations of Tao. + +If this seems complex, the reason is because Tao is both simple and complex. +It is complex when we try to understand it, and simple when we allow ourselves +to experience it. Trying to understand Tao is like closing the shutters +of a window before looking for a shadow. We might close the shutters to +prevent anyone from discovering our treasure, but the same shutters prevent +the moonlight from entering the room. All there is in the room is darkness, +and in total darkness we cannot find the shadow, no matter how hard or +diligently we seek. + +We call one thing a shadow, and another darkness, but the shadow is darkness, +and the darkness shadow, for in reality, both darkness and shadow are absence +of light, yet we call one shadow and the other darkness. The shadow is +darkness in the midst of light, but within total darkenss, the shadow seems +to disappear, for darkness is a shadow within shadows. We may think that +the shadow has been destroyed when all light is removed, but it has not +been wiped away; in reality it has grown, but we need light even to see +that form of darkenss which we call a shadow. + +Such is the pursuit of the universal priciple called Tao, that if we seek +to understand it, we prevent the very means by which it may be found, for +the only way in which we might find Tao is through the experience of Tao. +We find Tao when we do not seek it, and when we seek it, it leaves us, just +as the silver moonlight leaves the room when we close the shutters. We +find and know Tao when we allow ourselves to find and know it, just as the +moonlight returns when we allow it to return. + +We do not need to seek Tao as we seek physical treasures such as jade or +gold. We do not need to seek Tao as we seek such treasures as fame or titles. +We do not need to seek the treasure of Tao, for although the greatest of +treasures, it is also the most common. Perhaps it is bacause it is so common +that so few men find it; they seek it only in mysterious and secret places, +in chasms and caves, and in the workplace of the alchemist. The Tao is +not hidden in these places, and is hidden only from those who frequent and +inhabit them, secretively, and with the shutters closed. + +Just as darkness may be known as the absence of light, so to may light be +known as the absence of darkness. When we experience darkness and light +as having the same source, we are close to the Tao, for Tao is the source +of both darkness and light, just as it is also the source of all other natural +things. When we experience ourselves as part of Tao, as a shadow or reflection +of the universal principle, we have found it, for it is said that "Experience +of Tao is Tao". + +1. KNOWLEDGE OF 'THE TAO', AND EXPERIENCE OF THE TAO. +There is a way in which we may conduct our lives without regrets, and in +such a manner as assists in developing and realizing our individual potential, +without harming others, or inhibiting the realization of their potential, +and which is beneficial to a healthy society. + +Such a way of life may of course be conducted without a name, and without +description, but in order that others may know of it, and so as to distinguish +it from other ways in which life may be conducted, we give it a name, and +use words to describe it. + +When discussing or describing this way in which life may be conducted, rather +than refer to it in full, for convenience, we refer to it as 'the way', +meaning simply that the discussion is concerned with this particular way, +not that it is the only way of conducting one's life. In order that we +might distinguish it more easily from other ways, we refer to it also by +its original name, which is 'Tao'. + +By intellectual intent, that is, through thought and words, and by considering +ourselves as non-participating observers of this way of life, we may gain +knowledge of its manifestations; but it is only through participation that +we can actually experience such a way of life for ourselves. + +Knowledge of anything is not the same as the thing of which we have that +knowledge. When we have knowledge of a thing but do not have experience +of it, in trying to describe that thing, all we can describe is our knowledge, +not the thing itself. Equally, even when we have experience of a thing, +all we can convey is knowledge of that experience, not the experience itself. + +Knowledge and experience are both real, but they are different realities, +and their relationship is frequently made complex by what distinguishes +them, one from the other. When they are used according to that which is +appropriate to the situation, we may develop that way of life which enables +us to pass through the barrier of such complexities. We may have knowledge +of "Tao", but Tao itself can only be experienced. + +2. LETTING GO OF OPPOSITES. +It is the nature of the ordinary person, the person who is not yet at one +wityh the Tao, to compare the manifestations of the natural qualities possessed +by things. Such a person tries to learn of such qualities by distinguishing +between their manifestations, and so learns only of their comparative +manifestations. + +So it is that the ordinary person might consider one thing beautiful when +compared with another which he considers to be ugly; one thing skillfully +made compared with another which he considers badly made. He knows of what +he has as a result of knowing what he does not have, and of that which he +considers easy through that which he considers difficult. He considers +one thing long by comparing it with another thing which he considers short; +one thing high and another low. He knows of noise through silence and of +silence through noise, and learns of that which leads through that which +follows. + +When such comparisons are made by a sage, that is a person who is in harmony +with the Tao, that person is aware of making a judgement, and that judgements +are relative to the person who makes them, and to the situation in which +they are made, as much as they are relative to that which is judged. + +Through the experience and knowledge through which he has gained his wisdom, +the sage is aware that all things change, and that a judgement which is +right in one situation might easily be wrong in another situation. He is +therefore aware that he who seems to lead does not always lead, and that +he who seems to follow does not always follow. + +Because of this awareness, the sage frequently seems neither to lead nor +follow, and often seems to do nothing, for that which he does is done without +guile; it is done naturally, being neither easy nor difficult, not big or +small. Because he accomplishes his task and then lets go of it without +seeking credit, he cannot be discredited. Thus, his teaching lasts for ever, +and he is held in high esteem. + +3. WITHOUT SEEKING ACCLAIM. +The talented person who is also wise, retains humility, and so does not +create rivalry. The person who possesses material things, and who does +not boast of his possessions, does much to prevent stealing. Those who +are jealous of talents, skills or possessions of others, easily become +possessed themselves by envy. + +The sage is satisfied with a sufficiency; he is not jealous, and so is free +of envy. He does not seek fame and titles, but maintains his energy and +keeps himself supple. He minimizes his desires, and does not train himself +in guile. He thus remains pure at heart. By acting in an uncontrived manner, +the harmony of the inner world of his thoughts and the external world of +his environment is maintained. He remains at peace with himself. + +For these reasons, an administration which is concerned with the welfare +of those whom it serves, does not encourage the seeking of status and titles; +it does not create jealousy and rivalry amongst the people, but ensures +that they are able to have a sufficiency, without causing them to become +discontent, therefore the members of such an administration do not seek +honours for themselves, nor act with guile towards the people. + +4. THE UNFATHOMABLE TAO. +The mind should not be filled with desires. The individual who is at one +with the Tao is aware of the distinction between that which is needed as +a sufficiency, and that which is a desire, or merely wanted rather than +needed. + +It is the manner of the Tao that even though continuously used, it is naturally +replenished, never being emptied, and never being as full as a goblet which +is filled to the brim and therefore spills its fine spring water upon the +ground. The Tao therefore does not waste that with which it is charged, +yet always remains a source of nourishment for those who are not already +so full that they cannot partake of it. + +Even the finest blade will lose its sharpeness if tempered beyond its mettle. +Even the most finely tempered sword is of no avail against water, and will +shatter if struck against a rock. A tangled cord is of little use after +it has been untangled by cutting it. + +Just as a fine sword should be used only by an experienced swordsman, intellect +should be tempered with experience. By this means, tangled cord may be +untangled, and seemingly insoluable problems resolved; colours and hues +may be harmonized to create fine paintings, and people enabled to exist +in unity with each other because they no longer feel that they exist only +in the shadow of the brilliance of others. + +To conduct oneself without guile is to conduct oneself in a natural manner, +and to do this is to be in contact with nature. By maintaining awareness +of the way of nature, the wise person becomes aware of the Tao, and so becomes +aware that this is how its seemingly unfathomable mysteries may be experienced. + +5. TRANQUIL BUT UNCEASING. +Those things which are in opposition with each other are not benevolent +towards each other, and may even treat each other with contempt or malevolence. + +Although the creatures which are born of nature may be in opposition with +each other, nature itself is in opposition to nothing for there is nothing +for it to oppose. It acts without conscious intention, and it is therefore +neither deliberately benevolent, contemptuous nor malevolent. + +In this respect the way of the Tao is the same as the way of nature. Therefore, +even when acting in a benevolent manner, the sage does not act from any +conscious desire to be benevolent. +Through his manner of breathing like a babe, he remains free of conscious +desire, and so retains his tranquility. By this means he is empty of desire, +and his energy is not drained from him. + +2. THE MANIFESTATION OF TAO THROUGH COMPLIMENTARY OPPOSITES +All physical things possess certain natural qualities, such as size, shape +and colour. Since the universal principle encompasses all things, so it +encompasses their natural qualities. + +Being possessed by all things, natural qualities are general to all things, +but in order to relate to a quality, we think of it as it exists relative +to a particular thing, and to ourselves. We therefore think of and describe +a quality according to how it is manifested through one particular thing +compared with another. Thus, we judge one thing to be big, compared with +another thing, which we think of as small; one person young, and another +old; one sound noisy, and another quiet. Equally, we judge and compare +by thinking of the aesthetic quality in terms of its manifestations, 'beautiful' +or 'ugly'; morality in terms of good or bad; possession in terms of having +or not having; ability in terms of ease or difficulty; length in terms of +long or short; height in terms of high or low; sound in terms of noisy or +quiet; light in terms of brightness or darkness. + +Although many of the manifestations which we compare are judged by us to +be opposites, one to the other, they are not in opposition, but are +complimentary, for even extremes are nothing other than aspects or specific +examples of the quality which encompasses them. Both big and small are +manifestations or examples of size, young and old are examples of age, noise +and quietness are aspects of sound, and brightness and darkness are extremes +of light. + +It is the nature of the ordinary man to compare and judge the manifestations +of the naturally occurring qualities inherent in things and in situations. +It is not wrong to do this, but we should not delude ourselves into believing +that we thereby describe the quality rather than a manifestation of the +quality. + +Whilst all judgements are comparative, a judgement is frequently, if not +always, relative to the individual who makes that judgement, and also to +the time at which it is made. To the young child, the father may be old, +but when the son reaches that age, it is unlikely that he will consider +himself old. To the child, the garden fence is high, but when the child +grows bigger, the same fence is low. The adult in his physical prime knows +that to run ten miles, which is easy at that time, will become more difficult +as he becomes older, but that that the patience required to walk will become +easier. + +The sage knows that qualitative judgements, such as old and young, big and +small, easy and difficult, or leading and following, relate as much to the +person who makes that judgement, as they relate to the thing or action +described. Consider a sage and an ordinary man sitting on a hill in the late +evening, looking down on the road below. When darkness has fallen, they both +see the light of two lanterns approaching, one yellow, the other red, bobbing +gently as their bearers pass by. From the positions of the two lights, the +ordinary man knows that the bearer of the yellow lantern leads the bearer +of the red. As he watches, he sees the red lantern draw level with the +yellow, and as they pass beneath him, the red lantern preceding the yellow. + +The ordinary man wonders why the two lantern bearers do not walk side by +side. The sage, who has seen what his companion has seen, thinks it right +that the two travellers should do as they have done, to walk side by side +through the night, neither leading and neither following the other. + +The sage is aware that he who seems to lead does not always lead, and that +he who seems to follow does not always follow. Because of this, the sage +frequently seems neither to lead nor follow, and often seems to do nothing, +for that which he does is natural, being neither easy nor difficult, not +big or small. + +Those changes which occur naturally in life, the sage accepts as natural, +accepting them as an opportunity for learning, whilst realizing that knowledge +is not his possession. Because he knows that the credit for learning is +due to the willingness of the student, he teaches without teaching, but +by allowing his students to observe the virtue of observing natural qualities, +rather than only comparing and judging their manifestations. He does this +without seeking credit, and continues without contriving to be given credit. +Because of this, his teaching lasts for ever, and he is held in high esteem. + +The gifted person retains humility and thus prevents jealousy. The person +who does not boast of his possessions prevents stealing. Only those who +have greed are perplexed by envy. The wise person is therefore satisfied +with a sufficiency, and is free of envy. He does not seek fame and titles, +but keeps himself strong and supple. He minimizes his desires, and does +not train himself in guile. He thus remains pure at heart. By acting in +an uncontrived manner he maintains his inner harmony. + + +.....................................End of file............................. +........................................3 of 5............................... + + + diff --git a/religious documents/taote4-5.txt b/religious documents/taote4-5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5057c64 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/taote4-5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1018 @@ + +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU The document's +ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the coombspapers top +level INDEX file. +date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 + +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his +kind permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, +ie. paper copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. +Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, Cardiff, South +Glamorgan, Wales, UK. email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be +sent to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded +on in person by myself. + +..............................Beginning of file............................... +...................................4 of 5..................................... + +1. THE EMBODIMENT OF TAO + +Even the finest teaching is not the Tao itself. +Even the finest name is insufficient to define it. + +Without words, the Tao can be experienced, +and without a name, it can be known. + +To conduct one's life according to the Tao, +is to conduct one's life without regrets; +to realize that potential within oneself +which is of benefit to all. + +Though words or names are not required +to live one's life this way, +to describe it, words and names are used, +that we might better clarify +the way of which we speak, +without confusing it with other ways +in which an individual might choose to live. + +Through knowledge, intellectual thought and words, +the manifestations of the Tao are known, +but without such intellectual intent +we might experience the Tao itself. + +Both knowledge and experience are real, +but reality has many forms, +which seem to cause complexity. + +By using the means appropriate, +we extend ourselves beyond +the barriers of such complexity, +and so experience the Tao. + +2. LETTING GO OF COMPARISONS + +We cannot know the Tao itself, +nor see its qualities direct, +but only see by differentiation, +that which it manifests. + +Thus, that which is seen as beautiful +is beautiful compared with that +which is seen as lacking beauty; +an action considered skilled +is so considered in comparison +with another, which seems unskilled. + +That which a person knows he has +is known to him by that which he does not have, +and that which he considers difficult +seems so because of that which he can do with ease. +One thing seems long by comparison with that +which is, comparatively, short. +One thing is high because another thing is low; +only when sound ceases is quietness known, +and that which leads +is seen to lead only by being followed. + +In comparison, the sage, +in harmony with the Tao, +needs no comparisons, +and when he makes them, knows +that comparisons are judgements, +and just as relative to he who makes them, +and to the situation, +as they are to that on which +the judgement has been made. + +Through his experience, +the sage becomes aware that all things change, +and that he who seems to lead, +might also, in another situation, follow. +So he does nothing; he neither leads nor follows. +That which he does is neither big nor small; +without intent, it is neither difficult, +nor done with ease. +His task completed, he then lets go of it; +seeking no credit, he cannot be discredited. +Thus, his teaching lasts for ever, +and he is held in high esteem. + +3. WITHOUT SEEKING ACCLAIM + +By retaining his humility, +the talented person who is also wise, +reduces rivalry. + +The person who possesses many things, +but does not boast of his possessions, +reduces temptation, and reduces stealing. + +Those who are jealous of the skills or things +possessed by others, +most easily themselves become possessed by envy. + +Satisfied with his possessions, +the sage eliminates the need to steal; +at one with the Tao, +he remains free of envy, +and has no need of titles. + +By being supple, he retains his energy. +He minimizes his desires, +and does not train himself in guile, +nor subtle words of praise. +By not contriving, he retains +the harmony of his inner world, +and so remains at peace within himself. + +It is for reasons such as these, +that an administration +which is concerned +with the welfare of those it serves, +does not encourage status +and titles to be sought, +nor encourage rivalry. + +Ensuring a sufficiency for all, +helps in reducing discontent. + +Administrators who are wise +do not seek honours for themselves, +nor act with guile +towards the ones they serve. + +4. THE UNFATHOMABLE TAO + +It is the nature of the Tao, +that even though used continuously, +it is replenished naturally, +never being emptied, +and never being over-filled, +as is a goblet +which spills its contents +upon the ground. + +The Tao therefore cannot be said +to waste its charge, +but constantly remains +a source of nourishment +for those who are not so full of self +as to be unable to partake of it. + +When tempered beyond its natural state, +the finest blade will lose its edge. +Even the hardest tempered sword, +against water, is of no avail, +and will shatter if struck against a rock. +When untangled by a cutting edge, +the cord in little pieces lies, +and is of little use. + +Just as the finest swordsmith +tempers the finest blade +with his experience, +so the sage, with wisdom, tempers intellect. +With patience, tangled cord may be undone, +and problems which seem insoluble, resolved. + +With wise administrators, all can exist in unity, +each with the other, +because no man need feel that he exists, +only as the shadow of his brilliant brother. + +Through conduct not contrived for gain, +awareness of the Tao may be maintained. +This is how its mysteries may be found. + +5. WITHOUT INTENTION + +Nature acts without intent, +so cannot be described +as acting with benevolence, +nor malevolence to any thing. + +In this respect, the Tao is just the same, +though in reality it should be said +that nature follows the rule of Tao. + +Therefore, even when he seems to act +in manner kind or benevolent, +the sage is not acting with such intent, +for in conscious matters such as these, +he is amoral and indifferent. + +The sage retains tranquility, +and is not by speech or thought disturbed, +and even less by action which is contrived. +His actions are spontaneous, +as are his deeds towards his fellow men. + +By this means he is empty of desire, +and his energy is not drained from him. + +6. COMPLETION + +Like the sheltered, fertile valley, +the meditative mind is still, +yet retains its energy. + +Since both energy and stillness, +of themselves, do not have form, +it is not through the senses +that they may be found, +nor understood by intellect alone, +although, in nature, both abound. + +In the meditative state, +the mind ceases to differentiate +between existences, +and that which may or may not be. +It leaves them well alone, +for they exist, +not differentiated, but as one, +within the meditative mind. + +7. SHEATHING THE LIGHT + +When living by the Tao, +awareness of self is not required, +for in this way of life, the self exists, +and is also non-existent, +being conceived of, not as an existentiality, +nor as non-existent. + +The sage does not contrive to find his self, +for he knows that all which may be found of it, +is that which it manifests to sense and thought, +which side by side with self itself, is nought. + +It is by sheathing intellect's bright light +that the sage remains at one with his own self, +ceasing to be aware of it, by placing it behind. +Detached, he is unified with his external world, +by being selfless he is fulfilled; +thus his selfhood is assured. + +8. THE WAY OF WATER + +Great good is said to be like water, +sustaining life with no conscious striving, +flowing naturally, providing nourishment, +found even in places +which desiring man rejects. + +In this way +it is like the Tao itself. + +Like water, the sage abides in a humble place; +in meditation, without desire; +in thoughtfulness, he is profound, +and in his dealings, kind. +In speech, sincerity guides the man of Tao, +and as a leader, he is just. +In management, competence is his aim, +and he ensures the pacing is correct. + +Because he does not act for his own ends, +nor cause unnecessary conflict, +he is held to be correct +in his actions towards his fellow man. + +9. WITHOUT EXTREMES + +The cup is easier to hold +when not filled to overflowing. + +The blade is more effective +if not tempered beyond its mettle. + +Gold and jade are easier to protect +if possessed in moderation. + +He who seeks titles, +invites his own downfall. + +The sage works quietly, +seeking neither praise nor fame; +completing what he does with natural ease, +and then retiring. +This is the way and nature of Tao. + +10. CLEANING THE DARK MIRROR + +Maintaining unity is virtuous, +for the inner world of thought is one +with the external world +of action and of things. + +The sage avoids their separation, +by breathing as the sleeping babe, +and thus maintaining harmony. + +He cleans the dark mirror of his mind, +so that it reflects without intent. +He conducts himself without contriving, +loving the people, and not interfering. + +He cultivates without possessing, +thus providing nourishment, +he remains receptive +to changing needs, +and creates without desire. + +By leading from behind, +attending to that +which must be done, +he is said to have attained +the mystic state. + +11. THE UTILITY OF NON-EXISTENCE + +Though thirty spokes may form the wheel, +it is the hole within the hub +which gives the wheel utility. + +It is not the clay the potter throws, +which gives the pot its usefulness, +but the space within the shape, +from which the pot is made. + +Without a door, the room cannot be entered, +and without windows it is dark. + +Such is the utility of non-existence. + +12. THE REPRESSION OF DESIRES + +Through sight, the colours may be seen, +but too much colour blinds us. +Apprehending the tones of sound, +too much sound might make us deaf, +and too much flavour deadens taste. +When hunting for sport, and chasing for pleasure, +the mind easily becomes perplexed. +He who collects treasures for himself +more easily becomes anxious. + +The wise person fulfills his needs, +rather than sensory temptations. + +13. UNMOVED AND UNMOVING + +The ordinary man seeks honour, not dishonour, +cherishing success and abominating failure, +loving life, whilst fearing death. +The sage does not recognise these things, +so lives his life quite simply. + +The ordinary man seeks to make himself +the centre of his universe; +the universe of the sage is at his centre. +He loves the world, and thus remains unmoved +by things with which others are concerned. +He acts with humility, is neither moved nor moving, +and can therefore be trusted in caring for all things. + +14. EXPERIENCING THE MYSTERY + +The Tao is abstract, +and therefore has no form, +it is neither bright in rising, +nor dark in sinking, +cannot be grasped, and makes no sound. + +Without form or image, without existence, +the form of the formless, is beyond defining, +cannot be described, +and is beyond our understanding. +It cannot be called by any name. + +Standing before it, it has no beginning; +even when followed, it has no end. +In the now, it exists; to the present apply it, +follow it well, and reach its beginning. + +15. THE MANIFESTATION OF THE TAO IN MAN + +The sage of old was profound and wise; +like a man at a ford, he took great care, +alert, perceptive and aware. + +Desiring nothing for himself, +and having no desire +for change for its own sake, +his actions were difficult to understand. + +Being watchful, he had no fear of danger; +being responsive, he had no need of fear. + +He was courteous like a visiting guest, +and as yielding as the springtime ice. +Having no desires, he was untouched by craving. + +Receptive and mysterious, +his knowledge was unfathomable, +causing others to think him hesitant. + +Pure in heart, like uncut jade, +he cleared the muddy water +by leaving it alone. + +By remaining calm and active, +the need for renewing is reduced. + +16. RETURNING TO THE ROOT + +It is only by means of being +that non-being may be found. + +When society changes +from its natural state of flux, +to that which seems like chaos, +the inner world of the superior man +remains uncluttered and at peace. +By remaining still, his self detatched, +he aids society in its return +to the way of nature and of peace. +The value of his insight may be clearly seen +when chaos ceases. + +Being one with the Tao is to be at peace, +and to be in conflict with it, +leads to chaos and dysfunction. + +When the consistency of the Tao is known, +the mind is receptive to its states of change. + +It is by being at one with the Tao, +that the sage holds no prejudice +against his fellow man. +If accepted as a leader of men, +he is held in high esteem. + +Throughout his life, +both being and non-being, +the Tao protects him. + +17. LEADERSHIP BY EXCEPTION + +Man cannot comprehend the infinite; +only knowing that the best exists, +the second best is seen and praised, +and the next, despised and feared. + +The sage does not expect that others +use his criteria as their own. + +The existence of the leader who is wise +is barely known to those he leads. +He acts without unnecessary speech, +so that the people say, +"It happened of its own accord". + +18. THE DECAY OF ETHICS + +When the way of the Tao is forgotten, +kindness and ethics need to be taught; +men learn to pretend to be wise and good. + +All too often in the lives of men, +filial piety and devotion +arise only after conflict and strife, +just as loyal ministers all too often appear, +when the people are suppressed. + +19. RETURNING TO NATURALNESS + +It is better merely to live one's life, +realizing one's potential, +rather than wishing +for sanctification. + +He who lives in filial piety and love +has no need of ethical teaching. + +When cunning and profit are renounced, +stealing and fraud will disappear. +But ethics and kindness, and even wisdom, +are insufficient in themselves. + +Better by far to see the simplicity +of raw silk's beauty +and the uncarved block; +to be one with onself, +and with one's brother. +It is better by far +to be one with the Tao, +developing selflessness, +tempering desire, +removing the wish, +but being compassionate. + +20. BEING DIFFERENT FROM ORDINARY MEN + +The sage is often envied +because others do not know +that although he is nourished by the Tao, +like them, he too is mortal. + +He who seeks wisdom is well advised +to give up academic ways, +and put an end to striving. +Then he will learn that yes and no +are distinguished only by distinction. + +It is to the advantage of the sage +that he does not fear what others fear, +but it is to the advantage of others +that they can enjoy the feast, +or go walking, free of hindrance, +through the terraced park in spring. + +The sage drifts like a cloud, +having no specific place. +Like a newborn babe before it smiles, +he does not seek to communicate. +In the eyes of those +who have more than they need, +the sage has nothing, and is a fool, +prizing only that which of the Tao is born. + +The sage may seem to be perplexed, +being neither bright nor clear, +and to himself, sometimes he seems +both dull and weak, confused and shy. +Like the ocean at night, +he is serene and quiet, +but as penetrating as the winter wind. + +21. FINDING THE ESSENCE OF TAO + +The greatest virtue is to follow the Tao; +how it achieves ! without contriving. + +The essence of Tao is dark and mysterious, +having, itself, no image or form. +Yet through its non-being, +are found image and form. +The essence of Tao is deep and unfathomable, +yet it may be known by not trying to know. + +22. YIELDING TO MAINTAIN INTEGRITY + +Yield, and maintain integrity. +To bend is to be upright; +to be empty is to be full. + +Those who have little have much to gain, +but those who have much +may be confused by possessions. + +The wise man embraces the all encompassing; +he is unaware of himself, and so has brilliance; +not defending himself, he gains distinction; +not seeking fame, he receives recognition; +not making false claims, he does not falter; +and not being quarrelsome, +is in conflict with no one. + +This is why it was said by the sages of old, + "Yield, and maintain integrity; + be whole, and all things come to you". + +23. ACCEPTING THE IRREVOCABLE + +Nature's way is to say but little; +high winds are made still +with the turn of the tide, +and rarely last all morning, +nor heavy rain, all day. +Therefore, when talking, +remember also +to be silent and still. + +He who follows the natural way +is always one with the Tao. +He who is virtuous may experience virtue, +whilst he who loses the natural way +is easily lost himself. + +He who is at one with the Tao +is at one with nature, +and virtue always exists for he who has virtue. + +To accept the irrevocable +is to let go of desire. + +He who does not have trust in others +should not himself be trusted. + +24. EXCESS + +He who stretches +beyond his natural reach, +does not stand firmly +upon the ground; +just as he +who travels at a speed +beyond his means, +cannot maintain his pace. + +He who boasts +is not enlightened, +and he who is self-righteous +does not gain respect +from those who are meritous; +thus, he gains nothing, +and will fall into disrepute. + +Since striving, +boasting and self-righteousness, +are all unnecessary traits, +the sage considers them excesses, +and has no need of them. + +25. THE CREATIVE PRINCIPLE OF TAO + +The creative principle unifies +the inner and external worlds. +It does not depend on time or space, +is ever still and yet in motion; +thereby it creates all things, +and is therefore called +'the creative and the absolute'; +its ebb and its flow extend to infinity. + +We describe the Tao as being great; +we describe the universe as great; +nature too, we describe as great, +and man himself is great. + +Man's laws should follow natural laws, +just as nature gives rise to physical laws, +whilst following from universal law, +which follows the Tao. + +26. CENTRING + +The natural way is the way of the sage, +serving as his dwelling, +providing his centre deep within, +whether in his home or journeying. + +Even when he travels far, +he is not separate +from his own true nature. +Maintaining awareness of natural beauty, +he still does not forget his purpose. + +Although he may dwell in a grand estate, +simplicity remains his guide, +for he is full aware, that losing it, +his roots as well would disappear. +So he is not restless, +lest he loses the natural way. + +Similarly, the people's leader +is not flippant in his role, nor restless, +for these could cause the loss +of the roots of leadership. + +27. FOLLOWING THE TAO + +The sage follows the natural way, +doing what is required of him. + +Like an experienced tracker, +he leaves no tracks; +like a good speaker, his speech is fluent; +He makes no error, so needs no tally; +like a good door, which needs no lock, +he is open when it is required of him, +and closed at other times; +like a good binding, he is secure, +without the need of borders. + +Knowing that virtue may grow from example, +this is the way in which the sage teaches, +abandoning no one who stops to listen. +Thus, from experience of the sage, +all might learn, and so might gain. + +There is mutual respect twixt teacher and pupil, +for, without respect, there would be confusion. + +28. RETAINING INTEGRITY + +Whilst developing creativity, +also cultivate receptivity. +Retain the mind like that of a child, +which flows like running water. + +When considering any thing, +do not lose its opposite. +When thinking of the finite, +do not forget infinity; + +Act with honour, but retain humility. +By acting according to the way of the Tao, +set others an example. + +By retaining the integrity +of the inner and external worlds, +true selfhood is maintained, +and the inner world made fertile. + +29. TAKING NO ACTION + +The external world is fragile, +and he who meddles with its natural way, +risks causing damage to himself. +He who tries to grasp it, +thereby loses it. + +It is natural for things to change, +sometimes being ahead, sometimes behind. + +There are times when even breathing +may be difficult, +whereas its natural state is easy. + +Sometimes one is strong, +and sometimes weak, +sometimes healthy, +and sometimes sick, +sometimes is first, +and at other times behind. + +The sage does not try +to change the world by force, +for he knows that force results in force. +He avoids extremes and excesses, +and does not become complacent. + +30. A CAVEAT AGAINST VIOLENCE + +When leading by the way of the Tao, +abominate the use of force, +for it causes resistance, and loss of strength, +showing the Tao has not been followed well. +Achieve results but not through violence, +for it is against the natural way, +and damages both others' and one's own true self. + +The harvest is destroyed in the wake of a great war, +and weeds grow in the fields in the wake of the army. + +The wise leader achieves results, +but does not glory in them; +is not proud of his victories, +and does not boast of them. +He knows that boasting is not the natural way, +and that he who goes against that way, +will fail in his endeavours. + +31. MAINTAINING PEACE + +Weapons of war are instruments of fear, +and are abhorred by those who follow the Tao. +The leader who follows the natural way +does not abide them. + +The warrior king leans to his right, +from whence there comes his generals' advice, +but the peaceful king looks to his left, +where sits his counsellor of peace. +When he looks to his left, it is a time of peace, +and when to the right, a time for sorrow. + +Weapons of war are instruments of fear, +and are not favoured by the wise, +who use them only when there is no choice, +for peace and stillness are dear to their hearts, +and victory causes them no rejoicing. + +To rejoice in victory is to delight in killing; +to delight in killing is to have no self-being. + +The conduct of war is that of a funeral; +when people are killed, it is a time of mourning. +This is why even victorious battle +should be observed without rejoicing. + +32. IF THE TAO WERE OBSERVED + +The Tao is eternal, but does not have fame; +like the uncarved block, its worth seems small, +though its value to man is beyond all measure. +Were it definable, it could then be used +to obviate conflict, and the need +to teach the way of the Tao; +all men would abide in the peace of the Tao; +sweet dew would descend to nourish the earth. + +When the Tao is divided, +there is a need for names, +for, like the block which is carved, +its parts then are seen. + +By stopping in time +from torment and conflict, +strife is defeated, and danger averted. +The people then seek the wisdom of Tao, +just as all rivers flow to the great sea. + +33. WITHOUT FORCE: WITHOUT PERISHING + +Knowledge frequently results +from knowing others, +but the man who is awakened, +has seen the uncarved block. + +Others might be mastered by force, +but to master one's self +requires the Tao. + +He who has many material things, +may be described as rich, +but he who knows he has enough, +and is at one with the Tao, +might have enough of material things, +and have self-being as well. + +Will-power may bring perseverance; +but to have tranquility is to endure, +being protected for all his days. + +He whose ideas remain in the world, +is present for all time. + +34. WITHOUT CONTRIVING + +All things may act, without exclusion, +according to the natural way, +which fulfills its purpose silently, +and with no claim. +Being an aspect of natural order, +it is not the ruler of any thing, +but remains the source of their nourishment. +It cannot be seen; it has no intention, +but all natural things rely on its presence. +When all things return to it, +it does not enslave them, +so unmanifested, its greatness prevails. + +Modelling himself upon the Tao, +he who is wise, does not contrive, +but is content with what he achieves. + +35. THE BENEVOLENT HOST + +The wise man acts at one with the Tao, +for he knows it is here that peace is found. +It is for this reason that he is sought. + +Whilst guests enjoy good music and food, +as these are supplied by a benevolent host, +a description of Tao seems without form, +for it cannot be heard and cannot be seen. +But when the music and food are all ended, +the taste of the Tao still remains. + +36. OVERCOMING + +It is the way of the Tao, +that things which expand might also shrink; +that he who is strong, will at some time be weak, +that he who is raised will then be cast down, +and that all men have a need to give, +and also have a need to receive. + +The biggest fish stay deep in the pond, +and a country's best weapons +should be kept locked away. +That which is soft and supple, +may overcome the hard and strong. + +37. THE EXERCISE OF LEADERSHIP + +The way of nature is not contrived, +yet nothing which is required +is left undone. + +Observing nature, the wise leader knows this, +and replaces desire with dispassion, +thus saving that energy, otherwise spent, +which has not been wasted away. + +The wise leader knows +his actions must be +without the use of forced energy. + +He knows that more +is still required, +for he also knows +that he must act +without deliberate intent, +of having no intention. + +To act without contrived intent +is to act without contriving, +and is the way of nature, +and so is the way of the Tao. + +38. THE CONCERNS OF THE GREAT + +A truly good man is unaware +of the good deeds he performs. +Conversely, a foolish man must try +continuously to be good. + +A good man seems to do little or nought, +yet he leaves nothing undone. +A foolish man must always strive, +whilst leaving much undone. + +The man who is truly wise and kind +leaves nothing to be done, +but he who only acts +according to his nation's law +leaves many things undone. + +A disciplinarian wanting something done +rolls up his sleeves, +enforcing it with violence. + +It may be that goodness still remains, +even when the natural way is lost, +and that kindness still exists +when goodness is forgotten. +It may be that justice still remains +when the people are no longer kind, +and when this is lost, that ritual still remains. +However, ritual may be performed +only as an act of faith, +and may be the beginning of confusion, +for even divination and the such +are but the flowery trappings of the Tao, +and are the beginning of great folly. + +He who is truly great +does not upon the surface dwell, +but on what lies beneath. +It is said that the fruit is his concern, +rather than the flower. +Each must decide what it might be he seeks, +the flowery trapping, +which comes to summer fullness first, +or the fruit which is beneath. + +39. SUFFICIENCY AND QUIETNESS + +From the principle which is called the Tao, +the sky, the earth, and creativity are one, +the sky is clear, the earth is firm, +and the spirit of the inner world is full. + +When the ruler of the land is whole, +the nation too is strong, alive and well, +and the people have sufficient +to meet their earthly needs. + +When the daytime sky is dark +and overcast like night, +the nation and its people +will surely suffer much. + +The firmness of the dew filled earth +gives it its life; +the energy of the inner world +prevents its becoming drained of strength; +its fullness prevents it running dry. +The growth of all things +prevents their dying. + +The work of the leader should ensure +the prosperity of the populace. +So it is said, + "humility is the root + of great nobility; + the low forms a foundation + for the great; + and princes consider themselves + to be of little worth". + +Each depends on humility therefore; +it is of no advantage to have too much success, +so do not sound loudly like jade bells, +nor clatter like stone chimes. + +....................................End of file................................ +.......................................4 of 5.................................. + diff --git a/religious documents/taote5-5.txt b/religious documents/taote5-5.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0c0eac --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/taote5-5.txt @@ -0,0 +1,847 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU The document's +ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the coombspapers top +level INDEX file. +date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 + +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his +kind permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, +ie. paper copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. +Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, Cardiff, South +Glamorgan, Wales, UK. email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be +sent to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded +on in person by myself. + +................................Beginning of file............................. +.....................................5 of 5................................... + + +40. BEING AND NOT BEING + +The motion of nature +is cyclic and returning. +Its way is to yield, +for to yield is to become. +All things are born of being; +being is born of non-being. + +41. SAMENESS AND DIFFERENCE + +On hearing of the Tao, +the wise student's practice is with diligence; +the average student attends to his practice +when his memory reminds him so to do; +and the foolish student laughs. +But we do well to remember +that with no sudden laughter, +there would be no natural way. + +Thus it is said, + "There are times when even brightness seems dim; + when progress seems like regression; + when the easy seems most difficult, + and virtue seems empty, inadequate and frail; + times when purity seems sullied; + when even reality seems unreal, + and when a square seems to have corners; + when even great talent is of no avail, + and the highest note cannot be heard; + when the formed seems formless, + and when the way of nature is out of sight". + +Even in such times as these, +the natural way still nourishes, +that all things may be fulfilled. + +42. THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE TAO + +The Tao existed before its name, +and from its name, the opposites evolved, +giving rise to three divisions, +and then to names abundant. + +These things embrace receptively, +achieving inner harmony, +and by their unity create +the inner world of man. + +No man wishes to be seen +as worthless in another's eyes, +but the wise leader describes himself this way, +for he knows that one may gain by losing, +and lose by gaining, +and that a violent man +will not die a natural death. + +43. AT ONE WITH TAO + +Only the soft overcomes the hard, +by yielding, bringing it to peace. +Even where there is no space, +that which has no substance enters in. + +Through these things is shown +the value of the natural way. +The wise man understands full well, +that wordless teaching can take place, +and that actions should occur +without the wish for self-advancement. + +44. SUFFICIENCY + +A contented man knows himself to be +more precious even than fame, +and so, obscure, remains. + +He who is more attached to wealth +than to himself, +suffers more heavily from loss. + +He who knows when to stop, might lose, +but in safety stays. + +45. CHANGES + +In retrospect, even those accomplishments +which seemed perfect when accomplished, +may seem imperfect and ill formed, +but this does not mean that such accomplishments +have outlived their usefulness. + +That which once seemed full, +may later empty seem, +yet still be unexhausted. +That which once seemed straight +may seem twisted when seen once more; +intelligence can seem stupid, +and eloquence seem awkward; +movement may overcome the cold, +and stillness, heat, +but stillness in movement +is the way of the Tao. + +46. MODERATING DESIRE AND AMBITION + +When the way of nature is observed, +all things serve their function; +horses drawing carts, and pulling at the plough. +But when the natural way is not observed, +horses are bred for battle and for war. + +Desire and wanting cause discontent, +whilst he who knows sufficiency +more easily has what he requires. + +47. DISCOVERING THE DISTANT + +The Tao may be known and observed +without the need of travel; +the way of the heavens might be well seen +without looking through a window. + +The further one travels, +the less one knows. +So, without looking, the sage sees all, +and by working without self-advancing thought, +he discovers the wholeness of the Tao. + +48. FORGETTING KNOWLEDGE + +When pursuing knowledge, +something new is acquired each day. +But when pursuing the way of the Tao, +something is subtracted; +less striving occurs, +until there is no striving. + +When effort is uncontrived, +nothing is left undone; +the way of nature rules +by allowing things to take their course, +not by contriving to change. + +49. THE VIRTUE OF RECEPTIVITY + +The sage is not mindful for himself, +but is receptive to others' needs. +Knowing that virtue requires great faith, +he has that faith, and is good to all; +irrespective of others' deeds, +he treats them according to their needs. + +He has humility and is shy, +thus confusing other men. +They see him as they might a child, +and sometimes listen to his words. + +50. THE VALUE SET ON LIFE + +In looking at the people, we might see +that in the space twixt birth and death, +one third follow life, and one third death, +and those who merely pass from birth to death, +are also one third of those we see. + +He who lives by the way of the Tao, +travels without fear of ferocious beasts, +and will not be pierced in an affray, +for he offers no resistance. +The universe is the centre of his world, +so in the inner world +of he who lives within the Tao, +there is no place +where death can enter in. + +51. THE NOURISHMENT OF THE TAO + +All physical things arise +from the principle which is absolute; +the principle which is the natural way. + +All living things are formed by being, +and shaped by their environment, +growing if nourished well by virtue; +the being from non-being. + +All natural things respect the Tao, +giving honour to its virtue, +although the Tao does not expect, +nor look for honour or respect. + +The virtue of the natural way +is that all things are born of it; +it nourishes and comforts them; +develops, shelters and cares for them, +protecting them from harm. + +The Tao creates, not claiming credit, +and guides without interfering. + +52. RETURNING TO THE SOURCE + +The virtue of Tao governs its natural way. +Thus, he who is at one with it, +is one with everything which lives, +having freedom from the fear of death. + +Boasting, and hurrying hither and thither, +destroy the enjoyment of a peace filled life. + +Life is more fulfilled by far, +for he who does not have desire, +for he does not have desire, +has no need of boasting. + +Learn to see the insignificant and small, +grow in wisdom and develop insight, +that which is irrevocable, +do not try to fight, +and so be saved from harm. + +53. EVIDENCE + +When temptation arises to leave the Tao, +banish temptation, stay with the Tao. + +When the court has adornments in profusion, +the fields are full of weeds, +and the granaries are bare. + +It is not the way of nature to carry a sword, +nor to over-adorn oneself, +nor to have more than a sufficiency +of fine food and drink. + +He who has more possessions than he can use, +deprives someone who could use them well. + +54. CULTIVATING INSIGHT + +That which is firmly rooted, +is not easily torn from the ground; +just as that which is firmly grasped, +does not slip easily from the hand. + +The virtue of the Tao is real, +if cultivated in oneself; +when loved in the family, it abounds; +when throughout the village, it will grow; +and in the nation, be abundant. +When it is real universally, +virtue is in all people. + +All things are microcosms of the Tao; +the world a microcosmic universe, +the nation a microcosm of the world, +the village a microcosmic nation; +the family a village in microcosmic view, +and the body a microcosm of one's own family; +from single cell to galaxy. + +55. MYSTERIOUS VIRTUE + +He who has virtue is like a newborn child, +free from attack by those who dwell +in the way of nature, the way of the Tao. + +The bones of the newborn child are soft, +his muscles supple, but his grip is firm; +he is whole, though not knowing he was born +of the creative and receptive way. +The way of nature is in the child, +so even when he shouts all day, +his throat does not grow hoarse or dry. + +From constancy, there develops harmony, +and from harmony, enlightenment. + +It is unwise to rush from here to there. +To hold one's breath causes the body strain; +exhaustion follows +when too much energy is used, +for this is not the natural way. + +He who is in opposition to the Tao +does not live his natural years. + +56. VIRTUOUS PASSIVITY + +Those who know the natural way +have no need of boasting, +whilst those who know but little, +may be heard most frequently; +thus, the sage says little, +if anything at all. + +Not demanding stimuli, +he tempers his sharpness well, +reduces the complex to simplicity, +hiding his brilliance, seemingly dull; +he settles the dust, +whilst in union with all natural things. + +He who has attained enlightenment +(without contriving so to do) +is not concerned with making friends, +nor with making enemies; +with good or harm, with praise or blame. +Such detatchment is the highest state of man. + +57. SIMPLIFICATION + +With natural justice, people must be ruled, +and if war be waged, strategy and tactics used. +To master one's self, +one must act without cunning. + +The greater the number of laws and restrictions, +the poorer the people who inhabit the land. +The sharper the weapons of battle and war, +the greater the troubles besetting the land. +The greater the cunning with which people are ruled, +the stranger the things which occur in the land. +The harder the rules and regulations, +the greater the number of those who will steal. + +The sage therefore does not contrive, +in order to bring about reform, +but teaches the people peace of mind, +in order that they might enjoy their lives. +Having no desires, all he does is natural. +Since he teaches self-sufficiency, +the people who follow him return +to a good, uncomplicated life. + +58. TRANSFORMATIONS ACCORDING TO CIRCUMSTANCES + +When the hand of the ruler is light, +the people do not contrive, +but when the country is severely ruled, +the people grow in cunning. + +The actions of the sage are sharp, +but they are never cutting, +they are pointed, though never piercing, +they are straightforward, not contrived, +and not without restraint, +brilliant but not blinding. +This is the action of the sage, +because he is aware +that where happiness exists, +there is also misery and strife; +that where honesty may be found, +there is occasion for dishonesty, +and that men may be beguiled. + +The sage knows that no-one can foretell +just what the future holds. + +59. GUARDING THE TAO + +By acting with no thought of self-advancement, +but with self-restraint, +it is possible to lead, +and genuinely care for others. +This happens by acting virtuously, +and leaving nothing to be done. + +A foundation virtuous and firm, +rooted in receptivity, +is a prerequisite of good leadership, +and for a life both long and strong. +He whose virtue knows no limit, +is most fitting to lead. +His roots are deep, +and his life protected +by his meditative practice, +as the bark protects the tree. + +60. RULING + +To rule a country, +one must act with care, +as when frying the smallest fish. + +If actions are approached, +and carried out in the natural way, +the power of evil is reduced, +and so the ruler and the ruled +are equally protected. +They will not contrive to harm each other, +for the virtue of one refreshes the other. + +61. HUMILITY + +A great country remains receptive and still, +as does a rich and fertile land. +The gentle overcomes the strong +with stillness and receptivity. + +By giving way to the other, +one country may conquer another; +a small country may submit to a large, +and conquer it, though having no arms. + +Those who conquer must be willing to yield; +to yield may be to overcome. + +A fertile nation may require a greater population, +to use its resources to the full, +whilst the country without such natural wealth +may require them to meet its people's needs. +By acting in unity, each may achieve +that which it requires. + +62. SHARING THE TREASURE + +The source of all things is in the Tao. +It is a treasure for the good, +and a refuge for all in need. + +Whilst praise can buy titles, +good deeds gain respect. + +No man should be abandoned +because he has not found the Tao. + +On auspicious occasions, when gifts are sent, +rather than sending horses or jade, +send the teaching of Tao. + +When we first discover the natural way, +we are happy to know that our misdeeds +are in the past, where they belong, +and so are happy to realize +that we have found a treasure. + +63. BEGINNING AND COMPLETING + +Act without contriving; +work naturally, and taste the tasteless; +magnify the small; increase the few, +and reward bitterness with care. +Seek the simple in the complex, +and achieve greatness in small things. + +It is the way of nature +that even difficult things are done with ease, +and great acts made up of smaller deeds. +The sage achieves greatness by small deeds multiplied. + +Promises easily made are most easily broken, +and acting with insufficient care +causes subsequent trouble. +The sage confronts problems as they arise, +so that they do not trouble him. + +64. STAYING WITH THE MYSTERY + +If problems are accepted, +and dealt with before they arise, +they might even be prevented before confusion begins, +In this way peace may be maintained. + +The brittle is easily shattered, +and the small is easily scattered. +Great trees grow from the smallest shoots; +a terraced garden, from a pile of earth, +and a journey of a thousand miles +begins by taking the initial step. + +He who contrives, defeats his purpose; +and he who is grasping, loses. +The sage does not contrive to win, +and therefore is not defeated; +he is not grasping, so does not lose. + +It is easy to fail when nearing completion, +therefore, take care right to the end, +not only in the beginning. + +The sage seeks freedom from desire, +not grasping at ideas. +He brings men back when they are lost, +and helps them find the Tao. + +65. VIRTUOUS GOVERNMENT + +Knowing it is against the Tao +to try to enforce learning, +the early sages did not contrive +to teach the way of the Tao. + +There are two ways of government. +One is to be cunning, to act with guile, +and to contrive to cheat the people. +When this way is used to rule, +the people grow in cunning, +and contrive to cheat the ruler. + +The second way to govern the land, +is to do so without contriving. +People so governed are truly blessed, +for they are governed with virtue, +and virtuous government is fair to all, +thus leading to unity. + +66. LEADING FROM BEHIND + +The sea is the ruler of river and stream, +because it rules from well beneath. + +The teacher guides his students best, +by allowing them to lead. + +When the ruler is a sage, +the people do not feel oppressed; +they support the one who rules them well, +and never tire of him. + +He who is non-competitive +invites no competition. + +67. THE THREE PRECIOUS ATTRIBUTES + +Those who follow the natural way +are different from others in three respects. +They have great mercy and economy, +and the courage not to compete. +From mercy there comes courage; +from economy, generosity; +and from humility, willingness to lead from behind. + +It is the way of sickness to shun the merciful, +and to acclaim only heroic deeds, +to abandon economy, and to be selfish. + +They are sick, who are not humble, +but try always to be first. + +Only he who is compassionate +can show true bravery, +and in defending, show great strength. +Compassion is the means by which +mankind may be guarded and saved, +for heaven arms with compassion, +those whom it would not see destroyed. + +68. WITHOUT DESIRE + +An effective warrior acts +not from nihilistic anger, +nor from desire to kill. + +He who wins should not be vengeful. + +An employer should have humility. + +If we wish for peace and unity, +our dealings with our fellow man +must be without desire for self-advantage, +and carried out without contention. + +69. THE USE OF THE MYSTERIOUS TAO + +Arguments may be won by waiting, +rather than making an aggresive move; +by withdrawing rather than advancing. + +By moving without appearing to move, +by not making a show of strength, +but by conserving it well; +by capturing without attacking, +by being armed, but with no weapons, +great battles may be won. + +Do not underestimate +those you enjoin in battle, +for this can result in losing +what is of greatest value. +When a battle is enjoined, +by remembering this, +the weaker may still win. + +70. HIDDEN IDENTITY + +Though the words of the sage are simple, +and his actions easily performed, +they are few among many, +who can speak or act as a sage. + +For the ordinary man it is difficult +to know the way of a sage, +perhaps because his words +are from the distant past, +and his actions naturally disposed. + +Those who know the way of the sage +are few and far between, +but those who treat him with honesty, +will be honoured by him and the Tao. + +He knows he makes no fine display, +and wears rough clothes, not finery. +It is not in his expectancy of men +that they should understand his ways, +for he carries his jade within his heart. + +71. WITHOUT SICKNESS + +To acknowledge one's ignorance +shows strength of personality, +but to ignore wisdom is a sign of weakness. + +To be sick of sickness is a sign of good health, +therefore the wise man grows sick of sickness, +and sick of being sick of sickness, +'til he is sick no more. + +72. LOVING THE SELF + +The sage retains a sense of awe, and of propriety. +He does not intrude into others' homes; +does not harass them, +nor interfere without request, +unless they damage others. +So it is that they return to him. + +'Though the sage knows himself +he makes no show of it; +he has self-respect, but is not arrogant, +for he develops the ability to let go of that +which he no longer needs. + +73. ACTING WITH A SUFFICIENCY + +A brave man who is passionate +will either kill or be killed, +but a man who is both brave and still +might preserve his own and others' lives. +No one can say with certainty, +why it is better to preserve a life. + +The virtuous way is a way to act +without contriving effort, +yet, without contriving it overcomes. +It seldom speaks, and never asks, +but is answered without a question. +It is supplied with all its needs +and is constantly at ease +because it follows its own plan +which cannot be understood by man. +It casts its net both deep and wide, +and 'though coarse meshed, it misses nothing in the tide. + +74. USURPING THE TAO + +If the people are not afraid of death, +they have no fear of threats of death. + +If early death is common in the land, +and if death is meted out as punishment, +the people do not fear to break the law. + +To be the executioner in such a land as this, +is to be as an unskilled carpenter +who cuts his hand +when trying to cut wood. + +75. INJURING THROUGH GREED + +When taxes are too heavy, +hunger lays the people low. +When those who govern interfere too much, +the people become rebellious. + +When those who govern demand too much +of people's lives, death is taken lightly. +When the people are starving in the land, +life is of little value, +and so is more easily sacrificed by them +in overthrowing government. + +76. AGAINST TRUSTING IN STRENGTH + +Man is born gentle and supple. +At death, his body is brittle and hard. +Living plants are tender, +and filled with life-giving sap, +but at their death they are withered and dry. + +The stiff, the hard, and brittle +are harbingers of death, +and gentleness and yielding +are the signs of that which lives. +The warrior who is inflexible +condemns himself to death, +and the tree is easily broken, +which ever refuses to yield. +Thus the hard and brittle will surely fall, +and the soft and supple will overcome. + +77. THE WAY OF THE TAO + +The Tao is as supple as a bow; +the high made lower, and the lowly raised. +It shortens the string which has been stretched, +and lengthens that which has become too short. + +It is the way of the Tao to take from those +who have a surplus to what they need, +providing for those without enough. +The way of the ordinary person, +is not the way of the Tao, +for such people take from those who are poor +and give to those who are rich. + +The sage knows that his possessions are none, +therefore he gives to the world; +without recognition, doing his work. +In this way he accomplishes +that which is required of him; +without dwelling upon it in any way, +he gives of his wisdom without display. + +78. SINCERITY + +There is nothing more yielding than water, +yet when acting on the solid and strong, +its gentleness and fluidity +have no equal in any thing. + +The weak can overcome the strong, +and the supple overcome the hard. +Although this is known far and wide, +few put it into practice in their lives. + +Although seemingly paradoxical, +the person who takes upon himself, +the people's humiliation, +is fit to rule; +and he is fit to lead, +who takes the country's disasters upon himself. + +79. FULFILLING ONE'S OBLIGATIONS + +When covenants and bonds are drawn +between the people of the land, +that they might know their obligations, +it is commonplace for many +to fail to meet their dues. + +The sage ensures his dues are met, +'though not expecting others to do the same; +in this way he is virtuous. + +He is without virtue of his own, +who asks of others that they fulfil +his obligations on his behalf. + +The way of nature does not impose +on matters such as these +but stays with the good for ever, +and acts as their reward. + +80. STANDING ALONE + +A small country may have many machines, +but the people will have no use for them; +they will have boats and carriages +which they do not use; +their armour and weapons +are not displayed, +for they are serious when regarding death. + +They do not travel far from home, +and make knots in ropes, +rather than do much writing. + +The food they eat is plain and good, +and their clothes are simple; +their homes are secure, +without the need of bolts and bars, +and they are happy in their ways. + +'Though the cockerels and dogs +of their neighbours +can be heard not far away, +the people of the villages +grow old and die in peace. + +81. MANIFESTING SIMPLICITY + +The truth is not always beautiful, +nor beautiful words the truth. + +Those who have virtue, +have no need of argument for its own sake, +for they know that argument is of no avail. + +Those who have knowledge of the natural way +do not train themselves in cunning, +whilst those who use cunning to rule their lives, +and the lives of others, +are not knowledgeable of the Tao, +nor of natural happiness. + +The sage seeks not to have a store +of things or knowledge, for he knows, +the less of these he has, the more he has, +and that the more he gives, +the greater his abundance. + +The way of the sage is pointed +but does not harm. + +The way of the sage +is to work without cunning. + +...................................End of file............................. +......................................5 of 5............................... + + + diff --git a/religious documents/tcc.txt b/religious documents/tcc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b2b444 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/tcc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,85 @@ + JESUS LOVES YOU! + + KILL YOURSELF! + +The humiliation and joyless vapidity of daily existence, where life is only +survival, is a part of necessary suffering, in accord with HIS plan, which will +cleanse your soul for the afterlife to come. + +So, brothers and sisters of the Cross, you who have accepted Jesus Christ into +your hearts, who have forgiven your trespassers, and who regard the daily plate +of excrement as the Holy Sacrament of Fate, give that final testimony of Faith +and + + Leap for the Lord! + + +(insert map to local cliff, high bridge, etc. here) + +Come Children of GOD, to ___(local landmark)__ on __(date & time)__ for the +first Annual MEET-YOUR-MAKER Marathon and punctuate your life of rigorous +devotion and concientious self denial with the SUPREME Sacrifice: + + Jump For JESUS!! + + +(You sociopathic heretics who believe that boredom ISN'T the will of GOD, Who +say that its the commodity economy and its capitalist pimps (forgive them +Jesus!) that reduce men and women to mere objects in the order of things, and +who have yet to recognize the impossibility of changing life on Earth, call the +TCC at (-----------) so that we can help you dispell such blasphemous ideas and +welcome you into the company of JESUS!) + +So as to dispell any unintended illusions, let us, as a great American once +said, make a few things perfectly clear: + +It is not because we fear our own freedom that we'll sibmit to any degradation +and to the authorities who enforce it, but because it is only in tha acceptance +of our destiny that any freedom can be found! + +The amoral advocates of unbridled passion and world revolution are just +HELL-BOUND HEDONISTS who don't know selfless renunciation is the only path to +heavenly bliss. They say that our movemant for spiritual discaovery is an +Emotional Plague that infects those whose daily squalor and anemic will to live +has made tham despair about ever changing life. But how can it be? It is our +Only Hope! Furthermore, let us rectify once and for all the SATANIC UNTRUTH +that the religious exitation we receive from being close to JESUS is only a +sublimation of our repressed sexuality. After all, every good Christian knows +that geintals are the TOOLS OF THE DEVIL and that orgasms are just REVOLTING +SEIZURES OF SIN experienced by those into whom the love and light of GOD have +not penetrated! And when the atheistic anarchists of todyas wayward youth say +that GOD only represents the projected ideal image and the repository of Man's +own alienated powers, they mouth an IRREDEEMABLE SACRILEGE!!! + +For those who do know the LORD, the Kingdom of Heaven awaits YOU! Jesus died +for YOU! You owe him at Least Your Life!! So don't forget to join your +enlightened Brethern in Christ on __(date and time)__ for the Big Baptism in +the (lake, river, etc.). See you on the other side! + + Power to the Passive! + + The Christian Connection + Christian World Liberation Front + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/tcourse1.txt b/religious documents/tcourse1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..42a45b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/tcourse1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,168 @@ +BASIC TECHNOLOGIES OF WITCHCRAFT + +This is the outline for a collection of four semi-formal training sessions +for people interested in starting out in "The Craft" or Neopaganism. It is +intended to give enough grounding to effectively participate in ritual, +with the expectation that those that are really dedicated, skilled, and/or +interested will undertake further study. +Since this is for beginners, there are no textbooks, no required reading, +and the course only deals with such material as can be taught in four 1-1/2 +to 2 hour informal sessions. + +I. DAY ONE: Neopagan Traditions + + The first day's material is a basic overview of Neopagan history and + tradition, intended to make people more comfortable with the subject. + + A. History of The Craft + + Examine two topics to show how they influence the modern witch: + how Neopagan witchcraft grew out of and borrows from the + Gardnerian Reformation, and how our Craft Law developed from a + variety of traditions and needs. + + 1. Origins, Ancient (?) and Modern + + Fact before theory: discuss the evolution of witchcraft + from Gardner onwards, then overview the evidences that + witchcraft is a pre-Christian and (possibly) pre-historic + religion. + + a. The Gardnerian Reformation + + Discussion of Gerald Gardner and both the original and + modern versions of Gardnerian Witchcraft (with a quick + side-line into its off-shoot and competitor, Alexandrian + Witchcraft). + + b. The Church of All Worlds and Neopaganism + + History of the Church of All Worlds and its contri- + butions, including the word "neopagan" and "Green Egg", + the journal in which the framework of modern, Neopagan + witchcraft was developed from the framework of + Gardnerianism crossed with Greco/Roman and Egyptian + pagan traditions. + + c. The Non-Pagan Branches of the Craft + + Other types of witches: Feminist Wicca, Church of Wicca, + the Masonic Druids of England, and the Family Tradition- + alists. + + d. Evidences of Stone-Age Witchcraft + + Discuss some of the evidence that witchcraft carries on + a tradition with stone-age origins and a 10,000 year + history, both pro and con. Emphasize that there is no + conclusive evidence one way or the other. + + 2. Craft Law, Ancient and Modern + + a. The Reasons for Craft Law + + Discuss how the in-bred fear of of the Powers of Evil, + combined with the need to trust each other against the + Inquisition, gave birth to the concept of Craft Law. + + b. The Wiccan Rede + + "An it harm none, do what thou will." Stress both the + libertine and the disciplinarian interpretations of that + law. Discuss the Law of Karma, and how the Wiccan Rede + (interpreted properly) becomes more of a safety rule + than a Commandment. + + c. The Rule of Secrecy + + Gloss quickly over the Inquisition (everybody knows + enough), and examine some of the evidence that a "witch- + hunt" is being begun. Encourage the students to + recognize that the decision to be public or secretive + has to be made by each individual, and they have the + right to expect others to respect their privacy on this + matter. + + 3. Magick in Theory and Practice + + Magick is the unifying force in all of the Neopagan + Traditions. To lay the groundwork for Day Two, explain the + basic theories of magick, and how they influence the design + and practice of Neopagan ritual. + + a. The Basic Rules of Magick + + Explain that the central theory of magick is that + reality can be altered by a sufficiently strong will, + focused by the proper ritual. For comparison and + contrast, mention Bell's Hypothesis, from quantum + physics. Discuss seriously the possibility that all + that the magician alters is his own mind and awareness + of how the world works. + + b. Magick and Neopagan Ritual + + Define the two classic types of ritual: religious and + magickal, or (better terms) theurgical and thauma- + turgical. Show how magick is used in both, and where + the rituals diverge. + + B. The Magick Circle + + Even more than the pentacle, the Magick Circle is the central + symbol of Neopagan Witchcraft. The final topic for Day One is + the purpose, symbolism, and protocols of a pagan Circle. + + 1. Purpose and Symbolism + + a. Ceremonial Magic and Qabbalism versus the Pagan Circle + + Most people get their idea of what a circle is for from + the Ceremonial magicians and kaballists, who use it for + protection from outside magick. Emphasize that the + quantum leap that Gardner made was to think of using the + circle INSTEAD to keep beneficial magick WITHIN the + ritual area until it is fully built-up, focused, and + directed. + + b. The Power of the Circle: The Five Elements + + Discuss how the classic Four Elements of Greek science + are the symbols for four types of power, four states of + matter, four types of personality, and so forth, showing + correspondences. Highlight the difference between + elemental power, psychic power, and divine power - and + the similarities. Explain how the elements are used + in casting the circle. + + c. Ritual Tools + + Discuss one-by-one the tools that a witch uses to focus + her mind - the athame, the elemental symbols (salt or a + pentacle for earth, a candle or lamp for fire, the + incense and the wand for air, the chalice for water), + the magic mirror, the sword, candles, herbs, and the use + of images. + + 2. Conduct within the Circle + + Two final bits of information needed inside the circle: the + directions of casting and the integrity of the circle. + + a. Widdershins and Deosil + + Define the terms (deosil = clockwise, widdershins = + counter-clockwise). Explain that widdershins is often + mistaken for evil, but show that the difference is more + accurately raising or bannishing power. Stress that, in + order to get along, when in doubt, go deosil. + + b. The Integrity of the Circle + + Remind people that, since no evil magick is involved, + there is no RISK involved in leaving a circle. However, + stress that since a circle is supposed to CONTAIN energy + it should not be punctured hastily or unnecessarily. + Teach how to open and close gateways in the circle, and + when to and not to do so. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/tcroc.txt b/religious documents/tcroc.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15844ca --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/tcroc.txt @@ -0,0 +1,542 @@ + + + The Cardinal Rites of Chaos + + by Paula Pagani + + 1984 + +Contents + + Background + + The Spring Equinox + The Summer Solstice + The Autumn Equinox + The Winter Solstice + + The Whole interspersed with visual impressions of the rites. (in the + original book) + + Acknowledgements are due to all the individuals who have worked within + the Circle of Chaos over the years since it's formation. Without them + this book would not have been possible. + + "Baphomet is wisdom; I am what he knows...." + Thessalonius Loyola + + + Background + + The Circle of Chaos was started in the mid 1960's by a group of people +who had come together from various backgrounds. Among us there were witches, +magicians, psychics, mystics and others all with one common ground. At that +time occultism was enjoying one of it's periodic vogues with many young +people involving themselves in at least one of it's many aspects. The +bookshops were full of do-it-yourself witchcraft amd magick; rock bands were +releasing albums of overtly occult material and the subject was +sensationalized as a prelude to the grossed commercialism. + In itself this was not a bad thing. The front-men, the 'Kings of +Witches' and the 'Bishops of Satan', because they had no real knowledge of +the subject in which they claimed to be expert, diverted the attention of +dilettante and popular press alike, allowing people like us to get on in +peace with what we wanted to do. Our main concern was that because a great +deal of material had been rushed into print in a relatively short space of +time, an occurance we could not see ever happening again, the magical current +would become static as though nothing ever happened after the sixties and +this is largely how things turned out. Not that nothing did happen after the +boom of the sixties but little was ever heard of it. The bottom had dropped +out of the market and what had previously been big business was now +unprofitable and the publishers didn't want to know. The impetus had, by and +large, been removed and occultists of all paths had settled into their ruts. + What we had foreseen, not in the crystal ball but through common sense, +eventually came about the Circle of Chaos was formed as an antidote to, +or rather, a prophylactic against the stasis we knew to be just around the +corner. We knew that when magick, witchcraft or any other form of occultism +becomes static, never changing or amending it's philosophical basis and +practical techniques, it eventually succumbs; when people feel no joy in what +they are doing or the repetition of rites year after year is of no benefit +to them they lose interest and drift away. + We didn't want that to happen to us as individuals so a pact was made +between followers of the various paths and the group was started. To our +knowledge this has never happened at any other time, the lion laying down +with the lamb. + Several months were spent in discussion, in working a way through the +snares of bias and prejudice and during the period several people, unable to +align themselves with the concensus that was rapidly forming, were lost. We +overcame our disappointment at the dwindling numbers (which have greatly +increased since that time) and by the time we came to devision our rites +there remained only eleven members of the group. Undaunted, we began to work +the system we had devised and without exception everyone agreed that we had +something worth continuing with. + In the meantime the witchcraft which had been promulgated by the +commercialities lost it's glamour. There was nothing new to say about it, +nothing to do but repeat the same old things over and again and within a +period of a few years all but the old stalwarts turned to the alehouse or the +television as their sources of inspiration. + Our policy was the change our method of operation as often as necessary. +If an idea or a rite proved to be ineffective it was discarded. ABove all +our magick had to be successful and invigourating because we knew that the +instant the thrill was lost our group was finished. Eclecticism was the +order of the day. We borrowed from every useful source and, at the same time +as giving our philosophy and our rites a traditional flavour, we sought out +new approaches in technique. Our current philosophy and rites are quite +different from the ones formulated then and in ten years time they will +probably be quite different again. This is the outer expression of our +policy of change, the inner being the success of our magick. Our group +started life not as the Circle of Chaos but as the Circle of the Weird, the +weird being expressive of the malleability of mind and of it's darkest +recesses in which psychic, mystical and magical processes occur and express +themselves. In the course of time as a result of the magick we had been +practicing the Greek work 'chaos' gradually began to take over since it +encapsulates not only the concept of the weird but also the notion of the +randomness of the universe. Implicit within this idea is it's own antithesis +- cosmos, the imposition of order onto disorder. Whether this restructuring +actually occurs or whether it takes place only in the mind is largely +academic. + Chaos is the raw material with which we work. Cosmos represents belief +structures within that randomness and, as such, is constantly changing. This +was the first thing that became clear when our group was started. A magician +cannot afford to use only one model of his relationship with chaos; he needs +different models for different functions and although it would be it is +preferable to 'drying up'. + There is not right or wrong in the performance of any magick. These +celebrations are merely a tool and are changeable. Enthusiasm and genuine +gladness are the only indispensable tools in their successful performance. + +The Summer Solstice - This rite is the most complicated of the four and needs +careful preparation. It is a new version of the old pact idea but the +covenant is essentially to the group rather than to such an abstract concept +as a god/demon. + +The Autumn Equinox - A cautionary tale! Although she seems to favour +feminism in subjugating the men of the group Eris, as participants in the +rite come to realize, in fact shows no such base chauvinism and goes on to +warn against magical prejudice and dogma. + +The Winter Solstice - The Christians borrowed this date for the celebration +of their Christmas, the birth of the son. It was, however, at this time of +the year that the pre-Christian celebrated the rebirth of the sun and this +aspect of the season is referred to, in passing, by the priest.l + Although 'harvest home' is usually celebrated in autumn, the fruits of +the harvest, even today, are seldom used in excess until the Winter Solstice +when estimates can be made as to how long existing stocks of food will hold +our or, to put it another way, how much surplus there is. This rite +celebrates 'harvest computed'. + +The Spring Equinox - Maypole time and the rite depends entirely on the humour +and ingenuity of the participants. + + In addition to the Cardinal Rites and interspersed between them are the +Cthonian Rites which are of a more exclusively magical nature and the +Caltropic rites which include such activities as initiation and works of +magick for specific reasons. It is possible that these will be made public +in the near future. + If you want to use our rites, by all means go ahead - there is not +copyright on them unless you are using them for commercial gain. If you want +to join us, get in touch - but you'll have to find us first. + + + + The Spring Equinox + + All are assembled in a clearing in the woods at about 11:30pm. The +priestess administers a powerful sacrament to the celebrants who are deployed +around the circle. Light is provided by torches at the cardinal points. + +Priestess: Ecstatic are the rites of Man + And doubly so when horn‚d Pan, + Careering through the Wildwood's night, + Puts Temperance and Shame to flight. + Put off the black of robe and cowl + And naked run and stalk and prowl. + (The wildhunt seeketh not to kill + Dumb beast or bird, rather to thrill + Numb human sense, - to pinnacle + The peak phantasmagorical). + + A human snake is formed of men and women alternately with the priestess +at the head. She moves off into the darkness, slowly at first but gradually +becoming faster, weaving between trees and bushes, through tall braken until, +careless of direction, she leads the group pell mell until it fortuitously +arrives back at the circle. A short time elapses for the recovery of breath. + +Priestess: Io Pan, raw power of Light and Lust, + Io Pan, our strength derives from dust, + But thine absorbs the power of spring + Then spirals out in beat of wing,k + In tear of talon, rending beak, + Triumphant horn, astride the peak + Of ecstacy withouth control + As flutes shrill high and tabors roll. + We ask for no embodiment + For here we have a regiment + Of men prepared to take thy form + And ravish nature in a storm + Of fervent, frenzied frolicking, + All pleasure here encompassing. + + The priestess sets the wand of Pan in the ground at the centre of the +circle. The men stand at equidistant points facing outwards while they are +blindfolded by the women who then chant and beat drums. To this +accompaniment the men whirl and spin in situ for as long as the priestess +deems fit. The women, as they dance within the circle, ensure that they men +do not enter it. At the command of the priestess there is silence and the +men attempt to get to the wand. They are hindered in this by the women who +misguide them in whatever way they choose. + When the wand is eventually reached the man's blindfold is removed and +the other men are led back to the circumference where they remain +blindfolded. + The priestess anoints the man's body with fragrant oil; he is now +regarded as the regent of Pan. She makes obeisance to him as does each woman +in her turn in her own way. A fire is lighted. + At the command of the priestess the men, still hoodwinked, grope around +the circle until each has found a woman. The women remove the men's +blindfolds and the couples leap the fire (the size of which depends on the +priestess's sense of humour) in the time honoured fashion. + The rite is concluded in whatever way the priestess sees fit. + + + The Summer Solstice + + + All are assembled in a clearing in the woods. At 11:30pm the High +Priestess casts a circle, either by scraping it into the ground with the +sword or by sprinkling ashes. She uses words of her own choosing or may +remain silent. Then, at the alter (which is outside the circle) she takes up +the cup with contains the strongest potion she can devise. As she speaks she +moves round the circle adminstering the sacrament to each member of the +group. The members stand at equidistant points around the circle, robed and +silent. A strong incense burns on the altar; torches flame at the cardinal +points. + +Priestess The old and new gods intertwine + Where self aborts to taste the wine + Hard pressed from lusty freedom's vine + To which we now ourselves resign. + Drink deep that draught of liberty + And think no more of 'thee' and 'me', + For all are one and one is all, + Assembled here to cry the call, + The summon hence that dreadful god, + (Not by the power of magick's rod + Or futile weapon man contrived, + But ecstacy, in us revived). + As flute and tabor harmonise (Drum and flute begin) + The incense adds it's own reprise. + Then pure imagination flies + Beyond the bounds of mindless lies, + Where knowledge is irrelevance + And blind faith flees intransigence, + Raise voice on voice in one accord + To Baphomet, our only lord. + + The flute stops. The drumming continues slow and sonorous. All join +hands facing out of the circle and take steps in time to the drum chanting +'Baphomet, Baphomet'. The speed gradually increases until it is too fast to +maintain and the circle collapses, the participants falling, exhausted, to +the ground. Baphomet appears to the left of the altar wearing a black robe +and a white, faceless mask. The drumming stops. + +Baphomet: Dogon-Devil, harbinger + Of fate's revenge, mortality, + Come thou forth and dwell in me + Children of Thanateros! + Be bold and take the step across + The Threshold dire and take thy fill + Of wisdom's ecstacy, thy will. + According to ability + Shall each one sign and duly + Make his promise unto me, + Whereon shall I his task decree. + + Choronzon enters and stands to the right of the altar. In appearance he +is identical to Baphomet. + +Choronzon I am he, the One Beyond! + To truth and beauty now respond. + O'erlook this carnate counterfeit, + This demon of the vilest pit, + Bequeathing now your oath to me. + His foulness shall not set you free, + But shackle up your soul in store, + Incarcerated evermore. + + Your neither-neither I despise + As indecision clothed in lies. + 'Thanateros'? - the poisoned soul, + Makes blasphemy it's only goal, + Obscenity it's only creed, + Nocturnal spilth it's only seed. + Dispel this beast of loathsome night + And make your path the way of light. + +Baphomet Would that thou wert hot or cold + But virtue hast not made thee bold + Or brought thee nearer to the truth + And so I spew thee from my mouth. + There is now dark or light within + The whirling vortex of the Djinn; + Nor good nor bad expect to find + (Except as excrement of mind), + To know me is to know this right - + That I am both black and white. + +Choronzon Your stinking vileness rends the air, + Your equipoise is their despair, + Your comfort, the eternal fire, + Your gladness is their funeral pyre. + Changeling demon now revealed! + Your blasphemy is not concealed. + +Priestess In speaking plainly for themselves + Each school into the mire delves, + And so a simple question put + To one protagonist shall foot + Our choice. Of you (Choronzon) I now demand + That you respond to my command + And answer, if I asked your foe + Would his reply by 'yes' or 'no': + Unplainly stated thus I ask + Him, 'Is our destiny your task?' + +Choronzon Responding to your plea my foe + Undoubtedly would answer 'No'. + +Priestess +(to Baphomet) Then lead us now our friend well met + For you are surely Baphomet. +(to all) Arise in strength and beat the knell + To send this creature back to hell! + + All but Baphomet disrobe and, led by the priestess, produce a great +noise with drums, pipes, bullroarers, rattles, shrieking and clapping. The +participants wheel around the circle, jumping and spinning until none can +continue. Cakes and wine are consumed and, as this is taking place, the +priestess intervenes. + +Priestess Ho! Cease to rave and rape and rend. + To Baphomet attention lend. + +Baphomet His words enabled you to see + That life itself is blasphemy; + That I am life and birth and death - + In me you breathe your every breath. + Thanateros! The masque is played, + Now make your choice, be not afraid! + Bring book and pen that they may sign + (Or drink with him more bitter wine). + + Priestess brings book and, as each member signs, Baphomet gives him a +task for the coming year. All take up their original positions around the +circle. + +Baphomet Lord of Fire - Baphomet, + Lord of Water - fish's net, + Lord of Earth, the double wand + Lord of Air, the dark beyond. + Goat-foot, lanthorned Lucifer, + Dogon-devil, harbinger + Of fate's revenge, mortality, + Come thou forth and dwell in me. + +NOTES: Implicit in this rite is the idea that Baphomet speaks only truth and +Choronzon only lies. In framing her question as she does the Priestess +solves the problem posed by their both looking alike and speaking in such a +tangled way. The tasks given by Baphomet are decided beforehand by the +leaders of the group in response to each member's needs. + +- Raexby Sytinwerth +- Spincey C K Box + + + + + The Autumn Equinox + + + All are assembled in a clearing in the woods. At approximately 11:30pm +the High Priest casts the circle in whatever manner he chooses. At the +centre of the circle is an unlit bonfire. + +High Priest In spring the fruitful Earth rejoiced + To hear the ecstacies we voiced + And we were glad in mind and heart, + Pierced by Pan's emboldening dart. + But now, that optimism spent, + We seek a new accomplishment, + Using these barren months of need + To nurture in ourselves the seed + Of magick's strength. In thought and deed + We now aspire to kindle well + The purple Fire of Heaven and Hell: + Through this Erisian rite we strive + To bring the opposites alive. + +All chant 'ERIS'. The High Priest responds: + + Eris: Goddess of the Night + Eris: Portal of the Light, + Eris: Raving succubus + Eris: Dea omnibus. + Eris: Phoenix from the Fire, + Eris: Icy heart for hire, + Eris: Draught of languid Air + Eris: Poison, liquid snare, + Eris: Elemental shrine, + Aweful demon half divine. + Enter us strange concubine + Of man and woman, as this wine + Is consecrated in your name, + Fufilling now our steadfast aim. + + The priest takes up the cup and the priestess approaches him holding the +daggar above her head. As she speaks she brings the dagger down, plunging it +into the cup. + +Priestess Lover of Man and Woman both, + With blade and wine we seal or troth, + Transcending that foul chastity, + That grey of mortal company, + Absorbed awhile in thoughts of thee, + Drunk in thy dearling harlotry. + + The participants stand in an arc to the west of the circle and the +priest light the fire at it's centre. He then administers the sacramental +wine using (if he wishes) words of his own choosing. He sits looking through +the flames and the others follow his example. After a period of silence Eris +appears from the east. She is naked and her oiled body reflects the glow of +the fire. She carries flail and wand. + +Eris You sacrament is ill prepared + For such a trifle's often shared + By folk debased of majesty + Unpassioned in their pageantry. + And so another sacrament + Do I suggest - a testament + To Chaos - in that I shall choose + At random several pairs to lose + Themselves within the wildwood's dark, + Impassioned with the lust of stark, + Unbridled ecstacy of man + And Goddess in the Night of Pan. + Let each man be ambitionless, + Each girl a mad devouress, + That actions hitherto unplanned + be realized at her command. + + Eris walks to the west of the circle and takes the hand of the nearest +man. She kisses him on the lips and leads him to a woman at random. She +kisses the woman, joins their hands, and they retire into the darkness. She +does this until she is alone in the circle. The couples, in their chosen +places of privacy, follow the command of the goddess. The woman need not +'devour' the man in a sexual way. She may choose to 'devour' knowledge or +some other well developed aspect of the man to whom she has been paired. The +man, however, has no choice and must comply with her requests. Afterwards, +no questions may be asked, no information volunteered concerning this part of +the rite. After a suitable period has elapsed Eris rings the bell seven +times and all return to the circle. + +Eris The old school, claiming to their cost + That knowledge shared is power lost + Display their common ignorance, + Decrying our Chaotic dance' + Illogical. Yet our's is + The choice of barrenness or bliss. + Be prideless in your choice of path + (The way is not the aftermath), + And others in their choice are wise + If they discover Dogma's lies + And courage cries 'Examine all + Of nature's gnoses - lest ye fall'. + + The priest closes the circle in whatever manner he chooses and the rite +is at an end. + + + The Winter Solstice + + + The rite takes place indoors, the temple being decked with flowers and +greenery. Illumination is provided by a log fire or candles or both. There +is a large quantity of food of all kinds and of wine. The participants, +wearing light cotton robes of various colours, sit in a circle as large as is +convenient. + +Priest In these months past no food was grown, + In months of spring the seed was sown, + Through summer months is sprang abound, + Then wrested was from autumn's ground. + Our winter surplus now we pour + On Babalon, the holy whore. + No virgin do we honor here, + No saintly celibate revere - + The empty vessel serves no hand, + The blunted blade no quick command; + Our cup is filled with foaming wine, + Our sword cerebral is the spine + Or nature's ecstacy unfurled + Upon this gnarled and naked world. + Attend us here, dread Babalon, + In celebration of the sun, + Lie down upon this languid couch + Of Earth which nature lends and touch + With fire our stagnant continence, + (Imposed and futile abstinence), + That we see winter's hidden worth + In purple passion bursting forth. + Take up the rein, thou Scarlet Bride, + And spur the beast whereon your ride + To join the denizens of Earth + In witnessing the sun's rebirth. + + The priest begins the spinning mantra by intoning the first line. The +emphasis is on the second and fourth syllables of each line. One note only +is used. The person to his left vibrates the second line and so on, the +fifth giving the first line again. The rhythm speed and excitement of this +kind of mantra have a direct effect on the thought processes. Each member of +the group should have practiced the mantra by himself for several weeks +before any attempt is made by the group. + +All Ya Babalon + Entee Mastoor + Entee Sakran + Ya Labwa loor + + After an hour of unbroken mantra spinning Babalon enters, naked but for +a fur or skin draped about her. The mantra stops. Babalon is carrying an +empty cup and she is not a little drunk. as she speaks she flirts with men +and women alike. + +Babalon Such sullen faces! Bring me wine! (priest fills cup) + (What's mine is yours - what's yours is mine). + At such a sombre, solemn feast + I never chose to be the guest. + (I voluntarily arrive + At parties where the guests are 'live). + Your dull, downtrodden apathy - + Such as I never hoped to see - + Breeds nothing more than wintry gloom + To fructify a barren womb. + Yet Nature's wholesome countenance + Shall never cease her whirling dance + In space and time. So brim the cup! + And Babalon shall take the first sup! + + She drains her cup and it is refilled. All other cups are filled. + +Babalon Lust after life and live each day + As if there were no price to pay. + Untwine the power of passion's strength + To lead you through the labarynth. + And now fall to, devour the feast + Prepared by fruitful Earth of beast + And bird. Then gorge your vacant minds + For truth throughout my rambling winds. + + Again she drains her cup and again it is refilled. She sits or, as +sometimes happens, collapses at the centre of the circle. The feast proper +begins around her and continues until daybreak. + + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/tenets.txt b/religious documents/tenets.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15e138a --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/tenets.txt @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +ab:tenets.txt 16jan90 + + + The Tenets + ---------- + + Reincarnation + Learning + Balance + Harmony + Love + Trust + Humility + Tolerance + + --- + -These have become common knowledge in neopaganism, at least + in Ottawa. + -They don't seem to be part of the Gardneroid stream originally, + but some Gardneroid traditions have adopted them. + -Traceable sources include Sybil Leek's "The Complete Art of + Witchcraft" (the only published source known to me) + and the Wiccan Church of Canada (or so I have been told) + + + + diff --git a/religious documents/test.txt b/religious documents/test.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..716d1be --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/test.txt @@ -0,0 +1,630 @@ +EXAMINATION OF MATERIAL: LESSONS*.TXT "THE SPIRAL DANCE" + + + The point of this test is not to see if you can copy the answers +from the text, but for you to present the answers in your own words, +to demonstrate your grasp of the material presented. Take all the time +you need to do this test and feel free to re-read the material as much +as necessary to answer the questions. Good Luck! (Question 11 is a +test of your resourcefulness in searching out answers on your own.) + + +1. Name the three mysteries of the Triple Goddess. + + +2. Name the cultural sisters which are close in spirit to the Old +Religion. + + +3. Where do the teachings of the Craft come from? What inspires the +teachings? + + +4. What is Witchcraft NOT based on? Why? + + +5. Why did male shamans dress in skins and horns? + + +6. Describe the burial rites/customs of the early tribes. Explain +the significance. + + +7. When and why were the first covens formed? + + +8. What major development in civilization changed the God from +Hunter to Lord of the Grain and the Goddess from Lady of the Wild +Things to the Barley Mother? + + +9. Explain the concept of the Divine Child. + + +10. Why were the menhirs and dolmen erected? What changed and +amplified their power? + + +11. What is a passage grave (barrow)? + + +12. What does the Great Wheel represent? Why is it divided into eight +parts.? Name the parts. + + +13. Explain the origins of the Faery Myths. + + +14. Who were the repositories of the old knowledge in ancient Ireland +and Wales? Describe their profession. + + +15. When did the various Hereditary Witchcraft Traditions develop? +Why did they develop? Are they any better than current traditions +practiced in he United States? Why or why not? + + +16. Is Witchcraft a religion or poetry or thealogy? Explain + + +17. Explain the meaning of the symbol that is the Goddess. Why is She +important for women? + + +18. Explain the difference between the Goddess and God-the-father. + + +19. Why is the Goddess important for men in our society? + + +20. Explain the Craft views towards sex and sexuality. + + +21. What is the basic ethic of the Craft? What does it mean? What +does it mean to you? + + +22. What is the true function of Craft rituals? + + +23. Explain the statement, "Honor is a guiding principle in the +Craft." + + +24. Explain the symbolism of the Dance of the Double Spiral + + +25. Briefly describe the phases of a regular Craft ritual. + + +"#_%%%i! ! )19AIQYai WICCA 101 - SPIRAL DANCE + +# + + TEST - CHAPTER 2 1. Describe the ordinary +waking consciousness. What is its value? + +2. Describe the extraordinary consciousness. What is its value? + +3. What are the two main purposes of training regarding the magical + and psychic aspects of the Craft? + +4. What is the "Price of Freedom" in Witchcraft? + +5. What is Dion Fortune's definition of magic? + +6. What is the basic attitude that the Craft takes to the world? How + is it awakened? + +7. What is the difference between magic and psychosis? + +8. Why is unsupervised use of drugs to alter consciousness + considered dangerous and irresponsible? + +9. Explain both sides of the paradox symbolized by the Mirror. + +10. Explain the statement; "Ecstasy is at the heart of Witchcraft." + +11. On page 26, Starhawk explains the concept of the polarity of the + Goddess and th God. Explain this in your own words. + +12. What does the Female force manifest as? + +13. What does the Male force manifest as? + +14. Is there a need for balance between the Female and Male forces? + What happens when the Female dominates? When the Male dominates? + +15. Explain the Craft view towards death and rebirth. + +16. Explain the Craft view towards aging and disease. + +17. What are the threefold aspects of the Goddess? + +18. Explain the duality of the God. What examples in nature + personify this duality? + +19. Explain the concept of Divine Sacrifice. Compare it to self- + sacrifice. + +20. What does Starhawk say about human sacrifice? What are your + feelings about this subject. + +21. What sacrifices made by women make their bodies sacred and + inviolate? + +22. Explain the concept of, and personality manifested by, the + Younger Self. + +23. Explain the operation and limitation of Talking Self. + +24. Explain the concept of the High Self. + +25. Explain the statement; "Witchcraft does not demand poverty, + chastity, or obedience." + + + CHAPTER 3 + + +1. Describe and explain the functions of the Witch's coven. + +2. What structure is a coven founded upon? How does it affect it's + members in their interactions with each other? + +3. Explain the concept of the Raith as it applies to covens. + +4. What are the usual steps a Witch takes in becoming a member of a + coven? + +5. What was the original function of a coven? What changed it? How did + the coven change? + +6. Explain the typical organization of authority within covens. By +what + authority does a coven exist? + +7. Examine the concept of power-from-within, and relate it, and it's + ramifications, in your own words. + +8. What is the position of the Craft in regards to charging for + initiation or coven training? How does a coven pay for its +supplies? + +9. Should a coven be a retreat from the world? Why or why not? + +10. On pages 45 and 46 of the Spiral Dance, Starhawk explains some of + the group dynamics of a coven. Do you agree with what she says? +Why + or why not? + +11. What is the purpose of magical training? + +12. Name and define, in detail, the 4 basic abilities a Witch must + develop. + +13. Why is visualization an important capability for a Witch? + +14. What 3 things does Starhawk recommend as a basic, daily +discipline? + +15. Have you started to keep a dream diary yet? If not, now is a good + time to start. + + + + CHAPTER 4 + +1. Where does a Circle exist, when it is cast by a Witch? + +2. Why does Starhawk define the casting of the Circle as an enacted + meditation? + +3. Contrast the function of a CIrcle in Witchcraft with the function +of + one in Ceremonial Magic. + +4. Why is leaving the Circle during ritual discouraged? Why do you + suppose cats and very small children can cross the barrier of a + Circle without disturbing the force field? + +5. What is the accepted procedure for leaving a circle before the + ritual is ended if you are not a cat or very small child? + +6. What act marks the formal beginning of a ritual? What purpose does + it serve? + +7. What is always done before attending a ritual? What purpose does + this serve? + +8. Name two cleansing elements used in purification rites. What are + their attributes? + +9. What are the five directions of the circle? What groupings do each + of the directions correspond to and resonate with? + +10. What are the "Guardians of the Watchtowers"? Why are they evoked? + +11. What does the term Deosil mean? When would you want to move in a + Deosil direction? + +12. What does the term Widdershins mean? When might a Witch move in + this direction within a circle? + +13. What is the true function of the tools of the Craft? What really + works the magic? + +14. Explain the different approaches taken towards working tools as + contrasted between Witches who lean toward Ceremonial Magic and + those who lean toward "kitchen" magic. + +15. Name the correspondences to an element, a quality of self, a time + of day and year, symbolic animals, forms of personal power, and to + the tools of the Craft for each of the five directions of the + circle. + +16. What is the general rule regarding the handling of another witches + tools? + +17. What is the Cord a symbol of? Why is it sometimes of different + colors? + +18. What purpose does the censer serve? What quarter is it identified + with? + +19. What does the Necklace symbolize? What materials can it be made +of? + What symbols are appropriate to be worked on it? + +20. What happens when an altar is used for regular meditation and + magical practice? + +21. Generally, which way does the altar face in most Craft rituals? + Why? + + + + SPIRAL DANCE TEST CHAPTER 5 + + +1. Explain the concept of Manifest Deity. + +2. Why does the Goddess bear the titles Earth Goddess, Queen of +Heaven, + Star Goddess, Muse and Cosmic Lover? What do each of these titles + mean? + +3. What are the three aspects of the Moon Goddess? + +4. What Goddess of old do you personally associate with each of the + aspects in the previous question? + +5. What does the pentad or five-fold star stand for? + +6. What fruit contains a pentacle within itself? Where else has this + fruit played a part in contemporary religion? + +7. Explain the concept of the Creatrix-Destoyer. + +8. When are the tides of subtle power the strongest? + +9. Is Witchcraft a belief system? If not, what is it? + +10. What is the Law of the Goddess? Explain. + +11. What is the Mystery? Explain. + +12. What is the Goddess the symbol of for women? For men? + +13. What happens when the Goddess is invoked? What function does the +invocation serve? + + +SPIRAL DANCE TEST CHAPTER 6 + +1. Why is the image of the Horned God in the Craft radically different + from any other image of masculinity in our culture? + +2. Make a chart of the aspects of the Horned God. On one side list +what + they mean in the Craft and on the other side, what they were + perverted into meaning by the medieval Church. + +3. What positive male qualities would a man created in the Horned +God's + image be free to express, if he strove to emulate Him? + +4. What relationship does the God bear to the Goddess? + +5. What radically different role model does the God present for men in + todays society? + +6. If the Witches God is the God of Love, what form(s) does this love + take? How does it compare to the non-Craft view of love in modern + society? + +7. What are men in the Craft urged to do in order to meet their need + for nurturing? Speculate on the type of relationship a Craft couple + would have if the male is connected with his inner Muse and the + woman is connected with the Mother Goddess. + +8. If the God is Eros and Logos, what develops when the bodily desire + for union and the emotional desire for connection is joined + together? + +9. Explain the aspect of the God known as the Dying God. How does this + affect us psychologically? + +10. Explain the concept of the Divine Hunter. Does a male in the +Craft, + or a female for that matter, need to become a hunter to experience + this aspect of the God? What other alternatives can you think of + that would allow you to connect with this aspect? + +11. Contrast the celebrations of the Goddess with those of the God. + +12. Explain each aspect of the God as you trace His progress around +the + Wheel of the Year. + +13. It would seem, at first glance, that the Craft has more to offer +to + women than to men. What do men have to give up when they choose +the + Craft? Explain the new relationship to the female body required. + What are some of the more subtle and not easily comprehended + benefits offered to the men in the Craft? + +14. Explain the "Great Man" model of spirituality. How does it relate + to Witchcraft? + +15. What happens when the cosmos is no longer modeled on external male + control as embodied in the "God the Father" concept of + Judaeo-Christianity? + +16. What special benefits do men derive from being in the Craft and a + member of a Coven? + +17. Which would be worse - a religion which elevates men to power at + the expense of women, or one that exalts women and refuses to + acknowledge the existence of men? Explain why. + +"$`%%%k! ! )19AIQYai WICCA 101 - SPIRAL DANCE test chapter 7 # + +1. What is the "Craft" of witchcraft? + +2. Define magic. How does Starhawk describe what it is like to perform + magic? + +3. What physiological process takes place when one learns to work + magic? + +4. What is the first requirement of magic? What does it accomplish? + +5. How is the language of magic expressed? Why? + +6. Define what a spell is, and what often gets mistaken for a spell? + +7. What makes up a great body of magical lore? Why? + +8. What combined faculties are required in casting spells? + +9. Explain the concept of the magical will. How do you nurture it? + +10. Why is it accurate to say spellcasting is a form of do it yourself + psycho-analysis? + +11. There are two basic ways in which spells work. Explain each of +them + and the principles behind them. + +12. Contrast the power of emotion and the directed energy of spell + casting. Explain the differences. + +13. Why don't spells work all the time, every time? + +14. Of all the planets, which celestial body influences the subtle + energies the most? Why? + +15. Name the four basic guidelines of spell casting, and explain each + of them. + +16. What must be established before a spell that influences another + person can work? How does this effect you? What law governs this + act? + +17. Explain the differences between, and the uses for, a hex and a + binding spell. Does the law of threefold return still hold true? + How might it effect the spell caster? + +18. Might not a love spell directed against a specific person be + construed as coercion? How would a wise witch go about attracting + love into her/his life? What is the usual result of such spells? + Why? + +19. Contrast the occurrence of an effective psychic attack with a + physical one. What state of mind is a far more pressing danger +that + psychic warfare? + +20. What are some of the more subtle ways of attacking someone? What + can be done in defense? Is it ethical in the first place? + + +SPIRAL DANCE TEST CHAPTER 8 + + +1. What is the primary principle of magic? How does it work? + +2. Explain the statement, "To light a candle is to cast a shadow". + +3. Is the equilibrium of the universe static, or dynamic? How do the + rituals, spells, and meditations of the craft aid this equilibrium? + +4. What geometric shape does energy flow in and name some natural + phenomena that display this form. + +5. What are the implications of the Spiral Model? + +6. How may we learn to understand the workings of the underlying + physical reality of nature? Why would we want to? + +7. What is the key principle to raising energy? + +8. What demands must be met to practice magic as an art and as a + discipline? + +9. In what form is raised energy most often molded into in coven + rituals? What forms the base? Name three things the apex can focus + on. + +10. There is a conceptual model which conceives of subtle energy as + being of three basic types. Name each of these types of energy. + +11. Explain what "elemental" energy is and its relationship to the + subtle bodies that surround and interpenetrate the physical body. + Explain the energy of the consciousness and the energy of the + Goddess and God. + +12. What must occur before the higher consciousness will awaken + naturally? + +13. What must you learn before you will be more sensitive to the forms + and levels of power in rituals? + +SPIRAL DANCE test chapter 9 # + +1. What occurs when a witch trances? + +2. Where have trance techniques been found in the past? + +3. Name some of the more common forms of trance. + +4. What are some of the effects that are possible in deeper trances? + +5. Explain Starhawks' statement that "Classifying consciousness also + encourages 'higher than thou' games of one upsmanship." What is the + message here? Have you been able to break free of this trap? + +6. Are trance states subjective, objective, or both? Why? + +7. Describe the subjective part of trance. Describe the objective part + of trance. + +8. Define astral projection. What purpose does it serve? + +9. Name two ways of protecting yourself while you are doing trance + work. + +10. Explain the parallel(s) between trance and hypnosis. Are they the + same thing? Does it matter? + +11. What happens to our suggestibility to others as we increase our + awareness of the functioning of suggestion and use it deliberately + on ourselves? Why? + +12. What can we use our own suggestibility for? How? + +13. It has been said that trance can be dangerous. Why? + +14. What do the real dangers of magic stem from? Explain. + +15. How are cults born and perpetuated? What is the driving force + behind them? + +16. How does a cult reinforce its members defenses and stunt their + personal growth? + +17. Name two other defense strategies and explain them. + +18. What advice does Starhawk give for dealing with, and helping + projectors and "sickies". + +19. Explain the role of drugs in a traditional society. Why aren't +they + used in our society withing the same context? + +20. What's the best protection when learning to trance? Why? + +21. What does expanded awareness begin with? + +22. What value do dreams have? + +23. Name as many ways of 'opening the door without a key' as you can + find in the Spiral Dance. + +24. Name the four related principles of trance induction. Explain. + +25. Relate some ways of 'going forth into the night'. + +26. What blocks the trance state? + +27. Which elements of trance induction are present in a good ritual? + +28. What purpose is served when a ritual goes into the 'cakes and +wine' + phase? Why is it necessary? + + + +END OF TEST FOR CHAPTER 9 + +SPIRAL DANCE test chapter 10 # + + +1. Briefly explain the significance of an initiation. + +2. Why is the timing of an initiation important? + +3. What conditions should be met before a dedicatee is probably ready + for initiation? + +4. Why must the leaders of a coven carefully consider who they will + initiate, and who they will not? + +5. What makes up the theme of an initiation? + +6. What is the true face of the Shadow? Explain. + +7. Who is the Guardian of the Threshold? What is his aspect? + +8. What does an initiation traditionally begin with? + +9. What is the purpose of the ritual bath? + +10. Explain the meaning of the phrase "Feet neither bound nor free". + +11. What is the Perfect password for entering an initiatory circle? + +12. What is the purpose of taking an initiates measure? What + circumstances dictate who keeps it? + +13. What parallels can be drawn between the witch's initiation and the + Knighthood ritual under the code of Chivalry? + + + + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X + + Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) + + & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 + The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368 + Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 + realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662 + Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 + Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315 + My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078 + New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126 + + Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, + arcane knowledge, political extremism, diverse sexuality, + insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. + + Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, + where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. + + "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" + +X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X diff --git a/religious documents/thefall.txt b/religious documents/thefall.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de6bd4e Binary files /dev/null and b/religious documents/thefall.txt differ diff --git a/religious documents/theforce.txt b/religious documents/theforce.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a11a19d --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/theforce.txt @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +The Force + +There are three subgroups into which we categorise the Force in order to make it a little easier to swallow, as it were. Since this is such a huge topic, it's necessary to make some small points like this in order to enable a student to understand the Force and the way in which it affects the Universe and, indeed, everything contained therein. There are three categories here, going from least to most: + +Personal Force --> Living Force --> Unified Force + +Personal Force + +The Personal or Individual Force is the life energy contained within the body of any organism at any singular point in time - if you will, it is the energy you require to continue to survive and be maintained in a physical (and more than likely, a psychological) state of existence. Every individual has their own personal energy, which is in itself the smallest division of life energy within the Universe. Essentially, this is Personal Force. + +Now, Personal Force, as a general rule, does not remain the same throughout the existence of an individual. Like Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide, it is exchanged and converted constantly with the energy around you - if your body is injured, life energy is used to repair your cells (to a certain extent at least), but, if you remember the first law of Thermodynamics, this energy is converted, not destroyed. As you use energy and convert it, clearly the energy you have used needs to be replaced in that the energy you have used is no longer within your individual system. It has passed outside of yourself into the environment around you, in various forms. Essentially, then, this energy will be replaced from an external source, that which we call the Living Force. I'll come back to that momentarily. + +The most important academic observation made about Personal Force is that it is at this stage and this one alone that we find and can identify the beginnings of an apparent duality to the Force. Since this energy is in itself contained within your system, it is the most impressionable of all forms of life energy - and you impress upon this through your thoughts and through your emotions. Since, however, this energy does not remain contained within your body permanently, this becomes the most basic and natural form of individual energy projection - wherein that as energy that was maintained as Personal Force within your body leaves it, the impressions you have made upon it will begin to effect the energy flow around you. This is agreed upon by almost every single Vitalist theory - but if you have time, I recommend you read James Redfield's Celestine Prophecy for more on how such energy affects the world around you as a result of individual impressions upon it. + +In order to give this further consideration, however, we need to consider the next form of the Force - the Living Force. + +Living Force + +The Living Force is the sum of all the personal Force in existence. Though they are of course all one and the same thing in the macroscopic view, we break it down into these two in order to work both on the effects individuals can have on the Force, and the ways in which you can apply a use of the Force. Hence, we tend to consider the Personal Force as being the most basic and normative of applicative systems, since it is easier to manipulate your own personal energies than to manipulate energy across a wider spectrum. + +It is here where we find an overall picture of the so-called duality of the Force. Since people leave their own positive and/or negative impressions upon their individual energies, when this is collected together in sum total, you inevitably get positive energy, negative energy and neutral energy. Here we find the Light and the Dark sides – but these are not as major as they seem. Though both do have their influences, since a person surrounded by negative energy will inevitably absorb some of it themselves, which creates a change in their own physical and psychological make-up – and such is the effect of the duality. However, the influences created by these impressions on the Force are not as profound as they would seem – the affect they have on any individual is done by choice as opposed to by being ‘corrupted’ or some such term. With control, and a little self-discipline, people can learn to ascertain the influences of living force energy, and therefore to make their own choices regarding it’s influence. + +On a base level, it is of course possible that the Living Force can affect a person based on positive or negative impressions, but at the level of the Unifying Force, good and evil, positive and negative become irrelevant. If you act as a student of the Living Force, the aspects are more your forte. Still, in order to give you more of an idea as to how this relates, I first ought to talk about the Unifying Force. + +Unifying Force + +The Unifying Force, also Unified or Universal Force, is the universal level of the Force. It is the sum of the Living Force – that which exists as the sum of all life energy in existence at any one point in time, and all the other forms of energy in the Universe. Since forms of energy change from one to another with extreme ease, it seems logical that all forms are connected in some way. And this is the Unifying Force – Life Energy as it fits alongside all other energies. + +Here, the Force becomes neutral. There is no good, no evil. No positive, no negative. And, above all, the Unifying Force is completely timeless. It encompasses all states, all forms, all energies. It is, essentially, the underlying system of the Universe. That might sound a little preposterous, but if you think about it, energy is required to perform every single process or function of the Universe. For a star to engage in nuclear fusion, for planets to orbit around those stars – all of these processes require energy. And since energy cannot be destroyed, only converted, the Unifying Force is, logically, a force of the Universe. + +However, the ramifications of this particular observation serve to create significant problems for many Jedi Realists, certainly on an ethical level. The Unifying Force has no sides, and thus in itself has no particular basis upon which one following it can necessarily adhere to – with the Living Force, where it is possible to extrapolate dualistic concepts like Good and Evil if you are that way inclined, you are granted a basis of action by the definitions produced as a result of such concepts – within the Unifying Force, such a thing is not possible. Allow me to elaborate on this a little further. + +At the level of Personal Force, the influence of that particular energy on an individual is literally the result of their actions, not the possible cause or influence upon which their actions are based. An individual may use their energy as they see fit, and they create impressions upon their own personal energy based upon their thoughts and feelings – the results of their actions and reactions to the world around them. As a result, we may consider the Personal Force to be the singular domain of the individual – it is the individual who influences it, directs it and uses it for their purposes. + +As we move on to the Living Force, we come across the point wherein the energy is capable of affecting the actions of an individual. The impressions generated by the positive and negative thoughts and feelings of an individual at the level of the Personal Force become more manifest as these individual quantities of personal energy are collated as the Living Force. While it is true to say that the energy of an individual is under their control, it is not logical to suggest that this energy can have no exerted effect upon anyone else since, as I’ve already maintained, the personal energy of an individual is not restricted to their own bodies, but is constantly changed and shared with all life as part of the Living Force. + +As a result of the positive and negative influences on the Living Force’s collective energies, it is possible to see a dualistic system emerging – we have the basic level of positive and negative, from which people can extrapolate Good and Evil, and similar such ideas which maintain the dual position. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/theme070.txt b/religious documents/theme070.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..563be43 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/theme070.txt @@ -0,0 +1,257 @@ + +LIBERATION + + + The spiritual freedom experienced by those who are released from +the fetters of desires and attachments to worldly things is called +Liberation, (Skt. moksha). It is an inner experience of freedom that can +be present regardless of the person's external circumstances: the saint is +free even in prison, while people with all worldly opportunities and +unlimited wealth may be caught in dire bondage. The Christian scriptures +speak of a comparable experience of Christian liberty that gives the +believer an unlimited sense of freedom to live according to the spirit of +Christ independent of external custom or constraint. Naturally, people +should have the opportunity to realize the fruits of their spiritual +liberation in a free society; inner freedom engenders and is completed +through external freedom. Salvation as liberation from external +oppression will be discussed under Help and Deliverance, pp. 557-68. + + Passages in this section first assert that liberation is found only +in the presence of God. Next come passages which describe the nature of +liberation: release from bondage to desire, peace of mind, freedom to +travel throughout the universe of spirit, freedom from the fetters of +karma. Several concluding passages assert that the truth, natural law, or +divine law is necessary and conducive to liberation. Law is the way to +freedom--just as, in driving, rules of the road are required in order to +provide one the freedom to travel to any destination in safety. Thus +freedom should not be interpreted as freedom to disregard spiritual law; +to do so would return one to a state of bondage. + + +Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Leviticus 25.10 + + +Liberation is the best thing, as the moon is best among the stars. + + Jainism. Sutrakritanga 1.11.22 + + +Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is +freedom. + + Christianity. Bible, 2 Corinthians 3.17 + + +The fetters of the heart are broken, all doubts are resolved, and all +works cease to bear fruit, when He is beheld who is both high and low. + + Hinduism. Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.8 + + +The Self, indeed, is below. It is above. It is behind. It is before. +It is to the south. It is to the north. The Self, indeed, is all this. +Verily, he who sees this, reflects on this, and understands this delights +in the Self, sports with the Self, rejoices in the Self, revels in the +Self. Even while living in the body he becomes a self-ruler. He wields +unlimited freedom in all the worlds. But those who think differently from +this have others for their rulers; they live in perishable worlds. They +have no freedom at all in the worlds. + + Hinduism. Chandogya Upanishad 7.25.2 + + + And [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he +went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he +stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet +Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, + + The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, + because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. + He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives + and recovering of sight to the blind. + to set at liberty those who are oppressed, + to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. + +And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; +and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to +say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." + + Christianity. Bible, Luke 4.16-21 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.8: Cf. Maitri Upanishad 3.2, p. 412; Svetasvatara +Upanishad 2.15, p. 843. Chandogya Upanishad 7.25.2: Cf. Acarangasutra +2.173, p. 74. Luke 4.16-21: Jesus is reading from the Old Testament, +Isaiah 61.1-2. Historically, Isaiah was proclaiming to a community of +impoverished exiles liberation from oppression, captivity, and +indebtedness, and the dawn of a new time when God will once again favor +Israel with abundance. But for Jesus, it is a proclamation of +all-encompassing liberation: release to those captive to sin and +enlightenment to the spiritually blind as well as liberty to those +suffering external oppression. With liberation comes the fulfillment of +all creation, the 'acceptable year of the Lord.' +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +Desire is a chain, shackled to the world, and it is a difficult one to +break. But once that is done, there is no more grief and no more longing; +the stream has been cut off and there are no more chains. + + Buddhism. Sutta Nipata 948 + + +The quest of pleasure brings nothing but torment abounding; +Man thus makes of his evil desires only a shackle about the neck. +Thou seeker of false delights, liberation comes only through the love of God. + + Sikhism. Adi Granth, Gauri Ashtpadi, M.1, p. 222 + + +If there is a man who can dominate Satan, the liberation of the spiritual +and physical worlds will take place. + + Unification Church. Sun Myung Moon, 2-22-87 + + +Yea, happily he lives, the brahmin set free, +Whom lusts defile not, who is cooled and loosed from bonds, +Who has all barriers burst, restraining his heart's pain. +Happy the calm one lives who wins peace of mind. + + Buddhism. Anguttara Nikaya i.137 + + +As the path of the birds in the air or of fishes in the water is +invisible, even so is the path of the possessors of wisdom. + + Hinduism. Mahabharata 12.6763 + + +He whose corruptions are destroyed, he who is not attached to food, he who +has Deliverance, which is void and signless, as his object--his path, like +that of birds in the air, cannot be traced. + + Buddhism. Dhammapada 93 + +The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do +not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who +is born of the Spirit. + + Christianity. Bible, John 3.8 + + +Open yourself, create free space; +release the bound one from his bonds! +Like a newborn child, freed from the womb, +be free to move on every path! + + Hinduism. Atharva Veda 6.121.4 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Sutta Nipata 948: Cf. Digha Nikaya ii.276, p. 390; Dhammapada 345-46, p. +418; Milarepa, p. 455. Gauri Ashtpadi, M.1: Cf. Sorath, M.1, p. 454. +Anguttara Nikaya i.137: Buddha uses the term 'brahmin' not in the sense of +a member of the brahmin caste, but as a title for one who is truly +liberated. See Dhammapada 393, 396, p. 279. Mahabharata 12.6763 and +Dhammapada 93: The invisible path refers to the fact that the liberated do +not leave a trail of karma. This is because whatever he does is done with +detachment, without a sense of "I," without any desire for reward. Cf. +Bhagavad Gita 4.19-21, p. 775. John 3.8: Cf. Romans 8.26-27, p. 648. +Atharva Veda 6.121.4: Cf. Tao Te Ching 55, p. 231. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +Immediately after attaining release from all karmas, the soul goes up to +the end of the universe. Previously driven [by karmas], the soul is free +from the bonds of attachment, the chains have been snapped, and it is its +nature to dart upwards. The liberated self, in the absence of the karmas +which had led it to wander in different directions in different states of +existence, darts upwards as its nature is to go up. + + Jainism. Ratnakarandasravakacara 10 + + +He has no branches, how then leaves? Whose root is not in the ground. Who +is worthy to praise that man inspired, from bondage free? + + Buddhism. Udana 77 + + +When a man is free from all sense pleasures and depends on nothingness he +is free in the supreme freedom from perception. He will stay there and +not return again. + +It is like a flame struck by a sudden gust of wind. In a flash it has +gone out and nothing more can be known about it. It is the same with a +wise man freed from mental existence: in a flash he has gone out and +nothing more can be known about him. + +When a person has gone out, then there is nothing by which you can measure +him. That by which he can be talked about is no longer there for him; you +cannot say that he does not exist. When all ways of being, all phenomena +are removed, then all ways of description have also been removed. + + Buddhism. Sutta Nipata 1072-76 + + +You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. + + Christianity. Bible, John 8.32 + + +No man is free, but he who labors in the Torah. + + Judaism. Mishnah, Abot 6.2 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Ratnakarandasravakacara 10: This is the state of Nirvana; cf. Ratnakaranda +sravakacara 131, p. 136. Liberation is also enlightenment; cf. +Tattvarthasutra 10.1-2, p. 537. Udana 77: This is the tree of karma of +Indian thought, discussed in Bhagavad Gita 15.1-3, pp. 382f. Cf. +Svetasvatara Upanishad 3.9, p. 582; Anguttara Nikaya ii.37-39, p. 654. +Sutta Nipata 1072-76: This is a good expression of the freedom that comes +from absence of self. Cf. Mumonkan 8, p. 586; Samyutta Nikaya xxii.59, +pp. 899f.; Anguttara Nikaya ii.37-39, p. 654; Seng Ts'an, pp. 221f.; +Bhagavad Gita 4.19-21, p. 775. John 8.32: Cf. James 1.25, p. 159. Abot +6.2: Cf. Abot 3.6, p. 770; Baba Metzia 10a, p. 670. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +That disciplined man + with joy and light within, +Becomes one with God + and reaches the freedom that is God's. + + Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita 5.24 + + +Subhuti, if you should conceive the idea that anyone in whom dawns the +Consummation of Incomparable Enlightenment declares that all manifest +standards are ended and extinguished, do not countenance such thoughts. + + Buddhism. Diamond Sutra 27 + + +For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not +submit again to a yoke of slavery... For you were called to freedom, +brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, +but through love be servants of one another. + + Christianity. Galatians 5.1, 13 + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Bhagavad Gita 5.24: Cf. Bhagavad Gita 3.31-32, p. 162; Katha Upanishad +2.6.11, p. 840. Galatians 5.1,13: Christian freedom means that the +believer is not justified according to how well he or she obeys religious +laws. One is justified by faith. Yet in faith, the believer lives by the +divine laws because they are helpful in maintaining his or her +relationship with Christ. A Christian can still fall into the slavery of +passions. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + diff --git a/religious documents/theme071.txt b/religious documents/theme071.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f530fb --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/theme071.txt @@ -0,0 +1,308 @@ + +ENLIGHTENMENT + + + Enlightenment means dispelling the darkness of ignorance. +Enlightenment is the primary term used to describe the experience of +salvation in Hinduism and Buddhism, yet the experience of enlightenment is +common to most religions. According to the manner in which Reality is +perceived in the different traditions, enlightenment may be either the +intuitive grasping of inner wisdom, illumination by the truth of the Word, +or direct apprehension of transcendent Reality. The true self, formerly +obscured by false habits of thinking and vain desires, is suddenly +revealed. The inner eye, which was blinded by defilements of worldly +living, opens to a vision of the true Reality. From that moment life can +never be the same, as the enlightened person begins to live by the +knowledge he has acquired. + + The first group of passages compare God or God's word to a light +that shines into the soul. Second are passages which describe +enlightenment as inner knowledge, opening the inner eye or the 'eye of the +heart.' It is recognizing one's Original Mind, pp. 217-23. Third, we +have passages on enlightenment as knowing God, the eternal source of +truth. The concluding passage describes one experience of enlightenment: +a sudden apprehension of a new gestalt, a quantum leap in thinking, a +powerful conversion. + + +Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Psalm 119.105 + + +The truth has come, and falsehood has vanished away. Surely falsehood is +ever certain to vanish. + + Islam. Qur'an 17.85 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Qur'an 17.85. Cf. Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.6, p. 630; Qur'an 39.23, p. 159. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + +Jesus spoke to them, saying "I am the light of the world; he who follows +me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." + + Christianity. Bible, John 8.12 + + +Those who believe will stand alongside [the Prophet], their light +streaming on ahead of them and to their right. They will say, "Our Lord, +perfect our light for us, and forgive us!" + + Islam. Qur'an 66.8 + + +Him the sun does not illumine, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor the +lightning--nor, verily, fires kindled upon the earth. He is the one light +that gives light to all. He shines; everything shines. + + Hinduism. Katha Upanishad 5.15; Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.10; + Svetavatara Upanishad 6.14 + + +It is wonderful, Lord! It is wonderful, Lord! It is as if, Lord, one +might set upright that which had been upturned, or might reveal what was +hidden, or might point out the path to one who had gone astray, or might +bring an oil lamp into the darkness so that those with eyes might see +material shapes. + + Buddhism. Udana 49 + + +The holy Preceptor by the Word lighted a lamp; +Thereby was shattered darkness of the temple of the self, +And the unique chamber of jewels thrown open. +Wonderstruck were we in extreme on beholding it-- +Its greatness beyond expression. + + Sikhism. Adi Granth, Bilaval, M.5, p. 821 + +Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is sound, your whole body +is full of light; but when it is not sound, your body is full of darkness. +Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your +whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly +bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light. + + Christianity. Luke 11.34-36 + + +The Atman is the light: +The light is covered by darkness: +This darkness is delusion: +That is why we dream. +When the light of Atman +Drives out our darkness +That light shines forth from us, + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Qur'an 66.8: Cf. Qur'an 33.45-46, p. 633; Hadith of Muslim, p. 87. Udana +49: For a vivid pictorial representation of the Buddha's enlightening +wisdom, see Garland Sutra 2, p. 99. Luke 11.34-36: Cf. Forty Hadith of +an-Nawawi 6, p. 218; Qur'an 22.46, p. 400; Bhagavad Gita 15.9-11, p. 219. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +A sun in splendor, +The revealed Brahman. + + Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita 5.15-16 + + +God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. +The parable of His Light +is as if there were a Niche, +and within it a Lamp; +the Lamp enclosed in Glass: +The Glass as it were a brilliant star: +Lit from a blessed Tree, +an olive neither of the East nor of the West, +Whose oil is well-nigh luminous, +though fire scarce touched it. +Light upon Light! +God guides whom He will to His Light: +God sets forth parables for men, and God knows all things. + + Islam. Qur'an 24.35 + + +Since all Dharmas are immanent in our mind there is no reason why we +should not realize intuitively the real nature of Suchness. The +Bodhisattva Sila Sutra says, "Our Essence of Mind is intrinsically pure, +and if we knew our mind and realized what our nature is, all of us would +attain Buddhahood." + + Buddhism. Sutra of Hui Neng 2 + + +I am blind and do not see the things of this world; but when the light +comes from above, it enlightens my heart and I can see, for the Eye of my +heart sees everything; and through this vision I can help my people. The +heart is a sanctuary at the center of which there is a little space, +wherein the Great Spirit dwells, and this is the Eye. This is the Eye of +the Great Spirit by which He sees all things, and through which we see +Him. If the heart is not pure, the Great Spirit cannot be seen. + + Native American Religions. Black Elk, Sioux Tradition + + +The Self within the heart is like a boundary which divides the world from +That. Day and night cross not that boundary, nor old age, nor death; +neither grief nor pleasure, neither good nor evil deeds. All evil shuns +That. For That is free from impurity: by impurity can it never be +touched. + +Wherefore he who has crossed that boundary, and has realized the Self, if +he is blind, ceases to be blind; if he is wounded, ceases to be wounded; +if he is afflicted, ceases to be afflicted. When that boundary is +crossed, night becomes day; for the world of Brahman is light itself. + + Hinduism. Chandogya Upanishad 4.1-2 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Bhagavad Gita 5.15-16: Cf. Svetasvatara Upanishad 2.14, p. 843. Qur'an +24.35: See p. 116n. Sutra of Hui Neng 2: Cf. Sutra of Hui Neng 3, p. 218; +Seng Ts'an, pp. 221f. Meditation on Buddha Amitayus 17, p. 646. Black +Elk: Cf. Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 6, p. 218; Bhagavad Gita 5.9-11, p. +219. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +It is as if some man goes into an intimate friend's house, gets drunk, and +falls asleep. Meanwhile his friend, having to go forth on official duty, +ties a priceless jewel within the man's garment as a present, and then +departs. The man, being asleep, knows nothing of this. On arising he +travels onwards till he reaches some other country where, striving for +food and clothing, he labors diligently, undergoes exceeding great +hardship, and is content even if he can obtain but a little. Later, his +friend happens to meet him and speaks thus--"Tut! Sir! How is it you have +come down to this, merely for the sake of food and clothing? Wishing you +to be in comfort and able to satisfy your five senses, I, formerly in such +a year and month and on such a day, tied a price- less jewel within your +garment. Now as of old it is present there, yet you in ignorance are +slaving and worrying to keep yourself alive. How very stupid! Go you now +and exchange that jewel for what you need, and for ever hereafter as you +will, free from poverty and shortage." + + Buddhism. Lotus Sutra 8 + + + The enlightenment consists of a mysterious light which the shaman +suddenly feels in his body, inside his head, within the brain, an +inexplicable searchlight, a luminous fire... for he can now, even with +closed eyes, see through darkness and perceive things and coming events +which are hidden from others: thus they look into the future and into the +secrets of others. + + The candidate obtains this mystical light after long hours of +waiting, sitting on a bench in his hut and invoking the spirits. When he +experiences it for the first time, it is as if the house in which he is +suddenly rises, he sees far ahead of him, through mountains, exactly as if +the earth were one great plain, and his eyes could reach to the end of the +earth. Nothing is hidden from him any longer; not only can he see things +far, far away, but he can also discover souls, stolen souls, which are +either kept concealed in far, strange lands or have been taken up or down +to the Land of the Dead. + + Native American Religions Iglulik Eskimo Shaman Initiation + + +Brahman is all in all. He is action, knowledge, goodness supreme. To +know him, hidden in the lotus of the heart, is to untie the knot of +ignorance. + + Hinduism. Mundaka Upanishad 2.1.10 + + +Perfect knowledge is attained on the destruction of deluding karmas, of +karmas which obscure knowledge and perception, and of karmas which +obstruct [faith]. With the absence of the cause of bondage, the +annihilation of all karmas is liberation. + + Jainism. Tattvarthasutra 10.1-2 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Lotus Sutra 8: For variations of this parable, see Mahaparinirvana Sutra +214-15, p. 219; Chandogya Upanishad 8.3.2, p. 219 Iglulik Eskimo Shaman +Initiation: Cf. Yanomami Shaman's Instruction, pp. 528, 376. Mundaka +Upanishad 2.1.10: Cf. Bhagavad Gita 15.9-11, p. 219; Kena Upanishad 1.1-2, +p. 117; Svetasvatara Upanishad 1.11-12, p. 585; Isha Upanishad 6-7, p. +588. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +To know the eternal is called enlightenment +Not to know the eternal is to act blindly, to result in disaster. +He who knows the eternal is all-embracing. +Being all-embracing, he is impartial. +Being impartial, he is kingly [universal]. +Being kingly, he is one with Nature. +Being one with nature, he is in accord with Tao. +Being in accord with Tao, he is everlasting, +And is free from danger throughout his lifetime. + + Taoism. Tao Te Ching 16 + + +For support, O Far-sighted One, + reveal unto me that which is unique: +That of Thy Kingdom, O Lord, + which are blessings of Good Thought, +Forth, O Beneficent Right-mindedness, + dost Thou reveal Religious commands! + + Zoroastrianism. Avesta, Yasna 33.13 + + +Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of +this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But +we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the +ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood +this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. +But, as it is written, + + What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, + nor the heart of man conceived, + what God has prepared for those who love Him, + +God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches every- +thing, even the depths of God. + + Christianity. Bible, 1 Corinthians 2.6-10 + + +The Sixth Patriarch was pursued by the monk Myo as far as Taiyu Mountain. +The patriarch, seeing Myo coming, laid the Robe and bowl [of office] on a +rock and said, "This robe represents the faith; it should not be fought +over. If you want to take it away, take it now." Myo tried to move it, +but it was as heavy as a mountain and would not budge. Faltering and +trembling, he cried out, "I came for the Dharma, not for the robe. I beg +you, please give me your instruction." The patriarch said, "Think neither +good nor evil. At this very moment, what is the original self of the monk +Myo?" At these words, Myo was directly illuminated. His whole body was +covered with sweat. He wept and bowed, saying, "Besides the secret words +and secret meaning you have just now revealed to me, is there anything +else, deeper still?" The patriarch said, "What I have told you is no +secret at all. When you look into your own true self, whatever is deeper +is found right there." + + Buddhism. Mumonkan 23 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Tao Te Ching 16: The phrase 'To know the eternal is enlightenment' is +repeated in several passages of the Tao Te Ching; see Tao Te Ching 16, p. +840; 55, p. 231. 1 Corinthians 2.6-10: Cf. 1 Corinthians 1.20-28, p. +798; 2.12-16, p. 805. Mumonkan 23: This incident, when Hui Neng the Sixth +Patriarch was fleeing from the followers of his rival Shen Hsiu, is also +recounted in the Sutra of Hui Neng. In Zen, Enlightenment frequently +occurs in such a manner: a sudden realization grows from an experience of +crisis and extreme desperation. When it comes, one no longer depends on +cognition or knowledge or secret lore. The authentic self shines forth; +cf. Mumonkan 1, p. 841; Seng Ts'an, pp. 221f. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + diff --git a/religious documents/theme072.txt b/religious documents/theme072.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a9b595 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/theme072.txt @@ -0,0 +1,218 @@ + +CROSSING THE WATERS + + + The religions born in India share a common symbol of salvation as +crossing the waters. The waters represent the painful existence in the +world, plagued by ills, a continual passing from life to death in samsara. +Tossed about on the turbulent sea, the wayfarer finds rest only on the +other shore, the firm ground of Nirvana. In the Judeo-Christian +scriptures, crossing the waters is also a symbol of salvation, drawn from +the historical tradition of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea under +divine protection and later crossing the Jordan River to reach the +promised land. + + + +Carry us across, as by a boat +across the sea, for our good. +Shining bright, drive away our sin. + + Hinduism. Rig Veda 1.97.8 + + +The body, they say, is a boat and the soul is the sailor. Samsara is the +ocean which is crossed by the great sages. + + Jainism. Uttaradhyayana Sutra 23.73 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Rig Veda 1.97.8: Cf. Satapatha Brahmana 4.2.5.10, p. 871. Uttaradhyayana +Sutra 23.73: See Uttaradhyayana Sutra 10.34, p. 746. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +Even if you were the most sinful of sinners, Arjuna, you could cross +beyond all sin by the raft of spiritual wisdom. + + Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita 4.36 + + +Strive and cleave the stream. Discard, O brahmin, sense-desires. Knowing +the destruction of conditioned things, be a knower of the Unmade. + + Buddhism. Dhammapada 383 + + +As they call the great ocean a boundless flood of water, difficult to +traverse with the arms alone, so should the learned one know and renounce +it [samsara]: that sage is called "Maker of the End." + + Jainism. Acarangasutra 2.16.10 + + +Few are there among men who go across to the further shore; the rest of +mankind only run about on the bank. But those who act rightly according +to the teaching, as has been well taught, will cross over to the other +shore, for the realm of passions is so difficult to cross. + + Buddhism. Dhammapada 85-86 + + +Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. +I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; +I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. + + Judaism and Christianity. Psalm 69.1-2 + + +The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; + the Lord is robed, he is girded with strength. +Yea, the world is established; + it shall never be moved. +Your throne is established from of old, + You are from everlasting. + +The floods have lifted up, O Lord, + the floods have lifted up their voice, + the floods lift up their roaring. +Mightier than the thunders of many waters, + mightier than the waves of the sea, + The Lord on high is mighty! + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Bhagavad Gita 4.36: Cf. Bhagavad Gita 12.5-7, p. 761; Mundaka Upanishad +2.2.6, p. 839; Narada Dharma Sutra 1.210, p. 159; Svetasvatara Upanishad +2.8, pp. 842f. Dhammapada 383: Cf. Sutta Nipata 948, p. 531; Dhammapada +414, pp. 231f. Dhammapada 85-86: On desires as the stream, see Dhammapada +338-47, p. 418. On the metaphor of the teaching as a raft for crossing to +the other shore, see Majjhima Nikaya i.134-135, p. 802. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +Your decrees are very sure; + holiness befits your house, + O Lord, for evermore. + + Judaism and Christianity. Psalm 93 + + +Once Rabbi Phinehas was going to the house of study, and the river Ginai +which he had to pass was so swollen that he could not cross it. He said, +"O river, why do you prevent me from getting to the house of study?" +Then it divided its waters, and he passed over. And his disciples said, +"Can we too pass over?" He said, "He who knows that he has never insulted +an Israelite can pass over unharmed." + + Judaism. Jerusalem Talmud, Demai 22a + + + Suppose, monks, a man is carried along a river by a current which +looks delightful and charming. Then a sharp-sighted man standing on the +bank sees him and calls out, "My friend! Though you are being carried +along in the river by a current which seems delightful and charming, yet +further down here is a pool with waves and whirlpools, with monsters and +demons. My friend, when you get there you will come by your death or +mortal pain!" Hearing the other's call, that man struggles against the +stream with hands and feet. + + This parable, monks, I use to explain my meaning. The river +current is craving; 'looking delightful and charming' refers to one's own +sphere of perception. The pool lower down is the five fetters belonging +to this lower world; its waves are the five pleasures of sense; monsters +and demons refer to women. His going against the stream refers to +renunciation; struggle with hands and feet means to put forth energy. The +sharp-sighted man standing on the bank is the Wayfarer, Arahant, a +Rightly-awakened One. + + Buddhism. Itivuttaka 114-15 + + +Man's life is a poison-laden ship, tossed into the ocean; +The shore is not visible as it floats in the midst of the waters. +Neither is there oar in hand, nor is there a pilot + in this terrible vast sea. +Friend! The world is caught in a mighty snare, +Only by Divine grace and meditating on the holy Name +May man remain afloat. +God is the ship; the holy Word the pilot. +Where there is God's Word, neither wind nor fire, nor waves, +Nor any frightful forms have power: +There the holy eternal Name alone abides, +Which carries man across the ocean of worldliness. +Those going over it, by divine grace reach the other shore. +Engrossed in devotion to the Eternal; +Their transmigration is ended; + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Demai 22a: Stories of sages crossing a physical body of water are common +to many traditions. There are stories of the Buddha crossing a river to +his disciples; Jesus walking on water in Matthew 14.24-31, p. 759; a +Taoist sage walking through a cataract in Chuang Tzu 19; and Moses +crossing the Red Sea in Exodus 14, pp. 615f. Itivuttaka 114-15: Cf. +Dhammapada 338-47, p. 418. 'Wayfarer,' etc. are titles of the Buddha. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +Their light is merged into the light of the infinite. + + Sikhism. Adi Granth, Maru Ashtpadi, M.1, p. 1009 + + +Awake, awake, put on strength, + O arm of the Lord; +awake, as in days of old, + the generations of long ago. +Was it not you that cut Rahab in pieces, + that pierced the dragon? +Was it not you that dried up the sea, + the waters of the great deep; +that made the depths of the sea a way + for the redeemed to pass over? +And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, + and come to Zion with singing; +everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; + they shall obtain joy and gladness, + and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Isaiah 51.9-11 + + +When you go over the Jordan, and live in the land which the Lord your God +gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies +round about... you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Deuteronomy 12.10-12 + + +The rocky stream flows on: hold you all together, + quit you like heroes, and cross over, my friends! +Leave here all those that are evil-minded, + let us cross to powers who are undiseased. + +Stand erect, and cross you over, my comrades! + This rocky river flows on before us. +Abandon here all those that are malicious, + let us cross to powers, benign and pleasant. + + Hinduism. Atharva Veda 12.2.26-27 + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Maru Ashtpadi, M.1: Cf. Suhi Chhant, M.5, p. 898. Isaiah 51.9-11: Isaiah +likens the new salvation of God to God's mighty acts in history. At the +creation, He pierced the dragon of chaos (Rahab), which ancient cosmogony +identified with the waters of the deep (cf. note to Laws of Manu 1.5-16, +p. 131) and dried up the primeval waters to construct the world. At the +Exodus God divided the Red Sea and opened a way for the Israelites to +cross dry-shod; cf. Exodus 14, pp. 615f. Deuteronomy 12.10-12: In the +faith of Black Americans, crossing the Jordan River is a metaphor for +crossing from the troubles of this world to the peaceful abode of Heaven. +Atharva Veda 12.2.26-27: These verses are sung at funeral ceremonies. On +a bridge to cross over the waters of hell, cf. Yasna 46.10-11, p. 349; +Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim, p. 349. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + diff --git a/religious documents/theme073.txt b/religious documents/theme073.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8a3580 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/theme073.txt @@ -0,0 +1,394 @@ + +REVERSAL AND RESTORATION + + + Salvation as restoration refers to the undoing of bad habits, modes +of thinking, ways of behaving, social relations, and political systems +which have grown corrupt and deviated from the proper way. It is a return +to the origin, in order to restore the original way of life according to +the true principles and purposes of God. Salvation is pictured as a great +reversal. God will act to turn the existing social and political order +upside down; no longer will the wealthy and powerful lord it over the +honest and god-fearing. Internally, salvation brings with it the insight +that the way to God is the reverse of the way of the world. Enlightenment +brings, as it were, a one-hundred-and-eighty degree change in orientation. + + Some passages describe the great reversal as a political image. +Others describe an inner reversal: dying to self in order to live, seeking +darkness in order to find the light, and abasing the self in order to +become prominent. Further passages speak of returning to an original +harmony or blessedness which was lost: reversal of the Original Sin that +occured at the human fall or a recovery of the original mind which is by +nature enlightened. An important expression of this theme of reversion to +the origin is found in the Buddhist doctrine of Dependent Origination +(paticcasamuppada), which is not just a law of causality but more properly +the insight that all causes leading to downfall must be reversed. + + +The last will be first, and the first last. + + Christianity. Bible, Matthew 20.16 + + +Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will +be exalted. + + Christianity. Bible, Matthew 23.12 + + +Him who humbles himself, God exalts; him who exalts himself, God humbles; +from him who searches for greatness, greatness flies; him who flies from +greatness, greatness searches out: with him who is importunate with +circumstances, circumstance is importunate; by him who gives way to +circumstance, circumstance stands. + + Judaism. Talmud, Erubin 13b + + +The way of Heaven, +Is it not like stretching a bow? +What is high up is pressed down, +What is low down is lifted up; +What has surplus is reduced, +What is deficient is supplemented. + +The way of Heaven, +It reduces those who have surpluses, +To supplement those who are deficient. +The way of man is just not so: +It reduces those who are deficient, +To offer to those who have surpluses. +Who can offer his surpluses to the world? +Only a person of Tao. + + Taoism. Tao Te Ching 77 + + +The bows of the mighty are broken, + but the feeble gird on strength. +Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, + but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. +The barren has borne seven, + but she who has many children is forlorn. +The Lord kills and brings to life; + he brings down to Sheol and raises up. +The Lord makes poor and and makes rich; + he brings low, he also exalts. +He raises up the poor from the dust; + he lifts the needy from the ash heap, +to make them sit with princes + and inherit a seat of honor. +For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, + and on them he has set the world. + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Matthew 23.12: Cf. Luke 18.10-14, p. 902; Isaiah 2.12-17, p. 410; Proverbs +16.18, p. 408; Matthew 5.5, p. 911; Philippians 2.6-11, p. 535. Erubin +13b: Cf. Isaiah 2.12-17, p. 410; Hosea 6.1-2, p. 525. Tao Te Ching 77: +Cf. Tao Te Ching 56, p. 840. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +He will guard the feet of his faithful ones; +but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness; +for not by might shall a man prevail. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, 1 Samuel 2.4-9 + + +Whoever is proud of his royal authority +falls into hell, becomes a dog. +Whoever fancies himself for his beauty +takes birth as a filthy worm. +Whoever proclaims his meritorious deeds +whirls in transmigration, fallen into numerous births. +Whoever is proud of wealth and estates +is thoughtless, blind, senseless. +But whoever in whose heart He, in His grace, lodges humility +finds, says Nanak, liberation in this life, +bliss in the hereafter. + +Whoever is proud of his wealth, +Know not even a blade of grass shall accompany him. +Whoever pins his confidence on large hoardes and servants +is destroyed in an instant. +Whoever reckons himself powerful over all +is reduced in an instant to ashes. +Whoever in his pride reckons none as his equal +In the end treated with ignominy by the Master of Law. +Whoever by the Master's grace has his pride anulled, +Says Nanak, finds acceptance at the Divine Portal. + + Sikhism. Adi Granth, Gauri Sukhmani 12, M.5, p. 278 + + +Sentient beings wish to return to their origin where their nature will be in +perfect unity. + + Buddhism. Surangama Sutra + + +Always to know the standard is called profound and secret virtue. +Virtue becomes deep and far reaching, +And with it all things return to their original natural state. +Then complete harmony will be reached. + + Taoism. Tao Te Ching 65 + + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +1 Samuel 2.4-9: This is the Song of Hannah. A similar song is sung by +Mary--the Magnificat--in Luke 1.47-55. Cf. Pesahim 50a, p. 355; Isaiah +2.12-17, p. 410. Tao Te Ching 65: Cf. Tao Te Ching 16, p. 840; Chuang Tzu +12, p. 589. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +Confucius said, "To subdue one's self and return to propriety, is perfect +virtue. If a man can for one day subdue himself and return to propriety, +all under heaven will ascribe perfect virtue to him." + + Confucianism. Analects 12.1.1 + + +For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the +dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. + + Christianity. Bible, 1 Corinthians 15.21-22 + + +Why are idolators lustful? Because they did not stand at Mount Sinai. +For when the serpent came upon Eve he injected lust into her; as for the +Israelites who stood at Mount Sinai, their lustfulness departed; but as +for the idolators who did not stand at Mount Sinai, their lustfulness did +not depart. + + Judaism. Talmud, Shabbat 145b-146a + + +To save a sick man is to restore him to the status he had before the +sickness occurred. To save a drowning man is to restore him to the state +he was in before he began to drown. Likewise, to save a man fallen into +sin means to restore him to the original sinless position which he enjoyed +in the beginning. Therefore, God's providence of salvation is the +providence of restoration. + + Unification Church. Divine Principle I.3.2.1 + + +Just as if, brethren, a man faring through the forest, through the great +wood should see an ancient path, and ancient road traversed by men of +former days... And that man, brethren, should bring word to the prince, +"Pardon, Lord, know this. I have seen as I fared through the forest, +through the great wood, an ancient path, an ancient road traversed by men +of former days. I have been along it, and going along it I have seen an +ancient city, an ancient prince's domain, wherein dwelt men of former +days, having gardens, groves, pools, foundations of walls, a goodly spot. +Lord, restore that city." And, brethren, the prince or his minister +should restore that city. That city should thereafter become prosperous +and flourishing, populous, teeming with folk, grown and thriving. Even so +have I, brethren, seen an ancient Path, an ancient road traversed by the +rightly enlightened ones of former times. + + Buddhism. Samyutta Nikaya ii.106 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Analects 12.1.1: On the human being's original state as one of propriety, +see Book of Rites 38.18, p. 215; Doctrine of the Mean 1.4-5, pp. 228f.; +Mencius II.A.6, p. 216. 1 Corinthians 15.21-22: Cf. Revelation 1.18, p. +648; also Romans 5.12-19. This and the following two passages describe +salvation as a reversal of the primordial Human Fall. Paul is arguing +from the Jewish doctrine that the Human Fall brought death into the world; +cf. Genesis Rabbah 8.11, p. 427; 10.4, p. 1113; Wisdom of Solomon 2.23-24, +p. 427. Shabbat 145b-146a: The Israelites who stood at Mount Sinai are +understood to include all Jews whenever and wherever they live. On lust +as the infirmity of soul brought on through the Fall, see Genesis Rabbah +18.6, p. 428; 10.4, p. 1113. Divine Principle I.3.2.1: Restoration is +through "indemnity," which means to lay conditions of faith, obedience, +and sacrifice, thereby reversing Adam's unbelief, rebellion, and selfish +heart at the time of the Fall; see Sun Myung Moon, 9-11-72, p. 772. +Restoration also means to make reparations for the sins of the individual, +family, nation, and so on, that have accrued through the course of +history. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +If you wish to untie a knot, you must first understand how it was tied. + + Buddhism. Surangama Sutra + + +I will teach you Dhamma: If this is, that comes to be; from the arising of +this, that arises; if this is not, that does not come to be; from the +stopping of this, that is stopped. + + Buddhism. Majjhima Nikaya ii.32 + + + The world, O Kaccana, is for the most part bound up in a seeking, +attach- ment, and proclivity, but a monk does not sympathize with this +seeking and attachment, nor with the mental affirmation, proclivity, and +prejudice which affirms an Ego. He does not doubt or question that it is +only evil that springs into existence, and only evil that ceases from +existence, and his conviction of this fact is dependent on no one besides +himself. This, O Kaccana, is what constitutes Right Belief. + + That things have being, O Kaccana, constitutes one extreme of +doctrine; that things have no being is the other extreme. These extremes +have been avoided by the Tathagata, and it is a Middle doctrine he +teaches, + + On ignorance depends karma; + + On karma depends consciousness; + + On consciousness depends name and form; + + On name and form depend the six organs of sense; + + On the six organs of sense depends contact; + + On contact depends sensation; + + On sensation depends desire; + + On desire depends attachment; + + On attachment depends existence; + + On existence depends birth; + + On birth depend old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, +grief, and despair. Thus does this entire aggregation of misery arise. + + But on the complete fading out and cessation of ignorance ceases +karma; + + On the cessation of karma ceases consciousness; + + On the cessation of consciousness ceases name and form; + + On the cessation of name and form cease the six organs of sense; + + On the cessation of the six organs of sense ceases contact; + + On the cessation of contact ceases sensation; + + On the cessation of sensation ceases desire; + + On the cessation of desire ceases attachment; + + On the cessation of attachment ceases existence; + + On the cessation of existence ceases birth; + + On the cessation of birth cease old age and death, sorrow, +lamentation, misery, grief, and despair. Thus does this entire +aggregation of misery cease. + + Buddhism. Samyutta Nikaya xxii.90 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Samyutta Nikaya ii.106: Cf. Lankavatara Sutra, p. 155. Majjhima Nikaya +ii.32: This is a short formula for the doctrine of Dependent Origination +(Pali paticcasamuppada. A more complete formulation follows. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +For whoever would save his life will lose it, +and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. + + Christianity. Bible, Matthew 16.25 + + +The sage awakes to light in the night of all creatures. That which the +world calls day is the night of ignorance to the wise. + + Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita 2.69 + + +The Way out into the light often looks dark, +The way that goes ahead often looks as if it went back. +The way that is least hilly often looks as if it went up and down, +The virtue that is really loftiest looks like an abyss, +What is sheerest white looks sullied. + + Taoism. Tao Te Ching 41 + + +Sights, sounds, tastes, odors, things touched and objects of mind are, +without exception, pleasing, delightful, and charming--so long as one can +say "They are"; + +These are considered a source of happiness by the world with its gods--and +when they cease, this is by them considered suffering. + +The cessation of phenomenal existence is seen as a source of happiness by +us ariyans--this insight of those who can see is the reverse of that of +the whole world: + +What others say is a source of happiness, that, we say, is suffering; what +others say is suffering, that, we know, as a source of happiness. Behold +this doctrine, hard to understand, wherein the ignorant are bewildered. + + Buddhism. Samyutta Nikaya iv.127-28 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Samyutta Nikaya xxii.90: This enumerates all twelve links in the chain of +Dependent Origination, first forwards to show the origin of ill, then +back- wards to show its cessation. 'Right Belief' is the first step in +the Noble Eightfold Path (see pp. 170f.), namely to understand the Four +Noble Truths, of which Dependent Origination is a more detailed +explanation. Cf. Buddhacarita 14, pp. 611-12. Matthew 16.25: Cf. Mark +8.34-36, p. 897; John 12.24-25, p. 897; Hadith of Muslim, p. 878; +Philippians 2.6-11, p. 616; Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah, Arabic 7, p. 897. +Tao Te Ching 41: Note the pun on the way out, which is the Way (Tao). +Bhagavad Gita 2.69: Cf. Samanasuttam 135-36, p. 912. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +To yield is to to be preserved whole. +To be bent is to become straight +To be empty is to be full. +To be worn out is to be renewed. +To have little is to possess. +To have plenty is to be perplexed. +Therefore the sage embraces the One +And becomes the model of the world. +He does not show himself; therefore he is luminous. +He does not justify himself; therefore he becomes prominent. +He does not boast of himself; therefore he is given credit. +He does not brag; therefore he can endure for long. +It is precisely because he does not compete that the world cannot compete with + him. +Is the ancient saying, "To yield is to be preserved whole" empty words? +Truly he will be preserved, and all will come to him. + + Taoism. Tao Te Ching 22 + + +"Blessed One, what is meant by this term Nirvana?" Replied the Buddha, +"When the self-nature and the habit-energy of all the +sense-discriminations, includ- ing ego (alaya), intellect (manas), and the +faculty of judgment (manovijnana), from which issue the habit-energy of +wrong speculations--when all these go through a revulsion, I and all the +Buddhas declare that there is Nirvana. The way and the self-nature of +this Nirvana is emptiness, which is the state of reality." + + Buddhism. Lankavatara Sutra 38 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Tao Te Ching 22: Cf. Tao Te Ching 28, pp. 912f.; 48, p. 898; I Ching, +Great Commentary 2.5.2-3, p. 177; Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah, Arabic 7, +p. 897. Lankavatara Sutra 38: This 'revulsion,' turning all previous ways +of thinking upside-down, is the sudden enlightenment of the Zen school. +For comparable Theravada passages, see Udana 49, p. 535; Anguttara Nikaya +v.322, p. 552. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + diff --git a/religious documents/theme074.txt b/religious documents/theme074.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e69e26b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/theme074.txt @@ -0,0 +1,313 @@ + +PEACE + + + Peace is one of the most desirable fruits of salvation in all the +world's religions. We begin with passages describing the fruit of inner +peace. The peace that comes with reaching Ultimate Reality brings +tranquillity to the heart and clarity to the mind. It is the absence of +passions, desires, anxieties, and wandering thoughts; the heart becomes +cool and content. Nirvana is often translated 'Peace.' Islam and +Christianity both praise the peace and tranquillity that come to the soul +that is firm in faith. The soul of the saint has been likened to a deep +pond whose surface remains undisturbed by waves despite the many currents +or streams that flow into it. + + A second group of passages describe the peace of God that brings +harmony among people and nations. Outward peace is emphasized in the +Abrahamic faiths, for whom the work of God has a social and historical +dimension. The love of God breaks down the walls of hostility between +people, and thus becomes the foundation for their lasting peace. Yet +peace in this social and political sense is not only given by God; it must +also be built by the efforts of human beings. Those who are blessed with +inner peace have the responsibility to become peacemakers, reconciling +conflict. + + +Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do +I give to you. + + Christianity. Bible, John 14.27 + + +In the remembrance of God do hearts find satisfaction. + + Islam. Qur'an 13.28 + + +The Master said, "In the morning, hear the Way; in the evening, die +content!" + + Confucianism. Analects 4.8 + + +This is peace, this is the excellent, namely the calm of all the impulses, +the casting out of all "basis," the extinction of craving, dispassion, +stopping, Nirvana. + + Buddhism. Anguttara Nikaya v.322 + + +O tranquil soul, +return to your Lord +so pleasant and well-pleased! +Enter among My servants +and enter My garden! + + Islam. Qur'an 89.27-30 + + +May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Numbers 6.26 + + +And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your +hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. + + Christianity. Bible, Philippians 4.7 + + +He it is who sent down peace of reassurance into the hearts of the +believers, that they might add faith to their faith. + + Islam. Qur'an 48.4 + + +Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, +whose mind is stayed on thee, +because he trusts in thee. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Isaiah 26.3 + + +If a man sings of God and hears of Him, +And lets love of God sprout within him, +All his sorrows shall vanish, +And in his mind, God will bestow abiding peace. + + Sikhism. Adi Granth, Japuji 5, M.1, p. 2 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Anguttara Nikaya v.322: Nirvana is the Ultimate Good because it is the +complete end of all the impulses and passions that produce evil. Cf. +Dhammapada 96, p. 230. Qur'an 89.27-30: Cf. Qur'an 56.27, p. 353. +Numbers 6.26: Part of the Aaronic benediction, Numbers 6.24-26, p. 56. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +Just as a deep lake is clear and still, even so, on hearing the teachings +and realizing them, the wise become exceedingly peaceful. + + Buddhism. Dhammapada 82 + + +As rivers flow into the ocean but cannot make the vast ocean overflow, so +flow the streams of the sense-world into the sea of peace that is the +sage. + + Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita 2.70 + + +Men do not mirror themselves in running water--they mirror themselves in +still water. Only what is still can still the stillness of other things. + + Taoism. Chuang Tzu 5 + + +The monk looks for peace within himself, and not in any other place. For +when a person is inwardly quiet, there is nowhere a self can be found; +where, then, could a non-self be found? + +There are no waves in the depths of the sea; it is still, unbroken. It is +the same with the monk. He is still, without any quiver of desire, +without a remnant on which to build pride and desire. + + Buddhism. Sutta Nipata 919-20 + + +The Lord lives in the heart of every creature. He turns them round and +round upon the wheel of his Maya. Take refuge utterly in Him. By His +grace you will find supreme peace, and the state which is beyond all +change. + + Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita 18.61-62 + + +Should anyone be victim of great anxiety, his body racked with maladies, +Beset with problems of home and family, With pleasure and pain +alternating, Wandering in all four directions without peace or rest-- +Should he then contemplate the Supreme Being, Peaceful shall his mind and +body become. + + Sikhism. Adi Granth, Sri Raga, M.5, p. 70 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Dhammapada 82: Cf. Anguttara Nikaya iii.34, p. 531; Dhammapada 413, pp. +231f. Bhagavad Gita 2.70: Cf. Bhagavad Gita 6.7-9, p. 226. Chuang Tzu 5: +Only a person at peace with himself can calm others. Cf. Tao Te Ching 4, +p. 525; Great Learning, p. 842; Tao Te Ching 56, p. 840. Sutta Nipata +919-920: Cf. Dhammapada 279, p. 899. The peace which comes from finding +union in the midst of the world's bewildering diversity is also expressed +in the Peace Chant of the Isha Upanishad, p. 55. Cf. Katha Upanishad +3.13, p. 840, Bhagavad Gita 5.10-12, p. 724. On the wheel of Maya, see +Svetasvatara Upanishad 1.6.8, p. 398. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +Victory breeds hatred, for the defeated live in pain. Happily live the +peaceful, giving up victory and defeat. + + Buddhism. Dhammapada 201 + + +Tao invariably takes no action, and yet there is nothing left undone. If +kings and barons can keep it, all things will transform spontaneously. If, +after transformation, they should desire to be active, I would restrain +them with simplicity, which has no name. Simplicity, which has no name, is +free of desires. Being free of desires, it is tranquil. And the world will +be at peace of its own accord. + + Taoism. Tao Te Ching 37 + +Some children were playing beside a river. They made castles of sand, and +each child defended his castle and said, "This one is mine." They kept +their castles separate and would not allow any mistakes about which was +whose. When the castles were all finished, one child kicked over someone +else's castle and completely destroyed it. The owner of the castle flew +into a rage, pulled the other child's hair, struck him with his fist and +bawled out, "He has spoiled my castle! Come along all of you and help me +to punish him as he deserves." The others all came to his help. They beat +the child with a stick and then stamped on him as he lay on the ground.... +Then they went on playing in their sand castles, each saying, "This is +mine; no one else may have it. Keep away! Don't touch my castle!" But +evening came, it was getting dark and they all thought they ought to be +going home. No one now cared what became of his castle. One child +stamped on his, another pushed his over with both hands. Then they turned +away and went back, each to his home. + + Buddhism Yogacara Bhumi Sutra 4 + + +Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men! + + Christianity. Bible, Luke 2.14 + + +The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace. + + Judaism. Talmud, Gittin 59b + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Dhammapada 201: Cf. Nitivaktyamrita 344, p. 1052. Tao Te Ching 37: Cf. +Chuang Tzu 7, p. 588; Tao Te Ching 80, p. 291. Yogacara Bhumi Sutra 4: In +this parable Nirvana is likened to the diminution of jealousy and passion +for existence with the cool of evening. In the Pali version (Samyutta +Nikaya iii.188) the sand castles are likened to the body, which had been +the object of grasping; with Release it becomes a thing to be disregarded +and broken up. Luke 2.14: The proclamation of the angelic hosts at the +birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace; see the larger passage Luke +1.26-2:14, p. 596. Cf. Yasna 60.5, p. 289. +- - - - - - - - - - - + + +All things exist for world peace. + + Perfect Liberty Kyodan Precepts, 14 + + +God is peace, His name is peace, and all is bound together in peace. + + Judaism. Zohar, Leviticus 10b + + +For Christ Jesus is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken +down the dividing wall of hostility. + + Christianity. Bible, Ephesians 2.14 + + +Our Father, it is thy universe, it is thy will: +Let us be at peace, let the souls of the people be cool. +Thou art our Father, remove all evil from our path. + + African Traditional Religions. Nuer Prayer (Sudan) + + +They shall beat their swords into plowshares, + and their spears into pruning hooks; +nation shall not lift up sword against nation, + neither shall they learn war any more. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Isaiah 2.4 + + +Now is the gracious Lord's ordinance promulgated, +No one shall cause another pain or injury; +All mankind shall live in peace together, +Under a shield of administrative benevolence. + + Sikhism. Adi Granth, Sri Raga, M.5, p. 74 + + +Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. + + Christianity. Bible, Matthew 5.9 + + +He brings together those who are divided, he encourages those who are +friendly; he is a peacemaker, a lover of peace, impassioned for peace, a +speaker of words that make for peace. + + Buddhism. Digha Nikaya xiii.75, Tevigga Sutta + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Precepts, 14: A sentiment common to most of the new religions of Japan. +Zohar, Leviticus 10b: In Hebrew, shalom includes the concepts peace, +wellness, and wholeness. Cf. Numbers 6.24-26, p. 56; the Kaddish prayer, +p. 54. Ephesians 2.14: Cf. John 17.20-21, p. 271; Atharva Veda 7.52.1-2, +pp. 272f. Matthew 5.9: Cf. Abot 1.12, p. 239. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +If two parties of believers fall to fighting, then make peace between +them. And if one party of them does wrong to the other, fight that +wrong-doer until it returns to the ordinance of God; then, if it returns, +make peace between them justly, and act equitably. Lo! God loves the +equitable. + + Islam. Qur'an 49.9 + + +During the short eons of swords, +They meditate on love, +Introducing to nonviolence +Hundreds of millions of living beings. + +In the midst of great battles +They remain impartial to both sides; +For bodhisattvas of great strength +Delight in reconciliation of conflict. + + Buddhism. Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti 8 + + +Peace be to earth and to airy spaces! +Peace be to heaven, peace to the waters, +peace to the plants and peace to the trees! +May all the gods grant me peace! +By this invocation of peace may peace be diffused! +By this invocation of peace may peace bring peace! +With this peace the dreadful I appease, +with this peace the cruel I appease, +with this peace all evil I appease, +so that peace may prevail, happiness prevail! +May everything for us be peaceful! + + Hinduism. Atharva Veda 19.9.14 + + diff --git a/religious documents/theme075.txt b/religious documents/theme075.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd37d99 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/theme075.txt @@ -0,0 +1,624 @@ + +HELP AND DELIVERANCE + + + In times of distress, danger, and oppression, believers in every +tradition look to God for support and help. In times of crisis, in +combat, and when confronting death, even non-believers will turn to God +for help. And time and again, they find deliverance in ample measure. +Conversely, the scriptures warn against reliance on one's own power, +allies, or wealth to prevail in the fight when the true source of power is +available through faith. + + The passages include expressions of confidence in divine +deliverance, supplications for help, and texts which describe God's grace +as an unassailable refuge. There are several accounts of God's saving +deeds in history: from the Bible, Moses at the Red Sea; from the Qur'an, +the battle of Badr; and from the Mahabharata, a counsel on the inevitable +victory of Krishna in the battle between the Kurus and the Pandavas. The +section closes with two hymns, one to the Hindu Goddess Durga, to whom is +attributed a great victory in the primeval war between the gods and the +demons, and the other praising Kuan Yin, in Chinese Buddhism the +Bodhisattva of divine compassion who is said to be ready and able to save +anyone in distress. Related passages, exhorting people to do battle in +the name of faith or justice with the confidence that God or Right is on +their side, may be found under War Against Evil, pp. 1047-57. + + +If God is for us, who can be against us? + + Christianity. Bible, Romans 8.31 + + +United with me, you shall overcome all difficulties by my grace. + + Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita 18.58 + + +Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Zechariah 4.6 + + +O you who believe! If you help God's cause, He will help you and will make +your foothold firm. + + Islam. Qur'an 47.7 + + +God, the Lord, is my strength; +he makes my feet like hind's feet, +he makes me tread upon high places. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Habakkuk 3.19 + + +To those who have conformed themselves to the Way, the Way readily lends +its power. To those who have conformed themselves to the power, the power +readily lends more power. + + Taoism. Tao Te Ching 23 + + +Men of little ability, too, +By depending upon the great, may prosper; +A drop of water is a little thing, +But when will it dry away if united to a lake? + + Buddhism. Elegant Sayings 173 + + +Up dost Thou raise me, O Lord, + through devotion dost Thou grant me endurance, +Through the Most Holy Spirit, + O Wise One, good award of prayer, +Through Right powerful vigor, + And through Good Thought leadership! + + Zoroastrianism. Avesta, Yasna 33.12 + + +Should the lord bestow His might on the tiny ant, +Hordes million-strong it may destroy. +Whomsoever He Himself sends not to death, +He guards by the strength of His arm. +Despite all his efforts, +All man's endeavors turn fruitless. +None other is savior or destroyer: +He Himself is guardian of all beings. +Thou man! why all this anxiety? +Says Nanak, Contemplate Him who is beyond thy understanding, +Who is so wonderful. + + Sikhism. Adi Granth, Gauri Sukhmani 17, M.5, p. 285-86 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Tao Te Ching 23: 'Power' (te) means the latent power or virtue inherent in +nature and in Ultimate Reality. Elegant Sayings 173: Cf. Tao Te Ching 4, +p. 525. Gauri Sukhmani 17, M.5: Cf. Devgandhari, M.4, p. 758; Gaund +Kabir, p. 881. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +Have you not known? + Have you not heard? +The Lord is the everlasting God + the Creator of the ends of the earth. +He does not grow weary, he does not tire, + his understanding is unsearchable. +He gives strength to the weary, + and to him who has no might he increases strength. +Youths may faint and be weary, + and young men may fall, exhausted; + but they who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength. +They shall mount up with wings like eagles, + they shall run and not be weary, + they shall walk and not grow faint. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Isaiah 40.28-31 + + +God does not leave his child tied up overnight. + + African Traditional Religions. Tiv Proverb (Nigeria) + + +Whosoever keeps his duty to God, God will appoint a way out for him, and +will provide for him in a way that he cannot foresee. And whosoever puts +his trust in God, He will suffice him. Lo! God brings His command to +pass. God has set a measure for all things. + + Islam. Qur'an 65.2-3 + + +Leave your fight to Olodumare and look on, for he is defender of the +defenseless. + + African Traditional Religions. Yoruba Proverb (Nigeria) + + +God is our refuge and strength, + a very present help in trouble. +Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, + though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; +though its waters roar and foam, + though the mountains tremble with its tumult. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Psalm 46.1-3 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Isaiah 40.28-31: Cf. 1 Samuel 2.4-9, pp. 545f.; 17, pp. 1056f. Tiv +Proverb: This is said when help arrives unexpectedly. Cf. Dinka Prayer, +p. 146. Yoruba Proverb: 'Olodumare' is a Yoruba name for the Supreme +Being. Cf. Psalm 55.22, p. 826. Psalm 46.1-3: The imagery is one of +cosmic destruction in the latter days. This psalm was the inspiration for +Martin Luther's famous hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." Cf. Psalm +23, p. 507; Psalm 93, pp. 541f.; Rig Veda 8.69.8, p. 766. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +A king is not saved by his great army, + a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. +The war horse is a vain hope for victory, + and by its great might it cannot save. +Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, + on those who hope in his steadfast love, +That he may deliver their soul from death, + and keep them alive in famine. +Our soul waits for the Lord; + he is our help and our shield. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Psalm 33.16-20 + + +Altar Mountain of the Sacred Forest, +Where, since the divine age, +It has been said the myriad gods descended + To make offerings for safe passage + In the land of abundant rice on the + Plain of reeds. +Spring, and your spring mists rise, +Come the fall, and aflush with rouge, +You, mountain god of the forest altar, + Take for belt the stream of the River Asuka, + Whose current so swift, + No easy birth her stony pillows give to the moss, + Yet still moss on them abounds. +I shall beseech you each new night, +Show me in divined dreams +The way I should pass in peace! +Oh, god with sword-like awe enshrined. + + Shinto. The Man'yoshu XIII + + +Free us, Indra, from the fear of all that we are afraid of. + May thou, with thy saving power, + turn away the hater and the enemy. + +We call on Indra, bounteous Giver, + we will be prosperous in men and cattle. +Let not the demon hosts approach us; + turn the hostiles away on all sides. + +Adorable Indra, our Savior, + Vritra-slayer and Furtherer of our highest aims, +may he be our Protector from the end, + from the middle, from behind, and from in front. + +Lead us to a free world, Wise One, + where lie divine luster, sunlight, and security. +Valiant are the arms of thee, the Powerful; + we will take to their vast shelter. + + Hinduism. Atharva Veda 19.15.1-4 + + +Good God of this earth, my Lord! +You are above me, I am below you. +When misfortune comes to me, +As trees keep off the sun from me, +May you keep off misfortune; +My Lord, be my shadow! + +Calling upon you, I pass the day. +Calling upon you, I pass the night. +When this moon rises, do not forsake me; +When I rise, I do not forsake you; +Let the danger pass by me. + +God, my Lord, you Sun with thirty rays, +When the enemy comes, let not your worm be killed upon the earth; +Keep him off, as we seeing a worm upon the earth, +Crush him if we like, spare him if we like. +As we tread upon and kill a worm upon the earth, +Thus, if you please, you crush us upon the earth. +God, you go, holding the bad and the good in your hand; +My Lord, let us not be killed, +We your worms, we are praying to you. + + African Traditional Religions. Boran Prayer (Kenya) + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Atharva Veda 19.15.1-4: Indra is the chief Vedic god, who established +justice throughout the cosmos by slaying the serpent-demon Vritra, the +personification of all evil, lawlessness, darkness, and drought; see Rig +Veda 1.80. Cf. Rig Veda 10.103, p. 1052; Bhagavad Gita 11.26-34, pp. +1044f. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +If God gives you a cup of wine and an evil-minded person kicks it over, He +fills it up for you again. + + African Traditional Religions. Akan Proverb (Ghana) + + +He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, + who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, +will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress; + my God, in whom I trust." +For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, + and from the deadly pestilence; +he will cover you with his pinions, + and under his wings you will find refuge; + his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. + +You will not fear the terror of the night, + nor the arrow that flies by day, +nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, + nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. +A thousand may fall at your side, + ten thousand at your right hand; + but it will not come near you. +You will only look with your eyes + and see the recompense of the wicked. + +Because you have made the Lord your refuge, + the Most High your habitation, +no evil shall befall you, + no scourge come near your tent. +For he will give his angels charge of you + to guard you in all your ways. +On their hands they will bear you up, + lest you dash your foot against a stone. +You will tread on the lion and the adder, + the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot. + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Psalm 91.1-13 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Akan Proverb: Cf. Banyarawanda Proverb, p. 107. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +Knowing It one is not touched by evil action. Therefore he who knows It +as such becomes self-controlled, calm, withdrawn into himself, patient, +and collected; he sees the Self in his own self; he sees all as the Self. +Evil does not overcome him, but he overcomes all evil. Evil does not +afflict him, but he consumes all evil. + + Hinduism. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.23 + + +One who has a true hold on life, when he walks on land does not meet +tigers or wild buffaloes; in battle he is not touched by weapons of war. +Indeed, a buffalo that attacked him would find nothing for his horns to +butt, a tiger would find nothing for its claws to tear, a weapon would +find no place for its blade to lodge. And why? Because such men have no +"death-spot" in them. + + Taoism. Tao Te Ching 50 + + +Those who are devoted to the perfection of wisdom should expect therefrom +many advantages here and now. They will not die an untimely death, nor +from poison, or sword, or fire, or water, or staff, or violence. When +they bring to mind and repeat this perfection of wisdom, the calamities +which threaten them from kings and princes, from king's counsellors and +king's ministers, will not take place. If kings, etc., would try to do +harm to those who again and again bring to mind and repeat the perfection +of wisdom, they will not succeed; because the perfection of wisdom upholds +them. Although kings, etc., may approach them with harmful intent, they +will instead decide to greet them, to converse with them, to be polite and +friendly to them. For this perfection of wisdom entails an attitude of +friendliness and compassion toward all beings. Therefore, even though the +devotee of the perfection of wisdom may be in the middle of a wilderness +infested with venomous vipers, bandits, and ghosts, none can harm them, +except as a punishment for past deeds. + + Buddhism. Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines 75-76 + + + Master Lieh Tzu said to Barrier Keeper Yin, "The Perfect Man can +walk under water without choking, can tread on fire without being burned, +and can travel above the ten thousand things without being frightened. +May I ask how he manages this?" + + The Barrier Keeper Yin replied, "This is because he guards the pure +breath--it has nothing to do with wisdom, skill, determination, or +courage. Sit down and I will tell you about it. All that have faces, +forms, voices, colors--these are all mere things. How could one thing and +another thing be far removed from each other? And how could any of them +be capable of leading you to what preceded them? They are forms, +colors--nothing more. But that which creates things has no form, and it +rests where there is no change. If a man can get hold of this and exhaust +it fully, then how can things stand in his way? He may rest within the +bounds that know no excess, hide within the borders that know no source, +wander where the ten thousand things have their end and beginning, unify +his nature, nourish his breath, unite his virtue, and thereby communicate +with that which creates all things. A man like this guards what belongs +to Heaven and keeps it whole. His spirit has no flaw, so how can things +enter in and get at him? + + "When a drunken man falls from a carriage, though the carriage may +be going very fast, he won't be killed. He has bones and joints the same +as other men, and yet he is not injured as they would be, because his +spirit is whole. He didn't know he was riding, and he doesn't know he has +fallen out. Life and death, alarm and terror do not enter his breast, and +so he can bang against things without fear of injury. If he can keep +himself whole like this by means of wine, how much more can a man keep +himself whole by means of Heaven! The sage hides himself in Heaven--hence +there is nothing that can do him harm." + + + Taoism. Chuang Tzu 19 + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Psalm 91.1-13:Cf. Luke 10.19-20, pp. 314f.; Matthew 4.1-11, p. 621; Joshua +1.1-9, p. 1056; Daniel 3.1-28, pp. 883f.; Acts 16.19-30, p. 889. Tao Te +Ching 50: Cf. Tao Te Ching 16, p. 538. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + + O Apostle! Sufficient for you is God--for you and for those who +follow you among the believers. + + O Apostle! Rouse the believers to the fight. If there are twenty +among you, patient and persevering, they will vanquish two hundred; if a +hundred, they will vanquish a thousand of the unbelievers, for these are a +people without understanding. + + For the present, God has lightened your task, for He knows that +there is a weak spot in you; but even so, if there are a hundred of you, +patient and persevering, they will vanquish two hundred, and if a +thousand, they will vanquish two thousand, with the leave of God; for God +is with those who patiently persevere. + + Islam. Qur'an 8.64-66 + + + O you who believe! Remember the grace of God on you, when there +came down on you hosts; but We sent against them a hurricane and forces +you could not see: but God sees clearly all that you do. Behold! they +came on you from above you and from below you, and behold, the eyes became +dim and the hearts gaped up to the throats, and you imagined various vain +thoughts about God! In that situation were the believers tried; they were +shaken as by a tremendous shaking.... + + And God turned back the unbelievers, for all their fury; no +advantage did they gain; and enough is God for the believers in their +fight. And God is full of Strength, Able to enforce His will. + + Islam. Qur'an 33.9-25 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Chuang Tzu 19: Based on this tradition, the drunken man or the fool who is +so pliant that he can stagger about and always escape harm is a stock +character in Chinese drama. Cf. Tao Te Ching 55, p. 231; Chuang Tzu 6, p. +584. Qur'an 8.64-66: This revelation was given on the eve of the battle +of Badr, where the companions of Muhammad, ill-equipped (the 'weak spot'), +defeated a force that outnumbered them by more than three to one. +- - - - - - - - - - - - + + +O king, I say unto thee that Krishna is Eternal and Unfading... the +Supreme Lord of all creatures, the great Master. He is warrior, He is +Victory, He is Victor, and He is the Lord of all nature. O king, He is +full of goodness and divested of all the qualities of darkness and +passion. There, where Krishna is, there righteousness is; and where +righteousness is, there is victory. It is by the Yoga of his Supreme +Excellence, and the Yoga of his Self, that the sons of Pandu, O king, are +supported. Victory, therefore, will surely be theirs. He it is that +always imparts to the Pandavas understanding endued with righteousness and +strength in battle; and He it is who always protects them from danger. + + Hinduism. Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva 66 + + +Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, +"I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; + the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. +The Lord is my strength and my song, + and he has become my salvation; +this is my God, and I will praise him, + my father's God, and I will exalt him. +The Lord is a man of war; + the Lord is his name. + +"Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea; + and his picked officers are sunk in the Red Sea. +The floods cover them; + they went down into the depths like a stone. +Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, + your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. +In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; + you send forth your fury, it consumes them like stubble. +At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up, + the floods stood up in a heap; + the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. +The enemy said, 'I will pursue, + I will overtake, + I will divide the spoil, + my desire shall have its fill of them. + I will draw my sword, + my hand shall destroy them.' +You blew them away with your wind, + the sea covered them; +they sank as lead + in the mighty waters. + +"Who is like thee, O Lord, among the gods? +Who is like thee, majestic in holiness, +terrible in glorious deeds, doing wonders?" + + Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Exodus 15.1-11 + + +- - - - - - - - - - - - +Qur'an 33.9-25: Vv. 9-11, 25. This surah describes the Battle of the +Trench (. He is a Witch. + + + <5> Witches Do Not ride on broomsticks. They find it much easier + to use modern transportation. + + + <6> Witches Do use spells. A "spell" is a thought projection used + to produce a desired result. Christians use prayer to achieve + the same results. + + + <7> Witches Do use magic wands. Magic wands are much like "divining + rods", and are used for the purpose of directing energy. + + + <8> Witches Do use the natural psychic ability that all human beings + possess. Witches use these abilities to heal, and to improve their + surroundings. + + + <9> Witches Do use WITCHCRAFT as a science, art, and religion, and + use their knowledge and abilities in harmony with the Universe + and Nature around them. as a science they use their psychic + abilities, as a religion by personifying Nature as a Goddess + and God, and as an art by using magic to beautify. + + + <10> Witches Do wear a Pentacle, which is a five-pointed star in a + circle, with the single-point upwards. The five points stand + for the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, and the + top point for the Divine Spirit. + ~~Bright Blessings To All~~ \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/witchltr.txt b/religious documents/witchltr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..794c30c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/witchltr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,200 @@ + A LETTER TO WITCHES + By Dr. Robert A. Morey + +The following is a letter that Dr. Morey has written to teenage +witches that he thought you might like to share with others. + + I see from the pentagram you wear and all your magical charms +that you believe in the power of magic. Perhaps you have attended +a Wiccan gathering or you have participated in some magic rituals. +I don't know. + + But so many questions fill my mind. Have you "drawn down the moon" +yet? Have you ever felt a power come upon you? Do you worship a par- +ticular goddess? Have you been initiated? Do you have a Wiccan name? +Have you gone skyclading? Are you in the outer or inner circle? +Have you used blood in your rituals? Have you ever called forth a +familiar spirit? + + The reason I am writing you is that I have studied the occult for +thirty years and I have come to certain conclusions. + + Now, I know that you will disagree with some of my conclusions +because we have traveled different paths. But I have added the benefit +of the testimonies of those who used magic in the highest levels +possible such as the Golden Dawn and the O.T.O. and then have come +to faith in Christ and now have renounced magic. + + All I ask is that you have an open mind and give serious attention +to the things I now bring up. Remember an unexamined faith is a +worthless faith. + + I. The fact that magic does not work. + + After all the talk about the "power" that people can get from + magic, I have never known a more powerless group of people. + + Many of those who use magic are sick all the time. They go + through mulitple marriages. They have money problems. Their + cars get flat tires. They get their share of flus and colds. + + Even more seriously, they cannot beat their own drug or sex + addiction. They are usually in bondage and totally powerless + to change their life for the better. + + If magic really worked, they would never be sick. They would + win every horse race in town! They would own Wall Street by + now! They would be able to maintain a successful marriage. + + But the fact is, you waste a lot of money and time on magic + and are no better off. In fact, you will end up worse off. + + If magic worked, witches would be picking up the winning + lottery numbers every week. But the fact is that when the + "rubber meets the road" magic simply does not work. + + II. Their lame duck excuses as to why they are sick or why they + can't keep their marriage together or why they aren't rich, + are weak and feeble. + + One psychic "healer" (a relative of mine) is sick all the time. + Her husband is dying of cancer! When she boasted to me of her + magical powers, I confronted her with the rather obvious fact + that her magic did not work for her or her ex-husband. She + replied that her magic will not work for herself. + + But who says that you cannot heal yourself by magic? Where is + it written down? And who says that your husband or wife cannot + use magic to heal you? If her magic cannot help herself or her + husband, then what good is it? + + I could not help but point out that she was always crying about + money problems. What use is her magic if it cannot make her rich? + + III. A magical world view is internally contradictory and hypocritical. + + A. To say, "there are no moral absolutes" is to give an absolute. + + B. To say, "Do what thou wilt, this is the whole of the law" has + been used to justify everything from black magic to human + sacrifice. If there are no standards, then on what grounds can + they condemn child abuse, Hitler, murder, etc.? They can't. + + C. To say, "everything is relative" and "there is no evil," and + then to turn around and say that Christianity is "evil" is + contradictory. + + D. To say, "Everyone has the right to believe what they want" + and then condemn Christians for what they believe is contra- + dictory. + + E. To say, "Do what thou wilt" and then tell Christians NOT to do + what they wilt is hypocritical. + + F. To say, "that it is wrong to judge/condemn others," and then + to judge/condemn Christians is contradictory. + + IV. A magical view of life does not correspond to reality. + + G. No magic is going to make you thin if you do not stop eating. + No magic will make you rich if you do not get up and go to + work. + + H. The claim of modern witches that they are reviving pre- + Christian paganism is not true historically. The rituals + and beliefs of modern day magic are of recent origin. + + I. My brother in law who is in the occult told me he was going + to use magic to get himself a parking space in N.Y.C. I in + turn told him that I would ask Jesus to get me a space. He + drove around for four hours before finding a place while I + found one immediately and did not have to go around the + block even once! His magic was not even good enough to find + him a parking space! + + J. A magical view of life is a cop out and it breeds irrespons- + ibility . + Instead of taking responsibility for their life, those who + use magic always blame "bad luck" or claim that someone is + using black magic against them. The truth is that YOU are + responsible for the choices you make in life - not magic. + + K. It attracts people with mental problems. + Sad but true. I have seen this many, many times. The State + Mental Hospitals are filled with people who were users of + magic. It appeals to people with those kind of people. + + L. They live in constant fear of the powers they draw down. + Hence they need the occult protection of the circles, + towers, shields, charms, etc.. What a terrible religion + of fear! + + M. If you depend upon trinkets such as pentagrams to protect + you, you do not have any real power. To think that a stupid + piece of metal or glass is going to protect you from a demon + you summon is absurd. + + N. The lust for blood is evil. It has led to horrible crimes. + Killing animals and people for their "energy" is wicked as + well as criminal. + + O. Sex magic is filthy and gross beyond words and involves + child abuse, bestiality, sodomy, etc. You will never have + a normal satisfying sex life once you debase yourself + in sex magic. + + P. Magic is for losers. + + The greatest magicians always end up broke, alone, and + miserable. Check to see what happend to people like + Crowley. They were all losers. + + Whenever a true Christian challenges them, the magicians + always lose. + + I have challenged occultist to take their best shot and + they always failed. On one occasion, a coven sent demons + to kill me but I didn't even get a headache! + + Q. While there is a lot of hate and lust in magic, there is + no love. If you leave or reveal the secrets, they will + try to kill you. + + I helped to move a girl from Philadelphia to Florida to + escape her former occult friends. If they really loved her, + why did they try to kill her? If she wanted to leave the + group, why did they object to her doing what she wilt? + + R. There is no forgiveness, comfort or salvation in magic. + It has no Savior or God who loves and cares for you. + + The occult is lonely, sad, cold and sterile. + + S. The Bible says that true power behind the magical arts + is satanic. Those who deny this are dupes of the devil. + + These are just a few things that came to mind as I thought about +what I have seen in thirty years of research in the occult. + + The Lord Jesus Christ has broken the power of magic and has +brought life, love and immortality to light through the Gospel. +Jesus is Victor! + + The occult has nothing to offer that compares with the love +of Jesus. Turn to Him in repentance. Renounce your witchcraft +and the works of the devil. Burn your magic books and mash your +altars. Turn or burn. Repent or perish! Jesus is the answer. +John 3:36. + + +Copyright 1992 + +Copyright/Reproduction Limitations: +This text file may not be edited or altered in any fashion. It +may be uploaded or downloaded freely and may not be sold for +personal gain or profit. For further information please contact: + + The Research & Education Foundation + P.O. Box 141455 + Austin, Tx 78714 + diff --git a/religious documents/witcreed.txt b/religious documents/witcreed.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b51edaa --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/witcreed.txt @@ -0,0 +1,82 @@ +The Witches' Creed + +Hear now the words of the witches, +The secrets we hid in the night, +When dark was our destiny's pathway, +That now we bring forth into light. + +Mysterious water and fire, +The earth and the wide-ranging air, +By hidden quintessence we know them, +And will and keep silent and dare. + +The birth and rebirth of all nature, +The passing of winter and spring, +We share with the life universal, +Rejoice in the magical ring. + +Four times in the year the Great Sabbat +Returns, and the witches are seen +At Lammas and Candlemas dancing, +On May Eve and old Hallowe'en. + +When day-time and night-time are equal, +When sun is at greatest and least, +The four Lesser Sabbats are summoned, +And Witches gather in feast. + +Thirteen silver moons in a year are, +Thirteen is the coven's array. +Thirteen times at Esbat make merry, +For each golden year and a day. + +The power that was passed down the age, +Each time between woman and man, +Each century unto the other, +Ere time and the ages began. + +When drawn is the magical circle, +By sword or athame of power, +Its compass between two worlds lies, +In land of the shades for that hour. + +This world has no right then to know it, +And world of beyond will tell naught. +The oldest of Gods are invoked there, +The Great Work of magic is wrought. + +For the two are mystical pillars, +That stand at the gate of the shrine, +And two are the powers of nature, +The forms and the forces divine. + +The dark and the light in succession, +The opposites each unto each, +Shown forth as a God and a Goddess: +Of this our ancestors teach. + +By night he's the wild wind's rider, +The Horn'd One, the Lord of the Shades. +By day he's the King of the Woodland, +The dweller in green forest glades. + +She is youthful or old as she pleases, +She sails the torn clouds in her barque, +The bright silver lady of midnight, +The crone who weaves spells in the dark. + +The master and mistress of magic, +That dwell in the deeps of the mind, +Immortal and ever-renewing, +With power to free or to bind. + +So drink the good wine to the Old Gods, +And Dance and make love in their praise, +Till Elphame's fair land shall receive us +In peace at the end of our days. + +And Do What You Will be the challenge, +So be it Love that harms none, +For this is the only commandment. +By Magic of old, be it done! + diff --git a/religious documents/wlpa2.txt b/religious documents/wlpa2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..56cd37e --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/wlpa2.txt @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ +This is a copy of the article, "CHILD ABUSE, SATANISM AND WITCHCRAFT +WRONGLY LINKED," from Volume 1, Number 1, "Witches League for Public +Awareness," January, 1987, by Christine Dumas. + +(Article copied for this upload by author's permission. *rcp*) + +"Last month (November 1986), on of our networking members, PRAIRIE +WIND, sent us an urgent mailing containing a confidential report by +Officer Sandi Gallant of the San Francisco Police Department. This +report contained definitions of Witches as worshippers of Satan, and +other connections between Witchcraft and Satanism. + +"Attached to the police report, which was originally for departmental +use only in investigating crimes of a 'satanic' nature involving child +abuse, was a psychological study of satanic child abuse written by +Clinical Pathologist Catherine Gould Ph.d of Brentwood and Encino, CA. +The report further circulated, unauthorized, by the Director of a child +abuse agency at a large conference on child abuse which took place in +the Midwest. + +"I called Officer Gallant, who was helpful and courteous. She said +that she knew nothing about this report being distributed at any +conferences, and that she was well-aware of the differences between +Satanism and Witchcraft. She has worked with San Francisco Witches, +such as Valerie Voight, editor of 'Pagana,' and with other members of +the Covenant of the Goddess (C. O. G.). A phone call to a C. O. G. +member confirmed this. + +"Officer Gallant has also sent us a tape of a speech she makes +concerning satanic crimes, and she clearly makes the distinction +between Witchcraft and Satanism. She does not stress this difference +as much as we would like, but I was told this is because she does not +want her audiences to get involved in theological discussions. She does +stress Satanism as the focal point of her talk, but she still makes some +mistakes, such as defining a 'warlock' as a male witch. She told me +that she used the terms 'witch' and 'Satanist' interchangeably because +many Satanists define themselves as Witches. Also her report was not +meant to leave the police station. + +"She says also that, 'I too, am concerned about mis-labeling, and +share your desire for correct informational dissemination. Once again +however, I must stress that many fringe people do incorporate a +combination of terms and belief systems. In the long run, this (her +report) is helpful, although I am sure distressing to you. It is +helpful because we can automatically rule out organized groups, +knowing they will not combine belief systems.' + +"The name of the man who was distributing this report has been sent +to the San Francisco Police Department, as the original was copyrighted, +and he is in violation of this copyright.. Hopefully, they will do +something about this. + +"It is not clear what part, if any, Catherine Gould played in this +unauthorized distribution. Her report may have been usurped by the +man involved, or she may have been a willing participant in the +unauthorized distribution of this misleading information. When I +asked Officer Gallant about Ms Gould, she replied, 'Oh her! She never +bothers to point out the differences between Witchcraft and Satanism.' + +"As PRAIRIE WIND points out, 'We are not out of the woods yet. This +report HAS (caps, mine: *rcp*) gone to child abuse agencies around +the country, and it looks like it has the endorsement of a Ph.d +as well as a director of a well-respected child abuse agency AND a +major police department.' She says further, 'If you discover that a +police department or abuse agency has this report, encourage (or +demand if necessary), that these people personally contact Officer +Gallant and get this mess straightened out.' + +"Also, let us know if this report surfaces in your area. Our thinks +to PRAIRIE WIND for her time and energy spent in bringing this to +our attention." diff --git a/religious documents/wrdfaith.txt b/religious documents/wrdfaith.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16dff0f --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/wrdfaith.txt @@ -0,0 +1,543 @@ + AN EXAMINATION OF THE WORD-FAITH MOVEMENT + + "You don't have a god in you, you are one."(1) + + "Pray to yourself, because I'm in your self and you're in My +self. We are one Spirit, saith the Lord."(2) + + "I say this with all respect so that it don't upset you too bad, +but I say it anyway. When I read in the Bible where he [Jesus] says, +'I Am,' I just smile and say, 'Yes, I Am, too!'"(3) + + What group would say such outrageous things? What group would +have the nerve to perpetuate such blasphemous doctrines? Could it be +the Jehovah's Witnesses? the Mormons? the Unitarians? the New Agers? +Could it be--the Christians? + + + The Word-Faith Teachers + + The Word-Faith Teachers. This is the group that would seek to +convince us that Jesus and His disciples were rich, that to be poor +is a sin, to be sick is a sin, and that faith is a creative force +that we can use to shape our world just like God supposedly created +this world and universe that we live in through His "faith"! + + Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Paul Crouch, John Avanzini, +Robert Tilton, Fred Price, and Benny Hinn (who at the time of this +writing has authored the number one best selling Christian book in +America, "Good Morning, Holy Spirit") are just a few that spew out +this theological vomit. + + A Sampling of Error + + To name just a few of the more outrageous things that have been +said by these so-called teachers will stagger the senses: + + John Avanzini is convinced that "Jesus had a nice big house",(4) +"Jesus wore designer clothes",(5) and "Jesus was handling big money".(6) + + Fred Price also claims that Jesus was rich and that He left us +with an example to follow. That is why Fred drives a Rolls Royce; he +is following Jesus' example! + + Mr. Price also communicates one of the more sickening beliefs of +the Word-Faith teachers which shocks even those with a mild amount of +common sense. He says, "How can you glorify God in your body, when it +doesn't function right?....What makes you think the Holy Ghost wants +to live inside of a body where He can't see out through the windows, +and He can't hear out the ears?"(7) This insulting and insensitive +comment regarding the handicapped and crippled among us stirs up +anger in even the most hardened of consciences. Yet this statement by +Mr. Price is followed by exuberant applause and approval from his +congregation (I would like to hear Mr. Price say this to Joni +Eareckson, or Tony Melendez). + + These kind of statements boggle our minds and stagger our +senses. It would seem that most people would see the error in these +teachings, yet millions follow these men with a militant passion. + + + The Tip of the Iceberg + + If this was as far as the teaching of these men went, if their +only error was that they think everyone should be wealthy and +healthy, then we could maybe shrug this movement off as a novelty and +realize that soon people with an ounce of common sense will see the +error in these teachings. Unfortunately, these teachings are but the +tip of the iceberg. They are but the rotten fruit of a foul, putrid, +blasphemous and heretical root. The erroneous actions of the faith +teachers is but the symptom of their twisted and diseased teachings +concerning the nature of man and the nature of God. I think you will +see, after examining what they believe in these two key areas, that +we are not dealing with a Christian sect gone awry, but that we are +dealing with a non-Christian heretical group that is as deadly in +their doctrine as any major cult. + + + The Error Begins + + Who is God to the faith teachers? Kenneth Copeland will tell you +first off that "God is the biggest failure in the Bible...the reason +you've never thought that is because He never said He was one".(8) +Copeland also teaches us that "God is a being that stands somewhere +around 6'2", 6'3",(9) intimating that God has a body, an error +subscribed to by the Mormons. Copeland states, without any biblical +warrant, that the earth we live on is a "copy of the mother planet"(10) +which God lives on, again imitating a Mormon doctrine. Never mind +that the Bible plainly states that God is spirit (John 4:24), never +mind that the Bible never says a thing about this earth being a copy +of any so-called mother planet. Yet these arguments don't work with +the faith teachers because they have supposedly received these +teachings by direct revelation from God. Therefore to oppose them is +to oppose God. These men have lifted themselves above any critical +investigation yet they have forgotten the biblical mandate that +anything not in accord with the Word of God must be rejected. We will +examine shortly their reactions to any kind of criticism. + + After the faith teachers have thoroughly belittled God to +slightly more than an exalted man, they then proceed to exalt man to +the status of God. Adam, to the faith teachers, was an exact +duplicate of God. Copeland teaches, "Gods reason for creating Adam +was His desire to reproduce Himself. I mean a reproduction of +Himself. He [Adam] was not a little like God, he was not almost like +God, He was not subordinate to God even".(11) Copeland even states that +"Adam is God manifested in the flesh",(12) a title that can only be +truly applied to Christ Jesus alone. + + The perceptive man can easily see that the problem here is a +confusion about what it means to be made in the image of God. The +faith teachers claim that being made in the image of God is +synonymous to having the nature of God. To be made in the image of +God is to be a "little god" they would admit. Yet is that what the +church has commonly taught. The overwhelming consensus of the church +has been that man is created in the image of God in the sense that he +is a person as God is a person, possessing mind, will, and emotions, +that he is reasonable, unique among creation, a ruler over creation, +and capable of personal fellowship with God. We bear the image of +God, but we do not share His nature or substance or make-up. We are +not omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, or infinite. God is the only +being that is holy in and of Himself (Rev. 15:4). We are made in His +image and have dignity because of that, but we are not an exact +duplicate of God in any sense of the word. That status is reserved +for the Lord Jesus Christ alone (see Col 2:8, Heb. 1:3, 2 Cor. 4:4). + + + The Error Grows + + Beginning with this foul root of error, the faith teachers +proceed into more putrefying departures from the Christian faith. The +faith teachers claim that when Adam fell in the garden he forfeited +the nature of God and took on the nature of Satan. This error is but +a link in the chain that connects the faith teachers exalting of man +and belittling of God. You see, salvation for the faith teachers is +not the removal of sin through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus +Christ. Salvation for the faith teachers is not the forgiveness of +sins and the restoring of a right relationship between God and man. +Salvation for the faith teachers is instead the removal of the nature +of Satan from man and the restoring of the nature of God in man. + + How is the restoring of the nature of God in man to come about? +The answer that the faith teachers give is that Jesus had to take on +the nature of Satan on the cross. In fact, the whole sacrifice of +Christ on the cross takes on a completely different emphasis and +meaning for the faith teachers. + + You see, it is not enough that Christ died physically in the +theology of the Word-Faith teachers. In order to take away our +Satanic nature and restore our God nature, Jesus Christ had to die +spiritually as well as physically. He then had to descend to hell. +Then while in hell he was born again and through His act of being +born again He conquered the devil. + + + The Error Examined + + You must follow the steps of this error very carefully for it is +but the doorway into the single most blasphemous and heretical +teaching of the Word-Faith teachers. + + 1) On the cross Jesus took upon Himself the nature of Satan. The +Bible says that Jesus is God the Son, God manifest in the flesh. +Jesus therefore possesses the attributes of deity such as +omnipotence, omniscience, eternalness, immutability, etc. Though in +His incarnation, He chose not to exercise all of His attributes, He +still retained them. One of God's attributes which Jesus shares is +His immutability. This means that God is unchangeable in His person. +Although He acts in time, and establishes and changes relationships +in time, His essence, which includes His perfect and holy attributes, +never changes. God does not change (Mal. 3:6) and neither does Jesus. +"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb 13:8). +But the faith-teachers begin their error by claiming that the Holy, +undefiled, unchangeable Son of God became evil to the core taking +upon Himself the nature of Satan. Blasphemy! Our holy God does not +become unholy. + + 2) Jesus died spiritually. Again the unchanging God-man did not +die spiritually, but physically. 1 Pet. 3:18 states that Jesus was +put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit. Jesus did not +need to die spiritually as well as physically to gain our salvation. +The offering of His body was enough. Colossians 1:13 states "He has +now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death"; Hebrews 13:12, +"therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His +own blood"; Hebrews 10:10, "We have been sanctified through the +offering of the body of Jesus Christ". Was Jesus lying when He cried +upon the cross, "It is finished" (John 19:30)? Was there yet more to +be done to secure our salvation? That comforting cry from the lips of +our blessed Lord can be nothing but true and our salvation was +completely bought and paid for at this most climactic moment of all +of history! + + 3) Jesus descended into hell a mortal man. Seeing that there is +no need for Christ to have done any more to procure our salvation +then what had already been accomplished, this point becomes nothing +more than an embellishment to the truth. Jesus Christ did not suffer +in hell. He descended to Hades, to the abode of the dead. There was +no need for Him to do anymore for our salvation. Satan had already +been defeated and conquered (Col 2:14-15). Also, Jesus was not, nor +ever will be, a mere mortal human being. To be a mere mortal, He +would have to stop being God, and that is one thing that is against +God's nature and attributes. + + 4) Jesus was born again. Jesus had no need to be born again. +Jesus was not a lost and hell-bound sinner who needed regeneration. +He was the Almighty, Eternal, and Holy Son of God. The faith teachers +will drag Jesus to the lowest depths in order that their teaching +will have at least a hint of logic. This idea that Jesus was born +again is the crucial link for the faith teachers that enables them to +cry out at the end of their wicked formula for salvation, "I am a +little god". Observe. + + 5) Jesus defeated the devil by being born again. We now have +Jesus, a mere mortal man, suffering in hell. Jesus then decides to be +born again. He defeats the devil and becomes the first-born among +many brethren. Now here is where the Scripture twisting really +becomes ludicrous. Copeland states that nowhere in the Bible after +the book of Acts is Jesus called the unique and only begotten Son of +God. He then twists Romans 8:29 to mean that Jesus is the first born +again man. This first reborn man, Jesus, has set the pattern for a +new race to come. And according to the Faith Teachers, we are that +new race to come. We are equal to Jesus for we are born again just as +He was. Do you see what has happened here? The faith teachers have so +suppressed the deity of Jesus that they have, in essence, denied it. +Copeland goes the farthest in this revelation He supposedly received +from Jesus, "Don't be disturbed when people accuse you of thinking +you're God. The more you get to be like Me, the more they're going to +think that way of you. They crucified Me for claiming that I was God. +But I didn't claim I was God; I just claimed I walked with Him and +that He was in Me. Hallelujah. That's what you're doing."(13) + + The Jesus of the faith teachers has so little in common with the +Jesus of the Bible that it is clear to anyone with a grain of +discernment that the Jesus of the faith teachers is not the Jesus of +the Bible but instead is the kind of religious decoy that Paul warned +us to be on the lookout for. "But I am afraid, lest as the serpent +deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from +the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and +preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a +different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel +which you have not accepted, you put up with it easily enough" (2 +Cor. 11:3-4). And we are putting up with it. We are taking this so +calmly. Another Jesus, another gospel, another spirit is mocking the +true Jesus, the true gospel, and the true Spirit and we are so +tolerant of it that we allow it on our TV set and call it Christian!? + + + The Fruit Of The Error + + Why is it so important for the Faith-Teachers to ignore such +explicit passages as "It is finished," etc? Why must they have Jesus +dying spiritually as well as physically, entering hell as a mortal +man capable of failure, and being born again to defeat the devil? The +reason is that the faith teachers have a diminished view of Jesus. +When Jesus is downplayed as nothing more than an anointed man, it +brings the faith teachers up to the level of Jesus. In fact, both +Kenneth Copeland and Fred Price have publicly stated that if it was +just the physical death of Jesus on the cross that saves us then +anyone could have done it. Kenneth Copeland says, "And the whole New +Testament calls Him the first-born....The word "born" began to ring +in my spirit; it just began to roll around: born, born. I never had +let Him go through that in my own thinking....And while I was laying +there thinking about these things, the Spirit of God spoke to me. +And He said, "Son, realize this: Now follow Me in this, don't let +your tradition trip you up." He said, "Think this way: A twice-born +man whipped Satan in his own domain." And I threw my Bible down. I +said, "What?" He said, "A born-again man defeated Satan. The +first-born of many brethren defeated him." He said, "You are the +very image and the very copy of that one." I said, "Goodness +gracious, sakes alive!" And I began to see what had gone on in there, +and I said, "You don't mean--you couldn't dare mean, that I could +have done the same thing?" He said, "Oh, yeah, if you'd had the +knowledge of the Word of God that He did, you could have done the +same thing, 'cause you're a reborn man, too.""(14) No mention is made +of the sinlessness of Christ. No reverence is shown toward the unique +virgin birth of Christ. See the depths to which the Word-Faith +teachers have desecrated our Lord. Jesus Christ could pay for our +sins because He was sinless, being uniquely born of a virgin, and +thus not sharing in the sin nature of Adam and his descendants, a +fact to which neither Copeland nor anyone can likewise boast of. + + The sickening outcome of this wickedness is that the Gospel +message is no more "Turn to the cross of Jesus, ye wretched sinners, +and plead for God's forgiveness. Find rest for your sin and guilt +beneath the blessed cross of the great and mighty Savior." Instead +the faith Teacher's gospel message is, "You shall be like God"! The +original lie of the devil is now the gospel message and is broadcast +around the world for all to hear! He must be pleased! And the end +result is the blasphemous cries of those who subscribe to this +wickedness. Kenneth Hagin: "You are as much the incarnation of God as +Jesus Christ was...the believer is as much an incarnation as was +Jesus of Nazareth".(15) Benny Hinn: "Are you ready for some real +revelation knowledge....you are god"(16) "You are a little god on earth +running around".(17) Kenneth Copeland: "I say this with all respect so +that it don't upset you too bad, but I say it anyway, when I read in +the Bible where he [Jesus] says, 'I Am,' I just smile and say, 'Yes, +I Am, too!'"(18) "You don't have a god in you, you are one."(19) Paul +Crouch: "Do you know what else that's settled then tonight? This hue +and cry and controversy that has been spawned by the devil to try to +bring dissension within the body of Christ that we are gods. I am a +little god. I have His name. I am one with Him. I'm in covenant +relation. I am a little god. Critics be gone!"(20) + + + A Time For Action + + Am I just theologically splitting hairs here? If this were a +matter of when and how to baptize, or how many times a year should +the Lord's Supper be observed, or whether the rapture was post, mid, +or pre-trib, then I could rightfully be accused of that. Yet this is +not a minor issue. At stake here is the very character of our God and +Savior Jesus Christ and the great salvation that He has given us. If +you have the wrong Jesus, you have the wrong salvation and it should +be clear from the evidence presented above that the Jesus of the +Word-Faith movement is a far cry from the Jesus of the Bible! + + When Shirley MacClaine chants over and over on national TV , "I +am God, I am God!" we evangelicals go into an uproar. Yet when those +who claim to be in our own ranks say, "I am a little god", we don't +even flinch, but rather applaud them and their supposed evangelical +efforts. Michael Horton has rightly written, "It must cause our +heavenly Father much grief that we would consider unity more +important than the One in whom we are united. It must quench the +Spirit to see Christians treating blasphemies, heresies, and +scandalous statements as though they were no more than odd +"emphases"." + + The simple fact is that it is not the ones that are zealous for +sound doctrine and orthodoxy who are the divisive ones. The +Word-Faith teachers are the ones who are guilty of being divisive. +They are fully aware that what they are teaching is relatively new. +They constantly ask us to put away our traditions and forget our +creeds. Benny Hinn says to an audience, "Are you ready for some real +revelation knowledge?" then proceeds to inform them "you are god".(21) +Hinn also, after teaching his audience that God consists of 9 +distinct substances, boasts "You think you're in this church to hear +things you've heard for the last 50 years?".(22) + + The Word-Faith teachers expect everyone to accept their +authority and teachings without criticism or testing. Whenever anyone +challenges their teachings they promote division instead of +discussion. Before his death, Dr. Walter Martin sought to dialogue +with Kenneth Copeland over his teachings, yet Copeland refused to +meet with Martin. Fred Price has publicly stated that he will not +meet with a critic unless he has as many followers as him. Last +Spring, the Christian Research Institute, a very reputable and +trustworthy counter-cult and apologetic ministry, devoted a week of +radio programs to exposing the errors of the Word-Faith movement. +Immediately after the shows were aired, Paul Crouch had this to say +about CRI during his televised "Praise-a-thon" program amid shouts of +"amen" and "you tell 'em brother" from the studio audience: + + "I think God's given up on a lot of that old rotten Sanhedrin + religious crowd, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. I think + they're damned and on their way to hell and I don't think there's + any redemption for them...the heresy hunters that want to find a + little mote of illegal doctrine in some Christian's eye and pluck + that little mote out of their eye when they've got the whole + forest in their own lives and in their own eyes. I say to hell + with you! Oh hallelujah. Get out of God's way, quit blocking God's + bridges or God's gonna shoot you if I don't! I refuse to argue any + longer with any of you out there. Don't even call me. If you want + to argue doctrine, if you want to straighten out somebody over + here, if you want to criticize Ken Copeland for his preaching on + faith, or Dad Hagin. Get out of my life! I don't even want to talk + to you or hear you. I don't want to see your ugly face! Get out of + my face in Jesus' name."(23) + +Notice that there is no desire to dialogue about the issues. Notice +that Paul Crouch doesn't explain why they believe what they believe +and subsequently why CRI was in error for presenting the programs. +All that Paul does is attack the people, he does not give an account +for the hope that is in him. The Faith teachers erroneous and +blasphemous teachings are what are promoting division. It is not +those who criticize them and seek to dialogue with them in a +reasonable matter that are to blame. It is the childish and +unresponsive Word-Faith teachers that are to blame. + + But you say, what about the good they do? Dear friend, no one +gets everything wrong! Even the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, the +New Age, etc. get a few things right every once in while. But isn't +that the substance of deception? The skin of the truth stuffed with a +lie. An appearance of righteousness yet inside rottenness and dead +man's bones. No, the evil propagated by these teachers so outweighs +the good that we must reject them entirely. A little leaven leavens +the whole lump. + + I, for one, am embarrassed by the Word-Faith teachers and I am +ashamed to be represented by them. These men represent Christianity +to millions. They present a false picture of what it means to be a +Christian and I think it is abhorrent. Michael Horton has rightly +asked, "Do those who occasionally view televangelistic programming +know that evangelical Christianity offers an intelligent +interpretation of and hope for human existence? Does the average +unbeliever come away from an ordinary telecast with a better grasp of +the substance of the Christian faith?" The Word-Faith teachers and +Trinity Broadcasting Network on the whole defeat their very purpose. +They seek to evangelize but they are only preaching to the choir. The +vast majority of people who watch already claim to be Christian, and +the occasional non-believer that tunes in is quick to see the +unreality presented and the apparent con-game that is going on. And +to make matters worse, the sparse amount of teaching that is usually +presented to the Christian is of the lethal type that we have been +discussing and instead of strengthening the body of Christ, it +poisons it. + + What should we do? I see at least three things that can be done +and they are not minor operations. When a cancer is first recognized +in a body, the procedure to remove it is quick, easy, and relatively +painless if the cancer has been caught in its early stages. But when +a cancer has gone unnoticed for years and has been allowed to nurture +and infiltrate an entire body, then the procedure to remove it will +be much more complicated, slow, and painful. The Word-Faith teaching +is a spiritual cancer that has infiltrated the church to its very +marrow. We must take action now and it will not be pleasant. + + First, the most obvious thing to do is to not support any of +these ministries monetarily. Don't watch any of the Word-Faith +teachers programs and encourage and warn others to do the same. Don't +buy their books. If your local Christian bookstore carries their +material let them know that you will not frequent their stores if +they continue to carry this spiritual cancer. + + Second, take a stand for Jesus! Why won't the church take a +stand? I have asked myself that question over and over. Are we afraid +to attack evil in the supposed name of unity? Is it that we are so +far gone that we don't figure that it matters what you believe as +long as you "love Jesus"? If so, let's quit calling other religions +false and accept the cults into our fold. Let's bring in the +Jehovah's Witnesses who love their Jesus (even though to them he is +the archangel Michael, the first and greatest created being). Let's +bring in the Mormons, and the Unitarians, etc. Let's say good-bye to +the creeds and sound doctrine. Let's forget the stern warnings of the +Apostle Paul to beware of false teachers and false doctrine which +spreads like gangrene. Let's all just "love Jesus" (whoever that +Jesus might be to us)? NO! We cannot forget the creeds, we will not +abandon truth. We must obey our Lord when He tells us to "Beware of +the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly +are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits" (Mat. +7:15-16). The fruit of the Word-Faith teachers is none other than the +fruit that the devil deceived our ancient mother Eve with. It is +still as deadly and still as putrid in God's sight as it was then. +The Word-Faith teachers and their movement must be actively opposed +and rejected as non-Christian! Who will stand for Christ? + + Third, this would not have come about if more Christians knew +their Bible and what it taught. This would not have come about if +more Christians knew what the Bible has to say about the nature of +man, the nature of God, the doctrine of the trinity, etc. It is time +to return to teaching sound doctrine so that the common Christian man +can be armed against error. It is time to study the great +foundational doctrines of our faith so that we won't be deceived by +religious charlatans. Doctrine is not just for theologians. Words +like propitiation, sanctification, justification, trinity, +incarnation, predestination, redemption, etc. are not just useless +theological words but are the very foundations of the faith. + + It's time to use our minds again. It's time to quit being so +emotional, mystical, and man-centered in our doctrine. It's time that +Christians took some in-depth journeys into the wonder of the Holy +Scriptures to find out about truth and reality. Christianity is +truth, and as Art Lindsley has rightly stated, "There is nothing that +produces emotion like the truth". Do you want a vibrant growing +faith? Search the Scriptures. Do you seek truth, real truth? The kind +of truth that infiltrates every area of your life with purpose and +meaning and joy! You won't find it on a TV station. You'll find it +when you spend time alone in an attitude of worship and prayer with an +open Bible and the very God of the Universe teaching you and loving you +through His blessed Holy Spirit applying His most Holy word directly to +your life. Theology is not always entertaining but it is always +enriching. It is a lot easier to turn on that TV and turn off your mind +but you'll be at a loss because of it, and you will miss out on one of +the most wonderful blessings of life: communion with the Living Lord. + + + Conclusion + + Stated most simply, the error of the faith movement is that they +exalt man and decrease God. They exalt man to God status and reduce +God to man's status. They are aware that what they are teaching is +unorthodox and controversial to say the least, yet they have no wish +to change their tune. They refuse to be accountable to anyone. + + No man is an island unto himself. These men who are spokesmen +for the Christian faith to the public and represent the Lord Jesus to +millions through their television programs are preaching a different +Jesus, a different gospel, and a different spirit than what is +revealed to us in Holy Scripture. + + The Apostle Paul has some strong words for these men and with +them I close. I pray we will take them to heart and that the Spirit +that so moved Paul to action against false teachings will move within +us to produce in us a holy zeal for truth! + +"I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by +the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not +another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to +distort the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from +heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have +preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I +say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to +that which you received, let him be accursed." (Gal. 1:6-9) + + + REFERENCES + +1. Kenneth Copeland, "The Force Of Love" tape # 02-0028 +2. Kenneth Copeland, "Believer's Voice of Victory", Feb. 1987, p.9 +3. Kenneth Copeland, "Believer's Voice of Victory" broadcast on TBN, + recorded 7/9/87 +4. John Avanzini, "Believer's Voice of Victory" broadcast on TBN, + recorded 1/20/91 +5. John Avanzini, "Believer's Voice of Victory" broadcast on TBN, + recorded 1/20/91 +6. John Avanzini, "Praise the Lord" broadcast on TBN, recorded 9/15/88 +7. Fred Price, "Is God Glorified Through Sickness?" tape # FP605 +8. Kenneth Copeland, "Praise-a-thon", broadcast on TBN, recorded 1988 +9. Kenneth Copeland, "Spirit, Soul, and Body", tape # 01-0601 +10. Kenneth Copeland, "Following the Faith of Abraham" tape # 01-3001 +11. Kenneth Copeland, "Following the Faith of Abraham" tape # 01-3001 +12. Kenneth Copeland, "Following the Faith of Abraham" tape # 01-3001 +13. Kenneth Copeland, "Voice of Victory" Vol. 15, No. 2, 2/87 +14. Kenneth Copeland, "What Happened from the Cross to the Throne" + tape # 02-0017 +15. Kenneth Hagin, "Word Of Faith" Dec. 1980, p. 14 +16. Benny Hinn, "Our Position In Christ", tape # AO31190-1 +17. Benny Hinn, "Praise-a-thon" broadcast on TBN, November, 1990 +18. Kenneth Copeland, "Believer's Voice of Victory" broadcast on TBN, + recorded 7/9/87 +19. Kenneth Copeland, "The Force Of Love" tape # 02-0028 +20. Paul Crouch, "Praise The Lord" broadcast on TBN, recorded 7/7/86 +21. Benny Hinn, "Our Position In Christ", tape # AO31190-1 +22. Benny Hinn broadcast, recorded 10/13/90 +23. Paul Crouch, "Praise-a-thon" broadcast on TBN, recorded 4/2/91 + + Written by Richard J. Vincent + 1109 Bitteroot Court + Indianapolis, Indiana 46234 + (for a copy of this document complete + with italics, boldface, etc. leave a + note to me, Rich Vincent, on this BBS + along with your address) + I can also be contacted on Prodigy KDCB44A + or by phone 317-271-0864. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/writprp.txt b/religious documents/writprp.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..753190c --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/writprp.txt @@ -0,0 +1,198 @@ + PREPARING THE RITUAL AREA (AND YOURSELF) + ---------------------------------------- + by Nevrom Ydal + +This article describes how to prepare your ritual area before a ritual (1). +Before I begin theh article, though, let me issue a few disclaimers. The +first one is that I do not, in any way, mean to imply that what I set forth +here is the only way to do things. It is one way, and it's worked for me, +and if you think my methods seem reasonable and fit within your framework +of Wicca, then use them, if not, ignore them. + +The second disclaimer is actually just a clarification of my background. I +was trained in traditional (small 'T', as in Alexandrian, Gardnerian, and +so on) Wicca. My methods might seem a little too ceremonial for some of the +more eclectic Wiccans, and might seem totally unnecessary by the more +spontaneous type of ritual participation. Fine. Then don't use them! + +Now that that's out of the way, let me outline my assumptions. I'm assuming +that you don't have a seperate, specially dedicated temple for ritual use. +I'm assuming that, like most of us, you use a corner of a room in your +apartment or house for rituals. If you have a specially-dedicated temple +or on an ooutdoor ritual area, you might not find this article applicable. +I'm also assuming that although you might by doing pure celebratory +rituals, which can occur at any place, any time, without preperation, that +you are either interested in preparations that will make them seem more +special, or that you are doing ritual magick, which does require a little +more preparation. + +The first thing you need to do in getting your ritual area ready is to +shut the shades and close and lock all the doors. You can't focus on your +ritual if you're worried about being interrupted. Also, if you're in the +middle of a ritual and someone walks in or peers in, you might panic, +sending the ritual energy to goddess-knows-where. It's important that you +aren't distracted during rituals. + +Move the furniture or any other obstructions out of teh ritual area. Remove +any ashtrays or any foul smelling objects from the room completely. You +don't want a Martial herb like tobacco in your ritual area (unless you are +doing a war ritual, which isn't something responsible Witches do these +days!) and you don't want your concentration broken by the sudden smell of +something gone bad. + +Cover any clock face that you can see from within the ritual area. Don't +forget the digital one on the VCR, if you have one. A friend of mine uses +a small square of black cloth and tapes it above the clock. Make sure the +cloth is thick enough so the light won't shine through on digital clocks; +you might want to use black (or any other dark color) felt. Why do you +want to cover the clocks? A magick circle is a place in between time. If +you look at a clock, you break that sensation. ALso, clockwatching is +disrespectful. Any watchers or spirits that you invite into the circle +area might be offended if you're watching the clock while they use their +precious time to attend. The gods, too, might be displeased to think that +you are watching time instead of enjoying time spent in communion with +them. What do you do if you're deliberately scheduling a ritual to occur +at an astrologically correct time? Or if you want it to occur only during +the hour of Venus? Time the ritual beforehand. Do a dry run, or just estimate how long it will take. Train yourself to tell time without +Watches. (thats an entire subject in itself. Maybe we can cover that in +a future article). + +Now vaccum the ritual area. If you don't have a rug, you can get away with +mearly sweeping, then mopping. Why are we doing this? For two reasons. +The first is very mundane: safety. If you were sewing your ritual robe +in that room earlier, you might have dropped a common pin (straight pin), +which your toe might find later! This happened to a High Priestess of one +circle I visited a few years ago, right in the middle of the cone dance. +She wasn't seriously injured, but the pain did break her concetration. +(It would have shut down the dance completed had she screamed out, but she +decided to keep quiet, and the dance ended well.) Even if you don't have +a rug, there might be water to slip on, sticky stuff to catch on, and so +on. Sweeping and mopping clears away all that. + +The non-mundane reason for sweeping and mopping is respect: you want to +show respect to your ritual area, and you want to consecrate it for use. +If you are doing a very serious, a very Ceremonial, or a very important +ritual, you might want to wash the floor twice. The first time you will +use your ordinary floor-washing compound (ecologically correct compound, +we hope). The second time you might want to apply a diluted tea that you've +made from herbs that are appropriate to your ritual. (Yes, this dooes +sound a little like those "good luck floor wash" ads you see in catalogs +selling Voudon supplies and it does have a similar purpose). You might +want to check an appropriate area of the floor with a sample batch of the +diluted tea a few days before to make sure that it doesn't ruin the +floor! All the good luck herb teas in the world aren't going to be much +good if you ruin the Landlords's floor! + +While we're on the subject of bare floors, let me share an experience my +coven had with a linoleum floor in winter. As you can guess, linoleum +floors get very cold in winter; so cold that your ankles actually ache. +It's true that once you get involved in the ritual (especially in dance), +you either don't notice it anymore or you warm up from moving around, but +it can be very distracting at first. Some members of our group decided to +wear socks to lessen the cold. That sounded like a good idea, so I +donned socks, too. It was great - until we started the circle dance. Socks +are very slippery on linoleum, and as we circled faster and faster, we +strated to lose our footing, centrifical force spinning us outward. We had +all we could do to hold the circle, and to keep from collapsing in a heap +of laughter! A better solution, we found, was to buy a rug to put down +for rituals. If your rug isn't a heavy rug (like a braided rug), tape +down the edges with a strong tape like duct tape (that silver colored tape +that holds the world together). Our rug is square. At each corner, we put +a piece of tape diagonally across the edge. We left that original piece +there, tucking the ends underneath. Now we tape a fresh piece of duct +tape onto the existing tape and fasten to the floor. Why? Because if we +completely removed the tape each time, we'd eventually rip out all the +fabric. The original tape asks as a base. + +Now that you've taken care of the floorspace, get your ritual gear out. +Notice that I suggest you do this before you robe up (or disrobe, +whatever your practices are). Once again, there are mundane reasons for +that. Many's the time that I've torn a robe on a box edge, or scraped or +abraded skyclad flesh while trying to pull my boxes out of storage. I +know, one solution would just to be more careful. If you're not as +clumbsy as I am, thta will probably be enough for you. However, there's +a non-mundane reason, too. Some Witches beleive that whatever you wear +for ritual, whether it's bare skin adorned only by a necklace or a +special robe, it should be worn only for ritual.(2) Wearing it at +another time is disrespectful. It also diminshes the power of the robe +or non-robe to act as a trigger. By a trigger, I mean that any time you +put it on, your subconscious mind says, "Oooh. It must be ritual time! +I think I'll get ready!" I know, you're probably wondering how you can +wear your bare skin only at ritual time! You can't, obviously. Thats why +you have special jewelry - the jewelry acts as the trigger. It's also +true that after you've been working magick for a while, you no longer +need props as triggers. I tend to us ethem whenever feasible for a couple +of reasons. The first reason is because its easier, since I've installed +energy intot he props, it's easier to pull it out and use it. The second +reason is because I like them! The third is that it might make it easier +for people I'm working with. Do whatever you're comfortable with. If +you feel that the addition of props gets away from the "true meaning" of +magick or Wicca, don't use props! + +If you are using props, set up whatever you can while you're still in +your "street clothes." There will be some things you might not be able +to set out yet because they'll spoil (like milk products) or because +they'll change form (like ice cubes) or because your cats will play with +them (like balls of string). When you've set up everything, take a rest - +in the bathtub. If yur back hurts after all the preparation, take a long, +hot soak. Use herbs that are soothing and also that relate to your ritual +purpose, if possible. For instance, if you are doing a ritual of +protection, use protection herbs like Valerian and Vervain. In 'Wicca: A +Guide For The Solitary Practitioner' Scott Cunningham suggests bathing by +candlelight to heighten the mood, and gives his recipe for bath herbs : +"...equal parts of rosemary, fennel, lavendar, basil, thyme, hyssop, +vervain, mint with a touch of ground valerian root." His formula, he says, +is derived from 'The Key of Solomon'. One thing I'd suggest is that if +you're the type who ahs allergic reactions easily, you should sample any +bath herbs you plan to use a few days ahead of time and soak maybe one +hand of foot in it (or dab some on) to make sure you don't have an allergic +reaction. I'm the lucky type who rarely reacts adversely to anything, but +I know that there are many out there who aren't as lucky. If you tend to +react to things, don't wait until just before a ritual to find out that +your allergic to the contents of your ritual bath. + +Soak until you feel refreshed and rested. If your tradition or magickal +practices require that you bathe in salt water before a ritual, drain the +bath herbs and refill the tub with salt and water. Rinse in the salt +water, visualizing the water washinga way impurities. + +Now you're almost ready for ritual. Take a piece of paper, pen and a small +peice of tape in the bathroom (3). In large Block letters, write RECONNECT +THE SMOKE ALARM! in large letters on the piece of paper (4). Tape the +paper to the bathroom mirror. Now go and disconnect any smoke alarm that +your ritual incense will set off. + +Take a few grounding breathes and you're ready to begin. Remember to +reconnect the smoke alarm when you finish the ritual. I suggested taping +the note to your bathroom mirror because the bathroom is one place you'll +eventually got to after a ritual. + +__________________________________________________________________________ + Footnotes: + +1) Other sources of information on preparing and casting circles are + 'The Spiral Dance' by Starhawk, 'Wicca : A Guide for the SOlitary + Practitioner' by Scott Cunningham, and 'Thee Witche's Way' by Janet + and Stewart Farrar. + +2) Some WItches I know who live in a cold climate wear eitehr a robe + liner or thermal underwear beneath their robe during the winter. If you + opt for thermal underwear, and can afford it, set aside a special set + that you use only in ritual. I know that tehre are some die-hards out + there who think we should be prepared to brave any and every + discomfort in the service of the gods, but that's only one school of + thought. + +3) Or, if you're in England, take it to the toilet, or loo. + +4) In the state where I live, smoke alarms are manditory for most + buildings. In this part of the country, many of the houses are wood + frame houses, so the law makes sense. Most WItches I know have to + disconnect their smoke alarms before a ritual because the incense + smoke sets the alaram off. I just want ti make sure that if you do + that, you remember to reconnect it. Sort of gives new meaning to + "Never Again The Burining!", right? +________________________________________________________________________ + + + diff --git a/religious documents/xian1.txt b/religious documents/xian1.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..afe86dc --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/xian1.txt @@ -0,0 +1,194 @@ +----- +DISCLAIMER: This is a text file of an interview with a man who CLAIMS +to have once been of the Wiccan faith. Anything you read herein should +be read with the understanding that it comes from someone now outside of +the Craft and the System Operators do not necessarily support all of the +viewpoints expressed in this file. + +We have put this file online in order to give Wiccans, in particular, +an idea of what others believe our world to be. +----- + +QUESTIONS & ANSWERS ON WICCA: A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE OF WITCHCRAFT + + by Keith A. Morse + +While many modern-day Wiccans try to present their religion in a way +acceptable to 20th century man, their traditions remain age-old. Tom +Sanguinet explained the background and basic beliefs of Wicca to us. + +Sanguinet breaks down all religions into four basic ones: Christianity, +contemporary Judaism, Satanism and witchcraft. All occultism and Eastern +religions would be classified with witchcraft by him. + + WHAT IS WICCA? + +Wicca is the Celtic word for 'wise.' Wicca-craft means 'craft of the wise.' + + WHAT IS THE WICCAN CONCEPT OF GOD? + +They believe first of all in a triunal god. In other words, there's the god, +or the godhead, the omnipotent power of the universe. + +They believe in the godhead as being all the good and all the bad - whole +circle. That's what the circle represents. It's unapproachable, neither male +nor female, it's uncomprehendible. It's there. + +Directly beneath that you have what is termed "the lord and the lady." The +lord is not our Lord, but the lord of darkness. The lord of darkness rules +such things as war, planting, plowing, the male aspect. + +The winter months, the cold months belong to this lord of darkness. The +summer months, the growing months, the productive months belong to what they +call the lady, or the goddess. + +These are depicted by such figures as (the Egyptian deities) Isis and Osiris, +(the Greek deities) Diana and Apollo, and (the Canaanite deities) Astarte and +Baal. + +Virtually every pagan religion that was goddess-oriented is the same. Satan +just keeps renaming the same lie. There's no new religion. + + HOW DO WICCANS RELATE TO THE GODHEAD? + +They say the godhead has no power on the earth, that it is up to the witches +to raise the power to produce what is done. + + WHAT OTHER BASIC BELIEFS DO WICCANS ADHERE TO? + +The most common basis for witchcraft is reincarnation. This you have in all +the Eastern religions, that tenet of "no responsibility in life because +karmatically we'll get it right some other time." So there's no moral +responsibility. + +The other tenet is: 'As it harm none, so do as you will.' You don't really +set out to harm anyone, you set out to evolve them -- evolve their spirit. + + WHAT DO WICCANS BELIEVE IS MAN'S ULTIMATE SPIRITUAL DESTINY? + +It depends on which tradition you are. Some say you'll meld in with the +godhead. Some say that through a series of melding, many consciousnesses will +meld together and create another godhead, so you see an analogy with +Mormonism. + +After you achieve a certain level of consciousness, you meld with others who +have achieved that level of consciousness and you go from being to +super-being. + +You put three June bugs together and you get a German shepherd, you put three +German shepherds together and you get a man. + +This is something where witches don't have a set dogma. They just reach up in +the air and grab one. + + ARE WICCANS AND SATANISTS THE SAME THING? + +There's not a connection really between witchcraft and Satanism. It's only +been in the neo-system of the occult that witchcraft and Satanism have taken +this melding. + +Satanists have always worshiped the negative entities or deities -- the +temple of Seth in ancient Egypt, for example. + +Witches don't fear God and they don't believe in Satan. They're duped and +they're really blinded. + + WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ARE ATTRACTED TO WICCA? + +People who are looking for answers but not looking for a lot of +responsibility. It really appeals to big-business men because they can go on +slaughtering their opponents and feel like they are helping them to progress. +Whereas, as a Christian, you can't go out and just stomp all over your +competitor and have your business be blessed. I can't. + + WHAT IS WICCA'S APPEAL? + +Power; sex -- let's face it, sex is a big draw for the less- intellectual and +more world-minded neo-pagan type; rebellion -- there's a lot of people that +get into it thinking, "this is exactly opposite what I was raised in and I'm +gonna get back at my mother and father for raising me that way"; +thrill-seeking -- the fear fetish; some of them get in seeking righteousness +or seeking God but without real direction. + + HOW MANY WICCANS ARE THERE IN THE UNITED STATES? + +There are about 300,000 of them in this country today. + + WHY DON'T WE NOTICE THEM MORE? + +They try to present themselves as very humble and very educated -- and they +are, most of them -- and they try to be low-key and low-profile most of the +time... That's why people say that they don't think there are too many of +them. + +The only ones they really hear about are the kooks or some of the traditional +witches are coming out of the closets... and saying, "Hey look, these kooks +are not what it's about," and they're trying to make it acceptable now and to +move among the world -- and with the humanistic movement this is making it +easier and easier all the time. + + HOW CAN A CHRISTIAN KNOW IF A PERSON IS A WICCAN? + +The Bible gives us the ability to discern the spirits. All you've got to do +is talk to somebody and you can usually tell when you ask them how they're +going to get to heaven. And if they say by good works or by reincarnation, +you've got a pretty good idea that they are not scriptural. + +A witch will never openly claim fellowship with Jesus Christ. The spirit +cannot do it. + + HOW DO WICCANS VIEW CHRIST? + +They all consider -- everyone that I ever talked to -- Him a prophet. Of +course, they consider Mohammed a prophet, too. The difference is Jesus was +100% right and Mohammed has never been right yet. + +(Wiccans believe Jesus) was working toward progression too. He was as much +the Son of God as everyone else is. + + HOW SHOULD CHRISTIANS WITNESS TO WICCANS? + +Real strong. You have to take authority. You have to use a lot of scripture. +All you can do is plant a seed. You cannot expect to walk up to somebody +who's involved deeply in the occult, who's really dedicated in the occult, +and see results. Not on a onetime, one-on-one contact. You cannot expect it. +If you expect it, you're gonna be let down. + +This is seed. You plant that seed, and like that mustard seed, you can drill +a hole in solid stone, and drop that mustard seed down in there, cover it up +with a little fertile soil and you can water it and that little mustard seed +will grow and split that rock wide open. + +You tell them how they can find the Lord. You can tell them there's peace in +the Lord. You give them scripture like Deuteronomy 18, where witchcraft is +condemned, you give them Galatians 5:19-20 where the Bible speaks clearly +that witchcraft is condemnation, and that there is no condemnation in Christ +Jesus, and that they can be a new creature in Christ Jesus, then you turn it +over to the Lord. + +You don't argue theology with them... These people are experts on theology, +just like the Mormons are experts on theology. But if you give them Jesus, +there is nothing they can say. Not one person in 32 years witnessed Jesus to +me. + + SHOULD CHRISTIANS BE AFRAID THAT WITCHES WILL TRY + TO USE THEIR POWERS AGAINST THEM? + +I love it when they do try that... Gavin Frost led a circle of 65 witches in +St. Louis last year at their Samhain seminar -- my wife Audrey and I went up +there -- and we sat right in the middle of that circle -- right dead in the +center of it -- Gavin Frost is doing everything he could to blow me away. + +This Samhain, I won't be able to make it (to the seminar) because his spell +"worked" so well we got the baby we've been praying for. And I got a house +that the Lord gave that I didn't even really want. And I've got a job, a +ministry that I can't afford to leave. He blew me away so much that I'm so +blessed that I can't go anywhere. + +I John 4:4 says: "You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; +because greater is He who is in you than is he who is in the world." + +If a Christian is afraid to witness to a witch, then that Christian needs to +go back to the Bible. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/xiancult.txt b/religious documents/xiancult.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4d5eb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/xiancult.txt @@ -0,0 +1,163 @@ + + +From: Lucy Simmons +To: All Msg #15, 28/10/90 22:16cst +Subject: Xianity as a cult + + + A CULT-HUNTER LOOKS AT CHRISTIANITY + +1- When you enter some Catholic churches, you are confronted by a graphic + representation of Jesus, nailed to a cross, bleeding, suffering, and then + you are told that He went to this death of His own free will! + You read about Saints that whipped themselves; that wore hair shirts to + abuse their bodies. You even see, in this modern age, the Penitentes + of Mexico and New Mexico who continue this practice, even going so far as + to crucify themselves, men and women! + People who walk to a "holy" shrine on their knees, doing possible +permanent + damage to themselves, are lauded for having performed a "holy" act! + Children are beaten, starved, tortured and otherwise seriously harmed by + members of this cult following the Biblical admonition "Speare the rod and + + spoil the child." There are also innumerable cases of the denial of blood + transfusions, denial of public education, and denial of * any * modern + medical treatment, all in the name of this cult's beliefs. + + Does Christianity preach a form of sado-masochism? If it does, it is a + dangerous cult indeed! + +2- This ritual of "Holy Communion" or the "Lord's Supper" has some overtones + that bother any right-thinking person. After all, the worshippers are told + + that they are eating the "Body and Blood of our Saviour, Jesus Christ!" + + Can it be very far from * ritual * cannibalism to * real * cannibalism? + This cult seems more and more dangerous! + +3- The pre-occupation of some sects of Christianity with "demons" and +"devils" + and "evil spirits" that, in their minds, seem to inhabit the whole + Universe, ready at the slightest opportunity to "possess" the bodies and + minds of humans, reeks of Diabolism! The more extreme sects even seem to + believe that this "Devil" is some sort of anti-God that has * all * power + over the world. + + Can it be a very great step from being so preoccupied with devils to the + actual worship of them? One should worry about this! + + + A ) r e a + +--- + * Origin: (Opus +1:114/29) + + +From: Lucy Simmons +To: All Msg #16, 28/10/90 22:17cst +Subject: Xianity as a cult 2 + + + +4- One sect of Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church, actually LOCKS UP + young girls (and older women) and forbids them contact with the world, + forbids them marriage, and tells them it is a "sin" to think of men in + a sexual manner, and that they will "burn in 'hell' " if they do so. Such + single-sex, enforced groupings of people (similar to secular prisons) are + always hotbeds of deviant behaviour. + The same sect forbids marriage to its priests, and thereby perhaps + encourages the many, many DOCUMENTED cases of its priests molesting young + boys. + One of its major past leaders (called "Apostles"), Saul of Tarsus, aka + "Saint Paul," was known for his hatred of women, and he seems to be the + major theoretician of many of the "Fundamentalist" sects of the cult. + + Can it be that Christianity actually * encourages * homosexuality, while + preaching the opposite? + +5- One sect, the "Jehovah's Witnesses," refuses allegiance to their country! + They will not salute the flag, nor will they serve in the Armed Forces! + The "Social Gospel," a take-from-the-rich propaganda pitch, is preached +all + over Third World nations, subverting their governments! + + Can it be that Christianity encourages the "One World" viewpoint of +certain + radical political groups? + +6- The sexual behaviour of its leaders has been well documented, from "Popes" + + (the leader of the Roman Catholic sect) to Aimee Semple Macpherson, to + Jimmy Swaggert. One wonders about such leaders being placed in positions + of command over our young people. + + How many innocents have been defiled by such persons? One wonders! + +7- In the Middle Ages, priests actually said "Masses" to impose death spells + on humans. Is such ritual being practiced today? We will probably never + know, because secrecy in such groups would be assumed as * very * tight. + + As so many law-enforcement officers seem to be Christian, and many of + the European governments are enthralled by this cult, we will probably + * never * be able to find out the truth of this. + +--- + * Origin: (Opus +1:114/29) + + +From: Lucy Simmons +To: All Msg #17, 28/10/90 22:18cst +Subject: Xianity as a cult 3 of 3 + + + +8- At every Christian service, donations from the membership is encouraged, + and, as most such donations are done publically, "peer-pressure" to give + large amounts of money is very high, and a feeling of guilt over * not * + contributing could lead to psychotic episodes! + The cult's attitude towards sexual feelings, that even * looking * at + a person with even the tiniest feeling of "lust" is a "sin," is so rigid + as to exclude at least 99 percent of the World's population from "Heaven" + and thereby lead to irreconcilable guilt feelings on the part of the + "sinners!" + + Could it be that many of the modern world's psychiatric problems can be + traced to the beliefs of this cult? + +9- The intolerant behaviour of Christianity is also well-documented in + history, with its pogroms of Jews, burning of witches, Crusades against + Islam, culture destruction and outright genocide in the Pacific islands + and Central and South America, and hatred of anything that is not + "Christian." This has even extended to disruption of non-Christian + religious services, and violent behaviour that is touted as simple "civil + disobedience." + + Can such past behaviour repeat itself? History shows it does. + +10- Proselytization, or the "conversion" of new members to the cult, is + carried on in any number of ways, both with subtle blandishments and + by outright fear and threats. To watch and listen to some +street-preachers + is an education in the use of fear-inducing technique, and also of + individual and mass hysteria similar to that induced by Adolf Hitler and + Joseph Goebells! + + Why do these preachers do their best to induce such mass hysteria? One + could ask the same question about Hitler and Goebells, and maybe get the + same answer! + + --------------------- + If your child, or a member of your family, is involved with this + cult, * please * seek help NOW! + --------------------- + + The author wishes to thank the publishers of "File 18," and all + the other cult-hunters and watchers out there, for their good and + constant demonstrations of the techniques used in this article. + + --------------------- end ----------------------- + +--- QM v1.23 + * Origin: Cults and Kinky Sects Inc., Wichita, Kansas (9:3981) diff --git a/religious documents/xmas-chr.txt b/religious documents/xmas-chr.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0917b36 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/xmas-chr.txt @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ + IS CHRISTMAS CHRISTIAN? + +by Hank Hanegraaff +Christian Research Institute + + + + +Each year around this time, letters flood in to CRI offices containing +various questions about Christmas that range in topic from the practice of +exchanging gifts to the possible connection between Christmas and the pagan +holidays of Rome. So lets take a few moments to consider some of the more +commonly asked questions about Christmas. + +FIRST, ARE CHRISTMAS TREES A FROM OF IDOLATRY? Interestingly, this +question arises out of a pronouncement made by the prophet Jeremiah: "This +is what the LORD says . . . the customs of the peoples are worthless; they +cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. +They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so +that it will not totter" (Jer. 102-4) + +While at first blush this may seem to be refereeing to our custom of +decorating Christmas trees, a closer examination of Jeremiah 10 reveals +that God is in reality condemning the creation of permanent wooden idols +carved from the trees of the forest. In the very next verse (vs. 5) God +ridicules these idols because they cannot walk or talk. + +Historically the practice of decorating Christmas trees originated in +Germany some two thousand years after Jeremiah made his pronouncement. It +was the result of combining two distinctly different Christian symbols. + +The first was a "Paradise tree." It was decorated with apples to symbolize +the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. The second was a triangular shelf +that contained Christmas figurines and was adorned by the star representing +the one followed by the Magi. By the 16th century, these two Christian +symbols had been merged into the modern-day Christmas tree. + +Not only are Christmas trees spiritually symbolic, but they represent a +wonderful witnessing opportunity as well. In fact, the next time a +nonbelieving neighbor brings home a Christmas tree, you might want to ask +him or her if they know where the practice of decorating Christmas trees +originated. + +Who knows! The Holy Spirit may well allow you to enjoy one of the greatest +Christmas gifts of all -- the gift of seeing someone you care about receive +everlasting life. +ANOTHER COMMON QUESTION INVOLVES SANTA CLAUS. IS SANTA A HOPELESSLY PAGAN +CONCOCTION, OR CAN SANTA BE SAVED? + +What few people seem to be aware of is that Santa is Christian rather than +pagan in origin. As a matter of fact, Santa Claus is an Anglicized form of +the Dutch name, Sinter Klaas. Sinter Klaas in turn represents a Christian +bishop of the 4th century named "Saint Nicholas." + +According to tradition, Saint Nick was not only kind and generous towards +children but he apparently attended the Council of Nicea in AD 325, where +he supported the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. + +While it is likely true Saint Nick gave toys to tots, its obviously pure +mythology that he presently lives at the North Pole in a toy factory, knows +if we've been bad or good, and flies around in a sled pulled by reindeer. + +In truth, Santa is not essential to Christmas -- but he does represent an +excellent opportunity for sharing Christ with your kids. Why not ask them +this Christmas if they know who Santa really was. Perhaps not only Santa +can be saved but so will one or more of your loved ones. + +STILL ANOTHER COMMON QUESTION CRI RECEIVES AROUND CHRISTMAS TIME INVOLVES +THE PRACTICE OF GIVING GIFTS. + +Jehovah's Witnesses in particular are quick to assert that this practice +not only leads to commercialism, but can be tied to the pagan practice of +astrology as well. As they put it, the word "Magi" in the original Greek +refers to "astrologers." + +History reveals, however, that the Magi were not singularly stargazers but +were schooled in the arts and sciences of their day as well. Thus, the +translation "wise men" makes a great deal more sense than the +transliteration, "astrologers." + +It is also important to note what Scripture clearly says about the Magi. +Namely, the "wise men" were LED BY GOD. Both the star that led them to +Christ (Matt. 2:9) and the dream through which they outwitted Herod (vs. +12) were used by God to guide and direct them. + +The Jehovah's Witnesses are quick to point out that the wise men gave gifts +to Christ, not to one another. But that misses the point entirely. +Obviously our risen, reigning Redeemer doesn't need a thing. However, when +we give to one another, Christ considers that as good as giving "unto Him" +(Matt. 25:37-40). + +Perhaps your ability to sensitively and effectively dispel the Watchtower's +mythology with regard to gift-giving will open a door for you to discuss +the deity of Christ with them as well. And perhaps as a result of your +discussion, the Jehovah's Witness may receive the gift of salvation in +Jesus Christ. Jehovah's Witnesses can be reached, you know, and the Holy +Spirit can use you as a part of the process. diff --git a/religious documents/ymtitb.txt b/religious documents/ymtitb.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..039edf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/ymtitb.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1667 @@ + You Mean THAT's In the Bible? + + + +by: Satyaraja Dasa 305 Schermerhorn St. Brooklyn, NY 11217 + + + + + + + + Dedicated to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami +Prabhupada, who set the perfect example in his own life, by +loving the Lord with all of his heart, soul, and mind. (see +Matt. 22:36-40) + + + + + + + + + + + + Table of Contents + ------------------- + +1) Introduction +2) You Are not the Body +3) One Who Loves Christ Must Follow His Commandments +4) Meat Eating +5) Reincarnation +6) Celibacy +7) Renunciation +8) "There is much I have to tell you..." +9) Jesus And God May Be One--But They Are Also Different +10) Miscellaneous +11) After word + + + +(Special thanks to His Grace Rajendranath Dasa; the fruits of +his research were indispensable to the production of this +pamphlet) + + + +1) INTRODUCTION + + + Both read the Bible day and night. + But thou read'st black where I read white. + --William Blake-- + + + Everyone has some conception of Christianity, whether one +is a believer or not. The Christian doctrine is amenable to +many different interpretations and, indeed, many have taken +advantage of this amenability. As early as sixty-five years +after the time of Jesus, for instance, Paul, who had never met +Jesus, debated with the original Apostles in regard to Jesus' +teaching: Paul thought that Jesus' advent freed the people +from following the Old Law, that faith alone was required. +Meanwhile, the Apostles taught that Jesus came to enforce the +Old Law, and that faith without work is dead. + + + The faith/works polemic has been going on for +centuries. And countless forms of "Christianity" have emerged +as variations on this theme. The subject became so confused by +the time of Martin Luther(1483-1546) both faith and works were +hard to find. The Popes of the Renaissance epitomize this +confusion. The deMedici Popes were considered the most +debauched men in the history of religion. The original Pope +John XXIII was deposed for "notorious incest, adultery, +defilement, and homicide." In 1415, while still a chamberlain, +he openly kept his brother's wife as a mistress. In an effort +to squash the scandal, his superiors promoted him to cardinal +and sent him to Bologna, where "two hundred maids, matrons, and +widows, including a few nuns, fell victim to his brutal lust." +In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII was elected. he was nicknamed "the +Honest" because he was the first Pope to acknowledge his +illegitimate children publicly. This whole farce reached an +unquestionable peak when, in 1724, the Roman Catholic Church +banned the confessional requirement that men name their +partners in fornication when it was discovered that priests +were actually making carnal use of the information. Seeing the +iniquities of the Papacy, Martin Luther proposed an egalitarian +solution: "Each man should have his own divine right to +interpret holy scripture." While this new version of +Christianity released many believers from the dictates of +insincere leaders, a new problem arose: Many would interpret +the scriptures with some ulterior motive (both consciously and +unconsciously). And this is the problem that exists today. Many +are using the scriptures to rationalize [his/her] habits, +activities that God would never ordain. + + Readers of this pamphlet--Christian and non-Christian--are +advised to view the following with an open mind, possibly +achieving a fresh outlook. The distinct feature of this work is +that it is not beleaguered by vague or popular translations of +the Bible. All Bible verses are rendered with references to +Reuben Alcalay's Complete Hebrew/English Dictionary for the Old +Testament, and to Nestle's Greek/English Interlinear for the +New Testament. The importance of a word-by-word translation +should not be underestimated. Ambiguous and aesthetically +pleasing--but inaccurate--translations are at the heart of +Biblical interpretive problems. + + We are, of course, working with the premise that the Bible +has not been drastically changed (this is obviously an +important assumption when delivering textual criticism). +Otherwise, all Biblical texts become meaningless. An opinion +that is not uncommon. + + Still, America is basically a Christian country, and all +Christians base their conception of Christianity on the Bible. +For such persons, this pamphlet should prove useful; with +exception of a few editorial notes, we will allow the bible to +speak for itself. + + The ultimate purpose of this work, however, is to show the +harmony that exists between the Bible and the more-ancient +Vedic texts of India. The essential message of the Bible and +the Vedas is one: to love the Lord with all of ones heart, soul +and mind. This message is revealed to different people +according to time, place, and circumstance; based on these +considerations, specifics may vary. Still the essence remains +the same--it is simply delivered according to the capacity of +the audience. + + For instance, that which is taught in a primary math +course differs greatly from that which is taught on in a higher +level. In elementary mathematics, one is taught that numbers +can not be subtracted from smaller numbers. And this premise +should be accepted by all who study basic arithmetic. However, +in advanced mathematics, you learn that you can subtract larger +numbers from smaller ones: the results are negative numbers. + + Similarly, prophets and sages reveal religious truths +selectively, for the benefit and gradual upliftment of their +audience. And, on minor points, you may find that one prophet +deprecates a certain activity, while another, from another +tradition endorses it. + + In this way, persons of different cultures can advance +gradually, according to their means. Revelation itself comes +gradually. And the ultimate revelation is that religion is one- +-for God is one. If this short pamphlet can induce even one +person to reach this conclusion, the author will have +considered this work worthwhile. + + + +2) YOU ARE NOT THE BODY + + + +40) "There are also celestial (epourania: heavenly) bodies, and +bodies terrestrial (epiyeia: earthly): but the glory of the +celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another." + +42) "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in +corruption (ie. born in matter); it is raised in incorruption +(ie. Spirit).) + +44) "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. +There is a natural body, and a spiritual body." + +47) "The first man of the earth, earthy (ie. first birth is +material): the second man is the Lord (anthropos: man) from +heaven (ie. second birth is spiritual)." + +48) "As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and +as is heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." + +49) "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall +also bear the image of the heavenly." + +50) "Now this I (Paul) say, brethren, that flesh and blood +cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption +inherit incorruption." + + + I Corinthians 15;40, 42, 44, 47, 48, 50 + + This section clearly shows that man has both a material body +and a spiritual body, and that man first goes through a birth +of the material body and then takes birth in his spiritual +body. + + + ________________________________________________ + + "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the +things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are +temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." + + + II Corinthians 4:18 + +This shows that the seen, material world is temporary, while +the unseen, spiritual world is eternal. Similarly, the body, +which is seen, is temporary, while the life-force (soul), which +is unseen is eternal + + ________________________________________________ + +1) "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle +were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made +with hands, eternal in the heavens." + +2) "For in this (house) we groan, earnestly desiring to be +clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." + +6) "Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, while we +are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord." + +7) "For we walk by faith, not by sight." + +8) "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent +from the body, and to be present with the lord." + + II Corinthians 5:1, 2, 6, 7, 8 + +This is clear that while in this material body we are +suffering, and desiring to be in our spiritual body; and that +by spiritual knowledge we know that the material body is +separate from the Lord. Not the reference in verse 7 to sastra +caksus. + + + + ________________________________________________ + + + "And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples +were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom do the people +say that I am? They answering him said, John the Baptist; but +some say Elias; and other say that one of the old prophets is +risen again." + + + Luke 9:18-19 + +Now why would the disciples answer like this if they did not +believe in reincarnation. + + + ________________________________________________ + +CONFLICT BETWEEN HIGHER AND LOWER SELF + + + "For I know that nothing good lodges in me--in my +unspiritual nature, I mean--for though the will to do good is +there, the deed is not. The good which I want to do, I fail to +do; but what I do is the wrong which is against my will; and if +what I do is against my will, clearly it is no longer I who am +the agent, but sin that has its lodging in me. + + I discover this principle, then; that when I want to do +right, only the wrong is within my reach. In my inmost self I +delight in the law of God, but I perceive that there is in my +bodily members a different law, fighting against the law that +my reason approves and makes me a prisoner under the law that +is in my members, the law of sin. Miserable creature that I am, +who is there to rescue me out of this body doomed to death." + + + Romans 7.18-24 + + ________________________________________________ + + +3) ONE WHO LOVES CHRIST MUST FOLLOW HIS COMMANDMENTS + + + +"If ye love me, keep my commandments." + + John 14:15 + +Very clear instruction. + + ________________________________________________ + + + "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, hi is that +loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, +and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas +said unto him, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself +unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto +him, if a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father +will love him, and make our abode with him." + + + John 14:21-23 + +This clearly says that love of God means keeping the +commandments, and if one does not do so, he will not have God +manifested to him. + + ________________________________________________ + +"If ye keep my commandments, ye shalt abide in my love, even as +I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love." + + + John 15:10 + +This says also that love of God comes from following the rules +of God. + + ________________________________________________ + +"For this is love of God, that we keep His commandments; and +His commandments are not grievous." + + + I John 5:3 + + ________________________________________________ + +"For it had been better for them not to have known the way of +righteousness, than, after they have know it, to turn from the +holy commandment delivered unto them. But it happened unto them +according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own +vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wollowing into +he mire." + + + II Peter 2:21-23 + + + + + + +This shows that performing atonement for sin then doing the sin +again is like eating vomit. + + ________________________________________________ + +21) "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter +into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my +Father which is in heaven." + +22) "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not +prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? +And in thy name done many wonderful works?" + +23) "And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; +depart from me, ye that work iniquity." + + Matthew 7:21,22,23 + +This is a good verse to quote to people who say that it is by +God's grace that you are saved, and not by works. Here it is +clear that one attains grace by doing the will of God only. + + + ________________________________________________ + +"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in +heaven is perfect" + + Matthew 5:48 + +This kills the argument that one cannot stop from sinning. +Therefore just accept Jesus and you are saved. Here Jesus is +commanding them to become perfect, that is to not commit any +sin. + + ________________________________________________ + + +4) MEAT EATING + +While the Bible--in many places--seems to endorse meat-eating, +these sections should not be taken out of context. + + Instead of using Noah's emergency expedient (following the +flood in which all vegetation was wiped out) as outlined in +Genesis 9:3, a more important diet is the original one, +enunciated by the Lord in Genesis 1:29; "And God said, Behold, +I have given you every herb-bearing seed and every tree, in +which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be +for meat (food)." god further indicates--in the very next +verse--that this diet is "good," while the later diet referred +to--the one containing meat--was allowed "simply to satisfy +their lust." + + This is outlined quite clearly but, again, it must all be +studied in context. + + The example of the Quail God purportedly arranged for the +children of Israel, after they "tired" of His manna (Numbers +11:31), is a prime example of quoting out of context. Indeed, +verses 31 and 32 (of Numbers) describe the quail and the +feasting that followed, but verse 33 must be read to secure the +full impact of this passage: "and while the flesh was yet +between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord +was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote them with a +great plague." He was not happy with their meat-eating. + + It also becomes clear when one studies the early history +of the church that the founding fathers espoused the vegetarian +ideal. You can study their lives: Tertullian, Pliny, Origen, +St. John Chrysostom, the list goes on and on. Parenthetically, +that these early Church fathers were avowed vegetarians makes a +large statement as to what we may have read in the Bible before +it was worked on at the various Ecumenical councils... + + It was not until the time of Emperor Constantine (Fourth +Century) that vegetarian Christians had to practice +underground--this was because Constantine was a meat-eater. He +was also a maniac, and Church history books abound with the +stories of how he would pour molten lead down the throats of +Christian vegetarians for their chosen diet. Incidentally, he +also killed his wife by setting her in a vat of boiling water. + + Scriptural knowledge is simple for the simple--but it is +difficult for the twisted. The Bible clearly says "Thou shalt +not kill" (Exodus 20:13). It could not be stated more simply. + + The exact Hebrew is "lo tirtzach", which accurately +translates: "thou shalt not kill." + + + One of the greatest scholars of Hebrew/English linguistics +(in the Twentieth Century)--Dr. Reuben Alcalay has written in +his mammoth book "The Complete Hebrew/English Dictionary" that +"tirtzach" refers to "any kind of killing whatsoever." The word +"lo" as you might suspect, means "thou shalt not." DON'T KILL! +Let's face it, the Bible is clear on this point. + + The Vedic literature is also clear on this point. In fact, +the Vedas take this point past vegetarianism, because there is +still a sinful reaction in killing vegetables. Therefore, the +Vedas prescribe a lacto-vegetarian diet--the diet which is +least harmful to living beings--and a special process to free +one from the minimal sinful reaction that is there from killing +the plants. The process is given in rudimentary form in +Bhagavad-gita, and is elaborated upon in Srimad Bhagavatam. +After applying the process--which centers about the chanting of +the holy Name of the Lord with love and devotion--the +foodstuffs are known as prasadam, a Sanskrit word which means +"the Lords mercy." + + * * * + + + Many Bible scholars persist with the theory that Christ +ate animal flesh, obviously swayed in their opinions by +personal habits. The desire to accede to prejudice and uphold +existing tradition has been a human characteristic for many +centuries, but truth appears now even more important as man +exerts his independence in so many aspects of life. Respected +Bible scholar Rev. V.A. Holmes-Gore has researched the frequent +use of the word "meat" in the New Testament Gospels. He traced +its meaning to the original Greek. + + His findings were first published in World Forum of +Autumn, 1947. He reveals that the nineteen Gospel references +to "meat" should have been more accurately translated thus: + +Greek Number of references Meaning +------------------------------------------------------------ +Broma 4 "food" +Brosis 4 "the act of + eating food" +Phago 3 "to eat" +Brosimos 1 "That which + may be eaten" +Trophe 6 "nourishment" +Prosphagon 1 "anything to + eat" + + Thus, the Authorized Version of John 21:5, "Have ye any +meat?" is incorrect; It should have been translated: "Have ye +anything to eat?" + + + "Fish" is another frequently mistranslated word in the +Bible. Its reference is often not to the form of swimming life, +but to the symbol by which early Christians could identify each +other. It was a secret sign, needed in times of persecution, +prior to official acceptance of Christianity as a state +religion. + + The sign of the fish was a mystical symbol and a +conversational password, deriving from the Greek word for fish, +"Ichthus." As such, it represented an acrostic, composed of +leading letters of the Greek phrase, "Iesous Christos Theou +Uios Soter" -- "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour." + + Frequent references to fish are intended as symbolic of +The Christ, having nothing to do with the act of eating a dead +fish. But the symbol of a fish did not meet with Roman +approval. They preferred the sign of the cross, choosing to +concentrate more on the death of Christ than on His brilliant +life. Perhaps this is one reason only ten percent of His life +record appears in the canonical scriptures. Most of His first +thirty years is omitted. + + How many worshippers go home from church and sit down to a +feast cut from a once proud beast in defiance of the very +commandments they have just been advocating? The verses below +should clear up any misgivings the reader may have in this +connection. + +DISCUSSION OF MEAT IN THE BIBLE (OLD TESTAMENT) + + "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing +seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree, in +which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be +for meat." + + Genesis 1:29 + +Shows that the true diet of man is vegetarian. + ________________________________________________ + + "But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood +thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives +will require; at the hand of every beast will I require it. + + Genesis 9:4-5 + +Shows that man is not allowed to eat meat, and if he does he +will pay with his own life. And he will be killed by the one he +kills. This is called Karma. + + ________________________________________________ + + "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto +me? Said the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, +and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of +bullocks, or of lambs, or of goats. When ye spread forth your +hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many +prayers, I will not hear, for your hands are +full of blood." + + Isaiah 1:11,15 + +Shows that God does not accept even the prayers of a meat- +eater. + + + ________________________________________________ + +"He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man." + + Isaiah 66:3 + +Shows that cow killing is equated with murder. + + + ________________________________________________ + + "It shall be a perpetual statue for your generations +throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor +blood." + + Leviticus 3:17 + +A trick commandment: You cannot eat meat and not eat blood. +This is the origin of the idea of Kosher food (meat with the +blood drained out of it.) It has been compared to passing stool +and not passing urine. Impossible! + + ________________________________________________ + + "And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of +strangers who sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of +blood; I will even set My face against that soul that eateth +blood." + + Leviticus 17:10 + +Note the term "any manner of blood". All flesh comes from +blood. + + ________________________________________________ + + +APPEARANCES OF THE WORD "MEAT" IN THE NEW TESTAMENT + + This section shows how certain words were translated +wrongly in the King James Version of the Bible. The correct +translation are taken from the Nestle Interlinear Greek-English +New Testament, which also references the King James Version. + + "And the same John (the Baptist) had his raiment of camels +hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was +locust and wild honey." + + Matthew 3:4 + +The word used here is trophe, nourishment. Also note that the +word "locusts" refers to locust beans, or carob, St. John's +bread. + + ________________________________________________ + + "And her spirit came again (referring to a woman Jesus +raised from the dead), and she arose straightaway: and he +(Jesus) commanded to hive her meat." + + Luke 8:55 + +The word here is phago, to eat. + + ________________________________________________ + +14) "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, +a young woman shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call +his name Immanuel." +15) "Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse +the evil, and choose the good." + + Isaiah 7:14,15 + +Christians are fond of quoting the first part of this verse as +proof that Jesus is the saviour, but they rarely quote the very +next verse, which says he will be a vegetarian. + + ________________________________________________ + + "And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he +(Jesus) said unto them (his disciples), Have ye here any meat? +And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and a honeycomb. +And took 'it', and did eat before them." + + Luke 24:41-43 + +The word here is brosimos, eatable. Note the use of the word +"it" (my emphases), which is in the singular. Jesus was offered +fish and a honeycomb, but took only one. Judging from Isaiah +7:15, we know which he chose. + + ________________________________________________ + + + "For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy +meat." + + John 4:8 + +The word used here is trophe, nourishment. + + + ________________________________________________ + + "And when he had received meat, he was strengthened." + + Acts 9:19 + +The word used here is trophe, nourishment. + ________________________________________________ + + "And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all +to take meat, saying, this is the fourteenth day ye have +tarried and continued fasting, having taking nothing. +Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is your +health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any +of you. And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave +thanks to God in the presence of them all: and when he had +broken it, he began to eat. Then were they all of good cheer, +and they also took some meat." + + Acts 27:33-36 + +The word used here is trophe, nourishment. Note that even +though they say meat, they show clearly that what he was +referring to was bread, which they all took. + + ________________________________________________ + + + "And when he had brought them into his house, he sat meat +before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his +house." + + Acts 16:34 + +The word used here is trapesa, table. It says he set a table +before them! + + ________________________________________________ + + "But if thy brother be grieved with that meat, now walkest +thou not charitably. Destroy him not with thy meat, for whom +Christ Died." + + Romans 14:15 + + +Both words here are broma, food. This is actually a reference +to spiritual food. + + ________________________________________________ + + "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but +righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." + + Romans 14:17 + +The word used here is borsis, act of eating. This is a +reference to the fact that the kingdom of God is not material + + ________________________________________________ + + "But meat commendeth us not to God, for neither, if we +eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the +worse." + + I Corinthians 8:8 + +The word used here is Broma, food. This verse does not say that +it doesn't matter if we eat meat or not, but that the activity +of eating has little to do with our relationship of God. + ________________________________________________ + + "Wherefore, if meat makes my brother offend, I will eat no +flesh while the world standeth lest I make my brother to +offend." + + I Corinthians 8:13 + ________________________________________________ + + "And (they) did all eat the same spiritual meat;" + + I Corinthians 10:3 + +The word here is broma, food. + ________________________________________________ + + "For meat destroy not the word of God. All things are +indeed pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with +offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, +nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or +is made weak." + + Romans 14:20-21 + +A very good verse. The word meat used here is Broma, food. It +shows that it is not food which is wrong, it is not eating +prasadam, food offered to God. The word flesh used here is +kreas, flesh. So it is clear that meat eating is not good. + ________________________________________________ + + + +5) REINCARNATION + + + Under circumstances that to this very day remain shrouded +in mystery, the Byznatine emperor Justinian in 553 A.D. (at the +Second Council of Constantinople) banned the teachings of +reincarnation from the Christian scriptures. There remain, +however, certain allusions to reincarnation in the Bible. And +these few are very powerful. + + * * * + + In the ninth century B.C. the Hebrew prophet Elijah is +supposed to have live. Four centuries later, Malachi recorded +this prophecy in the closing lines of the Old Testament: +"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming +of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." + + The first book of the New Testament, Matthew, refers to +this prophecy on three occasions, and the remaining gospels +speak of it seven times. In the verses that follow, the Greek +form of the prophet's name is used. It will be noted from the +remarks of the disciples of Jesus that there was much +speculation and widespread acceptance among the Jews concerning +not only the return of Elijah, but of other ancient Hebrew +prophets. + + When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he +asked his disciples, saying, Who do men say that I am? And they +replied, Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; +and others, Jeremias, or one of the other prophets. + + Matthew 16:13-14 + + + And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged +them saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be +risen again from the dead. And his disciples asked him, saying, +Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus +answered them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all +things. But I say unto you, that Elias has come already, and +they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they +listed. Likewise shall the Son of Man suffer from them. Then +the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the +Baptist [who had already been beheaded by Herod]. + + Matthew 17:9-13 + + + Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning +John...this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my +messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before +thee...And if ye will receive it: this is Elias, which was for +to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. + + Matthew 11:7,10-11,14-15 + + Another reference is to be found in Luke 9:7-9: "Now Herod +the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Jesus, and he was +perplexed, because it was said of some, that John was risen +from the dead; and of some, that Elias had appeared; and of +others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. And Herod +said, John have I beheaded; but who is this of whom I hear such +things?" The same incident is related in Mark 6:14-16 + + The early church father Tertullian offers the view that +some orthodox people take concerning all these verses from the +New Testament [Although Tertullian was also an outspoken +advocate of reincarnation]. In brief, Tertullian's reasoning is +that Elias never died in the first place. God translated him +directly to heaven. Thus, his subsequent re-descent was not a +rebirth, but merely a return visit. It has been described that +Tertullian bases his reasoning on the statement in II Kings +2:11: "Behold there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of +fire...and Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven" and was +seen no more. However, if this church father's reasoning is to +be logically sustained, Elijah's return to earth as John the +Baptist should have been in the same miraculous way he left: He +should have been precipitated on earth as a mature man. Yet the +scriptures indicate that John was born in the ordinary way. +Thus all serious Christian theologians have concluded that +Tertullian's theory is not tenable. + + The nineteenth-century [North] American philosopher +Francis Bowen of Harvard, after citing a number of the Gospel +passages already quoted, remarks in his article, "Christian +Metemphychosis": "That the commentators have not been willing +to receive, in their obvious and literal meaning, assertions so +direct and so frequently repeated as this, but have attempted +to explain them away in a non-natural and metaphorical sense, +is a fact that proves nothing but the existence of an +invincible prejudice against the doctrine of the transmigration +of souls." + + One final point. The rebirth of saviors and prophets is +clear enough in Christian teaching, but what about ordinary +men? Do they return? That the disciples of Jesus seriously +considered this possibility is evident from their question +concerning the man who had been born blind. They asked: "Who +did sin, this man, or his parents, that he is born blind?" One +can not evade the conclusion that the disciples must have had +reincarnation in mind, for obviously if the man had been born +blind his sin could not have been committed in this life. Jesus +had a good opportunity to smash the reincarnation idea once and +for all--but he did not! He merely replied that the man was +afflicted because he was destined through Christ to have his +sight restored so that "the works of God should be made +manifest in him." + + That it may be legitimate to look to a previous life for +the source of individual goodness or badness seems plain from +St. Paul's comments on Jacob and Esau. He says that the Lord +loved one and hated the other before they were born--Romans +9:10-13; Malachi 1:2-3. How could a nonexistent being be loved +or hated? + + Another illustration is the one in which Christ warns that +those who live by the sword will die by the sword [Matthew +26:52]. This could only be universally true--as all of the +savior's statements should be--if there is more than one life +in which to experience the reaction for many professional +combat soldiers die quietly in their own beds. This view is +completely consistent with Newton's Third Law of Motion--for +every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction--and with +the Law of Karma promulgated in the Vedic literatures. + + A similar reference is found in Mark 10:28-31, where +rewards are listed that could hardly be fulfilled in one life. +Peter said unto Jesus: "Lo, we have left all, and have followed +thee." And Jesus answered: "Verily I say unto you, There is no +man that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or +mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, But he +shall receive an hundredfold now in this time [in this age] +houses, and brethren, and sisters and mothers, and children, +and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal +life. But many that are first shall be last; and the last +first." Certainly the enumerated rewards could not possibly be +fulfilled in one incarnation. + + Saint John states in Revelation 3:12: "Him that overcometh +will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go +no more out." It seems he had gone out into incarnation before, +otherwise the words "no more" could have no place or meaning. +It may have been the old idea of the exile of the soul and the +need for it to be purified by long sojourn before it could be +admitted as a "pillar in the temple of my God." In Luke 20:35- +36, a similar idea again occurs. Jesus says: "They who are +accounted worthy to obtain that world...neither marry...neither +can they die any more." + + + It can be concluded from both these verses that the goal +to be achieved is of such a transcendent nature, one short life +would be insufficient to reach it. Thus, in Professor Bowen's +essay, "Christian Metemphychosis," previously cited, he wonders +whether in addition to the obvious spiritual meaning, there may +be "a literal meaning in the solemn words of the Saviour +'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of +God.'" + +"An eternity of either reward or punishment," says Bowen, +"would seem to be inadequately earned by one brief period of +probation on earth." + + + +6) CELIBACY + +There are many verses in the Bible stating that one should be +chaste and celibate. The entire chapter of I Corinthians, +chapter 7 deals with this subject comprehensively. Here are the +highlights of that chapter: + +1) "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me (Paul): +it is good for a man not to touch a woman." +2) " Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his +own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." +3) "Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence; and +likewise also the wife unto the husband." +5) "Defraud ye not one the other (i.e. have sex), except it be +with consent for a time, that ye may give yourself to fasting +and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not +for your incontinency." +6) "But I speak this by permission, and not by commandment." +7) "For I would that all men were even as I myself (celibate). +But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this +manner, and another after that." +8) "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good for +them if they abide even as I." +9) "But if they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is +better to marry than to burn." +10) "And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, +let not the wife depart from her husband:" +11) "But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be +reconciled to her husband; and let not the husband put away his +wife." +25) "Now, concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: +yet I give my judgement, as one that hath obtained the mercy of +the Lord to be faithful." +26) "I suppose therefore that this is good for the present +distress, I say, that it is good for a man so to be." +27) "Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art +thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife." +28) "But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned: and if a +virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have +trouble in the flesh: but I spare you." +32) "He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to +the Lord, how he may please the Lord:" +33) "But he that is married careth for things that are of the +world, how he may please his wife." +34) "There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. +The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she +may be holy in body and in spirit: but she that is married +careth for the things of the world, how she may please her +husband." +37) "He that standeth steadfast in his heart, having no +necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so +decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well." +38) "So he that giveth her in marriage doeth well, but he that +giveth her not in marriage doeth better." + + I Corinthians, Chapter 7 + ________________________________________________ + +"This I say then, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill +the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the +Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are +contrary he one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things +that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under +the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are +these; adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lasciviousness, +idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, +strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkeness, +revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before as I +have told you in time past, that they which do such things +shall not inherit the kingdom of God." + + Galatians 5:16-21 + +Compare to BG [Bhagavad Gita] 3.37, where Krishna [God] says +that it is lust only that drives a person to perform sinful +acts. + ________________________________________________ + + +"But fornication, and all uncleanliness, or covetousness, let +it not be once named among you, as becometh saints." + + Ephesians 5:3 + +Note how fornication is linked with uncleanliness, and is +considered an unsaintly quality + ________________________________________________ + + +"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; +fornication; uncleanliness, inordinate affection, evil +concupiscence (bad desires), and covetousness, which is +idolatry;" + + Colossians 3:5 + +Here also fornication, linked with uncleanliness, is condemned, +and also plain old inordinate affection. + ________________________________________________ + +"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye +should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should +know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor." + + I Thessalonians 4:3-4 + +This is a good verse. It shows that the method of sanctifying +the body is to abstain from sex life; it also shows that the +body is just a vessel for the spirit. + + ________________________________________________ + +(Paul speaking to disciples) "For I am jealous over you with +godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I +may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." + + II Corinthians 11:2 + +Note the implications here that Paul arranged the marriages of +his disciples. + ________________________________________________ + +"I (Jesus) say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to +lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his +heart." + + Matthew 5:32 + +Shows even subtle sex life is to be considered as adultery. + ________________________________________________ + +"It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, +and such fornication as is not so much named among the +Gentiles, that should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed +up, and have not rather mourned, that he hath done this deed +might be taken away from among you." + + I Corinthians 5:1-2 + +This shows that Paul felt that if one of the followers +committed fornication, he should be kicked out of the +association of other disciples. + ________________________________________________ + +"Flee fornication. Every sin that a man dieth is without the +body; but he that committeh fornication sinneth against his own +body." + + I Corinthians 6:18 + +Very clear verse. Fornication is considered to be the main +cause of material life. Note that the word used here is +porneiana [meaning] fornication, not moicheian, or [meaning] +adultery. The purport is that any sex life, not just illicit +sex life, causes material consciousness. + ________________________________________________ + + +"Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats, but the Lord +shall destroy both it and them. Now that the body is not for +fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." + + I Corinthians 6:13 + +The words used here are both broma, food. Also note the +statement about the body not being for sex life. The word used +here is porneia, [meaning] fornication, not moicheia, [meaning] +adultery. + ________________________________________________ + +THE ADVANTAGE OF CELIBACY + +"It is my opinion, then, that in a time of stress like the +present this is the best way for a man to live--it is best for +a man to be as he is (celibate)...If, however, you do marry, +there is nothing wrong in it; and if a virgin marries, she has +done no wrong. But those who marry will have pain and grief in +this bodily life, and my aim is to spare you...I want you to be +free from anxious care. The unmarried man cares for the Lord's +business; His aim is to please the Lord. But the married man +cares for worldly things; his aim is to please his wife; and he +has a divided mind. The unmarried or celibate woman cares for +the Lord's business; her aim is to be dedicated to Him in body +as in spirit; but the married woman cares for worldly things; +her aim is to please her husband." + +"In saying this I have no wish to keep you on a tight rein. I +am thinking simply of your own good, of what is seemly, and of +your freedom to wait upon the Lord without distraction." + + I Corinthians 7:25-26,28,32,35 + ________________________________________________ + +CHASTITY + +"...The disciples said to him, 'If that is the position with +husband and wife, it is better not to marry.' To this he +replied, 'That is something which not everyone can accept, but +only those for whom God has appointed it. For a while some are +incapable of marriage because they were born so, or were made +so by men, there are others who have themselves renounced +marriage for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. Let those +accept it who can.'" + + Matthew 19:10-12 + ________________________________________________ + +LUSTY OR GREEDY PERSONS HAVE NO SHARE IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD + + +"Fornication and indecency of any kind, or ruthless greed, must +not be so much as mentioned among you, as befits the people of +God...no one given to fornication or indecency, or the greed +which makes an idol of gain, has any share in the kingdom of +Christ and of God." + + Eph. 5:3,5 + ________________________________________________ + +ONE MUST LIVE A PURE LIFE, FREE FROM EARTHLY THINGS + +"Agree together, my friend, to follow my example. You have us +for a model; watch those whose way of life conforms to it. For, +as I have often told you, and now tell you with tears in my +eyes, there are many whose way of life makes them enemies of +the cross of Christ. They are heading for destruction, appetite +is their god, and they glory in their shame. Their minds are +set on earthly things." + + Phil. 3:17-19 + ________________________________________________ + + +7) RENUNCIATION + + +ONE MUST BE DETACHED FROM THE MATERIAL WORLD + +"Do not set your hearts on the godless world or anything in it. +Anyone who loves the world is a stranger to the Father's love +Everything in the world affords, all that panders to the +appetites or entices the eyes, all the glamor of it's life, +springs not from the Father but from the godless world. And +that would is passing away with all its allurements, but he who +does God's will stands forever." + + John 2:15-17 + ________________________________________________ + +ONE "GUIDED BY THE SPIRIT" TRANSCENDS THE LOWER NATURE + +"If you are guided by the Spirit you will not fulfill the +desires of your lower nature. That nature sets its desires +against the Spirit, while the Spirit fights against it. They +are in conflict with one another so that what you will do you +cannot do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under +law." + + Gal. 5:16-18 + ________________________________________________ + +ONE WHO HAS THE SPIRIT TRANSCENDS BODILY DEMANDS + +"Our lower nature has no claim upon us; we are not obligated to +live on that level. If you do so, you must die. But if by the +Spirit you put to death all the base pursuits of the body, then +you will live." + + Romans 8:12-13 + ________________________________________________ + +RENUNCIATION OF POSSESSIONS + +"...none of you can be a disciple of mine without parting with +all his possessions." + + Luke 14:33 + ________________________________________________ + +"If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast and give to +the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. And come +follow Me." + + Matt. 19:21 + ________________________________________________ + + + +SELF-SACRIFICE + +"If anyone wishes to be a follower of mine, he must leave self +behind; day after day he must take up his cross, and come with +me." + + Luke 9:23, Matt. 16:24, Mark 8:34 + ________________________________________________ + +"As they were going along the road a man said to him, 'I will +follow you wherever you go.' Jesus answered, 'Foxes have their +holes, birds their roosts; but the Son of Man has nowhere to +lay his head.' To another he said, 'Follow me,' but the man +replied, 'Let me go and bury my father first.' Jesus said, +'leave the dead to bury their dead; you must go and announce +the kingdom of God.' + +"Yet another said, 'I will follow you, sir; but let me first +say good-bye to my people at home.' To him Jesus said, 'No one +who sets his hand to the plough and then keeps looking back is +fit for the kingdom of God.'" + Luke 9:57-62 + ________________________________________________ + +THE DEVOTEE NEED NOT ENDEAVOR FOR MATERIAL NECESSITIES + +"I bid you put away anxious thoughts about food and drink to +keep you alive, and cloths to cover your body. Surely life is +more than food, the body more than clothes. Look at the birds +of the air; they do not sow and reap and store in barns, yet +your heavenly Father feeds them. You are worth more than the +birds!...And why be anxious about clothes! Consider how the +lilies grow in the fields; they do not work, they do not spin; +and yet, I tell you, even Solomon in all his splendor was not +attired like on of these. But if that is how God clothes the +grass in the fields, which is there today, and tomorrow is +thrown on the stove, will he not all the more clothe you? How +little faith you have! No, do not ask anxiously, 'What are we +to eat? What are we to drink? What shall we wear?' All these +are things for the heathen to run after, not for you, because +your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Set your +mind on God's kingdom and his justice before everything else, +and all the rest will come to you as well. So do not be anxious +about tomorrow; tomorrow will look after itself. Each day has +troubles enough of its own." + + Matt. 6:25-34 + ________________________________________________ + +ONE SHOULD RENOUNCE THE MATERIAL WORLD + + +"The world is crucified to me, and I to the world." + + Gal. 4:14 + ________________________________________________ + +AUSTERITY OF THE BODY + +"It is time for you to wake out of sleep, for deliverance is +nearer to us now than it was when first we believed. It is far +on in the night; day is near. Let us therefore throw off the +deeds of darkness and put on our armour as soldiers of the +light...give no more thought to satisfying the bodily +appetites." + + Rom. 13:11,12,14 + ________________________________________________ + +THE REAL CHRISTIAN CRUCIFIES THE FLESH + +"Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the lower +nature with its passions and desires. If the Spirit is the +source of our life; let the Spirit also direct our course." + + Gal. 5:24-25 + ________________________________________________ + +RENUNCIATION OF FAMILY + +"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, +wife and children, brothers and sisters, even his own life, he +cannot be a disciple of mine. No one who does not carry his +cross and come with me can be a disciple of mine." + + Luke 14:26-27 + ________________________________________________ + +"You must not think that I have come to bring peace to the +earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. I have come +to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, +a son's wife against her mother-in-law; and a man will find his +enemies under his own roof." + +"No man is worthy of me who cares more for father and mother +than for me; no man is worthy of me who cares more for son or +daughter; no man is worthy of me who does not take up his cross +and walk in my footsteps. By gaining his life a many will loose +it; by losing his life for my sake, he will gain it." + + Matt. 10:34-39 + ________________________________________________ + +"...anyone who has left brother or sister, father, mother, or +children, land or houses for the sake of my name will be repaid +many times over, and gain eternal life." + + Matt. 19:29 + ________________________________________________ + +MATERIALISTIC PERSON CANNOT UNDERSTAND SPIRITUAL THINGS + +"The sensual man perceiveth not the things that are of the +Spirit of God, for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot +understand it." + +"A man who is unspiritual refuses what belongs to the Spirit of +God; it is folly to him; he cannot grasp it, because it needs +to be judged in the light of the Spirit." + + I Cor. 2:14 + ________________________________________________ + +AUSTERITY AND RENUNCIATION + +"The young man saith unto him (Jesus), All these things have I +kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? And Jesus said unto +him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell what thou hast, and +give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and +come and follow me." + + Matthew 19:20-21 + +This clearly says to give away everything you own and take up +spiritual life, if you want to become perfect. + + ________________________________________________ + +"And it came to pass, that as they went in the way, a certain +man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee wheresoever thou +goest. And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of +the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay +his head. And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, +Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto +him, Let the dead bury their dead; but thou go and preach the +kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow +thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home +in my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his +hand to the plough, and looking back, it fit for the kingdom of +God. + + Luke 9:57-62 + ________________________________________________ + +"Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he +cannot be my disciple." + + Luke 14:33 + ________________________________________________ + +"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live +after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; +but if ye live through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the +body, ye shall live." + + Romans 6:12-13 + ________________________________________________ + +"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. +If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in +him. For all that is this world, the lust of the flesh, and the +lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, +but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust +thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." + + I John 2:15-17 + ________________________________________________ + +STATEMENTS SHOWING THE NECESSITY OF RENOUNCING THE FAMILY TO +TAKE UP SPIRITUAL LIFE + +"And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or +sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, +for may name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall +inherit everlasting life." + + Matthew 19:29 + ________________________________________________ + + + +8) "THERE IS MUCH I HAVE TO TELL YOU..." + + +STATEMENTS SHOWING THAT THE BIBLE IS NOT THE ONLY OR FINAL WORD +OF GOD + +"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear +them now." + + John 16:12 + +Here it is clear that there is more knowledge to be had, but +the disciples were not purified enough to receive it or +understand it. + ________________________________________________ + +"These things I have spoken unto you in proverbs; but the time +cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs; but I +shall show you of the father + + John 16:25 + +Here also Jesus is saying that there is more to come, and that +the disciples have not yet learned anything of God Himself, but +that more teachings were to come that would describe God +Himself clearly. + + ________________________________________________ + +"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the +which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even +the world itself could not contain the books that could be +written." + + John 21:25 + +Here it is shown that not all of Jesus' activities are known; +in fact, it is intimated that only a small fraction of them are +known. + ________________________________________________ + +"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is +profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for +instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be +perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." + + II Timothy 3:16-17 + +Here it is clearly shown that any bonafide scripture must be +accepted, at least on the basis of instruction, even if it does +not describe Jesus. Therefore, the Christians should all accept +Bhagavad-gita [the Koran, and any other bonafide scriptures]. + ________________________________________________ + +"If you do not believe when I tell you of material things, how +will you believe if I tell you of spiritual things?" + + John 3:12 + ________________________________________________ + + + +9) JESUS AND GOD MAY BE ONE--BUT THEY ARE ALSO DIFFERENT + +"I do nothing of myself." + + John 14:2 + ________________________________________________ + +"My Father is greater than I." + + John 14:2 + ________________________________________________ + +"The Lord our God is one Lord." + + Mark 12:29 + ________________________________________________ + +My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" + + Matt. 27:46 + ________________________________________________ + +"Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." + + Luke 23:46 + ________________________________________________ + +"As You and I are one, let them also be one in Us." + + c.f. John 17:21 + +Thus, Jesus implies that his "oneness" with God is something +that can be achieved by others. + ________________________________________________ + +"But of that day and that hour knowth no man, no, not the +angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." + + Mark 13:32 + ________________________________________________ + +It is also written of Jesus: "Behold my servant, whom I have +chosen," + + Matt. 12:18 + ________________________________________________ + +"God...glorified His servant, Jesus." + + Acts 3:13 + ________________________________________________ + + + +10) MISCELLANEOUS + +GOD IS NOT AN OLD MAN WITH A FLOWING WHITE BEARD + +10) My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten +thousand. +11) His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and +black as a raven. +12) His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, +washed with milk, and fitly set. +13) His cheeks are as a bet of spices, as sweet flowers; his +lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. +14) His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl; his belly +is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. +15) His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon socks of fine +gold; his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. +16) His mouth is most sweet; yea, he is altogether lovely. This +is my beloved, and this is my friend. + + Song of Solomon 5 + +Compare to Vedic description in Brahma Samhita. + ________________________________________________ + +THE GREATEST COMMANDMENTS: TO LOVE GOD AND ONE'S NEIGHBOR + +(It is thus also indicated that to love God and to love one's +neighbor are two separate things) + +"'Master, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' He +answered, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all +your soul, with all your mind." That is the greatest +commandment. It comes first. The second is like it: "Love your +neighbor as yourself." Everything in the Law and the prophets +hangs on these two commandments'" + + Matt. 22:36-40 + ________________________________________________ + +SELF-SURRENDER + +"Father...Thy will be done." + + Matt 26:42 + ________________________________________________ + +CONTINUAL PRAYER + +"Pray without ceasing." + + Thess. 5:17 + ________________________________________________ + + +THE SINFUL PERSON HATES GOD, TRUTH. HONEST PERSON OTHERWISE + + "Here lies the test: the light has come into the world, +but men preferred darkness to light because their deeds were +evil. Bad men all hate the light and avoid it, for fear their +practices should be shown up. The honest man comes to the light +so that it may be clearly seen that God is in all he does." + + John 3:19-21 + ________________________________________________ + +ON THE UNPOPULARITY OF POTENT PREACHERS + +"If the world hate you, know that it hated me (Jesus) before it +hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its +own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you +out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." + + John 15:18-19 + ________________________________________________ + +ON LISTENING TO GOD FROM WITHIN THE HEART (INSTEAD OF FROM +AUTHORITY) + +"Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but His +that sent me. If any man will do His (God's) will, he shall +know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak +of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory; +but he that seeketh His (God's) glory that sent him, the same +is true and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give +you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?" + + John 7:16-19 + +This clearly says that we must not follow our own ideas, but +just obey the law and try to understand what the authorities +say. This defeats the people who day "Jesus speaks to me in my +heart." + ________________________________________________ + + + +11) AFTERWORD + + The merits of this pamphlet can easily be obscured by the +Christian exclusivity. Dogmatic denial of non-Christian +religions seems to be a tenet of popular Christianity. Such +prejudice is largely based on the following verse from the New +Testament: + + ego eimi ha hodos kai ha alatheia kai ha zoa; oudeis +erketia pros ton patera ei ma di emou + + "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to +the Father except through me." )Matt. 14:6) + + However, this is a rather slender peg on which to hang +one's religious intolerance. Especially since the original +Greek renders the verse a bit differently than cited above-- +although the above translation is the one you would probably +find in your Bible. + + The Greek work erketai is extremely present tense. So, +rather than "comes" as the word is rendered above, it would +more accurately be "can presently come." This, of course, +changes the whole meaning. Jesus is actually saying, "I am the +way, the truth, and the life; no one can presently come to the +father except through me." Thus, Christian exclusivity becomes +absurd. Unlike the interpretations pushed upon us by the Bible- +thumpers--who say that surrender to Jesus is the only way, for +all time--Jesus simply said that eh was the way presently, at +that time, in Palestine-- 2,000 years ago. Says Dr. Boyd +Daniels of The American Bible Society, "Oh, yes. The word +erketai is definitely the present tense form of the verb. Jesus +was speaking to his contemporaries." (From a personal +conversation with the author.) + ________________________________________________ + + The Codex Sinaiticus, our earliest existing Greek +manuscript of the New Testament, can presently be found in the +British Museum. Interestingly, this manuscript was written in +the year 331 A.D. - Just six years after the Council of Nicaea. +We have no New Testament manuscripts from before this council. + + Why is this interesting? Because history reveals that +everything was rearranged at the council--and at the many +councils that followed. No one knows what Christianity may +have been like before this first ecumenical synod. And no one +is ever likely to find out--for the Christian tradition has not +been preserved. Rather, it has been subject to change and +decay + + +This pamphlet was keyed by Skosch Penrose. diff --git a/religious documents/you.txt b/religious documents/you.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c82bae1 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/you.txt @@ -0,0 +1,74 @@ +(3493) Wed 28 Jul 93 7:39 +By: the Bard +To: All +Re: YOU.TXT +St: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------ +Herewith a small something that just poured out..... + + + YOU + -the Whyte Bard + + You are a Child of the Goddess, a daughter or a son of the God, + and you are here in joy. Live your life to its fullest, taking + the good with the bad and learning from each. + + Enjoy love, giving yourself to your lover as you will, but not + so much that you lose your Self, and take that which is given by + your lover, but not so much as to empty them of Selfhood. You + are both individuals who are walking together, side by side, in + equal partnership, and if your paths should separate, then so + be it. Separate in joy, not hate. + + Love. Love life, love your fellow humans, and love our Brothers + and Sisters in fur, feather and scale. Love your Mother Earth. + We are caretakers of the planet; this is our Home. + + Work. Do not live from the bounty of others, but live of your + own, as an independent member of the whole. If you must take + charity, take it in good grace, and return what you have been + loaned therefrom when you can, be it in kind, or by whatever + means you have. + + Give. Give to those in need, and to those that hunger or thirst. + Give not to inflate yourself, and to show others your magniminity, + but give from a love for your fellow humans. Give of your substance, + but more importantly, give a helping hand, that the person helped + may support themselves, free from obligation. + + Teach. Teach your children and teach others, not by words, for + words can twist and lie, but by your own example. Teach Kindness, + and Understanding, and Joy, but most of all, teach Love. If you + must discipline your children, discipline in love, not anger. + + Think. Think before you speak. Think before you act. Consider your + words and actions, and the effect they will have on others. + + Learn. Learn from all, for even a fool may speak wisdom unknowingly. + Most of all, learn thru the wide eyes of a Child, seeing for the + first time. + + Ask. If you do not know, ask. If you are unsure, ask. If you are + sure...ask again. + + Speak the Truth. Live the Truth. Love the Truth. Seek after the + Truth. + + Harm none. Love all. For it is written, and it is undoubtedly so, + that what you have done to the least and smallest, you have done + to the Deity. + + + -----------------------end------------------------ + + +... I am the singer ...... and the Song! ... +--- Arcane Actuality (602) 788-0759 + * Origin: Arcane Actuality - (602) 788-0759 - Thru 14.4k bps - 24hrs (66:1602/ +0.0) +SEEN-BY: 102/943 120/418 382/502 1602/0 9000/2 3 10 9001/0 9003/0 9004/0 9007/0 +SEEN-BY: 9008/0 9009/0 9010/0 9030/0 9040/0 9050/0 9080/0 9110/0 9200/0 4 5 +SEEN-BY: 9210/0 9220/0 9300/0 9400/0 9500/0 9600/0 10 9603/10 9608/0 9609/0 +SEEN-BY: 9610/0 9620/0 9630/0 9640/0 9650/0 9670/0 9680/0 9800/0 9820/4 9900/0 + diff --git a/religious documents/yule.txt b/religious documents/yule.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f206f66 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/yule.txt @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ +ab:yule.txt 2jan89 + + Yule + +Preparation: + Let all be properly prepared and purified. + In the centre (or just south of centre) of the Circle stands the + Cauldron of Cerridwen wreathed about with pine boughs, holly, + ivy and mistletoe and therein is laid a balefire of nine woods: + rowan, apple, elder, holly, pine, cedar, juniper, poplar and + dogwood. +The altar is decorated as is the Cauldron and bears two red candles + as well as an unlit red candle or torch for each covener present. + There should be no other light except the altar candles and those + about the Circle. + +HP casts the Circle, calling forth the Ancient Ones to bear witness. + +HP draws down the moon upon the HPS and then lights the balefire. + +HP then moves to the north, before the altar, as the HPS stands in the +south with the coveners in a circle, alternately man and woman, about the +Cauldron between them. + +The circle now moves slowly deosil once about the Circle. As each passes +the HPS they kiss her upon the cheek; as they pass the HP, he hands each +one a candle which is lit from the balefire. + +Coveners dance slowly deosil as the HP calls: + + HP: "Queen of the Moon, Queen of the Sun, + Queen of the Heavens, Queen of the Stars, + Queen of the Waters, Queen of the Earth, + Bring to us the Child of Promise ! + It is the Great Mother who gives birth to Him; + It is the Lord of Life who is born again. + Darkness and tears are set aside when the Sun + shall come up early. + Golden Sun of hill and mountain, + Illumine the land, illumine the world, + Illumine the seas, illumine the rivers, + Sorrows be laid, joy to the world ! + Blessed be the Great Goddess, + Without beginning, without ending, + Everlasting to eternity. + Io Evoe ! Heh ! Blessed be ! + +All raise their tapers high and repeat twice the last line. + +HPS joins the dance, leading it with a quieter rhythm. + +The burning cauldron is pushed into the centre and the dancers jump over +it in man and woman couples. The last couple over the fire should be well +purified, three times each, and may pay an amusing forfeit as the HPS may +ordain. + +Cakes and wine follows and, after the Circle has been closed, much +merriment, feasting, dancing and games. +----------- +-This is mostly Sheba with slight adaptations from the Farrars. Producing a +text for any Sabbat is made difficult by the fact that everyone seems to +modify the Sabbat rituals. Even the Farrars don't print the GBG Sabbats. +-The HP's speech was written by Doreen Valiente. It's given here as she +wrote it (according to the Farrars in "Eight Sabbats For Witches") rather +than in one of the more common versions. (As with her "Witches' Rune", many +Covens prefer a modified version.) +-Kissing the HPS appears to be a Sheba-ism; however, it's probably only +common among North American Garneroids. + + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/yulerit.txt b/religious documents/yulerit.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a61443 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/yulerit.txt @@ -0,0 +1,364 @@ + + + YULE RITUAL for a small gathering... + + Galen Starwalker + + +A circle may be marked on the floor, surrounding those who will +participate in the ceremony. An altar is to be set up a little +north of the center of the circle. The altar should have an image +of the God and Goddess with an incense burner placed in front of +the images. + +Two white altar candles, dishes of salt and water, goblet of wine +or fruit juice, cauldron with a special candle to symbolize fire +and light, a little bell (if you have one) the athames and a small +dish of the cakes or cookies for the Cakes and Wine ceremony. + +When everyone is ready the participants should assemble in the +circle area. + +Purify and cast the Circle but do not light the candle in the +Cauldron. + +Designated Priest: + + "Let it be known that the Circle is about to be cast, let none + be here but of their own free will." + +The Priestess then says: + + "This is the night of the solstice, the night that the +darkness is triumphant over light, and yet on the morrow, the +dark begins to give way and the light will return. The spirit +of nature is suspended, all living things wait the transformation +of the Dark + King into the Infant Light. We watch for the coming of dawn, +when + the Great Mother will again give birth to the Divine Child, +The Sun + God who is the bringer of the life of Spring and the promise +of Summer. We call the Sun from the womb of night. Blessed Be." + +All: "Blessed be." + +The Priest then calls the quarters; making the sign of the invoking +pentagram in each direction. + +Facing East, saying: + + "Lords of the Watchtowers of the East, we summon, awaken and + call you up to guard the circle and protect us in our rite. +Come to us now on the cold winter wind and breathe into us the +spirit of the pure joy of life. So mote it be!" + +All: "So mote it be!" + +Facing South, saying: + + "Lords of the Watchtowers of the South, we summon, +awaken and call you up to guard the circle and protect us in our +rite. Come forth from the fires that warm this winter's night. +Kindle within us the warmth of spiritual awakening. So mote it +be!" + +All: "So mote it be!" + +Facing West, saying: + + "Lords of the Watchtowers of the West, we summon, awaken and +call you up to guard the circle and protect us in our rite. +Come forth from the frozen streams, from the driven snow. +Bring us the water of life to wash away our fears and resentments +that we may find peace of mind. So mote it be!" + +All: "So mote it be!" + +Facing North, saying: + + "Lords of the Watchtowers of the North, we summon, awaken and +call you up to guard the circle and protect us in our rite. +Come forth from the fertile bosom of our Blessed Mother Earth, +and nourish us so that our faith may grow in strength. So +mote it be!" + +All: "So mote it be!" + + The priest then takes the wand, and starting at the north, +draws it along the entire circle clockwise back to the north point, +saying: + + "The circle is sealed, and all herein + Are totally and completely apart + From the outside world, + That we may glorify the Lady whom we adore. + Blessed Be!" + +All repeat: "Blessed Be!" + + The priest now holds the wand out in salute towards the north +for a moment and then hands it to the priestess, who also holds it +out in salute. She motions to the group to repeat the following +lines after her: + + "As above, so below ... + As the universe, so the soul. + As without, so within. + Blessed and gracious one, + On this day do we consecrate to you + Our bodies, + Our minds, + And our spirits. + Blessed Be!" + + +Priestess: + + "To die and be reborn, + The Wheel is turning, + What must you lose to the night?" + +All: "Fear." + +Priestess: + + "Fear is lost to the night. + Fear is lost to the night. + To die and be reborn, + The Wheel is turning, + What must you lose to the night?" + +All: + + "The light was born, + And the light has died." + +Priestess: + + "Everything passes, + All fades away. + +The High Priest places a pinch of salt on each member's tongue,and +says: + + "My body is salt, + Taste the breath of death." + +Priestess: + + "You are entering a space of perfect freedom." + + As everyone visualizes their hopes for their new life to come +with the coming of the Sun the Priestess gives each a drop of honey +on their tongues, one by one, saying: + + "Taste the sweetness of life." + +All: + + We are awake in the night! + We turn the Wheel, to bring the light! + We call the sun from the womb of night!" + +The Priestess says: + + "He sets his face to the West, but in the East arises!" + +Priestess: + + "Queen of the sun! + Queen of the Moon! + Queen of the horns! + Queen of the fires! + Bring to us the Child of Promise!" + +All: + + "It is the Great Mother + Who gives birth to Him, + It is the Lord of Life, + Who is born again! + Darkness and tears + Are set aside, + When the sun comes up again!" + +Priestess: + + "Golden sun, + Of hill and field, + Light the earth! + Light the skies! + Light the waters! + Light the fires!" + +All: "Io! Evohe! Io! Evohe!" + +The High Priest lights the cauldron candle, and all begin chanting: + + "I who have died am alive again today, + The Sun is born again! + + This is the birth of life and love and wings, + We are born again, we shall live again! + The Sun Child, the Winterborn King!" + +All: + + "The Dark God has passed the Gate, + He has been reborn through the Mother, + With Him we are each reborn!" + + "The tide has turned! + The light will come again! + In a new dawn, in a new day, + The sun is rising! + Io! Evohe! Blessed Be!" + + +The Priestess now faces the altar, takes the goblet of wine in both +hands, raising it offering it to the Lady and the Lord saying: + + "We give thanks to the Gods for that which sustains us." + +The Priest, also facing the altar, takes the plate of cakes, +raising it and offering it to the Lady and the Lord, saying: + + "We give thanks to the Gods for that which sustains us." + +All: "So be it. May we ever be aware of all that we owe to the +Gods." + +The Priestess holding the goblet with both hands faces the Priest. +The Priest, holds his athame between his two palms, point down, +faces her. He slowly lowers the point of the athame into the wine, +saying: + + "In like fashion may male join with female," + +Priestess: + + "For the happiness of both, and let the fruits of the union + promote life," + +Priest: + + "Let all be fruitful and let peace, happiness and good will +be + spread throughout all lands." + +The Priest then raises the athame, replacing it upon the altar. +The Priestess holds the goblet for the Priest to sip the wine, +and the Priest holds it for the Priestess, replacing it upon the +altar. + +The Priest then takes up the plate of cakes, holds them before him, +turning to the Priestess. She touches each of them with the point +of her athame, saying: + + "This food is the blessing of the Gods to our bodies," + +Priest: + + "Let us partake of it freely, and as we share, let us remember +always to see to it that what we have we share with those who have +nothing." + +The Priestess takes a cake and eats it, offering one to the Priest +who also takes and eats a cake. + +The Priest then takes the goblet and offers the wine to each of the +Coveners in turn as the Priestess offers them each a cake. + +Priestess: "As we enjoy these gifts of the Gods, let us remember, + without them, we would have nothing," + +Priest: + + "Eat and drink. Be happy. Share and give thanks. So Mote It + Be." + +All: "So Mote It Be." + + Now is the time for discussion and teaching. Wine and light +refreshments may be served. When the meeting has ended, all will +stand and silently meditate for a moment. + +Priest facing East, making the sign of the banishing pentagram, +says: + + "Lords of the watchtowers of the East, return now to the brisk + Winter winds which are brimming with the excitement of the +year's + climax. Take with you our blessings and thanks. Hail and + farewell!" + +All: "Hail and farewell!" + +Facing South, making the sign of the banishing pentagram, says: + + "Lords of the Watchtowers of the South, return now to the + fires of the Winter Hearth. Take with you our blessings and +thanks. Hail and farewell!" + +All: "Hail and farewell!" + +Facing West, making the sign of the banishing pentagram, says: + + "Lords of the Watchtowers of the West, return now to the +frozen streams and snow fields. Take with you our blessings and +thanks. Hail and farewell!" + +All: "Hail and farewell!" + +Facing North, making the sign of the banishing pentagram, says: + + "Lords of the Watchtowers of the North, return now to the +Earth where seeds nestle awaiting the warmth of Spring. Take +with you our blessings and thanks. Hail and farewell!" + +All: "Hail and farewell!" + +Priest: Raises his athame in salute, says: + + "We came together in perfect love and perfect trust, in love +and friendship, let us part in the same way. Let us spread the +love we have known here outward to all; sharing with those we +meet on + our separate ways." + +Priestess: Raises her athame in salute saying, as all coveners +raise their athames in salute also: + + "Lord and Lady, we give you our thanks for sharing this time + together in our rite. We give you thanks for watching over us, +for + guarding us and for guiding us in all things. Love is the +Law, Love is the Bond, Merry did we meet, merry do we part; +and merry + will we meet again." + +The priestess will then take the wand and tap each candle to put it +out, starting at the north and going clockwise around the circle, +while saying: + + "Our rite draws to its end. + O lovely and gracious Goddess, + Be with each of us as we depart. + The circle is open but not broken! + So Mote it be" + +All: "So Mote it be! + Merry Meet, Merry Part, + May the Love of The Lord and The Lady, + Be always in your heart." + + + + +Adapted from the published works of Raymond Buckland, "Complete +Book of Witchcraft;" Janet and Stewart Ferrar, "A Witches Bible +Compleat;" Starhawk, "The Spiral Dance," Michael Fix, "Harvest Home +Ritual" (posted on a BBS somewhere), and my teacher and mentor, +Durwydd MacTara. + diff --git a/religious documents/yulesbt.txt b/religious documents/yulesbt.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84c4631 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/yulesbt.txt @@ -0,0 +1,147 @@ + + MIDWINTER NIGHT'S EVE: Y U L E + ================================ + by Mike Nichols + + + Our Christian friends are often quite surprised at how +enthusiastically we Pagans celebrate the 'Christmas' season. Even +though we prefer to use the word 'Yule', and our celebrations may peak a +few days BEFORE the 25th, we nonetheless follow many of the traditional +customs of the season: decorated trees, carolling, presents, Yule logs, +and mistletoe. We might even go so far as putting up a 'Nativity set', +though for us the three central characters are likely to be interpreted +as Mother Nature, Father Time, and the Baby Sun-God. None of this will +come as a surprise to anyone who knows the true history of the holiday, +of course. + + In fact, if truth be known, the holiday of Christmas has always been +more Pagan than Christian, with it's associations of Nordic divination, +Celtic fertility rites, and Roman Mithraism. That is why both Martin +Luther and John Calvin abhorred it, why the Puritans refused to +acknowledge it, much less celebrate it (to them, no day of the year +could be more holy than the Sabbath), and why it was even made ILLEGAL +in Boston! The holiday was already too closely associated with the +birth of older Pagan gods and heroes. And many of them (like Oedipus, +Theseus, Hercules, Perseus, Jason, Dionysus, Apollo, Mithra, Horus and +even Arthur) possessed a narrative of birth, death, and resurrection +that was uncomfortably close to that of Jesus. And to make matters +worse, many of them pre-dated the Christian Savior. + + Ultimately, of course, the holiday is rooted deeply in the cycle of +the year. It is the Winter Solstice that is being celebrated, seed-time +of the year, the longest night and shortest day. It is the birthday of +the new Sun King, the Son of God -- by whatever name you choose to call +him. On this darkest of nights, the Goddess becomes the Great Mother +and once again gives birth. And it makes perfect poetic sense that on +the longest night of the winter, 'the dark night of our souls', there +springs the new spark of hope, the Sacred Fire, the Light of the World, +the Coel Coeth. + + That is why Pagans have as much right to claim this holiday as +Christians. Perhaps even more so, as the Christians were rather late in +laying claim to it, and tried more than once to reject it. There had +been a tradition in the West that Mary bore the child Jesus on the +twenty-fifth day, but no one could seem to decide on the month. +Finally, in 320 C.E., the Catholic Fathers in Rome decided to make it +December, in an effort to co-opt the Mithraic celebration of the Romans +and the Yule celebrations of the Celts and Saxons. + + There was never much pretense that the date they finally chose was +historically accurate. Shepherds just don't 'tend their flocks by +night' in the high pastures in the dead of winter! But if one wishes to +use the New Testament as historical evidence, this reference may point +to sometime in the spring as the time of Jesus's birth. This is because +the lambing season occurs in the spring and that is the only time when +shepherds are likely to 'watch their flocks by night' -- to make sure +the lambing goes well. Knowing this, the Eastern half of the Church +continued to reject December 25, preferring a 'movable date' fixed by +their astrologers according to the moon. + + Thus, despite its shaky start (for over three centuries, no one knew +when Jesus was supposed to have been born!), December 25 finally began +to catch on. By 529, it was a civic holiday, and all work or public +business (except that of cooks, bakers, or any that contributed to the +delight of the holiday) was prohibited by the Emperor Justinian. In +563, the Council of Braga forbade fasting on Christmas Day, and four +years later the Council of Tours proclaimed the twelve days from +December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season. This last point is +perhaps the hardest to impress upon the modern reader, who is lucky to +get a single day off work. + Christmas, in the Middle Ages, was not a SINGLE day, but rather a +period of TWELVE days, from December 25 to January 6. The Twelve Days +of Christmas, in fact. It is certainly lamentable that the modern world +has abandoned this approach, along with the popular Twelfth Night +celebrations. + + Of course, the Christian version of the holiday spread to many +countries no faster than Christianity itself, which means that +'Christmas' wasn't celebrated in Ireland until the late fifth century; +in England, Switzerland, and Austria until the seventh; in Germany until +the eighth; and in the Slavic lands until the ninth and tenth. Not that +these countries lacked their own mid-winter celebrations of Yuletide. +Long before the world had heard of Jesus, Pagans had been observing the +season by bringing in the Yule log, wishing on it, and lighting it from +the remains of last year's log. Riddles were posed and answered, magic +and rituals were practiced, wild boars were sacrificed and consumed +along with large quantities of liquor, corn dollies were carried from +house to house while carolling, fertility rites were practiced (girls +standing under a sprig of mistletoe were subject to a bit more than a +kiss), and divinations were cast for the coming Spring. Many of these +Pagan customs, in an appropriately watered-down form, have entered the +mainstream of Christian celebration, though most celebrants do not +realize (or do not mention it, if they do) their origins. + + For modern Witches, Yule (from the Anglo-Saxon 'Yula', meaning +'wheel' of the year) is usually celebrated on the actual Winter +Solstice, which may vary by a few days, though it usually occurs on or +around December 21st. It is a Lesser Sabbat or Lower Holiday in the +modern Pagan calendar, one of the four quarter-days of the year, but a +very important one. This year (1988) it occurs on December 21st at 9:28 +am CST. Pagan customs are still enthusiastically followed. Once, the +Yule log had been the center of the celebration. It was lighted on the +eve of the solstice (it should light on the first try) and must be kept +burning for twelve hours, for good luck. It should be made of ash. +Later, the Yule log was replaced by the Yule tree but, instead of +burning it, burning candles were placed on it. + In Christianity, Protestants might claim that Martin Luther invented +the custom, and Catholics might grant St. Boniface the honor, but the +custom can demonstrably be traced back through the Roman Saturnalia all +the way to ancient Egypt. Needless to say, such a tree should be cut +down rather than purchased, and should be disposed of by burning, the +proper way to dispatch any sacred object. + + Along with the evergreen, the holly and the ivy and the mistletoe +were important plants of the season, all symbolizing fertility and +everlasting life. Mistletoe was especially venerated by the Celtic +Druids, who cut it with a golden sickle on the sixth night of the moon, +and believed it to be an aphrodisiac. (Magically -- not medicinally! +It's highly toxic!) But aphrodisiacs must have been the smallest part +of the Yuletide menu in ancient times, as contemporary reports indicate +that the tables fairly creaked under the strain of every type of good +food. And drink! The most popular of which was the 'wassail cup' +deriving its name from the Anglo-Saxon term 'waes hael' (be whole or +hale). + + Medieval Christmas folklore seems endless: that animals will all +kneel down as the Holy Night arrives, that bees hum the '100th psalm' on +Christmas Eve, that a windy Christmas will bring good luck, that a +person born on Christmas Day can see the Little People, that a cricket +on the hearth brings good luck, that if one opens all the doors of the +house at midnight all the evil spirits will depart, that you will have +one lucky month for each Christmas pudding you sample, that the tree +must be taken down by Twelfth Night or bad luck is sure to follow, that +'if Christmas on a Sunday be, a windy winter we shall see', that 'hours +of sun on Christmas Day, so many frosts in the month of May', that one +can use the Twelve Days of Christmas to predict the weather for each of +the twelve months of the coming year, and so on. + + Remembering that most Christmas customs are ultimately based upon +older Pagan customs, it only remains for modern Pagans to reclaim their +lost traditions. In doing so, we can share many common customs with our +Christian friends, albeit with a slightly different interpretation. And +thus we all share in the beauty of this most magical of seasons, when +the Mother Goddess once again gives birth to the baby Sun-God and sets +the wheel in motion again. To conclude with a long-overdue paraphrase, +'Goddess bless us, every one!' + diff --git a/religious documents/yulstory.txt b/religious documents/yulstory.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3230ea9 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/yulstory.txt @@ -0,0 +1,84 @@ + The Yule Story + + By Lady Galadriel + + Also known as Mithras (for the Persian Sun God), Saturnalia (for the + Roman God of sowing and husbandry) and The Great Day of the Cauldron + (from Druid Legend). It is the celebration of the return, or rebirth, + of the Sun God, the Lord of Life. The celebrations were traditionally + performed with the utmost solemnity, yet also with the highest + rejoicing, for they reslove the paradox of Death and Rebirth. It + represents the redmption of the world from Death and Darkness, as such + it is a celebration of hope and joy amidst the gloom of winter. + + The word Yule can be traced to the Celtic word `Hioul" which means + wheel. This festival is an important point in the turning of the wheel + of the year. Wreaths were made to symbolize this wheel, combining solar + significance with tree-god significance. In ancient times Celts + venerated trees as earthly representatives of the Gods, and it was felt + that nothing short of the sacrifice of a mighty tree-god would cause + the receeding sun to take pity on them and return. The burning of the + Yule log was thought, thru sympathetic magick, to increase the + brightness and strength of the Sun, and would therefore bring good + luck. Passerbys would tip their hat or nod in salutation to the log. It + is traditional to cut the log from oak or from a slow-burning fruit + tree. The fire was lit from a piece of the previous uears Yule log, + which had been saved for this purpose. It was believed that this peice + of the old log was a charm against fire, because it would refuse to + burn until it was time to light its successor. A wish was also made + while pouring wine over the burning log. It was believed to be bad luck + if the log burned out before the 12 days of Yuletide were over. The + ashes from the fire were spread in the fields to bring fertiluity to + the next crop. + + The Wassail bowl is another favored part of Yule celebrations. A large + bowl or pot was filled with wassail, a mixture of cider and spices, and + warmed over the Yule fire. The meaning of the word wassail is to be + `hale or hearty', and was the reason for the many toasts and + salutations made from the bowl. It was also common for a porcession to + go to the nearest orchard and wassail the trees, thus blessing them and + encouraging them to bear a good yeild in the coming season. Libations + of wassail were also poured over the roots of the trees, and cider + drenched cakes were left in the forks of the older trees as an offering + to the trees spirit. Mistletoe is a regeneration symbol, considered to + be the Essence of Life due to the resemblance of the juice of the + berries to male semen. It was often gathered at this time. Evergreen + boughs are also symbols of renewal. Evergreens were decorated to show + honor to the tree spirits. The lights on modern trees were the candles + of old, and represent the newly born sun god. Trees were not cut down + and brought indoors. + + The Sacred Seed of Life, having been nurtured by the foster mother + Tailltiu, sprang forth from her breast, and was born. As the Wyrrd had + foretold, here was the Child of Promise, son of the Gods and of the + Earth. This baby was the Sun God, born in the Rule of Darkness, by the + magick of the Gods. He was destined to grow in strength and knowledge. + It was his task to bring back life and warmth to the land, and to wrest + the power from the Lord of Darkness. To appease Cernunnos, who is at + the peak of his strength, the people made sacrifices of roasted boar. + To distract Callieach, the Wise Ones, or Witches invoked her to teach + them of her mysteries. To aid the new-born Sun God the Celts felled a + giant oak tree, and burned the log as a sac4ifice, that the sun would + gain strength from it, and grow. + + Despite the powers of Cernunnos and Cailleach, the signs of new life + were still upon the land. The sacred seeds which had fallen onto the + barren branches of the winter-dead trees had come to life, and thus + became the Mistletoe, which could be seen hanging from the oaks in the + forests. Upon the land these sacred seeds had grown into the sweet + smelling evergreens, and thus they were decreed to be a part of the + celebration. + + In honor of this magickal birth the people decorated the evrgreens with + candles and other symbols of life. The Druids told of Hu-Gadarn, the + first druid, who had fled from the Atlalntean flood with his family on + this day on the Ark, " The Great Cauldron" in which they brought the + Essence of Life, and the knowledge of magick into the world. They would + also tell tales of the Killing of the Wren, and of the Battle between + the Oak King and the Holly King. Thru out the land the people rejoiced, + and their was light in the midst of the darkness. + + Blessed Be + Lady Galadriel + + Origin: CrystaLink - Astralite/Atlanta, GA! 1:133/520 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/religious documents/zengloss.txt b/religious documents/zengloss.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c475c7b --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/zengloss.txt @@ -0,0 +1,360 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU + +The document's ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the +coombspapers top level INDEX file. + +Date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 +=============================================================================== +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his kind +permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, ie. paper +copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, +Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK. Tel (0222) 228858 email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be sent +to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded on in +person by myself - B.F. + +................................Beginning of file............................... + +GLOSSARY + +A +Ai-nuke (mutual escape) +Ai-uchi (mutual striking down) +Akago no kokoro (mind of an infant; child's mind) +Amado ("rain door") +Angya (travelling on foot: a Buddhist pilgrimage) +Antan (assignment of living space) +Arayashiki (all conserving consciousness) +Baito (tea made with plum seed and sugar served as the ceremony for the + beginning of each day) +Banka (evening services) +Banka soji (evening cleaning) +Bhutakoti (limit of reality) +Bodhi (enlightenment) +Bodhidharma (also P'u-t'i Ta-mo or Ta-mo or Daruma; the twenty-eighth Buddhist + patriarch, founder of Zen) +Bosatsu (Bodhisattva or p'u-sa; a great enlightened one) +Buddha (also, Butsudo or hondo; Guatarma Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism) +Bukkwa (becoming and being; see Wu-hua) +Bushi (a knight or military scholar) +Bushido ("the way or code of the military or martial scholar") +Busshin-gyo (Buddha-mind act) +Butsuden (temple building enshrining an image or images of the Buddha) + +C +Ch'a-ch'a/sassatsu (lively and self assured) +Chado (the way of tea; the ritual of the tea ceremony) +Ch'an (Zen) +Ch'ang (forever) +Ch'ang-tao ("always-so-ness") +Cha-no-yu (the tea ceremony) +Chen/tei (perseverance) +Cheng (the state of things as they are) +Ch'eng/makoto (sincerity) +Ch'eng-ch'eng/jojo (droop and drift) +Chen-jen (true man) +Chih/jaku/chi (wisdom, tranquility) +Ch'i/ki (spirit, abstract form of energy originating in the Tan Tien or Hara) +Chih-jen : see Shijin +Chih-mo : see Shih-mo (suchness) +Choka (Morning services) +Chu-chang/shujo (staff) +Ch'un ch'i (pure spirit) +Chung Yung : see Chuyo (doctrine of the Mean) +Chuyo/Chung Yung (doctrine of the Mean) + +D +Daido mumon (from the preface to the Mumonkan, a Zen text by Hui- k'ai + (1183-1260), a monk of the later Sung dynasty. Discourses on the text, + comprising forty-eight cases are frequently held in Zen monasteries. +Daienkyochi (mirror wisdom) +Daigaku/Ta Hsueh (great learning) +Dai-hannya (ceremony of reading the sutra titles) +Daikon-hatsu (collecting white radishes for pickling) +Daiyu/Ta-yung or Myoyu/Miao-yung (an aesthetic quality perceivable in a work of + art or in nature itself. The sword in the hand of a swordsman, or any + activity carried out with something more than technique) +Daruma (Japanese name for Bodhidharma) +Daruma-ki (memorial day for the Bodhidharma, 5th October) +Dentoroku/Ch'uan-teng Lu ("transmission of the lamp") +Deshi (a disciple or pupil of a Shisho [spiritual master or teacher]) +Doka (poetry of the Tao) +Dokusan (individual consultation with a Zen master; a form of sanzen) +Donai (that part of a monastery other than its administrative quarters) +Donai fugin (chanting scriptures in the meditation hall) + +E +ekagrata (one-pointedness) +Enju (growing vegetables) +Enjudo (life prolonging room; the healing room of a monastery) + +F +Fen/bun (mutuality) +Fudo-shin (immovable mind) +Fuga (refinement of life) +Fugin (chanting scriptures) +Funi (nonduality) +Furyu (feeling for nature) +Fushiki or Fuchi/Pu-shih (beyond knowledge) +Fusu (monk in charge of the accounts and business affairs of a monastery) +Fuzui (a monk assigned as attendant to the head monk) + +G +Gaki (hungry spirits) +Gyodo (ceremony of chanting scriptures whilst moving) + +H +Haiku (form of poetry having three lines; five syllables in the first line, + seven in the second, five in the third) +Hakama (a divided skirt worn as 'over-trousers') +Haka naki (transient vain) +Handaikan (waiting on the table of the dining room) +Hange (mid-term or half term day) +Hansai (special meal) +Haori (upper or outer coat) +Happo biraki (open on all sides) +Hashin kyuji (rest, mending and preparation; taking up the needle and moxa + treatment) +Heijo-shin (everyday mind) Higan-hatsu ("Equinox bowl"; equinox begging) +Hin/P'in (poverty) +Hinsetsu (receiving visitors at the head temple) +Hoben (skillful means) +Hokku (dharma drum) +Hoko (escapade at night) +Hondo ('main hall'; alternative name for the Butsuden or Buddha Hall) +Honrai no memmoku/Pen-lai mien-mu (original face) +Honshin (original mind) +Hoshin/Fang-hsin (runaway mind) +Ho....u (chanting, used by monks whilst walking in the street, begging. "The + rain of Dharma") +Hsi-hsi/Kiki (wreathed in smiles) +Hu-jan nien ch'i/Kotsunen nenki (sudden awakening of thought) + +I +i/gi (justice) +ichinen/i-nien (one thought) +iho/ihori (hut) +Inji [sanno] (attendant to the master) +Inji gyo (secret good deeds) +innen (anecdote or incident) +isagi-yoku (leaving no regrets; with a clear conscience; like a brave man; with + no reluctance) + +J +jaku (tranquility) +jaku metsu (absolute tranquility; absolute nothingness; complete annihilation + of the ego) +jen-jin (love) +ji/shih (the particular, as distinct from the universal ri/li) +Jihatsu (the bowl used by a monk for meals and begging) +Jikijitsu (the elder monk who supervises the others during meditatin, worship, + etc.) +jisei ('parting-with-life verse') +jiyu/tzu-yu (self-reliance) +jizai/tzu-tsai (self being) +jodo/ch'ang-tao ("always-so-ness") +Joju (the administrative quarters of a monastery; such as offices, kitchen, + etc.) +Joju fugin (chanting scriptures in the administrative quarters) +Josaku (a day or period of relaxation from monastery routine) +juan ho ho ti (softness) + +K +Kaichin ("Release from the samadhi meditation"; retiring at night) +Kaihan ("opening the han"; the thrice-daily announcement of time) +Kaijo ("opening the samadhi meditation"; arising in the morning) +Kaiko (an opening discourse by the master) +Kaisan-ki (memorial day for the founder of the monastery) +Kaisei (end of training term) +Kaiyoku ("opening the bath"; bathing) +kake mono (scroll) kami nagara no michi (to leave things to the will of the + gods; non interference with natural affairs) +kan-mi (the 'taste' of sabi) +Kansho (a summon from the master) +kara (a small kesa) +karma ( +karuna/hi/pei (love for sentient beings) +Kashaku ("hanging up the priest's staff") +Katan (participation in a large general Zen meeting) +kaya (bodily existence) +Kayu (soft cooked rice) +Keisaku (the staff or stick used to administer discipline during meditation) +kendo (the art of swordsmanship) +Kensho ("seeing one's nature"; another term for satori) +Kentan ("inspecting the platform"; the master's visit to the meditation hall) +kesa/kasaya (a garment worn by a Zen monk around the neck, covering the chest) +ki (see ch'i) +Kiin (returning to the monastery) +ki-in/ch'i-yun (spiritual rhythm) +Kikan (the master's address of encouragement) +Kiku (rules for daily routine) +Kinhin ("sutra-going"; the practice of meditation while walking in the + meditation hall) +Kitan ryshaku (end of term examination) +klesa/bonno (affect) +ko/heng (success) +koan ( +Koe (seasonal change of robes) +Koju-sai (reception day for lay followers) +kokoro/hsin (the mind or heart) +kokoro tomeru +kokoro tomuna (not to have the mind 'stopped') +kokoro wo tomeru (drifting or shifting from one thing to another; the attention + being taken by an object, transferred to it and staying there) +Kokuho (informal encouragement) +kono-mama (suchness) +Konsho (striking the evening bell) +Kotai (exchange or rotation of duties) +ksanti (meakness of spirit) +ku/k'ung (emptiness) +kufu (a device, or means, usually used for aiding satori) +kufu/kung-fu (escape from dilemma) +kyo/hsu (the emptiness in which infinite possibilities exist) +kyogai/ching-chieh/ching-ai (the field of conscious thought) +Kyoo (a treat or special meal) +Kyusoku (day of rest) + +L +Li/rei (propriety) +Li/ri (furthering) +Li/ri (reason) +Liao-hsi/ryotari (blown adrift + +M +Manjusri [name] (Monju Bosatsu) +meijin (genius) +misai no ichinen (subtle trace of thought) +Miso (bean paste) +Mogusa (the plant 'yomogi' used in moxabustion) +mondo/wen-ta (questions and answers; discussion) +Monju Bosatsu [name] (Manjusri) +moshin (delusive mind) +mu/wu (nothing, negation) +muga (no ego) +mujushin-ken (sword of no abiding mind) +Mumonkan (a collection of forty-eight koan compiled in China in the thirteenth + century) +Mumyo (abiding state of ignorance) +mushin (no-mind-ness) +mushin no shin (no mind's mind) +Musho-bonin (recognising the reality which is not subject to birth and death; + supreme enlightenment) +muso (no thought) +myo/miao (wonder) +myoyu/miao-yung (something mysterious arising from the inner being, without + intellect) + +N +naniyara yukashi (moved, without knowing why, by something aesthetic) +Nikki (diary or journal) +Nisshitsu (entering the master's room) +Nitten soji (daily cleaning) +Niwa-zume ("occupying the courtyard") +Niya sannichi (two nights and three days) +nyunan-shin (soft heartedness) + +O +Obon (a mid-August festival celebrating the return of ancestral spirits) +omou (to think of or long for) +omowanu (to keep the mind empty) +O-shikunichi (twice monthly day of rest; the fourteenth day and the last day + of the month) +osho (master) + +R +Rohatsu ("the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month" a week of training + beginning on the 1st December and finishing on the 8th December, + commemorating the Buddha's enlightenment day on the latter of these + dates) Roshi (Old scholar or old teacher; a Zen master) + +S +Saba (left over rice) +Sabi (loneliness) +Saiza (lunch) +Samu (working in the garden) +Sando (proceeding to the hall) +Sanno (attendant; attending to the master) +Sanzen (going to a Zen master to receive instruction, usually by the use of a + koan) +Sarei (daily tea ceremony) +Satori/Wu (enlightenment) +Segaki (feeding the hungry spirits [gaki]) +Sembutsu-jo (the 'Buddha-selecting place', another name for the Zendo or + meditation hall) +Sesshin (a twice yearly week of intensive meditation and special lectures) + 'gathering one's thoughts?' +Shijo (meditation in complete quietness) 'gathering one's thoughts?' +Shika (the head monk or chief administrator of a Zen monastery) +Shikaryo (the quarters of the head monk or administrator) +Shikunichi (days in the month containing the digits four or nine) +Shisho (a teacher or master of scholarship, religion or art; the spiritual + father of a student or disciple) +Shitaku (preparation) +Shogatsu shitaku (preparations for the new year) +Shokei (a brief rest whilst out begging) +Shoken ("mutual seeing"; the first interview between a novice and master) +shugendo (an eclectic religion consisting of Buddhism, Shinto, Taoism and + shamanism, its priests known as yamabushi [priests who lie down in the + mountains]) +Shujo : see Chu-chang (staff) +Shukushin (going to service at the Buddha hall of the head temple on the first + and fifteenth day of each month) +Shukuza (breakfast) +Shumai ("gathering rice") +Shussai (serving special Zen dishes to lay followers) +Shutto (to put in an appearance [usually at a ceremony]) +Shuya (fire watching) +Sodo ("priest or monk hall"; a Zen monastery) +Soji (house cleaning) +Sosan (general consultation with a Zen master; a form of sanzen) +Sozarei ("general tea ceremony") + +T +Ta Hsueh : see Daigaku (great learning) +Takuhatsu ("carrying the bowl"; the practice of begging carried out by monks) +Tan ("platform"; seat) +Tana-gyo (honouring family ancestors) +Tanga (staying overnight as a guest) +Tanga-ryo (a room set aside for overnight lodging, used by pilgrims or novices + who desire to enter the monastery) +Tanga-zume ("occupying the overnight room") +Teihatsu (shaving the head) +Teisho (discourse or commentary by a Zen master) +Tenjin (visiting a lay follower's home) +Tenzo (kitchen) +Toya (a party on the night of the winter solstice) +Tsukemono (pickled Japanese vegetables) + +W +Wabi (solitariness; transcendentiality) +wu (see mu) (nothing, negation) +wu chi (limitless) +Wu-hua (becoming, being) +Wu-ming (abiding state of ignorance) + +Y +yamabushi (priests who lie down in the mountains) (see shugendo) +Yawaragai (gentleness of spirit) +Yaza (individual seated meditation by night) + +Z +Zanka (returning to one's home temple, monastery or school) +Zazen (seated meditation) +Zendo ("meditation hall"; building in which monks live and practice zazen; zen + monastery or school) +Zen-shu (a Buddhist Zen sect) +Zuii-za ("sitting as one pleases"; release from daily routine) + + +.................................End of file................................... + +-- +Barry Kapke, director | "All that we are | INTERNET: dharma@netcom.com +DharmaNet International | is the result of | FIDONET: 1:125/33.0 +P.O. Box 4951 | what we have thought." | BBS: (510) 836-4717 +Berkeley, CA 94704-4951 | (BUDDHA) | VOICEMAIL: (510) 465-7403 + diff --git a/religious documents/zenisnot.txt b/religious documents/zenisnot.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a41bab --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/zenisnot.txt @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU + +The document's ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the +coombspapers top level INDEX file. + +Date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 +-------------------------------------------------------- +HISTORICAL ROOTS OF ZEN +original filename: zenisnot.txt +-------------------------------------------------------- + +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his kind +permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, ie. paper +copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, +Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK. Tel (0222) 228858 email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be sent +to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded on in +person by myself - B.F. + +NOTE: +You may find and odd sentence or missing information every now and again in +the files. Hopefully not to frequently. This is because the files were +originally written on a machine using CP/M and had to be converted to dos +format. Many of the 5.25 disks were very old and had bad sectors - thus missing +info. +................................Beginning of file............................... + + +Much has already been written of Zen from within a Buddhist context, but Zen +itself is not the prerogative of any specific religious group, even though in +its modern form, a large proportion of its practitioners are drawn from +followers of the Buddha, Guatarma Siddhartha. Historically of course, Zen +probably owes its major debt to its Buddhist practitioners for their +systemization of its concepts, and even more than this, it must be remembered +that the founder, or first codefier of Zen, The Boddhidharma, was also the +twenty-eighth Buddhist patriarch in direct teaching descent from the Buddha +himself. + +However, in any serious discussion of Zen, we must also recall that something +relating to the development of Zen did occur during the four hundred years +prior to 526 CE, when the Boddhidharma arrived in the Shao-lin Temple in the +Hohan Province of Northern China, to codefy Zen practice during his prolonged +meditation, now know as 'the nine years before the wall'. What occurred during +the four hundred year period preceding the arrival of the Boddhidharma in China +was that following the establishment of Shao-lin as a major, and possibly the +first, Buddhist Temple in China in 100 CE, there was a considerable dialogue +between the Buddhist monks who inhabited the temple, and many of the people who +were indiginous to the area, and who called themselves Taoists; a fact which is +hardly surprising considering that the temple was previously a Taoist retreat. + +At this point, it will probably help to clarify a number of issues if we +understand that even by 100 CE there has developed two forms of Taoism, the +earliest Tao-chia, being philosophical Taoism based upon Yin Yang theory as +explained in the esoteric theory of 'changes' ('I Ching') and in the later work, +'the Way of Virtue' ('Tao Te Ching') by the philosopher Lao Tzu who lived +towards the end of the Period of the Warring States (c 600 BCE). The later +form of Taoism known as Tao-chiao, although based upon its philosophical +precedessor, was practiced as a religion rather than a philosophy, and made +considerable use of both shamanistic and mystical religious practices, +bordering on the occult, and by 100 CE the followers of religious Taoism far +outnumbered the philosophical Taoists. + +It is probable that by the beginning of the Christian era in the West, the +philosophical Taoists had lost their influence, and continued their work only +in remote regions, far from the large cities and seats of government. We know +with certainty that by this time religious Taoism held considerable influence +in what was, by now, the Chinese kingdom or empire. It was to the remote +provinces that the remaining followers of philosophical Taoism had travelled, +and so it probably was that it was in such areas as these that the dislohur +between Mahayana Buddhism and Taoist Philospphy began. It was the Buddhist +monks, practising the compassion for which many Buddhist sects are stil +reknowned, who gave succour to the 'exiled' Taoist philosphers, who in turn +shared their knowledge with their Buddhist benefactors. + +So it is that it is now believed that on his arrival at Shao-lin, the +Boddhidharma found something quite foreign to the Indian practice of Buddhism, +strange but not alien. It was to prove to be the Boddhidharma's undertaking to +codify the synergized practices he discovered, but even scant knowledge of the +life of the Buddha himself provides a clue as to why the philosophy of Taoism +would not have been completely foreign to the Boddhidharma, and would certainly +not have been unknown to the Buddha himself. + +It is well documented that the Prince, Guattama Siddhartha, spent many years as +a peripatetic seeker prior to his enlightenment, and many of his conversations +with 'wise men' are described in detail. Since trade had taken place between +China and India for many hundreds of years before the birth of the Buddha, +trade routes were of course well established, and it is more than likely that +young seeker would have used such routes, not only as a means of travel, but +also in order to meet with strangers to his own land. As it the case even +today, much can be learned about foreign ideas, philosophies and customs +through trading in artifacts, and many goods are decorated with the symbols +indiginous to their place of origin. With such a brilliant intellect as we +know Guttama Siddhartha possessed, it is indeed unlikely that he would not have +learned of 'Yin Yang' theory, upon which Taoist philosophy is based. Zen +Buddhist scholars themselves acknowledge many instances in which Buddhist ideas +are concommitant with those of Taoist philosophy, but there will probably +always be an element of disagreement regarding which school of thought borrowed +most from the other. + +All this is not to deny the Buddhist element in any form of Zen, but only to +illustrate that Zen is not wholly Buddhist, nor wholly Taoist. For many Zen +practitioners there is indeed no dichotomy, nor any need for distinction. But +it is only fair to all concerned to point out that to many non-Zen Buddhists +even Zen Buddhism is a heresy and to state that many Buddhists belonging to +non Zen sects, time and energy spent in Zen practice is considered to be of +little or no significance. For their own part, many Zen practitioners consider +their orthodox Buddhist bretheren to be 'brothers in spirit', but are +disapproving towards the hierarchical rigor with which their more orthodox +brothers consider the Buddhist deities, and with which the orthodox Buddhist +institutions are organized. + +I am fully aware that I have not described what Zen is, but have hopefully +illustrated that whatever it is, it is not orthodox, not essentially a religion, +and not specifically Indian. It is possibly necessary to provide one more +negation, and this is that contrary to much public opinion in the Europe and +the USA, Zen is most certainly not Japanese in origin. + +...................................End of file.................................. + + diff --git a/religious documents/zenvow.txt b/religious documents/zenvow.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82265b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/zenvow.txt @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ +This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous +FTP and COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU + +The document's ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the +coombspapers top level INDEX file. + +Date of the document's last update/modification 03/09/93 +=============================================================================== +This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his kind +permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, ie. paper +copies, are made. + +Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, +Dyfed, Wales, UK. Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays, +Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK. Tel (0222) 228858 email fear@thor.cf.ac.uk. +Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be sent +to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded on in +person by myself - B.F. + +...............................Beginning of file............................... + + +THE VOW OF THE 'TEN FOOTSTEPS' + +USED BY 'TRUE FOLLOWERS' + +OF CH'AN TAO CHIA + +I will have compassion +for all sentient beings; +and will not cause needless hurt +or unnecessary harm. + +Through my training, +I will seek enlightenment, +the distinction between right and wrong, +liberation from delusion +and the malevolent influences of +greed, jealousy and rage. + +I will seek +to transcend unnecessary dichotomy, +and learn to accept that differences +are often an attitude of mind. + +I accept +that of greater value +than the accumulation of goods, +are justice and creativity, +right motive and action, and essentiality, +love and peace, and the freedom to grow. + +I will act +with honour, +without contriving for self-advantage +or egotistical effort, +false pride or humility. +I will try to live my life +so as not to give cause +for later regrets. + +I will help +those who are suffering, +or disadvantaged, +and those who seek liberation +or enlightenment. + +......................................End of file.......................... + + diff --git a/religious documents/zombie.txt b/religious documents/zombie.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..70fcd35 --- /dev/null +++ b/religious documents/zombie.txt @@ -0,0 +1,82 @@ +** ZOMBIE.TXT ** + +ZOMBIE MAGICK -- AN OPINION + + I guess this is an article I've wanted to write +for some time. It seems to me that there is a lot of +occult misinformation being bantered about. And a lot +of people are not being very nice about it. What I +write here is from the standpoint of an insider within +the occult community. I've noticed some very questionable +practices. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much +that we can do to put a stop to them. + Some of the more vocal members of the Christian +community do speak out against the occult. Unfortunately, +those that do are speaking out against *all* the occult. +They are missing the point completely. I feel there is +absolutely nothing wrong with the occult or 'new age' +(so called) per se, but there is indeed a problem with +*some* of it. For those who use the Christian Bible +as a rationalization for their condemnation of anything +occult (or anything else which they don't understand +or don't agree with) I can only hope they will study +and think more deeply on the matter. I suggest that +even the Bible does not condemn occultism in general, +but that it is critical regarding certain *types of +practices* -- something many people have overlooked. +I guess the best way to explain what I mean is with +some examples. + Recently, Phil Donahue ran a television program +about 'Voodoo'. It managed to insult almost everyone, +and to malign legitimate voodoo, witchcraft, magick, +and Catholocism. It also contained a great amount +of misinformation. But the primary thing about it +which I take exeption to was the idea put forth by +a guest of the program who claimed to be a 'Voodoo +priestess', when she suggested that a love spell +was good magick. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. + For the type of love spell which she +demonstrated on the program was potentially very +bad. It was designed to force a lover who had left +to return. That means it was designed to exert an +overpowering influcence on the lover's will. Now, +while I think this is possilbe. I also think that +it is a very evil thing to do. To control someone +in an occult manner like that is Black Magick. +It is also very unethical, immoral, and selfish. +In addition to everything else, if the spell +works it probably won't last, and if it doesn't +it may 'recoil' against the practicioner. Black +magick is dangerous. It has always been dangerous. + So-called psychics advertise widely in +newspapers and magazines. Of course many (most?) +of them are simple frauds. Cheating the public +has always been a popular way to make a living. +Of course some psychics are gifted, but the ones +that are any good probably don't need to advertise +very much. What concerns me most however, are +the ads which suggest that the psychic will +cast a spell for you or against your enemies. +That part against your enemies is Black Magick +once again. And we are seeing a lot of it, all +in the name of 'New Age'. Fine new age this is, +where you can pay someone to harm your enemies... +All of it perfectly legal. + Suppose for a moment that you utilize +an occult love spell of some sort to cause a lover +who left you to return. If it works, what do you +have? Someone whose will has been manipulated. +Since the process is against the natural order of +things, the result will wear off. Meantime, what +you have is a Zombie. You are like a pupeteer +who holds all the strings. Freedom of action has +been violated. It isn't nice, and it isn't fun. +It is instead Zombie magick. + And so we have seen that there are certain +widespread occult practices which are very negative. +It isn't a conspiracy. And it doesn't seem to be +a network of evil groups. It is more insideous +than that, for it is in every city, maskeraiding +under the name of power-over-others. The law can't +touch it. Nobody's even trying to put a stop to it. + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/sample_code.py b/sample_code.py new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7cb83b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/sample_code.py @@ -0,0 +1,117 @@ +"""This module contains a code example related to + +Think Python, 2nd Edition +by Allen Downey +http://thinkpython2.com + +Copyright 2015 Allen Downey + +License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ +""" + +from __future__ import print_function, division + +import sys +import string +import random + +# global variables +suffix_map = {} # map from prefixes to a list of suffixes +prefix = () # current tuple of words + + +def process_file(filename, order=2): + """Reads a file and performs Markov analysis. + + filename: string + order: integer number of words in the prefix + + returns: map from prefix to list of possible suffixes. + """ + fp = open(filename) + #skip_gutenberg_header(fp) + + for line in fp: + for word in line.rstrip().split(): + process_word(word, order) + + +def skip_gutenberg_header(fp): + """Reads from fp until it finds the line that ends the header. + + fp: open file object + """ + for line in fp: + if line.startswith('*END*THE SMALL PRINT!'): + break + + +def process_word(word, order=2): + """Processes each word. + + word: string + order: integer + + During the first few iterations, all we do is store up the words; + after that we start adding entries to the dictionary. + """ + global prefix + if len(prefix) < order: + prefix += (word,) + return + + try: + suffix_map[prefix].append(word) + except KeyError: + # if there is no entry for this prefix, make one + suffix_map[prefix] = [word] + + prefix = shift(prefix, word) + + +def random_text(n): + """Generates random wordsfrom the analyzed text. + + Starts with a random prefix from the dictionary. + + n: number of words to generate + """ + # choose a random prefix (not weighted by frequency) + start = random.choice(list(suffix_map.keys())) + + for i in range(n): + suffixes = suffix_map.get(start, None) + if suffixes == None: + # if the start isn't in map, we got to the end of the + # original text, so we have to start again. + random_text(n-i) + return + + # choose a random suffix + word = random.choice(suffixes) + print(word, end=' ') + start = shift(start, word) + + +def shift(t, word): + """Forms a new tuple by removing the head and adding word to the tail. + + t: tuple of strings + word: string + + Returns: tuple of strings + """ + return t[1:] + (word,) + + +def main(script, filename='emma.txt', n=30, order=2): + + n = int(n) + order = int(order) + process_file(filename, order) + random_text(n) + print() + + +if __name__ == '__main__': + main(*sys.argv) diff --git a/shakespeare.txt b/shakespeare.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..11d7aeb --- /dev/null +++ b/shakespeare.txt @@ -0,0 +1,124788 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, by +William Shakespeare + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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FOR __ COMPLETE SHAKESPEARE **** +["Small Print" V.12.08.93] + +<> + + + + +1609 + +THE SONNETS + +by William Shakespeare + + + + 1 + From fairest creatures we desire increase, + That thereby beauty's rose might never die, + But as the riper should by time decease, + His tender heir might bear his memory: + But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes, + Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel, + Making a famine where abundance lies, + Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel: + Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament, + And only herald to the gaudy spring, + Within thine own bud buriest thy content, + And tender churl mak'st waste in niggarding: + Pity the world, or else this glutton be, + To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee. + + + 2 + When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, + And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, + Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now, + Will be a tattered weed of small worth held: + Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies, + Where all the treasure of thy lusty days; + To say within thine own deep sunken eyes, + Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise. + How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use, + If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine + Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse' + Proving his beauty by succession thine. + This were to be new made when thou art old, + And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold. + + + 3 + Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest, + Now is the time that face should form another, + Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest, + Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother. + For where is she so fair whose uneared womb + Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry? + Or who is he so fond will be the tomb, + Of his self-love to stop posterity? + Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee + Calls back the lovely April of her prime, + So thou through windows of thine age shalt see, + Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time. + But if thou live remembered not to be, + Die single and thine image dies with thee. + + + 4 + Unthrifty loveliness why dost thou spend, + Upon thy self thy beauty's legacy? + Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend, + And being frank she lends to those are free: + Then beauteous niggard why dost thou abuse, + The bounteous largess given thee to give? + Profitless usurer why dost thou use + So great a sum of sums yet canst not live? + For having traffic with thy self alone, + Thou of thy self thy sweet self dost deceive, + Then how when nature calls thee to be gone, + What acceptable audit canst thou leave? + Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee, + Which used lives th' executor to be. + + + 5 + Those hours that with gentle work did frame + The lovely gaze where every eye doth dwell + Will play the tyrants to the very same, + And that unfair which fairly doth excel: + For never-resting time leads summer on + To hideous winter and confounds him there, + Sap checked with frost and lusty leaves quite gone, + Beauty o'er-snowed and bareness every where: + Then were not summer's distillation left + A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass, + Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft, + Nor it nor no remembrance what it was. + But flowers distilled though they with winter meet, + Leese but their show, their substance still lives sweet. + + + 6 + Then let not winter's ragged hand deface, + In thee thy summer ere thou be distilled: + Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place, + With beauty's treasure ere it be self-killed: + That use is not forbidden usury, + Which happies those that pay the willing loan; + That's for thy self to breed another thee, + Or ten times happier be it ten for one, + Ten times thy self were happier than thou art, + If ten of thine ten times refigured thee: + Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart, + Leaving thee living in posterity? + Be not self-willed for thou art much too fair, + To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir. + + + 7 + Lo in the orient when the gracious light + Lifts up his burning head, each under eye + Doth homage to his new-appearing sight, + Serving with looks his sacred majesty, + And having climbed the steep-up heavenly hill, + Resembling strong youth in his middle age, + Yet mortal looks adore his beauty still, + Attending on his golden pilgrimage: + But when from highmost pitch with weary car, + Like feeble age he reeleth from the day, + The eyes (fore duteous) now converted are + From his low tract and look another way: + So thou, thy self out-going in thy noon: + Unlooked on diest unless thou get a son. + + + 8 + Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly? + Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy: + Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly, + Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy? + If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, + By unions married do offend thine ear, + They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds + In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear: + Mark how one string sweet husband to another, + Strikes each in each by mutual ordering; + Resembling sire, and child, and happy mother, + Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing: + Whose speechless song being many, seeming one, + Sings this to thee, 'Thou single wilt prove none'. + + + 9 + Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye, + That thou consum'st thy self in single life? + Ah, if thou issueless shalt hap to die, + The world will wail thee like a makeless wife, + The world will be thy widow and still weep, + That thou no form of thee hast left behind, + When every private widow well may keep, + By children's eyes, her husband's shape in mind: + Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend + Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it; + But beauty's waste hath in the world an end, + And kept unused the user so destroys it: + No love toward others in that bosom sits + That on himself such murd'rous shame commits. + + + 10 + For shame deny that thou bear'st love to any + Who for thy self art so unprovident. + Grant if thou wilt, thou art beloved of many, + But that thou none lov'st is most evident: + For thou art so possessed with murd'rous hate, + That 'gainst thy self thou stick'st not to conspire, + Seeking that beauteous roof to ruinate + Which to repair should be thy chief desire: + O change thy thought, that I may change my mind, + Shall hate be fairer lodged than gentle love? + Be as thy presence is gracious and kind, + Or to thy self at least kind-hearted prove, + Make thee another self for love of me, + That beauty still may live in thine or thee. + + + 11 + As fast as thou shalt wane so fast thou grow'st, + In one of thine, from that which thou departest, + And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow'st, + Thou mayst call thine, when thou from youth convertest, + Herein lives wisdom, beauty, and increase, + Without this folly, age, and cold decay, + If all were minded so, the times should cease, + And threescore year would make the world away: + Let those whom nature hath not made for store, + Harsh, featureless, and rude, barrenly perish: + Look whom she best endowed, she gave thee more; + Which bounteous gift thou shouldst in bounty cherish: + She carved thee for her seal, and meant thereby, + Thou shouldst print more, not let that copy die. + + + 12 + When I do count the clock that tells the time, + And see the brave day sunk in hideous night, + When I behold the violet past prime, + And sable curls all silvered o'er with white: + When lofty trees I see barren of leaves, + Which erst from heat did canopy the herd + And summer's green all girded up in sheaves + Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard: + Then of thy beauty do I question make + That thou among the wastes of time must go, + Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake, + And die as fast as they see others grow, + And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence + Save breed to brave him, when he takes thee hence. + + + 13 + O that you were your self, but love you are + No longer yours, than you your self here live, + Against this coming end you should prepare, + And your sweet semblance to some other give. + So should that beauty which you hold in lease + Find no determination, then you were + Your self again after your self's decease, + When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear. + Who lets so fair a house fall to decay, + Which husbandry in honour might uphold, + Against the stormy gusts of winter's day + And barren rage of death's eternal cold? + O none but unthrifts, dear my love you know, + You had a father, let your son say so. + + + 14 + Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck, + And yet methinks I have astronomy, + But not to tell of good, or evil luck, + Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality, + Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell; + Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind, + Or say with princes if it shall go well + By oft predict that I in heaven find. + But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive, + And constant stars in them I read such art + As truth and beauty shall together thrive + If from thy self, to store thou wouldst convert: + Or else of thee this I prognosticate, + Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date. + + + 15 + When I consider every thing that grows + Holds in perfection but a little moment. + That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows + Whereon the stars in secret influence comment. + When I perceive that men as plants increase, + Cheered and checked even by the self-same sky: + Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease, + And wear their brave state out of memory. + Then the conceit of this inconstant stay, + Sets you most rich in youth before my sight, + Where wasteful time debateth with decay + To change your day of youth to sullied night, + And all in war with Time for love of you, + As he takes from you, I engraft you new. + + + 16 + But wherefore do not you a mightier way + Make war upon this bloody tyrant Time? + And fortify your self in your decay + With means more blessed than my barren rhyme? + Now stand you on the top of happy hours, + And many maiden gardens yet unset, + With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers, + Much liker than your painted counterfeit: + So should the lines of life that life repair + Which this (Time's pencil) or my pupil pen + Neither in inward worth nor outward fair + Can make you live your self in eyes of men. + To give away your self, keeps your self still, + And you must live drawn by your own sweet skill. + + + 17 + Who will believe my verse in time to come + If it were filled with your most high deserts? + Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb + Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts: + If I could write the beauty of your eyes, + And in fresh numbers number all your graces, + The age to come would say this poet lies, + Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces. + So should my papers (yellowed with their age) + Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue, + And your true rights be termed a poet's rage, + And stretched metre of an antique song. + But were some child of yours alive that time, + You should live twice in it, and in my rhyme. + + + 18 + Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? + Thou art more lovely and more temperate: + Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, + And summer's lease hath all too short a date: + Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, + And often is his gold complexion dimmed, + And every fair from fair sometime declines, + By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed: + But thy eternal summer shall not fade, + Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, + Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, + When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, + So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, + So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. + + + 19 + Devouring Time blunt thou the lion's paws, + And make the earth devour her own sweet brood, + Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws, + And burn the long-lived phoenix, in her blood, + Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet'st, + And do whate'er thou wilt swift-footed Time + To the wide world and all her fading sweets: + But I forbid thee one most heinous crime, + O carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow, + Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen, + Him in thy course untainted do allow, + For beauty's pattern to succeeding men. + Yet do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong, + My love shall in my verse ever live young. + + + 20 + A woman's face with nature's own hand painted, + Hast thou the master mistress of my passion, + A woman's gentle heart but not acquainted + With shifting change as is false women's fashion, + An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling: + Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth, + A man in hue all hues in his controlling, + Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth. + And for a woman wert thou first created, + Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting, + And by addition me of thee defeated, + By adding one thing to my purpose nothing. + But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure, + Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure. + + + 21 + So is it not with me as with that muse, + Stirred by a painted beauty to his verse, + Who heaven it self for ornament doth use, + And every fair with his fair doth rehearse, + Making a couplement of proud compare + With sun and moon, with earth and sea's rich gems: + With April's first-born flowers and all things rare, + That heaven's air in this huge rondure hems. + O let me true in love but truly write, + And then believe me, my love is as fair, + As any mother's child, though not so bright + As those gold candles fixed in heaven's air: + Let them say more that like of hearsay well, + I will not praise that purpose not to sell. + + + 22 + My glass shall not persuade me I am old, + So long as youth and thou are of one date, + But when in thee time's furrows I behold, + Then look I death my days should expiate. + For all that beauty that doth cover thee, + Is but the seemly raiment of my heart, + Which in thy breast doth live, as thine in me, + How can I then be elder than thou art? + O therefore love be of thyself so wary, + As I not for my self, but for thee will, + Bearing thy heart which I will keep so chary + As tender nurse her babe from faring ill. + Presume not on thy heart when mine is slain, + Thou gav'st me thine not to give back again. + + + 23 + As an unperfect actor on the stage, + Who with his fear is put beside his part, + Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage, + Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart; + So I for fear of trust, forget to say, + The perfect ceremony of love's rite, + And in mine own love's strength seem to decay, + O'ercharged with burthen of mine own love's might: + O let my looks be then the eloquence, + And dumb presagers of my speaking breast, + Who plead for love, and look for recompense, + More than that tongue that more hath more expressed. + O learn to read what silent love hath writ, + To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit. + + + 24 + Mine eye hath played the painter and hath stelled, + Thy beauty's form in table of my heart, + My body is the frame wherein 'tis held, + And perspective it is best painter's art. + For through the painter must you see his skill, + To find where your true image pictured lies, + Which in my bosom's shop is hanging still, + That hath his windows glazed with thine eyes: + Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done, + Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me + Are windows to my breast, where-through the sun + Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee; + Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art, + They draw but what they see, know not the heart. + + + 25 + Let those who are in favour with their stars, + Of public honour and proud titles boast, + Whilst I whom fortune of such triumph bars + Unlooked for joy in that I honour most; + Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread, + But as the marigold at the sun's eye, + And in themselves their pride lies buried, + For at a frown they in their glory die. + The painful warrior famoused for fight, + After a thousand victories once foiled, + Is from the book of honour razed quite, + And all the rest forgot for which he toiled: + Then happy I that love and am beloved + Where I may not remove nor be removed. + + + 26 + Lord of my love, to whom in vassalage + Thy merit hath my duty strongly knit; + To thee I send this written embassage + To witness duty, not to show my wit. + Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine + May make seem bare, in wanting words to show it; + But that I hope some good conceit of thine + In thy soul's thought (all naked) will bestow it: + Till whatsoever star that guides my moving, + Points on me graciously with fair aspect, + And puts apparel on my tattered loving, + To show me worthy of thy sweet respect, + Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee, + Till then, not show my head where thou mayst prove me. + + + 27 + Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed, + The dear respose for limbs with travel tired, + But then begins a journey in my head + To work my mind, when body's work's expired. + For then my thoughts (from far where I abide) + Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee, + And keep my drooping eyelids open wide, + Looking on darkness which the blind do see. + Save that my soul's imaginary sight + Presents thy shadow to my sightless view, + Which like a jewel (hung in ghastly night) + Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new. + Lo thus by day my limbs, by night my mind, + For thee, and for my self, no quiet find. + + + 28 + How can I then return in happy plight + That am debarred the benefit of rest? + When day's oppression is not eased by night, + But day by night and night by day oppressed. + And each (though enemies to either's reign) + Do in consent shake hands to torture me, + The one by toil, the other to complain + How far I toil, still farther off from thee. + I tell the day to please him thou art bright, + And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven: + So flatter I the swart-complexioned night, + When sparkling stars twire not thou gild'st the even. + But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer, + And night doth nightly make grief's length seem stronger + + + 29 + When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes, + I all alone beweep my outcast state, + And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, + And look upon my self and curse my fate, + Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, + Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, + Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope, + With what I most enjoy contented least, + Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising, + Haply I think on thee, and then my state, + (Like to the lark at break of day arising + From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate, + For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, + That then I scorn to change my state with kings. + + + 30 + When to the sessions of sweet silent thought, + I summon up remembrance of things past, + I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, + And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste: + Then can I drown an eye (unused to flow) + For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, + And weep afresh love's long since cancelled woe, + And moan th' expense of many a vanished sight. + Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, + And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er + The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan, + Which I new pay as if not paid before. + But if the while I think on thee (dear friend) + All losses are restored, and sorrows end. + + + 31 + Thy bosom is endeared with all hearts, + Which I by lacking have supposed dead, + And there reigns love and all love's loving parts, + And all those friends which I thought buried. + How many a holy and obsequious tear + Hath dear religious love stol'n from mine eye, + As interest of the dead, which now appear, + But things removed that hidden in thee lie. + Thou art the grave where buried love doth live, + Hung with the trophies of my lovers gone, + Who all their parts of me to thee did give, + That due of many, now is thine alone. + Their images I loved, I view in thee, + And thou (all they) hast all the all of me. + + + 32 + If thou survive my well-contented day, + When that churl death my bones with dust shall cover + And shalt by fortune once more re-survey + These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover: + Compare them with the bett'ring of the time, + And though they be outstripped by every pen, + Reserve them for my love, not for their rhyme, + Exceeded by the height of happier men. + O then vouchsafe me but this loving thought, + 'Had my friend's Muse grown with this growing age, + A dearer birth than this his love had brought + To march in ranks of better equipage: + But since he died and poets better prove, + Theirs for their style I'll read, his for his love'. + + + 33 + Full many a glorious morning have I seen, + Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye, + Kissing with golden face the meadows green; + Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy: + Anon permit the basest clouds to ride, + With ugly rack on his celestial face, + And from the forlorn world his visage hide + Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace: + Even so my sun one early morn did shine, + With all triumphant splendour on my brow, + But out alack, he was but one hour mine, + The region cloud hath masked him from me now. + Yet him for this, my love no whit disdaineth, + Suns of the world may stain, when heaven's sun staineth. + + + 34 + Why didst thou promise such a beauteous day, + And make me travel forth without my cloak, + To let base clouds o'ertake me in my way, + Hiding thy brav'ry in their rotten smoke? + 'Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break, + To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face, + For no man well of such a salve can speak, + That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace: + Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief, + Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss, + Th' offender's sorrow lends but weak relief + To him that bears the strong offence's cross. + Ah but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds, + And they are rich, and ransom all ill deeds. + + + 35 + No more be grieved at that which thou hast done, + Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud, + Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun, + And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud. + All men make faults, and even I in this, + Authorizing thy trespass with compare, + My self corrupting salving thy amiss, + Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are: + For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense, + Thy adverse party is thy advocate, + And 'gainst my self a lawful plea commence: + Such civil war is in my love and hate, + That I an accessary needs must be, + To that sweet thief which sourly robs from me. + + + 36 + Let me confess that we two must be twain, + Although our undivided loves are one: + So shall those blots that do with me remain, + Without thy help, by me be borne alone. + In our two loves there is but one respect, + Though in our lives a separable spite, + Which though it alter not love's sole effect, + Yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight. + I may not evermore acknowledge thee, + Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame, + Nor thou with public kindness honour me, + Unless thou take that honour from thy name: + But do not so, I love thee in such sort, + As thou being mine, mine is thy good report. + + + 37 + As a decrepit father takes delight, + To see his active child do deeds of youth, + So I, made lame by Fortune's dearest spite + Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth. + For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit, + Or any of these all, or all, or more + Entitled in thy parts, do crowned sit, + I make my love engrafted to this store: + So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised, + Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give, + That I in thy abundance am sufficed, + And by a part of all thy glory live: + Look what is best, that best I wish in thee, + This wish I have, then ten times happy me. + + + 38 + How can my muse want subject to invent + While thou dost breathe that pour'st into my verse, + Thine own sweet argument, too excellent, + For every vulgar paper to rehearse? + O give thy self the thanks if aught in me, + Worthy perusal stand against thy sight, + For who's so dumb that cannot write to thee, + When thou thy self dost give invention light? + Be thou the tenth Muse, ten times more in worth + Than those old nine which rhymers invocate, + And he that calls on thee, let him bring forth + Eternal numbers to outlive long date. + If my slight muse do please these curious days, + The pain be mine, but thine shall be the praise. + + + 39 + O how thy worth with manners may I sing, + When thou art all the better part of me? + What can mine own praise to mine own self bring: + And what is't but mine own when I praise thee? + Even for this, let us divided live, + And our dear love lose name of single one, + That by this separation I may give: + That due to thee which thou deserv'st alone: + O absence what a torment wouldst thou prove, + Were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave, + To entertain the time with thoughts of love, + Which time and thoughts so sweetly doth deceive. + And that thou teachest how to make one twain, + By praising him here who doth hence remain. + + + 40 + Take all my loves, my love, yea take them all, + What hast thou then more than thou hadst before? + No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call, + All mine was thine, before thou hadst this more: + Then if for my love, thou my love receivest, + I cannot blame thee, for my love thou usest, + But yet be blamed, if thou thy self deceivest + By wilful taste of what thy self refusest. + I do forgive thy robbery gentle thief + Although thou steal thee all my poverty: + And yet love knows it is a greater grief + To bear greater wrong, than hate's known injury. + Lascivious grace, in whom all ill well shows, + Kill me with spites yet we must not be foes. + + + 41 + Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits, + When I am sometime absent from thy heart, + Thy beauty, and thy years full well befits, + For still temptation follows where thou art. + Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won, + Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed. + And when a woman woos, what woman's son, + Will sourly leave her till he have prevailed? + Ay me, but yet thou mightst my seat forbear, + And chide thy beauty, and thy straying youth, + Who lead thee in their riot even there + Where thou art forced to break a twofold truth: + Hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee, + Thine by thy beauty being false to me. + + + 42 + That thou hast her it is not all my grief, + And yet it may be said I loved her dearly, + That she hath thee is of my wailing chief, + A loss in love that touches me more nearly. + Loving offenders thus I will excuse ye, + Thou dost love her, because thou know'st I love her, + And for my sake even so doth she abuse me, + Suff'ring my friend for my sake to approve her. + If I lose thee, my loss is my love's gain, + And losing her, my friend hath found that loss, + Both find each other, and I lose both twain, + And both for my sake lay on me this cross, + But here's the joy, my friend and I are one, + Sweet flattery, then she loves but me alone. + + + 43 + When most I wink then do mine eyes best see, + For all the day they view things unrespected, + But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee, + And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed. + Then thou whose shadow shadows doth make bright + How would thy shadow's form, form happy show, + To the clear day with thy much clearer light, + When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so! + How would (I say) mine eyes be blessed made, + By looking on thee in the living day, + When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade, + Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay! + All days are nights to see till I see thee, + And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me. + + + 44 + If the dull substance of my flesh were thought, + Injurious distance should not stop my way, + For then despite of space I would be brought, + From limits far remote, where thou dost stay, + No matter then although my foot did stand + Upon the farthest earth removed from thee, + For nimble thought can jump both sea and land, + As soon as think the place where he would be. + But ah, thought kills me that I am not thought + To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone, + But that so much of earth and water wrought, + I must attend, time's leisure with my moan. + Receiving nought by elements so slow, + But heavy tears, badges of either's woe. + + + 45 + The other two, slight air, and purging fire, + Are both with thee, wherever I abide, + The first my thought, the other my desire, + These present-absent with swift motion slide. + For when these quicker elements are gone + In tender embassy of love to thee, + My life being made of four, with two alone, + Sinks down to death, oppressed with melancholy. + Until life's composition be recured, + By those swift messengers returned from thee, + Who even but now come back again assured, + Of thy fair health, recounting it to me. + This told, I joy, but then no longer glad, + I send them back again and straight grow sad. + + + 46 + Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war, + How to divide the conquest of thy sight, + Mine eye, my heart thy picture's sight would bar, + My heart, mine eye the freedom of that right, + My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie, + (A closet never pierced with crystal eyes) + But the defendant doth that plea deny, + And says in him thy fair appearance lies. + To side this title is impanelled + A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart, + And by their verdict is determined + The clear eye's moiety, and the dear heart's part. + As thus, mine eye's due is thy outward part, + And my heart's right, thy inward love of heart. + + + 47 + Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took, + And each doth good turns now unto the other, + When that mine eye is famished for a look, + Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother; + With my love's picture then my eye doth feast, + And to the painted banquet bids my heart: + Another time mine eye is my heart's guest, + And in his thoughts of love doth share a part. + So either by thy picture or my love, + Thy self away, art present still with me, + For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move, + And I am still with them, and they with thee. + Or if they sleep, thy picture in my sight + Awakes my heart, to heart's and eye's delight. + + + 48 + How careful was I when I took my way, + Each trifle under truest bars to thrust, + That to my use it might unused stay + From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust! + But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are, + Most worthy comfort, now my greatest grief, + Thou best of dearest, and mine only care, + Art left the prey of every vulgar thief. + Thee have I not locked up in any chest, + Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art, + Within the gentle closure of my breast, + From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part, + And even thence thou wilt be stol'n I fear, + For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear. + + + 49 + Against that time (if ever that time come) + When I shall see thee frown on my defects, + When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, + Called to that audit by advised respects, + Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass, + And scarcely greet me with that sun thine eye, + When love converted from the thing it was + Shall reasons find of settled gravity; + Against that time do I ensconce me here + Within the knowledge of mine own desert, + And this my hand, against my self uprear, + To guard the lawful reasons on thy part, + To leave poor me, thou hast the strength of laws, + Since why to love, I can allege no cause. + + + 50 + How heavy do I journey on the way, + When what I seek (my weary travel's end) + Doth teach that case and that repose to say + 'Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend.' + The beast that bears me, tired with my woe, + Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me, + As if by some instinct the wretch did know + His rider loved not speed being made from thee: + The bloody spur cannot provoke him on, + That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide, + Which heavily he answers with a groan, + More sharp to me than spurring to his side, + For that same groan doth put this in my mind, + My grief lies onward and my joy behind. + + + 51 + Thus can my love excuse the slow offence, + Of my dull bearer, when from thee I speed, + From where thou art, why should I haste me thence? + Till I return of posting is no need. + O what excuse will my poor beast then find, + When swift extremity can seem but slow? + Then should I spur though mounted on the wind, + In winged speed no motion shall I know, + Then can no horse with my desire keep pace, + Therefore desire (of perfect'st love being made) + Shall neigh (no dull flesh) in his fiery race, + But love, for love, thus shall excuse my jade, + Since from thee going, he went wilful-slow, + Towards thee I'll run, and give him leave to go. + + + 52 + So am I as the rich whose blessed key, + Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure, + The which he will not every hour survey, + For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure. + Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare, + Since seldom coming in that long year set, + Like stones of worth they thinly placed are, + Or captain jewels in the carcanet. + So is the time that keeps you as my chest + Or as the wardrobe which the robe doth hide, + To make some special instant special-blest, + By new unfolding his imprisoned pride. + Blessed are you whose worthiness gives scope, + Being had to triumph, being lacked to hope. + + + 53 + What is your substance, whereof are you made, + That millions of strange shadows on you tend? + Since every one, hath every one, one shade, + And you but one, can every shadow lend: + Describe Adonis and the counterfeit, + Is poorly imitated after you, + On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set, + And you in Grecian tires are painted new: + Speak of the spring, and foison of the year, + The one doth shadow of your beauty show, + The other as your bounty doth appear, + And you in every blessed shape we know. + In all external grace you have some part, + But you like none, none you for constant heart. + + + 54 + O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem, + By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! + The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem + For that sweet odour, which doth in it live: + The canker blooms have full as deep a dye, + As the perfumed tincture of the roses, + Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly, + When summer's breath their masked buds discloses: + But for their virtue only is their show, + They live unwooed, and unrespected fade, + Die to themselves. Sweet roses do not so, + Of their sweet deaths, are sweetest odours made: + And so of you, beauteous and lovely youth, + When that shall fade, my verse distills your truth. + + + 55 + Not marble, nor the gilded monuments + Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme, + But you shall shine more bright in these contents + Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time. + When wasteful war shall statues overturn, + And broils root out the work of masonry, + Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn: + The living record of your memory. + 'Gainst death, and all-oblivious enmity + Shall you pace forth, your praise shall still find room, + Even in the eyes of all posterity + That wear this world out to the ending doom. + So till the judgment that your self arise, + You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes. + + + 56 + Sweet love renew thy force, be it not said + Thy edge should blunter be than appetite, + Which but to-day by feeding is allayed, + To-morrow sharpened in his former might. + So love be thou, although to-day thou fill + Thy hungry eyes, even till they wink with fulness, + To-morrow see again, and do not kill + The spirit of love, with a perpetual dulness: + Let this sad interim like the ocean be + Which parts the shore, where two contracted new, + Come daily to the banks, that when they see: + Return of love, more blest may be the view. + Or call it winter, which being full of care, + Makes summer's welcome, thrice more wished, more rare. + + + 57 + Being your slave what should I do but tend, + Upon the hours, and times of your desire? + I have no precious time at all to spend; + Nor services to do till you require. + Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour, + Whilst I (my sovereign) watch the clock for you, + Nor think the bitterness of absence sour, + When you have bid your servant once adieu. + Nor dare I question with my jealous thought, + Where you may be, or your affairs suppose, + But like a sad slave stay and think of nought + Save where you are, how happy you make those. + So true a fool is love, that in your will, + (Though you do any thing) he thinks no ill. + + + 58 + That god forbid, that made me first your slave, + I should in thought control your times of pleasure, + Or at your hand th' account of hours to crave, + Being your vassal bound to stay your leisure. + O let me suffer (being at your beck) + Th' imprisoned absence of your liberty, + And patience tame to sufferance bide each check, + Without accusing you of injury. + Be where you list, your charter is so strong, + That you your self may privilage your time + To what you will, to you it doth belong, + Your self to pardon of self-doing crime. + I am to wait, though waiting so be hell, + Not blame your pleasure be it ill or well. + + + 59 + If there be nothing new, but that which is, + Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled, + Which labouring for invention bear amis + The second burthen of a former child! + O that record could with a backward look, + Even of five hundred courses of the sun, + Show me your image in some antique book, + Since mind at first in character was done. + That I might see what the old world could say, + To this composed wonder of your frame, + Whether we are mended, or whether better they, + Or whether revolution be the same. + O sure I am the wits of former days, + To subjects worse have given admiring praise. + + + 60 + Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, + So do our minutes hasten to their end, + Each changing place with that which goes before, + In sequent toil all forwards do contend. + Nativity once in the main of light, + Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crowned, + Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight, + And Time that gave, doth now his gift confound. + Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth, + And delves the parallels in beauty's brow, + Feeds on the rarities of nature's truth, + And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow. + And yet to times in hope, my verse shall stand + Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand. + + + 61 + Is it thy will, thy image should keep open + My heavy eyelids to the weary night? + Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken, + While shadows like to thee do mock my sight? + Is it thy spirit that thou send'st from thee + So far from home into my deeds to pry, + To find out shames and idle hours in me, + The scope and tenure of thy jealousy? + O no, thy love though much, is not so great, + It is my love that keeps mine eye awake, + Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat, + To play the watchman ever for thy sake. + For thee watch I, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere, + From me far off, with others all too near. + + + 62 + Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye, + And all my soul, and all my every part; + And for this sin there is no remedy, + It is so grounded inward in my heart. + Methinks no face so gracious is as mine, + No shape so true, no truth of such account, + And for my self mine own worth do define, + As I all other in all worths surmount. + But when my glass shows me my self indeed + beated and chopt with tanned antiquity, + Mine own self-love quite contrary I read: + Self, so self-loving were iniquity. + 'Tis thee (my self) that for my self I praise, + Painting my age with beauty of thy days. + + + 63 + Against my love shall be as I am now + With Time's injurious hand crushed and o'erworn, + When hours have drained his blood and filled his brow + With lines and wrinkles, when his youthful morn + Hath travelled on to age's steepy night, + And all those beauties whereof now he's king + Are vanishing, or vanished out of sight, + Stealing away the treasure of his spring: + For such a time do I now fortify + Against confounding age's cruel knife, + That he shall never cut from memory + My sweet love's beauty, though my lover's life. + His beauty shall in these black lines be seen, + And they shall live, and he in them still green. + + + 64 + When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced + The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age, + When sometime lofty towers I see down-rased, + And brass eternal slave to mortal rage. + When I have seen the hungry ocean gain + Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, + And the firm soil win of the watery main, + Increasing store with loss, and loss with store. + When I have seen such interchange of State, + Or state it self confounded, to decay, + Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate + That Time will come and take my love away. + This thought is as a death which cannot choose + But weep to have, that which it fears to lose. + + + 65 + Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, + But sad mortality o'ersways their power, + How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, + Whose action is no stronger than a flower? + O how shall summer's honey breath hold out, + Against the wrackful siege of batt'ring days, + When rocks impregnable are not so stout, + Nor gates of steel so strong but time decays? + O fearful meditation, where alack, + Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid? + Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back, + Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid? + O none, unless this miracle have might, + That in black ink my love may still shine bright. + + + 66 + Tired with all these for restful death I cry, + As to behold desert a beggar born, + And needy nothing trimmed in jollity, + And purest faith unhappily forsworn, + And gilded honour shamefully misplaced, + And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted, + And right perfection wrongfully disgraced, + And strength by limping sway disabled + And art made tongue-tied by authority, + And folly (doctor-like) controlling skill, + And simple truth miscalled simplicity, + And captive good attending captain ill. + Tired with all these, from these would I be gone, + Save that to die, I leave my love alone. + + + 67 + Ah wherefore with infection should he live, + And with his presence grace impiety, + That sin by him advantage should achieve, + And lace it self with his society? + Why should false painting imitate his cheek, + And steal dead seeming of his living hue? + Why should poor beauty indirectly seek, + Roses of shadow, since his rose is true? + Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is, + Beggared of blood to blush through lively veins, + For she hath no exchequer now but his, + And proud of many, lives upon his gains? + O him she stores, to show what wealth she had, + In days long since, before these last so bad. + + + 68 + Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn, + When beauty lived and died as flowers do now, + Before these bastard signs of fair were born, + Or durst inhabit on a living brow: + Before the golden tresses of the dead, + The right of sepulchres, were shorn away, + To live a second life on second head, + Ere beauty's dead fleece made another gay: + In him those holy antique hours are seen, + Without all ornament, it self and true, + Making no summer of another's green, + Robbing no old to dress his beauty new, + And him as for a map doth Nature store, + To show false Art what beauty was of yore. + + + 69 + Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view, + Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend: + All tongues (the voice of souls) give thee that due, + Uttering bare truth, even so as foes commend. + Thy outward thus with outward praise is crowned, + But those same tongues that give thee so thine own, + In other accents do this praise confound + By seeing farther than the eye hath shown. + They look into the beauty of thy mind, + And that in guess they measure by thy deeds, + Then churls their thoughts (although their eyes were kind) + To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds: + But why thy odour matcheth not thy show, + The soil is this, that thou dost common grow. + + + 70 + That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect, + For slander's mark was ever yet the fair, + The ornament of beauty is suspect, + A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air. + So thou be good, slander doth but approve, + Thy worth the greater being wooed of time, + For canker vice the sweetest buds doth love, + And thou present'st a pure unstained prime. + Thou hast passed by the ambush of young days, + Either not assailed, or victor being charged, + Yet this thy praise cannot be so thy praise, + To tie up envy, evermore enlarged, + If some suspect of ill masked not thy show, + Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst owe. + + + 71 + No longer mourn for me when I am dead, + Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell + Give warning to the world that I am fled + From this vile world with vilest worms to dwell: + Nay if you read this line, remember not, + The hand that writ it, for I love you so, + That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, + If thinking on me then should make you woe. + O if (I say) you look upon this verse, + When I (perhaps) compounded am with clay, + Do not so much as my poor name rehearse; + But let your love even with my life decay. + Lest the wise world should look into your moan, + And mock you with me after I am gone. + + + 72 + O lest the world should task you to recite, + What merit lived in me that you should love + After my death (dear love) forget me quite, + For you in me can nothing worthy prove. + Unless you would devise some virtuous lie, + To do more for me than mine own desert, + And hang more praise upon deceased I, + Than niggard truth would willingly impart: + O lest your true love may seem false in this, + That you for love speak well of me untrue, + My name be buried where my body is, + And live no more to shame nor me, nor you. + For I am shamed by that which I bring forth, + And so should you, to love things nothing worth. + + + 73 + That time of year thou mayst in me behold, + When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang + Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, + Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. + In me thou seest the twilight of such day, + As after sunset fadeth in the west, + Which by and by black night doth take away, + Death's second self that seals up all in rest. + In me thou seest the glowing of such fire, + That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, + As the death-bed, whereon it must expire, + Consumed with that which it was nourished by. + This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, + To love that well, which thou must leave ere long. + + + 74 + But be contented when that fell arrest, + Without all bail shall carry me away, + My life hath in this line some interest, + Which for memorial still with thee shall stay. + When thou reviewest this, thou dost review, + The very part was consecrate to thee, + The earth can have but earth, which is his due, + My spirit is thine the better part of me, + So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life, + The prey of worms, my body being dead, + The coward conquest of a wretch's knife, + Too base of thee to be remembered, + The worth of that, is that which it contains, + And that is this, and this with thee remains. + + + 75 + So are you to my thoughts as food to life, + Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground; + And for the peace of you I hold such strife + As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found. + Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon + Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure, + Now counting best to be with you alone, + Then bettered that the world may see my pleasure, + Sometime all full with feasting on your sight, + And by and by clean starved for a look, + Possessing or pursuing no delight + Save what is had, or must from you be took. + Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day, + Or gluttoning on all, or all away. + + + 76 + Why is my verse so barren of new pride? + So far from variation or quick change? + Why with the time do I not glance aside + To new-found methods, and to compounds strange? + Why write I still all one, ever the same, + And keep invention in a noted weed, + That every word doth almost tell my name, + Showing their birth, and where they did proceed? + O know sweet love I always write of you, + And you and love are still my argument: + So all my best is dressing old words new, + Spending again what is already spent: + For as the sun is daily new and old, + So is my love still telling what is told. + + + 77 + Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear, + Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste, + These vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear, + And of this book, this learning mayst thou taste. + The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show, + Of mouthed graves will give thee memory, + Thou by thy dial's shady stealth mayst know, + Time's thievish progress to eternity. + Look what thy memory cannot contain, + Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shalt find + Those children nursed, delivered from thy brain, + To take a new acquaintance of thy mind. + These offices, so oft as thou wilt look, + Shall profit thee, and much enrich thy book. + + + 78 + So oft have I invoked thee for my muse, + And found such fair assistance in my verse, + As every alien pen hath got my use, + And under thee their poesy disperse. + Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing, + And heavy ignorance aloft to fly, + Have added feathers to the learned's wing, + And given grace a double majesty. + Yet be most proud of that which I compile, + Whose influence is thine, and born of thee, + In others' works thou dost but mend the style, + And arts with thy sweet graces graced be. + But thou art all my art, and dost advance + As high as learning, my rude ignorance. + + + 79 + Whilst I alone did call upon thy aid, + My verse alone had all thy gentle grace, + But now my gracious numbers are decayed, + And my sick muse doth give an other place. + I grant (sweet love) thy lovely argument + Deserves the travail of a worthier pen, + Yet what of thee thy poet doth invent, + He robs thee of, and pays it thee again, + He lends thee virtue, and he stole that word, + From thy behaviour, beauty doth he give + And found it in thy cheek: he can afford + No praise to thee, but what in thee doth live. + Then thank him not for that which he doth say, + Since what he owes thee, thou thy self dost pay. + + + 80 + O how I faint when I of you do write, + Knowing a better spirit doth use your name, + And in the praise thereof spends all his might, + To make me tongue-tied speaking of your fame. + But since your worth (wide as the ocean is) + The humble as the proudest sail doth bear, + My saucy bark (inferior far to his) + On your broad main doth wilfully appear. + Your shallowest help will hold me up afloat, + Whilst he upon your soundless deep doth ride, + Or (being wrecked) I am a worthless boat, + He of tall building, and of goodly pride. + Then if he thrive and I be cast away, + The worst was this, my love was my decay. + + + 81 + Or I shall live your epitaph to make, + Or you survive when I in earth am rotten, + From hence your memory death cannot take, + Although in me each part will be forgotten. + Your name from hence immortal life shall have, + Though I (once gone) to all the world must die, + The earth can yield me but a common grave, + When you entombed in men's eyes shall lie, + Your monument shall be my gentle verse, + Which eyes not yet created shall o'er-read, + And tongues to be, your being shall rehearse, + When all the breathers of this world are dead, + You still shall live (such virtue hath my pen) + Where breath most breathes, even in the mouths of men. + + + 82 + I grant thou wert not married to my muse, + And therefore mayst without attaint o'erlook + The dedicated words which writers use + Of their fair subject, blessing every book. + Thou art as fair in knowledge as in hue, + Finding thy worth a limit past my praise, + And therefore art enforced to seek anew, + Some fresher stamp of the time-bettering days. + And do so love, yet when they have devised, + What strained touches rhetoric can lend, + Thou truly fair, wert truly sympathized, + In true plain words, by thy true-telling friend. + And their gross painting might be better used, + Where cheeks need blood, in thee it is abused. + + + 83 + I never saw that you did painting need, + And therefore to your fair no painting set, + I found (or thought I found) you did exceed, + That barren tender of a poet's debt: + And therefore have I slept in your report, + That you your self being extant well might show, + How far a modern quill doth come too short, + Speaking of worth, what worth in you doth grow. + This silence for my sin you did impute, + Which shall be most my glory being dumb, + For I impair not beauty being mute, + When others would give life, and bring a tomb. + There lives more life in one of your fair eyes, + Than both your poets can in praise devise. + + + 84 + Who is it that says most, which can say more, + Than this rich praise, that you alone, are you? + In whose confine immured is the store, + Which should example where your equal grew. + Lean penury within that pen doth dwell, + That to his subject lends not some small glory, + But he that writes of you, if he can tell, + That you are you, so dignifies his story. + Let him but copy what in you is writ, + Not making worse what nature made so clear, + And such a counterpart shall fame his wit, + Making his style admired every where. + You to your beauteous blessings add a curse, + Being fond on praise, which makes your praises worse. + + + 85 + My tongue-tied muse in manners holds her still, + While comments of your praise richly compiled, + Reserve their character with golden quill, + And precious phrase by all the Muses filed. + I think good thoughts, whilst other write good words, + And like unlettered clerk still cry Amen, + To every hymn that able spirit affords, + In polished form of well refined pen. + Hearing you praised, I say 'tis so, 'tis true, + And to the most of praise add something more, + But that is in my thought, whose love to you + (Though words come hindmost) holds his rank before, + Then others, for the breath of words respect, + Me for my dumb thoughts, speaking in effect. + + + 86 + Was it the proud full sail of his great verse, + Bound for the prize of (all too precious) you, + That did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse, + Making their tomb the womb wherein they grew? + Was it his spirit, by spirits taught to write, + Above a mortal pitch, that struck me dead? + No, neither he, nor his compeers by night + Giving him aid, my verse astonished. + He nor that affable familiar ghost + Which nightly gulls him with intelligence, + As victors of my silence cannot boast, + I was not sick of any fear from thence. + But when your countenance filled up his line, + Then lacked I matter, that enfeebled mine. + + + 87 + Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing, + And like enough thou know'st thy estimate, + The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing: + My bonds in thee are all determinate. + For how do I hold thee but by thy granting, + And for that riches where is my deserving? + The cause of this fair gift in me is wanting, + And so my patent back again is swerving. + Thy self thou gav'st, thy own worth then not knowing, + Or me to whom thou gav'st it, else mistaking, + So thy great gift upon misprision growing, + Comes home again, on better judgement making. + Thus have I had thee as a dream doth flatter, + In sleep a king, but waking no such matter. + + + 88 + When thou shalt be disposed to set me light, + And place my merit in the eye of scorn, + Upon thy side, against my self I'll fight, + And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn: + With mine own weakness being best acquainted, + Upon thy part I can set down a story + Of faults concealed, wherein I am attainted: + That thou in losing me, shalt win much glory: + And I by this will be a gainer too, + For bending all my loving thoughts on thee, + The injuries that to my self I do, + Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me. + Such is my love, to thee I so belong, + That for thy right, my self will bear all wrong. + + + 89 + Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault, + And I will comment upon that offence, + Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt: + Against thy reasons making no defence. + Thou canst not (love) disgrace me half so ill, + To set a form upon desired change, + As I'll my self disgrace, knowing thy will, + I will acquaintance strangle and look strange: + Be absent from thy walks and in my tongue, + Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell, + Lest I (too much profane) should do it wronk: + And haply of our old acquaintance tell. + For thee, against my self I'll vow debate, + For I must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate. + + + 90 + Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now, + Now while the world is bent my deeds to cross, + join with the spite of fortune, make me bow, + And do not drop in for an after-loss: + Ah do not, when my heart hath 'scaped this sorrow, + Come in the rearward of a conquered woe, + Give not a windy night a rainy morrow, + To linger out a purposed overthrow. + If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last, + When other petty griefs have done their spite, + But in the onset come, so shall I taste + At first the very worst of fortune's might. + And other strains of woe, which now seem woe, + Compared with loss of thee, will not seem so. + + + 91 + Some glory in their birth, some in their skill, + Some in their wealth, some in their body's force, + Some in their garments though new-fangled ill: + Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse. + And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure, + Wherein it finds a joy above the rest, + But these particulars are not my measure, + All these I better in one general best. + Thy love is better than high birth to me, + Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' costs, + Of more delight than hawks and horses be: + And having thee, of all men's pride I boast. + Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take, + All this away, and me most wretchcd make. + + + 92 + But do thy worst to steal thy self away, + For term of life thou art assured mine, + And life no longer than thy love will stay, + For it depends upon that love of thine. + Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs, + When in the least of them my life hath end, + I see, a better state to me belongs + Than that, which on thy humour doth depend. + Thou canst not vex me with inconstant mind, + Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie, + O what a happy title do I find, + Happy to have thy love, happy to die! + But what's so blessed-fair that fears no blot? + Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not. + + + 93 + So shall I live, supposing thou art true, + Like a deceived husband, so love's face, + May still seem love to me, though altered new: + Thy looks with me, thy heart in other place. + For there can live no hatred in thine eye, + Therefore in that I cannot know thy change, + In many's looks, the false heart's history + Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange. + But heaven in thy creation did decree, + That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell, + Whate'er thy thoughts, or thy heart's workings be, + Thy looks should nothing thence, but sweetness tell. + How like Eve's apple doth thy beauty grow, + If thy sweet virtue answer not thy show. + + + 94 + They that have power to hurt, and will do none, + That do not do the thing, they most do show, + Who moving others, are themselves as stone, + Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow: + They rightly do inherit heaven's graces, + And husband nature's riches from expense, + Tibey are the lords and owners of their faces, + Others, but stewards of their excellence: + The summer's flower is to the summer sweet, + Though to it self, it only live and die, + But if that flower with base infection meet, + The basest weed outbraves his dignity: + For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds, + Lilies that fester, smell far worse than weeds. + + + 95 + How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame, + Which like a canker in the fragrant rose, + Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name! + O in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose! + That tongue that tells the story of thy days, + (Making lascivious comments on thy sport) + Cannot dispraise, but in a kind of praise, + Naming thy name, blesses an ill report. + O what a mansion have those vices got, + Which for their habitation chose out thee, + Where beauty's veil doth cover every blot, + And all things turns to fair, that eyes can see! + Take heed (dear heart) of this large privilege, + The hardest knife ill-used doth lose his edge. + + + 96 + Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness, + Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport, + Both grace and faults are loved of more and less: + Thou mak'st faults graces, that to thee resort: + As on the finger of a throned queen, + The basest jewel will be well esteemed: + So are those errors that in thee are seen, + To truths translated, and for true things deemed. + How many lambs might the stern wolf betray, + If like a lamb he could his looks translate! + How many gazers mightst thou lead away, + if thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state! + But do not so, I love thee in such sort, + As thou being mine, mine is thy good report. + + + 97 + How like a winter hath my absence been + From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! + What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! + What old December's bareness everywhere! + And yet this time removed was summer's time, + The teeming autumn big with rich increase, + Bearing the wanton burden of the prime, + Like widowed wombs after their lords' decease: + Yet this abundant issue seemed to me + But hope of orphans, and unfathered fruit, + For summer and his pleasures wait on thee, + And thou away, the very birds are mute. + Or if they sing, 'tis with so dull a cheer, + That leaves look pale, dreading the winter's near. + + + 98 + From you have I been absent in the spring, + When proud-pied April (dressed in all his trim) + Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing: + That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him. + Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell + Of different flowers in odour and in hue, + Could make me any summer's story tell: + Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew: + Nor did I wonder at the lily's white, + Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose, + They were but sweet, but figures of delight: + Drawn after you, you pattern of all those. + Yet seemed it winter still, and you away, + As with your shadow I with these did play. + + + 99 + The forward violet thus did I chide, + Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells, + If not from my love's breath? The purple pride + Which on thy soft check for complexion dwells, + In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dyed. + The lily I condemned for thy hand, + And buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair, + The roses fearfully on thorns did stand, + One blushing shame, another white despair: + A third nor red, nor white, had stol'n of both, + And to his robbery had annexed thy breath, + But for his theft in pride of all his growth + A vengeful canker eat him up to death. + More flowers I noted, yet I none could see, + But sweet, or colour it had stol'n from thee. + + + 100 + Where art thou Muse that thou forget'st so long, + To speak of that which gives thee all thy might? + Spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song, + Darkening thy power to lend base subjects light? + Return forgetful Muse, and straight redeem, + In gentle numbers time so idly spent, + Sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem, + And gives thy pen both skill and argument. + Rise resty Muse, my love's sweet face survey, + If time have any wrinkle graven there, + If any, be a satire to decay, + And make time's spoils despised everywhere. + Give my love fame faster than Time wastes life, + So thou prevent'st his scythe, and crooked knife. + + + 101 + O truant Muse what shall be thy amends, + For thy neglect of truth in beauty dyed? + Both truth and beauty on my love depends: + So dost thou too, and therein dignified: + Make answer Muse, wilt thou not haply say, + 'Truth needs no colour with his colour fixed, + Beauty no pencil, beauty's truth to lay: + But best is best, if never intermixed'? + Because he needs no praise, wilt thou be dumb? + Excuse not silence so, for't lies in thee, + To make him much outlive a gilded tomb: + And to be praised of ages yet to be. + Then do thy office Muse, I teach thee how, + To make him seem long hence, as he shows now. + + + 102 + My love is strengthened though more weak in seeming, + I love not less, though less the show appear, + That love is merchandized, whose rich esteeming, + The owner's tongue doth publish every where. + Our love was new, and then but in the spring, + When I was wont to greet it with my lays, + As Philomel in summer's front doth sing, + And stops her pipe in growth of riper days: + Not that the summer is less pleasant now + Than when her mournful hymns did hush the night, + But that wild music burthens every bough, + And sweets grown common lose their dear delight. + Therefore like her, I sometime hold my tongue: + Because I would not dull you with my song. + + + 103 + Alack what poverty my muse brings forth, + That having such a scope to show her pride, + The argument all bare is of more worth + Than when it hath my added praise beside. + O blame me not if I no more can write! + Look in your glass and there appears a face, + That over-goes my blunt invention quite, + Dulling my lines, and doing me disgrace. + Were it not sinful then striving to mend, + To mar the subject that before was well? + For to no other pass my verses tend, + Than of your graces and your gifts to tell. + And more, much more than in my verse can sit, + Your own glass shows you, when you look in it. + + + 104 + To me fair friend you never can be old, + For as you were when first your eye I eyed, + Such seems your beauty still: three winters cold, + Have from the forests shook three summers' pride, + Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned, + In process of the seasons have I seen, + Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned, + Since first I saw you fresh which yet are green. + Ah yet doth beauty like a dial hand, + Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived, + So your sweet hue, which methinks still doth stand + Hath motion, and mine eye may be deceived. + For fear of which, hear this thou age unbred, + Ere you were born was beauty's summer dead. + + + 105 + Let not my love be called idolatry, + Nor my beloved as an idol show, + Since all alike my songs and praises be + To one, of one, still such, and ever so. + Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind, + Still constant in a wondrous excellence, + Therefore my verse to constancy confined, + One thing expressing, leaves out difference. + Fair, kind, and true, is all my argument, + Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words, + And in this change is my invention spent, + Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords. + Fair, kind, and true, have often lived alone. + Which three till now, never kept seat in one. + + + 106 + When in the chronicle of wasted time, + I see descriptions of the fairest wights, + And beauty making beautiful old rhyme, + In praise of ladies dead, and lovely knights, + Then in the blazon of sweet beauty's best, + Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow, + I see their antique pen would have expressed, + Even such a beauty as you master now. + So all their praises are but prophecies + Of this our time, all you prefiguring, + And for they looked but with divining eyes, + They had not skill enough your worth to sing: + For we which now behold these present days, + Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise. + + + 107 + Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul, + Of the wide world, dreaming on things to come, + Can yet the lease of my true love control, + Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom. + The mortal moon hath her eclipse endured, + And the sad augurs mock their own presage, + Incertainties now crown themselves assured, + And peace proclaims olives of endless age. + Now with the drops of this most balmy time, + My love looks fresh, and death to me subscribes, + Since spite of him I'll live in this poor rhyme, + While he insults o'er dull and speechless tribes. + And thou in this shalt find thy monument, + When tyrants' crests and tombs of brass are spent. + + + 108 + What's in the brain that ink may character, + Which hath not figured to thee my true spirit, + What's new to speak, what now to register, + That may express my love, or thy dear merit? + Nothing sweet boy, but yet like prayers divine, + I must each day say o'er the very same, + Counting no old thing old, thou mine, I thine, + Even as when first I hallowed thy fair name. + So that eternal love in love's fresh case, + Weighs not the dust and injury of age, + Nor gives to necessary wrinkles place, + But makes antiquity for aye his page, + Finding the first conceit of love there bred, + Where time and outward form would show it dead. + + + 109 + O never say that I was false of heart, + Though absence seemed my flame to qualify, + As easy might I from my self depart, + As from my soul which in thy breast doth lie: + That is my home of love, if I have ranged, + Like him that travels I return again, + Just to the time, not with the time exchanged, + So that my self bring water for my stain, + Never believe though in my nature reigned, + All frailties that besiege all kinds of blood, + That it could so preposterously be stained, + To leave for nothing all thy sum of good: + For nothing this wide universe I call, + Save thou my rose, in it thou art my all. + + + 110 + Alas 'tis true, I have gone here and there, + And made my self a motley to the view, + Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear, + Made old offences of affections new. + Most true it is, that I have looked on truth + Askance and strangely: but by all above, + These blenches gave my heart another youth, + And worse essays proved thee my best of love. + Now all is done, have what shall have no end, + Mine appetite I never more will grind + On newer proof, to try an older friend, + A god in love, to whom I am confined. + Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best, + Even to thy pure and most most loving breast. + + + 111 + O for my sake do you with Fortune chide, + The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, + That did not better for my life provide, + Than public means which public manners breeds. + Thence comes it that my name receives a brand, + And almost thence my nature is subdued + To what it works in, like the dyer's hand: + Pity me then, and wish I were renewed, + Whilst like a willing patient I will drink, + Potions of eisel 'gainst my strong infection, + No bitterness that I will bitter think, + Nor double penance to correct correction. + Pity me then dear friend, and I assure ye, + Even that your pity is enough to cure me. + + + 112 + Your love and pity doth th' impression fill, + Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow, + For what care I who calls me well or ill, + So you o'er-green my bad, my good allow? + You are my all the world, and I must strive, + To know my shames and praises from your tongue, + None else to me, nor I to none alive, + That my steeled sense or changes right or wrong. + In so profound abysm I throw all care + Of others' voices, that my adder's sense, + To critic and to flatterer stopped are: + Mark how with my neglect I do dispense. + You are so strongly in my purpose bred, + That all the world besides methinks are dead. + + + 113 + Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind, + And that which governs me to go about, + Doth part his function, and is partly blind, + Seems seeing, but effectually is out: + For it no form delivers to the heart + Of bird, of flower, or shape which it doth latch, + Of his quick objects hath the mind no part, + Nor his own vision holds what it doth catch: + For if it see the rud'st or gentlest sight, + The most sweet favour or deformed'st creature, + The mountain, or the sea, the day, or night: + The crow, or dove, it shapes them to your feature. + Incapable of more, replete with you, + My most true mind thus maketh mine untrue. + + + 114 + Or whether doth my mind being crowned with you + Drink up the monarch's plague this flattery? + Or whether shall I say mine eye saith true, + And that your love taught it this alchemy? + To make of monsters, and things indigest, + Such cherubins as your sweet self resemble, + Creating every bad a perfect best + As fast as objects to his beams assemble: + O 'tis the first, 'tis flattery in my seeing, + And my great mind most kingly drinks it up, + Mine eye well knows what with his gust is 'greeing, + And to his palate doth prepare the cup. + If it be poisoned, 'tis the lesser sin, + That mine eye loves it and doth first begin. + + + 115 + Those lines that I before have writ do lie, + Even those that said I could not love you dearer, + Yet then my judgment knew no reason why, + My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer, + But reckoning time, whose millioned accidents + Creep in 'twixt vows, and change decrees of kings, + Tan sacred beauty, blunt the sharp'st intents, + Divert strong minds to the course of alt'ring things: + Alas why fearing of time's tyranny, + Might I not then say 'Now I love you best,' + When I was certain o'er incertainty, + Crowning the present, doubting of the rest? + Love is a babe, then might I not say so + To give full growth to that which still doth grow. + + + 116 + Let me not to the marriage of true minds + Admit impediments, love is not love + Which alters when it alteration finds, + Or bends with the remover to remove. + O no, it is an ever-fixed mark + That looks on tempests and is never shaken; + It is the star to every wand'ring bark, + Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. + Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks + Within his bending sickle's compass come, + Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, + But bears it out even to the edge of doom: + If this be error and upon me proved, + I never writ, nor no man ever loved. + + + 117 + Accuse me thus, that I have scanted all, + Wherein I should your great deserts repay, + Forgot upon your dearest love to call, + Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day, + That I have frequent been with unknown minds, + And given to time your own dear-purchased right, + That I have hoisted sail to all the winds + Which should transport me farthest from your sight. + Book both my wilfulness and errors down, + And on just proof surmise, accumulate, + Bring me within the level of your frown, + But shoot not at me in your wakened hate: + Since my appeal says I did strive to prove + The constancy and virtue of your love. + + + 118 + Like as to make our appetite more keen + With eager compounds we our palate urge, + As to prevent our maladies unseen, + We sicken to shun sickness when we purge. + Even so being full of your ne'er-cloying sweetness, + To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding; + And sick of welfare found a kind of meetness, + To be diseased ere that there was true needing. + Thus policy in love t' anticipate + The ills that were not, grew to faults assured, + And brought to medicine a healthful state + Which rank of goodness would by ill be cured. + But thence I learn and find the lesson true, + Drugs poison him that so feil sick of you. + + + 119 + What potions have I drunk of Siren tears + Distilled from limbecks foul as hell within, + Applying fears to hopes, and hopes to fears, + Still losing when I saw my self to win! + What wretched errors hath my heart committed, + Whilst it hath thought it self so blessed never! + How have mine eyes out of their spheres been fitted + In the distraction of this madding fever! + O benefit of ill, now I find true + That better is, by evil still made better. + And ruined love when it is built anew + Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater. + So I return rebuked to my content, + And gain by ills thrice more than I have spent. + + + 120 + That you were once unkind befriends me now, + And for that sorrow, which I then did feel, + Needs must I under my transgression bow, + Unless my nerves were brass or hammered steel. + For if you were by my unkindness shaken + As I by yours, y'have passed a hell of time, + And I a tyrant have no leisure taken + To weigh how once I suffered in your crime. + O that our night of woe might have remembered + My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits, + And soon to you, as you to me then tendered + The humble salve, which wounded bosoms fits! + But that your trespass now becomes a fee, + Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me. + + + 121 + 'Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed, + When not to be, receives reproach of being, + And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed, + Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing. + For why should others' false adulterate eyes + Give salutation to my sportive blood? + Or on my frailties why are frailer spies, + Which in their wills count bad what I think good? + No, I am that I am, and they that level + At my abuses, reckon up their own, + I may be straight though they themselves be bevel; + By their rank thoughts, my deeds must not be shown + Unless this general evil they maintain, + All men are bad and in their badness reign. + + + 122 + Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain + Full charactered with lasting memory, + Which shall above that idle rank remain + Beyond all date even to eternity. + Or at the least, so long as brain and heart + Have faculty by nature to subsist, + Till each to razed oblivion yield his part + Of thee, thy record never can be missed: + That poor retention could not so much hold, + Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score, + Therefore to give them from me was I bold, + To trust those tables that receive thee more: + To keep an adjunct to remember thee + Were to import forgetfulness in me. + + + 123 + No! Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change, + Thy pyramids built up with newer might + To me are nothing novel, nothing strange, + They are but dressings Of a former sight: + Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire, + What thou dost foist upon us that is old, + And rather make them born to our desire, + Than think that we before have heard them told: + Thy registers and thee I both defy, + Not wond'ring at the present, nor the past, + For thy records, and what we see doth lie, + Made more or less by thy continual haste: + This I do vow and this shall ever be, + I will be true despite thy scythe and thee. + + + 124 + If my dear love were but the child of state, + It might for Fortune's bastard be unfathered, + As subject to time's love or to time's hate, + Weeds among weeds, or flowers with flowers gathered. + No it was builded far from accident, + It suffers not in smiling pomp, nor falls + Under the blow of thralled discontent, + Whereto th' inviting time our fashion calls: + It fears not policy that heretic, + Which works on leases of short-numbered hours, + But all alone stands hugely politic, + That it nor grows with heat, nor drowns with showers. + To this I witness call the fools of time, + Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime. + + + 125 + Were't aught to me I bore the canopy, + With my extern the outward honouring, + Or laid great bases for eternity, + Which proves more short than waste or ruining? + Have I not seen dwellers on form and favour + Lose all, and more by paying too much rent + For compound sweet; forgoing simple savour, + Pitiful thrivers in their gazing spent? + No, let me be obsequious in thy heart, + And take thou my oblation, poor but free, + Which is not mixed with seconds, knows no art, + But mutual render, only me for thee. + Hence, thou suborned informer, a true soul + When most impeached, stands least in thy control. + + + 126 + O thou my lovely boy who in thy power, + Dost hold Time's fickle glass his fickle hour: + Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st, + Thy lovers withering, as thy sweet self grow'st. + If Nature (sovereign mistress over wrack) + As thou goest onwards still will pluck thee back, + She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill + May time disgrace, and wretched minutes kill. + Yet fear her O thou minion of her pleasure, + She may detain, but not still keep her treasure! + Her audit (though delayed) answered must be, + And her quietus is to render thee. + + + 127 + In the old age black was not counted fair, + Or if it were it bore not beauty's name: + But now is black beauty's successive heir, + And beauty slandered with a bastard shame, + For since each hand hath put on nature's power, + Fairing the foul with art's false borrowed face, + Sweet beauty hath no name no holy bower, + But is profaned, if not lives in disgrace. + Therefore my mistress' eyes are raven black, + Her eyes so suited, and they mourners seem, + At such who not born fair no beauty lack, + Slandering creation with a false esteem, + Yet so they mourn becoming of their woe, + That every tongue says beauty should look so. + + + 128 + How oft when thou, my music, music play'st, + Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds + With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway'st + The wiry concord that mine ear confounds, + Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap, + To kiss the tender inward of thy hand, + Whilst my poor lips which should that harvest reap, + At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand. + To be so tickled they would change their state + And situation with those dancing chips, + O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait, + Making dead wood more blest than living lips, + Since saucy jacks so happy are in this, + Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss. + + + 129 + Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame + Is lust in action, and till action, lust + Is perjured, murd'rous, bloody full of blame, + Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust, + Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight, + Past reason hunted, and no sooner had + Past reason hated as a swallowed bait, + On purpose laid to make the taker mad. + Mad in pursuit and in possession so, + Had, having, and in quest, to have extreme, + A bliss in proof and proved, a very woe, + Before a joy proposed behind a dream. + All this the world well knows yet none knows well, + To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. + + + 130 + My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun, + Coral is far more red, than her lips red, + If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun: + If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head: + I have seen roses damasked, red and white, + But no such roses see I in her cheeks, + And in some perfumes is there more delight, + Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. + I love to hear her speak, yet well I know, + That music hath a far more pleasing sound: + I grant I never saw a goddess go, + My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. + And yet by heaven I think my love as rare, + As any she belied with false compare. + + + 131 + Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art, + As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel; + For well thou know'st to my dear doting heart + Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel. + Yet in good faith some say that thee behold, + Thy face hath not the power to make love groan; + To say they err, I dare not be so bold, + Although I swear it to my self alone. + And to be sure that is not false I swear, + A thousand groans but thinking on thy face, + One on another's neck do witness bear + Thy black is fairest in my judgment's place. + In nothing art thou black save in thy deeds, + And thence this slander as I think proceeds. + + + 132 + Thine eyes I love, and they as pitying me, + Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain, + Have put on black, and loving mourners be, + Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain. + And truly not the morning sun of heaven + Better becomes the grey cheeks of the east, + Nor that full star that ushers in the even + Doth half that glory to the sober west + As those two mourning eyes become thy face: + O let it then as well beseem thy heart + To mourn for me since mourning doth thee grace, + And suit thy pity like in every part. + Then will I swear beauty herself is black, + And all they foul that thy complexion lack. + + + 133 + Beshrew that heart that makes my heart to groan + For that deep wound it gives my friend and me; + Is't not enough to torture me alone, + But slave to slavery my sweet'st friend must be? + Me from my self thy cruel eye hath taken, + And my next self thou harder hast engrossed, + Of him, my self, and thee I am forsaken, + A torment thrice three-fold thus to be crossed: + Prison my heart in thy steel bosom's ward, + But then my friend's heart let my poor heart bail, + Whoe'er keeps me, let my heart be his guard, + Thou canst not then use rigour in my gaol. + And yet thou wilt, for I being pent in thee, + Perforce am thine and all that is in me. + + + 134 + So now I have confessed that he is thine, + And I my self am mortgaged to thy will, + My self I'll forfeit, so that other mine, + Thou wilt restore to be my comfort still: + But thou wilt not, nor he will not be free, + For thou art covetous, and he is kind, + He learned but surety-like to write for me, + Under that bond that him as fist doth bind. + The statute of thy beauty thou wilt take, + Thou usurer that put'st forth all to use, + And sue a friend, came debtor for my sake, + So him I lose through my unkind abuse. + Him have I lost, thou hast both him and me, + He pays the whole, and yet am I not free. + + + 135 + Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will, + And 'Will' to boot, and 'Will' in over-plus, + More than enough am I that vex thee still, + To thy sweet will making addition thus. + Wilt thou whose will is large and spacious, + Not once vouchsafe to hide my will in thine? + Shall will in others seem right gracious, + And in my will no fair acceptance shine? + The sea all water, yet receives rain still, + And in abundance addeth to his store, + So thou being rich in will add to thy will + One will of mine to make thy large will more. + Let no unkind, no fair beseechers kill, + Think all but one, and me in that one 'Will.' + + + 136 + If thy soul check thee that I come so near, + Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy 'Will', + And will thy soul knows is admitted there, + Thus far for love, my love-suit sweet fulfil. + 'Will', will fulfil the treasure of thy love, + Ay, fill it full with wills, and my will one, + In things of great receipt with case we prove, + Among a number one is reckoned none. + Then in the number let me pass untold, + Though in thy store's account I one must be, + For nothing hold me, so it please thee hold, + That nothing me, a something sweet to thee. + Make but my name thy love, and love that still, + And then thou lov'st me for my name is Will. + + + 137 + Thou blind fool Love, what dost thou to mine eyes, + That they behold and see not what they see? + They know what beauty is, see where it lies, + Yet what the best is, take the worst to be. + If eyes corrupt by over-partial looks, + Be anchored in the bay where all men ride, + Why of eyes' falsehood hast thou forged hooks, + Whereto the judgment of my heart is tied? + Why should my heart think that a several plot, + Which my heart knows the wide world's common place? + Or mine eyes seeing this, say this is not + To put fair truth upon so foul a face? + In things right true my heart and eyes have erred, + And to this false plague are they now transferred. + + + 138 + When my love swears that she is made of truth, + I do believe her though I know she lies, + That she might think me some untutored youth, + Unlearned in the world's false subtleties. + Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, + Although she knows my days are past the best, + Simply I credit her false-speaking tongue, + On both sides thus is simple truth suppressed: + But wherefore says she not she is unjust? + And wherefore say not I that I am old? + O love's best habit is in seeming trust, + And age in love, loves not to have years told. + Therefore I lie with her, and she with me, + And in our faults by lies we flattered be. + + + 139 + O call not me to justify the wrong, + That thy unkindness lays upon my heart, + Wound me not with thine eye but with thy tongue, + Use power with power, and slay me not by art, + Tell me thou lov'st elsewhere; but in my sight, + Dear heart forbear to glance thine eye aside, + What need'st thou wound with cunning when thy might + Is more than my o'erpressed defence can bide? + Let me excuse thee, ah my love well knows, + Her pretty looks have been mine enemies, + And therefore from my face she turns my foes, + That they elsewhere might dart their injuries: + Yet do not so, but since I am near slain, + Kill me outright with looks, and rid my pain. + + + 140 + Be wise as thou art cruel, do not press + My tongue-tied patience with too much disdain: + Lest sorrow lend me words and words express, + The manner of my pity-wanting pain. + If I might teach thee wit better it were, + Though not to love, yet love to tell me so, + As testy sick men when their deaths be near, + No news but health from their physicians know. + For if I should despair I should grow mad, + And in my madness might speak ill of thee, + Now this ill-wresting world is grown so bad, + Mad slanderers by mad ears believed be. + That I may not be so, nor thou belied, + Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide. + + + 141 + In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes, + For they in thee a thousand errors note, + But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise, + Who in despite of view is pleased to dote. + Nor are mine cars with thy tongue's tune delighted, + Nor tender feeling to base touches prone, + Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited + To any sensual feast with thee alone: + But my five wits, nor my five senses can + Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee, + Who leaves unswayed the likeness of a man, + Thy proud heart's slave and vassal wretch to be: + Only my plague thus far I count my gain, + That she that makes me sin, awards me pain. + + + 142 + Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate, + Hate of my sin, grounded on sinful loving, + O but with mine, compare thou thine own state, + And thou shalt find it merits not reproving, + Or if it do, not from those lips of thine, + That have profaned their scarlet ornaments, + And sealed false bonds of love as oft as mine, + Robbed others' beds' revenues of their rents. + Be it lawful I love thee as thou lov'st those, + Whom thine eyes woo as mine importune thee, + Root pity in thy heart that when it grows, + Thy pity may deserve to pitied be. + If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide, + By self-example mayst thou be denied. + + + 143 + Lo as a careful huswife runs to catch, + One of her feathered creatures broke away, + Sets down her babe and makes all swift dispatch + In pursuit of the thing she would have stay: + Whilst her neglected child holds her in chase, + Cries to catch her whose busy care is bent, + To follow that which flies before her face: + Not prizing her poor infant's discontent; + So run'st thou after that which flies from thee, + Whilst I thy babe chase thee afar behind, + But if thou catch thy hope turn back to me: + And play the mother's part, kiss me, be kind. + So will I pray that thou mayst have thy Will, + If thou turn back and my loud crying still. + + + 144 + Two loves I have of comfort and despair, + Which like two spirits do suggest me still, + The better angel is a man right fair: + The worser spirit a woman coloured ill. + To win me soon to hell my female evil, + Tempteth my better angel from my side, + And would corrupt my saint to be a devil: + Wooing his purity with her foul pride. + And whether that my angel be turned fiend, + Suspect I may, yet not directly tell, + But being both from me both to each friend, + I guess one angel in another's hell. + Yet this shall I ne'er know but live in doubt, + Till my bad angel fire my good one out. + + + 145 + Those lips that Love's own hand did make, + Breathed forth the sound that said 'I hate', + To me that languished for her sake: + But when she saw my woeful state, + Straight in her heart did mercy come, + Chiding that tongue that ever sweet, + Was used in giving gentle doom: + And taught it thus anew to greet: + 'I hate' she altered with an end, + That followed it as gentle day, + Doth follow night who like a fiend + From heaven to hell is flown away. + 'I hate', from hate away she threw, + And saved my life saying 'not you'. + + + 146 + Poor soul the centre of my sinful earth, + My sinful earth these rebel powers array, + Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth + Painting thy outward walls so costly gay? + Why so large cost having so short a lease, + Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend? + Shall worms inheritors of this excess + Eat up thy charge? is this thy body's end? + Then soul live thou upon thy servant's loss, + And let that pine to aggravate thy store; + Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross; + Within be fed, without be rich no more, + So shall thou feed on death, that feeds on men, + And death once dead, there's no more dying then. + + + 147 + My love is as a fever longing still, + For that which longer nurseth the disease, + Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, + Th' uncertain sickly appetite to please: + My reason the physician to my love, + Angry that his prescriptions are not kept + Hath left me, and I desperate now approve, + Desire is death, which physic did except. + Past cure I am, now reason is past care, + And frantic-mad with evermore unrest, + My thoughts and my discourse as mad men's are, + At random from the truth vainly expressed. + For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, + Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. + + + 148 + O me! what eyes hath love put in my head, + Which have no correspondence with true sight, + Or if they have, where is my judgment fled, + That censures falsely what they see aright? + If that be fair whereon my false eyes dote, + What means the world to say it is not so? + If it be not, then love doth well denote, + Love's eye is not so true as all men's: no, + How can it? O how can love's eye be true, + That is so vexed with watching and with tears? + No marvel then though I mistake my view, + The sun it self sees not, till heaven clears. + O cunning love, with tears thou keep'st me blind, + Lest eyes well-seeing thy foul faults should find. + + + 149 + Canst thou O cruel, say I love thee not, + When I against my self with thee partake? + Do I not think on thee when I forgot + Am of my self, all-tyrant, for thy sake? + Who hateth thee that I do call my friend, + On whom frown'st thou that I do fawn upon, + Nay if thou lour'st on me do I not spend + Revenge upon my self with present moan? + What merit do I in my self respect, + That is so proud thy service to despise, + When all my best doth worship thy defect, + Commanded by the motion of thine eyes? + But love hate on for now I know thy mind, + Those that can see thou lov'st, and I am blind. + + + 150 + O from what power hast thou this powerful might, + With insufficiency my heart to sway, + To make me give the lie to my true sight, + And swear that brightness doth not grace the day? + Whence hast thou this becoming of things ill, + That in the very refuse of thy deeds, + There is such strength and warrantise of skill, + That in my mind thy worst all best exceeds? + Who taught thee how to make me love thee more, + The more I hear and see just cause of hate? + O though I love what others do abhor, + With others thou shouldst not abhor my state. + If thy unworthiness raised love in me, + More worthy I to be beloved of thee. + + + 151 + Love is too young to know what conscience is, + Yet who knows not conscience is born of love? + Then gentle cheater urge not my amiss, + Lest guilty of my faults thy sweet self prove. + For thou betraying me, I do betray + My nobler part to my gross body's treason, + My soul doth tell my body that he may, + Triumph in love, flesh stays no farther reason, + But rising at thy name doth point out thee, + As his triumphant prize, proud of this pride, + He is contented thy poor drudge to be, + To stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side. + No want of conscience hold it that I call, + Her love, for whose dear love I rise and fall. + + + 152 + In loving thee thou know'st I am forsworn, + But thou art twice forsworn to me love swearing, + In act thy bed-vow broke and new faith torn, + In vowing new hate after new love bearing: + But why of two oaths' breach do I accuse thee, + When I break twenty? I am perjured most, + For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee: + And all my honest faith in thee is lost. + For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness: + Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy, + And to enlighten thee gave eyes to blindness, + Or made them swear against the thing they see. + For I have sworn thee fair: more perjured I, + To swear against the truth so foul a be. + + + 153 + Cupid laid by his brand and fell asleep, + A maid of Dian's this advantage found, + And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep + In a cold valley-fountain of that ground: + Which borrowed from this holy fire of Love, + A dateless lively heat still to endure, + And grew a seeting bath which yet men prove, + Against strange maladies a sovereign cure: + But at my mistress' eye Love's brand new-fired, + The boy for trial needs would touch my breast, + I sick withal the help of bath desired, + And thither hied a sad distempered guest. + But found no cure, the bath for my help lies, + Where Cupid got new fire; my mistress' eyes. + + + 154 + The little Love-god lying once asleep, + Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand, + Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep, + Came tripping by, but in her maiden hand, + The fairest votary took up that fire, + Which many legions of true hearts had warmed, + And so the general of hot desire, + Was sleeping by a virgin hand disarmed. + This brand she quenched in a cool well by, + Which from Love's fire took heat perpetual, + Growing a bath and healthful remedy, + For men discased, but I my mistress' thrall, + Came there for cure and this by that I prove, + Love's fire heats water, water cools not love. + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1603 + +ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL + +by William Shakespeare + + +Dramatis Personae + + KING OF FRANCE + THE DUKE OF FLORENCE + BERTRAM, Count of Rousillon + LAFEU, an old lord + PAROLLES, a follower of Bertram + TWO FRENCH LORDS, serving with Bertram + + STEWARD, Servant to the Countess of Rousillon + LAVACHE, a clown and Servant to the Countess of Rousillon + A PAGE, Servant to the Countess of Rousillon + + COUNTESS OF ROUSILLON, mother to Bertram + HELENA, a gentlewoman protected by the Countess + A WIDOW OF FLORENCE. + DIANA, daughter to the Widow + + + VIOLENTA, neighbour and friend to the Widow + MARIANA, neighbour and friend to the Widow + + Lords, Officers, Soldiers, etc., French and Florentine + + + +<> + + + + +SCENE: +Rousillon; Paris; Florence; Marseilles + + +ACT I. SCENE 1. +Rousillon. The COUNT'S palace + +Enter BERTRAM, the COUNTESS OF ROUSILLON, HELENA, and LAFEU, all in black + + COUNTESS. In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband. + BERTRAM. And I in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew; + but I must attend his Majesty's command, to whom I am now in + ward, evermore in subjection. + LAFEU. You shall find of the King a husband, madam; you, sir, a + father. He that so generally is at all times good must of + necessity hold his virtue to you, whose worthiness would stir it + up where it wanted, rather than lack it where there is such + abundance. + COUNTESS. What hope is there of his Majesty's amendment? + LAFEU. He hath abandon'd his physicians, madam; under whose + practices he hath persecuted time with hope, and finds no other + advantage in the process but only the losing of hope by time. + COUNTESS. This young gentlewoman had a father- O, that 'had,' how + sad a passage 'tis!-whose skill was almost as great as his + honesty; had it stretch'd so far, would have made nature + immortal, and death should have play for lack of work. Would, for + the King's sake, he were living! I think it would be the death of + the King's disease. + LAFEU. How call'd you the man you speak of, madam? + COUNTESS. He was famous, sir, in his profession, and it was his + great right to be so- Gerard de Narbon. + LAFEU. He was excellent indeed, madam; the King very lately spoke + of him admiringly and mourningly; he was skilful enough to have + liv'd still, if knowledge could be set up against mortality. + BERTRAM. What is it, my good lord, the King languishes of? + LAFEU. A fistula, my lord. + BERTRAM. I heard not of it before. + LAFEU. I would it were not notorious. Was this gentlewoman the + daughter of Gerard de Narbon? + COUNTESS. His sole child, my lord, and bequeathed to my + overlooking. I have those hopes of her good that her education + promises; her dispositions she inherits, which makes fair gifts + fairer; for where an unclean mind carries virtuous qualities, + there commendations go with pity-they are virtues and traitors + too. In her they are the better for their simpleness; she derives + her honesty, and achieves her goodness. + LAFEU. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears. + COUNTESS. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can season her praise in. + The remembrance of her father never approaches her heart but the + tyranny of her sorrows takes all livelihood from her cheek. No + more of this, Helena; go to, no more, lest it be rather thought + you affect a sorrow than to have- + HELENA. I do affect a sorrow indeed, but I have it too. + LAFEU. Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead: excessive + grief the enemy to the living. + COUNTESS. If the living be enemy to the grief, the excess makes it + soon mortal. + BERTRAM. Madam, I desire your holy wishes. + LAFEU. How understand we that? + COUNTESS. Be thou blest, Bertram, and succeed thy father + In manners, as in shape! Thy blood and virtue + Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness + Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few, + Do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy + Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend + Under thy own life's key; be check'd for silence, + But never tax'd for speech. What heaven more will, + That thee may furnish, and my prayers pluck down, + Fall on thy head! Farewell. My lord, + 'Tis an unseason'd courtier; good my lord, + Advise him. + LAFEU. He cannot want the best + That shall attend his love. + COUNTESS. Heaven bless him! Farewell, Bertram. Exit + BERTRAM. The best wishes that can be forg'd in your thoughts be + servants to you! [To HELENA] Be comfortable to my mother, your + mistress, and make much of her. + LAFEU. Farewell, pretty lady; you must hold the credit of your + father. Exeunt BERTRAM and LAFEU + HELENA. O, were that all! I think not on my father; + And these great tears grace his remembrance more + Than those I shed for him. What was he like? + I have forgot him; my imagination + Carries no favour in't but Bertram's. + I am undone; there is no living, none, + If Bertram be away. 'Twere all one + That I should love a bright particular star + And think to wed it, he is so above me. + In his bright radiance and collateral light + Must I be comforted, not in his sphere. + Th' ambition in my love thus plagues itself: + The hind that would be mated by the lion + Must die for love. 'Twas pretty, though a plague, + To see him every hour; to sit and draw + His arched brows, his hawking eye, his curls, + In our heart's table-heart too capable + Of every line and trick of his sweet favour. + But now he's gone, and my idolatrous fancy + Must sanctify his relics. Who comes here? + + Enter PAROLLES + + [Aside] One that goes with him. I love him for his sake; + And yet I know him a notorious liar, + Think him a great way fool, solely a coward; + Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him + That they take place when virtue's steely bones + Looks bleak i' th' cold wind; withal, full oft we see + Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly. + PAROLLES. Save you, fair queen! + HELENA. And you, monarch! + PAROLLES. No. + HELENA. And no. + PAROLLES. Are you meditating on virginity? + HELENA. Ay. You have some stain of soldier in you; let me ask you a + question. Man is enemy to virginity; how may we barricado it + against him? + PAROLLES. Keep him out. + HELENA. But he assails; and our virginity, though valiant in the + defence, yet is weak. Unfold to us some warlike resistance. + PAROLLES. There is none. Man, setting down before you, will + undermine you and blow you up. + HELENA. Bless our poor virginity from underminers and blowers-up! + Is there no military policy how virgins might blow up men? + PAROLLES. Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be blown + up; marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves + made, you lose your city. It is not politic in the commonwealth + of nature to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational + increase; and there was never virgin got till virginity was first + lost. That you were made of is metal to make virgins. Virginity + by being once lost may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it + is ever lost. 'Tis too cold a companion; away with't. + HELENA. I will stand for 't a little, though therefore I die a + virgin. + PAROLLES. There's little can be said in 't; 'tis against the rule + of nature. To speak on the part of virginity is to accuse your + mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. He that hangs + himself is a virgin; virginity murders itself, and should be + buried in highways, out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate + offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a + cheese; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with + feeding his own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, + idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the + canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but lose by't. Out with't. + Within ten year it will make itself ten, which is a goodly + increase; and the principal itself not much the worse. Away + with't. + HELENA. How might one do, sir, to lose it to her own liking? + PAROLLES. Let me see. Marry, ill to like him that ne'er it likes. + 'Tis a commodity will lose the gloss with lying; the longer kept, + the less worth. Off with't while 'tis vendible; answer the time + of request. Virginity, like an old courtier, wears her cap out of + fashion, richly suited but unsuitable; just like the brooch and + the toothpick, which wear not now. Your date is better in your + pie and your porridge than in your cheek. And your virginity, + your old virginity, is like one of our French wither'd pears: it + looks ill, it eats drily; marry, 'tis a wither'd pear; it was + formerly better; marry, yet 'tis a wither'd pear. Will you + anything with it? + HELENA. Not my virginity yet. + There shall your master have a thousand loves, + A mother, and a mistress, and a friend, + A phoenix, captain, and an enemy, + A guide, a goddess, and a sovereign, + A counsellor, a traitress, and a dear; + His humble ambition, proud humility, + His jarring concord, and his discord dulcet, + His faith, his sweet disaster; with a world + Of pretty, fond, adoptious christendoms + That blinking Cupid gossips. Now shall he- + I know not what he shall. God send him well! + The court's a learning-place, and he is one- + PAROLLES. What one, i' faith? + HELENA. That I wish well. 'Tis pity- + PAROLLES. What's pity? + HELENA. That wishing well had not a body in't + Which might be felt; that we, the poorer born, + Whose baser stars do shut us up in wishes, + Might with effects of them follow our friends + And show what we alone must think, which never + Returns us thanks. + + Enter PAGE + + PAGE. Monsieur Parolles, my lord calls for you. Exit PAGE + PAROLLES. Little Helen, farewell; if I can remember thee, I will + think of thee at court. + HELENA. Monsieur Parolles, you were born under a charitable star. + PAROLLES. Under Mars, I. + HELENA. I especially think, under Mars. + PAROLLES. Why under Man? + HELENA. The wars hath so kept you under that you must needs be born + under Mars. + PAROLLES. When he was predominant. + HELENA. When he was retrograde, I think, rather. + PAROLLES. Why think you so? + HELENA. You go so much backward when you fight. + PAROLLES. That's for advantage. + HELENA. So is running away, when fear proposes the safety: but the + composition that your valour and fear makes in you is a virtue of + a good wing, and I like the wear well. + PAROLLES. I am so full of business I cannot answer thee acutely. I + will return perfect courtier; in the which my instruction shall + serve to naturalize thee, so thou wilt be capable of a courtier's + counsel, and understand what advice shall thrust upon thee; else + thou diest in thine unthankfulness, and thine ignorance makes + thee away. Farewell. When thou hast leisure, say thy prayers; + when thou hast none, remember thy friends. Get thee a good + husband and use him as he uses thee. So, farewell. + Exit + HELENA. Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, + Which we ascribe to heaven. The fated sky + Gives us free scope; only doth backward pull + Our slow designs when we ourselves are dull. + What power is it which mounts my love so high, + That makes me see, and cannot feed mine eye? + The mightiest space in fortune nature brings + To join like likes, and kiss like native things. + Impossible be strange attempts to those + That weigh their pains in sense, and do suppose + What hath been cannot be. Who ever strove + To show her merit that did miss her love? + The King's disease-my project may deceive me, + But my intents are fix'd, and will not leave me. Exit + + + + +ACT I. SCENE 2. +Paris. The KING'S palace + +Flourish of cornets. Enter the KING OF FRANCE, with letters, +and divers ATTENDANTS + + KING. The Florentines and Senoys are by th' ears; + Have fought with equal fortune, and continue + A braving war. + FIRST LORD. So 'tis reported, sir. + KING. Nay, 'tis most credible. We here receive it, + A certainty, vouch'd from our cousin Austria, + With caution, that the Florentine will move us + For speedy aid; wherein our dearest friend + Prejudicates the business, and would seem + To have us make denial. + FIRST LORD. His love and wisdom, + Approv'd so to your Majesty, may plead + For amplest credence. + KING. He hath arm'd our answer, + And Florence is denied before he comes; + Yet, for our gentlemen that mean to see + The Tuscan service, freely have they leave + To stand on either part. + SECOND LORD. It well may serve + A nursery to our gentry, who are sick + For breathing and exploit. + KING. What's he comes here? + + Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES + + FIRST LORD. It is the Count Rousillon, my good lord, + Young Bertram. + KING. Youth, thou bear'st thy father's face; + Frank nature, rather curious than in haste, + Hath well compos'd thee. Thy father's moral parts + Mayst thou inherit too! Welcome to Paris. + BERTRAM. My thanks and duty are your Majesty's. + KING. I would I had that corporal soundness now, + As when thy father and myself in friendship + First tried our soldiership. He did look far + Into the service of the time, and was + Discipled of the bravest. He lasted long; + But on us both did haggish age steal on, + And wore us out of act. It much repairs me + To talk of your good father. In his youth + He had the wit which I can well observe + To-day in our young lords; but they may jest + Till their own scorn return to them unnoted + Ere they can hide their levity in honour. + So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness + Were in his pride or sharpness; if they were, + His equal had awak'd them; and his honour, + Clock to itself, knew the true minute when + Exception bid him speak, and at this time + His tongue obey'd his hand. Who were below him + He us'd as creatures of another place; + And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks, + Making them proud of his humility + In their poor praise he humbled. Such a man + Might be a copy to these younger times; + Which, followed well, would demonstrate them now + But goers backward. + BERTRAM. His good remembrance, sir, + Lies richer in your thoughts than on his tomb; + So in approof lives not his epitaph + As in your royal speech. + KING. Would I were with him! He would always say- + Methinks I hear him now; his plausive words + He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them + To grow there, and to bear- 'Let me not live'- + This his good melancholy oft began, + On the catastrophe and heel of pastime, + When it was out-'Let me not live' quoth he + 'After my flame lacks oil, to be the snuff + Of younger spirits, whose apprehensive senses + All but new things disdain; whose judgments are + Mere fathers of their garments; whose constancies + Expire before their fashions.' This he wish'd. + I, after him, do after him wish too, + Since I nor wax nor honey can bring home, + I quickly were dissolved from my hive, + To give some labourers room. + SECOND LORD. You're loved, sir; + They that least lend it you shall lack you first. + KING. I fill a place, I know't. How long is't, Count, + Since the physician at your father's died? + He was much fam'd. + BERTRAM. Some six months since, my lord. + KING. If he were living, I would try him yet- + Lend me an arm-the rest have worn me out + With several applications. Nature and sickness + Debate it at their leisure. Welcome, Count; + My son's no dearer. + BERTRAM. Thank your Majesty. Exeunt [Flourish] + + + + +ACT I. SCENE 3. +Rousillon. The COUNT'S palace + +Enter COUNTESS, STEWARD, and CLOWN + + COUNTESS. I will now hear; what say you of this gentlewoman? + STEWARD. Madam, the care I have had to even your content I wish + might be found in the calendar of my past endeavours; for then we + wound our modesty, and make foul the clearness of our deservings, + when of ourselves we publish them. + COUNTESS. What does this knave here? Get you gone, sirrah. The + complaints I have heard of you I do not all believe; 'tis my + slowness that I do not, for I know you lack not folly to commit + them and have ability enough to make such knaveries yours. + CLOWN. 'Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow. + COUNTESS. Well, sir. + CLOWN. No, madam, 'tis not so well that I am poor, though many of + the rich are damn'd; but if I may have your ladyship's good will + to go to the world, Isbel the woman and I will do as we may. + COUNTESS. Wilt thou needs be a beggar? + CLOWN. I do beg your good will in this case. + COUNTESS. In what case? + CLOWN. In Isbel's case and mine own. Service is no heritage; and I + think I shall never have the blessing of God till I have issue o' + my body; for they say bames are blessings. + COUNTESS. Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry. + CLOWN. My poor body, madam, requires it. I am driven on by the + flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives. + COUNTESS. Is this all your worship's reason? + CLOWN. Faith, madam, I have other holy reasons, such as they are. + COUNTESS. May the world know them? + CLOWN. I have been, madam, a wicked creature, as you and all flesh + and blood are; and, indeed, I do marry that I may repent. + COUNTESS. Thy marriage, sooner than thy wickedness. + CLOWN. I am out o' friends, madam, and I hope to have friends for + my wife's sake. + COUNTESS. Such friends are thine enemies, knave. + CLOWN. Y'are shallow, madam-in great friends; for the knaves come + to do that for me which I am aweary of. He that ears my land + spares my team, and gives me leave to in the crop. If I be his + cuckold, he's my drudge. He that comforts my wife is the + cherisher of my flesh and blood; he that cherishes my flesh and + blood loves my flesh and blood; he that loves my flesh and blood + is my friend; ergo, he that kisses my wife is my friend. If men + could be contented to be what they are, there were no fear in + marriage; for young Charbon the puritan and old Poysam the + papist, howsome'er their hearts are sever'd in religion, their + heads are both one; they may jowl horns together like any deer + i' th' herd. + COUNTESS. Wilt thou ever be a foul-mouth'd and calumnious knave? + CLOWN. A prophet I, madam; and I speak the truth the next way: + + For I the ballad will repeat, + Which men full true shall find: + Your marriage comes by destiny, + Your cuckoo sings by kind. + + COUNTESS. Get you gone, sir; I'll talk with you more anon. + STEWARD. May it please you, madam, that he bid Helen come to you. + Of her I am to speak. + COUNTESS. Sirrah, tell my gentlewoman I would speak with her; Helen + I mean. + CLOWN. [Sings] + + 'Was this fair face the cause' quoth she + 'Why the Grecians sacked Troy? + Fond done, done fond, + Was this King Priam's joy?' + With that she sighed as she stood, + With that she sighed as she stood, + And gave this sentence then: + 'Among nine bad if one be good, + Among nine bad if one be good, + There's yet one good in ten.' + + COUNTESS. What, one good in ten? You corrupt the song, sirrah. + CLOWN. One good woman in ten, madam, which is a purifying o' th' + song. Would God would serve the world so all the year! We'd find + no fault with the tithe-woman, if I were the parson. One in ten, + quoth 'a! An we might have a good woman born before every blazing + star, or at an earthquake, 'twould mend the lottery well: a man + may draw his heart out ere 'a pluck one. + COUNTESS. You'll be gone, sir knave, and do as I command you. + CLOWN. That man should be at woman's command, and yet no hurt done! + Though honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt; it will + wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a big heart. + I am going, forsooth. The business is for Helen to come hither. + Exit + COUNTESS. Well, now. + STEWARD. I know, madam, you love your gentlewoman entirely. + COUNTESS. Faith I do. Her father bequeath'd her to me; and she + herself, without other advantage, may lawfully make title to as + much love as she finds. There is more owing her than is paid; and + more shall be paid her than she'll demand. + STEWARD. Madam, I was very late more near her than I think she + wish'd me. Alone she was, and did communicate to herself her own + words to her own ears; she thought, I dare vow for her, they + touch'd not any stranger sense. Her matter was, she loved your + son. Fortune, she said, was no goddess, that had put such + difference betwixt their two estates; Love no god, that would not + extend his might only where qualities were level; Diana no queen + of virgins, that would suffer her poor knight surpris'd without + rescue in the first assault, or ransom afterward. This she + deliver'd in the most bitter touch of sorrow that e'er I heard + virgin exclaim in; which I held my duty speedily to acquaint you + withal; sithence, in the loss that may happen, it concerns you + something to know it. + COUNTESS. YOU have discharg'd this honestly; keep it to yourself. + Many likelihoods inform'd me of this before, which hung so + tott'ring in the balance that I could neither believe nor + misdoubt. Pray you leave me. Stall this in your bosom; and I + thank you for your honest care. I will speak with you further + anon. Exit STEWARD + + Enter HELENA + + Even so it was with me when I was young. + If ever we are nature's, these are ours; this thorn + Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong; + Our blood to us, this to our blood is born. + It is the show and seal of nature's truth, + Where love's strong passion is impress'd in youth. + By our remembrances of days foregone, + Such were our faults, or then we thought them none. + Her eye is sick on't; I observe her now. + HELENA. What is your pleasure, madam? + COUNTESS. You know, Helen, + I am a mother to you. + HELENA. Mine honourable mistress. + COUNTESS. Nay, a mother. + Why not a mother? When I said 'a mother,' + Methought you saw a serpent. What's in 'mother' + That you start at it? I say I am your mother, + And put you in the catalogue of those + That were enwombed mine. 'Tis often seen + Adoption strives with nature, and choice breeds + A native slip to us from foreign seeds. + You ne'er oppress'd me with a mother's groan, + Yet I express to you a mother's care. + God's mercy, maiden! does it curd thy blood + To say I am thy mother? What's the matter, + That this distempered messenger of wet, + The many-colour'd Iris, rounds thine eye? + Why, that you are my daughter? + HELENA. That I am not. + COUNTESS. I say I am your mother. + HELENA. Pardon, madam. + The Count Rousillon cannot be my brother: + I am from humble, he from honoured name; + No note upon my parents, his all noble. + My master, my dear lord he is; and I + His servant live, and will his vassal die. + He must not be my brother. + COUNTESS. Nor I your mother? + HELENA. You are my mother, madam; would you were- + So that my lord your son were not my brother- + Indeed my mother! Or were you both our mothers, + I care no more for than I do for heaven, + So I were not his sister. Can't no other, + But, I your daughter, he must be my brother? + COUNTESS. Yes, Helen, you might be my daughter-in-law. + God shield you mean it not! 'daughter' and 'mother' + So strive upon your pulse. What! pale again? + My fear hath catch'd your fondness. Now I see + The myst'ry of your loneliness, and find + Your salt tears' head. Now to all sense 'tis gross + You love my son; invention is asham'd, + Against the proclamation of thy passion, + To say thou dost not. Therefore tell me true; + But tell me then, 'tis so; for, look, thy cheeks + Confess it, th' one to th' other; and thine eyes + See it so grossly shown in thy behaviours + That in their kind they speak it; only sin + And hellish obstinacy tie thy tongue, + That truth should be suspected. Speak, is't so? + If it be so, you have wound a goodly clew; + If it be not, forswear't; howe'er, I charge thee, + As heaven shall work in me for thine avail, + To tell me truly. + HELENA. Good madam, pardon me. + COUNTESS. Do you love my son? + HELENA. Your pardon, noble mistress. + COUNTESS. Love you my son? + HELENA. Do not you love him, madam? + COUNTESS. Go not about; my love hath in't a bond + Whereof the world takes note. Come, come, disclose + The state of your affection; for your passions + Have to the full appeach'd. + HELENA. Then I confess, + Here on my knee, before high heaven and you, + That before you, and next unto high heaven, + I love your son. + My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love. + Be not offended, for it hurts not him + That he is lov'd of me; I follow him not + By any token of presumptuous suit, + Nor would I have him till I do deserve him; + Yet never know how that desert should be. + I know I love in vain, strive against hope; + Yet in this captious and intenible sieve + I still pour in the waters of my love, + And lack not to lose still. Thus, Indian-like, + Religious in mine error, I adore + The sun that looks upon his worshipper + But knows of him no more. My dearest madam, + Let not your hate encounter with my love, + For loving where you do; but if yourself, + Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth, + Did ever in so true a flame of liking + Wish chastely and love dearly that your Dian + Was both herself and Love; O, then, give pity + To her whose state is such that cannot choose + But lend and give where she is sure to lose; + That seeks not to find that her search implies, + But, riddle-like, lives sweetly where she dies! + COUNTESS. Had you not lately an intent-speak truly- + To go to Paris? + HELENA. Madam, I had. + COUNTESS. Wherefore? Tell true. + HELENA. I will tell truth; by grace itself I swear. + You know my father left me some prescriptions + Of rare and prov'd effects, such as his reading + And manifest experience had collected + For general sovereignty; and that he will'd me + In heedfull'st reservation to bestow them, + As notes whose faculties inclusive were + More than they were in note. Amongst the rest + There is a remedy, approv'd, set down, + To cure the desperate languishings whereof + The King is render'd lost. + COUNTESS. This was your motive + For Paris, was it? Speak. + HELENA. My lord your son made me to think of this, + Else Paris, and the medicine, and the King, + Had from the conversation of my thoughts + Haply been absent then. + COUNTESS. But think you, Helen, + If you should tender your supposed aid, + He would receive it? He and his physicians + Are of a mind: he, that they cannot help him; + They, that they cannot help. How shall they credit + A poor unlearned virgin, when the schools, + Embowell'd of their doctrine, have let off + The danger to itself? + HELENA. There's something in't + More than my father's skill, which was the great'st + Of his profession, that his good receipt + Shall for my legacy be sanctified + By th' luckiest stars in heaven; and, would your honour + But give me leave to try success, I'd venture + The well-lost life of mine on his Grace's cure. + By such a day and hour. + COUNTESS. Dost thou believe't? + HELENA. Ay, madam, knowingly. + COUNTESS. Why, Helen, thou shalt have my leave and love, + Means and attendants, and my loving greetings + To those of mine in court. I'll stay at home, + And pray God's blessing into thy attempt. + Be gone to-morrow; and be sure of this, + What I can help thee to thou shalt not miss. Exeunt + + + +<> + + + + +ACT II. SCENE 1. +Paris. The KING'S palace + +Flourish of cornets. Enter the KING with divers young LORDS taking leave +for the Florentine war; BERTRAM and PAROLLES; ATTENDANTS + + KING. Farewell, young lords; these war-like principles + Do not throw from you. And you, my lords, farewell; + Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all, + The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis receiv'd, + And is enough for both. + FIRST LORD. 'Tis our hope, sir, + After well-ent'red soldiers, to return + And find your Grace in health. + KING. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart + Will not confess he owes the malady + That doth my life besiege. Farewell, young lords; + Whether I live or die, be you the sons + Of worthy Frenchmen; let higher Italy- + Those bated that inherit but the fall + Of the last monarchy-see that you come + Not to woo honour, but to wed it; when + The bravest questant shrinks, find what you seek, + That fame may cry you aloud. I say farewell. + SECOND LORD. Health, at your bidding, serve your Majesty! + KING. Those girls of Italy, take heed of them; + They say our French lack language to deny, + If they demand; beware of being captives + Before you serve. + BOTH. Our hearts receive your warnings. + KING. Farewell. [To ATTENDANTS] Come hither to me. + The KING retires attended + FIRST LORD. O my sweet lord, that you will stay behind us! + PAROLLES. 'Tis not his fault, the spark. + SECOND LORD. O, 'tis brave wars! + PAROLLES. Most admirable! I have seen those wars. + BERTRAM. I am commanded here and kept a coil with + 'Too young' and next year' and "Tis too early.' + PAROLLES. An thy mind stand to 't, boy, steal away bravely. + BERTRAM. I shall stay here the forehorse to a smock, + Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry, + Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn + But one to dance with. By heaven, I'll steal away. + FIRST LORD. There's honour in the theft. + PAROLLES. Commit it, Count. + SECOND LORD. I am your accessary; and so farewell. + BERTRAM. I grow to you, and our parting is a tortur'd body. + FIRST LORD. Farewell, Captain. + SECOND LORD. Sweet Monsieur Parolles! + PAROLLES. Noble heroes, my sword and yours are kin. Good sparks and + lustrous, a word, good metals: you shall find in the regiment of + the Spinii one Captain Spurio, with his cicatrice, an emblem of + war, here on his sinister cheek; it was this very sword + entrench'd it. Say to him I live; and observe his reports for me. + FIRST LORD. We shall, noble Captain. + PAROLLES. Mars dote on you for his novices! Exeunt LORDS + What will ye do? + + Re-enter the KING + + BERTRAM. Stay; the King! + PAROLLES. Use a more spacious ceremony to the noble lords; you have + restrain'd yourself within the list of too cold an adieu. Be more + expressive to them; for they wear themselves in the cap of the + time; there do muster true gait; eat, speak, and move, under the + influence of the most receiv'd star; and though the devil lead + the measure, such are to be followed. After them, and take a more + dilated farewell. + BERTRAM. And I will do so. + PAROLLES. Worthy fellows; and like to prove most sinewy sword-men. + Exeunt BERTRAM and PAROLLES + + Enter LAFEU + + LAFEU. [Kneeling] Pardon, my lord, for me and for my tidings. + KING. I'll fee thee to stand up. + LAFEU. Then here's a man stands that has brought his pardon. + I would you had kneel'd, my lord, to ask me mercy; + And that at my bidding you could so stand up. + KING. I would I had; so I had broke thy pate, + And ask'd thee mercy for't. + LAFEU. Good faith, across! + But, my good lord, 'tis thus: will you be cur'd + Of your infirmity? + KING. No. + LAFEU. O, will you eat + No grapes, my royal fox? Yes, but you will + My noble grapes, an if my royal fox + Could reach them: I have seen a medicine + That's able to breathe life into a stone, + Quicken a rock, and make you dance canary + With spritely fire and motion; whose simple touch + Is powerful to araise King Pepin, nay, + To give great Charlemain a pen in's hand + And write to her a love-line. + KING. What her is this? + LAFEU. Why, Doctor She! My lord, there's one arriv'd, + If you will see her. Now, by my faith and honour, + If seriously I may convey my thoughts + In this my light deliverance, I have spoke + With one that in her sex, her years, profession, + Wisdom, and constancy, hath amaz'd me more + Than I dare blame my weakness. Will you see her, + For that is her demand, and know her business? + That done, laugh well at me. + KING. Now, good Lafeu, + Bring in the admiration, that we with the + May spend our wonder too, or take off thine + By wond'ring how thou took'st it. + LAFEU. Nay, I'll fit you, + And not be all day neither. Exit LAFEU + KING. Thus he his special nothing ever prologues. + + Re-enter LAFEU with HELENA + + LAFEU. Nay, come your ways. + KING. This haste hath wings indeed. + LAFEU. Nay, come your ways; + This is his Majesty; say your mind to him. + A traitor you do look like; but such traitors + His Majesty seldom fears. I am Cressid's uncle, + That dare leave two together. Fare you well. Exit + KING. Now, fair one, does your business follow us? + HELENA. Ay, my good lord. + Gerard de Narbon was my father, + In what he did profess, well found. + KING. I knew him. + HELENA. The rather will I spare my praises towards him; + Knowing him is enough. On's bed of death + Many receipts he gave me; chiefly one, + Which, as the dearest issue of his practice, + And of his old experience th' only darling, + He bade me store up as a triple eye, + Safer than mine own two, more dear. I have so: + And, hearing your high Majesty is touch'd + With that malignant cause wherein the honour + Of my dear father's gift stands chief in power, + I come to tender it, and my appliance, + With all bound humbleness. + KING. We thank you, maiden; + But may not be so credulous of cure, + When our most learned doctors leave us, and + The congregated college have concluded + That labouring art can never ransom nature + From her inaidable estate-I say we must not + So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope, + To prostitute our past-cure malady + To empirics; or to dissever so + Our great self and our credit to esteem + A senseless help, when help past sense we deem. + HELENA. My duty then shall pay me for my pains. + I will no more enforce mine office on you; + Humbly entreating from your royal thoughts + A modest one to bear me back again. + KING. I cannot give thee less, to be call'd grateful. + Thou thought'st to help me; and such thanks I give + As one near death to those that wish him live. + But what at full I know, thou know'st no part; + I knowing all my peril, thou no art. + HELENA. What I can do can do no hurt to try, + Since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy. + He that of greatest works is finisher + Oft does them by the weakest minister. + So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown, + When judges have been babes. Great floods have flown + From simple sources, and great seas have dried + When miracles have by the greatest been denied. + Oft expectation fails, and most oft there + Where most it promises; and oft it hits + Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits. + KING. I must not hear thee. Fare thee well, kind maid; + Thy pains, not us'd, must by thyself be paid; + Proffers not took reap thanks for their reward. + HELENA. Inspired merit so by breath is barr'd. + It is not so with Him that all things knows, + As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows; + But most it is presumption in us when + The help of heaven we count the act of men. + Dear sir, to my endeavours give consent; + Of heaven, not me, make an experiment. + I am not an impostor, that proclaim + Myself against the level of mine aim; + But know I think, and think I know most sure, + My art is not past power nor you past cure. + KING. Art thou so confident? Within what space + Hop'st thou my cure? + HELENA. The greatest Grace lending grace. + Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring + Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring, + Ere twice in murk and occidental damp + Moist Hesperus hath quench'd his sleepy lamp, + Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass + Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass, + What is infirm from your sound parts shall fly, + Health shall live free, and sickness freely die. + KING. Upon thy certainty and confidence + What dar'st thou venture? + HELENA. Tax of impudence, + A strumpet's boldness, a divulged shame, + Traduc'd by odious ballads; my maiden's name + Sear'd otherwise; ne worse of worst-extended + With vilest torture let my life be ended. + KING. Methinks in thee some blessed spirit doth speak + His powerful sound within an organ weak; + And what impossibility would slay + In common sense, sense saves another way. + Thy life is dear; for all that life can rate + Worth name of life in thee hath estimate: + Youth, beauty, wisdom, courage, all + That happiness and prime can happy call. + Thou this to hazard needs must intimate + Skill infinite or monstrous desperate. + Sweet practiser, thy physic I will try, + That ministers thine own death if I die. + HELENA. If I break time, or flinch in property + Of what I spoke, unpitied let me die; + And well deserv'd. Not helping, death's my fee; + But, if I help, what do you promise me? + KING. Make thy demand. + HELENA. But will you make it even? + KING. Ay, by my sceptre and my hopes of heaven. + HELENA. Then shalt thou give me with thy kingly hand + What husband in thy power I will command. + Exempted be from me the arrogance + To choose from forth the royal blood of France, + My low and humble name to propagate + With any branch or image of thy state; + But such a one, thy vassal, whom I know + Is free for me to ask, thee to bestow. + KING. Here is my hand; the premises observ'd, + Thy will by my performance shall be serv'd. + So make the choice of thy own time, for I, + Thy resolv'd patient, on thee still rely. + More should I question thee, and more I must, + Though more to know could not be more to trust, + From whence thou cam'st, how tended on. But rest + Unquestion'd welcome and undoubted blest. + Give me some help here, ho! If thou proceed + As high as word, my deed shall match thy deed. + [Flourish. Exeunt] + + + + +ACT II. SCENE 2. +Rousillon. The COUNT'S palace + +Enter COUNTESS and CLOWN + + COUNTESS. Come on, sir; I shall now put you to the height of your + breeding. + CLOWN. I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught. I know my + business is but to the court. + COUNTESS. To the court! Why, what place make you special, when you + put off that with such contempt? But to the court! + CLOWN. Truly, madam, if God have lent a man any manners, he may + easily put it off at court. He that cannot make a leg, put off's + cap, kiss his hand, and say nothing, has neither leg, hands, lip, + nor cap; and indeed such a fellow, to say precisely, were not for + the court; but for me, I have an answer will serve all men. + COUNTESS. Marry, that's a bountiful answer that fits all questions. + CLOWN. It is like a barber's chair, that fits all buttocks-the pin + buttock, the quatch buttock, the brawn buttock, or any buttock. + COUNTESS. Will your answer serve fit to all questions? + CLOWN. As fit as ten groats is for the hand of an attorney, as your + French crown for your taffety punk, as Tib's rush for Tom's + forefinger, as a pancake for Shrove Tuesday, a morris for Mayday, + as the nail to his hole, the cuckold to his horn, as a scolding + quean to a wrangling knave, as the nun's lip to the friar's + mouth; nay, as the pudding to his skin. + COUNTESS. Have you, I, say, an answer of such fitness for all + questions? + CLOWN. From below your duke to beneath your constable, it will fit + any question. + COUNTESS. It must be an answer of most monstrous size that must fit + all demands. + CLOWN. But a trifle neither, in good faith, if the learned should + speak truth of it. Here it is, and all that belongs to't. Ask me + if I am a courtier: it shall do you no harm to learn. + COUNTESS. To be young again, if we could, I will be a fool in + question, hoping to be the wiser by your answer. I pray you, sir, + are you a courtier? + CLOWN. O Lord, sir!-There's a simple putting off. More, more, a + hundred of them. + COUNTESS. Sir, I am a poor friend of yours, that loves you. + CLOWN. O Lord, sir!-Thick, thick; spare not me. + COUNTESS. I think, sir, you can eat none of this homely meat. + CLOWN. O Lord, sir!-Nay, put me to't, I warrant you. + COUNTESS. You were lately whipp'd, sir, as I think. + CLOWN. O Lord, sir!-Spare not me. + COUNTESS. Do you cry 'O Lord, sir!' at your whipping, and 'spare + not me'? Indeed your 'O Lord, sir!' is very sequent to your + whipping. You would answer very well to a whipping, if you were + but bound to't. + CLOWN. I ne'er had worse luck in my life in my 'O Lord, sir!' I see + thing's may serve long, but not serve ever. + COUNTESS. I play the noble housewife with the time, + To entertain it so merrily with a fool. + CLOWN. O Lord, sir!-Why, there't serves well again. + COUNTESS. An end, sir! To your business: give Helen this, + And urge her to a present answer back; + Commend me to my kinsmen and my son. This is not much. + CLOWN. Not much commendation to them? + COUNTESS. Not much employment for you. You understand me? + CLOWN. Most fruitfully; I am there before my legs. + COUNTESS. Haste you again. Exeunt + + + + +ACT II. SCENE 3. +Paris. The KING'S palace + +Enter BERTRAM, LAFEU, and PAROLLES + + LAFEU. They say miracles are past; and we have our philosophical + persons to make modern and familiar things supernatural and + causeless. Hence is it that we make trifles of terrors, + ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge when we should submit + ourselves to an unknown fear. + PAROLLES. Why, 'tis the rarest argument of wonder that hath shot + out in our latter times. + BERTRAM. And so 'tis. + LAFEU. To be relinquish'd of the artists- + PAROLLES. So I say-both of Galen and Paracelsus. + LAFEU. Of all the learned and authentic fellows- + PAROLLES. Right; so I say. + LAFEU. That gave him out incurable- + PAROLLES. Why, there 'tis; so say I too. + LAFEU. Not to be help'd- + PAROLLES. Right; as 'twere a man assur'd of a- + LAFEU. Uncertain life and sure death. + PAROLLES. Just; you say well; so would I have said. + LAFEU. I may truly say it is a novelty to the world. + PAROLLES. It is indeed. If you will have it in showing, you shall + read it in what-do-ye-call't here. + LAFEU. [Reading the ballad title] 'A Showing of a Heavenly + Effect in an Earthly Actor.' + PAROLLES. That's it; I would have said the very same. + LAFEU. Why, your dolphin is not lustier. 'Fore me, I speak in + respect- + PAROLLES. Nay, 'tis strange, 'tis very strange; that is the brief + and the tedious of it; and he's of a most facinerious spirit that + will not acknowledge it to be the- + LAFEU. Very hand of heaven. + PAROLLES. Ay; so I say. + LAFEU. In a most weak- + PAROLLES. And debile minister, great power, great transcendence; + which should, indeed, give us a further use to be made than alone + the recov'ry of the King, as to be- + LAFEU. Generally thankful. + + Enter KING, HELENA, and ATTENDANTS + + PAROLLES. I would have said it; you say well. Here comes the King. + LAFEU. Lustig, as the Dutchman says. I'll like a maid the better, + whilst I have a tooth in my head. Why, he's able to lead her a + coranto. + PAROLLES. Mort du vinaigre! Is not this Helen? + LAFEU. 'Fore God, I think so. + KING. Go, call before me all the lords in court. + Exit an ATTENDANT + Sit, my preserver, by thy patient's side; + And with this healthful hand, whose banish'd sense + Thou has repeal'd, a second time receive + The confirmation of my promis'd gift, + Which but attends thy naming. + + Enter three or four LORDS + + Fair maid, send forth thine eye. This youthful parcel + Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing, + O'er whom both sovereign power and father's voice + I have to use. Thy frank election make; + Thou hast power to choose, and they none to forsake. + HELENA. To each of you one fair and virtuous mistress + Fall, when love please. Marry, to each but one! + LAFEU. I'd give bay Curtal and his furniture + My mouth no more were broken than these boys', + And writ as little beard. + KING. Peruse them well. + Not one of those but had a noble father. + HELENA. Gentlemen, + Heaven hath through me restor'd the King to health. + ALL. We understand it, and thank heaven for you. + HELENA. I am a simple maid, and therein wealthiest + That I protest I simply am a maid. + Please it your Majesty, I have done already. + The blushes in my cheeks thus whisper me: + 'We blush that thou shouldst choose; but, be refused, + Let the white death sit on thy cheek for ever, + We'll ne'er come there again.' + KING. Make choice and see: + Who shuns thy love shuns all his love in me. + HELENA. Now, Dian, from thy altar do I fly, + And to imperial Love, that god most high, + Do my sighs stream. Sir, will you hear my suit? + FIRST LORD. And grant it. + HELENA. Thanks, sir; all the rest is mute. + LAFEU. I had rather be in this choice than throw ames-ace for my + life. + HELENA. The honour, sir, that flames in your fair eyes, + Before I speak, too threat'ningly replies. + Love make your fortunes twenty times above + Her that so wishes, and her humble love! + SECOND LORD. No better, if you please. + HELENA. My wish receive, + Which great Love grant; and so I take my leave. + LAFEU. Do all they deny her? An they were sons of mine I'd have + them whipt; or I would send them to th' Turk to make eunuchs of. + HELENA. Be not afraid that I your hand should take; + I'll never do you wrong for your own sake. + Blessing upon your vows; and in your bed + Find fairer fortune, if you ever wed! + LAFEU. These boys are boys of ice; they'll none have her. + Sure, they are bastards to the English; the French ne'er got 'em. + HELENA. You are too young, too happy, and too good, + To make yourself a son out of my blood. + FOURTH LORD. Fair one, I think not so. + LAFEU. There's one grape yet; I am sure thy father drunk wine-but + if thou be'st not an ass, I am a youth of fourteen; I have known + thee already. + HELENA. [To BERTRAM] I dare not say I take you; but I give + Me and my service, ever whilst I live, + Into your guiding power. This is the man. + KING. Why, then, young Bertram, take her; she's thy wife. + BERTRAM. My wife, my liege! I shall beseech your Highness, + In such a business give me leave to use + The help of mine own eyes. + KING. Know'st thou not, Bertram, + What she has done for me? + BERTRAM. Yes, my good lord; + But never hope to know why I should marry her. + KING. Thou know'st she has rais'd me from my sickly bed. + BERTRAM. But follows it, my lord, to bring me down + Must answer for your raising? I know her well: + She had her breeding at my father's charge. + A poor physician's daughter my wife! Disdain + Rather corrupt me ever! + KING. 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her, the which + I can build up. Strange is it that our bloods, + Of colour, weight, and heat, pour'd all together, + Would quite confound distinction, yet stand off + In differences so mighty. If she be + All that is virtuous-save what thou dislik'st, + A poor physician's daughter-thou dislik'st + Of virtue for the name; but do not so. + From lowest place when virtuous things proceed, + The place is dignified by the doer's deed; + Where great additions swell's, and virtue none, + It is a dropsied honour. Good alone + Is good without a name. Vileness is so: + The property by what it is should go, + Not by the title. She is young, wise, fair; + In these to nature she's immediate heir; + And these breed honour. That is honour's scorn + Which challenges itself as honour's born + And is not like the sire. Honours thrive + When rather from our acts we them derive + Than our fore-goers. The mere word's a slave, + Debauch'd on every tomb, on every grave + A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb + Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb + Of honour'd bones indeed. What should be said? + If thou canst like this creature as a maid, + I can create the rest. Virtue and she + Is her own dower; honour and wealth from me. + BERTRAM. I cannot love her, nor will strive to do 't. + KING. Thou wrong'st thyself, if thou shouldst strive to choose. + HELENA. That you are well restor'd, my lord, I'm glad. + Let the rest go. + KING. My honour's at the stake; which to defeat, + I must produce my power. Here, take her hand, + Proud scornful boy, unworthy this good gift, + That dost in vile misprision shackle up + My love and her desert; that canst not dream + We, poising us in her defective scale, + Shall weigh thee to the beam; that wilt not know + It is in us to plant thine honour where + We please to have it grow. Check thy contempt; + Obey our will, which travails in thy good; + Believe not thy disdain, but presently + Do thine own fortunes that obedient right + Which both thy duty owes and our power claims; + Or I will throw thee from my care for ever + Into the staggers and the careless lapse + Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate + Loosing upon thee in the name of justice, + Without all terms of pity. Speak; thine answer. + BERTRAM. Pardon, my gracious lord; for I submit + My fancy to your eyes. When I consider + What great creation and what dole of honour + Flies where you bid it, I find that she which late + Was in my nobler thoughts most base is now + The praised of the King; who, so ennobled, + Is as 'twere born so. + KING. Take her by the hand, + And tell her she is thine; to whom I promise + A counterpoise, if not to thy estate + A balance more replete. + BERTRAM. I take her hand. + KING. Good fortune and the favour of the King + Smile upon this contract; whose ceremony + Shall seem expedient on the now-born brief, + And be perform'd to-night. The solemn feast + Shall more attend upon the coming space, + Expecting absent friends. As thou lov'st her, + Thy love's to me religious; else, does err. + Exeunt all but LAFEU and PAROLLES who stay behind, + commenting of this wedding + LAFEU. Do you hear, monsieur? A word with you. + PAROLLES. Your pleasure, sir? + LAFEU. Your lord and master did well to make his recantation. + PAROLLES. Recantation! My Lord! my master! + LAFEU. Ay; is it not a language I speak? + PAROLLES. A most harsh one, and not to be understood without bloody + succeeding. My master! + LAFEU. Are you companion to the Count Rousillon? + PAROLLES. To any count; to all counts; to what is man. + LAFEU. To what is count's man: count's master is of another style. + PAROLLES. You are too old, sir; let it satisfy you, you are too + old. + LAFEU. I must tell thee, sirrah, I write man; to which title age + cannot bring thee. + PAROLLES. What I dare too well do, I dare not do. + LAFEU. I did think thee, for two ordinaries, to be a pretty wise + fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it might + pass. Yet the scarfs and the bannerets about thee did manifoldly + dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burden. I + have now found thee; when I lose thee again I care not; yet art + thou good for nothing but taking up; and that thou'rt scarce + worth. + PAROLLES. Hadst thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee- + LAFEU. Do not plunge thyself too far in anger, lest thou hasten thy + trial; which if-Lord have mercy on thee for a hen! So, my good + window of lattice, fare thee well; thy casement I need not open, + for I look through thee. Give me thy hand. + PAROLLES. My lord, you give me most egregious indignity. + LAFEU. Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it. + PAROLLES. I have not, my lord, deserv'd it. + LAFEU. Yes, good faith, ev'ry dram of it; and I will not bate thee + a scruple. + PAROLLES. Well, I shall be wiser. + LAFEU. Ev'n as soon as thou canst, for thou hast to pull at a smack + o' th' contrary. If ever thou be'st bound in thy scarf and + beaten, thou shalt find what it is to be proud of thy bondage. I + have a desire to hold my acquaintance with thee, or rather my + knowledge, that I may say in the default 'He is a man I know.' + PAROLLES. My lord, you do me most insupportable vexation. + LAFEU. I would it were hell pains for thy sake, and my poor doing + eternal; for doing I am past, as I will by thee, in what motion + age will give me leave. Exit + PAROLLES. Well, thou hast a son shall take this disgrace off me: + scurvy, old, filthy, scurvy lord! Well, I must be patient; there + is no fettering of authority. I'll beat him, by my life, if I can + meet him with any convenience, an he were double and double a + lord. I'll have no more pity of his age than I would have of- + I'll beat him, and if I could but meet him again. + + Re-enter LAFEU + + LAFEU. Sirrah, your lord and master's married; there's news for + you; you have a new mistress. + PAROLLES. I most unfeignedly beseech your lordship to make some + reservation of your wrongs. He is my good lord: whom I serve + above is my master. + LAFEU. Who? God? + PAROLLES. Ay, sir. + LAFEU. The devil it is that's thy master. Why dost thou garter up + thy arms o' this fashion? Dost make hose of thy sleeves? Do other + servants so? Thou wert best set thy lower part where thy nose + stands. By mine honour, if I were but two hours younger, I'd beat + thee. Methink'st thou art a general offence, and every man should + beat thee. I think thou wast created for men to breathe + themselves upon thee. + PAROLLES. This is hard and undeserved measure, my lord. + LAFEU. Go to, sir; you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel + out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond, and no true traveller; + you are more saucy with lords and honourable personages than the + commission of your birth and virtue gives you heraldry. You are + not worth another word, else I'd call you knave. I leave you. + Exit + + Enter BERTRAM + + PAROLLES. Good, very, good, it is so then. Good, very good; let it + be conceal'd awhile. + BERTRAM. Undone, and forfeited to cares for ever! + PAROLLES. What's the matter, sweetheart? + BERTRAM. Although before the solemn priest I have sworn, + I will not bed her. + PAROLLES. What, what, sweetheart? + BERTRAM. O my Parolles, they have married me! + I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her. + PAROLLES. France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits + The tread of a man's foot. To th' wars! + BERTRAM. There's letters from my mother; what th' import is I know + not yet. + PAROLLES. Ay, that would be known. To th' wars, my boy, to th' + wars! + He wears his honour in a box unseen + That hugs his kicky-wicky here at home, + Spending his manly marrow in her arms, + Which should sustain the bound and high curvet + Of Mars's fiery steed. To other regions! + France is a stable; we that dwell in't jades; + Therefore, to th' war! + BERTRAM. It shall be so; I'll send her to my house, + Acquaint my mother with my hate to her, + And wherefore I am fled; write to the King + That which I durst not speak. His present gift + Shall furnish me to those Italian fields + Where noble fellows strike. War is no strife + To the dark house and the detested wife. + PAROLLES. Will this capriccio hold in thee, art sure? + BERTRAM. Go with me to my chamber and advise me. + I'll send her straight away. To-morrow + I'll to the wars, she to her single sorrow. + PAROLLES. Why, these balls bound; there's noise in it. 'Tis hard: + A young man married is a man that's marr'd. + Therefore away, and leave her bravely; go. + The King has done you wrong; but, hush, 'tis so. Exeunt + + + + +ACT II. SCENE 4. +Paris. The KING'S palace + +Enter HELENA and CLOWN + + HELENA. My mother greets me kindly; is she well? + CLOWN. She is not well, but yet she has her health; she's very + merry, but yet she is not well. But thanks be given, she's very + well, and wants nothing i' th' world; but yet she is not well. + HELENA. If she be very well, what does she ail that she's not very + well? + CLOWN. Truly, she's very well indeed, but for two things. + HELENA. What two things? + CLOWN. One, that she's not in heaven, whither God send her quickly! + The other, that she's in earth, from whence God send her quickly! + + Enter PAROLLES + + PAROLLES. Bless you, my fortunate lady! + HELENA. I hope, sir, I have your good will to have mine own good + fortunes. + PAROLLES. You had my prayers to lead them on; and to keep them on, + have them still. O, my knave, how does my old lady? + CLOWN. So that you had her wrinkles and I her money, I would she + did as you say. + PAROLLES. Why, I say nothing. + CLOWN. Marry, you are the wiser man; for many a man's tongue shakes + out his master's undoing. To say nothing, to do nothing, to know + nothing, and to have nothing, is to be a great part of your + title, which is within a very little of nothing. + PAROLLES. Away! th'art a knave. + CLOWN. You should have said, sir, 'Before a knave th'art a knave'; + that's 'Before me th'art a knave.' This had been truth, sir. + PAROLLES. Go to, thou art a witty fool; I have found thee. + CLOWN. Did you find me in yourself, sir, or were you taught to find + me? The search, sir, was profitable; and much fool may you find + in you, even to the world's pleasure and the increase of + laughter. + PAROLLES. A good knave, i' faith, and well fed. + Madam, my lord will go away to-night: + A very serious business calls on him. + The great prerogative and rite of love, + Which, as your due, time claims, he does acknowledge; + But puts it off to a compell'd restraint; + Whose want, and whose delay, is strew'd with sweets, + Which they distil now in the curbed time, + To make the coming hour o'erflow with joy + And pleasure drown the brim. + HELENA. What's his else? + PAROLLES. That you will take your instant leave o' th' King, + And make this haste as your own good proceeding, + Strength'ned with what apology you think + May make it probable need. + HELENA. What more commands he? + PAROLLES. That, having this obtain'd, you presently + Attend his further pleasure. + HELENA. In everything I wait upon his will. + PAROLLES. I shall report it so. + HELENA. I pray you. Exit PAROLLES + Come, sirrah. Exeunt + + + + +ACT II. SCENE 5. +Paris. The KING'S palace + +Enter LAFEU and BERTRAM + + LAFEU. But I hope your lordship thinks not him a soldier. + BERTRAM. Yes, my lord, and of very valiant approof. + LAFEU. You have it from his own deliverance. + BERTRAM. And by other warranted testimony. + LAFEU. Then my dial goes not true; I took this lark for a bunting. + BERTRAM. I do assure you, my lord, he is very great in knowledge, + and accordingly valiant. + LAFEU. I have then sinn'd against his experience and transgress'd + against his valour; and my state that way is dangerous, since I + cannot yet find in my heart to repent. Here he comes; I pray you + make us friends; I will pursue the amity + + Enter PAROLLES + + PAROLLES. [To BERTRAM] These things shall be done, sir. + LAFEU. Pray you, sir, who's his tailor? + PAROLLES. Sir! + LAFEU. O, I know him well. Ay, sir; he, sir, 's a good workman, a + very good tailor. + BERTRAM. [Aside to PAROLLES] Is she gone to the King? + PAROLLES. She is. + BERTRAM. Will she away to-night? + PAROLLES. As you'll have her. + BERTRAM. I have writ my letters, casketed my treasure, + Given order for our horses; and to-night, + When I should take possession of the bride, + End ere I do begin. + LAFEU. A good traveller is something at the latter end of a dinner; + but one that lies three-thirds and uses a known truth to pass a + thousand nothings with, should be once heard and thrice beaten. + God save you, Captain. + BERTRAM. Is there any unkindness between my lord and you, monsieur? + PAROLLES. I know not how I have deserved to run into my lord's + displeasure. + LAFEU. You have made shift to run into 't, boots and spurs and all, + like him that leapt into the custard; and out of it you'll run + again, rather than suffer question for your residence. + BERTRAM. It may be you have mistaken him, my lord. + LAFEU. And shall do so ever, though I took him at's prayers. + Fare you well, my lord; and believe this of me: there can be no + kernal in this light nut; the soul of this man is his clothes; + trust him not in matter of heavy consequence; I have kept of them + tame, and know their natures. Farewell, monsieur; I have spoken + better of you than you have or will to deserve at my hand; but we + must do good against evil. Exit + PAROLLES. An idle lord, I swear. + BERTRAM. I think so. + PAROLLES. Why, do you not know him? + BERTRAM. Yes, I do know him well; and common speech + Gives him a worthy pass. Here comes my clog. + + Enter HELENA + + HELENA. I have, sir, as I was commanded from you, + Spoke with the King, and have procur'd his leave + For present parting; only he desires + Some private speech with you. + BERTRAM. I shall obey his will. + You must not marvel, Helen, at my course, + Which holds not colour with the time, nor does + The ministration and required office + On my particular. Prepar'd I was not + For such a business; therefore am I found + So much unsettled. This drives me to entreat you + That presently you take your way for home, + And rather muse than ask why I entreat you; + For my respects are better than they seem, + And my appointments have in them a need + Greater than shows itself at the first view + To you that know them not. This to my mother. + [Giving a letter] + 'Twill be two days ere I shall see you; so + I leave you to your wisdom. + HELENA. Sir, I can nothing say + But that I am your most obedient servant. + BERTRAM. Come, come, no more of that. + HELENA. And ever shall + With true observance seek to eke out that + Wherein toward me my homely stars have fail'd + To equal my great fortune. + BERTRAM. Let that go. + My haste is very great. Farewell; hie home. + HELENA. Pray, sir, your pardon. + BERTRAM. Well, what would you say? + HELENA. I am not worthy of the wealth I owe, + Nor dare I say 'tis mine, and yet it is; + But, like a timorous thief, most fain would steal + What law does vouch mine own. + BERTRAM. What would you have? + HELENA. Something; and scarce so much; nothing, indeed. + I would not tell you what I would, my lord. + Faith, yes: + Strangers and foes do sunder and not kiss. + BERTRAM. I pray you, stay not, but in haste to horse. + HELENA. I shall not break your bidding, good my lord. + BERTRAM. Where are my other men, monsieur? + Farewell! Exit HELENA + Go thou toward home, where I will never come + Whilst I can shake my sword or hear the drum. + Away, and for our flight. + PAROLLES. Bravely, coragio! Exeunt + + + +<> + + + + +ACT III. SCENE 1. +Florence. The DUKE's palace + + Flourish. Enter the DUKE OF FLORENCE, attended; two + FRENCH LORDS, with a TROOP OF SOLDIERS + + DUKE. So that, from point to point, now have you hear + The fundamental reasons of this war; + Whose great decision hath much blood let forth + And more thirsts after. + FIRST LORD. Holy seems the quarrel + Upon your Grace's part; black and fearful + On the opposer. + DUKE. Therefore we marvel much our cousin France + Would in so just a business shut his bosom + Against our borrowing prayers. + SECOND LORD. Good my lord, + The reasons of our state I cannot yield, + But like a common and an outward man + That the great figure of a council frames + By self-unable motion; therefore dare not + Say what I think of it, since I have found + Myself in my incertain grounds to fail + As often as I guess'd. + DUKE. Be it his pleasure. + FIRST LORD. But I am sure the younger of our nature, + That surfeit on their ease, will day by day + Come here for physic. + DUKE. Welcome shall they be + And all the honours that can fly from us + Shall on them settle. You know your places well; + When better fall, for your avails they fell. + To-morrow to th' field. Flourish. Exeunt + + + + +ACT III. SCENE 2. +Rousillon. The COUNT'S palace + +Enter COUNTESS and CLOWN + + COUNTESS. It hath happen'd all as I would have had it, save that he + comes not along with her. + CLOWN. By my troth, I take my young lord to be a very melancholy + man. + COUNTESS. By what observance, I pray you? + CLOWN. Why, he will look upon his boot and sing; mend the ruff and + sing; ask questions and sing; pick his teeth and sing. I know a + man that had this trick of melancholy sold a goodly manor for a + song. + COUNTESS. Let me see what he writes, and when he means to come. + [Opening a letter] + CLOWN. I have no mind to Isbel since I was at court. Our old ling + and our Isbels o' th' country are nothing like your old ling and + your Isbels o' th' court. The brains of my Cupid's knock'd out; + and I begin to love, as an old man loves money, with no stomach. + COUNTESS. What have we here? + CLOWN. E'en that you have there. Exit + COUNTESS. [Reads] 'I have sent you a daughter-in-law; she hath + recovered the King and undone me. I have wedded her, not bedded + her; and sworn to make the "not" eternal. You shall hear I am run + away; know it before the report come. If there be breadth enough + in the world, I will hold a long distance. My duty to you. + Your unfortunate son, + BERTRAM.' + This is not well, rash and unbridled boy, + To fly the favours of so good a king, + To pluck his indignation on thy head + By the misprizing of a maid too virtuous + For the contempt of empire. + + Re-enter CLOWN + + CLOWN. O madam, yonder is heavy news within between two soldiers + and my young lady. + COUNTESS. What is the -matter? + CLOWN. Nay, there is some comfort in the news, some comfort; your + son will not be kill'd so soon as I thought he would. + COUNTESS. Why should he be kill'd? + CLOWN. So say I, madam, if he run away, as I hear he does the + danger is in standing to 't; that's the loss of men, though it be + the getting of children. Here they come will tell you more. For my + part, I only hear your son was run away. Exit + + Enter HELENA and the two FRENCH GENTLEMEN + + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Save you, good madam. + HELENA. Madam, my lord is gone, for ever gone. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Do not say so. + COUNTESS. Think upon patience. Pray you, gentlemen- + I have felt so many quirks of joy and grief + That the first face of neither, on the start, + Can woman me unto 't. Where is my son, I pray you? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Madam, he's gone to serve the Duke of Florence. + We met him thitherward; for thence we came, + And, after some dispatch in hand at court, + Thither we bend again. + HELENA. Look on this letter, madam; here's my passport. + [Reads] 'When thou canst get the ring upon my finger, which + never shall come off, and show me a child begotten of thy body + that I am father to, then call me husband; but in such a "then" I + write a "never." + This is a dreadful sentence. + COUNTESS. Brought you this letter, gentlemen? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Ay, madam; + And for the contents' sake are sorry for our pains. + COUNTESS. I prithee, lady, have a better cheer; + If thou engrossest all the griefs are thine, + Thou robb'st me of a moiety. He was my son; + But I do wash his name out of my blood, + And thou art all my child. Towards Florence is he? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Ay, madam. + COUNTESS. And to be a soldier? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Such is his noble purpose; and, believe 't, + The Duke will lay upon him all the honour + That good convenience claims. + COUNTESS. Return you thither? + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Ay, madam, with the swiftest wing of speed. + HELENA. [Reads] 'Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France.' + 'Tis bitter. + COUNTESS. Find you that there? + HELENA. Ay, madam. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. 'Tis but the boldness of his hand haply, which + his heart was not consenting to. + COUNTESS. Nothing in France until he have no wife! + There's nothing here that is too good for him + But only she; and she deserves a lord + That twenty such rude boys might tend upon, + And call her hourly mistress. Who was with him? + SECOND GENTLEMAN. A servant only, and a gentleman + Which I have sometime known. + COUNTESS. Parolles, was it not? + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Ay, my good lady, he. + COUNTESS. A very tainted fellow, and full of wickedness. + My son corrupts a well-derived nature + With his inducement. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Indeed, good lady, + The fellow has a deal of that too much + Which holds him much to have. + COUNTESS. Y'are welcome, gentlemen. + I will entreat you, when you see my son, + To tell him that his sword can never win + The honour that he loses. More I'll entreat you + Written to bear along. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. We serve you, madam, + In that and all your worthiest affairs. + COUNTESS. Not so, but as we change our courtesies. + Will you draw near? Exeunt COUNTESS and GENTLEMEN + HELENA. 'Till I have no wife, I have nothing in France.' + Nothing in France until he has no wife! + Thou shalt have none, Rousillon, none in France + Then hast thou all again. Poor lord! is't + That chase thee from thy country, and expose + Those tender limbs of thine to the event + Of the non-sparing war? And is it I + That drive thee from the sportive court, where thou + Wast shot at with fair eyes, to be the mark + Of smoky muskets? O you leaden messengers, + That ride upon the violent speed of fire, + Fly with false aim; move the still-piecing air, + That sings with piercing; do not touch my lord. + Whoever shoots at him, I set him there; + Whoever charges on his forward breast, + I am the caitiff that do hold him to't; + And though I kill him not, I am the cause + His death was so effected. Better 'twere + I met the ravin lion when he roar'd + With sharp constraint of hunger; better 'twere + That all the miseries which nature owes + Were mine at once. No; come thou home, Rousillon, + Whence honour but of danger wins a scar, + As oft it loses all. I will be gone. + My being here it is that holds thee hence. + Shall I stay here to do 't? No, no, although + The air of paradise did fan the house, + And angels offic'd all. I will be gone, + That pitiful rumour may report my flight + To consolate thine ear. Come, night; end, day. + For with the dark, poor thief, I'll steal away. Exit + + + + +ACT III. SCENE 3. +Florence. Before the DUKE's palace + +Flourish. Enter the DUKE OF FLORENCE, BERTRAM, PAROLLES, SOLDIERS, +drum and trumpets + + DUKE. The General of our Horse thou art; and we, + Great in our hope, lay our best love and credence + Upon thy promising fortune. + BERTRAM. Sir, it is + A charge too heavy for my strength; but yet + We'll strive to bear it for your worthy sake + To th' extreme edge of hazard. + DUKE. Then go thou forth; + And Fortune play upon thy prosperous helm, + As thy auspicious mistress! + BERTRAM. This very day, + Great Mars, I put myself into thy file; + Make me but like my thoughts, and I shall prove + A lover of thy drum, hater of love. Exeunt + + + + +ACT III. SCENE 4. +Rousillon. The COUNT'S palace + +Enter COUNTESS and STEWARD + + COUNTESS. Alas! and would you take the letter of her? + Might you not know she would do as she has done + By sending me a letter? Read it again. + STEWARD. [Reads] 'I am Saint Jaques' pilgrim, thither gone. + Ambitious love hath so in me offended + That barefoot plod I the cold ground upon, + With sainted vow my faults to have amended. + Write, write, that from the bloody course of war + My dearest master, your dear son, may hie. + Bless him at home in peace, whilst I from far + His name with zealous fervour sanctify. + His taken labours bid him me forgive; + I, his despiteful Juno, sent him forth + From courtly friends, with camping foes to live, + Where death and danger dogs the heels of worth. + He is too good and fair for death and me; + Whom I myself embrace to set him free.' + COUNTESS. Ah, what sharp stings are in her mildest words! + Rinaldo, you did never lack advice so much + As letting her pass so; had I spoke with her, + I could have well diverted her intents, + Which thus she hath prevented. + STEWARD. Pardon me, madam; + If I had given you this at over-night, + She might have been o'er ta'en; and yet she writes + Pursuit would be but vain. + COUNTESS. What angel shall + Bless this unworthy husband? He cannot thrive, + Unless her prayers, whom heaven delights to hear + And loves to grant, reprieve him from the wrath + Of greatest justice. Write, write, Rinaldo, + To this unworthy husband of his wife; + Let every word weigh heavy of her worth + That he does weigh too light. My greatest grief, + Though little he do feel it, set down sharply. + Dispatch the most convenient messenger. + When haply he shall hear that she is gone + He will return; and hope I may that she, + Hearing so much, will speed her foot again, + Led hither by pure love. Which of them both + Is dearest to me I have no skill in sense + To make distinction. Provide this messenger. + My heart is heavy, and mine age is weak; + Grief would have tears, and sorrow bids me speak. Exeunt + + + + +ACT III. SCENE 5. + +Without the walls of Florence +A tucket afar off. Enter an old WIDOW OF FLORENCE, her daughter DIANA, +VIOLENTA, and MARIANA, with other CITIZENS + + WIDOW. Nay, come; for if they do approach the city we shall lose + all the sight. + DIANA. They say the French count has done most honourable service. + WIDOW. It is reported that he has taken their great'st commander; + and that with his own hand he slew the Duke's brother. [Tucket] + We have lost our labour; they are gone a contrary way. Hark! you + may know by their trumpets. + MARIANA. Come, let's return again, and suffice ourselves with the + report of it. Well, Diana, take heed of this French earl; the + honour of a maid is her name, and no legacy is so rich as + honesty. + WIDOW. I have told my neighbour how you have been solicited by a + gentleman his companion. + MARIANA. I know that knave, hang him! one Parolles; a filthy + officer he is in those suggestions for the young earl. Beware of + them, Diana: their promises, enticements, oaths, tokens, and all + these engines of lust, are not the things they go under; many a + maid hath been seduced by them; and the misery is, example, that + so terrible shows in the wreck of maidenhood, cannot for all that + dissuade succession, but that they are limed with the twigs that + threatens them. I hope I need not to advise you further; but I + hope your own grace will keep you where you are, though there + were no further danger known but the modesty which is so lost. + DIANA. You shall not need to fear me. + + Enter HELENA in the dress of a pilgrim + + WIDOW. I hope so. Look, here comes a pilgrim. I know she will lie + at my house: thither they send one another. I'll question her. + God save you, pilgrim! Whither are bound? + HELENA. To Saint Jaques le Grand. + Where do the palmers lodge, I do beseech you? + WIDOW. At the Saint Francis here, beside the port. + HELENA. Is this the way? + [A march afar] + WIDOW. Ay, marry, is't. Hark you! They come this way. + If you will tarry, holy pilgrim, + But till the troops come by, + I will conduct you where you shall be lodg'd; + The rather for I think I know your hostess + As ample as myself. + HELENA. Is it yourself? + WIDOW. If you shall please so, pilgrim. + HELENA. I thank you, and will stay upon your leisure. + WIDOW. You came, I think, from France? + HELENA. I did so. + WIDOW. Here you shall see a countryman of yours + That has done worthy service. + HELENA. His name, I pray you. + DIANA. The Count Rousillon. Know you such a one? + HELENA. But by the ear, that hears most nobly of him; + His face I know not. + DIANA. What some'er he is, + He's bravely taken here. He stole from France, + As 'tis reported, for the King had married him + Against his liking. Think you it is so? + HELENA. Ay, surely, mere the truth; I know his lady. + DIANA. There is a gentleman that serves the Count + Reports but coarsely of her. + HELENA. What's his name? + DIANA. Monsieur Parolles. + HELENA. O, I believe with him, + In argument of praise, or to the worth + Of the great Count himself, she is too mean + To have her name repeated; all her deserving + Is a reserved honesty, and that + I have not heard examin'd. + DIANA. Alas, poor lady! + 'Tis a hard bondage to become the wife + Of a detesting lord. + WIDOW. I sweet, good creature, wheresoe'er she is + Her heart weighs sadly. This young maid might do her + A shrewd turn, if she pleas'd. + HELENA. How do you mean? + May be the amorous Count solicits her + In the unlawful purpose. + WIDOW. He does, indeed; + And brokes with all that can in such a suit + Corrupt the tender honour of a maid; + But she is arm'd for him, and keeps her guard + In honestest defence. + + Enter, with drum and colours, BERTRAM, PAROLLES, and the + whole ARMY + + MARIANA. The gods forbid else! + WIDOW. So, now they come. + That is Antonio, the Duke's eldest son; + That, Escalus. + HELENA. Which is the Frenchman? + DIANA. He- + That with the plume; 'tis a most gallant fellow. + I would he lov'd his wife; if he were honester + He were much goodlier. Is't not a handsome gentleman? + HELENA. I like him well. + DIANA. 'Tis pity he is not honest. Yond's that same knave + That leads him to these places; were I his lady + I would poison that vile rascal. + HELENA. Which is he? + DIANA. That jack-an-apes with scarfs. Why is he melancholy? + HELENA. Perchance he's hurt i' th' battle. + PAROLLES. Lose our drum! well. + MARIANA. He's shrewdly vex'd at something. + Look, he has spied us. + WIDOW. Marry, hang you! + MARIANA. And your courtesy, for a ring-carrier! + Exeunt BERTRAM, PAROLLES, and ARMY + WIDOW. The troop is past. Come, pilgrim, I will bring you + Where you shall host. Of enjoin'd penitents + There's four or five, to great Saint Jaques bound, + Already at my house. + HELENA. I humbly thank you. + Please it this matron and this gentle maid + To eat with us to-night; the charge and thanking + Shall be for me, and, to requite you further, + I will bestow some precepts of this virgin, + Worthy the note. + BOTH. We'll take your offer kindly. Exeunt + + + + +ACT III. SCENE 6. +Camp before Florence + +Enter BERTRAM, and the two FRENCH LORDS + + SECOND LORD. Nay, good my lord, put him to't; let him have his way. + FIRST LORD. If your lordship find him not a hiding, hold me no more + in your respect. + SECOND LORD. On my life, my lord, a bubble. + BERTRAM. Do you think I am so far deceived in him? + SECOND LORD. Believe it, my lord, in mine own direct knowledge, + without any malice, but to speak of him as my kinsman, he's a + most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly + promise-breaker, the owner of no one good quality worthy your + lordship's entertainment. + FIRST LORD. It were fit you knew him; lest, reposing too far in his + virtue, which he hath not, he might at some great and trusty + business in a main danger fail you. + BERTRAM. I would I knew in what particular action to try him. + FIRST LORD. None better than to let him fetch off his drum, which + you hear him so confidently undertake to do. + SECOND LORD. I with a troop of Florentines will suddenly surprise + him; such I will have whom I am sure he knows not from the enemy. + We will bind and hoodwink him so that he shall suppose no other + but that he is carried into the leaguer of the adversaries when + we bring him to our own tents. Be but your lordship present at + his examination; if he do not, for the promise of his life and in + the highest compulsion of base fear, offer to betray you and + deliver all the intelligence in his power against you, and that + with the divine forfeit of his soul upon oath, never trust my + judgment in anything. + FIRST LORD. O, for the love of laughter, let him fetch his drum; he + says he has a stratagem for't. When your lordship sees the bottom + of his success in't, and to what metal this counterfeit lump of + ore will be melted, if you give him not John Drum's + entertainment, your inclining cannot be removed. Here he comes. + + Enter PAROLLES + + SECOND LORD. O, for the love of laughter, hinder not the honour of + his design; let him fetch off his drum in any hand. + BERTRAM. How now, monsieur! This drum sticks sorely in your + disposition. + FIRST LORD. A pox on 't; let it go; 'tis but a drum. + PAROLLES. But a drum! Is't but a drum? A drum so lost! There was + excellent command: to charge in with our horse upon our own + wings, and to rend our own soldiers! + FIRST LORD. That was not to be blam'd in the command of the + service; it was a disaster of war that Caesar himself could not + have prevented, if he had been there to command. + BERTRAM. Well, we cannot greatly condemn our success. + Some dishonour we had in the loss of that drum; but it is not to + be recovered. + PAROLLES. It might have been recovered. + BERTRAM. It might, but it is not now. + PAROLLES. It is to be recovered. But that the merit of service is + seldom attributed to the true and exact performer, I would have + that drum or another, or 'hic jacet.' + BERTRAM. Why, if you have a stomach, to't, monsieur. If you think + your mystery in stratagem can bring this instrument of honour + again into his native quarter, be magnanimous in the enterprise, + and go on; I will grace the attempt for a worthy exploit. If you + speed well in it, the Duke shall both speak of it and extend to + you what further becomes his greatness, even to the utmost + syllable of our worthiness. + PAROLLES. By the hand of a soldier, I will undertake it. + BERTRAM. But you must not now slumber in it. + PAROLLES. I'll about it this evening; and I will presently pen + down my dilemmas, encourage myself in my certainty, put myself + into my mortal preparation; and by midnight look to hear further + from me. + BERTRAM. May I be bold to acquaint his Grace you are gone about it? + PAROLLES. I know not what the success will be, my lord, but the + attempt I vow. + BERTRAM. I know th' art valiant; and, to the of thy soldiership, + will subscribe for thee. Farewell. + PAROLLES. I love not many words. Exit + SECOND LORD. No more than a fish loves water. Is not this a strange + fellow, my lord, that so confidently seems to undertake this + business, which he knows is not to be done; damns himself to do, + and dares better be damn'd than to do 't. + FIRST LORD. You do not know him, my lord, as we do. Certain it is + that he will steal himself into a man's favour, and for a week + escape a great deal of discoveries; but when you find him out, + you have him ever after. + BERTRAM. Why, do you think he will make no deed at all of this that + so seriously he does address himself unto? + SECOND LORD. None in the world; but return with an invention, and + clap upon you two or three probable lies. But we have almost + emboss'd him. You shall see his fall to-night; for indeed he is + not for your lordship's respect. + FIRST LORD. We'll make you some sport with the fox ere we case him. + He was first smok'd by the old Lord Lafeu. When his disguise and + he is parted, tell me what a sprat you shall find him; which you + shall see this very night. + SECOND LORD. I must go look my twigs; he shall be caught. + BERTRAM. Your brother, he shall go along with me. + SECOND LORD. As't please your lordship. I'll leave you. Exit + BERTRAM. Now will I lead you to the house, and show you + The lass I spoke of. + FIRST LORD. But you say she's honest. + BERTRAM. That's all the fault. I spoke with her but once, + And found her wondrous cold; but I sent to her, + By this same coxcomb that we have i' th' wind, + Tokens and letters which she did re-send; + And this is all I have done. She's a fair creature; + Will you go see her? + FIRST LORD. With all my heart, my lord. Exeunt + + + + +ACT III. SCENE 7. +Florence. The WIDOW'S house + +Enter HELENA and WIDOW + + HELENA. If you misdoubt me that I am not she, + I know not how I shall assure you further + But I shall lose the grounds I work upon. + WIDOW. Though my estate be fall'n, I was well born, + Nothing acquainted with these businesses; + And would not put my reputation now + In any staining act. + HELENA. Nor would I wish you. + FIRST give me trust the Count he is my husband, + And what to your sworn counsel I have spoken + Is so from word to word; and then you cannot, + By the good aid that I of you shall borrow, + Err in bestowing it. + WIDOW. I should believe you; + For you have show'd me that which well approves + Y'are great in fortune. + HELENA. Take this purse of gold, + And let me buy your friendly help thus far, + Which I will over-pay and pay again + When I have found it. The Count he woos your daughter + Lays down his wanton siege before her beauty, + Resolv'd to carry her. Let her in fine consent, + As we'll direct her how 'tis best to bear it. + Now his important blood will nought deny + That she'll demand. A ring the County wears + That downward hath succeeded in his house + From son to son some four or five descents + Since the first father wore it. This ring he holds + In most rich choice; yet, in his idle fire, + To buy his will, it would not seem too dear, + Howe'er repented after. + WIDOW. Now I see + The bottom of your purpose. + HELENA. You see it lawful then. It is no more + But that your daughter, ere she seems as won, + Desires this ring; appoints him an encounter; + In fine, delivers me to fill the time, + Herself most chastely absent. After this, + To marry her, I'll add three thousand crowns + To what is pass'd already. + WIDOW. I have yielded. + Instruct my daughter how she shall persever, + That time and place with this deceit so lawful + May prove coherent. Every night he comes + With musics of all sorts, and songs compos'd + To her unworthiness. It nothing steads us + To chide him from our eaves, for he persists + As if his life lay on 't. + HELENA. Why then to-night + Let us assay our plot; which, if it speed, + Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed, + And lawful meaning in a lawful act; + Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact. + But let's about it. Exeunt + + + +<> + + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 1. +Without the Florentine camp + +Enter SECOND FRENCH LORD with five or six other SOLDIERS in ambush + + SECOND LORD. He can come no other way but by this hedge-corner. + When you sally upon him, speak what terrible language you will; + though you understand it not yourselves, no matter; for we must + not seem to understand him, unless some one among us, whom we + must produce for an interpreter. + FIRST SOLDIER. Good captain, let me be th' interpreter. + SECOND LORD. Art not acquainted with him? Knows he not thy voice? + FIRST SOLDIER. No, sir, I warrant you. + SECOND LORD. But what linsey-woolsey has thou to speak to us again? + FIRST SOLDIER. E'en such as you speak to me. + SECOND LORD. He must think us some band of strangers i' th' + adversary's entertainment. Now he hath a smack of all + neighbouring languages, therefore we must every one be a man of + his own fancy; not to know what we speak one to another, so we + seem to know, is to know straight our purpose: choughs' language, + gabble enough, and good enough. As for you, interpreter, you must + seem very politic. But couch, ho! here he comes; to beguile two + hours in a sleep, and then to return and swear the lies he forges. + + Enter PAROLLES + + PAROLLES. Ten o'clock. Within these three hours 'twill be time + enough to go home. What shall I say I have done? It must be a + very plausive invention that carries it. They begin to smoke me; + and disgraces have of late knock'd to often at my door. I find my + tongue is too foolhardy; but my heart hath the fear of Mars + before it, and of his creatures, not daring the reports of my + tongue. + SECOND LORD. This is the first truth that e'er thine own tongue was + guilty of. + PAROLLES. What the devil should move me to undertake the recovery + of this drum, being not ignorant of the impossibility, and + knowing I had no such purpose? I must give myself some hurts, and + say I got them in exploit. Yet slight ones will not carry it. + They will say 'Came you off with so little?' And great ones I + dare not give. Wherefore, what's the instance? Tongue, I must put + you into a butterwoman's mouth, and buy myself another of + Bajazet's mule, if you prattle me into these perils. + SECOND LORD. Is it possible he should know what he is, and be that + he is? + PAROLLES. I would the cutting of my garments would serve the turn, + or the breaking of my Spanish sword. + SECOND LORD. We cannot afford you so. + PAROLLES. Or the baring of my beard; and to say it was in + stratagem. + SECOND LORD. 'Twould not do. + PAROLLES. Or to drown my clothes, and say I was stripp'd. + SECOND LORD. Hardly serve. + PAROLLES. Though I swore I leap'd from the window of the citadel- + SECOND LORD. How deep? + PAROLLES. Thirty fathom. + SECOND LORD. Three great oaths would scarce make that be believed. + PAROLLES. I would I had any drum of the enemy's; I would swear I + recover'd it. + SECOND LORD. You shall hear one anon. [Alarum within] + PAROLLES. A drum now of the enemy's! + SECOND LORD. Throca movousus, cargo, cargo, cargo. + ALL. Cargo, cargo, cargo, villianda par corbo, cargo. + PAROLLES. O, ransom, ransom! Do not hide mine eyes. + [They blindfold him] + FIRST SOLDIER. Boskos thromuldo boskos. + PAROLLES. I know you are the Muskos' regiment, + And I shall lose my life for want of language. + If there be here German, or Dane, Low Dutch, + Italian, or French, let him speak to me; + I'll discover that which shall undo the Florentine. + FIRST SOLDIER. Boskos vauvado. I understand thee, and can speak thy + tongue. Kerely-bonto, sir, betake thee to thy faith, for + seventeen poniards are at thy bosom. + PAROLLES. O! + FIRST SOLDIER. O, pray, pray, pray! Manka revania dulche. + SECOND LORD. Oscorbidulchos volivorco. + FIRST SOLDIER. The General is content to spare thee yet; + And, hoodwink'd as thou art, will lead thee on + To gather from thee. Haply thou mayst inform + Something to save thy life. + PAROLLES. O, let me live, + And all the secrets of our camp I'll show, + Their force, their purposes. Nay, I'll speak that + Which you will wonder at. + FIRST SOLDIER. But wilt thou faithfully? + PAROLLES. If I do not, damn me. + FIRST SOLDIER. Acordo linta. + Come on; thou art granted space. + Exit, PAROLLES guarded. A short alarum within + SECOND LORD. Go, tell the Count Rousillon and my brother + We have caught the woodcock, and will keep him muffled + Till we do hear from them. + SECOND SOLDIER. Captain, I will. + SECOND LORD. 'A will betray us all unto ourselves- + Inform on that. + SECOND SOLDIER. So I will, sir. + SECOND LORD. Till then I'll keep him dark and safely lock'd. + Exeunt + + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 2. +Florence. The WIDOW'S house + +Enter BERTRAM and DIANA + + BERTRAM. They told me that your name was Fontibell. + DIANA. No, my good lord, Diana. + BERTRAM. Titled goddess; + And worth it, with addition! But, fair soul, + In your fine frame hath love no quality? + If the quick fire of youth light not your mind, + You are no maiden, but a monument; + When you are dead, you should be such a one + As you are now, for you are cold and stern; + And now you should be as your mother was + When your sweet self was got. + DIANA. She then was honest. + BERTRAM. So should you be. + DIANA. No. + My mother did but duty; such, my lord, + As you owe to your wife. + BERTRAM. No more o'that! + I prithee do not strive against my vows. + I was compell'd to her; but I love the + By love's own sweet constraint, and will for ever + Do thee all rights of service. + DIANA. Ay, so you serve us + Till we serve you; but when you have our roses + You barely leave our thorns to prick ourselves, + And mock us with our bareness. + BERTRAM. How have I sworn! + DIANA. 'Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth, + But the plain single vow that is vow'd true. + What is not holy, that we swear not by, + But take the High'st to witness. Then, pray you, tell me: + If I should swear by Jove's great attributes + I lov'd you dearly, would you believe my oaths + When I did love you ill? This has no holding, + To swear by him whom I protest to love + That I will work against him. Therefore your oaths + Are words and poor conditions, but unseal'd- + At least in my opinion. + BERTRAM. Change it, change it; + Be not so holy-cruel. Love is holy; + And my integrity ne'er knew the crafts + That you do charge men with. Stand no more off, + But give thyself unto my sick desires, + Who then recovers. Say thou art mine, and ever + My love as it begins shall so persever. + DIANA. I see that men make ropes in such a scarre + That we'll forsake ourselves. Give me that ring. + BERTRAM. I'll lend it thee, my dear, but have no power + To give it from me. + DIANA. Will you not, my lord? + BERTRAM. It is an honour 'longing to our house, + Bequeathed down from many ancestors; + Which were the greatest obloquy i' th' world + In me to lose. + DIANA. Mine honour's such a ring: + My chastity's the jewel of our house, + Bequeathed down from many ancestors; + Which were the greatest obloquy i' th' world + In me to lose. Thus your own proper wisdom + Brings in the champion Honour on my part + Against your vain assault. + BERTRAM. Here, take my ring; + My house, mine honour, yea, my life, be thine, + And I'll be bid by thee. + DIANA. When midnight comes, knock at my chamber window; + I'll order take my mother shall not hear. + Now will I charge you in the band of truth, + When you have conquer'd my yet maiden bed, + Remain there but an hour, nor speak to me: + My reasons are most strong; and you shall know them + When back again this ring shall be deliver'd. + And on your finger in the night I'll put + Another ring, that what in time proceeds + May token to the future our past deeds. + Adieu till then; then fail not. You have won + A wife of me, though there my hope be done. + BERTRAM. A heaven on earth I have won by wooing thee. + Exit + DIANA. For which live long to thank both heaven and me! + You may so in the end. + My mother told me just how he would woo, + As if she sat in's heart; she says all men + Have the like oaths. He had sworn to marry me + When his wife's dead; therefore I'll lie with him + When I am buried. Since Frenchmen are so braid, + Marry that will, I live and die a maid. + Only, in this disguise, I think't no sin + To cozen him that would unjustly win. Exit + + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 3. +The Florentine camp + +Enter the two FRENCH LORDS, and two or three SOLDIERS + + SECOND LORD. You have not given him his mother's letter? + FIRST LORD. I have deliv'red it an hour since. There is something + in't that stings his nature; for on the reading it he chang'd + almost into another man. + SECOND LORD. He has much worthy blame laid upon him for shaking off + so good a wife and so sweet a lady. + FIRST LORD. Especially he hath incurred the everlasting displeasure + of the King, who had even tun'd his bounty to sing happiness to + him. I will tell you a thing, but you shall let it dwell darkly + with you. + SECOND LORD. When you have spoken it, 'tis dead, and I am the grave + of it. + FIRST LORD. He hath perverted a young gentlewoman here in Florence, + of a most chaste renown; and this night he fleshes his will in + the spoil of her honour. He hath given her his monumental ring, + and thinks himself made in the unchaste composition. + SECOND LORD. Now, God delay our rebellion! As we are ourselves, + what things are we! + FIRST LORD. Merely our own traitors. And as in the common course of + all treasons we still see them reveal themselves till they attain + to their abhorr'd ends; so he that in this action contrives + against his own nobility, in his proper stream, o'erflows + himself. + SECOND LORD. Is it not meant damnable in us to be trumpeters of our + unlawful intents? We shall not then have his company to-night? + FIRST LORD. Not till after midnight; for he is dieted to his hour. + SECOND LORD. That approaches apace. I would gladly have him see his + company anatomiz'd, that he might take a measure of his own + judgments, wherein so curiously he had set this counterfeit. + FIRST LORD. We will not meddle with him till he come; for his + presence must be the whip of the other. + SECOND LORD. In the meantime, what hear you of these wars? + FIRST LORD. I hear there is an overture of peace. + SECOND LORD. Nay, I assure you, a peace concluded. + FIRST LORD. What will Count Rousillon do then? Will he travel + higher, or return again into France? + SECOND LORD. I perceive, by this demand, you are not altogether + of his counsel. + FIRST LORD. Let it be forbid, sir! So should I be a great deal + of his act. + SECOND LORD. Sir, his wife, some two months since, fled from his + house. Her pretence is a pilgrimage to Saint Jaques le Grand; + which holy undertaking with most austere sanctimony she + accomplish'd; and, there residing, the tenderness of her nature + became as a prey to her grief; in fine, made a groan of her last + breath, and now she sings in heaven. + FIRST LORD. How is this justified? + SECOND LORD. The stronger part of it by her own letters, which + makes her story true even to the point of her death. Her death + itself, which could not be her office to say is come, was + faithfully confirm'd by the rector of the place. + FIRST LORD. Hath the Count all this intelligence? + SECOND LORD. Ay, and the particular confirmations, point from + point, to the full arming of the verity. + FIRST LORD. I am heartily sorry that he'll be glad of this. + SECOND LORD. How mightily sometimes we make us comforts of our + losses! + FIRST LORD. And how mightily some other times we drown our gain in + tears! The great dignity that his valour hath here acquir'd for + him shall at home be encount'red with a shame as ample. + SECOND LORD. The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill + together. Our virtues would be proud if our faults whipt them + not; and our crimes would despair if they were not cherish'd by + our virtues. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + How now? Where's your master? + SERVANT. He met the Duke in the street, sir; of whom he hath taken + a solemn leave. His lordship will next morning for France. The + Duke hath offered him letters of commendations to the King. + SECOND LORD. They shall be no more than needful there, if they were + more than they can commend. + FIRST LORD. They cannot be too sweet for the King's tartness. + Here's his lordship now. + + Enter BERTRAM + + How now, my lord, is't not after midnight? + BERTRAM. I have to-night dispatch'd sixteen businesses, a month's + length apiece; by an abstract of success: I have congied with the + Duke, done my adieu with his nearest; buried a wife, mourn'd for + her; writ to my lady mother I am returning; entertain'd my + convoy; and between these main parcels of dispatch effected many + nicer needs. The last was the greatest, but that I have not ended + yet. + SECOND LORD. If the business be of any difficulty and this morning + your departure hence, it requires haste of your lordship. + BERTRAM. I mean the business is not ended, as fearing to hear of it + hereafter. But shall we have this dialogue between the Fool and + the Soldier? Come, bring forth this counterfeit module has + deceiv'd me like a double-meaning prophesier. + SECOND LORD. Bring him forth. [Exeunt SOLDIERS] Has sat i' th' + stocks all night, poor gallant knave. + BERTRAM. No matter; his heels have deserv'd it, in usurping his + spurs so long. How does he carry himself? + SECOND LORD. I have told your lordship already the stocks carry + him. But to answer you as you would be understood: he weeps like + a wench that had shed her milk; he hath confess'd himself to + Morgan, whom he supposes to be a friar, from the time of his + remembrance to this very instant disaster of his setting i' th' + stocks. And what think you he hath confess'd? + BERTRAM. Nothing of me, has 'a? + SECOND LORD. His confession is taken, and it shall be read to his + face; if your lordship be in't, as I believe you are, you must + have the patience to hear it. + + Enter PAROLLES guarded, and + FIRST SOLDIER as interpreter + + BERTRAM. A plague upon him! muffled! He can say nothing of me. + SECOND LORD. Hush, hush! Hoodman comes. Portotartarossa. + FIRST SOLDIER. He calls for the tortures. What will you say without + 'em? + PAROLLES. I will confess what I know without constraint; if ye + pinch me like a pasty, I can say no more. + FIRST SOLDIER. Bosko chimurcho. + SECOND LORD. Boblibindo chicurmurco. + FIRST SOLDIER. YOU are a merciful general. Our General bids you + answer to what I shall ask you out of a note. + PAROLLES. And truly, as I hope to live. + FIRST SOLDIER. 'First demand of him how many horse the Duke is + strong.' What say you to that? + PAROLLES. Five or six thousand; but very weak and unserviceable. + The troops are all scattered, and the commanders very poor + rogues, upon my reputation and credit, and as I hope to live. + FIRST SOLDIER. Shall I set down your answer so? + PAROLLES. Do; I'll take the sacrament on 't, how and which way you + will. + BERTRAM. All's one to him. What a past-saving slave is this! + SECOND LORD. Y'are deceiv'd, my lord; this is Monsieur Parolles, + the gallant militarist-that was his own phrase-that had the whole + theoric of war in the knot of his scarf, and the practice in the + chape of his dagger. + FIRST LORD. I will never trust a man again for keeping his sword + clean; nor believe he can have everything in him by wearing his + apparel neatly. + FIRST SOLDIER. Well, that's set down. + PAROLLES. 'Five or six thousand horse' I said-I will say true- 'or + thereabouts' set down, for I'll speak truth. + SECOND LORD. He's very near the truth in this. + BERTRAM. But I con him no thanks for't in the nature he delivers it. + PAROLLES. 'Poor rogues' I pray you say. + FIRST SOLDIER. Well, that's set down. + PAROLLES. I humbly thank you, sir. A truth's a truth-the rogues are + marvellous poor. + FIRST SOLDIER. 'Demand of him of what strength they are a-foot.' + What say you to that? + PAROLLES. By my troth, sir, if I were to live this present hour, I + will tell true. Let me see: Spurio, a hundred and fifty; + Sebastian, so many; Corambus, so many; Jaques, so many; Guiltian, + Cosmo, Lodowick, and Gratii, two hundred fifty each; mine own + company, Chitopher, Vaumond, Bentii, two hundred fifty each; so + that the muster-file, rotten and sound, upon my life, amounts not + to fifteen thousand poll; half of the which dare not shake the + snow from off their cassocks lest they shake themselves to + pieces. + BERTRAM. What shall be done to him? + SECOND LORD. Nothing, but let him have thanks. Demand of him my + condition, and what credit I have with the Duke. + FIRST SOLDIER. Well, that's set down. 'You shall demand of him + whether one Captain Dumain be i' th' camp, a Frenchman; what his + reputation is with the Duke, what his valour, honesty, expertness + in wars; or whether he thinks it were not possible, with + well-weighing sums of gold, to corrupt him to a revolt.' What say + you to this? What do you know of it? + PAROLLES. I beseech you, let me answer to the particular of the + inter'gatories. Demand them singly. + FIRST SOLDIER. Do you know this Captain Dumain? + PAROLLES. I know him: 'a was a botcher's prentice in Paris, from + whence he was whipt for getting the shrieve's fool with child-a + dumb innocent that could not say him nay. + BERTRAM. Nay, by your leave, hold your hands; though I know his + brains are forfeit to the next tile that falls. + FIRST SOLDIER. Well, is this captain in the Duke of Florence's + camp? + PAROLLES. Upon my knowledge, he is, and lousy. + SECOND LORD. Nay, look not so upon me; we shall hear of your + lordship anon. + FIRST SOLDIER. What is his reputation with the Duke? + PAROLLES. The Duke knows him for no other but a poor officer of + mine; and writ to me this other day to turn him out o' th' band. + I think I have his letter in my pocket. + FIRST SOLDIER. Marry, we'll search. + PAROLLES. In good sadness, I do not know; either it is there or it + is upon a file with the Duke's other letters in my tent. + FIRST SOLDIER. Here 'tis; here's a paper. Shall I read it to you? + PAROLLES. I do not know if it be it or no. + BERTRAM. Our interpreter does it well. + SECOND LORD. Excellently. + FIRST SOLDIER. [Reads] 'Dian, the Count's a fool, and full of + gold.' + PAROLLES. That is not the Duke's letter, sir; that is an + advertisement to a proper maid in Florence, one Diana, to take + heed of the allurement of one Count Rousillon, a foolish idle + boy, but for all that very ruttish. I pray you, sir, put it up + again. + FIRST SOLDIER. Nay, I'll read it first by your favour. + PAROLLES. My meaning in't, I protest, was very honest in the behalf + of the maid; for I knew the young Count to be a dangerous and + lascivious boy, who is a whale to virginity, and devours up all + the fry it finds. + BERTRAM. Damnable both-sides rogue! + FIRST SOLDIER. [Reads] + 'When he swears oaths, bid him drop gold, and take it; + After he scores, he never pays the score. + Half won is match well made; match, and well make it; + He ne'er pays after-debts, take it before. + And say a soldier, Dian, told thee this: + Men are to mell with, boys are not to kiss; + For count of this, the Count's a fool, I know it, + Who pays before, but not when he does owe it. + Thine, as he vow'd to thee in thine ear, + PAROLLES.' + BERTRAM. He shall be whipt through the army with this rhyme in's + forehead. + FIRST LORD. This is your devoted friend, sir, the manifold + linguist, and the amnipotent soldier. + BERTRAM. I could endure anything before but a cat, and now he's a + cat to me. + FIRST SOLDIER. I perceive, sir, by our General's looks we shall be + fain to hang you. + PAROLLES. My life, sir, in any case! Not that I am afraid to die, + but that, my offences being many, I would repent out the + remainder of nature. Let me live, sir, in a dungeon, i' th' + stocks, or anywhere, so I may live. + FIRST SOLDIER. We'll see what may be done, so you confess freely; + therefore, once more to this Captain Dumain: you have answer'd to + his reputation with the Duke, and to his valour; what is his + honesty? + PAROLLES. He will steal, sir, an egg out of a cloister; for rapes + and ravishments he parallels Nessus. He professes not keeping of + oaths; in breaking 'em he is stronger than Hercules. He will lie, + sir, with such volubility that you would think truth were a fool. + Drunkenness is his best virtue, for he will be swine-drunk; and + in his sleep he does little harm, save to his bedclothes about + him; but they know his conditions and lay him in straw. I have + but little more to say, sir, of his honesty. He has everything + that an honest man should not have; what an honest man should + have he has nothing. + SECOND LORD. I begin to love him for this. + BERTRAM. For this description of thine honesty? A pox upon him! For + me, he's more and more a cat. + FIRST SOLDIER. What say you to his expertness in war? + PAROLLES. Faith, sir, has led the drum before the English + tragedians-to belie him I will not-and more of his soldier-ship + I know not, except in that country he had the honour to be the + officer at a place there called Mile-end to instruct for the + doubling of files-I would do the man what honour I can-but of + this I am not certain. + SECOND LORD. He hath out-villain'd villainy so far that the rarity + redeems him. + BERTRAM. A pox on him! he's a cat still. + FIRST SOLDIER. His qualities being at this poor price, I need not + to ask you if gold will corrupt him to revolt. + PAROLLES. Sir, for a cardecue he will sell the fee-simple of his + salvation, the inheritance of it; and cut th' entail from all + remainders and a perpetual succession for it perpetually. + FIRST SOLDIER. What's his brother, the other Captain Dumain? + FIRST LORD. Why does he ask him of me? + FIRST SOLDIER. What's he? + PAROLLES. E'en a crow o' th' same nest; not altogether so great as + the first in goodness, but greater a great deal in evil. He + excels his brother for a coward; yet his brother is reputed one + of the best that is. In a retreat he outruns any lackey: marry, + in coming on he has the cramp. + FIRST SOLDIER. If your life be saved, will you undertake to betray + the Florentine? + PAROLLES. Ay, and the Captain of his Horse, Count Rousillon. + FIRST SOLDIER. I'll whisper with the General, and know his + pleasure. + PAROLLES. [Aside] I'll no more drumming. A plague of all drums! + Only to seem to deserve well, and to beguile the supposition of + that lascivious young boy the Count, have I run into this danger. + Yet who would have suspected an ambush where I was taken? + FIRST SOLDIER. There is no remedy, sir, but you must die. + The General says you that have so traitorously discover'd the + secrets of your army, and made such pestiferous reports of men + very nobly held, can serve the world for no honest use; therefore + you must die. Come, headsman, of with his head. + PAROLLES. O Lord, sir, let me live, or let me see my death! + FIRST SOLDIER. That shall you, and take your leave of all your + friends. [Unmuffling him] So look about you; know you any here? + BERTRAM. Good morrow, noble Captain. + FIRST LORD. God bless you, Captain Parolles. + SECOND LORD. God save you, noble Captain. + FIRST LORD. Captain, what greeting will you to my Lord Lafeu? I am + for France. + SECOND LORD. Good Captain, will you give me a copy of the sonnet + you writ to Diana in behalf of the Count Rousillon? An I were not + a very coward I'd compel it of you; but fare you well. + Exeunt BERTRAM and LORDS + FIRST SOLDIER. You are undone, Captain, all but your scarf; that + has a knot on 't yet. + PAROLLES. Who cannot be crush'd with a plot? + FIRST SOLDIER. If you could find out a country where but women were + that had received so much shame, you might begin an impudent + nation. Fare ye well, sir; I am for France too; we shall speak of + you there. Exit with SOLDIERS + PAROLLES. Yet am I thankful. If my heart were great, + 'Twould burst at this. Captain I'll be no more; + But I will eat, and drink, and sleep as soft + As captain shall. Simply the thing I am + Shall make me live. Who knows himself a braggart, + Let him fear this; for it will come to pass + That every braggart shall be found an ass. + Rust, sword; cool, blushes; and, Parolles, live + Safest in shame. Being fool'd, by fool'ry thrive. + There's place and means for every man alive. + I'll after them. Exit + + + + +ACT IV SCENE 4. +The WIDOW'S house + +Enter HELENA, WIDOW, and DIANA + + HELENA. That you may well perceive I have not wrong'd you! + One of the greatest in the Christian world + Shall be my surety; fore whose throne 'tis needful, + Ere I can perfect mine intents, to kneel. + Time was I did him a desired office, + Dear almost as his life; which gratitude + Through flinty Tartar's bosom would peep forth, + And answer 'Thanks.' I duly am inform'd + His Grace is at Marseilles, to which place + We have convenient convoy. You must know + I am supposed dead. The army breaking, + My husband hies him home; where, heaven aiding, + And by the leave of my good lord the King, + We'll be before our welcome. + WIDOW. Gentle madam, + You never had a servant to whose trust + Your business was more welcome. + HELENA. Nor you, mistress, + Ever a friend whose thoughts more truly labour + To recompense your love. Doubt not but heaven + Hath brought me up to be your daughter's dower, + As it hath fated her to be my motive + And helper to a husband. But, O strange men! + That can such sweet use make of what they hate, + When saucy trusting of the cozen'd thoughts + Defiles the pitchy night. So lust doth play + With what it loathes, for that which is away. + But more of this hereafter. You, Diana, + Under my poor instructions yet must suffer + Something in my behalf. + DIANA. Let death and honesty + Go with your impositions, I am yours + Upon your will to suffer. + HELENA. Yet, I pray you: + But with the word the time will bring on summer, + When briers shall have leaves as well as thorns + And be as sweet as sharp. We must away; + Our waggon is prepar'd, and time revives us. + All's Well that Ends Well. Still the fine's the crown. + Whate'er the course, the end is the renown. Exeunt + + + + +ACT IV SCENE 5. +Rousillon. The COUNT'S palace + +Enter COUNTESS, LAFEU, and CLOWN + + LAFEU. No, no, no, son was misled with a snipt-taffeta fellow + there, whose villainous saffron would have made all the unbak'd + and doughy youth of a nation in his colour. Your daughter-in-law + had been alive at this hour, and your son here at home, more + advanc'd by the King than by that red-tail'd humble-bee I speak + of. + COUNTESS. I would I had not known him. It was the death of the most + virtuous gentlewoman that ever nature had praise for creating. If + she had partaken of my flesh, and cost me the dearest groans of a + mother. I could not have owed her a more rooted love. + LAFEU. 'Twas a good lady, 'twas a good lady. We may pick a thousand + sallets ere we light on such another herb. + CLOWN. Indeed, sir, she was the sweet-marjoram of the sallet, or, + rather, the herb of grace. + LAFEU. They are not sallet-herbs, you knave; they are nose-herbs. + CLOWN. I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, sir; I have not much skill in + grass. + LAFEU. Whether dost thou profess thyself-a knave or a fool? + CLOWN. A fool, sir, at a woman's service, and a knave at a man's. + LAFEU. Your distinction? + CLOWN. I would cozen the man of his wife, and do his service. + LAFEU. So you were a knave at his service, indeed. + CLOWN. And I would give his wife my bauble, sir, to do her service. + LAFEU. I will subscribe for thee; thou art both knave and fool. + CLOWN. At your service. + LAFEU. No, no, no. + CLOWN. Why, sir, if I cannot serve you, I can serve as great a + prince as you are. + LAFEU. Who's that? A Frenchman? + CLOWN. Faith, sir, 'a has an English name; but his fisnomy is more + hotter in France than there. + LAFEU. What prince is that? + CLOWN. The Black Prince, sir; alias, the Prince of Darkness; alias, + the devil. + LAFEU. Hold thee, there's my purse. I give thee not this to suggest + thee from thy master thou talk'st of; serve him still. + CLOWN. I am a woodland fellow, sir, that always loved a great fire; + and the master I speak of ever keeps a good fire. But, sure, he + is the prince of the world; let his nobility remain in's court. I + am for the house with the narrow gate, which I take to be too + little for pomp to enter. Some that humble themselves may; but + the many will be too chill and tender: and they'll be for the + flow'ry way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire. + LAFEU. Go thy ways, I begin to be aweary of thee; and I tell thee + so before, because I would not fall out with thee. Go thy ways; + let my horses be well look'd to, without any tricks. + CLOWN. If I put any tricks upon 'em, sir, they shall be jades' + tricks, which are their own right by the law of nature. + Exit + LAFEU. A shrewd knave, and an unhappy. + COUNTESS. So 'a is. My lord that's gone made himself much sport + out of him. By his authority he remains here, which he thinks is + a patent for his sauciness; and indeed he has no pace, but runs + where he will. + LAFEU. I like him well; 'tis not amiss. And I was about to tell + you, since I heard of the good lady's death, and that my lord + your son was upon his return home, I moved the King my master to + speak in the behalf of my daughter; which, in the minority of + them both, his Majesty out of a self-gracious remembrance did + first propose. His Highness hath promis'd me to do it; and, to + stop up the displeasure he hath conceived against your son, there + is no fitter matter. How does your ladyship like it? + COUNTESS. With very much content, my lord; and I wish it happily + effected. + LAFEU. His Highness comes post from Marseilles, of as able body as + when he number'd thirty; 'a will be here to-morrow, or I am + deceiv'd by him that in such intelligence hath seldom fail'd. + COUNTESS. It rejoices me that I hope I shall see him ere I die. + I have letters that my son will be here to-night. I shall beseech + your lordship to remain with me tal they meet together. + LAFEU. Madam, I was thinking with what manners I might safely be + admitted. + COUNTESS. You need but plead your honourable privilege. + LAFEU. Lady, of that I have made a bold charter; but, I thank my + God, it holds yet. + + Re-enter CLOWN + + CLOWN. O madam, yonder's my lord your son with a patch of velvet + on's face; whether there be a scar under 't or no, the velvet + knows; but 'tis a goodly patch of velvet. His left cheek is a + cheek of two pile and a half, but his right cheek is worn bare. + LAFEU. A scar nobly got, or a noble scar, is a good liv'ry of + honour; so belike is that. + CLOWN. But it is your carbonado'd face. + LAFEU. Let us go see your son, I pray you; + I long to talk with the young noble soldier. + CLOWN. Faith, there's a dozen of 'em, with delicate fine hats, and + most courteous feathers, which bow the head and nod at every man. + Exeunt + + + +<> + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 1. +Marseilles. A street + +Enter HELENA, WIDOW, and DIANA, with two ATTENDANTS + + HELENA. But this exceeding posting day and night + Must wear your spirits low; we cannot help it. + But since you have made the days and nights as one, + To wear your gentle limbs in my affairs, + Be bold you do so grow in my requital + As nothing can unroot you. + + Enter a GENTLEMAN + + In happy time! + This man may help me to his Majesty's ear, + If he would spend his power. God save you, sir. + GENTLEMAN. And you. + HELENA. Sir, I have seen you in the court of France. + GENTLEMAN. I have been sometimes there. + HELENA. I do presume, sir, that you are not fall'n + From the report that goes upon your goodness; + And therefore, goaded with most sharp occasions, + Which lay nice manners by, I put you to + The use of your own virtues, for the which + I shall continue thankful. + GENTLEMAN. What's your will? + HELENA. That it will please you + To give this poor petition to the King; + And aid me with that store of power you have + To come into his presence. + GENTLEMAN. The King's not here. + HELENA. Not here, sir? + GENTLEMAN. Not indeed. + He hence remov'd last night, and with more haste + Than is his use. + WIDOW. Lord, how we lose our pains! + HELENA. All's Well That Ends Well yet, + Though time seem so adverse and means unfit. + I do beseech you, whither is he gone? + GENTLEMAN. Marry, as I take it, to Rousillon; + Whither I am going. + HELENA. I do beseech you, sir, + Since you are like to see the King before me, + Commend the paper to his gracious hand; + Which I presume shall render you no blame, + But rather make you thank your pains for it. + I will come after you with what good speed + Our means will make us means. + GENTLEMAN. This I'll do for you. + HELENA. And you shall find yourself to be well thank'd, + Whate'er falls more. We must to horse again; + Go, go, provide. Exeunt + + + + +ACT V SCENE 2. +Rousillon. The inner court of the COUNT'S palace + +Enter CLOWN and PAROLLES + + PAROLLES. Good Monsieur Lavache, give my Lord Lafeu this letter. I + have ere now, sir, been better known to you, when I have held + familiarity with fresher clothes; but I am now, sir, muddied in + Fortune's mood, and smell somewhat strong of her strong + displeasure. + CLOWN. Truly, Fortune's displeasure is but sluttish, if it smell + so strongly as thou speak'st of. I will henceforth eat no fish + of Fortune's butt'ring. Prithee, allow the wind. + PAROLLES. Nay, you need not to stop your nose, sir; I spake but by + a metaphor. + CLOWN. Indeed, sir, if your metaphor stink, I will stop my nose; or + against any man's metaphor. Prithee, get thee further. + PAROLLES. Pray you, sir, deliver me this paper. + CLOWN. Foh! prithee stand away. A paper from Fortune's close-stool + to give to a nobleman! Look here he comes himself. + + Enter LAFEU + + Here is a pur of Fortune's, sir, or of Fortune's cat, but not + a musk-cat, that has fall'n into the unclean fishpond of her + displeasure, and, as he says, is muddied withal. Pray you, sir, + use the carp as you may; for he looks like a poor, decayed, + ingenious, foolish, rascally knave. I do pity his distress + in my similes of comfort, and leave him to your lordship. + Exit + PAROLLES. My lord, I am a man whom Fortune hath cruelly scratch'd. + LAFEU. And what would you have me to do? 'Tis too late to pare her + nails now. Wherein have you played the knave with Fortune, that + she should scratch you, who of herself is a good lady and would + not have knaves thrive long under her? There's a cardecue for + you. Let the justices make you and Fortune friends; I am for + other business. + PAROLLES. I beseech your honour to hear me one single word. + LAFEU. You beg a single penny more; come, you shall ha't; save your + word. + PAROLLES. My name, my good lord, is Parolles. + LAFEU. You beg more than word then. Cox my passion! give me your + hand. How does your drum? + PAROLLES. O my good lord, you were the first that found me. + LAFEU. Was I, in sooth? And I was the first that lost thee. + PAROLLES. It lies in you, my lord, to bring me in some grace, for + you did bring me out. + LAFEU. Out upon thee, knave! Dost thou put upon me at once both the + office of God and the devil? One brings the in grace, and the + other brings thee out. [Trumpets sound] The King's coming; I + know by his trumpets. Sirrah, inquire further after me; I had + talk of you last night. Though you are a fool and a knave, you + shall eat. Go to; follow. + PAROLLES. I praise God for you. Exeunt + + + + +ACT V SCENE 3. +Rousillon. The COUNT'S palace + +Flourish. Enter KING, COUNTESS, LAFEU, the two FRENCH LORDS, with ATTENDANTS + + KING. We lost a jewel of her, and our esteem + Was made much poorer by it; but your son, + As mad in folly, lack'd the sense to know + Her estimation home. + COUNTESS. 'Tis past, my liege; + And I beseech your Majesty to make it + Natural rebellion, done i' th' blaze of youth, + When oil and fire, too strong for reason's force, + O'erbears it and burns on. + KING. My honour'd lady, + I have forgiven and forgotten all; + Though my revenges were high bent upon him + And watch'd the time to shoot. + LAFEU. This I must say- + But first, I beg my pardon: the young lord + Did to his Majesty, his mother, and his lady, + Offence of mighty note; but to himself + The greatest wrong of all. He lost a wife + Whose beauty did astonish the survey + Of richest eyes; whose words all ears took captive; + Whose dear perfection hearts that scorn'd to serve + Humbly call'd mistress. + KING. Praising what is lost + Makes the remembrance dear. Well, call him hither; + We are reconcil'd, and the first view shall kill + All repetition. Let him not ask our pardon; + The nature of his great offence is dead, + And deeper than oblivion do we bury + Th' incensing relics of it; let him approach, + A stranger, no offender; and inform him + So 'tis our will he should. + GENTLEMAN. I shall, my liege. Exit GENTLEMAN + KING. What says he to your daughter? Have you spoke? + LAFEU. All that he is hath reference to your Highness. + KING. Then shall we have a match. I have letters sent me + That sets him high in fame. + + Enter BERTRAM + + LAFEU. He looks well on 't. + KING. I am not a day of season, + For thou mayst see a sunshine and a hail + In me at once. But to the brightest beams + Distracted clouds give way; so stand thou forth; + The time is fair again. + BERTRAM. My high-repented blames, + Dear sovereign, pardon to me. + KING. All is whole; + Not one word more of the consumed time. + Let's take the instant by the forward top; + For we are old, and on our quick'st decrees + Th' inaudible and noiseless foot of Time + Steals ere we can effect them. You remember + The daughter of this lord? + BERTRAM. Admiringly, my liege. At first + I stuck my choice upon her, ere my heart + Durst make too bold herald of my tongue; + Where the impression of mine eye infixing, + Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me, + Which warp'd the line of every other favour, + Scorn'd a fair colour or express'd it stol'n, + Extended or contracted all proportions + To a most hideous object. Thence it came + That she whom all men prais'd, and whom myself, + Since I have lost, have lov'd, was in mine eye + The dust that did offend it. + KING. Well excus'd. + That thou didst love her, strikes some scores away + From the great compt; but love that comes too late, + Like a remorseful pardon slowly carried, + To the great sender turns a sour offence, + Crying 'That's good that's gone.' Our rash faults + Make trivial price of serious things we have, + Not knowing them until we know their grave. + Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust, + Destroy our friends, and after weep their dust; + Our own love waking cries to see what's done, + While shameful hate sleeps out the afternoon. + Be this sweet Helen's knell. And now forget her. + Send forth your amorous token for fair Maudlin. + The main consents are had; and here we'll stay + To see our widower's second marriage-day. + COUNTESS. Which better than the first, O dear heaven, bless! + Or, ere they meet, in me, O nature, cesse! + LAFEU. Come on, my son, in whom my house's name + Must be digested; give a favour from you, + To sparkle in the spirits of my daughter, + That she may quickly come. + [BERTRAM gives a ring] + By my old beard, + And ev'ry hair that's on 't, Helen, that's dead, + Was a sweet creature; such a ring as this, + The last that e'er I took her leave at court, + I saw upon her finger. + BERTRAM. Hers it was not. + KING. Now, pray you, let me see it; for mine eye, + While I was speaking, oft was fasten'd to't. + This ring was mine; and when I gave it Helen + I bade her, if her fortunes ever stood + Necessitied to help, that by this token + I would relieve her. Had you that craft to reave her + Of what should stead her most? + BERTRAM. My gracious sovereign, + Howe'er it pleases you to take it so, + The ring was never hers. + COUNTESS. Son, on my life, + I have seen her wear it; and she reckon'd it + At her life's rate. + LAFEU. I am sure I saw her wear it. + BERTRAM. You are deceiv'd, my lord; she never saw it. + In Florence was it from a casement thrown me, + Wrapp'd in a paper, which contain'd the name + Of her that threw it. Noble she was, and thought + I stood engag'd; but when I had subscrib'd + To mine own fortune, and inform'd her fully + I could not answer in that course of honour + As she had made the overture, she ceas'd, + In heavy satisfaction, and would never + Receive the ring again. + KING. Plutus himself, + That knows the tinct and multiplying med'cine, + Hath not in nature's mystery more science + Than I have in this ring. 'Twas mine, 'twas Helen's, + Whoever gave it you. Then, if you know + That you are well acquainted with yourself, + Confess 'twas hers, and by what rough enforcement + You got it from her. She call'd the saints to surety + That she would never put it from her finger + Unless she gave it to yourself in bed- + Where you have never come- or sent it us + Upon her great disaster. + BERTRAM. She never saw it. + KING. Thou speak'st it falsely, as I love mine honour; + And mak'st conjectural fears to come into me + Which I would fain shut out. If it should prove + That thou art so inhuman- 'twill not prove so. + And yet I know not- thou didst hate her deadly, + And she is dead; which nothing, but to close + Her eyes myself, could win me to believe + More than to see this ring. Take him away. + [GUARDS seize BERTRAM] + My fore-past proofs, howe'er the matter fall, + Shall tax my fears of little vanity, + Having vainly fear'd too little. Away with him. + We'll sift this matter further. + BERTRAM. If you shall prove + This ring was ever hers, you shall as easy + Prove that I husbanded her bed in Florence, + Where she yet never was. Exit, guarded + KING. I am wrapp'd in dismal thinkings. + + Enter a GENTLEMAN + + GENTLEMAN. Gracious sovereign, + Whether I have been to blame or no, I know not: + Here's a petition from a Florentine, + Who hath, for four or five removes, come short + To tender it herself. I undertook it, + Vanquish'd thereto by the fair grace and speech + Of the poor suppliant, who by this, I know, + Is here attending; her business looks in her + With an importing visage; and she told me + In a sweet verbal brief it did concern + Your Highness with herself. + KING. [Reads the letter] 'Upon his many protestations to marry me + when his wife was dead, I blush to say it, he won me. Now is the + Count Rousillon a widower; his vows are forfeited to me, and my + honour's paid to him. He stole from Florence, taking no leave, + and I follow him to his country for justice. Grant it me, O King! + in you it best lies; otherwise a seducer flourishes, and a poor + maid is undone. + DIANA CAPILET.' + LAFEU. I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and toll for this. + I'll none of him. + KING. The heavens have thought well on thee, Lafeu, + To bring forth this discov'ry. Seek these suitors. + Go speedily, and bring again the Count. + Exeunt ATTENDANTS + I am afeard the life of Helen, lady, + Was foully snatch'd. + COUNTESS. Now, justice on the doers! + + Enter BERTRAM, guarded + + KING. I wonder, sir, sith wives are monsters to you. + And that you fly them as you swear them lordship, + Yet you desire to marry. + Enter WIDOW and DIANA + What woman's that? + DIANA. I am, my lord, a wretched Florentine, + Derived from the ancient Capilet. + My suit, as I do understand, you know, + And therefore know how far I may be pitied. + WIDOW. I am her mother, sir, whose age and honour + Both suffer under this complaint we bring, + And both shall cease, without your remedy. + KING. Come hither, Count; do you know these women? + BERTRAM. My lord, I neither can nor will deny + But that I know them. Do they charge me further? + DIANA. Why do you look so strange upon your wife? + BERTRAM. She's none of mine, my lord. + DIANA. If you shall marry, + You give away this hand, and that is mine; + You give away heaven's vows, and those are mine; + You give away myself, which is known mine; + For I by vow am so embodied yours + That she which marries you must marry me, + Either both or none. + LAFEU. [To BERTRAM] Your reputation comes too short for + my daughter; you are no husband for her. + BERTRAM. My lord, this is a fond and desp'rate creature + Whom sometime I have laugh'd with. Let your Highness + Lay a more noble thought upon mine honour + Than for to think that I would sink it here. + KING. Sir, for my thoughts, you have them ill to friend + Till your deeds gain them. Fairer prove your honour + Than in my thought it lies! + DIANA. Good my lord, + Ask him upon his oath if he does think + He had not my virginity. + KING. What say'st thou to her? + BERTRAM. She's impudent, my lord, + And was a common gamester to the camp. + DIANA. He does me wrong, my lord; if I were so + He might have bought me at a common price. + Do not believe him. o, behold this ring, + Whose high respect and rich validity + Did lack a parallel; yet, for all that, + He gave it to a commoner o' th' camp, + If I be one. + COUNTESS. He blushes, and 'tis it. + Of six preceding ancestors, that gem + Conferr'd by testament to th' sequent issue, + Hath it been ow'd and worn. This is his wife: + That ring's a thousand proofs. + KING. Methought you said + You saw one here in court could witness it. + DIANA. I did, my lord, but loath am to produce + So bad an instrument; his name's Parolles. + LAFEU. I saw the man to-day, if man he be. + KING. Find him, and bring him hither. Exit an ATTENDANT + BERTRAM. What of him? + He's quoted for a most perfidious slave, + With all the spots o' th' world tax'd and debauch'd, + Whose nature sickens but to speak a truth. + Am I or that or this for what he'll utter + That will speak anything? + KING. She hath that ring of yours. + BERTRAM. I think she has. Certain it is I lik'd her, + And boarded her i' th' wanton way of youth. + She knew her distance, and did angle for me, + Madding my eagerness with her restraint, + As all impediments in fancy's course + Are motives of more fancy; and, in fine, + Her infinite cunning with her modern grace + Subdu'd me to her rate. She got the ring; + And I had that which any inferior might + At market-price have bought. + DIANA. I must be patient. + You that have turn'd off a first so noble wife + May justly diet me. I pray you yet- + Since you lack virtue, I will lose a husband- + Send for your ring, I will return it home, + And give me mine again. + BERTRAM. I have it not. + KING. What ring was yours, I pray you? + DIANA. Sir, much like + The same upon your finger. + KING. Know you this ring? This ring was his of late. + DIANA. And this was it I gave him, being abed. + KING. The story, then, goes false you threw it him + Out of a casement. + DIANA. I have spoke the truth. + + Enter PAROLLES + + BERTRAM. My lord, I do confess the ring was hers. + KING. You boggle shrewdly; every feather starts you. + Is this the man you speak of? + DIANA. Ay, my lord. + KING. Tell me, sirrah-but tell me true I charge you, + Not fearing the displeasure of your master, + Which, on your just proceeding, I'll keep off- + By him and by this woman here what know you? + PAROLLES. So please your Majesty, my master hath been an honourable + gentleman; tricks he hath had in him, which gentlemen have. + KING. Come, come, to th' purpose. Did he love this woman? + PAROLLES. Faith, sir, he did love her; but how? + KING. How, I pray you? + PAROLLES. He did love her, sir, as a gentleman loves a woman. + KING. How is that? + PAROLLES. He lov'd her, sir, and lov'd her not. + KING. As thou art a knave and no knave. + What an equivocal companion is this! + PAROLLES. I am a poor man, and at your Majesty's command. + LAFEU. He's a good drum, my lord, but a naughty orator. + DIANA. Do you know he promis'd me marriage? + PAROLLES. Faith, I know more than I'll speak. + KING. But wilt thou not speak all thou know'st? + PAROLLES. Yes, so please your Majesty. I did go between them, as I + said; but more than that, he loved her-for indeed he was mad for + her, and talk'd of Satan, and of Limbo, and of Furies, and I know + not what. Yet I was in that credit with them at that time that I + knew of their going to bed; and of other motions, as promising + her marriage, and things which would derive me ill will to speak + of; therefore I will not speak what I know. + KING. Thou hast spoken all already, unless thou canst say they are + married; but thou art too fine in thy evidence; therefore stand + aside. + This ring, you say, was yours? + DIANA. Ay, my good lord. + KING. Where did you buy it? Or who gave it you? + DIANA. It was not given me, nor I did not buy it. + KING. Who lent it you? + DIANA. It was not lent me neither. + KING. Where did you find it then? + DIANA. I found it not. + KING. If it were yours by none of all these ways, + How could you give it him? + DIANA. I never gave it him. + LAFEU. This woman's an easy glove, my lord; she goes of and on at + pleasure. + KING. This ring was mine, I gave it his first wife. + DIANA. It might be yours or hers, for aught I know. + KING. Take her away, I do not like her now; + To prison with her. And away with him. + Unless thou tell'st me where thou hadst this ring, + Thou diest within this hour. + DIANA. I'll never tell you. + KING. Take her away. + DIANA. I'll put in bail, my liege. + KING. I think thee now some common customer. + DIANA. By Jove, if ever I knew man, 'twas you. + KING. Wherefore hast thou accus'd him all this while? + DIANA. Because he's guilty, and he is not guilty. + He knows I am no maid, and he'll swear to't: + I'll swear I am a maid, and he knows not. + Great King, I am no strumpet, by my life; + I am either maid, or else this old man's wife. + [Pointing to LAFEU] + KING. She does abuse our ears; to prison with her. + DIANA. Good mother, fetch my bail. Stay, royal sir; + Exit WIDOW + The jeweller that owes the ring is sent for, + And he shall surety me. But for this lord + Who hath abus'd me as he knows himself, + Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him. + He knows himself my bed he hath defil'd; + And at that time he got his wife with child. + Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick; + So there's my riddle: one that's dead is quick- + And now behold the meaning. + + Re-enter WIDOW with HELENA + + KING. Is there no exorcist + Beguiles the truer office of mine eyes? + Is't real that I see? + HELENA. No, my good lord; + 'Tis but the shadow of a wife you see, + The name and not the thing. + BERTRAM. Both, both; o, pardon! + HELENA. O, my good lord, when I was like this maid, + I found you wondrous kind. There is your ring, + And, look you, here's your letter. This it says: + 'When from my finger you can get this ring, + And are by me with child,' etc. This is done. + Will you be mine now you are doubly won? + BERTRAM. If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly, + I'll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly. + HELENA. If it appear not plain, and prove untrue, + Deadly divorce step between me and you! + O my dear mother, do I see you living? + LAFEU. Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon. [To PAROLLES] + Good Tom Drum, lend me a handkercher. So, I + thank thee. Wait on me home, I'll make sport with thee; + let thy curtsies alone, they are scurvy ones. + KING. Let us from point to point this story know, + To make the even truth in pleasure flow. + [To DIANA] If thou beest yet a fresh uncropped flower, + Choose thou thy husband, and I'll pay thy dower; + For I can guess that by thy honest aid + Thou kept'st a wife herself, thyself a maid.- + Of that and all the progress, more and less, + Resolvedly more leisure shall express. + All yet seems well; and if it end so meet, + The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet. [Flourish] + +EPILOGUE + EPILOGUE. + + KING. The King's a beggar, now the play is done. + All is well ended if this suit be won, + That you express content; which we will pay + With strife to please you, day exceeding day. + Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts; + Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts. + Exeunt omnes + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1607 + +THE TRAGEDY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + MARK ANTONY, Triumvirs + OCTAVIUS CAESAR, " + M. AEMILIUS LEPIDUS, " + SEXTUS POMPEIUS, " + DOMITIUS ENOBARBUS, friend to Antony + VENTIDIUS, " " " + EROS, " " " + SCARUS, " " " + DERCETAS, " " " + DEMETRIUS, " " " + PHILO, " " " + MAECENAS, friend to Caesar + AGRIPPA, " " " + DOLABELLA, " " " + PROCULEIUS, " " " + THYREUS, " " " + GALLUS, " " " + MENAS, friend to Pompey + MENECRATES, " " " + VARRIUS, " " " + TAURUS, Lieutenant-General to Caesar + CANIDIUS, Lieutenant-General to Antony + SILIUS, an Officer in Ventidius's army + EUPHRONIUS, an Ambassador from Antony to Caesar + ALEXAS, attendant on Cleopatra + MARDIAN, " " " + SELEUCUS, " " " + DIOMEDES, " " " + A SOOTHSAYER + A CLOWN + + CLEOPATRA, Queen of Egypt + OCTAVIA, sister to Caesar and wife to Antony + CHARMIAN, lady attending on Cleopatra + IRAS, " " " " + + + + Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants + + + +<> + + + + +SCENE: +The Roman Empire + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Alexandria. CLEOPATRA'S palace + +Enter DEMETRIUS and PHILO + + PHILO. Nay, but this dotage of our general's + O'erflows the measure. Those his goodly eyes, + That o'er the files and musters of the war + Have glow'd like plated Mars, now bend, now turn, + The office and devotion of their view + Upon a tawny front. His captain's heart, + Which in the scuffles of great fights hath burst + The buckles on his breast, reneges all temper, + And is become the bellows and the fan + To cool a gipsy's lust. + + Flourish. Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, her LADIES, the train, + with eunuchs fanning her + + Look where they come! + Take but good note, and you shall see in him + The triple pillar of the world transform'd + Into a strumpet's fool. Behold and see. + CLEOPATRA. If it be love indeed, tell me how much. + ANTONY. There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd. + CLEOPATRA. I'll set a bourn how far to be belov'd. + ANTONY. Then must thou needs find out new heaven, new earth. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. News, my good lord, from Rome. + ANTONY. Grates me the sum. + CLEOPATRA. Nay, hear them, Antony. + Fulvia perchance is angry; or who knows + If the scarce-bearded Caesar have not sent + His pow'rful mandate to you: 'Do this or this; + Take in that kingdom and enfranchise that; + Perform't, or else we damn thee.' + ANTONY. How, my love? + CLEOPATRA. Perchance? Nay, and most like, + You must not stay here longer; your dismission + Is come from Caesar; therefore hear it, Antony. + Where's Fulvia's process? Caesar's I would say? Both? + Call in the messengers. As I am Egypt's Queen, + Thou blushest, Antony, and that blood of thine + Is Caesar's homager. Else so thy cheek pays shame + When shrill-tongu'd Fulvia scolds. The messengers! + ANTONY. Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch + Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space. + Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike + Feeds beast as man. The nobleness of life + Is to do thus [emhracing], when such a mutual pair + And such a twain can do't, in which I bind, + On pain of punishment, the world to weet + We stand up peerless. + CLEOPATRA. Excellent falsehood! + Why did he marry Fulvia, and not love her? + I'll seem the fool I am not. Antony + Will be himself. + ANTONY. But stirr'd by Cleopatra. + Now for the love of Love and her soft hours, + Let's not confound the time with conference harsh; + There's not a minute of our lives should stretch + Without some pleasure now. What sport to-night? + CLEOPATRA. Hear the ambassadors. + ANTONY. Fie, wrangling queen! + Whom everything becomes- to chide, to laugh, + To weep; whose every passion fully strives + To make itself in thee fair and admir'd. + No messenger but thine, and all alone + To-night we'll wander through the streets and note + The qualities of people. Come, my queen; + Last night you did desire it. Speak not to us. + Exeunt ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, with the train + DEMETRIUS. Is Caesar with Antonius priz'd so slight? + PHILO. Sir, sometimes when he is not Antony, + He comes too short of that great property + Which still should go with Antony. + DEMETRIUS. I am full sorry + That he approves the common liar, who + Thus speaks of him at Rome; but I will hope + Of better deeds to-morrow. Rest you happy! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Alexandria. CLEOPATRA'S palace + +Enter CHARMIAN, IRAS, ALEXAS, and a SOOTHSAYER + + CHARMIAN. Lord Alexas, sweet Alexas, most anything Alexas, almost + most absolute Alexas, where's the soothsayer that you prais'd so + to th' Queen? O that I knew this husband, which you say must + charge his horns with garlands! + ALEXAS. Soothsayer! + SOOTHSAYER. Your will? + CHARMIAN. Is this the man? Is't you, sir, that know things? + SOOTHSAYER. In nature's infinite book of secrecy + A little I can read. + ALEXAS. Show him your hand. + + Enter ENOBARBUS + + ENOBARBUS. Bring in the banquet quickly; wine enough + Cleopatra's health to drink. + CHARMIAN. Good, sir, give me good fortune. + SOOTHSAYER. I make not, but foresee. + CHARMIAN. Pray, then, foresee me one. + SOOTHSAYER. You shall be yet far fairer than you are. + CHARMIAN. He means in flesh. + IRAS. No, you shall paint when you are old. + CHARMIAN. Wrinkles forbid! + ALEXAS. Vex not his prescience; be attentive. + CHARMIAN. Hush! + SOOTHSAYER. You shall be more beloving than beloved. + CHARMIAN. I had rather heat my liver with drinking. + ALEXAS. Nay, hear him. + CHARMIAN. Good now, some excellent fortune! Let me be married to + three kings in a forenoon, and widow them all. Let me have a + child at fifty, to whom Herod of Jewry may do homage. Find me to + marry me with Octavius Caesar, and companion me with my mistress. + SOOTHSAYER. You shall outlive the lady whom you serve. + CHARMIAN. O, excellent! I love long life better than figs. + SOOTHSAYER. You have seen and prov'd a fairer former fortune + Than that which is to approach. + CHARMIAN. Then belike my children shall have no names. + Prithee, how many boys and wenches must I have? + SOOTHSAYER. If every of your wishes had a womb, + And fertile every wish, a million. + CHARMIAN. Out, fool! I forgive thee for a witch. + ALEXAS. You think none but your sheets are privy to your wishes. + CHARMIAN. Nay, come, tell Iras hers. + ALEXAS. We'll know all our fortunes. + ENOBARBUS. Mine, and most of our fortunes, to-night, shall be- + drunk to bed. + IRAS. There's a palm presages chastity, if nothing else. + CHARMIAN. E'en as the o'erflowing Nilus presageth famine. + IRAS. Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay. + CHARMIAN. Nay, if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognostication, I + cannot scratch mine ear. Prithee, tell her but worky-day fortune. + SOOTHSAYER. Your fortunes are alike. + IRAS. But how, but how? Give me particulars. + SOOTHSAYER. I have said. + IRAS. Am I not an inch of fortune better than she? + CHARMIAN. Well, if you were but an inch of fortune better than I, + where would you choose it? + IRAS. Not in my husband's nose. + CHARMIAN. Our worser thoughts heavens mend! Alexas- come, his + fortune, his fortune! O, let him marry a woman that cannot go, + sweet Isis, I beseech thee! And let her die too, and give him a + worse! And let worse follow worse, till the worst of all follow + him laughing to his grave, fiftyfold a cuckold! Good Isis, hear + me this prayer, though thou deny me a matter of more weight; good + Isis, I beseech thee! + IRAS. Amen. Dear goddess, hear that prayer of the people! For, as + it is a heartbreaking to see a handsome man loose-wiv'd, so it is + a deadly sorrow to behold a foul knave uncuckolded. Therefore, + dear Isis, keep decorum, and fortune him accordingly! + CHARMIAN. Amen. + ALEXAS. Lo now, if it lay in their hands to make me a cuckold, they + would make themselves whores but they'ld do't! + + Enter CLEOPATRA + + ENOBARBUS. Hush! Here comes Antony. + CHARMIAN. Not he; the Queen. + CLEOPATRA. Saw you my lord? + ENOBARBUS. No, lady. + CLEOPATRA. Was he not here? + CHARMIAN. No, madam. + CLEOPATRA. He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden + A Roman thought hath struck him. Enobarbus! + ENOBARBUS. Madam? + CLEOPATRA. Seek him, and bring him hither. Where's Alexas? + ALEXAS. Here, at your service. My lord approaches. + + Enter ANTONY, with a MESSENGER and attendants + + CLEOPATRA. We will not look upon him. Go with us. + Exeunt CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, and the rest + MESSENGER. Fulvia thy wife first came into the field. + ANTONY. Against my brother Lucius? + MESSENGER. Ay. + But soon that war had end, and the time's state + Made friends of them, jointing their force 'gainst Caesar, + Whose better issue in the war from Italy + Upon the first encounter drave them. + ANTONY. Well, what worst? + MESSENGER. The nature of bad news infects the teller. + ANTONY. When it concerns the fool or coward. On! + Things that are past are done with me. 'Tis thus: + Who tells me true, though in his tale lie death, + I hear him as he flatter'd. + MESSENGER. Labienus- + This is stiff news- hath with his Parthian force + Extended Asia from Euphrates, + His conquering banner shook from Syria + To Lydia and to Ionia, + Whilst- + ANTONY. Antony, thou wouldst say. + MESSENGER. O, my lord! + ANTONY. Speak to me home; mince not the general tongue; + Name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome. + Rail thou in Fulvia's phrase, and taunt my faults + With such full licence as both truth and malice + Have power to utter. O, then we bring forth weeds + When our quick minds lie still, and our ills told us + Is as our earing. Fare thee well awhile. + MESSENGER. At your noble pleasure. Exit + ANTONY. From Sicyon, ho, the news! Speak there! + FIRST ATTENDANT. The man from Sicyon- is there such an one? + SECOND ATTENDANT. He stays upon your will. + ANTONY. Let him appear. + These strong Egyptian fetters I must break, + Or lose myself in dotage. + + Enter another MESSENGER with a letter + + What are you? + SECOND MESSENGER. Fulvia thy wife is dead. + ANTONY. Where died she? + SECOND MESSENGER. In Sicyon. + Her length of sickness, with what else more serious + Importeth thee to know, this bears. [Gives the letter] + ANTONY. Forbear me. Exit MESSENGER + There's a great spirit gone! Thus did I desire it. + What our contempts doth often hurl from us + We wish it ours again; the present pleasure, + By revolution low'ring, does become + The opposite of itself. She's good, being gone; + The hand could pluck her back that shov'd her on. + I must from this enchanting queen break off. + Ten thousand harms, more than the ills I know, + My idleness doth hatch. How now, Enobarbus! + + Re-enter ENOBARBUS + + ENOBARBUS. What's your pleasure, sir? + ANTONY. I must with haste from hence. + ENOBARBUS. Why, then we kill all our women. We see how mortal an + unkindness is to them; if they suffer our departure, death's the + word. + ANTONY. I must be gone. + ENOBARBUS. Under a compelling occasion, let women die. It were pity + to cast them away for nothing, though between them and a great + cause they should be esteemed nothing. Cleopatra, catching but + the least noise of this, dies instantly; I have seen her die + twenty times upon far poorer moment. I do think there is mettle + in death, which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a + celerity in dying. + ANTONY. She is cunning past man's thought. + ENOBARBUS. Alack, sir, no! Her passions are made of nothing but the + finest part of pure love. We cannot call her winds and waters + sighs and tears; they are greater storms and tempests than + almanacs can report. This cannot be cunning in her; if it be, she + makes a show'r of rain as well as Jove. + ANTONY. Would I had never seen her! + ENOBARBUS. O Sir, you had then left unseen a wonderful piece of + work, which not to have been blest withal would have discredited + your travel. + ANTONY. Fulvia is dead. + ENOBARBUS. Sir? + ANTONY. Fulvia is dead. + ENOBARBUS. Fulvia? + ANTONY. Dead. + ENOBARBUS. Why, sir, give the gods a thankful sacrifice. When it + pleaseth their deities to take the wife of a man from him, it + shows to man the tailors of the earth; comforting therein that + when old robes are worn out there are members to make new. If + there were no more women but Fulvia, then had you indeed a cut, + and the case to be lamented. This grief is crown'd with + consolation: your old smock brings forth a new petticoat; and + indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow. + ANTONY. The business she hath broached in the state + Cannot endure my absence. + ENOBARBUS. And the business you have broach'd here cannot be + without you; especially that of Cleopatra's, which wholly depends + on your abode. + ANTONY. No more light answers. Let our officers + Have notice what we purpose. I shall break + The cause of our expedience to the Queen, + And get her leave to part. For not alone + The death of Fulvia, with more urgent touches, + Do strongly speak to us; but the letters to + Of many our contriving friends in Rome + Petition us at home. Sextus Pompeius + Hath given the dare to Caesar, and commands + The empire of the sea; our slippery people, + Whose love is never link'd to the deserver + Till his deserts are past, begin to throw + Pompey the Great and all his dignities + Upon his son; who, high in name and power, + Higher than both in blood and life, stands up + For the main soldier; whose quality, going on, + The sides o' th' world may danger. Much is breeding + Which, like the courser's hair, hath yet but life + And not a serpent's poison. Say our pleasure, + To such whose place is under us, requires + Our quick remove from hence. + ENOBARBUS. I shall do't. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Alexandria. CLEOPATRA'S palace + +Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS + + CLEOPATRA. Where is he? + CHARMIAN. I did not see him since. + CLEOPATRA. See where he is, who's with him, what he does. + I did not send you. If you find him sad, + Say I am dancing; if in mirth, report + That I am sudden sick. Quick, and return. Exit ALEXAS + CHARMIAN. Madam, methinks, if you did love him dearly, + You do not hold the method to enforce + The like from him. + CLEOPATRA. What should I do I do not? + CHARMIAN. In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing. + CLEOPATRA. Thou teachest like a fool- the way to lose him. + CHARMIAN. Tempt him not so too far; I wish, forbear; + In time we hate that which we often fear. + + Enter ANTONY + + But here comes Antony. + CLEOPATRA. I am sick and sullen. + ANTONY. I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose- + CLEOPATRA. Help me away, dear Charmian; I shall fall. + It cannot be thus long; the sides of nature + Will not sustain it. + ANTONY. Now, my dearest queen- + CLEOPATRA. Pray you, stand farther from me. + ANTONY. What's the matter? + CLEOPATRA. I know by that same eye there's some good news. + What says the married woman? You may go. + Would she had never given you leave to come! + Let her not say 'tis I that keep you here- + I have no power upon you; hers you are. + ANTONY. The gods best know- + CLEOPATRA. O, never was there queen + So mightily betray'd! Yet at the first + I saw the treasons planted. + ANTONY. Cleopatra- + CLEOPATRA. Why should I think you can be mine and true, + Though you in swearing shake the throned gods, + Who have been false to Fulvia? Riotous madness, + To be entangled with those mouth-made vows, + Which break themselves in swearing! + ANTONY. Most sweet queen- + CLEOPATRA. Nay, pray you seek no colour for your going, + But bid farewell, and go. When you sued staying, + Then was the time for words. No going then! + Eternity was in our lips and eyes, + Bliss in our brows' bent, none our parts so poor + But was a race of heaven. They are so still, + Or thou, the greatest soldier of the world, + Art turn'd the greatest liar. + ANTONY. How now, lady! + CLEOPATRA. I would I had thy inches. Thou shouldst know + There were a heart in Egypt. + ANTONY. Hear me, queen: + The strong necessity of time commands + Our services awhile; but my full heart + Remains in use with you. Our Italy + Shines o'er with civil swords: Sextus Pompeius + Makes his approaches to the port of Rome; + Equality of two domestic powers + Breed scrupulous faction; the hated, grown to strength, + Are newly grown to love. The condemn'd Pompey, + Rich in his father's honour, creeps apace + Into the hearts of such as have not thrived + Upon the present state, whose numbers threaten; + And quietness, grown sick of rest, would purge + By any desperate change. My more particular, + And that which most with you should safe my going, + Is Fulvia's death. + CLEOPATRA. Though age from folly could not give me freedom, + It does from childishness. Can Fulvia die? + ANTONY. She's dead, my Queen. + Look here, and at thy sovereign leisure read + The garboils she awak'd. At the last, best. + See when and where she died. + CLEOPATRA. O most false love! + Where be the sacred vials thou shouldst fill + With sorrowful water? Now I see, I see, + In Fulvia's death how mine receiv'd shall be. + ANTONY. Quarrel no more, but be prepar'd to know + The purposes I bear; which are, or cease, + As you shall give th' advice. By the fire + That quickens Nilus' slime, I go from hence + Thy soldier, servant, making peace or war + As thou affects. + CLEOPATRA. Cut my lace, Charmian, come! + But let it be; I am quickly ill and well- + So Antony loves. + ANTONY. My precious queen, forbear, + And give true evidence to his love, which stands + An honourable trial. + CLEOPATRA. So Fulvia told me. + I prithee turn aside and weep for her; + Then bid adieu to me, and say the tears + Belong to Egypt. Good now, play one scene + Of excellent dissembling, and let it look + Like perfect honour. + ANTONY. You'll heat my blood; no more. + CLEOPATRA. You can do better yet; but this is meetly. + ANTONY. Now, by my sword- + CLEOPATRA. And target. Still he mends; + But this is not the best. Look, prithee, Charmian, + How this Herculean Roman does become + The carriage of his chafe. + ANTONY. I'll leave you, lady. + CLEOPATRA. Courteous lord, one word. + Sir, you and I must part- but that's not it. + Sir, you and I have lov'd- but there's not it. + That you know well. Something it is I would- + O, my oblivion is a very Antony, + And I am all forgotten! + ANTONY. But that your royalty + Holds idleness your subject, I should take you + For idleness itself. + CLEOPATRA. 'Tis sweating labour + To bear such idleness so near the heart + As Cleopatra this. But, sir, forgive me; + Since my becomings kill me when they do not + Eye well to you. Your honour calls you hence; + Therefore be deaf to my unpitied folly, + And all the gods go with you! Upon your sword + Sit laurel victory, and smooth success + Be strew'd before your feet! + ANTONY. Let us go. Come. + Our separation so abides and flies + That thou, residing here, goes yet with me, + And I, hence fleeting, here remain with thee. + Away! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Rome. CAESAR'S house + +Enter OCTAVIUS CAESAR, reading a letter; LEPIDUS, and their train + + CAESAR. You may see, Lepidus, and henceforth know, + It is not Caesar's natural vice to hate + Our great competitor. From Alexandria + This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes + The lamps of night in revel; is not more manlike + Than Cleopatra, nor the queen of Ptolemy + More womanly than he; hardly gave audience, or + Vouchsaf'd to think he had partners. You shall find there + A man who is the abstract of all faults + That all men follow. + LEPIDUS. I must not think there are + Evils enow to darken all his goodness. + His faults, in him, seem as the spots of heaven, + More fiery by night's blackness; hereditary + Rather than purchas'd; what he cannot change + Than what he chooses. + CAESAR. You are too indulgent. Let's grant it is not + Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy, + To give a kingdom for a mirth, to sit + And keep the turn of tippling with a slave, + To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet + With knaves that smell of sweat. Say this becomes him- + As his composure must be rare indeed + Whom these things cannot blemish- yet must Antony + No way excuse his foils when we do bear + So great weight in his lightness. If he fill'd + His vacancy with his voluptuousness, + Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones + Call on him for't! But to confound such time + That drums him from his sport and speaks as loud + As his own state and ours- 'tis to be chid + As we rate boys who, being mature in knowledge, + Pawn their experience to their present pleasure, + And so rebel to judgment. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + LEPIDUS. Here's more news. + MESSENGER. Thy biddings have been done; and every hour, + Most noble Caesar, shalt thou have report + How 'tis abroad. Pompey is strong at sea, + And it appears he is belov'd of those + That only have fear'd Caesar. To the ports + The discontents repair, and men's reports + Give him much wrong'd. + CAESAR. I should have known no less. + It hath been taught us from the primal state + That he which is was wish'd until he were; + And the ebb'd man, ne'er lov'd till ne'er worth love, + Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body, + Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream, + Goes to and back, lackeying the varying tide, + To rot itself with motion. + MESSENGER. Caesar, I bring thee word + Menecrates and Menas, famous pirates, + Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound + With keels of every kind. Many hot inroads + They make in Italy; the borders maritime + Lack blood to think on't, and flush youth revolt. + No vessel can peep forth but 'tis as soon + Taken as seen; for Pompey's name strikes more + Than could his war resisted. + CAESAR. Antony, + Leave thy lascivious wassails. When thou once + Was beaten from Modena, where thou slew'st + Hirtius and Pansa, consuls, at thy heel + Did famine follow; whom thou fought'st against, + Though daintily brought up, with patience more + Than savages could suffer. Thou didst drink + The stale of horses and the gilded puddle + Which beasts would cough at. Thy palate then did deign + The roughest berry on the rudest hedge; + Yea, like the stag when snow the pasture sheets, + The barks of trees thou brows'd. On the Alps + It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh, + Which some did die to look on. And all this- + It wounds thine honour that I speak it now- + Was borne so like a soldier that thy cheek + So much as lank'd not. + LEPIDUS. 'Tis pity of him. + CAESAR. Let his shames quickly + Drive him to Rome. 'Tis time we twain + Did show ourselves i' th' field; and to that end + Assemble we immediate council. Pompey + Thrives in our idleness. + LEPIDUS. To-morrow, Caesar, + I shall be furnish'd to inform you rightly + Both what by sea and land I can be able + To front this present time. + CAESAR. Till which encounter + It is my business too. Farewell. + LEPIDUS. Farewell, my lord. What you shall know meantime + Of stirs abroad, I shall beseech you, sir, + To let me be partaker. + CAESAR. Doubt not, sir; + I knew it for my bond. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Alexandria. CLEOPATRA'S palace + +Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN + + CLEOPATRA. Charmian! + CHARMIAN. Madam? + CLEOPATRA. Ha, ha! + Give me to drink mandragora. + CHARMIAN. Why, madam? + CLEOPATRA. That I might sleep out this great gap of time + My Antony is away. + CHARMIAN. You think of him too much. + CLEOPATRA. O, 'tis treason! + CHARMIAN. Madam, I trust, not so. + CLEOPATRA. Thou, eunuch Mardian! + MARDIAN. What's your Highness' pleasure? + CLEOPATRA. Not now to hear thee sing; I take no pleasure + In aught an eunuch has. 'Tis well for thee + That, being unseminar'd, thy freer thoughts + May not fly forth of Egypt. Hast thou affections? + MARDIAN. Yes, gracious madam. + CLEOPATRA. Indeed? + MARDIAN. Not in deed, madam; for I can do nothing + But what indeed is honest to be done. + Yet have I fierce affections, and think + What Venus did with Mars. + CLEOPATRA. O Charmian, + Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he or sits he? + Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? + O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! + Do bravely, horse; for wot'st thou whom thou mov'st? + The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm + And burgonet of men. He's speaking now, + Or murmuring 'Where's my serpent of old Nile?' + For so he calls me. Now I feed myself + With most delicious poison. Think on me, + That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black, + And wrinkled deep in time? Broad-fronted Caesar, + When thou wast here above the ground, I was + A morsel for a monarch; and great Pompey + Would stand and make his eyes grow in my brow; + There would he anchor his aspect and die + With looking on his life. + + Enter ALEXAS + + ALEXAS. Sovereign of Egypt, hail! + CLEOPATRA. How much unlike art thou Mark Antony! + Yet, coming from him, that great med'cine hath + With his tinct gilded thee. + How goes it with my brave Mark Antony? + ALEXAS. Last thing he did, dear Queen, + He kiss'd- the last of many doubled kisses- + This orient pearl. His speech sticks in my heart. + CLEOPATRA. Mine ear must pluck it thence. + ALEXAS. 'Good friend,' quoth he + 'Say the firm Roman to great Egypt sends + This treasure of an oyster; at whose foot, + To mend the petty present, I will piece + Her opulent throne with kingdoms. All the East, + Say thou, shall call her mistress.' So he nodded, + And soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed, + Who neigh'd so high that what I would have spoke + Was beastly dumb'd by him. + CLEOPATRA. What, was he sad or merry? + ALEXAS. Like to the time o' th' year between the extremes + Of hot and cold; he was nor sad nor merry. + CLEOPATRA. O well-divided disposition! Note him, + Note him, good Charmian; 'tis the man; but note him! + He was not sad, for he would shine on those + That make their looks by his; he was not merry, + Which seem'd to tell them his remembrance lay + In Egypt with his joy; but between both. + O heavenly mingle! Be'st thou sad or merry, + The violence of either thee becomes, + So does it no man else. Met'st thou my posts? + ALEXAS. Ay, madam, twenty several messengers. + Why do you send so thick? + CLEOPATRA. Who's born that day + When I forget to send to Antony + Shall die a beggar. Ink and paper, Charmian. + Welcome, my good Alexas. Did I, Charmian, + Ever love Caesar so? + CHARMIAN. O that brave Caesar! + CLEOPATRA. Be chok'd with such another emphasis! + Say 'the brave Antony.' + CHARMIAN. The valiant Caesar! + CLEOPATRA. By Isis, I will give thee bloody teeth + If thou with Caesar paragon again + My man of men. + CHARMIAN. By your most gracious pardon, + I sing but after you. + CLEOPATRA. My salad days, + When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, + To say as I said then. But come, away! + Get me ink and paper. + He shall have every day a several greeting, + Or I'll unpeople Egypt. Exeunt + + + +<> + + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +Messina. POMPEY'S house + +Enter POMPEY, MENECRATES, and MENAS, in warlike manner + + POMPEY. If the great gods be just, they shall assist + The deeds of justest men. + MENECRATES. Know, worthy Pompey, + That what they do delay they not deny. + POMPEY. Whiles we are suitors to their throne, decays + The thing we sue for. + MENECRATES. We, ignorant of ourselves, + Beg often our own harms, which the wise pow'rs + Deny us for our good; so find we profit + By losing of our prayers. + POMPEY. I shall do well. + The people love me, and the sea is mine; + My powers are crescent, and my auguring hope + Says it will come to th' full. Mark Antony + In Egypt sits at dinner, and will make + No wars without doors. Caesar gets money where + He loses hearts. Lepidus flatters both, + Of both is flatter'd; but he neither loves, + Nor either cares for him. + MENAS. Caesar and Lepidus + Are in the field. A mighty strength they carry. + POMPEY. Where have you this? 'Tis false. + MENAS. From Silvius, sir. + POMPEY. He dreams. I know they are in Rome together, + Looking for Antony. But all the charms of love, + Salt Cleopatra, soften thy wan'd lip! + Let witchcraft join with beauty, lust with both; + Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts, + Keep his brain fuming. Epicurean cooks + Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite, + That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour + Even till a Lethe'd dullness- + + Enter VARRIUS + + How now, Varrius! + VARRIUS. This is most certain that I shall deliver: + Mark Antony is every hour in Rome + Expected. Since he went from Egypt 'tis + A space for farther travel. + POMPEY. I could have given less matter + A better ear. Menas, I did not think + This amorous surfeiter would have donn'd his helm + For such a petty war; his soldiership + Is twice the other twain. But let us rear + The higher our opinion, that our stirring + Can from the lap of Egypt's widow pluck + The ne'er-lust-wearied Antony. + MENAS. I cannot hope + Caesar and Antony shall well greet together. + His wife that's dead did trespasses to Caesar; + His brother warr'd upon him; although, I think, + Not mov'd by Antony. + POMPEY. I know not, Menas, + How lesser enmities may give way to greater. + Were't not that we stand up against them all, + 'Twere pregnant they should square between themselves; + For they have entertained cause enough + To draw their swords. But how the fear of us + May cement their divisions, and bind up + The petty difference we yet not know. + Be't as our gods will have't! It only stands + Our lives upon to use our strongest hands. + Come, Menas. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Rome. The house of LEPIDUS + +Enter ENOBARBUS and LEPIDUS + + LEPIDUS. Good Enobarbus, 'tis a worthy deed, + And shall become you well, to entreat your captain + To soft and gentle speech. + ENOBARBUS. I shall entreat him + To answer like himself. If Caesar move him, + Let Antony look over Caesar's head + And speak as loud as Mars. By Jupiter, + Were I the wearer of Antonius' beard, + I would not shave't to-day. + LEPIDUS. 'Tis not a time + For private stomaching. + ENOBARBUS. Every time + Serves for the matter that is then born in't. + LEPIDUS. But small to greater matters must give way. + ENOBARBUS. Not if the small come first. + LEPIDUS. Your speech is passion; + But pray you stir no embers up. Here comes + The noble Antony. + + Enter ANTONY and VENTIDIUS + + ENOBARBUS. And yonder, Caesar. + + Enter CAESAR, MAECENAS, and AGRIPPA + + ANTONY. If we compose well here, to Parthia. + Hark, Ventidius. + CAESAR. I do not know, Maecenas. Ask Agrippa. + LEPIDUS. Noble friends, + That which combin'd us was most great, and let not + A leaner action rend us. What's amiss, + May it be gently heard. When we debate + Our trivial difference loud, we do commit + Murder in healing wounds. Then, noble partners, + The rather for I earnestly beseech, + Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms, + Nor curstness grow to th' matter. + ANTONY. 'Tis spoken well. + Were we before our arinies, and to fight, + I should do thus. [Flourish] + CAESAR. Welcome to Rome. + ANTONY. Thank you. + CAESAR. Sit. + ANTONY. Sit, sir. + CAESAR. Nay, then. [They sit] + ANTONY. I learn you take things ill which are not so, + Or being, concern you not. + CAESAR. I must be laugh'd at + If, or for nothing or a little, + Should say myself offended, and with you + Chiefly i' the world; more laugh'd at that I should + Once name you derogately when to sound your name + It not concern'd me. + ANTONY. My being in Egypt, Caesar, + What was't to you? + CAESAR. No more than my residing here at Rome + Might be to you in Egypt. Yet, if you there + Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt + Might be my question. + ANTONY. How intend you- practis'd? + CAESAR. You may be pleas'd to catch at mine intent + By what did here befall me. Your wife and brother + Made wars upon me, and their contestation + Was theme for you; you were the word of war. + ANTONY. You do mistake your business; my brother never + Did urge me in his act. I did inquire it, + And have my learning from some true reports + That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather + Discredit my authority with yours, + And make the wars alike against my stomach, + Having alike your cause? Of this my letters + Before did satisfy you. If you'll patch a quarrel, + As matter whole you have not to make it with, + It must not be with this. + CAESAR. You praise yourself + By laying defects of judgment to me; but + You patch'd up your excuses. + ANTONY. Not so, not so; + I know you could not lack, I am certain on't, + Very necessity of this thought, that I, + Your partner in the cause 'gainst which he fought, + Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars + Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife, + I would you had her spirit in such another! + The third o' th' world is yours, which with a snaffle + You may pace easy, but not such a wife. + ENOBARBUS. Would we had all such wives, that the men might go to + wars with the women! + ANTONY. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Caesar, + Made out of her impatience- which not wanted + Shrewdness of policy too- I grieving grant + Did you too much disquiet. For that you must + But say I could not help it. + CAESAR. I wrote to you + When rioting in Alexandria; you + Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts + Did gibe my missive out of audience. + ANTONY. Sir, + He fell upon me ere admitted. Then + Three kings I had newly feasted, and did want + Of what I was i' th' morning; but next day + I told him of myself, which was as much + As to have ask'd him pardon. Let this fellow + Be nothing of our strife; if we contend, + Out of our question wipe him. + CAESAR. You have broken + The article of your oath, which you shall never + Have tongue to charge me with. + LEPIDUS. Soft, Caesar! + ANTONY. No; + Lepidus, let him speak. + The honour is sacred which he talks on now, + Supposing that I lack'd it. But on, Caesar: + The article of my oath- + CAESAR. To lend me arms and aid when I requir'd them, + The which you both denied. + ANTONY. Neglected, rather; + And then when poisoned hours had bound me up + From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may, + I'll play the penitent to you; but mine honesty + Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power + Work without it. Truth is, that Fulvia, + To have me out of Egypt, made wars here; + For which myself, the ignorant motive, do + So far ask pardon as befits mine honour + To stoop in such a case. + LEPIDUS. 'Tis noble spoken. + MAECENAS. If it might please you to enforce no further + The griefs between ye- to forget them quite + Were to remember that the present need + Speaks to atone you. + LEPIDUS. Worthily spoken, Maecenas. + ENOBARBUS. Or, if you borrow one another's love for the instant, + you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again. + You shall have time to wrangle in when you have nothing else to + do. + ANTONY. Thou art a soldier only. Speak no more. + ENOBARBUS. That truth should be silent I had almost forgot. + ANTONY. You wrong this presence; therefore speak no more. + ENOBARBUS. Go to, then- your considerate stone! + CAESAR. I do not much dislike the matter, but + The manner of his speech; for't cannot be + We shall remain in friendship, our conditions + So diff'ring in their acts. Yet if I knew + What hoop should hold us stanch, from edge to edge + O' th' world, I would pursue it. + AGRIPPA. Give me leave, Caesar. + CAESAR. Speak, Agrippa. + AGRIPPA. Thou hast a sister by the mother's side, + Admir'd Octavia. Great Mark Antony + Is now a widower. + CAESAR. Say not so, Agrippa. + If Cleopatra heard you, your reproof + Were well deserv'd of rashness. + ANTONY. I am not married, Caesar. Let me hear + Agrippa further speak. + AGRIPPA. To hold you in perpetual amity, + To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts + With an unslipping knot, take Antony + Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims + No worse a husband than the best of men; + Whose virtue and whose general graces speak + That which none else can utter. By this marriage + All little jealousies, which now seem great, + And all great fears, which now import their dangers, + Would then be nothing. Truths would be tales, + Where now half tales be truths. Her love to both + Would each to other, and all loves to both, + Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke; + For 'tis a studied, not a present thought, + By duty ruminated. + ANTONY. Will Caesar speak? + CAESAR. Not till he hears how Antony is touch'd + With what is spoke already. + ANTONY. What power is in Agrippa, + If I would say 'Agrippa, be it so,' + To make this good? + CAESAR. The power of Caesar, and + His power unto Octavia. + ANTONY. May I never + To this good purpose, that so fairly shows, + Dream of impediment! Let me have thy hand. + Further this act of grace; and from this hour + The heart of brothers govern in our loves + And sway our great designs! + CAESAR. There is my hand. + A sister I bequeath you, whom no brother + Did ever love so dearly. Let her live + To join our kingdoms and our hearts; and never + Fly off our loves again! + LEPIDUS. Happily, amen! + ANTONY. I did not think to draw my sword 'gainst Pompey; + For he hath laid strange courtesies and great + Of late upon me. I must thank him only, + Lest my remembrance suffer ill report; + At heel of that, defy him. + LEPIDUS. Time calls upon's. + Of us must Pompey presently be sought, + Or else he seeks out us. + ANTONY. Where lies he? + CAESAR. About the Mount Misenum. + ANTONY. What is his strength by land? + CAESAR. Great and increasing; but by sea + He is an absolute master. + ANTONY. So is the fame. + Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it. + Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we + The business we have talk'd of. + CAESAR. With most gladness; + And do invite you to my sister's view, + Whither straight I'll lead you. + ANTONY. Let us, Lepidus, + Not lack your company. + LEPIDUS. Noble Antony, + Not sickness should detain me. [Flourish] + Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS, AGRIPPA, MAECENAS + MAECENAS. Welcome from Egypt, sir. + ENOBARBUS. Half the heart of Caesar, worthy Maecenas! My honourable + friend, Agrippa! + AGRIPPA. Good Enobarbus! + MAECENAS. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well + digested. You stay'd well by't in Egypt. + ENOBARBUS. Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance and made + the night light with drinking. + MAECENAS. Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but + twelve persons there. Is this true? + ENOBARBUS. This was but as a fly by an eagle. We had much more + monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting. + MAECENAS. She's a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her. + ENOBARBUS. When she first met Mark Antony she purs'd up his heart, + upon the river of Cydnus. + AGRIPPA. There she appear'd indeed! Or my reporter devis'd well for + her. + ENOBARBUS. I will tell you. + The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, + Burn'd on the water. The poop was beaten gold; + Purple the sails, and so perfumed that + The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver, + Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made + The water which they beat to follow faster, + As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, + It beggar'd all description. She did lie + In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold, of tissue, + O'erpicturing that Venus where we see + The fancy out-work nature. On each side her + Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, + With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem + To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, + And what they undid did. + AGRIPPA. O, rare for Antony! + ENOBARBUS. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, + So many mermaids, tended her i' th' eyes, + And made their bends adornings. At the helm + A seeming mermaid steers. The silken tackle + Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands + That yarely frame the office. From the barge + A strange invisible perfume hits the sense + Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast + Her people out upon her; and Antony, + Enthron'd i' th' market-place, did sit alone, + Whistling to th' air; which, but for vacancy, + Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too, + And made a gap in nature. + AGRIPPA. Rare Egyptian! + ENOBARBUS. Upon her landing, Antony sent to her, + Invited her to supper. She replied + It should be better he became her guest; + Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony, + Whom ne'er the word of 'No' woman heard speak, + Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast, + And for his ordinary pays his heart + For what his eyes eat only. + AGRIPPA. Royal wench! + She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed. + He ploughed her, and she cropp'd. + ENOBARBUS. I saw her once + Hop forty paces through the public street; + And, having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted, + That she did make defect perfection, + And, breathless, pow'r breathe forth. + MAECENAS. Now Antony must leave her utterly. + ENOBARBUS. Never! He will not. + Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale + Her infinite variety. Other women cloy + The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry + Where most she satisfies; for vilest things + Become themselves in her, that the holy priests + Bless her when she is riggish. + MAECENAS. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle + The heart of Antony, Octavia is + A blessed lottery to him. + AGRIPPA. Let us go. + Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest + Whilst you abide here. + ENOBARBUS. Humbly, sir, I thank you. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Rome. CAESAR'S house + +Enter ANTONY, CAESAR, OCTAVIA between them + + ANTONY. The world and my great office will sometimes + Divide me from your bosom. + OCTAVIA. All which time + Before the gods my knee shall bow my prayers + To them for you. + ANTONY. Good night, sir. My Octavia, + Read not my blemishes in the world's report. + I have not kept my square; but that to come + Shall all be done by th' rule. Good night, dear lady. + OCTAVIA. Good night, sir. + CAESAR. Good night. Exeunt CAESAR and OCTAVIA + + Enter SOOTHSAYER + + ANTONY. Now, sirrah, you do wish yourself in Egypt? + SOOTHSAYER. Would I had never come from thence, nor you thither! + ANTONY. If you can- your reason. + SOOTHSAYER. I see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue; but + yet hie you to Egypt again. + ANTONY. Say to me, + Whose fortunes shall rise higher, Caesar's or mine? + SOOTHSAYER. Caesar's. + Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side. + Thy daemon, that thy spirit which keeps thee, is + Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable, + Where Caesar's is not; but near him thy angel + Becomes a fear, as being o'erpow'r'd. Therefore + Make space enough between you. + ANTONY. Speak this no more. + SOOTHSAYER. To none but thee; no more but when to thee. + If thou dost play with him at any game, + Thou art sure to lose; and of that natural luck + He beats thee 'gainst the odds. Thy lustre thickens + When he shines by. I say again, thy spirit + Is all afraid to govern thee near him; + But, he away, 'tis noble. + ANTONY. Get thee gone. + Say to Ventidius I would speak with him. + Exit SOOTHSAYER + He shall to Parthia.- Be it art or hap, + He hath spoken true. The very dice obey him; + And in our sports my better cunning faints + Under his chance. If we draw lots, he speeds; + His cocks do win the battle still of mine, + When it is all to nought, and his quails ever + Beat mine, inhoop'd, at odds. I will to Egypt; + And though I make this marriage for my peace, + I' th' East my pleasure lies. + + Enter VENTIDIUS + + O, come, Ventidius, + You must to Parthia. Your commission's ready; + Follow me and receive't. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Rome. A street + +Enter LEPIDUS, MAECENAS, and AGRIPPA + + LEPIDUS. Trouble yourselves no further. Pray you hasten + Your generals after. + AGRIPPA. Sir, Mark Antony + Will e'en but kiss Octavia, and we'll follow. + LEPIDUS. Till I shall see you in your soldier's dress, + Which will become you both, farewell. + MAECENAS. We shall, + As I conceive the journey, be at th' Mount + Before you, Lepidus. + LEPIDUS. Your way is shorter; + My purposes do draw me much about. + You'll win two days upon me. + BOTH. Sir, good success! + LEPIDUS. Farewell. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Alexandria. CLEOPATRA'S palace + +Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS + + CLEOPATRA. Give me some music- music, moody food + Of us that trade in love. + ALL. The music, ho! + + Enter MARDIAN the eunuch + + CLEOPATRA. Let it alone! Let's to billiards. Come, Charmian. + CHARMIAN. My arm is sore; best play with Mardian. + CLEOPATRA. As well a woman with an eunuch play'd + As with a woman. Come, you'll play with me, sir? + MARDIAN. As well as I can, madam. + CLEOPATRA. And when good will is show'd, though't come too short, + The actor may plead pardon. I'll none now. + Give me mine angle- we'll to th' river. There, + My music playing far off, I will betray + Tawny-finn'd fishes; my bended hook shall pierce + Their slimy jaws; and as I draw them up + I'll think them every one an Antony, + And say 'Ah ha! Y'are caught.' + CHARMIAN. 'Twas merry when + You wager'd on your angling; when your diver + Did hang a salt fish on his hook, which he + With fervency drew up. + CLEOPATRA. That time? O times + I laughed him out of patience; and that night + I laugh'd him into patience; and next morn, + Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed, + Then put my tires and mantles on him, whilst + I wore his sword Philippan. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + O! from Italy? + Ram thou thy fruitful tidings in mine ears, + That long time have been barren. + MESSENGER. Madam, madam- + CLEOPATRA. Antony's dead! If thou say so, villain, + Thou kill'st thy mistress; but well and free, + If thou so yield him, there is gold, and here + My bluest veins to kiss- a hand that kings + Have lipp'd, and trembled kissing. + MESSENGER. First, madam, he is well. + CLEOPATRA. Why, there's more gold. + But, sirrah, mark, we use + To say the dead are well. Bring it to that, + The gold I give thee will I melt and pour + Down thy ill-uttering throat. + MESSENGER. Good madam, hear me. + CLEOPATRA. Well, go to, I will. + But there's no goodness in thy face. If Antony + Be free and healthful- why so tart a favour + To trumpet such good tidings? If not well, + Thou shouldst come like a Fury crown'd with snakes, + Not like a formal man. + MESSENGER. Will't please you hear me? + CLEOPATRA. I have a mind to strike thee ere thou speak'st. + Yet, if thou say Antony lives, is well, + Or friends with Caesar, or not captive to him, + I'll set thee in a shower of gold, and hail + Rich pearls upon thee. + MESSENGER. Madam, he's well. + CLEOPATRA. Well said. + MESSENGER. And friends with Caesar. + CLEOPATRA. Th'art an honest man. + MESSENGER. Caesar and he are greater friends than ever. + CLEOPATRA. Make thee a fortune from me. + MESSENGER. But yet, madam- + CLEOPATRA. I do not like 'but yet.' It does allay + The good precedence; fie upon 'but yet'! + 'But yet' is as a gaoler to bring forth + Some monstrous malefactor. Prithee, friend, + Pour out the pack of matter to mine ear, + The good and bad together. He's friends with Caesar; + In state of health, thou say'st; and, thou say'st, free. + MESSENGER. Free, madam! No; I made no such report. + He's bound unto Octavia. + CLEOPATRA. For what good turn? + MESSENGER. For the best turn i' th' bed. + CLEOPATRA. I am pale, Charmian. + MESSENGER. Madam, he's married to Octavia. + CLEOPATRA. The most infectious pestilence upon thee! + [Strikes him down] + MESSENGER. Good madam, patience. + CLEOPATRA. What say you? Hence, [Strikes him] + Horrible villain! or I'll spurn thine eyes + Like balls before me; I'll unhair thy head; + [She hales him up and down] + Thou shalt be whipp'd with wire and stew'd in brine, + Smarting in ling'ring pickle. + MESSENGER. Gracious madam, + I that do bring the news made not the match. + CLEOPATRA. Say 'tis not so, a province I will give thee, + And make thy fortunes proud. The blow thou hadst + Shall make thy peace for moving me to rage; + And I will boot thee with what gift beside + Thy modesty can beg. + MESSENGER. He's married, madam. + CLEOPATRA. Rogue, thou hast liv'd too long. [Draws a knife] + MESSENGER. Nay, then I'll run. + What mean you, madam? I have made no fault. Exit + CHARMIAN. Good madam, keep yourself within yourself: + The man is innocent. + CLEOPATRA. Some innocents scape not the thunderbolt. + Melt Egypt into Nile! and kindly creatures + Turn all to serpents! Call the slave again. + Though I am mad, I will not bite him. Call! + CHARMIAN. He is afear'd to come. + CLEOPATRA. I will not hurt him. + These hands do lack nobility, that they strike + A meaner than myself; since I myself + Have given myself the cause. + + Enter the MESSENGER again + + Come hither, sir. + Though it be honest, it is never good + To bring bad news. Give to a gracious message + An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell + Themselves when they be felt. + MESSENGER. I have done my duty. + CLEOPATRA. Is he married? + I cannot hate thee worser than I do + If thou again say 'Yes.' + MESSENGER. He's married, madam. + CLEOPATRA. The gods confound thee! Dost thou hold there still? + MESSENGER. Should I lie, madam? + CLEOPATRA. O, I would thou didst, + So half my Egypt were submerg'd and made + A cistern for scal'd snakes! Go, get thee hence. + Hadst thou Narcissus in thy face, to me + Thou wouldst appear most ugly. He is married? + MESSENGER. I crave your Highness' pardon. + CLEOPATRA. He is married? + MESSENGER. Take no offence that I would not offend you; + To punish me for what you make me do + Seems much unequal. He's married to Octavia. + CLEOPATRA. O, that his fault should make a knave of thee + That art not what th'art sure of! Get thee hence. + The merchandise which thou hast brought from Rome + Are all too dear for me. Lie they upon thy hand, + And be undone by 'em! Exit MESSENGER + CHARMIAN. Good your Highness, patience. + CLEOPATRA. In praising Antony I have disprais'd Caesar. + CHARMIAN. Many times, madam. + CLEOPATRA. I am paid for't now. Lead me from hence, + I faint. O Iras, Charmian! 'Tis no matter. + Go to the fellow, good Alexas; bid him + Report the feature of Octavia, her years, + Her inclination; let him not leave out + The colour of her hair. Bring me word quickly. + Exit ALEXAS + Let him for ever go- let him not, Charmian- + Though he be painted one way like a Gorgon, + The other way's a Mars. [To MARDIAN] + Bid you Alexas + Bring me word how tall she is.- Pity me, Charmian, + But do not speak to me. Lead me to my chamber. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VI. +Near Misenum + +Flourish. Enter POMPEY and MENAS at one door, with drum and trumpet; +at another, CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, ENOBARBUS, MAECENAS, AGRIPPA, +with soldiers marching + + POMPEY. Your hostages I have, so have you mine; + And we shall talk before we fight. + CAESAR. Most meet + That first we come to words; and therefore have we + Our written purposes before us sent; + Which if thou hast considered, let us know + If 'twill tie up thy discontented sword + And carry back to Sicily much tall youth + That else must perish here. + POMPEY. To you all three, + The senators alone of this great world, + Chief factors for the gods: I do not know + Wherefore my father should revengers want, + Having a son and friends, since Julius Caesar, + Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted, + There saw you labouring for him. What was't + That mov'd pale Cassius to conspire? and what + Made the all-honour'd honest Roman, Brutus, + With the arm'd rest, courtiers of beauteous freedom, + To drench the Capitol, but that they would + Have one man but a man? And that is it + Hath made me rig my navy, at whose burden + The anger'd ocean foams; with which I meant + To scourge th' ingratitude that despiteful Rome + Cast on my noble father. + CAESAR. Take your time. + ANTONY. Thou canst not fear us, Pompey, with thy sails; + We'll speak with thee at sea; at land thou know'st + How much we do o'er-count thee. + POMPEY. At land, indeed, + Thou dost o'er-count me of my father's house. + But since the cuckoo builds not for himself, + Remain in't as thou mayst. + LEPIDUS. Be pleas'd to tell us- + For this is from the present- how you take + The offers we have sent you. + CAESAR. There's the point. + ANTONY. Which do not be entreated to, but weigh + What it is worth embrac'd. + CAESAR. And what may follow, + To try a larger fortune. + POMPEY. You have made me offer + Of Sicily, Sardinia; and I must + Rid all the sea of pirates; then to send + Measures of wheat to Rome; this 'greed upon, + To part with unhack'd edges and bear back + Our targes undinted. + ALL. That's our offer. + POMPEY. Know, then, + I came before you here a man prepar'd + To take this offer; but Mark Antony + Put me to some impatience. Though I lose + The praise of it by telling, you must know, + When Caesar and your brother were at blows, + Your mother came to Sicily and did find + Her welcome friendly. + ANTONY. I have heard it, Pompey, + And am well studied for a liberal thanks + Which I do owe you. + POMPEY. Let me have your hand. + I did not think, sir, to have met you here. + ANTONY. The beds i' th' East are soft; and thanks to you, + That call'd me timelier than my purpose hither; + For I have gained by't. + CAESAR. Since I saw you last + There is a change upon you. + POMPEY. Well, I know not + What counts harsh fortune casts upon my face; + But in my bosom shall she never come + To make my heart her vassal. + LEPIDUS. Well met here. + POMPEY. I hope so, Lepidus. Thus we are agreed. + I crave our composition may be written, + And seal'd between us. + CAESAR. That's the next to do. + POMPEY. We'll feast each other ere we part, and let's + Draw lots who shall begin. + ANTONY. That will I, Pompey. + POMPEY. No, Antony, take the lot; + But, first or last, your fine Egyptian cookery + Shall have the fame. I have heard that Julius Caesar + Grew fat with feasting there. + ANTONY. You have heard much. + POMPEY. I have fair meanings, sir. + ANTONY. And fair words to them. + POMPEY. Then so much have I heard; + And I have heard Apollodorus carried- + ENOBARBUS. No more of that! He did so. + POMPEY. What, I pray you? + ENOBARBUS. A certain queen to Caesar in a mattress. + POMPEY. I know thee now. How far'st thou, soldier? + ENOBARBUS. Well; + And well am like to do, for I perceive + Four feasts are toward. + POMPEY. Let me shake thy hand. + I never hated thee; I have seen thee fight, + When I have envied thy behaviour. + ENOBARBUS. Sir, + I never lov'd you much; but I ha' prais'd ye + When you have well deserv'd ten times as much + As I have said you did. + POMPEY. Enjoy thy plainness; + It nothing ill becomes thee. + Aboard my galley I invite you all. + Will you lead, lords? + ALL. Show's the way, sir. + POMPEY. Come. Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS and MENAS + MENAS. [Aside] Thy father, Pompey, would ne'er have made this + treaty.- You and I have known, sir. + ENOBARBUS. At sea, I think. + MENAS. We have, sir. + ENOBARBUS. You have done well by water. + MENAS. And you by land. + ENOBARBUS. I Will praise any man that will praise me; though it + cannot be denied what I have done by land. + MENAS. Nor what I have done by water. + ENOBARBUS. Yes, something you can deny for your own safety: you + have been a great thief by sea. + MENAS. And you by land. + ENOBARBUS. There I deny my land service. But give me your hand, + Menas; if our eyes had authority, here they might take two + thieves kissing. + MENAS. All men's faces are true, whatsome'er their hands are. + ENOBARBUS. But there is never a fair woman has a true face. + MENAS. No slander: they steal hearts. + ENOBARBUS. We came hither to fight with you. + MENAS. For my part, I am sorry it is turn'd to a drinking. + Pompey doth this day laugh away his fortune. + ENOBARBUS. If he do, sure he cannot weep't back again. + MENAS. Y'have said, sir. We look'd not for Mark Antony here. Pray + you, is he married to Cleopatra? + ENOBARBUS. Caesar' sister is call'd Octavia. + MENAS. True, sir; she was the wife of Caius Marcellus. + ENOBARBUS. But she is now the wife of Marcus Antonius. + MENAS. Pray ye, sir? + ENOBARBUS. 'Tis true. + MENAS. Then is Caesar and he for ever knit together. + ENOBARBUS. If I were bound to divine of this unity, I would not + prophesy so. + MENAS. I think the policy of that purpose made more in the marriage + than the love of the parties. + ENOBARBUS. I think so too. But you shall find the band that seems + to tie their friendship together will be the very strangler of + their amity: Octavia is of a holy, cold, and still conversation. + MENAS. Who would not have his wife so? + ENOBARBUS. Not he that himself is not so; which is Mark Antony. He + will to his Egyptian dish again; then shall the sighs of Octavia + blow the fire up in Caesar, and, as I said before, that which is + the strength of their amity shall prove the immediate author of + their variance. Antony will use his affection where it is; he + married but his occasion here. + MENAS. And thus it may be. Come, sir, will you aboard? I have a + health for you. + ENOBARBUS. I shall take it, sir. We have us'd our throats in Egypt. + MENAS. Come, let's away. Exeunt + +ACT_2|SC_7 + SCENE VII. + On board POMPEY'S galley, off Misenum + + Music plays. Enter two or three SERVANTS with a banquet + + FIRST SERVANT. Here they'll be, man. Some o' their plants are + ill-rooted already; the least wind i' th' world will blow them + down. + SECOND SERVANT. Lepidus is high-colour'd. + FIRST SERVANT. They have made him drink alms-drink. + SECOND SERVANT. As they pinch one another by the disposition, he + cries out 'No more!'; reconciles them to his entreaty and himself + to th' drink. + FIRST SERVANT. But it raises the greater war between him and his + discretion. + SECOND SERVANT. Why, this it is to have a name in great men's + fellowship. I had as lief have a reed that will do me no service + as a partizan I could not heave. + FIRST SERVANT. To be call'd into a huge sphere, and not to be seen + to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully + disaster the cheeks. + + A sennet sounded. Enter CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, + POMPEY, AGRIPPA, MAECENAS, ENOBARBUS, MENAS, + with other CAPTAINS + + ANTONY. [To CAESAR] Thus do they, sir: they take the flow o' th' + Nile + By certain scales i' th' pyramid; they know + By th' height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth + Or foison follow. The higher Nilus swells + The more it promises; as it ebbs, the seedsman + Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain, + And shortly comes to harvest. + LEPIDUS. Y'have strange serpents there. + ANTONY. Ay, Lepidus. + LEPIDUS. Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the + operation of your sun; so is your crocodile. + ANTONY. They are so. + POMPEY. Sit- and some wine! A health to Lepidus! + LEPIDUS. I am not so well as I should be, but I'll ne'er out. + ENOBARBUS. Not till you have slept. I fear me you'll be in till + then. + LEPIDUS. Nay, certainly, I have heard the Ptolemies' pyramises are + very goodly things. Without contradiction I have heard that. + MENAS. [Aside to POMPEY] Pompey, a word. + POMPEY. [Aside to MENAS] Say in mine ear; what is't? + MENAS. [Aside to POMPEY] Forsake thy seat, I do beseech thee, + Captain, + And hear me speak a word. + POMPEY. [ Whispers in's ear ] Forbear me till anon- + This wine for Lepidus! + LEPIDUS. What manner o' thing is your crocodile? + ANTONY. It is shap'd, sir, like itself, and it is as broad as it + hath breadth; it is just so high as it is, and moves with it own + organs. It lives by that which nourisheth it, and the elements + once out of it, it transmigrates. + LEPIDUS. What colour is it of? + ANTONY. Of it own colour too. + LEPIDUS. 'Tis a strange serpent. + ANTONY. 'Tis so. And the tears of it are wet. + CAESAR. Will this description satisfy him? + ANTONY. With the health that Pompey gives him, else he is a very + epicure. + POMPEY. [Aside to MENAS] Go, hang, sir, hang! Tell me of that! + Away! + Do as I bid you.- Where's this cup I call'd for? + MENAS. [Aside to POMPEY] If for the sake of merit thou wilt hear + me, + Rise from thy stool. + POMPEY. [Aside to MENAS] I think th'art mad. [Rises and walks + aside] The matter? + MENAS. I have ever held my cap off to thy fortunes. + POMPEY. Thou hast serv'd me with much faith. What's else to say?- + Be jolly, lords. + ANTONY. These quicksands, Lepidus, + Keep off them, for you sink. + MENAS. Wilt thou be lord of all the world? + POMPEY. What say'st thou? + MENAS. Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That's twice. + POMPEY. How should that be? + MENAS. But entertain it, + And though you think me poor, I am the man + Will give thee all the world. + POMPEY. Hast thou drunk well? + MENAS. No, Pompey, I have kept me from the cup. + Thou art, if thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove; + Whate'er the ocean pales or sky inclips + Is thine, if thou wilt ha't. + POMPEY. Show me which way. + MENAS. These three world-sharers, these competitors, + Are in thy vessel. Let me cut the cable; + And when we are put off, fall to their throats. + All there is thine. + POMPEY. Ah, this thou shouldst have done, + And not have spoke on't. In me 'tis villainy: + In thee't had been good service. Thou must know + 'Tis not my profit that does lead mine honour: + Mine honour, it. Repent that e'er thy tongue + Hath so betray'd thine act. Being done unknown, + I should have found it afterwards well done, + But must condemn it now. Desist, and drink. + MENAS. [Aside] For this, + I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more. + Who seeks, and will not take when once 'tis offer'd, + Shall never find it more. + POMPEY. This health to Lepidus! + ANTONY. Bear him ashore. I'll pledge it for him, Pompey. + ENOBARBUS. Here's to thee, Menas! + MENAS. Enobarbus, welcome! + POMPEY. Fill till the cup be hid. + ENOBARBUS. There's a strong fellow, Menas. + [Pointing to the servant who carries off LEPIDUS] + MENAS. Why? + ENOBARBUS. 'A bears the third part of the world, man; see'st not? + MENAS. The third part, then, is drunk. Would it were all, + That it might go on wheels! + ENOBARBUS. Drink thou; increase the reels. + MENAS. Come. + POMPEY. This is not yet an Alexandrian feast. + ANTONY. It ripens towards it. Strike the vessels, ho! + Here's to Caesar! + CAESAR. I could well forbear't. + It's monstrous labour when I wash my brain + And it grows fouler. + ANTONY. Be a child o' th' time. + CAESAR. Possess it, I'll make answer. + But I had rather fast from all four days + Than drink so much in one. + ENOBARBUS. [To ANTONY] Ha, my brave emperor! + Shall we dance now the Egyptian Bacchanals + And celebrate our drink? + POMPEY. Let's ha't, good soldier. + ANTONY. Come, let's all take hands, + Till that the conquering wine hath steep'd our sense + In soft and delicate Lethe. + ENOBARBUS. All take hands. + Make battery to our ears with the loud music, + The while I'll place you; then the boy shall sing; + The holding every man shall bear as loud + As his strong sides can volley. + [Music plays. ENOBARBUS places them hand in hand] + + THE SONG + Come, thou monarch of the vine, + Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne! + In thy fats our cares be drown'd, + With thy grapes our hairs be crown'd. + Cup us till the world go round, + Cup us till the world go round! + + CAESAR. What would you more? Pompey, good night. Good brother, + Let me request you off; our graver business + Frowns at this levity. Gentle lords, let's part; + You see we have burnt our cheeks. Strong Enobarb + Is weaker than the wine, and mine own tongue + Splits what it speaks. The wild disguise hath almost + Antick'd us all. What needs more words? Good night. + Good Antony, your hand. + POMPEY. I'll try you on the shore. + ANTONY. And shall, sir. Give's your hand. + POMPEY. O Antony, + You have my father's house- but what? We are friends. + Come, down into the boat. + ENOBARBUS. Take heed you fall not. + Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS and MENAS + Menas, I'll not on shore. + MENAS. No, to my cabin. + These drums! these trumpets, flutes! what! + Let Neptune hear we bid a loud farewell + To these great fellows. Sound and be hang'd, sound out! + [Sound a flourish, with drums] + ENOBARBUS. Hoo! says 'a. There's my cap. + MENAS. Hoo! Noble Captain, come. Exeunt +ACT_3|SC_1 + ACT III. SCENE I. + A plain in Syria + + Enter VENTIDIUS, as it were in triumph, with SILIUS + and other Romans, OFFICERS and soldiers; the dead body + of PACORUS borne before him + + VENTIDIUS. Now, darting Parthia, art thou struck, and now + Pleas'd fortune does of Marcus Crassus' death + Make me revenger. Bear the King's son's body + Before our army. Thy Pacorus, Orodes, + Pays this for Marcus Crassus. + SILIUS. Noble Ventidius, + Whilst yet with Parthian blood thy sword is warm + The fugitive Parthians follow; spur through Media, + Mesopotamia, and the shelters whither + The routed fly. So thy grand captain, Antony, + Shall set thee on triumphant chariots and + Put garlands on thy head. + VENTIDIUS. O Silius, Silius, + I have done enough. A lower place, note well, + May make too great an act; for learn this, Silius: + Better to leave undone than by our deed + Acquire too high a fame when him we serve's away. + Caesar and Antony have ever won + More in their officer, than person. Sossius, + One of my place in Syria, his lieutenant, + For quick accumulation of renown, + Which he achiev'd by th' minute, lost his favour. + Who does i' th' wars more than his captain can + Becomes his captain's captain; and ambition, + The soldier's virtue, rather makes choice of loss + Than gain which darkens him. + I could do more to do Antonius good, + But 'twould offend him; and in his offence + Should my performance perish. + SILIUS. Thou hast, Ventidius, that + Without the which a soldier and his sword + Grants scarce distinction. Thou wilt write to Antony? + VENTIDIUS. I'll humbly signify what in his name, + That magical word of war, we have effected; + How, with his banners, and his well-paid ranks, + The ne'er-yet-beaten horse of Parthia + We have jaded out o' th' field. + SILIUS. Where is he now? + VENTIDIUS. He purposeth to Athens; whither, with what haste + The weight we must convey with's will permit, + We shall appear before him.- On, there; pass along. + Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_2 + SCENE II. Rome. CAESAR'S house + + Enter AGRIPPA at one door, ENOBARBUS at another + + AGRIPPA. What, are the brothers parted? + ENOBARBUS. They have dispatch'd with Pompey; he is gone; + The other three are sealing. Octavia weeps + To part from Rome; Caesar is sad; and Lepidus, + Since Pompey's feast, as Menas says, is troubled + With the green sickness. + AGRIPPA. 'Tis a noble Lepidus. + ENOBARBUS. A very fine one. O, how he loves Caesar! + AGRIPPA. Nay, but how dearly he adores Mark Antony! + ENOBARBUS. Caesar? Why he's the Jupiter of men. + AGRIPPA. What's Antony? The god of Jupiter. + ENOBARBUS. Spake you of Caesar? How! the nonpareil! + AGRIPPA. O, Antony! O thou Arabian bird! + ENOBARBUS. Would you praise Caesar, say 'Caesar'- go no further. + AGRIPPA. Indeed, he plied them both with excellent praises. + ENOBARBUS. But he loves Caesar best. Yet he loves Antony. + Hoo! hearts, tongues, figures, scribes, bards, poets, cannot + Think, speak, cast, write, sing, number- hoo!- + His love to Antony. But as for Caesar, + Kneel down, kneel down, and wonder. + AGRIPPA. Both he loves. + ENOBARBUS. They are his shards, and he their beetle. [Trumpets + within] So- + This is to horse. Adieu, noble Agrippa. + AGRIPPA. Good fortune, worthy soldier, and farewell. + + Enter CAESAR, ANTONY, LEPIDUS, and OCTAVIA + + ANTONY. No further, sir. + CAESAR. You take from me a great part of myself; + Use me well in't. Sister, prove such a wife + As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest band + Shall pass on thy approof. Most noble Antony, + Let not the piece of virtue which is set + Betwixt us as the cement of our love + To keep it builded be the ram to batter + The fortress of it; for better might we + Have lov'd without this mean, if on both parts + This be not cherish'd. + ANTONY. Make me not offended + In your distrust. + CAESAR. I have said. + ANTONY. You shall not find, + Though you be therein curious, the least cause + For what you seem to fear. So the gods keep you, + And make the hearts of Romans serve your ends! + We will here part. + CAESAR. Farewell, my dearest sister, fare thee well. + The elements be kind to thee and make + Thy spirits all of comfort! Fare thee well. + OCTAVIA. My noble brother! + ANTONY. The April's in her eyes. It is love's spring, + And these the showers to bring it on. Be cheerful. + OCTAVIA. Sir, look well to my husband's house; and- + CAESAR. What, Octavia? + OCTAVIA. I'll tell you in your ear. + ANTONY. Her tongue will not obey her heart, nor can + Her heart inform her tongue- the swan's down feather, + That stands upon the swell at the full of tide, + And neither way inclines. + ENOBARBUS. [Aside to AGRIPPA] Will Caesar weep? + AGRIPPA. [Aside to ENOBARBUS] He has a cloud in's face. + ENOBARBUS. [Aside to AGRIPPA] He were the worse for that, were he a + horse; + So is he, being a man. + AGRIPPA. [Aside to ENOBARBUS] Why, Enobarbus, + When Antony found Julius Caesar dead, + He cried almost to roaring; and he wept + When at Philippi he found Brutus slain. + ENOBARBUS. [Aside to AGRIPPA] That year, indeed, he was troubled + with a rheum; + What willingly he did confound he wail'd, + Believe't- till I weep too. + CAESAR. No, sweet Octavia, + You shall hear from me still; the time shall not + Out-go my thinking on you. + ANTONY. Come, sir, come; + I'll wrestle with you in my strength of love. + Look, here I have you; thus I let you go, + And give you to the gods. + CAESAR. Adieu; be happy! + LEPIDUS. Let all the number of the stars give light + To thy fair way! + CAESAR. Farewell, farewell! [Kisses OCTAVIA] + ANTONY. Farewell! Trumpets sound. Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_3 + SCENE III. + Alexandria. CLEOPATRA'S palace + + Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and ALEXAS + + CLEOPATRA. Where is the fellow? + ALEXAS. Half afeard to come. + CLEOPATRA. Go to, go to. + + Enter the MESSENGER as before + + Come hither, sir. + ALEXAS. Good Majesty, + Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you + But when you are well pleas'd. + CLEOPATRA. That Herod's head + I'll have. But how, when Antony is gone, + Through whom I might command it? Come thou near. + MESSENGER. Most gracious Majesty! + CLEOPATRA. Didst thou behold Octavia? + MESSENGER. Ay, dread Queen. + CLEOPATRA. Where? + MESSENGER. Madam, in Rome + I look'd her in the face, and saw her led + Between her brother and Mark Antony. + CLEOPATRA. Is she as tall as me? + MESSENGER. She is not, madam. + CLEOPATRA. Didst hear her speak? Is she shrill-tongu'd or low? + MESSENGER. Madam, I heard her speak: she is low-voic'd. + CLEOPATRA. That's not so good. He cannot like her long. + CHARMIAN. Like her? O Isis! 'tis impossible. + CLEOPATRA. I think so, Charmian. Dull of tongue and dwarfish! + What majesty is in her gait? Remember, + If e'er thou look'dst on majesty. + MESSENGER. She creeps. + Her motion and her station are as one; + She shows a body rather than a life, + A statue than a breather. + CLEOPATRA. Is this certain? + MESSENGER. Or I have no observance. + CHARMIAN. Three in Egypt + Cannot make better note. + CLEOPATRA. He's very knowing; + I do perceive't. There's nothing in her yet. + The fellow has good judgment. + CHARMIAN. Excellent. + CLEOPATRA. Guess at her years, I prithee. + MESSENGER. Madam, + She was a widow. + CLEOPATRA. Widow? Charmian, hark! + MESSENGER. And I do think she's thirty. + CLEOPATRA. Bear'st thou her face in mind? Is't long or round? + MESSENGER. Round even to faultiness. + CLEOPATRA. For the most part, too, they are foolish that are so. + Her hair, what colour? + MESSENGER. Brown, madam; and her forehead + As low as she would wish it. + CLEOPATRA. There's gold for thee. + Thou must not take my former sharpness ill. + I will employ thee back again; I find thee + Most fit for business. Go make thee ready; + Our letters are prepar'd. Exeunt MESSENGER + CHARMIAN. A proper man. + CLEOPATRA. Indeed, he is so. I repent me much + That so I harried him. Why, methinks, by him, + This creature's no such thing. + CHARMIAN. Nothing, madam. + CLEOPATRA. The man hath seen some majesty, and should know. + CHARMIAN. Hath he seen majesty? Isis else defend, + And serving you so long! + CLEOPATRA. I have one thing more to ask him yet, good Charmian. + But 'tis no matter; thou shalt bring him to me + Where I will write. All may be well enough. + CHARMIAN. I warrant you, madam. Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_4 + SCENE IV. + Athens. ANTONY'S house + + Enter ANTONY and OCTAVIA + + ANTONY. Nay, nay, Octavia, not only that- + That were excusable, that and thousands more + Of semblable import- but he hath wag'd + New wars 'gainst Pompey; made his will, and read it + To public ear; + Spoke scandy of me; when perforce he could not + But pay me terms of honour, cold and sickly + He vented them, most narrow measure lent me; + When the best hint was given him, he not took't, + Or did it from his teeth. + OCTAVIA. O my good lord, + Believe not all; or if you must believe, + Stomach not all. A more unhappy lady, + If this division chance, ne'er stood between, + Praying for both parts. + The good gods will mock me presently + When I shall pray 'O, bless my lord and husband!' + Undo that prayer by crying out as loud + 'O, bless my brother!' Husband win, win brother, + Prays, and destroys the prayer; no mid-way + 'Twixt these extremes at all. + ANTONY. Gentle Octavia, + Let your best love draw to that point which seeks + Best to preserve it. If I lose mine honour, + I lose myself; better I were not yours + Than yours so branchless. But, as you requested, + Yourself shall go between's. The meantime, lady, + I'll raise the preparation of a war + Shall stain your brother. Make your soonest haste; + So your desires are yours. + OCTAVIA. Thanks to my lord. + The Jove of power make me, most weak, most weak, + Your reconciler! Wars 'twixt you twain would be + As if the world should cleave, and that slain men + Should solder up the rift. + ANTONY. When it appears to you where this begins, + Turn your displeasure that way, for our faults + Can never be so equal that your love + Can equally move with them. Provide your going; + Choose your own company, and command what cost + Your heart has mind to. Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_5 + SCENE V. + Athens. ANTONY'S house + + Enter ENOBARBUS and EROS, meeting + + ENOBARBUS. How now, friend Eros! + EROS. There's strange news come, sir. + ENOBARBUS. What, man? + EROS. Caesar and Lepidus have made wars upon Pompey. + ENOBARBUS. This is old. What is the success? + EROS. Caesar, having made use of him in the wars 'gainst Pompey, + presently denied him rivality, would not let him partake in the + glory of the action; and not resting here, accuses him of letters + he had formerly wrote to Pompey; upon his own appeal, seizes him. + So the poor third is up, till death enlarge his confine. + ENOBARBUS. Then, world, thou hast a pair of chaps- no more; + And throw between them all the food thou hast, + They'll grind the one the other. Where's Antony? + EROS. He's walking in the garden- thus, and spurns + The rush that lies before him; cries 'Fool Lepidus!' + And threats the throat of that his officer + That murd'red Pompey. + ENOBARBUS. Our great navy's rigg'd. + EROS. For Italy and Caesar. More, Domitius: + My lord desires you presently; my news + I might have told hereafter. + ENOBARBUS. 'Twill be naught; + But let it be. Bring me to Antony. + EROS. Come, sir. Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_6 + SCENE VI. + Rome. CAESAR'S house + + Enter CAESAR, AGRIPPA, and MAECENAS + + CAESAR. Contemning Rome, he has done all this and more + In Alexandria. Here's the manner of't: + I' th' market-place, on a tribunal silver'd, + Cleopatra and himself in chairs of gold + Were publicly enthron'd; at the feet sat + Caesarion, whom they call my father's son, + And all the unlawful issue that their lust + Since then hath made between them. Unto her + He gave the stablishment of Egypt; made her + Of lower Syria, Cyprus, Lydia, + Absolute queen. + MAECENAS. This in the public eye? + CAESAR. I' th' common show-place, where they exercise. + His sons he there proclaim'd the kings of kings: + Great Media, Parthia, and Armenia, + He gave to Alexander; to Ptolemy he assign'd + Syria, Cilicia, and Phoenicia. She + In th' habiliments of the goddess Isis + That day appear'd; and oft before gave audience, + As 'tis reported, so. + MAECENAS. Let Rome be thus + Inform'd. + AGRIPPA. Who, queasy with his insolence + Already, will their good thoughts call from him. + CAESAR. The people knows it, and have now receiv'd + His accusations. + AGRIPPA. Who does he accuse? + CAESAR. Caesar; and that, having in Sicily + Sextus Pompeius spoil'd, we had not rated him + His part o' th' isle. Then does he say he lent me + Some shipping, unrestor'd. Lastly, he frets + That Lepidus of the triumvirate + Should be depos'd; and, being, that we detain + All his revenue. + AGRIPPA. Sir, this should be answer'd. + CAESAR. 'Tis done already, and messenger gone. + I have told him Lepidus was grown too cruel, + That he his high authority abus'd, + And did deserve his change. For what I have conquer'd + I grant him part; but then, in his Armenia + And other of his conquer'd kingdoms, + Demand the like. + MAECENAS. He'll never yield to that. + CAESAR. Nor must not then be yielded to in this. + + Enter OCTAVIA, with her train + + OCTAVIA. Hail, Caesar, and my lord! hail, most dear Caesar! + CAESAR. That ever I should call thee cast-away! + OCTAVIA. You have not call'd me so, nor have you cause. + CAESAR. Why have you stol'n upon us thus? You come not + Like Caesar's sister. The wife of Antony + Should have an army for an usher, and + The neighs of horse to tell of her approach + Long ere she did appear. The trees by th' way + Should have borne men, and expectation fainted, + Longing for what it had not. Nay, the dust + Should have ascended to the roof of heaven, + Rais'd by your populous troops. But you are come + A market-maid to Rome, and have prevented + The ostentation of our love, which left unshown + Is often left unlov'd. We should have met you + By sea and land, supplying every stage + With an augmented greeting. + OCTAVIA. Good my lord, + To come thus was I not constrain'd, but did it + On my free will. My lord, Mark Antony, + Hearing that you prepar'd for war, acquainted + My grieved ear withal; whereon I begg'd + His pardon for return. + CAESAR. Which soon he granted, + Being an obstruct 'tween his lust and him. + OCTAVIA. Do not say so, my lord. + CAESAR. I have eyes upon him, + And his affairs come to me on the wind. + Where is he now? + OCTAVIA. My lord, in Athens. + CAESAR. No, my most wronged sister: Cleopatra + Hath nodded him to her. He hath given his empire + Up to a whore, who now are levying + The kings o' th' earth for war. He hath assembled + Bocchus, the king of Libya; Archelaus + Of Cappadocia; Philadelphos, king + Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas; + King Manchus of Arabia; King of Pont; + Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, king + Of Comagene; Polemon and Amyntas, + The kings of Mede and Lycaonia, with + More larger list of sceptres. + OCTAVIA. Ay me most wretched, + That have my heart parted betwixt two friends, + That does afflict each other! + CAESAR. Welcome hither. + Your letters did withhold our breaking forth, + Till we perceiv'd both how you were wrong led + And we in negligent danger. Cheer your heart; + Be you not troubled with the time, which drives + O'er your content these strong necessities, + But let determin'd things to destiny + Hold unbewail'd their way. Welcome to Rome; + Nothing more dear to me. You are abus'd + Beyond the mark of thought, and the high gods, + To do you justice, make their ministers + Of us and those that love you. Best of comfort, + And ever welcome to us. + AGRIPPA. Welcome, lady. + MAECENAS. Welcome, dear madam. + Each heart in Rome does love and pity you; + Only th' adulterous Antony, most large + In his abominations, turns you off, + And gives his potent regiment to a trull + That noises it against us. + OCTAVIA. Is it so, sir? + CAESAR. Most certain. Sister, welcome. Pray you + Be ever known to patience. My dear'st sister! Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_7 + SCENE VII. + ANTONY'S camp near Actium + + Enter CLEOPATRA and ENOBARBUS + + CLEOPATRA. I will be even with thee, doubt it not. + ENOBARBUS. But why, why, + CLEOPATRA. Thou hast forspoke my being in these wars, + And say'st it is not fit. + ENOBARBUS. Well, is it, is it? + CLEOPATRA. Is't not denounc'd against us? Why should not we + Be there in person? + ENOBARBUS. [Aside] Well, I could reply: + If we should serve with horse and mares together + The horse were merely lost; the mares would bear + A soldier and his horse. + CLEOPATRA. What is't you say? + ENOBARBUS. Your presence needs must puzzle Antony; + Take from his heart, take from his brain, from's time, + What should not then be spar'd. He is already + Traduc'd for levity; and 'tis said in Rome + That Photinus an eunuch and your maids + Manage this war. + CLEOPATRA. Sink Rome, and their tongues rot + That speak against us! A charge we bear i' th' war, + And, as the president of my kingdom, will + Appear there for a man. Speak not against it; + I will not stay behind. + + Enter ANTONY and CANIDIUS + + ENOBARBUS. Nay, I have done. + Here comes the Emperor. + ANTONY. Is it not strange, Canidius, + That from Tarentum and Brundusium + He could so quickly cut the Ionian sea, + And take in Toryne?- You have heard on't, sweet? + CLEOPATRA. Celerity is never more admir'd + Than by the negligent. + ANTONY. A good rebuke, + Which might have well becom'd the best of men + To taunt at slackness. Canidius, we + Will fight with him by sea. + CLEOPATRA. By sea! What else? + CANIDIUS. Why will my lord do so? + ANTONY. For that he dares us to't. + ENOBARBUS. So hath my lord dar'd him to single fight. + CANIDIUS. Ay, and to wage this battle at Pharsalia, + Where Caesar fought with Pompey. But these offers, + Which serve not for his vantage, he shakes off; + And so should you. + ENOBARBUS. Your ships are not well mann'd; + Your mariners are muleteers, reapers, people + Ingross'd by swift impress. In Caesar's fleet + Are those that often have 'gainst Pompey fought; + Their ships are yare; yours heavy. No disgrace + Shall fall you for refusing him at sea, + Being prepar'd for land. + ANTONY. By sea, by sea. + ENOBARBUS. Most worthy sir, you therein throw away + The absolute soldiership you have by land; + Distract your army, which doth most consist + Of war-mark'd footmen; leave unexecuted + Your own renowned knowledge; quite forgo + The way which promises assurance; and + Give up yourself merely to chance and hazard + From firm security. + ANTONY. I'll fight at sea. + CLEOPATRA. I have sixty sails, Caesar none better. + ANTONY. Our overplus of shipping will we burn, + And, with the rest full-mann'd, from th' head of Actium + Beat th' approaching Caesar. But if we fail, + We then can do't at land. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + Thy business? + MESSENGER. The news is true, my lord: he is descried; + Caesar has taken Toryne. + ANTONY. Can he be there in person? 'Tis impossible- + Strange that his power should be. Canidius, + Our nineteen legions thou shalt hold by land, + And our twelve thousand horse. We'll to our ship. + Away, my Thetis! + + Enter a SOLDIER + + How now, worthy soldier? + SOLDIER. O noble Emperor, do not fight by sea; + Trust not to rotten planks. Do you misdoubt + This sword and these my wounds? Let th' Egyptians + And the Phoenicians go a-ducking; we + Have us'd to conquer standing on the earth + And fighting foot to foot. + ANTONY. Well, well- away. + Exeunt ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, and ENOBARBUS + SOLDIER. By Hercules, I think I am i' th' right. + CANIDIUS. Soldier, thou art; but his whole action grows + Not in the power on't. So our leader's led, + And we are women's men. + SOLDIER. You keep by land + The legions and the horse whole, do you not? + CANIDIUS. Marcus Octavius, Marcus Justeius, + Publicola, and Caelius are for sea; + But we keep whole by land. This speed of Caesar's + Carries beyond belief. + SOLDIER. While he was yet in Rome, + His power went out in such distractions as + Beguil'd all spies. + CANIDIUS. Who's his lieutenant, hear you? + SOLDIER. They say one Taurus. + CANIDIUS. Well I know the man. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. The Emperor calls Canidius. + CANIDIUS. With news the time's with labour and throes forth + Each minute some. Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_8 + SCENE VIII. + A plain near Actium + + Enter CAESAR, with his army, marching + + CAESAR. Taurus! + TAURUS. My lord? + CAESAR. Strike not by land; keep whole; provoke not battle + Till we have done at sea. Do not exceed + The prescript of this scroll. Our fortune lies + Upon this jump. Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_9 + SCENE IX. + Another part of the plain + + Enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS + + ANTONY. Set we our squadrons on yon side o' th' hill, + In eye of Caesar's battle; from which place + We may the number of the ships behold, + And so proceed accordingly. Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_10 + SCENE X. + Another part of the plain + + CANIDIUS marcheth with his land army one way + over the stage, and TAURUS, the Lieutenant of + CAESAR, the other way. After their going in is heard + the noise of a sea-fight + + Alarum. Enter ENOBARBUS + + ENOBARBUS. Naught, naught, all naught! I can behold no longer. + Th' Antoniad, the Egyptian admiral, + With all their sixty, fly and turn the rudder. + To see't mine eyes are blasted. + + Enter SCARUS + + SCARUS. Gods and goddesses, + All the whole synod of them! + ENOBARBUS. What's thy passion? + SCARUS. The greater cantle of the world is lost + With very ignorance; we have kiss'd away + Kingdoms and provinces. + ENOBARBUS. How appears the fight? + SCARUS. On our side like the token'd pestilence, + Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt- + Whom leprosy o'ertake!- i' th' midst o' th' fight, + When vantage like a pair of twins appear'd, + Both as the same, or rather ours the elder- + The breese upon her, like a cow in June- + Hoists sails and flies. + ENOBARBUS. That I beheld; + Mine eyes did sicken at the sight and could not + Endure a further view. + SCARUS. She once being loof'd, + The noble ruin of her magic, Antony, + Claps on his sea-wing, and, like a doting mallard, + Leaving the fight in height, flies after her. + I never saw an action of such shame; + Experience, manhood, honour, ne'er before + Did violate so itself. + ENOBARBUS. Alack, alack! + + Enter CANIDIUS + + CANIDIUS. Our fortune on the sea is out of breath, + And sinks most lamentably. Had our general + Been what he knew himself, it had gone well. + O, he has given example for our flight + Most grossly by his own! + ENOBARBUS. Ay, are you thereabouts? + Why then, good night indeed. + CANIDIUS. Toward Peloponnesus are they fled. + SCARUS. 'Tis easy to't; and there I will attend + What further comes. + CANIDIUS. To Caesar will I render + My legions and my horse; six kings already + Show me the way of yielding. + ENOBARBUS. I'll yet follow + The wounded chance of Antony, though my reason + Sits in the wind against me. Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_11 + SCENE XI. + Alexandria. CLEOPATRA'S palace + + Enter ANTONY With attendants + + ANTONY. Hark! the land bids me tread no more upon't; + It is asham'd to bear me. Friends, come hither. + I am so lated in the world that I + Have lost my way for ever. I have a ship + Laden with gold; take that; divide it. Fly, + And make your peace with Caesar. + ALL. Fly? Not we! + ANTONY. I have fled myself, and have instructed cowards + To run and show their shoulders. Friends, be gone; + I have myself resolv'd upon a course + Which has no need of you; be gone. + My treasure's in the harbour, take it. O, + I follow'd that I blush to look upon. + My very hairs do mutiny; for the white + Reprove the brown for rashness, and they them + For fear and doting. Friends, be gone; you shall + Have letters from me to some friends that will + Sweep your way for you. Pray you look not sad, + Nor make replies of loathness; take the hint + Which my despair proclaims. Let that be left + Which leaves itself. To the sea-side straight way. + I will possess you of that ship and treasure. + Leave me, I pray, a little; pray you now; + Nay, do so, for indeed I have lost command; + Therefore I pray you. I'll see you by and by. [Sits down] + + Enter CLEOPATRA, led by CHARMIAN and IRAS, + EROS following + + EROS. Nay, gentle madam, to him! Comfort him. + IRAS. Do, most dear Queen. + CHARMIAN. Do? Why, what else? + CLEOPATRA. Let me sit down. O Juno! + ANTONY. No, no, no, no, no. + EROS. See you here, sir? + ANTONY. O, fie, fie, fie! + CHARMIAN. Madam! + IRAS. Madam, O good Empress! + EROS. Sir, sir! + ANTONY. Yes, my lord, yes. He at Philippi kept + His sword e'en like a dancer, while I struck + The lean and wrinkled Cassius; and 'twas I + That the mad Brutus ended; he alone + Dealt on lieutenantry, and no practice had + In the brave squares of war. Yet now- no matter. + CLEOPATRA. Ah, stand by! + EROS. The Queen, my lord, the Queen! + IRAS. Go to him, madam, speak to him. + He is unqualitied with very shame. + CLEOPATRA. Well then, sustain me. O! + EROS. Most noble sir, arise; the Queen approaches. + Her head's declin'd, and death will seize her but + Your comfort makes the rescue. + ANTONY. I have offended reputation- + A most unnoble swerving. + EROS. Sir, the Queen. + ANTONY. O, whither hast thou led me, Egypt? See + How I convey my shame out of thine eyes + By looking back what I have left behind + 'Stroy'd in dishonour. + CLEOPATRA. O my lord, my lord, + Forgive my fearful sails! I little thought + You would have followed. + ANTONY. Egypt, thou knew'st too well + My heart was to thy rudder tied by th' strings, + And thou shouldst tow me after. O'er my spirit + Thy full supremacy thou knew'st, and that + Thy beck might from the bidding of the gods + Command me. + CLEOPATRA. O, my pardon! + ANTONY. Now I must + To the young man send humble treaties, dodge + And palter in the shifts of lowness, who + With half the bulk o' th' world play'd as I pleas'd, + Making and marring fortunes. You did know + How much you were my conqueror, and that + My sword, made weak by my affection, would + Obey it on all cause. + CLEOPATRA. Pardon, pardon! + ANTONY. Fall not a tear, I say; one of them rates + All that is won and lost. Give me a kiss; + Even this repays me. + We sent our schoolmaster; is 'a come back? + Love, I am full of lead. Some wine, + Within there, and our viands! Fortune knows + We scorn her most when most she offers blows. Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_12 + SCENE XII. + CAESAR'S camp in Egypt + + Enter CAESAR, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, THYREUS, with others + + CAESAR. Let him appear that's come from Antony. + Know you him? + DOLABELLA. Caesar, 'tis his schoolmaster: + An argument that he is pluck'd, when hither + He sends so poor a pinion of his wing, + Which had superfluous kings for messengers + Not many moons gone by. + + Enter EUPHRONIUS, Ambassador from ANTONY + + CAESAR. Approach, and speak. + EUPHRONIUS. Such as I am, I come from Antony. + I was of late as petty to his ends + As is the morn-dew on the myrtle leaf + To his grand sea. + CAESAR. Be't so. Declare thine office. + EUPHRONIUS. Lord of his fortunes he salutes thee, and + Requires to live in Egypt; which not granted, + He lessens his requests and to thee sues + To let him breathe between the heavens and earth, + A private man in Athens. This for him. + Next, Cleopatra does confess thy greatness, + Submits her to thy might, and of thee craves + The circle of the Ptolemies for her heirs, + Now hazarded to thy grace. + CAESAR. For Antony, + I have no ears to his request. The Queen + Of audience nor desire shall fail, so she + From Egypt drive her all-disgraced friend, + Or take his life there. This if she perform, + She shall not sue unheard. So to them both. + EUPHRONIUS. Fortune pursue thee! + CAESAR. Bring him through the bands. Exit EUPHRONIUS + [To THYREUS] To try thy eloquence, now 'tis time. Dispatch; + From Antony win Cleopatra. Promise, + And in our name, what she requires; add more, + From thine invention, offers. Women are not + In their best fortunes strong; but want will perjure + The ne'er-touch'd vestal. Try thy cunning, Thyreus; + Make thine own edict for thy pains, which we + Will answer as a law. + THYREUS. Caesar, I go. + CAESAR. Observe how Antony becomes his flaw, + And what thou think'st his very action speaks + In every power that moves. + THYREUS. Caesar, I shall. Exeunt + +ACT_3|SC_13 + SCENE XIII. + Alexandria. CLEOPATRA'S palace + + Enter CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, and IRAS + + CLEOPATRA. What shall we do, Enobarbus? + ENOBARBUS. Think, and die. + CLEOPATRA. Is Antony or we in fault for this? + ENOBARBUS. Antony only, that would make his will + Lord of his reason. What though you fled + From that great face of war, whose several ranges + Frighted each other? Why should he follow? + The itch of his affection should not then + Have nick'd his captainship, at such a point, + When half to half the world oppos'd, he being + The mered question. 'Twas a shame no less + Than was his loss, to course your flying flags + And leave his navy gazing. + CLEOPATRA. Prithee, peace. + + Enter EUPHRONIUS, the Ambassador; with ANTONY + + ANTONY. Is that his answer? + EUPHRONIUS. Ay, my lord. + ANTONY. The Queen shall then have courtesy, so she + Will yield us up. + EUPHRONIUS. He says so. + ANTONY. Let her know't. + To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head, + And he will fill thy wishes to the brim + With principalities. + CLEOPATRA. That head, my lord? + ANTONY. To him again. Tell him he wears the rose + Of youth upon him; from which the world should note + Something particular. His coin, ships, legions, + May be a coward's whose ministers would prevail + Under the service of a child as soon + As i' th' command of Caesar. I dare him therefore + To lay his gay comparisons apart, + And answer me declin'd, sword against sword, + Ourselves alone. I'll write it. Follow me. + Exeunt ANTONY and EUPHRONIUS + EUPHRONIUS. [Aside] Yes, like enough high-battled Caesar will + Unstate his happiness, and be stag'd to th' show + Against a sworder! I see men's judgments are + A parcel of their fortunes, and things outward + Do draw the inward quality after them, + To suffer all alike. That he should dream, + Knowing all measures, the full Caesar will + Answer his emptiness! Caesar, thou hast subdu'd + His judgment too. + + Enter a SERVANT + + SERVANT. A messenger from Caesar. + CLEOPATRA. What, no more ceremony? See, my women! + Against the blown rose may they stop their nose + That kneel'd unto the buds. Admit him, sir. Exit SERVANT + ENOBARBUS. [Aside] Mine honesty and I begin to square. + The loyalty well held to fools does make + Our faith mere folly. Yet he that can endure + To follow with allegiance a fall'n lord + Does conquer him that did his master conquer, + And earns a place i' th' story. + + Enter THYREUS + + CLEOPATRA. Caesar's will? + THYREUS. Hear it apart. + CLEOPATRA. None but friends: say boldly. + THYREUS. So, haply, are they friends to Antony. + ENOBARBUS. He needs as many, sir, as Caesar has, + Or needs not us. If Caesar please, our master + Will leap to be his friend. For us, you know + Whose he is we are, and that is Caesar's. + THYREUS. So. + Thus then, thou most renown'd: Caesar entreats + Not to consider in what case thou stand'st + Further than he is Caesar. + CLEOPATRA. Go on. Right royal! + THYREUS. He knows that you embrace not Antony + As you did love, but as you fear'd him. + CLEOPATRA. O! + THYREUS. The scars upon your honour, therefore, he + Does pity, as constrained blemishes, + Not as deserv'd. + CLEOPATRA. He is a god, and knows + What is most right. Mine honour was not yielded, + But conquer'd merely. + ENOBARBUS. [Aside] To be sure of that, + I will ask Antony. Sir, sir, thou art so leaky + That we must leave thee to thy sinking, for + Thy dearest quit thee. Exit + THYREUS. Shall I say to Caesar + What you require of him? For he partly begs + To be desir'd to give. It much would please him + That of his fortunes you should make a staff + To lean upon. But it would warm his spirits + To hear from me you had left Antony, + And put yourself under his shroud, + The universal landlord. + CLEOPATRA. What's your name? + THYREUS. My name is Thyreus. + CLEOPATRA. Most kind messenger, + Say to great Caesar this: in deputation + I kiss his conquring hand. Tell him I am prompt + To lay my crown at 's feet, and there to kneel. + Tell him from his all-obeying breath I hear + The doom of Egypt. + THYREUS. 'Tis your noblest course. + Wisdom and fortune combating together, + If that the former dare but what it can, + No chance may shake it. Give me grace to lay + My duty on your hand. + CLEOPATRA. Your Caesar's father oft, + When he hath mus'd of taking kingdoms in, + Bestow'd his lips on that unworthy place, + As it rain'd kisses. + + Re-enter ANTONY and ENOBARBUS + + ANTONY. Favours, by Jove that thunders! + What art thou, fellow? + THYREUS. One that but performs + The bidding of the fullest man, and worthiest + To have command obey'd. + ENOBARBUS. [Aside] You will be whipt. + ANTONY. Approach there.- Ah, you kite!- Now, gods and devils! + Authority melts from me. Of late, when I cried 'Ho!' + Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth + And cry 'Your will?' Have you no ears? I am + Antony yet. + + Enter servants + + Take hence this Jack and whip him. + ENOBARBUS. 'Tis better playing with a lion's whelp + Than with an old one dying. + ANTONY. Moon and stars! + Whip him. Were't twenty of the greatest tributaries + That do acknowledge Caesar, should I find them + So saucy with the hand of she here- what's her name + Since she was Cleopatra? Whip him, fellows, + Till like a boy you see him cringe his face, + And whine aloud for mercy. Take him hence. + THYMUS. Mark Antony- + ANTONY. Tug him away. Being whipt, + Bring him again: the Jack of Caesar's shall + Bear us an errand to him. Exeunt servants with THYREUS + You were half blasted ere I knew you. Ha! + Have I my pillow left unpress'd in Rome, + Forborne the getting of a lawful race, + And by a gem of women, to be abus'd + By one that looks on feeders? + CLEOPATRA. Good my lord- + ANTONY. You have been a boggler ever. + But when we in our viciousness grow hard- + O misery on't!- the wise gods seel our eyes, + In our own filth drop our clear judgments, make us + Adore our errors, laugh at's while we strut + To our confusion. + CLEOPATRA. O, is't come to this? + ANTONY. I found you as a morsel cold upon + Dead Caesar's trencher. Nay, you were a fragment + Of Cneius Pompey's, besides what hotter hours, + Unregist'red in vulgar fame, you have + Luxuriously pick'd out; for I am sure, + Though you can guess what temperance should be, + You know not what it is. + CLEOPATRA. Wherefore is this? + ANTONY. To let a fellow that will take rewards, + And say 'God quit you!' be familiar with + My playfellow, your hand, this kingly seal + And plighter of high hearts! O that I were + Upon the hill of Basan to outroar + The horned herd! For I have savage cause, + And to proclaim it civilly were like + A halter'd neck which does the hangman thank + For being yare about him. + + Re-enter a SERVANT with THYREUS + + Is he whipt? + SERVANT. Soundly, my lord. + ANTONY. Cried he? and begg'd 'a pardon? + SERVANT. He did ask favour. + ANTONY. If that thy father live, let him repent + Thou wast not made his daughter; and be thou sorry + To follow Caesar in his triumph, since + Thou hast been whipt for following him. Henceforth + The white hand of a lady fever thee! + Shake thou to look on't. Get thee back to Caesar; + Tell him thy entertainment; look thou say + He makes me angry with him; for he seems + Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am, + Not what he knew I was. He makes me angry; + And at this time most easy 'tis to do't, + When my good stars, that were my former guides, + Have empty left their orbs and shot their fires + Into th' abysm of hell. If he mislike + My speech and what is done, tell him he has + Hipparchus, my enfranched bondman, whom + He may at pleasure whip or hang or torture, + As he shall like, to quit me. Urge it thou. + Hence with thy stripes, be gone. Exit THYREUS + CLEOPATRA. Have you done yet? + ANTONY. Alack, our terrene moon + Is now eclips'd, and it portends alone + The fall of Antony. + CLEOPATRA. I must stay his time. + ANTONY. To flatter Caesar, would you mingle eyes + With one that ties his points? + CLEOPATRA. Not know me yet? + ANTONY. Cold-hearted toward me? + CLEOPATRA. Ah, dear, if I be so, + From my cold heart let heaven engender hail, + And poison it in the source, and the first stone + Drop in my neck; as it determines, so + Dissolve my life! The next Caesarion smite! + Till by degrees the memory of my womb, + Together with my brave Egyptians all, + By the discandying of this pelleted storm, + Lie graveless, till the flies and gnats of Nile + Have buried them for prey. + ANTONY. I am satisfied. + Caesar sits down in Alexandria, where + I will oppose his fate. Our force by land + Hath nobly held; our sever'd navy to + Have knit again, and fleet, threat'ning most sea-like. + Where hast thou been, my heart? Dost thou hear, lady? + If from the field I shall return once more + To kiss these lips, I will appear in blood. + I and my sword will earn our chronicle. + There's hope in't yet. + CLEOPATRA. That's my brave lord! + ANTONY. I will be treble-sinew'd, hearted, breath'd, + And fight maliciously. For when mine hours + Were nice and lucky, men did ransom lives + Of me for jests; but now I'll set my teeth, + And send to darkness all that stop me. Come, + Let's have one other gaudy night. Call to me + All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more; + Let's mock the midnight bell. + CLEOPATRA. It is my birthday. + I had thought t'have held it poor; but since my lord + Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra. + ANTONY. We will yet do well. + CLEOPATRA. Call all his noble captains to my lord. + ANTONY. Do so, we'll speak to them; and to-night I'll force + The wine peep through their scars. Come on, my queen, + There's sap in't yet. The next time I do fight + I'll make death love me; for I will contend + Even with his pestilent scythe. Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS + ENOBARBUS. Now he'll outstare the lightning. To be furious + Is to be frighted out of fear, and in that mood + The dove will peck the estridge; and I see still + A diminution in our captain's brain + Restores his heart. When valour preys on reason, + It eats the sword it fights with. I will seek + Some way to leave him. Exit + +ACT_4|SC_1 + ACT IV. SCENE I. + CAESAR'S camp before Alexandria + + Enter CAESAR, AGRIPPA, and MAECENAS, with his army; + CAESAR reading a letter + + CAESAR. He calls me boy, and chides as he had power + To beat me out of Egypt. My messenger + He hath whipt with rods; dares me to personal combat, + Caesar to Antony. Let the old ruffian know + I have many other ways to die, meantime + Laugh at his challenge. + MAECENAS. Caesar must think + When one so great begins to rage, he's hunted + Even to falling. Give him no breath, but now + Make boot of his distraction. Never anger + Made good guard for itself. + CAESAR. Let our best heads + Know that to-morrow the last of many battles + We mean to fight. Within our files there are + Of those that serv'd Mark Antony but late + Enough to fetch him in. See it done; + And feast the army; we have store to do't, + And they have earn'd the waste. Poor Antony! Exeunt + +ACT_4|SC_2 + SCENE II. + Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's palace + + Enter ANTONY, CLEOPATRA, ENOBARBUS, CHARMIAN, IRAS, + ALEXAS, with others + + ANTONY. He will not fight with me, Domitius? + ENOBARBUS. No. + ANTONY. Why should he not? + ENOBARBUS. He thinks, being twenty times of better fortune, + He is twenty men to one. + ANTONY. To-morrow, soldier, + By sea and land I'll fight. Or I will live, + Or bathe my dying honour in the blood + Shall make it live again. Woo't thou fight well? + ENOBARBUS. I'll strike, and cry 'Take all.' + ANTONY. Well said; come on. + Call forth my household servants; let's to-night + Be bounteous at our meal. + + Enter three or four servitors + + Give me thy hand, + Thou has been rightly honest. So hast thou; + Thou, and thou, and thou. You have serv'd me well, + And kings have been your fellows. + CLEOPATRA. [Aside to ENOBARBUS] What means this? + ENOBARBUS. [Aside to CLEOPATRA] 'Tis one of those odd tricks which + sorrow shoots + Out of the mind. + ANTONY. And thou art honest too. + I wish I could be made so many men, + And all of you clapp'd up together in + An Antony, that I might do you service + So good as you have done. + SERVANT. The gods forbid! + ANTONY. Well, my good fellows, wait on me to-night. + Scant not my cups, and make as much of me + As when mine empire was your fellow too, + And suffer'd my command. + CLEOPATRA. [Aside to ENOBARBUS] What does he mean? + ENOBARBUS. [Aside to CLEOPATRA] To make his followers weep. + ANTONY. Tend me to-night; + May be it is the period of your duty. + Haply you shall not see me more; or if, + A mangled shadow. Perchance to-morrow + You'll serve another master. I look on you + As one that takes his leave. Mine honest friends, + I turn you not away; but, like a master + Married to your good service, stay till death. + Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more, + And the gods yield you for't! + ENOBARBUS. What mean you, sir, + To give them this discomfort? Look, they weep; + And I, an ass, am onion-ey'd. For shame! + Transform us not to women. + ANTONY. Ho, ho, ho! + Now the witch take me if I meant it thus! + Grace grow where those drops fall! My hearty friends, + You take me in too dolorous a sense; + For I spake to you for your comfort, did desire you + To burn this night with torches. Know, my hearts, + I hope well of to-morrow, and will lead you + Where rather I'll expect victorious life + Than death and honour. Let's to supper, come, + And drown consideration. Exeunt + +ACT_4|SC_3 + SCENE III. + Alexandria. Before CLEOPATRA's palace + + Enter a company of soldiers + + FIRST SOLDIER. Brother, good night. To-morrow is the day. + SECOND SOLDIER. It will determine one way. Fare you well. + Heard you of nothing strange about the streets? + FIRST SOLDIER. Nothing. What news? + SECOND SOLDIER. Belike 'tis but a rumour. Good night to you. + FIRST SOLDIER. Well, sir, good night. + [They meet other soldiers] + SECOND SOLDIER. Soldiers, have careful watch. + FIRST SOLDIER. And you. Good night, good night. + [The two companies separate and place themselves + in every corner of the stage] + SECOND SOLDIER. Here we. And if to-morrow + Our navy thrive, I have an absolute hope + Our landmen will stand up. + THIRD SOLDIER. 'Tis a brave army, + And full of purpose. + [Music of the hautboys is under the stage] + SECOND SOLDIER. Peace, what noise? + THIRD SOLDIER. List, list! + SECOND SOLDIER. Hark! + THIRD SOLDIER. Music i' th' air. + FOURTH SOLDIER. Under the earth. + THIRD SOLDIER. It signs well, does it not? + FOURTH SOLDIER. No. + THIRD SOLDIER. Peace, I say! + What should this mean? + SECOND SOLDIER. 'Tis the god Hercules, whom Antony lov'd, + Now leaves him. + THIRD SOLDIER. Walk; let's see if other watchmen + Do hear what we do. + SECOND SOLDIER. How now, masters! + SOLDIERS. [Speaking together] How now! + How now! Do you hear this? + FIRST SOLDIER. Ay; is't not strange? + THIRD SOLDIER. Do you hear, masters? Do you hear? + FIRST SOLDIER. Follow the noise so far as we have quarter; + Let's see how it will give off. + SOLDIERS. Content. 'Tis strange. Exeunt + +ACT_4|SC_4 + SCENE IV. + Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's palace + + Enter ANTONY and CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, + with others + + ANTONY. Eros! mine armour, Eros! + CLEOPATRA. Sleep a little. + ANTONY. No, my chuck. Eros! Come, mine armour, Eros! + + Enter EROS with armour + + Come, good fellow, put mine iron on. + If fortune be not ours to-day, it is + Because we brave her. Come. + CLEOPATRA. Nay, I'll help too. + What's this for? + ANTONY. Ah, let be, let be! Thou art + The armourer of my heart. False, false; this, this. + CLEOPATRA. Sooth, la, I'll help. Thus it must be. + ANTONY. Well, well; + We shall thrive now. Seest thou, my good fellow? + Go put on thy defences. + EROS. Briefly, sir. + CLEOPATRA. Is not this buckled well? + ANTONY. Rarely, rarely! + He that unbuckles this, till we do please + To daff't for our repose, shall hear a storm. + Thou fumblest, Eros, and my queen's a squire + More tight at this than thou. Dispatch. O love, + That thou couldst see my wars to-day, and knew'st + The royal occupation! Thou shouldst see + A workman in't. + + Enter an armed SOLDIER + + Good-morrow to thee. Welcome. + Thou look'st like him that knows a warlike charge. + To business that we love we rise betime, + And go to't with delight. + SOLDIER. A thousand, sir, + Early though't be, have on their riveted trim, + And at the port expect you. + [Shout. Flourish of trumpets within] + + Enter CAPTAINS and soldiers + + CAPTAIN. The morn is fair. Good morrow, General. + ALL. Good morrow, General. + ANTONY. 'Tis well blown, lads. + This morning, like the spirit of a youth + That means to be of note, begins betimes. + So, so. Come, give me that. This way. Well said. + Fare thee well, dame, whate'er becomes of me. + This is a soldier's kiss. Rebukeable, + And worthy shameful check it were, to stand + On more mechanic compliment; I'll leave thee + Now like a man of steel. You that will fight, + Follow me close; I'll bring you to't. Adieu. + Exeunt ANTONY, EROS, CAPTAINS and soldiers + CHARMIAN. Please you retire to your chamber? + CLEOPATRA. Lead me. + He goes forth gallantly. That he and Caesar might + Determine this great war in single fight! + Then, Antony- but now. Well, on. Exeunt + +ACT_4|SC_5 + SCENE V. + Alexandria. ANTONY'S camp + + Trumpets sound. Enter ANTONY and EROS, a SOLDIER + meeting them + + SOLDIER. The gods make this a happy day to Antony! + ANTONY. Would thou and those thy scars had once prevail'd + To make me fight at land! + SOLDIER. Hadst thou done so, + The kings that have revolted, and the soldier + That has this morning left thee, would have still + Followed thy heels. + ANTONY. Who's gone this morning? + SOLDIER. Who? + One ever near thee. Call for Enobarbus, + He shall not hear thee; or from Caesar's camp + Say 'I am none of thine.' + ANTONY. What say'st thou? + SOLDIER. Sir, + He is with Caesar. + EROS. Sir, his chests and treasure + He has not with him. + ANTONY. Is he gone? + SOLDIER. Most certain. + ANTONY. Go, Eros, send his treasure after; do it; + Detain no jot, I charge thee. Write to him- + I will subscribe- gentle adieus and greetings; + Say that I wish he never find more cause + To change a master. O, my fortunes have + Corrupted honest men! Dispatch. Enobarbus! Exeunt + +ACT_4|SC_6 + SCENE VI. + Alexandria. CAESAR'S camp + + Flourish. Enter AGRIPPA, CAESAR, With DOLABELLA + and ENOBARBUS + + CAESAR. Go forth, Agrippa, and begin the fight. + Our will is Antony be took alive; + Make it so known. + AGRIPPA. Caesar, I shall. Exit + CAESAR. The time of universal peace is near. + Prove this a prosp'rous day, the three-nook'd world + Shall bear the olive freely. + + Enter A MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. Antony + Is come into the field. + CAESAR. Go charge Agrippa + Plant those that have revolted in the vant, + That Antony may seem to spend his fury + Upon himself. Exeunt all but ENOBARBUS + ENOBARBUS. Alexas did revolt and went to Jewry on + Affairs of Antony; there did dissuade + Great Herod to incline himself to Caesar + And leave his master Antony. For this pains + Casaer hath hang'd him. Canidius and the rest + That fell away have entertainment, but + No honourable trust. I have done ill, + Of which I do accuse myself so sorely + That I will joy no more. + + Enter a SOLDIER of CAESAR'S + + SOLDIER. Enobarbus, Antony + Hath after thee sent all thy treasure, with + His bounty overplus. The messenger + Came on my guard, and at thy tent is now + Unloading of his mules. + ENOBARBUS. I give it you. + SOLDIER. Mock not, Enobarbus. + I tell you true. Best you saf'd the bringer + Out of the host. I must attend mine office, + Or would have done't myself. Your emperor + Continues still a Jove. Exit + ENOBARBUS. I am alone the villain of the earth, + And feel I am so most. O Antony, + Thou mine of bounty, how wouldst thou have paid + My better service, when my turpitude + Thou dost so crown with gold! This blows my heart. + If swift thought break it not, a swifter mean + Shall outstrike thought; but thought will do't, I feel. + I fight against thee? No! I will go seek + Some ditch wherein to die; the foul'st best fits + My latter part of life. Exit + +ACT_4|SC_7 + SCENE VII. + Field of battle between the camps + + Alarum. Drums and trumpets. Enter AGRIPPA + and others + + AGRIPPA. Retire. We have engag'd ourselves too far. + Caesar himself has work, and our oppression + Exceeds what we expected. Exeunt + + Alarums. Enter ANTONY, and SCARUS wounded + + SCARUS. O my brave Emperor, this is fought indeed! + Had we done so at first, we had droven them home + With clouts about their heads. + ANTONY. Thou bleed'st apace. + SCARUS. I had a wound here that was like a T, + But now 'tis made an H. + ANTONY. They do retire. + SCARUS. We'll beat'em into bench-holes. I have yet + Room for six scotches more. + + Enter EROS + + EROS. They are beaten, sir, and our advantage serves + For a fair victory. + SCARUS. Let us score their backs + And snatch 'em up, as we take hares, behind. + 'Tis sport to maul a runner. + ANTONY. I will reward thee + Once for thy sprightly comfort, and tenfold + For thy good valour. Come thee on. + SCARUS. I'll halt after. Exeunt + +ACT_4|SC_8 + SCENE VIII. + Under the walls of Alexandria + + Alarum. Enter ANTONY, again in a march; SCARUS + with others + + ANTONY. We have beat him to his camp. Run one before + And let the Queen know of our gests. To-morrow, + Before the sun shall see's, we'll spill the blood + That has to-day escap'd. I thank you all; + For doughty-handed are you, and have fought + Not as you serv'd the cause, but as't had been + Each man's like mine; you have shown all Hectors. + Enter the city, clip your wives, your friends, + Tell them your feats; whilst they with joyful tears + Wash the congealment from your wounds and kiss + The honour'd gashes whole. + + Enter CLEOPATRA, attended + + [To SCARUS] Give me thy hand- + To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts, + Make her thanks bless thee. O thou day o' th' world, + Chain mine arm'd neck. Leap thou, attire and all, + Through proof of harness to my heart, and there + Ride on the pants triumphing. + CLEOPATRA. Lord of lords! + O infinite virtue, com'st thou smiling from + The world's great snare uncaught? + ANTONY. Mine nightingale, + We have beat them to their beds. What, girl! though grey + Do something mingle with our younger brown, yet ha' we + A brain that nourishes our nerves, and can + Get goal for goal of youth. Behold this man; + Commend unto his lips thy favouring hand- + Kiss it, my warrior- he hath fought to-day + As if a god in hate of mankind had + Destroyed in such a shape. + CLEOPATRA. I'll give thee, friend, + An armour all of gold; it was a king's. + ANTONY. He has deserv'd it, were it carbuncled + Like holy Phoebus' car. Give me thy hand. + Through Alexandria make a jolly march; + Bear our hack'd targets like the men that owe them. + Had our great palace the capacity + To camp this host, we all would sup together, + And drink carouses to the next day's fate, + Which promises royal peril. Trumpeters, + With brazen din blast you the city's ear; + Make mingle with our rattling tabourines, + That heaven and earth may strike their sounds together + Applauding our approach. Exeunt + +ACT_4|SC_9 + SCENE IX. + CAESAR'S camp + + Enter a CENTURION and his company; ENOBARBUS follows + + CENTURION. If we be not reliev'd within this hour, + We must return to th' court of guard. The night + Is shiny, and they say we shall embattle + By th' second hour i' th' morn. + FIRST WATCH. This last day was + A shrewd one to's. + ENOBARBUS. O, bear me witness, night- + SECOND WATCH. What man is this? + FIRST WATCH. Stand close and list him. + ENOBARBUS. Be witness to me, O thou blessed moon, + When men revolted shall upon record + Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did + Before thy face repent! + CENTURION. Enobarbus? + SECOND WATCH. Peace! + Hark further. + ENOBARBUS. O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, + The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me, + That life, a very rebel to my will, + May hang no longer on me. Throw my heart + Against the flint and hardness of my fault, + Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder, + And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony, + Nobler than my revolt is infamous, + Forgive me in thine own particular, + But let the world rank me in register + A master-leaver and a fugitive! + O Antony! O Antony! [Dies] + FIRST WATCH. Let's speak to him. + CENTURION. Let's hear him, for the things he speaks + May concern Caesar. + SECOND WATCH. Let's do so. But he sleeps. + CENTURION. Swoons rather; for so bad a prayer as his + Was never yet for sleep. + FIRST WATCH. Go we to him. + SECOND WATCH. Awake, sir, awake; speak to us. + FIRST WATCH. Hear you, sir? + CENTURION. The hand of death hath raught him. + [Drums afar off ] Hark! the drums + Demurely wake the sleepers. Let us bear him + To th' court of guard; he is of note. Our hour + Is fully out. + SECOND WATCH. Come on, then; + He may recover yet. Exeunt with the body + +ACT_4|SC_10 + SCENE X. + Between the two camps + + Enter ANTONY and SCARUS, with their army + + ANTONY. Their preparation is to-day by sea; + We please them not by land. + SCARUS. For both, my lord. + ANTONY. I would they'd fight i' th' fire or i' th' air; + We'd fight there too. But this it is, our foot + Upon the hills adjoining to the city + Shall stay with us- Order for sea is given; + They have put forth the haven- + Where their appointment we may best discover + And look on their endeavour. Exeunt + +ACT_4|SC_11 + SCENE XI. + Between the camps + + Enter CAESAR and his army + + CAESAR. But being charg'd, we will be still by land, + Which, as I take't, we shall; for his best force + Is forth to man his galleys. To the vales, + And hold our best advantage. Exeunt + +ACT_4|SC_12 + SCENE XII. + A hill near Alexandria + + Enter ANTONY and SCARUS + + ANTONY. Yet they are not join'd. Where yond pine does stand + I shall discover all. I'll bring thee word + Straight how 'tis like to go. Exit + SCARUS. Swallows have built + In Cleopatra's sails their nests. The augurers + Say they know not, they cannot tell; look grimly, + And dare not speak their knowledge. Antony + Is valiant and dejected; and by starts + His fretted fortunes give him hope and fear + Of what he has and has not. + [Alarum afar off, as at a sea-fight] + + Re-enter ANTONY + + ANTONY. All is lost! + This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me. + My fleet hath yielded to the foe, and yonder + They cast their caps up and carouse together + Like friends long lost. Triple-turn'd whore! 'tis thou + Hast sold me to this novice; and my heart + Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly; + For when I am reveng'd upon my charm, + I have done all. Bid them all fly; begone. Exit SCARUS + O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more! + Fortune and Antony part here; even here + Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts + That spaniel'd me at heels, to whom I gave + Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets + On blossoming Caesar; and this pine is bark'd + That overtopp'd them all. Betray'd I am. + O this false soul of Egypt! this grave charm- + Whose eye beck'd forth my wars and call'd them home, + Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end- + Like a right gypsy hath at fast and loose + Beguil'd me to the very heart of loss. + What, Eros, Eros! + + Enter CLEOPATRA + + Ah, thou spell! Avaunt! + CLEOPATRA. Why is my lord enrag'd against his love? + ANTONY. Vanish, or I shall give thee thy deserving + And blemish Caesar's triumph. Let him take thee + And hoist thee up to the shouting plebeians; + Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot + Of all thy sex; most monster-like, be shown + For poor'st diminutives, for doits, and let + Patient Octavia plough thy visage up + With her prepared nails. Exit CLEOPATRA + 'Tis well th'art gone, + If it be well to live; but better 'twere + Thou fell'st into my fury, for one death + Might have prevented many. Eros, ho! + The shirt of Nessus is upon me; teach me, + Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage; + Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' th' moon, + And with those hands that grasp'd the heaviest club + Subdue my worthiest self. The witch shall die. + To the young Roman boy she hath sold me, and I fall + Under this plot. She dies for't. Eros, ho! Exit + +ACT_4|SC_13 + SCENE XIII. + Alexandria. CLEOPATRA's palace + + Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN + + CLEOPATRA. Help me, my women. O, he is more mad + Than Telamon for his shield; the boar of Thessaly + Was never so emboss'd. + CHARMIAN. To th'monument! + There lock yourself, and send him word you are dead. + The soul and body rive not more in parting + Than greatness going off. + CLEOPATRA. To th' monument! + Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself; + Say that the last I spoke was 'Antony' + And word it, prithee, piteously. Hence, Mardian, + And bring me how he takes my death. To th' monument! + Exeunt + +ACT_4|SC_14 + SCENE XIV. + CLEOPATRA'S palace + + Enter ANTONY and EROS + + ANTONY. Eros, thou yet behold'st me? + EROS. Ay, noble lord. + ANTONY. Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish; + A vapour sometime like a bear or lion, + A tower'd citadel, a pendent rock, + A forked mountain, or blue promontory + With trees upon't that nod unto the world + And mock our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these signs; + They are black vesper's pageants. + EROS. Ay, my lord. + ANTONY. That which is now a horse, even with a thought + The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct, + As water is in water. + EROS. It does, my lord. + ANTONY. My good knave Eros, now thy captain is + Even such a body. Here I am Antony; + Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave. + I made these wars for Egypt; and the Queen- + Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine, + Which, whilst it was mine, had annex'd unto't + A million moe, now lost- she, Eros, has + Pack'd cards with Caesar, and false-play'd my glory + Unto an enemy's triumph. + Nay, weep not, gentle Eros; there is left us + Ourselves to end ourselves. + + Enter MARDIAN + + O, thy vile lady! + She has robb'd me of my sword. + MARDIAN. No, Antony; + My mistress lov'd thee, and her fortunes mingled + With thine entirely. + ANTONY. Hence, saucy eunuch; peace! + She hath betray'd me, and shall die the death. + MARDIAN. Death of one person can be paid but once, + And that she has discharg'd. What thou wouldst do + Is done unto thy hand. The last she spake + Was 'Antony! most noble Antony!' + Then in the midst a tearing groan did break + The name of Antony; it was divided + Between her heart and lips. She rend'red life, + Thy name so buried in her. + ANTONY. Dead then? + MARDIAN. Dead. + ANTONY. Unarm, Eros; the long day's task is done, + And we must sleep. That thou depart'st hence safe + Does pay thy labour richly. Go. Exit MARDIAN + Off, pluck off! + The sevenfold shield of Ajax cannot keep + The battery from my heart. O, cleave, my sides! + Heart, once be stronger than thy continent, + Crack thy frail case. Apace, Eros, apace.- + No more a soldier. Bruised pieces, go; + You have been nobly borne.- From me awhile. Exit EROS + I will o'ertake thee, Cleopatra, and + Weep for my pardon. So it must be, for now + All length is torture. Since the torch is out, + Lie down, and stray no farther. Now all labour + Mars what it does; yea, very force entangles + Itself with strength. Seal then, and all is done. + Eros!- I come, my queen.- Eros!- Stay for me; + Where souls do couch on flowers, we'll hand in hand, + And with our sprightly port make the ghosts gaze. + Dido and her Aeneas shall want troops, + And all the haunt be ours.- Come, Eros, Eros! + + Re-enter EROS + + EROS. What would my lord? + ANTONY. Since Cleopatra died, + I have liv'd in such dishonour that the gods + Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword + Quarter'd the world, and o'er green Neptune's back + With ships made cities, condemn myself to lack + The courage of a woman; less noble mind + Than she which by her death our Caesar tells + 'I am conqueror of myself.' Thou art sworn, Eros, + That, when the exigent should come- which now + Is come indeed- when I should see behind me + Th' inevitable prosecution of + Disgrace and horror, that, on my command, + Thou then wouldst kill me. Do't; the time is come. + Thou strik'st not me; 'tis Caesar thou defeat'st. + Put colour in thy cheek. + EROS. The gods withhold me! + Shall I do that which all the Parthian darts, + Though enemy, lost aim and could not? + ANTONY. Eros, + Wouldst thou be window'd in great Rome and see + Thy master thus with pleach'd arms, bending down + His corrigible neck, his face subdu'd + To penetrative shame, whilst the wheel'd seat + Of fortunate Caesar, drawn before him, branded + His baseness that ensued? + EROS. I would not see't. + ANTONY. Come, then; for with a wound I must be cur'd. + Draw that thy honest sword, which thou hast worn + Most useful for thy country. + EROS. O, sir, pardon me! + ANTONY. When I did make thee free, swor'st thou not then + To do this when I bade thee? Do it at once, + Or thy precedent services are all + But accidents unpurpos'd. Draw, and come. + EROS. Turn from me then that noble countenance, + Wherein the worship of the whole world lies. + ANTONY. Lo thee! [Turning from him] + EROS. My sword is drawn. + ANTONY. Then let it do at once + The thing why thou hast drawn it. + EROS. My dear master, + My captain and my emperor, let me say, + Before I strike this bloody stroke, farewell. + ANTONY. 'Tis said, man; and farewell. + EROS. Farewell, great chief. Shall I strike now? + ANTONY. Now, Eros. + EROS. Why, there then! Thus do I escape the sorrow + Of Antony's death. [Kills himself + ANTONY. Thrice nobler than myself! + Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what + I should, and thou couldst not. My queen and Eros + Have, by their brave instruction, got upon me + A nobleness in record. But I will be + A bridegroom in my death, and run into't + As to a lover's bed. Come, then; and, Eros, + Thy master dies thy scholar. To do thus + [Falling on his sword] + I learn'd of thee. How? not dead? not dead?- + The guard, ho! O, dispatch me! + + Enter DERCETAS and a guard + + FIRST GUARD. What's the noise? + ANTONY. I have done my work ill, friends. O, make an end + Of what I have begun. + SECOND GUARD. The star is fall'n. + FIRST GUARD. And time is at his period. + ALL. Alas, and woe! + ANTONY. Let him that loves me, strike me dead. + FIRST GUARD. Not I. + SECOND GUARD. Nor I. + THIRD GUARD. Nor any one. Exeunt guard + DERCETAS. Thy death and fortunes bid thy followers fly. + This sword but shown to Caesar, with this tidings, + Shall enter me with him. + + Enter DIOMEDES + + DIOMEDES. Where's Antony? + DERCETAS. There, Diomed, there. + DIOMEDES. Lives he? + Wilt thou not answer, man? Exit DERCETAS + ANTONY. Art thou there, Diomed? Draw thy sword and give me + Sufficing strokes for death. + DIOMEDES. Most absolute lord, + My mistress Cleopatra sent me to thee. + ANTONY. When did she send thee? + DIOMEDES. Now, my lord. + ANTONY. Where is she? + DIOMEDES. Lock'd in her monument. She had a prophesying fear + Of what hath come to pass; for when she saw- + Which never shall be found- you did suspect + She had dispos'd with Caesar, and that your rage + Would not be purg'd, she sent you word she was dead; + But fearing since how it might work, hath sent + Me to proclaim the truth; and I am come, + I dread, too late. + ANTONY. Too late, good Diomed. Call my guard, I prithee. + DIOMEDES. What, ho! the Emperor's guard! The guard, what ho! + Come, your lord calls! + + Enter four or five of the guard of ANTONY + + ANTONY. Bear me, good friends, where Cleopatra bides; + 'Tis the last service that I shall command you. + FIRST GUARD. Woe, woe are we, sir, you may not live to wear + All your true followers out. + ALL. Most heavy day! + ANTONY. Nay, good my fellows, do not please sharp fate + To grace it with your sorrows. Bid that welcome + Which comes to punish us, and we punish it, + Seeming to bear it lightly. Take me up. + I have led you oft; carry me now, good friends, + And have my thanks for all. Exeunt, hearing ANTONY +ACT_4|SC_15 + SCENE XV. + Alexandria. A monument + + Enter CLEOPATRA and her maids aloft, with CHARMIAN + and IRAS + + CLEOPATRA. O Charmian, I will never go from hence! + CHARMIAN. Be comforted, dear madam. + CLEOPATRA. No, I will not. + All strange and terrible events are welcome, + But comforts we despise; our size of sorrow, + Proportion'd to our cause, must be as great + As that which makes it. + + Enter DIOMEDES, below + + How now! Is he dead? + DIOMEDES. His death's upon him, but not dead. + Look out o' th' other side your monument; + His guard have brought him thither. + + Enter, below, ANTONY, borne by the guard + + CLEOPATRA. O sun, + Burn the great sphere thou mov'st in! Darkling stand + The varying shore o' th' world. O Antony, + Antony, Antony! Help, Charmian; help, Iras, help; + Help, friends below! Let's draw him hither. + ANTONY. Peace! + Not Caesar's valour hath o'erthrown Antony, + But Antony's hath triumph'd on itself. + CLEOPATRA. So it should be, that none but Antony + Should conquer Antony; but woe 'tis so! + ANTONY. I am dying, Egypt, dying; only + I here importune death awhile, until + Of many thousand kisses the poor last + I lay upon thy lips. + CLEOPATRA. I dare not, dear. + Dear my lord, pardon! I dare not, + Lest I be taken. Not th' imperious show + Of the full-fortun'd Caesar ever shall + Be brooch'd with me. If knife, drugs, serpents, have + Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe. + Your wife Octavia, with her modest eyes + And still conclusion, shall acquire no honour + Demuring upon me. But come, come, Antony- + Help me, my women- we must draw thee up; + Assist, good friends. + ANTONY. O, quick, or I am gone. + CLEOPATRA. Here's sport indeed! How heavy weighs my lord! + Our strength is all gone into heaviness; + That makes the weight. Had I great Juno's power, + The strong-wing'd Mercury should fetch thee up, + And set thee by Jove's side. Yet come a little. + Wishers were ever fools. O come, come, + [They heave ANTONY aloft to CLEOPATRA] + And welcome, welcome! Die where thou hast liv'd. + Quicken with kissing. Had my lips that power, + Thus would I wear them out. + ALL. A heavy sight! + ANTONY. I am dying, Egypt, dying. + Give me some wine, and let me speak a little. + CLEOPATRA. No, let me speak; and let me rail so high + That the false huswife Fortune break her wheel, + Provok'd by my offence. + ANTONY. One word, sweet queen: + Of Caesar seek your honour, with your safety. O! + CLEOPATRA. They do not go together. + ANTONY. Gentle, hear me: + None about Caesar trust but Proculeius. + CLEOPATRA. My resolution and my hands I'll trust; + None about Caesar + ANTONY. The miserable change now at my end + Lament nor sorrow at; but please your thoughts + In feeding them with those my former fortunes + Wherein I liv'd the greatest prince o' th' world, + The noblest; and do now not basely die, + Not cowardly put off my helmet to + My countryman- a Roman by a Roman + Valiantly vanquish'd. Now my spirit is going + I can no more. + CLEOPATRA. Noblest of men, woo't die? + Hast thou no care of me? Shall I abide + In this dull world, which in thy absence is + No better than a sty? O, see, my women, [Antony dies] + The crown o' th' earth doth melt. My lord! + O, wither'd is the garland of the war, + The soldier's pole is fall'n! Young boys and girls + Are level now with men. The odds is gone, + And there is nothing left remarkable + Beneath the visiting moon. [Swoons] + CHARMIAN. O, quietness, lady! + IRAS. She's dead too, our sovereign. + CHARMIAN. Lady! + IRAS. Madam! + CHARMIAN. O madam, madam, madam! + IRAS. Royal Egypt, Empress! + CHARMIAN. Peace, peace, Iras! + CLEOPATRA. No more but e'en a woman, and commanded + By such poor passion as the maid that milks + And does the meanest chares. It were for me + To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods; + To tell them that this world did equal theirs + Till they had stol'n our jewel. All's but nought; + Patience is sottish, and impatience does + Become a dog that's mad. Then is it sin + To rush into the secret house of death + Ere death dare come to us? How do you, women? + What, what! good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian! + My noble girls! Ah, women, women, look, + Our lamp is spent, it's out! Good sirs, take heart. + We'll bury him; and then, what's brave, what's noble, + Let's do it after the high Roman fashion, + And make death proud to take us. Come, away; + This case of that huge spirit now is cold. + Ah, women, women! Come; we have no friend + But resolution and the briefest end. + Exeunt; those above hearing off ANTONY'S body + +ACT_5|SC_1 + ACT V. SCENE I. + Alexandria. CAESAR'S camp + + Enter CAESAR, AGRIPPA, DOLABELLA, MAECENAS, GALLUS, + PROCULEIUS, and others, his Council of War + + CAESAR. Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield; + Being so frustrate, tell him he mocks + The pauses that he makes. + DOLABELLA. Caesar, I shall. Exit + + Enter DERCETAS With the sword of ANTONY + + CAESAR. Wherefore is that? And what art thou that dar'st + Appear thus to us? + DERCETAS. I am call'd Dercetas; + Mark Antony I serv'd, who best was worthy + Best to be serv'd. Whilst he stood up and spoke, + He was my master, and I wore my life + To spend upon his haters. If thou please + To take me to thee, as I was to him + I'll be to Caesar; if thou pleasest not, + I yield thee up my life. + CAESAR. What is't thou say'st? + DERCETAS. I say, O Caesar, Antony is dead. + CAESAR. The breaking of so great a thing should make + A greater crack. The round world + Should have shook lions into civil streets, + And citizens to their dens. The death of Antony + Is not a single doom; in the name lay + A moiety of the world. + DERCETAS. He is dead, Caesar, + Not by a public minister of justice, + Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand + Which writ his honour in the acts it did + Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, + Splitted the heart. This is his sword; + I robb'd his wound of it; behold it stain'd + With his most noble blood. + CAESAR. Look you sad, friends? + The gods rebuke me, but it is tidings + To wash the eyes of kings. + AGRIPPA. And strange it is + That nature must compel us to lament + Our most persisted deeds. + MAECENAS. His taints and honours + Wag'd equal with him. + AGRIPPA. A rarer spirit never + Did steer humanity. But you gods will give us + Some faults to make us men. Caesar is touch'd. + MAECENAS. When such a spacious mirror's set before him, + He needs must see himself. + CAESAR. O Antony, + I have follow'd thee to this! But we do lance + Diseases in our bodies. I must perforce + Have shown to thee such a declining day + Or look on thine; we could not stall together + In the whole world. But yet let me lament, + With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts, + That thou, my brother, my competitor + In top of all design, my mate in empire, + Friend and companion in the front of war, + The arm of mine own body, and the heart + Where mine his thoughts did kindle- that our stars, + Unreconciliable, should divide + Our equalness to this. Hear me, good friends- + + Enter an EGYPTIAN + + But I will tell you at some meeter season. + The business of this man looks out of him; + We'll hear him what he says. Whence are you? + EGYPTIAN. A poor Egyptian, yet the Queen, my mistress, + Confin'd in all she has, her monument, + Of thy intents desires instruction, + That she preparedly may frame herself + To th' way she's forc'd to. + CAESAR. Bid her have good heart. + She soon shall know of us, by some of ours, + How honourable and how kindly we + Determine for her; for Caesar cannot learn + To be ungentle. + EGYPTIAN. So the gods preserve thee! Exit + CAESAR. Come hither, Proculeius. Go and say + We purpose her no shame. Give her what comforts + The quality of her passion shall require, + Lest, in her greatness, by some mortal stroke + She do defeat us; for her life in Rome + Would be eternal in our triumph. Go, + And with your speediest bring us what she says, + And how you find her. + PROCULEIUS. Caesar, I shall. Exit + CAESAR. Gallus, go you along. Exit GALLUS + Where's Dolabella, to second Proculeius? + ALL. Dolabella! + CAESAR. Let him alone, for I remember now + How he's employ'd; he shall in time be ready. + Go with me to my tent, where you shall see + How hardly I was drawn into this war, + How calm and gentle I proceeded still + In all my writings. Go with me, and see + What I can show in this. Exeunt + +ACT_5|SC_2 + SCENE II. + Alexandria. The monument + + Enter CLEOPATRA, CHARMIAN, IRAS, and MARDIAN + + CLEOPATRA. My desolation does begin to make + A better life. 'Tis paltry to be Caesar: + Not being Fortune, he's but Fortune's knave, + A minister of her will; and it is great + To do that thing that ends all other deeds, + Which shackles accidents and bolts up change, + Which sleeps, and never palates more the dug, + The beggar's nurse and Caesar's. + + Enter, to the gates of the monument, PROCULEIUS, GALLUS, + and soldiers + + PROCULEIUS. Caesar sends greetings to the Queen of Egypt, + And bids thee study on what fair demands + Thou mean'st to have him grant thee. + CLEOPATRA. What's thy name? + PROCULEIUS. My name is Proculeius. + CLEOPATRA. Antony + Did tell me of you, bade me trust you; but + I do not greatly care to be deceiv'd, + That have no use for trusting. If your master + Would have a queen his beggar, you must tell him + That majesty, to keep decorum, must + No less beg than a kingdom. If he please + To give me conquer'd Egypt for my son, + He gives me so much of mine own as I + Will kneel to him with thanks. + PROCULEIUS. Be of good cheer; + Y'are fall'n into a princely hand; fear nothing. + Make your full reference freely to my lord, + Who is so full of grace that it flows over + On all that need. Let me report to him + Your sweet dependency, and you shall find + A conqueror that will pray in aid for kindness + Where he for grace is kneel'd to. + CLEOPATRA. Pray you tell him + I am his fortune's vassal and I send him + The greatness he has got. I hourly learn + A doctrine of obedience, and would gladly + Look him i' th' face. + PROCULEIUS. This I'll report, dear lady. + Have comfort, for I know your plight is pitied + Of him that caus'd it. + GALLUS. You see how easily she may be surpris'd. + + Here PROCULEIUS and two of the guard ascend the + monument by a ladder placed against a window, + and come behind CLEOPATRA. Some of the guard + unbar and open the gates + + Guard her till Caesar come. Exit + IRAS. Royal Queen! + CHARMIAN. O Cleopatra! thou art taken, Queen! + CLEOPATRA. Quick, quick, good hands. [Drawing a dagger] + PROCULEIUS. Hold, worthy lady, hold, [Disarms her] + Do not yourself such wrong, who are in this + Reliev'd, but not betray'd. + CLEOPATRA. What, of death too, + That rids our dogs of languish? + PROCULEIUS. Cleopatra, + Do not abuse my master's bounty by + Th' undoing of yourself. Let the world see + His nobleness well acted, which your death + Will never let come forth. + CLEOPATRA. Where art thou, death? + Come hither, come! Come, come, and take a queen + Worth many babes and beggars! + PROCULEIUS. O, temperance, lady! + CLEOPATRA. Sir, I will eat no meat; I'll not drink, sir; + If idle talk will once be necessary, + I'll not sleep neither. This mortal house I'll ruin, + Do Caesar what he can. Know, sir, that I + Will not wait pinion'd at your master's court, + Nor once be chastis'd with the sober eye + Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up, + And show me to the shouting varletry + Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt + Be gentle grave unto me! Rather on Nilus' mud + Lay me stark-nak'd, and let the water-flies + Blow me into abhorring! Rather make + My country's high pyramides my gibbet, + And hang me up in chains! + PROCULEIUS. You do extend + These thoughts of horror further than you shall + Find cause in Caesar. + + Enter DOLABELLA + + DOLABELLA. Proculeius, + What thou hast done thy master Caesar knows, + And he hath sent for thee. For the Queen, + I'll take her to my guard. + PROCULEIUS. So, Dolabella, + It shall content me best. Be gentle to her. + [To CLEOPATRA] To Caesar I will speak what you shall please, + If you'll employ me to him. + CLEOPATRA. Say I would die. + Exeunt PROCULEIUS and soldiers + DOLABELLA. Most noble Empress, you have heard of me? + CLEOPATRA. I cannot tell. + DOLABELLA. Assuredly you know me. + CLEOPATRA. No matter, sir, what I have heard or known. + You laugh when boys or women tell their dreams; + Is't not your trick? + DOLABELLA. I understand not, madam. + CLEOPATRA. I dreamt there was an Emperor Antony- + O, such another sleep, that I might see + But such another man! + DOLABELLA. If it might please ye- + CLEOPATRA. His face was as the heav'ns, and therein stuck + A sun and moon, which kept their course and lighted + The little O, the earth. + DOLABELLA. Most sovereign creature- + CLEOPATRA. His legs bestrid the ocean; his rear'd arm + Crested the world. His voice was propertied + As all the tuned spheres, and that to friends; + But when he meant to quail and shake the orb, + He was as rattling thunder. For his bounty, + There was no winter in't; an autumn 'twas + That grew the more by reaping. His delights + Were dolphin-like: they show'd his back above + The element they liv'd in. In his livery + Walk'd crowns and crownets; realms and islands were + As plates dropp'd from his pocket. + DOLABELLA. Cleopatra- + CLEOPATRA. Think you there was or might be such a man + As this I dreamt of? + DOLABELLA. Gentle madam, no. + CLEOPATRA. You lie, up to the hearing of the gods. + But if there be nor ever were one such, + It's past the size of drearning. Nature wants stuff + To vie strange forms with fancy; yet t' imagine + An Antony were nature's piece 'gainst fancy, + Condemning shadows quite. + DOLABELLA. Hear me, good madam. + Your loss is, as yourself, great; and you bear it + As answering to the weight. Would I might never + O'ertake pursu'd success, but I do feel, + By the rebound of yours, a grief that smites + My very heart at root. + CLEOPATRA. I thank you, sir. + Know you what Caesar means to do with me? + DOLABELLA. I am loath to tell you what I would you knew. + CLEOPATRA. Nay, pray you, sir. + DOLABELLA. Though he be honourable- + CLEOPATRA. He'll lead me, then, in triumph? + DOLABELLA. Madam, he will. I know't. [Flourish] + [Within: 'Make way there-Caesar!'] + + Enter CAESAR; GALLUS, PROCULEIUS, MAECENAS, SELEUCUS, + and others of his train + + CAESAR. Which is the Queen of Egypt? + DOLABELLA. It is the Emperor, madam. [CLEOPATPA kneels] + CAESAR. Arise, you shall not kneel. + I pray you, rise; rise, Egypt. + CLEOPATRA. Sir, the gods + Will have it thus; my master and my lord + I must obey. + CAESAR. Take to you no hard thoughts. + The record of what injuries you did us, + Though written in our flesh, we shall remember + As things but done by chance. + CLEOPATRA. Sole sir o' th' world, + I cannot project mine own cause so well + To make it clear, but do confess I have + Been laden with like frailties which before + Have often sham'd our sex. + CAESAR. Cleopatra, know + We will extenuate rather than enforce. + If you apply yourself to our intents- + Which towards you are most gentle- you shall find + A benefit in this change; but if you seek + To lay on me a cruelty by taking + Antony's course, you shall bereave yourself + Of my good purposes, and put your children + To that destruction which I'll guard them from, + If thereon you rely. I'll take my leave. + CLEOPATRA. And may, through all the world. 'Tis yours, and we, + Your scutcheons and your signs of conquest, shall + Hang in what place you please. Here, my good lord. + CAESAR. You shall advise me in all for Cleopatra. + CLEOPATRA. This is the brief of money, plate, and jewels, + I am possess'd of. 'Tis exactly valued, + Not petty things admitted. Where's Seleucus? + SELEUCUS. Here, madam. + CLEOPATRA. This is my treasurer; let him speak, my lord, + Upon his peril, that I have reserv'd + To myself nothing. Speak the truth, Seleucus. + SELEUCUS. Madam, + I had rather seal my lips than to my peril + Speak that which is not. + CLEOPATRA. What have I kept back? + SELEUCUS. Enough to purchase what you have made known. + CAESAR. Nay, blush not, Cleopatra; I approve + Your wisdom in the deed. + CLEOPATRA. See, Caesar! O, behold, + How pomp is followed! Mine will now be yours; + And, should we shift estates, yours would be mine. + The ingratitude of this Seleucus does + Even make me wild. O slave, of no more trust + Than love that's hir'd! What, goest thou back? Thou shalt + Go back, I warrant thee; but I'll catch thine eyes + Though they had wings. Slave, soulless villain, dog! + O rarely base! + CAESAR. Good Queen, let us entreat you. + CLEOPATRA. O Caesar, what a wounding shame is this, + That thou vouchsafing here to visit me, + Doing the honour of thy lordliness + To one so meek, that mine own servant should + Parcel the sum of my disgraces by + Addition of his envy! Say, good Caesar, + That I some lady trifles have reserv'd, + Immoment toys, things of such dignity + As we greet modern friends withal; and say + Some nobler token I have kept apart + For Livia and Octavia, to induce + Their mediation- must I be unfolded + With one that I have bred? The gods! It smites me + Beneath the fall I have. [To SELEUCUS] Prithee go hence; + Or I shall show the cinders of my spirits + Through th' ashes of my chance. Wert thou a man, + Thou wouldst have mercy on me. + CAESAR. Forbear, Seleucus. Exit SELEUCUS + CLEOPATRA. Be it known that we, the greatest, are misthought + For things that others do; and when we fall + We answer others' merits in our name, + Are therefore to be pitied. + CAESAR. Cleopatra, + Not what you have reserv'd, nor what acknowledg'd, + Put we i' th' roll of conquest. Still be't yours, + Bestow it at your pleasure; and believe + Caesar's no merchant, to make prize with you + Of things that merchants sold. Therefore be cheer'd; + Make not your thoughts your prisons. No, dear Queen; + For we intend so to dispose you as + Yourself shall give us counsel. Feed and sleep. + Our care and pity is so much upon you + That we remain your friend; and so, adieu. + CLEOPATRA. My master and my lord! + CAESAR. Not so. Adieu. + Flourish. Exeunt CAESAR and his train + CLEOPATRA. He words me, girls, he words me, that I should not + Be noble to myself. But hark thee, Charmian! + [Whispers CHARMIAN] + IRAS. Finish, good lady; the bright day is done, + And we are for the dark. + CLEOPATRA. Hie thee again. + I have spoke already, and it is provided; + Go put it to the haste. + CHARMIAN. Madam, I will. + + Re-enter DOLABELLA + + DOLABELLA. Where's the Queen? + CHARMIAN. Behold, sir. Exit + CLEOPATRA. Dolabella! + DOLABELLA. Madam, as thereto sworn by your command, + Which my love makes religion to obey, + I tell you this: Caesar through Syria + Intends his journey, and within three days + You with your children will he send before. + Make your best use of this; I have perform'd + Your pleasure and my promise. + CLEOPATRA. Dolabella, + I shall remain your debtor. + DOLABELLA. I your servant. + Adieu, good Queen; I must attend on Caesar. + CLEOPATRA. Farewell, and thanks. Exit DOLABELLA + Now, Iras, what think'st thou? + Thou an Egyptian puppet shall be shown + In Rome as well as I. Mechanic slaves, + With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers, shall + Uplift us to the view; in their thick breaths, + Rank of gross diet, shall we be enclouded, + And forc'd to drink their vapour. + IRAS. The gods forbid! + CLEOPATRA. Nay, 'tis most certain, Iras. Saucy lictors + Will catch at us like strumpets, and scald rhymers + Ballad us out o' tune; the quick comedians + Extemporally will stage us, and present + Our Alexandrian revels; Antony + Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see + Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness + I' th' posture of a whore. + IRAS. O the good gods! + CLEOPATRA. Nay, that's certain. + IRAS. I'll never see't, for I am sure mine nails + Are stronger than mine eyes. + CLEOPATRA. Why, that's the way + To fool their preparation and to conquer + Their most absurd intents. + + Enter CHARMIAN + + Now, Charmian! + Show me, my women, like a queen. Go fetch + My best attires. I am again for Cydnus, + To meet Mark Antony. Sirrah, Iras, go. + Now, noble Charmian, we'll dispatch indeed; + And when thou hast done this chare, I'll give thee leave + To play till doomsday. Bring our crown and all. + Exit IRAS. A noise within + Wherefore's this noise? + + Enter a GUARDSMAN + + GUARDSMAN. Here is a rural fellow + That will not be denied your Highness' presence. + He brings you figs. + CLEOPATRA. Let him come in. Exit GUARDSMAN + What poor an instrument + May do a noble deed! He brings me liberty. + My resolution's plac'd, and I have nothing + Of woman in me. Now from head to foot + I am marble-constant; now the fleeting moon + No planet is of mine. + + Re-enter GUARDSMAN and CLOWN, with a basket + + GUARDSMAN. This is the man. + CLEOPATRA. Avoid, and leave him. Exit GUARDSMAN + Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there + That kills and pains not? + CLOWN. Truly, I have him. But I would not be the party that should + desire you to touch him, for his biting is immortal; those that + do die of it do seldom or never recover. + CLEOPATRA. Remember'st thou any that have died on't? + CLOWN. Very many, men and women too. I heard of one of them no + longer than yesterday: a very honest woman, but something given + to lie, as a woman should not do but in the way of honesty; how + she died of the biting of it, what pain she felt- truly she makes + a very good report o' th' worm. But he that will believe all that + they say shall never be saved by half that they do. But this is + most falliable, the worm's an odd worm. + CLEOPATRA. Get thee hence; farewell. + CLOWN. I wish you all joy of the worm. + [Sets down the basket] + CLEOPATRA. Farewell. + CLOWN. You must think this, look you, that the worm will do his + kind. + CLEOPATRA. Ay, ay; farewell. + CLOWN. Look you, the worm is not to be trusted but in the keeping + of wise people; for indeed there is no goodness in the worm. + CLEOPATRA. Take thou no care; it shall be heeded. + CLOWN. Very good. Give it nothing, I pray you, for it is not worth + the feeding. + CLEOPATRA. Will it eat me? + CLOWN. You must not think I am so simple but I know the devil + himself will not eat a woman. I know that a woman is a dish for + the gods, if the devil dress her not. But truly, these same + whoreson devils do the gods great harm in their women, for in + every ten that they make the devils mar five. + CLEOPATRA. Well, get thee gone; farewell. + CLOWN. Yes, forsooth. I wish you joy o' th' worm. Exit + + Re-enter IRAS, with a robe, crown, &c. + + CLEOPATRA. Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have + Immortal longings in me. Now no more + The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this lip. + Yare, yare, good Iras; quick. Methinks I hear + Antony call. I see him rouse himself + To praise my noble act. I hear him mock + The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men + To excuse their after wrath. Husband, I come. + Now to that name my courage prove my title! + I am fire and air; my other elements + I give to baser life. So, have you done? + Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips. + Farewell, kind Charmian. Iras, long farewell. + [Kisses them. IRAS falls and dies] + Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall? + If thus thou and nature can so gently part, + The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, + Which hurts and is desir'd. Dost thou lie still? + If thou vanishest, thou tell'st the world + It is not worth leave-taking. + CHARMIAN. Dissolve, thick cloud, and rain, that I may say + The gods themselves do weep. + CLEOPATRA. This proves me base. + If she first meet the curled Antony, + He'll make demand of her, and spend that kiss + Which is my heaven to have. Come, thou mortal wretch, + [To an asp, which she applies to her breast] + With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate + Of life at once untie. Poor venomous fool, + Be angry and dispatch. O couldst thou speak, + That I might hear thee call great Caesar ass + Unpolicied! + CHARMIAN. O Eastern star! + CLEOPATRA. Peace, peace! + Dost thou not see my baby at my breast + That sucks the nurse asleep? + CHARMIAN. O, break! O, break! + CLEOPATRA. As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle- + O Antony! Nay, I will take thee too: + [Applying another asp to her arm] + What should I stay- [Dies] + CHARMIAN. In this vile world? So, fare thee well. + Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies + A lass unparallel'd. Downy windows, close; + And golden Phoebus never be beheld + Of eyes again so royal! Your crown's awry; + I'll mend it and then play- + + Enter the guard, rushing in + + FIRST GUARD. Where's the Queen? + CHARMIAN. Speak softly, wake her not. + FIRST GUARD. Caesar hath sent- + CHARMIAN. Too slow a messenger. [Applies an asp] + O, come apace, dispatch. I partly feel thee. + FIRST GUARD. Approach, ho! All's not well: Caesar's beguil'd. + SECOND GUARD. There's Dolabella sent from Caesar; call him. + FIRST GUARD. What work is here! Charmian, is this well done? + CHARMIAN. It is well done, and fitting for a princes + Descended of so many royal kings. + Ah, soldier! [CHARMIAN dies] + + Re-enter DOLABELLA + + DOLABELLA. How goes it here? + SECOND GUARD. All dead. + DOLABELLA. Caesar, thy thoughts + Touch their effects in this. Thyself art coming + To see perform'd the dreaded act which thou + So sought'st to hinder. + [Within: 'A way there, a way for Caesar!'] + + Re-enter CAESAR and all his train + + DOLABELLA. O sir, you are too sure an augurer: + That you did fear is done. + CAESAR. Bravest at the last, + She levell'd at our purposes, and being royal, + Took her own way. The manner of their deaths? + I do not see them bleed. + DOLABELLA. Who was last with them? + FIRST GUARD. A simple countryman that brought her figs. + This was his basket. + CAESAR. Poison'd then. + FIRST GUARD. O Caesar, + This Charmian liv'd but now; she stood and spake. + I found her trimming up the diadem + On her dead mistress. Tremblingly she stood, + And on the sudden dropp'd. + CAESAR. O noble weakness! + If they had swallow'd poison 'twould appear + By external swelling; but she looks like sleep, + As she would catch another Antony + In her strong toil of grace. + DOLABELLA. Here on her breast + There is a vent of blood, and something blown; + The like is on her arm. + FIRST GUARD. This is an aspic's trail; and these fig-leaves + Have slime upon them, such as th' aspic leaves + Upon the caves of Nile. + CAESAR. Most probable + That so she died; for her physician tells me + She hath pursu'd conclusions infinite + Of easy ways to die. Take up her bed, + And bear her women from the monument. + She shall be buried by her Antony; + No grave upon the earth shall clip in it + A pair so famous. High events as these + Strike those that make them; and their story is + No less in pity than his glory which + Brought them to be lamented. Our army shall + In solemn show attend this funeral, + And then to Rome. Come, Dolabella, see + High order in this great solemnity. Exeunt + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1601 + +AS YOU LIKE IT + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE. + + DUKE, living in exile + FREDERICK, his brother, and usurper of his dominions + AMIENS, lord attending on the banished Duke + JAQUES, " " " " " " + LE BEAU, a courtier attending upon Frederick + CHARLES, wrestler to Frederick + OLIVER, son of Sir Rowland de Boys + JAQUES, " " " " " " + ORLANDO, " " " " " " + ADAM, servant to Oliver + DENNIS, " " " + TOUCHSTONE, the court jester + SIR OLIVER MARTEXT, a vicar + CORIN, shepherd + SILVIUS, " + WILLIAM, a country fellow, in love with Audrey + A person representing HYMEN + + ROSALIND, daughter to the banished Duke + CELIA, daughter to Frederick + PHEBE, a shepherdes + AUDREY, a country wench + + Lords, Pages, Foresters, and Attendants + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +OLIVER'S house; FREDERICK'S court; and the Forest of Arden + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Orchard of OLIVER'S house + +Enter ORLANDO and ADAM + + ORLANDO. As I remember, Adam, it was upon this fashion bequeathed + me by will but poor a thousand crowns, and, as thou say'st, + charged my brother, on his blessing, to breed me well; and there + begins my sadness. My brother Jaques he keeps at school, and + report speaks goldenly of his profit. For my part, he keeps me + rustically at home, or, to speak more properly, stays me here at + home unkept; for call you that keeping for a gentleman of my + birth that differs not from the stalling of an ox? His horses are + bred better; for, besides that they are fair with their feeding, + they are taught their manage, and to that end riders dearly + hir'd; but I, his brother, gain nothing under him but growth; for + the which his animals on his dunghills are as much bound to him + as I. Besides this nothing that he so plentifully gives me, the + something that nature gave me his countenance seems to take from + me. He lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a + brother, and as much as in him lies, mines my gentility with my + education. This is it, Adam, that grieves me; and the spirit of + my father, which I think is within me, begins to mutiny against + this servitude. I will no longer endure it, though yet I know no + wise remedy how to avoid it. + + Enter OLIVER + + ADAM. Yonder comes my master, your brother. + ORLANDO. Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear how he will shake me + up. [ADAM retires] + OLIVER. Now, sir! what make you here? + ORLANDO. Nothing; I am not taught to make any thing. + OLIVER. What mar you then, sir? + ORLANDO. Marry, sir, I am helping you to mar that which God made, a + poor unworthy brother of yours, with idleness. + OLIVER. Marry, sir, be better employed, and be nought awhile. + ORLANDO. Shall I keep your hogs, and eat husks with them? What + prodigal portion have I spent that I should come to such penury? + OLIVER. Know you where you are, sir? + ORLANDO. O, sir, very well; here in your orchard. + OLIVER. Know you before whom, sir? + ORLANDO. Ay, better than him I am before knows me. I know you are + my eldest brother; and in the gentle condition of blood, you + should so know me. The courtesy of nations allows you my better + in that you are the first-born; but the same tradition takes not + away my blood, were there twenty brothers betwixt us. I have as + much of my father in me as you, albeit I confess your coming + before me is nearer to his reverence. + OLIVER. What, boy! [Strikes him] + ORLANDO. Come, come, elder brother, you are too young in this. + OLIVER. Wilt thou lay hands on me, villain? + ORLANDO. I am no villain; I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland de + Boys. He was my father; and he is thrice a villain that says such + a father begot villains. Wert thou not my brother, I would not + take this hand from thy throat till this other had pull'd out thy + tongue for saying so. Thou has rail'd on thyself. + ADAM. [Coming forward] Sweet masters, be patient; for your father's + remembrance, be at accord. + OLIVER. Let me go, I say. + ORLANDO. I will not, till I please; you shall hear me. My father + charg'd you in his will to give me good education: you have + train'd me like a peasant, obscuring and hiding from me all + gentleman-like qualities. The spirit of my father grows strong in + me, and I will no longer endure it; therefore allow me such + exercises as may become a gentleman, or give me the poor + allottery my father left me by testament; with that I will go buy + my fortunes. + OLIVER. And what wilt thou do? Beg, when that is spent? Well, sir, + get you in. I will not long be troubled with you; you shall have + some part of your will. I pray you leave me. + ORLANDO. I no further offend you than becomes me for my good. + OLIVER. Get you with him, you old dog. + ADAM. Is 'old dog' my reward? Most true, I have lost my teeth in + your service. God be with my old master! He would not have spoke + such a word. + Exeunt ORLANDO and ADAM + OLIVER. Is it even so? Begin you to grow upon me? I will physic + your rankness, and yet give no thousand crowns neither. Holla, + Dennis! + + Enter DENNIS + + DENNIS. Calls your worship? + OLIVER. not Charles, the Duke's wrestler, here to speak with me? + DENNIS. So please you, he is here at the door and importunes access + to you. + OLIVER. Call him in. [Exit DENNIS] 'Twill be a good way; and + to-morrow the wrestling is. + + Enter CHARLES + + CHARLES. Good morrow to your worship. + OLIVER. Good Monsieur Charles! What's the new news at the new + court? + CHARLES. There's no news at the court, sir, but the old news; that + is, the old Duke is banished by his younger brother the new Duke; + and three or four loving lords have put themselves into voluntary + exile with him, whose lands and revenues enrich the new Duke; + therefore he gives them good leave to wander. + OLIVER. Can you tell if Rosalind, the Duke's daughter, be banished + with her father? + CHARLES. O, no; for the Duke's daughter, her cousin, so loves her, + being ever from their cradles bred together, that she would have + followed her exile, or have died to stay behind her. She is at + the court, and no less beloved of her uncle than his own + daughter; and never two ladies loved as they do. + OLIVER. Where will the old Duke live? + CHARLES. They say he is already in the Forest of Arden, and a many + merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood + of England. They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day, + and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world. + OLIVER. What, you wrestle to-morrow before the new Duke? + CHARLES. Marry, do I, sir; and I came to acquaint you with a + matter. I am given, sir, secretly to understand that your younger + brother, Orlando, hath a disposition to come in disguis'd against + me to try a fall. To-morrow, sir, I wrestle for my credit; and he + that escapes me without some broken limb shall acquit him well. + Your brother is but young and tender; and, for your love, I would + be loath to foil him, as I must, for my own honour, if he come + in; therefore, out of my love to you, I came hither to acquaint + you withal, that either you might stay him from his intendment, + or brook such disgrace well as he shall run into, in that it is + thing of his own search and altogether against my will. + OLIVER. Charles, I thank thee for thy love to me, which thou shalt + find I will most kindly requite. I had myself notice of my + brother's purpose herein, and have by underhand means laboured to + dissuade him from it; but he is resolute. I'll tell thee, + Charles, it is the stubbornest young fellow of France; full of + ambition, an envious emulator of every man's good parts, a secret + and villainous contriver against me his natural brother. + Therefore use thy discretion: I had as lief thou didst break his + neck as his finger. And thou wert best look to't; for if thou + dost him any slight disgrace, or if he do not mightily grace + himself on thee, he will practise against thee by poison, entrap + thee by some treacherous device, and never leave thee till he + hath ta'en thy life by some indirect means or other; for, I + assure thee, and almost with tears I speak it, there is not one + so young and so villainous this day living. I speak but brotherly + of him; but should I anatomize him to thee as he is, I must blush + and weep, and thou must look pale and wonder. + CHARLES. I am heartily glad I came hither to you. If he come + to-morrow I'll give him his payment. If ever he go alone again, + I'll never wrestle for prize more. And so, God keep your worship! + Exit + OLIVER. Farewell, good Charles. Now will I stir this gamester. I + hope I shall see an end of him; for my soul, yet I know not why, + hates nothing more than he. Yet he's gentle; never school'd and + yet learned; full of noble device; of all sorts enchantingly + beloved; and, indeed, so much in the heart of the world, and + especially of my own people, who best know him, that I am + altogether misprised. But it shall not be so long; this wrestler + shall clear all. Nothing remains but that I kindle the boy + thither, which now I'll go about. Exit + + + +<> + + + + +SCENE II. +A lawn before the DUKE'S palace + +Enter ROSALIND and CELIA + + CELIA. I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry. + ROSALIND. Dear Celia, I show more mirth than I am mistress of; and + would you yet I were merrier? Unless you could teach me to forget + a banished father, you must not learn me how to remember any + extraordinary pleasure. + CELIA. Herein I see thou lov'st me not with the full weight that I + love thee. If my uncle, thy banished father, had banished thy + uncle, the Duke my father, so thou hadst been still with me, I + could have taught my love to take thy father for mine; so wouldst + thou, if the truth of thy love to me were so righteously temper'd + as mine is to thee. + ROSALIND. Well, I will forget the condition of my estate, to + rejoice in yours. + CELIA. You know my father hath no child but I, nor none is like to + have; and, truly, when he dies thou shalt be his heir; for what + he hath taken away from thy father perforce, I will render thee + again in affection. By mine honour, I will; and when I break that + oath, let me turn monster; therefore, my sweet Rose, my dear + Rose, be merry. + ROSALIND. From henceforth I will, coz, and devise sports. + Let me see; what think you of falling in love? + CELIA. Marry, I prithee, do, to make sport withal; but love no man + in good earnest, nor no further in sport neither than with safety + of a pure blush thou mayst in honour come off again. + ROSALIND. What shall be our sport, then? + CELIA. Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her + wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally. + ROSALIND. I would we could do so; for her benefits are mightily + misplaced; and the bountiful blind woman doth most mistake in her + gifts to women. + CELIA. 'Tis true; for those that she makes fair she scarce makes + honest; and those that she makes honest she makes very + ill-favouredly. + ROSALIND. Nay; now thou goest from Fortune's office to Nature's: + Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of + Nature. + + Enter TOUCHSTONE + + CELIA. No; when Nature hath made a fair creature, may she not by + Fortune fall into the fire? Though Nature hath given us wit to + flout at Fortune, hath not Fortune sent in this fool to cut off + the argument? + ROSALIND. Indeed, there is Fortune too hard for Nature, when + Fortune makes Nature's natural the cutter-off of Nature's wit. + CELIA. Peradventure this is not Fortune's work neither, but + Nature's, who perceiveth our natural wits too dull to reason of + such goddesses, and hath sent this natural for our whetstone; for + always the dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits. How + now, wit! Whither wander you? + TOUCHSTONE. Mistress, you must come away to your father. + CELIA. Were you made the messenger? + TOUCHSTONE. No, by mine honour; but I was bid to come for you. + ROSALIND. Where learned you that oath, fool? + TOUCHSTONE. Of a certain knight that swore by his honour they were + good pancakes, and swore by his honour the mustard was naught. + Now I'll stand to it, the pancakes were naught and the mustard + was good, and yet was not the knight forsworn. + CELIA. How prove you that, in the great heap of your knowledge? + ROSALIND. Ay, marry, now unmuzzle your wisdom. + TOUCHSTONE. Stand you both forth now: stroke your chins, and swear + by your beards that I am a knave. + CELIA. By our beards, if we had them, thou art. + TOUCHSTONE. By my knavery, if I had it, then I were. But if you + swear by that that not, you are not forsworn; no more was this + knight, swearing by his honour, for he never had any; or if he + had, he had sworn it away before ever he saw those pancackes or + that mustard. + CELIA. Prithee, who is't that thou mean'st? + TOUCHSTONE. One that old Frederick, your father, loves. + CELIA. My father's love is enough to honour him. Enough, speak no + more of him; you'll be whipt for taxation one of these days. + TOUCHSTONE. The more pity that fools may not speak wisely what wise + men do foolishly. + CELIA. By my troth, thou sayest true; for since the little wit that + fools have was silenced, the little foolery that wise men have + makes a great show. Here comes Monsieur Le Beau. + + Enter LE BEAU + + ROSALIND. With his mouth full of news. + CELIA. Which he will put on us as pigeons feed their young. + ROSALIND. Then shall we be news-cramm'd. + CELIA. All the better; we shall be the more marketable. Bon jour, + Monsieur Le Beau. What's the news? + LE BEAU. Fair Princess, you have lost much good sport. + CELIA. Sport! of what colour? + LE BEAU. What colour, madam? How shall I answer you? + ROSALIND. As wit and fortune will. + TOUCHSTONE. Or as the Destinies decrees. + CELIA. Well said; that was laid on with a trowel. + TOUCHSTONE. Nay, if I keep not my rank- + ROSALIND. Thou losest thy old smell. + LE BEAU. You amaze me, ladies. I would have told you of good + wrestling, which you have lost the sight of. + ROSALIND. Yet tell us the manner of the wrestling. + LE BEAU. I will tell you the beginning, and, if it please your + ladyships, you may see the end; for the best is yet to do; and + here, where you are, they are coming to perform it. + CELIA. Well, the beginning, that is dead and buried. + LE BEAU. There comes an old man and his three sons- + CELIA. I could match this beginning with an old tale. + LE BEAU. Three proper young men, of excellent growth and presence. + ROSALIND. With bills on their necks: 'Be it known unto all men by + these presents'- + LE BEAU. The eldest of the three wrestled with Charles, the Duke's + wrestler; which Charles in a moment threw him, and broke three of + his ribs, that there is little hope of life in him. So he serv'd + the second, and so the third. Yonder they lie; the poor old man, + their father, making such pitiful dole over them that all the + beholders take his part with weeping. + ROSALIND. Alas! + TOUCHSTONE. But what is the sport, monsieur, that the ladies have + lost? + LE BEAU. Why, this that I speak of. + TOUCHSTONE. Thus men may grow wiser every day. It is the first time + that ever I heard breaking of ribs was sport for ladies. + CELIA. Or I, I promise thee. + ROSALIND. But is there any else longs to see this broken music in + his sides? Is there yet another dotes upon rib-breaking? Shall we + see this wrestling, cousin? + LE BEAU. You must, if you stay here; for here is the place + appointed for the wrestling, and they are ready to perform it. + CELIA. Yonder, sure, they are coming. Let us now stay and see it. + + Flourish. Enter DUKE FREDERICK, LORDS, ORLANDO, + CHARLES, and ATTENDANTS + + FREDERICK. Come on; since the youth will not be entreated, his own + peril on his forwardness. + ROSALIND. Is yonder the man? + LE BEAU. Even he, madam. + CELIA. Alas, he is too young; yet he looks successfully. + FREDERICK. How now, daughter and cousin! Are you crept hither to + see the wrestling? + ROSALIND. Ay, my liege; so please you give us leave. + FREDERICK. You will take little delight in it, I can tell you, + there is such odds in the man. In pity of the challenger's youth + I would fain dissuade him, but he will not be entreated. Speak to + him, ladies; see if you can move him. + CELIA. Call him hither, good Monsieur Le Beau. + FREDERICK. Do so; I'll not be by. + [DUKE FREDERICK goes apart] + LE BEAU. Monsieur the Challenger, the Princess calls for you. + ORLANDO. I attend them with all respect and duty. + ROSALIND. Young man, have you challeng'd Charles the wrestler? + ORLANDO. No, fair Princess; he is the general challenger. I come + but in, as others do, to try with him the strength of my youth. + CELIA. Young gentleman, your spirits are too bold for your years. + You have seen cruel proof of this man's strength; if you saw + yourself with your eyes, or knew yourself with your judgment, the + fear of your adventure would counsel you to a more equal + enterprise. We pray you, for your own sake, to embrace your own + safety and give over this attempt. + ROSALIND. Do, young sir; your reputation shall not therefore be + misprised: we will make it our suit to the Duke that the + wrestling might not go forward. + ORLANDO. I beseech you, punish me not with your hard thoughts, + wherein I confess me much guilty to deny so fair and excellent + ladies any thing. But let your fair eyes and gentle wishes go + with me to my trial; wherein if I be foil'd there is but one + sham'd that was never gracious; if kill'd, but one dead that is + willing to be so. I shall do my friends no wrong, for I have none + to lament me; the world no injury, for in it I have nothing; only + in the world I fill up a place, which may be better supplied when + I have made it empty. + ROSALIND. The little strength that I have, I would it were with + you. + CELIA. And mine to eke out hers. + ROSALIND. Fare you well. Pray heaven I be deceiv'd in you! + CELIA. Your heart's desires be with you! + CHARLES. Come, where is this young gallant that is so desirous to + lie with his mother earth? + ORLANDO. Ready, sir; but his will hath in it a more modest working. + FREDERICK. You shall try but one fall. + CHARLES. No, I warrant your Grace, you shall not entreat him to a + second, that have so mightily persuaded him from a first. + ORLANDO. You mean to mock me after; you should not have mock'd me + before; but come your ways. + ROSALIND. Now, Hercules be thy speed, young man! + CELIA. I would I were invisible, to catch the strong fellow by the + leg. [They wrestle] + ROSALIND. O excellent young man! + CELIA. If I had a thunderbolt in mine eye, I can tell who should + down. + [CHARLES is thrown. Shout] + FREDERICK. No more, no more. + ORLANDO. Yes, I beseech your Grace; I am not yet well breath'd. + FREDERICK. How dost thou, Charles? + LE BEAU. He cannot speak, my lord. + FREDERICK. Bear him away. What is thy name, young man? + ORLANDO. Orlando, my liege; the youngest son of Sir Rowland de + Boys. + FREDERICK. I would thou hadst been son to some man else. + The world esteem'd thy father honourable, + But I did find him still mine enemy. + Thou shouldst have better pleas'd me with this deed, + Hadst thou descended from another house. + But fare thee well; thou art a gallant youth; + I would thou hadst told me of another father. + Exeunt DUKE, train, and LE BEAU + CELIA. Were I my father, coz, would I do this? + ORLANDO. I am more proud to be Sir Rowland's son, + His youngest son- and would not change that calling + To be adopted heir to Frederick. + ROSALIND. My father lov'd Sir Rowland as his soul, + And all the world was of my father's mind; + Had I before known this young man his son, + I should have given him tears unto entreaties + Ere he should thus have ventur'd. + CELIA. Gentle cousin, + Let us go thank him, and encourage him; + My father's rough and envious disposition + Sticks me at heart. Sir, you have well deserv'd; + If you do keep your promises in love + But justly as you have exceeded all promise, + Your mistress shall be happy. + ROSALIND. Gentleman, [Giving him a chain from her neck] + Wear this for me; one out of suits with fortune, + That could give more, but that her hand lacks means. + Shall we go, coz? + CELIA. Ay. Fare you well, fair gentleman. + ORLANDO. Can I not say 'I thank you'? My better parts + Are all thrown down; and that which here stands up + Is but a quintain, a mere lifeless block. + ROSALIND. He calls us back. My pride fell with my fortunes; + I'll ask him what he would. Did you call, sir? + Sir, you have wrestled well, and overthrown + More than your enemies. + CELIA. Will you go, coz? + ROSALIND. Have with you. Fare you well. + Exeunt ROSALIND and CELIA + ORLANDO. What passion hangs these weights upon my tongue? + I cannot speak to her, yet she urg'd conference. + O poor Orlando, thou art overthrown! + Or Charles or something weaker masters thee. + + Re-enter LE BEAU + + LE BEAU. Good sir, I do in friendship counsel you + To leave this place. Albeit you have deserv'd + High commendation, true applause, and love, + Yet such is now the Duke's condition + That he misconstrues all that you have done. + The Duke is humorous; what he is, indeed, + More suits you to conceive than I to speak of. + ORLANDO. I thank you, sir; and pray you tell me this: + Which of the two was daughter of the Duke + That here was at the wrestling? + LE BEAU. Neither his daughter, if we judge by manners; + But yet, indeed, the smaller is his daughter; + The other is daughter to the banish'd Duke, + And here detain'd by her usurping uncle, + To keep his daughter company; whose loves + Are dearer than the natural bond of sisters. + But I can tell you that of late this Duke + Hath ta'en displeasure 'gainst his gentle niece, + Grounded upon no other argument + But that the people praise her for her virtues + And pity her for her good father's sake; + And, on my life, his malice 'gainst the lady + Will suddenly break forth. Sir, fare you well. + Hereafter, in a better world than this, + I shall desire more love and knowledge of you. + ORLANDO. I rest much bounden to you; fare you well. + Exit LE BEAU + Thus must I from the smoke into the smother; + From tyrant Duke unto a tyrant brother. + But heavenly Rosalind! Exit + + + + +SCENE III. +The DUKE's palace + +Enter CELIA and ROSALIND + + CELIA. Why, cousin! why, Rosalind! Cupid have mercy! + Not a word? + ROSALIND. Not one to throw at a dog. + CELIA. No, thy words are too precious to be cast away upon curs; + throw some of them at me; come, lame me with reasons. + ROSALIND. Then there were two cousins laid up, when the one should + be lam'd with reasons and the other mad without any. + CELIA. But is all this for your father? + ROSALIND. No, some of it is for my child's father. O, how full of + briers is this working-day world! + CELIA. They are but burs, cousin, thrown upon thee in holiday + foolery; if we walk not in the trodden paths, our very petticoats + will catch them. + ROSALIND. I could shake them off my coat: these burs are in my + heart. + CELIA. Hem them away. + ROSALIND. I would try, if I could cry 'hem' and have him. + CELIA. Come, come, wrestle with thy affections. + ROSALIND. O, they take the part of a better wrestler than myself. + CELIA. O, a good wish upon you! You will try in time, in despite of + a fall. But, turning these jests out of service, let us talk in + good earnest. Is it possible, on such a sudden, you should fall + into so strong a liking with old Sir Rowland's youngest son? + ROSALIND. The Duke my father lov'd his father dearly. + CELIA. Doth it therefore ensue that you should love his son dearly? + By this kind of chase I should hate him, for my father hated his + father dearly; yet I hate not Orlando. + ROSALIND. No, faith, hate him not, for my sake. + CELIA. Why should I not? Doth he not deserve well? + + Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with LORDS + + ROSALIND. Let me love him for that; and do you love him because I + do. Look, here comes the Duke. + CELIA. With his eyes full of anger. + FREDERICK. Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste, + And get you from our court. + ROSALIND. Me, uncle? + FREDERICK. You, cousin. + Within these ten days if that thou beest found + So near our public court as twenty miles, + Thou diest for it. + ROSALIND. I do beseech your Grace, + Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me. + If with myself I hold intelligence, + Or have acquaintance with mine own desires; + If that I do not dream, or be not frantic- + As I do trust I am not- then, dear uncle, + Never so much as in a thought unborn + Did I offend your Highness. + FREDERICK. Thus do all traitors; + If their purgation did consist in words, + They are as innocent as grace itself. + Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not. + ROSALIND. Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor. + Tell me whereon the likelihood depends. + FREDERICK. Thou art thy father's daughter; there's enough. + ROSALIND. SO was I when your Highness took his dukedom; + So was I when your Highness banish'd him. + Treason is not inherited, my lord; + Or, if we did derive it from our friends, + What's that to me? My father was no traitor. + Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much + To think my poverty is treacherous. + CELIA. Dear sovereign, hear me speak. + FREDERICK. Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake, + Else had she with her father rang'd along. + CELIA. I did not then entreat to have her stay; + It was your pleasure, and your own remorse; + I was too young that time to value her, + But now I know her. If she be a traitor, + Why so am I: we still have slept together, + Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together; + And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans, + Still we went coupled and inseparable. + FREDERICK. She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness, + Her very silence and her patience, + Speak to the people, and they pity her. + Thou art a fool. She robs thee of thy name; + And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous + When she is gone. Then open not thy lips. + Firm and irrevocable is my doom + Which I have pass'd upon her; she is banish'd. + CELIA. Pronounce that sentence, then, on me, my liege; + I cannot live out of her company. + FREDERICK. You are a fool. You, niece, provide yourself. + If you outstay the time, upon mine honour, + And in the greatness of my word, you die. + Exeunt DUKE and LORDS + CELIA. O my poor Rosalind! Whither wilt thou go? + Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. + I charge thee be not thou more griev'd than I am. + ROSALIND. I have more cause. + CELIA. Thou hast not, cousin. + Prithee be cheerful. Know'st thou not the Duke + Hath banish'd me, his daughter? + ROSALIND. That he hath not. + CELIA. No, hath not? Rosalind lacks, then, the love + Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one. + Shall we be sund'red? Shall we part, sweet girl? + No; let my father seek another heir. + Therefore devise with me how we may fly, + Whither to go, and what to bear with us; + And do not seek to take your charge upon you, + To bear your griefs yourself, and leave me out; + For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale, + Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee. + ROSALIND. Why, whither shall we go? + CELIA. To seek my uncle in the Forest of Arden. + ROSALIND. Alas, what danger will it be to us, + Maids as we are, to travel forth so far! + Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. + CELIA. I'll put myself in poor and mean attire, + And with a kind of umber smirch my face; + The like do you; so shall we pass along, + And never stir assailants. + ROSALIND. Were it not better, + Because that I am more than common tall, + That I did suit me all points like a man? + A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh, + A boar spear in my hand; and- in my heart + Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will- + We'll have a swashing and a martial outside, + As many other mannish cowards have + That do outface it with their semblances. + CELIA. What shall I call thee when thou art a man? + ROSALIND. I'll have no worse a name than Jove's own page, + And therefore look you call me Ganymede. + But what will you be call'd? + CELIA. Something that hath a reference to my state: + No longer Celia, but Aliena. + ROSALIND. But, cousin, what if we assay'd to steal + The clownish fool out of your father's court? + Would he not be a comfort to our travel? + CELIA. He'll go along o'er the wide world with me; + Leave me alone to woo him. Let's away, + And get our jewels and our wealth together; + Devise the fittest time and safest way + To hide us from pursuit that will be made + After my flight. Now go we in content + To liberty, and not to banishment. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +The Forest of Arden + +Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, and two or three LORDS, like foresters + + DUKE SENIOR. Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, + Hath not old custom made this life more sweet + Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods + More free from peril than the envious court? + Here feel we not the penalty of Adam, + The seasons' difference; as the icy fang + And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, + Which when it bites and blows upon my body, + Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say + 'This is no flattery; these are counsellors + That feelingly persuade me what I am.' + Sweet are the uses of adversity, + Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, + Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; + And this our life, exempt from public haunt, + Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, + Sermons in stones, and good in everything. + I would not change it. + AMIENS. Happy is your Grace, + That can translate the stubbornness of fortune + Into so quiet and so sweet a style. + DUKE SENIOR. Come, shall we go and kill us venison? + And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, + Being native burghers of this desert city, + Should, in their own confines, with forked heads + Have their round haunches gor'd. + FIRST LORD. Indeed, my lord, + The melancholy Jaques grieves at that; + And, in that kind, swears you do more usurp + Than doth your brother that hath banish'd you. + To-day my Lord of Amiens and myself + Did steal behind him as he lay along + Under an oak whose antique root peeps out + Upon the brook that brawls along this wood! + To the which place a poor sequest'red stag, + That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt, + Did come to languish; and, indeed, my lord, + The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans + That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat + Almost to bursting; and the big round tears + Cours'd one another down his innocent nose + In piteous chase; and thus the hairy fool, + Much marked of the melancholy Jaques, + Stood on th' extremest verge of the swift brook, + Augmenting it with tears. + DUKE SENIOR. But what said Jaques? + Did he not moralize this spectacle? + FIRST LORD. O, yes, into a thousand similes. + First, for his weeping into the needless stream: + 'Poor deer,' quoth he 'thou mak'st a testament + As worldlings do, giving thy sum of more + To that which had too much.' Then, being there alone, + Left and abandoned of his velvet friends: + ''Tis right'; quoth he 'thus misery doth part + The flux of company.' Anon, a careless herd, + Full of the pasture, jumps along by him + And never stays to greet him. 'Ay,' quoth Jaques + 'Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens; + 'Tis just the fashion. Wherefore do you look + Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?' + Thus most invectively he pierceth through + The body of the country, city, court, + Yea, and of this our life; swearing that we + Are mere usurpers, tyrants, and what's worse, + To fright the animals, and to kill them up + In their assign'd and native dwelling-place. + DUKE SENIOR. And did you leave him in this contemplation? + SECOND LORD. We did, my lord, weeping and commenting + Upon the sobbing deer. + DUKE SENIOR. Show me the place; + I love to cope him in these sullen fits, + For then he's full of matter. + FIRST LORD. I'll bring you to him straight. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +The DUKE'S palace + +Enter DUKE FREDERICK, with LORDS + + FREDERICK. Can it be possible that no man saw them? + It cannot be; some villains of my court + Are of consent and sufferance in this. + FIRST LORD. I cannot hear of any that did see her. + The ladies, her attendants of her chamber, + Saw her abed, and in the morning early + They found the bed untreasur'd of their mistress. + SECOND LORD. My lord, the roynish clown, at whom so oft + Your Grace was wont to laugh, is also missing. + Hisperia, the Princess' gentlewoman, + Confesses that she secretly o'erheard + Your daughter and her cousin much commend + The parts and graces of the wrestler + That did but lately foil the sinewy Charles; + And she believes, wherever they are gone, + That youth is surely in their company. + FREDERICK. Send to his brother; fetch that gallant hither. + If he be absent, bring his brother to me; + I'll make him find him. Do this suddenly; + And let not search and inquisition quail + To bring again these foolish runaways. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Before OLIVER'S house + +Enter ORLANDO and ADAM, meeting + + ORLANDO. Who's there? + ADAM. What, my young master? O my gentle master! + O my sweet master! O you memory + Of old Sir Rowland! Why, what make you here? + Why are you virtuous? Why do people love you? + And wherefore are you gentle, strong, and valiant? + Why would you be so fond to overcome + The bonny prizer of the humorous Duke? + Your praise is come too swiftly home before you. + Know you not, master, to some kind of men + Their graces serve them but as enemies? + No more do yours. Your virtues, gentle master, + Are sanctified and holy traitors to you. + O, what a world is this, when what is comely + Envenoms him that bears it! + ORLANDO. Why, what's the matter? + ADAM. O unhappy youth! + Come not within these doors; within this roof + The enemy of all your graces lives. + Your brother- no, no brother; yet the son- + Yet not the son; I will not call him son + Of him I was about to call his father- + Hath heard your praises; and this night he means + To burn the lodging where you use to lie, + And you within it. If he fail of that, + He will have other means to cut you off; + I overheard him and his practices. + This is no place; this house is but a butchery; + Abhor it, fear it, do not enter it. + ORLANDO. Why, whither, Adam, wouldst thou have me go? + ADAM. No matter whither, so you come not here. + ORLANDO. What, wouldst thou have me go and beg my food, + Or with a base and boist'rous sword enforce + A thievish living on the common road? + This I must do, or know not what to do; + Yet this I will not do, do how I can. + I rather will subject me to the malice + Of a diverted blood and bloody brother. + ADAM. But do not so. I have five hundred crowns, + The thrifty hire I sav'd under your father, + Which I did store to be my foster-nurse, + When service should in my old limbs lie lame, + And unregarded age in corners thrown. + Take that, and He that doth the ravens feed, + Yea, providently caters for the sparrow, + Be comfort to my age! Here is the gold; + All this I give you. Let me be your servant; + Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty; + For in my youth I never did apply + Hot and rebellious liquors in my blood, + Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo + The means of weakness and debility; + Therefore my age is as a lusty winter, + Frosty, but kindly. Let me go with you; + I'll do the service of a younger man + In all your business and necessities. + ORLANDO. O good old man, how well in thee appears + The constant service of the antique world, + When service sweat for duty, not for meed! + Thou art not for the fashion of these times, + Where none will sweat but for promotion, + And having that do choke their service up + Even with the having; it is not so with thee. + But, poor old man, thou prun'st a rotten tree + That cannot so much as a blossom yield + In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry. + But come thy ways, we'll go along together, + And ere we have thy youthful wages spent + We'll light upon some settled low content. + ADAM. Master, go on; and I will follow the + To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty. + From seventeen years till now almost four-score + Here lived I, but now live here no more. + At seventeen years many their fortunes seek, + But at fourscore it is too late a week; + Yet fortune cannot recompense me better + Than to die well and not my master's debtor. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +The Forest of Arden + +Enter ROSALIND for GANYMEDE, CELIA for ALIENA, and CLOWN alias TOUCHSTONE + + ROSALIND. O Jupiter, how weary are my spirits! + TOUCHSTONE. I Care not for my spirits, if my legs were not weary. + ROSALIND. I could find in my heart to disgrace my man's apparel, + and to cry like a woman; but I must comfort the weaker vessel, as + doublet and hose ought to show itself courageous to petticoat; + therefore, courage, good Aliena. + CELIA. I pray you bear with me; I cannot go no further. + TOUCHSTONE. For my part, I had rather bear with you than bear you; + yet I should bear no cross if I did bear you; for I think you + have no money in your purse. + ROSALIND. Well,. this is the Forest of Arden. + TOUCHSTONE. Ay, now am I in Arden; the more fool I; when I was at + home I was in a better place; but travellers must be content. + + Enter CORIN and SILVIUS + + ROSALIND. Ay, be so, good Touchstone. Look you, who comes here, a + young man and an old in solemn talk. + CORIN. That is the way to make her scorn you still. + SILVIUS. O Corin, that thou knew'st how I do love her! + CORIN. I partly guess; for I have lov'd ere now. + SILVIUS. No, Corin, being old, thou canst not guess, + Though in thy youth thou wast as true a lover + As ever sigh'd upon a midnight pillow. + But if thy love were ever like to mine, + As sure I think did never man love so, + How many actions most ridiculous + Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy? + CORIN. Into a thousand that I have forgotten. + SILVIUS. O, thou didst then never love so heartily! + If thou rememb'rest not the slightest folly + That ever love did make thee run into, + Thou hast not lov'd; + Or if thou hast not sat as I do now, + Wearing thy hearer in thy mistress' praise, + Thou hast not lov'd; + Or if thou hast not broke from company + Abruptly, as my passion now makes me, + Thou hast not lov'd. + O Phebe, Phebe, Phebe! Exit Silvius + ROSALIND. Alas, poor shepherd! searching of thy wound, + I have by hard adventure found mine own. + TOUCHSTONE. And I mine. I remember, when I was in love, I broke my + sword upon a stone, and bid him take that for coming a-night to + Jane Smile; and I remember the kissing of her batler, and the + cow's dugs that her pretty chopt hands had milk'd; and I remember + the wooing of peascod instead of her; from whom I took two cods, + and giving her them again, said with weeping tears 'Wear these + for my sake.' We that are true lovers run into strange capers; + but as all is mortal in nature, so is all nature in love mortal + in folly. + ROSALIND. Thou speak'st wiser than thou art ware of. + TOUCHSTONE. Nay, I shall ne'er be ware of mine own wit till I break + my shins against it. + ROSALIND. Jove, Jove! this shepherd's passion + Is much upon my fashion. + TOUCHSTONE. And mine; but it grows something stale with me. + CELIA. I pray you, one of you question yond man + If he for gold will give us any food; + I faint almost to death. + TOUCHSTONE. Holla, you clown! + ROSALIND. Peace, fool; he's not thy Ensman. + CORIN. Who calls? + TOUCHSTONE. Your betters, sir. + CORIN. Else are they very wretched. + ROSALIND. Peace, I say. Good even to you, friend. + CORIN. And to you, gentle sir, and to you all. + ROSALIND. I prithee, shepherd, if that love or gold + Can in this desert place buy entertainment, + Bring us where we may rest ourselves and feed. + Here's a young maid with travel much oppress'd, + And faints for succour. + CORIN. Fair sir, I pity her, + And wish, for her sake more than for mine own, + My fortunes were more able to relieve her; + But I am shepherd to another man, + And do not shear the fleeces that I graze. + My master is of churlish disposition, + And little recks to find the way to heaven + By doing deeds of hospitality. + Besides, his cote, his flocks, and bounds of feed, + Are now on sale; and at our sheepcote now, + By reason of his absence, there is nothing + That you will feed on; but what is, come see, + And in my voice most welcome shall you be. + ROSALIND. What is he that shall buy his flock and pasture? + CORIN. That young swain that you saw here but erewhile, + That little cares for buying any thing. + ROSALIND. I pray thee, if it stand with honesty, + Buy thou the cottage, pasture, and the flock, + And thou shalt have to pay for it of us. + CELIA. And we will mend thy wages. I like this place, + And willingly could waste my time in it. + CORIN. Assuredly the thing is to be sold. + Go with me; if you like upon report + The soil, the profit, and this kind of life, + I will your very faithful feeder be, + And buy it with your gold right suddenly. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Another part of the forest + +Enter AMIENS, JAQUES, and OTHERS + + SONG + AMIENS. Under the greenwood tree + Who loves to lie with me, + And turn his merry note + Unto the sweet bird's throat, + Come hither, come hither, come hither. + Here shall he see + No enemy + But winter and rough weather. + + JAQUES. More, more, I prithee, more. + AMIENS. It will make you melancholy, Monsieur Jaques. + JAQUES. I thank it. More, I prithee, more. I can suck melancholy + out of a song, as a weasel sucks eggs. More, I prithee, more. + AMIENS. My voice is ragged; I know I cannot please you. + JAQUES. I do not desire you to please me; I do desire you to sing. + Come, more; another stanzo. Call you 'em stanzos? + AMIENS. What you will, Monsieur Jaques. + JAQUES. Nay, I care not for their names; they owe me nothing. Will + you sing? + AMIENS. More at your request than to please myself. + JAQUES. Well then, if ever I thank any man, I'll thank you; but + that they call compliment is like th' encounter of two dog-apes; + and when a man thanks me heartily, methinks have given him a + penny, and he renders me the beggarly thanks. Come, sing; and you + that will not, hold your tongues. + AMIENS. Well, I'll end the song. Sirs, cover the while; the Duke + will drink under this tree. He hath been all this day to look + you. + JAQUES. And I have been all this day to avoid him. He is to + disputable for my company. I think of as many matters as he; but + I give heaven thanks, and make no boast of them. Come, warble, + come. + + SONG + [All together here] + + Who doth ambition shun, + And loves to live i' th' sun, + Seeking the food he eats, + And pleas'd with what he gets, + Come hither, come hither, come hither. + Here shall he see + No enemy + But winter and rough weather. + + JAQUES. I'll give you a verse to this note that I made yesterday in + despite of my invention. + AMIENS. And I'll sing it. + JAQUES. Thus it goes: + + If it do come to pass + That any man turn ass, + Leaving his wealth and ease + A stubborn will to please, + Ducdame, ducdame, ducdame; + Here shall he see + Gross fools as he, + An if he will come to me. + + AMIENS. What's that 'ducdame'? + JAQUES. 'Tis a Greek invocation, to call fools into a circle. I'll + go sleep, if I can; if I cannot, I'll rail against all the + first-born of Egypt. + AMIENS. And I'll go seek the Duke; his banquet is prepar'd. + Exeunt severally + + + + +SCENE VI. +The forest + +Enter ORLANDO and ADAM + + ADAM. Dear master, I can go no further. O, I die for food! Here lie + I down, and measure out my grave. Farewell, kind master. + ORLANDO. Why, how now, Adam! No greater heart in thee? Live a + little; comfort a little; cheer thyself a little. If this uncouth + forest yield anything savage, I will either be food for it or + bring it for food to thee. Thy conceit is nearer death than thy + powers. For my sake be comfortable; hold death awhile at the + arm's end. I will here be with the presently; and if I bring thee + not something to eat, I will give thee leave to die; but if thou + diest before I come, thou art a mocker of my labour. Well said! + thou look'st cheerly; and I'll be with thee quickly. Yet thou + liest in the bleak air. Come, I will bear thee to some shelter; + and thou shalt not die for lack of a dinner, if there live + anything in this desert. Cheerly, good Adam! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VII. +The forest + +A table set out. Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, and LORDS, like outlaws + + DUKE SENIOR. I think he be transform'd into a beast; + For I can nowhere find him like a man. + FIRST LORD. My lord, he is but even now gone hence; + Here was he merry, hearing of a song. + DUKE SENIOR. If he, compact of jars, grow musical, + We shall have shortly discord in the spheres. + Go seek him; tell him I would speak with him. + + Enter JAQUES + + FIRST LORD. He saves my labour by his own approach. + DUKE SENIOR. Why, how now, monsieur! what a life is this, + That your poor friends must woo your company? + What, you look merrily! + JAQUES. A fool, a fool! I met a fool i' th' forest, + A motley fool. A miserable world! + As I do live by food, I met a fool, + Who laid him down and bask'd him in the sun, + And rail'd on Lady Fortune in good terms, + In good set terms- and yet a motley fool. + 'Good morrow, fool,' quoth I; 'No, sir,' quoth he, + 'Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune.' + And then he drew a dial from his poke, + And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye, + Says very wisely, 'It is ten o'clock; + Thus we may see,' quoth he, 'how the world wags; + 'Tis but an hour ago since it was nine; + And after one hour more 'twill be eleven; + And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe, + And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot; + And thereby hangs a tale.' When I did hear + The motley fool thus moral on the time, + My lungs began to crow like chanticleer + That fools should be so deep contemplative; + And I did laugh sans intermission + An hour by his dial. O noble fool! + A worthy fool! Motley's the only wear. + DUKE SENIOR. What fool is this? + JAQUES. O worthy fool! One that hath been a courtier, + And says, if ladies be but young and fair, + They have the gift to know it; and in his brain, + Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit + After a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd + With observation, the which he vents + In mangled forms. O that I were a fool! + I am ambitious for a motley coat. + DUKE SENIOR. Thou shalt have one. + JAQUES. It is my only suit, + Provided that you weed your better judgments + Of all opinion that grows rank in them + That I am wise. I must have liberty + Withal, as large a charter as the wind, + To blow on whom I please, for so fools have; + And they that are most galled with my folly, + They most must laugh. And why, sir, must they so? + The why is plain as way to parish church: + He that a fool doth very wisely hit + Doth very foolishly, although he smart, + Not to seem senseless of the bob; if not, + The wise man's folly is anatomiz'd + Even by the squand'ring glances of the fool. + Invest me in my motley; give me leave + To speak my mind, and I will through and through + Cleanse the foul body of th' infected world, + If they will patiently receive my medicine. + DUKE SENIOR. Fie on thee! I can tell what thou wouldst do. + JAQUES. What, for a counter, would I do but good? + DUKE SENIOR. Most Mischievous foul sin, in chiding sin; + For thou thyself hast been a libertine, + As sensual as the brutish sting itself; + And all th' embossed sores and headed evils + That thou with license of free foot hast caught + Wouldst thou disgorge into the general world. + JAQUES. Why, who cries out on pride + That can therein tax any private party? + Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea, + Till that the wearer's very means do ebb? + What woman in the city do I name + When that I say the city-woman bears + The cost of princes on unworthy shoulders? + Who can come in and say that I mean her, + When such a one as she such is her neighbour? + Or what is he of basest function + That says his bravery is not on my cost, + Thinking that I mean him, but therein suits + His folly to the mettle of my speech? + There then! how then? what then? Let me see wherein + My tongue hath wrong'd him: if it do him right, + Then he hath wrong'd himself; if he be free, + Why then my taxing like a wild-goose flies, + Unclaim'd of any man. But who comes here? + + Enter ORLANDO with his sword drawn + + ORLANDO. Forbear, and eat no more. + JAQUES. Why, I have eat none yet. + ORLANDO. Nor shalt not, till necessity be serv'd. + JAQUES. Of what kind should this cock come of? + DUKE SENIOR. Art thou thus bolden'd, man, by thy distress? + Or else a rude despiser of good manners, + That in civility thou seem'st so empty? + ORLANDO. You touch'd my vein at first: the thorny point + Of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show + Of smooth civility; yet arn I inland bred, + And know some nurture. But forbear, I say; + He dies that touches any of this fruit + Till I and my affairs are answered. + JAQUES. An you will not be answer'd with reason, I must die. + DUKE SENIOR. What would you have? Your gentleness shall force + More than your force move us to gentleness. + ORLANDO. I almost die for food, and let me have it. + DUKE SENIOR. Sit down and feed, and welcome to our table. + ORLANDO. Speak you so gently? Pardon me, I pray you; + I thought that all things had been savage here, + And therefore put I on the countenance + Of stern commandment. But whate'er you are + That in this desert inaccessible, + Under the shade of melancholy boughs, + Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time; + If ever you have look'd on better days, + If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church, + If ever sat at any good man's feast, + If ever from your eyelids wip'd a tear, + And know what 'tis to pity and be pitied, + Let gentleness my strong enforcement be; + In the which hope I blush, and hide my sword. + DUKE SENIOR. True is it that we have seen better days, + And have with holy bell been knoll'd to church, + And sat at good men's feasts, and wip'd our eyes + Of drops that sacred pity hath engend'red; + And therefore sit you down in gentleness, + And take upon command what help we have + That to your wanting may be minist'red. + ORLANDO. Then but forbear your food a little while, + Whiles, like a doe, I go to find my fawn, + And give it food. There is an old poor man + Who after me hath many a weary step + Limp'd in pure love; till he be first suffic'd, + Oppress'd with two weak evils, age and hunger, + I will not touch a bit. + DUKE SENIOR. Go find him out. + And we will nothing waste till you return. + ORLANDO. I thank ye; and be blest for your good comfort! + Exit + DUKE SENIOR. Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy: + This wide and universal theatre + Presents more woeful pageants than the scene + Wherein we play in. + JAQUES. All the world's a stage, + And all the men and women merely players; + They have their exits and their entrances; + And one man in his time plays many parts, + His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, + Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms; + Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel + And shining morning face, creeping like snail + Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, + Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad + Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, + Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, + Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, + Seeking the bubble reputation + Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, + In fair round belly with good capon lin'd, + With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, + Full of wise saws and modern instances; + And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts + Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, + With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, + His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide + For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, + Turning again toward childish treble, pipes + And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, + That ends this strange eventful history, + Is second childishness and mere oblivion; + Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing. + + Re-enter ORLANDO with ADAM + + DUKE SENIOR. Welcome. Set down your venerable burden. + And let him feed. + ORLANDO. I thank you most for him. + ADAM. So had you need; + I scarce can speak to thank you for myself. + DUKE SENIOR. Welcome; fall to. I will not trouble you + As yet to question you about your fortunes. + Give us some music; and, good cousin, sing. + + SONG + Blow, blow, thou winter wind, + Thou art not so unkind + As man's ingratitude; + Thy tooth is not so keen, + Because thou art not seen, + Although thy breath be rude. + Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly. + Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly. + Then, heigh-ho, the holly! + This life is most jolly. + + Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, + That dost not bite so nigh + As benefits forgot; + Though thou the waters warp, + Thy sting is not so sharp + As friend rememb'red not. + Heigh-ho! sing, &c. + + DUKE SENIOR. If that you were the good Sir Rowland's son, + As you have whisper'd faithfully you were, + And as mine eye doth his effigies witness + Most truly limn'd and living in your face, + Be truly welcome hither. I am the Duke + That lov'd your father. The residue of your fortune, + Go to my cave and tell me. Good old man, + Thou art right welcome as thy master is. + Support him by the arm. Give me your hand, + And let me all your fortunes understand. Exeunt + + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +The palace + +Enter DUKE FREDERICK, OLIVER, and LORDS + + FREDERICK. Not see him since! Sir, sir, that cannot be. + But were I not the better part made mercy, + I should not seek an absent argument + Of my revenge, thou present. But look to it: + Find out thy brother wheresoe'er he is; + Seek him with candle; bring him dead or living + Within this twelvemonth, or turn thou no more + To seek a living in our territory. + Thy lands and all things that thou dost call thine + Worth seizure do we seize into our hands, + Till thou canst quit thee by thy brother's mouth + Of what we think against thee. + OLIVER. O that your Highness knew my heart in this! + I never lov'd my brother in my life. + FREDERICK. More villain thou. Well, push him out of doors; + And let my officers of such a nature + Make an extent upon his house and lands. + Do this expediently, and turn him going. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +The forest + +Enter ORLANDO, with a paper + + ORLANDO. Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love; + And thou, thrice-crowned Queen of Night, survey + With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above, + Thy huntress' name that my full life doth sway. + O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books, + And in their barks my thoughts I'll character, + That every eye which in this forest looks + Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where. + Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree, + The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she. Exit + + Enter CORIN and TOUCHSTONE + + CORIN. And how like you this shepherd's life, Master Touchstone? + TOUCHSTONE. Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good + life; but in respect that it is a shepherd's life, it is nought. + In respect that it is solitary, I like it very well; but in + respect that it is private, it is a very vile life. Now in + respect it is in the fields, it pleaseth me well; but in respect + it is not in the court, it is tedious. As it is a spare life, + look you, it fits my humour well; but as there is no more plenty + in it, it goes much against my stomach. Hast any philosophy in + thee, shepherd? + CORIN. No more but that I know the more one sickens the worse at + ease he is; and that he that wants money, means, and content, is + without three good friends; that the property of rain is to wet, + and fire to burn; that good pasture makes fat sheep; and that a + great cause of the night is lack of the sun; that he that hath + learned no wit by nature nor art may complain of good breeding, + or comes of a very dull kindred. + TOUCHSTONE. Such a one is a natural philosopher. Wast ever in + court, shepherd? + CORIN. No, truly. + TOUCHSTONE. Then thou art damn'd. + CORIN. Nay, I hope. + TOUCHSTONE. Truly, thou art damn'd, like an ill-roasted egg, all on + one side. + CORIN. For not being at court? Your reason. + TOUCHSTONE. Why, if thou never wast at court thou never saw'st good + manners; if thou never saw'st good manners, then thy manners must + be wicked; and wickedness is sin, and sin is damnation. Thou art + in a parlous state, shepherd. + CORIN. Not a whit, Touchstone. Those that are good manners at the + court are as ridiculous in the country as the behaviour of the + country is most mockable at the court. You told me you salute not + at the court, but you kiss your hands; that courtesy would be + uncleanly if courtiers were shepherds. + TOUCHSTONE. Instance, briefly; come, instance. + CORIN. Why, we are still handling our ewes; and their fells, you + know, are greasy. + TOUCHSTONE. Why, do not your courtier's hands sweat? And is not the + grease of a mutton as wholesome as the sweat of a man? Shallow, + shallow. A better instance, I say; come. + CORIN. Besides, our hands are hard. + TOUCHSTONE. Your lips will feel them the sooner. Shallow again. A + more sounder instance; come. + CORIN. And they are often tarr'd over with the surgery of our + sheep; and would you have us kiss tar? The courtier's hands are + perfum'd with civet. + TOUCHSTONE. Most shallow man! thou worm's meat in respect of a good + piece of flesh indeed! Learn of the wise, and perpend: civet is + of a baser birth than tar- the very uncleanly flux of a cat. Mend + the instance, shepherd. + CORIN. You have too courtly a wit for me; I'll rest. + TOUCHSTONE. Wilt thou rest damn'd? God help thee, shallow man! God + make incision in thee! thou art raw. + CORIN. Sir, I am a true labourer: I earn that I eat, get that I + wear; owe no man hate, envy no man's happiness; glad of other + men's good, content with my harm; and the greatest of my pride is + to see my ewes graze and my lambs suck. + TOUCHSTONE. That is another simple sin in you: to bring the ewes + and the rams together, and to offer to get your living by the + copulation of cattle; to be bawd to a bell-wether, and to betray + a she-lamb of a twelvemonth to crooked-pated, old, cuckoldly ram, + out of all reasonable match. If thou beest not damn'd for this, + the devil himself will have no shepherds; I cannot see else how + thou shouldst scape. + CORIN. Here comes young Master Ganymede, my new mistress's brother. + + Enter ROSALIND, reading a paper + + ROSALIND. 'From the east to western Inde, + No jewel is like Rosalinde. + Her worth, being mounted on the wind, + Through all the world bears Rosalinde. + All the pictures fairest lin'd + Are but black to Rosalinde. + Let no face be kept in mind + But the fair of Rosalinde.' + TOUCHSTONE. I'll rhyme you so eight years together, dinners, and + suppers, and sleeping hours, excepted. It is the right + butter-women's rank to market. + ROSALIND. Out, fool! + TOUCHSTONE. For a taste: + If a hart do lack a hind, + Let him seek out Rosalinde. + If the cat will after kind, + So be sure will Rosalinde. + Winter garments must be lin'd, + So must slender Rosalinde. + They that reap must sheaf and bind, + Then to cart with Rosalinde. + Sweetest nut hath sourest rind, + Such a nut is Rosalinde. + He that sweetest rose will find + Must find love's prick and Rosalinde. + This is the very false gallop of verses; why do you infect + yourself with them? + ROSALIND. Peace, you dull fool! I found them on a tree. + TOUCHSTONE. Truly, the tree yields bad fruit. + ROSALIND. I'll graff it with you, and then I shall graff it with a + medlar. Then it will be the earliest fruit i' th' country; for + you'll be rotten ere you be half ripe, and that's the right + virtue of the medlar. + TOUCHSTONE. You have said; but whether wisely or no, let the forest + judge. + + Enter CELIA, with a writing + + ROSALIND. Peace! + Here comes my sister, reading; stand aside. + CELIA. 'Why should this a desert be? + For it is unpeopled? No; + Tongues I'll hang on every tree + That shall civil sayings show. + Some, how brief the life of man + Runs his erring pilgrimage, + That the streching of a span + Buckles in his sum of age; + Some, of violated vows + 'Twixt the souls of friend and friend; + But upon the fairest boughs, + Or at every sentence end, + Will I Rosalinda write, + Teaching all that read to know + The quintessence of every sprite + Heaven would in little show. + Therefore heaven Nature charg'd + That one body should be fill'd + With all graces wide-enlarg'd. + Nature presently distill'd + Helen's cheek, but not her heart, + Cleopatra's majesty, + Atalanta's better part, + Sad Lucretia's modesty. + Thus Rosalinde of many parts + By heavenly synod was devis'd, + Of many faces, eyes, and hearts, + To have the touches dearest priz'd. + Heaven would that she these gifts should have, + And I to live and die her slave.' + ROSALIND. O most gentle pulpiter! What tedious homily of love have + you wearied your parishioners withal, and never cried 'Have + patience, good people.' + CELIA. How now! Back, friends; shepherd, go off a little; go with + him, sirrah. + TOUCHSTONE. Come, shepherd, let us make an honourable retreat; + though not with bag and baggage, yet with scrip and scrippage. + Exeunt CORIN and TOUCHSTONE + CELIA. Didst thou hear these verses? + ROSALIND. O, yes, I heard them all, and more too; for some of them + had in them more feet than the verses would bear. + CELIA. That's no matter; the feet might bear the verses. + ROSALIND. Ay, but the feet were lame, and could not bear themselves + without the verse, and therefore stood lamely in the verse. + CELIA. But didst thou hear without wondering how thy name should be + hang'd and carved upon these trees? + ROSALIND. I was seven of the nine days out of the wonder before you + came; for look here what I found on a palm-tree. I was never so + berhym'd since Pythagoras' time that I was an Irish rat, which I + can hardly remember. + CELIA. Trow you who hath done this? + ROSALIND. Is it a man? + CELIA. And a chain, that you once wore, about his neck. + Change you colour? + ROSALIND. I prithee, who? + CELIA. O Lord, Lord! it is a hard matter for friends to meet; but + mountains may be remov'd with earthquakes, and so encounter. + ROSALIND. Nay, but who is it? + CELIA. Is it possible? + ROSALIND. Nay, I prithee now, with most petitionary vehemence, tell + me who it is. + CELIA. O wonderful, wonderful, most wonderful wonderful, and yet + again wonderful, and after that, out of all whooping! + ROSALIND. Good my complexion! dost thou think, though I am + caparison'd like a man, I have a doublet and hose in my + disposition? One inch of delay more is a South Sea of discovery. + I prithee tell me who is it quickly, and speak apace. I would + thou could'st stammer, that thou mightst pour this conceal'd man + out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of narrow-mouth'd bottle- + either too much at once or none at all. I prithee take the cork + out of thy mouth that I may drink thy tidings. + CELIA. So you may put a man in your belly. + ROSALIND. Is he of God's making? What manner of man? + Is his head worth a hat or his chin worth a beard? + CELIA. Nay, he hath but a little beard. + ROSALIND. Why, God will send more if the man will be thankful. Let + me stay the growth of his beard, if thou delay me not the + knowledge of his chin. + CELIA. It is young Orlando, that tripp'd up the wrestler's heels + and your heart both in an instant. + ROSALIND. Nay, but the devil take mocking! Speak sad brow and true + maid. + CELIA. I' faith, coz, 'tis he. + ROSALIND. Orlando? + CELIA. Orlando. + ROSALIND. Alas the day! what shall I do with my doublet and hose? + What did he when thou saw'st him? What said he? How look'd he? + Wherein went he? What makes he here? Did he ask for me? Where + remains he? How parted he with thee? And when shalt thou see him + again? Answer me in one word. + CELIA. You must borrow me Gargantua's mouth first; 'tis a word too + great for any mouth of this age's size. To say ay and no to these + particulars is more than to answer in a catechism. + ROSALIND. But doth he know that I am in this forest, and in man's + apparel? Looks he as freshly as he did the day he wrestled? + CELIA. It is as easy to count atomies as to resolve the + propositions of a lover; but take a taste of my finding him, and + relish it with good observance. I found him under a tree, like a + dropp'd acorn. + ROSALIND. It may well be call'd Jove's tree, when it drops forth + such fruit. + CELIA. Give me audience, good madam. + ROSALIND. Proceed. + CELIA. There lay he, stretch'd along like a wounded knight. + ROSALIND. Though it be pity to see such a sight, it well becomes + the ground. + CELIA. Cry 'Holla' to thy tongue, I prithee; it curvets + unseasonably. He was furnish'd like a hunter. + ROSALIND. O, ominous! he comes to kill my heart. + CELIA. I would sing my song without a burden; thou bring'st me out + of tune. + ROSALIND. Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak. + Sweet, say on. + CELIA. You bring me out. Soft! comes he not here? + + Enter ORLANDO and JAQUES + + ROSALIND. 'Tis he; slink by, and note him. + JAQUES. I thank you for your company; but, good faith, I had as + lief have been myself alone. + ORLANDO. And so had I; but yet, for fashion sake, I thank you too + for your society. + JAQUES. God buy you; let's meet as little as we can. + ORLANDO. I do desire we may be better strangers. + JAQUES. I pray you mar no more trees with writing love songs in + their barks. + ORLANDO. I pray you mar no more of my verses with reading them + ill-favouredly. + JAQUES. Rosalind is your love's name? + ORLANDO. Yes, just. + JAQUES. I do not like her name. + ORLANDO. There was no thought of pleasing you when she was + christen'd. + JAQUES. What stature is she of? + ORLANDO. Just as high as my heart. + JAQUES. You are full of pretty answers. Have you not been + acquainted with goldsmiths' wives, and conn'd them out of rings? + ORLANDO. Not so; but I answer you right painted cloth, from whence + you have studied your questions. + JAQUES. You have a nimble wit; I think 'twas made of Atalanta's + heels. Will you sit down with me? and we two will rail against + our mistress the world, and all our misery. + ORLANDO. I will chide no breather in the world but myself, against + whom I know most faults. + JAQUES. The worst fault you have is to be in love. + ORLANDO. 'Tis a fault I will not change for your best virtue. I am + weary of you. + JAQUES. By my troth, I was seeking for a fool when I found you. + ORLANDO. He is drown'd in the brook; look but in, and you shall see + him. + JAQUES. There I shall see mine own figure. + ORLANDO. Which I take to be either a fool or a cipher. + JAQUES. I'll tarry no longer with you; farewell, good Signior Love. + ORLANDO. I am glad of your departure; adieu, good Monsieur + Melancholy. + Exit JAQUES + ROSALIND. [Aside to CELIA] I will speak to him like a saucy lackey, + and under that habit play the knave with him.- Do you hear, + forester? + ORLANDO. Very well; what would you? + ROSALIND. I pray you, what is't o'clock? + ORLANDO. You should ask me what time o' day; there's no clock in + the forest. + ROSALIND. Then there is no true lover in the forest, else sighing + every minute and groaning every hour would detect the lazy foot + of Time as well as a clock. + ORLANDO. And why not the swift foot of Time? Had not that been as + proper? + ROSALIND. By no means, sir. Time travels in divers paces with + divers persons. I'll tell you who Time ambles withal, who Time + trots withal, who Time gallops withal, and who he stands still + withal. + ORLANDO. I prithee, who doth he trot withal? + ROSALIND. Marry, he trots hard with a young maid between the + contract of her marriage and the day it is solemniz'd; if the + interim be but a se'nnight, Time's pace is so hard that it seems + the length of seven year. + ORLANDO. Who ambles Time withal? + ROSALIND. With a priest that lacks Latin and a rich man that hath + not the gout; for the one sleeps easily because he cannot study, + and the other lives merrily because he feels no pain; the one + lacking the burden of lean and wasteful learning, the other + knowing no burden of heavy tedious penury. These Time ambles + withal. + ORLANDO. Who doth he gallop withal? + ROSALIND. With a thief to the gallows; for though he go as softly + as foot can fall, he thinks himself too soon there. + ORLANDO. Who stays it still withal? + ROSALIND. With lawyers in the vacation; for they sleep between term + and term, and then they perceive not how Time moves. + ORLANDO. Where dwell you, pretty youth? + ROSALIND. With this shepherdess, my sister; here in the skirts of + the forest, like fringe upon a petticoat. + ORLANDO. Are you native of this place? + ROSALIND. As the coney that you see dwell where she is kindled. + ORLANDO. Your accent is something finer than you could purchase in + so removed a dwelling. + ROSALIND. I have been told so of many; but indeed an old religious + uncle of mine taught me to speak, who was in his youth an inland + man; one that knew courtship too well, for there he fell in love. + I have heard him read many lectures against it; and I thank God I + am not a woman, to be touch'd with so many giddy offences as he + hath generally tax'd their whole sex withal. + ORLANDO. Can you remember any of the principal evils that he laid + to the charge of women? + ROSALIND. There were none principal; they were all like one another + as halfpence are; every one fault seeming monstrous till his + fellow-fault came to match it. + ORLANDO. I prithee recount some of them. + ROSALIND. No; I will not cast away my physic but on those that are + sick. There is a man haunts the forest that abuses our young + plants with carving 'Rosalind' on their barks; hangs odes upon + hawthorns and elegies on brambles; all, forsooth, deifying the + name of Rosalind. If I could meet that fancy-monger, I would give + him some good counsel, for he seems to have the quotidian of love + upon him. + ORLANDO. I am he that is so love-shak'd; I pray you tell me your + remedy. + ROSALIND. There is none of my uncle's marks upon you; he taught me + how to know a man in love; in which cage of rushes I am sure you + are not prisoner. + ORLANDO. What were his marks? + ROSALIND. A lean cheek, which you have not; a blue eye and sunken, + which you have not; an unquestionable spirit, which you have not; + a beard neglected, which you have not; but I pardon you for that, + for simply your having in beard is a younger brother's revenue. + Then your hose should be ungarter'd, your bonnet unbanded, your + sleeve unbutton'd, your shoe untied, and every thing about you + demonstrating a careless desolation. But you are no such man; you + are rather point-device in your accoutrements, as loving yourself + than seeming the lover of any other. + ORLANDO. Fair youth, I would I could make thee believe I love. + ROSALIND. Me believe it! You may as soon make her that you love + believe it; which, I warrant, she is apter to do than to confess + she does. That is one of the points in the which women still give + the lie to their consciences. But, in good sooth, are you he that + hangs the verses on the trees wherein Rosalind is so admired? + ORLANDO. I swear to thee, youth, by the white hand of Rosalind, I + am that he, that unfortunate he. + ROSALIND. But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak? + ORLANDO. Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much. + ROSALIND. Love is merely a madness; and, I tell you, deserves as + well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why + they are not so punish'd and cured is that the lunacy is so + ordinary that the whippers are in love too. Yet I profess curing + it by counsel. + ORLANDO. Did you ever cure any so? + ROSALIND. Yes, one; and in this manner. He was to imagine me his + love, his mistress; and I set him every day to woo me; at which + time would I, being but a moonish youth, grieve, be effeminate, + changeable, longing and liking, proud, fantastical, apish, + shallow, inconstant, full of tears, full of smiles; for every + passion something and for no passion truly anything, as boys and + women are for the most part cattle of this colour; would now like + him, now loathe him; then entertain him, then forswear him; now + weep for him, then spit at him; that I drave my suitor from his + mad humour of love to a living humour of madness; which was, to + forswear the full stream of the world and to live in a nook + merely monastic. And thus I cur'd him; and this way will I take + upon me to wash your liver as clean as a sound sheep's heart, + that there shall not be one spot of love in 't. + ORLANDO. I would not be cured, youth. + ROSALIND. I would cure you, if you would but call me Rosalind, and + come every day to my cote and woo me. + ORLANDO. Now, by the faith of my love, I will. Tell me where it is. + ROSALIND. Go with me to it, and I'll show it you; and, by the way, + you shall tell me where in the forest you live. Will you go? + ORLANDO. With all my heart, good youth. + ROSALIND. Nay, you must call me Rosalind. Come, sister, will you + go? Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +The forest + +Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY; JAQUES behind + + TOUCHSTONE. Come apace, good Audrey; I will fetch up your goats, + Audrey. And how, Audrey, am I the man yet? Doth my simple feature + content you? + AUDREY. Your features! Lord warrant us! What features? + TOUCHSTONE. I am here with thee and thy goats, as the most + capricious poet, honest Ovid, was among the Goths. + JAQUES. [Aside] O knowledge ill-inhabited, worse than Jove in a + thatch'd house! + TOUCHSTONE. When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's + good wit seconded with the forward child understanding, it + strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room. + Truly, I would the gods had made thee poetical. + AUDREY. I do not know what 'poetical' is. Is it honest in deed and + word? Is it a true thing? + TOUCHSTONE. No, truly; for the truest poetry is the most feigning, + and lovers are given to poetry; and what they swear in poetry may + be said as lovers they do feign. + AUDREY. Do you wish, then, that the gods had made me poetical? + TOUCHSTONE. I do, truly, for thou swear'st to me thou art honest; + now, if thou wert a poet, I might have some hope thou didst + feign. + AUDREY. Would you not have me honest? + TOUCHSTONE. No, truly, unless thou wert hard-favour'd; for honesty + coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar. + JAQUES. [Aside] A material fool! + AUDREY. Well, I am not fair; and therefore I pray the gods make me + honest. + TOUCHSTONE. Truly, and to cast away honesty upon a foul slut were + to put good meat into an unclean dish. + AUDREY. I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul. + TOUCHSTONE. Well, praised be the gods for thy foulness; + sluttishness may come hereafter. But be it as it may be, I will + marry thee; and to that end I have been with Sir Oliver Martext, + the vicar of the next village, who hath promis'd to meet me in + this place of the forest, and to couple us. + JAQUES. [Aside] I would fain see this meeting. + AUDREY. Well, the gods give us joy! + TOUCHSTONE. Amen. A man may, if he were of a fearful heart, stagger + in this attempt; for here we have no temple but the wood, no + assembly but horn-beasts. But what though? Courage! As horns are + odious, they are necessary. It is said: 'Many a man knows no end + of his goods.' Right! Many a man has good horns and knows no end + of them. Well, that is the dowry of his wife; 'tis none of his + own getting. Horns? Even so. Poor men alone? No, no; the noblest + deer hath them as huge as the rascal. Is the single man therefore + blessed? No; as a wall'd town is more worthier than a village, so + is the forehead of a married man more honourable than the bare + brow of a bachelor; and by how much defence is better than no + skill, by so much is horn more precious than to want. Here comes + Sir Oliver. + + Enter SIR OLIVER MARTEXT + + Sir Oliver Martext, you are well met. Will you dispatch us here + under this tree, or shall we go with you to your chapel? + MARTEXT. Is there none here to give the woman? + TOUCHSTONE. I will not take her on gift of any man. + MARTEXT. Truly, she must be given, or the marriage is not lawful. + JAQUES. [Discovering himself] Proceed, proceed; I'll give her. + TOUCHSTONE. Good even, good Master What-ye-call't; how do you, sir? + You are very well met. Goddild you for your last company. I am + very glad to see you. Even a toy in hand here, sir. Nay; pray be + cover'd. + JAQUES. Will you be married, motley? + TOUCHSTONE. As the ox hath his bow, sir, the horse his curb, and + the falcon her bells, so man hath his desires; and as pigeons + bill, so wedlock would be nibbling. + JAQUES. And will you, being a man of your breeding, be married + under a bush, like a beggar? Get you to church and have a good + priest that can tell you what marriage is; this fellow will but + join you together as they join wainscot; then one of you will + prove a shrunk panel, and like green timber warp, warp. + TOUCHSTONE. [Aside] I am not in the mind but I were better to be + married of him than of another; for he is not like to marry me + well; and not being well married, it will be a good excuse for me + hereafter to leave my wife. + JAQUES. Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee. + TOUCHSTONE. Come, sweet Audrey; + We must be married or we must live in bawdry. + Farewell, good Master Oliver. Not- + O sweet Oliver, + O brave Oliver, + Leave me not behind thee. + But- + Wind away, + Begone, I say, + I will not to wedding with thee. + Exeunt JAQUES, TOUCHSTONE, and AUDREY + MARTEXT. 'Tis no matter; ne'er a fantastical knave of them all + shall flout me out of my calling. Exit + + + + +SCENE IV. +The forest + +Enter ROSALIND and CELIA + + ROSALIND. Never talk to me; I will weep. + CELIA. Do, I prithee; but yet have the grace to consider that tears + do not become a man. + ROSALIND. But have I not cause to weep? + CELIA. As good cause as one would desire; therefore weep. + ROSALIND. His very hair is of the dissembling colour. + CELIA. Something browner than Judas's. + Marry, his kisses are Judas's own children. + ROSALIND. I' faith, his hair is of a good colour. + CELIA. An excellent colour: your chestnut was ever the only colour. + ROSALIND. And his kissing is as full of sanctity as the touch of + holy bread. + CELIA. He hath bought a pair of cast lips of Diana. A nun of + winter's sisterhood kisses not more religiously; the very ice of + chastity is in them. + ROSALIND. But why did he swear he would come this morning, and + comes not? + CELIA. Nay, certainly, there is no truth in him. + ROSALIND. Do you think so? + CELIA. Yes; I think he is not a pick-purse nor a horse-stealer; but + for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as covered + goblet or a worm-eaten nut. + ROSALIND. Not true in love? + CELIA. Yes, when he is in; but I think he is not in. + ROSALIND. You have heard him swear downright he was. + CELIA. 'Was' is not 'is'; besides, the oath of a lover is no + stronger than the word of a tapster; they are both the confirmer + of false reckonings. He attends here in the forest on the Duke, + your father. + ROSALIND. I met the Duke yesterday, and had much question with him. + He asked me of what parentage I was; I told him, of as good as + he; so he laugh'd and let me go. But what talk we of fathers when + there is such a man as Orlando? + CELIA. O, that's a brave man! He writes brave verses, speaks brave + words, swears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely, quite + traverse, athwart the heart of his lover; as a puny tilter, that + spurs his horse but on one side, breaks his staff like a noble + goose. But all's brave that youth mounts and folly guides. Who + comes here? + + Enter CORIN + + CORIN. Mistress and master, you have oft enquired + After the shepherd that complain'd of love, + Who you saw sitting by me on the turf, + Praising the proud disdainful shepherdess + That was his mistress. + CELIA. Well, and what of him? + CORIN. If you will see a pageant truly play'd + Between the pale complexion of true love + And the red glow of scorn and proud disdain, + Go hence a little, and I shall conduct you, + If you will mark it. + ROSALIND. O, come, let us remove! + The sight of lovers feedeth those in love. + Bring us to this sight, and you shall say + I'll prove a busy actor in their play. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Another part of the forest + +Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE + + SILVIUS. Sweet Phebe, do not scorn me; do not, Phebe. + Say that you love me not; but say not so + In bitterness. The common executioner, + Whose heart th' accustom'd sight of death makes hard, + Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck + But first begs pardon. Will you sterner be + Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops? + + Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, and CORIN, at a distance + + PHEBE. I would not be thy executioner; + I fly thee, for I would not injure thee. + Thou tell'st me there is murder in mine eye. + 'Tis pretty, sure, and very probable, + That eyes, that are the frail'st and softest things, + Who shut their coward gates on atomies, + Should be call'd tyrants, butchers, murderers! + Now I do frown on thee with all my heart; + And if mine eyes can wound, now let them kill thee. + Now counterfeit to swoon; why, now fall down; + Or, if thou canst not, O, for shame, for shame, + Lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers. + Now show the wound mine eye hath made in thee. + Scratch thee but with a pin, and there remains + Some scar of it; lean upon a rush, + The cicatrice and capable impressure + Thy palm some moment keeps; but now mine eyes, + Which I have darted at thee, hurt thee not; + Nor, I am sure, there is not force in eyes + That can do hurt. + SILVIUS. O dear Phebe, + If ever- as that ever may be near- + You meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy, + Then shall you know the wounds invisible + That love's keen arrows make. + PHEBE. But till that time + Come not thou near me; and when that time comes, + Afflict me with thy mocks, pity me not; + As till that time I shall not pity thee. + ROSALIND. [Advancing] And why, I pray you? Who might be your + mother, + That you insult, exult, and all at once, + Over the wretched? What though you have no beauty- + As, by my faith, I see no more in you + Than without candle may go dark to bed- + Must you be therefore proud and pitiless? + Why, what means this? Why do you look on me? + I see no more in you than in the ordinary + Of nature's sale-work. 'Od's my little life, + I think she means to tangle my eyes too! + No faith, proud mistress, hope not after it; + 'Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair, + Your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream, + That can entame my spirits to your worship. + You foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her, + Like foggy south, puffing with wind and rain? + You are a thousand times a properer man + Than she a woman. 'Tis such fools as you + That makes the world full of ill-favour'd children. + 'Tis not her glass, but you, that flatters her; + And out of you she sees herself more proper + Than any of her lineaments can show her. + But, mistress, know yourself. Down on your knees, + And thank heaven, fasting, for a good man's love; + For I must tell you friendly in your ear: + Sell when you can; you are not for all markets. + Cry the man mercy, love him, take his offer; + Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer. + So take her to thee, shepherd. Fare you well. + PHEBE. Sweet youth, I pray you chide a year together; + I had rather hear you chide than this man woo. + ROSALIND. He's fall'n in love with your foulness, and she'll fall + in love with my anger. If it be so, as fast as she answers thee + with frowning looks, I'll sauce her with bitter words. Why look + you so upon me? + PHEBE. For no ill will I bear you. + ROSALIND. I pray you do not fall in love with me, + For I am falser than vows made in wine; + Besides, I like you not. If you will know my house, + 'Tis at the tuft of olives here hard by. + Will you go, sister? Shepherd, ply her hard. + Come, sister. Shepherdess, look on him better, + And be not proud; though all the world could see, + None could be so abus'd in sight as he. + Come, to our flock. Exeunt ROSALIND, CELIA, and CORIN + PHEBE. Dead shepherd, now I find thy saw of might: + 'Who ever lov'd that lov'd not at first sight?' + SILVIUS. Sweet Phebe. + PHEBE. Ha! what say'st thou, Silvius? + SILVIUS. Sweet Phebe, pity me. + PHEBE. Why, I arn sorry for thee, gentle Silvius. + SILVIUS. Wherever sorrow is, relief would be. + If you do sorrow at my grief in love, + By giving love, your sorrow and my grief + Were both extermin'd. + PHEBE. Thou hast my love; is not that neighbourly? + SILVIUS. I would have you. + PHEBE. Why, that were covetousness. + Silvius, the time was that I hated thee; + And yet it is not that I bear thee love; + But since that thou canst talk of love so well, + Thy company, which erst was irksome to me, + I will endure; and I'll employ thee too. + But do not look for further recompense + Than thine own gladness that thou art employ'd. + SILVIUS. So holy and so perfect is my love, + And I in such a poverty of grace, + That I shall think it a most plenteous crop + To glean the broken ears after the man + That the main harvest reaps; loose now and then + A scatt'red smile, and that I'll live upon. + PHEBE. Know'st thou the youth that spoke to me erewhile? + SILVIUS. Not very well; but I have met him oft; + And he hath bought the cottage and the bounds + That the old carlot once was master of. + PHEBE. Think not I love him, though I ask for him; + 'Tis but a peevish boy; yet he talks well. + But what care I for words? Yet words do well + When he that speaks them pleases those that hear. + It is a pretty youth- not very pretty; + But, sure, he's proud; and yet his pride becomes him. + He'll make a proper man. The best thing in him + Is his complexion; and faster than his tongue + Did make offence, his eye did heal it up. + He is not very tall; yet for his years he's tall; + His leg is but so-so; and yet 'tis well. + There was a pretty redness in his lip, + A little riper and more lusty red + Than that mix'd in his cheek; 'twas just the difference + Betwixt the constant red and mingled damask. + There be some women, Silvius, had they mark'd him + In parcels as I did, would have gone near + To fall in love with him; but, for my part, + I love him not, nor hate him not; and yet + I have more cause to hate him than to love him; + For what had he to do to chide at me? + He said mine eyes were black, and my hair black, + And, now I am rememb'red, scorn'd at me. + I marvel why I answer'd not again; + But that's all one: omittance is no quittance. + I'll write to him a very taunting letter, + And thou shalt bear it; wilt thou, Silvius? + SILVIUS. Phebe, with all my heart. + PHEBE. I'll write it straight; + The matter's in my head and in my heart; + I will be bitter with him and passing short. + Go with me, Silvius. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +The forest + +Enter ROSALIND, CELIA, and JAQUES + + JAQUES. I prithee, pretty youth, let me be better acquainted with + thee. + ROSALIND. They say you are a melancholy fellow. + JAQUES. I am so; I do love it better than laughing. + ROSALIND. Those that are in extremity of either are abominable + fellows, and betray themselves to every modern censure worse than + drunkards. + JAQUES. Why, 'tis good to be sad and say nothing. + ROSALIND. Why then, 'tis good to be a post. + JAQUES. I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is + emulation; nor the musician's, which is fantastical; nor the + courtier's, which is proud; nor the soldier's, which is + ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is politic; nor the lady's, + which is nice; nor the lover's, which is all these; but it is a + melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted + from many objects, and, indeed, the sundry contemplation of my + travels; in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous + sadness. + ROSALIND. A traveller! By my faith, you have great reason to be + sad. I fear you have sold your own lands to see other men's; then + to have seen much and to have nothing is to have rich eyes and + poor hands. + JAQUES. Yes, I have gain'd my experience. + + Enter ORLANDO + + ROSALIND. And your experience makes you sad. I had rather have a + fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad- and to + travel for it too. + ORLANDO. Good day, and happiness, dear Rosalind! + JAQUES. Nay, then, God buy you, an you talk in blank verse. + ROSALIND. Farewell, Monsieur Traveller; look you lisp and wear + strange suits, disable all the benefits of your own country, be + out of love with your nativity, and almost chide God for making + you that countenance you are; or I will scarce think you have + swam in a gondola. [Exit JAQUES] Why, how now, Orlando! where + have you been all this while? You a lover! An you serve me such + another trick, never come in my sight more. + ORLANDO. My fair Rosalind, I come within an hour of my promise. + ROSALIND. Break an hour's promise in love! He that will divide a + minute into a thousand parts, and break but a part of the + thousand part of a minute in the affairs of love, it may be said + of him that Cupid hath clapp'd him o' th' shoulder, but I'll + warrant him heart-whole. + ORLANDO. Pardon me, dear Rosalind. + ROSALIND. Nay, an you be so tardy, come no more in my sight. I had + as lief be woo'd of a snail. + ORLANDO. Of a snail! + ROSALIND. Ay, of a snail; for though he comes slowly, he carries + his house on his head- a better jointure, I think, than you make + a woman; besides, he brings his destiny with him. + ORLANDO. What's that? + ROSALIND. Why, horns; which such as you are fain to be beholding to + your wives for; but he comes armed in his fortune, and prevents + the slander of his wife. + ORLANDO. Virtue is no horn-maker; and my Rosalind is virtuous. + ROSALIND. And I am your Rosalind. + CELIA. It pleases him to call you so; but he hath a Rosalind of a + better leer than you. + ROSALIND. Come, woo me, woo me; for now I am in a holiday humour, + and like enough to consent. What would you say to me now, an I + were your very very Rosalind? + ORLANDO. I would kiss before I spoke. + ROSALIND. Nay, you were better speak first; and when you were + gravell'd for lack of matter, you might take occasion to kiss. + Very good orators, when they are out, they will spit; and for + lovers lacking- God warn us!- matter, the cleanliest shift is to + kiss. + ORLANDO. How if the kiss be denied? + ROSALIND. Then she puts you to entreaty, and there begins new + matter. + ORLANDO. Who could be out, being before his beloved mistress? + ROSALIND. Marry, that should you, if I were your mistress; or I + should think my honesty ranker than my wit. + ORLANDO. What, of my suit? + ROSALIND. Not out of your apparel, and yet out of your suit. + Am not I your Rosalind? + ORLANDO. I take some joy to say you are, because I would be talking + of her. + ROSALIND. Well, in her person, I say I will not have you. + ORLANDO. Then, in mine own person, I die. + ROSALIND. No, faith, die by attorney. The poor world is almost six + thousand years old, and in all this time there was not any man + died in his own person, videlicet, in a love-cause. Troilus had + his brains dash'd out with a Grecian club; yet he did what he + could to die before, and he is one of the patterns of love. + Leander, he would have liv'd many a fair year, though Hero had + turn'd nun, if it had not been for a hot midsummer night; for, + good youth, he went but forth to wash him in the Hellespont, and, + being taken with the cramp, was drown'd; and the foolish + chroniclers of that age found it was- Hero of Sestos. But these + are all lies: men have died from time to time, and worms have + eaten them, but not for love. + ORLANDO. I would not have my right Rosalind of this mind; for, I + protest, her frown might kill me. + ROSALIND. By this hand, it will not kill a fly. But come, now I + will be your Rosalind in a more coming-on disposition; and ask me + what you will, I will grant it. + ORLANDO. Then love me, Rosalind. + ROSALIND. Yes, faith, will I, Fridays and Saturdays, and all. + ORLANDO. And wilt thou have me? + ROSALIND. Ay, and twenty such. + ORLANDO. What sayest thou? + ROSALIND. Are you not good? + ORLANDO. I hope so. + ROSALIND. Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing? Come, + sister, you shall be the priest, and marry us. Give me your hand, + Orlando. What do you say, sister? + ORLANDO. Pray thee, marry us. + CELIA. I cannot say the words. + ROSALIND. You must begin 'Will you, Orlando'- + CELIA. Go to. Will you, Orlando, have to wife this Rosalind? + ORLANDO. I will. + ROSALIND. Ay, but when? + ORLANDO. Why, now; as fast as she can marry us. + ROSALIND. Then you must say 'I take thee, Rosalind, for wife.' + ORLANDO. I take thee, Rosalind, for wife. + ROSALIND. I might ask you for your commission; but- I do take thee, + Orlando, for my husband. There's a girl goes before the priest; + and, certainly, a woman's thought runs before her actions. + ORLANDO. So do all thoughts; they are wing'd. + ROSALIND. Now tell me how long you would have her, after you have + possess'd her. + ORLANDO. For ever and a day. + ROSALIND. Say 'a day' without the 'ever.' No, no, Orlando; men are + April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when + they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives. I will + be more jealous of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his hen, + more clamorous than a parrot against rain, more new-fangled than + an ape, more giddy in my desires than a monkey. I will weep for + nothing, like Diana in the fountain, and I will do that when you + are dispos'd to be merry; I will laugh like a hyen, and that when + thou are inclin'd to sleep. + ORLANDO. But will my Rosalind do so? + ROSALIND. By my life, she will do as I do. + ORLANDO. O, but she is wise. + ROSALIND. Or else she could not have the wit to do this. The wiser, + the waywarder. Make the doors upon a woman's wit, and it will out + at the casement; shut that, and 'twill out at the key-hole; stop + that, 'twill fly with the smoke out at the chimney. + ORLANDO. A man that had a wife with such a wit, he might say 'Wit, + whither wilt?' ROSALIND. Nay, you might keep that check for it, till you met your + wife's wit going to your neighbour's bed. + ORLANDO. And what wit could wit have to excuse that? + ROSALIND. Marry, to say she came to seek you there. You shall never + take her without her answer, unless you take her without her + tongue. O, that woman that cannot make her fault her husband's + occasion, let her never nurse her child herself, for she will + breed it like a fool! + ORLANDO. For these two hours, Rosalind, I will leave thee. + ROSALIND. Alas, dear love, I cannot lack thee two hours! + ORLANDO. I must attend the Duke at dinner; by two o'clock I will be + with thee again. + ROSALIND. Ay, go your ways, go your ways. I knew what you would + prove; my friends told me as much, and I thought no less. That + flattering tongue of yours won me. 'Tis but one cast away, and + so, come death! Two o'clock is your hour? + ORLANDO. Ay, sweet Rosalind. + ROSALIND. By my troth, and in good earnest, and so God mend me, and + by all pretty oaths that are not dangerous, if you break one jot + of your promise, or come one minute behind your hour, I will + think you the most pathetical break-promise, and the most hollow + lover, and the most unworthy of her you call Rosalind, that may + be chosen out of the gross band of the unfaithful. Therefore + beware my censure, and keep your promise. + ORLANDO. With no less religion than if thou wert indeed my + Rosalind; so, adieu. + ROSALIND. Well, Time is the old justice that examines all such + offenders, and let Time try. Adieu. Exit ORLANDO + CELIA. You have simply misus'd our sex in your love-prate. We must + have your doublet and hose pluck'd over your head, and show the + world what the bird hath done to her own nest. + ROSALIND. O coz, coz, coz, my pretty little coz, that thou didst + know how many fathom deep I am in love! But it cannot be sounded; + my affection hath an unknown bottom, like the Bay of Portugal. + CELIA. Or rather, bottomless; that as fast as you pour affection + in, it runs out. + ROSALIND. No; that same wicked bastard of Venus, that was begot of + thought, conceiv'd of spleen, and born of madness; that blind + rascally boy, that abuses every one's eyes, because his own are + out- let him be judge how deep I am in love. I'll tell thee, + Aliena, I cannot be out of the sight of Orlando. I'll go find a + shadow, and sigh till he come. + CELIA. And I'll sleep. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +The forest + + Enter JAQUES and LORDS, in the habit of foresters + + JAQUES. Which is he that killed the deer? + LORD. Sir, it was I. + JAQUES. Let's present him to the Duke, like a Roman conqueror; and + it would do well to set the deer's horns upon his head for a + branch of victory. Have you no song, forester, for this purpose? + LORD. Yes, sir. + JAQUES. Sing it; 'tis no matter how it be in tune, so it make noise + enough. + + SONG. + + What shall he have that kill'd the deer? + His leather skin and horns to wear. + [The rest shall hear this burden:] + Then sing him home. + + Take thou no scorn to wear the horn; + It was a crest ere thou wast born. + Thy father's father wore it; + And thy father bore it. + The horn, the horn, the lusty horn, + Is not a thing to laugh to scorn. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +The forest + +Enter ROSALIND and CELIA + + ROSALIND. How say you now? Is it not past two o'clock? + And here much Orlando! + CELIA. I warrant you, with pure love and troubled brain, he hath + ta'en his bow and arrows, and is gone forth- to sleep. Look, who + comes here. + + Enter SILVIUS + + SILVIUS. My errand is to you, fair youth; + My gentle Phebe did bid me give you this. + I know not the contents; but, as I guess + By the stern brow and waspish action + Which she did use as she was writing of it, + It bears an angry tenour. Pardon me, + I am but as a guiltless messenger. + ROSALIND. Patience herself would startle at this letter, + And play the swaggerer. Bear this, bear all. + She says I am not fair, that I lack manners; + She calls me proud, and that she could not love me, + Were man as rare as Phoenix. 'Od's my will! + Her love is not the hare that I do hunt; + Why writes she so to me? Well, shepherd, well, + This is a letter of your own device. + SILVIUS. No, I protest, I know not the contents; + Phebe did write it. + ROSALIND. Come, come, you are a fool, + And turn'd into the extremity of love. + I saw her hand; she has a leathern hand, + A freestone-colour'd hand; I verily did think + That her old gloves were on, but 'twas her hands; + She has a huswife's hand- but that's no matter. + I say she never did invent this letter: + This is a man's invention, and his hand. + SILVIUS. Sure, it is hers. + ROSALIND. Why, 'tis a boisterous and a cruel style; + A style for challengers. Why, she defies me, + Like Turk to Christian. Women's gentle brain + Could not drop forth such giant-rude invention, + Such Ethiope words, blacker in their effect + Than in their countenance. Will you hear the letter? + SILVIUS. So please you, for I never heard it yet; + Yet heard too much of Phebe's cruelty. + ROSALIND. She Phebes me: mark how the tyrant writes. + [Reads] + + 'Art thou god to shepherd turn'd, + That a maiden's heart hath burn'd?' + + Can a woman rail thus? + SILVIUS. Call you this railing? + ROSALIND. 'Why, thy godhead laid apart, + Warr'st thou with a woman's heart?' + + Did you ever hear such railing? + + 'Whiles the eye of man did woo me, + That could do no vengeance to me.' + + Meaning me a beast. + + 'If the scorn of your bright eyne + Have power to raise such love in mine, + Alack, in me what strange effect + Would they work in mild aspect! + Whiles you chid me, I did love; + How then might your prayers move! + He that brings this love to the + Little knows this love in me; + And by him seal up thy mind, + Whether that thy youth and kind + Will the faithful offer take + Of me and all that I can make; + Or else by him my love deny, + And then I'll study how to die.' + SILVIUS. Call you this chiding? + CELIA. Alas, poor shepherd! + ROSALIND. Do you pity him? No, he deserves no pity. Wilt thou love + such a woman? What, to make thee an instrument, and play false + strains upon thee! Not to be endur'd! Well, go your way to her, + for I see love hath made thee tame snake, and say this to her- + that if she love me, I charge her to love thee; if she will not, + I will never have her unless thou entreat for her. If you be a + true lover, hence, and not a word; for here comes more company. + Exit SILVIUS + + Enter OLIVER + + OLIVER. Good morrow, fair ones; pray you, if you know, + Where in the purlieus of this forest stands + A sheep-cote fenc'd about with olive trees? + CELIA. West of this place, down in the neighbour bottom. + The rank of osiers by the murmuring stream + Left on your right hand brings you to the place. + But at this hour the house doth keep itself; + There's none within. + OLIVER. If that an eye may profit by a tongue, + Then should I know you by description- + Such garments, and such years: 'The boy is fair, + Of female favour, and bestows himself + Like a ripe sister; the woman low, + And browner than her brother.' Are not you + The owner of the house I did inquire for? + CELIA. It is no boast, being ask'd, to say we are. + OLIVER. Orlando doth commend him to you both; + And to that youth he calls his Rosalind + He sends this bloody napkin. Are you he? + ROSALIND. I am. What must we understand by this? + OLIVER. Some of my shame; if you will know of me + What man I am, and how, and why, and where, + This handkercher was stain'd. + CELIA. I pray you, tell it. + OLIVER. When last the young Orlando parted from you, + He left a promise to return again + Within an hour; and, pacing through the forest, + Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy, + Lo, what befell! He threw his eye aside, + And mark what object did present itself. + Under an oak, whose boughs were moss'd with age, + And high top bald with dry antiquity, + A wretched ragged man, o'ergrown with hair, + Lay sleeping on his back. About his neck + A green and gilded snake had wreath'd itself, + Who with her head nimble in threats approach'd + The opening of his mouth; but suddenly, + Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itself, + And with indented glides did slip away + Into a bush; under which bush's shade + A lioness, with udders all drawn dry, + Lay couching, head on ground, with catlike watch, + When that the sleeping man should stir; for 'tis + The royal disposition of that beast + To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead. + This seen, Orlando did approach the man, + And found it was his brother, his elder brother. + CELIA. O, I have heard him speak of that same brother; + And he did render him the most unnatural + That liv'd amongst men. + OLIVER. And well he might so do, + For well I know he was unnatural. + ROSALIND. But, to Orlando: did he leave him there, + Food to the suck'd and hungry lioness? + OLIVER. Twice did he turn his back, and purpos'd so; + But kindness, nobler ever than revenge, + And nature, stronger than his just occasion, + Made him give battle to the lioness, + Who quickly fell before him; in which hurtling + From miserable slumber I awak'd. + CELIA. Are you his brother? + ROSALIND. Was't you he rescu'd? + CELIA. Was't you that did so oft contrive to kill him? + OLIVER. 'Twas I; but 'tis not I. I do not shame + To tell you what I was, since my conversion + So sweetly tastes, being the thing I am. + ROSALIND. But for the bloody napkin? + OLIVER. By and by. + When from the first to last, betwixt us two, + Tears our recountments had most kindly bath'd, + As how I came into that desert place- + In brief, he led me to the gentle Duke, + Who gave me fresh array and entertainment, + Committing me unto my brother's love; + Who led me instantly unto his cave, + There stripp'd himself, and here upon his arm + The lioness had torn some flesh away, + Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted, + And cried, in fainting, upon Rosalind. + Brief, I recover'd him, bound up his wound, + And, after some small space, being strong at heart, + He sent me hither, stranger as I am, + To tell this story, that you might excuse + His broken promise, and to give this napkin, + Dy'd in his blood, unto the shepherd youth + That he in sport doth call his Rosalind. + [ROSALIND swoons] + CELIA. Why, how now, Ganymede! sweet Ganymede! + OLIVER. Many will swoon when they do look on blood. + CELIA. There is more in it. Cousin Ganymede! + OLIVER. Look, he recovers. + ROSALIND. I would I were at home. + CELIA. We'll lead you thither. + I pray you, will you take him by the arm? + OLIVER. Be of good cheer, youth. You a man! + You lack a man's heart. + ROSALIND. I do so, I confess it. Ah, sirrah, a body would think + this was well counterfeited. I pray you tell your brother how + well I counterfeited. Heigh-ho! + OLIVER. This was not counterfeit; there is too great testimony in + your complexion that it was a passion of earnest. + ROSALIND. Counterfeit, I assure you. + OLIVER. Well then, take a good heart and counterfeit to be a man. + ROSALIND. So I do; but, i' faith, I should have been a woman by + right. + CELIA. Come, you look paler and paler; pray you draw homewards. + Good sir, go with us. + OLIVER. That will I, for I must bear answer back + How you excuse my brother, Rosalind. + ROSALIND. I shall devise something; but, I pray you, commend my + counterfeiting to him. Will you go? Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +The forest + +Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY + + TOUCHSTONE. We shall find a time, Audrey; patience, gentle Audrey. + AUDREY. Faith, the priest was good enough, for all the old + gentleman's saying. + TOUCHSTONE. A most wicked Sir Oliver, Audrey, a most vile Martext. + But, Audrey, there is a youth here in the forest lays claim to + you. + AUDREY. Ay, I know who 'tis; he hath no interest in me in the + world; here comes the man you mean. + + Enter WILLIAM + + TOUCHSTONE. It is meat and drink to me to see a clown. By my troth, + we that have good wits have much to answer for: we shall be + flouting; we cannot hold. + WILLIAM. Good ev'n, Audrey. + AUDREY. God ye good ev'n, William. + WILLIAM. And good ev'n to you, sir. + TOUCHSTONE. Good ev'n, gentle friend. Cover thy head, cover thy + head; nay, prithee be cover'd. How old are you, friend? + WILLIAM. Five and twenty, sir. + TOUCHSTONE. A ripe age. Is thy name William? + WILLIAM. William, sir. + TOUCHSTONE. A fair name. Wast born i' th' forest here? + WILLIAM. Ay, sir, I thank God. + TOUCHSTONE. 'Thank God.' A good answer. + Art rich? + WILLIAM. Faith, sir, so so. + TOUCHSTONE. 'So so' is good, very good, very excellent good; and + yet it is not; it is but so so. Art thou wise? + WILLIAM. Ay, sir, I have a pretty wit. + TOUCHSTONE. Why, thou say'st well. I do now remember a saying: 'The + fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be + a fool.' The heathen philosopher, when he had a desire to eat a + grape, would open his lips when he put it into his mouth; meaning + thereby that grapes were made to eat and lips to open. You do + love this maid? + WILLIAM. I do, sir. + TOUCHSTONE. Give me your hand. Art thou learned? + WILLIAM. No, sir. + TOUCHSTONE. Then learn this of me: to have is to have; for it is a + figure in rhetoric that drink, being pour'd out of cup into a + glass, by filling the one doth empty the other; for all your + writers do consent that ipse is he; now, you are not ipse, for I + am he. + WILLIAM. Which he, sir? + TOUCHSTONE. He, sir, that must marry this woman. Therefore, you + clown, abandon- which is in the vulgar leave- the society- which + in the boorish is company- of this female- which in the common is + woman- which together is: abandon the society of this female; or, + clown, thou perishest; or, to thy better understanding, diest; + or, to wit, I kill thee, make thee away, translate thy life into + death, thy liberty into bondage. I will deal in poison with thee, + or in bastinado, or in steel; I will bandy with thee in faction; + will o'er-run thee with policy; I will kill thee a hundred and + fifty ways; therefore tremble and depart. + AUDREY. Do, good William. + WILLIAM. God rest you merry, sir. Exit + + Enter CORIN + + CORIN. Our master and mistress seeks you; come away, away. + TOUCHSTONE. Trip, Audrey, trip, Audrey. I attend, I attend. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +The forest + +Enter ORLANDO and OLIVER + + ORLANDO. Is't possible that on so little acquaintance you should + like her? that but seeing you should love her? and loving woo? + and, wooing, she should grant? and will you persever to enjoy + her? + OLIVER. Neither call the giddiness of it in question, the poverty + of her, the small acquaintance, my sudden wooing, nor her sudden + consenting; but say with me, I love Aliena; say with her that she + loves me; consent with both that we may enjoy each other. It + shall be to your good; for my father's house and all the revenue + that was old Sir Rowland's will I estate upon you, and here live + and die a shepherd. + ORLANDO. You have my consent. Let your wedding be to-morrow. + Thither will I invite the Duke and all's contented followers. Go + you and prepare Aliena; for, look you, here comes my Rosalind. + + Enter ROSALIND + + ROSALIND. God save you, brother. + OLIVER. And you, fair sister. Exit + ROSALIND. O, my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee wear + thy heart in a scarf! + ORLANDO. It is my arm. + ROSALIND. I thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a + lion. + ORLANDO. Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady. + ROSALIND. Did your brother tell you how I counterfeited to swoon + when he show'd me your handkercher? + ORLANDO. Ay, and greater wonders than that. + ROSALIND. O, I know where you are. Nay, 'tis true. There was never + any thing so sudden but the fight of two rams and Caesar's + thrasonical brag of 'I came, saw, and overcame.' For your brother + and my sister no sooner met but they look'd; no sooner look'd but + they lov'd; no sooner lov'd but they sigh'd; no sooner sigh'd but + they ask'd one another the reason; no sooner knew the reason but + they sought the remedy- and in these degrees have they made pair + of stairs to marriage, which they will climb incontinent, or else + be incontinent before marriage. They are in the very wrath of + love, and they will together. Clubs cannot part them. + ORLANDO. They shall be married to-morrow; and I will bid the Duke + to the nuptial. But, O, how bitter a thing it is to look into + happiness through another man's eyes! By so much the more shall I + to-morrow be at the height of heart-heaviness, by how much I + shall think my brother happy in having what he wishes for. + ROSALIND. Why, then, to-morrow I cannot serve your turn for + Rosalind? + ORLANDO. I can live no longer by thinking. + ROSALIND. I will weary you, then, no longer with idle talking. Know + of me then- for now I speak to some purpose- that I know you are + a gentleman of good conceit. I speak not this that you should + bear a good opinion of my knowledge, insomuch I say I know you + are; neither do I labour for a greater esteem than may in some + little measure draw a belief from you, to do yourself good, and + not to grace me. Believe then, if you please, that I can do + strange things. I have, since I was three year old, convers'd + with a magician, most profound in his art and yet not damnable. + If you do love Rosalind so near the heart as your gesture cries + it out, when your brother marries Aliena shall you marry her. I + know into what straits of fortune she is driven; and it is not + impossible to me, if it appear not inconvenient to you, to set + her before your eyes to-morrow, human as she is, and without any + danger. + ORLANDO. Speak'st thou in sober meanings? + ROSALIND. By my life, I do; which I tender dearly, though I say I + am a magician. Therefore put you in your best array, bid your + friends; for if you will be married to-morrow, you shall; and to + Rosalind, if you will. + + Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE + + Look, here comes a lover of mine, and a lover of hers. + PHEBE. Youth, you have done me much ungentleness + To show the letter that I writ to you. + ROSALIND. I care not if I have. It is my study + To seem despiteful and ungentle to you. + You are there follow'd by a faithful shepherd; + Look upon him, love him; he worships you. + PHEBE. Good shepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to love. + SILVIUS. It is to be all made of sighs and tears; + And so am I for Phebe. + PHEBE. And I for Ganymede. + ORLANDO. And I for Rosalind. + ROSALIND. And I for no woman. + SILVIUS. It is to be all made of faith and service; + And so am I for Phebe. + PHEBE. And I for Ganymede. + ORLANDO. And I for Rosalind. + ROSALIND. And I for no woman. + SILVIUS. It is to be all made of fantasy, + All made of passion, and all made of wishes; + All adoration, duty, and observance, + All humbleness, all patience, and impatience, + All purity, all trial, all obedience; + And so am I for Phebe. + PHEBE. And so am I for Ganymede. + ORLANDO. And so am I for Rosalind. + ROSALIND. And so am I for no woman. + PHEBE. If this be so, why blame you me to love you? + SILVIUS. If this be so, why blame you me to love you? + ORLANDO. If this be so, why blame you me to love you? + ROSALIND. Why do you speak too, 'Why blame you me to love you?' + ORLANDO. To her that is not here, nor doth not hear. + ROSALIND. Pray you, no more of this; 'tis like the howling of Irish + wolves against the moon. [To SILVIUS] I will help you if I can. + [To PHEBE] I would love you if I could.- To-morrow meet me all + together. [ To PHEBE ] I will marry you if ever I marry woman, + and I'll be married to-morrow. [To ORLANDO] I will satisfy you if + ever I satisfied man, and you shall be married to-morrow. [To + Silvius] I will content you if what pleases you contents you, and + you shall be married to-morrow. [To ORLANDO] As you love + Rosalind, meet. [To SILVIUS] As you love Phebe, meet;- and as I + love no woman, I'll meet. So, fare you well; I have left you + commands. + SILVIUS. I'll not fail, if I live. + PHEBE. Nor I. + ORLANDO. Nor I. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +The forest + +Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY + + TOUCHSTONE. To-morrow is the joyful day, Audre'y; to-morrow will we + be married. + AUDREY. I do desire it with all my heart; and I hope it is no + dishonest desire to desire to be a woman of the world. Here come + two of the banish'd Duke's pages. + + Enter two PAGES + + FIRST PAGE. Well met, honest gentleman. + TOUCHSTONE. By my troth, well met. Come sit, sit, and a song. + SECOND PAGE. We are for you; sit i' th' middle. + FIRST PAGE. Shall we clap into't roundly, without hawking, or + spitting, or saying we are hoarse, which are the only prologues + to a bad voice? + SECOND PAGE. I'faith, i'faith; and both in a tune, like two gipsies + on a horse. + + SONG. + It was a lover and his lass, + With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, + That o'er the green corn-field did pass + In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, + When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding. + Sweet lovers love the spring. + + Between the acres of the rye, + With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, + These pretty country folks would lie, + In the spring time, &c. + + This carol they began that hour, + With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, + How that a life was but a flower, + In the spring time, &c. + + And therefore take the present time, + With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, + For love is crowned with the prime, + In the spring time, &c. + + TOUCHSTONE. Truly, young gentlemen, though there was no great + matter in the ditty, yet the note was very untuneable. + FIRST PAGE. YOU are deceiv'd, sir; we kept time, we lost not our + time. + TOUCHSTONE. By my troth, yes; I count it but time lost to hear such + a foolish song. God buy you; and God mend your voices. Come, + Audrey. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +The forest + +Enter DUKE SENIOR, AMIENS, JAQUES, ORLANDO, OLIVER, and CELIA + + DUKE SENIOR. Dost thou believe, Orlando, that the boy + Can do all this that he hath promised? + ORLANDO. I sometimes do believe and sometimes do not: + As those that fear they hope, and know they fear. + + Enter ROSALIND, SILVIUS, and PHEBE + + ROSALIND. Patience once more, whiles our compact is urg'd: + You say, if I bring in your Rosalind, + You will bestow her on Orlando here? + DUKE SENIOR. That would I, had I kingdoms to give with her. + ROSALIND. And you say you will have her when I bring her? + ORLANDO. That would I, were I of all kingdoms king. + ROSALIND. You say you'll marry me, if I be willing? + PHEBE. That will I, should I die the hour after. + ROSALIND. But if you do refuse to marry me, + You'll give yourself to this most faithful shepherd? + PHEBE. So is the bargain. + ROSALIND. You say that you'll have Phebe, if she will? + SILVIUS. Though to have her and death were both one thing. + ROSALIND. I have promis'd to make all this matter even. + Keep you your word, O Duke, to give your daughter; + You yours, Orlando, to receive his daughter; + Keep your word, Phebe, that you'll marry me, + Or else, refusing me, to wed this shepherd; + Keep your word, Silvius, that you'll marry her + If she refuse me; and from hence I go, + To make these doubts all even. + Exeunt ROSALIND and CELIA + DUKE SENIOR. I do remember in this shepherd boy + Some lively touches of my daughter's favour. + ORLANDO. My lord, the first time that I ever saw him + Methought he was a brother to your daughter. + But, my good lord, this boy is forest-born, + And hath been tutor'd in the rudiments + Of many desperate studies by his uncle, + Whom he reports to be a great magician, + Obscured in the circle of this forest. + + Enter TOUCHSTONE and AUDREY + + JAQUES. There is, sure, another flood toward, and these couples are + coming to the ark. Here comes a pair of very strange beasts which + in all tongues are call'd fools. + TOUCHSTONE. Salutation and greeting to you all! + JAQUES. Good my lord, bid him welcome. This is the motley-minded + gentleman that I have so often met in the forest. He hath been a + courtier, he swears. + TOUCHSTONE. If any man doubt that, let him put me to my purgation. + I have trod a measure; I have flatt'red a lady; I have been + politic with my friend, smooth with mine enemy; I have undone + three tailors; I have had four quarrels, and like to have fought + one. + JAQUES. And how was that ta'en up? + TOUCHSTONE. Faith, we met, and found the quarrel was upon the + seventh cause. + JAQUES. How seventh cause? Good my lord, like this fellow. + DUKE SENIOR. I like him very well. + TOUCHSTONE. God 'ild you, sir; I desire you of the like. I press in + here, sir, amongst the rest of the country copulatives, to swear + and to forswear, according as marriage binds and blood breaks. A + poor virgin, sir, an ill-favour'd thing, sir, but mine own; a + poor humour of mine, sir, to take that that man else will. Rich + honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house; as your pearl + in your foul oyster. + DUKE SENIOR. By my faith, he is very swift and sententious. + TOUCHSTONE. According to the fool's bolt, sir, and such dulcet + diseases. + JAQUES. But, for the seventh cause: how did you find the quarrel on + the seventh cause? + TOUCHSTONE. Upon a lie seven times removed- bear your body more + seeming, Audrey- as thus, sir. I did dislike the cut of a certain + courtier's beard; he sent me word, if I said his beard was not + cut well, he was in the mind it was. This is call'd the Retort + Courteous. If I sent him word again it was not well cut, he would + send me word he cut it to please himself. This is call'd the Quip + Modest. If again it was not well cut, he disabled my judgment. + This is call'd the Reply Churlish. If again it was not well cut, + he would answer I spake not true. This is call'd the Reproof + Valiant. If again it was not well cut, he would say I lie. This + is call'd the Countercheck Quarrelsome. And so to the Lie + Circumstantial and the Lie Direct. + JAQUES. And how oft did you say his beard was not well cut? + TOUCHSTONE. I durst go no further than the Lie Circumstantial, nor + he durst not give me the Lie Direct; and so we measur'd swords + and parted. + JAQUES. Can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie? + TOUCHSTONE. O, sir, we quarrel in print by the book, as you have + books for good manners. I will name you the degrees. The first, + the Retort Courteous; the second, the Quip Modest; the third, the + Reply Churlish; the fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth, the + Countercheck Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with Circumstance; + the seventh, the Lie Direct. All these you may avoid but the Lie + Direct; and you may avoid that too with an If. I knew when seven + justices could not take up a quarrel; but when the parties were + met themselves, one of them thought but of an If, as: 'If you + said so, then I said so.' And they shook hands, and swore + brothers. Your If is the only peace-maker; much virtue in If. + JAQUES. Is not this a rare fellow, my lord? + He's as good at any thing, and yet a fool. + DUKE SENIOR. He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the + presentation of that he shoots his wit: + + Enter HYMEN, ROSALIND, and CELIA. Still MUSIC + + HYMEN. Then is there mirth in heaven, + When earthly things made even + Atone together. + Good Duke, receive thy daughter; + Hymen from heaven brought her, + Yea, brought her hither, + That thou mightst join her hand with his, + Whose heart within his bosom is. + ROSALIND. [To DUKE] To you I give myself, for I am yours. + [To ORLANDO] To you I give myself, for I am yours. + DUKE SENIOR. If there be truth in sight, you are my daughter. + ORLANDO. If there be truth in sight, you are my Rosalind. + PHEBE. If sight and shape be true, + Why then, my love adieu! + ROSALIND. I'll have no father, if you be not he; + I'll have no husband, if you be not he; + Nor ne'er wed woman, if you be not she. + HYMEN. Peace, ho! I bar confusion; + 'Tis I must make conclusion + Of these most strange events. + Here's eight that must take hands + To join in Hymen's bands, + If truth holds true contents. + You and you no cross shall part; + You and you are heart in heart; + You to his love must accord, + Or have a woman to your lord; + You and you are sure together, + As the winter to foul weather. + Whiles a wedlock-hymn we sing, + Feed yourselves with questioning, + That reason wonder may diminish, + How thus we met, and these things finish. + + SONG + Wedding is great Juno's crown; + O blessed bond of board and bed! + 'Tis Hymen peoples every town; + High wedlock then be honoured. + Honour, high honour, and renown, + To Hymen, god of every town! + + DUKE SENIOR. O my dear niece, welcome thou art to me! + Even daughter, welcome in no less degree. + PHEBE. I will not eat my word, now thou art mine; + Thy faith my fancy to thee doth combine. + + Enter JAQUES de BOYS + + JAQUES de BOYS. Let me have audience for a word or two. + I am the second son of old Sir Rowland, + That bring these tidings to this fair assembly. + Duke Frederick, hearing how that every day + Men of great worth resorted to this forest, + Address'd a mighty power; which were on foot, + In his own conduct, purposely to take + His brother here, and put him to the sword; + And to the skirts of this wild wood he came, + Where, meeting with an old religious man, + After some question with him, was converted + Both from his enterprise and from the world; + His crown bequeathing to his banish'd brother, + And all their lands restor'd to them again + That were with him exil'd. This to be true + I do engage my life. + DUKE SENIOR. Welcome, young man. + Thou offer'st fairly to thy brothers' wedding: + To one, his lands withheld; and to the other, + A land itself at large, a potent dukedom. + First, in this forest let us do those ends + That here were well begun and well begot; + And after, every of this happy number, + That have endur'd shrewd days and nights with us, + Shall share the good of our returned fortune, + According to the measure of their states. + Meantime, forget this new-fall'n dignity, + And fall into our rustic revelry. + Play, music; and you brides and bridegrooms all, + With measure heap'd in joy, to th' measures fall. + JAQUES. Sir, by your patience. If I heard you rightly, + The Duke hath put on a religious life, + And thrown into neglect the pompous court. + JAQUES DE BOYS. He hath. + JAQUES. To him will I. Out of these convertites + There is much matter to be heard and learn'd. + [To DUKE] You to your former honour I bequeath; + Your patience and your virtue well deserves it. + [To ORLANDO] You to a love that your true faith doth merit; + [To OLIVER] You to your land, and love, and great allies + [To SILVIUS] You to a long and well-deserved bed; + [To TOUCHSTONE] And you to wrangling; for thy loving voyage + Is but for two months victuall'd.- So to your pleasures; + I am for other than for dancing measures. + DUKE SENIOR. Stay, Jaques, stay. + JAQUES. To see no pastime I. What you would have + I'll stay to know at your abandon'd cave. Exit + DUKE SENIOR. Proceed, proceed. We will begin these rites, + As we do trust they'll end, in true delights. [A dance] Exeunt + +EPILOGUE + EPILOGUE. + ROSALIND. It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; but + it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord the prologue. If it + be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play + needs no epilogue. Yet to good wine they do use good bushes; and + good plays prove the better by the help of good epilogues. What a + case am I in then, that am neither a good epilogue, nor cannot + insinuate with you in the behalf of a good play! I am not + furnish'd like a beggar; therefore to beg will not become me. My + way is to conjure you; and I'll begin with the women. I charge + you, O women, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of + this play as please you; and I charge you, O men, for the love + you bear to women- as I perceive by your simp'ring none of you + hates them- that between you and the women the play may please. + If I were a woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards that + pleas'd me, complexions that lik'd me, and breaths that I defied + not; and, I am sure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, + or sweet breaths, will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, + bid me farewell. + +THE END + + + + + +1593 + +THE COMEDY OF ERRORS + +by William Shakespeare + + + +<> + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + +SOLINUS, Duke of Ephesus +AEGEON, a merchant of Syracuse + +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS twin brothers and sons to +ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE Aegion and Aemelia + +DROMIO OF EPHESUS twin brothers, and attendants on +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE the two Antipholuses + +BALTHAZAR, a merchant +ANGELO, a goldsmith +FIRST MERCHANT, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse +SECOND MERCHANT, to whom Angelo is a debtor +PINCH, a schoolmaster + +AEMILIA, wife to AEgeon; an abbess at Ephesus +ADRIANA, wife to Antipholus of Ephesus +LUCIANA, her sister +LUCE, servant to Adriana + +A COURTEZAN + +Gaoler, Officers, Attendants + + + + + +SCENE: +Ephesus + + +<> + + + + +THE COMEDY OF ERRORS + +ACT I. SCENE 1 + +A hall in the DUKE'S palace + +Enter the DUKE OF EPHESUS, AEGEON, the Merchant +of Syracuse, GAOLER, OFFICERS, and other ATTENDANTS + +AEGEON. Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall, + And by the doom of death end woes and all. +DUKE. Merchant of Syracuse, plead no more; + I am not partial to infringe our laws. + The enmity and discord which of late + Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke + To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen, + Who, wanting guilders to redeem their lives, + Have seal'd his rigorous statutes with their bloods, + Excludes all pity from our threat'ning looks. + For, since the mortal and intestine jars + 'Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us, + It hath in solemn synods been decreed, + Both by the Syracusians and ourselves, + To admit no traffic to our adverse towns; + Nay, more: if any born at Ephesus + Be seen at any Syracusian marts and fairs; + Again, if any Syracusian born + Come to the bay of Ephesus-he dies, + His goods confiscate to the Duke's dispose, + Unless a thousand marks be levied, + To quit the penalty and to ransom him. + Thy substance, valued at the highest rate, + Cannot amount unto a hundred marks; + Therefore by law thou art condemn'd to die. +AEGEON. Yet this my comfort: when your words are done, + My woes end likewise with the evening sun. +DUKE. Well, Syracusian, say in brief the cause + Why thou departed'st from thy native home, + And for what cause thou cam'st to Ephesus. +AEGEON. A heavier task could not have been impos'd + Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable; + Yet, that the world may witness that my end + Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence, + I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave. + In Syracuse was I born, and wed + Unto a woman, happy but for me, + And by me, had not our hap been bad. + With her I liv'd in joy; our wealth increas'd + By prosperous voyages I often made + To Epidamnum; till my factor's death, + And the great care of goods at random left, + Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse: + From whom my absence was not six months old, + Before herself, almost at fainting under + The pleasing punishment that women bear, + Had made provision for her following me, + And soon and safe arrived where I was. + There had she not been long but she became + A joyful mother of two goodly sons; + And, which was strange, the one so like the other + As could not be disdnguish'd but by names. + That very hour, and in the self-same inn, + A mean woman was delivered + Of such a burden, male twins, both alike. + Those, for their parents were exceeding poor, + I bought, and brought up to attend my sons. + My wife, not meanly proud of two such boys, + Made daily motions for our home return; + Unwilling, I agreed. Alas! too soon + We came aboard. + A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd + Before the always-wind-obeying deep + Gave any tragic instance of our harm: + But longer did we not retain much hope, + For what obscured light the heavens did grant + Did but convey unto our fearful minds + A doubtful warrant of immediate death; + Which though myself would gladly have embrac'd, + Yet the incessant weepings of my wife, + Weeping before for what she saw must come, + And piteous plainings of the pretty babes, + That mourn'd for fashion, ignorant what to fear, + Forc'd me to seek delays for them and me. + And this it was, for other means was none: + The sailors sought for safety by our boat, + And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us; + My wife, more careful for the latter-born, + Had fast'ned him unto a small spare mast, + Such as sea-faring men provide for storms; + To him one of the other twins was bound, + Whilst I had been like heedful of the other. + The children thus dispos'd, my wife and I, + Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix'd, + Fast'ned ourselves at either end the mast, + And, floating straight, obedient to the stream, + Was carried towards Corinth, as we thought. + At length the sun, gazing upon the earth, + Dispers'd those vapours that offended us; + And, by the benefit of his wished light, + The seas wax'd calm, and we discovered + Two ships from far making amain to us- + Of Corinth that, of Epidaurus this. + But ere they came-O, let me say no more! + Gather the sequel by that went before. +DUKE. Nay, forward, old man, do not break off so; + For we may pity, though not pardon thee. +AEGEON. O, had the gods done so, I had not now + Worthily term'd them merciless to us! + For, ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues, + We were encount'red by a mighty rock, + Which being violently borne upon, + Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst; + So that, in this unjust divorce of us, + Fortune had left to both of us alike + What to delight in, what to sorrow for. + Her part, poor soul, seeming as burdened + With lesser weight, but not with lesser woe, + Was carried with more speed before the wind; + And in our sight they three were taken up + By fishermen of Corinth, as we thought. + At length another ship had seiz'd on us; + And, knowing whom it was their hap to save, + Gave healthful welcome to their ship-wreck'd guests, + And would have reft the fishers of their prey, + Had not their bark been very slow of sail; + And therefore homeward did they bend their course. + Thus have you heard me sever'd from my bliss, + That by misfortunes was my life prolong'd, + To tell sad stories of my own mishaps. +DUKE. And, for the sake of them thou sorrowest for, + Do me the favour to dilate at full + What have befall'n of them and thee till now. +AEGEON. My youngest boy, and yet my eldest care, + At eighteen years became inquisitive + After his brother, and importun'd me + That his attendant-so his case was like, + Reft of his brother, but retain'd his name- + Might bear him company in the quest of him; + Whom whilst I laboured of a love to see, + I hazarded the loss of whom I lov'd. + Five summers have I spent in farthest Greece, + Roaming clean through the bounds of Asia, + And, coasting homeward, came to Ephesus; + Hopeless to find, yet loath to leave unsought + Or that or any place that harbours men. + But here must end the story of my life; + And happy were I in my timely death, + Could all my travels warrant me they live. +DUKE. Hapless, Aegeon, whom the fates have mark'd + To bear the extremity of dire mishap! + Now, trust me, were it not against our laws, + Against my crown, my oath, my dignity, + Which princes, would they, may not disannul, + My soul should sue as advocate for thee. + But though thou art adjudged to the death, + And passed sentence may not be recall'd + But to our honour's great disparagement, + Yet will I favour thee in what I can. + Therefore, merchant, I'll limit thee this day + To seek thy help by beneficial hap. + Try all the friends thou hast in Ephesus; + Beg thou, or borrow, to make up the sum, + And live; if no, then thou art doom'd to die. + Gaoler, take him to thy custody. +GAOLER. I will, my lord. +AEGEON. Hopeless and helpless doth Aegeon wend, + But to procrastinate his lifeless end. +> + + + + + +ACT Il. SCENE 1 + +The house of ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS + +Enter ADRIANA, wife to ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS, with LUCIANA, her sister + +ADRIANA. Neither my husband nor the slave return'd + That in such haste I sent to seek his master! + Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock. +LUCIANA. Perhaps some merchant hath invited him, + And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner; + Good sister, let us dine, and never fret. + A man is master of his liberty; + Time is their master, and when they see time, + They'll go or come. If so, be patient, sister. +ADRIANA. Why should their liberty than ours be more? +LUCIANA. Because their business still lies out o' door. +ADRIANA. Look when I serve him so, he takes it ill. +LUCIANA. O, know he is the bridle of your will. +ADRIANA. There's none but asses will be bridled so. +LUCIANA. Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe. + There's nothing situate under heaven's eye + But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky. + The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls, + Are their males' subjects, and at their controls. + Man, more divine, the master of all these, + Lord of the wide world and wild wat'ry seas, + Indu'd with intellectual sense and souls, + Of more pre-eminence than fish and fowls, + Are masters to their females, and their lords; + Then let your will attend on their accords. +ADRIANA. This servitude makes you to keep unwed. +LUCIANA. Not this, but troubles of the marriage-bed. +ADRIANA. But, were you wedded, you would bear some sway. +LUCIANA. Ere I learn love, I'll practise to obey. +ADRIANA. How if your husband start some other where? +LUCIANA. Till he come home again, I would forbear. +ADRIANA. Patience unmov'd! no marvel though she pause: + They can be meek that have no other cause. + A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity, + We bid be quiet when we hear it cry; + But were we burd'ned with like weight of pain, + As much, or more, we should ourselves complain. + So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee, + With urging helpless patience would relieve me; + But if thou live to see like right bereft, + This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left. +LUCIANA. Well, I will marry one day, but to try. + Here comes your man, now is your husband nigh. + +Enter DROMIO OF EPHESUS + +ADRIANA. Say, is your tardy master now at hand? +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Nay, he's at two hands with me, and that my two + ears can witness. +ADRIANA. Say, didst thou speak with him? Know'st thou his mind? +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Ay, ay, he told his mind upon mine ear. + Beshrew his hand, I scarce could understand it. +LUCIANA. Spake he so doubtfully thou could'st not feel his meaning? +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Nay, he struck so plainly I could to + well feel his blows; and withal so doubtfully that I could + scarce understand them. +ADRIANA. But say, I prithee, is he coming home? + It seems he hath great care to please his wife. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad. +ADRIANA. Horn-mad, thou villain! +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. I mean not cuckold-mad; + But, sure, he is stark mad. + When I desir'd him to come home to dinner, + He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold. + "Tis dinner time' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he. + 'Your meat doth burn' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he. + 'Will you come home?' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he. + 'Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?' + 'The pig' quoth I 'is burn'd'; 'My gold!' quoth he. + 'My mistress, sir,' quoth I; 'Hang up thy mistress; + I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress.' +LUCIANA. Quoth who? +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Quoth my master. + 'I know' quoth he 'no house, no wife, no mistress.' + So that my errand, due unto my tongue, + I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders; + For, in conclusion, he did beat me there. +ADRIANA. Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Go back again, and be new beaten home? + For God's sake, send some other messenger. +ADRIANA. Back, slave, or I will break thy pate across. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. And he will bless that cross with other beating; + Between you I shall have a holy head. +ADRIANA. Hence, prating peasant! Fetch thy master home. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Am I so round with you, as you with me, + That like a football you do spurn me thus? + You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither; + If I last in this service, you must case me in leather. +> + + + + + +ACT III. SCENE 1 + +Before the house of ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS + +Enter ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS, DROMIO OF EPHESUS, ANGELO, and BALTHAZAR + +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Good Signior Angelo, you must excuse us all; + My wife is shrewish when I keep not hours. + Say that I linger'd with you at your shop + To see the making of her carcanet, + And that to-morrow you will bring it home. + But here's a villain that would face me down + He met me on the mart, and that I beat him, + And charg'd him with a thousand marks in gold, + And that I did deny my wife and house. + Thou drunkard, thou, what didst thou mean by this? +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Say what you will, sir, but I know what I know. + That you beat me at the mart I have your hand to show; + If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink, + Your own handwriting would tell you what I think. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. I think thou art an ass. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Marry, so it doth appear + By the wrongs I suffer and the blows I bear. + I should kick, being kick'd; and being at that pass, + You would keep from my heels, and beware of an ass. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Y'are sad, Signior Balthazar; pray God our cheer + May answer my good will and your good welcome here. +BALTHAZAR. I hold your dainties cheap, sir, and your welcome dear. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. O, Signior Balthazar, either at flesh or fish, + A table full of welcome makes scarce one dainty dish. +BALTHAZAR. Good meat, sir, is common; that every churl affords. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. And welcome more common; for that's nothing + but words. +BALTHAZAR. Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Ay, to a niggardly host and more sparing guest. + But though my cates be mean, take them in good part; + Better cheer may you have, but not with better heart. + But, soft, my door is lock'd; go bid them let us in. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicely, Gillian, Ginn! +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. [Within] Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch! + Either get thee from the door, or sit down at the hatch. + Dost thou conjure for wenches, that thou call'st for such store, + When one is one too many? Go get thee from the door. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. What patch is made our porter? + My master stays in the street. +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. [Within] Let him walk from whence he came, + lest he catch cold on's feet. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Who talks within there? Ho, open the door! +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. [Within] Right, sir; I'll tell you when, + an you'll tell me wherefore. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Wherefore? For my dinner; + I have not din'd to-day. +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. [Within] Nor to-day here you must not; + come again when you may. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. What art thou that keep'st me out + from the house I owe? +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. [Within] The porter for this time, + sir, and my name is Dromio. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. O Villain, thou hast stol'n both mine + office and my name! + The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame. + If thou hadst been Dromio to-day in my place, + Thou wouldst have chang'd thy face for a name, or thy name for an ass. + +Enter LUCE, within + +LUCE. [Within] What a coil is there, Dromio? Who are those at the gate? +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Let my master in, Luce. +LUCE. [Within] Faith, no, he comes too late; + And so tell your master. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. O Lord, I must laugh! + Have at you with a proverb: Shall I set in my staff? +LUCE. [Within] Have at you with another: that's-when? can you tell? +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. [Within] If thy name be called Luce + -Luce, thou hast answer'd him well. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Do you hear, you minion? You'll let us in, I hope? +LUCE. [Within] I thought to have ask'd you. +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. [Within] And you said no. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. SO, Come, help: well struck! there was blow for blow. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Thou baggage, let me in. +LUCE. [Within] Can you tell for whose sake? +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Master, knock the door hard. +LUCE. [Within] Let him knock till it ache. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. You'll cry for this, minion, if beat the door down. +LUCE. [Within] What needs all that, and a pair of stocks in the town? + +Enter ADRIANA, within + +ADRIANA. [Within] Who is that at the door, that keeps all this noise? +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. [Within] By my troth, your town is + troubled with unruly boys. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Are you there, wife? You might + have come before. +ADRIANA. [Within] Your wife, sir knave! Go get you from the door. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. If YOU went in pain, master, this 'knave' would go sore. +ANGELO. Here is neither cheer, sir, nor welcome; we would fain have either. +BALTHAZAR. In debating which was best, we shall part with neither. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. They stand at the door, master; bid them welcome hither. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. There is something in the wind, that we cannot get in. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. You would say so, master, if your garments were thin. + Your cake here is warm within; you stand here in the cold; + It would make a man mad as a buck to be so bought and sold. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Go fetch me something; I'll break ope the gate. +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. [Within] Break any breaking here, + and I'll break your knave's pate. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. A man may break a word with you, + sir; and words are but wind; + Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind. +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. [Within] It seems thou want'st breaking; + out upon thee, hind! +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. Here's too much 'out upon thee!' pray thee let me in. +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. [Within] Ay, when fowls have no + feathers and fish have no fin. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Well, I'll break in; go borrow me a crow. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. A crow without feather? Master, mean you so? + For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a feather; + If a crow help us in, sirrah, we'll pluck a crow together. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Go get thee gone; fetch me an iron crow. +BALTHAZAR. Have patience, sir; O, let it not be so! + Herein you war against your reputation, + And draw within the compass of suspect + Th' unviolated honour of your wife. + Once this-your long experience of her wisdom, + Her sober virtue, years, and modesty, + Plead on her part some cause to you unknown; + And doubt not, sir, but she will well excuse + Why at this time the doors are made against you. + Be rul'd by me: depart in patience, + And let us to the Tiger all to dinner; + And, about evening, come yourself alone + To know the reason of this strange restraint. + If by strong hand you offer to break in + Now in the stirring passage of the day, + A vulgar comment will be made of it, + And that supposed by the common rout + Against your yet ungalled estimation + That may with foul intrusion enter in + And dwell upon your grave when you are dead; + For slander lives upon succession, + For ever hous'd where it gets possession. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. You have prevail'd. I will depart in quiet, + And in despite of mirth mean to be merry. + I know a wench of excellent discourse, + Pretty and witty; wild, and yet, too, gentle; + There will we dine. This woman that I mean, + My wife-but, I protest, without desert- + Hath oftentimes upbraided me withal; + To her will we to dinner. [To ANGELO] Get you home + And fetch the chain; by this I know 'tis made. + Bring it, I pray you, to the Porpentine; + For there's the house. That chain will I bestow- + Be it for nothing but to spite my wife- + Upon mine hostess there; good sir, make haste. + Since mine own doors refuse to entertain me, + I'll knock elsewhere, to see if they'll disdain me. +ANGELO. I'll meet you at that place some hour hence. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. Do so; this jest shall cost me some expense. +> + + + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 1 + +A public place + +Enter SECOND MERCHANT, ANGELO, and an OFFICER + +SECOND MERCHANT. You know since Pentecost the sum is due, + And since I have not much importun'd you; + Nor now I had not, but that I am bound + To Persia, and want guilders for my voyage. + Therefore make present satisfaction, + Or I'll attach you by this officer. +ANGELO. Even just the sum that I do owe to you + Is growing to me by Antipholus; + And in the instant that I met with you + He had of me a chain; at five o'clock + I shall receive the money for the same. + Pleaseth you walk with me down to his house, + I will discharge my bond, and thank you too. + +Enter ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS, and DROMIO OF EPHESUS, from the COURTEZAN'S + +OFFICER. That labour may you save; see where he comes. +ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS. While I go to the goldsmith's house, go thou + And buy a rope's end; that will I bestow + Among my wife and her confederates, + For locking me out of my doors by day. + But, soft, I see the goldsmith. Get thee gone; + Buy thou a rope, and bring it home to me. +DROMIO OF EPHESUS. I buy a thousand pound a year; I buy a rope. +> + + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 1 + +A street before a priory + +Enter SECOND MERCHANT and ANGELO + +ANGELO. I am sorry, sir, that I have hind'red you; + But I protest he had the chain of me, + Though most dishonestly he doth deny it. +SECOND MERCHANT. How is the man esteem'd here in the city? +ANGELO. Of very reverend reputation, sir, + Of credit infinite, highly belov'd, + Second to none that lives here in the city; + His word might bear my wealth at any time. +SECOND MERCHANT. Speak softly; yonder, as I think, he walks. + +Enter ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE and DROMIO OF SYRACUSE + +ANGELO. 'Tis so; and that self chain about his neck + Which he forswore most monstrously to have. + Good sir, draw near to me, I'll speak to him. + Signior Andpholus, I wonder much + That you would put me to this shame and trouble; + And, not without some scandal to yourself, + With circumstance and oaths so to deny + This chain, which now you wear so openly. + Beside the charge, the shame, imprisonment, + You have done wrong to this my honest friend; + Who, but for staying on our controversy, + Had hoisted sail and put to sea to-day. + This chain you had of me; can you deny it? +ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. I think I had; I never did deny it. +SECOND MERCHANT. Yes, that you did, sir, and forswore it too. +ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. Who heard me to deny it or forswear it? +SECOND MERCHANT. These ears of mine, thou know'st, did hear thee. + Fie on thee, wretch! 'tis pity that thou liv'st + To walk where any honest men resort. +ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE. Thou art a villain to impeach me thus; + I'll prove mine honour and mine honesty + Against thee presently, if thou dar'st stand. +SECOND MERCHANT. I dare, and do defy thee for a villain. +[They draw] + +Enter ADRIANA, LUCIANA, the COURTEZAN, and OTHERS + +ADRIANA. Hold, hurt him not, for God's sake! He is mad. + Some get within him, take his sword away; + Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my house. +DROMIO OF SYRACUSE. Run, master, run; for God's sake take a house. + This is some priory. In, or we are spoil'd. +> + + + + + +1608 + +THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + CAIUS MARCIUS, afterwards CAIUS MARCIUS CORIOLANUS + + Generals against the Volscians + TITUS LARTIUS + COMINIUS + + MENENIUS AGRIPPA, friend to Coriolanus + + Tribunes of the People + SICINIUS VELUTUS + JUNIUS BRUTUS + + YOUNG MARCIUS, son to Coriolanus + A ROMAN HERALD + NICANOR, a Roman + TULLUS AUFIDIUS, General of the Volscians + LIEUTENANT, to Aufidius + CONSPIRATORS, With Aufidius + ADRIAN, a Volscian + A CITIZEN of Antium + TWO VOLSCIAN GUARDS + + VOLUMNIA, mother to Coriolanus + VIRGILIA, wife to Coriolanus + VALERIA, friend to Virgilia + GENTLEWOMAN attending on Virgilia + + Roman and Volscian Senators, Patricians, Aediles, Lictors, + Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, Servants to Aufidius, and other + Attendants + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +Rome and the neighbourhood; Corioli and the neighbourhood; Antium + + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Rome. A street + +Enter a company of mutinous citizens, with staves, clubs, and other weapons + + FIRST CITIZEN. Before we proceed any further, hear me speak. + ALL. Speak, speak. + FIRST CITIZEN. YOU are all resolv'd rather to die than to famish? + ALL. Resolv'd, resolv'd. + FIRST CITIZEN. First, you know Caius Marcius is chief enemy to the + people. + ALL. We know't, we know't. + FIRST CITIZEN. Let us kill him, and we'll have corn at our own + price. Is't a verdict? + ALL. No more talking on't; let it be done. Away, away! + SECOND CITIZEN. One word, good citizens. + FIRST CITIZEN. We are accounted poor citizens, the patricians good. + What authority surfeits on would relieve us; if they would yield + us but the superfluity while it were wholesome, we might guess + they relieved us humanely; but they think we are too dear. The + leanness that afflicts us, the object of our misery, is as an + inventory to particularize their abundance; our sufferance is a + gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes ere we become + rakes; for the gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in + thirst for revenge. + SECOND CITIZEN. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? + FIRST CITIZEN. Against him first; he's a very dog to the + commonalty. + SECOND CITIZEN. Consider you what services he has done for his + country? + FIRST CITIZEN. Very well, and could be content to give him good + report for't but that he pays himself with being proud. + SECOND CITIZEN. Nay, but speak not maliciously. + FIRST CITIZEN. I say unto you, what he hath done famously he did it + to that end; though soft-conscienc'd men can be content to say it + was for his country, he did it to please his mother and to be + partly proud, which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. + SECOND CITIZEN. What he cannot help in his nature you account a + vice in him. You must in no way say he is covetous. + FIRST CITIZEN. If I must not, I need not be barren of accusations; + he hath faults, with surplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts + within] What shouts are these? The other side o' th' city is + risen. Why stay we prating here? To th' Capitol! + ALL. Come, come. + FIRST CITIZEN. Soft! who comes here? + + Enter MENENIUS AGRIPPA + + SECOND CITIZEN. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always lov'd + the people. + FIRST CITIZEN. He's one honest enough; would all the rest were so! + MENENIUS. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? Where go you + With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you. + FIRST CITIZEN. Our business is not unknown to th' Senate; they have + had inkling this fortnight what we intend to do, which now we'll + show 'em in deeds. They say poor suitors have strong breaths; + they shall know we have strong arms too. + MENENIUS. Why, masters, my good friends, mine honest neighbours, + Will you undo yourselves? + FIRST CITIZEN. We cannot, sir; we are undone already. + MENENIUS. I tell you, friends, most charitable care + Have the patricians of you. For your wants, + Your suffering in this dearth, you may as well + Strike at the heaven with your staves as lift them + Against the Roman state; whose course will on + The way it takes, cracking ten thousand curbs + Of more strong link asunder than can ever + Appear in your impediment. For the dearth, + The gods, not the patricians, make it, and + Your knees to them, not arms, must help. Alack, + You are transported by calamity + Thither where more attends you; and you slander + The helms o' th' state, who care for you like fathers, + When you curse them as enemies. + FIRST CITIZEN. Care for us! True, indeed! They ne'er car'd for us + yet. Suffer us to famish, and their storehouses cramm'd with + grain; make edicts for usury, to support usurers; repeal daily + any wholesome act established against the rich, and provide more + piercing statutes daily to chain up and restrain the poor. If the + wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear + us. + MENENIUS. Either you must + Confess yourselves wondrous malicious, + Or be accus'd of folly. I shall tell you + A pretty tale. It may be you have heard it; + But, since it serves my purpose, I will venture + To stale't a little more. + FIRST CITIZEN. Well, I'll hear it, sir; yet you must not think to + fob off our disgrace with a tale. But, an't please you, deliver. + MENENIUS. There was a time when all the body's members + Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it: + That only like a gulf it did remain + I' th' midst o' th' body, idle and unactive, + Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing + Like labour with the rest; where th' other instruments + Did see and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, + And, mutually participate, did minister + Unto the appetite and affection common + Of the whole body. The belly answer'd- + FIRST CITIZEN. Well, sir, what answer made the belly? + MENENIUS. Sir, I shall tell you. With a kind of smile, + Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus- + For look you, I may make the belly smile + As well as speak- it tauntingly replied + To th' discontented members, the mutinous parts + That envied his receipt; even so most fitly + As you malign our senators for that + They are not such as you. + FIRST CITIZEN. Your belly's answer- What? + The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye, + The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier, + Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter, + With other muniments and petty helps + Is this our fabric, if that they- + MENENIUS. What then? + Fore me, this fellow speaks! What then? What then? + FIRST CITIZEN. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd, + Who is the sink o' th' body- + MENENIUS. Well, what then? + FIRST CITIZEN. The former agents, if they did complain, + What could the belly answer? + MENENIUS. I will tell you; + If you'll bestow a small- of what you have little- + Patience awhile, you'st hear the belly's answer. + FIRST CITIZEN. Y'are long about it. + MENENIUS. Note me this, good friend: + Your most grave belly was deliberate, + Not rash like his accusers, and thus answered. + 'True is it, my incorporate friends,' quoth he + 'That I receive the general food at first + Which you do live upon; and fit it is, + Because I am the storehouse and the shop + Of the whole body. But, if you do remember, + I send it through the rivers of your blood, + Even to the court, the heart, to th' seat o' th' brain; + And, through the cranks and offices of man, + The strongest nerves and small inferior veins + From me receive that natural competency + Whereby they live. And though that all at once + You, my good friends'- this says the belly; mark me. + FIRST CITIZEN. Ay, sir; well, well. + MENENIUS. 'Though all at once cannot + See what I do deliver out to each, + Yet I can make my audit up, that all + From me do back receive the flour of all, + And leave me but the bran.' What say you to' t? + FIRST CITIZEN. It was an answer. How apply you this? + MENENIUS. The senators of Rome are this good belly, + And you the mutinous members; for, examine + Their counsels and their cares, digest things rightly + Touching the weal o' th' common, you shall find + No public benefit which you receive + But it proceeds or comes from them to you, + And no way from yourselves. What do you think, + You, the great toe of this assembly? + FIRST CITIZEN. I the great toe? Why the great toe? + MENENIUS. For that, being one o' th' lowest, basest, poorest, + Of this most wise rebellion, thou goest foremost. + Thou rascal, that art worst in blood to run, + Lead'st first to win some vantage. + But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs. + Rome and her rats are at the point of battle; + The one side must have bale. + + Enter CAIUS MARCIUS + + Hail, noble Marcius! + MARCIUS. Thanks. What's the matter, you dissentious rogues + That, rubbing the poor itch of your opinion, + Make yourselves scabs? + FIRST CITIZEN. We have ever your good word. + MARCIUS. He that will give good words to thee will flatter + Beneath abhorring. What would you have, you curs, + That like nor peace nor war? The one affrights you, + The other makes you proud. He that trusts to you, + Where he should find you lions, finds you hares; + Where foxes, geese; you are no surer, no, + Than is the coal of fire upon the ice + Or hailstone in the sun. Your virtue is + To make him worthy whose offence subdues him, + And curse that justice did it. Who deserves greatness + Deserves your hate; and your affections are + A sick man's appetite, who desires most that + Which would increase his evil. He that depends + Upon your favours swims with fins of lead, + And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye! Trust ye? + With every minute you do change a mind + And call him noble that was now your hate, + Him vile that was your garland. What's the matter + That in these several places of the city + You cry against the noble Senate, who, + Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else + Would feed on one another? What's their seeking? + MENENIUS. For corn at their own rates, whereof they say + The city is well stor'd. + MARCIUS. Hang 'em! They say! + They'll sit by th' fire and presume to know + What's done i' th' Capitol, who's like to rise, + Who thrives and who declines; side factions, and give out + Conjectural marriages, making parties strong, + And feebling such as stand not in their liking + Below their cobbled shoes. They say there's grain enough! + Would the nobility lay aside their ruth + And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry + With thousands of these quarter'd slaves, as high + As I could pick my lance. + MENENIUS. Nay, these are almost thoroughly persuaded; + For though abundantly they lack discretion, + Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I beseech you, + What says the other troop? + MARCIUS. They are dissolv'd. Hang 'em! + They said they were an-hungry; sigh'd forth proverbs- + That hunger broke stone walls, that dogs must eat, + That meat was made for mouths, that the gods sent not + Corn for the rich men only. With these shreds + They vented their complainings; which being answer'd, + And a petition granted them- a strange one, + To break the heart of generosity + And make bold power look pale- they threw their caps + As they would hang them on the horns o' th' moon, + Shouting their emulation. + MENENIUS. What is granted them? + MARCIUS. Five tribunes, to defend their vulgar wisdoms, + Of their own choice. One's Junius Brutus- + Sicinius Velutus, and I know not. 'Sdeath! + The rabble should have first unroof'd the city + Ere so prevail'd with me; it will in time + Win upon power and throw forth greater themes + For insurrection's arguing. + MENENIUS. This is strange. + MARCIUS. Go get you home, you fragments. + + Enter a MESSENGER, hastily + + MESSENGER. Where's Caius Marcius? + MARCIUS. Here. What's the matter? + MESSENGER. The news is, sir, the Volsces are in arms. + MARCIUS. I am glad on't; then we shall ha' means to vent + Our musty superfluity. See, our best elders. + + Enter COMINIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, with other SENATORS; + JUNIUS BRUTUS and SICINIUS VELUTUS + + FIRST SENATOR. Marcius, 'tis true that you have lately told us: + The Volsces are in arms. + MARCIUS. They have a leader, + Tullus Aufidius, that will put you to't. + I sin in envying his nobility; + And were I anything but what I am, + I would wish me only he. + COMINIUS. You have fought together? + MARCIUS. Were half to half the world by th' ears, and he + Upon my party, I'd revolt, to make + Only my wars with him. He is a lion + That I am proud to hunt. + FIRST SENATOR. Then, worthy Marcius, + Attend upon Cominius to these wars. + COMINIUS. It is your former promise. + MARCIUS. Sir, it is; + And I am constant. Titus Lartius, thou + Shalt see me once more strike at Tullus' face. + What, art thou stiff? Stand'st out? + LARTIUS. No, Caius Marcius; + I'll lean upon one crutch and fight with t'other + Ere stay behind this business. + MENENIUS. O, true bred! + FIRST SENATOR. Your company to th' Capitol; where, I know, + Our greatest friends attend us. + LARTIUS. [To COMINIUS] Lead you on. + [To MARCIUS] Follow Cominius; we must follow you; + Right worthy you priority. + COMINIUS. Noble Marcius! + FIRST SENATOR. [To the Citizens] Hence to your homes; be gone. + MARCIUS. Nay, let them follow. + The Volsces have much corn: take these rats thither + To gnaw their garners. Worshipful mutineers, + Your valour puts well forth; pray follow. + Ciitzens steal away. Exeunt all but SICINIUS and BRUTUS + SICINIUS. Was ever man so proud as is this Marcius? + BRUTUS. He has no equal. + SICINIUS. When we were chosen tribunes for the people- + BRUTUS. Mark'd you his lip and eyes? + SICINIUS. Nay, but his taunts! + BRUTUS. Being mov'd, he will not spare to gird the gods. + SICINIUS. Bemock the modest moon. + BRUTUS. The present wars devour him! He is grown + Too proud to be so valiant. + SICINIUS. Such a nature, + Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow + Which he treads on at noon. But I do wonder + His insolence can brook to be commanded + Under Cominius. + BRUTUS. Fame, at the which he aims- + In whom already he is well grac'd- cannot + Better be held nor more attain'd than by + A place below the first; for what miscarries + Shall be the general's fault, though he perform + To th' utmost of a man, and giddy censure + Will then cry out of Marcius 'O, if he + Had borne the business!' + SICINIUS. Besides, if things go well, + Opinion, that so sticks on Marcius, shall + Of his demerits rob Cominius. + BRUTUS. Come. + Half all Cominius' honours are to Marcius, + Though Marcius earn'd them not; and all his faults + To Marcius shall be honours, though indeed + In aught he merit not. + SICINIUS. Let's hence and hear + How the dispatch is made, and in what fashion, + More than his singularity, he goes + Upon this present action. + BRUTUS. Let's along. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Corioli. The Senate House. + +Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS with SENATORS of Corioli + + FIRST SENATOR. So, your opinion is, Aufidius, + That they of Rome are ent'red in our counsels + And know how we proceed. + AUFIDIUS. Is it not yours? + What ever have been thought on in this state + That could be brought to bodily act ere Rome + Had circumvention? 'Tis not four days gone + Since I heard thence; these are the words- I think + I have the letter here;.yes, here it is: + [Reads] 'They have press'd a power, but it is not known + Whether for east or west. The dearth is great; + The people mutinous; and it is rumour'd, + Cominius, Marcius your old enemy, + Who is of Rome worse hated than of you, + And Titus Lartius, a most valiant Roman, + These three lead on this preparation + Whither 'tis bent. Most likely 'tis for you; + Consider of it.' + FIRST SENATOR. Our army's in the field; + We never yet made doubt but Rome was ready + To answer us. + AUFIDIUS. Nor did you think it folly + To keep your great pretences veil'd till when + They needs must show themselves; which in the hatching, + It seem'd, appear'd to Rome. By the discovery + We shall be short'ned in our aim, which was + To take in many towns ere almost Rome + Should know we were afoot. + SECOND SENATOR. Noble Aufidius, + Take your commission; hie you to your bands; + Let us alone to guard Corioli. + If they set down before's, for the remove + Bring up your army; but I think you'll find + Th' have not prepar'd for us. + AUFIDIUS. O, doubt not that! + I speak from certainties. Nay more, + Some parcels of their power are forth already, + And only hitherward. I leave your honours. + If we and Caius Marcius chance to meet, + 'Tis sworn between us we shall ever strike + Till one can do no more. + ALL. The gods assist you! + AUFIDIUS. And keep your honours safe! + FIRST SENATOR. Farewell. + SECOND SENATOR. Farewell. + ALL. Farewell. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Rome. MARCIUS' house + +Enter VOLUMNIA and VIRGILIA, mother and wife to MARCIUS; +they set them down on two low stools and sew + + VOLUMNIA. I pray you, daughter, sing, or express yourself in a more + comfortable sort. If my son were my husband, I should freelier + rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour than in the + embracements of his bed where he would show most love. When yet + he was but tender-bodied, and the only son of my womb; when youth + with comeliness pluck'd all gaze his way; when, for a day of + kings' entreaties, a mother should not sell him an hour from her + beholding; I, considering how honour would become such a person- + that it was no better than picture-like to hang by th' wall, if + renown made it not stir- was pleas'd to let him seek danger where + he was to find fame. To a cruel war I sent him, from whence he + return'd his brows bound with oak. I tell thee, daughter, I + sprang not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child than + now in first seeing he had proved himself a man. + VIRGILIA. But had he died in the business, madam, how then? + VOLUMNIA. Then his good report should have been my son; I therein + would have found issue. Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen + sons, each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my + good Marcius, I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country + than one voluptuously surfeit out of action. + + Enter a GENTLEWOMAN + + GENTLEWOMAN. Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you. + VIRGILIA. Beseech you give me leave to retire myself. + VOLUMNIA. Indeed you shall not. + Methinks I hear hither your husband's drum; + See him pluck Aufidius down by th' hair; + As children from a bear, the Volsces shunning him. + Methinks I see him stamp thus, and call thus: + 'Come on, you cowards! You were got in fear, + Though you were born in Rome.' His bloody brow + With his mail'd hand then wiping, forth he goes, + Like to a harvest-man that's task'd to mow + Or all or lose his hire. + VIRGILIA. His bloody brow? O Jupiter, no blood! + VOLUMNIA. Away, you fool! It more becomes a man + Than gilt his trophy. The breasts of Hecuba, + When she did suckle Hector, look'd not lovelier + Than Hector's forehead when it spit forth blood + At Grecian sword, contemning. Tell Valeria + We are fit to bid her welcome. Exit GENTLEWOMAN + VIRGILIA. Heavens bless my lord from fell Aufidius! + VOLUMNIA. He'll beat Aufidius' head below his knee + And tread upon his neck. + + Re-enter GENTLEWOMAN, With VALERIA and an usher + + VALERIA. My ladies both, good day to you. + VOLUMNIA. Sweet madam! + VIRGILIA. I am glad to see your ladyship. + VALERIA. How do you both? You are manifest housekeepers. What are + you sewing here? A fine spot, in good faith. How does your little + son? + VIRGILIA. I thank your ladyship; well, good madam. + VOLUMNIA. He had rather see the swords and hear a drum than look + upon his schoolmaster. + VALERIA. O' my word, the father's son! I'll swear 'tis a very + pretty boy. O' my troth, I look'd upon him a Wednesday half an + hour together; has such a confirm'd countenance! I saw him run + after a gilded butterfly; and when he caught it he let it go + again, and after it again, and over and over he comes, and up + again, catch'd it again; or whether his fall enrag'd him, or how + 'twas, he did so set his teeth and tear it. O, I warrant, how he + mammock'd it! + VOLUMNIA. One on's father's moods. + VALERIA. Indeed, la, 'tis a noble child. + VIRGILIA. A crack, madam. + VALERIA. Come, lay aside your stitchery; I must have you play the + idle huswife with me this afternoon. + VIRGILIA. No, good madam; I will not out of doors. + VALERIA. Not out of doors! + VOLUMNIA. She shall, she shall. + VIRGILIA. Indeed, no, by your patience; I'll not over the threshold + till my lord return from the wars. + VALERIA. Fie, you confine yourself most unreasonably; come, you + must go visit the good lady that lies in. + VIRGILIA. I will wish her speedy strength, and visit her with my + prayers; but I cannot go thither. + VOLUMNIA. Why, I pray you? + VIRGILIA. 'Tis not to save labour, nor that I want love. + VALERIA. You would be another Penelope; yet they say all the yarn + she spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths. + Come, I would your cambric were sensible as your finger, that you + might leave pricking it for pity. Come, you shall go with us. + VIRGILIA. No, good madam, pardon me; indeed I will not forth. + VALERIA. In truth, la, go with me; and I'll tell you excellent news + of your husband. + VIRGILIA. O, good madam, there can be none yet. + VALERIA. Verily, I do not jest with you; there came news from him + last night. + VIRGILIA. Indeed, madam? + VALERIA. In earnest, it's true; I heard a senator speak it. Thus it + is: the Volsces have an army forth; against whom Cominius the + general is gone, with one part of our Roman power. Your lord and + Titus Lartius are set down before their city Corioli; they + nothing doubt prevailing and to make it brief wars. This is true, + on mine honour; and so, I pray, go with us. + VIRGILIA. Give me excuse, good madam; I will obey you in everything + hereafter. + VOLUMNIA. Let her alone, lady; as she is now, she will but disease + our better mirth. + VALERIA. In troth, I think she would. Fare you well, then. Come, + good sweet lady. Prithee, Virgilia, turn thy solemness out o' + door and go along with us. + VIRGILIA. No, at a word, madam; indeed I must not. I wish you much + mirth. + VALERIA. Well then, farewell. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Before Corioli + +Enter MARCIUS, TITUS LARTIUS, with drum and colours, +with CAPTAINS and soldiers. To them a MESSENGER + + MARCIUS. Yonder comes news; a wager- they have met. + LARTIUS. My horse to yours- no. + MARCIUS. 'Tis done. + LARTIUS. Agreed. + MARCIUS. Say, has our general met the enemy? + MESSENGER. They lie in view, but have not spoke as yet. + LARTIUS. So, the good horse is mine. + MARCIUS. I'll buy him of you. + LARTIUS. No, I'll nor sell nor give him; lend you him I will + For half a hundred years. Summon the town. + MARCIUS. How far off lie these armies? + MESSENGER. Within this mile and half. + MARCIUS. Then shall we hear their 'larum, and they ours. + Now, Mars, I prithee, make us quick in work, + That we with smoking swords may march from hence + To help our fielded friends! Come, blow thy blast. + + They sound a parley. Enter two SENATORS with others, + on the walls of Corioli + + Tullus Aufidius, is he within your walls? + FIRST SENATOR. No, nor a man that fears you less than he: + That's lesser than a little. [Drum afar off] Hark, our drums + Are bringing forth our youth. We'll break our walls + Rather than they shall pound us up; our gates, + Which yet seem shut, we have but pinn'd with rushes; + They'll open of themselves. [Alarum far off] Hark you far off! + There is Aufidius. List what work he makes + Amongst your cloven army. + MARCIUS. O, they are at it! + LARTIUS. Their noise be our instruction. Ladders, ho! + + Enter the army of the Volsces + + MARCIUS. They fear us not, but issue forth their city. + Now put your shields before your hearts, and fight + With hearts more proof than shields. Advance, brave Titus. + They do disdain us much beyond our thoughts, + Which makes me sweat with wrath. Come on, my fellows. + He that retires, I'll take him for a Volsce, + And he shall feel mine edge. + + Alarum. The Romans are beat back to their trenches. + Re-enter MARCIUS, cursing + + MARCIUS. All the contagion of the south light on you, + You shames of Rome! you herd of- Boils and plagues + Plaster you o'er, that you may be abhorr'd + Farther than seen, and one infect another + Against the wind a mile! You souls of geese + That bear the shapes of men, how have you run + From slaves that apes would beat! Pluto and hell! + All hurt behind! Backs red, and faces pale + With flight and agued fear! Mend and charge home, + Or, by the fires of heaven, I'll leave the foe + And make my wars on you. Look to't. Come on; + If you'll stand fast we'll beat them to their wives, + As they us to our trenches. Follow me. + + Another alarum. The Volsces fly, and MARCIUS follows + them to the gates + + So, now the gates are ope; now prove good seconds; + 'Tis for the followers fortune widens them, + Not for the fliers. Mark me, and do the like. + + [MARCIUS enters the gates] + + FIRST SOLDIER. Fool-hardiness; not I. + SECOND SOLDIER. Not I. [MARCIUS is shut in] + FIRST SOLDIER. See, they have shut him in. + ALL. To th' pot, I warrant him. [Alarum continues] + + Re-enter TITUS LARTIUS + + LARTIUS. What is become of Marcius? + ALL. Slain, sir, doubtless. + FIRST SOLDIER. Following the fliers at the very heels, + With them he enters; who, upon the sudden, + Clapp'd to their gates. He is himself alone, + To answer all the city. + LARTIUS. O noble fellow! + Who sensibly outdares his senseless sword, + And when it bows stand'st up. Thou art left, Marcius; + A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art, + Were not so rich a jewel. Thou wast a soldier + Even to Cato's wish, not fierce and terrible + Only in strokes; but with thy grim looks and + The thunder-like percussion of thy sounds + Thou mad'st thine enemies shake, as if the world + Were feverous and did tremble. + + Re-enter MARCIUS, bleeding, assaulted by the enemy + + FIRST SOLDIER. Look, sir. + LARTIUS. O, 'tis Marcius! + Let's fetch him off, or make remain alike. + [They fight, and all enter the city] + + + + +SCENE V. +Within Corioli. A street + +Enter certain Romans, with spoils + + FIRST ROMAN. This will I carry to Rome. + SECOND ROMAN. And I this. + THIRD ROMAN. A murrain on 't! I took this for silver. + [Alarum continues still afar off] + + Enter MARCIUS and TITUS LARTIUS With a trumpeter + + MARCIUS. See here these movers that do prize their hours + At a crack'd drachma! Cushions, leaden spoons, + Irons of a doit, doublets that hangmen would + Bury with those that wore them, these base slaves, + Ere yet the fight be done, pack up. Down with them! + Exeunt pillagers + And hark, what noise the general makes! To him! + There is the man of my soul's hate, Aufidius, + Piercing our Romans; then, valiant Titus, take + Convenient numbers to make good the city; + Whilst I, with those that have the spirit, will haste + To help Cominius. + LARTIUS. Worthy sir, thou bleed'st; + Thy exercise hath been too violent + For a second course of fight. + MARCIUS. Sir, praise me not; + My work hath yet not warm'd me. Fare you well; + The blood I drop is rather physical + Than dangerous to me. To Aufidius thus + I will appear, and fight. + LARTIUS. Now the fair goddess, Fortune, + Fall deep in love with thee, and her great charms + Misguide thy opposers' swords! Bold gentleman, + Prosperity be thy page! + MARCIUS. Thy friend no less + Than those she placeth highest! So farewell. + LARTIUS. Thou worthiest Marcius! Exit MARCIUS + Go sound thy trumpet in the market-place; + Call thither all the officers o' th' town, + Where they shall know our mind. Away! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VI. +Near the camp of COMINIUS + +Enter COMINIUS, as it were in retire, with soldiers + + COMINIUS. Breathe you, my friends. Well fought; we are come off + Like Romans, neither foolish in our stands + Nor cowardly in retire. Believe me, sirs, + We shall be charg'd again. Whiles we have struck, + By interims and conveying gusts we have heard + The charges of our friends. The Roman gods, + Lead their successes as we wish our own, + That both our powers, with smiling fronts encount'ring, + May give you thankful sacrifice! + + Enter A MESSENGER + + Thy news? + MESSENGER. The citizens of Corioli have issued + And given to Lartius and to Marcius battle; + I saw our party to their trenches driven, + And then I came away. + COMINIUS. Though thou speak'st truth, + Methinks thou speak'st not well. How long is't since? + MESSENGER. Above an hour, my lord. + COMINIUS. 'Tis not a mile; briefly we heard their drums. + How couldst thou in a mile confound an hour, + And bring thy news so late? + MESSENGER. Spies of the Volsces + Held me in chase, that I was forc'd to wheel + Three or four miles about; else had I, sir, + Half an hour since brought my report. + + Enter MARCIUS + + COMINIUS. Who's yonder + That does appear as he were flay'd? O gods! + He has the stamp of Marcius, and I have + Before-time seen him thus. + MARCIUS. Come I too late? + COMINIUS. The shepherd knows not thunder from a tabor + More than I know the sound of Marcius' tongue + From every meaner man. + MARCIUS. Come I too late? + COMINIUS. Ay, if you come not in the blood of others, + But mantled in your own. + MARCIUS. O! let me clip ye + In arms as sound as when I woo'd, in heart + As merry as when our nuptial day was done, + And tapers burn'd to bedward. + COMINIUS. Flower of warriors, + How is't with Titus Lartius? + MARCIUS. As with a man busied about decrees: + Condemning some to death and some to exile; + Ransoming him or pitying, threat'ning th' other; + Holding Corioli in the name of Rome + Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash, + To let him slip at will. + COMINIUS. Where is that slave + Which told me they had beat you to your trenches? + Where is he? Call him hither. + MARCIUS. Let him alone; + He did inform the truth. But for our gentlemen, + The common file- a plague! tribunes for them! + The mouse ne'er shunn'd the cat as they did budge + From rascals worse than they. + COMINIUS. But how prevail'd you? + MARCIUS. Will the time serve to tell? I do not think. + Where is the enemy? Are you lords o' th' field? + If not, why cease you till you are so? + COMINIUS. Marcius, + We have at disadvantage fought, and did + Retire to win our purpose. + MARCIUS. How lies their battle? Know you on which side + They have plac'd their men of trust? + COMINIUS. As I guess, Marcius, + Their bands i' th' vaward are the Antiates, + Of their best trust; o'er them Aufidius, + Their very heart of hope. + MARCIUS. I do beseech you, + By all the battles wherein we have fought, + By th' blood we have shed together, by th' vows + We have made to endure friends, that you directly + Set me against Aufidius and his Antiates; + And that you not delay the present, but, + Filling the air with swords advanc'd and darts, + We prove this very hour. + COMINIUS. Though I could wish + You were conducted to a gentle bath + And balms applied to you, yet dare I never + Deny your asking: take your choice of those + That best can aid your action. + MARCIUS. Those are they + That most are willing. If any such be here- + As it were sin to doubt- that love this painting + Wherein you see me smear'd; if any fear + Lesser his person than an ill report; + If any think brave death outweighs bad life + And that his country's dearer than himself; + Let him alone, or so many so minded, + Wave thus to express his disposition, + And follow Marcius. [They all shout and wave their + swords, take him up in their arms and cast up their caps] + O, me alone! Make you a sword of me? + If these shows be not outward, which of you + But is four Volsces? None of you but is + Able to bear against the great Aufidius + A shield as hard as his. A certain number, + Though thanks to all, must I select from all; the rest + Shall bear the business in some other fight, + As cause will be obey'd. Please you to march; + And four shall quickly draw out my command, + Which men are best inclin'd. + COMINIUS. March on, my fellows; + Make good this ostentation, and you shall + Divide in all with us. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VII. +The gates of Corioli + +TITUS LARTIUS, having set a guard upon Corioli, going with drum and trumpet +toward COMINIUS and CAIUS MARCIUS, enters with a LIEUTENANT, other soldiers, +and a scout + + LARTIUS. So, let the ports be guarded; keep your duties + As I have set them down. If I do send, dispatch + Those centuries to our aid; the rest will serve + For a short holding. If we lose the field + We cannot keep the town. + LIEUTENANT. Fear not our care, sir. + LARTIUS. Hence, and shut your gates upon's. + Our guider, come; to th' Roman camp conduct us. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VIII. +A field of battle between the Roman and the Volscian camps + +Alarum, as in battle. Enter MARCIUS and AUFIDIUS at several doors + + MARCIUS. I'll fight with none but thee, for I do hate thee + Worse than a promise-breaker. + AUFIDIUS. We hate alike: + Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor + More than thy fame and envy. Fix thy foot. + MARCIUS. Let the first budger die the other's slave, + And the gods doom him after! + AUFIDIUS. If I fly, Marcius, + Halloa me like a hare. + MARCIUS. Within these three hours, Tullus, + Alone I fought in your Corioli walls, + And made what work I pleas'd. 'Tis not my blood + Wherein thou seest me mask'd. For thy revenge + Wrench up thy power to th' highest. + AUFIDIUS. Wert thou the Hector + That was the whip of your bragg'd progeny, + Thou shouldst not scape me here. + + Here they fight, and certain Volsces come in the aid + of AUFIDIUS. MARCIUS fights till they be driven in + breathless + + Officious, and not valiant, you have sham'd me + In your condemned seconds. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IX. +The Roman camp + +Flourish. Alarum. A retreat is sounded. Enter, at one door, +COMINIUS with the Romans; at another door, MARCIUS, with his arm in a scarf + + COMINIUS. If I should tell thee o'er this thy day's work, + Thou't not believe thy deeds; but I'll report it + Where senators shall mingle tears with smiles; + Where great patricians shall attend, and shrug, + I' th' end admire; where ladies shall be frighted + And, gladly quak'd, hear more; where the dull tribunes, + That with the fusty plebeians hate thine honours, + Shall say against their hearts 'We thank the gods + Our Rome hath such a soldier.' + Yet cam'st thou to a morsel of this feast, + Having fully din'd before. + + Enter TITUS LARTIUS, with his power, from the pursuit + + LARTIUS. O General, + Here is the steed, we the caparison. + Hadst thou beheld- + MARCIUS. Pray now, no more; my mother, + Who has a charter to extol her blood, + When she does praise me grieves me. I have done + As you have done- that's what I can; induc'd + As you have been- that's for my country. + He that has but effected his good will + Hath overta'en mine act. + COMINIUS. You shall not be + The grave of your deserving; Rome must know + The value of her own. 'Twere a concealment + Worse than a theft, no less than a traducement, + To hide your doings and to silence that + Which, to the spire and top of praises vouch'd, + Would seem but modest. Therefore, I beseech you, + In sign of what you are, not to reward + What you have done, before our army hear me. + MARCIUS. I have some wounds upon me, and they smart + To hear themselves rememb'red. + COMINIUS. Should they not, + Well might they fester 'gainst ingratitude + And tent themselves with death. Of all the horses- + Whereof we have ta'en good, and good store- of all + The treasure in this field achiev'd and city, + We render you the tenth; to be ta'en forth + Before the common distribution at + Your only choice. + MARCIUS. I thank you, General, + But cannot make my heart consent to take + A bribe to pay my sword. I do refuse it, + And stand upon my common part with those + That have beheld the doing. + + A long flourish. They all cry 'Marcius, Marcius!' + cast up their caps and lances. COMINIUS and LARTIUS stand bare + + May these same instruments which you profane + Never sound more! When drums and trumpets shall + I' th' field prove flatterers, let courts and cities be + Made all of false-fac'd soothing. When steel grows + Soft as the parasite's silk, let him be made + An overture for th' wars. No more, I say. + For that I have not wash'd my nose that bled, + Or foil'd some debile wretch, which without note + Here's many else have done, you shout me forth + In acclamations hyperbolical, + As if I lov'd my little should be dieted + In praises sauc'd with lies. + COMINIUS. Too modest are you; + More cruel to your good report than grateful + To us that give you truly. By your patience, + If 'gainst yourself you be incens'd, we'll put you- + Like one that means his proper harm- in manacles, + Then reason safely with you. Therefore be it known, + As to us, to all the world, that Caius Marcius + Wears this war's garland; in token of the which, + My noble steed, known to the camp, I give him, + With all his trim belonging; and from this time, + For what he did before Corioli, can him + With all th' applause-and clamour of the host, + Caius Marcius Coriolanus. + Bear th' addition nobly ever! + [Flourish. Trumpets sound, and drums] + ALL. Caius Marcius Coriolanus! + CORIOLANUS. I will go wash; + And when my face is fair you shall perceive + Whether I blush or no. Howbeit, I thank you; + I mean to stride your steed, and at all times + To undercrest your good addition + To th' fairness of my power. + COMINIUS. So, to our tent; + Where, ere we do repose us, we will write + To Rome of our success. You, Titus Lartius, + Must to Corioli back. Send us to Rome + The best, with whom we may articulate + For their own good and ours. + LARTIUS. I shall, my lord. + CORIOLANUS. The gods begin to mock me. I, that now + Refus'd most princely gifts, am bound to beg + Of my Lord General. + COMINIUS. Take't- 'tis yours; what is't? + CORIOLANUS. I sometime lay here in Corioli + At a poor man's house; he us'd me kindly. + He cried to me; I saw him prisoner; + But then Aufidius was within my view, + And wrath o'erwhelm'd my pity. I request you + To give my poor host freedom. + COMINIUS. O, well begg'd! + Were he the butcher of my son, he should + Be free as is the wind. Deliver him, Titus. + LARTIUS. Marcius, his name? + CORIOLANUS. By Jupiter, forgot! + I am weary; yea, my memory is tir'd. + Have we no wine here? + COMINIUS. Go we to our tent. + The blood upon your visage dries; 'tis time + It should be look'd to. Come. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE X. +The camp of the Volsces + +A flourish. Cornets. Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS bloody, with two or three soldiers + + AUFIDIUS. The town is ta'en. + FIRST SOLDIER. 'Twill be deliver'd back on good condition. + AUFIDIUS. Condition! + I would I were a Roman; for I cannot, + Being a Volsce, be that I am. Condition? + What good condition can a treaty find + I' th' part that is at mercy? Five times, Marcius, + I have fought with thee; so often hast thou beat me; + And wouldst do so, I think, should we encounter + As often as we eat. By th' elements, + If e'er again I meet him beard to beard, + He's mine or I am his. Mine emulation + Hath not that honour in't it had; for where + I thought to crush him in an equal force, + True sword to sword, I'll potch at him some way, + Or wrath or craft may get him. + FIRST SOLDIER. He's the devil. + AUFIDIUS. Bolder, though not so subtle. My valour's poison'd + With only suff'ring stain by him; for him + Shall fly out of itself. Nor sleep nor sanctuary, + Being naked, sick, nor fane nor Capitol, + The prayers of priests nor times of sacrifice, + Embarquements all of fury, shall lift up + Their rotten privilege and custom 'gainst + My hate to Marcius. Where I find him, were it + At home, upon my brother's guard, even there, + Against the hospitable canon, would I + Wash my fierce hand in's heart. Go you to th' city; + Learn how 'tis held, and what they are that must + Be hostages for Rome. + FIRST SOLDIER. Will not you go? + AUFIDIUS. I am attended at the cypress grove; I pray you- + 'Tis south the city mills- bring me word thither + How the world goes, that to the pace of it + I may spur on my journey. + FIRST SOLDIER. I shall, sir. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +Rome. A public place + +Enter MENENIUS, with the two Tribunes of the people, SICINIUS and BRUTUS + + MENENIUS. The augurer tells me we shall have news tonight. + BRUTUS. Good or bad? + MENENIUS. Not according to the prayer of the people, for they love + not Marcius. + SICINIUS. Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. + MENENIUS. Pray you, who does the wolf love? + SICINIUS. The lamb. + MENENIUS. Ay, to devour him, as the hungry plebeians would the + noble Marcius. + BRUTUS. He's a lamb indeed, that baes like a bear. + MENENIUS. He's a bear indeed, that lives fike a lamb. You two are + old men; tell me one thing that I shall ask you. + BOTH TRIBUNES. Well, sir. + MENENIUS. In what enormity is Marcius poor in that you two have not + in abundance? + BRUTUS. He's poor in no one fault, but stor'd with all. + SICINIUS. Especially in pride. + BRUTUS. And topping all others in boasting. + MENENIUS. This is strange now. Do you two know how you are censured + here in the city- I mean of us o' th' right-hand file? Do you? + BOTH TRIBUNES. Why, how are we censur'd? + MENENIUS. Because you talk of pride now- will you not be angry? + BOTH TRIBUNES. Well, well, sir, well. + MENENIUS. Why, 'tis no great matter; for a very little thief of + occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience. Give your + dispositions the reins, and be angry at your pleasures- at the + least, if you take it as a pleasure to you in being so. You blame + Marcius for being proud? + BRUTUS. We do it not alone, sir. + MENENIUS. I know you can do very little alone; for your helps are + many, or else your actions would grow wondrous single: your + abilities are too infant-like for doing much alone. You talk of + pride. O that you could turn your eyes toward the napes of your + necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves! O + that you could! + BOTH TRIBUNES. What then, sir? + MENENIUS. Why, then you should discover a brace of unmeriting, + proud, violent, testy magistrates-alias fools- as any in Rome. + SICINIUS. Menenius, you are known well enough too. + MENENIUS. I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves + a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in't; said to + be something imperfect in favouring the first complaint, hasty + and tinder-like upon too trivial motion; one that converses more + with the buttock of the night than with the forehead of the + morning. What I think I utter, and spend my malice in my breath. + Meeting two such wealsmen as you are- I cannot call you + Lycurguses- if the drink you give me touch my palate adversely, I + make a crooked face at it. I cannot say your worships have + deliver'd the matter well, when I find the ass in compound with + the major part of your syllables; and though I must be content to + bear with those that say you are reverend grave men, yet they lie + deadly that tell you you have good faces. If you see this in the + map of my microcosm, follows it that I am known well enough too? + What harm can your bisson conspectuities glean out of this + character, if I be known well enough too? + BRUTUS. Come, sir, come, we know you well enough. + MENENIUS. You know neither me, yourselves, nor any thing. You are + ambitious for poor knaves' caps and legs; you wear out a good + wholesome forenoon in hearing a cause between an orange-wife and + a fosset-seller, and then rejourn the controversy of threepence + to a second day of audience. When you are hearing a matter + between party and party, if you chance to be pinch'd with the + colic, you make faces like mummers, set up the bloody flag + against all patience, and, in roaring for a chamber-pot, dismiss + the controversy bleeding, the more entangled by your hearing. All + the peace you make in their cause is calling both the parties + knaves. You are a pair of strange ones. + BRUTUS. Come, come, you are well understood to be a perfecter giber + for the table than a necessary bencher in the Capitol. + MENENIUS. Our very priests must become mockers, if they shall + encounter such ridiculous subjects as you are. When you speak + best unto the purpose, it is not worth the wagging of your + beards; and your beards deserve not so honourable a grave as to + stuff a botcher's cushion or to be entomb'd in an ass's + pack-saddle. Yet you must be saying Marcius is proud; who, in a + cheap estimation, is worth all your predecessors since Deucalion; + though peradventure some of the best of 'em were hereditary + hangmen. God-den to your worships. More of your conversation + would infect my brain, being the herdsmen of the beastly + plebeians. I will be bold to take my leave of you. + [BRUTUS and SICINIUS go aside] + + Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, and VALERIA + + How now, my as fair as noble ladies- and the moon, were she + earthly, no nobler- whither do you follow your eyes so fast? + VOLUMNIA. Honourable Menenius, my boy Marcius approaches; for the + love of Juno, let's go. + MENENIUS. Ha! Marcius coming home? + VOLUMNIA. Ay, worthy Menenius, and with most prosperous + approbation. + MENENIUS. Take my cap, Jupiter, and I thank thee. Hoo! + Marcius coming home! + VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA. Nay, 'tis true. + VOLUMNIA. Look, here's a letter from him; the state hath another, + his wife another; and I think there's one at home for you. + MENENIUS. I will make my very house reel to-night. A letter for me? + VIRGILIA. Yes, certain, there's a letter for you; I saw't. + MENENIUS. A letter for me! It gives me an estate of seven years' + health; in which time I will make a lip at the physician. The + most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic and, to + this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench. Is he + not wounded? He was wont to come home wounded. + VIRGILIA. O, no, no, no. + VOLUMNIA. O, he is wounded, I thank the gods for't. + MENENIUS. So do I too, if it be not too much. Brings a victory in + his pocket? The wounds become him. + VOLUMNIA. On's brows, Menenius, he comes the third time home with + the oaken garland. + MENENIUS. Has he disciplin'd Aufidius soundly? + VOLUMNIA. Titus Lartius writes they fought together, but Aufidius + got off. + MENENIUS. And 'twas time for him too, I'll warrant him that; an he + had stay'd by him, I would not have been so fidius'd for all the + chests in Corioli and the gold that's in them. Is the Senate + possess'd of this? + VOLUMNIA. Good ladies, let's go. Yes, yes, yes: the Senate has + letters from the general, wherein he gives my son the whole name + of the war; he hath in this action outdone his former deeds + doubly. + VALERIA. In troth, there's wondrous things spoke of him. + MENENIUS. Wondrous! Ay, I warrant you, and not without his true + purchasing. + VIRGILIA. The gods grant them true! + VOLUMNIA. True! pow, waw. + MENENIUS. True! I'll be sworn they are true. Where is he wounded? + [To the TRIBUNES] God save your good worships! Marcius is coming + home; he has more cause to be proud. Where is he wounded? + VOLUMNIA. I' th' shoulder and i' th' left arm; there will be large + cicatrices to show the people when he shall stand for his place. + He received in the repulse of Tarquin seven hurts i' th' body. + MENENIUS. One i' th' neck and two i' th' thigh- there's nine that I + know. + VOLUMNIA. He had before this last expedition twenty-five wounds + upon him. + MENENIUS. Now it's twenty-seven; every gash was an enemy's grave. + [A shout and flourish] Hark! the trumpets. + VOLUMNIA. These are the ushers of Marcius. Before him he carries + noise, and behind him he leaves tears; + Death, that dark spirit, in's nervy arm doth lie, + Which, being advanc'd, declines, and then men die. + + A sennet. Trumpets sound. Enter COMINIUS the + GENERAL, and TITUS LARTIUS; between them, + CORIOLANUS, crown'd with an oaken garland; with + CAPTAINS and soldiers and a HERALD + + HERALD. Know, Rome, that all alone Marcius did fight + Within Corioli gates, where he hath won, + With fame, a name to Caius Marcius; these + In honour follows Coriolanus. + Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus! [Flourish] + ALL. Welcome to Rome, renowned Coriolanus! + CORIOLANUS. No more of this, it does offend my heart. + Pray now, no more. + COMINIUS. Look, sir, your mother! + CORIOLANUS. O, + You have, I know, petition'd all the gods + For my prosperity! [Kneels] + VOLUMNIA. Nay, my good soldier, up; + My gentle Marcius, worthy Caius, and + By deed-achieving honour newly nam'd- + What is it? Coriolanus must I can thee? + But, O, thy wife! + CORIOLANUS. My gracious silence, hail! + Wouldst thou have laugh'd had I come coffin'd home, + That weep'st to see me triumph? Ah, my dear, + Such eyes the widows in Corioli wear, + And mothers that lack sons. + MENENIUS. Now the gods crown thee! + CORIOLANUS. And live you yet? [To VALERIA] O my sweet lady, + pardon. + VOLUMNIA. I know not where to turn. + O, welcome home! And welcome, General. + And y'are welcome all. + MENENIUS. A hundred thousand welcomes. I could weep + And I could laugh; I am light and heavy. Welcome! + A curse begin at very root on's heart + That is not glad to see thee! You are three + That Rome should dote on; yet, by the faith of men, + We have some old crab trees here at home that will not + Be grafted to your relish. Yet welcome, warriors. + We call a nettle but a nettle, and + The faults of fools but folly. + COMINIUS. Ever right. + CORIOLANUS. Menenius ever, ever. + HERALD. Give way there, and go on. + CORIOLANUS. [To his wife and mother] Your hand, and yours. + Ere in our own house I do shade my head, + The good patricians must be visited; + From whom I have receiv'd not only greetings, + But with them change of honours. + VOLUMNIA. I have lived + To see inherited my very wishes, + And the buildings of my fancy; only + There's one thing wanting, which I doubt not but + Our Rome will cast upon thee. + CORIOLANUS. Know, good mother, + I had rather be their servant in my way + Than sway with them in theirs. + COMINIUS. On, to the Capitol. + [Flourish. Cornets. Exeunt in state, as before] + + BRUTUS and SICINIUS come forward + + BRUTUS. All tongues speak of him and the bleared sights + Are spectacled to see him. Your prattling nurse + Into a rapture lets her baby cry + While she chats him; the kitchen malkin pins + Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck, + Clamb'ring the walls to eye him; stalls, bulks, windows, + Are smother'd up, leads fill'd and ridges hors'd + With variable complexions, all agreeing + In earnestness to see him. Seld-shown flamens + Do press among the popular throngs and puff + To win a vulgar station; our veil'd dames + Commit the war of white and damask in + Their nicely gawded cheeks to th' wanton spoil + Of Phoebus' burning kisses. Such a pother, + As if that whatsoever god who leads him + Were slily crept into his human powers, + And gave him graceful posture. + SICINIUS. On the sudden + I warrant him consul. + BRUTUS. Then our office may + During his power go sleep. + SICINIUS. He cannot temp'rately transport his honours + From where he should begin and end, but will + Lose those he hath won. + BRUTUS. In that there's comfort. + SICINIUS. Doubt not + The commoners, for whom we stand, but they + Upon their ancient malice will forget + With the least cause these his new honours; which + That he will give them make I as little question + As he is proud to do't. + BRUTUS. I heard him swear, + Were he to stand for consul, never would he + Appear i' th' market-place, nor on him put + The napless vesture of humility; + Nor, showing, as the manner is, his wounds + To th' people, beg their stinking breaths. + SICINIUS. 'Tis right. + BRUTUS. It was his word. O, he would miss it rather + Than carry it but by the suit of the gentry to him + And the desire of the nobles. + SICINIUS. I wish no better + Than have him hold that purpose, and to put it + In execution. + BRUTUS. 'Tis most like he will. + SICINIUS. It shall be to him then as our good wills: + A sure destruction. + BRUTUS. So it must fall out + To him or our authorities. For an end, + We must suggest the people in what hatred + He still hath held them; that to's power he would + Have made them mules, silenc'd their pleaders, and + Dispropertied their freedoms; holding them + In human action and capacity + Of no more soul nor fitness for the world + Than camels in their war, who have their provand + Only for bearing burdens, and sore blows + For sinking under them. + SICINIUS. This, as you say, suggested + At some time when his soaring insolence + Shall touch the people- which time shall not want, + If he be put upon't, and that's as easy + As to set dogs on sheep- will be his fire + To kindle their dry stubble; and their blaze + Shall darken him for ever. + + Enter A MESSENGER + + BRUTUS. What's the matter? + MESSENGER. You are sent for to the Capitol. 'Tis thought + That Marcius shall be consul. + I have seen the dumb men throng to see him and + The blind to hear him speak; matrons flung gloves, + Ladies and maids their scarfs and handkerchers, + Upon him as he pass'd; the nobles bended + As to Jove's statue, and the commons made + A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts. + I never saw the like. + BRUTUS. Let's to the Capitol, + And carry with us ears and eyes for th' time, + But hearts for the event. + SICINIUS. Have with you. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Rome. The Capitol + +Enter two OFFICERS, to lay cushions, as it were in the Capitol + + FIRST OFFICER. Come, come, they are almost here. How many stand for + consulships? + SECOND OFFICER. Three, they say; but 'tis thought of every one + Coriolanus will carry it. + FIRST OFFICER. That's a brave fellow; but he's vengeance proud and + loves not the common people. + SECOND OFFICER. Faith, there have been many great men that have + flatter'd the people, who ne'er loved them; and there be many + that they have loved, they know not wherefore; so that, if they + love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground. + Therefore, for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or + hate him manifests the true knowledge he has in their + disposition, and out of his noble carelessness lets them plainly + see't. + FIRST OFFICER. If he did not care whether he had their love or no, + he waved indifferently 'twixt doing them neither good nor harm; + but he seeks their hate with greater devotion than they can + render it him, and leaves nothing undone that may fully discover + him their opposite. Now to seem to affect the malice and + displeasure of the people is as bad as that which he dislikes- to + flatter them for their love. + SECOND OFFICER. He hath deserved worthily of his country; and his + ascent is not by such easy degrees as those who, having been + supple and courteous to the people, bonneted, without any further + deed to have them at all, into their estimation and report; but + he hath so planted his honours in their eyes and his actions in + their hearts that for their tongues to be silent and not confess + so much were a kind of ingrateful injury; to report otherwise + were a malice that, giving itself the lie, would pluck reproof + and rebuke from every car that heard it. + FIRST OFFICER. No more of him; he's a worthy man. Make way, they + are coming. + + A sennet. Enter the PATRICIANS and the TRIBUNES + OF THE PEOPLE, LICTORS before them; CORIOLANUS, + MENENIUS, COMINIUS the Consul. SICINIUS and + BRUTUS take their places by themselves. + CORIOLANUS stands + + MENENIUS. Having determin'd of the Volsces, and + To send for Titus Lartius, it remains, + As the main point of this our after-meeting, + To gratify his noble service that + Hath thus stood for his country. Therefore please you, + Most reverend and grave elders, to desire + The present consul and last general + In our well-found successes to report + A little of that worthy work perform'd + By Caius Marcius Coriolanus; whom + We met here both to thank and to remember + With honours like himself. [CORIOLANUS sits] + FIRST SENATOR. Speak, good Cominius. + Leave nothing out for length, and make us think + Rather our state's defective for requital + Than we to stretch it out. Masters o' th' people, + We do request your kindest ears; and, after, + Your loving motion toward the common body, + To yield what passes here. + SICINIUS. We are convented + Upon a pleasing treaty, and have hearts + Inclinable to honour and advance + The theme of our assembly. + BRUTUS. Which the rather + We shall be bless'd to do, if he remember + A kinder value of the people than + He hath hereto priz'd them at. + MENENIUS. That's off, that's off; + I would you rather had been silent. Please you + To hear Cominius speak? + BRUTUS. Most willingly. + But yet my caution was more pertinent + Than the rebuke you give it. + MENENIUS. He loves your people; + But tie him not to be their bedfellow. + Worthy Cominius, speak. + [CORIOLANUS rises, and offers to go away] + Nay, keep your place. + FIRST SENATOR. Sit, Coriolanus, never shame to hear + What you have nobly done. + CORIOLANUS. Your Honours' pardon. + I had rather have my wounds to heal again + Than hear say how I got them. + BRUTUS. Sir, I hope + My words disbench'd you not. + CORIOLANUS. No, sir; yet oft, + When blows have made me stay, I fled from words. + You sooth'd not, therefore hurt not. But your people, + I love them as they weigh- + MENENIUS. Pray now, sit down. + CORIOLANUS. I had rather have one scratch my head i' th' sun + When the alarum were struck than idly sit + To hear my nothings monster'd. Exit + MENENIUS. Masters of the people, + Your multiplying spawn how can he flatter- + That's thousand to one good one- when you now see + He had rather venture all his limbs for honour + Than one on's ears to hear it? Proceed, Cominius. + COMINIUS. I shall lack voice; the deeds of Coriolanus + Should not be utter'd feebly. It is held + That valour is the chiefest virtue and + Most dignifies the haver. If it be, + The man I speak of cannot in the world + Be singly counterpois'd. At sixteen years, + When Tarquin made a head for Rome, he fought + Beyond the mark of others; our then Dictator, + Whom with all praise I point at, saw him fight + When with his Amazonian chin he drove + The bristled lips before him; he bestrid + An o'erpress'd Roman and i' th' consul's view + Slew three opposers; Tarquin's self he met, + And struck him on his knee. In that day's feats, + When he might act the woman in the scene, + He prov'd best man i' th' field, and for his meed + Was brow-bound with the oak. His pupil age + Man-ent'red thus, he waxed like a sea, + And in the brunt of seventeen battles since + He lurch'd all swords of the garland. For this last, + Before and in Corioli, let me say + I cannot speak him home. He stopp'd the fliers, + And by his rare example made the coward + Turn terror into sport; as weeds before + A vessel under sail, so men obey'd + And fell below his stem. His sword, death's stamp, + Where it did mark, it took; from face to foot + He was a thing of blood, whose every motion + Was tim'd with dying cries. Alone he ent'red + The mortal gate of th' city, which he painted + With shunless destiny; aidless came off, + And with a sudden re-enforcement struck + Corioli like a planet. Now all's his. + When by and by the din of war 'gan pierce + His ready sense, then straight his doubled spirit + Re-quick'ned what in flesh was fatigate, + And to the battle came he; where he did + Run reeking o'er the lives of men, as if + 'Twere a perpetual spoil; and till we call'd + Both field and city ours he never stood + To ease his breast with panting. + MENENIUS. Worthy man! + FIRST SENATOR. He cannot but with measure fit the honours + Which we devise him. + COMINIUS. Our spoils he kick'd at, + And look'd upon things precious as they were + The common muck of the world. He covets less + Than misery itself would give, rewards + His deeds with doing them, and is content + To spend the time to end it. + MENENIUS. He's right noble; + Let him be call'd for. + FIRST SENATOR. Call Coriolanus. + OFFICER. He doth appear. + + Re-enter CORIOLANUS + + MENENIUS. The Senate, Coriolanus, are well pleas'd + To make thee consul. + CORIOLANUS. I do owe them still + My life and services. + MENENIUS. It then remains + That you do speak to the people. + CORIOLANUS. I do beseech you + Let me o'erleap that custom; for I cannot + Put on the gown, stand naked, and entreat them + For my wounds' sake to give their suffrage. Please you + That I may pass this doing. + SICINIUS. Sir, the people + Must have their voices; neither will they bate + One jot of ceremony. + MENENIUS. Put them not to't. + Pray you go fit you to the custom, and + Take to you, as your predecessors have, + Your honour with your form. + CORIOLANUS. It is a part + That I shall blush in acting, and might well + Be taken from the people. + BRUTUS. Mark you that? + CORIOLANUS. To brag unto them 'Thus I did, and thus!' + Show them th' unaching scars which I should hide, + As if I had receiv'd them for the hire + Of their breath only! + MENENIUS. Do not stand upon't. + We recommend to you, Tribunes of the People, + Our purpose to them; and to our noble consul + Wish we all joy and honour. + SENATORS. To Coriolanus come all joy and honour! + [Flourish. Cornets. Then exeunt all + but SICINIUS and BRUTUS] + BRUTUS. You see how he intends to use the people. + SICINIUS. May they perceive's intent! He will require them + As if he did contemn what he requested + Should be in them to give. + BRUTUS. Come, we'll inform them + Of our proceedings here. On th' market-place + I know they do attend us. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Rome. The Forum + +Enter seven or eight citizens + + FIRST CITIZEN. Once, if he do require our voices, we ought not to + deny him. + SECOND CITIZEN. We may, sir, if we will. + THIRD CITIZEN. We have power in ourselves to do it, but it is a + power that we have no power to do; for if he show us his wounds + and tell us his deeds, we are to put our tongues into those + wounds and speak for them; so, if he tell us his noble deeds, we + must also tell him our noble acceptance of them. Ingratitude is + monstrous, and for the multitude to be ingrateful were to make a + monster of the multitude; of the which we being members should + bring ourselves to be monstrous members. + FIRST CITIZEN. And to make us no better thought of, a little help + will serve; for once we stood up about the corn, he himself stuck + not to call us the many-headed multitude. + THIRD CITIZEN. We have been call'd so of many; not that our heads + are some brown, some black, some abram, some bald, but that our + wits are so diversely colour'd; and truly I think if all our wits + were to issue out of one skull, they would fly east, west, north, + south, and their consent of one direct way should be at once to + all the points o' th' compass. + SECOND CITIZEN. Think you so? Which way do you judge my wit would + fly? + THIRD CITIZEN. Nay, your wit will not so soon out as another man's + will- 'tis strongly wedg'd up in a block-head; but if it were at + liberty 'twould sure southward. + SECOND CITIZEN. Why that way? + THIRD CITIZEN. To lose itself in a fog; where being three parts + melted away with rotten dews, the fourth would return for + conscience' sake, to help to get thee a wife. + SECOND CITIZEN. YOU are never without your tricks; you may, you + may. + THIRD CITIZEN. Are you all resolv'd to give your voices? But that's + no matter, the greater part carries it. I say, if he would + incline to the people, there was never a worthier man. + + Enter CORIOLANUS, in a gown of humility, + with MENENIUS + + Here he comes, and in the gown of humility. Mark his behaviour. + We are not to stay all together, but to come by him where he + stands, by ones, by twos, and by threes. He's to make his + requests by particulars, wherein every one of us has a single + honour, in giving him our own voices with our own tongues; + therefore follow me, and I'll direct you how you shall go by him. + ALL. Content, content. Exeunt citizens + MENENIUS. O sir, you are not right; have you not known + The worthiest men have done't? + CORIOLANUS. What must I say? + 'I pray, sir'- Plague upon't! I cannot bring + My tongue to such a pace. 'Look, sir, my wounds + I got them in my country's service, when + Some certain of your brethren roar'd and ran + From th' noise of our own drums.' + MENENIUS. O me, the gods! + You must not speak of that. You must desire them + To think upon you. + CORIOLANUS. Think upon me? Hang 'em! + I would they would forget me, like the virtues + Which our divines lose by 'em. + MENENIUS. You'll mar all. + I'll leave you. Pray you speak to 'em, I pray you, + In wholesome manner. Exit + + Re-enter three of the citizens + + CORIOLANUS. Bid them wash their faces + And keep their teeth clean. So, here comes a brace. + You know the cause, sir, of my standing here. + THIRD CITIZEN. We do, sir; tell us what hath brought you to't. + CORIOLANUS. Mine own desert. + SECOND CITIZEN. Your own desert? + CORIOLANUS. Ay, not mine own desire. + THIRD CITIZEN. How, not your own desire? + CORIOLANUS. No, sir, 'twas never my desire yet to trouble the poor + with begging. + THIRD CITIZEN. YOU MUST think, if we give you anything, we hope to + gain by you. + CORIOLANUS. Well then, I pray, your price o' th' consulship? + FIRST CITIZEN. The price is to ask it kindly. + CORIOLANUS. Kindly, sir, I pray let me ha't. I have wounds to show + you, which shall be yours in private. Your good voice, sir; what + say you? + SECOND CITIZEN. You shall ha' it, worthy sir. + CORIOLANUS. A match, sir. There's in all two worthy voices begg'd. + I have your alms. Adieu. + THIRD CITIZEN. But this is something odd. + SECOND CITIZEN. An 'twere to give again- but 'tis no matter. + Exeunt the three citizens + + Re-enter two other citizens + + CORIOLANUS. Pray you now, if it may stand with the tune of your + voices that I may be consul, I have here the customary gown. + FOURTH CITIZEN. You have deserved nobly of your country, and you + have not deserved nobly. + CORIOLANUS. Your enigma? + FOURTH CITIZEN. You have been a scourge to her enemies; you have + been a rod to her friends. You have not indeed loved the common + people. + CORIOLANUS. You should account me the more virtuous, that I have + not been common in my love. I will, sir, flatter my sworn + brother, the people, to earn a dearer estimation of them; 'tis a + condition they account gentle; and since the wisdom of their + choice is rather to have my hat than my heart, I will practise + the insinuating nod and be off to them most counterfeitly. That + is, sir, I will counterfeit the bewitchment of some popular man + and give it bountiful to the desirers. Therefore, beseech you I + may be consul. + FIFTH CITIZEN. We hope to find you our friend; and therefore give + you our voices heartily. + FOURTH CITIZEN. You have received many wounds for your country. + CORIOLANUS. I will not seal your knowledge with showing them. I + will make much of your voices, and so trouble you no farther. + BOTH CITIZENS. The gods give you joy, sir, heartily! + Exeunt citizens + CORIOLANUS. Most sweet voices! + Better it is to die, better to starve, + Than crave the hire which first we do deserve. + Why in this wolvish toge should I stand here + To beg of Hob and Dick that do appear + Their needless vouches? Custom calls me to't. + What custom wills, in all things should we do't, + The dust on antique time would lie unswept, + And mountainous error be too highly heap'd + For truth to o'erpeer. Rather than fool it so, + Let the high office and the honour go + To one that would do thus. I am half through: + The one part suffered, the other will I do. + + Re-enter three citizens more + + Here come moe voices. + Your voices. For your voices I have fought; + Watch'd for your voices; for your voices bear + Of wounds two dozen odd; battles thrice six + I have seen and heard of; for your voices have + Done many things, some less, some more. Your voices? + Indeed, I would be consul. + SIXTH CITIZEN. He has done nobly, and cannot go without any honest + man's voice. + SEVENTH CITIZEN. Therefore let him be consul. The gods give him + joy, and make him good friend to the people! + ALL. Amen, amen. God save thee, noble consul! + Exeunt citizens + CORIOLANUS. Worthy voices! + + Re-enter MENENIUS with BRUTUS and SICINIUS + + MENENIUS. You have stood your limitation, and the tribunes + Endue you with the people's voice. Remains + That, in th' official marks invested, you + Anon do meet the Senate. + CORIOLANUS. Is this done? + SICINIUS. The custom of request you have discharg'd. + The people do admit you, and are summon'd + To meet anon, upon your approbation. + CORIOLANUS. Where? At the Senate House? + SICINIUS. There, Coriolanus. + CORIOLANUS. May I change these garments? + SICINIUS. You may, sir. + CORIOLANUS. That I'll straight do, and, knowing myself again, + Repair to th' Senate House. + MENENIUS. I'll keep you company. Will you along? + BRUTUS. We stay here for the people. + SICINIUS. Fare you well. + Exeunt CORIOLANUS and MENENIUS + He has it now; and by his looks methinks + 'Tis warm at's heart. + BRUTUS. With a proud heart he wore + His humble weeds. Will you dismiss the people? + + Re-enter citizens + + SICINIUS. How now, my masters! Have you chose this man? + FIRST CITIZEN. He has our voices, sir. + BRUTUS. We pray the gods he may deserve your loves. + SECOND CITIZEN. Amen, sir. To my poor unworthy notice, + He mock'd us when he begg'd our voices. + THIRD CITIZEN. Certainly; + He flouted us downright. + FIRST CITIZEN. No, 'tis his kind of speech- he did not mock us. + SECOND CITIZEN. Not one amongst us, save yourself, but says + He us'd us scornfully. He should have show'd us + His marks of merit, wounds receiv'd for's country. + SICINIUS. Why, so he did, I am sure. + ALL. No, no; no man saw 'em. + THIRD CITIZEN. He said he had wounds which he could show in + private, + And with his hat, thus waving it in scorn, + 'I would be consul,' says he; 'aged custom + But by your voices will not so permit me; + Your voices therefore.' When we granted that, + Here was 'I thank you for your voices. Thank you, + Your most sweet voices. Now you have left your voices, + I have no further with you.' Was not this mockery? + SICINIUS. Why either were you ignorant to see't, + Or, seeing it, of such childish friendliness + To yield your voices? + BRUTUS. Could you not have told him- + As you were lesson'd- when he had no power + But was a petty servant to the state, + He was your enemy; ever spake against + Your liberties and the charters that you bear + I' th' body of the weal; and now, arriving + A place of potency and sway o' th' state, + If he should still malignantly remain + Fast foe to th' plebeii, your voices might + Be curses to yourselves? You should have said + That as his worthy deeds did claim no less + Than what he stood for, so his gracious nature + Would think upon you for your voices, and + Translate his malice towards you into love, + Standing your friendly lord. + SICINIUS. Thus to have said, + As you were fore-advis'd, had touch'd his spirit + And tried his inclination; from him pluck'd + Either his gracious promise, which you might, + As cause had call'd you up, have held him to; + Or else it would have gall'd his surly nature, + Which easily endures not article + Tying him to aught. So, putting him to rage, + You should have ta'en th' advantage of his choler + And pass'd him unelected. + BRUTUS. Did you perceive + He did solicit you in free contempt + When he did need your loves; and do you think + That his contempt shall not be bruising to you + When he hath power to crush? Why, had your bodies + No heart among you? Or had you tongues to cry + Against the rectorship of judgment? + SICINIUS. Have you + Ere now denied the asker, and now again, + Of him that did not ask but mock, bestow + Your su'd-for tongues? + THIRD CITIZEN. He's not confirm'd: we may deny him yet. + SECOND CITIZENS. And will deny him; + I'll have five hundred voices of that sound. + FIRST CITIZEN. I twice five hundred, and their friends to piece + 'em. + BRUTUS. Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends + They have chose a consul that will from them take + Their liberties, make them of no more voice + Than dogs, that are as often beat for barking + As therefore kept to do so. + SICINIUS. Let them assemble; + And, on a safer judgment, all revoke + Your ignorant election. Enforce his pride + And his old hate unto you; besides, forget not + With what contempt he wore the humble weed; + How in his suit he scorn'd you; but your loves, + Thinking upon his services, took from you + Th' apprehension of his present portance, + Which, most gibingly, ungravely, he did fashion + After the inveterate hate he bears you. + BRUTUS. Lay + A fault on us, your tribunes, that we labour'd, + No impediment between, but that you must + Cast your election on him. + SICINIUS. Say you chose him + More after our commandment than as guided + By your own true affections; and that your minds, + Pre-occupied with what you rather must do + Than what you should, made you against the grain + To voice him consul. Lay the fault on us. + BRUTUS. Ay, spare us not. Say we read lectures to you, + How youngly he began to serve his country, + How long continued; and what stock he springs of- + The noble house o' th' Marcians; from whence came + That Ancus Marcius, Numa's daughter's son, + Who, after great Hostilius, here was king; + Of the same house Publius and Quintus were, + That our best water brought by conduits hither; + And Censorinus, nobly named so, + Twice being by the people chosen censor, + Was his great ancestor. + SICINIUS. One thus descended, + That hath beside well in his person wrought + To be set high in place, we did commend + To your remembrances; but you have found, + Scaling his present bearing with his past, + That he's your fixed enemy, and revoke + Your sudden approbation. + BRUTUS. Say you ne'er had done't- + Harp on that still- but by our putting on; + And presently, when you have drawn your number, + Repair to th' Capitol. + CITIZENS. will will so; almost all + Repent in their election. Exeunt plebeians + BRUTUS. Let them go on; + This mutiny were better put in hazard + Than stay, past doubt, for greater. + If, as his nature is, he fall in rage + With their refusal, both observe and answer + The vantage of his anger. + SICINIUS. To th' Capitol, come. + We will be there before the stream o' th' people; + And this shall seem, as partly 'tis, their own, + Which we have goaded onward. Exeunt + + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +Rome. A street + +Cornets. Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS, all the GENTRY, COMINIUS, +TITUS LARTIUS, and other SENATORS + + CORIOLANUS. Tullus Aufidius, then, had made new head? + LARTIUS. He had, my lord; and that it was which caus'd + Our swifter composition. + CORIOLANUS. So then the Volsces stand but as at first, + Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road + Upon's again. + COMINIUS. They are worn, Lord Consul, so + That we shall hardly in our ages see + Their banners wave again. + CORIOLANUS. Saw you Aufidius? + LARTIUS. On safeguard he came to me, and did curse + Against the Volsces, for they had so vilely + Yielded the town. He is retir'd to Antium. + CORIOLANUS. Spoke he of me? + LARTIUS. He did, my lord. + CORIOLANUS. How? What? + LARTIUS. How often he had met you, sword to sword; + That of all things upon the earth he hated + Your person most; that he would pawn his fortunes + To hopeless restitution, so he might + Be call'd your vanquisher. + CORIOLANUS. At Antium lives he? + LARTIUS. At Antium. + CORIOLANUS. I wish I had a cause to seek him there, + To oppose his hatred fully. Welcome home. + + Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS + + Behold, these are the tribunes of the people, + The tongues o' th' common mouth. I do despise them, + For they do prank them in authority, + Against all noble sufferance. + SICINIUS. Pass no further. + CORIOLANUS. Ha! What is that? + BRUTUS. It will be dangerous to go on- no further. + CORIOLANUS. What makes this change? + MENENIUS. The matter? + COMINIUS. Hath he not pass'd the noble and the common? + BRUTUS. Cominius, no. + CORIOLANUS. Have I had children's voices? + FIRST SENATOR. Tribunes, give way: he shall to th' market-place. + BRUTUS. The people are incens'd against him. + SICINIUS. Stop, + Or all will fall in broil. + CORIOLANUS. Are these your herd? + Must these have voices, that can yield them now + And straight disclaim their tongues? What are your offices? + You being their mouths, why rule you not their teeth? + Have you not set them on? + MENENIUS. Be calm, be calm. + CORIOLANUS. It is a purpos'd thing, and grows by plot, + To curb the will of the nobility; + Suffer't, and live with such as cannot rule + Nor ever will be rul'd. + BRUTUS. Call't not a plot. + The people cry you mock'd them; and of late, + When corn was given them gratis, you repin'd; + Scandal'd the suppliants for the people, call'd them + Time-pleasers, flatterers, foes to nobleness. + CORIOLANUS. Why, this was known before. + BRUTUS. Not to them all. + CORIOLANUS. Have you inform'd them sithence? + BRUTUS. How? I inform them! + COMINIUS. You are like to do such business. + BRUTUS. Not unlike + Each way to better yours. + CORIOLANUS. Why then should I be consul? By yond clouds, + Let me deserve so ill as you, and make me + Your fellow tribune. + SICINIUS. You show too much of that + For which the people stir; if you will pass + To where you are bound, you must enquire your way, + Which you are out of, with a gentler spirit, + Or never be so noble as a consul, + Nor yoke with him for tribune. + MENENIUS. Let's be calm. + COMINIUS. The people are abus'd; set on. This palt'ring + Becomes not Rome; nor has Coriolanus + Deserved this so dishonour'd rub, laid falsely + I' th' plain way of his merit. + CORIOLANUS. Tell me of corn! + This was my speech, and I will speak't again- + MENENIUS. Not now, not now. + FIRST SENATOR. Not in this heat, sir, now. + CORIOLANUS. Now, as I live, I will. + My nobler friends, I crave their pardons. + For the mutable, rank-scented meiny, let them + Regard me as I do not flatter, and + Therein behold themselves. I say again, + In soothing them we nourish 'gainst our Senate + The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition, + Which we ourselves have plough'd for, sow'd, and scatter'd, + By mingling them with us, the honour'd number, + Who lack not virtue, no, nor power, but that + Which they have given to beggars. + MENENIUS. Well, no more. + FIRST SENATOR. No more words, we beseech you. + CORIOLANUS. How? no more! + As for my country I have shed my blood, + Not fearing outward force, so shall my lungs + Coin words till their decay against those measles + Which we disdain should tetter us, yet sought + The very way to catch them. + BRUTUS. You speak o' th' people + As if you were a god, to punish; not + A man of their infirmity. + SICINIUS. 'Twere well + We let the people know't. + MENENIUS. What, what? his choler? + CORIOLANUS. Choler! + Were I as patient as the midnight sleep, + By Jove, 'twould be my mind! + SICINIUS. It is a mind + That shall remain a poison where it is, + Not poison any further. + CORIOLANUS. Shall remain! + Hear you this Triton of the minnows? Mark you + His absolute 'shall'? + COMINIUS. 'Twas from the canon. + CORIOLANUS. 'Shall'! + O good but most unwise patricians! Why, + You grave but reckless senators, have you thus + Given Hydra here to choose an officer + That with his peremptory 'shall,' being but + The horn and noise o' th' monster's, wants not spirit + To say he'll turn your current in a ditch, + And make your channel his? If he have power, + Then vail your ignorance; if none, awake + Your dangerous lenity. If you are learn'd, + Be not as common fools; if you are not, + Let them have cushions by you. You are plebeians, + If they be senators; and they are no less, + When, both your voices blended, the great'st taste + Most palates theirs. They choose their magistrate; + And such a one as he, who puts his 'shall,' + His popular 'shall,' against a graver bench + Than ever frown'd in Greece. By Jove himself, + It makes the consuls base; and my soul aches + To know, when two authorities are up, + Neither supreme, how soon confusion + May enter 'twixt the gap of both and take + The one by th' other. + COMINIUS. Well, on to th' market-place. + CORIOLANUS. Whoever gave that counsel to give forth + The corn o' th' storehouse gratis, as 'twas us'd + Sometime in Greece- + MENENIUS. Well, well, no more of that. + CORIOLANUS. Though there the people had more absolute pow'r- + I say they nourish'd disobedience, fed + The ruin of the state. + BRUTUS. Why shall the people give + One that speaks thus their voice? + CORIOLANUS. I'll give my reasons, + More worthier than their voices. They know the corn + Was not our recompense, resting well assur'd + They ne'er did service for't; being press'd to th' war + Even when the navel of the state was touch'd, + They would not thread the gates. This kind of service + Did not deserve corn gratis. Being i' th' war, + Their mutinies and revolts, wherein they show'd + Most valour, spoke not for them. Th' accusation + Which they have often made against the Senate, + All cause unborn, could never be the native + Of our so frank donation. Well, what then? + How shall this bosom multiplied digest + The Senate's courtesy? Let deeds express + What's like to be their words: 'We did request it; + We are the greater poll, and in true fear + They gave us our demands.' Thus we debase + The nature of our seats, and make the rabble + Call our cares fears; which will in time + Break ope the locks o' th' Senate and bring in + The crows to peck the eagles. + MENENIUS. Come, enough. + BRUTUS. Enough, with over measure. + CORIOLANUS. No, take more. + What may be sworn by, both divine and human, + Seal what I end withal! This double worship, + Where one part does disdain with cause, the other + Insult without all reason; where gentry, title, wisdom, + Cannot conclude but by the yea and no + Of general ignorance- it must omit + Real necessities, and give way the while + To unstable slightness. Purpose so barr'd, it follows + Nothing is done to purpose. Therefore, beseech you- + You that will be less fearful than discreet; + That love the fundamental part of state + More than you doubt the change on't; that prefer + A noble life before a long, and wish + To jump a body with a dangerous physic + That's sure of death without it- at once pluck out + The multitudinous tongue; let them not lick + The sweet which is their poison. Your dishonour + Mangles true judgment, and bereaves the state + Of that integrity which should become't, + Not having the power to do the good it would, + For th' ill which doth control't. + BRUTUS. Has said enough. + SICINIUS. Has spoken like a traitor and shall answer + As traitors do. + CORIOLANUS. Thou wretch, despite o'erwhelm thee! + What should the people do with these bald tribunes, + On whom depending, their obedience fails + To the greater bench? In a rebellion, + When what's not meet, but what must be, was law, + Then were they chosen; in a better hour + Let what is meet be said it must be meet, + And throw their power i' th' dust. + BRUTUS. Manifest treason! + SICINIUS. This a consul? No. + BRUTUS. The aediles, ho! + + Enter an AEDILE + + Let him be apprehended. + SICINIUS. Go call the people, [Exit AEDILE] in whose name myself + Attach thee as a traitorous innovator, + A foe to th' public weal. Obey, I charge thee, + And follow to thine answer. + CORIOLANUS. Hence, old goat! + PATRICIANS. We'll surety him. + COMINIUS. Ag'd sir, hands off. + CORIOLANUS. Hence, rotten thing! or I shall shake thy bones + Out of thy garments. + SICINIUS. Help, ye citizens! + + Enter a rabble of plebeians, with the AEDILES + + MENENIUS. On both sides more respect. + SICINIUS. Here's he that would take from you all your power. + BRUTUS. Seize him, aediles. + PLEBEIANS. Down with him! down with him! + SECOND SENATOR. Weapons, weapons, weapons! + [They all bustle about CORIOLANUS] + ALL. Tribunes! patricians! citizens! What, ho! Sicinius! + Brutus! Coriolanus! Citizens! + PATRICIANS. Peace, peace, peace; stay, hold, peace! + MENENIUS. What is about to be? I am out of breath; + Confusion's near; I cannot speak. You tribunes + To th' people- Coriolanus, patience! + Speak, good Sicinius. + SICINIUS. Hear me, people; peace! + PLEBEIANS. Let's hear our tribune. Peace! Speak, speak, speak. + SICINIUS. You are at point to lose your liberties. + Marcius would have all from you; Marcius, + Whom late you have nam'd for consul. + MENENIUS. Fie, fie, fie! + This is the way to kindle, not to quench. + FIRST SENATOR. To unbuild the city, and to lay all flat. + SICINIUS. What is the city but the people? + PLEBEIANS. True, + The people are the city. + BRUTUS. By the consent of all we were establish'd + The people's magistrates. + PLEBEIANS. You so remain. + MENENIUS. And so are like to do. + COMINIUS. That is the way to lay the city flat, + To bring the roof to the foundation, + And bury all which yet distinctly ranges + In heaps and piles of ruin. + SICINIUS. This deserves death. + BRUTUS. Or let us stand to our authority + Or let us lose it. We do here pronounce, + Upon the part o' th' people, in whose power + We were elected theirs: Marcius is worthy + Of present death. + SICINIUS. Therefore lay hold of him; + Bear him to th' rock Tarpeian, and from thence + Into destruction cast him. + BRUTUS. AEdiles, seize him. + PLEBEIANS. Yield, Marcius, yield. + MENENIUS. Hear me one word; beseech you, Tribunes, + Hear me but a word. + AEDILES. Peace, peace! + MENENIUS. Be that you seem, truly your country's friend, + And temp'rately proceed to what you would + Thus violently redress. + BRUTUS. Sir, those cold ways, + That seem like prudent helps, are very poisonous + Where the disease is violent. Lay hands upon him + And bear him to the rock. + [CORIOLANUS draws his sword] + CORIOLANUS. No: I'll die here. + There's some among you have beheld me fighting; + Come, try upon yourselves what you have seen me. + MENENIUS. Down with that sword! Tribunes, withdraw awhile. + BRUTUS. Lay hands upon him. + MENENIUS. Help Marcius, help, + You that be noble; help him, young and old. + PLEBEIANS. Down with him, down with him! + [In this mutiny the TRIBUNES, the AEDILES, + and the people are beat in] + MENENIUS. Go, get you to your house; be gone, away. + All will be nought else. + SECOND SENATOR. Get you gone. + CORIOLANUS. Stand fast; + We have as many friends as enemies. + MENENIUS. Shall it be put to that? + FIRST SENATOR. The gods forbid! + I prithee, noble friend, home to thy house; + Leave us to cure this cause. + MENENIUS. For 'tis a sore upon us + You cannot tent yourself; be gone, beseech you. + COMINIUS. Come, sir, along with us. + CORIOLANUS. I would they were barbarians, as they are, + Though in Rome litter'd; not Romans, as they are not, + Though calved i' th' porch o' th' Capitol. + MENENIUS. Be gone. + Put not your worthy rage into your tongue; + One time will owe another. + CORIOLANUS. On fair ground + I could beat forty of them. + MENENIUS. I could myself + Take up a brace o' th' best of them; yea, the two tribunes. + COMINIUS. But now 'tis odds beyond arithmetic, + And manhood is call'd foolery when it stands + Against a falling fabric. Will you hence, + Before the tag return? whose rage doth rend + Like interrupted waters, and o'erbear + What they are us'd to bear. + MENENIUS. Pray you be gone. + I'll try whether my old wit be in request + With those that have but little; this must be patch'd + With cloth of any colour. + COMINIUS. Nay, come away. + Exeunt CORIOLANUS and COMINIUS, with others + PATRICIANS. This man has marr'd his fortune. + MENENIUS. His nature is too noble for the world: + He would not flatter Neptune for his trident, + Or Jove for's power to thunder. His heart's his mouth; + What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent; + And, being angry, does forget that ever + He heard the name of death. [A noise within] + Here's goodly work! + PATRICIANS. I would they were a-bed. + MENENIUS. I would they were in Tiber. + What the vengeance, could he not speak 'em fair? + + Re-enter BRUTUS and SICINIUS, the rabble again + + SICINIUS. Where is this viper + That would depopulate the city and + Be every man himself? + MENENIUS. You worthy Tribunes- + SICINIUS. He shall be thrown down the Tarpeian rock + With rigorous hands; he hath resisted law, + And therefore law shall scorn him further trial + Than the severity of the public power, + Which he so sets at nought. + FIRST CITIZEN. He shall well know + The noble tribunes are the people's mouths, + And we their hands. + PLEBEIANS. He shall, sure on't. + MENENIUS. Sir, sir- + SICINIUS. Peace! + MENENIUS. Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt + With modest warrant. + SICINIUS. Sir, how comes't that you + Have holp to make this rescue? + MENENIUS. Hear me speak. + As I do know the consul's worthiness, + So can I name his faults. + SICINIUS. Consul! What consul? + MENENIUS. The consul Coriolanus. + BRUTUS. He consul! + PLEBEIANS. No, no, no, no, no. + MENENIUS. If, by the tribunes' leave, and yours, good people, + I may be heard, I would crave a word or two; + The which shall turn you to no further harm + Than so much loss of time. + SICINIUS. Speak briefly, then, + For we are peremptory to dispatch + This viperous traitor; to eject him hence + Were but one danger, and to keep him here + Our certain death; therefore it is decreed + He dies to-night. + MENENIUS. Now the good gods forbid + That our renowned Rome, whose gratitude + Towards her deserved children is enroll'd + In Jove's own book, like an unnatural dam + Should now eat up her own! + SICINIUS. He's a disease that must be cut away. + MENENIUS. O, he's a limb that has but a disease- + Mortal, to cut it off: to cure it, easy. + What has he done to Rome that's worthy death? + Killing our enemies, the blood he hath lost- + Which I dare vouch is more than that he hath + By many an ounce- he dropt it for his country; + And what is left, to lose it by his country + Were to us all that do't and suffer it + A brand to th' end o' th' world. + SICINIUS. This is clean kam. + BRUTUS. Merely awry. When he did love his country, + It honour'd him. + SICINIUS. The service of the foot, + Being once gangren'd, is not then respected + For what before it was. + BRUTUS. We'll hear no more. + Pursue him to his house and pluck him thence, + Lest his infection, being of catching nature, + Spread further. + MENENIUS. One word more, one word + This tiger-footed rage, when it shall find + The harm of unscann'd swiftness, will, too late, + Tie leaden pounds to's heels. Proceed by process, + Lest parties- as he is belov'd- break out, + And sack great Rome with Romans. + BRUTUS. If it were so- + SICINIUS. What do ye talk? + Have we not had a taste of his obedience- + Our aediles smote, ourselves resisted? Come! + MENENIUS. Consider this: he has been bred i' th' wars + Since 'a could draw a sword, and is ill school'd + In bolted language; meal and bran together + He throws without distinction. Give me leave, + I'll go to him and undertake to bring him + Where he shall answer by a lawful form, + In peace, to his utmost peril. + FIRST SENATOR. Noble Tribunes, + It is the humane way; the other course + Will prove too bloody, and the end of it + Unknown to the beginning. + SICINIUS. Noble Menenius, + Be you then as the people's officer. + Masters, lay down your weapons. + BRUTUS. Go not home. + SICINIUS. Meet on the market-place. We'll attend you there; + Where, if you bring not Marcius, we'll proceed + In our first way. + MENENIUS. I'll bring him to you. + [To the SENATORS] Let me desire your company; he must come, + Or what is worst will follow. + FIRST SENATOR. Pray you let's to him. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Rome. The house of CORIOLANUS + +Enter CORIOLANUS with NOBLES + + CORIOLANUS. Let them pull all about mine ears, present me + Death on the wheel or at wild horses' heels; + Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock, + That the precipitation might down stretch + Below the beam of sight; yet will I still + Be thus to them. + FIRST PATRICIAN. You do the nobler. + CORIOLANUS. I muse my mother + Does not approve me further, who was wont + To call them woollen vassals, things created + To buy and sell with groats; to show bare heads + In congregations, to yawn, be still, and wonder, + When one but of my ordinance stood up + To speak of peace or war. + + Enter VOLUMNIA + + I talk of you: + Why did you wish me milder? Would you have me + False to my nature? Rather say I play + The man I am. + VOLUMNIA. O, sir, sir, sir, + I would have had you put your power well on + Before you had worn it out. + CORIOLANUS. Let go. + VOLUMNIA. You might have been enough the man you are + With striving less to be so; lesser had been + The thwartings of your dispositions, if + You had not show'd them how ye were dispos'd, + Ere they lack'd power to cross you. + CORIOLANUS. Let them hang. + VOLUMNIA. Ay, and burn too. + + Enter MENENIUS with the SENATORS + + MENENIUS. Come, come, you have been too rough, something too rough; + You must return and mend it. + FIRST SENATOR. There's no remedy, + Unless, by not so doing, our good city + Cleave in the midst and perish. + VOLUMNIA. Pray be counsell'd; + I have a heart as little apt as yours, + But yet a brain that leads my use of anger + To better vantage. + MENENIUS. Well said, noble woman! + Before he should thus stoop to th' herd, but that + The violent fit o' th' time craves it as physic + For the whole state, I would put mine armour on, + Which I can scarcely bear. + CORIOLANUS. What must I do? + MENENIUS. Return to th' tribunes. + CORIOLANUS. Well, what then, what then? + MENENIUS. Repent what you have spoke. + CORIOLANUS. For them! I cannot do it to the gods; + Must I then do't to them? + VOLUMNIA. You are too absolute; + Though therein you can never be too noble + But when extremities speak. I have heard you say + Honour and policy, like unsever'd friends, + I' th' war do grow together; grant that, and tell me + In peace what each of them by th' other lose + That they combine not there. + CORIOLANUS. Tush, tush! + MENENIUS. A good demand. + VOLUMNIA. If it be honour in your wars to seem + The same you are not, which for your best ends + You adopt your policy, how is it less or worse + That it shall hold companionship in peace + With honour as in war; since that to both + It stands in like request? + CORIOLANUS. Why force you this? + VOLUMNIA. Because that now it lies you on to speak + To th' people, not by your own instruction, + Nor by th' matter which your heart prompts you, + But with such words that are but roted in + Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables + Of no allowance to your bosom's truth. + Now, this no more dishonours you at all + Than to take in a town with gentle words, + Which else would put you to your fortune and + The hazard of much blood. + I would dissemble with my nature where + My fortunes and my friends at stake requir'd + I should do so in honour. I am in this + Your wife, your son, these senators, the nobles; + And you will rather show our general louts + How you can frown, than spend a fawn upon 'em + For the inheritance of their loves and safeguard + Of what that want might ruin. + MENENIUS. Noble lady! + Come, go with us, speak fair; you may salve so, + Not what is dangerous present, but the los + Of what is past. + VOLUMNIA. I prithee now, My son, + Go to them with this bonnet in thy hand; + And thus far having stretch'd it- here be with them- + Thy knee bussing the stones- for in such busines + Action is eloquence, and the eyes of th' ignorant + More learned than the ears- waving thy head, + Which often thus correcting thy-stout heart, + Now humble as the ripest mulberry + That will not hold the handling. Or say to them + Thou art their soldier and, being bred in broils, + Hast not the soft way which, thou dost confess, + Were fit for thee to use, as they to claim, + In asking their good loves; but thou wilt frame + Thyself, forsooth, hereafter theirs, so far + As thou hast power and person. + MENENIUS. This but done + Even as she speaks, why, their hearts were yours; + For they have pardons, being ask'd, as free + As words to little purpose. + VOLUMNIA. Prithee now, + Go, and be rul'd; although I know thou hadst rather + Follow thine enemy in a fiery gulf + Than flatter him in a bower. + + Enter COMINIUS + + Here is Cominius. + COMINIUS. I have been i' th' market-place; and, sir, 'tis fit + You make strong party, or defend yourself + By calmness or by absence; all's in anger. + MENENIUS. Only fair speech. + COMINIUS. I think 'twill serve, if he + Can thereto frame his spirit. + VOLUMNIA. He must and will. + Prithee now, say you will, and go about it. + CORIOLANUS. Must I go show them my unbarb'd sconce? Must I + With my base tongue give to my noble heart + A lie that it must bear? Well, I will do't; + Yet, were there but this single plot to lose, + This mould of Marcius, they to dust should grind it, + And throw't against the wind. To th' market-place! + You have put me now to such a part which never + I shall discharge to th' life. + COMINIUS. Come, come, we'll prompt you. + VOLUMNIA. I prithee now, sweet son, as thou hast said + My praises made thee first a soldier, so, + To have my praise for this, perform a part + Thou hast not done before. + CORIOLANUS. Well, I must do't. + Away, my disposition, and possess me + Some harlot's spirit! My throat of war be turn'd, + Which quier'd with my drum, into a pipe + Small as an eunuch or the virgin voice + That babies lulls asleep! The smiles of knaves + Tent in my cheeks, and schoolboys' tears take up + The glasses of my sight! A beggar's tongue + Make motion through my lips, and my arm'd knees, + Who bow'd but in my stirrup, bend like his + That hath receiv'd an alms! I will not do't, + Lest I surcease to honour mine own truth, + And by my body's action teach my mind + A most inherent baseness. + VOLUMNIA. At thy choice, then. + To beg of thee, it is my more dishonour + Than thou of them. Come all to ruin. Let + Thy mother rather feel thy pride than fear + Thy dangerous stoutness; for I mock at death + With as big heart as thou. Do as thou list. + Thy valiantness was mine, thou suck'dst it from me; + But owe thy pride thyself. + CORIOLANUS. Pray be content. + Mother, I am going to the market-place; + Chide me no more. I'll mountebank their loves, + Cog their hearts from them, and come home belov'd + Of all the trades in Rome. Look, I am going. + Commend me to my wife. I'll return consul, + Or never trust to what my tongue can do + I' th' way of flattery further. + VOLUMNIA. Do your will. Exit + COMINIUS. Away! The tribunes do attend you. Arm yourself + To answer mildly; for they are prepar'd + With accusations, as I hear, more strong + Than are upon you yet. + CORIOLANUS. The word is 'mildly.' Pray you let us go. + Let them accuse me by invention; I + Will answer in mine honour. + MENENIUS. Ay, but mildly. + CORIOLANUS. Well, mildly be it then- mildly. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Rome. The Forum + +Enter SICINIUS and BRUTUS + + BRUTUS. In this point charge him home, that he affects + Tyrannical power. If he evade us there, + Enforce him with his envy to the people, + And that the spoil got on the Antiates + Was ne'er distributed. + + Enter an AEDILE + + What, will he come? + AEDILE. He's coming. + BRUTUS. How accompanied? + AEDILE. With old Menenius, and those senators + That always favour'd him. + SICINIUS. Have you a catalogue + Of all the voices that we have procur'd, + Set down by th' poll? + AEDILE. I have; 'tis ready. + SICINIUS. Have you corrected them by tribes? + AEDILE. I have. + SICINIUS. Assemble presently the people hither; + And when they hear me say 'It shall be so + I' th' right and strength o' th' commons' be it either + For death, for fine, or banishment, then let them, + If I say fine, cry 'Fine!'- if death, cry 'Death!' + Insisting on the old prerogative + And power i' th' truth o' th' cause. + AEDILE. I shall inform them. + BRUTUS. And when such time they have begun to cry, + Let them not cease, but with a din confus'd + Enforce the present execution + Of what we chance to sentence. + AEDILE. Very well. + SICINIUS. Make them be strong, and ready for this hint, + When we shall hap to give't them. + BRUTUS. Go about it. Exit AEDILE + Put him to choler straight. He hath been us'd + Ever to conquer, and to have his worth + Of contradiction; being once chaf'd, he cannot + Be rein'd again to temperance; then he speaks + What's in his heart, and that is there which looks + With us to break his neck. + + Enter CORIOLANUS, MENENIUS and COMINIUS, with others + + SICINIUS. Well, here he comes. + MENENIUS. Calmly, I do beseech you. + CORIOLANUS. Ay, as an ostler, that for th' poorest piece + Will bear the knave by th' volume. Th' honour'd gods + Keep Rome in safety, and the chairs of justice + Supplied with worthy men! plant love among's! + Throng our large temples with the shows of peace, + And not our streets with war! + FIRST SENATOR. Amen, amen! + MENENIUS. A noble wish. + + Re-enter the.AEDILE,with the plebeians + + SICINIUS. Draw near, ye people. + AEDILE. List to your tribunes. Audience! peace, I say! + CORIOLANUS. First, hear me speak. + BOTH TRIBUNES. Well, say. Peace, ho! + CORIOLANUS. Shall I be charg'd no further than this present? + Must all determine here? + SICINIUS. I do demand, + If you submit you to the people's voices, + Allow their officers, and are content + To suffer lawful censure for such faults + As shall be prov'd upon you. + CORIOLANUS. I am content. + MENENIUS. Lo, citizens, he says he is content. + The warlike service he has done, consider; think + Upon the wounds his body bears, which show + Like graves i' th' holy churchyard. + CORIOLANUS. Scratches with briers, + Scars to move laughter only. + MENENIUS. Consider further, + That when he speaks not like a citizen, + You find him like a soldier; do not take + His rougher accents for malicious sounds, + But, as I say, such as become a soldier + Rather than envy you. + COMINIUS. Well, well! No more. + CORIOLANUS. What is the matter, + That being pass'd for consul with full voice, + I am so dishonour'd that the very hour + You take it off again? + SICINIUS. Answer to us. + CORIOLANUS. Say then; 'tis true, I ought so. + SICINIUS. We charge you that you have contriv'd to take + From Rome all season'd office, and to wind + Yourself into a power tyrannical; + For which you are a traitor to the people. + CORIOLANUS. How- traitor? + MENENIUS. Nay, temperately! Your promise. + CORIOLANUS. The fires i' th' lowest hell fold in the people! + Call me their traitor! Thou injurious tribune! + Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths, + In thy hands clutch'd as many millions, in + Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say + 'Thou liest' unto thee with a voice as free + As I do pray the gods. + SICINIUS. Mark you this, people? + PLEBEIANS. To th' rock, to th' rock, with him! + SICINIUS. Peace! + We need not put new matter to his charge. + What you have seen him do and heard him speak, + Beating your officers, cursing yourselves, + Opposing laws with strokes, and here defying + Those whose great power must try him- even this, + So criminal and in such capital kind, + Deserves th' extremest death. + BRUTUS. But since he hath + Serv'd well for Rome- + CORIOLANUS. What do you prate of service? + BRUTUS. I talk of that that know it. + CORIOLANUS. You! + MENENIUS. Is this the promise that you made your mother? + COMINIUS. Know, I pray you- + CORIOLANUS. I'll know no further. + Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death, + Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger + But with a grain a day, I would not buy + Their mercy at the price of one fair word, + Nor check my courage for what they can give, + To have't with saying 'Good morrow.' + SICINIUS. For that he has- + As much as in him lies- from time to time + Envied against the people, seeking means + To pluck away their power; as now at last + Given hostile strokes, and that not in the presence + Of dreaded justice, but on the ministers + That do distribute it- in the name o' th' people, + And in the power of us the tribunes, we, + Ev'n from this instant, banish him our city, + In peril of precipitation + From off the rock Tarpeian, never more + To enter our Rome gates. I' th' people's name, + I say it shall be so. + PLEBEIANS. It shall be so, it shall be so! Let him away! + He's banish'd, and it shall be so. + COMINIUS. Hear me, my masters and my common friends- + SICINIUS. He's sentenc'd; no more hearing. + COMINIUS. Let me speak. + I have been consul, and can show for Rome + Her enemies' marks upon me. I do love + My country's good with a respect more tender, + More holy and profound, than mine own life, + My dear wife's estimate, her womb's increase + And treasure of my loins. Then if I would + Speak that- + SICINIUS. We know your drift. Speak what? + BRUTUS. There's no more to be said, but he is banish'd, + As enemy to the people and his country. + It shall be so. + PLEBEIANS. It shall be so, it shall be so. + CORIOLANUS. YOU common cry of curs, whose breath I hate + As reek o' th' rotten fens, whose loves I prize + As the dead carcasses of unburied men + That do corrupt my air- I banish you. + And here remain with your uncertainty! + Let every feeble rumour shake your hearts; + Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes, + Fan you into despair! Have the power still + To banish your defenders, till at length + Your ignorance- which finds not till it feels, + Making but reservation of yourselves + Still your own foes- deliver you + As most abated captives to some nation + That won you without blows! Despising + For you the city, thus I turn my back; + There is a world elsewhere. + Exeunt CORIOLANUS, + COMINIUS, MENENIUS, with the other PATRICIANS + AEDILE. The people's enemy is gone, is gone! + [They all shout and throw up their caps] + PLEBEIANS. Our enemy is banish'd, he is gone! Hoo-oo! + SICINIUS. Go see him out at gates, and follow him, + As he hath follow'd you, with all despite; + Give him deserv'd vexation. Let a guard + Attend us through the city. + PLEBEIANS. Come, come, let's see him out at gates; come! + The gods preserve our noble tribunes! Come. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +Rome. Before a gate of the city + +Enter CORIOLANUS, VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, MENENIUS, COMINIUS, +with the young NOBILITY of Rome + + CORIOLANUS. Come, leave your tears; a brief farewell. The beast + With many heads butts me away. Nay, mother, + Where is your ancient courage? You were us'd + To say extremities was the trier of spirits; + That common chances common men could bear; + That when the sea was calm all boats alike + Show'd mastership in floating; fortune's blows, + When most struck home, being gentle wounded craves + A noble cunning. You were us'd to load me + With precepts that would make invincible + The heart that conn'd them. + VIRGILIA. O heavens! O heavens! + CORIOLANUS. Nay, I prithee, woman- + VOLUMNIA. Now the red pestilence strike all trades in Rome, + And occupations perish! + CORIOLANUS. What, what, what! + I shall be lov'd when I am lack'd. Nay, mother, + Resume that spirit when you were wont to say, + If you had been the wife of Hercules, + Six of his labours you'd have done, and sav'd + Your husband so much sweat. Cominius, + Droop not; adieu. Farewell, my wife, my mother. + I'll do well yet. Thou old and true Menenius, + Thy tears are salter than a younger man's + And venomous to thine eyes. My sometime General, + I have seen thee stern, and thou hast oft beheld + Heart-hard'ning spectacles; tell these sad women + 'Tis fond to wail inevitable strokes, + As 'tis to laugh at 'em. My mother, you wot well + My hazards still have been your solace; and + Believe't not lightly- though I go alone, + Like to a lonely dragon, that his fen + Makes fear'd and talk'd of more than seen- your son + Will or exceed the common or be caught + With cautelous baits and practice. + VOLUMNIA. My first son, + Whither wilt thou go? Take good Cominius + With thee awhile; determine on some course + More than a wild exposture to each chance + That starts i' th' way before thee. + VIRGILIA. O the gods! + COMINIUS. I'll follow thee a month, devise with the + Where thou shalt rest, that thou mayst hear of us, + And we of thee; so, if the time thrust forth + A cause for thy repeal, we shall not send + O'er the vast world to seek a single man, + And lose advantage, which doth ever cool + I' th' absence of the needer. + CORIOLANUS. Fare ye well; + Thou hast years upon thee, and thou art too full + Of the wars' surfeits to go rove with one + That's yet unbruis'd; bring me but out at gate. + Come, my sweet wife, my dearest mother, and + My friends of noble touch; when I am forth, + Bid me farewell, and smile. I pray you come. + While I remain above the ground you shall + Hear from me still, and never of me aught + But what is like me formerly. + MENENIUS. That's worthily + As any ear can hear. Come, let's not weep. + If I could shake off but one seven years + From these old arms and legs, by the good gods, + I'd with thee every foot. + CORIOLANUS. Give me thy hand. + Come. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Rome. A street near the gate + +Enter the two Tribunes, SICINIUS and BRUTUS with the AEDILE + + SICINIUS. Bid them all home; he's gone, and we'll no further. + The nobility are vex'd, whom we see have sided + In his behalf. + BRUTUS. Now we have shown our power, + Let us seem humbler after it is done + Than when it was a-doing. + SICINIUS. Bid them home. + Say their great enemy is gone, and they + Stand in their ancient strength. + BRUTUS. Dismiss them home. Exit AEDILE + Here comes his mother. + + Enter VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, and MENENIUS + + SICINIUS. Let's not meet her. + BRUTUS. Why? + SICINIUS. They say she's mad. + BRUTUS. They have ta'en note of us; keep on your way. + VOLUMNIA. O, Y'are well met; th' hoarded plague o' th' gods + Requite your love! + MENENIUS. Peace, peace, be not so loud. + VOLUMNIA. If that I could for weeping, you should hear- + Nay, and you shall hear some. [To BRUTUS] Will you be gone? + VIRGILIA. [To SICINIUS] You shall stay too. I would I had the + power + To say so to my husband. + SICINIUS. Are you mankind? + VOLUMNIA. Ay, fool; is that a shame? Note but this, fool: + Was not a man my father? Hadst thou foxship + To banish him that struck more blows for Rome + Than thou hast spoken words? + SICINIUS. O blessed heavens! + VOLUMNIA. Moe noble blows than ever thou wise words; + And for Rome's good. I'll tell thee what- yet go! + Nay, but thou shalt stay too. I would my son + Were in Arabia, and thy tribe before him, + His good sword in his hand. + SICINIUS. What then? + VIRGILIA. What then! + He'd make an end of thy posterity. + VOLUMNIA. Bastards and all. + Good man, the wounds that he does bear for Rome! + MENENIUS. Come, come, peace. + SICINIUS. I would he had continued to his country + As he began, and not unknit himself + The noble knot he made. + BRUTUS. I would he had. + VOLUMNIA. 'I would he had!' 'Twas you incens'd the rabble- + Cats that can judge as fitly of his worth + As I can of those mysteries which heaven + Will not have earth to know. + BRUTUS. Pray, let's go. + VOLUMNIA. Now, pray, sir, get you gone; + You have done a brave deed. Ere you go, hear this: + As far as doth the Capitol exceed + The meanest house in Rome, so far my son- + This lady's husband here, this, do you see?- + Whom you have banish'd does exceed you an. + BRUTUS. Well, well, we'll leave you. + SICINIUS. Why stay we to be baited + With one that wants her wits? Exeunt TRIBUNES + VOLUMNIA. Take my prayers with you. + I would the gods had nothing else to do + But to confirm my curses. Could I meet 'em + But once a day, it would unclog my heart + Of what lies heavy to't. + MENENIUS. You have told them home, + And, by my troth, you have cause. You'll sup with me? + VOLUMNIA. Anger's my meat; I sup upon myself, + And so shall starve with feeding. Come, let's go. + Leave this faint puling and lament as I do, + In anger, Juno-like. Come, come, come. + Exeunt VOLUMNIA and VIRGILIA + MENENIUS. Fie, fie, fie! Exit + + + + +SCENE III. +A highway between Rome and Antium + +Enter a ROMAN and a VOLSCE, meeting + + ROMAN. I know you well, sir, and you know me; your name, I think, + is Adrian. + VOLSCE. It is so, sir. Truly, I have forgot you. + ROMAN. I am a Roman; and my services are, as you are, against 'em. + Know you me yet? + VOLSCE. Nicanor? No! + ROMAN. The same, sir. + VOLSCE. YOU had more beard when I last saw you, but your favour is + well appear'd by your tongue. What's the news in Rome? I have a + note from the Volscian state, to find you out there. You have + well saved me a day's journey. + ROMAN. There hath been in Rome strange insurrections: the people + against the senators, patricians, and nobles. + VOLSCE. Hath been! Is it ended, then? Our state thinks not so; they + are in a most warlike preparation, and hope to come upon them in + the heat of their division. + ROMAN. The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing would make + it flame again; for the nobles receive so to heart the banishment + of that worthy Coriolanus that they are in a ripe aptness to take + all power from the people, and to pluck from them their tribunes + for ever. This lies glowing, I can tell you, and is almost mature + for the violent breaking out. + VOLSCE. Coriolanus banish'd! + ROMAN. Banish'd, sir. + VOLSCE. You will be welcome with this intelligence, Nicanor. + ROMAN. The day serves well for them now. I have heard it said the + fittest time to corrupt a man's wife is when she's fall'n out + with her husband. Your noble Tullus Aufidius will appear well in + these wars, his great opposer, Coriolanus, being now in no + request of his country. + VOLSCE. He cannot choose. I am most fortunate thus accidentally to + encounter you; you have ended my business, and I will merrily + accompany you home. + ROMAN. I shall between this and supper tell you most strange things + from Rome, all tending to the good of their adversaries. Have you + an army ready, say you? + VOLSCE. A most royal one: the centurions and their charges, + distinctly billeted, already in th' entertainment, and to be on + foot at an hour's warning. + ROMAN. I am joyful to hear of their readiness, and am the man, I + think, that shall set them in present action. So, sir, heartily + well met, and most glad of your company. + VOLSCE. You take my part from me, sir. I have the most cause to be + glad of yours. + ROMAN. Well, let us go together. + + + + +SCENE IV. +Antium. Before AUFIDIUS' house + +Enter CORIOLANUS, in mean apparel, disguis'd and muffled + + CORIOLANUS. A goodly city is this Antium. City, + 'Tis I that made thy widows: many an heir + Of these fair edifices fore my wars + Have I heard groan and drop. Then know me not. + Lest that thy wives with spits and boys with stones, + In puny battle slay me. + + Enter A CITIZEN + + Save you, sir. + CITIZEN. And you. + CORIOLANUS. Direct me, if it be your will, + Where great Aufidius lies. Is he in Antium? + CITIZEN. He is, and feasts the nobles of the state + At his house this night. + CORIOLANUS. Which is his house, beseech you? + CITIZEN. This here before you. + CORIOLANUS. Thank you, sir; farewell. Exit CITIZEN + O world, thy slippery turns! Friends now fast sworn, + Whose double bosoms seems to wear one heart, + Whose hours, whose bed, whose meal and exercise + Are still together, who twin, as 'twere, in love, + Unseparable, shall within this hour, + On a dissension of a doit, break out + To bitterest enmity; so fellest foes, + Whose passions and whose plots have broke their sleep + To take the one the other, by some chance, + Some trick not worth an egg, shall grow dear friends + And interjoin their issues. So with me: + My birthplace hate I, and my love's upon + This enemy town. I'll enter. If he slay me, + He does fair justice: if he give me way, + I'll do his country service. + + + + +SCENE V. +Antium. AUFIDIUS' house + +Music plays. Enter A SERVINGMAN + + FIRST SERVANT. Wine, wine, wine! What service is here! I think our + fellows are asleep. Exit + + Enter another SERVINGMAN + + SECOND SERVANT.Where's Cotus? My master calls for him. + Cotus! Exit + + Enter CORIOLANUS + + CORIOLANUS. A goodly house. The feast smells well, but I + Appear not like a guest. + + Re-enter the first SERVINGMAN + + FIRST SERVANT. What would you have, friend? + Whence are you? Here's no place for you: pray go to the door. + Exit + CORIOLANUS. I have deserv'd no better entertainment + In being Coriolanus. + + Re-enter second SERVINGMAN + + SECOND SERVANT. Whence are you, sir? Has the porter his eyes in his + head that he gives entrance to such companions? Pray get you out. + CORIOLANUS. Away! + SECOND SERVANT. Away? Get you away. + CORIOLANUS. Now th' art troublesome. + SECOND SERVANT. Are you so brave? I'll have you talk'd with anon. + + Enter a third SERVINGMAN. The first meets him + + THIRD SERVANT. What fellow's this? + FIRST SERVANT. A strange one as ever I look'd on. I cannot get him + out o' th' house. Prithee call my master to him. + THIRD SERVANT. What have you to do here, fellow? Pray you avoid the + house. + CORIOLANUS. Let me but stand- I will not hurt your hearth. + THIRD SERVANT. What are you? + CORIOLANUS. A gentleman. + THIRD SERVANT. A marv'llous poor one. + CORIOLANUS. True, so I am. + THIRD SERVANT. Pray you, poor gentleman, take up some other + station; here's no place for you. Pray you avoid. Come. + CORIOLANUS. Follow your function, go and batten on cold bits. + [Pushes him away from him] + THIRD SERVANT. What, you will not? Prithee tell my master what a + strange guest he has here. + SECOND SERVANT. And I shall. Exit + THIRD SERVANT. Where dwell'st thou? + CORIOLANUS. Under the canopy. + THIRD SERVANT. Under the canopy? + CORIOLANUS. Ay. + THIRD SERVANT. Where's that? + CORIOLANUS. I' th' city of kites and crows. + THIRD SERVANT. I' th' city of kites and crows! + What an ass it is! Then thou dwell'st with daws too? + CORIOLANUS. No, I serve not thy master. + THIRD SERVANT. How, sir! Do you meddle with my master? + CORIOLANUS. Ay; 'tis an honester service than to meddle with thy + mistress. Thou prat'st and prat'st; serve with thy trencher; + hence! [Beats him away] + + Enter AUFIDIUS with the second SERVINGMAN + + AUFIDIUS. Where is this fellow? + SECOND SERVANT. Here, sir; I'd have beaten him like a dog, but for + disturbing the lords within. + AUFIDIUS. Whence com'st thou? What wouldst thou? Thy name? + Why speak'st not? Speak, man. What's thy name? + CORIOLANUS. [Unmuffling] If, Tullus, + Not yet thou know'st me, and, seeing me, dost not + Think me for the man I am, necessity + Commands me name myself. + AUFIDIUS. What is thy name? + CORIOLANUS. A name unmusical to the Volscians' ears, + And harsh in sound to thine. + AUFIDIUS. Say, what's thy name? + Thou has a grim appearance, and thy face + Bears a command in't; though thy tackle's torn, + Thou show'st a noble vessel. What's thy name? + CORIOLANUS. Prepare thy brow to frown- know'st thou me yet? + AUFIDIUS. I know thee not. Thy name? + CORIOLANUS. My name is Caius Marcius, who hath done + To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces, + Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may + My surname, Coriolanus. The painful service, + The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood + Shed for my thankless country, are requited + But with that surname- a good memory + And witness of the malice and displeasure + Which thou shouldst bear me. Only that name remains; + The cruelty and envy of the people, + Permitted by our dastard nobles, who + Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest, + An suffer'd me by th' voice of slaves to be + Whoop'd out of Rome. Now this extremity + Hath brought me to thy hearth; not out of hope, + Mistake me not, to save my life; for if + I had fear'd death, of all the men i' th' world + I would have 'voided thee; but in mere spite, + To be full quit of those my banishers, + Stand I before thee here. Then if thou hast + A heart of wreak in thee, that wilt revenge + Thine own particular wrongs and stop those maims + Of shame seen through thy country, speed thee straight + And make my misery serve thy turn. So use it + That my revengeful services may prove + As benefits to thee; for I will fight + Against my cank'red country with the spleen + Of all the under fiends. But if so be + Thou dar'st not this, and that to prove more fortunes + Th'art tir'd, then, in a word, I also am + Longer to live most weary, and present + My throat to thee and to thy ancient malice; + Which not to cut would show thee but a fool, + Since I have ever followed thee with hate, + Drawn tuns of blood out of thy country's breast, + And cannot live but to thy shame, unless + It be to do thee service. + AUFIDIUS. O Marcius, Marcius! + Each word thou hast spoke hath weeded from my heart + A root of ancient envy. If Jupiter + Should from yond cloud speak divine things, + And say ''Tis true,' I'd not believe them more + Than thee, all noble Marcius. Let me twine + Mine arms about that body, where against + My grained ash an hundred times hath broke + And scarr'd the moon with splinters; here I clip + The anvil of my sword, and do contest + As hotly and as nobly with thy love + As ever in ambitious strength I did + Contend against thy valour. Know thou first, + I lov'd the maid I married; never man + Sigh'd truer breath; but that I see thee here, + Thou noble thing, more dances my rapt heart + Than when I first my wedded mistress saw + Bestride my threshold. Why, thou Mars, I tell the + We have a power on foot, and I had purpose + Once more to hew thy target from thy brawn, + Or lose mine arm for't. Thou hast beat me out + Twelve several times, and I have nightly since + Dreamt of encounters 'twixt thyself and me- + We have been down together in my sleep, + Unbuckling helms, fisting each other's throat- + And wak'd half dead with nothing. Worthy Marcius, + Had we no other quarrel else to Rome but that + Thou art thence banish'd, we would muster all + From twelve to seventy, and, pouring war + Into the bowels of ungrateful Rome, + Like a bold flood o'erbeat. O, come, go in, + And take our friendly senators by th' hands, + Who now are here, taking their leaves of me + Who am prepar'd against your territories, + Though not for Rome itself. + CORIOLANUS. You bless me, gods! + AUFIDIUS. Therefore, most. absolute sir, if thou wilt have + The leading of thine own revenges, take + Th' one half of my commission, and set down- + As best thou art experienc'd, since thou know'st + Thy country's strength and weakness- thine own ways, + Whether to knock against the gates of Rome, + Or rudely visit them in parts remote + To fright them ere destroy. But come in; + Let me commend thee first to those that shall + Say yea to thy desires. A thousand welcomes! + And more a friend than e'er an enemy; + Yet, Marcius, that was much. Your hand; most welcome! + Exeunt CORIOLANUS and AUFIDIUS + + The two SERVINGMEN come forward + + FIRST SERVANT. Here's a strange alteration! + SECOND SERVANT. By my hand, I had thought to have strucken him with + a cudgel; and yet my mind gave me his clothes made a false report + of him. + FIRST SERVANT. What an arm he has! He turn'd me about with his + finger and his thumb, as one would set up a top. + SECOND SERVANT. Nay, I knew by his face that there was something in + him; he had, sir, a kind of face, methought- I cannot tell how to + term it. + FIRST SERVANT. He had so, looking as it were- Would I were hang'd, + but I thought there was more in him than I could think. + SECOND SERVANT. So did I, I'll be sworn. He is simply the rarest + man i' th' world. + FIRST SERVANT. I think he is; but a greater soldier than he you wot + on. + SECOND SERVANT. Who, my master? + FIRST SERVANT. Nay, it's no matter for that. + SECOND SERVANT. Worth six on him. + FIRST SERVANT. Nay, not so neither; but I take him to be the + greater soldier. + SECOND SERVANT. Faith, look you, one cannot tell how to say that; + for the defence of a town our general is excellent. + FIRST SERVANT. Ay, and for an assault too. + + Re-enter the third SERVINGMAN + + THIRD SERVANT. O slaves, I can tell you news- news, you rascals! + BOTH. What, what, what? Let's partake. + THIRD SERVANT. I would not be a Roman, of all nations; + I had as lief be a condemn'd man. + BOTH. Wherefore? wherefore? + THIRD SERVANT. Why, here's he that was wont to thwack our general- + Caius Marcius. + FIRST SERVANT. Why do you say 'thwack our general'? + THIRD SERVANT. I do not say 'thwack our general,' but he was always + good enough for him. + SECOND SERVANT. Come, we are fellows and friends. He was ever too + hard for him, I have heard him say so himself. + FIRST SERVANT. He was too hard for him directly, to say the troth + on't; before Corioli he scotch'd him and notch'd him like a + carbonado. + SECOND SERVANT. An he had been cannibally given, he might have + broil'd and eaten him too. + FIRST SERVANT. But more of thy news! + THIRD SERVANT. Why, he is so made on here within as if he were son + and heir to Mars; set at upper end o' th' table; no question + asked him by any of the senators but they stand bald before him. + Our general himself makes a mistress of him, sanctifies himself + with's hand, and turns up the white o' th' eye to his discourse. + But the bottom of the news is, our general is cut i' th' middle + and but one half of what he was yesterday, for the other has half + by the entreaty and grant of the whole table. He'll go, he says, + and sowl the porter of Rome gates by th' ears; he will mow all + down before him, and leave his passage poll'd. + SECOND SERVANT. And he's as like to do't as any man I can imagine. + THIRD SERVANT. Do't! He will do't; for look you, sir, he has as + many friends as enemies; which friends, sir, as it were, durst + not- look you, sir- show themselves, as we term it, his friends, + whilst he's in directitude. + FIRST SERVANT. Directitude? What's that? + THIRD SERVANT. But when they shall see, sir, his crest up again and + the man in blood, they will out of their burrows, like conies + after rain, and revel an with him. + FIRST SERVANT. But when goes this forward? + THIRD SERVANT. To-morrow, to-day, presently. You shall have the + drum struck up this afternoon; 'tis as it were parcel of their + feast, and to be executed ere they wipe their lips. + SECOND SERVANT. Why, then we shall have a stirring world again. + This peace is nothing but to rust iron, increase tailors, and + breed ballad-makers. + FIRST SERVANT. Let me have war, say I; it exceeds peace as far as + day does night; it's spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent. + Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mull'd, deaf, sleepy, + insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war's a + destroyer of men. + SECOND SERVANT. 'Tis so; and as war in some sort may be said to be + a ravisher, so it cannot be denied but peace is a great maker of + cuckolds. + FIRST SERVANT. Ay, and it makes men hate one another. + THIRD SERVANT. Reason: because they then less need one another. The + wars for my money. I hope to see Romans as cheap as Volscians. + They are rising, they are rising. + BOTH. In, in, in, in! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VI. +Rome. A public place + +Enter the two Tribunes, SICINIUS and BRUTUS + + SICINIUS. We hear not of him, neither need we fear him. + His remedies are tame. The present peace + And quietness of the people, which before + Were in wild hurry, here do make his friends + Blush that the world goes well; who rather had, + Though they themselves did suffer by't, behold + Dissentious numbers pest'ring streets than see + Our tradesmen singing in their shops, and going + About their functions friendly. + + Enter MENENIUS + + BRUTUS. We stood to't in good time. Is this Menenius? + SICINIUS. 'Tis he, 'tis he. O, he is grown most kind + Of late. Hail, sir! + MENENIUS. Hail to you both! + SICINIUS. Your Coriolanus is not much miss'd + But with his friends. The commonwealth doth stand, + And so would do, were he more angry at it. + MENENIUS. All's well, and might have been much better + He could have temporiz'd. + SICINIUS. Where is he, hear you? + MENENIUS. Nay, I hear nothing; his mother and his wife + Hear nothing from him. + + Enter three or four citizens + + CITIZENS. The gods preserve you both! + SICINIUS. God-den, our neighbours. + BRUTUS. God-den to you all, god-den to you an. + FIRST CITIZEN. Ourselves, our wives, and children, on our knees + Are bound to pray for you both. + SICINIUS. Live and thrive! + BRUTUS. Farewell, kind neighbours; we wish'd Coriolanus + Had lov'd you as we did. + CITIZENS. Now the gods keep you! + BOTH TRIBUNES. Farewell, farewell. Exeunt citizens + SICINIUS. This is a happier and more comely time + Than when these fellows ran about the streets + Crying confusion. + BRUTUS. Caius Marcius was + A worthy officer i' the war, but insolent, + O'ercome with pride, ambitious past all thinking, + Self-loving- + SICINIUS. And affecting one sole throne, + Without assistance. + MENENIUS. I think not so. + SICINIUS. We should by this, to all our lamentation, + If he had gone forth consul, found it so. + BRUTUS. The gods have well prevented it, and Rome + Sits safe and still without him. + + Enter an AEDILE + + AEDILE. Worthy tribunes, + There is a slave, whom we have put in prison, + Reports the Volsces with several powers + Are ent'red in the Roman territories, + And with the deepest malice of the war + Destroy what lies before 'em. + MENENIUS. 'Tis Aufidius, + Who, hearing of our Marcius' banishment, + Thrusts forth his horns again into the world, + Which were inshell'd when Marcius stood for Rome, + And durst not once peep out. + SICINIUS. Come, what talk you of Marcius? + BRUTUS. Go see this rumourer whipp'd. It cannot be + The Volsces dare break with us. + MENENIUS. Cannot be! + We have record that very well it can; + And three examples of the like hath been + Within my age. But reason with the fellow + Before you punish him, where he heard this, + Lest you shall chance to whip your information + And beat the messenger who bids beware + Of what is to be dreaded. + SICINIUS. Tell not me. + I know this cannot be. + BRUTUS. Not Possible. + + Enter A MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. The nobles in great earnestness are going + All to the Senate House; some news is come + That turns their countenances. + SICINIUS. 'Tis this slave- + Go whip him fore the people's eyes- his raising, + Nothing but his report. + MESSENGER. Yes, worthy sir, + The slave's report is seconded, and more, + More fearful, is deliver'd. + SICINIUS. What more fearful? + MESSENGER. It is spoke freely out of many mouths- + How probable I do not know- that Marcius, + Join'd with Aufidius, leads a power 'gainst Rome, + And vows revenge as spacious as between + The young'st and oldest thing. + SICINIUS. This is most likely! + BRUTUS. Rais'd only that the weaker sort may wish + Good Marcius home again. + SICINIUS. The very trick on 't. + MENENIUS. This is unlikely. + He and Aufidius can no more atone + Than violent'st contrariety. + + Enter a second MESSENGER + + SECOND MESSENGER. You are sent for to the Senate. + A fearful army, led by Caius Marcius + Associated with Aufidius, rages + Upon our territories, and have already + O'erborne their way, consum'd with fire and took + What lay before them. + + Enter COMINIUS + + COMINIUS. O, you have made good work! + MENENIUS. What news? what news? + COMINIUS. You have holp to ravish your own daughters and + To melt the city leads upon your pates, + To see your wives dishonour'd to your noses- + MENENIUS. What's the news? What's the news? + COMINIUS. Your temples burned in their cement, and + Your franchises, whereon you stood, confin'd + Into an auger's bore. + MENENIUS. Pray now, your news? + You have made fair work, I fear me. Pray, your news. + If Marcius should be join'd wi' th' Volscians- + COMINIUS. If! + He is their god; he leads them like a thing + Made by some other deity than Nature, + That shapes man better; and they follow him + Against us brats with no less confidence + Than boys pursuing summer butterflies, + Or butchers killing flies. + MENENIUS. You have made good work, + You and your apron men; you that stood so much + Upon the voice of occupation and + The breath of garlic-eaters! + COMINIUS. He'll shake + Your Rome about your ears. + MENENIUS. As Hercules + Did shake down mellow fruit. You have made fair work! + BRUTUS. But is this true, sir? + COMINIUS. Ay; and you'll look pale + Before you find it other. All the regions + Do smilingly revolt, and who resists + Are mock'd for valiant ignorance, + And perish constant fools. Who is't can blame him? + Your enemies and his find something in him. + MENENIUS. We are all undone unless + The noble man have mercy. + COMINIUS. Who shall ask it? + The tribunes cannot do't for shame; the people + Deserve such pity of him as the wolf + Does of the shepherds; for his best friends, if they + Should say 'Be good to Rome'- they charg'd him even + As those should do that had deserv'd his hate, + And therein show'd fike enemies. + MENENIUS. 'Tis true; + If he were putting to my house the brand + That should consume it, I have not the face + To say 'Beseech you, cease.' You have made fair hands, + You and your crafts! You have crafted fair! + COMINIUS. You have brought + A trembling upon Rome, such as was never + S' incapable of help. + BOTH TRIBUNES. Say not we brought it. + MENENIUS. How! Was't we? We lov'd him, but, like beasts + And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters, + Who did hoot him out o' th' city. + COMINIUS. But I fear + They'll roar him in again. Tullus Aufidius, + The second name of men, obeys his points + As if he were his officer. Desperation + Is all the policy, strength, and defence, + That Rome can make against them. + + Enter a troop of citizens + + MENENIUS. Here comes the clusters. + And is Aufidius with him? You are they + That made the air unwholesome when you cast + Your stinking greasy caps in hooting at + Coriolanus' exile. Now he's coming, + And not a hair upon a soldier's head + Which will not prove a whip; as many coxcombs + As you threw caps up will he tumble down, + And pay you for your voices. 'Tis no matter; + If he could burn us all into one coal + We have deserv'd it. + PLEBEIANS. Faith, we hear fearful news. + FIRST CITIZEN. For mine own part, + When I said banish him, I said 'twas pity. + SECOND CITIZEN. And so did I. + THIRD CITIZEN. And so did I; and, to say the truth, so did very + many of us. That we did, we did for the best; and though we + willingly consented to his banishment, yet it was against our + will. + COMINIUS. Y'are goodly things, you voices! + MENENIUS. You have made + Good work, you and your cry! Shall's to the Capitol? + COMINIUS. O, ay, what else? + Exeunt COMINIUS and MENENIUS + SICINIUS. Go, masters, get you be not dismay'd; + These are a side that would be glad to have + This true which they so seem to fear. Go home, + And show no sign of fear. + FIRST CITIZEN. The gods be good to us! Come, masters, let's home. I + ever said we were i' th' wrong when we banish'd him. + SECOND CITIZEN. So did we all. But come, let's home. + Exeunt citizens + BRUTUS. I do not like this news. + SICINIUS. Nor I. + BRUTUS. Let's to the Capitol. Would half my wealth + Would buy this for a lie! + SICINIUS. Pray let's go. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VII. +A camp at a short distance from Rome + +Enter AUFIDIUS with his LIEUTENANT + + AUFIDIUS. Do they still fly to th' Roman? + LIEUTENANT. I do not know what witchcraft's in him, but + Your soldiers use him as the grace fore meat, + Their talk at table, and their thanks at end; + And you are dark'ned in this action, sir, + Even by your own. + AUFIDIUS. I cannot help it now, + Unless by using means I lame the foot + Of our design. He bears himself more proudlier, + Even to my person, than I thought he would + When first I did embrace him; yet his nature + In that's no changeling, and I must excuse + What cannot be amended. + LIEUTENANT. Yet I wish, sir- + I mean, for your particular- you had not + Join'd in commission with him, but either + Had borne the action of yourself, or else + To him had left it solely. + AUFIDIUS. I understand thee well; and be thou sure, + When he shall come to his account, he knows not + What I can urge against him. Although it seems, + And so he thinks, and is no less apparent + To th' vulgar eye, that he bears all things fairly + And shows good husbandry for the Volscian state, + Fights dragon-like, and does achieve as soon + As draw his sword; yet he hath left undone + That which shall break his neck or hazard mine + Whene'er we come to our account. + LIEUTENANT. Sir, I beseech you, think you he'll carry Rome? + AUFIDIUS. All places yield to him ere he sits down, + And the nobility of Rome are his; + The senators and patricians love him too. + The tribunes are no soldiers, and their people + Will be as rash in the repeal as hasty + To expel him thence. I think he'll be to Rome + As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it + By sovereignty of nature. First he was + A noble servant to them, but he could not + Carry his honours even. Whether 'twas pride, + Which out of daily fortune ever taints + The happy man; whether defect of judgment, + To fail in the disposing of those chances + Which he was lord of; or whether nature, + Not to be other than one thing, not moving + From th' casque to th' cushion, but commanding peace + Even with the same austerity and garb + As he controll'd the war; but one of these- + As he hath spices of them all- not all, + For I dare so far free him- made him fear'd, + So hated, and so banish'd. But he has a merit + To choke it in the utt'rance. So our virtues + Lie in th' interpretation of the time; + And power, unto itself most commendable, + Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair + T' extol what it hath done. + One fire drives out one fire; one nail, one nail; + Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail. + Come, let's away. When, Caius, Rome is thine, + Thou art poor'st of all; then shortly art thou mine. + Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Rome. A public place + +Enter MENENIUS, COMINIUS, SICINIUS and BRUTUS, the two Tribunes, with others + + MENENIUS. No, I'll not go. You hear what he hath said + Which was sometime his general, who lov'd him + In a most dear particular. He call'd me father; + But what o' that? Go, you that banish'd him: + A mile before his tent fall down, and knee + The way into his mercy. Nay, if he coy'd + To hear Cominius speak, I'll keep at home. + COMINIUS. He would not seem to know me. + MENENIUS. Do you hear? + COMINIUS. Yet one time he did call me by my name. + I urg'd our old acquaintance, and the drops + That we have bled together. 'Coriolanus' + He would not answer to; forbid all names; + He was a kind of nothing, titleless, + Till he had forg'd himself a name i' th' fire + Of burning Rome. + MENENIUS. Why, so! You have made good work. + A pair of tribunes that have wrack'd for Rome + To make coals cheap- a noble memory! + COMINIUS. I minded him how royal 'twas to pardon + When it was less expected; he replied, + It was a bare petition of a state + To one whom they had punish'd. + MENENIUS. Very well. + Could he say less? + COMINIUS. I offer'd to awaken his regard + For's private friends; his answer to me was, + He could not stay to pick them in a pile + Of noisome musty chaff. He said 'twas folly, + For one poor grain or two, to leave unburnt + And still to nose th' offence. + MENENIUS. For one poor grain or two! + I am one of those. His mother, wife, his child, + And this brave fellow too- we are the grains: + You are the musty chaff, and you are smelt + Above the moon. We must be burnt for you. + SICINIUS. Nay, pray be patient; if you refuse your aid + In this so never-needed help, yet do not + Upbraid's with our distress. But sure, if you + Would be your country's pleader, your good tongue, + More than the instant army we can make, + Might stop our countryman. + MENENIUS. No; I'll not meddle. + SICINIUS. Pray you go to him. + MENENIUS. What should I do? + BRUTUS. Only make trial what your love can do + For Rome, towards Marcius. + MENENIUS. Well, and say that Marcius + Return me, as Cominius is return'd, + Unheard- what then? + But as a discontented friend, grief-shot + With his unkindness? Say't be so? + SICINIUS. Yet your good will + Must have that thanks from Rome after the measure + As you intended well. + MENENIUS. I'll undertake't; + I think he'll hear me. Yet to bite his lip + And hum at good Cominius much unhearts me. + He was not taken well: he had not din'd; + The veins unfill'd, our blood is cold, and then + We pout upon the morning, are unapt + To give or to forgive; but when we have stuff'd + These pipes and these conveyances of our blood + With wine and feeding, we have suppler souls + Than in our priest-like fasts. Therefore I'll watch him + Till he be dieted to my request, + And then I'll set upon him. + BRUTUS. You know the very road into his kindness + And cannot lose your way. + MENENIUS. Good faith, I'll prove him, + Speed how it will. I shall ere long have knowledge + Of my success. Exit + COMINIUS. He'll never hear him. + SICINIUS. Not? + COMINIUS. I tell you he does sit in gold, his eye + Red as 'twould burn Rome, and his injury + The gaoler to his pity. I kneel'd before him; + 'Twas very faintly he said 'Rise'; dismiss'd me + Thus with his speechless hand. What he would do, + He sent in writing after me; what he would not, + Bound with an oath to yield to his conditions; + So that all hope is vain, + Unless his noble mother and his wife, + Who, as I hear, mean to solicit him + For mercy to his country. Therefore let's hence, + And with our fair entreaties haste them on. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +The Volscian camp before Rome + +Enter MENENIUS to the WATCH on guard + + FIRST WATCH. Stay. Whence are you? + SECOND WATCH. Stand, and go back. + MENENIUS. You guard like men, 'tis well; but, by your leave, + I am an officer of state and come + To speak with Coriolanus. + FIRST WATCH. From whence? + MENENIUS. From Rome. + FIRST WATCH. YOU may not pass; you must return. Our general + Will no more hear from thence. + SECOND WATCH. You'll see your Rome embrac'd with fire before + You'll speak with Coriolanus. + MENENIUS. Good my friends, + If you have heard your general talk of Rome + And of his friends there, it is lots to blanks + My name hath touch'd your ears: it is Menenius. + FIRST WATCH. Be it so; go back. The virtue of your name + Is not here passable. + MENENIUS. I tell thee, fellow, + Thy general is my lover. I have been + The book of his good acts whence men have read + His fame unparallel'd haply amplified; + For I have ever verified my friends- + Of whom he's chief- with all the size that verity + Would without lapsing suffer. Nay, sometimes, + Like to a bowl upon a subtle ground, + I have tumbled past the throw, and in his praise + Have almost stamp'd the leasing; therefore, fellow, + I must have leave to pass. + FIRST WATCH. Faith, sir, if you had told as many lies in his behalf + as you have uttered words in your own, you should not pass here; + no, though it were as virtuous to lie as to live chastely. + Therefore go back. + MENENIUS. Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always + factionary on the party of your general. + SECOND WATCH. Howsoever you have been his liar, as you say you + have, I am one that, telling true under him, must say you cannot + pass. Therefore go back. + MENENIUS. Has he din'd, canst thou tell? For I would not speak with + him till after dinner. + FIRST WATCH. You are a Roman, are you? + MENENIUS. I am as thy general is. + FIRST WATCH. Then you should hate Rome, as he does. Can you, when + you have push'd out your gates the very defender of them, and in + a violent popular ignorance given your enemy your shield, think + to front his revenges with the easy groans of old women, the + virginal palms of your daughters, or with the palsied + intercession of such a decay'd dotant as you seem to be? Can you + think to blow out the intended fire your city is ready to flame + in with such weak breath as this? No, you are deceiv'd; therefore + back to Rome and prepare for your execution. You are condemn'd; + our general has sworn you out of reprieve and pardon. + MENENIUS. Sirrah, if thy captain knew I were here, he would use me + with estimation. + FIRST WATCH. Come, my captain knows you not. + MENENIUS. I mean thy general. + FIRST WATCH. My general cares not for you. Back, I say; go, lest I + let forth your half pint of blood. Back- that's the utmost of + your having. Back. + MENENIUS. Nay, but fellow, fellow- + + Enter CORIOLANUS with AUFIDIUS + + CORIOLANUS. What's the matter? + MENENIUS. Now, you companion, I'll say an errand for you; you shall + know now that I am in estimation; you shall perceive that a Jack + guardant cannot office me from my son Coriolanus. Guess but by my + entertainment with him if thou stand'st not i' th' state of + hanging, or of some death more long in spectatorship and crueller + in suffering; behold now presently, and swoon for what's to come + upon thee. The glorious gods sit in hourly synod about thy + particular prosperity, and love thee no worse than thy old father + Menenius does! O my son! my son! thou art preparing fire for us; + look thee, here's water to quench it. I was hardly moved to come + to thee; but being assured none but myself could move thee, I + have been blown out of your gates with sighs, and conjure thee to + pardon Rome and thy petitionary countrymen. The good gods assuage + thy wrath, and turn the dregs of it upon this varlet here; this, + who, like a block, hath denied my access to thee. + CORIOLANUS. Away! + MENENIUS. How! away! + CORIOLANUS. Wife, mother, child, I know not. My affairs + Are servanted to others. Though I owe + My revenge properly, my remission lies + In Volscian breasts. That we have been familiar, + Ingrate forgetfulness shall poison rather + Than pity note how much. Therefore be gone. + Mine ears against your suits are stronger than + Your gates against my force. Yet, for I lov'd thee, + Take this along; I writ it for thy sake [Gives a letter] + And would have sent it. Another word, Menenius, + I will not hear thee speak. This man, Aufidius, + Was my belov'd in Rome; yet thou behold'st. + AUFIDIUS. You keep a constant temper. + Exeunt CORIOLANUS and Aufidius + FIRST WATCH. Now, sir, is your name Menenius? + SECOND WATCH. 'Tis a spell, you see, of much power! You know the + way home again. + FIRST WATCH. Do you hear how we are shent for keeping your + greatness back? + SECOND WATCH. What cause, do you think, I have to swoon? + MENENIUS. I neither care for th' world nor your general; for such + things as you, I can scarce think there's any, y'are so slight. + He that hath a will to die by himself fears it not from another. + Let your general do his worst. For you, be that you are, long; + and your misery increase with your age! I say to you, as I was + said to: Away! Exit + FIRST WATCH. A noble fellow, I warrant him. + SECOND WATCH. The worthy fellow is our general; he's the rock, the + oak not to be wind-shaken. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +The tent of CORIOLANUS + +Enter CORIOLANUS, AUFIDIUS, and others + + CORIOLANUS. We will before the walls of Rome to-morrow + Set down our host. My partner in this action, + You must report to th' Volscian lords how plainly + I have borne this business. + AUFIDIUS. Only their ends + You have respected; stopp'd your ears against + The general suit of Rome; never admitted + A private whisper- no, not with such friends + That thought them sure of you. + CORIOLANUS. This last old man, + Whom with crack'd heart I have sent to Rome, + Lov'd me above the measure of a father; + Nay, godded me indeed. Their latest refuge + Was to send him; for whose old love I have- + Though I show'd sourly to him- once more offer'd + The first conditions, which they did refuse + And cannot now accept. To grace him only, + That thought he could do more, a very little + I have yielded to; fresh embassies and suits, + Nor from the state nor private friends, hereafter + Will I lend ear to. [Shout within] Ha! what shout is this? + Shall I be tempted to infringe my vow + In the same time 'tis made? I will not. + + Enter, in mourning habits, VIRGILIA, VOLUMNIA, VALERIA, + YOUNG MARCIUS, with attendants + + My wife comes foremost, then the honour'd mould + Wherein this trunk was fram'd, and in her hand + The grandchild to her blood. But out, affection! + All bond and privilege of nature, break! + Let it be virtuous to be obstinate. + What is that curtsy worth? or those doves' eyes, + Which can make gods forsworn? I melt, and am not + Of stronger earth than others. My mother bows, + As if Olympus to a molehill should + In supplication nod; and my young boy + Hath an aspect of intercession which + Great nature cries 'Deny not.' Let the Volsces + Plough Rome and harrow Italy; I'll never + Be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand + As if a man were author of himself + And knew no other kin. + VIRGILIA. My lord and husband! + CORIOLANUS. These eyes are not the same I wore in Rome. + VIRGILIA. The sorrow that delivers us thus chang'd + Makes you think so. + CORIOLANUS. Like a dull actor now + I have forgot my part and I am out, + Even to a full disgrace. Best of my flesh, + Forgive my tyranny; but do not say, + For that, 'Forgive our Romans.' O, a kiss + Long as my exile, sweet as my revenge! + Now, by the jealous queen of heaven, that kiss + I carried from thee, dear, and my true lip + Hath virgin'd it e'er since. You gods! I prate, + And the most noble mother of the world + Leave unsaluted. Sink, my knee, i' th' earth; [Kneels] + Of thy deep duty more impression show + Than that of common sons. + VOLUMNIA. O, stand up blest! + Whilst with no softer cushion than the flint + I kneel before thee, and unproperly + Show duty, as mistaken all this while + Between the child and parent. [Kneels] + CORIOLANUS. What's this? + Your knees to me, to your corrected son? + Then let the pebbles on the hungry beach + Fillip the stars; then let the mutinous winds + Strike the proud cedars 'gainst the fiery sun, + Murd'ring impossibility, to make + What cannot be slight work. + VOLUMNIA. Thou art my warrior; + I holp to frame thee. Do you know this lady? + CORIOLANUS. The noble sister of Publicola, + The moon of Rome, chaste as the icicle + That's curdied by the frost from purest snow, + And hangs on Dian's temple- dear Valeria! + VOLUMNIA. This is a poor epitome of yours, + Which by th' interpretation of full time + May show like all yourself. + CORIOLANUS. The god of soldiers, + With the consent of supreme Jove, inform + Thy thoughts with nobleness, that thou mayst prove + To shame unvulnerable, and stick i' th' wars + Like a great sea-mark, standing every flaw, + And saving those that eye thee! + VOLUMNIA. Your knee, sirrah. + CORIOLANUS. That's my brave boy. + VOLUMNIA. Even he, your wife, this lady, and myself, + Are suitors to you. + CORIOLANUS. I beseech you, peace! + Or, if you'd ask, remember this before: + The thing I have forsworn to grant may never + Be held by you denials. Do not bid me + Dismiss my soldiers, or capitulate + Again with Rome's mechanics. Tell me not + Wherein I seem unnatural; desire not + T'allay my rages and revenges with + Your colder reasons. + VOLUMNIA. O, no more, no more! + You have said you will not grant us any thing- + For we have nothing else to ask but that + Which you deny already; yet we will ask, + That, if you fail in our request, the blame + May hang upon your hardness; therefore hear us. + CORIOLANUS. Aufidius, and you Volsces, mark; for we'll + Hear nought from Rome in private. Your request? + VOLUMNIA. Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment + And state of bodies would bewray what life + We have led since thy exile. Think with thyself + How more unfortunate than all living women + Are we come hither; since that thy sight, which should + Make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts, + Constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow, + Making the mother, wife, and child, to see + The son, the husband, and the father, tearing + His country's bowels out. And to poor we + Thine enmity's most capital: thou bar'st us + Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort + That all but we enjoy. For how can we, + Alas, how can we for our country pray, + Whereto we are bound, together with thy victory, + Whereto we are bound? Alack, or we must lose + The country, our dear nurse, or else thy person, + Our comfort in the country. We must find + An evident calamity, though we had + Our wish, which side should win; for either thou + Must as a foreign recreant be led + With manacles through our streets, or else + Triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin, + And bear the palm for having bravely shed + Thy wife and children's blood. For myself, son, + I purpose not to wait on fortune till + These wars determine; if I can not persuade thee + Rather to show a noble grace to both parts + Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner + March to assault thy country than to tread- + Trust to't, thou shalt not- on thy mother's womb + That brought thee to this world. + VIRGILIA. Ay, and mine, + That brought you forth this boy to keep your name + Living to time. + BOY. 'A shall not tread on me! + I'll run away till I am bigger, but then I'll fight. + CORIOLANUS. Not of a woman's tenderness to be + Requires nor child nor woman's face to see. + I have sat too long. [Rising] + VOLUMNIA. Nay, go not from us thus. + If it were so that our request did tend + To save the Romans, thereby to destroy + The Volsces whom you serve, you might condemn us + As poisonous of your honour. No, our suit + Is that you reconcile them: while the Volsces + May say 'This mercy we have show'd,' the Romans + 'This we receiv'd,' and each in either side + Give the all-hail to thee, and cry 'Be blest + For making up this peace!' Thou know'st, great son, + The end of war's uncertain; but this certain, + That, if thou conquer Rome, the benefit + Which thou shalt thereby reap is such a name + Whose repetition will be dogg'd with curses; + Whose chronicle thus writ: 'The man was noble, + But with his last attempt he wip'd it out, + Destroy'd his country, and his name remains + To th' ensuing age abhorr'd.' Speak to me, son. + Thou hast affected the fine strains of honour, + To imitate the graces of the gods, + To tear with thunder the wide cheeks o' th' air, + And yet to charge thy sulphur with a bolt + That should but rive an oak. Why dost not speak? + Think'st thou it honourable for a noble man + Still to remember wrongs? Daughter, speak you: + He cares not for your weeping. Speak thou, boy; + Perhaps thy childishness will move him more + Than can our reasons. There's no man in the world + More bound to's mother, yet here he lets me prate + Like one i' th' stocks. Thou hast never in thy life + Show'd thy dear mother any courtesy, + When she, poor hen, fond of no second brood, + Has cluck'd thee to the wars, and safely home + Loaden with honour. Say my request's unjust, + And spurn me back; but if it he not so, + Thou art not honest, and the gods will plague thee, + That thou restrain'st from me the duty which + To a mother's part belongs. He turns away. + Down, ladies; let us shame him with our knees. + To his surname Coriolanus 'longs more pride + Than pity to our prayers. Down. An end; + This is the last. So we will home to Rome, + And die among our neighbours. Nay, behold's! + This boy, that cannot tell what he would have + But kneels and holds up hands for fellowship, + Does reason our petition with more strength + Than thou hast to deny't. Come, let us go. + This fellow had a Volscian to his mother; + His wife is in Corioli, and his child + Like him by chance. Yet give us our dispatch. + I am hush'd until our city be afire, + And then I'll speak a little. + [He holds her by the hand, silent] + CORIOLANUS. O mother, mother! + What have you done? Behold, the heavens do ope, + The gods look down, and this unnatural scene + They laugh at. O my mother, mother! O! + You have won a happy victory to Rome; + But for your son- believe it, O, believe it!- + Most dangerously you have with him prevail'd, + If not most mortal to him. But let it come. + Aufidius, though I cannot make true wars, + I'll frame convenient peace. Now, good Aufidius, + Were you in my stead, would you have heard + A mother less, or granted less, Aufidius? + AUFIDIUS. I was mov'd withal. + CORIOLANUS. I dare be sworn you were! + And, sir, it is no little thing to make + Mine eyes to sweat compassion. But, good sir, + What peace you'fl make, advise me. For my part, + I'll not to Rome, I'll back with you; and pray you + Stand to me in this cause. O mother! wife! + AUFIDIUS. [Aside] I am glad thou hast set thy mercy and thy + honour + At difference in thee. Out of that I'll work + Myself a former fortune. + CORIOLANUS. [To the ladies] Ay, by and by; + But we will drink together; and you shall bear + A better witness back than words, which we, + On like conditions, will have counter-seal'd. + Come, enter with us. Ladies, you deserve + To have a temple built you. All the swords + In Italy, and her confederate arms, + Could not have made this peace. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Rome. A public place + +Enter MENENIUS and SICINIUS + + MENENIUS. See you yond coign o' th' Capitol, yond cornerstone? + SICINIUS. Why, what of that? + MENENIUS. If it be possible for you to displace it with your little + finger, there is some hope the ladies of Rome, especially his + mother, may prevail with him. But I say there is no hope in't; + our throats are sentenc'd, and stay upon execution. + SICINIUS. Is't possible that so short a time can alter the + condition of a man? + MENENIUS. There is differency between a grub and a butterfly; yet + your butterfly was a grub. This Marcius is grown from man to + dragon; he has wings, he's more than a creeping thing. + SICINIUS. He lov'd his mother dearly. + MENENIUS. So did he me; and he no more remembers his mother now + than an eight-year-old horse. The tartness of his face sours ripe + grapes; when he walks, he moves like an engine and the ground + shrinks before his treading. He is able to pierce a corslet with + his eye, talks like a knell, and his hum is a battery. He sits in + his state as a thing made for Alexander. What he bids be done is + finish'd with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but + eternity, and a heaven to throne in. + SICINIUS. Yes- mercy, if you report him truly. + MENENIUS. I paint him in the character. Mark what mercy his mother + shall bring from him. There is no more mercy in him than there is + milk in a male tiger; that shall our poor city find. And all this + is 'long of you. + SICINIUS. The gods be good unto us! + MENENIUS. No, in such a case the gods will not be good unto us. + When we banish'd him we respected not them; and, he returning to + break our necks, they respect not us. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. Sir, if you'd save your life, fly to your house. + The plebeians have got your fellow tribune + And hale him up and down; all swearing if + The Roman ladies bring not comfort home + They'll give him death by inches. + + Enter another MESSENGER + + SICINIUS. What's the news? + SECOND MESSENGER. Good news, good news! The ladies have prevail'd, + The Volscians are dislodg'd, and Marcius gone. + A merrier day did never yet greet Rome, + No, not th' expulsion of the Tarquins. + SICINIUS. Friend, + Art thou certain this is true? Is't most certain? + SECOND MESSENGER. As certain as I know the sun is fire. + Where have you lurk'd, that you make doubt of it? + Ne'er through an arch so hurried the blown tide + As the recomforted through th' gates. Why, hark you! + [Trumpets, hautboys, drums beat, all together] + The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries, and fifes, + Tabors and cymbals, and the shouting Romans, + Make the sun dance. Hark you! [A shout within] + MENENIUS. This is good news. + I will go meet the ladies. This Volumnia + Is worth of consuls, senators, patricians, + A city full; of tribunes such as you, + A sea and land full. You have pray'd well to-day: + This morning for ten thousand of your throats + I'd not have given a doit. Hark, how they joy! + [Sound still with the shouts] + SICINIUS. First, the gods bless you for your tidings; next, + Accept my thankfulness. + SECOND MESSENGER. Sir, we have all + Great cause to give great thanks. + SICINIUS. They are near the city? + MESSENGER. Almost at point to enter. + SICINIUS. We'll meet them, + And help the joy. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Rome. A street near the gate + +Enter two SENATORS With VOLUMNIA, VIRGILIA, VALERIA, passing over the stage, +'With other LORDS + + FIRST SENATOR. Behold our patroness, the life of Rome! + Call all your tribes together, praise the gods, + And make triumphant fires; strew flowers before them. + Unshout the noise that banish'd Marcius, + Repeal him with the welcome of his mother; + ALL. Welcome, ladies, welcome! + [A flourish with drums and trumpets. Exeunt] + + + + +SCENE VI. +Corioli. A public place + +Enter TULLUS AUFIDIUS with attendents + + AUFIDIUS. Go tell the lords o' th' city I am here; + Deliver them this paper' having read it, + Bid them repair to th' market-place, where I, + Even in theirs and in the commons' ears, + Will vouch the truth of it. Him I accuse + The city ports by this hath enter'd and + Intends t' appear before the people, hoping + To purge himself with words. Dispatch. + Exeunt attendants + + Enter three or four CONSPIRATORS of AUFIDIUS' faction + + Most welcome! + FIRST CONSPIRATOR. How is it with our general? + AUFIDIUS. Even so + As with a man by his own alms empoison'd, + And with his charity slain. + SECOND CONSPIRATOR. Most noble sir, + If you do hold the same intent wherein + You wish'd us parties, we'll deliver you + Of your great danger. + AUFIDIUS. Sir, I cannot tell; + We must proceed as we do find the people. + THIRD CONSPIRATOR. The people will remain uncertain whilst + 'Twixt you there's difference; but the fall of either + Makes the survivor heir of all. + AUFIDIUS. I know it; + And my pretext to strike at him admits + A good construction. I rais'd him, and I pawn'd + Mine honour for his truth; who being so heighten'd, + He watered his new plants with dews of flattery, + Seducing so my friends; and to this end + He bow'd his nature, never known before + But to be rough, unswayable, and free. + THIRD CONSPIRATOR. Sir, his stoutness + When he did stand for consul, which he lost + By lack of stooping- + AUFIDIUS. That I would have spoken of. + Being banish'd for't, he came unto my hearth, + Presented to my knife his throat. I took him; + Made him joint-servant with me; gave him way + In all his own desires; nay, let him choose + Out of my files, his projects to accomplish, + My best and freshest men; serv'd his designments + In mine own person; holp to reap the fame + Which he did end all his, and took some pride + To do myself this wrong. Till, at the last, + I seem'd his follower, not partner; and + He wag'd me with his countenance as if + I had been mercenary. + FIRST CONSPIRATOR. So he did, my lord. + The army marvell'd at it; and, in the last, + When he had carried Rome and that we look'd + For no less spoil than glory- + AUFIDIUS. There was it; + For which my sinews shall be stretch'd upon him. + At a few drops of women's rheum, which are + As cheap as lies, he sold the blood and labour + Of our great action; therefore shall he die, + And I'll renew me in his fall. But, hark! + [Drums and + trumpets sound, with great shouts of the people] + FIRST CONSPIRATOR. Your native town you enter'd like a post, + And had no welcomes home; but he returns + Splitting the air with noise. + SECOND CONSPIRATOR. And patient fools, + Whose children he hath slain, their base throats tear + With giving him glory. + THIRD CONSPIRATOR. Therefore, at your vantage, + Ere he express himself or move the people + With what he would say, let him feel your sword, + Which we will second. When he lies along, + After your way his tale pronounc'd shall bury + His reasons with his body. + AUFIDIUS. Say no more: + Here come the lords. + + Enter the LORDS of the city + + LORDS. You are most welcome home. + AUFIDIUS. I have not deserv'd it. + But, worthy lords, have you with heed perused + What I have written to you? + LORDS. We have. + FIRST LORD. And grieve to hear't. + What faults he made before the last, I think + Might have found easy fines; but there to end + Where he was to begin, and give away + The benefit of our levies, answering us + With our own charge, making a treaty where + There was a yielding- this admits no excuse. + AUFIDIUS. He approaches; you shall hear him. + + Enter CORIOLANUS, marching with drum and colours; + the commoners being with him + + CORIOLANUS. Hail, lords! I am return'd your soldier; + No more infected with my country's love + Than when I parted hence, but still subsisting + Under your great command. You are to know + That prosperously I have attempted, and + With bloody passage led your wars even to + The gates of Rome. Our spoils we have brought home + Doth more than counterpoise a full third part + The charges of the action. We have made peace + With no less honour to the Antiates + Than shame to th' Romans; and we here deliver, + Subscrib'd by th' consuls and patricians, + Together with the seal o' th' Senate, what + We have compounded on. + AUFIDIUS. Read it not, noble lords; + But tell the traitor in the highest degree + He hath abus'd your powers. + CORIOLANUS. Traitor! How now? + AUFIDIUS. Ay, traitor, Marcius. + CORIOLANUS. Marcius! + AUFIDIUS. Ay, Marcius, Caius Marcius! Dost thou think + I'll grace thee with that robbery, thy stol'n name + Coriolanus, in Corioli? + You lords and heads o' th' state, perfidiously + He has betray'd your business and given up, + For certain drops of salt, your city Rome- + I say your city- to his wife and mother; + Breaking his oath and resolution like + A twist of rotten silk; never admitting + Counsel o' th' war; but at his nurse's tears + He whin'd and roar'd away your victory, + That pages blush'd at him, and men of heart + Look'd wond'ring each at others. + CORIOLANUS. Hear'st thou, Mars? + AUFIDIUS. Name not the god, thou boy of tears- + CORIOLANUS. Ha! + AUFIDIUS. -no more. + CORIOLANUS. Measureless liar, thou hast made my heart + Too great for what contains it. 'Boy'! O slave! + Pardon me, lords, 'tis the first time that ever + I was forc'd to scold. Your judgments, my grave lords, + Must give this cur the lie; and his own notion- + Who wears my stripes impress'd upon him, that + Must bear my beating to his grave- shall join + To thrust the lie unto him. + FIRST LORD. Peace, both, and hear me speak. + CORIOLANUS. Cut me to pieces, Volsces; men and lads, + Stain all your edges on me. 'Boy'! False hound! + If you have writ your annals true, 'tis there + That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I + Flutter'd your Volscians in Corioli. + Alone I did it. 'Boy'! + AUFIDIUS. Why, noble lords, + Will you be put in mind of his blind fortune, + Which was your shame, by this unholy braggart, + Fore your own eyes and ears? + CONSPIRATORS. Let him die for't. + ALL THE PEOPLE. Tear him to pieces. Do it presently. He kill'd my + son. My daughter. He kill'd my cousin Marcus. He kill'd my + father. + SECOND LORD. Peace, ho! No outrage- peace! + The man is noble, and his fame folds in + This orb o' th' earth. His last offences to us + Shall have judicious hearing. Stand, Aufidius, + And trouble not the peace. + CORIOLANUS. O that I had him, + With six Aufidiuses, or more- his tribe, + To use my lawful sword! + AUFIDIUS. Insolent villain! + CONSPIRATORS. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill him! + [The CONSPIRATORS draw and kill CORIOLANUS,who falls. + AUFIDIUS stands on him] + LORDS. Hold, hold, hold, hold! + AUFIDIUS. My noble masters, hear me speak. + FIRST LORD. O Tullus! + SECOND LORD. Thou hast done a deed whereat valour will weep. + THIRD LORD. Tread not upon him. Masters all, be quiet; + Put up your swords. + AUFIDIUS. My lords, when you shall know- as in this rage, + Provok'd by him, you cannot- the great danger + Which this man's life did owe you, you'll rejoice + That he is thus cut off. Please it your honours + To call me to your Senate, I'll deliver + Myself your loyal servant, or endure + Your heaviest censure. + FIRST LORD. Bear from hence his body, + And mourn you for him. Let him be regarded + As the most noble corse that ever herald + Did follow to his um. + SECOND LORD. His own impatience + Takes from Aufidius a great part of blame. + Let's make the best of it. + AUFIDIUS. My rage is gone, + And I am struck with sorrow. Take him up. + Help, three o' th' chiefest soldiers; I'll be one. + Beat thou the drum, that it speak mournfully; + Trail your steel pikes. Though in this city he + Hath widowed and unchilded many a one, + Which to this hour bewail the injury, + Yet he shall have a noble memory. + Assist. Exeunt, bearing the body of CORIOLANUS + [A dead march sounded] + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1609 + +CYMBELINE + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + CYMBELINE, King of Britain + CLOTEN, son to the Queen by a former husband + POSTHUMUS LEONATUS, a gentleman, husband to Imogen + BELARIUS, a banished lord, disguised under the name of Morgan + + GUIDERIUS and ARVIRAGUS, sons to Cymbeline, disguised under the + names of POLYDORE and CADWAL, supposed sons to Belarius + PHILARIO, Italian, friend to Posthumus + IACHIMO, Italian, friend to Philario + A FRENCH GENTLEMAN, friend to Philario + CAIUS LUCIUS, General of the Roman Forces + A ROMAN CAPTAIN + TWO BRITISH CAPTAINS + PISANIO, servant to Posthumus + CORNELIUS, a physician + TWO LORDS of Cymbeline's court + TWO GENTLEMEN of the same + TWO GAOLERS + + QUEEN, wife to Cymbeline + IMOGEN, daughter to Cymbeline by a former queen + HELEN, a lady attending on Imogen + + APPARITIONS + + Lords, Ladies, Roman Senators, Tribunes, a Soothsayer, a + Dutch Gentleman, a Spanish Gentleman, Musicians, Officers, + Captains, Soldiers, Messengers, and Attendants + + + +<> + + + + +SCENE: +Britain; Italy + + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Britain. The garden of CYMBELINE'S palace + + FIRST GENTLEMAN. You do not meet a man but frowns; our bloods + No more obey the heavens than our courtiers + Still seem as does the King's. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. But what's the matter? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. His daughter, and the heir of's kingdom, whom + He purpos'd to his wife's sole son- a widow + That late he married- hath referr'd herself + Unto a poor but worthy gentleman. She's wedded; + Her husband banish'd; she imprison'd. All + Is outward sorrow, though I think the King + Be touch'd at very heart. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. None but the King? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. He that hath lost her too. So is the Queen, + That most desir'd the match. But not a courtier, + Although they wear their faces to the bent + Of the King's looks, hath a heart that is not + Glad at the thing they scowl at. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. And why so? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. He that hath miss'd the Princess is a thing + Too bad for bad report; and he that hath her- + I mean that married her, alack, good man! + And therefore banish'd- is a creature such + As, to seek through the regions of the earth + For one his like, there would be something failing + In him that should compare. I do not think + So fair an outward and such stuff within + Endows a man but he. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. You speak him far. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. I do extend him, sir, within himself; + Crush him together rather than unfold + His measure duly. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. What's his name and birth? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. I cannot delve him to the root; his father + Was call'd Sicilius, who did join his honour + Against the Romans with Cassibelan, + But had his titles by Tenantius, whom + He serv'd with glory and admir'd success, + So gain'd the sur-addition Leonatus; + And had, besides this gentleman in question, + Two other sons, who, in the wars o' th' time, + Died with their swords in hand; for which their father, + Then old and fond of issue, took such sorrow + That he quit being; and his gentle lady, + Big of this gentleman, our theme, deceas'd + As he was born. The King he takes the babe + To his protection, calls him Posthumus Leonatus, + Breeds him and makes him of his bed-chamber, + Puts to him all the learnings that his time + Could make him the receiver of; which he took, + As we do air, fast as 'twas minist'red, + And in's spring became a harvest, liv'd in court- + Which rare it is to do- most prais'd, most lov'd, + A sample to the youngest; to th' more mature + A glass that feated them; and to the graver + A child that guided dotards. To his mistress, + For whom he now is banish'd- her own price + Proclaims how she esteem'd him and his virtue; + By her election may be truly read + What kind of man he is. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. I honour him + Even out of your report. But pray you tell me, + Is she sole child to th' King? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. His only child. + He had two sons- if this be worth your hearing, + Mark it- the eldest of them at three years old, + I' th' swathing clothes the other, from their nursery + Were stol'n; and to this hour no guess in knowledge + Which way they went. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. How long is this ago? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Some twenty years. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. That a king's children should be so convey'd, + So slackly guarded, and the search so slow + That could not trace them! + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Howsoe'er 'tis strange, + Or that the negligence may well be laugh'd at, + Yet is it true, sir. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. I do well believe you. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. We must forbear; here comes the gentleman, + The Queen, and Princess. Exeunt + + Enter the QUEEN, POSTHUMUS, and IMOGEN + + QUEEN. No, be assur'd you shall not find me, daughter, + After the slander of most stepmothers, + Evil-ey'd unto you. You're my prisoner, but + Your gaoler shall deliver you the keys + That lock up your restraint. For you, Posthumus, + So soon as I can win th' offended King, + I will be known your advocate. Marry, yet + The fire of rage is in him, and 'twere good + You lean'd unto his sentence with what patience + Your wisdom may inform you. + POSTHUMUS. Please your Highness, + I will from hence to-day. + QUEEN. You know the peril. + I'll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying + The pangs of barr'd affections, though the King + Hath charg'd you should not speak together. Exit + IMOGEN. O dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant + Can tickle where she wounds! My dearest husband, + I something fear my father's wrath, but nothing- + Always reserv'd my holy duty- what + His rage can do on me. You must be gone; + And I shall here abide the hourly shot + Of angry eyes, not comforted to live + But that there is this jewel in the world + That I may see again. + POSTHUMUS. My queen! my mistress! + O lady, weep no more, lest I give cause + To be suspected of more tenderness + Than doth become a man. I will remain + The loyal'st husband that did e'er plight troth; + My residence in Rome at one Philario's, + Who to my father was a friend, to me + Known but by letter; thither write, my queen, + And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send, + Though ink be made of gall. + + Re-enter QUEEN + + QUEEN. Be brief, I pray you. + If the King come, I shall incur I know not + How much of his displeasure. [Aside] Yet I'll move him + To walk this way. I never do him wrong + But he does buy my injuries, to be friends; + Pays dear for my offences. Exit + POSTHUMUS. Should we be taking leave + As long a term as yet we have to live, + The loathness to depart would grow. Adieu! + IMOGEN. Nay, stay a little. + Were you but riding forth to air yourself, + Such parting were too petty. Look here, love: + This diamond was my mother's; take it, heart; + But keep it till you woo another wife, + When Imogen is dead. + POSTHUMUS. How, how? Another? + You gentle gods, give me but this I have, + And sear up my embracements from a next + With bonds of death! Remain, remain thou here + [Puts on the ring] + While sense can keep it on. And, sweetest, fairest, + As I my poor self did exchange for you, + To your so infinite loss, so in our trifles + I still win of you. For my sake wear this; + It is a manacle of love; I'll place it + Upon this fairest prisoner. [Puts a bracelet on her arm] + IMOGEN. O the gods! + When shall we see again? + + Enter CYMBELINE and LORDS + + POSTHUMUS. Alack, the King! + CYMBELINE. Thou basest thing, avoid; hence from my sight + If after this command thou fraught the court + With thy unworthiness, thou diest. Away! + Thou'rt poison to my blood. + POSTHUMUS. The gods protect you, + And bless the good remainders of the court! + I am gone. Exit + IMOGEN. There cannot be a pinch in death + More sharp than this is. + CYMBELINE. O disloyal thing, + That shouldst repair my youth, thou heap'st + A year's age on me! + IMOGEN. I beseech you, sir, + Harm not yourself with your vexation. + I am senseless of your wrath; a touch more rare + Subdues all pangs, all fears. + CYMBELINE. Past grace? obedience? + IMOGEN. Past hope, and in despair; that way past grace. + CYMBELINE. That mightst have had the sole son of my queen! + IMOGEN. O blessed that I might not! I chose an eagle, + And did avoid a puttock. + CYMBELINE. Thou took'st a beggar, wouldst have made my throne + A seat for baseness. + IMOGEN. No; I rather added + A lustre to it. + CYMBELINE. O thou vile one! + IMOGEN. Sir, + It is your fault that I have lov'd Posthumus. + You bred him as my playfellow, and he is + A man worth any woman; overbuys me + Almost the sum he pays. + CYMBELINE. What, art thou mad? + IMOGEN. Almost, sir. Heaven restore me! Would I were + A neat-herd's daughter, and my Leonatus + Our neighbour shepherd's son! + + Re-enter QUEEN + + CYMBELINE. Thou foolish thing! + [To the QUEEN] They were again together. You have done + Not after our command. Away with her, + And pen her up. + QUEEN. Beseech your patience.- Peace, + Dear lady daughter, peace!- Sweet sovereign, + Leave us to ourselves, and make yourself some comfort + Out of your best advice. + CYMBELINE. Nay, let her languish + A drop of blood a day and, being aged, + Die of this folly. Exit, with LORDS + + Enter PISANIO + + QUEEN. Fie! you must give way. + Here is your servant. How now, sir! What news? + PISANIO. My lord your son drew on my master. + QUEEN. Ha! + No harm, I trust, is done? + PISANIO. There might have been, + But that my master rather play'd than fought, + And had no help of anger; they were parted + By gentlemen at hand. + QUEEN. I am very glad on't. + IMOGEN. Your son's my father's friend; he takes his part + To draw upon an exile! O brave sir! + I would they were in Afric both together; + Myself by with a needle, that I might prick + The goer-back. Why came you from your master? + PISANIO. On his command. He would not suffer me + To bring him to the haven; left these notes + Of what commands I should be subject to, + When't pleas'd you to employ me. + QUEEN. This hath been + Your faithful servant. I dare lay mine honour + He will remain so. + PISANIO. I humbly thank your Highness. + QUEEN. Pray walk awhile. + IMOGEN. About some half-hour hence, + Pray you speak with me. You shall at least + Go see my lord aboard. For this time leave me. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Britain. A public place + +Enter CLOTEN and two LORDS + + FIRST LORD. Sir, I would advise you to shift a shirt; the violence + of action hath made you reek as a sacrifice. Where air comes out, + air comes in; there's none abroad so wholesome as that you vent. + CLOTEN. If my shirt were bloody, then to shift it. Have I hurt him? + SECOND LORD. [Aside] No, faith; not so much as his patience. + FIRST LORD. Hurt him! His body's a passable carcass if he be not + hurt. It is a throughfare for steel if it be not hurt. + SECOND LORD. [Aside] His steel was in debt; it went o' th' back + side the town. + CLOTEN. The villain would not stand me. + SECOND LORD. [Aside] No; but he fled forward still, toward your + face. + FIRST LORD. Stand you? You have land enough of your own; but he + added to your having, gave you some ground. + SECOND LORD. [Aside] As many inches as you have oceans. + Puppies! + CLOTEN. I would they had not come between us. + SECOND LORD. [Aside] So would I, till you had measur'd how long a + fool you were upon the ground. + CLOTEN. And that she should love this fellow, and refuse me! + SECOND LORD. [Aside] If it be a sin to make a true election, she is + damn'd. + FIRST LORD. Sir, as I told you always, her beauty and her brain go + not together; she's a good sign, but I have seen small reflection + of her wit. + SECOND LORD. [Aside] She shines not upon fools, lest the reflection + should hurt her. + CLOTEN. Come, I'll to my chamber. Would there had been some hurt + done! + SECOND LORD. [Aside] I wish not so; unless it had been the fall of + an ass, which is no great hurt. + CLOTEN. You'll go with us? + FIRST LORD. I'll attend your lordship. + CLOTEN. Nay, come, let's go together. + SECOND LORD. Well, my lord. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Britain. CYMBELINE'S palace + +Enter IMOGEN and PISANIO + + IMOGEN. I would thou grew'st unto the shores o' th' haven, + And questioned'st every sail; if he should write, + And I not have it, 'twere a paper lost, + As offer'd mercy is. What was the last + That he spake to thee? + PISANIO. It was: his queen, his queen! + IMOGEN. Then wav'd his handkerchief? + PISANIO. And kiss'd it, madam. + IMOGEN. Senseless linen, happier therein than I! + And that was all? + PISANIO. No, madam; for so long + As he could make me with his eye, or care + Distinguish him from others, he did keep + The deck, with glove, or hat, or handkerchief, + Still waving, as the fits and stirs of's mind + Could best express how slow his soul sail'd on, + How swift his ship. + IMOGEN. Thou shouldst have made him + As little as a crow, or less, ere left + To after-eye him. + PISANIO. Madam, so I did. + IMOGEN. I would have broke mine eyestrings, crack'd them but + To look upon him, till the diminution + Of space had pointed him sharp as my needle; + Nay, followed him till he had melted from + The smallness of a gnat to air, and then + Have turn'd mine eye and wept. But, good Pisanio, + When shall we hear from him? + PISANIO. Be assur'd, madam, + With his next vantage. + IMOGEN. I did not take my leave of him, but had + Most pretty things to say. Ere I could tell him + How I would think on him at certain hours + Such thoughts and such; or I could make him swear + The shes of Italy should not betray + Mine interest and his honour; or have charg'd him, + At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight, + T' encounter me with orisons, for then + I am in heaven for him; or ere I could + Give him that parting kiss which I had set + Betwixt two charming words, comes in my father, + And like the tyrannous breathing of the north + Shakes all our buds from growing. + + Enter a LADY + + LADY. The Queen, madam, + Desires your Highness' company. + IMOGEN. Those things I bid you do, get them dispatch'd. + I will attend the Queen. + PISANIO. Madam, I shall. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Rome. PHILARIO'S house + +Enter PHILARIO, IACHIMO, a FRENCHMAN, a DUTCHMAN, and a SPANIARD + + IACHIMO. Believe it, sir, I have seen him in Britain. He was then + of a crescent note, expected to prove so worthy as since he hath + been allowed the name of. But I could then have look'd on him + without the help of admiration, though the catalogue of his + endowments had been tabled by his side, and I to peruse him by + items. + PHILARIO. You speak of him when he was less furnish'd than now he + is with that which makes him both without and within. + FRENCHMAN. I have seen him in France; we had very many there could + behold the sun with as firm eyes as he. + IACHIMO. This matter of marrying his king's daughter, wherein he + must be weighed rather by her value than his own, words him, I + doubt not, a great deal from the matter. + FRENCHMAN. And then his banishment. + IACHIMO. Ay, and the approbation of those that weep this lamentable + divorce under her colours are wonderfully to extend him, be it + but to fortify her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay + flat, for taking a beggar, without less quality. But how comes it + he is to sojourn with you? How creeps acquaintance? + PHILARIO. His father and I were soldiers together, to whom I have + been often bound for no less than my life. + + Enter POSTHUMUS + + Here comes the Briton. Let him be so entertained amongst you as + suits with gentlemen of your knowing to a stranger of his + quality. I beseech you all be better known to this gentleman, + whom I commend to you as a noble friend of mine. How worthy he is + I will leave to appear hereafter, rather than story him in his + own hearing. + FRENCHMAN. Sir, we have known together in Orleans. + POSTHUMUS. Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies, + which I will be ever to pay and yet pay still. + FRENCHMAN. Sir, you o'errate my poor kindness. I was glad I did + atone my countryman and you; it had been pity you should have + been put together with so mortal a purpose as then each bore, + upon importance of so slight and trivial a nature. + POSTHUMUS. By your pardon, sir. I was then a young traveller; + rather shunn'd to go even with what I heard than in my every + action to be guided by others' experiences; but upon my mended + judgment- if I offend not to say it is mended- my quarrel was not + altogether slight. + FRENCHMAN. Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrement of swords, and + by such two that would by all likelihood have confounded one the + other or have fall'n both. + IACHIMO. Can we, with manners, ask what was the difference? + FRENCHMAN. Safely, I think. 'Twas a contention in public, which + may, without contradiction, suffer the report. It was much like + an argument that fell out last night, where each of us fell in + praise of our country mistresses; this gentleman at that time + vouching- and upon warrant of bloody affirmation- his to be more + fair, virtuous, wise, chaste, constant, qualified, and less + attemptable, than any the rarest of our ladies in France. + IACHIMO. That lady is not now living, or this gentleman's opinion, + by this, worn out. + POSTHUMUS. She holds her virtue still, and I my mind. + IACHIMO. You must not so far prefer her fore ours of Italy. + POSTHUMUS. Being so far provok'd as I was in France, I would abate + her nothing, though I profess myself her adorer, not her friend. + IACHIMO. As fair and as good- a kind of hand-in-hand comparison- + had been something too fair and too good for any lady in Britain. + If she went before others I have seen as that diamond of yours + outlustres many I have beheld, I could not but believe she + excelled many; but I have not seen the most precious diamond that + is, nor you the lady. + POSTHUMUS. I prais'd her as I rated her. So do I my stone. + IACHIMO. What do you esteem it at? + POSTHUMUS. More than the world enjoys. + IACHIMO. Either your unparagon'd mistress is dead, or she's + outpriz'd by a trifle. + POSTHUMUS. You are mistaken: the one may be sold or given, if there + were wealth enough for the purchase or merit for the gift; the + other is not a thing for sale, and only the gift of the gods. + IACHIMO. Which the gods have given you? + POSTHUMUS. Which by their graces I will keep. + IACHIMO. You may wear her in title yours; but you know strange fowl + light upon neighbouring ponds. Your ring may be stol'n too. So + your brace of unprizable estimations, the one is but frail and + the other casual; a cunning thief, or a that-way-accomplish'd + courtier, would hazard the winning both of first and last. + POSTHUMUS. Your Italy contains none so accomplish'd a courtier to + convince the honour of my mistress, if in the holding or loss of + that you term her frail. I do nothing doubt you have store of + thieves; notwithstanding, I fear not my ring. + PHILARIO. Let us leave here, gentlemen. + POSTHUMUS. Sir, with all my heart. This worthy signior, I thank + him, makes no stranger of me; we are familiar at first. + IACHIMO. With five times so much conversation I should get ground + of your fair mistress; make her go back even to the yielding, had + I admittance and opportunity to friend. + POSTHUMUS. No, no. + IACHIMO. I dare thereupon pawn the moiety of my estate to your + ring, which, in my opinion, o'ervalues it something. But I make + my wager rather against your confidence than her reputation; and, + to bar your offence herein too, I durst attempt it against any + lady in the world. + POSTHUMUS. You are a great deal abus'd in too bold a persuasion, + and I doubt not you sustain what y'are worthy of by your attempt. + IACHIMO. What's that? + POSTHUMUS. A repulse; though your attempt, as you call it, deserve + more- a punishment too. + PHILARIO. Gentlemen, enough of this. It came in too suddenly; let + it die as it was born, and I pray you be better acquainted. + IACHIMO. Would I had put my estate and my neighbour's on th' + approbation of what I have spoke! + POSTHUMUS. What lady would you choose to assail? + IACHIMO. Yours, whom in constancy you think stands so safe. I will + lay you ten thousand ducats to your ring that, commend me to the + court where your lady is, with no more advantage than the + opportunity of a second conference, and I will bring from thence + that honour of hers which you imagine so reserv'd. + POSTHUMUS. I will wage against your gold, gold to it. My ring I + hold dear as my finger; 'tis part of it. + IACHIMO. You are a friend, and therein the wiser. If you buy + ladies' flesh at a million a dram, you cannot preserve it from + tainting. But I see you have some religion in you, that you fear. + POSTHUMUS. This is but a custom in your tongue; you bear a graver + purpose, I hope. + IACHIMO. I am the master of my speeches, and would undergo what's + spoken, I swear. + POSTHUMUS. Will you? I Shall but lend my diamond till your return. + Let there be covenants drawn between's. My mistress exceeds in + goodness the hugeness of your unworthy thinking. I dare you to + this match: here's my ring. + PHILARIO. I will have it no lay. + IACHIMO. By the gods, it is one. If I bring you no sufficient + testimony that I have enjoy'd the dearest bodily part of your + mistress, my ten thousand ducats are yours; so is your diamond + too. If I come off, and leave her in such honour as you have + trust in, she your jewel, this your jewel, and my gold are yours- + provided I have your commendation for my more free entertainment. + POSTHUMUS. I embrace these conditions; let us have articles betwixt + us. Only, thus far you shall answer: if you make your voyage upon + her, and give me directly to understand you have prevail'd, I am + no further your enemy- she is not worth our debate; if she remain + unseduc'd, you not making it appear otherwise, for your ill + opinion and th' assault you have made to her chastity you shall + answer me with your sword. + IACHIMO. Your hand- a covenant! We will have these things set down + by lawful counsel, and straight away for Britain, lest the + bargain should catch cold and starve. I will fetch my gold and + have our two wagers recorded. + POSTHUMUS. Agreed. Exeunt POSTHUMUS and IACHIMO + FRENCHMAN. Will this hold, think you? + PHILARIO. Signior Iachimo will not from it. Pray let us follow 'em. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Britain. CYMBELINE'S palace + +Enter QUEEN, LADIES, and CORNELIUS + + QUEEN. Whiles yet the dew's on ground, gather those flowers; + Make haste; who has the note of them? + LADY. I, madam. + QUEEN. Dispatch. Exeunt LADIES + Now, Master Doctor, have you brought those drugs? + CORNELIUS. Pleaseth your Highness, ay. Here they are, madam. + [Presenting a box] + But I beseech your Grace, without offence- + My conscience bids me ask- wherefore you have + Commanded of me these most poisonous compounds + Which are the movers of a languishing death, + But, though slow, deadly? + QUEEN. I wonder, Doctor, + Thou ask'st me such a question. Have I not been + Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learn'd me how + To make perfumes? distil? preserve? yea, so + That our great king himself doth woo me oft + For my confections? Having thus far proceeded- + Unless thou think'st me devilish- is't not meet + That I did amplify my judgment in + Other conclusions? I will try the forces + Of these thy compounds on such creatures as + We count not worth the hanging- but none human- + To try the vigour of them, and apply + Allayments to their act, and by them gather + Their several virtues and effects. + CORNELIUS. Your Highness + Shall from this practice but make hard your heart; + Besides, the seeing these effects will be + Both noisome and infectious. + QUEEN. O, content thee. + + Enter PISANIO + + [Aside] Here comes a flattering rascal; upon him + Will I first work. He's for his master, + An enemy to my son.- How now, Pisanio! + Doctor, your service for this time is ended; + Take your own way. + CORNELIUS. [Aside] I do suspect you, madam; + But you shall do no harm. + QUEEN. [To PISANIO] Hark thee, a word. + CORNELIUS. [Aside] I do not like her. She doth think she has + Strange ling'ring poisons. I do know her spirit, + And will not trust one of her malice with + A drug of such damn'd nature. Those she has + Will stupefy and dull the sense awhile, + Which first perchance she'll prove on cats and dogs, + Then afterward up higher; but there is + No danger in what show of death it makes, + More than the locking up the spirits a time, + To be more fresh, reviving. She is fool'd + With a most false effect; and I the truer + So to be false with her. + QUEEN. No further service, Doctor, + Until I send for thee. + CORNELIUS. I humbly take my leave. Exit + QUEEN. Weeps she still, say'st thou? Dost thou think in time + She will not quench, and let instructions enter + Where folly now possesses? Do thou work. + When thou shalt bring me word she loves my son, + I'll tell thee on the instant thou art then + As great as is thy master; greater, for + His fortunes all lie speechless, and his name + Is at last gasp. Return he cannot, nor + Continue where he is. To shift his being + Is to exchange one misery with another, + And every day that comes comes comes to + A day's work in him. What shalt thou expect + To be depender on a thing that leans, + Who cannot be new built, nor has no friends + So much as but to prop him? + [The QUEEN drops the box. PISANIO takes it up] + Thou tak'st up + Thou know'st not what; but take it for thy labour. + It is a thing I made, which hath the King + Five times redeem'd from death. I do not know + What is more cordial. Nay, I prithee take it; + It is an earnest of a further good + That I mean to thee. Tell thy mistress how + The case stands with her; do't as from thyself. + Think what a chance thou changest on; but think + Thou hast thy mistress still; to boot, my son, + Who shall take notice of thee. I'll move the King + To any shape of thy preferment, such + As thou'lt desire; and then myself, I chiefly, + That set thee on to this desert, am bound + To load thy merit richly. Call my women. + Think on my words. Exit PISANIO + A sly and constant knave, + Not to be shak'd; the agent for his master, + And the remembrancer of her to hold + The hand-fast to her lord. I have given him that + Which, if he take, shall quite unpeople her + Of leigers for her sweet; and which she after, + Except she bend her humour, shall be assur'd + To taste of too. + + Re-enter PISANIO and LADIES + + So, so. Well done, well done. + The violets, cowslips, and the primroses, + Bear to my closet. Fare thee well, Pisanio; + Think on my words. Exeunt QUEEN and LADIES + PISANIO. And shall do. + But when to my good lord I prove untrue + I'll choke myself- there's all I'll do for you. Exit + + + + +SCENE VI. +Britain. The palace + +Enter IMOGEN alone + + IMOGEN. A father cruel and a step-dame false; + A foolish suitor to a wedded lady + That hath her husband banish'd. O, that husband! + My supreme crown of grief! and those repeated + Vexations of it! Had I been thief-stol'n, + As my two brothers, happy! but most miserable + Is the desire that's glorious. Blessed be those, + How mean soe'er, that have their honest wills, + Which seasons comfort. Who may this be? Fie! + + Enter PISANIO and IACHIMO + + PISANIO. Madam, a noble gentleman of Rome + Comes from my lord with letters. + IACHIMO. Change you, madam? + The worthy Leonatus is in safety, + And greets your Highness dearly. [Presents a letter] + IMOGEN. Thanks, good sir. + You're kindly welcome. + IACHIMO. [Aside] All of her that is out of door most rich! + If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare, + She is alone th' Arabian bird, and I + Have lost the wager. Boldness be my friend! + Arm me, audacity, from head to foot! + Or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight; + Rather, directly fly. + IMOGEN. [Reads] 'He is one of the noblest note, to whose + kindnesses I am most infinitely tied. Reflect upon him + accordingly, as you value your trust. LEONATUS.' + + So far I read aloud; + But even the very middle of my heart + Is warm'd by th' rest and takes it thankfully. + You are as welcome, worthy sir, as I + Have words to bid you; and shall find it so + In all that I can do. + IACHIMO. Thanks, fairest lady. + What, are men mad? Hath nature given them eyes + To see this vaulted arch and the rich crop + Of sea and land, which can distinguish 'twixt + The fiery orbs above and the twinn'd stones + Upon the number'd beach, and can we not + Partition make with spectacles so precious + 'Twixt fair and foul? + IMOGEN. What makes your admiration? + IACHIMO. It cannot be i' th' eye, for apes and monkeys, + 'Twixt two such shes, would chatter this way and + Contemn with mows the other; nor i' th' judgment, + For idiots in this case of favour would + Be wisely definite; nor i' th' appetite; + Sluttery, to such neat excellence oppos'd, + Should make desire vomit emptiness, + Not so allur'd to feed. + IMOGEN. What is the matter, trow? + IACHIMO. The cloyed will- + That satiate yet unsatisfied desire, that tub + Both fill'd and running- ravening first the lamb, + Longs after for the garbage. + IMOGEN. What, dear sir, + Thus raps you? Are you well? + IACHIMO. Thanks, madam; well.- Beseech you, sir, + Desire my man's abode where I did leave him. + He's strange and peevish. + PISANIO. I was going, sir, + To give him welcome. Exit + IMOGEN. Continues well my lord? His health beseech you? + IACHIMO. Well, madam. + IMOGEN. Is he dispos'd to mirth? I hope he is. + IACHIMO. Exceeding pleasant; none a stranger there + So merry and so gamesome. He is call'd + The Britain reveller. + IMOGEN. When he was here + He did incline to sadness, and oft-times + Not knowing why. + IACHIMO. I never saw him sad. + There is a Frenchman his companion, one + An eminent monsieur that, it seems, much loves + A Gallian girl at home. He furnaces + The thick sighs from him; whiles the jolly Briton- + Your lord, I mean- laughs from's free lungs, cries 'O, + Can my sides hold, to think that man- who knows + By history, report, or his own proof, + What woman is, yea, what she cannot choose + But must be- will's free hours languish for + Assured bondage?' + IMOGEN. Will my lord say so? + IACHIMO. Ay, madam, with his eyes in flood with laughter. + It is a recreation to be by + And hear him mock the Frenchman. But heavens know + Some men are much to blame. + IMOGEN. Not he, I hope. + IACHIMO. Not he; but yet heaven's bounty towards him might + Be us'd more thankfully. In himself, 'tis much; + In you, which I account his, beyond all talents. + Whilst I am bound to wonder, I am bound + To pity too. + IMOGEN. What do you pity, sir? + IACHIMO. Two creatures heartily. + IMOGEN. Am I one, sir? + You look on me: what wreck discern you in me + Deserves your pity? + IACHIMO. Lamentable! What, + To hide me from the radiant sun and solace + I' th' dungeon by a snuff? + IMOGEN. I pray you, sir, + Deliver with more openness your answers + To my demands. Why do you pity me? + IACHIMO. That others do, + I was about to say, enjoy your- But + It is an office of the gods to venge it, + Not mine to speak on't. + IMOGEN. You do seem to know + Something of me, or what concerns me; pray you- + Since doubting things go ill often hurts more + Than to be sure they do; for certainties + Either are past remedies, or, timely knowing, + The remedy then born- discover to me + What both you spur and stop. + IACHIMO. Had I this cheek + To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch, + Whose every touch, would force the feeler's soul + To th' oath of loyalty; this object, which + Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye, + Fixing it only here; should I, damn'd then, + Slaver with lips as common as the stairs + That mount the Capitol; join gripes with hands + Made hard with hourly falsehood- falsehood as + With labour; then by-peeping in an eye + Base and illustrious as the smoky light + That's fed with stinking tallow- it were fit + That all the plagues of hell should at one time + Encounter such revolt. + IMOGEN. My lord, I fear, + Has forgot Britain. + IACHIMO. And himself. Not I + Inclin'd to this intelligence pronounce + The beggary of his change; but 'tis your graces + That from my mutest conscience to my tongue + Charms this report out. + IMOGEN. Let me hear no more. + IACHIMO. O dearest soul, your cause doth strike my heart + With pity that doth make me sick! A lady + So fair, and fasten'd to an empery, + Would make the great'st king double, to be partner'd + With tomboys hir'd with that self exhibition + Which your own coffers yield! with diseas'd ventures + That play with all infirmities for gold + Which rottenness can lend nature! such boil'd stuff + As well might poison poison! Be reveng'd; + Or she that bore you was no queen, and you + Recoil from your great stock. + IMOGEN. Reveng'd? + How should I be reveng'd? If this be true- + As I have such a heart that both mine ears + Must not in haste abuse- if it be true, + How should I be reveng'd? + IACHIMO. Should he make me + Live like Diana's priest betwixt cold sheets, + Whiles he is vaulting variable ramps, + In your despite, upon your purse? Revenge it. + I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure, + More noble than that runagate to your bed, + And will continue fast to your affection, + Still close as sure. + IMOGEN. What ho, Pisanio! + IACHIMO. Let me my service tender on your lips. + IMOGEN. Away! I do condemn mine ears that have + So long attended thee. If thou wert honourable, + Thou wouldst have told this tale for virtue, not + For such an end thou seek'st, as base as strange. + Thou wrong'st a gentleman who is as far + From thy report as thou from honour; and + Solicits here a lady that disdains + Thee and the devil alike.- What ho, Pisanio!- + The King my father shall be made acquainted + Of thy assault. If he shall think it fit + A saucy stranger in his court to mart + As in a Romish stew, and to expound + His beastly mind to us, he hath a court + He little cares for, and a daughter who + He not respects at all.- What ho, Pisanio! + IACHIMO. O happy Leonatus! I may say + The credit that thy lady hath of thee + Deserves thy trust, and thy most perfect goodness + Her assur'd credit. Blessed live you long, + A lady to the worthiest sir that ever + Country call'd his! and you his mistress, only + For the most worthiest fit! Give me your pardon. + I have spoke this to know if your affiance + Were deeply rooted, and shall make your lord + That which he is new o'er; and he is one + The truest manner'd, such a holy witch + That he enchants societies into him, + Half all men's hearts are his. + IMOGEN. You make amends. + IACHIMO. He sits 'mongst men like a descended god: + He hath a kind of honour sets him of + More than a mortal seeming. Be not angry, + Most mighty Princess, that I have adventur'd + To try your taking of a false report, which hath + Honour'd with confirmation your great judgment + In the election of a sir so rare, + Which you know cannot err. The love I bear him + Made me to fan you thus; but the gods made you, + Unlike all others, chaffless. Pray your pardon. + IMOGEN. All's well, sir; take my pow'r i' th' court for yours. + IACHIMO. My humble thanks. I had almost forgot + T' entreat your Grace but in a small request, + And yet of moment too, for it concerns + Your lord; myself and other noble friends + Are partners in the business. + IMOGEN. Pray what is't? + IACHIMO. Some dozen Romans of us, and your lord- + The best feather of our wing- have mingled sums + To buy a present for the Emperor; + Which I, the factor for the rest, have done + In France. 'Tis plate of rare device, and jewels + Of rich and exquisite form, their values great; + And I am something curious, being strange, + To have them in safe stowage. May it please you + To take them in protection? + IMOGEN. Willingly; + And pawn mine honour for their safety. Since + My lord hath interest in them, I will keep them + In my bedchamber. + IACHIMO. They are in a trunk, + Attended by my men. I will make bold + To send them to you only for this night; + I must aboard to-morrow. + IMOGEN. O, no, no. + IACHIMO. Yes, I beseech; or I shall short my word + By length'ning my return. From Gallia + I cross'd the seas on purpose and on promise + To see your Grace. + IMOGEN. I thank you for your pains. + But not away to-morrow! + IACHIMO. O, I must, madam. + Therefore I shall beseech you, if you please + To greet your lord with writing, do't to-night. + I have outstood my time, which is material + 'To th' tender of our present. + IMOGEN. I will write. + Send your trunk to me; it shall safe be kept + And truly yielded you. You're very welcome. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +Britain. Before CYMBELINE'S palace + +Enter CLOTEN and the two LORDS + + CLOTEN. Was there ever man had such luck! When I kiss'd the jack, + upon an up-cast to be hit away! I had a hundred pound on't; and + then a whoreson jackanapes must take me up for swearing, as if I + borrowed mine oaths of him, and might not spend them at my + pleasure. + FIRST LORD. What got he by that? You have broke his pate with your + bowl. + SECOND LORD. [Aside] If his wit had been like him that broke it, it + would have run all out. + CLOTEN. When a gentleman is dispos'd to swear, it is not for any + standers-by to curtail his oaths. Ha? + SECOND LORD. No, my lord; [Aside] nor crop the ears of them. + CLOTEN. Whoreson dog! I give him satisfaction? Would he had been + one of my rank! + SECOND LORD. [Aside] To have smell'd like a fool. + CLOTEN. I am not vex'd more at anything in th' earth. A pox on't! I + had rather not be so noble as I am; they dare not fight with me, + because of the Queen my mother. Every jackslave hath his bellyful + of fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock that nobody + can match. + SECOND LORD. [Aside] You are cock and capon too; and you crow, + cock, with your comb on. + CLOTEN. Sayest thou? + SECOND LORD. It is not fit your lordship should undertake every + companion that you give offence to. + CLOTEN. No, I know that; but it is fit I should commit offence to + my inferiors. + SECOND LORD. Ay, it is fit for your lordship only. + CLOTEN. Why, so I say. + FIRST LORD. Did you hear of a stranger that's come to court + to-night? + CLOTEN. A stranger, and I not known on't? + SECOND LORD. [Aside] He's a strange fellow himself, and knows it + not. + FIRST LORD. There's an Italian come, and, 'tis thought, one of + Leonatus' friends. + CLOTEN. Leonatus? A banish'd rascal; and he's another, whatsoever + he be. Who told you of this stranger? + FIRST LORD. One of your lordship's pages. + CLOTEN. Is it fit I went to look upon him? Is there no derogation + in't? + SECOND LORD. You cannot derogate, my lord. + CLOTEN. Not easily, I think. + SECOND LORD. [Aside] You are a fool granted; therefore your issues, + being foolish, do not derogate. + CLOTEN. Come, I'll go see this Italian. What I have lost to-day at + bowls I'll win to-night of him. Come, go. + SECOND LORD. I'll attend your lordship. + Exeunt CLOTEN and FIRST LORD + That such a crafty devil as is his mother + Should yield the world this ass! A woman that + Bears all down with her brain; and this her son + Cannot take two from twenty, for his heart, + And leave eighteen. Alas, poor princess, + Thou divine Imogen, what thou endur'st, + Betwixt a father by thy step-dame govern'd, + A mother hourly coining plots, a wooer + More hateful than the foul expulsion is + Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act + Of the divorce he'd make! The heavens hold firm + The walls of thy dear honour, keep unshak'd + That temple, thy fair mind, that thou mayst stand + T' enjoy thy banish'd lord and this great land! Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Britain. IMOGEN'S bedchamber in CYMBELINE'S palace; a trunk in one corner + +Enter IMOGEN in her bed, and a LADY attending + + IMOGEN. Who's there? My woman? Helen? + LADY. Please you, madam. + IMOGEN. What hour is it? + LADY. Almost midnight, madam. + IMOGEN. I have read three hours then. Mine eyes are weak; + Fold down the leaf where I have left. To bed. + Take not away the taper, leave it burning; + And if thou canst awake by four o' th' clock, + I prithee call me. Sleep hath seiz'd me wholly. Exit LADY + To your protection I commend me, gods. + From fairies and the tempters of the night + Guard me, beseech ye! + [Sleeps. IACHIMO comes from the trunk] + IACHIMO. The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense + Repairs itself by rest. Our Tarquin thus + Did softly press the rushes ere he waken'd + The chastity he wounded. Cytherea, + How bravely thou becom'st thy bed! fresh lily, + And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch! + But kiss; one kiss! Rubies unparagon'd, + How dearly they do't! 'Tis her breathing that + Perfumes the chamber thus. The flame o' th' taper + Bows toward her and would under-peep her lids + To see th' enclosed lights, now canopied + Under these windows white and azure, lac'd + With blue of heaven's own tinct. But my design + To note the chamber. I will write all down: + Such and such pictures; there the window; such + Th' adornment of her bed; the arras, figures- + Why, such and such; and the contents o' th' story. + Ah, but some natural notes about her body + Above ten thousand meaner movables + Would testify, t' enrich mine inventory. + O sleep, thou ape of death, lie dull upon her! + And be her sense but as a monument, + Thus in a chapel lying! Come off, come off; + [Taking off her bracelet] + As slippery as the Gordian knot was hard! + 'Tis mine; and this will witness outwardly, + As strongly as the conscience does within, + To th' madding of her lord. On her left breast + A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drops + I' th' bottom of a cowslip. Here's a voucher + Stronger than ever law could make; this secret + Will force him think I have pick'd the lock and ta'en + The treasure of her honour. No more. To what end? + Why should I write this down that's riveted, + Screw'd to my memory? She hath been reading late + The tale of Tereus; here the leaf's turn'd down + Where Philomel gave up. I have enough. + To th' trunk again, and shut the spring of it. + Swift, swift, you dragons of the night, that dawning + May bare the raven's eye! I lodge in fear; + Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here. [Clock strikes] + One, two, three. Time, time! Exit into the trunk + + + + +SCENE III. +CYMBELINE'S palace. An ante-chamber adjoining IMOGEN'S apartments + +Enter CLOTEN and LORDS + + FIRST LORD. Your lordship is the most patient man in loss, the most + coldest that ever turn'd up ace. + CLOTEN. It would make any man cold to lose. + FIRST LORD. But not every man patient after the noble temper of + your lordship. You are most hot and furious when you win. + CLOTEN. Winning will put any man into courage. If I could get this + foolish Imogen, I should have gold enough. It's almost morning, + is't not? + FIRST LORD. Day, my lord. + CLOTEN. I would this music would come. I am advised to give her + music a mornings; they say it will penetrate. + + Enter musicians + + Come on, tune. If you can penetrate her with your fingering, so. + We'll try with tongue too. If none will do, let her remain; but + I'll never give o'er. First, a very excellent good-conceited + thing; after, a wonderful sweet air, with admirable rich words to + it- and then let her consider. + + SONG + + Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings, + And Phoebus 'gins arise, + His steeds to water at those springs + On chalic'd flow'rs that lies; + And winking Mary-buds begin + To ope their golden eyes. + With everything that pretty bin, + My lady sweet, arise; + Arise, arise! + + So, get you gone. If this penetrate, I will consider your music + the better; if it do not, it is a vice in her ears which + horsehairs and calves' guts, nor the voice of unpaved eunuch to + boot, can never amend. Exeunt musicians + + Enter CYMBELINE and QUEEN + + SECOND LORD. Here comes the King. + CLOTEN. I am glad I was up so late, for that's the reason I was up + so early. He cannot choose but take this service I have done + fatherly.- Good morrow to your Majesty and to my gracious mother. + CYMBELINE. Attend you here the door of our stern daughter? + Will she not forth? + CLOTEN. I have assail'd her with musics, but she vouchsafes no + notice. + CYMBELINE. The exile of her minion is too new; + She hath not yet forgot him; some more time + Must wear the print of his remembrance out, + And then she's yours. + QUEEN. You are most bound to th' King, + Who lets go by no vantages that may + Prefer you to his daughter. Frame yourself + To orderly soliciting, and be friended + With aptness of the season; make denials + Increase your services; so seem as if + You were inspir'd to do those duties which + You tender to her; that you in all obey her, + Save when command to your dismission tends, + And therein you are senseless. + CLOTEN. Senseless? Not so. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. So like you, sir, ambassadors from Rome; + The one is Caius Lucius. + CYMBELINE. A worthy fellow, + Albeit he comes on angry purpose now; + But that's no fault of his. We must receive him + According to the honour of his sender; + And towards himself, his goodness forespent on us, + We must extend our notice. Our dear son, + When you have given good morning to your mistress, + Attend the Queen and us; we shall have need + T' employ you towards this Roman. Come, our queen. + Exeunt all but CLOTEN + CLOTEN. If she be up, I'll speak with her; if not, + Let her lie still and dream. By your leave, ho! [Knocks] + I know her women are about her; what + If I do line one of their hands? 'Tis gold + Which buys admittance; oft it doth-yea, and makes + Diana's rangers false themselves, yield up + Their deer to th' stand o' th' stealer; and 'tis gold + Which makes the true man kill'd and saves the thief; + Nay, sometime hangs both thief and true man. What + Can it not do and undo? I will make + One of her women lawyer to me, for + I yet not understand the case myself. + By your leave. [Knocks] + + Enter a LADY + + LADY. Who's there that knocks? + CLOTEN. A gentleman. + LADY. No more? + CLOTEN. Yes, and a gentlewoman's son. + LADY. That's more + Than some whose tailors are as dear as yours + Can justly boast of. What's your lordship's pleasure? + CLOTEN. Your lady's person; is she ready? + LADY. Ay, + To keep her chamber. + CLOTEN. There is gold for you; sell me your good report. + LADY. How? My good name? or to report of you + What I shall think is good? The Princess! + + Enter IMOGEN + + CLOTEN. Good morrow, fairest sister. Your sweet hand. + Exit LADY + IMOGEN. Good morrow, sir. You lay out too much pains + For purchasing but trouble. The thanks I give + Is telling you that I am poor of thanks, + And scarce can spare them. + CLOTEN. Still I swear I love you. + IMOGEN. If you but said so, 'twere as deep with me. + If you swear still, your recompense is still + That I regard it not. + CLOTEN. This is no answer. + IMOGEN. But that you shall not say I yield, being silent, + I would not speak. I pray you spare me. Faith, + I shall unfold equal discourtesy + To your best kindness; one of your great knowing + Should learn, being taught, forbearance. + CLOTEN. To leave you in your madness 'twere my sin; + I will not. + IMOGEN. Fools are not mad folks. + CLOTEN. Do you call me fool? + IMOGEN. As I am mad, I do; + If you'll be patient, I'll no more be mad; + That cures us both. I am much sorry, sir, + You put me to forget a lady's manners + By being so verbal; and learn now, for all, + That I, which know my heart, do here pronounce, + By th' very truth of it, I care not for you, + And am so near the lack of charity + To accuse myself I hate you; which I had rather + You felt than make't my boast. + CLOTEN. You sin against + Obedience, which you owe your father. For + The contract you pretend with that base wretch, + One bred of alms and foster'd with cold dishes, + With scraps o' th' court- it is no contract, none. + And though it be allowed in meaner parties- + Yet who than he more mean?- to knit their souls- + On whom there is no more dependency + But brats and beggary- in self-figur'd knot, + Yet you are curb'd from that enlargement by + The consequence o' th' crown, and must not foil + The precious note of it with a base slave, + A hilding for a livery, a squire's cloth, + A pantler- not so eminent! + IMOGEN. Profane fellow! + Wert thou the son of Jupiter, and no more + But what thou art besides, thou wert too base + To be his groom. Thou wert dignified enough, + Even to the point of envy, if 'twere made + Comparative for your virtues to be styl'd + The under-hangman of his kingdom, and hated + For being preferr'd so well. + CLOTEN. The south fog rot him! + IMOGEN. He never can meet more mischance than come + To be but nam'd of thee. His mean'st garment + That ever hath but clipp'd his body is dearer + In my respect than all the hairs above thee, + Were they all made such men. How now, Pisanio! + + Enter PISANIO + + CLOTEN. 'His garments'! Now the devil- + IMOGEN. To Dorothy my woman hie thee presently. + CLOTEN. 'His garment'! + IMOGEN. I am sprited with a fool; + Frighted, and ang'red worse. Go bid my woman + Search for a jewel that too casually + Hath left mine arm. It was thy master's; shrew me, + If I would lose it for a revenue + Of any king's in Europe! I do think + I saw't this morning; confident I am + Last night 'twas on mine arm; I kiss'd it. + I hope it be not gone to tell my lord + That I kiss aught but he. + PISANIO. 'Twill not be lost. + IMOGEN. I hope so. Go and search. Exit PISANIO + CLOTEN. You have abus'd me. + 'His meanest garment'! + IMOGEN. Ay, I said so, sir. + If you will make 't an action, call witness to 't. + CLOTEN. I will inform your father. + IMOGEN. Your mother too. + She's my good lady and will conceive, I hope, + But the worst of me. So I leave you, sir, + To th' worst of discontent. Exit + CLOTEN. I'll be reveng'd. + 'His mean'st garment'! Well. Exit + + + + +SCENE IV. +Rome. PHILARIO'S house + +Enter POSTHUMUS and PHILARIO + + POSTHUMUS. Fear it not, sir; I would I were so sure + To win the King as I am bold her honour + Will remain hers. + PHILARIO. What means do you make to him? + POSTHUMUS. Not any; but abide the change of time, + Quake in the present winter's state, and wish + That warmer days would come. In these fear'd hopes + I barely gratify your love; they failing, + I must die much your debtor. + PHILARIO. Your very goodness and your company + O'erpays all I can do. By this your king + Hath heard of great Augustus. Caius Lucius + Will do's commission throughly; and I think + He'll grant the tribute, send th' arrearages, + Or look upon our Romans, whose remembrance + Is yet fresh in their grief. + POSTHUMUS. I do believe + Statist though I am none, nor like to be, + That this will prove a war; and you shall hear + The legions now in Gallia sooner landed + In our not-fearing Britain than have tidings + Of any penny tribute paid. Our countrymen + Are men more order'd than when Julius Caesar + Smil'd at their lack of skill, but found their courage + Worthy his frowning at. Their discipline, + Now mingled with their courages, will make known + To their approvers they are people such + That mend upon the world. + + Enter IACHIMO + + PHILARIO. See! Iachimo! + POSTHUMUS. The swiftest harts have posted you by land, + And winds of all the comers kiss'd your sails, + To make your vessel nimble. + PHILARIO. Welcome, sir. + POSTHUMUS. I hope the briefness of your answer made + The speediness of your return. + IACHIMO. Your lady + Is one of the fairest that I have look'd upon. + POSTHUMUS. And therewithal the best; or let her beauty + Look through a casement to allure false hearts, + And be false with them. + IACHIMO. Here are letters for you. + POSTHUMUS. Their tenour good, I trust. + IACHIMO. 'Tis very like. + PHILARIO. Was Caius Lucius in the Britain court + When you were there? + IACHIMO. He was expected then, + But not approach'd. + POSTHUMUS. All is well yet. + Sparkles this stone as it was wont, or is't not + Too dull for your good wearing? + IACHIMO. If I have lost it, + I should have lost the worth of it in gold. + I'll make a journey twice as far t' enjoy + A second night of such sweet shortness which + Was mine in Britain; for the ring is won. + POSTHUMUS. The stone's too hard to come by. + IACHIMO. Not a whit, + Your lady being so easy. + POSTHUMUS. Make not, sir, + Your loss your sport. I hope you know that we + Must not continue friends. + IACHIMO. Good sir, we must, + If you keep covenant. Had I not brought + The knowledge of your mistress home, I grant + We were to question farther; but I now + Profess myself the winner of her honour, + Together with your ring; and not the wronger + Of her or you, having proceeded but + By both your wills. + POSTHUMUS. If you can make't apparent + That you have tasted her in bed, my hand + And ring is yours. If not, the foul opinion + You had of her pure honour gains or loses + Your sword or mine, or masterless leaves both + To who shall find them. + IACHIMO. Sir, my circumstances, + Being so near the truth as I will make them, + Must first induce you to believe- whose strength + I will confirm with oath; which I doubt not + You'll give me leave to spare when you shall find + You need it not. + POSTHUMUS. Proceed. + IACHIMO. First, her bedchamber, + Where I confess I slept not, but profess + Had that was well worth watching-it was hang'd + With tapestry of silk and silver; the story, + Proud Cleopatra when she met her Roman + And Cydnus swell'd above the banks, or for + The press of boats or pride. A piece of work + So bravely done, so rich, that it did strive + In workmanship and value; which I wonder'd + Could be so rarely and exactly wrought, + Since the true life on't was- + POSTHUMUS. This is true; + And this you might have heard of here, by me + Or by some other. + IACHIMO. More particulars + Must justify my knowledge. + POSTHUMUS. So they must, + Or do your honour injury. + IACHIMO. The chimney + Is south the chamber, and the chimneypiece + Chaste Dian bathing. Never saw I figures + So likely to report themselves. The cutter + Was as another nature, dumb; outwent her, + Motion and breath left out. + POSTHUMUS. This is a thing + Which you might from relation likewise reap, + Being, as it is, much spoke of. + IACHIMO. The roof o' th' chamber + With golden cherubins is fretted; her andirons- + I had forgot them- were two winking Cupids + Of silver, each on one foot standing, nicely + Depending on their brands. + POSTHUMUS. This is her honour! + Let it be granted you have seen all this, and praise + Be given to your remembrance; the description + Of what is in her chamber nothing saves + The wager you have laid. + IACHIMO. Then, if you can, [Shows the bracelet] + Be pale. I beg but leave to air this jewel. See! + And now 'tis up again. It must be married + To that your diamond; I'll keep them. + POSTHUMUS. Jove! + Once more let me behold it. Is it that + Which I left with her? + IACHIMO. Sir- I thank her- that. + She stripp'd it from her arm; I see her yet; + Her pretty action did outsell her gift, + And yet enrich'd it too. She gave it me, and said + She priz'd it once. + POSTHUMUS. May be she pluck'd it of + To send it me. + IACHIMO. She writes so to you, doth she? + POSTHUMUS. O, no, no, no! 'tis true. Here, take this too; + [Gives the ring] + It is a basilisk unto mine eye, + Kills me to look on't. Let there be no honour + Where there is beauty; truth where semblance; love + Where there's another man. The vows of women + Of no more bondage be to where they are made + Than they are to their virtues, which is nothing. + O, above measure false! + PHILARIO. Have patience, sir, + And take your ring again; 'tis not yet won. + It may be probable she lost it, or + Who knows if one her women, being corrupted + Hath stol'n it from her? + POSTHUMUS. Very true; + And so I hope he came by't. Back my ring. + Render to me some corporal sign about her, + More evident than this; for this was stol'n. + IACHIMO. By Jupiter, I had it from her arm! + POSTHUMUS. Hark you, he swears; by Jupiter he swears. + 'Tis true- nay, keep the ring, 'tis true. I am sure + She would not lose it. Her attendants are + All sworn and honourable- they induc'd to steal it! + And by a stranger! No, he hath enjoy'd her. + The cognizance of her incontinency + Is this: she hath bought the name of whore thus dearly. + There, take thy hire; and all the fiends of hell + Divide themselves between you! + PHILARIO. Sir, be patient; + This is not strong enough to be believ'd + Of one persuaded well of. + POSTHUMUS. Never talk on't; + She hath been colted by him. + IACHIMO. If you seek + For further satisfying, under her breast- + Worthy the pressing- lies a mole, right proud + Of that most delicate lodging. By my life, + I kiss'd it; and it gave me present hunger + To feed again, though full. You do remember + This stain upon her? + POSTHUMUS. Ay, and it doth confirm + Another stain, as big as hell can hold, + Were there no more but it. + IACHIMO. Will you hear more? + POSTHUMUS. Spare your arithmetic; never count the turns. + Once, and a million! + IACHIMO. I'll be sworn- + POSTHUMUS. No swearing. + If you will swear you have not done't, you lie; + And I will kill thee if thou dost deny + Thou'st made me cuckold. + IACHIMO. I'll deny nothing. + POSTHUMUS. O that I had her here to tear her limb-meal! + I will go there and do't, i' th' court, before + Her father. I'll do something- Exit + PHILARIO. Quite besides + The government of patience! You have won. + Let's follow him and pervert the present wrath + He hath against himself. + IACHIMO. With all my heart. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Rome. Another room in PHILARIO'S house + +Enter POSTHUMUS + + POSTHUMUS. Is there no way for men to be, but women + Must be half-workers? We are all bastards, + And that most venerable man which I + Did call my father was I know not where + When I was stamp'd. Some coiner with his tools + Made me a counterfeit; yet my mother seem'd + The Dian of that time. So doth my wife + The nonpareil of this. O, vengeance, vengeance! + Me of my lawful pleasure she restrain'd, + And pray'd me oft forbearance; did it with + A pudency so rosy, the sweet view on't + Might well have warm'd old Saturn; that I thought her + As chaste as unsunn'd snow. O, all the devils! + This yellow Iachimo in an hour- was't not? + Or less!- at first? Perchance he spoke not, but, + Like a full-acorn'd boar, a German one, + Cried 'O!' and mounted; found no opposition + But what he look'd for should oppose and she + Should from encounter guard. Could I find out + The woman's part in me! For there's no motion + That tends to vice in man but I affirm + It is the woman's part. Be it lying, note it, + The woman's; flattering, hers; deceiving, hers; + Lust and rank thoughts, hers, hers; revenges, hers; + Ambitions, covetings, change of prides, disdain, + Nice longing, slanders, mutability, + All faults that man may name, nay, that hell knows, + Why, hers, in part or all; but rather all; + For even to vice + They are not constant, but are changing still + One vice but of a minute old for one + Not half so old as that. I'll write against them, + Detest them, curse them. Yet 'tis greater skill + In a true hate to pray they have their will: + The very devils cannot plague them better. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +Britain. A hall in CYMBELINE'S palace + +Enter in state, CYMBELINE, QUEEN, CLOTEN, and LORDS at one door, +and at another CAIUS LUCIUS and attendants + + CYMBELINE. Now say, what would Augustus Caesar with us? + LUCIUS. When Julius Caesar- whose remembrance yet + Lives in men's eyes, and will to ears and tongues + Be theme and hearing ever- was in this Britain, + And conquer'd it, Cassibelan, thine uncle, + Famous in Caesar's praises no whit less + Than in his feats deserving it, for him + And his succession granted Rome a tribute, + Yearly three thousand pounds, which by thee lately + Is left untender'd. + QUEEN. And, to kill the marvel, + Shall be so ever. + CLOTEN. There be many Caesars + Ere such another Julius. Britain is + A world by itself, and we will nothing pay + For wearing our own noses. + QUEEN. That opportunity, + Which then they had to take from 's, to resume + We have again. Remember, sir, my liege, + The kings your ancestors, together with + The natural bravery of your isle, which stands + As Neptune's park, ribb'd and pal'd in + With rocks unscalable and roaring waters, + With sands that will not bear your enemies' boats + But suck them up to th' top-mast. A kind of conquest + Caesar made here; but made not here his brag + Of 'came, and saw, and overcame.' With shame- + The first that ever touch'd him- he was carried + From off our coast, twice beaten; and his shipping- + Poor ignorant baubles!- on our terrible seas, + Like egg-shells mov'd upon their surges, crack'd + As easily 'gainst our rocks; for joy whereof + The fam'd Cassibelan, who was once at point- + O, giglot fortune!- to master Caesar's sword, + Made Lud's Town with rejoicing fires bright + And Britons strut with courage. + CLOTEN. Come, there's no more tribute to be paid. Our kingdom is + stronger than it was at that time; and, as I said, there is no + moe such Caesars. Other of them may have crook'd noses; but to + owe such straight arms, none. + CYMBELINE. Son, let your mother end. + CLOTEN. We have yet many among us can gripe as hard as Cassibelan. + I do not say I am one; but I have a hand. Why tribute? Why should + we pay tribute? If Caesar can hide the sun from us with a blanket, + or put the moon in his pocket, we will pay him tribute for light; + else, sir, no more tribute, pray you now. + CYMBELINE. You must know, + Till the injurious Romans did extort + This tribute from us, we were free. Caesar's ambition- + Which swell'd so much that it did almost stretch + The sides o' th' world- against all colour here + Did put the yoke upon's; which to shake of + Becomes a warlike people, whom we reckon + Ourselves to be. + CLOTEN. We do. + CYMBELINE. Say then to Caesar, + Our ancestor was that Mulmutius which + Ordain'd our laws- whose use the sword of Caesar + Hath too much mangled; whose repair and franchise + Shall, by the power we hold, be our good deed, + Though Rome be therefore angry. Mulmutius made our laws, + Who was the first of Britain which did put + His brows within a golden crown, and call'd + Himself a king. + LUCIUS. I am sorry, Cymbeline, + That I am to pronounce Augustus Caesar- + Caesar, that hath moe kings his servants than + Thyself domestic officers- thine enemy. + Receive it from me, then: war and confusion + In Caesar's name pronounce I 'gainst thee; look + For fury not to be resisted. Thus defied, + I thank thee for myself. + CYMBELINE. Thou art welcome, Caius. + Thy Caesar knighted me; my youth I spent + Much under him; of him I gather'd honour, + Which he to seek of me again, perforce, + Behoves me keep at utterance. I am perfect + That the Pannonians and Dalmatians for + Their liberties are now in arms, a precedent + Which not to read would show the Britons cold; + So Caesar shall not find them. + LUCIUS. Let proof speak. + CLOTEN. His majesty bids you welcome. Make pastime with us a day or + two, or longer. If you seek us afterwards in other terms, you + shall find us in our salt-water girdle. If you beat us out of it, + it is yours; if you fall in the adventure, our crows shall fare + the better for you; and there's an end. + LUCIUS. So, sir. + CYMBELINE. I know your master's pleasure, and he mine; + All the remain is, welcome. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Britain. Another room in CYMBELINE'S palace + +Enter PISANIO reading of a letter + + PISANIO. How? of adultery? Wherefore write you not + What monsters her accuse? Leonatus! + O master, what a strange infection + Is fall'n into thy ear! What false Italian- + As poisonous-tongu'd as handed- hath prevail'd + On thy too ready hearing? Disloyal? No. + She's punish'd for her truth, and undergoes, + More goddess-like than wife-like, such assaults + As would take in some virtue. O my master! + Thy mind to her is now as low as were + Thy fortunes. How? that I should murder her? + Upon the love, and truth, and vows, which I + Have made to thy command? I, her? Her blood? + If it be so to do good service, never + Let me be counted serviceable. How look I + That I should seem to lack humanity + So much as this fact comes to? [Reads] 'Do't. The letter + That I have sent her, by her own command + Shall give thee opportunity.' O damn'd paper, + Black as the ink that's on thee! Senseless bauble, + Art thou a fedary for this act, and look'st + So virgin-like without? Lo, here she comes. + + Enter IMOGEN + + I am ignorant in what I am commanded. + IMOGEN. How now, Pisanio! + PISANIO. Madam, here is a letter from my lord. + IMOGEN. Who? thy lord? That is my lord- Leonatus? + O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer + That knew the stars as I his characters- + He'd lay the future open. You good gods, + Let what is here contain'd relish of love, + Of my lord's health, of his content; yet not + That we two are asunder- let that grieve him! + Some griefs are med'cinable; that is one of them, + For it doth physic love- of his content, + All but in that. Good wax, thy leave. Blest be + You bees that make these locks of counsel! Lovers + And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike; + Though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet + You clasp young Cupid's tables. Good news, gods! + [Reads] + 'Justice and your father's wrath, should he take me in his + dominion, could not be so cruel to me as you, O the dearest of + creatures, would even renew me with your eyes. Take notice that I + am in Cambria, at Milford Haven. What your own love will out of + this advise you, follow. So he wishes you all happiness that + remains loyal to his vow, and your increasing in love + LEONATUS POSTHUMUS.' + + O for a horse with wings! Hear'st thou, Pisanio? + He is at Milford Haven. Read, and tell me + How far 'tis thither. If one of mean affairs + May plod it in a week, why may not I + Glide thither in a day? Then, true Pisanio- + Who long'st like me to see thy lord, who long'st- + O, let me 'bate!- but not like me, yet long'st, + But in a fainter kind- O, not like me, + For mine's beyond beyond!-say, and speak thick- + Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing + To th' smothering of the sense- how far it is + To this same blessed Milford. And by th' way + Tell me how Wales was made so happy as + T' inherit such a haven. But first of all, + How we may steal from hence; and for the gap + That we shall make in time from our hence-going + And our return, to excuse. But first, how get hence. + Why should excuse be born or ere begot? + We'll talk of that hereafter. Prithee speak, + How many score of miles may we well ride + 'Twixt hour and hour? + PISANIO. One score 'twixt sun and sun, + Madam, 's enough for you, and too much too. + IMOGEN. Why, one that rode to's execution, man, + Could never go so slow. I have heard of riding wagers + Where horses have been nimbler than the sands + That run i' th' clock's behalf. But this is fool'ry. + Go bid my woman feign a sickness; say + She'll home to her father; and provide me presently + A riding suit, no costlier than would fit + A franklin's huswife. + PISANIO. Madam, you're best consider. + IMOGEN. I see before me, man. Nor here, nor here, + Nor what ensues, but have a fog in them + That I cannot look through. Away, I prithee; + Do as I bid thee. There's no more to say; + Accessible is none but Milford way. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Wales. A mountainous country with a cave + +Enter from the cave BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS + + BELARIUS. A goodly day not to keep house with such + Whose roof's as low as ours! Stoop, boys; this gate + Instructs you how t' adore the heavens, and bows you + To a morning's holy office. The gates of monarchs + Are arch'd so high that giants may jet through + And keep their impious turbans on without + Good morrow to the sun. Hail, thou fair heaven! + We house i' th' rock, yet use thee not so hardly + As prouder livers do. + GUIDERIUS. Hail, heaven! + ARVIRAGUS. Hail, heaven! + BELARIUS. Now for our mountain sport. Up to yond hill, + Your legs are young; I'll tread these flats. Consider, + When you above perceive me like a crow, + That it is place which lessens and sets off; + And you may then revolve what tales I have told you + Of courts, of princes, of the tricks in war. + This service is not service so being done, + But being so allow'd. To apprehend thus + Draws us a profit from all things we see, + And often to our comfort shall we find + The sharded beetle in a safer hold + Than is the full-wing'd eagle. O, this life + Is nobler than attending for a check, + Richer than doing nothing for a bribe, + Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk: + Such gain the cap of him that makes him fine, + Yet keeps his book uncross'd. No life to ours! + GUIDERIUS. Out of your proof you speak. We, poor unfledg'd, + Have never wing'd from view o' th' nest, nor know not + What air's from home. Haply this life is best, + If quiet life be best; sweeter to you + That have a sharper known; well corresponding + With your stiff age. But unto us it is + A cell of ignorance, travelling abed, + A prison for a debtor that not dares + To stride a limit. + ARVIRAGUS. What should we speak of + When we are old as you? When we shall hear + The rain and wind beat dark December, how, + In this our pinching cave, shall we discourse. + The freezing hours away? We have seen nothing; + We are beastly: subtle as the fox for prey, + Like warlike as the wolf for what we eat. + Our valour is to chase what flies; our cage + We make a choir, as doth the prison'd bird, + And sing our bondage freely. + BELARIUS. How you speak! + Did you but know the city's usuries, + And felt them knowingly- the art o' th' court, + As hard to leave as keep, whose top to climb + Is certain falling, or so slipp'ry that + The fear's as bad as falling; the toil o' th' war, + A pain that only seems to seek out danger + I' th'name of fame and honour, which dies i' th'search, + And hath as oft a sland'rous epitaph + As record of fair act; nay, many times, + Doth ill deserve by doing well; what's worse- + Must curtsy at the censure. O, boys, this story + The world may read in me; my body's mark'd + With Roman swords, and my report was once + first with the best of note. Cymbeline lov'd me; + And when a soldier was the theme, my name + Was not far off. Then was I as a tree + Whose boughs did bend with fruit; but in one night + A storm, or robbery, call it what you will, + Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves, + And left me bare to weather. + GUIDERIUS. Uncertain favour! + BELARIUS. My fault being nothing- as I have told you oft- + But that two villains, whose false oaths prevail'd + Before my perfect honour, swore to Cymbeline + I was confederate with the Romans. So + Follow'd my banishment, and this twenty years + This rock and these demesnes have been my world, + Where I have liv'd at honest freedom, paid + More pious debts to heaven than in all + The fore-end of my time. But up to th' mountains! + This is not hunters' language. He that strikes + The venison first shall be the lord o' th' feast; + To him the other two shall minister; + And we will fear no poison, which attends + In place of greater state. I'll meet you in the valleys. + Exeunt GUIDERIUS and ARVIRAGUS + How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature! + These boys know little they are sons to th' King, + Nor Cymbeline dreams that they are alive. + They think they are mine; and though train'd up thus meanly + I' th' cave wherein they bow, their thoughts do hit + The roofs of palaces, and nature prompts them + In simple and low things to prince it much + Beyond the trick of others. This Polydore, + The heir of Cymbeline and Britain, who + The King his father call'd Guiderius- Jove! + When on my three-foot stool I sit and tell + The warlike feats I have done, his spirits fly out + Into my story; say 'Thus mine enemy fell, + And thus I set my foot on's neck'; even then + The princely blood flows in his cheek, he sweats, + Strains his young nerves, and puts himself in posture + That acts my words. The younger brother, Cadwal, + Once Arviragus, in as like a figure + Strikes life into my speech, and shows much more + His own conceiving. Hark, the game is rous'd! + O Cymbeline, heaven and my conscience knows + Thou didst unjustly banish me! Whereon, + At three and two years old, I stole these babes, + Thinking to bar thee of succession as + Thou refts me of my lands. Euriphile, + Thou wast their nurse; they took thee for their mother, + And every day do honour to her grave. + Myself, Belarius, that am Morgan call'd, + They take for natural father. The game is up. Exit + + + + +SCENE IV. +Wales, near Milford Haven + +Enter PISANIO and IMOGEN + + IMOGEN. Thou told'st me, when we came from horse, the place + Was near at hand. Ne'er long'd my mother so + To see me first as I have now. Pisanio! Man! + Where is Posthumus? What is in thy mind + That makes thee stare thus? Wherefore breaks that sigh + From th' inward of thee? One but painted thus + Would be interpreted a thing perplex'd + Beyond self-explication. Put thyself + Into a haviour of less fear, ere wildness + Vanquish my staider senses. What's the matter? + Why tender'st thou that paper to me with + A look untender! If't be summer news, + Smile to't before; if winterly, thou need'st + But keep that count'nance still. My husband's hand? + That drug-damn'd Italy hath out-craftied him, + And he's at some hard point. Speak, man; thy tongue + May take off some extremity, which to read + Would be even mortal to me. + PISANIO. Please you read, + And you shall find me, wretched man, a thing + The most disdain'd of fortune. + IMOGEN. [Reads] 'Thy mistress, Pisanio, hath play'd the strumpet in + my bed, the testimonies whereof lie bleeding in me. I speak not + out of weak surmises, but from proof as strong as my grief and as + certain as I expect my revenge. That part thou, Pisanio, must act + for me, if thy faith be not tainted with the breach of hers. Let + thine own hands take away her life; I shall give thee opportunity + at Milford Haven; she hath my letter for the purpose; where, if + thou fear to strike, and to make me certain it is done, thou art + the pander to her dishonour, and equally to me disloyal.' + PISANIO. What shall I need to draw my sword? The paper + Hath cut her throat already. No, 'tis slander, + Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue + Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breath + Rides on the posting winds and doth belie + All corners of the world. Kings, queens, and states, + Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave, + This viperous slander enters. What cheer, madam? + IMOGEN. False to his bed? What is it to be false? + To lie in watch there, and to think on him? + To weep twixt clock and clock? If sleep charge nature, + To break it with a fearful dream of him, + And cry myself awake? That's false to's bed, + Is it? + PISANIO. Alas, good lady! + IMOGEN. I false! Thy conscience witness! Iachimo, + Thou didst accuse him of incontinency; + Thou then look'dst like a villain; now, methinks, + Thy favour's good enough. Some jay of Italy, + Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him. + Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion, + And for I am richer than to hang by th' walls + I must be ripp'd. To pieces with me! O, + Men's vows are women's traitors! All good seeming, + By thy revolt, O husband, shall be thought + Put on for villainy; not born where't grows, + But worn a bait for ladies. + PISANIO. Good madam, hear me. + IMOGEN. True honest men being heard, like false Aeneas, + Were, in his time, thought false; and Sinon's weeping + Did scandal many a holy tear, took pity + From most true wretchedness. So thou, Posthumus, + Wilt lay the leaven on all proper men: + Goodly and gallant shall be false and perjur'd + From thy great fail. Come, fellow, be thou honest; + Do thou thy master's bidding; when thou seest him, + A little witness my obedience. Look! + I draw the sword myself; take it, and hit + The innocent mansion of my love, my heart. + Fear not; 'tis empty of all things but grief; + Thy master is not there, who was indeed + The riches of it. Do his bidding; strike. + Thou mayst be valiant in a better cause, + But now thou seem'st a coward. + PISANIO. Hence, vile instrument! + Thou shalt not damn my hand. + IMOGEN. Why, I must die; + And if I do not by thy hand, thou art + No servant of thy master's. Against self-slaughter + There is a prohibition so divine + That cravens my weak hand. Come, here's my heart- + Something's afore't. Soft, soft! we'll no defence!- + Obedient as the scabbard. What is here? + The scriptures of the loyal Leonatus + All turn'd to heresy? Away, away, + Corrupters of my faith! you shall no more + Be stomachers to my heart. Thus may poor fools + Believe false teachers; though those that are betray'd + Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor + Stands in worse case of woe. And thou, Posthumus, + That didst set up my disobedience 'gainst the King + My father, and make me put into contempt the suits + Of princely fellows, shalt hereafter find + It is no act of common passage but + A strain of rareness; and I grieve myself + To think, when thou shalt be disedg'd by her + That now thou tirest on, how thy memory + Will then be pang'd by me. Prithee dispatch. + The lamp entreats the butcher. Where's thy knife? + Thou art too slow to do thy master's bidding, + When I desire it too. + PISANIO. O gracious lady, + Since I receiv'd command to do this busines + I have not slept one wink. + IMOGEN. Do't, and to bed then. + PISANIO. I'll wake mine eyeballs first. + IMOGEN. Wherefore then + Didst undertake it? Why hast thou abus'd + So many miles with a pretence? This place? + Mine action and thine own? our horses' labour? + The time inviting thee? the perturb'd court, + For my being absent?- whereunto I never + Purpose return. Why hast thou gone so far + To be unbent when thou hast ta'en thy stand, + Th' elected deer before thee? + PISANIO. But to win time + To lose so bad employment, in the which + I have consider'd of a course. Good lady, + Hear me with patience. + IMOGEN. Talk thy tongue weary- speak. + I have heard I am a strumpet, and mine ear, + Therein false struck, can take no greater wound, + Nor tent to bottom that. But speak. + PISANIO. Then, madam, + I thought you would not back again. + IMOGEN. Most like- + Bringing me here to kill me. + PISANIO. Not so, neither; + But if I were as wise as honest, then + My purpose would prove well. It cannot be + But that my master is abus'd. Some villain, + Ay, and singular in his art, hath done you both + This cursed injury. + IMOGEN. Some Roman courtezan! + PISANIO. No, on my life! + I'll give but notice you are dead, and send him + Some bloody sign of it, for 'tis commanded + I should do so. You shall be miss'd at court, + And that will well confirm it. + IMOGEN. Why, good fellow, + What shall I do the while? where bide? how live? + Or in my life what comfort, when I am + Dead to my husband? + PISANIO. If you'll back to th' court- + IMOGEN. No court, no father, nor no more ado + With that harsh, noble, simple nothing- + That Cloten, whose love-suit hath been to me + As fearful as a siege. + PISANIO. If not at court, + Then not in Britain must you bide. + IMOGEN. Where then? + Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day, night, + Are they not but in Britain? I' th' world's volume + Our Britain seems as of it, but not in't; + In a great pool a swan's nest. Prithee think + There's livers out of Britain. + PISANIO. I am most glad + You think of other place. Th' ambassador, + LUCIUS the Roman, comes to Milford Haven + To-morrow. Now, if you could wear a mind + Dark as your fortune is, and but disguise + That which t' appear itself must not yet be + But by self-danger, you should tread a course + Pretty and full of view; yea, happily, near + The residence of Posthumus; so nigh, at least, + That though his actions were not visible, yet + Report should render him hourly to your ear + As truly as he moves. + IMOGEN. O! for such means, + Though peril to my modesty, not death on't, + I would adventure. + PISANIO. Well then, here's the point: + You must forget to be a woman; change + Command into obedience; fear and niceness- + The handmaids of all women, or, more truly, + Woman it pretty self- into a waggish courage; + Ready in gibes, quick-answer'd, saucy, and + As quarrelous as the weasel. Nay, you must + Forget that rarest treasure of your cheek, + Exposing it- but, O, the harder heart! + Alack, no remedy!- to the greedy touch + Of common-kissing Titan, and forget + Your laboursome and dainty trims wherein + You made great Juno angry. + IMOGEN. Nay, be brief; + I see into thy end, and am almost + A man already. + PISANIO. First, make yourself but like one. + Fore-thinking this, I have already fit- + 'Tis in my cloak-bag- doublet, hat, hose, all + That answer to them. Would you, in their serving, + And with what imitation you can borrow + From youth of such a season, fore noble Lucius + Present yourself, desire his service, tell him + Wherein you're happy- which will make him know + If that his head have ear in music; doubtless + With joy he will embrace you; for he's honourable, + And, doubling that, most holy. Your means abroad- + You have me, rich; and I will never fail + Beginning nor supplyment. + IMOGEN. Thou art all the comfort + The gods will diet me with. Prithee away! + There's more to be consider'd; but we'll even + All that good time will give us. This attempt + I am soldier to, and will abide it with + A prince's courage. Away, I prithee. + PISANIO. Well, madam, we must take a short farewell, + Lest, being miss'd, I be suspected of + Your carriage from the court. My noble mistress, + Here is a box; I had it from the Queen. + What's in't is precious. If you are sick at sea + Or stomach-qualm'd at land, a dram of this + Will drive away distemper. To some shade, + And fit you to your manhood. May the gods + Direct you to the best! + IMOGEN. Amen. I thank thee. Exeunt severally + + + + +SCENE V. +Britain. CYMBELINE'S palace + +Enter CYMBELINE, QUEEN, CLOTEN, LUCIUS, and LORDS + + CYMBELINE. Thus far; and so farewell. + LUCIUS. Thanks, royal sir. + My emperor hath wrote; I must from hence, + And am right sorry that I must report ye + My master's enemy. + CYMBELINE. Our subjects, sir, + Will not endure his yoke; and for ourself + To show less sovereignty than they, must needs + Appear unkinglike. + LUCIUS. So, sir. I desire of you + A conduct overland to Milford Haven. + Madam, all joy befall your Grace, and you! + CYMBELINE. My lords, you are appointed for that office; + The due of honour in no point omit. + So farewell, noble Lucius. + LUCIUS. Your hand, my lord. + CLOTEN. Receive it friendly; but from this time forth + I wear it as your enemy. + LUCIUS. Sir, the event + Is yet to name the winner. Fare you well. + CYMBELINE. Leave not the worthy Lucius, good my lords, + Till he have cross'd the Severn. Happiness! + Exeunt LUCIUS and LORDS + QUEEN. He goes hence frowning; but it honours us + That we have given him cause. + CLOTEN. 'Tis all the better; + Your valiant Britons have their wishes in it. + CYMBELINE. Lucius hath wrote already to the Emperor + How it goes here. It fits us therefore ripely + Our chariots and our horsemen be in readiness. + The pow'rs that he already hath in Gallia + Will soon be drawn to head, from whence he moves + His war for Britain. + QUEEN. 'Tis not sleepy business, + But must be look'd to speedily and strongly. + CYMBELINE. Our expectation that it would be thus + Hath made us forward. But, my gentle queen, + Where is our daughter? She hath not appear'd + Before the Roman, nor to us hath tender'd + The duty of the day. She looks us like + A thing more made of malice than of duty; + We have noted it. Call her before us, for + We have been too slight in sufferance. Exit a MESSENGER + QUEEN. Royal sir, + Since the exile of Posthumus, most retir'd + Hath her life been; the cure whereof, my lord, + 'Tis time must do. Beseech your Majesty, + Forbear sharp speeches to her; she's a lady + So tender of rebukes that words are strokes, + And strokes death to her. + + Re-enter MESSENGER + + CYMBELINE. Where is she, sir? How + Can her contempt be answer'd? + MESSENGER. Please you, sir, + Her chambers are all lock'd, and there's no answer + That will be given to th' loud of noise we make. + QUEEN. My lord, when last I went to visit her, + She pray'd me to excuse her keeping close; + Whereto constrain'd by her infirmity + She should that duty leave unpaid to you + Which daily she was bound to proffer. This + She wish'd me to make known; but our great court + Made me to blame in memory. + CYMBELINE. Her doors lock'd? + Not seen of late? Grant, heavens, that which I fear + Prove false! Exit + QUEEN. Son, I say, follow the King. + CLOTEN. That man of hers, Pisanio, her old servant, + I have not seen these two days. + QUEEN. Go, look after. Exit CLOTEN + Pisanio, thou that stand'st so for Posthumus! + He hath a drug of mine. I pray his absence + Proceed by swallowing that; for he believes + It is a thing most precious. But for her, + Where is she gone? Haply despair hath seiz'd her; + Or, wing'd with fervour of her love, she's flown + To her desir'd Posthumus. Gone she is + To death or to dishonour, and my end + Can make good use of either. She being down, + I have the placing of the British crown. + + Re-enter CLOTEN + + How now, my son? + CLOTEN. 'Tis certain she is fled. + Go in and cheer the King. He rages; none + Dare come about him. + QUEEN. All the better. May + This night forestall him of the coming day! Exit + CLOTEN. I love and hate her; for she's fair and royal, + And that she hath all courtly parts more exquisite + Than lady, ladies, woman. From every one + The best she hath, and she, of all compounded, + Outsells them all. I love her therefore; but + Disdaining me and throwing favours on + The low Posthumus slanders so her judgment + That what's else rare is chok'd; and in that point + I will conclude to hate her, nay, indeed, + To be reveng'd upon her. For when fools + Shall- + + Enter PISANIO + + Who is here? What, are you packing, sirrah? + Come hither. Ah, you precious pander! Villain, + Where is thy lady? In a word, or else + Thou art straightway with the fiends. + PISANIO. O good my lord! + CLOTEN. Where is thy lady? or, by Jupiter- + I will not ask again. Close villain, + I'll have this secret from thy heart, or rip + Thy heart to find it. Is she with Posthumus? + From whose so many weights of baseness cannot + A dram of worth be drawn. + PISANIO. Alas, my lord, + How can she be with him? When was she miss'd? + He is in Rome. + CLOTEN. Where is she, sir? Come nearer. + No farther halting! Satisfy me home + What is become of her. + PISANIO. O my all-worthy lord! + CLOTEN. All-worthy villain! + Discover where thy mistress is at once, + At the next word. No more of 'worthy lord'! + Speak, or thy silence on the instant is + Thy condemnation and thy death. + PISANIO. Then, sir, + This paper is the history of my knowledge + Touching her flight. [Presenting a letter] + CLOTEN. Let's see't. I will pursue her + Even to Augustus' throne. + PISANIO. [Aside] Or this or perish. + She's far enough; and what he learns by this + May prove his travel, not her danger. + CLOTEN. Humh! + PISANIO. [Aside] I'll write to my lord she's dead. O Imogen, + Safe mayst thou wander, safe return again! + CLOTEN. Sirrah, is this letter true? + PISANIO. Sir, as I think. + CLOTEN. It is Posthumus' hand; I know't. Sirrah, if thou wouldst + not be a villain, but do me true service, undergo those + employments wherein I should have cause to use thee with a + serious industry- that is, what villainy soe'er I bid thee do, to + perform it directly and truly- I would think thee an honest man; + thou shouldst neither want my means for thy relief nor my voice + for thy preferment. + PISANIO. Well, my good lord. + CLOTEN. Wilt thou serve me? For since patiently and constantly thou + hast stuck to the bare fortune of that beggar Posthumus, thou + canst not, in the course of gratitude, but be a diligent follower + of mine. Wilt thou serve me? + PISANIO. Sir, I will. + CLOTEN. Give me thy hand; here's my purse. Hast any of thy late + master's garments in thy possession? + PISANIO. I have, my lord, at my lodging, the same suit he wore when + he took leave of my lady and mistress. + CLOTEN. The first service thou dost me, fetch that suit hither. Let + it be thy first service; go. + PISANIO. I shall, my lord. Exit + CLOTEN. Meet thee at Milford Haven! I forgot to ask him one thing; + I'll remember't anon. Even there, thou villain Posthumus, will I + kill thee. I would these garments were come. She said upon a + time- the bitterness of it I now belch from my heart- that she + held the very garment of Posthumus in more respect than my noble + and natural person, together with the adornment of my qualities. + With that suit upon my back will I ravish her; first kill him, + and in her eyes. There shall she see my valour, which will then + be a torment to her contempt. He on the ground, my speech of + insultment ended on his dead body, and when my lust hath dined- + which, as I say, to vex her I will execute in the clothes that + she so prais'd- to the court I'll knock her back, foot her home + again. She hath despis'd me rejoicingly, and I'll be merry in my + revenge. + + Re-enter PISANIO, with the clothes + + Be those the garments? + PISANIO. Ay, my noble lord. + CLOTEN. How long is't since she went to Milford Haven? + PISANIO. She can scarce be there yet. + CLOTEN. Bring this apparel to my chamber; that is the second thing + that I have commanded thee. The third is that thou wilt be a + voluntary mute to my design. Be but duteous and true, preferment + shall tender itself to thee. My revenge is now at Milford, would + I had wings to follow it! Come, and be true. Exit + PISANIO. Thou bid'st me to my loss; for true to thee + Were to prove false, which I will never be, + To him that is most true. To Milford go, + And find not her whom thou pursuest. Flow, flow, + You heavenly blessings, on her! This fool's speed + Be cross'd with slowness! Labour be his meed! Exit + + + + +SCENE VI. +Wales. Before the cave of BELARIUS + +Enter IMOGEN alone, in boy's clothes + + IMOGEN. I see a man's life is a tedious one. + I have tir'd myself, and for two nights together + Have made the ground my bed. I should be sick + But that my resolution helps me. Milford, + When from the mountain-top Pisanio show'd thee, + Thou wast within a ken. O Jove! I think + Foundations fly the wretched; such, I mean, + Where they should be reliev'd. Two beggars told me + I could not miss my way. Will poor folks lie, + That have afflictions on them, knowing 'tis + A punishment or trial? Yes; no wonder, + When rich ones scarce tell true. To lapse in fulness + Is sorer than to lie for need; and falsehood + Is worse in kings than beggars. My dear lord! + Thou art one o' th' false ones. Now I think on thee + My hunger's gone; but even before, I was + At point to sink for food. But what is this? + Here is a path to't; 'tis some savage hold. + I were best not call; I dare not call. Yet famine, + Ere clean it o'erthrow nature, makes it valiant. + Plenty and peace breeds cowards; hardness ever + Of hardiness is mother. Ho! who's here? + If anything that's civil, speak; if savage, + Take or lend. Ho! No answer? Then I'll enter. + Best draw my sword; and if mine enemy + But fear the sword, like me, he'll scarcely look on't. + Such a foe, good heavens! Exit into the cave + + Enter BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS + + BELARIUS. You, Polydore, have prov'd best woodman and + Are master of the feast. Cadwal and I + Will play the cook and servant; 'tis our match. + The sweat of industry would dry and die + But for the end it works to. Come, our stomachs + Will make what's homely savoury; weariness + Can snore upon the flint, when resty sloth + Finds the down pillow hard. Now, peace be here, + Poor house, that keep'st thyself! + GUIDERIUS. I am thoroughly weary. + ARVIRAGUS. I am weak with toil, yet strong in appetite. + GUIDERIUS. There is cold meat i' th' cave; we'll browse on that + Whilst what we have kill'd be cook'd. + BELARIUS. [Looking into the cave] Stay, come not in. + But that it eats our victuals, I should think + Here were a fairy. + GUIDERIUS. What's the matter, sir? + BELARIUS.. By Jupiter, an angel! or, if not, + An earthly paragon! Behold divineness + No elder than a boy! + + Re-enter IMOGEN + + IMOGEN. Good masters, harm me not. + Before I enter'd here I call'd, and thought + To have begg'd or bought what I have took. Good troth, + I have stol'n nought; nor would not though I had found + Gold strew'd i' th' floor. Here's money for my meat. + I would have left it on the board, so soon + As I had made my meal, and parted + With pray'rs for the provider. + GUIDERIUS. Money, youth? + ARVIRAGUS. All gold and silver rather turn to dirt, + As 'tis no better reckon'd but of those + Who worship dirty gods. + IMOGEN. I see you're angry. + Know, if you kill me for my fault, I should + Have died had I not made it. + BELARIUS. Whither bound? + IMOGEN. To Milford Haven. + BELARIUS. What's your name? + IMOGEN. Fidele, sir. I have a kinsman who + Is bound for Italy; he embark'd at Milford; + To whom being going, almost spent with hunger, + I am fall'n in this offence. + BELARIUS. Prithee, fair youth, + Think us no churls, nor measure our good minds + By this rude place we live in. Well encounter'd! + 'Tis almost night; you shall have better cheer + Ere you depart, and thanks to stay and eat it. + Boys, bid him welcome. + GUIDERIUS. Were you a woman, youth, + I should woo hard but be your groom. In honesty + I bid for you as I'd buy. + ARVIRAGUS. I'll make't my comfort + He is a man. I'll love him as my brother; + And such a welcome as I'd give to him + After long absence, such is yours. Most welcome! + Be sprightly, for you fall 'mongst friends. + IMOGEN. 'Mongst friends, + If brothers. [Aside] Would it had been so that they + Had been my father's sons! Then had my prize + Been less, and so more equal ballasting + To thee, Posthumus. + BELARIUS. He wrings at some distress. + GUIDERIUS. Would I could free't! + ARVIRAGUS. Or I, whate'er it be, + What pain it cost, what danger! Gods! + BELARIUS. [Whispering] Hark, boys. + IMOGEN. [Aside] Great men, + That had a court no bigger than this cave, + That did attend themselves, and had the virtue + Which their own conscience seal'd them, laying by + That nothing-gift of differing multitudes, + Could not out-peer these twain. Pardon me, gods! + I'd change my sex to be companion with them, + Since Leonatus' false. + BELARIUS. It shall be so. + Boys, we'll go dress our hunt. Fair youth, come in. + Discourse is heavy, fasting; when we have supp'd, + We'll mannerly demand thee of thy story, + So far as thou wilt speak it. + GUIDERIUS. Pray draw near. + ARVIRAGUS. The night to th' owl and morn to th' lark less welcome. + IMOGEN. Thanks, sir. + ARVIRAGUS. I pray draw near. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VII. +Rome. A public place + +Enter two ROMAN SENATORS and TRIBUNES + + FIRST SENATOR. This is the tenour of the Emperor's writ: + That since the common men are now in action + 'Gainst the Pannonians and Dalmatians, + And that the legions now in Gallia are + Full weak to undertake our wars against + The fall'n-off Britons, that we do incite + The gentry to this business. He creates + Lucius proconsul; and to you, the tribunes, + For this immediate levy, he commands + His absolute commission. Long live Caesar! + TRIBUNE. Is Lucius general of the forces? + SECOND SENATOR. Ay. + TRIBUNE. Remaining now in Gallia? + FIRST SENATOR. With those legions + Which I have spoke of, whereunto your levy + Must be supplyant. The words of your commission + Will tie you to the numbers and the time + Of their dispatch. + TRIBUNE. We will discharge our duty. Exeunt + + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +Wales. Near the cave of BELARIUS + +Enter CLOTEN alone + + CLOTEN. I am near to th' place where they should meet, if Pisanio + have mapp'd it truly. How fit his garments serve me! Why should + his mistress, who was made by him that made the tailor, not be + fit too? The rather- saving reverence of the word- for 'tis said + a woman's fitness comes by fits. Therein I must play the workman. + I dare speak it to myself, for it is not vain-glory for a man and + his glass to confer in his own chamber- I mean, the lines of my + body are as well drawn as his; no less young, more strong, not + beneath him in fortunes, beyond him in the advantage of the time, + above him in birth, alike conversant in general services, and + more remarkable in single oppositions. Yet this imperceiverant + thing loves him in my despite. What mortality is! Posthumus, thy + head, which now is growing upon thy shoulders, shall within this + hour be off; thy mistress enforced; thy garments cut to pieces + before her face; and all this done, spurn her home to her father, + who may, haply, be a little angry for my so rough usage; but my + mother, having power of his testiness, shall turn all into my + commendations. My horse is tied up safe. Out, sword, and to a + sore purpose! Fortune, put them into my hand. This is the very + description of their meeting-place; and the fellow dares not + deceive me. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Wales. Before the cave of BELARIUS + +Enter, from the cave, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS, and IMOGEN + + BELARIUS. [To IMOGEN] You are not well. Remain here in the cave; + We'll come to you after hunting. + ARVIRAGUS. [To IMOGEN] Brother, stay here. + Are we not brothers? + IMOGEN. So man and man should be; + But clay and clay differs in dignity, + Whose dust is both alike. I am very sick. + GUIDERIUS. Go you to hunting; I'll abide with him. + IMOGEN. So sick I am not, yet I am not well; + But not so citizen a wanton as + To seem to die ere sick. So please you, leave me; + Stick to your journal course. The breach of custom + Is breach of all. I am ill, but your being by me + Cannot amend me; society is no comfort + To one not sociable. I am not very sick, + Since I can reason of it. Pray you trust me here. + I'll rob none but myself; and let me die, + Stealing so poorly. + GUIDERIUS. I love thee; I have spoke it. + How much the quantity, the weight as much + As I do love my father. + BELARIUS. What? how? how? + ARVIRAGUS. If it be sin to say so, sir, I yoke me + In my good brother's fault. I know not why + I love this youth, and I have heard you say + Love's reason's without reason. The bier at door, + And a demand who is't shall die, I'd say + 'My father, not this youth.' + BELARIUS. [Aside] O noble strain! + O worthiness of nature! breed of greatness! + Cowards father cowards and base things sire base. + Nature hath meal and bran, contempt and grace. + I'm not their father; yet who this should be + Doth miracle itself, lov'd before me.- + 'Tis the ninth hour o' th' morn. + ARVIRAGUS. Brother, farewell. + IMOGEN. I wish ye sport. + ARVIRAGUS. Your health. [To BELARIUS] So please you, sir. + IMOGEN. [Aside] These are kind creatures. Gods, what lies I have + heard! + Our courtiers say all's savage but at court. + Experience, O, thou disprov'st report! + Th' imperious seas breed monsters; for the dish, + Poor tributary rivers as sweet fish. + I am sick still; heart-sick. Pisanio, + I'll now taste of thy drug. [Swallows some] + GUIDERIUS. I could not stir him. + He said he was gentle, but unfortunate; + Dishonestly afflicted, but yet honest. + ARVIRAGUS. Thus did he answer me; yet said hereafter + I might know more. + BELARIUS. To th' field, to th' field! + We'll leave you for this time. Go in and rest. + ARVIRAGUS. We'll not be long away. + BELARIUS. Pray be not sick, + For you must be our huswife. + IMOGEN. Well, or ill, + I am bound to you. + BELARIUS. And shalt be ever. Exit IMOGEN into the cave + This youth, howe'er distress'd, appears he hath had + Good ancestors. + ARVIRAGUS. How angel-like he sings! + GUIDERIUS. But his neat cookery! He cut our roots in characters, + And sauc'd our broths as Juno had been sick, + And he her dieter. + ARVIRAGUS. Nobly he yokes + A smiling with a sigh, as if the sigh + Was that it was for not being such a smile; + The smile mocking the sigh that it would fly + From so divine a temple to commix + With winds that sailors rail at. + GUIDERIUS. I do note + That grief and patience, rooted in him both, + Mingle their spurs together. + ARVIRAGUS. Grow patience! + And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine + His perishing root with the increasing vine! + BELARIUS. It is great morning. Come, away! Who's there? + + Enter CLOTEN + + CLOTEN. I cannot find those runagates; that villain + Hath mock'd me. I am faint. + BELARIUS. Those runagates? + Means he not us? I partly know him; 'tis + Cloten, the son o' th' Queen. I fear some ambush. + I saw him not these many years, and yet + I know 'tis he. We are held as outlaws. Hence! + GUIDERIUS. He is but one; you and my brother search + What companies are near. Pray you away; + Let me alone with him. Exeunt BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS + CLOTEN. Soft! What are you + That fly me thus? Some villain mountaineers? + I have heard of such. What slave art thou? + GUIDERIUS. A thing + More slavish did I ne'er than answering + 'A slave' without a knock. + CLOTEN. Thou art a robber, + A law-breaker, a villain. Yield thee, thief. + GUIDERIUS. To who? To thee? What art thou? Have not I + An arm as big as thine, a heart as big? + Thy words, I grant, are bigger, for I wear not + My dagger in my mouth. Say what thou art; + Why I should yield to thee. + CLOTEN. Thou villain base, + Know'st me not by my clothes? + GUIDERIUS. No, nor thy tailor, rascal, + Who is thy grandfather; he made those clothes, + Which, as it seems, make thee. + CLOTEN. Thou precious varlet, + My tailor made them not. + GUIDERIUS. Hence, then, and thank + The man that gave them thee. Thou art some fool; + I am loath to beat thee. + CLOTEN. Thou injurious thief, + Hear but my name, and tremble. + GUIDERIUS. What's thy name? + CLOTEN. Cloten, thou villain. + GUIDERIUS. Cloten, thou double villain, be thy name, + I cannot tremble at it. Were it toad, or adder, spider, + 'Twould move me sooner. + CLOTEN. To thy further fear, + Nay, to thy mere confusion, thou shalt know + I am son to th' Queen. + GUIDERIUS. I'm sorry for't; not seeming + So worthy as thy birth. + CLOTEN. Art not afeard? + GUIDERIUS. Those that I reverence, those I fear- the wise: + At fools I laugh, not fear them. + CLOTEN. Die the death. + When I have slain thee with my proper hand, + I'll follow those that even now fled hence, + And on the gates of Lud's Town set your heads. + Yield, rustic mountaineer. Exeunt, fighting + + Re-enter BELARIUS and ARVIRAGUS + + BELARIUS. No company's abroad. + ARVIRAGUS. None in the world; you did mistake him, sure. + BELARIUS. I cannot tell; long is it since I saw him, + But time hath nothing blurr'd those lines of favour + Which then he wore; the snatches in his voice, + And burst of speaking, were as his. I am absolute + 'Twas very Cloten. + ARVIRAGUS. In this place we left them. + I wish my brother make good time with him, + You say he is so fell. + BELARIUS. Being scarce made up, + I mean to man, he had not apprehension + Or roaring terrors; for defect of judgment + Is oft the cease of fear. + + Re-enter GUIDERIUS with CLOTEN'S head + + But, see, thy brother. + GUIDERIUS. This Cloten was a fool, an empty purse; + There was no money in't. Not Hercules + Could have knock'd out his brains, for he had none; + Yet I not doing this, the fool had borne + My head as I do his. + BELARIUS. What hast thou done? + GUIDERIUS. I am perfect what: cut off one Cloten's head, + Son to the Queen, after his own report; + Who call'd me traitor, mountaineer, and swore + With his own single hand he'd take us in, + Displace our heads where- thank the gods!- they grow, + And set them on Lud's Town. + BELARIUS. We are all undone. + GUIDERIUS. Why, worthy father, what have we to lose + But that he swore to take, our lives? The law + Protects not us; then why should we be tender + To let an arrogant piece of flesh threat us, + Play judge and executioner all himself, + For we do fear the law? What company + Discover you abroad? + BELARIUS. No single soul + Can we set eye on, but in an safe reason + He must have some attendants. Though his humour + Was nothing but mutation- ay, and that + From one bad thing to worse- not frenzy, not + Absolute madness could so far have rav'd, + To bring him here alone. Although perhaps + It may be heard at court that such as we + Cave here, hunt here, are outlaws, and in time + May make some stronger head- the which he hearing, + As it is like him, might break out and swear + He'd fetch us in; yet is't not probable + To come alone, either he so undertaking + Or they so suffering. Then on good ground we fear, + If we do fear this body hath a tail + More perilous than the head. + ARVIRAGUS. Let ordinance + Come as the gods foresay it. Howsoe'er, + My brother hath done well. + BELARIUS. I had no mind + To hunt this day; the boy Fidele's sickness + Did make my way long forth. + GUIDERIUS. With his own sword, + Which he did wave against my throat, I have ta'en + His head from him. I'll throw't into the creek + Behind our rock, and let it to the sea + And tell the fishes he's the Queen's son, Cloten. + That's all I reck. Exit + BELARIUS. I fear'twill be reveng'd. + Would, Polydore, thou hadst not done't! though valour + Becomes thee well enough. + ARVIRAGUS. Would I had done't, + So the revenge alone pursu'd me! Polydore, + I love thee brotherly, but envy much + Thou hast robb'd me of this deed. I would revenges, + That possible strength might meet, would seek us through, + And put us to our answer. + BELARIUS. Well, 'tis done. + We'll hunt no more to-day, nor seek for danger + Where there's no profit. I prithee to our rock. + You and Fidele play the cooks; I'll stay + Till hasty Polydore return, and bring him + To dinner presently. + ARVIRAGUS. Poor sick Fidele! + I'll willingly to him; to gain his colour + I'd let a parish of such Cloten's blood, + And praise myself for charity. Exit + BELARIUS. O thou goddess, + Thou divine Nature, thou thyself thou blazon'st + In these two princely boys! They are as gentle + As zephyrs blowing below the violet, + Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough, + Their royal blood enchaf'd, as the rud'st wind + That by the top doth take the mountain pine + And make him stoop to th' vale. 'Tis wonder + That an invisible instinct should frame them + To royalty unlearn'd, honour untaught, + Civility not seen from other, valour + That wildly grows in them, but yields a crop + As if it had been sow'd. Yet still it's strange + What Cloten's being here to us portends, + Or what his death will bring us. + + Re-enter GUIDERIUS + + GUIDERIUS. Where's my brother? + I have sent Cloten's clotpoll down the stream, + In embassy to his mother; his body's hostage + For his return. [Solemn music] + BELARIUS. My ingenious instrument! + Hark, Polydore, it sounds. But what occasion + Hath Cadwal now to give it motion? Hark! + GUIDERIUS. Is he at home? + BELARIUS. He went hence even now. + GUIDERIUS. What does he mean? Since death of my dear'st mother + It did not speak before. All solemn things + Should answer solemn accidents. The matter? + Triumphs for nothing and lamenting toys + Is jollity for apes and grief for boys. + Is Cadwal mad? + + Re-enter ARVIRAGUS, with IMOGEN as dead, bearing + her in his arms + + BELARIUS. Look, here he comes, + And brings the dire occasion in his arms + Of what we blame him for! + ARVIRAGUS. The bird is dead + That we have made so much on. I had rather + Have skipp'd from sixteen years of age to sixty, + To have turn'd my leaping time into a crutch, + Than have seen this. + GUIDERIUS. O sweetest, fairest lily! + My brother wears thee not the one half so well + As when thou grew'st thyself. + BELARIUS. O melancholy! + Who ever yet could sound thy bottom? find + The ooze to show what coast thy sluggish crare + Might'st easiliest harbour in? Thou blessed thing! + Jove knows what man thou mightst have made; but I, + Thou diedst, a most rare boy, of melancholy. + How found you him? + ARVIRAGUS. Stark, as you see; + Thus smiling, as some fly had tickled slumber, + Not as death's dart, being laugh'd at; his right cheek + Reposing on a cushion. + GUIDERIUS. Where? + ARVIRAGUS. O' th' floor; + His arms thus leagu'd. I thought he slept, and put + My clouted brogues from off my feet, whose rudeness + Answer'd my steps too loud. + GUIDERIUS. Why, he but sleeps. + If he be gone he'll make his grave a bed; + With female fairies will his tomb be haunted, + And worms will not come to thee. + ARVIRAGUS. With fairest flowers, + Whilst summer lasts and I live here, Fidele, + I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack + The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor + The azur'd hare-bell, like thy veins; no, nor + The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, + Out-sweet'ned not thy breath. The ruddock would, + With charitable bill- O bill, sore shaming + Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie + Without a monument!- bring thee all this; + Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flow'rs are none, + To winter-ground thy corse- + GUIDERIUS. Prithee have done, + And do not play in wench-like words with that + Which is so serious. Let us bury him, + And not protract with admiration what + Is now due debt. To th' grave. + ARVIRAGUS. Say, where shall's lay him? + GUIDERIUS. By good Euriphile, our mother. + ARVIRAGUS. Be't so; + And let us, Polydore, though now our voices + Have got the mannish crack, sing him to th' ground, + As once to our mother; use like note and words, + Save that Euriphile must be Fidele. + GUIDERIUS. Cadwal, + I cannot sing. I'll weep, and word it with thee; + For notes of sorrow out of tune are worse + Than priests and fanes that lie. + ARVIRAGUS. We'll speak it, then. + BELARIUS. Great griefs, I see, med'cine the less, for Cloten + Is quite forgot. He was a queen's son, boys; + And though he came our enemy, remember + He was paid for that. Though mean and mighty rotting + Together have one dust, yet reverence- + That angel of the world- doth make distinction + Of place 'tween high and low. Our foe was princely; + And though you took his life, as being our foe, + Yet bury him as a prince. + GUIDERIUS. Pray you fetch him hither. + Thersites' body is as good as Ajax', + When neither are alive. + ARVIRAGUS. If you'll go fetch him, + We'll say our song the whilst. Brother, begin. + Exit BELARIUS + GUIDERIUS. Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to th' East; + My father hath a reason for't. + ARVIRAGUS. 'Tis true. + GUIDERIUS. Come on, then, and remove him. + ARVIRAGUS. So. Begin. + + SONG + + GUIDERIUS. Fear no more the heat o' th' sun + Nor the furious winter's rages; + Thou thy worldly task hast done, + Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages. + Golden lads and girls all must, + As chimney-sweepers, come to dust. + + ARVIRAGUS. Fear no more the frown o' th' great; + Thou art past the tyrant's stroke. + Care no more to clothe and eat; + To thee the reed is as the oak. + The sceptre, learning, physic, must + All follow this and come to dust. + + GUIDERIUS. Fear no more the lightning flash, + ARVIRAGUS. Nor th' all-dreaded thunder-stone; + GUIDERIUS. Fear not slander, censure rash; + ARVIRAGUS. Thou hast finish'd joy and moan. + BOTH. All lovers young, all lovers must + Consign to thee and come to dust. + + GUIDERIUS. No exorciser harm thee! + ARVIRAGUS. Nor no witchcraft charm thee! + GUIDERIUS. Ghost unlaid forbear thee! + ARVIRAGUS. Nothing ill come near thee! + BOTH. Quiet consummation have, + And renowned be thy grave! + + Re-enter BELARIUS with the body of CLOTEN + + GUIDERIUS. We have done our obsequies. Come, lay him down. + BELARIUS. Here's a few flowers; but 'bout midnight, more. + The herbs that have on them cold dew o' th' night + Are strewings fit'st for graves. Upon their faces. + You were as flow'rs, now wither'd. Even so + These herblets shall which we upon you strew. + Come on, away. Apart upon our knees. + The ground that gave them first has them again. + Their pleasures here are past, so is their pain. + Exeunt all but IMOGEN + IMOGEN. [Awaking] Yes, sir, to Milford Haven. Which is the way? + I thank you. By yond bush? Pray, how far thither? + 'Ods pittikins! can it be six mile yet? + I have gone all night. Faith, I'll lie down and sleep. + But, soft! no bedfellow. O gods and goddesses! + [Seeing the body] + These flow'rs are like the pleasures of the world; + This bloody man, the care on't. I hope I dream; + For so I thought I was a cave-keeper, + And cook to honest creatures. But 'tis not so; + 'Twas but a bolt of nothing, shot at nothing, + Which the brain makes of fumes. Our very eyes + Are sometimes, like our judgments, blind. Good faith, + I tremble still with fear; but if there be + Yet left in heaven as small a drop of pity + As a wren's eye, fear'd gods, a part of it! + The dream's here still. Even when I wake it is + Without me, as within me; not imagin'd, felt. + A headless man? The garments of Posthumus? + I know the shape of's leg; this is his hand, + His foot Mercurial, his Martial thigh, + The brawns of Hercules; but his Jovial face- + Murder in heaven! How! 'Tis gone. Pisanio, + All curses madded Hecuba gave the Greeks, + And mine to boot, be darted on thee! Thou, + Conspir'd with that irregulous devil, Cloten, + Hath here cut off my lord. To write and read + Be henceforth treacherous! Damn'd Pisanio + Hath with his forged letters- damn'd Pisanio- + From this most bravest vessel of the world + Struck the main-top. O Posthumus! alas, + Where is thy head? Where's that? Ay me! where's that? + Pisanio might have kill'd thee at the heart, + And left this head on. How should this be? Pisanio? + 'Tis he and Cloten; malice and lucre in them + Have laid this woe here. O, 'tis pregnant, pregnant! + The drug he gave me, which he said was precious + And cordial to me, have I not found it + Murd'rous to th' senses? That confirms it home. + This is Pisanio's deed, and Cloten. O! + Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood, + That we the horrider may seem to those + Which chance to find us. O, my lord, my lord! + [Falls fainting on the body] + + Enter LUCIUS, CAPTAINS, and a SOOTHSAYER + + CAPTAIN. To them the legions garrison'd in Gallia, + After your will, have cross'd the sea, attending + You here at Milford Haven; with your ships, + They are in readiness. + LUCIUS. But what from Rome? + CAPTAIN. The Senate hath stirr'd up the confiners + And gentlemen of Italy, most willing spirits, + That promise noble service; and they come + Under the conduct of bold Iachimo, + Sienna's brother. + LUCIUS. When expect you them? + CAPTAIN. With the next benefit o' th' wind. + LUCIUS. This forwardness + Makes our hopes fair. Command our present numbers + Be muster'd; bid the captains look to't. Now, sir, + What have you dream'd of late of this war's purpose? + SOOTHSAYER. Last night the very gods show'd me a vision- + I fast and pray'd for their intelligence- thus: + I saw Jove's bird, the Roman eagle, wing'd + From the spongy south to this part of the west, + There vanish'd in the sunbeams; which portends, + Unless my sins abuse my divination, + Success to th' Roman host. + LUCIUS. Dream often so, + And never false. Soft, ho! what trunk is here + Without his top? The ruin speaks that sometime + It was a worthy building. How? a page? + Or dead or sleeping on him? But dead, rather; + For nature doth abhor to make his bed + With the defunct, or sleep upon the dead. + Let's see the boy's face. + CAPTAIN. He's alive, my lord. + LUCIUS. He'll then instruct us of this body. Young one, + Inform us of thy fortunes; for it seems + They crave to be demanded. Who is this + Thou mak'st thy bloody pillow? Or who was he + That, otherwise than noble nature did, + Hath alter'd that good picture? What's thy interest + In this sad wreck? How came't? Who is't? What art thou? + IMOGEN. I am nothing; or if not, + Nothing to be were better. This was my master, + A very valiant Briton and a good, + That here by mountaineers lies slain. Alas! + There is no more such masters. I may wander + From east to occident; cry out for service; + Try many, all good; serve truly; never + Find such another master. + LUCIUS. 'Lack, good youth! + Thou mov'st no less with thy complaining than + Thy master in bleeding. Say his name, good friend. + IMOGEN. Richard du Champ. [Aside] If I do lie, and do + No harm by it, though the gods hear, I hope + They'll pardon it.- Say you, sir? + LUCIUS. Thy name? + IMOGEN. Fidele, sir. + LUCIUS. Thou dost approve thyself the very same; + Thy name well fits thy faith, thy faith thy name. + Wilt take thy chance with me? I will not say + Thou shalt be so well master'd; but, be sure, + No less belov'd. The Roman Emperor's letters, + Sent by a consul to me, should not sooner + Than thine own worth prefer thee. Go with me. + IMOGEN. I'll follow, sir. But first, an't please the gods, + I'll hide my master from the flies, as deep + As these poor pickaxes can dig; and when + With wild wood-leaves and weeds I ha' strew'd his grave, + And on it said a century of prayers, + Such as I can, twice o'er, I'll weep and sigh; + And leaving so his service, follow you, + So please you entertain me. + LUCIUS. Ay, good youth; + And rather father thee than master thee. + My friends, + The boy hath taught us manly duties; let us + Find out the prettiest daisied plot we can, + And make him with our pikes and partisans + A grave. Come, arm him. Boy, he is preferr'd + By thee to us; and he shall be interr'd + As soldiers can. Be cheerful; wipe thine eyes. + Some falls are means the happier to arise. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Britain. CYMBELINE'S palace + +Enter CYMBELINE, LORDS, PISANIO, and attendants + + CYMBELINE. Again! and bring me word how 'tis with her. + Exit an attendant + A fever with the absence of her son; + A madness, of which her life's in danger. Heavens, + How deeply you at once do touch me! Imogen, + The great part of my comfort, gone; my queen + Upon a desperate bed, and in a time + When fearful wars point at me; her son gone, + So needful for this present. It strikes me past + The hope of comfort. But for thee, fellow, + Who needs must know of her departure and + Dost seem so ignorant, we'll enforce it from thee + By a sharp torture. + PISANIO. Sir, my life is yours; + I humbly set it at your will; but for my mistress, + I nothing know where she remains, why gone, + Nor when she purposes return. Beseech your Highness, + Hold me your loyal servant. + LORD. Good my liege, + The day that she was missing he was here. + I dare be bound he's true and shall perform + All parts of his subjection loyally. For Cloten, + There wants no diligence in seeking him, + And will no doubt be found. + CYMBELINE. The time is troublesome. + [To PISANIO] We'll slip you for a season; but our jealousy + Does yet depend. + LORD. So please your Majesty, + The Roman legions, all from Gallia drawn, + Are landed on your coast, with a supply + Of Roman gentlemen by the Senate sent. + CYMBELINE. Now for the counsel of my son and queen! + I am amaz'd with matter. + LORD. Good my liege, + Your preparation can affront no less + Than what you hear of. Come more, for more you're ready. + The want is but to put those pow'rs in motion + That long to move. + CYMBELINE. I thank you. Let's withdraw, + And meet the time as it seeks us. We fear not + What can from Italy annoy us; but + We grieve at chances here. Away! Exeunt all but PISANIO + PISANIO. I heard no letter from my master since + I wrote him Imogen was slain. 'Tis strange. + Nor hear I from my mistress, who did promise + To yield me often tidings. Neither know + What is betid to Cloten, but remain + Perplex'd in all. The heavens still must work. + Wherein I am false I am honest; not true, to be true. + These present wars shall find I love my country, + Even to the note o' th' King, or I'll fall in them. + All other doubts, by time let them be clear'd: + Fortune brings in some boats that are not steer'd. Exit + + + + +SCENE IV. +Wales. Before the cave of BELARIUS + +Enter BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS + + GUIDERIUS. The noise is round about us. + BELARIUS. Let us from it. + ARVIRAGUS. What pleasure, sir, find we in life, to lock it + From action and adventure? + GUIDERIUS. Nay, what hope + Have we in hiding us? This way the Romans + Must or for Britons slay us, or receive us + For barbarous and unnatural revolts + During their use, and slay us after. + BELARIUS. Sons, + We'll higher to the mountains; there secure us. + To the King's party there's no going. Newness + Of Cloten's death- we being not known, not muster'd + Among the bands-may drive us to a render + Where we have liv'd, and so extort from's that + Which we have done, whose answer would be death, + Drawn on with torture. + GUIDERIUS. This is, sir, a doubt + In such a time nothing becoming you + Nor satisfying us. + ARVIRAGUS. It is not likely + That when they hear the Roman horses neigh, + Behold their quarter'd fires, have both their eyes + And ears so cloy'd importantly as now, + That they will waste their time upon our note, + To know from whence we are. + BELARIUS. O, I am known + Of many in the army. Many years, + Though Cloten then but young, you see, not wore him + From my remembrance. And, besides, the King + Hath not deserv'd my service nor your loves, + Who find in my exile the want of breeding, + The certainty of this hard life; aye hopeless + To have the courtesy your cradle promis'd, + But to be still hot summer's tanlings and + The shrinking slaves of winter. + GUIDERIUS. Than be so, + Better to cease to be. Pray, sir, to th' army. + I and my brother are not known; yourself + So out of thought, and thereto so o'ergrown, + Cannot be questioned. + ARVIRAGUS. By this sun that shines, + I'll thither. What thing is't that I never + Did see man die! scarce ever look'd on blood + But that of coward hares, hot goats, and venison! + Never bestrid a horse, save one that had + A rider like myself, who ne'er wore rowel + Nor iron on his heel! I am asham'd + To look upon the holy sun, to have + The benefit of his blest beams, remaining + So long a poor unknown. + GUIDERIUS. By heavens, I'll go! + If you will bless me, sir, and give me leave, + I'll take the better care; but if you will not, + The hazard therefore due fall on me by + The hands of Romans! + ARVIRAGUS. So say I. Amen. + BELARIUS. No reason I, since of your lives you set + So slight a valuation, should reserve + My crack'd one to more care. Have with you, boys! + If in your country wars you chance to die, + That is my bed too, lads, and there I'll lie. + Lead, lead. [Aside] The time seems long; their blood thinks scorn + Till it fly out and show them princes born. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Britain. The Roman camp + +Enter POSTHUMUS alone, with a bloody handkerchief + + POSTHUMUS. Yea, bloody cloth, I'll keep thee; for I wish'd + Thou shouldst be colour'd thus. You married ones, + If each of you should take this course, how many + Must murder wives much better than themselves + For wrying but a little! O Pisanio! + Every good servant does not all commands; + No bond but to do just ones. Gods! if you + Should have ta'en vengeance on my faults, I never + Had liv'd to put on this; so had you saved + The noble Imogen to repent, and struck + Me, wretch more worth your vengeance. But alack, + You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love, + To have them fall no more. You some permit + To second ills with ills, each elder worse, + And make them dread it, to the doer's thrift. + But Imogen is your own. Do your best wills, + And make me blest to obey. I am brought hither + Among th' Italian gentry, and to fight + Against my lady's kingdom. 'Tis enough + That, Britain, I have kill'd thy mistress; peace! + I'll give no wound to thee. Therefore, good heavens, + Hear patiently my purpose. I'll disrobe me + Of these Italian weeds, and suit myself + As does a Britain peasant. So I'll fight + Against the part I come with; so I'll die + For thee, O Imogen, even for whom my life + Is every breath a death. And thus unknown, + Pitied nor hated, to the face of peril + Myself I'll dedicate. Let me make men know + More valour in me than my habits show. + Gods, put the strength o' th' Leonati in me! + To shame the guise o' th' world, I will begin + The fashion- less without and more within. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Britain. A field of battle between the British and Roman camps + +Enter LUCIUS, IACHIMO, and the Roman army at one door, and the British army +at another, LEONATUS POSTHUMUS following like a poor soldier. +They march over and go out. Alarums. Then enter again, in skirmish, +IACHIMO and POSTHUMUS. He vanquisheth and disarmeth IACHIMO, +and then leaves him + + IACHIMO. The heaviness and guilt within my bosom + Takes off my manhood. I have belied a lady, + The Princess of this country, and the air on't + Revengingly enfeebles me; or could this carl, + A very drudge of nature's, have subdu'd me + In my profession? Knighthoods and honours borne + As I wear mine are titles but of scorn. + If that thy gentry, Britain, go before + This lout as he exceeds our lords, the odds + Is that we scarce are men, and you are gods. Exit + + The battle continues; the BRITONS fly; CYMBELINE is taken. + Then enter to his rescue BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS + + BELARIUS. Stand, stand! We have th' advantage of the ground; + The lane is guarded; nothing routs us but + The villainy of our fears. + GUIDERIUS and ARVIRAGUS. Stand, stand, and fight! + + Re-enter POSTHUMUS, and seconds the Britons; they rescue + CYMBELINE, and exeunt. Then re-enter LUCIUS and IACHIMO, + with IMOGEN + + LUCIUS. Away, boy, from the troops, and save thyself; + For friends kill friends, and the disorder's such + As war were hoodwink'd. + IACHIMO. 'Tis their fresh supplies. + LUCIUS. It is a day turn'd strangely. Or betimes + Let's reinforce or fly. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Another part of the field + +Enter POSTHUMUS and a Britain LORD + + LORD. Cam'st thou from where they made the stand? + POSTHUMUS. I did: + Though you, it seems, come from the fliers. + LORD. I did. + POSTHUMUS. No blame be to you, sir, for all was lost, + But that the heavens fought. The King himself + Of his wings destitute, the army broken, + And but the backs of Britons seen, an flying, + Through a strait lane- the enemy, full-hearted, + Lolling the tongue with slaught'ring, having work + More plentiful than tools to do't, struck down + Some mortally, some slightly touch'd, some falling + Merely through fear, that the strait pass was damm'd + With dead men hurt behind, and cowards living + To die with length'ned shame. + LORD. Where was this lane? + POSTHUMUS. Close by the battle, ditch'd, and wall'd with turf, + Which gave advantage to an ancient soldier- + An honest one, I warrant, who deserv'd + So long a breeding as his white beard came to, + In doing this for's country. Athwart the lane + He, with two striplings- lads more like to run + The country base than to commit such slaughter; + With faces fit for masks, or rather fairer + Than those for preservation cas'd or shame- + Made good the passage, cried to those that fled + 'Our Britain's harts die flying, not our men. + To darkness fleet souls that fly backwards! Stand; + Or we are Romans and will give you that, + Like beasts, which you shun beastly, and may save + But to look back in frown. Stand, stand!' These three, + Three thousand confident, in act as many- + For three performers are the file when all + The rest do nothing- with this word 'Stand, stand!' + Accommodated by the place, more charming + With their own nobleness, which could have turn'd + A distaff to a lance, gilded pale looks, + Part shame, part spirit renew'd; that some turn'd coward + But by example- O, a sin in war + Damn'd in the first beginners!- gan to look + The way that they did and to grin like lions + Upon the pikes o' th' hunters. Then began + A stop i' th' chaser, a retire; anon + A rout, confusion thick. Forthwith they fly, + Chickens, the way which they stoop'd eagles; slaves, + The strides they victors made; and now our cowards, + Like fragments in hard voyages, became + The life o' th' need. Having found the back-door open + Of the unguarded hearts, heavens, how they wound! + Some slain before, some dying, some their friends + O'erborne i' th' former wave. Ten chas'd by one + Are now each one the slaughterman of twenty. + Those that would die or ere resist are grown + The mortal bugs o' th' field. + LORD. This was strange chance: + A narrow lane, an old man, and two boys. + POSTHUMUS. Nay, do not wonder at it; you are made + Rather to wonder at the things you hear + Than to work any. Will you rhyme upon't, + And vent it for a mock'ry? Here is one: + 'Two boys, an old man (twice a boy), a lane, + Preserv'd the Britons, was the Romans' bane.' + LORD. Nay, be not angry, sir. + POSTHUMUS. 'Lack, to what end? + Who dares not stand his foe I'll be his friend; + For if he'll do as he is made to do, + I know he'll quickly fly my friendship too. + You have put me into rhyme. + LORD. Farewell; you're angry. Exit + POSTHUMUS. Still going? This is a lord! O noble misery, + To be i' th' field and ask 'What news?' of me! + To-day how many would have given their honours + To have sav'd their carcasses! took heel to do't, + And yet died too! I, in mine own woe charm'd, + Could not find death where I did hear him groan, + Nor feel him where he struck. Being an ugly monster, + 'Tis strange he hides him in fresh cups, soft beds, + Sweet words; or hath moe ministers than we + That draw his knives i' th' war. Well, I will find him; + For being now a favourer to the Briton, + No more a Briton, I have resum'd again + The part I came in. Fight I will no more, + But yield me to the veriest hind that shall + Once touch my shoulder. Great the slaughter is + Here made by th' Roman; great the answer be + Britons must take. For me, my ransom's death; + On either side I come to spend my breath, + Which neither here I'll keep nor bear again, + But end it by some means for Imogen. + + Enter two BRITISH CAPTAINS and soldiers + + FIRST CAPTAIN. Great Jupiter be prais'd! Lucius is taken. + 'Tis thought the old man and his sons were angels. + SECOND CAPTAIN. There was a fourth man, in a silly habit, + That gave th' affront with them. + FIRST CAPTAIN. So 'tis reported; + But none of 'em can be found. Stand! who's there? + POSTHUMUS. A Roman, + Who had not now been drooping here if seconds + Had answer'd him. + SECOND CAPTAIN. Lay hands on him; a dog! + A leg of Rome shall not return to tell + What crows have peck'd them here. He brags his service, + As if he were of note. Bring him to th' King. + + Enter CYMBELINE, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS, PISANIO, and Roman + captives. The CAPTAINS present POSTHUMUS to CYMBELINE, who delivers + him over to a gaoler. Exeunt omnes + + + + +SCENE IV. +Britain. A prison + +Enter POSTHUMUS and two GAOLERS + + FIRST GAOLER. You shall not now be stol'n, you have locks upon you; + So graze as you find pasture. + SECOND GAOLER. Ay, or a stomach. Exeunt GAOLERS + POSTHUMUS. Most welcome, bondage! for thou art a way, + I think, to liberty. Yet am I better + Than one that's sick o' th' gout, since he had rather + Groan so in perpetuity than be cur'd + By th' sure physician death, who is the key + T' unbar these locks. My conscience, thou art fetter'd + More than my shanks and wrists; you good gods, give me + The penitent instrument to pick that bolt, + Then, free for ever! Is't enough I am sorry? + So children temporal fathers do appease; + Gods are more full of mercy. Must I repent, + I cannot do it better than in gyves, + Desir'd more than constrain'd. To satisfy, + If of my freedom 'tis the main part, take + No stricter render of me than my all. + I know you are more clement than vile men, + Who of their broken debtors take a third, + A sixth, a tenth, letting them thrive again + On their abatement; that's not my desire. + For Imogen's dear life take mine; and though + 'Tis not so dear, yet 'tis a life; you coin'd it. + 'Tween man and man they weigh not every stamp; + Though light, take pieces for the figure's sake; + You rather mine, being yours. And so, great pow'rs, + If you will take this audit, take this life, + And cancel these cold bonds. O Imogen! + I'll speak to thee in silence. [Sleeps] + + Solemn music. Enter, as in an apparition, SICILIUS + LEONATUS, father to POSTHUMUS, an old man attired + like a warrior; leading in his hand an ancient + matron, his WIFE, and mother to POSTHUMUS, with + music before them. Then, after other music, follows + the two young LEONATI, brothers to POSTHUMUS, + with wounds, as they died in the wars. + They circle POSTHUMUS round as he lies sleeping + + SICILIUS. No more, thou thunder-master, show + Thy spite on mortal flies. + With Mars fall out, with Juno chide, + That thy adulteries + Rates and revenges. + Hath my poor boy done aught but well, + Whose face I never saw? + I died whilst in the womb he stay'd + Attending nature's law; + Whose father then, as men report + Thou orphans' father art, + Thou shouldst have been, and shielded him + From this earth-vexing smart. + + MOTHER. Lucina lent not me her aid, + But took me in my throes, + That from me was Posthumus ripp'd, + Came crying 'mongst his foes, + A thing of pity. + + SICILIUS. Great Nature like his ancestry + Moulded the stuff so fair + That he deserv'd the praise o' th' world + As great Sicilius' heir. + + FIRST BROTHER. When once he was mature for man, + In Britain where was he + That could stand up his parallel, + Or fruitful object be + In eye of Imogen, that best + Could deem his dignity? + + MOTHER. With marriage wherefore was he mock'd, + To be exil'd and thrown + From Leonati seat and cast + From her his dearest one, + Sweet Imogen? + + SICILIUS. Why did you suffer Iachimo, + Slight thing of Italy, + To taint his nobler heart and brain + With needless jealousy, + And to become the geck and scorn + O' th' other's villainy? + + SECOND BROTHER. For this from stiller seats we came, + Our parents and us twain, + That, striking in our country's cause, + Fell bravely and were slain, + Our fealty and Tenantius' right + With honour to maintain. + + FIRST BROTHER. Like hardiment Posthumus hath + To Cymbeline perform'd. + Then, Jupiter, thou king of gods, + Why hast thou thus adjourn'd + The graces for his merits due, + Being all to dolours turn'd? + + SICILIUS. Thy crystal window ope; look out; + No longer exercise + Upon a valiant race thy harsh + And potent injuries. + + MOTHER. Since, Jupiter, our son is good, + Take off his miseries. + + SICILIUS. Peep through thy marble mansion. Help! + Or we poor ghosts will cry + To th' shining synod of the rest + Against thy deity. + + BROTHERS. Help, Jupiter! or we appeal, + And from thy justice fly. + + JUPITER descends-in thunder and lightning, sitting + upon an eagle. He throws a thunderbolt. The GHOSTS + fall on their knees + + JUPITER. No more, you petty spirits of region low, + Offend our hearing; hush! How dare you ghosts + Accuse the Thunderer whose bolt, you know, + Sky-planted, batters all rebelling coasts? + Poor shadows of Elysium, hence and rest + Upon your never-withering banks of flow'rs. + Be not with mortal accidents opprest: + No care of yours it is; you know 'tis ours. + Whom best I love I cross; to make my gift, + The more delay'd, delighted. Be content; + Your low-laid son our godhead will uplift; + His comforts thrive, his trials well are spent. + Our Jovial star reign'd at his birth, and in + Our temple was he married. Rise and fade! + He shall be lord of Lady Imogen, + And happier much by his affliction made. + This tablet lay upon his breast, wherein + Our pleasure his full fortune doth confine; + And so, away; no farther with your din + Express impatience, lest you stir up mine. + Mount, eagle, to my palace crystalline. [Ascends] + SICILIUS. He came in thunder; his celestial breath + Was sulpherous to smell; the holy eagle + Stoop'd as to foot us. His ascension is + More sweet than our blest fields. His royal bird + Prunes the immortal wing, and cloys his beak, + As when his god is pleas'd. + ALL. Thanks, Jupiter! + SICILIUS. The marble pavement closes, he is enter'd + His radiant roof. Away! and, to be blest, + Let us with care perform his great behest. [GHOSTS vanish] + + POSTHUMUS. [Waking] Sleep, thou has been a grandsire and begot + A father to me; and thou hast created + A mother and two brothers. But, O scorn, + Gone! They went hence so soon as they were born. + And so I am awake. Poor wretches, that depend + On greatness' favour, dream as I have done; + Wake and find nothing. But, alas, I swerve; + Many dream not to find, neither deserve, + And yet are steep'd in favours; so am I, + That have this golden chance, and know not why. + What fairies haunt this ground? A book? O rare one! + Be not, as is our fangled world, a garment + Nobler than that it covers. Let thy effects + So follow to be most unlike our courtiers, + As good as promise. + + [Reads] 'When as a lion's whelp shall, to himself unknown, + without seeking find, and be embrac'd by a piece of tender air; + and when from a stately cedar shall be lopp'd branches which, + being dead many years, shall after revive, be jointed to the old + stock, and freshly grow; then shall Posthumus end his miseries, + Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and plenty.' + + 'Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen + Tongue, and brain not; either both or nothing, + Or senseless speaking, or a speaking such + As sense cannot untie. Be what it is, + The action of my life is like it, which + I'll keep, if but for sympathy. + + Re-enter GAOLER + + GAOLER. Come, sir, are you ready for death? + POSTHUMUS. Over-roasted rather; ready long ago. + GAOLER. Hanging is the word, sir; if you be ready for that, you are + well cook'd. + POSTHUMUS. So, if I prove a good repast to the spectators, the dish + pays the shot. + GAOLER. A heavy reckoning for you, sir. But the comfort is, you + shall be called to no more payments, fear no more tavern bills, + which are often the sadness of parting, as the procuring of mirth. + You come in faint for want of meat, depart reeling with too much + drink; sorry that you have paid too much, and sorry that you are + paid too much; purse and brain both empty; the brain the heavier + for being too light, the purse too light, being drawn of + heaviness. O, of this contradiction you shall now be quit. O, the + charity of a penny cord! It sums up thousands in a trice. You + have no true debitor and creditor but it; of what's past, is, and + to come, the discharge. Your neck, sir, is pen, book, and + counters; so the acquittance follows. + POSTHUMUS. I am merrier to die than thou art to live. + GAOLER. Indeed, sir, he that sleeps feels not the toothache. But a + man that were to sleep your sleep, and a hangman to help him to + bed, I think he would change places with his officer; for look + you, sir, you know not which way you shall go. + POSTHUMUS. Yes indeed do I, fellow. + GAOLER. Your death has eyes in's head, then; I have not seen him so + pictur'd. You must either be directed by some that take upon them + to know, or to take upon yourself that which I am sure you do not + know, or jump the after-inquiry on your own peril. And how you + shall speed in your journey's end, I think you'll never return to + tell one. + POSTHUMUS. I tell thee, fellow, there are none want eyes to direct + them the way I am going, but such as wink and will not use them. + GAOLER. What an infinite mock is this, that a man should have the + best use of eyes to see the way of blindness! I am sure hanging's + the way of winking. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. Knock off his manacles; bring your prisoner to the King. + POSTHUMUS. Thou bring'st good news: I am call'd to be made free. + GAOLER. I'll be hang'd then. + POSTHUMUS. Thou shalt be then freer than a gaoler; no bolts for the + dead. Exeunt POSTHUMUS and MESSENGER + GAOLER. Unless a man would marry a gallows and beget young gibbets, + I never saw one so prone. Yet, on my conscience, there are verier + knaves desire to live, for all he be a Roman; and there be some + of them too that die against their wills; so should I, if I were + one. I would we were all of one mind, and one mind good. O, there + were desolation of gaolers and gallowses! I speak against my + present profit, but my wish hath a preferment in't. Exit + + + + +SCENE V. +Britain. CYMBELINE'S tent + +Enter CYMBELINE, BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, ARVIRAGUS, PISANIO, LORDS, +OFFICERS, and attendants + + CYMBELINE. Stand by my side, you whom the gods have made + Preservers of my throne. Woe is my heart + That the poor soldier that so richly fought, + Whose rags sham'd gilded arms, whose naked breast + Stepp'd before targes of proof, cannot be found. + He shall be happy that can find him, if + Our grace can make him so. + BELARIUS. I never saw + Such noble fury in so poor a thing; + Such precious deeds in one that promis'd nought + But beggary and poor looks. + CYMBELINE. No tidings of him? + PISANIO. He hath been search'd among the dead and living, + But no trace of him. + CYMBELINE. To my grief, I am + The heir of his reward; [To BELARIUS, GUIDERIUS, and ARVIRAGUS] + which I will add + To you, the liver, heart, and brain, of Britain, + By whom I grant she lives. 'Tis now the time + To ask of whence you are. Report it. + BELARIUS. Sir, + In Cambria are we born, and gentlemen; + Further to boast were neither true nor modest, + Unless I add we are honest. + CYMBELINE. Bow your knees. + Arise my knights o' th' battle; I create you + Companions to our person, and will fit you + With dignities becoming your estates. + + Enter CORNELIUS and LADIES + + There's business in these faces. Why so sadly + Greet you our victory? You look like Romans, + And not o' th' court of Britain. + CORNELIUS. Hail, great King! + To sour your happiness I must report + The Queen is dead. + CYMBELINE. Who worse than a physician + Would this report become? But I consider + By med'cine'life may be prolong'd, yet death + Will seize the doctor too. How ended she? + CORNELIUS. With horror, madly dying, like her life; + Which, being cruel to the world, concluded + Most cruel to herself. What she confess'd + I will report, so please you; these her women + Can trip me if I err, who with wet cheeks + Were present when she finish'd. + CYMBELINE. Prithee say. + CORNELIUS. First, she confess'd she never lov'd you; only + Affected greatness got by you, not you; + Married your royalty, was wife to your place; + Abhorr'd your person. + CYMBELINE. She alone knew this; + And but she spoke it dying, I would not + Believe her lips in opening it. Proceed. + CORNELIUS. Your daughter, whom she bore in hand to love + With such integrity, she did confess + Was as a scorpion to her sight; whose life, + But that her flight prevented it, she had + Ta'en off by poison. + CYMBELINE. O most delicate fiend! + Who is't can read a woman? Is there more? + CORNELIUS. More, sir, and worse. She did confess she had + For you a mortal mineral, which, being took, + Should by the minute feed on life, and ling'ring, + By inches waste you. In which time she purpos'd, + By watching, weeping, tendance, kissing, to + O'ercome you with her show; and in time, + When she had fitted you with her craft, to work + Her son into th' adoption of the crown; + But failing of her end by his strange absence, + Grew shameless-desperate, open'd, in despite + Of heaven and men, her purposes, repented + The evils she hatch'd were not effected; so, + Despairing, died. + CYMBELINE. Heard you all this, her women? + LADY. We did, so please your Highness. + CYMBELINE. Mine eyes + Were not in fault, for she was beautiful; + Mine ears, that heard her flattery; nor my heart + That thought her like her seeming. It had been vicious + To have mistrusted her; yet, O my daughter! + That it was folly in me thou mayst say, + And prove it in thy feeling. Heaven mend all! + + Enter LUCIUS, IACHIMO, the SOOTHSAYER, and other + Roman prisoners, guarded; POSTHUMUS behind, and IMOGEN + + Thou com'st not, Caius, now for tribute; that + The Britons have raz'd out, though with the loss + Of many a bold one, whose kinsmen have made suit + That their good souls may be appeas'd with slaughter + Of you their captives, which ourself have granted; + So think of your estate. + LUCIUS. Consider, sir, the chance of war. The day + Was yours by accident; had it gone with us, + We should not, when the blood was cool, have threaten'd + Our prisoners with the sword. But since the gods + Will have it thus, that nothing but our lives + May be call'd ransom, let it come. Sufficeth + A Roman with a Roman's heart can suffer. + Augustus lives to think on't; and so much + For my peculiar care. This one thing only + I will entreat: my boy, a Briton born, + Let him be ransom'd. Never master had + A page so kind, so duteous, diligent, + So tender over his occasions, true, + So feat, so nurse-like; let his virtue join + With my request, which I'll make bold your Highness + Cannot deny; he hath done no Briton harm + Though he have serv'd a Roman. Save him, sir, + And spare no blood beside. + CYMBELINE. I have surely seen him; + His favour is familiar to me. Boy, + Thou hast look'd thyself into my grace, + And art mine own. I know not why, wherefore + To say 'Live, boy.' Ne'er thank thy master. Live; + And ask of Cymbeline what boon thou wilt, + Fitting my bounty and thy state, I'll give it; + Yea, though thou do demand a prisoner, + The noblest ta'en. + IMOGEN. I humbly thank your Highness. + LUCIUS. I do not bid thee beg my life, good lad, + And yet I know thou wilt. + IMOGEN. No, no! Alack, + There's other work in hand. I see a thing + Bitter to me as death; your life, good master, + Must shuffle for itself. + LUCIUS. The boy disdains me, + He leaves me, scorns me. Briefly die their joys + That place them on the truth of girls and boys. + Why stands he so perplex'd? + CYMBELINE. What wouldst thou, boy? + I love thee more and more; think more and more + What's best to ask. Know'st him thou look'st on? Speak, + Wilt have him live? Is he thy kin? thy friend? + IMOGEN. He is a Roman, no more kin to me + Than I to your Highness; who, being born your vassal, + Am something nearer. + CYMBELINE. Wherefore ey'st him so? + IMOGEN. I'll tell you, sir, in private, if you please + To give me hearing. + CYMBELINE. Ay, with all my heart, + And lend my best attention. What's thy name? + IMOGEN. Fidele, sir. + CYMBELINE. Thou'rt my good youth, my page; + I'll be thy master. Walk with me; speak freely. + [CYMBELINE and IMOGEN converse apart] + BELARIUS. Is not this boy reviv'd from death? + ARVIRAGUS. One sand another + Not more resembles- that sweet rosy lad + Who died and was Fidele. What think you? + GUIDERIUS. The same dead thing alive. + BELARIUS. Peace, peace! see further. He eyes us not; forbear. + Creatures may be alike; were't he, I am sure + He would have spoke to us. + GUIDERIUS. But we saw him dead. + BELARIUS. Be silent; let's see further. + PISANIO. [Aside] It is my mistress. + Since she is living, let the time run on + To good or bad. [CYMBELINE and IMOGEN advance] + CYMBELINE. Come, stand thou by our side; + Make thy demand aloud. [To IACHIMO] Sir, step you forth; + Give answer to this boy, and do it freely, + Or, by our greatness and the grace of it, + Which is our honour, bitter torture shall + Winnow the truth from falsehood. On, speak to him. + IMOGEN. My boon is that this gentleman may render + Of whom he had this ring. + POSTHUMUS. [Aside] What's that to him? + CYMBELINE. That diamond upon your finger, say + How came it yours? + IACHIMO. Thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that + Which to be spoke would torture thee. + CYMBELINE. How? me? + IACHIMO. I am glad to be constrain'd to utter that + Which torments me to conceal. By villainy + I got this ring; 'twas Leonatus' jewel, + Whom thou didst banish; and- which more may grieve thee, + As it doth me- a nobler sir ne'er liv'd + 'Twixt sky and ground. Wilt thou hear more, my lord? + CYMBELINE. All that belongs to this. + IACHIMO. That paragon, thy daughter, + For whom my heart drops blood and my false spirits + Quail to remember- Give me leave, I faint. + CYMBELINE. My daughter? What of her? Renew thy strength; + I had rather thou shouldst live while nature will + Than die ere I hear more. Strive, man, and speak. + IACHIMO. Upon a time- unhappy was the clock + That struck the hour!- was in Rome- accurs'd + The mansion where!- 'twas at a feast- O, would + Our viands had been poison'd, or at least + Those which I heav'd to head!- the good Posthumus- + What should I say? he was too good to be + Where ill men were, and was the best of all + Amongst the rar'st of good ones- sitting sadly + Hearing us praise our loves of Italy + For beauty that made barren the swell'd boast + Of him that best could speak; for feature, laming + The shrine of Venus or straight-pight Minerva, + Postures beyond brief nature; for condition, + A shop of all the qualities that man + Loves woman for; besides that hook of wiving, + Fairness which strikes the eye- + CYMBELINE. I stand on fire. + Come to the matter. + IACHIMO. All too soon I shall, + Unless thou wouldst grieve quickly. This Posthumus, + Most like a noble lord in love and one + That had a royal lover, took his hint; + And not dispraising whom we prais'd- therein + He was as calm as virtue- he began + His mistress' picture; which by his tongue being made, + And then a mind put in't, either our brags + Were crack'd of kitchen trulls, or his description + Prov'd us unspeaking sots. + CYMBELINE. Nay, nay, to th' purpose. + IACHIMO. Your daughter's chastity- there it begins. + He spake of her as Dian had hot dreams + And she alone were cold; whereat I, wretch, + Made scruple of his praise, and wager'd with him + Pieces of gold 'gainst this which then he wore + Upon his honour'd finger, to attain + In suit the place of's bed, and win this ring + By hers and mine adultery. He, true knight, + No lesser of her honour confident + Than I did truly find her, stakes this ring; + And would so, had it been a carbuncle + Of Phoebus' wheel; and might so safely, had it + Been all the worth of's car. Away to Britain + Post I in this design. Well may you, sir, + Remember me at court, where I was taught + Of your chaste daughter the wide difference + 'Twixt amorous and villainous. Being thus quench'd + Of hope, not longing, mine Italian brain + Gan in your duller Britain operate + Most vilely; for my vantage, excellent; + And, to be brief, my practice so prevail'd + That I return'd with simular proof enough + To make the noble Leonatus mad, + By wounding his belief in her renown + With tokens thus and thus; averring notes + Of chamber-hanging, pictures, this her bracelet- + O cunning, how I got it!- nay, some marks + Of secret on her person, that he could not + But think her bond of chastity quite crack'd, + I having ta'en the forfeit. Whereupon- + Methinks I see him now- + POSTHUMUS. [Coming forward] Ay, so thou dost, + Italian fiend! Ay me, most credulous fool, + Egregious murderer, thief, anything + That's due to all the villains past, in being, + To come! O, give me cord, or knife, or poison, + Some upright justicer! Thou, King, send out + For torturers ingenious. It is I + That all th' abhorred things o' th' earth amend + By being worse than they. I am Posthumus, + That kill'd thy daughter; villain-like, I lie- + That caus'd a lesser villain than myself, + A sacrilegious thief, to do't. The temple + Of virtue was she; yea, and she herself. + Spit, and throw stones, cast mire upon me, set + The dogs o' th' street to bay me. Every villain + Be call'd Posthumus Leonatus, and + Be villainy less than 'twas! O Imogen! + My queen, my life, my wife! O Imogen, + Imogen, Imogen! + IMOGEN. Peace, my lord. Hear, hear! + POSTHUMUS. Shall's have a play of this? Thou scornful page, + There lies thy part. [Strikes her. She falls] + PISANIO. O gentlemen, help! + Mine and your mistress! O, my lord Posthumus! + You ne'er kill'd Imogen till now. Help, help! + Mine honour'd lady! + CYMBELINE. Does the world go round? + POSTHUMUS. How comes these staggers on me? + PISANIO. Wake, my mistress! + CYMBELINE. If this be so, the gods do mean to strike me + To death with mortal joy. + PISANIO. How fares my mistress? + IMOGEN. O, get thee from my sight; + Thou gav'st me poison. Dangerous fellow, hence! + Breathe not where princes are. + CYMBELINE. The tune of Imogen! + PISANIO. Lady, + The gods throw stones of sulphur on me, if + That box I gave you was not thought by me + A precious thing! I had it from the Queen. + CYMBELINE. New matter still? + IMOGEN. It poison'd me. + CORNELIUS. O gods! + I left out one thing which the Queen confess'd, + Which must approve thee honest. 'If Pisanio + Have' said she 'given his mistress that confection + Which I gave him for cordial, she is serv'd + As I would serve a rat.' + CYMBELINE. What's this, Cornelius? + CORNELIUS. The Queen, sir, very oft importun'd me + To temper poisons for her; still pretending + The satisfaction of her knowledge only + In killing creatures vile, as cats and dogs, + Of no esteem. I, dreading that her purpose + Was of more danger, did compound for her + A certain stuff, which, being ta'en would cease + The present pow'r of life, but in short time + All offices of nature should again + Do their due functions. Have you ta'en of it? + IMOGEN. Most like I did, for I was dead. + BELARIUS. My boys, + There was our error. + GUIDERIUS. This is sure Fidele. + IMOGEN. Why did you throw your wedded lady from you? + Think that you are upon a rock, and now + Throw me again. [Embracing him] + POSTHUMUS. Hang there like fruit, my soul, + Till the tree die! + CYMBELINE. How now, my flesh? my child? + What, mak'st thou me a dullard in this act? + Wilt thou not speak to me? + IMOGEN. [Kneeling] Your blessing, sir. + BELARIUS. [To GUIDERIUS and ARVIRAGUS] Though you did love this + youth, I blame ye not; + You had a motive for't. + CYMBELINE. My tears that fall + Prove holy water on thee! Imogen, + Thy mother's dead. + IMOGEN. I am sorry for't, my lord. + CYMBELINE. O, she was naught, and long of her it was + That we meet here so strangely; but her son + Is gone, we know not how nor where. + PISANIO. My lord, + Now fear is from me, I'll speak troth. Lord Cloten, + Upon my lady's missing, came to me + With his sword drawn, foam'd at the mouth, and swore, + If I discover'd not which way she was gone, + It was my instant death. By accident + I had a feigned letter of my master's + Then in my pocket, which directed him + To seek her on the mountains near to Milford; + Where, in a frenzy, in my master's garments, + Which he enforc'd from me, away he posts + With unchaste purpose, and with oath to violate + My lady's honour. What became of him + I further know not. + GUIDERIUS. Let me end the story: + I slew him there. + CYMBELINE. Marry, the gods forfend! + I would not thy good deeds should from my lips + Pluck a hard sentence. Prithee, valiant youth, + Deny't again. + GUIDERIUS. I have spoke it, and I did it. + CYMBELINE. He was a prince. + GUIDERIUS. A most incivil one. The wrongs he did me + Were nothing prince-like; for he did provoke me + With language that would make me spurn the sea, + If it could so roar to me. I cut off's head, + And am right glad he is not standing here + To tell this tale of mine. + CYMBELINE. I am sorry for thee. + By thine own tongue thou art condemn'd, and must + Endure our law. Thou'rt dead. + IMOGEN. That headless man + I thought had been my lord. + CYMBELINE. Bind the offender, + And take him from our presence. + BELARIUS. Stay, sir King. + This man is better than the man he slew, + As well descended as thyself, and hath + More of thee merited than a band of Clotens + Had ever scar for. [To the guard] Let his arms alone; + They were not born for bondage. + CYMBELINE. Why, old soldier, + Wilt thou undo the worth thou art unpaid for + By tasting of our wrath? How of descent + As good as we? + ARVIRAGUS. In that he spake too far. + CYMBELINE. And thou shalt die for't. + BELARIUS. We will die all three; + But I will prove that two on's are as good + As I have given out him. My sons, I must + For mine own part unfold a dangerous speech, + Though haply well for you. + ARVIRAGUS. Your danger's ours. + GUIDERIUS. And our good his. + BELARIUS. Have at it then by leave! + Thou hadst, great King, a subject who + Was call'd Belarius. + CYMBELINE. What of him? He is + A banish'd traitor. + BELARIUS. He it is that hath + Assum'd this age; indeed a banish'd man; + I know not how a traitor. + CYMBELINE. Take him hence, + The whole world shall not save him. + BELARIUS. Not too hot. + First pay me for the nursing of thy sons, + And let it be confiscate all, so soon + As I have receiv'd it. + CYMBELINE. Nursing of my sons? + BELARIUS. I am too blunt and saucy: here's my knee. + Ere I arise I will prefer my sons; + Then spare not the old father. Mighty sir, + These two young gentlemen that call me father, + And think they are my sons, are none of mine; + They are the issue of your loins, my liege, + And blood of your begetting. + CYMBELINE. How? my issue? + BELARIUS. So sure as you your father's. I, old Morgan, + Am that Belarius whom you sometime banish'd. + Your pleasure was my mere offence, my punishment + Itself, and all my treason; that I suffer'd + Was all the harm I did. These gentle princes- + For such and so they are- these twenty years + Have I train'd up; those arts they have as + Could put into them. My breeding was, sir, as + Your Highness knows. Their nurse, Euriphile, + Whom for the theft I wedded, stole these children + Upon my banishment; I mov'd her to't, + Having receiv'd the punishment before + For that which I did then. Beaten for loyalty + Excited me to treason. Their dear loss, + The more of you 'twas felt, the more it shap'd + Unto my end of stealing them. But, gracious sir, + Here are your sons again, and I must lose + Two of the sweet'st companions in the world. + The benediction of these covering heavens + Fall on their heads like dew! for they are worthy + To inlay heaven with stars. + CYMBELINE. Thou weep'st and speak'st. + The service that you three have done is more + Unlike than this thou tell'st. I lost my children. + If these be they, I know not how to wish + A pair of worthier sons. + BELARIUS. Be pleas'd awhile. + This gentleman, whom I call Polydore, + Most worthy prince, as yours, is true Guiderius; + This gentleman, my Cadwal, Arviragus, + Your younger princely son; he, sir, was lapp'd + In a most curious mantle, wrought by th' hand + Of his queen mother, which for more probation + I can with ease produce. + CYMBELINE. Guiderius had + Upon his neck a mole, a sanguine star; + It was a mark of wonder. + BELARIUS. This is he, + Who hath upon him still that natural stamp. + It was wise nature's end in the donation, + To be his evidence now. + CYMBELINE. O, what am I? + A mother to the birth of three? Ne'er mother + Rejoic'd deliverance more. Blest pray you be, + That, after this strange starting from your orbs, + You may reign in them now! O Imogen, + Thou hast lost by this a kingdom. + IMOGEN. No, my lord; + I have got two worlds by't. O my gentle brothers, + Have we thus met? O, never say hereafter + But I am truest speaker! You call'd me brother, + When I was but your sister: I you brothers, + When we were so indeed. + CYMBELINE. Did you e'er meet? + ARVIRAGUS. Ay, my good lord. + GUIDERIUS. And at first meeting lov'd, + Continu'd so until we thought he died. + CORNELIUS. By the Queen's dram she swallow'd. + CYMBELINE. O rare instinct! + When shall I hear all through? This fierce abridgment + Hath to it circumstantial branches, which + Distinction should be rich in. Where? how liv'd you? + And when came you to serve our Roman captive? + How parted with your brothers? how first met them? + Why fled you from the court? and whither? These, + And your three motives to the battle, with + I know not how much more, should be demanded, + And all the other by-dependences, + From chance to chance; but nor the time nor place + Will serve our long interrogatories. See, + Posthumus anchors upon Imogen; + And she, like harmless lightning, throws her eye + On him, her brothers, me, her master, hitting + Each object with a joy; the counterchange + Is severally in all. Let's quit this ground, + And smoke the temple with our sacrifices. + [To BELARIUS] Thou art my brother; so we'll hold thee ever. + IMOGEN. You are my father too, and did relieve me + To see this gracious season. + CYMBELINE. All o'erjoy'd + Save these in bonds. Let them be joyful too, + For they shall taste our comfort. + IMOGEN. My good master, + I will yet do you service. + LUCIUS. Happy be you! + CYMBELINE. The forlorn soldier, that so nobly fought, + He would have well becom'd this place and grac'd + The thankings of a king. + POSTHUMUS. I am, sir, + The soldier that did company these three + In poor beseeming; 'twas a fitment for + The purpose I then follow'd. That I was he, + Speak, Iachimo. I had you down, and might + Have made you finish. + IACHIMO. [Kneeling] I am down again; + But now my heavy conscience sinks my knee, + As then your force did. Take that life, beseech you, + Which I so often owe; but your ring first, + And here the bracelet of the truest princess + That ever swore her faith. + POSTHUMUS. Kneel not to me. + The pow'r that I have on you is to spare you; + The malice towards you to forgive you. Live, + And deal with others better. + CYMBELINE. Nobly doom'd! + We'll learn our freeness of a son-in-law; + Pardon's the word to all. + ARVIRAGUS. You holp us, sir, + As you did mean indeed to be our brother; + Joy'd are we that you are. + POSTHUMUS. Your servant, Princes. Good my lord of Rome, + Call forth your soothsayer. As I slept, methought + Great Jupiter, upon his eagle back'd, + Appear'd to me, with other spritely shows + Of mine own kindred. When I wak'd, I found + This label on my bosom; whose containing + Is so from sense in hardness that I can + Make no collection of it. Let him show + His skill in the construction. + LUCIUS. Philarmonus! + SOOTHSAYER. Here, my good lord. + LUCIUS. Read, and declare the meaning. + SOOTHSAYER. [Reads] 'When as a lion's whelp shall, to himself + unknown, without seeking find, and be embrac'd by + a piece of tender air; and when from a stately cedar shall + be lopp'd branches which, being dead many years, shall + after revive, be jointed to the old stock, and freshly grow; + then shall Posthumus end his miseries, Britain be fortunate + and flourish in peace and plenty.' + Thou, Leonatus, art the lion's whelp; + The fit and apt construction of thy name, + Being Leo-natus, doth import so much. + [To CYMBELINE] The piece of tender air, thy virtuous daughter, + Which we call 'mollis aer,' and 'mollis aer' + We term it 'mulier'; which 'mulier' I divine + Is this most constant wife, who even now + Answering the letter of the oracle, + Unknown to you, unsought, were clipp'd about + With this most tender air. + CYMBELINE. This hath some seeming. + SOOTHSAYER. The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline, + Personates thee; and thy lopp'd branches point + Thy two sons forth, who, by Belarius stol'n, + For many years thought dead, are now reviv'd, + To the majestic cedar join'd, whose issue + Promises Britain peace and plenty. + CYMBELINE. Well, + My peace we will begin. And, Caius Lucius, + Although the victor, we submit to Caesar + And to the Roman empire, promising + To pay our wonted tribute, from the which + We were dissuaded by our wicked queen, + Whom heavens in justice, both on her and hers, + Have laid most heavy hand. + SOOTHSAYER. The fingers of the pow'rs above do tune + The harmony of this peace. The vision + Which I made known to Lucius ere the stroke + Of yet this scarce-cold battle, at this instant + Is full accomplish'd; for the Roman eagle, + From south to west on wing soaring aloft, + Lessen'd herself and in the beams o' th' sun + So vanish'd; which foreshow'd our princely eagle, + Th'imperial Caesar, Caesar, should again unite + His favour with the radiant Cymbeline, + Which shines here in the west. + CYMBELINE. Laud we the gods; + And let our crooked smokes climb to their nostrils + From our bless'd altars. Publish we this peace + To all our subjects. Set we forward; let + A Roman and a British ensign wave + Friendly together. So through Lud's Town march; + And in the temple of great Jupiter + Our peace we'll ratify; seal it with feasts. + Set on there! Never was a war did cease, + Ere bloody hands were wash'd, with such a peace. Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1604 + + +THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK + + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + Claudius, King of Denmark. + Marcellus, Officer. + Hamlet, son to the former, and nephew to the present king. + Polonius, Lord Chamberlain. + Horatio, friend to Hamlet. + Laertes, son to Polonius. + Voltemand, courtier. + Cornelius, courtier. + Rosencrantz, courtier. + Guildenstern, courtier. + Osric, courtier. + A Gentleman, courtier. + A Priest. + Marcellus, officer. + Bernardo, officer. + Francisco, a soldier + Reynaldo, servant to Polonius. + Players. + Two Clowns, gravediggers. + Fortinbras, Prince of Norway. + A Norwegian Captain. + English Ambassadors. + + Getrude, Queen of Denmark, mother to Hamlet. + Ophelia, daughter to Polonius. + + Ghost of Hamlet's Father. + + Lords, ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, Attendants. + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE.- Elsinore. + + +ACT I. Scene I. +Elsinore. A platform before the Castle. + +Enter two Sentinels-[first,] Francisco, [who paces up and down +at his post; then] Bernardo, [who approaches him]. + + Ber. Who's there.? + Fran. Nay, answer me. Stand and unfold yourself. + Ber. Long live the King! + Fran. Bernardo? + Ber. He. + Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour. + Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco. + Fran. For this relief much thanks. 'Tis bitter cold, + And I am sick at heart. + Ber. Have you had quiet guard? + Fran. Not a mouse stirring. + Ber. Well, good night. + If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, + The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. + + Enter Horatio and Marcellus. + + Fran. I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who is there? + Hor. Friends to this ground. + Mar. And liegemen to the Dane. + Fran. Give you good night. + Mar. O, farewell, honest soldier. + Who hath reliev'd you? + Fran. Bernardo hath my place. + Give you good night. Exit. + Mar. Holla, Bernardo! + Ber. Say- + What, is Horatio there ? + Hor. A piece of him. + Ber. Welcome, Horatio. Welcome, good Marcellus. + Mar. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night? + Ber. I have seen nothing. + Mar. Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, + And will not let belief take hold of him + Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us. + Therefore I have entreated him along, + With us to watch the minutes of this night, + That, if again this apparition come, + He may approve our eyes and speak to it. + Hor. Tush, tush, 'twill not appear. + Ber. Sit down awhile, + And let us once again assail your ears, + That are so fortified against our story, + What we two nights have seen. + Hor. Well, sit we down, + And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. + Ber. Last night of all, + When yond same star that's westward from the pole + Had made his course t' illume that part of heaven + Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, + The bell then beating one- + + Enter Ghost. + + Mar. Peace! break thee off! Look where it comes again! + Ber. In the same figure, like the King that's dead. + Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. + Ber. Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio. + Hor. Most like. It harrows me with fear and wonder. + Ber. It would be spoke to. + Mar. Question it, Horatio. + Hor. What art thou that usurp'st this time of night + Together with that fair and warlike form + In which the majesty of buried Denmark + Did sometimes march? By heaven I charge thee speak! + Mar. It is offended. + Ber. See, it stalks away! + Hor. Stay! Speak, speak! I charge thee speak! + Exit Ghost. + Mar. 'Tis gone and will not answer. + Ber. How now, Horatio? You tremble and look pale. + Is not this something more than fantasy? + What think you on't? + Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe + Without the sensible and true avouch + Of mine own eyes. + Mar. Is it not like the King? + Hor. As thou art to thyself. + Such was the very armour he had on + When he th' ambitious Norway combated. + So frown'd he once when, in an angry parle, + He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice. + 'Tis strange. + Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, + With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. + Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not; + But, in the gross and scope of my opinion, + This bodes some strange eruption to our state. + Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me he that knows, + Why this same strict and most observant watch + So nightly toils the subject of the land, + And why such daily cast of brazen cannon + And foreign mart for implements of war; + Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task + Does not divide the Sunday from the week. + What might be toward, that this sweaty haste + Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day? + Who is't that can inform me? + Hor. That can I. + At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, + Whose image even but now appear'd to us, + Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, + Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride, + Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet + (For so this side of our known world esteem'd him) + Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact, + Well ratified by law and heraldry, + Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands + Which he stood seiz'd of, to the conqueror; + Against the which a moiety competent + Was gaged by our king; which had return'd + To the inheritance of Fortinbras, + Had he been vanquisher, as, by the same comart + And carriage of the article design'd, + His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, + Of unimproved mettle hot and full, + Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, + Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes, + For food and diet, to some enterprise + That hath a stomach in't; which is no other, + As it doth well appear unto our state, + But to recover of us, by strong hand + And terms compulsatory, those foresaid lands + So by his father lost; and this, I take it, + Is the main motive of our preparations, + The source of this our watch, and the chief head + Of this post-haste and romage in the land. + Ber. I think it be no other but e'en so. + Well may it sort that this portentous figure + Comes armed through our watch, so like the King + That was and is the question of these wars. + Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. + In the most high and palmy state of Rome, + A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, + The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead + Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets; + As stars with trains of fire, and dews of blood, + Disasters in the sun; and the moist star + Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands + Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. + And even the like precurse of fierce events, + As harbingers preceding still the fates + And prologue to the omen coming on, + Have heaven and earth together demonstrated + Unto our climature and countrymen. + + Enter Ghost again. + + But soft! behold! Lo, where it comes again! + I'll cross it, though it blast me.- Stay illusion! + Spreads his arms. + If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, + Speak to me. + If there be any good thing to be done, + That may to thee do ease, and, race to me, + Speak to me. + If thou art privy to thy country's fate, + Which happily foreknowing may avoid, + O, speak! + Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life + Extorted treasure in the womb of earth + (For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death), + The cock crows. + Speak of it! Stay, and speak!- Stop it, Marcellus! + Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan? + Hor. Do, if it will not stand. + Ber. 'Tis here! + Hor. 'Tis here! + Mar. 'Tis gone! + Exit Ghost. + We do it wrong, being so majestical, + To offer it the show of violence; + For it is as the air, invulnerable, + And our vain blows malicious mockery. + Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. + Hor. And then it started, like a guilty thing + Upon a fearful summons. I have heard + The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, + Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat + Awake the god of day; and at his warning, + Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, + Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies + To his confine; and of the truth herein + This present object made probation. + Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. + Some say that ever, 'gainst that season comes + Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, + The bird of dawning singeth all night long; + And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad, + The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, + No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, + So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. + Hor. So have I heard and do in part believe it. + But look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, + Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill. + Break we our watch up; and by my advice + Let us impart what we have seen to-night + Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life, + This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. + Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, + As needful in our loves, fitting our duty? + Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know + Where we shall find him most conveniently. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +Elsinore. A room of state in the Castle. + +Flourish. [Enter Claudius, King of Denmark, Gertrude the Queen, Hamlet, +Polonius, Laertes and his sister Ophelia, [Voltemand, Cornelius,] +Lords Attendant. + + King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death + The memory be green, and that it us befitted + To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom + To be contracted in one brow of woe, + Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature + That we with wisest sorrow think on him + Together with remembrance of ourselves. + Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, + Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state, + Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy, + With an auspicious, and a dropping eye, + With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, + In equal scale weighing delight and dole, + Taken to wife; nor have we herein barr'd + Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone + With this affair along. For all, our thanks. + Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, + Holding a weak supposal of our worth, + Or thinking by our late dear brother's death + Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, + Colleagued with this dream of his advantage, + He hath not fail'd to pester us with message + Importing the surrender of those lands + Lost by his father, with all bands of law, + To our most valiant brother. So much for him. + Now for ourself and for this time of meeting. + Thus much the business is: we have here writ + To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras, + Who, impotent and bedrid, scarcely hears + Of this his nephew's purpose, to suppress + His further gait herein, in that the levies, + The lists, and full proportions are all made + Out of his subject; and we here dispatch + You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand, + For bearers of this greeting to old Norway, + Giving to you no further personal power + To business with the King, more than the scope + Of these dilated articles allow. [Gives a paper.] + Farewell, and let your haste commend your duty. + Cor., Volt. In that, and all things, will we show our duty. + King. We doubt it nothing. Heartily farewell. + Exeunt Voltemand and Cornelius. + And now, Laertes, what's the news with you? + You told us of some suit. What is't, Laertes? + You cannot speak of reason to the Dane + And lose your voice. What wouldst thou beg, Laertes, + That shall not be my offer, not thy asking? + The head is not more native to the heart, + The hand more instrumental to the mouth, + Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father. + What wouldst thou have, Laertes? + Laer. My dread lord, + Your leave and favour to return to France; + From whence though willingly I came to Denmark + To show my duty in your coronation, + Yet now I must confess, that duty done, + My thoughts and wishes bend again toward France + And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. + King. Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius? + Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave + By laboursome petition, and at last + Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent. + I do beseech you give him leave to go. + King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine, + And thy best graces spend it at thy will! + But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son- + Ham. [aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind! + King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you? + Ham. Not so, my lord. I am too much i' th' sun. + Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, + And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. + Do not for ever with thy vailed lids + Seek for thy noble father in the dust. + Thou know'st 'tis common. All that lives must die, + Passing through nature to eternity. + Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. + Queen. If it be, + Why seems it so particular with thee? + Ham. Seems, madam, Nay, it is. I know not 'seems.' + 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, + Nor customary suits of solemn black, + Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath, + No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, + Nor the dejected havior of the visage, + Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, + 'That can denote me truly. These indeed seem, + For they are actions that a man might play; + But I have that within which passeth show- + These but the trappings and the suits of woe. + King. 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, + To give these mourning duties to your father; + But you must know, your father lost a father; + That father lost, lost his, and the survivor bound + In filial obligation for some term + To do obsequious sorrow. But to persever + In obstinate condolement is a course + Of impious stubbornness. 'Tis unmanly grief; + It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, + A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, + An understanding simple and unschool'd; + For what we know must be, and is as common + As any the most vulgar thing to sense, + Why should we in our peevish opposition + Take it to heart? Fie! 'tis a fault to heaven, + A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, + To reason most absurd, whose common theme + Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried, + From the first corse till he that died to-day, + 'This must be so.' We pray you throw to earth + This unprevailing woe, and think of us + As of a father; for let the world take note + You are the most immediate to our throne, + And with no less nobility of love + Than that which dearest father bears his son + Do I impart toward you. For your intent + In going back to school in Wittenberg, + It is most retrograde to our desire; + And we beseech you, bend you to remain + Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye, + Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son. + Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet. + I pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg. + Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. + King. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply. + Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come. + This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet + Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof, + No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day + But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell, + And the King's rouse the heaven shall bruit again, + Respeaking earthly thunder. Come away. + Flourish. Exeunt all but Hamlet. + Ham. O that this too too solid flesh would melt, + Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! + Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd + His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! + How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable + Seem to me all the uses of this world! + Fie on't! ah, fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden + That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature + Possess it merely. That it should come to this! + But two months dead! Nay, not so much, not two. + So excellent a king, that was to this + Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother + That he might not beteem the winds of heaven + Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! + Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him + As if increase of appetite had grown + By what it fed on; and yet, within a month- + Let me not think on't! Frailty, thy name is woman!- + A little month, or ere those shoes were old + With which she followed my poor father's body + Like Niobe, all tears- why she, even she + (O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason + Would have mourn'd longer) married with my uncle; + My father's brother, but no more like my father + Than I to Hercules. Within a month, + Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears + Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, + She married. O, most wicked speed, to post + With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! + It is not, nor it cannot come to good. + But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue! + + Enter Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. + + Hor. Hail to your lordship! + Ham. I am glad to see you well. + Horatio!- or I do forget myself. + Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever. + Ham. Sir, my good friend- I'll change that name with you. + And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio? + Marcellus? + Mar. My good lord! + Ham. I am very glad to see you.- [To Bernardo] Good even, sir.- + But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? + Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord. + Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so, + Nor shall you do my ear that violence + To make it truster of your own report + Against yourself. I know you are no truant. + But what is your affair in Elsinore? + We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart. + Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. + Ham. I prithee do not mock me, fellow student. + I think it was to see my mother's wedding. + Hor. Indeed, my lord, it followed hard upon. + Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! The funeral bak'd meats + Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. + Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven + Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio! + My father- methinks I see my father. + Hor. O, where, my lord? + Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. + Hor. I saw him once. He was a goodly king. + Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all. + I shall not look upon his like again. + Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. + Ham. Saw? who? + Hor. My lord, the King your father. + Ham. The King my father? + Hor. Season your admiration for a while + With an attent ear, till I may deliver + Upon the witness of these gentlemen, + This marvel to you. + Ham. For God's love let me hear! + Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen + (Marcellus and Bernardo) on their watch + In the dead vast and middle of the night + Been thus encount'red. A figure like your father, + Armed at point exactly, cap-a-pe, + Appears before them and with solemn march + Goes slow and stately by them. Thrice he walk'd + By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes, + Within his truncheon's length; whilst they distill'd + Almost to jelly with the act of fear, + Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me + In dreadful secrecy impart they did, + And I with them the third night kept the watch; + Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time, + Form of the thing, each word made true and good, + The apparition comes. I knew your father. + These hands are not more like. + Ham. But where was this? + Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd. + Ham. Did you not speak to it? + Hor. My lord, I did; + But answer made it none. Yet once methought + It lifted up it head and did address + Itself to motion, like as it would speak; + But even then the morning cock crew loud, + And at the sound it shrunk in haste away + And vanish'd from our sight. + Ham. 'Tis very strange. + Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true; + And we did think it writ down in our duty + To let you know of it. + Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs. But this troubles me. + Hold you the watch to-night? + Both [Mar. and Ber.] We do, my lord. + Ham. Arm'd, say you? + Both. Arm'd, my lord. + Ham. From top to toe? + Both. My lord, from head to foot. + Ham. Then saw you not his face? + Hor. O, yes, my lord! He wore his beaver up. + Ham. What, look'd he frowningly. + Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. + Ham. Pale or red? + Hor. Nay, very pale. + Ham. And fix'd his eyes upon you? + Hor. Most constantly. + Ham. I would I had been there. + Hor. It would have much amaz'd you. + Ham. Very like, very like. Stay'd it long? + Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. + Both. Longer, longer. + Hor. Not when I saw't. + Ham. His beard was grizzled- no? + Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, + A sable silver'd. + Ham. I will watch to-night. + Perchance 'twill walk again. + Hor. I warr'nt it will. + Ham. If it assume my noble father's person, + I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape + And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, + If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight, + Let it be tenable in your silence still; + And whatsoever else shall hap to-night, + Give it an understanding but no tongue. + I will requite your loves. So, fare you well. + Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve, + I'll visit you. + All. Our duty to your honour. + Ham. Your loves, as mine to you. Farewell. + Exeunt [all but Hamlet]. + My father's spirit- in arms? All is not well. + I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come! + Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise, + Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. +Exit. + + + + +Scene III. +Elsinore. A room in the house of Polonius. + +Enter Laertes and Ophelia. + + Laer. My necessaries are embark'd. Farewell. + And, sister, as the winds give benefit + And convoy is assistant, do not sleep, + But let me hear from you. + Oph. Do you doubt that? + Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, + Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood; + A violet in the youth of primy nature, + Forward, not permanent- sweet, not lasting; + The perfume and suppliance of a minute; + No more. + Oph. No more but so? + Laer. Think it no more. + For nature crescent does not grow alone + In thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes, + The inward service of the mind and soul + Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now, + And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch + The virtue of his will; but you must fear, + His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own; + For he himself is subject to his birth. + He may not, as unvalued persons do, + Carve for himself, for on his choice depends + The safety and health of this whole state, + And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd + Unto the voice and yielding of that body + Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, + It fits your wisdom so far to believe it + As he in his particular act and place + May give his saying deed; which is no further + Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. + Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain + If with too credent ear you list his songs, + Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open + To his unmast'red importunity. + Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, + And keep you in the rear of your affection, + Out of the shot and danger of desire. + The chariest maid is prodigal enough + If she unmask her beauty to the moon. + Virtue itself scopes not calumnious strokes. + The canker galls the infants of the spring + Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd, + And in the morn and liquid dew of youth + Contagious blastments are most imminent. + Be wary then; best safety lies in fear. + Youth to itself rebels, though none else near. + Oph. I shall th' effect of this good lesson keep + As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, + Do not as some ungracious pastors do, + Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, + Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, + Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads + And recks not his own rede. + Laer. O, fear me not! + + Enter Polonius. + + I stay too long. But here my father comes. + A double blessing is a double grace; + Occasion smiles upon a second leave. + Pol. Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame! + The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, + And you are stay'd for. There- my blessing with thee! + And these few precepts in thy memory + Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, + Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. + Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar: + Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, + Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel; + But do not dull thy palm with entertainment + Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware + Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, + Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee. + Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; + Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. + Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, + But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; + For the apparel oft proclaims the man, + And they in France of the best rank and station + Are most select and generous, chief in that. + Neither a borrower nor a lender be; + For loan oft loses both itself and friend, + And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. + This above all- to thine own self be true, + And it must follow, as the night the day, + Thou canst not then be false to any man. + Farewell. My blessing season this in thee! + Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. + Pol. The time invites you. Go, your servants tend. + Laer. Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well + What I have said to you. + Oph. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, + And you yourself shall keep the key of it. + Laer. Farewell. Exit. + Pol. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? + Oph. So please you, something touching the Lord Hamlet. + Pol. Marry, well bethought! + 'Tis told me he hath very oft of late + Given private time to you, and you yourself + Have of your audience been most free and bounteous. + If it be so- as so 'tis put on me, + And that in way of caution- I must tell you + You do not understand yourself so clearly + As it behooves my daughter and your honour. + What is between you? Give me up the truth. + Oph. He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders + Of his affection to me. + Pol. Affection? Pooh! You speak like a green girl, + Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. + Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? + Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think, + Pol. Marry, I will teach you! Think yourself a baby + That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay, + Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly, + Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, + Running it thus) you'll tender me a fool. + Oph. My lord, he hath importun'd me with love + In honourable fashion. + Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it. Go to, go to! + Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord, + With almost all the holy vows of heaven. + Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks! I do know, + When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul + Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter, + Giving more light than heat, extinct in both + Even in their promise, as it is a-making, + You must not take for fire. From this time + Be something scanter of your maiden presence. + Set your entreatments at a higher rate + Than a command to parley. For Lord Hamlet, + Believe so much in him, that he is young, + And with a larger tether may he walk + Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia, + Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, + Not of that dye which their investments show, + But mere implorators of unholy suits, + Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds, + The better to beguile. This is for all: + I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth + Have you so slander any moment leisure + As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. + Look to't, I charge you. Come your ways. + Oph. I shall obey, my lord. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene IV. +Elsinore. The platform before the Castle. + +Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus. + + Ham. The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold. + Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air. + Ham. What hour now? + Hor. I think it lacks of twelve. + Mar. No, it is struck. + Hor. Indeed? I heard it not. It then draws near the season + Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. + A flourish of trumpets, and two pieces go off. + What does this mean, my lord? + Ham. The King doth wake to-night and takes his rouse, + Keeps wassail, and the swagg'ring upspring reels, + And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, + The kettledrum and trumpet thus bray out + The triumph of his pledge. + Hor. Is it a custom? + Ham. Ay, marry, is't; + But to my mind, though I am native here + And to the manner born, it is a custom + More honour'd in the breach than the observance. + This heavy-headed revel east and west + Makes us traduc'd and tax'd of other nations; + They clip us drunkards and with swinish phrase + Soil our addition; and indeed it takes + From our achievements, though perform'd at height, + The pith and marrow of our attribute. + So oft it chances in particular men + That, for some vicious mole of nature in them, + As in their birth,- wherein they are not guilty, + Since nature cannot choose his origin,- + By the o'ergrowth of some complexion, + Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, + Or by some habit that too much o'erleavens + The form of plausive manners, that these men + Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, + Being nature's livery, or fortune's star, + Their virtues else- be they as pure as grace, + As infinite as man may undergo- + Shall in the general censure take corruption + From that particular fault. The dram of e'il + Doth all the noble substance often dout To his own scandal. + + Enter Ghost. + + Hor. Look, my lord, it comes! + Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us! + Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd, + Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, + Be thy intents wicked or charitable, + Thou com'st in such a questionable shape + That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet, + King, father, royal Dane. O, answer me? + Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell + Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death, + Have burst their cerements; why the sepulchre + Wherein we saw thee quietly inurn'd, + Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws + To cast thee up again. What may this mean + That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel, + Revisits thus the glimpses of the moon, + Making night hideous, and we fools of nature + So horridly to shake our disposition + With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls? + Say, why is this? wherefore? What should we do? + Ghost beckons Hamlet. + Hor. It beckons you to go away with it, + As if it some impartment did desire + To you alone. + Mar. Look with what courteous action + It waves you to a more removed ground. + But do not go with it! + Hor. No, by no means! + Ham. It will not speak. Then will I follow it. + Hor. Do not, my lord! + Ham. Why, what should be the fear? + I do not set my life at a pin's fee; + And for my soul, what can it do to that, + Being a thing immortal as itself? + It waves me forth again. I'll follow it. + Hor. What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, + Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff + That beetles o'er his base into the sea, + And there assume some other, horrible form + Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason + And draw you into madness? Think of it. + The very place puts toys of desperation, + Without more motive, into every brain + That looks so many fadoms to the sea + And hears it roar beneath. + Ham. It waves me still. + Go on. I'll follow thee. + Mar. You shall not go, my lord. + Ham. Hold off your hands! + Hor. Be rul'd. You shall not go. + Ham. My fate cries out + And makes each petty artire in this body + As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve. + [Ghost beckons.] + Still am I call'd. Unhand me, gentlemen. + By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me!- + I say, away!- Go on. I'll follow thee. + Exeunt Ghost and Hamlet. + Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination. + Mar. Let's follow. 'Tis not fit thus to obey him. + Hor. Have after. To what issue wail this come? + Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. + Hor. Heaven will direct it. + Mar. Nay, let's follow him. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene V. +Elsinore. The Castle. Another part of the fortifications. + +Enter Ghost and Hamlet. + + Ham. Whither wilt thou lead me? Speak! I'll go no further. + Ghost. Mark me. + Ham. I will. + Ghost. My hour is almost come, + When I to sulph'rous and tormenting flames + Must render up myself. + Ham. Alas, poor ghost! + Ghost. Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing + To what I shall unfold. + Ham. Speak. I am bound to hear. + Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. + Ham. What? + Ghost. I am thy father's spirit, + Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, + And for the day confin'd to fast in fires, + Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature + Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid + To tell the secrets of my prison house, + I could a tale unfold whose lightest word + Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, + Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, + Thy knotted and combined locks to part, + And each particular hair to stand an end + Like quills upon the fretful porpentine. + But this eternal blazon must not be + To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list! + If thou didst ever thy dear father love- + Ham. O God! + Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murther. + Ham. Murther? + Ghost. Murther most foul, as in the best it is; + But this most foul, strange, and unnatural. + Ham. Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift + As meditation or the thoughts of love, + May sweep to my revenge. + Ghost. I find thee apt; + And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed + That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf, + Wouldst thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear. + 'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, + A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark + Is by a forged process of my death + Rankly abus'd. But know, thou noble youth, + The serpent that did sting thy father's life + Now wears his crown. + Ham. O my prophetic soul! + My uncle? + Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, + With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts- + O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power + So to seduce!- won to his shameful lust + The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen. + O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there, + From me, whose love was of that dignity + That it went hand in hand even with the vow + I made to her in marriage, and to decline + Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor + To those of mine! + But virtue, as it never will be mov'd, + Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, + So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd, + Will sate itself in a celestial bed + And prey on garbage. + But soft! methinks I scent the morning air. + Brief let me be. Sleeping within my orchard, + My custom always of the afternoon, + Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, + With juice of cursed hebona in a vial, + And in the porches of my ears did pour + The leperous distilment; whose effect + Holds such an enmity with blood of man + That swift as quicksilverr it courses through + The natural gates and alleys of the body, + And with a sudden vigour it doth posset + And curd, like eager droppings into milk, + The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine; + And a most instant tetter bark'd about, + Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust + All my smooth body. + Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand + Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd; + Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, + Unhous'led, disappointed, unanel'd, + No reckoning made, but sent to my account + With all my imperfections on my head. + Ham. O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible! + Ghost. If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not. + Let not the royal bed of Denmark be + A couch for luxury and damned incest. + But, howsoever thou pursuest this act, + Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive + Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven, + And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge + To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once. + The glowworm shows the matin to be near + And gins to pale his uneffectual fire. + Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me. Exit. + Ham. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else? + And shall I couple hell? Hold, hold, my heart! + And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, + But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee? + Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat + In this distracted globe. Remember thee? + Yea, from the table of my memory + I'll wipe away all trivial fond records, + All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past + That youth and observation copied there, + And thy commandment all alone shall live + Within the book and volume of my brain, + Unmix'd with baser matter. Yes, by heaven! + O most pernicious woman! + O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! + My tables! Meet it is I set it down + That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain; + At least I am sure it may be so in Denmark. [Writes.] + So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word: + It is 'Adieu, adieu! Remember me.' + I have sworn't. + Hor. (within) My lord, my lord! + + Enter Horatio and Marcellus. + + Mar. Lord Hamlet! + Hor. Heaven secure him! + Ham. So be it! + Mar. Illo, ho, ho, my lord! + Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy! Come, bird, come. + Mar. How is't, my noble lord? + Hor. What news, my lord? + Mar. O, wonderful! + Hor. Good my lord, tell it. + Ham. No, you will reveal it. + Hor. Not I, my lord, by heaven! + Mar. Nor I, my lord. + Ham. How say you then? Would heart of man once think it? + But you'll be secret? + Both. Ay, by heaven, my lord. + Ham. There's neer a villain dwelling in all Denmark + But he's an arrant knave. + Hor. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave + To tell us this. + Ham. Why, right! You are in the right! + And so, without more circumstance at all, + I hold it fit that we shake hands and part; + You, as your business and desires shall point you, + For every man hath business and desire, + Such as it is; and for my own poor part, + Look you, I'll go pray. + Hor. These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. + Ham. I am sorry they offend you, heartily; + Yes, faith, heartily. + Hor. There's no offence, my lord. + Ham. Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Horatio, + And much offence too. Touching this vision here, + It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you. + For your desire to know what is between us, + O'ermaster't as you may. And now, good friends, + As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers, + Give me one poor request. + Hor. What is't, my lord? We will. + Ham. Never make known what you have seen to-night. + Both. My lord, we will not. + Ham. Nay, but swear't. + Hor. In faith, + My lord, not I. + Mar. Nor I, my lord- in faith. + Ham. Upon my sword. + Mar. We have sworn, my lord, already. + Ham. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. + + Ghost cries under the stage. + + Ghost. Swear. + Ham. Aha boy, say'st thou so? Art thou there, truepenny? + Come on! You hear this fellow in the cellarage. + Consent to swear. + Hor. Propose the oath, my lord. + Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen. + Swear by my sword. + Ghost. [beneath] Swear. + Ham. Hic et ubique? Then we'll shift our ground. + Come hither, gentlemen, + And lay your hands again upon my sword. + Never to speak of this that you have heard: + Swear by my sword. + Ghost. [beneath] Swear by his sword. + Ham. Well said, old mole! Canst work i' th' earth so fast? + A worthy pioner! Once more remove, good friends." + Hor. O day and night, but this is wondrous strange! + Ham. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. + There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, + Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. + But come! + Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, + How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself + (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet + To put an antic disposition on), + That you, at such times seeing me, never shall, + With arms encumb'red thus, or this head-shake, + Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, + As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,' + Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,' + Or such ambiguous giving out, to note + That you know aught of me- this is not to do, + So grace and mercy at your most need help you, + Swear. + Ghost. [beneath] Swear. + [They swear.] + Ham. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! So, gentlemen, + With all my love I do commend me to you; + And what so poor a man as Hamlet is + May do t' express his love and friending to you, + God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together; + And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. + The time is out of joint. O cursed spite + That ever I was born to set it right! + Nay, come, let's go together. + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +Act II. Scene I. +Elsinore. A room in the house of Polonius. + +Enter Polonius and Reynaldo. + + Pol. Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo. + Rey. I will, my lord. + Pol. You shall do marvell's wisely, good Reynaldo, + Before You visit him, to make inquire + Of his behaviour. + Rey. My lord, I did intend it. + Pol. Marry, well said, very well said. Look you, sir, + Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris; + And how, and who, what means, and where they keep, + What company, at what expense; and finding + By this encompassment and drift of question + That they do know my son, come you more nearer + Than your particular demands will touch it. + Take you, as 'twere, some distant knowledge of him; + As thus, 'I know his father and his friends, + And in part him.' Do you mark this, Reynaldo? + Rey. Ay, very well, my lord. + Pol. 'And in part him, but,' you may say, 'not well. + But if't be he I mean, he's very wild + Addicted so and so'; and there put on him + What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank + As may dishonour him- take heed of that; + But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips + As are companions noted and most known + To youth and liberty. + Rey. As gaming, my lord. + Pol. Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing, quarrelling, + Drabbing. You may go so far. + Rey. My lord, that would dishonour him. + Pol. Faith, no, as you may season it in the charge. + You must not put another scandal on him, + That he is open to incontinency. + That's not my meaning. But breathe his faults so quaintly + That they may seem the taints of liberty, + The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind, + A savageness in unreclaimed blood, + Of general assault. + Rey. But, my good lord- + Pol. Wherefore should you do this? + Rey. Ay, my lord, + I would know that. + Pol. Marry, sir, here's my drift, + And I believe it is a fetch of warrant. + You laying these slight sullies on my son + As 'twere a thing a little soil'd i' th' working, + Mark you, + Your party in converse, him you would sound, + Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes + The youth you breathe of guilty, be assur'd + He closes with you in this consequence: + 'Good sir,' or so, or 'friend,' or 'gentleman'- + According to the phrase or the addition + Of man and country- + Rey. Very good, my lord. + Pol. And then, sir, does 'a this- 'a does- What was I about to say? + By the mass, I was about to say something! Where did I leave? + Rey. At 'closes in the consequence,' at 'friend or so,' and + gentleman.' + Pol. At 'closes in the consequence'- Ay, marry! + He closes thus: 'I know the gentleman. + I saw him yesterday, or t'other day, + Or then, or then, with such or such; and, as you say, + There was 'a gaming; there o'ertook in's rouse; + There falling out at tennis'; or perchance, + 'I saw him enter such a house of sale,' + Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth. + See you now- + Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth; + And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, + With windlasses and with assays of bias, + By indirections find directions out. + So, by my former lecture and advice, + Shall you my son. You have me, have you not + Rey. My lord, I have. + Pol. God b' wi' ye, fare ye well! + Rey. Good my lord! [Going.] + Pol. Observe his inclination in yourself. + Rey. I shall, my lord. + Pol. And let him ply his music. + Rey. Well, my lord. + Pol. Farewell! + Exit Reynaldo. + + Enter Ophelia. + + How now, Ophelia? What's the matter? + Oph. O my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted! + Pol. With what, i' th' name of God I + Oph. My lord, as I was sewing in my closet, + Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac'd, + No hat upon his head, his stockings foul'd, + Ungart'red, and down-gyved to his ankle; + Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other, + And with a look so piteous in purport + As if he had been loosed out of hell + To speak of horrors- he comes before me. + Pol. Mad for thy love? + Oph. My lord, I do not know, + But truly I do fear it. + Pol. What said he? + Oph. He took me by the wrist and held me hard; + Then goes he to the length of all his arm, + And, with his other hand thus o'er his brow, + He falls to such perusal of my face + As he would draw it. Long stay'd he so. + At last, a little shaking of mine arm, + And thrice his head thus waving up and down, + He rais'd a sigh so piteous and profound + As it did seem to shatter all his bulk + And end his being. That done, he lets me go, + And with his head over his shoulder turn'd + He seem'd to find his way without his eyes, + For out o' doors he went without their help + And to the last bended their light on me. + Pol. Come, go with me. I will go seek the King. + This is the very ecstasy of love, + Whose violent property fordoes itself + And leads the will to desperate undertakings + As oft as any passion under heaven + That does afflict our natures. I am sorry. + What, have you given him any hard words of late? + Oph. No, my good lord; but, as you did command, + I did repel his letters and denied + His access to me. + Pol. That hath made him mad. + I am sorry that with better heed and judgment + I had not quoted him. I fear'd he did but trifle + And meant to wrack thee; but beshrew my jealousy! + By heaven, it is as proper to our age + To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions + As it is common for the younger sort + To lack discretion. Come, go we to the King. + This must be known; which, being kept close, might move + More grief to hide than hate to utter love. + Come. + Exeunt. + +Scene II. +Elsinore. A room in the Castle. + +Flourish. [Enter King and Queen, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, cum aliis. + + King. Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. + Moreover that we much did long to see you, + The need we have to use you did provoke + Our hasty sending. Something have you heard + Of Hamlet's transformation. So I call it, + Sith nor th' exterior nor the inward man + Resembles that it was. What it should be, + More than his father's death, that thus hath put him + So much from th' understanding of himself, + I cannot dream of. I entreat you both + That, being of so young clays brought up with him, + And since so neighbour'd to his youth and haviour, + That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court + Some little time; so by your companies + To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather + So much as from occasion you may glean, + Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus + That, open'd, lies within our remedy. + Queen. Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you, + And sure I am two men there are not living + To whom he more adheres. If it will please you + To show us so much gentry and good will + As to expend your time with us awhile + For the supply and profit of our hope, + Your visitation shall receive such thanks + As fits a king's remembrance. + Ros. Both your Majesties + Might, by the sovereign power you have of us, + Put your dread pleasures more into command + Than to entreaty. + Guil. But we both obey, + And here give up ourselves, in the full bent, + To lay our service freely at your feet, + To be commanded. + King. Thanks, Rosencrantz and gentle Guildenstern. + Queen. Thanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz. + And I beseech you instantly to visit + My too much changed son.- Go, some of you, + And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is. + Guil. Heavens make our presence and our practices + Pleasant and helpful to him! + Queen. Ay, amen! + Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, [with some + Attendants]. + + Enter Polonius. + + Pol. Th' ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, + Are joyfully return'd. + King. Thou still hast been the father of good news. + Pol. Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege, + I hold my duty as I hold my soul, + Both to my God and to my gracious king; + And I do think- or else this brain of mine + Hunts not the trail of policy so sure + As it hath us'd to do- that I have found + The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy. + King. O, speak of that! That do I long to hear. + Pol. Give first admittance to th' ambassadors. + My news shall be the fruit to that great feast. + King. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. + [Exit Polonius.] + He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found + The head and source of all your son's distemper. + Queen. I doubt it is no other but the main, + His father's death and our o'erhasty marriage. + King. Well, we shall sift him. + + Enter Polonius, Voltemand, and Cornelius. + + Welcome, my good friends. + Say, Voltemand, what from our brother Norway? + Volt. Most fair return of greetings and desires. + Upon our first, he sent out to suppress + His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd + To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack, + But better look'd into, he truly found + It was against your Highness; whereat griev'd, + That so his sickness, age, and impotence + Was falsely borne in hand, sends out arrests + On Fortinbras; which he, in brief, obeys, + Receives rebuke from Norway, and, in fine, + Makes vow before his uncle never more + To give th' assay of arms against your Majesty. + Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy, + Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee + And his commission to employ those soldiers, + So levied as before, against the Polack; + With an entreaty, herein further shown, + [Gives a paper.] + That it might please you to give quiet pass + Through your dominions for this enterprise, + On such regards of safety and allowance + As therein are set down. + King. It likes us well; + And at our more consider'd time we'll read, + Answer, and think upon this business. + Meantime we thank you for your well-took labour. + Go to your rest; at night we'll feast together. + Most welcome home! Exeunt Ambassadors. + Pol. This business is well ended. + My liege, and madam, to expostulate + What majesty should be, what duty is, + Why day is day, night is night, and time is time. + Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time. + Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, + And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, + I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. + Mad call I it; for, to define true madness, + What is't but to be nothing else but mad? + But let that go. + Queen. More matter, with less art. + Pol. Madam, I swear I use no art at all. + That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true 'tis pity; + And pity 'tis 'tis true. A foolish figure! + But farewell it, for I will use no art. + Mad let us grant him then. And now remains + That we find out the cause of this effect- + Or rather say, the cause of this defect, + For this effect defective comes by cause. + Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. + Perpend. + I have a daughter (have while she is mine), + Who in her duty and obedience, mark, + Hath given me this. Now gather, and surmise. + [Reads] the letter. + 'To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified + Ophelia,'- + + That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; 'beautified' is a vile + phrase. + But you shall hear. Thus: + [Reads.] + 'In her excellent white bosom, these, &c.' + Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her? + Pol. Good madam, stay awhile. I will be faithful. [Reads.] + + 'Doubt thou the stars are fire; + Doubt that the sun doth move; + Doubt truth to be a liar; + But never doubt I love. + 'O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to + reckon my groans; but that I love thee best, O most best, believe + it. Adieu. + 'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, + HAMLET.' + + This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me; + And more above, hath his solicitings, + As they fell out by time, by means, and place, + All given to mine ear. + King. But how hath she + Receiv'd his love? + Pol. What do you think of me? + King. As of a man faithful and honourable. + Pol. I would fain prove so. But what might you think, + When I had seen this hot love on the wing + (As I perceiv'd it, I must tell you that, + Before my daughter told me), what might you, + Or my dear Majesty your queen here, think, + If I had play'd the desk or table book, + Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb, + Or look'd upon this love with idle sight? + What might you think? No, I went round to work + And my young mistress thus I did bespeak: + 'Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star. + This must not be.' And then I prescripts gave her, + That she should lock herself from his resort, + Admit no messengers, receive no tokens. + Which done, she took the fruits of my advice, + And he, repulsed, a short tale to make, + Fell into a sadness, then into a fast, + Thence to a watch, thence into a weakness, + Thence to a lightness, and, by this declension, + Into the madness wherein now he raves, + And all we mourn for. + King. Do you think 'tis this? + Queen. it may be, very like. + Pol. Hath there been such a time- I would fain know that- + That I have Positively said ''Tis so,' + When it prov'd otherwise.? + King. Not that I know. + Pol. [points to his head and shoulder] Take this from this, if this + be otherwise. + If circumstances lead me, I will find + Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed + Within the centre. + King. How may we try it further? + Pol. You know sometimes he walks four hours together + Here in the lobby. + Queen. So he does indeed. + Pol. At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him. + Be you and I behind an arras then. + Mark the encounter. If he love her not, + And he not from his reason fall'n thereon + Let me be no assistant for a state, + But keep a farm and carters. + King. We will try it. + + Enter Hamlet, reading on a book. + + Queen. But look where sadly the poor wretch comes reading. + Pol. Away, I do beseech you, both away + I'll board him presently. O, give me leave. + Exeunt King and Queen, [with Attendants]. + How does my good Lord Hamlet? + Ham. Well, God-a-mercy. + Pol. Do you know me, my lord? + Ham. Excellent well. You are a fishmonger. + Pol. Not I, my lord. + Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man. + Pol. Honest, my lord? + Ham. Ay, sir. To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man + pick'd out of ten thousand. + Pol. That's very true, my lord. + Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god + kissing carrion- Have you a daughter? + Pol. I have, my lord. + Ham. Let her not walk i' th' sun. Conception is a blessing, but not + as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to't. + Pol. [aside] How say you by that? Still harping on my daughter. Yet + he knew me not at first. He said I was a fishmonger. He is far + gone, far gone! And truly in my youth I suff'red much extremity + for love- very near this. I'll speak to him again.- What do you + read, my lord? + Ham. Words, words, words. + Pol. What is the matter, my lord? + Ham. Between who? + Pol. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord. + Ham. Slanders, sir; for the satirical rogue says here that old men + have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes + purging thick amber and plum-tree gum; and that they have a + plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which, + sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it + not honesty to have it thus set down; for you yourself, sir, + should be old as I am if, like a crab, you could go backward. + Pol. [aside] Though this be madness, yet there is a method in't.- + Will You walk out of the air, my lord? + Ham. Into my grave? + Pol. Indeed, that is out o' th' air. [Aside] How pregnant sometimes + his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which + reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I + will leave him and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between + him and my daughter.- My honourable lord, I will most humbly take + my leave of you. + Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more + willingly part withal- except my life, except my life, except my + life, + + Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. + + Pol. Fare you well, my lord. + Ham. These tedious old fools! + Pol. You go to seek the Lord Hamlet. There he is. + Ros. [to Polonius] God save you, sir! + Exit [Polonius]. + Guil. My honour'd lord! + Ros. My most dear lord! + Ham. My excellent good friends! How dost thou, Guildenstern? Ah, + Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both? + Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. + Guil. Happy in that we are not over-happy. + On Fortune's cap we are not the very button. + Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe? + Ros. Neither, my lord. + Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her + favours? + Guil. Faith, her privates we. + Ham. In the secret parts of Fortune? O! most true! she is a + strumpet. What news ? + Ros. None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest. + Ham. Then is doomsday near! But your news is not true. Let me + question more in particular. What have you, my good friends, + deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison + hither? + Guil. Prison, my lord? + Ham. Denmark's a prison. + Ros. Then is the world one. + Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and + dungeons, Denmark being one o' th' worst. + Ros. We think not so, my lord. + Ham. Why, then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good + or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison. + Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one. 'Tis too narrow for your + mind. + Ham. O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a + king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. + Guil. Which dreams indeed are ambition; for the very substance of + the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. + Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow. + Ros. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality that + it is but a shadow's shadow. + Ham. Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretch'd + heroes the beggars' shadows. Shall we to th' court? for, by my + fay, I cannot reason. + Both. We'll wait upon you. + Ham. No such matter! I will not sort you with the rest of my + servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most + dreadfully attended. But in the beaten way of friendship, what + make you at Elsinore? + Ros. To visit you, my lord; no other occasion. + Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you; + and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear a halfpenny. Were + you not sent for? Is it your own inclining? Is it a free + visitation? Come, deal justly with me. Come, come! Nay, speak. + Guil. What should we say, my lord? + Ham. Why, anything- but to th' purpose. You were sent for; and + there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties + have not craft enough to colour. I know the good King and Queen + have sent for you. + Ros. To what end, my lord? + Ham. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the rights + of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the + obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a + better proposer could charge you withal, be even and direct with + me, whether you were sent for or no. + Ros. [aside to Guildenstern] What say you? + Ham. [aside] Nay then, I have an eye of you.- If you love me, hold + not off. + Guil. My lord, we were sent for. + Ham. I will tell you why. So shall my anticipation prevent your + discovery, and your secrecy to the King and Queen moult no + feather. I have of late- but wherefore I know not- lost all my + mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so + heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, + seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the + air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical + roof fretted with golden fire- why, it appeareth no other thing + to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a + piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in + faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in + action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the + beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what + is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me- no, nor woman + neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so. + Ros. My lord, there was no such stuff in my thoughts. + Ham. Why did you laugh then, when I said 'Man delights not me'? + Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten + entertainment the players shall receive from you. We coted them + on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service. + Ham. He that plays the king shall be welcome- his Majesty shall + have tribute of me; the adventurous knight shall use his foil and + target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man shall + end his part in peace; the clown shall make those laugh whose + lungs are tickle o' th' sere; and the lady shall say her mind + freely, or the blank verse shall halt fort. What players are + they? + Ros. Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the + tragedians of the city. + Ham. How chances it they travel? Their residence, both in + reputation and profit, was better both ways. + Ros. I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late + innovation. + Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the + city? Are they so follow'd? + Ros. No indeed are they not. + Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty? + Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace; but there is, + sir, an eyrie of children, little eyases, that cry out on the top + of question and are most tyrannically clapp'd fort. These are now + the fashion, and so berattle the common stages (so they call + them) that many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills and + dare scarce come thither. + Ham. What, are they children? Who maintains 'em? How are they + escoted? Will they pursue the quality no longer than they can + sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow + themselves to common players (as it is most like, if their means + are no better), their writers do them wrong to make them exclaim + against their own succession. + Ros. Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation + holds it no sin to tarre them to controversy. There was, for a + while, no money bid for argument unless the poet and the player + went to cuffs in the question. + Ham. Is't possible? + Guil. O, there has been much throwing about of brains. + Ham. Do the boys carry it away? + Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord- Hercules and his load too. + Ham. It is not very strange; for my uncle is King of Denmark, and + those that would make mows at him while my father lived give + twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in + little. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if + philosophy could find it out. + + Flourish for the Players. + + Guil. There are the players. + Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands, come! Th' + appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony. Let me comply + with you in this garb, lest my extent to the players (which I + tell you must show fairly outwards) should more appear like + entertainment than yours. You are welcome. But my uncle-father + and aunt-mother are deceiv'd. + Guil. In what, my dear lord? + Ham. I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I + know a hawk from a handsaw. + + Enter Polonius. + + Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen! + Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern- and you too- at each ear a hearer! + That great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling + clouts. + Ros. Happily he's the second time come to them; for they say an old + man is twice a child. + Ham. I will prophesy he comes to tell me of the players. Mark it.- + You say right, sir; a Monday morning; twas so indeed. + Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you. + Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Roscius was an actor in + Rome- + Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. + Ham. Buzz, buzz! + Pol. Upon my honour- + Ham. Then came each actor on his ass- + Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, + history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, + tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral; scene + individable, or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor + Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are + the only men. + Ham. O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou! + Pol. What treasure had he, my lord? + Ham. Why, + + 'One fair daughter, and no more, + The which he loved passing well.' + + Pol. [aside] Still on my daughter. + Ham. Am I not i' th' right, old Jephthah? + Pol. If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I + love passing well. + Ham. Nay, that follows not. + Pol. What follows then, my lord? + Ham. Why, + + 'As by lot, God wot,' + + and then, you know, + + 'It came to pass, as most like it was.' + + The first row of the pious chanson will show you more; for look + where my abridgment comes. + + Enter four or five Players. + + You are welcome, masters; welcome, all.- I am glad to see thee + well.- Welcome, good friends.- O, my old friend? Why, thy face is + valanc'd since I saw thee last. Com'st' thou to' beard me in + Denmark?- What, my young lady and mistress? By'r Lady, your + ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I saw you last by the + altitude of a chopine. Pray God your voice, like a piece of + uncurrent gold, be not crack'd within the ring.- Masters, you are + all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers, fly at + anything we see. We'll have a speech straight. Come, give us a + taste of your quality. Come, a passionate speech. + 1. Play. What speech, my good lord? + Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted; + or if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleas'd + not the million, 'twas caviary to the general; but it was (as I + receiv'd it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in + the top of mine) an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, + set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said + there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, + nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of + affectation; but call'd it an honest method, as wholesome as + sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in't + I chiefly lov'd. 'Twas AEneas' tale to Dido, and thereabout of it + especially where he speaks of Priam's slaughter. If it live in + your memory, begin at this line- let me see, let me see: + + 'The rugged Pyrrhus, like th' Hyrcanian beast-' + + 'Tis not so; it begins with Pyrrhus: + + 'The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, + Black as his purpose, did the night resemble + When he lay couched in the ominous horse, + Hath now this dread and black complexion smear'd + With heraldry more dismal. Head to foot + Now is be total gules, horridly trick'd + With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, + Bak'd and impasted with the parching streets, + That lend a tyrannous and a damned light + To their lord's murther. Roasted in wrath and fire, + And thus o'ersized with coagulate gore, + With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus + Old grandsire Priam seeks.' + + So, proceed you. + Pol. Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and good + discretion. + + 1. Play. 'Anon he finds him, + Striking too short at Greeks. His antique sword, + Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls, + Repugnant to command. Unequal match'd, + Pyrrhus at Priam drives, in rage strikes wide; + But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword + Th' unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium, + Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top + Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash + Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear. For lo! his sword, + Which was declining on the milky head + Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' th' air to stick. + So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood, + And, like a neutral to his will and matter, + Did nothing. + But, as we often see, against some storm, + A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still, + The bold winds speechless, and the orb below + As hush as death- anon the dreadful thunder + Doth rend the region; so, after Pyrrhus' pause, + Aroused vengeance sets him new awork; + And never did the Cyclops' hammers fall + On Mars's armour, forg'd for proof eterne, + With less remorse than Pyrrhus' bleeding sword + Now falls on Priam. + Out, out, thou strumpet Fortune! All you gods, + In general synod take away her power; + Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, + And bowl the round nave down the hill of heaven, + As low as to the fiends! + + Pol. This is too long. + Ham. It shall to the barber's, with your beard.- Prithee say on. + He's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. Say on; come to + Hecuba. + + 1. Play. 'But who, O who, had seen the mobled queen-' + + Ham. 'The mobled queen'? + Pol. That's good! 'Mobled queen' is good. + + 1. Play. 'Run barefoot up and down, threat'ning the flames + With bisson rheum; a clout upon that head + Where late the diadem stood, and for a robe, + About her lank and all o'erteemed loins, + A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up- + Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd + 'Gainst Fortune's state would treason have pronounc'd. + But if the gods themselves did see her then, + When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport + In Mincing with his sword her husband's limbs, + The instant burst of clamour that she made + (Unless things mortal move them not at all) + Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven + And passion in the gods.' + + Pol. Look, whe'r he has not turn'd his colour, and has tears in's + eyes. Prithee no more! + Ham. 'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.- + Good my lord, will you see the players well bestow'd? Do you + hear? Let them be well us'd; for they are the abstract and brief + chronicles of the time. After your death you were better have a + bad epitaph than their ill report while you live. + Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. + Ham. God's bodykins, man, much better! Use every man after his + desert, and who should scape whipping? Use them after your own + honour and dignity. The less they deserve, the more merit is in + your bounty. Take them in. + Pol. Come, sirs. + Ham. Follow him, friends. We'll hear a play to-morrow. + Exeunt Polonius and Players [except the First]. + Dost thou hear me, old friend? Can you play 'The Murther of + Gonzago'? + 1. Play. Ay, my lord. + Ham. We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a + speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and + insert in't, could you not? + 1. Play. Ay, my lord. + Ham. Very well. Follow that lord- and look you mock him not. + [Exit First Player.] + My good friends, I'll leave you till night. You are welcome to + Elsinore. + Ros. Good my lord! + Ham. Ay, so, God b' wi' ye! + [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern + Now I am alone. + O what a rogue and peasant slave am I! + Is it not monstrous that this player here, + But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, + Could force his soul so to his own conceit + That, from her working, all his visage wann'd, + Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, + A broken voice, and his whole function suiting + With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing! + For Hecuba! + What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, + That he should weep for her? What would he do, + Had he the motive and the cue for passion + That I have? He would drown the stage with tears + And cleave the general ear with horrid speech; + Make mad the guilty and appal the free, + Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed + The very faculties of eyes and ears. + Yet I, + A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak + Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, + And can say nothing! No, not for a king, + Upon whose property and most dear life + A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward? + Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across? + Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face? + Tweaks me by th' nose? gives me the lie i' th' throat + As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this, ha? + 'Swounds, I should take it! for it cannot be + But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall + To make oppression bitter, or ere this + I should have fatted all the region kites + With this slave's offal. Bloody bawdy villain! + Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! + O, vengeance! + Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave, + That I, the son of a dear father murther'd, + Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, + Must (like a whore) unpack my heart with words + And fall a-cursing like a very drab, + A scullion! + Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! Hum, I have heard + That guilty creatures, sitting at a play, + Have by the very cunning of the scene + Been struck so to the soul that presently + They have proclaim'd their malefactions; + For murther, though it have no tongue, will speak + With most miraculous organ, I'll have these Players + Play something like the murther of my father + Before mine uncle. I'll observe his looks; + I'll tent him to the quick. If he but blench, + I know my course. The spirit that I have seen + May be a devil; and the devil hath power + T' assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps + Out of my weakness and my melancholy, + As he is very potent with such spirits, + Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds + More relative than this. The play's the thing + Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King. Exit. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. Scene I. +Elsinore. A room in the Castle. + +Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Lords. + + King. And can you by no drift of circumstance + Get from him why he puts on this confusion, + Grating so harshly all his days of quiet + With turbulent and dangerous lunacy? + Ros. He does confess he feels himself distracted, + But from what cause he will by no means speak. + Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded, + But with a crafty madness keeps aloof + When we would bring him on to some confession + Of his true state. + Queen. Did he receive you well? + Ros. Most like a gentleman. + Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition. + Ros. Niggard of question, but of our demands + Most free in his reply. + Queen. Did you assay him + To any pastime? + Ros. Madam, it so fell out that certain players + We o'erraught on the way. Of these we told him, + And there did seem in him a kind of joy + To hear of it. They are here about the court, + And, as I think, they have already order + This night to play before him. + Pol. 'Tis most true; + And he beseech'd me to entreat your Majesties + To hear and see the matter. + King. With all my heart, and it doth much content me + To hear him so inclin'd. + Good gentlemen, give him a further edge + And drive his purpose on to these delights. + Ros. We shall, my lord. + Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. + King. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too; + For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither, + That he, as 'twere by accident, may here + Affront Ophelia. + Her father and myself (lawful espials) + Will so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, + We may of their encounter frankly judge + And gather by him, as he is behav'd, + If't be th' affliction of his love, or no, + That thus he suffers for. + Queen. I shall obey you; + And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish + That your good beauties be the happy cause + Of Hamlet's wildness. So shall I hope your virtues + Will bring him to his wonted way again, + To both your honours. + Oph. Madam, I wish it may. + [Exit Queen.] + Pol. Ophelia, walk you here.- Gracious, so please you, + We will bestow ourselves.- [To Ophelia] Read on this book, + That show of such an exercise may colour + Your loneliness.- We are oft to blame in this, + 'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visage + And pious action we do sugar o'er + The Devil himself. + King. [aside] O, 'tis too true! + How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience! + The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art, + Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it + Than is my deed to my most painted word. + O heavy burthen! + Pol. I hear him coming. Let's withdraw, my lord. + Exeunt King and Polonius]. + + Enter Hamlet. + + Ham. To be, or not to be- that is the question: + Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer + The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune + Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, + And by opposing end them. To die- to sleep- + No more; and by a sleep to say we end + The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks + That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation + Devoutly to be wish'd. To die- to sleep. + To sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub! + For in that sleep of death what dreams may come + When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, + Must give us pause. There's the respect + That makes calamity of so long life. + For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, + Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, + The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay, + The insolence of office, and the spurns + That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, + When he himself might his quietus make + With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear, + To grunt and sweat under a weary life, + But that the dread of something after death- + The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn + No traveller returns- puzzles the will, + And makes us rather bear those ills we have + Than fly to others that we know not of? + Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, + And thus the native hue of resolution + Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, + And enterprises of great pith and moment + With this regard their currents turn awry + And lose the name of action.- Soft you now! + The fair Ophelia!- Nymph, in thy orisons + Be all my sins rememb'red. + Oph. Good my lord, + How does your honour for this many a day? + Ham. I humbly thank you; well, well, well. + Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours + That I have longed long to re-deliver. + I pray you, now receive them. + Ham. No, not I! + I never gave you aught. + Oph. My honour'd lord, you know right well you did, + And with them words of so sweet breath compos'd + As made the things more rich. Their perfume lost, + Take these again; for to the noble mind + Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. + There, my lord. + Ham. Ha, ha! Are you honest? + Oph. My lord? + Ham. Are you fair? + Oph. What means your lordship? + Ham. That if you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no + discourse to your beauty. + Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty? + Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform + honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can + translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, + but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. + Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. + Ham. You should not have believ'd me; for virtue cannot so + inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I loved you + not. + Oph. I was the more deceived. + Ham. Get thee to a nunnery! Why wouldst thou be a breeder of + sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse + me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me. + I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my + beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give + them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I + do, crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all; + believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your + father? + Oph. At home, my lord. + Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may play the fool + nowhere but in's own house. Farewell. + Oph. O, help him, you sweet heavens! + Ham. If thou dost marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry: + be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape + calumny. Get thee to a nunnery. Go, farewell. Or if thou wilt + needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what + monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. + Farewell. + Oph. O heavenly powers, restore him! + Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath + given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you + amble, and you lisp; you nickname God's creatures and make your + wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I'll no more on't! it hath made + me mad. I say, we will have no moe marriages. Those that are + married already- all but one- shall live; the rest shall keep as + they are. To a nunnery, go. Exit. + Oph. O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! + The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's, eye, tongue, sword, + Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state, + The glass of fashion and the mould of form, + Th' observ'd of all observers- quite, quite down! + And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, + That suck'd the honey of his music vows, + Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, + Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh; + That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth + Blasted with ecstasy. O, woe is me + T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see! + + Enter King and Polonius. + + King. Love? his affections do not that way tend; + Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little, + Was not like madness. There's something in his soul + O'er which his melancholy sits on brood; + And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose + Will be some danger; which for to prevent, + I have in quick determination + Thus set it down: he shall with speed to England + For the demand of our neglected tribute. + Haply the seas, and countries different, + With variable objects, shall expel + This something-settled matter in his heart, + Whereon his brains still beating puts him thus + From fashion of himself. What think you on't? + Pol. It shall do well. But yet do I believe + The origin and commencement of his grief + Sprung from neglected love.- How now, Ophelia? + You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said. + We heard it all.- My lord, do as you please; + But if you hold it fit, after the play + Let his queen mother all alone entreat him + To show his grief. Let her be round with him; + And I'll be plac'd so please you, in the ear + Of all their conference. If she find him not, + To England send him; or confine him where + Your wisdom best shall think. + King. It shall be so. + Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +Elsinore. hall in the Castle. + +Enter Hamlet and three of the Players. + + Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you, + trippingly on the tongue. But if you mouth it, as many of our + players do, I had as live the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do + not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all + gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) + whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a + temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the + soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to + tatters, to very rags, to split the cars of the groundlings, who + (for the most part) are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb + shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipp'd for o'erdoing + Termagant. It out-herods Herod. Pray you avoid it. + Player. I warrant your honour. + Ham. Be not too tame neither; but let your own discretion be your + tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with + this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of + nature: for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing, + whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as + 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show Virtue her own feature, + scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his + form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though + it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious + grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance + o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I + have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly (not to + speak it profanely), that, neither having the accent of + Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so + strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of Nature's + journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated + humanity so abominably. + Player. I hope we have reform'd that indifferently with us, sir. + Ham. O, reform it altogether! And let those that play your clowns + speak no more than is set down for them. For there be of them + that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren + spectators to laugh too, though in the mean time some necessary + question of the play be then to be considered. That's villanous + and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go + make you ready. + Exeunt Players. + + Enter Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. + + How now, my lord? Will the King hear this piece of work? + Pol. And the Queen too, and that presently. + Ham. Bid the players make haste, [Exit Polonius.] Will you two + help to hasten them? + Both. We will, my lord. Exeunt they two. + Ham. What, ho, Horatio! + + Enter Horatio. + + Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service. + Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man + As e'er my conversation cop'd withal. + Hor. O, my dear lord! + Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter; + For what advancement may I hope from thee, + That no revenue hast but thy good spirits + To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd? + No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, + And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee + Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear? + Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice + And could of men distinguish, her election + Hath scald thee for herself. For thou hast been + As one, in suff'ring all, that suffers nothing; + A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards + Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those + Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled + That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger + To sound what stop she please. Give me that man + That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him + In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, + As I do thee. Something too much of this I + There is a play to-night before the King. + One scene of it comes near the circumstance, + Which I have told thee, of my father's death. + I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot, + Even with the very comment of thy soul + Observe my uncle. If his occulted guilt + Do not itself unkennel in one speech, + It is a damned ghost that we have seen, + And my imaginations are as foul + As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note; + For I mine eyes will rivet to his face, + And after we will both our judgments join + In censure of his seeming. + Hor. Well, my lord. + If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, + And scape detecting, I will pay the theft. + + Sound a flourish. [Enter Trumpets and Kettledrums. Danish + march. [Enter King, Queen, Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, + Guildenstern, and other Lords attendant, with the Guard + carrying torches. + + Ham. They are coming to the play. I must be idle. + Get you a place. + King. How fares our cousin Hamlet? + Ham. Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish. I eat the air, + promise-cramm'd. You cannot feed capons so. + King. I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet. These words are not + mine. + Ham. No, nor mine now. [To Polonius] My lord, you play'd once + i' th' university, you say? + Pol. That did I, my lord, and was accounted a good actor. + Ham. What did you enact? + Pol. I did enact Julius Caesar; I was kill'd i' th' Capitol; Brutus + kill'd me. + Ham. It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there. Be + the players ready. + Ros. Ay, my lord. They stay upon your patience. + Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. + Ham. No, good mother. Here's metal more attractive. + Pol. [to the King] O, ho! do you mark that? + Ham. Lady, shall I lie in your lap? + [Sits down at Ophelia's feet.] + Oph. No, my lord. + Ham. I mean, my head upon your lap? + Oph. Ay, my lord. + Ham. Do you think I meant country matters? + Oph. I think nothing, my lord. + Ham. That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs. + Oph. What is, my lord? + Ham. Nothing. + Oph. You are merry, my lord. + Ham. Who, I? + Oph. Ay, my lord. + Ham. O God, your only jig-maker! What should a man do but be merry? + For look you how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died + within 's two hours. + Oph. Nay 'tis twice two months, my lord. + Ham. So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a + suit of sables. O heavens! die two months ago, and not forgotten + yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life + half a year. But, by'r Lady, he must build churches then; or else + shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse, whose + epitaph is 'For O, for O, the hobby-horse is forgot!' + + Hautboys play. The dumb show enters. + + Enter a King and a Queen very lovingly; the Queen embracing + him and he her. She kneels, and makes show of protestation + unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her + neck. He lays him down upon a bank of flowers. She, seeing + him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow, takes off his + crown, kisses it, pours poison in the sleeper's ears, and + leaves him. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes + passionate action. The Poisoner with some three or four Mutes, + comes in again, seem to condole with her. The dead body is + carried away. The Poisoner wooes the Queen with gifts; she + seems harsh and unwilling awhile, but in the end accepts + his love. + Exeunt. + + Oph. What means this, my lord? + Ham. Marry, this is miching malhecho; it means mischief. + Oph. Belike this show imports the argument of the play. + + Enter Prologue. + + Ham. We shall know by this fellow. The players cannot keep counsel; + they'll tell all. + Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant? + Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll show him. Be not you asham'd to + show, he'll not shame to tell you what it means. + Oph. You are naught, you are naught! I'll mark the play. + + Pro. For us, and for our tragedy, + Here stooping to your clemency, + We beg your hearing patiently. [Exit.] + + Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? + Oph. 'Tis brief, my lord. + Ham. As woman's love. + + Enter [two Players as] King and Queen. + + King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round + Neptune's salt wash and Tellus' orbed ground, + And thirty dozed moons with borrowed sheen + About the world have times twelve thirties been, + Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands, + Unite comutual in most sacred bands. + Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon + Make us again count o'er ere love be done! + But woe is me! you are so sick of late, + So far from cheer and from your former state. + That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust, + Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must; + For women's fear and love holds quantity, + In neither aught, or in extremity. + Now what my love is, proof hath made you know; + And as my love is siz'd, my fear is so. + Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear; + Where little fears grow great, great love grows there. + King. Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too; + My operant powers their functions leave to do. + And thou shalt live in this fair world behind, + Honour'd, belov'd, and haply one as kind + For husband shalt thou- + Queen. O, confound the rest! + Such love must needs be treason in my breast. + When second husband let me be accurst! + None wed the second but who killed the first. + + Ham. [aside] Wormwood, wormwood! + + Queen. The instances that second marriage move + Are base respects of thrift, but none of love. + A second time I kill my husband dead + When second husband kisses me in bed. + King. I do believe you think what now you speak; + But what we do determine oft we break. + Purpose is but the slave to memory, + Of violent birth, but poor validity; + Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree, + But fill unshaken when they mellow be. + Most necessary 'tis that we forget + To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt. + What to ourselves in passion we propose, + The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. + The violence of either grief or joy + Their own enactures with themselves destroy. + Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament; + Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. + This world is not for aye, nor 'tis not strange + That even our loves should with our fortunes change; + For 'tis a question left us yet to prove, + Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. + The great man down, you mark his favourite flies, + The poor advanc'd makes friends of enemies; + And hitherto doth love on fortune tend, + For who not needs shall never lack a friend, + And who in want a hollow friend doth try, + Directly seasons him his enemy. + But, orderly to end where I begun, + Our wills and fates do so contrary run + That our devices still are overthrown; + Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own. + So think thou wilt no second husband wed; + But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead. + Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light, + Sport and repose lock from me day and night, + To desperation turn my trust and hope, + An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope, + Each opposite that blanks the face of joy + Meet what I would have well, and it destroy, + Both here and hence pursue me lasting strife, + If, once a widow, ever I be wife! + + Ham. If she should break it now! + + King. 'Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile. + My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile + The tedious day with sleep. + Queen. Sleep rock thy brain, + [He] sleeps. + And never come mischance between us twain! +Exit. + + Ham. Madam, how like you this play? + Queen. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. + Ham. O, but she'll keep her word. + King. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't? + Ham. No, no! They do but jest, poison in jest; no offence i' th' + world. + King. What do you call the play? + Ham. 'The Mousetrap.' Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the + image of a murther done in Vienna. Gonzago is the duke's name; + his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon. 'Tis a knavish piece of + work; but what o' that? Your Majesty, and we that have free + souls, it touches us not. Let the gall'd jade winch; our withers + are unwrung. + + Enter Lucianus. + + This is one Lucianus, nephew to the King. + Oph. You are as good as a chorus, my lord. + Ham. I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see + the puppets dallying. + Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen. + Ham. It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge. + Oph. Still better, and worse. + Ham. So you must take your husbands.- Begin, murtherer. Pox, leave + thy damnable faces, and begin! Come, the croaking raven doth + bellow for revenge. + + Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing; + Confederate season, else no creature seeing; + Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected, + With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, + Thy natural magic and dire property + On wholesome life usurp immediately. + Pours the poison in his ears. + + Ham. He poisons him i' th' garden for's estate. His name's Gonzago. + The story is extant, and written in very choice Italian. You + shall see anon how the murtherer gets the love of Gonzago's wife. + Oph. The King rises. + Ham. What, frighted with false fire? + Queen. How fares my lord? + Pol. Give o'er the play. + King. Give me some light! Away! + All. Lights, lights, lights! + Exeunt all but Hamlet and Horatio. + Ham. Why, let the strucken deer go weep, + The hart ungalled play; + For some must watch, while some must sleep: + Thus runs the world away. + Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers- if the rest of my + fortunes turn Turk with me-with two Provincial roses on my raz'd + shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, sir? + Hor. Half a share. + Ham. A whole one I! + For thou dost know, O Damon dear, + This realm dismantled was + Of Jove himself; and now reigns here + A very, very- pajock. + Hor. You might have rhym'd. + Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghost's word for a thousand + pound! Didst perceive? + Hor. Very well, my lord. + Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning? + Hor. I did very well note him. + Ham. Aha! Come, some music! Come, the recorders! + For if the King like not the comedy, + Why then, belike he likes it not, perdy. + Come, some music! + + Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. + + Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. + Ham. Sir, a whole history. + Guil. The King, sir- + Ham. Ay, sir, what of him? + Guil. Is in his retirement, marvellous distemper'd. + Ham. With drink, sir? + Guil. No, my lord; rather with choler. + Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer to signify this to + the doctor; for me to put him to his purgation would perhaps + plunge him into far more choler. + Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start + not so wildly from my affair. + Ham. I am tame, sir; pronounce. + Guil. The Queen, your mother, in most great affliction of spirit + hath sent me to you. + Ham. You are welcome. + Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. + If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do + your mother's commandment; if not, your pardon and my return + shall be the end of my business. + Ham. Sir, I cannot. + Guil. What, my lord? + Ham. Make you a wholesome answer; my wit's diseas'd. But, sir, such + answer is I can make, you shall command; or rather, as you say, + my mother. Therefore no more, but to the matter! My mother, you + say- + Ros. Then thus she says: your behaviour hath struck her into + amazement and admiration. + Ham. O wonderful son, that can so stonish a mother! But is there no + sequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? Impart. + Ros. She desires to speak with you in her closet ere you go to bed. + Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any + further trade with us? + Ros. My lord, you once did love me. + Ham. And do still, by these pickers and stealers! + Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? You do surely + bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to + your friend. + Ham. Sir, I lack advancement. + Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the King himself + for your succession in Denmark? + Ham. Ay, sir, but 'while the grass grows'- the proverb is something + musty. + + Enter the Players with recorders. + + O, the recorders! Let me see one. To withdraw with you- why do + you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me + into a toil? + Guil. O my lord, if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly. + Ham. I do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe? + Guil. My lord, I cannot. + Ham. I pray you. + Guil. Believe me, I cannot. + Ham. I do beseech you. + Guil. I know, no touch of it, my lord. + Ham. It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your + fingers and thumbs, give it breath with your mouth, and it will + discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops. + Guil. But these cannot I command to any utt'rance of harmony. I + have not the skill. + Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You + would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would + pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my + lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music, + excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it + speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be play'd on than a + pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, + you cannot play upon me. + + Enter Polonius. + + God bless you, sir! + Pol. My lord, the Queen would speak with you, and presently. + Ham. Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel? + Pol. By th' mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed. + Ham. Methinks it is like a weasel. + Pol. It is back'd like a weasel. + Ham. Or like a whale. + Pol. Very like a whale. + Ham. Then will I come to my mother by-and-by.- They fool me to the + top of my bent.- I will come by-and-by. + Pol. I will say so. Exit. + Ham. 'By-and-by' is easily said.- Leave me, friends. + [Exeunt all but Hamlet.] + 'Tis now the very witching time of night, + When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out + Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood + And do such bitter business as the day + Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother! + O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever + The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom. + Let me be cruel, not unnatural; + I will speak daggers to her, but use none. + My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites- + How in my words somever she be shent, + To give them seals never, my soul, consent! Exit. + + + + +Scene III. +A room in the Castle. + +Enter King, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. + + King. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us + To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you; + I your commission will forthwith dispatch, + And he to England shall along with you. + The terms of our estate may not endure + Hazard so near us as doth hourly grow + Out of his lunacies. + Guil. We will ourselves provide. + Most holy and religious fear it is + To keep those many many bodies safe + That live and feed upon your Majesty. + Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound + With all the strength and armour of the mind + To keep itself from noyance; but much more + That spirit upon whose weal depends and rests + The lives of many. The cesse of majesty + Dies not alone, but like a gulf doth draw + What's near it with it. It is a massy wheel, + Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount, + To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things + Are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which when it falls, + Each small annexment, petty consequence, + Attends the boist'rous ruin. Never alone + Did the king sigh, but with a general groan. + King. Arm you, I pray you, to th', speedy voyage; + For we will fetters put upon this fear, + Which now goes too free-footed. + Both. We will haste us. + Exeunt Gentlemen. + + Enter Polonius. + + Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet. + Behind the arras I'll convey myself + To hear the process. I'll warrant she'll tax him home; + And, as you said, and wisely was it said, + 'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, + Since nature makes them partial, should o'erhear + The speech, of vantage. Fare you well, my liege. + I'll call upon you ere you go to bed + And tell you what I know. + King. Thanks, dear my lord. + Exit [Polonius]. + O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; + It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, + A brother's murther! Pray can I not, + Though inclination be as sharp as will. + My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent, + And, like a man to double business bound, + I stand in pause where I shall first begin, + And both neglect. What if this cursed hand + Were thicker than itself with brother's blood, + Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens + To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy + But to confront the visage of offence? + And what's in prayer but this twofold force, + To be forestalled ere we come to fall, + Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up; + My fault is past. But, O, what form of prayer + Can serve my turn? 'Forgive me my foul murther'? + That cannot be; since I am still possess'd + Of those effects for which I did the murther- + My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. + May one be pardon'd and retain th' offence? + In the corrupted currents of this world + Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice, + And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself + Buys out the law; but 'tis not so above. + There is no shuffling; there the action lies + In his true nature, and we ourselves compell'd, + Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, + To give in evidence. What then? What rests? + Try what repentance can. What can it not? + Yet what can it when one cannot repent? + O wretched state! O bosom black as death! + O limed soul, that, struggling to be free, + Art more engag'd! Help, angels! Make assay. + Bow, stubborn knees; and heart with strings of steel, + Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe! + All may be well. He kneels. + + Enter Hamlet. + + Ham. Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; + And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven, + And so am I reveng'd. That would be scann'd. + A villain kills my father; and for that, + I, his sole son, do this same villain send + To heaven. + Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge! + He took my father grossly, full of bread, + With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May; + And how his audit stands, who knows save heaven? + But in our circumstance and course of thought, + 'Tis heavy with him; and am I then reveng'd, + To take him in the purging of his soul, + When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? + No. + Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent. + When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage; + Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed; + At gaming, swearing, or about some act + That has no relish of salvation in't- + Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven, + And that his soul may be as damn'd and black + As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays. + This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. Exit. + King. [rises] My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. + Words without thoughts never to heaven go. Exit. + + + + +Scene IV. +The Queen's closet. + +Enter Queen and Polonius. + + Pol. He will come straight. Look you lay home to him. + Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with, + And that your Grace hath screen'd and stood between + Much heat and him. I'll silence me even here. + Pray you be round with him. + Ham. (within) Mother, mother, mother! + Queen. I'll warrant you; fear me not. Withdraw; I hear him coming. + [Polonius hides behind the arras.] + + Enter Hamlet. + + Ham. Now, mother, what's the matter? + Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. + Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended. + Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. + Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. + Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet? + Ham. What's the matter now? + Queen. Have you forgot me? + Ham. No, by the rood, not so! + You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife, + And (would it were not so!) you are my mother. + Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak. + Ham. Come, come, and sit you down. You shall not budge I + You go not till I set you up a glass + Where you may see the inmost part of you. + Queen. What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murther me? + Help, help, ho! + Pol. [behind] What, ho! help, help, help! + Ham. [draws] How now? a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead! + [Makes a pass through the arras and] kills Polonius. + Pol. [behind] O, I am slain! + Queen. O me, what hast thou done? + Ham. Nay, I know not. Is it the King? + Queen. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! + Ham. A bloody deed- almost as bad, good mother, + As kill a king, and marry with his brother. + Queen. As kill a king? + Ham. Ay, lady, it was my word. + [Lifts up the arras and sees Polonius.] + Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! + I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune. + Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger. + Leave wringing of your hinds. Peace! sit you down + And let me wring your heart; for so I shall + If it be made of penetrable stuff; + If damned custom have not braz'd it so + That it is proof and bulwark against sense. + Queen. What have I done that thou dar'st wag thy tongue + In noise so rude against me? + Ham. Such an act + That blurs the grace and blush of modesty; + Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rose + From the fair forehead of an innocent love, + And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows + As false as dicers' oaths. O, such a deed + As from the body of contraction plucks + The very soul, and sweet religion makes + A rhapsody of words! Heaven's face doth glow; + Yea, this solidity and compound mass, + With tristful visage, as against the doom, + Is thought-sick at the act. + Queen. Ay me, what act, + That roars so loud and thunders in the index? + Ham. Look here upon th's picture, and on this, + The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. + See what a grace was seated on this brow; + Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself; + An eye like Mars, to threaten and command; + A station like the herald Mercury + New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill: + A combination and a form indeed + Where every god did seem to set his seal + To give the world assurance of a man. + This was your husband. Look you now what follows. + Here is your husband, like a mildew'd ear + Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? + Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, + And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes + You cannot call it love; for at your age + The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble, + And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment + Would step from this to this? Sense sure you have, + Else could you not have motion; but sure that sense + Is apoplex'd; for madness would not err, + Nor sense to ecstacy was ne'er so thrall'd + But it reserv'd some quantity of choice + To serve in such a difference. What devil was't + That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind? + Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, + Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, + Or but a sickly part of one true sense + Could not so mope. + O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, + If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones, + To flaming youth let virtue be as wax + And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame + When the compulsive ardour gives the charge, + Since frost itself as actively doth burn, + And reason panders will. + Queen. O Hamlet, speak no more! + Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul, + And there I see such black and grained spots + As will not leave their tinct. + Ham. Nay, but to live + In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, + Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love + Over the nasty sty! + Queen. O, speak to me no more! + These words like daggers enter in mine ears. + No more, sweet Hamlet! + Ham. A murtherer and a villain! + A slave that is not twentieth part the tithe + Of your precedent lord; a vice of kings; + A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, + That from a shelf the precious diadem stole + And put it in his pocket! + Queen. No more! + + Enter the Ghost in his nightgown. + + Ham. A king of shreds and patches!- + Save me and hover o'er me with your wings, + You heavenly guards! What would your gracious figure? + Queen. Alas, he's mad! + Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, + That, laps'd in time and passion, lets go by + Th' important acting of your dread command? + O, say! + Ghost. Do not forget. This visitation + Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. + But look, amazement on thy mother sits. + O, step between her and her fighting soul + Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. + Speak to her, Hamlet. + Ham. How is it with you, lady? + Queen. Alas, how is't with you, + That you do bend your eye on vacancy, + And with th' encorporal air do hold discourse? + Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep; + And, as the sleeping soldiers in th' alarm, + Your bedded hairs, like life in excrements, + Start up and stand an end. O gentle son, + Upon the beat and flame of thy distemper + Sprinkle cool patience! Whereon do you look? + Ham. On him, on him! Look you how pale he glares! + His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, + Would make them capable.- Do not look upon me, + Lest with this piteous action you convert + My stern effects. Then what I have to do + Will want true colour- tears perchance for blood. + Queen. To whom do you speak this? + Ham. Do you see nothing there? + Queen. Nothing at all; yet all that is I see. + Ham. Nor did you nothing hear? + Queen. No, nothing but ourselves. + Ham. Why, look you there! Look how it steals away! + My father, in his habit as he liv'd! + Look where he goes even now out at the portal! + Exit Ghost. + Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain. + This bodiless creation ecstasy + Is very cunning in. + Ham. Ecstasy? + My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time + And makes as healthful music. It is not madness + That I have utt'red. Bring me to the test, + And I the matter will reword; which madness + Would gambol from. Mother, for love of grace, + Lay not that flattering unction to your soul + That not your trespass but my madness speaks. + It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, + Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, + Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven; + Repent what's past; avoid what is to come; + And do not spread the compost on the weeds + To make them ranker. Forgive me this my virtue; + For in the fatness of these pursy times + Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg- + Yea, curb and woo for leave to do him good. + Queen. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. + Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it, + And live the purer with the other half, + Good night- but go not to my uncle's bed. + Assume a virtue, if you have it not. + That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat + Of habits evil, is angel yet in this, + That to the use of actions fair and good + He likewise gives a frock or livery, + That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night, + And that shall lend a kind of easiness + To the next abstinence; the next more easy; + For use almost can change the stamp of nature, + And either [master] the devil, or throw him out + With wondrous potency. Once more, good night; + And when you are desirous to be blest, + I'll blessing beg of you.- For this same lord, + I do repent; but heaven hath pleas'd it so, + To punish me with this, and this with me, + That I must be their scourge and minister. + I will bestow him, and will answer well + The death I gave him. So again, good night. + I must be cruel, only to be kind; + Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. + One word more, good lady. + Queen. What shall I do? + Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: + Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed; + Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse; + And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses, + Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, + Make you to ravel all this matter out, + That I essentially am not in madness, + But mad in craft. 'Twere good you let him know; + For who that's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, + Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib + Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so? + No, in despite of sense and secrecy, + Unpeg the basket on the house's top, + Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape, + To try conclusions, in the basket creep + And break your own neck down. + Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath, + And breath of life, I have no life to breathe + What thou hast said to me. + Ham. I must to England; you know that? + Queen. Alack, + I had forgot! 'Tis so concluded on. + Ham. There's letters seal'd; and my two schoolfellows, + Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd, + They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way + And marshal me to knavery. Let it work; + For 'tis the sport to have the enginer + Hoist with his own petar; and 't shall go hard + But I will delve one yard below their mines + And blow them at the moon. O, 'tis most sweet + When in one line two crafts directly meet. + This man shall set me packing. + I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room.- + Mother, good night.- Indeed, this counsellor + Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, + Who was in life a foolish peating knave. + Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you. + Good night, mother. + [Exit the Queen. Then] Exit Hamlet, tugging in + Polonius. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. Scene I. +Elsinore. A room in the Castle. + +Enter King and Queen, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. + + King. There's matter in these sighs. These profound heaves + You must translate; 'tis fit we understand them. + Where is your son? + Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while. + [Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.] + Ah, mine own lord, what have I seen to-night! + King. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? + Queen. Mad as the sea and wind when both contend + Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit + Behind the arras hearing something stir, + Whips out his rapier, cries 'A rat, a rat!' + And in this brainish apprehension kills + The unseen good old man. + King. O heavy deed! + It had been so with us, had we been there. + His liberty is full of threats to all- + To you yourself, to us, to every one. + Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answer'd? + It will be laid to us, whose providence + Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt + This mad young man. But so much was our love + We would not understand what was most fit, + But, like the owner of a foul disease, + To keep it from divulging, let it feed + Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone? + Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd; + O'er whom his very madness, like some ore + Among a mineral of metals base, + Shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done. + King. O Gertrude, come away! + The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch + But we will ship him hence; and this vile deed + We must with all our majesty and skill + Both countenance and excuse. Ho, Guildenstern! + + Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. + + Friends both, go join you with some further aid. + Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, + And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him. + Go seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body + Into the chapel. I pray you haste in this. + Exeunt [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]. + Come, Gertrude, we'll call up our wisest friends + And let them know both what we mean to do + And what's untimely done. [So haply slander-] + Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter, + As level as the cannon to his blank, + Transports his poisoned shot- may miss our name + And hit the woundless air.- O, come away! + My soul is full of discord and dismay. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +Elsinore. A passage in the Castle. + +Enter Hamlet. + + Ham. Safely stow'd. + Gentlemen. (within) Hamlet! Lord Hamlet! + Ham. But soft! What noise? Who calls on Hamlet? O, here they come. + + Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. + + Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body? + Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin. + Ros. Tell us where 'tis, that we may take it thence + And bear it to the chapel. + Ham. Do not believe it. + Ros. Believe what? + Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be + demanded of a sponge, what replication should be made by the son + of a king? + Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? + Ham. Ay, sir; that soaks up the King's countenance, his rewards, + his authorities. But such officers do the King best service in + the end. He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; + first mouth'd, to be last Swallowed. When he needs what you have + glean'd, it is but squeezing you and, sponge, you shall be dry + again. + Ros. I understand you not, my lord. + Ham. I am glad of it. A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear. + Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is and go with us to + the King. + Ham. The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body. + The King is a thing- + Guil. A thing, my lord? + Ham. Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene III. +Elsinore. A room in the Castle. + +Enter King. + + King. I have sent to seek him and to find the body. + How dangerous is it that this man goes loose! + Yet must not we put the strong law on him. + He's lov'd of the distracted multitude, + Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes; + And where 'tis so, th' offender's scourge is weigh'd, + But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, + This sudden sending him away must seem + Deliberate pause. Diseases desperate grown + By desperate appliance are reliev'd, + Or not at all. + + Enter Rosencrantz. + + How now O What hath befall'n? + Ros. Where the dead body is bestow'd, my lord, + We cannot get from him. + King. But where is he? + Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure. + King. Bring him before us. + Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! Bring in my lord. + + Enter Hamlet and Guildenstern [with Attendants]. + + King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? + Ham. At supper. + King. At supper? Where? + Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain + convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your + only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and + we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar + is but variable service- two dishes, but to one table. That's the + end. + King. Alas, alas! + Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat + of the fish that hath fed of that worm. + King. What dost thou mean by this? + Ham. Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through + the guts of a beggar. + King. Where is Polonius? + Ham. In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not + there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But indeed, if you + find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up + the stair, into the lobby. + King. Go seek him there. [To Attendants.] + Ham. He will stay till you come. + [Exeunt Attendants.] + King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety,- + Which we do tender as we dearly grieve + For that which thou hast done,- must send thee hence + With fiery quickness. Therefore prepare thyself. + The bark is ready and the wind at help, + Th' associates tend, and everything is bent + For England. + Ham. For England? + King. Ay, Hamlet. + Ham. Good. + King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. + Ham. I see a cherub that sees them. But come, for England! + Farewell, dear mother. + King. Thy loving father, Hamlet. + Ham. My mother! Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is + one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England! +Exit. + King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard. + Delay it not; I'll have him hence to-night. + Away! for everything is seal'd and done + That else leans on th' affair. Pray you make haste. + Exeunt Rosencrantz and Guildenstern] + And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught,- + As my great power thereof may give thee sense, + Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red + After the Danish sword, and thy free awe + Pays homage to us,- thou mayst not coldly set + Our sovereign process, which imports at full, + By letters congruing to that effect, + The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England; + For like the hectic in my blood he rages, + And thou must cure me. Till I know 'tis done, + Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun. Exit. + + + + +<> + + + +Scene IV. +Near Elsinore. + +Enter Fortinbras with his Army over the stage. + + For. Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish king. + Tell him that by his license Fortinbras + Craves the conveyance of a promis'd march + Over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous. + if that his Majesty would aught with us, + We shall express our duty in his eye; + And let him know so. + Capt. I will do't, my lord. + For. Go softly on. + Exeunt [all but the Captain]. + + Enter Hamlet, Rosencrantz, [Guildenstern,] and others. + + Ham. Good sir, whose powers are these? + Capt. They are of Norway, sir. + Ham. How purpos'd, sir, I pray you? + Capt. Against some part of Poland. + Ham. Who commands them, sir? + Capt. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. + Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, + Or for some frontier? + Capt. Truly to speak, and with no addition, + We go to gain a little patch of ground + That hath in it no profit but the name. + To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; + Nor will it yield to Norway or the Pole + A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. + Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. + Capt. Yes, it is already garrison'd. + Ham. Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducats + Will not debate the question of this straw. + This is th' imposthume of much wealth and peace, + That inward breaks, and shows no cause without + Why the man dies.- I humbly thank you, sir. + Capt. God b' wi' you, sir. [Exit.] + Ros. Will't please you go, my lord? + Ham. I'll be with you straight. Go a little before. + [Exeunt all but Hamlet.] + How all occasions do inform against me + And spur my dull revenge! What is a man, + If his chief good and market of his time + Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. + Sure he that made us with such large discourse, + Looking before and after, gave us not + That capability and godlike reason + To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be + Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple + Of thinking too precisely on th' event,- + A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom + And ever three parts coward,- I do not know + Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do,' + Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means + To do't. Examples gross as earth exhort me. + Witness this army of such mass and charge, + Led by a delicate and tender prince, + Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff'd, + Makes mouths at the invisible event, + Exposing what is mortal and unsure + To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, + Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great + Is not to stir without great argument, + But greatly to find quarrel in a straw + When honour's at the stake. How stand I then, + That have a father klll'd, a mother stain'd, + Excitements of my reason and my blood, + And let all sleep, while to my shame I see + The imminent death of twenty thousand men + That for a fantasy and trick of fame + Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot + Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause, + Which is not tomb enough and continent + To hide the slain? O, from this time forth, + My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! Exit. + + + + +<> + + + +Scene V. +Elsinore. A room in the Castle. + +Enter Horatio, Queen, and a Gentleman. + + Queen. I will not speak with her. + Gent. She is importunate, indeed distract. + Her mood will needs be pitied. + Queen. What would she have? + Gent. She speaks much of her father; says she hears + There's tricks i' th' world, and hems, and beats her heart; + Spurns enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt, + That carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing, + Yet the unshaped use of it doth move + The hearers to collection; they aim at it, + And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts; + Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yield them, + Indeed would make one think there might be thought, + Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily. + Hor. 'Twere good she were spoken with; for she may strew + Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds. + Queen. Let her come in. + [Exit Gentleman.] + [Aside] To my sick soul (as sin's true nature is) + Each toy seems Prologue to some great amiss. + So full of artless jealousy is guilt + It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. + + Enter Ophelia distracted. + + Oph. Where is the beauteous Majesty of Denmark? + Queen. How now, Ophelia? + Oph. (sings) + How should I your true-love know + From another one? + By his cockle bat and' staff + And his sandal shoon. + + Queen. Alas, sweet lady, what imports this song? + Oph. Say you? Nay, pray You mark. + + (Sings) He is dead and gone, lady, + He is dead and gone; + At his head a grass-green turf, + At his heels a stone. + + O, ho! + Queen. Nay, but Ophelia- + Oph. Pray you mark. + + (Sings) White his shroud as the mountain snow- + + Enter King. + + Queen. Alas, look here, my lord! + Oph. (Sings) + Larded all with sweet flowers; + Which bewept to the grave did not go + With true-love showers. + + King. How do you, pretty lady? + Oph. Well, God dild you! They say the owl was a baker's daughter. + Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at + your table! + King. Conceit upon her father. + Oph. Pray let's have no words of this; but when they ask, you what + it means, say you this: + + (Sings) To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, + All in the morning bedtime, + And I a maid at your window, + To be your Valentine. + + Then up he rose and donn'd his clo'es + And dupp'd the chamber door, + Let in the maid, that out a maid + Never departed more. + + King. Pretty Ophelia! + Oph. Indeed, la, without an oath, I'll make an end on't! + + [Sings] By Gis and by Saint Charity, + Alack, and fie for shame! + Young men will do't if they come to't + By Cock, they are to blame. + + Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me, + You promis'd me to wed.' + + He answers: + + 'So would I 'a' done, by yonder sun, + An thou hadst not come to my bed.' + + King. How long hath she been thus? + Oph. I hope all will be well. We must be patient; but I cannot + choose but weep to think they would lay him i' th' cold ground. + My brother shall know of it; and so I thank you for your good + counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies. Good night, sweet + ladies. Good night, good night. Exit + King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. + [Exit Horatio.] + O, this is the poison of deep grief; it springs + All from her father's death. O Gertrude, Gertrude, + When sorrows come, they come not single spies. + But in battalions! First, her father slain; + Next, Your son gone, and he most violent author + Of his own just remove; the people muddied, + Thick and and unwholesome in their thoughts and whispers + For good Polonius' death, and we have done but greenly + In hugger-mugger to inter him; Poor Ophelia + Divided from herself and her fair-judgment, + Without the which we are Pictures or mere beasts; + Last, and as such containing as all these, + Her brother is in secret come from France; + And wants not buzzers to infect his ear + Feeds on his wonder, keep, himself in clouds, + With pestilent speeches of his father's death, + Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd, + Will nothing stick Our person to arraign + In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this, + Like to a murd'ring piece, in many places + Give, me superfluous death. A noise within. + Queen. Alack, what noise is this? + King. Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door. + + Enter a Messenger. + + What is the matter? + Mess. Save Yourself, my lord: + The ocean, overpeering of his list, + Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste + Than Young Laertes, in a riotous head, + O'erbears Your offices. The rabble call him lord; + And, as the world were now but to begin, + Antiquity forgot, custom not known, + The ratifiers and props of every word, + They cry 'Choose we! Laertes shall be king!' + Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds, + 'Laertes shall be king! Laertes king!' + A noise within. + Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! + O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs! + King. The doors are broke. + + Enter Laertes with others. + + Laer. Where is this king?- Sirs, staid you all without. + All. No, let's come in! + Laer. I pray you give me leave. + All. We will, we will! + Laer. I thank you. Keep the door. [Exeunt his Followers.] + O thou vile king, + Give me my father! + Queen. Calmly, good Laertes. + Laer. That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard; + Cries cuckold to my father; brands the harlot + Even here between the chaste unsmirched brows + Of my true mother. + King. What is the cause, Laertes, + That thy rebellion looks so giantlike? + Let him go, Gertrude. Do not fear our person. + There's such divinity doth hedge a king + That treason can but peep to what it would, + Acts little of his will. Tell me, Laertes, + Why thou art thus incens'd. Let him go, Gertrude. + Speak, man. + Laer. Where is my father? + King. Dead. + Queen. But not by him! + King. Let him demand his fill. + Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with: + To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil + Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! + I dare damnation. To this point I stand, + That both the world, I give to negligence, + Let come what comes; only I'll be reveng'd + Most throughly for my father. + King. Who shall stay you? + Laer. My will, not all the world! + And for my means, I'll husband them so well + They shall go far with little. + King. Good Laertes, + If you desire to know the certainty + Of your dear father's death, is't writ in Your revenge + That swoopstake you will draw both friend and foe, + Winner and loser? + Laer. None but his enemies. + King. Will you know them then? + Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms + And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican, + Repast them with my blood. + King. Why, now You speak + Like a good child and a true gentleman. + That I am guiltless of your father's death, + And am most sensibly in grief for it, + It shall as level to your judgment pierce + As day does to your eye. + A noise within: 'Let her come in.' + Laer. How now? What noise is that? + + Enter Ophelia. + + O heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt + Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye! + By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight + Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May! + Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia! + O heavens! is't possible a young maid's wits + Should be as mortal as an old man's life? + Nature is fine in love, and where 'tis fine, + It sends some precious instance of itself + After the thing it loves. + + Oph. (sings) + They bore him barefac'd on the bier + (Hey non nony, nony, hey nony) + And in his grave rain'd many a tear. + + Fare you well, my dove! + Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, + It could not move thus. + Oph. You must sing 'A-down a-down, and you call him a-down-a.' O, + how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his + master's daughter. + Laer. This nothing's more than matter. + Oph. There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray you, love, + remember. And there is pansies, that's for thoughts. + Laer. A document in madness! Thoughts and remembrance fitted. + Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines. There's rue for you, + and here's some for me. We may call it herb of grace o' Sundays. + O, you must wear your rue with a difference! There's a daisy. I + would give you some violets, but they wither'd all when my father + died. They say he made a good end. + + [Sings] For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy. + + Laer. Thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, + She turns to favour and to prettiness. + Oph. (sings) + And will he not come again? + And will he not come again? + No, no, he is dead; + Go to thy deathbed; + He never will come again. + + His beard was as white as snow, + All flaxen was his poll. + He is gone, he is gone, + And we cast away moan. + God 'a'mercy on his soul! + + And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God b' wi', you. +Exit. + Laer. Do you see this, O God? + King. Laertes, I must commune with your grief, + Or you deny me right. Go but apart, + Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, + And they shall hear and judge 'twixt you and me. + If by direct or by collateral hand + They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give, + Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours, + To you in satisfaction; but if not, + Be you content to lend your patience to us, + And we shall jointly labour with your soul + To give it due content. + Laer. Let this be so. + His means of death, his obscure funeral- + No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o'er his bones, + No noble rite nor formal ostentation,- + Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth, + That I must call't in question. + King. So you shall; + And where th' offence is let the great axe fall. + I pray you go with me. + Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +Scene VI. +Elsinore. Another room in the Castle. + +Enter Horatio with an Attendant. + + Hor. What are they that would speak with me? + Servant. Seafaring men, sir. They say they have letters for you. + Hor. Let them come in. + [Exit Attendant.] + I do not know from what part of the world + I should be greeted, if not from Lord Hamlet. + + Enter Sailors. + + Sailor. God bless you, sir. + Hor. Let him bless thee too. + Sailor. 'A shall, sir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, + sir,- it comes from th' ambassador that was bound for England- if + your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is. + Hor. (reads the letter) 'Horatio, when thou shalt have overlook'd + this, give these fellows some means to the King. They have + letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of + very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding ourselves too + slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour, and in the grapple I + boarded them. On the instant they got clear of our ship; so I + alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves + of mercy; but they knew what they did: I am to do a good turn for + them. Let the King have the letters I have sent, and repair thou + to me with as much speed as thou wouldst fly death. I have words + to speak in thine ear will make thee dumb; yet are they much too + light for the bore of the matter. These good fellows will bring + thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course + for England. Of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell. + 'He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET.' + + Come, I will give you way for these your letters, + And do't the speedier that you may direct me + To him from whom you brought them. Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +Scene VII. +Elsinore. Another room in the Castle. + +Enter King and Laertes. + + King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, + And You must put me in your heart for friend, + Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, + That he which hath your noble father slain + Pursued my life. + Laer. It well appears. But tell me + Why you proceeded not against these feats + So crimeful and so capital in nature, + As by your safety, wisdom, all things else, + You mainly were stirr'd up. + King. O, for two special reasons, + Which may to you, perhaps, seein much unsinew'd, + But yet to me they are strong. The Queen his mother + Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,- + My virtue or my plague, be it either which,- + She's so conjunctive to my life and soul + That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, + I could not but by her. The other motive + Why to a public count I might not go + Is the great love the general gender bear him, + Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, + Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, + Convert his gives to graces; so that my arrows, + Too slightly timber'd for so loud a wind, + Would have reverted to my bow again, + And not where I had aim'd them. + Laer. And so have I a noble father lost; + A sister driven into desp'rate terms, + Whose worth, if praises may go back again, + Stood challenger on mount of all the age + For her perfections. But my revenge will come. + King. Break not your sleeps for that. You must not think + That we are made of stuff so flat and dull + That we can let our beard be shook with danger, + And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more. + I lov'd your father, and we love ourself, + And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine- + + Enter a Messenger with letters. + + How now? What news? + Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet: + This to your Majesty; this to the Queen. + King. From Hamlet? Who brought them? + Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not. + They were given me by Claudio; he receiv'd them + Of him that brought them. + King. Laertes, you shall hear them. + Leave us. + Exit Messenger. + [Reads]'High and Mighty,-You shall know I am set naked on your + kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes; + when I shall (first asking your pardon thereunto) recount the + occasion of my sudden and more strange return. + 'HAMLET.' + What should this mean? Are all the rest come back? + Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? + Laer. Know you the hand? + King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. 'Naked!' + And in a postscript here, he says 'alone.' + Can you advise me? + Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come! + It warms the very sickness in my heart + That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, + 'Thus didest thou.' + King. If it be so, Laertes + (As how should it be so? how otherwise?), + Will you be rul'd by me? + Laer. Ay my lord, + So you will not o'errule me to a peace. + King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd + As checking at his voyage, and that he means + No more to undertake it, I will work him + To exploit now ripe in my device, + Under the which he shall not choose but fall; + And for his death no wind + But even his mother shall uncharge the practice + And call it accident. + Laer. My lord, I will be rul'd; + The rather, if you could devise it so + That I might be the organ. + King. It falls right. + You have been talk'd of since your travel much, + And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality + Wherein they say you shine, Your sun of parts + Did not together pluck such envy from him + As did that one; and that, in my regard, + Of the unworthiest siege. + Laer. What part is that, my lord? + King. A very riband in the cap of youth- + Yet needfull too; for youth no less becomes + The light and careless livery that it wears + Thin settled age his sables and his weeds, + Importing health and graveness. Two months since + Here was a gentleman of Normandy. + I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French, + And they can well on horseback; but this gallant + Had witchcraft in't. He grew unto his seat, + And to such wondrous doing brought his horse + As had he been incorps'd and demi-natur'd + With the brave beast. So far he topp'd my thought + That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks, + Come short of what he did. + Laer. A Norman was't? + King. A Norman. + Laer. Upon my life, Lamound. + King. The very same. + Laer. I know him well. He is the broach indeed + And gem of all the nation. + King. He made confession of you; + And gave you such a masterly report + For art and exercise in your defence, + And for your rapier most especially, + That he cried out 'twould be a sight indeed + If one could match you. The scrimers of their nation + He swore had neither motion, guard, nor eye, + If you oppos'd them. Sir, this report of his + Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy + That he could nothing do but wish and beg + Your sudden coming o'er to play with you. + Now, out of this- + Laer. What out of this, my lord? + King. Laertes, was your father dear to you? + Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, + A face without a heart,' + Laer. Why ask you this? + King. Not that I think you did not love your father; + But that I know love is begun by time, + And that I see, in passages of proof, + Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. + There lives within the very flame of love + A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it; + And nothing is at a like goodness still; + For goodness, growing to a plurisy, + Dies in his own too-much. That we would do, + We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes, + And hath abatements and delays as many + As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; + And then this 'should' is like a spendthrift sigh, + That hurts by easing. But to the quick o' th' ulcer! + Hamlet comes back. What would you undertake + To show yourself your father's son in deed + More than in words? + Laer. To cut his throat i' th' church! + King. No place indeed should murther sanctuarize; + Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, + Will you do this? Keep close within your chamber. + Will return'd shall know you are come home. + We'll put on those shall praise your excellence + And set a double varnish on the fame + The Frenchman gave you; bring you in fine together + And wager on your heads. He, being remiss, + Most generous, and free from all contriving, + Will not peruse the foils; so that with ease, + Or with a little shuffling, you may choose + A sword unbated, and, in a pass of practice, + Requite him for your father. + Laer. I will do't! + And for that purpose I'll anoint my sword. + I bought an unction of a mountebank, + So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, + Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, + Collected from all simples that have virtue + Under the moon, can save the thing from death + This is but scratch'd withal. I'll touch my point + With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly, + It may be death. + King. Let's further think of this, + Weigh what convenience both of time and means + May fit us to our shape. If this should fall, + And that our drift look through our bad performance. + 'Twere better not assay'd. Therefore this project + Should have a back or second, that might hold + If this did blast in proof. Soft! let me see. + We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings- + I ha't! + When in your motion you are hot and dry- + As make your bouts more violent to that end- + And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepar'd him + A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping, + If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck, + Our purpose may hold there.- But stay, what noise, + + Enter Queen. + + How now, sweet queen? + Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, + So fast they follow. Your sister's drown'd, Laertes. + Laer. Drown'd! O, where? + Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook, + That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. + There with fantastic garlands did she come + Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, + That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, + But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them. + There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds + Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke, + When down her weedy trophies and herself + Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide + And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up; + Which time she chaunted snatches of old tunes, + As one incapable of her own distress, + Or like a creature native and indued + Unto that element; but long it could not be + Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, + Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay + To muddy death. + Laer. Alas, then she is drown'd? + Queen. Drown'd, drown'd. + Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, + And therefore I forbid my tears; but yet + It is our trick; nature her custom holds, + Let shame say what it will. When these are gone, + The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord. + I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze + But that this folly douts it. Exit. + King. Let's follow, Gertrude. + How much I had to do to calm his rage I + Now fear I this will give it start again; + Therefore let's follow. + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. Scene I. +Elsinore. A churchyard. + +Enter two Clowns, [with spades and pickaxes]. + + Clown. Is she to be buried in Christian burial when she wilfully + seeks her own salvation? + Other. I tell thee she is; therefore make her grave straight. + The crowner hath sate on her, and finds it Christian burial. + Clown. How can that be, unless she drown'd herself in her own + defence? + Other. Why, 'tis found so. + Clown. It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies + the point: if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act; and an + act hath three branches-it is to act, to do, and to perform; + argal, she drown'd herself wittingly. + Other. Nay, but hear you, Goodman Delver! + Clown. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good. Here stands the + man; good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is, + will he nill he, he goes- mark you that. But if the water come to + him and drown him, he drowns not himself. Argal, he that is not + guilty of his own death shortens not his own life. + Other. But is this law? + Clown. Ay, marry, is't- crowner's quest law. + Other. Will you ha' the truth an't? If this had not been a + gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian burial. + Clown. Why, there thou say'st! And the more pity that great folk + should have count'nance in this world to drown or hang themselves + more than their even-Christen. Come, my spade! There is no + ancient gentlemen but gard'ners, ditchers, and grave-makers. They + hold up Adam's profession. + Other. Was he a gentleman? + Clown. 'A was the first that ever bore arms. + Other. Why, he had none. + Clown. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the Scripture? + The Scripture says Adam digg'd. Could he dig without arms? I'll + put another question to thee. If thou answerest me not to the + purpose, confess thyself- + Other. Go to! + Clown. What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the + shipwright, or the carpenter? + Other. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand + tenants. + Clown. I like thy wit well, in good faith. The gallows does well. + But how does it well? It does well to those that do ill. Now, + thou dost ill to say the gallows is built stronger than the + church. Argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come! + Other. Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a + carpenter? + Clown. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke. + Other. Marry, now I can tell! + Clown. To't. + Other. Mass, I cannot tell. + + Enter Hamlet and Horatio afar off. + + Clown. Cudgel thy brains no more about it, for your dull ass will + not mend his pace with beating; and when you are ask'd this + question next, say 'a grave-maker.' The houses he makes lasts + till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan; fetch me a stoup of + liquor. + [Exit Second Clown.] + + [Clown digs and] sings. + + In youth when I did love, did love, + Methought it was very sweet; + To contract- O- the time for- a- my behove, + O, methought there- a- was nothing- a- meet. + + Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business, that he sings at + grave-making? + Hor. Custom hath made it in him a Property of easiness. + Ham. 'Tis e'en so. The hand of little employment hath the daintier + sense. + Clown. (sings) + But age with his stealing steps + Hath clawed me in his clutch, + And hath shipped me intil the land, + As if I had never been such. + [Throws up a skull.] + + Ham. That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. How the + knave jowls it to the ground,as if 'twere Cain's jawbone, that + did the first murther! This might be the pate of a Politician, + which this ass now o'erreaches; one that would circumvent God, + might it not? + Hor. It might, my lord. + Ham. Or of a courtier, which could say 'Good morrow, sweet lord! + How dost thou, good lord?' This might be my Lord Such-a-one, that + prais'd my Lord Such-a-one's horse when he meant to beg it- might + it not? + Hor. Ay, my lord. + Ham. Why, e'en so! and now my Lady Worm's, chapless, and knock'd + about the mazzard with a sexton's spade. Here's fine revolution, + and we had the trick to see't. Did these bones cost no more the + breeding but to play at loggets with 'em? Mine ache to think + on't. + Clown. (Sings) + A pickaxe and a spade, a spade, + For and a shrouding sheet; + O, a Pit of clay for to be made + For such a guest is meet. + Throws up [another skull]. + + Ham. There's another. Why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? + Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, + and his tricks? Why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock + him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him + of his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be in's time a + great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his + fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. Is this the fine of + his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine + pate full of fine dirt? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of + his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth + of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will + scarcely lie in this box; and must th' inheritor himself have no + more, ha? + Hor. Not a jot more, my lord. + Ham. Is not parchment made of sheepskins? + Hor. Ay, my lord, And of calveskins too. + Ham. They are sheep and calves which seek out assurance in that. I + will speak to this fellow. Whose grave's this, sirrah? + Clown. Mine, sir. + + [Sings] O, a pit of clay for to be made + For such a guest is meet. + + Ham. I think it be thine indeed, for thou liest in't. + Clown. You lie out on't, sir, and therefore 'tis not yours. + For my part, I do not lie in't, yet it is mine. + Ham. Thou dost lie in't, to be in't and say it is thine. 'Tis for + the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest. + Clown. 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away again from me to you. + Ham. What man dost thou dig it for? + Clown. For no man, sir. + Ham. What woman then? + Clown. For none neither. + Ham. Who is to be buried in't? + Clown. One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead. + Ham. How absolute the knave is! We must speak by the card, or + equivocation will undo us. By the Lord, Horatio, this three years + I have taken note of it, the age is grown so picked that the toe + of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier he galls + his kibe.- How long hast thou been a grave-maker? + Clown. Of all the days i' th' year, I came to't that day that our + last king Hamlet overcame Fortinbras. + Ham. How long is that since? + Clown. Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that. It was the + very day that young Hamlet was born- he that is mad, and sent + into England. + Ham. Ay, marry, why was be sent into England? + Clown. Why, because 'a was mad. 'A shall recover his wits there; + or, if 'a do not, 'tis no great matter there. + Ham. Why? + Clown. 'Twill not he seen in him there. There the men are as mad as + he. + Ham. How came he mad? + Clown. Very strangely, they say. + Ham. How strangely? + Clown. Faith, e'en with losing his wits. + Ham. Upon what ground? + Clown. Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton here, man and boy + thirty years. + Ham. How long will a man lie i' th' earth ere he rot? + Clown. Faith, if 'a be not rotten before 'a die (as we have many + pocky corses now-a-days that will scarce hold the laying in, I + will last you some eight year or nine year. A tanner will last + you nine year. + Ham. Why he more than another? + Clown. Why, sir, his hide is so tann'd with his trade that 'a will + keep out water a great while; and your water is a sore decayer of + your whoreson dead body. Here's a skull now. This skull hath lien + you i' th' earth three-and-twenty years. + Ham. Whose was it? + Clown. A whoreson, mad fellow's it was. Whose do you think it was? + Ham. Nay, I know not. + Clown. A pestilence on him for a mad rogue! 'A pour'd a flagon of + Rhenish on my head once. This same skull, sir, was Yorick's + skull, the King's jester. + Ham. This? + Clown. E'en that. + Ham. Let me see. [Takes the skull.] Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, + Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He + hath borne me on his back a thousand tunes. And now how abhorred + in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those + lips that I have kiss'd I know not how oft. Where be your gibes + now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment that + were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your + own grinning? Quite chap- fall'n? Now get you to my lady's + chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this + favour she must come. Make her laugh at that. Prithee, Horatio, + tell me one thing. + Hor. What's that, my lord? + Ham. Dost thou think Alexander look'd o' this fashion i' th' earth? + Hor. E'en so. + Ham. And smelt so? Pah! + [Puts down the skull.] + Hor. E'en so, my lord. + Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not + imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till he find it + stopping a bunghole? + Hor. 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so. + Ham. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty + enough, and likelihood to lead it; as thus: Alexander died, + Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is + earth; of earth we make loam; and why of that loam (whereto he + was converted) might they not stop a beer barrel? + Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, + Might stop a hole to keep the wind away. + O, that that earth which kept the world in awe + Should patch a wall t' expel the winter's flaw! + But soft! but soft! aside! Here comes the King- + + Enter [priests with] a coffin [in funeral procession], King, + Queen, Laertes, with Lords attendant.] + + The Queen, the courtiers. Who is this they follow? + And with such maimed rites? This doth betoken + The corse they follow did with desp'rate hand + Fordo it own life. 'Twas of some estate. + Couch we awhile, and mark. + [Retires with Horatio.] + Laer. What ceremony else? + Ham. That is Laertes, + A very noble youth. Mark. + Laer. What ceremony else? + Priest. Her obsequies have been as far enlarg'd + As we have warranty. Her death was doubtful; + And, but that great command o'ersways the order, + She should in ground unsanctified have lodg'd + Till the last trumpet. For charitable prayers, + Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her. + Yet here she is allow'd her virgin crants, + Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home + Of bell and burial. + Laer. Must there no more be done? + Priest. No more be done. + We should profane the service of the dead + To sing a requiem and such rest to her + As to peace-parted souls. + Laer. Lay her i' th' earth; + And from her fair and unpolluted flesh + May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest, + A minist'ring angel shall my sister be + When thou liest howling. + Ham. What, the fair Ophelia? + Queen. Sweets to the sweet! Farewell. + [Scatters flowers.] + I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; + I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, + And not have strew'd thy grave. + Laer. O, treble woe + Fall ten times treble on that cursed head + Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense + Depriv'd thee of! Hold off the earth awhile, + Till I have caught her once more in mine arms. + Leaps in the grave. + Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead + Till of this flat a mountain you have made + T' o'ertop old Pelion or the skyish head + Of blue Olympus. + Ham. [comes forward] What is he whose grief + Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow + Conjures the wand'ring stars, and makes them stand + Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, + Hamlet the Dane. [Leaps in after Laertes. + Laer. The devil take thy soul! + [Grapples with him]. + Ham. Thou pray'st not well. + I prithee take thy fingers from my throat; + For, though I am not splenitive and rash, + Yet have I in me something dangerous, + Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand! + King. Pluck thein asunder. + Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet! + All. Gentlemen! + Hor. Good my lord, be quiet. + [The Attendants part them, and they come out of the + grave.] + Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme + Until my eyelids will no longer wag. + Queen. O my son, what theme? + Ham. I lov'd Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers + Could not (with all their quantity of love) + Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her? + King. O, he is mad, Laertes. + Queen. For love of God, forbear him! + Ham. 'Swounds, show me what thou't do. + Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself? + Woo't drink up esill? eat a crocodile? + I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine? + To outface me with leaping in her grave? + Be buried quick with her, and so will I. + And if thou prate of mountains, let them throw + Millions of acres on us, till our ground, + Singeing his pate against the burning zone, + Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth, + I'll rant as well as thou. + Queen. This is mere madness; + And thus a while the fit will work on him. + Anon, as patient as the female dove + When that her golden couplets are disclos'd, + His silence will sit drooping. + Ham. Hear you, sir! + What is the reason that you use me thus? + I lov'd you ever. But it is no matter. + Let Hercules himself do what he may, + The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. +Exit. + King. I pray thee, good Horatio, wait upon him. + Exit Horatio. + [To Laertes] Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech. + We'll put the matter to the present push.- + Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son.- + This grave shall have a living monument. + An hour of quiet shortly shall we see; + Till then in patience our proceeding be. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +Elsinore. A hall in the Castle. + +Enter Hamlet and Horatio. + + Ham. So much for this, sir; now shall you see the other. + You do remember all the circumstance? + Hor. Remember it, my lord! + Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting + That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay + Worse than the mutinies in the bilboes. Rashly- + And prais'd be rashness for it; let us know, + Our indiscretion sometime serves us well + When our deep plots do pall; and that should learn us + There's a divinity that shapes our ends, + Rough-hew them how we will- + Hor. That is most certain. + Ham. Up from my cabin, + My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark + Grop'd I to find out them; had my desire, + Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew + To mine own room again; making so bold + (My fears forgetting manners) to unseal + Their grand commission; where I found, Horatio + (O royal knavery!), an exact command, + Larded with many several sorts of reasons, + Importing Denmark's health, and England's too, + With, hoo! such bugs and goblins in my life- + That, on the supervise, no leisure bated, + No, not to stay the finding of the axe, + My head should be struck off. + Hor. Is't possible? + Ham. Here's the commission; read it at more leisure. + But wilt thou bear me how I did proceed? + Hor. I beseech you. + Ham. Being thus benetted round with villanies, + Or I could make a prologue to my brains, + They had begun the play. I sat me down; + Devis'd a new commission; wrote it fair. + I once did hold it, as our statists do, + A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much + How to forget that learning; but, sir, now + It did me yeoman's service. Wilt thou know + Th' effect of what I wrote? + Hor. Ay, good my lord. + Ham. An earnest conjuration from the King, + As England was his faithful tributary, + As love between them like the palm might flourish, + As peace should still her wheaten garland wear + And stand a comma 'tween their amities, + And many such-like as's of great charge, + That, on the view and knowing of these contents, + Without debatement further, more or less, + He should the bearers put to sudden death, + Not shriving time allow'd. + Hor. How was this seal'd? + Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant. + I had my father's signet in my purse, + which was the model of that Danish seal; + Folded the writ up in the form of th' other, + Subscrib'd it, gave't th' impression, plac'd it safely, + The changeling never known. Now, the next day + Was our sea-fight; and what to this was sequent + Thou know'st already. + Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't. + Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employment! + They are not near my conscience; their defeat + Does by their own insinuation grow. + 'Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes + Between the pass and fell incensed points + Of mighty opposites. + Hor. Why, what a king is this! + Ham. Does it not, thinks't thee, stand me now upon- + He that hath kill'd my king, and whor'd my mother; + Popp'd in between th' election and my hopes; + Thrown out his angle for my Proper life, + And with such coz'nage- is't not perfect conscience + To quit him with this arm? And is't not to be damn'd + To let this canker of our nature come + In further evil? + Hor. It must be shortly known to him from England + What is the issue of the business there. + Ham. It will be short; the interim is mine, + And a man's life is no more than to say 'one.' + But I am very sorry, good Horatio, + That to Laertes I forgot myself, + For by the image of my cause I see + The portraiture of his. I'll court his favours. + But sure the bravery of his grief did put me + Into a tow'ring passion. + Hor. Peace! Who comes here? + + Enter young Osric, a courtier. + + Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark. + Ham. I humbly thank you, sir. [Aside to Horatio] Dost know this + waterfly? + Hor. [aside to Hamlet] No, my good lord. + Ham. [aside to Horatio] Thy state is the more gracious; for 'tis a + vice to know him. He hath much land, and fertile. Let a beast be + lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king's mess. 'Tis + a chough; but, as I say, spacious in the possession of dirt. + Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart + a thing to you from his Majesty. + Ham. I will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Put your + bonnet to his right use. 'Tis for the head. + Osr. I thank your lordship, it is very hot. + Ham. No, believe me, 'tis very cold; the wind is northerly. + Osr. It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed. + Ham. But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my complexion. + Osr. Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry, as 'twere- I cannot + tell how. But, my lord, his Majesty bade me signify to you that + he has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter- + Ham. I beseech you remember. + [Hamlet moves him to put on his hat.] + Osr. Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is + newly come to court Laertes; believe me, an absolute gentleman, + full of most excellent differences, of very soft society and + great showing. Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card + or calendar of gentry; for you shall find in him the continent of + what part a gentleman would see. + Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you; though, I + know, to divide him inventorially would dozy th' arithmetic of + memory, and yet but yaw neither in respect of his quick sail. + But, in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great + article, and his infusion of such dearth and rareness as, to make + true diction of him, his semblable is his mirror, and who else + would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more. + Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. + Ham. The concernancy, sir? Why do we wrap the gentleman in our more + rawer breath + Osr. Sir? + Hor [aside to Hamlet] Is't not possible to understand in another + tongue? You will do't, sir, really. + Ham. What imports the nomination of this gentleman + Osr. Of Laertes? + Hor. [aside] His purse is empty already. All's golden words are + spent. + Ham. Of him, sir. + Osr. I know you are not ignorant- + Ham. I would you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not + much approve me. Well, sir? + Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is- + Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in + excellence; but to know a man well were to know himself. + Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him + by them, in his meed he's unfellowed. + Ham. What's his weapon? + Osr. Rapier and dagger. + Ham. That's two of his weapons- but well. + Osr. The King, sir, hath wager'd with him six Barbary horses; + against the which he has impon'd, as I take it, six French + rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and + so. Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, + very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of + very liberal conceit. + Ham. What call you the carriages? + Hor. [aside to Hamlet] I knew you must be edified by the margent + ere you had done. + Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. + Ham. The phrase would be more germane to the matter if we could + carry cannon by our sides. I would it might be hangers till then. + But on! Six Barbary horses against six French swords, their + assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages: that's the French + bet against the Danish. Why is this all impon'd, as you call it? + Osr. The King, sir, hath laid that, in a dozen passes between + yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath + laid on twelve for nine, and it would come to immediate trial + if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer. + Ham. How if I answer no? + Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your person in trial. + Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall. If it please his Majesty, + it is the breathing time of day with me. Let the foils be + brought, the gentleman willing, and the King hold his purpose, + I will win for him if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my + shame and the odd hits. + Osr. Shall I redeliver you e'en so? + Ham. To this effect, sir, after what flourish your nature will. + Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. + Ham. Yours, yours. [Exit Osric.] He does well to commend it + himself; there are no tongues else for's turn. + Hor. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head. + Ham. He did comply with his dug before he suck'd it. Thus has he, + and many more of the same bevy that I know the drossy age dotes + on, only got the tune of the time and outward habit of encounter- + a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and + through the most fann'd and winnowed opinions; and do but blow + them to their trial-the bubbles are out, + + Enter a Lord. + + Lord. My lord, his Majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who + brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall. He sends to + know if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will + take longer time. + Ham. I am constant to my purposes; they follow the King's pleasure. + If his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now or whensoever, provided + I be so able as now. + Lord. The King and Queen and all are coming down. + Ham. In happy time. + Lord. The Queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to + Laertes before you fall to play. + Ham. She well instructs me. + [Exit Lord.] + Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. + Ham. I do not think so. Since he went into France I have been in + continual practice. I shall win at the odds. But thou wouldst not + think how ill all's here about my heart. But it is no matter. + Hor. Nay, good my lord - + Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gaingiving as + would perhaps trouble a woman. + Hor. If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their + repair hither and say you are not fit. + Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there's a special providence in + the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come', if it be + not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: + the readiness is all. Since no man knows aught of what he leaves, + what is't to leave betimes? Let be. + + Enter King, Queen, Laertes, Osric, and Lords, with other + Attendants with foils and gauntlets. + A table and flagons of wine on it. + + King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. + [The King puts Laertes' hand into Hamlet's.] + Ham. Give me your pardon, sir. I have done you wrong; + But pardon't, as you are a gentleman. + This presence knows, + And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd + With sore distraction. What I have done + That might your nature, honour, and exception + Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. + Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet. + If Hamlet from himself be taken away, + And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes, + Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. + Who does it, then? His madness. If't be so, + Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd; + His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy. + Sir, in this audience, + Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil + Free me so far in your most generous thoughts + That I have shot my arrow o'er the house + And hurt my brother. + Laer. I am satisfied in nature, + Whose motive in this case should stir me most + To my revenge. But in my terms of honour + I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement + Till by some elder masters of known honour + I have a voice and precedent of peace + To keep my name ungor'd. But till that time + I do receive your offer'd love like love, + And will not wrong it. + Ham. I embrace it freely, + And will this brother's wager frankly play. + Give us the foils. Come on. + Laer. Come, one for me. + Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes. In mine ignorance + Your skill shall, like a star i' th' darkest night, + Stick fiery off indeed. + Laer. You mock me, sir. + Ham. No, by this bad. + King. Give them the foils, young Osric. Cousin Hamlet, + You know the wager? + Ham. Very well, my lord. + Your Grace has laid the odds o' th' weaker side. + King. I do not fear it, I have seen you both; + But since he is better'd, we have therefore odds. + Laer. This is too heavy; let me see another. + Ham. This likes me well. These foils have all a length? + Prepare to play. + Osr. Ay, my good lord. + King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table. + If Hamlet give the first or second hit, + Or quit in answer of the third exchange, + Let all the battlements their ordnance fire; + The King shall drink to Hamlet's better breath, + And in the cup an union shall he throw + Richer than that which four successive kings + In Denmark's crown have worn. Give me the cups; + And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, + The trumpet to the cannoneer without, + The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth, + 'Now the King drinks to Hamlet.' Come, begin. + And you the judges, bear a wary eye. + Ham. Come on, sir. + Laer. Come, my lord. They play. + Ham. One. + Laer. No. + Ham. Judgment! + Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. + Laer. Well, again! + King. Stay, give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine; + Here's to thy health. + [Drum; trumpets sound; a piece goes off [within]. + Give him the cup. + Ham. I'll play this bout first; set it by awhile. + Come. (They play.) Another hit. What say you? + Laer. A touch, a touch; I do confess't. + King. Our son shall win. + Queen. He's fat, and scant of breath. + Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows. + The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. + Ham. Good madam! + King. Gertrude, do not drink. + Queen. I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me. Drinks. + King. [aside] It is the poison'd cup; it is too late. + Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by-and-by. + Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face. + Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now. + King. I do not think't. + Laer. [aside] And yet it is almost against my conscience. + Ham. Come for the third, Laertes! You but dally. + pray You Pass with your best violence; + I am afeard You make a wanton of me. + Laer. Say you so? Come on. Play. + Osr. Nothing neither way. + Laer. Have at you now! + [Laertes wounds Hamlet; then] in scuffling, they + change rapiers, [and Hamlet wounds Laertes]. + King. Part them! They are incens'd. + Ham. Nay come! again! The Queen falls. + Osr. Look to the Queen there, ho! + Hor. They bleed on both sides. How is it, my lord? + Osr. How is't, Laertes? + Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric. + I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery. + Ham. How does the Queen? + King. She sounds to see them bleed. + Queen. No, no! the drink, the drink! O my dear Hamlet! + The drink, the drink! I am poison'd. [Dies.] + Ham. O villany! Ho! let the door be lock'd. + Treachery! Seek it out. + [Laertes falls.] + Laer. It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain; + No medicine in the world can do thee good. + In thee there is not half an hour of life. + The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, + Unbated and envenom'd. The foul practice + Hath turn'd itself on me. Lo, here I lie, + Never to rise again. Thy mother's poison'd. + I can no more. The King, the King's to blame. + Ham. The point envenom'd too? + Then, venom, to thy work. Hurts the King. + All. Treason! treason! + King. O, yet defend me, friends! I am but hurt. + Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned Dane, + Drink off this potion! Is thy union here? + Follow my mother. King dies. + Laer. He is justly serv'd. + It is a poison temper'd by himself. + Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. + Mine and my father's death come not upon thee, + Nor thine on me! Dies. + Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. + I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu! + You that look pale and tremble at this chance, + That are but mutes or audience to this act, + Had I but time (as this fell sergeant, Death, + Is strict in his arrest) O, I could tell you- + But let it be. Horatio, I am dead; + Thou liv'st; report me and my cause aright + To the unsatisfied. + Hor. Never believe it. + I am more an antique Roman than a Dane. + Here's yet some liquor left. + Ham. As th'art a man, + Give me the cup. Let go! By heaven, I'll ha't. + O good Horatio, what a wounded name + (Things standing thus unknown) shall live behind me! + If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, + Absent thee from felicity awhile, + And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, + To tell my story. [March afar off, and shot within.] + What warlike noise is this? + Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, + To the ambassadors of England gives + This warlike volley. + Ham. O, I die, Horatio! + The potent poison quite o'ercrows my spirit. + I cannot live to hear the news from England, + But I do prophesy th' election lights + On Fortinbras. He has my dying voice. + So tell him, with th' occurrents, more and less, + Which have solicited- the rest is silence. Dies. + Hor. Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, + And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! + [March within.] + Why does the drum come hither? + + Enter Fortinbras and English Ambassadors, with Drum, + Colours, and Attendants. + + Fort. Where is this sight? + Hor. What is it you will see? + If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. + Fort. This quarry cries on havoc. O proud Death, + What feast is toward in thine eternal cell + That thou so many princes at a shot + So bloodily hast struck. + Ambassador. The sight is dismal; + And our affairs from England come too late. + The ears are senseless that should give us bearing + To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd + That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. + Where should We have our thanks? + Hor. Not from his mouth, + Had it th' ability of life to thank you. + He never gave commandment for their death. + But since, so jump upon this bloody question, + You from the Polack wars, and you from England, + Are here arriv'd, give order that these bodies + High on a stage be placed to the view; + And let me speak to the yet unknowing world + How these things came about. So shall You hear + Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts; + Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters; + Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause; + And, in this upshot, purposes mistook + Fall'n on th' inventors' heads. All this can I + Truly deliver. + Fort. Let us haste to hear it, + And call the noblest to the audience. + For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune. + I have some rights of memory in this kingdom + Which now, to claim my vantage doth invite me. + Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, + And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more. + But let this same be presently perform'd, + Even while men's minds are wild, lest more mischance + On plots and errors happen. + Fort. Let four captains + Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage; + For he was likely, had he been put on, + To have prov'd most royally; and for his passage + The soldiers' music and the rites of war + Speak loudly for him. + Take up the bodies. Such a sight as this + Becomes the field but here shows much amiss. + Go, bid the soldiers shoot. + Exeunt marching; after the which a peal of ordnance + are shot off. + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1598 + +THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH + + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + King Henry the Fourth. + Henry, Prince of Wales, son to the King. + Prince John of Lancaster, son to the King. + Earl of Westmoreland. + Sir Walter Blunt. + Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester. + Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. + Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, his son. + Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. + Richard Scroop, Archbishop of York. + Archibald, Earl of Douglas. + Owen Glendower. + Sir Richard Vernon. + Sir John Falstaff. + Sir Michael, a friend to the Archbishop of York. + Poins. + Gadshill + Peto. + Bardolph. + + Lady Percy, wife to Hotspur, and sister to Mortimer. + Lady Mortimer, daughter to Glendower, and wife to Mortimer. + Mistress Quickly, hostess of the Boar's Head in Eastcheap. + + Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, two + Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants. + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE.--England and Wales. + + +ACT I. Scene I. +London. The Palace. + +Enter the King, Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of Westmoreland, +[Sir Walter Blunt,] with others. + + King. So shaken as we are, so wan with care, + Find we a time for frighted peace to pant + And breathe short-winded accents of new broils + To be commenc'd in stronds afar remote. + No more the thirsty entrance of this soil + Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood. + No more shall trenching war channel her fields, + Nor Bruise her flow'rets with the armed hoofs + Of hostile paces. Those opposed eyes + Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, + All of one nature, of one substance bred, + Did lately meet in the intestine shock + And furious close of civil butchery, + Shall now in mutual well-beseeming ranks + March all one way and be no more oppos'd + Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies. + The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife, + No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends, + As far as to the sepulchre of Christ- + Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross + We are impressed and engag'd to fight- + Forthwith a power of English shall we levy, + Whose arms were moulded in their mother's womb + To chase these pagans in those holy fields + Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet + Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd + For our advantage on the bitter cross. + But this our purpose now is twelvemonth old, + And bootless 'tis to tell you we will go. + Therefore we meet not now. Then let me hear + Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland, + What yesternight our Council did decree + In forwarding this dear expedience. + West. My liege, this haste was hot in question + And many limits of the charge set down + But yesternight; when all athwart there came + A post from Wales, loaden with heavy news; + Whose worst was that the noble Mortimer, + Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight + Against the irregular and wild Glendower, + Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken, + A thousand of his people butchered; + Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse, + Such beastly shameless transformation, + By those Welshwomen done as may not be + Without much shame retold or spoken of. + King. It seems then that the tidings of this broil + Brake off our business for the Holy Land. + West. This, match'd with other, did, my gracious lord; + For more uneven and unwelcome news + Came from the North, and thus it did import: + On Holy-rood Day the gallant Hotspur there, + Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald, + That ever-valiant and approved Scot, + At Holmedon met, + Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour; + As by discharge of their artillery + And shape of likelihood the news was told; + For he that brought them, in the very heat + And pride of their contention did take horse, + Uncertain of the issue any way. + King. Here is a dear, a true-industrious friend, + Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse, + Stain'd with the variation of each soil + Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours, + And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news. + The Earl of Douglas is discomfited; + Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights, + Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see + On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur took + Mordake Earl of Fife and eldest son + To beaten Douglas, and the Earl of Athol, + Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith. + And is not this an honourable spoil? + A gallant prize? Ha, cousin, is it not? + West. In faith, + It is a conquest for a prince to boast of. + King. Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin + In envy that my Lord Northumberland + Should be the father to so blest a son- + A son who is the theme of honour's tongue, + Amongst a grove the very straightest plant; + Who is sweet Fortune's minion and her pride; + Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him, + See riot and dishonour stain the brow + Of my young Harry. O that it could be prov'd + That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd + In cradle clothes our children where they lay, + And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet! + Then would I have his Harry, and he mine. + But let him from my thoughts. What think you, coz, + Of this young Percy's pride? The prisoners + Which he in this adventure hath surpris'd + To his own use he keeps, and sends me word + I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife. + West. This is his uncle's teaching, this Worcester, + Malevolent to you In all aspects, + Which makes him prune himself and bristle up + The crest of youth against your dignity. + King. But I have sent for him to answer this; + And for this cause awhile we must neglect + Our holy purpose to Jerusalem. + Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we + Will hold at Windsor. So inform the lords; + But come yourself with speed to us again; + For more is to be said and to be done + Than out of anger can be uttered. + West. I will my liege. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +London. An apartment of the Prince's. + +Enter Prince of Wales and Sir John Falstaff. + + Fal. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad? + Prince. Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old sack, and + unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after + noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou + wouldest truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time + of the day, Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, + and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping + houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in + flame-coloured taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be so + superfluous to demand the time of the day. + Fal. Indeed you come near me now, Hal; for we that take purses go + by the moon And the seven stars, and not by Phoebus, he, that + wand'ring knight so fair. And I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art + king, as, God save thy Grace-Majesty I should say, for grace thou + wilt have none- + Prince. What, none? + Fal. No, by my troth; not so much as will serve to be prologue to + an egg and butter. + Prince. Well, how then? Come, roundly, roundly. + Fal. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that + are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's + beauty. Let us be Diana's Foresters, Gentlemen of the Shade, + Minions of the Moon; and let men say we be men of good + government, being governed as the sea is, by our noble and chaste + mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal. + Prince. Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of + us that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being + governed, as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof now: a purse + of gold most resolutely snatch'd on Monday night and most + dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing 'Lay by,' + and spent with crying 'Bring in'; now ill as low an ebb as the + foot of the ladder, and by-and-by in as high a flow as the ridge + of the gallows. + Fal. By the Lord, thou say'st true, lad- and is not my hostess of + the tavern a most sweet wench? + Prince. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle- and is not + a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance? + Fal. How now, how now, mad wag? What, in thy quips and thy + quiddities? What a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin? + Prince. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern? + Fal. Well, thou hast call'd her to a reckoning many a time and oft. + Prince. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part? + Fal. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there. + Prince. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch; and + where it would not, I have used my credit. + Fal. Yea, and so us'd it that, were it not here apparent that thou + art heir apparent- But I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be + gallows standing in England when thou art king? and resolution + thus fubb'd as it is with the rusty curb of old father antic the + law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief. + Prince. No; thou shalt. + Fal. Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge. + Prince. Thou judgest false already. I mean, thou shalt have the + hanging of the thieves and so become a rare hangman. + Fal. Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my humour as + well as waiting in the court, I can tell you. + Prince. For obtaining of suits? + Fal. Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman hath no lean + wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy as a gib-cat or a lugg'd + bear. + Prince. Or an old lion, or a lover's lute. + Fal. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe. + Prince. What sayest thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor + Ditch? + Fal. Thou hast the most unsavoury similes, and art indeed the most + comparative, rascalliest, sweet young prince. But, Hal, I prithee + trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God thou and I knew + where a commodity of good names were to be bought. An old lord of + the Council rated me the other day in the street about you, sir, + but I mark'd him not; and yet he talked very wisely, but I + regarded him not; and yet he talk'd wisely, and in the street + too. + Prince. Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and + no man regards it. + Fal. O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeed able to + corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal- God + forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and + now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of + the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over! + By the Lord, an I do not, I am a villain! I'll be damn'd for + never a king's son in Christendom. + Prince. Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack? + Fal. Zounds, where thou wilt, lad! I'll make one. An I do not, call + me villain and baffle me. + Prince. I see a good amendment of life in thee- from praying to + purse-taking. + Fal. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal. 'Tis no sin for a man to + labour in his vocation. + + Enter Poins. + + Poins! Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match. O, if men + were to be saved by merit, what hole in hell were hot enough for + him? This is the most omnipotent villain that ever cried 'Stand!' + to a true man. + Prince. Good morrow, Ned. + Poins. Good morrow, sweet Hal. What says Monsieur Remorse? What + says Sir John Sack and Sugar? Jack, how agrees the devil and thee + about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good Friday last for a + cup of Madeira and a cold capon's leg? + Prince. Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have his + bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs. He will give + the devil his due. + Poins. Then art thou damn'd for keeping thy word with the devil. + Prince. Else he had been damn'd for cozening the devil. + Poins. But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock + early, at Gadshill! There are pilgrims gong to Canterbury with + rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses. I + have vizards for you all; you have horses for yourselves. + Gadshill lies to-night in Rochester. I have bespoke supper + to-morrow night in Eastcheap. We may do it as secure as sleep. If + you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns; if you will + not, tarry at home and be hang'd! + Fal. Hear ye, Yedward: if I tarry at home and go not, I'll hang you + for going. + Poins. You will, chops? + Fal. Hal, wilt thou make one? + Prince. Who, I rob? I a thief? Not I, by my faith. + Fal. There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee, + nor thou cam'st not of the blood royal if thou darest not stand + for ten shillings. + Prince. Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap. + Fal. Why, that's well said. + Prince. Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home. + Fal. By the Lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou art king. + Prince. I care not. + Poins. Sir John, I prithee, leave the Prince and me alone. I will + lay him down such reasons for this adventure that he shall go. + Fal. Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion and him the ears + of profiting, that what thou speakest may move and what he hears + may be believed, that the true prince may (for recreation sake) + prove a false thief; for the poor abuses of the time want + countenance. Farewell; you shall find me in Eastcheap. + Prince. Farewell, thou latter spring! farewell, All-hallown summer! + Exit Falstaff. + Poins. Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us to-morrow. I + have a jest to execute that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff, + Bardolph, Peto, and Gadshill shall rob those men that we have + already waylaid; yourself and I will not be there; and when they + have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head off + from my shoulders. + Prince. How shall we part with them in setting forth? + Poins. Why, we will set forth before or after them and appoint them + a place of meeting, wherein it is at our pleasure to fail; and + then will they adventure upon the exploit themselves; which they + shall have no sooner achieved, but we'll set upon them. + Prince. Yea, but 'tis like that they will know us by our horses, by + our habits, and by every other appointment, to be ourselves. + Poins. Tut! our horses they shall not see- I'll tie them in the + wood; our wizards we will change after we leave them; and, + sirrah, I have cases of buckram for the nonce, to immask our + noted outward garments. + Prince. Yea, but I doubt they will be too hard for us. + Poins. Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred + cowards as ever turn'd back; and for the third, if he fight + longer than he sees reason, I'll forswear arms. The virtue of + this jest will lie the incomprehensible lies that this same fat + rogue will tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least, + he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he + endured; and in the reproof of this lies the jest. + Prince. Well, I'll go with thee. Provide us all things necessary + and meet me to-night in Eastcheap. There I'll sup. Farewell. + Poins. Farewell, my lord. Exit. + Prince. I know you all, and will awhile uphold + The unyok'd humour of your idleness. + Yet herein will I imitate the sun, + Who doth permit the base contagious clouds + To smother up his beauty from the world, + That, when he please again to lie himself, + Being wanted, he may be more wond'red at + By breaking through the foul and ugly mists + Of vapours that did seem to strangle him. + If all the year were playing holidays, + To sport would be as tedious as to work; + But when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come, + And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents. + So, when this loose behaviour I throw off + And pay the debt I never promised, + By how much better than my word I am, + By so much shall I falsify men's hopes; + And, like bright metal on a sullen ground, + My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault, + Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes + Than that which hath no foil to set it off. + I'll so offend to make offence a skill, + Redeeming time when men think least I will. Exit. + + + + +Scene III. +London. The Palace. + +Enter the King, Northumberland, Worcester, Hotspur, Sir Walter Blunt, +with others. + + King. My blood hath been too cold and temperate, + Unapt to stir at these indignities, + And you have found me, for accordingly + You tread upon my patience; but be sure + I will from henceforth rather be myself, + Mighty and to be fear'd, than my condition, + Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down, + And therefore lost that title of respect + Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud. + Wor. Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves + The scourge of greatness to be us'd on it- + And that same greatness too which our own hands + Have holp to make so portly. + North. My lord- + King. Worcester, get thee gone; for I do see + Danger and disobedience in thine eye. + O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory, + And majesty might never yet endure + The moody frontier of a servant brow. + Tou have good leave to leave us. When we need + 'Your use and counsel, we shall send for you. + Exit Worcester. + You were about to speak. + North. Yea, my good lord. + Those prisoners in your Highness' name demanded + Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took, + Were, as he says, not with such strength denied + As is delivered to your Majesty. + Either envy, therefore, or misprision + Is guilty of this fault, and not my son. + Hot. My liege, I did deny no prisoners. + But I remember, when the fight was done, + When I was dry with rage and extreme toll, + Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword, + Came there a certain lord, neat and trimly dress'd, + Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd + Show'd like a stubble land at harvest home. + He was perfumed like a milliner, + And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held + A pouncet box, which ever and anon + He gave his nose, and took't away again; + Who therewith angry, when it next came there, + Took it in snuff; and still he smil'd and talk'd; + And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by, + He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly, + To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse + Betwixt the wind and his nobility. + With many holiday and lady terms + He questioned me, amongst the rest demanded + My prisoners in your Majesty's behalf. + I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold, + To be so pest'red with a popingay, + Out of my grief and my impatience + Answer'd neglectingly, I know not what- + He should, or he should not; for he made me mad + To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet, + And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman + Of guns and drums and wounds- God save the mark!- + And telling me the sovereignest thing on earth + Was parmacity for an inward bruise; + And that it was great pity, so it was, + This villanous saltpetre should be digg'd + Out of the bowels of the harmless earth, + Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd + So cowardly; and but for these vile 'guns, + He would himself have been a soldier. + This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord, + I answered indirectly, as I said, + And I beseech you, let not his report + Come current for an accusation + Betwixt my love and your high majesty. + Blunt. The circumstance considered, good my lord, + Whate'er Lord Harry Percy then had said + To such a person, and in such a place, + At such a time, with all the rest retold, + May reasonably die, and never rise + To do him wrong, or any way impeach + What then he said, so he unsay it now. + King. Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners, + But with proviso and exception, + That we at our own charge shall ransom straight + His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer; + Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd + The lives of those that he did lead to fight + Against that great magician, damn'd Glendower, + Whose daughter, as we hear, the Earl of March + Hath lately married. Shall our coffers, then, + Be emptied to redeem a traitor home? + Shall we buy treason? and indent with fears + When they have lost and forfeited themselves? + No, on the barren mountains let him starve! + For I shall never hold that man my friend + Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost + To ransom home revolted Mortimer. + Hot. Revolted Mortimer? + He never did fall off, my sovereign liege, + But by the chance of war. To prove that true + Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds, + Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took + When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank, + In single opposition hand to hand, + He did confound the best part of an hour + In changing hardiment with great Glendower. + Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink, + Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood; + Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks, + Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds + And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank, + Bloodstained with these valiant cohabitants. + Never did base and rotten policy + Colour her working with such deadly wounds; + Nor never could the noble Mortimer + Receive so many, and all willingly. + Then let not him be slandered with revolt. + King. Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him! + He never did encounter with Glendower. + I tell thee + He durst as well have met the devil alone + As Owen Glendower for an enemy. + Art thou not asham'd? But, sirrah, henceforth + Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer. + Send me your prisoners with the speediest means, + Or you shall hear in such a kind from me + As will displease you. My Lord Northumberland, + We license your departure with your son.- + Send us your prisoners, or you will hear of it. + Exeunt King, [Blunt, and Train] + Hot. An if the devil come and roar for them, + I will not send them. I will after straight + And tell him so; for I will else my heart, + Albeit I make a hazard of my head. + North. What, drunk with choler? Stay, and pause awhile. + Here comes your uncle. + + Enter Worcester. + + Hot. Speak of Mortimer? + Zounds, I will speak of him, and let my soul + Want mercy if I do not join with him! + Yea, on his part I'll empty all these veins, + And shed my dear blood drop by drop in the dust, + But I will lift the downtrod Mortimer + As high in the air as this unthankful king, + As this ingrate and cank'red Bolingbroke. + North. Brother, the King hath made your nephew mad. + Wor. Who struck this heat up after I was gone? + Hot. He will (forsooth) have all my prisoners; + And when I urg'd the ransom once again + Of my wive's brother, then his cheek look'd pale, + And on my face he turn'd an eye of death, + Trembling even at the name of Mortimer. + Wor. I cannot blame him. Was not he proclaim'd + By Richard that dead is, the next of blood? + North. He was; I heard the proclamation. + And then it was when the unhappy King + (Whose wrongs in us God pardon!) did set forth + Upon his Irish expedition; + From whence he intercepted did return + To be depos'd, and shortly murdered. + Wor. And for whose death we in the world's wide mouth + Live scandaliz'd and foully spoken of. + Hot. But soft, I pray you. Did King Richard then + Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer + Heir to the crown? + North. He did; myself did hear it. + Hot. Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin king, + That wish'd him on the barren mountains starve. + But shall it be that you, that set the crown + Upon the head of this forgetful man, + And for his sake wear the detested blot + Of murtherous subornation- shall it be + That you a world of curses undergo, + Being the agents or base second means, + The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather? + O, pardon me that I descend so low + To show the line and the predicament + Wherein you range under this subtile king! + Shall it for shame be spoken in these days, + Or fill up chronicles in time to come, + That men of your nobility and power + Did gage them both in an unjust behalf + (As both of you, God pardon it! have done) + To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, + And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke? + And shall it in more shame be further spoken + That you are fool'd, discarded, and shook off + By him for whom these shames ye underwent? + No! yet time serves wherein you may redeem + Your banish'd honours and restore yourselves + Into the good thoughts of the world again; + Revenge the jeering and disdain'd contempt + Of this proud king, who studies day and night + To answer all the debt he owes to you + Even with the bloody payment of your deaths. + Therefore I say- + Wor. Peace, cousin, say no more; + And now, I will unclasp a secret book, + And to your quick-conceiving discontents + I'll read you matter deep and dangerous, + As full of peril and adventurous spirit + As to o'erwalk a current roaring loud + On the unsteadfast footing of a spear. + Hot. If he fall in, good night, or sink or swim! + Send danger from the east unto the west, + So honour cross it from the north to south, + And let them grapple. O, the blood more stirs + To rouse a lion than to start a hare! + North. Imagination of some great exploit + Drives him beyond the bounds of patience. + Hot. By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap + To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon, + Or dive into the bottom of the deep, + Where fadom line could never touch the ground, + And pluck up drowned honour by the locks, + So he that doth redeem her thence might wear + Without corrival all her dignities; + But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship! + Wor. He apprehends a world of figures here, + But not the form of what he should attend. + Good cousin, give me audience for a while. + Hot. I cry you mercy. + Wor. Those same noble Scots + That are your prisoners- + Hot. I'll keep them all. + By God, he shall not have a Scot of them! + No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not. + I'll keep them, by this hand! + Wor. You start away. + And lend no ear unto my purposes. + Those prisoners you shall keep. + Hot. Nay, I will! That is flat! + He said he would not ransom Mortimer, + Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer, + But I will find him when he lies asleep, + And in his ear I'll holloa 'Mortimer.' + Nay; + I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak + Nothing but 'Mortimer,' and give it him + To keep his anger still in motion. + Wor. Hear you, cousin, a word. + Hot. All studies here I solemnly defy + Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke; + And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales- + But that I think his father loves him not + And would be glad he met with some mischance, + I would have him poisoned with a pot of ale. + Wor. Farewell, kinsman. I will talk to you + When you are better temper'd to attend. + North. Why, what a wasp-stung and impatient fool + Art thou to break into this woman's mood, + Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own! + Hot. Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourg'd with rods, + Nettled, and stung with pismires when I hear + Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke. + In Richard's time- what do you call the place- + A plague upon it! it is in GIoucestershire- + 'Twas where the madcap Duke his uncle kept- + His uncle York- where I first bow'd my knee + Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke- + 'S blood! + When you and he came back from Ravenspurgh- + North. At Berkeley Castle. + Hot. You say true. + Why, what a candy deal of courtesy + This fawning greyhound then did proffer me! + Look, 'when his infant fortune came to age,' + And 'gentle Harry Percy,' and 'kind cousin'- + O, the devil take such cozeners!- God forgive me! + Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done. + Wor. Nay, if you have not, to it again. + We will stay your leisure. + Hot. I have done, i' faith. + Wor. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners. + Deliver them up without their ransom straight, + And make the Douglas' son your only mean + For powers In Scotland; which, for divers reasons + Which I shall send you written, be assur'd + Will easily be granted. [To Northumberland] You, my lord, + Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd, + Shall secretly into the bosom creep + Of that same noble prelate well-belov'd, + The Archbishop. + Hot. Of York, is it not? + Wor. True; who bears hard + His brother's death at Bristow, the Lord Scroop. + I speak not this in estimation, + As what I think might be, but what I know + Is ruminated, plotted, and set down, + And only stays but to behold the face + Of that occasion that shall bring it on. + Hot. I smell it. Upon my life, it will do well. + North. Before the game is afoot thou still let'st slip. + Hot. Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot. + And then the power of Scotland and of York + To join with Mortimer, ha? + Wor. And so they shall. + Hot. In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd. + Wor. And 'tis no little reason bids us speed, + To save our heads by raising of a head; + For, bear ourselves as even as we can, + The King will always think him in our debt, + And think we think ourselves unsatisfied, + Till he hath found a time to pay us home. + And see already how he doth begin + To make us strangers to his looks of love. + Hot. He does, he does! We'll be reveng'd on him. + Wor. Cousin, farewell. No further go in this + Than I by letters shall direct your course. + When time is ripe, which will be suddenly, + I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer, + Where you and Douglas, and our pow'rs at once, + As I will fashion it, shall happily meet, + To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms, + Which now we hold at much uncertainty. + North. Farewell, good brother. We shall thrive, I trust. + Hot. Uncle, adieu. O, let the hours be short + Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport! Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. Scene I. +Rochester. An inn yard. + +Enter a Carrier with a lantern in his hand. + + 1. Car. Heigh-ho! an it be not four by the day, I'll be hang'd. + Charles' wain is over the new chimney, and yet our horse not + pack'd.- What, ostler! + Ost. [within] Anon, anon. + 1. Car. I prithee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the + point. Poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess. + + Enter another Carrier. + + 2. Car. Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and that is the + next way to give poor jades the bots. This house is turned upside + down since Robin Ostler died. + 1. Car. Poor fellow never joyed since the price of oats rose. It + was the death of him. + 2. Car. I think this be the most villanous house in all London road + for fleas. I am stung like a tench. + 1. Car. Like a tench I By the mass, there is ne'er a king christen + could be better bit than I have been since the first cock. + 2. Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jordan, and then we leak in + your chimney, and your chamber-lye breeds fleas like a loach. + 1. Car. What, ostler! come away and be hang'd! come away! + 2. Car. I have a gammon of bacon and two razes of ginger, to be + delivered as far as Charing Cross. + 1. Car. God's body! the turkeys in my pannier are quite starved. + What, ostler! A plague on thee! hast thou never an eye in thy + head? Canst not hear? An 'twere not as good deed as drink to + break the pate on thee, I am a very villain. Come, and be hang'd! + Hast no faith in thee? + + Enter Gadshill. + + Gads. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock? + 1. Car. I think it be two o'clock. + Gads. I prithee lend me this lantern to see my gelding in the + stable. + 1. Car. Nay, by God, soft! I know a trick worth two of that, + i' faith. + Gads. I pray thee lend me thine. + 2. Car. Ay, when? canst tell? Lend me thy lantern, quoth he? Marry, + I'll see thee hang'd first! + Gads. Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London? + 2. Car. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee. + Come, neighbour Mugs, we'll call up the gentlemen. They will + along with company, for they have great charge. + Exeunt [Carriers]. + Gads. What, ho! chamberlain! + + Enter Chamberlain. + + Cham. At hand, quoth pickpurse. + Gads. That's even as fair as- 'at hand, quoth the chamberlain'; for + thou variest no more from picking of purses than giving direction + doth from labouring: thou layest the plot how. + Cham. Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds current that I told + you yesternight. There's a franklin in the Wild of Kent hath + brought three hundred marks with him in gold. I heard him tell it + to one of his company last night at supper- a kind of auditor; + one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what. They are + up already and call for eggs and butter. They will away + presently. + Gads. Sirrah, if they meet not with Saint Nicholas' clerks, I'll + give thee this neck. + Cham. No, I'll none of it. I pray thee keep that for the hangman; + for I know thou worshippest Saint Nicholas as truly as a man of + falsehood may. + Gads. What talkest thou to me of the hangman? If I hang, I'll make + a fat pair of gallows; for if I hang, old Sir John hangs with me, + and thou knowest he is no starveling. Tut! there are other + Troyans that thou dream'st not of, the which for sport sake are + content to do the profession some grace; that would (if matters + should be look'd into) for their own credit sake make all whole. + I am joined with no foot land-rakers, no long-staff sixpenny + strikers, none of these mad mustachio purple-hued maltworms; but + with nobility, and tranquillity, burgomasters and great oneyers, + such as can hold in, such as will strike sooner than speak, and + speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray; and yet, + zounds, I lie; for they pray continually to their saint, the + commonwealth, or rather, not pray to her, but prey on her, for + they ride up and down on her and make her their boots. + Cham. What, the commonwealth their boots? Will she hold out water + in foul way? + Gads. She will, she will! Justice hath liquor'd her. We steal as in + a castle, cocksure. We have the receipt of fernseed, we walk + invisible. + Cham. Nay, by my faith, I think you are more beholding to the night + than to fernseed for your walking invisible. + Gads. Give me thy hand. Thou shalt have a share in our purchase, as + I and a true man. + Cham. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief. + Gads. Go to; 'homo' is a common name to all men. Bid the ostler + bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewell, you muddy knave. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +The highway near Gadshill. + +Enter Prince and Poins. + + Poins. Come, shelter, shelter! I have remov'd Falstaff's horse, and + he frets like a gumm'd velvet. + Prince. Stand close. [They step aside.] + + Enter Falstaff. + + Fal. Poins! Poins, and be hang'd! Poins! + Prince. I comes forward I Peace, ye fat-kidney'd rascal! What a + brawling dost thou keep! + Fal. Where's Poins, Hal? + Prince. He is walk'd up to the top of the hill. I'll go seek him. + [Steps aside.] + Fal. I am accurs'd to rob in that thief's company. The rascal hath + removed my horse and tied him I know not where. If I travel but + four foot by the squire further afoot, I shall break my wind. + Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I + scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company + hourly any time this two-and-twenty years, and yet I am bewitch'd + with the rogue's company. If the rascal have not given me + medicines to make me love him, I'll be hang'd. It could not be + else. I have drunk medicines. Poins! Hal! A plague upon you both! + Bardolph! Peto! I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An + 'twere not as good a deed as drink to turn true man and to leave + these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a + tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground is threescore and ten miles + afoot with me, and the stony-hearted villains know it well + enough. A plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to + another! (They whistle.) Whew! A plague upon you all! Give me my + horse, you rogues! give me my horse and be hang'd! + Prince. [comes forward] Peace, ye fat-guts! Lie down, lay thine ear + close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of + travellers. + Fal. Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? 'Sblood, + I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot again for all the coin + in thy father's exchequer. What a plague mean ye to colt me thus? + Prince. Thou liest; thou art not colted, thou art uncolted. + Fal. I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse, good king's + son. + Prince. Out, ye rogue! Shall I be your ostler? + Fal. Go hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters! If I be + ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I have not ballads made on you + all, and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison. + When a jest is so forward- and afoot too- I hate it. + + Enter Gadshill, [Bardolph and Peto with him]. + + Gads. Stand! + Fal. So I do, against my will. + Poins. [comes fortward] O, 'tis our setter. I know his voice. + Bardolph, what news? + Bar. Case ye, case ye! On with your vizards! There's money of the + King's coming down the hill; 'tis going to the King's exchequer. + Fal. You lie, ye rogue! 'Tis going to the King's tavern. + Gads. There's enough to make us all. + Fal. To be hang'd. + Prince. Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned + Poins and I will walk lower. If they scape from your encounter, + then they light on us. + Peto. How many be there of them? + Gads. Some eight or ten. + Fal. Zounds, will they not rob us? + Prince. What, a coward, Sir John Paunch? + Fal. Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather; but yet no + coward, Hal. + Prince. Well, we leave that to the proof. + Poins. Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge. When thou + need'st him, there thou shalt find him. Farewell and stand fast. + Fal. Now cannot I strike him, if I should be hang'd. + Prince. [aside to Poins] Ned, where are our disguises? + Poins. [aside to Prince] Here, hard by. Stand close. + [Exeunt Prince and Poins.] + Fal. Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I. Every man to + his business. + + Enter the Travellers. + + Traveller. Come, neighbour. + The boy shall lead our horses down the hill; + We'll walk afoot awhile and ease our legs. + Thieves. Stand! + Traveller. Jesus bless us! + Fal. Strike! down with them! cut the villains' throats! Ah, + whoreson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they hate us youth. Down + with them! fleece them! + Traveller. O, we are undone, both we and ours for ever! + Fal. Hang ye, gorbellied knaves, are ye undone? No, ye fat chuffs; + I would your store were here! On, bacons on! What, ye knaves! + young men must live. You are grandjurors, are ye? We'll jure ye, + faith! + Here they rob and bind them. Exeunt. + + Enter the Prince and Poins [in buckram suits]. + + Prince. The thieves have bound the true men. Now could thou and I + rob the thieves and go merrily to London, it would be argument + for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever. + Poins. Stand close! I hear them coming. + [They stand aside.] + + Enter the Thieves again. + + Fal. Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse before day. + An the Prince and Poins be not two arrant cowards, there's no + equity stirring. There's no more valour in that Poins than in a + wild duck. + + [As they are sharing, the Prince and Poins set upon + them. THey all run away, and Falstaff, after a blow or + two, runs awasy too, leaving the booty behind them.] + + Prince. Your money! + Poins. Villains! + + Prince. Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse. + The thieves are scattered, and possess'd with fear + So strongly that they dare not meet each other. + Each takes his fellow for an officer. + Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death + And lards the lean earth as he walks along. + Were't not for laughing, I should pity him. + Poins. How the rogue roar'd! Exeunt. + + + + +Scene III. +Warkworth Castle. + +Enter Hotspur solus, reading a letter. + + Hot. 'But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to + be there, in respect of the love I bear your house.' He could be + contented- why is he not then? In respect of the love he bears + our house! He shows in this he loves his own barn better than he + loves our house. Let me see some more. 'The purpose you undertake + is dangerous'- Why, that's certain! 'Tis dangerous to take a + cold, to sleep, to drink; but I tell you, my lord fool, out of + this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. 'The purpose + you undertake is dangerous, the friends you have named uncertain, + the time itself unsorted, and your whole plot too light for the + counterpoise of so great an opposition.' Say you so, say you so? + I say unto you again, you are a shallow, cowardly hind, and you + lie. What a lack-brain is this! By the Lord, our plot is a good + plot as ever was laid; our friends true and constant: a good + plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an excellent plot, + very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is this! Why, my + Lord of York commends the plot and the general course of the + action. Zounds, an I were now by this rascal, I could brain him + with his lady's fan. Is there not my father, my uncle, and + myself; Lord Edmund Mortimer, my Lord of York, and Owen + Glendower? Is there not, besides, the Douglas? Have I not all + their letters to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month, + and are they not some of them set forward already? What a pagan + rascal is this! an infidel! Ha! you shall see now, in very + sincerity of fear and cold heart will he to the King and lay open + all our proceedings. O, I could divide myself and go to buffets + for moving such a dish of skim milk with so honourable an action! + Hang him, let him tell the King! we are prepared. I will set + forward to-night. + + Enter his Lady. + + How now, Kate? I must leave you within these two hours. + Lady. O my good lord, why are you thus alone? + For what offence have I this fortnight been + A banish'd woman from my Harry's bed, + Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee + Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep? + Why dost thou bend thine eyes upon the earth, + And start so often when thou sit'st alone? + Why hast thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks + And given my treasures and my rights of thee + To thick-ey'd musing and curs'd melancholy? + In thy faint slumbers I by thee have watch'd, + And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars, + Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed, + Cry 'Courage! to the field!' And thou hast talk'd + Of sallies and retires, of trenches, tent, + Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets, + Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin, + Of prisoners' ransom, and of soldiers slain, + And all the currents of a heady fight. + Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war, + And thus hath so bestirr'd thee in thy sleep, + That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow + Like bubbles ill a late-disturbed stream, + And in thy face strange motions have appear'd, + Such as we see when men restrain their breath + On some great sudden hest. O, what portents are these? + Some heavy business hath my lord in hand, + And I must know it, else he loves me not. + Hot. What, ho! + + [Enter a Servant.] + + Is Gilliams with the packet gone? + Serv. He is, my lord, an hour ago. + Hot. Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff? + Serv. One horse, my lord, he brought even now. + Hot. What horse? A roan, a crop-ear, is it not? + Serv. It is, my lord. + Hot. That roan shall be my throne. + Well, I will back him straight. O esperance! + Bid Butler lead him forth into the park. + [Exit Servant.] + Lady. But hear you, my lord. + Hot. What say'st thou, my lady? + Lady. What is it carries you away? + Hot. Why, my horse, my love- my horse! + Lady. Out, you mad-headed ape! + A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen + As you are toss'd with. In faith, + I'll know your business, Harry; that I will! + I fear my brother Mortimer doth stir + About his title and hath sent for you + To line his enterprise; but if you go- + Hot. So far afoot, I shall be weary, love. + Lady. Come, come, you paraquito, answer me + Directly unto this question that I ask. + I'll break thy little finger, Harry, + An if thou wilt not tell my all things true. + Hot. Away. + Away, you trifler! Love? I love thee not; + I care not for thee, Kate. This is no world + To play with mammets and to tilt with lips. + We must have bloody noses and crack'd crowns, + And pass them current too. Gods me, my horse! + What say'st thou, Kate? What wouldst thou have with me? + Lady. Do you not love me? do you not indeed? + Well, do not then; for since you love me not, + I will not love myself. Do you not love me? + Nay, tell me if you speak in jest or no. + Hot. Come, wilt thou see me ride? + And when I am a-horseback, I will swear + I love thee infinitely. But hark you. Kate: + I must not have you henceforth question me + Whither I go, nor reason whereabout. + Whither I must, I must; and to conclude, + This evening must I leave you, gentle Kate. + I know you wise; but yet no farther wise + Than Harry Percy's wife; constant you are, + But yet a woman; and for secrecy, + No lady closer, for I well believe + Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know, + And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate. + Lady. How? so far? + Hot. Not an inch further. But hark you, Kate: + Whither I go, thither shall you go too; + To-day will I set forth, to-morrow you. + Will this content you, Kate,? + Lady. It must of force. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene IV. +Eastcheap. The Boar's Head Tavern. + +Enter Prince and Poins. + + Prince. Ned, prithee come out of that fat-room and lend me thy hand + to laugh a little. + Poins. Where hast been, Hal? + Prince,. With three or four loggerheads amongst three or + fourscore hogsheads. I have sounded the very bass-string of + humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers and + can call them all by their christen names, as Tom, Dick, and + Francis. They take it already upon their salvation that, though + I be but Prince of Wales, yet I am the king of courtesy; and tell + me flatly I am no proud Jack like Falstaff, but a Corinthian, a + lad of mettle, a good boy (by the Lord, so they call me!), and + when I am King of England I shall command all the good lads + Eastcheap. They call drinking deep, dying scarlet; and when + you breathe in your watering, they cry 'hem!' and bid you play it + off. To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an + hour that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during + my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost much honour that thou + wert not with me in this action. But, sweet Ned- to sweeten which + name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapp'd even + now into my hand by an under-skinker, one that never spake other + English in his life than 'Eight shillings and sixpence,' and 'You + are welcome,' with this shrill addition, 'Anon, anon, sir! Score + a pint of bastard in the Half-moon,' or so- but, Ned, to drive + away the time till Falstaff come, I prithee do thou stand in some + by-room while I question my puny drawer to what end be gave me + the sugar; and do thou never leave calling 'Francis!' that his + tale to me may be nothing but 'Anon!' Step aside, and I'll show + thee a precedent. + Poins. Francis! + Prince. Thou art perfect. + Poins. Francis! [Exit Poins.] + + Enter [Francis, a] Drawer. + + Fran. Anon, anon, sir.- Look down into the Pomgarnet, Ralph. + Prince. Come hither, Francis. + Fran. My lord? + Prince. How long hast thou to serve, Francis? + Fran. Forsooth, five years, and as much as to- + Poins. [within] Francis! + Fran. Anon, anon, sir. + Prince. Five year! by'r Lady, a long lease for the clinking of + Pewter. But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant as to play the + coward with thy indenture and show it a fair pair of heels and + run from it? + Fran. O Lord, sir, I'll be sworn upon all the books in England I + could find in my heart- + Poins. [within] Francis! + Fran. Anon, sir. + Prince. How old art thou, Francis? + Fran. Let me see. About Michaelmas next I shall be- + Poins. [within] Francis! + Fran. Anon, sir. Pray stay a little, my lord. + Prince. Nay, but hark you, Francis. For the sugar thou gavest me- + 'twas a pennyworth, wast not? + Fran. O Lord! I would it had been two! + Prince. I will give thee for it a thousand pound. Ask me when thou + wilt, and, thou shalt have it. + Poins. [within] Francis! + Fran. Anon, anon. + Prince. Anon, Francis? No, Francis; but to-morrow, Francis; or, + Francis, a Thursday; or indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. But + Francis- + Fran. My lord? + Prince. Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, crystal-button, + not-pated, agate-ring, puke-stocking, caddis-garter, + smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch- + Fran. O Lord, sir, who do you mean? + Prince. Why then, your brown bastard is your only drink; for look + you, Francis, your white canvas doublet will sully. In Barbary, + sir, it cannot come to so much. + Fran. What, sir? + Poins. [within] Francis! + Prince. Away, you rogue! Dost thou not hear them call? + Here they both call him. The Drawer stands amazed, + not knowing which way to go. + + Enter Vintner. + + Vint. What, stand'st thou still, and hear'st such a calling? Look + to the guests within. [Exit Francis.] My lord, old Sir John, with + half-a-dozen more, are at the door. Shall I let them in? + Prince. Let them alone awhile, and then open the door. + [Exit Vintner.] + Poins! + Poins. [within] Anon, anon, sir. + + Enter Poins. + + Prince. Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the + door. Shall we be merry? + Poins. As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark ye; what cunning + match have you made with this jest of the drawer? Come, what's + the issue? + Prince. I am now of all humours that have showed themselves humours + since the old days of goodman Adam to the pupil age of this + present this twelve o'clock at midnight. + + [Enter Francis.] + + What's o'clock, Francis? + Fran. Anon, anon, sir. [Exit.] + Prince. That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a + parrot, and yet the son of a woman! His industry is upstairs and + downstairs, his eloquence the parcel of a reckoning. I am not yet + of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the North; he that kills me some + six or seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, and + says to his wife, 'Fie upon this quiet life! I want work.' 'O my + sweet Harry,' says she, 'how many hast thou kill'd to-day?' + 'Give my roan horse a drench,' says he, and answers 'Some + fourteen,' an hour after, 'a trifle, a trifle.' I prithee call in + Falstaff. I'll play Percy, and that damn'd brawn shall play Dame + Mortimer his wife. 'Rivo!' says the drunkard. Call in ribs, call + in tallow. + + Enter Falstaff, [Gadshill, Bardolph, and Peto; + Francis follows with wine]. + + Poins. Welcome, Jack. Where hast thou been? + Fal. A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too! Marry and + amen! Give me a cup of sack, boy. Ere I lead this life long, I'll + sew nether-stocks, and mend them and foot them too. A plague of + all cowards! Give me a cup of sack, rogue. Is there no virtue + extant? + He drinketh. + Prince. Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter? + Pitiful-hearted butter, that melted at the sweet tale of the sun! + If thou didst, then behold that compound. + Fal. You rogue, here's lime in this sack too! There is nothing but + roguery to be found in villanous man. Yet a coward is worse than + a cup of sack with lime in it- a villanous coward! Go thy ways, + old Jack, die when thou wilt; if manhood, good manhood, be not + forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring. + There lives not three good men unhang'd in England; and one of + them is fat, and grows old. God help the while! A bad world, I + say. I would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms or anything. A + plague of all cowards I say still! + Prince. How now, woolsack? What mutter you? + Fal. A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a + dagger of lath and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock + of wild geese, I'll never wear hair on my face more. You Prince + of Wales? + Prince. Why, you whoreson round man, what's the matter? + Fal. Are not you a coward? Answer me to that- and Poins there? + Poins. Zounds, ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, by the + Lord, I'll stab thee. + Fal. I call thee coward? I'll see thee damn'd ere I call thee + coward, but I would give a thousand pound I could run as fast as + thou canst. You are straight enough in the shoulders; you care + not who sees Your back. Call you that backing of your friends? A + plague upon such backing! Give me them that will face me. Give me + a cup of sack. I am a rogue if I drunk to-day. + Prince. O villain! thy lips are scarce wip'd since thou drunk'st + last. + Fal. All is one for that. (He drinketh.) A plague of all cowards + still say I. + Prince. What's the matter? + Fal. What's the matter? There be four of us here have ta'en a + thousand pound this day morning. + Prince. Where is it, Jack? Where is it? + Fal. Where is it, Taken from us it is. A hundred upon poor four of + us! + Prince. What, a hundred, man? + Fal. I am a rogue if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them + two hours together. I have scap'd by miracle. I am eight times + thrust through the doublet, four through the hose; my buckler cut + through and through; my sword hack'd like a handsaw- ecce signum! + I never dealt better since I was a man. All would not do. A + plague of all cowards! Let them speak, If they speak more or less + than truth, they are villains and the sons of darkness. + Prince. Speak, sirs. How was it? + Gads. We four set upon some dozen- + Fal. Sixteen at least, my lord. + Gads. And bound them. + Peto. No, no, they were not bound. + Fal. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them, or I am a Jew + else- an Ebrew Jew. + Gads. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men sea upon us- + Fal. And unbound the rest, and then come in the other. + Prince. What, fought you with them all? + Fal. All? I know not what you call all, but if I fought not with + fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish! If there were not two or + three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legg'd + creature. + Prince. Pray God you have not murd'red some of them. + Fal. Nay, that's past praying for. I have pepper'd two of them. Two + I am sure I have paid, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee + what, Hal- if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. + Thou knowest my old ward. Here I lay, and thus I bore my point. + Four rogues in buckram let drive at me. + Prince. What, four? Thou saidst but two even now. + Fal. Four, Hal. I told thee four. + Poins. Ay, ay, he said four. + Fal. These four came all afront and mainly thrust at me. I made me + no more ado but took all their seven points in my target, thus. + Prince. Seven? Why, there were but four even now. + Fal. In buckram? + Poins. Ay, four, in buckram suits. + Fal. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else. + Prince. [aside to Poins] Prithee let him alone. We shall have more + anon. + Fal. Dost thou hear me, Hal? + Prince. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack. + Fal. Do so, for it is worth the list'ning to. These nine in buckram + that I told thee of- + Prince. So, two more already. + Fal. Their points being broken- + Poins. Down fell their hose. + Fal. Began to give me ground; but I followed me close, came in, + foot and hand, and with a thought seven of the eleven I paid. + Prince. O monstrous! Eleven buckram men grown out of two! + Fal. But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves in + Kendal green came at my back and let drive at me; for it was so + dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand. + Prince. These lies are like their father that begets them- gross as + a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brain'd guts, thou + knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy tallow-catch- + Fal. What, art thou mad? art thou mad? Is not the truth the truth? + Prince. Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal green when + it was so dark thou couldst not see thy hand? Come, tell us your + reason. What sayest thou to this? + Poins. Come, your reason, Jack, your reason. + Fal. What, upon compulsion? Zounds, an I were at the strappado or + all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion. + Give you a reason on compulsion? If reasons were as plentiful as + blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I. + Prince. I'll be no longer guilty, of this sin; this sanguine + coward, this bed-presser, this horseback-breaker, this huge hill + of flesh- + Fal. 'Sblood, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried + neat's-tongue, you bull's sizzle, you stockfish- O for breath to + utter what is like thee!- you tailor's yard, you sheath, you + bowcase, you vile standing tuck! + Prince. Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again; and when thou + hast tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but this. + Poins. Mark, Jack. + Prince. We two saw you four set on four, and bound them and were + masters of their wealth. Mark now how a plain tale shall put you + down. Then did we two set on you four and, with a word, outfac'd + you from your prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here + in the house. And, Falstaff, you carried your guts away as + nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roar'd for mercy, and still + run and roar'd, as ever I heard bullcalf. What a slave art thou + to hack thy sword as thou hast done, and then say it was in + fight! What trick, what device, what starting hole canst thou now + find out to hide thee from this open and apparent shame? + Poins. Come, let's hear, Jack. What trick hast thou now? + Fal. By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye. Why, hear + you, my masters. Was it for me to kill the heir apparent? Should + I turn upon the true prince? Why, thou knowest I am as valiant as + Hercules; but beware instinct. The lion will not touch the true + prince. Instinct is a great matter. I was now a coward on + instinct. I shall think the better of myself, and thee, during my + life- I for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. But, by + the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the money. Hostess, clap to + the doors. Watch to-night, pray to-morrow. Gallants, lads, boys, + hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you! + What, shall we be merry? Shall we have a play extempore? + Prince. Content- and the argument shall be thy running away. + Fal. Ah, no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me! + + Enter Hostess. + + Host. O Jesu, my lord the Prince! + Prince. How now, my lady the hostess? What say'st thou to me? + Host. Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door + would speak with you. He says he comes from your father. + Prince. Give him as much as will make him a royal man, and send him + back again to my mother. + Fal. What manner of man is he? + Host. An old man. + Fal. What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight? Shall I give him + his answer? + Prince. Prithee do, Jack. + Fal. Faith, and I'll send him packing. +Exit. + Prince. Now, sirs. By'r Lady, you fought fair; so did you, Peto; so + did you, Bardolph. You are lions too, you ran away upon instinct, + you will not touch the true prince; no- fie! + Bard. Faith, I ran when I saw others run. + Prince. Tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff's sword so + hack'd? + Peto. Why, he hack'd it with his dagger, and said he would swear + truth out of England but he would make you believe it was done in + fight, and persuaded us to do the like. + Bard. Yea, and to tickle our noses with speargrass to make them + bleed, and then to beslubber our garments with it and swear it + was the blood of true men. I did that I did not this seven year + before- I blush'd to hear his monstrous devices. + Prince. O villain! thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago + and wert taken with the manner, and ever since thou hast blush'd + extempore. Thou hadst fire and sword on thy side, and yet thou + ran'st away. What instinct hadst thou for it? + Bard. My lord, do you see these meteors? Do you behold these + exhalations? + Prince. I do. + Bard. What think you they portend? + Prince. Hot livers and cold purses. + Bard. Choler, my lord, if rightly taken. + Prince. No, if rightly taken, halter. + + Enter Falstaff. + + Here comes lean Jack; here comes bare-bone. How now, my sweet + creature of bombast? How long is't ago, Jack, since thou sawest + thine own knee? + Fal. My own knee? When I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an + eagle's talent in the waist; I could have crept into any + alderman's thumb-ring. A plague of sighing and grief! It blows a + man up like a bladder. There's villanous news abroad. Here was + Sir John Bracy from your father. You must to the court in the + morning. That same mad fellow of the North, Percy, and he of + Wales that gave Amamon the bastinado, and made Lucifer cuckold, + and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh + hook- what a plague call you him? + Poins. O, Glendower. + Fal. Owen, Owen- the same; and his son-in-law Mortimer, and old + Northumberland, and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that + runs a-horseback up a hill perpendicular- + Prince. He that rides at high speed and with his pistol kills a + sparrow flying. + Fal. You have hit it. + Prince. So did he never the sparrow. + Fal. Well, that rascal hath good metal in him; he will not run. + Prince. Why, what a rascal art thou then, to praise him so for + running! + Fal. A-horseback, ye cuckoo! but afoot he will not budge a foot. + Prince. Yes, Jack, upon instinct. + Fal. I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there too, and one + Mordake, and a thousand bluecaps more. Worcester is stol'n away + to-night; thy father's beard is turn'd white with the news; you + may buy land now as cheap as stinking mack'rel. + Prince. Why then, it is like, if there come a hot June, and this + civil buffeting hold, we shall buy maidenheads as they buy + hobnails, by the hundreds. + Fal. By the mass, lad, thou sayest true; it is like we shall have + good trading that way. But tell me, Hal, art not thou horrible + afeard? Thou being heir apparent, could the world pick thee out + three such enemies again as that fiend Douglas, that spirit + Percy, and that devil Glendower? Art thou not horribly afraid? + Doth not thy blood thrill at it? + Prince. Not a whit, i' faith. I lack some of thy instinct. + Fal. Well, thou wilt be horribly chid to-morrow when thou comest to + thy father. If thou love me, practise an answer. + Prince. Do thou stand for my father and examine me upon the + particulars of my life. + Fal. Shall I? Content. This chair shall be my state, this dagger my + sceptre, and this cushion my, crown. + Prince. Thy state is taken for a join'd-stool, thy golden sceptre + for a leaden dagger, and thy precious rich crown for a pitiful + bald crown. + Fal. Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of thee, now shalt + thou be moved. Give me a cup of sack to make my eyes look red, + that it may be thought I have wept; for I must speak in passion, + and I will do it in King Cambyses' vein. + Prince. Well, here is my leg. + Fal. And here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility. + Host. O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i' faith! + Fal. Weep not, sweet queen, for trickling tears are vain. + Host. O, the Father, how he holds his countenance! + Fal. For God's sake, lords, convey my tristful queen! + For tears do stop the floodgates of her eyes. + Host. O Jesu, he doth it as like one of these harlotry players as + ever I see! + Fal. Peace, good pintpot. Peace, good tickle-brain.- Harry, I do + not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou + art accompanied. For though the camomile, the more it is trodden + on, the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted, the + sooner it wears. That thou art my son I have partly thy mother's + word, partly my own opinion, but chiefly a villanous trick of + thine eye and a foolish hanging of thy nether lip that doth + warrant me. If then thou be son to me, here lies the point: why, + being son to me, art thou so pointed at? Shall the blessed sun of + heaven prove a micher and eat blackberries? A question not to be + ask'd. Shall the son of England prove a thief and take purses? A + question to be ask'd. There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast + often heard of, and it is known to many in our land by the name + of pitch. This pitch, as ancient writers do report, doth defile; + so doth the company thou keepest. For, Harry, now I do not speak + to thee in drink, but in tears; not in pleasure, but in passion; + not in words only, but in woes also: and yet there is a virtuous + man whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his + name. + Prince. What manner of man, an it like your Majesty? + Fal. A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful + look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage; and, as I think, + his age some fifty, or, by'r Lady, inclining to threescore; and + now I remember me, his name is Falstaff. If that man should be + lewdly, given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his + looks. If then the tree may be known by the fruit, as the fruit + by the tree, then, peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in + that Falstaff. Him keep with, the rest banish. And tell me now, + thou naughty varlet, tell me where hast thou been this month? + Prince. Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I'll + play my father. + Fal. Depose me? If thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, + both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a + rabbit-sucker or a poulter's hare. + Prince. Well, here I am set. + Fal. And here I stand. Judge, my masters. + Prince. Now, Harry, whence come you? + Fal. My noble lord, from Eastcheap. + Prince. The complaints I hear of thee are grievous. + Fal. 'Sblood, my lord, they are false! Nay, I'll tickle ye for a + young prince, i' faith. + Prince. Swearest thou, ungracious boy? Henceforth ne'er look on me. + Thou art violently carried away from grace. There is a devil + haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man; a tun of man is + thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, + that bolting hutch of beastliness, that swoll'n parcel of + dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuff'd cloakbag of + guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, + that reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that + vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink + it? wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it? + wherein cunning, but in craft? wherein crafty, but in villany? + wherein villanous, but in all things? wherein worthy, but in + nothing? + Fal. I would your Grace would take me with you. Whom means your + Grace? + Prince. That villanous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff, + that old white-bearded Satan. + Fal. My lord, the man I know. + Prince. I know thou dost. + Fal. But to say I know more harm in him than in myself were to say + more than I know. That he is old (the more the pity) his white + hairs do witness it; but that he is (saving your reverence) a + whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault, + God help the wicked! If to be old and merry be a sin, then many + an old host that I know is damn'd. If to be fat be to be hated, + then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord. + Banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins; but for sweet Jack + Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack + Falstaff, and therefore more valiant being, as he is, old Jack + Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry's company, banish not him thy + Harry's company. Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world! + Prince. I do, I will. [A knocking heard.] + [Exeunt Hostess, Francis, and Bardolph.] + + Enter Bardolph, running. + + Bard. O, my lord, my lord! the sheriff with a most monstrous watch + is at the door. + Fal. Out, ye rogue! Play out the play. I have much to say in the + behalf of that Falstaff. + + Enter the Hostess. + + Host. O Jesu, my lord, my lord! + Prince. Heigh, heigh, the devil rides upon a fiddlestick! + What's the matter? + Host. The sheriff and all the watch are at the door. They are come + to search the house. Shall I let them in? + Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? Never call a true piece of gold a + counterfeit. Thou art essentially mad without seeming so. + Prince. And thou a natural coward without instinct. + Fal. I deny your major. If you will deny the sheriff, so; if not, + let him enter. If I become not a cart as well as another man, a + plague on my bringing up! I hope I shall as soon be strangled + with a halter as another. + Prince. Go hide thee behind the arras. The rest walk, up above. + Now, my masters, for a true face and good conscience. + Fal. Both which I have had; but their date is out, and therefore + I'll hide me. Exit. + Prince. Call in the sheriff. + [Exeunt Manent the Prince and Peto.] + + Enter Sheriff and the Carrier. + + Now, Master Sheriff, what is your will with me? + Sher. First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry + Hath followed certain men unto this house. + Prince. What men? + Sher. One of them is well known, my gracious lord- + A gross fat man. + Carrier. As fat as butter. + Prince. The man, I do assure you, is not here, + For I myself at this time have employ'd him. + And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee + That I will by to-morrow dinner time + Send him to answer thee, or any man, + For anything he shall be charg'd withal; + And so let me entreat you leave the house. + Sher. I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen + Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks. + Prince. It may be so. If he have robb'd these men, + He shall be answerable; and so farewell. + Sher. Good night, my noble lord. + Prince. I think it is good morrow, is it not? + Sher. Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock. + Exit [with Carrier]. + Prince. This oily rascal is known as well as Paul's. Go call him + forth. + Peto. Falstaff! Fast asleep behind the arras, and snorting like a + horse. + Prince. Hark how hard he fetches breath. Search his pockets. + He searcheth his pockets and findeth certain papers. + What hast thou found? + Peto. Nothing but papers, my lord. + Prince. Let's see whit they be. Read them. + + Peto. [reads] 'Item. A capon. . . . . . . . . . . . . ii s. ii d. + Item, Sauce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . iiii d. + Item, Sack two gallons . . . . . . . . v s. viii d. + Item, Anchovies and sack after supper. ii s. vi d. + Item, Bread. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ob.' + + Prince. O monstrous! but one halfpennyworth of bread to this + intolerable deal of sack! What there is else, keep close; we'll + read it at more advantage. There let him sleep till day. I'll to + the court in the morning . We must all to the wars. and thy place + shall be honourable. I'll procure this fat rogue a charge of + foot; and I know, his death will be a march of twelve score. The + money shall be paid back again with advantage. Be with me betimes + in the morning, and so good morrow, Peto. + Peto. Good morrow, good my lord. + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. Scene I. +Bangor. The Archdeacon's house. + +Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Lord Mortimer, Owen Glendower. + + Mort. These promises are fair, the parties sure, + And our induction full of prosperous hope. + Hot. Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower, + Will you sit down? + And uncle Worcester. A plague upon it! + I have forgot the map. + Glend. No, here it is. + Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur, + For by that name as oft as Lancaster + Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale, and with + A rising sigh he wisheth you in heaven. + Hot. And you in hell, as oft as he hears + Owen Glendower spoke of. + Glend. I cannot blame him. At my nativity + The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes + Of burning cressets, and at my birth + The frame and huge foundation of the earth + Shak'd like a coward. + Hot. Why, so it would have done at the same season, if your + mother's cat had but kitten'd, though yourself had never been + born. + Glend. I say the earth did shake when I was born. + Hot. And I say the earth was not of my mind, + If you suppose as fearing you it shook. + Glend. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble. + Hot. O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire, + And not in fear of your nativity. + Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth + In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth + Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd + By the imprisoning of unruly wind + Within her womb, which, for enlargement striving, + Shakes the old beldame earth and topples down + Steeples and mossgrown towers. At your birth + Our grandam earth, having this distemp'rature, + In passion shook. + Glend. Cousin, of many men + I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave + To tell you once again that at my birth + The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, + The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds + Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields. + These signs have mark'd me extraordinary, + And all the courses of my life do show + I am not in the roll of common men. + Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea + That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales, + Which calls me pupil or hath read to me? + And bring him out that is but woman's son + Can trace me in the tedious ways of art + And hold me pace in deep experiments. + Hot. I think there's no man speaks better Welsh. I'll to dinner. + Mort. Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him mad. + Glend. I can call spirits from the vasty deep. + Hot. Why, so can I, or so can any man; + But will they come when you do call for them? + Glend. Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command the devil. + Hot. And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil- + By telling truth. Tell truth and shame the devil. + If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither, + And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him hence. + O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil! + Mort. Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat. + Glend. Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head + Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye + And sandy-bottom'd Severn have I sent him + Bootless home and weather-beaten back. + Hot. Home without boots, and in foul weather too? + How scapes he agues, in the devil's name + Glend. Come, here's the map. Shall we divide our right + According to our threefold order ta'en? + Mort. The Archdeacon hath divided it + Into three limits very equally. + England, from Trent and Severn hitherto, + By south and east is to my part assign'd; + All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore, + And all the fertile land within that bound, + To Owen Glendower; and, dear coz, to you + The remnant northward lying off from Trent. + And our indentures tripartite are drawn; + Which being sealed interchangeably + (A business that this night may execute), + To-morrow, cousin Percy, you and I + And my good Lord of Worcester will set forth + To meet your father and the Scottish bower, + As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury. + My father Glendower is not ready yet, + Nor shall we need his help these fourteen days. + [To Glend.] Within that space you may have drawn together + Your tenants, friends, and neighbouring gentlemen. + Glend. A shorter time shall send me to you, lords; + And in my conduct shall your ladies come, + From whom you now must steal and take no leave, + For there will be a world of water shed + Upon the parting of your wives and you. + Hot. Methinks my moiety, north from Burton here, + In quantity equals not one of yours. + See how this river comes me cranking in + And cuts me from the best of all my land + A huge half-moon, a monstrous cantle out. + I'll have the current ill this place damm'd up, + And here the smug and sliver Trent shall run + In a new channel fair and evenly. + It shall not wind with such a deep indent + To rob me of so rich a bottom here. + Glend. Not wind? It shall, it must! You see it doth. + Mort. Yea, but + Mark how he bears his course, and runs me up + With like advantage on the other side, + Gelding the opposed continent as much + As on the other side it takes from you. + Wor. Yea, but a little charge will trench him here + And on this north side win this cape of land; + And then he runs straight and even. + Hot. I'll have it so. A little charge will do it. + Glend. I will not have it alt'red. + Hot. Will not you? + Glend. No, nor you shall not. + Hot. Who shall say me nay? + Glend. No, that will I. + Hot. Let me not understand you then; speak it in Welsh. + Glend. I can speak English, lord, as well as you; + For I was train'd up in the English court, + Where, being but young, I framed to the harp + Many an English ditty lovely well, + And gave the tongue a helpful ornament- + A virtue that was never seen in you. + Hot. Marry, + And I am glad of it with all my heart! + I had rather be a kitten and cry mew + Than one of these same metre ballet-mongers. + I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn'd + Or a dry wheel grate on the axletree, + And that would set my teeth nothing on edge, + Nothing so much as mincing poetry. + 'Tis like the forc'd gait of a shuffling nag, + Glend. Come, you shall have Trent turn'd. + Hot. I do not care. I'll give thrice so much land + To any well-deserving friend; + But in the way of bargain, mark ye me, + I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair + Are the indentures drawn? Shall we be gone? + Glend. The moon shines fair; you may away by night. + I'll haste the writer, and withal + Break with your wives of your departure hence. + I am afraid my daughter will run mad, + So much she doteth on her Mortimer. Exit. + Mort. Fie, cousin Percy! how you cross my father! + Hot. I cannot choose. Sometimes he angers me + With telling me of the moldwarp and the ant, + Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies, + And of a dragon and a finless fish, + A clip-wing'd griffin and a moulten raven, + A couching lion and a ramping cat, + And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff + As puts me from my faith. I tell you what- + He held me last night at least nine hours + In reckoning up the several devils' names + That were his lackeys. I cried 'hum,' and 'Well, go to!' + But mark'd him not a word. O, he is as tedious + As a tired horse, a railing wife; + Worse than a smoky house. I had rather live + With cheese and garlic in a windmill far + Than feed on cates and have him talk to me + In any summer house in Christendom). + Mort. In faith, he is a worthy gentleman, + Exceedingly well read, and profited + In strange concealments, valiant as a lion, + And wondrous affable, and as bountiful + As mines of India. Shall I tell you, cousin? + He holds your temper in a high respect + And curbs himself even of his natural scope + When you come 'cross his humour. Faith, he does. + I warrant you that man is not alive + Might so have tempted him as you have done + Without the taste of danger and reproof. + But do not use it oft, let me entreat you. + Wor. In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blame, + And since your coming hither have done enough + To put him quite besides his patience. + You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault. + Though sometimes it show greatness, courage, blood- + And that's the dearest grace it renders you- + Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage, + Defect of manners, want of government, + Pride, haughtiness, opinion, and disdain; + The least of which haunting a nobleman + Loseth men's hearts, and leaves behind a stain + Upon the beauty of all parts besides, + Beguiling them of commendation. + Hot. Well, I am school'd. Good manners be your speed! + Here come our wives, and let us take our leave. + + Enter Glendower with the Ladies. + + Mort. This is the deadly spite that angers me- + My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh. + Glend. My daughter weeps; she will not part with you; + She'll be a soldier too, she'll to the wars. + Mort. Good father, tell her that she and my aunt Percy + Shall follow in your conduct speedily. + Glendower speaks to her in Welsh, and she answers + him in the same. + Glend. She is desperate here. A peevish self-will'd harlotry, + One that no persuasion can do good upon. + The Lady speaks in Welsh. + Mort. I understand thy looks. That pretty Welsh + Which thou pourest down from these swelling heavens + I am too perfect in; and, but for shame, + In such a Barley should I answer thee. + The Lady again in Welsh. + I understand thy kisses, and thou mine, + And that's a feeling disputation. + But I will never be a truant, love, + Till I have learnt thy language: for thy tongue + Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn'd, + Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bow'r, + With ravishing division, to her lute. + Glend. Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad. + The Lady speaks again in Welsh. + Mort. O, I am ignorance itself in this! + Glend. She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down + And rest your gentle head upon her lap, + And she will sing the song that pleaseth you + And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep, + Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness, + Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep + As is the difference betwixt day and night + The hour before the heavenly-harness'd team + Begins his golden progress in the East. + Mort. With all my heart I'll sit and hear her sing. + By that time will our book, I think, be drawn. + Glend. Do so, + And those musicians that shall play to you + Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence, + And straight they shall be here. Sit, and attend. + Hot. Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down. Come, quick, + quick, that I may lay my head in thy lap. + Lady P. Go, ye giddy goose. + The music plays. + Hot. Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh; + And 'tis no marvel, be is so humorous. + By'r Lady, he is a good musician. + Lady P. Then should you be nothing but musical; for you are + altogether govern'd by humours. Lie still, ye thief, and hear the + lady sing in Welsh. + Hot. I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in Irish. + Lady P. Wouldst thou have thy head broken? + Hot. No. + Lady P. Then be still. + Hot. Neither! 'Tis a woman's fault. + Lady P. Now God help thee! + Hot. To the Welsh lady's bed. + Lady P. What's that? + Hot. Peace! she sings. + Here the Lady sings a Welsh song. + Come, Kate, I'll have your song too. + Lady P. Not mine, in good sooth. + Hot. Not yours, in good sooth? Heart! you swear like a + comfit-maker's wife. 'Not you, in good sooth!' and 'as true as I + live!' and 'as God shall mend me!' and 'as sure as day!' + And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths + As if thou ne'er walk'st further than Finsbury. + Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, + A good mouth-filling oath; and leave 'in sooth' + And such protest of pepper gingerbread + To velvet guards and Sunday citizens. Come, sing. + Lady P. I will not sing. + Hot. 'Tis the next way to turn tailor or be redbreast-teacher. An + the indentures be drawn, I'll away within these two hours; and so + come in when ye will. Exit. + Glend. Come, come, Lord Mortimer. You are as slow + As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go. + By this our book is drawn; we'll but seal, + And then to horse immediately. + Mort. With all my heart. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +London. The Palace. + +Enter the King, Prince of Wales, and others. + + King. Lords, give us leave. The Prince of Wales and I + Must have some private conference; but be near at hand, + For we shall presently have need of you. + Exeunt Lords. + I know not whether God will have it so, + For some displeasing service I have done, + That, in his secret doom, out of my blood + He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me; + But thou dost in thy passages of life + Make me believe that thou art only mark'd + For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven + To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else, + Could such inordinate and low desires, + Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean attempts, + Such barren pleasures, rude society, + As thou art match'd withal and grafted to, + Accompany the greatness of thy blood + And hold their level with thy princely heart? + Prince. So please your Majesty, I would I could + Quit all offences with as clear excuse + As well as I am doubtless I can purge + Myself of many I am charged withal. + Yet such extenuation let me beg + As, in reproof of many tales devis'd, + Which oft the ear of greatness needs must bear + By, smiling pickthanks and base newsmongers, + I may, for some things true wherein my youth + Hath faulty wand'red and irregular, + And pardon on lily true submission. + King. God pardon thee! Yet let me wonder, Harry, + At thy affections, which do hold a wing, + Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors. + Thy place in Council thou hast rudely lost, + Which by thy younger brother is supplied, + And art almost an alien to the hearts + Of all the court and princes of my blood. + The hope and expectation of thy time + Is ruin'd, and the soul of every man + Prophetically do forethink thy fall. + Had I so lavish of my presence been, + So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men, + So stale and cheap to vulgar company, + Opinion, that did help me to the crown, + Had still kept loyal to possession + And left me in reputeless banishment, + A fellow of no mark nor likelihood. + By being seldom seen, I could not stir + But, like a comet, I Was wond'red at; + That men would tell their children, 'This is he!' + Others would say, 'Where? Which is Bolingbroke?' + And then I stole all courtesy from heaven, + And dress'd myself in such humility + That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts, + Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths + Even in the presence of the crowned King. + Thus did I keep my person fresh and new, + My presence, like a robe pontifical, + Ne'er seen but wond'red at; and so my state, + Seldom but sumptuous, show'd like a feast + And won by rareness such solemnity. + The skipping King, he ambled up and down + With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, + Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state; + Mingled his royalty with cap'ring fools; + Had his great name profaned with their scorns + And gave his countenance, against his name, + To laugh at gibing boys and stand the push + Of every beardless vain comparative; + Grew a companion to the common streets, + Enfeoff'd himself to popularity; + That, being dally swallowed by men's eyes, + They surfeited with honey and began + To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little + More than a little is by much too much. + So, when he had occasion to be seen, + He was but as the cuckoo is in June, + Heard, not regarded- seen, but with such eyes + As, sick and blunted with community, + Afford no extraordinary gaze, + Such as is bent on unlike majesty + When it shines seldom in admiring eyes; + But rather drows'd and hung their eyelids down, + Slept in his face, and rend'red such aspect + As cloudy men use to their adversaries, + Being with his presence glutted, gorg'd, and full. + And in that very line, Harry, standest thou; + For thou hast lost thy princely privilege + With vile participation. Not an eye + But is aweary of thy common sight, + Save mine, which hath desir'd to see thee more; + Which now doth that I would not have it do- + Make blind itself with foolish tenderness. + Prince. I shall hereafter, my thrice-gracious lord, + Be more myself. + King. For all the world, + As thou art to this hour, was Richard then + When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh; + And even as I was then is Percy now. + Now, by my sceptre, and my soul to boot, + He hath more worthy interest to the state + Than thou, the shadow of succession; + For of no right, nor colour like to right, + He doth fill fields with harness in the realm, + Turns head against the lion's armed jaws, + And, Being no more in debt to years than thou, + Leads ancient lords and reverend Bishops on + To bloody battles and to bruising arms. + What never-dying honour hath he got + Against renowmed Douglas! whose high deeds, + Whose hot incursions and great name in arms + Holds from all soldiers chief majority + And military title capital + Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ. + Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathling clothes, + This infant warrior, in his enterprises + Discomfited great Douglas; ta'en him once, + Enlarged him, and made a friend of him, + To fill the mouth of deep defiance up + And shake the peace and safety of our throne. + And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland, + The Archbishop's Grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer + Capitulate against us and are up. + But wherefore do I tell these news to thee + Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes, + Which art my nearest and dearest enemy' + Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear, + Base inclination, and the start of spleen, + To fight against me under Percy's pay, + To dog his heels and curtsy at his frowns, + To show how much thou art degenerate. + Prince. Do not think so. You shall not find it so. + And God forgive them that so much have sway'd + Your Majesty's good thoughts away from me! + I will redeem all this on Percy's head + And, in the closing of some glorious day, + Be bold to tell you that I am your son, + When I will wear a garment all of blood, + And stain my favours in a bloody mask, + Which, wash'd away, shall scour my shame with it. + And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights, + That this same child of honour and renown, + This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight, + And your unthought of Harry chance to meet. + For every honour sitting on his helm, + Would they were multitudes, and on my head + My shames redoubled! For the time will come + That I shall make this Northern youth exchange + His glorious deeds for my indignities. + Percy is but my factor, good my lord, + To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf; + And I will call hall to so strict account + That he shall render every glory up, + Yea, even the slightest worship of his time, + Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart. + This in the name of God I promise here; + The which if he be pleas'd I shall perform, + I do beseech your Majesty may salve + The long-grown wounds of my intemperance. + If not, the end of life cancels all bands, + And I will die a hundred thousand deaths + Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow. + King. A hundred thousand rebels die in this! + Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein. + + Enter Blunt. + + How now, good Blunt? Thy looks are full of speed. + Blunt. So hath the business that I come to speak of. + Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word + That Douglas and the English rebels met + The eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury. + A mighty and a fearful head they are, + If promises be kept oil every hand, + As ever off'red foul play in a state. + King. The Earl of Westmoreland set forth to-day; + With him my son, Lord John of Lancaster; + For this advertisement is five days old. + On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set forward; + On Thursday we ourselves will march. Our meeting + Is Bridgenorth; and, Harry, you shall march + Through Gloucestershire; by which account, + Our business valued, some twelve days hence + Our general forces at Bridgenorth shall meet. + Our hands are full of business. Let's away. + Advantage feeds him fat while men delay. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene III. +Eastcheap. The Boar's Head Tavern. + +Enter Falstaff and Bardolph. + + Fal. Bardolph, am I not fall'n away vilely since this last action? + Do I not bate? Do I not dwindle? Why, my skin hangs about me like + an old lady's loose gown! I am withered like an old apple John. + Well, I'll repent, and that suddenly, while I am in some liking. + I shall be out of heart shortly, and then I shall have no + strength to repent. An I have not forgotten what the inside of a + church is made of, I am a peppercorn, a brewer's horse. The + inside of a church! Company, villanous company, hath been the + spoil of me. + Bard. Sir John, you are so fretful you cannot live long. + Fal. Why, there is it! Come, sing me a bawdy song; make me merry. I + was as virtuously given as a gentleman need to be, virtuous + enough: swore little, dic'd not above seven times a week, went to + a bawdy house not above once in a quarter- of an hour, paid money + that I borrowed- three or four times, lived well, and in good + compass; and now I live out of all order, out of all compass. + Bard. Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you must needs be out of + all compass- out of all reasonable compass, Sir John. + Fal. Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life. Thou art our + admiral, thou bearest the lantern in the poop- but 'tis in the + nose of thee. Thou art the Knight of the Burning Lamp. + Bard. Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm. + Fal. No, I'll be sworn. I make as good use of it as many a man doth + of a death's-head or a memento mori. I never see thy face but I + think upon hellfire and Dives that lived in purple; for there he + is in his robes, burning, burning. if thou wert any way given to + virtue, I would swear by thy face; my oath should be 'By this + fire, that's God's angel.' But thou art altogether given over, + and wert indeed, but for the light in thy face, the son of utter + darkness. When thou ran'st up Gadshill in the night to catch my + horse, if I did not think thou hadst been an ignis fatuus or a + ball of wildfire, there's no purchase in money. O, thou art a + perpetual triumph, an everlasting bonfire-light! Thou hast saved + me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in + the night betwixt tavern and tavern; but the sack that thou hast + drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest + chandler's in Europe. I have maintained that salamander of yours + with fire any time this two-and-thirty years. God reward me for + it! + Bard. 'Sblood, I would my face were in your belly! + Fal. God-a-mercy! so should I be sure to be heart-burn'd. + + Enter Hostess. + + How now, Dame Partlet the hen? Have you enquir'd yet who pick'd + my pocket? + Host. Why, Sir John, what do you think, Sir John? Do you think I + keep thieves in my house? I have search'd, I have enquired, so + has my husband, man by man, boy by boy, servant by servant. The + tithe of a hair was never lost in my house before. + Fal. Ye lie, hostess. Bardolph was shav'd and lost many a hair, and + I'll be sworn my pocket was pick'd. Go to, you are a woman, go! + Host. Who, I? No; I defy thee! God's light, I was never call'd so + in mine own house before! + Fal. Go to, I know you well enough. + Host. No, Sir John; you do not know me, Sir John. I know you, Sir + John. You owe me money, Sir John, and now you pick a quarrel to + beguile me of it. I bought you a dozen of shirts to your back. + Fal. Dowlas, filthy dowlas! I have given them away to bakers' + wives; they have made bolters of them. + Host. Now, as I am a true woman, holland of eight shillings an ell. + You owe money here besides, Sir John, for your diet and + by-drinkings, and money lent you, four-and-twenty pound. + Fal. He had his part of it; let him pay. + Host. He? Alas, he is poor; he hath nothing. + Fal. How? Poor? Look upon his face. What call you rich? Let them + coin his nose, let them coin his cheeks. I'll not pay a denier. + What, will you make a younker of me? Shall I not take mine ease + in mine inn but I shall have my pocket pick'd? I have lost a + seal-ring of my grandfather's worth forty mark. + Host. O Jesu, I have heard the Prince tell him, I know not how oft, + that that ring was copper! + Fal. How? the Prince is a Jack, a sneak-cup. 'Sblood, an he were + here, I would cudgel him like a dog if he would say so. + + Enter the Prince [and Poins], marching; and Falstaff meets + them, playing upon his truncheon like a fife. + + How now, lad? Is the wind in that door, i' faith? Must we all + march? + Bard. Yea, two and two, Newgate fashion. + Host. My lord, I pray you hear me. + Prince. What say'st thou, Mistress Quickly? How doth thy husband? + I love him well; he is an honest man. + Host. Good my lord, hear me. + Fal. Prithee let her alone and list to me. + Prince. What say'st thou, Jack? + Fal. The other night I fell asleep here behind the arras and had my + pocket pick'd. This house is turn'd bawdy house; they pick + pockets. + Prince. What didst thou lose, Jack? + Fal. Wilt thou believe me, Hal? Three or four bonds of forty pound + apiece and a seal-ring of my grandfather's. + Prince. A trifle, some eightpenny matter. + Host. So I told him, my lord, and I said I heard your Grace say so; + and, my lord, he speaks most vilely of you, like a foul-mouth'd + man as he is, and said he would cudgel you. + Prince. What! he did not? + Host. There's neither faith, truth, nor womanhood in me else. + Fal. There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune, nor no + more truth in thee than in a drawn fox; and for woman-hood, Maid + Marian may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee. Go, you + thing, go! + Host. Say, what thing? what thing? + Fal. What thing? Why, a thing to thank God on. + Host. I am no thing to thank God on, I would thou shouldst know it! + I am an honest man's wife, and, setting thy knight-hood aside, + thou art a knave to call me so. + Fal. Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a beast to say + otherwise. + Host. Say, what beast, thou knave, thou? + Fal. What beast? Why, an otter. + Prince. An otter, Sir John? Why an otter? + Fal. Why, she's neither fish nor flesh; a man knows not where to + have her. + Host. Thou art an unjust man in saying so. Thou or any man knows + where to have me, thou knave, thou! + Prince. Thou say'st true, hostess, and he slanders thee most + grossly. + Host. So he doth you, my lord, and said this other day you ought + him a thousand pound. + Prince. Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound? + Fal. A thousand pound, Hal? A million! Thy love is worth a million; + thou owest me thy love. + Host. Nay, my lord, he call'd you Jack and said he would cudgel + you. + Fal. Did I, Bardolph? + Bard. Indeed, Sir John, you said so. + Fal. Yea. if he said my ring was copper. + Prince. I say, 'tis copper. Darest thou be as good as thy word now? + Fal. Why, Hal, thou knowest, as thou art but man, I dare; but as + thou art Prince, I fear thee as I fear the roaring of the lion's + whelp. + Prince. And why not as the lion? + Fal. The King himself is to be feared as the lion. Dost thou think + I'll fear thee as I fear thy father? Nay, an I do, I pray God my + girdle break. + Prince. O, if it should, how would thy guts fall about thy knees! + But, sirrah, there's no room for faith, truth, nor honesty in + this bosom of thine. It is all fill'd up with guts and midriff. + Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket? Why, thou + whoreson, impudent, emboss'd rascal, if there were anything in + thy pocket but tavern reckonings, memorandums of bawdy houses, + and one poor pennyworth of sugar candy to make thee long-winded- + if thy pocket were enrich'd with any other injuries but these, I + am a villain. And yet you will stand to it; you will not pocket + up wrong. Art thou not ashamed? + Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? Thou knowest in the state of innocency + Adam fell; and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of + villany? Thou seest I have more flesh than another man, and + therefore more frailty. You confess then, you pick'd my pocket? + Prince. It appears so by the story. + Fal. Hostess, I forgive thee. Go make ready breakfast. Love thy + husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy guests. Thou shalt + find me tractable to any honest reason. Thou seest I am pacified. + -Still?- Nay, prithee be gone. [Exit Hostess.] Now, Hal, to the + news at court. For the robbery, lad- how is that answered? + Prince. O my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee. + The money is paid back again. + Fal. O, I do not like that paying back! 'Tis a double labour. + Prince. I am good friends with my father, and may do anything. + Fal. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou doest, and do it + with unwash'd hands too. + Bard. Do, my lord. + Prince. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot. + Fal. I would it had been of horse. Where shall I find one that can + steal well? O for a fine thief of the age of two-and-twenty or + thereabouts! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for + these rebels. They offend none but the virtuous. I laud them, I + praise them. + Prince. Bardolph! + Bard. My lord? + Prince. Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster, + To my brother John; this to my Lord of Westmoreland. + [Exit Bardolph.] + Go, Poins, to horse, to horse; for thou and I + Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time. + [Exit Poins.] + Jack, meet me to-morrow in the Temple Hall + At two o'clock in the afternoon. + There shalt thou know thy charge. and there receive + Money and order for their furniture. + The land is burning; Percy stands on high; + And either they or we must lower lie. [Exit.] + Fal. Rare words! brave world! Hostess, my breakfast, come. + O, I could wish this tavern were my drum! +Exit. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. Scene I. +The rebel camp near Shrewsbury. + +Enter Harry Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas. + + Hot. Well said, my noble Scot. If speaking truth + In this fine age were not thought flattery, + Such attribution should the Douglas have + As not a soldier of this season's stamp + Should go so general current through the world. + By God, I cannot flatter, I defy + The tongues of soothers! but a braver place + In my heart's love hath no man than yourself. + Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord. + Doug. Thou art the king of honour. + No man so potent breathes upon the ground + But I will beard him. + + Enter one with letters. + + Hot. Do so, and 'tis well.- + What letters hast thou there?- I can but thank you. + Messenger. These letters come from your father. + Hot. Letters from him? Why comes he not himself? + Mess. He cannot come, my lord; he is grievous sick. + Hot. Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick + In such a justling time? Who leads his power? + Under whose government come they along? + Mess. His letters bears his mind, not I, my lord. + Wor. I prithee tell me, doth he keep his bed? + Mess. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth, + And at the time of my departure thence + He was much fear'd by his physicians. + Wor. I would the state of time had first been whole + Ere he by sickness had been visited. + His health was never better worth than now. + Hot. Sick now? droop now? This sickness doth infect + The very lifeblood of our enterprise. + 'Tis catching hither, even to our camp. + He writes me here that inward sickness- + And that his friends by deputation could not + So soon be drawn; no did he think it meet + To lay so dangerous and dear a trust + On any soul remov'd but on his own. + Yet doth he give us bold advertisement, + That with our small conjunction we should on, + To see how fortune is dispos'd to us; + For, as he writes, there is no quailing now, + Because the King is certainly possess'd + Of all our purposes. What say you to it? + Wor. Your father's sickness is a maim to us. + Hot. A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off. + And yet, in faith, it is not! His present want + Seems more than we shall find it. Were it good + To set the exact wealth of all our states + All at one cast? to set so rich a man + On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour? + It were not good; for therein should we read + The very bottom and the soul of hope, + The very list, the very utmost bound + Of all our fortunes. + Doug. Faith, and so we should; + Where now remains a sweet reversion. + We may boldly spend upon the hope of what + Is to come in. + A comfort of retirement lives in this. + Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, + If that the devil and mischance look big + Upon the maidenhead of our affairs. + Wor. But yet I would your father had been here. + The quality and hair of our attempt + Brooks no division. It will be thought + By some that know not why he is away, + That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike + Of our proceedings kept the Earl from hence. + And think how such an apprehension + May turn the tide of fearful faction + And breed a kind of question in our cause. + For well you know we of the off'ring side + Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement, + And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence + The eye of reason may pry in upon us. + This absence of your father's draws a curtain + That shows the ignorant a kind of fear + Before not dreamt of. + Hot. You strain too far. + I rather of his absence make this use: + It lends a lustre and more great opinion, + A larger dare to our great enterprise, + Than if the Earl were here; for men must think, + If we, without his help, can make a head + To push against a kingdom, with his help + We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down. + Yet all goes well; yet all our joints are whole. + Doug. As heart can think. There is not such a word + Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear. + + Enter Sir Richard Vernon. + + Hot. My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul. + Ver. Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord. + The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong, + Is marching hitherwards; with him Prince John. + Hot. No harm. What more? + Ver. And further, I have learn'd + The King himself in person is set forth, + Or hitherwards intended speedily, + With strong and mighty preparation. + Hot. He shall be welcome too. Where is his son, + The nimble-footed madcap Prince of Wales, + And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside + And bid it pass? + Ver. All furnish'd, all in arms; + All plum'd like estridges that with the wind + Bated like eagles having lately bath'd; + Glittering in golden coats like images; + As full of spirit as the month of May + And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer; + Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls. + I saw young Harry with his beaver on + His cushes on his thighs, gallantly arm'd, + Rise from the ground like feathered Mercury, + And vaulted with such ease into his seat + As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds + To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus + And witch the world with noble horsemanship. + Hot. No more, no more! Worse than the sun in March, + This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come. + They come like sacrifices in their trim, + And to the fire-ey'd maid of smoky war + All hot and bleeding Will we offer them. + The mailed Mars Shall on his altar sit + Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire + To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh, + And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse, + Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt + Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales. + Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse, + Meet, and ne'er part till one drop down a corse. + that Glendower were come! + Ver. There is more news. + I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along, + He cannot draw his power this fourteen days. + Doug. That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet. + Wor. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound. + Hot. What may the King's whole battle reach unto? + Ver. To thirty thousand. + Hot. Forty let it be. + My father and Glendower being both away, + The powers of us may serve so great a day. + Come, let us take a muster speedily. + Doomsday is near. Die all, die merrily. + Doug. Talk not of dying. I am out of fear + Of death or death's hand for this one half-year. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +A public road near Coventry. + +Enter Falstaff and Bardolph. + + Fal. Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of + sack. Our soldiers shall march through. We'll to Sutton Co'fil' + to-night. + Bard. Will you give me money, Captain? + Fal. Lay out, lay out. + Bald. This bottle makes an angel. + Fal. An if it do, take it for thy labour; an if it make twenty, + take them all; I'll answer the coinage. Bid my lieutenant Peto + meet me at town's end. + Bard. I Will, Captain. Farewell. Exit. + Fal. If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a sous'd gurnet. I + have misused the King's press damnably. I have got in exchange of + a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I + press me none but good householders, yeomen's sons; inquire me + out contracted bachelors, such as had been ask'd twice on the + banes- such a commodity of warm slaves as had as lieve hear the + devil as a drum; such as fear the report of a caliver worse than + a struck fowl or a hurt wild duck. I press'd me none but such + toasts-and-butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than + pins' heads, and they have bought out their services; and now my + whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants, + gentlemen of companies- slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the + painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores; and + such as indeed were never soldiers, but discarded unjust + serving-men, younger sons to Younger brothers, revolted tapsters, + and ostlers trade-fall'n; the cankers of a calm world and a long + peace; ten times more dishonourable ragged than an old fac'd + ancient; and such have I to fill up the rooms of them that have + bought out their services that you would think that I had a + hundred and fifty tattered Prodigals lately come from + swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me + on the way, and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and + press'd the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll + not march through Coventry with them, that's flat. Nay, and the + villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; + for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There's but a + shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two + napkins tack'd together and thrown over the shoulders like a + herald's coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, + stol'n from my host at Saint Alban's, or the red-nose innkeeper + of Daventry. But that's all one; they'll find linen enough on + every hedge. + + Enter the Prince and the Lord of Westmoreland. + + Prince. How now, blown Jack? How now, quilt? + Fal. What, Hal? How now, mad wag? What a devil dost thou in + Warwickshire? My good Lord of Westmoreland, I cry you mercy. I + thought your honour had already been at Shrewsbury. + West. Faith, Sir John, 'tis more than time that I were there, and + you too; but my powers are there already. The King, I can tell + you, looks for us all. We must away all, to-night. + Fal. Tut, never fear me. I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream. + Prince. I think, to steal cream indeed, for thy theft hath already + made thee butter. But tell me, Jack, whose fellows are these that + come after? + Fal. Mine, Hal, mine. + Prince. I did never see such pitiful rascals. + Fal. Tut, tut! good enough to toss; food for powder, food for + powder. They'll fill a pit as well as better. Tush, man, mortal + men, mortal men. + West. Ay, but, Sir John, methinks they are exceeding poor and bare- + too beggarly. + Fal. Faith, for their poverty, I know, not where they had that; and + for their bareness, I am surd they never learn'd that of me. + Prince. No, I'll be sworn, unless you call three fingers on the + ribs bare. But, sirrah, make haste. Percy 's already in the + field. +Exit. + Fal. What, is the King encamp'd? + West. He is, Sir John. I fear we shall stay too long. + [Exit.] + Fal. Well, + To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast + Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest. Exit. + + + + +Scene III. +The rebel camp near Shrewsbury. + +Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Douglas, Vernon. + + Hot. We'll fight with him to-night. + Wor. It may not be. + Doug. You give him then advantage. + Ver. Not a whit. + Hot. Why say you so? Looks he no for supply? + Ver. So do we. + Hot. His is certain, ours 's doubtful. + Wor. Good cousin, be advis'd; stir not to-night. + Ver. Do not, my lord. + Doug. You do not counsel well. + You speak it out of fear and cold heart. + Ver. Do me no slander, Douglas. By my life- + And I dare well maintain it with my life- + If well-respected honour bid me on + I hold as little counsel with weak fear + As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives. + Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle + Which of us fears. + Doug. Yea, or to-night. + Ver. Content. + Hot. To-night, say I. + Come, come, it may not be. I wonder much, + Being men of such great leading as you are, + That you foresee not what impediments + Drag back our expedition. Certain horse + Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up. + Your uncle Worcester's horse came but to-day; + And now their pride and mettle is asleep, + Their courage with hard labour tame and dull, + That not a horse is half the half of himself. + Hot. So are the horses of the enemy, + In general journey-bated and brought low. + The better part of ours are full of rest. + Wor. The number of the King exceedeth ours. + For God's sake, cousin, stay till all come in. + + The trumpet sounds a parley. + + Enter Sir Walter Blunt. + + Blunt. I come with gracious offers from the King, + If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect. + Hot. Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt, and would to God + You were of our determination! + Some of us love you well; and even those some + Envy your great deservings and good name, + Because you are not of our quality, + But stand against us like an enemy. + Blunt. And God defend but still I should stand so, + So long as out of limit and true rule + You stand against anointed majesty! + But to my charge. The King hath sent to know + The nature of your griefs; and whereupon + You conjure from the breast of civil peace + Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land + Audacious cruelty. If that the King + Have any way your good deserts forgot, + Which he confesseth to be manifold, + He bids you name your griefs, and with all speed + You shall have your desires with interest, + And pardon absolute for yourself and these + Herein misled by your suggestion. + Hot. The King is kind; and well we know the King + Knows at what time to promise, when to pay. + My father and my uncle and myself + Did give him that same royalty he wears; + And when he was not six-and-twenty strong, + Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low, + A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home, + My father gave him welcome to the shore; + And when he heard him swear and vow to God + He came but to be Duke of Lancaster, + To sue his livery and beg his peace, + With tears of innocency and terms of zeal, + My father, in kind heart and pity mov'd, + Swore him assistance, and performed it too. + Now, when the lords and barons of the realm + Perceiv'd Northumberland did lean to him, + The more and less came in with cap and knee; + Met him on boroughs, cities, villages, + Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes, + Laid gifts before him, proffer'd him their oaths, + Give him their heirs as pages, followed him + Even at the heels in golden multitudes. + He presently, as greatness knows itself, + Steps me a little higher than his vow + Made to my father, while his blood was poor, + Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurgh; + And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform + Some certain edicts and some strait decrees + That lie too heavy on the commonwealth; + Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep + Over his country's wrongs; and by this face, + This seeming brow of justice, did he win + The hearts of all that he did angle for; + Proceeded further- cut me off the heads + Of all the favourites that the absent King + In deputation left behind him here + When he was personal in the Irish war. + But. Tut! I came not to hear this. + Hot. Then to the point. + In short time after lie depos'd the King; + Soon after that depriv'd him of his life; + And in the neck of that task'd the whole state; + To make that worse, suff'red his kinsman March + (Who is, if every owner were well placid, + Indeed his king) to be engag'd in Wales, + There without ransom to lie forfeited; + Disgrac'd me in my happy victories, + Sought to entrap me by intelligence; + Rated mine uncle from the Council board; + In rage dismiss'd my father from the court; + Broke an oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong; + And in conclusion drove us to seek out + This head of safety, and withal to pry + Into his title, the which we find + Too indirect for long continuance. + Blunt. Shall I return this answer to the King? + Hot. Not so, Sir Walter. We'll withdraw awhile. + Go to the King; and let there be impawn'd + Some surety for a safe return again, + And In the morning early shall mine uncle + Bring him our purposes; and so farewell. + Blunt. I would you would accept of grace and love. + Hot. And may be so we shall. + Blunt. Pray God you do. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene IV. +York. The Archbishop's Palace. + +Enter the Archbishop of York and Sir Michael. + + Arch. Hie, good Sir Michael; bear this sealed brief + With winged haste to the Lord Marshal; + This to my cousin Scroop; and all the rest + To whom they are directed. If you knew + How much they do import, you would make haste. + Sir M. My good lord, + I guess their tenour. + Arch. Like enough you do. + To-morrow, good Sir Michael, is a day + Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men + Must bide the touch; for, sir, at Shrewsbury, + As I am truly given to understand, + The King with mighty and quick-raised power + Meets with Lord Harry; and I fear, Sir Michael, + What with the sickness of Northumberland, + Whose power was in the first proportion, + And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence, + Who with them was a rated sinew too + And comes not in, overrul'd by prophecies- + I fear the power of Percy is too weak + To wage an instant trial with the King. + Sir M. Why, my good lord, you need not fear; + There is Douglas and Lord Mortimer. + Arch. No, Mortimer is not there. + Sir M. But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry Percy, + And there is my Lord of Worcester, and a head + Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen. + Arch. And so there is; but yet the King hath drawn + The special head of all the land together- + The Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, + The noble Westmoreland and warlike Blunt, + And many moe corrivals and dear men + Of estimation and command in arms. + Sir M. Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well oppos'd. + Arch. I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear; + And, to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed. + For if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the King + Dismiss his power, he means to visit us, + For he hath heard of our confederacy, + And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him. + Therefore make haste. I must go write again + To other friends; and so farewell, Sir Michael. + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. Scene I. +The King's camp near Shrewsbury. + +Enter the King, Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, Sir Walter Blunt, +Falstaff. + + King. How bloodily the sun begins to peer + Above yon busky hill! The day looks pale + At his distemp'rature. + Prince. The southern wind + Doth play the trumpet to his purposes + And by his hollow whistling in the leaves + Foretells a tempest and a blust'ring day. + King. Theft with the losers let it sympathize, + For nothing can seem foul to those that win. + + The trumpet sounds. Enter Worcester [and Vernon]. + + How, now, my Lord of Worcester? 'Tis not well + That you and I should meet upon such terms + As now we meet. You have deceiv'd our trust + And made us doff our easy robes of peace + To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel. + This is not well, my lord; this is not well. + What say you to it? Will you again unknit + This churlish knot of all-abhorred war, + And move in that obedient orb again + Where you did give a fair and natural light, + And be no more an exhal'd meteor, + A prodigy of fear, and a portent + Of broached mischief to the unborn times? + Wor. Hear me, my liege. + For mine own part, I could be well content + To entertain the lag-end of my life + With quiet hours; for I do protest + I have not sought the day of this dislike. + King. You have not sought it! How comes it then, + Fal. Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it. + Prince. Peace, chewet, peace! + Wor. It pleas'd your Majesty to turn your looks + Of favour from myself and all our house; + And yet I must remember you, my lord, + We were the first and dearest of your friends. + For you my staff of office did I break + In Richard's time, and posted day and night + To meet you on the way and kiss your hand + When yet you were in place and in account + Nothing so strong and fortunate as I. + It was myself, my brother, and his son + That brought you home and boldly did outdare + The dangers of the time. You swore to us, + And you did swear that oath at Doncaster, + That you did nothing purpose 'gainst the state, + Nor claim no further than your new-fall'n right, + The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster. + To this we swore our aid. But in short space + It it rain'd down fortune show'ring on your head, + And such a flood of greatness fell on you- + What with our help, what with the absent King, + What with the injuries of a wanton time, + The seeming sufferances that you had borne, + And the contrarious winds that held the King + So long in his unlucky Irish wars + That all in England did repute him dead- + And from this swarm of fair advantages + You took occasion to be quickly woo'd + To gripe the general sway into your hand; + Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster; + And, being fed by us, you us'd us so + As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird, + Useth the sparrow- did oppress our nest; + Grew, by our feeding to so great a bulk + That even our love thirst not come near your sight + For fear of swallowing; but with nimble wing + We were enforc'd for safety sake to fly + Out of your sight and raise this present head; + Whereby we stand opposed by such means + As you yourself have forg'd against yourself + By unkind usage, dangerous countenance, + And violation of all faith and troth + Sworn to tis in your younger enterprise. + King. These things, indeed, you have articulate, + Proclaim'd at market crosses, read in churches, + To face the garment of rebellion + With some fine colour that may please the eye + Of fickle changelings and poor discontents, + Which gape and rub the elbow at the news + Of hurlyburly innovation. + And never yet did insurrection want + Such water colours to impaint his cause, + Nor moody beggars, starving for a time + Of pell-mell havoc and confusion. + Prince. In both our armies there is many a soul + Shall pay full dearly for this encounter, + If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew + The Prince of Wales doth join with all the world + In praise of Henry Percy. By my hopes, + This present enterprise set off his head, + I do not think a braver gentleman, + More active-valiant or more valiant-young, + More daring or more bold, is now alive + To grace this latter age with noble deeds. + For my part, I may speak it to my shame, + I have a truant been to chivalry; + And so I hear he doth account me too. + Yet this before my father's Majesty- + I am content that he shall take the odds + Of his great name and estimation, + And will to save the blood on either side, + Try fortune with him in a single fight. + King. And, Prince of Wales, so dare we venture thee, + Albeit considerations infinite + Do make against it. No, good Worcester, no! + We love our people well; even those we love + That are misled upon your cousin's part; + And, will they take the offer of our grace, + Both he, and they, and you, yea, every man + Shall be my friend again, and I'll be his. + So tell your cousin, and bring me word + What he will do. But if he will not yield, + Rebuke and dread correction wait on us, + And they shall do their office. So be gone. + We will not now be troubled with reply. + We offer fair; take it advisedly. + Exit Worcester [with Vernon] + Prince. It will not be accepted, on my life. + The Douglas and the Hotspur both together + Are confident against the world in arms. + King. Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge; + For, on their answer, will we set on them, + And God befriend us as our cause is just! + Exeunt. Manent Prince, Falstaff. + Fal. Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and bestride me, so! + 'Tis a point of friendship. + Prince. Nothing but a Colossus can do thee that friendship. + Say thy prayers, and farewell. + Fal. I would 'twere bedtime, Hal, and all well. + Prince. Why, thou owest God a death. +Exit. + Fal. 'Tis not due yet. I would be loath to pay him before his day. + What need I be so forward with him that calls not on me? Well, + 'tis no matter; honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick + me off when I come on? How then? Can honor set to a leg? No. Or + an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no + skill in surgery then? No. What is honour? A word. What is that + word honour? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died a + Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth be bear it? No. 'Tis + insensible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the + living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I'll + none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon- and so ends my catechism. +Exit. + + + + +Scene II. +The rebel camp. + +Enter Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon. + + Wor. O no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard, + The liberal and kind offer of the King. + Ver. 'Twere best he did. + Wor. Then are we all undone. + It is not possible, it cannot be + The King should keep his word in loving us. + He will suspect us still and find a time + To punish this offence in other faults. + Suspicion all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes; + For treason is but trusted like the fox + Who, ne'er so tame, so cherish'd and lock'd up, + Will have a wild trick of his ancestors. + Look how we can, or sad or merrily, + Interpretation will misquote our looks, + And we shall feed like oxen at a stall, + The better cherish'd, still the nearer death. + My nephew's trespass may be well forgot; + It hath the excuse of youth and heat of blood, + And an adopted name of privilege- + A hare-brained Hotspur govern'd by a spleen. + All his offences live upon my head + And on his father's. We did train him on; + And, his corruption being taken from us, + We, as the spring of all, shall pay for all. + Therefore, good cousin, let not Harry know, + In any case, the offer of the King. + + Enter Hotspur [and Douglas]. + + Ver. Deliver what you will, I'll say 'tis so. + Here comes your cousin. + Hot. My uncle is return'd. + Deliver up my Lord of Westmoreland. + Uncle, what news? + Wor. The King will bid you battle presently. + Doug. Defy him by the Lord Of Westmoreland. + Hot. Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so. + Doug. Marry, and shall, and very willingly. +Exit. + Wor. There is no seeming mercy in the King. + Hot. Did you beg any, God forbid! + Wor. I told him gently of our grievances, + Of his oath-breaking; which he mended thus, + By now forswearing that he is forsworn. + He calls us rebels, traitors, aid will scourge + With haughty arms this hateful name in us. + + Enter Douglas. + + Doug. Arm, gentlemen! to arms! for I have thrown + A brave defiance in King Henry's teeth, + And Westmoreland, that was engag'd, did bear it; + Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on. + Wor. The Prince of Wales stepp'd forth before the King + And, nephew, challeng'd you to single fight. + Hot. O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads, + And that no man might draw short breath to-day + But I and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me, + How show'd his tasking? Seem'd it in contempt? + No, by my soul. I never in my life + Did hear a challenge urg'd more modestly, + Unless a brother should a brother dare + To gentle exercise and proof of arms. + He gave you all the duties of a man; + Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue; + Spoke your deservings like a chronicle; + Making you ever better than his praise + By still dispraising praise valued with you; + And, which became him like a prince indeed, + He made a blushing cital of himself, + And chid his truant youth with such a grace + As if lie mast'red there a double spirit + Of teaching and of learning instantly. + There did he pause; but let me tell the world, + If he outlive the envy of this day, + England did never owe so sweet a hope, + So much misconstrued in his wantonness. + Hot. Cousin, I think thou art enamoured + Upon his follies. Never did I hear + Of any prince so wild a libertine. + But be he as he will, yet once ere night + I will embrace him with a soldier's arm, + That he shall shrink under my courtesy. + Arm, arm with speed! and, fellows, soldiers, friends, + Better consider what you have to do + Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue, + Can lift your blood up with persuasion. + + Enter a Messenger. + + Mess. My lord, here are letters for you. + Hot. I cannot read them now.- + O gentlemen, the time of life is short! + To spend that shortness basely were too long + If life did ride upon a dial's point, + Still ending at the arrival of an hour. + An if we live, we live to tread on kings; + If die, brave death, when princes die with us! + Now for our consciences, the arms are fair, + When the intent of bearing them is just. + + Enter another Messenger. + + Mess. My lord, prepare. The King comes on apace. + Hot. I thank him that he cuts me from my tale, + For I profess not talking. Only this- + Let each man do his best; and here draw I + A sword whose temper I intend to stain + With the best blood that I can meet withal + In the adventure of this perilous day. + Now, Esperance! Percy! and set on. + Sound all the lofty instruments of war, + And by that music let us all embrace; + For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall + A second time do such a courtesy. + Here they embrace. The trumpets sound. + [Exeunt.] + + + + +Scene III. +Plain between the camps. + +The King enters with his Power. Alarum to the battle. Then enter Douglas +and Sir Walter Blunt. + + Blunt. What is thy name, that in the battle thus + Thou crossest me? What honour dost thou seek + Upon my head? + Doug. Know then my name is Douglas, + And I do haunt thee in the battle thus + Because some tell me that thou art a king. + Blunt. They tell thee true. + Doug. The Lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought + Thy likeness; for instead of thee, King Harry, + This sword hath ended him. So shall it thee, + Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner. + Blunt. I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot; + And thou shalt find a king that will revenge + Lord Stafford's death. + + They fight. Douglas kills Blunt. Then enter Hotspur. + + Hot. O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus, + I never had triumph'd upon a Scot. + Doug. All's done, all's won. Here breathless lies the King. + Hot. Where? + Doug. Here. + Hot. This, Douglas? No. I know this face full well. + A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt; + Semblably furnish'd like the King himself. + Doug. A fool go with thy soul, whither it goes! + A borrowed title hast thou bought too dear: + Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king? + Hot. The King hath many marching in his coats. + Doug. Now, by my sword, I will kill all his coats; + I'll murder all his wardrop, piece by piece, + Until I meet the King. + Hot. Up and away! + Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day. + Exeunt. + + Alarum. Enter Falstaff solus. + + Fal. Though I could scape shot-free at London, I fear the shot + here. Here's no scoring but upon the pate. Soft! who are you? + Sir Walter Blunt. There's honour for you! Here's no vanity! I am + as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too. God keep lead out of me! + I need no more weight than mine own bowels. I have led my + rag-of-muffins where they are pepper'd. There's not three of my + hundred and fifty left alive; and they are for the town's end, to + beg during life. But who comes here? + + Enter the Prince. + + Prince. What, stand'st thou idle here? Lend me thy sword. + Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff + Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies, + Whose deaths are yet unreveng'd. I prithee + Rend me thy sword. + Fal. O Hal, I prithee give me leave to breathe awhile. Turk Gregory + never did such deeds in arms as I have done this day. I have paid + Percy; I have made him sure. + Prince. He is indeed, and living to kill thee. + I prithee lend me thy sword. + Fal. Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get'st not my + sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt. + Prince. Give it me. What, is it in the case? + Fal. Ay, Hal. 'Tis hot, 'tis hot. There's that will sack a city. + + The Prince draws it out and finds it to he a bottle of sack. + + What, is it a time to jest and dally now? + He throws the bottle at him. Exit. + Fal. Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him. If he do come in my + way, so; if he do not, if I come in his willingly, let him make a + carbonado of me. I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter + hath. Give me life; which if I can save, so; if not, honour comes + unlook'd for, and there's an end. Exit. + + + + +Scene IV. +Another part of the field. + +Alarum. Excursions. Enter the King, the Prince, Lord John of Lancaster, +Earl of Westmoreland + + King. I prithee, + Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleedest too much. + Lord John of Lancaster, go you unto him. + John. Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too. + Prince. I do beseech your Majesty make up, + Lest Your retirement do amaze your friends. + King. I will do so. + My Lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent. + West. Come, my lord, I'll lead you to your tent. + Prince. Lead me, my lord, I do not need your help; + And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive + The Prince of Wales from such a field as this, + Where stain'd nobility lies trodden on, + And rebels' arms triumph in massacres! + John. We breathe too long. Come, cousin Westmoreland, + Our duty this way lies. For God's sake, come. + [Exeunt Prince John and Westmoreland.] + Prince. By God, thou hast deceiv'd me, Lancaster! + I did not think thee lord of such a spirit. + Before, I lov'd thee as a brother, John; + But now, I do respect thee as my soul. + King. I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point + With lustier maintenance than I did look for + Of such an ungrown warrior. + Prince. O, this boy + Lends mettle to us all! Exit. + + Enter Douglas. + + Doug. Another king? They grow like Hydra's heads. + I am the Douglas, fatal to all those + That wear those colours on them. What art thou + That counterfeit'st the person of a king? + King. The King himself, who, Douglas, grieves at heart + So many of his shadows thou hast met, + And not the very King. I have two boys + Seek Percy and thyself about the field; + But, seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily, + I will assay thee. So defend thyself. + Doug. I fear thou art another counterfeit; + And yet, in faith, thou bearest thee like a king. + But mine I am sure thou art, whoe'er thou be, + And thus I win thee. + + They fight. The King being in danger, enter Prince of Wales. + + Prince. Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like + Never to hold it up again! The spirits + Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt are in my arms. + It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee, + Who never promiseth but he means to pay. + They fight. Douglas flieth. + Cheerly, my lord. How fares your Grace? + Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent, + And so hath Clifton. I'll to Clifton straight. + King. Stay and breathe awhile. + Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion, + And show'd thou mak'st some tender of my life, + In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me. + Prince. O God! they did me too much injury + That ever said I heark'ned for your death. + If it were so, I might have let alone + The insulting hand of Douglas over you, + Which would have been as speedy in your end + As all the poisonous potions in the world, + And sav'd the treacherous labour of your son. + King. Make up to Clifton; I'll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey. +Exit. + + Enter Hotspur. + + Hot. If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth. + Prince. Thou speak'st as if I would deny my name. + Hot. My name is Harry Percy. + Prince. Why, then I see + A very valiant rebel of the name. + I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy, + To share with me in glory any more. + Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere, + Nor can one England brook a double reign + Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales. + Hot. Nor shall it, Harry; for the hour is come + To end the one of us and would to God + Thy name in arms were now as great as mine! + Prince. I'll make it greater ere I part from thee, + And all the budding honours on thy crest + I'll crop to make a garland for my head. + Hot. I can no longer brook thy vanities. + They fight. + + Enter Falstaff. + + Fal. Well said, Hal! to it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy's play + here, I can tell you. + + Enter Douglas. He fighteth with Falstaff, who falls down as if + he were dead. [Exit Douglas.] The Prince killeth Percy. + + Hot. O Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth! + I better brook the loss of brittle life + Than those proud titles thou hast won of me. + They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my flesh. + But thoughts the slave, of life, and life time's fool, + And time, that takes survey of all the world, + Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy, + But that the earthy and cold hand of death + Lies on my tongue. No, Percy, thou art dust, + And food for- [Dies.] + Prince. For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart! + Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk! + When that this body did contain a spirit, + A kingdom for it was too small a bound; + But now two paces of the vilest earth + Is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead + Bears not alive so stout a gentleman. + If thou wert sensible of courtesy, + I should not make so dear a show of zeal. + But let my favours hide thy mangled face; + And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself + For doing these fair rites of tenderness. + Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven! + Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave, + But not rememb'red in thy epitaph! + He spieth Falstaff on the ground. + What, old acquaintance? Could not all this flesh + Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell! + I could have better spar'd a better man. + O, I should have a heavy miss of thee + If I were much in love with vanity! + Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day, + Though many dearer, in this bloody fray. + Embowell'd will I see thee by-and-by; + Till then in blood by noble Percy lie. Exit. + + Falstaff riseth up. + + Fal. Embowell'd? If thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to + powder me and eat me too to-morrow. 'Sblood, 'twas time to + counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot + too. Counterfeit? I lie; I am no counterfeit. To die is to be a + counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not + the life of a man; but to counterfeit dying when a man thereby + liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image + of life indeed. The better part of valour is discretion; in the + which better part I have saved my life. Zounds, I am afraid of + this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead. How if he should + counterfeit too, and rise? By my faith, I am afraid he would + prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him sure; yea, + and I'll swear I kill'd him. Why may not he rise as well as I? + Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, + sirrah [stabs him], with a new wound in your thigh, come you + along with me. + + He takes up Hotspur on his hack. [Enter Prince, and John of + Lancaster. + + Prince. Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh'd + Thy maiden sword. + John. But, soft! whom have we here? + Did you not tell me this fat man was dead? + Prince. I did; I saw him dead, + Breathless and bleeding on the ground. Art thou alive, + Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight? + I prithee speak. We will not trust our eyes + Without our ears. Thou art not what thou seem'st. + Fal. No, that's certain! I am not a double man; but if I be not + Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There 's Percy. If your father + will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy + himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you. + Prince. Why, Percy I kill'd myself, and saw thee dead! + Fal. Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I + grant you I was down, and out of breath, and so was he; but we + rose both at an instant and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury + clock. If I may be believ'd, so; if not, let them that should + reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take it + upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh. If the man + were alive and would deny it, zounds! I would make him eat a + piece of my sword. + John. This is the strangest tale that ever I beard. + Prince. This is the strangest fellow, brother John. + Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back. + For my part, if a lie may do thee grace, + I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have. + A retreat is sounded. + The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours. + Come, brother, let's to the highest of the field, + To see what friends are living, who are dead. + Exeunt [Prince Henry and Prince John]. + Fal. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God + reward him! If I do grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge, + and leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do. + Exit [bearing off the body]. + + + + +Scene V. +Another part of the field. + +The trumpets sound. [Enter the King, Prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, +Earl of Westmoreland, with Worcester and Vernon prisoners. + + King. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke. + Ill-spirited Worcester! did not we send grace, + Pardon, and terms of love to all of you? + And wouldst thou turn our offers contrary? + Misuse the tenour of thy kinsman's trust? + Three knights upon our party slain to-day, + A noble earl, and many a creature else + Had been alive this hour, + If like a Christian thou hadst truly borne + Betwixt our armies true intelligence. + Wor. What I have done my safety urg'd me to; + And I embrace this fortune patiently, + Since not to be avoided it fails on me. + King. Bear Worcester to the death, and Vernon too; + Other offenders we will pause upon. + Exeunt Worcester and Vernon, [guarded]. + How goes the field? + Prince. The noble Scot, Lord Douglas, when he saw + The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him, + The Noble Percy slain and all his men + Upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest; + And falling from a hill,he was so bruis'd + That the pursuers took him. At my tent + The Douglas is, and I beseech Your Grace + I may dispose of him. + King. With all my heart. + Prince. Then brother John of Lancaster, to you + This honourable bounty shall belong. + Go to the Douglas and deliver him + Up to his pleasure, ransomless and free. + His valour shown upon our crests today + Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds, + Even in the bosom of our adversaries. + John. I thank your Grace for this high courtesy, + Which I shall give away immediately. + King. Then this remains, that we divide our power. + You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland, + Towards York shall bend you with your dearest speed + To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scroop, + Who, as we hear, are busily in arms. + Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales + To fight with Glendower and the Earl of March. + Rebellion in this laud shall lose his sway, + Meeting the check of such another day; + And since this business so fair is done, + Let us not leave till all our own be won. + Exeunt. + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1598 + + +SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + RUMOUR, the Presenter + KING HENRY THE FOURTH + + HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES, afterwards HENRY + PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER + PRINCE HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER + THOMAS, DUKE OF CLARENCE + Sons of Henry IV + + EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND + SCROOP, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK + LORD MOWBRAY + LORD HASTINGS + LORD BARDOLPH + SIR JOHN COLVILLE + TRAVERS and MORTON, retainers of Northumberland + Opposites against King Henry IV + + EARL OF WARWICK + EARL OF WESTMORELAND + EARL OF SURREY + EARL OF KENT + GOWER + HARCOURT + BLUNT + Of the King's party + + LORD CHIEF JUSTICE + SERVANT, to Lord Chief Justice + + SIR JOHN FALSTAFF + EDWARD POINS + BARDOLPH + PISTOL + PETO + Irregular humourists + + PAGE, to Falstaff + + ROBERT SHALLOW and SILENCE, country Justices + DAVY, servant to Shallow + + FANG and SNARE, Sheriff's officers + + RALPH MOULDY + SIMON SHADOW + THOMAS WART + FRANCIS FEEBLE + PETER BULLCALF + Country soldiers + + FRANCIS, a drawer + + LADY NORTHUMBERLAND + LADY PERCY, Percy's widow + HOSTESS QUICKLY, of the Boar's Head, Eastcheap + DOLL TEARSHEET + + LORDS, Attendants, Porter, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, Servants, + Speaker of the Epilogue + + SCENE: England + +INDUCTION + INDUCTION. + Warkworth. Before NORTHUMBERLAND'S Castle + + Enter RUMOUR, painted full of tongues + + RUMOUR. Open your ears; for which of you will stop + The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks? + I, from the orient to the drooping west, + Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold + The acts commenced on this ball of earth. + Upon my tongues continual slanders ride, + The which in every language I pronounce, + Stuffing the ears of men with false reports. + I speak of peace while covert emnity, + Under the smile of safety, wounds the world; + And who but Rumour, who but only I, + Make fearful musters and prepar'd defence, + Whiles the big year, swoln with some other grief, + Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war, + And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe + Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures, + And of so easy and so plain a stop + That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, + The still-discordant wav'ring multitude, + Can play upon it. But what need I thus + My well-known body to anatomize + Among my household? Why is Rumour here? + I run before King Harry's victory, + Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury, + Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops, + Quenching the flame of bold rebellion + Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I + To speak so true at first? My office is + To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell + Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword, + And that the King before the Douglas' rage + Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death. + This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns + Between that royal field of Shrewsbury + And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone, + Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland, + Lies crafty-sick. The posts come tiring on, + And not a man of them brings other news + Than they have learnt of me. From Rumour's tongues + They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs. + Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Warkworth. Before NORTHUMBERLAND'S Castle + +Enter LORD BARDOLPH + + LORD BARDOLPH. Who keeps the gate here, ho? + + The PORTER opens the gate + + Where is the Earl? + PORTER. What shall I say you are? + LORD BARDOLPH. Tell thou the Earl + That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here. + PORTER. His lordship is walk'd forth into the orchard. + Please it your honour knock but at the gate, + And he himself will answer. + + Enter NORTHUMBERLAND + + LORD BARDOLPH. Here comes the Earl. Exit PORTER + NORTHUMBERLAND. What news, Lord Bardolph? Every minute now + Should be the father of some stratagem. + The times are wild; contention, like a horse + Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose + And bears down all before him. + LORD BARDOLPH. Noble Earl, + I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Good, an God will! + LORD BARDOLPH. As good as heart can wish. + The King is almost wounded to the death; + And, in the fortune of my lord your son, + Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts + Kill'd by the hand of Douglas; young Prince John, + And Westmoreland, and Stafford, fled the field; + And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk Sir John, + Is prisoner to your son. O, such a day, + So fought, so followed, and so fairly won, + Came not till now to dignify the times, + Since Cxsar's fortunes! + NORTHUMBERLAND. How is this deriv'd? + Saw you the field? Came you from Shrewsbury? + LORD BARDOLPH. I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence; + A gentleman well bred and of good name, + That freely rend'red me these news for true. + + Enter TRAVERS + + NORTHUMBERLAND. Here comes my servant Travers, whom I sent + On Tuesday last to listen after news. + LORD BARDOLPH. My lord, I over-rode him on the way; + And he is furnish'd with no certainties + More than he haply may retail from me. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Now, Travers, what good tidings comes with you? + TRAVERS. My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back + With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd, + Out-rode me. After him came spurring hard + A gentleman, almost forspent with speed, + That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse. + He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him + I did demand what news from Shrewsbury. + He told me that rebellion had bad luck, + And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold. + With that he gave his able horse the head + And, bending forward, struck his armed heels + Against the panting sides of his poor jade + Up to the rowel-head; and starting so, + He seem'd in running to devour the way, + Staying no longer question. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Ha! Again: + Said he young Harry Percy's spur was cold? + Of Hotspur, Coldspur? that rebellion + Had met ill luck? + LORD BARDOLPH. My lord, I'll tell you what: + If my young lord your son have not the day, + Upon mine honour, for a silken point + I'll give my barony. Never talk of it. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Why should that gentleman that rode by Travers + Give then such instances of loss? + LORD BARDOLPH. Who- he? + He was some hilding fellow that had stol'n + The horse he rode on and, upon my life, + Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news. + + Enter Morton + + NORTHUMBERLAND. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf, + Foretells the nature of a tragic volume. + So looks the strand whereon the imperious flood + Hath left a witness'd usurpation. + Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury? + MORTON. I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord; + Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask + To fright our party. + NORTHUMBERLAND. How doth my son and brother? + Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek + Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand. + Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless, + So dull, so dread in look, so woe-begone, + Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night + And would have told him half his Troy was burnt; + But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue, + And I my Percy's death ere thou report'st it. + This thou wouldst say: 'Your son did thus and thus; + Your brother thus; so fought the noble Douglas'- + Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds; + But in the end, to stop my ear indeed, + Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise, + Ending with 'Brother, son, and all, are dead.' + MORTON. Douglas is living, and your brother, yet; + But for my lord your son- + NORTHUMBERLAND. Why, he is dead. + See what a ready tongue suspicion hath! + He that but fears the thing he would not know + Hath by instinct knowledge from others' eyes + That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton; + Tell thou an earl his divination lies, + And I will take it as a sweet disgrace + And make thee rich for doing me such wrong. + MORTON. You are too great to be by me gainsaid; + Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead. + I see a strange confession in thine eye; + Thou shak'st thy head, and hold'st it fear or sin + To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so: + The tongue offends not that reports his death; + And he doth sin that doth belie the dead, + Not he which says the dead is not alive. + Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news + Hath but a losing office, and his tongue + Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, + Rememb'red tolling a departing friend. + LORD BARDOLPH. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. + MORTON. I am sorry I should force you to believe + That which I would to God I had not seen; + But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state, + Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out-breath'd, + To Harry Monmouth, whose swift wrath beat down + The never-daunted Percy to the earth, + From whence with life he never more sprung up. + In few, his death- whose spirit lent a fire + Even to the dullest peasant in his camp- + Being bruited once, took fire and heat away + From the best-temper'd courage in his troops; + For from his metal was his party steeled; + Which once in him abated, an the rest + Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead. + And as the thing that's heavy in itself + Upon enforcement flies with greatest speed, + So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss, + Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear + That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim + Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety, + Fly from the field. Then was that noble Worcester + Too soon ta'en prisoner; and that furious Scot, + The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword + Had three times slain th' appearance of the King, + Gan vail his stomach and did grace the shame + Of those that turn'd their backs, and in his flight, + Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all + Is that the King hath won, and hath sent out + A speedy power to encounter you, my lord, + Under the conduct of young Lancaster + And Westmoreland. This is the news at full. + NORTHUMBERLAND. For this I shall have time enough to mourn. + In poison there is physic; and these news, + Having been well, that would have made me sick, + Being sick, have in some measure made me well; + And as the wretch whose fever-weak'ned joints, + Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life, + Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire + Out of his keeper's arms, even so my limbs, + Weak'ned with grief, being now enrag'd with grief, + Are thrice themselves. Hence, therefore, thou nice crutch! + A scaly gauntlet now with joints of steel + Must glove this hand; and hence, thou sickly coif! + Thou art a guard too wanton for the head + Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit. + Now bind my brows with iron; and approach + The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring + To frown upon th' enrag'd Northumberland! + Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not Nature's hand + Keep the wild flood confin'd! Let order die! + And let this world no longer be a stage + To feed contention in a ling'ring act; + But let one spirit of the first-born Cain + Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set + On bloody courses, the rude scene may end + And darkness be the burier of the dead! + LORD BARDOLPH. This strained passion doth you wrong, my lord. + MORTON. Sweet Earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour. + The lives of all your loving complices + Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er + To stormy passion, must perforce decay. + You cast th' event of war, my noble lord, + And summ'd the account of chance before you said + 'Let us make head.' It was your pre-surmise + That in the dole of blows your son might drop. + You knew he walk'd o'er perils on an edge, + More likely to fall in than to get o'er; + You were advis'd his flesh was capable + Of wounds and scars, and that his forward spirit + Would lift him where most trade of danger rang'd; + Yet did you say 'Go forth'; and none of this, + Though strongly apprehended, could restrain + The stiff-borne action. What hath then befall'n, + Or what hath this bold enterprise brought forth + More than that being which was like to be? + LORD BARDOLPH. We all that are engaged to this loss + Knew that we ventured on such dangerous seas + That if we wrought out life 'twas ten to one; + And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd + Chok'd the respect of likely peril fear'd; + And since we are o'erset, venture again. + Come, we will put forth, body and goods. + MORTON. 'Tis more than time. And, my most noble lord, + I hear for certain, and dare speak the truth: + The gentle Archbishop of York is up + With well-appointed pow'rs. He is a man + Who with a double surety binds his followers. + My lord your son had only but the corpse, + But shadows and the shows of men, to fight; + For that same word 'rebellion' did divide + The action of their bodies from their souls; + And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd, + As men drink potions; that their weapons only + Seem'd on our side, but for their spirits and souls + This word 'rebellion'- it had froze them up, + As fish are in a pond. But now the Bishop + Turns insurrection to religion. + Suppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts, + He's follow'd both with body and with mind; + And doth enlarge his rising with the blood + Of fair King Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret stones; + Derives from heaven his quarrel and his cause; + Tells them he doth bestride a bleeding land, + Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke; + And more and less do flock to follow him. + NORTHUMBERLAND. I knew of this before; but, to speak truth, + This present grief had wip'd it from my mind. + Go in with me; and counsel every man + The aptest way for safety and revenge. + Get posts and letters, and make friends with speed- + Never so few, and never yet more need. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +London. A street + +Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, with his PAGE bearing his sword and buckler + + FALSTAFF. Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my water? + PAGE. He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy water; but + for the party that owed it, he might have moe diseases than he + knew for. + FALSTAFF. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me. The brain of + this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent anything + that intends to laughter, more than I invent or is invented on + me. I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in + other men. I do here walk before thee like a sow that hath + overwhelm'd all her litter but one. If the Prince put thee into + my service for any other reason than to set me off, why then I + have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to be + worn in my cap than to wait at my heels. I was never mann'd with + an agate till now; but I will inset you neither in gold nor + silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your + master, for a jewel- the juvenal, the Prince your master, whose + chin is not yet fledge. I will sooner have a beard grow in the + palm of my hand than he shall get one off his cheek; and yet he + will not stick to say his face is a face-royal. God may finish it + when he will, 'tis not a hair amiss yet. He may keep it still at + a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn sixpence out of it; + and yet he'll be crowing as if he had writ man ever since his + father was a bachelor. He may keep his own grace, but he's almost + out of mine, I can assure him. What said Master Dommelton about + the satin for my short cloak and my slops? + PAGE. He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance than + Bardolph. He would not take his band and yours; he liked not the + security. + FALSTAFF. Let him be damn'd, like the Glutton; pray God his tongue + be hotter! A whoreson Achitophel! A rascal-yea-forsooth knave, to + bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon security! The + whoreson smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and + bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is through with + them in honest taking-up, then they must stand upon security. I + had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth as offer to stop + it with security. I look'd 'a should have sent me two and twenty + yards of satin, as I am a true knight, and he sends me security. + Well, he may sleep in security; for he hath the horn of + abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it; and + yet cannot he see, though he have his own lanthorn to light him. + Where's Bardolph? + PAGE. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship horse. + FALSTAFF. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in + Smithfield. An I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were + mann'd, hors'd, and wiv'd. + + Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and SERVANT + + PAGE. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the + Prince for striking him about Bardolph. + FALSTAFF. Wait close; I will not see him. + CHIEF JUSTICE. What's he that goes there? + SERVANT. Falstaff, an't please your lordship. + CHIEF JUSTICE. He that was in question for the robb'ry? + SERVANT. He, my lord; but he hath since done good service at + Shrewsbury, and, as I hear, is now going with some charge to the + Lord John of Lancaster. + CHIEF JUSTICE. What, to York? Call him back again. + SERVANT. Sir John Falstaff! + FALSTAFF. Boy, tell him I am deaf. + PAGE. You must speak louder; my master is deaf. + CHIEF JUSTICE. I am sure he is, to the hearing of anything good. + Go, pluck him by the elbow; I must speak with him. + SERVANT. Sir John! + FALSTAFF. What! a young knave, and begging! Is there not wars? Is + there not employment? Doth not the King lack subjects? Do not the + rebels need soldiers? Though it be a shame to be on any side but + one, it is worse shame to beg than to be on the worst side, were + it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it. + SERVANT. You mistake me, sir. + FALSTAFF. Why, sir, did I say you were an honest man? Setting my + knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied in my throat if I + had said so. + SERVANT. I pray you, sir, then set your knighthood and your + soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you you in your + throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man. + FALSTAFF. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that which + grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou + tak'st leave, thou wert better be hang'd. You hunt counter. + Hence! Avaunt! + SERVANT. Sir, my lord would speak with you. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you. + FALSTAFF. My good lord! God give your lordship good time of day. I + am glad to see your lordship abroad. I heard say your lordship + was sick; I hope your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your + lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some smack + of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time; and I most + humbly beseech your lordship to have a reverend care of your + health. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Sir John, I sent for you before your expedition to + Shrewsbury. + FALSTAFF. An't please your lordship, I hear his Majesty is return'd + with some discomfort from Wales. + CHIEF JUSTICE. I talk not of his Majesty. You would not come when I + sent for you. + FALSTAFF. And I hear, moreover, his Highness is fall'n into this + same whoreson apoplexy. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Well God mend him! I pray you let me speak with you. + FALSTAFF. This apoplexy, as I take it, is a kind of lethargy, an't + please your lordship, a kind of sleeping in the blood, a whoreson + tingling. + CHIEF JUSTICE. What tell you me of it? Be it as it is. + FALSTAFF. It hath it original from much grief, from study, and + perturbation of the brain. I have read the cause of his effects + in Galen; it is a kind of deafness. + CHIEF JUSTICE. I think you are fall'n into the disease, for you + hear not what I say to you. + FALSTAFF. Very well, my lord, very well. Rather an't please you, it + is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that + I am troubled withal. + CHIEF JUSTICE. To punish you by the heels would amend the attention + of your ears; and I care not if I do become your physician. + FALSTAFF. I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient. Your + lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me in respect + of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your + prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or + indeed a scruple itself. + CHIEF JUSTICE. I sent for you, when there were matters against you + for your life, to come speak with me. + FALSTAFF. As I was then advis'd by my learned counsel in the laws + of this land-service, I did not come. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great + infamy. + FALSTAFF. He that buckles himself in my belt cannot live in less. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Your means are very slender, and your waste is + great. + FALSTAFF. I would it were otherwise; I would my means were greater + and my waist slenderer. + CHIEF JUSTICE. You have misled the youthful Prince. + FALSTAFF. The young Prince hath misled me. I am the fellow with the + great belly, and he my dog. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, I am loath to gall a new-heal'd wound. Your + day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your + night's exploit on Gadshill. You may thank th' unquiet time for + your quiet o'erposting that action. + FALSTAFF. My lord- + CHIEF JUSTICE. But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a + sleeping wolf. + FALSTAFF. To wake a wolf is as bad as smell a fox. + CHIEF JUSTICE. What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt + out. + FALSTAFF. A wassail candle, my lord- all tallow; if I did say of + wax, my growth would approve the truth. + CHIEF JUSTICE. There is not a white hair in your face but should + have his effect of gravity. + FALSTAFF. His effect of gravy, gravy, + CHIEF JUSTICE. You follow the young Prince up and down, like his + ill angel. + FALSTAFF. Not so, my lord. Your ill angel is light; but hope he + that looks upon me will take me without weighing. And yet in some + respects, I grant, I cannot go- I cannot tell. Virtue is of so + little regard in these costermongers' times that true valour is + turn'd berod; pregnancy is made a tapster, and his quick wit + wasted in giving reckonings; all the other gifts appertinent to + man, as the malice of this age shapes them, are not worth a + gooseberry. You that are old consider not the capacities of us + that are young; you do measure the heat of our livers with the + bitterness of your galls; and we that are in the vaward of our + youth, must confess, are wags too. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, + that are written down old with all the characters of age? Have + you not a moist eye, a dry hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a + decreasing leg, an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken, + your wind short, your chin double, your wit single, and every + part about you blasted with antiquity? And will you yet call + yourself young? Fie, fie, fie, Sir John! + FALSTAFF. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the + afternoon, with a white head and something a round belly. For my + voice- I have lost it with hallooing and singing of anthems. To + approve my youth further, I will not. The truth is, I am only old + in judgment and understanding; and he that will caper with me for + a thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him. For + the box of the ear that the Prince gave you- he gave it like a + rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have check'd + him for it; and the young lion repents- marry, not in ashes and + sackcloth, but in new silk and old sack. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, God send the Prince a better companion! + FALSTAFF. God send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my + hands of him. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, the King hath sever'd you. I hear you are + going with Lord John of Lancaster against the Archbishop and the + Earl of Northumberland. + FALSTAFF. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look you + pray, all you that kiss my Lady Peace at home, that our armies + join not in a hot day; for, by the Lord, I take but two shirts + out with me, and I mean not to sweat extraordinarily. If it be a + hot day, and I brandish anything but a bottle, I would I might + never spit white again. There is not a dangerous action can peep + out his head but I am thrust upon it. Well, I cannot last ever; + but it was alway yet the trick of our English nation, if they + have a good thing, to make it too common. If ye will needs say I + am an old man, you should give me rest. I would to God my name + were not so terrible to the enemy as it is. I were better to be + eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with + perpetual motion. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Well, be honest, be honest; and God bless your + expedition! + FALSTAFF. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound to furnish me + forth? + CHIEF JUSTICE. Not a penny, not a penny; you are too impatient to + bear crosses. Fare you well. Commend me to my cousin + Westmoreland. + Exeunt CHIEF JUSTICE and SERVANT + FALSTAFF. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle. A man can no + more separate age and covetousness than 'a can part young limbs + and lechery; but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the + other; and so both the degrees prevent my curses. Boy! + PAGE. Sir? + FALSTAFF. What money is in my purse? + PAGE. Seven groats and two pence. + FALSTAFF. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the + purse; borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease + is incurable. Go bear this letter to my Lord of Lancaster; this + to the Prince; this to the Earl of Westmoreland; and this to old + Mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn to marry since I + perceiv'd the first white hair of my chin. About it; you know + where to find me. [Exit PAGE] A pox of this gout! or, a gout of + this pox! for the one or the other plays the rogue with my great + toe. 'Tis no matter if I do halt; I have the wars for my colour, + and my pension shall seem the more reasonable. A good wit will + make use of anything. I will turn diseases to commodity. + Exit + + + + +SCENE III. +York. The ARCHBISHOP'S palace + +Enter the ARCHBISHOP, THOMAS MOWBRAY the EARL MARSHAL, LORD HASTINGS, +and LORD BARDOLPH + + ARCHBISHOP. Thus have you heard our cause and known our means; + And, my most noble friends, I pray you all + Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes- + And first, Lord Marshal, what say you to it? + MOWBRAY. I well allow the occasion of our amis; + But gladly would be better satisfied + How, in our means, we should advance ourselves + To look with forehead bold and big enough + Upon the power and puissance of the King. + HASTINGS. Our present musters grow upon the file + To five and twenty thousand men of choice; + And our supplies live largely in the hope + Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns + With an incensed fire of injuries. + LORD BARDOLPH. The question then, Lord Hastings, standeth thus: + Whether our present five and twenty thousand + May hold up head without Northumberland? + HASTINGS. With him, we may. + LORD BARDOLPH. Yea, marry, there's the point; + But if without him we be thought too feeble, + My judgment is we should not step too far + Till we had his assistance by the hand; + For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this, + Conjecture, expectation, and surmise + Of aids incertain, should not be admitted. + ARCHBISHOP. 'Tis very true, Lord Bardolph; for indeed + It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury. + LORD BARDOLPH. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with hope, + Eating the air and promise of supply, + Flatt'ring himself in project of a power + Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts; + And so, with great imagination + Proper to madmen, led his powers to death, + And, winking, leapt into destruction. + HASTINGS. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt + To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope. + LORD BARDOLPH. Yes, if this present quality of war- + Indeed the instant action, a cause on foot- + Lives so in hope, as in an early spring + We see th' appearing buds; which to prove fruit + Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair + That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build, + We first survey the plot, then draw the model; + And when we see the figure of the house, + Then we must rate the cost of the erection; + Which if we find outweighs ability, + What do we then but draw anew the model + In fewer offices, or at least desist + To build at all? Much more, in this great work- + Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down + And set another up- should we survey + The plot of situation and the model, + Consent upon a sure foundation, + Question surveyors, know our own estate + How able such a work to undergo- + To weigh against his opposite; or else + We fortify in paper and in figures, + Using the names of men instead of men; + Like one that draws the model of a house + Beyond his power to build it; who, half through, + Gives o'er and leaves his part-created cost + A naked subject to the weeping clouds + And waste for churlish winter's tyranny. + HASTINGS. Grant that our hopes- yet likely of fair birth- + Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd + The utmost man of expectation, + I think we are so a body strong enough, + Even as we are, to equal with the King. + LORD BARDOLPH. What, is the King but five and twenty thousand? + HASTINGS. To us no more; nay, not so much, Lord Bardolph; + For his divisions, as the times do brawl, + Are in three heads: one power against the French, + And one against Glendower; perforce a third + Must take up us. So is the unfirm King + In three divided; and his coffers sound + With hollow poverty and emptiness. + ARCHBISHOP. That he should draw his several strengths together + And come against us in full puissance + Need not be dreaded. + HASTINGS. If he should do so, + He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh + Baying at his heels. Never fear that. + LORD BARDOLPH. Who is it like should lead his forces hither? + HASTINGS. The Duke of Lancaster and Westmoreland; + Against the Welsh, himself and Harry Monmouth; + But who is substituted against the French + I have no certain notice. + ARCHBISHOP. Let us on, + And publish the occasion of our arms. + The commonwealth is sick of their own choice; + Their over-greedy love hath surfeited. + An habitation giddy and unsure + Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart. + O thou fond many, with what loud applause + Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke + Before he was what thou wouldst have him be! + And being now trimm'd in thine own desires, + Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him + That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up. + So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge + Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard; + And now thou wouldst eat thy dead vomit up, + And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these times? + They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die + Are now become enamour'd on his grave. + Thou that threw'st dust upon his goodly head, + When through proud London he came sighing on + After th' admired heels of Bolingbroke, + Criest now 'O earth, yield us that king again, + And take thou this!' O thoughts of men accurs'd! + Past and to come seems best; things present, worst. + MOWBRAY. Shall we go draw our numbers, and set on? + HASTINGS. We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone. + Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +London. A street + +Enter HOSTESS with two officers, FANG and SNARE + + HOSTESS. Master Fang, have you ent'red the action? + FANG. It is ent'red. + HOSTESS. Where's your yeoman? Is't a lusty yeoman? Will 'a stand + to't? + FANG. Sirrah, where's Snare? + HOSTESS. O Lord, ay! good Master Snare. + SNARE. Here, here. + FANG. Snare, we must arrest Sir John Falstaff. + HOSTESS. Yea, good Master Snare; I have ent'red him and all. + SNARE. It may chance cost some of our lives, for he will stab. + HOSTESS. Alas the day! take heed of him; he stabb'd me in mine own + house, and that most beastly. In good faith, 'a cares not what + mischief he does, if his weapon be out; he will foin like any + devil; he will spare neither man, woman, nor child. + FANG. If I can close with him, I care not for his thrust. + HOSTESS. No, nor I neither; I'll be at your elbow. + FANG. An I but fist him once; an 'a come but within my vice! + HOSTESS. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he's an + infinitive thing upon my score. Good Master Fang, hold him sure. + Good Master Snare, let him not scape. 'A comes continuantly to + Pie-corner- saving your manhoods- to buy a saddle; and he is + indited to dinner to the Lubber's Head in Lumbert Street, to + Master Smooth's the silkman. I pray you, since my exion is + ent'red, and my case so openly known to the world, let him be + brought in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long one for a poor + lone woman to bear; and I have borne, and borne, and borne; and + have been fubb'd off, and fubb'd off, and fubb'd off, from this + day to that day, that it is a shame to be thought on. There is no + honesty in such dealing; unless a woman should be made an ass and + a beast, to bear every knave's wrong. + + Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, PAGE, and BARDOLPH + + Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmsey-nose knave, Bardolph, + with him. Do your offices, do your offices, Master Fang and + Master Snare; do me, do me, do me your offices. + FALSTAFF. How now! whose mare's dead? What's the matter? + FANG. Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of Mistress Quickly. + FALSTAFF. Away, varlets! Draw, Bardolph. Cut me off the villian's + head. Throw the quean in the channel. + HOSTESS. Throw me in the channel! I'll throw thee in the channel. + Wilt thou? wilt thou? thou bastardly rogue! Murder, murder! Ah, + thou honeysuckle villain! wilt thou kill God's officers and the + King's? Ah, thou honey-seed rogue! thou art a honey-seed; a + man-queller and a woman-queller. + FALSTAFF. Keep them off, Bardolph. + FANG. A rescue! a rescue! + HOSTESS. Good people, bring a rescue or two. Thou wot, wot thou! + thou wot, wot ta? Do, do, thou rogue! do, thou hemp-seed! + PAGE. Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you fustilarian! + I'll tickle your catastrophe. + + Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and his men + + CHIEF JUSTICE. What is the matter? Keep the peace here, ho! + HOSTESS. Good my lord, be good to me. I beseech you, stand to me. + CHIEF JUSTICE. How now, Sir John! what, are you brawling here? + Doth this become your place, your time, and business? + You should have been well on your way to York. + Stand from him, fellow; wherefore hang'st thou upon him? + HOSTESS. O My most worshipful lord, an't please your Grace, I am a + poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my suit. + CHIEF JUSTICE. For what sum? + HOSTESS. It is more than for some, my lord; it is for all- all I + have. He hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my + substance into that fat belly of his. But I will have some of it + out again, or I will ride thee a nights like a mare. + FALSTAFF. I think I am as like to ride the mare, if I have any + vantage of ground to get up. + CHIEF JUSTICE. How comes this, Sir John? Fie! What man of good + temper would endure this tempest of exclamation? Are you not + ashamed to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to come by + her own? + FALSTAFF. What is the gross sum that I owe thee? + HOSTESS. Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself and the money + too. Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in + my Dolphin chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon + Wednesday in Wheeson week, when the Prince broke thy head for + liking his father to singing-man of Windsor- thou didst swear to + me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me and make me my + lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, the + butcher's wife, come in then and call me gossip Quickly? Coming + in to borrow a mess of vinegar, telling us she had a good dish of + prawns, whereby thou didst desire to eat some, whereby I told + thee they were ill for green wound? And didst thou not, when she + was gone down stairs, desire me to be no more so familiarity with + such poor people, saying that ere long they should call me madam? + And didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch the thirty + shillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath. Deny it, if thou + canst. + FALSTAFF. My lord, this is a poor mad soul, and she says up and + down the town that her eldest son is like you. She hath been in + good case, and, the truth is, poverty hath distracted her. But + for these foolish officers, I beseech you I may have redress + against them. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Sir John, Sir John, I am well acquainted with your + manner of wrenching the true cause the false way. It is not a + confident brow, nor the throng of words that come with such more + than impudent sauciness from you, can thrust me from a level + consideration. You have, as it appears to me, practis'd upon the + easy yielding spirit of this woman, and made her serve your uses + both in purse and in person. + HOSTESS. Yea, in truth, my lord. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Pray thee, peace. Pay her the debt you owe her, and + unpay the villainy you have done with her; the one you may do + with sterling money, and the other with current repentance. + FALSTAFF. My lord, I will not undergo this sneap without reply. You + call honourable boldness impudent sauciness; if a man will make + curtsy and say nothing, he is virtuous. No, my lord, my humble + duty rememb'red, I will not be your suitor. I say to you I do + desire deliverance from these officers, being upon hasty + employment in the King's affairs. + CHIEF JUSTICE. You speak as having power to do wrong; but answer in + th' effect of your reputation, and satisfy the poor woman. + FALSTAFF. Come hither, hostess. + + Enter GOWER + + CHIEF JUSTICE. Now, Master Gower, what news? + GOWER. The King, my lord, and Harry Prince of Wales + Are near at hand. The rest the paper tells. [Gives a letter] + FALSTAFF. As I am a gentleman! + HOSTESS. Faith, you said so before. + FALSTAFF. As I am a gentleman! Come, no more words of it. + HOSTESS. By this heavenly ground I tread on, I must be fain to pawn + both my plate and the tapestry of my dining-chambers. + FALSTAFF. Glasses, glasses, is the only drinking; and for thy + walls, a pretty slight drollery, or the story of the Prodigal, or + the German hunting, in water-work, is worth a thousand of these + bed-hangers and these fly-bitten tapestries. Let it be ten pound, + if thou canst. Come, and 'twere not for thy humours, there's not + a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face, and draw the + action. Come, thou must not be in this humour with me; dost not + know me? Come, come, I know thou wast set on to this. + HOSTESS. Pray thee, Sir John, let it be but twenty nobles; + i' faith, I am loath to pawn my plate, so God save me, la! + FALSTAFF. Let it alone; I'll make other shift. You'll be a fool + still. + HOSTESS. Well, you shall have it, though I pawn my gown. + I hope you'll come to supper. you'll pay me all together? + FALSTAFF. Will I live? [To BARDOLPH] Go, with her, with her; hook + on, hook on. + HOSTESS. Will you have Doll Tearsheet meet you at supper? + FALSTAFF. No more words; let's have her. + Exeunt HOSTESS, BARDOLPH, and OFFICERS + CHIEF JUSTICE. I have heard better news. + FALSTAFF. What's the news, my lord? + CHIEF JUSTICE. Where lay the King to-night? + GOWER. At Basingstoke, my lord. + FALSTAFF. I hope, my lord, all's well. What is the news, my lord? + CHIEF JUSTICE. Come all his forces back? + GOWER. No; fifteen hundred foot, five hundred horse, + Are march'd up to my Lord of Lancaster, + Against Northumberland and the Archbishop. + FALSTAFF. Comes the King back from Wales, my noble lord? + CHIEF JUSTICE. You shall have letters of me presently. + Come, go along with me, good Master Gower. + FALSTAFF. My lord! + CHIEF JUSTICE. What's the matter? + FALSTAFF. Master Gower, shall I entreat you with me to dinner? + GOWER. I must wait upon my good lord here, I thank you, good Sir + John. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Sir John, you loiter here too long, being you are to + take soldiers up in counties as you go. + FALSTAFF. Will you sup with me, Master Gower? + CHIEF JUSTICE. What foolish master taught you these manners, Sir + John? + FALSTAFF. Master Gower, if they become me not, he was a fool that + taught them me. This is the right fencing grace, my lord; tap for + tap, and so part fair. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Now, the Lord lighten thee! Thou art a great fool. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +London. Another street + +Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS + + PRINCE. Before God, I am exceeding weary. + POINS. Is't come to that? I had thought weariness durst not have + attach'd one of so high blood. + PRINCE. Faith, it does me; though it discolours the complexion of + my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not show vilely in me to + desire small beer? + POINS. Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied as to + remember so weak a composition. + PRINCE. Belike then my appetite was not-princely got; for, by my + troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer. But + indeed these humble considerations make me out of love with my + greatness. What a disgrace is it to me to remember thy name, or + to know thy face to-morrow, or to take note how many pair of silk + stockings thou hast- viz., these, and those that were thy + peach-colour'd ones- or to bear the inventory of thy shirts- as, + one for superfluity, and another for use! But that the + tennis-court-keeper knows better than I; for it is a low ebb of + linen with thee when thou keepest not racket there; as thou hast + not done a great while, because the rest of thy low countries + have made a shift to eat up thy holland. And God knows whether + those that bawl out of the ruins of thy linen shall inherit his + kingdom; but the midwives say the children are not in the fault; + whereupon the world increases, and kindreds are mightily + strengthened. + POINS. How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard, you + should talk so idly! Tell me, how many good young princes would + do so, their fathers being so sick as yours at this time is? + PRINCE. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins? + POINS. Yes, faith; and let it be an excellent good thing. + PRINCE. It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine. + POINS. Go to; I stand the push of your one thing that you will + tell. + PRINCE. Marry, I tell thee it is not meet that I should be sad, now + my father is sick; albeit I could tell to thee- as to one it + pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend- I could be + sad and sad indeed too. + POINS. Very hardly upon such a subject. + PRINCE. By this hand, thou thinkest me as far in the devil's book + as thou and Falstaff for obduracy and persistency: let the end + try the man. But I tell thee my heart bleeds inwardly that my + father is so sick; and keeping such vile company as thou art hath + in reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow. + POINS. The reason? + PRINCE. What wouldst thou think of me if I should weep? + POINS. I would think thee a most princely hypocrite. + PRINCE. It would be every man's thought; and thou art a blessed + fellow to think as every man thinks. Never a man's thought in the + world keeps the road-way better than thine. Every man would think + me an hypocrite indeed. And what accites your most worshipful + thought to think so? + POINS. Why, because you have been so lewd and so much engraffed to + Falstaff. + PRINCE. And to thee. + POINS. By this light, I am well spoke on; I can hear it with mine + own ears. The worst that they can say of me is that I am a second + brother and that I am a proper fellow of my hands; and those two + things, I confess, I cannot help. By the mass, here comes + Bardolph. + + Enter BARDOLPH and PAGE + + PRINCE. And the boy that I gave Falstaff. 'A had him from me + Christian; and look if the fat villain have not transform'd him + ape. + BARDOLPH. God save your Grace! + PRINCE. And yours, most noble Bardolph! + POINS. Come, you virtuous ass, you bashful fool, must you be + blushing? Wherefore blush you now? What a maidenly man-at-arms + are you become! Is't such a matter to get a pottle-pot's + maidenhead? + PAGE. 'A calls me e'en now, my lord, through a red lattice, and I + could discern no part of his face from the window. At last I + spied his eyes; and methought he had made two holes in the + alewife's new petticoat, and so peep'd through. + PRINCE. Has not the boy profited? + BARDOLPH. Away, you whoreson upright rabbit, away! + PAGE. Away, you rascally Althaea's dream, away! + PRINCE. Instruct us, boy; what dream, boy? + PAGE. Marry, my lord, Althaea dreamt she was delivered of a + firebrand; and therefore I call him her dream. + PRINCE. A crown's worth of good interpretation. There 'tis, boy. + [Giving a crown] + POINS. O that this blossom could be kept from cankers! + Well, there is sixpence to preserve thee. + BARDOLPH. An you do not make him be hang'd among you, the gallows + shall have wrong. + PRINCE. And how doth thy master, Bardolph? + BARDOLPH. Well, my lord. He heard of your Grace's coming to town. + There's a letter for you. + POINS. Deliver'd with good respect. And how doth the martlemas, + your master? + BARDOLPH. In bodily health, sir. + POINS. Marry, the immortal part needs a physician; but that moves + not him. Though that be sick, it dies not. + PRINCE. I do allow this well to be as familiar with me as my dog; + and he holds his place, for look you how he writes. + POINS. [Reads] 'John Falstaff, knight'- Every man must know that + as oft as he has occasion to name himself, even like those that + are kin to the King; for they never prick their finger but they + say 'There's some of the King's blood spilt.' 'How comes that?' + says he that takes upon him not to conceive. The answer is as + ready as a borrower's cap: 'I am the King's poor cousin, sir.' + PRINCE. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from + Japhet. But the letter: [Reads] 'Sir John Falstaff, knight, to + the son of the King nearest his father, Harry Prince of Wales, + greeting.' + POINS. Why, this is a certificate. + PRINCE. Peace! [Reads] 'I will imitate the honourable Romans in + brevity.'- + POINS. He sure means brevity in breath, short-winded. + PRINCE. [Reads] 'I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I + leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins; for he misuses thy + favours so much that he swears thou art to marry his sister Nell. + Repent at idle times as thou mayst, and so farewell. + Thine, by yea and no- which is as much as to say as + thou usest him- JACK FALSTAFF with my familiars, + JOHN with my brothers and sisters, and SIR JOHN with + all Europe.' + POINS. My lord, I'll steep this letter in sack and make him eat it. + PRINCE. That's to make him eat twenty of his words. But do you use + me thus, Ned? Must I marry your sister? + POINS. God send the wench no worse fortune! But I never said so. + PRINCE. Well, thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits + of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us. Is your master here in + London? + BARDOLPH. Yea, my lord. + PRINCE. Where sups he? Doth the old boar feed in the old frank? + BARDOLPH. At the old place, my lord, in Eastcheap. + PRINCE. What company? + PAGE. Ephesians, my lord, of the old church. + PRINCE. Sup any women with him? + PAGE. None, my lord, but old Mistress Quickly and Mistress Doll + Tearsheet. + PRINCE. What pagan may that be? + PAGE. A proper gentlewoman, sir, and a kinswoman of my master's. + PRINCE. Even such kin as the parish heifers are to the town bull. + Shall we steal upon them, Ned, at supper? + POINS. I am your shadow, my lord; I'll follow you. + PRINCE. Sirrah, you boy, and Bardolph, no word to your master that + I am yet come to town. There's for your silence. + BARDOLPH. I have no tongue, sir. + PAGE. And for mine, sir, I will govern it. + PRINCE. Fare you well; go. Exeunt BARDOLPH and PAGE + This Doll Tearsheet should be some road. + POINS. I warrant you, as common as the way between Saint Albans and + London. + PRINCE. How might we see Falstaff bestow himself to-night in his + true colours, and not ourselves be seen? + POINS. Put on two leathern jerkins and aprons, and wait upon him at + his table as drawers. + PRINCE. From a god to a bull? A heavy descension! It was Jove's + case. From a prince to a prentice? A low transformation! That + shall be mine; for in everything the purpose must weigh with the + folly. Follow me, Ned. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Warkworth. Before the castle + +Enter NORTHUMBERLAND, LADY NORTHUMBERLAND, and LADY PERCY + + NORTHUMBERLAND. I pray thee, loving wife, and gentle daughter, + Give even way unto my rough affairs; + Put not you on the visage of the times + And be, like them, to Percy troublesome. + LADY NORTHUMBERLAND. I have given over, I will speak no more. + Do what you will; your wisdom be your guide. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Alas, sweet wife, my honour is at pawn; + And but my going nothing can redeem it. + LADY PERCY. O, yet, for God's sake, go not to these wars! + The time was, father, that you broke your word, + When you were more endear'd to it than now; + When your own Percy, when my heart's dear Harry, + Threw many a northward look to see his father + Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain. + Who then persuaded you to stay at home? + There were two honours lost, yours and your son's. + For yours, the God of heaven brighten it! + For his, it stuck upon him as the sun + In the grey vault of heaven; and by his light + Did all the chivalry of England move + To do brave acts. He was indeed the glass + Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves. + He had no legs that practis'd not his gait; + And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish, + Became the accents of the valiant; + For those who could speak low and tardily + Would turn their own perfection to abuse + To seem like him: so that in speech, in gait, + In diet, in affections of delight, + In military rules, humours of blood, + He was the mark and glass, copy and book, + That fashion'd others. And him- O wondrous him! + O miracle of men!- him did you leave- + Second to none, unseconded by you- + To look upon the hideous god of war + In disadvantage, to abide a field + Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name + Did seem defensible. So you left him. + Never, O never, do his ghost the wrong + To hold your honour more precise and nice + With others than with him! Let them alone. + The Marshal and the Archbishop are strong. + Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers, + To-day might I, hanging on Hotspur's neck, + Have talk'd of Monmouth's grave. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Beshrew your heart, + Fair daughter, you do draw my spirits from me + With new lamenting ancient oversights. + But I must go and meet with danger there, + Or it will seek me in another place, + And find me worse provided. + LADY NORTHUMBERLAND. O, fly to Scotland + Till that the nobles and the armed commons + Have of their puissance made a little taste. + LADY PERCY. If they get ground and vantage of the King, + Then join you with them, like a rib of steel, + To make strength stronger; but, for all our loves, + First let them try themselves. So did your son; + He was so suff'red; so came I a widow; + And never shall have length of life enough + To rain upon remembrance with mine eyes, + That it may grow and sprout as high as heaven, + For recordation to my noble husband. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Come, come, go in with me. 'Tis with my mind + As with the tide swell'd up unto his height, + That makes a still-stand, running neither way. + Fain would I go to meet the Archbishop, + But many thousand reasons hold me back. + I will resolve for Scotland. There am I, + Till time and vantage crave my company. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +London. The Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap + +Enter FRANCIS and another DRAWER + + FRANCIS. What the devil hast thou brought there-apple-johns? Thou + knowest Sir John cannot endure an apple-john. + SECOND DRAWER. Mass, thou say'st true. The Prince once set a dish + of apple-johns before him, and told him there were five more Sir + Johns; and, putting off his hat, said 'I will now take my leave + of these six dry, round, old, withered knights.' It ang'red him + to the heart; but he hath forgot that. + FRANCIS. Why, then, cover and set them down; and see if thou canst + find out Sneak's noise; Mistress Tearsheet would fain hear some + music. + + Enter third DRAWER + + THIRD DRAWER. Dispatch! The room where they supp'd is too hot; + they'll come in straight. + FRANCIS. Sirrah, here will be the Prince and Master Poins anon; and + they will put on two of our jerkins and aprons; and Sir John must + not know of it. Bardolph hath brought word. + THIRD DRAWER. By the mass, here will be old uds; it will be an + excellent stratagem. + SECOND DRAWER. I'll see if I can find out Sneak. + Exeunt second and third DRAWERS + + Enter HOSTESS and DOLL TEARSHEET + + HOSTESS. I' faith, sweetheart, methinks now you are in an excellent + good temperality. Your pulsidge beats as extraordinarily as heart + would desire; and your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any + rose, in good truth, la! But, i' faith, you have drunk too much + canaries; and that's a marvellous searching wine, and it perfumes + the blood ere one can say 'What's this?' How do you now? + DOLL. Better than I was- hem. + HOSTESS. Why, that's well said; a good heart's worth gold. + Lo, here comes Sir John. + + Enter FALSTAFF + + FALSTAFF. [Singing] 'When Arthur first in court'- Empty the + jordan. [Exit FRANCIS]- [Singing] 'And was a worthy king'- How + now, Mistress Doll! + HOSTESS. Sick of a calm; yea, good faith. + FALSTAFF. So is all her sect; and they be once in a calm, they are + sick. + DOLL. A pox damn you, you muddy rascal! Is that all the comfort you + give me? + FALSTAFF. You make fat rascals, Mistress Doll. + DOLL. I make them! Gluttony and diseases make them: I make them + not. + FALSTAFF. If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to make + the diseases, Doll. We catch of you, Doll, we catch of you; grant + that, my poor virtue, grant that. + DOLL. Yea, joy, our chains and our jewels. + FALSTAFF. 'Your brooches, pearls, and ouches.' For to serve bravely + is to come halting off; you know, to come off the breach with his + pike bent bravely, and to surgery bravely; to venture upon the + charg'd chambers bravely- + DOLL. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself! + HOSTESS. By my troth, this is the old fashion; you two never meet + but you fall to some discord. You are both, i' good truth, as + rheumatic as two dry toasts; you cannot one bear with another's + confirmities. What the good-year! one must bear, and that must be + you. You are the weaker vessel, as as they say, the emptier + vessel. + DOLL. Can a weak empty vessel bear such a huge full hogs-head? + There's a whole merchant's venture of Bourdeaux stuff in him; you + have not seen a hulk better stuff'd in the hold. Come, I'll be + friends with thee, Jack. Thou art going to the wars; and whether + I shall ever see thee again or no, there is nobody cares. + + Re-enter FRANCIS + + FRANCIS. Sir, Ancient Pistol's below and would speak with you. + DOLL. Hang him, swaggering rascal! Let him not come hither; it is + the foul-mouth'dst rogue in England. + HOSTESS. If he swagger, let him not come here. No, by my faith! I + must live among my neighbours; I'll no swaggerers. I am in good + name and fame with the very best. Shut the door. There comes no + swaggerers here; I have not liv'd all this while to have + swaggering now. Shut the door, I pray you. + FALSTAFF. Dost thou hear, hostess? + HOSTESS. Pray ye, pacify yourself, Sir John; there comes no + swaggerers here. + FALSTAFF. Dost thou hear? It is mine ancient. + HOSTESS. Tilly-fally, Sir John, ne'er tell me; and your ancient + swagg'rer comes not in my doors. I was before Master Tisick, the + debuty, t' other day; and, as he said to me- 'twas no longer ago + than Wednesday last, i' good faith!- 'Neighbour Quickly,' says + he- Master Dumbe, our minister, was by then- 'Neighbour Quickly,' + says he 'receive those that are civil, for' said he 'you are in + an ill name.' Now 'a said so, I can tell whereupon. 'For' says he + 'you are an honest woman and well thought on, therefore take heed + what guests you receive. Receive' says he 'no swaggering + companions.' There comes none here. You would bless you to hear + what he said. No, I'll no swagg'rers. + FALSTAFF. He's no swagg'rer, hostess; a tame cheater, i' faith; you + may stroke him as gently as a puppy greyhound. He'll not swagger + with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any show of + resistance. Call him up, drawer. + Exit FRANCIS + HOSTESS. Cheater, call you him? I will bar no honest man my house, + nor no cheater; but I do not love swaggering, by my troth. I am + the worse when one says 'swagger.' Feel, masters, how I shake; + look you, I warrant you. + DOLL. So you do, hostess. + HOSTESS. Do I? Yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere an aspen leaf. I + cannot abide swagg'rers. + + Enter PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and PAGE + + PISTOL. God save you, Sir John! + FALSTAFF. Welcome, Ancient Pistol. Here, Pistol, I charge you with + a cup of sack; do you discharge upon mine hostess. + PISTOL. I will discharge upon her, Sir John, with two bullets. + FALSTAFF. She is pistol-proof, sir; you shall not hardly offend + her. + HOSTESS. Come, I'll drink no proofs nor no bullets. I'll drink no + more than will do me good, for no man's pleasure, I. + PISTOL. Then to you, Mistress Dorothy; I will charge you. + DOLL. Charge me! I scorn you, scurvy companion. What! you poor, + base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy + rogue, away! I am meat for your master. + PISTOL. I know you, Mistress Dorothy. + DOLL. Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away! By this + wine, I'll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, an you play the + saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal! you + basket-hilt stale juggler, you! Since when, I pray you, sir? + God's light, with two points on your shoulder? Much! + PISTOL. God let me not live but I will murder your ruff for this. + FALSTAFF. No more, Pistol; I would not have you go off here. + Discharge yourself of our company, Pistol. + HOSTESS. No, good Captain Pistol; not here, sweet captain. + DOLL. Captain! Thou abominable damn'd cheater, art thou not ashamed + to be called captain? An captains were of my mind, they would + truncheon you out, for taking their names upon you before you + have earn'd them. You a captain! you slave, for what? For tearing + a poor whore's ruff in a bawdy-house? He a captain! hang him, + rogue! He lives upon mouldy stew'd prunes and dried cakes. A + captain! God's light, these villains will make the word as odious + as the word 'occupy'; which was an excellent good word before it + was ill sorted. Therefore captains had need look to't. + BARDOLPH. Pray thee go down, good ancient. + FALSTAFF. Hark thee hither, Mistress Doll. + PISTOL. Not I! I tell thee what, Corporal Bardolph, I could tear + her; I'll be reveng'd of her. + PAGE. Pray thee go down. + PISTOL. I'll see her damn'd first; to Pluto's damn'd lake, by this + hand, to th' infernal deep, with Erebus and tortures vile also. + Hold hook and line, say I. Down, down, dogs! down, faitors! Have + we not Hiren here? + HOSTESS. Good Captain Peesel, be quiet; 'tis very late, i' faith; I + beseek you now, aggravate your choler. + PISTOL. These be good humours, indeed! Shall packhorses, + And hollow pamper'd jades of Asia, + Which cannot go but thirty mile a day, + Compare with Caesars, and with Cannibals, + And Troiant Greeks? Nay, rather damn them with + King Cerberus; and let the welkin roar. + Shall we fall foul for toys? + HOSTESS. By my troth, Captain, these are very bitter words. + BARDOLPH. Be gone, good ancient; this will grow to a brawl anon. + PISTOL. Die men like dogs! Give crowns like pins! Have we not Hiren + here? + HOSTESS. O' my word, Captain, there's none such here. What the + good-year! do you think I would deny her? For God's sake, be + quiet. + PISTOL. Then feed and be fat, my fair Calipolis. + Come, give's some sack. + 'Si fortune me tormente sperato me contento.' + Fear we broadsides? No, let the fiend give fire. + Give me some sack; and, sweetheart, lie thou there. + [Laying down his sword] + Come we to full points here, and are etceteras nothings? + FALSTAFF. Pistol, I would be quiet. + PISTOL. Sweet knight, I kiss thy neaf. What! we have seen the seven + stars. + DOLL. For God's sake thrust him down stairs; I cannot endure such a + fustian rascal. + PISTOL. Thrust him down stairs! Know we not Galloway nags? + FALSTAFF. Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a shove-groat shilling. + Nay, an 'a do nothing but speak nothing, 'a shall be nothing + here. + BARDOLPH. Come, get you down stairs. + PISTOL. What! shall we have incision? Shall we imbrue? + [Snatching up his sword] + Then death rock me asleep, abridge my doleful days! + Why, then, let grievous, ghastly, gaping wounds + Untwine the Sisters Three! Come, Atropos, I say! + HOSTESS. Here's goodly stuff toward! + FALSTAFF. Give me my rapier, boy. + DOLL. I pray thee, Jack, I pray thee, do not draw. + FALSTAFF. Get you down stairs. + [Drawing and driving PISTOL out] + HOSTESS. Here's a goodly tumult! I'll forswear keeping house afore + I'll be in these tirrits and frights. So; murder, I warrant now. + Alas, alas! put up your naked weapons, put up your naked weapons. + Exeunt PISTOL and BARDOLPH + DOLL. I pray thee, Jack, be quiet; the rascal's gone. Ah, you + whoreson little valiant villain, you! + HOSTESS. Are you not hurt i' th' groin? Methought 'a made a shrewd + thrust at your belly. + + Re-enter BARDOLPH + + FALSTAFF. Have you turn'd him out a doors? + BARDOLPH. Yea, sir. The rascal's drunk. You have hurt him, sir, i' + th' shoulder. + FALSTAFF. A rascal! to brave me! + DOLL. Ah, you sweet little rogue, you! Alas, poor ape, how thou + sweat'st! Come, let me wipe thy face. Come on, you whoreson + chops. Ah, rogue! i' faith, I love thee. Thou art as valorous as + Hector of Troy, worth five of Agamemnon, and ten times better + than the Nine Worthies. Ah, villain! + FALSTAFF. A rascally slave! I will toss the rogue in a blanket. + DOLL. Do, an thou dar'st for thy heart. An thou dost, I'll canvass + thee between a pair of sheets. + + Enter musicians + + PAGE. The music is come, sir. + FALSTAFF. Let them play. Play, sirs. Sit on my knee, Don. A rascal + bragging slave! The rogue fled from me like quick-silver. + DOLL. I' faith, and thou follow'dst him like a church. Thou + whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig, when wilt thou leave + fighting a days and foining a nights, and begin to patch up thine + old body for heaven? + + Enter, behind, PRINCE HENRY and POINS disguised as drawers + + FALSTAFF. Peace, good Doll! Do not speak like a death's-head; do + not bid me remember mine end. + DOLL. Sirrah, what humour's the Prince of? + FALSTAFF. A good shallow young fellow. 'A would have made a good + pantler; 'a would ha' chipp'd bread well. + DOLL. They say Poins has a good wit. + FALSTAFF. He a good wit! hang him, baboon! His wit's as thick as + Tewksbury mustard; there's no more conceit in him than is in a + mallet. + DOLL. Why does the Prince love him so, then? + FALSTAFF. Because their legs are both of a bigness, and 'a plays at + quoits well, and eats conger and fennel, and drinks off candles' + ends for flap-dragons, and rides the wild mare with the boys, and + jumps upon join'd-stools, and swears with a good grace, and wears + his boots very smooth, like unto the sign of the Leg, and breeds + no bate with telling of discreet stories; and such other gambol + faculties 'a has, that show a weak mind and an able body, for the + which the Prince admits him. For the Prince himself is such + another; the weight of a hair will turn the scales between their + avoirdupois. + PRINCE. Would not this nave of a wheel have his ears cut off? + POINS. Let's beat him before his whore. + PRINCE. Look whe'er the wither'd elder hath not his poll claw'd + like a parrot. + POINS. Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive + performance? + FALSTAFF. Kiss me, Doll. + PRINCE. Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction! What says th' + almanac to that? + POINS. And look whether the fiery Trigon, his man, be not lisping + to his master's old tables, his note-book, his counsel-keeper. + FALSTAFF. Thou dost give me flattering busses. + DOLL. By my troth, I kiss thee with a most constant heart. + FALSTAFF. I am old, I am old. + DOLL. I love thee better than I love e'er a scurvy young boy of + them all. + FALSTAFF. What stuff wilt have a kirtle of? I shall receive money a + Thursday. Shalt have a cap to-morrow. A merry song, come. 'A + grows late; we'll to bed. Thou't forget me when I am gone. + DOLL. By my troth, thou't set me a-weeping, an thou say'st so. + Prove that ever I dress myself handsome till thy return. Well, + hearken a' th' end. + FALSTAFF. Some sack, Francis. + PRINCE & POINS. Anon, anon, sir. [Advancing] + FALSTAFF. Ha! a bastard son of the King's? And art thou not Poins + his brother? + PRINCE. Why, thou globe of sinful continents, what a life dost thou + lead! + FALSTAFF. A better than thou. I am a gentleman: thou art a drawer. + PRINCE. Very true, sir, and I come to draw you out by the ears. + HOSTESS. O, the Lord preserve thy Grace! By my troth, welcome to + London. Now the Lord bless that sweet face of thine. O Jesu, are + you come from Wales? + FALSTAFF. Thou whoreson mad compound of majesty, by this light + flesh and corrupt blood, thou art welcome. + [Leaning his band upon DOLL] + DOLL. How, you fat fool! I scorn you. + POINS. My lord, he will drive you out of your revenge and turn all + to a merriment, if you take not the heat. + PRINCE. YOU whoreson candle-mine, you, how vilely did you speak of + me even now before this honest, virtuous, civil gentlewoman! + HOSTESS. God's blessing of your good heart! and so she is, by my + troth. + FALSTAFF. Didst thou hear me? + PRINCE. Yea; and you knew me, as you did when you ran away by + Gadshill. You knew I was at your back, and spoke it on purpose to + try my patience. + FALSTAFF. No, no, no; not so; I did not think thou wast within + hearing. + PRINCE. I shall drive you then to confess the wilful abuse, and + then I know how to handle you. + FALSTAFF. No abuse, Hal, o' mine honour; no abuse. + PRINCE. Not- to dispraise me, and call me pander, and + bread-chipper, and I know not what! + FALSTAFF. No abuse, Hal. + POINS. No abuse! + FALSTAFF. No abuse, Ned, i' th' world; honest Ned, none. I + disprais'd him before the wicked- that the wicked might not fall + in love with thee; in which doing, I have done the part of a + careful friend and a true subject; and thy father is to give me + thanks for it. No abuse, Hal; none, Ned, none; no, faith, boys, + none. + PRINCE. See now, whether pure fear and entire cowardice doth not + make thee wrong this virtuous gentlewoman to close with us? Is + she of the wicked? Is thine hostess here of the wicked? Or is thy + boy of the wicked? Or honest Bardolph, whose zeal burns in his + nose, of the wicked? + POINS. Answer, thou dead elm, answer. + FALSTAFF. The fiend hath prick'd down Bardolph irrecoverable; and + his face is Lucifer's privy-kitchen, where he doth nothing but + roast malt-worms. For the boy- there is a good angel about him; + but the devil outbids him too. + PRINCE. For the women? + FALSTAFF. For one of them- she's in hell already, and burns poor + souls. For th' other- I owe her money; and whether she be damn'd + for that, I know not. + HOSTESS. No, I warrant you. + FALSTAFF. No, I think thou art not; I think thou art quit for that. + Marry, there is another indictment upon thee for suffering flesh + to be eaten in thy house, contrary to the law; for the which I + think thou wilt howl. + HOSTESS. All vict'lers do so. What's a joint of mutton or two in a + whole Lent? + PRINCE. You, gentlewoman- + DOLL. What says your Grace? + FALSTAFF. His Grace says that which his flesh rebels against. + [Knocking within] + HOSTESS. Who knocks so loud at door? Look to th' door there, + Francis. + + Enter PETO + + PRINCE. Peto, how now! What news? + PETO. The King your father is at Westminster; + And there are twenty weak and wearied posts + Come from the north; and as I came along + I met and overtook a dozen captains, + Bare-headed, sweating, knocking at the taverns, + And asking every one for Sir John Falstaff. + PRINCE. By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame + So idly to profane the precious time, + When tempest of commotion, like the south, + Borne with black vapour, doth begin to melt + And drop upon our bare unarmed heads. + Give me my sword and cloak. Falstaff, good night. + + Exeunt PRINCE, POINS, PETO, and BARDOLPH + + FALSTAFF. Now comes in the sweetest morsel of the night, and we + must hence, and leave it unpick'd. [Knocking within] More + knocking at the door! + + Re-enter BARDOLPH + + How now! What's the matter? + BARDOLPH. You must away to court, sir, presently; + A dozen captains stay at door for you. + FALSTAFF. [To the PAGE]. Pay the musicians, sirrah.- Farewell, + hostess; farewell, Doll. You see, my good wenches, how men of + merit are sought after; the undeserver may sleep, when the man of + action is call'd on. Farewell, good wenches. If I be not sent + away post, I will see you again ere I go. + DOLL. I cannot speak. If my heart be not ready to burst! + Well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyself. + FALSTAFF. Farewell, farewell. + Exeunt FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH + HOSTESS. Well, fare thee well. I have known thee these twenty-nine + years, come peascod-time; but an honester and truer-hearted man + -well fare thee well. + BARDOLPH. [ Within] Mistress Tearsheet! + HOSTESS. What's the matter? + BARDOLPH. [ Within] Bid Mistress Tearsheet come to my master. + HOSTESS. O, run Doll, run, run, good Come. [To BARDOLPH] She + comes blubber'd.- Yea, will you come, Doll? Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +Westminster. The palace + +Enter the KING in his nightgown, with a page + + KING. Go call the Earls of Surrey and of Warwick; + But, ere they come, bid them o'er-read these letters + And well consider of them. Make good speed. Exit page + How many thousands of my poorest subjects + Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep, + Nature's soft nurse, how have I frightened thee, + That thou no more will weigh my eyelids down, + And steep my senses in forgetfulness? + Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, + Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, + And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, + Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great, + Under the canopies of costly state, + And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody? + O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile + In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch + A watch-case or a common 'larum-bell? + Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast + Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains + In cradle of the rude imperious surge, + And in the visitation of the winds, + Who take the ruffian billows by the top, + Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them + With deafing clamour in the slippery clouds, + That with the hurly death itself awakes? + Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose + To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude; + And in the calmest and most stillest night, + With all appliances and means to boot, + Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down! + Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. + + Enter WARWICK and Surrey + + WARWICK. Many good morrows to your Majesty! + KING. Is it good morrow, lords? + WARWICK. 'Tis one o'clock, and past. + KING. Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords. + Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you? + WARWICK. We have, my liege. + KING. Then you perceive the body of our kingdom + How foul it is; what rank diseases grow, + And with what danger, near the heart of it. + WARWICK. It is but as a body yet distempered; + Which to his former strength may be restored + With good advice and little medicine. + My Lord Northumberland will soon be cool'd. + KING. O God! that one might read the book of fate, + And see the revolution of the times + Make mountains level, and the continent, + Weary of solid firmness, melt itself + Into the sea; and other times to see + The beachy girdle of the ocean + Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock, + And changes fill the cup of alteration + With divers liquors! O, if this were seen, + The happiest youth, viewing his progress through, + What perils past, what crosses to ensue, + Would shut the book and sit him down and die. + 'Tis not ten years gone + Since Richard and Northumberland, great friends, + Did feast together, and in two years after + Were they at wars. It is but eight years since + This Percy was the man nearest my soul; + Who like a brother toil'd in my affairs + And laid his love and life under my foot; + Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard + Gave him defiance. But which of you was by- + [To WARWICK] You, cousin Nevil, as I may remember- + When Richard, with his eye brim full of tears, + Then check'd and rated by Northumberland, + Did speak these words, now prov'd a prophecy? + 'Northumberland, thou ladder by the which + My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne'- + Though then, God knows, I had no such intent + But that necessity so bow'd the state + That I and greatness were compell'd to kiss- + 'The time shall come'- thus did he follow it- + 'The time will come that foul sin, gathering head, + Shall break into corruption' so went on, + Foretelling this same time's condition + And the division of our amity. + WARWICK. There is a history in all men's lives, + Figuring the natures of the times deceas'd; + The which observ'd, a man may prophesy, + With a near aim, of the main chance of things + As yet not come to life, who in their seeds + And weak beginning lie intreasured. + Such things become the hatch and brood of time; + And, by the necessary form of this, + King Richard might create a perfect guess + That great Northumberland, then false to him, + Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness; + Which should not find a ground to root upon + Unless on you. + KING. Are these things then necessities? + Then let us meet them like necessities; + And that same word even now cries out on us. + They say the Bishop and Northumberland + Are fifty thousand strong. + WARWICK. It cannot be, my lord. + Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo, + The numbers of the feared. Please it your Grace + To go to bed. Upon my soul, my lord, + The powers that you already have sent forth + Shall bring this prize in very easily. + To comfort you the more, I have receiv'd + A certain instance that Glendower is dead. + Your Majesty hath been this fortnight ill; + And these unseasoned hours perforce must ad + Unto your sickness. + KING. I will take your counsel. + And, were these inward wars once out of hand, + We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Gloucestershire. Before Justice, SHALLOW'S house + +Enter SHALLOW and SILENCE, meeting; MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, BULLCALF, +and servants behind + + SHALLOW. Come on, come on, come on; give me your hand, sir; give me + your hand, sir. An early stirrer, by the rood! And how doth my + good cousin Silence? + SILENCE. Good morrow, good cousin Shallow. + SHALLOW. And how doth my cousin, your bed-fellow? and your fairest + daughter and mine, my god-daughter Ellen? + SILENCE. Alas, a black ousel, cousin Shallow! + SHALLOW. By yea and no, sir. I dare say my cousin William is become + a good scholar; he is at Oxford still, is he not? + SILENCE. Indeed, sir, to my cost. + SHALLOW. 'A must, then, to the Inns o' Court shortly. I was once of + Clement's Inn; where I think they will talk of mad Shallow yet. + SILENCE. You were call'd 'lusty Shallow' then, cousin. + SHALLOW. By the mass, I was call'd anything; and I would have done + anything indeed too, and roundly too. There was I, and little + John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Barnes, and Francis + Pickbone, and Will Squele a Cotsole man- you had not four such + swinge-bucklers in all the Inns of Court again. And I may say to + you we knew where the bona-robas were, and had the best of them + all at commandment. Then was Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, boy, + and page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. + SILENCE. This Sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about + soldiers? + SHALLOW. The same Sir John, the very same. I see him break + Scoggin's head at the court gate, when 'a was a crack not thus + high; and the very same day did I fight with one Sampson + Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn. Jesu, Jesu, the mad + days that I have spent! and to see how many of my old + acquaintance are dead! + SILENCE. We shall all follow, cousin. + SHALLOW. Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure. Death, as the + Psalmist saith, is certain to all; all shall die. How a good yoke + of bullocks at Stamford fair? + SILENCE. By my troth, I was not there. + SHALLOW. Death is certain. Is old Double of your town living yet? + SILENCE. Dead, sir. + SHALLOW. Jesu, Jesu, dead! drew a good bow; and dead! 'A shot a + fine shoot. John a Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on + his head. Dead! 'A would have clapp'd i' th' clout at twelve + score, and carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen and fourteen + and a half, that it would have done a man's heart good to see. + How a score of ewes now? + SILENCE. Thereafter as they be- a score of good ewes may be worth + ten pounds. + SHALLOW. And is old Double dead? + + Enter BARDOLPH, and one with him + + SILENCE. Here come two of Sir John Falstaffs men, as I think. + SHALLOW. Good morrow, honest gentlemen. + BARDOLPH. I beseech you, which is Justice Shallow? + SHALLOW. I am Robert Shallow, sir, a poor esquire of this county, + and one of the King's justices of the peace. What is your good + pleasure with me? + BARDOLPH. My captain, sir, commends him to you; my captain, Sir + John Falstaff- a tall gentleman, by heaven, and a most gallant + leader. + SHALLOW. He greets me well, sir; I knew him a good back-sword man. + How doth the good knight? May I ask how my lady his wife doth? + BARDOLPH. Sir, pardon; a soldier is better accommodated than with a + wife. + SHALLOW. It is well said, in faith, sir; and it is well said indeed + too. 'Better accommodated!' It is good; yea, indeed, is it. Good + phrases are surely, and ever were, very commendable. + 'Accommodated!' It comes of accommodo. Very good; a good phrase. + BARDOLPH. Pardon, sir; I have heard the word. 'Phrase' call you it? + By this day, I know not the phrase; but I will maintain the word + with my sword to be a soldier-like word, and a word of exceeding + good command, by heaven. Accommodated: that is, when a man is, as + they say, accommodated; or, when a man is being-whereby 'a may be + thought to be accommodated; which is an excellent thing. + + Enter FALSTAFF + + SHALLOW. It is very just. Look, here comes good Sir John. Give me + your good hand, give me your worship's good hand. By my troth, + you like well and bear your years very well. Welcome, good Sir + John. + FALSTAFF. I am glad to see you well, good Master Robert Shallow. + Master Surecard, as I think? + SHALLOW. No, Sir John; it is my cousin Silence, in commission with + me. + FALSTAFF. Good Master Silence, it well befits you should be of the + peace. + SILENCE. Your good worship is welcome. + FALSTAFF. Fie! this is hot weather. Gentlemen, have you provided me + here half a dozen sufficient men? + SHALLOW. Marry, have we, sir. Will you sit? + FALSTAFF. Let me see them, I beseech you. + SHALLOW. Where's the roll? Where's the roll? Where's the roll? Let + me see, let me see, let me see. So, so, so, so,- so, so- yea, + marry, sir. Rafe Mouldy! Let them appear as I call; let them do + so, let them do so. Let me see; where is Mouldy? + MOULDY. Here, an't please you. + SHALLOW. What think you, Sir John? A good-limb'd fellow; young, + strong, and of good friends. + FALSTAFF. Is thy name Mouldy? + MOULDY. Yea, an't please you. + FALSTAFF. 'Tis the more time thou wert us'd. + SHALLOW. Ha, ha, ha! most excellent, i' faith! Things that are + mouldy lack use. Very singular good! In faith, well said, Sir + John; very well said. + FALSTAFF. Prick him. + MOULDY. I was prick'd well enough before, an you could have let me + alone. My old dame will be undone now for one to do her husbandry + and her drudgery. You need not to have prick'd me; there are + other men fitter to go out than I. + FALSTAFF. Go to; peace, Mouldy; you shall go. Mouldy, it is time + you were spent. + MOULDY. Spent! + SHALLOW. Peace, fellow, peace; stand aside; know you where you are? + For th' other, Sir John- let me see. Simon Shadow! + FALSTAFF. Yea, marry, let me have him to sit under. He's like to be + a cold soldier. + SHALLOW. Where's Shadow? + SHADOW. Here, sir. + FALSTAFF. Shadow, whose son art thou? + SHADOW. My mother's son, sir. + FALSTAFF. Thy mother's son! Like enough; and thy father's shadow. + So the son of the female is the shadow of the male. It is often + so indeed; but much of the father's substance! + SHALLOW. Do you like him, Sir John? + FALSTAFF. Shadow will serve for summer. Prick him; for we have a + number of shadows fill up the muster-book. + SHALLOW. Thomas Wart! + FALSTAFF. Where's he? + WART. Here, sir. + FALSTAFF. Is thy name Wart? + WART. Yea, sir. + FALSTAFF. Thou art a very ragged wart. + SHALLOW. Shall I prick him, Sir John? + FALSTAFF. It were superfluous; for his apparel is built upon his + back, and the whole frame stands upon pins. Prick him no more. + SHALLOW. Ha, ha, ha! You can do it, sir; you can do it. I commend + you well. Francis Feeble! + FEEBLE. Here, sir. + FALSTAFF. What trade art thou, Feeble? + FEEBLE. A woman's tailor, sir. + SHALLOW. Shall I prick him, sir? + FALSTAFF. You may; but if he had been a man's tailor, he'd ha' + prick'd you. Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy's battle as + thou hast done in a woman's petticoat? + FEEBLE. I will do my good will, sir; you can have no more. + FALSTAFF. Well said, good woman's tailor! well said, courageous + Feeble! Thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful dove or most + magnanimous mouse. Prick the woman's tailor- well, Master + Shallow, deep, Master Shallow. + FEEBLE. I would Wart might have gone, sir. + FALSTAFF. I would thou wert a man's tailor, that thou mightst mend + him and make him fit to go. I cannot put him to a private + soldier, that is the leader of so many thousands. Let that + suffice, most forcible Feeble. + FEEBLE. It shall suffice, sir. + FALSTAFF. I am bound to thee, reverend Feeble. Who is next? + SHALLOW. Peter Bullcalf o' th' green! + FALSTAFF. Yea, marry, let's see Bullcalf. + BULLCALF. Here, sir. + FALSTAFF. Fore God, a likely fellow! Come, prick me Bullcalf till + he roar again. + BULLCALF. O Lord! good my lord captain- + FALSTAFF. What, dost thou roar before thou art prick'd? + BULLCALF. O Lord, sir! I am a diseased man. + FALSTAFF. What disease hast thou? + BULLCALF. A whoreson cold, sir, a cough, sir, which I caught with + ringing in the King's affairs upon his coronation day, sir. + FALSTAFF. Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown. We will have + away thy cold; and I will take such order that thy friends shall + ring for thee. Is here all? + SHALLOW. Here is two more call'd than your number. You must have + but four here, sir; and so, I pray you, go in with me to dinner. + FALSTAFF. Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry + dinner. I am glad to see you, by my troth, Master Shallow. + SHALLOW. O, Sir John, do you remember since we lay all night in the + windmill in Saint George's Field? + FALSTAFF. No more of that, Master Shallow, no more of that. + SHALLOW. Ha, 'twas a merry night. And is Jane Nightwork alive? + FALSTAFF. She lives, Master Shallow. + SHALLOW. She never could away with me. + FALSTAFF. Never, never; she would always say she could not abide + Master Shallow. + SHALLOW. By the mass, I could anger her to th' heart. She was then + a bona-roba. Doth she hold her own well? + FALSTAFF. Old, old, Master Shallow. + SHALLOW. Nay, she must be old; she cannot choose but be old; + certain she's old; and had Robin Nightwork, by old Nightwork, + before I came to Clement's Inn. + SILENCE. That's fifty-five year ago. + SHALLOW. Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that that this + knight and I have seen! Ha, Sir John, said I well? + FALSTAFF. We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow. + SHALLOW. That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, Sir + John, we have. Our watchword was 'Hem, boys!' Come, let's to + dinner; come, let's to dinner. Jesus, the days that we have seen! + Come, come. + Exeunt FALSTAFF and the JUSTICES + BULLCALF. Good Master Corporate Bardolph, stand my friend; and + here's four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very + truth, sir, I had as lief be hang'd, sir, as go. And yet, for + mine own part, sir, I do not care; but rather because I am + unwilling and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my + friends; else, sir, I did not care for mine own part so much. + BARDOLPH. Go to; stand aside. + MOULDY. And, good Master Corporal Captain, for my old dame's sake, + stand my friend. She has nobody to do anything about her when I + am gone; and she is old, and cannot help herself. You shall have + forty, sir. + BARDOLPH. Go to; stand aside. + FEEBLE. By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God + a death. I'll ne'er bear a base mind. An't be my destiny, so; + an't be not, so. No man's too good to serve 's Prince; and, let + it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the + next. + BARDOLPH. Well said; th'art a good fellow. + FEEBLE. Faith, I'll bear no base mind. + + Re-enter FALSTAFF and the JUSTICES + + FALSTAFF. Come, sir, which men shall I have? + SHALLOW. Four of which you please. + BARDOLPH. Sir, a word with you. I have three pound to free Mouldy + and Bullcalf. + FALSTAFF. Go to; well. + SHALLOW. Come, Sir John, which four will you have? + FALSTAFF. Do you choose for me. + SHALLOW. Marry, then- Mouldy, Bullcalf, Feeble, and Shadow. + FALSTAFF. Mouldy and Bullcalf: for you, Mouldy, stay at home till + you are past service; and for your part, Bullcalf, grow you come + unto it. I will none of you. + SHALLOW. Sir John, Sir John, do not yourself wrong. They are your + likeliest men, and I would have you serv'd with the best. + FALSTAFF. Will you tell me, Master Shallow, how to choose a man? + Care I for the limb, the thews, the stature, bulk, and big + assemblance of a man! Give me the spirit, Master Shallow. Here's + Wart; you see what a ragged appearance it is. 'A shall charge you + and discharge you with the motion of a pewterer's hammer, come + off and on swifter than he that gibbets on the brewer's bucket. + And this same half-fac'd fellow, Shadow- give me this man. He + presents no mark to the enemy; the foeman may with as great aim + level at the edge of a penknife. And, for a retreat- how swiftly + will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off! O, give me the + spare men, and spare me the great ones. Put me a caliver into + Wart's hand, Bardolph. + BARDOLPH. Hold, Wart. Traverse- thus, thus, thus. + FALSTAFF. Come, manage me your caliver. So- very well. Go to; very + good; exceeding good. O, give me always a little, lean, old, + chopt, bald shot. Well said, i' faith, Wart; th'art a good scab. + Hold, there's a tester for thee. + SHALLOW. He is not his craft's master, he doth not do it right. I + remember at Mile-end Green, when I lay at Clement's Inn- I was + then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show- there was a little quiver + fellow, and 'a would manage you his piece thus; and 'a would + about and about, and come you in and come you in. 'Rah, tah, + tah!' would 'a say; 'Bounce!' would 'a say; and away again would + 'a go, and again would 'a come. I shall ne'er see such a fellow. + FALSTAFF. These fellows will do well. Master Shallow, God keep you! + Master Silence, I will not use many words with you: Fare you + well! Gentlemen both, I thank you. I must a dozen mile to-night. + Bardolph, give the soldiers coats. + SHALLOW. Sir John, the Lord bless you; God prosper your affairs; + God send us peace! At your return, visit our house; let our old + acquaintance be renewed. Peradventure I will with ye to the + court. + FALSTAFF. Fore God, would you would. + SHALLOW. Go to; I have spoke at a word. God keep you. + FALSTAFF. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. [Exeunt JUSTICES] On, + Bardolph; lead the men away. [Exeunt all but FALSTAFF] As I + return, I will fetch off these justices. I do see the bottom of + justice Shallow. Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this + vice of lying! This same starv'd justice hath done nothing but + prate to me of the wildness of his youth and the feats he hath + done about Turnbull Street; and every third word a lie, duer paid + to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at + Clement's Inn, like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring. + When 'a was naked, he was for all the world like a fork'd radish, + with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife. 'A was so + forlorn that his dimensions to any thick sight were invisible. 'A + was the very genius of famine; yet lecherous as a monkey, and the + whores call'd him mandrake. 'A came ever in the rearward of the + fashion, and sung those tunes to the overscutch'd huswifes that + he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they were his fancies or + his good-nights. And now is this Vice's dagger become a squire, + and talks as familiarly of John a Gaunt as if he had been sworn + brother to him; and I'll be sworn 'a ne'er saw him but once in + the Tiltyard; and then he burst his head for crowding among the + marshal's men. I saw it, and told John a Gaunt he beat his own + name; for you might have thrust him and all his apparel into an + eel-skin; the case of a treble hautboy was a mansion for him, a + court- and now has he land and beeves. Well, I'll be acquainted + with him if I return; and 't shall go hard but I'll make him a + philosopher's two stones to me. If the young dace be a bait for + the old pike, I see no reason in the law of nature but I may snap + at him. Let time shape, and there an end. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +Yorkshire. Within the Forest of Gaultree + +Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, MOWBRAY, HASTINGS, and others + + ARCHBISHOP. What is this forest call'd + HASTINGS. 'Tis Gaultree Forest, an't shall please your Grace. + ARCHBISHOP. Here stand, my lords, and send discoverers forth + To know the numbers of our enemies. + HASTINGS. We have sent forth already. + ARCHBISHOP. 'Tis well done. + My friends and brethren in these great affairs, + I must acquaint you that I have receiv'd + New-dated letters from Northumberland; + Their cold intent, tenour, and substance, thus: + Here doth he wish his person, with such powers + As might hold sortance with his quality, + The which he could not levy; whereupon + He is retir'd, to ripe his growing fortunes, + To Scotland; and concludes in hearty prayers + That your attempts may overlive the hazard + And fearful meeting of their opposite. + MOWBRAY. Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground + And dash themselves to pieces. + + Enter A MESSENGER + + HASTINGS. Now, what news? + MESSENGER. West of this forest, scarcely off a mile, + In goodly form comes on the enemy; + And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number + Upon or near the rate of thirty thousand. + MOWBRAY. The just proportion that we gave them out. + Let us sway on and face them in the field. + + Enter WESTMORELAND + + ARCHBISHOP. What well-appointed leader fronts us here? + MOWBRAY. I think it is my Lord of Westmoreland. + WESTMORELAND. Health and fair greeting from our general, + The Prince, Lord John and Duke of Lancaster. + ARCHBISHOP. Say on, my Lord of Westmoreland, in peace, + What doth concern your coming. + WESTMORELAND. Then, my lord, + Unto your Grace do I in chief address + The substance of my speech. If that rebellion + Came like itself, in base and abject routs, + Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rags, + And countenanc'd by boys and beggary- + I say, if damn'd commotion so appear'd + In his true, native, and most proper shape, + You, reverend father, and these noble lords, + Had not been here to dress the ugly form + Of base and bloody insurrection + With your fair honours. You, Lord Archbishop, + Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd, + Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd, + Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor'd, + Whose white investments figure innocence, + The dove, and very blessed spirit of peace- + Wherefore you do so ill translate yourself + Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace, + Into the harsh and boist'rous tongue of war; + Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood, + Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine + To a loud trumpet and a point of war? + ARCHBISHOP. Wherefore do I this? So the question stands. + Briefly to this end: we are all diseas'd + And with our surfeiting and wanton hours + Have brought ourselves into a burning fever, + And we must bleed for it; of which disease + Our late King, Richard, being infected, died. + But, my most noble Lord of Westmoreland, + I take not on me here as a physician; + Nor do I as an enemy to peace + Troop in the throngs of military men; + But rather show awhile like fearful war + To diet rank minds sick of happiness, + And purge th' obstructions which begin to stop + Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly. + I have in equal balance justly weigh'd + What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer, + And find our griefs heavier than our offences. + We see which way the stream of time doth run + And are enforc'd from our most quiet there + By the rough torrent of occasion; + And have the summary of all our griefs, + When time shall serve, to show in articles; + Which long ere this we offer'd to the King, + And might by no suit gain our audience: + When we are wrong'd, and would unfold our griefs, + We are denied access unto his person, + Even by those men that most have done us wrong. + The dangers of the days but newly gone, + Whose memory is written on the earth + With yet appearing blood, and the examples + Of every minute's instance, present now, + Hath put us in these ill-beseeming arms; + Not to break peace, or any branch of it, + But to establish here a peace indeed, + Concurring both in name and quality. + WESTMORELAND. When ever yet was your appeal denied; + Wherein have you been galled by the King; + What peer hath been suborn'd to grate on you + That you should seal this lawless bloody book + Of forg'd rebellion with a seal divine, + And consecrate commotion's bitter edge? + ARCHBISHOP. My brother general, the commonwealth, + To brother horn an household cruelty, + I make my quarrel in particular. + WESTMORELAND. There is no need of any such redress; + Or if there were, it not belongs to you. + MOWBRAY. Why not to him in part, and to us all + That feel the bruises of the days before, + And suffer the condition of these times + To lay a heavy and unequal hand + Upon our honours? + WESTMORELAND. O my good Lord Mowbray, + Construe the times to their necessities, + And you shall say, indeed, it is the time, + And not the King, that doth you injuries. + Yet, for your part, it not appears to me, + Either from the King or in the present time, + That you should have an inch of any ground + To build a grief on. Were you not restor'd + To all the Duke of Norfolk's signiories, + Your noble and right well-rememb'red father's? + MOWBRAY. What thing, in honour, had my father lost + That need to be reviv'd and breath'd in me? + The King that lov'd him, as the state stood then, + Was force perforce compell'd to banish him, + And then that Henry Bolingbroke and he, + Being mounted and both roused in their seats, + Their neighing coursers daring of the spur, + Their armed staves in charge, their beavers down, + Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel, + And the loud trumpet blowing them together- + Then, then, when there was nothing could have stay'd + My father from the breast of Bolingbroke, + O, when the King did throw his warder down- + His own life hung upon the staff he threw- + Then threw he down himself, and all their lives + That by indictment and by dint of sword + Have since miscarried under Bolingbroke. + WESTMORELAND. You speak, Lord Mowbray, now you know not what. + The Earl of Hereford was reputed then + In England the most valiant gentleman. + Who knows on whom fortune would then have smil'd? + But if your father had been victor there, + He ne'er had borne it out of Coventry; + For all the country, in a general voice, + Cried hate upon him; and all their prayers and love + Were set on Hereford, whom they doted on, + And bless'd and grac'd indeed more than the King. + But this is mere digression from my purpose. + Here come I from our princely general + To know your griefs; to tell you from his Grace + That he will give you audience; and wherein + It shall appear that your demands are just, + You shall enjoy them, everything set off + That might so much as think you enemies. + MOWBRAY. But he hath forc'd us to compel this offer; + And it proceeds from policy, not love. + WESTMORELAND. Mowbray. you overween to take it so. + This offer comes from mercy, not from fear; + For, lo! within a ken our army lies- + Upon mine honour, all too confident + To give admittance to a thought of fear. + Our battle is more full of names than yours, + Our men more perfect in the use of arms, + Our armour all as strong, our cause the best; + Then reason will our hearts should be as good. + Say you not, then, our offer is compell'd. + MOWBRAY. Well, by my will we shall admit no parley. + WESTMORELAND. That argues but the shame of your offence: + A rotten case abides no handling. + HASTINGS. Hath the Prince John a full commission, + In very ample virtue of his father, + To hear and absolutely to determine + Of what conditions we shall stand upon? + WESTMORELAND. That is intended in the general's name. + I muse you make so slight a question. + ARCHBISHOP. Then take, my Lord of Westmoreland, this schedule, + For this contains our general grievances. + Each several article herein redress'd, + All members of our cause, both here and hence, + That are insinewed to this action, + Acquitted by a true substantial form, + And present execution of our wills + To us and to our purposes confin'd- + We come within our awful banks again, + And knit our powers to the arm of peace. + WESTMORELAND. This will I show the general. Please you, lords, + In sight of both our battles we may meet; + And either end in peace- which God so frame!- + Or to the place of diff'rence call the swords + Which must decide it. + ARCHBISHOP. My lord, we will do so. Exit WESTMORELAND + MOWBRAY. There is a thing within my bosom tells me + That no conditions of our peace can stand. + HASTINGS. Fear you not that: if we can make our peace + Upon such large terms and so absolute + As our conditions shall consist upon, + Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains. + MOWBRAY. Yea, but our valuation shall be such + That every slight and false-derived cause, + Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton reason, + Shall to the King taste of this action; + That, were our royal faiths martyrs in love, + We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind + That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff, + And good from bad find no partition. + ARCHBISHOP. No, no, my lord. Note this: the King is weary + Of dainty and such picking grievances; + For he hath found to end one doubt by death + Revives two greater in the heirs of life; + And therefore will he wipe his tables clean, + And keep no tell-tale to his memory + That may repeat and history his los + To new remembrance. For full well he knows + He cannot so precisely weed this land + As his misdoubts present occasion: + His foes are so enrooted with his friends + That, plucking to unfix an enemy, + He doth unfasten so and shake a friend. + So that this land, like an offensive wife + That hath enrag'd him on to offer strokes, + As he is striking, holds his infant up, + And hangs resolv'd correction in the arm + That was uprear'd to execution. + HASTINGS. Besides, the King hath wasted all his rods + On late offenders, that he now doth lack + The very instruments of chastisement; + So that his power, like to a fangless lion, + May offer, but not hold. + ARCHBISHOP. 'Tis very true; + And therefore be assur'd, my good Lord Marshal, + If we do now make our atonement well, + Our peace will, like a broken limb united, + Grow stronger for the breaking. + MOWBRAY. Be it so. + Here is return'd my Lord of Westmoreland. + + Re-enter WESTMORELAND + + WESTMORELAND. The Prince is here at hand. Pleaseth your lordship + To meet his Grace just distance 'tween our armies? + MOWBRAY. Your Grace of York, in God's name then, set forward. + ARCHBISHOP. Before, and greet his Grace. My lord, we come. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Another part of the forest + +Enter, from one side, MOWBRAY, attended; afterwards, the ARCHBISHOP, +HASTINGS, and others; from the other side, PRINCE JOHN of LANCASTER, +WESTMORELAND, OFFICERS, and others + + PRINCE JOHN. You are well encount'red here, my cousin Mowbray. + Good day to you, gentle Lord Archbishop; + And so to you, Lord Hastings, and to all. + My Lord of York, it better show'd with you + When that your flock, assembled by the bell, + Encircled you to hear with reverence + Your exposition on the holy text + Than now to see you here an iron man, + Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum, + Turning the word to sword, and life to death. + That man that sits within a monarch's heart + And ripens in the sunshine of his favour, + Would he abuse the countenance of the king, + Alack, what mischiefs might he set abroach + In shadow of such greatness! With you, Lord Bishop, + It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken + How deep you were within the books of God? + To us the speaker in His parliament, + To us th' imagin'd voice of God himself, + The very opener and intelligencer + Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven, + And our dull workings. O, who shall believe + But you misuse the reverence of your place, + Employ the countenance and grace of heav'n + As a false favourite doth his prince's name, + In deeds dishonourable? You have ta'en up, + Under the counterfeited zeal of God, + The subjects of His substitute, my father, + And both against the peace of heaven and him + Have here up-swarm'd them. + ARCHBISHOP. Good my Lord of Lancaster, + I am not here against your father's peace; + But, as I told my Lord of Westmoreland, + The time misord'red doth, in common sense, + Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form + To hold our safety up. I sent your Grace + The parcels and particulars of our grief, + The which hath been with scorn shov'd from the court, + Whereon this hydra son of war is born; + Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd asleep + With grant of our most just and right desires; + And true obedience, of this madness cur'd, + Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty. + MOWBRAY. If not, we ready are to try our fortunes + To the last man. + HASTINGS. And though we here fall down, + We have supplies to second our attempt. + If they miscarry, theirs shall second them; + And so success of mischief shall be born, + And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up + Whiles England shall have generation. + PRINCE JOHN. YOU are too shallow, Hastings, much to shallow, + To sound the bottom of the after-times. + WESTMORELAND. Pleaseth your Grace to answer them directly + How far forth you do like their articles. + PRINCE JOHN. I like them all and do allow them well; + And swear here, by the honour of my blood, + My father's purposes have been mistook; + And some about him have too lavishly + Wrested his meaning and authority. + My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redress'd; + Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you, + Discharge your powers unto their several counties, + As we will ours; and here, between the armies, + Let's drink together friendly and embrace, + That all their eyes may bear those tokens home + Of our restored love and amity. + ARCHBISHOP. I take your princely word for these redresses. + PRINCE JOHN. I give it you, and will maintain my word; + And thereupon I drink unto your Grace. + HASTINGS. Go, Captain, and deliver to the army + This news of peace. Let them have pay, and part. + I know it will please them. Hie thee, Captain. + Exit Officer + ARCHBISHOP. To you, my noble Lord of Westmoreland. + WESTMORELAND. I pledge your Grace; and if you knew what pains + I have bestow'd to breed this present peace, + You would drink freely; but my love to ye + Shall show itself more openly hereafter. + ARCHBISHOP. I do not doubt you. + WESTMORELAND. I am glad of it. + Health to my lord and gentle cousin, Mowbray. + MOWBRAY. You wish me health in very happy season, + For I am on the sudden something ill. + ARCHBISHOP. Against ill chances men are ever merry; + But heaviness foreruns the good event. + WESTMORELAND. Therefore be merry, coz; since sudden sorrow + Serves to say thus, 'Some good thing comes to-morrow.' + ARCHBISHOP. Believe me, I am passing light in spirit. + MOWBRAY. So much the worse, if your own rule be true. + [Shouts within] + PRINCE JOHN. The word of peace is rend'red. Hark, how they shout! + MOWBRAY. This had been cheerful after victory. + ARCHBISHOP. A peace is of the nature of a conquest; + For then both parties nobly are subdu'd, + And neither party loser. + PRINCE JOHN. Go, my lord, + And let our army be discharged too. + Exit WESTMORELAND + And, good my lord, so please you let our trains + March by us, that we may peruse the men + We should have cop'd withal. + ARCHBISHOP. Go, good Lord Hastings, + And, ere they be dismiss'd, let them march by. + Exit HASTINGS + PRINCE JOHN. I trust, lords, we shall lie to-night together. + + Re-enter WESTMORELAND + + Now, cousin, wherefore stands our army still? + WESTMORELAND. The leaders, having charge from you to stand, + Will not go off until they hear you speak. + PRINCE JOHN. They know their duties. + + Re-enter HASTINGS + + HASTINGS. My lord, our army is dispers'd already. + Like youthful steers unyok'd, they take their courses + East, west, north, south; or like a school broke up, + Each hurries toward his home and sporting-place. + WESTMORELAND. Good tidings, my Lord Hastings; for the which + I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason; + And you, Lord Archbishop, and you, Lord Mowbray, + Of capital treason I attach you both. + MOWBRAY. Is this proceeding just and honourable? + WESTMORELAND. Is your assembly so? + ARCHBISHOP. Will you thus break your faith? + PRINCE JOHN. I pawn'd thee none: + I promis'd you redress of these same grievances + Whereof you did complain; which, by mine honour, + I will perform with a most Christian care. + But for you, rebels- look to taste the due + Meet for rebellion and such acts as yours. + Most shallowly did you these arms commence, + Fondly brought here, and foolishly sent hence. + Strike up our drums, pursue the scatt'red stray. + God, and not we, hath safely fought to-day. + Some guard these traitors to the block of death, + Treason's true bed and yielder-up of breath. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Another part of the forest + +Alarum; excursions. Enter FALSTAFF and COLVILLE, meeting + + FALSTAFF. What's your name, sir? Of what condition are you, and of + what place, I pray? + COLVILLE. I am a knight sir; and my name is Colville of the Dale. + FALSTAFF. Well then, Colville is your name, a knight is your + degree, and your place the Dale. Colville shall still be your + name, a traitor your degree, and the dungeon your place- a place + deep enough; so shall you be still Colville of the Dale. + COLVILLE. Are not you Sir John Falstaff? + FALSTAFF. As good a man as he, sir, whoe'er I am. Do you yield, + sir, or shall I sweat for you? If I do sweat, they are the drops + of thy lovers, and they weep for thy death; therefore rouse up + fear and trembling, and do observance to my mercy. + COLVILLE. I think you are Sir John Falstaff, and in that thought + yield me. + FALSTAFF. I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine; + and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name. + An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the most + active fellow in Europe. My womb, my womb, my womb undoes me. + Here comes our general. + + Enter PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER, WESTMORELAND, + BLUNT, and others + + PRINCE JOHN. The heat is past; follow no further now. + Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland. + Exit WESTMORELAND + Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while? + When everything is ended, then you come. + These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life, + One time or other break some gallows' back. + FALSTAFF. I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus: I never + knew yet but rebuke and check was the reward of valour. Do you + think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet? Have I, in my poor and + old motion, the expedition of thought? I have speeded hither with + the very extremest inch of possibility; I have found'red nine + score and odd posts; and here, travel tainted as I am, have, in + my pure and immaculate valour, taken Sir John Colville of the + Dale,a most furious knight and valorous enemy. But what of that? + He saw me, and yielded; that I may justly say with the hook-nos'd + fellow of Rome-I came, saw, and overcame. + PRINCE JOHN. It was more of his courtesy than your deserving. + FALSTAFF. I know not. Here he is, and here I yield him; and I + beseech your Grace, let it be book'd with the rest of this day's + deeds; or, by the Lord, I will have it in a particular ballad + else, with mine own picture on the top on't, Colville kissing my + foot; to the which course if I be enforc'd, if you do not all + show like gilt twopences to me, and I, in the clear sky of fame, + o'ershine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the + element, which show like pins' heads to her, believe not the word + of the noble. Therefore let me have right, and let desert mount. + PRINCE JOHN. Thine's too heavy to mount. + FALSTAFF. Let it shine, then. + PRINCE JOHN. Thine's too thick to shine. + FALSTAFF. Let it do something, my good lord, that may do me good, + and call it what you will. + PRINCE JOHN. Is thy name Colville? + COLVILLE. It is, my lord. + PRINCE JOHN. A famous rebel art thou, Colville. + FALSTAFF. And a famous true subject took him. + COLVILLE. I am, my lord, but as my betters are + That led me hither. Had they been rul'd by me, + You should have won them dearer than you have. + FALSTAFF. I know not how they sold themselves; but thou, like a + kind fellow, gavest thyself away gratis; and I thank thee for + thee. + + Re-enter WESTMORELAND + + PRINCE JOHN. Now, have you left pursuit? + WESTMORELAND. Retreat is made, and execution stay'd. + PRINCE JOHN. Send Colville, with his confederates, + To York, to present execution. + Blunt, lead him hence; and see you guard him sure. + Exeunt BLUNT and others + And now dispatch we toward the court, my lords. + I hear the King my father is sore sick. + Our news shall go before us to his Majesty, + Which, cousin, you shall bear to comfort him + And we with sober speed will follow you. + FALSTAFF. My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go through + Gloucestershire; and, when you come to court, stand my good lord, + pray, in your good report. + PRINCE JOHN. Fare you well, Falstaff. I, in my condition, + Shall better speak of you than you deserve. + Exeunt all but FALSTAFF + FALSTAFF. I would you had but the wit; 'twere better than your + dukedom. Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not + love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh- but that's no marvel; + he drinks no wine. There's never none of these demure boys come + to any proof; for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and + making many fish-meals, that they fall into a kind of male + green-sickness; and then, when they marry, they get wenches. They + are generally fools and cowards-which some of us should be too, + but for inflammation. A good sherris-sack hath a two-fold + operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all + the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it + apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and + delectable shapes; which delivered o'er to the voice, the tongue, + which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of + your excellent sherris is the warming of the blood; which before, + cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the + badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherris warms it, + and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extremes. It + illumineth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the + rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital + commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their + captain, the heart, who, great and puff'd up with this retinue, + doth any deed of courage- and this valour comes of sherris. So + that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets + it a-work; and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil + till sack commences it and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes + it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did + naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile, and + bare land, manured, husbanded, and till'd, with excellent + endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherris, + that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand sons, + the first humane principle I would teach them should be to + forswear thin potations and to addict themselves to sack. + + Enter BARDOLPH + + How now, Bardolph! + BARDOLPH. The army is discharged all and gone. + FALSTAFF. Let them go. I'll through Gloucestershire, and there will + I visit Master Robert Shallow, Esquire. I have him already + temp'ring between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal + with him. Come away. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Westminster. The Jerusalem Chamber + +Enter the KING, PRINCE THOMAS OF CLARENCE, PRINCE HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER, +WARWICK, and others + + KING. Now, lords, if God doth give successful end + To this debate that bleedeth at our doors, + We will our youth lead on to higher fields, + And draw no swords but what are sanctified. + Our navy is address'd, our power connected, + Our substitutes in absence well invested, + And everything lies level to our wish. + Only we want a little personal strength; + And pause us till these rebels, now afoot, + Come underneath the yoke of government. + WARWICK. Both which we doubt not but your Majesty + Shall soon enjoy. + KING. Humphrey, my son of Gloucester, + Where is the Prince your brother? + PRINCE HUMPHREY. I think he's gone to hunt, my lord, at Windsor. + KING. And how accompanied? + PRINCE HUMPHREY. I do not know, my lord. + KING. Is not his brother, Thomas of Clarence, with him? + PRINCE HUMPHREY. No, my good lord, he is in presence here. + CLARENCE. What would my lord and father? + KING. Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Clarence. + How chance thou art not with the Prince thy brother? + He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas. + Thou hast a better place in his affection + Than all thy brothers; cherish it, my boy, + And noble offices thou mayst effect + Of mediation, after I am dead, + Between his greatness and thy other brethren. + Therefore omit him not; blunt not his love, + Nor lose the good advantage of his grace + By seeming cold or careless of his will; + For he is gracious if he be observ'd. + He hath a tear for pity and a hand + Open as day for melting charity; + Yet notwithstanding, being incens'd, he is flint; + As humorous as winter, and as sudden + As flaws congealed in the spring of day. + His temper, therefore, must be well observ'd. + Chide him for faults, and do it reverently, + When you perceive his blood inclin'd to mirth; + But, being moody, give him line and scope + Till that his passions, like a whale on ground, + Confound themselves with working. Learn this, Thomas, + And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends, + A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in, + That the united vessel of their blood, + Mingled with venom of suggestion- + As, force perforce, the age will pour it in- + Shall never leak, though it do work as strong + As aconitum or rash gunpowder. + CLARENCE. I shall observe him with all care and love. + KING. Why art thou not at Windsor with him, Thomas? + CLARENCE. He is not there to-day; he dines in London. + KING. And how accompanied? Canst thou tell that? + CLARENCE. With Poins, and other his continual followers. + KING. Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds; + And he, the noble image of my youth, + Is overspread with them; therefore my grief + Stretches itself beyond the hour of death. + The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape, + In forms imaginary, th'unguided days + And rotten times that you shall look upon + When I am sleeping with my ancestors. + For when his headstrong riot hath no curb, + When rage and hot blood are his counsellors + When means and lavish manners meet together, + O, with what wings shall his affections fly + Towards fronting peril and oppos'd decay! + WARWICK. My gracious lord, you look beyond him quite. + The Prince but studies his companions + Like a strange tongue, wherein, to gain the language, + 'Tis needful that the most immodest word + Be look'd upon and learnt; which once attain'd, + Your Highness knows, comes to no further use + But to be known and hated. So, like gross terms, + The Prince will, in the perfectness of time, + Cast off his followers; and their memory + Shall as a pattern or a measure live + By which his Grace must mete the lives of other, + Turning past evils to advantages. + KING. 'Tis seldom when the bee doth leave her comb + In the dead carrion. + + Enter WESTMORELAND + + Who's here? Westmoreland? + WESTMORELAND. Health to my sovereign, and new happiness + Added to that that am to deliver! + Prince John, your son, doth kiss your Grace's hand. + Mowbray, the Bishop Scroop, Hastings, and all, + Are brought to the correction of your law. + There is not now a rebel's sword unsheath'd, + But Peace puts forth her olive everywhere. + The manner how this action hath been borne + Here at more leisure may your Highness read, + With every course in his particular. + KING. O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird, + Which ever in the haunch of winter sings + The lifting up of day. + + Enter HARCOURT + + Look here's more news. + HARCOURT. From enemies heaven keep your Majesty; + And, when they stand against you, may they fall + As those that I am come to tell you of! + The Earl Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph, + With a great power of English and of Scots, + Are by the shrieve of Yorkshire overthrown. + The manner and true order of the fight + This packet, please it you, contains at large. + KING. And wherefore should these good news make me sick? + Will Fortune never come with both hands full, + But write her fair words still in foulest letters? + She either gives a stomach and no food- + Such are the poor, in health- or else a feast, + And takes away the stomach- such are the rich + That have abundance and enjoy it not. + I should rejoice now at this happy news; + And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy. + O me! come near me now I am much ill. + PRINCE HUMPHREY. Comfort, your Majesty! + CLARENCE. O my royal father! + WESTMORELAND. My sovereign lord, cheer up yourself, look up. + WARWICK. Be patient, Princes; you do know these fits + Are with his Highness very ordinary. + Stand from him, give him air; he'll straight be well. + CLARENCE. No, no; he cannot long hold out these pangs. + Th' incessant care and labour of his mind + Hath wrought the mure that should confine it in + So thin that life looks through, and will break out. + PRINCE HUMPHREY. The people fear me; for they do observe + Unfather'd heirs and loathly births of nature. + The seasons change their manners, as the year + Had found some months asleep, and leapt them over. + CLARENCE. The river hath thrice flow'd, no ebb between; + And the old folk, Time's doting chronicles, + Say it did so a little time before + That our great grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died. + WARWICK. Speak lower, Princes, for the King recovers. + PRINCE HUMPHREY. This apoplexy will certain be his end. + KING. I pray you take me up, and bear me hence + Into some other chamber. Softly, pray. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Westminster. Another chamber + +The KING lying on a bed; CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, +and others in attendance + + KING. Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends; + Unless some dull and favourable hand + Will whisper music to my weary spirit. + WARWICK. Call for the music in the other room. + KING. Set me the crown upon my pillow here. + CLARENCE. His eye is hollow, and he changes much. + WARWICK. Less noise! less noise! + + Enter PRINCE HENRY + + PRINCE. Who saw the Duke of Clarence? + CLARENCE. I am here, brother, full of heaviness. + PRINCE. How now! Rain within doors, and none abroad! + How doth the King? + PRINCE HUMPHREY. Exceeding ill. + PRINCE. Heard he the good news yet? Tell it him. + PRINCE HUMPHREY. He alt'red much upon the hearing it. + PRINCE. If he be sick with joy, he'll recover without physic. + WARWICK. Not so much noise, my lords. Sweet Prince, speak low; + The King your father is dispos'd to sleep. + CLARENCE. Let us withdraw into the other room. + WARWICK. Will't please your Grace to go along with us? + PRINCE. No; I will sit and watch here by the King. + Exeunt all but the PRINCE + Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow, + Being so troublesome a bedfellow? + O polish'd perturbation! golden care! + That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide + To many a watchful night! Sleep with it now! + Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet + As he whose brow with homely biggen bound + Snores out the watch of night. O majesty! + When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit + Like a rich armour worn in heat of day + That scald'st with safety. By his gates of breath + There lies a downy feather which stirs not. + Did he suspire, that light and weightless down + Perforce must move. My gracious lord! my father! + This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep + That from this golden rigol hath divorc'd + So many English kings. Thy due from me + Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood + Which nature, love, and filial tenderness, + Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously. + My due from thee is this imperial crown, + Which, as immediate from thy place and blood, + Derives itself to me. [Putting on the crown] Lo where it sits- + Which God shall guard; and put the world's whole strength + Into one giant arm, it shall not force + This lineal honour from me. This from thee + Will I to mine leave as 'tis left to me. Exit + KING. Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence! + + Re-enter WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE + + CLARENCE. Doth the King call? + WARWICK. What would your Majesty? How fares your Grace? + KING. Why did you leave me here alone, my lords? + CLARENCE. We left the Prince my brother here, my liege, + Who undertook to sit and watch by you. + KING. The Prince of Wales! Where is he? Let me see him. + He is not here. + WARWICK. This door is open; he is gone this way. + PRINCE HUMPHREY. He came not through the chamber where we stay'd. + KING. Where is the crown? Who took it from my pillow? + WARWICK. When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here. + KING. The Prince hath ta'en it hence. Go, seek him out. + Is he so hasty that he doth suppose + My sleep my death? + Find him, my lord of Warwick; chide him hither. + Exit WARWICK + This part of his conjoins with my disease + And helps to end me. See, sons, what things you are! + How quickly nature falls into revolt + When gold becomes her object! + For this the foolish over-careful fathers + Have broke their sleep with thoughts, + Their brains with care, their bones with industry; + For this they have engrossed and pil'd up + The cank'red heaps of strange-achieved gold; + For this they have been thoughtful to invest + Their sons with arts and martial exercises; + When, like the bee, tolling from every flower + The virtuous sweets, + Our thighs with wax, our mouths with honey pack'd, + We bring it to the hive, and, like the bees, + Are murd'red for our pains. This bitter taste + Yields his engrossments to the ending father. + + Re-enter WARWICK + + Now where is he that will not stay so long + Till his friend sickness hath determin'd me? + WARWICK. My lord, I found the Prince in the next room, + Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks, + With such a deep demeanour in great sorrow, + That tyranny, which never quaff'd but blood, + Would, by beholding him, have wash'd his knife + With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither. + KING. But wherefore did he take away the crown? + + Re-enter PRINCE HENRY + + Lo where he comes. Come hither to me, Harry. + Depart the chamber, leave us here alone. + Exeunt all but the KING and the PRINCE + PRINCE. I never thought to hear you speak again. + KING. Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought. + I stay too long by thee, I weary thee. + Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair + That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honours + Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth! + Thou seek'st the greatness that will overwhelm thee. + Stay but a little, for my cloud of dignity + Is held from falling with so weak a wind + That it will quickly drop; my day is dim. + Thou hast stol'n that which, after some few hours, + Were thine without offense; and at my death + Thou hast seal'd up my expectation. + Thy life did manifest thou lov'dst me not, + And thou wilt have me die assur'd of it. + Thou hid'st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts, + Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart, + To stab at half an hour of my life. + What, canst thou not forbear me half an hour? + Then get thee gone, and dig my grave thyself; + And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear + That thou art crowned, not that I am dead. + Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse + Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head; + Only compound me with forgotten dust; + Give that which gave thee life unto the worms. + Pluck down my officers, break my decrees; + For now a time is come to mock at form- + Harry the Fifth is crown'd. Up, vanity: + Down, royal state. All you sage counsellors, hence. + And to the English court assemble now, + From every region, apes of idleness. + Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your scum. + Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance, + Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit + The oldest sins the newest kind of ways? + Be happy, he will trouble you no more. + England shall double gild his treble guilt; + England shall give him office, honour, might; + For the fifth Harry from curb'd license plucks + The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog + Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent. + O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows! + When that my care could not withhold thy riots, + What wilt thou do when riot is thy care? + O, thou wilt be a wilderness again. + Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants! + PRINCE. O, pardon me, my liege! But for my tears, + The moist impediments unto my speech, + I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke + Ere you with grief had spoke and I had heard + The course of it so far. There is your crown, + And he that wears the crown immortally + Long guard it yours! [Kneeling] If I affect it more + Than as your honour and as your renown, + Let me no more from this obedience rise, + Which my most inward true and duteous spirit + Teacheth this prostrate and exterior bending! + God witness with me, when I here came in + And found no course of breath within your Majesty, + How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign, + O, let me in my present wildness die, + And never live to show th' incredulous world + The noble change that I have purposed! + Coming to look on you, thinking you dead- + And dead almost, my liege, to think you were- + I spake unto this crown as having sense, + And thus upbraided it: 'The care on thee depending + Hath fed upon the body of my father; + Therefore thou best of gold art worst of gold. + Other, less fine in carat, is more precious, + Preserving life in med'cine potable; + But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd, + Hast eat thy bearer up.' Thus, my most royal liege, + Accusing it, I put it on my head, + To try with it- as with an enemy + That had before my face murd'red my father- + The quarrel of a true inheritor. + But if it did infect my blood with joy, + Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride; + If any rebel or vain spirit of mine + Did with the least affection of a welcome + Give entertainment to the might of it, + Let God for ever keep it from my head, + And make me as the poorest vassal is, + That doth with awe and terror kneel to it! + KING. O my son, + God put it in thy mind to take it hence, + That thou mightst win the more thy father's love, + Pleading so wisely in excuse of it! + Come hither, Harry; sit thou by my bed, + And hear, I think, the very latest counsel + That ever I shall breathe. God knows, my son, + By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways + I met this crown; and I myself know well + How troublesome it sat upon my head: + To thee it shall descend with better quiet, + Better opinion, better confirmation; + For all the soil of the achievement goes + With me into the earth. It seem'd in me + But as an honour snatch'd with boist'rous hand; + And I had many living to upbraid + My gain of it by their assistances; + Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed, + Wounding supposed peace. All these bold fears + Thou seest with peril I have answered; + For all my reign hath been but as a scene + Acting that argument. And now my death + Changes the mood; for what in me was purchas'd + Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort; + So thou the garland wear'st successively. + Yet, though thou stand'st more sure than I could do, + Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green; + And all my friends, which thou must make thy friends, + Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out; + By whose fell working I was first advanc'd, + And by whose power I well might lodge a fear + To be again displac'd; which to avoid, + I cut them off; and had a purpose now + To lead out many to the Holy Land, + Lest rest and lying still might make them look + Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry, + Be it thy course to busy giddy minds + With foreign quarrels, that action, hence borne out, + May waste the memory of the former days. + More would I, but my lungs are wasted so + That strength of speech is utterly denied me. + How I came by the crown, O God, forgive; + And grant it may with thee in true peace live! + PRINCE. My gracious liege, + You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me; + Then plain and right must my possession be; + Which I with more than with a common pain + 'Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain. + + Enter PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER, WARWICK, LORDS, and others + + KING. Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster. + PRINCE JOHN. Health, peace, and happiness, to my royal father! + KING. Thou bring'st me happiness and peace, son John; + But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown + From this bare wither'd trunk. Upon thy sight + My worldly business makes a period. + Where is my Lord of Warwick? + PRINCE. My Lord of Warwick! + KING. Doth any name particular belong + Unto the lodging where I first did swoon? + WARWICK. 'Tis call'd Jerusalem, my noble lord. + KING. Laud be to God! Even there my life must end. + It hath been prophesied to me many years, + I should not die but in Jerusalem; + Which vainly I suppos'd the Holy Land. + But bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie; + In that Jerusalem shall Harry die. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Gloucestershire. SHALLOW'S house + +Enter SHALLOW, FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, and PAGE + + SHALLOW. By cock and pie, sir, you shall not away to-night. + What, Davy, I say! + FALSTAFF. You must excuse me, Master Robert Shallow. + SHALLOW. I will not excuse you; you shall not be excus'd; excuses + shall not be admitted; there is no excuse shall serve; you shall + not be excus'd. Why, Davy! + + Enter DAVY + + DAVY. Here, sir. + SHALLOW. Davy, Davy, Davy, Davy; let me see, Davy; let me see, + Davy; let me see- yea, marry, William cook, bid him come hither. + Sir John, you shall not be excus'd. + DAVY. Marry, sir, thus: those precepts cannot be served; and, + again, sir- shall we sow the headland with wheat? + SHALLOW. With red wheat, Davy. But for William cook- are there no + young pigeons? + DAVY. Yes, sir. Here is now the smith's note for shoeing and + plough-irons. + SHALLOW. Let it be cast, and paid. Sir John, you shall not be + excused. + DAVY. Now, sir, a new link to the bucket must needs be had; and, + sir, do you mean to stop any of William's wages about the sack he + lost the other day at Hinckley fair? + SHALLOW. 'A shall answer it. Some pigeons, Davy, a couple of + short-legg'd hens, a joint of mutton, and any pretty little tiny + kickshaws, tell William cook. + DAVY. Doth the man of war stay all night, sir? + SHALLOW. Yea, Davy; I will use him well. A friend i' th' court is + better than a penny in purse. Use his men well, Davy; for they + are arrant knaves and will backbite. + DAVY. No worse than they are backbitten, sir; for they have + marvellous foul linen. + SHALLOW. Well conceited, Davy- about thy business, Davy. + DAVY. I beseech you, sir, to countenance William Visor of Woncot + against Clement Perkes o' th' hill. + SHALLOW. There, is many complaints, Davy, against that Visor. That + Visor is an arrant knave, on my knowledge. + DAVY. I grant your worship that he is a knave, sir; but yet God + forbid, sir, but a knave should have some countenance at his + friend's request. An honest man, sir, is able to speak for + himself, when a knave is not. I have serv'd your worship truly, + sir, this eight years; an I cannot once or twice in a quarter + bear out a knave against an honest man, I have but a very little + credit with your worship. The knave is mine honest friend, sir; + therefore, I beseech you, let him be countenanc'd. + SHALLOW. Go to; I say he shall have no wrong. Look about, + DAVY. [Exit DAVY] Where are you, Sir John? Come, come, come, off + with your boots. Give me your hand, Master Bardolph. + BARDOLPH. I am glad to see your worship. + SHALLOW. I thank thee with all my heart, kind Master Bardolph. + [To the PAGE] And welcome, my tall fellow. Come, Sir John. + FALSTAFF. I'll follow you, good Master Robert Shallow. + [Exit SHALLOW] Bardolph, look to our horses. [Exeunt BARDOLPH + and PAGE] If I were sawed into quantities, I should make four + dozen of such bearded hermits' staves as Master Shallow. It is a + wonderful thing to see the semblable coherence of his men's + spirits and his. They, by observing of him, do bear themselves + like foolish justices: he, by conversing with them, is turned + into a justice-like serving-man. Their spirits are so married in + conjunction with the participation of society that they flock + together in consent, like so many wild geese. If I had a suit to + Master Shallow, I would humour his men with the imputation of + being near their master; if to his men, I would curry with Master + Shallow that no man could better command his servants. It is + certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught, + as men take diseases, one of another; therefore let men take heed + of their company. I will devise matter enough out of this Shallow + to keep Prince Harry in continual laughter the wearing out of six + fashions, which is four terms, or two actions; and 'a shall laugh + without intervallums. O, it is much that a lie with a slight + oath, and a jest with a sad brow will do with a fellow that never + had the ache in his shoulders! O, you shall see him laugh till + his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up! + SHALLOW. [Within] Sir John! + FALSTAFF. I come, Master Shallow; I come, Master Shallow. + Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Westminster. The palace + +Enter, severally, WARWICK, and the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE + + WARWICK. How now, my Lord Chief Justice; whither away? + CHIEF JUSTICE. How doth the King? + WARWICK. Exceeding well; his cares are now all ended. + CHIEF JUSTICE. I hope, not dead. + WARWICK. He's walk'd the way of nature; + And to our purposes he lives no more. + CHIEF JUSTICE. I would his Majesty had call'd me with him. + The service that I truly did his life + Hath left me open to all injuries. + WARWICK. Indeed, I think the young king loves you not. + CHIEF JUSTICE. I know he doth not, and do arm myself + To welcome the condition of the time, + Which cannot look more hideously upon me + Than I have drawn it in my fantasy. + + Enter LANCASTER, CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER, + WESTMORELAND, and others + + WARWICK. Here comes the heavy issue of dead Harry. + O that the living Harry had the temper + Of he, the worst of these three gentlemen! + How many nobles then should hold their places + That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort! + CHIEF JUSTICE. O God, I fear all will be overturn'd. + PRINCE JOHN. Good morrow, cousin Warwick, good morrow. + GLOUCESTER & CLARENCE. Good morrow, cousin. + PRINCE JOHN. We meet like men that had forgot to speak. + WARWICK. We do remember; but our argument + Is all too heavy to admit much talk. + PRINCE JOHN. Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy! + CHIEF JUSTICE. Peace be with us, lest we be heavier! + PRINCE HUMPHREY. O, good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed; + And I dare swear you borrow not that face + Of seeming sorrow- it is sure your own. + PRINCE JOHN. Though no man be assur'd what grace to find, + You stand in coldest expectation. + I am the sorrier; would 'twere otherwise. + CLARENCE. Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair; + Which swims against your stream of quality. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Sweet Princes, what I did, I did in honour, + Led by th' impartial conduct of my soul; + And never shall you see that I will beg + A ragged and forestall'd remission. + If truth and upright innocency fail me, + I'll to the King my master that is dead, + And tell him who hath sent me after him. + WARWICK. Here comes the Prince. + + Enter KING HENRY THE FIFTH, attended + + CHIEF JUSTICE. Good morrow, and God save your Majesty! + KING. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, + Sits not so easy on me as you think. + Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear. + This is the English, not the Turkish court; + Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds, + But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers, + For, by my faith, it very well becomes you. + Sorrow so royally in you appears + That I will deeply put the fashion on, + And wear it in my heart. Why, then, be sad; + But entertain no more of it, good brothers, + Than a joint burden laid upon us all. + For me, by heaven, I bid you be assur'd, + I'll be your father and your brother too; + Let me but bear your love, I'll bear your cares. + Yet weep that Harry's dead, and so will I; + But Harry lives that shall convert those tears + By number into hours of happiness. + BROTHERS. We hope no otherwise from your Majesty. + KING. You all look strangely on me; and you most. + You are, I think, assur'd I love you not. + CHIEF JUSTICE. I am assur'd, if I be measur'd rightly, + Your Majesty hath no just cause to hate me. + KING. No? + How might a prince of my great hopes forget + So great indignities you laid upon me? + What, rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison, + Th' immediate heir of England! Was this easy? + May this be wash'd in Lethe and forgotten? + CHIEF JUSTICE. I then did use the person of your father; + The image of his power lay then in me; + And in th' administration of his law, + Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth, + Your Highness pleased to forget my place, + The majesty and power of law and justice, + The image of the King whom I presented, + And struck me in my very seat of judgment; + Whereon, as an offender to your father, + I gave bold way to my authority + And did commit you. If the deed were ill, + Be you contented, wearing now the garland, + To have a son set your decrees at nought, + To pluck down justice from your awful bench, + To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword + That guards the peace and safety of your person; + Nay, more, to spurn at your most royal image, + And mock your workings in a second body. + Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours; + Be now the father, and propose a son; + Hear your own dignity so much profan'd, + See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted, + Behold yourself so by a son disdain'd; + And then imagine me taking your part + And, in your power, soft silencing your son. + After this cold considerance, sentence me; + And, as you are a king, speak in your state + What I have done that misbecame my place, + My person, or my liege's sovereignty. + KING. You are right, Justice, and you weigh this well; + Therefore still bear the balance and the sword; + And I do wish your honours may increase + Till you do live to see a son of mine + Offend you, and obey you, as I did. + So shall I live to speak my father's words: + 'Happy am I that have a man so bold + That dares do justice on my proper son; + And not less happy, having such a son + That would deliver up his greatness so + Into the hands of justice.' You did commit me; + For which I do commit into your hand + Th' unstained sword that you have us'd to bear; + With this remembrance- that you use the same + With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit + As you have done 'gainst me. There is my hand. + You shall be as a father to my youth; + My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear; + And I will stoop and humble my intents + To your well-practis'd wise directions. + And, Princes all, believe me, I beseech you, + My father is gone wild into his grave, + For in his tomb lie my affections; + And with his spirits sadly I survive, + To mock the expectation of the world, + To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out + Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down + After my seeming. The tide of blood in me + Hath proudly flow'd in vanity till now. + Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea, + Where it shall mingle with the state of floods, + And flow henceforth in formal majesty. + Now call we our high court of parliament; + And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel, + That the great body of our state may go + In equal rank with the best govern'd nation; + That war, or peace, or both at once, may be + As things acquainted and familiar to us; + In which you, father, shall have foremost hand. + Our coronation done, we will accite, + As I before rememb'red, all our state; + And- God consigning to my good intents- + No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say, + God shorten Harry's happy life one day. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Gloucestershire. SHALLOW'S orchard + +Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, SILENCE, BARDOLPH, the PAGE, and DAVY + + SHALLOW. Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour, we + will eat a last year's pippin of mine own graffing, with a dish + of caraways, and so forth. Come, cousin Silence. And then to bed. + FALSTAFF. Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling and rich. + SHALLOW. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, Sir John + -marry, good air. Spread, Davy, spread, Davy; well said, Davy. + FALSTAFF. This Davy serves you for good uses; he is your + serving-man and your husband. + SHALLOW. A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, Sir + John. By the mass, I have drunk too much sack at supper. A good + varlet. Now sit down, now sit down; come, cousin. + SILENCE. Ah, sirrah! quoth-a- we shall [Singing] + + Do nothing but eat and make good cheer, + And praise God for the merry year; + When flesh is cheap and females dear, + And lusty lads roam here and there, + So merrily, + And ever among so merrily. + + FALSTAFF. There's a merry heart! Good Master Silence, I'll give you + a health for that anon. + SHALLOW. Give Master Bardolph some wine, Davy. + DAVY. Sweet sir, sit; I'll be with you anon; most sweet sir, sit. + Master Page, good Master Page, sit. Proface! What you want in + meat, we'll have in drink. But you must bear; the heart's all. + Exit + SHALLOW. Be merry, Master Bardolph; and, my little soldier there, + be merry. + SILENCE. [Singing] + + Be merry, be merry, my wife has all; + For women are shrews, both short and tall; + 'Tis merry in hall when beards wag an; + And welcome merry Shrove-tide. + Be merry, be merry. + + FALSTAFF. I did not think Master Silence had been a man of this + mettle. + SILENCE. Who, I? I have been merry twice and once ere now. + + Re-enter DAVY + + DAVY. [To BARDOLPH] There's a dish of leather-coats for you. + SHALLOW. Davy! + DAVY. Your worship! I'll be with you straight. [To BARDOLPH] + A cup of wine, sir? + SILENCE. [Singing] + + A cup of wine that's brisk and fine, + And drink unto the leman mine; + And a merry heart lives long-a. + + FALSTAFF. Well said, Master Silence. + SILENCE. An we shall be merry, now comes in the sweet o' th' night. + FALSTAFF. Health and long life to you, Master Silence! + SILENCE. [Singing] + + Fill the cup, and let it come, + I'll pledge you a mile to th' bottom. + + SHALLOW. Honest Bardolph, welcome; if thou want'st anything and + wilt not call, beshrew thy heart. Welcome, my little tiny thief + and welcome indeed too. I'll drink to Master Bardolph, and to all + the cabileros about London. + DAVY. I hope to see London once ere I die. + BARDOLPH. An I might see you there, Davy! + SHALLOW. By the mass, you'R crack a quart together- ha! will you + not, Master Bardolph? + BARDOLPH. Yea, sir, in a pottle-pot. + SHALLOW. By God's liggens, I thank thee. The knave will stick by + thee, I can assure thee that. 'A will not out, 'a; 'tis true + bred. + BARDOLPH. And I'll stick by him, sir. + SHALLOW. Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing; be merry. + [One knocks at door] Look who's at door there, ho! Who knocks? + Exit DAVY + FALSTAFF. [To SILENCE, who has drunk a bumper] Why, now you have + done me right. + SILENCE. [Singing] + + Do me right, + And dub me knight. + Samingo. + + Is't not so? + FALSTAFF. 'Tis so. + SILENCE. Is't so? Why then, say an old man can do somewhat. + + Re-enter DAVY + + DAVY. An't please your worship, there's one Pistol come from the + court with news. + FALSTAFF. From the court? Let him come in. + + Enter PISTOL + + How now, Pistol? + PISTOL. Sir John, God save you! + FALSTAFF. What wind blew you hither, Pistol? + PISTOL. Not the ill wind which blows no man to good. Sweet knight, + thou art now one of the greatest men in this realm. + SILENCE. By'r lady, I think 'a be, but goodman Puff of Barson. + PISTOL. Puff! + Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base! + Sir John, I am thy Pistol and thy friend, + And helter-skelter have I rode to thee; + And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys, + And golden times, and happy news of price. + FALSTAFF. I pray thee now, deliver them like a man of this world. + PISTOL. A foutra for the world and worldlings base! + I speak of Africa and golden joys. + FALSTAFF. O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news? + Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof. + SILENCE. [Singing] And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John. + PISTOL. Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons? + And shall good news be baffled? + Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies' lap. + SHALLOW. Honest gentleman, I know not your breeding. + PISTOL. Why, then, lament therefore. + SHALLOW. Give me pardon, sir. If, sir, you come with news from the + court, I take it there's but two ways- either to utter them or + conceal them. I am, sir, under the King, in some authority. + PISTOL. Under which king, Bezonian? Speak, or die. + SHALLOW. Under King Harry. + PISTOL. Harry the Fourth- or Fifth? + SHALLOW. Harry the Fourth. + PISTOL. A foutra for thine office! + Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is King; + Harry the Fifth's the man. I speak the truth. + When Pistol lies, do this; and fig me, like + The bragging Spaniard. + FALSTAFF. What, is the old king dead? + PISTOL. As nail in door. The things I speak are just. + FALSTAFF. Away, Bardolph! saddle my horse. Master Robert Shallow, + choose what office thou wilt in the land, 'tis thine. Pistol, I + will double-charge thee with dignities. + BARDOLPH. O joyful day! + I would not take a knighthood for my fortune. + PISTOL. What, I do bring good news? + FALSTAFF. Carry Master Silence to bed. Master Shallow, my Lord + Shallow, be what thou wilt- I am Fortune's steward. Get on thy + boots; we'll ride all night. O sweet Pistol! Away, Bardolph! + [Exit BARDOLPH] Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and withal + devise something to do thyself good. Boot, boot, Master Shallow! + I know the young King is sick for me. Let us take any man's + horses: the laws of England are at my commandment. Blessed are + they that have been my friends; and woe to my Lord Chief Justice! + PISTOL. Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also! + 'Where is the life that late I led?' say they. + Why, here it is; welcome these pleasant days! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +London. A street + +Enter BEADLES, dragging in HOSTESS QUICKLY and DOLL TEARSHEET + + HOSTESS. No, thou arrant knave; I would to God that I might die, + that I might have thee hang'd. Thou hast drawn my shoulder out of + joint. + FIRST BEADLE. The constables have delivered her over to me; and she + shall have whipping-cheer enough, I warrant her. There hath been + a man or two lately kill'd about her. + DOLL. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on; I'll tell thee what, + thou damn'd tripe-visag'd rascal, an the child I now go with do + miscarry, thou wert better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou + paper-fac'd villain. + HOSTESS. O the Lord, that Sir John were come! He would make this a + bloody day to somebody. But I pray God the fruit of her womb + miscarry! + FIRST BEADLE. If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions again; + you have but eleven now. Come, I charge you both go with me; for + the man is dead that you and Pistol beat amongst you. + DOLL. I'll tell you what, you thin man in a censer, I will have you + as soundly swing'd for this- you blue-bottle rogue, you filthy + famish'd correctioner, if you be not swing'd, I'll forswear + half-kirtles. + FIRST BEADLE. Come, come, you she knight-errant, come. + HOSTESS. O God, that right should thus overcome might! + Well, of sufferance comes ease. + DOLL. Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice. + HOSTESS. Ay, come, you starv'd bloodhound. + DOLL. Goodman death, goodman bones! + HOSTESS. Thou atomy, thou! + DOLL. Come, you thin thing! come, you rascal! + FIRST BEADLE. Very well. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Westminster. Near the Abbey + +Enter GROOMS, strewing rushes + + FIRST GROOM. More rushes, more rushes! + SECOND GROOM. The trumpets have sounded twice. + THIRD GROOM. 'Twill be two o'clock ere they come from the + coronation. Dispatch, dispatch. Exeunt + + Trumpets sound, and the KING and his train pass + over the stage. After them enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, + PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and page + + FALSTAFF. Stand here by me, Master Robert Shallow; I will make the + King do you grace. I will leer upon him, as 'a comes by; and do + but mark the countenance that he will give me. + PISTOL. God bless thy lungs, good knight! + FALSTAFF. Come here, Pistol; stand behind me. [To SHALLOW] O, if + I had had to have made new liveries, I would have bestowed the + thousand pound I borrowed of you. But 'tis no matter; this poor + show doth better; this doth infer the zeal I had to see him. + SHALLOW. It doth so. + FALSTAFF. It shows my earnestness of affection- + SHALLOW. It doth so. + FALSTAFF. My devotion- + SHALLOW. It doth, it doth, it doth. + FALSTAFF. As it were, to ride day and night; and not to deliberate, + not to remember, not to have patience to shift me- + SHALLOW. It is best, certain. + FALSTAFF. But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with + desire to see him; thinking of nothing else, putting all affairs + else in oblivion, as if there were nothing else to be done but to + see him. + PISTOL. 'Tis 'semper idem' for 'obsque hoc nihil est.' 'Tis all in + every part. + SHALLOW. 'Tis so, indeed. + PISTOL. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver + And make thee rage. + Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts, + Is in base durance and contagious prison; + Hal'd thither + By most mechanical and dirty hand. + Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto's snake, + For Doll is in. Pistol speaks nought but truth. + FALSTAFF. I will deliver her. + [Shouts,within, and the trumpets sound] + PISTOL. There roar'd the sea, and trumpet-clangor sounds. + + Enter the KING and his train, the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE + among them + + FALSTAFF. God save thy Grace, King Hal; my royal Hal! + PISTOL. The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame! + FALSTAFF. God save thee, my sweet boy! + KING. My Lord Chief Justice, speak to that vain man. + CHIEF JUSTICE. Have you your wits? Know you what 'tis you speak? + FALSTAFF. My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart! + KING. I know thee not, old man. Fall to thy prayers. + How ill white hairs become a fool and jester! + I have long dreamt of such a kind of man, + So surfeit-swell'd, so old, and so profane; + But being awak'd, I do despise my dream. + Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace; + Leave gormandizing; know the grave doth gape + For thee thrice wider than for other men- + Reply not to me with a fool-born jest; + Presume not that I am the thing I was, + For God doth know, so shall the world perceive, + That I have turn'd away my former self; + So will I those that kept me company. + When thou dost hear I am as I have been, + Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast, + The tutor and the feeder of my riots. + Till then I banish thee, on pain of death, + As I have done the rest of my misleaders, + Not to come near our person by ten mile. + For competence of life I will allow you, + That lack of means enforce you not to evils; + And, as we hear you do reform yourselves, + We will, according to your strengths and qualities, + Give you advancement. Be it your charge, my lord, + To see perform'd the tenour of our word. + Set on. Exeunt the KING and his train + FALSTAFF. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pounds. + SHALLOW. Yea, marry, Sir John; which I beseech you to let me have + home with me. + FALSTAFF. That can hardly be, Master Shallow. Do not you grieve at + this; I shall be sent for in private to him. Look you, he must + seem thus to the world. Fear not your advancements; I will be the + man yet that shall make you great. + SHALLOW. I cannot perceive how, unless you give me your doublet, + and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good Sir John, let me + have five hundred of my thousand. + FALSTAFF. Sir, I will be as good as my word. This that you heard + was but a colour. + SHALLOW. A colour that I fear you will die in, Sir John. + FALSTAFF. Fear no colours; go with me to dinner. Come, Lieutenant + Pistol; come, Bardolph. I shall be sent for soon at night. + + Re-enter PRINCE JOHN, the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE, + with officers + + CHIEF JUSTICE. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet; + Take all his company along with him. + FALSTAFF. My lord, my lord- + CHIEF JUSTICE. I cannot now speak. I will hear you soon. + Take them away. + PISTOL. Si fortuna me tormenta, spero me contenta. + Exeunt all but PRINCE JOHN and the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE + PRINCE JOHN. I like this fair proceeding of the King's. + He hath intent his wonted followers + Shall all be very well provided for; + But all are banish'd till their conversations + Appear more wise and modest to the world. + CHIEF JUSTICE. And so they are. + PRINCE JOHN. The King hath call'd his parliament, my lord. + CHIEF JUSTICE. He hath. + PRINCE JOHN. I will lay odds that, ere this year expire, + We bear our civil swords and native fire + As far as France. I heard a bird so sing, + Whose music, to my thinking, pleas'd the King. + Come, will you hence? Exeunt + +EPILOGUE + EPILOGUE. + + First my fear, then my curtsy, last my speech. My fear, is your +displeasure; my curtsy, my duty; and my speech, to beg your pardons. +If you look for a good speech now, you undo me; for what I have to say +is of mine own making; and what, indeed, I should say will, I doubt, +prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture. +Be it known to you, as it is very well, I was lately here in the end +of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it and to promise you +a better. I meant, indeed, to pay you with this; which if like an +ill venture it come unluckily home, I break, and you, my gentle +creditors, lose. Here I promis'd you I would be, and here I commit +my body to your mercies. Bate me some, and I will pay you some, and, +as most debtors do, promise you infinitely; and so I kneel down before +you- but, indeed, to pray for the Queen. + If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to +use my legs? And yet that were but light payment-to dance out of +your debt. But a good conscience will make any possible +satisfaction, and so would I. All the gentlewomen here have forgiven +me. If the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with +the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly. + One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloy'd with fat +meat, our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in +it, and make you merry with fair Katherine of France; where, for +anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already 'a be +killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr and this +is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid +you good night. + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1599 + +THE LIFE OF KING HENRY THE FIFTH + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + CHORUS + KING HENRY THE FIFTH + DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, brother to the King + DUKE OF BEDFORD, " " " " + DUKE OF EXETER, Uncle to the King + DUKE OF YORK, cousin to the King + EARL OF SALISBURY + EARL OF WESTMORELAND + EARL OF WARWICK + ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY + BISHOP OF ELY + + EARL OF CAMBRIDGE, conspirator against the King + LORD SCROOP, " " " " + SIR THOMAS GREY, " " " " + SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM, officer in the King's army + GOWER, " " " " " + FLUELLEN, " " " " " + MACMORRIS, " " " " " + JAMY, " " " " " + + BATES, soldier in the King's army + COURT, " " " " " + WILLIAMS, " " " " " + NYM, " " " " " + BARDOLPH, " " " " " + PISTOL, " " " " " + + BOY A HERALD + + CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France + LEWIS, the Dauphin DUKE OF BURGUNDY + DUKE OF ORLEANS DUKE OF BRITAINE + DUKE OF BOURBON THE CONSTABLE OF FRANCE + RAMBURES, French Lord + GRANDPRE, " " + GOVERNOR OF HARFLEUR MONTJOY, a French herald + AMBASSADORS to the King of England + + ISABEL, Queen of France + KATHERINE, daughter to Charles and Isabel + ALICE, a lady attending her + HOSTESS of the Boar's Head, Eastcheap; formerly Mrs. Quickly, now + married to Pistol + + Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, Attendants + + + SCENE: + England and France + +PROLOGUE + PROLOGUE. + + Enter CHORUS + + CHORUS. O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend + The brightest heaven of invention, + A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, + And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! + Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, + Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, + Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, + Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, + The flat unraised spirits that hath dar'd + On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth + So great an object. Can this cockpit hold + The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram + Within this wooden O the very casques + That did affright the air at Agincourt? + O, pardon! since a crooked figure may + Attest in little place a million; + And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, + On your imaginary forces work. + Suppose within the girdle of these walls + Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies, + Whose high upreared and abutting fronts + The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder. + Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts: + Into a thousand parts divide one man, + And make imaginary puissance; + Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them + Printing their proud hoofs i' th' receiving earth; + For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, + Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times, + Turning th' accomplishment of many years + Into an hour-glass; for the which supply, + Admit me Chorus to this history; + Who prologue-like, your humble patience pray + Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +London. An ante-chamber in the KING'S palace + +Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the BISHOP OF ELY + + CANTERBURY. My lord, I'll tell you: that self bill is urg'd + Which in th' eleventh year of the last king's reign + Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd + But that the scambling and unquiet time + Did push it out of farther question. + ELY. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? + CANTERBURY. It must be thought on. If it pass against us, + We lose the better half of our possession; + For all the temporal lands which men devout + By testament have given to the church + Would they strip from us; being valu'd thus- + As much as would maintain, to the King's honour, + Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights, + Six thousand and two hundred good esquires; + And, to relief of lazars and weak age, + Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil, + A hundred alms-houses right well supplied; + And to the coffers of the King, beside, + A thousand pounds by th' year: thus runs the bill. + ELY. This would drink deep. + CANTERBURY. 'T would drink the cup and all. + ELY. But what prevention? + CANTERBURY. The King is full of grace and fair regard. + ELY. And a true lover of the holy Church. + CANTERBURY. The courses of his youth promis'd it not. + The breath no sooner left his father's body + But that his wildness, mortified in him, + Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment, + Consideration like an angel came + And whipp'd th' offending Adam out of him, + Leaving his body as a paradise + T'envelop and contain celestial spirits. + Never was such a sudden scholar made; + Never came reformation in a flood, + With such a heady currance, scouring faults; + Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulnes + So soon did lose his seat, and all at once, + As in this king. + ELY. We are blessed in the change. + CANTERBURY. Hear him but reason in divinity, + And, all-admiring, with an inward wish + You would desire the King were made a prelate; + Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, + You would say it hath been all in all his study; + List his discourse of war, and you shall hear + A fearful battle rend'red you in music. + Turn him to any cause of policy, + The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, + Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks, + The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, + And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears + To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences; + So that the art and practic part of life + Must be the mistress to this theoric; + Which is a wonder how his Grace should glean it, + Since his addiction was to courses vain, + His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow, + His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports; + And never noted in him any study, + Any retirement, any sequestration + From open haunts and popularity. + ELY. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, + And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best + Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality; + And so the Prince obscur'd his contemplation + Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt, + Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, + Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty. + CANTERBURY. It must be so; for miracles are ceas'd; + And therefore we must needs admit the means + How things are perfected. + ELY. But, my good lord, + How now for mitigation of this bill + Urg'd by the Commons? Doth his Majesty + Incline to it, or no? + CANTERBURY. He seems indifferent + Or rather swaying more upon our part + Than cherishing th' exhibiters against us; + For I have made an offer to his Majesty- + Upon our spiritual convocation + And in regard of causes now in hand, + Which I have open'd to his Grace at large, + As touching France- to give a greater sum + Than ever at one time the clergy yet + Did to his predecessors part withal. + ELY. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord? + CANTERBURY. With good acceptance of his Majesty; + Save that there was not time enough to hear, + As I perceiv'd his Grace would fain have done, + The severals and unhidden passages + Of his true tides to some certain dukedoms, + And generally to the crown and seat of France, + Deriv'd from Edward, his great-grandfather. + ELY. What was th' impediment that broke this off? + CANTERBURY. The French ambassador upon that instant + Crav'd audience; and the hour, I think, is come + To give him hearing: is it four o'clock? + ELY. It is. + CANTERBURY. Then go we in, to know his embassy; + Which I could with a ready guess declare, + Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. + ELY. I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +London. The Presence Chamber in the KING'S palace + +Enter the KING, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, +and attendants + + KING HENRY. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury? + EXETER. Not here in presence. + KING HENRY. Send for him, good uncle. + WESTMORELAND. Shall we call in th' ambassador, my liege? + KING HENRY. Not yet, my cousin; we would be resolv'd, + Before we hear him, of some things of weight + That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. + + Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and + the BISHOP OF ELY + + CANTERBURY. God and his angels guard your sacred throne, + And make you long become it! + KING HENRY. Sure, we thank you. + My learned lord, we pray you to proceed, + And justly and religiously unfold + Why the law Salique, that they have in France, + Or should or should not bar us in our claim; + And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord, + That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, + Or nicely charge your understanding soul + With opening titles miscreate whose right + Suits not in native colours with the truth; + For God doth know how many, now in health, + Shall drop their blood in approbation + Of what your reverence shall incite us to. + Therefore take heed how you impawn our person, + How you awake our sleeping sword of war- + We charge you, in the name of God, take heed; + For never two such kingdoms did contend + Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops + Are every one a woe, a sore complaint, + 'Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the swords + That makes such waste in brief mortality. + Under this conjuration speak, my lord; + For we will hear, note, and believe in heart, + That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd + As pure as sin with baptism. + CANTERBURY. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers, + That owe yourselves, your lives, and services, + To this imperial throne. There is no bar + To make against your Highness' claim to France + But this, which they produce from Pharamond: + 'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant'- + 'No woman shall succeed in Salique land'; + Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze + To be the realm of France, and Pharamond + The founder of this law and female bar. + Yet their own authors faithfully affirm + That the land Salique is in Germany, + Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe; + Where Charles the Great, having subdu'd the Saxons, + There left behind and settled certain French; + Who, holding in disdain the German women + For some dishonest manners of their life, + Establish'd then this law: to wit, no female + Should be inheritrix in Salique land; + Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala, + Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen. + Then doth it well appear the Salique law + Was not devised for the realm of France; + Nor did the French possess the Salique land + Until four hundred one and twenty years + After defunction of King Pharamond, + Idly suppos'd the founder of this law; + Who died within the year of our redemption + Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great + Subdu'd the Saxons, and did seat the French + Beyond the river Sala, in the year + Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say, + King Pepin, which deposed Childeric, + Did, as heir general, being descended + Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair, + Make claim and title to the crown of France. + Hugh Capet also, who usurp'd the crown + Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male + Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great, + To find his title with some shows of truth- + Though in pure truth it was corrupt and naught- + Convey'd himself as th' heir to th' Lady Lingare, + Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son + To Lewis the Emperor, and Lewis the son + Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth, + Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, + Could not keep quiet in his conscience, + Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied + That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother, + Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare, + Daughter to Charles the foresaid Duke of Lorraine; + By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great + Was re-united to the Crown of France. + So that, as clear as is the summer's sun, + King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim, + King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear + To hold in right and tide of the female; + So do the kings of France unto this day, + Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law + To bar your Highness claiming from the female; + And rather choose to hide them in a net + Than amply to imbar their crooked tides + Usurp'd from you and your progenitors. + KING HENRY. May I with right and conscience make this claim? + CANTERBURY. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign! + For in the book of Numbers is it writ, + When the man dies, let the inheritance + Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord, + Stand for your own, unwind your bloody flag, + Look back into your mighty ancestors. + Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb, + From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit, + And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince, + Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, + Making defeat on the fun power of France, + Whiles his most mighty father on a hill + Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp + Forage in blood of French nobility. + O noble English, that could entertain + With half their forces the full pride of France, + And let another half stand laughing by, + All out of work and cold for action! + ELY. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, + And with your puissant arm renew their feats. + You are their heir; you sit upon their throne; + The blood and courage that renowned them + Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege + Is in the very May-morn of his youth, + Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises. + EXETER. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth + Do all expect that you should rouse yourself, + As did the former lions of your blood. + WESTMORELAND. They know your Grace hath cause and means and might- + So hath your Highness; never King of England + Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects, + Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England + And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France. + CANTERBURY. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, + With blood and sword and fire to win your right! + In aid whereof we of the spiritualty + Will raise your Highness such a mighty sum + As never did the clergy at one time + Bring in to any of your ancestors. + KING HENRY. We must not only arm t' invade the French, + But lay down our proportions to defend + Against the Scot, who will make road upon us + With all advantages. + CANTERBURY. They of those marches, gracious sovereign, + Shall be a wall sufficient to defend + Our inland from the pilfering borderers. + KING HENRY. We do not mean the coursing snatchers only, + But fear the main intendment of the Scot, + Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us; + For you shall read that my great-grandfather + Never went with his forces into France + But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom + Came pouring, like the tide into a breach, + With ample and brim fulness of his force, + Galling the gleaned land with hot assays, + Girdling with grievous siege castles and towns; + That England, being empty of defence, + Hath shook and trembled at th' ill neighbourhood. + CANTERBURY. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my liege; + For hear her but exampled by herself: + When all her chivalry hath been in France, + And she a mourning widow of her nobles, + She hath herself not only well defended + But taken and impounded as a stray + The King of Scots; whom she did send to France, + To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings, + And make her chronicle as rich with praise + As is the ooze and bottom of the sea + With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries. + WESTMORELAND. But there's a saying, very old and true: + + 'If that you will France win, + Then with Scotland first begin.' + + For once the eagle England being in prey, + To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot + Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs, + Playing the mouse in absence of the cat, + To tear and havoc more than she can eat. + EXETER. It follows, then, the cat must stay at home; + Yet that is but a crush'd necessity, + Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries + And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves. + While that the armed hand doth fight abroad, + Th' advised head defends itself at home; + For government, though high, and low, and lower, + Put into parts, doth keep in one consent, + Congreeing in a full and natural close, + Like music. + CANTERBURY. Therefore doth heaven divide + The state of man in divers functions, + Setting endeavour in continual motion; + To which is fixed as an aim or but + Obedience; for so work the honey bees, + Creatures that by a rule in nature teach + The act of order to a peopled kingdom. + They have a king, and officers of sorts, + Where some like magistrates correct at home; + Others like merchants venture trade abroad; + Others like soldiers, armed in their stings, + Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds, + Which pillage they with merry march bring home + To the tent-royal of their emperor; + Who, busied in his majesty, surveys + The singing masons building roofs of gold, + The civil citizens kneading up the honey, + The poor mechanic porters crowding in + Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate, + The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum, + Delivering o'er to executors pale + The lazy yawning drone. I this infer, + That many things, having full reference + To one consent, may work contrariously; + As many arrows loosed several ways + Come to one mark, as many ways meet in one town, + As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea, + As many lines close in the dial's centre; + So many a thousand actions, once afoot, + End in one purpose, and be all well home + Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege. + Divide your happy England into four; + Whereof take you one quarter into France, + And you withal shall make all Gallia shake. + If we, with thrice such powers left at home, + Cannot defend our own doors from the dog, + Let us be worried, and our nation lose + The name of hardiness and policy. + KING HENRY. Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin. + Exeunt some attendants + Now are we well resolv'd; and, by God's help + And yours, the noble sinews of our power, + France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe, + Or break it all to pieces; or there we'll sit, + Ruling in large and ample empery + O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms, + Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn, + Tombless, with no remembrance over them. + Either our history shall with full mouth + Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave, + Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth, + Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph. + + Enter AMBASSADORS of France + + Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure + Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear + Your greeting is from him, not from the King. + AMBASSADOR. May't please your Majesty to give us leave + Freely to render what we have in charge; + Or shall we sparingly show you far of + The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy? + KING HENRY. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king, + Unto whose grace our passion is as subject + As are our wretches fett'red in our prisons; + Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness + Tell us the Dauphin's mind. + AMBASSADOR. Thus then, in few. + Your Highness, lately sending into France, + Did claim some certain dukedoms in the right + Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third. + In answer of which claim, the Prince our master + Says that you savour too much of your youth, + And bids you be advis'd there's nought in France + That can be with a nimble galliard won; + You cannot revel into dukedoms there. + He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, + This tun of treasure; and, in lieu of this, + Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim + Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks. + KING HENRY. What treasure, uncle? + EXETER. Tennis-balls, my liege. + KING HENRY. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us; + His present and your pains we thank you for. + When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, + We will in France, by God's grace, play a set + Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard. + Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler + That all the courts of France will be disturb'd + With chaces. And we understand him well, + How he comes o'er us with our wilder days, + Not measuring what use we made of them. + We never valu'd this poor seat of England; + And therefore, living hence, did give ourself + To barbarous licence; as 'tis ever common + That men are merriest when they are from home. + But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state, + Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness, + When I do rouse me in my throne of France; + For that I have laid by my majesty + And plodded like a man for working-days; + But I will rise there with so full a glory + That I will dazzle all the eyes of France, + Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us. + And tell the pleasant Prince this mock of his + Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones, and his soul + Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance + That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows + Shall this his mock mock of their dear husbands; + Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down; + And some are yet ungotten and unborn + That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn. + But this lies all within the will of God, + To whom I do appeal; and in whose name, + Tell you the Dauphin, I am coming on, + To venge me as I may and to put forth + My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause. + So get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin + His jest will savour but of shallow wit, + When thousands weep more than did laugh at it. + Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well. + Exeunt AMBASSADORS + EXETER. This was a merry message. + KING HENRY. We hope to make the sender blush at it. + Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour + That may give furth'rance to our expedition; + For we have now no thought in us but France, + Save those to God, that run before our business. + Therefore let our proportions for these wars + Be soon collected, and all things thought upon + That may with reasonable swiftness ad + More feathers to our wings; for, God before, + We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door. + Therefore let every man now task his thought + That this fair action may on foot be brought. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. PROLOGUE. + +Flourish. Enter CHORUS + + CHORUS. Now all the youth of England are on fire, + And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies; + Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought + Reigns solely in the breast of every man; + They sell the pasture now to buy the horse, + Following the mirror of all Christian kings + With winged heels, as English Mercuries. + For now sits Expectation in the air, + And hides a sword from hilts unto the point + With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets, + Promis'd to Harry and his followers. + The French, advis'd by good intelligence + Of this most dreadful preparation, + Shake in their fear and with pale policy + Seek to divert the English purposes. + O England! model to thy inward greatness, + Like little body with a mighty heart, + What mightst thou do that honour would thee do, + Were all thy children kind and natural! + But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out + A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills + With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men- + One, Richard Earl of Cambridge, and the second, + Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and the third, + Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland, + Have, for the gilt of France- O guilt indeed!- + Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France; + And by their hands this grace of kings must die- + If hell and treason hold their promises, + Ere he take ship for France- and in Southampton. + Linger your patience on, and we'll digest + Th' abuse of distance, force a play. + The sum is paid, the traitors are agreed, + The King is set from London, and the scene + Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton; + There is the play-house now, there must you sit, + And thence to France shall we convey you safe + And bring you back, charming the narrow seas + To give you gentle pass; for, if we may, + We'll not offend one stomach with our play. + But, till the King come forth, and not till then, + Unto Southampton do we shift our scene. Exit + + + + +SCENE I. +London. Before the Boar's Head Tavern, Eastcheap + +Enter CORPORAL NYM and LIEUTENANT BARDOLPH + + BARDOLPH. Well met, Corporal Nym. + NYM. Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph. + BARDOLPH. What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet? + NYM. For my part, I care not; I say little, but when time shall + serve, there shall be smiles- but that shall be as it may. I dare + not fight; but I will wink and hold out mine iron. It is a simple + one; but what though? It will toast cheese, and it will endure + cold as another man's sword will; and there's an end. + BARDOLPH. I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends; and we'll + be all three sworn brothers to France. Let't be so, good Corporal + Nym. + NYM. Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the certain of it; + and when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may. That is my + rest, that is the rendezvous of it. + BARDOLPH. It is certain, Corporal, that he is married to Nell + Quickly; and certainly she did you wrong, for you were + troth-plight to her. + NYM. I cannot tell; things must be as they may. Men may sleep, and + they may have their throats about them at that time; and some say + knives have edges. It must be as it may; though patience be a + tired mare, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I + cannot tell. + + Enter PISTOL and HOSTESS + + BARDOLPH. Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife. Good Corporal, be + patient here. + NYM. How now, mine host Pistol! + PISTOL. Base tike, call'st thou me host? + Now by this hand, I swear I scorn the term; + Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers. + HOSTESS. No, by my troth, not long; for we cannot lodge and board a + dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live honestly by the prick of + their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-house + straight. [Nym draws] O well-a-day, Lady, if he be not drawn! Now + we shall see wilful adultery and murder committed. + BARDOLPH. Good Lieutenant, good Corporal, offer nothing here. + NYM. Pish! + PISTOL. Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of + Iceland! + HOSTESS. Good Corporal Nym, show thy valour, and put up your sword. + NYM. Will you shog off? I would have you solus. + PISTOL. 'Solus,' egregious dog? O viper vile! + The 'solus' in thy most mervailous face; + The 'solus' in thy teeth, and in thy throat, + And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy; + And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth! + I do retort the 'solus' in thy bowels; + For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up, + And flashing fire will follow. + NYM. I am not Barbason: you cannot conjure me. I have an humour to + knock you indifferently well. If you grow foul with me, Pistol, I + will scour you with my rapier, as I may, in fair terms; if you + would walk off I would prick your guts a little, in good terms, + as I may, and thaes the humour of it. + PISTOL. O braggart vile and damned furious wight! + The grave doth gape and doting death is near; + Therefore exhale. [PISTOL draws] + BARDOLPH. Hear me, hear me what I say: he that strikes the first + stroke I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier. + [Draws] + PISTOL. An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate. + [PISTOL and Nym sheathe their swords] + Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give; + Thy spirits are most tall. + NYM. I will cut thy throat one time or other, in fair terms; that + is the humour of it. + PISTOL. 'Couple a gorge!' + That is the word. I thee defy again. + O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get? + No; to the spital go, + And from the powd'ring tub of infamy + Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind, + Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse. + I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly + For the only she; and- pauca, there's enough. + Go to. + + Enter the Boy + + BOY. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master; and your + hostess- he is very sick, and would to bed. Good Bardolph, put + thy face between his sheets, and do the office of a warming-pan. + Faith, he's very ill. + BARDOLPH. Away, you rogue. + HOSTESS. By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these + days: the King has kill'd his heart. Good husband, come home + presently. Exeunt HOSTESS and BOY + BARDOLPH. Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France + together; why the devil should we keep knives to cut one + another's throats? + PISTOL. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on! + NYM. You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting? + PISTOL. Base is the slave that pays. + NYM. That now I will have; that's the humour of it. + PISTOL. As manhood shall compound: push home. + [PISTOL and Nym draw] + BARDOLPH. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust I'll kill + him; by this sword, I will. + PISTOL. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course. + [Sheathes his sword] + BARDOLPH. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends; an + thou wilt not, why then be enemies with me too. Prithee put up. + NYM. I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at betting? + PISTOL. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay; + And liquor likewise will I give to thee, + And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood. + I'll live by Nym and Nym shall live by me. + Is not this just? For I shall sutler be + Unto the camp, and profits will accrue. + Give me thy hand. + NYM. [Sheathing his sword] I shall have my noble? + PISTOL. In cash most justly paid. + NYM. [Shaking hands] Well, then, that's the humour of't. + + Re-enter HOSTESS + + HOSTESS. As ever you come of women, come in quickly to Sir John. + Ah, poor heart! he is so shak'd of a burning quotidian tertian + that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him. + NYM. The King hath run bad humours on the knight; that's the even + of it. + PISTOL. Nym, thou hast spoke the right; + His heart is fracted and corroborate. + NYM. The King is a good king, but it must be as it may; he passes + some humours and careers. + PISTOL. Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins, we will live. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Southampton. A council-chamber + +Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND + + BEDFORD. Fore God, his Grace is bold, to trust these traitors. + EXETER. They shall be apprehended by and by. + WESTMORELAND. How smooth and even they do bear themselves, + As if allegiance in their bosoms sat, + Crowned with faith and constant loyalty! + BEDFORD. The King hath note of all that they intend, + By interception which they dream not of. + EXETER. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow, + Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours- + That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell + His sovereign's life to death and treachery! + + Trumpets sound. Enter the KING, SCROOP, + CAMBRIDGE, GREY, and attendants + + KING HENRY. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard. + My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham, + And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts. + Think you not that the pow'rs we bear with us + Will cut their passage through the force of France, + Doing the execution and the act + For which we have in head assembled them? + SCROOP. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best. + KING HENRY. I doubt not that, since we are well persuaded + We carry not a heart with us from hence + That grows not in a fair consent with ours; + Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish + Success and conquest to attend on us. + CAMBRIDGE. Never was monarch better fear'd and lov'd + Than is your Majesty. There's not, I think, a subject + That sits in heart-grief and uneasines + Under the sweet shade of your government. + GREY. True: those that were your father's enemies + Have steep'd their galls in honey, and do serve you + With hearts create of duty and of zeal. + KING HENRY. We therefore have great cause of thankfulness, + And shall forget the office of our hand + Sooner than quittance of desert and merit + According to the weight and worthiness. + SCROOP. So service shall with steeled sinews toil, + And labour shall refresh itself with hope, + To do your Grace incessant services. + KING HENRY. We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter, + Enlarge the man committed yesterday + That rail'd against our person. We consider + It was excess of wine that set him on; + And on his more advice we pardon him. + SCROOP. That's mercy, but too much security. + Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example + Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind. + KING HENRY. O, let us yet be merciful! + CAMBRIDGE. So may your Highness, and yet punish too. + GREY. Sir, + You show great mercy if you give him life, + After the taste of much correction. + KING HENRY. Alas, your too much love and care of me + Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch! + If little faults proceeding on distemper + Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye + When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and digested, + Appear before us? We'll yet enlarge that man, + Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear care + And tender preservation of our person, + Would have him punish'd. And now to our French causes: + Who are the late commissioners? + CAMBRIDGE. I one, my lord. + Your Highness bade me ask for it to-day. + SCROOP. So did you me, my liege. + GREY. And I, my royal sovereign. + KING HENRY. Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours; + There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, Sir Knight, + Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours. + Read them, and know I know your worthiness. + My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter, + We will aboard to-night. Why, how now, gentlemen? + What see you in those papers, that you lose + So much complexion? Look ye how they change! + Their cheeks are paper. Why, what read you there + That have so cowarded and chas'd your blood + Out of appearance? + CAMBRIDGE. I do confess my fault, + And do submit me to your Highness' mercy. + GREY, SCROOP. To which we all appeal. + KING HENRY. The mercy that was quick in us but late + By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd. + You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy; + For your own reasons turn into your bosoms + As dogs upon their masters, worrying you. + See you, my princes and my noble peers, + These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here- + You know how apt our love was to accord + To furnish him with an appertinents + Belonging to his honour; and this man + Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd, + And sworn unto the practices of France + To kill us here in Hampton; to the which + This knight, no less for bounty bound to us + Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O, + What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop, thou cruel, + Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature? + Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels, + That knew'st the very bottom of my soul, + That almost mightst have coin'd me into gold, + Wouldst thou have practis'd on me for thy use- + May it be possible that foreign hire + Could out of thee extract one spark of evil + That might annoy my finger? 'Tis so strange + That, though the truth of it stands off as gross + As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it. + Treason and murder ever kept together, + As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose, + Working so grossly in a natural cause + That admiration did not whoop at them; + But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in + Wonder to wait on treason and on murder; + And whatsoever cunning fiend it was + That wrought upon thee so preposterously + Hath got the voice in hell for excellence; + And other devils that suggest by treasons + Do botch and bungle up damnation + With patches, colours, and with forms, being fetch'd + From glist'ring semblances of piety; + But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up, + Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason, + Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor. + If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus + Should with his lion gait walk the whole world, + He might return to vasty Tartar back, + And tell the legions 'I can never win + A soul so easy as that Englishman's.' + O, how hast thou with jealousy infected + The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful? + Why, so didst thou. Seem they grave and learned? + Why, so didst thou. Come they of noble family? + Why, so didst thou. Seem they religious? + Why, so didst thou. Or are they spare in diet, + Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger, + Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood, + Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement, + Not working with the eye without the ear, + And but in purged judgment trusting neither? + Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem; + And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot + To mark the full-fraught man and best indued + With some suspicion. I will weep for thee; + For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like + Another fall of man. Their faults are open. + Arrest them to the answer of the law; + And God acquit them of their practices! + EXETER. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard Earl + of Cambridge. + I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry Lord Scroop + of Masham. + I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, + knight, of Northumberland. + SCROOP. Our purposes God justly hath discover'd, + And I repent my fault more than my death; + Which I beseech your Highness to forgive, + Although my body pay the price of it. + CAMBRIDGE. For me, the gold of France did not seduce, + Although I did admit it as a motive + The sooner to effect what I intended; + But God be thanked for prevention, + Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice, + Beseeching God and you to pardon me. + GREY. Never did faithful subject more rejoice + At the discovery of most dangerous treason + Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself, + Prevented from a damned enterprise. + My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign. + KING HENRY. God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence. + You have conspir'd against our royal person, + Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers + Receiv'd the golden earnest of our death; + Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter, + His princes and his peers to servitude, + His subjects to oppression and contempt, + And his whole kingdom into desolation. + Touching our person seek we no revenge; + But we our kingdom's safety must so tender, + Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws + We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence, + Poor miserable wretches, to your death; + The taste whereof God of his mercy give + You patience to endure, and true repentance + Of all your dear offences. Bear them hence. + Exeunt CAMBRIDGE, SCROOP, and GREY, guarded + Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof + Shall be to you as us like glorious. + We doubt not of a fair and lucky war, + Since God so graciously hath brought to light + This dangerous treason, lurking in our way + To hinder our beginnings; we doubt not now + But every rub is smoothed on our way. + Then, forth, dear countrymen; let us deliver + Our puissance into the hand of God, + Putting it straight in expedition. + Cheerly to sea; the signs of war advance; + No king of England, if not king of France! + Flourish. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Eastcheap. Before the Boar's Head tavern + +Enter PISTOL, HOSTESS, NYM, BARDOLPH, and Boy + + HOSTESS. Prithee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring thee to + Staines. + PISTOL. No; for my manly heart doth earn. + Bardolph, be blithe; Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins; + Boy, bristle thy courage up. For Falstaff he is dead, + And we must earn therefore. + BARDOLPH. Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either in + heaven or in hell! + HOSTESS. Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's bosom, if + ever man went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end, and went + away an it had been any christom child; 'a parted ev'n just + between twelve and one, ev'n at the turning o' th' tide; for + after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, + and smile upon his fingers' end, I knew there was but one way; + for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbl'd of green + fields. 'How now, Sir John!' quoth I 'What, man, be o' good + cheer.' So 'a cried out 'God, God, God!' three or four times. Now + I, to comfort him, bid him 'a should not think of God; I hop'd + there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. + So 'a bade me lay more clothes on his feet; I put my hand into + the bed and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone; then I + felt to his knees, and so upward and upward, and all was as cold + as any stone. + NYM. They say he cried out of sack. + HOSTESS. Ay, that 'a did. + BARDOLPH. And of women. + HOSTESS. Nay, that 'a did not. + BOY. Yes, that 'a did, and said they were devils incarnate. + HOSTESS. 'A could never abide carnation; 'twas a colour he never + liked. + BOY. 'A said once the devil would have him about women. + HOSTESS. 'A did in some sort, indeed, handle women; but then he was + rheumatic, and talk'd of the Whore of Babylon. + BOY. Do you not remember 'a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose, + and 'a said it was a black soul burning in hell? + BARDOLPH. Well, the fuel is gone that maintain'd that fire: that's + all the riches I got in his service. + NYM. Shall we shog? The King will be gone from Southampton. + PISTOL. Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips. + Look to my chattles and my moveables; + Let senses rule. The word is 'Pitch and Pay.' + Trust none; + For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, + And Holdfast is the only dog, my duck. + Therefore, Caveto be thy counsellor. + Go, clear thy crystals. Yoke-fellows in arms, + Let us to France, like horse-leeches, my boys, + To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck. + BOY. And that's but unwholesome food, they say. + PISTOL. Touch her soft mouth and march. + BARDOLPH. Farewell, hostess. [Kissing her] + NYM. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but adieu. + PISTOL. Let housewifery appear; keep close, I thee command. + HOSTESS. Farewell; adieu. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +France. The KING'S palace + +Flourish. Enter the FRENCH KING, the DAUPHIN, the DUKES OF BERRI +and BRITAINE, the CONSTABLE, and others + + FRENCH KING. Thus comes the English with full power upon us; + And more than carefully it us concerns + To answer royally in our defences. + Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Britaine, + Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth, + And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch, + To line and new repair our towns of war + With men of courage and with means defendant; + For England his approaches makes as fierce + As waters to the sucking of a gulf. + It fits us, then, to be as provident + As fear may teach us, out of late examples + Left by the fatal and neglected English + Upon our fields. + DAUPHIN. My most redoubted father, + It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe; + For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom, + Though war nor no known quarrel were in question, + But that defences, musters, preparations, + Should be maintain'd, assembled, and collected, + As were a war in expectation. + Therefore, I say, 'tis meet we all go forth + To view the sick and feeble parts of France; + And let us do it with no show of fear- + No, with no more than if we heard that England + Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance; + For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd, + Her sceptre so fantastically borne + By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth, + That fear attends her not. + CONSTABLE. O peace, Prince Dauphin! + You are too much mistaken in this king. + Question your Grace the late ambassadors + With what great state he heard their embassy, + How well supplied with noble counsellors, + How modest in exception, and withal + How terrible in constant resolution, + And you shall find his vanities forespent + Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus, + Covering discretion with a coat of folly; + As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots + That shall first spring and be most delicate. + DAUPHIN. Well, 'tis not so, my Lord High Constable; + But though we think it so, it is no matter. + In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh + The enemy more mighty than he seems; + So the proportions of defence are fill'd; + Which of a weak and niggardly projection + Doth like a miser spoil his coat with scanting + A little cloth. + FRENCH KING. Think we King Harry strong; + And, Princes, look you strongly arm to meet him. + The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us; + And he is bred out of that bloody strain + That haunted us in our familiar paths. + Witness our too much memorable shame + When Cressy battle fatally was struck, + And all our princes capdv'd by the hand + Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales; + Whiles that his mountain sire- on mountain standing, + Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun- + Saw his heroical seed, and smil'd to see him, + Mangle the work of nature, and deface + The patterns that by God and by French fathers + Had twenty years been made. This is a stern + Of that victorious stock; and let us fear + The native mightiness and fate of him. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. Ambassadors from Harry King of England + Do crave admittance to your Majesty. + FRENCH KING. We'll give them present audience. Go and bring them. + Exeunt MESSENGER and certain LORDS + You see this chase is hotly followed, friends. + DAUPHIN. Turn head and stop pursuit; for coward dogs + Most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten + Runs far before them. Good my sovereign, + Take up the English short, and let them know + Of what a monarchy you are the head. + Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin + As self-neglecting. + + Re-enter LORDS, with EXETER and train + + FRENCH KING. From our brother of England? + EXETER. From him, and thus he greets your Majesty: + He wills you, in the name of God Almighty, + That you divest yourself, and lay apart + The borrowed glories that by gift of heaven, + By law of nature and of nations, 'longs + To him and to his heirs- namely, the crown, + And all wide-stretched honours that pertain, + By custom and the ordinance of times, + Unto the crown of France. That you may know + 'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim, + Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days, + Nor from the dust of old oblivion rak'd, + He sends you this most memorable line, [Gives a paper] + In every branch truly demonstrative; + Willing you overlook this pedigree. + And when you find him evenly deriv'd + From his most fam'd of famous ancestors, + Edward the Third, he bids you then resign + Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held + From him, the native and true challenger. + FRENCH KING. Or else what follows? + EXETER. Bloody constraint; for if you hide the crown + Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it. + Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming, + In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove, + That if requiring fail, he will compel; + And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord, + Deliver up the crown; and to take mercy + On the poor souls for whom this hungry war + Opens his vasty jaws; and on your head + Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries, + The dead men's blood, the privy maidens' groans, + For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers, + That shall be swallowed in this controversy. + This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message; + Unless the Dauphin be in presence here, + To whom expressly I bring greeting too. + FRENCH KING. For us, we will consider of this further; + To-morrow shall you bear our full intent + Back to our brother of England. + DAUPHIN. For the Dauphin: + I stand here for him. What to him from England? + EXETER. Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt, + And anything that may not misbecome + The mighty sender, doth he prize you at. + Thus says my king: an if your father's Highness + Do not, in grant of all demands at large, + Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his Majesty, + He'll call you to so hot an answer of it + That caves and womby vaultages of France + Shall chide your trespass and return your mock + In second accent of his ordinance. + DAUPHIN. Say, if my father render fair return, + It is against my will; for I desire + Nothing but odds with England. To that end, + As matching to his youth and vanity, + I did present him with the Paris balls. + EXETER. He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it, + Were it the mistress court of mighty Europe; + And be assur'd you'll find a difference, + As we his subjects have in wonder found, + Between the promise of his greener days + And these he masters now. Now he weighs time + Even to the utmost grain; that you shall read + In your own losses, if he stay in France. + FRENCH KING. To-morrow shall you know our mind at full. + EXETER. Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king + Come here himself to question our delay; + For he is footed in this land already. + FRENCH KING. You shall be soon dispatch'd with fair conditions. + A night is but small breath and little pause + To answer matters of this consequence. Flourish. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. PROLOGUE. + +Flourish. Enter CHORUS + + CHORUS. Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies, + In motion of no less celerity + Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen + The well-appointed King at Hampton pier + Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet + With silken streamers the young Phorbus fanning. + Play with your fancies; and in them behold + Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing; + Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give + To sounds confus'd; behold the threaden sails, + Borne with th' invisible and creeping wind, + Draw the huge bottoms through the furrowed sea, + Breasting the lofty surge. O, do but think + You stand upon the rivage and behold + A city on th' inconstant billows dancing; + For so appears this fleet majestical, + Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow! + Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy + And leave your England as dead midnight still, + Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women, + Either past or not arriv'd to pith and puissance; + For who is he whose chin is but enrich'd + With one appearing hair that will not follow + These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France? + Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege; + Behold the ordnance on their carriages, + With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur. + Suppose th' ambassador from the French comes back; + Tells Harry that the King doth offer him + Katherine his daughter, and with her to dowry + Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms. + The offer likes not; and the nimble gunner + With linstock now the devilish cannon touches, + [Alarum, and chambers go off] + And down goes all before them. Still be kind, + And eke out our performance with your mind. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE I. +France. Before Harfleur + +Alarum. Enter the KING, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOUCESTER, +and soldiers with scaling-ladders + + KING. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; + Or close the wall up with our English dead. + In peace there's nothing so becomes a man + As modest stillness and humility; + But when the blast of war blows in our ears, + Then imitate the action of the tiger: + Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, + Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage; + Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; + Let it pry through the portage of the head + Like the brass cannon: let the brow o'erwhelm it + As fearfully as doth a galled rock + O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, + Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. + Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide; + Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit + To his full height. On, on, you noblest English, + Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof- + Fathers that like so many Alexanders + Have in these parts from morn till even fought, + And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument. + Dishonour not your mothers; now attest + That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you. + Be copy now to men of grosser blood, + And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen, + Whose limbs were made in England, show us here + The mettle of your pasture; let us swear + That you are worth your breeding- which I doubt not; + For there is none of you so mean and base + That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. + I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, + Straining upon the start. The game's afoot: + Follow your spirit; and upon this charge + Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!' + [Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off] + + + + +SCENE II. +Before Harfleur + +Enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and BOY + + BARDOLPH. On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach! + NYM. Pray thee, Corporal, stay; the knocks are too hot, and for + mine own part I have not a case of lives. The humour of it is too + hot; that is the very plain-song of it. + PISTOL. The plain-song is most just; for humours do abound: + + Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die; + And sword and shield + In bloody field + Doth win immortal fame. + + BOY. Would I were in an alehouse in London! I wouid give all my + fame for a pot of ale and safety. + PISTOL. And I: + + If wishes would prevail with me, + My purpose should not fail with me, + But thither would I hie. + + BOY. As duly, but not as truly, + As bird doth sing on bough. + + Enter FLUELLEN + + FLUELLEN. Up to the breach, you dogs! + Avaunt, you cullions! [Driving them forward] + PISTOL. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould. + Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage; + Abate thy rage, great duke. + Good bawcock, bate thy rage. Use lenity, sweet chuck. + NYM. These be good humours. Your honour wins bad humours. + Exeunt all but BOY + BOY. As young as I am, I have observ'd these three swashers. I am + boy to them all three; but all they three, though they would + serve me, could not be man to me; for indeed three such antics do + not amount to a man. For Bardolph, he is white-liver'd and + red-fac'd; by the means whereof 'a faces it out, but fights not. + For Pistol, he hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword; by the + means whereof 'a breaks words and keeps whole weapons. For Nym, + he hath heard that men of few words are the best men, and + therefore he scorns to say his prayers lest 'a should be thought + a coward; but his few bad words are match'd with as few good + deeds; for 'a never broke any man's head but his own, and that + was against a post when he was drunk. They will steal anything, + and call it purchase. Bardolph stole a lute-case, bore it twelve + leagues, and sold it for three halfpence. Nym and Bardolph are + sworn brothers in filching, and in Calais they stole a + fire-shovel; I knew by that piece of service the men would carry + coals. They would have me as familiar with men's pockets as their + gloves or their handkerchers; which makes much against my + manhood, if I should take from another's pocket to put into mine; + for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I must leave them and + seek some better service; their villainy goes against my weak + stomach, and therefore I must cast it up. Exit + + Re-enter FLUELLEN, GOWER following + + GOWER. Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the mines; the + Duke of Gloucester would speak with you. + FLUELLEN. To the mines! Tell you the Duke it is not so good to come + to the mines; for, look you, the mines is not according to the + disciplines of the war; the concavities of it is not sufficient. + For, look you, th' athversary- you may discuss unto the Duke, + look you- is digt himself four yard under the countermines; by + Cheshu, I think 'a will plow up all, if there is not better + directions. + GOWER. The Duke of Gloucester, to whom the order of the siege is + given, is altogether directed by an Irishman- a very vallant + gentleman, i' faith. + FLUELLEN. It is Captain Macmorris, is it not? + GOWER. I think it be. + FLUELLEN. By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the world: I will verify + as much in his beard; he has no more directions in the true + disciplines of the wars, look you, of the Roman disciplines, than + is a puppy-dog. + + Enter MACMORRIS and CAPTAIN JAMY + + GOWER. Here 'a comes; and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy, with + him. + FLUELLEN. Captain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentleman, that is + certain, and of great expedition and knowledge in th' aunchient + wars, upon my particular knowledge of his directions. By Cheshu, + he will maintain his argument as well as any military man in the + world, in the disciplines of the pristine wars of the Romans. + JAMY. I say gud day, Captain Fluellen. + FLUELLEN. God-den to your worship, good Captain James. + GOWER. How now, Captain Macmorris! Have you quit the mines? Have + the pioneers given o'er? + MACMORRIS. By Chrish, la, tish ill done! The work ish give over, + the trompet sound the retreat. By my hand, I swear, and my + father's soul, the work ish ill done; it ish give over; I would + have blowed up the town, so Chrish save me, la, in an hour. O, + tish ill done, tish ill done; by my hand, tish ill done! + FLUELLEN. Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will you voutsafe + me, look you, a few disputations with you, as partly touching or + concerning the disciplines of the war, the Roman wars, in the way + of argument, look you, and friendly communication; partly to + satisfy my opinion, and partly for the satisfaction, look you, of + my mind, as touching the direction of the military discipline, + that is the point. + JAMY. It sall be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath; and I sall + quit you with gud leve, as I may pick occasion; that sall I, + marry. + MACMORRIS. It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save me. The day + is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the King, and the + Dukes; it is no time to discourse. The town is beseech'd, and the + trumpet call us to the breach; and we talk and, be Chrish, do + nothing. 'Tis shame for us all, so God sa' me, 'tis shame to + stand still; it is shame, by my hand; and there is throats to be + cut, and works to be done; and there ish nothing done, so Chrish + sa' me, la. + JAMY. By the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take themselves to + slomber, ay'll de gud service, or I'll lig i' th' grund for it; + ay, or go to death. And I'll pay't as valorously as I may, that + sall I suerly do, that is the breff and the long. Marry, I wad + full fain heard some question 'tween you tway. + FLUELLEN. Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your + correction, there is not many of your nation- + MACMORRIS. Of my nation? What ish my nation? Ish a villain, and a + bastard, and a knave, and a rascal. What ish my nation? Who talks + of my nation? + FLUELLEN. Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than is meant, + Captain Macmorris, peradventure I shall think you do not use me + with that affability as in discretion you ought to use me, look + you; being as good a man as yourself, both in the disciplines of + war and in the derivation of my birth, and in other + particularities. + MACMORRIS. I do not know you so good a man as myself; so + Chrish save me, I will cut off your head. + GOWER. Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other. + JAMY. Ah! that's a foul fault. [A parley sounded] + GOWER. The town sounds a parley. + FLUELLEN. Captain Macmorris, when there is more better opportunity + to be required, look you, I will be so bold as to tell you I know + the disciplines of war; and there is an end. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Before the gates of Harfleur + +Enter the GOVERNOR and some citizens on the walls. Enter the KING +and all his train before the gates + + KING HENRY. How yet resolves the Governor of the town? + This is the latest parle we will admit; + Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves + Or, like to men proud of destruction, + Defy us to our worst; for, as I am a soldier, + A name that in my thoughts becomes me best, + If I begin the batt'ry once again, + I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur + Till in her ashes she lie buried. + The gates of mercy shall be all shut up, + And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart, + In liberty of bloody hand shall range + With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass + Your fresh fair virgins and your flow'ring infants. + What is it then to me if impious war, + Array'd in flames, like to the prince of fiends, + Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats + Enlink'd to waste and desolation? + What is't to me when you yourselves are cause, + If your pure maidens fall into the hand + Of hot and forcing violation? + What rein can hold licentious wickednes + When down the hill he holds his fierce career? + We may as bootless spend our vain command + Upon th' enraged soldiers in their spoil, + As send precepts to the Leviathan + To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur, + Take pity of your town and of your people + Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command; + Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace + O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds + Of heady murder, spoil, and villainy. + If not- why, in a moment look to see + The blind and bloody with foul hand + Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters; + Your fathers taken by the silver beards, + And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls; + Your naked infants spitted upon pikes, + Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd + Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry + At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen. + What say you? Will you yield, and this avoid? + Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd? + GOVERNOR. Our expectation hath this day an end: + The Dauphin, whom of succours we entreated, + Returns us that his powers are yet not ready + To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great King, + We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy. + Enter our gates; dispose of us and ours; + For we no longer are defensible. + KING HENRY. Open your gates. [Exit GOVERNOR] Come, uncle Exeter, + Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain, + And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French; + Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle, + The winter coming on, and sickness growing + Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais. + To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest; + To-morrow for the march are we addrest. + [Flourish. The KING and his train enter the town] + + + + +SCENE IV. +Rouen. The FRENCH KING'S palace + +Enter KATHERINE and ALICE + + KATHERINE. Alice, tu as ete en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le + langage. + ALICE. Un peu, madame. + KATHERINE. Je te prie, m'enseignez; il faut que j'apprenne a + parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglais? + ALICE. La main? Elle est appelee de hand. + KATHERINE. De hand. Et les doigts? + ALICE. Les doigts? Ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais je me + souviendrai. Les doigts? Je pense qu'ils sont appeles de fingres; + oui, de fingres. + KATHERINE. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je pense que + je suis le bon ecolier; j'ai gagne deux mots d'Anglais vitement. + Comment appelez-vous les ongles? + ALICE. Les ongles? Nous les appelons de nails. + KATHERINE. De nails. Ecoutez; dites-moi si je parle bien: de hand, + de fingres, et de nails. + ALICE. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon Anglais. + KATHERINE. Dites-moi l'Anglais pour le bras. + ALICE. De arm, madame. + KATHERINE. Et le coude? + ALICE. D'elbow. + KATHERINE. D'elbow. Je m'en fais la repetition de tous les mots que + vous m'avez appris des a present. + ALICE. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense. + KATHERINE. Excusez-moi, Alice; ecoutez: d'hand, de fingre, de + nails, d'arma, de bilbow. + ALICE. D'elbow, madame. + KATHERINE. O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie! D'elbow. + Comment appelez-vous le col? + ALICE. De nick, madame. + KATHERINE. De nick. Et le menton? + ALICE. De chin. + KATHERINE. De sin. Le col, de nick; le menton, de sin. + ALICE. Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en verite, vous prononcez les mots + aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre. + KATHERINE. Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de Dieu, et + en peu de temps. + ALICE. N'avez-vous pas deja oublie ce que je vous ai enseigne? + KATHERINE. Non, je reciterai a vous promptement: d'hand, de fingre, + de mails- + ALICE. De nails, madame. + KATHERINE. De nails, de arm, de ilbow. + ALICE. Sauf votre honneur, d'elbow. + KATHERINE. Ainsi dis-je; d'elbow, de nick, et de sin. Comment + appelez-vous le pied et la robe? + ALICE. Le foot, madame; et le count. + KATHERINE. Le foot et le count. O Seigneur Dieu! ils sont mots de + son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et non pour les + dames d'honneur d'user: je ne voudrais prononcer ces mots devant + les seigneurs de France pour tout le monde. Foh! le foot et le + count! Neanmoins, je reciterai une autre fois ma lecon ensemble: + d'hand, de fingre, de nails, d'arm, d'elbow, de nick, de sin, de + foot, le count. + ALICE. Excellent, madame! + KATHERINE. C'est assez pour une fois: allons-nous a diner. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +The FRENCH KING'S palace + +Enter the KING OF FRANCE, the DAUPHIN, DUKE OF BRITAINE, +the CONSTABLE OF FRANCE, and others + + FRENCH KING. 'Tis certain he hath pass'd the river Somme. + CONSTABLE. And if he be not fought withal, my lord, + Let us not live in France; let us quit an, + And give our vineyards to a barbarous people. + DAUPHIN. O Dieu vivant! Shall a few sprays of us, + The emptying of our fathers' luxury, + Our scions, put in wild and savage stock, + Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds, + And overlook their grafters? + BRITAINE. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman bastards! + Mort Dieu, ma vie! if they march along + Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom + To buy a slobb'ry and a dirty farm + In that nook-shotten isle of Albion. + CONSTABLE. Dieu de batailles! where have they this mettle? + Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull; + On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale, + Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water, + A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth, + Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat? + And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine, + Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land, + Let us not hang like roping icicles + Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people + Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields- + Poor we call them in their native lords! + DAUPHIN. By faith and honour, + Our madams mock at us and plainly say + Our mettle is bred out, and they will give + Their bodies to the lust of English youth + To new-store France with bastard warriors. + BRITAINE. They bid us to the English dancing-schools + And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos, + Saying our grace is only in our heels + And that we are most lofty runaways. + FRENCH KING. Where is Montjoy the herald? Speed him hence; + Let him greet England with our sharp defiance. + Up, Princes, and, with spirit of honour edged + More sharper than your swords, hie to the field: + Charles Delabreth, High Constable of France; + You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri, + Alengon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy; + Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont, + Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconbridge, + Foix, Lestrake, Bouciqualt, and Charolois; + High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and knights, + For your great seats now quit you of great shames. + Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land + With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur. + Rush on his host as doth the melted snow + Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat + The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon; + Go down upon him, you have power enough, + And in a captive chariot into Rouen + Bring him our prisoner. + CONSTABLE. This becomes the great. + Sorry am I his numbers are so few, + His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march; + For I am sure, when he shall see our army, + He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear, + And for achievement offer us his ransom. + FRENCH KING. Therefore, Lord Constable, haste on Montjoy, + And let him say to England that we send + To know what willing ransom he will give. + Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen. + DAUPHIN. Not so, I do beseech your Majesty. + FRENCH KING. Be patient, for you shall remain with us. + Now forth, Lord Constable and Princes all, + And quickly bring us word of England's fall. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VI. +The English camp in Picardy + +Enter CAPTAINS, English and Welsh, GOWER and FLUELLEN + + GOWER. How now, Captain Fluellen! Come you from the bridge? + FLUELLEN. I assure you there is very excellent services committed + at the bridge. + GOWER. Is the Duke of Exeter safe? + FLUELLEN. The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon; and a + man that I love and honour with my soul, and my heart, and my + duty, and my live, and my living, and my uttermost power. He is + not- God be praised and blessed!- any hurt in the world, but + keeps the bridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline. There + is an aunchient Lieutenant there at the bridge- I think in my + very conscience he is as valiant a man as Mark Antony; and he is + man of no estimation in the world; but I did see him do as + gallant service. + GOWER. What do you call him? + FLUELLEN. He is call'd Aunchient Pistol. + GOWER. I know him not. + + Enter PISTOL + + FLUELLEN. Here is the man. + PISTOL. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours. + The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well. + FLUELLEN. Ay, I praise God; and I have merited some love at his + hands. + PISTOL. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart, + And of buxom valour, hath by cruel fate + And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel, + That goddess blind, + That stands upon the rolling restless stone- + FLUELLEN. By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. Fortune is painted + blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that + Fortune is blind; and she is painted also with a wheel, to + signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning, + and inconstant, and mutability, and variation; and her foot, look + you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and + rolls. In good truth, the poet makes a most excellent description + of it: Fortune is an excellent moral. + PISTOL. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him; + For he hath stol'n a pax, and hanged must 'a be- + A damned death! + Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free, + And let not hemp his windpipe suffocate. + But Exeter hath given the doom of death + For pax of little price. + Therefore, go speak- the Duke will hear thy voice; + And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut + With edge of penny cord and vile reproach. + Speak, Captain, for his life, and I will thee requite. + FLUELLEN. Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning. + PISTOL. Why then, rejoice therefore. + FLUELLEN. Certainly, Aunchient, it is not a thing to rejoice at; + for if, look you, he were my brother, I would desire the Duke to + use his good pleasure, and put him to execution; for discipline + ought to be used. + PISTOL. Die and be damn'd! and figo for thy friendship! + FLUELLEN. It is well. + PISTOL. The fig of Spain! Exit + FLUELLEN. Very good. + GOWER. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I remember him + now- a bawd, a cutpurse. + FLUELLEN. I'll assure you, 'a utt'red as prave words at the pridge + as you shall see in a summer's day. But it is very well; what he + has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is serve. + GOWER. Why, 'tis a gull a fool a rogue, that now and then goes to + the wars to grace himself, at his return into London, under the + form of a soldier. And such fellows are perfect in the great + commanders' names; and they will learn you by rote where services + were done- at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a + convoy; who came off bravely, who was shot, who disgrac'd, what + terms the enemy stood on; and this they con perfectly in the + phrase of war, which they trick up with new-tuned oaths; and what + a beard of the General's cut and a horrid suit of the camp will + do among foaming bottles and ale-wash'd wits is wonderful to be + thought on. But you must learn to know such slanders of the age, + or else you may be marvellously mistook. + FLUELLEN. I tell you what, Captain Gower, I do perceive he is not + the man that he would gladly make show to the world he is; if I + find a hole in his coat I will tell him my mind. [Drum within] + Hark you, the King is coming; and I must speak with him from the + pridge. + + Drum and colours. Enter the KING and his poor soldiers, + and GLOUCESTER + + God pless your Majesty! + KING HENRY. How now, Fluellen! Cam'st thou from the bridge? + FLUELLEN. Ay, so please your Majesty. The Duke of Exeter has very + gallantly maintain'd the pridge; the French is gone off, look + you, and there is gallant and most prave passages. Marry, th' + athversary was have possession of the pridge; but he is enforced + to retire, and the Duke of Exeter is master of the pridge; I can + tell your Majesty the Duke is a prave man. + KING HENRY. What men have you lost, Fluellen! + FLUELLEN. The perdition of th' athversary hath been very great, + reasonable great; marry, for my part, I think the Duke hath lost + never a man, but one that is like to be executed for robbing a + church- one Bardolph, if your Majesty know the man; his face is + all bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames o' fire; and his + lips blows at his nose, and it is like a coal of fire, sometimes + plue and sometimes red; but his nose is executed and his fire's + out. + KING HENRY. We would have all such offenders so cut off. And we + give express charge that in our marches through the country there + be nothing compell'd from the villages, nothing taken but paid + for, none of the French upbraided or abused in disdainful + language; for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom the + gentler gamester is the soonest winner. + + Tucket. Enter MONTJOY + + MONTJOY. You know me by my habit. + KING HENRY. Well then, I know thee; what shall I know of thee? + MONTJOY. My master's mind. + KING HENRY. Unfold it. + MONTJOY. Thus says my king. Say thou to Harry of England: Though we + seem'd dead we did but sleep; advantage is a better soldier than + rashness. Tell him we could have rebuk'd him at Harfleur, but + that we thought not good to bruise an injury till it were full + ripe. Now we speak upon our cue, and our voice is imperial: + England shall repent his folly, see his weakness, and admire our + sufferance. Bid him therefore consider of his ransom, which must + proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost, + the disgrace we have digested; which, in weight to re-answer, his + pettiness would bow under. For our losses his exchequer is too + poor; for th' effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom + too faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own person kneeling + at our feet but a weak and worthless satisfaction. To this add + defiance; and tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his + followers, whose condemnation is pronounc'd. So far my king and + master; so much my office. + KING HENRY. What is thy name? I know thy quality. + MONTJOY. Montjoy. + KING HENRY. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back, + And tell thy king I do not seek him now, + But could be willing to march on to Calais + Without impeachment; for, to say the sooth- + Though 'tis no wisdom to confess so much + Unto an enemy of craft and vantage- + My people are with sickness much enfeebled; + My numbers lessen'd; and those few I have + Almost no better than so many French; + Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, + I thought upon one pair of English legs + Did march three Frenchmen. Yet forgive me, God, + That I do brag thus; this your air of France + Hath blown that vice in me; I must repent. + Go, therefore, tell thy master here I am; + My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk; + My army but a weak and sickly guard; + Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, + Though France himself and such another neighbour + Stand in our way. There's for thy labour, Montjoy. + Go, bid thy master well advise himself. + If we may pass, we will; if we be hind'red, + We shall your tawny ground with your red blood + Discolour; and so, Montjoy, fare you well. + The sum of all our answer is but this: + We would not seek a battle as we are; + Nor as we are, we say, we will not shun it. + So tell your master. + MONTJOY. I shall deliver so. Thanks to your Highness. Exit + GLOUCESTER. I hope they will not come upon us now. + KING HENRY. We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs. + March to the bridge, it now draws toward night; + Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves, + And on to-morrow bid them march away. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VII. +The French camp near Agincourt + +Enter the CONSTABLE OF FRANCE, the LORD RAMBURES, the DUKE OF ORLEANS, +the DAUPHIN, with others + + CONSTABLE. Tut! I have the best armour of the world. + Would it were day! + ORLEANS. You have an excellent armour; but let my horse have his + due. + CONSTABLE. It is the best horse of Europe. + ORLEANS. Will it never be morning? + DAUPHIN. My Lord of Orleans and my Lord High Constable, you talk of + horse and armour? + ORLEANS. You are as well provided of both as any prince in the + world. + DAUPHIN. What a long night is this! I will not change my horse with + any that treads but on four pasterns. Ca, ha! he bounds from the + earth as if his entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the + Pegasus, chez les narines de feu! When I bestride him I soar, I + am a hawk. He trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; + the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of + Hermes. + ORLEANS. He's of the colour of the nutmeg. + DAUPHIN. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for Perseus: + he is pure air and fire; and the dull elements of earth and water + never appear in him, but only in patient stillness while his + rider mounts him; he is indeed a horse, and all other jades you + may call beasts. + CONSTABLE. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent + horse. + DAUPHIN. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the + bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage. + ORLEANS. No more, cousin. + DAUPHIN. Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the rising of + the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deserved praise on my + palfrey. It is a theme as fluent as the sea: turn the sands into + eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument for them all: 'tis a + subject for a sovereign to reason on, and for a sovereign's + sovereign to ride on; and for the world- familiar to us and + unknown- to lay apart their particular functions and wonder at + him. I once writ a sonnet in his praise and began thus: 'Wonder + of nature'- + ORLEANS. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress. + DAUPHIN. Then did they imitate that which I compos'd to my courser; + for my horse is my mistress. + ORLEANS. Your mistress bears well. + DAUPHIN. Me well; which is the prescript praise and perfection of a + good and particular mistress. + CONSTABLE. Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress shrewdly + shook your back. + DAUPHIN. So perhaps did yours. + CONSTABLE. Mine was not bridled. + DAUPHIN. O, then belike she was old and gentle; and you rode like a + kern of Ireland, your French hose off and in your strait + strossers. + CONSTABLE. You have good judgment in horsemanship. + DAUPHIN. Be warn'd by me, then: they that ride so, and ride not + warily, fall into foul bogs. I had rather have my horse to my + mistress. + CONSTABLE. I had as lief have my mistress a jade. + DAUPHIN. I tell thee, Constable, my mistress wears his own hair. + CONSTABLE. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow to + my mistress. + DAUPHIN. 'Le chien est retourne a son propre vomissement, et la + truie lavee au bourbier.' Thou mak'st use of anything. + CONSTABLE. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress, or any such + proverb so little kin to the purpose. + RAMBURES. My Lord Constable, the armour that I saw in your tent + to-night- are those stars or suns upon it? + CONSTABLE. Stars, my lord. + DAUPHIN. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope. + CONSTABLE. And yet my sky shall not want. + DAUPHIN. That may be, for you bear a many superfluously, and 'twere + more honour some were away. + CONSTABLE. Ev'n as your horse bears your praises, who would trot as + well were some of your brags dismounted. + DAUPHIN. Would I were able to load him with his desert! Will it + never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and my way shall be + paved with English faces. + CONSTABLE. I will not say so, for fear I should be fac'd out of my + way; but I would it were morning, for I would fain be about the + ears of the English. + RAMBURES. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty prisoners? + CONSTABLE. You must first go yourself to hazard ere you have them. + DAUPHIN. 'Tis midnight; I'll go arm myself. Exit + ORLEANS. The Dauphin longs for morning. + RAMBURES. He longs to eat the English. + CONSTABLE. I think he will eat all he kills. + ORLEANS. By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince. + CONSTABLE. Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath. + ORLEANS. He is simply the most active gentleman of France. + CONSTABLE. Doing is activity, and he will still be doing. + ORLEANS. He never did harm that I heard of. + CONSTABLE. Nor will do none to-morrow: he will keep that good name + still. + ORLEANS. I know him to be valiant. + CONSTABLE. I was told that by one that knows him better than you. + ORLEANS. What's he? + CONSTABLE. Marry, he told me so himself; and he said he car'd not + who knew it. + ORLEANS. He needs not; it is no hidden virtue in him. + CONSTABLE. By my faith, sir, but it is; never anybody saw it but + his lackey. + 'Tis a hooded valour, and when it appears it will bate. + ORLEANS. Ill-wind never said well. + CONSTABLE. I will cap that proverb with 'There is flattery in + friendship.' + ORLEANS. And I will take up that with 'Give the devil his due.' + CONSTABLE. Well plac'd! There stands your friend for the devil; + have at the very eye of that proverb with 'A pox of the devil!' + ORLEANS. You are the better at proverbs by how much 'A fool's bolt + is soon shot.' + CONSTABLE. You have shot over. + ORLEANS. 'Tis not the first time you were overshot. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. My Lord High Constable, the English lie within fifteen + hundred paces of your tents. + CONSTABLE. Who hath measur'd the ground? + MESSENGER. The Lord Grandpre. + CONSTABLE. A valiant and most expert gentleman. Would it were day! + Alas, poor Harry of England! he longs not for the dawning as we + do. + ORLEANS. What a wretched and peevish fellow is this King of + England, to mope with his fat-brain'd followers so far out of his + knowledge! + CONSTABLE. If the English had any apprehension, they would run + away. + ORLEANS. That they lack; for if their heads had any intellectual + armour, they could never wear such heavy head-pieces. + RAMBURES. That island of England breeds very valiant creatures; + their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage. + ORLEANS. Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of a Russian + bear, and have their heads crush'd like rotten apples! You may as + well say that's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the + lip of a lion. + CONSTABLE. Just, just! and the men do sympathise with the mastiffs + in robustious and rough coming on, leaving their wits with their + wives; and then give them great meals of beef and iron and steel; + they will eat like wolves and fight like devils. + ORLEANS. Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef. + CONSTABLE. Then shall we find to-morrow they have only stomachs to + eat, and none to fight. Now is it time to arm. Come, shall we + about it? + ORLEANS. It is now two o'clock; but let me see- by ten + We shall have each a hundred Englishmen. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. PROLOGUE. + +Enter CHORUS + + CHORUS. Now entertain conjecture of a time + When creeping murmur and the poring dark + Fills the wide vessel of the universe. + From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night, + The hum of either army stilly sounds, + That the fix'd sentinels almost receive + The secret whispers of each other's watch. + Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames + Each battle sees the other's umber'd face; + Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs + Piercing the night's dull ear; and from the tents + The armourers accomplishing the knights, + With busy hammers closing rivets up, + Give dreadful note of preparation. + The country cocks do crow, the clocks do ton, + And the third hour of drowsy morning name. + Proud of their numbers and secure in soul, + The confident and over-lusty French + Do the low-rated English play at dice; + And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night + Who like a foul and ugly witch doth limp + So tediously away. The poor condemned English, + Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires + Sit patiently and inly ruminate + The morning's danger; and their gesture sad + Investing lank-lean cheeks and war-worn coats + Presenteth them unto the gazing moon + So many horrid ghosts. O, now, who will behold + The royal captain of this ruin'd band + Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent, + Let him cry 'Praise and glory on his head!' + For forth he goes and visits all his host; + Bids them good morrow with a modest smile, + And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen. + Upon his royal face there is no note + How dread an army hath enrounded him; + Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour + Unto the weary and all-watched night; + But freshly looks, and over-bears attaint + With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty; + That every wretch, pining and pale before, + Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks; + A largess universal, like the sun, + His liberal eye doth give to every one, + Thawing cold fear, that mean and gentle all + Behold, as may unworthiness define, + A little touch of Harry in the night. + And so our scene must to the battle fly; + Where- O for pity!- we shall much disgrace + With four or five most vile and ragged foils, + Right ill-dispos'd in brawl ridiculous, + The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see, + Minding true things by what their mock'ries be. Exit + + + + +SCENE I. +France. The English camp at Agincourt + +Enter the KING, BEDFORD, and GLOUCESTER + + KING HENRY. Gloucester, 'tis true that we are in great danger; + The greater therefore should our courage be. + Good morrow, brother Bedford. God Almighty! + There is some soul of goodness in things evil, + Would men observingly distil it out; + For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers, + Which is both healthful and good husbandry. + Besides, they are our outward consciences + And preachers to us all, admonishing + That we should dress us fairly for our end. + Thus may we gather honey from the weed, + And make a moral of the devil himself. + + Enter ERPINGHAM + + Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham: + A good soft pillow for that good white head + Were better than a churlish turf of France. + ERPINGHAM. Not so, my liege; this lodging likes me better, + Since I may say 'Now lie I like a king.' + KING HENRY. 'Tis good for men to love their present pains + Upon example; so the spirit is eased; + And when the mind is quick'ned, out of doubt + The organs, though defunct and dead before, + Break up their drowsy grave and newly move + With casted slough and fresh legerity. + Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas. Brothers both, + Commend me to the princes in our camp; + Do my good morrow to them, and anon + Desire them all to my pavilion. + GLOUCESTER. We shall, my liege. + ERPINGHAM. Shall I attend your Grace? + KING HENRY. No, my good knight: + Go with my brothers to my lords of England; + I and my bosom must debate awhile, + And then I would no other company. + ERPINGHAM. The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry! + Exeunt all but the KING + KING HENRY. God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak'st cheerfully. + + Enter PISTOL + + PISTOL. Qui va la? + KING HENRY. A friend. + PISTOL. Discuss unto me: art thou officer, + Or art thou base, common, and popular? + KING HENRY. I am a gentleman of a company. + PISTOL. Trail'st thou the puissant pike? + KING HENRY. Even so. What are you? + PISTOL. As good a gentleman as the Emperor. + KING HENRY. Then you are a better than the King. + PISTOL. The King's a bawcock and a heart of gold, + A lad of life, an imp of fame; + Of parents good, of fist most valiant. + I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string + I love the lovely bully. What is thy name? + KING HENRY. Harry le Roy. + PISTOL. Le Roy! a Cornish name; art thou of Cornish crew? + KING HENRY. No, I am a Welshman. + PISTOL. Know'st thou Fluellen? + KING HENRY. Yes. + PISTOL. Tell him I'll knock his leek about his pate + Upon Saint Davy's day. + KING HENRY. Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day, lest + he knock that about yours. + PISTOL. Art thou his friend? + KING HENRY. And his kinsman too. + PISTOL. The figo for thee, then! + KING HENRY. I thank you; God be with you! + PISTOL. My name is Pistol call'd. Exit + KING HENRY. It sorts well with your fierceness. + + Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER + + GOWER. Captain Fluellen! + FLUELLEN. So! in the name of Jesu Christ, speak fewer. It is the + greatest admiration in the universal world, when the true and + aunchient prerogatifes and laws of the wars is not kept: if you + would take the pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the Great, + you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle-taddle nor + pibble-pabble in Pompey's camp; I warrant you, you shall find the + ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it, + and the sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise. + GOWER. Why, the enemy is loud; you hear him all night. + FLUELLEN. If the enemy is an ass, and a fool, and a prating + coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, look you, be + an ass, and a fool, and a prating coxcomb? In your own + conscience, now? + GOWER. I will speak lower. + FLUELLEN. I pray you and beseech you that you will. + Exeunt GOWER and FLUELLEN + KING HENRY. Though it appear a little out of fashion, + There is much care and valour in this Welshman. + + Enter three soldiers: JOHN BATES, ALEXANDER COURT, + and MICHAEL WILLIAMS + + COURT. Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks + yonder? + BATES. I think it be; but we have no great cause to desire the + approach of day. + WILLIAMS. We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we + shall never see the end of it. Who goes there? + KING HENRY. A friend. + WILLIAMS. Under what captain serve you? + KING HENRY. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham. + WILLIAMS. A good old commander and a most kind gentleman. I pray + you, what thinks he of our estate? + KING HENRY. Even as men wreck'd upon a sand, that look to be wash'd + off the next tide. + BATES. He hath not told his thought to the King? + KING HENRY. No; nor it is not meet he should. For though I speak it + to you, I think the King is but a man as I am: the violet smells + to him as it doth to me; the element shows to him as it doth to + me; all his senses have but human conditions; his ceremonies laid + by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and though his + affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop, + they stoop with the like wing. Therefore, when he sees reason of + fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish + as ours are; yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any + appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his + army. + BATES. He may show what outward courage he will; but I believe, as + cold a night as 'tis, he could wish himself in Thames up to the + neck; and so I would he were, and I by him, at all adventures, so + we were quit here. + KING HENRY. By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the King: I + think he would not wish himself anywhere but where he is. + BATES. Then I would he were here alone; so should he be sure to be + ransomed, and a many poor men's lives saved. + KING HENRY. I dare say you love him not so ill to wish him here + alone, howsoever you speak this, to feel other men's minds; + methinks I could not die anywhere so contented as in the King's + company, his cause being just and his quarrel honourable. + WILLIAMS. That's more than we know. + BATES. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough if + we know we are the King's subjects. If his cause be wrong, our + obedience to the King wipes the crime of it out of us. + WILLIAMS. But if the cause be not good, the King himself hath a + heavy reckoning to make when all those legs and arms and heads, + chopp'd off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day + and cry all 'We died at such a place'- some swearing, some crying + for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some + upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I + am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how + can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their + argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black + matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were + against all proportion of subjection. + KING HENRY. So, if a son that is by his father sent about + merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of + his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father + that sent him; or if a servant, under his master's command + transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in + many irreconcil'd iniquities, you may call the business of the + master the author of the servant's damnation. But this is not so: + the King is not bound to answer the particular endings of his + soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of his servant; + for they purpose not their death when they purpose their + services. Besides, there is no king, be his cause never so + spotless, if it come to the arbitrement of swords, can try it out + with all unspotted soldiers: some peradventure have on them the + guilt of premeditated and contrived murder; some, of beguiling + virgins with the broken seals of perjury; some, making the wars + their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of peace + with pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have defeated the law + and outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men they + have no wings to fly from God: war is His beadle, war is His + vengeance; so that here men are punish'd for before-breach of the + King's laws in now the King's quarrel. Where they feared the + death they have borne life away; and where they would be safe + they perish. Then if they die unprovided, no more is the King + guilty of their damnation than he was before guilty of those + impieties for the which they are now visited. Every subject's + duty is the King's; but every subject's soul is his own. + Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man + in his bed- wash every mote out of his conscience; and dying so, + death is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was blessedly + lost wherein such preparation was gained; and in him that escapes + it were not sin to think that, making God so free an offer, He + let him outlive that day to see His greatness, and to teach + others how they should prepare. + WILLIAMS. 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill upon his + own head- the King is not to answer for it. + BATES. I do not desire he should answer for me, and yet I determine + to fight lustily for him. + KING HENRY. I myself heard the King say he would not be ransom'd. + WILLIAMS. Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully; but when our + throats are cut he may be ransom'd, and we ne'er the wiser. + KING HENRY. If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after. + WILLIAMS. You pay him then! That's a perilous shot out of an + elder-gun, that a poor and a private displeasure can do against a + monarch! You may as well go about to turn the sun to ice with + fanning in his face with a peacock's feather. You'll never trust + his word after! Come, 'tis a foolish saying. + KING HENRY. Your reproof is something too round; I should be angry + with you, if the time were convenient. + WILLIAMS. Let it be a quarrel between us if you live. + KING HENRY. I embrace it. + WILLIAMS. How shall I know thee again? + KING HENRY. Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my + bonnet; then if ever thou dar'st acknowledge it, I will make it + my quarrel. + WILLIAMS. Here's my glove; give me another of thine. + KING HENRY. There. + WILLIAMS. This will I also wear in my cap; if ever thou come to me + and say, after to-morrow, 'This is my glove,' by this hand I will + take thee a box on the ear. + KING HENRY. If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it. + WILLIAMS. Thou dar'st as well be hang'd. + KING HENRY. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the King's + company. + WILLIAMS. Keep thy word. Fare thee well. + BATES. Be friends, you English fools, be friends; we have + French quarrels enow, if you could tell how to reckon. + KING HENRY. Indeed, the French may lay twenty French crowns to one + they will beat us, for they bear them on their shoulders; but it + is no English treason to cut French crowns, and to-morrow the + King himself will be a clipper. + Exeunt soldiers + Upon the King! Let us our lives, our souls, + Our debts, our careful wives, + Our children, and our sins, lay on the King! + We must bear all. O hard condition, + Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath + Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel + But his own wringing! What infinite heart's ease + Must kings neglect that private men enjoy! + And what have kings that privates have not too, + Save ceremony- save general ceremony? + And what art thou, thou idol Ceremony? + What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more + Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers? + What are thy rents? What are thy comings-in? + O Ceremony, show me but thy worth! + What is thy soul of adoration? + Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form, + Creating awe and fear in other men? + Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd + Than they in fearing. + What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet, + But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness, + And bid thy ceremony give thee cure! + Thinks thou the fiery fever will go out + With titles blown from adulation? + Will it give place to flexure and low bending? + Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee, + Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream, + That play'st so subtly with a king's repose. + I am a king that find thee; and I know + 'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball, + The sword, the mace, the crown imperial, + The intertissued robe of gold and pearl, + The farced tide running fore the king, + The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp + That beats upon the high shore of this world- + No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony, + Not all these, laid in bed majestical, + Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave + Who, with a body fill'd and vacant mind, + Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread; + Never sees horrid night, the child of hell; + But, like a lackey, from the rise to set + Sweats in the eye of Pheebus, and all night + Sleeps in Elysium; next day, after dawn, + Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse; + And follows so the ever-running year + With profitable labour, to his grave. + And but for ceremony, such a wretch, + Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep, + Had the fore-hand and vantage of a king. + The slave, a member of the country's peace, + Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots + What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace + Whose hours the peasant best advantages. + + Enter ERPINGHAM + + ERPINGHAM. My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence, + Seek through your camp to find you. + KING. Good old knight, + Collect them all together at my tent: + I'll be before thee. + ERPINGHAM. I shall do't, my lord. Exit + KING. O God of battles, steel my soldiers' hearts, + Possess them not with fear! Take from them now + The sense of reck'ning, if th' opposed numbers + Pluck their hearts from them! Not to-day, O Lord, + O, not to-day, think not upon the fault + My father made in compassing the crown! + I Richard's body have interred new, + And on it have bestowed more contrite tears + Than from it issued forced drops of blood; + Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay, + Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up + Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built + Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests + Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do; + Though all that I can do is nothing worth, + Since that my penitence comes after all, + Imploring pardon. + + Enter GLOUCESTER + + GLOUCESTER. My liege! + KING HENRY. My brother Gloucester's voice? Ay; + I know thy errand, I will go with thee; + The day, my friends, and all things, stay for me. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +The French camp + +Enter the DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others + + ORLEANS. The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords! + DAUPHIN. Montez a cheval! My horse! Varlet, laquais! Ha! + ORLEANS. O brave spirit! + DAUPHIN. Via! Les eaux et la terre- + ORLEANS. Rien puis? L'air et le feu. + DAUPHIN. Ciel! cousin Orleans. + + Enter CONSTABLE + + Now, my Lord Constable! + CONSTABLE. Hark how our steeds for present service neigh! + DAUPHIN. Mount them, and make incision in their hides, + That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, + And dout them with superfluous courage, ha! + RAMBURES. What, will you have them weep our horses' blood? + How shall we then behold their natural tears? + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. The English are embattl'd, you French peers. + CONSTABLE. To horse, you gallant Princes! straight to horse! + Do but behold yon poor and starved band, + And your fair show shall suck away their souls, + Leaving them but the shales and husks of men. + There is not work enough for all our hands; + Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins + To give each naked curtle-axe a stain + That our French gallants shall to-day draw out, + And sheathe for lack of sport. Let us but blow on them, + The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them. + 'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords, + That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants- + Who in unnecessary action swarm + About our squares of battle- were enow + To purge this field of, such a hilding foe; + Though we upon this mountain's basis by + Took stand for idle speculation- + But that our honours must not. What's to say? + A very little little let us do, + And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound + The tucket sonance and the note to mount; + For our approach shall so much dare the field + That England shall couch down in fear and yield. + + Enter GRANDPRE + + GRANDPRE. Why do you stay so long, my lords of France? + Yond island carrions, desperate of their bones, + Ill-favouredly become the morning field; + Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose, + And our air shakes them passing scornfully; + Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host, + And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps. + The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks + With torch-staves in their hand; and their poor jades + Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips, + The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes, + And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal'd bit + Lies foul with chaw'd grass, still and motionless; + And their executors, the knavish crows, + Fly o'er them, all impatient for their hour. + Description cannot suit itself in words + To demonstrate the life of such a battle + In life so lifeless as it shows itself. + CONSTABLE. They have said their prayers and they stay for death. + DAUPHIN. Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits, + And give their fasting horses provender, + And after fight with them? + CONSTABLE. I stay but for my guidon. To the field! + I will the banner from a trumpet take, + And use it for my haste. Come, come, away! + The sun is high, and we outwear the day. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +The English camp + +Enter GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, ERPINGHAM, with all his host; +SALISBURY and WESTMORELAND + + GLOUCESTER. Where is the King? + BEDFORD. The King himself is rode to view their battle. + WESTMORELAND. Of fighting men they have full three-score thousand. + EXETER. There's five to one; besides, they all are fresh. + SALISBURY. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds. + God bye you, Princes all; I'll to my charge. + If we no more meet till we meet in heaven, + Then joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford, + My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter, + And my kind kinsman- warriors all, adieu! + BEDFORD. Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck go with thee! + EXETER. Farewell, kind lord. Fight valiantly to-day; + And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it, + For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour. + Exit SALISBURY + BEDFORD. He is as full of valour as of kindness; + Princely in both. + + Enter the KING + + WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here + But one ten thousand of those men in England + That do no work to-day! + KING. What's he that wishes so? + My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin; + If we are mark'd to die, we are enow + To do our country loss; and if to live, + The fewer men, the greater share of honour. + God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. + By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, + Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; + It yearns me not if men my garments wear; + Such outward things dwell not in my desires. + But if it be a sin to covet honour, + I am the most offending soul alive. + No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England. + God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour + As one man more methinks would share from me + For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more! + Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, + That he which hath no stomach to this fight, + Let him depart; his passport shall be made, + And crowns for convoy put into his purse; + We would not die in that man's company + That fears his fellowship to die with us. + This day is call'd the feast of Crispian. + He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, + Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, + And rouse him at the name of Crispian. + He that shall live this day, and see old age, + Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, + And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.' + Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, + And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.' + Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, + But he'll remember, with advantages, + What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, + Familiar in his mouth as household words- + Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, + Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester- + Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red. + This story shall the good man teach his son; + And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, + From this day to the ending of the world, + But we in it shall be remembered- + We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; + For he to-day that sheds his blood with me + Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, + This day shall gentle his condition; + And gentlemen in England now-a-bed + Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, + And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks + That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. + + Re-enter SALISBURY + + SALISBURY. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed: + The French are bravely in their battles set, + And will with all expedience charge on us. + KING HENRY. All things are ready, if our minds be so. + WESTMORELAND. Perish the man whose mind is backward now! + KING HENRY. Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz? + WESTMORELAND. God's will, my liege! would you and I alone, + Without more help, could fight this royal battle! + KING HENRY. Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thousand men; + Which likes me better than to wish us one. + You know your places. God be with you all! + + Tucket. Enter MONTJOY + + MONTJOY. Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry, + If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound, + Before thy most assured overthrow; + For certainly thou art so near the gulf + Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy, + The constable desires thee thou wilt mind + Thy followers of repentance, that their souls + May make a peaceful and a sweet retire + From off these fields, where, wretches, their poor bodies + Must lie and fester. + KING HENRY. Who hath sent thee now? + MONTJOY. The Constable of France. + KING HENRY. I pray thee bear my former answer back: + Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones. + Good God! why should they mock poor fellows thus? + The man that once did sell the lion's skin + While the beast liv'd was kill'd with hunting him. + A many of our bodies shall no doubt + Find native graves; upon the which, I trust, + Shall witness live in brass of this day's work. + And those that leave their valiant bones in France, + Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills, + They shall be fam'd; for there the sun shall greet them + And draw their honours reeking up to heaven, + Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime, + The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France. + Mark then abounding valour in our English, + That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing + Break out into a second course of mischief, + Killing in relapse of mortality. + Let me speak proudly: tell the Constable + We are but warriors for the working-day; + Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd + With rainy marching in the painful field; + There's not a piece of feather in our host- + Good argument, I hope, we will not fly- + And time hath worn us into slovenry. + But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim; + And my poor soldiers tell me yet ere night + They'll be in fresher robes, or they will pluck + The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads + And turn them out of service. If they do this- + As, if God please, they shall- my ransom then + Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour; + Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald; + They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints; + Which if they have, as I will leave 'em them, + Shall yield them little, tell the Constable. + MONTJOY. I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well: + Thou never shalt hear herald any more. Exit + KING HENRY. I fear thou wilt once more come again for a ransom. + + Enter the DUKE OF YORK + + YORK. My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg + The leading of the vaward. + KING HENRY. Take it, brave York. Now, soldiers, march away; + And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +The field of battle + +Alarum. Excursions. Enter FRENCH SOLDIER, PISTOL, and BOY + + PISTOL. Yield, cur! + FRENCH SOLDIER. Je pense que vous etes le gentilhomme de bonne + qualite. + PISTOL. Cality! Calen o custure me! Art thou a gentleman? + What is thy name? Discuss. + FRENCH SOLDIER. O Seigneur Dieu! + PISTOL. O, Signieur Dew should be a gentleman. + Perpend my words, O Signieur Dew, and mark: + O Signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox, + Except, O Signieur, thou do give to me + Egregious ransom. + FRENCH SOLDIER. O, prenez misericorde; ayez pitie de moi! + PISTOL. Moy shall not serve; I will have forty moys; + Or I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat + In drops of crimson blood. + FRENCH SOLDIER. Est-il impossible d'echapper la force de ton bras? + PISTOL. Brass, cur? + Thou damned and luxurious mountain-goat, + Offer'st me brass? + FRENCH SOLDIER. O, pardonnez-moi! + PISTOL. Say'st thou me so? Is that a ton of moys? + Come hither, boy; ask me this slave in French + What is his name. + BOY. Ecoutez: comment etes-vous appele? + FRENCH SOLDIER. Monsieur le Fer. + BOY. He says his name is Master Fer. + PISTOL. Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and ferret him- + discuss the same in French unto him. + BOY. I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and firk. + PISTOL. Bid him prepare; for I will cut his throat. + FRENCH SOLDIER. Que dit-il, monsieur? + BOY. Il me commande a vous dire que vous faites vous pret; car ce + soldat ici est dispose tout a cette heure de couper votre gorge. + PISTOL. Owy, cuppele gorge, permafoy! + Peasant, unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns; + Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword. + FRENCH SOLDIER. O, je vous supplie, pour l'amour de Dieu, me + pardonner! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne maison. Gardez ma vie, et + je vous donnerai deux cents ecus. + PISTOL. What are his words? + BOY. He prays you to save his life; he is a gentleman of a good + house, and for his ransom he will give you two hundred crowns. + PISTOL. Tell him my fury shall abate, and I + The crowns will take. + FRENCH SOLDIER. Petit monsieur, que dit-il? + BOY. Encore qu'il est contre son jurement de pardonner aucun + prisonnier, neamnoins, pour les ecus que vous l'avez promis, il + est content a vous donner la liberte, le franchisement. + FRENCH SOLDIER. Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille remercimens; et + je m'estime heureux que je suis tombe entre les mains d'un + chevalier, je pense, le plus brave, vaillant, et tres distingue + seigneur d'Angleterre. + PISTOL. Expound unto me, boy. + BOY. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks; and he + esteems himself happy that he hath fall'n into the hands of one- + as he thinks- the most brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy + signieur of England. + PISTOL. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show. + Follow me. Exit + BOY. Suivez-vous le grand capitaine. Exit FRENCH SOLDIER + I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart; but + the saying is true- the empty vessel makes the greatest sound. + Bardolph and Nym had ten times more valour than this roaring + devil i' th' old play, that every one may pare his nails with a + wooden dagger; and they are both hang'd; and so would this be, if + he durst steal anything adventurously. I must stay with the + lackeys, with the luggage of our camp. The French might have a + good prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is none to guard it + but boys. Exit + + + + +SCENE V. +Another part of the field of battle + +Enter CONSTABLE, ORLEANS, BOURBON, DAUPHIN, and RAMBURES + + CONSTABLE. O diable! + ORLEANS. O Seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu! + DAUPHIN. Mort Dieu, ma vie! all is confounded, all! + Reproach and everlasting shame + Sits mocking in our plumes. [A short alarum] + O mechante fortune! Do not run away. + CONSTABLE. Why, an our ranks are broke. + DAUPHIN. O perdurable shame! Let's stab ourselves. + Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for? + ORLEANS. Is this the king we sent to for his ransom? + BOURBON. Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame! + Let us die in honour: once more back again; + And he that will not follow Bourbon now, + Let him go hence and, with his cap in hand + Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door + Whilst by a slave, no gender than my dog, + His fairest daughter is contaminated. + CONSTABLE. Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now! + Let us on heaps go offer up our lives. + ORLEANS. We are enow yet living in the field + To smother up the English in our throngs, + If any order might be thought upon. + BOURBON. The devil take order now! I'll to the throng. + Let life be short, else shame will be too long. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VI. +Another part of the field + +Alarum. Enter the KING and his train, with prisoners; EXETER, and others + + KING HENRY. Well have we done, thrice-valiant countrymen; + But all's not done- yet keep the French the field. + EXETER. The Duke of York commends him to your Majesty. + KING HENRY. Lives he, good uncle? Thrice within this hour + I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting; + From helmet to the spur all blood he was. + EXETER. In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie + Larding the plain; and by his bloody side, + Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds, + The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies. + Suffolk first died; and York, all haggled over, + Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteeped, + And takes him by the beard, kisses the gashes + That bloodily did yawn upon his face, + He cries aloud 'Tarry, my cousin Suffolk. + My soul shall thine keep company to heaven; + Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast; + As in this glorious and well-foughten field + We kept together in our chivalry.' + Upon these words I came and cheer'd him up; + He smil'd me in the face, raught me his hand, + And, with a feeble grip, says 'Dear my lord, + Commend my service to my sovereign.' + So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck + He threw his wounded arm and kiss'd his lips; + And so, espous'd to death, with blood he seal'd + A testament of noble-ending love. + The pretty and sweet manner of it forc'd + Those waters from me which I would have stopp'd; + But I had not so much of man in me, + And all my mother came into mine eyes + And gave me up to tears. + KING HENRY. I blame you not; + For, hearing this, I must perforce compound + With mistful eyes, or they will issue too. [Alarum] + But hark! what new alarum is this same? + The French have reinforc'd their scatter'd men. + Then every soldier kill his prisoners; + Give the word through. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VII. +Another part of the field + +Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER + + FLUELLEN. Kill the poys and the luggage! 'Tis expressly against the + law of arms; 'tis as arrant a piece of knavery, mark you now, as + can be offert; in your conscience, now, is it not? + GOWER. 'Tis certain there's not a boy left alive; and the cowardly + rascals that ran from the battle ha' done this slaughter; + besides, they have burned and carried away all that was in the + King's tent; wherefore the King most worthily hath caus'd every + soldier to cut his prisoner's throat. O, 'tis a gallant King! + FLUELLEN. Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain Gower. What call you + the town's name where Alexander the Pig was born? + GOWER. Alexander the Great. + FLUELLEN. Why, I pray you, is not 'pig' great? The pig, or great, + or the mighty, or the huge, or the magnanimous, are all one + reckonings, save the phrase is a little variations. + GOWER. I think Alexander the Great was born in Macedon; his father + was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it. + FLUELLEN. I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I tell + you, Captain, if you look in the maps of the 'orld, I warrant you + sall find, in the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that + the situations, look you, is both alike. There is a river in + Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth; it is + call'd Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of my prains what is the + name of the other river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my + fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you + mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life is come + after it indifferent well; for there is figures in all things. + Alexander- God knows, and you know- in his rages, and his furies, + and his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his + displeasures, and his indignations, and also being a little + intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and his angers, look + you, kill his best friend, Cleitus. + GOWER. Our king is not like him in that: he never kill'd any of his + friends. + FLUELLEN. It is not well done, mark you now, to take the tales out + of my mouth ere it is made and finished. I speak but in the + figures and comparisons of it; as Alexander kill'd his friend + Cleitus, being in his ales and his cups, so also Harry Monmouth, + being in his right wits and his good judgments, turn'd away the + fat knight with the great belly doublet; he was full of jests, + and gipes, and knaveries, and mocks; I have forgot his name. + GOWER. Sir John Falstaff. + FLUELLEN. That is he. I'll tell you there is good men porn at + Monmouth. + GOWER. Here comes his Majesty. + + Alarum. Enter the KING, WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, + EXETER, and others, with prisoners. Flourish + + KING HENRY. I was not angry since I came to France + Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald, + Ride thou unto the horsemen on yond hill; + If they will fight with us, bid them come down + Or void the field; they do offend our sight. + If they'll do neither, we will come to them + And make them skirr away as swift as stones + Enforced from the old Assyrian slings; + Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have, + And not a man of them that we shall take + Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so. + + Enter MONTJOY + + EXETER. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege. + GLOUCESTER. His eyes are humbler than they us'd to be. + KING HENRY. How now! What means this, herald? know'st thou not + That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransom? + Com'st thou again for ransom? + MONTJOY. No, great King; + I come to thee for charitable licence, + That we may wander o'er this bloody field + To book our dead, and then to bury them; + To sort our nobles from our common men; + For many of our princes- woe the while!- + Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood; + So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs + In blood of princes; and their wounded steeds + Fret fetlock deep in gore, and with wild rage + Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters, + Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great King, + To view the field in safety, and dispose + Of their dead bodies! + KING HENRY. I tell thee truly, herald, + I know not if the day be ours or no; + For yet a many of your horsemen peer + And gallop o'er the field. + MONTJOY. The day is yours. + KING HENRY. Praised be God, and not our strength, for it! + What is this castle call'd that stands hard by? + MONTJOY. They call it Agincourt. + KING HENRY. Then call we this the field of Agincourt, + Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus. + FLUELLEN. Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please your + Majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the Plack Prince of Wales, + as I have read in the chronicles, fought a most prave pattle here + in France. + KING HENRY. They did, Fluellen. + FLUELLEN. Your Majesty says very true; if your Majesties is + rememb'red of it, the Welshmen did good service in garden where + leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which your + Majesty know to this hour is an honourable badge of the service; + and I do believe your Majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek + upon Saint Tavy's day. + KING HENRY. I wear it for a memorable honour; + For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman. + FLUELLEN. All the water in Wye cannot wash your Majesty's Welsh + plood out of your pody, I can tell you that. Got pless it and + preserve it as long as it pleases his Grace and his Majesty too! + KING HENRY. Thanks, good my countryman. + FLUELLEN. By Jeshu, I am your Majesty's countryman, care not who + know it; I will confess it to all the 'orld: I need not be + asham'd of your Majesty, praised be Got, so long as your Majesty + is an honest man. + + Enter WILLIAMS + + KING HENRY. God keep me so! Our heralds go with him: + Bring me just notice of the numbers dead + On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither. + Exeunt heralds with MONTJOY + EXETER. Soldier, you must come to the King. + KING HENRY. Soldier, why wear'st thou that glove in thy cap? + WILLIAMS. An't please your Majesty, 'tis the gage of one that I + should fight withal, if he be alive. + KING HENRY. An Englishman? + WILLIAMS. An't please your Majesty, a rascal that swagger'd with me + last night; who, if 'a live and ever dare to challenge this + glove, I have sworn to take him a box o' th' ear; or if I can see + my glove in his cap- which he swore, as he was a soldier, he + would wear if alive- I will strike it out soundly. + KING HENRY. What think you, Captain Fluellen, is it fit this + soldier keep his oath? + FLUELLEN. He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your + Majesty, in my conscience. + KING HENRY. It may be his enemy is a gentlemen of great sort, quite + from the answer of his degree. + FLUELLEN. Though he be as good a gentleman as the Devil is, as + Lucifier and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look your Grace, + that he keep his vow and his oath; if he be perjur'd, see you + now, his reputation is as arrant a villain and a Jacksauce as + ever his black shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in my + conscience, la. + KING HENRY. Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet'st the + fellow. + WILLIAMS. So I Will, my liege, as I live. + KING HENRY. Who serv'st thou under? + WILLIAMS. Under Captain Gower, my liege. + FLUELLEN. Gower is a good captain, and is good knowledge and + literatured in the wars. + KING HENRY. Call him hither to me, soldier. + WILLIAMS. I will, my liege. Exit + KING HENRY. Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me, and stick + it in thy cap; when Alencon and myself were down together, I + pluck'd this glove from his helm. If any man challenge this, he + is a friend to Alencon and an enemy to our person; if thou + encounter any such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love. + FLUELLEN. Your Grace does me as great honours as can be desir'd in + the hearts of his subjects. I would fain see the man that has but + two legs that shall find himself aggrief'd at this glove, that is + all; but I would fain see it once, an please God of his grace + that I might see. + KING HENRY. Know'st thou Gower? + FLUELLEN. He is my dear friend, an please you. + KING HENRY. Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent. + FLUELLEN. I will fetch him. Exit + KING HENRY. My Lord of Warwick and my brother Gloucester, + Follow Fluellen closely at the heels; + The glove which I have given him for a favour + May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear. + It is the soldier's: I, by bargain, should + Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick; + If that the soldier strike him, as I judge + By his blunt bearing he will keep his word, + Some sudden mischief may arise of it; + For I do know Fluellen valiant, + And touch'd with choler, hot as gunpowder, + And quickly will return an injury; + Follow, and see there be no harm between them. + Go you with me, uncle of Exeter. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VIII. +Before KING HENRY'S PAVILION + +Enter GOWER and WILLIAMS + + WILLIAMS. I warrant it is to knight you, Captain. + + Enter FLUELLEN + + FLUELLEN. God's will and his pleasure, Captain, I beseech you now, + come apace to the King: there is more good toward you + peradventure than is in your knowledge to dream of. + WILLIAMS. Sir, know you this glove? + FLUELLEN. Know the glove? I know the glove is a glove. + WILLIAMS. I know this; and thus I challenge it. [Strikes him] + FLUELLEN. 'Sblood, an arrant traitor as any's in the universal + world, or in France, or in England! + GOWER. How now, sir! you villain! + WILLIAMS. Do you think I'll be forsworn? + FLUELLEN. Stand away, Captain Gower; I will give treason his + payment into plows, I warrant you. + WILLIAMS. I am no traitor. + FLUELLEN. That's a lie in thy throat. I charge you in his Majesty's + name, apprehend him: he's a friend of the Duke Alencon's. + + Enter WARWICK and GLOUCESTER + + WARWICK. How now! how now! what's the matter? + FLUELLEN. My Lord of Warwick, here is- praised be God for it!- a + most contagious treason come to light, look you, as you shall + desire in a summer's day. Here is his Majesty. + + Enter the KING and EXETER + + KING HENRY. How now! what's the matter? + FLUELLEN. My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that, look + your Grace, has struck the glove which your Majesty is take out + of the helmet of Alencon. + WILLIAMS. My liege, this was my glove: here is the fellow of it; + and he that I gave it to in change promis'd to wear it in his + cap; I promis'd to strike him if he did; I met this man with my + glove in his cap, and I have been as good as my word. + FLUELLEN. Your Majesty hear now, saving your Majesty's manhood, + what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy knave it is; I hope + your Majesty is pear me testimony and witness, and will + avouchment, that this is the glove of Alencon that your Majesty + is give me; in your conscience, now. + KING HENRY. Give me thy glove, soldier; look, here is the fellow of + it. + 'Twas I, indeed, thou promised'st to strike, + And thou hast given me most bitter terms. + FLUELLEN. An please your Majesty, let his neck answer for it, if + there is any martial law in the world. + KING HENRY. How canst thou make me satisfaction? + WILLIAMS. All offences, my lord, come from the heart; never came + any from mine that might offend your Majesty. + KING HENRY. It was ourself thou didst abuse. + WILLIAMS. Your Majesty came not like yourself: you appear'd to me + but as a common man; witness the night, your garments, your + lowliness; and what your Highness suffer'd under that shape I + beseech you take it for your own fault, and not mine; for had you + been as I took you for, I made no offence; therefore, I beseech + your Highness pardon me. + KING HENRY. Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns, + And give it to this fellow. Keep it, fellow; + And wear it for an honour in thy cap + Till I do challenge it. Give him the crowns; + And, Captain, you must needs be friends with him. + FLUELLEN. By this day and this light, the fellow has mettle enough + in his belly: hold, there is twelve pence for you; and I pray you + to serve God, and keep you out of prawls, and prabbles, and + quarrels, and dissensions, and, I warrant you, it is the better + for you. + WILLIAMS. I will none of your money. + FLUELLEN. It is with a good will; I can tell you it will serve you + to mend your shoes. Come, wherefore should you be so pashful? + Your shoes is not so good. 'Tis a good silling, I warrant you, or + I will change it. + + Enter an ENGLISH HERALD + + KING HENRY. Now, herald, are the dead numb'red? + HERALD. Here is the number of the slaught'red French. + [Gives a paper] + KING HENRY. What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle? + EXETER. Charles Duke of Orleans, nephew to the King; + John Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt; + Of other lords and barons, knights and squires, + Full fifteen hundred, besides common men. + KING HENRY. This note doth tell me of ten thousand French + That in the field lie slain; of princes in this number, + And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead + One hundred twenty-six; added to these, + Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen, + Eight thousand and four hundred; of the which + Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd knights. + So that, in these ten thousand they have lost, + There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries; + The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, squires, + And gentlemen of blood and quality. + The names of those their nobles that lie dead: + Charles Delabreth, High Constable of France; + Jaques of Chatillon, Admiral of France; + The master of the cross-bows, Lord Rambures; + Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard Dolphin; + John Duke of Alencon; Antony Duke of Brabant, + The brother to the Duke of Burgundy; + And Edward Duke of Bar. Of lusty earls, + Grandpre and Roussi, Fauconbridge and Foix, + Beaumont and Marle, Vaudemont and Lestrake. + Here was a royal fellowship of death! + Where is the number of our English dead? + [HERALD presents another paper] + Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, + Sir Richard Kikely, Davy Gam, Esquire; + None else of name; and of all other men + But five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here! + And not to us, but to thy arm alone, + Ascribe we all. When, without stratagem, + But in plain shock and even play of battle, + Was ever known so great and little los + On one part and on th' other? Take it, God, + For it is none but thine. + EXETER. 'Tis wonderful! + KING HENRY. Come, go we in procession to the village; + And be it death proclaimed through our host + To boast of this or take that praise from God + Which is his only. + FLUELLEN. Is it not lawful, an please your Majesty, to tell how + many is kill'd? + KING HENRY. Yes, Captain; but with this acknowledgment, + That God fought for us. + FLUELLEN. Yes, my conscience, he did us great good. + KING HENRY. Do we all holy rites: + Let there be sung 'Non nobis' and 'Te Deum'; + The dead with charity enclos'd in clay- + And then to Calais; and to England then; + Where ne'er from France arriv'd more happy men. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. PROLOGUE. + +Enter CHORUS + + CHORUS. Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story + That I may prompt them; and of such as have, + I humbly pray them to admit th' excuse + Of time, of numbers, and due course of things, + Which cannot in their huge and proper life + Be here presented. Now we bear the King + Toward Calais. Grant him there. There seen, + Heave him away upon your winged thoughts + Athwart the sea. Behold, the English beach + Pales in the flood with men, with wives, and boys, + Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd sea, + Which, like a mighty whiffler, fore the King + Seems to prepare his way. So let him land, + And solemnly see him set on to London. + So swift a pace hath thought that even now + You may imagine him upon Blackheath; + Where that his lords desire him to have borne + His bruised helmet and his bended sword + Before him through the city. He forbids it, + Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride; + Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent, + Quite from himself to God. But now behold + In the quick forge and working-house of thought, + How London doth pour out her citizens! + The mayor and all his brethren in best sort- + Like to the senators of th' antique Rome, + With the plebeians swarming at their heels- + Go forth and fetch their conqu'ring Caesar in; + As, by a lower but loving likelihood, + Were now the General of our gracious Empress- + As in good time he may- from Ireland coming, + Bringing rebellion broached on his sword, + How many would the peaceful city quit + To welcome him! Much more, and much more cause, + Did they this Harry. Now in London place him- + As yet the lamentation of the French + Invites the King of England's stay at home; + The Emperor's coming in behalf of France + To order peace between them; and omit + All the occurrences, whatever chanc'd, + Till Harry's back-return again to France. + There must we bring him; and myself have play'd + The interim, by rememb'ring you 'tis past. + Then brook abridgment; and your eyes advance, + After your thoughts, straight back again to France. Exit + + + + +SCENE I. +France. The English camp + +Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER + + GOWER. Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek to-day? Saint + Davy's day is past. + FLUELLEN. There is occasions and causes why and wherefore in all + things. I will tell you, ass my friend, Captain Gower: the + rascally, scald, beggarly, lousy, pragging knave, Pistol- which + you and yourself and all the world know to be no petter than a + fellow, look you now, of no merits- he is come to me, and prings + me pread and salt yesterday, look you, and bid me eat my leek; it + was in a place where I could not breed no contendon with him; but + I will be so bold as to wear it in my cap till I see him once + again, and then I will tell him a little piece of my desires. + + Enter PISTOL + + GOWER. Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock. + FLUELLEN. 'Tis no matter for his swellings nor his turkey-cocks. + God pless you, Aunchient Pistol! you scurvy, lousy knave, God + pless you! + PISTOL. Ha! art thou bedlam? Dost thou thirst, base Troyan, + To have me fold up Parca's fatal web? + Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek. + FLUELLEN. I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at my + desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, look you, + this leek; because, look you, you do not love it, nor your + affections, and your appetites, and your digestions, does not + agree with it, I would desire you to eat it. + PISTOL. Not for Cadwallader and all his goats. + FLUELLEN. There is one goat for you. [Strikes him] Will you be so + good, scald knave, as eat it? + PISTOL. Base Troyan, thou shalt die. + FLUELLEN. You say very true, scald knave- when God's will is. I + will desire you to live in the meantime, and eat your victuals; + come, there is sauce for it. [Striking him again] You call'd me + yesterday mountain-squire; but I will make you to-day a squire of + low degree. I pray you fall to; if you can mock a leek, you can + eat a leek. + GOWER. Enough, Captain, you have astonish'd him. + FLUELLEN. I say I will make him eat some part of my leek, or I will + peat his pate four days. Bite, I pray you, it is good for your + green wound and your ploody coxcomb. + PISTOL. Must I bite? + FLUELLEN. Yes, certainly, and out of doubt, and out of question + too, and ambiguides. + PISTOL. By this leek, I will most horribly revenge- I eat and eat, + I swear- + FLUELLEN. Eat, I pray you; will you have some more sauce to your + leek? There is not enough leek to swear by. + PISTOL. Quiet thy cudgel: thou dost see I eat. + FLUELLEN. Much good do you, scald knave, heartily. Nay, pray you + throw none away; the skin is good for your broken coxcomb. When + you take occasions to see leeks hereafter, I pray you mock at + 'em; that is all. + PISTOL. Good. + FLUELLEN. Ay, leeks is good. Hold you, there is a groat to heal + your pate. + PISTOL. Me a groat! + FLUELLEN. Yes, verily and in truth, you shall take it; or I have + another leek in my pocket which you shall eat. + PISTOL. I take thy groat in earnest of revenge. + FLUELLEN. If I owe you anything I will pay you in cudgels; you + shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but cudgels. God bye + you, and keep you, and heal your pate. + Exit + PISTOL. All hell shall stir for this. + GOWER. Go, go: you are a couterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock + at an ancient tradition, begun upon an honourable respect, and + worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour, and dare not + avouch in your deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking + and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought, + because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could + not therefore handle an English cudgel; you find it otherwise, + and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good English + condition. Fare ye well. Exit + PISTOL. Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now? + News have I that my Nell is dead i' th' spital + Of malady of France; + And there my rendezvous is quite cut off. + Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs + Honour is cudgell'd. Well, bawd I'll turn, + And something lean to cutpurse of quick hand. + To England will I steal, and there I'll steal; + And patches will I get unto these cudgell'd scars, + And swear I got them in the Gallia wars. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +France. The FRENCH KING'S palace + +Enter at one door, KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, +WESTMORELAND, and other LORDS; at another, the FRENCH KING, QUEEN ISABEL, +the PRINCESS KATHERINE, ALICE, and other LADIES; the DUKE OF BURGUNDY, +and his train + + KING HENRY. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met! + Unto our brother France, and to our sister, + Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishes + To our most fair and princely cousin Katherine. + And, as a branch and member of this royalty, + By whom this great assembly is contriv'd, + We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy. + And, princes French, and peers, health to you all! + FRENCH KING. Right joyous are we to behold your face, + Most worthy brother England; fairly met! + So are you, princes English, every one. + QUEEN ISABEL. So happy be the issue, brother England, + Of this good day and of this gracious meeting + As we are now glad to behold your eyes- + Your eyes, which hitherto have home in them, + Against the French that met them in their bent, + The fatal balls of murdering basilisks; + The venom of such looks, we fairly hope, + Have lost their quality; and that this day + Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love. + KING HENRY. To cry amen to that, thus we appear. + QUEEN ISABEL. You English princes an, I do salute you. + BURGUNDY. My duty to you both, on equal love, + Great Kings of France and England! That I have labour'd + With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours, + To bring your most imperial Majesties + Unto this bar and royal interview, + Your mightiness on both parts best can witness. + Since then my office hath so far prevail'd + That face to face and royal eye to eye + You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me + If I demand, before this royal view, + What rub or what impediment there is + Why that the naked, poor, and mangled Peace, + Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births, + Should not in this best garden of the world, + Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage? + Alas, she hath from France too long been chas'd! + And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps, + Corrupting in it own fertility. + Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, + Unpruned dies; her hedges even-pleach'd, + Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair, + Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leas + The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory, + Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts + That should deracinate such savagery; + The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth + The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover, + Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank, + Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems + But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs, + Losing both beauty and utility. + And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges, + Defective in their natures, grow to wildness; + Even so our houses and ourselves and children + Have lost, or do not learn for want of time, + The sciences that should become our country; + But grow, like savages- as soldiers will, + That nothing do but meditate on blood- + To swearing and stern looks, diffus'd attire, + And everything that seems unnatural. + Which to reduce into our former favout + You are assembled; and my speech entreats + That I may know the let why gentle Peace + Should not expel these inconveniences + And bless us with her former qualities. + KING HENRY. If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace + Whose want gives growth to th' imperfections + Which you have cited, you must buy that peace + With full accord to all our just demands; + Whose tenours and particular effects + You have, enschedul'd briefly, in your hands. + BURGUNDY. The King hath heard them; to the which as yet + There is no answer made. + KING HENRY. Well then, the peace, + Which you before so urg'd, lies in his answer. + FRENCH KING. I have but with a cursorary eye + O'erglanced the articles; pleaseth your Grace + To appoint some of your council presently + To sit with us once more, with better heed + To re-survey them, we will suddenly + Pass our accept and peremptory answer. + KING HENRY. Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter, + And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester, + Warwick, and Huntington, go with the King; + And take with you free power to ratify, + Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best + Shall see advantageable for our dignity, + Any thing in or out of our demands; + And we'll consign thereto. Will you, fair sister, + Go with the princes or stay here with us? + QUEEN ISABEL. Our gracious brother, I will go with them; + Haply a woman's voice may do some good, + When articles too nicely urg'd be stood on. + KING HENRY. Yet leave our cousin Katherine here with us; + She is our capital demand, compris'd + Within the fore-rank of our articles. + QUEEN ISABEL. She hath good leave. + Exeunt all but the KING, KATHERINE, and ALICE + KING HENRY. Fair Katherine, and most fair, + Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms + Such as will enter at a lady's ear, + And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart? + KATHERINE. Your Majesty shall mock me; I cannot speak your England. + KING HENRY. O fair Katherine, if you will love me soundly with your + French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with + your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate? + KATHERINE. Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is like me. + KING HENRY. An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel. + KATHERINE. Que dit-il? que je suis semblable a les anges? + ALICE. Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il. + KING HENRY. I said so, dear Katherine, and I must not blush to + affirm it. + KATHERINE. O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont pleines de + tromperies. + KING HENRY. What says she, fair one? that the tongues of men are + full of deceits? + ALICE. Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of deceits- dat is + de Princess. + KING HENRY. The Princess is the better English-woman. I' faith, + Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding: I am glad thou + canst speak no better English; for if thou couldst, thou wouldst + find me such a plain king that thou wouldst think I had sold my + farm to buy my crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but + directly to say 'I love you.' Then, if you urge me farther than + to say 'Do you in faith?' I wear out my suit. Give me your + answer; i' faith, do; and so clap hands and a bargain. How say + you, lady? + KATHERINE. Sauf votre honneur, me understand well. + KING HENRY. Marry, if you would put me to verses or to dance for + your sake, Kate, why you undid me; for the one I have neither + words nor measure, and for the other I have no strength in + measure, yet a reasonable measure in strength. If I could win a + lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my armour + on my back, under the correction of bragging be it spoken, I + should quickly leap into wife. Or if I might buffet for my love, + or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on like a butcher, + and sit like a jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God, Kate, I + cannot look greenly, nor gasp out my cloquence, nor I have no + cunning in protestation; only downright oaths, which I never use + till urg'd, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a + fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sunburning, + that never looks in his glass for love of anything he sees there, + let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier. If thou + canst love me for this, take me; if not, to say to thee that I + shall die is true- but for thy love, by the Lord, no; yet I love + thee too. And while thou liv'st, dear Kate, take a fellow of + plain and uncoined constancy; for he perforce must do thee right, + because he hath not the gift to woo in other places; for these + fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme themselves into + ladies' favours, they do always reason themselves out again. + What! a speaker is but a prater: a rhyme is but a ballad. A good + leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will + turn white; a curl'd pate will grow bald; a fair face will + wither; a full eye will wax hollow. But a good heart, Kate, is + the sun and the moon; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon- for + it shines bright and never changes, but keeps his course truly. + If thou would have such a one, take me; and take me, take a + soldier; take a soldier, take a king. And what say'st thou, then, + to my love? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee. + KATHERINE. Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of France? + KING HENRY. No, it is not possible you should love the enemy of + France, Kate, but in loving me you should love the friend of + France; for I love France so well that I will not part with a + village of it; I will have it all mine. And, Kate, when France is + mine and I am yours, then yours is France and you are mine. + KATHERINE. I cannot tell vat is dat. + KING HENRY. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French, which I am sure + will hang upon my tongue like a new-married wife about her + husband's neck, hardly to be shook off. Je quand sur le + possession de France, et quand vous avez le possession de moi- + let me see, what then? Saint Denis be my speed!- donc votre est + France et vous etes mienne. It is as easy for me, Kate, to + conquer the kingdom as to speak so much more French: I shall + never move thee in French, unless it be to laugh at me. + KATHERINE. Sauf votre honneur, le Francais que vous parlez, il est + meilleur que l'Anglais lequel je parle. + KING HENRY. No, faith, is't not, Kate; but thy speaking of my + tongue, and I thine, most truly falsely, must needs be granted to + be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou understand thus much + English- Canst thou love me? + KATHERINE. I cannot tell. + KING HENRY. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask them. + Come, I know thou lovest me; and at night, when you come into + your closet, you'll question this gentlewoman about me; and I + know, Kate, you will to her dispraise those parts in me that you + love with your heart. But, good Kate, mock me mercifully; the + rather, gentle Princess, because I love thee cruelly. If ever + thou beest mine, Kate, as I have a saving faith within me tells + me thou shalt, I get thee with scambling, and thou must therefore + needs prove a good soldier-breeder. Shall not thou and I, between + Saint Denis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half + English, that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk by the + beard? Shall we not? What say'st thou, my fair flower-de-luce? + KATHERINE. I do not know dat. + KING HENRY. No: 'tis hereafter to know, but now to promise; do but + now promise, Kate, you will endeavour for your French part of + such a boy; and for my English moiety take the word of a king and + a bachelor. How answer you, la plus belle Katherine du monde, mon + tres cher et divin deesse? + KATHERINE. Your Majestee ave fausse French enough to deceive de + most sage damoiselle dat is en France. + KING HENRY. Now, fie upon my false French! By mine honour, in true + English, I love thee, Kate; by which honour I dare not swear thou + lovest me; yet my blood begins to flatter me that thou dost, + notwithstanding the poor and untempering effect of my visage. Now + beshrew my father's ambition! He was thinking of civil wars when + he got me; therefore was I created with a stubborn outside, with + an aspect of iron, that when I come to woo ladies I fright them. + But, in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear: + my comfort is, that old age, that in layer-up of beauty, can do + no more spoil upon my face; thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the + worst; and thou shalt wear me, if thou wear me, better and + better. And therefore tell me, most fair Katherine, will you have + me? Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the thoughts of your + heart with the looks of an empress; take me by the hand and say + 'Harry of England, I am thine.' Which word thou shalt no sooner + bless mine ear withal but I will tell thee aloud 'England is + thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Henry Plantagenet + is thine'; who, though I speak it before his face, if he be not + fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the best king of good + fellows. Come, your answer in broken music- for thy voice is + music and thy English broken; therefore, Queen of all, Katherine, + break thy mind to me in broken English, wilt thou have me? + KATHERINE. Dat is as it shall please de roi mon pere. + KING HENRY. Nay, it will please him well, Kate- it shall please + him, Kate. + KATHERINE. Den it sall also content me. + KING HENRY. Upon that I kiss your hand, and I can you my queen. + KATHERINE. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez! Ma foi, je ne + veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en baisant la main + d'une, notre seigneur, indigne serviteur; excusez-moi, je vous + supplie, mon tres puissant seigneur. + KING HENRY. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. + KATHERINE. Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees devant leur + noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France. + KING HENRY. Madame my interpreter, what says she? + ALICE. Dat it is not be de fashion pour le ladies of France- I + cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish. + KING HENRY. To kiss. + ALICE. Your Majestee entendre bettre que moi. + KING HENRY. It is not a fashion for the maids in France to kiss + before they are married, would she say? + ALICE. Oui, vraiment. + KING HENRY. O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. Dear Kate, + you and I cannot be confin'd within the weak list of a country's + fashion; we are the makers of manners, Kate; and the liberty that + follows our places stops the mouth of all find-faults- as I will + do yours for upholding the nice fashion of your country in + denying me a kiss; therefore, patiently and yielding. [Kissing + her] You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate: there is more + eloquence in a sugar touch of them than in the tongues of the + French council; and they should sooner persuade Henry of England + than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes your father. + + Enter the FRENCH POWER and the ENGLISH LORDS + + BURGUNDY. God save your Majesty! My royal cousin, + Teach you our princess English? + KING HENRY. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, how perfectly I + love her; and that is good English. + BURGUNDY. Is she not apt? + KING HENRY. Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not + smooth; so that, having neither the voice nor the heart of + flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit of love in + her that he will appear in his true likeness. + BURGUNDY. Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer you for + that. If you would conjure in her, you must make a circle; if + conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he must appear naked + and blind. Can you blame her, then, being a maid yet ros'd over + with the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the appearance of + a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a + hard condition for a maid to consign to. + KING HENRY. Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind and + enforces. + BURGUNDY. They are then excus'd, my lord, when they see not what + they do. + KING HENRY. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to consent + winking. + BURGUNDY. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you will teach + her to know my meaning; for maids well summer'd and warm kept are + like flies at Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their + eyes; and then they will endure handling, which before would not + abide looking on. + KING HENRY. This moral ties me over to time and a hot summer; and + so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the latter end, and she + must be blind too. + BURGUNDY. As love is, my lord, before it loves. + KING HENRY. It is so; and you may, some of you, thank love for my + blindness, who cannot see many a fair French city for one fair + French maid that stands in my way. + FRENCH KING. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, the cities + turned into a maid; for they are all girdled with maiden walls + that war hath never ent'red. + KING HENRY. Shall Kate be my wife? + FRENCH KING. So please you. + KING HENRY. I am content, so the maiden cities you talk of may wait + on her; so the maid that stood in the way for my wish shall show + me the way to my will. + FRENCH KING. We have consented to all terms of reason. + KING HENRY. Is't so, my lords of England? + WESTMORELAND. The king hath granted every article: + His daughter first; and then in sequel, all, + According to their firm proposed natures. + EXETER. Only he hath not yet subscribed this: + Where your Majesty demands that the King of France, having any + occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your Highness + in this form and with this addition, in French, Notre tres cher + fils Henri, Roi d'Angleterre, Heritier de France; and thus in + Latin, Praeclarissimus filius noster Henricus, Rex Angliae et + Haeres Franciae. + FRENCH KING. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied + But our request shall make me let it pass. + KING HENRY. I pray you, then, in love and dear alliance, + Let that one article rank with the rest; + And thereupon give me your daughter. + FRENCH KING. Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up + Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms + Of France and England, whose very shores look pale + With envy of each other's happiness, + May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction + Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord + In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance + His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France. + LORDS. Amen! + KING HENRY. Now, welcome, Kate; and bear me witness all, + That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. [Floulish] + QUEEN ISABEL. God, the best maker of all marriages, + Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one! + As man and wife, being two, are one in love, + So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal + That never may ill office or fell jealousy, + Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage, + Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms, + To make divorce of their incorporate league; + That English may as French, French Englishmen, + Receive each other. God speak this Amen! + ALL. Amen! + KING HENRY. Prepare we for our marriage; on which day, + My Lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath, + And all the peers', for surety of our leagues. + Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me, + And may our oaths well kept and prosp'rous be! + Sennet. Exeunt + +EPILOGUE + EPILOGUE. + + Enter CHORUS + + CHORUS. Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen, + Our bending author hath pursu'd the story, + In little room confining mighty men, + Mangling by starts the full course of their glory. + Small time, but, in that small, most greatly lived + This star of England. Fortune made his sword; + By which the world's best garden he achieved, + And of it left his son imperial lord. + Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd king + Of France and England, did this king succeed; + Whose state so many had the managing + That they lost France and made his England bleed; + Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake, + In your fair minds let this acceptance take. Exit + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1592 + +THE FIRST PART OF HENRY THE SIXTH + +by William Shakespeare + + +Dramatis Personae + + KING HENRY THE SIXTH + DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, uncle to the King, and Protector + DUKE OF BEDFORD, uncle to the King, and Regent of France + THOMAS BEAUFORT, DUKE OF EXETER, great-uncle to the king + HENRY BEAUFORT, great-uncle to the King, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, + and afterwards CARDINAL + JOHN BEAUFORT, EARL OF SOMERSET, afterwards Duke + RICHARD PLANTAGENET, son of Richard late Earl of Cambridge, + afterwards DUKE OF YORK + EARL OF WARWICK + EARL OF SALISBURY + EARL OF SUFFOLK + LORD TALBOT, afterwards EARL OF SHREWSBURY + JOHN TALBOT, his son + EDMUND MORTIMER, EARL OF MARCH + SIR JOHN FASTOLFE + SIR WILLIAM LUCY + SIR WILLIAM GLANSDALE + SIR THOMAS GARGRAVE + MAYOR of LONDON + WOODVILLE, Lieutenant of the Tower + VERNON, of the White Rose or York faction + BASSET, of the Red Rose or Lancaster faction + A LAWYER + GAOLERS, to Mortimer + CHARLES, Dauphin, and afterwards King of France + REIGNIER, DUKE OF ANJOU, and titular King of Naples + DUKE OF BURGUNDY + DUKE OF ALENCON + BASTARD OF ORLEANS + GOVERNOR OF PARIS + MASTER-GUNNER OF ORLEANS, and his SON + GENERAL OF THE FRENCH FORCES in Bordeaux + A FRENCH SERGEANT + A PORTER + AN OLD SHEPHERD, father to Joan la Pucelle + MARGARET, daughter to Reignier, afterwards married to + King Henry + COUNTESS OF AUVERGNE + JOAN LA PUCELLE, Commonly called JOAN OF ARC + + Lords, Warders of the Tower, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, + Messengers, English and French Attendants. Fiends appearing + to La Pucelle + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +England and France + + + + +The First Part of King Henry the Sixth + + +ACT I. SCENE 1. + +Westminster Abbey + +Dead March. Enter the funeral of KING HENRY THE FIFTH, +attended on by the DUKE OF BEDFORD, Regent of France, +the DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, Protector, the DUKE OF EXETER, +the EARL OF WARWICK, the BISHOP OF WINCHESTER + + BEDFORD. Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to + night! Comets, importing change of times and states, + Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky + And with them scourge the bad revolting stars + That have consented unto Henry's death! + King Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long! + England ne'er lost a king of so much worth. + GLOUCESTER. England ne'er had a king until his time. + Virtue he had, deserving to command; + His brandish'd sword did blind men with his beams; + His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings; + His sparkling eyes, replete with wrathful fire, + More dazzled and drove back his enemies + Than mid-day sun fierce bent against their faces. + What should I say? His deeds exceed all speech: + He ne'er lift up his hand but conquered. + EXETER. We mourn in black; why mourn we not in blood? + Henry is dead and never shall revive. + Upon a wooden coffin we attend; + And death's dishonourable victory + We with our stately presence glorify, + Like captives bound to a triumphant car. + What! shall we curse the planets of mishap + That plotted thus our glory's overthrow? + Or shall we think the subtle-witted French + Conjurers and sorcerers, that, afraid of him, + By magic verses have contriv'd his end? + WINCHESTER. He was a king bless'd of the King of kings; + Unto the French the dreadful judgment-day + So dreadful will not be as was his sight. + The battles of the Lord of Hosts he fought; + The Church's prayers made him so prosperous. + GLOUCESTER. The Church! Where is it? Had not churchmen + pray'd, + His thread of life had not so soon decay'd. + None do you like but an effeminate prince, + Whom like a school-boy you may overawe. + WINCHESTER. Gloucester, whate'er we like, thou art + Protector + And lookest to command the Prince and realm. + Thy wife is proud; she holdeth thee in awe + More than God or religious churchmen may. + GLOUCESTER. Name not religion, for thou lov'st the flesh; + And ne'er throughout the year to church thou go'st, + Except it be to pray against thy foes. + BEDFORD. Cease, cease these jars and rest your minds in peace; + Let's to the altar. Heralds, wait on us. + Instead of gold, we'll offer up our arms, + Since arms avail not, now that Henry's dead. + Posterity, await for wretched years, + When at their mothers' moist'ned eyes babes shall suck, + Our isle be made a nourish of salt tears, + And none but women left to wail the dead. + HENRY the Fifth, thy ghost I invocate: + Prosper this realm, keep it from civil broils, + Combat with adverse planets in the heavens. + A far more glorious star thy soul will make + Than Julius Caesar or bright + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. My honourable lords, health to you all! + Sad tidings bring I to you out of France, + Of loss, of slaughter, and discomfiture: + Guienne, Champagne, Rheims, Orleans, + Paris, Guysors, Poictiers, are all quite lost. + BEDFORD. What say'st thou, man, before dead Henry's corse? + Speak softly, or the loss of those great towns + Will make him burst his lead and rise from death. + GLOUCESTER. Is Paris lost? Is Rouen yielded up? + If Henry were recall'd to life again, + These news would cause him once more yield the ghost. + EXETER. How were they lost? What treachery was us'd? + MESSENGER. No treachery, but want of men and money. + Amongst the soldiers this is muttered + That here you maintain several factions; + And whilst a field should be dispatch'd and fought, + You are disputing of your generals: + One would have ling'ring wars, with little cost; + Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings; + A third thinks, without expense at all, + By guileful fair words peace may be obtain'd. + Awake, awake, English nobility! + Let not sloth dim your honours, new-begot. + Cropp'd are the flower-de-luces in your arms; + Of England's coat one half is cut away. + EXETER. Were our tears wanting to this funeral, + These tidings would call forth their flowing tides. + BEDFORD. Me they concern; Regent I am of France. + Give me my steeled coat; I'll fight for France. + Away with these disgraceful wailing robes! + Wounds will I lend the French instead of eyes, + To weep their intermissive miseries. + + Enter a second MESSENGER + + SECOND MESSENGER. Lords, view these letters full of bad + mischance. + France is revolted from the English quite, + Except some petty towns of no import. + The Dauphin Charles is crowned king in Rheims; + The Bastard of Orleans with him is join'd; + Reignier, Duke of Anjou, doth take his part; + The Duke of Alencon flieth to his side. + EXETER. The Dauphin crowned king! all fly to him! + O, whither shall we fly from this reproach? + GLOUCESTER. We will not fly but to our enemies' throats. + Bedford, if thou be slack I'll fight it out. + BEDFORD. Gloucester, why doubt'st thou of my forwardness? + An army have I muster'd in my thoughts, + Wherewith already France is overrun. + + Enter a third MESSENGER + + THIRD MESSENGER. My gracious lords, to add to your + laments, + Wherewith you now bedew King Henry's hearse, + I must inform you of a dismal fight + Betwixt the stout Lord Talbot and the French. + WINCHESTER. What! Wherein Talbot overcame? Is't so? + THIRD MESSENGER. O, no; wherein Lord Talbot was + o'erthrown. + The circumstance I'll tell you more at large. + The tenth of August last this dreadful lord, + Retiring from the siege of Orleans, + Having full scarce six thousand in his troop, + By three and twenty thousand of the French + Was round encompassed and set upon. + No leisure had he to enrank his men; + He wanted pikes to set before his archers; + Instead whereof sharp stakes pluck'd out of hedges + They pitched in the ground confusedly + To keep the horsemen off from breaking in. + More than three hours the fight continued; + Where valiant Talbot, above human thought, + Enacted wonders with his sword and lance: + Hundreds he sent to hell, and none durst stand him; + Here, there, and everywhere, enrag'd he slew + The French exclaim'd the devil was in arms; + All the whole army stood agaz'd on him. + His soldiers, spying his undaunted spirit, + 'A Talbot! a Talbot!' cried out amain, + And rush'd into the bowels of the battle. + Here had the conquest fully been seal'd up + If Sir John Fastolfe had not play'd the coward. + He, being in the vaward plac'd behind + With purpose to relieve and follow them- + Cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke; + Hence grew the general wreck and massacre. + Enclosed were they with their enemies. + A base Walloon, to win the Dauphin's grace, + Thrust Talbot with a spear into the back; + Whom all France, with their chief assembled strength, + Durst not presume to look once in the face. + BEDFORD. Is Talbot slain? Then I will slay myself, + For living idly here in pomp and ease, + Whilst such a worthy leader, wanting aid, + Unto his dastard foemen is betray'd. + THIRD MESSENGER. O no, he lives, but is took prisoner, + And Lord Scales with him, and Lord Hungerford; + Most of the rest slaughter'd or took likewise. + BEDFORD. His ransom there is none but I shall pay. + I'll hale the Dauphin headlong from his throne; + His crown shall be the ransom of my friend; + Four of their lords I'll change for one of ours. + Farewell, my masters; to my task will I; + Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make + To keep our great Saint George's feast withal. + Ten thousand soldiers with me I will take, + Whose bloody deeds shall make an Europe quake. + THIRD MESSENGER. So you had need; for Orleans is besieg'd; + The English army is grown weak and faint; + The Earl of Salisbury craveth supply + And hardly keeps his men from mutiny, + Since they, so few, watch such a multitude. + EXETER. Remember, lords, your oaths to Henry sworn, + Either to quell the Dauphin utterly, + Or bring him in obedience to your yoke. + BEDFORD. I do remember it, and here take my leave + To go about my preparation. Exit + GLOUCESTER. I'll to the Tower with all the haste I can + To view th' artillery and munition; + And then I will proclaim young Henry king. Exit + EXETER. To Eltham will I, where the young King is, + Being ordain'd his special governor; + And for his safety there I'll best devise. Exit + WINCHESTER. [Aside] Each hath his place and function to + attend: + I am left out; for me nothing remains. + But long I will not be Jack out of office. + The King from Eltham I intend to steal, + And sit at chiefest stern of public weal. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 2. + + France. Before Orleans + + Sound a flourish. Enter CHARLES THE DAUPHIN, ALENCON, + and REIGNIER, marching with drum and soldiers + + CHARLES. Mars his true moving, even as in the heavens + So in the earth, to this day is not known. + Late did he shine upon the English side; + Now we are victors, upon us he smiles. + What towns of any moment but we have? + At pleasure here we lie near Orleans; + Otherwhiles the famish'd English, like pale ghosts, + Faintly besiege us one hour in a month. + ALENCON. They want their porridge and their fat bull + beeves. + Either they must be dieted like mules + And have their provender tied to their mouths, + Or piteous they will look, like drowned mice. + REIGNIER. Let's raise the siege. Why live we idly here? + Talbot is taken, whom we wont to fear; + Remaineth none but mad-brain'd Salisbury, + And he may well in fretting spend his gall + Nor men nor money hath he to make war. + CHARLES. Sound, sound alarum; we will rush on them. + Now for the honour of the forlorn French! + Him I forgive my death that killeth me, + When he sees me go back one foot or flee. Exeunt + + Here alarum. They are beaten hack by the English, with + great loss. Re-enter CHARLES, ALENCON, and REIGNIER + + CHARLES. Who ever saw the like? What men have I! + Dogs! cowards! dastards! I would ne'er have fled + But that they left me midst my enemies. + REIGNIER. Salisbury is a desperate homicide; + He fighteth as one weary of his life. + The other lords, like lions wanting food, + Do rush upon us as their hungry prey. + ALENCON. Froissart, a countryman of ours, records + England all Olivers and Rowlands bred + During the time Edward the Third did reign. + More truly now may this be verified; + For none but Samsons and Goliases + It sendeth forth to skirmish. One to ten! + Lean raw-bon'd rascals! Who would e'er suppose + They had such courage and audacity? + CHARLES. Let's leave this town; for they are hare-brain'd + slaves, + And hunger will enforce them to be more eager. + Of old I know them; rather with their teeth + The walls they'll tear down than forsake the siege. + REIGNIER. I think by some odd gimmers or device + Their arms are set, like clocks, still to strike on; + Else ne'er could they hold out so as they do. + By my consent, we'll even let them alone. + ALENCON. Be it so. + + Enter the BASTARD OF ORLEANS + + BASTARD. Where's the Prince Dauphin? I have news for him. + CHARLES. Bastard of Orleans, thrice welcome to us. + BASTARD. Methinks your looks are sad, your cheer appall'd. + Hath the late overthrow wrought this offence? + Be not dismay'd, for succour is at hand. + A holy maid hither with me I bring, + Which, by a vision sent to her from heaven, + Ordained is to raise this tedious siege + And drive the English forth the bounds of France. + The spirit of deep prophecy she hath, + Exceeding the nine sibyls of old Rome: + What's past and what's to come she can descry. + Speak, shall I call her in? Believe my words, + For they are certain and unfallible. + CHARLES. Go, call her in. [Exit BASTARD] + But first, to try her skill, + Reignier, stand thou as Dauphin in my place; + Question her proudly; let thy looks be stern; + By this means shall we sound what skill she hath. + + Re-enter the BASTARD OF ORLEANS with + JOAN LA PUCELLE + + REIGNIER. Fair maid, is 't thou wilt do these wondrous feats? + PUCELLE. Reignier, is 't thou that thinkest to beguile me? + Where is the Dauphin? Come, come from behind; + I know thee well, though never seen before. + Be not amaz'd, there's nothing hid from me. + In private will I talk with thee apart. + Stand back, you lords, and give us leave awhile. + REIGNIER. She takes upon her bravely at first dash. + PUCELLE. Dauphin, I am by birth a shepherd's daughter, + My wit untrain'd in any kind of art. + Heaven and our Lady gracious hath it pleas'd + To shine on my contemptible estate. + Lo, whilst I waited on my tender lambs + And to sun's parching heat display'd my cheeks, + God's Mother deigned to appear to me, + And in a vision full of majesty + Will'd me to leave my base vocation + And free my country from calamity + Her aid she promis'd and assur'd success. + In complete glory she reveal'd herself; + And whereas I was black and swart before, + With those clear rays which she infus'd on me + That beauty am I bless'd with which you may see. + Ask me what question thou canst possible, + And I will answer unpremeditated. + My courage try by combat if thou dar'st, + And thou shalt find that I exceed my sex. + Resolve on this: thou shalt be fortunate + If thou receive me for thy warlike mate. + CHARLES. Thou hast astonish'd me with thy high terms. + Only this proof I'll of thy valour make + In single combat thou shalt buckle with me; + And if thou vanquishest, thy words are true; + Otherwise I renounce all confidence. + PUCELLE. I am prepar'd; here is my keen-edg'd sword, + Deck'd with five flower-de-luces on each side, + The which at Touraine, in Saint Katherine's churchyard, + Out of a great deal of old iron I chose forth. + CHARLES. Then come, o' God's name; I fear no woman. + PUCELLE. And while I live I'll ne'er fly from a man. + [Here they fight and JOAN LA PUCELLE overcomes] + CHARLES. Stay, stay thy hands; thou art an Amazon, + And fightest with the sword of Deborah. + PUCELLE. Christ's Mother helps me, else I were too weak. + CHARLES. Whoe'er helps thee, 'tis thou that must help me. + Impatiently I burn with thy desire; + My heart and hands thou hast at once subdu'd. + Excellent Pucelle, if thy name be so, + Let me thy servant and not sovereign be. + 'Tis the French Dauphin sueth to thee thus. + PUCELLE. I must not yield to any rites of love, + For my profession's sacred from above. + When I have chased all thy foes from hence, + Then will I think upon a recompense. + CHARLES. Meantime look gracious on thy prostrate thrall. + REIGNIER. My lord, methinks, is very long in talk. + ALENCON. Doubtless he shrives this woman to her smock; + Else ne'er could he so long protract his speech. + REIGNIER. Shall we disturb him, since he keeps no mean? + ALENCON. He may mean more than we poor men do know; + These women are shrewd tempters with their tongues. + REIGNIER. My lord, where are you? What devise you on? + Shall we give o'er Orleans, or no? + PUCELLE. Why, no, I say; distrustful recreants! + Fight till the last gasp; I will be your guard. + CHARLES. What she says I'll confirm; we'll fight it out. + PUCELLE. Assign'd am I to be the English scourge. + This night the siege assuredly I'll raise. + Expect Saint Martin's summer, halcyon days, + Since I have entered into these wars. + Glory is like a circle in the water, + Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself + Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought. + With Henry's death the English circle ends; + Dispersed are the glories it included. + Now am I like that proud insulting ship + Which Caesar and his fortune bare at once. + CHARLES. Was Mahomet inspired with a dove? + Thou with an eagle art inspired then. + Helen, the mother of great Constantine, + Nor yet Saint Philip's daughters were like thee. + Bright star of Venus, fall'n down on the earth, + How may I reverently worship thee enough? + ALENCON. Leave off delays, and let us raise the siege. + REIGNIER. Woman, do what thou canst to save our honours; + Drive them from Orleans, and be immortaliz'd. + CHARLES. Presently we'll try. Come, let's away about it. + No prophet will I trust if she prove false. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 3. + + London. Before the Tower gates + + Enter the DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, with his serving-men + in blue coats + + GLOUCESTER. I am come to survey the Tower this day; + Since Henry's death, I fear, there is conveyance. + Where be these warders that they wait not here? + Open the gates; 'tis Gloucester that calls. + FIRST WARDER. [Within] Who's there that knocks so + imperiously? + FIRST SERVING-MAN. It is the noble Duke of Gloucester. + SECOND WARDER. [Within] Whoe'er he be, you may not be + let in. + FIRST SERVING-MAN. Villains, answer you so the Lord + Protector? + FIRST WARDER. [Within] The Lord protect him! so we + answer him. + We do no otherwise than we are will'd. + GLOUCESTER. Who willed you, or whose will stands but + mine? + There's none Protector of the realm but I. + Break up the gates, I'll be your warrantize. + Shall I be flouted thus by dunghill grooms? + [GLOUCESTER'S men rush at the Tower gates, and + WOODVILLE the Lieutenant speaks within] + WOODVILLE. [Within] What noise is this? What traitors + have we here? + GLOUCESTER. Lieutenant, is it you whose voice I hear? + Open the gates; here's Gloucester that would enter. + WOODVILLE. [Within] Have patience, noble Duke, I may + not open; + The Cardinal of Winchester forbids. + From him I have express commandment + That thou nor none of thine shall be let in. + GLOUCESTER. Faint-hearted Woodville, prizest him fore me? + Arrogant Winchester, that haughty prelate + Whom Henry, our late sovereign, ne'er could brook! + Thou art no friend to God or to the King. + Open the gates, or I'll shut thee out shortly. + SERVING-MEN. Open the gates unto the Lord Protector, + Or we'll burst them open, if that you come not quickly. + + Enter to the PROTECTOR at the Tower gates WINCHESTER + and his men in tawny coats + + WINCHESTER. How now, ambitious Humphry! What means + this? + GLOUCESTER. Peel'd priest, dost thou command me to be + shut out? + WINCHESTER. I do, thou most usurping proditor, + And not Protector of the King or realm. + GLOUCESTER. Stand back, thou manifest conspirator, + Thou that contrived'st to murder our dead lord; + Thou that giv'st whores indulgences to sin. + I'll canvass thee in thy broad cardinal's hat, + If thou proceed in this thy insolence. + WINCHESTER. Nay, stand thou back; I will not budge a foot. + This be Damascus; be thou cursed Cain, + To slay thy brother Abel, if thou wilt. + GLOUCESTER. I will not slay thee, but I'll drive thee back. + Thy scarlet robes as a child's bearing-cloth + I'll use to carry thee out of this place. + WINCHESTER. Do what thou dar'st; I beard thee to thy face. + GLOUCESTER. What! am I dar'd and bearded to my face? + Draw, men, for all this privileged place + Blue-coats to tawny-coats. Priest, beware your beard; + I mean to tug it, and to cuff you soundly; + Under my feet I stamp thy cardinal's hat; + In spite of Pope or dignities of church, + Here by the cheeks I'll drag thee up and down. + WINCHESTER. Gloucester, thou wilt answer this before the + Pope. + GLOUCESTER. Winchester goose! I cry 'A rope, a rope!' + Now beat them hence; why do you let them stay? + Thee I'll chase hence, thou wolf in sheep's array. + Out, tawny-coats! Out, scarlet hypocrite! + + Here GLOUCESTER'S men beat out the CARDINAL'S + men; and enter in the hurly burly the MAYOR OF + LONDON and his OFFICERS + + MAYOR. Fie, lords! that you, being supreme magistrates, + Thus contumeliously should break the peace! + GLOUCESTER. Peace, Mayor! thou know'st little of my wrongs: + Here's Beaufort, that regards nor God nor King, + Hath here distrain'd the Tower to his use. + WINCHESTER. Here's Gloucester, a foe to citizens; + One that still motions war and never peace, + O'ercharging your free purses with large fines; + That seeks to overthrow religion, + Because he is Protector of the realm, + And would have armour here out of the Tower, + To crown himself King and suppress the Prince. + GLOUCESTER. I Will not answer thee with words, but blows. + [Here they skirmish again] + MAYOR. Nought rests for me in this tumultuous strife + But to make open proclamation. + Come, officer, as loud as e'er thou canst, + Cry. + OFFICER. [Cries] All manner of men assembled here in arms + this day against God's peace and the King's, we charge + and command you, in his Highness' name, to repair to + your several dwelling-places; and not to wear, handle, or + use, any sword, weapon, or dagger, henceforward, upon + pain of death. + GLOUCESTER. Cardinal, I'll be no breaker of the law; + But we shall meet and break our minds at large. + WINCHESTER. Gloucester, we'll meet to thy cost, be sure; + Thy heart-blood I will have for this day's work. + MAYOR. I'll call for clubs if you will not away. + This Cardinal's more haughty than the devil. + GLOUCESTER. Mayor, farewell; thou dost but what thou + mayst. + WINCHESTER. Abominable Gloucester, guard thy head, + For I intend to have it ere long. + Exeunt, severally, GLOUCESTER and WINCHESTER + with their servants + MAYOR. See the coast clear'd, and then we will depart. + Good God, these nobles should such stomachs bear! + I myself fight not once in forty year. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 4. + + France. Before Orleans + + Enter, on the walls, the MASTER-GUNNER + OF ORLEANS and his BOY + + MASTER-GUNNER. Sirrah, thou know'st how Orleans is + besieg'd, + And how the English have the suburbs won. + BOY. Father, I know; and oft have shot at them, + Howe'er unfortunate I miss'd my aim. + MASTER-GUNNER. But now thou shalt not. Be thou rul'd + by me. + Chief master-gunner am I of this town; + Something I must do to procure me grace. + The Prince's espials have informed me + How the English, in the suburbs close intrench'd, + Wont, through a secret grate of iron bars + In yonder tower, to overpeer the city, + And thence discover how with most advantage + They may vex us with shot or with assault. + To intercept this inconvenience, + A piece of ordnance 'gainst it I have plac'd; + And even these three days have I watch'd + If I could see them. Now do thou watch, + For I can stay no longer. + If thou spy'st any, run and bring me word; + And thou shalt find me at the Governor's. Exit + BOY. Father, I warrant you; take you no care; + I'll never trouble you, if I may spy them. Exit + + Enter SALISBURY and TALBOT on the turrets, with + SIR WILLIAM GLANSDALE, SIR THOMAS GARGRAVE, + and others + + SALISBURY. Talbot, my life, my joy, again return'd! + How wert thou handled being prisoner? + Or by what means got'st thou to be releas'd? + Discourse, I prithee, on this turret's top. + TALBOT. The Earl of Bedford had a prisoner + Call'd the brave Lord Ponton de Santrailles; + For him was I exchang'd and ransomed. + But with a baser man of arms by far + Once, in contempt, they would have barter'd me; + Which I disdaining scorn'd, and craved death + Rather than I would be so vile esteem'd. + In fine, redeem'd I was as I desir'd. + But, O! the treacherous Fastolfe wounds my heart + Whom with my bare fists I would execute, + If I now had him brought into my power. + SALISBURY. Yet tell'st thou not how thou wert entertain'd. + TALBOT. With scoffs, and scorns, and contumelious taunts, + In open market-place produc'd they me + To be a public spectacle to all; + Here, said they, is the terror of the French, + The scarecrow that affrights our children so. + Then broke I from the officers that led me, + And with my nails digg'd stones out of the ground + To hurl at the beholders of my shame; + My grisly countenance made others fly; + None durst come near for fear of sudden death. + In iron walls they deem'd me not secure; + So great fear of my name 'mongst them was spread + That they suppos'd I could rend bars of steel + And spurn in pieces posts of adamant; + Wherefore a guard of chosen shot I had + That walk'd about me every minute-while; + And if I did but stir out of my bed, + Ready they were to shoot me to the heart. + + Enter the BOY with a linstock + + SALISBURY. I grieve to hear what torments you endur'd; + But we will be reveng'd sufficiently. + Now it is supper-time in Orleans: + Here, through this grate, I count each one + And view the Frenchmen how they fortify. + Let us look in; the sight will much delight thee. + Sir Thomas Gargrave and Sir William Glansdale, + Let me have your express opinions + Where is best place to make our batt'ry next. + GARGRAVE. I think at the North Gate; for there stand lords. + GLANSDALE. And I here, at the bulwark of the bridge. + TALBOT. For aught I see, this city must be famish'd, + Or with light skirmishes enfeebled. + [Here they shoot and SALISBURY and GARGRAVE + fall down] + SALISBURY. O Lord, have mercy on us, wretched sinners! + GARGRAVE. O Lord, have mercy on me, woeful man! + TALBOT. What chance is this that suddenly hath cross'd us? + Speak, Salisbury; at least, if thou canst speak. + How far'st thou, mirror of all martial men? + One of thy eyes and thy cheek's side struck off! + Accursed tower! accursed fatal hand + That hath contriv'd this woeful tragedy! + In thirteen battles Salisbury o'ercame; + Henry the Fifth he first train'd to the wars; + Whilst any trump did sound or drum struck up, + His sword did ne'er leave striking in the field. + Yet liv'st thou, Salisbury? Though thy speech doth fail, + One eye thou hast to look to heaven for grace; + The sun with one eye vieweth all the world. + Heaven, be thou gracious to none alive + If Salisbury wants mercy at thy hands! + Bear hence his body; I will help to bury it. + Sir Thomas Gargrave, hast thou any life? + Speak unto Talbot; nay, look up to him. + Salisbury, cheer thy spirit with this comfort, + Thou shalt not die whiles + He beckons with his hand and smiles on me, + As who should say 'When I am dead and gone, + Remember to avenge me on the French.' + Plantagenet, I will; and like thee, Nero, + Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn. + Wretched shall France be only in my name. + [Here an alarum, and it thunders and lightens] + What stir is this? What tumult's in the heavens? + Whence cometh this alarum and the noise? + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. My lord, my lord, the French have gather'd + head + The Dauphin, with one Joan la Pucelle join'd, + A holy prophetess new risen up, + Is come with a great power to raise the siege. + [Here SALISBURY lifteth himself up and groans] + TALBOT. Hear, hear how dying Salisbury doth groan. + It irks his heart he cannot be reveng'd. + Frenchmen, I'll be a Salisbury to you. + Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dogfish, + Your hearts I'll stamp out with my horse's heels + And make a quagmire of your mingled brains. + Convey me Salisbury into his tent, + And then we'll try what these dastard Frenchmen dare. + Alarum. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 5. + + Before Orleans + + Here an alarum again, and TALBOT pursueth the + DAUPHIN and driveth him. Then enter JOAN LA PUCELLE + driving Englishmen before her. Then enter TALBOT + + TALBOT. Where is my strength, my valour, and my force? + Our English troops retire, I cannot stay them; + A woman clad in armour chaseth them. + + Enter LA PUCELLE + + Here, here she comes. I'll have a bout with thee. + Devil or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee; + Blood will I draw on thee-thou art a witch + And straightway give thy soul to him thou serv'st. + PUCELLE. Come, come, 'tis only I that must disgrace thee. + [Here they fight] + TALBOT. Heavens, can you suffer hell so to prevail? + My breast I'll burst with straining of my courage. + And from my shoulders crack my arms asunder, + But I will chastise this high minded strumpet. + [They fight again] + PUCELLE. Talbot, farewell; thy hour is not yet come. + I must go victual Orleans forthwith. + [A short alarum; then enter the town with soldiers] + O'ertake me if thou canst; I scorn thy strength. + Go, go, cheer up thy hungry starved men; + Help Salisbury to make his testament. + This day is ours, as many more shall be. Exit + TALBOT. My thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel; + I know not where I am nor what I do. + A witch by fear, not force, like Hannibal, + Drives back our troops and conquers as she lists. + So bees with smoke and doves with noisome stench + Are from their hives and houses driven away. + They call'd us, for our fierceness, English dogs; + Now like to whelps we crying run away. + [A short alarum] + Hark, countrymen! Either renew the fight + Or tear the lions out of England's coat; + Renounce your soil, give sheep in lions' stead: + Sheep run not half so treacherous from the wolf, + Or horse or oxen from the leopard, + As you fly from your oft subdued slaves. + [Alarum. Here another skirmish] + It will not be-retire into your trenches. + You all consented unto Salisbury's death, + For none would strike a stroke in his revenge. + Pucelle is ent'red into Orleans + In spite of us or aught that we could do. + O, would I were to die with Salisbury! + The shame hereof will make me hide my head. + Exit TALBOT. Alarum; retreat + + + + SCENE 6. + + ORLEANS + + Flourish. Enter on the walls, LA PUCELLE, CHARLES, + REIGNIER, ALENCON, and soldiers + + PUCELLE. Advance our waving colours on the walls; + Rescu'd is Orleans from the English. + Thus Joan la Pucelle hath perform'd her word. + CHARLES. Divinest creature, Astraea's daughter, + How shall I honour thee for this success? + Thy promises are like Adonis' gardens, + That one day bloom'd and fruitful were the next. + France, triumph in thy glorious prophetess. + Recover'd is the town of Orleans. + More blessed hap did ne'er befall our state. + REIGNIER. Why ring not out the bells aloud throughout the + town? + Dauphin, command the citizens make bonfires + And feast and banquet in the open streets + To celebrate the joy that God hath given us. + ALENCON. All France will be replete with mirth and joy + When they shall hear how we have play'd the men. + CHARLES. 'Tis Joan, not we, by whom the day is won; + For which I will divide my crown with her; + And all the priests and friars in my realm + Shall in procession sing her endless praise. + A statelier pyramis to her I'll rear + Than Rhodope's of Memphis ever was. + In memory of her, when she is dead, + Her ashes, in an urn more precious + Than the rich jewel'd coffer of Darius, + Transported shall be at high festivals + Before the kings and queens of France. + No longer on Saint Denis will we cry, + But Joan la Pucelle shall be France's saint. + Come in, and let us banquet royally + After this golden day of victory. Flourish. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE 1. + +Before Orleans + +Enter a FRENCH SERGEANT and two SENTINELS + + SERGEANT. Sirs, take your places and be vigilant. + If any noise or soldier you perceive + Near to the walls, by some apparent sign + Let us have knowledge at the court of guard. + FIRST SENTINEL. Sergeant, you shall. [Exit SERGEANT] + Thus are poor servitors, + When others sleep upon their quiet beds, + Constrain'd to watch in darkness, rain, and cold. + + Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, and forces, + with scaling-ladders; their drums beating a dead + march + + TALBOT. Lord Regent, and redoubted Burgundy, + By whose approach the regions of Artois, + Wallon, and Picardy, are friends to us, + This happy night the Frenchmen are secure, + Having all day carous'd and banqueted; + Embrace we then this opportunity, + As fitting best to quittance their deceit, + Contriv'd by art and baleful sorcery. + BEDFORD. Coward of France, how much he wrongs his fame, + Despairing of his own arm's fortitude, + To join with witches and the help of hell! + BURGUNDY. Traitors have never other company. + But what's that Pucelle whom they term so pure? + TALBOT. A maid, they say. + BEDFORD. A maid! and be so martial! + BURGUNDY. Pray God she prove not masculine ere long, + If underneath the standard of the French + She carry armour as she hath begun. + TALBOT. Well, let them practise and converse with spirits: + God is our fortress, in whose conquering name + Let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks. + BEDFORD. Ascend, brave Talbot; we will follow thee. + TALBOT. Not all together; better far, I guess, + That we do make our entrance several ways; + That if it chance the one of us do fail + The other yet may rise against their force. + BEDFORD. Agreed; I'll to yond corner. + BURGUNDY. And I to this. + TALBOT. And here will Talbot mount or make his grave. + Now, Salisbury, for thee, and for the right + Of English Henry, shall this night appear + How much in duty I am bound to both. + [The English scale the walls and cry 'Saint George! + a Talbot!'] + SENTINEL. Arm! arm! The enemy doth make assault. + + The French leap o'er the walls in their shirts. + Enter, several ways, BASTARD, ALENCON, REIGNIER, + half ready and half unready + + ALENCON. How now, my lords? What, all unready so? + BASTARD. Unready! Ay, and glad we 'scap'd so well. + REIGNIER. 'Twas time, I trow, to wake and leave our beds, + Hearing alarums at our chamber doors. + ALENCON. Of all exploits since first I follow'd arms + Ne'er heard I of a warlike enterprise + More venturous or desperate than this. + BASTARD. I think this Talbot be a fiend of hell. + REIGNIER. If not of hell, the heavens, sure, favour him + ALENCON. Here cometh Charles; I marvel how he sped. + + Enter CHARLES and LA PUCELLE + + BASTARD. Tut! holy Joan was his defensive guard. + CHARLES. Is this thy cunning, thou deceitful dame? + Didst thou at first, to flatter us withal, + Make us partakers of a little gain + That now our loss might be ten times so much? + PUCELLE. Wherefore is Charles impatient with his friend? + At all times will you have my power alike? + Sleeping or waking, must I still prevail + Or will you blame and lay the fault on me? + Improvident soldiers! Had your watch been good + This sudden mischief never could have fall'n. + CHARLES. Duke of Alencon, this was your default + That, being captain of the watch to-night, + Did look no better to that weighty charge. + ALENCON. Had all your quarters been as safely kept + As that whereof I had the government, + We had not been thus shamefully surpris'd. + BASTARD. Mine was secure. + REIGNIER. And so was mine, my lord. + CHARLES. And, for myself, most part of all this night, + Within her quarter and mine own precinct + I was employ'd in passing to and fro + About relieving of the sentinels. + Then how or which way should they first break in? + PUCELLE. Question, my lords, no further of the case, + How or which way; 'tis sure they found some place + But weakly guarded, where the breach was made. + And now there rests no other shift but this + To gather our soldiers, scatter'd and dispers'd, + And lay new platforms to endamage them. + + Alarum. Enter an ENGLISH SOLDIER, crying + 'A Talbot! A Talbot!' They fly, leaving their + clothes behind + + SOLDIER. I'll be so bold to take what they have left. + The cry of Talbot serves me for a sword; + For I have loaden me with many spoils, + Using no other weapon but his name. Exit + + + + + SCENE 2. + + ORLEANS. Within the town + + Enter TALBOT, BEDFORD, BURGUNDY, a CAPTAIN, + and others + + BEDFORD. The day begins to break, and night is fled + Whose pitchy mantle over-veil'd the earth. + Here sound retreat and cease our hot pursuit. + [Retreat sounded] + TALBOT. Bring forth the body of old Salisbury + And here advance it in the market-place, + The middle centre of this cursed town. + Now have I paid my vow unto his soul; + For every drop of blood was drawn from him + There hath at least five Frenchmen died to-night. + And that hereafter ages may behold + What ruin happened in revenge of him, + Within their chiefest temple I'll erect + A tomb, wherein his corpse shall be interr'd; + Upon the which, that every one may read, + Shall be engrav'd the sack of Orleans, + The treacherous manner of his mournful death, + And what a terror he had been to France. + But, lords, in all our bloody massacre, + I muse we met not with the Dauphin's grace, + His new-come champion, virtuous Joan of Arc, + Nor any of his false confederates. + BEDFORD. 'Tis thought, Lord Talbot, when the fight began, + Rous'd on the sudden from their drowsy beds, + They did amongst the troops of armed men + Leap o'er the walls for refuge in the field. + BURGUNDY. Myself, as far as I could well discern + For smoke and dusky vapours of the night, + Am sure I scar'd the Dauphin and his trull, + When arm in arm they both came swiftly running, + Like to a pair of loving turtle-doves + That could not live asunder day or night. + After that things are set in order here, + We'll follow them with all the power we have. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. All hail, my lords! Which of this princely train + Call ye the warlike Talbot, for his acts + So much applauded through the realm of France? + TALBOT. Here is the Talbot; who would speak with him? + MESSENGER. The virtuous lady, Countess of Auvergne, + With modesty admiring thy renown, + By me entreats, great lord, thou wouldst vouchsafe + To visit her poor castle where she lies, + That she may boast she hath beheld the man + Whose glory fills the world with loud report. + BURGUNDY. Is it even so? Nay, then I see our wars + Will turn into a peaceful comic sport, + When ladies crave to be encount'red with. + You may not, my lord, despise her gentle suit. + TALBOT. Ne'er trust me then; for when a world of men + Could not prevail with all their oratory, + Yet hath a woman's kindness overrul'd; + And therefore tell her I return great thanks + And in submission will attend on her. + Will not your honours bear me company? + BEDFORD. No, truly; 'tis more than manners will; + And I have heard it said unbidden guests + Are often welcomest when they are gone. + TALBOT. Well then, alone, since there's no remedy, + I mean to prove this lady's courtesy. + Come hither, Captain. [Whispers] You perceive my mind? + CAPTAIN. I do, my lord, and mean accordingly. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 3. + + AUVERGNE. The Castle + + Enter the COUNTESS and her PORTER + + COUNTESS. Porter, remember what I gave in charge; + And when you have done so, bring the keys to me. + PORTER. Madam, I will. + COUNTESS. The plot is laid; if all things fall out right, + I shall as famous be by this exploit. + As Scythian Tomyris by Cyrus' death. + Great is the rumour of this dreadful knight, + And his achievements of no less account. + Fain would mine eyes be witness with mine ears + To give their censure of these rare reports. + + Enter MESSENGER and TALBOT. + + MESSENGER. Madam, according as your ladyship desir'd, + By message crav'd, so is Lord Talbot come. + COUNTESS. And he is welcome. What! is this the man? + MESSENGER. Madam, it is. + COUNTESS. Is this the scourge of France? + Is this Talbot, so much fear'd abroad + That with his name the mothers still their babes? + I see report is fabulous and false. + I thought I should have seen some Hercules, + A second Hector, for his grim aspect + And large proportion of his strong-knit limbs. + Alas, this is a child, a silly dwarf! + It cannot be this weak and writhled shrimp + Should strike such terror to his enemies. + TALBOT. Madam, I have been bold to trouble you; + But since your ladyship is not at leisure, + I'll sort some other time to visit you. [Going] + COUNTESS. What means he now? Go ask him whither he + goes. + MESSENGER. Stay, my Lord Talbot; for my lady craves + To know the cause of your abrupt departure. + TALBOT. Marry, for that she's in a wrong belief, + I go to certify her Talbot's here. + + Re-enter PORTER With keys + + COUNTESS. If thou be he, then art thou prisoner. + TALBOT. Prisoner! To whom? + COUNTESS. To me, blood-thirsty lord + And for that cause I train'd thee to my house. + Long time thy shadow hath been thrall to me, + For in my gallery thy picture hangs; + But now the substance shall endure the like + And I will chain these legs and arms of thine + That hast by tyranny these many years + Wasted our country, slain our citizens, + And sent our sons and husbands captivate. + TALBOT. Ha, ha, ha! + COUNTESS. Laughest thou, wretch? Thy mirth shall turn to + moan. + TALBOT. I laugh to see your ladyship so fond + To think that you have aught but Talbot's shadow + Whereon to practise your severity. + COUNTESS. Why, art not thou the man? + TALBOT. I am indeed. + COUNTESS. Then have I substance too. + TALBOT. No, no, I am but shadow of myself. + You are deceiv'd, my substance is not here; + For what you see is but the smallest part + And least proportion of humanity. + I tell you, madam, were the whole frame here, + It is of such a spacious lofty pitch + Your roof were not sufficient to contain 't. + COUNTESS. This is a riddling merchant for the nonce; + He will be here, and yet he is not here. + How can these contrarieties agree? + TALBOT. That will I show you presently. + + Winds his horn; drums strike up; + a peal of ordnance. Enter soldiers + + How say you, madam? Are you now persuaded + That Talbot is but shadow of himself? + These are his substance, sinews, arms, and strength, + With which he yoketh your rebellious necks, + Razeth your cities, and subverts your towns, + And in a moment makes them desolate. + COUNTESS. Victorious Talbot! pardon my abuse. + I find thou art no less than fame hath bruited, + And more than may be gathered by thy shape. + Let my presumption not provoke thy wrath, + For I am sorry that with reverence + I did not entertain thee as thou art. + TALBOT. Be not dismay'd, fair lady; nor misconster + The mind of Talbot as you did mistake + The outward composition of his body. + What you have done hath not offended me. + Nor other satisfaction do I crave + But only, with your patience, that we may + Taste of your wine and see what cates you have, + For soldiers' stomachs always serve them well. + COUNTESS. With all my heart, and think me honoured + To feast so great a warrior in my house. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 4. + + London. The Temple garden + + Enter the EARLS OF SOMERSET, SUFFOLK, and WARWICK; + RICHARD PLANTAGENET, VERNON, and another LAWYER + + PLANTAGENET. Great lords and gentlemen, what means this + silence? + Dare no man answer in a case of truth? + SUFFOLK. Within the Temple Hall we were too loud; + The garden here is more convenient. + PLANTAGENET. Then say at once if I maintain'd the truth; + Or else was wrangling Somerset in th' error? + SUFFOLK. Faith, I have been a truant in the law + And never yet could frame my will to it; + And therefore frame the law unto my will. + SOMERSET. Judge you, my Lord of Warwick, then, between us. + WARWICK. Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch; + Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth; + Between two blades, which bears the better temper; + Between two horses, which doth bear him best; + Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye + I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgment; + But in these nice sharp quillets of the law, + Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw. + PLANTAGENET. Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance: + The truth appears so naked on my side + That any purblind eye may find it out. + SOMERSET. And on my side it is so well apparell'd, + So clear, so shining, and so evident, + That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye. + PLANTAGENET. Since you are tongue-tied and so loath to speak, + In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts. + Let him that is a true-born gentleman + And stands upon the honour of his birth, + If he suppose that I have pleaded truth, + From off this brier pluck a white rose with me. + SOMERSET. Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer, + But dare maintain the party of the truth, + Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. + WARWICK. I love no colours; and, without all colour + Of base insinuating flattery, + I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet. + SUFFOLK. I pluck this red rose with young Somerset, + And say withal I think he held the right. + VERNON. Stay, lords and gentlemen, and pluck no more + Till you conclude that he upon whose side + The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree + Shall yield the other in the right opinion. + SOMERSET. Good Master Vernon, it is well objected; + If I have fewest, I subscribe in silence. + PLANTAGENET. And I. + VERNON. Then, for the truth and plainness of the case, + I pluck this pale and maiden blossom here, + Giving my verdict on the white rose side. + SOMERSET. Prick not your finger as you pluck it off, + Lest, bleeding, you do paint the white rose red, + And fall on my side so, against your will. + VERNON. If I, my lord, for my opinion bleed, + Opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt + And keep me on the side where still I am. + SOMERSET. Well, well, come on; who else? + LAWYER. [To Somerset] Unless my study and my books be + false, + The argument you held was wrong in you; + In sign whereof I pluck a white rose too. + PLANTAGENET. Now, Somerset, where is your argument? + SOMERSET. Here in my scabbard, meditating that + Shall dye your white rose in a bloody red. + PLANTAGENET. Meantime your cheeks do counterfeit our + roses; + For pale they look with fear, as witnessing + The truth on our side. + SOMERSET. No, Plantagenet, + 'Tis not for fear but anger that thy cheeks + Blush for pure shame to counterfeit our roses, + And yet thy tongue will not confess thy error. + PLANTAGENET. Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset? + SOMERSET. Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet? + PLANTAGENET. Ay, sharp and piercing, to maintain his truth; + Whiles thy consuming canker eats his falsehood. + SOMERSET. Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleeding roses, + That shall maintain what I have said is true, + Where false Plantagenet dare not be seen. + PLANTAGENET. Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand, + I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy. + SUFFOLK. Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet. + PLANTAGENET. Proud Pole, I will, and scorn both him and + thee. + SUFFOLK. I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat. + SOMERSET. Away, away, good William de la Pole! + We grace the yeoman by conversing with him. + WARWICK. Now, by God's will, thou wrong'st him, Somerset; + His grandfather was Lionel Duke of Clarence, + Third son to the third Edward, King of England. + Spring crestless yeomen from so deep a root? + PLANTAGENET. He bears him on the place's privilege, + Or durst not for his craven heart say thus. + SOMERSET. By Him that made me, I'll maintain my words + On any plot of ground in Christendom. + Was not thy father, Richard Earl of Cambridge, + For treason executed in our late king's days? + And by his treason stand'st not thou attainted, + Corrupted, and exempt from ancient gentry? + His trespass yet lives guilty in thy blood; + And till thou be restor'd thou art a yeoman. + PLANTAGENET. My father was attached, not attainted; + Condemn'd to die for treason, but no traitor; + And that I'll prove on better men than Somerset, + Were growing time once ripened to my will. + For your partaker Pole, and you yourself, + I'll note you in my book of memory + To scourge you for this apprehension. + Look to it well, and say you are well warn'd. + SOMERSET. Ay, thou shalt find us ready for thee still; + And know us by these colours for thy foes + For these my friends in spite of thee shall wear. + PLANTAGENET. And, by my soul, this pale and angry rose, + As cognizance of my blood-drinking hate, + Will I for ever, and my faction, wear, + Until it wither with me to my grave, + Or flourish to the height of my degree. + SUFFOLK. Go forward, and be chok'd with thy ambition! + And so farewell until I meet thee next. Exit + SOMERSET. Have with thee, Pole. Farewell, ambitious + Richard. Exit + PLANTAGENET. How I am brav'd, and must perforce endure + it! + WARWICK. This blot that they object against your house + Shall be wip'd out in the next Parliament, + Call'd for the truce of Winchester and Gloucester; + And if thou be not then created York, + I will not live to be accounted Warwick. + Meantime, in signal of my love to thee, + Against proud Somerset and William Pole, + Will I upon thy party wear this rose; + And here I prophesy: this brawl to-day, + Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden, + Shall send between the Red Rose and the White + A thousand souls to death and deadly night. + PLANTAGENET. Good Master Vernon, I am bound to you + That you on my behalf would pluck a flower. + VERNON. In your behalf still will I wear the same. + LAWYER. And so will I. + PLANTAGENET. Thanks, gentle sir. + Come, let us four to dinner. I dare say + This quarrel will drink blood another day. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 5. + + The Tower of London + + Enter MORTIMER, brought in a chair, and GAOLERS + + MORTIMER. Kind keepers of my weak decaying age, + Let dying Mortimer here rest himself. + Even like a man new haled from the rack, + So fare my limbs with long imprisonment; + And these grey locks, the pursuivants of death, + Nestor-like aged in an age of care, + Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer. + These eyes, like lamps whose wasting oil is spent, + Wax dim, as drawing to their exigent; + Weak shoulders, overborne with burdening grief, + And pithless arms, like to a withered vine + That droops his sapless branches to the ground. + Yet are these feet, whose strengthless stay is numb, + Unable to support this lump of clay, + Swift-winged with desire to get a grave, + As witting I no other comfort have. + But tell me, keeper, will my nephew come? + FIRST KEEPER. Richard Plantagenet, my lord, will come. + We sent unto the Temple, unto his chamber; + And answer was return'd that he will come. + MORTIMER. Enough; my soul shall then be satisfied. + Poor gentleman! his wrong doth equal mine. + Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign, + Before whose glory I was great in arms, + This loathsome sequestration have I had; + And even since then hath Richard been obscur'd, + Depriv'd of honour and inheritance. + But now the arbitrator of despairs, + Just Death, kind umpire of men's miseries, + With sweet enlargement doth dismiss me hence. + I would his troubles likewise were expir'd, + That so he might recover what was lost. + + Enter RICHARD PLANTAGENET + + FIRST KEEPER. My lord, your loving nephew now is come. + MORTIMER. Richard Plantagenet, my friend, is he come? + PLANTAGENET. Ay, noble uncle, thus ignobly us'd, + Your nephew, late despised Richard, comes. + MORTIMER. Direct mine arms I may embrace his neck + And in his bosom spend my latter gasp. + O, tell me when my lips do touch his cheeks, + That I may kindly give one fainting kiss. + And now declare, sweet stem from York's great stock, + Why didst thou say of late thou wert despis'd? + PLANTAGENET. First, lean thine aged back against mine arm; + And, in that ease, I'll tell thee my disease. + This day, in argument upon a case, + Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me; + Among which terms he us'd his lavish tongue + And did upbraid me with my father's death; + Which obloquy set bars before my tongue, + Else with the like I had requited him. + Therefore, good uncle, for my father's sake, + In honour of a true Plantagenet, + And for alliance sake, declare the cause + My father, Earl of Cambridge, lost his head. + MORTIMER. That cause, fair nephew, that imprison'd me + And hath detain'd me all my flow'ring youth + Within a loathsome dungeon, there to pine, + Was cursed instrument of his decease. + PLANTAGENET. Discover more at large what cause that was, + For I am ignorant and cannot guess. + MORTIMER. I will, if that my fading breath permit + And death approach not ere my tale be done. + Henry the Fourth, grandfather to this king, + Depos'd his nephew Richard, Edward's son, + The first-begotten and the lawful heir + Of Edward king, the third of that descent; + During whose reign the Percies of the north, + Finding his usurpation most unjust, + Endeavour'd my advancement to the throne. + The reason mov'd these warlike lords to this + Was, for that-young Richard thus remov'd, + Leaving no heir begotten of his body- + I was the next by birth and parentage; + For by my mother I derived am + From Lionel Duke of Clarence, third son + To King Edward the Third; whereas he + From John of Gaunt doth bring his pedigree, + Being but fourth of that heroic line. + But mark: as in this haughty great attempt + They laboured to plant the rightful heir, + I lost my liberty, and they their lives. + Long after this, when Henry the Fifth, + Succeeding his father Bolingbroke, did reign, + Thy father, Earl of Cambridge, then deriv'd + From famous Edmund Langley, Duke of York, + Marrying my sister, that thy mother was, + Again, in pity of my hard distress, + Levied an army, weening to redeem + And have install'd me in the diadem; + But, as the rest, so fell that noble earl, + And was beheaded. Thus the Mortimers, + In whom the title rested, were suppress'd. + PLANTAGENET. Of Which, my lord, your honour is the last. + MORTIMER. True; and thou seest that I no issue have, + And that my fainting words do warrant death. + Thou art my heir; the rest I wish thee gather; + But yet be wary in thy studious care. + PLANTAGENET. Thy grave admonishments prevail with me. + But yet methinks my father's execution + Was nothing less than bloody tyranny. + MORTIMER. With silence, nephew, be thou politic; + Strong fixed is the house of Lancaster + And like a mountain not to be remov'd. + But now thy uncle is removing hence, + As princes do their courts when they are cloy'd + With long continuance in a settled place. + PLANTAGENET. O uncle, would some part of my young years + Might but redeem the passage of your age! + MORTIMER. Thou dost then wrong me, as that slaughterer + doth + Which giveth many wounds when one will kill. + Mourn not, except thou sorrow for my good; + Only give order for my funeral. + And so, farewell; and fair be all thy hopes, + And prosperous be thy life in peace and war! [Dies] + PLANTAGENET. And peace, no war, befall thy parting soul! + In prison hast thou spent a pilgrimage, + And like a hermit overpass'd thy days. + Well, I will lock his counsel in my breast; + And what I do imagine, let that rest. + Keepers, convey him hence; and I myself + Will see his burial better than his life. + Exeunt GAOLERS, hearing out the body of MORTIMER + Here dies the dusky torch of Mortimer, + Chok'd with ambition of the meaner sort; + And for those wrongs, those bitter injuries, + Which Somerset hath offer'd to my house, + I doubt not but with honour to redress; + And therefore haste I to the Parliament, + Either to be restored to my blood, + Or make my ill th' advantage of my good. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE 1. + +London. The Parliament House + +Flourish. Enter the KING, EXETER, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, SOMERSET, and SUFFOLK; +the BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, and others. +GLOUCESTER offers to put up a bill; WINCHESTER snatches it, and tears it + + WINCHESTER. Com'st thou with deep premeditated lines, + With written pamphlets studiously devis'd? + Humphrey of Gloucester, if thou canst accuse + Or aught intend'st to lay unto my charge, + Do it without invention, suddenly; + I with sudden and extemporal speech + Purpose to answer what thou canst object. + GLOUCESTER. Presumptuous priest, this place commands my + patience, + Or thou shouldst find thou hast dishonour'd me. + Think not, although in writing I preferr'd + The manner of thy vile outrageous crimes, + That therefore I have forg'd, or am not able + Verbatim to rehearse the method of my pen. + No, prelate; such is thy audacious wickedness, + Thy lewd, pestiferous, and dissentious pranks, + As very infants prattle of thy pride. + Thou art a most pernicious usurer; + Froward by nature, enemy to peace; + Lascivious, wanton, more than well beseems + A man of thy profession and degree; + And for thy treachery, what's more manifest + In that thou laid'st a trap to take my life, + As well at London Bridge as at the Tower? + Beside, I fear me, if thy thoughts were sifted, + The King, thy sovereign, is not quite exempt + From envious malice of thy swelling heart. + WINCHESTER. Gloucester, I do defy thee. Lords, vouchsafe + To give me hearing what I shall reply. + If I were covetous, ambitious, or perverse, + As he will have me, how am I so poor? + Or how haps it I seek not to advance + Or raise myself, but keep my wonted calling? + And for dissension, who preferreth peace + More than I do, except I be provok'd? + No, my good lords, it is not that offends; + It is not that that incens'd hath incens'd the Duke: + It is because no one should sway but he; + No one but he should be about the King; + And that engenders thunder in his breast + And makes him roar these accusations forth. + But he shall know I am as good + GLOUCESTER. As good! + Thou bastard of my grandfather! + WINCHESTER. Ay, lordly sir; for what are you, I pray, + But one imperious in another's throne? + GLOUCESTER. Am I not Protector, saucy priest? + WINCHESTER. And am not I a prelate of the church? + GLOUCESTER. Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps, + And useth it to patronage his theft. + WINCHESTER. Unreverent Gloucester! + GLOUCESTER. Thou art reverend + Touching thy spiritual function, not thy life. + WINCHESTER. Rome shall remedy this. + WARWICK. Roam thither then. + SOMERSET. My lord, it were your duty to forbear. + WARWICK. Ay, see the bishop be not overborne. + SOMERSET. Methinks my lord should be religious, + And know the office that belongs to such. + WARWICK. Methinks his lordship should be humbler; + It fitteth not a prelate so to plead. + SOMERSET. Yes, when his holy state is touch'd so near. + WARWICK. State holy or unhallow'd, what of that? + Is not his Grace Protector to the King? + PLANTAGENET. [Aside] Plantagenet, I see, must hold his + tongue, + Lest it be said 'Speak, sirrah, when you should; + Must your bold verdict enter talk with lords?' + Else would I have a fling at Winchester. + KING HENRY. Uncles of Gloucester and of Winchester, + The special watchmen of our English weal, + I would prevail, if prayers might prevail + To join your hearts in love and amity. + O, what a scandal is it to our crown + That two such noble peers as ye should jar! + Believe me, lords, my tender years can tell + Civil dissension is a viperous worm + That gnaws the bowels of the commonwealth. + [A noise within: 'Down with the tawny coats!'] + What tumult's this? + WARWICK. An uproar, I dare warrant, + Begun through malice of the Bishop's men. + [A noise again: 'Stones! Stones!'] + + Enter the MAYOR OF LONDON, attended + + MAYOR. O, my good lords, and virtuous Henry, + Pity the city of London, pity us! + The Bishop and the Duke of Gloucester's men, + Forbidden late to carry any weapon, + Have fill'd their pockets full of pebble stones + And, banding themselves in contrary parts, + Do pelt so fast at one another's pate + That many have their giddy brains knock'd out. + Our windows are broke down in every street, + And we for fear compell'd to shut our shops. + + Enter in skirmish, the retainers of GLOUCESTER and + WINCHESTER, with bloody pates + + KING HENRY. We charge you, on allegiance to ourself, + To hold your slaught'ring hands and keep the peace. + Pray, uncle Gloucester, mitigate this strife. + FIRST SERVING-MAN. Nay, if we be forbidden stones, we'll + fall to it with our teeth. + SECOND SERVING-MAN. Do what ye dare, we are as resolute. + [Skirmish again] + GLOUCESTER. You of my household, leave this peevish broil, + And set this unaccustom'd fight aside. + THIRD SERVING-MAN. My lord, we know your Grace to be a + man + Just and upright, and for your royal birth + Inferior to none but to his Majesty; + And ere that we will suffer such a prince, + So kind a father of the commonweal, + To be disgraced by an inkhorn mate, + We and our wives and children all will fight + And have our bodies slaught'red by thy foes. + FIRST SERVING-MAN. Ay, and the very parings of our nails + Shall pitch a field when we are dead. [Begin again] + GLOUCESTER. Stay, stay, I say! + And if you love me, as you say you do, + Let me persuade you to forbear awhile. + KING HENRY. O, how this discord doth afflict my soul! + Can you, my Lord of Winchester, behold + My sighs and tears and will not once relent? + Who should be pitiful, if you be not? + Or who should study to prefer a peace, + If holy churchmen take delight in broils? + WARWICK. Yield, my Lord Protector; yield, Winchester; + Except you mean with obstinate repulse + To slay your sovereign and destroy the realm. + You see what mischief, and what murder too, + Hath been enacted through your enmity; + Then be at peace, except ye thirst for blood. + WINCHESTER. He shall submit, or I will never yield. + GLOUCESTER. Compassion on the King commands me stoop, + Or I would see his heart out ere the priest + Should ever get that privilege of me. + WARWICK. Behold, my Lord of Winchester, the Duke + Hath banish'd moody discontented fury, + As by his smoothed brows it doth appear; + Why look you still so stem and tragical? + GLOUCESTER. Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand. + KING HENRY. Fie, uncle Beaufort! I have heard you preach + That malice was a great and grievous sin; + And will not you maintain the thing you teach, + But prove a chief offender in the same? + WARWICK. Sweet King! The Bishop hath a kindly gird. + For shame, my Lord of Winchester, relent; + What, shall a child instruct you what to do? + WINCHESTER. Well, Duke of Gloucester, I will yield to thee; + Love for thy love and hand for hand I give. + GLOUCESTER [Aside] Ay, but, I fear me, with a hollow + heart. + See here, my friends and loving countrymen: + This token serveth for a flag of truce + Betwixt ourselves and all our followers. + So help me God, as I dissemble not! + WINCHESTER [Aside] So help me God, as I intend it not! + KING HENRY. O loving uncle, kind Duke of Gloucester, + How joyful am I made by this contract! + Away, my masters! trouble us no more; + But join in friendship, as your lords have done. + FIRST SERVING-MAN. Content: I'll to the surgeon's. + SECOND SERVING-MAN. And so will I. + THIRD SERVING-MAN. And I will see what physic the tavern + affords. Exeunt servants, MAYOR, &C. + WARWICK. Accept this scroll, most gracious sovereign; + Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet + We do exhibit to your Majesty. + GLOUCESTER. Well urg'd, my Lord of Warwick; for, sweet + prince, + An if your Grace mark every circumstance, + You have great reason to do Richard right; + Especially for those occasions + At Eltham Place I told your Majesty. + KING HENRY. And those occasions, uncle, were of force; + Therefore, my loving lords, our pleasure is + That Richard be restored to his blood. + WARWICK. Let Richard be restored to his blood; + So shall his father's wrongs be recompens'd. + WINCHESTER. As will the rest, so willeth Winchester. + KING HENRY. If Richard will be true, not that alone + But all the whole inheritance I give + That doth belong unto the house of York, + From whence you spring by lineal descent. + PLANTAGENET. Thy humble servant vows obedience + And humble service till the point of death. + KING HENRY. Stoop then and set your knee against my foot; + And in reguerdon of that duty done + I girt thee with the valiant sword of York. + Rise, Richard, like a true Plantagenet, + And rise created princely Duke of York. + PLANTAGENET. And so thrive Richard as thy foes may fall! + And as my duty springs, so perish they + That grudge one thought against your Majesty! + ALL. Welcome, high Prince, the mighty Duke of York! + SOMERSET. [Aside] Perish, base Prince, ignoble Duke of + York! + GLOUCESTER. Now will it best avail your Majesty + To cross the seas and to be crown'd in France: + The presence of a king engenders love + Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends, + As it disanimates his enemies. + KING HENRY. When Gloucester says the word, King Henry + goes; + For friendly counsel cuts off many foes. + GLOUCESTER. Your ships already are in readiness. + Sennet. Flourish. Exeunt all but EXETER + EXETER. Ay, we may march in England or in France, + Not seeing what is likely to ensue. + This late dissension grown betwixt the peers + Burns under feigned ashes of forg'd love + And will at last break out into a flame; + As fest'red members rot but by degree + Till bones and flesh and sinews fall away, + So will this base and envious discord breed. + And now I fear that fatal prophecy. + Which in the time of Henry nam'd the Fifth + Was in the mouth of every sucking babe: + That Henry born at Monmouth should win all, + And Henry born at Windsor should lose all. + Which is so plain that Exeter doth wish + His days may finish ere that hapless time. Exit + + + + + SCENE 2. + + France. Before Rouen + + Enter LA PUCELLE disguis'd, with four soldiers dressed + like countrymen, with sacks upon their backs + + PUCELLE. These are the city gates, the gates of Rouen, + Through which our policy must make a breach. + Take heed, be wary how you place your words; + Talk like the vulgar sort of market-men + That come to gather money for their corn. + If we have entrance, as I hope we shall, + And that we find the slothful watch but weak, + I'll by a sign give notice to our friends, + That Charles the Dauphin may encounter them. + FIRST SOLDIER. Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city, + And we be lords and rulers over Rouen; + Therefore we'll knock. [Knocks] + WATCH. [Within] Qui est la? + PUCELLE. Paysans, pauvres gens de France + Poor market-folks that come to sell their corn. + WATCH. Enter, go in; the market-bell is rung. + PUCELLE. Now, Rouen, I'll shake thy bulwarks to the + ground. + + [LA PUCELLE, &c., enter the town] + + Enter CHARLES, BASTARD, ALENCON, REIGNIER, and forces + + CHARLES. Saint Denis bless this happy stratagem! + And once again we'll sleep secure in Rouen. + BASTARD. Here ent'red Pucelle and her practisants; + Now she is there, how will she specify + Here is the best and safest passage in? + ALENCON. By thrusting out a torch from yonder tower; + Which once discern'd shows that her meaning is + No way to that, for weakness, which she ent'red. + + Enter LA PUCELLE, on the top, thrusting out + a torch burning + + PUCELLE. Behold, this is the happy wedding torch + That joineth Rouen unto her countrymen, + But burning fatal to the Talbotites. Exit + BASTARD. See, noble Charles, the beacon of our friend; + The burning torch in yonder turret stands. + CHARLES. Now shine it like a comet of revenge, + A prophet to the fall of all our foes! + ALENCON. Defer no time, delays have dangerous ends; + Enter, and cry 'The Dauphin!' presently, + And then do execution on the watch. Alarum. Exeunt + + An alarum. Enter TALBOT in an excursion + + TALBOT. France, thou shalt rue this treason with thy tears, + If Talbot but survive thy treachery. + PUCELLE, that witch, that damned sorceress, + Hath wrought this hellish mischief unawares, + That hardly we escap'd the pride of France. Exit + + An alarum; excursions. BEDFORD brought in sick in + a chair. Enter TALBOT and BURGUNDY without; + within, LA PUCELLE, CHARLES, BASTARD, ALENCON, + and REIGNIER, on the walls + + PUCELLE. Good morrow, gallants! Want ye corn for bread? + I think the Duke of Burgundy will fast + Before he'll buy again at such a rate. + 'Twas full of darnel-do you like the taste? + BURGUNDY. Scoff on, vile fiend and shameless courtezan. + I trust ere long to choke thee with thine own, + And make thee curse the harvest of that corn. + CHARLES. Your Grace may starve, perhaps, before that time. + BEDFORD. O, let no words, but deeds, revenge this treason! + PUCELLE. What you do, good grey beard? Break a + lance, + And run a tilt at death within a chair? + TALBOT. Foul fiend of France and hag of all despite, + Encompass'd with thy lustful paramours, + Becomes it thee to taunt his valiant age + And twit with cowardice a man half dead? + Damsel, I'll have a bout with you again, + Or else let Talbot perish with this shame. + PUCELLE. Are ye so hot, sir? Yet, Pucelle, hold thy peace; + If Talbot do but thunder, rain will follow. + [The English party whisper together in council] + God speed the parliament! Who shall be the Speaker? + TALBOT. Dare ye come forth and meet us in the field? + PUCELLE. Belike your lordship takes us then for fools, + To try if that our own be ours or no. + TALBOT. I speak not to that railing Hecate, + But unto thee, Alencon, and the rest. + Will ye, like soldiers, come and fight it out? + ALENCON. Signior, no. + TALBOT. Signior, hang! Base muleteers of France! + Like peasant foot-boys do they keep the walls, + And dare not take up arms like gentlemen. + PUCELLE. Away, captains! Let's get us from the walls; + For Talbot means no goodness by his looks. + God b'uy, my lord; we came but to tell you + That we are here. Exeunt from the walls + TALBOT. And there will we be too, ere it be long, + Or else reproach be Talbot's greatest fame! + Vow, Burgundy, by honour of thy house, + Prick'd on by public wrongs sustain'd in France, + Either to get the town again or die; + And I, as sure as English Henry lives + And as his father here was conqueror, + As sure as in this late betrayed town + Great Coeur-de-lion's heart was buried + So sure I swear to get the town or die. + BURGUNDY. My vows are equal partners with thy vows. + TALBOT. But ere we go, regard this dying prince, + The valiant Duke of Bedford. Come, my lord, + We will bestow you in some better place, + Fitter for sickness and for crazy age. + BEDFORD. Lord Talbot, do not so dishonour me; + Here will I sit before the walls of Rouen, + And will be partner of your weal or woe. + BURGUNDY. Courageous Bedford, let us now persuade you. + BEDFORD. Not to be gone from hence; for once I read + That stout Pendragon in his litter sick + Came to the field, and vanquished his foes. + Methinks I should revive the soldiers' hearts, + Because I ever found them as myself. + TALBOT. Undaunted spirit in a dying breast! + Then be it so. Heavens keep old Bedford safe! + And now no more ado, brave Burgundy, + But gather we our forces out of hand + And set upon our boasting enemy. + Exeunt against the town all but BEDFORD and attendants + + An alarum; excursions. Enter SIR JOHN FASTOLFE, + and a CAPTAIN + + CAPTAIN. Whither away, Sir John Fastolfe, in such haste? + FASTOLFE. Whither away? To save myself by flight: + We are like to have the overthrow again. + CAPTAIN. What! Will you and leave Lord Talbot? + FASTOLFE. Ay, + All the Talbots in the world, to save my life. Exit + CAPTAIN. Cowardly knight! ill fortune follow thee! + Exit into the town + + Retreat; excursions. LA PUCELLE, ALENCON, + and CHARLES fly + + BEDFORD. Now, quiet soul, depart when heaven please, + For I have seen our enemies' overthrow. + What is the trust or strength of foolish man? + They that of late were daring with their scoffs + Are glad and fain by flight to save themselves. + [BEDFORD dies and is carried in by two in his chair] + + An alarum. Re-enter TALBOT, BURGUNDY, and the rest + + TALBOT. Lost and recovered in a day again! + This is a double honour, Burgundy. + Yet heavens have glory for this victory! + BURGUNDY. Warlike and martial Talbot, Burgundy + Enshrines thee in his heart, and there erects + Thy noble deeds as valour's monuments. + TALBOT. Thanks, gentle Duke. But where is Pucelle now? + I think her old familiar is asleep. + Now where's the Bastard's braves, and Charles his gleeks? + What, all amort? Rouen hangs her head for grief + That such a valiant company are fled. + Now will we take some order in the town, + Placing therein some expert officers; + And then depart to Paris to the King, + For there young Henry with his nobles lie. + BURGUNDY. What Lord Talbot pleaseth Burgundy. + TALBOT. But yet, before we go, let's not forget + The noble Duke of Bedford, late deceas'd, + But see his exequies fulfill'd in Rouen. + A braver soldier never couched lance, + A gentler heart did never sway in court; + But kings and mightiest potentates must die, + For that's the end of human misery. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 3. + + The plains near Rouen + + Enter CHARLES, the BASTARD, ALENCON, LA PUCELLE, + and forces + + PUCELLE. Dismay not, Princes, at this accident, + Nor grieve that Rouen is so recovered. + Care is no cure, but rather corrosive, + For things that are not to be remedied. + Let frantic Talbot triumph for a while + And like a peacock sweep along his tail; + We'll pull his plumes and take away his train, + If Dauphin and the rest will be but rul'd. + CHARLES. We have guided by thee hitherto, + And of thy cunning had no diffidence; + One sudden foil shall never breed distrust + BASTARD. Search out thy wit for secret policies, + And we will make thee famous through the world. + ALENCON. We'll set thy statue in some holy place, + And have thee reverenc'd like a blessed saint. + Employ thee, then, sweet virgin, for our good. + PUCELLE. Then thus it must be; this doth Joan devise: + By fair persuasions, mix'd with sug'red words, + We will entice the Duke of Burgundy + To leave the Talbot and to follow us. + CHARLES. Ay, marry, sweeting, if we could do that, + France were no place for Henry's warriors; + Nor should that nation boast it so with us, + But be extirped from our provinces. + ALENCON. For ever should they be expuls'd from France, + And not have tide of an earldom here. + PUCELLE. Your honours shall perceive how I will work + To bring this matter to the wished end. + [Drum sounds afar off] + Hark! by the sound of drum you may perceive + Their powers are marching unto Paris-ward. + + Here sound an English march. Enter, and pass over + at a distance, TALBOT and his forces + + There goes the Talbot, with his colours spread, + And all the troops of English after him. + + French march. Enter the DUKE OF BURGUNDY and + his forces + + Now in the rearward comes the Duke and his. + Fortune in favour makes him lag behind. + Summon a parley; we will talk with him. + [Trumpets sound a parley] + CHARLES. A parley with the Duke of Burgundy! + BURGUNDY. Who craves a parley with the Burgundy? + PUCELLE. The princely Charles of France, thy countryman. + BURGUNDY. What say'st thou, Charles? for I am marching + hence. + CHARLES. Speak, Pucelle, and enchant him with thy words. + PUCELLE. Brave Burgundy, undoubted hope of France! + Stay, let thy humble handmaid speak to thee. + BURGUNDY. Speak on; but be not over-tedious. + PUCELLE. Look on thy country, look on fertile France, + And see the cities and the towns defac'd + By wasting ruin of the cruel foe; + As looks the mother on her lowly babe + When death doth close his tender dying eyes, + See, see the pining malady of France; + Behold the wounds, the most unnatural wounds, + Which thou thyself hast given her woeful breast. + O, turn thy edged sword another way; + Strike those that hurt, and hurt not those that help! + One drop of blood drawn from thy country's bosom + Should grieve thee more than streams of foreign gore. + Return thee therefore with a flood of tears, + And wash away thy country's stained spots. + BURGUNDY. Either she hath bewitch'd me with her words, + Or nature makes me suddenly relent. + PUCELLE. Besides, all French and France exclaims on thee, + Doubting thy birth and lawful progeny. + Who join'st thou with but with a lordly nation + That will not trust thee but for profit's sake? + When Talbot hath set footing once in France, + And fashion'd thee that instrument of ill, + Who then but English Henry will be lord, + And thou be thrust out like a fugitive? + Call we to mind-and mark but this for proof: + Was not the Duke of Orleans thy foe? + And was he not in England prisoner? + But when they heard he was thine enemy + They set him free without his ransom paid, + In spite of Burgundy and all his friends. + See then, thou fight'st against thy countrymen, + And join'st with them will be thy slaughtermen. + Come, come, return; return, thou wandering lord; + Charles and the rest will take thee in their arms. + BURGUNDY. I am vanquished; these haughty words of hers + Have batt'red me like roaring cannon-shot + And made me almost yield upon my knees. + Forgive me, country, and sweet countrymen + And, lords, accept this hearty kind embrace. + My forces and my power of men are yours; + So, farewell, Talbot; I'll no longer trust thee. + PUCELLE. Done like a Frenchman- [Aside] turn and turn + again. + CHARLES. Welcome, brave Duke! Thy friendship makes us + fresh. + BASTARD. And doth beget new courage in our breasts. + ALENCON. Pucelle hath bravely play'd her part in this, + And doth deserve a coronet of gold. + CHARLES. Now let us on, my lords, and join our powers, + And seek how we may prejudice the foe. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 4. + + Paris. The palace + + Enter the KING, GLOUCESTER, WINCHESTER, YORK, + SUFFOLK, SOMERSET, WARWICK, EXETER, + VERNON, BASSET, and others. To them, with + his soldiers, TALBOT + + TALBOT. My gracious Prince, and honourable peers, + Hearing of your arrival in this realm, + I have awhile given truce unto my wars + To do my duty to my sovereign; + In sign whereof, this arm that hath reclaim'd + To your obedience fifty fortresses, + Twelve cities, and seven walled towns of strength, + Beside five hundred prisoners of esteem, + Lets fall his sword before your Highness' feet, + And with submissive loyalty of heart + Ascribes the glory of his conquest got + First to my God and next unto your Grace. [Kneels] + KING HENRY. Is this the Lord Talbot, uncle Gloucester, + That hath so long been resident in France? + GLOUCESTER. Yes, if it please your Majesty, my liege. + KING HENRY. Welcome, brave captain and victorious lord! + When I was young, as yet I am not old, + I do remember how my father said + A stouter champion never handled sword. + Long since we were resolved of your truth, + Your faithful service, and your toil in war; + Yet never have you tasted our reward, + Or been reguerdon'd with so much as thanks, + Because till now we never saw your face. + Therefore stand up; and for these good deserts + We here create you Earl of Shrewsbury; + And in our coronation take your place. + Sennet. Flourish. Exeunt all but VERNON and BASSET + VERNON. Now, sir, to you, that were so hot at sea, + Disgracing of these colours that I wear + In honour of my noble Lord of York + Dar'st thou maintain the former words thou spak'st? + BASSET. Yes, sir; as well as you dare patronage + The envious barking of your saucy tongue + Against my lord the Duke of Somerset. + VERNON. Sirrah, thy lord I honour as he is. + BASSET. Why, what is he? As good a man as York! + VERNON. Hark ye: not so. In witness, take ye that. + [Strikes him] + BASSET. Villain, thou knowest the law of arms is such + That whoso draws a sword 'tis present death, + Or else this blow should broach thy dearest blood. + But I'll unto his Majesty and crave + I may have liberty to venge this wrong; + When thou shalt see I'll meet thee to thy cost. + VERNON. Well, miscreant, I'll be there as soon as you; + And, after, meet you sooner than you would. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 1. + +Park. The palace + +Enter the KING, GLOUCESTER, WINCHESTER, YORK, SUFFOLK, SOMERSET, WARWICK, +TALBOT, EXETER, the GOVERNOR OF PARIS, and others + + GLOUCESTER. Lord Bishop, set the crown upon his head. + WINCHESTER. God save King Henry, of that name the Sixth! + GLOUCESTER. Now, Governor of Paris, take your oath + [GOVERNOR kneels] + That you elect no other king but him, + Esteem none friends but such as are his friends, + And none your foes but such as shall pretend + Malicious practices against his state. + This shall ye do, so help you righteous God! + Exeunt GOVERNOR and his train + + Enter SIR JOHN FASTOLFE + + FASTOLFE. My gracious sovereign, as I rode from Calais, + To haste unto your coronation, + A letter was deliver'd to my hands, + Writ to your Grace from th' Duke of Burgundy. + TALBOT. Shame to the Duke of Burgundy and thee! + I vow'd, base knight, when I did meet thee next + To tear the Garter from thy craven's leg, [Plucking it off] + Which I have done, because unworthily + Thou wast installed in that high degree. + Pardon me, princely Henry, and the rest: + This dastard, at the battle of Patay, + When but in all I was six thousand strong, + And that the French were almost ten to one, + Before we met or that a stroke was given, + Like to a trusty squire did run away; + In which assault we lost twelve hundred men; + Myself and divers gentlemen beside + Were there surpris'd and taken prisoners. + Then judge, great lords, if I have done amiss, + Or whether that such cowards ought to wear + This ornament of knighthood-yea or no. + GLOUCESTER. To say the truth, this fact was infamous + And ill beseeming any common man, + Much more a knight, a captain, and a leader. + TALBOT. When first this order was ordain'd, my lords, + Knights of the Garter were of noble birth, + Valiant and virtuous, full of haughty courage, + Such as were grown to credit by the wars; + Not fearing death nor shrinking for distress, + But always resolute in most extremes. + He then that is not furnish'd in this sort + Doth but usurp the sacred name of knight, + Profaning this most honourable order, + And should, if I were worthy to be judge, + Be quite degraded, like a hedge-born swain + That doth presume to boast of gentle blood. + KING HENRY. Stain to thy countrymen, thou hear'st thy + doom. + Be packing, therefore, thou that wast a knight; + Henceforth we banish thee on pain of death. + Exit FASTOLFE + And now, my Lord Protector, view the letter + Sent from our uncle Duke of Burgundy. + GLOUCESTER. [Viewing the superscription] What means his + Grace, that he hath chang'd his style? + No more but plain and bluntly 'To the King!' + Hath he forgot he is his sovereign? + Or doth this churlish superscription + Pretend some alteration in good-will? + What's here? [Reads] 'I have, upon especial cause, + Mov'd with compassion of my country's wreck, + Together with the pitiful complaints + Of such as your oppression feeds upon, + Forsaken your pernicious faction, + And join'd with Charles, the rightful King of France.' + O monstrous treachery! Can this be so + That in alliance, amity, and oaths, + There should be found such false dissembling guile? + KING HENRY. What! Doth my uncle Burgundy revolt? + GLOUCESTER. He doth, my lord, and is become your foe. + KING HENRY. Is that the worst this letter doth contain? + GLOUCESTER. It is the worst, and all, my lord, he writes. + KING HENRY. Why then Lord Talbot there shall talk with + him + And give him chastisement for this abuse. + How say you, my lord, are you not content? + TALBOT. Content, my liege! Yes; but that I am prevented, + I should have begg'd I might have been employ'd. + KING HENRY. Then gather strength and march unto him + straight; + Let him perceive how ill we brook his treason. + And what offence it is to flout his friends. + TALBOT. I go, my lord, in heart desiring still + You may behold confusion of your foes. Exit + + Enter VERNON and BASSET + + VERNON. Grant me the combat, gracious sovereign. + BASSET. And me, my lord, grant me the combat too. + YORK. This is my servant: hear him, noble Prince. + SOMERSET. And this is mine: sweet Henry, favour him. + KING HENRY. Be patient, lords, and give them leave to speak. + Say, gentlemen, what makes you thus exclaim, + And wherefore crave you combat, or with whom? + VERNON. With him, my lord; for he hath done me wrong. + BASSET. And I with him; for he hath done me wrong. + KING HENRY. What is that wrong whereof you both + complain? First let me know, and then I'll answer you. + BASSET. Crossing the sea from England into France, + This fellow here, with envious carping tongue, + Upbraided me about the rose I wear, + Saying the sanguine colour of the leaves + Did represent my master's blushing cheeks + When stubbornly he did repugn the truth + About a certain question in the law + Argu'd betwixt the Duke of York and him; + With other vile and ignominious terms + In confutation of which rude reproach + And in defence of my lord's worthiness, + I crave the benefit of law of arms. + VERNON. And that is my petition, noble lord; + For though he seem with forged quaint conceit + To set a gloss upon his bold intent, + Yet know, my lord, I was provok'd by him, + And he first took exceptions at this badge, + Pronouncing that the paleness of this flower + Bewray'd the faintness of my master's heart. + YORK. Will not this malice, Somerset, be left? + SOMERSET. Your private grudge, my Lord of York, will out, + Though ne'er so cunningly you smother it. + KING HENRY. Good Lord, what madness rules in brainsick + men, When for so slight and frivolous a cause + Such factious emulations shall arise! + Good cousins both, of York and Somerset, + Quiet yourselves, I pray, and be at peace. + YORK. Let this dissension first be tried by fight, + And then your Highness shall command a peace. + SOMERSET. The quarrel toucheth none but us alone; + Betwixt ourselves let us decide it then. + YORK. There is my pledge; accept it, Somerset. + VERNON. Nay, let it rest where it began at first. + BASSET. Confirm it so, mine honourable lord. + GLOUCESTER. Confirm it so? Confounded be your strife; + And perish ye, with your audacious prate! + Presumptuous vassals, are you not asham'd + With this immodest clamorous outrage + To trouble and disturb the King and us? + And you, my lords- methinks you do not well + To bear with their perverse objections, + Much less to take occasion from their mouths + To raise a mutiny betwixt yourselves. + Let me persuade you take a better course. + EXETER. It grieves his Highness. Good my lords, be friends. + KING HENRY. Come hither, you that would be combatants: + Henceforth I charge you, as you love our favour, + Quite to forget this quarrel and the cause. + And you, my lords, remember where we are: + In France, amongst a fickle wavering nation; + If they perceive dissension in our looks + And that within ourselves we disagree, + How will their grudging stomachs be provok'd + To wilful disobedience, and rebel! + Beside, what infamy will there arise + When foreign princes shall be certified + That for a toy, a thing of no regard, + King Henry's peers and chief nobility + Destroy'd themselves and lost the realm of France! + O, think upon the conquest of my father, + My tender years; and let us not forgo + That for a trifle that was bought with blood! + Let me be umpire in this doubtful strife. + I see no reason, if I wear this rose, + [Putting on a red rose] + That any one should therefore be suspicious + I more incline to Somerset than York: + Both are my kinsmen, and I love them both. + As well they may upbraid me with my crown, + Because, forsooth, the King of Scots is crown'd. + But your discretions better can persuade + Than I am able to instruct or teach; + And, therefore, as we hither came in peace, + So let us still continue peace and love. + Cousin of York, we institute your Grace + To be our Regent in these parts of France. + And, good my Lord of Somerset, unite + Your troops of horsemen with his bands of foot; + And like true subjects, sons of your progenitors, + Go cheerfully together and digest + Your angry choler on your enemies. + Ourself, my Lord Protector, and the rest, + After some respite will return to Calais; + From thence to England, where I hope ere long + To be presented by your victories + With Charles, Alencon, and that traitorous rout. + Flourish. Exeunt all but YORK, WARWICK, + EXETER, VERNON + WARWICK. My Lord of York, I promise you, the King + Prettily, methought, did play the orator. + YORK. And so he did; but yet I like it not, + In that he wears the badge of Somerset. + WARWICK. Tush, that was but his fancy; blame him not; + I dare presume, sweet prince, he thought no harm. + YORK. An if I wist he did-but let it rest; + Other affairs must now be managed. + Exeunt all but EXETER + EXETER. Well didst thou, Richard, to suppress thy voice; + For had the passions of thy heart burst out, + I fear we should have seen decipher'd there + More rancorous spite, more furious raging broils, + Than yet can be imagin'd or suppos'd. + But howsoe'er, no simple man that sees + This jarring discord of nobility, + This shouldering of each other in the court, + This factious bandying of their favourites, + But that it doth presage some ill event. + 'Tis much when sceptres are in children's hands; + But more when envy breeds unkind division: + There comes the ruin, there begins confusion. Exit + + + + + SCENE 2. + + France. Before Bordeaux + + Enter TALBOT, with trump and drum + + TALBOT. Go to the gates of Bordeaux, trumpeter; + Summon their general unto the wall. + + Trumpet sounds a parley. Enter, aloft, the + GENERAL OF THE FRENCH, and others + + English John Talbot, Captains, calls you forth, + Servant in arms to Harry King of England; + And thus he would open your city gates, + Be humble to us, call my sovereignvours + And do him homage as obedient subjects, + And I'll withdraw me and my bloody power; + But if you frown upon this proffer'd peace, + You tempt the fury of my three attendants, + Lean famine, quartering steel, and climbing fire; + Who in a moment even with the earth + Shall lay your stately and air braving towers, + If you forsake the offer of their love. + GENERAL OF THE FRENCH. Thou ominous and fearful owl of + death, + Our nation's terror and their bloody scourge! + The period of thy tyranny approacheth. + On us thou canst not enter but by death; + For, I protest, we are well fortified, + And strong enough to issue out and fight. + If thou retire, the Dauphin, well appointed, + Stands with the snares of war to tangle thee. + On either hand thee there are squadrons pitch'd + To wall thee from the liberty of flight, + And no way canst thou turn thee for redress + But death doth front thee with apparent spoil + And pale destruction meets thee in the face. + Ten thousand French have ta'en the sacrament + To rive their dangerous artillery + Upon no Christian soul but English Talbot. + Lo, there thou stand'st, a breathing valiant man, + Of an invincible unconquer'd spirit! + This is the latest glory of thy praise + That I, thy enemy, due thee withal; + For ere the glass that now begins to run + Finish the process of his sandy hour, + These eyes that see thee now well coloured + Shall see thee withered, bloody, pale, and dead. + [Drum afar off] + Hark! hark! The Dauphin's drum, a warning bell, + Sings heavy music to thy timorous soul; + And mine shall ring thy dire departure out. Exit + TALBOT. He fables not; I hear the enemy. + Out, some light horsemen, and peruse their wings. + O, negligent and heedless discipline! + How are we park'd and bounded in a pale + A little herd of England's timorous deer, + Maz'd with a yelping kennel of French curs! + If we be English deer, be then in blood; + Not rascal-like to fall down with a pinch, + But rather, moody-mad and desperate stags, + Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel + And make the cowards stand aloof at bay. + Sell every man his life as dear as mine, + And they shall find dear deer of us, my friends. + God and Saint George, Talbot and England's right, + Prosper our colours in this dangerous fight! Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 3. + + Plains in Gascony + + Enter YORK, with trumpet and many soldiers. A + MESSENGER meets him + + YORK. Are not the speedy scouts return'd again + That dogg'd the mighty army of the Dauphin? + MESSENGER. They are return'd, my lord, and give it out + That he is march'd to Bordeaux with his power + To fight with Talbot; as he march'd along, + By your espials were discovered + Two mightier troops than that the Dauphin led, + Which join'd with him and made their march for + Bordeaux. + YORK. A plague upon that villain Somerset + That thus delays my promised supply + Of horsemen that were levied for this siege! + Renowned Talbot doth expect my aid, + And I am louted by a traitor villain + And cannot help the noble chevalier. + God comfort him in this necessity! + If he miscarry, farewell wars in France. + + Enter SIR WILLIAM LUCY + + LUCY. Thou princely leader of our English strength, + Never so needful on the earth of France, + Spur to the rescue of the noble Talbot, + Who now is girdled with a waist of iron + And hemm'd about with grim destruction. + To Bordeaux, warlike Duke! to Bordeaux, York! + Else, farewell Talbot, France, and England's honour. + YORK. O God, that Somerset, who in proud heart + Doth stop my cornets, were in Talbot's place! + So should we save a valiant gentleman + By forfeiting a traitor and a coward. + Mad ire and wrathful fury makes me weep + That thus we die while remiss traitors sleep. + LUCY. O, send some succour to the distress'd lord! + YORK. He dies; we lose; I break my warlike word. + We mourn: France smiles. We lose: they daily get- + All long of this vile traitor Somerset. + LUCY. Then God take mercy on brave Talbot's soul, + And on his son, young John, who two hours since + I met in travel toward his warlike father. + This seven years did not Talbot see his son; + And now they meet where both their lives are done. + YORK. Alas, what joy shall noble Talbot have + To bid his young son welcome to his grave? + Away! vexation almost stops my breath, + That sund'red friends greet in the hour of death. + Lucy, farewell; no more my fortune can + But curse the cause I cannot aid the man. + Maine, Blois, Poictiers, and Tours, are won away + Long all of Somerset and his delay. Exit with forces + LUCY. Thus, while the vulture of sedition + Feeds in the bosom of such great commanders, + Sleeping neglection doth betray to loss + The conquest of our scarce cold conqueror, + That ever-living man of memory, + Henry the Fifth. Whiles they each other cross, + Lives, honours, lands, and all, hurry to loss. Exit + + + + + SCENE 4. + + Other plains of Gascony + + Enter SOMERSET, With his forces; an OFFICER of + TALBOT'S with him + + SOMERSET. It is too late; I cannot send them now. + This expedition was by York and Talbot + Too rashly plotted; all our general force + Might with a sally of the very town + Be buckled with. The over daring Talbot + Hath sullied all his gloss of former honour + By this unheedful, desperate, wild adventure. + York set him on to fight and die in shame. + That, Talbot dead, great York might bear the name. + OFFICER. Here is Sir William Lucy, who with me + Set from our o'er-match'd forces forth for aid. + + Enter SIR WILLIAM LUCY + + SOMERSET. How now, Sir William! Whither were you sent? + LUCY. Whither, my lord! From bought and sold Lord + Talbot, + Who, ring'd about with bold adversity, + Cries out for noble York and Somerset + To beat assailing death from his weak legions; + And whiles the honourable captain there + Drops bloody sweat from his war-wearied limbs + And, in advantage ling'ring, looks for rescue, + You, his false hopes, the trust of England's honour, + Keep off aloof with worthless emulation. + Let not your private discord keep away + The levied succours that should lend him aid, + While he, renowned noble gentleman, + Yield up his life unto a world of odds. + Orleans the Bastard, Charles, Burgundy, + Alencon, Reignier, compass him about, + And Talbot perisheth by your default. + SOMERSET. York set him on; York should have sent him aid. + LUCY. And York as fast upon your Grace exclaims, + Swearing that you withhold his levied host, + Collected for this expedition. + SOMERSET. York lies; he might have sent and had the horse. + I owe him little duty and less love, + And take foul scorn to fawn on him by sending. + LUCY. The fraud of England, not the force of France, + Hath now entrapp'd the noble minded Talbot. + Never to England shall he bear his life, + But dies betray'd to fortune by your strife. + SOMERSET. Come, go; I will dispatch the horsemen straight; + Within six hours they will be at his aid. + LUCY. Too late comes rescue; he is ta'en or slain, + For fly he could not if he would have fled; + And fly would Talbot never, though he might. + SOMERSET. If he be dead, brave Talbot, then, adieu! + LUCY. His fame lives in the world, his shame in you. Exeunt + + + SCENE 5. + + The English camp near Bordeaux + + Enter TALBOT and JOHN his son + + TALBOT. O young John Talbot! I did send for thee + To tutor thee in stratagems of war, + That Talbot's name might be in thee reviv'd + When sapless age and weak unable limbs + Should bring thy father to his drooping chair. + But, O malignant and ill-boding stars! + Now thou art come unto a feast of death, + A terrible and unavoided danger; + Therefore, dear boy, mount on my swiftest horse, + And I'll direct thee how thou shalt escape + By sudden flight. Come, dally not, be gone. + JOHN. Is my name Talbot, and am I your son? + And shall I fly? O, if you love my mother, + Dishonour not her honourable name, + To make a bastard and a slave of me! + The world will say he is not Talbot's blood + That basely fled when noble Talbot stood. + TALBOT. Fly to revenge my death, if I be slain. + JOHN. He that flies so will ne'er return again. + TALBOT. If we both stay, we both are sure to die. + JOHN. Then let me stay; and, father, do you fly. + Your loss is great, so your regard should be; + My worth unknown, no loss is known in me; + Upon my death the French can little boast; + In yours they will, in you all hopes are lost. + Flight cannot stain the honour you have won; + But mine it will, that no exploit have done; + You fled for vantage, every one will swear; + But if I bow, they'll say it was for fear. + There is no hope that ever I will stay + If the first hour I shrink and run away. + Here, on my knee, I beg mortality, + Rather than life preserv'd with infamy. + TALBOT. Shall all thy mother's hopes lie in one tomb? + JOHN. Ay, rather than I'll shame my mother's womb. + TALBOT. Upon my blessing I command thee go. + JOHN. To fight I will, but not to fly the foe. + TALBOT. Part of thy father may be sav'd in thee. + JOHN. No part of him but will be shame in me. + TALBOT. Thou never hadst renown, nor canst not lose it. + JOHN. Yes, your renowned name; shall flight abuse it? + TALBOT. Thy father's charge shall clear thee from that stain. + JOHN. You cannot witness for me, being slain. + If death be so apparent, then both fly. + TALBOT. And leave my followers here to fight and die? + My age was never tainted with such shame. + JOHN. And shall my youth be guilty of such blame? + No more can I be severed from your side + Than can yourself yourself yourself in twain divide. + Stay, go, do what you will, the like do I; + For live I will not if my father die. + TALBOT. Then here I take my leave of thee, fair son, + Born to eclipse thy life this afternoon. + Come, side by side together live and die; + And soul with soul from France to heaven fly. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 6. + + A field of battle + + Alarum: excursions wherein JOHN TALBOT is hemm'd + about, and TALBOT rescues him + + TALBOT. Saint George and victory! Fight, soldiers, fight. + The Regent hath with Talbot broke his word + And left us to the rage of France his sword. + Where is John Talbot? Pause and take thy breath; + I gave thee life and rescu'd thee from death. + JOHN. O, twice my father, twice am I thy son! + The life thou gav'st me first was lost and done + Till with thy warlike sword, despite of fate, + To my determin'd time thou gav'st new date. + TALBOT. When from the Dauphin's crest thy sword struck + fire, + It warm'd thy father's heart with proud desire + Of bold-fac'd victory. Then leaden age, + Quicken'd with youthful spleen and warlike rage, + Beat down Alencon, Orleans, Burgundy, + And from the pride of Gallia rescued thee. + The ireful bastard Orleans, that drew blood + From thee, my boy, and had the maidenhood + Of thy first fight, I soon encountered + And, interchanging blows, I quickly shed + Some of his bastard blood; and in disgrace + Bespoke him thus: 'Contaminated, base, + And misbegotten blood I spill of thine, + Mean and right poor, for that pure blood of mine + Which thou didst force from Talbot, my brave boy.' + Here purposing the Bastard to destroy, + Came in strong rescue. Speak, thy father's care; + Art thou not weary, John? How dost thou fare? + Wilt thou yet leave the battle, boy, and fly, + Now thou art seal'd the son of chivalry? + Fly, to revenge my death when I am dead: + The help of one stands me in little stead. + O, too much folly is it, well I wot, + To hazard all our lives in one small boat! + If I to-day die not with Frenchmen's rage, + To-morrow I shall die with mickle age. + By me they nothing gain an if I stay: + 'Tis but the short'ning of my life one day. + In thee thy mother dies, our household's name, + My death's revenge, thy youth, and England's fame. + All these and more we hazard by thy stay; + All these are sav'd if thou wilt fly away. + JOHN. The sword of Orleans hath not made me smart; + These words of yours draw life-blood from my heart. + On that advantage, bought with such a shame, + To save a paltry life and slay bright fame, + Before young Talbot from old Talbot fly, + The coward horse that bears me fall and die! + And like me to the peasant boys of France, + To be shame's scorn and subject of mischance! + Surely, by all the glory you have won, + An if I fly, I am not Talbot's son; + Then talk no more of flight, it is no boot; + If son to Talbot, die at Talbot's foot. + TALBOT. Then follow thou thy desp'rate sire of Crete, + Thou Icarus; thy life to me is sweet. + If thou wilt fight, fight by thy father's side; + And, commendable prov'd, let's die in pride. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 7. + + Another part of the field + + Alarum; excursions. Enter old TALBOT led by a SERVANT + + TALBOT. Where is my other life? Mine own is gone. + O, where's young Talbot? Where is valiant John? + Triumphant death, smear'd with captivity, + Young Talbot's valour makes me smile at thee. + When he perceiv'd me shrink and on my knee, + His bloody sword he brandish'd over me, + And like a hungry lion did commence + Rough deeds of rage and stern impatience; + But when my angry guardant stood alone, + Tend'ring my ruin and assail'd of none, + Dizzy-ey'd fury and great rage of heart + Suddenly made him from my side to start + Into the clust'ring battle of the French; + And in that sea of blood my boy did drench + His overmounting spirit; and there died, + My Icarus, my blossom, in his pride. + + Enter soldiers, bearing the body of JOHN TALBOT + + SERVANT. O my dear lord, lo where your son is borne! + TALBOT. Thou antic Death, which laugh'st us here to scorn, + Anon, from thy insulting tyranny, + Coupled in bonds of perpetuity, + Two Talbots, winged through the lither sky, + In thy despite shall scape mortality. + O thou whose wounds become hard-favoured Death, + Speak to thy father ere thou yield thy breath! + Brave Death by speaking, whether he will or no; + Imagine him a Frenchman and thy foe. + Poor boy! he smiles, methinks, as who should say, + Had Death been French, then Death had died to-day. + Come, come, and lay him in his father's arms. + My spirit can no longer bear these harms. + Soldiers, adieu! I have what I would have, + Now my old arms are young John Talbot's grave. [Dies] + + Enter CHARLES, ALENCON, BURGUNDY, BASTARD, + LA PUCELLE, and forces + + CHARLES. Had York and Somerset brought rescue in, + We should have found a bloody day of this. + BASTARD. How the young whelp of Talbot's, raging wood, + Did flesh his puny sword in Frenchmen's blood! + PUCELLE. Once I encount'red him, and thus I said: + 'Thou maiden youth, be vanquish'd by a maid.' + But with a proud majestical high scorn + He answer'd thus: 'Young Talbot was not born + To be the pillage of a giglot wench.' + So, rushing in the bowels of the French, + He left me proudly, as unworthy fight. + BURGUNDY. Doubtless he would have made a noble knight. + See where he lies inhearsed in the arms + Of the most bloody nurser of his harms! + BASTARD. Hew them to pieces, hack their bones asunder, + Whose life was England's glory, Gallia's wonder. + CHARLES. O, no; forbear! For that which we have fled + During the life, let us not wrong it dead. + + Enter SIR WILLIAM Lucy, attended; a FRENCH + HERALD preceding + + LUCY. Herald, conduct me to the Dauphin's tent, + To know who hath obtain'd the glory of the day. + CHARLES. On what submissive message art thou sent? + LUCY. Submission, Dauphin! 'Tis a mere French word: + We English warriors wot not what it means. + I come to know what prisoners thou hast ta'en, + And to survey the bodies of the dead. + CHARLES. For prisoners ask'st thou? Hell our prison is. + But tell me whom thou seek'st. + LUCY. But where's the great Alcides of the field, + Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, + Created for his rare success in arms + Great Earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence, + Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield, + Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton, + Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of Sheffield, + The thrice victorious Lord of Falconbridge, + Knight of the noble order of Saint George, + Worthy Saint Michael, and the Golden Fleece, + Great Marshal to Henry the Sixth + Of all his wars within the realm of France? + PUCELLE. Here's a silly-stately style indeed! + The Turk, that two and fifty kingdoms hath, + Writes not so tedious a style as this. + Him that thou magnifi'st with all these tides, + Stinking and fly-blown lies here at our feet. + LUCY. Is Talbot slain-the Frenchmen's only scourge, + Your kingdom's terror and black Nemesis? + O, were mine eye-bans into bullets turn'd, + That I in rage might shoot them at your faces! + O that I could but can these dead to life! + It were enough to fright the realm of France. + Were but his picture left amongst you here, + It would amaze the proudest of you all. + Give me their bodies, that I may bear them hence + And give them burial as beseems their worth. + PUCELLE. I think this upstart is old Talbot's ghost, + He speaks with such a proud commanding spirit. + For God's sake, let him have them; to keep them here, + They would but stink, and putrefy the air. + CHARLES. Go, take their bodies hence. + LUCY. I'll bear them hence; but from their ashes shall be + rear'd + A phoenix that shall make all France afeard. + CHARLES. So we be rid of them, do with them what thou + wilt. + And now to Paris in this conquering vein! + All will be ours, now bloody Talbot's slain. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE 1. + +London. The palace + +Sennet. Enter the KING, GLOUCESTER, and EXETER + + KING HENRY. Have you perus'd the letters from the Pope, + The Emperor, and the Earl of Armagnac? + GLOUCESTER. I have, my lord; and their intent is this: + They humbly sue unto your Excellence + To have a godly peace concluded of + Between the realms of England and of France. + KING HENRY. How doth your Grace affect their motion? + GLOUCESTER. Well, my good lord, and as the only means + To stop effusion of our Christian blood + And stablish quietness on every side. + KING HENRY. Ay, marry, uncle; for I always thought + It was both impious and unnatural + That such immanity and bloody strife + Should reign among professors of one faith. + GLOUCESTER. Beside, my lord, the sooner to effect + And surer bind this knot of amity, + The Earl of Armagnac, near knit to Charles, + A man of great authority in France, + Proffers his only daughter to your Grace + In marriage, with a large and sumptuous dowry. + KING HENRY. Marriage, uncle! Alas, my years are young + And fitter is my study and my books + Than wanton dalliance with a paramour. + Yet call th' ambassadors, and, as you please, + So let them have their answers every one. + I shall be well content with any choice + Tends to God's glory and my country's weal. + + Enter in Cardinal's habit + BEAUFORT, the PAPAL LEGATE, and two AMBASSADORS + + EXETER. What! Is my Lord of Winchester install'd + And call'd unto a cardinal's degree? + Then I perceive that will be verified + Henry the Fifth did sometime prophesy: + 'If once he come to be a cardinal, + He'll make his cap co-equal with the crown.' + KING HENRY. My Lords Ambassadors, your several suits + Have been consider'd and debated on. + Your purpose is both good and reasonable, + And therefore are we certainly resolv'd + To draw conditions of a friendly peace, + Which by my Lord of Winchester we mean + Shall be transported presently to France. + GLOUCESTER. And for the proffer of my lord your master, + I have inform'd his Highness so at large, + As, liking of the lady's virtuous gifts, + Her beauty, and the value of her dower, + He doth intend she shall be England's Queen. + KING HENRY. [To AMBASSADOR] In argument and proof of + which contract, + Bear her this jewel, pledge of my affection. + And so, my Lord Protector, see them guarded + And safely brought to Dover; where inshipp'd, + Commit them to the fortune of the sea. + + Exeunt all but WINCHESTER and the LEGATE + WINCHESTER. Stay, my Lord Legate; you shall first receive + The sum of money which I promised + Should be delivered to his Holiness + For clothing me in these grave ornaments. + LEGATE. I will attend upon your lordship's leisure. + WINCHESTER. [Aside] Now Winchester will not submit, I + trow, + Or be inferior to the proudest peer. + Humphrey of Gloucester, thou shalt well perceive + That neither in birth or for authority + The Bishop will be overborne by thee. + I'll either make thee stoop and bend thy knee, + Or sack this country with a mutiny. Exeunt + + + SCENE 2. + + France. Plains in Anjou + + Enter CHARLES, BURGUNDY, ALENCON, BASTARD, + REIGNIER, LA PUCELLE, and forces + + CHARLES. These news, my lords, may cheer our drooping + spirits: + 'Tis said the stout Parisians do revolt + And turn again unto the warlike French. + ALENCON. Then march to Paris, royal Charles of France, + And keep not back your powers in dalliance. + PUCELLE. Peace be amongst them, if they turn to us; + Else ruin combat with their palaces! + + Enter a SCOUT + + SCOUT. Success unto our valiant general, + And happiness to his accomplices! + CHARLES. What tidings send our scouts? I prithee speak. + SCOUT. The English army, that divided was + Into two parties, is now conjoin'd in one, + And means to give you battle presently. + CHARLES. Somewhat too sudden, sirs, the warning is; + But we will presently provide for them. + BURGUNDY. I trust the ghost of Talbot is not there. + Now he is gone, my lord, you need not fear. + PUCELLE. Of all base passions fear is most accurs'd. + Command the conquest, Charles, it shall be thine, + Let Henry fret and all the world repine. + CHARLES. Then on, my lords; and France be fortunate! + Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 3. + + Before Angiers + + Alarum, excursions. Enter LA PUCELLE + + PUCELLE. The Regent conquers and the Frenchmen fly. + Now help, ye charming spells and periapts; + And ye choice spirits that admonish me + And give me signs of future accidents; [Thunder] + You speedy helpers that are substitutes + Under the lordly monarch of the north, + Appear and aid me in this enterprise! + + Enter FIENDS + + This speedy and quick appearance argues proof + Of your accustom'd diligence to me. + Now, ye familiar spirits that are cull'd + Out of the powerful regions under earth, + Help me this once, that France may get the field. + [They walk and speak not] + O, hold me not with silence over-long! + Where I was wont to feed you with my blood, + I'll lop a member off and give it you + In earnest of a further benefit, + So you do condescend to help me now. + [They hang their heads] + No hope to have redress? My body shall + Pay recompense, if you will grant my suit. + [They shake their heads] + Cannot my body nor blood sacrifice + Entreat you to your wonted furtherance? + Then take my soul-my body, soul, and all, + Before that England give the French the foil. + [They depart] + See! they forsake me. Now the time is come + That France must vail her lofty-plumed crest + And let her head fall into England's lap. + My ancient incantations are too weak, + And hell too strong for me to buckle with. + Now, France, thy glory droopeth to the dust. Exit + + Excursions. Enter French and English, fighting. + LA PUCELLE and YORK fight hand to hand; LA PUCELLE + is taken. The French fly + + YORK. Damsel of France, I think I have you fast. + Unchain your spirits now with spelling charms, + And try if they can gain your liberty. + A goodly prize, fit for the devil's grace! + See how the ugly witch doth bend her brows + As if, with Circe, she would change my shape! + PUCELLE. Chang'd to a worser shape thou canst not be. + YORK. O, Charles the Dauphin is a proper man: + No shape but his can please your dainty eye. + PUCELLE. A plaguing mischief fight on Charles and thee! + And may ye both be suddenly surpris'd + By bloody hands, in sleeping on your beds! + YORK. Fell banning hag; enchantress, hold thy tongue. + PUCELLE. I prithee give me leave to curse awhile. + YORK. Curse, miscreant, when thou comest to the stake. + Exeunt + + Alarum. Enter SUFFOLK, with MARGARET in his hand + + SUFFOLK. Be what thou wilt, thou art my prisoner. + [Gazes on her] + O fairest beauty, do not fear nor fly! + For I will touch thee but with reverent hands; + I kiss these fingers for eternal peace, + And lay them gently on thy tender side. + Who art thou? Say, that I may honour thee. + MARGARET. Margaret my name, and daughter to a king, + The King of Naples-whosoe'er thou art. + SUFFOLK. An earl I am, and Suffolk am I call'd. + Be not offended, nature's miracle, + Thou art allotted to be ta'en by me. + So doth the swan her downy cygnets save, + Keeping them prisoner underneath her wings. + Yet, if this servile usage once offend, + Go and be free again as Suffolk's friend. [She is going] + O, stay! [Aside] I have no power to let her pass; + My hand would free her, but my heart says no. + As plays the sun upon the glassy streams, + Twinkling another counterfeited beam, + So seems this gorgeous beauty to mine eyes. + Fain would I woo her, yet I dare not speak. + I'll call for pen and ink, and write my mind. + Fie, de la Pole! disable not thyself; + Hast not a tongue? Is she not here thy prisoner? + Wilt thou be daunted at a woman's sight? + Ay, beauty's princely majesty is such + Confounds the tongue and makes the senses rough. + MARGARET. Say, Earl of Suffolk, if thy name be so, + What ransom must I pay before I pass? + For I perceive I am thy prisoner. + SUFFOLK. [Aside] How canst thou tell she will deny thy + suit, + Before thou make a trial of her love? + MARGARET. Why speak'st thou not? What ransom must I + pay? + SUFFOLK. [Aside] She's beautiful, and therefore to be woo'd; + She is a woman, therefore to be won. + MARGARET. Wilt thou accept of ransom-yea or no? + SUFFOLK. [Aside] Fond man, remember that thou hast a + wife; + Then how can Margaret be thy paramour? + MARGARET. I were best leave him, for he will not hear. + SUFFOLK. [Aside] There all is marr'd; there lies a cooling + card. + MARGARET. He talks at random; sure, the man is mad. + SUFFOLK. [Aside] And yet a dispensation may be had. + MARGARET. And yet I would that you would answer me. + SUFFOLK. [Aside] I'll win this Lady Margaret. For whom? + Why, for my King! Tush, that's a wooden thing! + MARGARET. He talks of wood. It is some carpenter. + SUFFOLK. [Aside] Yet so my fancy may be satisfied, + And peace established between these realms. + But there remains a scruple in that too; + For though her father be the King of Naples, + Duke of Anjou and Maine, yet is he poor, + And our nobility will scorn the match. + MARGARET. Hear ye, Captain-are you not at leisure? + SUFFOLK. [Aside] It shall be so, disdain they ne'er so much. + Henry is youthful, and will quickly yield. + Madam, I have a secret to reveal. + MARGARET. [Aside] What though I be enthrall'd? He seems + a knight, + And will not any way dishonour me. + SUFFOLK. Lady, vouchsafe to listen what I say. + MARGARET. [Aside] Perhaps I shall be rescu'd by the French; + And then I need not crave his courtesy. + SUFFOLK. Sweet madam, give me hearing in a cause + MARGARET. [Aside] Tush! women have been captivate ere + now. + SUFFOLK. Lady, wherefore talk you so? + MARGARET. I cry you mercy, 'tis but quid for quo. + SUFFOLK. Say, gentle Princess, would you not suppose + Your bondage happy, to be made a queen? + MARGARET. To be a queen in bondage is more vile + Than is a slave in base servility; + For princes should be free. + SUFFOLK. And so shall you, + If happy England's royal king be free. + MARGARET. Why, what concerns his freedom unto me? + SUFFOLK. I'll undertake to make thee Henry's queen, + To put a golden sceptre in thy hand + And set a precious crown upon thy head, + If thou wilt condescend to be my- + MARGARET. What? + SUFFOLK. His love. + MARGARET. I am unworthy to be Henry's wife. + SUFFOLK. No, gentle madam; I unworthy am + To woo so fair a dame to be his wife + And have no portion in the choice myself. + How say you, madam? Are ye so content? + MARGARET. An if my father please, I am content. + SUFFOLK. Then call our captains and our colours forth! + And, madam, at your father's castle walls + We'll crave a parley to confer with him. + + Sound a parley. Enter REIGNIER on the walls + + See, Reignier, see, thy daughter prisoner! + REIGNIER. To whom? + SUFFOLK. To me. + REIGNIER. Suffolk, what remedy? + I am a soldier and unapt to weep + Or to exclaim on fortune's fickleness. + SUFFOLK. Yes, there is remedy enough, my lord. + Consent, and for thy honour give consent, + Thy daughter shall be wedded to my king, + Whom I with pain have woo'd and won thereto; + And this her easy-held imprisonment + Hath gain'd thy daughter princely liberty. + REIGNIER. Speaks Suffolk as he thinks? + SUFFOLK. Fair Margaret knows + That Suffolk doth not flatter, face, or feign. + REIGNIER. Upon thy princely warrant I descend + To give thee answer of thy just demand. + Exit REIGNIER from the walls + SUFFOLK. And here I will expect thy coming. + + Trumpets sound. Enter REIGNIER below + + REIGNIER. Welcome, brave Earl, into our territories; + Command in Anjou what your Honour pleases. + SUFFOLK. Thanks, Reignier, happy for so sweet a child, + Fit to be made companion with a king. + What answer makes your Grace unto my suit? + REIGNIER. Since thou dost deign to woo her little worth + To be the princely bride of such a lord, + Upon condition I may quietly + Enjoy mine own, the country Maine and Anjou, + Free from oppression or the stroke of war, + My daughter shall be Henry's, if he please. + SUFFOLK. That is her ransom; I deliver her. + And those two counties I will undertake + Your Grace shall well and quietly enjoy. + REIGNIER. And I again, in Henry's royal name, + As deputy unto that gracious king, + Give thee her hand for sign of plighted faith. + SUFFOLK. Reignier of France, I give thee kingly thanks, + Because this is in traffic of a king. + [Aside] And yet, methinks, I could be well content + To be mine own attorney in this case. + I'll over then to England with this news, + And make this marriage to be solemniz'd. + So, farewell, Reignier. Set this diamond safe + In golden palaces, as it becomes. + REIGNIER. I do embrace thee as I would embrace + The Christian prince, King Henry, were he here. + MARGARET. Farewell, my lord. Good wishes, praise, and + prayers, + Shall Suffolk ever have of Margaret. [She is going] + SUFFOLK. Farewell, sweet madam. But hark you, Margaret + No princely commendations to my king? + MARGARET. Such commendations as becomes a maid, + A virgin, and his servant, say to him. + SUFFOLK. Words sweetly plac'd and modestly directed. + But, madam, I must trouble you again + No loving token to his Majesty? + MARGARET. Yes, my good lord: a pure unspotted heart, + Never yet taint with love, I send the King. + SUFFOLK. And this withal. [Kisses her] + MARGARET. That for thyself, I will not so presume + To send such peevish tokens to a king. + Exeunt REIGNIER and MARGARET + SUFFOLK. O, wert thou for myself! But, Suffolk, stay; + Thou mayst not wander in that labyrinth: + There Minotaurs and ugly treasons lurk. + Solicit Henry with her wondrous praise. + Bethink thee on her virtues that surmount, + And natural graces that extinguish art; + Repeat their semblance often on the seas, + That, when thou com'st to kneel at Henry's feet, + Thou mayst bereave him of his wits with wonder. Exit + + + + + SCENE 4. + + Camp of the DUKE OF YORK in Anjou + + Enter YORK, WARWICK, and others + YORK. Bring forth that sorceress, condemn'd to burn. + + Enter LA PUCELLE, guarded, and a SHEPHERD + + SHEPHERD. Ah, Joan, this kills thy father's heart outright! + Have I sought every country far and near, + And, now it is my chance to find thee out, + Must I behold thy timeless cruel death? + Ah, Joan, sweet daughter Joan, I'll die with thee! + PUCELLE. Decrepit miser! base ignoble wretch! + I am descended of a gentler blood; + Thou art no father nor no friend of mine. + SHEPHERD. Out, out! My lords, an please you, 'tis not so; + I did beget her, all the parish knows. + Her mother liveth yet, can testify + She was the first fruit of my bach'lorship. + WARWICK. Graceless, wilt thou deny thy parentage? + YORK. This argues what her kind of life hath been- + Wicked and vile; and so her death concludes. + SHEPHERD. Fie, Joan, that thou wilt be so obstacle! + God knows thou art a collop of my flesh; + And for thy sake have I shed many a tear. + Deny me not, I prithee, gentle Joan. + PUCELLE. Peasant, avaunt! You have suborn'd this man + Of purpose to obscure my noble birth. + SHEPHERD. 'Tis true, I gave a noble to the priest + The morn that I was wedded to her mother. + Kneel down and take my blessing, good my girl. + Wilt thou not stoop? Now cursed be the time + Of thy nativity. I would the milk + Thy mother gave thee when thou suck'dst her breast + Had been a little ratsbane for thy sake. + Or else, when thou didst keep my lambs afield, + I wish some ravenous wolf had eaten thee. + Dost thou deny thy father, cursed drab? + O, burn her, burn her! Hanging is too good. Exit + YORK. Take her away; for she hath liv'd too long, + To fill the world with vicious qualities. + PUCELLE. First let me tell you whom you have condemn'd: + Not me begotten of a shepherd swain, + But issued from the progeny of kings; + Virtuous and holy, chosen from above + By inspiration of celestial grace, + To work exceeding miracles on earth. + I never had to do with wicked spirits. + But you, that are polluted with your lusts, + Stain'd with the guiltless blood of innocents, + Corrupt and tainted with a thousand vices, + Because you want the grace that others have, + You judge it straight a thing impossible + To compass wonders but by help of devils. + No, misconceived! Joan of Arc hath been + A virgin from her tender infancy, + Chaste and immaculate in very thought; + Whose maiden blood, thus rigorously effus'd, + Will cry for vengeance at the gates of heaven. + YORK. Ay, ay. Away with her to execution! + WARWICK. And hark ye, sirs; because she is a maid, + Spare for no fagots, let there be enow. + Place barrels of pitch upon the fatal stake, + That so her torture may be shortened. + PUCELLE. Will nothing turn your unrelenting hearts? + Then, Joan, discover thine infirmity + That warranteth by law to be thy privilege: + I am with child, ye bloody homicides; + Murder not then the fruit within my womb, + Although ye hale me to a violent death. + YORK. Now heaven forfend! The holy maid with child! + WARWICK. The greatest miracle that e'er ye wrought: + Is all your strict preciseness come to this? + YORK. She and the Dauphin have been juggling. + I did imagine what would be her refuge. + WARWICK. Well, go to; we'll have no bastards live; + Especially since Charles must father it. + PUCELLE. You are deceiv'd; my child is none of his: + It was Alencon that enjoy'd my love. + YORK. Alencon, that notorious Machiavel! + It dies, an if it had a thousand lives. + PUCELLE. O, give me leave, I have deluded you. + 'Twas neither Charles nor yet the Duke I nam'd, + But Reignier, King of Naples, that prevail'd. + WARWICK. A married man! That's most intolerable. + YORK. Why, here's a girl! I think she knows not well + There were so many-whom she may accuse. + WARWICK. It's sign she hath been liberal and free. + YORK. And yet, forsooth, she is a virgin pure. + Strumpet, thy words condemn thy brat and thee. + Use no entreaty, for it is in vain. + PUCELLE. Then lead me hence-with whom I leave my + curse: + May never glorious sun reflex his beams + Upon the country where you make abode; + But darkness and the gloomy shade of death + Environ you, till mischief and despair + Drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves! + Exit, guarded + YORK. Break thou in pieces and consume to ashes, + Thou foul accursed minister of hell! + + Enter CARDINAL BEAUFORT, attended + + CARDINAL. Lord Regent, I do greet your Excellence + With letters of commission from the King. + For know, my lords, the states of Christendom, + Mov'd with remorse of these outrageous broils, + Have earnestly implor'd a general peace + Betwixt our nation and the aspiring French; + And here at hand the Dauphin and his train + Approacheth, to confer about some matter. + YORK. Is all our travail turn'd to this effect? + After the slaughter of so many peers, + So many captains, gentlemen, and soldiers, + That in this quarrel have been overthrown + And sold their bodies for their country's benefit, + Shall we at last conclude effeminate peace? + Have we not lost most part of all the towns, + By treason, falsehood, and by treachery, + Our great progenitors had conquered? + O Warwick, Warwick! I foresee with grief + The utter loss of all the realm of France. + WARWICK. Be patient, York. If we conclude a peace, + It shall be with such strict and severe covenants + As little shall the Frenchmen gain thereby. + + Enter CHARLES, ALENCON, BASTARD, REIGNIER, and others + + CHARLES. Since, lords of England, it is thus agreed + That peaceful truce shall be proclaim'd in France, + We come to be informed by yourselves + What the conditions of that league must be. + YORK. Speak, Winchester; for boiling choler chokes + The hollow passage of my poison'd voice, + By sight of these our baleful enemies. + CARDINAL. Charles, and the rest, it is enacted thus: + That, in regard King Henry gives consent, + Of mere compassion and of lenity, + To ease your country of distressful war, + An suffer you to breathe in fruitful peace, + You shall become true liegemen to his crown; + And, Charles, upon condition thou wilt swear + To pay him tribute and submit thyself, + Thou shalt be plac'd as viceroy under him, + And still enjoy thy regal dignity. + ALENCON. Must he be then as shadow of himself? + Adorn his temples with a coronet + And yet, in substance and authority, + Retain but privilege of a private man? + This proffer is absurd and reasonless. + CHARLES. 'Tis known already that I am possess'd + With more than half the Gallian territories, + And therein reverenc'd for their lawful king. + Shall I, for lucre of the rest unvanquish'd, + Detract so much from that prerogative + As to be call'd but viceroy of the whole? + No, Lord Ambassador; I'll rather keep + That which I have than, coveting for more, + Be cast from possibility of all. + YORK. Insulting Charles! Hast thou by secret means + Us'd intercession to obtain a league, + And now the matter grows to compromise + Stand'st thou aloof upon comparison? + Either accept the title thou usurp'st, + Of benefit proceeding from our king + And not of any challenge of desert, + Or we will plague thee with incessant wars. + REIGNIER. [To CHARLES] My lord, you do not well in + obstinacy + To cavil in the course of this contract. + If once it be neglected, ten to one + We shall not find like opportunity. + ALENCON. [To CHARLES] To say the truth, it is your policy + To save your subjects from such massacre + And ruthless slaughters as are daily seen + By our proceeding in hostility; + And therefore take this compact of a truce, + Although you break it when your pleasure serves. + WARWICK. How say'st thou, Charles? Shall our condition + stand? + CHARLES. It shall; + Only reserv'd, you claim no interest + In any of our towns of garrison. + YORK. Then swear allegiance to his Majesty: + As thou art knight, never to disobey + Nor be rebellious to the crown of England + Thou, nor thy nobles, to the crown of England. + [CHARLES and the rest give tokens of fealty] + So, now dismiss your army when ye please; + Hang up your ensigns, let your drums be still, + For here we entertain a solemn peace. Exeunt + + + + + SCENE 5. + + London. The palace + + Enter SUFFOLK, in conference with the KING, + GLOUCESTER and EXETER + + KING HENRY. Your wondrous rare description, noble Earl, + Of beauteous Margaret hath astonish'd me. + Her virtues, graced with external gifts, + Do breed love's settled passions in my heart; + And like as rigour of tempestuous gusts + Provokes the mightiest hulk against the tide, + So am I driven by breath of her renown + Either to suffer shipwreck or arrive + Where I may have fruition of her love. + SUFFOLK. Tush, my good lord! This superficial tale + Is but a preface of her worthy praise. + The chief perfections of that lovely dame, + Had I sufficient skill to utter them, + Would make a volume of enticing lines, + Able to ravish any dull conceit; + And, which is more, she is not so divine, + So full-replete with choice of all delights, + But with as humble lowliness of mind + She is content to be at your command + Command, I mean, of virtuous intents, + To love and honour Henry as her lord. + KING HENRY. And otherwise will Henry ne'er presume. + Therefore, my Lord Protector, give consent + That Margaret may be England's royal Queen. + GLOUCESTER. So should I give consent to flatter sin. + You know, my lord, your Highness is betroth'd + Unto another lady of esteem. + How shall we then dispense with that contract, + And not deface your honour with reproach? + SUFFOLK. As doth a ruler with unlawful oaths; + Or one that at a triumph, having vow'd + To try his strength, forsaketh yet the lists + By reason of his adversary's odds: + A poor earl's daughter is unequal odds, + And therefore may be broke without offence. + GLOUCESTER. Why, what, I pray, is Margaret more than + that? + Her father is no better than an earl, + Although in glorious titles he excel. + SUFFOLK. Yes, my lord, her father is a king, + The King of Naples and Jerusalem; + And of such great authority in France + As his alliance will confirm our peace, + And keep the Frenchmen in allegiance. + GLOUCESTER. And so the Earl of Armagnac may do, + Because he is near kinsman unto Charles. + EXETER. Beside, his wealth doth warrant a liberal dower; + Where Reignier sooner will receive than give. + SUFFOLK. A dow'r, my lords! Disgrace not so your king, + That he should be so abject, base, and poor, + To choose for wealth and not for perfect love. + Henry is able to enrich his queen, + And not to seek a queen to make him rich. + So worthless peasants bargain for their wives, + As market-men for oxen, sheep, or horse. + Marriage is a matter of more worth + Than to be dealt in by attorneyship; + Not whom we will, but whom his Grace affects, + Must be companion of his nuptial bed. + And therefore, lords, since he affects her most, + It most of all these reasons bindeth us + In our opinions she should be preferr'd; + For what is wedlock forced but a hell, + An age of discord and continual strife? + Whereas the contrary bringeth bliss, + And is a pattern of celestial peace. + Whom should we match with Henry, being a king, + But Margaret, that is daughter to a king? + Her peerless feature, joined with her birth, + Approves her fit for none but for a king; + Her valiant courage and undaunted spirit, + More than in women commonly is seen, + Will answer our hope in issue of a king; + For Henry, son unto a conqueror, + Is likely to beget more conquerors, + If with a lady of so high resolve + As is fair Margaret he be link'd in love. + Then yield, my lords; and here conclude with me + That Margaret shall be Queen, and none but she. + KING HENRY. Whether it be through force of your report, + My noble Lord of Suffolk, or for that + My tender youth was never yet attaint + With any passion of inflaming love, + I cannot tell; but this I am assur'd, + I feel such sharp dissension in my breast, + Such fierce alarums both of hope and fear, + As I am sick with working of my thoughts. + Take therefore shipping; post, my lord, to France; + Agree to any covenants; and procure + That Lady Margaret do vouchsafe to come + To cross the seas to England, and be crown'd + King Henry's faithful and anointed queen. + For your expenses and sufficient charge, + Among the people gather up a tenth. + Be gone, I say; for till you do return + I rest perplexed with a thousand cares. + And you, good uncle, banish all offence: + If you do censure me by what you were, + Not what you are, I know it will excuse + This sudden execution of my will. + And so conduct me where, from company, + I may revolve and ruminate my grief. Exit + GLOUCESTER. Ay, grief, I fear me, both at first and last. + Exeunt GLOUCESTER and EXETER + SUFFOLK. Thus Suffolk hath prevail'd; and thus he goes, + As did the youthful Paris once to Greece, + With hope to find the like event in love + But prosper better than the Troyan did. + Margaret shall now be Queen, and rule the King; + But I will rule both her, the King, and realm. Exit + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1591 + +THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + KING HENRY THE SIXTH + HUMPHREY, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, his uncle + CARDINAL BEAUFORT, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, great-uncle to the King + RICHARD PLANTAGENET, DUKE OF YORK + EDWARD and RICHARD, his sons + DUKE OF SOMERSET + DUKE OF SUFFOLK + DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM + LORD CLIFFORD + YOUNG CLIFFORD, his son + EARL OF SALISBURY + EARL OF WARWICK + LORD SCALES + LORD SAY + SIR HUMPHREY STAFFORD + WILLIAM STAFFORD, his brother + SIR JOHN STANLEY + VAUX + MATTHEW GOFFE + A LIEUTENANT, a SHIPMASTER, a MASTER'S MATE, and WALTER WHITMORE + TWO GENTLEMEN, prisoners with Suffolk + JOHN HUME and JOHN SOUTHWELL, two priests + ROGER BOLINGBROKE, a conjurer + A SPIRIT raised by him + THOMAS HORNER, an armourer + PETER, his man + CLERK OF CHATHAM + MAYOR OF SAINT ALBANS + SAUNDER SIMPCOX, an impostor + ALEXANDER IDEN, a Kentish gentleman + JACK CADE, a rebel + GEORGE BEVIS, JOHN HOLLAND, DICK THE BUTCHER, SMITH THE WEAVER, + MICHAEL, &c., followers of Cade + TWO MURDERERS + + MARGARET, Queen to King Henry + ELEANOR, Duchess of Gloucester + MARGERY JOURDAIN, a witch + WIFE to SIMPCOX + + Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Petitioners, Aldermen, a Herald, + a Beadle, a Sheriff, Officers, Citizens, Prentices, Falconers, + Guards, Soldiers, Messengers, &c. + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +England + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +London. The palace + +Flourish of trumpets; then hautboys. Enter the KING, DUKE HUMPHREY +OF GLOUCESTER, SALISBURY, WARWICK, and CARDINAL BEAUFORT, on the one side; +the QUEEN, SUFFOLK, YORK, SOMERSET, and BUCKINGHAM, on the other + + SUFFOLK. As by your high imperial Majesty + I had in charge at my depart for France, + As procurator to your Excellence, + To marry Princess Margaret for your Grace; + So, in the famous ancient city Tours, + In presence of the Kings of France and Sicil, + The Dukes of Orleans, Calaber, Bretagne, and Alencon, + Seven earls, twelve barons, and twenty reverend bishops, + I have perform'd my task, and was espous'd; + And humbly now upon my bended knee, + In sight of England and her lordly peers, + Deliver up my title in the Queen + To your most gracious hands, that are the substance + Of that great shadow I did represent: + The happiest gift that ever marquis gave, + The fairest queen that ever king receiv'd. + KING HENRY. Suffolk, arise. Welcome, Queen Margaret: + I can express no kinder sign of love + Than this kind kiss. O Lord, that lends me life, + Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness! + For thou hast given me in this beauteous face + A world of earthly blessings to my soul, + If sympathy of love unite our thoughts. + QUEEN. Great King of England, and my gracious lord, + The mutual conference that my mind hath had, + By day, by night, waking and in my dreams, + In courtly company or at my beads, + With you, mine alder-liefest sovereign, + Makes me the bolder to salute my king + With ruder terms, such as my wit affords + And over-joy of heart doth minister. + KING HENRY. Her sight did ravish, but her grace in speech, + Her words y-clad with wisdom's majesty, + Makes me from wond'ring fall to weeping joys, + Such is the fulness of my heart's content. + Lords, with one cheerful voice welcome my love. + ALL. [Kneeling] Long live Queen Margaret, England's happiness! + QUEEN. We thank you all. [Flourish] + SUFFOLK. My Lord Protector, so it please your Grace, + Here are the articles of contracted peace + Between our sovereign and the French King Charles, + For eighteen months concluded by consent. + GLOUCESTER. [Reads] 'Imprimis: It is agreed between the French King + Charles and William de la Pole, Marquess of Suffolk, ambassador + for Henry King of England, that the said Henry shall espouse the + Lady Margaret, daughter unto Reignier King of Naples, Sicilia, + and Jerusalem, and crown her Queen of England ere the thirtieth + of May next ensuing. + Item: That the duchy of Anjou and the county of Maine shall be + released and delivered to the King her father'- + [Lets the paper fall] + KING HENRY. Uncle, how now! + GLOUCESTER. Pardon me, gracious lord; + Some sudden qualm hath struck me at the heart, + And dimm'd mine eyes, that I can read no further. + KING HENRY. Uncle of Winchester, I pray read on. + CARDINAL. [Reads] 'Item: It is further agreed between them that the + duchies of Anjou and Maine shall be released and delivered over + to the King her father, and she sent over of the King of + England's own proper cost and charges, without having any dowry.' + KING HENRY. They please us well. Lord Marquess, kneel down. + We here create thee the first Duke of Suffolk, + And girt thee with the sword. Cousin of York, + We here discharge your Grace from being Regent + I' th' parts of France, till term of eighteen months + Be full expir'd. Thanks, uncle Winchester, + Gloucester, York, Buckingham, Somerset, + Salisbury, and Warwick; + We thank you all for this great favour done + In entertainment to my princely queen. + Come, let us in, and with all speed provide + To see her coronation be perform'd. + Exeunt KING, QUEEN, and SUFFOLK + GLOUCESTER. Brave peers of England, pillars of the state, + To you Duke Humphrey must unload his grief + Your grief, the common grief of all the land. + What! did my brother Henry spend his youth, + His valour, coin, and people, in the wars? + Did he so often lodge in open field, + In winter's cold and summer's parching heat, + To conquer France, his true inheritance? + And did my brother Bedford toil his wits + To keep by policy what Henry got? + Have you yourselves, Somerset, Buckingham, + Brave York, Salisbury, and victorious Warwick, + Receiv'd deep scars in France and Normandy? + Or hath mine uncle Beaufort and myself, + With all the learned Council of the realm, + Studied so long, sat in the Council House + Early and late, debating to and fro + How France and Frenchmen might be kept in awe? + And had his Highness in his infancy + Crowned in Paris, in despite of foes? + And shall these labours and these honours die? + Shall Henry's conquest, Bedford's vigilance, + Your deeds of war, and all our counsel die? + O peers of England, shameful is this league! + Fatal this marriage, cancelling your fame, + Blotting your names from books of memory, + Razing the characters of your renown, + Defacing monuments of conquer'd France, + Undoing all, as all had never been! + CARDINAL. Nephew, what means this passionate discourse, + This peroration with such circumstance? + For France, 'tis ours; and we will keep it still. + GLOUCESTER. Ay, uncle, we will keep it if we can; + But now it is impossible we should. + Suffolk, the new-made duke that rules the roast, + Hath given the duchy of Anjou and Maine + Unto the poor King Reignier, whose large style + Agrees not with the leanness of his purse. + SALISBURY. Now, by the death of Him that died for all, + These counties were the keys of Normandy! + But wherefore weeps Warwick, my valiant son? + WARWICK. For grief that they are past recovery; + For were there hope to conquer them again + My sword should shed hot blood, mine eyes no tears. + Anjou and Maine! myself did win them both; + Those provinces these arms of mine did conquer; + And are the cities that I got with wounds + Deliver'd up again with peaceful words? + Mort Dieu! + YORK. For Suffolk's duke, may he be suffocate, + That dims the honour of this warlike isle! + France should have torn and rent my very heart + Before I would have yielded to this league. + I never read but England's kings have had + Large sums of gold and dowries with their wives; + And our King Henry gives away his own + To match with her that brings no vantages. + GLOUCESTER. A proper jest, and never heard before, + That Suffolk should demand a whole fifteenth + For costs and charges in transporting her! + She should have stay'd in France, and starv'd in France, + Before- + CARDINAL. My Lord of Gloucester, now ye grow too hot: + It was the pleasure of my lord the King. + GLOUCESTER. My Lord of Winchester, I know your mind; + 'Tis not my speeches that you do mislike, + But 'tis my presence that doth trouble ye. + Rancour will out: proud prelate, in thy face + I see thy fury; if I longer stay + We shall begin our ancient bickerings. + Lordings, farewell; and say, when I am gone, + I prophesied France will be lost ere long. Exit + CARDINAL. So, there goes our Protector in a rage. + 'Tis known to you he is mine enemy; + Nay, more, an enemy unto you all, + And no great friend, I fear me, to the King. + Consider, lords, he is the next of blood + And heir apparent to the English crown. + Had Henry got an empire by his marriage + And all the wealthy kingdoms of the west, + There's reason he should be displeas'd at it. + Look to it, lords; let not his smoothing words + Bewitch your hearts; be wise and circumspect. + What though the common people favour him, + Calling him 'Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloucester,' + Clapping their hands, and crying with loud voice + 'Jesu maintain your royal excellence!' + With 'God preserve the good Duke Humphrey!' + I fear me, lords, for all this flattering gloss, + He will be found a dangerous Protector. + BUCKINGHAM. Why should he then protect our sovereign, + He being of age to govern of himself? + Cousin of Somerset, join you with me, + And all together, with the Duke of Suffolk, + We'll quickly hoise Duke Humphrey from his seat. + CARDINAL. This weighty business will not brook delay; + I'll to the Duke of Suffolk presently. Exit + SOMERSET. Cousin of Buckingham, though Humphrey's pride + And greatness of his place be grief to us, + Yet let us watch the haughty cardinal; + His insolence is more intolerable + Than all the princes in the land beside; + If Gloucester be displac'd, he'll be Protector. + BUCKINGHAM. Or thou or I, Somerset, will be Protector, + Despite Duke Humphrey or the Cardinal. + Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and SOMERSET + SALISBURY. Pride went before, ambition follows him. + While these do labour for their own preferment, + Behoves it us to labour for the realm. + I never saw but Humphrey Duke of Gloucester + Did bear him like a noble gentleman. + Oft have I seen the haughty Cardinal- + More like a soldier than a man o' th' church, + As stout and proud as he were lord of all- + Swear like a ruffian and demean himself + Unlike the ruler of a commonweal. + Warwick my son, the comfort of my age, + Thy deeds, thy plainness, and thy housekeeping, + Hath won the greatest favour of the commons, + Excepting none but good Duke Humphrey. + And, brother York, thy acts in Ireland, + In bringing them to civil discipline, + Thy late exploits done in the heart of France + When thou wert Regent for our sovereign, + Have made thee fear'd and honour'd of the people: + Join we together for the public good, + In what we can, to bridle and suppress + The pride of Suffolk and the Cardinal, + With Somerset's and Buckingham's ambition; + And, as we may, cherish Duke Humphrey's deeds + While they do tend the profit of the land. + WARWICK. So God help Warwick, as he loves the land + And common profit of his country! + YORK. And so says York- [Aside] for he hath greatest cause. + SALISBURY. Then let's make haste away and look unto the main. + WARWICK. Unto the main! O father, Maine is lost- + That Maine which by main force Warwick did win, + And would have kept so long as breath did last. + Main chance, father, you meant; but I meant Maine, + Which I will win from France, or else be slain. + Exeunt WARWICK and SALISBURY + YORK. Anjou and Maine are given to the French; + Paris is lost; the state of Normandy + Stands on a tickle point now they are gone. + Suffolk concluded on the articles; + The peers agreed; and Henry was well pleas'd + To changes two dukedoms for a duke's fair daughter. + I cannot blame them all: what is't to them? + 'Tis thine they give away, and not their own. + Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage, + And purchase friends, and give to courtezans, + Still revelling like lords till all be gone; + While as the silly owner of the goods + Weeps over them and wrings his hapless hands + And shakes his head and trembling stands aloof, + While all is shar'd and all is borne away, + Ready to starve and dare not touch his own. + So York must sit and fret and bite his tongue, + While his own lands are bargain'd for and sold. + Methinks the realms of England, France, and Ireland, + Bear that proportion to my flesh and blood + As did the fatal brand Althaea burnt + Unto the prince's heart of Calydon. + Anjou and Maine both given unto the French! + Cold news for me, for I had hope of France, + Even as I have of fertile England's soil. + A day will come when York shall claim his own; + And therefore I will take the Nevils' parts, + And make a show of love to proud Duke Humphrey, + And when I spy advantage, claim the crown, + For that's the golden mark I seek to hit. + Nor shall proud Lancaster usurp my right, + Nor hold the sceptre in his childish fist, + Nor wear the diadem upon his head, + Whose church-like humours fits not for a crown. + Then, York, be still awhile, till time do serve; + Watch thou and wake, when others be asleep, + To pry into the secrets of the state; + Till Henry, surfeiting in joys of love + With his new bride and England's dear-bought queen, + And Humphrey with the peers be fall'n at jars; + Then will I raise aloft the milk-white rose, + With whose sweet smell the air shall be perfum'd, + And in my standard bear the arms of York, + To grapple with the house of Lancaster; + And force perforce I'll make him yield the crown, + Whose bookish rule hath pull'd fair England down. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +The DUKE OF GLOUCESTER'S house + +Enter DUKE and his wife ELEANOR + + DUCHESS. Why droops my lord, like over-ripen'd corn + Hanging the head at Ceres' plenteous load? + Why doth the great Duke Humphrey knit his brows, + As frowning at the favours of the world? + Why are thine eyes fix'd to the sullen earth, + Gazing on that which seems to dim thy sight? + What see'st thou there? King Henry's diadem, + Enchas'd with all the honours of the world? + If so, gaze on, and grovel on thy face + Until thy head be circled with the same. + Put forth thy hand, reach at the glorious gold. + What, is't too short? I'll lengthen it with mine; + And having both together heav'd it up, + We'll both together lift our heads to heaven, + And never more abase our sight so low + As to vouchsafe one glance unto the ground. + GLOUCESTER. O Nell, sweet Nell, if thou dost love thy lord, + Banish the canker of ambitious thoughts! + And may that thought, when I imagine ill + Against my king and nephew, virtuous Henry, + Be my last breathing in this mortal world! + My troublous dreams this night doth make me sad. + DUCHESS. What dream'd my lord? Tell me, and I'll requite it + With sweet rehearsal of my morning's dream. + GLOUCESTER. Methought this staff, mine office-badge in court, + Was broke in twain; by whom I have forgot, + But, as I think, it was by th' Cardinal; + And on the pieces of the broken wand + Were plac'd the heads of Edmund Duke of Somerset + And William de la Pole, first Duke of Suffolk. + This was my dream; what it doth bode God knows. + DUCHESS. Tut, this was nothing but an argument + That he that breaks a stick of Gloucester's grove + Shall lose his head for his presumption. + But list to me, my Humphrey, my sweet Duke: + Methought I sat in seat of majesty + In the cathedral church of Westminster, + And in that chair where kings and queens were crown'd; + Where Henry and Dame Margaret kneel'd to me, + And on my head did set the diadem. + GLOUCESTER. Nay, Eleanor, then must I chide outright. + Presumptuous dame, ill-nurtur'd Eleanor! + Art thou not second woman in the realm, + And the Protector's wife, belov'd of him? + Hast thou not worldly pleasure at command + Above the reach or compass of thy thought? + And wilt thou still be hammering treachery + To tumble down thy husband and thyself + From top of honour to disgrace's feet? + Away from me, and let me hear no more! + DUCHESS. What, what, my lord! Are you so choleric + With Eleanor for telling but her dream? + Next time I'll keep my dreams unto myself + And not be check'd. + GLOUCESTER. Nay, be not angry; I am pleas'd again. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. My Lord Protector, 'tis his Highness' pleasure + You do prepare to ride unto Saint Albans, + Where as the King and Queen do mean to hawk. + GLOUCESTER. I go. Come, Nell, thou wilt ride with us? + DUCHESS. Yes, my good lord, I'll follow presently. + Exeunt GLOUCESTER and MESSENGER + Follow I must; I cannot go before, + While Gloucester bears this base and humble mind. + Were I a man, a duke, and next of blood, + I would remove these tedious stumbling-blocks + And smooth my way upon their headless necks; + And, being a woman, I will not be slack + To play my part in Fortune's pageant. + Where are you there, Sir John? Nay, fear not, man, + We are alone; here's none but thee and I. + + Enter HUME + + HUME. Jesus preserve your royal Majesty! + DUCHESS. What say'st thou? Majesty! I am but Grace. + HUME. But, by the grace of God and Hume's advice, + Your Grace's title shall be multiplied. + DUCHESS. What say'st thou, man? Hast thou as yet conferr'd + With Margery Jourdain, the cunning witch of Eie, + With Roger Bolingbroke, the conjurer? + And will they undertake to do me good? + HUME. This they have promised, to show your Highness + A spirit rais'd from depth of underground + That shall make answer to such questions + As by your Grace shall be propounded him + DUCHESS. It is enough; I'll think upon the questions; + When from Saint Albans we do make return + We'll see these things effected to the full. + Here, Hume, take this reward; make merry, man, + With thy confederates in this weighty cause. Exit + HUME. Hume must make merry with the Duchess' gold; + Marry, and shall. But, how now, Sir John Hume! + Seal up your lips and give no words but mum: + The business asketh silent secrecy. + Dame Eleanor gives gold to bring the witch: + Gold cannot come amiss were she a devil. + Yet have I gold flies from another coast- + I dare not say from the rich Cardinal, + And from the great and new-made Duke of Suffolk; + Yet I do find it so; for, to be plain, + They, knowing Dame Eleanor's aspiring humour, + Have hired me to undermine the Duchess, + And buzz these conjurations in her brain. + They say 'A crafty knave does need no broker'; + Yet am I Suffolk and the Cardinal's broker. + Hume, if you take not heed, you shall go near + To call them both a pair of crafty knaves. + Well, so its stands; and thus, I fear, at last + Hume's knavery will be the Duchess' wreck, + And her attainture will be Humphrey's fall + Sort how it will, I shall have gold for all. Exit + + + + +SCENE III. +London. The palace + +Enter three or four PETITIONERS, PETER, the Armourer's man, being one + + FIRST PETITIONER. My masters, let's stand close; my Lord Protector + will come this way by and by, and then we may deliver our + supplications in the quill. + SECOND PETITIONER. Marry, the Lord protect him, for he's a good + man, Jesu bless him! + + Enter SUFFOLK and QUEEN + + FIRST PETITIONER. Here 'a comes, methinks, and the Queen with him. + I'll be the first, sure. + SECOND PETITIONER. Come back, fool; this is the Duke of Suffolk and + not my Lord Protector. + SUFFOLK. How now, fellow! Wouldst anything with me? + FIRST PETITIONER. I pray, my lord, pardon me; I took ye for my Lord + Protector. + QUEEN. [Reads] 'To my Lord Protector!' Are your supplications to + his lordship? Let me see them. What is thine? + FIRST PETITIONER. Mine is, an't please your Grace, against John + Goodman, my Lord Cardinal's man, for keeping my house and lands, + and wife and all, from me. + SUFFOLK. Thy wife too! That's some wrong indeed. What's yours? + What's here! [Reads] 'Against the Duke of Suffolk, for enclosing + the commons of Melford.' How now, sir knave! + SECOND PETITIONER. Alas, sir, I am but a poor petitioner of our + whole township. + PETER. [Presenting his petition] Against my master, Thomas Horner, + for saying that the Duke of York was rightful heir to the crown. + QUEEN. What say'st thou? Did the Duke of York say he was rightful + heir to the crown? + PETER. That my master was? No, forsooth. My master said that he + was, and that the King was an usurper. + SUFFOLK. Who is there? [Enter servant] Take this fellow in, and + send for his master with a pursuivant presently. We'll hear more + of your matter before the King. + Exit servant with PETER + QUEEN. And as for you, that love to be protected + Under the wings of our Protector's grace, + Begin your suits anew, and sue to him. + [Tears the supplications] + Away, base cullions! Suffolk, let them go. + ALL. Come, let's be gone. Exeunt + QUEEN. My Lord of Suffolk, say, is this the guise, + Is this the fashions in the court of England? + Is this the government of Britain's isle, + And this the royalty of Albion's king? + What, shall King Henry be a pupil still, + Under the surly Gloucester's governance? + Am I a queen in title and in style, + And must be made a subject to a duke? + I tell thee, Pole, when in the city Tours + Thou ran'st a tilt in honour of my love + And stol'st away the ladies' hearts of France, + I thought King Henry had resembled thee + In courage, courtship, and proportion; + But all his mind is bent to holiness, + To number Ave-Maries on his beads; + His champions are the prophets and apostles; + His weapons, holy saws of sacred writ; + His study is his tilt-yard, and his loves + Are brazen images of canonized saints. + I would the college of the Cardinals + Would choose him Pope, and carry him to Rome, + And set the triple crown upon his head; + That were a state fit for his holiness. + SUFFOLK. Madam, be patient. As I was cause + Your Highness came to England, so will I + In England work your Grace's full content. + QUEEN. Beside the haughty Protector, have we Beaufort + The imperious churchman; Somerset, Buckingham, + And grumbling York; and not the least of these + But can do more in England than the King. + SUFFOLK. And he of these that can do most of all + Cannot do more in England than the Nevils; + Salisbury and Warwick are no simple peers. + QUEEN. Not all these lords do vex me half so much + As that proud dame, the Lord Protector's wife. + She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies, + More like an empress than Duke Humphrey's wife. + Strangers in court do take her for the Queen. + She bears a duke's revenues on her back, + And in her heart she scorns our poverty; + Shall I not live to be aveng'd on her? + Contemptuous base-born callet as she is, + She vaunted 'mongst her minions t' other day + The very train of her worst wearing gown + Was better worth than all my father's lands, + Till Suffolk gave two dukedoms for his daughter. + SUFFOLK. Madam, myself have lim'd a bush for her, + And plac'd a quire of such enticing birds + That she will light to listen to the lays, + And never mount to trouble you again. + So, let her rest. And, madam, list to me, + For I am bold to counsel you in this: + Although we fancy not the Cardinal, + Yet must we join with him and with the lords, + Till we have brought Duke Humphrey in disgrace. + As for the Duke of York, this late complaint + Will make but little for his benefit. + So one by one we'll weed them all at last, + And you yourself shall steer the happy helm. + + Sound a sennet. Enter the KING, DUKE HUMPHREY, + CARDINAL BEAUFORT, BUCKINGHAM, YORK, SOMERSET, SALISBURY, + WARWICK, and the DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER + + KING HENRY. For my part, noble lords, I care not which: + Or Somerset or York, all's one to me. + YORK. If York have ill demean'd himself in France, + Then let him be denay'd the regentship. + SOMERSET. If Somerset be unworthy of the place, + Let York be Regent; I will yield to him. + WARWICK. Whether your Grace be worthy, yea or no, + Dispute not that; York is the worthier. + CARDINAL. Ambitious Warwick, let thy betters speak. + WARWICK. The Cardinal's not my better in the field. + BUCKINGHAM. All in this presence are thy betters, Warwick. + WARWICK. Warwick may live to be the best of all. + SALISBURY. Peace, son! And show some reason, Buckingham, + Why Somerset should be preferr'd in this. + QUEEN. Because the King, forsooth, will have it so. + GLOUCESTER. Madam, the King is old enough himself + To give his censure. These are no women's matters. + QUEEN. If he be old enough, what needs your Grace + To be Protector of his Excellence? + GLOUCESTER. Madam, I am Protector of the realm; + And at his pleasure will resign my place. + SUFFOLK. Resign it then, and leave thine insolence. + Since thou wert king- as who is king but thou?- + The commonwealth hath daily run to wrack, + The Dauphin hath prevail'd beyond the seas, + And all the peers and nobles of the realm + Have been as bondmen to thy sovereignty. + CARDINAL. The commons hast thou rack'd; the clergy's bags + Are lank and lean with thy extortions. + SOMERSET. Thy sumptuous buildings and thy wife's attire + Have cost a mass of public treasury. + BUCKINGHAM. Thy cruelty in execution + Upon offenders hath exceeded law, + And left thee to the mercy of the law. + QUEEN. Thy sale of offices and towns in France, + If they were known, as the suspect is great, + Would make thee quickly hop without thy head. + Exit GLOUCESTER. The QUEEN drops QUEEN her fan + Give me my fan. What, minion, can ye not? + [She gives the DUCHESS a box on the ear] + I cry your mercy, madam; was it you? + DUCHESS. Was't I? Yea, I it was, proud Frenchwoman. + Could I come near your beauty with my nails, + I could set my ten commandments in your face. + KING HENRY. Sweet aunt, be quiet; 'twas against her will. + DUCHESS. Against her will, good King? Look to 't in time; + She'll hamper thee and dandle thee like a baby. + Though in this place most master wear no breeches, + She shall not strike Dame Eleanor unreveng'd. Exit + BUCKINGHAM. Lord Cardinal, I will follow Eleanor, + And listen after Humphrey, how he proceeds. + She's tickled now; her fume needs no spurs, + She'll gallop far enough to her destruction. Exit + + Re-enter GLOUCESTER + + GLOUCESTER. Now, lords, my choler being overblown + With walking once about the quadrangle, + I come to talk of commonwealth affairs. + As for your spiteful false objections, + Prove them, and I lie open to the law; + But God in mercy so deal with my soul + As I in duty love my king and country! + But to the matter that we have in hand: + I say, my sovereign, York is meetest man + To be your Regent in the realm of France. + SUFFOLK. Before we make election, give me leave + To show some reason, of no little force, + That York is most unmeet of any man. + YORK. I'll tell thee, Suffolk, why I am unmeet: + First, for I cannot flatter thee in pride; + Next, if I be appointed for the place, + My Lord of Somerset will keep me here + Without discharge, money, or furniture, + Till France be won into the Dauphin's hands. + Last time I danc'd attendance on his will + Till Paris was besieg'd, famish'd, and lost. + WARWICK. That can I witness; and a fouler fact + Did never traitor in the land commit. + SUFFOLK. Peace, headstrong Warwick! + WARWICK. Image of pride, why should I hold my peace? + + Enter HORNER, the Armourer, and his man PETER, guarded + + SUFFOLK. Because here is a man accus'd of treason: + Pray God the Duke of York excuse himself! + YORK. Doth any one accuse York for a traitor? + KING HENRY. What mean'st thou, Suffolk? Tell me, what are these? + SUFFOLK. Please it your Majesty, this is the man + That doth accuse his master of high treason; + His words were these: that Richard Duke of York + Was rightful heir unto the English crown, + And that your Majesty was an usurper. + KING HENRY. Say, man, were these thy words? + HORNER. An't shall please your Majesty, I never said nor thought + any such matter. God is my witness, I am falsely accus'd by the + villain. + PETER. [Holding up his hands] By these ten bones, my lords, he did + speak them to me in the garret one night, as we were scouring my + Lord of York's armour. + YORK. Base dunghill villain and mechanical, + I'll have thy head for this thy traitor's speech. + I do beseech your royal Majesty, + Let him have all the rigour of the law. + HORNER`. Alas, my lord, hang me if ever I spake the words. My + accuser is my prentice; and when I did correct him for his fault + the other day, he did vow upon his knees he would be even with + me. I have good witness of this; therefore I beseech your + Majesty, do not cast away an honest man for a villain's + accusation. + KING HENRY. Uncle, what shall we say to this in law? + GLOUCESTER. This doom, my lord, if I may judge: + Let Somerset be Regent o'er the French, + Because in York this breeds suspicion; + And let these have a day appointed them + For single combat in convenient place, + For he hath witness of his servant's malice. + This is the law, and this Duke Humphrey's doom. + SOMERSET. I humbly thank your royal Majesty. + HORNER. And I accept the combat willingly. + PETER. Alas, my lord, I cannot fight; for God's sake, pity my case! + The spite of man prevaileth against me. O Lord, have mercy upon + me, I shall never be able to fight a blow! O Lord, my heart! + GLOUCESTER. Sirrah, or you must fight or else be hang'd. + KING HENRY. Away with them to prison; and the day of combat shall + be the last of the next month. + Come, Somerset, we'll see thee sent away. Flourish. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +London. The DUKE OF GLOUCESTER'S garden + +Enter MARGERY JOURDAIN, the witch; the two priests, HUME and SOUTHWELL; +and BOLINGBROKE + + HUME. Come, my masters; the Duchess, I tell you, expects + performance of your promises. + BOLINGBROKE. Master Hume, we are therefore provided; will her + ladyship behold and hear our exorcisms? + HUME. Ay, what else? Fear you not her courage. + BOLINGBROKE. I have heard her reported to be a woman of an + invincible spirit; but it shall be convenient, Master Hume, that + you be by her aloft while we be busy below; and so I pray you go, + in God's name, and leave us. [Exit HUME] Mother Jourdain, be you + prostrate and grovel on the earth; John Southwell, read you; and + let us to our work. + + Enter DUCHESS aloft, followed by HUME + + DUCHESS. Well said, my masters; and welcome all. To this gear, the + sooner the better. + BOLINGBROKE. Patience, good lady; wizards know their times: + Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night, + The time of night when Troy was set on fire; + The time when screech-owls cry and ban-dogs howl, + And spirits walk and ghosts break up their graves- + That time best fits the work we have in hand. + Madam, sit you, and fear not: whom we raise + We will make fast within a hallow'd verge. + + [Here they do the ceremonies belonging, and make the circle; + BOLINGBROKE or SOUTHWELL reads: 'Conjuro te,' &c. + It thunders and lightens terribly; then the SPIRIT riseth] + + SPIRIT. Adsum. + MARGERY JOURDAIN. Asmath, + By the eternal God, whose name and power + Thou tremblest at, answer that I shall ask; + For till thou speak thou shalt not pass from hence. + SPIRIT. Ask what thou wilt; that I had said and done. + BOLINGBROKE. [Reads] 'First of the king: what shall of him become?' + SPIRIT. The Duke yet lives that Henry shall depose; + But him outlive, and die a violent death. + [As the SPIRIT speaks, SOUTHWELL writes the answer] + BOLINGBROKE. 'What fates await the Duke of Suffolk?' + SPIRIT. By water shall he die and take his end. + BOLINGBROKE. 'What shall befall the Duke of Somerset?' + SPIRIT. Let him shun castles: + Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains + Than where castles mounted stand. + Have done, for more I hardly can endure. + BOLINGBROKE. Descend to darkness and the burning lake; + False fiend, avoid! Thunder and lightning. Exit SPIRIT + + Enter the DUKE OF YORK and the DUKE OF + BUCKINGHAM with guard, and break in + + YORK. Lay hands upon these traitors and their trash. + Beldam, I think we watch'd you at an inch. + What, madam, are you there? The King and commonweal + Are deeply indebted for this piece of pains; + My Lord Protector will, I doubt it not, + See you well guerdon'd for these good deserts. + DUCHESS. Not half so bad as thine to England's king, + Injurious Duke, that threatest where's no cause. + BUCKINGHAM. True, madam, none at all. What can you this? + Away with them! let them be clapp'd up close, + And kept asunder. You, madam, shall with us. + Stafford, take her to thee. + We'll see your trinkets here all forthcoming. + All, away! + Exeunt, above, DUCHESS and HUME, guarded; below, + WITCH, SOUTHWELL and BOLINGBROKE, guarded + YORK. Lord Buckingham, methinks you watch'd her well. + A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon! + Now, pray, my lord, let's see the devil's writ. + What have we here? [Reads] + 'The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose; + But him outlive, and die a violent death.' + Why, this is just + 'Aio te, Aeacida, Romanos vincere posse.' + Well, to the rest: + 'Tell me what fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk?' + 'By water shall he die and take his end.' + 'What shall betide the Duke of Somerset?' + 'Let him shun castles; + Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains + Than where castles mounted stand.' + Come, come, my lords; + These oracles are hardly attain'd, + And hardly understood. + The King is now in progress towards Saint Albans, + With him the husband of this lovely lady; + Thither go these news as fast as horse can carry them- + A sorry breakfast for my Lord Protector. + BUCKINGHAM. Your Grace shall give me leave, my Lord of York, + To be the post, in hope of his reward. + YORK. At your pleasure, my good lord. + Who's within there, ho? + + Enter a serving-man + + Invite my Lords of Salisbury and Warwick + To sup with me to-morrow night. Away! Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +Saint Albans + +Enter the KING, QUEEN, GLOUCESTER, CARDINAL, and SUFFOLK, +with Falconers halloing + + QUEEN. Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook, + I saw not better sport these seven years' day; + Yet, by your leave, the wind was very high, + And ten to one old Joan had not gone out. + KING HENRY. But what a point, my lord, your falcon made, + And what a pitch she flew above the rest! + To see how God in all His creatures works! + Yea, man and birds are fain of climbing high. + SUFFOLK. No marvel, an it like your Majesty, + My Lord Protector's hawks do tow'r so well; + They know their master loves to be aloft, + And bears his thoughts above his falcon's pitch. + GLOUCESTER. My lord, 'tis but a base ignoble mind + That mounts no higher than a bird can soar. + CARDINAL. I thought as much; he would be above the clouds. + GLOUCESTER. Ay, my lord Cardinal, how think you by that? + Were it not good your Grace could fly to heaven? + KING HENRY. The treasury of everlasting joy! + CARDINAL. Thy heaven is on earth; thine eyes and thoughts + Beat on a crown, the treasure of thy heart; + Pernicious Protector, dangerous peer, + That smooth'st it so with King and commonweal. + GLOUCESTER. What, Cardinal, is your priesthood grown peremptory? + Tantaene animis coelestibus irae? + Churchmen so hot? Good uncle, hide such malice; + With such holiness can you do it? + SUFFOLK. No malice, sir; no more than well becomes + So good a quarrel and so bad a peer. + GLOUCESTER. As who, my lord? + SUFFOLK. Why, as you, my lord, + An't like your lordly Lord's Protectorship. + GLOUCESTER. Why, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence. + QUEEN. And thy ambition, Gloucester. + KING HENRY. I prithee, peace, + Good Queen, and whet not on these furious peers; + For blessed are the peacemakers on earth. + CARDINAL. Let me be blessed for the peace I make + Against this proud Protector with my sword! + GLOUCESTER. [Aside to CARDINAL] Faith, holy uncle, would 'twere + come to that! + CARDINAL. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Marry, when thou dar'st. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside to CARDINAL] Make up no factious numbers for the + matter; + In thine own person answer thy abuse. + CARDINAL. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Ay, where thou dar'st not peep; an + if thou dar'st, + This evening on the east side of the grove. + KING HENRY. How now, my lords! + CARDINAL. Believe me, cousin Gloucester, + Had not your man put up the fowl so suddenly, + We had had more sport. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Come with thy + two-hand sword. + GLOUCESTER. True, uncle. + CARDINAL. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Are ye advis'd? The east side of + the grove? + GLOUCESTER. [Aside to CARDINAL] Cardinal, I am with you. + KING HENRY. Why, how now, uncle Gloucester! + GLOUCESTER. Talking of hawking; nothing else, my lord. + [Aside to CARDINAL] Now, by God's Mother, priest, + I'll shave your crown for this, + Or all my fence shall fail. + CARDINAL. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] Medice, teipsum; + Protector, see to't well; protect yourself. + KING HENRY. The winds grow high; so do your stomachs, lords. + How irksome is this music to my heart! + When such strings jar, what hope of harmony? + I pray, my lords, let me compound this strife. + + Enter a TOWNSMAN of Saint Albans, crying 'A miracle!' + + GLOUCESTER. What means this noise? + Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim? + TOWNSMAN. A miracle! A miracle! + SUFFOLK. Come to the King, and tell him what miracle. + TOWNSMAN. Forsooth, a blind man at Saint Albans shrine + Within this half hour hath receiv'd his sight; + A man that ne'er saw in his life before. + KING HENRY. Now God be prais'd that to believing souls + Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair! + + Enter the MAYOR OF SAINT ALBANS and his brethren, + bearing Simpcox between two in a chair; + his WIFE and a multitude following + + CARDINAL. Here comes the townsmen on procession + To present your Highness with the man. + KING HENRY. Great is his comfort in this earthly vale, + Although by his sight his sin be multiplied. + GLOUCESTER. Stand by, my masters; bring him near the King; + His Highness' pleasure is to talk with him. + KING HENRY. Good fellow, tell us here the circumstance, + That we for thee may glorify the Lord. + What, hast thou been long blind and now restor'd? + SIMPCOX. Born blind, an't please your Grace. + WIFE. Ay indeed was he. + SUFFOLK. What woman is this? + WIFE. His wife, an't like your worship. + GLOUCESTER. Hadst thou been his mother, thou couldst have better + told. + KING HENRY. Where wert thou born? + SIMPCOX. At Berwick in the north, an't like your Grace. + KING HENRY. Poor soul, God's goodness hath been great to thee. + Let never day nor night unhallowed pass, + But still remember what the Lord hath done. + QUEEN. Tell me, good fellow, cam'st thou here by chance, + Or of devotion, to this holy shrine? + SIMPCOX. God knows, of pure devotion; being call'd + A hundred times and oft'ner, in my sleep, + By good Saint Alban, who said 'Simpcox, come, + Come, offer at my shrine, and I will help thee.' + WIFE. Most true, forsooth; and many time and oft + Myself have heard a voice to call him so. + CARDINAL. What, art thou lame? + SIMPCOX. Ay, God Almighty help me! + SUFFOLK. How cam'st thou so? + SIMPCOX. A fall off of a tree. + WIFE. A plum tree, master. + GLOUCESTER. How long hast thou been blind? + SIMPCOX. O, born so, master! + GLOUCESTER. What, and wouldst climb a tree? + SIMPCOX. But that in all my life, when I was a youth. + WIFE. Too true; and bought his climbing very dear. + GLOUCESTER. Mass, thou lov'dst plums well, that wouldst venture so. + SIMPCOX. Alas, good master, my wife desir'd some damsons + And made me climb, With danger of my life. + GLOUCESTER. A subtle knave! But yet it shall not serve: + Let me see thine eyes; wink now; now open them; + In my opinion yet thou seest not well. + SIMPCOX. Yes, master, clear as day, I thank God and Saint Alban. + GLOUCESTER. Say'st thou me so? What colour is this cloak of? + SIMPCOX. Red, master; red as blood. + GLOUCESTER. Why, that's well said. What colour is my gown of? + SIMPCOX. Black, forsooth; coal-black as jet. + KING HENRY. Why, then, thou know'st what colour jet is of? + SUFFOLK. And yet, I think, jet did he never see. + GLOUCESTER. But cloaks and gowns before this day a many. + WIFE. Never before this day in all his life. + GLOUCESTER. Tell me, sirrah, what's my name? + SIMPCOX. Alas, master, I know not. + GLOUCESTER. What's his name? + SIMPCOX. I know not. + GLOUCESTER. Nor his? + SIMPCOX. No, indeed, master. + GLOUCESTER. What's thine own name? + SIMPCOX. Saunder Simpcox, an if it please you, master. + GLOUCESTER. Then, Saunder, sit there, the lying'st knave in + Christendom. If thou hadst been born blind, thou mightst as well + have known all our names as thus to name the several colours we + do wear. Sight may distinguish of colours; but suddenly to + nominate them all, it is impossible. My lords, Saint Alban here + hath done a miracle; and would ye not think his cunning to be + great that could restore this cripple to his legs again? + SIMPCOX. O master, that you could! + GLOUCESTER. My masters of Saint Albans, have you not beadles in + your town, and things call'd whips? + MAYOR. Yes, my lord, if it please your Grace. + GLOUCESTER. Then send for one presently. + MAYOR. Sirrah, go fetch the beadle hither straight. + Exit an attendant + GLOUCESTER. Now fetch me a stool hither by and by. [A stool + brought] Now, sirrah, if you mean to save yourself from whipping, + leap me over this stool and run away. + SIMPCOX. Alas, master, I am not able to stand alone! + You go about to torture me in vain. + + Enter a BEADLE with whips + + GLOUCESTER. Well, sir, we must have you find your legs. + Sirrah beadle, whip him till he leap over that same stool. + BEADLE. I will, my lord. Come on, sirrah; off with your doublet + quickly. + SIMPCOX. Alas, master, what shall I do? I am not able to stand. + + After the BEADLE hath hit him once, he leaps over + the stool and runs away; and they follow and cry + 'A miracle!' + + KING HENRY. O God, seest Thou this, and bearest so long? + QUEEN. It made me laugh to see the villain run. + GLOUCESTER. Follow the knave, and take this drab away. + WIFE. Alas, sir, we did it for pure need! + GLOUCESTER. Let them be whipp'd through every market town till they + come to Berwick, from whence they came. + Exeunt MAYOR, BEADLE, WIFE, &c. + CARDINAL. Duke Humphrey has done a miracle to-day. + SUFFOLK. True; made the lame to leap and fly away. + GLOUCESTER. But you have done more miracles than I: + You made in a day, my lord, whole towns to fly. + + Enter BUCKINGHAM + + KING HENRY. What tidings with our cousin Buckingham? + BUCKINGHAM. Such as my heart doth tremble to unfold: + A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent, + Under the countenance and confederacy + Of Lady Eleanor, the Protector's wife, + The ringleader and head of all this rout, + Have practis'd dangerously against your state, + Dealing with witches and with conjurers, + Whom we have apprehended in the fact, + Raising up wicked spirits from under ground, + Demanding of King Henry's life and death + And other of your Highness' Privy Council, + As more at large your Grace shall understand. + CARDINAL. And so, my Lord Protector, by this means + Your lady is forthcoming yet at London. + This news, I think, hath turn'd your weapon's edge; + 'Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour. + GLOUCESTER. Ambitious churchman, leave to afflict my heart. + Sorrow and grief have vanquish'd all my powers; + And, vanquish'd as I am, I yield to the + Or to the meanest groom. + KING HENRY. O God, what mischiefs work the wicked ones, + Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby! + QUEEN. Gloucester, see here the tainture of thy nest; + And look thyself be faultless, thou wert best. + GLOUCESTER. Madam, for myself, to heaven I do appeal + How I have lov'd my King and commonweal; + And for my wife I know not how it stands. + Sorry I am to hear what I have heard. + Noble she is; but if she have forgot + Honour and virtue, and convers'd with such + As, like to pitch, defile nobility, + I banish her my bed and company + And give her as a prey to law and shame, + That hath dishonoured Gloucester's honest name. + KING HENRY. Well, for this night we will repose us here. + To-morrow toward London back again + To look into this business thoroughly + And call these foul offenders to their answers, + And poise the cause in justice' equal scales, + Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails. + Flourish. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +London. The DUKE OF YORK'S garden + +Enter YORK, SALISBURY, and WARWICK + + YORK. Now, my good Lords of Salisbury and Warwick, + Our simple supper ended, give me leave + In this close walk to satisfy myself + In craving your opinion of my tide, + Which is infallible, to England's crown. + SALISBURY. My lord, I long to hear it at full. + WARWICK. Sweet York, begin; and if thy claim be good, + The Nevils are thy subjects to command. + YORK. Then thus: + Edward the Third, my lords, had seven sons; + The first, Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales; + The second, William of Hatfield; and the third, + Lionel Duke of Clarence; next to whom + Was John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster; + The fifth was Edmund Langley, Duke of York; + The sixth was Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester; + William of Windsor was the seventh and last. + Edward the Black Prince died before his father + And left behind him Richard, his only son, + Who, after Edward the Third's death, reign'd as king + Till Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, + The eldest son and heir of John of Gaunt, + Crown'd by the name of Henry the Fourth, + Seiz'd on the realm, depos'd the rightful king, + Sent his poor queen to France, from whence she came. + And him to Pomfret, where, as all you know, + Harmless Richard was murdered traitorously. + WARWICK. Father, the Duke hath told the truth; + Thus got the house of Lancaster the crown. + YORK. Which now they hold by force, and not by right; + For Richard, the first son's heir, being dead, + The issue of the next son should have reign'd. + SALISBURY. But William of Hatfield died without an heir. + YORK. The third son, Duke of Clarence, from whose line + I claim the crown, had issue Philippe, a daughter, + Who married Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March; + Edmund had issue, Roger Earl of March; + Roger had issue, Edmund, Anne, and Eleanor. + SALISBURY. This Edmund, in the reign of Bolingbroke, + As I have read, laid claim unto the crown; + And, but for Owen Glendower, had been king, + Who kept him in captivity till he died. + But, to the rest. + YORK. His eldest sister, Anne, + My mother, being heir unto the crown, + Married Richard Earl of Cambridge, who was + To Edmund Langley, Edward the Third's fifth son, son. + By her I claim the kingdom: she was heir + To Roger Earl of March, who was the son + Of Edmund Mortimer, who married Philippe, + Sole daughter unto Lionel Duke of Clarence; + So, if the issue of the elder son + Succeed before the younger, I am King. + WARWICK. What plain proceedings is more plain than this? + Henry doth claim the crown from John of Gaunt, + The fourth son: York claims it from the third. + Till Lionel's issue fails, his should not reign. + It fails not yet, but flourishes in thee + And in thy sons, fair slips of such a stock. + Then, father Salisbury, kneel we together, + And in this private plot be we the first + That shall salute our rightful sovereign + With honour of his birthright to the crown. + BOTH. Long live our sovereign Richard, England's King! + YORK. We thank you, lords. But I am not your king + Till I be crown'd, and that my sword be stain'd + With heart-blood of the house of Lancaster; + And that's not suddenly to be perform'd, + But with advice and silent secrecy. + Do you as I do in these dangerous days: + Wink at the Duke of Suffolk's insolence, + At Beaufort's pride, at Somerset's ambition, + At Buckingham, and all the crew of them, + Till they have snar'd the shepherd of the flock, + That virtuous prince, the good Duke Humphrey; + 'Tis that they seek; and they, in seeking that, + Shall find their deaths, if York can prophesy. + SALISBURY. My lord, break we off; we know your mind at full. + WARWICK. My heart assures me that the Earl of Warwick + Shall one day make the Duke of York a king. + YORK. And, Nevil, this I do assure myself, + Richard shall live to make the Earl of Warwick + The greatest man in England but the King. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +London. A hall of justice + +Sound trumpets. Enter the KING and State: the QUEEN, GLOUCESTER, YORK, +SUFFOLK, and SALISBURY, with guard, to banish the DUCHESS. Enter, guarded, +the DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER, MARGERY JOURDAIN, HUME, SOUTHWELL, and BOLINGBROKE + + KING HENRY. Stand forth, Dame Eleanor Cobham, Gloucester's wife: + In sight of God and us, your guilt is great; + Receive the sentence of the law for sins + Such as by God's book are adjudg'd to death. + You four, from hence to prison back again; + From thence unto the place of execution: + The witch in Smithfield shall be burnt to ashes, + And you three shall be strangled on the gallows. + You, madam, for you are more nobly born, + Despoiled of your honour in your life, + Shall, after three days' open penance done, + Live in your country here in banishment + With Sir John Stanley in the Isle of Man. + DUCHESS. Welcome is banishment; welcome were my death. + GLOUCESTER. Eleanor, the law, thou seest, hath judged thee. + I cannot justify whom the law condemns. + Exeunt the DUCHESS and the other prisoners, guarded + Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief. + Ah, Humphrey, this dishonour in thine age + Will bring thy head with sorrow to the ground! + I beseech your Majesty give me leave to go; + Sorrow would solace, and mine age would ease. + KING HENRY. Stay, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester; ere thou go, + Give up thy staff; Henry will to himself + Protector be; and God shall be my hope, + My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet. + And go in peace, Humphrey, no less belov'd + Than when thou wert Protector to thy King. + QUEEN. I see no reason why a king of years + Should be to be protected like a child. + God and King Henry govern England's realm! + Give up your staff, sir, and the King his realm. + GLOUCESTER. My staff! Here, noble Henry, is my staff. + As willingly do I the same resign + As ere thy father Henry made it mine; + And even as willingly at thy feet I leave it + As others would ambitiously receive it. + Farewell, good King; when I am dead and gone, + May honourable peace attend thy throne! Exit + QUEEN. Why, now is Henry King, and Margaret Queen, + And Humphrey Duke of Gloucester scarce himself, + That bears so shrewd a maim: two pulls at once- + His lady banish'd and a limb lopp'd off. + This staff of honour raught, there let it stand + Where it best fits to be, in Henry's hand. + SUFFOLK. Thus droops this lofty pine and hangs his sprays; + Thus Eleanor's pride dies in her youngest days. + YORK. Lords, let him go. Please it your Majesty, + This is the day appointed for the combat; + And ready are the appellant and defendant, + The armourer and his man, to enter the lists, + So please your Highness to behold the fight. + QUEEN. Ay, good my lord; for purposely therefore + Left I the court, to see this quarrel tried. + KING HENRY. A God's name, see the lists and all things fit; + Here let them end it, and God defend the right! + YORK. I never saw a fellow worse bested, + Or more afraid to fight, than is the appellant, + The servant of his armourer, my lords. + + Enter at one door, HORNER, the Armourer, and his + NEIGHBOURS, drinking to him so much that he is + drunk; and he enters with a drum before him and + his staff with a sand-bag fastened to it; and at the + other door PETER, his man, with a drum and sandbag, + and PRENTICES drinking to him + + FIRST NEIGHBOUR. Here, neighbour Horner, I drink to you in a cup of + sack; and fear not, neighbour, you shall do well enough. + SECOND NEIGHBOUR. And here, neighbour, here's a cup of charneco. + THIRD NEIGHBOUR. And here's a pot of good double beer, neighbour; + drink, and fear not your man. + HORNER. Let it come, i' faith, and I'll pledge you all; and a fig + for Peter! + FIRST PRENTICE. Here, Peter, I drink to thee; and be not afraid. + SECOND PRENTICE. Be merry, Peter, and fear not thy master: fight + for credit of the prentices. + PETER. I thank you all. Drink, and pray for me, I pray you; for I + think I have taken my last draught in this world. Here, Robin, an + if I die, I give thee my apron; and, Will, thou shalt have my + hammer; and here, Tom, take all the money that I have. O Lord + bless me, I pray God! for I am never able to deal with my master, + he hath learnt so much fence already. + SALISBURY. Come, leave your drinking and fall to blows. + Sirrah, what's thy name? + PETER. Peter, forsooth. + SALISBURY. Peter? What more? + PETER. Thump. + SALISBURY. Thump? Then see thou thump thy master well. + HORNER. Masters, I am come hither, as it were, upon my man's + instigation, to prove him a knave and myself an honest man; and + touching the Duke of York, I will take my death I never meant him + any ill, nor the King, nor the Queen; and therefore, Peter, have + at thee with a down right blow! + YORK. Dispatch- this knave's tongue begins to double. + Sound, trumpets, alarum to the combatants! + [Alarum. They fight and PETER strikes him down] + HORNER. Hold, Peter, hold! I confess, I confess treason. + [Dies] + YORK. Take away his weapon. Fellow, thank God, and the good wine in + thy master's way. + PETER. O God, have I overcome mine enemies in this presence? O + Peter, thou hast prevail'd in right! + KING HENRY. Go, take hence that traitor from our sight, + For by his death we do perceive his guilt; + And God in justice hath reveal'd to us + The truth and innocence of this poor fellow, + Which he had thought to have murder'd wrongfully. + Come, fellow, follow us for thy reward. + Sound a flourish. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +London. A street + +Enter DUKE HUMPHREY and his men, in mourning cloaks + + GLOUCESTER. Thus sometimes hath the brightest day a cloud, + And after summer evermore succeeds + Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold; + So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet. + Sirs, what's o'clock? + SERVING-MAN. Ten, my lord. + GLOUCESTER. Ten is the hour that was appointed me + To watch the coming of my punish'd duchess. + Uneath may she endure the flinty streets + To tread them with her tender-feeling feet. + Sweet Nell, ill can thy noble mind abrook + The abject people gazing on thy face, + With envious looks, laughing at thy shame, + That erst did follow thy proud chariot wheels + When thou didst ride in triumph through the streets. + But, soft! I think she comes, and I'll prepare + My tear-stain'd eyes to see her miseries. + + Enter the DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER in a white sheet, + and a taper burning in her hand, with SIR JOHN + STANLEY, the SHERIFF, and OFFICERS + + SERVING-MAN. So please your Grace, we'll take her from the sheriff. + GLOUCESTER. No, stir not for your lives; let her pass by. + DUCHESS. Come you, my lord, to see my open shame? + Now thou dost penance too. Look how they gaze! + See how the giddy multitude do point + And nod their heads and throw their eyes on thee; + Ah, Gloucester, hide thee from their hateful looks, + And, in thy closet pent up, rue my shame + And ban thine enemies, both mine and thine! + GLOUCESTER. Be patient, gentle Nell; forget this grief. + DUCHESS. Ah, Gloucester, teach me to forget myself! + For whilst I think I am thy married wife + And thou a prince, Protector of this land, + Methinks I should not thus be led along, + Mail'd up in shame, with papers on my back, + And follow'd with a rabble that rejoice + To see my tears and hear my deep-fet groans. + The ruthless flint doth cut my tender feet, + And when I start, the envious people laugh + And bid me be advised how I tread. + Ah, Humphrey, can I bear this shameful yoke? + Trowest thou that e'er I'll look upon the world + Or count them happy that enjoy the sun? + No; dark shall be my light and night my day; + To think upon my pomp shall be my hell. + Sometimes I'll say I am Duke Humphrey's wife, + And he a prince, and ruler of the land; + Yet so he rul'd, and such a prince he was, + As he stood by whilst I, his forlorn duchess, + Was made a wonder and a pointing-stock + To every idle rascal follower. + But be thou mild, and blush not at my shame, + Nor stir at nothing till the axe of death + Hang over thee, as sure it shortly will. + For Suffolk- he that can do all in all + With her that hateth thee and hates us all- + And York, and impious Beaufort, that false priest, + Have all lim'd bushes to betray thy wings, + And, fly thou how thou canst, they'll tangle thee. + But fear not thou until thy foot be snar'd, + Nor never seek prevention of thy foes. + GLOUCESTER. Ah, Nell, forbear! Thou aimest all awry. + I must offend before I be attainted; + And had I twenty times so many foes, + And each of them had twenty times their power, + All these could not procure me any scathe + So long as I am loyal, true, and crimeless. + Wouldst have me rescue thee from this reproach? + Why, yet thy scandal were not wip'd away, + But I in danger for the breach of law. + Thy greatest help is quiet, gentle Nell. + I pray thee sort thy heart to patience; + These few days' wonder will be quickly worn. + + Enter a HERALD + + HERALD. I summon your Grace to his Majesty's Parliament, + Holden at Bury the first of this next month. + GLOUCESTER. And my consent ne'er ask'd herein before! + This is close dealing. Well, I will be there. Exit HERALD + My Nell, I take my leave- and, master sheriff, + Let not her penance exceed the King's commission. + SHERIFF. An't please your Grace, here my commission stays; + And Sir John Stanley is appointed now + To take her with him to the Isle of Man. + GLOUCESTER. Must you, Sir John, protect my lady here? + STANLEY. So am I given in charge, may't please your Grace. + GLOUCESTER. Entreat her not the worse in that I pray + You use her well; the world may laugh again, + And I may live to do you kindness if + You do it her. And so, Sir John, farewell. + DUCHESS. What, gone, my lord, and bid me not farewell! + GLOUCESTER. Witness my tears, I cannot stay to speak. + Exeunt GLOUCESTER and servants + DUCHESS. Art thou gone too? All comfort go with thee! + For none abides with me. My joy is death- + Death, at whose name I oft have been afeard, + Because I wish'd this world's eternity. + Stanley, I prithee go, and take me hence; + I care not whither, for I beg no favour, + Only convey me where thou art commanded. + STANLEY. Why, madam, that is to the Isle of Man, + There to be us'd according to your state. + DUCHESS. That's bad enough, for I am but reproach- + And shall I then be us'd reproachfully? + STANLEY. Like to a duchess and Duke Humphrey's lady; + According to that state you shall be us'd. + DUCHESS. Sheriff, farewell, and better than I fare, + Although thou hast been conduct of my shame. + SHERIFF. It is my office; and, madam, pardon me. + DUCHESS. Ay, ay, farewell; thy office is discharg'd. + Come, Stanley, shall we go? + STANLEY. Madam, your penance done, throw off this sheet, + And go we to attire you for our journey. + DUCHESS. My shame will not be shifted with my sheet. + No, it will hang upon my richest robes + And show itself, attire me how I can. + Go, lead the way; I long to see my prison. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +The Abbey at Bury St. Edmunds + +Sound a sennet. Enter the KING, the QUEEN, CARDINAL, SUFFOLK, YORK, +BUCKINGHAM, SALISBURY, and WARWICK, to the Parliament + + KING HENRY. I muse my Lord of Gloucester is not come. + 'Tis not his wont to be the hindmost man, + Whate'er occasion keeps him from us now. + QUEEN. Can you not see, or will ye not observe + The strangeness of his alter'd countenance? + With what a majesty he bears himself; + How insolent of late he is become, + How proud, how peremptory, and unlike himself? + We know the time since he was mild and affable, + And if we did but glance a far-off look + Immediately he was upon his knee, + That all the court admir'd him for submission. + But meet him now and be it in the morn, + When every one will give the time of day, + He knits his brow and shows an angry eye + And passeth by with stiff unbowed knee, + Disdaining duty that to us belongs. + Small curs are not regarded when they grin, + But great men tremble when the lion roars, + And Humphrey is no little man in England. + First note that he is near you in descent, + And should you fall he is the next will mount; + Me seemeth, then, it is no policy- + Respecting what a rancorous mind he bears, + And his advantage following your decease- + That he should come about your royal person + Or be admitted to your Highness' Council. + By flattery hath he won the commons' hearts; + And when he please to make commotion, + 'Tis to be fear'd they all will follow him. + Now 'tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted; + Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden + And choke the herbs for want of husbandry. + The reverent care I bear unto my lord + Made me collect these dangers in the Duke. + If it be fond, can it a woman's fear; + Which fear if better reasons can supplant, + I will subscribe, and say I wrong'd the Duke. + My Lord of Suffolk, Buckingham, and York, + Reprove my allegation if you can, + Or else conclude my words effectual. + SUFFOLK. Well hath your Highness seen into this duke; + And had I first been put to speak my mind, + I think I should have told your Grace's tale. + The Duchess, by his subornation, + Upon my life, began her devilish practices; + Or if he were not privy to those faults, + Yet by reputing of his high descent- + As next the King he was successive heir- + And such high vaunts of his nobility, + Did instigate the bedlam brainsick Duchess + By wicked means to frame our sovereign's fall. + Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep, + And in his simple show he harbours treason. + The fox barks not when he would steal the lamb. + No, no, my sovereign, Gloucester is a man + Unsounded yet, and full of deep deceit. + CARDINAL. Did he not, contrary to form of law, + Devise strange deaths for small offences done? + YORK. And did he not, in his protectorship, + Levy great sums of money through the realm + For soldiers' pay in France, and never sent it? + By means whereof the towns each day revolted. + BUCKINGHAM. Tut, these are petty faults to faults unknown + Which time will bring to light in smooth Duke Humphrey. + KING HENRY. My lords, at once: the care you have of us, + To mow down thorns that would annoy our foot, + Is worthy praise; but shall I speak my conscience? + Our kinsman Gloucester is as innocent + From meaning treason to our royal person + As is the sucking lamb or harmless dove: + The Duke is virtuous, mild, and too well given + To dream on evil or to work my downfall. + QUEEN. Ah, what's more dangerous than this fond affiance? + Seems he a dove? His feathers are but borrow'd, + For he's disposed as the hateful raven. + Is he a lamb? His skin is surely lent him, + For he's inclin'd as is the ravenous wolf. + Who cannot steal a shape that means deceit? + Take heed, my lord; the welfare of us all + Hangs on the cutting short that fraudful man. + + Enter SOMERSET + + SOMERSET. All health unto my gracious sovereign! + KING HENRY. Welcome, Lord Somerset. What news from France? + SOMERSET. That all your interest in those territories + Is utterly bereft you; all is lost. + KING HENRY. Cold news, Lord Somerset; but God's will be done! + YORK. [Aside] Cold news for me; for I had hope of France + As firmly as I hope for fertile England. + Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud, + And caterpillars eat my leaves away; + But I will remedy this gear ere long, + Or sell my title for a glorious grave. + + Enter GLOUCESTER + + GLOUCESTER. All happiness unto my lord the King! + Pardon, my liege, that I have stay'd so long. + SUFFOLK. Nay, Gloucester, know that thou art come too soon, + Unless thou wert more loyal than thou art. + I do arrest thee of high treason here. + GLOUCESTER. Well, Suffolk, thou shalt not see me blush + Nor change my countenance for this arrest: + A heart unspotted is not easily daunted. + The purest spring is not so free from mud + As I am clear from treason to my sovereign. + Who can accuse me? Wherein am I guilty? + YORK. 'Tis thought, my lord, that you took bribes of France + And, being Protector, stay'd the soldiers' pay; + By means whereof his Highness hath lost France. + GLOUCESTER. Is it but thought so? What are they that think it? + I never robb'd the soldiers of their pay + Nor ever had one penny bribe from France. + So help me God, as I have watch'd the night- + Ay, night by night- in studying good for England! + That doit that e'er I wrested from the King, + Or any groat I hoarded to my use, + Be brought against me at my trial-day! + No; many a pound of mine own proper store, + Because I would not tax the needy commons, + Have I dispursed to the garrisons, + And never ask'd for restitution. + CARDINAL. It serves you well, my lord, to say so much. + GLOUCESTER. I say no more than truth, so help me God! + YORK. In your protectorship you did devise + Strange tortures for offenders, never heard of, + That England was defam'd by tyranny. + GLOUCESTER. Why, 'tis well known that whiles I was Protector + Pity was all the fault that was in me; + For I should melt at an offender's tears, + And lowly words were ransom for their fault. + Unless it were a bloody murderer, + Or foul felonious thief that fleec'd poor passengers, + I never gave them condign punishment. + Murder indeed, that bloody sin, I tortur'd + Above the felon or what trespass else. + SUFFOLK. My lord, these faults are easy, quickly answer'd; + But mightier crimes are laid unto your charge, + Whereof you cannot easily purge yourself. + I do arrest you in His Highness' name, + And here commit you to my Lord Cardinal + To keep until your further time of trial. + KING HENRY. My Lord of Gloucester, 'tis my special hope + That you will clear yourself from all suspense. + My conscience tells me you are innocent. + GLOUCESTER. Ah, gracious lord, these days are dangerous! + Virtue is chok'd with foul ambition, + And charity chas'd hence by rancour's hand; + Foul subornation is predominant, + And equity exil'd your Highness' land. + I know their complot is to have my life; + And if my death might make this island happy + And prove the period of their tyranny, + I would expend it with all willingness. + But mine is made the prologue to their play; + For thousands more that yet suspect no peril + Will not conclude their plotted tragedy. + Beaufort's red sparkling eyes blab his heart's malice, + And Suffolk's cloudy brow his stormy hate; + Sharp Buckingham unburdens with his tongue + The envious load that lies upon his heart; + And dogged York, that reaches at the moon, + Whose overweening arm I have pluck'd back, + By false accuse doth level at my life. + And you, my sovereign lady, with the rest, + Causeless have laid disgraces on my head, + And with your best endeavour have stirr'd up + My liefest liege to be mine enemy; + Ay, all of you have laid your heads together- + Myself had notice of your conventicles- + And all to make away my guiltless life. + I shall not want false witness to condemn me + Nor store of treasons to augment my guilt. + The ancient proverb will be well effected: + 'A staff is quickly found to beat a dog.' + CARDINAL. My liege, his railing is intolerable. + If those that care to keep your royal person + From treason's secret knife and traitor's rage + Be thus upbraided, chid, and rated at, + And the offender granted scope of speech, + 'Twill make them cool in zeal unto your Grace. + SUFFOLK. Hath he not twit our sovereign lady here + With ignominious words, though clerkly couch'd, + As if she had suborned some to swear + False allegations to o'erthrow his state? + QUEEN. But I can give the loser leave to chide. + GLOUCESTER. Far truer spoke than meant: I lose indeed. + Beshrew the winners, for they play'd me false! + And well such losers may have leave to speak. + BUCKINGHAM. He'll wrest the sense, and hold us here all day. + Lord Cardinal, he is your prisoner. + CARDINAL. Sirs, take away the Duke, and guard him sure. + GLOUCESTER. Ah, thus King Henry throws away his crutch + Before his legs be firm to bear his body! + Thus is the shepherd beaten from thy side, + And wolves are gnarling who shall gnaw thee first. + Ah, that my fear were false! ah, that it were! + For, good King Henry, thy decay I fear. Exit, guarded + KING HENRY. My lords, what to your wisdoms seemeth best + Do or undo, as if ourself were here. + QUEEN. What, will your Highness leave the Parliament? + KING HENRY. Ay, Margaret; my heart is drown'd with grief, + Whose flood begins to flow within mine eyes; + My body round engirt with misery- + For what's more miserable than discontent? + Ah, uncle Humphrey, in thy face I see + The map of honour, truth, and loyalty! + And yet, good Humphrey, is the hour to come + That e'er I prov'd thee false or fear'd thy faith. + What louring star now envies thy estate + That these great lords, and Margaret our Queen, + Do seek subversion of thy harmless life? + Thou never didst them wrong, nor no man wrong; + And as the butcher takes away the calf, + And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays, + Bearing it to the bloody slaughter-house, + Even so, remorseless, have they borne him hence; + And as the dam runs lowing up and down, + Looking the way her harmless young one went, + And can do nought but wail her darling's loss, + Even so myself bewails good Gloucester's case + With sad unhelpful tears, and with dimm'd eyes + Look after him, and cannot do him good, + So mighty are his vowed enemies. + His fortunes I will weep, and 'twixt each groan + Say 'Who's a traitor? Gloucester he is none.' Exit + QUEEN. Free lords, cold snow melts with the sun's hot beams: + Henry my lord is cold in great affairs, + Too full of foolish pity; and Gloucester's show + Beguiles him as the mournful crocodile + With sorrow snares relenting passengers; + Or as the snake, roll'd in a flow'ring bank, + With shining checker'd slough, doth sting a child + That for the beauty thinks it excellent. + Believe me, lords, were none more wise than I- + And yet herein I judge mine own wit good- + This Gloucester should be quickly rid the world + To rid us from the fear we have of him. + CARDINAL. That he should die is worthy policy; + But yet we want a colour for his death. + 'Tis meet he be condemn'd by course of law. + SUFFOLK. But, in my mind, that were no policy: + The King will labour still to save his life; + The commons haply rise to save his life; + And yet we have but trivial argument, + More than mistrust, that shows him worthy death. + YORK. So that, by this, you would not have him die. + SUFFOLK. Ah, York, no man alive so fain as I! + YORK. 'Tis York that hath more reason for his death. + But, my Lord Cardinal, and you, my Lord of Suffolk, + Say as you think, and speak it from your souls: + Were't not all one an empty eagle were set + To guard the chicken from a hungry kite + As place Duke Humphrey for the King's Protector? + QUEEN. So the poor chicken should be sure of death. + SUFFOLK. Madam, 'tis true; and were't not madness then + To make the fox surveyor of the fold? + Who being accus'd a crafty murderer, + His guilt should be but idly posted over, + Because his purpose is not executed. + No; let him die, in that he is a fox, + By nature prov'd an enemy to the flock, + Before his chaps be stain'd with crimson blood, + As Humphrey, prov'd by reasons, to my liege. + And do not stand on quillets how to slay him; + Be it by gins, by snares, by subtlety, + Sleeping or waking, 'tis no matter how, + So he be dead; for that is good deceit + Which mates him first that first intends deceit. + QUEEN. Thrice-noble Suffolk, 'tis resolutely spoke. + SUFFOLK. Not resolute, except so much were done, + For things are often spoke and seldom meant; + But that my heart accordeth with my tongue, + Seeing the deed is meritorious, + And to preserve my sovereign from his foe, + Say but the word, and I will be his priest. + CARDINAL. But I would have him dead, my Lord of Suffolk, + Ere you can take due orders for a priest; + Say you consent and censure well the deed, + And I'll provide his executioner- + I tender so the safety of my liege. + SUFFOLK. Here is my hand the deed is worthy doing. + QUEEN. And so say I. + YORK. And I. And now we three have spoke it, + It skills not greatly who impugns our doom. + + Enter a POST + + POST. Great lords, from Ireland am I come amain + To signify that rebels there are up + And put the Englishmen unto the sword. + Send succours, lords, and stop the rage betime, + Before the wound do grow uncurable; + For, being green, there is great hope of help. + CARDINAL. A breach that craves a quick expedient stop! + What counsel give you in this weighty cause? + YORK. That Somerset be sent as Regent thither; + 'Tis meet that lucky ruler be employ'd, + Witness the fortune he hath had in France. + SOMERSET. If York, with all his far-fet policy, + Had been the Regent there instead of me, + He never would have stay'd in France so long. + YORK. No, not to lose it all as thou hast done. + I rather would have lost my life betimes + Than bring a burden of dishonour home + By staying there so long till all were lost. + Show me one scar character'd on thy skin: + Men's flesh preserv'd so whole do seldom win. + QUEEN. Nay then, this spark will prove a raging fire, + If wind and fuel be brought to feed it with; + No more, good York; sweet Somerset, be still. + Thy fortune, York, hadst thou been Regent there, + Might happily have prov'd far worse than his. + YORK. What, worse than nought? Nay, then a shame take all! + SOMERSET. And in the number, thee that wishest shame! + CARDINAL. My Lord of York, try what your fortune is. + Th' uncivil kerns of Ireland are in arms + And temper clay with blood of Englishmen; + To Ireland will you lead a band of men, + Collected choicely, from each county some, + And try your hap against the Irishmen? + YORK. I will, my lord, so please his Majesty. + SUFFOLK. Why, our authority is his consent, + And what we do establish he confirms; + Then, noble York, take thou this task in hand. + YORK. I am content; provide me soldiers, lords, + Whiles I take order for mine own affairs. + SUFFOLK. A charge, Lord York, that I will see perform'd. + But now return we to the false Duke Humphrey. + CARDINAL. No more of him; for I will deal with him + That henceforth he shall trouble us no more. + And so break off; the day is almost spent. + Lord Suffolk, you and I must talk of that event. + YORK. My Lord of Suffolk, within fourteen days + At Bristol I expect my soldiers; + For there I'll ship them all for Ireland. + SUFFOLK. I'll see it truly done, my Lord of York. + Exeunt all but YORK + YORK. Now, York, or never, steel thy fearful thoughts + And change misdoubt to resolution; + Be that thou hop'st to be; or what thou art + Resign to death- it is not worth th' enjoying. + Let pale-fac'd fear keep with the mean-born man + And find no harbour in a royal heart. + Faster than spring-time show'rs comes thought on thought, + And not a thought but thinks on dignity. + My brain, more busy than the labouring spider, + Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies. + Well, nobles, well, 'tis politicly done + To send me packing with an host of men. + I fear me you but warm the starved snake, + Who, cherish'd in your breasts, will sting your hearts. + 'Twas men I lack'd, and you will give them me; + I take it kindly. Yet be well assur'd + You put sharp weapons in a madman's hands. + Whiles I in Ireland nourish a mighty band, + I will stir up in England some black storm + Shall blow ten thousand souls to heaven or hell; + And this fell tempest shall not cease to rage + Until the golden circuit on my head, + Like to the glorious sun's transparent beams, + Do calm the fury of this mad-bred flaw. + And for a minister of my intent + I have seduc'd a headstrong Kentishman, + John Cade of Ashford, + To make commotion, as full well he can, + Under the tide of John Mortimer. + In Ireland have I seen this stubborn Cade + Oppose himself against a troop of kerns, + And fought so long tiff that his thighs with darts + Were almost like a sharp-quill'd porpentine; + And in the end being rescu'd, I have seen + Him caper upright like a wild Morisco, + Shaking the bloody darts as he his bells. + Full often, like a shag-hair'd crafty kern, + Hath he conversed with the enemy, + And undiscover'd come to me again + And given me notice of their villainies. + This devil here shall be my substitute; + For that John Mortimer, which now is dead, + In face, in gait, in speech, he doth resemble. + By this I shall perceive the commons' mind, + How they affect the house and claim of York. + Say he be taken, rack'd, and tortured; + I know no pain they can inflict upon him + Will make him say I mov'd him to those arms. + Say that he thrive, as 'tis great like he will, + Why, then from Ireland come I with my strength, + And reap the harvest which that rascal sow'd; + For Humphrey being dead, as he shall be, + And Henry put apart, the next for me. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Bury St. Edmunds. A room of state + +Enter two or three MURDERERS running over the stage, +from the murder of DUKE HUMPHREY + + FIRST MURDERER. Run to my Lord of Suffolk; let him know + We have dispatch'd the Duke, as he commanded. + SECOND MURDERER. O that it were to do! What have we done? + Didst ever hear a man so penitent? + + Enter SUFFOLK + + FIRST MURDERER. Here comes my lord. + SUFFOLK. Now, sirs, have you dispatch'd this thing? + FIRST MURDERER. Ay, my good lord, he's dead. + SUFFOLK. Why, that's well said. Go, get you to my house; + I will reward you for this venturous deed. + The King and all the peers are here at hand. + Have you laid fair the bed? Is all things well, + According as I gave directions? + FIRST MURDERER. 'Tis, my good lord. + SUFFOLK. Away! be gone. Exeunt MURDERERS + + Sound trumpets. Enter the KING, the QUEEN, + CARDINAL, SOMERSET, with attendants + + KING HENRY. Go call our uncle to our presence straight; + Say we intend to try his Grace to-day, + If he be guilty, as 'tis published. + SUFFOLK. I'll call him presently, my noble lord. Exit + KING HENRY. Lords, take your places; and, I pray you all, + Proceed no straiter 'gainst our uncle Gloucester + Than from true evidence, of good esteem, + He be approv'd in practice culpable. + QUEEN. God forbid any malice should prevail + That faultless may condemn a nobleman! + Pray God he may acquit him of suspicion! + KING HENRY. I thank thee, Meg; these words content me much. + + Re-enter SUFFOLK + + How now! Why look'st thou pale? Why tremblest thou? + Where is our uncle? What's the matter, Suffolk? + SUFFOLK. Dead in his bed, my lord; Gloucester is dead. + QUEEN. Marry, God forfend! + CARDINAL. God's secret judgment! I did dream to-night + The Duke was dumb and could not speak a word. + [The KING swoons] + QUEEN. How fares my lord? Help, lords! The King is dead. + SOMERSET. Rear up his body; wring him by the nose. + QUEEN. Run, go, help, help! O Henry, ope thine eyes! + SUFFOLK. He doth revive again; madam, be patient. + KING. O heavenly God! + QUEEN. How fares my gracious lord? + SUFFOLK. Comfort, my sovereign! Gracious Henry, comfort! + KING HENRY. What, doth my Lord of Suffolk comfort me? + Came he right now to sing a raven's note, + Whose dismal tune bereft my vital pow'rs; + And thinks he that the chirping of a wren, + By crying comfort from a hollow breast, + Can chase away the first conceived sound? + Hide not thy poison with such sug'red words; + Lay not thy hands on me; forbear, I say, + Their touch affrights me as a serpent's sting. + Thou baleful messenger, out of my sight! + Upon thy eye-balls murderous tyranny + Sits in grim majesty to fright the world. + Look not upon me, for thine eyes are wounding; + Yet do not go away; come, basilisk, + And kill the innocent gazer with thy sight; + For in the shade of death I shall find joy- + In life but double death,'now Gloucester's dead. + QUEEN. Why do you rate my Lord of Suffolk thus? + Although the Duke was enemy to him, + Yet he most Christian-like laments his death; + And for myself- foe as he was to me- + Might liquid tears, or heart-offending groans, + Or blood-consuming sighs, recall his life, + I would be blind with weeping, sick with groans, + Look pale as primrose with blood-drinking sighs, + And all to have the noble Duke alive. + What know I how the world may deem of me? + For it is known we were but hollow friends: + It may be judg'd I made the Duke away; + So shall my name with slander's tongue be wounded, + And princes' courts be fill'd with my reproach. + This get I by his death. Ay me, unhappy! + To be a queen and crown'd with infamy! + KING HENRY. Ah, woe is me for Gloucester, wretched man! + QUEEN. Be woe for me, more wretched than he is. + What, dost thou turn away, and hide thy face? + I am no loathsome leper- look on me. + What, art thou like the adder waxen deaf? + Be poisonous too, and kill thy forlorn Queen. + Is all thy comfort shut in Gloucester's tomb? + Why, then Dame Margaret was ne'er thy joy. + Erect his statue and worship it, + And make my image but an alehouse sign. + Was I for this nigh wreck'd upon the sea, + And twice by awkward wind from England's bank + Drove back again unto my native clime? + What boded this but well-forewarning wind + Did seem to say 'Seek not a scorpion's nest, + Nor set no footing on this unkind shore'? + What did I then but curs'd the gentle gusts, + And he that loos'd them forth their brazen caves; + And bid them blow towards England's blessed shore, + Or turn our stern upon a dreadful rock? + Yet Aeolus would not be a murderer, + But left that hateful office unto thee. + The pretty-vaulting sea refus'd to drown me, + Knowing that thou wouldst have me drown'd on shore + With tears as salt as sea through thy unkindness; + The splitting rocks cow'r'd in the sinking sands + And would not dash me with their ragged sides, + Because thy flinty heart, more hard than they, + Might in thy palace perish Margaret. + As far as I could ken thy chalky cliffs, + When from thy shore the tempest beat us back, + I stood upon the hatches in the storm; + And when the dusky sky began to rob + My earnest-gaping sight of thy land's view, + I took a costly jewel from my neck- + A heart it was, bound in with diamonds- + And threw it towards thy land. The sea receiv'd it; + And so I wish'd thy body might my heart. + And even with this I lost fair England's view, + And bid mine eyes be packing with my heart, + And call'd them blind and dusky spectacles + For losing ken of Albion's wished coast. + How often have I tempted Suffolk's tongue- + The agent of thy foul inconstancy- + To sit and witch me, as Ascanius did + When he to madding Dido would unfold + His father's acts commenc'd in burning Troy! + Am I not witch'd like her? Or thou not false like him? + Ay me, I can no more! Die, Margaret, + For Henry weeps that thou dost live so long. + + Noise within. Enter WARWICK, SALISBURY, + and many commons + + WARWICK. It is reported, mighty sovereign, + That good Duke Humphrey traitorously is murd'red + By Suffolk and the Cardinal Beaufort's means. + The commons, like an angry hive of bees + That want their leader, scatter up and down + And care not who they sting in his revenge. + Myself have calm'd their spleenful mutiny + Until they hear the order of his death. + KING HENRY. That he is dead, good Warwick, 'tis too true; + But how he died God knows, not Henry. + Enter his chamber, view his breathless corpse, + And comment then upon his sudden death. + WARWICK. That shall I do, my liege. Stay, Salisbury, + With the rude multitude till I return. Exit + Exit SALISBURY with the commons + KING HENRY. O Thou that judgest all things, stay my thoughts- + My thoughts that labour to persuade my soul + Some violent hands were laid on Humphrey's life! + If my suspect be false, forgive me, God; + For judgment only doth belong to Thee. + Fain would I go to chafe his paly lips + With twenty thousand kisses and to drain + Upon his face an ocean of salt tears + To tell my love unto his dumb deaf trunk; + And with my fingers feel his hand un-feeling; + But all in vain are these mean obsequies; + And to survey his dead and earthy image, + What were it but to make my sorrow greater? + + Bed put forth with the body. Enter WARWICK + + WARWICK. Come hither, gracious sovereign, view this body. + KING HENRY. That is to see how deep my grave is made; + For with his soul fled all my worldly solace, + For, seeing him, I see my life in death. + WARWICK. As surely as my soul intends to live + With that dread King that took our state upon Him + To free us from his Father's wrathful curse, + I do believe that violent hands were laid + Upon the life of this thrice-famed Duke. + SUFFOLK. A dreadful oath, sworn with a solemn tongue! + What instance gives Lord Warwick for his vow? + WARWICK. See how the blood is settled in his face. + Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost, + Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless, + Being all descended to the labouring heart, + Who, in the conflict that it holds with death, + Attracts the same for aidance 'gainst the enemy, + Which with the heart there cools, and ne'er returneth + To blush and beautify the cheek again. + But see, his face is black and full of blood; + His eye-balls further out than when he liv'd, + Staring full ghastly like a strangled man; + His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretch'd with struggling; + His hands abroad display'd, as one that grasp'd + And tugg'd for life, and was by strength subdu'd. + Look, on the sheets his hair, you see, is sticking; + His well-proportion'd beard made rough and rugged, + Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodged. + It cannot be but he was murd'red here: + The least of all these signs were probable. + SUFFOLK. Why, Warwick, who should do the Duke to death? + Myself and Beaufort had him in protection; + And we, I hope, sir, are no murderers. + WARWICK. But both of you were vow'd Duke Humphrey's foes; + And you, forsooth, had the good Duke to keep. + 'Tis like you would not feast him like a friend; + And 'tis well seen he found an enemy. + QUEEN. Then you, belike, suspect these noblemen + As guilty of Duke Humphrey's timeless death. + WARWICK. Who finds the heifer dead and bleeding fresh, + And sees fast by a butcher with an axe, + But will suspect 'twas he that made the slaughter? + Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest + But may imagine how the bird was dead, + Although the kite soar with unbloodied beak? + Even so suspicious is this tragedy. + QUEEN. Are you the butcher, Suffolk? Where's your knife? + Is Beaufort term'd a kite? Where are his talons? + SUFFOLK. I wear no knife to slaughter sleeping men; + But here's a vengeful sword, rusted with ease, + That shall be scoured in his rancorous heart + That slanders me with murder's crimson badge. + Say if thou dar'st, proud Lord of Warwickshire, + That I am faulty in Duke Humphrey's death. + Exeunt CARDINAL, SOMERSET, and others + WARWICK. What dares not Warwick, if false Suffolk dare him? + QUEEN. He dares not calm his contumelious spirit, + Nor cease to be an arrogant controller, + Though Suffolk dare him twenty thousand times. + WARWICK. Madam, be still- with reverence may I say; + For every word you speak in his behalf + Is slander to your royal dignity. + SUFFOLK. Blunt-witted lord, ignoble in demeanour, + If ever lady wrong'd her lord so much, + Thy mother took into her blameful bed + Some stern untutor'd churl, and noble stock + Was graft with crab-tree slip, whose fruit thou art, + And never of the Nevils' noble race. + WARWICK. But that the guilt of murder bucklers thee, + And I should rob the deathsman of his fee, + Quitting thee thereby of ten thousand shames, + And that my sovereign's presence makes me mild, + I would, false murd'rous coward, on thy knee + Make thee beg pardon for thy passed speech + And say it was thy mother that thou meant'st, + That thou thyself was born in bastardy; + And, after all this fearful homage done, + Give thee thy hire and send thy soul to hell, + Pernicious blood-sucker of sleeping men. + SUFFOLK. Thou shalt be waking while I shed thy blood, + If from this presence thou dar'st go with me. + WARWICK. Away even now, or I will drag thee hence. + Unworthy though thou art, I'll cope with thee, + And do some service to Duke Humphrey's ghost. + Exeunt SUFFOLK and WARWICK + KING HENRY. What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted? + Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just; + And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel, + Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. + [A noise within] + QUEEN. What noise is this? + + Re-enter SUFFOLK and WARWICK, with their weapons drawn + + KING. Why, how now, lords, your wrathful weapons drawn + Here in our presence! Dare you be so bold? + Why, what tumultuous clamour have we here? + SUFFOLK. The trait'rous Warwick, with the men of Bury, + Set all upon me, mighty sovereign. + + Re-enter SALISBURY + + SALISBURY. [To the Commons within] Sirs, stand apart, the King + shall know your mind. + Dread lord, the commons send you word by me + Unless Lord Suffolk straight be done to death, + Or banished fair England's territories, + They will by violence tear him from your palace + And torture him with grievous ling'ring death. + They say by him the good Duke Humphrey died; + They say in him they fear your Highness' death; + And mere instinct of love and loyalty, + Free from a stubborn opposite intent, + As being thought to contradict your liking, + Makes them thus forward in his banishment. + They say, in care of your most royal person, + That if your Highness should intend to sleep + And charge that no man should disturb your rest, + In pain of your dislike or pain of death, + Yet, notwithstanding such a strait edict, + Were there a serpent seen with forked tongue + That slily glided towards your Majesty, + It were but necessary you were wak'd, + Lest, being suffer'd in that harmful slumber, + The mortal worm might make the sleep eternal. + And therefore do they cry, though you forbid, + That they will guard you, whe'er you will or no, + From such fell serpents as false Suffolk is; + With whose envenomed and fatal sting + Your loving uncle, twenty times his worth, + They say, is shamefully bereft of life. + COMMONS. [Within] An answer from the King, my Lord of Salisbury! + SUFFOLK. 'Tis like the commons, rude unpolish'd hinds, + Could send such message to their sovereign; + But you, my lord, were glad to be employ'd, + To show how quaint an orator you are. + But all the honour Salisbury hath won + Is that he was the lord ambassador + Sent from a sort of tinkers to the King. + COMMONS. [Within] An answer from the King, or we will all break in! + KING HENRY. Go, Salisbury, and tell them all from me + I thank them for their tender loving care; + And had I not been cited so by them, + Yet did I purpose as they do entreat; + For sure my thoughts do hourly prophesy + Mischance unto my state by Suffolk's means. + And therefore by His Majesty I swear, + Whose far unworthy deputy I am, + He shall not breathe infection in this air + But three days longer, on the pain of death. + Exit SALISBURY + QUEEN. O Henry, let me plead for gentle Suffolk! + KING HENRY. Ungentle Queen, to call him gentle Suffolk! + No more, I say; if thou dost plead for him, + Thou wilt but add increase unto my wrath. + Had I but said, I would have kept my word; + But when I swear, it is irrevocable. + If after three days' space thou here be'st found + On any ground that I am ruler of, + The world shall not be ransom for thy life. + Come, Warwick, come, good Warwick, go with me; + I have great matters to impart to thee. + Exeunt all but QUEEN and SUFFOLK + QUEEN. Mischance and sorrow go along with you! + Heart's discontent and sour affliction + Be playfellows to keep you company! + There's two of you; the devil make a third, + And threefold vengeance tend upon your steps! + SUFFOLK. Cease, gentle Queen, these execrations, + And let thy Suffolk take his heavy leave. + QUEEN. Fie, coward woman and soft-hearted wretch, + Has thou not spirit to curse thine enemy? + SUFFOLK. A plague upon them! Wherefore should I curse them? + Would curses kill as doth the mandrake's groan, + I would invent as bitter searching terms, + As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear, + Deliver'd strongly through my fixed teeth, + With full as many signs of deadly hate, + As lean-fac'd Envy in her loathsome cave. + My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words, + Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint, + Mine hair be fix'd an end, as one distract; + Ay, every joint should seem to curse and ban; + And even now my burden'd heart would break, + Should I not curse them. Poison be their drink! + Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest that they taste! + Their sweetest shade a grove of cypress trees! + Their chiefest prospect murd'ring basilisks! + Their softest touch as smart as lizards' stings! + Their music frightful as the serpent's hiss, + And boding screech-owls make the consort full! + all the foul terrors in dark-seated hell- + QUEEN. Enough, sweet Suffolk, thou torment'st thyself; + And these dread curses, like the sun 'gainst glass, + Or like an overcharged gun, recoil, + And turns the force of them upon thyself. + SUFFOLK. You bade me ban, and will you bid me leave? + Now, by the ground that I am banish'd from, + Well could I curse away a winter's night, + Though standing naked on a mountain top + Where biting cold would never let grass grow, + And think it but a minute spent in sport. + QUEEN. O, let me entreat thee cease! Give me thy hand, + That I may dew it with my mournful tears; + Nor let the rain of heaven wet this place + To wash away my woeful monuments. + O, could this kiss be printed in thy hand, + That thou might'st think upon these by the seal, + Through whom a thousand sighs are breath'd for thee! + So, get thee gone, that I may know my grief; + 'Tis but surmis'd whiles thou art standing by, + As one that surfeits thinking on a want. + I will repeal thee or, be well assur'd, + Adventure to be banished myself; + And banished I am, if but from thee. + Go, speak not to me; even now be gone. + O, go not yet! Even thus two friends condemn'd + Embrace, and kiss, and take ten thousand leaves, + Loather a hundred times to part than die. + Yet now, farewell; and farewell life with thee! + SUFFOLK. Thus is poor Suffolk ten times banished, + Once by the King and three times thrice by thee, + 'Tis not the land I care for, wert thou thence; + A wilderness is populous enough, + So Suffolk had thy heavenly company; + For where thou art, there is the world itself, + With every several pleasure in the world; + And where thou art not, desolation. + I can no more: Live thou to joy thy life; + Myself no joy in nought but that thou liv'st. + + Enter VAUX + + QUEEN. Whither goes Vaux so fast? What news, I prithee? + VAUX. To signify unto his Majesty + That Cardinal Beaufort is at point of death; + For suddenly a grievous sickness took him + That makes him gasp, and stare, and catch the air, + Blaspheming God, and cursing men on earth. + Sometime he talks as if Duke Humphrey's ghost + Were by his side; sometime he calls the King + And whispers to his pillow, as to him, + The secrets of his overcharged soul; + And I am sent to tell his Majesty + That even now he cries aloud for him. + QUEEN. Go tell this heavy message to the King. Exit VAUX + Ay me! What is this world! What news are these! + But wherefore grieve I at an hour's poor loss, + Omitting Suffolk's exile, my soul's treasure? + Why only, Suffolk, mourn I not for thee, + And with the southern clouds contend in tears- + Theirs for the earth's increase, mine for my sorrows? + Now get thee hence: the King, thou know'st, is coming; + If thou be found by me; thou art but dead. + SUFFOLK. If I depart from thee I cannot live; + And in thy sight to die, what were it else + But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap? + Here could I breathe my soul into the air, + As mild and gentle as the cradle-babe + Dying with mother's dug between its lips; + Where, from thy sight, I should be raging mad + And cry out for thee to close up mine eyes, + To have thee with thy lips to stop my mouth; + So shouldst thou either turn my flying soul, + Or I should breathe it so into thy body, + And then it liv'd in sweet Elysium. + To die by thee were but to die in jest: + From thee to die were torture more than death. + O, let me stay, befall what may befall! + QUEEN. Away! Though parting be a fretful corrosive, + It is applied to a deathful wound. + To France, sweet Suffolk. Let me hear from thee; + For whereso'er thou art in this world's globe + I'll have an Iris that shall find thee out. + SUFFOLK. I go. + QUEEN. And take my heart with thee. [She kisses him] + SUFFOLK. A jewel, lock'd into the woefull'st cask + That ever did contain a thing of worth. + Even as a splitted bark, so sunder we: + This way fall I to death. + QUEEN. This way for me. Exeunt severally + + + + +SCENE III. +London. CARDINAL BEAUFORT'S bedchamber + +Enter the KING, SALISBURY, and WARWICK, to the CARDINAL in bed + + KING HENRY. How fares my lord? Speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign. + CARDINAL. If thou be'st Death I'll give thee England's treasure, + Enough to purchase such another island, + So thou wilt let me live and feel no pain. + KING HENRY. Ah, what a sign it is of evil life + Where death's approach is seen so terrible! + WARWICK. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee. + CARDINAL. Bring me unto my trial when you will. + Died he not in his bed? Where should he die? + Can I make men live, whe'er they will or no? + O, torture me no more! I will confess. + Alive again? Then show me where he is; + I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him. + He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them. + Comb down his hair; look, look! it stands upright, + Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul! + Give me some drink; and bid the apothecary + Bring the strong poison that I bought of him. + KING HENRY. O Thou eternal Mover of the heavens, + Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch! + O, beat away the busy meddling fiend + That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul, + And from his bosom purge this black despair! + WARWICK. See how the pangs of death do make him grin + SALISBURY. Disturb him not, let him pass peaceably. + KING HENRY. Peace to his soul, if God's good pleasure be! + Lord Card'nal, if thou think'st on heaven's bliss, + Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope. + He dies, and makes no sign: O God, forgive him! + WARWICK. So bad a death argues a monstrous life. + KING HENRY. Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. + Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close; + And let us all to meditation. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +The coast of Kent + +Alarum. Fight at sea. Ordnance goes off. Enter a LIEUTENANT, +a SHIPMASTER and his MATE, and WALTER WHITMORE, with sailors; +SUFFOLK and other GENTLEMEN, as prisoners + + LIEUTENANT. The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day + Is crept into the bosom of the sea; + And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades + That drag the tragic melancholy night; + Who with their drowsy, slow, and flagging wings + Clip dead men's graves, and from their misty jaws + Breathe foul contagious darkness in the air. + Therefore bring forth the soldiers of our prize; + For, whilst our pinnace anchors in the Downs, + Here shall they make their ransom on the sand, + Or with their blood stain this discoloured shore. + Master, this prisoner freely give I thee; + And thou that art his mate make boot of this; + The other, Walter Whitmore, is thy share. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. What is my ransom, master, let me know? + MASTER. A thousand crowns, or else lay down your head. + MATE. And so much shall you give, or off goes yours. + LIEUTENANT. What, think you much to pay two thousand crowns, + And bear the name and port of gentlemen? + Cut both the villains' throats- for die you shall; + The lives of those which we have lost in fight + Be counterpois'd with such a petty sum! + FIRST GENTLEMAN. I'll give it, sir: and therefore spare my life. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. And so will I, and write home for it straight. + WHITMORE. I lost mine eye in laying the prize aboard, + [To SUFFOLK] And therefore, to revenge it, shalt thou die; + And so should these, if I might have my will. + LIEUTENANT. Be not so rash; take ransom, let him live. + SUFFOLK. Look on my George, I am a gentleman: + Rate me at what thou wilt, thou shalt be paid. + WHITMORE. And so am I: my name is Walter Whitmore. + How now! Why start'st thou? What, doth death affright? + SUFFOLK. Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death. + A cunning man did calculate my birth + And told me that by water I should die; + Yet let not this make thee be bloody-minded; + Thy name is Gualtier, being rightly sounded. + WHITMORE. Gualtier or Walter, which it is I care not: + Never yet did base dishonour blur our name + But with our sword we wip'd away the blot; + Therefore, when merchant-like I sell revenge, + Broke be my sword, my arms torn and defac'd, + And I proclaim'd a coward through the world. + SUFFOLK. Stay, Whitmore, for thy prisoner is a prince, + The Duke of Suffolk, William de la Pole. + WHITMORE. The Duke of Suffolk muffled up in rags? + SUFFOLK. Ay, but these rags are no part of the Duke: + Jove sometime went disguis'd, and why not I? + LIEUTENANT. But Jove was never slain, as thou shalt be. + SUFFOLK. Obscure and lowly swain, King Henry's blood, + The honourable blood of Lancaster, + Must not be shed by such a jaded groom. + Hast thou not kiss'd thy hand and held my stirrup, + Bareheaded plodded by my foot-cloth mule, + And thought thee happy when I shook my head? + How often hast thou waited at my cup, + Fed from my trencher, kneel'd down at the board, + When I have feasted with Queen Margaret? + Remember it, and let it make thee crestfall'n, + Ay, and allay thus thy abortive pride, + How in our voiding-lobby hast thou stood + And duly waited for my coming forth. + This hand of mine hath writ in thy behalf, + And therefore shall it charm thy riotous tongue. + WHITMORE. Speak, Captain, shall I stab the forlorn swain? + LIEUTENANT. First let my words stab him, as he hath me. + SUFFOLK. Base slave, thy words are blunt, and so art thou. + LIEUTENANT. Convey him hence, and on our longboat's side + Strike off his head. + SUFFOLK. Thou dar'st not, for thy own. + LIEUTENANT. Poole! + SUFFOLK. Poole? + LIEUTENANT. Ay, kennel, puddle, sink, whose filth and dirt + Troubles the silver spring where England drinks; + Now will I dam up this thy yawning mouth + For swallowing the treasure of the realm. + Thy lips, that kiss'd the Queen, shall sweep the ground; + And thou that smil'dst at good Duke Humphrey's death + Against the senseless winds shalt grin in vain, + Who in contempt shall hiss at thee again; + And wedded be thou to the hags of hell + For daring to affy a mighty lord + Unto the daughter of a worthless king, + Having neither subject, wealth, nor diadem. + By devilish policy art thou grown great, + And, like ambitious Sylla, overgorg'd + With gobbets of thy mother's bleeding heart. + By thee Anjou and Maine were sold to France; + The false revolting Normans thorough thee + Disdain to call us lord; and Picardy + Hath slain their governors, surpris'd our forts, + And sent the ragged soldiers wounded home. + The princely Warwick, and the Nevils all, + Whose dreadful swords were never drawn in vain, + As hating thee, are rising up in arms; + And now the house of York- thrust from the crown + By shameful murder of a guiltless king + And lofty proud encroaching tyranny- + Burns with revenging fire, whose hopeful colours + Advance our half-fac'd sun, striving to shine, + Under the which is writ 'Invitis nubibus.' + The commons here in Kent are up in arms; + And to conclude, reproach and beggary + Is crept into the palace of our King, + And all by thee. Away! convey him hence. + SUFFOLK. O that I were a god, to shoot forth thunder + Upon these paltry, servile, abject drudges! + Small things make base men proud: this villain here, + Being captain of a pinnace, threatens more + Than Bargulus, the strong Illyrian pirate. + Drones suck not eagles' blood but rob beehives. + It is impossible that I should die + By such a lowly vassal as thyself. + Thy words move rage and not remorse in me. + I go of message from the Queen to France: + I charge thee waft me safely cross the Channel. + LIEUTENANT. Walter- + WHITMORE. Come, Suffolk, I must waft thee to thy death. + SUFFOLK. Gelidus timor occupat artus: it is thee I fear. + WHITMORE. Thou shalt have cause to fear before I leave thee. + What, are ye daunted now? Now will ye stoop? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. My gracious lord, entreat him, speak him fair. + SUFFOLK. Suffolk's imperial tongue is stem and rough, + Us'd to command, untaught to plead for favour. + Far be it we should honour such as these + With humble suit: no, rather let my head + Stoop to the block than these knees bow to any + Save to the God of heaven and to my king; + And sooner dance upon a bloody pole + Than stand uncover'd to the vulgar groom. + True nobility is exempt from fear: + More can I bear than you dare execute. + LIEUTENANT. Hale him away, and let him talk no more. + SUFFOLK. Come, soldiers, show what cruelty ye can, + That this my death may never be forgot- + Great men oft die by vile bezonians: + A Roman sworder and banditto slave + Murder'd sweet Tully; Brutus' bastard hand + Stabb'd Julius Caesar; savage islanders + Pompey the Great; and Suffolk dies by pirates. + Exit WALTER with SUFFOLK + LIEUTENANT. And as for these, whose ransom we have set, + It is our pleasure one of them depart; + Therefore come you with us, and let him go. + Exeunt all but the FIRST GENTLEMAN + + Re-enter WHITMORE with SUFFOLK'S body + + WHITMORE. There let his head and lifeless body lie, + Until the Queen his mistress bury it. Exit + FIRST GENTLEMAN. O barbarous and bloody spectacle! + His body will I bear unto the King. + If he revenge it not, yet will his friends; + So will the Queen, that living held him dear. + Exit with the body + + + + +SCENE II. +Blackheath + +Enter GEORGE BEVIS and JOHN HOLLAND + + GEORGE. Come and get thee a sword, though made of a lath; they have + been up these two days. + JOHN. They have the more need to sleep now, then. + GEORGE. I tell thee Jack Cade the clothier means to dress the + commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it. + JOHN. So he had need, for 'tis threadbare. Well, I say it was never + merry world in England since gentlemen came up. + GEORGE. O miserable age! Virtue is not regarded in handicraftsmen. + JOHN. The nobility think scorn to go in leather aprons. + GEORGE. Nay, more, the King's Council are no good workmen. + JOHN. True; and yet it is said 'Labour in thy vocation'; which is + as much to say as 'Let the magistrates be labouring men'; and + therefore should we be magistrates. + GEORGE. Thou hast hit it; for there's no better sign of a brave + mind than a hard hand. + JOHN. I see them! I see them! There's Best's son, the tanner of + Wingham- + GEORGE. He shall have the skins of our enemies to make dog's + leather of. + JOHN. And Dick the butcher- + GEORGE. Then is sin struck down, like an ox, and iniquity's throat + cut like a calf. + JOHN. And Smith the weaver- + GEORGE. Argo, their thread of life is spun. + JOHN. Come, come, let's fall in with them. + + Drum. Enter CADE, DICK THE BUTCHER, SMITH + THE WEAVER, and a SAWYER, with infinite numbers + + CADE. We John Cade, so term'd of our supposed father- + DICK. [Aside] Or rather, of stealing a cade of herrings. + CADE. For our enemies shall fall before us, inspired with the + spirit of putting down kings and princes- command silence. + DICK. Silence! + CADE. My father was a Mortimer- + DICK. [Aside] He was an honest man and a good bricklayer. + CADE. My mother a Plantagenet- + DICK. [Aside] I knew her well; she was a midwife. + CADE. My wife descended of the Lacies- + DICK. [Aside] She was, indeed, a pedlar's daughter, and sold many + laces. + SMITH. [Aside] But now of late, not able to travel with her furr'd + pack, she washes bucks here at home. + CADE. Therefore am I of an honourable house. + DICK. [Aside] Ay, by my faith, the field is honourable, and there + was he born, under a hedge, for his father had never a house but + the cage. + CADE. Valiant I am. + SMITH. [Aside] 'A must needs; for beggary is valiant. + CADE. I am able to endure much. + DICK. [Aside] No question of that; for I have seen him whipt three + market days together. + CADE. I fear neither sword nor fire. + SMITH. [Aside] He need not fear the sword, for his coat is of + proof. + DICK. [Aside] But methinks he should stand in fear of fire, being + burnt i' th' hand for stealing of sheep. + CADE. Be brave, then, for your captain is brave, and vows + reformation. There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves + sold for a penny; the three-hoop'd pot shall have ten hoops; and + I will make it felony to drink small beer. All the realm shall be + in common, and in Cheapside shall my palfrey go to grass. And + when I am king- as king I will be + ALL. God save your Majesty! + CADE. I thank you, good people- there shall be no money; all shall + eat and drink on my score, and I will apparel them all in one + livery, that they may agree like brothers and worship me their + lord. + DICK. The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. + CADE. Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable thing, that + of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made parchment? That + parchment, being scribbl'd o'er, should undo a man? Some say the + bee stings; but I say 'tis the bee's wax; for I did but seal once + to a thing, and I was never mine own man since. How now! Who's + there? + + Enter some, bringing in the CLERK OF CHATHAM + + SMITH. The clerk of Chatham. He can write and read and cast + accompt. + CADE. O monstrous! + SMITH. We took him setting of boys' copies. + CADE. Here's a villain! + SMITH. Has a book in his pocket with red letters in't. + CADE. Nay, then he is a conjurer. + DICK. Nay, he can make obligations and write court-hand. + CADE. I am sorry for't; the man is a proper man, of mine honour; + unless I find him guilty, he shall not die. Come hither, sirrah, + I must examine thee. What is thy name? + CLERK. Emmanuel. + DICK. They use to write it on the top of letters; 'twill go hard + with you. + CADE. Let me alone. Dost thou use to write thy name, or hast thou a + mark to thyself, like a honest plain-dealing man? + CLERK. Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up that I can + write my name. + ALL. He hath confess'd. Away with him! He's a villain and a + traitor. + CADE. Away with him, I say! Hang him with his pen and inkhorn about + his neck. Exit one with the CLERK + + Enter MICHAEL + + MICHAEL. Where's our General? + CADE. Here I am, thou particular fellow. + MICHAEL. Fly, fly, fly! Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother are + hard by, with the King's forces. + CADE. Stand, villain, stand, or I'll fell thee down. He shall be + encount'red with a man as good as himself. He is but a knight, + is 'a? + MICHAEL. No. + CADE. To equal him, I will make myself a knight presently. + [Kneels] Rise up, Sir John Mortimer. [Rises] Now have at him! + + Enter SIR HUMPHREY STAFFORD and WILLIAM + his brother, with drum and soldiers + + STAFFORD. Rebellious hinds, the filth and scum of Kent, + Mark'd for the gallows, lay your weapons down; + Home to your cottages, forsake this groom; + The King is merciful if you revolt. + WILLIAM STAFFORD. But angry, wrathful, and inclin'd to blood, + If you go forward; therefore yield or die. + CADE. As for these silken-coated slaves, I pass not; + It is to you, good people, that I speak, + O'er whom, in time to come, I hope to reign; + For I am rightful heir unto the crown. + STAFFORD. Villain, thy father was a plasterer; + And thou thyself a shearman, art thou not? + CADE. And Adam was a gardener. + WILLIAM STAFFORD. And what of that? + CADE. Marry, this: Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, + Married the Duke of Clarence' daughter, did he not? + STAFFORD. Ay, sir. + CADE. By her he had two children at one birth. + WILLIAM STAFFORD. That's false. + CADE. Ay, there's the question; but I say 'tis true. + The elder of them being put to nurse, + Was by a beggar-woman stol'n away, + And, ignorant of his birth and parentage, + Became a bricklayer when he came to age. + His son am I; deny it if you can. + DICK. Nay, 'tis too true; therefore he shall be king. + SMITH. Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and the bricks + are alive at this day to testify it; therefore deny it not. + STAFFORD. And will you credit this base drudge's words + That speaks he knows not what? + ALL. Ay, marry, will we; therefore get ye gone. + WILLIAM STAFFORD. Jack Cade, the Duke of York hath taught you this. + CADE. [Aside] He lies, for I invented it myself- Go to, sirrah, + tell the King from me that for his father's sake, Henry the + Fifth, in whose time boys went to span-counter for French crowns, + I am content he shall reign; but I'll be Protector over him. + DICK. And furthermore, we'll have the Lord Say's head for selling + the dukedom of Maine. + CADE. And good reason; for thereby is England main'd and fain to go + with a staff, but that my puissance holds it up. Fellow kings, I + tell you that that Lord Say hath gelded the commonwealth and made + it an eunuch; and more than that, he can speak French, and + therefore he is a traitor. + STAFFORD. O gross and miserable ignorance! + CADE. Nay, answer if you can; the Frenchmen are our enemies. Go to, + then, I ask but this: can he that speaks with the tongue of an + enemy be a good counsellor, or no? + ALL. No, no; and therefore we'll have his head. + WILLIAM STAFFORD. Well, seeing gentle words will not prevail, + Assail them with the army of the King. + STAFFORD. Herald, away; and throughout every town + Proclaim them traitors that are up with Cade; + That those which fly before the battle ends + May, even in their wives'and children's sight, + Be hang'd up for example at their doors. + And you that be the King's friends, follow me. + Exeunt the TWO STAFFORDS and soldiers + CADE. And you that love the commons follow me. + Now show yourselves men; 'tis for liberty. + We will not leave one lord, one gentleman; + Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon, + For they are thrifty honest men and such + As would- but that they dare not- take our parts. + DICK. They are all in order, and march toward us. + CADE. But then are we in order when we are most out of order. Come, + march forward. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Another part of Blackheath + +Alarums to the fight, wherein both the STAFFORDS are slain. +Enter CADE and the rest + + CADE. Where's Dick, the butcher of Ashford? + DICK. Here, sir. + CADE. They fell before thee like sheep and oxen, and thou behavedst + thyself as if thou hadst been in thine own slaughter-house; + therefore thus will I reward thee- the Lent shall be as long + again as it is, and thou shalt have a licence to kill for a + hundred lacking one. + DICK. I desire no more. + CADE. And, to speak truth, thou deserv'st no less. [Putting on SIR + HUMPHREY'S brigandine] This monument of the victory will I bear, + and the bodies shall be dragged at my horse heels till I do come + to London, where we will have the mayor's sword borne before us. + DICK. If we mean to thrive and do good, break open the gaols and + let out the prisoners. + CADE. Fear not that, I warrant thee. Come, let's march towards + London. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +London. The palace + +Enter the KING with a supplication, and the QUEEN with SUFFOLK'S head; +the DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM, and the LORD SAY + + QUEEN. Oft have I heard that grief softens the mind + And makes it fearful and degenerate; + Think therefore on revenge and cease to weep. + But who can cease to weep, and look on this? + Here may his head lie on my throbbing breast; + But where's the body that I should embrace? + BUCKINGHAM. What answer makes your Grace to the rebels' + supplication? + KING HENRY. I'll send some holy bishop to entreat; + For God forbid so many simple souls + Should perish by the sword! And I myself, + Rather than bloody war shall cut them short, + Will parley with Jack Cade their general. + But stay, I'll read it over once again. + QUEEN. Ah, barbarous villains! Hath this lovely face + Rul'd like a wandering planet over me, + And could it not enforce them to relent + That were unworthy to behold the same? + KING HENRY. Lord Say, Jack Cade hath sworn to have thy head. + SAY. Ay, but I hope your Highness shall have his. + KING HENRY. How now, madam! + Still lamenting and mourning for Suffolk's death? + I fear me, love, if that I had been dead, + Thou wouldst not have mourn'd so much for me. + QUEEN. No, my love, I should not mourn, but die for thee. + + Enter A MESSENGER + + KING HENRY. How now! What news? Why com'st thou in such haste? + MESSENGER. The rebels are in Southwark; fly, my lord! + Jack Cade proclaims himself Lord Mortimer, + Descended from the Duke of Clarence' house, + And calls your Grace usurper, openly, + And vows to crown himself in Westminster. + His army is a ragged multitude + Of hinds and peasants, rude and merciless; + Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother's death + Hath given them heart and courage to proceed. + All scholars, lawyers, courtiers, gentlemen, + They call false caterpillars and intend their death. + KING HENRY. O graceless men! they know not what they do. + BUCKINGHAM. My gracious lord, retire to Killingworth + Until a power be rais'd to put them down. + QUEEN. Ah, were the Duke of Suffolk now alive, + These Kentish rebels would be soon appeas'd! + KING HENRY. Lord Say, the traitors hate thee; + Therefore away with us to Killingworth. + SAY. So might your Grace's person be in danger. + The sight of me is odious in their eyes; + And therefore in this city will I stay + And live alone as secret as I may. + + Enter another MESSENGER + + SECOND MESSENGER. Jack Cade hath gotten London Bridge. + The citizens fly and forsake their houses; + The rascal people, thirsting after prey, + Join with the traitor; and they jointly swear + To spoil the city and your royal court. + BUCKINGHAM. Then linger not, my lord; away, take horse. + KING HENRY. Come Margaret; God, our hope, will succour us. + QUEEN. My hope is gone, now Suffolk is deceas'd. + KING HENRY. [To LORD SAY] Farewell, my lord, trust not the Kentish + rebels. + BUCKINGHAM. Trust nobody, for fear you be betray'd. + SAY. The trust I have is in mine innocence, + And therefore am I bold and resolute. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +London. The Tower + +Enter LORD SCALES Upon the Tower, walking. Then enter two or three CITIZENS, +below + + SCALES. How now! Is Jack Cade slain? + FIRST CITIZEN. No, my lord, nor likely to be slain; for they have + won the bridge, killing all those that withstand them. + The Lord Mayor craves aid of your honour from the + Tower, to defend the city from the rebels. + SCALES. Such aid as I can spare you shall command, + But I am troubled here with them myself; + The rebels have assay'd to win the Tower. + But get you to Smithfield, and gather head, + And thither I will send you Matthew Goffe; + Fight for your King, your country, and your lives; + And so, farewell, for I must hence again. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VI. +London. Cannon street + +Enter JACK CADE and the rest, and strikes his staff on London Stone + + CADE. Now is Mortimer lord of this city. And here, sitting upon + London Stone, I charge and command that, of the city's cost, the + pissing conduit run nothing but claret wine this first year of + our reign. And now henceforward it shall be treason for any that + calls me other than Lord Mortimer. + + Enter a SOLDIER, running + + SOLDIER. Jack Cade! Jack Cade! + CADE. Knock him down there. [They kill him] + SMITH. If this fellow be wise, he'll never call ye Jack Cade more; + I think he hath a very fair warning. + DICK. My lord, there's an army gathered together in Smithfield. + CADE. Come then, let's go fight with them. But first go and set + London Bridge on fire; and, if you can, burn down the Tower too. + Come, let's away. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VII. +London. Smithfield + +Alarums. MATTHEW GOFFE is slain, and all the rest. Then enter JACK CADE, +with his company + + CADE. So, sirs. Now go some and pull down the Savoy; others to th' + Inns of Court; down with them all. + DICK. I have a suit unto your lordship. + CADE. Be it a lordship, thou shalt have it for that word. + DICK. Only that the laws of England may come out of your mouth. + JOHN. [Aside] Mass, 'twill be sore law then; for he was thrust in + the mouth with a spear, and 'tis not whole yet. + SMITH. [Aside] Nay, John, it will be stinking law; for his breath + stinks with eating toasted cheese. + CADE. I have thought upon it; it shall be so. Away, burn all the + records of the realm. My mouth shall be the Parliament of + England. + JOHN. [Aside] Then we are like to have biting statutes, unless his + teeth be pull'd out. + CADE. And henceforward all things shall be in common. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. My lord, a prize, a prize! Here's the Lord Say, which + sold the towns in France; he that made us pay one and twenty + fifteens, and one shining to the pound, the last subsidy. + + Enter GEORGE BEVIS, with the LORD SAY + + CADE. Well, he shall be beheaded for it ten times. Ah, thou say, + thou serge, nay, thou buckram lord! Now art thou within point + blank of our jurisdiction regal. What canst thou answer to my + Majesty for giving up of Normandy unto Mounsieur Basimecu the + Dauphin of France? Be it known unto thee by these presence, even + the presence of Lord Mortimer, that I am the besom that must + sweep the court clean of such filth as thou art. Thou hast most + traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a + grammar school; and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other + books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to + be us'd, and, contrary to the King, his crown, and dignity, thou + hast built a paper-mill. It will be proved to thy face that thou + hast men about thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and + such abominable words as no Christian ear can endure to hear. + Thou hast appointed justices of peace, to call poor men before + them about matters they were not able to answer. Moreover, thou + hast put them in prison, and because they could not read, thou + hast hang'd them, when, indeed, only for that cause they have + been most worthy to live. Thou dost ride in a foot-cloth, dost + thou not? + SAY. What of that? + CADE. Marry, thou ought'st not to let thy horse wear a cloak, when + honester men than thou go in their hose and doublets. + DICK. And work in their shirt too, as myself, for example, that am + a butcher. + SAY. You men of Kent- + DICK. What say you of Kent? + SAY. Nothing but this: 'tis 'bona terra, mala gens.' + CADE. Away with him, away with him! He speaks Latin. + SAY. Hear me but speak, and bear me where you will. + Kent, in the Commentaries Caesar writ, + Is term'd the civil'st place of all this isle. + Sweet is the country, because full of riches; + The people liberal valiant, active, wealthy; + Which makes me hope you are not void of pity. + I sold not Maine, I lost not Normandy; + Yet, to recover them, would lose my life. + Justice with favour have I always done; + Pray'rs and tears have mov'd me, gifts could never. + When have I aught exacted at your hands, + But to maintain the King, the realm, and you? + Large gifts have I bestow'd on learned clerks, + Because my book preferr'd me to the King, + And seeing ignorance is the curse of God, + Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven, + Unless you be possess'd with devilish spirits + You cannot but forbear to murder me. + This tongue hath parley'd unto foreign kings + For your behoof. + CADE. Tut, when struck'st thou one blow in the field? + SAY. Great men have reaching hands. Oft have I struck + Those that I never saw, and struck them dead. + GEORGE. O monstrous coward! What, to come behind folks? + SAY. These cheeks are pale for watching for your good. + CADE. Give him a box o' th' ear, and that will make 'em red again. + SAY. Long sitting to determine poor men's causes + Hath made me full of sickness and diseases. + CADE. Ye shall have a hempen caudle then, and the help of hatchet. + DICK. Why dost thou quiver, man? + SAY. The palsy, and not fear, provokes me. + CADE. Nay, he nods at us, as who should say 'I'll be even with + you'; I'll see if his head will stand steadier on a pole, or no. + Take him away, and behead him. + SAY. Tell me: wherein have I offended most? + Have I affected wealth or honour? Speak. + Are my chests fill'd up with extorted gold? + Is my apparel sumptuous to behold? + Whom have I injur'd, that ye seek my death? + These hands are free from guiltless bloodshedding, + This breast from harbouring foul deceitful thoughts. + O, let me live! + CADE. [Aside] I feel remorse in myself with his words; but I'll + bridle it. He shall die, an it be but for pleading so well for + his life.- Away with him! He has a familiar under his tongue; he + speaks not o' God's name. Go, take him away, I say, and strike + off his head presently, and then break into his son-in-law's + house, Sir James Cromer, and strike off his head, and bring them + both upon two poles hither. + ALL. It shall be done. + SAY. Ah, countrymen! if when you make your pray'rs, + God should be so obdurate as yourselves, + How would it fare with your departed souls? + And therefore yet relent and save my life. + CADE. Away with him, and do as I command ye. [Exeunt some with + LORD SAY] The proudest peer in the realm shall not wear a head + on his shoulders, unless he pay me tribute; there shall not a + maid be married, but she shall pay to me her maidenhead ere they + have it. Men shall hold of me in capite; and we charge and + command that their wives be as free as heart can wish or tongue + can tell. + DICK. My lord, when shall we go to Cheapside, and take up + commodities upon our bills? + CADE. Marry, presently. + ALL. O, brave! + + Re-enter one with the heads + + CADE. But is not this braver? Let them kiss one another, for they + lov'd well when they were alive. Now part them again, lest they + consult about the giving up of some more towns in France. + Soldiers, defer the spoil of the city until night; for with these + borne before us instead of maces will we ride through the + streets, and at every corner have them kiss. Away! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VIII. +Southwark + +Alarum and retreat. Enter again CADE and all his rabblement + + CADE. Up Fish Street! down Saint Magnus' Corner! Kill and knock + down! Throw them into Thames! [Sound a parley] + What noise is this I hear? Dare any be so bold to sound retreat + or parley when I command them kill? + + Enter BUCKINGHAM and old CLIFFORD, attended + + BUCKINGHAM. Ay, here they be that dare and will disturb thee. + And therefore yet relent, and save my life. + Know, Cade, we come ambassadors from the King + Unto the commons whom thou hast misled; + And here pronounce free pardon to them all + That will forsake thee and go home in peace. + CLIFFORD. What say ye, countrymen? Will ye relent + And yield to mercy whilst 'tis offer'd you, + Or let a rebel lead you to your deaths? + Who loves the King, and will embrace his pardon, + Fling up his cap and say 'God save his Majesty!' + Who hateth him and honours not his father, + Henry the Fifth, that made all France to quake, + Shake he his weapon at us and pass by. + ALL. God save the King! God save the King! + CADE. What, Buckingham and Clifford, are ye so brave? + And you, base peasants, do ye believe him? Will you needs be + hang'd with your about your necks? Hath my sword therefore broke + through London gates, that you should leave me at the White Hart + in Southwark? I thought ye would never have given out these arms + till you had recovered your ancient freedom. But you are all + recreants and dastards, and delight to live in slavery to the + nobility. Let them break your backs with burdens, take your + houses over your heads, ravish your wives and daughters before + your faces. For me, I will make shift for one; and so God's curse + light upon you all! + ALL. We'll follow Cade, we'll follow Cade! + CLIFFORD. Is Cade the son of Henry the Fifth, + That thus you do exclaim you'll go with him? + Will he conduct you through the heart of France, + And make the meanest of you earls and dukes? + Alas, he hath no home, no place to fly to; + Nor knows he how to live but by the spoil, + Unless by robbing of your friends and us. + Were't not a shame that whilst you live at jar + The fearful French, whom you late vanquished, + Should make a start o'er seas and vanquish you? + Methinks already in this civil broil + I see them lording it in London streets, + Crying 'Villiago!' unto all they meet. + Better ten thousand base-born Cades miscarry + Than you should stoop unto a Frenchman's mercy. + To France, to France, and get what you have lost; + Spare England, for it is your native coast. + Henry hath money; you are strong and manly. + God on our side, doubt not of victory. + ALL. A Clifford! a Clifford! We'll follow the King and Clifford. + CADE. Was ever feather so lightly blown to and fro as this + multitude? The name of Henry the Fifth hales them to an hundred + mischiefs, and makes them leave me desolate. I see them lay their + heads together to surprise me. My sword make way for me for here + is no staying. In despite of the devils and hell, have through + the very middest of you! and heavens and honour be witness that + no want of resolution in me, but only my followers' base and + ignominious treasons, makes me betake me to my heels. + Exit + BUCKINGHAM. What, is he fled? Go some, and follow him; + And he that brings his head unto the King + Shall have a thousand crowns for his reward. + Exeunt some of them + Follow me, soldiers; we'll devise a mean + To reconcile you all unto the King. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IX. +Killing, worth Castle + +Sound trumpets. Enter KING, QUEEN, and SOMERSET, on the terrace + + KING HENRY. Was ever king that joy'd an earthly throne + And could command no more content than I? + No sooner was I crept out of my cradle + But I was made a king, at nine months old. + Was never subject long'd to be a King + As I do long and wish to be a subject. + + Enter BUCKINGHAM and old CLIFFORD + + BUCKINGHAM. Health and glad tidings to your Majesty! + KING HENRY. Why, Buckingham, is the traitor Cade surpris'd? + Or is he but retir'd to make him strong? + + Enter, below, multitudes, with halters about their necks + + CLIFFORD. He is fled, my lord, and all his powers do yield, + And humbly thus, with halters on their necks, + Expect your Highness' doom of life or death. + KING HENRY. Then, heaven, set ope thy everlasting gates, + To entertain my vows of thanks and praise! + Soldiers, this day have you redeem'd your lives, + And show'd how well you love your Prince and country. + Continue still in this so good a mind, + And Henry, though he be infortunate, + Assure yourselves, will never be unkind. + And so, with thanks and pardon to you all, + I do dismiss you to your several countries. + ALL. God save the King! God save the King! + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. Please it your Grace to be advertised + The Duke of York is newly come from Ireland + And with a puissant and a mighty power + Of gallowglasses and stout kerns + Is marching hitherward in proud array, + And still proclaimeth, as he comes along, + His arms are only to remove from thee + The Duke of Somerset, whom he terms a traitor. + KING HENRY. Thus stands my state, 'twixt Cade and York distress'd; + Like to a ship that, having scap'd a tempest, + Is straightway calm'd, and boarded with a pirate; + But now is Cade driven back, his men dispers'd, + And now is York in arms to second him. + I pray thee, Buckingham, go and meet him + And ask him what's the reason of these arms. + Tell him I'll send Duke Edmund to the Tower- + And Somerset, we will commit thee thither + Until his army be dismiss'd from him. + SOMERSET. My lord, + I'll yield myself to prison willingly, + Or unto death, to do my country good. + KING HENRY. In any case be not too rough in terms, + For he is fierce and cannot brook hard language. + BUCKINGHAM. I will, my lord, and doubt not so to deal + As all things shall redound unto your good. + KING HENRY. Come, wife, let's in, and learn to govern better; + For yet may England curse my wretched reign. + Flourish. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE X. +Kent. Iden's garden + +Enter CADE + + CADE. Fie on ambitions! Fie on myself, that have a sword and yet am + ready to famish! These five days have I hid me in these woods and + durst not peep out, for all the country is laid for me; but now + am I so hungry that, if I might have a lease of my life for a + thousand years, I could stay no longer. Wherefore, on a brick + wall have I climb'd into this garden, to see if I can eat grass + or pick a sallet another while, which is not amiss to cool a + man's stomach this hot weather. And I think this word 'sallet' + was born to do me good; for many a time, but for a sallet, my + brain-pain had been cleft with a brown bill; and many a time, + when I have been dry, and bravely marching, it hath serv'd me + instead of a quart-pot to drink in; and now the word 'sallet' + must serve me to feed on. + + Enter IDEN + + IDEN. Lord, who would live turmoiled in the court + And may enjoy such quiet walks as these? + This small inheritance my father left me + Contenteth me, and worth a monarchy. + I seek not to wax great by others' waning + Or gather wealth I care not with what envy; + Sufficeth that I have maintains my state, + And sends the poor well pleased from my gate. + CADE. Here's the lord of the soil come to seize me for a stray, for + entering his fee-simple without leave. Ah, villain, thou wilt + betray me, and get a thousand crowns of the King by carrying my + head to him; but I'll make thee eat iron like an ostrich and + swallow my sword like a great pin ere thou and I part. + IDEN. Why, rude companion, whatsoe'er thou be, + I know thee not; why then should I betray thee? + Is't not enough to break into my garden + And like a thief to come to rob my grounds, + Climbing my walls in spite of me the owner, + But thou wilt brave me with these saucy terms? + CADE. Brave thee? Ay, by the best blood that ever was broach'd, and + beard thee too. Look on me well: I have eat no meat these five + days, yet come thou and thy five men and if I do not leave you + all as dead as a door-nail, I pray God I may never eat grass + more. + IDEN. Nay, it shall ne'er be said, while England stands, + That Alexander Iden, an esquire of Kent, + Took odds to combat a poor famish'd man. + Oppose thy steadfast-gazing eyes to mine; + See if thou canst outface me with thy looks; + Set limb to limb, and thou art far the lesser; + Thy hand is but a finger to my fist, + Thy leg a stick compared with this truncheon; + My foot shall fight with all the strength thou hast, + And if mine arm be heaved in the air, + Thy grave is digg'd already in the earth. + As for words, whose greatness answers words, + Let this my sword report what speech forbears. + CADE. By my valour, the most complete champion that ever I heard! + Steel, if thou turn the edge, or cut not out the burly bon'd + clown in chines of beef ere thou sleep in thy sheath, I beseech + God on my knees thou mayst be turn'd to hobnails. [Here they + fight; CADE falls] O, I am slain! famine and no other hath slain + me. Let ten thousand devils come against me, and give me but the + ten meals I have lost, and I'd defy them all. Wither, garden, and + be henceforth a burying place to all that do dwell in this house, + because the unconquered soul of Cade is fled. + IDEN. Is't Cade that I have slain, that monstrous traitor? + Sword, I will hallow thee for this thy deed + And hang thee o'er my tomb when I am dead. + Ne'er shall this blood be wiped from thy point, + But thou shalt wear it as a herald's coat + To emblaze the honour that thy master got. + CADE. Iden, farewell; and be proud of thy victory. Tell Kent from + me she hath lost her best man, and exhort all the world to be + cowards; for I, that never feared any, am vanquished by famine, + not by valour. [Dies] + IDEN. How much thou wrong'st me, heaven be my judge. + Die, damned wretch, the curse of her that bare thee! + And as I thrust thy body in with my sword, + So wish I, I might thrust thy soul to hell. + Hence will I drag thee headlong by the heels + Unto a dunghill, which shall be thy grave, + And there cut off thy most ungracious head, + Which I will bear in triumph to the King, + Leaving thy trunk for crows to feed upon. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Fields between Dartford and Blackheath + +Enter YORK, and his army of Irish, with drum and colours + + YORK. From Ireland thus comes York to claim his right + And pluck the crown from feeble Henry's head: + Ring bells aloud, burn bonfires clear and bright, + To entertain great England's lawful king. + Ah, sancta majestas! who would not buy thee dear? + Let them obey that knows not how to rule; + This hand was made to handle nought but gold. + I cannot give due action to my words + Except a sword or sceptre balance it. + A sceptre shall it have, have I a soul + On which I'll toss the flower-de-luce of France. + + Enter BUCKINGHAM + + [Aside] Whom have we here? Buckingham, to disturb me? + The King hath sent him, sure: I must dissemble. + BUCKINGHAM. York, if thou meanest well I greet thee well. + YORK. Humphrey of Buckingham, I accept thy greeting. + Art thou a messenger, or come of pleasure? + BUCKINGHAM. A messenger from Henry, our dread liege, + To know the reason of these arms in peace; + Or why thou, being a subject as I am, + Against thy oath and true allegiance sworn, + Should raise so great a power without his leave, + Or dare to bring thy force so near the court. + YORK. [Aside] Scarce can I speak, my choler is so great. + O, I could hew up rocks and fight with flint, + I am so angry at these abject terms; + And now, like Ajax Telamonius, + On sheep or oxen could I spend my fury. + I am far better born than is the King, + More like a king, more kingly in my thoughts; + But I must make fair weather yet awhile, + Till Henry be more weak and I more strong.- + Buckingham, I prithee, pardon me + That I have given no answer all this while; + My mind was troubled with deep melancholy. + The cause why I have brought this army hither + Is to remove proud Somerset from the King, + Seditious to his Grace and to the state. + BUCKINGHAM. That is too much presumption on thy part; + But if thy arms be to no other end, + The King hath yielded unto thy demand: + The Duke of Somerset is in the Tower. + YORK. Upon thine honour, is he prisoner? + BUCKINGHAM. Upon mine honour, he is prisoner. + YORK. Then, Buckingham, I do dismiss my pow'rs. + Soldiers, I thank you all; disperse yourselves; + Meet me to-morrow in Saint George's field, + You shall have pay and everything you wish. + And let my sovereign, virtuous Henry, + Command my eldest son, nay, all my sons, + As pledges of my fealty and love. + I'll send them all as willing as I live: + Lands, goods, horse, armour, anything I have, + Is his to use, so Somerset may die. + BUCKINGHAM. York, I commend this kind submission. + We twain will go into his Highness' tent. + + Enter the KING, and attendants + + KING HENRY. Buckingham, doth York intend no harm to us, + That thus he marcheth with thee arm in arm? + YORK. In all submission and humility + York doth present himself unto your Highness. + KING HENRY. Then what intends these forces thou dost bring? + YORK. To heave the traitor Somerset from hence, + And fight against that monstrous rebel Cade, + Who since I heard to be discomfited. + + Enter IDEN, with CADE's head + + IDEN. If one so rude and of so mean condition + May pass into the presence of a king, + Lo, I present your Grace a traitor's head, + The head of Cade, whom I in combat slew. + KING HENRY. The head of Cade! Great God, how just art Thou! + O, let me view his visage, being dead, + That living wrought me such exceeding trouble. + Tell me, my friend, art thou the man that slew him? + IDEN. I was, an't like your Majesty. + KING HENRY. How art thou call'd? And what is thy degree? + IDEN. Alexander Iden, that's my name; + A poor esquire of Kent that loves his king. + BUCKINGHAM. So please it you, my lord, 'twere not amiss + He were created knight for his good service. + KING HENRY. Iden, kneel down. [He kneels] Rise up a knight. + We give thee for reward a thousand marks, + And will that thou thenceforth attend on us. + IDEN. May Iden live to merit such a bounty, + And never live but true unto his liege! + + Enter the QUEEN and SOMERSET + + KING HENRY. See, Buckingham! Somerset comes with th' Queen: + Go, bid her hide him quickly from the Duke. + QUEEN. For thousand Yorks he shall not hide his head, + But boldly stand and front him to his face. + YORK. How now! Is Somerset at liberty? + Then, York, unloose thy long-imprisoned thoughts + And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart. + Shall I endure the sight of Somerset? + False king, why hast thou broken faith with me, + Knowing how hardly I can brook abuse? + King did I call thee? No, thou art not king; + Not fit to govern and rule multitudes, + Which dar'st not, no, nor canst not rule a traitor. + That head of thine doth not become a crown; + Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer's staff, + And not to grace an awful princely sceptre. + That gold must round engirt these brows of mine, + Whose smile and frown, like to Achilles' spear, + Is able with the change to kill and cure. + Here is a hand to hold a sceptre up, + And with the same to act controlling laws. + Give place. By heaven, thou shalt rule no more + O'er him whom heaven created for thy ruler. + SOMERSET. O monstrous traitor! I arrest thee, York, + Of capital treason 'gainst the King and crown. + Obey, audacious traitor; kneel for grace. + YORK. Wouldst have me kneel? First let me ask of these, + If they can brook I bow a knee to man. + Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail: Exit attendant + I know, ere thy will have me go to ward, + They'll pawn their swords for my enfranchisement. + QUEEN. Call hither Clifford; bid him come amain, + To say if that the bastard boys of York + Shall be the surety for their traitor father. + Exit BUCKINGHAM + YORK. O blood-bespotted Neapolitan, + Outcast of Naples, England's bloody scourge! + The sons of York, thy betters in their birth, + Shall be their father's bail; and bane to those + That for my surety will refuse the boys! + + Enter EDWARD and RICHARD PLANTAGENET + + See where they come: I'll warrant they'll make it good. + + Enter CLIFFORD and his SON + + QUEEN. And here comes Clifford to deny their bail. + CLIFFORD. Health and all happiness to my lord the King! + [Kneels] + YORK. I thank thee, Clifford. Say, what news with thee? + Nay, do not fright us with an angry look. + We are thy sovereign, Clifford, kneel again; + For thy mistaking so, we pardon thee. + CLIFFORD. This is my King, York, I do not mistake; + But thou mistakes me much to think I do. + To Bedlam with him! Is the man grown mad? + KING HENRY. Ay, Clifford; a bedlam and ambitious humour + Makes him oppose himself against his king. + CLIFFORD. He is a traitor; let him to the Tower, + And chop away that factious pate of his. + QUEEN. He is arrested, but will not obey; + His sons, he says, shall give their words for him. + YORK. Will you not, sons? + EDWARD. Ay, noble father, if our words will serve. + RICHARD. And if words will not, then our weapons shall. + CLIFFORD. Why, what a brood of traitors have we here! + YORK. Look in a glass, and call thy image so: + I am thy king, and thou a false-heart traitor. + Call hither to the stake my two brave bears, + That with the very shaking of their chains + They may astonish these fell-lurking curs. + Bid Salisbury and Warwick come to me. + + Enter the EARLS OF WARWICK and SALISBURY + + CLIFFORD. Are these thy bears? We'll bait thy bears to death, + And manacle the berard in their chains, + If thou dar'st bring them to the baiting-place. + RICHARD. Oft have I seen a hot o'er weening cur + Run back and bite, because he was withheld; + Who, being suffer'd, with the bear's fell paw, + Hath clapp'd his tail between his legs and cried; + And such a piece of service will you do, + If you oppose yourselves to match Lord Warwick. + CLIFFORD. Hence, heap of wrath, foul indigested lump, + As crooked in thy manners as thy shape! + YORK. Nay, we shall heat you thoroughly anon. + CLIFFORD. Take heed, lest by your heat you burn yourselves. + KING HENRY. Why, Warwick, hath thy knee forgot to bow? + Old Salisbury, shame to thy silver hair, + Thou mad misleader of thy brainsick son! + What, wilt thou on thy death-bed play the ruffian + And seek for sorrow with thy spectacles? + O, where is faith? O, where is loyalty? + If it be banish'd from the frosty head, + Where shall it find a harbour in the earth? + Wilt thou go dig a grave to find out war + And shame thine honourable age with blood? + Why art thou old, and want'st experience? + Or wherefore dost abuse it, if thou hast it? + For shame! In duty bend thy knee to me, + That bows unto the grave with mickle age. + SALISBURY. My lord, I have considered with myself + The tide of this most renowned duke, + And in my conscience do repute his Grace + The rightful heir to England's royal seat. + KING HENRY. Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me? + SALISBURY. I have. + KING HENRY. Canst thou dispense with heaven for such an oath? + SALISBURY. It is great sin to swear unto a sin; + But greater sin to keep a sinful oath. + Who can be bound by any solemn vow + To do a murd'rous deed, to rob a man, + To force a spotless virgin's chastity, + To reave the orphan of his patrimony, + To wring the widow from her custom'd right, + And have no other reason for this wrong + But that he was bound by a solemn oath? + QUEEN. A subtle traitor needs no sophister. + KING HENRY. Call Buckingham, and bid him arm himself. + YORK. Call Buckingham, and all the friends thou hast, + I am resolv'd for death or dignity. + CLIFFORD. The first I warrant thee, if dreams prove true. + WARWICK. You were best to go to bed and dream again + To keep thee from the tempest of the field. + CLIFFORD. I am resolv'd to bear a greater storm + Than any thou canst conjure up to-day; + And that I'll write upon thy burgonet, + Might I but know thee by thy household badge. + WARWICK. Now, by my father's badge, old Nevil's crest, + The rampant bear chain'd to the ragged staff, + This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet, + As on a mountain-top the cedar shows, + That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm, + Even to affright thee with the view thereof. + CLIFFORD. And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear + And tread it under foot with all contempt, + Despite the berard that protects the bear. + YOUNG CLIFFORD. And so to arms, victorious father, + To quell the rebels and their complices. + RICHARD. Fie! charity, for shame! Speak not in spite, + For you shall sup with Jesu Christ to-night. + YOUNG CLIFFORD. Foul stigmatic, that's more than thou canst tell. + RICHARD. If not in heaven, you'll surely sup in hell. + Exeunt severally + + + + +SCENE II. +Saint Albans + +Alarums to the battle. Enter WARWICK + + WARWICK. Clifford of Cumberland, 'tis Warwick calls; + And if thou dost not hide thee from the bear, + Now, when the angry trumpet sounds alarum + And dead men's cries do fill the empty air, + Clifford, I say, come forth and fight with me. + Proud northern lord, Clifford of Cumberland, + WARWICK is hoarse with calling thee to arms. + + Enter YORK + + How now, my noble lord! what, all a-foot? + YORK. The deadly-handed Clifford slew my steed; + But match to match I have encount'red him, + And made a prey for carrion kites and crows + Even of the bonny beast he lov'd so well. + + Enter OLD CLIFFORD + + WARWICK. Of one or both of us the time is come. + YORK. Hold, Warwick, seek thee out some other chase, + For I myself must hunt this deer to death. + WARWICK. Then, nobly, York; 'tis for a crown thou fight'st. + As I intend, Clifford, to thrive to-day, + It grieves my soul to leave thee unassail'd. Exit + CLIFFORD. What seest thou in me, York? Why dost thou pause? + YORK. With thy brave bearing should I be in love + But that thou art so fast mine enemy. + CLIFFORD. Nor should thy prowess want praise and esteem + But that 'tis shown ignobly and in treason. + YORK. So let it help me now against thy sword, + As I in justice and true right express it! + CLIFFORD. My soul and body on the action both! + YORK. A dreadful lay! Address thee instantly. + [They fight and CLIFFORD falls] + CLIFFORD. La fin couronne les oeuvres. [Dies] + YORK. Thus war hath given thee peace, for thou art still. + Peace with his soul, heaven, if it be thy will! Exit + + Enter YOUNG CLIFFORD + + YOUNG CLIFFORD. Shame and confusion! All is on the rout; + Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds + Where it should guard. O war, thou son of hell, + Whom angry heavens do make their minister, + Throw in the frozen bosoms of our part + Hot coals of vengeance! Let no soldier fly. + He that is truly dedicate to war + Hath no self-love; nor he that loves himself + Hath not essentially, but by circumstance, + The name of valour. [Sees his father's body] + O, let the vile world end + And the premised flames of the last day + Knit earth and heaven together! + Now let the general trumpet blow his blast, + Particularities and petty sounds + To cease! Wast thou ordain'd, dear father, + To lose thy youth in peace and to achieve + The silver livery of advised age, + And in thy reverence and thy chair-days thus + To die in ruffian battle? Even at this sight + My heart is turn'd to stone; and while 'tis mine + It shall be stony. York not our old men spares; + No more will I their babes. Tears virginal + Shall be to me even as the dew to fire; + And beauty, that the tyrant oft reclaims, + Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and flax. + Henceforth I will not have to do with pity: + Meet I an infant of the house of York, + Into as many gobbets will I cut it + As wild Medea young Absyrtus did; + In cruelty will I seek out my fame. + Come, thou new ruin of old Clifford's house; + As did Aeneas old Anchises bear, + So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders; + But then Aeneas bare a living load, + Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine. + Exit with the body + + Enter RICHARD and SOMERSET to fight. SOMERSET is killed + + RICHARD. So, lie thou there; + For underneath an alehouse' paltry sign, + The Castle in Saint Albans, Somerset + Hath made the wizard famous in his death. + Sword, hold thy temper; heart, be wrathful still: + Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill. Exit + + Fight. Excursions. Enter KING, QUEEN, and others + + QUEEN. Away, my lord! You are slow; for shame, away! + KING HENRY. Can we outrun the heavens? Good Margaret, stay. + QUEEN. What are you made of? You'll nor fight nor fly. + Now is it manhood, wisdom, and defence, + To give the enemy way, and to secure us + By what we can, which can no more but fly. + [Alarum afar off] + If you be ta'en, we then should see the bottom + Of all our fortunes; but if we haply scape- + As well we may, if not through your neglect- + We shall to London get, where you are lov'd, + And where this breach now in our fortunes made + May readily be stopp'd. + + Re-enter YOUNG CLIFFORD + + YOUNG CLIFFORD. But that my heart's on future mischief set, + I would speak blasphemy ere bid you fly; + But fly you must; uncurable discomfit + Reigns in the hearts of all our present parts. + Away, for your relief! and we will live + To see their day and them our fortune give. + Away, my lord, away! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Fields near Saint Albans + +Alarum. Retreat. Enter YORK, RICHARD, WARWICK, and soldiers, +with drum and colours + + YORK. Of Salisbury, who can report of him, + That winter lion, who in rage forgets + Aged contusions and all brush of time + And, like a gallant in the brow of youth, + Repairs him with occasion? This happy day + Is not itself, nor have we won one foot, + If Salisbury be lost. + RICHARD. My noble father, + Three times to-day I holp him to his horse, + Three times bestrid him, thrice I led him off, + Persuaded him from any further act; + But still where danger was, still there I met him; + And like rich hangings in a homely house, + So was his will in his old feeble body. + But, noble as he is, look where he comes. + + Enter SALISBURY + + SALISBURY. Now, by my sword, well hast thou fought to-day! + By th' mass, so did we all. I thank you, Richard: + God knows how long it is I have to live, + And it hath pleas'd Him that three times to-day + You have defended me from imminent death. + Well, lords, we have not got that which we have; + 'Tis not enough our foes are this time fled, + Being opposites of such repairing nature. + YORK. I know our safety is to follow them; + For, as I hear, the King is fled to London + To call a present court of Parliament. + Let us pursue him ere the writs go forth. + What says Lord Warwick? Shall we after them? + WARWICK. After them? Nay, before them, if we can. + Now, by my faith, lords, 'twas a glorious day: + Saint Albans' battle, won by famous York, + Shall be eterniz'd in all age to come. + Sound drum and trumpets and to London all; + And more such days as these to us befall! Exeunt + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1591 + +THE THIRD PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + KING HENRY THE SIXTH + EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES, his son + LEWIS XI, King of France DUKE OF SOMERSET + DUKE OF EXETER EARL OF OXFORD + EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND EARL OF WESTMORELAND + LORD CLIFFORD + RICHARD PLANTAGENET, DUKE OF YORK + EDWARD, EARL OF MARCH, afterwards KING EDWARD IV, his son + EDMUND, EARL OF RUTLAND, his son + GEORGE, afterwards DUKE OF CLARENCE, his son + RICHARD, afterwards DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, his son + DUKE OF NORFOLK MARQUIS OF MONTAGUE + EARL OF WARWICK EARL OF PEMBROKE + LORD HASTINGS LORD STAFFORD + SIR JOHN MORTIMER, uncle to the Duke of York + SIR HUGH MORTIMER, uncle to the Duke of York + HENRY, EARL OF RICHMOND, a youth + LORD RIVERS, brother to Lady Grey + SIR WILLIAM STANLEY SIR JOHN MONTGOMERY + SIR JOHN SOMERVILLE TUTOR, to Rutland + MAYOR OF YORK LIEUTENANT OF THE TOWER + A NOBLEMAN TWO KEEPERS + A HUNTSMAN + A SON that has killed his father + A FATHER that has killed his son + + QUEEN MARGARET + LADY GREY, afterwards QUEEN to Edward IV + BONA, sister to the French Queen + + Soldiers, Attendants, Messengers, Watchmen, etc. + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +England and France + +ACT I. SCENE I. +London. The Parliament House + +Alarum. Enter DUKE OF YORK, EDWARD, RICHARD, NORFOLK, MONTAGUE, WARWICK, +and soldiers, with white roses in their hats + + WARWICK. I wonder how the King escap'd our hands. + YORK. While we pursu'd the horsemen of the north, + He slily stole away and left his men; + Whereat the great Lord of Northumberland, + Whose warlike ears could never brook retreat, + Cheer'd up the drooping army, and himself, + Lord Clifford, and Lord Stafford, all abreast, + Charg'd our main battle's front, and, breaking in, + Were by the swords of common soldiers slain. + EDWARD. Lord Stafford's father, Duke of Buckingham, + Is either slain or wounded dangerous; + I cleft his beaver with a downright blow. + That this is true, father, behold his blood. + MONTAGUE. And, brother, here's the Earl of Wiltshire's blood, + Whom I encount'red as the battles join'd. + RICHARD. Speak thou for me, and tell them what I did. + [Throwing down SOMERSET'S head] + YORK. Richard hath best deserv'd of all my sons. + But is your Grace dead, my Lord of Somerset? + NORFOLK. Such hope have all the line of John of Gaunt! + RICHARD. Thus do I hope to shake King Henry's head. + WARWICK. And so do I. Victorious Prince of York, + Before I see thee seated in that throne + Which now the house of Lancaster usurps, + I vow by heaven these eyes shall never close. + This is the palace of the fearful King, + And this the regal seat. Possess it, York; + For this is thine, and not King Henry's heirs'. + YORK. Assist me then, sweet Warwick, and I will; + For hither we have broken in by force. + NORFOLK. We'll all assist you; he that flies shall die. + YORK. Thanks, gentle Norfolk. Stay by me, my lords; + And, soldiers, stay and lodge by me this night. + [They go up] + WARWICK. And when the King comes, offer him no violence. + Unless he seek to thrust you out perforce. + YORK. The Queen this day here holds her parliament, + But little thinks we shall be of her council. + By words or blows here let us win our right. + RICHARD. Arm'd as we are, let's stay within this house. + WARWICK. The bloody parliament shall this be call'd, + Unless Plantagenet, Duke of York, be King, + And bashful Henry depos'd, whose cowardice + Hath made us by-words to our enemies. + YORK. Then leave me not, my lords; be resolute: + I mean to take possession of my right. + WARWICK. Neither the King, nor he that loves him best, + The proudest he that holds up Lancaster, + Dares stir a wing if Warwick shake his bells. + I'll plant Plantagenet, root him up who dares. + Resolve thee, Richard; claim the English crown. + [YORK occupies the throne] + + Flourish. Enter KING HENRY, CLIFFORD, NORTHUMBERLAND, + WESTMORELAND, EXETER, and others, with red roses in + their hats + + KING HENRY. My lords, look where the sturdy rebel sits, + Even in the chair of state! Belike he means, + Back'd by the power of Warwick, that false peer, + To aspire unto the crown and reign as king. + Earl of Northumberland, he slew thy father; + And thine, Lord Clifford; and you both have vow'd revenge + On him, his sons, his favourites, and his friends. + NORTHUMBERLAND. If I be not, heavens be reveng'd on me! + CLIFFORD. The hope thereof makes Clifford mourn in steel. + WESTMORELAND. What, shall we suffer this? Let's pluck him down; + My heart for anger burns; I cannot brook it. + KING HENRY. Be patient, gentle Earl of Westmoreland. + CLIFFORD. Patience is for poltroons such as he; + He durst not sit there had your father liv'd. + My gracious lord, here in the parliament + Let us assail the family of York. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Well hast thou spoken, cousin; be it so. + KING HENRY. Ah, know you not the city favours them, + And they have troops of soldiers at their beck? + EXETER. But when the Duke is slain they'll quickly fly. + KING HENRY. Far be the thought of this from Henry's heart, + To make a shambles of the parliament house! + Cousin of Exeter, frowns, words, and threats, + Shall be the war that Henry means to use. + Thou factious Duke of York, descend my throne + And kneel for grace and mercy at my feet; + I am thy sovereign. + YORK. I am thine. + EXETER. For shame, come down; he made thee Duke of York. + YORK. 'Twas my inheritance, as the earldom was. + EXETER. Thy father was a traitor to the crown. + WARWICK. Exeter, thou art a traitor to the crown + In following this usurping Henry. + CLIFFORD. Whom should he follow but his natural king? + WARWICK. True, Clifford; and that's Richard Duke of York. + KING HENRY. And shall I stand, and thou sit in my throne? + YORK. It must and shall be so; content thyself. + WARWICK. Be Duke of Lancaster; let him be King. + WESTMORELAND. He is both King and Duke of Lancaster; + And that the Lord of Westmoreland shall maintain. + WARWICK. And Warwick shall disprove it. You forget + That we are those which chas'd you from the field, + And slew your fathers, and with colours spread + March'd through the city to the palace gates. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Yes, Warwick, I remember it to my grief; + And, by his soul, thou and thy house shall rue it. + WESTMORELAND. Plantagenet, of thee, and these thy sons, + Thy kinsmen, and thy friends, I'll have more lives + Than drops of blood were in my father's veins. + CLIFFORD. Urge it no more; lest that instead of words + I send thee, Warwick, such a messenger + As shall revenge his death before I stir. + WARWICK. Poor Clifford, how I scorn his worthless threats! + YORK. Will you we show our title to the crown? + If not, our swords shall plead it in the field. + KING HENRY. What title hast thou, traitor, to the crown? + Thy father was, as thou art, Duke of York; + Thy grandfather, Roger Mortimer, Earl of March: + I am the son of Henry the Fifth, + Who made the Dauphin and the French to stoop, + And seiz'd upon their towns and provinces. + WARWICK. Talk not of France, sith thou hast lost it all. + KING HENRY. The Lord Protector lost it, and not I: + When I was crown'd, I was but nine months old. + RICHARD. You are old enough now, and yet methinks you lose. + Father, tear the crown from the usurper's head. + EDWARD. Sweet father, do so; set it on your head. + MONTAGUE. Good brother, as thou lov'st and honourest arms, + Let's fight it out and not stand cavilling thus. + RICHARD. Sound drums and trumpets, and the King will fly. + YORK. Sons, peace! + KING HENRY. Peace thou! and give King Henry leave to speak. + WARWICK. Plantagenet shall speak first. Hear him, lords; + And be you silent and attentive too, + For he that interrupts him shall not live. + KING HENRY. Think'st thou that I will leave my kingly throne, + Wherein my grandsire and my father sat? + No; first shall war unpeople this my realm; + Ay, and their colours, often borne in France, + And now in England to our heart's great sorrow, + Shall be my winding-sheet. Why faint you, lords? + My title's good, and better far than his. + WARWICK. Prove it, Henry, and thou shalt be King. + KING HENRY. Henry the Fourth by conquest got the crown. + YORK. 'Twas by rebellion against his king. + KING HENRY. [Aside] I know not what to say; my title's weak.- + Tell me, may not a king adopt an heir? + YORK. What then? + KING HENRY. An if he may, then am I lawful King; + For Richard, in the view of many lords, + Resign'd the crown to Henry the Fourth, + Whose heir my father was, and I am his. + YORK. He rose against him, being his sovereign, + And made him to resign his crown perforce. + WARWICK. Suppose, my lords, he did it unconstrain'd, + Think you 'twere prejudicial to his crown? + EXETER. No; for he could not so resign his crown + But that the next heir should succeed and reign. + KING HENRY. Art thou against us, Duke of Exeter? + EXETER. His is the right, and therefore pardon me. + YORK. Why whisper you, my lords, and answer not? + EXETER. My conscience tells me he is lawful King. + KING HENRY. [Aside] All will revolt from me, and turn to him. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Plantagenet, for all the claim thou lay'st, + Think not that Henry shall be so depos'd. + WARWICK. Depos'd he shall be, in despite of all. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Thou art deceiv'd. 'Tis not thy southern power + Of Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, nor of Kent, + Which makes thee thus presumptuous and proud, + Can set the Duke up in despite of me. + CLIFFORD. King Henry, be thy title right or wrong, + Lord Clifford vows to fight in thy defence. + May that ground gape, and swallow me alive, + Where I shall kneel to him that slew my father! + KING HENRY. O Clifford, how thy words revive my heart! + YORK. Henry of Lancaster, resign thy crown. + What mutter you, or what conspire you, lords? + WARWICK. Do right unto this princely Duke of York; + Or I will fill the house with armed men, + And over the chair of state, where now he sits, + Write up his title with usurping blood. + [He stamps with his foot and the + soldiers show themselves] + KING HENRY. My Lord of Warwick, hear but one word: + Let me for this my life-time reign as king. + YORK. Confirm the crown to me and to mine heirs, + And thou shalt reign in quiet while thou liv'st. + KING HENRY. I am content. Richard Plantagenet, + Enjoy the kingdom after my decease. + CLIFFORD. What wrong is this unto the Prince your son! + WARWICK. What good is this to England and himself! + WESTMORELAND. Base, fearful, and despairing Henry! + CLIFFORD. How hast thou injur'd both thyself and or us! + WESTMORELAND. I cannot stay to hear these articles. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Nor I. + CLIFFORD. Come, cousin, let us tell the Queen these news. + WESTMORELAND. Farewell, faint-hearted and degenerate king, + In whose cold blood no spark of honour bides. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Be thou a prey unto the house of York + And die in bands for this unmanly deed! + CLIFFORD. In dreadful war mayst thou be overcome, + Or live in peace abandon'd and despis'd! + Exeunt NORTHUMBERLAND, CLIFFORD, + and WESTMORELAND + WARWICK. Turn this way, Henry, and regard them not. + EXETER. They seek revenge, and therefore will not yield. + KING HENRY. Ah, Exeter! + WARWICK. Why should you sigh, my lord? + KING HENRY. Not for myself, Lord Warwick, but my son, + Whom I unnaturally shall disinherit. + But be it as it may. [To YORK] I here entail + The crown to thee and to thine heirs for ever; + Conditionally, that here thou take an oath + To cease this civil war, and, whilst I live, + To honour me as thy king and sovereign, + And neither by treason nor hostility + To seek to put me down and reign thyself. + YORK. This oath I willingly take, and will perform. + [Coming from the throne] + WARWICK. Long live King Henry! Plantagenet, embrace him. + KING HENRY. And long live thou, and these thy forward sons! + YORK. Now York and Lancaster are reconcil'd. + EXETER. Accurs'd be he that seeks to make them foes! + [Sennet. Here they come down] + YORK. Farewell, my gracious lord; I'll to my castle. + WARWICK. And I'll keep London with my soldiers. + NORFOLK. And I to Norfolk with my followers. + MONTAGUE. And I unto the sea, from whence I came. + Exeunt the YORKISTS + KING HENRY. And I, with grief and sorrow, to the court. + + Enter QUEEN MARGARET and the PRINCE OF WALES + + EXETER. Here comes the Queen, whose looks bewray her anger. + I'll steal away. + KING HENRY. Exeter, so will I. + QUEEN MARGARET. Nay, go not from me; I will follow thee. + KING HENRY. Be patient, gentle queen, and I will stay. + QUEEN MARGARET. Who can be patient in such extremes? + Ah, wretched man! Would I had died a maid, + And never seen thee, never borne thee son, + Seeing thou hast prov'd so unnatural a father! + Hath he deserv'd to lose his birthright thus? + Hadst thou but lov'd him half so well as I, + Or felt that pain which I did for him once, + Or nourish'd him as I did with my blood, + Thou wouldst have left thy dearest heart-blood there + Rather than have made that savage duke thine heir, + And disinherited thine only son. + PRINCE OF WALES. Father, you cannot disinherit me. + If you be King, why should not I succeed? + KING HENRY. Pardon me, Margaret; pardon me, sweet son. + The Earl of Warwick and the Duke enforc'd me. + QUEEN MARGARET. Enforc'd thee! Art thou King and wilt be + forc'd? + I shame to hear thee speak. Ah, timorous wretch! + Thou hast undone thyself, thy son, and me; + And giv'n unto the house of York such head + As thou shalt reign but by their sufferance. + To entail him and his heirs unto the crown, + What is it but to make thy sepulchre + And creep into it far before thy time? + Warwick is Chancellor and the lord of Calais; + Stern Falconbridge commands the narrow seas; + The Duke is made Protector of the realm; + And yet shalt thou be safe? Such safety finds + The trembling lamb environed with wolves. + Had I been there, which am a silly woman, + The soldiers should have toss'd me on their pikes + Before I would have granted to that act. + But thou prefer'st thy life before thine honour; + And seeing thou dost, I here divorce myself, + Both from thy table, Henry, and thy bed, + Until that act of parliament be repeal'd + Whereby my son is disinherited. + The northern lords that have forsworn thy colours + Will follow mine, if once they see them spread; + And spread they shall be, to thy foul disgrace + And utter ruin of the house of York. + Thus do I leave thee. Come, son, let's away; + Our army is ready; come, we'll after them. + KING HENRY. Stay, gentle Margaret, and hear me speak. + QUEEN MARGARET. Thou hast spoke too much already; get thee gone. + KING HENRY. Gentle son Edward, thou wilt stay with me? + QUEEN MARGARET. Ay, to be murder'd by his enemies. + PRINCE OF WALES. When I return with victory from the field + I'll see your Grace; till then I'll follow her. + QUEEN MARGARET. Come, son, away; we may not linger thus. + Exeunt QUEEN MARGARET and the PRINCE + KING HENRY. Poor queen! How love to me and to her son + Hath made her break out into terms of rage! + Reveng'd may she be on that hateful Duke, + Whose haughty spirit, winged with desire, + Will cost my crown, and like an empty eagle + Tire on the flesh of me and of my son! + The loss of those three lords torments my heart. + I'll write unto them, and entreat them fair; + Come, cousin, you shall be the messenger. + EXETER. And I, I hope, shall reconcile them all. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Sandal Castle, near Wakefield, in Yorkshire + +Flourish. Enter EDWARD, RICHARD, and MONTAGUE + + RICHARD. Brother, though I be youngest, give me leave. + EDWARD. No, I can better play the orator. + MONTAGUE. But I have reasons strong and forcible. + + Enter the DUKE OF YORK + + YORK. Why, how now, sons and brother! at a strife? + What is your quarrel? How began it first? + EDWARD. No quarrel, but a slight contention. + YORK. About what? + RICHARD. About that which concerns your Grace and us- + The crown of England, father, which is yours. + YORK. Mine, boy? Not till King Henry be dead. + RICHARD. Your right depends not on his life or death. + EDWARD. Now you are heir, therefore enjoy it now. + By giving the house of Lancaster leave to breathe, + It will outrun you, father, in the end. + YORK. I took an oath that he should quietly reign. + EDWARD. But for a kingdom any oath may be broken: + I would break a thousand oaths to reign one year. + RICHARD. No; God forbid your Grace should be forsworn. + YORK. I shall be, if I claim by open war. + RICHARD. I'll prove the contrary, if you'll hear me speak. + YORK. Thou canst not, son; it is impossible. + RICHARD. An oath is of no moment, being not took + Before a true and lawful magistrate + That hath authority over him that swears. + Henry had none, but did usurp the place; + Then, seeing 'twas he that made you to depose, + Your oath, my lord, is vain and frivolous. + Therefore, to arms. And, father, do but think + How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown, + Within whose circuit is Elysium + And all that poets feign of bliss and joy. + Why do we linger thus? I cannot rest + Until the white rose that I wear be dy'd + Even in the lukewarm blood of Henry's heart. + YORK. Richard, enough; I will be King, or die. + Brother, thou shalt to London presently + And whet on Warwick to this enterprise. + Thou, Richard, shalt to the Duke of Norfolk + And tell him privily of our intent. + You, Edward, shall unto my Lord Cobham, + With whom the Kentishmen will willingly rise; + In them I trust, for they are soldiers, + Witty, courteous, liberal, full of spirit. + While you are thus employ'd, what resteth more + But that I seek occasion how to rise, + And yet the King not privy to my drift, + Nor any of the house of Lancaster? + + Enter a MESSENGER + + But, stay. What news? Why com'st thou in such post? + MESSENGER. The Queen with all the northern earls and lords + Intend here to besiege you in your castle. + She is hard by with twenty thousand men; + And therefore fortify your hold, my lord. + YORK. Ay, with my sword. What! think'st thou that we fear them? + Edward and Richard, you shall stay with me; + My brother Montague shall post to London. + Let noble Warwick, Cobham, and the rest, + Whom we have left protectors of the King, + With pow'rful policy strengthen themselves + And trust not simple Henry nor his oaths. + MONTAGUE. Brother, I go; I'll win them, fear it not. + And thus most humbly I do take my leave. Exit + + Enter SIR JOHN and SIR HUGH MORTIMER + + YORK. Sir john and Sir Hugh Mortimer, mine uncles! + You are come to Sandal in a happy hour; + The army of the Queen mean to besiege us. + SIR JOHN. She shall not need; we'll meet her in the field. + YORK. What, with five thousand men? + RICHARD. Ay, with five hundred, father, for a need. + A woman's general; what should we fear? + [A march afar off] + EDWARD. I hear their drums. Let's set our men in order, + And issue forth and bid them battle straight. + YORK. Five men to twenty! Though the odds be great, + I doubt not, uncle, of our victory. + Many a battle have I won in France, + When as the enemy hath been ten to one; + Why should I not now have the like success? Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Field of battle between Sandal Castle and Wakefield + +Alarum. Enter RUTLAND and his TUTOR + + RUTLAND. Ah, whither shall I fly to scape their hands? + Ah, tutor, look where bloody Clifford comes! + + Enter CLIFFORD and soldiers + + CLIFFORD. Chaplain, away! Thy priesthood saves thy life. + As for the brat of this accursed duke, + Whose father slew my father, he shall die. + TUTOR. And I, my lord, will bear him company. + CLIFFORD. Soldiers, away with him! + TUTOR. Ah, Clifford, murder not this innocent child, + Lest thou be hated both of God and man. + Exit, forced off by soldiers + CLIFFORD. How now, is he dead already? Or is it fear + That makes him close his eyes? I'll open them. + RUTLAND. So looks the pent-up lion o'er the wretch + That trembles under his devouring paws; + And so he walks, insulting o'er his prey, + And so he comes, to rend his limbs asunder. + Ah, gentle Clifford, kill me with thy sword, + And not with such a cruel threat'ning look! + Sweet Clifford, hear me speak before I die. + I am too mean a subject for thy wrath; + Be thou reveng'd on men, and let me live. + CLIFFORD. In vain thou speak'st, poor boy; my father's blood + Hath stopp'd the passage where thy words should enter. + RUTLAND. Then let my father's blood open it again: + He is a man, and, Clifford, cope with him. + CLIFFORD. Had I thy brethren here, their lives and thine + Were not revenge sufficient for me; + No, if I digg'd up thy forefathers' graves + And hung their rotten coffins up in chains, + It could not slake mine ire nor ease my heart. + The sight of any of the house of York + Is as a fury to torment my soul; + And till I root out their accursed line + And leave not one alive, I live in hell. + Therefore- + RUTLAND. O, let me pray before I take my death! + To thee I pray: sweet Clifford, pity me. + CLIFFORD. Such pity as my rapier's point affords. + RUTLAND. I never did thee harm; why wilt thou slay me? + CLIFFORD. Thy father hath. + RUTLAND. But 'twas ere I was born. + Thou hast one son; for his sake pity me, + Lest in revenge thereof, sith God is just, + He be as miserably slain as I. + Ah, let me live in prison all my days; + And when I give occasion of offence + Then let me die, for now thou hast no cause. + CLIFFORD. No cause! + Thy father slew my father; therefore, die. [Stabs him] + RUTLAND. Di faciant laudis summa sit ista tuae! [Dies] + CLIFFORD. Plantagenet, I come, Plantagenet; + And this thy son's blood cleaving to my blade + Shall rust upon my weapon, till thy blood, + Congeal'd with this, do make me wipe off both. Exit + + + + +SCENE IV. +Another part of the field + +Alarum. Enter the DUKE OF YORK + + YORK. The army of the Queen hath got the field. + My uncles both are slain in rescuing me; + And all my followers to the eager foe + Turn back and fly, like ships before the wind, + Or lambs pursu'd by hunger-starved wolves. + My sons- God knows what hath bechanced them; + But this I know- they have demean'd themselves + Like men born to renown by life or death. + Three times did Richard make a lane to me, + And thrice cried 'Courage, father! fight it out.' + And full as oft came Edward to my side + With purple falchion, painted to the hilt + In blood of those that had encount'red him. + And when the hardiest warriors did retire, + Richard cried 'Charge, and give no foot of ground!' + And cried 'A crown, or else a glorious tomb! + A sceptre, or an earthly sepulchre!' + With this we charg'd again; but out alas! + We bodg'd again; as I have seen a swan + With bootless labour swim against the tide + And spend her strength with over-matching waves. + [A short alarum within] + Ah, hark! The fatal followers do pursue, + And I am faint and cannot fly their fury; + And were I strong, I would not shun their fury. + The sands are numb'red that make up my life; + Here must I stay, and here my life must end. + + Enter QUEEN MARGARET, CLIFFORD, NORTHUMBERLAND, + the PRINCE OF WALES, and soldiers + + Come, bloody Clifford, rough Northumberland, + I dare your quenchless fury to more rage; + I am your butt, and I abide your shot. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Yield to our mercy, proud Plantagenet. + CLIFFORD. Ay, to such mercy as his ruthless arm + With downright payment show'd unto my father. + Now Phaethon hath tumbled from his car, + And made an evening at the noontide prick. + YORK. My ashes, as the phoenix, may bring forth + A bird that will revenge upon you all; + And in that hope I throw mine eyes to heaven, + Scorning whate'er you can afflict me with. + Why come you not? What! multitudes, and fear? + CLIFFORD. So cowards fight when they can fly no further; + So doves do peck the falcon's piercing talons; + So desperate thieves, all hopeless of their lives, + Breathe out invectives 'gainst the officers. + YORK. O Clifford, but bethink thee once again, + And in thy thought o'errun my former time; + And, if thou canst for blushing, view this face, + And bite thy tongue that slanders him with cowardice + Whose frown hath made thee faint and fly ere this! + CLIFFORD. I will not bandy with thee word for word, + But buckler with thee blows, twice two for one. + QUEEN MARGARET. Hold, valiant Clifford; for a thousand causes + I would prolong awhile the traitor's life. + Wrath makes him deaf; speak thou, Northumberland. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Hold, Clifford! do not honour him so much + To prick thy finger, though to wound his heart. + What valour were it, when a cur doth grin, + For one to thrust his hand between his teeth, + When he might spurn him with his foot away? + It is war's prize to take all vantages; + And ten to one is no impeach of valour. + [They lay hands on YORK, who struggles] + CLIFFORD. Ay, ay, so strives the woodcock with the gin. + NORTHUMBERLAND. So doth the cony struggle in the net. + YORK. So triumph thieves upon their conquer'd booty; + So true men yield, with robbers so o'er-match'd. + NORTHUMBERLAND. What would your Grace have done unto him now? + QUEEN MARGARET. Brave warriors, Clifford and Northumberland, + Come, make him stand upon this molehill here + That raught at mountains with outstretched arms, + Yet parted but the shadow with his hand. + What, was it you that would be England's king? + Was't you that revell'd in our parliament + And made a preachment of your high descent? + Where are your mess of sons to back you now? + The wanton Edward and the lusty George? + And where's that valiant crook-back prodigy, + Dicky your boy, that with his grumbling voice + Was wont to cheer his dad in mutinies? + Or, with the rest, where is your darling Rutland? + Look, York: I stain'd this napkin with the blood + That valiant Clifford with his rapier's point + Made issue from the bosom of the boy; + And if thine eyes can water for his death, + I give thee this to dry thy cheeks withal. + Alas, poor York! but that I hate thee deadly, + I should lament thy miserable state. + I prithee grieve to make me merry, York. + What, hath thy fiery heart so parch'd thine entrails + That not a tear can fall for Rutland's death? + Why art thou patient, man? Thou shouldst be mad; + And I to make thee mad do mock thee thus. + Stamp, rave, and fret, that I may sing and dance. + Thou wouldst be fee'd, I see, to make me sport; + York cannot speak unless he wear a crown. + A crown for York!-and, lords, bow low to him. + Hold you his hands whilst I do set it on. + [Putting a paper crown on his head] + Ay, marry, sir, now looks he like a king! + Ay, this is he that took King Henry's chair, + And this is he was his adopted heir. + But how is it that great Plantagenet + Is crown'd so soon and broke his solemn oath? + As I bethink me, you should not be King + Till our King Henry had shook hands with death. + And will you pale your head in Henry's glory, + And rob his temples of the diadem, + Now in his life, against your holy oath? + O, 'tis a fault too too + Off with the crown and with the crown his head; + And, whilst we breathe, take time to do him dead. + CLIFFORD. That is my office, for my father's sake. + QUEEN MARGARET. Nay, stay; let's hear the orisons he makes. + YORK. She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France, + Whose tongue more poisons than the adder's tooth! + How ill-beseeming is it in thy sex + To triumph like an Amazonian trull + Upon their woes whom fortune captivates! + But that thy face is visard-like, unchanging, + Made impudent with use of evil deeds, + I would assay, proud queen, to make thee blush. + To tell thee whence thou cam'st, of whom deriv'd, + Were shame enough to shame thee, wert thou not shameless. + Thy father bears the type of King of Naples, + Of both the Sicils and Jerusalem, + Yet not so wealthy as an English yeoman. + Hath that poor monarch taught thee to insult? + It needs not, nor it boots thee not, proud queen; + Unless the adage must be verified, + That beggars mounted run their horse to death. + 'Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud; + But, God He knows, thy share thereof is small. + 'Tis virtue that doth make them most admir'd; + The contrary doth make thee wond'red at. + 'Tis government that makes them seem divine; + The want thereof makes thee abominable. + Thou art as opposite to every good + As the Antipodes are unto us, + Or as the south to the septentrion. + O tiger's heart wrapp'd in a woman's hide! + How couldst thou drain the life-blood of the child, + To bid the father wipe his eyes withal, + And yet be seen to bear a woman's face? + Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible: + Thou stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorseless. + Bid'st thou me rage? Why, now thou hast thy wish; + Wouldst have me weep? Why, now thou hast thy will; + For raging wind blows up incessant showers, + And when the rage allays, the rain begins. + These tears are my sweet Rutland's obsequies; + And every drop cries vengeance for his death + 'Gainst thee, fell Clifford, and thee, false Frenchwoman. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Beshrew me, but his passions move me so + That hardly can I check my eyes from tears. + YORK. That face of his the hungry cannibals + Would not have touch'd, would not have stain'd with blood; + But you are more inhuman, more inexorable- + O, ten times more- than tigers of Hyrcania. + See, ruthless queen, a hapless father's tears. + This cloth thou dipp'dst in blood of my sweet boy, + And I with tears do wash the blood away. + Keep thou the napkin, and go boast of this; + And if thou tell'st the heavy story right, + Upon my soul, the hearers will shed tears; + Yea, even my foes will shed fast-falling tears + And say 'Alas, it was a piteous deed!' + There, take the crown, and with the crown my curse; + And in thy need such comfort come to thee + As now I reap at thy too cruel hand! + Hard-hearted Clifford, take me from the world; + My soul to heaven, my blood upon your heads! + NORTHUMBERLAND. Had he been slaughter-man to all my kin, + I should not for my life but weep with him, + To see how inly sorrow gripes his soul. + QUEEN MARGARET. What, weeping-ripe, my Lord Northumberland? + Think but upon the wrong he did us all, + And that will quickly dry thy melting tears. + CLIFFORD. Here's for my oath, here's for my father's death. + [Stabbing him] + QUEEN MARGARET. And here's to right our gentle-hearted king. + [Stabbing him] + YORK. Open Thy gate of mercy, gracious God! + My soul flies through these wounds to seek out Thee. + [Dies] + QUEEN MARGARET. Off with his head, and set it on York gates; + So York may overlook the town of York. + Flourish. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +A plain near Mortimer's Cross in Herefordshire + +A march. Enter EDWARD, RICHARD, and their power + + EDWARD. I wonder how our princely father scap'd, + Or whether he be scap'd away or no + From Clifford's and Northumberland's pursuit. + Had he been ta'en, we should have heard the news; + Had he been slain, we should have heard the news; + Or had he scap'd, methinks we should have heard + The happy tidings of his good escape. + How fares my brother? Why is he so sad? + RICHARD. I cannot joy until I be resolv'd + Where our right valiant father is become. + I saw him in the battle range about, + And watch'd him how he singled Clifford forth. + Methought he bore him in the thickest troop + As doth a lion in a herd of neat; + Or as a bear, encompass'd round with dogs, + Who having pinch'd a few and made them cry, + The rest stand all aloof and bark at him. + So far'd our father with his enemies; + So fled his enemies my warlike father. + Methinks 'tis prize enough to be his son. + See how the morning opes her golden gates + And takes her farewell of the glorious sun. + How well resembles it the prime of youth, + Trimm'd like a younker prancing to his love! + EDWARD. Dazzle mine eyes, or do I see three suns? + RICHARD. Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun; + Not separated with the racking clouds, + But sever'd in a pale clear-shining sky. + See, see! they join, embrace, and seem to kiss, + As if they vow'd some league inviolable. + Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun. + In this the heaven figures some event. + EDWARD. 'Tis wondrous strange, the like yet never heard of. + I think it cites us, brother, to the field, + That we, the sons of brave Plantagenet, + Each one already blazing by our meeds, + Should notwithstanding join our lights together + And overshine the earth, as this the world. + Whate'er it bodes, henceforward will I bear + Upon my target three fair shining suns. + RICHARD. Nay, bear three daughters- by your leave I speak it, + You love the breeder better than the male. + + Enter a MESSENGER, blowing + + But what art thou, whose heavy looks foretell + Some dreadful story hanging on thy tongue? + MESSENGER. Ah, one that was a woeful looker-on + When as the noble Duke of York was slain, + Your princely father and my loving lord! + EDWARD. O, speak no more! for I have heard too much. + RICHARD. Say how he died, for I will hear it all. + MESSENGER. Environed he was with many foes, + And stood against them as the hope of Troy + Against the Greeks that would have ent'red Troy. + But Hercules himself must yield to odds; + And many strokes, though with a little axe, + Hews down and fells the hardest-timber'd oak. + By many hands your father was subdu'd; + But only slaught'red by the ireful arm + Of unrelenting Clifford and the Queen, + Who crown'd the gracious Duke in high despite, + Laugh'd in his face; and when with grief he wept, + The ruthless Queen gave him to dry his cheeks + A napkin steeped in the harmless blood + Of sweet young Rutland, by rough Clifford slain; + And after many scorns, many foul taunts, + They took his head, and on the gates of York + They set the same; and there it doth remain, + The saddest spectacle that e'er I view'd. + EDWARD. Sweet Duke of York, our prop to lean upon, + Now thou art gone, we have no staff, no stay. + O Clifford, boist'rous Clifford, thou hast slain + The flow'r of Europe for his chivalry; + And treacherously hast thou vanquish'd him, + For hand to hand he would have vanquish'd thee. + Now my soul's palace is become a prison. + Ah, would she break from hence, that this my body + Might in the ground be closed up in rest! + For never henceforth shall I joy again; + Never, O never, shall I see more joy. + RICHARD. I cannot weep, for all my body's moisture + Scarce serves to quench my furnace-burning heart; + Nor can my tongue unload my heart's great burden, + For self-same wind that I should speak withal + Is kindling coals that fires all my breast, + And burns me up with flames that tears would quench. + To weep is to make less the depth of grief. + Tears then for babes; blows and revenge for me! + Richard, I bear thy name; I'll venge thy death, + Or die renowned by attempting it. + EDWARD. His name that valiant duke hath left with thee; + His dukedom and his chair with me is left. + RICHARD. Nay, if thou be that princely eagle's bird, + Show thy descent by gazing 'gainst the sun; + For chair and dukedom, throne and kingdom, say: + Either that is thine, or else thou wert not his. + + March. Enter WARWICK, MONTAGUE, and their army + + WARWICK. How now, fair lords! What fare? What news abroad? + RICHARD. Great Lord of Warwick, if we should recount + Our baleful news and at each word's deliverance + Stab poinards in our flesh till all were told, + The words would add more anguish than the wounds. + O valiant lord, the Duke of York is slain! + EDWARD. O Warwick, Warwick! that Plantagenet + Which held thee dearly as his soul's redemption + Is by the stern Lord Clifford done to death. + WARWICK. Ten days ago I drown'd these news in tears; + And now, to add more measure to your woes, + I come to tell you things sith then befall'n. + After the bloody fray at Wakefield fought, + Where your brave father breath'd his latest gasp, + Tidings, as swiftly as the posts could run, + Were brought me of your loss and his depart. + I, then in London, keeper of the King, + Muster'd my soldiers, gathered flocks of friends, + And very well appointed, as I thought, + March'd toward Saint Albans to intercept the Queen, + Bearing the King in my behalf along; + For by my scouts I was advertised + That she was coming with a full intent + To dash our late decree in parliament + Touching King Henry's oath and your succession. + Short tale to make- we at Saint Albans met, + Our battles join'd, and both sides fiercely fought; + But whether 'twas the coldness of the King, + Who look'd full gently on his warlike queen, + That robb'd my soldiers of their heated spleen, + Or whether 'twas report of her success, + Or more than common fear of Clifford's rigour, + Who thunders to his captives blood and death, + I cannot judge; but, to conclude with truth, + Their weapons like to lightning came and went: + Our soldiers', like the night-owl's lazy flight + Or like an idle thresher with a flail, + Fell gently down, as if they struck their friends. + I cheer'd them up with justice of our cause, + With promise of high pay and great rewards, + But all in vain; they had no heart to fight, + And we in them no hope to win the day; + So that we fled: the King unto the Queen; + Lord George your brother, Norfolk, and myself, + In haste post-haste are come to join with you; + For in the marches here we heard you were + Making another head to fight again. + EDWARD. Where is the Duke of Norfolk, gentle Warwick? + And when came George from Burgundy to England? + WARWICK. Some six miles off the Duke is with the soldiers; + And for your brother, he was lately sent + From your kind aunt, Duchess of Burgundy, + With aid of soldiers to this needful war. + RICHARD. 'Twas odds, belike, when valiant Warwick fled. + Oft have I heard his praises in pursuit, + But ne'er till now his scandal of retire. + WARWICK. Nor now my scandal, Richard, dost thou hear; + For thou shalt know this strong right hand of mine + Can pluck the diadem from faint Henry's head + And wring the awful sceptre from his fist, + Were he as famous and as bold in war + As he is fam'd for mildness, peace, and prayer. + RICHARD. I know it well, Lord Warwick; blame me not. + 'Tis love I bear thy glories makes me speak. + But in this troublous time what's to be done? + Shall we go throw away our coats of steel + And wrap our bodies in black mourning-gowns, + Numbering our Ave-Maries with our beads? + Or shall we on the helmets of our foes + Tell our devotion with revengeful arms? + If for the last, say 'Ay,' and to it, lords. + WARWICK. Why, therefore Warwick came to seek you out; + And therefore comes my brother Montague. + Attend me, lords. The proud insulting Queen, + With Clifford and the haught Northumberland, + And of their feather many moe proud birds, + Have wrought the easy-melting King like wax. + He swore consent to your succession, + His oath enrolled in the parliament; + And now to London all the crew are gone + To frustrate both his oath and what beside + May make against the house of Lancaster. + Their power, I think, is thirty thousand strong. + Now if the help of Norfolk and myself, + With all the friends that thou, brave Earl of March, + Amongst the loving Welshmen canst procure, + Will but amount to five and twenty thousand, + Why, Via! to London will we march amain, + And once again bestride our foaming steeds, + And once again cry 'Charge upon our foes!' + But never once again turn back and fly. + RICHARD. Ay, now methinks I hear great Warwick speak. + Ne'er may he live to see a sunshine day + That cries 'Retire!' if Warwick bid him stay. + EDWARD. Lord Warwick, on thy shoulder will I lean; + And when thou fail'st- as God forbid the hour!- + Must Edward fall, which peril heaven forfend. + WARWICK. No longer Earl of March, but Duke of York; + The next degree is England's royal throne, + For King of England shalt thou be proclaim'd + In every borough as we pass along; + And he that throws not up his cap for joy + Shall for the fault make forfeit of his head. + King Edward, valiant Richard, Montague, + Stay we no longer, dreaming of renown, + But sound the trumpets and about our task. + RICHARD. Then, Clifford, were thy heart as hard as steel, + As thou hast shown it flinty by thy deeds, + I come to pierce it or to give thee mine. + EDWARD. Then strike up drums. God and Saint George for us! + + Enter a MESSENGER + + WARWICK. How now! what news? + MESSENGER. The Duke of Norfolk sends you word by me + The Queen is coming with a puissant host, + And craves your company for speedy counsel. + WARWICK. Why, then it sorts; brave warriors, let's away. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Before York + +Flourish. Enter KING HENRY, QUEEN MARGARET, the PRINCE OF WALES, CLIFFORD, +NORTHUMBERLAND, with drum and trumpets + + QUEEN MARGARET. Welcome, my lord, to this brave town of York. + Yonder's the head of that arch-enemy + That sought to be encompass'd with your crown. + Doth not the object cheer your heart, my lord? + KING HENRY. Ay, as the rocks cheer them that fear their wreck- + To see this sight, it irks my very soul. + Withhold revenge, dear God; 'tis not my fault, + Nor wittingly have I infring'd my vow. + CLIFFORD. My gracious liege, this too much lenity + And harmful pity must be laid aside. + To whom do lions cast their gentle looks? + Not to the beast that would usurp their den. + Whose hand is that the forest bear doth lick? + Not his that spoils her young before her face. + Who scapes the lurking serpent's mortal sting? + Not he that sets his foot upon her back, + The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on, + And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood. + Ambitious York did level at thy crown, + Thou smiling while he knit his angry brows. + He, but a Duke, would have his son a king, + And raise his issue like a loving sire: + Thou, being a king, bless'd with a goodly son, + Didst yield consent to disinherit him, + Which argued thee a most unloving father. + Unreasonable creatures feed their young; + And though man's face be fearful to their eyes, + Yet, in protection of their tender ones, + Who hath not seen them- even with those wings + Which sometime they have us'd with fearful flight- + Make war with him that climb'd unto their nest, + Offering their own lives in their young's defence + For shame, my liege, make them your precedent! + Were it not pity that this goodly boy + Should lose his birthright by his father's fault, + And long hereafter say unto his child + 'What my great-grandfather and grandsire got + My careless father fondly gave away'? + Ah, what a shame were this! Look on the boy; + And let his manly face, which promiseth + Successful fortune, steel thy melting heart + To hold thine own and leave thine own with him. + KING HENRY. Full well hath Clifford play'd the orator, + Inferring arguments of mighty force. + But, Clifford, tell me, didst thou never hear + That things ill got had ever bad success? + And happy always was it for that son + Whose father for his hoarding went to hell? + I'll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind; + And would my father had left me no more! + For all the rest is held at such a rate + As brings a thousand-fold more care to keep + Than in possession any jot of pleasure. + Ah, cousin York! would thy best friends did know + How it doth grieve me that thy head is here! + QUEEN MARGARET. My lord, cheer up your spirits; our foes are nigh, + And this soft courage makes your followers faint. + You promis'd knighthood to our forward son: + Unsheathe your sword and dub him presently. + Edward, kneel down. + KING HENRY. Edward Plantagenet, arise a knight; + And learn this lesson: Draw thy sword in right. + PRINCE OF WALES. My gracious father, by your kingly leave, + I'll draw it as apparent to the crown, + And in that quarrel use it to the death. + CLIFFORD. Why, that is spoken like a toward prince. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. Royal commanders, be in readiness; + For with a band of thirty thousand men + Comes Warwick, backing of the Duke of York, + And in the towns, as they do march along, + Proclaims him king, and many fly to him. + Darraign your battle, for they are at hand. + CLIFFORD. I would your Highness would depart the field: + The Queen hath best success when you are absent. + QUEEN MARGARET. Ay, good my lord, and leave us to our fortune. + KING HENRY. Why, that's my fortune too; therefore I'll stay. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Be it with resolution, then, to fight. + PRINCE OF WALES. My royal father, cheer these noble lords, + And hearten those that fight in your defence. + Unsheathe your sword, good father; cry 'Saint George!' + + March. Enter EDWARD, GEORGE, RICHARD, WARWICK, + NORFOLK, MONTAGUE, and soldiers + + EDWARD. Now, perjur'd Henry, wilt thou kneel for grace + And set thy diadem upon my head, + Or bide the mortal fortune of the field? + QUEEN MARGARET. Go rate thy minions, proud insulting boy. + Becomes it thee to be thus bold in terms + Before thy sovereign and thy lawful king? + EDWARD. I am his king, and he should bow his knee. + I was adopted heir by his consent: + Since when, his oath is broke; for, as I hear, + You that are King, though he do wear the crown, + Have caus'd him by new act of parliament + To blot out me and put his own son in. + CLIFFORD. And reason too: + Who should succeed the father but the son? + RICHARD. Are you there, butcher? O, I cannot speak! + CLIFFORD. Ay, crook-back, here I stand to answer thee, + Or any he, the proudest of thy sort. + RICHARD. 'Twas you that kill'd young Rutland, was it not? + CLIFFORD. Ay, and old York, and yet not satisfied. + RICHARD. For God's sake, lords, give signal to the fight. + WARWICK. What say'st thou, Henry? Wilt thou yield the crown? + QUEEN MARGARET. Why, how now, long-tongu'd Warwick! Dare you speak? + When you and I met at Saint Albans last + Your legs did better service than your hands. + WARWICK. Then 'twas my turn to fly, and now 'tis thine. + CLIFFORD. You said so much before, and yet you fled. + WARWICK. 'Twas not your valour, Clifford, drove me thence. + NORTHUMBERLAND. No, nor your manhood that durst make you stay. + RICHARD. Northumberland, I hold thee reverently. + Break off the parley; for scarce I can refrain + The execution of my big-swol'n heart + Upon that Clifford, that cruel child-killer. + CLIFFORD. I slew thy father; call'st thou him a child? + RICHARD. Ay, like a dastard and a treacherous coward, + As thou didst kill our tender brother Rutland; + But ere sunset I'll make thee curse the deed. + KING HENRY. Have done with words, my lords, and hear me speak. + QUEEN MARGARET. Defy them then, or else hold close thy lips. + KING HENRY. I prithee give no limits to my tongue: + I am a king, and privileg'd to speak. + CLIFFORD. My liege, the wound that bred this meeting here + Cannot be cur'd by words; therefore be still. + RICHARD. Then, executioner, unsheathe thy sword. + By Him that made us all, I am resolv'd + That Clifford's manhood lies upon his tongue. + EDWARD. Say, Henry, shall I have my right, or no? + A thousand men have broke their fasts to-day + That ne'er shall dine unless thou yield the crown. + WARWICK. If thou deny, their blood upon thy head; + For York in justice puts his armour on. + PRINCE OF WALES. If that be right which Warwick says is right, + There is no wrong, but every thing is right. + RICHARD. Whoever got thee, there thy mother stands; + For well I wot thou hast thy mother's tongue. + QUEEN MARGARET. But thou art neither like thy sire nor dam; + But like a foul misshapen stigmatic, + Mark'd by the destinies to be avoided, + As venom toads or lizards' dreadful stings. + RICHARD. Iron of Naples hid with English gilt, + Whose father bears the title of a king- + As if a channel should be call'd the sea- + Sham'st thou not, knowing whence thou art extraught, + To let thy tongue detect thy base-born heart? + EDWARD. A wisp of straw were worth a thousand crowns + To make this shameless callet know herself. + Helen of Greece was fairer far than thou, + Although thy husband may be Menelaus; + And ne'er was Agamemmon's brother wrong'd + By that false woman as this king by thee. + His father revell'd in the heart of France, + And tam'd the King, and made the Dauphin stoop; + And had he match'd according to his state, + He might have kept that glory to this day; + But when he took a beggar to his bed + And grac'd thy poor sire with his bridal day, + Even then that sunshine brew'd a show'r for him + That wash'd his father's fortunes forth of France + And heap'd sedition on his crown at home. + For what hath broach'd this tumult but thy pride? + Hadst thou been meek, our title still had slept; + And we, in pity of the gentle King, + Had slipp'd our claim until another age. + GEORGE. But when we saw our sunshine made thy spring, + And that thy summer bred us no increase, + We set the axe to thy usurping root; + And though the edge hath something hit ourselves, + Yet know thou, since we have begun to strike, + We'll never leave till we have hewn thee down, + Or bath'd thy growing with our heated bloods. + EDWARD. And in this resolution I defy thee; + Not willing any longer conference, + Since thou deniest the gentle King to speak. + Sound trumpets; let our bloody colours wave, + And either victory or else a grave! + QUEEN MARGARET. Stay, Edward. + EDWARD. No, wrangling woman, we'll no longer stay; + These words will cost ten thousand lives this day. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +A field of battle between Towton and Saxton, in Yorkshire + +Alarum; excursions. Enter WARWICK + + WARWICK. Forspent with toil, as runners with a race, + I lay me down a little while to breathe; + For strokes receiv'd and many blows repaid + Have robb'd my strong-knit sinews of their strength, + And spite of spite needs must I rest awhile. + + Enter EDWARD, running + + EDWARD. Smile, gentle heaven, or strike, ungentle death; + For this world frowns, and Edward's sun is clouded. + WARWICK. How now, my lord. What hap? What hope of good? + + Enter GEORGE + + GEORGE. Our hap is lost, our hope but sad despair; + Our ranks are broke, and ruin follows us. + What counsel give you? Whither shall we fly? + EDWARD. Bootless is flight: they follow us with wings; + And weak we are, and cannot shun pursuit. + + Enter RICHARD + + RICHARD. Ah, Warwick, why hast thou withdrawn thyself? + Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk, + Broach'd with the steely point of Clifford's lance; + And in the very pangs of death he cried, + Like to a dismal clangor heard from far, + 'Warwick, revenge! Brother, revenge my death.' + So, underneath the belly of their steeds, + That stain'd their fetlocks in his smoking blood, + The noble gentleman gave up the ghost. + WARWICK. Then let the earth be drunken with our blood. + I'll kill my horse, because I will not fly. + Why stand we like soft-hearted women here, + Wailing our losses, whiles the foe doth rage, + And look upon, as if the tragedy + Were play'd in jest by counterfeiting actors? + Here on my knee I vow to God above + I'll never pause again, never stand still, + Till either death hath clos'd these eyes of mine + Or fortune given me measure of revenge. + EDWARD. O Warwick, I do bend my knee with thine, + And in this vow do chain my soul to thine! + And ere my knee rise from the earth's cold face + I throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to Thee, + Thou setter-up and plucker-down of kings, + Beseeching Thee, if with Thy will it stands + That to my foes this body must be prey, + Yet that Thy brazen gates of heaven may ope + And give sweet passage to my sinful soul. + Now, lords, take leave until we meet again, + Where'er it be, in heaven or in earth. + RICHARD. Brother, give me thy hand; and, gentle Warwick, + Let me embrace thee in my weary arms. + I that did never weep now melt with woe + That winter should cut off our spring-time so. + WARWICK. Away, away! Once more, sweet lords, farewell. + GEORGE. Yet let us all together to our troops, + And give them leave to fly that will not stay, + And call them pillars that will stand to us; + And if we thrive, promise them such rewards + As victors wear at the Olympian games. + This may plant courage in their quailing breasts, + For yet is hope of life and victory. + Forslow no longer; make we hence amain. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Another part of the field + +Excursions. Enter RICHARD and CLIFFORD + + RICHARD. Now, Clifford, I have singled thee alone. + Suppose this arm is for the Duke of York, + And this for Rutland; both bound to revenge, + Wert thou environ'd with a brazen wall. + CLIFFORD. Now, Richard, I am with thee here alone. + This is the hand that stabbed thy father York; + And this the hand that slew thy brother Rutland; + And here's the heart that triumphs in their death + And cheers these hands that slew thy sire and brother + To execute the like upon thyself; + And so, have at thee! [They fight] + + Enter WARWICK; CLIFFORD flies + + RICHARD. Nay, Warwick, single out some other chase; + For I myself will hunt this wolf to death. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Another part of the field + +Alarum. Enter KING HENRY alone + + KING HENRY. This battle fares like to the morning's war, + When dying clouds contend with growing light, + What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails, + Can neither call it perfect day nor night. + Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea + Forc'd by the tide to combat with the wind; + Now sways it that way, like the selfsame sea + Forc'd to retire by fury of the wind. + Sometime the flood prevails, and then the wind; + Now one the better, then another best; + Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast, + Yet neither conqueror nor conquered. + So is the equal poise of this fell war. + Here on this molehill will I sit me down. + To whom God will, there be the victory! + For Margaret my queen, and Clifford too, + Have chid me from the battle, swearing both + They prosper best of all when I am thence. + Would I were dead, if God's good will were so! + For what is in this world but grief and woe? + O God! methinks it were a happy life + To be no better than a homely swain; + To sit upon a hill, as I do now, + To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, + Thereby to see the minutes how they run- + How many makes the hour full complete, + How many hours brings about the day, + How many days will finish up the year, + How many years a mortal man may live. + When this is known, then to divide the times- + So many hours must I tend my flock; + So many hours must I take my rest; + So many hours must I contemplate; + So many hours must I sport myself; + So many days my ewes have been with young; + So many weeks ere the poor fools will can; + So many years ere I shall shear the fleece: + So minutes, hours, days, months, and years, + Pass'd over to the end they were created, + Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. + Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely! + Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade + To shepherds looking on their silly sheep, + Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy + To kings that fear their subjects' treachery? + O yes, it doth; a thousand-fold it doth. + And to conclude: the shepherd's homely curds, + His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle, + His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade, + All which secure and sweetly he enjoys, + Is far beyond a prince's delicates- + His viands sparkling in a golden cup, + His body couched in a curious bed, + When care, mistrust, and treason waits on him. + + Alarum. Enter a son that hath kill'd his Father, at + one door; and a FATHER that hath kill'd his Son, at + another door + + SON. Ill blows the wind that profits nobody. + This man whom hand to hand I slew in fight + May be possessed with some store of crowns; + And I, that haply take them from him now, + May yet ere night yield both my life and them + To some man else, as this dead man doth me. + Who's this? O God! It is my father's face, + Whom in this conflict I unwares have kill'd. + O heavy times, begetting such events! + From London by the King was I press'd forth; + My father, being the Earl of Warwick's man, + Came on the part of York, press'd by his master; + And I, who at his hands receiv'd my life, + Have by my hands of life bereaved him. + Pardon me, God, I knew not what I did. + And pardon, father, for I knew not thee. + My tears shall wipe away these bloody marks; + And no more words till they have flow'd their fill. + KING HENRY. O piteous spectacle! O bloody times! + Whiles lions war and battle for their dens, + Poor harmless lambs abide their enmity. + Weep, wretched man; I'll aid thee tear for tear; + And let our hearts and eyes, like civil war, + Be blind with tears and break o'ercharg'd with grief. + + Enter FATHER, bearing of his SON + + FATHER. Thou that so stoutly hath resisted me, + Give me thy gold, if thou hast any gold; + For I have bought it with an hundred blows. + But let me see. Is this our foeman's face? + Ah, no, no, no, no, it is mine only son! + Ah, boy, if any life be left in thee, + Throw up thine eye! See, see what show'rs arise, + Blown with the windy tempest of my heart + Upon thy wounds, that kills mine eye and heart! + O, pity, God, this miserable age! + What stratagems, how fell, how butcherly, + Erroneous, mutinous, and unnatural, + This deadly quarrel daily doth beget! + O boy, thy father gave thee life too soon, + And hath bereft thee of thy life too late! + KING HENRY. Woe above woe! grief more than common grief! + O that my death would stay these ruthful deeds! + O pity, pity, gentle heaven, pity! + The red rose and the white are on his face, + The fatal colours of our striving houses: + The one his purple blood right well resembles; + The other his pale cheeks, methinks, presenteth. + Wither one rose, and let the other flourish! + If you contend, a thousand lives must perish. + SON. How will my mother for a father's death + Take on with me, and ne'er be satisfied! + FATHER. How will my wife for slaughter of my son + Shed seas of tears, and ne'er be satisfied! + KING HENRY. How will the country for these woeful chances + Misthink the King, and not be satisfied! + SON. Was ever son so rued a father's death? + FATHER. Was ever father so bemoan'd his son? + KING HENRY. Was ever king so griev'd for subjects' woe? + Much is your sorrow; mine ten times so much. + SON. I'll bear thee hence, where I may weep my fill. + Exit with the body + FATHER. These arms of mine shall be thy winding-sheet; + My heart, sweet boy, shall be thy sepulchre, + For from my heart thine image ne'er shall go; + My sighing breast shall be thy funeral bell; + And so obsequious will thy father be, + Even for the loss of thee, having no more, + As Priam was for all his valiant sons. + I'll bear thee hence; and let them fight that will, + For I have murdered where I should not kill. + Exit with the body + KING HENRY. Sad-hearted men, much overgone with care, + Here sits a king more woeful than you are. + + Alarums, excursions. Enter QUEEN MARGARET, + PRINCE OF WALES, and EXETER + + PRINCE OF WALES. Fly, father, fly; for all your friends are fled, + And Warwick rages like a chafed bull. + Away! for death doth hold us in pursuit. + QUEEN MARGARET. Mount you, my lord; towards Berwick post amain. + Edward and Richard, like a brace of greyhounds + Having the fearful flying hare in sight, + With fiery eyes sparkling for very wrath, + And bloody steel grasp'd in their ireful hands, + Are at our backs; and therefore hence amain. + EXETER. Away! for vengeance comes along with them. + Nay, stay not to expostulate; make speed; + Or else come after. I'll away before. + KING HENRY. Nay, take me with thee, good sweet Exeter. + Not that I fear to stay, but love to go + Whither the Queen intends. Forward; away! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VI. +Another part of the field + +A loud alarum. Enter CLIFFORD, wounded + + CLIFFORD. Here burns my candle out; ay, here it dies, + Which, whiles it lasted, gave King Henry light. + O Lancaster, I fear thy overthrow + More than my body's parting with my soul! + My love and fear glu'd many friends to thee; + And, now I fall, thy tough commixture melts, + Impairing Henry, strength'ning misproud York. + The common people swarm like summer flies; + And whither fly the gnats but to the sun? + And who shines now but Henry's enemies? + O Phoebus, hadst thou never given consent + That Phaethon should check thy fiery steeds, + Thy burning car never had scorch'd the earth! + And, Henry, hadst thou sway'd as kings should do, + Or as thy father and his father did, + Giving no ground unto the house of York, + They never then had sprung like summer flies; + I and ten thousand in this luckless realm + Had left no mourning widows for our death; + And thou this day hadst kept thy chair in peace. + For what doth cherish weeds but gentle air? + And what makes robbers bold but too much lenity? + Bootless are plaints, and cureless are my wounds. + No way to fly, nor strength to hold out flight. + The foe is merciless and will not pity; + For at their hands I have deserv'd no pity. + The air hath got into my deadly wounds, + And much effuse of blood doth make me faint. + Come, York and Richard, Warwick and the rest; + I stabb'd your fathers' bosoms: split my breast. + [He faints] + + Alarum and retreat. Enter EDWARD, GEORGE, RICHARD + MONTAGUE, WARWICK, and soldiers + + EDWARD. Now breathe we, lords. Good fortune bids us pause + And smooth the frowns of war with peaceful looks. + Some troops pursue the bloody-minded Queen + That led calm Henry, though he were a king, + As doth a sail, fill'd with a fretting gust, + Command an argosy to stern the waves. + But think you, lords, that Clifford fled with them? + WARWICK. No, 'tis impossible he should escape; + For, though before his face I speak the words, + Your brother Richard mark'd him for the grave; + And, whereso'er he is, he's surely dead. + [CLIFFORD groans, and dies] + RICHARD. Whose soul is that which takes her heavy leave? + A deadly groan, like life and death's departing. + See who it is. + EDWARD. And now the battle's ended, + If friend or foe, let him be gently used. + RICHARD. Revoke that doom of mercy, for 'tis Clifford; + Who not contented that he lopp'd the branch + In hewing Rutland when his leaves put forth, + But set his murd'ring knife unto the root + From whence that tender spray did sweetly spring- + I mean our princely father, Duke of York. + WARWICK. From off the gates of York fetch down the head, + Your father's head, which Clifford placed there; + Instead whereof let this supply the room. + Measure for measure must be answered. + EDWARD. Bring forth that fatal screech-owl to our house, + That nothing sung but death to us and ours. + Now death shall stop his dismal threat'ning sound, + And his ill-boding tongue no more shall speak. + WARWICK. I think his understanding is bereft. + Speak, Clifford, dost thou know who speaks to thee? + Dark cloudy death o'ershades his beams of life, + And he nor sees nor hears us what we say. + RICHARD. O, would he did! and so, perhaps, he doth. + 'Tis but his policy to counterfeit, + Because he would avoid such bitter taunts + Which in the time of death he gave our father. + GEORGE. If so thou think'st, vex him with eager words. + RICHARD. Clifford, ask mercy and obtain no grace. + EDWARD. Clifford, repent in bootless penitence. + WARWICK. Clifford, devise excuses for thy faults. + GEORGE. While we devise fell tortures for thy faults. + RICHARD. Thou didst love York, and I am son to York. + EDWARD. Thou pitied'st Rutland, I will pity thee. + GEORGE. Where's Captain Margaret, to fence you now? + WARWICK. They mock thee, Clifford; swear as thou wast wont. + RICHARD. What, not an oath? Nay, then the world goes hard + When Clifford cannot spare his friends an oath. + I know by that he's dead; and by my soul, + If this right hand would buy two hours' life, + That I in all despite might rail at him, + This hand should chop it off, and with the issuing blood + Stifle the villain whose unstanched thirst + York and young Rutland could not satisfy. + WARWICK. Ay, but he's dead. Off with the traitor's head, + And rear it in the place your father's stands. + And now to London with triumphant march, + There to be crowned England's royal King; + From whence shall Warwick cut the sea to France, + And ask the Lady Bona for thy queen. + So shalt thou sinew both these lands together; + And, having France thy friend, thou shalt not dread + The scatt'red foe that hopes to rise again; + For though they cannot greatly sting to hurt, + Yet look to have them buzz to offend thine ears. + First will I see the coronation; + And then to Brittany I'll cross the sea + To effect this marriage, so it please my lord. + EDWARD. Even as thou wilt, sweet Warwick, let it be; + For in thy shoulder do I build my seat, + And never will I undertake the thing + Wherein thy counsel and consent is wanting. + Richard, I will create thee Duke of Gloucester; + And George, of Clarence; Warwick, as ourself, + Shall do and undo as him pleaseth best. + RICHARD. Let me be Duke of Clarence, George of Gloucester; + For Gloucester's dukedom is too ominous. + WARWICK. Tut, that's a foolish observation. + Richard, be Duke of Gloucester. Now to London + To see these honours in possession. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +A chase in the north of England + +Enter two KEEPERS, with cross-bows in their hands + + FIRST KEEPER. Under this thick-grown brake we'll shroud ourselves, + For through this laund anon the deer will come; + And in this covert will we make our stand, + Culling the principal of all the deer. + SECOND KEEPER. I'll stay above the hill, so both may shoot. + FIRST KEEPER. That cannot be; the noise of thy cross-bow + Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is lost. + Here stand we both, and aim we at the best; + And, for the time shall not seem tedious, + I'll tell thee what befell me on a day + In this self-place where now we mean to stand. + SECOND KEEPER. Here comes a man; let's stay till he be past. + + Enter KING HENRY, disguised, with a prayer-book + + KING HENRY. From Scotland am I stol'n, even of pure love, + To greet mine own land with my wishful sight. + No, Harry, Harry, 'tis no land of thine; + Thy place is fill'd, thy sceptre wrung from thee, + Thy balm wash'd off wherewith thou wast anointed. + No bending knee will call thee Caesar now, + No humble suitors press to speak for right, + No, not a man comes for redress of thee; + For how can I help them and not myself? + FIRST KEEPER. Ay, here's a deer whose skin's a keeper's fee. + This is the quondam King; let's seize upon him. + KING HENRY. Let me embrace thee, sour adversity, + For wise men say it is the wisest course. + SECOND KEEPER. Why linger we? let us lay hands upon him. + FIRST KEEPER. Forbear awhile; we'll hear a little more. + KING HENRY. My Queen and son are gone to France for aid; + And, as I hear, the great commanding Warwick + Is thither gone to crave the French King's sister + To wife for Edward. If this news be true, + Poor queen and son, your labour is but lost; + For Warwick is a subtle orator, + And Lewis a prince soon won with moving words. + By this account, then, Margaret may win him; + For she's a woman to be pitied much. + Her sighs will make a batt'ry in his breast; + Her tears will pierce into a marble heart; + The tiger will be mild whiles she doth mourn; + And Nero will be tainted with remorse + To hear and see her plaints, her brinish tears. + Ay, but she's come to beg: Warwick, to give. + She, on his left side, craving aid for Henry: + He, on his right, asking a wife for Edward. + She weeps, and says her Henry is depos'd: + He smiles, and says his Edward is install'd; + That she, poor wretch, for grief can speak no more; + Whiles Warwick tells his title, smooths the wrong, + Inferreth arguments of mighty strength, + And in conclusion wins the King from her + With promise of his sister, and what else, + To strengthen and support King Edward's place. + O Margaret, thus 'twill be; and thou, poor soul, + Art then forsaken, as thou went'st forlorn! + SECOND KEEPER. Say, what art thou that talk'st of kings and queens? + KING HENRY. More than I seem, and less than I was born to: + A man at least, for less I should not be; + And men may talk of kings, and why not I? + SECOND KEEPER. Ay, but thou talk'st as if thou wert a king. + KING HENRY. Why, so I am- in mind; and that's enough. + SECOND KEEPER. But, if thou be a king, where is thy crown? + KING HENRY. My crown is in my heart, not on my head; + Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones, + Not to be seen. My crown is call'd content; + A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy. + SECOND KEEPER. Well, if you be a king crown'd with content, + Your crown content and you must be contented + To go along with us; for as we think, + You are the king King Edward hath depos'd; + And we his subjects, sworn in all allegiance, + Will apprehend you as his enemy. + KING HENRY. But did you never swear, and break an oath? + SECOND KEEPER. No, never such an oath; nor will not now. + KING HENRY. Where did you dwell when I was King of England? + SECOND KEEPER. Here in this country, where we now remain. + KING HENRY. I was anointed king at nine months old; + My father and my grandfather were kings; + And you were sworn true subjects unto me; + And tell me, then, have you not broke your oaths? + FIRST KEEPER. No; + For we were subjects but while you were king. + KING HENRY. Why, am I dead? Do I not breathe a man? + Ah, simple men, you know not what you swear! + Look, as I blow this feather from my face, + And as the air blows it to me again, + Obeying with my wind when I do blow, + And yielding to another when it blows, + Commanded always by the greater gust, + Such is the lightness of you common men. + But do not break your oaths; for of that sin + My mild entreaty shall not make you guilty. + Go where you will, the King shall be commanded; + And be you kings: command, and I'll obey. + FIRST KEEPER. We are true subjects to the King, King Edward. + KING HENRY. So would you be again to Henry, + If he were seated as King Edward is. + FIRST KEEPER. We charge you, in God's name and the King's, + To go with us unto the officers. + KING HENRY. In God's name, lead; your King's name be obey'd; + And what God will, that let your King perform; + And what he will, I humbly yield unto. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE II. +London. The palace + +Enter KING EDWARD, GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE, and LADY GREY + + KING EDWARD. Brother of Gloucester, at Saint Albans' field + This lady's husband, Sir Richard Grey, was slain, + His land then seiz'd on by the conqueror. + Her suit is now to repossess those lands; + Which we in justice cannot well deny, + Because in quarrel of the house of York + The worthy gentleman did lose his life. + GLOUCESTER. Your Highness shall do well to grant her suit; + It were dishonour to deny it her. + KING EDWARD. It were no less; but yet I'll make a pause. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside to CLARENCE] Yea, is it so? + I see the lady hath a thing to grant, + Before the King will grant her humble suit. + CLARENCE. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] He knows the game; how true he + keeps the wind! + GLOUCESTER. [Aside to CLARENCE] Silence! + KING EDWARD. Widow, we will consider of your suit; + And come some other time to know our mind. + LADY GREY. Right gracious lord, I cannot brook delay. + May it please your Highness to resolve me now; + And what your pleasure is shall satisfy me. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside] Ay, widow? Then I'll warrant you all your + lands, + An if what pleases him shall pleasure you. + Fight closer or, good faith, you'll catch a blow. + CLARENCE. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] I fear her not, unless she chance + to fall. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside to CLARENCE] God forbid that, for he'll take + vantages. + KING EDWARD. How many children hast thou, widow, tell me. + CLARENCE. [Aside to GLOUCESTER] I think he means to beg a child of + her. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside to CLARENCE] Nay, then whip me; he'll rather + give her two. + LADY GREY. Three, my most gracious lord. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside] You shall have four if you'll be rul'd by him. + KING EDWARD. 'Twere pity they should lose their father's lands. + LADY GREY. Be pitiful, dread lord, and grant it, then. + KING EDWARD. Lords, give us leave; I'll try this widow's wit. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside] Ay, good leave have you; for you will have + leave + Till youth take leave and leave you to the crutch. + [GLOUCESTER and CLARENCE withdraw] + KING EDWARD. Now tell me, madam, do you love your children? + LADY GREY. Ay, full as dearly as I love myself. + KING EDWARD. And would you not do much to do them good? + LADY GREY. To do them good I would sustain some harm. + KING EDWARD. Then get your husband's lands, to do them good. + LADY GREY. Therefore I came unto your Majesty. + KING EDWARD. I'll tell you how these lands are to be got. + LADY GREY. So shall you bind me to your Highness' service. + KING EDWARD. What service wilt thou do me if I give them? + LADY GREY. What you command that rests in me to do. + KING EDWARD. But you will take exceptions to my boon. + LADY GREY. No, gracious lord, except I cannot do it. + KING EDWARD. Ay, but thou canst do what I mean to ask. + LADY GREY. Why, then I will do what your Grace commands. + GLOUCESTER. He plies her hard; and much rain wears the marble. + CLARENCE. As red as fire! Nay, then her wax must melt. + LADY GREY. Why stops my lord? Shall I not hear my task? + KING EDWARD. An easy task; 'tis but to love a king. + LADY GREY. That's soon perform'd, because I am a subject. + KING EDWARD. Why, then, thy husband's lands I freely give thee. + LADY GREY. I take my leave with many thousand thanks. + GLOUCESTER. The match is made; she seals it with a curtsy. + KING EDWARD. But stay thee- 'tis the fruits of love I mean. + LADY GREY. The fruits of love I mean, my loving liege. + KING EDWARD. Ay, but, I fear me, in another sense. + What love, thinkst thou, I sue so much to get? + LADY GREY. My love till death, my humble thanks, my prayers; + That love which virtue begs and virtue grants. + KING EDWARD. No, by my troth, I did not mean such love. + LADY GREY. Why, then you mean not as I thought you did. + KING EDWARD. But now you partly may perceive my mind. + LADY GREY. My mind will never grant what I perceive + Your Highness aims at, if I aim aright. + KING EDWARD. To tell thee plain, I aim to lie with thee. + LADY GREY. To tell you plain, I had rather lie in prison. + KING EDWARD. Why, then thou shalt not have thy husband's lands. + LADY GREY. Why, then mine honesty shall be my dower; + For by that loss I will not purchase them. + KING EDWARD. Therein thou wrong'st thy children mightily. + LADY GREY. Herein your Highness wrongs both them and me. + But, mighty lord, this merry inclination + Accords not with the sadness of my suit. + Please you dismiss me, either with ay or no. + KING EDWARD. Ay, if thou wilt say ay to my request; + No, if thou dost say no to my demand. + LADY GREY. Then, no, my lord. My suit is at an end. + GLOUCESTER. The widow likes him not; she knits her brows. + CLARENCE. He is the bluntest wooer in Christendom. + KING EDWARD. [Aside] Her looks doth argue her replete with modesty; + Her words doth show her wit incomparable; + All her perfections challenge sovereignty. + One way or other, she is for a king; + And she shall be my love, or else my queen. + Say that King Edward take thee for his queen? + LADY GREY. 'Tis better said than done, my gracious lord. + I am a subject fit to jest withal, + But far unfit to be a sovereign. + KING EDWARD. Sweet widow, by my state I swear to thee + I speak no more than what my soul intends; + And that is to enjoy thee for my love. + LADY GREY. And that is more than I will yield unto. + I know I am too mean to be your queen, + And yet too good to be your concubine. + KING EDWARD. You cavil, widow; I did mean my queen. + LADY GREY. 'Twill grieve your Grace my sons should call you father. + KING EDWARD.No more than when my daughters call thee mother. + Thou art a widow, and thou hast some children; + And, by God's Mother, I, being but a bachelor, + Have other some. Why, 'tis a happy thing + To be the father unto many sons. + Answer no more, for thou shalt be my queen. + GLOUCESTER. The ghostly father now hath done his shrift. + CLARENCE. When he was made a shriver, 'twas for shrift. + KING EDWARD. Brothers, you muse what chat we two have had. + GLOUCESTER. The widow likes it not, for she looks very sad. + KING EDWARD. You'd think it strange if I should marry her. + CLARENCE. To who, my lord? + KING EDWARD. Why, Clarence, to myself. + GLOUCESTER. That would be ten days' wonder at the least. + CLARENCE. That's a day longer than a wonder lasts. + GLOUCESTER. By so much is the wonder in extremes. + KING EDWARD. Well, jest on, brothers; I can tell you both + Her suit is granted for her husband's lands. + + Enter a NOBLEMAN + + NOBLEMAN. My gracious lord, Henry your foe is taken + And brought your prisoner to your palace gate. + KING EDWARD. See that he be convey'd unto the Tower. + And go we, brothers, to the man that took him + To question of his apprehension. + Widow, go you along. Lords, use her honourably. + Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER + GLOUCESTER. Ay, Edward will use women honourably. + Would he were wasted, marrow, bones, and all, + That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring + To cross me from the golden time I look for! + And yet, between my soul's desire and me- + The lustful Edward's title buried- + Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward, + And all the unlook'd for issue of their bodies, + To take their rooms ere I can place myself. + A cold premeditation for my purpose! + Why, then I do but dream on sovereignty; + Like one that stands upon a promontory + And spies a far-off shore where he would tread, + Wishing his foot were equal with his eye; + And chides the sea that sunders him from thence, + Saying he'll lade it dry to have his way- + So do I wish the crown, being so far off; + And so I chide the means that keeps me from it; + And so I say I'll cut the causes off, + Flattering me with impossibilities. + My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much, + Unless my hand and strength could equal them. + Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard; + What other pleasure can the world afford? + I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap, + And deck my body in gay ornaments, + And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks. + O miserable thought! and more unlikely + Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns. + Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb; + And, for I should not deal in her soft laws, + She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe + To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub + To make an envious mountain on my back, + Where sits deformity to mock my body; + To shape my legs of an unequal size; + To disproportion me in every part, + Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp + That carries no impression like the dam. + And am I, then, a man to be belov'd? + O monstrous fault to harbour such a thought! + Then, since this earth affords no joy to me + But to command, to check, to o'erbear such + As are of better person than myself, + I'll make my heaven to dream upon the crown, + And whiles I live t' account this world but hell, + Until my misshap'd trunk that bear this head + Be round impaled with a glorious crown. + And yet I know not how to get the crown, + For many lives stand between me and home; + And I- like one lost in a thorny wood + That rents the thorns and is rent with the thorns, + Seeking a way and straying from the way + Not knowing how to find the open air, + But toiling desperately to find it out- + Torment myself to catch the English crown; + And from that torment I will free myself + Or hew my way out with a bloody axe. + Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile, + And cry 'Content!' to that which grieves my heart, + And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, + And frame my face to all occasions. + I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall; + I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk; + I'll play the orator as well as Nestor, + Deceive more slily than Ulysses could, + And, like a Sinon, take another Troy. + I can add colours to the chameleon, + Change shapes with Protheus for advantages, + And set the murderous Machiavel to school. + Can I do this, and cannot get a crown? + Tut, were it farther off, I'll pluck it down. Exit + + + + +SCENE III. +France. The KING'S palace + +Flourish. Enter LEWIS the French King, his sister BONA, +his Admiral call'd BOURBON; PRINCE EDWARD, QUEEN MARGARET, +and the EARL of OXFORD. LEWIS sits, and riseth up again + + LEWIS. Fair Queen of England, worthy Margaret, + Sit down with us. It ill befits thy state + And birth that thou shouldst stand while Lewis doth sit. + QUEEN MARGARET. No, mighty King of France. Now Margaret + Must strike her sail and learn a while to serve + Where kings command. I was, I must confess, + Great Albion's Queen in former golden days; + But now mischance hath trod my title down + And with dishonour laid me on the ground, + Where I must take like seat unto my fortune, + And to my humble seat conform myself. + LEWIS. Why, say, fair Queen, whence springs this deep despair? + QUEEN MARGARET. From such a cause as fills mine eyes with tears + And stops my tongue, while heart is drown'd in cares. + LEWIS. Whate'er it be, be thou still like thyself, + And sit thee by our side. [Seats her by him] Yield not thy neck + To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind + Still ride in triumph over all mischance. + Be plain, Queen Margaret, and tell thy grief; + It shall be eas'd, if France can yield relief. + QUEEN MARGARET. Those gracious words revive my drooping thoughts + And give my tongue-tied sorrows leave to speak. + Now therefore be it known to noble Lewis + That Henry, sole possessor of my love, + Is, of a king, become a banish'd man, + And forc'd to live in Scotland a forlorn; + While proud ambitious Edward Duke of York + Usurps the regal title and the seat + Of England's true-anointed lawful King. + This is the cause that I, poor Margaret, + With this my son, Prince Edward, Henry's heir, + Am come to crave thy just and lawful aid; + And if thou fail us, all our hope is done. + Scotland hath will to help, but cannot help; + Our people and our peers are both misled, + Our treasure seiz'd, our soldiers put to flight, + And, as thou seest, ourselves in heavy plight. + LEWIS. Renowned Queen, with patience calm the storm, + While we bethink a means to break it off. + QUEEN MARGARET. The more we stay, the stronger grows our foe. + LEWIS. The more I stay, the more I'll succour thee. + QUEEN MARGARET. O, but impatience waiteth on true sorrow. + And see where comes the breeder of my sorrow! + + Enter WARWICK + + LEWIS. What's he approacheth boldly to our presence? + QUEEN MARGARET. Our Earl of Warwick, Edward's greatest friend. + LEWIS. Welcome, brave Warwick! What brings thee to France? + [He descends. She ariseth] + QUEEN MARGARET. Ay, now begins a second storm to rise; + For this is he that moves both wind and tide. + WARWICK. From worthy Edward, King of Albion, + My lord and sovereign, and thy vowed friend, + I come, in kindness and unfeigned love, + First to do greetings to thy royal person, + And then to crave a league of amity, + And lastly to confirm that amity + With nuptial knot, if thou vouchsafe to grant + That virtuous Lady Bona, thy fair sister, + To England's King in lawful marriage. + QUEEN MARGARET. [Aside] If that go forward, Henry's hope is done. + WARWICK. [To BONA] And, gracious madam, in our king's behalf, + I am commanded, with your leave and favour, + Humbly to kiss your hand, and with my tongue + To tell the passion of my sovereign's heart; + Where fame, late ent'ring at his heedful ears, + Hath plac'd thy beauty's image and thy virtue. + QUEEN MARGARET. King Lewis and Lady Bona, hear me speak + Before you answer Warwick. His demand + Springs not from Edward's well-meant honest love, + But from deceit bred by necessity; + For how can tyrants safely govern home + Unless abroad they purchase great alliance? + To prove him tyrant this reason may suffice, + That Henry liveth still; but were he dead, + Yet here Prince Edward stands, King Henry's son. + Look therefore, Lewis, that by this league and marriage + Thou draw not on thy danger and dishonour; + For though usurpers sway the rule a while + Yet heav'ns are just, and time suppresseth wrongs. + WARWICK. Injurious Margaret! + PRINCE OF WALES. And why not Queen? + WARWICK. Because thy father Henry did usurp; + And thou no more art prince than she is queen. + OXFORD. Then Warwick disannuls great John of Gaunt, + Which did subdue the greatest part of Spain; + And, after John of Gaunt, Henry the Fourth, + Whose wisdom was a mirror to the wisest; + And, after that wise prince, Henry the Fifth, + Who by his prowess conquered all France. + From these our Henry lineally descends. + WARWICK. Oxford, how haps it in this smooth discourse + You told not how Henry the Sixth hath lost + All that which Henry the Fifth had gotten? + Methinks these peers of France should smile at that. + But for the rest: you tell a pedigree + Of threescore and two years- a silly time + To make prescription for a kingdom's worth. + OXFORD. Why, Warwick, canst thou speak against thy liege, + Whom thou obeyed'st thirty and six years, + And not betray thy treason with a blush? + WARWICK. Can Oxford that did ever fence the right + Now buckler falsehood with a pedigree? + For shame! Leave Henry, and call Edward king. + OXFORD. Call him my king by whose injurious doom + My elder brother, the Lord Aubrey Vere, + Was done to death; and more than so, my father, + Even in the downfall of his mellow'd years, + When nature brought him to the door of death? + No, Warwick, no; while life upholds this arm, + This arm upholds the house of Lancaster. + WARWICK. And I the house of York. + LEWIS. Queen Margaret, Prince Edward, and Oxford, + Vouchsafe at our request to stand aside + While I use further conference with Warwick. + [They stand aloof] + QUEEN MARGARET. Heavens grant that Warwick's words bewitch him not! + LEWIS. Now, Warwick, tell me, even upon thy conscience, + Is Edward your true king? for I were loath + To link with him that were not lawful chosen. + WARWICK. Thereon I pawn my credit and mine honour. + LEWIS. But is he gracious in the people's eye? + WARWICK. The more that Henry was unfortunate. + LEWIS. Then further: all dissembling set aside, + Tell me for truth the measure of his love + Unto our sister Bona. + WARWICK. Such it seems + As may beseem a monarch like himself. + Myself have often heard him say and swear + That this his love was an eternal plant + Whereof the root was fix'd in virtue's ground, + The leaves and fruit maintain'd with beauty's sun, + Exempt from envy, but not from disdain, + Unless the Lady Bona quit his pain. + LEWIS. Now, sister, let us hear your firm resolve. + BONA. Your grant or your denial shall be mine. + [To WARWICK] Yet I confess that often ere this day, + When I have heard your king's desert recounted, + Mine ear hath tempted judgment to desire. + LEWIS. Then, Warwick, thus: our sister shall be Edward's. + And now forthwith shall articles be drawn + Touching the jointure that your king must make, + Which with her dowry shall be counterpois'd. + Draw near, Queen Margaret, and be a witness + That Bona shall be wife to the English king. + PRINCE OF WALES. To Edward, but not to the English king. + QUEEN MARGARET. Deceitful Warwick, it was thy device + By this alliance to make void my suit. + Before thy coming, Lewis was Henry's friend. + LEWIS. And still is friend to him and Margaret. + But if your title to the crown be weak, + As may appear by Edward's good success, + Then 'tis but reason that I be releas'd + From giving aid which late I promised. + Yet shall you have all kindness at my hand + That your estate requires and mine can yield. + WARWICK. Henry now lives in Scotland at his case, + Where having nothing, nothing can he lose. + And as for you yourself, our quondam queen, + You have a father able to maintain you, + And better 'twere you troubled him than France. + QUEEN MARGARET. Peace, impudent and shameless Warwick, + Proud setter up and puller down of kings! + I will not hence till with my talk and tears, + Both full of truth, I make King Lewis behold + Thy sly conveyance and thy lord's false love; + For both of you are birds of self-same feather. + [POST blowing a horn within] + LEWIS. Warwick, this is some post to us or thee. + + Enter the POST + + POST. My lord ambassador, these letters are for you, + Sent from your brother, Marquis Montague. + These from our King unto your Majesty. + And, madam, these for you; from whom I know not. + [They all read their letters] + OXFORD. I like it well that our fair Queen and mistress + Smiles at her news, while Warwick frowns at his. + PRINCE OF WALES. Nay, mark how Lewis stamps as he were nettled. + I hope all's for the best. + LEWIS. Warwick, what are thy news? And yours, fair Queen? + QUEEN MARGARET. Mine such as fill my heart with unhop'd joys. + WARWICK. Mine, full of sorrow and heart's discontent. + LEWIS. What, has your king married the Lady Grey? + And now, to soothe your forgery and his, + Sends me a paper to persuade me patience? + Is this th' alliance that he seeks with France? + Dare he presume to scorn us in this manner? + QUEEN MARGARET. I told your Majesty as much before. + This proveth Edward's love and Warwick's honesty. + WARWICK. King Lewis, I here protest in sight of heaven, + And by the hope I have of heavenly bliss, + That I am clear from this misdeed of Edward's- + No more my king, for he dishonours me, + But most himself, if he could see his shame. + Did I forget that by the house of York + My father came untimely to his death? + Did I let pass th' abuse done to my niece? + Did I impale him with the regal crown? + Did I put Henry from his native right? + And am I guerdon'd at the last with shame? + Shame on himself! for my desert is honour; + And to repair my honour lost for him + I here renounce him and return to Henry. + My noble Queen, let former grudges pass, + And henceforth I am thy true servitor. + I will revenge his wrong to Lady Bona, + And replant Henry in his former state. + QUEEN MARGARET. Warwick, these words have turn'd my hate to love; + And I forgive and quite forget old faults, + And joy that thou becom'st King Henry's friend. + WARWICK. So much his friend, ay, his unfeigned friend, + That if King Lewis vouchsafe to furnish us + With some few bands of chosen soldiers, + I'll undertake to land them on our coast + And force the tyrant from his seat by war. + 'Tis not his new-made bride shall succour him; + And as for Clarence, as my letters tell me, + He's very likely now to fall from him + For matching more for wanton lust than honour + Or than for strength and safety of our country. + BONA. Dear brother, how shall Bona be reveng'd + But by thy help to this distressed queen? + QUEEN MARGARET. Renowned Prince, how shall poor Henry live + Unless thou rescue him from foul despair? + BONA. My quarrel and this English queen's are one. + WARWICK. And mine, fair Lady Bona, joins with yours. + LEWIS. And mine with hers, and thine, and Margaret's. + Therefore, at last, I firmly am resolv'd + You shall have aid. + QUEEN MARGARET. Let me give humble thanks for all at once. + LEWIS. Then, England's messenger, return in post + And tell false Edward, thy supposed king, + That Lewis of France is sending over masquers + To revel it with him and his new bride. + Thou seest what's past; go fear thy king withal. + BONA. Tell him, in hope he'll prove a widower shortly, + I'll wear the willow-garland for his sake. + QUEEN MARGARET. Tell him my mourning weeds are laid aside, + And I am ready to put armour on. + WARWICK. Tell him from me that he hath done me wrong, + And therefore I'll uncrown him ere't be long. + There's thy reward; be gone. Exit POST + LEWIS. But, Warwick, + Thou and Oxford, with five thousand men, + Shall cross the seas and bid false Edward battle: + And, as occasion serves, this noble Queen + And Prince shall follow with a fresh supply. + Yet, ere thou go, but answer me one doubt: + What pledge have we of thy firm loyalty? + WARWICK. This shall assure my constant loyalty: + That if our Queen and this young Prince agree, + I'll join mine eldest daughter and my joy + To him forthwith in holy wedlock bands. + QUEEN MARGARET. Yes, I agree, and thank you for your motion. + Son Edward, she is fair and virtuous, + Therefore delay not- give thy hand to Warwick; + And with thy hand thy faith irrevocable + That only Warwick's daughter shall be thine. + PRINCE OF WALES. Yes, I accept her, for she well deserves it; + And here, to pledge my vow, I give my hand. + [He gives his hand to WARWICK] + LEWIS. stay we now? These soldiers shall be levied; + And thou, Lord Bourbon, our High Admiral, + Shall waft them over with our royal fleet. + I long till Edward fall by war's mischance + For mocking marriage with a dame of France. + Exeunt all but WARWICK + WARWICK. I came from Edward as ambassador, + But I return his sworn and mortal foe. + Matter of marriage was the charge he gave me, + But dreadful war shall answer his demand. + Had he none else to make a stale but me? + Then none but I shall turn his jest to sorrow. + I was the chief that rais'd him to the crown, + And I'll be chief to bring him down again; + Not that I pity Henry's misery, + But seek revenge on Edward's mockery. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +London. The palace + +Enter GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE, SOMERSET, and MONTAGUE + + GLOUCESTER. Now tell me, brother Clarence, what think you + Of this new marriage with the Lady Grey? + Hath not our brother made a worthy choice? + CLARENCE. Alas, you know 'tis far from hence to France! + How could he stay till Warwick made return? + SOMERSET. My lords, forbear this talk; here comes the King. + + Flourish. Enter KING EDWARD, attended; LADY + GREY, as Queen; PEMBROKE, STAFFORD, HASTINGS, + and others. Four stand on one side, and four on the other + + GLOUCESTER. And his well-chosen bride. + CLARENCE. I mind to tell him plainly what I think. + KING EDWARD. Now, brother of Clarence, how like you our choice + That you stand pensive as half malcontent? + CLARENCE. As well as Lewis of France or the Earl of Warwick, + Which are so weak of courage and in judgment + That they'll take no offence at our abuse. + KING EDWARD. Suppose they take offence without a cause; + They are but Lewis and Warwick: I am Edward, + Your King and Warwick's and must have my will. + GLOUCESTER. And shall have your will, because our King. + Yet hasty marriage seldom proveth well. + KING EDWARD. Yea, brother Richard, are you offended too? + GLOUCESTER. Not I. + No, God forbid that I should wish them sever'd + Whom God hath join'd together; ay, and 'twere pity + To sunder them that yoke so well together. + KING EDWARD. Setting your scorns and your mislike aside, + Tell me some reason why the Lady Grey + Should not become my wife and England's Queen. + And you too, Somerset and Montague, + Speak freely what you think. + CLARENCE. Then this is mine opinion: that King Lewis + Becomes your enemy for mocking him + About the marriage of the Lady Bona. + GLOUCESTER. And Warwick, doing what you gave in charge, + Is now dishonoured by this new marriage. + KING EDWARD. What if both Lewis and Warwick be appeas'd + By such invention as I can devise? + MONTAGUE. Yet to have join'd with France in such alliance + Would more have strength'ned this our commonwealth + 'Gainst foreign storms than any home-bred marriage. + HASTINGS. Why, knows not Montague that of itself + England is safe, if true within itself? + MONTAGUE. But the safer when 'tis back'd with France. + HASTINGS. 'Tis better using France than trusting France. + Let us be back'd with God, and with the seas + Which He hath giv'n for fence impregnable, + And with their helps only defend ourselves. + In them and in ourselves our safety lies. + CLARENCE. For this one speech Lord Hastings well deserves + To have the heir of the Lord Hungerford. + KING EDWARD. Ay, what of that? it was my will and grant; + And for this once my will shall stand for law. + GLOUCESTER. And yet methinks your Grace hath not done well + To give the heir and daughter of Lord Scales + Unto the brother of your loving bride. + She better would have fitted me or Clarence; + But in your bride you bury brotherhood. + CLARENCE. Or else you would not have bestow'd the heir + Of the Lord Bonville on your new wife's son, + And leave your brothers to go speed elsewhere. + KING EDWARD. Alas, poor Clarence! Is it for a wife + That thou art malcontent? I will provide thee. + CLARENCE. In choosing for yourself you show'd your judgment, + Which being shallow, you shall give me leave + To play the broker in mine own behalf; + And to that end I shortly mind to leave you. + KING EDWARD. Leave me or tarry, Edward will be King, + And not be tied unto his brother's will. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. My lords, before it pleas'd his Majesty + To raise my state to title of a queen, + Do me but right, and you must all confess + That I was not ignoble of descent: + And meaner than myself have had like fortune. + But as this title honours me and mine, + So your dislikes, to whom I would be pleasing, + Doth cloud my joys with danger and with sorrow. + KING EDWARD. My love, forbear to fawn upon their frowns. + What danger or what sorrow can befall thee, + So long as Edward is thy constant friend + And their true sovereign whom they must obey? + Nay, whom they shall obey, and love thee too, + Unless they seek for hatred at my hands; + Which if they do, yet will I keep thee safe, + And they shall feel the vengeance of my wrath. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside] I hear, yet say not much, but think the more. + + Enter a POST + + KING EDWARD. Now, messenger, what letters or what news + From France? + MESSENGER. My sovereign liege, no letters, and few words, + But such as I, without your special pardon, + Dare not relate. + KING EDWARD. Go to, we pardon thee; therefore, in brief, + Tell me their words as near as thou canst guess them. + What answer makes King Lewis unto our letters? + MESSENGER. At my depart, these were his very words: + 'Go tell false Edward, the supposed king, + That Lewis of France is sending over masquers + To revel it with him and his new bride.' + KING EDWARD. IS Lewis so brave? Belike he thinks me Henry. + But what said Lady Bona to my marriage? + MESSENGER. These were her words, utt'red with mild disdain: + 'Tell him, in hope he'll prove a widower shortly, + I'll wear the willow-garland for his sake.' + KING EDWARD. I blame not her: she could say little less; + She had the wrong. But what said Henry's queen? + For I have heard that she was there in place. + MESSENGER. 'Tell him' quoth she 'my mourning weeds are done, + And I am ready to put armour on.' + KING EDWARD. Belike she minds to play the Amazon. + But what said Warwick to these injuries? + MESSENGER. He, more incens'd against your Majesty + Than all the rest, discharg'd me with these words: + 'Tell him from me that he hath done me wrong; + And therefore I'll uncrown him ere't be long.' + KING EDWARD. Ha! durst the traitor breathe out so proud words? + Well, I will arm me, being thus forewarn'd. + They shall have wars and pay for their presumption. + But say, is Warwick friends with Margaret? + MESSENGER. Ay, gracious sovereign; they are so link'd in friendship + That young Prince Edward marries Warwick's daughter. + CLARENCE. Belike the elder; Clarence will have the younger. + Now, brother king, farewell, and sit you fast, + For I will hence to Warwick's other daughter; + That, though I want a kingdom, yet in marriage + I may not prove inferior to yourself. + You that love me and Warwick, follow me. + Exit, and SOMERSET follows + GLOUCESTER. [Aside] Not I. + My thoughts aim at a further matter; I + Stay not for the love of Edward but the crown. + KING EDWARD. Clarence and Somerset both gone to Warwick! + Yet am I arm'd against the worst can happen; + And haste is needful in this desp'rate case. + Pembroke and Stafford, you in our behalf + Go levy men and make prepare for war; + They are already, or quickly will be landed. + Myself in person will straight follow you. + Exeunt PEMBROKE and STAFFORD + But ere I go, Hastings and Montague, + Resolve my doubt. You twain, of all the rest, + Are near to Warwick by blood and by alliance. + Tell me if you love Warwick more than me? + If it be so, then both depart to him: + I rather wish you foes than hollow friends. + But if you mind to hold your true obedience, + Give me assurance with some friendly vow, + That I may never have you in suspect. + MONTAGUE. So God help Montague as he proves true! + HASTINGS. And Hastings as he favours Edward's cause! + KING EDWARD. Now, brother Richard, will you stand by us? + GLOUCESTER. Ay, in despite of all that shall withstand you. + KING EDWARD. Why, so! then am I sure of victory. + Now therefore let us hence, and lose no hour + Till we meet Warwick with his foreign pow'r. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +A plain in Warwickshire + +Enter WARWICK and OXFORD, with French soldiers + + WARWICK. Trust me, my lord, all hitherto goes well; + The common people by numbers swarm to us. + + Enter CLARENCE and SOMERSET + + But see where Somerset and Clarence comes. + Speak suddenly, my lords- are we all friends? + CLARENCE. Fear not that, my lord. + WARWICK. Then, gentle Clarence, welcome unto Warwick; + And welcome, Somerset. I hold it cowardice + To rest mistrustful where a noble heart + Hath pawn'd an open hand in sign of love; + Else might I think that Clarence, Edward's brother, + Were but a feigned friend to our proceedings. + But welcome, sweet Clarence; my daughter shall be thine. + And now what rests but, in night's coverture, + Thy brother being carelessly encamp'd, + His soldiers lurking in the towns about, + And but attended by a simple guard, + We may surprise and take him at our pleasure? + Our scouts have found the adventure very easy; + That as Ulysses and stout Diomede + With sleight and manhood stole to Rhesus' tents, + And brought from thence the Thracian fatal steeds, + So we, well cover'd with the night's black mantle, + At unawares may beat down Edward's guard + And seize himself- I say not 'slaughter him,' + For I intend but only to surprise him. + You that will follow me to this attempt, + Applaud the name of Henry with your leader. + [They all cry 'Henry!'] + Why then, let's on our way in silent sort. + For Warwick and his friends, God and Saint George! Exeunt + + + +SCENE III. +Edward's camp, near Warwick + +Enter three WATCHMEN, to guard the KING'S tent + + FIRST WATCHMAN. Come on, my masters, each man take his stand; + The King by this is set him down to sleep. + SECOND WATCHMAN. What, will he not to bed? + FIRST WATCHMAN. Why, no; for he hath made a solemn vow + Never to lie and take his natural rest + Till Warwick or himself be quite suppress'd. + SECOND WATCHMAN. To-morrow then, belike, shall be the day, + If Warwick be so near as men report. + THIRD WATCHMAN. But say, I pray, what nobleman is that + That with the King here resteth in his tent? + FIRST WATCHMAN. 'Tis the Lord Hastings, the King's chiefest friend. + THIRD WATCHMAN. O, is it So? But why commands the King + That his chief followers lodge in towns about him, + While he himself keeps in the cold field? + SECOND WATCHMAN. 'Tis the more honour, because more dangerous. + THIRD WATCHMAN. Ay, but give me worship and quietness; + I like it better than dangerous honour. + If Warwick knew in what estate he stands, + 'Tis to be doubted he would waken him. + FIRST WATCHMAN. Unless our halberds did shut up his passage. + SECOND WATCHMAN. Ay, wherefore else guard we his royal tent + But to defend his person from night-foes? + + Enter WARWICK, CLARENCE, OXFORD, SOMERSET, + and French soldiers, silent all + + WARWICK. This is his tent; and see where stand his guard. + Courage, my masters! Honour now or never! + But follow me, and Edward shall be ours. + FIRST WATCHMAN. Who goes there? + SECOND WATCHMAN. Stay, or thou diest. + + WARWICK and the rest cry all 'Warwick! Warwick!' and + set upon the guard, who fly, crying 'Arm! Arm!' WARWICK + and the rest following them + + The drum playing and trumpet sounding, re-enter WARWICK + and the rest, bringing the KING out in his gown, + sitting in a chair. GLOUCESTER and HASTINGS fly over the stage + + SOMERSET. What are they that fly there? + WARWICK. Richard and Hastings. Let them go; here is the Duke. + KING EDWARD. The Duke! Why, Warwick, when we parted, + Thou call'dst me King? + WARWICK. Ay, but the case is alter'd. + When you disgrac'd me in my embassade, + Then I degraded you from being King, + And come now to create you Duke of York. + Alas, how should you govern any kingdom + That know not how to use ambassadors, + Nor how to be contented with one wife, + Nor how to use your brothers brotherly, + Nor how to study for the people's welfare, + Nor how to shroud yourself from enemies? + KING EDWARD. Yea, brother of Clarence, art thou here too? + Nay, then I see that Edward needs must down. + Yet, Warwick, in despite of all mischance, + Of thee thyself and all thy complices, + Edward will always bear himself as King. + Though fortune's malice overthrow my state, + My mind exceeds the compass of her wheel. + WARWICK. Then, for his mind, be Edward England's king; + [Takes off his crown] + But Henry now shall wear the English crown + And be true King indeed; thou but the shadow. + My Lord of Somerset, at my request, + See that forthwith Duke Edward be convey'd + Unto my brother, Archbishop of York. + When I have fought with Pembroke and his fellows, + I'll follow you and tell what answer + Lewis and the Lady Bona send to him. + Now for a while farewell, good Duke of York. + KING EDWARD. What fates impose, that men must needs abide; + It boots not to resist both wind and tide. + [They lead him out forcibly] + OXFORD. What now remains, my lords, for us to do + But march to London with our soldiers? + WARWICK. Ay, that's the first thing that we have to do; + To free King Henry from imprisonment, + And see him seated in the regal throne. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +London. The palace + +Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH and RIVERS + + RIVERS. Madam, what makes you in this sudden change? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Why, brother Rivers, are you yet to learn + What late misfortune is befall'n King Edward? + RIVERS. What, loss of some pitch'd battle against Warwick? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. No, but the loss of his own royal person. + RIVERS. Then is my sovereign slain? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Ay, almost slain, for he is taken prisoner; + Either betray'd by falsehood of his guard + Or by his foe surpris'd at unawares; + And, as I further have to understand, + Is new committed to the Bishop of York, + Fell Warwick's brother, and by that our foe. + RIVERS. These news, I must confess, are full of grief; + Yet, gracious madam, bear it as you may: + Warwick may lose that now hath won the day. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Till then, fair hope must hinder life's decay. + And I the rather wean me from despair + For love of Edward's offspring in my womb. + This is it that makes me bridle passion + And bear with mildness my misfortune's cross; + Ay, ay, for this I draw in many a tear + And stop the rising of blood-sucking sighs, + Lest with my sighs or tears I blast or drown + King Edward's fruit, true heir to th' English crown. + RIVERS. But, madam, where is Warwick then become? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. I am inform'd that he comes towards London + To set the crown once more on Henry's head. + Guess thou the rest: King Edward's friends must down. + But to prevent the tyrant's violence- + For trust not him that hath once broken faith- + I'll hence forthwith unto the sanctuary + To save at least the heir of Edward's right. + There shall I rest secure from force and fraud. + Come, therefore, let us fly while we may fly: + If Warwick take us, we are sure to die. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +A park near Middleham Castle in Yorkshire + +Enter GLOUCESTER, LORD HASTINGS, SIR WILLIAM STANLEY, and others + + GLOUCESTER. Now, my Lord Hastings and Sir William Stanley, + Leave off to wonder why I drew you hither + Into this chiefest thicket of the park. + Thus stands the case: you know our King, my brother, + Is prisoner to the Bishop here, at whose hands + He hath good usage and great liberty; + And often but attended with weak guard + Comes hunting this way to disport himself. + I have advertis'd him by secret means + That if about this hour he make this way, + Under the colour of his usual game, + He shall here find his friends, with horse and men, + To set him free from his captivity. + + Enter KING EDWARD and a HUNTSMAN with him + + HUNTSMAN. This way, my lord; for this way lies the game. + KING EDWARD. Nay, this way, man. See where the huntsmen stand. + Now, brother of Gloucester, Lord Hastings, and the rest, + Stand you thus close to steal the Bishop's deer? + GLOUCESTER. Brother, the time and case requireth haste; + Your horse stands ready at the park corner. + KING EDWARD. But whither shall we then? + HASTINGS. To Lynn, my lord; and shipt from thence to Flanders. + GLOUCESTER. Well guess'd, believe me; for that was my meaning. + KING EDWARD. Stanley, I will requite thy forwardness. + GLOUCESTER. But wherefore stay we? 'Tis no time to talk. + KING EDWARD. Huntsman, what say'st thou? Wilt thou go along? + HUNTSMAN. Better do so than tarry and be hang'd. + GLOUCESTER. Come then, away; let's ha' no more ado. + KING EDWARD. Bishop, farewell. Shield thee from Warwick's frown, + And pray that I may repossess the crown. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VI. +London. The Tower + +Flourish. Enter KING HENRY, CLARENCE, WARWICK, SOMERSET, young HENRY, +EARL OF RICHMOND, OXFORD, MONTAGUE, LIEUTENANT OF THE TOWER, and attendants + + KING HENRY. Master Lieutenant, now that God and friends + Have shaken Edward from the regal seat + And turn'd my captive state to liberty, + My fear to hope, my sorrows unto joys, + At our enlargement what are thy due fees? + LIEUTENANT. Subjects may challenge nothing of their sov'reigns; + But if an humble prayer may prevail, + I then crave pardon of your Majesty. + KING HENRY. For what, Lieutenant? For well using me? + Nay, be thou sure I'll well requite thy kindness, + For that it made my imprisonment a pleasure; + Ay, such a pleasure as incaged birds + Conceive when, after many moody thoughts, + At last by notes of household harmony + They quite forget their loss of liberty. + But, Warwick, after God, thou set'st me free, + And chiefly therefore I thank God and thee; + He was the author, thou the instrument. + Therefore, that I may conquer fortune's spite + By living low where fortune cannot hurt me, + And that the people of this blessed land + May not be punish'd with my thwarting stars, + Warwick, although my head still wear the crown, + I here resign my government to thee, + For thou art fortunate in all thy deeds. + WARWICK. Your Grace hath still been fam'd for virtuous, + And now may seem as wise as virtuous + By spying and avoiding fortune's malice, + For few men rightly temper with the stars; + Yet in this one thing let me blame your Grace, + For choosing me when Clarence is in place. + CLARENCE. No, Warwick, thou art worthy of the sway, + To whom the heav'ns in thy nativity + Adjudg'd an olive branch and laurel crown, + As likely to be blest in peace and war; + And therefore I yield thee my free consent. + WARWICK. And I choose Clarence only for Protector. + KING HENRY. Warwick and Clarence, give me both your hands. + Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts, + That no dissension hinder government. + I make you both Protectors of this land, + While I myself will lead a private life + And in devotion spend my latter days, + To sin's rebuke and my Creator's praise. + WARWICK. What answers Clarence to his sovereign's will? + CLARENCE. That he consents, if Warwick yield consent, + For on thy fortune I repose myself. + WARWICK. Why, then, though loath, yet must I be content. + We'll yoke together, like a double shadow + To Henry's body, and supply his place; + I mean, in bearing weight of government, + While he enjoys the honour and his ease. + And, Clarence, now then it is more than needful + Forthwith that Edward be pronounc'd a traitor, + And all his lands and goods confiscated. + CLARENCE. What else? And that succession be determin'd. + WARWICK. Ay, therein Clarence shall not want his part. + KING HENRY. But, with the first of all your chief affairs, + Let me entreat- for I command no more- + That Margaret your Queen and my son Edward + Be sent for to return from France with speed; + For till I see them here, by doubtful fear + My joy of liberty is half eclips'd. + CLARENCE. It shall be done, my sovereign, with all speed. + KING HENRY. My Lord of Somerset, what youth is that, + Of whom you seem to have so tender care? + SOMERSET. My liege, it is young Henry, Earl of Richmond. + KING HENRY. Come hither, England's hope. + [Lays his hand on his head] + If secret powers + Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts, + This pretty lad will prove our country's bliss. + His looks are full of peaceful majesty; + His head by nature fram'd to wear a crown, + His hand to wield a sceptre; and himself + Likely in time to bless a regal throne. + Make much of him, my lords; for this is he + Must help you more than you are hurt by me. + + Enter a POST + + WARWICK. What news, my friend? + POST. That Edward is escaped from your brother + And fled, as he hears since, to Burgundy. + WARWICK. Unsavoury news! But how made he escape? + POST. He was convey'd by Richard Duke of Gloucester + And the Lord Hastings, who attended him + In secret ambush on the forest side + And from the Bishop's huntsmen rescu'd him; + For hunting was his daily exercise. + WARWICK. My brother was too careless of his charge. + But let us hence, my sovereign, to provide + A salve for any sore that may betide. + Exeunt all but SOMERSET, RICHMOND, and OXFORD + SOMERSET. My lord, I like not of this flight of Edward's; + For doubtless Burgundy will yield him help, + And we shall have more wars befor't be long. + As Henry's late presaging prophecy + Did glad my heart with hope of this young Richmond, + So doth my heart misgive me, in these conflicts, + What may befall him to his harm and ours. + Therefore, Lord Oxford, to prevent the worst, + Forthwith we'll send him hence to Brittany, + Till storms be past of civil enmity. + OXFORD. Ay, for if Edward repossess the crown, + 'Tis like that Richmond with the rest shall down. + SOMERSET. It shall be so; he shall to Brittany. + Come therefore, let's about it speedily. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VII. +Before York + +Flourish. Enter KING EDWARD, GLOUCESTER, HASTINGS, and soldiers + + KING EDWARD. Now, brother Richard, Lord Hastings, and the rest, + Yet thus far fortune maketh us amends, + And says that once more I shall interchange + My waned state for Henry's regal crown. + Well have we pass'd and now repass'd the seas, + And brought desired help from Burgundy; + What then remains, we being thus arriv'd + From Ravenspurgh haven before the gates of York, + But that we enter, as into our dukedom? + GLOUCESTER. The gates made fast! Brother, I like not this; + For many men that stumble at the threshold + Are well foretold that danger lurks within. + KING EDWARD. Tush, man, abodements must not now affright us. + By fair or foul means we must enter in, + For hither will our friends repair to us. + HASTINGS. My liege, I'll knock once more to summon them. + + Enter, on the walls, the MAYOR OF YORK and + his BRETHREN + + MAYOR. My lords, we were forewarned of your coming + And shut the gates for safety of ourselves, + For now we owe allegiance unto Henry. + KING EDWARD. But, Master Mayor, if Henry be your King, + Yet Edward at the least is Duke of York. + MAYOR. True, my good lord; I know you for no less. + KING EDWARD. Why, and I challenge nothing but my dukedom, + As being well content with that alone. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside] But when the fox hath once got in his nose, + He'll soon find means to make the body follow. + HASTINGS. Why, Master Mayor, why stand you in a doubt? + Open the gates; we are King Henry's friends. + MAYOR. Ay, say you so? The gates shall then be open'd. + [He descends] + GLOUCESTER. A wise stout captain, and soon persuaded! + HASTINGS. The good old man would fain that all were well, + So 'twere not long of him; but being ent'red, + I doubt not, I, but we shall soon persuade + Both him and all his brothers unto reason. + + Enter, below, the MAYOR and two ALDERMEN + + KING EDWARD. So, Master Mayor. These gates must not be shut + But in the night or in the time of war. + What! fear not, man, but yield me up the keys; + [Takes his keys] + For Edward will defend the town and thee, + And all those friends that deign to follow me. + + March. Enter MONTGOMERY with drum and soldiers + + GLOUCESTER. Brother, this is Sir John Montgomery, + Our trusty friend, unless I be deceiv'd. + KING EDWARD. Welcome, Sir john! But why come you in arms? + MONTGOMERY. To help King Edward in his time of storm, + As every loyal subject ought to do. + KING EDWARD. Thanks, good Montgomery; but we now forget + Our title to the crown, and only claim + Our dukedom till God please to send the rest. + MONTGOMERY. Then fare you well, for I will hence again. + I came to serve a king and not a duke. + Drummer, strike up, and let us march away. + [The drum begins to march] + KING EDWARD. Nay, stay, Sir John, a while, and we'll debate + By what safe means the crown may be recover'd. + MONTGOMERY. What talk you of debating? In few words: + If you'll not here proclaim yourself our King, + I'll leave you to your fortune and be gone + To keep them back that come to succour you. + Why shall we fight, if you pretend no title? + GLOUCESTER. Why, brother, wherefore stand you on nice points? + KING EDWARD. When we grow stronger, then we'll make our claim; + Till then 'tis wisdom to conceal our meaning. + HASTINGS. Away with scrupulous wit! Now arms must rule. + GLOUCESTER. And fearless minds climb soonest unto crowns. + Brother, we will proclaim you out of hand; + The bruit thereof will bring you many friends. + KING EDWARD. Then be it as you will; for 'tis my right, + And Henry but usurps the diadem. + MONTGOMERY. Ay, now my sovereign speaketh like himself; + And now will I be Edward's champion. + HASTINGS. Sound trumpet; Edward shall be here proclaim'd. + Come, fellow soldier, make thou proclamation. + [Gives him a paper. Flourish] + SOLDIER. [Reads] 'Edward the Fourth, by the grace of God, + King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, &c.' + MONTGOMERY. And whoso'er gainsays King Edward's right, + By this I challenge him to single fight. + [Throws down gauntlet] + ALL. Long live Edward the Fourth! + KING EDWARD. Thanks, brave Montgomery, and thanks unto you all; + If fortune serve me, I'll requite this kindness. + Now for this night let's harbour here in York; + And when the morning sun shall raise his car + Above the border of this horizon, + We'll forward towards Warwick and his mates; + For well I wot that Henry is no soldier. + Ah, froward Clarence, how evil it beseems the + To flatter Henry and forsake thy brother! + Yet, as we may, we'll meet both thee and Warwick. + Come on, brave soldiers; doubt not of the day, + And, that once gotten, doubt not of large pay. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VIII. +London. The palace + +Flourish. Enter KING HENRY, WARWICK, MONTAGUE, CLARENCE, OXFORD, and EXETER + + WARWICK. What counsel, lords? Edward from Belgia, + With hasty Germans and blunt Hollanders, + Hath pass'd in safety through the narrow seas + And with his troops doth march amain to London; + And many giddy people flock to him. + KING HENRY. Let's levy men and beat him back again. + CLARENCE. A little fire is quickly trodden out, + Which, being suffer'd, rivers cannot quench. + WARWICK. In Warwickshire I have true-hearted friends, + Not mutinous in peace, yet bold in war; + Those will I muster up, and thou, son Clarence, + Shalt stir up in Suffolk, Norfolk, and in Kent, + The knights and gentlemen to come with thee. + Thou, brother Montague, in Buckingham, + Northampton, and in Leicestershire, shalt find + Men well inclin'd to hear what thou command'st. + And thou, brave Oxford, wondrous well belov'd, + In Oxfordshire shalt muster up thy friends. + My sovereign, with the loving citizens, + Like to his island girt in with the ocean + Or modest Dian circled with her nymphs, + Shall rest in London till we come to him. + Fair lords, take leave and stand not to reply. + Farewell, my sovereign. + KING HENRY. Farewell, my Hector and my Troy's true hope. + CLARENCE. In sign of truth, I kiss your Highness' hand. + KING HENRY. Well-minded Clarence, be thou fortunate! + MONTAGUE. Comfort, my lord; and so I take my leave. + OXFORD. [Kissing the KING'S band] And thus I seal my truth and bid + adieu. + KING HENRY. Sweet Oxford, and my loving Montague, + And all at once, once more a happy farewell. + WARWICK. Farewell, sweet lords; let's meet at Coventry. + Exeunt all but the KING and EXETER + KING HENRY. Here at the palace will I rest a while. + Cousin of Exeter, what thinks your lordship? + Methinks the power that Edward hath in field + Should not be able to encounter mine. + EXETER. The doubt is that he will seduce the rest. + KING HENRY. That's not my fear; my meed hath got me fame: + I have not stopp'd mine ears to their demands, + Nor posted off their suits with slow delays; + My pity hath been balm to heal their wounds, + My mildness hath allay'd their swelling griefs, + My mercy dried their water-flowing tears; + I have not been desirous of their wealth, + Nor much oppress'd them with great subsidies, + Nor forward of revenge, though they much err'd. + Then why should they love Edward more than me? + No, Exeter, these graces challenge grace; + And, when the lion fawns upon the lamb, + The lamb will never cease to follow him. + [Shout within 'A Lancaster! A Lancaster!'] + EXETER. Hark, hark, my lord! What shouts are these? + + Enter KING EDWARD, GLOUCESTER, and soldiers + + KING EDWARD. Seize on the shame-fac'd Henry, bear him hence; + And once again proclaim us King of England. + You are the fount that makes small brooks to flow. + Now stops thy spring; my sea shall suck them dry, + And swell so much the higher by their ebb. + Hence with him to the Tower: let him not speak. + Exeunt some with KING HENRY + And, lords, towards Coventry bend we our course, + Where peremptory Warwick now remains. + The sun shines hot; and, if we use delay, + Cold biting winter mars our hop'd-for hay. + GLOUCESTER. Away betimes, before his forces join, + And take the great-grown traitor unawares. + Brave warriors, march amain towards Coventry. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Coventry + +Enter WARWICK, the MAYOR OF COVENTRY, two MESSENGERS, +and others upon the walls + + WARWICK. Where is the post that came from valiant Oxford? + How far hence is thy lord, mine honest fellow? + FIRST MESSENGER. By this at Dunsmore, marching hitherward. + WARWICK. How far off is our brother Montague? + Where is the post that came from Montague? + SECOND MESSENGER. By this at Daintry, with a puissant troop. + + Enter SIR JOHN SOMERVILLE + + WARWICK. Say, Somerville, what says my loving son? + And by thy guess how nigh is Clarence now? + SOMERVILLE. At Southam I did leave him with his forces, + And do expect him here some two hours hence. + [Drum heard] + WARWICK. Then Clarence is at hand; I hear his drum. + SOMERVILLE. It is not his, my lord; here Southam lies. + The drum your Honour hears marcheth from Warwick. + WARWICK. Who should that be? Belike unlook'd for friends. + SOMERVILLE. They are at hand, and you shall quickly know. + + March. Flourish. Enter KING EDWARD, GLOUCESTER, + and soldiers + + KING EDWARD. Go, trumpet, to the walls, and sound a parle. + GLOUCESTER. See how the surly Warwick mans the wall. + WARWICK. O unbid spite! Is sportful Edward come? + Where slept our scouts or how are they seduc'd + That we could hear no news of his repair? + KING EDWARD. Now, Warwick, wilt thou ope the city gates, + Speak gentle words, and humbly bend thy knee, + Call Edward King, and at his hands beg mercy? + And he shall pardon thee these outrages. + WARWICK. Nay, rather, wilt thou draw thy forces hence, + Confess who set thee up and pluck'd thee down, + Call Warwick patron, and be penitent? + And thou shalt still remain the Duke of York. + GLOUCESTER. I thought, at least, he would have said the King; + Or did he make the jest against his will? + WARWICK. Is not a dukedom, sir, a goodly gift? + GLOUCESTER. Ay, by my faith, for a poor earl to give. + I'll do thee service for so good a gift. + WARWICK. 'Twas I that gave the kingdom to thy brother. + KING EDWARD. Why then 'tis mine, if but by Warwick's gift. + WARWICK. Thou art no Atlas for so great a weight; + And, weakling, Warwick takes his gift again; + And Henry is my King, Warwick his subject. + KING EDWARD. But Warwick's king is Edward's prisoner. + And, gallant Warwick, do but answer this: + What is the body when the head is off? + GLOUCESTER. Alas, that Warwick had no more forecast, + But, whiles he thought to steal the single ten, + The king was slily finger'd from the deck! + You left poor Henry at the Bishop's palace, + And ten to one you'll meet him in the Tower. + KING EDWARD. 'Tis even so; yet you are Warwick still. + GLOUCESTER. Come, Warwick, take the time; kneel down, kneel down. + Nay, when? Strike now, or else the iron cools. + WARWICK. I had rather chop this hand off at a blow, + And with the other fling it at thy face, + Than bear so low a sail to strike to thee. + KING EDWARD. Sail how thou canst, have wind and tide thy friend, + This hand, fast wound about thy coal-black hair, + Shall, whiles thy head is warm and new cut off, + Write in the dust this sentence with thy blood: + 'Wind-changing Warwick now can change no more.' + + Enter OXFORD, with drum and colours + + WARWICK. O cheerful colours! See where Oxford comes. + OXFORD. Oxford, Oxford, for Lancaster! + [He and his forces enter the city] + GLOUCESTER. The gates are open, let us enter too. + KING EDWARD. So other foes may set upon our backs. + Stand we in good array, for they no doubt + Will issue out again and bid us battle; + If not, the city being but of small defence, + We'll quietly rouse the traitors in the same. + WARWICK. O, welcome, Oxford! for we want thy help. + + Enter MONTAGUE, with drum and colours + + MONTAGUE. Montague, Montague, for Lancaster! + [He and his forces enter the city] + GLOUCESTER. Thou and thy brother both shall buy this treason + Even with the dearest blood your bodies bear. + KING EDWARD. The harder match'd, the greater victory. + My mind presageth happy gain and conquest. + + Enter SOMERSET, with drum and colours + + SOMERSET. Somerset, Somerset, for Lancaster! + [He and his forces enter the city] + GLOUCESTER. Two of thy name, both Dukes of Somerset, + Have sold their lives unto the house of York; + And thou shalt be the third, if this sword hold. + + Enter CLARENCE, with drum and colours + + WARWICK. And lo where George of Clarence sweeps along, + Of force enough to bid his brother battle; + With whom an upright zeal to right prevails + More than the nature of a brother's love. + CLARENCE. Clarence, Clarence, for Lancaster! + KING EDWARD. Et tu Brute- wilt thou stab Caesar too? + A parley, sirrah, to George of Clarence. + [Sound a parley. RICHARD and CLARENCE whisper] + WARWICK. Come, Clarence, come. Thou wilt if Warwick call. + CLARENCE. [Taking the red rose from his hat and throwing + it at WARWICK] + Father of Warwick, know you what this means? + Look here, I throw my infamy at thee. + I will not ruinate my father's house, + Who gave his blood to lime the stones together, + And set up Lancaster. Why, trowest thou, Warwick, + That Clarence is so harsh, so blunt, unnatural, + To bend the fatal instruments of war + Against his brother and his lawful King? + Perhaps thou wilt object my holy oath. + To keep that oath were more impiety + Than Jephtha when he sacrific'd his daughter. + I am so sorry for my trespass made + That, to deserve well at my brother's hands, + I here proclaim myself thy mortal foe; + With resolution whereso'er I meet thee- + As I will meet thee, if thou stir abroad- + To plague thee for thy foul misleading me. + And so, proud-hearted Warwick, I defy thee, + And to my brother turn my blushing cheeks. + Pardon me, Edward, I will make amends; + And, Richard, do not frown upon my faults, + For I will henceforth be no more unconstant. + KING EDWARD. Now welcome more, and ten times more belov'd, + Than if thou never hadst deserv'd our hate. + GLOUCESTER. Welcome, good Clarence; this is brother-like. + WARWICK. O passing traitor, perjur'd and unjust! + KING EDWARD. What, Warwick, wilt thou leave die town and fight? + Or shall we beat the stones about thine ears? + WARWICK. Alas, I am not coop'd here for defence! + I will away towards Barnet presently + And bid thee battle, Edward, if thou dar'st. + KING EDWARD. Yes, Warwick, Edward dares and leads the way. + Lords, to the field; Saint George and victory! + Exeunt YORKISTS + [March. WARWICK and his company follow] + + + + +SCENE II. +A field of battle near Barnet + +Alarum and excursions. Enter KING EDWARD, bringing forth WARWICK, wounded + + KING EDWARD. So, lie thou there. Die thou, and die our fear; + For Warwick was a bug that fear'd us all. + Now, Montague, sit fast; I seek for thee, + That Warwick's bones may keep thine company. Exit + WARWICK. Ah, who is nigh? Come to me, friend or foe, + And tell me who is victor, York or Warwick? + Why ask I that? My mangled body shows, + My blood, my want of strength, my sick heart shows, + That I must yield my body to the earth + And, by my fall, the conquest to my foe. + Thus yields the cedar to the axe's edge, + Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle, + Under whose shade the ramping lion slept, + Whose top-branch overpeer'd Jove's spreading tree + And kept low shrubs from winter's pow'rful wind. + These eyes, that now are dimm'd with death's black veil, + Have been as piercing as the mid-day sun + To search the secret treasons of the world; + The wrinkles in my brows, now fill'd with blood, + Were lik'ned oft to kingly sepulchres; + For who liv'd King, but I could dig his grave? + And who durst smile when Warwick bent his brow? + Lo now my glory smear'd in dust and blood! + My parks, my walks, my manors, that I had, + Even now forsake me; and of all my lands + Is nothing left me but my body's length. + what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust? + And live we how we can, yet die we must. + + Enter OXFORD and SOMERSET + + SOMERSET. Ah, Warwick, Warwick! wert thou as we are, + We might recover all our loss again. + The Queen from France hath brought a puissant power; + Even now we heard the news. Ah, couldst thou fly! + WARWICK. Why then, I would not fly. Ah, Montague, + If thou be there, sweet brother, take my hand, + And with thy lips keep in my soul a while! + Thou lov'st me not; for, brother, if thou didst, + Thy tears would wash this cold congealed blood + That glues my lips and will not let me speak. + Come quickly, Montague, or I am dead. + SOMERSET. Ah, Warwick! Montague hath breath'd his last; + And to the latest gasp cried out for Warwick, + And said 'Commend me to my valiant brother.' + And more he would have said; and more he spoke, + Which sounded like a clamour in a vault, + That mought not be distinguish'd; but at last, + I well might hear, delivered with a groan, + 'O farewell, Warwick!' + WARWICK. Sweet rest his soul! Fly, lords, and save yourselves: + For Warwick bids you all farewell, to meet in heaven. + [Dies] + OXFORD. Away, away, to meet the Queen's great power! + [Here they bear away his body] + + + + +SCENE III. +Another part of the field + +Flourish. Enter KING in triumph; with GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE, and the rest + + KING EDWARD. Thus far our fortune keeps an upward course, + And we are grac'd with wreaths of victory. + But in the midst of this bright-shining day + I spy a black, suspicious, threat'ning cloud + That will encounter with our glorious sun + Ere he attain his easeful western bed- + I mean, my lords, those powers that the Queen + Hath rais'd in Gallia have arriv'd our coast + And, as we hear, march on to fight with us. + CLARENCE. A little gale will soon disperse that cloud + And blow it to the source from whence it came; + Thy very beams will dry those vapours up, + For every cloud engenders not a storm. + GLOUCESTER. The Queen is valued thirty thousand strong, + And Somerset, with Oxford, fled to her. + If she have time to breathe, be well assur'd + Her faction will be full as strong as ours. + KING EDWARD. are advertis'd by our loving friends + That they do hold their course toward Tewksbury; + We, having now the best at Barnet field, + Will thither straight, for willingness rids way; + And as we march our strength will be augmented + In every county as we go along. + Strike up the drum; cry 'Courage!' and away. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Plains wear Tewksbury + +Flourish. March. Enter QUEEN MARGARET, PRINCE EDWARD, SOMERSET, OXFORD, +and SOLDIERS + + QUEEN MARGARET. Great lords, wise men ne'er sit and wail their + loss, + But cheerly seek how to redress their harms. + What though the mast be now blown overboard, + The cable broke, the holding-anchor lost, + And half our sailors swallow'd in the flood; + Yet lives our pilot still. Is't meet that he + Should leave the helm and, like a fearful lad, + With tearful eyes add water to the sea + And give more strength to that which hath too much; + Whiles, in his moan, the ship splits on the rock, + Which industry and courage might have sav'd? + Ah, what a shame! ah, what a fault were this! + Say Warwick was our anchor; what of that? + And Montague our top-mast; what of him? + Our slaught'red friends the tackles; what of these? + Why, is not Oxford here another anchor? + And Somerset another goodly mast? + The friends of France our shrouds and tacklings? + And, though unskilful, why not Ned and I + For once allow'd the skilful pilot's charge? + We will not from the helm to sit and weep, + But keep our course, though the rough wind say no, + From shelves and rocks that threaten us with wreck, + As good to chide the waves as speak them fair. + And what is Edward but a ruthless sea? + What Clarence but a quicksand of deceit? + And Richard but a ragged fatal rock? + All these the enemies to our poor bark. + Say you can swim; alas, 'tis but a while! + Tread on the sand; why, there you quickly sink. + Bestride the rock; the tide will wash you off, + Or else you famish- that's a threefold death. + This speak I, lords, to let you understand, + If case some one of you would fly from us, + That there's no hop'd-for mercy with the brothers + More than with ruthless waves, with sands, and rocks. + Why, courage then! What cannot be avoided + 'Twere childish weakness to lament or fear. + PRINCE OF WALES. Methinks a woman of this valiant spirit + Should, if a coward hear her speak these words, + Infuse his breast with magnanimity + And make him naked foil a man-at-arms. + I speak not this as doubting any here; + For did I but suspect a fearful man, + He should have leave to go away betimes, + Lest in our need he might infect another + And make him of the like spirit to himself. + If any such be here- as God forbid!- + Let him depart before we need his help. + OXFORD. Women and children of so high a courage, + And warriors faint! Why, 'twere perpetual shame. + O brave young Prince! thy famous grandfather + Doth live again in thee. Long mayst thou Eve + To bear his image and renew his glories! + SOMERSET. And he that will not fight for such a hope, + Go home to bed and, like the owl by day, + If he arise, be mock'd and wond'red at. + QUEEN MARGARET. Thanks, gentle Somerset; sweet Oxford, thanks. + PRINCE OF WALES. And take his thanks that yet hath nothing else. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. Prepare you, lords, for Edward is at hand + Ready to fight; therefore be resolute. + OXFORD. I thought no less. It is his policy + To haste thus fast, to find us unprovided. + SOMERSET. But he's deceiv'd; we are in readiness. + QUEEN MARGARET. This cheers my heart, to see your forwardness. + OXFORD. Here pitch our battle; hence we will not budge. + + Flourish and march. Enter, at a distance, KING EDWARD, + GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE, and soldiers + + KING EDWARD. Brave followers, yonder stands the thorny wood + Which, by the heavens' assistance and your strength, + Must by the roots be hewn up yet ere night. + I need not add more fuel to your fire, + For well I wot ye blaze to burn them out. + Give signal to the fight, and to it, lords. + QUEEN MARGARET. Lords, knights, and gentlemen, what I should say + My tears gainsay; for every word I speak, + Ye see, I drink the water of my eye. + Therefore, no more but this: Henry, your sovereign, + Is prisoner to the foe; his state usurp'd, + His realm a slaughter-house, his subjects slain, + His statutes cancell'd, and his treasure spent; + And yonder is the wolf that makes this spoil. + You fight in justice. Then, in God's name, lords, + Be valiant, and give signal to the fight. + Alarum, retreat, excursions. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Another part of the field + +Flourish. Enter KING EDWARD, GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE, and forces, +With QUEEN MARGARET, OXFORD, and SOMERSET, prisoners + + KING EDWARD. Now here a period of tumultuous broils. + Away with Oxford to Hames Castle straight; + For Somerset, off with his guilty head. + Go, bear them hence; I will not hear them speak. + OXFORD. For my part, I'll not trouble thee with words. + SOMERSET. Nor I, but stoop with patience to my fortune. + Exeunt OXFORD and SOMERSET, guarded + QUEEN MARGARET. So part we sadly in this troublous world, + To meet with joy in sweet Jerusalem. + KING EDWARD. Is proclamation made that who finds Edward + Shall have a high reward, and he his life? + GLOUCESTER. It is; and lo where youthful Edward comes. + + Enter soldiers, with PRINCE EDWARD + + KING EDWARD. Bring forth the gallant; let us hear him speak. + What, can so young a man begin to prick? + Edward, what satisfaction canst thou make + For bearing arms, for stirring up my subjects, + And all the trouble thou hast turn'd me to? + PRINCE OF WALES. Speak like a subject, proud ambitious York. + Suppose that I am now my father's mouth; + Resign thy chair, and where I stand kneel thou, + Whilst I propose the self-same words to the + Which, traitor, thou wouldst have me answer to. + QUEEN MARGARET. Ah, that thy father had been so resolv'd! + GLOUCESTER. That you might still have worn the petticoat + And ne'er have stol'n the breech from Lancaster. + PRINCE OF WALES. Let Aesop fable in a winter's night; + His currish riddle sorts not with this place. + GLOUCESTER. By heaven, brat, I'll plague ye for that word. + QUEEN MARGARET. Ay, thou wast born to be a plague to men. + GLOUCESTER. For God's sake, take away this captive scold. + PRINCE OF WALES. Nay, take away this scolding crookback rather. + KING EDWARD. Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue. + CLARENCE. Untutor'd lad, thou art too malapert. + PRINCE OF WALES. I know my duty; you are all undutiful. + Lascivious Edward, and thou perjur'd George, + And thou misshapen Dick, I tell ye all + I am your better, traitors as ye are; + And thou usurp'st my father's right and mine. + KING EDWARD. Take that, the likeness of this railer here. + [Stabs him] + GLOUCESTER. Sprawl'st thou? Take that, to end thy agony. + [Stabs him] + CLARENCE. And there's for twitting me with perjury. + [Stabs him] + QUEEN MARGARET. O, kill me too! + GLOUCESTER. Marry, and shall. [Offers to kill her] + KING EDWARD. Hold, Richard, hold; for we have done to much. + GLOUCESTER. Why should she live to fill the world with words? + KING EDWARD. What, doth she swoon? Use means for her recovery. + GLOUCESTER. Clarence, excuse me to the King my brother. + I'll hence to London on a serious matter; + Ere ye come there, be sure to hear some news. + CLARENCE. What? what? + GLOUCESTER. The Tower! the Tower! Exit + QUEEN MARGARET. O Ned, sweet Ned, speak to thy mother, boy! + Canst thou not speak? O traitors! murderers! + They that stabb'd Caesar shed no blood at all, + Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame, + If this foul deed were by to equal it. + He was a man: this, in respect, a child; + And men ne'er spend their fury on a child. + What's worse than murderer, that I may name it? + No, no, my heart will burst, an if I speak- + And I will speak, that so my heart may burst. + Butchers and villains! bloody cannibals! + How sweet a plant have you untimely cropp'd! + You have no children, butchers, if you had, + The thought of them would have stirr'd up remorse. + But if you ever chance to have a child, + Look in his youth to have him so cut off + As, deathsmen, you have rid this sweet young prince! + KING EDWARD. Away with her; go, bear her hence perforce. + QUEEN MARGARET. Nay, never bear me hence; dispatch me here. + Here sheathe thy sword; I'll pardon thee my death. + What, wilt thou not? Then, Clarence, do it thou. + CLARENCE. By heaven, I will not do thee so much ease. + QUEEN MARGARET. Good Clarence, do; sweet Clarence, do thou do it. + CLARENCE. Didst thou not hear me swear I would not do it? + QUEEN MARGARET. Ay, but thou usest to forswear thyself. + 'Twas sin before, but now 'tis charity. + What! wilt thou not? Where is that devil's butcher, + Hard-favour'd Richard? Richard, where art thou? + Thou art not here. Murder is thy alms-deed; + Petitioners for blood thou ne'er put'st back. + KING EDWARD. Away, I say; I charge ye bear her hence. + QUEEN MARGARET. So come to you and yours as to this prince. + Exit, led out forcibly + KING EDWARD. Where's Richard gone? + CLARENCE. To London, all in post; and, as I guess, + To make a bloody supper in the Tower. + KING EDWARD. He's sudden, if a thing comes in his head. + Now march we hence. Discharge the common sort + With pay and thanks; and let's away to London + And see our gentle queen how well she fares. + By this, I hope, she hath a son for me. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VI. +London. The Tower + +Enter KING HENRY and GLOUCESTER with the LIEUTENANT, on the walls + + GLOUCESTER. Good day, my lord. What, at your book so hard? + KING HENRY. Ay, my good lord- my lord, I should say rather. + 'Tis sin to flatter; 'good' was little better. + 'Good Gloucester' and 'good devil' were alike, + And both preposterous; therefore, not 'good lord.' + GLOUCESTER. Sirrah, leave us to ourselves; we must confer. + Exit LIEUTENANT + KING HENRY. So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf; + So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece, + And next his throat unto the butcher's knife. + What scene of death hath Roscius now to act? + GLOUCESTER. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind: + The thief doth fear each bush an officer. + KING HENRY. The bird that hath been limed in a bush + With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush; + And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird, + Have now the fatal object in my eye + Where my poor young was lim'd, was caught, and kill'd. + GLOUCESTER. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete + That taught his son the office of a fowl! + And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd. + KING HENRY. I, Daedalus; my poor boy, Icarus; + Thy father, Minos, that denied our course; + The sun that sear'd the wings of my sweet boy, + Thy brother Edward; and thyself, the sea + Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life. + Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words! + My breast can better brook thy dagger's point + Than can my ears that tragic history. + But wherefore dost thou come? Is't for my life? + GLOUCESTER. Think'st thou I am an executioner? + KING HENRY. A persecutor I am sure thou art. + If murdering innocents be executing, + Why, then thou are an executioner. + GLOUCESTER. Thy son I kill'd for his presumption. + KING HENRY. Hadst thou been kill'd when first thou didst presume, + Thou hadst not liv'd to kill a son of mine. + And thus I prophesy, that many a thousand + Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear, + And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow's, + And many an orphan's water-standing eye- + Men for their sons, wives for their husbands, + Orphans for their parents' timeless death- + Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born. + The owl shriek'd at thy birth- an evil sign; + The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time; + Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempest shook down trees; + The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top, + And chatt'ring pies in dismal discords sung; + Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain, + And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope, + To wit, an indigest deformed lump, + Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree. + Teeth hadst thou in thy head when thou wast born, + To signify thou cam'st to bite the world; + And if the rest be true which I have heard, + Thou cam'st- + GLOUCESTER. I'll hear no more. Die, prophet, in thy speech. + [Stabs him] + For this, amongst the rest, was I ordain'd. + KING HENRY. Ay, and for much more slaughter after this. + O, God forgive my sins and pardon thee! [Dies] + GLOUCESTER. What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster + Sink in the ground? I thought it would have mounted. + See how my sword weeps for the poor King's death. + O, may such purple tears be always shed + From those that wish the downfall of our house! + If any spark of life be yet remaining, + Down, down to hell; and say I sent thee thither- + [Stabs him again] + I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear. + Indeed, 'tis true that Henry told me of; + For I have often heard my mother say + I came into the world with my legs forward. + Had I not reason, think ye, to make haste + And seek their ruin that usurp'd our right? + The midwife wonder'd; and the women cried + 'O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!' + And so I was, which plainly signified + That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog. + Then, since the heavens have shap'd my body so, + Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it. + I have no brother, I am like no brother; + And this word 'love,' which greybeards call divine, + Be resident in men like one another, + And not in me! I am myself alone. + Clarence, beware; thou keep'st me from the light, + But I will sort a pitchy day for thee; + For I will buzz abroad such prophecies + That Edward shall be fearful of his life; + And then to purge his fear, I'll be thy death. + King Henry and the Prince his son are gone. + Clarence, thy turn is next, and then the rest; + Counting myself but bad till I be best. + I'll throw thy body in another room, + And triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom. + Exit with the body + + + + +SCENE VII. +London. The palace + +Flourish. Enter KING EDWARD, QUEEN ELIZABETH, CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER, +HASTINGS, NURSE, with the Young PRINCE, and attendants + + KING EDWARD. Once more we sit in England's royal throne, + Repurchas'd with the blood of enemies. + What valiant foemen, like to autumn's corn, + Have we mow'd down in tops of all their pride! + Three Dukes of Somerset, threefold renown'd + For hardy and undoubted champions; + Two Cliffords, as the father and the son; + And two Northumberlands- two braver men + Ne'er spurr'd their coursers at the trumpet's sound; + With them the two brave bears, Warwick and Montague, + That in their chains fetter'd the kingly lion + And made the forest tremble when they roar'd. + Thus have we swept suspicion from our seat + And made our footstool of security. + Come hither, Bess, and let me kiss my boy. + Young Ned, for thee thine uncles and myself + Have in our armours watch'd the winter's night, + Went all afoot in summer's scalding heat, + That thou might'st repossess the crown in peace; + And of our labours thou shalt reap the gain. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside] I'll blast his harvest if your head were laid; + For yet I am not look'd on in the world. + This shoulder was ordain'd so thick to heave; + And heave it shall some weight or break my back. + Work thou the way- and that shall execute. + KING EDWARD. Clarence and Gloucester, love my lovely queen; + And kiss your princely nephew, brothers both. + CLARENCE. The duty that I owe unto your Majesty + I seal upon the lips of this sweet babe. + KING EDWARD. Thanks, noble Clarence; worthy brother, thanks. + GLOUCESTER. And that I love the tree from whence thou sprang'st, + Witness the loving kiss I give the fruit. + [Aside] To say the truth, so Judas kiss'd his master + And cried 'All hail!' when as he meant all harm. + KING EDWARD. Now am I seated as my soul delights, + Having my country's peace and brothers' loves. + CLARENCE. What will your Grace have done with Margaret? + Reignier, her father, to the King of France + Hath pawn'd the Sicils and Jerusalem, + And hither have they sent it for her ransom. + KING EDWARD. Away with her, and waft her hence to France. + And now what rests but that we spend the time + With stately triumphs, mirthful comic shows, + Such as befits the pleasure of the court? + Sound drums and trumpets. Farewell, sour annoy! + For here, I hope, begins our lasting joy. Exeunt + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1611 + +KING HENRY THE EIGHTH + +by William Shakespeare + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + KING HENRY THE EIGHTH + CARDINAL WOLSEY CARDINAL CAMPEIUS + CAPUCIUS, Ambassador from the Emperor Charles V + CRANMER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY + DUKE OF NORFOLK DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM + DUKE OF SUFFOLK EARL OF SURREY + LORD CHAMBERLAIN LORD CHANCELLOR + GARDINER, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER + BISHOP OF LINCOLN LORD ABERGAVENNY + LORD SANDYS SIR HENRY GUILDFORD + SIR THOMAS LOVELL SIR ANTHONY DENNY + SIR NICHOLAS VAUX SECRETARIES to Wolsey + CROMWELL, servant to Wolsey + GRIFFITH, gentleman-usher to Queen Katharine + THREE GENTLEMEN + DOCTOR BUTTS, physician to the King + GARTER KING-AT-ARMS + SURVEYOR to the Duke of Buckingham + BRANDON, and a SERGEANT-AT-ARMS + DOORKEEPER Of the Council chamber + PORTER, and his MAN PAGE to Gardiner + A CRIER + + QUEEN KATHARINE, wife to King Henry, afterwards divorced + ANNE BULLEN, her Maid of Honour, afterwards Queen + AN OLD LADY, friend to Anne Bullen + PATIENCE, woman to Queen Katharine + + Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Lords and Ladies in the Dumb + Shows; Women attending upon the Queen; Scribes, + Officers, Guards, and other Attendants; Spirits + + SCENE: + + London; Westminster; Kimbolton + + + + KING HENRY THE EIGHTH + + THE PROLOGUE. + + I come no more to make you laugh; things now + That bear a weighty and a serious brow, + Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe, + Such noble scenes as draw the eye to flow, + We now present. Those that can pity here + May, if they think it well, let fall a tear: + The subject will deserve it. Such as give + Their money out of hope they may believe + May here find truth too. Those that come to see + Only a show or two, and so agree + The play may pass, if they be still and willing, + I'll undertake may see away their shilling + Richly in two short hours. Only they + That come to hear a merry bawdy play, + A noise of targets, or to see a fellow + In a long motley coat guarded with yellow, + Will be deceiv'd; for, gentle hearers, know, + To rank our chosen truth with such a show + As fool and fight is, beside forfeiting + Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring + To make that only true we now intend, + Will leave us never an understanding friend. + Therefore, for goodness sake, and as you are known + The first and happiest hearers of the town, + Be sad, as we would make ye. Think ye see + The very persons of our noble story + As they were living; think you see them great, + And follow'd with the general throng and sweat + Of thousand friends; then, in a moment, see + How soon this mightiness meets misery. + And if you can be merry then, I'll say + A man may weep upon his wedding-day. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT I. SCENE 1. + +London. The palace + +Enter the DUKE OF NORFOLK at one door; at the other, +the DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM and the LORD ABERGAVENNY + + BUCKINGHAM. Good morrow, and well met. How have ye done + Since last we saw in France? + NORFOLK. I thank your Grace, + Healthful; and ever since a fresh admirer + Of what I saw there. + BUCKINGHAM. An untimely ague + Stay'd me a prisoner in my chamber when + Those suns of glory, those two lights of men, + Met in the vale of Andren. + NORFOLK. 'Twixt Guynes and Arde- + I was then present, saw them salute on horseback; + Beheld them, when they lighted, how they clung + In their embracement, as they grew together; + Which had they, what four thron'd ones could have weigh'd + Such a compounded one? + BUCKINGHAM. All the whole time + I was my chamber's prisoner. + NORFOLK. Then you lost + The view of earthly glory; men might say, + Till this time pomp was single, but now married + To one above itself. Each following day + Became the next day's master, till the last + Made former wonders its. To-day the French, + All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods, + Shone down the English; and to-morrow they + Made Britain India: every man that stood + Show'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were + As cherubins, an gilt; the madams too, + Not us'd to toil, did almost sweat to bear + The pride upon them, that their very labour + Was to them as a painting. Now this masque + Was cried incomparable; and th' ensuing night + Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings, + Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst, + As presence did present them: him in eye + still him in praise; and being present both, + 'Twas said they saw but one, and no discerner + Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these suns- + For so they phrase 'em-by their heralds challeng'd + The noble spirits to arms, they did perform + Beyond thought's compass, that former fabulous story, + Being now seen possible enough, got credit, + That Bevis was believ'd. + BUCKINGHAM. O, you go far! + NORFOLK. As I belong to worship, and affect + In honour honesty, the tract of ev'rything + Would by a good discourser lose some life + Which action's self was tongue to. All was royal: + To the disposing of it nought rebell'd; + Order gave each thing view. The office did + Distinctly his full function. + BUCKINGHAM. Who did guide- + I mean, who set the body and the limbs + Of this great sport together, as you guess? + NORFOLK. One, certes, that promises no element + In such a business. + BUCKINGHAM. I pray you, who, my lord? + NORFOLK. All this was ord'red by the good discretion + Of the right reverend Cardinal of York. + BUCKINGHAM. The devil speed him! No man's pie is freed + From his ambitious finger. What had he + To do in these fierce vanities? I wonder + That such a keech can with his very bulk + Take up the rays o' th' beneficial sun, + And keep it from the earth. + NORFOLK. Surely, sir, + There's in him stuff that puts him to these ends; + For, being not propp'd by ancestry, whose grace + Chalks successors their way, nor call'd upon + For high feats done to th' crown, neither allied + To eminent assistants, but spider-like, + Out of his self-drawing web, 'a gives us note + The force of his own merit makes his way- + A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys + A place next to the King. + ABERGAVENNY. I cannot tell + What heaven hath given him-let some graver eye + Pierce into that; but I can see his pride + Peep through each part of him. Whence has he that? + If not from hell, the devil is a niggard + Or has given all before, and he begins + A new hell in himself. + BUCKINGHAM. Why the devil, + Upon this French going out, took he upon him- + Without the privity o' th' King-t' appoint + Who should attend on him? He makes up the file + Of all the gentry; for the most part such + To whom as great a charge as little honour + He meant to lay upon; and his own letter, + The honourable board of council out, + Must fetch him in he papers. + ABERGAVENNY. I do know + Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have + By this so sicken'd their estates that never + They shall abound as formerly. + BUCKINGHAM. O, many + Have broke their backs with laying manors on 'em + For this great journey. What did this vanity + But minister communication of + A most poor issue? + NORFOLK. Grievingly I think + The peace between the French and us not values + The cost that did conclude it. + BUCKINGHAM. Every man, + After the hideous storm that follow'd, was + A thing inspir'd, and, not consulting, broke + Into a general prophecy-that this tempest, + Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded + The sudden breach on't. + NORFOLK. Which is budded out; + For France hath flaw'd the league, and hath attach'd + Our merchants' goods at Bordeaux. + ABERGAVENNY. Is it therefore + Th' ambassador is silenc'd? + NORFOLK. Marry, is't. + ABERGAVENNY. A proper tide of a peace, and purchas'd + At a superfluous rate! + BUCKINGHAM. Why, all this business + Our reverend Cardinal carried. + NORFOLK. Like it your Grace, + The state takes notice of the private difference + Betwixt you and the Cardinal. I advise you- + And take it from a heart that wishes towards you + Honour and plenteous safety-that you read + The Cardinal's malice and his potency + Together; to consider further, that + What his high hatred would effect wants not + A minister in his power. You know his nature, + That he's revengeful; and I know his sword + Hath a sharp edge-it's long and't may be said + It reaches far, and where 'twill not extend, + Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel + You'll find it wholesome. Lo, where comes that rock + That I advise your shunning. + + Enter CARDINAL WOLSEY, the purse borne before + him, certain of the guard, and two SECRETARIES + with papers. The CARDINAL in his passage fixeth his + eye on BUCKINGHAM, and BUCKINGHAM on him, + both full of disdain + + WOLSEY. The Duke of Buckingham's surveyor? Ha! + Where's his examination? + SECRETARY. Here, so please you. + WOLSEY. Is he in person ready? + SECRETARY. Ay, please your Grace. + WOLSEY. Well, we shall then know more, and Buckingham + shall lessen this big look. + Exeunt WOLSEY and his train + BUCKINGHAM. This butcher's cur is venom-mouth'd, and I + Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best + Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar's book + Outworths a noble's blood. + NORFOLK. What, are you chaf'd? + Ask God for temp'rance; that's th' appliance only + Which your disease requires. + BUCKINGHAM. I read in's looks + Matter against me, and his eye revil'd + Me as his abject object. At this instant + He bores me with some trick. He's gone to th' King; + I'll follow, and outstare him. + NORFOLK. Stay, my lord, + And let your reason with your choler question + What 'tis you go about. To climb steep hills + Requires slow pace at first. Anger is like + A full hot horse, who being allow'd his way, + Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England + Can advise me like you; be to yourself + As you would to your friend. + BUCKINGHAM. I'll to the King, + And from a mouth of honour quite cry down + This Ipswich fellow's insolence; or proclaim + There's difference in no persons. + NORFOLK. Be advis'd: + Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot + That it do singe yourself. We may outrun + By violent swiftness that which we run at, + And lose by over-running. Know you not + The fire that mounts the liquor till't run o'er + In seeming to augment it wastes it? Be advis'd. + I say again there is no English soul + More stronger to direct you than yourself, + If with the sap of reason you would quench + Or but allay the fire of passion. + BUCKINGHAM. Sir, + I am thankful to you, and I'll go along + By your prescription; but this top-proud fellow- + Whom from the flow of gan I name not, but + From sincere motions, by intelligence, + And proofs as clear as founts in July when + We see each grain of gravel-I do know + To be corrupt and treasonous. + NORFOLK. Say not treasonous. + BUCKINGHAM. To th' King I'll say't, and make my vouch as strong + As shore of rock. Attend: this holy fox, + Or wolf, or both-for he is equal rav'nous + As he is subtle, and as prone to mischief + As able to perform't, his mind and place + Infecting one another, yea, reciprocally- + Only to show his pomp as well in France + As here at home, suggests the King our master + To this last costly treaty, th' interview + That swallowed so much treasure and like a glass + Did break i' th' wrenching. + NORFOLK. Faith, and so it did. + BUCKINGHAM. Pray, give me favour, sir; this cunning cardinal + The articles o' th' combination drew + As himself pleas'd; and they were ratified + As he cried 'Thus let be' to as much end + As give a crutch to th' dead. But our Count-Cardinal + Has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolsey, + Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows, + Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy + To th' old dam treason: Charles the Emperor, + Under pretence to see the Queen his aunt- + For 'twas indeed his colour, but he came + To whisper Wolsey-here makes visitation- + His fears were that the interview betwixt + England and France might through their amity + Breed him some prejudice; for from this league + Peep'd harms that menac'd him-privily + Deals with our Cardinal; and, as I trow- + Which I do well, for I am sure the Emperor + Paid ere he promis'd; whereby his suit was granted + Ere it was ask'd-but when the way was made, + And pav'd with gold, the Emperor thus desir'd, + That he would please to alter the King's course, + And break the foresaid peace. Let the King know, + As soon he shall by me, that thus the Cardinal + Does buy and sell his honour as he pleases, + And for his own advantage. + NORFOLK. I am sorry + To hear this of him, and could wish he were + Something mistaken in't. + BUCKINGHAM. No, not a syllable: + I do pronounce him in that very shape + He shall appear in proof. + + Enter BRANDON, a SERGEANT-AT-ARMS before him, + and two or three of the guard + + BRANDON. Your office, sergeant: execute it. + SERGEANT. Sir, + My lord the Duke of Buckingham, and Earl + Of Hereford, Stafford, and Northampton, I + Arrest thee of high treason, in the name + Of our most sovereign King. + BUCKINGHAM. Lo you, my lord, + The net has fall'n upon me! I shall perish + Under device and practice. + BRANDON. I am sorry + To see you ta'en from liberty, to look on + The business present; 'tis his Highness' pleasure + You shall to th' Tower. + BUCKINGHAM. It will help nothing + To plead mine innocence; for that dye is on me + Which makes my whit'st part black. The will of heav'n + Be done in this and all things! I obey. + O my Lord Aberga'ny, fare you well! + BRANDON. Nay, he must bear you company. + [To ABERGAVENNY] The King + Is pleas'd you shall to th' Tower, till you know + How he determines further. + ABERGAVENNY. As the Duke said, + The will of heaven be done, and the King's pleasure + By me obey'd. + BRANDON. Here is warrant from + The King t' attach Lord Montacute and the bodies + Of the Duke's confessor, John de la Car, + One Gilbert Peck, his chancellor- + BUCKINGHAM. So, so! + These are the limbs o' th' plot; no more, I hope. + BRANDON. A monk o' th' Chartreux. + BUCKINGHAM. O, Nicholas Hopkins? + BRANDON. He. + BUCKINGHAM. My surveyor is false. The o'er-great Cardinal + Hath show'd him gold; my life is spann'd already. + I am the shadow of poor Buckingham, + Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on + By dark'ning my clear sun. My lord, farewell. + Exeunt + + + + +ACT I. SCENE 2. + +London. The Council Chamber + +Cornets. Enter KING HENRY, leaning on the CARDINAL'S shoulder, the NOBLES, +and SIR THOMAS LOVELL, with others. The CARDINAL places himself +under the KING'S feet on his right side + + KING. My life itself, and the best heart of it, + Thanks you for this great care; I stood i' th' level + Of a full-charg'd confederacy, and give thanks + To you that chok'd it. Let be call'd before us + That gentleman of Buckingham's. In person + I'll hear his confessions justify; + And point by point the treasons of his master + He shall again relate. + + A noise within, crying 'Room for the Queen!' + Enter the QUEEN, usher'd by the DUKES OF NORFOLK + and SUFFOLK; she kneels. The KING riseth + from his state, takes her up, kisses and placeth her + by him + + QUEEN KATHARINE. Nay, we must longer kneel: I am suitor. + KING. Arise, and take place by us. Half your suit + Never name to us: you have half our power. + The other moiety ere you ask is given; + Repeat your will, and take it. + QUEEN KATHARINE. Thank your Majesty. + That you would love yourself, and in that love + Not unconsidered leave your honour nor + The dignity of your office, is the point + Of my petition. + KING. Lady mine, proceed. + QUEEN KATHARINE. I am solicited, not by a few, + And those of true condition, that your subjects + Are in great grievance: there have been commissions + Sent down among 'em which hath flaw'd the heart + Of all their loyalties; wherein, although, + My good Lord Cardinal, they vent reproaches + Most bitterly on you as putter-on + Of these exactions, yet the King our master- + Whose honour Heaven shield from soil!-even he escapes not + Language unmannerly; yea, such which breaks + The sides of loyalty, and almost appears + In loud rebellion. + NORFOLK. Not almost appears- + It doth appear; for, upon these taxations, + The clothiers all, not able to maintain + The many to them 'longing, have put of + The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers, who + Unfit for other life, compell'd by hunger + And lack of other means, in desperate manner + Daring th' event to th' teeth, are all in uproar, + And danger serves among them. + KING. Taxation! + Wherein? and what taxation? My Lord Cardinal, + You that are blam'd for it alike with us, + Know you of this taxation? + WOLSEY. Please you, sir, + I know but of a single part in aught + Pertains to th' state, and front but in that file + Where others tell steps with me. + QUEEN KATHARINE. No, my lord! + You know no more than others! But you frame + Things that are known alike, which are not wholesome + To those which would not know them, and yet must + Perforce be their acquaintance. These exactions, + Whereof my sovereign would have note, they are + Most pestilent to th' hearing; and to bear 'em + The back is sacrifice to th' load. They say + They are devis'd by you, or else you suffer + Too hard an exclamation. + KING. Still exaction! + The nature of it? In what kind, let's know, + Is this exaction? + QUEEN KATHARINE. I am much too venturous + In tempting of your patience, but am bold'ned + Under your promis'd pardon. The subjects' grief + Comes through commissions, which compels from each + The sixth part of his substance, to be levied + Without delay; and the pretence for this + Is nam'd your wars in France. This makes bold mouths; + Tongues spit their duties out, and cold hearts freeze + Allegiance in them; their curses now + Live where their prayers did; and it's come to pass + This tractable obedience is a slave + To each incensed will. I would your Highness + Would give it quick consideration, for + There is no primer business. + KING. By my life, + This is against our pleasure. + WOLSEY. And for me, + I have no further gone in this than by + A single voice; and that not pass'd me but + By learned approbation of the judges. If I am + Traduc'd by ignorant tongues, which neither know + My faculties nor person, yet will be + The chronicles of my doing, let me say + 'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake + That virtue must go through. We must not stint + Our necessary actions in the fear + To cope malicious censurers, which ever + As rav'nous fishes do a vessel follow + That is new-trimm'd, but benefit no further + Than vainly longing. What we oft do best, + By sick interpreters, once weak ones, is + Not ours, or not allow'd; what worst, as oft + Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up + For our best act. If we shall stand still, + In fear our motion will be mock'd or carp'd at, + We should take root here where we sit, or sit + State-statues only. + KING. Things done well + And with a care exempt themselves from fear: + Things done without example, in their issue + Are to be fear'd. Have you a precedent + Of this commission? I believe, not any. + We must not rend our subjects from our laws, + And stick them in our will. Sixth part of each? + A trembling contribution! Why, we take + From every tree lop, bark, and part o' th' timber; + And though we leave it with a root, thus hack'd, + The air will drink the sap. To every county + Where this is question'd send our letters with + Free pardon to each man that has denied + The force of this commission. Pray, look tot; + I put it to your care. + WOLSEY. [Aside to the SECRETARY] A word with you. + Let there be letters writ to every shire + Of the King's grace and pardon. The grieved commons + Hardly conceive of me-let it be nois'd + That through our intercession this revokement + And pardon comes. I shall anon advise you + Further in the proceeding. Exit SECRETARY + + Enter SURVEYOR + + QUEEN KATHARINE. I am sorry that the Duke of Buckingham + Is run in your displeasure. + KING. It grieves many. + The gentleman is learn'd and a most rare speaker; + To nature none more bound; his training such + That he may furnish and instruct great teachers + And never seek for aid out of himself. Yet see, + When these so noble benefits shall prove + Not well dispos'd, the mind growing once corrupt, + They turn to vicious forms, ten times more ugly + Than ever they were fair. This man so complete, + Who was enroll'd 'mongst wonders, and when we, + Almost with ravish'd list'ning, could not find + His hour of speech a minute-he, my lady, + Hath into monstrous habits put the graces + That once were his, and is become as black + As if besmear'd in hell. Sit by us; you shall hear- + This was his gentleman in trust-of him + Things to strike honour sad. Bid him recount + The fore-recited practices, whereof + We cannot feel too little, hear too much. + WOLSEY. Stand forth, and with bold spirit relate what you, + Most like a careful subject, have collected + Out of the Duke of Buckingham. + KING. Speak freely. + SURVEYOR. First, it was usual with him-every day + It would infect his speech-that if the King + Should without issue die, he'll carry it so + To make the sceptre his. These very words + I've heard him utter to his son-in-law, + Lord Aberga'ny, to whom by oath he menac'd + Revenge upon the Cardinal. + WOLSEY. Please your Highness, note + This dangerous conception in this point: + Not friended by his wish, to your high person + His will is most malignant, and it stretches + Beyond you to your friends. + QUEEN KATHARINE. My learn'd Lord Cardinal, + Deliver all with charity. + KING. Speak on. + How grounded he his title to the crown + Upon our fail? To this point hast thou heard him + At any time speak aught? + SURVEYOR. He was brought to this + By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Henton. + KING. What was that Henton? + SURVEYOR. Sir, a Chartreux friar, + His confessor, who fed him every minute + With words of sovereignty. + KING. How know'st thou this? + SURVEYOR. Not long before your Highness sped to France, + The Duke being at the Rose, within the parish + Saint Lawrence Poultney, did of me demand + What was the speech among the Londoners + Concerning the French journey. I replied + Men fear'd the French would prove perfidious, + To the King's danger. Presently the Duke + Said 'twas the fear indeed and that he doubted + 'Twould prove the verity of certain words + Spoke by a holy monk 'that oft' says he + 'Hath sent to me, wishing me to permit + John de la Car, my chaplain, a choice hour + To hear from him a matter of some moment; + Whom after under the confession's seal + He solemnly had sworn that what he spoke + My chaplain to no creature living but + To me should utter, with demure confidence + This pausingly ensu'd: "Neither the King nor's heirs, + Tell you the Duke, shall prosper; bid him strive + To gain the love o' th' commonalty; the Duke + Shall govern England."' + QUEEN KATHARINE. If I know you well, + You were the Duke's surveyor, and lost your office + On the complaint o' th' tenants. Take good heed + You charge not in your spleen a noble person + And spoil your nobler soul. I say, take heed; + Yes, heartily beseech you. + KING. Let him on. + Go forward. + SURVEYOR. On my soul, I'll speak but truth. + I told my lord the Duke, by th' devil's illusions + The monk might be deceiv'd, and that 'twas dangerous + for him + To ruminate on this so far, until + It forg'd him some design, which, being believ'd, + It was much like to do. He answer'd 'Tush, + It can do me no damage'; adding further + That, had the King in his last sickness fail'd, + The Cardinal's and Sir Thomas Lovell's heads + Should have gone off. + KING. Ha! what, so rank? Ah ha! + There's mischief in this man. Canst thou say further? + SURVEYOR. I can, my liege. + KING. Proceed. + SURVEYOR. Being at Greenwich, + After your Highness had reprov'd the Duke + About Sir William Bulmer- + KING. I remember + Of such a time: being my sworn servant, + The Duke retain'd him his. But on: what hence? + SURVEYOR. 'If' quoth he 'I for this had been committed- + As to the Tower I thought-I would have play'd + The part my father meant to act upon + Th' usurper Richard; who, being at Salisbury, + Made suit to come in's presence, which if granted, + As he made semblance of his duty, would + Have put his knife into him.' + KING. A giant traitor! + WOLSEY. Now, madam, may his Highness live in freedom, + And this man out of prison? + QUEEN KATHARINE. God mend all! + KING. There's something more would out of thee: what say'st? + SURVEYOR. After 'the Duke his father' with the 'knife,' + He stretch'd him, and, with one hand on his dagger, + Another spread on's breast, mounting his eyes, + He did discharge a horrible oath, whose tenour + Was, were he evil us'd, he would outgo + His father by as much as a performance + Does an irresolute purpose. + KING. There's his period, + To sheath his knife in us. He is attach'd; + Call him to present trial. If he may + Find mercy in the law, 'tis his; if none, + Let him not seek't of us. By day and night! + He's traitor to th' height. Exeunt + + + + +ACT I. SCENE 3. + +London. The palace + +Enter the LORD CHAMBERLAIN and LORD SANDYS + + CHAMBERLAIN. Is't possible the spells of France should juggle + Men into such strange mysteries? + SANDYS. New customs, + Though they be never so ridiculous, + Nay, let 'em be unmanly, yet are follow'd. + CHAMBERLAIN. As far as I see, all the good our English + Have got by the late voyage is but merely + A fit or two o' th' face; but they are shrewd ones; + For when they hold 'em, you would swear directly + Their very noses had been counsellors + To Pepin or Clotharius, they keep state so. + SANDYS. They have all new legs, and lame ones. One would take it, + That never saw 'em pace before, the spavin + Or springhalt reign'd among 'em. + CHAMBERLAIN. Death! my lord, + Their clothes are after such a pagan cut to't, + That sure th' have worn out Christendom. + + Enter SIR THOMAS LOVELL + + How now? + What news, Sir Thomas Lovell? + LOVELL. Faith, my lord, + I hear of none but the new proclamation + That's clapp'd upon the court gate. + CHAMBERLAIN. What is't for? + LOVELL. The reformation of our travell'd gallants, + That fill the court with quarrels, talk, and tailors. + CHAMBERLAIN. I am glad 'tis there. Now I would pray our monsieurs + To think an English courtier may be wise, + And never see the Louvre. + LOVELL. They must either, + For so run the conditions, leave those remnants + Of fool and feather that they got in France, + With all their honourable points of ignorance + Pertaining thereunto-as fights and fireworks; + Abusing better men than they can be, + Out of a foreign wisdom-renouncing clean + The faith they have in tennis, and tall stockings, + Short blist'red breeches, and those types of travel + And understand again like honest men, + Or pack to their old playfellows. There, I take it, + They may, cum privilegio, wear away + The lag end of their lewdness and be laugh'd at. + SANDYS. 'Tis time to give 'em physic, their diseases + Are grown so catching. + CHAMBERLAIN. What a loss our ladies + Will have of these trim vanities! + LOVELL. Ay, marry, + There will be woe indeed, lords: the sly whoresons + Have got a speeding trick to lay down ladies. + A French song and a fiddle has no fellow. + SANDYS. The devil fiddle 'em! I am glad they are going, + For sure there's no converting 'em. Now + An honest country lord, as I am, beaten + A long time out of play, may bring his plainsong + And have an hour of hearing; and, by'r Lady, + Held current music too. + CHAMBERLAIN. Well said, Lord Sandys; + Your colt's tooth is not cast yet. + SANDYS. No, my lord, + Nor shall not while I have a stamp. + CHAMBERLAIN. Sir Thomas, + Whither were you a-going? + LOVELL. To the Cardinal's; + Your lordship is a guest too. + CHAMBERLAIN. O, 'tis true; + This night he makes a supper, and a great one, + To many lords and ladies; there will be + The beauty of this kingdom, I'll assure you. + LOVELL. That churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed, + A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us; + His dews fall everywhere. + CHAMBERLAIN. No doubt he's noble; + He had a black mouth that said other of him. + SANDYS. He may, my lord; has wherewithal. In him + Sparing would show a worse sin than ill doctrine: + Men of his way should be most liberal, + They are set here for examples. + CHAMBERLAIN. True, they are so; + But few now give so great ones. My barge stays; + Your lordship shall along. Come, good Sir Thomas, + We shall be late else; which I would not be, + For I was spoke to, with Sir Henry Guildford, + This night to be comptrollers. + SANDYS. I am your lordship's. Exeunt + + + + +ACT I. SCENE 4. + +London. The Presence Chamber in York Place + +Hautboys. A small table under a state for the Cardinal, +a longer table for the guests. Then enter ANNE BULLEN, +and divers other LADIES and GENTLEMEN, as guests, at one door; +at another door enter SIR HENRY GUILDFORD + + GUILDFORD. Ladies, a general welcome from his Grace + Salutes ye all; this night he dedicates + To fair content and you. None here, he hopes, + In all this noble bevy, has brought with her + One care abroad; he would have all as merry + As, first, good company, good wine, good welcome, + Can make good people. + + Enter LORD CHAMBERLAIN, LORD SANDYS, and SIR + THOMAS LOVELL + + O, my lord, y'are tardy, + The very thought of this fair company + Clapp'd wings to me. + CHAMBERLAIN. You are young, Sir Harry Guildford. + SANDYS. Sir Thomas Lovell, had the Cardinal + But half my lay thoughts in him, some of these + Should find a running banquet ere they rested + I think would better please 'em. By my life, + They are a sweet society of fair ones. + LOVELL. O that your lordship were but now confessor + To one or two of these! + SANDYS. I would I were; + They should find easy penance. + LOVELL. Faith, how easy? + SANDYS. As easy as a down bed would afford it. + CHAMBERLAIN. Sweet ladies, will it please you sit? Sir Harry, + Place you that side; I'll take the charge of this. + His Grace is ent'ring. Nay, you must not freeze: + Two women plac'd together makes cold weather. + My Lord Sandys, you are one will keep 'em waking: + Pray sit between these ladies. + SANDYS. By my faith, + And thank your lordship. By your leave, sweet ladies. + [Seats himself between ANNE BULLEN and another lady] + If I chance to talk a little wild, forgive me; + I had it from my father. + ANNE. Was he mad, sir? + SANDYS. O, very mad, exceeding mad, in love too. + But he would bite none; just as I do now, + He would kiss you twenty with a breath. [Kisses her] + CHAMBERLAIN. Well said, my lord. + So, now y'are fairly seated. Gentlemen, + The penance lies on you if these fair ladies + Pass away frowning. + SANDYS. For my little cure, + Let me alone. + + Hautboys. Enter CARDINAL WOLSEY, attended; and + takes his state + + WOLSEY. Y'are welcome, my fair guests. That noble lady + Or gentleman that is not freely merry + Is not my friend. This, to confirm my welcome- + And to you all, good health! [Drinks] + SANDYS. Your Grace is noble. + Let me have such a bowl may hold my thanks + And save me so much talking. + WOLSEY. My Lord Sandys, + I am beholding to you. Cheer your neighbours. + Ladies, you are not merry. Gentlemen, + Whose fault is this? + SANDYS. The red wine first must rise + In their fair cheeks, my lord; then we shall have 'em + Talk us to silence. + ANNE. You are a merry gamester, + My Lord Sandys. + SANDYS. Yes, if I make my play. + Here's to your ladyship; and pledge it, madam, + For 'tis to such a thing- + ANNE. You cannot show me. + SANDYS. I told your Grace they would talk anon. + [Drum and trumpet. Chambers discharg'd] + WOLSEY. What's that? + CHAMBERLAIN. Look out there, some of ye. Exit a SERVANT + WOLSEY. What warlike voice, + And to what end, is this? Nay, ladies, fear not: + By all the laws of war y'are privileg'd. + + Re-enter SERVANT + + CHAMBERLAIN. How now! what is't? + SERVANT. A noble troop of strangers- + For so they seem. Th' have left their barge and landed, + And hither make, as great ambassadors + From foreign princes. + WOLSEY. Good Lord Chamberlain, + Go, give 'em welcome; you can speak the French tongue; + And pray receive 'em nobly and conduct 'em + Into our presence, where this heaven of beauty + Shall shine at full upon them. Some attend him. + Exit CHAMBERLAIN attended. All rise, and tables remov'd + You have now a broken banquet, but we'll mend it. + A good digestion to you all; and once more + I show'r a welcome on ye; welcome all. + + Hautboys. Enter the KING, and others, as maskers, + habited like shepherds, usher'd by the LORD CHAMBERLAIN. + They pass directly before the CARDINAL, + and gracefully salute him + + A noble company! What are their pleasures? + CHAMBERLAIN. Because they speak no English, thus they pray'd + To tell your Grace, that, having heard by fame + Of this so noble and so fair assembly + This night to meet here, they could do no less, + Out of the great respect they bear to beauty, + But leave their flocks and, under your fair conduct, + Crave leave to view these ladies and entreat + An hour of revels with 'em. + WOLSEY. Say, Lord Chamberlain, + They have done my poor house grace; for which I pay 'em + A thousand thanks, and pray 'em take their pleasures. + [They choose ladies. The KING chooses ANNE BULLEN] + KING. The fairest hand I ever touch'd! O beauty, + Till now I never knew thee! [Music. Dance] + WOLSEY. My lord! + CHAMBERLAIN. Your Grace? + WOLSEY. Pray tell 'em thus much from me: + There should be one amongst 'em, by his person, + More worthy this place than myself; to whom, + If I but knew him, with my love and duty + I would surrender it. + CHAMBERLAIN. I will, my lord. + [He whispers to the maskers] + WOLSEY. What say they? + CHAMBERLAIN. Such a one, they all confess, + There is indeed; which they would have your Grace + Find out, and he will take it. + WOLSEY. Let me see, then. [Comes from his state] + By all your good leaves, gentlemen, here I'll make + My royal choice. + KING. [Unmasking] Ye have found him, Cardinal. + You hold a fair assembly; you do well, lord. + You are a churchman, or, I'll tell you, Cardinal, + I should judge now unhappily. + WOLSEY. I am glad + Your Grace is grown so pleasant. + KING. My Lord Chamberlain, + Prithee come hither: what fair lady's that? + CHAMBERLAIN. An't please your Grace, Sir Thomas Bullen's + daughter- + The Viscount Rochford-one of her Highness' women. + KING. By heaven, she is a dainty one. Sweet heart, + I were unmannerly to take you out + And not to kiss you. A health, gentlemen! + Let it go round. + WOLSEY. Sir Thomas Lovell, is the banquet ready + I' th' privy chamber? + LOVELL. Yes, my lord. + WOLSEY. Your Grace, + I fear, with dancing is a little heated. + KING. I fear, too much. + WOLSEY. There's fresher air, my lord, + In the next chamber. + KING. Lead in your ladies, ev'ry one. Sweet partner, + I must not yet forsake you. Let's be merry: + Good my Lord Cardinal, I have half a dozen healths + To drink to these fair ladies, and a measure + To lead 'em once again; and then let's dream + Who's best in favour. Let the music knock it. + Exeunt, with trumpets + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE 1. + +Westminster. A street + +Enter two GENTLEMEN, at several doors + + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Whither away so fast? + SECOND GENTLEMAN. O, God save ye! + Ev'n to the Hall, to hear what shall become + Of the great Duke of Buckingham. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. I'll save you + That labour, sir. All's now done but the ceremony + Of bringing back the prisoner. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Were you there? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Yes, indeed, was I. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Pray, speak what has happen'd. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. You may guess quickly what. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Is he found guilty? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Yes, truly is he, and condemn'd upon't. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. I am sorry for't. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. So are a number more. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. But, pray, how pass'd it? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. I'll tell you in a little. The great Duke. + Came to the bar; where to his accusations + He pleaded still not guilty, and alleged + Many sharp reasons to defeat the law. + The King's attorney, on the contrary, + Urg'd on the examinations, proofs, confessions, + Of divers witnesses; which the Duke desir'd + To have brought, viva voce, to his face; + At which appear'd against him his surveyor, + Sir Gilbert Peck his chancellor, and John Car, + Confessor to him, with that devil-monk, + Hopkins, that made this mischief. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. That was he + That fed him with his prophecies? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. The same. + All these accus'd him strongly, which he fain + Would have flung from him; but indeed he could not; + And so his peers, upon this evidence, + Have found him guilty of high treason. Much + He spoke, and learnedly, for life; but all + Was either pitied in him or forgotten. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. After all this, how did he bear him-self + FIRST GENTLEMAN. When he was brought again to th' bar to hear + His knell rung out, his judgment, he was stirr'd + With such an agony he sweat extremely, + And something spoke in choler, ill and hasty; + But he fell to himself again, and sweetly + In all the rest show'd a most noble patience. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. I do not think he fears death. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Sure, he does not; + He never was so womanish; the cause + He may a little grieve at. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Certainly + The Cardinal is the end of this. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. 'Tis likely, + By all conjectures: first, Kildare's attainder, + Then deputy of Ireland, who remov'd, + Earl Surrey was sent thither, and in haste too, + Lest he should help his father. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. That trick of state + Was a deep envious one. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. At his return + No doubt he will requite it. This is noted, + And generally: whoever the King favours + The Cardinal instantly will find employment, + And far enough from court too. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. All the commons + Hate him perniciously, and, o' my conscience, + Wish him ten fathom deep: this Duke as much + They love and dote on; call him bounteous Buckingham, + The mirror of all courtesy- + + Enter BUCKINGHAM from his arraignment, tip-staves + before him; the axe with the edge towards him; halberds + on each side; accompanied with SIR THOMAS + LOVELL, SIR NICHOLAS VAUX, SIR WILLIAM SANDYS, + and common people, etc. + + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Stay there, sir, + And see the noble ruin'd man you speak of. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Let's stand close, and behold him. + BUCKINGHAM. All good people, + You that thus far have come to pity me, + Hear what I say, and then go home and lose me. + I have this day receiv'd a traitor's judgment, + And by that name must die; yet, heaven bear witness, + And if I have a conscience, let it sink me + Even as the axe falls, if I be not faithful! + The law I bear no malice for my death: + 'T has done, upon the premises, but justice. + But those that sought it I could wish more Christians. + Be what they will, I heartily forgive 'em; + Yet let 'em look they glory not in mischief + Nor build their evils on the graves of great men, + For then my guiltless blood must cry against 'em. + For further life in this world I ne'er hope + Nor will I sue, although the King have mercies + More than I dare make faults. You few that lov'd me + And dare be bold to weep for Buckingham, + His noble friends and fellows, whom to leave + Is only bitter to him, only dying, + Go with me like good angels to my end; + And as the long divorce of steel falls on me + Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice, + And lift my soul to heaven. Lead on, a God's name. + LOVELL. I do beseech your Grace, for charity, + If ever any malice in your heart + Were hid against me, now to forgive me frankly. + BUCKINGHAM. Sir Thomas Lovell, I as free forgive you + As I would be forgiven. I forgive all. + There cannot be those numberless offences + 'Gainst me that I cannot take peace with. No black envy + Shall mark my grave. Commend me to his Grace; + And if he speak of Buckingham, pray tell him + You met him half in heaven. My vows and prayers + Yet are the King's, and, till my soul forsake, + Shall cry for blessings on him. May he live + Longer than I have time to tell his years; + Ever belov'd and loving may his rule be; + And when old time Shall lead him to his end, + Goodness and he fill up one monument! + LOVELL. To th' water side I must conduct your Grace; + Then give my charge up to Sir Nicholas Vaux, + Who undertakes you to your end. + VAUX. Prepare there; + The Duke is coming; see the barge be ready; + And fit it with such furniture as suits + The greatness of his person. + BUCKINGHAM. Nay, Sir Nicholas, + Let it alone; my state now will but mock me. + When I came hither I was Lord High Constable + And Duke of Buckingham; now, poor Edward Bohun. + Yet I am richer than my base accusers + That never knew what truth meant; I now seal it; + And with that blood will make 'em one day groan fort. + My noble father, Henry of Buckingham, + Who first rais'd head against usurping Richard, + Flying for succour to his servant Banister, + Being distress'd, was by that wretch betray'd + And without trial fell; God's peace be with him! + Henry the Seventh succeeding, truly pitying + My father's loss, like a most royal prince, + Restor'd me to my honours, and out of ruins + Made my name once more noble. Now his son, + Henry the Eighth, life, honour, name, and all + That made me happy, at one stroke has taken + For ever from the world. I had my trial, + And must needs say a noble one; which makes me + A little happier than my wretched father; + Yet thus far we are one in fortunes: both + Fell by our servants, by those men we lov'd most- + A most unnatural and faithless service. + Heaven has an end in all. Yet, you that hear me, + This from a dying man receive as certain: + Where you are liberal of your loves and counsels, + Be sure you be not loose; for those you make friends + And give your hearts to, when they once perceive + The least rub in your fortunes, fall away + Like water from ye, never found again + But where they mean to sink ye. All good people, + Pray for me! I must now forsake ye; the last hour + Of my long weary life is come upon me. + Farewell; + And when you would say something that is sad, + Speak how I fell. I have done; and God forgive me! + Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and train + FIRST GENTLEMAN. O, this is full of pity! Sir, it calls, + I fear, too many curses on their heads + That were the authors. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. If the Duke be guiltless, + 'Tis full of woe; yet I can give you inkling + Of an ensuing evil, if it fall, + Greater than this. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Good angels keep it from us! + What may it be? You do not doubt my faith, sir? + SECOND GENTLEMAN. This secret is so weighty, 'twill require + A strong faith to conceal it. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Let me have it; + I do not talk much. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. I am confident. + You shall, sir. Did you not of late days hear + A buzzing of a separation + Between the King and Katharine? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Yes, but it held not; + For when the King once heard it, out of anger + He sent command to the Lord Mayor straight + To stop the rumour and allay those tongues + That durst disperse it. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. But that slander, sir, + Is found a truth now; for it grows again + Fresher than e'er it was, and held for certain + The King will venture at it. Either the Cardinal + Or some about him near have, out of malice + To the good Queen, possess'd him with a scruple + That will undo her. To confirm this too, + Cardinal Campeius is arriv'd and lately; + As all think, for this business. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. 'Tis the Cardinal; + And merely to revenge him on the Emperor + For not bestowing on him at his asking + The archbishopric of Toledo, this is purpos'd. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. I think you have hit the mark; but is't + not cruel + That she should feel the smart of this? The Cardinal + Will have his will, and she must fall. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. 'Tis woeful. + We are too open here to argue this; + Let's think in private more. Exeunt + + + + +ACT II. SCENE 2. + +London. The palace + +Enter the LORD CHAMBERLAIN reading this letter + + CHAMBERLAIN. 'My lord, + 'The horses your lordship sent for, with all the care + had, I saw well chosen, ridden, and furnish'd. They were + young and handsome, and of the best breed in the north. + When they were ready to set out for London, a man of + my Lord Cardinal's, by commission, and main power, took + 'em from me, with this reason: his master would be serv'd + before a subject, if not before the King; which stopp'd + our mouths, sir.' + + I fear he will indeed. Well, let him have them. + He will have all, I think. + + Enter to the LORD CHAMBERLAIN the DUKES OF NORFOLK and SUFFOLK + + NORFOLK. Well met, my Lord Chamberlain. + CHAMBERLAIN. Good day to both your Graces. + SUFFOLK. How is the King employ'd? + CHAMBERLAIN. I left him private, + Full of sad thoughts and troubles. + NORFOLK. What's the cause? + CHAMBERLAIN. It seems the marriage with his brother's wife + Has crept too near his conscience. + SUFFOLK. No, his conscience + Has crept too near another lady. + NORFOLK. 'Tis so; + This is the Cardinal's doing; the King-Cardinal, + That blind priest, like the eldest son of fortune, + Turns what he list. The King will know him one day. + SUFFOLK. Pray God he do! He'll never know himself else. + NORFOLK. How holily he works in all his business! + And with what zeal! For, now he has crack'd the league + Between us and the Emperor, the Queen's great nephew, + He dives into the King's soul and there scatters + Dangers, doubts, wringing of the conscience, + Fears, and despairs-and all these for his marriage; + And out of all these to restore the King, + He counsels a divorce, a loss of her + That like a jewel has hung twenty years + About his neck, yet never lost her lustre; + Of her that loves him with that excellence + That angels love good men with; even of her + That, when the greatest stroke of fortune falls, + Will bless the King-and is not this course pious? + CHAMBERLAIN. Heaven keep me from such counsel! 'Tis most true + These news are everywhere; every tongue speaks 'em, + And every true heart weeps for 't. All that dare + Look into these affairs see this main end- + The French King's sister. Heaven will one day open + The King's eyes, that so long have slept upon + This bold bad man. + SUFFOLK. And free us from his slavery. + NORFOLK. We had need pray, and heartily, for our deliverance; + Or this imperious man will work us an + From princes into pages. All men's honours + Lie like one lump before him, to be fashion'd + Into what pitch he please. + SUFFOLK. For me, my lords, + I love him not, nor fear him-there's my creed; + As I am made without him, so I'll stand, + If the King please; his curses and his blessings + Touch me alike; th' are breath I not believe in. + I knew him, and I know him; so I leave him + To him that made him proud-the Pope. + NORFOLK. Let's in; + And with some other business put the King + From these sad thoughts that work too much upon him. + My lord, you'll bear us company? + CHAMBERLAIN. Excuse me, + The King has sent me otherwhere; besides, + You'll find a most unfit time to disturb him. + Health to your lordships! + NORFOLK. Thanks, my good Lord Chamberlain. + Exit LORD CHAMBERLAIN; and the KING draws + the curtain and sits reading pensively + SUFFOLK. How sad he looks; sure, he is much afflicted. + KING. Who's there, ha? + NORFOLK. Pray God he be not angry. + KING HENRY. Who's there, I say? How dare you thrust yourselves + Into my private meditations? + Who am I, ha? + NORFOLK. A gracious king that pardons all offences + Malice ne'er meant. Our breach of duty this way + Is business of estate, in which we come + To know your royal pleasure. + KING. Ye are too bold. + Go to; I'll make ye know your times of business. + Is this an hour for temporal affairs, ha? + + Enter WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS with a commission + + Who's there? My good Lord Cardinal? O my Wolsey, + The quiet of my wounded conscience, + Thou art a cure fit for a King. [To CAMPEIUS] You're + welcome, + Most learned reverend sir, into our kingdom. + Use us and it. [To WOLSEY] My good lord, have great care + I be not found a talker. + WOLSEY. Sir, you cannot. + I would your Grace would give us but an hour + Of private conference. + KING. [To NORFOLK and SUFFOLK] We are busy; go. + NORFOLK. [Aside to SUFFOLK] This priest has no pride in him! + SUFFOLK. [Aside to NORFOLK] Not to speak of! + I would not be so sick though for his place. + But this cannot continue. + NORFOLK. [Aside to SUFFOLK] If it do, + I'll venture one have-at-him. + SUFFOLK. [Aside to NORFOLK] I another. + Exeunt NORFOLK and SUFFOLK + WOLSEY. Your Grace has given a precedent of wisdom + Above all princes, in committing freely + Your scruple to the voice of Christendom. + Who can be angry now? What envy reach you? + The Spaniard, tied by blood and favour to her, + Must now confess, if they have any goodness, + The trial just and noble. All the clerks, + I mean the learned ones, in Christian kingdoms + Have their free voices. Rome the nurse of judgment, + Invited by your noble self, hath sent + One general tongue unto us, this good man, + This just and learned priest, Cardinal Campeius, + Whom once more I present unto your Highness. + KING. And once more in mine arms I bid him welcome, + And thank the holy conclave for their loves. + They have sent me such a man I would have wish'd for. + CAMPEIUS. Your Grace must needs deserve an strangers' loves, + You are so noble. To your Highness' hand + I tender my commission; by whose virtue- + The court of Rome commanding-you, my Lord + Cardinal of York, are join'd with me their servant + In the unpartial judging of this business. + KING. Two equal men. The Queen shall be acquainted + Forthwith for what you come. Where's Gardiner? + WOLSEY. I know your Majesty has always lov'd her + So dear in heart not to deny her that + A woman of less place might ask by law- + Scholars allow'd freely to argue for her. + KING. Ay, and the best she shall have; and my favour + To him that does best. God forbid else. Cardinal, + Prithee call Gardiner to me, my new secretary; + I find him a fit fellow. Exit WOLSEY + + Re-enter WOLSEY with GARDINER + + WOLSEY. [Aside to GARDINER] Give me your hand: much + joy and favour to you; + You are the King's now. + GARDINER. [Aside to WOLSEY] But to be commanded + For ever by your Grace, whose hand has rais'd me. + KING. Come hither, Gardiner. [Walks and whispers] + CAMPEIUS. My Lord of York, was not one Doctor Pace + In this man's place before him? + WOLSEY. Yes, he was. + CAMPEIUS. Was he not held a learned man? + WOLSEY. Yes, surely. + CAMPEIUS. Believe me, there's an ill opinion spread then, + Even of yourself, Lord Cardinal. + WOLSEY. How! Of me? + CAMPEIUS. They will not stick to say you envied him + And, fearing he would rise, he was so virtuous, + Kept him a foreign man still; which so griev'd him + That he ran mad and died. + WOLSEY. Heav'n's peace be with him! + That's Christian care enough. For living murmurers + There's places of rebuke. He was a fool, + For he would needs be virtuous: that good fellow, + If I command him, follows my appointment. + I will have none so near else. Learn this, brother, + We live not to be grip'd by meaner persons. + KING. Deliver this with modesty to th' Queen. + Exit GARDINER + The most convenient place that I can think of + For such receipt of learning is Blackfriars; + There ye shall meet about this weighty business- + My Wolsey, see it furnish'd. O, my lord, + Would it not grieve an able man to leave + So sweet a bedfellow? But, conscience, conscience! + O, 'tis a tender place! and I must leave her. Exeunt + + + + +ACT II. SCENE 3. + +London. The palace + +Enter ANNE BULLEN and an OLD LADY + + ANNE. Not for that neither. Here's the pang that pinches: + His Highness having liv'd so long with her, and she + So good a lady that no tongue could ever + Pronounce dishonour of her-by my life, + She never knew harm-doing-O, now, after + So many courses of the sun enthroned, + Still growing in a majesty and pomp, the which + To leave a thousand-fold more bitter than + 'Tis sweet at first t' acquire-after this process, + To give her the avaunt, it is a pity + Would move a monster. + OLD LADY. Hearts of most hard temper + Melt and lament for her. + ANNE. O, God's will! much better + She ne'er had known pomp; though't be temporal, + Yet, if that quarrel, fortune, do divorce + It from the bearer, 'tis a sufferance panging + As soul and body's severing. + OLD LADY. Alas, poor lady! + She's a stranger now again. + ANNE. So much the more + Must pity drop upon her. Verily, + I swear 'tis better to be lowly born + And range with humble livers in content + Than to be perk'd up in a glist'ring grief + And wear a golden sorrow. + OLD LADY. Our content + Is our best having. + ANNE. By my troth and maidenhead, + I would not be a queen. + OLD LADY. Beshrew me, I would, + And venture maidenhead for 't; and so would you, + For all this spice of your hypocrisy. + You that have so fair parts of woman on you + Have too a woman's heart, which ever yet + Affected eminence, wealth, sovereignty; + Which, to say sooth, are blessings; and which gifts, + Saving your mincing, the capacity + Of your soft cheveril conscience would receive + If you might please to stretch it. + ANNE. Nay, good troth. + OLD LADY. Yes, troth and troth. You would not be a queen! + ANNE. No, not for all the riches under heaven. + OLD LADY. 'Tis strange: a threepence bow'd would hire me, + Old as I am, to queen it. But, I pray you, + What think you of a duchess? Have you limbs + To bear that load of title? + ANNE. No, in truth. + OLD LADY. Then you are weakly made. Pluck off a little; + I would not be a young count in your way + For more than blushing comes to. If your back + Cannot vouchsafe this burden, 'tis too weak + Ever to get a boy. + ANNE. How you do talk! + I swear again I would not be a queen + For all the world. + OLD LADY. In faith, for little England + You'd venture an emballing. I myself + Would for Carnarvonshire, although there long'd + No more to th' crown but that. Lo, who comes here? + + Enter the LORD CHAMBERLAIN + + CHAMBERLAIN. Good morrow, ladies. What were't worth to know + The secret of your conference? + ANNE. My good lord, + Not your demand; it values not your asking. + Our mistress' sorrows we were pitying. + CHAMBERLAIN. It was a gentle business and becoming + The action of good women; there is hope + All will be well. + ANNE. Now, I pray God, amen! + CHAMBERLAIN. You bear a gentle mind, and heav'nly blessings + Follow such creatures. That you may, fair lady, + Perceive I speak sincerely and high notes + Ta'en of your many virtues, the King's Majesty + Commends his good opinion of you to you, and + Does purpose honour to you no less flowing + Than Marchioness of Pembroke; to which tide + A thousand pound a year, annual support, + Out of his grace he adds. + ANNE. I do not know + What kind of my obedience I should tender; + More than my all is nothing, nor my prayers + Are not words duly hallowed, nor my wishes + More worth than empty vanities; yet prayers and wishes + Are all I can return. Beseech your lordship, + Vouchsafe to speak my thanks and my obedience, + As from a blushing handmaid, to his Highness; + Whose health and royalty I pray for. + CHAMBERLAIN. Lady, + I shall not fail t' approve the fair conceit + The King hath of you. [Aside] I have perus'd her well: + Beauty and honour in her are so mingled + That they have caught the King; and who knows yet + But from this lady may proceed a gem + To lighten all this isle?-I'll to the King + And say I spoke with you. + ANNE. My honour'd lord! Exit LORD CHAMBERLAIN + OLD LADY. Why, this it is: see, see! + I have been begging sixteen years in court- + Am yet a courtier beggarly-nor could + Come pat betwixt too early and too late + For any suit of pounds; and you, O fate! + A very fresh-fish here-fie, fie, fie upon + This compell'd fortune!-have your mouth fill'd up + Before you open it. + ANNE. This is strange to me. + OLD LADY. How tastes it? Is it bitter? Forty pence, no. + There was a lady once-'tis an old story- + That would not be a queen, that would she not, + For all the mud in Egypt. Have you heard it? + ANNE. Come, you are pleasant. + OLD LADY. With your theme I could + O'ermount the lark. The Marchioness of Pembroke! + A thousand pounds a year for pure respect! + No other obligation! By my life, + That promises moe thousands: honour's train + Is longer than his foreskirt. By this time + I know your back will bear a duchess. Say, + Are you not stronger than you were? + ANNE. Good lady, + Make yourself mirth with your particular fancy, + And leave me out on't. Would I had no being, + If this salute my blood a jot; it faints me + To think what follows. + The Queen is comfortless, and we forgetful + In our long absence. Pray, do not deliver + What here y' have heard to her. + OLD LADY. What do you think me? Exeunt + + + + +ACT II. SCENE 4. + +London. A hall in Blackfriars + +Trumpets, sennet, and cornets. Enter two VERGERS, with short silver wands; +next them, two SCRIBES, in the habit of doctors; after them, +the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY alone; after him, the BISHOPS OF LINCOLN, ELY, +ROCHESTER, and SAINT ASAPH; next them, with some small distance, +follows a GENTLEMAN bearing the purse, with the great seal, +and a Cardinal's hat; then two PRIESTS, bearing each silver cross; +then a GENTLEMAN USHER bareheaded, accompanied with a SERGEANT-AT-ARMS +bearing a silver mace; then two GENTLEMEN bearing two great silver pillars; +after them, side by side, the two CARDINALS, WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS; +two NOBLEMEN with the sword and mace. Then enter the KING and QUEEN +and their trains. The KING takes place under the cloth of state; +the two CARDINALS sit under him as judges. The QUEEN takes place +some distance from the KING. The BISHOPS place themselves on each side +of the court, in manner of consistory; below them the SCRIBES. +The LORDS sit next the BISHOPS. The rest of the attendants stand +in convenient order about the stage + + WOLSEY. Whilst our commission from Rome is read, + Let silence be commanded. + KING. What's the need? + It hath already publicly been read, + And on all sides th' authority allow'd; + You may then spare that time. + WOLSEY. Be't so; proceed. + SCRIBE. Say 'Henry King of England, come into the court.' + CRIER. Henry King of England, &c. + KING. Here. + SCRIBE. Say 'Katharine Queen of England, come into the court.' + CRIER. Katharine Queen of England, &c. + + The QUEEN makes no answer, rises out of her chair, + goes about the court, comes to the KING, and kneels + at his feet; then speaks + + QUEEN KATHARINE. Sir, I desire you do me right and justice, + And to bestow your pity on me; for + I am a most poor woman and a stranger, + Born out of your dominions, having here + No judge indifferent, nor no more assurance + Of equal friendship and proceeding. Alas, sir, + In what have I offended you? What cause + Hath my behaviour given to your displeasure + That thus you should proceed to put me of + And take your good grace from me? Heaven witness, + I have been to you a true and humble wife, + At all times to your will conformable, + Ever in fear to kindle your dislike, + Yea, subject to your countenance-glad or sorry + As I saw it inclin'd. When was the hour + I ever contradicted your desire + Or made it not mine too? Or which of your friends + Have I not strove to love, although I knew + He were mine enemy? What friend of mine + That had to him deriv'd your anger did + Continue in my liking? Nay, gave notice + He was from thence discharg'd? Sir, call to mind + That I have been your wife in this obedience + Upward of twenty years, and have been blest + With many children by you. If, in the course + And process of this time, you can report, + And prove it too against mine honour, aught, + My bond to wedlock or my love and duty, + Against your sacred person, in God's name, + Turn me away and let the foul'st contempt + Shut door upon me, and so give me up + To the sharp'st kind of justice. Please you, sir, + The King, your father, was reputed for + A prince most prudent, of an excellent + And unmatch'd wit and judgment; Ferdinand, + My father, King of Spain, was reckon'd one + The wisest prince that there had reign'd by many + A year before. It is not to be question'd + That they had gather'd a wise council to them + Of every realm, that did debate this business, + Who deem'd our marriage lawful. Wherefore I humbly + Beseech you, sir, to spare me till I may + Be by my friends in Spain advis'd, whose counsel + I will implore. If not, i' th' name of God, + Your pleasure be fulfill'd! + WOLSEY. You have here, lady, + And of your choice, these reverend fathers-men + Of singular integrity and learning, + Yea, the elect o' th' land, who are assembled + To plead your cause. It shall be therefore bootless + That longer you desire the court, as well + For your own quiet as to rectify + What is unsettled in the King. + CAMPEIUS. His Grace + Hath spoken well and justly; therefore, madam, + It's fit this royal session do proceed + And that, without delay, their arguments + Be now produc'd and heard. + QUEEN KATHARINE. Lord Cardinal, + To you I speak. + WOLSEY. Your pleasure, madam? + QUEEN KATHARINE. Sir, + I am about to weep; but, thinking that + We are a queen, or long have dream'd so, certain + The daughter of a king, my drops of tears + I'll turn to sparks of fire. + WOLSEY. Be patient yet. + QUEEN KATHARINE. I Will, when you are humble; nay, before + Or God will punish me. I do believe, + Induc'd by potent circumstances, that + You are mine enemy, and make my challenge + You shall not be my judge; for it is you + Have blown this coal betwixt my lord and me- + Which God's dew quench! Therefore I say again, + I utterly abhor, yea, from my soul + Refuse you for my judge, whom yet once more + I hold my most malicious foe and think not + At all a friend to truth. + WOLSEY. I do profess + You speak not like yourself, who ever yet + Have stood to charity and display'd th' effects + Of disposition gentle and of wisdom + O'ertopping woman's pow'r. Madam, you do me wrong: + I have no spleen against you, nor injustice + For you or any; how far I have proceeded, + Or how far further shall, is warranted + By a commission from the Consistory, + Yea, the whole Consistory of Rome. You charge me + That I have blown this coal: I do deny it. + The King is present; if it be known to him + That I gainsay my deed, how may he wound, + And worthily, my falsehood! Yea, as much + As you have done my truth. If he know + That I am free of your report, he knows + I am not of your wrong. Therefore in him + It lies to cure me, and the cure is to + Remove these thoughts from you; the which before + His Highness shall speak in, I do beseech + You, gracious madam, to unthink your speaking + And to say so no more. + QUEEN KATHARINE. My lord, my lord, + I am a simple woman, much too weak + T' oppose your cunning. Y'are meek and humble-mouth'd; + You sign your place and calling, in full seeming, + With meekness and humility; but your heart + Is cramm'd with arrogancy, spleen, and pride. + You have, by fortune and his Highness' favours, + Gone slightly o'er low steps, and now are mounted + Where pow'rs are your retainers, and your words, + Domestics to you, serve your will as't please + Yourself pronounce their office. I must tell you + You tender more your person's honour than + Your high profession spiritual; that again + I do refuse you for my judge and here, + Before you all, appeal unto the Pope, + To bring my whole cause 'fore his Holiness + And to be judg'd by him. + [She curtsies to the KING, and offers to depart] + CAMPEIUS. The Queen is obstinate, + Stubborn to justice, apt to accuse it, and + Disdainful to be tried by't; 'tis not well. + She's going away. + KING. Call her again. + CRIER. Katharine Queen of England, come into the court. + GENTLEMAN USHER. Madam, you are call'd back. + QUEEN KATHARINE. What need you note it? Pray you keep your way; + When you are call'd, return. Now the Lord help! + They vex me past my patience. Pray you pass on. + I will not tarry; no, nor ever more + Upon this business my appearance make + In any of their courts. Exeunt QUEEN and her attendants + KING. Go thy ways, Kate. + That man i' th' world who shall report he has + A better wife, let him in nought be trusted + For speaking false in that. Thou art, alone- + If thy rare qualities, sweet gentleness, + Thy meekness saint-like, wife-like government, + Obeying in commanding, and thy parts + Sovereign and pious else, could speak thee out- + The queen of earthly queens. She's noble born; + And like her true nobility she has + Carried herself towards me. + WOLSEY. Most gracious sir, + In humblest manner I require your Highness + That it shall please you to declare in hearing + Of all these ears-for where I am robb'd and bound, + There must I be unloos'd, although not there + At once and fully satisfied-whether ever I + Did broach this business to your Highness, or + Laid any scruple in your way which might + Induce you to the question on't, or ever + Have to you, but with thanks to God for such + A royal lady, spake one the least word that might + Be to the prejudice of her present state, + Or touch of her good person? + KING. My Lord Cardinal, + I do excuse you; yea, upon mine honour, + I free you from't. You are not to be taught + That you have many enemies that know not + Why they are so, but, like to village curs, + Bark when their fellows do. By some of these + The Queen is put in anger. Y'are excus'd. + But will you be more justified? You ever + Have wish'd the sleeping of this business; never desir'd + It to be stirr'd; but oft have hind'red, oft, + The passages made toward it. On my honour, + I speak my good Lord Cardinal to this point, + And thus far clear him. Now, what mov'd me to't, + I will be bold with time and your attention. + Then mark th' inducement. Thus it came-give heed to't: + My conscience first receiv'd a tenderness, + Scruple, and prick, on certain speeches utter'd + By th' Bishop of Bayonne, then French ambassador, + Who had been hither sent on the debating + A marriage 'twixt the Duke of Orleans and + Our daughter Mary. I' th' progress of this business, + Ere a determinate resolution, he- + I mean the Bishop-did require a respite + Wherein he might the King his lord advertise + Whether our daughter were legitimate, + Respecting this our marriage with the dowager, + Sometimes our brother's wife. This respite shook + The bosom of my conscience, enter'd me, + Yea, with a splitting power, and made to tremble + The region of my breast, which forc'd such way + That many maz'd considerings did throng + And press'd in with this caution. First, methought + I stood not in the smile of heaven, who had + Commanded nature that my lady's womb, + If it conceiv'd a male child by me, should + Do no more offices of life to't than + The grave does to the dead; for her male issue + Or died where they were made, or shortly after + This world had air'd them. Hence I took a thought + This was a judgment on me, that my kingdom, + Well worthy the best heir o' th' world, should not + Be gladded in't by me. Then follows that + I weigh'd the danger which my realms stood in + By this my issue's fail, and that gave to me + Many a groaning throe. Thus hulling in + The wild sea of my conscience, I did steer + Toward this remedy, whereupon we are + Now present here together; that's to say + I meant to rectify my conscience, which + I then did feel full sick, and yet not well, + By all the reverend fathers of the land + And doctors learn'd. First, I began in private + With you, my Lord of Lincoln; you remember + How under my oppression I did reek, + When I first mov'd you. + LINCOLN. Very well, my liege. + KING. I have spoke long; be pleas'd yourself to say + How far you satisfied me. + LINCOLN. So please your Highness, + The question did at first so stagger me- + Bearing a state of mighty moment in't + And consequence of dread-that I committed + The daring'st counsel which I had to doubt, + And did entreat your Highness to this course + Which you are running here. + KING. I then mov'd you, + My Lord of Canterbury, and got your leave + To make this present summons. Unsolicited + I left no reverend person in this court, + But by particular consent proceeded + Under your hands and seals; therefore, go on, + For no dislike i' th' world against the person + Of the good Queen, but the sharp thorny points + Of my alleged reasons, drives this forward. + Prove but our marriage lawful, by my life + And kingly dignity, we are contented + To wear our moral state to come with her, + Katharine our queen, before the primest creature + That's paragon'd o' th' world. + CAMPEIUS. So please your Highness, + The Queen being absent, 'tis a needful fitness + That we adjourn this court till further day; + Meanwhile must be an earnest motion + Made to the Queen to call back her appeal + She intends unto his Holiness. + KING. [Aside] I may perceive + These cardinals trifle with me. I abhor + This dilatory sloth and tricks of Rome. + My learn'd and well-beloved servant, Cranmer, + Prithee return. With thy approach I know + My comfort comes along. -Break up the court; + I say, set on. Exuent in manner as they entered + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE 1. + +London. The QUEEN'S apartments + +Enter the QUEEN and her women, as at work + + QUEEN KATHARINE. Take thy lute, wench. My soul grows + sad with troubles; + Sing and disperse 'em, if thou canst. Leave working. + + SONG + + Orpheus with his lute made trees, + And the mountain tops that freeze, + Bow themselves when he did sing; + To his music plants and flowers + Ever sprung, as sun and showers + There had made a lasting spring. + + Every thing that heard him play, + Even the billows of the sea, + Hung their heads and then lay by. + In sweet music is such art, + Killing care and grief of heart + Fall asleep or hearing die. + + Enter a GENTLEMAN + + QUEEN KATHARINE. How now? + GENTLEMAN. An't please your Grace, the two great Cardinals + Wait in the presence. + QUEEN KATHARINE. Would they speak with me? + GENTLEMAN. They will'd me say so, madam. + QUEEN KATHARINE. Pray their Graces + To come near. [Exit GENTLEMAN] What can be their business + With me, a poor weak woman, fall'n from favour? + I do not like their coming. Now I think on't, + They should be good men, their affairs as righteous; + But all hoods make not monks. + + Enter the two CARDINALS, WOLSEY and CAMPEIUS + + WOLSEY. Peace to your Highness! + QUEEN KATHARINE. Your Graces find me here part of housewife; + I would be all, against the worst may happen. + What are your pleasures with me, reverend lords? + WOLSEY. May it please you, noble madam, to withdraw + Into your private chamber, we shall give you + The full cause of our coming. + QUEEN KATHARINE. Speak it here; + There's nothing I have done yet, o' my conscience, + Deserves a corner. Would all other women + Could speak this with as free a soul as I do! + My lords, I care not-so much I am happy + Above a number-if my actions + Were tried by ev'ry tongue, ev'ry eye saw 'em, + Envy and base opinion set against 'em, + I know my life so even. If your business + Seek me out, and that way I am wife in, + Out with it boldly; truth loves open dealing. + WOLSEY. Tanta est erga te mentis integritas, regina serenis-sima- + QUEEN KATHARINE. O, good my lord, no Latin! + I am not such a truant since my coming, + As not to know the language I have liv'd in; + A strange tongue makes my cause more strange, suspicious; + Pray speak in English. Here are some will thank you, + If you speak truth, for their poor mistress' sake: + Believe me, she has had much wrong. Lord Cardinal, + The willing'st sin I ever yet committed + May be absolv'd in English. + WOLSEY. Noble lady, + I am sorry my integrity should breed, + And service to his Majesty and you, + So deep suspicion, where all faith was meant + We come not by the way of accusation + To taint that honour every good tongue blesses, + Nor to betray you any way to sorrow- + You have too much, good lady; but to know + How you stand minded in the weighty difference + Between the King and you, and to deliver, + Like free and honest men, our just opinions + And comforts to your cause. + CAMPEIUS. Most honour'd madam, + My Lord of York, out of his noble nature, + Zeal and obedience he still bore your Grace, + Forgetting, like a good man, your late censure + Both of his truth and him-which was too far- + Offers, as I do, in a sign of peace, + His service and his counsel. + QUEEN KATHARINE. [Aside] To betray me.- + My lords, I thank you both for your good wins; + Ye speak like honest men-pray God ye prove so! + But how to make ye suddenly an answer, + In such a point of weight, so near mine honour, + More near my life, I fear, with my weak wit, + And to such men of gravity and learning, + In truth I know not. I was set at work + Among my maids, full little, God knows, looking + Either for such men or such business. + For her sake that I have been-for I feel + The last fit of my greatness-good your Graces, + Let me have time and counsel for my cause. + Alas, I am a woman, friendless, hopeless! + WOLSEY. Madam, you wrong the King's love with these fears; + Your hopes and friends are infinite. + QUEEN KATHARINE. In England + But little for my profit; can you think, lords, + That any Englishman dare give me counsel? + Or be a known friend, 'gainst his Highness' pleasure- + Though he be grown so desperate to be honest- + And live a subject? Nay, forsooth, my friends, + They that must weigh out my afflictions, + They that my trust must grow to, live not here; + They are, as all my other comforts, far hence, + In mine own country, lords. + CAMPEIUS. I would your Grace + Would leave your griefs, and take my counsel. + QUEEN KATHARINE. How, sir? + CAMPEIUS. Put your main cause into the King's protection; + He's loving and most gracious. 'Twill be much + Both for your honour better and your cause; + For if the trial of the law o'ertake ye + You'll part away disgrac'd. + WOLSEY. He tells you rightly. + QUEEN KATHARINE. Ye tell me what ye wish for both-my ruin. + Is this your Christian counsel? Out upon ye! + Heaven is above all yet: there sits a Judge + That no king can corrupt. + CAMPEIUS. Your rage mistakes us. + QUEEN KATHARINE. The more shame for ye; holy men I thought ye, + Upon my soul, two reverend cardinal virtues; + But cardinal sins and hollow hearts I fear ye. + Mend 'em, for shame, my lords. Is this your comfort? + The cordial that ye bring a wretched lady- + A woman lost among ye, laugh'd at, scorn'd? + I will not wish ye half my miseries: + I have more charity; but say I warned ye. + Take heed, for heaven's sake take heed, lest at once + The burden of my sorrows fall upon ye. + WOLSEY. Madam, this is a mere distraction; + You turn the good we offer into envy. + QUEEN KATHARINE. Ye turn me into nothing. Woe upon ye, + And all such false professors! Would you have me- + If you have any justice, any pity, + If ye be any thing but churchmen's habits- + Put my sick cause into his hands that hates me? + Alas! has banish'd me his bed already, + His love too long ago! I am old, my lords, + And all the fellowship I hold now with him + Is only my obedience. What can happen + To me above this wretchedness? All your studies + Make me a curse like this. + CAMPEIUS. Your fears are worse. + QUEEN KATHARINE. Have I liv'd thus long-let me speak myself, + Since virtue finds no friends-a wife, a true one? + A woman, I dare say without vain-glory, + Never yet branded with suspicion? + Have I with all my full affections + Still met the King, lov'd him next heav'n, obey'd him, + Been, out of fondness, superstitious to him, + Almost forgot my prayers to content him, + And am I thus rewarded? 'Tis not well, lords. + Bring me a constant woman to her husband, + One that ne'er dream'd a joy beyond his pleasure, + And to that woman, when she has done most, + Yet will I add an honour-a great patience. + WOLSEY. Madam, you wander from the good we aim at. + QUEEN KATHARINE. My lord, I dare not make myself so guilty, + To give up willingly that noble title + Your master wed me to: nothing but death + Shall e'er divorce my dignities. + WOLSEY. Pray hear me. + QUEEN KATHARINE. Would I had never trod this English earth, + Or felt the flatteries that grow upon it! + Ye have angels' faces, but heaven knows your hearts. + What will become of me now, wretched lady? + I am the most unhappy woman living. + [To her WOMEN] Alas, poor wenches, where are now + your fortunes? + Shipwreck'd upon a kingdom, where no pity, + No friends, no hope; no kindred weep for me; + Almost no grave allow'd me. Like the My, + That once was mistress of the field, and flourish'd, + I'll hang my head and perish. + WOLSEY. If your Grace + Could but be brought to know our ends are honest, + You'd feel more comfort. Why should we, good lady, + Upon what cause, wrong you? Alas, our places, + The way of our profession is against it; + We are to cure such sorrows, not to sow 'em. + For goodness' sake, consider what you do; + How you may hurt yourself, ay, utterly + Grow from the King's acquaintance, by this carriage. + The hearts of princes kiss obedience, + So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits + They swell and grow as terrible as storms. + I know you have a gentle, noble temper, + A soul as even as a calm. Pray think us + Those we profess, peace-makers, friends, and servants. + CAMPEIUS. Madam, you'll find it so. You wrong your virtues + With these weak women's fears. A noble spirit, + As yours was put into you, ever casts + Such doubts as false coin from it. The King loves you; + Beware you lose it not. For us, if you please + To trust us in your business, we are ready + To use our utmost studies in your service. + QUEEN KATHARINE. Do what ye will my lords; and pray + forgive me + If I have us'd myself unmannerly; + You know I am a woman, lacking wit + To make a seemly answer to such persons. + Pray do my service to his Majesty; + He has my heart yet, and shall have my prayers + While I shall have my life. Come, reverend fathers, + Bestow your counsels on me; she now begs + That little thought, when she set footing here, + She should have bought her dignities so dear. Exeunt + + + +ACT III.SCENE 2. + +London. The palace + +Enter the DUKE OF NORFOLK, the DUKE OF SUFFOLK, the EARL OF SURREY, +and the LORD CHAMBERLAIN + + NORFOLK. If you will now unite in your complaints + And force them with a constancy, the Cardinal + Cannot stand under them: if you omit + The offer of this time, I cannot promise + But that you shall sustain moe new disgraces + With these you bear already. + SURREY. I am joyful + To meet the least occasion that may give me + Remembrance of my father-in-law, the Duke, + To be reveng'd on him. + SUFFOLK. Which of the peers + Have uncontemn'd gone by him, or at least + Strangely neglected? When did he regard + The stamp of nobleness in any person + Out of himself? + CHAMBERLAIN. My lords, you speak your pleasures. + What he deserves of you and me I know; + What we can do to him-though now the time + Gives way to us-I much fear. If you cannot + Bar his access to th' King, never attempt + Anything on him; for he hath a witchcraft + Over the King in's tongue. + NORFOLK. O, fear him not! + His spell in that is out; the King hath found + Matter against him that for ever mars + The honey of his language. No, he's settled, + Not to come off, in his displeasure. + SURREY. Sir, + I should be glad to hear such news as this + Once every hour. + NORFOLK. Believe it, this is true: + In the divorce his contrary proceedings + Are all unfolded; wherein he appears + As I would wish mine enemy. + SURREY. How came + His practices to light? + SUFFOLK. Most Strangely. + SURREY. O, how, how? + SUFFOLK. The Cardinal's letters to the Pope miscarried, + And came to th' eye o' th' King; wherein was read + How that the Cardinal did entreat his Holiness + To stay the judgment o' th' divorce; for if + It did take place, 'I do' quoth he 'perceive + My king is tangled in affection to + A creature of the Queen's, Lady Anne Bullen.' + SURREY. Has the King this? + SUFFOLK. Believe it. + SURREY. Will this work? + CHAMBERLAIN. The King in this perceives him how he coasts + And hedges his own way. But in this point + All his tricks founder, and he brings his physic + After his patient's death: the King already + Hath married the fair lady. + SURREY. Would he had! + SUFFOLK. May you be happy in your wish, my lord! + For, I profess, you have it. + SURREY. Now, all my joy + Trace the conjunction! + SUFFOLK. My amen to't! + NORFOLK. An men's! + SUFFOLK. There's order given for her coronation; + Marry, this is yet but young, and may be left + To some ears unrecounted. But, my lords, + She is a gallant creature, and complete + In mind and feature. I persuade me from her + Will fall some blessing to this land, which shall + In it be memoriz'd. + SURREY. But will the King + Digest this letter of the Cardinal's? + The Lord forbid! + NORFOLK. Marry, amen! + SUFFOLK. No, no; + There be moe wasps that buzz about his nose + Will make this sting the sooner. Cardinal Campeius + Is stol'n away to Rome; hath ta'en no leave; + Has left the cause o' th' King unhandled, and + Is posted, as the agent of our Cardinal, + To second all his plot. I do assure you + The King cried 'Ha!' at this. + CHAMBERLAIN. Now, God incense him, + And let him cry 'Ha!' louder! + NORFOLK. But, my lord, + When returns Cranmer? + SUFFOLK. He is return'd in his opinions; which + Have satisfied the King for his divorce, + Together with all famous colleges + Almost in Christendom. Shortly, I believe, + His second marriage shall be publish'd, and + Her coronation. Katharine no more + Shall be call'd queen, but princess dowager + And widow to Prince Arthur. + NORFOLK. This same Cranmer's + A worthy fellow, and hath ta'en much pain + In the King's business. + SUFFOLK. He has; and we shall see him + For it an archbishop. + NORFOLK. So I hear. + SUFFOLK. 'Tis so. + + Enter WOLSEY and CROMWELL + + The Cardinal! + NORFOLK. Observe, observe, he's moody. + WOLSEY. The packet, Cromwell, + Gave't you the King? + CROMWELL. To his own hand, in's bedchamber. + WOLSEY. Look'd he o' th' inside of the paper? + CROMWELL. Presently + He did unseal them; and the first he view'd, + He did it with a serious mind; a heed + Was in his countenance. You he bade + Attend him here this morning. + WOLSEY. Is he ready + To come abroad? + CROMWELL. I think by this he is. + WOLSEY. Leave me awhile. Exit CROMWELL + [Aside] It shall be to the Duchess of Alencon, + The French King's sister; he shall marry her. + Anne Bullen! No, I'll no Anne Bullens for him; + There's more in't than fair visage. Bullen! + No, we'll no Bullens. Speedily I wish + To hear from Rome. The Marchioness of Pembroke! + NORFOLK. He's discontented. + SUFFOLK. May be he hears the King + Does whet his anger to him. + SURREY. Sharp enough, + Lord, for thy justice! + WOLSEY. [Aside] The late Queen's gentlewoman, a knight's + daughter, + To be her mistress' mistress! The Queen's queen! + This candle burns not clear. 'Tis I must snuff it; + Then out it goes. What though I know her virtuous + And well deserving? Yet I know her for + A spleeny Lutheran; and not wholesome to + Our cause that she should lie i' th' bosom of + Our hard-rul'd King. Again, there is sprung up + An heretic, an arch one, Cranmer; one + Hath crawl'd into the favour of the King, + And is his oracle. + NORFOLK. He is vex'd at something. + + Enter the KING, reading of a schedule, and LOVELL + + SURREY. I would 'twere something that would fret the string, + The master-cord on's heart! + SUFFOLK. The King, the King! + KING. What piles of wealth hath he accumulated + To his own portion! And what expense by th' hour + Seems to flow from him! How, i' th' name of thrift, + Does he rake this together?-Now, my lords, + Saw you the Cardinal? + NORFOLK. My lord, we have + Stood here observing him. Some strange commotion + Is in his brain: he bites his lip and starts, + Stops on a sudden, looks upon the ground, + Then lays his finger on his temple; straight + Springs out into fast gait; then stops again, + Strikes his breast hard; and anon he casts + His eye against the moon. In most strange postures + We have seen him set himself. + KING. It may well be + There is a mutiny in's mind. This morning + Papers of state he sent me to peruse, + As I requir'd; and wot you what I found + There-on my conscience, put unwittingly? + Forsooth, an inventory, thus importing + The several parcels of his plate, his treasure, + Rich stuffs, and ornaments of household; which + I find at such proud rate that it outspeaks + Possession of a subject. + NORFOLK. It's heaven's will; + Some spirit put this paper in the packet + To bless your eye withal. + KING. If we did think + His contemplation were above the earth + And fix'd on spiritual object, he should still + dwell in his musings; but I am afraid + His thinkings are below the moon, not worth + His serious considering. + [The KING takes his seat and whispers LOVELL, + who goes to the CARDINAL] + WOLSEY. Heaven forgive me! + Ever God bless your Highness! + KING. Good, my lord, + You are full of heavenly stuff, and bear the inventory + Of your best graces in your mind; the which + You were now running o'er. You have scarce time + To steal from spiritual leisure a brief span + To keep your earthly audit; sure, in that + I deem you an ill husband, and am glad + To have you therein my companion. + WOLSEY. Sir, + For holy offices I have a time; a time + To think upon the part of business which + I bear i' th' state; and nature does require + Her times of preservation, which perforce + I, her frail son, amongst my brethren mortal, + Must give my tendance to. + KING. You have said well. + WOLSEY. And ever may your Highness yoke together, + As I will lend you cause, my doing well + With my well saying! + KING. 'Tis well said again; + And 'tis a kind of good deed to say well; + And yet words are no deeds. My father lov'd you: + He said he did; and with his deed did crown + His word upon you. Since I had my office + I have kept you next my heart; have not alone + Employ'd you where high profits might come home, + But par'd my present havings to bestow + My bounties upon you. + WOLSEY. [Aside] What should this mean? + SURREY. [Aside] The Lord increase this business! + KING. Have I not made you + The prime man of the state? I pray you tell me + If what I now pronounce you have found true; + And, if you may confess it, say withal + If you are bound to us or no. What say you? + WOLSEY. My sovereign, I confess your royal graces, + Show'r'd on me daily, have been more than could + My studied purposes requite; which went + Beyond all man's endeavours. My endeavours, + Have ever come too short of my desires, + Yet fil'd with my abilities; mine own ends + Have been mine so that evermore they pointed + To th' good of your most sacred person and + The profit of the state. For your great graces + Heap'd upon me, poor undeserver, I + Can nothing render but allegiant thanks; + My pray'rs to heaven for you; my loyalty, + Which ever has and ever shall be growing, + Till death, that winter, kill it. + KING. Fairly answer'd! + A loyal and obedient subject is + Therein illustrated; the honour of it + Does pay the act of it, as, i' th' contrary, + The foulness is the punishment. I presume + That, as my hand has open'd bounty to you, + My heart dropp'd love, my pow'r rain'd honour, more + On you than any, so your hand and heart, + Your brain, and every function of your power, + Should, notwithstanding that your bond of duty, + As 'twere in love's particular, be more + To me, your friend, than any. + WOLSEY. I do profess + That for your Highness' good I ever labour'd + More than mine own; that am, have, and will be- + Though all the world should crack their duty to you, + And throw it from their soul; though perils did + Abound as thick as thought could make 'em, and + Appear in forms more horrid-yet my duty, + As doth a rock against the chiding flood, + Should the approach of this wild river break, + And stand unshaken yours. + KING. 'Tis nobly spoken. + Take notice, lords, he has a loyal breast, + For you have seen him open 't. Read o'er this; + [Giving him papers] + And after, this; and then to breakfast with + What appetite you have. + Exit the KING, frowning upon the CARDINAL; the NOBLES + throng after him, smiling and whispering + WOLSEY. What should this mean? + What sudden anger's this? How have I reap'd it? + He parted frowning from me, as if ruin + Leap'd from his eyes; so looks the chafed lion + Upon the daring huntsman that has gall'd him- + Then makes him nothing. I must read this paper; + I fear, the story of his anger. 'Tis so; + This paper has undone me. 'Tis th' account + Of all that world of wealth I have drawn together + For mine own ends; indeed to gain the popedom, + And fee my friends in Rome. O negligence, + Fit for a fool to fall by! What cross devil + Made me put this main secret in the packet + I sent the King? Is there no way to cure this? + No new device to beat this from his brains? + I know 'twill stir him strongly; yet I know + A way, if it take right, in spite of fortune, + Will bring me off again. What's this? 'To th' Pope.' + The letter, as I live, with all the business + I writ to's Holiness. Nay then, farewell! + I have touch'd the highest point of all my greatness, + And from that full meridian of my glory + I haste now to my setting. I shall fall + Like a bright exhalation in the evening, + And no man see me more. + + Re-enter to WOLSEY the DUKES OF NORFOLK and + SUFFOLK, the EARL OF SURREY, and the LORD + CHAMBERLAIN + + NORFOLK. Hear the King's pleasure, Cardinal, who commands you + To render up the great seal presently + Into our hands, and to confine yourself + To Asher House, my Lord of Winchester's, + Till you hear further from his Highness. + WOLSEY. Stay: + Where's your commission, lords? Words cannot carry + Authority so weighty. + SUFFOLK. Who dares cross 'em, + Bearing the King's will from his mouth expressly? + WOLSEY. Till I find more than will or words to do it- + I mean your malice-know, officious lords, + I dare and must deny it. Now I feel + Of what coarse metal ye are moulded-envy; + How eagerly ye follow my disgraces, + As if it fed ye; and how sleek and wanton + Ye appear in every thing may bring my ruin! + Follow your envious courses, men of malice; + You have Christian warrant for 'em, and no doubt + In time will find their fit rewards. That seal + You ask with such a violence, the King- + Mine and your master-with his own hand gave me; + Bade me enjoy it, with the place and honours, + During my life; and, to confirm his goodness, + Tied it by letters-patents. Now, who'll take it? + SURREY. The King, that gave it. + WOLSEY. It must be himself then. + SURREY. Thou art a proud traitor, priest. + WOLSEY. Proud lord, thou liest. + Within these forty hours Surrey durst better + Have burnt that tongue than said so. + SURREY. Thy ambition, + Thou scarlet sin, robb'd this bewailing land + Of noble Buckingham, my father-in-law. + The heads of all thy brother cardinals, + With thee and all thy best parts bound together, + Weigh'd not a hair of his. Plague of your policy! + You sent me deputy for Ireland; + Far from his succour, from the King, from all + That might have mercy on the fault thou gav'st him; + Whilst your great goodness, out of holy pity, + Absolv'd him with an axe. + WOLSEY. This, and all else + This talking lord can lay upon my credit, + I answer is most false. The Duke by law + Found his deserts; how innocent I was + From any private malice in his end, + His noble jury and foul cause can witness. + If I lov'd many words, lord, I should tell you + You have as little honesty as honour, + That in the way of loyalty and truth + Toward the King, my ever royal master, + Dare mate a sounder man than Surrey can be + And an that love his follies. + SURREY. By my soul, + Your long coat, priest, protects you; thou shouldst feel + My sword i' the life-blood of thee else. My lords + Can ye endure to hear this arrogance? + And from this fellow? If we live thus tamely, + To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet, + Farewell nobility! Let his Grace go forward + And dare us with his cap like larks. + WOLSEY. All goodness + Is poison to thy stomach. + SURREY. Yes, that goodness + Of gleaning all the land's wealth into one, + Into your own hands, Cardinal, by extortion; + The goodness of your intercepted packets + You writ to th' Pope against the King; your goodness, + Since you provoke me, shall be most notorious. + My Lord of Norfolk, as you are truly noble, + As you respect the common good, the state + Of our despis'd nobility, our issues, + Whom, if he live, will scarce be gentlemen- + Produce the grand sum of his sins, the articles + Collected from his life. I'll startle you + Worse than the sacring bell, when the brown wench + Lay kissing in your arms, Lord Cardinal. + WOLSEY. How much, methinks, I could despise this man, + But that I am bound in charity against it! + NORFOLK. Those articles, my lord, are in the King's hand; + But, thus much, they are foul ones. + WOLSEY. So much fairer + And spotless shall mine innocence arise, + When the King knows my truth. + SURREY. This cannot save you. + I thank my memory I yet remember + Some of these articles; and out they shall. + Now, if you can blush and cry guilty, Cardinal, + You'll show a little honesty. + WOLSEY. Speak on, sir; + I dare your worst objections. If I blush, + It is to see a nobleman want manners. + SURREY. I had rather want those than my head. Have at you! + First, that without the King's assent or knowledge + You wrought to be a legate; by which power + You maim'd the jurisdiction of all bishops. + NORFOLK. Then, that in all you writ to Rome, or else + To foreign princes, 'Ego et Rex meus' + Was still inscrib'd; in which you brought the King + To be your servant. + SUFFOLK. Then, that without the knowledge + Either of King or Council, when you went + Ambassador to the Emperor, you made bold + To carry into Flanders the great seal. + SURREY. Item, you sent a large commission + To Gregory de Cassado, to conclude, + Without the King's will or the state's allowance, + A league between his Highness and Ferrara. + SUFFOLK. That out of mere ambition you have caus'd + Your holy hat to be stamp'd on the King's coin. + SURREY. Then, that you have sent innumerable substance, + By what means got I leave to your own conscience, + To furnish Rome and to prepare the ways + You have for dignities, to the mere undoing + Of all the kingdom. Many more there are, + Which, since they are of you, and odious, + I will not taint my mouth with. + CHAMBERLAIN. O my lord, + Press not a falling man too far! 'Tis virtue. + His faults lie open to the laws; let them, + Not you, correct him. My heart weeps to see him + So little of his great self. + SURREY. I forgive him. + SUFFOLK. Lord Cardinal, the King's further pleasure is- + Because all those things you have done of late, + By your power legatine within this kingdom, + Fall into th' compass of a praemunire- + That therefore such a writ be sued against you: + To forfeit all your goods, lands, tenements, + Chattels, and whatsoever, and to be + Out of the King's protection. This is my charge. + NORFOLK. And so we'll leave you to your meditations + How to live better. For your stubborn answer + About the giving back the great seal to us, + The King shall know it, and, no doubt, shall thank you. + So fare you well, my little good Lord Cardinal. + Exeunt all but WOLSEY + WOLSEY. So farewell to the little good you bear me. + Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness! + This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth + The tender leaves of hopes; to-morrow blossoms + And bears his blushing honours thick upon him; + The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, + And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely + His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root, + And then he falls, as I do. I have ventur'd, + Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, + This many summers in a sea of glory; + But far beyond my depth. My high-blown pride + At length broke under me, and now has left me, + Weary and old with service, to the mercy + Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me. + Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye; + I feel my heart new open'd. O, how wretched + Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favours! + There is betwixt that smile we would aspire to, + That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin + More pangs and fears than wars or women have; + And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, + Never to hope again. + + Enter CROMWELL, standing amazed + + Why, how now, Cromwell! + CROMWELL. I have no power to speak, sir. + WOLSEY. What, amaz'd + At my misfortunes? Can thy spirit wonder + A great man should decline? Nay, an you weep, + I am fall'n indeed. + CROMWELL. How does your Grace? + WOLSEY. Why, well; + Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell. + I know myself now, and I feel within me + A peace above all earthly dignities, + A still and quiet conscience. The King has cur'd me, + I humbly thank his Grace; and from these shoulders, + These ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken + A load would sink a navy-too much honour. + O, 'tis a burden, Cromwell, 'tis a burden + Too heavy for a man that hopes for heaven! + CROMWELL. I am glad your Grace has made that right use of it. + WOLSEY. I hope I have. I am able now, methinks, + Out of a fortitude of soul I feel, + To endure more miseries and greater far + Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer. + What news abroad? + CROMWELL. The heaviest and the worst + Is your displeasure with the King. + WOLSEY. God bless him! + CROMWELL. The next is that Sir Thomas More is chosen + Lord Chancellor in your place. + WOLSEY. That's somewhat sudden. + But he's a learned man. May he continue + Long in his Highness' favour, and do justice + For truth's sake and his conscience; that his bones + When he has run his course and sleeps in blessings, + May have a tomb of orphans' tears wept on him! + What more? + CROMWELL. That Cranmer is return'd with welcome, + Install'd Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. + WOLSEY. That's news indeed. + CROMWELL. Last, that the Lady Anne, + Whom the King hath in secrecy long married, + This day was view'd in open as his queen, + Going to chapel; and the voice is now + Only about her coronation. + WOLSEY. There was the weight that pull'd me down. + O Cromwell, + The King has gone beyond me. All my glories + In that one woman I have lost for ever. + No sun shall ever usher forth mine honours, + Or gild again the noble troops that waited + Upon my smiles. Go get thee from me, Cromwell; + I am a poor fall'n man, unworthy now + To be thy lord and master. Seek the King; + That sun, I pray, may never set! I have told him + What and how true thou art. He will advance thee; + Some little memory of me will stir him- + I know his noble nature-not to let + Thy hopeful service perish too. Good Cromwell, + Neglect him not; make use now, and provide + For thine own future safety. + CROMWELL. O my lord, + Must I then leave you? Must I needs forgo + So good, so noble, and so true a master? + Bear witness, all that have not hearts of iron, + With what a sorrow Cromwell leaves his lord. + The King shall have my service; but my prayers + For ever and for ever shall be yours. + WOLSEY. Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear + In all my miseries; but thou hast forc'd me, + Out of thy honest truth, to play the woman. + Let's dry our eyes; and thus far hear me, Cromwell, + And when I am forgotten, as I shall be, + And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention + Of me more must be heard of, say I taught thee- + Say Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, + And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour, + Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in- + A sure and safe one, though thy master miss'd it. + Mark but my fall and that that ruin'd me. + Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition: + By that sin fell the angels. How can man then, + The image of his Maker, hope to win by it? + Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that hate thee; + Corruption wins not more than honesty. + Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace + To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not; + Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, + Thy God's, and truth's; then, if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, + Thou fall'st a blessed martyr! + Serve the King, and-prithee lead me in. + There take an inventory of all I have + To the last penny; 'tis the King's. My robe, + And my integrity to heaven, is all + I dare now call mine own. O Cromwell, Cromwell! + Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal + I serv'd my King, he would not in mine age + Have left me naked to mine enemies. + CROMWELL. Good sir, have patience. + WOLSEY. So I have. Farewell + The hopes of court! My hopes in heaven do dwell. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 1. + +A street in Westminster + +Enter two GENTLEMEN, meeting one another + + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Y'are well met once again. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. So are you. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. You come to take your stand here, and + behold + The Lady Anne pass from her coronation? + SECOND GENTLEMAN. 'Tis all my business. At our last encounter + The Duke of Buckingham came from his trial. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. 'Tis very true. But that time offer'd + sorrow; + This, general joy. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. 'Tis well. The citizens, + I am sure, have shown at full their royal minds- + As, let 'em have their rights, they are ever forward- + In celebration of this day with shows, + Pageants, and sights of honour. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Never greater, + Nor, I'll assure you, better taken, sir. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. May I be bold to ask what that contains, + That paper in your hand? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Yes; 'tis the list + Of those that claim their offices this day, + By custom of the coronation. + The Duke of Suffolk is the first, and claims + To be High Steward; next, the Duke of Norfolk, + He to be Earl Marshal. You may read the rest. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. I thank you, sir; had I not known + those customs, + I should have been beholding to your paper. + But, I beseech you, what's become of Katharine, + The Princess Dowager? How goes her business? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. That I can tell you too. The Archbishop + Of Canterbury, accompanied with other + Learned and reverend fathers of his order, + Held a late court at Dunstable, six miles of + From Ampthill, where the Princess lay; to which + She was often cited by them, but appear'd not. + And, to be short, for not appearance and + The King's late scruple, by the main assent + Of all these learned men, she was divorc'd, + And the late marriage made of none effect; + Since which she was removed to Kimbolton, + Where she remains now sick. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Alas, good lady! [Trumpets] + The trumpets sound. Stand close, the Queen is coming. +[Hautboys] + + THE ORDER OF THE CORONATION. + + 1. A lively flourish of trumpets. + 2. Then two JUDGES. + 3. LORD CHANCELLOR, with purse and mace before him. + 4. CHORISTERS singing. [Music] + 5. MAYOR OF LONDON, bearing the mace. Then GARTER, in + his coat of arms, and on his head he wore a gilt copper + crown. + 6. MARQUIS DORSET, bearing a sceptre of gold, on his head a + demi-coronal of gold. With him, the EARL OF SURREY, + bearing the rod of silver with the dove, crowned with an + earl's coronet. Collars of Esses. + 7. DUKE OF SUFFOLK, in his robe of estate, his coronet on + his head, bearing a long white wand, as High Steward. + With him, the DUKE OF NORFOLK, with the rod of + marshalship, a coronet on his head. Collars of Esses. + 8. A canopy borne by four of the CINQUE-PORTS; under it + the QUEEN in her robe; in her hair richly adorned with + pearl, crowned. On each side her, the BISHOPS OF LONDON + and WINCHESTER. + 9. The old DUCHESS OF NORFOLK, in a coronal of gold + wrought with flowers, bearing the QUEEN'S train. + 10. Certain LADIES or COUNTESSES, with plain circlets of gold + without flowers. + + Exeunt, first passing over the stage in order and state, + and then a great flourish of trumpets + + SECOND GENTLEMAN. A royal train, believe me. These know. + Who's that that bears the sceptre? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Marquis Dorset; + And that the Earl of Surrey, with the rod. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. A bold brave gentleman. That should be + The Duke of Suffolk? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. 'Tis the same-High Steward. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. And that my Lord of Norfolk? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Yes. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. [Looking on the QUEEN] Heaven + bless thee! + Thou hast the sweetest face I ever look'd on. + Sir, as I have a soul, she is an angel; + Our king has all the Indies in his arms, + And more and richer, when he strains that lady; + I cannot blame his conscience. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. They that bear + The cloth of honour over her are four barons + Of the Cinque-ports. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Those men are happy; and so are all + are near her. + I take it she that carries up the train + Is that old noble lady, Duchess of Norfolk. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. It is; and all the rest are countesses. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Their coronets say so. These are stars indeed, + And sometimes falling ones. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. No more of that. + Exit Procession, with a great flourish of trumpets + + Enter a third GENTLEMAN + + God save you, sir! Where have you been broiling? + THIRD GENTLEMAN. Among the crowds i' th' Abbey, where a finger + Could not be wedg'd in more; I am stifled + With the mere rankness of their joy. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. You saw + The ceremony? + THIRD GENTLEMAN. That I did. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. How was it? + THIRD GENTLEMAN. Well worth the seeing. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Good sir, speak it to us. + THIRD GENTLEMAN. As well as I am able. The rich stream + Of lords and ladies, having brought the Queen + To a prepar'd place in the choir, fell of + A distance from her, while her Grace sat down + To rest awhile, some half an hour or so, + In a rich chair of state, opposing freely + The beauty of her person to the people. + Believe me, sir, she is the goodliest woman + That ever lay by man; which when the people + Had the full view of, such a noise arose + As the shrouds make at sea in a stiff tempest, + As loud, and to as many tunes; hats, cloaks- + Doublets, I think-flew up, and had their faces + Been loose, this day they had been lost. Such joy + I never saw before. Great-bellied women, + That had not half a week to go, like rams + In the old time of war, would shake the press, + And make 'em reel before 'em. No man living + Could say 'This is my wife' there, all were woven + So strangely in one piece. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. But what follow'd? + THIRD GENTLEMAN. At length her Grace rose, and with + modest paces + Came to the altar, where she kneel'd, and saintlike + Cast her fair eyes to heaven, and pray'd devoutly. + Then rose again, and bow'd her to the people; + When by the Archbishop of Canterbury + She had all the royal makings of a queen: + As holy oil, Edward Confessor's crown, + The rod, and bird of peace, and all such emblems + Laid nobly on her; which perform'd, the choir, + With all the choicest music of the kingdom, + Together sung 'Te Deum.' So she parted, + And with the same full state pac'd back again + To York Place, where the feast is held. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Sir, + You must no more call it York Place: that's past: + For since the Cardinal fell that title's lost. + 'Tis now the King's, and called Whitehall. + THIRD GENTLEMAN. I know it; + But 'tis so lately alter'd that the old name + Is fresh about me. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. What two reverend bishops + Were those that went on each side of the Queen? + THIRD GENTLEMAN. Stokesly and Gardiner: the one of Winchester, + Newly preferr'd from the King's secretary; + The other, London. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. He of Winchester + Is held no great good lover of the Archbishop's, + The virtuous Cranmer. + THIRD GENTLEMAN. All the land knows that; + However, yet there is no great breach. When it comes, + Cranmer will find a friend will not shrink from him. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Who may that be, I pray you? + THIRD GENTLEMAN. Thomas Cromwell, + A man in much esteem with th' King, and truly + A worthy friend. The King has made him Master + O' th' jewel House, + And one, already, of the Privy Council. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. He will deserve more. + THIRD GENTLEMAN. Yes, without all doubt. + Come, gentlemen, ye shall go my way, which + Is to th' court, and there ye shall be my guests: + Something I can command. As I walk thither, + I'll tell ye more. + BOTH. You may command us, sir. Exeunt + + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 2. + +Kimbolton + +Enter KATHARINE, Dowager, sick; led between GRIFFITH, her Gentleman Usher, +and PATIENCE, her woman + + GRIFFITH. How does your Grace? + KATHARINE. O Griffith, sick to death! + My legs like loaden branches bow to th' earth, + Willing to leave their burden. Reach a chair. + So-now, methinks, I feel a little ease. + Didst thou not tell me, Griffith, as thou led'st me, + That the great child of honour, Cardinal Wolsey, + Was dead? + GRIFFITH. Yes, madam; but I think your Grace, + Out of the pain you suffer'd, gave no ear to't. + KATHARINE. Prithee, good Griffith, tell me how he died. + If well, he stepp'd before me, happily, + For my example. + GRIFFITH. Well, the voice goes, madam; + For after the stout Earl Northumberland + Arrested him at York and brought him forward, + As a man sorely tainted, to his answer, + He fell sick suddenly, and grew so ill + He could not sit his mule. + KATHARINE. Alas, poor man! + GRIFFITH. At last, with easy roads, he came to Leicester, + Lodg'd in the abbey; where the reverend abbot, + With all his covent, honourably receiv'd him; + To whom he gave these words: 'O father Abbot, + An old man, broken with the storms of state, + Is come to lay his weary bones among ye; + Give him a little earth for charity!' + So went to bed; where eagerly his sickness + Pursu'd him still And three nights after this, + About the hour of eight-which he himself + Foretold should be his last-full of repentance, + Continual meditations, tears, and sorrows, + He gave his honours to the world again, + His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace. + KATHARINE. So may he rest; his faults lie gently on him! + Yet thus far, Griffith, give me leave to speak him, + And yet with charity. He was a man + Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking + Himself with princes; one that, by suggestion, + Tied all the kingdom. Simony was fair play; + His own opinion was his law. I' th' presence + He would say untruths, and be ever double + Both in his words and meaning. He was never, + But where he meant to ruin, pitiful. + His promises were, as he then was, mighty; + But his performance, as he is now, nothing. + Of his own body he was ill, and gave + The clergy ill example. + GRIFFITH. Noble madam, + Men's evil manners live in brass: their virtues + We write in water. May it please your Highness + To hear me speak his good now? + KATHARINE. Yes, good Griffith; + I were malicious else. + GRIFFITH. This Cardinal, + Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly + Was fashion'd to much honour from his cradle. + He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one; + Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading; + Lofty and sour to them that lov'd him not, + But to those men that sought him sweet as summer. + And though he were unsatisfied in getting- + Which was a sin-yet in bestowing, madam, + He was most princely: ever witness for him + Those twins of learning that he rais'd in you, + Ipswich and Oxford! One of which fell with him, + Unwilling to outlive the good that did it; + The other, though unfinish'd, yet so famous, + So excellent in art, and still so rising, + That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue. + His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him; + For then, and not till then, he felt himself, + And found the blessedness of being little. + And, to add greater honours to his age + Than man could give him, he died fearing God. + KATHARINE. After my death I wish no other herald, + No other speaker of my living actions, + To keep mine honour from corruption, + But such an honest chronicler as Griffith. + Whom I most hated living, thou hast made me, + With thy religious truth and modesty, + Now in his ashes honour. Peace be with him! + patience, be near me still, and set me lower: + I have not long to trouble thee. Good Griffith, + Cause the musicians play me that sad note + I nam'd my knell, whilst I sit meditating + On that celestial harmony I go to. + [Sad and solemn music] + GRIFFITH. She is asleep. Good wench, let's sit down quiet, + For fear we wake her. Softly, gentle Patience. + + THE VISION. + + Enter, solemnly tripping one after another, six + PERSONAGES clad in white robes, wearing on their + heads garlands of bays, and golden vizards on their + faces; branches of bays or palm in their hands. They + first congee unto her, then dance; and, at certain + changes, the first two hold a spare garland over her + head, at which the other four make reverent curtsies. + Then the two that held the garland deliver the + same to the other next two, who observe the same + order in their changes, and holding the garland over + her head; which done, they deliver the same garland + to the last two, who likewise observe the same order; + at which, as it were by inspiration, she makes + in her sleep signs of rejoicing, and holdeth up her + hands to heaven. And so in their dancing vanish, + carrying the garland with them. The music continues + + KATHARINE. Spirits of peace, where are ye? Are ye all gone? + And leave me here in wretchedness behind ye? + GRIFFITH. Madam, we are here. + KATHARINE. It is not you I call for. + Saw ye none enter since I slept? + GRIFFITH. None, madam. + KATHARINE. No? Saw you not, even now, a blessed troop + Invite me to a banquet; whose bright faces + Cast thousand beams upon me, like the sun? + They promis'd me eternal happiness, + And brought me garlands, Griffith, which I feel + I am not worthy yet to wear. I shall, assuredly. + GRIFFITH. I am most joyful, madam, such good dreams + Possess your fancy. + KATHARINE. Bid the music leave, + They are harsh and heavy to me. [Music ceases] + PATIENCE. Do you note + How much her Grace is alter'd on the sudden? + How long her face is drawn! How pale she looks, + And of an earthly cold! Mark her eyes. + GRIFFITH. She is going, wench. Pray, pray. + PATIENCE. Heaven comfort her! + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. An't like your Grace- + KATHARINE. You are a saucy fellow. + Deserve we no more reverence? + GRIFFITH. You are to blame, + Knowing she will not lose her wonted greatness, + To use so rude behaviour. Go to, kneel. + MESSENGER. I humbly do entreat your Highness' pardon; + My haste made me unmannerly. There is staying + A gentleman, sent from the King, to see you. + KATHARINE. Admit him entrance, Griffith; but this fellow + Let me ne'er see again. Exit MESSENGER + + Enter LORD CAPUCIUS + + If my sight fail not, + You should be Lord Ambassador from the Emperor, + My royal nephew, and your name Capucius. + CAPUCIUS. Madam, the same-your servant. + KATHARINE. O, my Lord, + The times and titles now are alter'd strangely + With me since first you knew me. But, I pray you, + What is your pleasure with me? + CAPUCIUS. Noble lady, + First, mine own service to your Grace; the next, + The King's request that I would visit you, + Who grieves much for your weakness, and by me + Sends you his princely commendations + And heartily entreats you take good comfort. + KATHARINE. O my good lord, that comfort comes too late, + 'Tis like a pardon after execution: + That gentle physic, given in time, had cur'd me; + But now I am past all comforts here, but prayers. + How does his Highness? + CAPUCIUS. Madam, in good health. + KATHARINE. So may he ever do! and ever flourish + When I shall dwell with worms, and my poor name + Banish'd the kingdom! Patience, is that letter + I caus'd you write yet sent away? + PATIENCE. No, madam. [Giving it to KATHARINE] + KATHARINE. Sir, I most humbly pray you to deliver + This to my lord the King. + CAPUCIUS. Most willing, madam. + KATHARINE. In which I have commended to his goodness + The model of our chaste loves, his young daughter- + The dews of heaven fall thick in blessings on her!- + Beseeching him to give her virtuous breeding- + She is young, and of a noble modest nature; + I hope she will deserve well-and a little + To love her for her mother's sake, that lov'd him, + Heaven knows how dearly. My next poor petition + Is that his noble Grace would have some pity + Upon my wretched women that so long + Have follow'd both my fortunes faithfully; + Of which there is not one, I dare avow- + And now I should not lie-but will deserve, + For virtue and true beauty of the soul, + For honesty and decent carriage, + A right good husband, let him be a noble; + And sure those men are happy that shall have 'em. + The last is for my men-they are the poorest, + But poverty could never draw 'em from me- + That they may have their wages duly paid 'em, + And something over to remember me by. + If heaven had pleas'd to have given me longer life + And able means, we had not parted thus. + These are the whole contents; and, good my lord, + By that you love the dearest in this world, + As you wish Christian peace to souls departed, + Stand these poor people's friend, and urge the King + To do me this last right. + CAPUCIUS. By heaven, I will, + Or let me lose the fashion of a man! + KATHARINE. I thank you, honest lord. Remember me + In all humility unto his Highness; + Say his long trouble now is passing + Out of this world. Tell him in death I bless'd him, + For so I will. Mine eyes grow dim. Farewell, + My lord. Griffith, farewell. Nay, Patience, + You must not leave me yet. I must to bed; + Call in more women. When I am dead, good wench, + Let me be us'd with honour; strew me over + With maiden flowers, that all the world may know + I was a chaste wife to my grave. Embalm me, + Then lay me forth; although unqueen'd, yet like + A queen, and daughter to a king, inter me. + I can no more. Exeunt, leading KATHARINE + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE 1. + +London. A gallery in the palace + +Enter GARDINER, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, a PAGE with a torch before him, +met by SIR THOMAS LOVELL + + GARDINER. It's one o'clock, boy, is't not? + BOY. It hath struck. + GARDINER. These should be hours for necessities, + Not for delights; times to repair our nature + With comforting repose, and not for us + To waste these times. Good hour of night, Sir Thomas! + Whither so late? + LOVELL. Came you from the King, my lord? + GARDINER. I did, Sir Thomas, and left him at primero + With the Duke of Suffolk. + LOVELL. I must to him too, + Before he go to bed. I'll take my leave. + GARDINER. Not yet, Sir Thomas Lovell. What's the matter? + It seems you are in haste. An if there be + No great offence belongs to't, give your friend + Some touch of your late business. Affairs that walk- + As they say spirits do-at midnight, have + In them a wilder nature than the business + That seeks despatch by day. + LOVELL. My lord, I love you; + And durst commend a secret to your ear + Much weightier than this work. The Queen's in labour, + They say in great extremity, and fear'd + She'll with the labour end. + GARDINER. The fruit she goes with + I pray for heartily, that it may find + Good time, and live; but for the stock, Sir Thomas, + I wish it grubb'd up now. + LOVELL. Methinks I could + Cry thee amen; and yet my conscience says + She's a good creature, and, sweet lady, does + Deserve our better wishes. + GARDINER. But, sir, sir- + Hear me, Sir Thomas. Y'are a gentleman + Of mine own way; I know you wise, religious; + And, let me tell you, it will ne'er be well- + 'Twill not, Sir Thomas Lovell, take't of me- + Till Cranmer, Cromwell, her two hands, and she, + Sleep in their graves. + LOVELL. Now, sir, you speak of two + The most remark'd i' th' kingdom. As for Cromwell, + Beside that of the Jewel House, is made Master + O' th' Rolls, and the King's secretary; further, sir, + Stands in the gap and trade of moe preferments, + With which the time will load him. Th' Archbishop + Is the King's hand and tongue, and who dare speak + One syllable against him? + GARDINER. Yes, yes, Sir Thomas, + There are that dare; and I myself have ventur'd + To speak my mind of him; and indeed this day, + Sir-I may tell it you-I think I have + Incens'd the lords o' th' Council, that he is- + For so I know he is, they know he is- + A most arch heretic, a pestilence + That does infect the land; with which they moved + Have broken with the King, who hath so far + Given ear to our complaint-of his great grace + And princely care, foreseeing those fell mischiefs + Our reasons laid before him-hath commanded + To-morrow morning to the Council board + He be convented. He's a rank weed, Sir Thomas, + And we must root him out. From your affairs + I hinder you too long-good night, Sir Thomas. + LOVELL. Many good nights, my lord; I rest your servant. + Exeunt GARDINER and PAGE + + Enter the KING and the DUKE OF SUFFOLK + + KING. Charles, I will play no more to-night; + My mind's not on't; you are too hard for me. + SUFFOLK. Sir, I did never win of you before. + KING. But little, Charles; + Nor shall not, when my fancy's on my play. + Now, Lovell, from the Queen what is the news? + LOVELL. I could not personally deliver to her + What you commanded me, but by her woman + I sent your message; who return'd her thanks + In the great'st humbleness, and desir'd your Highness + Most heartily to pray for her. + KING. What say'st thou, ha? + To pray for her? What, is she crying out? + LOVELL. So said her woman; and that her suff'rance made + Almost each pang a death. + KING. Alas, good lady! + SUFFOLK. God safely quit her of her burden, and + With gentle travail, to the gladding of + Your Highness with an heir! + KING. 'Tis midnight, Charles; + Prithee to bed; and in thy pray'rs remember + Th' estate of my poor queen. Leave me alone, + For I must think of that which company + Will not be friendly to. + SUFFOLK. I wish your Highness + A quiet night, and my good mistress will + Remember in my prayers. + KING. Charles, good night. Exit SUFFOLK + + Enter SIR ANTHONY DENNY + + Well, sir, what follows? + DENNY. Sir, I have brought my lord the Archbishop, + As you commanded me. + KING. Ha! Canterbury? + DENNY. Ay, my good lord. + KING. 'Tis true. Where is he, Denny? + DENNY. He attends your Highness' pleasure. + KING. Bring him to us. Exit DENNY + LOVELL. [Aside] This is about that which the bishop spake. + I am happily come hither. + + Re-enter DENNY, With CRANMER + + KING. Avoid the gallery. [LOVELL seems to stay] + Ha! I have said. Be gone. + What! Exeunt LOVELL and DENNY + CRANMER. [Aside] I am fearful-wherefore frowns he thus? + 'Tis his aspect of terror. All's not well. + KING. How now, my lord? You do desire to know + Wherefore I sent for you. + CRANMER. [Kneeling] It is my duty + T'attend your Highness' pleasure. + KING. Pray you, arise, + My good and gracious Lord of Canterbury. + Come, you and I must walk a turn together; + I have news to tell you; come, come, me your hand. + Ah, my good lord, I grieve at what I speak, + And am right sorry to repeat what follows. + I have, and most unwillingly, of late + Heard many grievous-I do say, my lord, + Grievous-complaints of you; which, being consider'd, + Have mov'd us and our Council that you shall + This morning come before us; where I know + You cannot with such freedom purge yourself + But that, till further trial in those charges + Which will require your answer, you must take + Your patience to you and be well contented + To make your house our Tow'r. You a brother of us, + It fits we thus proceed, or else no witness + Would come against you. + CRANMER. I humbly thank your Highness + And am right glad to catch this good occasion + Most throughly to be winnowed where my chaff + And corn shall fly asunder; for I know + There's none stands under more calumnious tongues + Than I myself, poor man. + KING. Stand up, good Canterbury; + Thy truth and thy integrity is rooted + In us, thy friend. Give me thy hand, stand up; + Prithee let's walk. Now, by my holidame, + What manner of man are you? My lord, I look'd + You would have given me your petition that + I should have ta'en some pains to bring together + Yourself and your accusers, and to have heard you + Without indurance further. + CRANMER. Most dread liege, + The good I stand on is my truth and honesty; + If they shall fail, I with mine enemies + Will triumph o'er my person; which I weigh not, + Being of those virtues vacant. I fear nothing + What can be said against me. + KING. Know you not + How your state stands i' th' world, with the whole world? + Your enemies are many, and not small; their practices + Must bear the same proportion; and not ever + The justice and the truth o' th' question carries + The due o' th' verdict with it; at what ease + Might corrupt minds procure knaves as corrupt + To swear against you? Such things have been done. + You are potently oppos'd, and with a malice + Of as great size. Ween you of better luck, + I mean in perjur'd witness, than your Master, + Whose minister you are, whiles here He liv'd + Upon this naughty earth? Go to, go to; + You take a precipice for no leap of danger, + And woo your own destruction. + CRANMER. God and your Majesty + Protect mine innocence, or I fall into + The trap is laid for me! + KING. Be of good cheer; + They shall no more prevail than we give way to. + Keep comfort to you, and this morning see + You do appear before them; if they shall chance, + In charging you with matters, to commit you, + The best persuasions to the contrary + Fail not to use, and with what vehemency + Th' occasion shall instruct you. If entreaties + Will render you no remedy, this ring + Deliver them, and your appeal to us + There make before them. Look, the good man weeps! + He's honest, on mine honour. God's blest Mother! + I swear he is true-hearted, and a soul + None better in my kingdom. Get you gone, + And do as I have bid you. + Exit CRANMER + He has strangled his language in his tears. + + Enter OLD LADY + + GENTLEMAN. [Within] Come back; what mean you? + OLD LADY. I'll not come back; the tidings that I bring + Will make my boldness manners. Now, good angels + Fly o'er thy royal head, and shade thy person + Under their blessed wings! + KING. Now, by thy looks + I guess thy message. Is the Queen deliver'd? + Say ay, and of a boy. + OLD LADY. Ay, ay, my liege; + And of a lovely boy. The God of Heaven + Both now and ever bless her! 'Tis a girl, + Promises boys hereafter. Sir, your queen + Desires your visitation, and to be + Acquainted with this stranger; 'tis as like you + As cherry is to cherry. + KING. Lovell! + + Enter LOVELL + + LOVELL. Sir? + KING. Give her an hundred marks. I'll to the Queen. Exit + OLD LADY. An hundred marks? By this light, I'll ha' more! + An ordinary groom is for such payment. + I will have more, or scold it out of him. + Said I for this the girl was like to him! I'll + Have more, or else unsay't; and now, while 'tis hot, + I'll put it to the issue. Exeunt + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 2. + +Lobby before the Council Chamber + +Enter CRANMER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY + + CRANMER. I hope I am not too late; and yet the gentleman + That was sent to me from the Council pray'd me + To make great haste. All fast? What means this? Ho! + Who waits there? Sure you know me? + + Enter KEEPER + + KEEPER. Yes, my lord; + But yet I cannot help you. + CRANMER. Why? + KEEPER. Your Grace must wait till you be call'd for. + + Enter DOCTOR BUTTS + + CRANMER. So. + BUTTS. [Aside] This is a piece of malice. I am glad + I came this way so happily; the King + Shall understand it presently. Exit + CRANMER. [Aside] 'Tis Butts, + The King's physician; as he pass'd along, + How earnestly he cast his eyes upon me! + Pray heaven he sound not my disgrace! For certain, + This is of purpose laid by some that hate me- + God turn their hearts! I never sought their malice- + To quench mine honour; they would shame to make me + Wait else at door, a fellow councillor, + 'Mong boys, grooms, and lackeys. But their pleasures + Must be fulfill'd, and I attend with patience. + + Enter the KING and BUTTS at window above + + BUTTS. I'll show your Grace the strangest sight- + KING. What's that, Butts? + BUTTS. I think your Highness saw this many a day. + KING. Body a me, where is it? + BUTTS. There my lord: + The high promotion of his Grace of Canterbury; + Who holds his state at door, 'mongst pursuivants, + Pages, and footboys. + KING. Ha, 'tis he indeed. + Is this the honour they do one another? + 'Tis well there's one above 'em yet. I had thought + They had parted so much honesty among 'em- + At least good manners-as not thus to suffer + A man of his place, and so near our favour, + To dance attendance on their lordships' pleasures, + And at the door too, like a post with packets. + By holy Mary, Butts, there's knavery! + Let 'em alone, and draw the curtain close; + We shall hear more anon. Exeunt + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 3. + +The Council Chamber + +A Council table brought in, with chairs and stools, and placed +under the state. Enter LORD CHANCELLOR, places himself at the upper end +of the table on the left band, a seat being left void above him, +as for Canterbury's seat. DUKE OF SUFFOLK, DUKE OF NORFOLK, SURREY, +LORD CHAMBERLAIN, GARDINER, seat themselves in order on each side; +CROMWELL at lower end, as secretary. KEEPER at the door + + CHANCELLOR. Speak to the business, master secretary; + Why are we met in council? + CROMWELL. Please your honours, + The chief cause concerns his Grace of Canterbury. + GARDINER. Has he had knowledge of it? + CROMWELL. Yes. + NORFOLK. Who waits there? + KEEPER. Without, my noble lords? + GARDINER. Yes. + KEEPER. My Lord Archbishop; + And has done half an hour, to know your pleasures. + CHANCELLOR. Let him come in. + KEEPER. Your Grace may enter now. + + CRANMER approaches the Council table + + CHANCELLOR. My good Lord Archbishop, I am very sorry + To sit here at this present, and behold + That chair stand empty; but we all are men, + In our own natures frail and capable + Of our flesh; few are angels; out of which frailty + And want of wisdom, you, that best should teach us, + Have misdemean'd yourself, and not a little, + Toward the King first, then his laws, in filling + The whole realm by your teaching and your chaplains- + For so we are inform'd-with new opinions, + Divers and dangerous; which are heresies, + And, not reform'd, may prove pernicious. + GARDINER. Which reformation must be sudden too, + My noble lords; for those that tame wild horses + Pace 'em not in their hands to make 'em gentle, + But stop their mouth with stubborn bits and spur 'em + Till they obey the manage. If we suffer, + Out of our easiness and childish pity + To one man's honour, this contagious sickness, + Farewell all physic; and what follows then? + Commotions, uproars, with a general taint + Of the whole state; as of late days our neighbours, + The upper Germany, can dearly witness, + Yet freshly pitied in our memories. + CRANMER. My good lords, hitherto in all the progress + Both of my life and office, I have labour'd, + And with no little study, that my teaching + And the strong course of my authority + Might go one way, and safely; and the end + Was ever to do well. Nor is there living- + I speak it with a single heart, my lords- + A man that more detests, more stirs against, + Both in his private conscience and his place, + Defacers of a public peace than I do. + Pray heaven the King may never find a heart + With less allegiance in it! Men that make + Envy and crooked malice nourishment + Dare bite the best. I do beseech your lordships + That, in this case of justice, my accusers, + Be what they will, may stand forth face to face + And freely urge against me. + SUFFOLK. Nay, my lord, + That cannot be; you are a councillor, + And by that virtue no man dare accuse you. + GARDINER. My lord, because we have business of more moment, + We will be short with you. 'Tis his Highness' pleasure + And our consent, for better trial of you, + From hence you be committed to the Tower; + Where, being but a private man again, + You shall know many dare accuse you boldly, + More than, I fear, you are provided for. + CRANMER. Ah, my good Lord of Winchester, I thank you; + You are always my good friend; if your will pass, + I shall both find your lordship judge and juror, + You are so merciful. I see your end- + 'Tis my undoing. Love and meekness, lord, + Become a churchman better than ambition; + Win straying souls with modesty again, + Cast none away. That I shall clear myself, + Lay all the weight ye can upon my patience, + I make as little doubt as you do conscience + In doing daily wrongs. I could say more, + But reverence to your calling makes me modest. + GARDINER. My lord, my lord, you are a sectary; + That's the plain truth. Your painted gloss discovers, + To men that understand you, words and weakness. + CROMWELL. My Lord of Winchester, y'are a little, + By your good favour, too sharp; men so noble, + However faulty, yet should find respect + For what they have been; 'tis a cruelty + To load a falling man. + GARDINER. Good Master Secretary, + I cry your honour mercy; you may, worst + Of all this table, say so. + CROMWELL. Why, my lord? + GARDINER. Do not I know you for a favourer + Of this new sect? Ye are not sound. + CROMWELL. Not sound? + GARDINER. Not sound, I say. + CROMWELL. Would you were half so honest! + Men's prayers then would seek you, not their fears. + GARDINER. I shall remember this bold language. + CROMWELL. Do. + Remember your bold life too. + CHANCELLOR. This is too much; + Forbear, for shame, my lords. + GARDINER. I have done. + CROMWELL. And I. + CHANCELLOR. Then thus for you, my lord: it stands agreed, + I take it, by all voices, that forthwith + You be convey'd to th' Tower a prisoner; + There to remain till the King's further pleasure + Be known unto us. Are you all agreed, lords? + ALL. We are. + CRANMER. Is there no other way of mercy, + But I must needs to th' Tower, my lords? + GARDINER. What other + Would you expect? You are strangely troublesome. + Let some o' th' guard be ready there. + + Enter the guard + + CRANMER. For me? + Must I go like a traitor thither? + GARDINER. Receive him, + And see him safe i' th' Tower. + CRANMER. Stay, good my lords, + I have a little yet to say. Look there, my lords; + By virtue of that ring I take my cause + Out of the gripes of cruel men and give it + To a most noble judge, the King my master. + CHAMBERLAIN. This is the King's ring. + SURREY. 'Tis no counterfeit. + SUFFOLK. 'Tis the right ring, by heav'n. I told ye all, + When we first put this dangerous stone a-rolling, + 'Twould fall upon ourselves. + NORFOLK. Do you think, my lords, + The King will suffer but the little finger + Of this man to be vex'd? + CHAMBERLAIN. 'Tis now too certain; + How much more is his life in value with him! + Would I were fairly out on't! + CROMWELL. My mind gave me, + In seeking tales and informations + Against this man-whose honesty the devil + And his disciples only envy at- + Ye blew the fire that burns ye. Now have at ye! + + Enter the KING frowning on them; he takes his seat + + GARDINER. Dread sovereign, how much are we bound to heaven + In daily thanks, that gave us such a prince; + Not only good and wise but most religious; + One that in all obedience makes the church + The chief aim of his honour and, to strengthen + That holy duty, out of dear respect, + His royal self in judgment comes to hear + The cause betwixt her and this great offender. + KING. You were ever good at sudden commendations, + Bishop of Winchester. But know I come not + To hear such flattery now, and in my presence + They are too thin and bare to hide offences. + To me you cannot reach you play the spaniel, + And think with wagging of your tongue to win me; + But whatsoe'er thou tak'st me for, I'm sure + Thou hast a cruel nature and a bloody. + [To CRANMER] Good man, sit down. Now let me see the proudest + He that dares most but wag his finger at thee. + By all that's holy, he had better starve + Than but once think this place becomes thee not. + SURREY. May it please your Grace- + KING. No, sir, it does not please me. + I had thought I had had men of some understanding + And wisdom of my Council; but I find none. + Was it discretion, lords, to let this man, + This good man-few of you deserve that title- + This honest man, wait like a lousy footboy + At chamber door? and one as great as you are? + Why, what a shame was this! Did my commission + Bid ye so far forget yourselves? I gave ye + Power as he was a councillor to try him, + Not as a groom. There's some of ye, I see, + More out of malice than integrity, + Would try him to the utmost, had ye mean; + Which ye shall never have while I live. + CHANCELLOR. Thus far, + My most dread sovereign, may it like your Grace + To let my tongue excuse all. What was purpos'd + concerning his imprisonment was rather- + If there be faith in men-meant for his trial + And fair purgation to the world, than malice, + I'm sure, in me. + KING. Well, well, my lords, respect him; + Take him, and use him well, he's worthy of it. + I will say thus much for him: if a prince + May be beholding to a subject, + Am for his love and service so to him. + Make me no more ado, but all embrace him; + Be friends, for shame, my lords! My Lord of Canterbury, + I have a suit which you must not deny me: + That is, a fair young maid that yet wants baptism; + You must be godfather, and answer for her. + CRANMER. The greatest monarch now alive may glory + In such an honour; how may I deserve it, + That am a poor and humble subject to you? + KING. Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your spoons. You + shall have + Two noble partners with you: the old Duchess of Norfolk + And Lady Marquis Dorset. Will these please you? + Once more, my Lord of Winchester, I charge you, + Embrace and love this man. + GARDINER. With a true heart + And brother-love I do it. + CRANMER. And let heaven + Witness how dear I hold this confirmation. + KING. Good man, those joyful tears show thy true heart. + The common voice, I see, is verified + Of thee, which says thus: 'Do my Lord of Canterbury + A shrewd turn and he's your friend for ever.' + Come, lords, we trifle time away; I long + To have this young one made a Christian. + As I have made ye one, lords, one remain; + So I grow stronger, you more honour gain. Exeunt + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 4. + +The palace yard + +Noise and tumult within. Enter PORTER and his MAN + + PORTER. You'll leave your noise anon, ye rascals. Do you + take the court for Paris garden? Ye rude slaves, leave your + gaping. + [Within: Good master porter, I belong to th' larder.] + PORTER. Belong to th' gallows, and be hang'd, ye rogue! Is + this a place to roar in? Fetch me a dozen crab-tree staves, + and strong ones; these are but switches to 'em. I'll scratch + your heads. You must be seeing christenings? Do you look + for ale and cakes here, you rude rascals? + MAN. Pray, sir, be patient; 'tis as much impossible, + Unless we sweep 'em from the door with cannons, + To scatter 'em as 'tis to make 'em sleep + On May-day morning; which will never be. + We may as well push against Paul's as stir 'em. + PORTER. How got they in, and be hang'd? + MAN. Alas, I know not: how gets the tide in? + As much as one sound cudgel of four foot- + You see the poor remainder-could distribute, + I made no spare, sir. + PORTER. You did nothing, sir. + MAN. I am not Samson, nor Sir Guy, nor Colbrand, + To mow 'em down before me; but if I spar'd any + That had a head to hit, either young or old, + He or she, cuckold or cuckold-maker, + Let me ne'er hope to see a chine again; + And that I would not for a cow, God save her! + [ Within: Do you hear, master porter?] + PORTER. I shall be with you presently, good master puppy. + Keep the door close, sirrah. + MAN. What would you have me do? + PORTER. What should you do, but knock 'em down by th' + dozens? Is this Moorfields to muster in? Or have we some + strange Indian with the great tool come to court, the + women so besiege us? Bless me, what a fry of fornication + is at door! On my Christian conscience, this one christening + will beget a thousand: here will be father, godfather, + and all together. + MAN. The spoons will be the bigger, sir. There is a fellow + somewhat near the door, he should be a brazier by his + face, for, o' my conscience, twenty of the dog-days now + reign in's nose; all that stand about him are under the line, + they need no other penance. That fire-drake did I hit three + times on the head, and three times was his nose discharged + against me; he stands there like a mortar-piece, to blow us. + There was a haberdasher's wife of small wit near him, that + rail'd upon me till her pink'd porringer fell off her head, + for kindling such a combustion in the state. I miss'd the + meteor once, and hit that woman, who cried out 'Clubs!' + when I might see from far some forty truncheoners draw + to her succour, which were the hope o' th' Strand, where + she was quartered. They fell on; I made good my place. + At length they came to th' broomstaff to me; I defied 'em + still; when suddenly a file of boys behind 'em, loose shot, + deliver'd such a show'r of pebbles that I was fain to draw + mine honour in and let 'em win the work: the devil was + amongst 'em, I think surely. + PORTER. These are the youths that thunder at a playhouse + and fight for bitten apples; that no audience but the tribulation + of Tower-hill or the limbs of Limehouse, their dear + brothers, are able to endure. I have some of 'em in Limbo + Patrum, and there they are like to dance these three days; + besides the running banquet of two beadles that is to come. + + Enter the LORD CHAMBERLAIN + + CHAMBERLAIN. Mercy o' me, what a multitude are here! + They grow still too; from all parts they are coming, + As if we kept a fair here! Where are these porters, + These lazy knaves? Y'have made a fine hand, fellows. + There's a trim rabble let in: are all these + Your faithful friends o' th' suburbs? We shall have + Great store of room, no doubt, left for the ladies, + When they pass back from the christening. + PORTER. An't please your honour, + We are but men; and what so many may do, + Not being torn a pieces, we have done. + An army cannot rule 'em. + CHAMBERLAIN. As I live, + If the King blame me for't, I'll lay ye an + By th' heels, and suddenly; and on your heads + Clap round fines for neglect. Y'are lazy knaves; + And here ye lie baiting of bombards, when + Ye should do service. Hark! the trumpets sound; + Th' are come already from the christening. + Go break among the press and find a way out + To let the troops pass fairly, or I'll find + A Marshalsea shall hold ye play these two months. + PORTER. Make way there for the Princess. + MAN. You great fellow, + Stand close up, or I'll make your head ache. + PORTER. You i' th' camlet, get up o' th' rail; + I'll peck you o'er the pales else. Exeunt + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 5. + +The palace + +Enter TRUMPETS, sounding; then two ALDERMEN, LORD MAYOR, GARTER, CRANMER, +DUKE OF NORFOLK, with his marshal's staff, DUKE OF SUFFOLK, +two Noblemen bearing great standing-bowls for the christening gifts; +then four Noblemen bearing a canopy, under which the DUCHESS OF NORFOLK, +godmother, bearing the CHILD richly habited in a mantle, etc., +train borne by a LADY; then follows the MARCHIONESS DORSET, +the other godmother, and LADIES. The troop pass once about the stage, +and GARTER speaks + + GARTER. Heaven, from thy endless goodness, send prosperous + life, long and ever-happy, to the high and mighty + Princess of England, Elizabeth! + + Flourish. Enter KING and guard + + CRANMER. [Kneeling] And to your royal Grace and the + good Queen! + My noble partners and myself thus pray: + All comfort, joy, in this most gracious lady, + Heaven ever laid up to make parents happy, + May hourly fall upon ye! + KING. Thank you, good Lord Archbishop. + What is her name? + CRANMER. Elizabeth. + KING. Stand up, lord. [The KING kisses the child] + With this kiss take my blessing: God protect thee! + Into whose hand I give thy life. + CRANMER. Amen. + KING. My noble gossips, y'have been too prodigal; + I thank ye heartily. So shall this lady, + When she has so much English. + CRANMER. Let me speak, sir, + For heaven now bids me; and the words I utter + Let none think flattery, for they'll find 'em truth. + This royal infant-heaven still move about her!- + Though in her cradle, yet now promises + Upon this land a thousand blessings, + Which time shall bring to ripeness. She shall be- + But few now living can behold that goodness- + A pattern to all princes living with her, + And all that shall succeed. Saba was never + More covetous of wisdom and fair virtue + Than this pure soul shall be. All princely graces + That mould up such a mighty piece as this is, + With all the virtues that attend the good, + Shall still be doubled on her. Truth shall nurse her, + Holy and heavenly thoughts still counsel her; + She shall be lov'd and fear'd. Her own shall bless her: + Her foes shake like a field of beaten corn, + And hang their heads with sorrow. Good grows with her; + In her days every man shall eat in safety + Under his own vine what he plants, and sing + The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours. + God shall be truly known; and those about her + From her shall read the perfect ways of honour, + And by those claim their greatness, not by blood. + Nor shall this peace sleep with her; but as when + The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix + Her ashes new create another heir + As great in admiration as herself, + So shall she leave her blessedness to one- + When heaven shall call her from this cloud of darkness- + Who from the sacred ashes of her honour + Shall star-like rise, as great in fame as she was, + And so stand fix'd. Peace, plenty, love, truth, terror, + That were the servants to this chosen infant, + Shall then be his, and like a vine grow to him; + Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine, + His honour and the greatness of his name + Shall be, and make new nations; he shall flourish, + And like a mountain cedar reach his branches + To all the plains about him; our children's children + Shall see this and bless heaven. + KING. Thou speakest wonders. + CRANMER. She shall be, to the happiness of England, + An aged princess; many days shall see her, + And yet no day without a deed to crown it. + Would I had known no more! But she must die- + She must, the saints must have her-yet a virgin; + A most unspotted lily shall she pass + To th' ground, and all the world shall mourn her. + KING. O Lord Archbishop, + Thou hast made me now a man; never before + This happy child did I get anything. + This oracle of comfort has so pleas'd me + That when I am in heaven I shall desire + To see what this child does, and praise my Maker. + I thank ye all. To you, my good Lord Mayor, + And you, good brethren, I am much beholding; + I have receiv'd much honour by your presence, + And ye shall find me thankful. Lead the way, lords; + Ye must all see the Queen, and she must thank ye, + She will be sick else. This day, no man think + Has business at his house; for all shall stay. + This little one shall make it holiday. Exeunt + +KING_HENRY_VIII|EPILOGUE + THE EPILOGUE. + + 'Tis ten to one this play can never please + All that are here. Some come to take their ease + And sleep an act or two; but those, we fear, + W'have frighted with our trumpets; so, 'tis clear, + They'll say 'tis nought; others to hear the city + Abus'd extremely, and to cry 'That's witty!' + Which we have not done neither; that, I fear, + All the expected good w'are like to hear + For this play at this time is only in + The merciful construction of good women; + For such a one we show'd 'em. If they smile + And say 'twill do, I know within a while + All the best men are ours; for 'tis ill hap + If they hold when their ladies bid 'em clap. + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1597 + +KING JOHN + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + KING JOHN + PRINCE HENRY, his son + ARTHUR, DUKE OF BRITAINE, son of Geffrey, late Duke of + Britaine, the elder brother of King John + EARL OF PEMBROKE + EARL OF ESSEX + EARL OF SALISBURY + LORD BIGOT + HUBERT DE BURGH + ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, son to Sir Robert Faulconbridge + PHILIP THE BASTARD, his half-brother + JAMES GURNEY, servant to Lady Faulconbridge + PETER OF POMFRET, a prophet + + KING PHILIP OF FRANCE + LEWIS, the Dauphin + LYMOGES, Duke of Austria + CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's legate + MELUN, a French lord + CHATILLON, ambassador from France to King John + + QUEEN ELINOR, widow of King Henry II and mother to + King John + CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur + BLANCH OF SPAIN, daughter to the King of Castile + and niece to King John + LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, widow of Sir Robert Faulconbridge + + Lords, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff, Heralds, Officers, + Soldiers, Executioners, Messengers, Attendants + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +England and France + + + +ACT I. SCENE 1 + +KING JOHN's palace + +Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELINOR, PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, +with CHATILLON + + KING JOHN. Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us? + CHATILLON. Thus, after greeting, speaks the King of France + In my behaviour to the majesty, + The borrowed majesty, of England here. + ELINOR. A strange beginning- 'borrowed majesty'! + KING JOHN. Silence, good mother; hear the embassy. + CHATILLON. Philip of France, in right and true behalf + Of thy deceased brother Geffrey's son, + Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim + To this fair island and the territories, + To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine, + Desiring thee to lay aside the sword + Which sways usurpingly these several titles, + And put the same into young Arthur's hand, + Thy nephew and right royal sovereign. + KING JOHN. What follows if we disallow of this? + CHATILLON. The proud control of fierce and bloody war, + To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld. + KING JOHN. Here have we war for war, and blood for blood, + Controlment for controlment- so answer France. + CHATILLON. Then take my king's defiance from my mouth- + The farthest limit of my embassy. + KING JOHN. Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace; + Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France; + For ere thou canst report I will be there, + The thunder of my cannon shall be heard. + So hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath + And sullen presage of your own decay. + An honourable conduct let him have- + Pembroke, look to 't. Farewell, Chatillon. + Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBROKE + ELINOR. What now, my son! Have I not ever said + How that ambitious Constance would not cease + Till she had kindled France and all the world + Upon the right and party of her son? + This might have been prevented and made whole + With very easy arguments of love, + Which now the manage of two kingdoms must + With fearful bloody issue arbitrate. + KING JOHN. Our strong possession and our right for us! + ELINOR. Your strong possession much more than your right, + Or else it must go wrong with you and me; + So much my conscience whispers in your ear, + Which none but heaven and you and I shall hear. + + Enter a SHERIFF + + ESSEX. My liege, here is the strangest controversy + Come from the country to be judg'd by you + That e'er I heard. Shall I produce the men? + KING JOHN. Let them approach. Exit SHERIFF + Our abbeys and our priories shall pay + This expedition's charge. + + Enter ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE and PHILIP, his bastard + brother + + What men are you? + BASTARD. Your faithful subject I, a gentleman + Born in Northamptonshire, and eldest son, + As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge- + A soldier by the honour-giving hand + Of Coeur-de-lion knighted in the field. + KING JOHN. What art thou? + ROBERT. The son and heir to that same Faulconbridge. + KING JOHN. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir? + You came not of one mother then, it seems. + BASTARD. Most certain of one mother, mighty king- + That is well known- and, as I think, one father; + But for the certain knowledge of that truth + I put you o'er to heaven and to my mother. + Of that I doubt, as all men's children may. + ELINOR. Out on thee, rude man! Thou dost shame thy mother, + And wound her honour with this diffidence. + BASTARD. I, madam? No, I have no reason for it- + That is my brother's plea, and none of mine; + The which if he can prove, 'a pops me out + At least from fair five hundred pound a year. + Heaven guard my mother's honour and my land! + KING JOHN. A good blunt fellow. Why, being younger born, + Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance? + BASTARD. I know not why, except to get the land. + But once he slander'd me with bastardy; + But whe'er I be as true begot or no, + That still I lay upon my mother's head; + But that I am as well begot, my liege- + Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!- + Compare our faces and be judge yourself. + If old Sir Robert did beget us both + And were our father, and this son like him- + O old Sir Robert, father, on my knee + I give heaven thanks I was not like to thee! + KING JOHN. Why, what a madcap hath heaven lent us here! + ELINOR. He hath a trick of Coeur-de-lion's face; + The accent of his tongue affecteth him. + Do you not read some tokens of my son + In the large composition of this man? + KING JOHN. Mine eye hath well examined his parts + And finds them perfect Richard. Sirrah, speak, + What doth move you to claim your brother's land? + BASTARD. Because he hath a half-face, like my father. + With half that face would he have all my land: + A half-fac'd groat five hundred pound a year! + ROBERT. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd, + Your brother did employ my father much- + BASTARD. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land: + Your tale must be how he employ'd my mother. + ROBERT. And once dispatch'd him in an embassy + To Germany, there with the Emperor + To treat of high affairs touching that time. + Th' advantage of his absence took the King, + And in the meantime sojourn'd at my father's; + Where how he did prevail I shame to speak- + But truth is truth: large lengths of seas and shores + Between my father and my mother lay, + As I have heard my father speak himself, + When this same lusty gentleman was got. + Upon his death-bed he by will bequeath'd + His lands to me, and took it on his death + That this my mother's son was none of his; + And if he were, he came into the world + Full fourteen weeks before the course of time. + Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine, + My father's land, as was my father's will. + KING JOHN. Sirrah, your brother is legitimate: + Your father's wife did after wedlock bear him, + And if she did play false, the fault was hers; + Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands + That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother, + Who, as you say, took pains to get this son, + Had of your father claim'd this son for his? + In sooth, good friend, your father might have kept + This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world; + In sooth, he might; then, if he were my brother's, + My brother might not claim him; nor your father, + Being none of his, refuse him. This concludes: + My mother's son did get your father's heir; + Your father's heir must have your father's land. + ROBERT. Shall then my father's will be of no force + To dispossess that child which is not his? + BASTARD. Of no more force to dispossess me, sir, + Than was his will to get me, as I think. + ELINOR. Whether hadst thou rather be a Faulconbridge, + And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land, + Or the reputed son of Coeur-de-lion, + Lord of thy presence and no land beside? + BASTARD. Madam, an if my brother had my shape + And I had his, Sir Robert's his, like him; + And if my legs were two such riding-rods, + My arms such eel-skins stuff'd, my face so thin + That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose + Lest men should say 'Look where three-farthings goes!' + And, to his shape, were heir to all this land- + Would I might never stir from off this place, + I would give it every foot to have this face! + I would not be Sir Nob in any case. + ELINOR. I like thee well. Wilt thou forsake thy fortune, + Bequeath thy land to him and follow me? + I am a soldier and now bound to France. + BASTARD. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my chance. + Your face hath got five hundred pound a year, + Yet sell your face for fivepence and 'tis dear. + Madam, I'll follow you unto the death. + ELINOR. Nay, I would have you go before me thither. + BASTARD. Our country manners give our betters way. + KING JOHN. What is thy name? + BASTARD. Philip, my liege, so is my name begun: + Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest son. + KING JOHN. From henceforth bear his name whose form thou bearest: + Kneel thou down Philip, but rise more great- + Arise Sir Richard and Plantagenet. + BASTARD. Brother by th' mother's side, give me your hand; + My father gave me honour, yours gave land. + Now blessed be the hour, by night or day, + When I was got, Sir Robert was away! + ELINOR. The very spirit of Plantagenet! + I am thy grandam, Richard: call me so. + BASTARD. Madam, by chance, but not by truth; what though? + Something about, a little from the right, + In at the window, or else o'er the hatch; + Who dares not stir by day must walk by night; + And have is have, however men do catch. + Near or far off, well won is still well shot; + And I am I, howe'er I was begot. + KING JOHN. Go, Faulconbridge; now hast thou thy desire: + A landless knight makes thee a landed squire. + Come, madam, and come, Richard, we must speed + For France, for France, for it is more than need. + BASTARD. Brother, adieu. Good fortune come to thee! + For thou wast got i' th' way of honesty. + Exeunt all but the BASTARD + A foot of honour better than I was; + But many a many foot of land the worse. + Well, now can I make any Joan a lady. + 'Good den, Sir Richard!'-'God-a-mercy, fellow!' + And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter; + For new-made honour doth forget men's names: + 'Tis too respective and too sociable + For your conversion. Now your traveller, + He and his toothpick at my worship's mess- + And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd, + Why then I suck my teeth and catechize + My picked man of countries: 'My dear sir,' + Thus leaning on mine elbow I begin + 'I shall beseech you'-That is question now; + And then comes answer like an Absey book: + 'O sir,' says answer 'at your best command, + At your employment, at your service, sir!' + 'No, sir,' says question 'I, sweet sir, at yours.' + And so, ere answer knows what question would, + Saving in dialogue of compliment, + And talking of the Alps and Apennines, + The Pyrenean and the river Po- + It draws toward supper in conclusion so. + But this is worshipful society, + And fits the mounting spirit like myself; + For he is but a bastard to the time + That doth not smack of observation- + And so am I, whether I smack or no; + And not alone in habit and device, + Exterior form, outward accoutrement, + But from the inward motion to deliver + Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth; + Which, though I will not practise to deceive, + Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn; + For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising. + But who comes in such haste in riding-robes? + What woman-post is this? Hath she no husband + That will take pains to blow a horn before her? + + Enter LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, and JAMES GURNEY + + O me, 'tis my mother! How now, good lady! + What brings you here to court so hastily? + LADY FAULCONBRIDGE. Where is that slave, thy brother? + Where is he + That holds in chase mine honour up and down? + BASTARD. My brother Robert, old Sir Robert's son? + Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man? + Is it Sir Robert's son that you seek so? + LADY FAULCONBRIDGE. Sir Robert's son! Ay, thou unreverend boy, + Sir Robert's son! Why scorn'st thou at Sir Robert? + He is Sir Robert's son, and so art thou. + BASTARD. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave awhile? + GURNEY. Good leave, good Philip. + BASTARD. Philip-Sparrow! James, + There's toys abroad-anon I'll tell thee more. + Exit GURNEY + Madam, I was not old Sir Robert's son; + Sir Robert might have eat his part in me + Upon Good Friday, and ne'er broke his fast. + Sir Robert could do: well-marry, to confess- + Could he get me? Sir Robert could not do it: + We know his handiwork. Therefore, good mother, + To whom am I beholding for these limbs? + Sir Robert never holp to make this leg. + LADY FAULCONBRIDGE. Hast thou conspired with thy brother too, + That for thine own gain shouldst defend mine honour? + What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave? + BASTARD. Knight, knight, good mother, Basilisco-like. + What! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder. + But, mother, I am not Sir Robert's son: + I have disclaim'd Sir Robert and my land; + Legitimation, name, and all is gone. + Then, good my mother, let me know my father- + Some proper man, I hope. Who was it, mother? + LADY FAULCONBRIDGE. Hast thou denied thyself a Faulconbridge? + BASTARD. As faithfully as I deny the devil. + LADY FAULCONBRIDGE. King Richard Coeur-de-lion was thy father. + By long and vehement suit I was seduc'd + To make room for him in my husband's bed. + Heaven lay not my transgression to my charge! + Thou art the issue of my dear offence, + Which was so strongly urg'd past my defence. + BASTARD. Now, by this light, were I to get again, + Madam, I would not wish a better father. + Some sins do bear their privilege on earth, + And so doth yours: your fault was not your folly; + Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose, + Subjected tribute to commanding love, + Against whose fury and unmatched force + The aweless lion could not wage the fight + Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's hand. + He that perforce robs lions of their hearts + May easily win a woman's. Ay, my mother, + With all my heart I thank thee for my father! + Who lives and dares but say thou didst not well + When I was got, I'll send his soul to hell. + Come, lady, I will show thee to my kin; + And they shall say when Richard me begot, + If thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin. + Who says it was, he lies; I say 'twas not. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE 1 + +France. Before Angiers + +Enter, on one side, AUSTRIA and forces; on the other, KING PHILIP OF FRANCE, +LEWIS the Dauphin, CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and forces + + KING PHILIP. Before Angiers well met, brave Austria. + Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood, + Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart + And fought the holy wars in Palestine, + By this brave duke came early to his grave; + And for amends to his posterity, + At our importance hither is he come + To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf; + And to rebuke the usurpation + Of thy unnatural uncle, English John. + Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither. + ARTHUR. God shall forgive you Coeur-de-lion's death + The rather that you give his offspring life, + Shadowing their right under your wings of war. + I give you welcome with a powerless hand, + But with a heart full of unstained love; + Welcome before the gates of Angiers, Duke. + KING PHILIP. A noble boy! Who would not do thee right? + AUSTRIA. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss + As seal to this indenture of my love: + That to my home I will no more return + Till Angiers and the right thou hast in France, + Together with that pale, that white-fac'd shore, + Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides + And coops from other lands her islanders- + Even till that England, hedg'd in with the main, + That water-walled bulwark, still secure + And confident from foreign purposes- + Even till that utmost corner of the west + Salute thee for her king. Till then, fair boy, + Will I not think of home, but follow arms. + CONSTANCE. O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks, + Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength + To make a more requital to your love! + AUSTRIA. The peace of heaven is theirs that lift their swords + In such a just and charitable war. + KING PHILIP. Well then, to work! Our cannon shall be bent + Against the brows of this resisting town; + Call for our chiefest men of discipline, + To cull the plots of best advantages. + We'll lay before this town our royal bones, + Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen's blood, + But we will make it subject to this boy. + CONSTANCE. Stay for an answer to your embassy, + Lest unadvis'd you stain your swords with blood; + My Lord Chatillon may from England bring + That right in peace which here we urge in war, + And then we shall repent each drop of blood + That hot rash haste so indirectly shed. + + Enter CHATILLON + + KING PHILIP. A wonder, lady! Lo, upon thy wish, + Our messenger Chatillon is arriv'd. + What England says, say briefly, gentle lord; + We coldly pause for thee. Chatillon, speak. + CHATILLON. Then turn your forces from this paltry siege + And stir them up against a mightier task. + England, impatient of your just demands, + Hath put himself in arms. The adverse winds, + Whose leisure I have stay'd, have given him time + To land his legions all as soon as I; + His marches are expedient to this town, + His forces strong, his soldiers confident. + With him along is come the mother-queen, + An Ate, stirring him to blood and strife; + With her the Lady Blanch of Spain; + With them a bastard of the king's deceas'd; + And all th' unsettled humours of the land- + Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries, + With ladies' faces and fierce dragons' spleens- + Have sold their fortunes at their native homes, + Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs, + To make a hazard of new fortunes here. + In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits + Than now the English bottoms have waft o'er + Did never float upon the swelling tide + To do offence and scathe in Christendom. [Drum beats] + The interruption of their churlish drums + Cuts off more circumstance: they are at hand; + To parley or to fight, therefore prepare. + KING PHILIP. How much unlook'd for is this expedition! + AUSTRIA. By how much unexpected, by so much + We must awake endeavour for defence, + For courage mounteth with occasion. + Let them be welcome then; we are prepar'd. + + Enter KING JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, the BASTARD, + PEMBROKE, and others + + KING JOHN. Peace be to France, if France in peace permit + Our just and lineal entrance to our own! + If not, bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven, + Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct + Their proud contempt that beats His peace to heaven! + KING PHILIP. Peace be to England, if that war return + From France to England, there to live in peace! + England we love, and for that England's sake + With burden of our armour here we sweat. + This toil of ours should be a work of thine; + But thou from loving England art so far + That thou hast under-wrought his lawful king, + Cut off the sequence of posterity, + Outfaced infant state, and done a rape + Upon the maiden virtue of the crown. + Look here upon thy brother Geffrey's face: + These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his; + This little abstract doth contain that large + Which died in Geffrey, and the hand of time + Shall draw this brief into as huge a volume. + That Geffrey was thy elder brother born, + And this his son; England was Geffrey's right, + And this is Geffrey's. In the name of God, + How comes it then that thou art call'd a king, + When living blood doth in these temples beat + Which owe the crown that thou o'er-masterest? + KING JOHN. From whom hast thou this great commission, France, + To draw my answer from thy articles? + KING PHILIP. From that supernal judge that stirs good thoughts + In any breast of strong authority + To look into the blots and stains of right. + That judge hath made me guardian to this boy, + Under whose warrant I impeach thy wrong, + And by whose help I mean to chastise it. + KING JOHN. Alack, thou dost usurp authority. + KING PHILIP. Excuse it is to beat usurping down. + ELINOR. Who is it thou dost call usurper, France? + CONSTANCE. Let me make answer: thy usurping son. + ELINOR. Out, insolent! Thy bastard shall be king, + That thou mayst be a queen and check the world! + CONSTANCE. My bed was ever to thy son as true + As thine was to thy husband; and this boy + Liker in feature to his father Geffrey + Than thou and John in manners-being as Eke + As rain to water, or devil to his dam. + My boy a bastard! By my soul, I think + His father never was so true begot; + It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother. + ELINOR. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father. + CONSTANCE. There's a good grandam, boy, that would blot thee. + AUSTRIA. Peace! + BASTARD. Hear the crier. + AUSTRIA. What the devil art thou? + BASTARD. One that will play the devil, sir, with you, + An 'a may catch your hide and you alone. + You are the hare of whom the proverb goes, + Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard; + I'll smoke your skin-coat an I catch you right; + Sirrah, look to 't; i' faith I will, i' faith. + BLANCH. O, well did he become that lion's robe + That did disrobe the lion of that robe! + BASTARD. It lies as sightly on the back of him + As great Alcides' shows upon an ass; + But, ass, I'll take that burden from your back, + Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack. + AUSTRIA. What cracker is this same that deafs our ears + With this abundance of superfluous breath? + King Philip, determine what we shall do straight. + KING PHILIP. Women and fools, break off your conference. + King John, this is the very sum of all: + England and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine, + In right of Arthur, do I claim of thee; + Wilt thou resign them and lay down thy arms? + KING JOHN. My life as soon. I do defy thee, France. + Arthur of Britaine, yield thee to my hand, + And out of my dear love I'll give thee more + Than e'er the coward hand of France can win. + Submit thee, boy. + ELINOR. Come to thy grandam, child. + CONSTANCE. Do, child, go to it grandam, child; + Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam will + Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig. + There's a good grandam! + ARTHUR. Good my mother, peace! + I would that I were low laid in my grave: + I am not worth this coil that's made for me. + ELINOR. His mother shames him so, poor boy, he weeps. + CONSTANCE. Now shame upon you, whe'er she does or no! + His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames, + Draws those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes, + Which heaven shall take in nature of a fee; + Ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib'd + To do him justice and revenge on you. + ELINOR. Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and earth! + CONSTANCE. Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and earth, + Call not me slanderer! Thou and thine usurp + The dominations, royalties, and rights, + Of this oppressed boy; this is thy eldest son's son, + Infortunate in nothing but in thee. + Thy sins are visited in this poor child; + The canon of the law is laid on him, + Being but the second generation + Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb. + KING JOHN. Bedlam, have done. + CONSTANCE. I have but this to say- + That he is not only plagued for her sin, + But God hath made her sin and her the plague + On this removed issue, plagued for her + And with her plague; her sin his injury, + Her injury the beadle to her sin; + All punish'd in the person of this child, + And all for her-a plague upon her! + ELINOR. Thou unadvised scold, I can produce + A will that bars the title of thy son. + CONSTANCE. Ay, who doubts that? A will, a wicked will; + A woman's will; a cank'red grandam's will! + KING PHILIP. Peace, lady! pause, or be more temperate. + It ill beseems this presence to cry aim + To these ill-tuned repetitions. + Some trumpet summon hither to the walls + These men of Angiers; let us hear them speak + Whose title they admit, Arthur's or John's. + + Trumpet sounds. Enter citizens upon the walls + + CITIZEN. Who is it that hath warn'd us to the walls? + KING PHILIP. 'Tis France, for England. + KING JOHN. England for itself. + You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects- + KING PHILIP. You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's subjects, + Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle- + KING JOHN. For our advantage; therefore hear us first. + These flags of France, that are advanced here + Before the eye and prospect of your town, + Have hither march'd to your endamagement; + The cannons have their bowels full of wrath, + And ready mounted are they to spit forth + Their iron indignation 'gainst your walls; + All preparation for a bloody siege + And merciless proceeding by these French + Confront your city's eyes, your winking gates; + And but for our approach those sleeping stones + That as a waist doth girdle you about + By the compulsion of their ordinance + By this time from their fixed beds of lime + Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made + For bloody power to rush upon your peace. + But on the sight of us your lawful king, + Who painfully with much expedient march + Have brought a countercheck before your gates, + To save unscratch'd your city's threat'ned cheeks- + Behold, the French amaz'd vouchsafe a parle; + And now, instead of bullets wrapp'd in fire, + To make a shaking fever in your walls, + They shoot but calm words folded up in smoke, + To make a faithless error in your cars; + Which trust accordingly, kind citizens, + And let us in-your King, whose labour'd spirits, + Forwearied in this action of swift speed, + Craves harbourage within your city walls. + KING PHILIP. When I have said, make answer to us both. + Lo, in this right hand, whose protection + Is most divinely vow'd upon the right + Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet, + Son to the elder brother of this man, + And king o'er him and all that he enjoys; + For this down-trodden equity we tread + In warlike march these greens before your town, + Being no further enemy to you + Than the constraint of hospitable zeal + In the relief of this oppressed child + Religiously provokes. Be pleased then + To pay that duty which you truly owe + To him that owes it, namely, this young prince; + And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear, + Save in aspect, hath all offence seal'd up; + Our cannons' malice vainly shall be spent + Against th' invulnerable clouds of heaven; + And with a blessed and unvex'd retire, + With unhack'd swords and helmets all unbruis'd, + We will bear home that lusty blood again + Which here we came to spout against your town, + And leave your children, wives, and you, in peace. + But if you fondly pass our proffer'd offer, + 'Tis not the roundure of your old-fac'd walls + Can hide you from our messengers of war, + Though all these English and their discipline + Were harbour'd in their rude circumference. + Then tell us, shall your city call us lord + In that behalf which we have challeng'd it; + Or shall we give the signal to our rage, + And stalk in blood to our possession? + CITIZEN. In brief: we are the King of England's subjects; + For him, and in his right, we hold this town. + KING JOHN. Acknowledge then the King, and let me in. + CITIZEN. That can we not; but he that proves the King, + To him will we prove loyal. Till that time + Have we ramm'd up our gates against the world. + KING JOHN. Doth not the crown of England prove the King? + And if not that, I bring you witnesses: + Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed- + BASTARD. Bastards and else. + KING JOHN. To verify our title with their lives. + KING PHILIP. As many and as well-born bloods as those- + BASTARD. Some bastards too. + KING PHILIP. Stand in his face to contradict his claim. + CITIZEN. Till you compound whose right is worthiest, + We for the worthiest hold the right from both. + KING JOHN. Then God forgive the sin of all those souls + That to their everlasting residence, + Before the dew of evening fall shall fleet + In dreadful trial of our kingdom's king! + KING PHILIP. Amen, Amen! Mount, chevaliers; to arms! + BASTARD. Saint George, that swing'd the dragon, and e'er since + Sits on's horse back at mine hostess' door, + Teach us some fence! [To AUSTRIA] Sirrah, were I at home, + At your den, sirrah, with your lioness, + I would set an ox-head to your lion's hide, + And make a monster of you. + AUSTRIA. Peace! no more. + BASTARD. O, tremble, for you hear the lion roar! + KING JOHN. Up higher to the plain, where we'll set forth + In best appointment all our regiments. + BASTARD. Speed then to take advantage of the field. + KING PHILIP. It shall be so; and at the other hill + Command the rest to stand. God and our right! Exeunt + + Here, after excursions, enter the HERALD OF FRANCE, + with trumpets, to the gates + + FRENCH HERALD. You men of Angiers, open wide your gates + And let young Arthur, Duke of Britaine, in, + Who by the hand of France this day hath made + Much work for tears in many an English mother, + Whose sons lie scattered on the bleeding ground; + Many a widow's husband grovelling lies, + Coldly embracing the discoloured earth; + And victory with little loss doth play + Upon the dancing banners of the French, + Who are at hand, triumphantly displayed, + To enter conquerors, and to proclaim + Arthur of Britaine England's King and yours. + + Enter ENGLISH HERALD, with trumpet + + ENGLISH HERALD. Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your bells: + King John, your king and England's, doth approach, + Commander of this hot malicious day. + Their armours that march'd hence so silver-bright + Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen's blood. + There stuck no plume in any English crest + That is removed by a staff of France; + Our colours do return in those same hands + That did display them when we first march'd forth; + And like a jolly troop of huntsmen come + Our lusty English, all with purpled hands, + Dy'd in the dying slaughter of their foes. + Open your gates and give the victors way. + CITIZEN. Heralds, from off our tow'rs we might behold + From first to last the onset and retire + Of both your armies, whose equality + By our best eyes cannot be censured. + Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer'd blows; + Strength match'd with strength, and power confronted power; + Both are alike, and both alike we like. + One must prove greatest. While they weigh so even, + We hold our town for neither, yet for both. + + Enter the two KINGS, with their powers, at several doors + + KING JOHN. France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away? + Say, shall the current of our right run on? + Whose passage, vex'd with thy impediment, + Shall leave his native channel and o'erswell + With course disturb'd even thy confining shores, + Unless thou let his silver water keep + A peaceful progress to the ocean. + KING PHILIP. England, thou hast not sav'd one drop of blood + In this hot trial more than we of France; + Rather, lost more. And by this hand I swear, + That sways the earth this climate overlooks, + Before we will lay down our just-borne arms, + We'll put thee down, 'gainst whom these arms we bear, + Or add a royal number to the dead, + Gracing the scroll that tells of this war's loss + With slaughter coupled to the name of kings. + BASTARD. Ha, majesty! how high thy glory tow'rs + When the rich blood of kings is set on fire! + O, now doth Death line his dead chaps with steel; + The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs; + And now he feasts, mousing the flesh of men, + In undetermin'd differences of kings. + Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus? + Cry 'havoc!' kings; back to the stained field, + You equal potents, fiery kindled spirits! + Then let confusion of one part confirm + The other's peace. Till then, blows, blood, and death! + KING JOHN. Whose party do the townsmen yet admit? + KING PHILIP. Speak, citizens, for England; who's your king? + CITIZEN. The King of England, when we know the King. + KING PHILIP. Know him in us that here hold up his right. + KING JOHN. In us that are our own great deputy + And bear possession of our person here, + Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you. + CITIZEN. A greater pow'r than we denies all this; + And till it be undoubted, we do lock + Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates; + King'd of our fears, until our fears, resolv'd, + Be by some certain king purg'd and depos'd. + BASTARD. By heaven, these scroyles of Angiers flout you, kings, + And stand securely on their battlements + As in a theatre, whence they gape and point + At your industrious scenes and acts of death. + Your royal presences be rul'd by me: + Do like the mutines of Jerusalem, + Be friends awhile, and both conjointly bend + Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town. + By east and west let France and England mount + Their battering cannon, charged to the mouths, + Till their soul-fearing clamours have brawl'd down + The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city. + I'd play incessantly upon these jades, + Even till unfenced desolation + Leave them as naked as the vulgar air. + That done, dissever your united strengths + And part your mingled colours once again, + Turn face to face and bloody point to point; + Then in a moment Fortune shall cull forth + Out of one side her happy minion, + To whom in favour she shall give the day, + And kiss him with a glorious victory. + How like you this wild counsel, mighty states? + Smacks it not something of the policy? + KING JOHN. Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads, + I like it well. France, shall we knit our pow'rs + And lay this Angiers even with the ground; + Then after fight who shall be king of it? + BASTARD. An if thou hast the mettle of a king, + Being wrong'd as we are by this peevish town, + Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery, + As we will ours, against these saucy walls; + And when that we have dash'd them to the ground, + Why then defy each other, and pell-mell + Make work upon ourselves, for heaven or hell. + KING PHILIP. Let it be so. Say, where will you assault? + KING JOHN. We from the west will send destruction + Into this city's bosom. + AUSTRIA. I from the north. + KING PHILIP. Our thunder from the south + Shall rain their drift of bullets on this town. + BASTARD. [Aside] O prudent discipline! From north to south, + Austria and France shoot in each other's mouth. + I'll stir them to it.-Come, away, away! + CITIZEN. Hear us, great kings: vouchsafe awhile to stay, + And I shall show you peace and fair-fac'd league; + Win you this city without stroke or wound; + Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds + That here come sacrifices for the field. + Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings. + KING JOHN. Speak on with favour; we are bent to hear. + CITIZEN. That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanch, + Is niece to England; look upon the years + Of Lewis the Dauphin and that lovely maid. + If lusty love should go in quest of beauty, + Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch? + If zealous love should go in search of virtue, + Where should he find it purer than in Blanch? + If love ambitious sought a match of birth, + Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanch? + Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, birth, + Is the young Dauphin every way complete- + If not complete of, say he is not she; + And she again wants nothing, to name want, + If want it be not that she is not he. + He is the half part of a blessed man, + Left to be finished by such as she; + And she a fair divided excellence, + Whose fulness of perfection lies in him. + O, two such silver currents, when they join, + Do glorify the banks that bound them in; + And two such shores to two such streams made one, + Two such controlling bounds, shall you be, Kings, + To these two princes, if you marry them. + This union shall do more than battery can + To our fast-closed gates; for at this match + With swifter spleen than powder can enforce, + The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope + And give you entrance; but without this match, + The sea enraged is not half so deaf, + Lions more confident, mountains and rocks + More free from motion-no, not Death himself + In mortal fury half so peremptory + As we to keep this city. + BASTARD. Here's a stay + That shakes the rotten carcass of old Death + Out of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed, + That spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas; + Talks as familiarly of roaring lions + As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs! + What cannoneer begot this lusty blood? + He speaks plain cannon-fire, and smoke and bounce; + He gives the bastinado with his tongue; + Our ears are cudgell'd; not a word of his + But buffets better than a fist of France. + Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words + Since I first call'd my brother's father dad. + ELINOR. Son, list to this conjunction, make this match; + Give with our niece a dowry large enough; + For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie + Thy now unsur'd assurance to the crown + That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe + The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit. + I see a yielding in the looks of France; + Mark how they whisper. Urge them while their souls + Are capable of this ambition, + Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath + Of soft petitions, pity, and remorse, + Cool and congeal again to what it was. + CITIZEN. Why answer not the double majesties + This friendly treaty of our threat'ned town? + KING PHILIP. Speak England first, that hath been forward first + To speak unto this city: what say you? + KING JOHN. If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son, + Can in this book of beauty read 'I love,' + Her dowry shall weigh equal with a queen; + For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poictiers, + And all that we upon this side the sea- + Except this city now by us besieg'd- + Find liable to our crown and dignity, + Shall gild her bridal bed, and make her rich + In titles, honours, and promotions, + As she in beauty, education, blood, + Holds hand with any princess of the world. + KING PHILIP. What say'st thou, boy? Look in the lady's face. + LEWIS. I do, my lord, and in her eye I find + A wonder, or a wondrous miracle, + The shadow of myself form'd in her eye; + Which, being but the shadow of your son, + Becomes a sun, and makes your son a shadow. + I do protest I never lov'd myself + Till now infixed I beheld myself + Drawn in the flattering table of her eye. + [Whispers with BLANCH] + BASTARD. [Aside] Drawn in the flattering table of her eye, + Hang'd in the frowning wrinkle of her brow, + And quarter'd in her heart-he doth espy + Himself love's traitor. This is pity now, + That hang'd and drawn and quarter'd there should be + In such a love so vile a lout as he. + BLANCH. My uncle's will in this respect is mine. + If he see aught in you that makes him like, + That anything he sees which moves his liking + I can with ease translate it to my will; + Or if you will, to speak more properly, + I will enforce it eas'ly to my love. + Further I will not flatter you, my lord, + That all I see in you is worthy love, + Than this: that nothing do I see in you- + Though churlish thoughts themselves should be your judge- + That I can find should merit any hate. + KING JOHN. What say these young ones? What say you, my niece? + BLANCH. That she is bound in honour still to do + What you in wisdom still vouchsafe to say. + KING JOHN. Speak then, Prince Dauphin; can you love this lady? + LEWIS. Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love; + For I do love her most unfeignedly. + KING JOHN. Then do I give Volquessen, Touraine, Maine, + Poictiers, and Anjou, these five provinces, + With her to thee; and this addition more, + Full thirty thousand marks of English coin. + Philip of France, if thou be pleas'd withal, + Command thy son and daughter to join hands. + KING PHILIP. It likes us well; young princes, close your hands. + AUSTRIA. And your lips too; for I am well assur'd + That I did so when I was first assur'd. + KING PHILIP. Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates, + Let in that amity which you have made; + For at Saint Mary's chapel presently + The rites of marriage shall be solemniz'd. + Is not the Lady Constance in this troop? + I know she is not; for this match made up + Her presence would have interrupted much. + Where is she and her son? Tell me, who knows. + LEWIS. She is sad and passionate at your Highness' tent. + KING PHILIP. And, by my faith, this league that we have made + Will give her sadness very little cure. + Brother of England, how may we content + This widow lady? In her right we came; + Which we, God knows, have turn'd another way, + To our own vantage. + KING JOHN. We will heal up all, + For we'll create young Arthur Duke of Britaine, + And Earl of Richmond; and this rich fair town + We make him lord of. Call the Lady Constance; + Some speedy messenger bid her repair + To our solemnity. I trust we shall, + If not fill up the measure of her will, + Yet in some measure satisfy her so + That we shall stop her exclamation. + Go we as well as haste will suffer us + To this unlook'd-for, unprepared pomp. + Exeunt all but the BASTARD + BASTARD. Mad world! mad kings! mad composition! + John, to stop Arthur's tide in the whole, + Hath willingly departed with a part; + And France, whose armour conscience buckled on, + Whom zeal and charity brought to the field + As God's own soldier, rounded in the ear + With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil, + That broker that still breaks the pate of faith, + That daily break-vow, he that wins of all, + Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids, + Who having no external thing to lose + But the word 'maid,' cheats the poor maid of that; + That smooth-fac'd gentleman, tickling commodity, + Commodity, the bias of the world- + The world, who of itself is peised well, + Made to run even upon even ground, + Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias, + This sway of motion, this commodity, + Makes it take head from all indifferency, + From all direction, purpose, course, intent- + And this same bias, this commodity, + This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word, + Clapp'd on the outward eye of fickle France, + Hath drawn him from his own determin'd aid, + From a resolv'd and honourable war, + To a most base and vile-concluded peace. + And why rail I on this commodity? + But for because he hath not woo'd me yet; + Not that I have the power to clutch my hand + When his fair angels would salute my palm, + But for my hand, as unattempted yet, + Like a poor beggar raileth on the rich. + Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail + And say there is no sin but to be rich; + And being rich, my virtue then shall be + To say there is no vice but beggary. + Since kings break faith upon commodity, + Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE 1. + +France. The FRENCH KING'S camp + +Enter CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and SALISBURY + + CONSTANCE. Gone to be married! Gone to swear a peace! + False blood to false blood join'd! Gone to be friends! + Shall Lewis have Blanch, and Blanch those provinces? + It is not so; thou hast misspoke, misheard; + Be well advis'd, tell o'er thy tale again. + It cannot be; thou dost but say 'tis so; + I trust I may not trust thee, for thy word + Is but the vain breath of a common man: + Believe me I do not believe thee, man; + I have a king's oath to the contrary. + Thou shalt be punish'd for thus frighting me, + For I am sick and capable of fears, + Oppress'd with wrongs, and therefore full of fears; + A widow, husbandless, subject to fears; + A woman, naturally born to fears; + And though thou now confess thou didst but jest, + With my vex'd spirits I cannot take a truce, + But they will quake and tremble all this day. + What dost thou mean by shaking of thy head? + Why dost thou look so sadly on my son? + What means that hand upon that breast of thine? + Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum, + Like a proud river peering o'er his bounds? + Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words? + Then speak again-not all thy former tale, + But this one word, whether thy tale be true. + SALISBURY. As true as I believe you think them false + That give you cause to prove my saying true. + CONSTANCE. O, if thou teach me to believe this sorrow, + Teach thou this sorrow how to make me die; + And let belief and life encounter so + As doth the fury of two desperate men + Which in the very meeting fall and die! + Lewis marry Blanch! O boy, then where art thou? + France friend with England; what becomes of me? + Fellow, be gone: I cannot brook thy sight; + This news hath made thee a most ugly man. + SALISBURY. What other harm have I, good lady, done + But spoke the harm that is by others done? + CONSTANCE. Which harm within itself so heinous is + As it makes harmful all that speak of it. + ARTHUR. I do beseech you, madam, be content. + CONSTANCE. If thou that bid'st me be content wert grim, + Ugly, and sland'rous to thy mother's womb, + Full of unpleasing blots and sightless stains, + Lame, foolish, crooked, swart, prodigious, + Patch'd with foul moles and eye-offending marks, + I would not care, I then would be content; + For then I should not love thee; no, nor thou + Become thy great birth, nor deserve a crown. + But thou art fair, and at thy birth, dear boy, + Nature and Fortune join'd to make thee great: + Of Nature's gifts thou mayst with lilies boast, + And with the half-blown rose; but Fortune, O! + She is corrupted, chang'd, and won from thee; + Sh' adulterates hourly with thine uncle John, + And with her golden hand hath pluck'd on France + To tread down fair respect of sovereignty, + And made his majesty the bawd to theirs. + France is a bawd to Fortune and King John- + That strumpet Fortune, that usurping John! + Tell me, thou fellow, is not France forsworn? + Envenom him with words, or get thee gone + And leave those woes alone which I alone + Am bound to under-bear. + SALISBURY. Pardon me, madam, + I may not go without you to the kings. + CONSTANCE. Thou mayst, thou shalt; I will not go with thee; + I will instruct my sorrows to be proud, + For grief is proud, and makes his owner stoop. + To me, and to the state of my great grief, + Let kings assemble; for my grief's so great + That no supporter but the huge firm earth + Can hold it up. [Seats herself on the ground] + Here I and sorrows sit; + Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it. + + Enter KING JOHN, KING PHILIP, LEWIS, BLANCH, + ELINOR, the BASTARD, AUSTRIA, and attendants + + KING PHILIP. 'Tis true, fair daughter, and this blessed day + Ever in France shall be kept festival. + To solemnize this day the glorious sun + Stays in his course and plays the alchemist, + Turning with splendour of his precious eye + The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold. + The yearly course that brings this day about + Shall never see it but a holiday. + CONSTANCE. [Rising] A wicked day, and not a holy day! + What hath this day deserv'd? what hath it done + That it in golden letters should be set + Among the high tides in the calendar? + Nay, rather turn this day out of the week, + This day of shame, oppression, perjury; + Or, if it must stand still, let wives with child + Pray that their burdens may not fall this day, + Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross'd; + But on this day let seamen fear no wreck; + No bargains break that are not this day made; + This day, all things begun come to ill end, + Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood change! + KING PHILIP. By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause + To curse the fair proceedings of this day. + Have I not pawn'd to you my majesty? + CONSTANCE. You have beguil'd me with a counterfeit + Resembling majesty, which, being touch'd and tried, + Proves valueless; you are forsworn, forsworn; + You came in arms to spill mine enemies' blood, + But now in arms you strengthen it with yours. + The grappling vigour and rough frown of war + Is cold in amity and painted peace, + And our oppression hath made up this league. + Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjur'd kings! + A widow cries: Be husband to me, heavens! + Let not the hours of this ungodly day + Wear out the day in peace; but, ere sunset, + Set armed discord 'twixt these perjur'd kings! + Hear me, O, hear me! + AUSTRIA. Lady Constance, peace! + CONSTANCE. War! war! no peace! Peace is to me a war. + O Lymoges! O Austria! thou dost shame + That bloody spoil. Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward! + Thou little valiant, great in villainy! + Thou ever strong upon the stronger side! + Thou Fortune's champion that dost never fight + But when her humorous ladyship is by + To teach thee safety! Thou art perjur'd too, + And sooth'st up greatness. What a fool art thou, + A ramping fool, to brag and stamp and swear + Upon my party! Thou cold-blooded slave, + Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side, + Been sworn my soldier, bidding me depend + Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength, + And dost thou now fall over to my foes? + Thou wear a lion's hide! Doff it for shame, + And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs. + AUSTRIA. O that a man should speak those words to me! + BASTARD. And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs. + AUSTRIA. Thou dar'st not say so, villain, for thy life. + BASTARD. And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs. + KING JOHN. We like not this: thou dost forget thyself. + + Enter PANDULPH + + KING PHILIP. Here comes the holy legate of the Pope. + PANDULPH. Hail, you anointed deputies of heaven! + To thee, King John, my holy errand is. + I Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal, + And from Pope Innocent the legate here, + Do in his name religiously demand + Why thou against the Church, our holy mother, + So wilfully dost spurn; and force perforce + Keep Stephen Langton, chosen Archbishop + Of Canterbury, from that holy see? + This, in our foresaid holy father's name, + Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee. + KING JOHN. What earthly name to interrogatories + Can task the free breath of a sacred king? + Thou canst not, Cardinal, devise a name + So slight, unworthy, and ridiculous, + To charge me to an answer, as the Pope. + Tell him this tale, and from the mouth of England + Add thus much more, that no Italian priest + Shall tithe or toll in our dominions; + But as we under heaven are supreme head, + So, under Him that great supremacy, + Where we do reign we will alone uphold, + Without th' assistance of a mortal hand. + So tell the Pope, all reverence set apart + To him and his usurp'd authority. + KING PHILIP. Brother of England, you blaspheme in this. + KING JOHN. Though you and all the kings of Christendom + Are led so grossly by this meddling priest, + Dreading the curse that money may buy out, + And by the merit of vile gold, dross, dust, + Purchase corrupted pardon of a man, + Who in that sale sells pardon from himself- + Though you and all the rest, so grossly led, + This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish; + Yet I alone, alone do me oppose + Against the Pope, and count his friends my foes. + PANDULPH. Then by the lawful power that I have + Thou shalt stand curs'd and excommunicate; + And blessed shall he be that doth revolt + From his allegiance to an heretic; + And meritorious shall that hand be call'd, + Canonized, and worshipp'd as a saint, + That takes away by any secret course + Thy hateful life. + CONSTANCE. O, lawful let it be + That I have room with Rome to curse awhile! + Good father Cardinal, cry thou 'amen' + To my keen curses; for without my wrong + There is no tongue hath power to curse him right. + PANDULPH. There's law and warrant, lady, for my curse. + CONSTANCE. And for mine too; when law can do no right, + Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong; + Law cannot give my child his kingdom here, + For he that holds his kingdom holds the law; + Therefore, since law itself is perfect wrong, + How can the law forbid my tongue to curse? + PANDULPH. Philip of France, on peril of a curse, + Let go the hand of that arch-heretic, + And raise the power of France upon his head, + Unless he do submit himself to Rome. + ELINOR. Look'st thou pale, France? Do not let go thy hand. + CONSTANCE. Look to that, devil, lest that France repent + And by disjoining hands hell lose a soul. + AUSTRIA. King Philip, listen to the Cardinal. + BASTARD. And hang a calf's-skin on his recreant limbs. + AUSTRIA. Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs, + Because- + BASTARD. Your breeches best may carry them. + KING JOHN. Philip, what say'st thou to the Cardinal? + CONSTANCE. What should he say, but as the Cardinal? + LEWIS. Bethink you, father; for the difference + Is purchase of a heavy curse from Rome + Or the light loss of England for a friend. + Forgo the easier. + BLANCH. That's the curse of Rome. + CONSTANCE. O Lewis, stand fast! The devil tempts thee here + In likeness of a new untrimmed bride. + BLANCH. The Lady Constance speaks not from her faith, + But from her need. + CONSTANCE. O, if thou grant my need, + Which only lives but by the death of faith, + That need must needs infer this principle- + That faith would live again by death of need. + O then, tread down my need, and faith mounts up: + Keep my need up, and faith is trodden down! + KING JOHN. The King is mov'd, and answers not to this. + CONSTANCE. O be remov'd from him, and answer well! + AUSTRIA. Do so, King Philip; hang no more in doubt. + BASTARD. Hang nothing but a calf's-skin, most sweet lout. + KING PHILIP. I am perplex'd and know not what to say. + PANDULPH. What canst thou say but will perplex thee more, + If thou stand excommunicate and curs'd? + KING PHILIP. Good reverend father, make my person yours, + And tell me how you would bestow yourself. + This royal hand and mine are newly knit, + And the conjunction of our inward souls + Married in league, coupled and link'd together + With all religious strength of sacred vows; + The latest breath that gave the sound of words + Was deep-sworn faith, peace, amity, true love, + Between our kingdoms and our royal selves; + And even before this truce, but new before, + No longer than we well could wash our hands, + To clap this royal bargain up of peace, + Heaven knows, they were besmear'd and overstain'd + With slaughter's pencil, where revenge did paint + The fearful difference of incensed kings. + And shall these hands, so lately purg'd of blood, + So newly join'd in love, so strong in both, + Unyoke this seizure and this kind regreet? + Play fast and loose with faith? so jest with heaven, + Make such unconstant children of ourselves, + As now again to snatch our palm from palm, + Unswear faith sworn, and on the marriage-bed + Of smiling peace to march a bloody host, + And make a riot on the gentle brow + Of true sincerity? O, holy sir, + My reverend father, let it not be so! + Out of your grace, devise, ordain, impose, + Some gentle order; and then we shall be blest + To do your pleasure, and continue friends. + PANDULPH. All form is formless, order orderless, + Save what is opposite to England's love. + Therefore, to arms! be champion of our church, + Or let the church, our mother, breathe her curse- + A mother's curse-on her revolting son. + France, thou mayst hold a serpent by the tongue, + A chafed lion by the mortal paw, + A fasting tiger safer by the tooth, + Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold. + KING PHILIP. I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith. + PANDULPH. So mak'st thou faith an enemy to faith; + And like. a civil war set'st oath to oath. + Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow + First made to heaven, first be to heaven perform'd, + That is, to be the champion of our Church. + What since thou swor'st is sworn against thyself + And may not be performed by thyself, + For that which thou hast sworn to do amiss + Is not amiss when it is truly done; + And being not done, where doing tends to ill, + The truth is then most done not doing it; + The better act of purposes mistook + Is to mistake again; though indirect, + Yet indirection thereby grows direct, + And falsehood cures, as fire cools fire + Within the scorched veins of one new-burn'd. + It is religion that doth make vows kept; + But thou hast sworn against religion + By what thou swear'st against the thing thou swear'st, + And mak'st an oath the surety for thy truth + Against an oath; the truth thou art unsure + To swear swears only not to be forsworn; + Else what a mockery should it be to swear! + But thou dost swear only to be forsworn; + And most forsworn to keep what thou dost swear. + Therefore thy later vows against thy first + Is in thyself rebellion to thyself; + And better conquest never canst thou make + Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts + Against these giddy loose suggestions; + Upon which better part our pray'rs come in, + If thou vouchsafe them. But if not, then know + The peril of our curses fight on thee + So heavy as thou shalt not shake them off, + But in despair die under the black weight. + AUSTRIA. Rebellion, flat rebellion! + BASTARD. Will't not be? + Will not a calf's-skin stop that mouth of thine? + LEWIS. Father, to arms! + BLANCH. Upon thy wedding-day? + Against the blood that thou hast married? + What, shall our feast be kept with slaughtered men? + Shall braying trumpets and loud churlish drums, + Clamours of hell, be measures to our pomp? + O husband, hear me! ay, alack, how new + Is 'husband' in my mouth! even for that name, + Which till this time my tongue did ne'er pronounce, + Upon my knee I beg, go not to arms + Against mine uncle. + CONSTANCE. O, upon my knee, + Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee, + Thou virtuous Dauphin, alter not the doom + Forethought by heaven! + BLANCH. Now shall I see thy love. What motive may + Be stronger with thee than the name of wife? + CONSTANCE. That which upholdeth him that thee upholds, + His honour. O, thine honour, Lewis, thine honour! + LEWIS. I muse your Majesty doth seem so cold, + When such profound respects do pull you on. + PANDULPH. I will denounce a curse upon his head. + KING PHILIP. Thou shalt not need. England, I will fall from thee. + CONSTANCE. O fair return of banish'd majesty! + ELINOR. O foul revolt of French inconstancy! + KING JOHN. France, thou shalt rue this hour within this hour. + BASTARD. Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton Time, + Is it as he will? Well then, France shall rue. + BLANCH. The sun's o'ercast with blood. Fair day, adieu! + Which is the side that I must go withal? + I am with both: each army hath a hand; + And in their rage, I having hold of both, + They whirl asunder and dismember me. + Husband, I cannot pray that thou mayst win; + Uncle, I needs must pray that thou mayst lose; + Father, I may not wish the fortune thine; + Grandam, I will not wish thy wishes thrive. + Whoever wins, on that side shall I lose: + Assured loss before the match be play'd. + LEWIS. Lady, with me, with me thy fortune lies. + BLANCH. There where my fortune lives, there my life dies. + KING JOHN. Cousin, go draw our puissance together. + Exit BASTARD + France, I am burn'd up with inflaming wrath, + A rage whose heat hath this condition + That nothing can allay, nothing but blood, + The blood, and dearest-valu'd blood, of France. + KING PHILIP. Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou shalt turn + To ashes, ere our blood shall quench that fire. + Look to thyself, thou art in jeopardy. + KING JOHN. No more than he that threats. To arms let's hie! + Exeunt severally + + + + +SCENE 2. + +France. Plains near Angiers + +Alarums, excursions. Enter the BASTARD with AUSTRIA'S head + + BASTARD. Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous hot; + Some airy devil hovers in the sky + And pours down mischief. Austria's head lie there, + While Philip breathes. + + Enter KING JOHN, ARTHUR, and HUBERT + + KING JOHN. Hubert, keep this boy. Philip, make up: + My mother is assailed in our tent, + And ta'en, I fear. + BASTARD. My lord, I rescued her; + Her Highness is in safety, fear you not; + But on, my liege, for very little pains + Will bring this labour to an happy end. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. + +France. Plains near Angiers + +Alarums, excursions, retreat. Enter KING JOHN, ELINOR, ARTHUR, +the BASTARD, HUBERT, and LORDS + + KING JOHN. [To ELINOR] So shall it be; your Grace shall stay + behind, + So strongly guarded. [To ARTHUR] Cousin, look not sad; + Thy grandam loves thee, and thy uncle will + As dear be to thee as thy father was. + ARTHUR. O, this will make my mother die with grief! + KING JOHN. [To the BASTARD] Cousin, away for England! haste + before, + And, ere our coming, see thou shake the bags + Of hoarding abbots; imprisoned angels + Set at liberty; the fat ribs of peace + Must by the hungry now be fed upon. + Use our commission in his utmost force. + BASTARD. Bell, book, and candle, shall not drive me back, + When gold and silver becks me to come on. + I leave your Highness. Grandam, I will pray, + If ever I remember to be holy, + For your fair safety. So, I kiss your hand. + ELINOR. Farewell, gentle cousin. + KING JOHN. Coz, farewell. + Exit BASTARD + ELINOR. Come hither, little kinsman; hark, a word. + KING JOHN. Come hither, Hubert. O my gentle Hubert, + We owe thee much! Within this wall of flesh + There is a soul counts thee her creditor, + And with advantage means to pay thy love; + And, my good friend, thy voluntary oath + Lives in this bosom, dearly cherished. + Give me thy hand. I had a thing to say- + But I will fit it with some better time. + By heaven, Hubert, I am almost asham'd + To say what good respect I have of thee. + HUBERT. I am much bounden to your Majesty. + KING JOHN. Good friend, thou hast no cause to say so yet, + But thou shalt have; and creep time ne'er so slow, + Yet it shall come for me to do thee good. + I had a thing to say-but let it go: + The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day, + Attended with the pleasures of the world, + Is all too wanton and too full of gawds + To give me audience. If the midnight bell + Did with his iron tongue and brazen mouth + Sound on into the drowsy race of night; + If this same were a churchyard where we stand, + And thou possessed with a thousand wrongs; + Or if that surly spirit, melancholy, + Had bak'd thy blood and made it heavy-thick, + Which else runs tickling up and down the veins, + Making that idiot, laughter, keep men's eyes + And strain their cheeks to idle merriment, + A passion hateful to my purposes; + Or if that thou couldst see me without eyes, + Hear me without thine cars, and make reply + Without a tongue, using conceit alone, + Without eyes, ears, and harmful sound of words- + Then, in despite of brooded watchful day, + I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts. + But, ah, I will not! Yet I love thee well; + And, by my troth, I think thou lov'st me well. + HUBERT. So well that what you bid me undertake, + Though that my death were adjunct to my act, + By heaven, I would do it. + KING JOHN. Do not I know thou wouldst? + Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye + On yon young boy. I'll tell thee what, my friend, + He is a very serpent in my way; + And wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread, + He lies before me. Dost thou understand me? + Thou art his keeper. + HUBERT. And I'll keep him so + That he shall not offend your Majesty. + KING JOHN. Death. + HUBERT. My lord? + KING JOHN. A grave. + HUBERT. He shall not live. + KING JOHN. Enough! + I could be merry now. Hubert, I love thee. + Well, I'll not say what I intend for thee. + Remember. Madam, fare you well; + I'll send those powers o'er to your Majesty. + ELINOR. My blessing go with thee! + KING JOHN. [To ARTHUR] For England, cousin, go; + Hubert shall be your man, attend on you + With all true duty. On toward Calais, ho! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. + +France. The FRENCH KING's camp + +Enter KING PHILIP, LEWIS, PANDULPH, and attendants + + KING PHILIP. So by a roaring tempest on the flood + A whole armado of convicted sail + Is scattered and disjoin'd from fellowship. + PANDULPH. Courage and comfort! All shall yet go well. + KING PHILIP. What can go well, when we have run so ill. + Are we not beaten? Is not Angiers lost? + Arthur ta'en prisoner? Divers dear friends slain? + And bloody England into England gone, + O'erbearing interruption, spite of France? + LEWIS. he hath won, that hath he fortified; + So hot a speed with such advice dispos'd, + Such temperate order in so fierce a cause, + Doth want example; who hath read or heard + Of any kindred action like to this? + KING PHILIP. Well could I bear that England had this praise, + So we could find some pattern of our shame. + + Enter CONSTANCE + + Look who comes here! a grave unto a soul; + Holding th' eternal spirit, against her will, + In the vile prison of afflicted breath. + I prithee, lady, go away with me. + CONSTANCE. Lo now! now see the issue of your peace! + KING PHILIP. Patience, good lady! Comfort, gentle Constance! + CONSTANCE. No, I defy all counsel, all redress, + But that which ends all counsel, true redress- + Death, death; O amiable lovely death! + Thou odoriferous stench! sound rottenness! + Arise forth from the couch of lasting night, + Thou hate and terror to prosperity, + And I will kiss thy detestable bones, + And put my eyeballs in thy vaulty brows, + And ring these fingers with thy household worms, + And stop this gap of breath with fulsome dust, + And be a carrion monster like thyself. + Come, grin on me, and I will think thou smil'st, + And buss thee as thy wife. Misery's love, + O, come to me! + KING PHILIP. O fair affliction, peace! + CONSTANCE. No, no, I will not, having breath to cry. + O that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth! + Then with a passion would I shake the world, + And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy + Which cannot hear a lady's feeble voice, + Which scorns a modern invocation. + PANDULPH. Lady, you utter madness and not sorrow. + CONSTANCE. Thou art not holy to belie me so. + I am not mad: this hair I tear is mine; + My name is Constance; I was Geffrey's wife; + Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost. + I am not mad-I would to heaven I were! + For then 'tis like I should forget myself. + O, if I could, what grief should I forget! + Preach some philosophy to make me mad, + And thou shalt be canoniz'd, Cardinal; + For, being not mad, but sensible of grief, + My reasonable part produces reason + How I may be deliver'd of these woes, + And teaches me to kill or hang myself. + If I were mad I should forget my son, + Or madly think a babe of clouts were he. + I am not mad; too well, too well I feel + The different plague of each calamity. + KING PHILIP. Bind up those tresses. O, what love I note + In the fair multitude of those her hairs! + Where but by a chance a silver drop hath fall'n, + Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends + Do glue themselves in sociable grief, + Like true, inseparable, faithful loves, + Sticking together in calamity. + CONSTANCE. To England, if you will. + KING PHILIP. Bind up your hairs. + CONSTANCE. Yes, that I will; and wherefore will I do it? + I tore them from their bonds, and cried aloud + 'O that these hands could so redeem my son, + As they have given these hairs their liberty!' + But now I envy at their liberty, + And will again commit them to their bonds, + Because my poor child is a prisoner. + And, father Cardinal, I have heard you say + That we shall see and know our friends in heaven; + If that be true, I shall see my boy again; + For since the birth of Cain, the first male child, + To him that did but yesterday suspire, + There was not such a gracious creature born. + But now will canker sorrow eat my bud + And chase the native beauty from his cheek, + And he will look as hollow as a ghost, + As dim and meagre as an ague's fit; + And so he'll die; and, rising so again, + When I shall meet him in the court of heaven + I shall not know him. Therefore never, never + Must I behold my pretty Arthur more. + PANDULPH. You hold too heinous a respect of grief. + CONSTANCE. He talks to me that never had a son. + KING PHILIP. You are as fond of grief as of your child. + CONSTANCE. Grief fills the room up of my absent child, + Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, + Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words, + Remembers me of all his gracious parts, + Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form; + Then have I reason to be fond of grief. + Fare you well; had you such a loss as I, + I could give better comfort than you do. + I will not keep this form upon my head, + [Tearing her hair] + When there is such disorder in my wit. + O Lord! my boy, my Arthur, my fair son! + My life, my joy, my food, my ail the world! + My widow-comfort, and my sorrows' cure! Exit + KING PHILIP. I fear some outrage, and I'll follow her. Exit + LEWIS. There's nothing in this world can make me joy. + Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale + Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man; + And bitter shame hath spoil'd the sweet world's taste, + That it yields nought but shame and bitterness. + PANDULPH. Before the curing of a strong disease, + Even in the instant of repair and health, + The fit is strongest; evils that take leave + On their departure most of all show evil; + What have you lost by losing of this day? + LEWIS. All days of glory, joy, and happiness. + PANDULPH. If you had won it, certainly you had. + No, no; when Fortune means to men most good, + She looks upon them with a threat'ning eye. + 'Tis strange to think how much King John hath lost + In this which he accounts so clearly won. + Are not you griev'd that Arthur is his prisoner? + LEWIS. As heartily as he is glad he hath him. + PANDULPH. Your mind is all as youthful as your blood. + Now hear me speak with a prophetic spirit; + For even the breath of what I mean to speak + Shall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub, + Out of the path which shall directly lead + Thy foot to England's throne. And therefore mark: + John hath seiz'd Arthur; and it cannot be + That, whiles warm life plays in that infant's veins, + The misplac'd John should entertain an hour, + One minute, nay, one quiet breath of rest. + A sceptre snatch'd with an unruly hand + Must be boisterously maintain'd as gain'd, + And he that stands upon a slipp'ry place + Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up; + That John may stand then, Arthur needs must fall; + So be it, for it cannot be but so. + LEWIS. But what shall I gain by young Arthur's fall? + PANDULPH. You, in the right of Lady Blanch your wife, + May then make all the claim that Arthur did. + LEWIS. And lose it, life and all, as Arthur did. + PANDULPH. How green you are and fresh in this old world! + John lays you plots; the times conspire with you; + For he that steeps his safety in true blood + Shall find but bloody safety and untrue. + This act, so evilly borne, shall cool the hearts + Of all his people and freeze up their zeal, + That none so small advantage shall step forth + To check his reign but they will cherish it; + No natural exhalation in the sky, + No scope of nature, no distemper'd day, + No common wind, no customed event, + But they will pluck away his natural cause + And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs, + Abortives, presages, and tongues of heaven, + Plainly denouncing vengeance upon John. + LEWIS. May be he will not touch young Arthur's life, + But hold himself safe in his prisonment. + PANDULPH. O, Sir, when he shall hear of your approach, + If that young Arthur be not gone already, + Even at that news he dies; and then the hearts + Of all his people shall revolt from him, + And kiss the lips of unacquainted change, + And pick strong matter of revolt and wrath + Out of the bloody fingers' ends of john. + Methinks I see this hurly all on foot; + And, O, what better matter breeds for you + Than I have nam'd! The bastard Faulconbridge + Is now in England ransacking the Church, + Offending charity; if but a dozen French + Were there in arms, they would be as a can + To train ten thousand English to their side; + Or as a little snow, tumbled about, + Anon becomes a mountain. O noble Dauphin, + Go with me to the King. 'Tis wonderful + What may be wrought out of their discontent, + Now that their souls are topful of offence. + For England go; I will whet on the King. + LEWIS. Strong reasons makes strong actions. Let us go; + If you say ay, the King will not say no. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 1. + +England. A castle + +Enter HUBERT and EXECUTIONERS + + HUBERT. Heat me these irons hot; and look thou stand + Within the arras. When I strike my foot + Upon the bosom of the ground, rush forth + And bind the boy which you shall find with me + Fast to the chair. Be heedful; hence, and watch. + EXECUTIONER. I hope your warrant will bear out the deed. + HUBERT. Uncleanly scruples! Fear not you. Look to't. + Exeunt EXECUTIONERS + Young lad, come forth; I have to say with you. + + Enter ARTHUR + + ARTHUR. Good morrow, Hubert. + HUBERT. Good morrow, little Prince. + ARTHUR. As little prince, having so great a tide + To be more prince, as may be. You are sad. + HUBERT. Indeed I have been merrier. + ARTHUR. Mercy on me! + Methinks no body should be sad but I; + Yet, I remember, when I was in France, + Young gentlemen would be as sad as night, + Only for wantonness. By my christendom, + So I were out of prison and kept sheep, + I should be as merry as the day is long; + And so I would be here but that I doubt + My uncle practises more harm to me; + He is afraid of me, and I of him. + Is it my fault that I was Geffrey's son? + No, indeed, ist not; and I would to heaven + I were your son, so you would love me, Hubert. + HUBERT. [Aside] If I talk to him, with his innocent prate + He will awake my mercy, which lies dead; + Therefore I will be sudden and dispatch. + ARTHUR. Are you sick, Hubert? You look pale to-day; + In sooth, I would you were a little sick, + That I might sit all night and watch with you. + I warrant I love you more than you do me. + HUBERT. [Aside] His words do take possession of my bosom.- + Read here, young Arthur. [Showing a paper] + [Aside] How now, foolish rheum! + Turning dispiteous torture out of door! + I must be brief, lest resolution drop + Out at mine eyes in tender womanish tears.- + Can you not read it? Is it not fair writ? + ARTHUR. Too fairly, Hubert, for so foul effect. + Must you with hot irons burn out both mine eyes? + HUBERT. Young boy, I must. + ARTHUR. And will you? + HUBERT. And I will. + ARTHUR. Have you the heart? When your head did but ache, + I knit my handkerchief about your brows- + The best I had, a princess wrought it me- + And I did never ask it you again; + And with my hand at midnight held your head; + And, like the watchful minutes to the hour, + Still and anon cheer'd up the heavy time, + Saying 'What lack you?' and 'Where lies your grief?' + Or 'What good love may I perform for you?' + Many a poor man's son would have lyen still, + And ne'er have spoke a loving word to you; + But you at your sick service had a prince. + Nay, you may think my love was crafty love, + And call it cunning. Do, an if you will. + If heaven be pleas'd that you must use me ill, + Why, then you must. Will you put out mine eyes, + These eyes that never did nor never shall + So much as frown on you? + HUBERT. I have sworn to do it; + And with hot irons must I burn them out. + ARTHUR. Ah, none but in this iron age would do it! + The iron of itself, though heat red-hot, + Approaching near these eyes would drink my tears, + And quench his fiery indignation + Even in the matter of mine innocence; + Nay, after that, consume away in rust + But for containing fire to harm mine eye. + Are you more stubborn-hard than hammer'd iron? + An if an angel should have come to me + And told me Hubert should put out mine eyes, + I would not have believ'd him-no tongue but Hubert's. + HUBERT. [Stamps] Come forth. + + Re-enter EXECUTIONERS, With cord, irons, etc. + + Do as I bid you do. + ARTHUR. O, save me, Hubert, save me! My eyes are out + Even with the fierce looks of these bloody men. + HUBERT. Give me the iron, I say, and bind him here. + ARTHUR. Alas, what need you be so boist'rous rough? + I will not struggle, I will stand stone-still. + For heaven sake, Hubert, let me not be bound! + Nay, hear me, Hubert! Drive these men away, + And I will sit as quiet as a lamb; + I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word, + Nor look upon the iron angrily; + Thrust but these men away, and I'll forgive you, + Whatever torment you do put me to. + HUBERT. Go, stand within; let me alone with him. + EXECUTIONER. I am best pleas'd to be from such a deed. + Exeunt EXECUTIONERS + ARTHUR. Alas, I then have chid away my friend! + He hath a stern look but a gentle heart. + Let him come back, that his compassion may + Give life to yours. + HUBERT. Come, boy, prepare yourself. + ARTHUR. Is there no remedy? + HUBERT. None, but to lose your eyes. + ARTHUR. O heaven, that there were but a mote in yours, + A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wandering hair, + Any annoyance in that precious sense! + Then, feeling what small things are boisterous there, + Your vile intent must needs seem horrible. + HUBERT. Is this your promise? Go to, hold your tongue. + ARTHUR. Hubert, the utterance of a brace of tongues + Must needs want pleading for a pair of eyes. + Let me not hold my tongue, let me not, Hubert; + Or, Hubert, if you will, cut out my tongue, + So I may keep mine eyes. O, spare mine eyes, + Though to no use but still to look on you! + Lo, by my troth, the instrument is cold + And would not harm me. + HUBERT. I can heat it, boy. + ARTHUR. No, in good sooth; the fire is dead with grief, + Being create for comfort, to be us'd + In undeserved extremes. See else yourself: + There is no malice in this burning coal; + The breath of heaven hath blown his spirit out, + And strew'd repentant ashes on his head. + HUBERT. But with my breath I can revive it, boy. + ARTHUR. An if you do, you will but make it blush + And glow with shame of your proceedings, Hubert. + Nay, it perchance will sparkle in your eyes, + And, like a dog that is compell'd to fight, + Snatch at his master that doth tarre him on. + All things that you should use to do me wrong + Deny their office; only you do lack + That mercy which fierce fire and iron extends, + Creatures of note for mercy-lacking uses. + HUBERT. Well, see to live; I will not touch thine eye + For all the treasure that thine uncle owes. + Yet I am sworn, and I did purpose, boy, + With this same very iron to burn them out. + ARTHUR. O, now you look like Hubert! All this while + You were disguis'd. + HUBERT. Peace; no more. Adieu. + Your uncle must not know but you are dead: + I'll fill these dogged spies with false reports; + And, pretty child, sleep doubtless and secure + That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world, + Will not offend thee. + ARTHUR. O heaven! I thank you, Hubert. + HUBERT. Silence; no more. Go closely in with me. + Much danger do I undergo for thee. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. + +England. KING JOHN'S palace + +Enter KING JOHN, PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and other LORDS + + KING JOHN. Here once again we sit, once again crown'd, + And look'd upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes. + PEMBROKE. This once again, but that your Highness pleas'd, + Was once superfluous: you were crown'd before, + And that high royalty was ne'er pluck'd off, + The faiths of men ne'er stained with revolt; + Fresh expectation troubled not the land + With any long'd-for change or better state. + SALISBURY. Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp, + To guard a title that was rich before, + To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, + To throw a perfume on the violet, + To smooth the ice, or add another hue + Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light + To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, + Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. + PEMBROKE. But that your royal pleasure must be done, + This act is as an ancient tale new told + And, in the last repeating, troublesome, + Being urged at a time unseasonable. + SALISBURY. In this the antique and well-noted face + Of plain old form is much disfigured; + And like a shifted wind unto a sail + It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about, + Startles and frights consideration, + Makes sound opinion sick, and truth suspected, + For putting on so new a fashion'd robe. + PEMBROKE. When workmen strive to do better than well, + They do confound their skill in covetousness; + And oftentimes excusing of a fault + Doth make the fault the worse by th' excuse, + As patches set upon a little breach + Discredit more in hiding of the fault + Than did the fault before it was so patch'd. + SALISBURY. To this effect, before you were new-crown'd, + We breath'd our counsel; but it pleas'd your Highness + To overbear it; and we are all well pleas'd, + Since all and every part of what we would + Doth make a stand at what your Highness will. + KING JOHN. Some reasons of this double coronation + I have possess'd you with, and think them strong; + And more, more strong, when lesser is my fear, + I shall indue you with. Meantime but ask + What you would have reform'd that is not well, + And well shall you perceive how willingly + I will both hear and grant you your requests. + PEMBROKE. Then I, as one that am the tongue of these, + To sound the purposes of all their hearts, + Both for myself and them- but, chief of all, + Your safety, for the which myself and them + Bend their best studies, heartily request + Th' enfranchisement of Arthur, whose restraint + Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent + To break into this dangerous argument: + If what in rest you have in right you hold, + Why then your fears-which, as they say, attend + The steps of wrong-should move you to mew up + Your tender kinsman, and to choke his days + With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth + The rich advantage of good exercise? + That the time's enemies may not have this + To grace occasions, let it be our suit + That you have bid us ask his liberty; + Which for our goods we do no further ask + Than whereupon our weal, on you depending, + Counts it your weal he have his liberty. + KING JOHN. Let it be so. I do commit his youth + To your direction. + + Enter HUBERT + + [Aside] Hubert, what news with you? + PEMBROKE. This is the man should do the bloody deed: + He show'd his warrant to a friend of mine; + The image of a wicked heinous fault + Lives in his eye; that close aspect of his + Doth show the mood of a much troubled breast, + And I do fearfully believe 'tis done + What we so fear'd he had a charge to do. + SALISBURY. The colour of the King doth come and go + Between his purpose and his conscience, + Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles set. + His passion is so ripe it needs must break. + PEMBROKE. And when it breaks, I fear will issue thence + The foul corruption of a sweet child's death. + KING JOHN. We cannot hold mortality's strong hand. + Good lords, although my will to give is living, + The suit which you demand is gone and dead: + He tells us Arthur is deceas'd to-night. + SALISBURY. Indeed, we fear'd his sickness was past cure. + PEMBROKE. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was, + Before the child himself felt he was sick. + This must be answer'd either here or hence. + KING JOHN. Why do you bend such solemn brows on me? + Think you I bear the shears of destiny? + Have I commandment on the pulse of life? + SALISBURY. It is apparent foul-play; and 'tis shame + That greatness should so grossly offer it. + So thrive it in your game! and so, farewell. + PEMBROKE. Stay yet, Lord Salisbury, I'll go with thee + And find th' inheritance of this poor child, + His little kingdom of a forced grave. + That blood which ow'd the breadth of all this isle + Three foot of it doth hold-bad world the while! + This must not be thus borne: this will break out + To all our sorrows, and ere long I doubt. Exeunt LORDS + KING JOHN. They burn in indignation. I repent. + There is no sure foundation set on blood, + No certain life achiev'd by others' death. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + A fearful eye thou hast; where is that blood + That I have seen inhabit in those cheeks? + So foul a sky clears not without a storm. + Pour down thy weather-how goes all in France? + MESSENGER. From France to England. Never such a pow'r + For any foreign preparation + Was levied in the body of a land. + The copy of your speed is learn'd by them, + For when you should be told they do prepare, + The tidings comes that they are all arriv'd. + KING JOHN. O, where hath our intelligence been drunk? + Where hath it slept? Where is my mother's care, + That such an army could be drawn in France, + And she not hear of it? + MESSENGER. My liege, her ear + Is stopp'd with dust: the first of April died + Your noble mother; and as I hear, my lord, + The Lady Constance in a frenzy died + Three days before; but this from rumour's tongue + I idly heard-if true or false I know not. + KING JOHN. Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion! + O, make a league with me, till I have pleas'd + My discontented peers! What! mother dead! + How wildly then walks my estate in France! + Under whose conduct came those pow'rs of France + That thou for truth giv'st out are landed here? + MESSENGER. Under the Dauphin. + KING JOHN. Thou hast made me giddy + With these in tidings. + + Enter the BASTARD and PETER OF POMFRET + + Now! What says the world + To your proceedings? Do not seek to stuff + My head with more ill news, for it is fun. + BASTARD. But if you be afear'd to hear the worst, + Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head. + KING JOHN. Bear with me, cousin, for I was amaz'd + Under the tide; but now I breathe again + Aloft the flood, and can give audience + To any tongue, speak it of what it will. + BASTARD. How I have sped among the clergymen + The sums I have collected shall express. + But as I travell'd hither through the land, + I find the people strangely fantasied; + Possess'd with rumours, full of idle dreams. + Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear; + And here's a prophet that I brought with me + From forth the streets of Pomfret, whom I found + With many hundreds treading on his heels; + To whom he sung, in rude harsh-sounding rhymes, + That, ere the next Ascension-day at noon, + Your Highness should deliver up your crown. + KING JOHN. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst thou so? + PETER. Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so. + KING JOHN. Hubert, away with him; imprison him; + And on that day at noon whereon he says + I shall yield up my crown let him be hang'd. + Deliver him to safety; and return, + For I must use thee. + Exit HUBERT with PETER + O my gentle cousin, + Hear'st thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd? + BASTARD. The French, my lord; men's mouths are full of it; + Besides, I met Lord Bigot and Lord Salisbury, + With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire, + And others more, going to seek the grave + Of Arthur, whom they say is kill'd to-night + On your suggestion. + KING JOHN. Gentle kinsman, go + And thrust thyself into their companies. + I have a way to will their loves again; + Bring them before me. + BASTARD. I Will seek them out. + KING JOHN. Nay, but make haste; the better foot before. + O, let me have no subject enemies + When adverse foreigners affright my towns + With dreadful pomp of stout invasion! + Be Mercury, set feathers to thy heels, + And fly like thought from them to me again. + BASTARD. The spirit of the time shall teach me speed. + KING JOHN. Spoke like a sprightful noble gentleman. + Exit BASTARD + Go after him; for he perhaps shall need + Some messenger betwixt me and the peers; + And be thou he. + MESSENGER. With all my heart, my liege. Exit + KING JOHN. My mother dead! + + Re-enter HUBERT + + HUBERT. My lord, they say five moons were seen to-night; + Four fixed, and the fifth did whirl about + The other four in wondrous motion. + KING JOHN. Five moons! + HUBERT. Old men and beldams in the streets + Do prophesy upon it dangerously; + Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths; + And when they talk of him, they shake their heads, + And whisper one another in the ear; + And he that speaks doth gripe the hearer's wrist, + Whilst he that hears makes fearful action + With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes. + I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus, + The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool, + With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news; + Who, with his shears and measure in his hand, + Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste + Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet, + Told of a many thousand warlike French + That were embattailed and rank'd in Kent. + Another lean unwash'd artificer + Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death. + KING JOHN. Why seek'st thou to possess me with these fears? + Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death? + Thy hand hath murd'red him. I had a mighty cause + To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him. + HUBERT. No had, my lord! Why, did you not provoke me? + KING JOHN. It is the curse of kings to be attended + By slaves that take their humours for a warrant + To break within the bloody house of life, + And on the winking of authority + To understand a law; to know the meaning + Of dangerous majesty, when perchance it frowns + More upon humour than advis'd respect. + HUBERT. Here is your hand and seal for what I did. + KING JOHN. O, when the last account 'twixt heaven and earth + Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal + Witness against us to damnation! + How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds + Make deeds ill done! Hadst not thou been by, + A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd, + Quoted and sign'd to do a deed of shame, + This murder had not come into my mind; + But, taking note of thy abhorr'd aspect, + Finding thee fit for bloody villainy, + Apt, liable to be employ'd in danger, + I faintly broke with thee of Arthur's death; + And thou, to be endeared to a king, + Made it no conscience to destroy a prince. + HUBERT. My lord- + KING JOHN. Hadst thou but shook thy head or made pause, + When I spake darkly what I purposed, + Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face, + As bid me tell my tale in express words, + Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off, + And those thy fears might have wrought fears in me. + But thou didst understand me by my signs, + And didst in signs again parley with sin; + Yea, without stop, didst let thy heart consent, + And consequently thy rude hand to act + The deed which both our tongues held vile to name. + Out of my sight, and never see me more! + My nobles leave me; and my state is braved, + Even at my gates, with ranks of foreign pow'rs; + Nay, in the body of the fleshly land, + This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath, + Hostility and civil tumult reigns + Between my conscience and my cousin's death. + HUBERT. Arm you against your other enemies, + I'll make a peace between your soul and you. + Young Arthur is alive. This hand of mine + Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand, + Not painted with the crimson spots of blood. + Within this bosom never ent'red yet + The dreadful motion of a murderous thought + And you have slander'd nature in my form, + Which, howsoever rude exteriorly, + Is yet the cover of a fairer mind + Than to be butcher of an innocent child. + KING JOHN. Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the peers, + Throw this report on their incensed rage + And make them tame to their obedience! + Forgive the comment that my passion made + Upon thy feature; for my rage was blind, + And foul imaginary eyes of blood + Presented thee more hideous than thou art. + O, answer not; but to my closet bring + The angry lords with all expedient haste. + I conjure thee but slowly; run more fast. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. + +England. Before the castle + +Enter ARTHUR, on the walls + + ARTHUR. The wall is high, and yet will I leap down. + Good ground, be pitiful and hurt me not! + There's few or none do know me; if they did, + This ship-boy's semblance hath disguis'd me quite. + I am afraid; and yet I'll venture it. + If I get down and do not break my limbs, + I'll find a thousand shifts to get away. + As good to die and go, as die and stay. [Leaps down] + O me! my uncle's spirit is in these stones. + Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones! + [Dies] + + Enter PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and BIGOT + + SALISBURY. Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmundsbury; + It is our safety, and we must embrace + This gentle offer of the perilous time. + PEMBROKE. Who brought that letter from the Cardinal? + SALISBURY. The Count Melun, a noble lord of France, + Whose private with me of the Dauphin's love + Is much more general than these lines import. + BIGOT. To-morrow morning let us meet him then. + SALISBURY. Or rather then set forward; for 'twill be + Two long days' journey, lords, or ere we meet. + + Enter the BASTARD + + BASTARD. Once more to-day well met, distemper'd lords! + The King by me requests your presence straight. + SALISBURY. The King hath dispossess'd himself of us. + We will not line his thin bestained cloak + With our pure honours, nor attend the foot + That leaves the print of blood where'er it walks. + Return and tell him so. We know the worst. + BASTARD. Whate'er you think, good words, I think, were best. + SALISBURY. Our griefs, and not our manners, reason now. + BASTARD. But there is little reason in your grief; + Therefore 'twere reason you had manners now. + PEMBROKE. Sir, sir, impatience hath his privilege. + BASTARD. 'Tis true-to hurt his master, no man else. + SALISBURY. This is the prison. What is he lies here? + PEMBROKE. O death, made proud with pure and princely beauty! + The earth had not a hole to hide this deed. + SALISBURY. Murder, as hating what himself hath done, + Doth lay it open to urge on revenge. + BIGOT. Or, when he doom'd this beauty to a grave, + Found it too precious-princely for a grave. + SALISBURY. Sir Richard, what think you? Have you beheld, + Or have you read or heard, or could you think? + Or do you almost think, although you see, + That you do see? Could thought, without this object, + Form such another? This is the very top, + The height, the crest, or crest unto the crest, + Of murder's arms; this is the bloodiest shame, + The wildest savagery, the vilest stroke, + That ever wall-ey'd wrath or staring rage + Presented to the tears of soft remorse. + PEMBROKE. All murders past do stand excus'd in this; + And this, so sole and so unmatchable, + Shall give a holiness, a purity, + To the yet unbegotten sin of times, + And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest, + Exampled by this heinous spectacle. + BASTARD. It is a damned and a bloody work; + The graceless action of a heavy hand, + If that it be the work of any hand. + SALISBURY. If that it be the work of any hand! + We had a kind of light what would ensue. + It is the shameful work of Hubert's hand; + The practice and the purpose of the King; + From whose obedience I forbid my soul + Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life, + And breathing to his breathless excellence + The incense of a vow, a holy vow, + Never to taste the pleasures of the world, + Never to be infected with delight, + Nor conversant with ease and idleness, + Till I have set a glory to this hand + By giving it the worship of revenge. + PEMBROKE. and BIGOT. Our souls religiously confirm thy words. + + Enter HUBERT + + HUBERT. Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you. + Arthur doth live; the King hath sent for you. + SALISBURY. O, he is bold, and blushes not at death! + Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone! + HUBERT. I am no villain. + SALISBURY. Must I rob the law? [Drawing his sword] + BASTARD. Your sword is bright, sir; put it up again. + SALISBURY. Not till I sheathe it in a murderer's skin. + HUBERT. Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back, I say; + By heaven, I think my sword's as sharp as yours. + I would not have you, lord, forget yourself, + Nor tempt the danger of my true defence; + Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget + Your worth, your greatness and nobility. + BIGOT. Out, dunghill! Dar'st thou brave a nobleman? + HUBERT. Not for my life; but yet I dare defend + My innocent life against an emperor. + SALISBURY. Thou art a murderer. + HUBERT. Do not prove me so. + Yet I am none. Whose tongue soe'er speaks false, + Not truly speaks; who speaks not truly, lies. + PEMBROKE. Cut him to pieces. + BASTARD. Keep the peace, I say. + SALISBURY. Stand by, or I shall gall you, Faulconbridge. + BASTARD. Thou wert better gall the devil, Salisbury. + If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot, + Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame, + I'll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime; + Or I'll so maul you and your toasting-iron + That you shall think the devil is come from hell. + BIGOT. What wilt thou do, renowned Faulconbridge? + Second a villain and a murderer? + HUBERT. Lord Bigot, I am none. + BIGOT. Who kill'd this prince? + HUBERT. 'Tis not an hour since I left him well. + I honour'd him, I lov'd him, and will weep + My date of life out for his sweet life's loss. + SALISBURY. Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes, + For villainy is not without such rheum; + And he, long traded in it, makes it seem + Like rivers of remorse and innocency. + Away with me, all you whose souls abhor + Th' uncleanly savours of a slaughter-house; + For I am stifled with this smell of sin. + BIGOT. Away toward Bury, to the Dauphin there! + PEMBROKE. There tell the King he may inquire us out. + Exeunt LORDS + BASTARD. Here's a good world! Knew you of this fair work? + Beyond the infinite and boundless reach + Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death, + Art thou damn'd, Hubert. + HUBERT. Do but hear me, sir. + BASTARD. Ha! I'll tell thee what: + Thou'rt damn'd as black-nay, nothing is so black- + Thou art more deep damn'd than Prince Lucifer; + There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell + As thou shalt be, if thou didst kill this child. + HUBERT. Upon my soul- + BASTARD. If thou didst but consent + To this most cruel act, do but despair; + And if thou want'st a cord, the smallest thread + That ever spider twisted from her womb + Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be a beam + To hang thee on; or wouldst thou drown thyself, + Put but a little water in a spoon + And it shall be as all the ocean, + Enough to stifle such a villain up + I do suspect thee very grievously. + HUBERT. If I in act, consent, or sin of thought, + Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath + Which was embounded in this beauteous clay, + Let hell want pains enough to torture me! + I left him well. + BASTARD. Go, bear him in thine arms. + I am amaz'd, methinks, and lose my way + Among the thorns and dangers of this world. + How easy dost thou take all England up! + From forth this morsel of dead royalty + The life, the right, and truth of all this realm + Is fled to heaven; and England now is left + To tug and scamble, and to part by th' teeth + The unowed interest of proud-swelling state. + Now for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty + Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest + And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace; + Now powers from home and discontents at home + Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits, + As doth a raven on a sick-fall'n beast, + The imminent decay of wrested pomp. + Now happy he whose cloak and cincture can + Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child, + And follow me with speed. I'll to the King; + A thousand businesses are brief in hand, + And heaven itself doth frown upon the land. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE 1. +England. KING JOHN'S palace + +Enter KING JOHN, PANDULPH, and attendants + + KING JOHN. Thus have I yielded up into your hand + The circle of my glory. + PANDULPH. [Gives back the crown] Take again + From this my hand, as holding of the Pope, + Your sovereign greatness and authority. + KING JOHN. Now keep your holy word; go meet the French; + And from his Holiness use all your power + To stop their marches fore we are inflam'd. + Our discontented counties do revolt; + Our people quarrel with obedience, + Swearing allegiance and the love of soul + To stranger blood, to foreign royalty. + This inundation of mistemp'red humour + Rests by you only to be qualified. + Then pause not; for the present time's so sick + That present med'cine must be minist'red + Or overthrow incurable ensues. + PANDULPH. It was my breath that blew this tempest up, + Upon your stubborn usage of the Pope; + But since you are a gentle convertite, + My tongue shall hush again this storm of war + And make fair weather in your blust'ring land. + On this Ascension-day, remember well, + Upon your oath of service to the Pope, + Go I to make the French lay down their arms. Exit + KING JOHN. Is this Ascension-day? Did not the prophet + Say that before Ascension-day at noon + My crown I should give off? Even so I have. + I did suppose it should be on constraint; + But, heaven be thank'd, it is but voluntary. + + Enter the BASTARD + + BASTARD. All Kent hath yielded; nothing there holds out + But Dover Castle. London hath receiv'd, + Like a kind host, the Dauphin and his powers. + Your nobles will not hear you, but are gone + To offer service to your enemy; + And wild amazement hurries up and down + The little number of your doubtful friends. + KING JOHN. Would not my lords return to me again + After they heard young Arthur was alive? + BASTARD. They found him dead, and cast into the streets, + An empty casket, where the jewel of life + By some damn'd hand was robbed and ta'en away. + KING JOHN. That villain Hubert told me he did live. + BASTARD. So, on my soul, he did, for aught he knew. + But wherefore do you droop? Why look you sad? + Be great in act, as you have been in thought; + Let not the world see fear and sad distrust + Govern the motion of a kingly eye. + Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire; + Threaten the threat'ner, and outface the brow + Of bragging horror; so shall inferior eyes, + That borrow their behaviours from the great, + Grow great by your example and put on + The dauntless spirit of resolution. + Away, and glister like the god of war + When he intendeth to become the field; + Show boldness and aspiring confidence. + What, shall they seek the lion in his den, + And fright him there, and make him tremble there? + O, let it not be said! Forage, and run + To meet displeasure farther from the doors + And grapple with him ere he come so nigh. + KING JOHN. The legate of the Pope hath been with me, + And I have made a happy peace with him; + And he hath promis'd to dismiss the powers + Led by the Dauphin. + BASTARD. O inglorious league! + Shall we, upon the footing of our land, + Send fair-play orders, and make compromise, + Insinuation, parley, and base truce, + To arms invasive? Shall a beardless boy, + A cock'red silken wanton, brave our fields + And flesh his spirit in a warlike soil, + Mocking the air with colours idly spread, + And find no check? Let us, my liege, to arms. + Perchance the Cardinal cannot make your peace; + Or, if he do, let it at least be said + They saw we had a purpose of defence. + KING JOHN. Have thou the ordering of this present time. + BASTARD. Away, then, with good courage! + Yet, I know + Our party may well meet a prouder foe. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. +England. The DAUPHIN'S camp at Saint Edmundsbury + +Enter, in arms, LEWIS, SALISBURY, MELUN, PEMBROKE, BIGOT, and soldiers + + LEWIS. My Lord Melun, let this be copied out + And keep it safe for our remembrance; + Return the precedent to these lords again, + That, having our fair order written down, + Both they and we, perusing o'er these notes, + May know wherefore we took the sacrament, + And keep our faiths firm and inviolable. + SALISBURY. Upon our sides it never shall be broken. + And, noble Dauphin, albeit we swear + A voluntary zeal and an unurg'd faith + To your proceedings; yet, believe me, Prince, + I am not glad that such a sore of time + Should seek a plaster by contemn'd revolt, + And heal the inveterate canker of one wound + By making many. O, it grieves my soul + That I must draw this metal from my side + To be a widow-maker! O, and there + Where honourable rescue and defence + Cries out upon the name of Salisbury! + But such is the infection of the time + That, for the health and physic of our right, + We cannot deal but with the very hand + Of stern injustice and confused wrong. + And is't not pity, O my grieved friends! + That we, the sons and children of this isle, + Were born to see so sad an hour as this; + Wherein we step after a stranger-march + Upon her gentle bosom, and fill up + Her enemies' ranks-I must withdraw and weep + Upon the spot of this enforced cause- + To grace the gentry of a land remote + And follow unacquainted colours here? + What, here? O nation, that thou couldst remove! + That Neptune's arms, who clippeth thee about, + Would bear thee from the knowledge of thyself + And grapple thee unto a pagan shore, + Where these two Christian armies might combine + The blood of malice in a vein of league, + And not to spend it so unneighbourly! + LEWIS. A noble temper dost thou show in this; + And great affections wrestling in thy bosom + Doth make an earthquake of nobility. + O, what a noble combat hast thou fought + Between compulsion and a brave respect! + Let me wipe off this honourable dew + That silverly doth progress on thy cheeks. + My heart hath melted at a lady's tears, + Being an ordinary inundation; + But this effusion of such manly drops, + This show'r, blown up by tempest of the soul, + Startles mine eyes and makes me more amaz'd + Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven + Figur'd quite o'er with burning meteors. + Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury, + And with a great heart heave away this storm; + Commend these waters to those baby eyes + That never saw the giant world enrag'd, + Nor met with fortune other than at feasts, + Full of warm blood, of mirth, of gossiping. + Come, come; for thou shalt thrust thy hand as deep + Into the purse of rich prosperity + As Lewis himself. So, nobles, shall you all, + That knit your sinews to the strength of mine. + + Enter PANDULPH + + And even there, methinks, an angel spake: + Look where the holy legate comes apace, + To give us warrant from the hand of heaven + And on our actions set the name of right + With holy breath. + PANDULPH. Hail, noble prince of France! + The next is this: King John hath reconcil'd + Himself to Rome; his spirit is come in, + That so stood out against the holy Church, + The great metropolis and see of Rome. + Therefore thy threat'ning colours now wind up + And tame the savage spirit of wild war, + That, like a lion fostered up at hand, + It may lie gently at the foot of peace + And be no further harmful than in show. + LEWIS. Your Grace shall pardon me, I will not back: + I am too high-born to be propertied, + To be a secondary at control, + Or useful serving-man and instrument + To any sovereign state throughout the world. + Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars + Between this chastis'd kingdom and myself + And brought in matter that should feed this fire; + And now 'tis far too huge to be blown out + With that same weak wind which enkindled it. + You taught me how to know the face of right, + Acquainted me with interest to this land, + Yea, thrust this enterprise into my heart; + And come ye now to tell me John hath made + His peace with Rome? What is that peace to me? + I, by the honour of my marriage-bed, + After young Arthur, claim this land for mine; + And, now it is half-conquer'd, must I back + Because that John hath made his peace with Rome? + Am I Rome's slave? What penny hath Rome borne, + What men provided, what munition sent, + To underprop this action? Is 't not I + That undergo this charge? Who else but I, + And such as to my claim are liable, + Sweat in this business and maintain this war? + Have I not heard these islanders shout out + 'Vive le roi!' as I have bank'd their towns? + Have I not here the best cards for the game + To will this easy match, play'd for a crown? + And shall I now give o'er the yielded set? + No, no, on my soul, it never shall be said. + PANDULPH. You look but on the outside of this work. + LEWIS. Outside or inside, I will not return + Till my attempt so much be glorified + As to my ample hope was promised + Before I drew this gallant head of war, + And cull'd these fiery spirits from the world + To outlook conquest, and to will renown + Even in the jaws of danger and of death. + [Trumpet sounds] + What lusty trumpet thus doth summon us? + + Enter the BASTARD, attended + + BASTARD. According to the fair play of the world, + Let me have audience: I am sent to speak. + My holy lord of Milan, from the King + I come, to learn how you have dealt for him; + And, as you answer, I do know the scope + And warrant limited unto my tongue. + PANDULPH. The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite, + And will not temporize with my entreaties; + He flatly says he'll not lay down his arms. + BASTARD. By all the blood that ever fury breath'd, + The youth says well. Now hear our English King; + For thus his royalty doth speak in me. + He is prepar'd, and reason too he should. + This apish and unmannerly approach, + This harness'd masque and unadvised revel + This unhair'd sauciness and boyish troops, + The King doth smile at; and is well prepar'd + To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy arms, + From out the circle of his territories. + That hand which had the strength, even at your door. + To cudgel you and make you take the hatch, + To dive like buckets in concealed wells, + To crouch in litter of your stable planks, + To lie like pawns lock'd up in chests and trunks, + To hug with swine, to seek sweet safety out + In vaults and prisons, and to thrill and shake + Even at the crying of your nation's crow, + Thinking this voice an armed Englishman- + Shall that victorious hand be feebled here + That in your chambers gave you chastisement? + No. Know the gallant monarch is in arms + And like an eagle o'er his aery tow'rs + To souse annoyance that comes near his nest. + And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts, + You bloody Neroes, ripping up the womb + Of your dear mother England, blush for shame; + For your own ladies and pale-visag'd maids, + Like Amazons, come tripping after drums, + Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change, + Their needles to lances, and their gentle hearts + To fierce and bloody inclination. + LEWIS. There end thy brave, and turn thy face in peace; + We grant thou canst outscold us. Fare thee well; + We hold our time too precious to be spent + With such a brabbler. + PANDULPH. Give me leave to speak. + BASTARD. No, I will speak. + LEWIS. We will attend to neither. + Strike up the drums; and let the tongue of war, + Plead for our interest and our being here. + BASTARD. Indeed, your drums, being beaten, will cry out; + And so shall you, being beaten. Do but start + And echo with the clamour of thy drum, + And even at hand a drum is ready brac'd + That shall reverberate all as loud as thine: + Sound but another, and another shall, + As loud as thine, rattle the welkin's ear + And mock the deep-mouth'd thunder; for at hand- + Not trusting to this halting legate here, + Whom he hath us'd rather for sport than need- + Is warlike John; and in his forehead sits + A bare-ribb'd death, whose office is this day + To feast upon whole thousands of the French. + LEWIS. Strike up our drums to find this danger out. + BASTARD. And thou shalt find it, Dauphin, do not doubt. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. + +England. The field of battle + +Alarums. Enter KING JOHN and HUBERT + + KING JOHN. How goes the day with us? O, tell me, Hubert. + HUBERT. Badly, I fear. How fares your Majesty? + KING JOHN. This fever that hath troubled me so long + Lies heavy on me. O, my heart is sick! + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. My lord, your valiant kinsman, Faulconbridge, + Desires your Majesty to leave the field + And send him word by me which way you go. + KING JOHN. Tell him, toward Swinstead, to the abbey there. + MESSENGER. Be of good comfort; for the great supply + That was expected by the Dauphin here + Are wreck'd three nights ago on Goodwin Sands; + This news was brought to Richard but even now. + The French fight coldly, and retire themselves. + KING JOHN. Ay me, this tyrant fever burns me up + And will not let me welcome this good news. + Set on toward Swinstead; to my litter straight; + Weakness possesseth me, and I am faint. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. + +England. Another part of the battlefield + +Enter SALISBURY, PEMBROKE, and BIGOT + + SALISBURY. I did not think the King so stor'd with friends. + PEMBROKE. Up once again; put spirit in the French; + If they miscarry, we miscarry too. + SALISBURY. That misbegotten devil, Faulconbridge, + In spite of spite, alone upholds the day. + PEMBROKE. They say King John, sore sick, hath left the field. + + Enter MELUN, wounded + + MELUN. Lead me to the revolts of England here. + SALISBURY. When we were happy we had other names. + PEMBROKE. It is the Count Melun. + SALISBURY. Wounded to death. + MELUN. Fly, noble English, you are bought and sold; + Unthread the rude eye of rebellion, + And welcome home again discarded faith. + Seek out King John, and fall before his feet; + For if the French be lords of this loud day, + He means to recompense the pains you take + By cutting off your heads. Thus hath he sworn, + And I with him, and many moe with me, + Upon the altar at Saint Edmundsbury; + Even on that altar where we swore to you + Dear amity and everlasting love. + SALISBURY. May this be possible? May this be true? + MELUN. Have I not hideous death within my view, + Retaining but a quantity of life, + Which bleeds away even as a form of wax + Resolveth from his figure 'gainst the fire? + What in the world should make me now deceive, + Since I must lose the use of all deceit? + Why should I then be false, since it is true + That I must die here, and live hence by truth? + I say again, if Lewis do will the day, + He is forsworn if e'er those eyes of yours + Behold another day break in the east; + But even this night, whose black contagious breath + Already smokes about the burning crest + Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied sun, + Even this ill night, your breathing shall expire, + Paying the fine of rated treachery + Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives. + If Lewis by your assistance win the day. + Commend me to one Hubert, with your King; + The love of him-and this respect besides, + For that my grandsire was an Englishman- + Awakes my conscience to confess all this. + In lieu whereof, I pray you, bear me hence + From forth the noise and rumour of the field, + Where I may think the remnant of my thoughts + In peace, and part this body and my soul + With contemplation and devout desires. + SALISBURY. We do believe thee; and beshrew my soul + But I do love the favour and the form + Of this most fair occasion, by the which + We will untread the steps of damned flight, + And like a bated and retired flood, + Leaving our rankness and irregular course, + Stoop low within those bounds we have o'erlook'd, + And calmly run on in obedience + Even to our ocean, to great King John. + My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence; + For I do see the cruel pangs of death + Right in thine eye. Away, my friends! New flight, + And happy newness, that intends old right. + Exeunt, leading off MELUN + + + + +SCENE 5. + +England. The French camp + +Enter LEWIS and his train + + LEWIS. The sun of heaven, methought, was loath to set, + But stay'd and made the western welkin blush, + When English measure backward their own ground + In faint retire. O, bravely came we off, + When with a volley of our needless shot, + After such bloody toil, we bid good night; + And wound our tott'ring colours clearly up, + Last in the field and almost lords of it! + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. Where is my prince, the Dauphin? + LEWIS. Here; what news? + MESSENGER. The Count Melun is slain; the English lords + By his persuasion are again fall'n off, + And your supply, which you have wish'd so long, + Are cast away and sunk on Goodwin Sands. + LEWIS. Ah, foul shrewd news! Beshrew thy very heart! + I did not think to be so sad to-night + As this hath made me. Who was he that said + King John did fly an hour or two before + The stumbling night did part our weary pow'rs? + MESSENGER. Whoever spoke it, it is true, my lord. + LEWIS. keep good quarter and good care to-night; + The day shall not be up so soon as I + To try the fair adventure of to-morrow. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 6. + +An open place wear Swinstead Abbey + +Enter the BASTARD and HUBERT, severally + + HUBERT. Who's there? Speak, ho! speak quickly, or I shoot. + BASTARD. A friend. What art thou? + HUBERT. Of the part of England. + BASTARD. Whither dost thou go? + HUBERT. What's that to thee? Why may I not demand + Of thine affairs as well as thou of mine? + BASTARD. Hubert, I think. + HUBERT. Thou hast a perfect thought. + I will upon all hazards well believe + Thou art my friend that know'st my tongue so well. + Who art thou? + BASTARD. Who thou wilt. And if thou please, + Thou mayst befriend me so much as to think + I come one way of the Plantagenets. + HUBERT. Unkind remembrance! thou and eyeless night + Have done me shame. Brave soldier, pardon me + That any accent breaking from thy tongue + Should scape the true acquaintance of mine ear. + BASTARD. Come, come; sans compliment, what news abroad? + HUBERT. Why, here walk I in the black brow of night + To find you out. + BASTARD. Brief, then; and what's the news? + HUBERT. O, my sweet sir, news fitting to the night, + Black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible. + BASTARD. Show me the very wound of this ill news; + I am no woman, I'll not swoon at it. + HUBERT. The King, I fear, is poison'd by a monk; + I left him almost speechless and broke out + To acquaint you with this evil, that you might + The better arm you to the sudden time + Than if you had at leisure known of this. + BASTARD. How did he take it; who did taste to him? + HUBERT. A monk, I tell you; a resolved villain, + Whose bowels suddenly burst out. The King + Yet speaks, and peradventure may recover. + BASTARD. Who didst thou leave to tend his Majesty? + HUBERT. Why, know you not? The lords are all come back, + And brought Prince Henry in their company; + At whose request the King hath pardon'd them, + And they are all about his Majesty. + BASTARD. Withhold thine indignation, mighty heaven, + And tempt us not to bear above our power! + I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power this night, + Passing these flats, are taken by the tide- + These Lincoln Washes have devoured them; + Myself, well-mounted, hardly have escap'd. + Away, before! conduct me to the King; + I doubt he will be dead or ere I come. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 7. + +The orchard at Swinstead Abbey + +Enter PRINCE HENRY, SALISBURY, and BIGOT + + PRINCE HENRY. It is too late; the life of all his blood + Is touch'd corruptibly, and his pure brain. + Which some suppose the soul's frail dwelling-house, + Doth by the idle comments that it makes + Foretell the ending of mortality. + + Enter PEMBROKE + + PEMBROKE. His Highness yet doth speak, and holds belief + That, being brought into the open air, + It would allay the burning quality + Of that fell poison which assaileth him. + PRINCE HENRY. Let him be brought into the orchard here. + Doth he still rage? Exit BIGOT + PEMBROKE. He is more patient + Than when you left him; even now he sung. + PRINCE HENRY. O vanity of sickness! Fierce extremes + In their continuance will not feel themselves. + Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts, + Leaves them invisible, and his siege is now + Against the mind, the which he pricks and wounds + With many legions of strange fantasies, + Which, in their throng and press to that last hold, + Confound themselves. 'Tis strange that death should sing. + I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan + Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death, + And from the organ-pipe of frailty sings + His soul and body to their lasting rest. + SALISBURY. Be of good comfort, Prince; for you are born + To set a form upon that indigest + Which he hath left so shapeless and so rude. + + Re-enter BIGOT and attendants, who bring in + KING JOHN in a chair + + KING JOHN. Ay, marry, now my soul hath elbow-room; + It would not out at windows nor at doors. + There is so hot a summer in my bosom + That all my bowels crumble up to dust. + I am a scribbled form drawn with a pen + Upon a parchment, and against this fire + Do I shrink up. + PRINCE HENRY. How fares your Majesty? + KING JOHN. Poison'd-ill-fare! Dead, forsook, cast off; + And none of you will bid the winter come + To thrust his icy fingers in my maw, + Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course + Through my burn'd bosom, nor entreat the north + To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips + And comfort me with cold. I do not ask you much; + I beg cold comfort; and you are so strait + And so ingrateful you deny me that. + PRINCE HENRY. O that there were some virtue in my tears, + That might relieve you! + KING JOHN. The salt in them is hot. + Within me is a hell; and there the poison + Is as a fiend confin'd to tyrannize + On unreprievable condemned blood. + + Enter the BASTARD + + BASTARD. O, I am scalded with my violent motion + And spleen of speed to see your Majesty! + KING JOHN. O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye! + The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burnt, + And all the shrouds wherewith my life should sail + Are turned to one thread, one little hair; + My heart hath one poor string to stay it by, + Which holds but till thy news be uttered; + And then all this thou seest is but a clod + And module of confounded royalty. + BASTARD. The Dauphin is preparing hitherward, + Where God He knows how we shall answer him; + For in a night the best part of my pow'r, + As I upon advantage did remove, + Were in the Washes all unwarily + Devoured by the unexpected flood. [The KING dies] + SALISBURY. You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear. + My liege! my lord! But now a king-now thus. + PRINCE HENRY. Even so must I run on, and even so stop. + What surety of the world, what hope, what stay, + When this was now a king, and now is clay? + BASTARD. Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind + To do the office for thee of revenge, + And then my soul shall wait on thee to heaven, + As it on earth hath been thy servant still. + Now, now, you stars that move in your right spheres, + Where be your pow'rs? Show now your mended faiths, + And instantly return with me again + To push destruction and perpetual shame + Out of the weak door of our fainting land. + Straight let us seek, or straight we shall be sought; + The Dauphin rages at our very heels. + SALISBURY. It seems you know not, then, so much as we: + The Cardinal Pandulph is within at rest, + Who half an hour since came from the Dauphin, + And brings from him such offers of our peace + As we with honour and respect may take, + With purpose presently to leave this war. + BASTARD. He will the rather do it when he sees + Ourselves well sinewed to our defence. + SALISBURY. Nay, 'tis in a manner done already; + For many carriages he hath dispatch'd + To the sea-side, and put his cause and quarrel + To the disposing of the Cardinal; + With whom yourself, myself, and other lords, + If you think meet, this afternoon will post + To consummate this business happily. + BASTARD. Let it be so. And you, my noble Prince, + With other princes that may best be spar'd, + Shall wait upon your father's funeral. + PRINCE HENRY. At Worcester must his body be interr'd; + For so he will'd it. + BASTARD. Thither shall it, then; + And happily may your sweet self put on + The lineal state and glory of the land! + To whom, with all submission, on my knee + I do bequeath my faithful services + And true subjection everlastingly. + SALISBURY. And the like tender of our love we make, + To rest without a spot for evermore. + PRINCE HENRY. I have a kind soul that would give you thanks, + And knows not how to do it but with tears. + BASTARD. O, let us pay the time but needful woe, + Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs. + This England never did, nor never shall, + Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror, + But when it first did help to wound itself. + Now these her princes are come home again, + Come the three corners of the world in arms, + And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue, + If England to itself do rest but true. Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + + +1599 + + +THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESAR + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + JULIUS CAESAR, Roman statesman and general + OCTAVIUS, Triumvir after Caesar's death, later Augustus Caesar, + first emperor of Rome + MARK ANTONY, general and friend of Caesar, a Triumvir after his death + LEPIDUS, third member of the Triumvirate + MARCUS BRUTUS, leader of the conspiracy against Caesar + CASSIUS, instigator of the conspiracy + CASCA, conspirator against Caesar + TREBONIUS, " " " + CAIUS LIGARIUS, " " " + DECIUS BRUTUS, " " " + METELLUS CIMBER, " " " + CINNA, " " " + CALPURNIA, wife of Caesar + PORTIA, wife of Brutus + CICERO, senator + POPILIUS, " + POPILIUS LENA, " + FLAVIUS, tribune + MARULLUS, tribune + CATO, supportor of Brutus + LUCILIUS, " " " + TITINIUS, " " " + MESSALA, " " " + VOLUMNIUS, " " " + ARTEMIDORUS, a teacher of rhetoric + CINNA, a poet + VARRO, servant to Brutus + CLITUS, " " " + CLAUDIO, " " " + STRATO, " " " + LUCIUS, " " " + DARDANIUS, " " " + PINDARUS, servant to Cassius + The Ghost of Caesar + A Soothsayer + A Poet + Senators, Citizens, Soldiers, Commoners, Messengers, and Servants + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: Rome, the conspirators' camp near Sardis, and the plains of Philippi. + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Rome. A street. + +Enter Flavius, Marullus, and certain Commoners. + + FLAVIUS. Hence, home, you idle creatures, get you home. + Is this a holiday? What, know you not, + Being mechanical, you ought not walk + Upon a laboring day without the sign + Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou? + FIRST COMMONER. Why, sir, a carpenter. + MARULLUS. Where is thy leather apron and thy rule? + What dost thou with thy best apparel on? + You, sir, what trade are you? + SECOND COMMONER. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am + but, as you would say, a cobbler. + MARULLUS. But what trade art thou? Answer me directly. + SECOND COMMONER. A trade, sir, that, I hope, I may use with a safe + conscience, which is indeed, sir, a mender of bad soles. + MARULLUS. What trade, thou knave? Thou naughty knave, what trade? + SECOND COMMONER. Nay, I beseech you, sir, be not out with me; yet, + if you be out, sir, I can mend you. + MARULLUS. What mean'st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow! + SECOND COMMONER. Why, sir, cobble you. + FLAVIUS. Thou art a cobbler, art thou? + SECOND COMMONER. Truly, Sir, all that I live by is with the awl; I + meddle with no tradesman's matters, nor women's matters, but with + awl. I am indeed, sir, a surgeon to old shoes; when they are in + great danger, I recover them. As proper men as ever trod upon + neat's leather have gone upon my handiwork. + FLAVIUS. But wherefore art not in thy shop today? + Why dost thou lead these men about the streets? + SECOND COMMONER. Truly, sir, to wear out their shoes to get myself + into more work. But indeed, sir, we make holiday to see Caesar + and to rejoice in his triumph. + MARULLUS. Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home? + What tributaries follow him to Rome + To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels? + You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! + O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome, + Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft + Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements, + To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops, + Your infants in your arms, and there have sat + The livelong day with patient expectation + To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome. + And when you saw his chariot but appear, + Have you not made an universal shout + That Tiber trembled underneath her banks + To hear the replication of your sounds + Made in her concave shores? + And do you now put on your best attire? + And do you now cull out a holiday? + And do you now strew flowers in his way + That comes in triumph over Pompey's blood? + Be gone! + Run to your houses, fall upon your knees, + Pray to the gods to intermit the plague + That needs must light on this ingratitude. + FLAVIUS. Go, go, good countrymen, and, for this fault, + Assemble all the poor men of your sort, + Draw them to Tiber banks, and weep your tears + Into the channel, till the lowest stream + Do kiss the most exalted shores of all. + Exeunt all Commoners. + See whether their basest metal be not moved; + They vanish tongue-tied in their guiltiness. + Go you down that way towards the Capitol; + This way will I. Disrobe the images + If you do find them deck'd with ceremonies. + MARULLUS. May we do so? + You know it is the feast of Lupercal. + FLAVIUS. It is no matter; let no images + Be hung with Caesar's trophies. I'll about + And drive away the vulgar from the streets; + So do you too, where you perceive them thick. + These growing feathers pluck'd from Caesar's wing + Will make him fly an ordinary pitch, + Who else would soar above the view of men + And keep us all in servile fearfulness. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE II. +A public place. + +Flourish. Enter Caesar; Antony, for the course; Calpurnia, Portia, +Decius, Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, and Casca; a great crowd follows, +among them a Soothsayer. + + CAESAR. Calpurnia! + CASCA. Peace, ho! Caesar speaks. + Music ceases. + CAESAR. Calpurnia! + CALPURNIA. Here, my lord. + CAESAR. Stand you directly in Antonio's way, + When he doth run his course. Antonio! + ANTONY. Caesar, my lord? + CAESAR. Forget not in your speed, Antonio, + To touch Calpurnia, for our elders say + The barren, touched in this holy chase, + Shake off their sterile curse. + ANTONY. I shall remember. + When Caesar says "Do this," it is perform'd. + CAESAR. Set on, and leave no ceremony out. Flourish. + SOOTHSAYER. Caesar! + CAESAR. Ha! Who calls? + CASCA. Bid every noise be still. Peace yet again! + CAESAR. Who is it in the press that calls on me? + I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, + Cry "Caesar." Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear. + SOOTHSAYER. Beware the ides of March. + CAESAR. What man is that? + BRUTUS. A soothsayer you beware the ides of March. + CAESAR. Set him before me let me see his face. + CASSIUS. Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar. + CAESAR. What say'st thou to me now? Speak once again. + SOOTHSAYER. Beware the ides of March. + CAESAR. He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass. + Sennet. Exeunt all but Brutus and Cassius. + CASSIUS. Will you go see the order of the course? + BRUTUS. Not I. + CASSIUS. I pray you, do. + BRUTUS. I am not gamesome; I do lack some part + Of that quick spirit that is in Antony. + Let me not hinder, Cassius, your desires; + I'll leave you. + CASSIUS. Brutus, I do observe you now of late; + I have not from your eyes that gentleness + And show of love as I was wont to have; + You bear too stubborn and too strange a hand + Over your friend that loves you. + BRUTUS. Cassius, + Be not deceived; if I have veil'd my look, + I turn the trouble of my countenance + Merely upon myself. Vexed I am + Of late with passions of some difference, + Conceptions only proper to myself, + Which give some soil perhaps to my behaviors; + But let not therefore my good friends be grieved- + Among which number, Cassius, be you one- + Nor construe any further my neglect + Than that poor Brutus with himself at war + Forgets the shows of love to other men. + CASSIUS. Then, Brutus, I have much mistook your passion, + By means whereof this breast of mine hath buried + Thoughts of great value, worthy cogitations. + Tell me, good Brutus, can you see your face? + BRUTUS. No, Cassius, for the eye sees not itself + But by reflection, by some other things. + CASSIUS. 'Tis just, + And it is very much lamented, Brutus, + That you have no such mirrors as will turn + Your hidden worthiness into your eye + That you might see your shadow. I have heard + Where many of the best respect in Rome, + Except immortal Caesar, speaking of Brutus + And groaning underneath this age's yoke, + Have wish'd that noble Brutus had his eyes. + BRUTUS. Into what dangers would you lead me, Cassius, + That you would have me seek into myself + For that which is not in me? + CASSIUS. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear, + And since you know you cannot see yourself + So well as by reflection, I your glass + Will modestly discover to yourself + That of yourself which you yet know not of. + And be not jealous on me, gentle Brutus; + Were I a common laugher, or did use + To stale with ordinary oaths my love + To every new protester, if you know + That I do fawn on men and hug them hard + And after scandal them, or if you know + That I profess myself in banqueting + To all the rout, then hold me dangerous. + Flourish and shout. + BRUTUS. What means this shouting? I do fear the people + Choose Caesar for their king. + CASSIUS. Ay, do you fear it? + Then must I think you would not have it so. + BRUTUS. I would not, Cassius, yet I love him well. + But wherefore do you hold me here so long? + What is it that you would impart to me? + If it be aught toward the general good, + Set honor in one eye and death i' the other + And I will look on both indifferently. + For let the gods so speed me as I love + The name of honor more than I fear death. + CASSIUS. I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, + As well as I do know your outward favor. + Well, honor is the subject of my story. + I cannot tell what you and other men + Think of this life, but, for my single self, + I had as lief not be as live to be + In awe of such a thing as I myself. + I was born free as Caesar, so were you; + We both have fed as well, and we can both + Endure the winter's cold as well as he. + For once, upon a raw and gusty day, + The troubled Tiber chafing with her shores, + Caesar said to me, "Darest thou, Cassius, now + Leap in with me into this angry flood + And swim to yonder point?" Upon the word, + Accoutred as I was, I plunged in + And bade him follow. So indeed he did. + The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it + With lusty sinews, throwing it aside + And stemming it with hearts of controversy. + But ere we could arrive the point proposed, + Caesar cried, "Help me, Cassius, or I sink! + I, as Aeneas our great ancestor + Did from the flames of Troy upon his shoulder + The old Anchises bear, so from the waves of Tiber + Did I the tired Caesar. And this man + Is now become a god, and Cassius is + A wretched creature and must bend his body + If Caesar carelessly but nod on him. + He had a fever when he was in Spain, + And when the fit was on him I did mark + How he did shake. 'Tis true, this god did shake; + His coward lips did from their color fly, + And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world + Did lose his luster. I did hear him groan. + Ay, and that tongue of his that bade the Romans + Mark him and write his speeches in their books, + Alas, it cried, "Give me some drink, Titinius," + As a sick girl. Ye gods! It doth amaze me + A man of such a feeble temper should + So get the start of the majestic world + And bear the palm alone. Shout. Flourish. + BRUTUS. Another general shout! + I do believe that these applauses are + For some new honors that are heap'd on Caesar. + CASSIUS. Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world + Like a Colossus, and we petty men + Walk under his huge legs and peep about + To find ourselves dishonorable graves. + Men at some time are masters of their fates: + The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, + But in ourselves that we are underlings. + Brutus and Caesar: what should be in that "Caesar"? + Why should that name be sounded more than yours? + Write them together, yours is as fair a name; + Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well; + Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with 'em, + "Brutus" will start a spirit as soon as "Caesar." + Now, in the names of all the gods at once, + Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed + That he is grown so great? Age, thou art shamed! + Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods! + When went there by an age since the great flood + But it was famed with more than with one man? + When could they say till now that talk'd of Rome + That her wide walls encompass'd but one man? + Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough, + When there is in it but one only man. + O, you and I have heard our fathers say + There was a Brutus once that would have brook'd + The eternal devil to keep his state in Rome + As easily as a king. + BRUTUS. That you do love me, I am nothing jealous; + What you would work me to, I have some aim. + How I have thought of this and of these times, + I shall recount hereafter; for this present, + I would not, so with love I might entreat you, + Be any further moved. What you have said + I will consider; what you have to say + I will with patience hear, and find a time + Both meet to hear and answer such high things. + Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this: + Brutus had rather be a villager + Than to repute himself a son of Rome + Under these hard conditions as this time + Is like to lay upon us. + CASSIUS. I am glad that my weak words + Have struck but thus much show of fire from Brutus. + + Re-enter Caesar and his Train. + + BRUTUS. The games are done, and Caesar is returning. + CASSIUS. As they pass by, pluck Casca by the sleeve, + And he will, after his sour fashion, tell you + What hath proceeded worthy note today. + BRUTUS. I will do so. But, look you, Cassius, + The angry spot doth glow on Caesar's brow, + And all the rest look like a chidden train: + Calpurnia's cheek is pale, and Cicero + Looks with such ferret and such fiery eyes + As we have seen him in the Capitol, + Being cross'd in conference by some senators. + CASSIUS. Casca will tell us what the matter is. + CAESAR. Antonio! + ANTONY. Caesar? + CAESAR. Let me have men about me that are fat, + Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights: + Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; + He thinks too much; such men are dangerous. + ANTONY. Fear him not, Caesar; he's not dangerous; + He is a noble Roman and well given. + CAESAR. Would he were fatter! But I fear him not, + Yet if my name were liable to fear, + I do not know the man I should avoid + So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much, + He is a great observer, and he looks + Quite through the deeds of men. He loves no plays, + As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music; + Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort + As if he mock'd himself and scorn'd his spirit + That could be moved to smile at anything. + Such men as he be never at heart's ease + Whiles they behold a greater than themselves, + And therefore are they very dangerous. + I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd + Than what I fear, for always I am Caesar. + Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf, + And tell me truly what thou think'st of him. + Sennet. Exeunt Caesar and all his Train but Casca. + CASCA. You pull'd me by the cloak; would you speak with me? + BRUTUS. Ay, Casca, tell us what hath chanced today + That Caesar looks so sad. + CASCA. Why, you were with him, were you not? + BRUTUS. I should not then ask Casca what had chanced. + CASCA. Why, there was a crown offered him, and being offered him, + he put it by with the back of his hand, thus, and then the + people fell ashouting. + BRUTUS. What was the second noise for? + CASCA. Why, for that too. + CASSIUS. They shouted thrice. What was the last cry for? + CASCA. Why, for that too. + BRUTUS. Was the crown offered him thrice? + CASCA. Ay, marry, wast, and he put it by thrice, every time gentler + than other, and at every putting by mine honest neighbors + shouted. + CASSIUS. Who offered him the crown? + CASCA. Why, Antony. + BRUTUS. Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca. + CASCA. I can as well be hang'd as tell the manner of it. It was + mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a + crown (yet 'twas not a crown neither, 'twas one of these + coronets) and, as I told you, he put it by once. But for all + that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered + it to him again; then he put it by again. But, to my thinking, he + was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it + the third time; he put it the third time by; and still as he + refused it, the rabblement hooted and clapped their chopped hands + and threw up their sweaty nightcaps and uttered such a deal of + stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had + almost choked Caesar, for he swounded and fell down at it. And + for mine own part, I durst not laugh for fear of opening my lips + and receiving the bad air. + CASSIUS. But, soft, I pray you, what, did Caesars wound? + CASCA. He fell down in the marketplace and foamed at mouth and was + speechless. + BRUTUS. 'Tis very like. He hath the falling sickness. + CASSIUS. No, Caesar hath it not, but you, and I, + And honest Casca, we have the falling sickness. + CASCA. I know not what you mean by that, but I am sure Caesar fell + down. If the tagrag people did not clap him and hiss him + according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do + the players in the theatre, I am no true man. + BRUTUS. What said he when he came unto himself? + CASCA. Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the common + herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet + and offered them his throat to cut. An had been a man of any + occupation, if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I + might go to hell among the rogues. And so he fell. When he came + to himself again, he said, if he had done or said anything amiss, + he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or + four wenches where I stood cried, "Alas, good soul!" and forgave + him with all their hearts. But there's no heed to be taken of + them; if Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done + no less. + BRUTUS. And after that he came, thus sad, away? + CASCA. Ay. + CASSIUS. Did Cicero say anything? + CASCA. Ay, he spoke Greek. + CASSIUS. To what effect? + CASCA. Nay, an I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you i' the face + again; but those that understood him smiled at one another and + shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me. I + could tell you more news too: Marullus and Flavius, for pulling + scarfs off Caesar's images, are put to silence. Fare you well. + There was more foolery yet, if could remember it. + CASSIUS. Will you sup with me tonight, Casca? + CASCA. No, I am promised forth. + CASSIUS. Will you dine with me tomorrow? + CASCA. Ay, if I be alive, and your mind hold, and your dinner worth + the eating. + CASSIUS. Good, I will expect you. + CASCA. Do so, farewell, both. Exit. + BRUTUS. What a blunt fellow is this grown to be! + He was quick mettle when he went to school. + CASSIUS. So is he now in execution + Of any bold or noble enterprise, + However he puts on this tardy form. + This rudeness is a sauce to his good wit, + Which gives men stomach to digest his words + With better appetite. + BRUTUS. And so it is. For this time I will leave you. + Tomorrow, if you please to speak with me, + I will come home to you, or, if you will, + Come home to me and I will wait for you. + CASSIUS. I will do so. Till then, think of the world. + Exit Brutus. + Well, Brutus, thou art noble; yet, I see + Thy honorable mettle may be wrought + From that it is disposed; therefore it is meet + That noble minds keep ever with their likes; + For who so firm that cannot be seduced? + Caesar doth bear me hard, but he loves Brutus. + If I were Brutus now and he were Cassius, + He should not humor me. I will this night, + In several hands, in at his windows throw, + As if they came from several citizens, + Writings, all tending to the great opinion + That Rome holds of his name, wherein obscurely + Caesar's ambition shall be glanced at. + And after this let Caesar seat him sure; + For we will shake him, or worse days endure. Exit. + + + + +SCENE III. +A street. Thunder and lightning. + +Enter, from opposite sides, Casca, with his sword drawn, and Cicero. + + CICERO. Good even, Casca. Brought you Caesar home? + Why are you breathless, and why stare you so? + CASCA. Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth + Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero, + I have seen tempests when the scolding winds + Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen + The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam + To be exalted with the threatening clouds, + But never till tonight, never till now, + Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. + Either there is a civil strife in heaven, + Or else the world too saucy with the gods + Incenses them to send destruction. + CICERO. Why, saw you anything more wonderful? + CASCA. A common slave- you know him well by sight- + Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn + Like twenty torches join'd, and yet his hand + Not sensible of fire remain'd unscorch'd. + Besides- I ha' not since put up my sword- + Against the Capitol I met a lion, + Who glaz'd upon me and went surly by + Without annoying me. And there were drawn + Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women + Transformed with their fear, who swore they saw + Men all in fire walk up and down the streets. + And yesterday the bird of night did sit + Even at noonday upon the marketplace, + Howling and shrieking. When these prodigies + Do so conjointly meet, let not men say + "These are their reasons; they are natural": + For I believe they are portentous things + Unto the climate that they point upon. + CICERO. Indeed, it is a strange-disposed time. + But men may construe things after their fashion, + Clean from the purpose of the things themselves. + Comes Caesar to the Capitol tomorrow? + CASCA. He doth, for he did bid Antonio + Send word to you he would be there tomorrow. + CICERO. Good then, Casca. This disturbed sky + Is not to walk in. + CASCA. Farewell, Cicero. Exit Cicero. + + Enter Cassius. + + CASSIUS. Who's there? + CASCA. A Roman. + CASSIUS. Casca, by your voice. + CASCA. Your ear is good. Cassius, what night is this! + CASSIUS. A very pleasing night to honest men. + CASCA. Who ever knew the heavens menace so? + CASSIUS. Those that have known the earth so full of faults. + For my part, I have walk'd about the streets, + Submitting me unto the perilous night, + And thus unbraced, Casca, as you see, + Have bared my bosom to the thunderstone; + And when the cross blue lightning seem'd to open + The breast of heaven, I did present myself + Even in the aim and very flash of it. + CASCA. But wherefore did you so much tempt the heavens? + It is the part of men to fear and tremble + When the most mighty gods by tokens send + Such dreadful heralds to astonish us. + CASSIUS. You are dull, Casca, and those sparks of life + That should be in a Roman you do want, + Or else you use not. You look pale and gaze + And put on fear and cast yourself in wonder + To see the strange impatience of the heavens. + But if you would consider the true cause + Why all these fires, why all these gliding ghosts, + Why birds and beasts from quality and kind, + Why old men, fools, and children calculate, + Why all these things change from their ordinance, + Their natures, and preformed faculties + To monstrous quality, why, you shall find + That heaven hath infused them with these spirits + To make them instruments of fear and warning + Unto some monstrous state. + Now could I, Casca, name to thee a man + Most like this dreadful night, + That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars + As doth the lion in the Capitol, + A man no mightier than thyself or me + In personal action, yet prodigious grown + And fearful, as these strange eruptions are. + CASCA. 'Tis Caesar that you mean, is it not, Cassius? + CASSIUS. Let it be who it is, for Romans now + Have thews and limbs like to their ancestors. + But, woe the while! Our fathers' minds are dead, + And we are govern'd with our mothers' spirits; + Our yoke and sufferance show us womanish. + CASCA. Indeed they say the senators tomorrow + Mean to establish Caesar as a king, + And he shall wear his crown by sea and land + In every place save here in Italy. + CASSIUS. I know where I will wear this dagger then: + Cassius from bondage will deliver Cassius. + Therein, ye gods, you make the weak most strong; + Therein, ye gods, you tyrants do defeat. + Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, + Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron + Can be retentive to the strength of spirit; + But life, being weary of these worldly bars, + Never lacks power to dismiss itself. + If I know this, know all the world besides, + That part of tyranny that I do bear + I can shake off at pleasure. Thunder still. + CASCA. So can I. + So every bondman in his own hand bears + The power to cancel his captivity. + CASSIUS. And why should Caesar be a tyrant then? + Poor man! I know he would not be a wolf + But that he sees the Romans are but sheep. + He were no lion, were not Romans hinds. + Those that with haste will make a mighty fire + Begin it with weak straws. What trash is Rome, + What rubbish, and what offal, when it serves + For the base matter to illuminate + So vile a thing as Caesar? But, O grief, + Where hast thou led me? I perhaps speak this + Before a willing bondman; then I know + My answer must be made. But I am arm'd, + And dangers are to me indifferent. + CASCA. You speak to Casca, and to such a man + That is no fleering tell-tale. Hold, my hand. + Be factious for redress of all these griefs, + And I will set this foot of mine as far + As who goes farthest. + CASSIUS. There's a bargain made. + Now know you, Casca, I have moved already + Some certain of the noblest-minded Romans + To undergo with me an enterprise + Of honorable-dangerous consequence; + And I do know by this, they stay for me + In Pompey's Porch. For now, this fearful night, + There is no stir or walking in the streets, + And the complexion of the element + In favor's like the work we have in hand, + Most bloody, fiery, and most terrible. + + Enter Cinna. + + CASCA. Stand close awhile, for here comes one in haste. + CASSIUS. 'Tis Cinna, I do know him by his gait; + He is a friend. Cinna, where haste you so? + CINNA. To find out you. Who's that? Metellus Cimber? + CASSIUS. No, it is Casca, one incorporate + To our attempts. Am I not stay'd for, Cinna? + CINNA. I am glad on't. What a fearful night is this! + There's two or three of us have seen strange sights. + CASSIUS. Am I not stay'd for? Tell me. + CINNA. Yes, you are. + O Cassius, if you could + But win the noble Brutus to our party- + CASSIUS. Be you content. Good Cinna, take this paper, + And look you lay it in the praetor's chair, + Where Brutus may but find it; and throw this + In at his window; set this up with wax + Upon old Brutus' statue. All this done, + Repair to Pompey's Porch, where you shall find us. + Is Decius Brutus and Trebonius there? + CINNA. All but Metellus Cimber, and he's gone + To seek you at your house. Well, I will hie + And so bestow these papers as you bade me. + CASSIUS. That done, repair to Pompey's Theatre. + Exit Cinna. + Come, Casca, you and I will yet ere day + See Brutus at his house. Three parts of him + Is ours already, and the man entire + Upon the next encounter yields him ours. + CASCA. O, he sits high in all the people's hearts, + And that which would appear offense in us, + His countenance, like richest alchemy, + Will change to virtue and to worthiness. + CASSIUS. Him and his worth and our great need of him + You have right well conceited. Let us go, + For it is after midnight, and ere day + We will awake him and be sure of him. Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. + +Enter Brutus in his orchard. + + BRUTUS. What, Lucius, ho! + I cannot, by the progress of the stars, + Give guess how near to day. Lucius, I say! + I would it were my fault to sleep so soundly. + When, Lucius, when? Awake, I say! What, Lucius! + + Enter Lucius. + + LUCIUS. Call'd you, my lord? + BRUTUS. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius. + When it is lighted, come and call me here. + LUCIUS. I will, my lord. Exit. + BRUTUS. It must be by his death, and, for my part, + I know no personal cause to spurn at him, + But for the general. He would be crown'd: + How that might change his nature, there's the question. + It is the bright day that brings forth the adder + And that craves wary walking. Crown him that, + And then, I grant, we put a sting in him + That at his will he may do danger with. + The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins + Remorse from power, and, to speak truth of Caesar, + I have not known when his affections sway'd + More than his reason. But 'tis a common proof + That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, + Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; + But when he once attains the upmost round, + He then unto the ladder turns his back, + Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees + By which he did ascend. So Caesar may; + Then, lest he may, prevent. And, since the quarrel + Will bear no color for the thing he is, + Fashion it thus, that what he is, augmented, + Would run to these and these extremities; + And therefore think him as a serpent's egg + Which hatch'd would as his kind grow mischievous, + And kill him in the shell. + + Re-enter Lucius. + + LUCIUS. The taper burneth in your closet, sir. + Searching the window for a flint I found + This paper thus seal'd up, and I am sure + It did not lie there when I went to bed. + Gives him the letter. + BRUTUS. Get you to bed again, it is not day. + Is not tomorrow, boy, the ides of March? + LUCIUS. I know not, sir. + BRUTUS. Look in the calendar and bring me word. + LUCIUS. I will, sir. Exit. + BRUTUS. The exhalations whizzing in the air + Give so much light that I may read by them. + Opens the letter and reads. + "Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake and see thyself! + Shall Rome, etc. Speak, strike, redress!" + + "Brutus, thou sleep'st: awake!" + Such instigations have been often dropp'd + Where I have took them up. + "Shall Rome, etc." Thus must I piece it out. + Shall Rome stand under one man's awe? What, Rome? + My ancestors did from the streets of Rome + The Tarquin drive, when he was call'd a king. + "Speak, strike, redress!" Am I entreated + To speak and strike? O Rome, I make thee promise, + If the redress will follow, thou receivest + Thy full petition at the hand of Brutus! + + Re-enter Lucius. + + LUCIUS. Sir, March is wasted fifteen days. + Knocking within. + BRUTUS. 'Tis good. Go to the gate, somebody knocks. + Exit Lucius. + Since Cassius first did whet me against Caesar + I have not slept. + Between the acting of a dreadful thing + And the first motion, all the interim is + Like a phantasma or a hideous dream; + The genius and the mortal instruments + Are then in council, and the state of man, + Like to a little kingdom, suffers then + The nature of an insurrection. + + Re-enter Lucius. + + LUCIUS. Sir, 'tis your brother Cassius at the door, + Who doth desire to see you. + BRUTUS. Is he alone? + LUCIUS. No, sir, there are more with him. + BRUTUS. Do you know them? + LUCIUS. No, sir, their hats are pluck'd about their ears, + And half their faces buried in their cloaks, + That by no means I may discover them + By any mark of favor. + BRUTUS. Let 'em enter. Exit Lucius. + They are the faction. O Conspiracy, + Shamest thou to show thy dangerous brow by night, + When evils are most free? O, then, by day + Where wilt thou find a cavern dark enough + To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, Conspiracy; + Hide it in smiles and affability; + For if thou path, thy native semblance on, + Not Erebus itself were dim enough + To hide thee from prevention. + + Enter the conspirators, Cassius, Casca, Decius, Cinna, + Metellus Cimber, and Trebonius. + + CASSIUS. I think we are too bold upon your rest. + Good morrow, Brutus, do we trouble you? + BRUTUS. I have been up this hour, awake all night. + Know I these men that come along with you? + CASSIUS. Yes, every man of them, and no man here + But honors you, and every one doth wish + You had but that opinion of yourself + Which every noble Roman bears of you. + This is Trebonius. + BRUTUS. He is welcome hither. + CASSIUS. This, Decius Brutus. + BRUTUS. He is welcome too. +CASSIUS. This, Casca; this, Cinna; and this, Metellus Cimber. + BRUTUS. They are all welcome. + What watchful cares do interpose themselves + Betwixt your eyes and night? + CASSIUS. Shall I entreat a word? They whisper. + DECIUS. Here lies the east. Doth not the day break here? + CASCA. No. + CINNA. O, pardon, sir, it doth, and yongrey lines + That fret the clouds are messengers of day. + CASCA. You shall confess that you are both deceived. + Here, as I point my sword, the sun arises, + Which is a great way growing on the south, + Weighing the youthful season of the year. + Some two months hence up higher toward the north + He first presents his fire, and the high east + Stands as the Capitol, directly here. + BRUTUS. Give me your hands all over, one by one. + CASSIUS. And let us swear our resolution. + BRUTUS. No, not an oath. If not the face of men, + The sufferance of our souls, the time's abuse- + If these be motives weak, break off betimes, + And every man hence to his idle bed; + So let high-sighted tyranny range on + Till each man drop by lottery. But if these, + As I am sure they do, bear fire enough + To kindle cowards and to steel with valor + The melting spirits of women, then, countrymen, + What need we any spur but our own cause + To prick us to redress? What other bond + Than secret Romans that have spoke the word + And will not palter? And what other oath + Than honesty to honesty engaged + That this shall be or we will fall for it? + Swear priests and cowards and men cautelous, + Old feeble carrions and such suffering souls + That welcome wrongs; unto bad causes swear + Such creatures as men doubt; but do not stain + The even virtue of our enterprise, + Nor the insuppressive mettle of our spirits, + To think that or our cause or our performance + Did need an oath; when every drop of blood + That every Roman bears, and nobly bears, + Is guilty of a several bastardy + If he do break the smallest particle + Of any promise that hath pass'd from him. + CASSIUS. But what of Cicero? Shall we sound him? + I think he will stand very strong with us. + CASCA. Let us not leave him out. + CINNA. No, by no means. + METELLUS. O, let us have him, for his silver hairs + Will purchase us a good opinion, + And buy men's voices to commend our deeds. + It shall be said his judgement ruled our hands; + Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear, + But all be buried in his gravity. + BRUTUS. O, name him not; let us not break with him, + For he will never follow anything + That other men begin. + CASSIUS. Then leave him out. + CASCA. Indeed he is not fit. + DECIUS. Shall no man else be touch'd but only Caesar? + CASSIUS. Decius, well urged. I think it is not meet + Mark Antony, so well beloved of Caesar, + Should outlive Caesar. We shall find of him + A shrewd contriver; and you know his means, + If he improve them, may well stretch so far + As to annoy us all, which to prevent, + Let Antony and Caesar fall together. + BRUTUS. Our course will seem too bloody, Caius Cassius, + To cut the head off and then hack the limbs + Like wrath in death and envy afterwards; + For Antony is but a limb of Caesar. + Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius. + We all stand up against the spirit of Caesar, + And in the spirit of men there is no blood. + O, that we then could come by Caesar's spirit, + And not dismember Caesar! But, alas, + Caesar must bleed for it! And, gentle friends, + Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully; + Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods, + Not hew him as a carcass fit for hounds; + And let our hearts, as subtle masters do, + Stir up their servants to an act of rage + And after seem to chide 'em. This shall make + Our purpose necessary and not envious, + Which so appearing to the common eyes, + We shall be call'd purgers, not murderers. + And for Mark Antony, think not of him, + For he can do no more than Caesar's arm + When Caesar's head is off. + CASSIUS. Yet I fear him, + For in the ingrated love he bears to Caesar- + BRUTUS. Alas, good Cassius, do not think of him. + If he love Caesar, all that he can do + Is to himself, take thought and die for Caesar. + And that were much he should, for he is given + To sports, to wildness, and much company. + TREBONIUS. There is no fear in him-let him not die, + For he will live and laugh at this hereafter. + Clock strikes. + BRUTUS. Peace, count the clock. + CASSIUS. The clock hath stricken three. + TREBONIUS. 'Tis time to part. + CASSIUS. But it is doubtful yet + Whether Caesar will come forth today or no, + For he is superstitious grown of late, + Quite from the main opinion he held once + Of fantasy, of dreams, and ceremonies. + It may be these apparent prodigies, + The unaccustom'd terror of this night, + And the persuasion of his augurers + May hold him from the Capitol today. + DECIUS. Never fear that. If he be so resolved, + I can o'ersway him, for he loves to hear + That unicorns may be betray'd with trees, + And bears with glasses, elephants with holes, + Lions with toils, and men with flatterers; + But when I tell him he hates flatterers, + He says he does, being then most flattered. + Let me work; + For I can give his humor the true bent, + And I will bring him to the Capitol. + CASSIUS. Nay, we will all of us be there to fetch him. + BRUTUS. By the eighth hour. Is that the utter most? + CINNA. Be that the uttermost, and fail not then. + METELLUS. Caius Ligarius doth bear Caesar hard, + Who rated him for speaking well of Pompey. + I wonder none of you have thought of him. + BRUTUS. Now, good Metellus, go along by him. + He loves me well, and I have given him reasons; + Send him but hither, and I'll fashion him. + CASSIUS. The morning comes upon 's. We'll leave you, Brutus, + And, friends, disperse yourselves, but all remember + What you have said and show yourselves true Romans. + BRUTUS. Good gentlemen, look fresh and merrily; + Let not our looks put on our purposes, + But bear it as our Roman actors do, + With untired spirits and formal constancy. + And so, good morrow to you every one. + Exeunt all but Brutus. + Boy! Lucius! Fast asleep? It is no matter. + Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber; + Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies, + Which busy care draws in the brains of men; + Therefore thou sleep'st so sound. + + Enter Portia. + + PORTIA. Brutus, my lord! + BRUTUS. Portia, what mean you? Wherefore rise you now? + It is not for your health thus to commit + Your weak condition to the raw cold morning. + PORTIA. Nor for yours neither. have ungently, Brutus, + Stole from my bed; and yesternight at supper + You suddenly arose and walk'd about, + Musing and sighing, with your arms across; + And when I ask'd you what the matter was, + You stared upon me with ungentle looks. + I urged you further; then you scratch'd your head, + And too impatiently stamp'd with your foot. + Yet I insisted, yet you answer'd not, + But with an angry waiter of your hand + Gave sign for me to leave you. So I did, + Fearing to strengthen that impatience + Which seem'd too much enkindled, and withal + Hoping it was but an effect of humor, + Which sometime hath his hour with every man. + It will not let you eat, nor talk, nor sleep, + And, could it work so much upon your shape + As it hath much prevail'd on your condition, + I should not know you, Brutus. Dear my lord, + Make me acquainted with your cause of grief. + BRUTUS. I am not well in health, and that is all. + PORTIA. Brutus is wise, and, were he not in health, + He would embrace the means to come by it. + BRUTUS. Why, so I do. Good Portia, go to bed. + PORTIA. Is Brutus sick, and is it physical + To walk unbraced and suck up the humors + Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick, + And will he steal out of his wholesome bed + To dare the vile contagion of the night + And tempt the rheumy and unpurged air + To add unto his sickness? No, my Brutus, + You have some sick offense within your mind, + Which by the right and virtue of my place + I ought to know of; and, upon my knees, + I charm you, by my once commended beauty, + By all your vows of love and that great vow + Which did incorporate and make us one, + That you unfold to me, yourself, your half, + Why you are heavy and what men tonight + Have had resort to you; for here have been + Some six or seven, who did hide their faces + Even from darkness. + BRUTUS. Kneel not, gentle Portia. + PORTIA. I should not need, if you were gentle Brutus. + Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus, + Is it excepted I should know no secrets + That appertain to you? Am I yourself + But, as it were, in sort or limitation, + To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed, + And talk to you sometimes? Dwell I but in the suburbs + Of your good pleasure? If it be no more, + Portia is Brutus' harlot, not his wife. + BRUTUS. You are my true and honorable wife, + As dear to me as are the ruddy drops + That visit my sad heart. + PORTIA. If this were true, then should I know this secret. + I grant I am a woman, but withal + A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife. + I grant I am a woman, but withal + A woman well reputed, Cato's daughter. + Think you I am no stronger than my sex, + Being so father'd and so husbanded? + Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose 'em. + I have made strong proof of my constancy, + Giving myself a voluntary wound + Here in the thigh. Can I bear that with patience + And not my husband's secrets? + BRUTUS. O ye gods, + Render me worthy of this noble wife! Knocking within. + Hark, hark, one knocks. Portia, go in awhile, + And by and by thy bosom shall partake + The secrets of my heart. + All my engagements I will construe to thee, + All the charactery of my sad brows. + Leave me with haste. [Exit Portia.] Lucius, who's that knocks? + + Re-enter Lucius with Ligarius. + + LUCIUS. Here is a sick man that would speak with you. + BRUTUS. Caius Ligarius, that Metellus spake of. + Boy, stand aside. Caius Ligarius, how? + LIGARIUS. Vouchsafe good morrow from a feeble tongue. + BRUTUS. O, what a time have you chose out, brave Caius, + To wear a kerchief! Would you were not sick! + LIGARIUS. I am not sick, if Brutus have in hand + Any exploit worthy the name of honor. + BRUTUS. Such an exploit have I in hand, Ligarius, + Had you a healthful ear to hear of it. + LIGARIUS. By all the gods that Romans bow before, + I here discard my sickness! Soul of Rome! + Brave son, derived from honorable loins! + Thou, like an exorcist, hast conjured up + My mortified spirit. Now bid me run, + And I will strive with things impossible, + Yea, get the better of them. What's to do? + BRUTUS. A piece of work that will make sick men whole. + LIGARIUS. But are not some whole that we must make sick? + BRUTUS. That must we also. What it is, my Caius, + I shall unfold to thee, as we are going + To whom it must be done. + LIGARIUS. Set on your foot, + And with a heart new-fired I follow you, + To do I know not what; but it sufficeth + That Brutus leads me on. + BRUTUS. Follow me then. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE II. +Caesar's house. Thunder and lightning. + +Enter Caesar, in his nightgown. + + CAESAR. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight. + Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out, + "Help, ho! They murther Caesar!" Who's within? + + Enter a Servant. + + SERVANT. My lord? + CAESAR. Go bid the priests do present sacrifice, + And bring me their opinions of success. + SERVANT. I will, my lord. Exit. + + Enter Calpurnia. + + CALPURNIA. What mean you, Caesar? Think you to walk forth? + You shall not stir out of your house today. + CAESAR. Caesar shall forth: the things that threaten'd me + Ne'er look'd but on my back; when they shall see + The face of Caesar, they are vanished. + CALPURNIA. Caesar, I I stood on ceremonies, + Yet now they fright me. There is one within, + Besides the things that we have heard and seen, + Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch. + A lioness hath whelped in the streets; + And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead; + Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds, + In ranks and squadrons and right form of war, + Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol; + The noise of battle hurtled in the air, + Horses did neigh and dying men did groan, + And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets. + O Caesar! These things are beyond all use, + And I do fear them. + CAESAR. What can be avoided + Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods? + Yet Caesar shall go forth, for these predictions + Are to the world in general as to Caesar. + CALPURNIA. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; + The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. + CAESAR. Cowards die many times before their deaths; + The valiant never taste of death but once. + Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, + It seems to me most strange that men should fear + Seeing that death, a necessary end, + Will come when it will come. + + Re-enter Servant. + + What say the augurers? + SERVANT. They would not have you to stir forth today. + Plucking the entrails of an offering forth, + They could not find a heart within the beast. + CAESAR. The gods do this in shame of cowardice. + Caesar should be a beast without a heart + If he should stay at home today for fear. + No, Caesar shall not. Danger knows full well + That Caesar is more dangerous than he. + We are two lions litter'd in one day, + And I the elder and more terrible. + And Caesar shall go forth. + CALPURNIA. Alas, my lord, + Your wisdom is consumed in confidence. + Do not go forth today. Call it my fear + That keeps you in the house and not your own. + We'll send Mark Antony to the Senate House, + And he shall say you are not well today. + Let me, upon my knee, prevail in this. + CAESAR. Mark Antony shall say I am not well, + And, for thy humor, I will stay at home. + + Enter Decius. + + Here's Decius Brutus, he shall tell them so. + DECIUS. Caesar, all hail! Good morrow, worthy Caesar! + I come to fetch you to the Senate House. + CAESAR. And you are come in very happy time + To bear my greeting to the senators + And tell them that I will not come today. + Cannot, is false, and that I dare not, falser: + I will not come today. Tell them so, Decius. + CALPURNIA. Say he is sick. + CAESAR. Shall Caesar send a lie? + Have I in conquest stretch'd mine arm so far + To be afeard to tell greybeards the truth? + Decius, go tell them Caesar will not come. + DECIUS. Most mighty Caesar, let me know some cause, + Lest I be laugh'd at when I tell them so. + CAESAR. The cause is in my will: I will not come, + That is enough to satisfy the Senate. + But, for your private satisfaction, + Because I love you, I will let you know. + Calpurnia here, my wife, stays me at home; + She dreamt tonight she saw my statue, + Which, like a fountain with an hundred spouts, + Did run pure blood, and many lusty Romans + Came smiling and did bathe their hands in it. + And these does she apply for warnings and portents + And evils imminent, and on her knee + Hath begg'd that I will stay at home today. + DECIUS. This dream is all amiss interpreted; + It was a vision fair and fortunate. + Your statue spouting blood in many pipes, + In which so many smiling Romans bathed, + Signifies that from you great Rome shall suck + Reviving blood, and that great men shall press + For tinctures, stains, relics, and cognizance. + This by Calpurnia's dream is signified. + CAESAR. And this way have you well expounded it. + DECIUS. I have, when you have heard what I can say. + And know it now, the Senate have concluded + To give this day a crown to mighty Caesar. + If you shall send them word you will not come, + Their minds may change. Besides, it were a mock + Apt to be render'd, for someone to say + "Break up the Senate till another time, + When Caesar's wife shall meet with better dreams." + If Caesar hide himself, shall they not whisper + "Lo, Caesar is afraid"? + Pardon me, Caesar, for my dear dear love + To your proceeding bids me tell you this, + And reason to my love is liable. + CAESAR. How foolish do your fears seem now, Calpurnia! + I am ashamed I did yield to them. + Give me my robe, for I will go. + + Enter Publius, Brutus, Ligarius, Metellus, Casca, + Trebonius, and Cinna. + + And look where Publius is come to fetch me. + PUBLIUS. Good morrow,Caesar. + CAESAR. Welcome, Publius. + What, Brutus, are you stirr'd so early too? + Good morrow, Casca. Caius Ligarius, + Caesar was ne'er so much your enemy + As that same ague which hath made you lean. + What is't o'clock? + BRUTUS. Caesar, 'tis strucken eight. + CAESAR. I thank you for your pains and courtesy. + + Enter Antony. + + See, Antony, that revels long o' nights, + Is notwithstanding up. Good morrow, Antony. + ANTONY. So to most noble Caesar. + CAESAR. Bid them prepare within. + I am to blame to be thus waited for. + Now, Cinna; now, Metellus; what, Trebonius, + I have an hour's talk in store for you; + Remember that you call on me today; + Be near me, that I may remember you. + TREBONIUS. Caesar, I will. [Aside.] And so near will I be + That your best friends shall wish I had been further. + CAESAR. Good friends, go in and taste some wine with me, + And we like friends will straightway go together. + BRUTUS. [Aside.] That every like is not the same, O Caesar, + The heart of Brutus yearns to think upon! Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE III. +A street near the Capitol. + +Enter Artemidorus, reading paper. + + ARTEMIDORUS. "Caesar, beware of Brutus; take heed of Cassius; come + not near Casca; have an eye to Cinna; trust not Trebonius; mark + well Metellus Cimber; Decius Brutus loves thee not; thou hast + wronged Caius Ligarius. There is but one mind in all these men, + and it is bent against Caesar. If thou beest not immortal, look + about you. Security gives way to conspiracy. The mighty gods + defend thee! + Thy lover, Artemidorus." + Here will I stand till Caesar pass along, + And as a suitor will I give him this. + My heart laments that virtue cannot live + Out of the teeth of emulation. + If thou read this, O Caesar, thou mayest live; + If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive. Exit. + + + + +SCENE IV. +Another part of the same street, before the house of Brutus. + +Enter Portia and Lucius. + + PORTIA. I prithee, boy, run to the Senate House; + Stay not to answer me, but get thee gone. + Why dost thou stay? + LUCIUS. To know my errand, madam. + PORTIA. I would have had thee there, and here again, + Ere I can tell thee what thou shouldst do there. + O constancy, be strong upon my side! + Set a huge mountain 'tween my heart and tongue! + I have a man's mind, but a woman's might. + How hard it is for women to keep counsel! + Art thou here yet? + LUCIUS. Madam, what should I do? + Run to the Capitol, and nothing else? + And so return to you, and nothing else? + PORTIA. Yes, bring me word, boy, if thy lord look well, + For he went sickly forth; and take good note + What Caesar doth, what suitors press to him. + Hark, boy, what noise is that? + LUCIUS. I hear none, madam. + PORTIA. Prithee, listen well. + I heard a bustling rumor like a fray, + And the wind brings it from the Capitol. + LUCIUS. Sooth, madam, I hear nothing. + + Enter the Soothsayer. + + PORTIA. Come hither, fellow; + Which way hast thou been? + SOOTHSAYER. At mine own house, good lady. + PORTIA. What is't o'clock? + SOOTHSAYER. About the ninth hour, lady. + PORTIA. Is Caesar yet gone to the Capitol? + SOOTHSAYER. Madam, not yet. I go to take my stand + To see him pass on to the Capitol. + PORTIA. Thou hast some suit to Caesar, hast thou not? + SOOTHSAYER. That I have, lady. If it will please Caesar + To be so good to Caesar as to hear me, + I shall beseech him to befriend himself. + PORTIA. Why, know'st thou any harm's intended towards him? + SOOTHSAYER. None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance. + Good morrow to you. Here the street is narrow, + The throng that follows Caesar at the heels, + Of senators, of praetors, common suitors, + Will crowd a feeble man almost to death. + I'll get me to a place more void and there + Speak to great Caesar as he comes along. Exit. + PORTIA. I must go in. Ay me, how weak a thing + The heart of woman is! O Brutus, + The heavens speed thee in thine enterprise! + Sure, the boy heard me. Brutus hath a suit + That Caesar will not grant. O, I grow faint. + Run, Lucius, and commend me to my lord; + Say I am merry. Come to me again, + And bring me word what he doth say to thee. + Exeunt severally. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +Rome. Before the Capitol; the Senate sitting above. +A crowd of people, among them Artemidorus and the Soothsayer. + +Flourish. Enter Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Casca, Decius, Metellus, +Trebonius, Cinna, Antony, Lepidus, Popilius, Publius, and others. + + CAESAR. The ides of March are come. + SOOTHSAYER. Ay, Caesar, but not gone. + A Hail, Caesar! Read this schedule. + DECIUS. Trebonius doth desire you to o'er read, + At your best leisure, this his humble suit. + ARTEMIDORUS. O Caesar, read mine first, for mine's a suit + That touches Caesar nearer. Read it, great Caesar. + CAESAR. What touches us ourself shall be last served. + ARTEMIDORUS. Delay not, Caesar; read it instantly. + CAESAR. What, is the fellow mad? + PUBLIUS. Sirrah, give place. + CASSIUS. What, urge you your petitions in the street? + Come to the Capitol. + + Caesar goes up to the Senate House, the rest follow. + + POPILIUS. I wish your enterprise today may thrive. + CASSIUS. What enterprise, Popilius? + POPILIUS. Fare you well. + Advances to Caesar. + BRUTUS. What said Popilius Lena? + CASSIUS. He wish'd today our enterprise might thrive. + I fear our purpose is discovered. + BRUTUS. Look, how he makes to Caesar. Mark him. + CASSIUS. Casca, + Be sudden, for we fear prevention. + Brutus, what shall be done? If this be known, + Cassius or Caesar never shall turn back, + For I will slay myself. + BRUTUS. Cassius, be constant. + Popilius Lena speaks not of our purposes; + For, look, he smiles, and Caesar doth not change. + CASSIUS. Trebonius knows his time, for, look you, Brutus, + He draws Mark Antony out of the way. + Exeunt Antony and Trebonius. + DECIUS. Where is Metellus Cimber? Let him + And presently prefer his suit to Caesar. + BRUTUS. He is address'd; press near and second him. + CINNA. Casca, you are the first that rears your hand. + CAESAR. Are we all ready? What is now amiss + That Caesar and his Senate must redress? + METELLUS. Most high, most mighty, and most puissant Caesar, + Metellus Cimber throws before thy seat + An humble heart. Kneels. + CAESAR. I must prevent thee, Cimber. + These couchings and these lowly courtesies + Might fire the blood of ordinary men + And turn preordinance and first decree + Into the law of children. Be not fond + To think that Caesar bears such rebel blood + That will be thaw'd from the true quality + With that which melteth fools- I mean sweet words, + Low-crooked court'sies, and base spaniel-fawning. + Thy brother by decree is banished. + If thou dost bend and pray and fawn for him, + I spurn thee like a cur out of my way. + Know, Caesar doth not wrong, nor without cause + Will he be satisfied. + METELLUS. Is there no voice more worthy than my own, + To sound more sweetly in great Caesar's ear + For the repealing of my banish'd brother? + BRUTUS. I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Caesar, + Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may + Have an immediate freedom of repeal. + CAESAR. What, Brutus? + CASSIUS. Pardon, Caesar! Caesar, pardon! + As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall + To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber. + CAESAR. I could be well moved, if I were as you; + If I could pray to move, prayers would move me; + But I am constant as the northern star, + Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality + There is no fellow in the firmament. + The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks; + They are all fire and every one doth shine; + But there's but one in all doth hold his place. + So in the world, 'tis furnish'd well with men, + And men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive; + Yet in the number I do know but one + That unassailable holds on his rank, + Unshaked of motion; and that I am he, + Let me a little show it, even in this; + That I was constant Cimber should be banish'd, + And constant do remain to keep him so. + CINNA. O Caesar- + CAESAR. Hence! Wilt thou lift up Olympus? + DECIUS. Great Caesar- + CAESAR. Doth not Brutus bootless kneel? + CASCA. Speak, hands, for me! + Casca first, then the other Conspirators + and Marcus Brutus stab Caesar. + CAESAR. Et tu, Brute?- Then fall, Caesar! Dies. + CINNA. Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! + Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. + CASSIUS. Some to the common pulpits and cry out + "Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!" + BRUTUS. People and senators, be not affrighted, + Fly not, stand still; ambition's debt is paid. + CASCA. Go to the pulpit, Brutus. + DECIUS. And Cassius too. + BRUTUS. Where's Publius? + CINNA. Here, quite confounded with this mutiny. + METELLUS. Stand fast together, lest some friend of Caesar's + Should chance- + BRUTUS. Talk not of standing. Publius, good cheer, + There is no harm intended to your person, + Nor to no Roman else. So tell them, Publius. + CASSIUS. And leave us, Publius, lest that the people + Rushing on us should do your age some mischief. + BRUTUS. Do so, and let no man abide this deed + But we the doers. + + Re-enter Trebonius. + + CASSIUS. Where is Antony? + TREBONIUS. Fled to his house amazed. + Men, wives, and children stare, cry out, and run + As it were doomsday. + BRUTUS. Fates, we will know your pleasures. + That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time + And drawing days out that men stand upon. + CASSIUS. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life + Cuts off so many years of fearing death. + BRUTUS. Grant that, and then is death a benefit; + So are we Caesar's friends that have abridged + His time of fearing death. Stoop, Romans, stoop, + And let us bathe our hands in Caesar's blood + Up to the elbows, and besmear our swords; + Then walk we forth, even to the marketplace, + And waving our red weapons o'er our heads, + Let's all cry, "Peace, freedom, and liberty!" + CASSIUS. Stoop then, and wash. How many ages hence + Shall this our lofty scene be acted over + In states unborn and accents yet unknown! + BRUTUS. How many times shall Caesar bleed in sport, + That now on Pompey's basis lies along + No worthier than the dust! + CASSIUS. So oft as that shall be, + So often shall the knot of us be call'd + The men that gave their country liberty. + DECIUS. What, shall we forth? + CASSIUS. Ay, every man away. + Brutus shall lead, and we will grace his heels + With the most boldest and best hearts of Rome. + + Enter a Servant. + + BRUTUS. Soft, who comes here? A friend of Antony's. + SERVANT. Thus, Brutus, did my master bid me kneel, + Thus did Mark Antony bid me fall down, + And, being prostrate, thus he bade me say: + Brutus is noble, wise, valiant, and honest; + Caesar was mighty, bold, royal, and loving. + Say I love Brutus and I honor him; + Say I fear'd Caesar, honor'd him, and loved him. + If Brutus will vouchsafe that Antony + May safely come to him and be resolved + How Caesar hath deserved to lie in death, + Mark Antony shall not love Caesar dead + So well as Brutus living, but will follow + The fortunes and affairs of noble Brutus + Thorough the hazards of this untrod state + With all true faith. So says my master Antony. + BRUTUS. Thy master is a wise and valiant Roman; + I never thought him worse. + Tell him, so please him come unto this place, + He shall be satisfied and, by my honor, + Depart untouch'd. + SERVANT. I'll fetch him presently. Exit. + BRUTUS. I know that we shall have him well to friend. + CASSIUS. I wish we may, but yet have I a mind + That fears him much, and my misgiving still + Falls shrewdly to the purpose. + + Re-enter Antony. + + BRUTUS. But here comes Antony. Welcome, Mark Antony. + ANTONY. O mighty Caesar! Dost thou lie so low? + Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, + Shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well. + I know not, gentlemen, what you intend, + Who else must be let blood, who else is rank. + If I myself, there is no hour so fit + As Caesar's death's hour, nor no instrument + Of half that worth as those your swords, made rich + With the most noble blood of all this world. + I do beseech ye, if you bear me hard, + Now, whilst your purpled hands do reek and smoke, + Fulfill your pleasure. Live a thousand years, + I shall not find myself so apt to die; + No place will please me so, no means of death, + As here by Caesar, and by you cut off, + The choice and master spirits of this age. + BRUTUS. O Antony, beg not your death of us! + Though now we must appear bloody and cruel, + As, by our hands and this our present act + You see we do, yet see you but our hands + And this the bleeding business they have done. + Our hearts you see not; they are pitiful; + And pity to the general wrong of Rome- + As fire drives out fire, so pity pity- + Hath done this deed on Caesar. For your part, + To you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antony; + Our arms in strength of malice, and our hearts + Of brothers' temper, do receive you in + With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence. + CASSIUS. Your voice shall be as strong as any man's + In the disposing of new dignities. + BRUTUS. Only be patient till we have appeased + The multitude, beside themselves with fear, + And then we will deliver you the cause + Why I, that did love Caesar when I struck him, + Have thus proceeded. + ANTONY. I doubt not of your wisdom. + Let each man render me his bloody hand. + First, Marcus Brutus, will I shake with you; + Next, Caius Cassius, do I take your hand; + Now, Decius Brutus, yours; now yours, Metellus; + Yours, Cinna; and, my valiant Casca, yours; + Though last, not least in love, yours, good Trebonius. + Gentlemen all- alas, what shall I say? + My credit now stands on such slippery ground, + That one of two bad ways you must conceit me, + Either a coward or a flatterer. + That I did love thee, Caesar, O, 'tis true! + If then thy spirit look upon us now, + Shall it not grieve thee dearer than thy death + To see thy Antony making his peace, + Shaking the bloody fingers of thy foes, + Most noble! In the presence of thy corse? + Had I as many eyes as thou hast wounds, + Weeping as fast as they stream forth thy blood, + It would become me better than to close + In terms of friendship with thine enemies. + Pardon me, Julius! Here wast thou bay'd, brave hart, + Here didst thou fall, and here thy hunters stand, + Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy Lethe. + O world, thou wast the forest to this hart, + And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee. + How like a deer strucken by many princes + Dost thou here lie! + CASSIUS. Mark Antony- + ANTONY. Pardon me, Caius Cassius. + The enemies of Caesar shall say this: + Then, in a friend, it is cold modesty. + CASSIUS. I blame you not for praising Caesar so; + But what compact mean you to have with us? + Will you be prick'd in number of our friends, + Or shall we on, and not depend on you? + ANTONY. Therefore I took your hands, but was indeed + Sway'd from the point by looking down on Caesar. + Friends am I with you all and love you all, + Upon this hope that you shall give me reasons + Why and wherein Caesar was dangerous. + BRUTUS. Or else were this a savage spectacle. + Our reasons are so full of good regard + That were you, Antony, the son of Caesar, + You should be satisfied. + ANTONY. That's all I seek; + And am moreover suitor that I may + Produce his body to the marketplace, + And in the pulpit, as becomes a friend, + Speak in the order of his funeral. + BRUTUS. You shall, Mark Antony. + CASSIUS. Brutus, a word with you. + [Aside to Brutus.] You know not what you do. Do not consent + That Antony speak in his funeral. + Know you how much the people may be moved + By that which he will utter? + BRUTUS. By your pardon, + I will myself into the pulpit first, + And show the reason of our Caesar's death. + What Antony shall speak, I will protest + He speaks by leave and by permission, + And that we are contented Caesar shall + Have all true rites and lawful ceremonies. + It shall advantage more than do us wrong. + CASSIUS. I know not what may fall; I like it not. + BRUTUS. Mark Antony, here, take you Caesar's body. + You shall not in your funeral speech blame us, + But speak all good you can devise of Caesar, + And say you do't by our permission, + Else shall you not have any hand at all + About his funeral. And you shall speak + In the same pulpit whereto I am going, + After my speech is ended. + ANTONY. Be it so, + I do desire no more. + BRUTUS. Prepare the body then, and follow us. + Exeunt all but Antony. + ANTONY. O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, + That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! + Thou art the ruins of the noblest man + That ever lived in the tide of times. + Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood! + Over thy wounds now do I prophesy + (Which like dumb mouths do ope their ruby lips + To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue) + A curse shall light upon the limbs of men; + Domestic fury and fierce civil strife + Shall cumber all the parts of Italy; + Blood and destruction shall be so in use, + And dreadful objects so familiar, + That mothers shall but smile when they behold + Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war; + All pity choked with custom of fell deeds, + And Caesar's spirit ranging for revenge, + With Ate by his side come hot from hell, + Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice + Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war, + That this foul deed shall smell above the earth + With carrion men, groaning for burial. + + Enter a Servant. + + You serve Octavius Caesar, do you not? + SERVANT. I do, Mark Antony. + ANTONY. Caesar did write for him to come to Rome. + SERVANT. He did receive his letters, and is coming, + And bid me say to you by word of mouth- + O Caesar! Sees the body. + ANTONY. Thy heart is big; get thee apart and weep. + Passion, I see, is catching, for mine eyes, + Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine, + Began to water. Is thy master coming? + SERVANT. He lies tonight within seven leagues of Rome. + ANTONY. Post back with speed and tell him what hath chanced. + Here is a mourning Rome, a dangerous Rome, + No Rome of safety for Octavius yet; + Hie hence, and tell him so. Yet stay awhile, + Thou shalt not back till I have borne this corse + Into the marketplace. There shall I try, + In my oration, how the people take + The cruel issue of these bloody men, + According to the which thou shalt discourse + To young Octavius of the state of things. + Lend me your hand. Exeunt with Caesar's body. + + + + +SCENE II. +The Forum. + +Enter Brutus and Cassius, and a throng of Citizens. + + CITIZENS. We will be satisfied! Let us be satisfied! + BRUTUS. Then follow me and give me audience, friends. + Cassius, go you into the other street + And part the numbers. + Those that will hear me speak, let 'em stay here; + Those that will follow Cassius, go with him; + And public reasons shall be rendered + Of Caesar's death. + FIRST CITIZEN. I will hear Brutus speak. + SECOND CITIZEN. I will hear Cassius and compare their reasons, + When severally we hear them rendered. + Exit Cassius, with some Citizens. + Brutus goes into the pulpit. + THIRD CITIZEN. The noble Brutus is ascended. Silence! + BRUTUS. Be patient till the last. + Romans, countrymen, and lovers! Hear me for my cause, and be + silent, that you may hear. Believe me for mine honor, and have + respect to mine honor, that you may believe. Censure me in your + wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better judge. If + there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to + him I say that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his. If + then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is + my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome + more. Had you rather Caesar were living and die all slaves, than + that Caesar were dead to live all freemen? As Caesar loved me, I + weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was + valiant, I honor him; but as he was ambitious, I slew him. There + is tears for his love, joy for his fortune, honor for his valor, + and death for his ambition. Who is here so base that would be a + bondman? If any, speak, for him have I offended. Who is here so + rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak, for him have I + offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If + any, speak, for him have I offended. I pause for a reply. + ALL. None, Brutus, none. + BRUTUS. Then none have I offended. I have done no more to Caesar + than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is + enrolled in the Capitol, his glory not extenuated, wherein he was + worthy, nor his offenses enforced, for which he suffered death. + + Enter Antony and others, with Caesar's body. + + Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony, who, though he had + no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a + place in the commonwealth, as which of you shall not? With this I + depart- that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I + have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country + to need my death. + ALL. Live, Brutus, live, live! + FIRST CITIZEN. Bring him with triumph home unto his house. + SECOND CITIZEN. Give him a statue with his ancestors. + THIRD CITIZEN. Let him be Caesar. + FOURTH CITIZEN. Caesar's better parts + Shall be crown'd in Brutus. + FIRST CITIZEN. We'll bring him to his house with shouts and + clamors. + BRUTUS. My countrymen- + SECOND CITIZEN. Peace! Silence! Brutus speaks. + FIRST CITIZEN. Peace, ho! + BRUTUS. Good countrymen, let me depart alone, + And, for my sake, stay here with Antony. + Do grace to Caesar's corse, and grace his speech + Tending to Caesar's glories, which Mark Antony, + By our permission, is allow'd to make. + I do entreat you, not a man depart, + Save I alone, till Antony have spoke. Exit. + FIRST CITIZEN. Stay, ho, and let us hear Mark Antony. + THIRD CITIZEN. Let him go up into the public chair; + We'll hear him. Noble Antony, go up. + ANTONY. For Brutus' sake, I am beholding to you. + Goes into the pulpit. + FOURTH CITIZEN. What does he say of Brutus? + THIRD CITIZEN. He says, for Brutus' sake, + He finds himself beholding to us all. + FOURTH CITIZEN. 'Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here. + FIRST CITIZEN. This Caesar was a tyrant. + THIRD CITIZEN. Nay, that's certain. + We are blest that Rome is rid of him. + SECOND CITIZEN. Peace! Let us hear what Antony can say. + ANTONY. You gentle Romans- + ALL. Peace, ho! Let us hear him. + ANTONY. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! + I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. + The evil that men do lives after them, + The good is oft interred with their bones; + So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus + Hath told you Caesar was ambitious; + If it were so, it was a grievous fault, + And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it. + Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest- + For Brutus is an honorable man; + So are they all, all honorable men- + Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral. + He was my friend, faithful and just to me; + But Brutus says he was ambitious, + And Brutus is an honorable man. + He hath brought many captives home to Rome, + Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill. + Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? + When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; + Ambition should be made of sterner stuff: + Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, + And Brutus is an honorable man. + You all did see that on the Lupercal + I thrice presented him a kingly crown, + Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition? + Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, + And sure he is an honorable man. + I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke, + But here I am to speak what I do know. + You all did love him once, not without cause; + What cause withholds you then to mourn for him? + O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts, + And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; + My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, + And I must pause till it come back to me. + FIRST CITIZEN. Methinks there is much reason in his sayings. + SECOND CITIZEN. If thou consider rightly of the matter, + Caesar has had great wrong. + THIRD CITIZEN. Has he, masters? + I fear there will a worse come in his place. + FOURTH CITIZEN. Mark'd ye his words? He would not take the crown; + Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious. + FIRST CITIZEN. If it be found so, some will dear abide it. + SECOND CITIZEN. Poor soul, his eyes are red as fire with weeping. + THIRD CITIZEN. There's not a nobler man in Rome than Antony. + FOURTH CITIZEN. Now mark him, he begins again to speak. + ANTONY. But yesterday the word of Caesar might + Have stood against the world. Now lies he there, + And none so poor to do him reverence. + O masters! If I were disposed to stir + Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, + I should do Brutus wrong and Cassius wrong, + Who, you all know, are honorable men. + I will not do them wrong; I rather choose + To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, + Than I will wrong such honorable men. + But here's a parchment with the seal of Caesar; + I found it in his closet, 'tis his will. + Let but the commons hear this testament- + Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read- + And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds + And dip their napkins in his sacred blood, + Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, + And, dying, mention it within their wills, + Bequeathing it as a rich legacy + Unto their issue. + FOURTH CITIZEN. We'll hear the will. Read it, Mark Antony. + ALL. The will, the will! We will hear Caesar's will. + ANTONY. Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; + It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you. + You are not wood, you are not stones, but men; + And, being men, hearing the will of Caesar, + It will inflame you, it will make you mad. + 'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs, + For if you should, O, what would come of it! + FOURTH CITIZEN. Read the will; we'll hear it, Antony. + You shall read us the will, Caesar's will. + ANTONY. Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile? + I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it. + I fear I wrong the honorable men + Whose daggers have stabb'd Caesar; I do fear it. + FOURTH CITIZEN. They were traitors. Honorable men! + ALL. The will! The testament! + SECOND CITIZEN. They were villains, murtherers. The will! + Read the will! + ANTONY. You will compel me then to read the will? + Then make a ring about the corse of Caesar, + And let me show you him that made the will. + Shall I descend? And will you give me leave? + ALL. Come down. + SECOND CITIZEN. Descend. + He comes down from the pulpit. + THIRD CITIZEN. You shall have leave. + FOURTH CITIZEN. A ring, stand round. + FIRST CITIZEN. Stand from the hearse, stand from the body. + SECOND CITIZEN. Room for Antony, most noble Antony. + ANTONY. Nay, press not so upon me, stand far off. + ALL. Stand back; room, bear back! + ANTONY. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. + You all do know this mantle. I remember + The first time ever Caesar put it on; + 'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent, + That day he overcame the Nervii. + Look, in this place ran Cassius' dagger through; + See what a rent the envious Casca made; + Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd; + And as he pluck'd his cursed steel away, + Mark how the blood of Caesar follow'd it, + As rushing out of doors, to be resolved + If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no; + For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel. + Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him! + This was the most unkindest cut of all; + For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, + Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms, + Quite vanquish'd him. Then burst his mighty heart, + And, in his mantle muffling up his face, + Even at the base of Pompey's statue, + Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell. + O, what a fall was there, my countrymen! + Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, + Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us. + O, now you weep, and I perceive you feel + The dint of pity. These are gracious drops. + Kind souls, what weep you when you but behold + Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you here, + Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, with traitors. + FIRST CITIZEN. O piteous spectacle! + SECOND CITIZEN. O noble Caesar! + THIRD CITIZEN. O woeful day! + FOURTH CITIZEN. O traitors villains! + FIRST CITIZEN. O most bloody sight! + SECOND CITIZEN. We will be revenged. + ALL. Revenge! About! Seek! Burn! Fire! Kill! + Slay! Let not a traitor live! + ANTONY. Stay, countrymen. + FIRST CITIZEN. Peace there! Hear the noble Antony. + SECOND CITIZEN. We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with + him. + ANTONY. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up + To such a sudden flood of mutiny. + They that have done this deed are honorable. + What private griefs they have, alas, I know not, + That made them do it. They are wise and honorable, + And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you. + I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts. + I am no orator, as Brutus is; + But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man, + That love my friend, and that they know full well + That gave me public leave to speak of him. + For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, + Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, + To stir men's blood. I only speak right on; + I tell you that which you yourselves do know; + Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor dumb mouths, + And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus, + And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony + Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue + In every wound of Caesar that should move + The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny. + ALL. We'll mutiny. + FIRST CITIZEN. We'll burn the house of Brutus. + THIRD CITIZEN. Away, then! Come, seek the conspirators. + ANTONY. Yet hear me, countrymen; yet hear me speak. + ALL. Peace, ho! Hear Antony, most noble Antony! + ANTONY. Why, friends, you go to do you know not what. + Wherein hath Caesar thus deserved your loves? + Alas, you know not; I must tell you then. + You have forgot the will I told you of. + ALL. Most true, the will! Let's stay and hear the will. + ANTONY. Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal. + To every Roman citizen he gives, + To every several man, seventy-five drachmas. + SECOND CITIZEN. Most noble Caesar! We'll revenge his death. + THIRD CITIZEN. O royal Caesar! + ANTONY. Hear me with patience. + ALL. Peace, ho! + ANTONY. Moreover, he hath left you all his walks, + His private arbors, and new-planted orchards, + On this side Tiber; he hath left them you, + And to your heirs forever- common pleasures, + To walk abroad and recreate yourselves. + Here was a Caesar! When comes such another? + FIRST CITIZEN. Never, never. Come, away, away! + We'll burn his body in the holy place + And with the brands fire the traitors' houses. + Take up the body. + SECOND CITIZEN. Go fetch fire. + THIRD CITIZEN. Pluck down benches. + FOURTH CITIZEN. Pluck down forms, windows, anything. + Exeunt Citizens with the body. + ANTONY. Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot, + Take thou what course thou wilt. + + Enter a Servant. + + How now, fellow? + SERVANT. Sir, Octavius is already come to Rome. + ANTONY. Where is he? + SERVANT. He and Lepidus are at Caesar's house. + ANTONY. And thither will I straight to visit him. + He comes upon a wish. Fortune is merry, + And in this mood will give us anything. + SERVANT. I heard him say Brutus and Cassius + Are rid like madmen through the gates of Rome. + ANTONY. Be like they had some notice of the people, + How I had moved them. Bring me to Octavius. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE III. +A street. + +Enter Cinna the poet. + + CINNA. I dreamt tonight that I did feast with Caesar, + And things unluckily charge my fantasy. + I have no will to wander forth of doors, + Yet something leads me forth. + + Enter Citizens. + + FIRST CITIZEN. What is your name? + SECOND CITIZEN. Whither are you going? + THIRD CITIZEN. Where do you dwell? + FOURTH CITIZEN. Are you a married man or a bachelor? + SECOND CITIZEN. Answer every man directly. + FIRST CITIZEN. Ay, and briefly. + FOURTH CITIZEN. Ay, and wisely. + THIRD CITIZEN. Ay, and truly, you were best. + CINNA. What is my name? Whither am I going? Where do I dwell? Am I + a married man or a bachelor? Then, to answer every man directly + and briefly, wisely and truly: wisely I say, I am a bachelor. + SECOND CITIZEN. That's as much as to say they are fools that marry. + You'll bear me a bang for that, I fear. Proceed directly. + CINNA. Directly, I am going to Caesar's funeral. + FIRST CITIZEN. As a friend or an enemy? + CINNA. As a friend. + SECOND CITIZEN. That matter is answered directly. + FOURTH CITIZEN. For your dwelling, briefly. + CINNA. Briefly, I dwell by the Capitol. + THIRD CITIZEN. Your name, sir, truly. + CINNA. Truly, my name is Cinna. + FIRST CITIZEN. Tear him to pieces, he's a conspirator. + CINNA. I am Cinna the poet, I am Cinna the poet. + FOURTH CITIZEN. Tear him for his bad verses, tear him for his bad + verses. + CINNA. I am not Cinna the conspirator. + FOURTH CITIZEN. It is no matter, his name's Cinna. Pluck but his + name out of his heart, and turn him going. + THIRD CITIZEN. Tear him, tear him! Come, brands, ho, firebrands. To + Brutus', to Cassius'; burn all. Some to Decius' house, and some + to Casca's, some to Ligarius'. Away, go! Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +A house in Rome. Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, seated at a table. + + ANTONY. These many then shall die, their names are prick'd. + OCTAVIUS. Your brother too must die; consent you, Lepidus? + LEPIDUS. I do consent- + OCTAVIUS. Prick him down, Antony. + LEPIDUS. Upon condition Publius shall not live, + Who is your sister's son, Mark Antony. + ANTONY. He shall not live; look, with a spot I damn him. + But, Lepidus, go you to Caesar's house, + Fetch the will hither, and we shall determine + How to cut off some charge in legacies. + LEPIDUS. What, shall I find you here? + OCTAVIUS. Or here, or at the Capitol. Exit Lepidus. + ANTONY. This is a slight unmeritable man, + Meet to be sent on errands. Is it fit, + The three-fold world divided, he should stand + One of the three to share it? + OCTAVIUS. So you thought him, + And took his voice who should be prick'd to die + In our black sentence and proscription. + ANTONY. Octavius, I have seen more days than you, + And though we lay these honors on this man + To ease ourselves of divers slanderous loads, + He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold, + To groan and sweat under the business, + Either led or driven, as we point the way; + And having brought our treasure where we will, + Then take we down his load and turn him off, + Like to the empty ass, to shake his ears + And graze in commons. + OCTAVIUS. You may do your will, + But he's a tried and valiant soldier. + ANTONY. So is my horse, Octavius, and for that + I do appoint him store of provender. + It is a creature that I teach to fight, + To wind, to stop, to run directly on, + His corporal motion govern'd by my spirit. + And, in some taste, is Lepidus but so: + He must be taught, and train'd, and bid go forth; + A barren-spirited fellow, one that feeds + On objects, arts, and imitations, + Which, out of use and staled by other men, + Begin his fashion. Do not talk of him + But as a property. And now, Octavius, + Listen great things. Brutus and Cassius + Are levying powers; we must straight make head; + Therefore let our alliance be combined, + Our best friends made, our means stretch'd; + And let us presently go sit in council, + How covert matters may be best disclosed, + And open perils surest answered. + OCTAVIUS. Let us do so, for we are at the stake, + And bay'd about with many enemies; + And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, + Millions of mischiefs. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE II. +Camp near Sardis. Before Brutus' tent. Drum. + +Enter Brutus, Lucilius, Lucius, and Soldiers; Titinius and Pindarus meet them. + + BRUTUS. Stand, ho! + LUCILIUS. Give the word, ho, and stand. + BRUTUS. What now, Lucilius, is Cassius near? + LUCILIUS. He is at hand, and Pindarus is come + To do you salutation from his master. + BRUTUS. He greets me well. Your master, Pindarus, + In his own change, or by ill officers, + Hath given me some worthy cause to wish + Things done undone; but if he be at hand, + I shall be satisfied. + PINDARUS. I do not doubt + But that my noble master will appear + Such as he is, full of regard and honor. + BRUTUS. He is not doubted. A word, Lucilius, + How he received you. Let me be resolved. + LUCILIUS. With courtesy and with respect enough, + But not with such familiar instances, + Nor with such free and friendly conference, + As he hath used of old. + BRUTUS. Thou hast described + A hot friend cooling. Ever note, Lucilius, + When love begins to sicken and decay + It useth an enforced ceremony. + There are no tricks in plain and simple faith; + But hollow men, like horses hot at hand, + Make gallant show and promise of their mettle; + But when they should endure the bloody spur, + They fall their crests and like deceitful jades + Sink in the trial. Comes his army on? + LUCILIUS. They meant his night in Sard is to be quarter'd; + The greater part, the horse in general, + Are come with Cassius. Low march within. + BRUTUS. Hark, he is arrived. + March gently on to meet him. + + Enter Cassius and his Powers. + + CASSIUS. Stand, ho! + BRUTUS. Stand, ho! Speak the word along. + FIRST SOLDIER. Stand! + SECOND SOLDIER. Stand! + THIRD SOLDIER. Stand! + CASSIUS. Most noble brother, you have done me wrong. + BRUTUS. Judge me, you gods! Wrong I mine enemies? + And, if not so, how should I wrong a brother? + CASSIUS. Brutus, this sober form of yours hides wrongs, + And when you do them- + BRUTUS. Cassius, be content, + Speak your griefs softly, I do know you well. + Before the eyes of both our armies here, + Which should perceive nothing but love from us, + Let us not wrangle. Bid them move away; + Then in my tent, Cassius, enlarge your griefs, + And I will give you audience. + CASSIUS. Pindarus, + Bid our commanders lead their charges off + A little from this ground. + BRUTUS. Lucilius, do you the like, and let no man + Come to our tent till we have done our conference. + Let Lucius and Titinius guard our door. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE III. +Brutus' tent. + +Enter Brutus and Cassius. + + CASSIUS. That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this: + You have condemn'd and noted Lucius Pella + For taking bribes here of the Sardians, + Wherein my letters, praying on his side, + Because I knew the man, were slighted off. + BRUTUS. You wrong'd yourself to write in such a case. + CASSIUS. In such a time as this it is not meet + That every nice offense should bear his comment. + BRUTUS. Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself + Are much condemn'd to have an itching palm, + To sell and mart your offices for gold + To undeservers. + CASSIUS. I an itching palm? + You know that you are Brutus that speaks this, + Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last. + BRUTUS. The name of Cassius honors this corruption, + And chastisement doth therefore hide his head. + CASSIUS. Chastisement? + BRUTUS. Remember March, the ides of March remember. + Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake? + What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, + And not for justice? What, shall one of us, + That struck the foremost man of all this world + But for supporting robbers, shall we now + Contaminate our fingers with base bribes + And sell the mighty space of our large honors + For so much trash as may be grasped thus? + I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, + Than such a Roman. + CASSIUS. Brutus, bait not me, + I'll not endure it. You forget yourself + To hedge me in. I am a soldier, I, + Older in practice, abler than yourself + To make conditions. + BRUTUS. Go to, you are not, Cassius. + CASSIUS. I am. + BRUTUS. I say you are not. + CASSIUS. Urge me no more, I shall forget myself; + Have mind upon your health, tempt me no farther. + BRUTUS. Away, slight man! + CASSIUS. Is't possible? + BRUTUS. Hear me, for I will speak. + Must I give way and room to your rash choler? + Shall I be frighted when a madman stares? + CASSIUS. O gods, ye gods! Must I endure all this? + BRUTUS. All this? Ay, more. Fret till your proud heart break. + Go show your slaves how choleric you are, + And make your bondmen tremble. Must I bouge? + Must I observe you? Must I stand and crouch + Under your testy humor? By the gods, + You shall digest the venom of your spleen, + Though it do split you, for, from this day forth, + I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter, + When you are waspish. + CASSIUS. Is it come to this? + BRUTUS. You say you are a better soldier: + Let it appear so, make your vaunting true, + And it shall please me well. For mine own part, + I shall be glad to learn of noble men. + CASSIUS. You wrong me every way, you wrong me, Brutus. + I said, an elder soldier, not a better. + Did I say "better"? + BRUTUS. If you did, I care not. + CASSIUS. When Caesar lived, he durst not thus have moved me. + BRUTUS. Peace, peace! You durst not so have tempted him. + CASSIUS. I durst not? + BRUTUS. No. + CASSIUS. What, durst not tempt him? + BRUTUS. For your life you durst not. + CASSIUS. Do not presume too much upon my love; + I may do that I shall be sorry for. + BRUTUS. You have done that you should be sorry for. + There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, + For I am arm'd so strong in honesty, + That they pass by me as the idle wind + Which I respect not. I did send to you + For certain sums of gold, which you denied me, + For I can raise no money by vile means. + By heaven, I had rather coin my heart + And drop my blood for drachmas than to wring + From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash + By any indirection. I did send + To you for gold to pay my legions, + Which you denied me. Was that done like Cassius? + Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so? + When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous + To lock such rascal counters from his friends, + Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts, + Dash him to pieces! + CASSIUS. I denied you not. + BRUTUS. You did. + CASSIUS. I did not. He was but a fool + That brought my answer back. Brutus hath rived my heart. + A friend should bear his friend's infirmities, + But Brutus makes mine greater than they are. + BRUTUS. I do not, till you practise them on me. + CASSIUS. You love me not. + BRUTUS. I do not like your faults. + CASSIUS. A friendly eye could never see such faults. + BRUTUS. A flatterer's would not, though they do appear + As huge as high Olympus. + CASSIUS. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, + Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius, + For Cassius is aweary of the world: + Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother; + Check'd like a bondman; all his faults observed, + Set in a notebook, learn'd and conn'd by rote, + To cast into my teeth. O, I could weep + My spirit from mine eyes! There is my dagger, + And here my naked breast; within, a heart + Dearer than Pluto's mine, richer than gold. + If that thou best a Roman, take it forth; + I, that denied thee gold, will give my heart. + Strike, as thou didst at Caesar, for I know, + When thou didst hate him worst, thou lovedst him better + Than ever thou lovedst Cassius. + BRUTUS. Sheathe your dagger. + Be angry when you will, it shall have scope; + Do what you will, dishonor shall be humor. + O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb, + That carries anger as the flint bears fire, + Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark + And straight is cold again. + CASSIUS. Hath Cassius lived + To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus, + When grief and blood ill-temper'd vexeth him? + BRUTUS. When I spoke that, I was ill-temper'd too. + CASSIUS. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand. + BRUTUS. And my heart too. + CASSIUS. O Brutus! + BRUTUS. What's the matter? + CASSIUS. Have not you love enough to bear with me + When that rash humor which my mother gave me + Makes me forgetful? + BRUTUS. Yes, Cassius, and from henceforth, + When you are overearnest with your Brutus, + He'll think your mother chides, and leave you so. + POET. [Within.] Let me go in to see the generals. + There is some grudge between 'em, 'tis not meet + They be alone. + LUCILIUS. [Within.] You shall not come to them. + POET. [Within.] Nothing but death shall stay me. + + Enter Poet, followed by Lucilius, Titinius, and Lucius. + + CASSIUS. How now, what's the matter? + POET. For shame, you generals! What do you mean? + Love, and be friends, as two such men should be; + For I have seen more years, I'm sure, than ye. + CASSIUS. Ha, ha! How vilely doth this cynic rhyme! + BRUTUS. Get you hence, sirrah; saucy fellow, hence! + CASSIUS. Bear with him, Brutus; 'tis his fashion. + BRUTUS. I'll know his humor when he knows his time. + What should the wars do with these jigging fools? + Companion, hence! + CASSIUS. Away, away, be gone! Exit Poet. + BRUTUS. Lucilius and Titinius, bid the commanders + Prepare to lodge their companies tonight. + CASSIUS. And come yourselves and bring Messala with you + Immediately to us. Exeunt Lucilius and Titinius. + BRUTUS. Lucius, a bowl of wine! Exit Lucius. + CASSIUS. I did not think you could have been so angry. + BRUTUS. O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs. + CASSIUS. Of your philosophy you make no use, + If you give place to accidental evils. + BRUTUS. No man bears sorrow better. Portia is dead. + CASSIUS. Ha? Portia? + BRUTUS. She is dead. + CASSIUS. How 'scaped killing when I cross'd you so? + O insupportable and touching loss! + Upon what sickness? + BRUTUS. Impatient of my absence, + And grief that young Octavius with Mark Antony + Have made themselves so strong- for with her death + That tidings came- with this she fell distract, + And (her attendants absent) swallow'd fire. + CASSIUS. And died so? + BRUTUS. Even so. + CASSIUS. O ye immortal gods! + + Re-enter Lucius, with wine and taper. + + BRUTUS. Speak no more of her. Give me a bowl of wine. + In this I bury all unkindness, Cassius. Drinks. + CASSIUS. My heart is thirsty for that noble pledge. + Fill, Lucius, till the wine o'erswell the cup; + I cannot drink too much of Brutus' love. Drinks. + BRUTUS. Come in, Titinius! Exit Lucius. + + Re-enter Titinius, with Messala. + + Welcome, good Messala. + Now sit we close about this taper here, + And call in question our necessities. + CASSIUS. Portia, art thou gone? + BRUTUS. No more, I pray you. + Messala, I have here received letters + That young Octavius and Mark Antony + Come down upon us with a mighty power, + Bending their expedition toward Philippi. + MESSALA. Myself have letters of the selfsame tenure. + BRUTUS. With what addition? + MESSALA. That by proscription and bills of outlawry + Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus + Have put to death an hundred senators. + BRUTUS. There in our letters do not well agree; + Mine speak of seventy senators that died + By their proscriptions, Cicero being one. + CASSIUS. Cicero one! + MESSALA. Cicero is dead, + And by that order of proscription. + Had you your letters from your wife, my lord? + BRUTUS. No, Messala. + MESSALA. Nor nothing in your letters writ of her? + BRUTUS. Nothing, Messala. + MESSALA. That, methinks, is strange. + BRUTUS. Why ask you? Hear you aught of her in yours? + MESSALA. No, my lord. + BRUTUS. Now, as you are a Roman, tell me true. + MESSALA. Then like a Roman bear the truth I tell: + For certain she is dead, and by strange manner. + BRUTUS. Why, farewell, Portia. We must die, Messala. + With meditating that she must die once + I have the patience to endure it now. + MESSALA. Even so great men great losses should endure. + CASSIUS. I have as much of this in art as you, + But yet my nature could not bear it so. + BRUTUS. Well, to our work alive. What do you think + Of marching to Philippi presently? + CASSIUS. I do not think it good. + BRUTUS. Your reason? + CASSIUS. This it is: + 'Tis better that the enemy seek us; + So shall he waste his means, weary his soldiers, + Doing himself offense, whilst we lying still + Are full of rest, defense, and nimbleness. + BRUTUS. Good reasons must of force give place to better. + The people 'twixt Philippi and this ground + Do stand but in a forced affection, + For they have grudged us contribution. + The enemy, marching along by them, + By them shall make a fuller number up, + Come on refresh'd, new-added, and encouraged; + From which advantage shall we cut him off + If at Philippi we do face him there, + These people at our back. + CASSIUS. Hear me, good brother. + BRUTUS. Under your pardon. You must note beside + That we have tried the utmost of our friends, + Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe: + The enemy increaseth every day; + We, at the height, are ready to decline. + There is a tide in the affairs of men + Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune; + Omitted, all the voyage of their life + Is bound in shallows and in miseries. + On such a full sea are we now afloat, + And we must take the current when it serves, + Or lose our ventures. + CASSIUS. Then, with your will, go on; + We'll along ourselves and meet them at Philippi. + BRUTUS. The deep of night is crept upon our talk, + And nature must obey necessity, + Which we will niggard with a little rest. + There is no more to say? + CASSIUS. No more. Good night. + Early tomorrow will we rise and hence. + BRUTUS. Lucius! + + Re-enter Lucius. + + My gown. Exit Lucius. + Farewell, good Messala; + Good night, Titinius; noble, noble Cassius, + Good night and good repose. + CASSIUS. O my dear brother! + This was an ill beginning of the night. + Never come such division 'tween our souls! + Let it not, Brutus. + BRUTUS. Everything is well. + CASSIUS. Good night, my lord. + BRUTUS. Good night, good brother. + TITINIUS. MESSALA. Good night, Lord Brutus. + BRUTUS. Farewell, everyone. + Exeunt all but Brutus. + + Re-enter Lucius, with the gown. + + Give me the gown. Where is thy instrument? + LUCIUS. Here in the tent. + BRUTUS. What, thou speak'st drowsily? + Poor knave, I blame thee not, thou art o'erwatch'd. + Call Claudio and some other of my men, + I'll have them sleep on cushions in my tent. + LUCIUS. Varro and Claudio! + + Enter Varro and Claudio. + + VARRO. Calls my lord? + BRUTUS. I pray you, sirs, lie in my tent and sleep; + It may be I shall raise you by and by + On business to my brother Cassius. + VARRO. So please you, we will stand and watch your pleasure. + BRUTUS. I would not have it so. Lie down, good sirs. + It may be I shall otherwise bethink me. + Look Lucius, here's the book I sought for so; + I put it in the pocket of my gown. + Varro and Claudio lie down. + LUCIUS. I was sure your lordship did not give it me. + BRUTUS. Bear with me, good boy, I am much forgetful. + Canst thou hold up thy heavy eyes awhile, + And touch thy instrument a strain or two? + LUCIUS. Ay, my lord, an't please you. + BRUTUS. It does, my boy. + I trouble thee too much, but thou art willing. + LUCIUS. It is my duty, sir. + BRUTUS. I should not urge thy duty past thy might; + I know young bloods look for a time of rest. + LUCIUS. I have slept, my lord, already. + BRUTUS. It was well done, and thou shalt sleep again; + I will not hold thee long. If I do live, + I will be good to thee. Music, and a song. + This is a sleepy tune. O murtherous slumber, + Layest thou thy leaden mace upon my boy + That plays thee music? Gentle knave, good night. + I will not do thee so much wrong to wake thee. + If thou dost nod, thou break'st thy instrument; + I'll take it from thee; and, good boy, good night. + Let me see, let me see; is not the leaf turn'd down + Where I left reading? Here it is, I think. Sits down. + + Enter the Ghost of Caesar. + + How ill this taper burns! Ha, who comes here? + I think it is the weakness of mine eyes + That shapes this monstrous apparition. + It comes upon me. Art thou anything? + Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil + That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare? + Speak to me what thou art. + GHOST. Thy evil spirit, Brutus. + BRUTUS. Why comest thou? + GHOST. To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi. + BRUTUS. Well, then I shall see thee again? + GHOST. Ay, at Philippi. + BRUTUS. Why, I will see thee at Philippi then. Exit Ghost. + Now I have taken heart thou vanishest. + Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee. + Boy! Lucius! Varro! Claudio! Sirs, awake! + Claudio! + LUCIUS. The strings, my lord, are false. + BRUTUS. He thinks he still is at his instrument. + Lucius, awake! + LUCIUS. My lord? + BRUTUS. Didst thou dream, Lucius, that thou so criedst out? + LUCIUS. My lord, I do not know that I did cry. + BRUTUS. Yes, that thou didst. Didst thou see anything? + LUCIUS. Nothing, my lord. + BRUTUS. Sleep again, Lucius. Sirrah Claudio! + [To Varro.] Fellow thou, awake! + VARRO. My lord? + CLAUDIO. My lord? + BRUTUS. Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep? + VARRO. CLAUDIO. Did we, my lord? + BRUTUS. Ay, saw you anything? + VARRO. No, my lord, I saw nothing. + CLAUDIO. Nor I, my lord. + BRUTUS. Go and commend me to my brother Cassius; + Bid him set on his powers betimes before, + And we will follow. + VARRO. CLAUDIO. It shall be done, my lord. Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +The plains of Philippi. + +Enter Octavius, Antony, and their Army. + + OCTAVIUS. Now, Antony, our hopes are answered. + You said the enemy would not come down, + But keep the hills and upper regions. + It proves not so. Their battles are at hand; + They mean to warn us at Philippi here, + Answering before we do demand of them. + ANTONY. Tut, I am in their bosoms, and I know + Wherefore they do it. They could be content + To visit other places, and come down + With fearful bravery, thinking by this face + To fasten in our thoughts that they have courage; + But 'tis not so. + + Enter a Messenger. + + MESSENGER. Prepare you, generals. + The enemy comes on in gallant show; + Their bloody sign of battle is hung out, + And something to be done immediately. + ANTONY. Octavius, lead your battle softly on, + Upon the left hand of the even field. + OCTAVIUS. Upon the right hand I, keep thou the left. + ANTONY. Why do you cross me in this exigent? + OCTAVIUS. I do not cross you, but I will do so. + + March. Drum. Enter Brutus, Cassius, and their Army; + Lucilius, Titinius, Messala, and others. + + BRUTUS. They stand, and would have parley. + CASSIUS. Stand fast, Titinius; we must out and talk. + OCTAVIUS. Mark Antony, shall we give sign of battle? + ANTONY. No, Caesar, we will answer on their charge. + Make forth, the generals would have some words. + OCTAVIUS. Stir not until the signal not until the signal. + BRUTUS. Words before blows. Is it so, countrymen? + OCTAVIUS. Not that we love words better, as you do. + BRUTUS. Good words are better than bad strokes, Octavius. + ANTONY. In your bad strokes, Brutus, you give good words. + Witness the hole you made in Caesar's heart, + Crying "Long live! Hail, Caesar!" + CASSIUS. Antony, + The posture of your blows are yet unknown; + But for your words, they rob the Hybla bees, + And leave them honeyless. + ANTONY. Not stingless too. + BRUTUS. O, yes, and soundless too, + For you have stol'n their buzzing, Antony, + And very wisely threat before you sting. + ANTONY. Villains! You did not so when your vile daggers + Hack'd one another in the sides of Caesar. + You show'd your teeth like apes, and fawn'd like hounds, + And bow'd like bondmen, kissing Caesar's feet; + Whilst damned Casca, like a cur, behind + Strooke Caesar on the neck. O you flatterers! + CASSIUS. Flatterers? Now, Brutus, thank yourself. + This tongue had not offended so today, + If Cassius might have ruled. + OCTAVIUS. Come, come, the cause. If arguing make us sweat, + The proof of it will turn to redder drops. + Look, + I draw a sword against conspirators; + When think you that the sword goes up again? + Never, till Caesar's three and thirty wounds + Be well avenged, or till another Caesar + Have added slaughter to the sword of traitors. + BRUTUS. Caesar, thou canst not die by traitors' hands, + Unless thou bring'st them with thee. + OCTAVIUS. So I hope, + I was not born to die on Brutus' sword. + BRUTUS. O, if thou wert the noblest of thy strain, + Young man, thou couldst not die more honorable. + CASSIUS. A peevish school boy, worthless of such honor, + Join'd with a masker and a reveler! + ANTONY. Old Cassius still! + OCTAVIUS. Come, Antony, away! + Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth. + If you dare fight today, come to the field; + If not, when you have stomachs. + Exeunt Octavius, Antony, and their Army. + CASSIUS. Why, now, blow and, swell billow, and swim bark! + The storm is up, and all is on the hazard. + BRUTUS. Ho, Lucilius! Hark, a word with you. + LUCILIUS. [Stands forth.] My lord? + Brutus and Lucilius converse apart. + CASSIUS. Messala! + MESSALA. [Stands forth.] What says my general? + CASSIUS. Messala, + This is my birthday, as this very day + Was Cassius born. Give me thy hand, Messala. + Be thou my witness that, against my will, + As Pompey was, am I compell'd to set + Upon one battle all our liberties. + You know that I held Epicurus strong, + And his opinion. Now I change my mind, + And partly credit things that do presage. + Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign + Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perch'd, + Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands, + Who to Philippi here consorted us. + This morning are they fled away and gone, + And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites + Fly o'er our heads and downward look on us, + As we were sickly prey. Their shadows seem + A canopy most fatal, under which + Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost. + MESSALA. Believe not so. + CASSIUS. I but believe it partly, + For I am fresh of spirit and resolved + To meet all perils very constantly. + BRUTUS. Even so, Lucilius. + CASSIUS. Now, most noble Brutus, + The gods today stand friendly that we may, + Lovers in peace, lead on our days to age! + But, since the affairs of men rest still incertain, + Let's reason with the worst that may befall. + If we do lose this battle, then is this + The very last time we shall speak together. + What are you then determined to do? + BRUTUS. Even by the rule of that philosophy + By which I did blame Cato for the death + Which he did give himself- I know not how, + But I do find it cowardly and vile, + For fear of what might fall, so to prevent + The time of life- arming myself with patience + To stay the providence of some high powers + That govern us below. + CASSIUS. Then, if we lose this battle, + You are contented to be led in triumph + Thorough the streets of Rome? + BRUTUS. No, Cassius, no. Think not, thou noble Roman, + That ever Brutus will go bound to Rome; + He bears too great a mind. But this same day + Must end that work the ides of March begun. + And whether we shall meet again I know not. + Therefore our everlasting farewell take. + Forever, and forever, farewell, Cassius! + If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; + If not, why then this parting was well made. + CASSIUS. Forever and forever farewell, Brutus! + If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed; + If not, 'tis true this parting was well made. + BRUTUS. Why then, lead on. O, that a man might know + The end of this day's business ere it come! + But it sufficeth that the day will end, + And then the end is known. Come, ho! Away! Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE II. +The field of battle. + +Alarum. Enter Brutus and Messala. + + BRUTUS. Ride, ride, Messala, ride, and give these bills + Unto the legions on the other side. Loud alarum. + Let them set on at once, for I perceive + But cold demeanor in Octavia's wing, + And sudden push gives them the overthrow. + Ride, ride, Messala. Let them all come down. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE III. +Another part of the field. + +Alarums. Enter Cassius and Titinius. + + CASSIUS. O, look, Titinius, look, the villains fly! + Myself have to mine own turn'd enemy. + This ensign here of mine was turning back; + I slew the coward, and did take it from him. + TITINIUS. O Cassius, Brutus gave the word too early, + Who, having some advantage on Octavius, + Took it too eagerly. His soldiers fell to spoil, + Whilst we by Antony are all enclosed. + + Enter Pindarus. + + PINDARUS. Fly further off, my lord, fly further off; + Mark Antony is in your tents, my lord; + Fly, therefore, noble Cassius, fly far off. + CASSIUS. This hill is far enough. Look, look, Titinius: + Are those my tents where I perceive the fire? + TITINIUS. They are, my lord. + CASSIUS. Titinius, if thou lovest me, + Mount thou my horse and hide thy spurs in him, + Till he have brought thee up to yonder troops + And here again, that I may rest assured + Whether yond troops are friend or enemy. + TITINIUS. I will be here again, even with a thought. Exit. + CASSIUS. Go, Pindarus, get higher on that hill; + My sight was ever thick; regard Titinius, + And tell me what thou notest about the field. + Pindarus ascends the hill. + This day I breathed first: time is come round, + And where I did begin, there shall I end; + My life is run his compass. Sirrah, what news? + PINDARUS. [Above.] O my lord! + CASSIUS. What news? + PINDARUS. [Above.] Titinius is enclosed round about + With horsemen, that make to him on the spur; + Yet he spurs on. Now they are almost on him. + Now, Titinius! Now some light. O, he lights too. + He's ta'en [Shout.] And, hark! They shout for joy. + CASSIUS. Come down; behold no more. + O, coward that I am, to live so long, + To see my best friend ta'en before my face! + Pindarus descends. + Come hither, sirrah. + In Parthia did I take thee prisoner, + And then I swore thee, saving of thy life, + That whatsoever I did bid thee do, + Thou shouldst attempt it. Come now, keep thine oath; + Now be a freeman, and with this good sword, + That ran through Caesar's bowels, search this bosom. + Stand not to answer: here, take thou the hilts; + And when my face is cover'd, as 'tis now, + Guide thou the sword. [Pindarus stabs him.] Caesar, thou art + revenged, + Even with the sword that kill'd thee. Dies. + PINDARUS. So, I am free, yet would not so have been, + Durst I have done my will. O Cassius! + Far from this country Pindarus shall run, + Where never Roman shall take note of him. Exit. + + Re-enter Titinius with Messala. + + MESSALA. It is but change, Titinius, for Octavius + Is overthrown by noble Brutus' power, + As Cassius' legions are by Antony. + TITINIUS. These tidings would well comfort Cassius. + MESSALA. Where did you leave him? + TITINIUS. All disconsolate, + With Pindarus his bondman, on this hill. + MESSALA. Is not that he that lies upon the ground? + TITINIUS. He lies not like the living. O my heart! + MESSALA. Is not that he? + TITINIUS. No, this was he, Messala, + But Cassius is no more. O setting sun, + As in thy red rays thou dost sink to night, + So in his red blood Cassius' day is set, + The sun of Rome is set! Our day is gone; + Clouds, dews, and dangers come; our deeds are done! + Mistrust of my success hath done this deed. + MESSALA. Mistrust of good success hath done this deed. + O hateful error, melancholy's child, + Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men + The things that are not? O error, soon conceived, + Thou never comest unto a happy birth, + But kill'st the mother that engender'd thee! + TITINIUS. What, Pindarus! Where art thou, Pindarus? + MESSALA. Seek him, Titinius, whilst I go to meet + The noble Brutus, thrusting this report + Into his ears. I may say "thrusting" it, + For piercing steel and darts envenomed + Shall be as welcome to the ears of Brutus + As tidings of this sight. + TITINIUS. Hie you, Messala, + And I will seek for Pindarus the while. Exit Messala. + Why didst thou send me forth, brave Cassius? + Did I not meet thy friends? And did not they + Put on my brows this wreath of victory, + And bid me give it thee? Didst thou not hear their shouts? + Alas, thou hast misconstrued everything! + But, hold thee, take this garland on thy brow; + Thy Brutus bid me give it thee, and I + Will do his bidding. Brutus, come apace, + And see how I regarded Caius Cassius. + By your leave, gods, this is a Roman's part. + Come, Cassius' sword, and find Titinius' heart. + Kills himself. + + Alarum. Re-enter Messala, with Brutus, young Cato, + and others. + + BRUTUS. Where, where, Messala, doth his body lie? + MESSALA. Lo, yonder, and Titinius mourning it. + BRUTUS. Titinius' face is upward. + CATO. He is slain. + BRUTUS. O Julius Caesar, thou art mighty yet! + Thy spirit walks abroad, and turns our swords + In our own proper entrails. Low alarums. + CATO. Brave Titinius! + Look whe'er he have not crown'd dead Cassius! + BRUTUS. Are yet two Romans living such as these? + The last of all the Romans, fare thee well! + It is impossible that ever Rome + Should breed thy fellow. Friends, I owe moe tears + To this dead man than you shall see me pay. + I shall find time, Cassius, I shall find time. + Come therefore, and to Thasos send his body; + His funerals shall not be in our camp, + Lest it discomfort us. Lucilius, come, + And come, young Cato; let us to the field. + Labio and Flavio, set our battles on. + 'Tis three o'clock, and Romans, yet ere night + We shall try fortune in a second fight. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE IV. +Another part of the field. + +Alarum. Enter, fighting, Soldiers of both armies; then Brutus, young Cato, +Lucilius, and others. + + BRUTUS. Yet, countrymen, O, yet hold up your heads! + CATO. What bastard doth not? Who will go with me? + I will proclaim my name about the field. + I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho! + A foe to tyrants, and my country's friend. + I am the son of Marcus Cato, ho! + BRUTUS. And I am Brutus, Marcus Brutus, I; + Brutus, my country's friend; know me for Brutus! Exit. + LUCILIUS. O young and noble Cato, art thou down? + Why, now thou diest as bravely as Titinius, + And mayst be honor'd, being Cato's son. + FIRST SOLDIER. Yield, or thou diest. + LUCILIUS. Only I yield to die. + [Offers money.] There is so much that thou wilt kill me straight: + Kill Brutus, and be honor'd in his death. + FIRST SOLDIER. We must not. A noble prisoner! + SECOND SOLDIER. Room, ho! Tell Antony, Brutus is ta'en. + FIRST SOLDIER. I'll tell the news. Here comes the general. + + Enter Antony. + + Brutus is ta'en, Brutus is ta'en, my lord. + ANTONY. Where is he? + LUCILIUS. Safe, Antony, Brutus is safe enough. + I dare assure thee that no enemy + Shall ever take alive the noble Brutus; + The gods defend him from so great a shame! + When you do find him, or alive or dead, + He will be found like Brutus, like himself. + ANTONY. This is not Brutus, friend, but, I assure you, + A prize no less in worth. Keep this man safe, + Give him all kindness; I had rather have + Such men my friends than enemies. Go on, + And see wheer Brutus be alive or dead, + And bring us word unto Octavius' tent + How everything is chanced. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE V. +Another part of the field. + +Enter Brutus, Dardanius, Clitus, Strato, and Volumnius. + + BRUTUS. Come, poor remains of friends, rest on this rock. + CLITUS. Statilius show'd the torchlight, but, my lord, + He came not back. He is or ta'en or slain. + BRUTUS. Sit thee down, Clitus. Slaying is the word: + It is a deed in fashion. Hark thee, Clitus. Whispers. + CLITUS. What, I, my lord? No, not for all the world. + BRUTUS. Peace then, no words. + CLITUS. I'll rather kill myself. + BRUTUS. Hark thee, Dardanius. Whispers. + DARDANIUS. Shall I do such a deed? + CLITUS. O Dardanius! + DARDANIUS. O Clitus! + CLITUS. What ill request did Brutus make to thee? + DARDANIUS. To kill him, Clitus. Look, he meditates. + CLITUS. Now is that noble vessel full of grief, + That it runs over even at his eyes. + BRUTUS. Come hither, good Volumnius, list a word. + VOLUMNIUS. What says my lord? + BRUTUS. Why, this, Volumnius: + The ghost of Caesar hath appear'd to me + Two several times by night; at Sardis once, + And this last night here in Philippi fields. + I know my hour is come. + VOLUMNIUS. Not so, my lord. + BRUTUS. Nay I am sure it is, Volumnius. + Thou seest the world, Volumnius, how it goes; + Our enemies have beat us to the pit; Low alarums. + It is more worthy to leap in ourselves + Than tarry till they push us. Good Volumnius, + Thou know'st that we two went to school together; + Even for that our love of old, I prithee, + Hold thou my sword-hilts, whilst I run on it. + VOLUMNIUS. That's not an office for a friend, my lord. + Alarum still. + CLITUS. Fly, fly, my lord, there is no tarrying here. + BRUTUS. Farewell to you, and you, and you, Volumnius. + Strato, thou hast been all this while asleep; + Farewell to thee too, Strato. Countrymen, + My heart doth joy that yet in all my life + I found no man but he was true to me. + I shall have glory by this losing day, + More than Octavius and Mark Antony + By this vile conquest shall attain unto. + So, fare you well at once, for Brutus' tongue + Hath almost ended his life's history. + Night hangs upon mine eyes, my bones would rest + That have but labor'd to attain this hour. + Alarum. Cry within, "Fly, fly, fly!" + CLITUS. Fly, my lord, fly. + BRUTUS. Hence! I will follow. + Exeunt Clitus, Dardanius, and Volumnius. + I prithee, Strato, stay thou by thy lord. + Thou art a fellow of a good respect; + Thy life hath had some smatch of honor in it. + Hold then my sword, and turn away thy face, + While I do run upon it. Wilt thou, Strato? + STRATO. Give me your hand first. Fare you well, my lord. + BRUTUS. Farewell, good Strato. Runs on his sword. + Caesar, now be still; + I kill'd not thee with half so good a will. Dies. + + Alarum. Retreat. Enter Octavius, Antony, Messala, + Lucilius, and the Army. + + OCTAVIUS. What man is that? + MESSALA. My master's man. Strato, where is thy master? + STRATO. Free from the bondage you are in, Messala: + The conquerors can but make a fire of him; + For Brutus only overcame himself, + And no man else hath honor by his death. + LUCILIUS. So Brutus should be found. I thank thee, Brutus, + That thou hast proved Lucilius' saying true. + OCTAVIUS. All that served Brutus, I will entertain them. + Fellow, wilt thou bestow thy time with me? + STRATO. Ay, if Messala will prefer me to you. + OCTAVIUS. Do so, good Messala. + MESSALA. How died my master, Strato? + STRATO. I held the sword, and he did run on it. + MESSALA. Octavius, then take him to follow thee + That did the latest service to my master. + ANTONY. This was the noblest Roman of them all. + All the conspirators, save only he, + Did that they did in envy of great Caesar; + He only, in a general honest thought + And common good to all, made one of them. + His life was gentle, and the elements + So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up + And say to all the world, "This was a man!" + OCTAVIUS. According to his virtue let us use him + With all respect and rites of burial. + Within my tent his bones tonight shall lie, + Most like a soldier, ordered honorably. + So call the field to rest, and let's away, + To part the glories of this happy day. Exeunt. + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + + +1606 + + +THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR + +by William Shakespeare + + + + +Dramatis Personae + + Lear, King of Britain. + King of France. + Duke of Burgundy. + Duke of Cornwall. + Duke of Albany. + Earl of Kent. + Earl of Gloucester. + Edgar, son of Gloucester. + Edmund, bastard son to Gloucester. + Curan, a courtier. + Old Man, tenant to Gloucester. + Doctor. + Lear's Fool. + Oswald, steward to Goneril. + A Captain under Edmund's command. + Gentlemen. + A Herald. + Servants to Cornwall. + + Goneril, daughter to Lear. + Regan, daughter to Lear. + Cordelia, daughter to Lear. + + Knights attending on Lear, Officers, Messengers, Soldiers, + Attendants. + + + + +<> + + + +Scene: - Britain. + + +ACT I. Scene I. +[King Lear's Palace.] + +Enter Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund. [Kent and Glouceste converse. +Edmund stands back.] + + Kent. I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than + Cornwall. + Glou. It did always seem so to us; but now, in the division of the + kingdom, it appears not which of the Dukes he values most, for + equalities are so weigh'd that curiosity in neither can make + choice of either's moiety. + Kent. Is not this your son, my lord? + Glou. His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often + blush'd to acknowledge him that now I am braz'd to't. + Kent. I cannot conceive you. + Glou. Sir, this young fellow's mother could; whereupon she grew + round-womb'd, and had indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she + had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault? + Kent. I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so + proper. + Glou. But I have, sir, a son by order of law, some year elder than + this, who yet is no dearer in my account. Though this knave came + something saucily into the world before he was sent for, yet was + his mother fair, there was good sport at his making, and the + whoreson must be acknowledged.- Do you know this noble gentleman, + Edmund? + Edm. [comes forward] No, my lord. + Glou. My Lord of Kent. Remember him hereafter as my honourable + friend. + Edm. My services to your lordship. + Kent. I must love you, and sue to know you better. + Edm. Sir, I shall study deserving. + Glou. He hath been out nine years, and away he shall again. + Sound a sennet. + The King is coming. + + Enter one bearing a coronet; then Lear; then the Dukes of + Albany and Cornwall; next, Goneril, Regan, Cordelia, with + Followers. + + Lear. Attend the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloucester. + Glou. I shall, my liege. + Exeunt [Gloucester and Edmund]. + Lear. Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. + Give me the map there. Know we have divided + In three our kingdom; and 'tis our fast intent + To shake all cares and business from our age, + Conferring them on younger strengths while we + Unburthen'd crawl toward death. Our son of Cornwall, + And you, our no less loving son of Albany, + We have this hour a constant will to publish + Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife + May be prevented now. The princes, France and Burgundy, + Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love, + Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn, + And here are to be answer'd. Tell me, my daughters + (Since now we will divest us both of rule, + Interest of territory, cares of state), + Which of you shall we say doth love us most? + That we our largest bounty may extend + Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril, + Our eldest-born, speak first. + Gon. Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter; + Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty; + Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare; + No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour; + As much as child e'er lov'd, or father found; + A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable. + Beyond all manner of so much I love you. + Cor. [aside] What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent. + Lear. Of all these bounds, even from this line to this, + With shadowy forests and with champains rich'd, + With plenteous rivers and wide-skirted meads, + We make thee lady. To thine and Albany's issue + Be this perpetual.- What says our second daughter, + Our dearest Regan, wife to Cornwall? Speak. + Reg. Sir, I am made + Of the selfsame metal that my sister is, + And prize me at her worth. In my true heart + I find she names my very deed of love; + Only she comes too short, that I profess + Myself an enemy to all other joys + Which the most precious square of sense possesses, + And find I am alone felicitate + In your dear Highness' love. + Cor. [aside] Then poor Cordelia! + And yet not so; since I am sure my love's + More richer than my tongue. + Lear. To thee and thine hereditary ever + Remain this ample third of our fair kingdom, + No less in space, validity, and pleasure + Than that conferr'd on Goneril.- Now, our joy, + Although the last, not least; to whose young love + The vines of France and milk of Burgundy + Strive to be interest; what can you say to draw + A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak. + Cor. Nothing, my lord. + Lear. Nothing? + Cor. Nothing. + Lear. Nothing can come of nothing. Speak again. + Cor. Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave + My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty + According to my bond; no more nor less. + Lear. How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little, + Lest it may mar your fortunes. + Cor. Good my lord, + You have begot me, bred me, lov'd me; I + Return those duties back as are right fit, + Obey you, love you, and most honour you. + Why have my sisters husbands, if they say + They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed, + That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry + Half my love with him, half my care and duty. + Sure I shall never marry like my sisters, + To love my father all. + Lear. But goes thy heart with this? + Cor. Ay, good my lord. + Lear. So young, and so untender? + Cor. So young, my lord, and true. + Lear. Let it be so! thy truth then be thy dower! + For, by the sacred radiance of the sun, + The mysteries of Hecate and the night; + By all the operation of the orbs + From whom we do exist and cease to be; + Here I disclaim all my paternal care, + Propinquity and property of blood, + And as a stranger to my heart and me + Hold thee from this for ever. The barbarous Scythian, + Or he that makes his generation messes + To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom + Be as well neighbour'd, pitied, and reliev'd, + As thou my sometime daughter. + Kent. Good my liege- + Lear. Peace, Kent! + Come not between the dragon and his wrath. + I lov'd her most, and thought to set my rest + On her kind nursery.- Hence and avoid my sight!- + So be my grave my peace as here I give + Her father's heart from her! Call France! Who stirs? + Call Burgundy! Cornwall and Albany, + With my two daughters' dowers digest this third; + Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her. + I do invest you jointly in my power, + Preeminence, and all the large effects + That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course, + With reservation of an hundred knights, + By you to be sustain'd, shall our abode + Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain + The name, and all th' additions to a king. The sway, + Revenue, execution of the rest, + Beloved sons, be yours; which to confirm, + This coronet part betwixt you. + Kent. Royal Lear, + Whom I have ever honour'd as my king, + Lov'd as my father, as my master follow'd, + As my great patron thought on in my prayers- + Lear. The bow is bent and drawn; make from the shaft. + Kent. Let it fall rather, though the fork invade + The region of my heart! Be Kent unmannerly + When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man? + Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak + When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour's bound + When majesty falls to folly. Reverse thy doom; + And in thy best consideration check + This hideous rashness. Answer my life my judgment, + Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least, + Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound + Reverbs no hollowness. + Lear. Kent, on thy life, no more! + Kent. My life I never held but as a pawn + To wage against thine enemies; nor fear to lose it, + Thy safety being the motive. + Lear. Out of my sight! + Kent. See better, Lear, and let me still remain + The true blank of thine eye. + Lear. Now by Apollo- + Kent. Now by Apollo, King, + Thou swear'st thy gods in vain. + Lear. O vassal! miscreant! + [Lays his hand on his sword.] + Alb., Corn. Dear sir, forbear! + Kent. Do! + Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow + Upon the foul disease. Revoke thy gift, + Or, whilst I can vent clamour from my throat, + I'll tell thee thou dost evil. + Lear. Hear me, recreant! + On thine allegiance, hear me! + Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow- + Which we durst never yet- and with strain'd pride + To come between our sentence and our power,- + Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,- + Our potency made good, take thy reward. + Five days we do allot thee for provision + To shield thee from diseases of the world, + And on the sixth to turn thy hated back + Upon our kingdom. If, on the tenth day following, + Thy banish'd trunk be found in our dominions, + The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter, + This shall not be revok'd. + Kent. Fare thee well, King. Since thus thou wilt appear, + Freedom lives hence, and banishment is here. + [To Cordelia] The gods to their dear shelter take thee, maid, + That justly think'st and hast most rightly said! + [To Regan and Goneril] And your large speeches may your deeds + approve, + That good effects may spring from words of love. + Thus Kent, O princes, bids you all adieu; + He'll shape his old course in a country new. +Exit. + + Flourish. Enter Gloucester, with France and Burgundy; Attendants. + + Glou. Here's France and Burgundy, my noble lord. + Lear. My Lord of Burgundy, + We first address toward you, who with this king + Hath rivall'd for our daughter. What in the least + Will you require in present dower with her, + Or cease your quest of love? + Bur. Most royal Majesty, + I crave no more than hath your Highness offer'd, + Nor will you tender less. + Lear. Right noble Burgundy, + When she was dear to us, we did hold her so; + But now her price is fall'n. Sir, there she stands. + If aught within that little seeming substance, + Or all of it, with our displeasure piec'd, + And nothing more, may fitly like your Grace, + She's there, and she is yours. + Bur. I know no answer. + Lear. Will you, with those infirmities she owes, + Unfriended, new adopted to our hate, + Dow'r'd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath, + Take her, or leave her? + Bur. Pardon me, royal sir. + Election makes not up on such conditions. + Lear. Then leave her, sir; for, by the pow'r that made me, + I tell you all her wealth. [To France] For you, great King, + I would not from your love make such a stray + To match you where I hate; therefore beseech you + T' avert your liking a more worthier way + Than on a wretch whom nature is asham'd + Almost t' acknowledge hers. + France. This is most strange, + That she that even but now was your best object, + The argument of your praise, balm of your age, + Most best, most dearest, should in this trice of time + Commit a thing so monstrous to dismantle + So many folds of favour. Sure her offence + Must be of such unnatural degree + That monsters it, or your fore-vouch'd affection + Fall'n into taint; which to believe of her + Must be a faith that reason without miracle + Should never plant in me. + Cor. I yet beseech your Majesty, + If for I want that glib and oily art + To speak and purpose not, since what I well intend, + I'll do't before I speak- that you make known + It is no vicious blot, murther, or foulness, + No unchaste action or dishonoured step, + That hath depriv'd me of your grace and favour; + But even for want of that for which I am richer- + A still-soliciting eye, and such a tongue + As I am glad I have not, though not to have it + Hath lost me in your liking. + Lear. Better thou + Hadst not been born than not t' have pleas'd me better. + France. Is it but this- a tardiness in nature + Which often leaves the history unspoke + That it intends to do? My Lord of Burgundy, + What say you to the lady? Love's not love + When it is mingled with regards that stands + Aloof from th' entire point. Will you have her? + She is herself a dowry. + Bur. Royal Lear, + Give but that portion which yourself propos'd, + And here I take Cordelia by the hand, + Duchess of Burgundy. + Lear. Nothing! I have sworn; I am firm. + Bur. I am sorry then you have so lost a father + That you must lose a husband. + Cor. Peace be with Burgundy! + Since that respects of fortune are his love, + I shall not be his wife. + France. Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor; + Most choice, forsaken; and most lov'd, despis'd! + Thee and thy virtues here I seize upon. + Be it lawful I take up what's cast away. + Gods, gods! 'tis strange that from their cold'st neglect + My love should kindle to inflam'd respect. + Thy dow'rless daughter, King, thrown to my chance, + Is queen of us, of ours, and our fair France. + Not all the dukes in wat'rish Burgundy + Can buy this unpriz'd precious maid of me. + Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind. + Thou losest here, a better where to find. + Lear. Thou hast her, France; let her be thine; for we + Have no such daughter, nor shall ever see + That face of hers again. Therefore be gone + Without our grace, our love, our benison. + Come, noble Burgundy. + Flourish. Exeunt Lear, Burgundy, [Cornwall, Albany, + Gloucester, and Attendants]. + France. Bid farewell to your sisters. + Cor. The jewels of our father, with wash'd eyes + Cordelia leaves you. I know you what you are; + And, like a sister, am most loath to call + Your faults as they are nam'd. Use well our father. + To your professed bosoms I commit him; + But yet, alas, stood I within his grace, + I would prefer him to a better place! + So farewell to you both. + Gon. Prescribe not us our duties. + Reg. Let your study + Be to content your lord, who hath receiv'd you + At fortune's alms. You have obedience scanted, + And well are worth the want that you have wanted. + Cor. Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides. + Who cover faults, at last shame them derides. + Well may you prosper! + France. Come, my fair Cordelia. + Exeunt France and Cordelia. + Gon. Sister, it is not little I have to say of what most nearly + appertains to us both. I think our father will hence to-night. + Reg. That's most certain, and with you; next month with us. + Gon. You see how full of changes his age is. The observation we + have made of it hath not been little. He always lov'd our + sister most, and with what poor judgment he hath now cast her + off appears too grossly. + Reg. 'Tis the infirmity of his age; yet he hath ever but slenderly + known himself. + Gon. The best and soundest of his time hath been but rash; then + must we look to receive from his age, not alone the + imperfections of long-ingraffed condition, but therewithal + the unruly waywardness that infirm and choleric years bring with + them. + Reg. Such unconstant starts are we like to have from him as this + of Kent's banishment. + Gon. There is further compliment of leave-taking between France and + him. Pray you let's hit together. If our father carry authority + with such dispositions as he bears, this last surrender of his + will but offend us. + Reg. We shall further think on't. + Gon. We must do something, and i' th' heat. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +The Earl of Gloucester's Castle. + +Enter [Edmund the] Bastard solus, [with a letter]. + + Edm. Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law + My services are bound. Wherefore should I + Stand in the plague of custom, and permit + The curiosity of nations to deprive me, + For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines + Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? + When my dimensions are as well compact, + My mind as generous, and my shape as true, + As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us + With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? + Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take + More composition and fierce quality + Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed, + Go to th' creating a whole tribe of fops + Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then, + Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land. + Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund + As to th' legitimate. Fine word- 'legitimate'! + Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed, + And my invention thrive, Edmund the base + Shall top th' legitimate. I grow; I prosper. + Now, gods, stand up for bastards! + + Enter Gloucester. + + Glou. Kent banish'd thus? and France in choler parted? + And the King gone to-night? subscrib'd his pow'r? + Confin'd to exhibition? All this done + Upon the gad? Edmund, how now? What news? + Edm. So please your lordship, none. + [Puts up the letter.] + Glou. Why so earnestly seek you to put up that letter? + Edm. I know no news, my lord. + Glou. What paper were you reading? + Edm. Nothing, my lord. + Glou. No? What needed then that terrible dispatch of it into your + pocket? The quality of nothing hath not such need to hide + itself. Let's see. Come, if it be nothing, I shall not need + spectacles. + Edm. I beseech you, sir, pardon me. It is a letter from my brother + that I have not all o'er-read; and for so much as I have + perus'd, I find it not fit for your o'erlooking. + Glou. Give me the letter, sir. + Edm. I shall offend, either to detain or give it. The contents, as + in part I understand them, are to blame. + Glou. Let's see, let's see! + Edm. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as + an essay or taste of my virtue. + + Glou. (reads) 'This policy and reverence of age makes the world + bitter to the best of our times; keeps our fortunes from us + till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle + and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny, who sways, + not as it hath power, but as it is suffer'd. Come to me, that + of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I + wak'd him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live + the beloved of your brother, + 'EDGAR.' + + Hum! Conspiracy? 'Sleep till I wak'd him, you should enjoy half + his revenue.' My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? a heart + and brain to breed it in? When came this to you? Who brought it? + Edm. It was not brought me, my lord: there's the cunning of it. I + found it thrown in at the casement of my closet. + Glou. You know the character to be your brother's? + Edm. If the matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his; + but in respect of that, I would fain think it were not. + Glou. It is his. + Edm. It is his hand, my lord; but I hope his heart is not in the + contents. + Glou. Hath he never before sounded you in this business? + Edm. Never, my lord. But I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit + that, sons at perfect age, and fathers declining, the father + should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue. + Glou. O villain, villain! His very opinion in the letter! Abhorred + villain! Unnatural, detested, brutish villain! worse than + brutish! Go, sirrah, seek him. I'll apprehend him. Abominable + villain! Where is he? + Edm. I do not well know, my lord. If it shall please you to suspend + your indignation against my brother till you can derive from him + better testimony of his intent, you should run a certain course; + where, if you violently proceed against him, mistaking his + purpose, it would make a great gap in your own honour and shake + in pieces the heart of his obedience. I dare pawn down my life + for him that he hath writ this to feel my affection to your + honour, and to no other pretence of danger. + Glou. Think you so? + Edm. If your honour judge it meet, I will place you where you shall + hear us confer of this and by an auricular assurance have your + satisfaction, and that without any further delay than this very + evening. + Glou. He cannot be such a monster. + Edm. Nor is not, sure. + Glou. To his father, that so tenderly and entirely loves him. + Heaven and earth! Edmund, seek him out; wind me into him, I pray + you; frame the business after your own wisdom. I would unstate + myself to be in a due resolution. + Edm. I will seek him, sir, presently; convey the business as I + shall find means, and acquaint you withal. + Glou. These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to + us. Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet + nature finds itself scourg'd by the sequent effects. Love cools, + friendship falls off, brothers divide. In cities, mutinies; in + countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond crack'd + 'twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the + prediction; there's son against father: the King falls from bias + of nature; there's father against child. We have seen the best + of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all + ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out + this villain, Edmund; it shall lose thee nothing; do it + carefully. And the noble and true-hearted Kent banish'd! his + offence, honesty! 'Tis strange. Exit. + Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are + sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make + guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if + we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; + knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical pre-dominance; + drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforc'd obedience of + planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine + thrusting on. An admirable evasion of whore-master man, to lay + his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! My father + compounded with my mother under the Dragon's Tail, and my + nativity was under Ursa Major, so that it follows I am rough and + lecherous. Fut! I should have been that I am, had the + maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled on my bastardizing. + Edgar- + + Enter Edgar. + + and pat! he comes, like the catastrophe of the old comedy. My + cue is villainous melancholy, with a sigh like Tom o' Bedlam. + O, these eclipses do portend these divisions! Fa, sol, la, mi. + Edg. How now, brother Edmund? What serious contemplation are you + in? + Edm. I am thinking, brother, of a prediction I read this other day, + what should follow these eclipses. + Edg. Do you busy yourself with that? + Edm. I promise you, the effects he writes of succeed unhappily: as + of unnaturalness between the child and the parent; death, + dearth, dissolutions of ancient amities; divisions in state, + menaces and maledictions against king and nobles; needless + diffidences, banishment of friends, dissipation of cohorts, + nuptial breaches, and I know not what. + Edg. How long have you been a sectary astronomical? + Edm. Come, come! When saw you my father last? + Edg. The night gone by. + Edm. Spake you with him? + Edg. Ay, two hours together. + Edm. Parted you in good terms? Found you no displeasure in him by + word or countenance + Edg. None at all. + Edm. Bethink yourself wherein you may have offended him; and at my + entreaty forbear his presence until some little time hath + qualified the heat of his displeasure, which at this instant so + rageth in him that with the mischief of your person it would + scarcely allay. + Edg. Some villain hath done me wrong. + Edm. That's my fear. I pray you have a continent forbearance till + the speed of his rage goes slower; and, as I say, retire with me + to my lodging, from whence I will fitly bring you to hear my + lord speak. Pray ye, go! There's my key. If you do stir abroad, + go arm'd. + Edg. Arm'd, brother? + Edm. Brother, I advise you to the best. Go arm'd. I am no honest man + if there be any good meaning toward you. I have told you what I + have seen and heard; but faintly, nothing like the image and + horror of it. Pray you, away! + Edg. Shall I hear from you anon? + Edm. I do serve you in this business. + Exit Edgar. + A credulous father! and a brother noble, + Whose nature is so far from doing harms + That he suspects none; on whose foolish honesty + My practices ride easy! I see the business. + Let me, if not by birth, have lands by wit; + All with me's meet that I can fashion fit. +Exit. + + + + +Scene III. +The Duke of Albany's Palace. + +Enter Goneril and [her] Steward [Oswald]. + + Gon. Did my father strike my gentleman for chiding of his fool? + Osw. Ay, madam. + Gon. By day and night, he wrongs me! Every hour + He flashes into one gross crime or other + That sets us all at odds. I'll not endure it. + His knights grow riotous, and himself upbraids us + On every trifle. When he returns from hunting, + I will not speak with him. Say I am sick. + If you come slack of former services, + You shall do well; the fault of it I'll answer. + [Horns within.] + Osw. He's coming, madam; I hear him. + Gon. Put on what weary negligence you please, + You and your fellows. I'd have it come to question. + If he distaste it, let him to our sister, + Whose mind and mine I know in that are one, + Not to be overrul'd. Idle old man, + That still would manage those authorities + That he hath given away! Now, by my life, + Old fools are babes again, and must be us'd + With checks as flatteries, when they are seen abus'd. + Remember what I have said. + Osw. Very well, madam. + Gon. And let his knights have colder looks among you. + What grows of it, no matter. Advise your fellows so. + I would breed from hence occasions, and I shall, + That I may speak. I'll write straight to my sister + To hold my very course. Prepare for dinner. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene IV. +The Duke of Albany's Palace. + +Enter Kent, [disguised]. + + Kent. If but as well I other accents borrow, + That can my speech defuse, my good intent + May carry through itself to that full issue + For which I raz'd my likeness. Now, banish'd Kent, + If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemn'd, + So may it come, thy master, whom thou lov'st, + Shall find thee full of labours. + + Horns within. Enter Lear, [Knights,] and Attendants. + + Lear. Let me not stay a jot for dinner; go get it ready. [Exit + an Attendant.] How now? What art thou? + Kent. A man, sir. + Lear. What dost thou profess? What wouldst thou with us? + Kent. I do profess to be no less than I seem, to serve him truly + that will put me in trust, to love him that is honest, to + converse with him that is wise and says little, to fear + judgment, to fight when I cannot choose, and to eat no fish. + Lear. What art thou? + Kent. A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the King. + Lear. If thou be'st as poor for a subject as he's for a king, thou + art poor enough. What wouldst thou? + Kent. Service. + Lear. Who wouldst thou serve? + Kent. You. + Lear. Dost thou know me, fellow? + Kent. No, sir; but you have that in your countenance which I would + fain call master. + Lear. What's that? + Kent. Authority. + Lear. What services canst thou do? + Kent. I can keep honest counsel, ride, run, mar a curious tale in + telling it and deliver a plain message bluntly. That which + ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in, and the best of me + is diligence. + Lear. How old art thou? + Kent. Not so young, sir, to love a woman for singing, nor so old to + dote on her for anything. I have years on my back forty-eight. + Lear. Follow me; thou shalt serve me. If I like thee no worse after + dinner, I will not part from thee yet. Dinner, ho, dinner! + Where's my knave? my fool? Go you and call my fool hither. + + [Exit an attendant.] + + Enter [Oswald the] Steward. + + You, you, sirrah, where's my daughter? + Osw. So please you- Exit. + Lear. What says the fellow there? Call the clotpoll back. + [Exit a Knight.] Where's my fool, ho? I think the world's + asleep. + + [Enter Knight] + + How now? Where's that mongrel? + Knight. He says, my lord, your daughter is not well. + Lear. Why came not the slave back to me when I call'd him? + Knight. Sir, he answered me in the roundest manner, he would not. + Lear. He would not? + Knight. My lord, I know not what the matter is; but to my judgment + your Highness is not entertain'd with that ceremonious affection + as you were wont. There's a great abatement of kindness appears + as well in the general dependants as in the Duke himself also + and your daughter. + Lear. Ha! say'st thou so? + Knight. I beseech you pardon me, my lord, if I be mistaken; for + my duty cannot be silent when I think your Highness wrong'd. + Lear. Thou but rememb'rest me of mine own conception. I have + perceived a most faint neglect of late, which I have rather + blamed as mine own jealous curiosity than as a very pretence + and purpose of unkindness. I will look further into't. But + where's my fool? I have not seen him this two days. + Knight. Since my young lady's going into France, sir, the fool + hath much pined away. + Lear. No more of that; I have noted it well. Go you and tell my + daughter I would speak with her. [Exit Knight.] Go you, call + hither my fool. + [Exit an Attendant.] + + Enter [Oswald the] Steward. + + O, you, sir, you! Come you hither, sir. Who am I, sir? + Osw. My lady's father. + Lear. 'My lady's father'? My lord's knave! You whoreson dog! you + slave! you cur! + Osw. I am none of these, my lord; I beseech your pardon. + Lear. Do you bandy looks with me, you rascal? + [Strikes him.] + Osw. I'll not be strucken, my lord. + Kent. Nor tripp'd neither, you base football player? + [Trips up his heels. + Lear. I thank thee, fellow. Thou serv'st me, and I'll love thee. + Kent. Come, sir, arise, away! I'll teach you differences. Away, + away! If you will measure your lubber's length again, tarry; but + away! Go to! Have you wisdom? So. + [Pushes him out.] + Lear. Now, my friendly knave, I thank thee. There's earnest of thy + service. [Gives money.] + + Enter Fool. + + Fool. Let me hire him too. Here's my coxcomb. + [Offers Kent his cap.] + Lear. How now, my pretty knave? How dost thou? + Fool. Sirrah, you were best take my coxcomb. + Kent. Why, fool? + Fool. Why? For taking one's part that's out of favour. Nay, an thou + canst not smile as the wind sits, thou'lt catch cold shortly. + There, take my coxcomb! Why, this fellow hath banish'd two on's + daughters, and did the third a blessing against his will. If + thou follow him, thou must needs wear my coxcomb.- How now, + nuncle? Would I had two coxcombs and two daughters! + Lear. Why, my boy? + Fool. If I gave them all my living, I'ld keep my coxcombs myself. + There's mine! beg another of thy daughters. + Lear. Take heed, sirrah- the whip. + Fool. Truth's a dog must to kennel; he must be whipp'd out, when + Lady the brach may stand by th' fire and stink. + Lear. A pestilent gall to me! + Fool. Sirrah, I'll teach thee a speech. + Lear. Do. + Fool. Mark it, nuncle. + Have more than thou showest, + Speak less than thou knowest, + Lend less than thou owest, + Ride more than thou goest, + Learn more than thou trowest, + Set less than thou throwest; + Leave thy drink and thy whore, + And keep in-a-door, + And thou shalt have more + Than two tens to a score. + Kent. This is nothing, fool. + Fool. Then 'tis like the breath of an unfeed lawyer- you gave me + nothing for't. Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle? + Lear. Why, no, boy. Nothing can be made out of nothing. + Fool. [to Kent] Prithee tell him, so much the rent of his land + comes to. He will not believe a fool. + Lear. A bitter fool! + Fool. Dost thou know the difference, my boy, between a bitter + fool and a sweet fool? + Lear. No, lad; teach me. + Fool. That lord that counsell'd thee + To give away thy land, + Come place him here by me- + Do thou for him stand. + The sweet and bitter fool + Will presently appear; + The one in motley here, + The other found out there. + Lear. Dost thou call me fool, boy? + Fool. All thy other titles thou hast given away; that thou wast + born with. + Kent. This is not altogether fool, my lord. + Fool. No, faith; lords and great men will not let me. If I had a + monopoly out, they would have part on't. And ladies too, they + will not let me have all the fool to myself; they'll be + snatching. Give me an egg, nuncle, and I'll give thee two + crowns. + Lear. What two crowns shall they be? + Fool. Why, after I have cut the egg i' th' middle and eat up the + meat, the two crowns of the egg. When thou clovest thy crown i' + th' middle and gav'st away both parts, thou bor'st thine ass on + thy back o'er the dirt. Thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown + when thou gav'st thy golden one away. If I speak like myself in + this, let him be whipp'd that first finds it so. + + [Sings] Fools had ne'er less grace in a year, + For wise men are grown foppish; + They know not how their wits to wear, + Their manners are so apish. + + Lear. When were you wont to be so full of songs, sirrah? + Fool. I have us'd it, nuncle, ever since thou mad'st thy daughters + thy mother; for when thou gav'st them the rod, and put'st down + thine own breeches, + + [Sings] Then they for sudden joy did weep, + And I for sorrow sung, + That such a king should play bo-peep + And go the fools among. + + Prithee, nuncle, keep a schoolmaster that can teach thy fool to + lie. I would fain learn to lie. + Lear. An you lie, sirrah, we'll have you whipp'd. + Fool. I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are. They'll have me + whipp'd for speaking true; thou'lt have me whipp'd for lying; + and sometimes I am whipp'd for holding my peace. I had rather be + any kind o' thing than a fool! And yet I would not be thee, + nuncle. Thou hast pared thy wit o' both sides and left nothing + i' th' middle. Here comes one o' the parings. + + Enter Goneril. + + Lear. How now, daughter? What makes that frontlet on? Methinks you + are too much o' late i' th' frown. + Fool. Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for + her frowning. Now thou art an O without a figure. I am better + than thou art now: I am a fool, thou art nothing. + [To Goneril] Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue. So your face + bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum! + + He that keeps nor crust nor crum, + Weary of all, shall want some.- + + [Points at Lear] That's a sheal'd peascod. + Gon. Not only, sir, this your all-licens'd fool, + But other of your insolent retinue + Do hourly carp and quarrel, breaking forth + In rank and not-to-be-endured riots. Sir, + I had thought, by making this well known unto you, + To have found a safe redress, but now grow fearful, + By what yourself, too, late have spoke and done, + That you protect this course, and put it on + By your allowance; which if you should, the fault + Would not scape censure, nor the redresses sleep, + Which, in the tender of a wholesome weal, + Might in their working do you that offence + Which else were shame, that then necessity + Must call discreet proceeding. + Fool. For you know, nuncle, + + The hedge-sparrow fed the cuckoo so long + That it had it head bit off by it young. + + So out went the candle, and we were left darkling. + Lear. Are you our daughter? + Gon. Come, sir, + I would you would make use of that good wisdom + Whereof I know you are fraught, and put away + These dispositions that of late transform you + From what you rightly are. + Fool. May not an ass know when the cart draws the horse? + Whoop, Jug, I love thee! + Lear. Doth any here know me? This is not Lear. + Doth Lear walk thus? speak thus? Where are his eyes? + Either his notion weakens, his discernings + Are lethargied- Ha! waking? 'Tis not so! + Who is it that can tell me who I am? + Fool. Lear's shadow. + Lear. I would learn that; for, by the marks of sovereignty, + Knowledge, and reason, I should be false persuaded + I had daughters. + Fool. Which they will make an obedient father. + Lear. Your name, fair gentlewoman? + Gon. This admiration, sir, is much o' th' savour + Of other your new pranks. I do beseech you + To understand my purposes aright. + As you are old and reverend, you should be wise. + Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires; + Men so disorder'd, so debosh'd, and bold + That this our court, infected with their manners, + Shows like a riotous inn. Epicurism and lust + Make it more like a tavern or a brothel + Than a grac'd palace. The shame itself doth speak + For instant remedy. Be then desir'd + By her that else will take the thing she begs + A little to disquantity your train, + And the remainder that shall still depend + To be such men as may besort your age, + Which know themselves, and you. + Lear. Darkness and devils! + Saddle my horses! Call my train together! + Degenerate bastard, I'll not trouble thee; + Yet have I left a daughter. + Gon. You strike my people, and your disorder'd rabble + Make servants of their betters. + + Enter Albany. + + Lear. Woe that too late repents!- O, sir, are you come? + Is it your will? Speak, sir!- Prepare my horses. + Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, + More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child + Than the sea-monster! + Alb. Pray, sir, be patient. + Lear. [to Goneril] Detested kite, thou liest! + My train are men of choice and rarest parts, + That all particulars of duty know + And in the most exact regard support + The worships of their name.- O most small fault, + How ugly didst thou in Cordelia show! + Which, like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature + From the fix'd place; drew from my heart all love + And added to the gall. O Lear, Lear, Lear! + Beat at this gate that let thy folly in [Strikes his head.] + And thy dear judgment out! Go, go, my people. + Alb. My lord, I am guiltless, as I am ignorant + Of what hath mov'd you. + Lear. It may be so, my lord. + Hear, Nature, hear! dear goddess, hear! + Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend + To make this creature fruitful. + Into her womb convey sterility; + Dry up in her the organs of increase; + And from her derogate body never spring + A babe to honour her! If she must teem, + Create her child of spleen, that it may live + And be a thwart disnatur'd torment to her. + Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth, + With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks, + Turn all her mother's pains and benefits + To laughter and contempt, that she may feel + How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is + To have a thankless child! Away, away! Exit. + Alb. Now, gods that we adore, whereof comes this? + Gon. Never afflict yourself to know the cause; + But let his disposition have that scope + That dotage gives it. + + Enter Lear. + + Lear. What, fifty of my followers at a clap? + Within a fortnight? + Alb. What's the matter, sir? + Lear. I'll tell thee. [To Goneril] Life and death! I am asham'd + That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus; + That these hot tears, which break from me perforce, + Should make thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee! + Th' untented woundings of a father's curse + Pierce every sense about thee!- Old fond eyes, + Beweep this cause again, I'll pluck ye out, + And cast you, with the waters that you lose, + To temper clay. Yea, is it come to this? + Let it be so. Yet have I left a daughter, + Who I am sure is kind and comfortable. + When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails + She'll flay thy wolvish visage. Thou shalt find + That I'll resume the shape which thou dost think + I have cast off for ever; thou shalt, I warrant thee. + Exeunt [Lear, Kent, and Attendants]. + Gon. Do you mark that, my lord? + Alb. I cannot be so partial, Goneril, + To the great love I bear you - + Gon. Pray you, content.- What, Oswald, ho! + [To the Fool] You, sir, more knave than fool, after your master! + Fool. Nuncle Lear, nuncle Lear, tarry! Take the fool with thee. + + A fox when one has caught her, + And such a daughter, + Should sure to the slaughter, + If my cap would buy a halter. + So the fool follows after. Exit. + Gon. This man hath had good counsel! A hundred knights? + 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep + At point a hundred knights; yes, that on every dream, + Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike, + He may enguard his dotage with their pow'rs + And hold our lives in mercy.- Oswald, I say! + Alb. Well, you may fear too far. + Gon. Safer than trust too far. + Let me still take away the harms I fear, + Not fear still to be taken. I know his heart. + What he hath utter'd I have writ my sister. + If she sustain him and his hundred knights, + When I have show'd th' unfitness- + + Enter [Oswald the] Steward. + + How now, Oswald? + What, have you writ that letter to my sister? + Osw. Yes, madam. + Gon. Take you some company, and away to horse! + Inform her full of my particular fear, + And thereto add such reasons of your own + As may compact it more. Get you gone, + And hasten your return. [Exit Oswald.] No, no, my lord! + This milky gentleness and course of yours, + Though I condemn it not, yet, under pardon, + You are much more at task for want of wisdom + Than prais'd for harmful mildness. + Alb. How far your eyes may pierce I cannot tell. + Striving to better, oft we mar what's well. + Gon. Nay then- + Alb. Well, well; th' event. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene V. +Court before the Duke of Albany's Palace. + +Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. + + Lear. Go you before to Gloucester with these letters. Acquaint my + daughter no further with anything you know than comes from her + demand out of the letter. If your diligence be not speedy, I + shall be there afore you. + Kent. I will not sleep, my lord, till I have delivered your letter. +Exit. + Fool. If a man's brains were in's heels, were't not in danger of + kibes? + Lear. Ay, boy. + Fool. Then I prithee be merry. Thy wit shall ne'er go slip-shod. + Lear. Ha, ha, ha! + Fool. Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly; for though + she's as like this as a crab's like an apple, yet I can tell + what I can tell. + Lear. What canst tell, boy? + Fool. She'll taste as like this as a crab does to a crab. Thou + canst tell why one's nose stands i' th' middle on's face? + Lear. No. + Fool. Why, to keep one's eyes of either side's nose, that what a + man cannot smell out, 'a may spy into. + Lear. I did her wrong. + Fool. Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell? + Lear. No. + Fool. Nor I neither; but I can tell why a snail has a house. + Lear. Why? + Fool. Why, to put's head in; not to give it away to his daughters, + and leave his horns without a case. + Lear. I will forget my nature. So kind a father!- Be my horses + ready? + Fool. Thy asses are gone about 'em. The reason why the seven stars + are no moe than seven is a pretty reason. + Lear. Because they are not eight? + Fool. Yes indeed. Thou wouldst make a good fool. + Lear. To tak't again perforce! Monster ingratitude! + Fool. If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'ld have thee beaten for being + old before thy time. + Lear. How's that? + Fool. Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise. + Lear. O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven! + Keep me in temper; I would not be mad! + + [Enter a Gentleman.] + + How now? Are the horses ready? + Gent. Ready, my lord. + Lear. Come, boy. + Fool. She that's a maid now, and laughs at my departure, + Shall not be a maid long, unless things be cut shorter + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. Scene I. +A court within the Castle of the Earl of Gloucester. + +Enter [Edmund the] Bastard and Curan, meeting. + + Edm. Save thee, Curan. + Cur. And you, sir. I have been with your father, and given him + notice that the Duke of Cornwall and Regan his Duchess will be + here with him this night. + Edm. How comes that? + Cur. Nay, I know not. You have heard of the news abroad- I mean the + whisper'd ones, for they are yet but ear-kissing arguments? + Edm. Not I. Pray you, what are they? + Cur. Have you heard of no likely wars toward 'twixt the two Dukes + of Cornwall and Albany? + Edm. Not a word. + Cur. You may do, then, in time. Fare you well, sir. Exit. + Edm. The Duke be here to-night? The better! best! + This weaves itself perforce into my business. + My father hath set guard to take my brother; + And I have one thing, of a queasy question, + Which I must act. Briefness and fortune, work! + Brother, a word! Descend! Brother, I say! + + Enter Edgar. + + My father watches. O sir, fly this place! + Intelligence is given where you are hid. + You have now the good advantage of the night. + Have you not spoken 'gainst the Duke of Cornwall? + He's coming hither; now, i' th' night, i' th' haste, + And Regan with him. Have you nothing said + Upon his party 'gainst the Duke of Albany? + Advise yourself. + Edg. I am sure on't, not a word. + Edm. I hear my father coming. Pardon me! + In cunning I must draw my sword upon you. + Draw, seem to defend yourself; now quit you well.- + Yield! Come before my father. Light, ho, here! + Fly, brother.- Torches, torches!- So farewell. + Exit Edgar. + Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion + Of my more fierce endeavour. [Stabs his arm.] I have seen + drunkards + Do more than this in sport.- Father, father!- + Stop, stop! No help? + + Enter Gloucester, and Servants with torches. + + Glou. Now, Edmund, where's the villain? + Edm. Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out, + Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon + To stand 's auspicious mistress. + Glou. But where is he? + Edm. Look, sir, I bleed. + Glou. Where is the villain, Edmund? + Edm. Fled this way, sir. When by no means he could- + Glou. Pursue him, ho! Go after. [Exeunt some Servants]. + By no means what? + Edm. Persuade me to the murther of your lordship; + But that I told him the revenging gods + 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend; + Spoke with how manifold and strong a bond + The child was bound to th' father- sir, in fine, + Seeing how loathly opposite I stood + To his unnatural purpose, in fell motion + With his prepared sword he charges home + My unprovided body, lanch'd mine arm; + But when he saw my best alarum'd spirits, + Bold in the quarrel's right, rous'd to th' encounter, + Or whether gasted by the noise I made, + Full suddenly he fled. + Glou. Let him fly far. + Not in this land shall he remain uncaught; + And found- dispatch. The noble Duke my master, + My worthy arch and patron, comes to-night. + By his authority I will proclaim it + That he which find, him shall deserve our thanks, + Bringing the murderous caitiff to the stake; + He that conceals him, death. + Edm. When I dissuaded him from his intent + And found him pight to do it, with curst speech + I threaten'd to discover him. He replied, + 'Thou unpossessing bastard, dost thou think, + If I would stand against thee, would the reposal + Of any trust, virtue, or worth in thee + Make thy words faith'd? No. What I should deny + (As this I would; ay, though thou didst produce + My very character), I'ld turn it all + To thy suggestion, plot, and damned practice; + And thou must make a dullard of the world, + If they not thought the profits of my death + Were very pregnant and potential spurs + To make thee seek it.' + Glou. Strong and fast'ned villain! + Would he deny his letter? I never got him. + Tucket within. + Hark, the Duke's trumpets! I know not why he comes. + All ports I'll bar; the villain shall not scape; + The Duke must grant me that. Besides, his picture + I will send far and near, that all the kingdom + May have due note of him, and of my land, + Loyal and natural boy, I'll work the means + To make thee capable. + + Enter Cornwall, Regan, and Attendants. + + Corn. How now, my noble friend? Since I came hither + (Which I can call but now) I have heard strange news. + Reg. If it be true, all vengeance comes too short + Which can pursue th' offender. How dost, my lord? + Glou. O madam, my old heart is crack'd, it's crack'd! + Reg. What, did my father's godson seek your life? + He whom my father nam'd? Your Edgar? + Glou. O lady, lady, shame would have it hid! + Reg. Was he not companion with the riotous knights + That tend upon my father? + Glou. I know not, madam. 'Tis too bad, too bad! + Edm. Yes, madam, he was of that consort. + Reg. No marvel then though he were ill affected. + 'Tis they have put him on the old man's death, + To have th' expense and waste of his revenues. + I have this present evening from my sister + Been well inform'd of them, and with such cautions + That, if they come to sojourn at my house, + I'll not be there. + Corn. Nor I, assure thee, Regan. + Edmund, I hear that you have shown your father + A childlike office. + Edm. 'Twas my duty, sir. + Glou. He did bewray his practice, and receiv'd + This hurt you see, striving to apprehend him. + Corn. Is he pursued? + Glou. Ay, my good lord. + Corn. If he be taken, he shall never more + Be fear'd of doing harm. Make your own purpose, + How in my strength you please. For you, Edmund, + Whose virtue and obedience doth this instant + So much commend itself, you shall be ours. + Natures of such deep trust we shall much need; + You we first seize on. + Edm. I shall serve you, sir, + Truly, however else. + Glou. For him I thank your Grace. + Corn. You know not why we came to visit you- + Reg. Thus out of season, threading dark-ey'd night. + Occasions, noble Gloucester, of some poise, + Wherein we must have use of your advice. + Our father he hath writ, so hath our sister, + Of differences, which I best thought it fit + To answer from our home. The several messengers + From hence attend dispatch. Our good old friend, + Lay comforts to your bosom, and bestow + Your needful counsel to our business, + Which craves the instant use. + Glou. I serve you, madam. + Your Graces are right welcome. + Exeunt. Flourish. + + + + +Scene II. +Before Gloucester's Castle. + +Enter Kent and [Oswald the] Steward, severally. + + Osw. Good dawning to thee, friend. Art of this house? + Kent. Ay. + Osw. Where may we set our horses? + Kent. I' th' mire. + Osw. Prithee, if thou lov'st me, tell me. + Kent. I love thee not. + Osw. Why then, I care not for thee. + Kent. If I had thee in Lipsbury Pinfold, I would make thee care for + me. + Osw. Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not. + Kent. Fellow, I know thee. + Osw. What dost thou know me for? + Kent. A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, + shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, + worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver'd, action-taking, whoreson, + glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; + one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of + good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, + beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; + one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deny the + least syllable of thy addition. + Osw. Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one + that's neither known of thee nor knows thee! + Kent. What a brazen-fac'd varlet art thou, to deny thou knowest me! + Is it two days ago since I beat thee and tripp'd up thy heels + before the King? [Draws his sword.] Draw, you rogue! for, though + it be night, yet the moon shines. I'll make a sop o' th' + moonshine o' you. Draw, you whoreson cullionly barbermonger! + draw! + Osw. Away! I have nothing to do with thee. + Kent. Draw, you rascal! You come with letters against the King, and + take Vanity the puppet's part against the royalty of her father. + Draw, you rogue, or I'll so carbonado your shanks! Draw, you + rascal! Come your ways! + Osw. Help, ho! murther! help! + Kent. Strike, you slave! Stand, rogue! Stand, you neat slave! + Strike! [Beats him.] + Osw. Help, ho! murther! murther! + + Enter Edmund, with his rapier drawn, Gloucester, Cornwall, + Regan, Servants. + + Edm. How now? What's the matter? Parts [them]. + Kent. With you, goodman boy, an you please! Come, I'll flesh ye! + Come on, young master! + Glou. Weapons? arms? What's the matter here? + Corn. Keep peace, upon your lives! + He dies that strikes again. What is the matter? + Reg. The messengers from our sister and the King + Corn. What is your difference? Speak. + Osw. I am scarce in breath, my lord. + Kent. No marvel, you have so bestirr'd your valour. You cowardly + rascal, nature disclaims in thee; a tailor made thee. + Corn. Thou art a strange fellow. A tailor make a man? + Kent. Ay, a tailor, sir. A stonecutter or a painter could not have + made him so ill, though he had been but two hours at the trade. + Corn. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel? + Osw. This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spar'd + At suit of his grey beard- + Kent. Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter! My lord, if + you'll give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into + mortar and daub the walls of a jakes with him. 'Spare my grey + beard,' you wagtail? + Corn. Peace, sirrah! + You beastly knave, know you no reverence? + Kent. Yes, sir, but anger hath a privilege. + Corn. Why art thou angry? + Kent. That such a slave as this should wear a sword, + Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these, + Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain + Which are too intrinse t' unloose; smooth every passion + That in the natures of their lords rebel, + Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods; + Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks + With every gale and vary of their masters, + Knowing naught (like dogs) but following. + A plague upon your epileptic visage! + Smile you my speeches, as I were a fool? + Goose, an I had you upon Sarum Plain, + I'ld drive ye cackling home to Camelot. + Corn. What, art thou mad, old fellow? + Glou. How fell you out? Say that. + Kent. No contraries hold more antipathy + Than I and such a knave. + Corn. Why dost thou call him knave? What is his fault? + Kent. His countenance likes me not. + Corn. No more perchance does mine, or his, or hers. + Kent. Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain. + I have seen better faces in my time + Than stands on any shoulder that I see + Before me at this instant. + Corn. This is some fellow + Who, having been prais'd for bluntness, doth affect + A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb + Quite from his nature. He cannot flatter, he! + An honest mind and plain- he must speak truth! + An they will take it, so; if not, he's plain. + These kind of knaves I know which in this plainness + Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends + Than twenty silly-ducking observants + That stretch their duties nicely. + Kent. Sir, in good faith, in sincere verity, + Under th' allowance of your great aspect, + Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire + On flickering Phoebus' front- + Corn. What mean'st by this? + Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you discommend so much. I + know, sir, I am no flatterer. He that beguil'd you in a plain + accent was a plain knave, which, for my part, I will not be, + though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to't. + Corn. What was th' offence you gave him? + Osw. I never gave him any. + It pleas'd the King his master very late + To strike at me, upon his misconstruction; + When he, conjunct, and flattering his displeasure, + Tripp'd me behind; being down, insulted, rail'd + And put upon him such a deal of man + That worthied him, got praises of the King + For him attempting who was self-subdu'd; + And, in the fleshment of this dread exploit, + Drew on me here again. + Kent. None of these rogues and cowards + But Ajax is their fool. + Corn. Fetch forth the stocks! + You stubborn ancient knave, you reverent braggart, + We'll teach you- + Kent. Sir, I am too old to learn. + Call not your stocks for me. I serve the King; + On whose employment I was sent to you. + You shall do small respect, show too bold malice + Against the grace and person of my master, + Stocking his messenger. + Corn. Fetch forth the stocks! As I have life and honour, + There shall he sit till noon. + Reg. Till noon? Till night, my lord, and all night too! + Kent. Why, madam, if I were your father's dog, + You should not use me so. + Reg. Sir, being his knave, I will. + Corn. This is a fellow of the selfsame colour + Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away the stocks! + Stocks brought out. + Glou. Let me beseech your Grace not to do so. + His fault is much, and the good King his master + Will check him for't. Your purpos'd low correction + Is such as basest and contemn'dest wretches + For pilf'rings and most common trespasses + Are punish'd with. The King must take it ill + That he, so slightly valued in his messenger, + Should have him thus restrain'd. + Corn. I'll answer that. + Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse, + To have her gentleman abus'd, assaulted, + For following her affairs. Put in his legs.- + [Kent is put in the stocks.] + Come, my good lord, away. + Exeunt [all but Gloucester and Kent]. + Glou. I am sorry for thee, friend. 'Tis the Duke's pleasure, + Whose disposition, all the world well knows, + Will not be rubb'd nor stopp'd. I'll entreat for thee. + Kent. Pray do not, sir. I have watch'd and travell'd hard. + Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I'll whistle. + A good man's fortune may grow out at heels. + Give you good morrow! + Glou. The Duke 's to blame in this; 'twill be ill taken. +Exit. + Kent. Good King, that must approve the common saw, + Thou out of heaven's benediction com'st + To the warm sun! + Approach, thou beacon to this under globe, + That by thy comfortable beams I may + Peruse this letter. Nothing almost sees miracles + But misery. I know 'tis from Cordelia, + Who hath most fortunately been inform'd + Of my obscured course- and [reads] 'shall find time + From this enormous state, seeking to give + Losses their remedies'- All weary and o'erwatch'd, + Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold + This shameful lodging. + Fortune, good night; smile once more, turn thy wheel. + Sleeps. + + + + +Scene III. +The open country. + +Enter Edgar. + + Edg. I heard myself proclaim'd, + And by the happy hollow of a tree + Escap'd the hunt. No port is free, no place + That guard and most unusual vigilance + Does not attend my taking. Whiles I may scape, + I will preserve myself; and am bethought + To take the basest and most poorest shape + That ever penury, in contempt of man, + Brought near to beast. My face I'll grime with filth, + Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots, + And with presented nakedness outface + The winds and persecutions of the sky. + The country gives me proof and precedent + Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices, + Strike in their numb'd and mortified bare arms + Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary; + And with this horrible object, from low farms, + Poor pelting villages, sheepcotes, and mills, + Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers, + Enforce their charity. 'Poor Turlygod! poor Tom!' + That's something yet! Edgar I nothing am. Exit. + + + + +Scene IV. +Before Gloucester's Castle; Kent in the stocks. + +Enter Lear, Fool, and Gentleman. + + Lear. 'Tis strange that they should so depart from home, + And not send back my messenger. + Gent. As I learn'd, + The night before there was no purpose in them + Of this remove. + Kent. Hail to thee, noble master! + Lear. Ha! + Mak'st thou this shame thy pastime? + Kent. No, my lord. + Fool. Ha, ha! look! he wears cruel garters. Horses are tied by the + head, dogs and bears by th' neck, monkeys by th' loins, and men + by th' legs. When a man's over-lusty at legs, then he wears + wooden nether-stocks. + Lear. What's he that hath so much thy place mistook + To set thee here? + Kent. It is both he and she- + Your son and daughter. + Lear. No. + Kent. Yes. + Lear. No, I say. + Kent. I say yea. + Lear. No, no, they would not! + Kent. Yes, they have. + Lear. By Jupiter, I swear no! + Kent. By Juno, I swear ay! + Lear. They durst not do't; + They would not, could not do't. 'Tis worse than murther + To do upon respect such violent outrage. + Resolve me with all modest haste which way + Thou mightst deserve or they impose this usage, + Coming from us. + Kent. My lord, when at their home + I did commend your Highness' letters to them, + Ere I was risen from the place that show'd + My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post, + Stew'd in his haste, half breathless, panting forth + From Goneril his mistress salutations; + Deliver'd letters, spite of intermission, + Which presently they read; on whose contents, + They summon'd up their meiny, straight took horse, + Commanded me to follow and attend + The leisure of their answer, gave me cold looks, + And meeting here the other messenger, + Whose welcome I perceiv'd had poison'd mine- + Being the very fellow which of late + Display'd so saucily against your Highness- + Having more man than wit about me, drew. + He rais'd the house with loud and coward cries. + Your son and daughter found this trespass worth + The shame which here it suffers. + Fool. Winter's not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way. + + Fathers that wear rags + Do make their children blind; + But fathers that bear bags + Shall see their children kind. + Fortune, that arrant whore, + Ne'er turns the key to th' poor. + + But for all this, thou shalt have as many dolours for thy + daughters as thou canst tell in a year. + Lear. O, how this mother swells up toward my heart! + Hysterica passio! Down, thou climbing sorrow! + Thy element's below! Where is this daughter? + Kent. With the Earl, sir, here within. + Lear. Follow me not; + Stay here. Exit. + Gent. Made you no more offence but what you speak of? + Kent. None. + How chance the King comes with so small a number? + Fool. An thou hadst been set i' th' stocks for that question, + thou'dst well deserv'd it. + Kent. Why, fool? + Fool. We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no + labouring i' th' winter. All that follow their noses are led by + their eyes but blind men, and there's not a nose among twenty + but can smell him that's stinking. Let go thy hold when a great + wheel runs down a hill, lest it break thy neck with following + it; but the great one that goes upward, let him draw thee after. + When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again. I + would have none but knaves follow it, since a fool gives it. + That sir which serves and seeks for gain, + And follows but for form, + Will pack when it begins to rain + And leave thee in the storm. + But I will tarry; the fool will stay, + And let the wise man fly. + The knave turns fool that runs away; + The fool no knave, perdy. + Kent. Where learn'd you this, fool? + Fool. Not i' th' stocks, fool. + + Enter Lear and Gloucester + + Lear. Deny to speak with me? They are sick? they are weary? + They have travell'd all the night? Mere fetches- + The images of revolt and flying off! + Fetch me a better answer. + Glou. My dear lord, + You know the fiery quality of the Duke, + How unremovable and fix'd he is + In his own course. + Lear. Vengeance! plague! death! confusion! + Fiery? What quality? Why, Gloucester, Gloucester, + I'ld speak with the Duke of Cornwall and his wife. + Glou. Well, my good lord, I have inform'd them so. + Lear. Inform'd them? Dost thou understand me, man? + Glou. Ay, my good lord. + Lear. The King would speak with Cornwall; the dear father + Would with his daughter speak, commands her service. + Are they inform'd of this? My breath and blood! + Fiery? the fiery Duke? Tell the hot Duke that- + No, but not yet! May be he is not well. + Infirmity doth still neglect all office + Whereto our health is bound. We are not ourselves + When nature, being oppress'd, commands the mind + To suffer with the body. I'll forbear; + And am fallen out with my more headier will, + To take the indispos'd and sickly fit + For the sound man.- Death on my state! Wherefore + Should be sit here? This act persuades me + That this remotion of the Duke and her + Is practice only. Give me my servant forth. + Go tell the Duke and 's wife I'ld speak with them- + Now, presently. Bid them come forth and hear me, + Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drum + Till it cry sleep to death. + Glou. I would have all well betwixt you. Exit. + Lear. O me, my heart, my rising heart! But down! + Fool. Cry to it, nuncle, as the cockney did to the eels when she + put 'em i' th' paste alive. She knapp'd 'em o' th' coxcombs with + a stick and cried 'Down, wantons, down!' 'Twas her brother that, + in pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay. + + Enter Cornwall, Regan, Gloucester, Servants. + + Lear. Good morrow to you both. + Corn. Hail to your Grace! + Kent here set at liberty. + Reg. I am glad to see your Highness. + Lear. Regan, I think you are; I know what reason + I have to think so. If thou shouldst not be glad, + I would divorce me from thy mother's tomb, + Sepulchring an adultress. [To Kent] O, are you free? + Some other time for that.- Beloved Regan, + Thy sister's naught. O Regan, she hath tied + Sharp-tooth'd unkindness, like a vulture, here! + [Lays his hand on his heart.] + I can scarce speak to thee. Thou'lt not believe + With how deprav'd a quality- O Regan! + Reg. I pray you, sir, take patience. I have hope + You less know how to value her desert + Than she to scant her duty. + Lear. Say, how is that? + Reg. I cannot think my sister in the least + Would fail her obligation. If, sir, perchance + She have restrain'd the riots of your followers, + 'Tis on such ground, and to such wholesome end, + As clears her from all blame. + Lear. My curses on her! + Reg. O, sir, you are old! + Nature in you stands on the very verge + Of her confine. You should be rul'd, and led + By some discretion that discerns your state + Better than you yourself. Therefore I pray you + That to our sister you do make return; + Say you have wrong'd her, sir. + Lear. Ask her forgiveness? + Do you but mark how this becomes the house: + 'Dear daughter, I confess that I am old. [Kneels.] + Age is unnecessary. On my knees I beg + That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food.' + Reg. Good sir, no more! These are unsightly tricks. + Return you to my sister. + Lear. [rises] Never, Regan! + She hath abated me of half my train; + Look'd black upon me; struck me with her tongue, + Most serpent-like, upon the very heart. + All the stor'd vengeances of heaven fall + On her ingrateful top! Strike her young bones, + You taking airs, with lameness! + Corn. Fie, sir, fie! + Lear. You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames + Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty, + You fen-suck'd fogs, drawn by the pow'rful sun, + To fall and blast her pride! + Reg. O the blest gods! so will you wish on me + When the rash mood is on. + Lear. No, Regan, thou shalt never have my curse. + Thy tender-hefted nature shall not give + Thee o'er to harshness. Her eyes are fierce; but thine + Do comfort, and not burn. 'Tis not in thee + To grudge my pleasures, to cut off my train, + To bandy hasty words, to scant my sizes, + And, in conclusion, to oppose the bolt + Against my coming in. Thou better know'st + The offices of nature, bond of childhood, + Effects of courtesy, dues of gratitude. + Thy half o' th' kingdom hast thou not forgot, + Wherein I thee endow'd. + Reg. Good sir, to th' purpose. + Tucket within. + Lear. Who put my man i' th' stocks? + Corn. What trumpet's that? + Reg. I know't- my sister's. This approves her letter, + That she would soon be here. + + Enter [Oswald the] Steward. + + Is your lady come? + Lear. This is a slave, whose easy-borrowed pride + Dwells in the fickle grace of her he follows. + Out, varlet, from my sight! + Corn. What means your Grace? + + Enter Goneril. + + Lear. Who stock'd my servant? Regan, I have good hope + Thou didst not know on't.- Who comes here? O heavens! + If you do love old men, if your sweet sway + Allow obedience- if yourselves are old, + Make it your cause! Send down, and take my part! + [To Goneril] Art not asham'd to look upon this beard?- + O Regan, wilt thou take her by the hand? + Gon. Why not by th' hand, sir? How have I offended? + All's not offence that indiscretion finds + And dotage terms so. + Lear. O sides, you are too tough! + Will you yet hold? How came my man i' th' stocks? + Corn. I set him there, sir; but his own disorders + Deserv'd much less advancement. + Lear. You? Did you? + Reg. I pray you, father, being weak, seem so. + If, till the expiration of your month, + You will return and sojourn with my sister, + Dismissing half your train, come then to me. + I am now from home, and out of that provision + Which shall be needful for your entertainment. + Lear. Return to her, and fifty men dismiss'd? + No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose + To wage against the enmity o' th' air, + To be a comrade with the wolf and owl- + Necessity's sharp pinch! Return with her? + Why, the hot-blooded France, that dowerless took + Our youngest born, I could as well be brought + To knee his throne, and, squire-like, pension beg + To keep base life afoot. Return with her? + Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter + To this detested groom. [Points at Oswald.] + Gon. At your choice, sir. + Lear. I prithee, daughter, do not make me mad. + I will not trouble thee, my child; farewell. + We'll no more meet, no more see one another. + But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter; + Or rather a disease that's in my flesh, + Which I must needs call mine. Thou art a boil, + A plague sore, an embossed carbuncle + In my corrupted blood. But I'll not chide thee. + Let shame come when it will, I do not call it. + I do not bid the Thunder-bearer shoot + Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove. + Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure; + I can be patient, I can stay with Regan, + I and my hundred knights. + Reg. Not altogether so. + I look'd not for you yet, nor am provided + For your fit welcome. Give ear, sir, to my sister; + For those that mingle reason with your passion + Must be content to think you old, and so- + But she knows what she does. + Lear. Is this well spoken? + Reg. I dare avouch it, sir. What, fifty followers? + Is it not well? What should you need of more? + Yea, or so many, sith that both charge and danger + Speak 'gainst so great a number? How in one house + Should many people, under two commands, + Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible. + Gon. Why might not you, my lord, receive attendance + From those that she calls servants, or from mine? + Reg. Why not, my lord? If then they chanc'd to slack ye, + We could control them. If you will come to me + (For now I spy a danger), I entreat you + To bring but five-and-twenty. To no more + Will I give place or notice. + Lear. I gave you all- + Reg. And in good time you gave it! + Lear. Made you my guardians, my depositaries; + But kept a reservation to be followed + With such a number. What, must I come to you + With five-and-twenty, Regan? Said you so? + Reg. And speak't again my lord. No more with me. + Lear. Those wicked creatures yet do look well-favour'd + When others are more wicked; not being the worst + Stands in some rank of praise. [To Goneril] I'll go with thee. + Thy fifty yet doth double five-and-twenty, + And thou art twice her love. + Gon. Hear, me, my lord. + What need you five-and-twenty, ten, or five, + To follow in a house where twice so many + Have a command to tend you? + Reg. What need one? + Lear. O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars + Are in the poorest thing superfluous. + Allow not nature more than nature needs, + Man's life is cheap as beast's. Thou art a lady: + If only to go warm were gorgeous, + Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st + Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need- + You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need! + You see me here, you gods, a poor old man, + As full of grief as age; wretched in both. + If it be you that stirs these daughters' hearts + Against their father, fool me not so much + To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger, + And let not women's weapons, water drops, + Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags! + I will have such revenges on you both + That all the world shall- I will do such things- + What they are yet, I know not; but they shall be + The terrors of the earth! You think I'll weep. + No, I'll not weep. + I have full cause of weeping, but this heart + Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws + Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad! + Exeunt Lear, Gloucester, Kent, and Fool. Storm and + tempest. + Corn. Let us withdraw; 'twill be a storm. + Reg. This house is little; the old man and 's people + Cannot be well bestow'd. + Gon. 'Tis his own blame; hath put himself from rest + And must needs taste his folly. + Reg. For his particular, I'll receive him gladly, + But not one follower. + Gon. So am I purpos'd. + Where is my Lord of Gloucester? + Corn. Followed the old man forth. + + Enter Gloucester. + + He is return'd. + Glou. The King is in high rage. + Corn. Whither is he going? + Glou. He calls to horse, but will I know not whither. + Corn. 'Tis best to give him way; he leads himself. + Gon. My lord, entreat him by no means to stay. + Glou. Alack, the night comes on, and the bleak winds + Do sorely ruffle. For many miles about + There's scarce a bush. + Reg. O, sir, to wilful men + The injuries that they themselves procure + Must be their schoolmasters. Shut up your doors. + He is attended with a desperate train, + And what they may incense him to, being apt + To have his ear abus'd, wisdom bids fear. + Corn. Shut up your doors, my lord: 'tis a wild night. + My Regan counsels well. Come out o' th' storm. [Exeunt.] + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. Scene I. +A heath. + +Storm still. Enter Kent and a Gentleman at several doors. + + Kent. Who's there, besides foul weather? + Gent. One minded like the weather, most unquietly. + Kent. I know you. Where's the King? + Gent. Contending with the fretful elements; + Bids the wind blow the earth into the sea, + Or swell the curled waters 'bove the main, + That things might change or cease; tears his white hair, + Which the impetuous blasts, with eyeless rage, + Catch in their fury and make nothing of; + Strives in his little world of man to outscorn + The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain. + This night, wherein the cub-drawn bear would couch, + The lion and the belly-pinched wolf + Keep their fur dry, unbonneted he runs, + And bids what will take all. + Kent. But who is with him? + Gent. None but the fool, who labours to outjest + His heart-struck injuries. + Kent. Sir, I do know you, + And dare upon the warrant of my note + Commend a dear thing to you. There is division + (Although as yet the face of it be cover'd + With mutual cunning) 'twixt Albany and Cornwall; + Who have (as who have not, that their great stars + Thron'd and set high?) servants, who seem no less, + Which are to France the spies and speculations + Intelligent of our state. What hath been seen, + Either in snuffs and packings of the Dukes, + Or the hard rein which both of them have borne + Against the old kind King, or something deeper, + Whereof, perchance, these are but furnishings- + But, true it is, from France there comes a power + Into this scattered kingdom, who already, + Wise in our negligence, have secret feet + In some of our best ports and are at point + To show their open banner. Now to you: + If on my credit you dare build so far + To make your speed to Dover, you shall find + Some that will thank you, making just report + Of how unnatural and bemadding sorrow + The King hath cause to plain. + I am a gentleman of blood and breeding, + And from some knowledge and assurance offer + This office to you. + Gent. I will talk further with you. + Kent. No, do not. + For confirmation that I am much more + Than my out-wall, open this purse and take + What it contains. If you shall see Cordelia + (As fear not but you shall), show her this ring, + And she will tell you who your fellow is + That yet you do not know. Fie on this storm! + I will go seek the King. + Gent. Give me your hand. Have you no more to say? + Kent. Few words, but, to effect, more than all yet: + That, when we have found the King (in which your pain + That way, I'll this), he that first lights on him + Holla the other. + Exeunt [severally]. + + + + +Scene II. +Another part of the heath. + +Storm still. Enter Lear and Fool. + + Lear. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! + You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout + Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks! + You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires, + Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, + Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, + Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world, + Crack Nature's moulds, all germains spill at once, + That makes ingrateful man! + Fool. O nuncle, court holy water in a dry house is better than this + rain water out o' door. Good nuncle, in, and ask thy daughters + blessing! Here's a night pities nether wise men nor fools. + Lear. Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! spout, rain! + Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters. + I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness. + I never gave you kingdom, call'd you children, + You owe me no subscription. Then let fall + Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand your slave, + A poor, infirm, weak, and despis'd old man. + But yet I call you servile ministers, + That will with two pernicious daughters join + Your high-engender'd battles 'gainst a head + So old and white as this! O! O! 'tis foul! + Fool. He that has a house to put 's head in has a good head-piece. + The codpiece that will house + Before the head has any, + The head and he shall louse: + So beggars marry many. + The man that makes his toe + What he his heart should make + Shall of a corn cry woe, + And turn his sleep to wake. + For there was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a + glass. + + Enter Kent. + + Lear. No, I will be the pattern of all patience; + I will say nothing. + Kent. Who's there? + Fool. Marry, here's grace and a codpiece; that's a wise man and a + fool. + Kent. Alas, sir, are you here? Things that love night + Love not such nights as these. The wrathful skies + Gallow the very wanderers of the dark + And make them keep their caves. Since I was man, + Such sheets of fire, such bursts of horrid thunder, + Such groans of roaring wind and rain, I never + Remember to have heard. Man's nature cannot carry + Th' affliction nor the fear. + Lear. Let the great gods, + That keep this dreadful pudder o'er our heads, + Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, + That hast within thee undivulged crimes + Unwhipp'd of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand; + Thou perjur'd, and thou simular man of virtue + That art incestuous. Caitiff, in pieces shake + That under covert and convenient seeming + Hast practis'd on man's life. Close pent-up guilts, + Rive your concealing continents, and cry + These dreadful summoners grace. I am a man + More sinn'd against than sinning. + Kent. Alack, bareheaded? + Gracious my lord, hard by here is a hovel; + Some friendship will it lend you 'gainst the tempest. + Repose you there, whilst I to this hard house + (More harder than the stones whereof 'tis rais'd, + Which even but now, demanding after you, + Denied me to come in) return, and force + Their scanted courtesy. + Lear. My wits begin to turn. + Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? + I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow? + The art of our necessities is strange, + That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel. + Poor fool and knave, I have one part in my heart + That's sorry yet for thee. + Fool. [sings] + + He that has and a little tiny wit- + With hey, ho, the wind and the rain- + Must make content with his fortunes fit, + For the rain it raineth every day. + + Lear. True, my good boy. Come, bring us to this hovel. + Exeunt [Lear and Kent]. + Fool. This is a brave night to cool a courtesan. I'll speak a + prophecy ere I go: + When priests are more in word than matter; + When brewers mar their malt with water; + When nobles are their tailors' tutors, + No heretics burn'd, but wenches' suitors; + When every case in law is right, + No squire in debt nor no poor knight; + When slanders do not live in tongues, + Nor cutpurses come not to throngs; + When usurers tell their gold i' th' field, + And bawds and whores do churches build: + Then shall the realm of Albion + Come to great confusion. + Then comes the time, who lives to see't, + That going shall be us'd with feet. + This prophecy Merlin shall make, for I live before his time. +Exit. + + + + +Scene III. +Gloucester's Castle. + +Enter Gloucester and Edmund. + + Glou. Alack, alack, Edmund, I like not this unnatural dealing! When + I desir'd their leave that I might pity him, they took from me + the use of mine own house, charg'd me on pain of perpetual + displeasure neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any + way sustain him. + Edm. Most savage and unnatural! + Glou. Go to; say you nothing. There is division betwixt the Dukes, + and a worse matter than that. I have received a letter this + night- 'tis dangerous to be spoken- I have lock'd the letter in + my closet. These injuries the King now bears will be revenged + home; there's part of a power already footed; we must incline to + the King. I will seek him and privily relieve him. Go you and + maintain talk with the Duke, that my charity be not of him + perceived. If he ask for me, I am ill and gone to bed. Though I + die for't, as no less is threat'ned me, the King my old master + must be relieved. There is some strange thing toward, Edmund. + Pray you be careful. Exit. + Edm. This courtesy, forbid thee, shall the Duke + Instantly know, and of that letter too. + This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me + That which my father loses- no less than all. + The younger rises when the old doth fall. Exit. + + + + +Scene IV. +The heath. Before a hovel. + +Storm still. Enter Lear, Kent, and Fool. + + Kent. Here is the place, my lord. Good my lord, enter. + The tyranny of the open night 's too rough + For nature to endure. + Lear. Let me alone. + Kent. Good my lord, enter here. + Lear. Wilt break my heart? + Kent. I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter. + Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm + Invades us to the skin. So 'tis to thee; + But where the greater malady is fix'd, + The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'dst shun a bear; + But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea, + Thou'dst meet the bear i' th' mouth. When the mind's free, + The body's delicate. The tempest in my mind + Doth from my senses take all feeling else + Save what beats there. Filial ingratitude! + Is it not as this mouth should tear this hand + For lifting food to't? But I will punish home! + No, I will weep no more. In such a night + 'To shut me out! Pour on; I will endure. + In such a night as this! O Regan, Goneril! + Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all! + O, that way madness lies; let me shun that! + No more of that. + Kent. Good my lord, enter here. + Lear. Prithee go in thyself; seek thine own ease. + This tempest will not give me leave to ponder + On things would hurt me more. But I'll go in. + [To the Fool] In, boy; go first.- You houseless poverty- + Nay, get thee in. I'll pray, and then I'll sleep. + Exit [Fool]. + Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are, + That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, + How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, + Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you + From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en + Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp; + Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, + That thou mayst shake the superflux to them + And show the heavens more just. + Edg. [within] Fathom and half, fathom and half! Poor Tom! + + Enter Fool [from the hovel]. + + Fool. Come not in here, nuncle, here's a spirit. Help me, help me! + Kent. Give me thy hand. Who's there? + Fool. A spirit, a spirit! He says his name's poor Tom. + Kent. What art thou that dost grumble there i' th' straw? + Come forth. + + Enter Edgar [disguised as a madman]. + + Edg. Away! the foul fiend follows me! Through the sharp hawthorn + blows the cold wind. Humh! go to thy cold bed, and warm thee. + Lear. Hast thou given all to thy two daughters, and art thou come + to this? + Edg. Who gives anything to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led + through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, o'er + bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow and + halters in his pew, set ratsbane by his porridge, made him proud + of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horse over four-inch'd + bridges, to course his own shadow for a traitor. Bless thy five + wits! Tom 's acold. O, do de, do de, do de. Bless thee from + whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, + whom the foul fiend vexes. There could I have him now- and there- + and there again- and there! + Storm still. + Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass? + Couldst thou save nothing? Didst thou give 'em all? + Fool. Nay, he reserv'd a blanket, else we had been all sham'd. + Lear. Now all the plagues that in the pendulous air + Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters! + Kent. He hath no daughters, sir. + Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu'd nature + To such a lowness but his unkind daughters. + Is it the fashion that discarded fathers + Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? + Judicious punishment! 'Twas this flesh begot + Those pelican daughters. + Edg. Pillicock sat on Pillicock's Hill. 'Allow, 'allow, loo, loo! + Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. + Edg. Take heed o' th' foul fiend; obey thy parents: keep thy word + justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not + thy sweet heart on proud array. Tom 's acold. + Lear. What hast thou been? + Edg. A servingman, proud in heart and mind; that curl'd my hair, + wore gloves in my cap; serv'd the lust of my mistress' heart and + did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake + words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven; one that + slept in the contriving of lust, and wak'd to do it. Wine lov'd + I deeply, dice dearly; and in woman out-paramour'd the Turk. + False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox + in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey. + Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray + thy poor heart to woman. Keep thy foot out of brothel, thy hand + out of placket, thy pen from lender's book, and defy the foul + fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind; says + suum, mun, hey, no, nonny. Dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa! let + him trot by. + Storm still. + Lear. Why, thou wert better in thy grave than to answer with thy + uncover'd body this extremity of the skies. Is man no more than + this? Consider him well. Thou ow'st the worm no silk, the beast + no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume. Ha! Here's three + on's are sophisticated! Thou art the thing itself; + unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked + animal as thou art. Off, off, you lendings! Come, unbutton + here. + [Tears at his clothes.] + Fool. Prithee, nuncle, be contented! 'Tis a naughty night to swim + in. Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's + heart- a small spark, all the rest on's body cold. Look, here + comes a walking fire. + + Enter Gloucester with a torch. + + Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet. He begins at curfew, + and walks till the first cock. He gives the web and the pin, + squints the eye, and makes the harelip; mildews the white wheat, + and hurts the poor creature of earth. + + Saint Withold footed thrice the 'old; + He met the nightmare, and her nine fold; + Bid her alight + And her troth plight, + And aroint thee, witch, aroint thee! + + Kent. How fares your Grace? + Lear. What's he? + Kent. Who's there? What is't you seek? + Glou. What are you there? Your names? + Edg. Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole, + the wall-newt and the water; that in the fury of his heart, when + the foul fiend rages, eats cow-dung for sallets, swallows the + old rat and the ditch-dog, drinks the green mantle of the + standing pool; who is whipp'd from tithing to tithing, and + stock-punish'd and imprison'd; who hath had three suits to his + back, six shirts to his body, horse to ride, and weapons to + wear; + + But mice and rats, and such small deer, + Have been Tom's food for seven long year. + + Beware my follower. Peace, Smulkin! peace, thou fiend! + Glou. What, hath your Grace no better company? + Edg. The prince of darkness is a gentleman! + Modo he's call'd, and Mahu. + Glou. Our flesh and blood is grown so vile, my lord, + That it doth hate what gets it. + Edg. Poor Tom 's acold. + Glou. Go in with me. My duty cannot suffer + T' obey in all your daughters' hard commands. + Though their injunction be to bar my doors + And let this tyrannous night take hold upon you, + Yet have I ventur'd to come seek you out + And bring you where both fire and food is ready. + Lear. First let me talk with this philosopher. + What is the cause of thunder? + Kent. Good my lord, take his offer; go into th' house. + Lear. I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban. + What is your study? + Edg. How to prevent the fiend and to kill vermin. + Lear. Let me ask you one word in private. + Kent. Importune him once more to go, my lord. + His wits begin t' unsettle. + Glou. Canst thou blame him? + Storm still. + His daughters seek his death. Ah, that good Kent! + He said it would be thus- poor banish'd man! + Thou say'st the King grows mad: I'll tell thee, friend, + I am almost mad myself. I had a son, + Now outlaw'd from my blood. He sought my life + But lately, very late. I lov'd him, friend- + No father his son dearer. True to tell thee, + The grief hath craz'd my wits. What a night 's this! + I do beseech your Grace- + Lear. O, cry you mercy, sir. + Noble philosopher, your company. + Edg. Tom's acold. + Glou. In, fellow, there, into th' hovel; keep thee warm. + Lear. Come, let's in all. + Kent. This way, my lord. + Lear. With him! + I will keep still with my philosopher. + Kent. Good my lord, soothe him; let him take the fellow. + Glou. Take him you on. + Kent. Sirrah, come on; go along with us. + Lear. Come, good Athenian. + Glou. No words, no words! hush. + Edg. Child Rowland to the dark tower came; + His word was still + + Fie, foh, and fum! + I smell the blood of a British man. + Exeunt. + +Scene V. +Gloucester's Castle. + +Enter Cornwall and Edmund. + + Corn. I will have my revenge ere I depart his house. + Edm. How, my lord, I may be censured, that nature thus gives way to + loyalty, something fears me to think of. + Corn. I now perceive it was not altogether your brother's evil + disposition made him seek his death; but a provoking merit, set + awork by a reproveable badness in himself. + Edm. How malicious is my fortune that I must repent to be just! + This is the letter he spoke of, which approves him an + intelligent party to the advantages of France. O heavens! that + this treason were not- or not I the detector! + Corn. Go with me to the Duchess. + Edm. If the matter of this paper be certain, you have mighty + business in hand. + Corn. True or false, it hath made thee Earl of Gloucester. + Seek out where thy father is, that he may be ready for our + apprehension. + Edm. [aside] If I find him comforting the King, it will stuff his + suspicion more fully.- I will persever in my course of loyalty, + though the conflict be sore between that and my blood. + Corn. I will lay trust upon thee, and thou shalt find a dearer + father in my love. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene VI. +A farmhouse near Gloucester's Castle. + +Enter Gloucester, Lear, Kent, Fool, and Edgar. + + Glou. Here is better than the open air; take it thankfully. I will + piece out the comfort with what addition I can. I will not be + long from you. + Kent. All the power of his wits have given way to his impatience. + The gods reward your kindness! + Exit [Gloucester]. + Edg. Frateretto calls me, and tells me Nero is an angler in the + lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend. + Fool. Prithee, nuncle, tell me whether a madman be a gentleman or a + yeoman. + Lear. A king, a king! + Fool. No, he's a yeoman that has a gentleman to his son; for he's a + mad yeoman that sees his son a gentleman before him. + Lear. To have a thousand with red burning spits + Come hizzing in upon 'em- + Edg. The foul fiend bites my back. + Fool. He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse's + health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath. + Lear. It shall be done; I will arraign them straight. + [To Edgar] Come, sit thou here, most learned justicer. + [To the Fool] Thou, sapient sir, sit here. Now, you she-foxes! + Edg. Look, where he stands and glares! Want'st thou eyes at trial, + madam? + + Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me. + + Fool. Her boat hath a leak, + And she must not speak + Why she dares not come over to thee. + + Edg. The foul fiend haunts poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale. + Hoppedance cries in Tom's belly for two white herring. Croak + not, black angel; I have no food for thee. + Kent. How do you, sir? Stand you not so amaz'd. + Will you lie down and rest upon the cushions? + Lear. I'll see their trial first. Bring in their evidence. + [To Edgar] Thou, robed man of justice, take thy place. + [To the Fool] And thou, his yokefellow of equity, + Bench by his side. [To Kent] You are o' th' commission, + Sit you too. + Edg. Let us deal justly. + + Sleepest or wakest thou, jolly shepherd? + Thy sheep be in the corn; + And for one blast of thy minikin mouth + Thy sheep shall take no harm. + + Purr! the cat is gray. + Lear. Arraign her first. 'Tis Goneril. I here take my oath before + this honourable assembly, she kicked the poor King her father. + Fool. Come hither, mistress. Is your name Goneril? + Lear. She cannot deny it. + Fool. Cry you mercy, I took you for a joint-stool. + Lear. And here's another, whose warp'd looks proclaim + What store her heart is made on. Stop her there! + Arms, arms! sword! fire! Corruption in the place! + False justicer, why hast thou let her scape? + Edg. Bless thy five wits! + Kent. O pity! Sir, where is the patience now + That you so oft have boasted to retain? + Edg. [aside] My tears begin to take his part so much + They'll mar my counterfeiting. + Lear. The little dogs and all, + Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me. + Edg. Tom will throw his head at them. Avaunt, you curs! + Be thy mouth or black or white, + Tooth that poisons if it bite; + Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim, + Hound or spaniel, brach or lym, + Bobtail tyke or trundle-tall- + Tom will make them weep and wail; + For, with throwing thus my head, + Dogs leap the hatch, and all are fled. + Do de, de, de. Sessa! Come, march to wakes and fairs and market + towns. Poor Tom, thy horn is dry. + Lear. Then let them anatomize Regan. See what breeds about her + heart. Is there any cause in nature that makes these hard + hearts? [To Edgar] You, sir- I entertain you for one of my + hundred; only I do not like the fashion of your garments. You'll + say they are Persian attire; but let them be chang'd. + Kent. Now, good my lord, lie here and rest awhile. + Lear. Make no noise, make no noise; draw the curtains. + So, so, so. We'll go to supper i' th' morning. So, so, so. + Fool. And I'll go to bed at noon. + + Enter Gloucester. + + Glou. Come hither, friend. Where is the King my master? + Kent. Here, sir; but trouble him not; his wits are gone. + Glou. Good friend, I prithee take him in thy arms. + I have o'erheard a plot of death upon him. + There is a litter ready; lay him in't + And drive towards Dover, friend, where thou shalt meet + Both welcome and protection. Take up thy master. + If thou shouldst dally half an hour, his life, + With thine, and all that offer to defend him, + Stand in assured loss. Take up, take up! + And follow me, that will to some provision + Give thee quick conduct. + Kent. Oppressed nature sleeps. + This rest might yet have balm'd thy broken senses, + Which, if convenience will not allow, + Stand in hard cure. [To the Fool] Come, help to bear thy master. + Thou must not stay behind. + Glou. Come, come, away! + Exeunt [all but Edgar]. + Edg. When we our betters see bearing our woes, + We scarcely think our miseries our foes. + Who alone suffers suffers most i' th' mind, + Leaving free things and happy shows behind; + But then the mind much sufferance doth o'erskip + When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship. + How light and portable my pain seems now, + When that which makes me bend makes the King bow, + He childed as I fathered! Tom, away! + Mark the high noises, and thyself bewray + When false opinion, whose wrong thought defiles thee, + In thy just proof repeals and reconciles thee. + What will hap more to-night, safe scape the King! + Lurk, lurk. [Exit.] + + + + +Scene VII. +Gloucester's Castle. + +Enter Cornwall, Regan, Goneril, [Edmund the] Bastard, and Servants. + + Corn. [to Goneril] Post speedily to my lord your husband, show him + this letter. The army of France is landed.- Seek out the traitor + Gloucester. + [Exeunt some of the Servants.] + Reg. Hang him instantly. + Gon. Pluck out his eyes. + Corn. Leave him to my displeasure. Edmund, keep you our sister + company. The revenges we are bound to take upon your traitorous + father are not fit for your beholding. Advise the Duke where you + are going, to a most festinate preparation. We are bound to the + like. Our posts shall be swift and intelligent betwixt us. + Farewell, dear sister; farewell, my Lord of Gloucester. + + Enter [Oswald the] Steward. + + How now? Where's the King? + Osw. My Lord of Gloucester hath convey'd him hence. + Some five or six and thirty of his knights, + Hot questrists after him, met him at gate; + Who, with some other of the lord's dependants, + Are gone with him towards Dover, where they boast + To have well-armed friends. + Corn. Get horses for your mistress. + Gon. Farewell, sweet lord, and sister. + Corn. Edmund, farewell. + Exeunt Goneril, [Edmund, and Oswald]. + Go seek the traitor Gloucester, + Pinion him like a thief, bring him before us. + [Exeunt other Servants.] + Though well we may not pass upon his life + Without the form of justice, yet our power + Shall do a court'sy to our wrath, which men + May blame, but not control. + + Enter Gloucester, brought in by two or three. + + Who's there? the traitor? + Reg. Ingrateful fox! 'tis he. + Corn. Bind fast his corky arms. + Glou. What mean, your Graces? Good my friends, consider + You are my guests. Do me no foul play, friends. + Corn. Bind him, I say. + [Servants bind him.] + Reg. Hard, hard. O filthy traitor! + Glou. Unmerciful lady as you are, I am none. + Corn. To this chair bind him. Villain, thou shalt find- + [Regan plucks his beard.] + Glou. By the kind gods, 'tis most ignobly done + To pluck me by the beard. + Reg. So white, and such a traitor! + Glou. Naughty lady, + These hairs which thou dost ravish from my chin + Will quicken, and accuse thee. I am your host. + With robber's hands my hospitable favours + You should not ruffle thus. What will you do? + Corn. Come, sir, what letters had you late from France? + Reg. Be simple-answer'd, for we know the truth. + Corn. And what confederacy have you with the traitors + Late footed in the kingdom? + Reg. To whose hands have you sent the lunatic King? + Speak. + Glou. I have a letter guessingly set down, + Which came from one that's of a neutral heart, + And not from one oppos'd. + Corn. Cunning. + Reg. And false. + Corn. Where hast thou sent the King? + Glou. To Dover. + Reg. Wherefore to Dover? Wast thou not charg'd at peril- + Corn. Wherefore to Dover? Let him first answer that. + Glou. I am tied to th' stake, and I must stand the course. + Reg. Wherefore to Dover, sir? + Glou. Because I would not see thy cruel nails + Pluck out his poor old eyes; nor thy fierce sister + In his anointed flesh stick boarish fangs. + The sea, with such a storm as his bare head + In hell-black night endur'd, would have buoy'd up + And quench'd the steeled fires. + Yet, poor old heart, he holp the heavens to rain. + If wolves had at thy gate howl'd that stern time, + Thou shouldst have said, 'Good porter, turn the key.' + All cruels else subscrib'd. But I shall see + The winged vengeance overtake such children. + Corn. See't shalt thou never. Fellows, hold the chair. + Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot. + Glou. He that will think to live till he be old, + Give me some help!- O cruel! O ye gods! + Reg. One side will mock another. Th' other too! + Corn. If you see vengeance- + 1. Serv. Hold your hand, my lord! + I have serv'd you ever since I was a child; + But better service have I never done you + Than now to bid you hold. + Reg. How now, you dog? + 1. Serv. If you did wear a beard upon your chin, + I'ld shake it on this quarrel. + Reg. What do you mean? + Corn. My villain! Draw and fight. + 1. Serv. Nay, then, come on, and take the chance of anger. + Reg. Give me thy sword. A peasant stand up thus? + She takes a sword and runs at him behind. + 1. Serv. O, I am slain! My lord, you have one eye left + To see some mischief on him. O! He dies. + Corn. Lest it see more, prevent it. Out, vile jelly! + Where is thy lustre now? + Glou. All dark and comfortless! Where's my son Edmund? + Edmund, enkindle all the sparks of nature + To quit this horrid act. + Reg. Out, treacherous villain! + Thou call'st on him that hates thee. It was he + That made the overture of thy treasons to us; + Who is too good to pity thee. + Glou. O my follies! Then Edgar was abus'd. + Kind gods, forgive me that, and prosper him! + Reg. Go thrust him out at gates, and let him smell + His way to Dover. + Exit [one] with Gloucester. + How is't, my lord? How look you? + Corn. I have receiv'd a hurt. Follow me, lady. + Turn out that eyeless villain. Throw this slave + Upon the dunghill. Regan, I bleed apace. + Untimely comes this hurt. Give me your arm. + Exit [Cornwall, led by Regan]. + 2. Serv. I'll never care what wickedness I do, + If this man come to good. + 3. Serv. If she live long, + And in the end meet the old course of death, + Women will all turn monsters. + 2. Serv. Let's follow the old Earl, and get the bedlam + To lead him where he would. His roguish madness + Allows itself to anything. + 3. Serv. Go thou. I'll fetch some flax and whites of eggs + To apply to his bleeding face. Now heaven help him! + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. Scene I. +The heath. + +Enter Edgar. + + Edg. Yet better thus, and known to be contemn'd, + Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst, + The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune, + Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear. + The lamentable change is from the best; + The worst returns to laughter. Welcome then, + Thou unsubstantial air that I embrace! + The wretch that thou hast blown unto the worst + Owes nothing to thy blasts. + + Enter Gloucester, led by an Old Man. + + But who comes here? + My father, poorly led? World, world, O world! + But that thy strange mutations make us hate thee, + Life would not yield to age. + Old Man. O my good lord, + I have been your tenant, and your father's tenant, + These fourscore years. + Glou. Away, get thee away! Good friend, be gone. + Thy comforts can do me no good at all; + Thee they may hurt. + Old Man. You cannot see your way. + Glou. I have no way, and therefore want no eyes; + I stumbled when I saw. Full oft 'tis seen + Our means secure us, and our mere defects + Prove our commodities. Ah dear son Edgar, + The food of thy abused father's wrath! + Might I but live to see thee in my touch, + I'ld say I had eyes again! + Old Man. How now? Who's there? + Edg. [aside] O gods! Who is't can say 'I am at the worst'? + I am worse than e'er I was. + Old Man. 'Tis poor mad Tom. + Edg. [aside] And worse I may be yet. The worst is not + So long as we can say 'This is the worst.' + Old Man. Fellow, where goest? + Glou. Is it a beggarman? + Old Man. Madman and beggar too. + Glou. He has some reason, else he could not beg. + I' th' last night's storm I such a fellow saw, + Which made me think a man a worm. My son + Came then into my mind, and yet my mind + Was then scarce friends with him. I have heard more since. + As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods. + They kill us for their sport. + Edg. [aside] How should this be? + Bad is the trade that must play fool to sorrow, + Ang'ring itself and others.- Bless thee, master! + Glou. Is that the naked fellow? + Old Man. Ay, my lord. + Glou. Then prithee get thee gone. If for my sake + Thou wilt o'ertake us hence a mile or twain + I' th' way toward Dover, do it for ancient love; + And bring some covering for this naked soul, + Who I'll entreat to lead me. + Old Man. Alack, sir, he is mad! + Glou. 'Tis the time's plague when madmen lead the blind. + Do as I bid thee, or rather do thy pleasure. + Above the rest, be gone. + Old Man. I'll bring him the best 'parel that I have, + Come on't what will. Exit. + Glou. Sirrah naked fellow- + Edg. Poor Tom's acold. [Aside] I cannot daub it further. + Glou. Come hither, fellow. + Edg. [aside] And yet I must.- Bless thy sweet eyes, they bleed. + Glou. Know'st thou the way to Dover? + Edg. Both stile and gate, horseway and footpath. Poor Tom hath been + scar'd out of his good wits. Bless thee, good man's son, from + the foul fiend! Five fiends have been in poor Tom at once: of + lust, as Obidicut; Hobbididence, prince of dumbness; Mahu, of + stealing; Modo, of murder; Flibbertigibbet, of mopping and + mowing, who since possesses chambermaids and waiting women. So, + bless thee, master! + Glou. Here, take this Purse, thou whom the heavens' plagues + Have humbled to all strokes. That I am wretched + Makes thee the happier. Heavens, deal so still! + Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man, + That slaves your ordinance, that will not see + Because he does not feel, feel your pow'r quickly; + So distribution should undo excess, + And each man have enough. Dost thou know Dover? + Edg. Ay, master. + Glou. There is a cliff, whose high and bending head + Looks fearfully in the confined deep. + Bring me but to the very brim of it, + And I'll repair the misery thou dost bear + With something rich about me. From that place + I shall no leading need. + Edg. Give me thy arm. + Poor Tom shall lead thee. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +Before the Duke of Albany's Palace. + +Enter Goneril and [Edmund the] Bastard. + + Gon. Welcome, my lord. I marvel our mild husband + Not met us on the way. + + Enter [Oswald the] Steward. + + Now, where's your master? + Osw. Madam, within, but never man so chang'd. + I told him of the army that was landed: + He smil'd at it. I told him you were coming: + His answer was, 'The worse.' Of Gloucester's treachery + And of the loyal service of his son + When I inform'd him, then he call'd me sot + And told me I had turn'd the wrong side out. + What most he should dislike seems pleasant to him; + What like, offensive. + Gon. [to Edmund] Then shall you go no further. + It is the cowish terror of his spirit, + That dares not undertake. He'll not feel wrongs + Which tie him to an answer. Our wishes on the way + May prove effects. Back, Edmund, to my brother. + Hasten his musters and conduct his pow'rs. + I must change arms at home and give the distaff + Into my husband's hands. This trusty servant + Shall pass between us. Ere long you are like to hear + (If you dare venture in your own behalf) + A mistress's command. Wear this. [Gives a favour.] + Spare speech. + Decline your head. This kiss, if it durst speak, + Would stretch thy spirits up into the air. + Conceive, and fare thee well. + Edm. Yours in the ranks of death! Exit. + Gon. My most dear Gloucester! + O, the difference of man and man! + To thee a woman's services are due; + My fool usurps my body. + Osw. Madam, here comes my lord. Exit. + + Enter Albany. + + Gon. I have been worth the whistle. + Alb. O Goneril, + You are not worth the dust which the rude wind + Blows in your face! I fear your disposition. + That nature which contemns it origin + Cannot be bordered certain in itself. + She that herself will sliver and disbranch + From her material sap, perforce must wither + And come to deadly use. + Gon. No more! The text is foolish. + Alb. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile; + Filths savour but themselves. What have you done? + Tigers, not daughters, what have you perform'd? + A father, and a gracious aged man, + Whose reverence even the head-lugg'd bear would lick, + Most barbarous, most degenerate, have you madded. + Could my good brother suffer you to do it? + A man, a prince, by him so benefited! + If that the heavens do not their visible spirits + Send quickly down to tame these vile offences, + It will come, + Humanity must perforce prey on itself, + Like monsters of the deep. + Gon. Milk-liver'd man! + That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs; + Who hast not in thy brows an eye discerning + Thine honour from thy suffering; that not know'st + Fools do those villains pity who are punish'd + Ere they have done their mischief. Where's thy drum? + France spreads his banners in our noiseless land, + With plumed helm thy state begins to threat, + Whiles thou, a moral fool, sit'st still, and criest + 'Alack, why does he so?' + Alb. See thyself, devil! + Proper deformity seems not in the fiend + So horrid as in woman. + Gon. O vain fool! + Alb. Thou changed and self-cover'd thing, for shame! + Bemonster not thy feature! Were't my fitness + To let these hands obey my blood, + They are apt enough to dislocate and tear + Thy flesh and bones. Howe'er thou art a fiend, + A woman's shape doth shield thee. + Gon. Marry, your manhood mew! + + Enter a Gentleman. + + Alb. What news? + Gent. O, my good lord, the Duke of Cornwall 's dead, + Slain by his servant, going to put out + The other eye of Gloucester. + Alb. Gloucester's eyes? + Gent. A servant that he bred, thrill'd with remorse, + Oppos'd against the act, bending his sword + To his great master; who, thereat enrag'd, + Flew on him, and amongst them fell'd him dead; + But not without that harmful stroke which since + Hath pluck'd him after. + Alb. This shows you are above, + You justicers, that these our nether crimes + So speedily can venge! But O poor Gloucester! + Lose he his other eye? + Gent. Both, both, my lord. + This letter, madam, craves a speedy answer. + 'Tis from your sister. + Gon. [aside] One way I like this well; + But being widow, and my Gloucester with her, + May all the building in my fancy pluck + Upon my hateful life. Another way + The news is not so tart.- I'll read, and answer. +Exit. + Alb. Where was his son when they did take his eyes? + Gent. Come with my lady hither. + Alb. He is not here. + Gent. No, my good lord; I met him back again. + Alb. Knows he the wickedness? + Gent. Ay, my good lord. 'Twas he inform'd against him, + And quit the house on purpose, that their punishment + Might have the freer course. + Alb. Gloucester, I live + To thank thee for the love thou show'dst the King, + And to revenge thine eyes. Come hither, friend. + Tell me what more thou know'st. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene III. +The French camp near Dover. + +Enter Kent and a Gentleman. + + Kent. Why the King of France is so suddenly gone back know you the + reason? + Gent. Something he left imperfect in the state, which since his + coming forth is thought of, which imports to the kingdom so much + fear and danger that his personal return was most required and + necessary. + Kent. Who hath he left behind him general? + Gent. The Marshal of France, Monsieur La Far. + Kent. Did your letters pierce the Queen to any demonstration of + grief? + Gent. Ay, sir. She took them, read them in my presence, + And now and then an ample tear trill'd down + Her delicate cheek. It seem'd she was a queen + Over her passion, who, most rebel-like, + Sought to be king o'er her. + Kent. O, then it mov'd her? + Gent. Not to a rage. Patience and sorrow strove + Who should express her goodliest. You have seen + Sunshine and rain at once: her smiles and tears + Were like, a better way. Those happy smilets + That play'd on her ripe lip seem'd not to know + What guests were in her eyes, which parted thence + As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. In brief, + Sorrow would be a rarity most belov'd, + If all could so become it. + Kent. Made she no verbal question? + Gent. Faith, once or twice she heav'd the name of father + Pantingly forth, as if it press'd her heart; + Cried 'Sisters, sisters! Shame of ladies! Sisters! + Kent! father! sisters! What, i' th' storm? i' th' night? + Let pity not be believ'd!' There she shook + The holy water from her heavenly eyes, + And clamour moisten'd. Then away she started + To deal with grief alone. + Kent. It is the stars, + The stars above us, govern our conditions; + Else one self mate and mate could not beget + Such different issues. You spoke not with her since? + Gent. No. + Kent. Was this before the King return'd? + Gent. No, since. + Kent. Well, sir, the poor distressed Lear's i' th' town; + Who sometime, in his better tune, remembers + What we are come about, and by no means + Will yield to see his daughter. + Gent. Why, good sir? + Kent. A sovereign shame so elbows him; his own unkindness, + That stripp'd her from his benediction, turn'd her + To foreign casualties, gave her dear rights + To his dog-hearted daughters- these things sting + His mind so venomously that burning shame + Detains him from Cordelia. + Gent. Alack, poor gentleman! + Kent. Of Albany's and Cornwall's powers you heard not? + Gent. 'Tis so; they are afoot. + Kent. Well, sir, I'll bring you to our master Lear + And leave you to attend him. Some dear cause + Will in concealment wrap me up awhile. + When I am known aright, you shall not grieve + Lending me this acquaintance. I pray you go + Along with me. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene IV. +The French camp. + +Enter, with Drum and Colours, Cordelia, Doctor, and Soldiers. + + Cor. Alack, 'tis he! Why, he was met even now + As mad as the vex'd sea, singing aloud, + Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow weeds, + With hardocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo flow'rs, + Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow + In our sustaining corn. A century send forth. + Search every acre in the high-grown field + And bring him to our eye. [Exit an Officer.] What can man's + wisdom + In the restoring his bereaved sense? + He that helps him take all my outward worth. + Doct. There is means, madam. + Our foster nurse of nature is repose, + The which he lacks. That to provoke in him + Are many simples operative, whose power + Will close the eye of anguish. + Cor. All blest secrets, + All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth, + Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate + In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him! + Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life + That wants the means to lead it. + + Enter Messenger. + + Mess. News, madam. + The British pow'rs are marching hitherward. + Cor. 'Tis known before. Our preparation stands + In expectation of them. O dear father, + It is thy business that I go about. + Therefore great France + My mourning and important tears hath pitied. + No blown ambition doth our arms incite, + But love, dear love, and our ag'd father's right. + Soon may I hear and see him! + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene V. +Gloucester's Castle. + +Enter Regan and [Oswald the] Steward. + + Reg. But are my brother's pow'rs set forth? + Osw. Ay, madam. + Reg. Himself in person there? + Osw. Madam, with much ado. + Your sister is the better soldier. + Reg. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home? + Osw. No, madam. + Reg. What might import my sister's letter to him? + Osw. I know not, lady. + Reg. Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter. + It was great ignorance, Gloucester's eyes being out, + To let him live. Where he arrives he moves + All hearts against us. Edmund, I think, is gone, + In pity of his misery, to dispatch + His nighted life; moreover, to descry + The strength o' th' enemy. + Osw. I must needs after him, madam, with my letter. + Reg. Our troops set forth to-morrow. Stay with us. + The ways are dangerous. + Osw. I may not, madam. + My lady charg'd my duty in this business. + Reg. Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you + Transport her purposes by word? Belike, + Something- I know not what- I'll love thee much- + Let me unseal the letter. + Osw. Madam, I had rather- + Reg. I know your lady does not love her husband; + I am sure of that; and at her late being here + She gave strange eliads and most speaking looks + To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom. + Osw. I, madam? + Reg. I speak in understanding. Y'are! I know't. + Therefore I do advise you take this note. + My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd, + And more convenient is he for my hand + Than for your lady's. You may gather more. + If you do find him, pray you give him this; + And when your mistress hears thus much from you, + I pray desire her call her wisdom to her. + So farewell. + If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor, + Preferment falls on him that cuts him off. + Osw. Would I could meet him, madam! I should show + What party I do follow. + Reg. Fare thee well. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene VI. +The country near Dover. + +Enter Gloucester, and Edgar [like a Peasant]. + + Glou. When shall I come to th' top of that same hill? + Edg. You do climb up it now. Look how we labour. + Glou. Methinks the ground is even. + Edg. Horrible steep. + Hark, do you hear the sea? + Glou. No, truly. + Edg. Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect + By your eyes' anguish. + Glou. So may it be indeed. + Methinks thy voice is alter'd, and thou speak'st + In better phrase and matter than thou didst. + Edg. Y'are much deceiv'd. In nothing am I chang'd + But in my garments. + Glou. Methinks y'are better spoken. + Edg. Come on, sir; here's the place. Stand still. How fearful + And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low! + The crows and choughs that wing the midway air + Show scarce so gross as beetles. Halfway down + Hangs one that gathers sampire- dreadful trade! + Methinks he seems no bigger than his head. + The fishermen that walk upon the beach + Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark, + Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy + Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge + That on th' unnumb'red idle pebble chafes + Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more, + Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight + Topple down headlong. + Glou. Set me where you stand. + Edg. Give me your hand. You are now within a foot + Of th' extreme verge. For all beneath the moon + Would I not leap upright. + Glou. Let go my hand. + Here, friend, is another purse; in it a jewel + Well worth a poor man's taking. Fairies and gods + Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off; + Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going. + Edg. Now fare ye well, good sir. + Glou. With all my heart. + Edg. [aside]. Why I do trifle thus with his despair + Is done to cure it. + Glou. O you mighty gods! He kneels. + This world I do renounce, and, in your sights, + Shake patiently my great affliction off. + If I could bear it longer and not fall + To quarrel with your great opposeless wills, + My snuff and loathed part of nature should + Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him! + Now, fellow, fare thee well. + He falls [forward and swoons]. + Edg. Gone, sir, farewell.- + And yet I know not how conceit may rob + The treasury of life when life itself + Yields to the theft. Had he been where he thought, + By this had thought been past.- Alive or dead? + Ho you, sir! friend! Hear you, sir? Speak!- + Thus might he pass indeed. Yet he revives. + What are you, sir? + Glou. Away, and let me die. + Edg. Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air, + So many fadom down precipitating, + Thou'dst shiver'd like an egg; but thou dost breathe; + Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound. + Ten masts at each make not the altitude + Which thou hast perpendicularly fell. + Thy life is a miracle. Speak yet again. + Glou. But have I fall'n, or no? + Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn. + Look up a-height. The shrill-gorg'd lark so far + Cannot be seen or heard. Do but look up. + Glou. Alack, I have no eyes! + Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit + To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort + When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage + And frustrate his proud will. + Edg. Give me your arm. + Up- so. How is't? Feel you your legs? You stand. + Glou. Too well, too well. + Edg. This is above all strangeness. + Upon the crown o' th' cliff what thing was that + Which parted from you? + Glou. A poor unfortunate beggar. + Edg. As I stood here below, methought his eyes + Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses, + Horns whelk'd and wav'd like the enridged sea. + It was some fiend. Therefore, thou happy father, + Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours + Of men's impossibility, have preserv'd thee. + Glou. I do remember now. Henceforth I'll bear + Affliction till it do cry out itself + 'Enough, enough,' and die. That thing you speak of, + I took it for a man. Often 'twould say + 'The fiend, the fiend'- he led me to that place. + Edg. Bear free and patient thoughts. + + Enter Lear, mad, [fantastically dressed with weeds]. + + But who comes here? + The safer sense will ne'er accommodate + His master thus. + Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coming; + I am the King himself. + Edg. O thou side-piercing sight! + Lear. Nature 's above art in that respect. There's your press + money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper. Draw me + a clothier's yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this piece + of toasted cheese will do't. There's my gauntlet; I'll prove it + on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown, bird! i' + th' clout, i' th' clout! Hewgh! Give the word. + Edg. Sweet marjoram. + Lear. Pass. + Glou. I know that voice. + Lear. Ha! Goneril with a white beard? They flatter'd me like a dog, + and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones + were there. To say 'ay' and 'no' to everything I said! 'Ay' and + 'no' too was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me + once, and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would + not peace at my bidding; there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em + out. Go to, they are not men o' their words! They told me I was + everything. 'Tis a lie- I am not ague-proof. + Glou. The trick of that voice I do well remember. + Is't not the King? + Lear. Ay, every inch a king! + When I do stare, see how the subject quakes. + I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause? + Adultery? + Thou shalt not die. Die for adultery? No. + The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly + Does lecher in my sight. + Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son + Was kinder to his father than my daughters + Got 'tween the lawful sheets. + To't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers. + Behold yond simp'ring dame, + Whose face between her forks presageth snow, + That minces virtue, and does shake the head + To hear of pleasure's name. + The fitchew nor the soiled horse goes to't + With a more riotous appetite. + Down from the waist they are Centaurs, + Though women all above. + But to the girdle do the gods inherit, + Beneath is all the fiend's. + There's hell, there's darkness, there's the sulphurous pit; + burning, scalding, stench, consumption. Fie, fie, fie! pah, pah! + Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my + imagination. There's money for thee. + Glou. O, let me kiss that hand! + Lear. Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality. + Glou. O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world + Shall so wear out to naught. Dost thou know me? + Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at me? + No, do thy worst, blind Cupid! I'll not love. Read thou this + challenge; mark but the penning of it. + Glou. Were all the letters suns, I could not see one. + Edg. [aside] I would not take this from report. It is, + And my heart breaks at it. + Lear. Read. + Glou. What, with the case of eyes? + Lear. O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor no + money in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse + in a light. Yet you see how this world goes. + Glou. I see it feelingly. + Lear. What, art mad? A man may see how the world goes with no eyes. + Look with thine ears. See how yond justice rails upon yond + simple thief. Hark in thine ear. Change places and, handy-dandy, + which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a + farmer's dog bark at a beggar? + Glou. Ay, sir. + Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold + the great image of authority: a dog's obeyed in office. + Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand! + Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back. + Thou hotly lusts to use her in that kind + For which thou whip'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener. + Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear; + Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, + And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; + Arm it in rags, a pygmy's straw does pierce it. + None does offend, none- I say none! I'll able 'em. + Take that of me, my friend, who have the power + To seal th' accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes + And, like a scurvy politician, seem + To see the things thou dost not. Now, now, now, now! + Pull off my boots. Harder, harder! So. + Edg. O, matter and impertinency mix'd! + Reason, in madness! + Lear. If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes. + I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester. + Thou must be patient. We came crying hither; + Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air + We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee. Mark. + Glou. Alack, alack the day! + Lear. When we are born, we cry that we are come + To this great stage of fools. This' a good block. + It were a delicate stratagem to shoe + A troop of horse with felt. I'll put't in proof, + And when I have stol'n upon these sons-in-law, + Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill! + + Enter a Gentleman [with Attendants]. + + Gent. O, here he is! Lay hand upon him.- Sir, + Your most dear daughter- + Lear. No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even + The natural fool of fortune. Use me well; + You shall have ransom. Let me have a surgeon; + I am cut to th' brains. + Gent. You shall have anything. + Lear. No seconds? All myself? + Why, this would make a man a man of salt, + To use his eyes for garden waterpots, + Ay, and laying autumn's dust. + Gent. Good sir- + Lear. I will die bravely, like a smug bridegroom. What! + I will be jovial. Come, come, I am a king; + My masters, know you that? + Gent. You are a royal one, and we obey you. + Lear. Then there's life in't. Nay, an you get it, you shall get it + by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa! + Exit running. [Attendants follow.] + Gent. A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch, + Past speaking of in a king! Thou hast one daughter + Who redeems nature from the general curse + Which twain have brought her to. + Edg. Hail, gentle sir. + Gent. Sir, speed you. What's your will? + Edg. Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward? + Gent. Most sure and vulgar. Every one hears that + Which can distinguish sound. + Edg. But, by your favour, + How near's the other army? + Gent. Near and on speedy foot. The main descry + Stands on the hourly thought. + Edg. I thank you sir. That's all. + Gent. Though that the Queen on special cause is here, + Her army is mov'd on. + Edg. I thank you, sir + Exit [Gentleman]. + Glou. You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me; + Let not my worser spirit tempt me again + To die before you please! + Edg. Well pray you, father. + Glou. Now, good sir, what are you? + Edg. A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows, + Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows, + Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand; + I'll lead you to some biding. + Glou. Hearty thanks. + The bounty and the benison of heaven + To boot, and boot! + + Enter [Oswald the] Steward. + + Osw. A proclaim'd prize! Most happy! + That eyeless head of thine was first fram'd flesh + To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor, + Briefly thyself remember. The sword is out + That must destroy thee. + Glou. Now let thy friendly hand + Put strength enough to't. + [Edgar interposes.] + Osw. Wherefore, bold peasant, + Dar'st thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence! + Lest that th' infection of his fortune take + Like hold on thee. Let go his arm. + Edg. Chill not let go, zir, without vurther 'cagion. + Osw. Let go, slave, or thou diest! + Edg. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor voke pass. An chud + ha' bin zwagger'd out of my life, 'twould not ha' bin zo long as + 'tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near th' old man. Keep out, + che vore ye, or Ise try whether your costard or my ballow be the + harder. Chill be plain with you. + Osw. Out, dunghill! + They fight. + Edg. Chill pick your teeth, zir. Come! No matter vor your foins. + [Oswald falls.] + Osw. Slave, thou hast slain me. Villain, take my purse. + If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body, + And give the letters which thou find'st about me + To Edmund Earl of Gloucester. Seek him out + Upon the British party. O, untimely death! Death! + He dies. + Edg. I know thee well. A serviceable villain, + As duteous to the vices of thy mistress + As badness would desire. + Glou. What, is he dead? + Edg. Sit you down, father; rest you. + Let's see his pockets; these letters that he speaks of + May be my friends. He's dead. I am only sorry + He had no other deathsman. Let us see. + Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not. + To know our enemies' minds, we'ld rip their hearts; + Their papers, is more lawful. Reads the letter. + + 'Let our reciprocal vows be rememb'red. You have many + opportunities to cut him off. If your will want not, time and + place will be fruitfully offer'd. There is nothing done, if he + return the conqueror. Then am I the prisoner, and his bed my + jail; from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply the + place for your labour. + 'Your (wife, so I would say) affectionate servant, + 'Goneril.' + + O indistinguish'd space of woman's will! + A plot upon her virtuous husband's life, + And the exchange my brother! Here in the sands + Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified + Of murtherous lechers; and in the mature time + With this ungracious paper strike the sight + Of the death-practis'd Duke, For him 'tis well + That of thy death and business I can tell. + Glou. The King is mad. How stiff is my vile sense, + That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling + Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract. + So should my thoughts be sever'd from my griefs, + And woes by wrong imaginations lose + The knowledge of themselves. + A drum afar off. + Edg. Give me your hand. + Far off methinks I hear the beaten drum. + Come, father, I'll bestow you with a friend. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene VII. +A tent in the French camp. + +Enter Cordelia, Kent, Doctor, and Gentleman. + + Cor. O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work + To match thy goodness? My life will be too short + And every measure fail me. + Kent. To be acknowledg'd, madam, is o'erpaid. + All my reports go with the modest truth; + Nor more nor clipp'd, but so. + Cor. Be better suited. + These weeds are memories of those worser hours. + I prithee put them off. + Kent. Pardon, dear madam. + Yet to be known shortens my made intent. + My boon I make it that you know me not + Till time and I think meet. + Cor. Then be't so, my good lord. [To the Doctor] How, does the King? + Doct. Madam, sleeps still. + Cor. O you kind gods, + Cure this great breach in his abused nature! + Th' untun'd and jarring senses, O, wind up + Of this child-changed father! + Doct. So please your Majesty + That we may wake the King? He hath slept long. + Cor. Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed + I' th' sway of your own will. Is he array'd? + + Enter Lear in a chair carried by Servants. + + Gent. Ay, madam. In the heaviness of sleep + We put fresh garments on him. + Doct. Be by, good madam, when we do awake him. + I doubt not of his temperance. + Cor. Very well. + Music. + Doct. Please you draw near. Louder the music there! + Cor. O my dear father, restoration hang + Thy medicine on my lips, and let this kiss + Repair those violent harms that my two sisters + Have in thy reverence made! + Kent. Kind and dear princess! + Cor. Had you not been their father, these white flakes + Had challeng'd pity of them. Was this a face + To be oppos'd against the warring winds? + To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder? + In the most terrible and nimble stroke + Of quick cross lightning? to watch- poor perdu!- + With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog, + Though he had bit me, should have stood that night + Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father, + To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn, + In short and musty straw? Alack, alack! + 'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once + Had not concluded all.- He wakes. Speak to him. + Doct. Madam, do you; 'tis fittest. + Cor. How does my royal lord? How fares your Majesty? + Lear. You do me wrong to take me out o' th' grave. + Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound + Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears + Do scald like molten lead. + Cor. Sir, do you know me? + Lear. You are a spirit, I know. When did you die? + Cor. Still, still, far wide! + Doct. He's scarce awake. Let him alone awhile. + Lear. Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight, + I am mightily abus'd. I should e'en die with pity, + To see another thus. I know not what to say. + I will not swear these are my hands. Let's see. + I feel this pin prick. Would I were assur'd + Of my condition! + Cor. O, look upon me, sir, + And hold your hands in benediction o'er me. + No, sir, you must not kneel. + Lear. Pray, do not mock me. + I am a very foolish fond old man, + Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less; + And, to deal plainly, + I fear I am not in my perfect mind. + Methinks I should know you, and know this man; + Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant + What place this is; and all the skill I have + Remembers not these garments; nor I know not + Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me; + For (as I am a man) I think this lady + To be my child Cordelia. + Cor. And so I am! I am! + Lear. Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray weep not. + If you have poison for me, I will drink it. + I know you do not love me; for your sisters + Have, as I do remember, done me wrong. + You have some cause, they have not. + Cor. No cause, no cause. + Lear. Am I in France? + Kent. In your own kingdom, sir. + Lear. Do not abuse me. + Doct. Be comforted, good madam. The great rage + You see is kill'd in him; and yet it is danger + To make him even o'er the time he has lost. + Desire him to go in. Trouble him no more + Till further settling. + Cor. Will't please your Highness walk? + Lear. You must bear with me. + Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish. + Exeunt. Manent Kent and Gentleman. + Gent. Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain? + Kent. Most certain, sir. + Gent. Who is conductor of his people? + Kent. As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester. + Gent. They say Edgar, his banish'd son, is with the Earl of Kent + in Germany. + Kent. Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the powers of + the kingdom approach apace. + Gent. The arbitrement is like to be bloody. + Fare you well, sir. [Exit.] + Kent. My point and period will be throughly wrought, + Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought. Exit. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. Scene I. +The British camp near Dover. + +Enter, with Drum and Colours, Edmund, Regan, Gentleman, and Soldiers. + + Edm. Know of the Duke if his last purpose hold, + Or whether since he is advis'd by aught + To change the course. He's full of alteration + And self-reproving. Bring his constant pleasure. + [Exit an Officer.] + Reg. Our sister's man is certainly miscarried. + Edm. Tis to be doubted, madam. + Reg. Now, sweet lord, + You know the goodness I intend upon you. + Tell me- but truly- but then speak the truth- + Do you not love my sister? + Edm. In honour'd love. + Reg. But have you never found my brother's way + To the forfended place? + Edm. That thought abuses you. + Reg. I am doubtful that you have been conjunct + And bosom'd with her, as far as we call hers. + Edm. No, by mine honour, madam. + Reg. I never shall endure her. Dear my lord, + Be not familiar with her. + Edm. Fear me not. + She and the Duke her husband! + + Enter, with Drum and Colours, Albany, Goneril, Soldiers. + + Gon. [aside] I had rather lose the battle than that sister + Should loosen him and me. + Alb. Our very loving sister, well bemet. + Sir, this I hear: the King is come to his daughter, + With others whom the rigour of our state + Forc'd to cry out. Where I could not be honest, + I never yet was valiant. For this business, + It toucheth us as France invades our land, + Not bolds the King, with others whom, I fear, + Most just and heavy causes make oppose. + Edm. Sir, you speak nobly. + Reg. Why is this reason'd? + Gon. Combine together 'gainst the enemy; + For these domestic and particular broils + Are not the question here. + Alb. Let's then determine + With th' ancient of war on our proceeding. + Edm. I shall attend you presently at your tent. + Reg. Sister, you'll go with us? + Gon. No. + Reg. 'Tis most convenient. Pray you go with us. + Gon. [aside] O, ho, I know the riddle.- I will go. + + [As they are going out,] enter Edgar [disguised]. + + Edg. If e'er your Grace had speech with man so poor, + Hear me one word. + Alb. I'll overtake you.- Speak. + Exeunt [all but Albany and Edgar]. + Edg. Before you fight the battle, ope this letter. + If you have victory, let the trumpet sound + For him that brought it. Wretched though I seem, + I can produce a champion that will prove + What is avouched there. If you miscarry, + Your business of the world hath so an end, + And machination ceases. Fortune love you! + Alb. Stay till I have read the letter. + Edg. I was forbid it. + When time shall serve, let but the herald cry, + And I'll appear again. + Alb. Why, fare thee well. I will o'erlook thy paper. + Exit [Edgar]. + + Enter Edmund. + + Edm. The enemy 's in view; draw up your powers. + Here is the guess of their true strength and forces + By diligent discovery; but your haste + Is now urg'd on you. + Alb. We will greet the time. Exit. + Edm. To both these sisters have I sworn my love; + Each jealous of the other, as the stung + Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take? + Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd, + If both remain alive. To take the widow + Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril; + And hardly shall I carry out my side, + Her husband being alive. Now then, we'll use + His countenance for the battle, which being done, + Let her who would be rid of him devise + His speedy taking off. As for the mercy + Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia- + The battle done, and they within our power, + Shall never see his pardon; for my state + Stands on me to defend, not to debate. Exit. + + + + +Scene II. +A field between the two camps. + +Alarum within. Enter, with Drum and Colours, the Powers of France +over the stage, Cordelia with her Father in her hand, and exeunt. + +Enter Edgar and Gloucester. + + Edg. Here, father, take the shadow of this tree + For your good host. Pray that the right may thrive. + If ever I return to you again, + I'll bring you comfort. + Glou. Grace go with you, sir! + Exit [Edgar]. + + Alarum and retreat within. Enter Edgar, + + Edg. Away, old man! give me thy hand! away! + King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en. + Give me thy hand! come on! + Glou. No further, sir. A man may rot even here. + Edg. What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure + Their going hence, even as their coming hither; + Ripeness is all. Come on. + Glou. And that's true too. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene III. +The British camp, near Dover. + +Enter, in conquest, with Drum and Colours, Edmund; Lear and Cordelia +as prisoners; Soldiers, Captain. + + Edm. Some officers take them away. Good guard + Until their greater pleasures first be known + That are to censure them. + Cor. We are not the first + Who with best meaning have incurr'd the worst. + For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down; + Myself could else outfrown false Fortune's frown. + Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters? + Lear. No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison. + We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage. + When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down + And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live, + And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh + At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues + Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too- + Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out- + And take upon 's the mystery of things, + As if we were God's spies; and we'll wear out, + In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones + That ebb and flow by th' moon. + Edm. Take them away. + Lear. Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, + The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee? + He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven + And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes. + The goodyears shall devour 'em, flesh and fell, + Ere they shall make us weep! We'll see 'em starv'd first. + Come. Exeunt [Lear and Cordelia, guarded]. + Edm. Come hither, Captain; hark. + Take thou this note [gives a paper]. Go follow them to prison. + One step I have advanc'd thee. If thou dost + As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way + To noble fortunes. Know thou this, that men + Are as the time is. To be tender-minded + Does not become a sword. Thy great employment + Will not bear question. Either say thou'lt do't, + Or thrive by other means. + Capt. I'll do't, my lord. + Edm. About it! and write happy when th' hast done. + Mark- I say, instantly; and carry it so + As I have set it down. + Capt. I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats; + If it be man's work, I'll do't. Exit. + + Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril, Regan, Soldiers. + + Alb. Sir, you have show'd to-day your valiant strain, + And fortune led you well. You have the captives + Who were the opposites of this day's strife. + We do require them of you, so to use them + As we shall find their merits and our safety + May equally determine. + Edm. Sir, I thought it fit + To send the old and miserable King + To some retention and appointed guard; + Whose age has charms in it, whose title more, + To pluck the common bosom on his side + And turn our impress'd lances in our eyes + Which do command them. With him I sent the Queen, + My reason all the same; and they are ready + To-morrow, or at further space, t' appear + Where you shall hold your session. At this time + We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend; + And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs'd + By those that feel their sharpness. + The question of Cordelia and her father + Requires a fitter place. + Alb. Sir, by your patience, + I hold you but a subject of this war, + Not as a brother. + Reg. That's as we list to grace him. + Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded + Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers, + Bore the commission of my place and person, + The which immediacy may well stand up + And call itself your brother. + Gon. Not so hot! + In his own grace he doth exalt himself + More than in your addition. + Reg. In my rights + By me invested, he compeers the best. + Gon. That were the most if he should husband you. + Reg. Jesters do oft prove prophets. + Gon. Holla, holla! + That eye that told you so look'd but asquint. + Reg. Lady, I am not well; else I should answer + From a full-flowing stomach. General, + Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony; + Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine. + Witness the world that I create thee here + My lord and master. + Gon. Mean you to enjoy him? + Alb. The let-alone lies not in your good will. + Edm. Nor in thine, lord. + Alb. Half-blooded fellow, yes. + Reg. [to Edmund] Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine. + Alb. Stay yet; hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee + On capital treason; and, in thine attaint, + This gilded serpent [points to Goneril]. For your claim, fair + sister, + I bar it in the interest of my wife. + 'Tis she is subcontracted to this lord, + And I, her husband, contradict your banes. + If you will marry, make your loves to me; + My lady is bespoke. + Gon. An interlude! + Alb. Thou art arm'd, Gloucester. Let the trumpet sound. + If none appear to prove upon thy person + Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons, + There is my pledge [throws down a glove]! I'll prove it on thy + heart, + Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less + Than I have here proclaim'd thee. + Reg. Sick, O, sick! + Gon. [aside] If not, I'll ne'er trust medicine. + Edm. There's my exchange [throws down a glove]. What in the world + he is + That names me traitor, villain-like he lies. + Call by thy trumpet. He that dares approach, + On him, on you, who not? I will maintain + My truth and honour firmly. + Alb. A herald, ho! + Edm. A herald, ho, a herald! + Alb. Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers, + All levied in my name, have in my name + Took their discharge. + Reg. My sickness grows upon me. + Alb. She is not well. Convey her to my tent. + [Exit Regan, led.] + + Enter a Herald. + + Come hither, herald. Let the trumpet sound, + And read out this. + Capt. Sound, trumpet! A trumpet sounds. + + Her. (reads) 'If any man of quality or degree within the lists of + the army will maintain upon Edmund, supposed Earl of Gloucester, + that he is a manifold traitor, let him appear by the third sound + of the trumpet. He is bold in his defence.' + + Edm. Sound! First trumpet. + Her. Again! Second trumpet. + Her. Again! Third trumpet. + Trumpet answers within. + + Enter Edgar, armed, at the third sound, a Trumpet before him. + + Alb. Ask him his purposes, why he appears + Upon this call o' th' trumpet. + Her. What are you? + Your name, your quality? and why you answer + This present summons? + Edg. Know my name is lost; + By treason's tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit. + Yet am I noble as the adversary + I come to cope. + Alb. Which is that adversary? + Edg. What's he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester? + Edm. Himself. What say'st thou to him? + Edg. Draw thy sword, + That, if my speech offend a noble heart, + Thy arm may do thee justice. Here is mine. + Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours, + My oath, and my profession. I protest- + Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence, + Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune, + Thy valour and thy heart- thou art a traitor; + False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father; + Conspirant 'gainst this high illustrious prince; + And from th' extremest upward of thy head + To the descent and dust beneath thy foot, + A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou 'no,' + This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent + To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak, + Thou liest. + Edm. In wisdom I should ask thy name; + But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike, + And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes, + What safe and nicely I might well delay + By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn. + Back do I toss those treasons to thy head; + With the hell-hated lie o'erwhelm thy heart; + Which- for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise- + This sword of mine shall give them instant way + Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak! + Alarums. Fight. [Edmund falls.] + Alb. Save him, save him! + Gon. This is mere practice, Gloucester. + By th' law of arms thou wast not bound to answer + An unknown opposite. Thou art not vanquish'd, + But cozen'd and beguil'd. + Alb. Shut your mouth, dame, + Or with this paper shall I stop it. [Shows her her letter to + Edmund.]- [To Edmund]. Hold, sir. + [To Goneril] Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil. + No tearing, lady! I perceive you know it. + Gon. Say if I do- the laws are mine, not thine. + Who can arraign me for't? + Alb. Most monstrous! + Know'st thou this paper? + Gon. Ask me not what I know. Exit. + Alb. Go after her. She's desperate; govern her. + [Exit an Officer.] + Edm. What, you have charg'd me with, that have I done, + And more, much more. The time will bring it out. + 'Tis past, and so am I.- But what art thou + That hast this fortune on me? If thou'rt noble, + I do forgive thee. + Edg. Let's exchange charity. + I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund; + If more, the more th' hast wrong'd me. + My name is Edgar and thy father's son. + The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices + Make instruments to scourge us. + The dark and vicious place where thee he got + Cost him his eyes. + Edm. Th' hast spoken right; 'tis true. + The wheel is come full circle; I am here. + Alb. Methought thy very gait did prophesy + A royal nobleness. I must embrace thee. + Let sorrow split my heart if ever I + Did hate thee, or thy father! + Edg. Worthy prince, I know't. + Alb. Where have you hid yourself? + How have you known the miseries of your father? + Edg. By nursing them, my lord. List a brief tale; + And when 'tis told, O that my heart would burst! + The bloody proclamation to escape + That follow'd me so near (O, our lives' sweetness! + That with the pain of death would hourly die + Rather than die at once!) taught me to shift + Into a madman's rags, t' assume a semblance + That very dogs disdain'd; and in this habit + Met I my father with his bleeding rings, + Their precious stones new lost; became his guide, + Led him, begg'd for him, sav'd him from despair; + Never (O fault!) reveal'd myself unto him + Until some half hour past, when I was arm'd, + Not sure, though hoping of this good success, + I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last + Told him my pilgrimage. But his flaw'd heart + (Alack, too weak the conflict to support!) + 'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief, + Burst smilingly. + Edm. This speech of yours hath mov'd me, + And shall perchance do good; but speak you on; + You look as you had something more to say. + Alb. If there be more, more woful, hold it in; + For I am almost ready to dissolve, + Hearing of this. + Edg. This would have seem'd a period + To such as love not sorrow; but another, + To amplify too much, would make much more, + And top extremity. + Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man, + Who, having seen me in my worst estate, + Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding + Who 'twas that so endur'd, with his strong arms + He fastened on my neck, and bellowed out + As he'd burst heaven; threw him on my father; + Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him + That ever ear receiv'd; which in recounting + His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life + Began to crack. Twice then the trumpets sounded, + And there I left him tranc'd. + Alb. But who was this? + Edg. Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in disguise + Followed his enemy king and did him service + Improper for a slave. + + Enter a Gentleman with a bloody knife. + + Gent. Help, help! O, help! + Edg. What kind of help? + Alb. Speak, man. + Edg. What means that bloody knife? + Gent. 'Tis hot, it smokes. + It came even from the heart of- O! she's dead! + Alb. Who dead? Speak, man. + Gent. Your lady, sir, your lady! and her sister + By her is poisoned; she hath confess'd it. + Edm. I was contracted to them both. All three + Now marry in an instant. + + Enter Kent. + + Edg. Here comes Kent. + Alb. Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead. + [Exit Gentleman.] + This judgement of the heavens, that makes us tremble + Touches us not with pity. O, is this he? + The time will not allow the compliment + That very manners urges. + Kent. I am come + To bid my king and master aye good night. + Is he not here? + Alb. Great thing of us forgot! + Speak, Edmund, where's the King? and where's Cordelia? + The bodies of Goneril and Regan are brought in. + Seest thou this object, Kent? + Kent. Alack, why thus? + Edm. Yet Edmund was belov'd. + The one the other poisoned for my sake, + And after slew herself. + Alb. Even so. Cover their faces. + Edm. I pant for life. Some good I mean to do, + Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send + (Be brief in't) to the castle; for my writ + Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia. + Nay, send in time. + Alb. Run, run, O, run! + Edg. To who, my lord? Who has the office? Send + Thy token of reprieve. + Edm. Well thought on. Take my sword; + Give it the Captain. + Alb. Haste thee for thy life. [Exit Edgar.] + Edm. He hath commission from thy wife and me + To hang Cordelia in the prison and + To lay the blame upon her own despair + That she fordid herself. + Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile. + [Edmund is borne off.] + + Enter Lear, with Cordelia [dead] in his arms, [Edgar, Captain, + and others following]. + + Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stone. + Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so + That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever! + I know when one is dead, and when one lives. + She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking glass. + If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, + Why, then she lives. + Kent. Is this the promis'd end? + Edg. Or image of that horror? + Alb. Fall and cease! + Lear. This feather stirs; she lives! If it be so, + It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows + That ever I have felt. + Kent. O my good master! + Lear. Prithee away! + Edg. 'Tis noble Kent, your friend. + Lear. A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all! + I might have sav'd her; now she's gone for ever! + Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha! + What is't thou say'st, Her voice was ever soft, + Gentle, and low- an excellent thing in woman. + I kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee. + Capt. 'Tis true, my lords, he did. + Lear. Did I not, fellow? + I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion + I would have made them skip. I am old now, + And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you? + Mine eyes are not o' th' best. I'll tell you straight. + Kent. If fortune brag of two she lov'd and hated, + One of them we behold. + Lear. This' a dull sight. Are you not Kent? + Kent. The same- + Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius? + Lear. He's a good fellow, I can tell you that. + He'll strike, and quickly too. He's dead and rotten. + Kent. No, my good lord; I am the very man- + Lear. I'll see that straight. + Kent. That from your first of difference and decay + Have followed your sad steps. + Lear. You're welcome hither. + Kent. Nor no man else! All's cheerless, dark, and deadly. + Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves, + And desperately are dead. + Lear. Ay, so I think. + Alb. He knows not what he says; and vain is it + That we present us to him. + Edg. Very bootless. + + Enter a Captain. + + Capt. Edmund is dead, my lord. + Alb. That's but a trifle here. + You lords and noble friends, know our intent. + What comfort to this great decay may come + Shall be applied. For us, we will resign, + During the life of this old Majesty, + To him our absolute power; [to Edgar and Kent] you to your + rights; + With boot, and Such addition as your honours + Have more than merited.- All friends shall taste + The wages of their virtue, and all foes + The cup of their deservings.- O, see, see! + Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life! + Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, + And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more, + Never, never, never, never, never! + Pray you undo this button. Thank you, sir. + Do you see this? Look on her! look! her lips! + Look there, look there! He dies. + Edg. He faints! My lord, my lord! + Kent. Break, heart; I prithee break! + Edg. Look up, my lord. + Kent. Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him + That would upon the rack of this tough world + Stretch him out longer. + Edg. He is gone indeed. + Kent. The wonder is, he hath endur'd so long. + He but usurp'd his life. + Alb. Bear them from hence. Our present business + Is general woe. [To Kent and Edgar] Friends of my soul, you + twain + Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state sustain. + Kent. I have a journey, sir, shortly to go. + My master calls me; I must not say no. + Alb. The weight of this sad time we must obey, + Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. + The oldest have borne most; we that are young + Shall never see so much, nor live so long. + Exeunt with a dead march. + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + + +1595 + +LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae. + + FERDINAND, King of Navarre + BEROWNE, lord attending on the King + LONGAVILLE, " " " " " + DUMAIN, " " " " " + BOYET, lord attending on the Princess of France + MARCADE, " " " " " " " + DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO, fantastical Spaniard + SIR NATHANIEL, a curate + HOLOFERNES, a schoolmaster + DULL, a constable + COSTARD, a clown + MOTH, page to Armado + A FORESTER + + THE PRINCESS OF FRANCE + ROSALINE, lady attending on the Princess + MARIA, " " " " " + KATHARINE, lady attending on the Princess + JAQUENETTA, a country wench + + Lords, Attendants, etc. + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +Navarre + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Navarre. The King's park + +Enter the King, BEROWNE, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN + + KING. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, + Live regist'red upon our brazen tombs, + And then grace us in the disgrace of death; + When, spite of cormorant devouring Time, + Th' endeavour of this present breath may buy + That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge, + And make us heirs of all eternity. + Therefore, brave conquerors- for so you are + That war against your own affections + And the huge army of the world's desires- + Our late edict shall strongly stand in force: + Navarre shall be the wonder of the world; + Our court shall be a little Academe, + Still and contemplative in living art. + You three, Berowne, Dumain, and Longaville, + Have sworn for three years' term to live with me + My fellow-scholars, and to keep those statutes + That are recorded in this schedule here. + Your oaths are pass'd; and now subscribe your names, + That his own hand may strike his honour down + That violates the smallest branch herein. + If you are arm'd to do as sworn to do, + Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it too. + LONGAVILLE. I am resolv'd; 'tis but a three years' fast. + The mind shall banquet, though the body pine. + Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits + Make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits. + DUMAIN. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified. + The grosser manner of these world's delights + He throws upon the gross world's baser slaves; + To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die, + With all these living in philosophy. + BEROWNE. I can but say their protestation over; + So much, dear liege, I have already sworn, + That is, to live and study here three years. + But there are other strict observances, + As: not to see a woman in that term, + Which I hope well is not enrolled there; + And one day in a week to touch no food, + And but one meal on every day beside, + The which I hope is not enrolled there; + And then to sleep but three hours in the night + And not be seen to wink of all the day- + When I was wont to think no harm all night, + And make a dark night too of half the day- + Which I hope well is not enrolled there. + O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep, + Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep! + KING. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these. + BEROWNE. Let me say no, my liege, an if you please: + I only swore to study with your Grace, + And stay here in your court for three years' space. + LONGAVILLE. You swore to that, Berowne, and to the rest. + BEROWNE. By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest. + What is the end of study, let me know. + KING. Why, that to know which else we should not know. + BEROWNE. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense? + KING. Ay, that is study's god-like recompense. + BEROWNE. Come on, then; I will swear to study so, + To know the thing I am forbid to know, + As thus: to study where I well may dine, + When I to feast expressly am forbid; + Or study where to meet some mistress fine, + When mistresses from common sense are hid; + Or, having sworn too hard-a-keeping oath, + Study to break it, and not break my troth. + If study's gain be thus, and this be so, + Study knows that which yet it doth not know. + Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say no. + KING. These be the stops that hinder study quite, + And train our intellects to vain delight. + BEROWNE. Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain + Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain, + As painfully to pore upon a book + To seek the light of truth; while truth the while + Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look. + Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile; + So, ere you find where light in darkness lies, + Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes. + Study me how to please the eye indeed, + By fixing it upon a fairer eye; + Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed, + And give him light that it was blinded by. + Study is like the heaven's glorious sun, + That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks; + Small have continual plodders ever won, + Save base authority from others' books. + These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights + That give a name to every fixed star + Have no more profit of their shining nights + Than those that walk and wot not what they are. + Too much to know is to know nought but fame; + And every godfather can give a name. + KING. How well he's read, to reason against reading! + DUMAIN. Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding! + LONGAVILLE. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the weeding. + BEROWNE. The spring is near, when green geese are a-breeding. + DUMAIN. How follows that? + BEROWNE. Fit in his place and time. + DUMAIN. In reason nothing. + BEROWNE. Something then in rhyme. + LONGAVILLE. Berowne is like an envious sneaping frost + That bites the first-born infants of the spring. + BEROWNE. Well, say I am; why should proud summer boast + Before the birds have any cause to sing? + Why should I joy in any abortive birth? + At Christmas I no more desire a rose + Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows; + But like of each thing that in season grows; + So you, to study now it is too late, + Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate. + KING. Well, sit out; go home, Berowne; adieu. + BEROWNE. No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you; + And though I have for barbarism spoke more + Than for that angel knowledge you can say, + Yet confident I'll keep what I have swore, + And bide the penance of each three years' day. + Give me the paper; let me read the same; + And to the strictest decrees I'll write my name. + KING. How well this yielding rescues thee from shame! + BEROWNE. [Reads] 'Item. That no woman shall come within a mile of + my court'- Hath this been proclaimed? + LONGAVILLE. Four days ago. + BEROWNE. Let's see the penalty. [Reads] '-on pain of losing her + tongue.' Who devis'd this penalty? + LONGAVILLE. Marry, that did I. + BEROWNE. Sweet lord, and why? + LONGAVILLE. To fright them hence with that dread penalty. + BEROWNE. A dangerous law against gentility. + [Reads] 'Item. If any man be seen to talk with a woman within + the term of three years, he shall endure such public shame as the + rest of the court can possibly devise.' + This article, my liege, yourself must break; + For well you know here comes in embassy + The French king's daughter, with yourself to speak- + A mild of grace and complete majesty- + About surrender up of Aquitaine + To her decrepit, sick, and bedrid father; + Therefore this article is made in vain, + Or vainly comes th' admired princess hither. + KING. What say you, lords? Why, this was quite forgot. + BEROWNE. So study evermore is over-shot. + While it doth study to have what it would, + It doth forget to do the thing it should; + And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, + 'Tis won as towns with fire- so won, so lost. + KING. We must of force dispense with this decree; + She must lie here on mere necessity. + BEROWNE. Necessity will make us all forsworn + Three thousand times within this three years' space; + For every man with his affects is born, + Not by might mast'red, but by special grace. + If I break faith, this word shall speak for me: + I am forsworn on mere necessity. + So to the laws at large I write my name; [Subscribes] + And he that breaks them in the least degree + Stands in attainder of eternal shame. + Suggestions are to other as to me; + But I believe, although I seem so loath, + I am the last that will last keep his oath. + But is there no quick recreation granted? + KING. Ay, that there is. Our court, you know, is haunted + With a refined traveller of Spain, + A man in all the world's new fashion planted, + That hath a mint of phrases in his brain; + One who the music of his own vain tongue + Doth ravish like enchanting harmony; + A man of complements, whom right and wrong + Have chose as umpire of their mutiny. + This child of fancy, that Armado hight, + For interim to our studies shall relate, + In high-born words, the worth of many a knight + From tawny Spain lost in the world's debate. + How you delight, my lords, I know not, I; + But I protest I love to hear him lie, + And I will use him for my minstrelsy. + BEROWNE. Armado is a most illustrious wight, + A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight. + LONGAVILLE. Costard the swain and he shall be our sport; + And so to study three years is but short. + + Enter DULL, a constable, with a letter, and COSTARD + + DULL. Which is the Duke's own person? + BEROWNE. This, fellow. What wouldst? + DULL. I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his Grace's + farborough; but I would see his own person in flesh and blood. + BEROWNE. This is he. + DULL. Signior Arme- Arme- commends you. There's villainy abroad; + this letter will tell you more. + COSTARD. Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me. + KING. A letter from the magnificent Armado. + BEROWNE. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words. + LONGAVILLE. A high hope for a low heaven. God grant us patience! + BEROWNE. To hear, or forbear hearing? + LONGAVILLE. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or, to + forbear both. + BEROWNE. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb + in the merriness. + COSTARD. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. + The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner. + BEROWNE. In what manner? + COSTARD. In manner and form following, sir; all those three: I was + seen with her in the manor-house, sitting with her upon the form, + and taken following her into the park; which, put together, is in + manner and form following. Now, sir, for the manner- it is the + manner of a man to speak to a woman. For the form- in some form. + BEROWNE. For the following, sir? + COSTARD. As it shall follow in my correction; and God defend the + right! + KING. Will you hear this letter with attention? + BEROWNE. As we would hear an oracle. + COSTARD. Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh. + KING. [Reads] 'Great deputy, the welkin's vicegerent and sole + dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's god and body's fost'ring + patron'- + COSTARD. Not a word of Costard yet. + KING. [Reads] 'So it is'- + COSTARD. It may be so; but if he say it is so, he is, in telling + true, but so. + KING. Peace! + COSTARD. Be to me, and every man that dares not fight! + KING. No words! + COSTARD. Of other men's secrets, I beseech you. + KING. [Reads] 'So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I + did commend the black oppressing humour to the most wholesome + physic of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook + myself to walk. The time When? About the sixth hour; when beasts + most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment + which is called supper. So much for the time When. Now for the + ground Which? which, I mean, I upon; it is ycleped thy park. Then + for the place Where? where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene + and most prepost'rous event that draweth from my snow-white pen + the ebon-coloured ink which here thou viewest, beholdest, + surveyest, or seest. But to the place Where? It standeth + north-north-east and by east from the west corner of thy + curious-knotted garden. There did I see that low-spirited swain, + that base minnow of thy mirth,' + COSTARD. Me? + KING. 'that unlettered small-knowing soul,' + COSTARD. Me? + KING. 'that shallow vassal,' + COSTARD. Still me? + KING. 'which, as I remember, hight Costard,' + COSTARD. O, me! + KING. 'sorted and consorted, contrary to thy established proclaimed + edict and continent canon; which, with, O, with- but with this I + passion to say wherewith-' + COSTARD. With a wench. + King. 'with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy + more sweet understanding, a woman. Him I, as my ever-esteemed + duty pricks me on, have sent to thee, to receive the meed of + punishment, by thy sweet Grace's officer, Antony Dull, a man of + good repute, carriage, bearing, and estimation.' + DULL. Me, an't shall please you; I am Antony Dull. + KING. 'For Jaquenetta- so is the weaker vessel called, which I + apprehended with the aforesaid swain- I keep her as a vessel of + thy law's fury; and shall, at the least of thy sweet notice, + bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and + heart-burning heat of duty, + DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO.' + + BEROWNE. This is not so well as I look'd for, but the best that + ever I heard. + KING. Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirrah, what say you to + this? + COSTARD. Sir, I confess the wench. + KING. Did you hear the proclamation? + COSTARD. I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the + marking of it. + KING. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment to be taken with a + wench. + COSTARD. I was taken with none, sir; I was taken with a damsel. + KING. Well, it was proclaimed damsel. + COSTARD. This was no damsel neither, sir; she was a virgin. + KING. It is so varied too, for it was proclaimed virgin. + COSTARD. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was taken with a maid. + KING. This 'maid' not serve your turn, sir. + COSTARD. This maid will serve my turn, sir. + KING. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence: you shall fast a week + with bran and water. + COSTARD. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge. + KING. And Don Armado shall be your keeper. + My Lord Berowne, see him delivered o'er; + And go we, lords, to put in practice that + Which each to other hath so strongly sworn. + Exeunt KING, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN + BEROWNE. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat + These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn. + Sirrah, come on. + COSTARD. I suffer for the truth, sir; for true it is I was taken + with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and therefore + welcome the sour cup of prosperity! Affliction may one day smile + again; and till then, sit thee down, sorrow. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +The park + +Enter ARMADO and MOTH, his page + + ARMADO. Boy, what sign is it when a man of great spirit grows + melancholy? + MOTH. A great sign, sir, that he will look sad. + ARMADO. Why, sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp. + MOTH. No, no; O Lord, sir, no! + ARMADO. How canst thou part sadness and melancholy, my tender + juvenal? + MOTH. By a familiar demonstration of the working, my tough signior. + ARMADO. Why tough signior? Why tough signior? + MOTH. Why tender juvenal? Why tender juvenal? + ARMADO. I spoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton + appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate tender. + MOTH. And I, tough signior, as an appertinent title to your old + time, which we may name tough. + ARMADO. Pretty and apt. + MOTH. How mean you, sir? I pretty, and my saying apt? or I apt, and + my saying pretty? + ARMADO. Thou pretty, because little. + MOTH. Little pretty, because little. Wherefore apt? + ARMADO. And therefore apt, because quick. + MOTH. Speak you this in my praise, master? + ARMADO. In thy condign praise. + MOTH. I will praise an eel with the same praise. + ARMADO. that an eel is ingenious? + MOTH. That an eel is quick. + ARMADO. I do say thou art quick in answers; thou heat'st my blood. + MOTH. I am answer'd, sir. + ARMADO. I love not to be cross'd. + MOTH. [Aside] He speaks the mere contrary: crosses love not him. + ARMADO. I have promised to study three years with the Duke. + MOTH. You may do it in an hour, sir. + ARMADO. Impossible. + MOTH. How many is one thrice told? + ARMADO. I am ill at reck'ning; it fitteth the spirit of a tapster. + MOTH. You are a gentleman and a gamester, sir. + ARMADO. I confess both; they are both the varnish of a complete + man. + MOTH. Then I am sure you know how much the gross sum of deuce-ace + amounts to. + ARMADO. It doth amount to one more than two. + MOTH. Which the base vulgar do call three. + ARMADO. True. + MOTH. Why, sir, is this such a piece of study? Now here is three + studied ere ye'll thrice wink; and how easy it is to put 'years' + to the word 'three,' and study three years in two words, the + dancing horse will tell you. + ARMADO. A most fine figure! + MOTH. [Aside] To prove you a cipher. + ARMADO. I will hereupon confess I am in love. And as it is base for + a soldier to love, so am I in love with a base wench. If drawing + my sword against the humour of affection would deliver me from + the reprobate thought of it, I would take Desire prisoner, and + ransom him to any French courtier for a new-devis'd curtsy. I + think scorn to sigh; methinks I should out-swear Cupid. Comfort + me, boy; what great men have been in love? + MOTH. Hercules, master. + ARMADO. Most sweet Hercules! More authority, dear boy, name more; + and, sweet my child, let them be men of good repute and carriage. + MOTH. Samson, master; he was a man of good carriage, great + carriage, for he carried the town gates on his back like a + porter; and he was in love. + ARMADO. O well-knit Samson! strong-jointed Samson! I do excel thee + in my rapier as much as thou didst me in carrying gates. I am in + love too. Who was Samson's love, my dear Moth? + MOTH. A woman, master. + ARMADO. Of what complexion? + MOTH. Of all the four, or the three, or the two, or one of the + four. + ARMADO. Tell me precisely of what complexion. + MOTH. Of the sea-water green, sir. + ARMADO. Is that one of the four complexions? + MOTH. As I have read, sir; and the best of them too. + ARMADO. Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers; but to have a love + of that colour, methinks Samson had small reason for it. He + surely affected her for her wit. + MOTH. It was so, sir; for she had a green wit. + ARMADO. My love is most immaculate white and red. + MOTH. Most maculate thoughts, master, are mask'd under such + colours. + ARMADO. Define, define, well-educated infant. + MOTH. My father's wit my mother's tongue assist me! + ARMADO. Sweet invocation of a child; most pretty, and pathetical! + MOTH. If she be made of white and red, + Her faults will ne'er be known; + For blushing cheeks by faults are bred, + And fears by pale white shown. + Then if she fear, or be to blame, + By this you shall not know; + For still her cheeks possess the same + Which native she doth owe. + A dangerous rhyme, master, against the reason of white and red. + ARMADO. Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar? + MOTH. The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages + since; but I think now 'tis not to be found; or if it were, it + would neither serve for the writing nor the tune. + ARMADO. I will have that subject newly writ o'er, that I may + example my digression by some mighty precedent. Boy, I do love + that country girl that I took in the park with the rational hind + Costard; she deserves well. + MOTH. [Aside] To be whipt; and yet a better love than my master. + ARMADO. Sing, boy; my spirit grows heavy in love. + MOTH. And that's great marvel, loving a light wench. + ARMADO. I say, sing. + MOTH. Forbear till this company be past. + + Enter DULL, COSTARD, and JAQUENETTA + + DULL. Sir, the Duke's pleasure is that you keep Costard safe; and + you must suffer him to take no delight nor no penance; but 'a + must fast three days a week. For this damsel, I must keep her at + the park; she is allow'd for the day-woman. Fare you well. + ARMADO. I do betray myself with blushing. Maid! + JAQUENETTA. Man! + ARMADO. I will visit thee at the lodge. + JAQUENETTA. That's hereby. + ARMADO. I know where it is situate. + JAQUENETTA. Lord, how wise you are! + ARMADO. I will tell thee wonders. + JAQUENETTA. With that face? + ARMADO. I love thee. + JAQUENETTA. So I heard you say. + ARMADO. And so, farewell. + JAQUENETTA. Fair weather after you! + DULL. Come, Jaquenetta, away. Exit with JAQUENETTA + ARMADO. Villain, thou shalt fast for thy offences ere thou be + pardoned. + COSTARD. Well, sir, I hope when I do it I shall do it on a full + stomach. + ARMADO. Thou shalt be heavily punished. + COSTARD. I am more bound to you than your fellows, for they are but + lightly rewarded. + ARMADO. Take away this villain; shut him up. + MOTH. Come, you transgressing slave, away. + COSTARD. Let me not be pent up, sir; I will fast, being loose. + MOTH. No, sir; that were fast, and loose. Thou shalt to prison. + COSTARD. Well, if ever I do see the merry days of desolation that I + have seen, some shall see. + MOTH. What shall some see? + COSTARD. Nay, nothing, Master Moth, but what they look upon. It is + not for prisoners to be too silent in their words, and therefore + I will say nothing. I thank God I have as little patience as + another man, and therefore I can be quiet. + Exeunt MOTH and COSTARD + ARMADO. I do affect the very ground, which is base, where her shoe, + which is baser, guided by her foot, which is basest, doth tread. + I shall be forsworn- which is a great argument of falsehood- if I + love. And how can that be true love which is falsely attempted? + Love is a familiar; Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but + Love. Yet was Samson so tempted, and he had an excellent + strength; yet was Solomon so seduced, and he had a very good wit. + Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club, and therefore + too much odds for a Spaniard's rapier. The first and second cause + will not serve my turn; the passado he respects not, the duello + he regards not; his disgrace is to be called boy, but his glory + is to subdue men. Adieu, valour; rust, rapier; be still, drum; + for your manager is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist me, some + extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet. + Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio. + Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE II. +The park + +Enter the PRINCESS OF FRANCE, with three attending ladies, +ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, and two other LORDS + + BOYET. Now, madam, summon up your dearest spirits. + Consider who the King your father sends, + To whom he sends, and what's his embassy: + Yourself, held precious in the world's esteem, + To parley with the sole inheritor + Of all perfections that a man may owe, + Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight + Than Aquitaine, a dowry for a queen. + Be now as prodigal of all dear grace + As Nature was in making graces dear, + When she did starve the general world beside + And prodigally gave them all to you. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, + Needs not the painted flourish of your praise. + Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, + Not utt'red by base sale of chapmen's tongues; + I am less proud to hear you tell my worth + Than you much willing to be counted wise + In spending your wit in the praise of mine. + But now to task the tasker: good Boyet, + You are not ignorant all-telling fame + Doth noise abroad Navarre hath made a vow, + Till painful study shall outwear three years, + No woman may approach his silent court. + Therefore to's seemeth it a needful course, + Before we enter his forbidden gates, + To know his pleasure; and in that behalf, + Bold of your worthiness, we single you + As our best-moving fair solicitor. + Tell him the daughter of the King of France, + On serious business, craving quick dispatch, + Importunes personal conference with his Grace. + Haste, signify so much; while we attend, + Like humble-visag'd suitors, his high will. + BOYET. Proud of employment, willingly I go. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so. + Exit BOYET + Who are the votaries, my loving lords, + That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke? + FIRST LORD. Lord Longaville is one. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Know you the man? + MARIA. I know him, madam; at a marriage feast, + Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir + Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnized + In Normandy, saw I this Longaville. + A man of sovereign parts, peerless esteem'd, + Well fitted in arts, glorious in arms; + Nothing becomes him ill that he would well. + The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss, + If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil, + Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will, + Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills + It should none spare that come within his power. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is't so? + MARIA. They say so most that most his humours know. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow. + Who are the rest? + KATHARINE. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd youth, + Of all that virtue love for virtue loved; + Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill, + For he hath wit to make an ill shape good, + And shape to win grace though he had no wit. + I saw him at the Duke Alencon's once; + And much too little of that good I saw + Is my report to his great worthiness. + ROSALINE. Another of these students at that time + Was there with him, if I have heard a truth. + Berowne they call him; but a merrier man, + Within the limit of becoming mirth, + I never spent an hour's talk withal. + His eye begets occasion for his wit, + For every object that the one doth catch + The other turns to a mirth-moving jest, + Which his fair tongue, conceit's expositor, + Delivers in such apt and gracious words + That aged ears play truant at his tales, + And younger hearings are quite ravished; + So sweet and voluble is his discourse. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. God bless my ladies! Are they all in love, + That every one her own hath garnished + With such bedecking ornaments of praise? + FIRST LORD. Here comes Boyet. + + Re-enter BOYET + + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Now, what admittance, lord? + BOYET. Navarre had notice of your fair approach, + And he and his competitors in oath + Were all address'd to meet you, gentle lady, + Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt: + He rather means to lodge you in the field, + Like one that comes here to besiege his court, + Than seek a dispensation for his oath, + To let you enter his unpeopled house. + [The LADIES-IN-WAITING mask] + + Enter KING, LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, BEROWNE, + and ATTENDANTS + + Here comes Navarre. + KING. Fair Princess, welcome to the court of Navarre. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. 'Fair' I give you back again; and 'welcome' I + have not yet. The roof of this court is too high to be yours, and + welcome to the wide fields too base to be mine. + KING. You shall be welcome, madam, to my court. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. I will be welcome then; conduct me thither. + KING. Hear me, dear lady: I have sworn an oath- + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Our Lady help my lord! He'll be forsworn. + KING. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Why, will shall break it; will, and nothing + else. + KING. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Were my lord so, his ignorance were wise, + Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance. + I hear your Grace hath sworn out house-keeping. + 'Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord, + And sin to break it. + But pardon me, I am too sudden bold; + To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me. + Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming, + And suddenly resolve me in my suit. [Giving a paper] + KING. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. YOU Will the sooner that I were away, + For you'll prove perjur'd if you make me stay. + BEROWNE. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once? + KATHARINE. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once? + BEROWNE. I know you did. + KATHARINE. How needless was it then to ask the question! + BEROWNE. You must not be so quick. + KATHARINE. 'Tis long of you, that spur me with such questions. + BEROWNE. Your wit 's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire. + KATHARINE. Not till it leave the rider in the mire. + BEROWNE. What time o' day? + KATHARINE. The hour that fools should ask. + BEROWNE. Now fair befall your mask! + KATHARINE. Fair fall the face it covers! + BEROWNE. And send you many lovers! + KATHARINE. Amen, so you be none. + BEROWNE. Nay, then will I be gone. + KING. Madam, your father here doth intimate + The payment of a hundred thousand crowns; + Being but the one half of an entire sum + Disbursed by my father in his wars. + But say that he or we, as neither have, + Receiv'd that sum, yet there remains unpaid + A hundred thousand more, in surety of the which, + One part of Aquitaine is bound to us, + Although not valued to the money's worth. + If then the King your father will restore + But that one half which is unsatisfied, + We will give up our right in Aquitaine, + And hold fair friendship with his Majesty. + But that, it seems, he little purposeth, + For here he doth demand to have repaid + A hundred thousand crowns; and not demands, + On payment of a hundred thousand crowns, + To have his title live in Aquitaine; + Which we much rather had depart withal, + And have the money by our father lent, + Than Aquitaine so gelded as it is. + Dear Princess, were not his requests so far + From reason's yielding, your fair self should make + A yielding 'gainst some reason in my breast, + And go well satisfied to France again. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. You do the King my father too much wrong, + And wrong the reputation of your name, + In so unseeming to confess receipt + Of that which hath so faithfully been paid. + KING. I do protest I never heard of it; + And, if you prove it, I'll repay it back + Or yield up Aquitaine. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. We arrest your word. + Boyet, you can produce acquittances + For such a sum from special officers + Of Charles his father. + KING. Satisfy me so. + BOYET. So please your Grace, the packet is not come, + Where that and other specialties are bound; + To-morrow you shall have a sight of them. + KING. It shall suffice me; at which interview + All liberal reason I will yield unto. + Meantime receive such welcome at my hand + As honour, without breach of honour, may + Make tender of to thy true worthiness. + You may not come, fair Princess, within my gates; + But here without you shall be so receiv'd + As you shall deem yourself lodg'd in my heart, + Though so denied fair harbour in my house. + Your own good thoughts excuse me, and farewell. + To-morrow shall we visit you again. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Sweet health and fair desires consort your + Grace! + KING. Thy own wish wish I thee in every place. + Exit with attendants + BEROWNE. Lady, I will commend you to mine own heart. + ROSALINE. Pray you, do my commendations; + I would be glad to see it. + BEROWNE. I would you heard it groan. + ROSALINE. Is the fool sick? + BEROWNE. Sick at the heart. + ROSALINE. Alack, let it blood. + BEROWNE. Would that do it good? + ROSALINE. My physic says 'ay.' + BEROWNE. Will YOU prick't with your eye? + ROSALINE. No point, with my knife. + BEROWNE. Now, God save thy life! + ROSALINE. And yours from long living! + BEROWNE. I cannot stay thanksgiving. [Retiring] + DUMAIN. Sir, I pray you, a word: what lady is that same? + BOYET. The heir of Alencon, Katharine her name. + DUMAIN. A gallant lady! Monsieur, fare you well. Exit + LONGAVILLE. I beseech you a word: what is she in the white? + BOYET. A woman sometimes, an you saw her in the light. + LONGAVILLE. Perchance light in the light. I desire her name. + BOYET. She hath but one for herself; to desire that were a shame. + LONGAVILLE. Pray you, sir, whose daughter? + BOYET. Her mother's, I have heard. + LONGAVILLE. God's blessing on your beard! + BOYET. Good sir, be not offended; + She is an heir of Falconbridge. + LONGAVILLE. Nay, my choler is ended. + She is a most sweet lady. + BOYET. Not unlike, sir; that may be. Exit LONGAVILLE + BEROWNE. What's her name in the cap? + BOYET. Rosaline, by good hap. + BEROWNE. Is she wedded or no? + BOYET. To her will, sir, or so. + BEROWNE. You are welcome, sir; adieu! + BOYET. Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you. + Exit BEROWNE. LADIES Unmask + MARIA. That last is Berowne, the merry mad-cap lord; + Not a word with him but a jest. + BOYET. And every jest but a word. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. It was well done of you to take him at his + word. + BOYET. I was as willing to grapple as he was to board. + KATHARINE. Two hot sheeps, marry! + BOYET. And wherefore not ships? + No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips. + KATHARINE. You sheep and I pasture- shall that finish the jest? + BOYET. So you grant pasture for me. [Offering to kiss her] + KATHARINE. Not so, gentle beast; + My lips are no common, though several they be. + BOYET. Belonging to whom? + KATHARINE. To my fortunes and me. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Good wits will be jangling; but, gentles, + agree; + This civil war of wits were much better used + On Navarre and his book-men, for here 'tis abused. + BOYET. If my observation, which very seldom lies, + By the heart's still rhetoric disclosed with eyes, + Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. With what? + BOYET. With that which we lovers entitle 'affected.' + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Your reason? + BOYET. Why, all his behaviours did make their retire + To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire. + His heart, like an agate, with your print impressed, + Proud with his form, in his eye pride expressed; + His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see, + Did stumble with haste in his eyesight to be; + All senses to that sense did make their repair, + To feel only looking on fairest of fair. + Methought all his senses were lock'd in his eye, + As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy; + Who, tend'ring their own worth from where they were glass'd, + Did point you to buy them, along as you pass'd. + His face's own margent did quote such amazes + That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes. + I'll give you Aquitaine and all that is his, + An you give him for my sake but one loving kiss. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Come, to our pavilion. Boyet is dispos'd. + BOYET. But to speak that in words which his eye hath disclos'd; + I only have made a mouth of his eye, + By adding a tongue which I know will not lie. + MARIA. Thou art an old love-monger, and speakest skilfully. + KATHARINE. He is Cupid's grandfather, and learns news of him. + ROSALINE. Then was Venus like her mother; for her father is but + grim. + BOYET. Do you hear, my mad wenches? + MARIA. No. + BOYET. What, then; do you see? + MARIA. Ay, our way to be gone. + BOYET. You are too hard for me. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +The park + +Enter ARMADO and MOTH + + ARMADO. Warble, child; make passionate my sense of hearing. + [MOTH sings Concolinel] + ARMADO. Sweet air! Go, tenderness of years, take this key, give + enlargement to the swain, bring him festinately hither; I must + employ him in a letter to my love. + MOTH. Master, will you win your love with a French brawl? + ARMADO. How meanest thou? Brawling in French? + MOTH. No, my complete master; but to jig off a tune at the tongue's + end, canary to it with your feet, humour it with turning up your + eyelids, sigh a note and sing a note, sometime through the + throat, as if you swallowed love with singing love, sometime + through the nose, as if you snuff'd up love by smelling love, + with your hat penthouse-like o'er the shop of your eyes, with + your arms cross'd on your thin-belly doublet, like a rabbit on a + spit, or your hands in your pocket, like a man after the old + painting; and keep not too long in one tune, but a snip and away. + These are complements, these are humours; these betray nice + wenches, that would be betrayed without these; and make them men + of note- do you note me?- that most are affected to these. + ARMADO. How hast thou purchased this experience? + MOTH. By my penny of observation. + ARMADO. But O- but O- + MOTH. The hobby-horse is forgot. + ARMADO. Call'st thou my love 'hobby-horse'? + MOTH. No, master; the hobby-horse is but a colt, and your love + perhaps a hackney. But have you forgot your love? + ARMADO. Almost I had. + MOTH. Negligent student! learn her by heart. + ARMADO. By heart and in heart, boy. + MOTH. And out of heart, master; all those three I will prove. + ARMADO. What wilt thou prove? + MOTH. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and without, upon the + instant. By heart you love her, because your heart cannot come by + her; in heart you love her, because your heart is in love with + her; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you + cannot enjoy her. + ARMADO. I am all these three. + MOTH. And three times as much more, and yet nothing at all. + ARMADO. Fetch hither the swain; he must carry me a letter. + MOTH. A message well sympathiz'd- a horse to be ambassador for an + ass. + ARMADO. Ha, ha, what sayest thou? + MOTH. Marry, sir, you must send the ass upon the horse, for he is + very slow-gaited. But I go. + ARMADO. The way is but short; away. + MOTH. As swift as lead, sir. + ARMADO. The meaning, pretty ingenious? + Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow? + MOTH. Minime, honest master; or rather, master, no. + ARMADO. I say lead is slow. + MOTH. You are too swift, sir, to say so: + Is that lead slow which is fir'd from a gun? + ARMADO. Sweet smoke of rhetoric! + He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he; + I shoot thee at the swain. + MOTH. Thump, then, and I flee. Exit + ARMADO. A most acute juvenal; volable and free of grace! + By thy favour, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy face; + Most rude melancholy, valour gives thee place. + My herald is return'd. + + Re-enter MOTH with COSTARD + + MOTH. A wonder, master! here's a costard broken in a shin. + ARMADO. Some enigma, some riddle; come, thy l'envoy; begin. + COSTARD. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no salve in the mail, sir. + O, sir, plantain, a plain plantain; no l'envoy, no l'envoy; no + salve, sir, but a plantain! + ARMADO. By virtue thou enforcest laughter; thy silly thought, my + spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous + smiling. O, pardon me, my stars! Doth the inconsiderate take + salve for l'envoy, and the word 'l'envoy' for a salve? + MOTH. Do the wise think them other? Is not l'envoy a salve? + ARMADO. No, page; it is an epilogue or discourse to make plain + Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain. + I will example it: + The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, + Were still at odds, being but three. + There's the moral. Now the l'envoy. + MOTH. I will add the l'envoy. Say the moral again. + ARMADO. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, + Were still at odds, being but three. + MOTH. Until the goose came out of door, + And stay'd the odds by adding four. + Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow with my l'envoy. + The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, + Were still at odds, being but three. + ARMADO. Until the goose came out of door, + Staying the odds by adding four. + MOTH. A good l'envoy, ending in the goose; would you desire more? + COSTARD. The boy hath sold him a bargain, a goose, that's flat. + Sir, your pennyworth is good, an your goose be fat. + To sell a bargain well is as cunning as fast and loose; + Let me see: a fat l'envoy; ay, that's a fat goose. + ARMADO. Come hither, come hither. How did this argument begin? + MOTH. By saying that a costard was broken in a shin. + Then call'd you for the l'envoy. + COSTARD. True, and I for a plantain. Thus came your argument in; + Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought; + And he ended the market. + ARMADO. But tell me: how was there a costard broken in a shin? + MOTH. I will tell you sensibly. + COSTARD. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth; I will speak that + l'envoy. + I, Costard, running out, that was safely within, + Fell over the threshold and broke my shin. + ARMADO. We will talk no more of this matter. + COSTARD. Till there be more matter in the shin. + ARMADO. Sirrah Costard. I will enfranchise thee. + COSTARD. O, Marry me to one Frances! I smell some l'envoy, some + goose, in this. + ARMADO. By my sweet soul, I mean setting thee at liberty, + enfreedoming thy person; thou wert immured, restrained, + captivated, bound. + COSTARD. True, true; and now you will be my purgation, and let me + loose. + ARMADO. I give thee thy liberty, set thee from durance; and, in + lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this: bear this + significant [giving a letter] to the country maid Jaquenetta; + there is remuneration, for the best ward of mine honour is + rewarding my dependents. Moth, follow. Exit + MOTH. Like the sequel, I. Signior Costard, adieu. + COSTARD. My sweet ounce of man's flesh, my incony Jew! + Exit MOTH + Now will I look to his remuneration. Remuneration! O, that's the + Latin word for three farthings. Three farthings- remuneration. + 'What's the price of this inkle?'- 'One penny.'- 'No, I'll give + you a remuneration.' Why, it carries it. Remuneration! Why, it is + a fairer name than French crown. I will never buy and sell out of + this word. + + Enter BEROWNE + + BEROWNE. My good knave Costard, exceedingly well met! + COSTARD. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for + a remuneration? + BEROWNE. What is a remuneration? + COSTARD. Marry, sir, halfpenny farthing. + BEROWNE. Why, then, three-farthing worth of silk. + COSTARD. I thank your worship. God be wi' you! + BEROWNE. Stay, slave; I must employ thee. + As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave, + Do one thing for me that I shall entreat. + COSTARD. When would you have it done, sir? + BEROWNE. This afternoon. + COSTARD. Well, I will do it, sir; fare you well. + BEROWNE. Thou knowest not what it is. + COSTARD. I shall know, sir, when I have done it. + BEROWNE. Why, villain, thou must know first. + COSTARD. I will come to your worship to-morrow morning. + BEROWNE. It must be done this afternoon. + Hark, slave, it is but this: + The Princess comes to hunt here in the park, + And in her train there is a gentle lady; + When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her name, + And Rosaline they call her. Ask for her, + And to her white hand see thou do commend + This seal'd-up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go. + [Giving him a shilling] + COSTARD. Gardon, O sweet gardon! better than remuneration; a + 'leven-pence farthing better; most sweet gardon! I will do it, + sir, in print. Gardon- remuneration! Exit + BEROWNE. And I, forsooth, in love; I, that have been love's whip; + A very beadle to a humorous sigh; + A critic, nay, a night-watch constable; + A domineering pedant o'er the boy, + Than whom no mortal so magnificent! + This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy, + This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid; + Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms, + Th' anointed sovereign of sighs and groans, + Liege of all loiterers and malcontents, + Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces, + Sole imperator, and great general + Of trotting paritors. O my little heart! + And I to be a corporal of his field, + And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop! + What! I love, I sue, I seek a wife- + A woman, that is like a German clock, + Still a-repairing, ever out of frame, + And never going aright, being a watch, + But being watch'd that it may still go right! + Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all; + And, among three, to love the worst of all, + A whitely wanton with a velvet brow, + With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes; + Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed, + Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard. + And I to sigh for her! to watch for her! + To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague + That Cupid will impose for my neglect + Of his almighty dreadful little might. + Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and groan: + Some men must love my lady, and some Joan. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +The park + +Enter the PRINCESS, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, LORDS, ATTENDANTS, +and a FORESTER + + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Was that the King that spurr'd his horse so + hard + Against the steep uprising of the hill? + BOYET. I know not; but I think it was not he. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Whoe'er 'a was, 'a show'd a mounting mind. + Well, lords, to-day we shall have our dispatch; + On Saturday we will return to France. + Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush + That we must stand and play the murderer in? + FORESTER. Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice; + A stand where you may make the fairest shoot. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. I thank my beauty I am fair that shoot, + And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot. + FORESTER. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. What, what? First praise me, and again say no? + O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? Alack for woe! + FORESTER. Yes, madam, fair. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Nay, never paint me now; + Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow. + Here, good my glass, take this for telling true: + [ Giving him money] + Fair payment for foul words is more than due. + FORESTER. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. See, see, my beauty will be sav'd by merit. + O heresy in fair, fit for these days! + A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise. + But come, the bow. Now mercy goes to kill, + And shooting well is then accounted ill; + Thus will I save my credit in the shoot: + Not wounding, pity would not let me do't; + If wounding, then it was to show my skill, + That more for praise than purpose meant to kill. + And, out of question, so it is sometimes: + Glory grows guilty of detested crimes, + When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, + We bend to that the working of the heart; + As I for praise alone now seek to spill + The poor deer's blood that my heart means no ill. + BOYET. Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereignty + Only for praise sake, when they strive to be + Lords o'er their lords? + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Only for praise; and praise we may afford + To any lady that subdues a lord. + + Enter COSTARD + + BOYET. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. + COSTARD. God dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the head lady? + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that + have no heads. + COSTARD. Which is the greatest lady, the highest? + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. The thickest and the tallest. + COSTARD. The thickest and the tallest! It is so; truth is truth. + An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit, + One o' these maids' girdles for your waist should be fit. + Are not you the chief woman? You are the thickest here. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. What's your will, sir? What's your will? + COSTARD. I have a letter from Monsieur Berowne to one + Lady Rosaline. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. O, thy letter, thy letter! He's a good friend + of mine. + Stand aside, good bearer. Boyet, you can carve. + Break up this capon. + BOYET. I am bound to serve. + This letter is mistook; it importeth none here. + It is writ to Jaquenetta. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. We will read it, I swear. + Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear. + BOYET. [Reads] 'By heaven, that thou art fair is most infallible; + true that thou art beauteous; truth itself that thou art lovely. + More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth + itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal. The + magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the + pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and he it was that + might rightly say, 'Veni, vidi, vici'; which to annothanize in + the vulgar,- O base and obscure vulgar!- videlicet, He came, saw, + and overcame. He came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. Who came?- + the king. Why did he come?- to see. Why did he see?-to overcome. + To whom came he?- to the beggar. What saw he?- the beggar. Who + overcame he?- the beggar. The conclusion is victory; on whose + side?- the king's. The captive is enrich'd; on whose side?- the + beggar's. The catastrophe is a nuptial; on whose side?- the + king's. No, on both in one, or one in both. I am the king, for so + stands the comparison; thou the beggar, for so witnesseth thy + lowliness. Shall I command thy love? I may. Shall I enforce thy + love? I could. Shall I entreat thy love? I will. What shalt thou + exchange for rags?- robes, for tittles?- titles, for thyself? + -me. Thus expecting thy reply, I profane my lips on thy foot, my + eyes on thy picture, and my heart on thy every part. + Thine in the dearest design of industry, + DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO. + + 'Thus dost thou hear the Nemean lion roar + 'Gainst thee, thou lamb, that standest as his prey; + Submissive fall his princely feet before, + And he from forage will incline to play. + But if thou strive, poor soul, what are thou then? + Food for his rage, repasture for his den.' + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. What plume of feathers is he that indited this + letter? + What vane? What weathercock? Did you ever hear better? + BOYET. I am much deceived but I remember the style. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it + erewhile. + BOYET. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in court; + A phantasime, a Monarcho, and one that makes sport + To the Prince and his book-mates. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Thou fellow, a word. + Who gave thee this letter? + COSTARD. I told you: my lord. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. To whom shouldst thou give it? + COSTARD. From my lord to my lady. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. From which lord to which lady? + COSTARD. From my Lord Berowne, a good master of mine, + To a lady of France that he call'd Rosaline. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Thou hast mistaken his letter. Come, lords, + away. + [To ROSALINE] Here, sweet, put up this; 'twill be thine another + day. Exeunt PRINCESS and TRAIN + BOYET. Who is the shooter? who is the shooter? + ROSALINE. Shall I teach you to know? + BOYET. Ay, my continent of beauty. + ROSALINE. Why, she that bears the bow. + Finely put off! + BOYET. My lady goes to kill horns; but, if thou marry, + Hang me by the neck, if horns that year miscarry. + Finely put on! + ROSALINE. Well then, I am the shooter. + BOYET. And who is your deer? + ROSALINE. If we choose by the horns, yourself come not near. + Finely put on indeed! + MARIA. You Still wrangle with her, Boyet, and she strikes at the + brow. + BOYET. But she herself is hit lower. Have I hit her now? + ROSALINE. Shall I come upon thee with an old saying, that was a man + when King Pepin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit + it? + BOYET. So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when + Queen Guinever of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit + it. + ROSALINE. [Singing] + Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, + Thou canst not hit it, my good man. + BOYET. An I cannot, cannot, cannot, + An I cannot, another can. + Exeunt ROSALINE and KATHARINE + COSTARD. By my troth, most pleasant! How both did fit it! + MARIA. A mark marvellous well shot; for they both did hit it. + BOYET. A mark! O, mark but that mark! A mark, says my lady! + Let the mark have a prick in't, to mete at, if it may be. + MARIA. Wide o' the bow-hand! I' faith, your hand is out. + COSTARD. Indeed, 'a must shoot nearer, or he'll ne'er hit the + clout. + BOYET. An if my hand be out, then belike your hand is in. + COSTARD. Then will she get the upshoot by cleaving the pin. + MARIA. Come, come, you talk greasily; your lips grow foul. + COSTARD. She's too hard for you at pricks, sir; challenge her to + bowl. + BOYET. I fear too much rubbing; good-night, my good owl. + Exeunt BOYET and MARIA + COSTARD. By my soul, a swain, a most simple clown! + Lord, Lord! how the ladies and I have put him down! + O' my troth, most sweet jests, most incony vulgar wit! + When it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as it were, so fit. + Armado a th' t'one side- O, a most dainty man! + To see him walk before a lady and to bear her fan! + To see him kiss his hand, and how most sweetly 'a will swear! + And his page a t' other side, that handful of wit! + Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical nit! + Sola, sola! Exit COSTARD + + + + +SCENE II. +The park + +From the shooting within, enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL + + NATHANIEL. Very reverent sport, truly; and done in the testimony of + a good conscience. + HOLOFERNES. The deer was, as you know, sanguis, in blood; ripe as + the pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of caelo, + the sky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth like a crab on + the face of terra, the soil, the land, the earth. + NATHANIEL. Truly, Master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly + varied, like a scholar at the least; but, sir, I assure ye it was + a buck of the first head. + HOLOFERNES. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo. + DULL. 'Twas not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket. + HOLOFERNES. Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insinuation, + as it were, in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were, + replication, or rather, ostentare, to show, as it were, his + inclination, after his undressed, unpolished, uneducated, + unpruned, untrained, or rather unlettered, or ratherest + unconfirmed fashion, to insert again my haud credo for a deer. + DULL. I Said the deer was not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket. + HOLOFERNES. Twice-sod simplicity, bis coctus! + O thou monster Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look! + NATHANIEL. Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in + a book; + He hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink; his + intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible + in the duller parts; + And such barren plants are set before us that we thankful should + be- + Which we of taste and feeling are- for those parts that do + fructify in us more than he. + For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool, + So, were there a patch set on learning, to see him in a school. + But, omne bene, say I, being of an old father's mind: + Many can brook the weather that love not the wind. + DULL. You two are book-men: can you tell me by your wit + What was a month old at Cain's birth that's not five weeks old as + yet? + HOLOFERNES. Dictynna, goodman Dull; Dictynna, goodman Dull. + DULL. What is Dictynna? + NATHANIEL. A title to Phoebe, to Luna, to the moon. + HOLOFERNES. The moon was a month old when Adam was no more, + And raught not to five weeks when he came to five-score. + Th' allusion holds in the exchange. + DULL. 'Tis true, indeed; the collusion holds in the exchange. + HOLOFERNES. God comfort thy capacity! I say th' allusion holds in + the exchange. + DULL. And I say the polusion holds in the exchange; for the moon is + never but a month old; and I say, beside, that 'twas a pricket + that the Princess kill'd. + HOLOFERNES. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on + the death of the deer? And, to humour the ignorant, call the deer + the Princess kill'd a pricket. + NATHANIEL. Perge, good Master Holofernes, perge, so it shall please + you to abrogate scurrility. + HOLOFERNES. I Will something affect the letter, for it argues + facility. + + The preyful Princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleasing + pricket. + Some say a sore; but not a sore till now made sore with shooting. + The dogs did yell; put el to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket- + Or pricket sore, or else sorel; the people fall a-hooting. + If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores o' sorel. + Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one more L. + + NATHANIEL. A rare talent! + DULL. [Aside] If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a + talent. + HOLOFERNES. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish + extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, + ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions. These are begot in + the ventricle of memory, nourish'd in the womb of pia mater, and + delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. But the gift is good in + those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it. + NATHANIEL. Sir, I praise the Lord for you, and so may my + parishioners; for their sons are well tutor'd by you, and their + daughters profit very greatly under you. You are a good member of + the commonwealth. + HOLOFERNES. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenious, they shall want + no instruction; if their daughters be capable, I will put it to + them; but, vir sapit qui pauca loquitur. A soul feminine saluteth + us. + + Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD + + JAQUENETTA. God give you good morrow, Master Person. + HOLOFERNES. Master Person, quasi pers-one. And if one should be + pierc'd which is the one? + COSTARD. Marry, Master Schoolmaster, he that is likest to a + hogshead. + HOLOFERNES. Piercing a hogshead! A good lustre of conceit in a turf + of earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine; 'tis + pretty; it is well. + JAQUENETTA. Good Master Parson, be so good as read me this letter; + it was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armado. I + beseech you read it. + HOLOFERNES. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne sub umbra + Ruminat- + and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as + the traveller doth of Venice: + Venetia, Venetia, + Chi non ti vede, non ti pretia. + Old Mantuan, old Mantuan! Who understandeth thee not, + loves thee not- + Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa. + Under pardon, sir, what are the contents? or rather as + Horace says in his- What, my soul, verses? + NATHANIEL. Ay, sir, and very learned. + HOLOFERNES. Let me hear a staff, a stanze, a verse; lege, domine. + NATHANIEL. [Reads] 'If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to + love? + Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vowed! + Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; + Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bowed. + Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes, + Where all those pleasures live that art would comprehend. + If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; + Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend; + All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder; + Which is to me some praise that I thy parts admire. + Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder, + Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire. + Celestial as thou art, O, pardon love this wrong, + That singes heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue.' + HOLOFERNES. You find not the apostrophas, and so miss the accent: + let me supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified; + but, for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy, + caret. Ovidius Naso was the man. And why, indeed, 'Naso' but for + smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of + invention? Imitari is nothing: so doth the hound his master, the + ape his keeper, the tired horse his rider. But, damosella virgin, + was this directed to you? + JAQUENETTA. Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Berowne, one of the strange + queen's lords. + HOLOFERNES. I will overglance the superscript: 'To the snow-white + hand of the most beauteous Lady Rosaline.' I will look again on + the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of the party + writing to the person written unto: 'Your Ladyship's in all + desired employment, Berowne.' Sir Nathaniel, this Berowne is one + of the votaries with the King; and here he hath framed a letter + to a sequent of the stranger queen's which accidentally, or by + the way of progression, hath miscarried. Trip and go, my sweet; + deliver this paper into the royal hand of the King; it may + concern much. Stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty. Adieu. + JAQUENETTA. Good Costard, go with me. Sir, God save your life! + COSTARD. Have with thee, my girl. + Exeunt COSTARD and JAQUENETTA + NATHANIEL. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very + religiously; and, as a certain father saith- + HOLOFERNES. Sir, tell not me of the father; I do fear colourable + colours. But to return to the verses: did they please you, Sir + Nathaniel? + NATHANIEL. Marvellous well for the pen. + HOLOFERNES. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil of + mine; where, if, before repast, it shall please you to gratify + the table with a grace, I will, on my privilege I have with the + parents of the foresaid child or pupil, undertake your ben + venuto; where I will prove those verses to be very unlearned, + neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention. I beseech your + society. + NATHANIEL. And thank you too; for society, saith the text, is the + happiness of life. + HOLOFERNES. And certes, the text most infallibly concludes it. + [To DULL] Sir, I do invite you too; you shall not say me nay: + pauca verba. Away; the gentles are at their game, and we will to + our recreation. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +The park + +Enter BEROWNE, with a paper his band, alone + + BEROWNE. The King he is hunting the deer: I am coursing myself. + They have pitch'd a toil: I am tolling in a pitch- pitch that + defiles. Defile! a foul word. Well, 'set thee down, sorrow!' for + so they say the fool said, and so say I, and I am the fool. Well + proved, wit. By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills + sheep; it kills me- I a sheep. Well proved again o' my side. I + will not love; if I do, hang me. I' faith, I will not. O, but her + eye! By this light, but for her eye, I would not love her- yes, + for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and + lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love; and it hath taught me to + rhyme, and to be melancholy; and here is part of my rhyme, and + here my melancholy. Well, she hath one o' my sonnets already; the + clown bore it, the fool sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet + clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! By the world, I would not + care a pin if the other three were in. Here comes one with a + paper; God give him grace to groan! + [Climbs into a tree] + + Enter the KING, with a paper + + KING. Ay me! + BEROWNE. Shot, by heaven! Proceed, sweet Cupid; thou hast thump'd + him with thy bird-bolt under the left pap. In faith, secrets! + KING. [Reads] + 'So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not + To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, + As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote + The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows; + Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright + Through the transparent bosom of the deep, + As doth thy face through tears of mine give light. + Thou shin'st in every tear that I do weep; + No drop but as a coach doth carry thee; + So ridest thou triumphing in my woe. + Do but behold the tears that swell in me, + And they thy glory through my grief will show. + But do not love thyself; then thou wilt keep + My tears for glasses, and still make me weep. + O queen of queens! how far dost thou excel + No thought can think nor tongue of mortal tell.' + How shall she know my griefs? I'll drop the paper- + Sweet leaves, shade folly. Who is he comes here? + [Steps aside] + + Enter LONGAVILLE, with a paper + + What, Longaville, and reading! Listen, car. + BEROWNE. Now, in thy likeness, one more fool appear! + LONGAVILLE. Ay me, I am forsworn! + BEROWNE. Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers. + KING. In love, I hope; sweet fellowship in shame! + BEROWNE. One drunkard loves another of the name. + LONGAVILLE. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so? + BEROWNE. I could put thee in comfort: not by two that I know; + Thou makest the triumviry, the corner-cap of society, + The shape of Love's Tyburn that hangs up simplicity. + LONGAVILLE. I fear these stubborn lines lack power to move. + O sweet Maria, empress of my love! + These numbers will I tear, and write in prose. + BEROWNE. O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose: + Disfigure not his slop. + LONGAVILLE. This same shall go. [He reads the sonnet] + 'Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye, + 'Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument, + Persuade my heart to this false perjury? + Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment. + A woman I forswore; but I will prove, + Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee: + My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love; + Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in me. + Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is; + Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, + Exhal'st this vapour-vow; in thee it is. + If broken, then it is no fault of mine; + If by me broke, what fool is not so wise + To lose an oath to win a paradise?' + BEROWNE. This is the liver-vein, which makes flesh a deity, + A green goose a goddess- pure, pure idolatry. + God amend us, God amend! We are much out o' th' way. + + Enter DUMAIN, with a paper + + LONGAVILLE. By whom shall I send this?- Company! Stay. + [Steps aside] + BEROWNE. 'All hid, all hid'- an old infant play. + Like a demigod here sit I in the sky, + And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye. + More sacks to the mill! O heavens, I have my wish! + Dumain transformed! Four woodcocks in a dish! + DUMAIN. O most divine Kate! + BEROWNE. O most profane coxcomb! + DUMAIN. By heaven, the wonder in a mortal eye! + BEROWNE. By earth, she is not, corporal: there you lie. + DUMAIN. Her amber hairs for foul hath amber quoted. + BEROWNE. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted. + DUMAIN. As upright as the cedar. + BEROWNE. Stoop, I say; + Her shoulder is with child. + DUMAIN. As fair as day. + BEROWNE. Ay, as some days; but then no sun must shine. + DUMAIN. O that I had my wish! + LONGAVILLE. And I had mine! + KING. And I mine too,.good Lord! + BEROWNE. Amen, so I had mine! Is not that a good word? + DUMAIN. I would forget her; but a fever she + Reigns in my blood, and will rememb'red be. + BEROWNE. A fever in your blood? Why, then incision + Would let her out in saucers. Sweet misprision! + DUMAIN. Once more I'll read the ode that I have writ. + BEROWNE. Once more I'll mark how love can vary wit. + DUMAIN. [Reads] + 'On a day-alack the day!- + Love, whose month is ever May, + Spied a blossom passing fair + Playing in the wanton air. + Through the velvet leaves the wind, + All unseen, can passage find; + That the lover, sick to death, + Wish'd himself the heaven's breath. + "Air," quoth he "thy cheeks may blow; + Air, would I might triumph so! + But, alack, my hand is sworn + Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn; + Vow, alack, for youth unmeet, + Youth so apt to pluck a sweet. + Do not call it sin in me + That I am forsworn for thee; + Thou for whom Jove would swear + Juno but an Ethiope were; + And deny himself for Jove, + Turning mortal for thy love."' + This will I send; and something else more plain + That shall express my true love's fasting pain. + O, would the King, Berowne and Longaville, + Were lovers too! Ill, to example ill, + Would from my forehead wipe a perjur'd note; + For none offend where all alike do dote. + LONGAVILLE. [Advancing] Dumain, thy love is far from charity, + That in love's grief desir'st society; + You may look pale, but I should blush, I know, + To be o'erheard and taken napping so. + KING. [Advancing] Come, sir, you blush; as his, your case is such. + You chide at him, offending twice as much: + You do not love Maria! Longaville + Did never sonnet for her sake compile; + Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart + His loving bosom, to keep down his heart. + I have been closely shrouded in this bush, + And mark'd you both, and for you both did blush. + I heard your guilty rhymes, observ'd your fashion, + Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your passion. + 'Ay me!' says one. 'O Jove!' the other cries. + One, her hairs were gold; crystal the other's eyes. + [To LONGAVILLE] You would for paradise break faith and troth; + [To Dumain] And Jove for your love would infringe an oath. + What will Berowne say when that he shall hear + Faith infringed which such zeal did swear? + How will he scorn, how will he spend his wit! + How will he triumph, leap, and laugh at it! + For all the wealth that ever I did see, + I would not have him know so much by me. + BEROWNE. [Descending] Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy, + Ah, good my liege, I pray thee pardon me. + Good heart, what grace hast thou thus to reprove + These worms for loving, that art most in love? + Your eyes do make no coaches; in your tears + There is no certain princess that appears; + You'll not be perjur'd; 'tis a hateful thing; + Tush, none but minstrels like of sonneting. + But are you not ashamed? Nay, are you not, + All three of you, to be thus much o'ershot? + You found his mote; the King your mote did see; + But I a beam do find in each of three. + O, what a scene of fool'ry have I seen, + Of sighs, of groans, of sorrow, and of teen! + O, me, with what strict patience have I sat, + To see a king transformed to a gnat! + To see great Hercules whipping a gig, + And profound Solomon to tune a jig, + And Nestor play at push-pin with the boys, + And critic Timon laugh at idle toys! + Where lies thy grief, O, tell me, good Dumain? + And, gentle Longaville, where lies thy pain? + And where my liege's? All about the breast. + A caudle, ho! + KING. Too bitter is thy jest. + Are we betrayed thus to thy over-view? + BEROWNE. Not you by me, but I betrayed to you. + I that am honest, I that hold it sin + To break the vow I am engaged in; + I am betrayed by keeping company + With men like you, men of inconstancy. + When shall you see me write a thing in rhyme? + Or groan for Joan? or spend a minute's time + In pruning me? When shall you hear that I + Will praise a hand, a foot, a face, an eye, + A gait, a state, a brow, a breast, a waist, + A leg, a limb- + KING. Soft! whither away so fast? + A true man or a thief that gallops so? + BEROWNE. I post from love; good lover, let me go. + + Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD + + JAQUENETTA. God bless the King! + KING. What present hast thou there? + COSTARD. Some certain treason. + KING. What makes treason here? + COSTARD. Nay, it makes nothing, sir. + KING. If it mar nothing neither, + The treason and you go in peace away together. + JAQUENETTA. I beseech your Grace, let this letter be read; + Our person misdoubts it: 'twas treason, he said. + KING. Berowne, read it over. [BEROWNE reads the letter] + Where hadst thou it? + JAQUENETTA. Of Costard. + KING. Where hadst thou it? + COSTARD. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio. + [BEROWNE tears the letter] + KING. How now! What is in you? Why dost thou tear it? + BEROWNE. A toy, my liege, a toy! Your Grace needs not fear it. + LONGAVILLE. It did move him to passion, and therefore let's hear + it. + DUMAIN. It is Berowne's writing, and here is his name. + [Gathering up the pieces] + BEROWNE. [ To COSTARD] Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, you were born + to do me shame. + Guilty, my lord, guilty! I confess, I confess. + KING. What? + BEROWNE. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mess; + He, he, and you- and you, my liege!- and I + Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die. + O, dismiss this audience, and I shall tell you more. + DUMAIN. Now the number is even. + BEROWNE. True, true, we are four. + Will these turtles be gone? + KING. Hence, sirs, away. + COSTARD. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay. + Exeunt COSTARD and JAQUENETTA + BEROWNE. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O, let us embrace! + As true we are as flesh and blood can be. + The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face; + Young blood doth not obey an old decree. + We cannot cross the cause why we were born, + Therefore of all hands must we be forsworn. + KING. What, did these rent lines show some love of thine? + BEROWNE. 'Did they?' quoth you. Who sees the heavenly Rosaline + That, like a rude and savage man of Inde + At the first op'ning of the gorgeous east, + Bows not his vassal head and, strucken blind, + Kisses the base ground with obedient breast? + What peremptory eagle-sighted eye + Dares look upon the heaven of her brow + That is not blinded by her majesty? + KING. What zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thee now? + My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon; + She, an attending star, scarce seen a light. + BEROWNE. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Berowne. + O, but for my love, day would turn to night! + Of all complexions the cull'd sovereignty + Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek, + Where several worthies make one dignity, + Where nothing wants that want itself doth seek. + Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues- + Fie, painted rhetoric! O, she needs it not! + To things of sale a seller's praise belongs: + She passes praise; then praise too short doth blot. + A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn, + Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye. + Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born, + And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy. + O, 'tis the sun that maketh all things shine! + KING. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony. + BEROWNE. Is ebony like her? O wood divine! + A wife of such wood were felicity. + O, who can give an oath? Where is a book? + That I may swear beauty doth beauty lack, + If that she learn not of her eye to look. + No face is fair that is not full so black. + KING. O paradox! Black is the badge of hell, + The hue of dungeons, and the school of night; + And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well. + BEROWNE. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light. + O, if in black my lady's brows be deckt, + It mourns that painting and usurping hair + Should ravish doters with a false aspect; + And therefore is she born to make black fair. + Her favour turns the fashion of the days; + For native blood is counted painting now; + And therefore red that would avoid dispraise + Paints itself black, to imitate her brow. + DUMAIN. To look like her are chimney-sweepers black. + LONGAVILLE. And since her time are colliers counted bright. + KING. And Ethiopes of their sweet complexion crack. + DUMAIN. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light. + BEROWNE. Your mistresses dare never come in rain + For fear their colours should be wash'd away. + KING. 'Twere good yours did; for, sir, to tell you plain, + I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day. + BEROWNE. I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here. + KING. No devil will fright thee then so much as she. + DUMAIN. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear. + LONGAVILLE. Look, here's thy love: my foot and her face see. + [Showing his shoe] + BEROWNE. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes, + Her feet were much too dainty for such tread! + DUMAIN. O vile! Then, as she goes, what upward lies + The street should see as she walk'd overhead. + KING. But what of this? Are we not all in love? + BEROWNE. Nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn. + KING. Then leave this chat; and, good Berowne, now prove + Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. + DUMAIN. Ay, marry, there; some flattery for this evil. + LONGAVILLE. O, some authority how to proceed; + Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil! + DUMAIN. Some salve for perjury. + BEROWNE. 'Tis more than need. + Have at you, then, affection's men-at-arms. + Consider what you first did swear unto: + To fast, to study, and to see no woman- + Flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth. + Say, can you fast? Your stomachs are too young, + And abstinence engenders maladies. + And, where that you you have vow'd to study, lords, + In that each of you have forsworn his book, + Can you still dream, and pore, and thereon look? + For when would you, my lord, or you, or you, + Have found the ground of study's excellence + Without the beauty of a woman's face? + From women's eyes this doctrine I derive: + They are the ground, the books, the academes, + From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire. + Why, universal plodding poisons up + The nimble spirits in the arteries, + As motion and long-during action tires + The sinewy vigour of the traveller. + Now, for not looking on a woman's face, + You have in that forsworn the use of eyes, + And study too, the causer of your vow; + For where is author in the world + Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye? + Learning is but an adjunct to ourself, + And where we are our learning likewise is; + Then when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes, + With ourselves. + Do we not likewise see our learning there? + O, we have made a vow to study, lords, + And in that vow we have forsworn our books. + For when would you, my liege, or you, or you, + In leaden contemplation have found out + Such fiery numbers as the prompting eyes + Of beauty's tutors have enrich'd you with? + Other slow arts entirely keep the brain; + And therefore, finding barren practisers, + Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil; + But love, first learned in a lady's eyes, + Lives not alone immured in the brain, + But with the motion of all elements + Courses as swift as thought in every power, + And gives to every power a double power, + Above their functions and their offices. + It adds a precious seeing to the eye: + A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind. + A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound, + When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd. + Love's feeling is more soft and sensible + Than are the tender horns of cockled snails: + Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste. + For valour, is not Love a Hercules, + Still climbing trees in the Hesperides? + Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical + As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair. + And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods + Make heaven drowsy with the harmony. + Never durst poet touch a pen to write + Until his ink were temp'red with Love's sighs; + O, then his lines would ravish savage ears, + And plant in tyrants mild humility. + From women's eyes this doctrine I derive. + They sparkle still the right Promethean fire; + They are the books, the arts, the academes, + That show, contain, and nourish, all the world, + Else none at all in aught proves excellent. + Then fools you were these women to forswear; + Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools. + For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love; + Or for Love's sake, a word that loves all men; + Or for men's sake, the authors of these women; + Or women's sake, by whom we men are men- + Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves, + Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths. + It is religion to be thus forsworn; + For charity itself fulfils the law, + And who can sever love from charity? + KING. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the field! + BEROWNE. Advance your standards, and upon them, lords; + Pell-mell, down with them! be first advis'd, + In conflict, that you get the sun of them. + LONGAVILLE. Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by. + Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France? + KING. And win them too; therefore let us devise + Some entertainment for them in their tents. + BEROWNE. First, from the park let us conduct them thither; + Then homeward every man attach the hand + Of his fair mistress. In the afternoon + We will with some strange pastime solace them, + Such as the shortness of the time can shape; + For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours, + Forerun fair Love, strewing her way with flowers. + KING. Away, away! No time shall be omitted + That will betime, and may by us be fitted. + BEROWNE. Allons! allons! Sow'd cockle reap'd no corn, + And justice always whirls in equal measure. + Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn; + If so, our copper buys no better treasure. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +The park + +Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL + + HOLOFERNES. Satis quod sufficit. + NATHANIEL. I praise God for you, sir. Your reasons at dinner have + been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty + without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without + opinion, and strange without heresy. I did converse this quondam + day with a companion of the King's who is intituled, nominated, + or called, Don Adriano de Armado. + HOLOFERNES. Novi hominem tanquam te. His humour is lofty, his + discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his + gait majestical and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and + thrasonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, + as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it. + NATHANIEL. A most singular and choice epithet. + [Draws out his table-book] + HOLOFERNES. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than + the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasimes, + such insociable and point-devise companions; such rackers of + orthography, as to speak 'dout' fine, when he should say 'doubt'; + 'det' when he should pronounce 'debt'- d, e, b, t, not d, e, t. + He clepeth a calf 'cauf,' half 'hauf'; neighbour vocatur + 'nebour'; 'neigh' abbreviated 'ne.' This is abhominable- which he + would call 'abbominable.' It insinuateth me of insanie: ne + intelligis, domine? to make frantic, lunatic. + NATHANIEL. Laus Deo, bone intelligo. + HOLOFERNES. 'Bone'?- 'bone' for 'bene.' Priscian a little + scratch'd; 'twill serve. + + Enter ARMADO, MOTH, and COSTARD + + NATHANIEL. Videsne quis venit? + HOLOFERNES. Video, et gaudeo. + ARMADO. [To MOTH] Chirrah! + HOLOFERNES. Quare 'chirrah,' not 'sirrah'? + ARMADO. Men of peace, well encount'red. + HOLOFERNES. Most military sir, salutation. + MOTH. [Aside to COSTARD] They have been at a great feast of + languages and stol'n the scraps. + COSTARD. O, they have liv'd long on the alms-basket of words. I + marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word, for thou are + not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus; thou art + easier swallowed than a flap-dragon. + MOTH. Peace! the peal begins. + ARMADO. [To HOLOFERNES] Monsieur, are you not lett'red? + MOTH. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook. What is a, b, spelt + backward with the horn on his head? + HOLOFERNES. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added. + MOTH. Ba, most silly sheep with a horn. You hear his learning. + HOLOFERNES. Quis, quis, thou consonant? + MOTH. The third of the five vowels, if You repeat them; or the + fifth, if I. + HOLOFERNES. I will repeat them: a, e, I- + MOTH. The sheep; the other two concludes it: o, U. + ARMADO. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch, + a quick venue of wit- snip, snap, quick and home. It rejoiceth my + intellect. True wit! + MOTH. Offer'd by a child to an old man; which is wit-old. + HOLOFERNES. What is the figure? What is the figure? + MOTH. Horns. + HOLOFERNES. Thou disputes like an infant; go whip thy gig. + MOTH. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your + infamy circum circa- a gig of a cuckold's horn. + COSTARD. An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it + to buy ginger-bread. Hold, there is the very remuneration I had + of thy master, thou halfpenny purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of + discretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased that thou wert but + my bastard, what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; + thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say. + HOLOFERNES. O, I smell false Latin; 'dunghill' for unguem. + ARMADO. Arts-man, preambulate; we will be singuled from the + barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-house on the + top of the mountain? + HOLOFERNES. Or mons, the hill. + ARMADO. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain. + HOLOFERNES. I do, sans question. + ARMADO. Sir, it is the King's most sweet pleasure and affection to + congratulate the Princess at her pavilion, in the posteriors of + this day; which the rude multitude call the afternoon. + HOLOFERNES. The posterior of the day, most generous sir, is liable, + congruent, and measurable, for the afternoon. The word is well + cull'd, chose, sweet, and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure. + ARMADO. Sir, the King is a noble gentleman, and my familiar, I do + assure ye, very good friend. For what is inward between us, let + it pass. I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy. I beseech + thee, apparel thy head. And among other importunate and most + serious designs, and of great import indeed, too- but let that + pass; for I must tell thee it will please his Grace, by the + world, sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder, and with his royal + finger thus dally with my excrement, with my mustachio; but, + sweet heart, let that pass. By the world, I recount no fable: + some certain special honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart + to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world; + but let that pass. The very all of all is- but, sweet heart, I do + implore secrecy- that the King would have me present the + Princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show, + or pageant, or antic, or firework. Now, understanding that the + curate and your sweet self are good at such eruptions and sudden + breaking-out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, + to the end to crave your assistance. + HOLOFERNES. Sir, you shall present before her the Nine Worthies. + Sir Nathaniel, as concerning some entertainment of time, some + show in the posterior of this day, to be rend'red by our + assistance, the King's command, and this most gallant, + illustrate, and learned gentleman, before the Princess- I say + none so fit as to present the Nine Worthies. + NATHANIEL. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them? + HOLOFERNES. Joshua, yourself; myself, Alexander; this gallant + gentleman, Judas Maccabaeus; this swain, because of his great + limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the Great; the page, Hercules. + ARMADO. Pardon, sir; error: he is not quantity enough for that + Worthy's thumb; he is not so big as the end of his club. + HOLOFERNES. Shall I have audience? He shall present Hercules in + minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake; and I + will have an apology for that purpose. + MOTH. An excellent device! So, if any of the audience hiss, you may + cry 'Well done, Hercules; now thou crushest the snake!' That is + the way to make an offence gracious, though few have the grace to + do it. + ARMADO. For the rest of the Worthies? + HOLOFERNES. I will play three myself. + MOTH. Thrice-worthy gentleman! + ARMADO. Shall I tell you a thing? + HOLOFERNES. We attend. + ARMADO. We will have, if this fadge not, an antic. I beseech you, + follow. + HOLOFERNES. Via, goodman Dull! Thou has spoken no word all this + while. + DULL. Nor understood none neither, sir. + HOLOFERNES. Allons! we will employ thee. + DULL. I'll make one in a dance, or so, or I will play + On the tabor to the Worthies, and let them dance the hay. + HOLOFERNES. Most dull, honest Dull! To our sport, away. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +The park + +Enter the PRINCESS, MARIA, KATHARINE, and ROSALINE + + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart, + If fairings come thus plentifully in. + A lady wall'd about with diamonds! + Look you what I have from the loving King. + ROSALINE. Madam, came nothing else along with that? + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Nothing but this! Yes, as much love in rhyme + As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper + Writ o' both sides the leaf, margent and all, + That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name. + ROSALINE. That was the way to make his godhead wax; + For he hath been five thousand year a boy. + KATHARINE. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too. + ROSALINE. You'll ne'er be friends with him: 'a kill'd your sister. + KATHARINE. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy; + And so she died. Had she been light, like you, + Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit, + She might 'a been a grandam ere she died. + And so may you; for a light heart lives long. + ROSALINE. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word? + KATHARINE. A light condition in a beauty dark. + ROSALINE. We need more light to find your meaning out. + KATHARINE. You'll mar the light by taking it in snuff; + Therefore I'll darkly end the argument. + ROSALINE. Look what you do, you do it still i' th' dark. + KATHARINE. So do not you; for you are a light wench. + ROSALINE. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light. + KATHARINE. You weigh me not? O, that's you care not for me. + ROSALINE. Great reason; for 'past cure is still past care.' + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Well bandied both; a set of wit well play'd. + But, Rosaline, you have a favour too? + Who sent it? and what is it? + ROSALINE. I would you knew. + An if my face were but as fair as yours, + My favour were as great: be witness this. + Nay, I have verses too, I thank Berowne; + The numbers true, and, were the numb'ring too, + I were the fairest goddess on the ground. + I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs. + O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter! + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Anything like? + ROSALINE. Much in the letters; nothing in the praise. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Beauteous as ink- a good conclusion. + KATHARINE. Fair as a text B in a copy-book. + ROSALINE. Ware pencils, ho! Let me not die your debtor, + My red dominical, my golden letter: + O that your face were not so full of O's! + KATHARINE. A pox of that jest! and I beshrew all shrows! + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. But, Katharine, what was sent to you from fair + Dumain? + KATHARINE. Madam, this glove. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Did he not send you twain? + KATHARINE. Yes, madam; and, moreover, + Some thousand verses of a faithful lover; + A huge translation of hypocrisy, + Vilely compil'd, profound simplicity. + MARIA. This, and these pearl, to me sent Longaville; + The letter is too long by half a mile. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. I think no less. Dost thou not wish in heart + The chain were longer and the letter short? + MARIA. Ay, or I would these hands might never part. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. We are wise girls to mock our lovers so. + ROSALINE. They are worse fools to purchase mocking so. + That same Berowne I'll torture ere I go. + O that I knew he were but in by th' week! + How I would make him fawn, and beg, and seek, + And wait the season, and observe the times, + And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes, + And shape his service wholly to my hests, + And make him proud to make me proud that jests! + So pertaunt-like would I o'ersway his state + That he should be my fool, and I his fate. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. None are so surely caught, when they are + catch'd, + As wit turn'd fool; folly, in wisdom hatch'd, + Hath wisdom's warrant and the help of school, + And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool. + ROSALINE. The blood of youth burns not with such excess + As gravity's revolt to wantonness. + MARIA. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note + As fool'ry in the wise when wit doth dote, + Since all the power thereof it doth apply + To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity. + + Enter BOYET + + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face. + BOYET. O, I am stabb'd with laughter! Where's her Grace? + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Thy news, Boyet? + BOYET. Prepare, madam, prepare! + Arm, wenches, arm! Encounters mounted are + Against your peace. Love doth approach disguis'd, + Armed in arguments; you'll be surpris'd. + Muster your wits; stand in your own defence; + Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Saint Dennis to Saint Cupid! What are they + That charge their breath against us? Say, scout, say. + BOYET. Under the cool shade of a sycamore + I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour; + When, lo, to interrupt my purpos'd rest, + Toward that shade I might behold addrest + The King and his companions; warily + I stole into a neighbour thicket by, + And overheard what you shall overhear- + That, by and by, disguis'd they will be here. + Their herald is a pretty knavish page, + That well by heart hath conn'd his embassage. + Action and accent did they teach him there: + 'Thus must thou speak' and 'thus thy body bear,' + And ever and anon they made a doubt + Presence majestical would put him out; + 'For' quoth the King 'an angel shalt thou see; + Yet fear not thou, but speak audaciously.' + The boy replied 'An angel is not evil; + I should have fear'd her had she been a devil.' + With that all laugh'd, and clapp'd him on the shoulder, + Making the bold wag by their praises bolder. + One rubb'd his elbow, thus, and fleer'd, and swore + A better speech was never spoke before. + Another with his finger and his thumb + Cried 'Via! we will do't, come what will come.' + The third he caper'd, and cried 'All goes well.' + The fourth turn'd on the toe, and down he fell. + With that they all did tumble on the ground, + With such a zealous laughter, so profound, + That in this spleen ridiculous appears, + To check their folly, passion's solemn tears. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. But what, but what, come they to visit us? + BOYET. They do, they do, and are apparell'd thus, + Like Muscovites or Russians, as I guess. + Their purpose is to parley, court, and dance; + And every one his love-feat will advance + Unto his several mistress; which they'll know + By favours several which they did bestow. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. And will they so? The gallants shall be task'd, + For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd; + And not a man of them shall have the grace, + Despite of suit, to see a lady's face. + Hold, Rosaline, this favour thou shalt wear, + And then the King will court thee for his dear; + Hold, take thou this, my sweet, and give me thine, + So shall Berowne take me for Rosaline. + And change you favours too; so shall your loves + Woo contrary, deceiv'd by these removes. + ROSALINE. Come on, then, wear the favours most in sight. + KATHARINE. But, in this changing, what is your intent? + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. The effect of my intent is to cross theirs. + They do it but in mocking merriment, + And mock for mock is only my intent. + Their several counsels they unbosom shall + To loves mistook, and so be mock'd withal + Upon the next occasion that we meet + With visages display'd to talk and greet. + ROSALINE. But shall we dance, if they desire us to't? + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. No, to the death, we will not move a foot, + Nor to their penn'd speech render we no grace; + But while 'tis spoke each turn away her face. + BOYET. Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart, + And quite divorce his memory from his part. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Therefore I do it; and I make no doubt + The rest will ne'er come in, if he be out. + There's no such sport as sport by sport o'erthrown, + To make theirs ours, and ours none but our own; + So shall we stay, mocking intended game, + And they well mock'd depart away with shame. + [Trumpet sounds within] + BOYET. The trumpet sounds; be mask'd; the maskers come. + [The LADIES mask] + + Enter BLACKAMOORS music, MOTH as Prologue, the + KING and his LORDS as maskers, in the guise of Russians + + MOTH. All hail, the richest heauties on the earth! + BOYET. Beauties no richer than rich taffeta. + MOTH. A holy parcel of the fairest dames + [The LADIES turn their backs to him] + That ever turn'd their- backs- to mortal views! + BEROWNE. Their eyes, villain, their eyes. + MOTH. That ever turn'd their eyes to mortal views! + Out- + BOYET. True; out indeed. + MOTH. Out of your favours, heavenly spirits, vouchsafe + Not to behold- + BEROWNE. Once to behold, rogue. + MOTH. Once to behold with your sun-beamed eyes- with your + sun-beamed eyes- + BOYET. They will not answer to that epithet; + You were best call it 'daughter-beamed eyes.' + MOTH. They do not mark me, and that brings me out. + BEROWNE. Is this your perfectness? Be gone, you rogue. + Exit MOTH + ROSALINE. What would these strangers? Know their minds, Boyet. + If they do speak our language, 'tis our will + That some plain man recount their purposes. + Know what they would. + BOYET. What would you with the Princess? + BEROWNE. Nothing but peace and gentle visitation. + ROSALINE. What would they, say they? + BOYET. Nothing but peace and gentle visitation. + ROSALINE. Why, that they have; and bid them so be gone. + BOYET. She says you have it, and you may be gone. + KING. Say to her we have measur'd many miles + To tread a measure with her on this grass. + BOYET. They say that they have measur'd many a mile + To tread a measure with you on this grass. + ROSALINE. It is not so. Ask them how many inches + Is in one mile? If they have measured many, + The measure, then, of one is eas'ly told. + BOYET. If to come hither you have measur'd miles, + And many miles, the Princess bids you tell + How many inches doth fill up one mile. + BEROWNE. Tell her we measure them by weary steps. + BOYET. She hears herself. + ROSALINE. How many weary steps + Of many weary miles you have o'ergone + Are numb'red in the travel of one mile? + BEROWNE. We number nothing that we spend for you; + Our duty is so rich, so infinite, + That we may do it still without accompt. + Vouchsafe to show the sunshine of your face, + That we, like savages, may worship it. + ROSALINE. My face is but a moon, and clouded too. + KING. Blessed are clouds, to do as such clouds do. + Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy stars, to shine, + Those clouds removed, upon our watery eyne. + ROSALINE. O vain petitioner! beg a greater matter; + Thou now requests but moonshine in the water. + KING. Then in our measure do but vouchsafe one change. + Thou bid'st me beg; this begging is not strange. + ROSALINE. Play, music, then. Nay, you must do it soon. + Not yet? No dance! Thus change I like the moon. + KING. Will you not dance? How come you thus estranged? + ROSALINE. You took the moon at full; but now she's changed. + KING. Yet still she is the Moon, and I the Man. + The music plays; vouchsafe some motion to it. + ROSALINE. Our ears vouchsafe it. + KING. But your legs should do it. + ROSALINE. Since you are strangers, and come here by chance, + We'll not be nice; take hands. We will not dance. + KING. Why take we hands then? + ROSALINE. Only to part friends. + Curtsy, sweet hearts; and so the measure ends. + KING. More measure of this measure; be not nice. + ROSALINE. We can afford no more at such a price. + KING. Price you yourselves. What buys your company? + ROSALINE. Your absence only. + KING. That can never be. + ROSALINE. Then cannot we be bought; and so adieu- + Twice to your visor and half once to you. + KING. If you deny to dance, let's hold more chat. + ROSALINE. In private then. + KING. I am best pleas'd with that. [They converse apart] + BEROWNE. White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Honey, and milk, and sugar; there is three. + BEROWNE. Nay, then, two treys, an if you grow so nice, + Metheglin, wort, and malmsey; well run dice! + There's half a dozen sweets. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Seventh sweet, adieu! + Since you can cog, I'll play no more with you. + BEROWNE. One word in secret. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Let it not be sweet. + BEROWNE. Thou grievest my gall. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Gall! bitter. + BEROWNE. Therefore meet. [They converse apart] + DUMAIN. Will you vouchsafe with me to change a word? + MARIA. Name it. + DUMAIN. Fair lady- + MARIA. Say you so? Fair lord- + Take that for your fair lady. + DUMAIN. Please it you, + As much in private, and I'll bid adieu. + [They converse apart] + KATHARINE. What, was your vizard made without a tongue? + LONGAVILLE. I know the reason, lady, why you ask. + KATHARINE. O for your reason! Quickly, sir; I long. + LONGAVILLE. You have a double tongue within your mask, + And would afford my speechless vizard half. + KATHARINE. 'Veal' quoth the Dutchman. Is not 'veal' a calf? + LONGAVILLE. A calf, fair lady! + KATHARINE. No, a fair lord calf. + LONGAVILLE. Let's part the word. + KATHARINE. No, I'll not be your half. + Take all and wean it; it may prove an ox. + LONGAVILLE. Look how you butt yourself in these sharp mocks! + Will you give horns, chaste lady? Do not so. + KATHARINE. Then die a calf, before your horns do grow. + LONGAVILLE. One word in private with you ere I die. + KATHARINE. Bleat softly, then; the butcher hears you cry. + [They converse apart] + BOYET. The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen + As is the razor's edge invisible, + Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen, + Above the sense of sense; so sensible + Seemeth their conference; their conceits have wings, + Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, swifter things. + ROSALINE. Not one word more, my maids; break off, break off. + BEROWNE. By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure scoff! + KING. Farewell, mad wenches; you have simple wits. + Exeunt KING, LORDS, and BLACKAMOORS + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Twenty adieus, my frozen Muscovits. + Are these the breed of wits so wondered at? + BOYET. Tapers they are, with your sweet breaths puff'd out. + ROSALINE. Well-liking wits they have; gross, gross; fat, fat. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. O poverty in wit, kingly-poor flout! + Will they not, think you, hang themselves to-night? + Or ever but in vizards show their faces? + This pert Berowne was out of count'nance quite. + ROSALINE. They were all in lamentable cases! + The King was weeping-ripe for a good word. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Berowne did swear himself out of all suit. + MARIA. Dumain was at my service, and his sword. + 'No point' quoth I; my servant straight was mute. + KATHARINE. Lord Longaville said I came o'er his heart; + And trow you what he call'd me? + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Qualm, perhaps. + KATHARINE. Yes, in good faith. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Go, sickness as thou art! + ROSALINE. Well, better wits have worn plain statute-caps. + But will you hear? The King is my love sworn. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. And quick Berowne hath plighted faith to me. + KATHARINE. And Longaville was for my service born. + MARIA. Dumain is mine, as sure as bark on tree. + BOYET. Madam, and pretty mistresses, give ear: + Immediately they will again be here + In their own shapes; for it can never be + They will digest this harsh indignity. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Will they return? + BOYET. They will, they will, God knows, + And leap for joy, though they are lame with blows; + Therefore, change favours; and, when they repair, + Blow like sweet roses in this summer air. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. How blow? how blow? Speak to be understood. + BOYET. Fair ladies mask'd are roses in their bud: + Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown, + Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do + If they return in their own shapes to woo? + ROSALINE. Good madam, if by me you'll be advis'd, + Let's mock them still, as well known as disguis'd. + Let us complain to them what fools were here, + Disguis'd like Muscovites, in shapeless gear; + And wonder what they were, and to what end + Their shallow shows and prologue vilely penn'd, + And their rough carriage so ridiculous, + Should be presented at our tent to us. + BOYET. Ladies, withdraw; the gallants are at hand. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Whip to our tents, as roes run o'er land. + Exeunt PRINCESS, ROSALINE, KATHARINE, and MARIA + + Re-enter the KING, BEROWNE, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN, + in their proper habits + + KING. Fair sir, God save you! Where's the Princess? + BOYET. Gone to her tent. Please it your Majesty + Command me any service to her thither? + KING. That she vouchsafe me audience for one word. + BOYET. I will; and so will she, I know, my lord. Exit + BEROWNE. This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons pease, + And utters it again when God doth please. + He is wit's pedlar, and retails his wares + At wakes, and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs; + And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know, + Have not the grace to grace it with such show. + This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve; + Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve. + 'A can carve too, and lisp; why this is he + That kiss'd his hand away in courtesy; + This is the ape of form, Monsieur the Nice, + That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice + In honourable terms; nay, he can sing + A mean most meanly; and in ushering, + Mend him who can. The ladies call him sweet; + The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet. + This is the flow'r that smiles on every one, + To show his teeth as white as whales-bone; + And consciences that will not die in debt + Pay him the due of 'honey-tongued Boyet.' + KING. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my heart, + That put Armado's page out of his part! + + Re-enter the PRINCESS, ushered by BOYET; ROSALINE, + MARIA, and KATHARINE + + BEROWNE. See where it comes! Behaviour, what wert thou + Till this man show'd thee? And what art thou now? + KING. All hail, sweet madam, and fair time of day! + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. 'Fair' in 'all hail' is foul, as I conceive. + KING. Construe my speeches better, if you may. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Then wish me better; I will give you leave. + KING. We came to visit you, and purpose now + To lead you to our court; vouchsafe it then. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. This field shall hold me, and so hold your vow: + Nor God, nor I, delights in perjur'd men. + KING. Rebuke me not for that which you provoke. + The virtue of your eye must break my oath. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. You nickname virtue: vice you should have + spoke; + For virtue's office never breaks men's troth. + Now by my maiden honour, yet as pure + As the unsullied lily, I protest, + A world of torments though I should endure, + I would not yield to be your house's guest; + So much I hate a breaking cause to be + Of heavenly oaths, vowed with integrity. + KING. O, you have liv'd in desolation here, + Unseen, unvisited, much to our shame. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Not so, my lord; it is not so, I swear; + We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game; + A mess of Russians left us but of late. + KING. How, madam! Russians! + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Ay, in truth, my lord; + Trim gallants, full of courtship and of state. + ROSALINE. Madam, speak true. It is not so, my lord. + My lady, to the manner of the days, + In courtesy gives undeserving praise. + We four indeed confronted were with four + In Russian habit; here they stayed an hour + And talk'd apace; and in that hour, my lord, + They did not bless us with one happy word. + I dare not call them fools; but this I think, + When they are thirsty, fools would fain have drink. + BEROWNE. This jest is dry to me. Fair gentle sweet, + Your wit makes wise things foolish; when we greet, + With eyes best seeing, heaven's fiery eye, + By light we lose light; your capacity + Is of that nature that to your huge store + Wise things seem foolish and rich things but poor. + ROSALINE. This proves you wise and rich, for in my eye- + BEROWNE. I am a fool, and full of poverty. + ROSALINE. But that you take what doth to you belong, + It were a fault to snatch words from my tongue. + BEROWNE. O, I am yours, and all that I possess. + ROSALINE. All the fool mine? + BEROWNE. I cannot give you less. + ROSALINE. Which of the vizards was it that you wore? + BEROWNE. Where? when? what vizard? Why demand you this? + ROSALINE. There, then, that vizard; that superfluous case + That hid the worse and show'd the better face. + KING. We were descried; they'll mock us now downright. + DUMAIN. Let us confess, and turn it to a jest. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Amaz'd, my lord? Why looks your Highness sad? + ROSALINE. Help, hold his brows! he'll swoon! Why look you pale? + Sea-sick, I think, coming from Muscovy. + BEROWNE. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. + Can any face of brass hold longer out? + Here stand I, lady- dart thy skill at me, + Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout, + Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance, + Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit; + And I will wish thee never more to dance, + Nor never more in Russian habit wait. + O, never will I trust to speeches penn'd, + Nor to the motion of a school-boy's tongue, + Nor never come in vizard to my friend, + Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's song. + Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, + Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce affectation, + Figures pedantical- these summer-flies + Have blown me full of maggot ostentation. + I do forswear them; and I here protest, + By this white glove- how white the hand, God knows!- + Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd + In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes. + And, to begin, wench- so God help me, law!- + My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw. + ROSALINE. Sans 'sans,' I pray you. + BEROWNE. Yet I have a trick + Of the old rage; bear with me, I am sick; + I'll leave it by degrees. Soft, let us see- + Write 'Lord have mercy on us' on those three; + They are infected; in their hearts it lies; + They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes. + These lords are visited; you are not free, + For the Lord's tokens on you do I see. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. No, they are free that gave these tokens to us. + BEROWNE. Our states are forfeit; seek not to undo us. + ROSALINE. It is not so; for how can this be true, + That you stand forfeit, being those that sue? + BEROWNE. Peace; for I will not have to do with you. + ROSALINE. Nor shall not, if I do as I intend. + BEROWNE. Speak for yourselves; my wit is at an end. + KING. Teach us, sweet madam, for our rude transgression + Some fair excuse. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. The fairest is confession. + Were not you here but even now, disguis'd? + KING. Madam, I was. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. And were you well advis'd? + KING. I was, fair madam. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. When you then were here, + What did you whisper in your lady's ear? + KING. That more than all the world I did respect her. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. When she shall challenge this, you will reject + her. + KING. Upon mine honour, no. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Peace, peace, forbear; + Your oath once broke, you force not to forswear. + KING. Despise me when I break this oath of mine. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. I will; and therefore keep it. Rosaline, + What did the Russian whisper in your ear? + ROSALINE. Madam, he swore that he did hold me dear + As precious eyesight, and did value me + Above this world; adding thereto, moreover, + That he would wed me, or else die my lover. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. God give thee joy of him! The noble lord + Most honourably doth uphold his word. + KING. What mean you, madam? By my life, my troth, + I never swore this lady such an oath. + ROSALINE. By heaven, you did; and, to confirm it plain, + You gave me this; but take it, sir, again. + KING. My faith and this the Princess I did give; + I knew her by this jewel on her sleeve. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Pardon me, sir, this jewel did she wear; + And Lord Berowne, I thank him, is my dear. + What, will you have me, or your pearl again? + BEROWNE. Neither of either; I remit both twain. + I see the trick on't: here was a consent, + Knowing aforehand of our merriment, + To dash it like a Christmas comedy. + Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany, + Some mumble-news, some trencher-knight, some Dick, + That smiles his cheek in years and knows the trick + To make my lady laugh when she's dispos'd, + Told our intents before; which once disclos'd, + The ladies did change favours; and then we, + Following the signs, woo'd but the sign of she. + Now, to our perjury to add more terror, + We are again forsworn in will and error. + Much upon this it is; [To BOYET] and might not you + Forestall our sport, to make us thus untrue? + Do not you know my lady's foot by th' squier, + And laugh upon the apple of her eye? + And stand between her back, sir, and the fire, + Holding a trencher, jesting merrily? + You put our page out. Go, you are allow'd; + Die when you will, a smock shall be your shroud. + You leer upon me, do you? There's an eye + Wounds like a leaden sword. + BOYET. Full merrily + Hath this brave manage, this career, been run. + BEROWNE. Lo, he is tilting straight! Peace; I have done. + + Enter COSTARD + + Welcome, pure wit! Thou part'st a fair fray. + COSTARD. O Lord, sir, they would know + Whether the three Worthies shall come in or no? + BEROWNE. What, are there but three? + COSTARD. No, sir; but it is vara fine, + For every one pursents three. + BEROWNE. And three times thrice is nine. + COSTARD. Not so, sir; under correction, sir, + I hope it is not so. + You cannot beg us, sir, I can assure you, sir; we know what we + know; + I hope, sir, three times thrice, sir- + BEROWNE. Is not nine. + COSTARD. Under correction, sir, we know whereuntil it doth amount. + BEROWNE. By Jove, I always took three threes for nine. + COSTARD. O Lord, sir, it were pity you should get your living by + reck'ning, sir. + BEROWNE. How much is it? + COSTARD. O Lord, sir, the parties themselves, the actors, sir, will + show whereuntil it doth amount. For mine own part, I am, as they + say, but to parfect one man in one poor man, Pompion the Great, + sir. + BEROWNE. Art thou one of the Worthies? + COSTARD. It pleased them to think me worthy of Pompey the Great; + for mine own part, I know not the degree of the Worthy; but I am + to stand for him. + BEROWNE. Go, bid them prepare. + COSTARD. We will turn it finely off, sir; we will take some care. + Exit COSTARD + KING. Berowne, they will shame us; let them not approach. + BEROWNE. We are shame-proof, my lord, and 'tis some policy + To have one show worse than the King's and his company. + KING. I say they shall not come. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Nay, my good lord, let me o'errule you now. + That sport best pleases that doth least know how; + Where zeal strives to content, and the contents + Dies in the zeal of that which it presents. + Their form confounded makes most form in mirth, + When great things labouring perish in their birth. + BEROWNE. A right description of our sport, my lord. + + Enter ARMADO + + ARMADO. Anointed, I implore so much expense of thy royal sweet + breath as will utter a brace of words. + [Converses apart with the KING, and delivers a paper] + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Doth this man serve God? + BEROWNE. Why ask you? + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. 'A speaks not like a man of God his making. + ARMADO. That is all one, my fair, sweet, honey monarch; for, I + protest, the schoolmaster is exceeding fantastical; too too vain, + too too vain; but we will put it, as they say, to fortuna de la + guerra. I wish you the peace of mind, most royal couplement! + Exit ARMADO + KING. Here is like to be a good presence of Worthies. He presents + Hector of Troy; the swain, Pompey the Great; the parish curate, + Alexander; Arinado's page, Hercules; the pedant, Judas + Maccabaeus. + And if these four Worthies in their first show thrive, + These four will change habits and present the other five. + BEROWNE. There is five in the first show. + KING. You are deceived, 'tis not so. + BEROWNE. The pedant, the braggart, the hedge-priest, the fool, and + the boy: + Abate throw at novum, and the whole world again + Cannot pick out five such, take each one in his vein. + KING. The ship is under sail, and here she comes amain. + + Enter COSTARD, armed for POMPEY + + COSTARD. I Pompey am- + BEROWNE. You lie, you are not he. + COSTARD. I Pompey am- + BOYET. With libbard's head on knee. + BEROWNE. Well said, old mocker; I must needs be friends with thee. + COSTARD. I Pompey am, Pompey surnam'd the Big- + DUMAIN. The Great. + COSTARD. It is Great, sir. + Pompey surnam'd the Great, + That oft in field, with targe and shield, did make my foe to + sweat; + And travelling along this coast, I bere am come by chance, + And lay my arms before the legs of this sweet lass of France. + + If your ladyship would say 'Thanks, Pompey,' I had done. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Great thanks, great Pompey. + COSTARD. 'Tis not so much worth; but I hope I was perfect. + I made a little fault in Great. + BEROWNE. My hat to a halfpenny, Pompey proves the best Worthy. + + Enter SIR NATHANIEL, for ALEXANDER + + NATHANIEL. When in the world I liv'd, I was the world's commander; + By east, west, north, and south, I spread my conquering might. + My scutcheon plain declares that I am Alisander- + BOYET. Your nose says, no, you are not; for it stands to right. + BEROWNE. Your nose smells 'no' in this, most tender-smelling + knight. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. The conqueror is dismay'd. Proceed, good + Alexander. + NATHANIEL. When in the world I liv'd, I was the world's commander- + BOYET. Most true, 'tis right, you were so, Alisander. + BEROWNE. Pompey the Great! + COSTARD. Your servant, and Costard. + BEROWNE. Take away the conqueror, take away Alisander. + COSTARD. [To Sir Nathaniel] O, Sir, you have overthrown Alisander + the conqueror! You will be scrap'd out of the painted cloth for + this. Your lion, that holds his poleaxe sitting on a close-stool, + will be given to Ajax. He will be the ninth Worthy. A conqueror + and afeard to speak! Run away for shame, Alisander. + [Sir Nathaniel retires] There, an't shall please you, a foolish + mild man; an honest man, look you, and soon dash'd. He is a + marvellous good neighbour, faith, and a very good bowler; but for + Alisander- alas! you see how 'tis- a little o'erparted. But there + are Worthies a-coming will speak their mind in some other sort. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Stand aside, good Pompey. + + Enter HOLOFERNES, for JUDAS; and MOTH, for HERCULES + + HOLOFERNES. Great Hercules is presented by this imp, + Whose club kill'd Cerberus, that three-headed canus; + And when be was a babe, a child, a shrimp, + Thus did he strangle serpents in his manus. + Quoniam he seemeth in minority, + Ergo I come with this apology. + Keep some state in thy exit, and vanish. [MOTH retires] + Judas I am- + DUMAIN. A Judas! + HOLOFERNES. Not Iscariot, sir. + Judas I am, ycliped Maccabaeus. + DUMAIN. Judas Maccabaeus clipt is plain Judas. + BEROWNE. A kissing traitor. How art thou prov'd Judas? + HOLOFERNES. Judas I am- + DUMAIN. The more shame for you, Judas! + HOLOFERNES. What mean you, sir? + BOYET. To make Judas hang himself. + HOLOFERNES. Begin, sir; you are my elder. + BEROWNE. Well followed: Judas was hanged on an elder. + HOLOFERNES. I will not be put out of countenance. + BEROWNE. Because thou hast no face. + HOLOFERNES. What is this? + BOYET. A cittern-head. + DUMAIN. The head of a bodkin. + BEROWNE. A death's face in a ring. + LONGAVILLE. The face of an old Roman coin, scarce seen. + BOYET. The pommel of Coesar's falchion. + DUMAIN. The carv'd-bone face on a flask. + BEROWNE. Saint George's half-cheek in a brooch. + DUMAIN. Ay, and in a brooch of lead. + BEROWNE. Ay, and worn in the cap of a tooth-drawer. And now, + forward; for we have put thee in countenance. + HOLOFERNES. You have put me out of countenance. + BEROWNE. False: we have given thee faces. + HOLOFERNES. But you have outfac'd them all. + BEROWNE. An thou wert a lion we would do so. + BOYET. Therefore, as he is an ass, let him go. + And so adieu, sweet Jude! Nay, why dost thou stay? + DUMAIN. For the latter end of his name. + BEROWNE. For the ass to the Jude; give it him- Jud-as, away. + HOLOFERNES. This is not generous, not gentle, not humble. + BOYET. A light for Monsieur Judas! It grows dark, he may stumble. + [HOLOFERNES retires] + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Alas, poor Maccabaeus, how hath he been baited! + + Enter ARMADO, for HECTOR + + BEROWNE. Hide thy head, Achilles; here comes Hector in arms. + DUMAIN. Though my mocks come home by me, I will now be merry. + KING. Hector was but a Troyan in respect of this. + BOYET. But is this Hector? + DUMAIN. I think Hector was not so clean-timber'd. + LONGAVILLE. His leg is too big for Hector's. + DUMAIN. More calf, certain. + BOYET. No; he is best indued in the small. + BEROWNE. This cannot be Hector. + DUMAIN. He's a god or a painter, for he makes faces. + ARMADO. The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty, + Gave Hector a gift- + DUMAIN. A gilt nutmeg. + BEROWNE. A lemon. + LONGAVILLE. Stuck with cloves. + DUMAIN. No, cloven. + ARMADO. Peace! + The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty, + Gave Hector a gift, the heir of Ilion; + A man so breathed that certain he would fight ye, + From morn till night out of his pavilion. + I am that flower- + DUMAIN. That mint. + LONGAVILLE. That columbine. + ARMADO. Sweet Lord Longaville, rein thy tongue. + LONGAVILLE. I must rather give it the rein, for it runs against + Hector. + DUMAIN. Ay, and Hector's a greyhound. + ARMADO. The sweet war-man is dead and rotten; sweet chucks, beat + not the bones of the buried; when he breathed, he was a man. But + I will forward with my device. [To the PRINCESS] Sweet royalty, + bestow on me the sense of hearing. + + [BEROWNE steps forth, and speaks to COSTARD] + + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Speak, brave Hector; we are much delighted. + ARMADO. I do adore thy sweet Grace's slipper. + BOYET. [Aside to DUMAIN] Loves her by the foot. + DUMAIN. [Aside to BOYET] He may not by the yard. + ARMADO. This Hector far surmounted Hannibal- + COSTARD. The party is gone, fellow Hector, she is gone; she is two + months on her way. + ARMADO. What meanest thou? + COSTARD. Faith, unless you play the honest Troyan, the poor wench + is cast away. She's quick; the child brags in her belly already; + 'tis yours. + ARMADO. Dost thou infamonize me among potentates? Thou shalt die. + COSTARD. Then shall Hector be whipt for Jaquenetta that is quick by + him, and hang'd for Pompey that is dead by him. + DUMAIN. Most rare Pompey! + BOYET. Renowned Pompey! + BEROWNE. Greater than Great! Great, great, great Pompey! Pompey the + Huge! + DUMAIN. Hector trembles. + BEROWNE. Pompey is moved. More Ates, more Ates! Stir them on! stir + them on! + DUMAIN. Hector will challenge him. + BEROWNE. Ay, if 'a have no more man's blood in his belly than will + sup a flea. + ARMADO. By the North Pole, I do challenge thee. + COSTARD. I will not fight with a pole, like a Northern man; I'll + slash; I'll do it by the sword. I bepray you, let me borrow my + arms again. + DUMAIN. Room for the incensed Worthies! + COSTARD. I'll do it in my shirt. + DUMAIN. Most resolute Pompey! + MOTH. Master, let me take you a buttonhole lower. Do you not see + Pompey is uncasing for the combat? What mean you? You will lose + your reputation. + ARMADO. Gentlemen and soldiers, pardon me; I will not combat in my + shirt. + DUMAIN. You may not deny it: Pompey hath made the challenge. + ARMADO. Sweet bloods, I both may and will. + BEROWNE. What reason have you for 't? + ARMADO. The naked truth of it is: I have no shirt; I go woolward + for penance. + BOYET. True, and it was enjoined him in Rome for want of linen; + since when, I'll be sworn, he wore none but a dishclout of + Jaquenetta's, and that 'a wears next his heart for a favour. + + Enter as messenger, MONSIEUR MARCADE + + MARCADE. God save you, madam! + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Welcome, Marcade; + But that thou interruptest our merriment. + MARCADE. I am sorry, madam; for the news I bring + Is heavy in my tongue. The King your father- + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Dead, for my life! + MARCADE. Even so; my tale is told. + BEROWNE. WOrthies away; the scene begins to cloud. + ARMADO. For mine own part, I breathe free breath. I have seen the + day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will + right myself like a soldier. Exeunt WORTHIES + KING. How fares your Majesty? + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night. + KING. Madam, not so; I do beseech you stay. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Prepare, I say. I thank you, gracious lords, + For all your fair endeavours, and entreat, + Out of a new-sad soul, that you vouchsafe + In your rich wisdom to excuse or hide + The liberal opposition of our spirits, + If over-boldly we have borne ourselves + In the converse of breath- your gentleness + Was guilty of it. Farewell, worthy lord. + A heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue. + Excuse me so, coming too short of thanks + For my great suit so easily obtain'd. + KING. The extreme parts of time extremely forms + All causes to the purpose of his speed; + And often at his very loose decides + That which long process could not arbitrate. + And though the mourning brow of progeny + Forbid the smiling courtesy of love + The holy suit which fain it would convince, + Yet, since love's argument was first on foot, + Let not the cloud of sorrow justle it + From what it purpos'd; since to wail friends lost + Is not by much so wholesome-profitable + As to rejoice at friends but newly found. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. I understand you not; my griefs are double. + BEROWNE. Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief; + And by these badges understand the King. + For your fair sakes have we neglected time, + Play'd foul play with our oaths; your beauty, ladies, + Hath much deformed us, fashioning our humours + Even to the opposed end of our intents; + And what in us hath seem'd ridiculous, + As love is full of unbefitting strains, + All wanton as a child, skipping and vain; + Form'd by the eye and therefore, like the eye, + Full of strange shapes, of habits, and of forms, + Varying in subjects as the eye doth roll + To every varied object in his glance; + Which parti-coated presence of loose love + Put on by us, if in your heavenly eyes + Have misbecom'd our oaths and gravities, + Those heavenly eyes that look into these faults + Suggested us to make. Therefore, ladies, + Our love being yours, the error that love makes + Is likewise yours. We to ourselves prove false, + By being once false for ever to be true + To those that make us both- fair ladies, you; + And even that falsehood, in itself a sin, + Thus purifies itself and turns to grace. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. We have receiv'd your letters, full of love; + Your favours, the ambassadors of love; + And, in our maiden council, rated them + At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy, + As bombast and as lining to the time; + But more devout than this in our respects + Have we not been; and therefore met your loves + In their own fashion, like a merriment. + DUMAIN. Our letters, madam, show'd much more than jest. + LONGAVILLE. So did our looks. + ROSALINE. We did not quote them so. + KING. Now, at the latest minute of the hour, + Grant us your loves. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. A time, methinks, too short + To make a world-without-end bargain in. + No, no, my lord, your Grace is perjur'd much, + Full of dear guiltiness; and therefore this, + If for my love, as there is no such cause, + You will do aught- this shall you do for me: + Your oath I will not trust; but go with speed + To some forlorn and naked hermitage, + Remote from all the pleasures of the world; + There stay until the twelve celestial signs + Have brought about the annual reckoning. + If this austere insociable life + Change not your offer made in heat of blood, + If frosts and fasts, hard lodging and thin weeds, + Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your love, + But that it bear this trial, and last love, + Then, at the expiration of the year, + Come, challenge me, challenge me by these deserts; + And, by this virgin palm now kissing thine, + I will be thine; and, till that instant, shut + My woeful self up in a mournful house, + Raining the tears of lamentation + For the remembrance of my father's death. + If this thou do deny, let our hands part, + Neither intitled in the other's heart. + KING. If this, or more than this, I would deny, + To flatter up these powers of mine with rest, + The sudden hand of death close up mine eye! + Hence hermit then, my heart is in thy breast. + BEROWNE. And what to me, my love? and what to me? + ROSALINE. You must he purged too, your sins are rack'd; + You are attaint with faults and perjury; + Therefore, if you my favour mean to get, + A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest, + But seek the weary beds of people sick. + DUMAIN. But what to me, my love? but what to me? + A wife? + KATHARINE. A beard, fair health, and honesty; + With threefold love I wish you all these three. + DUMAIN. O, shall I say I thank you, gentle wife? + KATHARINE. No so, my lord; a twelvemonth and a day + I'll mark no words that smooth-fac'd wooers say. + Come when the King doth to my lady come; + Then, if I have much love, I'll give you some. + DUMAIN. I'll serve thee true and faithfully till then. + KATHARINE. Yet swear not, lest ye be forsworn again. + LONGAVILLE. What says Maria? + MARIA. At the twelvemonth's end + I'll change my black gown for a faithful friend. + LONGAVILLE. I'll stay with patience; but the time is long. + MARIA. The liker you; few taller are so young. + BEROWNE. Studies my lady? Mistress, look on me; + Behold the window of my heart, mine eye, + What humble suit attends thy answer there. + Impose some service on me for thy love. + ROSALINE. Oft have I heard of you, my Lord Berowne, + Before I saw you; and the world's large tongue + Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks, + Full of comparisons and wounding flouts, + Which you on all estates will execute + That lie within the mercy of your wit. + To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain, + And therewithal to win me, if you please, + Without the which I am not to be won, + You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day + Visit the speechless sick, and still converse + With groaning wretches; and your task shall be, + With all the fierce endeavour of your wit, + To enforce the pained impotent to smile. + BEROWNE. To move wild laughter in the throat of death? + It cannot be; it is impossible; + Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. + ROSALINE. Why, that's the way to choke a gibing spirit, + Whose influence is begot of that loose grace + Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools. + A jest's prosperity lies in the ear + Of him that hears it, never in the tongue + Of him that makes it; then, if sickly ears, + Deaf'd with the clamours of their own dear groans, + Will hear your idle scorns, continue then, + And I will have you and that fault withal. + But if they will not, throw away that spirit, + And I shall find you empty of that fault, + Right joyful of your reformation. + BEROWNE. A twelvemonth? Well, befall what will befall, + I'll jest a twelvemonth in an hospital. + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. [ To the King] Ay, sweet my lord, and so I take + my leave. + KING. No, madam; we will bring you on your way. + BEROWNE. Our wooing doth not end like an old play: + Jack hath not Jill. These ladies' courtesy + Might well have made our sport a comedy. + KING. Come, sir, it wants a twelvemonth an' a day, + And then 'twill end. + BEROWNE. That's too long for a play. + + Re-enter ARMADO + + ARMADO. Sweet Majesty, vouchsafe me- + PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Was not that not Hector? + DUMAIN. The worthy knight of Troy. + ARMADO. I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave. I am a + votary: I have vow'd to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her + sweet love three year. But, most esteemed greatness, will you + hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled in + praise of the Owl and the Cuckoo? It should have followed in the + end of our show. + KING. Call them forth quickly; we will do so. + ARMADO. Holla! approach. + + Enter All + + This side is Hiems, Winter; this Ver, the Spring- the one + maintained by the Owl, th' other by the Cuckoo. Ver, begin. + + SPRING + When daisies pied and violets blue + And lady-smocks all silver-white + And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue + Do paint the meadows with delight, + The cuckoo then on every tree + Mocks married men, for thus sings he: + 'Cuckoo; + Cuckoo, cuckoo'- O word of fear, + Unpleasing to a married ear! + + When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, + And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks; + When turtles tread, and rooks and daws, + And maidens bleach their summer smocks; + The cuckoo then on every tree + Mocks married men, for thus sings he: + 'Cuckoo; + Cuckoo, cuckoo'- O word of fear, + Unpleasing to a married ear! + + + WINTER + + When icicles hang by the wall, + And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, + And Tom bears logs into the hall, + And milk comes frozen home in pail, + When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul, + Then nightly sings the staring owl: + 'Tu-who; + Tu-whit, Tu-who'- A merry note, + While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. + + When all aloud the wind doth blow, + And coughing drowns the parson's saw, + And birds sit brooding in the snow, + And Marian's nose looks red and raw, + When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, + Then nightly sings the staring owl: + 'Tu-who; + Tu-whit, To-who'- A merry note, + While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. + + ARMADO. The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo. + You that way: we this way. Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + + +1606 + +THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH + + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + DUNCAN, King of Scotland + MACBETH, Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, a general in the King's army + LADY MACBETH, his wife + MACDUFF, Thane of Fife, a nobleman of Scotland + LADY MACDUFF, his wife + MALCOLM, elder son of Duncan + DONALBAIN, younger son of Duncan + BANQUO, Thane of Lochaber, a general in the King's army + FLEANCE, his son + LENNOX, nobleman of Scotland + ROSS, nobleman of Scotland + MENTEITH nobleman of Scotland + ANGUS, nobleman of Scotland + CAITHNESS, nobleman of Scotland + SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces + YOUNG SIWARD, his son + SEYTON, attendant to Macbeth + HECATE, Queen of the Witches + The Three Witches + Boy, Son of Macduff + Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth + An English Doctor + A Scottish Doctor + A Sergeant + A Porter + An Old Man + The Ghost of Banquo and other Apparitions + Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murtherers, Attendants, + and Messengers + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: Scotland and England + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +A desert place. Thunder and lightning. + +Enter three Witches. + + FIRST WITCH. When shall we three meet again? + In thunder, lightning, or in rain? + SECOND WITCH. When the hurlyburly's done, + When the battle's lost and won. + THIRD WITCH. That will be ere the set of sun. + FIRST WITCH. Where the place? + SECOND WITCH. Upon the heath. + THIRD WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth. + FIRST WITCH. I come, Graymalkin. + ALL. Paddock calls. Anon! + Fair is foul, and foul is fair. + Hover through the fog and filthy air. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE II. +A camp near Forres. Alarum within. + +Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants, +meeting a bleeding Sergeant. + + DUNCAN. What bloody man is that? He can report, + As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt + The newest state. + MALCOLM. This is the sergeant + Who like a good and hardy soldier fought + 'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend! + Say to the King the knowledge of the broil + As thou didst leave it. + SERGEANT. Doubtful it stood, + As two spent swimmers that do cling together + And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald- + Worthy to be a rebel, for to that + The multiplying villainies of nature + Do swarm upon him -from the Western Isles + Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied; + And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, + Show'd like a rebel's whore. But all's too weak; + For brave Macbeth -well he deserves that name- + Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish'd steel, + Which smoked with bloody execution, + Like Valor's minion carved out his passage + Till he faced the slave, + Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, + Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, + And fix'd his head upon our battlements. + DUNCAN. O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman! + SERGEANT. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection + Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break, + So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come + Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark. + No sooner justice had, with valor arm'd, + Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, + But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, + With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men, + Began a fresh assault. + DUNCAN. Dismay'd not this + Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo.? + SERGEANT. Yes, + As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. + If I say sooth, I must report they were + As cannons overcharged with double cracks, + So they + Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe. + Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, + Or memorize another Golgotha, + I cannot tell- + But I am faint; my gashes cry for help. + DUNCAN. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds; + They smack of honor both. Go get him surgeons. + Exit Sergeant, attended. + Who comes here? + + Enter Ross. + + MALCOLM The worthy Thane of Ross. + LENNOX. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look + That seems to speak things strange. + ROSS. God save the King! + DUNCAN. Whence camest thou, worthy Thane? + ROSS. From Fife, great King, + Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky + And fan our people cold. + Norway himself, with terrible numbers, + Assisted by that most disloyal traitor + The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict, + Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, + Confronted him with self-comparisons, + Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm, + Curbing his lavish spirit; and, to conclude, + The victory fell on us. + DUNCAN. Great happiness! + ROSS. That now + Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition; + Nor would we deign him burial of his men + Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme's Inch, + Ten thousand dollars to our general use. + DUNCAN. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive + Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, + And with his former title greet Macbeth. + ROSS. I'll see it done. + DUNCAN. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. + Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE III. +A heath. Thunder. + +Enter the three Witches. + + FIRST WITCH. Where hast thou been, sister? + SECOND WITCH. Killing swine. + THIRD WITCH. Sister, where thou? + FIRST WITCH. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, + And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd. "Give me," quoth I. + "Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries. + Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master the Tiger; + But in a sieve I'll thither sail, + And, like a rat without a tail, + I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. + SECOND WITCH. I'll give thee a wind. + FIRST WITCH. Thou'rt kind. + THIRD WITCH. And I another. + FIRST WITCH. I myself have all the other, + And the very ports they blow, + All the quarters that they know + I' the shipman's card. + I will drain him dry as hay: + Sleep shall neither night nor day + Hang upon his penthouse lid; + He shall live a man forbid. + Weary se'nnights nine times nine + Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine; + Though his bark cannot be lost, + Yet it shall be tempest-toss'd. + Look what I have. + SECOND WITCH. Show me, show me. + FIRST WITCH. Here I have a pilot's thumb, + Wreck'd as homeward he did come. Drum within. + THIRD WITCH. A drum, a drum! + Macbeth doth come. + ALL. The weird sisters, hand in hand, + Posters of the sea and land, + Thus do go about, about, + Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, + And thrice again, to make up nine. + Peace! The charm's wound up. + + Enter Macbeth and Banquo. + + MACBETH. So foul and fair a day I have not seen. + BANQUO. How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these + So wither'd and so wild in their attire, + That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, + And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught + That man may question? You seem to understand me, + By each at once her choppy finger laying + Upon her skinny lips. You should be women, + And yet your beards forbid me to interpret + That you are so. + MACBETH. Speak, if you can. What are you? + FIRST WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! + SECOND WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! + THIRD WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter! + BANQUO. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear + Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth, + Are ye fantastical or that indeed + Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner + You greet with present grace and great prediction + Of noble having and of royal hope, + That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not. + If you can look into the seeds of time, + And say which grain will grow and which will not, + Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear + Your favors nor your hate. + FIRST WITCH. Hail! + SECOND WITCH. Hail! + THIRD WITCH. Hail! + FIRST WITCH. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. + SECOND WITCH. Not so happy, yet much happier. + THIRD WITCH. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. + So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo! + FIRST WITCH. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail! + MACBETH. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. + By Sinel's death I know I am Thane of Glamis; + But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives, + A prosperous gentleman; and to be King + Stands not within the prospect of belief, + No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence + You owe this strange intelligence, or why + Upon this blasted heath you stop our way + With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you. + Witches vanish. + BANQUO. The earth hath bubbles as the water has, + And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd? + MACBETH. Into the air, and what seem'd corporal melted + As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd! + BANQUO. Were such things here as we do speak about? + Or have we eaten on the insane root + That takes the reason prisoner? + MACBETH. Your children shall be kings. + BANQUO. You shall be King. + MACBETH. And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so? + BANQUO. To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here? + + Enter Ross and Angus. + + ROSS. The King hath happily received, Macbeth, + The news of thy success; and when he reads + Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight, + His wonders and his praises do contend + Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that, + In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day, + He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, + Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, + Strange images of death. As thick as hail + Came post with post, and every one did bear + Thy praises in his kingdom's great defense, + And pour'd them down before him. + ANGUS. We are sent + To give thee, from our royal master, thanks; + Only to herald thee into his sight, + Not pay thee. + ROSS. And for an earnest of a greater honor, + He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor. + In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane, + For it is thine. + BANQUO. What, can the devil speak true? + MACBETH. The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me + In borrow'd robes? + ANGUS. Who was the Thane lives yet, + But under heavy judgement bears that life + Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined + With those of Norway, or did line the rebel + With hidden help and vantage, or that with both + He labor'd in his country's wreck, I know not; + But treasons capital, confess'd and proved, + Have overthrown him. + MACBETH. [Aside.] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor! + The greatest is behind. [To Ross and Angus] Thanks for your + pains. + [Aside to Banquo] Do you not hope your children shall be kings, + When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me + Promised no less to them? + BANQUO. [Aside to Macbeth.] That, trusted home, + Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, + Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange; + And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, + The instruments of darkness tell us truths, + Win us with honest trifles, to betray's + In deepest consequence- + Cousins, a word, I pray you. + MACBETH. [Aside.] Two truths are told, + As happy prologues to the swelling act + Of the imperial theme-I thank you, gentlemen. + [Aside.] This supernatural soliciting + Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill, + Why hath it given me earnest of success, + Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor. + If good, why do I yield to that suggestion + Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair + And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, + Against the use of nature? Present fears + Are less than horrible imaginings: + My thought, whose murther yet is but fantastical, + Shakes so my single state of man that function + Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is + But what is not. + BANQUO. Look, how our partner's rapt. + MACBETH. [Aside.] If chance will have me King, why, chance may + crown me + Without my stir. + BANQUO. New honors come upon him, + Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould + But with the aid of use. + MACBETH. [Aside.] Come what come may, + Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. + BANQUO. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. + MACBETH. Give me your favor; my dull brain was wrought + With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains + Are register'd where every day I turn + The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King. + Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time, + The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak + Our free hearts each to other. + BANQUO. Very gladly. + MACBETH. Till then, enough. Come, friends. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE IV. +Forres. The palace. + +Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, and Attendants. + + DUNCAN. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not + Those in commission yet return'd? + MALCOLM. My liege, + They are not yet come back. But I have spoke + With one that saw him die, who did report + That very frankly he confess'd his treasons, + Implored your Highness' pardon, and set forth + A deep repentance. Nothing in his life + Became him like the leaving it; he died + As one that had been studied in his death, + To throw away the dearest thing he owed + As 'twere a careless trifle. + DUNCAN. There's no art + To find the mind's construction in the face: + He was a gentleman on whom I built + An absolute trust. + + Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus. + + O worthiest cousin! + The sin of my ingratitude even now + Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before, + That swiftest wing of recompense is slow + To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, + That the proportion both of thanks and payment + Might have been mine! Only I have left to say, + More is thy due than more than all can pay. + MACBETH. The service and the loyalty lowe, + In doing it, pays itself. Your Highness' part + Is to receive our duties, and our duties + Are to your throne and state, children and servants, + Which do but what they should, by doing everything + Safe toward your love and honor. + DUNCAN. Welcome hither. + I have begun to plant thee, and will labor + To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo, + That hast no less deserved, nor must be known + No less to have done so; let me infold thee + And hold thee to my heart. + BANQUO. There if I grow, + The harvest is your own. + DUNCAN. My plenteous joys, + Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves + In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, + And you whose places are the nearest, know + We will establish our estate upon + Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter + The Prince of Cumberland; which honor must + Not unaccompanied invest him only, + But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine + On all deservers. From hence to Inverness, + And bind us further to you. + MACBETH. The rest is labor, which is not used for you. + I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful + The hearing of my wife with your approach; + So humbly take my leave. + DUNCAN. My worthy Cawdor! + MACBETH. [Aside.] The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step + On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, + For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; + Let not light see my black and deep desires. + The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be + Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. Exit. + DUNCAN. True, worthy Banquo! He is full so valiant, + And in his commendations I am fed; + It is a banquet to me. Let's after him, + Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome. + It is a peerless kinsman. Flourish. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE V. +Inverness. Macbeth's castle. + +Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter. + + LADY MACBETH. "They met me in the day of success, and I have + learned by the perfectest report they have more in them than + mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them + further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. + Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the + King, who all-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor'; by which title, + before, these weird sisters saluted me and referred me to the + coming on of time with 'Hail, King that shalt be!' This have I + thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, + that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being + ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, + and farewell." + + Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be + What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature. + It is too full o' the milk of human kindness + To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great; + Art not without ambition, but without + The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, + That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, + And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'ldst have, great Glamis, + That which cries, "Thus thou must do, if thou have it; + And that which rather thou dost fear to do + Than wishest should be undone." Hie thee hither, + That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, + And chastise with the valor of my tongue + All that impedes thee from the golden round, + Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem + To have thee crown'd withal. + + Enter a Messenger. + + What is your tidings? + MESSENGER. The King comes here tonight. + LADY MACBETH. Thou'rt mad to say it! + Is not thy master with him? who, were't so, + Would have inform'd for preparation. + MESSENGER. So please you, it is true; our Thane is coming. + One of my fellows had the speed of him, + Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more + Than would make up his message. + LADY MACBETH. Give him tending; + He brings great news. Exit Messenger. + The raven himself is hoarse + That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan + Under my battlements. Come, you spirits + That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here + And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full + Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, + Stop up the access and passage to remorse, + That no compunctious visitings of nature + Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between + The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts, + And take my milk for gall, your murthering ministers, + Wherever in your sightless substances + You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, + And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell + That my keen knife see not the wound it makes + Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark + To cry, "Hold, hold!" + + Enter Macbeth. + + Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor! + Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! + Thy letters have transported me beyond + This ignorant present, and I feel now + The future in the instant. + MACBETH. My dearest love, + Duncan comes here tonight. + LADY MACBETH. And when goes hence? + MACBETH. Tomorrow, as he purposes. + LADY MACBETH. O, never + Shall sun that morrow see! + Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men + May read strange matters. To beguile the time, + Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, + Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower, + But be the serpent under it. He that's coming + Must be provided for; and you shall put + This night's great business into my dispatch, + Which shall to all our nights and days to come + Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. + MACBETH. We will speak further. + LADY MACBETH. Only look up clear; + To alter favor ever is to fear. + Leave all the rest to me. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE VI. +Before Macbeth's castle. Hautboys and torches. + +Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, +and Attendants. + + DUNCAN. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air + Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself + Unto our gentle senses. + BANQUO. This guest of summer, + The temple-haunting martlet, does approve + By his loved mansionry that the heaven's breath + Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze, + Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird + Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle; + Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed + The air is delicate. + + Enter Lady Macbeth. + + DUNCAN. See, see, our honor'd hostess! + The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, + Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you + How you shall bid God 'ield us for your pains, + And thank us for your trouble. + LADY MACBETH. All our service + In every point twice done, and then done double, + Were poor and single business to contend + Against those honors deep and broad wherewith + Your Majesty loads our house. For those of old, + And the late dignities heap'd up to them, + We rest your hermits. + DUNCAN. Where's the Thane of Cawdor? + We coursed him at the heels and had a purpose + To be his purveyor; but he rides well, + And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him + To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, + We are your guest tonight. + LADY MACBETH. Your servants ever + Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, + To make their audit at your Highness' pleasure, + Still to return your own. + DUNCAN. Give me your hand; + Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly, + And shall continue our graces towards him. + By your leave, hostess. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE VII +Macbeth's castle. Hautboys and torches. + +Enter a Sewer and divers Servants with dishes and service, who pass over +the stage. Then enter Macbeth. + + MACBETH. If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well + It were done quickly. If the assassination + Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, + With his surcease, success; that but this blow + Might be the be-all and the end-all -here, + But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, + We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases + We still have judgement here, that we but teach + Bloody instructions, which being taught return + To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice + Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice + To our own lips. He's here in double trust: + First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, + Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, + Who should against his murtherer shut the door, + Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan + Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been + So clear in his great office, that his virtues + Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against + The deep damnation of his taking-off, + And pity, like a naked new-born babe + Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin horsed + Upon the sightless couriers of the air, + Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, + That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur + To prick the sides of my intent, but only + Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself + And falls on the other. + + Enter Lady Macbeth. + + How now, what news? + LADY MACBETH. He has almost supp'd. Why have you left the chamber? + MACBETH. Hath he ask'd for me? + LADY MACBETH. Know you not he has? + MACBETH. We will proceed no further in this business: + He hath honor'd me of late, and I have bought + Golden opinions from all sorts of people, + Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, + Not cast aside so soon. + LADY MACBETH. Was the hope drunk + Wherein you dress'd yourself? Hath it slept since? + And wakes it now, to look so green and pale + At what it did so freely? From this time + Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard + To be the same in thine own act and valor + As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that + Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life + And live a coward in thine own esteem, + Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would" + Like the poor cat i' the adage? + MACBETH. Prithee, peace! + I dare do all that may become a man; + Who dares do more is none. + LADY MACBETH. What beast wast then + That made you break this enterprise to me? + When you durst do it, then you were a man, + And, to be more than what you were, you would + Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place + Did then adhere, and yet you would make both. + They have made themselves, and that their fitness now + Does unmake you. I have given suck and know + How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me- + I would, while it was smiling in my face, + Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums + And dash'd the brains out had I so sworn as you + Have done to this. + MACBETH. If we should fail? + LADY MACBETH. We fail? + But screw your courage to the sticking-place + And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep- + Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey + Soundly invite him- his two chamberlains + Will I with wine and wassail so convince + That memory, the warder of the brain, + Shall be a fume and the receipt of reason + A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep + Their drenched natures lie as in a death, + What cannot you and I perform upon + The unguarded Duncan? What not put upon + His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt + Of our great quell? + MACBETH. Bring forth men-children only, + For thy undaunted mettle should compose + Nothing but males. Will it not be received, + When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two + Of his own chamber and used their very daggers, + That they have done't? + LADY MACBETH. Who dares receive it other, + As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar + Upon his death? + MACBETH. I am settled and bend up + Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. + Away, and mock the time with fairest show: + False face must hide what the false heart doth know. + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +Inverness. Court of Macbeth's castle. + +Enter Banquo and Fleance, bearing a torch before him. + + BANQUO. How goes the night, boy? + FLEANCE. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. + BANQUO. And she goes down at twelve. + FLEANCE. I take't 'tis later, sir. + BANQUO. Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven, + Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. + A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, + And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers, + Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature + Gives way to in repose! + + Enter Macbeth and a Servant with a torch. + + Give me my sword. + Who's there? + MACBETH. A friend. + BANQUO. What, sir, not yet at rest? The King's abed. + He hath been in unusual pleasure and + Sent forth great largess to your offices. + This diamond he greets your wife withal, + By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up + In measureless content. + MACBETH. Being unprepared, + Our will became the servant to defect, + Which else should free have wrought. + BANQUO. All's well. + I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: + To you they have show'd some truth. + MACBETH. I think not of them; + Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, + We would spend it in some words upon that business, + If you would grant the time. + BANQUO. At your kind'st leisure. + MACBETH. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, + It shall make honor for you. + BANQUO. So I lose none + In seeking to augment it, but still keep + My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, + I shall be counsel'd. + MACBETH. Good repose the while. + BANQUO. Thanks, sir, the like to you. + Exeunt Banquo. and Fleance. + MACBETH. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, + She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. Exit Servant. + Is this a dagger which I see before me, + The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. + I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. + Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible + To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but + A dagger of the mind, a false creation, + Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? + I see thee yet, in form as palpable + As this which now I draw. + Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going, + And such an instrument I was to use. + Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, + Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still, + And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, + Which was not so before. There's no such thing: + It is the bloody business which informs + Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world + Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse + The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates + Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd Murther, + Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, + Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, + With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design + Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, + Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear + Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, + And take the present horror from the time, + Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives; + Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. + A bell rings. + I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. + Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell + That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. Exit. + + + + +SCENE II. +The same. + +Enter Lady Macbeth. + + LADY MACBETH. That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; + What hath quench'd them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace! + It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, + Which gives the stern'st good night. He is about it: + The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms + Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugg'd their possets + That death and nature do contend about them, + Whether they live or die. + MACBETH. [Within.] Who's there' what, ho! + LADY MACBETH. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked + And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed + Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; + He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled + My father as he slept, I had done't. + + Enter Macbeth, + + My husband! + MACBETH. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? + LADY MACBETH. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. + Did not you speak? + MACBETH. When? + LADY MACBETH. Now. + MACBETH. As I descended? + LADY MACBETH. Ay. + MACBETH. Hark! + Who lies i' the second chamber? + LADY MACBETH. Donalbain. + MACBETH. This is a sorry sight. [Looks on his hands. + LADY MACBETH. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. + MACBETH. There's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one cried, + "Murther!" + That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them, + But they did say their prayers and address'd them + Again to sleep. + LADY MACBETH. There are two lodged together. + MACBETH. One cried, "God bless us!" and "Amen" the other, + As they had seen me with these hangman's hands. + Listening their fear, I could not say "Amen," + When they did say, "God bless us!" + LADY MACBETH. Consider it not so deeply. + MACBETH. But wherefore could not I pronounce "Amen"? + I had most need of blessing, and "Amen" + Stuck in my throat. + LADY MACBETH. These deeds must not be thought + After these ways; so, it will make us mad. + MACBETH. I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more! + Macbeth does murther sleep" -the innocent sleep, + Sleep that knits up the ravel'd sleave of care, + The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, + Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, + Chief nourisher in life's feast- + LADY MACBETH. What do you mean? + MACBETH. Still it cried, "Sleep no more!" to all the house; + "Glamis hath murther'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor + Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more." + LADY MACBETH. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy Thane, + You do unbend your noble strength, to think + So brainsickly of things. Go, get some water + And wash this filthy witness from your hand. + Why did you bring these daggers from the place? + They must lie there. Go carry them, and smear + The sleepy grooms with blood. + MACBETH. I'll go no more. + I am afraid to think what I have done; + Look on't again I dare not. + LADY MACBETH. Infirm of purpose! + Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead + Are but as pictures; 'tis the eye of childhood + That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, + I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, + For it must seem their guilt. Exit. Knocking within. + MACBETH. Whence is that knocking? + How is't with me, when every noise appals me? + What hands are here? Ha, they pluck out mine eyes! + Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood + Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather + The multitudinous seas incarnadine, + Making the green one red. + + Re-enter Lady Macbeth. + + LADY MACBETH. My hands are of your color, but I shame + To wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.] I hear knocking + At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber. + A little water clears us of this deed. + How easy is it then! Your constancy + Hath left you unattended. [Knocking within.] Hark, more knocking. + Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us + And show us to be watchers. Be not lost + So poorly in your thoughts. + MACBETH. To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself. + Knocking within. + Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst! + Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE III. +The same. + +Enter a Porter. Knocking within. + + PORTER. Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of Hell + Gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking within.] + Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Belzebub? Here's + a farmer that hanged himself on th' expectation of plenty. Come + in time! Have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat fort. + [Knocking within.] Knock, knock! Who's there, in th' other + devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator that could swear in + both the scales against either scale, who committed treason + enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O, + come in, equivocator. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! + Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for + stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor; here you may + roast your goose. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock! Never at + quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I'll + devil-porter it no further. I had thought to have let in some of + all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting + bonfire. [Knocking within.] Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the + porter. + Opens the gate. + + Enter Macduff and Lennox. + + MACDUFF. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, + That you do lie so late? + PORTER. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock; and + drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things. + MACDUFF. What three things does drink especially provoke? + PORTER. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, + it provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes + away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an + equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets + him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him and disheartens + him; makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, + equivocates him in a sleep, and giving him the lie, leaves him. + MACDUFF. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night. + PORTER. That it did, sir, i' the very throat on me; but requited + him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for him, though + he took up my legs sometime, yet I made shift to cast him. + MACDUFF. Is thy master stirring? + + Enter Macbeth. + + Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes. + LENNOX. Good morrow, noble sir. + MACBETH. morrow, both. + MACDUFF. Is the King stirring, worthy Thane? + MACBETH. Not yet. + MACDUFF. He did command me to call timely on him; + I have almost slipp'd the hour. + MACBETH. I'll bring you to him. + MACDUFF. I know this is a joyful trouble to you, + But yet 'tis one. + MACBETH. The labor we delight in physics pain. + This is the door. + MACDUFF I'll make so bold to call, + For 'tis my limited service. Exit. + LENNOX. Goes the King hence today? + MACBETH. He does; he did appoint so. + LENNOX. The night has been unruly. Where we lay, + Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, + Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams of death, + And prophesying with accents terrible + Of dire combustion and confused events + New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obscure bird + Clamor'd the livelong night. Some say the earth + Was feverous and did shake. + MACBETH. 'Twas a rough fight. + LENNOX. My young remembrance cannot parallel + A fellow to it. + + Re-enter Macduff. + + MACDUFF. O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart + Cannot conceive nor name thee. + MACBETH. LENNOX. What's the matter? + MACDUFF. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. + Most sacrilegious murther hath broke ope + The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence + The life o' the building. + MACBETH. What is't you say? the life? + LENNOX. Mean you his Majesty? + MACDUFF. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight + With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak; + See, and then speak yourselves. + Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox. + Awake, awake! + Ring the alarum bell. Murther and treason! + Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm, awake! + Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, + And look on death itself! Up, up, and see + The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo! + As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites + To countenance this horror! Ring the bell. Bell rings. + + Enter Lady Macbeth. + + LADY MACBETH. What's the business, + That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley + The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak! + MACDUFF. O gentle lady, + 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak: + The repetition in a woman's ear + Would murther as it fell. + + Enter Banquo. + + O Banquo, Banquo! + Our royal master's murther'd. + LADY MACBETH. Woe, alas! + What, in our house? + BANQUO. Too cruel anywhere. + Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, + And say it is not so. + + Re-enter Macbeth and Lennox, with Ross. + + MACBETH. Had I but died an hour before this chance, + I had lived a blessed time, for from this instant + There's nothing serious in mortality. + All is but toys; renown and grace is dead, + The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees + Is left this vault to brag of. + + Enter Malcolm and Donalbain. + + DONALBAIN. What is amiss? + MACBETH. You are, and do not know't. + The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood + Is stopped, the very source of it is stopp'd. + MACDUFF. Your royal father's murther'd. + MALCOLM. O, by whom? + LENNOX. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done't. + Their hands and faces were all badged with blood; + So were their daggers, which unwiped we found + Upon their pillows. + They stared, and were distracted; no man's life + Was to be trusted with them. + MACBETH. O, yet I do repent me of my fury, + That I did kill them. + MACDUFF. Wherefore did you so? + MACBETH. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious, + Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man. + The expedition of my violent love + Outrun the pauser reason. Here lay Duncan, + His silver skin laced with his golden blood, + And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature + For ruin's wasteful entrance; there, the murtherers, + Steep'd in the colors of their trade, their daggers + Unmannerly breech'd with gore. Who could refrain, + That had a heart to love, and in that heart + Courage to make 's love known? + LADY MACBETH. Help me hence, ho! + MACDUFF. Look to the lady. + MALCOLM. [Aside to Donalbain.] Why do we hold our tongues, + That most may claim this argument for ours? + DONALBAIN. [Aside to Malcolm.] What should be spoken here, where + our fate, + Hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us? + Let's away, + Our tears are not yet brew'd. + MALCOLM. [Aside to Donalbain.] Nor our strong sorrow + Upon the foot of motion. + BANQUO. Look to the lady. + Lady Macbeth is carried out. + And when we have our naked frailties hid, + That suffer in exposure, let us meet + And question this most bloody piece of work + To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us. + In the great hand of God I stand, and thence + Against the undivulged pretense I fight + Of treasonous malice. + MACDUFF. And so do I. + ALL. So all. + MACBETH. Let's briefly put on manly readiness + And meet i' the hall together. + ALL. Well contented. + Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain. + MALCOLM. What will you do? Let's not consort with them. + To show an unfelt sorrow is an office + Which the false man does easy. I'll to England. + DONALBAIN. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune + Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are + There's daggers in men's smiles; the near in blood, + The nearer bloody. + MALCOLM. This murtherous shaft that's shot + Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way + Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse; + And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, + But shift away. There's warrant in that theft + Which steals itself when there's no mercy left. + Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE IV. +Outside Macbeth's castle. + +Enter Ross with an Old Man. + + OLD MAN. Threescore and ten I can remember well, + Within the volume of which time I have seen + Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night + Hath trifled former knowings. + ROSS. Ah, good father, + Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man's act, + Threaten his bloody stage. By the clock 'tis day, + And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp. + Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame, + That darkness does the face of earth entomb, + When living light should kiss it? + OLD MAN. 'Tis unnatural, + Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last + A falcon towering in her pride of place + Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd. + ROSS. And Duncan's horses-a thing most strange and certain- + Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, + Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, + Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make + War with mankind. + OLD MAN. 'Tis said they eat each other. + ROSS. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes + That look'd upon't. + + Enter Macduff. + + Here comes the good Macduff. + How goes the world, sir, now? + MACDUFF. Why, see you not? + ROSS. Is't known who did this more than bloody deed? + MACDUFF. Those that Macbeth hath slain. + ROSS. Alas, the day! + What good could they pretend? + MACDUFF. They were suborn'd: + Malcolm and Donalbain, the King's two sons, + Are stol'n away and fled, which puts upon them + Suspicion of the deed. + ROSS. 'Gainst nature still! + Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up + Thine own life's means! Then 'tis most like + The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. + MACDUFF. He is already named, and gone to Scone + To be invested. + ROSS. Where is Duncan's body? + MACDUFF. Carried to Colmekill, + The sacred storehouse of his predecessors + And guardian of their bones. + ROSS. Will you to Scone? + MACDUFF. No, cousin, I'll to Fife. + ROSS. Well, I will thither. + MACDUFF. Well, may you see things well done there. + Adieu, + Lest our old robes sit easier than our new! + ROSS. Farewell, father. + OLD MAN. God's benison go with you and with those + That would make good of bad and friends of foes! + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +Forres. The palace. + +Enter Banquo. + + BANQUO. Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, + As the weird women promised, and I fear + Thou play'dst most foully for't; yet it was said + It should not stand in thy posterity, + But that myself should be the root and father + Of many kings. If there come truth from them + (As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine) + Why, by the verities on thee made good, + May they not be my oracles as well + And set me up in hope? But hush, no more. + + Sennet sounds. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady Macbeth + as Queen, Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants. + + MACBETH. Here's our chief guest. + LADY MACBETH. If he had been forgotten, + It had been as a gap in our great feast + And all thing unbecoming. + MACBETH. Tonight we hold a solemn supper, sir, + And I'll request your presence. + BANQUO. Let your Highness + Command upon me, to the which my duties + Are with a most indissoluble tie + Forever knit. + MACBETH. Ride you this afternoon? + BANQUO. Ay, my good lord. + MACBETH. We should have else desired your good advice, + Which still hath been both grave and prosperous + In this day's council; but we'll take tomorrow. + Is't far you ride'! + BANQUO. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time + 'Twixt this and supper. Go not my horse the better, + I must become a borrower of the night + For a dark hour or twain. + MACBETH. Fail not our feast. + BANQUO. My lord, I will not. + MACBETH. We hear our bloody cousins are bestow'd + In England and in Ireland, not confessing + Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers + With strange invention. But of that tomorrow, + When therewithal we shall have cause of state + Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse; adieu, + Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you? + BANQUO. Ay, my good lord. Our time does call upon 's. + MACBETH. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot, + And so I do commend you to their backs. + Farewell. Exit Banquo. + Let every man be master of his time + Till seven at night; to make society + The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself + Till supper time alone. While then, God be with you! + Exeunt all but Macbeth and an Attendant. + Sirrah, a word with you. Attend those men + Our pleasure? + ATTENDANT. They are, my lord, without the palace gate. + MACBETH. Bring them before us. Exit Attendant. + To be thus is nothing, + But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo. + Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature + Reigns that which would be fear'd. 'Tis much he dares, + And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, + He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor + To act in safety. There is none but he + Whose being I do fear; and under him + My genius is rebuked, as it is said + Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters + When first they put the name of King upon me + And bade them speak to him; then prophet-like + They hail'd him father to a line of kings. + Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown + And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, + Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand, + No son of mine succeeding. If't be so, + For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind, + For them the gracious Duncan have I murther'd, + Put rancors in the vessel of my peace + Only for them, and mine eternal jewel + Given to the common enemy of man, + To make them kings -the seed of Banquo kings! + Rather than so, come, Fate, into the list, + And champion me to the utterance! Who's there? + + Re-enter Attendant, with two Murtherers. + + Now go to the door, and stay there till we call. + Exit Attendant. + Was it not yesterday we spoke together? + FIRST MURTHERER. It was, so please your Highness. + MACBETH. Well then, now + Have you consider'd of my speeches? Know + That it was he in the times past which held you + So under fortune, which you thought had been + Our innocent self? This I made good to you + In our last conference, pass'd in probation with you: + How you were borne in hand, how cross'd, the instruments, + Who wrought with them, and all things else that might + To half a soul and to a notion crazed + Say, "Thus did Banquo." + FIRST MURTHERER. You made it known to us. + MACBETH. I did so, and went further, which is now + Our point of second meeting. Do you find + Your patience so predominant in your nature, + That you can let this go? Are you so gospel'd, + To pray for this good man and for his issue, + Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave + And beggar'd yours forever? + FIRST MURTHERER. We are men, my liege. + MACBETH. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men, + As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, + Shoughs, waterrugs, and demi-wolves are clept + All by the name of dogs. The valued file + Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, + The housekeeper, the hunter, every one + According to the gift which bounteous nature + Hath in him closed, whereby he does receive + Particular addition, from the bill + That writes them all alike; and so of men. + Now if you have a station in the file, + Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say it, + And I will put that business in your bosoms + Whose execution takes your enemy off, + Grapples you to the heart and love of us, + Who wear our health but sickly in his life, + Which in his death were perfect. + SECOND MURTHERER. I am one, my liege, + Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world + Have so incensed that I am reckless what + I do to spite the world. + FIRST MURTHERER. And I another + So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune, + That I would set my life on any chance, + To mend it or be rid on't. + MACBETH. Both of you + Know Banquo was your enemy. + BOTH MURTHERERS. True, my lord. + MACBETH. So is he mine, and in such bloody distance + That every minute of his being thrusts + Against my near'st of life; and though I could + With barefaced power sweep him from my sight + And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, + For certain friends that are both his and mine, + Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall + Who I myself struck down. And thence it is + That I to your assistance do make love, + Masking the business from the common eye + For sundry weighty reasons. + SECOND MURTHERER. We shall, my lord, + Perform what you command us. + FIRST MURTHERER. Though our lives- + MACBETH. Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most + I will advise you where to plant yourselves, + Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time, + The moment on't; fort must be done tonight + And something from the palace (always thought + That I require a clearness); and with him- + To leave no rubs nor botches in the work- + Fleance his son, that keeps him company, + Whose absence is no less material to me + Than is his father's, must embrace the fate + Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart; + I'll come to you anon. + BOTH MURTHERERS. We are resolved, my lord. + MACBETH. I'll call upon you straight. Abide within. + Exeunt Murtherers. + It is concluded: Banquo, thy soul's flight, + If it find heaven, must find it out tonight. Exit. + + + + +SCENE II. +The palace. + +Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant. + + LADY MACBETH. Is Banquo gone from court? + SERVANT. Ay, madam, but returns again tonight. + LADY MACBETH. Say to the King I would attend his leisure + For a few words. + SERVANT. Madam, I will. Exit. + LADY MACBETH. Nought's had, all's spent, + Where our desire is got without content. + 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy + Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. + + Enter Macbeth. + + How now, my lord? Why do you keep alone, + Of sorriest fancies your companions making, + Using those thoughts which should indeed have died + With them they think on? Things without all remedy + Should be without regard. What's done is done. + MACBETH. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it. + She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice + Remains in danger of her former tooth. + But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, + Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep + In the affliction of these terrible dreams + That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead, + Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, + Than on the torture of the mind to lie + In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave; + After life's fitful fever he sleeps well. + Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison, + Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, + Can touch him further. + LADY MACBETH. Come on, + Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks; + Be bright and jovial among your guests tonight. + MACBETH. So shall I, love, and so, I pray, be you. + Let your remembrance apply to Banquo; + Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue: + Unsafe the while, that we + Must lave our honors in these flattering streams, + And make our faces vizards to our hearts, + Disguising what they are. + LADY MACBETH. You must leave this. + MACBETH. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! + Thou know'st that Banquo and his Fleance lives. + LADY MACBETH. But in them nature's copy's not eterne. + MACBETH. There's comfort yet; they are assailable. + Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown + His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons + The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums + Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done + A deed of dreadful note. + LADY MACBETH. What's to be done? + MACBETH. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, + Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, + Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, + And with thy bloody and invisible hand + Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond + Which keeps me pale! Light thickens, and the crow + Makes wing to the rooky wood; + Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, + Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse. + Thou marvel'st at my words, but hold thee still: + Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. + So, prithee, go with me. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE III. +A park near the palace. + +Enter three Murtherers. + + FIRST MURTHERER. But who did bid thee join with us? + THIRD MURTHERER. Macbeth. + SECOND MURTHERER. He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers + Our offices and what we have to do + To the direction just. + FIRST MURTHERER. Then stand with us. + The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day; + Now spurs the lated traveler apace + To gain the timely inn, and near approaches + The subject of our watch. + THIRD MURTHERER. Hark! I hear horses. + BANQUO. [Within.] Give us a light there, ho! + SECOND MURTHERER. Then 'tis he; the rest + That are within the note of expectation + Already are i' the court. + FIRST MURTHERER. His horses go about. + THIRD MURTHERER. Almost a mile, but he does usually- + So all men do -from hence to the palace gate + Make it their walk. + SECOND MURTHERER. A light, a light! + + Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch. + + THIRD MURTHERER. 'Tis he. + FIRST MURTHERER. Stand to't. + BANQUO. It will be rain tonight. + FIRST MURTHERER. Let it come down. + They set upon Banquo. + BANQUO. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! + Thou mayst revenge. O slave! Dies. Fleance escapes. + THIRD MURTHERER. Who did strike out the light? + FIRST MURTHERER. Wast not the way? + THIRD MURTHERER. There's but one down; the son is fled. + SECOND MURTHERER. We have lost + Best half of our affair. + FIRST MURTHERER. Well, let's away and say how much is done. + Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE IV. +A Hall in the palace. A banquet prepared. + +Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants. + + MACBETH. You know your own degrees; sit down. At first + And last the hearty welcome. + LORDS. Thanks to your Majesty. + MACBETH. Ourself will mingle with society + And play the humble host. + Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time + We will require her welcome. + LADY MACBETH. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends, + For my heart speaks they are welcome. + + Enter first Murtherer to the door. + + MACBETH. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks. + Both sides are even; here I'll sit i' the midst. + Be large in mirth; anon we'll drink a measure + The table round. [Approaches the door.] There's blood upon thy + face. + MURTHERER. 'Tis Banquo's then. + MACBETH. 'Tis better thee without than he within. + Is he dispatch'd? + MURTHERER. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him. + MACBETH. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats! Yet he's good + That did the like for Fleance. If thou didst it, + Thou art the nonpareil. + MURTHERER. Most royal sir, + Fleance is 'scaped. + MACBETH. [Aside.] Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect, + Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, + As broad and general as the casing air; + But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in + To saucy doubts and fears -But Banquo's safe? + MURTHERER. Ay, my good lord. Safe in a ditch he bides, + With twenty trenched gashes on his head, + The least a death to nature. + MACBETH. Thanks for that. + There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled + Hath nature that in time will venom breed, + No teeth for the present. Get thee gone. Tomorrow + We'll hear ourselves again. + Exit Murtherer. + LADY MACBETH. My royal lord, + You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold + That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis amaking, + 'Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home; + From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony; + Meeting were bare without it. + MACBETH. Sweet remembrancer! + Now good digestion wait on appetite, + And health on both! + LENNOX. May't please your Highness sit. + + The Ghost of Banquo enters and sits in Macbeth's place. + + MACBETH. Here had we now our country's honor roof'd, + Were the graced person of our Banquo present, + Who may I rather challenge for unkindness + Than pity for mischance! + ROSS. His absence, sir, + Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your Highness + To grace us with your royal company? + MACBETH. The table's full. + LENNOX. Here is a place reserved, sir. + MACBETH. Where? + LENNOX. Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your Highness? + MACBETH. Which of you have done this? + LORDS. What, my good lord? + MACBETH. Thou canst not say I did it; never shake + Thy gory locks at me. + ROSS. Gentlemen, rise; his Highness is well. + LADY MACBETH. Sit, worthy friends; my lord is often thus, + And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat. + The fit is momentary; upon a thought + He will again be well. If much you note him, + You shall offend him and extend his passion. + Feed, and regard him not-Are you a man? + MACBETH. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that + Which might appal the devil. + LADY MACBETH. O proper stuff! + This is the very painting of your fear; + This is the air-drawn dagger which you said + Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts, + Impostors to true fear, would well become + A woman's story at a winter's fire, + Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself! + Why do you make such faces? When all's done, + You look but on a stool. + MACBETH. Prithee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo! How say you? + Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too. + If charnel houses and our graves must send + Those that we bury back, our monuments + Shall be the maws of kites. Exit Ghost. + LADY MACBETH. What, quite unmann'd in folly? + MACBETH. If I stand here, I saw him. + LADY MACBETH. Fie, for shame! + MACBETH. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time, + Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal; + Ay, and since too, murthers have been perform'd + Too terrible for the ear. The time has been, + That, when the brains were out, the man would die, + And there an end; but now they rise again, + With twenty mortal murthers on their crowns, + And push us from our stools. This is more strange + Than such a murther is. + LADY MACBETH. My worthy lord, + Your noble friends do lack you. + MACBETH. I do forget. + Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends. + I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing + To those that know me. Come, love and health to all; + Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine, fill full. + I drink to the general joy o' the whole table, + And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss. + Would he were here! To all and him we thirst, + And all to all. + LORDS. Our duties and the pledge. + + Re-enter Ghost. + + MACBETH. Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! + Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; + Thou hast no speculation in those eyes + Which thou dost glare with. + LADY MACBETH. Think of this, good peers, + But as a thing of custom. 'Tis no other, + Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. + MACBETH. What man dare, I dare. + Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, + The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger; + Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves + Shall never tremble. Or be alive again, + And dare me to the desert with thy sword. + If trembling I inhabit then, protest me + The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow! + Unreal mockery, hence! Exit Ghost. + Why, so, being gone, + I am a man again. Pray you sit still. + LADY MACBETH. You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting, + With most admired disorder. + MACBETH. Can such things be, + And overcome us like a summer's cloud, + Without our special wonder? You make me strange + Even to the disposition that I owe + When now I think you can behold such sights + And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks + When mine is blanch'd with fear. + ROSS. What sights, my lord? + LADY MACBETH. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse; + Question enrages him. At once, good night. + Stand not upon the order of your going, + But go at once. + LENNOX. Good night, and better health + Attend his Majesty! + LADY MACBETH. A kind good night to all! + Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. + MACBETH. will have blood; they say blood will have blood. + Stones have been known to move and trees to speak; + Augures and understood relations have + By maggot pies and choughs and rooks brought forth + The secret'st man of blood. What is the night? + LADY MACBETH. Almost at odds with morning, which is which. + MACBETH. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person + At our great bidding? + LADY MACBETH. Did you send to him, sir? + MACBETH. I hear it by the way, but I will send. + There's not a one of them but in his house + I keep a servant feed. I will tomorrow, + And betimes I will, to the weird sisters. + More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know, + By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good + All causes shall give way. I am in blood + Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, + Returning were as tedious as go o'er. + Strange things I have in head that will to hand, + Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd. + LADY MACBETH. You lack the season of all natures, sleep. + MACBETH. Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse + Is the initiate fear that wants hard use. + We are yet but young in deed. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE V. +A heath. Thunder. + +Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate. + + FIRST WITCH. Why, how now, Hecate? You look angerly. + HECATE. Have I not reason, beldams as you are, + Saucy and overbold? How did you dare + To trade and traffic with Macbeth + In riddles and affairs of death, + And I, the mistress of your charms, + The close contriver of all harms, + Was never call'd to bear my part, + Or show the glory of our art? + And, which is worse, all you have done + Hath been but for a wayward son, + Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do, + Loves for his own ends, not for you. + But make amends now. Get you gone, + And at the pit of Acheron + Meet me i' the morning. Thither he + Will come to know his destiny. + Your vessels and your spells provide, + Your charms and everything beside. + I am for the air; this night I'll spend + Unto a dismal and a fatal end. + Great business must be wrought ere noon: + Upon the corner of the moon + There hangs a vaporous drop profound; + I'll catch it ere it come to ground. + And that distill'd by magic sleights + Shall raise such artificial sprites + As by the strength of their illusion + Shall draw him on to his confusion. + He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear + His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear. + And you all know security + Is mortals' chiefest enemy. + Music and a song within, + "Come away, come away." + Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see, + Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me. Exit. + FIRST WITCH. Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again. + Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE VI. +Forres. The palace. + +Enter Lennox and another Lord. + + LENNOX. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, + Which can interpret farther; only I say + Thing's have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan + Was pitied of Macbeth; marry, he was dead. + And the right valiant Banquo walk'd too late, + Whom, you may say, if't please you, Fleance kill'd, + For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late. + Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous + It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain + To kill their gracious father? Damned fact! + How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight, + In pious rage, the two delinquents tear + That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep? + Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too, + For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive + To hear the men deny't. So that, I say, + He has borne all things well; and I do think + That, had he Duncan's sons under his key- + As, an't please heaven, he shall not -they should find + What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance. + But, peace! For from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd + His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear, + Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell + Where he bestows himself? + LORD. The son of Duncan, + From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, + Lives in the English court and is received + Of the most pious Edward with such grace + That the malevolence of fortune nothing + Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff + Is gone to pray the holy King, upon his aid + To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward; + That by the help of these, with Him above + To ratify the work, we may again + Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, + Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives, + Do faithful homage, and receive free honors- + All which we pine for now. And this report + Hath so exasperate the King that he + Prepares for some attempt of war. + LENNOX. Sent he to Macduff? + LORD. He did, and with an absolute "Sir, not I," + The cloudy messenger turns me his back, + And hums, as who should say, "You'll rue the time + That clogs me with this answer." + LENNOX. And that well might + Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance + His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel + Fly to the court of England and unfold + His message ere he come, that a swift blessing + May soon return to this our suffering country + Under a hand accursed! + LORD. I'll send my prayers with him. + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. Thunder. + +Enter the three Witches. + FIRST WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. + SECOND WITCH. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined. + THIRD WITCH. Harpier cries, "'Tis time, 'tis time." + FIRST WITCH. Round about the cauldron go; + In the poison'd entrails throw. + Toad, that under cold stone + Days and nights has thirty-one + Swelter'd venom sleeping got, + Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. + ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble; + Fire burn and cauldron bubble. + SECOND WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake, + In the cauldron boil and bake; + Eye of newt and toe of frog, + Wool of bat and tongue of dog, + Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, + Lizard's leg and howlet's wing, + For a charm of powerful trouble, + Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. + ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble; + Fire burn and cauldron bubble. + THIRD WITCH. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, + Witch's mummy, maw and gulf + Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark, + Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark, + Liver of blaspheming Jew, + Gall of goat and slips of yew + Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse, + Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, + Finger of birth-strangled babe + Ditch-deliver'd by a drab, + Make the gruel thick and slab. + Add thereto a tiger's chawdron, + For the ingredients of our cawdron. + ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble; + Fire burn and cauldron bubble. + SECOND WITCH. Cool it with a baboon's blood, + Then the charm is firm and good. + + Enter Hecate to the other three Witches. + + HECATE. O, well done! I commend your pains, + And everyone shall share i' the gains. + And now about the cauldron sing, + Like elves and fairies in a ring, + Enchanting all that you put in. + Music and a song, "Black spirits." + Hecate retires. + SECOND WITCH. By the pricking of my thumbs, + Something wicked this way comes. + Open, locks, + Whoever knocks! + + Enter Macbeth. + + MACBETH. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags? + What is't you do? + ALL. A deed without a name. + MACBETH. I conjure you, by that which you profess + (Howeer you come to know it) answer me: + Though you untie the winds and let them fight + Against the churches, though the yesty waves + Confound and swallow navigation up, + Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down, + Though castles topple on their warders' heads, + Though palaces and pyramids do slope + Their heads to their foundations, though the treasure + Of nature's germaines tumble all together + Even till destruction sicken, answer me + To what I ask you. + FIRST WITCH. Speak. + SECOND WITCH. Demand. + THIRD WITCH. We'll answer. + FIRST WITCH. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths, + Or from our masters'? + MACBETH. Call 'em, let me see 'em. + FIRST WITCH. Pour in sow's blood that hath eaten + Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten + From the murtherer's gibbet throw + Into the flame. + ALL. Come, high or low; + Thyself and office deftly show! + + Thunder. First Apparition: an armed Head. + + MACBETH. Tell me, thou unknown power- + FIRST WITCH. He knows thy thought: + Hear his speech, but say thou nought. + FIRST APPARITION. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff, + Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough. + Descends. + MACBETH. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks; + Thou hast harp'd my fear aright. But one word more- + FIRST WITCH. He will not be commanded. Here's another, + More potent than the first. + + Thunder. Second Apparition: a bloody Child. + + SECOND APPARITION. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! + MACBETH. Had I three ears, I'd hear thee. + SECOND APPARITION. Be bloody, bold, and resolute: laugh to scorn + The power of man, for none of woman born + Shall harm Macbeth. Descends. + MACBETH. Then live, Macduff. What need I fear of thee? + But yet I'll make assurance double sure, + And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live, + That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, + And sleep in spite of thunder. + + Thunder. Third Apparition: a Child crowned, + with a tree in his hand. + + What is this, + That rises like the issue of a king, + And wears upon his baby brow the round + And top of sovereignty? + ALL. Listen, but speak not to't. + THIRD APPARITION. Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care + Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. + Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until + Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill + Shall come against him. Descends. + MACBETH. That will never be. + Who can impress the forest, bid the tree + Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements, good! + Rebellion's head, rise never till the Wood + Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth + Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath + To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart + Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art + Can tell so much, shall Banquo's issue ever + Reign in this kingdom? + ALL. Seek to know no more. + MACBETH. I will be satisfied! Deny me this, + And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know. + Why sinks that cauldron, and what noise is this? + Hautboys. + FIRST WITCH. Show! + SECOND WITCH. Show! + THIRD. WITCH. Show! + ALL. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; + Come like shadows, so depart! + + A show of eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; + Banquo's Ghost following. + + MACBETH. Thou are too like the spirit of Banquo Down! + Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair, + Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. + A third is like the former. Filthy hags! + Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes! + What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom? + Another yet! A seventh! I'll see no more! + And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass + Which shows me many more; and some I see + That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry. + Horrible sight! Now I see 'tis true; + For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me, + And points at them for his. What, is this so? + FIRST WITCH. Ay, sir, all this is so. But why + Stands Macbeth thus amazedly? + Come,sisters, cheer we up his sprites, + And show the best of our delights. + I'll charm the air to give a sound, + While you perform your antic round, + That this great King may kindly say + Our duties did his welcome pay. + Music. The Witches dance and + then vanish with Hecate. + MACBETH. are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour + Stand ay accursed in the calendar! + Come in, without there! + + Enter Lennox. + + LENNOX. What's your Grace's will? + MACBETH. Saw you the weird sisters? + LENNOX. No, my lord. + MACBETH. Came they not by you? + LENNOX. No indeed, my lord. + MACBETH. Infected be the 'air whereon they ride, + And damn'd all those that trust them! I did hear + The galloping of horse. Who wast came by? + LENNOX. 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word + Macduff is fled to England. + MACBETH. Fled to England? + LENNOX. Ay, my good lord. + MACBETH. [Aside.] Time, thou anticipatest my dread exploits. + The flighty purpose never is o'ertook + Unless the deed go with it. From this moment + The very firstlings of my heart shall be + The firstlings of my hand. And even now, + To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: + The castle of Macduff I will surprise, + Seize upon Fife, give to the edge o' the sword + His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls + That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool; + This deed I'll do before this purpose cool. + But no more sights! -Where are these gentlemen? + Come, bring me where they are. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE II. +Fife. Macduff's castle. + +Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross. + + LADY MACDUFF. What had he done, to make him fly the land? + ROSS. You must have patience, madam. + LADY MACDUFF. He had none; + His flight was madness. When our actions do not, + Our fears do make us traitors. + ROSS. You know not + Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. + LADY MACDUFF. Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his babes, + His mansion, and his titles, in a place + From whence himself does fly? He loves us not; + He wants the natural touch; for the poor wren, + The most diminutive of birds, will fight, + Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. + All is the fear and nothing is the love; + As little is the wisdom, where the flight + So runs against all reason. + ROSS. My dearest coz, + I pray you, school yourself. But for your husband, + He is noble, wise, Judicious, and best knows + The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much further; + But cruel are the times when we are traitors + And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor + From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, + But float upon a wild and violent sea + Each way and move. I take my leave of you; + Shall not be long but I'll be here again. + Things at the worst will cease or else climb upward + To what they were before. My pretty cousin, + Blessing upon you! + LADY MACDUFF. Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless. + ROSS. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, + It would be my disgrace and your discomfort. + I take my leave at once. Exit. + LADY MACDUFF. Sirrah, your father's dead. + And what will you do now? How will you live? + SON. As birds do, Mother. + LADY MACDUFF. What, with worms and flies? + SON. With what I get, I mean; and so do they. + LADY MACDUFF. Poor bird! Thou'ldst never fear the net nor lime, + The pitfall nor the gin. + SON. Why should I, Mother? Poor birds they are not set for. + My father is not dead, for all your saying. + LADY MACDUFF. Yes, he is dead. How wilt thou do for father? + SON. Nay, how will you do for a husband? + LADY MACDUFF. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market. + SON. Then you'll buy 'em to sell again. + LADY MACDUFF. Thou speak'st with all thy wit, and yet, i' faith, + With wit enough for thee. + SON. Was my father a traitor, Mother? + LADY MACDUFF. Ay, that he was. + SON. What is a traitor? + LADY MACDUFF. Why one that swears and lies. + SON. And be all traitors that do so? + LADY MACDUFF. Everyone that does so is a traitor and must be + hanged. + SON. And must they all be hanged that swear and lie? + LADY MACDUFF. Everyone. + SON. Who must hang them? + LADY MACDUFF. Why, the honest men. + SON. Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and + swearers enow to beat the honest men and hang up them. + LADY MACDUFF. Now, God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do + for a father? + SON. If he were dead, you'ld weep for him; if you would not, it + were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father. + LADY MACDUFF. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st! + + Enter a Messenger. + + MESSENGER. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known, + Though in your state of honor I am perfect. + I doubt some danger does approach you nearly. + If you will take a homely man's advice, + Be not found here; hence, with your little ones. + To fright you thus, methinks I am too savage; + To do worse to you were fell cruelty, + Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you! + I dare abide no longer. Exit. + LADY MACDUFF. Whither should I fly? + I have done no harm. But I remember now + I am in this earthly world, where to do harm + Is often laudable, to do good sometime + Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas, + Do I put up that womanly defense, + To say I have done no harm -What are these faces? + + Enter Murtherers. + + FIRST MURTHERER. Where is your husband? + LADY MACDUFF. I hope, in no place so unsanctified + Where such as thou mayst find him. + FIRST MURTHERER. He's a traitor. + SON. Thou liest, thou shag-ear'd villain! + FIRST MURTHERER. What, you egg! + Stabs him. + Young fry of treachery! + SON. He has kill'd me, Mother. + Run away, I pray you! Dies. + Exit Lady Macduff, crying "Murther!" + Exeunt Murtherers, following her. + + + + +SCENE III. +England. Before the King's palace. + +Enter Malcolm and Macduff. + + MALCOLM. Let us seek out some desolate shade and there + Weep our sad bosoms empty. + MACDUFF. Let us rather + Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men + Bestride our downfall'n birthdom. Each new morn + New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows + Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds + As if it felt with Scotland and yell'd out + Like syllable of dolor. + MALCOLM. What I believe, I'll wall; + What know, believe; and what I can redress, + As I shall find the time to friend, I will. + What you have spoke, it may be so perchance. + This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, + Was once thought honest. You have loved him well; + He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young, but something + You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom + To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb + To appease an angry god. + MACDUFF. I am not treacherous. + MALCOLM. But Macbeth is. + A good and virtuous nature may recoil + In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon; + That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose. + Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell. + Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace, + Yet grace must still look so. + MACDUFF. I have lost my hopes. + MALCOLM. Perchance even there where I did find my doubts. + Why in that rawness left you wife and child, + Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, + Without leave-taking? I pray you, + Let not my jealousies be your dishonors, + But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just, + Whatever I shall think. + MACDUFF. Bleed, bleed, poor country! + Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, + For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy wrongs; + The title is affeer'd. Fare thee well, lord. + I would not be the villain that thou think'st + For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp + And the rich East to boot. + MALCOLM. Be not offended; + I speak not as in absolute fear of you. + I think our country sinks beneath the yoke; + It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash + Is added to her wounds. I think withal + There would be hands uplifted in my right; + And here from gracious England have I offer + Of goodly thousands. But for all this, + When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head, + Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country + Shall have more vices than it had before, + More suffer and more sundry ways than ever, + By him that shall succeed. + MACDUFF. What should he be? + MALCOLM. It is myself I mean, in whom I know + All the particulars of vice so grafted + That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth + Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state + Esteem him as a lamb, being compared + With my confineless harms. + MACDUFF. Not in the legions + Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd + In evils to top Macbeth. + MALCOLM. I grant him bloody, + Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, + Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin + That has a name. But there's no bottom, none, + In my voluptuousness. Your wives, your daughters, + Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up + The cestern of my lust, and my desire + All continent impediments would o'erbear + That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth + Than such an one to reign. + MACDUFF. Boundless intemperance + In nature is a tyranny; it hath been + The untimely emptying of the happy throne, + And fall of many kings. But fear not yet + To take upon you what is yours. You may + Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty + And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink. + We have willing dames enough; there cannot be + That vulture in you to devour so many + As will to greatness dedicate themselves, + Finding it so inclined. + MALCOLM. With this there grows + In my most ill-composed affection such + A stanchless avarice that, were I King, + I should cut off the nobles for their lands, + Desire his jewels and this other's house, + And my more-having would be as a sauce + To make me hunger more, that I should forge + Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, + Destroying them for wealth. + MACDUFF. This avarice + Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root + Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been + The sword of our slain kings. Yet do not fear; + Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will + Of your mere own. All these are portable, + With other graces weigh'd. + MALCOLM. But I have none. The king-becoming graces, + As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, + Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, + Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, + I have no relish of them, but abound + In the division of each several crime, + Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should + Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, + Uproar the universal peace, confound + All unity on earth. + MACDUFF. O Scotland, Scotland! + MALCOLM. If such a one be fit to govern, speak. + I am as I have spoken. + MACDUFF. Fit to govern? + No, not to live. O nation miserable! + With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter'd, + When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, + Since that the truest issue of thy throne + By his own interdiction stands accursed + And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father + Was a most sainted king; the queen that bore thee, + Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, + Died every day she lived. Fare thee well! + These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself + Have banish'd me from Scotland. O my breast, + Thy hope ends here! + MALCOLM. Macduff, this noble passion, + Child of integrity, hath from my soul + Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts + To thy good truth and honor. Devilish Macbeth + By many of these trains hath sought to win me + Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me + From over-credulous haste. But God above + Deal between thee and me! For even now + I put myself to thy direction and + Unspeak mine own detraction; here abjure + The taints and blames I laid upon myself, + For strangers to my nature. I am yet + Unknown to woman, never was forsworn, + Scarcely have coveted what was mine own, + At no time broke my faith, would not betray + The devil to his fellow, and delight + No less in truth than life. My first false speaking + Was this upon myself. What I am truly + Is thine and my poor country's to command. + Whither indeed, before thy here-approach, + Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men + Already at a point, was setting forth. + Now we'll together, and the chance of goodness + Be like our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent? + MACDUFF. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once + 'Tis hard to reconcile. + + Enter a Doctor. + + MALCOLM. Well, more anon. Comes the King forth, I pray you? + DOCTOR. Ay, sir, there are a crew of wretched souls + That stay his cure. Their malady convinces + The great assay of art, but at his touch, + Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand, + They presently amend. + MALCOLM. I thank you, Doctor. Exit Doctor. + MACDUFF. What's the disease he means? + MALCOLM. 'Tis call'd the evil: + A most miraculous work in this good King, + Which often, since my here-remain in England, + I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, + Himself best knows; but strangely-visited people, + All swol'n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, + The mere despair of surgery, he cures, + Hanging a golden stamp about their necks + Put on with holy prayers; and 'tis spoken, + To the succeeding royalty he leaves + The healing benediction. With this strange virtue + He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, + And sundry blessings hang about his throne + That speak him full of grace. + + Enter Ross. + + MACDUFF. See, who comes here? + MALCOLM. My countryman, but yet I know him not. + MACDUFF. My ever gentle cousin, welcome hither. + MALCOLM. I know him now. Good God, betimes remove + The means that makes us strangers! + ROSS. Sir, amen. + MACDUFF. Stands Scotland where it did? + ROSS. Alas, poor country, + Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot + Be call'd our mother, but our grave. Where nothing, + But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile; + Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air, + Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow seems + A modern ecstasy. The dead man's knell + Is there scarce ask'd for who, and good men's lives + Expire before the flowers in their caps, + Dying or ere they sicken. + MACDUFF. O, relation + Too nice, and yet too true! + MALCOLM. What's the newest grief? + ROSS. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker; + Each minute teems a new one. + MACDUFF. How does my wife? + ROSS. Why, well. + MACDUFF. And all my children? + ROSS. Well too. + MACDUFF. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace? + ROSS. No, they were well at peace when I did leave 'em. + MACDUFF. Be not a niggard of your speech. How goest? + ROSS. When I came hither to transport the tidings, + Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor + Of many worthy fellows that were out, + Which was to my belief witness'd the rather, + For that I saw the tyrant's power afoot. + Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland + Would create soldiers, make our women fight, + To doff their dire distresses. + MALCOLM. Be't their comfort + We are coming thither. Gracious England hath + Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men; + An older and a better soldier none + That Christendom gives out. + ROSS. Would I could answer + This comfort with the like! But I have words + That would be howl'd out in the desert air, + Where hearing should not latch them. + MACDUFF. What concern they? + The general cause? Or is it a fee-grief + Due to some single breast? + ROSS. No mind that's honest + But in it shares some woe, though the main part + Pertains to you alone. + MACDUFF. If it be mine, + Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. + ROSS. Let not your ears despise my tongue forever, + Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound + That ever yet they heard. + MACDUFF. Humh! I guess at it. + ROSS. Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes + Savagely slaughter'd. To relate the manner + Were, on the quarry of these murther'd deer, + To add the death of you. + MALCOLM. Merciful heaven! + What, man! Neer pull your hat upon your brows; + Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak + Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break. + MACDUFF. My children too? + ROSS. Wife, children, servants, all + That could be found. + MACDUFF. And I must be from thence! + My wife kill'd too? + ROSS. I have said. + MALCOLM. Be comforted. + Let's make us medicines of our great revenge, + To cure this deadly grief. + MACDUFF. He has no children. All my pretty ones? + Did you say all? O hell-kite! All? + What, all my pretty chickens and their dam + At one fell swoop? + MALCOLM. Dispute it like a man. + MACDUFF. I shall do so, + But I must also feel it as a man. + I cannot but remember such things were + That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on, + And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff, + They were all struck for thee! Naught that I am, + Not for their own demerits, but for mine, + Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now! + MALCOLM. Be this the whetstone of your sword. Let grief + Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it. + MACDUFF. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes + And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens, + Cut short all intermission; front to front + Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; + Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape, + Heaven forgive him too! + MALCOLM. This tune goes manly. + Come, go we to the King; our power is ready, + Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth + Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above + Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may, + The night is long that never finds the day. Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Dunsinane. Anteroom in the castle. + +Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting Gentlewoman. + + DOCTOR. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no + truth in your report. When was it she last walked? + GENTLEWOMAN. Since his Majesty went into the field, have seen her + rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her + closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon't, read it, + afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while + in a most fast sleep. + DOCTOR. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the + benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching! In this slumbery + agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances, + what, at any time, have you heard her say? + GENTLEWOMAN. That, sir, which I will not report after her. + DOCTOR. You may to me, and 'tis most meet you should. + GENTLEWOMAN. Neither to you nor anyone, having no witness to + confirm my speech. + + Enter Lady Macbeth with a taper. + + Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise, and, upon my + life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close. + DOCTOR. How came she by that light? + GENTLEWOMAN. Why, it stood by her. She has light by her + continually; 'tis her command. + DOCTOR. You see, her eyes are open. + GENTLEWOMAN. Ay, but their sense is shut. + DOCTOR. What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands. + GENTLEWOMAN. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus + washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of + an hour. + LADY MACBETH. Yet here's a spot. + DOCTOR. Hark, she speaks! I will set down what comes from her, to + satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. + LADY MACBETH. Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One- two -why then 'tis + time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and + afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our + power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have + had so much blood in him? + DOCTOR. Do you mark that? + LADY MACBETH. The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? What, + will these hands neer be clean? No more o' that, my lord, no more + o' that. You mar all with this starting. + DOCTOR. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not. + GENTLEWOMAN. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that. + Heaven knows what she has known. + LADY MACBETH. Here's the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes + of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh! + DOCTOR. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged. + GENTLEWOMAN. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the + dignity of the whole body. + DOCTOR. Well, well, well- + GENTLEWOMAN. Pray God it be, sir. + DOCTOR. This disease is beyond my practice. Yet I have known those + which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their + beds. + LADY MACBETH. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown, look not so + pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out + on's grave. + DOCTOR. Even so? + LADY MACBETH. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. Come, + come, come, come, give me your hand.What's done cannot be undone. + To bed, to bed, to bed. +Exit. + DOCTOR. Will she go now to bed? + GENTLEWOMAN. Directly. + DOCTOR. Foul whisperings are abroad. Unnatural deeds + Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds + To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. + More needs she the divine than the physician. + God, God, forgive us all! Look after her; + Remove from her the means of all annoyance, + And still keep eyes upon her. So good night. + My mind she has mated and amazed my sight. + I think, but dare not speak. + GENTLEWOMAN. Good night, good doctor. + Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE II. +The country near Dunsinane. Drum and colors. + +Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, and Soldiers. + + MENTEITH. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, + His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff. + Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes + Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm + Excite the mortified man. + ANGUS. Near Birnam Wood + Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming. + CAITHNESS. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother? + LENNOX. For certain, sir, he is not; I have a file + Of all the gentry. There is Seward's son + And many unrough youths that even now + Protest their first of manhood. + MENTEITH. What does the tyrant? + CAITHNESS. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies. + Some say he's mad; others, that lesser hate him, + Do call it valiant fury; but, for certain, + He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause + Within the belt of rule. + ANGUS. Now does he feel + His secret murthers sticking on his hands, + Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach; + Those he commands move only in command, + Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title + Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe + Upon a dwarfish thief. + MENTEITH. Who then shall blame + His pester'd senses to recoil and start, + When all that is within him does condemn + Itself for being there? + CAITHNESS. Well, march we on + To give obedience where 'tis truly owed. + Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal, + And with him pour we, in our country's purge, + Each drop of us. + LENNOX. Or so much as it needs + To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. + Make we our march towards Birnam. Exeunt marching. + + + + +SCENE III. +Dunsinane. A room in the castle. + +Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants. + + MACBETH. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all! + Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane + I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm? + Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know + All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus: + "Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman + Shall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly, false Thanes, + And mingle with the English epicures! + The mind I sway by and the heart I bear + Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. + + Enter a Servant. + + The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon! + Where got'st thou that goose look? + SERVANT. There is ten thousand- + MACBETH. Geese, villain? + SERVANT. Soldiers, sir. + MACBETH. Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear, + Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch? + Death of thy soul! Those linen cheeks of thine + Are counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face? + SERVANT. The English force, so please you. + MACBETH. Take thy face hence. Exit Servant. + Seyton-I am sick at heart, + When I behold- Seyton, I say!- This push + Will cheer me ever or disseat me now. + I have lived long enough. My way of life + Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf, + And that which should accompany old age, + As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, + I must not look to have; but in their stead, + Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath, + Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not. + Seyton! + + Enter Seyton. + + SEYTON. What's your gracious pleasure? + MACBETH. What news more? + SEYTON. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. + MACBETH. I'll fight, 'til from my bones my flesh be hack'd. + Give me my armor. + SEYTON. 'Tis not needed yet. + MACBETH. I'll put it on. + Send out more horses, skirr the country round, + Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor. + How does your patient, doctor? + DOCTOR. Not so sick, my lord, + As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, + That keep her from her rest. + MACBETH. Cure her of that. + Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, + Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, + Raze out the written troubles of the brain, + And with some sweet oblivious antidote + Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff + Which weighs upon the heart? + DOCTOR. Therein the patient + Must minister to himself. + MACBETH. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it. + Come, put mine armor on; give me my staff. + Seyton, send out. Doctor, the Thanes fly from me. + Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast + The water of my land, find her disease + And purge it to a sound and pristine health, + I would applaud thee to the very echo, + That should applaud again. Pull't off, I say. + What rhubarb, cyme, or what purgative drug + Would scour these English hence? Hearst thou of them? + DOCTOR. Ay, my good lord, your royal preparation + Makes us hear something. + MACBETH. Bring it after me. + I will not be afraid of death and bane + Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane. + DOCTOR. [Aside.] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, + Profit again should hardly draw me here. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE IV. +Country near Birnam Wood. Drum and colors. + +Enter Malcolm, old Seward and his Son, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, +Angus, Lennox, Ross, and Soldiers, marching. + + MALCOLM. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand + That chambers will be safe. + MENTEITH. We doubt it nothing. + SIWARD. What wood is this before us? + MENTEITH. The Wood of Birnam. + MALCOLM. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, + And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow + The numbers of our host, and make discovery + Err in report of us. + SOLDIERS. It shall be done. + SIWARD. We learn no other but the confident tyrant + Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure + Our setting down before't. + MALCOLM. 'Tis his main hope; + For where there is advantage to be given, + Both more and less have given him the revolt, + And none serve with him but constrained things + Whose hearts are absent too. + MACDUFF. Let our just censures + Attend the true event, and put we on + Industrious soldiership. + SIWARD. The time approaches + That will with due decision make us know + What we shall say we have and what we owe. + Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, + But certain issue strokes must arbitrate. + Towards which advance the war. + Exeunt Marching. + + + + +SCENE V. +Dunsinane. Within the castle. + +Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with drum and colors. + + MACBETH. Hang out our banners on the outward walls; + The cry is still, "They come!" Our castle's strength + Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie + Till famine and the ague eat them up. + Were they not forced with those that should be ours, + We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, + And beat them backward home. + A cry of women within. + What is that noise? + SEYTON. It is the cry of women, my good lord. Exit. + MACBETH. I have almost forgot the taste of fears: + The time has been, my senses would have cool'd + To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair + Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir + As life were in't. I have supp'd full with horrors; + Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, + Cannot once start me. + + Re-enter Seyton. + Wherefore was that cry? + SEYTON. The Queen, my lord, is dead. + MACBETH. She should have died hereafter; + There would have been a time for such a word. + Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow + Creeps in this petty pace from day to day + To the last syllable of recorded time; + And all our yesterdays have lighted fools + The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! + Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player + That struts and frets his hour upon the stage + And then is heard no more. It is a tale + Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, + Signifying nothing. + + Enter a Messenger. + + Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly. + MESSENGER. Gracious my lord, + I should report that which I say I saw, + But know not how to do it. + MACBETH. Well, say, sir. + MESSENGER. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, + I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, + The Wood began to move. + MACBETH. Liar and slave! + MESSENGER. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so. + Within this three mile may you see it coming; + I say, a moving grove. + MACBETH. If thou speak'st false, + Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, + Till famine cling thee; if thy speech be sooth, + I care not if thou dost for me as much. + I pull in resolution and begin + To doubt the equivocation of the fiend + That lies like truth. "Fear not, till Birnam Wood + Do come to Dunsinane," and now a wood + Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out! + If this which he avouches does appear, + There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. + I 'gin to be aweary of the sun + And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. + Ring the alarum bell! Blow, wind! Come, wrack! + At least we'll die with harness on our back. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE VI. +Dunsinane. Before the castle. + +Enter Malcolm, old Siward, Macduff, and their Army, with boughs. +Drum and colors. + + MALCOLM. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down, + And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle, + Shall with my cousin, your right noble son, + Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we + Shall take upon 's what else remains to do, + According to our order. + SIWARD. Fare you well. + Do we but find the tyrant's power tonight, + Let us be beaten if we cannot fight. + MACDUFF. Make all our trumpets speak, give them all breath, + Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. + Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE VII. +Dunsinane. Before the castle. Alarums. + +Enter Macbeth. + + MACBETH. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, + But bear-like I must fight the course. What's he + That was not born of woman? Such a one + Am I to fear, or none. + + Enter young Siward. + + YOUNG SIWARD. What is thy name? + MACBETH. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. + YOUNG SIWARD. No, though thou call'st thyself a hotter name + Than any is in hell. + MACBETH. My name's Macbeth. + YOUNG SIWARD. The devil himself could not pronounce a title + More hateful to mine ear. + MACBETH. No, nor more fearful. + YOUNG SIWARD O Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword + I'll prove the lie thou speak'st. + They fight, and young Seward is slain. + MACBETH. Thou wast born of woman. + But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, + Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born. Exit. + + Alarums. Enter Macduff. + + MACDUFF. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face! + If thou best slain and with no stroke of mine, + My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still. + I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms + Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth, + Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge, + I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be; + By this great clatter, one of greatest note + Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune! + And more I beg not. Exit. Alarums. + + Enter Malcolm and old Siward. + + SIWARD. This way, my lord; the castle's gently render'd. + The tyrant's people on both sides do fight, + The noble Thanes do bravely in the war, + The day almost itself professes yours, + And little is to do. + MALCOLM. We have met with foes + That strike beside us. + SIWARD. Enter, sir, the castle. + Exeunt. Alarum. + + + + +SCENE VIII. +Another part of the field. + +Enter Macbeth. + + MACBETH. Why should I play the Roman fool and die + On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes + Do better upon them. + + Enter Macduff. + + MACDUFF. Turn, hell hound, turn! + MACBETH. Of all men else I have avoided thee. + But get thee back, my soul is too much charged + With blood of thine already. + MACDUFF. I have no words. + My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain + Than terms can give thee out! They fight. + MACBETH. Thou losest labor. + As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air + With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed. + Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; + I bear a charmed life, which must not yield + To one of woman born. + MACDUFF. Despair thy charm, + And let the angel whom thou still hast served + Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb + Untimely ripp'd. + MACBETH. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, + For it hath cow'd my better part of man! + And be these juggling fiends no more believed + That patter with us in a double sense, + That keep the word of promise to our ear + And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee. + MACDUFF. Then yield thee, coward, + And live to be the show and gaze o' the time. + We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, + Painted upon a pole, and underwrit, + "Here may you see the tyrant." + MACBETH. I will not yield, + To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, + And to be baited with the rabble's curse. + Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane, + And thou opposed, being of no woman born, + Yet I will try the last. Before my body + I throw my warlike shield! Lay on, Macduff, + And damn'd be him that first cries, "Hold, enough!" + Exeunt fighting. Alarums. + + + + +SCENE IX. + +Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colors, Malcolm, old Siward, Ross, +the other Thanes, and Soldiers. + + MALCOLM. I would the friends we miss were safe arrived. + SIWARD. Some must go off, and yet, by these I see, + So great a day as this is cheaply bought. + MALCOLM. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. + ROSS. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt. + He only lived but till he was a man, + The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd + In the unshrinking station where he fought, + But like a man he died. + SIWARD. Then he is dead? + ROSS. Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow + Must not be measured by his worth, for then + It hath no end. + SIWARD. Had he his hurts before? + ROSS. Ay, on the front. + SIWARD. Why then, God's soldier be he! + Had I as many sons as I have hairs, + I would not wish them to a fairer death. + And so his knell is knoll'd. + MALCOLM. He's worth more sorrow, + And that I'll spend for him. + SIWARD. He's worth no more: + They say he parted well and paid his score, + And so God be with him! Here comes newer comfort. + + Re-enter Macduff, with Macbeth's head. + + MACDUFF. Hail, King, for so thou art. Behold where stands + The usurper's cursed head. The time is free. + I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl + That speak my salutation in their minds, + Whose voices I desire aloud with mine- + Hail, King of Scotland! + ALL. Hail, King of Scotland! Flourish. + MALCOLM. We shall not spend a large expense of time + Before we reckon with your several loves + And make us even with you. My Thanes and kinsmen, + Henceforth be Earls, the first that ever Scotland + In such an honor named. What's more to do, + Which would be planted newly with the time, + As calling home our exiled friends abroad + That fled the snares of watchful tyranny, + Producing forth the cruel ministers + Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, + Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands + Took off her life; this, and what needful else + That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace + We will perform in measure, time, and place. + So thanks to all at once and to each one, + Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone. + Flourish. Exeunt. + -THE END- + + + +<> + + + + + +1605 + + +MEASURE FOR MEASURE + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + VINCENTIO, the Duke + ANGELO, the Deputy + ESCALUS, an ancient Lord + CLAUDIO, a young gentleman + LUCIO, a fantastic + Two other like Gentlemen + VARRIUS, a gentleman, servant to the Duke + PROVOST + THOMAS, friar + PETER, friar + A JUSTICE + ELBOW, a simple constable + FROTH, a foolish gentleman + POMPEY, a clown and servant to Mistress Overdone + ABHORSON, an executioner + BARNARDINE, a dissolute prisoner + + ISABELLA, sister to Claudio + MARIANA, betrothed to Angelo + JULIET, beloved of Claudio + FRANCISCA, a nun + MISTRESS OVERDONE, a bawd + + Lords, Officers, Citizens, Boy, and Attendants + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +Vienna + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +The DUKE'S palace + +Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, LORDS, and ATTENDANTS + + DUKE. Escalus! + ESCALUS. My lord. + DUKE. Of government the properties to unfold + Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse, + Since I am put to know that your own science + Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice + My strength can give you; then no more remains + But that to your sufficiency- as your worth is able- + And let them work. The nature of our people, + Our city's institutions, and the terms + For common justice, y'are as pregnant in + As art and practice hath enriched any + That we remember. There is our commission, + From which we would not have you warp. Call hither, + I say, bid come before us, Angelo. Exit an ATTENDANT + What figure of us think you he will bear? + For you must know we have with special soul + Elected him our absence to supply; + Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love, + And given his deputation all the organs + Of our own power. What think you of it? + ESCALUS. If any in Vienna be of worth + To undergo such ample grace and honour, + It is Lord Angelo. + + Enter ANGELO + + DUKE. Look where he comes. + ANGELO. Always obedient to your Grace's will, + I come to know your pleasure. + DUKE. Angelo, + There is a kind of character in thy life + That to th' observer doth thy history + Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings + Are not thine own so proper as to waste + Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. + Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, + Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues + Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike + As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd + But to fine issues; nor Nature never lends + The smallest scruple of her excellence + But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines + Herself the glory of a creditor, + Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech + To one that can my part in him advertise. + Hold, therefore, Angelo- + In our remove be thou at full ourself; + Mortality and mercy in Vienna + Live in thy tongue and heart. Old Escalus, + Though first in question, is thy secondary. + Take thy commission. + ANGELO. Now, good my lord, + Let there be some more test made of my metal, + Before so noble and so great a figure + Be stamp'd upon it. + DUKE. No more evasion! + We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice + Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours. + Our haste from hence is of so quick condition + That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestion'd + Matters of needful value. We shall write to you, + As time and our concernings shall importune, + How it goes with us, and do look to know + What doth befall you here. So, fare you well. + To th' hopeful execution do I leave you + Of your commissions. + ANGELO. Yet give leave, my lord, + That we may bring you something on the way. + DUKE. My haste may not admit it; + Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do + With any scruple: your scope is as mine own, + So to enforce or qualify the laws + As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand; + I'll privily away. I love the people, + But do not like to stage me to their eyes; + Though it do well, I do not relish well + Their loud applause and Aves vehement; + Nor do I think the man of safe discretion + That does affect it. Once more, fare you well. + ANGELO. The heavens give safety to your purposes! + ESCALUS. Lead forth and bring you back in happiness! + DUKE. I thank you. Fare you well. Exit + ESCALUS. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave + To have free speech with you; and it concerns me + To look into the bottom of my place: + A pow'r I have, but of what strength and nature + I am not yet instructed. + ANGELO. 'Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together, + And we may soon our satisfaction have + Touching that point. + ESCALUS. I'll wait upon your honour. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +A street + +Enter Lucio and two other GENTLEMEN + + LUCIO. If the Duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition + with the King of Hungary, why then all the dukes fall upon the + King. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the King of + Hungary's! + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Amen. + LUCIO. Thou conclud'st like the sanctimonious pirate that went to + sea with the Ten Commandments, but scrap'd one out of the table. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. 'Thou shalt not steal'? + LUCIO. Ay, that he raz'd. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain + and all the rest from their functions: they put forth to steal. + There's not a soldier of us all that, in the thanksgiving before + meat, do relish the petition well that prays for peace. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. I never heard any soldier dislike it. + LUCIO. I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where grace was + said. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. No? A dozen times at least. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. What, in metre? + LUCIO. In any proportion or in any language. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. I think, or in any religion. + LUCIO. Ay, why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy; as, + for example, thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all + grace. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us. + LUCIO. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet. + Thou art the list. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. And thou the velvet; thou art good velvet; thou'rt + a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee. I had as lief be a list of + an English kersey as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French + velvet. Do I speak feelingly now? + LUCIO. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of + thy speech. I will, out of thine own confession, learn to begin + thy health; but, whilst I live, forget to drink after thee. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. I think I have done myself wrong, have I not? + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or + free. + + Enter MISTRESS OVERDONE + + LUCIO. Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation comes! I have + purchas'd as many diseases under her roof as come to- + SECOND GENTLEMAN. To what, I pray? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Judge. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. To three thousand dolours a year. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Ay, and more. + LUCIO. A French crown more. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Thou art always figuring diseases in me, but thou + art full of error; I am sound. + LUCIO. Nay, not, as one would say, healthy; but so sound as things + that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast + of thee. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. How now! which of your hips has the most profound + sciatica? + MRS. OVERDONE. Well, well! there's one yonder arrested and carried + to prison was worth five thousand of you all. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Who's that, I pray thee? + MRS. OVERDONE. Marry, sir, that's Claudio, Signior Claudio. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Claudio to prison? 'Tis not so. + MRS. OVERDONE. Nay, but I know 'tis so: I saw him arrested; saw him + carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his + head to be chopp'd off. + LUCIO. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so. Art + thou sure of this? + MRS. OVERDONE. I am too sure of it; and it is for getting Madam + Julietta with child. + LUCIO. Believe me, this may be; he promis'd to meet me two hours + since, and he was ever precise in promise-keeping. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Besides, you know, it draws something near to the + speech we had to such a purpose. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. But most of all agreeing with the proclamation. + LUCIO. Away; let's go learn the truth of it. + Exeunt Lucio and GENTLEMEN + MRS. OVERDONE. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what + with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom-shrunk. + + Enter POMPEY + + How now! what's the news with you? + POMPEY. Yonder man is carried to prison. + MRS. OVERDONE. Well, what has he done? + POMPEY. A woman. + MRS. OVERDONE. But what's his offence? + POMPEY. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. + MRS. OVERDONE. What! is there a maid with child by him? + POMPEY. No; but there's a woman with maid by him. You have not + heard of the proclamation, have you? + MRS. OVERDONE. What proclamation, man? + POMPEY. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down. + MRS. OVERDONE. And what shall become of those in the city? + POMPEY. They shall stand for seed; they had gone down too, but that + a wise burgher put in for them. + MRS. OVERDONE. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be + pull'd down? + POMPEY. To the ground, mistress. + MRS. OVERDONE. Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth! + What shall become of me? + POMPEY. Come, fear not you: good counsellors lack no clients. + Though you change your place you need not change your trade; I'll + be your tapster still. Courage, there will be pity taken on you; + you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will + be considered. + MRS. OVERDONE. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? Let's withdraw. + POMPEY. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; + and there's Madam Juliet. Exeunt + + Enter PROVOST, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and OFFICERS; + LUCIO following + + CLAUDIO. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to th' world? + Bear me to prison, where I am committed. + PROVOST. I do it not in evil disposition, + But from Lord Angelo by special charge. + CLAUDIO. Thus can the demigod Authority + Make us pay down for our offence by weight + The words of heaven: on whom it will, it will; + On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just. + LUCIO. Why, how now, Claudio, whence comes this restraint? + CLAUDIO. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty; + As surfeit is the father of much fast, + So every scope by the immoderate use + Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue, + Like rats that ravin down their proper bane, + A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die. + LUCIO. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for + certain of my creditors; and yet, to say the truth, I had as lief + have the foppery of freedom as the morality of imprisonment. + What's thy offence, Claudio? + CLAUDIO. What but to speak of would offend again. + LUCIO. What, is't murder? + CLAUDIO. No. + LUCIO. Lechery? + CLAUDIO. Call it so. + PROVOST. Away, sir; you must go. + CLAUDIO. One word, good friend. Lucio, a word with you. + LUCIO. A hundred, if they'll do you any good. Is lechery so look'd + after? + CLAUDIO. Thus stands it with me: upon a true contract + I got possession of Julietta's bed. + You know the lady; she is fast my wife, + Save that we do the denunciation lack + Of outward order; this we came not to, + Only for propagation of a dow'r + Remaining in the coffer of her friends. + From whom we thought it meet to hide our love + Till time had made them for us. But it chances + The stealth of our most mutual entertainment, + With character too gross, is writ on Juliet. + LUCIO. With child, perhaps? + CLAUDIO. Unhappily, even so. + And the new deputy now for the Duke- + Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness, + Or whether that the body public be + A horse whereon the governor doth ride, + Who, newly in the seat, that it may know + He can command, lets it straight feel the spur; + Whether the tyranny be in his place, + Or in his eminence that fills it up, + I stagger in. But this new governor + Awakes me all the enrolled penalties + Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by th' wall + So long that nineteen zodiacs have gone round + And none of them been worn; and, for a name, + Now puts the drowsy and neglected act + Freshly on me. 'Tis surely for a name. + LUCIO. I warrant it is; and thy head stands so tickle on thy + shoulders that a milkmaid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. + Send after the Duke, and appeal to him. + CLAUDIO. I have done so, but he's not to be found. + I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service: + This day my sister should the cloister enter, + And there receive her approbation; + Acquaint her with the danger of my state; + Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends + To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him. + I have great hope in that; for in her youth + There is a prone and speechless dialect + Such as move men; beside, she hath prosperous art + When she will play with reason and discourse, + And well she can persuade. + LUCIO. I pray she may; as well for the encouragement of the like, + which else would stand under grievous imposition, as for the + enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus + foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack. I'll to her. + CLAUDIO. I thank you, good friend Lucio. + LUCIO. Within two hours. + CLAUDIO. Come, officer, away. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +A monastery + +Enter DUKE and FRIAR THOMAS + + DUKE. No, holy father; throw away that thought; + Believe not that the dribbling dart of love + Can pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire thee + To give me secret harbour hath a purpose + More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends + Of burning youth. + FRIAR. May your Grace speak of it? + DUKE. My holy sir, none better knows than you + How I have ever lov'd the life removed, + And held in idle price to haunt assemblies + Where youth, and cost, a witless bravery keeps. + I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo, + A man of stricture and firm abstinence, + My absolute power and place here in Vienna, + And he supposes me travell'd to Poland; + For so I have strew'd it in the common ear, + And so it is received. Now, pious sir, + You will demand of me why I do this. + FRIAR. Gladly, my lord. + DUKE. We have strict statutes and most biting laws, + The needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds, + Which for this fourteen years we have let slip; + Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave, + That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers, + Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch, + Only to stick it in their children's sight + For terror, not to use, in time the rod + Becomes more mock'd than fear'd; so our decrees, + Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead; + And liberty plucks justice by the nose; + The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart + Goes all decorum. + FRIAR. It rested in your Grace + To unloose this tied-up justice when you pleas'd; + And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd + Than in Lord Angelo. + DUKE. I do fear, too dreadful. + Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope, + 'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them + For what I bid them do; for we bid this be done, + When evil deeds have their permissive pass + And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father, + I have on Angelo impos'd the office; + Who may, in th' ambush of my name, strike home, + And yet my nature never in the fight + To do in slander. And to behold his sway, + I will, as 'twere a brother of your order, + Visit both prince and people. Therefore, I prithee, + Supply me with the habit, and instruct me + How I may formally in person bear me + Like a true friar. Moe reasons for this action + At our more leisure shall I render you. + Only, this one: Lord Angelo is precise; + Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses + That his blood flows, or that his appetite + Is more to bread than stone. Hence shall we see, + If power change purpose, what our seemers be. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +A nunnery + +Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA + + ISABELLA. And have you nuns no farther privileges? + FRANCISCA. Are not these large enough? + ISABELLA. Yes, truly; I speak not as desiring more, + But rather wishing a more strict restraint + Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare. + LUCIO. [ Within] Ho! Peace be in this place! + ISABELLA. Who's that which calls? + FRANCISCA. It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella, + Turn you the key, and know his business of him: + You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn; + When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men + But in the presence of the prioress; + Then, if you speak, you must not show your face, + Or, if you show your face, you must not speak. + He calls again; I pray you answer him. Exit FRANCISCA + ISABELLA. Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls? + + Enter LUCIO + + LUCIO. Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-roses + Proclaim you are no less. Can you so stead me + As bring me to the sight of Isabella, + A novice of this place, and the fair sister + To her unhappy brother Claudio? + ISABELLA. Why her 'unhappy brother'? Let me ask + The rather, for I now must make you know + I am that Isabella, and his sister. + LUCIO. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you. + Not to be weary with you, he's in prison. + ISABELLA. Woe me! For what? + LUCIO. For that which, if myself might be his judge, + He should receive his punishment in thanks: + He hath got his friend with child. + ISABELLA. Sir, make me not your story. + LUCIO. It is true. + I would not- though 'tis my familiar sin + With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest, + Tongue far from heart- play with all virgins so: + I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted, + By your renouncement an immortal spirit, + And to be talk'd with in sincerity, + As with a saint. + ISABELLA. You do blaspheme the good in mocking me. + LUCIO. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus: + Your brother and his lover have embrac'd. + As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time + That from the seedness the bare fallow brings + To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb + Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry. + ISABELLA. Some one with child by him? My cousin Juliet? + LUCIO. Is she your cousin? + ISABELLA. Adoptedly, as school-maids change their names + By vain though apt affection. + LUCIO. She it is. + ISABELLA. O, let him marry her! + LUCIO. This is the point. + The Duke is very strangely gone from hence; + Bore many gentlemen, myself being one, + In hand, and hope of action; but we do learn, + By those that know the very nerves of state, + His givings-out were of an infinite distance + From his true-meant design. Upon his place, + And with full line of his authority, + Governs Lord Angelo, a man whose blood + Is very snow-broth, one who never feels + The wanton stings and motions of the sense, + But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge + With profits of the mind, study and fast. + He- to give fear to use and liberty, + Which have for long run by the hideous law, + As mice by lions- hath pick'd out an act + Under whose heavy sense your brother's life + Falls into forfeit; he arrests him on it, + And follows close the rigour of the statute + To make him an example. All hope is gone, + Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer + To soften Angelo. And that's my pith of business + 'Twixt you and your poor brother. + ISABELLA. Doth he so seek his life? + LUCIO. Has censur'd him + Already, and, as I hear, the Provost hath + A warrant for his execution. + ISABELLA. Alas! what poor ability's in me + To do him good? + LUCIO. Assay the pow'r you have. + ISABELLA. My power, alas, I doubt! + LUCIO. Our doubts are traitors, + And make us lose the good we oft might win + By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo, + And let him learn to know, when maidens sue, + Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel, + All their petitions are as freely theirs + As they themselves would owe them. + ISABELLA. I'll see what I can do. + LUCIO. But speedily. + ISABELLA. I will about it straight; + No longer staying but to give the Mother + Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you. + Commend me to my brother; soon at night + I'll send him certain word of my success. + LUCIO. I take my leave of you. + ISABELLA. Good sir, adieu. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. Scene I. +A hall in ANGELO'S house + +Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a JUSTICE, PROVOST, OFFICERS, and other ATTENDANTS + + ANGELO. We must not make a scarecrow of the law, + Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, + And let it keep one shape till custom make it + Their perch, and not their terror. + ESCALUS. Ay, but yet + Let us be keen, and rather cut a little + Than fall and bruise to death. Alas! this gentleman, + Whom I would save, had a most noble father. + Let but your honour know, + Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue, + That, in the working of your own affections, + Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing, + Or that the resolute acting of our blood + Could have attain'd th' effect of your own purpose + Whether you had not sometime in your life + Err'd in this point which now you censure him, + And pull'd the law upon you. + ANGELO. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, + Another thing to fall. I not deny + The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, + May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two + Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to justice, + That justice seizes. What knows the laws + That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant, + The jewel that we find, we stoop and take't, + Because we see it; but what we do not see + We tread upon, and never think of it. + You may not so extenuate his offence + For I have had such faults; but rather tell me, + When I, that censure him, do so offend, + Let mine own judgment pattern out my death, + And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die. + ESCALUS. Be it as your wisdom will. + ANGELO. Where is the Provost? + PROVOST. Here, if it like your honour. + ANGELO. See that Claudio + Be executed by nine to-morrow morning; + Bring him his confessor; let him be prepar'd; + For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage. Exit PROVOST + ESCALUS. [Aside] Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all! + Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall; + Some run from breaks of ice, and answer none, + And some condemned for a fault alone. + + Enter ELBOW and OFFICERS with FROTH and POMPEY + + ELBOW. Come, bring them away; if these be good people in a + commonweal that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, + I know no law; bring them away. + ANGELO. How now, sir! What's your name, and what's the matter? + ELBOW. If it please your honour, I am the poor Duke's constable, + and my name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, sir, and do bring + in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors. + ANGELO. Benefactors! Well- what benefactors are they? Are they not + malefactors? + ELBOW. If it please your honour, I know not well what they are; but + precise villains they are, that I am sure of, and void of all + profanation in the world that good Christians ought to have. + ESCALUS. This comes off well; here's a wise officer. + ANGELO. Go to; what quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why + dost thou not speak, Elbow? + POMPEY. He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow. + ANGELO. What are you, sir? + ELBOW. He, sir? A tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad + woman; whose house, sir, was, as they say, pluck'd down in the + suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house, which, I think, is a + very ill house too. + ESCALUS. How know you that? + ELBOW. My Wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour- + ESCALUS. How! thy wife! + ELBOW. Ay, sir; whom I thank heaven, is an honest woman- + ESCALUS. Dost thou detest her therefore? + ELBOW. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that + this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, + for it is a naughty house. + ESCALUS. How dost thou know that, constable? + ELBOW. Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman + cardinally given, might have been accus'd in fornication, + adultery, and all uncleanliness there. + ESCALUS. By the woman's means? + ELBOW. Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means; but as she spit in + his face, so she defied him. + POMPEY. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so. + ELBOW. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man, + prove it. + ESCALUS. Do you hear how he misplaces? + POMPEY. Sir, she came in great with child; and longing, saving your + honour's reverence, for stew'd prunes. Sir, we had but two in the + house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, in a + fruit dish, a dish of some three pence; your honours have seen + such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very good dishes. + ESCALUS. Go to, go to; no matter for the dish, sir. + POMPEY. No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the + right; but to the point. As I say, this Mistress Elbow, being, as + I say, with child, and being great-bellied, and longing, as I + said, for prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said, + Master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I + said, and, as I say, paying for them very honestly; for, as you + know, Master Froth, I could not give you three pence again- + FROTH. No, indeed. + POMPEY. Very well; you being then, if you be rememb'red, cracking + the stones of the foresaid prunes- + FROTH. Ay, so I did indeed. + POMPEY. Why, very well; I telling you then, if you be rememb'red, + that such a one and such a one were past cure of the thing you + wot of, unless they kept very good diet, as I told you- + FROTH. All this is true. + POMPEY. Why, very well then- + ESCALUS. Come, you are a tedious fool. To the purpose: what was + done to Elbow's wife that he hath cause to complain of? Come me + to what was done to her. + POMPEY. Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet. + ESCALUS. No, sir, nor I mean it not. + POMPEY. Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's leave. And, + I beseech you, look into Master Froth here, sir, a man of + fourscore pound a year; whose father died at Hallowmas- was't not + at Hallowmas, Master Froth? + FROTH. All-hallond eve. + POMPEY. Why, very well; I hope here be truths. He, sir, sitting, as + I say, in a lower chair, sir; 'twas in the Bunch of Grapes, + where, indeed, you have a delight to sit, have you not? + FROTH. I have so; because it is an open room, and good for winter. + POMPEY. Why, very well then; I hope here be truths. + ANGELO. This will last out a night in Russia, + When nights are longest there; I'll take my leave, + And leave you to the hearing of the cause, + Hoping you'll find good cause to whip them all. + ESCALUS. I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship. + [Exit ANGELO] Now, sir, come on; what was done to Elbow's wife, + once more? + POMPEY. Once?- sir. There was nothing done to her once. + ELBOW. I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife. + POMPEY. I beseech your honour, ask me. + ESCALUS. Well, sir, what did this gentleman to her? + POMPEY. I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face. Good + Master Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a good purpose. Doth + your honour mark his face? + ESCALUS. Ay, sir, very well. + POMPEY. Nay, I beseech you, mark it well. + ESCALUS. Well, I do so. + POMPEY. Doth your honour see any harm in his face? + ESCALUS. Why, no. + POMPEY. I'll be suppos'd upon a book his face is the worst thing + about him. Good then; if his face be the worst thing about him, + how could Master Froth do the constable's wife any harm? I would + know that of your honour. + ESCALUS. He's in the right, constable; what say you to it? + ELBOW. First, an it like you, the house is a respected house; next, + this is a respected fellow; and his mistress is a respected + woman. + POMPEY. By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected person than + any of us all. + ELBOW. Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicket varlet; the time is + yet to come that she was ever respected with man, woman, or + child. + POMPEY. Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her. + ESCALUS. Which is the wiser here, Justice or Iniquity? Is this + true? + ELBOW. O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked Hannibal! I + respected with her before I was married to her! If ever I was + respected with her, or she with me, let not your worship think me + the poor Duke's officer. Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or + I'll have mine action of batt'ry on thee. + ESCALUS. If he took you a box o' th' ear, you might have your + action of slander too. + ELBOW. Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is't your + worship's pleasure I shall do with this wicked caitiff? + ESCALUS. Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him that + thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his + courses till thou know'st what they are. + ELBOW. Marry, I thank your worship for it. Thou seest, thou wicked + varlet, now, what's come upon thee: thou art to continue now, + thou varlet; thou art to continue. + ESCALUS. Where were you born, friend? + FROTH. Here in Vienna, sir. + ESCALUS. Are you of fourscore pounds a year? + FROTH. Yes, an't please you, sir. + ESCALUS. So. What trade are you of, sir? + POMPEY. A tapster, a poor widow's tapster. + ESCALUS. Your mistress' name? + POMPEY. Mistress Overdone. + ESCALUS. Hath she had any more than one husband? + POMPEY. Nine, sir; Overdone by the last. + ESCALUS. Nine! Come hither to me, Master Froth. Master Froth, I + would not have you acquainted with tapsters: they will draw you, + Master Froth, and you will hang them. Get you gone, and let me + hear no more of you. + FROTH. I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never come into + any room in a taphouse but I am drawn in. + ESCALUS. Well, no more of it, Master Froth; farewell. [Exit FROTH] + Come you hither to me, Master Tapster; what's your name, Master + Tapster? + POMPEY. Pompey. + ESCALUS. What else? + POMPEY. Bum, sir. + ESCALUS. Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you; so + that, in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the Great. Pompey, + you are partly a bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being a + tapster. Are you not? Come, tell me true; it shall be the better + for you. + POMPEY. Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live. + ESCALUS. How would you live, Pompey- by being a bawd? What do you + think of the trade, Pompey? Is it a lawful trade? + POMPEY. If the law would allow it, sir. + ESCALUS. But the law will not allow it, Pompey; nor it shall not be + allowed in Vienna. + POMPEY. Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the youth of + the city? + ESCALUS. No, Pompey. + POMPEY. Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to't then. If + your worship will take order for the drabs and the knaves, you + need not to fear the bawds. + ESCALUS. There is pretty orders beginning, I can tell you: but it + is but heading and hanging. + POMPEY. If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten + year together, you'll be glad to give out a commission for more + heads; if this law hold in Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest + house in it, after threepence a bay. If you live to see this come + to pass, say Pompey told you so. + ESCALUS. Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of your prophecy, + hark you: I advise you, let me not find you before me again upon + any complaint whatsoever- no, not for dwelling where you do; if I + do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd + Caesar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipt. + So for this time, Pompey, fare you well. + POMPEY. I thank your worship for your good counsel; [Aside] but I + shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall better determine. + Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade; + The valiant heart's not whipt out of his trade. Exit + ESCALUS. Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, Master + Constable. How long have you been in this place of constable? + ELBOW. Seven year and a half, sir. + ESCALUS. I thought, by the readiness in the office, you had + continued in it some time. You say seven years together? + ELBOW. And a half, sir. + ESCALUS. Alas, it hath been great pains to you! They do you wrong + to put you so oft upon't. Are there not men in your ward + sufficient to serve it? + ELBOW. Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters; as they are + chosen, they are glad to choose me for them; I do it for some + piece of money, and go through with all. + ESCALUS. Look you, bring me in the names of some six or seven, the + most sufficient of your parish. + ELBOW. To your worship's house, sir? + ESCALUS. To my house. Fare you well. [Exit ELBOW] + What's o'clock, think you? + JUSTICE. Eleven, sir. + ESCALUS. I pray you home to dinner with me. + JUSTICE. I humbly thank you. + ESCALUS. It grieves me for the death of Claudio; + But there's no remedy. + JUSTICE. Lord Angelo is severe. + ESCALUS. It is but needful: + Mercy is not itself that oft looks so; + Pardon is still the nurse of second woe. + But yet, poor Claudio! There is no remedy. + Come, sir. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Another room in ANGELO'S house + +Enter PROVOST and a SERVANT + + SERVANT. He's hearing of a cause; he will come straight. + I'll tell him of you. + PROVOST. Pray you do. [Exit SERVANT] I'll know + His pleasure; may be he will relent. Alas, + He hath but as offended in a dream! + All sects, all ages, smack of this vice; and he + To die for 't! + + Enter ANGELO + + ANGELO. Now, what's the matter, Provost? + PROVOST. Is it your will Claudio shall die to-morrow? + ANGELO. Did not I tell thee yea? Hadst thou not order? + Why dost thou ask again? + PROVOST. Lest I might be too rash; + Under your good correction, I have seen + When, after execution, judgment hath + Repented o'er his doom. + ANGELO. Go to; let that be mine. + Do you your office, or give up your place, + And you shall well be spar'd. + PROVOST. I crave your honour's pardon. + What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet? + She's very near her hour. + ANGELO. Dispose of her + To some more fitter place, and that with speed. + + Re-enter SERVANT + + SERVANT. Here is the sister of the man condemn'd + Desires access to you. + ANGELO. Hath he a sister? + PROVOST. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid, + And to be shortly of a sisterhood, + If not already. + ANGELO. Well, let her be admitted. Exit SERVANT + See you the fornicatress be remov'd; + Let her have needful but not lavish means; + There shall be order for't. + + Enter Lucio and ISABELLA + + PROVOST. [Going] Save your honour! + ANGELO. Stay a little while. [To ISABELLA] Y'are welcome; what's + your will? + ISABELLA. I am a woeful suitor to your honour, + Please but your honour hear me. + ANGELO. Well; what's your suit? + ISABELLA. There is a vice that most I do abhor, + And most desire should meet the blow of justice; + For which I would not plead, but that I must; + For which I must not plead, but that I am + At war 'twixt will and will not. + ANGELO. Well; the matter? + ISABELLA. I have a brother is condemn'd to die; + I do beseech you, let it be his fault, + And not my brother. + PROVOST. [Aside] Heaven give thee moving graces. + ANGELO. Condemn the fault and not the actor of it! + Why, every fault's condemn'd ere it be done; + Mine were the very cipher of a function, + To fine the faults whose fine stands in record, + And let go by the actor. + ISABELLA. O just but severe law! + I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour! + LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Give't not o'er so; to him again, entreat him, + Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown; + You are too cold: if you should need a pin, + You could not with more tame a tongue desire it. + To him, I say. + ISABELLA. Must he needs die? + ANGELO. Maiden, no remedy. + ISABELLA. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him. + And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy. + ANGELO. I will not do't. + ISABELLA. But can you, if you would? + ANGELO. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do. + ISABELLA. But might you do't, and do the world no wrong, + If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse + As mine is to him? + ANGELO. He's sentenc'd; 'tis too late. + LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] You are too cold. + ISABELLA. Too late? Why, no; I, that do speak a word, + May call it back again. Well, believe this: + No ceremony that to great ones longs, + Not the king's crown nor the deputed sword, + The marshal's truncheon nor the judge's robe, + Become them with one half so good a grace + As mercy does. + If he had been as you, and you as he, + You would have slipp'd like him; but he, like you, + Would not have been so stern. + ANGELO. Pray you be gone. + ISABELLA. I would to heaven I had your potency, + And you were Isabel! Should it then be thus? + No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge + And what a prisoner. + LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Ay, touch him; there's the vein. + ANGELO. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, + And you but waste your words. + ISABELLA. Alas! Alas! + Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once; + And He that might the vantage best have took + Found out the remedy. How would you be + If He, which is the top of judgment, should + But judge you as you are? O, think on that; + And mercy then will breathe within your lips, + Like man new made. + ANGELO. Be you content, fair maid. + It is the law, not I condemn your brother. + Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son, + It should be thus with him. He must die to-morrow. + ISABELLA. To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him. + He's not prepar'd for death. Even for our kitchens + We kill the fowl of season; shall we serve heaven + With less respect than we do minister + To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you. + Who is it that hath died for this offence? + There's many have committed it. + LUCIO. [Aside] Ay, well said. + ANGELO. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept. + Those many had not dar'd to do that evil + If the first that did th' edict infringe + Had answer'd for his deed. Now 'tis awake, + Takes note of what is done, and, like a prophet, + Looks in a glass that shows what future evils- + Either now or by remissness new conceiv'd, + And so in progress to be hatch'd and born- + Are now to have no successive degrees, + But here they live to end. + ISABELLA. Yet show some pity. + ANGELO. I show it most of all when I show justice; + For then I pity those I do not know, + Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall, + And do him right that, answering one foul wrong, + Lives not to act another. Be satisfied; + Your brother dies to-morrow; be content. + ISABELLA. So you must be the first that gives this sentence, + And he that suffers. O, it is excellent + To have a giant's strength! But it is tyrannous + To use it like a giant. + LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] That's well said. + ISABELLA. Could great men thunder + As Jove himself does, Jove would never be quiet, + For every pelting petty officer + Would use his heaven for thunder, + Nothing but thunder. Merciful Heaven, + Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt, + Splits the unwedgeable and gnarled oak + Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man, + Dress'd in a little brief authority, + Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, + His glassy essence, like an angry ape, + Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven + As makes the angels weep; who, with our speens, + Would all themselves laugh mortal. + LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] O, to him, to him, wench! He will relent; + He's coming; I perceive 't. + PROVOST. [Aside] Pray heaven she win him. + ISABELLA. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself. + Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them; + But in the less foul profanation. + LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Thou'rt i' th' right, girl; more o' that. + ISABELLA. That in the captain's but a choleric word + Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. + LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Art avis'd o' that? More on't. + ANGELO. Why do you put these sayings upon me? + ISABELLA. Because authority, though it err like others, + Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself + That skins the vice o' th' top. Go to your bosom, + Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know + That's like my brother's fault. If it confess + A natural guiltiness such as is his, + Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue + Against my brother's life. + ANGELO. [Aside] She speaks, and 'tis + Such sense that my sense breeds with it.- Fare you well. + ISABELLA. Gentle my lord, turn back. + ANGELO. I will bethink me. Come again to-morrow. + ISABELLA. Hark how I'll bribe you; good my lord, turn back. + ANGELO. How, bribe me? + ISABELLA. Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you. + LUCIO. [To ISABELLA) You had marr'd all else. + ISABELLA. Not with fond sicles of the tested gold, + Or stones, whose rate are either rich or poor + As fancy values them; but with true prayers + That shall be up at heaven and enter there + Ere sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls, + From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate + To nothing temporal. + ANGELO. Well; come to me to-morrow. + LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Go to; 'tis well; away. + ISABELLA. Heaven keep your honour safe! + ANGELO. [Aside] Amen; for I + Am that way going to temptation + Where prayers cross. + ISABELLA. At what hour to-morrow + Shall I attend your lordship? + ANGELO. At any time 'fore noon. + ISABELLA. Save your honour! Exeunt all but ANGELO + ANGELO. From thee; even from thy virtue! + What's this, what's this? Is this her fault or mine? + The tempter or the tempted, who sins most? + Ha! + Not she; nor doth she tempt; but it is I + That, lying by the violet in the sun, + Do as the carrion does, not as the flow'r, + Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be + That modesty may more betray our sense + Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough, + Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary, + And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie! + What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo? + Dost thou desire her foully for those things + That make her good? O, let her brother live! + Thieves for their robbery have authority + When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her, + That I desire to hear her speak again, + And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on? + O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint, + With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous + Is that temptation that doth goad us on + To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet, + With all her double vigour, art and nature, + Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid + Subdues me quite. Ever till now, + When men were fond, I smil'd and wond'red how. Exit + + + + +SCENE III. +A prison + +Enter, severally, DUKE, disguised as a FRIAR, and PROVOST + + DUKE. Hail to you, Provost! so I think you are. + PROVOST. I am the Provost. What's your will, good friar? + DUKE. Bound by my charity and my blest order, + I come to visit the afflicted spirits + Here in the prison. Do me the common right + To let me see them, and to make me know + The nature of their crimes, that I may minister + To them accordingly. + PROVOST. I would do more than that, if more were needful. + + Enter JULIET + + Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine, + Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth, + Hath blister'd her report. She is with child; + And he that got it, sentenc'd- a young man + More fit to do another such offence + Than die for this. + DUKE. When must he die? + PROVOST. As I do think, to-morrow. + [To JULIET] I have provided for you; stay awhile + And you shall be conducted. + DUKE. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry? + JULIET. I do; and bear the shame most patiently. + DUKE. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience, + And try your penitence, if it be sound + Or hollowly put on. + JULIET. I'll gladly learn. + DUKE. Love you the man that wrong'd you? + JULIET. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him. + DUKE. So then, it seems, your most offenceful act + Was mutually committed. + JULIET. Mutually. + DUKE. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his. + JULIET. I do confess it, and repent it, father. + DUKE. 'Tis meet so, daughter; but lest you do repent + As that the sin hath brought you to this shame, + Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven, + Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it, + But as we stand in fear- + JULIET. I do repent me as it is an evil, + And take the shame with joy. + DUKE. There rest. + Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow, + And I am going with instruction to him. + Grace go with you! Benedicite! Exit + JULIET. Must die to-morrow! O, injurious law, + That respites me a life whose very comfort + Is still a dying horror! + PROVOST. 'Tis pity of him. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +ANGELO'S house + +Enter ANGELO + + ANGELO. When I would pray and think, I think and pray + To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words, + Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue, + Anchors on Isabel. Heaven in my mouth, + As if I did but only chew his name, + And in my heart the strong and swelling evil + Of my conception. The state whereon I studied + Is, like a good thing being often read, + Grown sere and tedious; yea, my gravity, + Wherein- let no man hear me- I take pride, + Could I with boot change for an idle plume + Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form, + How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit, + Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls + To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood. + Let's write 'good angel' on the devil's horn; + 'Tis not the devil's crest. + + Enter SERVANT + + How now, who's there? + SERVANT. One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you. + ANGELO. Teach her the way. [Exit SERVANT] O heavens! + Why does my blood thus muster to my heart, + Making both it unable for itself + And dispossessing all my other parts + Of necessary fitness? + So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons; + Come all to help him, and so stop the air + By which he should revive; and even so + The general subject to a well-wish'd king + Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness + Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love + Must needs appear offence. + + Enter ISABELLA + + How now, fair maid? + ISABELLA. I am come to know your pleasure. + ANGELO. That you might know it would much better please me + Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live. + ISABELLA. Even so! Heaven keep your honour! + ANGELO. Yet may he live awhile, and, it may be, + As long as you or I; yet he must die. + ISABELLA. Under your sentence? + ANGELO. Yea. + ISABELLA. When? I beseech you; that in his reprieve, + Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted + That his soul sicken not. + ANGELO. Ha! Fie, these filthy vices! It were as good + To pardon him that hath from nature stol'n + A man already made, as to remit + Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image + In stamps that are forbid; 'tis all as easy + Falsely to take away a life true made + As to put metal in restrained means + To make a false one. + ISABELLA. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth. + ANGELO. Say you so? Then I shall pose you quickly. + Which had you rather- that the most just law + Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him, + Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness + As she that he hath stain'd? + ISABELLA. Sir, believe this: + I had rather give my body than my soul. + ANGELO. I talk not of your soul; our compell'd sins + Stand more for number than for accompt. + ISABELLA. How say you? + ANGELO. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak + Against the thing I say. Answer to this: + I, now the voice of the recorded law, + Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life; + Might there not be a charity in sin + To save this brother's life? + ISABELLA. Please you to do't, + I'll take it as a peril to my soul + It is no sin at all, but charity. + ANGELO. Pleas'd you to do't at peril of your soul, + Were equal poise of sin and charity. + ISABELLA. That I do beg his life, if it be sin, + Heaven let me bear it! You granting of my suit, + If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer + To have it added to the faults of mine, + And nothing of your answer. + ANGELO. Nay, but hear me; + Your sense pursues not mine; either you are ignorant + Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good. + ISABELLA. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good + But graciously to know I am no better. + ANGELO. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright + When it doth tax itself; as these black masks + Proclaim an enshielded beauty ten times louder + Than beauty could, display'd. But mark me: + To be received plain, I'll speak more gross- + Your brother is to die. + ISABELLA. So. + ANGELO. And his offence is so, as it appears, + Accountant to the law upon that pain. + ISABELLA. True. + ANGELO. Admit no other way to save his life, + As I subscribe not that, nor any other, + But, in the loss of question, that you, his sister, + Finding yourself desir'd of such a person + Whose credit with the judge, or own great place, + Could fetch your brother from the manacles + Of the all-binding law; and that there were + No earthly mean to save him but that either + You must lay down the treasures of your body + To this supposed, or else to let him suffer- + What would you do? + ISABELLA. As much for my poor brother as myself; + That is, were I under the terms of death, + Th' impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies, + And strip myself to death as to a bed + That longing have been sick for, ere I'd yield + My body up to shame. + ANGELO. Then must your brother die. + ISABELLA. And 'twere the cheaper way: + Better it were a brother died at once + Than that a sister, by redeeming him, + Should die for ever. + ANGELO. Were not you, then, as cruel as the sentence + That you have slander'd so? + ISABELLA. Ignominy in ransom and free pardon + Are of two houses: lawful mercy + Is nothing kin to foul redemption. + ANGELO. You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant; + And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother + A merriment than a vice. + ISABELLA. O, pardon me, my lord! It oft falls out, + To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean: + I something do excuse the thing I hate + For his advantage that I dearly love. + ANGELO. We are all frail. + ISABELLA. Else let my brother die, + If not a fedary but only he + Owe and succeed thy weakness. + ANGELO. Nay, women are frail too. + ISABELLA. Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves, + Which are as easy broke as they make forms. + Women, help heaven! Men their creation mar + In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail; + For we are soft as our complexions are, + And credulous to false prints. + ANGELO. I think it well; + And from this testimony of your own sex, + Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger + Than faults may shake our frames, let me be bold. + I do arrest your words. Be that you are, + That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none; + If you be one, as you are well express'd + By all external warrants, show it now + By putting on the destin'd livery. + ISABELLA. I have no tongue but one; gentle, my lord, + Let me intreat you speak the former language. + ANGELO. Plainly conceive, I love you. + ISABELLA. My brother did love Juliet, + And you tell me that he shall die for't. + ANGELO. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love. + ISABELLA. I know your virtue hath a license in't, + Which seems a little fouler than it is, + To pluck on others. + ANGELO. Believe me, on mine honour, + My words express my purpose. + ISABELLA. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd, + And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seeming! + I will proclaim thee, Angelo, look for't. + Sign me a present pardon for my brother + Or, with an outstretch'd throat, I'll tell the world aloud + What man thou art. + ANGELO. Who will believe thee, Isabel? + My unsoil'd name, th' austereness of my life, + My vouch against you, and my place i' th' state, + Will so your accusation overweigh + That you shall stifle in your own report, + And smell of calumny. I have begun, + And now I give my sensual race the rein: + Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite; + Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes + That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother + By yielding up thy body to my will; + Or else he must not only die the death, + But thy unkindness shall his death draw out + To ling'ring sufferance. Answer me to-morrow, + Or, by the affection that now guides me most, + I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you, + Say what you can: my false o'erweighs your true. Exit + ISABELLA. To whom should I complain? Did I tell this, + Who would believe me? O perilous mouths + That bear in them one and the self-same tongue + Either of condemnation or approof, + Bidding the law make curtsy to their will; + Hooking both right and wrong to th' appetite, + To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother. + Though he hath fall'n by prompture of the blood, + Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour + That, had he twenty heads to tender down + On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up + Before his sister should her body stoop + To such abhorr'd pollution. + Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die: + More than our brother is our chastity. + I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request, + And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +The prison + +Enter DUKE, disguised as before, CLAUDIO, and PROVOST + + DUKE. So, then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo? + CLAUDIO. The miserable have no other medicine + But only hope: + I have hope to Eve, and am prepar'd to die. + DUKE. Be absolute for death; either death or life + Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life. + If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing + That none but fools would keep. A breath thou art, + Servile to all the skyey influences, + That dost this habitation where thou keep'st + Hourly afflict. Merely, thou art Death's fool; + For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun + And yet run'st toward him still. Thou art not noble; + For all th' accommodations that thou bear'st + Are nurs'd by baseness. Thou 'rt by no means valiant; + For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork + Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep, + And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st + Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself; + For thou exists on many a thousand grains + That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not; + For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get, + And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain; + For thy complexion shifts to strange effects, + After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor; + For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows, + Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, + And Death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none; + For thine own bowels which do call thee sire, + The mere effusion of thy proper loins, + Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum, + For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age, + But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep, + Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth + Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms + Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich, + Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty, + To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this + That bears the name of life? Yet in this life + Lie hid moe thousand deaths; yet death we fear, + That makes these odds all even. + CLAUDIO. I humbly thank you. + To sue to live, I find I seek to die; + And, seeking death, find life. Let it come on. + ISABELLA. [Within] What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company! + PROVOST. Who's there? Come in; the wish deserves a welcome. + DUKE. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again. + CLAUDIO. Most holy sir, I thank you. + + Enter ISABELLA + + ISABELLA. My business is a word or two with Claudio. + PROVOST. And very welcome. Look, signior, here's your sister. + DUKE. Provost, a word with you. + PROVOST. As many as you please. + DUKE. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be conceal'd. + Exeunt DUKE and PROVOST + CLAUDIO. Now, sister, what's the comfort? + ISABELLA. Why, + As all comforts are; most good, most good, indeed. + Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, + Intends you for his swift ambassador, + Where you shall be an everlasting leiger. + Therefore, your best appointment make with speed; + To-morrow you set on. + CLAUDIO. Is there no remedy? + ISABELLA. None, but such remedy as, to save a head, + To cleave a heart in twain. + CLAUDIO. But is there any? + ISABELLA. Yes, brother, you may live: + There is a devilish mercy in the judge, + If you'll implore it, that will free your life, + But fetter you till death. + CLAUDIO. Perpetual durance? + ISABELLA. Ay, just; perpetual durance, a restraint, + Though all the world's vastidity you had, + To a determin'd scope. + CLAUDIO. But in what nature? + ISABELLA. In such a one as, you consenting to't, + Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear, + And leave you naked. + CLAUDIO. Let me know the point. + ISABELLA. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, + Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain, + And six or seven winters more respect + Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die? + The sense of death is most in apprehension; + And the poor beetle that we tread upon + In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great + As when a giant dies. + CLAUDIO. Why give you me this shame? + Think you I can a resolution fetch + From flow'ry tenderness? If I must die, + I will encounter darkness as a bride + And hug it in mine arms. + ISABELLA. There spake my brother; there my father's grave + Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die: + Thou art too noble to conserve a life + In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy, + Whose settled visage and deliberate word + Nips youth i' th' head, and follies doth enew + As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil; + His filth within being cast, he would appear + A pond as deep as hell. + CLAUDIO. The precise Angelo! + ISABELLA. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell + The damned'st body to invest and cover + In precise guards! Dost thou think, Claudio, + If I would yield him my virginity + Thou mightst be freed? + CLAUDIO. O heavens! it cannot be. + ISABELLA. Yes, he would give't thee, from this rank offence, + So to offend him still. This night's the time + That I should do what I abhor to name, + Or else thou diest to-morrow. + CLAUDIO. Thou shalt not do't. + ISABELLA. O, were it but my life! + I'd throw it down for your deliverance + As frankly as a pin. + CLAUDIO. Thanks, dear Isabel. + ISABELLA. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow. + CLAUDIO. Yes. Has he affections in him + That thus can make him bite the law by th' nose + When he would force it? Sure it is no sin; + Or of the deadly seven it is the least. + ISABELLA. Which is the least? + CLAUDIO. If it were damnable, he being so wise, + Why would he for the momentary trick + Be perdurably fin'd?- O Isabel! + ISABELLA. What says my brother? + CLAUDIO. Death is a fearful thing. + ISABELLA. And shamed life a hateful. + CLAUDIO. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; + To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; + This sensible warm motion to become + A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit + To bathe in fiery floods or to reside + In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice; + To be imprison'd in the viewless winds, + And blown with restless violence round about + The pendent world; or to be worse than worst + Of those that lawless and incertain thought + Imagine howling- 'tis too horrible. + The weariest and most loathed worldly life + That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment, + Can lay on nature is a paradise + To what we fear of death. + ISABELLA. Alas, alas! + CLAUDIO. Sweet sister, let me live. + What sin you do to save a brother's life, + Nature dispenses with the deed so far + That it becomes a virtue. + ISABELLA. O you beast! + O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch! + Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice? + Is't not a kind of incest to take life + From thine own sister's shame? What should I think? + Heaven shield my mother play'd my father fair! + For such a warped slip of wilderness + Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take my defiance; + Die; perish. Might but my bending down + Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed. + I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death, + No word to save thee. + CLAUDIO. Nay, hear me, Isabel. + ISABELLA. O fie, fie, fie! + Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade. + Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd; + 'Tis best that thou diest quickly. + CLAUDIO. O, hear me, Isabella. + + Re-enter DUKE + + DUKE. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word. + ISABELLA. What is your will? + DUKE. Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by have + some speech with you; the satisfaction I would require is + likewise your own benefit. + ISABELLA. I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be stolen out + of other affairs; but I will attend you awhile. + [Walks apart] + DUKE. Son, I have overheard what hath pass'd between you and your + sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath + made an assay of her virtue to practise his judgment with the + disposition of natures. She, having the truth of honour in her, + hath made him that gracious denial which he is most glad to + receive. I am confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; + therefore prepare yourself to death. Do not satisfy your + resolution with hopes that are fallible; to-morrow you must die; + go to your knees and make ready. + CLAUDIO. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life + that I will sue to be rid of it. + DUKE. Hold you there. Farewell. [Exit CLAUDIO] Provost, a word with + you. + + Re-enter PROVOST + + PROVOST. What's your will, father? + DUKE. That, now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me a while + with the maid; my mind promises with my habit no loss shall touch + her by my company. + PROVOST. In good time. Exit PROVOST + DUKE. The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good; the + goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty brief in goodness; + but grace, being the soul of your complexion, shall keep the body + of it ever fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you, + fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and, but that frailty + hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How + will you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother? + ISABELLA. I am now going to resolve him; I had rather my brother + die by the law than my son should be unlawfully born. But, O, how + much is the good Duke deceiv'd in Angelo! If ever he return, and + I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his + government. + DUKE. That shall not be much amiss; yet, as the matter now stands, + he will avoid your accusation: he made trial of you only. + Therefore fasten your ear on my advisings; to the love I have in + doing good a remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe + that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited + benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no stain to + your own gracious person; and much please the absent Duke, if + peradventure he shall ever return to have hearing of this + business. + ISABELLA. Let me hear you speak farther; I have spirit to do + anything that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit. + DUKE. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not + heard speak of Mariana, the sister of Frederick, the great + soldier who miscarried at sea? + ISABELLA. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her + name. + DUKE. She should this Angelo have married; was affianced to her by + oath, and the nuptial appointed; between which time of the + contract and limit of the solemnity her brother Frederick was + wreck'd at sea, having in that perished vessel the dowry of his + sister. But mark how heavily this befell to the poor gentlewoman: + there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward + her ever most kind and natural; with him the portion and sinew of + her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her combinate + husband, this well-seeming Angelo. + ISABELLA. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her? + DUKE. Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them with his + comfort; swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her discoveries + of dishonour; in few, bestow'd her on her own lamentation, which + she yet wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is + washed with them, but relents not. + ISABELLA. What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid from + the world! What corruption in this life that it will let this man + live! But how out of this can she avail? + DUKE. It is a rupture that you may easily heal; and the cure of it + not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in + doing it. + ISABELLA. Show me how, good father. + DUKE. This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance of her + first affection; his unjust unkindness, that in all reason should + have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the current, + made it more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo; answer his + requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with his demands to + the point; only refer yourself to this advantage: first, that + your stay with him may not be long; that the time may have all + shadow and silence in it; and the place answer to convenience. + This being granted in course- and now follows all: we shall + advise this wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in your + place. If the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may + compel him to her recompense; and here, by this, is your brother + saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and + the corrupt deputy scaled. The maid will I frame and make fit for + his attempt. If you think well to carry this as you may, the + doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof. What + think you of it? + ISABELLA. The image of it gives me content already; and I trust it + will grow to a most prosperous perfection. + DUKE. It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily to + Angelo; if for this night he entreat you to his bed, give him + promise of satisfaction. I will presently to Saint Luke's; there, + at the moated grange, resides this dejected Mariana. At that + place call upon me; and dispatch with Angelo, that it may be + quickly. + ISABELLA. I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father. + Exeunt severally + + + + +Scene II. +The street before the prison + +Enter, on one side, DUKE disguised as before; on the other, ELBOW, +and OFFICERS with POMPEY + + ELBOW. Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs + buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all the + world drink brown and white bastard. + DUKE. O heavens! what stuff is here? + POMPEY. 'Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the merriest + was put down, and the worser allow'd by order of law a furr'd + gown to keep him warm; and furr'd with fox on lamb-skins too, to + signify that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the + facing. + ELBOW. Come your way, sir. Bless you, good father friar. + DUKE. And you, good brother father. What offence hath this man made + you, sir? + ELBOW. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, sir, we take him + to be a thief too, sir, for we have found upon him, sir, a + strange picklock, which we have sent to the deputy. + DUKE. Fie, sirrah, a bawd, a wicked bawd! + The evil that thou causest to be done, + That is thy means to live. Do thou but think + What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back + From such a filthy vice; say to thyself + 'From their abominable and beastly touches + I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.' + Canst thou believe thy living is a life, + So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend. + POMPEY. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet, sir, + I would prove- + DUKE. Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin, + Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer; + Correction and instruction must both work + Ere this rude beast will profit. + ELBOW. He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him warning. + The deputy cannot abide a whoremaster; if he be a whoremonger, + and comes before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand. + DUKE. That we were all, as some would seem to be, + From our faults, as his faults from seeming, free. + ELBOW. His neck will come to your waist- a cord, sir. + + Enter LUCIO + + POMPEY. I spy comfort; I cry bail. Here's a gentleman, and a friend + of mine. + LUCIO. How now, noble Pompey! What, at the wheels of Caesar? Art + thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pygmalion's images, + newly made woman, to be had now for putting the hand in the + pocket and extracting it clutch'd? What reply, ha? What say'st + thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is't not drown'd i' th' + last rain, ha? What say'st thou, trot? Is the world as it was, + man? Which is the way? Is it sad, and few words? or how? The + trick of it? + DUKE. Still thus, and thus; still worse! + LUCIO. How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she still, + ha? + POMPEY. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is + herself in the tub. + LUCIO. Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it must be so; ever + your fresh whore and your powder'd bawd- an unshunn'd + consequence; it must be so. Art going to prison, Pompey? + POMPEY. Yes, faith, sir. + LUCIO. Why, 'tis not amiss, Pompey. Farewell; go, say I sent thee + thither. For debt, Pompey- or how? + ELBOW. For being a bawd, for being a bawd. + LUCIO. Well, then, imprison him. If imprisonment be the due of a + bawd, why, 'tis his right. Bawd is he doubtless, and of + antiquity, too; bawd-born. Farewell, good Pompey. Commend me to + the prison, Pompey. You will turn good husband now, Pompey; you + will keep the house. + POMPEY. I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail. + LUCIO. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear. I will + pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage. If you take it not + patiently, why, your mettle is the more. Adieu trusty Pompey. + Bless you, friar. + DUKE. And you. + LUCIO. Does Bridget paint still, Pompey, ha? + ELBOW. Come your ways, sir; come. + POMPEY. You will not bail me then, sir? + LUCIO. Then, Pompey, nor now. What news abroad, friar? what news? + ELBOW. Come your ways, sir; come. + LUCIO. Go to kennel, Pompey, go. + + Exeunt ELBOW, POMPEY and OFFICERS + + What news, friar, of the Duke? + DUKE. I know none. Can you tell me of any? + LUCIO. Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia; other some, he is + in Rome; but where is he, think you? + DUKE. I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish him well. + LUCIO. It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal from the + state and usurp the beggary he was never born to. Lord Angelo + dukes it well in his absence; he puts transgression to't. + DUKE. He does well in't. + LUCIO. A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him; + something too crabbed that way, friar. + DUKE. It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it. + LUCIO. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred; it is + well allied; but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar, till + eating and drinking be put down. They say this Angelo was not + made by man and woman after this downright way of creation. Is it + true, think you? + DUKE. How should he be made, then? + LUCIO. Some report a sea-maid spawn'd him; some, that he was begot + between two stock-fishes. But it is certain that when he makes + water his urine is congeal'd ice; that I know to be true. And he + is a motion generative; that's infallible. + DUKE. You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace. + LUCIO. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion + of a codpiece to take away the life of a man! Would the Duke that + is absent have done this? Ere he would have hang'd a man for the + getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing a + thousand. He had some feeling of the sport; he knew the service, + and that instructed him to mercy. + DUKE. I never heard the absent Duke much detected for women; he was + not inclin'd that way. + LUCIO. O, sir, you are deceiv'd. + DUKE. 'Tis not possible. + LUCIO. Who- not the Duke? Yes, your beggar of fifty; and his use + was to put a ducat in her clack-dish. The Duke had crotchets in + him. He would be drunk too; that let me inform you. + DUKE. You do him wrong, surely. + LUCIO. Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow was the Duke; and + I believe I know the cause of his withdrawing. + DUKE. What, I prithee, might be the cause? + LUCIO. No, pardon; 'tis a secret must be lock'd within the teeth + and the lips; but this I can let you understand: the greater file + of the subject held the Duke to be wise. + DUKE. Wise? Why, no question but he was. + LUCIO. A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow. + DUKE. Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking; the very + stream of his life, and the business he hath helmed, must, upon a + warranted need, give him a better proclamation. Let him be but + testimonied in his own bringings-forth, and he shall appear to + the envious a scholar, a statesman, and a soldier. Therefore you + speak unskilfully; or, if your knowledge be more, it is much + dark'ned in your malice. + LUCIO. Sir, I know him, and I love him. + DUKE. Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer + love. + LUCIO. Come, sir, I know what I know. + DUKE. I can hardly believe that, since you know not what you speak. + But, if ever the Duke return, as our prayers are he may, let me + desire you to make your answer before him. If it be honest you + have spoke, you have courage to maintain it; I am bound to call + upon you; and I pray you your name? + LUCIO. Sir, my name is Lucio, well known to the Duke. + DUKE. He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to report you. + LUCIO. I fear you not. + DUKE. O, you hope the Duke will return no more; or you imagine me + too unhurtful an opposite. But, indeed, I can do you little harm: + you'll forswear this again. + LUCIO. I'll be hang'd first. Thou art deceiv'd in me, friar. But no + more of this. Canst thou tell if Claudio die to-morrow or no? + DUKE. Why should he die, sir? + LUCIO. Why? For filling a bottle with a tun-dish. I would the Duke + we talk of were return'd again. This ungenitur'd agent will + unpeople the province with continency; sparrows must not build in + his house-eaves because they are lecherous. The Duke yet would + have dark deeds darkly answered; he would never bring them to + light. Would he were return'd! Marry, this Claudio is condemned + for untrussing. Farewell, good friar; I prithee pray for me. The + Duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on Fridays. He's not + past it yet; and, I say to thee, he would mouth with a beggar + though she smelt brown bread and garlic. Say that I said so. + Farewell. Exit + DUKE. No might nor greatness in mortality + Can censure scape; back-wounding calumny + The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong + Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue? + But who comes here? + + Enter ESCALUS, PROVOST, and OFFICERS with + MISTRESS OVERDONE + + ESCALUS. Go, away with her to prison. + MRS. OVERDONE. Good my lord, be good to me; your honour is + accounted a merciful man; good my lord. + ESCALUS. Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in the + same kind! This would make mercy swear and play the tyrant. + PROVOST. A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it please your + honour. + MRS. OVERDONE. My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me. + Mistress Kate Keepdown was with child by him in the Duke's time; + he promis'd her marriage. His child is a year and a quarter old + come Philip and Jacob; I have kept it myself; and see how he goes + about to abuse me. + ESCALUS. That fellow is a fellow of much license. Let him be call'd + before us. Away with her to prison. Go to; no more words. [Exeunt + OFFICERS with MISTRESS OVERDONE] Provost, my brother Angelo will + not be alter'd: Claudio must die to-morrow. Let him be furnish'd + with divines, and have all charitable preparation. If my brother + wrought by my pity, it should not be so with him. + PROVOST. So please you, this friar hath been with him, and advis'd + him for th' entertainment of death. + ESCALUS. Good even, good father. + DUKE. Bliss and goodness on you! + ESCALUS. Of whence are you? + DUKE. Not of this country, though my chance is now + To use it for my time. I am a brother + Of gracious order, late come from the See + In special business from his Holiness. + ESCALUS. What news abroad i' th' world? + DUKE. None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness that the + dissolution of it must cure it. Novelty is only in request; and, + as it is, as dangerous to be aged in any kind of course as it is + virtuous to be constant in any undertakeing. There is scarce + truth enough alive to make societies secure; but security enough + to make fellowships accurst. Much upon this riddle runs the + wisdom of the world. This news is old enough, yet it is every + day's news. I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the Duke? + ESCALUS. One that, above all other strifes, contended especially to + know himself. + DUKE. What pleasure was he given to? + ESCALUS. Rather rejoicing to see another merry than merry at + anything which profess'd to make him rejoice; a gentleman of all + temperance. But leave we him to his events, with a prayer they + may prove prosperous; and let me desire to know how you find + Claudio prepar'd. I am made to understand that you have lent him + visitation. + DUKE. He professes to have received no sinister measure from his + judge, but most willingly humbles himself to the determination of + justice. Yet had he framed to himself, by the instruction of his + frailty, many deceiving promises of life; which I, by my good + leisure, have discredited to him, and now he is resolv'd to die. + ESCALUS. You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner + the very debt of your calling. I have labour'd for the poor + gentleman to the extremest shore of my modesty; but my brother + justice have I found so severe that he hath forc'd me to tell him + he is indeed Justice. + DUKE. If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it + shall become him well; wherein if he chance to fail, he hath + sentenc'd himself. + ESCALUS. I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well. + DUKE. Peace be with you! Exeunt ESCALUS and PROVOST + + He who the sword of heaven will bear + Should be as holy as severe; + Pattern in himself to know, + Grace to stand, and virtue go; + More nor less to others paying + Than by self-offences weighing. + Shame to him whose cruel striking + Kills for faults of his own liking! + Twice treble shame on Angelo, + To weed my vice and let his grow! + O, what may man within him hide, + Though angel on the outward side! + How may likeness, made in crimes, + Make a practice on the times, + To draw with idle spiders' strings + Most ponderous and substantial things! + Craft against vice I must apply. + With Angelo to-night shall lie + His old betrothed but despised; + So disguise shall, by th' disguised, + Pay with falsehood false exacting, + And perform an old contracting. Exit + + + + +Act IV. Scene I. +The moated grange at Saint Duke's + +Enter MARIANA; and BOY singing + + SONG + + Take, O, take those lips away, + That so sweetly were forsworn; + And those eyes, the break of day, + Lights that do mislead the morn; + But my kisses bring again, bring again; + Seals of love, but seal'd in vain, seal'd in vain. + + Enter DUKE, disguised as before + + MARIANA. Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away; + Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice + Hath often still'd my brawling discontent. Exit BOY + I cry you mercy, sir, and well could wish + You had not found me here so musical. + Let me excuse me, and believe me so, + My mirth it much displeas'd, but pleas'd my woe. + DUKE. 'Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm + To make bad good and good provoke to harm. + I pray you tell me hath anybody inquir'd for me here to-day. Much + upon this time have I promis'd here to meet. + MARIANA. You have not been inquir'd after; I have sat here all day. + + Enter ISABELLA + + DUKE. I do constantly believe you. The time is come even now. I + shall crave your forbearance a little. May be I will call upon + you anon, for some advantage to yourself. + MARIANA. I am always bound to you. Exit + DUKE. Very well met, and well come. + What is the news from this good deputy? + ISABELLA. He hath a garden circummur'd with brick, + Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd; + And to that vineyard is a planched gate + That makes his opening with this bigger key; + This other doth command a little door + Which from the vineyard to the garden leads. + There have I made my promise + Upon the heavy middle of the night + To call upon him. + DUKE. But shall you on your knowledge find this way? + ISABELLA. I have ta'en a due and wary note upon't; + With whispering and most guilty diligence, + In action all of precept, he did show me + The way twice o'er. + DUKE. Are there no other tokens + Between you 'greed concerning her observance? + ISABELLA. No, none, but only a repair i' th' dark; + And that I have possess'd him my most stay + Can be but brief; for I have made him know + I have a servant comes with me along, + That stays upon me; whose persuasion is + I come about my brother. + DUKE. 'Tis well borne up. + I have not yet made known to Mariana + A word of this. What ho, within! come forth. + + Re-enter MARIANA + + I pray you be acquainted with this maid; + She comes to do you good. + ISABELLA. I do desire the like. + DUKE. Do you persuade yourself that I respect you? + MARIANA. Good friar, I know you do, and have found it. + DUKE. Take, then, this your companion by the hand, + Who hath a story ready for your ear. + I shall attend your leisure; but make haste; + The vaporous night approaches. + MARIANA. Will't please you walk aside? + Exeunt MARIANA and ISABELLA + DUKE. O place and greatness! Millions of false eyes + Are stuck upon thee. Volumes of report + Run with these false, and most contrarious quest + Upon thy doings. Thousand escapes of wit + Make thee the father of their idle dream, + And rack thee in their fancies. + + Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA + + Welcome, how agreed? + ISABELLA. She'll take the enterprise upon her, father, + If you advise it. + DUKE. It is not my consent, + But my entreaty too. + ISABELLA. Little have you to say, + When you depart from him, but, soft and low, + 'Remember now my brother.' + MARIANA. Fear me not. + DUKE. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all. + He is your husband on a pre-contract. + To bring you thus together 'tis no sin, + Sith that the justice of your title to him + Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go; + Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +The prison + +Enter PROVOST and POMPEY + + PROVOST. Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man's head? + POMPEY. If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be a + married man, he's his wife's head, and I can never cut of a + woman's head. + PROVOST. Come, sir, leave me your snatches and yield me a direct + answer. To-morrow morning are to die Claudio and Barnardine. Here + is in our prison a common executioner, who in his office lacks a + helper; if you will take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem + you from your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of + imprisonment, and your deliverance with an unpitied whipping, for + you have been a notorious bawd. + POMPEY. Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time out of mind; but yet + I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I would be glad to + receive some instructions from my fellow partner. + PROVOST. What ho, Abhorson! Where's Abhorson there? + + Enter ABHORSON + + ABHORSON. Do you call, sir? + PROVOST. Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to-morrow in your + execution. If you think it meet, compound with him by the year, + and let him abide here with you; if not, use him for the present, + and dismiss him. He cannot plead his estimation with you; he hath + been a bawd. + ABHORSON. A bawd, sir? Fie upon him! He will discredit our mystery. + PROVOST. Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the + scale. Exit + POMPEY. Pray, sir, by your good favour- for surely, sir, a good + favour you have but that you have a hanging look- do you call, + sir, your occupation a mystery? + ABHORSON. Ay, sir; a mystery. + POMPEY. Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mystery; and your + whores, sir, being members of my occupation, using painting, do + prove my occupation a mystery; but what mystery there should be + in hanging, if I should be hang'd, I cannot imagine. + ABHORSON. Sir, it is a mystery. + POMPEY. Proof? + ABHORSON. Every true man's apparel fits your thief: if it be too + little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough; if it + be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough; so + every true man's apparel fits your thief. + + Re-enter PROVOST + + PROVOST. Are you agreed? + POMPEY. Sir, I will serve him; for I do find your hangman is a more + penitent trade than your bawd; he doth oftener ask forgiveness. + PROVOST. You, sirrah, provide your block and your axe to-morrow + four o'clock. + ABHORSON. Come on, bawd; I will instruct thee in my trade; follow. + POMPEY. I do desire to learn, sir; and I hope, if you have occasion + to use me for your own turn, you shall find me yare; for truly, + sir, for your kindness I owe you a good turn. + PROVOST. Call hither Barnardine and Claudio. + Exeunt ABHORSON and POMPEY + Th' one has my pity; not a jot the other, + Being a murderer, though he were my brother. + + Enter CLAUDIO + + Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death; + 'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow + Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine? + CLAUDIO. As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour + When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones. + He will not wake. + PROVOST. Who can do good on him? + Well, go, prepare yourself. [Knocking within] But hark, what + noise? + Heaven give your spirits comfort! Exit CLAUDIO + [Knocking continues] By and by. + I hope it is some pardon or reprieve + For the most gentle Claudio. + + Enter DUKE, disguised as before + + Welcome, father. + DUKE. The best and wholesom'st spirits of the night + Envelop you, good Provost! Who call'd here of late? + PROVOST. None, since the curfew rung. + DUKE. Not Isabel? + PROVOST. No. + DUKE. They will then, ere't be long. + PROVOST. What comfort is for Claudio? + DUKE. There's some in hope. + PROVOST. It is a bitter deputy. + DUKE. Not so, not so; his life is parallel'd + Even with the stroke and line of his great justice; + He doth with holy abstinence subdue + That in himself which he spurs on his pow'r + To qualify in others. Were he meal'd with that + Which he corrects, then were he tyrannous; + But this being so, he's just. [Knocking within] Now are they + come. Exit PROVOST + This is a gentle provost; seldom when + The steeled gaoler is the friend of men. [Knocking within] + How now, what noise! That spirit's possess'd with haste + That wounds th' unsisting postern with these strokes. + + Re-enter PROVOST + + PROVOST. There he must stay until the officer + Arise to let him in; he is call'd up. + DUKE. Have you no countermand for Claudio yet + But he must die to-morrow? + PROVOST. None, sir, none. + DUKE. As near the dawning, Provost, as it is, + You shall hear more ere morning. + PROVOST. Happily + You something know; yet I believe there comes + No countermand; no such example have we. + Besides, upon the very siege of justice, + Lord Angelo hath to the public ear + Profess'd the contrary. + + Enter a MESSENGER + This is his lordship's man. + DUKE. And here comes Claudio's pardon. + MESSENGER. My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this further + charge, that you swerve not from the smallest article of it, + neither in time, matter, or other circumstance. Good morrow; for + as I take it, it is almost day. + PROVOST. I shall obey him. Exit MESSENGER + DUKE. [Aside] This is his pardon, purchas'd by such sin + For which the pardoner himself is in; + Hence hath offence his quick celerity, + When it is borne in high authority. + When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended + That for the fault's love is th' offender friended. + Now, sir, what news? + PROVOST. I told you: Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss in mine + office, awakens me with this unwonted putting-on; methinks + strangely, for he hath not us'd it before. + DUKE. Pray you, let's hear. + PROVOST. [Reads] 'Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let + Claudio be executed by four of the clock, and, in the afternoon, + Barnardine. For my better satisfaction, let me have Claudio's + head sent me by five. Let this be duly performed, with a thought + that more depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail not + to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.' + What say you to this, sir? + DUKE. What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in th' + afternoon? + PROVOST. A Bohemian born; but here nurs'd up and bred. + One that is a prisoner nine years old. + DUKE. How came it that the absent Duke had not either deliver'd him + to his liberty or executed him? I have heard it was ever his + manner to do so. + PROVOST. His friends still wrought reprieves for him; and, indeed, + his fact, till now in the government of Lord Angelo, came not to + an undoubted proof. + DUKE. It is now apparent? + PROVOST. Most manifest, and not denied by himself. + DUKE. Hath he borne himself penitently in prison? How seems he to + be touch'd? + PROVOST. A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a + drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless, of what's past, + present, or to come; insensible of mortality and desperately + mortal. + DUKE. He wants advice. + PROVOST. He will hear none. He hath evermore had the liberty of the + prison; give him leave to escape hence, he would not; drunk many + times a day, if not many days entirely drunk. We have very oft + awak'd him, as if to carry him to execution, and show'd him a + seeming warrant for it; it hath not moved him at all. + DUKE. More of him anon. There is written in your brow, Provost, + honesty and constancy. If I read it not truly, my ancient skill + beguiles me; but in the boldness of my cunning I will lay myself + in hazard. Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is no + greater forfeit to the law than Angelo who hath sentenc'd him. To + make you understand this in a manifested effect, I crave but four + days' respite; for the which you are to do me both a present and + a dangerous courtesy. + PROVOST. Pray, sir, in what? + DUKE. In the delaying death. + PROVOST. Alack! How may I do it, having the hour limited, and an + express command, under penalty, to deliver his head in the view + of Angelo? I may make my case as Claudio's, to cross this in the + smallest. + DUKE. By the vow of mine order, I warrant you, if my instructions + may be your guide. Let this Barnardine be this morning executed, + and his head borne to Angelo. + PROVOST. Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favour. + DUKE. O, death's a great disguiser; and you may add to it. Shave + the head and tie the beard; and say it was the desire of the + penitent to be so bar'd before his death. You know the course is + common. If anything fall to you upon this more than thanks and + good fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I will plead against + it with my life. + PROVOST. Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath. + DUKE. Were you sworn to the Duke, or to the deputy? + PROVOST. To him and to his substitutes. + DUKE. You will think you have made no offence if the Duke avouch + the justice of your dealing? + PROVOST. But what likelihood is in that? + DUKE. Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see you + fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor persuasion, can + with ease attempt you, I will go further than I meant, to pluck + all fears out of you. Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of + the Duke. You know the character, I doubt not; and the signet is + not strange to you. + PROVOST. I know them both. + DUKE. The contents of this is the return of the Duke; you shall + anon over-read it at your pleasure, where you shall find within + these two days he will be here. This is a thing that Angelo knows + not; for he this very day receives letters of strange tenour, + perchance of the Duke's death, perchance entering into some + monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what is writ. Look, th' + unfolding star calls up the shepherd. Put not yourself into + amazement how these things should be: all difficulties are but + easy when they are known. Call your executioner, and off with + Barnardine's head. I will give him a present shrift, and advise + him for a better place. Yet you are amaz'd, but this shall + absolutely resolve you. Come away; it is almost clear dawn. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +The prison + +Enter POMPEY + + POMPEY. I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house of + profession; one would think it were Mistress Overdone's own + house, for here be many of her old customers. First, here's young + Master Rash; he's in for a commodity of brown paper and old + ginger, nine score and seventeen pounds, of which he made five + marks ready money. Marry, then ginger was not much in request, + for the old women were all dead. Then is there here one Master + Caper, at the suit of Master Threepile the mercer, for some four + suits of peach-colour'd satin, which now peaches him a beggar. + Then have we here young Dizy, and young Master Deepvow, and + Master Copperspur, and Master Starvelackey, the rapier and dagger + man, and young Dropheir that kill'd lusty Pudding, and Master + Forthlight the tilter, and brave Master Shootie the great + traveller, and wild Halfcan that stabb'd Pots, and, I think, + forty more- all great doers in our trade, and are now 'for the + Lord's sake.' + + Enter ABHORSON + + ABHORSON. Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither. + POMPEY. Master Barnardine! You must rise and be hang'd, Master + Barnardine! + ABHORSON. What ho, Barnardine! + BARNARDINE. [Within] A pox o' your throats! Who makes that noise + there? What are you? + POMPEY. Your friends, sir; the hangman. You must be so good, sir, + to rise and be put to death. + BARNARDINE. [ Within ] Away, you rogue, away; I am sleepy. + ABHORSON. Tell him he must awake, and that quickly too. + POMPEY. Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are executed, and + sleep afterwards. + ABHORSON. Go in to him, and fetch him out. + POMPEY. He is coming, sir, he is coming; I hear his straw rustle. + + Enter BARNARDINE + + ABHORSON. Is the axe upon the block, sirrah? + POMPEY. Very ready, sir. + BARNARDINE. How now, Abhorson, what's the news with you? + ABHORSON. Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your prayers; + for, look you, the warrant's come. + BARNARDINE. You rogue, I have been drinking all night; I am not + fitted for't. + POMPEY. O, the better, sir! For he that drinks all night and is + hanged betimes in the morning may sleep the sounder all the next + day. + + Enter DUKE, disguised as before + + ABHORSON. Look you, sir, here comes your ghostly father. + Do we jest now, think you? + DUKE. Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing how hastily you are + to depart, I am come to advise you, comfort you, and pray with + you. + BARNARDINE. Friar, not I; I have been drinking hard all night, and + I will have more time to prepare me, or they shall beat out my + brains with billets. I will not consent to die this day, that's + certain. + DUKE. O, Sir, you must; and therefore I beseech you + Look forward on the journey you shall go. + BARNARDINE. I swear I will not die to-day for any man's persuasion. + DUKE. But hear you- + BARNARDINE. Not a word; if you have anything to say to me, come to + my ward; for thence will not I to-day. Exit + DUKE. Unfit to live or die. O gravel heart! + After him, fellows; bring him to the block. + Exeunt ABHORSON and POMPEY + + Enter PROVOST + + PROVOST. Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner? + DUKE. A creature unprepar'd, unmeet for death; + And to transport him in the mind he is + Were damnable. + PROVOST. Here in the prison, father, + There died this morning of a cruel fever + One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate, + A man of Claudio's years; his beard and head + Just of his colour. What if we do omit + This reprobate till he were well inclin'd, + And satisfy the deputy with the visage + Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio? + DUKE. O, 'tis an accident that heaven provides! + Dispatch it presently; the hour draws on + Prefix'd by Angelo. See this be done, + And sent according to command; whiles I + Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die. + PROVOST. This shall be done, good father, presently. + But Barnardine must die this afternoon; + And how shall we continue Claudio, + To save me from the danger that might come + If he were known alive? + DUKE. Let this be done: + Put them in secret holds, both Barnardine and Claudio. + Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting + To the under generation, you shall find + Your safety manifested. + PROVOST. I am your free dependant. + DUKE. Quick, dispatch, and send the head to Angelo. + Exit PROVOST + Now will I write letters to Angelo- + The Provost, he shall bear them- whose contents + Shall witness to him I am near at home, + And that, by great injunctions, I am bound + To enter publicly. Him I'll desire + To meet me at the consecrated fount, + A league below the city; and from thence, + By cold gradation and well-balanc'd form. + We shall proceed with Angelo. + + Re-enter PROVOST + + PROVOST. Here is the head; I'll carry it myself. + DUKE. Convenient is it. Make a swift return; + For I would commune with you of such things + That want no ear but yours. + PROVOST. I'll make all speed. Exit + ISABELLA. [ Within ] Peace, ho, be here! + DUKE. The tongue of Isabel. She's come to know + If yet her brother's pardon be come hither; + But I will keep her ignorant of her good, + To make her heavenly comforts of despair + When it is least expected. + + Enter ISABELLA + + ISABELLA. Ho, by your leave! + DUKE. Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter. + ISABELLA. The better, given me by so holy a man. + Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon? + DUKE. He hath releas'd him, Isabel, from the world. + His head is off and sent to Angelo. + ISABELLA. Nay, but it is not so. + DUKE. It is no other. + Show your wisdom, daughter, in your close patience, + ISABELLA. O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes! + DUKE. You shall not be admitted to his sight. + ISABELLA. Unhappy Claudio! Wretched Isabel! + Injurious world! Most damned Angelo! + DUKE. This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot; + Forbear it, therefore; give your cause to heaven. + Mark what I say, which you shall find + By every syllable a faithful verity. + The Duke comes home to-morrow. Nay, dry your eyes. + One of our covent, and his confessor, + Gives me this instance. Already he hath carried + Notice to Escalus and Angelo, + Who do prepare to meet him at the gates, + There to give up their pow'r. If you can, pace your wisdom + In that good path that I would wish it go, + And you shall have your bosom on this wretch, + Grace of the Duke, revenges to your heart, + And general honour. + ISABELLA. I am directed by you. + DUKE. This letter, then, to Friar Peter give; + 'Tis that he sent me of the Duke's return. + Say, by this token, I desire his company + At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause and yours + I'll perfect him withal; and he shall bring you + Before the Duke; and to the head of Angelo + Accuse him home and home. For my poor self, + I am combined by a sacred vow, + And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter. + Command these fretting waters from your eyes + With a light heart; trust not my holy order, + If I pervert your course. Who's here? + + Enter LUCIO + + LUCIO. Good even. Friar, where's the Provost? + DUKE. Not within, sir. + LUCIO. O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see thine eyes + so red. Thou must be patient. I am fain to dine and sup with + water and bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly; one + fruitful meal would set me to't. But they say the Duke will be + here to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I lov'd thy brother. If the + old fantastical Duke of dark corners had been at home, he had + lived. Exit ISABELLA + DUKE. Sir, the Duke is marvellous little beholding to your reports; + but the best is, he lives not in them. + LUCIO. Friar, thou knowest not the Duke so well as I do; he's a + better woodman than thou tak'st him for. + DUKE. Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well. + LUCIO. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee; I can tell thee pretty + tales of the Duke. + DUKE. You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be + true; if not true, none were enough. + LUCIO. I was once before him for getting a wench with child. + DUKE. Did you such a thing? + LUCIO. Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forswear it: they would + else have married me to the rotten medlar. + DUKE. Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well. + LUCIO. By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end. If bawdy + talk offend you, we'll have very little of it. Nay, friar, I am a + kind of burr; I shall stick. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +ANGELO'S house + +Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS + + ESCALUS. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd other. + ANGELO. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show much + like to madness; pray heaven his wisdom be not tainted! And why + meet him at the gates, and redeliver our authorities there? + ESCALUS. I guess not. + ANGELO. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his + ent'ring that, if any crave redress of injustice, they should + exhibit their petitions in the street? + ESCALUS. He shows his reason for that: to have a dispatch of + complaints; and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which + shall then have no power to stand against us. + ANGELO. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd; + Betimes i' th' morn I'll call you at your house; + Give notice to such men of sort and suit + As are to meet him. + ESCALUS. I shall, sir; fare you well. + ANGELO. Good night. Exit ESCALUS + This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant + And dull to all proceedings. A deflow'red maid! + And by an eminent body that enforc'd + The law against it! But that her tender shame + Will not proclaim against her maiden loss, + How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no; + For my authority bears a so credent bulk + That no particular scandal once can touch + But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd, + Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense, + Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge, + By so receiving a dishonour'd life + With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd! + Alack, when once our grace we have forgot, + Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not. Exit + + + + +SCENE V. +Fields without the town + +Enter DUKE in his own habit, and Friar PETER + + DUKE. These letters at fit time deliver me. [Giving letters] + The Provost knows our purpose and our plot. + The matter being afoot, keep your instruction + And hold you ever to our special drift; + Though sometimes you do blench from this to that + As cause doth minister. Go, call at Flavius' house, + And tell him where I stay; give the like notice + To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus, + And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate; + But send me Flavius first. + PETER. It shall be speeded well. Exit FRIAR + + Enter VARRIUS + + DUKE. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste. + Come, we will walk. There's other of our friends + Will greet us here anon. My gentle Varrius! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VI. +A street near the city gate + +Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA + + ISABELLA. To speak so indirectly I am loath; + I would say the truth; but to accuse him so, + That is your part. Yet I am advis'd to do it; + He says, to veil full purpose. + MARIANA. Be rul'd by him. + ISABELLA. Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure + He speak against me on the adverse side, + I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic + That's bitter to sweet end. + MARIANA. I would Friar Peter- + + Enter FRIAR PETER + + ISABELLA. O, peace! the friar is come. + PETER. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit, + Where you may have such vantage on the Duke + He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets sounded; + The generous and gravest citizens + Have hent the gates, and very near upon + The Duke is ent'ring; therefore, hence, away. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +The city gate + +Enter at several doors DUKE, VARRIUS, LORDS; ANGELO, ESCALUS, Lucio, +PROVOST, OFFICERS, and CITIZENS + + DUKE. My very worthy cousin, fairly met! + Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you. + ANGELO, ESCALUS. Happy return be to your royal Grace! + DUKE. Many and hearty thankings to you both. + We have made inquiry of you, and we hear + Such goodness of your justice that our soul + Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks, + Forerunning more requital. + ANGELO. You make my bonds still greater. + DUKE. O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it + To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, + When it deserves, with characters of brass, + A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time + And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand. + And let the subject see, to make them know + That outward courtesies would fain proclaim + Favours that keep within. Come, Escalus, + You must walk by us on our other hand, + And good supporters are you. + + Enter FRIAR PETER and ISABELLA + + PETER. Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel before him. + ISABELLA. Justice, O royal Duke! Vail your regard + Upon a wrong'd- I would fain have said a maid! + O worthy Prince, dishonour not your eye + By throwing it on any other object + Till you have heard me in my true complaint, + And given me justice, justice, justice, justice. + DUKE. Relate your wrongs. In what? By whom? Be brief. + Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice; + Reveal yourself to him. + ISABELLA. O worthy Duke, + You bid me seek redemption of the devil! + Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak + Must either punish me, not being believ'd, + Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O, hear me, here! + ANGELO. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm; + She hath been a suitor to me for her brother, + Cut off by course of justice- + ISABELLA. By course of justice! + ANGELO. And she will speak most bitterly and strange. + ISABELLA. Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak. + That Angelo's forsworn, is it not strange? + That Angelo's a murderer, is't not strange? + That Angelo is an adulterous thief, + An hypocrite, a virgin-violator, + Is it not strange and strange? + DUKE. Nay, it is ten times strange. + ISABELLA. It is not truer he is Angelo + Than this is all as true as it is strange; + Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth + To th' end of reck'ning. + DUKE. Away with her. Poor soul, + She speaks this in th' infirmity of sense. + ISABELLA. O Prince! I conjure thee, as thou believ'st + There is another comfort than this world, + That thou neglect me not with that opinion + That I am touch'd with madness. Make not impossible + That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible + But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground, + May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute, + As Angelo; even so may Angelo, + In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms, + Be an arch-villain. Believe it, royal Prince, + If he be less, he's nothing; but he's more, + Had I more name for badness. + DUKE. By mine honesty, + If she be mad, as I believe no other, + Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense, + Such a dependency of thing on thing, + As e'er I heard in madness. + ISABELLA. O gracious Duke, + Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason + For inequality; but let your reason serve + To make the truth appear where it seems hid, + And hide the false seems true. + DUKE. Many that are not mad + Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would you say? + ISABELLA. I am the sister of one Claudio, + Condemn'd upon the act of fornication + To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo. + I, in probation of a sisterhood, + Was sent to by my brother; one Lucio + As then the messenger- + LUCIO. That's I, an't like your Grace. + I came to her from Claudio, and desir'd her + To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo + For her poor brother's pardon. + ISABELLA. That's he, indeed. + DUKE. You were not bid to speak. + LUCIO. No, my good lord; + Nor wish'd to hold my peace. + DUKE. I wish you now, then; + Pray you take note of it; and when you have + A business for yourself, pray heaven you then + Be perfect. + LUCIO. I warrant your honour. + DUKE. The warrant's for yourself; take heed to't. + ISABELLA. This gentleman told somewhat of my tale. + LUCIO. Right. + DUKE. It may be right; but you are i' the wrong + To speak before your time. Proceed. + ISABELLA. I went + To this pernicious caitiff deputy. + DUKE. That's somewhat madly spoken. + ISABELLA. Pardon it; + The phrase is to the matter. + DUKE. Mended again. The matter- proceed. + ISABELLA. In brief- to set the needless process by, + How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd, + How he refell'd me, and how I replied, + For this was of much length- the vile conclusion + I now begin with grief and shame to utter: + He would not, but by gift of my chaste body + To his concupiscible intemperate lust, + Release my brother; and, after much debatement, + My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour, + And I did yield to him. But the next morn betimes, + His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant + For my poor brother's head. + DUKE. This is most likely! + ISABELLA. O that it were as like as it is true! + DUKE. By heaven, fond wretch, thou know'st not what thou speak'st, + Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour + In hateful practice. First, his integrity + Stands without blemish; next, it imports no reason + That with such vehemency he should pursue + Faults proper to himself. If he had so offended, + He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself, + And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on; + Confess the truth, and say by whose advice + Thou cam'st here to complain. + ISABELLA. And is this all? + Then, O you blessed ministers above, + Keep me in patience; and, with ripened time, + Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up + In countenance! Heaven shield your Grace from woe, + As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go! + DUKE. I know you'd fain be gone. An officer! + To prison with her! Shall we thus permit + A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall + On him so near us? This needs must be a practice. + Who knew of your intent and coming hither? + ISABELLA. One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick. + DUKE. A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick? + LUCIO. My lord, I know him; 'tis a meddling friar. + I do not like the man; had he been lay, my lord, + For certain words he spake against your Grace + In your retirement, I had swing'd him soundly. + DUKE. Words against me? This's a good friar, belike! + And to set on this wretched woman here + Against our substitute! Let this friar be found. + LUCIO. But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar, + I saw them at the prison; a saucy friar, + A very scurvy fellow. + PETER. Blessed be your royal Grace! + I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard + Your royal ear abus'd. First, hath this woman + Most wrongfully accus'd your substitute; + Who is as free from touch or soil with her + As she from one ungot. + DUKE. We did believe no less. + Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of? + PETER. I know him for a man divine and holy; + Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler, + As he's reported by this gentleman; + And, on my trust, a man that never yet + Did, as he vouches, misreport your Grace. + LUCIO. My lord, most villainously; believe it. + PETER. Well, he in time may come to clear himself; + But at this instant he is sick, my lord, + Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request- + Being come to knowledge that there was complaint + Intended 'gainst Lord Angelo- came I hither + To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know + Is true and false; and what he, with his oath + And all probation, will make up full clear, + Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman- + To justify this worthy nobleman, + So vulgarly and personally accus'd- + Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes, + Till she herself confess it. + DUKE. Good friar, let's hear it. Exit ISABELLA guarded + Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo? + O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools! + Give us some seats. Come, cousin Angelo; + In this I'll be impartial; be you judge + Of your own cause. + + Enter MARIANA veiled + + Is this the witness, friar? + FIRST let her show her face, and after speak. + MARIANA. Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face + Until my husband bid me. + DUKE. What, are you married? + MARIANA. No, my lord. + DUKE. Are you a maid? + MARIANA. No, my lord. + DUKE. A widow, then? + MARIANA. Neither, my lord. + DUKE. Why, you are nothing then; neither maid, widow, nor wife. + LUCIO. My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are neither + maid, widow, nor wife. + DUKE. Silence that fellow. I would he had some cause + To prattle for himself. + LUCIO. Well, my lord. + MARIANA. My lord, I do confess I ne'er was married, + And I confess, besides, I am no maid. + I have known my husband; yet my husband + Knows not that ever he knew me. + LUCIO. He was drunk, then, my lord; it can be no better. + DUKE. For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too! + LUCIO. Well, my lord. + DUKE. This is no witness for Lord Angelo. + MARIANA. Now I come to't, my lord: + She that accuses him of fornication, + In self-same manner doth accuse my husband; + And charges him, my lord, with such a time + When I'll depose I had him in mine arms, + With all th' effect of love. + ANGELO. Charges she moe than me? + MARIANA. Not that I know. + DUKE. No? You say your husband. + MARIANA. Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo, + Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body, + But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's. + ANGELO. This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face. + MARIANA. My husband bids me; now I will unmask. + [Unveiling] + This is that face, thou cruel Angelo, + Which once thou swor'st was worth the looking on; + This is the hand which, with a vow'd contract, + Was fast belock'd in thine; this is the body + That took away the match from Isabel, + And did supply thee at thy garden-house + In her imagin'd person. + DUKE. Know you this woman? + LUCIO. Carnally, she says. + DUKE. Sirrah, no more. + LUCIO. Enough, my lord. + ANGELO. My lord, I must confess I know this woman; + And five years since there was some speech of marriage + Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off, + Partly for that her promised proportions + Came short of composition; but in chief + For that her reputation was disvalued + In levity. Since which time of five years + I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her, + Upon my faith and honour. + MARIANA. Noble Prince, + As there comes light from heaven and words from breath, + As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue, + I am affianc'd this man's wife as strongly + As words could make up vows. And, my good lord, + But Tuesday night last gone, in's garden-house, + He knew me as a wife. As this is true, + Let me in safety raise me from my knees, + Or else for ever be confixed here, + A marble monument! + ANGELO. I did but smile till now. + Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice; + My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive + These poor informal women are no more + But instruments of some more mightier member + That sets them on. Let me have way, my lord, + To find this practice out. + DUKE. Ay, with my heart; + And punish them to your height of pleasure. + Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman, + Compact with her that's gone, think'st thou thy oaths, + Though they would swear down each particular saint, + Were testimonies against his worth and credit, + That's seal'd in approbation? You, Lord Escalus, + Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains + To find out this abuse, whence 'tis deriv'd. + There is another friar that set them on; + Let him be sent for. + PETER. Would lie were here, my lord! For he indeed + Hath set the women on to this complaint. + Your provost knows the place where he abides, + And he may fetch him. + DUKE. Go, do it instantly. Exit PROVOST + And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin, + Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth, + Do with your injuries as seems you best + In any chastisement. I for a while will leave you; + But stir not you till you have well determin'd + Upon these slanderers. + ESCALUS. My lord, we'll do it throughly. Exit DUKE + Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that Friar Lodowick to be + a dishonest person? + LUCIO. 'Cucullus non facit monachum': honest in nothing but in his + clothes; and one that hath spoke most villainous speeches of the + Duke. + ESCALUS. We shall entreat you to abide here till he come and + enforce them against him. We shall find this friar a notable + fellow. + LUCIO. As any in Vienna, on my word. + ESCALUS. Call that same Isabel here once again; I would speak with + her. [Exit an ATTENDANT] Pray you, my lord, give me leave to + question; you shall see how I'll handle her. + LUCIO. Not better than he, by her own report. + ESCALUS. Say you? + LUCIO. Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, she would + sooner confess; perchance, publicly, she'll be asham'd. + + Re-enter OFFICERS with ISABELLA; and PROVOST with the + DUKE in his friar's habit + + ESCALUS. I will go darkly to work with her. + LUCIO. That's the way; for women are light at midnight. + ESCALUS. Come on, mistress; here's a gentlewoman denies all that + you have said. + LUCIO. My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of, here with the + Provost. + ESCALUS. In very good time. Speak not you to him till we call upon + you. + LUCIO. Mum. + ESCALUS. Come, sir; did you set these women on to slander Lord + Angelo? They have confess'd you did. + DUKE. 'Tis false. + ESCALUS. How! Know you where you are? + DUKE. Respect to your great place! and let the devil + Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne! + Where is the Duke? 'Tis he should hear me speak. + ESCALUS. The Duke's in us; and we will hear you speak; + Look you speak justly. + DUKE. Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls, + Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox, + Good night to your redress! Is the Duke gone? + Then is your cause gone too. The Duke's unjust + Thus to retort your manifest appeal, + And put your trial in the villain's mouth + Which here you come to accuse. + LUCIO. This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of. + ESCALUS. Why, thou unreverend and unhallowed friar, + Is't not enough thou hast suborn'd these women + To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth, + And in the witness of his proper ear, + To call him villain; and then to glance from him + To th' Duke himself, to tax him with injustice? + Take him hence; to th' rack with him! We'll touze you + Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose. + What, 'unjust'! + DUKE. Be not so hot; the Duke + Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he + Dare rack his own; his subject am I not, + Nor here provincial. My business in this state + Made me a looker-on here in Vienna, + Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble + Till it o'errun the stew: laws for all faults, + But faults so countenanc'd that the strong statutes + Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop, + As much in mock as mark. + ESCALUS. Slander to th' state! Away with him to prison! + ANGELO. What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio? + Is this the man that you did tell us of? + LUCIO. 'Tis he, my lord. Come hither, good-man bald-pate. + Do you know me? + DUKE. I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice. I met you at + the prison, in the absence of the Duke. + LUCIO. O did you so? And do you remember what you said of the Duke? + DUKE. Most notedly, sir. + LUCIO. Do you so, sir? And was the Duke a fleshmonger, a fool, and + a coward, as you then reported him to be? + DUKE. You must, sir, change persons with me ere you make that my + report; you, indeed, spoke so of him; and much more, much worse. + LUCIO. O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the nose for + thy speeches? + DUKE. I protest I love the Duke as I love myself. + ANGELO. Hark how the villain would close now, after his treasonable + abuses! + ESCALUS. Such a fellow is not to be talk'd withal. Away with him to + prison! Where is the Provost? Away with him to prison! Lay bolts + enough upon him; let him speak no more. Away with those giglets + too, and with the other confederate companion! + [The PROVOST lays bands on the DUKE] + DUKE. Stay, sir; stay awhile. + ANGELO. What, resists he? Help him, Lucio. + LUCIO. Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir! Why, you + bald-pated lying rascal, you must be hooded, must you? Show your + knave's visage, with a pox to you! Show your sheep-biting face, + and be hang'd an hour! Will't not off? + [Pulls off the FRIAR'S bood and discovers the DUKE] + DUKE. Thou art the first knave that e'er mad'st a duke. + First, Provost, let me bail these gentle three. + [To Lucio] Sneak not away, sir, for the friar and you + Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him. + LUCIO. This may prove worse than hanging. + DUKE. [To ESCALUS] What you have spoke I pardon; sit you down. + We'll borrow place of him. [To ANGELO] Sir, by your leave. + Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence, + That yet can do thee office? If thou hast, + Rely upon it till my tale be heard, + And hold no longer out. + ANGELO. O my dread lord, + I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, + To think I can be undiscernible, + When I perceive your Grace, like pow'r divine, + Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good Prince, + No longer session hold upon my shame, + But let my trial be mine own confession; + Immediate sentence then, and sequent death, + Is all the grace I beg. + DUKE. Come hither, Mariana. + Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman? + ANGELO. I was, my lord. + DUKE. Go, take her hence and marry her instantly. + Do you the office, friar; which consummate, + Return him here again. Go with him, Provost. + Exeunt ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER, and PROVOST + ESCALUS. My lord, I am more amaz'd at his dishonour + Than at the strangeness of it. + DUKE. Come hither, Isabel. + Your friar is now your prince. As I was then + Advertising and holy to your business, + Not changing heart with habit, I am still + Attorney'd at your service. + ISABELLA. O, give me pardon, + That I, your vassal have employ'd and pain'd + Your unknown sovereignty. + DUKE. You are pardon'd, Isabel. + And now, dear maid, be you as free to us. + Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart; + And you may marvel why I obscur'd myself, + Labouring to save his life, and would not rather + Make rash remonstrance of my hidden pow'r + Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid, + It was the swift celerity of his death, + Which I did think with slower foot came on, + That brain'd my purpose. But peace be with him! + That life is better life, past fearing death, + Than that which lives to fear. Make it your comfort, + So happy is your brother. + ISABELLA. I do, my lord. + + Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER, and PROVOST + + DUKE. For this new-married man approaching here, + Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd + Your well-defended honour, you must pardon + For Mariana's sake; but as he adjudg'd your brother- + Being criminal in double violation + Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach, + Thereon dependent, for your brother's life- + The very mercy of the law cries out + Most audible, even from his proper tongue, + 'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!' + Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; + Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure. + Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested, + Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage. + We do condemn thee to the very block + Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like haste. + Away with him! + MARIANA. O my most gracious lord, + I hope you will not mock me with a husband. + DUKE. It is your husband mock'd you with a husband. + Consenting to the safeguard of your honour, + I thought your marriage fit; else imputation, + For that he knew you, might reproach your life, + And choke your good to come. For his possessions, + Although by confiscation they are ours, + We do instate and widow you withal + To buy you a better husband. + MARIANA. O my dear lord, + I crave no other, nor no better man. + DUKE. Never crave him; we are definitive. + MARIANA. Gentle my liege- [Kneeling] + DUKE. You do but lose your labour. + Away with him to death! [To LUCIO] Now, sir, to you. + MARIANA. O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part; + Lend me your knees, and all my life to come + I'll lend you all my life to do you service. + DUKE. Against all sense you do importune her. + Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact, + Her brother's ghost his paved bed would break, + And take her hence in horror. + MARIANA. Isabel, + Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me; + Hold up your hands, say nothing; I'll speak all. + They say best men moulded out of faults; + And, for the most, become much more the better + For being a little bad; so may my husband. + O Isabel, will you not lend a knee? + DUKE. He dies for Claudio's death. + ISABELLA. [Kneeling] Most bounteous sir, + Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd, + As if my brother liv'd. I partly think + A due sincerity govern'd his deeds + Till he did look on me; since it is so, + Let him not die. My brother had but justice, + In that he did the thing for which he died; + For Angelo, + His act did not o'ertake his bad intent, + And must be buried but as an intent + That perish'd by the way. Thoughts are no subjects; + Intents but merely thoughts. + MARIANA. Merely, my lord. + DUKE. Your suit's unprofitable; stand up, I say. + I have bethought me of another fault. + Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded + At an unusual hour? + PROVOST. It was commanded so. + DUKE. Had you a special warrant for the deed? + PROVOST. No, my good lord; it was by private message. + DUKE. For which I do discharge you of your office; + Give up your keys. + PROVOST. Pardon me, noble lord; + I thought it was a fault, but knew it not; + Yet did repent me, after more advice; + For testimony whereof, one in the prison, + That should by private order else have died, + I have reserv'd alive. + DUKE. What's he? + PROVOST. His name is Barnardine. + DUKE. I would thou hadst done so by Claudio. + Go fetch him hither; let me look upon him. Exit PROVOST + ESCALUS. I am sorry one so learned and so wise + As you, Lord Angelo, have still appear'd, + Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood + And lack of temper'd judgment afterward. + ANGELO. I am sorry that such sorrow I procure; + And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart + That I crave death more willingly than mercy; + 'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it. + + Re-enter PROVOST, with BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO (muffled) + and JULIET + + DUKE. Which is that Barnardine? + PROVOST. This, my lord. + DUKE. There was a friar told me of this man. + Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul, + That apprehends no further than this world, + And squar'st thy life according. Thou'rt condemn'd; + But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all, + And pray thee take this mercy to provide + For better times to come. Friar, advise him; + I leave him to your hand. What muffl'd fellow's that? + PROVOST. This is another prisoner that I sav'd, + Who should have died when Claudio lost his head; + As like almost to Claudio as himself. [Unmuffles CLAUDIO] + DUKE. [To ISABELLA] If he be like your brother, for his sake + Is he pardon'd; and for your lovely sake, + Give me your hand and say you will be mine, + He is my brother too. But fitter time for that. + By this Lord Angelo perceives he's safe; + Methinks I see a quick'ning in his eye. + Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well. + Look that you love your wife; her worth worth yours. + I find an apt remission in myself; + And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon. + To Lucio] You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a coward, + One all of luxury, an ass, a madman! + Wherein have I so deserv'd of you + That you extol me thus? + LUCIO. Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the trick. + If you will hang me for it, you may; but I had rather it would + please you I might be whipt. + DUKE. Whipt first, sir, and hang'd after. + Proclaim it, Provost, round about the city, + If any woman wrong'd by this lewd fellow- + As I have heard him swear himself there's one + Whom he begot with child, let her appear, + And he shall marry her. The nuptial finish'd, + Let him be whipt and hang'd. + LUCIO. I beseech your Highness, do not marry me to a whore. Your + Highness said even now I made you a duke; good my lord, do not + recompense me in making me a cuckold. + DUKE. Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her. + Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal + Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison; + And see our pleasure herein executed. + LUCIO. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, + and hanging. + DUKE. Slandering a prince deserves it. + Exeunt OFFICERS with LUCIO + She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore. + Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo; + I have confess'd her, and I know her virtue. + Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness; + There's more behind that is more gratulate. + Thanks, Provost, for thy care and secrecy; + We shall employ thee in a worthier place. + Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home + The head of Ragozine for Claudio's: + Th' offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel, + I have a motion much imports your good; + Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline, + What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine. + So, bring us to our palace, where we'll show + What's yet behind that's meet you all should know. + Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1597 + +THE MERCHANT OF VENICE + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + THE DUKE OF VENICE + THE PRINCE OF MOROCCO, suitor to Portia + THE PRINCE OF ARRAGON, " " " + ANTONIO, a merchant of Venice + BASSANIO, his friend, suitor to Portia + SOLANIO, friend to Antonio and Bassanio + SALERIO, " " " " " + GRATIANO, " " " " " + LORENZO, in love with Jessica + SHYLOCK, a rich Jew + TUBAL, a Jew, his friend + LAUNCELOT GOBBO, a clown, servant to Shylock + OLD GOBBO, father to Launcelot + LEONARDO, servant to Bassanio + BALTHASAR, servant to Portia + STEPHANO, " " " + + PORTIA, a rich heiress + NERISSA, her waiting-maid + JESSICA, daughter to Shylock + + Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice, + Gaoler, Servants, and other Attendants + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +Venice, and PORTIA'S house at Belmont + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Venice. A street + +Enter ANTONIO, SALERIO, and SOLANIO + + ANTONIO. In sooth, I know not why I am so sad. + It wearies me; you say it wearies you; + But how I caught it, found it, or came by it, + What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born, + I am to learn; + And such a want-wit sadness makes of me + That I have much ado to know myself. + SALERIO. Your mind is tossing on the ocean; + There where your argosies, with portly sail- + Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood, + Or as it were the pageants of the sea- + Do overpeer the petty traffickers, + That curtsy to them, do them reverence, + As they fly by them with their woven wings. + SOLANIO. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth, + The better part of my affections would + Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still + Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind, + Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads; + And every object that might make me fear + Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt, + Would make me sad. + SALERIO. My wind, cooling my broth, + Would blow me to an ague when I thought + What harm a wind too great might do at sea. + I should not see the sandy hour-glass run + But I should think of shallows and of flats, + And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand, + Vailing her high top lower than her ribs + To kiss her burial. Should I go to church + And see the holy edifice of stone, + And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks, + Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side, + Would scatter all her spices on the stream, + Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks, + And, in a word, but even now worth this, + And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought + To think on this, and shall I lack the thought + That such a thing bechanc'd would make me sad? + But tell not me; I know Antonio + Is sad to think upon his merchandise. + ANTONIO. Believe me, no; I thank my fortune for it, + My ventures are not in one bottom trusted, + Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate + Upon the fortune of this present year; + Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad. + SOLANIO. Why then you are in love. + ANTONIO. Fie, fie! + SOLANIO. Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad + Because you are not merry; and 'twere as easy + For you to laugh and leap and say you are merry, + Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus, + Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time: + Some that will evermore peep through their eyes, + And laugh like parrots at a bag-piper; + And other of such vinegar aspect + That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile + Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable. + + Enter BASSANIO, LORENZO, and GRATIANO + + Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman, + Gratiano and Lorenzo. Fare ye well; + We leave you now with better company. + SALERIO. I would have stay'd till I had made you merry, + If worthier friends had not prevented me. + ANTONIO. Your worth is very dear in my regard. + I take it your own business calls on you, + And you embrace th' occasion to depart. + SALERIO. Good morrow, my good lords. + BASSANIO. Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? Say when. + You grow exceeding strange; must it be so? + SALERIO. We'll make our leisures to attend on yours. + Exeunt SALERIO and SOLANIO + LORENZO. My Lord Bassanio, since you have found Antonio, + We two will leave you; but at dinner-time, + I pray you, have in mind where we must meet. + BASSANIO. I will not fail you. + GRATIANO. You look not well, Signior Antonio; + You have too much respect upon the world; + They lose it that do buy it with much care. + Believe me, you are marvellously chang'd. + ANTONIO. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano- + A stage, where every man must play a part, + And mine a sad one. + GRATIANO. Let me play the fool. + With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come; + And let my liver rather heat with wine + Than my heart cool with mortifying groans. + Why should a man whose blood is warm within + Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster, + Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice + By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio- + I love thee, and 'tis my love that speaks- + There are a sort of men whose visages + Do cream and mantle like a standing pond, + And do a wilful stillness entertain, + With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion + Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit; + As who should say 'I am Sir Oracle, + And when I ope my lips let no dog bark.' + O my Antonio, I do know of these + That therefore only are reputed wise + For saying nothing; when, I am very sure, + If they should speak, would almost damn those ears + Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools. + I'll tell thee more of this another time. + But fish not with this melancholy bait + For this fool gudgeon, this opinion. + Come, good Lorenzo. Fare ye well awhile; + I'll end my exhortation after dinner. + LORENZO. Well, we will leave you then till dinner-time. + I must be one of these same dumb wise men, + For Gratiano never lets me speak. + GRATIANO. Well, keep me company but two years moe, + Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue. + ANTONIO. Fare you well; I'll grow a talker for this gear. + GRATIANO. Thanks, i' faith, for silence is only commendable + In a neat's tongue dried, and a maid not vendible. + Exeunt GRATIANO and LORENZO + ANTONIO. Is that anything now? + BASSANIO. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than + any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid + in, two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find + them, and when you have them they are not worth the search. + ANTONIO. Well; tell me now what lady is the same + To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage, + That you to-day promis'd to tell me of? + BASSANIO. 'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio, + How much I have disabled mine estate + By something showing a more swelling port + Than my faint means would grant continuance; + Nor do I now make moan to be abridg'd + From such a noble rate; but my chief care + Is to come fairly off from the great debts + Wherein my time, something too prodigal, + Hath left me gag'd. To you, Antonio, + I owe the most, in money and in love; + And from your love I have a warranty + To unburden all my plots and purposes + How to get clear of all the debts I owe. + ANTONIO. I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it; + And if it stand, as you yourself still do, + Within the eye of honour, be assur'd + My purse, my person, my extremest means, + Lie all unlock'd to your occasions. + BASSANIO. In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft, + I shot his fellow of the self-same flight + The self-same way, with more advised watch, + To find the other forth; and by adventuring both + I oft found both. I urge this childhood proof, + Because what follows is pure innocence. + I owe you much; and, like a wilful youth, + That which I owe is lost; but if you please + To shoot another arrow that self way + Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt, + As I will watch the aim, or to find both, + Or bring your latter hazard back again + And thankfully rest debtor for the first. + ANTONIO. You know me well, and herein spend but time + To wind about my love with circumstance; + And out of doubt you do me now more wrong + In making question of my uttermost + Than if you had made waste of all I have. + Then do but say to me what I should do + That in your knowledge may by me be done, + And I am prest unto it; therefore, speak. + BASSANIO. In Belmont is a lady richly left, + And she is fair and, fairer than that word, + Of wondrous virtues. Sometimes from her eyes + I did receive fair speechless messages. + Her name is Portia- nothing undervalu'd + To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia. + Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth; + For the four winds blow in from every coast + Renowned suitors, and her sunny locks + Hang on her temples like a golden fleece, + Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strond, + And many Jasons come in quest of her. + O my Antonio, had I but the means + To hold a rival place with one of them, + I have a mind presages me such thrift + That I should questionless be fortunate. + ANTONIO. Thou know'st that all my fortunes are at sea; + Neither have I money nor commodity + To raise a present sum; therefore go forth, + Try what my credit can in Venice do; + That shall be rack'd, even to the uttermost, + To furnish thee to Belmont to fair Portia. + Go presently inquire, and so will I, + Where money is; and I no question make + To have it of my trust or for my sake. Exeunt + + + + + +SCENE II. +Belmont. PORTIA'S house + +Enter PORTIA with her waiting-woman, NERISSA + + PORTIA. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this + great world. + NERISSA. You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the + same abundance as your good fortunes are; and yet, for aught I + see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that + starve with nothing. It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be + seated in the mean: superfluity come sooner by white hairs, but + competency lives longer. + PORTIA. Good sentences, and well pronounc'd. + NERISSA. They would be better, if well followed. + PORTIA. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, + chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' + palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions; I + can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than to be one + of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise + laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree; + such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good + counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to + choose me a husband. O me, the word 'choose'! I may neither + choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a + living daughter curb'd by the will of a dead father. Is it not + hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none? + NERISSA. Your father was ever virtuous, and holy men at their death + have good inspirations; therefore the lott'ry that he hath + devised in these three chests, of gold, silver, and lead- whereof + who chooses his meaning chooses you- will no doubt never be + chosen by any rightly but one who you shall rightly love. But + what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these + princely suitors that are already come? + PORTIA. I pray thee over-name them; and as thou namest them, I will + describe them; and according to my description, level at my + affection. + NERISSA. First, there is the Neapolitan prince. + PORTIA. Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of + his horse; and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good + parts that he can shoe him himself; I am much afear'd my lady his + mother play'd false with a smith. + NERISSA. Then is there the County Palatine. + PORTIA. He doth nothing but frown, as who should say 'An you will + not have me, choose.' He hears merry tales and smiles not. I fear + he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old, being so + full of unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be married + to a death's-head with a bone in his mouth than to either of + these. God defend me from these two! + NERISSA. How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon? + PORTIA. God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. In + truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker, but he- why, he hath a + horse better than the Neapolitan's, a better bad habit of + frowning than the Count Palatine; he is every man in no man. If a + throstle sing he falls straight a-cap'ring; he will fence with + his own shadow; if I should marry him, I should marry twenty + husbands. If he would despise me, I would forgive him; for if he + love me to madness, I shall never requite him. + NERISSA. What say you then to Falconbridge, the young baron of + England? + PORTIA. You know I say nothing to him, for he understands not me, + nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian, and you + will come into the court and swear that I have a poor pennyworth + in the English. He is a proper man's picture; but alas, who can + converse with a dumb-show? How oddly he is suited! I think he + bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet + in Germany, and his behaviour everywhere. + NERISSA. What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour? + PORTIA. That he hath a neighbourly charity in him, for he borrowed + a box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore he would pay him + again when he was able; I think the Frenchman became his surety, + and seal'd under for another. + NERISSA. How like you the young German, the Duke of Saxony's + nephew? + PORTIA. Very vilely in the morning when he is sober; and most + vilely in the afternoon when he is drunk. When he is best, he is + a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little + better than a beast. An the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I + shall make shift to go without him. + NERISSA. If he should offer to choose, and choose the right casket, + you should refuse to perform your father's will, if you should + refuse to accept him. + PORTIA. Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee set a deep + glass of Rhenish wine on the contrary casket; for if the devil be + within and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. I + will do anything, Nerissa, ere I will be married to a sponge. + NERISSA. You need not fear, lady, the having any of these lords; + they have acquainted me with their determinations, which is + indeed to return to their home, and to trouble you with no more + suit, unless you may be won by some other sort than your father's + imposition, depending on the caskets. + PORTIA. If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as + Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will. I + am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable; for there is not + one among them but I dote on his very absence, and I pray God + grant them a fair departure. + NERISSA. Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a + Venetian, a scholar and a soldier, that came hither in company of + the Marquis of Montferrat? + PORTIA. Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; as I think, so was he call'd. + NERISSA. True, madam; he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes + look'd upon, was the best deserving a fair lady. + PORTIA. I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy + praise. + + Enter a SERVINGMAN + + How now! what news? + SERVINGMAN. The four strangers seek for you, madam, to take their + leave; and there is a forerunner come from a fifth, the Prince of + Morocco, who brings word the Prince his master will be here + to-night. + PORTIA. If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good heart as I + can bid the other four farewell, I should be glad of his + approach; if he have the condition of a saint and the complexion + of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me. + Come, Nerissa. Sirrah, go before. + Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the + door. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Venice. A public place + +Enter BASSANIO With SHYLOCK the Jew + + SHYLOCK. Three thousand ducats- well. + BASSANIO. Ay, sir, for three months. + SHYLOCK. For three months- well. + BASSANIO. For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound. + SHYLOCK. Antonio shall become bound- well. + BASSANIO. May you stead me? Will you pleasure me? Shall I know your + answer? + SHYLOCK. Three thousand ducats for three months, and Antonio bound. + BASSANIO. Your answer to that. + SHYLOCK. Antonio is a good man. + BASSANIO. Have you heard any imputation to the contrary? + SHYLOCK. Ho, no, no, no, no; my meaning in saying he is a good man + is to have you understand me that he is sufficient; yet his means + are in supposition: he hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another + to the Indies; I understand, moreover, upon the Rialto, he hath a + third at Mexico, a fourth for England- and other ventures he + hath, squand'red abroad. But ships are but boards, sailors but + men; there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and + land-thieves- I mean pirates; and then there is the peril of + waters, winds, and rocks. The man is, notwithstanding, + sufficient. Three thousand ducats- I think I may take his bond. + BASSANIO. Be assur'd you may. + SHYLOCK. I will be assur'd I may; and, that I may be assured, I + will bethink me. May I speak with Antonio? + BASSANIO. If it please you to dine with us. + SHYLOCK. Yes, to smell pork, to eat of the habitation which your + prophet, the Nazarite, conjured the devil into! I will buy with + you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so + following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray + with you. What news on the Rialto? Who is he comes here? + + Enter ANTONIO + + BASSANIO. This is Signior Antonio. + SHYLOCK. [Aside] How like a fawning publican he looks! + I hate him for he is a Christian; + But more for that in low simplicity + He lends out money gratis, and brings down + The rate of usance here with us in Venice. + If I can catch him once upon the hip, + I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him. + He hates our sacred nation; and he rails, + Even there where merchants most do congregate, + On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift, + Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe + If I forgive him! + BASSANIO. Shylock, do you hear? + SHYLOCK. I am debating of my present store, + And, by the near guess of my memory, + I cannot instantly raise up the gross + Of full three thousand ducats. What of that? + Tubal, a wealthy Hebrew of my tribe, + Will furnish me. But soft! how many months + Do you desire? [To ANTONIO] Rest you fair, good signior; + Your worship was the last man in our mouths. + ANTONIO. Shylock, albeit I neither lend nor borrow + By taking nor by giving of excess, + Yet, to supply the ripe wants of my friend, + I'll break a custom. [To BASSANIO] Is he yet possess'd + How much ye would? + SHYLOCK. Ay, ay, three thousand ducats. + ANTONIO. And for three months. + SHYLOCK. I had forgot- three months; you told me so. + Well then, your bond; and, let me see- but hear you, + Methoughts you said you neither lend nor borrow + Upon advantage. + ANTONIO. I do never use it. + SHYLOCK. When Jacob graz'd his uncle Laban's sheep- + This Jacob from our holy Abram was, + As his wise mother wrought in his behalf, + The third possessor; ay, he was the third- + ANTONIO. And what of him? Did he take interest? + SHYLOCK. No, not take interest; not, as you would say, + Directly int'rest; mark what Jacob did: + When Laban and himself were compromis'd + That all the eanlings which were streak'd and pied + Should fall as Jacob's hire, the ewes, being rank, + In end of autumn turned to the rams; + And when the work of generation was + Between these woolly breeders in the act, + The skilful shepherd pill'd me certain wands, + And, in the doing of the deed of kind, + He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes, + Who, then conceiving, did in eaning time + Fall parti-colour'd lambs, and those were Jacob's. + This was a way to thrive, and he was blest; + And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not. + ANTONIO. This was a venture, sir, that Jacob serv'd for; + A thing not in his power to bring to pass, + But sway'd and fashion'd by the hand of heaven. + Was this inserted to make interest good? + Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams? + SHYLOCK. I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast. + But note me, signior. + ANTONIO. [Aside] Mark you this, Bassanio, + The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. + An evil soul producing holy witness + Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, + A goodly apple rotten at the heart. + O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath! + SHYLOCK. Three thousand ducats- 'tis a good round sum. + Three months from twelve; then let me see, the rate- + ANTONIO. Well, Shylock, shall we be beholding to you? + SHYLOCK. Signior Antonio, many a time and oft + In the Rialto you have rated me + About my moneys and my usances; + Still have I borne it with a patient shrug, + For suff'rance is the badge of all our tribe; + You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, + And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, + And all for use of that which is mine own. + Well then, it now appears you need my help; + Go to, then; you come to me, and you say + 'Shylock, we would have moneys.' You say so- + You that did void your rheum upon my beard + And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur + Over your threshold; moneys is your suit. + What should I say to you? Should I not say + 'Hath a dog money? Is it possible + A cur can lend three thousand ducats?' Or + Shall I bend low and, in a bondman's key, + With bated breath and whisp'ring humbleness, + Say this: + 'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last, + You spurn'd me such a day; another time + You call'd me dog; and for these courtesies + I'll lend you thus much moneys'? + ANTONIO. I am as like to call thee so again, + To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too. + If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not + As to thy friends- for when did friendship take + A breed for barren metal of his friend?- + But lend it rather to thine enemy, + Who if he break thou mayst with better face + Exact the penalty. + SHYLOCK. Why, look you, how you storm! + I would be friends with you, and have your love, + Forget the shames that you have stain'd me with, + Supply your present wants, and take no doit + Of usance for my moneys, and you'll not hear me. + This is kind I offer. + BASSANIO. This were kindness. + SHYLOCK. This kindness will I show. + Go with me to a notary, seal me there + Your single bond, and, in a merry sport, + If you repay me not on such a day, + In such a place, such sum or sums as are + Express'd in the condition, let the forfeit + Be nominated for an equal pound + Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken + In what part of your body pleaseth me. + ANTONIO. Content, in faith; I'll seal to such a bond, + And say there is much kindness in the Jew. + BASSANIO. You shall not seal to such a bond for me; + I'll rather dwell in my necessity. + ANTONIO. Why, fear not, man; I will not forfeit it; + Within these two months- that's a month before + This bond expires- I do expect return + Of thrice three times the value of this bond. + SHYLOCK. O father Abram, what these Christians are, + Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect + The thoughts of others! Pray you, tell me this: + If he should break his day, what should I gain + By the exaction of the forfeiture? + A pound of man's flesh taken from a man + Is not so estimable, profitable neither, + As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats. I say, + To buy his favour, I extend this friendship; + If he will take it, so; if not, adieu; + And, for my love, I pray you wrong me not. + ANTONIO. Yes, Shylock, I will seal unto this bond. + SHYLOCK. Then meet me forthwith at the notary's; + Give him direction for this merry bond, + And I will go and purse the ducats straight, + See to my house, left in the fearful guard + Of an unthrifty knave, and presently + I'll be with you. + ANTONIO. Hie thee, gentle Jew. Exit SHYLOCK + The Hebrew will turn Christian: he grows kind. + BASSANIO. I like not fair terms and a villain's mind. + ANTONIO. Come on; in this there can be no dismay; + My ships come home a month before the day. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +Belmont. PORTIA'S house + +Flourish of cornets. Enter the PRINCE of MOROCCO, a tawny Moor all in white, +and three or four FOLLOWERS accordingly, with PORTIA, NERISSA, and train + + PRINCE OF Morocco. Mislike me not for my complexion, + The shadowed livery of the burnish'd sun, + To whom I am a neighbour, and near bred. + Bring me the fairest creature northward born, + Where Phoebus' fire scarce thaws the icicles, + And let us make incision for your love + To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine. + I tell thee, lady, this aspect of mine + Hath fear'd the valiant; by my love, I swear + The best-regarded virgins of our clime + Have lov'd it too. I would not change this hue, + Except to steal your thoughts, my gentle queen. + PORTIA. In terms of choice I am not solely led + By nice direction of a maiden's eyes; + Besides, the lott'ry of my destiny + Bars me the right of voluntary choosing. + But, if my father had not scanted me, + And hedg'd me by his wit to yield myself + His wife who wins me by that means I told you, + Yourself, renowned Prince, then stood as fair + As any comer I have look'd on yet + For my affection. + PRINCE OF MOROCCO. Even for that I thank you. + Therefore, I pray you, lead me to the caskets + To try my fortune. By this scimitar, + That slew the Sophy and a Persian prince, + That won three fields of Sultan Solyman, + I would o'erstare the sternest eyes that look, + Outbrave the heart most daring on the earth, + Pluck the young sucking cubs from the she-bear, + Yea, mock the lion when 'a roars for prey, + To win thee, lady. But, alas the while! + If Hercules and Lichas play at dice + Which is the better man, the greater throw + May turn by fortune from the weaker band. + So is Alcides beaten by his page; + And so may I, blind Fortune leading me, + Miss that which one unworthier may attain, + And die with grieving. + PORTIA. You must take your chance, + And either not attempt to choose at all, + Or swear before you choose, if you choose wrong, + Never to speak to lady afterward + In way of marriage; therefore be advis'd. + PRINCE OF MOROCCO. Nor will not; come, bring me unto my chance. + PORTIA. First, forward to the temple. After dinner + Your hazard shall be made. + PRINCE OF MOROCCO. Good fortune then, + To make me blest or cursed'st among men! + [Cornets, and exeunt] + + + + +SCENE II. +Venice. A street + +Enter LAUNCELOT GOBBO + + LAUNCELOT. Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from this + Jew my master. The fiend is at mine elbow and tempts me, saying + to me 'Gobbo, Launcelot Gobbo, good Launcelot' or 'good Gobbo' or + 'good Launcelot Gobbo, use your legs, take the start, run away.' + My conscience says 'No; take heed, honest Launcelot, take heed, + honest Gobbo' or, as aforesaid, 'honest Launcelot Gobbo, do not + run; scorn running with thy heels.' Well, the most courageous + fiend bids me pack. 'Via!' says the fiend; 'away!' says the + fiend. 'For the heavens, rouse up a brave mind' says the fiend + 'and run.' Well, my conscience, hanging about the neck of my + heart, says very wisely to me 'My honest friend Launcelot, being + an honest man's son' or rather 'an honest woman's son'; for + indeed my father did something smack, something grow to, he had a + kind of taste- well, my conscience says 'Launcelot, budge not.' + 'Budge,' says the fiend. 'Budge not,' says my conscience. + 'Conscience,' say I, (you counsel well.' 'Fiend,' say I, 'you + counsel well.' To be rul'd by my conscience, I should stay with + the Jew my master, who- God bless the mark!- is a kind of devil; + and, to run away from the Jew, I should be ruled by the fiend, + who- saving your reverence!- is the devil himself. Certainly the + Jew is the very devil incarnation; and, in my conscience, my + conscience is but a kind of hard conscience to offer to counsel + me to stay with the Jew. The fiend gives the more friendly + counsel. I will run, fiend; my heels are at your commandment; I + will run. + + Enter OLD GOBBO, with a basket + + GOBBO. Master young man, you, I pray you, which is the way to + master Jew's? + LAUNCELOT. [Aside] O heavens! This is my true-begotten father, + who, being more than sand-blind, high-gravel blind, knows me not. + I will try confusions with him. + GOBBO. Master young gentleman, I pray you, which is the way to + master Jew's? + LAUNCELOT. Turn up on your right hand at the next turning, but, at + the next turning of all, on your left; marry, at the very next + turning, turn of no hand, but turn down indirectly to the Jew's + house. + GOBBO. Be God's sonties, 'twill be a hard way to hit! Can you tell + me whether one Launcelot, that dwells with him, dwell with him or + no? + LAUNCELOT. Talk you of young Master Launcelot? [Aside] Mark me + now; now will I raise the waters.- Talk you of young Master + Launcelot? + GOBBO. No master, sir, but a poor man's son; his father, though I + say't, is an honest exceeding poor man, and, God be thanked, well + to live. + LAUNCELOT. Well, let his father be what 'a will, we talk of young + Master Launcelot. + GOBBO. Your worship's friend, and Launcelot, sir. + LAUNCELOT. But I pray you, ergo, old man, ergo, I beseech you, talk + you of young Master Launcelot? + GOBBO. Of Launcelot, an't please your mastership. + LAUNCELOT. Ergo, Master Launcelot. Talk not of Master Launcelot, + father; for the young gentleman, according to Fates and Destinies + and such odd sayings, the Sisters Three and such branches of + learning, is indeed deceased; or, as you would say in plain + terms, gone to heaven. + GOBBO. Marry, God forbid! The boy was the very staff of my age, my + very prop. + LAUNCELOT. Do I look like a cudgel or a hovel-post, a staff or a + prop? Do you know me, father? + GOBBO. Alack the day, I know you not, young gentleman; but I pray + you tell me, is my boy- God rest his soul!- alive or dead? + LAUNCELOT. Do you not know me, father? + GOBBO. Alack, sir, I am sand-blind; I know you not. + LAUNCELOT. Nay, indeed, if you had your eyes, you might fail of the + knowing me: it is a wise father that knows his own child. Well, + old man, I will tell you news of your son. Give me your blessing; + truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man's son + may, but in the end truth will out. + GOBBO. Pray you, sir, stand up; I am sure you are not Launcelot my + boy. + LAUNCELOT. Pray you, let's have no more fooling about it, but give + me your blessing; I am Launcelot, your boy that was, your son + that is, your child that shall be. + GOBBO. I cannot think you are my son. + LAUNCELOT. I know not what I shall think of that; but I am + Launcelot, the Jew's man, and I am sure Margery your wife is my + mother. + GOBBO. Her name is Margery, indeed. I'll be sworn, if thou be + Launcelot, thou art mine own flesh and blood. Lord worshipp'd + might he be, what a beard hast thou got! Thou hast got more hair + on thy chin than Dobbin my fill-horse has on his tail. + LAUNCELOT. It should seem, then, that Dobbin's tail grows backward; + I am sure he had more hair of his tail than I have of my face + when I last saw him. + GOBBO. Lord, how art thou chang'd! How dost thou and thy master + agree? I have brought him a present. How 'gree you now? + LAUNCELOT. Well, well; but, for mine own part, as I have set up my + rest to run away, so I will not rest till I have run some ground. + My master's a very Jew. Give him a present! Give him a halter. I + am famish'd in his service; you may tell every finger I have with + my ribs. Father, I am glad you are come; give me your present to + one Master Bassanio, who indeed gives rare new liveries; if I + serve not him, I will run as far as God has any ground. O rare + fortune! Here comes the man. To him, father, for I am a Jew, if I + serve the Jew any longer. + + Enter BASSANIO, with LEONARDO, with a FOLLOWER or two + + BASSANIO. You may do so; but let it be so hasted that supper be + ready at the farthest by five of the clock. See these letters + delivered, put the liveries to making, and desire Gratiano to + come anon to my lodging. Exit a SERVANT + LAUNCELOT. To him, father. + GOBBO. God bless your worship! + BASSANIO. Gramercy; wouldst thou aught with me? + GOBBO. Here's my son, sir, a poor boy- + LAUNCELOT. Not a poor boy, sir, but the rich Jew's man, that would, + sir, as my father shall specify- + GOBBO. He hath a great infection, sir, as one would say, to serve- + LAUNCELOT. Indeed the short and the long is, I serve the Jew, and + have a desire, as my father shall specify- + GOBBO. His master and he, saving your worship's reverence, are + scarce cater-cousins- + LAUNCELOT. To be brief, the very truth is that the Jew, having done + me wrong, doth cause me, as my father, being I hope an old man, + shall frutify unto you- + GOBBO. I have here a dish of doves that I would bestow upon your + worship; and my suit is- + LAUNCELOT. In very brief, the suit is impertinent to myself, as + your worship shall know by this honest old man; and, though I say + it, though old man, yet poor man, my father. + BASSANIO. One speak for both. What would you? + LAUNCELOT. Serve you, sir. + GOBBO. That is the very defect of the matter, sir. + BASSANIO. I know thee well; thou hast obtain'd thy suit. + Shylock thy master spoke with me this day, + And hath preferr'd thee, if it be preferment + To leave a rich Jew's service to become + The follower of so poor a gentleman. + LAUNCELOT. The old proverb is very well parted between my master + Shylock and you, sir: you have the grace of God, sir, and he hath + enough. + BASSANIO. Thou speak'st it well. Go, father, with thy son. + Take leave of thy old master, and inquire + My lodging out. [To a SERVANT] Give him a livery + More guarded than his fellows'; see it done. + LAUNCELOT. Father, in. I cannot get a service, no! I have ne'er a + tongue in my head! [Looking on his palm] Well; if any man in + Italy have a fairer table which doth offer to swear upon a book- I + shall have good fortune. Go to, here's a simple line of life; + here's a small trifle of wives; alas, fifteen wives is nothing; + a'leven widows and nine maids is a simple coming-in for one man. + And then to scape drowning thrice, and to be in peril of my life + with the edge of a feather-bed-here are simple scapes. Well, if + Fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this gear. Father, + come; I'll take my leave of the Jew in the twinkling. + Exeunt LAUNCELOT and OLD GOBBO + BASSANIO. I pray thee, good Leonardo, think on this. + These things being bought and orderly bestowed, + Return in haste, for I do feast to-night + My best esteem'd acquaintance; hie thee, go. + LEONARDO. My best endeavours shall be done herein. + + Enter GRATIANO + + GRATIANO. Where's your master? + LEONARDO. Yonder, sir, he walks. Exit + GRATIANO. Signior Bassanio! + BASSANIO. Gratiano! + GRATIANO. I have suit to you. + BASSANIO. You have obtain'd it. + GRATIANO. You must not deny me: I must go with you to Belmont. + BASSANIO. Why, then you must. But hear thee, Gratiano: + Thou art too wild, too rude, and bold of voice- + Parts that become thee happily enough, + And in such eyes as ours appear not faults; + But where thou art not known, why there they show + Something too liberal. Pray thee, take pain + To allay with some cold drops of modesty + Thy skipping spirit; lest through thy wild behaviour + I be misconst'red in the place I go to + And lose my hopes. + GRATIANO. Signior Bassanio, hear me: + If I do not put on a sober habit, + Talk with respect, and swear but now and then, + Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely, + Nay more, while grace is saying hood mine eyes + Thus with my hat, and sigh, and say amen, + Use all the observance of civility + Like one well studied in a sad ostent + To please his grandam, never trust me more. + BASSANIO. Well, we shall see your bearing. + GRATIANO. Nay, but I bar to-night; you shall not gauge me + By what we do to-night. + BASSANIO. No, that were pity; + I would entreat you rather to put on + Your boldest suit of mirth, for we have friends + That purpose merriment. But fare you well; + I have some business. + GRATIANO. And I must to Lorenzo and the rest; + But we will visit you at supper-time. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Venice. SHYLOCK'S house + +Enter JESSICA and LAUNCELOT + + JESSICA. I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so. + Our house is hell; and thou, a merry devil, + Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness. + But fare thee well; there is a ducat for thee; + And, Launcelot, soon at supper shalt thou see + Lorenzo, who is thy new master's guest. + Give him this letter; do it secretly. + And so farewell. I would not have my father + See me in talk with thee. + LAUNCELOT. Adieu! tears exhibit my tongue. Most beautiful pagan, + most sweet Jew! If a Christian do not play the knave and get + thee, I am much deceived. But, adieu! these foolish drops do + something drown my manly spirit; adieu! + JESSICA. Farewell, good Launcelot. Exit LAUNCELOT + Alack, what heinous sin is it in me + To be asham'd to be my father's child! + But though I am a daughter to his blood, + I am not to his manners. O Lorenzo, + If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife, + Become a Christian and thy loving wife. Exit + + + + +SCENE IV. +Venice. A street + +Enter GRATIANO, LORENZO, SALERIO, and SOLANIO + + LORENZO. Nay, we will slink away in suppertime, + Disguise us at my lodging, and return + All in an hour. + GRATIANO. We have not made good preparation. + SALERIO. We have not spoke us yet of torch-bearers. + SOLANIO. 'Tis vile, unless it may be quaintly ordered; + And better in my mind not undertook. + LORENZO. 'Tis now but four o'clock; we have two hours + To furnish us. + + Enter LAUNCELOT, With a letter + + Friend Launcelot, what's the news? + LAUNCELOT. An it shall please you to break up this, it shall seem + to signify. + LORENZO. I know the hand; in faith, 'tis a fair hand, + And whiter than the paper it writ on + Is the fair hand that writ. + GRATIANO. Love-news, in faith! + LAUNCELOT. By your leave, sir. + LORENZO. Whither goest thou? + LAUNCELOT. Marry, sir, to bid my old master, the Jew, to sup + to-night with my new master, the Christian. + LORENZO. Hold, here, take this. Tell gentle Jessica + I will not fail her; speak it privately. + Go, gentlemen, Exit LAUNCELOT + Will you prepare you for this masque to-night? + I am provided of a torch-bearer. + SALERIO. Ay, marry, I'll be gone about it straight. + SOLANIO. And so will I. + LORENZO. Meet me and Gratiano + At Gratiano's lodging some hour hence. + SALERIO. 'Tis good we do so. Exeunt SALERIO and SOLANIO + GRATIANO. Was not that letter from fair Jessica? + LORENZO. I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed + How I shall take her from her father's house; + What gold and jewels she is furnish'd with; + What page's suit she hath in readiness. + If e'er the Jew her father come to heaven, + It will be for his gentle daughter's sake; + And never dare misfortune cross her foot, + Unless she do it under this excuse, + That she is issue to a faithless Jew. + Come, go with me, peruse this as thou goest; + Fair Jessica shall be my torch-bearer. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Venice. Before SHYLOCK'S house + +Enter SHYLOCK and LAUNCELOT + + SHYLOCK. Well, thou shalt see; thy eyes shall be thy judge, + The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio.- + What, Jessica!- Thou shalt not gormandize + As thou hast done with me- What, Jessica!- + And sleep and snore, and rend apparel out- + Why, Jessica, I say! + LAUNCELOT. Why, Jessica! + SHYLOCK. Who bids thee call? I do not bid thee call. + LAUNCELOT. Your worship was wont to tell me I could do nothing + without bidding. + + Enter JESSICA + + JESSICA. Call you? What is your will? + SHYLOCK. I am bid forth to supper, Jessica; + There are my keys. But wherefore should I go? + I am not bid for love; they flatter me; + But yet I'll go in hate, to feed upon + The prodigal Christian. Jessica, my girl, + Look to my house. I am right loath to go; + There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest, + For I did dream of money-bags to-night. + LAUNCELOT. I beseech you, sir, go; my young master doth expect your + reproach. + SHYLOCK. So do I his. + LAUNCELOT. And they have conspired together; I will not say you + shall see a masque, but if you do, then it was not for nothing + that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday last at six o'clock + i' th' morning, falling out that year on Ash Wednesday was four + year, in th' afternoon. + SHYLOCK. What, are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica: + Lock up my doors, and when you hear the drum, + And the vile squealing of the wry-neck'd fife, + Clamber not you up to the casements then, + Nor thrust your head into the public street + To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces; + But stop my house's ears- I mean my casements; + Let not the sound of shallow fopp'ry enter + My sober house. By Jacob's staff, I swear + I have no mind of feasting forth to-night; + But I will go. Go you before me, sirrah; + Say I will come. + LAUNCELOT. I will go before, sir. Mistress, look out at window for + all this. + There will come a Christian by + Will be worth a Jewess' eye. Exit + SHYLOCK. What says that fool of Hagar's offspring, ha? + JESSICA. His words were 'Farewell, mistress'; nothing else. + SHYLOCK. The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder, + Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day + More than the wild-cat; drones hive not with me, + Therefore I part with him; and part with him + To one that I would have him help to waste + His borrowed purse. Well, Jessica, go in; + Perhaps I will return immediately. + Do as I bid you, shut doors after you. + Fast bind, fast find- + A proverb never stale in thrifty mind. Exit + JESSICA. Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost, + I have a father, you a daughter, lost. Exit + + + + +SCENE VI. +Venice. Before SHYLOCK'S house + +Enter the maskers, GRATIANO and SALERIO + + GRATIANO. This is the pent-house under which Lorenzo + Desired us to make stand. + SALERIO. His hour is almost past. + GRATIANO. And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour, + For lovers ever run before the clock. + SALERIO. O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly + To seal love's bonds new made than they are wont + To keep obliged faith unforfeited! + GRATIANO. That ever holds: who riseth from a feast + With that keen appetite that he sits down? + Where is the horse that doth untread again + His tedious measures with the unbated fire + That he did pace them first? All things that are + Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed. + How like a younker or a prodigal + The scarfed bark puts from her native bay, + Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind; + How like the prodigal doth she return, + With over-weather'd ribs and ragged sails, + Lean, rent, and beggar'd by the strumpet wind! + + Enter LORENZO + + SALERIO. Here comes Lorenzo; more of this hereafter. + LORENZO. Sweet friends, your patience for my long abode! + Not I, but my affairs, have made you wait. + When you shall please to play the thieves for wives, + I'll watch as long for you then. Approach; + Here dwells my father Jew. Ho! who's within? + + Enter JESSICA, above, in boy's clothes + + JESSICA. Who are you? Tell me, for more certainty, + Albeit I'll swear that I do know your tongue. + LORENZO. Lorenzo, and thy love. + JESSICA. Lorenzo, certain; and my love indeed; + For who love I so much? And now who knows + But you, Lorenzo, whether I am yours? + LORENZO. Heaven and thy thoughts are witness that thou art. + JESSICA. Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains. + I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me, + For I am much asham'd of my exchange; + But love is blind, and lovers cannot see + The pretty follies that themselves commit, + For, if they could, Cupid himself would blush + To see me thus transformed to a boy. + LORENZO. Descend, for you must be my torch-bearer. + JESSICA. What! must I hold a candle to my shames? + They in themselves, good sooth, are too too light. + Why, 'tis an office of discovery, love, + And I should be obscur'd. + LORENZO. So are you, sweet, + Even in the lovely garnish of a boy. + But come at once, + For the close night doth play the runaway, + And we are stay'd for at Bassanio's feast. + JESSICA. I will make fast the doors, and gild myself + With some moe ducats, and be with you straight. + Exit above + + GRATIANO. Now, by my hood, a gentle, and no Jew. + LORENZO. Beshrew me, but I love her heartily, + For she is wise, if I can judge of her, + And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true, + And true she is, as she hath prov'd herself; + And therefore, like herself, wise, fair, and true, + Shall she be placed in my constant soul. + + Enter JESSICA, below + + What, art thou come? On, gentlemen, away; + Our masquing mates by this time for us stay. + Exit with JESSICA and SALERIO + + Enter ANTONIO + + ANTONIO. Who's there? + GRATIANO. Signior Antonio? + ANTONIO. Fie, fie, Gratiano, where are all the rest? + 'Tis nine o'clock; our friends all stay for you; + No masque to-night; the wind is come about; + Bassanio presently will go aboard; + I have sent twenty out to seek for you. + GRATIANO. I am glad on't; I desire no more delight + Than to be under sail and gone to-night. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VII. +Belmont. PORTIA's house + +Flourish of cornets. Enter PORTIA, with the PRINCE OF MOROCCO, +and their trains + + PORTIA. Go draw aside the curtains and discover + The several caskets to this noble Prince. + Now make your choice. + PRINCE OF MOROCCO. The first, of gold, who this inscription bears: + 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.' + The second, silver, which this promise carries: + 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.' + This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt: + 'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.' + How shall I know if I do choose the right? + PORTIA. The one of them contains my picture, Prince; + If you choose that, then I am yours withal. + PRINCE OF MOROCCO. Some god direct my judgment! Let me see; + I will survey th' inscriptions back again. + What says this leaden casket? + 'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.' + Must give- for what? For lead? Hazard for lead! + This casket threatens; men that hazard all + Do it in hope of fair advantages. + A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross; + I'll then nor give nor hazard aught for lead. + What says the silver with her virgin hue? + 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.' + As much as he deserves! Pause there, Morocco, + And weigh thy value with an even hand. + If thou beest rated by thy estimation, + Thou dost deserve enough, and yet enough + May not extend so far as to the lady; + And yet to be afeard of my deserving + Were but a weak disabling of myself. + As much as I deserve? Why, that's the lady! + I do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes, + In graces, and in qualities of breeding; + But more than these, in love I do deserve. + What if I stray'd no farther, but chose here? + Let's see once more this saying grav'd in gold: + 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.' + Why, that's the lady! All the world desires her; + From the four corners of the earth they come + To kiss this shrine, this mortal-breathing saint. + The Hyrcanian deserts and the vasty wilds + Of wide Arabia are as throughfares now + For princes to come view fair Portia. + The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head + Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar + To stop the foreign spirits, but they come + As o'er a brook to see fair Portia. + One of these three contains her heavenly picture. + Is't like that lead contains her? 'Twere damnation + To think so base a thought; it were too gross + To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave. + Or shall I think in silver she's immur'd, + Being ten times undervalued to tried gold? + O sinful thought! Never so rich a gem + Was set in worse than gold. They have in England + A coin that bears the figure of an angel + Stamp'd in gold; but that's insculp'd upon. + But here an angel in a golden bed + Lies all within. Deliver me the key; + Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may! + PORTIA. There, take it, Prince, and if my form lie there, + Then I am yours. [He opens the golden casket] + PRINCE OF MOROCCO. O hell! what have we here? + A carrion Death, within whose empty eye + There is a written scroll! I'll read the writing. + 'All that glisters is not gold, + Often have you heard that told; + Many a man his life hath sold + But my outside to behold. + Gilded tombs do worms infold. + Had you been as wise as bold, + Young in limbs, in judgment old, + Your answer had not been inscroll'd. + Fare you well, your suit is cold.' + Cold indeed, and labour lost, + Then farewell, heat, and welcome, frost. + Portia, adieu! I have too griev'd a heart + To take a tedious leave; thus losers part. + Exit with his train. Flourish of cornets + PORTIA. A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go. + Let all of his complexion choose me so. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VIII. +Venice. A street + +Enter SALERIO and SOLANIO + + SALERIO. Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail; + With him is Gratiano gone along; + And in their ship I am sure Lorenzo is not. + SOLANIO. The villain Jew with outcries rais'd the Duke, + Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship. + SALERIO. He came too late, the ship was under sail; + But there the Duke was given to understand + That in a gondola were seen together + Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica; + Besides, Antonio certified the Duke + They were not with Bassanio in his ship. + SOLANIO. I never heard a passion so confus'd, + So strange, outrageous, and so variable, + As the dog Jew did utter in the streets. + 'My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! + Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats! + Justice! the law! My ducats and my daughter! + A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats, + Of double ducats, stol'n from me by my daughter! + And jewels- two stones, two rich and precious stones, + Stol'n by my daughter! Justice! Find the girl; + She hath the stones upon her and the ducats.' + SALERIO. Why, all the boys in Venice follow him, + Crying, his stones, his daughter, and his ducats. + SOLANIO. Let good Antonio look he keep his day, + Or he shall pay for this. + SALERIO. Marry, well rememb'red; + I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday, + Who told me, in the narrow seas that part + The French and English, there miscarried + A vessel of our country richly fraught. + I thought upon Antonio when he told me, + And wish'd in silence that it were not his. + SOLANIO. You were best to tell Antonio what you hear; + Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him. + SALERIO. A kinder gentleman treads not the earth. + I saw Bassanio and Antonio part. + Bassanio told him he would make some speed + Of his return. He answered 'Do not so; + Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio, + But stay the very riping of the time; + And for the Jew's bond which he hath of me, + Let it not enter in your mind of love; + Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts + To courtship, and such fair ostents of love + As shall conveniently become you there.' + And even there, his eye being big with tears, + Turning his face, he put his hand behind him, + And with affection wondrous sensible + He wrung Bassanio's hand; and so they parted. + SOLANIO. I think he only loves the world for him. + I pray thee, let us go and find him out, + And quicken his embraced heaviness + With some delight or other. + SALERIO. Do we so. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IX. +Belmont. PORTIA'S house + +Enter NERISSA, and a SERVITOR + + NERISSA. Quick, quick, I pray thee, draw the curtain straight; + The Prince of Arragon hath ta'en his oath, + And comes to his election presently. + + Flourish of cornets. Enter the PRINCE OF ARRAGON, + PORTIA, and their trains + + PORTIA. Behold, there stand the caskets, noble Prince. + If you choose that wherein I am contain'd, + Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemniz'd; + But if you fail, without more speech, my lord, + You must be gone from hence immediately. + ARRAGON. I am enjoin'd by oath to observe three things: + First, never to unfold to any one + Which casket 'twas I chose; next, if I fail + Of the right casket, never in my life + To woo a maid in way of marriage; + Lastly, + If I do fail in fortune of my choice, + Immediately to leave you and be gone. + PORTIA. To these injunctions every one doth swear + That comes to hazard for my worthless self. + ARRAGON. And so have I address'd me. Fortune now + To my heart's hope! Gold, silver, and base lead. + 'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.' + You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard. + What says the golden chest? Ha! let me see: + 'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.' + What many men desire- that 'many' may be meant + By the fool multitude, that choose by show, + Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach; + Which pries not to th' interior, but, like the martlet, + Builds in the weather on the outward wall, + Even in the force and road of casualty. + I will not choose what many men desire, + Because I will not jump with common spirits + And rank me with the barbarous multitudes. + Why, then to thee, thou silver treasure-house! + Tell me once more what title thou dost bear. + 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.' + And well said too; for who shall go about + To cozen fortune, and be honourable + Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume + To wear an undeserved dignity. + O that estates, degrees, and offices, + Were not deriv'd corruptly, and that clear honour + Were purchas'd by the merit of the wearer! + How many then should cover that stand bare! + How many be commanded that command! + How much low peasantry would then be gleaned + From the true seed of honour! and how much honour + Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times, + To be new varnish'd! Well, but to my choice. + 'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.' + I will assume desert. Give me a key for this, + And instantly unlock my fortunes here. + [He opens the silver casket] + PORTIA. [Aside] Too long a pause for that which you find there. + ARRAGON. What's here? The portrait of a blinking idiot + Presenting me a schedule! I will read it. + How much unlike art thou to Portia! + How much unlike my hopes and my deservings! + 'Who chooseth me shall have as much as he deserves.' + Did I deserve no more than a fool's head? + Is that my prize? Are my deserts no better? + PORTIA. To offend and judge are distinct offices + And of opposed natures. + ARRAGON. What is here? [Reads] + + 'The fire seven times tried this; + Seven times tried that judgment is + That did never choose amiss. + Some there be that shadows kiss, + Such have but a shadow's bliss. + There be fools alive iwis + Silver'd o'er, and so was this. + Take what wife you will to bed, + I will ever be your head. + So be gone; you are sped.' + + Still more fool I shall appear + By the time I linger here. + With one fool's head I came to woo, + But I go away with two. + Sweet, adieu! I'll keep my oath, + Patiently to bear my wroth. Exit with his train + + PORTIA. Thus hath the candle sing'd the moth. + O, these deliberate fools! When they do choose, + They have the wisdom by their wit to lose. + NERISSA. The ancient saying is no heresy: + Hanging and wiving goes by destiny. + PORTIA. Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa. + + Enter a SERVANT + + SERVANT. Where is my lady? + PORTIA. Here; what would my lord? + SERVANT. Madam, there is alighted at your gate + A young Venetian, one that comes before + To signify th' approaching of his lord, + From whom he bringeth sensible regreets; + To wit, besides commends and courteous breath, + Gifts of rich value. Yet I have not seen + So likely an ambassador of love. + A day in April never came so sweet + To show how costly summer was at hand + As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord. + PORTIA. No more, I pray thee; I am half afeard + Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee, + Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising him. + Come, come, Nerissa, for I long to see + Quick Cupid's post that comes so mannerly. + NERISSA. Bassanio, Lord Love, if thy will it be! Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +Venice. A street + +Enter SOLANIO and SALERIO + + SOLANIO. Now, what news on the Rialto? + SALERIO. Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath a ship + of rich lading wreck'd on the narrow seas; the Goodwins I think + they call the place, a very dangerous flat and fatal, where the + carcases of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my + gossip Report be an honest woman of her word. + SOLANIO. I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapp'd + ginger or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a + third husband. But it is true, without any slips of prolixity or + crossing the plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the + honest Antonio- O that I had a title good enough to keep his name + company!- + SALERIO. Come, the full stop. + SOLANIO. Ha! What sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath lost a + ship. + SALERIO. I would it might prove the end of his losses. + SOLANIO. Let me say amen betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer, + for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew. + + Enter SHYLOCK + + How now, Shylock? What news among the merchants? + SHYLOCK. You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my + daughter's flight. + SALERIO. That's certain; I, for my part, knew the tailor that made + the wings she flew withal. + SOLANIO. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was flidge; + and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam. + SHYLOCK. She is damn'd for it. + SALERIO. That's certain, if the devil may be her judge. + SHYLOCK. My own flesh and blood to rebel! + SOLANIO. Out upon it, old carrion! Rebels it at these years? + SHYLOCK. I say my daughter is my flesh and my blood. + SALERIO. There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than + between jet and ivory; more between your bloods than there is + between red wine and Rhenish. But tell us, do you hear whether + Antonio have had any loss at sea or no? + SHYLOCK. There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal, + who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto; a beggar, that was + us'd to come so smug upon the mart. Let him look to his bond. He + was wont to call me usurer; let him look to his bond. He was wont + to lend money for a Christian courtesy; let him look to his bond. + SALERIO. Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his + flesh. What's that good for? + SHYLOCK. To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else, it will + feed my revenge. He hath disgrac'd me and hind'red me half a + million; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd at my gains, scorned my + nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine + enemies. And what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? + Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, + passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, + subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed + and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If + you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? + If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we + not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you + in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? + Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance + be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me + I will execute; and itshall go hard but I will better the + instruction. + + Enter a MAN from ANTONIO + + MAN. Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house, and desires to + speak with you both. + SALERIO. We have been up and down to seek him. + + Enter TUBAL + + SOLANIO. Here comes another of the tribe; a third cannot be + match'd, unless the devil himself turn Jew. + Exeunt SOLANIO, SALERIO, and MAN + SHYLOCK. How now, Tubal, what news from Genoa? Hast thou found my + daughter? + TUBAL. I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her. + SHYLOCK. Why there, there, there, there! A diamond gone, cost me + two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our + nation till now; I never felt it till now. Two thousand ducats in + that, and other precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter + were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear; would she were + hears'd at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of + them? Why, so- and I know not what's spent in the search. Why, + thou- loss upon loss! The thief gone with so much, and so much to + find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge; nor no ill luck + stirring but what lights o' my shoulders; no sighs but o' my + breathing; no tears but o' my shedding! + TUBAL. Yes, other men have ill luck too: Antonio, as I heard in + Genoa- + SHYLOCK. What, what, what? Ill luck, ill luck? + TUBAL. Hath an argosy cast away coming from Tripolis. + SHYLOCK. I thank God, I thank God. Is it true, is it true? + TUBAL. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck. + SHYLOCK. I thank thee, good Tubal. Good news, good news- ha, ha!- + heard in Genoa. + TUBAL. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night, + fourscore ducats. + SHYLOCK. Thou stick'st a dagger in me- I shall never see my gold + again. Fourscore ducats at a sitting! Fourscore ducats! + TUBAL. There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my company to + Venice that swear he cannot choose but break. + SHYLOCK. I am very glad of it; I'll plague him, I'll torture him; I + am glad of it. + TUBAL. One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter + for a monkey. + SHYLOCK. Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my + turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor; I would not + have given it for a wilderness of monkeys. + TUBAL. But Antonio is certainly undone. + SHYLOCK. Nay, that's true; that's very true. Go, Tubal, fee me an + officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of + him, if he forfeit; for, were he out of Venice, I can make what + merchandise I will. Go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue; go, + good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Belmont. PORTIA'S house + +Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA, and all their trains + + PORTIA. I pray you tarry; pause a day or two + Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong, + I lose your company; therefore forbear a while. + There's something tells me- but it is not love- + I would not lose you; and you know yourself + Hate counsels not in such a quality. + But lest you should not understand me well- + And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought- + I would detain you here some month or two + Before you venture for me. I could teach you + How to choose right, but then I am forsworn; + So will I never be; so may you miss me; + But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin, + That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes! + They have o'erlook'd me and divided me; + One half of me is yours, the other half yours- + Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, + And so all yours. O! these naughty times + Puts bars between the owners and their rights; + And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so, + Let fortune go to hell for it, not I. + I speak too long, but 'tis to peize the time, + To eke it, and to draw it out in length, + To stay you from election. + BASSANIO. Let me choose; + For as I am, I live upon the rack. + PORTIA. Upon the rack, Bassanio? Then confess + What treason there is mingled with your love. + BASSANIO. None but that ugly treason of mistrust + Which makes me fear th' enjoying of my love; + There may as well be amity and life + 'Tween snow and fire as treason and my love. + PORTIA. Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack, + Where men enforced do speak anything. + BASSANIO. Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth. + PORTIA. Well then, confess and live. + BASSANIO. 'Confess' and 'love' + Had been the very sum of my confession. + O happy torment, when my torturer + Doth teach me answers for deliverance! + But let me to my fortune and the caskets. + PORTIA. Away, then; I am lock'd in one of them. + If you do love me, you will find me out. + Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof; + Let music sound while he doth make his choice; + Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end, + Fading in music. That the comparison + May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream + And wat'ry death-bed for him. He may win; + And what is music then? Then music is + Even as the flourish when true subjects bow + To a new-crowned monarch; such it is + As are those dulcet sounds in break of day + That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear + And summon him to marriage. Now he goes, + With no less presence, but with much more love, + Than young Alcides when he did redeem + The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy + To the sea-monster. I stand for sacrifice; + The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives, + With bleared visages come forth to view + The issue of th' exploit. Go, Hercules! + Live thou, I live. With much much more dismay + I view the fight than thou that mak'st the fray. + + A SONG + + the whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself + + Tell me where is fancy bred, + Or in the heart or in the head, + How begot, how nourished? + Reply, reply. + It is engend'red in the eyes, + With gazing fed; and fancy dies + In the cradle where it lies. + Let us all ring fancy's knell: + I'll begin it- Ding, dong, bell. + ALL. Ding, dong, bell. + + BASSANIO. So may the outward shows be least themselves; + The world is still deceiv'd with ornament. + In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt + But, being season'd with a gracious voice, + Obscures the show of evil? In religion, + What damned error but some sober brow + Will bless it, and approve it with a text, + Hiding the grossness with fair ornament? + There is no vice so simple but assumes + Some mark of virtue on his outward parts. + How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false + As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins + The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars; + Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk! + And these assume but valour's excrement + To render them redoubted. Look on beauty + And you shall see 'tis purchas'd by the weight, + Which therein works a miracle in nature, + Making them lightest that wear most of it; + So are those crisped snaky golden locks + Which make such wanton gambols with the wind + Upon supposed fairness often known + To be the dowry of a second head- + The skull that bred them in the sepulchre. + Thus ornament is but the guiled shore + To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf + Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word, + The seeming truth which cunning times put on + To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold, + Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee; + Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge + 'Tween man and man; but thou, thou meagre lead, + Which rather threaten'st than dost promise aught, + Thy plainness moves me more than eloquence, + And here choose I. Joy be the consequence! + PORTIA. [Aside] How all the other passions fleet to air, + As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embrac'd despair, + And shudd'ring fear, and green-ey'd jealousy! + O love, be moderate, allay thy ecstasy, + In measure rain thy joy, scant this excess! + I feel too much thy blessing. Make it less, + For fear I surfeit. + BASSANIO. [Opening the leaden casket] What find I here? + Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god + Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes? + Or whether riding on the balls of mine + Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips, + Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar + Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs + The painter plays the spider, and hath woven + A golden mesh t' entrap the hearts of men + Faster than gnats in cobwebs. But her eyes- + How could he see to do them? Having made one, + Methinks it should have power to steal both his, + And leave itself unfurnish'd. Yet look how far + The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow + In underprizing it, so far this shadow + Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scroll, + The continent and summary of my fortune. + 'You that choose not by the view, + Chance as fair and choose as true! + Since this fortune falls to you, + Be content and seek no new. + If you be well pleas'd with this, + And hold your fortune for your bliss, + Turn to where your lady is + And claim her with a loving kiss.' + A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave; + I come by note, to give and to receive. + Like one of two contending in a prize, + That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes, + Hearing applause and universal shout, + Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt + Whether those peals of praise be his or no; + So, thrice-fair lady, stand I even so, + As doubtful whether what I see be true, + Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you. + PORTIA. You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand, + Such as I am. Though for myself alone + I would not be ambitious in my wish + To wish myself much better, yet for you + I would be trebled twenty times myself, + A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich, + That only to stand high in your account + I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends, + Exceed account. But the full sum of me + Is sum of something which, to term in gross, + Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractis'd; + Happy in this, she is not yet so old + But she may learn; happier than this, + She is not bred so dull but she can learn; + Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit + Commits itself to yours to be directed, + As from her lord, her governor, her king. + Myself and what is mine to you and yours + Is now converted. But now I was the lord + Of this fair mansion, master of my servants, + Queen o'er myself; and even now, but now, + This house, these servants, and this same myself, + Are yours- my lord's. I give them with this ring, + Which when you part from, lose, or give away, + Let it presage the ruin of your love, + And be my vantage to exclaim on you. + BASSANIO. Madam, you have bereft me of all words; + Only my blood speaks to you in my veins; + And there is such confusion in my powers + As, after some oration fairly spoke + By a beloved prince, there doth appear + Among the buzzing pleased multitude, + Where every something, being blent together, + Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy + Express'd and not express'd. But when this ring + Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence; + O, then be bold to say Bassanio's dead! + NERISSA. My lord and lady, it is now our time + That have stood by and seen our wishes prosper + To cry 'Good joy.' Good joy, my lord and lady! + GRATIANO. My Lord Bassanio, and my gentle lady, + I wish you all the joy that you can wish, + For I am sure you can wish none from me; + And, when your honours mean to solemnize + The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you + Even at that time I may be married too. + BASSANIO. With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife. + GRATIANO. I thank your lordship, you have got me one. + My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours: + You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid; + You lov'd, I lov'd; for intermission + No more pertains to me, my lord, than you. + Your fortune stood upon the caskets there, + And so did mine too, as the matter falls; + For wooing here until I sweat again, + And swearing till my very roof was dry + With oaths of love, at last- if promise last- + I got a promise of this fair one here + To have her love, provided that your fortune + Achiev'd her mistress. + PORTIA. Is this true, Nerissa? + NERISSA. Madam, it is, so you stand pleas'd withal. + BASSANIO. And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith? + GRATIANO. Yes, faith, my lord. + BASSANIO. Our feast shall be much honoured in your marriage. + GRATIANO. We'll play with them: the first boy for a thousand + ducats. + NERISSA. What, and stake down? + GRATIANO. No; we shall ne'er win at that sport, and stake down- + But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel? + What, and my old Venetian friend, Salerio! + + Enter LORENZO, JESSICA, and SALERIO, a messenger + from Venice + + BASSANIO. Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither, + If that the youth of my new int'rest here + Have power to bid you welcome. By your leave, + I bid my very friends and countrymen, + Sweet Portia, welcome. + PORTIA. So do I, my lord; + They are entirely welcome. + LORENZO. I thank your honour. For my part, my lord, + My purpose was not to have seen you here; + But meeting with Salerio by the way, + He did entreat me, past all saying nay, + To come with him along. + SALERIO. I did, my lord, + And I have reason for it. Signior Antonio + Commends him to you. [Gives BASSANIO a letter] + BASSANIO. Ere I ope his letter, + I pray you tell me how my good friend doth. + SALERIO. Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind; + Nor well, unless in mind; his letter there + Will show you his estate. [BASSANIO opens the letter] + GRATIANO. Nerissa, cheer yond stranger; bid her welcome. + Your hand, Salerio. What's the news from Venice? + How doth that royal merchant, good Antonio? + I know he will be glad of our success: + We are the Jasons, we have won the fleece. + SALERIO. I would you had won the fleece that he hath lost. + PORTIA. There are some shrewd contents in yond same paper + That steals the colour from Bassanio's cheek: + Some dear friend dead, else nothing in the world + Could turn so much the constitution + Of any constant man. What, worse and worse! + With leave, Bassanio: I am half yourself, + And I must freely have the half of anything + That this same paper brings you. + BASSANIO. O sweet Portia, + Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words + That ever blotted paper! Gentle lady, + When I did first impart my love to you, + I freely told you all the wealth I had + Ran in my veins- I was a gentleman; + And then I told you true. And yet, dear lady, + Rating myself at nothing, you shall see + How much I was a braggart. When I told you + My state was nothing, I should then have told you + That I was worse than nothing; for indeed + I have engag'd myself to a dear friend, + Engag'd my friend to his mere enemy, + To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady, + The paper as the body of my friend, + And every word in it a gaping wound + Issuing life-blood. But is it true, Salerio? + Hath all his ventures fail'd? What, not one hit? + From Tripolis, from Mexico, and England, + From Lisbon, Barbary, and India, + And not one vessel scape the dreadful touch + Of merchant-marring rocks? + SALERIO. Not one, my lord. + Besides, it should appear that, if he had + The present money to discharge the Jew, + He would not take it. Never did I know + A creature that did bear the shape of man + So keen and greedy to confound a man. + He plies the Duke at morning and at night, + And doth impeach the freedom of the state, + If they deny him justice. Twenty merchants, + The Duke himself, and the magnificoes + Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him; + But none can drive him from the envious plea + Of forfeiture, of justice, and his bond. + JESSICA. When I was with him, I have heard him swear + To Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen, + That he would rather have Antonio's flesh + Than twenty times the value of the sum + That he did owe him; and I know, my lord, + If law, authority, and power, deny not, + It will go hard with poor Antonio. + PORTIA. Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble? + BASSANIO. The dearest friend to me, the kindest man, + The best condition'd and unwearied spirit + In doing courtesies; and one in whom + The ancient Roman honour more appears + Than any that draws breath in Italy. + PORTIA. What sum owes he the Jew? + BASSANIO. For me, three thousand ducats. + PORTIA. What! no more? + Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond; + Double six thousand, and then treble that, + Before a friend of this description + Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault. + First go with me to church and call me wife, + And then away to Venice to your friend; + For never shall you lie by Portia's side + With an unquiet soul. You shall have gold + To pay the petty debt twenty times over. + When it is paid, bring your true friend along. + My maid Nerissa and myself meantime + Will live as maids and widows. Come, away; + For you shall hence upon your wedding day. + Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer; + Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear. + But let me hear the letter of your friend. + BASSANIO. [Reads] 'Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all miscarried, + my creditors grow cruel, my estate is very low, my bond to the + Jew is forfeit; and since, in paying it, it is impossible I + should live, all debts are clear'd between you and I, if I might + but see you at my death. Notwithstanding, use your pleasure; if + your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter.' + PORTIA. O love, dispatch all business and be gone! + BASSANIO. Since I have your good leave to go away, + I will make haste; but, till I come again, + No bed shall e'er be guilty of my stay, + Nor rest be interposer 'twixt us twain. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Venice. A street + +Enter SHYLOCK, SOLANIO, ANTONIO, and GAOLER + + SHYLOCK. Gaoler, look to him. Tell not me of mercy- + This is the fool that lent out money gratis. + Gaoler, look to him. + ANTONIO. Hear me yet, good Shylock. + SHYLOCK. I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond. + I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond. + Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause, + But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs; + The Duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder, + Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond + To come abroad with him at his request. + ANTONIO. I pray thee hear me speak. + SHYLOCK. I'll have my bond. I will not hear thee speak; + I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more. + I'll not be made a soft and dull-ey'd fool, + To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield, + To Christian intercessors. Follow not; + I'll have no speaking; I will have my bond. Exit + SOLANIO. It is the most impenetrable cur + That ever kept with men. + ANTONIO. Let him alone; + I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers. + He seeks my life; his reason well I know: + I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures + Many that have at times made moan to me; + Therefore he hates me. + SOLANIO. I am sure the Duke + Will never grant this forfeiture to hold. + ANTONIO. The Duke cannot deny the course of law; + For the commodity that strangers have + With us in Venice, if it be denied, + Will much impeach the justice of the state, + Since that the trade and profit of the city + Consisteth of all nations. Therefore, go; + These griefs and losses have so bated me + That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh + To-morrow to my bloody creditor. + Well, gaoler, on; pray God Bassanio come + To see me pay his debt, and then I care not. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Belmont. PORTIA'S house + +Enter PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, and BALTHASAR + + LORENZO. Madam, although I speak it in your presence, + You have a noble and a true conceit + Of godlike amity, which appears most strongly + In bearing thus the absence of your lord. + But if you knew to whom you show this honour, + How true a gentleman you send relief, + How dear a lover of my lord your husband, + I know you would be prouder of the work + Than customary bounty can enforce you. + PORTIA. I never did repent for doing good, + Nor shall not now; for in companions + That do converse and waste the time together, + Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love, + There must be needs a like proportion + Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit, + Which makes me think that this Antonio, + Being the bosom lover of my lord, + Must needs be like my lord. If it be so, + How little is the cost I have bestowed + In purchasing the semblance of my soul + From out the state of hellish cruelty! + This comes too near the praising of myself; + Therefore, no more of it; hear other things. + Lorenzo, I commit into your hands + The husbandry and manage of my house + Until my lord's return; for mine own part, + I have toward heaven breath'd a secret vow + To live in prayer and contemplation, + Only attended by Nerissa here, + Until her husband and my lord's return. + There is a monastery two miles off, + And there we will abide. I do desire you + Not to deny this imposition, + The which my love and some necessity + Now lays upon you. + LORENZO. Madam, with all my heart + I shall obey you in an fair commands. + PORTIA. My people do already know my mind, + And will acknowledge you and Jessica + In place of Lord Bassanio and myself. + So fare you well till we shall meet again. + LORENZO. Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you! + JESSICA. I wish your ladyship all heart's content. + PORTIA. I thank you for your wish, and am well pleas'd + To wish it back on you. Fare you well, Jessica. + Exeunt JESSICA and LORENZO + Now, Balthasar, + As I have ever found thee honest-true, + So let me find thee still. Take this same letter, + And use thou all th' endeavour of a man + In speed to Padua; see thou render this + Into my cousin's hands, Doctor Bellario; + And look what notes and garments he doth give thee, + Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd speed + Unto the traject, to the common ferry + Which trades to Venice. Waste no time in words, + But get thee gone; I shall be there before thee. + BALTHASAR. Madam, I go with all convenient speed. Exit + PORTIA. Come on, Nerissa, I have work in hand + That you yet know not of; we'll see our husbands + Before they think of us. + NERISSA. Shall they see us? + PORTIA. They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit + That they shall think we are accomplished + With that we lack. I'll hold thee any wager, + When we are both accoutred like young men, + I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two, + And wear my dagger with the braver grace, + And speak between the change of man and boy + With a reed voice; and turn two mincing steps + Into a manly stride; and speak of frays + Like a fine bragging youth; and tell quaint lies, + How honourable ladies sought my love, + Which I denying, they fell sick and died- + I could not do withal. Then I'll repent, + And wish for all that, that I had not kill'd them. + And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell, + That men shall swear I have discontinued school + About a twelvemonth. I have within my mind + A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks, + Which I will practise. + NERISSA. Why, shall we turn to men? + PORTIA. Fie, what a question's that, + If thou wert near a lewd interpreter! + But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device + When I am in my coach, which stays for us + At the park gate; and therefore haste away, + For we must measure twenty miles to-day. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +Belmont. The garden + +Enter LAUNCELOT and JESSICA + + LAUNCELOT. Yes, truly; for, look you, the sins of the father are to + be laid upon the children; therefore, I promise you, I fear you. + I was always plain with you, and so now I speak my agitation of + the matter; therefore be o' good cheer, for truly I think you are + damn'd. There is but one hope in it that can do you any good, and + that is but a kind of bastard hope, neither. + JESSICA. And what hope is that, I pray thee? + LAUNCELOT. Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you not- + that you are not the Jew's daughter. + JESSICA. That were a kind of bastard hope indeed; so the sins of my + mother should be visited upon me. + LAUNCELOT. Truly then I fear you are damn'd both by father and + mother; thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into + Charybdis, your mother; well, you are gone both ways. + JESSICA. I shall be sav'd by my husband; he hath made me a + Christian. + LAUNCELOT. Truly, the more to blame he; we were Christians enow + before, e'en as many as could well live one by another. This + making of Christians will raise the price of hogs; if we grow all + to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on the + coals for money. + + Enter LORENZO + + JESSICA. I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you say; here he + comes. + LORENZO. I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if you + thus get my wife into corners. + JESSICA. Nay, you need nor fear us, Lorenzo; Launcelot and I are + out; he tells me flatly there's no mercy for me in heaven, + because I am a Jew's daughter; and he says you are no good member + of the commonwealth, for in converting Jews to Christians you + raise the price of pork. + LORENZO. I shall answer that better to the commonwealth than you + can the getting up of the negro's belly; the Moor is with child + by you, Launcelot. + LAUNCELOT. It is much that the Moor should be more than reason; but + if she be less than an honest woman, she is indeed more than I + took her for. + LORENZO. How every fool can play upon the word! I think the best + grace of wit will shortly turn into silence, and discourse grow + commendable in none only but parrots. Go in, sirrah; bid them + prepare for dinner. + LAUNCELOT. That is done, sir; they have all stomachs. + LORENZO. Goodly Lord, what a wit-snapper are you! Then bid them + prepare dinner. + LAUNCELOT. That is done too, sir, only 'cover' is the word. + LORENZO. Will you cover, then, sir? + LAUNCELOT. Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty. + LORENZO. Yet more quarrelling with occasion! Wilt thou show the + whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray thee understand a + plain man in his plain meaning: go to thy fellows, bid them cover + the table, serve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner. + LAUNCELOT. For the table, sir, it shall be serv'd in; for the meat, + sir, it shall be cover'd; for your coming in to dinner, sir, why, + let it be as humours and conceits shall govern. + Exit + LORENZO. O dear discretion, how his words are suited! + The fool hath planted in his memory + An army of good words; and I do know + A many fools that stand in better place, + Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word + Defy the matter. How cheer'st thou, Jessica? + And now, good sweet, say thy opinion, + How dost thou like the Lord Bassanio's wife? + JESSICA. Past all expressing. It is very meet + The Lord Bassanio live an upright life, + For, having such a blessing in his lady, + He finds the joys of heaven here on earth; + And if on earth he do not merit it, + In reason he should never come to heaven. + Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match, + And on the wager lay two earthly women, + And Portia one, there must be something else + Pawn'd with the other; for the poor rude world + Hath not her fellow. + LORENZO. Even such a husband + Hast thou of me as she is for a wife. + JESSICA. Nay, but ask my opinion too of that. + LORENZO. I will anon; first let us go to dinner. + JESSICA. Nay, let me praise you while I have a stomach. + LORENZO. No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk; + Then howsome'er thou speak'st, 'mong other things + I shall digest it. + JESSICA. Well, I'll set you forth. Exeunt + + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +Venice. The court of justice + +Enter the DUKE, the MAGNIFICOES, ANTONIO, BASSANIO, GRATIANO, SALERIO, +and OTHERS + + DUKE OF VENICE. What, is Antonio here? + ANTONIO. Ready, so please your Grace. + DUKE OF VENICE. I am sorry for thee; thou art come to answer + A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch, + Uncapable of pity, void and empty + From any dram of mercy. + ANTONIO. I have heard + Your Grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify + His rigorous course; but since he stands obdurate, + And that no lawful means can carry me + Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose + My patience to his fury, and am arm'd + To suffer with a quietness of spirit + The very tyranny and rage of his. + DUKE OF VENICE. Go one, and call the Jew into the court. + SALERIO. He is ready at the door; he comes, my lord. + + Enter SHYLOCK + + DUKE OF VENICE. Make room, and let him stand before our face. + Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too, + That thou but leadest this fashion of thy malice + To the last hour of act; and then, 'tis thought, + Thou'lt show thy mercy and remorse, more strange + Than is thy strange apparent cruelty; + And where thou now exacts the penalty, + Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh, + Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture, + But, touch'd with human gentleness and love, + Forgive a moiety of the principal, + Glancing an eye of pity on his losses, + That have of late so huddled on his back- + Enow to press a royal merchant down, + And pluck commiseration of his state + From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint, + From stubborn Turks and Tartars, never train'd + To offices of tender courtesy. + We all expect a gentle answer, Jew. + SHYLOCK. I have possess'd your Grace of what I purpose, + And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn + To have the due and forfeit of my bond. + If you deny it, let the danger light + Upon your charter and your city's freedom. + You'll ask me why I rather choose to have + A weight of carrion flesh than to receive + Three thousand ducats. I'll not answer that, + But say it is my humour- is it answer'd? + What if my house be troubled with a rat, + And I be pleas'd to give ten thousand ducats + To have it ban'd? What, are you answer'd yet? + Some men there are love not a gaping pig; + Some that are mad if they behold a cat; + And others, when the bagpipe sings i' th' nose, + Cannot contain their urine; for affection, + Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood + Of what it likes or loathes. Now, for your answer: + As there is no firm reason to be rend'red + Why he cannot abide a gaping pig; + Why he, a harmless necessary cat; + Why he, a woollen bagpipe, but of force + Must yield to such inevitable shame + As to offend, himself being offended; + So can I give no reason, nor I will not, + More than a lodg'd hate and a certain loathing + I bear Antonio, that I follow thus + A losing suit against him. Are you answered? + BASSANIO. This is no answer, thou unfeeling man, + To excuse the current of thy cruelty. + SHYLOCK. I am not bound to please thee with my answers. + BASSANIO. Do all men kill the things they do not love? + SHYLOCK. Hates any man the thing he would not kill? + BASSANIO. Every offence is not a hate at first. + SHYLOCK. What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice? + ANTONIO. I pray you, think you question with the Jew. + You may as well go stand upon the beach + And bid the main flood bate his usual height; + You may as well use question with the wolf, + Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb; + You may as well forbid the mountain pines + To wag their high tops and to make no noise + When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven; + You may as well do anything most hard + As seek to soften that- than which what's harder?- + His jewish heart. Therefore, I do beseech you, + Make no moe offers, use no farther means, + But with all brief and plain conveniency + Let me have judgment, and the Jew his will. + BASSANIO. For thy three thousand ducats here is six. + SHYLOCK. If every ducat in six thousand ducats + Were in six parts, and every part a ducat, + I would not draw them; I would have my bond. + DUKE OF VENICE. How shalt thou hope for mercy, rend'ring none? + SHYLOCK. What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong? + You have among you many a purchas'd slave, + Which, fike your asses and your dogs and mules, + You use in abject and in slavish parts, + Because you bought them; shall I say to you + 'Let them be free, marry them to your heirs- + Why sweat they under burdens?- let their beds + Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates + Be season'd with such viands'? You will answer + 'The slaves are ours.' So do I answer you: + The pound of flesh which I demand of him + Is dearly bought, 'tis mine, and I will have it. + If you deny me, fie upon your law! + There is no force in the decrees of Venice. + I stand for judgment; answer; shall I have it? + DUKE OF VENICE. Upon my power I may dismiss this court, + Unless Bellario, a learned doctor, + Whom I have sent for to determine this, + Come here to-day. + SALERIO. My lord, here stays without + A messenger with letters from the doctor, + New come from Padua. + DUKE OF VENICE. Bring us the letters; call the messenger. + BASSANIO. Good cheer, Antonio! What, man, courage yet! + The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones, and all, + Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood. + ANTONIO. I am a tainted wether of the flock, + Meetest for death; the weakest kind of fruit + Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me. + You cannot better be employ'd, Bassanio, + Than to live still, and write mine epitaph. + + Enter NERISSA dressed like a lawyer's clerk + + DUKE OF VENICE. Came you from Padua, from Bellario? + NERISSA. From both, my lord. Bellario greets your Grace. + [Presents a letter] + BASSANIO. Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly? + SHYLOCK. To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there. + GRATIANO. Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew, + Thou mak'st thy knife keen; but no metal can, + No, not the hangman's axe, bear half the keenness + Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee? + SHYLOCK. No, none that thou hast wit enough to make. + GRATIANO. O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog! + And for thy life let justice be accus'd. + Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith, + To hold opinion with Pythagoras + That souls of animals infuse themselves + Into the trunks of men. Thy currish spirit + Govern'd a wolf who, hang'd for human slaughter, + Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet, + And, whilst thou layest in thy unhallowed dam, + Infus'd itself in thee; for thy desires + Are wolfish, bloody, starv'd and ravenous. + SHYLOCK. Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond, + Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud; + Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall + To cureless ruin. I stand here for law. + DUKE OF VENICE. This letter from Bellario doth commend + A young and learned doctor to our court. + Where is he? + NERISSA. He attendeth here hard by + To know your answer, whether you'll admit him. + DUKE OF VENICE. With all my heart. Some three or four of you + Go give him courteous conduct to this place. + Meantime, the court shall hear Bellario's letter. + CLERK. [Reads] 'Your Grace shall understand that at the receipt + of your letter I am very sick; but in the instant that your + messenger came, in loving visitation was with me a young doctor + of Rome- his name is Balthazar. I acquainted him with the cause + in controversy between the Jew and Antonio the merchant; we + turn'd o'er many books together; he is furnished with my opinion + which, bettered with his own learning-the greatness whereof I + cannot enough commend- comes with him at my importunity to fill + up your Grace's request in my stead. I beseech you let his lack + of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation, + for I never knew so young a body with so old a head. I leave him + to your gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish his + commendation.' + + Enter PORTIA for BALTHAZAR, dressed like a Doctor of Laws + + DUKE OF VENICE. YOU hear the learn'd Bellario, what he writes; + And here, I take it, is the doctor come. + Give me your hand; come you from old Bellario? + PORTIA. I did, my lord. + DUKE OF VENICE. You are welcome; take your place. + Are you acquainted with the difference + That holds this present question in the court? + PORTIA. I am informed throughly of the cause. + Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew? + DUKE OF VENICE. Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth. + PORTIA. Is your name Shylock? + SHYLOCK. Shylock is my name. + PORTIA. Of a strange nature is the suit you follow; + Yet in such rule that the Venetian law + Cannot impugn you as you do proceed. + You stand within his danger, do you not? + ANTONIO. Ay, so he says. + PORTIA. Do you confess the bond? + ANTONIO. I do. + PORTIA. Then must the Jew be merciful. + SHYLOCK. On what compulsion must I? Tell me that. + PORTIA. The quality of mercy is not strain'd; + It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven + Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: + It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. + 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes + The throned monarch better than his crown; + His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, + The attribute to awe and majesty, + Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; + But mercy is above this sceptred sway, + It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, + It is an attribute to God himself; + And earthly power doth then show likest God's + When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, + Though justice be thy plea, consider this- + That in the course of justice none of us + Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy, + And that same prayer doth teach us all to render + The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much + To mitigate the justice of thy plea, + Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice + Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there. + SHYLOCK. My deeds upon my head! I crave the law, + The penalty and forfeit of my bond. + BASSANIO. Yes; here I tender it for him in the court; + Yea, twice the sum; if that will not suffice, + I will be bound to pay it ten times o'er + On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart; + If this will not suffice, it must appear + That malice bears down truth. And, I beseech you, + Wrest once the law to your authority; + To do a great right do a little wrong, + And curb this cruel devil of his will. + PORTIA. It must not be; there is no power in Venice + Can alter a decree established; + 'Twill be recorded for a precedent, + And many an error, by the same example, + Will rush into the state; it cannot be. + SHYLOCK. A Daniel come to judgment! Yea, a Daniel! + O wise young judge, how I do honour thee! + PORTIA. I pray you, let me look upon the bond. + SHYLOCK. Here 'tis, most reverend Doctor; here it is. + PORTIA. Shylock, there's thrice thy money off'red thee. + SHYLOCK. An oath, an oath! I have an oath in heaven. + Shall I lay perjury upon my soul? + No, not for Venice. + PORTIA. Why, this bond is forfeit; + And lawfully by this the Jew may claim + A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off + Nearest the merchant's heart. Be merciful. + Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond. + SHYLOCK. When it is paid according to the tenour. + It doth appear you are a worthy judge; + You know the law; your exposition + Hath been most sound; I charge you by the law, + Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar, + Proceed to judgment. By my soul I swear + There is no power in the tongue of man + To alter me. I stay here on my bond. + ANTONIO. Most heartily I do beseech the court + To give the judgment. + PORTIA. Why then, thus it is: + You must prepare your bosom for his knife. + SHYLOCK. O noble judge! O excellent young man! + PORTIA. For the intent and purpose of the law + Hath full relation to the penalty, + Which here appeareth due upon the bond. + SHYLOCK. 'Tis very true. O wise and upright judge, + How much more elder art thou than thy looks! + PORTIA. Therefore, lay bare your bosom. + SHYLOCK. Ay, his breast- + So says the bond; doth it not, noble judge? + 'Nearest his heart,' those are the very words. + PORTIA. It is so. Are there balance here to weigh + The flesh? + SHYLOCK. I have them ready. + PORTIA. Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge, + To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death. + SHYLOCK. Is it so nominated in the bond? + PORTIA. It is not so express'd, but what of that? + 'Twere good you do so much for charity. + SHYLOCK. I cannot find it; 'tis not in the bond. + PORTIA. You, merchant, have you anything to say? + ANTONIO. But little: I am arm'd and well prepar'd. + Give me your hand, Bassanio; fare you well. + Grieve not that I am fall'n to this for you, + For herein Fortune shows herself more kind + Than is her custom. It is still her use + To let the wretched man outlive his wealth, + To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow + An age of poverty; from which ling'ring penance + Of such misery doth she cut me off. + Commend me to your honourable wife; + Tell her the process of Antonio's end; + Say how I lov'd you; speak me fair in death; + And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge + Whether Bassanio had not once a love. + Repent but you that you shall lose your friend, + And he repents not that he pays your debt; + For if the Jew do cut but deep enough, + I'll pay it instantly with all my heart. + BASSANIO. Antonio, I am married to a wife + Which is as dear to me as life itself; + But life itself, my wife, and all the world, + Are not with me esteem'd above thy life; + I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all + Here to this devil, to deliver you. + PORTIA. Your wife would give you little thanks for that, + If she were by to hear you make the offer. + GRATIANO. I have a wife who I protest I love; + I would she were in heaven, so she could + Entreat some power to change this currish Jew. + NERISSA. 'Tis well you offer it behind her back; + The wish would make else an unquiet house. + SHYLOCK. [Aside] These be the Christian husbands! I have a + daughter- + Would any of the stock of Barrabas + Had been her husband, rather than a Christian!- + We trifle time; I pray thee pursue sentence. + PORTIA. A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine. + The court awards it and the law doth give it. + SHYLOCK. Most rightful judge! + PORTIA. And you must cut this flesh from off his breast. + The law allows it and the court awards it. + SHYLOCK. Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare. + PORTIA. Tarry a little; there is something else. + This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood: + The words expressly are 'a pound of flesh.' + Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh; + But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed + One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods + Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate + Unto the state of Venice. + GRATIANO. O upright judge! Mark, Jew. O learned judge! + SHYLOCK. Is that the law? + PORTIA. Thyself shalt see the act; + For, as thou urgest justice, be assur'd + Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desir'st. + GRATIANO. O learned judge! Mark, Jew. A learned judge! + SHYLOCK. I take this offer then: pay the bond thrice, + And let the Christian go. + BASSANIO. Here is the money. + PORTIA. Soft! + The Jew shall have all justice. Soft! No haste. + He shall have nothing but the penalty. + GRATIANO. O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge! + PORTIA. Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh. + Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more + But just a pound of flesh; if thou tak'st more + Or less than a just pound- be it but so much + As makes it light or heavy in the substance, + Or the division of the twentieth part + Of one poor scruple; nay, if the scale do turn + But in the estimation of a hair- + Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate. + GRATIANO. A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew! + Now, infidel, I have you on the hip. + PORTIA. Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture. + SHYLOCK. Give me my principal, and let me go. + BASSANIO. I have it ready for thee; here it is. + PORTIA. He hath refus'd it in the open court; + He shall have merely justice, and his bond. + GRATIANO. A Daniel still say I, a second Daniel! + I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word. + SHYLOCK. Shall I not have barely my principal? + PORTIA. Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture + To be so taken at thy peril, Jew. + SHYLOCK. Why, then the devil give him good of it! + I'll stay no longer question. + PORTIA. Tarry, Jew. + The law hath yet another hold on you. + It is enacted in the laws of Venice, + If it be proved against an alien + That by direct or indirect attempts + He seek the life of any citizen, + The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive + Shall seize one half his goods; the other half + Comes to the privy coffer of the state; + And the offender's life lies in the mercy + Of the Duke only, 'gainst all other voice. + In which predicament, I say, thou stand'st; + For it appears by manifest proceeding + That indirectly, and directly too, + Thou hast contrived against the very life + Of the defendant; and thou hast incurr'd + The danger formerly by me rehears'd. + Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the Duke. + GRATIANO. Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself; + And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state, + Thou hast not left the value of a cord; + Therefore thou must be hang'd at the state's charge. + DUKE OF VENICE. That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit, + I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it. + For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's; + The other half comes to the general state, + Which humbleness may drive unto a fine. + PORTIA. Ay, for the state; not for Antonio. + SHYLOCK. Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that. + You take my house when you do take the prop + That doth sustain my house; you take my life + When you do take the means whereby I live. + PORTIA. What mercy can you render him, Antonio? + GRATIANO. A halter gratis; nothing else, for God's sake! + ANTONIO. So please my lord the Duke and all the court + To quit the fine for one half of his goods; + I am content, so he will let me have + The other half in use, to render it + Upon his death unto the gentleman + That lately stole his daughter- + Two things provided more; that, for this favour, + He presently become a Christian; + The other, that he do record a gift, + Here in the court, of all he dies possess'd + Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter. + DUKE OF VENICE. He shall do this, or else I do recant + The pardon that I late pronounced here. + PORTIA. Art thou contented, Jew? What dost thou say? + SHYLOCK. I am content. + PORTIA. Clerk, draw a deed of gift. + SHYLOCK. I pray you, give me leave to go from hence; + I am not well; send the deed after me + And I will sign it. + DUKE OF VENICE. Get thee gone, but do it. + GRATIANO. In christ'ning shalt thou have two god-fathers; + Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more, + To bring thee to the gallows, not to the font. + Exit SHYLOCK + DUKE OF VENICE. Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner. + PORTIA. I humbly do desire your Grace of pardon; + I must away this night toward Padua, + And it is meet I presently set forth. + DUKE OF VENICE. I am sorry that your leisure serves you not. + Antonio, gratify this gentleman, + For in my mind you are much bound to him. + Exeunt DUKE, MAGNIFICOES, and train + BASSANIO. Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend + Have by your wisdom been this day acquitted + Of grievous penalties; in lieu whereof + Three thousand ducats, due unto the Jew, + We freely cope your courteous pains withal. + ANTONIO. And stand indebted, over and above, + In love and service to you evermore. + PORTIA. He is well paid that is well satisfied, + And I, delivering you, am satisfied, + And therein do account myself well paid. + My mind was never yet more mercenary. + I pray you, know me when we meet again; + I wish you well, and so I take my leave. + BASSANIO. Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further; + Take some remembrance of us, as a tribute, + Not as fee. Grant me two things, I pray you, + Not to deny me, and to pardon me. + PORTIA. You press me far, and therefore I will yield. + [To ANTONIO] Give me your gloves, I'll wear them for your sake. + [To BASSANIO] And, for your love, I'll take this ring from you. + Do not draw back your hand; I'll take no more, + And you in love shall not deny me this. + BASSANIO. This ring, good sir- alas, it is a trifle; + I will not shame myself to give you this. + PORTIA. I will have nothing else but only this; + And now, methinks, I have a mind to it. + BASSANIO.. There's more depends on this than on the value. + The dearest ring in Venice will I give you, + And find it out by proclamation; + Only for this, I pray you, pardon me. + PORTIA. I see, sir, you are liberal in offers; + You taught me first to beg, and now, methinks, + You teach me how a beggar should be answer'd. + BASSANIO. Good sir, this ring was given me by my wife; + And, when she put it on, she made me vow + That I should neither sell, nor give, nor lose it. + PORTIA. That 'scuse serves many men to save their gifts. + And if your wife be not a mad woman, + And know how well I have deserv'd this ring, + She would not hold out enemy for ever + For giving it to me. Well, peace be with you! + Exeunt PORTIA and NERISSA + ANTONIO. My Lord Bassanio, let him have the ring. + Let his deservings, and my love withal, + Be valued 'gainst your wife's commandment. + BASSANIO. Go, Gratiano, run and overtake him; + Give him the ring, and bring him, if thou canst, + Unto Antonio's house. Away, make haste. Exit GRATIANO + Come, you and I will thither presently; + And in the morning early will we both + Fly toward Belmont. Come, Antonio. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Venice. A street + +Enter PORTIA and NERISSA + + PORTIA. Inquire the Jew's house out, give him this deed, + And let him sign it; we'll away tonight, + And be a day before our husbands home. + This deed will be well welcome to Lorenzo. + + Enter GRATIANO + + GRATIANO. Fair sir, you are well o'erta'en. + My Lord Bassanio, upon more advice, + Hath sent you here this ring, and doth entreat + Your company at dinner. + PORTIA. That cannot be. + His ring I do accept most thankfully, + And so, I pray you, tell him. Furthermore, + I pray you show my youth old Shylock's house. + GRATIANO. That will I do. + NERISSA. Sir, I would speak with you. + [Aside to PORTIA] I'll See if I can get my husband's ring, + Which I did make him swear to keep for ever. + PORTIA. [To NERISSA] Thou Mayst, I warrant. We shall have old + swearing + That they did give the rings away to men; + But we'll outface them, and outswear them too. + [Aloud] Away, make haste, thou know'st where I will tarry. + NERISSA. Come, good sir, will you show me to this house? + Exeunt + + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Belmont. The garden before PORTIA'S house + +Enter LORENZO and JESSICA + + LORENZO. The moon shines bright. In such a night as this, + When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees, + And they did make no noise- in such a night, + Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls, + And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents, + Where Cressid lay that night. + JESSICA. In such a night + Did Thisby fearfully o'ertrip the dew, + And saw the lion's shadow ere himself, + And ran dismayed away. + LORENZO. In such a night + Stood Dido with a willow in her hand + Upon the wild sea-banks, and waft her love + To come again to Carthage. + JESSICA. In such a night + Medea gathered the enchanted herbs + That did renew old AEson. + LORENZO. In such a night + Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew, + And with an unthrift love did run from Venice + As far as Belmont. + JESSICA. In such a night + Did young Lorenzo swear he lov'd her well, + Stealing her soul with many vows of faith, + And ne'er a true one. + LORENZO. In such a night + Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew, + Slander her love, and he forgave it her. + JESSICA. I would out-night you, did no body come; + But, hark, I hear the footing of a man. + + Enter STEPHANO + + LORENZO. Who comes so fast in silence of the night? + STEPHANO. A friend. + LORENZO. A friend! What friend? Your name, I pray you, friend? + STEPHANO. Stephano is my name, and I bring word + My mistress will before the break of day + Be here at Belmont; she doth stray about + By holy crosses, where she kneels and prays + For happy wedlock hours. + LORENZO. Who comes with her? + STEPHANO. None but a holy hermit and her maid. + I pray you, is my master yet return'd? + LORENZO. He is not, nor we have not heard from him. + But go we in, I pray thee, Jessica, + And ceremoniously let us prepare + Some welcome for the mistress of the house. + + Enter LAUNCELOT + + LAUNCELOT. Sola, sola! wo ha, ho! sola, sola! + LORENZO. Who calls? + LAUNCELOT. Sola! Did you see Master Lorenzo? Master Lorenzo! Sola, + sola! + LORENZO. Leave holloaing, man. Here! + LAUNCELOT. Sola! Where, where? + LORENZO. Here! + LAUNCELOT. Tell him there's a post come from my master with his + horn full of good news; my master will be here ere morning. + Exit + LORENZO. Sweet soul, let's in, and there expect their coming. + And yet no matter- why should we go in? + My friend Stephano, signify, I pray you, + Within the house, your mistress is at hand; + And bring your music forth into the air. Exit STEPHANO + How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! + Here will we sit and let the sounds of music + Creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night + Become the touches of sweet harmony. + Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven + Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold; + There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st + But in his motion like an angel sings, + Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubins; + Such harmony is in immortal souls, + But whilst this muddy vesture of decay + Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. + + Enter MUSICIANS + + Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn; + With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear. + And draw her home with music. [Music] + JESSICA. I am never merry when I hear sweet music. + LORENZO. The reason is your spirits are attentive; + For do but note a wild and wanton herd, + Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, + Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud, + Which is the hot condition of their blood- + If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound, + Or any air of music touch their ears, + You shall perceive them make a mutual stand, + Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze + By the sweet power of music. Therefore the poet + Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods; + Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage, + But music for the time doth change his nature. + The man that hath no music in himself, + Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds, + Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; + The motions of his spirit are dull:as night, + And his affections dark as Erebus. + Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music. + + Enter PORTIA and NERISSA + + PORTIA. That light we see is burning in my hall. + How far that little candle throws his beams! + So shines a good deed in a naughty world. + NERISSA. When the moon shone, we did not see the candle. + PORTIA. So doth the greater glory dim the less: + A substitute shines brightly as a king + Until a king be by, and then his state + Empties itself, as doth an inland brook + Into the main of waters. Music! hark! + NERISSA. It is your music, madam, of the house. + PORTIA. Nothing is good, I see, without respect; + Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day. + NERISSA. Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam. + PORTIA. The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark + When neither is attended; and I think + ne nightingale, if she should sing by day, + When every goose is cackling, would be thought + No better a musician than the wren. + How many things by season season'd are + To their right praise and true perfection! + Peace, ho! The moon sleeps with Endymion, + And would not be awak'd. [Music ceases] + LORENZO. That is the voice, + Or I am much deceiv'd, of Portia. + PORTIA. He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo, + By the bad voice. + LORENZO. Dear lady, welcome home. + PORTIA. We have been praying for our husbands' welfare, + Which speed, we hope, the better for our words. + Are they return'd? + LORENZO. Madam, they are not yet; + But there is come a messenger before, + To signify their coming. + PORTIA.. Go in, Nerissa; + Give order to my servants that they take + No note at all of our being absent hence; + Nor you, Lorenzo; Jessica, nor you. [A tucket sounds] + LORENZO. Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet. + We are no tell-tales, madam, fear you not. + PORTIA. This night methinks is but the daylight sick; + It looks a little paler; 'tis a day + Such as the day is when the sun is hid. + + Enter BASSANIO, ANTONIO, GRATIANO, and their followers + + BASSANIO. We should hold day with the Antipodes, + If you would walk in absence of the sun. + PORTIA. Let me give light, but let me not be light, + For a light wife doth make a heavy husband, + And never be Bassanio so for me; + But God sort all! You are welcome home, my lord. + BASSANIO. I thank you, madam; give welcome to my friend. + This is the man, this is Antonio, + To whom I am so infinitely bound. + PORTIA. You should in all sense be much bound to him, + For, as I hear, he was much bound for you. + ANTONIO. No more than I am well acquitted of. + PORTIA. Sir, you are very welcome to our house. + It must appear in other ways than words, + Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy. + GRATIANO. [To NERISSA] By yonder moon I swear you do me wrong; + In faith, I gave it to the judge's clerk. + Would he were gelt that had it, for my part, + Since you do take it, love, so much at heart. + PORTIA. A quarrel, ho, already! What's the matter? + GRATIANO. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring + That she did give me, whose posy was + For all the world like cutler's poetry + Upon a knife, 'Love me, and leave me not.' + NERISSA. What talk you of the posy or the value? + You swore to me, when I did give it you, + That you would wear it till your hour of death, + And that it should lie with you in your grave; + Though not for me, yet for your vehement oaths, + You should have been respective and have kept it. + Gave it a judge's clerk! No, God's my judge, + The clerk will ne'er wear hair on's face that had it. + GRATIANO. He will, an if he live to be a man. + NERISSA. Ay, if a woman live to be a man. + GRATIANO. Now by this hand I gave it to a youth, + A kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy + No higher than thyself, the judge's clerk; + A prating boy that begg'd it as a fee; + I could not for my heart deny it him. + PORTIA. You were to blame, I must be plain with you, + To part so slightly with your wife's first gift, + A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger + And so riveted with faith unto your flesh. + I gave my love a ring, and made him swear + Never to part with it, and here he stands; + I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it + Nor pluck it from his finger for the wealth + That the world masters. Now, in faith, Gratiano, + You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief; + An 'twere to me, I should be mad at it. + BASSANIO. [Aside] Why, I were best to cut my left hand off, + And swear I lost the ring defending it. + GRATIANO. My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away + Unto the judge that begg'd it, and indeed + Deserv'd it too; and then the boy, his clerk, + That took some pains in writing, he begg'd mine; + And neither man nor master would take aught + But the two rings. + PORTIA. What ring gave you, my lord? + Not that, I hope, which you receiv'd of me. + BASSANIO. If I could add a lie unto a fault, + I would deny it; but you see my finger + Hath not the ring upon it; it is gone. + PORTIA. Even so void is your false heart of truth; + By heaven, I will ne'er come in your bed + Until I see the ring. + NERISSA. Nor I in yours + Till I again see mine. + BASSANIO. Sweet Portia, + If you did know to whom I gave the ring, + If you did know for whom I gave the ring, + And would conceive for what I gave the ring, + And how unwillingly I left the ring, + When nought would be accepted but the ring, + You would abate the strength of your displeasure. + PORTIA. If you had known the virtue of the ring, + Or half her worthiness that gave the ring, + Or your own honour to contain the ring, + You would not then have parted with the ring. + What man is there so much unreasonable, + If you had pleas'd to have defended it + With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty + To urge the thing held as a ceremony? + Nerissa teaches me what to believe: + I'll die for't but some woman had the ring. + BASSANIO. No, by my honour, madam, by my soul, + No woman had it, but a civil doctor, + Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me, + And begg'd the ring; the which I did deny him, + And suffer'd him to go displeas'd away- + Even he that had held up the very life + Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady? + I was enforc'd to send it after him; + I was beset with shame and courtesy; + My honour would not let ingratitude + So much besmear it. Pardon me, good lady; + For by these blessed candles of the night, + Had you been there, I think you would have begg'd + The ring of me to give the worthy doctor. + PORTIA. Let not that doctor e'er come near my house; + Since he hath got the jewel that I loved, + And that which you did swear to keep for me, + I will become as liberal as you; + I'll not deny him anything I have, + No, not my body, nor my husband's bed. + Know him I shall, I am well sure of it. + Lie not a night from home; watch me like Argus; + If you do not, if I be left alone, + Now, by mine honour which is yet mine own, + I'll have that doctor for mine bedfellow. + NERISSA. And I his clerk; therefore be well advis'd + How you do leave me to mine own protection. + GRATIANO. Well, do you so, let not me take him then; + For, if I do, I'll mar the young clerk's pen. + ANTONIO. I am th' unhappy subject of these quarrels. + PORTIA. Sir, grieve not you; you are welcome not withstanding. + BASSANIO. Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong; + And in the hearing of these many friends + I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes, + Wherein I see myself- + PORTIA. Mark you but that! + In both my eyes he doubly sees himself, + In each eye one; swear by your double self, + And there's an oath of credit. + BASSANIO. Nay, but hear me. + Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear + I never more will break an oath with thee. + ANTONIO. I once did lend my body for his wealth, + Which, but for him that had your husband's ring, + Had quite miscarried; I dare be bound again, + My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord + Will never more break faith advisedly. + PORTIA. Then you shall be his surety. Give him this, + And bid him keep it better than the other. + ANTONIO. Here, Lord Bassanio, swear to keep this ring. + BASSANIO. By heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor! + PORTIA. I had it of him. Pardon me, Bassanio, + For, by this ring, the doctor lay with me. + NERISSA. And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano, + For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk, + In lieu of this, last night did lie with me. + GRATIANO. Why, this is like the mending of highways + In summer, where the ways are fair enough. + What, are we cuckolds ere we have deserv'd it? + PORTIA. Speak not so grossly. You are all amaz'd. + Here is a letter; read it at your leisure; + It comes from Padua, from Bellario; + There you shall find that Portia was the doctor, + Nerissa there her clerk. Lorenzo here + Shall witness I set forth as soon as you, + And even but now return'd; I have not yet + Enter'd my house. Antonio, you are welcome; + And I have better news in store for you + Than you expect. Unseal this letter soon; + There you shall find three of your argosies + Are richly come to harbour suddenly. + You shall not know by what strange accident + I chanced on this letter. + ANTONIO. I am dumb. + BASSANIO. Were you the doctor, and I knew you not? + GRATIANO. Were you the clerk that is to make me cuckold? + NERISSA. Ay, but the clerk that never means to do it, + Unless he live until he be a man. + BASSANIO. Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow; + When I am absent, then lie with my wife. + ANTONIO. Sweet lady, you have given me life and living; + For here I read for certain that my ships + Are safely come to road. + PORTIA. How now, Lorenzo! + My clerk hath some good comforts too for you. + NERISSA. Ay, and I'll give them him without a fee. + There do I give to you and Jessica, + From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift, + After his death, of all he dies possess'd of. + LORENZO. Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way + Of starved people. + PORTIA. It is almost morning, + And yet I am sure you are not satisfied + Of these events at full. Let us go in, + And charge us there upon inter'gatories, + And we will answer all things faithfully. + GRATIANO. Let it be so. The first inter'gatory + That my Nerissa shall be sworn on is, + Whether till the next night she had rather stay, + Or go to bed now, being two hours to day. + But were the day come, I should wish it dark, + Till I were couching with the doctor's clerk. + Well, while I live, I'll fear no other thing + So sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring. Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1601 + +THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + SIR JOHN FALSTAFF + FENTON, a young gentleman + SHALLOW, a country justice + SLENDER, cousin to Shallow + + Gentlemen of Windsor + FORD + PAGE + WILLIAM PAGE, a boy, son to Page + SIR HUGH EVANS, a Welsh parson + DOCTOR CAIUS, a French physician + HOST of the Garter Inn + + Followers of Falstaff + BARDOLPH + PISTOL + NYM + ROBIN, page to Falstaff + SIMPLE, servant to Slender + RUGBY, servant to Doctor Caius + + MISTRESS FORD + MISTRESS PAGE + MISTRESS ANNE PAGE, her daughter + MISTRESS QUICKLY, servant to Doctor Caius + SERVANTS to Page, Ford, etc. + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +Windsor, and the neighbourhood + + +The Merry Wives of Windsor + + + +ACT I. SCENE 1. + +Windsor. Before PAGE'S house + +Enter JUSTICE SHALLOW, SLENDER, and SIR HUGH EVANS + + SHALLOW. Sir Hugh, persuade me not; I will make a Star + Chamber matter of it; if he were twenty Sir John Falstaffs, + he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, esquire. + SLENDER. In the county of Gloucester, Justice of Peace, and + Coram. + SHALLOW. Ay, cousin Slender, and Custalorum. + SLENDER. Ay, and Ratolorum too; and a gentleman born, + Master Parson, who writes himself 'Armigero' in any bill, + warrant, quittance, or obligation-'Armigero.' + SHALLOW. Ay, that I do; and have done any time these three + hundred years. + SLENDER. All his successors, gone before him, hath done't; + and all his ancestors, that come after him, may: they may + give the dozen white luces in their coat. + SHALLOW. It is an old coat. + EVANS. The dozen white louses do become an old coat well; + it agrees well, passant; it is a familiar beast to man, and + signifies love. + SHALLOW. The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old + coat. + SLENDER. I may quarter, coz. + SHALLOW. You may, by marrying. + EVANS. It is marring indeed, if he quarter it. + SHALLOW. Not a whit. + EVANS. Yes, py'r lady! If he has a quarter of your coat, there + is but three skirts for yourself, in my simple conjectures; + but that is all one. If Sir John Falstaff have committed + disparagements unto you, I am of the church, and will be + glad to do my benevolence, to make atonements and + compremises between you. + SHALLOW. The Council shall hear it; it is a riot. + EVANS. It is not meet the Council hear a riot; there is no + fear of Got in a riot; the Council, look you, shall desire + to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot; take your + vizaments in that. + SHALLOW. Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, the sword + should end it. + EVANS. It is petter that friends is the sword and end it; + and there is also another device in my prain, which + peradventure prings goot discretions with it. There is Anne + Page, which is daughter to Master George Page, which is + pretty virginity. + SLENDER. Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and + speaks small like a woman. + EVANS. It is that fery person for all the orld, as just as you + will desire; and seven hundred pounds of moneys, and + gold, and silver, is her grandsire upon his death's-bed-Got + deliver to a joyful resurrections!-give, when she is able to + overtake seventeen years old. It were a goot motion if we + leave our pribbles and prabbles, and desire a marriage + between Master Abraham and Mistress Anne Page. + SHALLOW. Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound? + EVANS. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. + SHALLOW. I know the young gentlewoman; she has good + gifts. + EVANS. Seven hundred pounds, and possibilities, is goot gifts. + SHALLOW. Well, let us see honest Master Page. Is Falstaff + there? + EVANS. Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar as I do + despise one that is false; or as I despise one that is not + true. The knight Sir John is there; and, I beseech you, be + ruled by your well-willers. I will peat the door for Master + Page. + [Knocks] What, hoa! Got pless your house here! + PAGE. [Within] Who's there? + + Enter PAGE + + EVANS. Here is Got's plessing, and your friend, and Justice + Shallow; and here young Master Slender, that peradventures + shall tell you another tale, if matters grow to your + likings. + PAGE. I am glad to see your worships well. I thank you for + my venison, Master Shallow. + SHALLOW. Master Page, I am glad to see you; much good do + it your good heart! I wish'd your venison better; it was ill + kill'd. How doth good Mistress Page?-and I thank you + always with my heart, la! with my heart. + PAGE. Sir, I thank you. + SHALLOW. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do. + PAGE. I am glad to see you, good Master Slender. + SLENDER. How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say + he was outrun on Cotsall. + PAGE. It could not be judg'd, sir. + SLENDER. You'll not confess, you'll not confess. + SHALLOW. That he will not. 'Tis your fault; 'tis your fault; + 'tis a good dog. + PAGE. A cur, sir. + SHALLOW. Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog. Can there be + more said? He is good, and fair. Is Sir John Falstaff here? + PAGE. Sir, he is within; and I would I could do a good office + between you. + EVANS. It is spoke as a Christians ought to speak. + SHALLOW. He hath wrong'd me, Master Page. + PAGE. Sir, he doth in some sort confess it. + SHALLOW. If it be confessed, it is not redressed; is not that + so, Master Page? He hath wrong'd me; indeed he hath; at a + word, he hath, believe me; Robert Shallow, esquire, saith + he is wronged. + PAGE. Here comes Sir John. + + Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, NYM, and PISTOL + + FALSTAFF. Now, Master Shallow, you'll complain of me to + the King? + SHALLOW. Knight, you have beaten my men, kill'd my deer, + and broke open my lodge. + FALSTAFF. But not kiss'd your keeper's daughter. + SHALLOW. Tut, a pin! this shall be answer'd. + FALSTAFF. I will answer it straight: I have done all this. + That is now answer'd. + SHALLOW. The Council shall know this. + FALSTAFF. 'Twere better for you if it were known in counsel: + you'll be laugh'd at. + EVANS. Pauca verba, Sir John; goot worts. + FALSTAFF. Good worts! good cabbage! Slender, I broke your + head; what matter have you against me? + SLENDER. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you; + and against your cony-catching rascals, Bardolph, Nym, + and Pistol. They carried me to the tavern, and made me + drunk, and afterwards pick'd my pocket. + BARDOLPH. You Banbury cheese! + SLENDER. Ay, it is no matter. + PISTOL. How now, Mephostophilus! + SLENDER. Ay, it is no matter. + NYM. Slice, I say! pauca, pauca; slice! That's my humour. + SLENDER. Where's Simple, my man? Can you tell, cousin? + EVANS. Peace, I pray you. Now let us understand. There is + three umpires in this matter, as I understand: that is, + Master Page, fidelicet Master Page; and there is myself, + fidelicet myself; and the three party is, lastly and + finally, mine host of the Garter. + PAGE. We three to hear it and end it between them. + EVANS. Fery goot. I will make a prief of it in my note-book; + and we will afterwards ork upon the cause with as great + discreetly as we can. + FALSTAFF. Pistol! + PISTOL. He hears with ears. + EVANS. The tevil and his tam! What phrase is this, 'He hears + with ear'? Why, it is affectations. + FALSTAFF. Pistol, did you pick Master Slender's purse? + SLENDER. Ay, by these gloves, did he-or I would I might + never come in mine own great chamber again else!-of + seven groats in mill-sixpences, and two Edward + shovel-boards that cost me two shilling and two pence apiece + of Yead Miller, by these gloves. + FALSTAFF. Is this true, Pistol? + EVANS. No, it is false, if it is a pick-purse. + PISTOL. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner! Sir John and master + mine, + I combat challenge of this latten bilbo. + Word of denial in thy labras here! + Word of denial! Froth and scum, thou liest. + SLENDER. By these gloves, then, 'twas he. + NYM. Be avis'd, sir, and pass good humours; I will say + 'marry trap' with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on + me; that is the very note of it. + SLENDER. By this hat, then, he in the red face had it; for + though I cannot remember what I did when you made me + drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass. + FALSTAFF. What say you, Scarlet and John? + BARDOLPH. Why, sir, for my part, I say the gentleman had + drunk himself out of his five sentences. + EVANS. It is his five senses; fie, what the ignorance is! + BARDOLPH. And being fap, sir, was, as they say, cashier'd; + and so conclusions pass'd the careers. + SLENDER. Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter; + I'll ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest, + civil, godly company, for this trick. If I be drunk, I'll be + drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with + drunken knaves. + EVANS. So Got udge me, that is a virtuous mind. + FALSTAFF. You hear all these matters deni'd, gentlemen; you + hear it. + + Enter MISTRESS ANNE PAGE with wine; MISTRESS + FORD and MISTRESS PAGE, following + + PAGE. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. + Exit ANNE PAGE + SLENDER. O heaven! this is Mistress Anne Page. + PAGE. How now, Mistress Ford! + FALSTAFF. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well + met; by your leave, good mistress. [Kisses her] + PAGE. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome. Come, we have a + hot venison pasty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we + shall drink down all unkindness. + Exeunt all but SHALLOW, SLENDER, and EVANS + SLENDER. I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book of + Songs and Sonnets here. + + Enter SIMPLE + + How, Simple! Where have you been? I must wait on + myself, must I? You have not the Book of Riddles about you, + have you? + SIMPLE. Book of Riddles! Why, did you not lend it to Alice + Shortcake upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore + Michaelmas? + SHALLOW. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word + with you, coz; marry, this, coz: there is, as 'twere, a + tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh here. Do + you understand me? + SLENDER. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I + shall do that that is reason. + SHALLOW. Nay, but understand me. + SLENDER. So I do, sir. + EVANS. Give ear to his motions: Master Slender, I will + description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it. + SLENDER. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow says; I pray + you pardon me; he's a justice of peace in his country, + simple though I stand here. + EVANS. But that is not the question. The question is + concerning your marriage. + SHALLOW. Ay, there's the point, sir. + EVANS. Marry is it; the very point of it; to Mistress Anne + Page. + SLENDER. Why, if it be so, I will marry her upon any + reasonable demands. + EVANS. But can you affection the oman? Let us command to + know that of your mouth or of your lips; for divers philosophers + hold that the lips is parcel of the mouth. Therefore, + precisely, can you carry your good will to the maid? + SHALLOW. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her? + SLENDER. I hope, sir, I will do as it shall become one that + would do reason. + EVANS. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies! you must speak possitable, + if you can carry her your desires towards her. + SHALLOW. That you must. Will you, upon good dowry, + marry her? + SLENDER. I will do a greater thing than that upon your request, + cousin, in any reason. + SHALLOW. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz; what + I do is to pleasure you, coz. Can you love the maid? + SLENDER. I will marry her, sir, at your request; but if there + be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease + it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and + have more occasion to know one another. I hope upon + familiarity will grow more contempt. But if you say + 'marry her,' I will marry her; that I am freely dissolved, + and dissolutely. + EVANS. It is a fery discretion answer, save the fall is in the + ord 'dissolutely': the ort is, according to our meaning, + 'resolutely'; his meaning is good. + SHALLOW. Ay, I think my cousin meant well. + SLENDER. Ay, or else I would I might be hang'd, la! + + Re-enter ANNE PAGE + + SHALLOW. Here comes fair Mistress Anne. Would I were + young for your sake, Mistress Anne! + ANNE. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your + worships' company. + SHALLOW. I will wait on him, fair Mistress Anne! + EVANS. Od's plessed will! I will not be absence at the grace. + Exeunt SHALLOW and EVANS + ANNE. Will't please your worship to come in, sir? + SLENDER. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily; I am very + well. + ANNE. The dinner attends you, sir. + SLENDER. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth. Go, + sirrah, for all you are my man, go wait upon my cousin + Shallow. [Exit SIMPLE] A justice of peace sometime may + be beholding to his friend for a man. I keep but three men + and a boy yet, till my mother be dead. But what though? + Yet I live like a poor gentleman born. + ANNE. I may not go in without your worship; they will not + sit till you come. + SLENDER. I' faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as + though I did. + ANNE. I pray you, sir, walk in. + SLENDER. I had rather walk here, I thank you. I bruis'd my + shin th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with + a master of fence-three veneys for a dish of stew'd prunes + -and, I with my ward defending my head, he hot my shin, + and, by my troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot meat + since. Why do your dogs bark so? Be there bears i' th' + town? + ANNE. I think there are, sir; I heard them talk'd of. + SLENDER. I love the sport well; but I shall as soon quarrel at + it as any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the + bear loose, are you not? + ANNE. Ay, indeed, sir. + SLENDER. That's meat and drink to me now. I have seen + Sackerson loose twenty times, and have taken him by the + chain; but I warrant you, the women have so cried and + shriek'd at it that it pass'd; but women, indeed, cannot + abide 'em; they are very ill-favour'd rough things. + + Re-enter PAGE + + PAGE. Come, gentle Master Slender, come; we stay for you. + SLENDER. I'll eat nothing, I thank you, sir. + PAGE. By cock and pie, you shall not choose, sir! Come, + come. + SLENDER. Nay, pray you lead the way. + PAGE. Come on, sir. + SLENDER. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first. + ANNE. Not I, sir; pray you keep on. + SLENDER. Truly, I will not go first; truly, la! I will not do + you that wrong. + ANNE. I pray you, sir. + SLENDER. I'll rather be unmannerly than troublesome. You + do yourself wrong indeed, la! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. + +Before PAGE'S house + +Enter SIR HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE + + EVANS. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius' house which + is the way; and there dwells one Mistress Quickly, which + is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, + or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer. + SIMPLE. Well, sir. + EVANS. Nay, it is petter yet. Give her this letter; for it is a + oman that altogether's acquaintance with Mistress Anne + Page; and the letter is to desire and require her to solicit + your master's desires to Mistress Anne Page. I pray you + be gone. I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins + and cheese to come. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. + +The Garter Inn + +Enter FALSTAFF, HOST, BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, and ROBIN + + FALSTAFF. Mine host of the Garter! + HOST. What says my bully rook? Speak scholarly and + wisely. + FALSTAFF. Truly, mine host, I must turn away some of my + followers. + HOST. Discard, bully Hercules; cashier; let them wag; trot, + trot. + FALSTAFF. I sit at ten pounds a week. + HOST. Thou'rt an emperor-Caesar, Keiser, and Pheazar. I + will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap; said I + well, bully Hector? + FALSTAFF. Do so, good mine host. + HOST. I have spoke; let him follow. [To BARDOLPH] Let me + see thee froth and lime. I am at a word; follow. Exit HOST + FALSTAFF. Bardolph, follow him. A tapster is a good trade; + an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd serving-man a + fresh tapster. Go; adieu. + BARDOLPH. It is a life that I have desir'd; I will thrive. + PISTOL. O base Hungarian wight! Wilt thou the spigot + wield? Exit BARDOLPH + NYM. He was gotten in drink. Is not the humour conceited? + FALSTAFF. I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box: his + thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskilful + singer-he kept not time. + NYM. The good humour is to steal at a minute's rest. + PISTOL. 'Convey' the wise it call. 'Steal' foh! A fico for the + phrase! + FALSTAFF. Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels. + PISTOL. Why, then, let kibes ensue. + FALSTAFF. There is no remedy; I must cony-catch; I must + shift. + PISTOL. Young ravens must have food. + FALSTAFF. Which of you know Ford of this town? + PISTOL. I ken the wight; he is of substance good. + FALSTAFF. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about. + PISTOL. Two yards, and more. + FALSTAFF. No quips now, Pistol. Indeed, I am in the waist + two yards about; but I am now about no waste; I am about + thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife; I + spy entertainment in her; she discourses, she carves, she + gives the leer of invitation; I can construe the action of her + familiar style; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be + English'd rightly, is 'I am Sir John Falstaff's.' + PISTOL. He hath studied her well, and translated her will out + of honesty into English. + NYM. The anchor is deep; will that humour pass? + FALSTAFF. Now, the report goes she has all the rule of her + husband's purse; he hath a legion of angels. + PISTOL. As many devils entertain; and 'To her, boy,' say I. + NYM. The humour rises; it is good; humour me the angels. + FALSTAFF. I have writ me here a letter to her; and here + another to Page's wife, who even now gave me good eyes + too, examin'd my parts with most judicious oeillades; + sometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, sometimes my + portly belly. + PISTOL. Then did the sun on dunghill shine. + NYM. I thank thee for that humour. + FALSTAFF. O, she did so course o'er my exteriors with such + a greedy intention that the appetite of her eye did seem to + scorch me up like a burning-glass! Here's another letter to + her. She bears the purse too; she is a region in Guiana, all + gold and bounty. I will be cheaters to them both, and they + shall be exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West + Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this + letter to Mistress Page; and thou this to Mistress Ford. We + will thrive, lads, we will thrive. + PISTOL. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, + And by my side wear steel? Then Lucifer take all! + NYM. I will run no base humour. Here, take the + humour-letter; I will keep the haviour of reputation. + FALSTAFF. [To ROBIN] Hold, sirrah; bear you these letters + tightly; + Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores. + Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go; + Trudge, plod away i' th' hoof; seek shelter, pack! + Falstaff will learn the humour of the age; + French thrift, you rogues; myself, and skirted page. + Exeunt FALSTAFF and ROBIN + PISTOL. Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd and fullam + holds, + And high and low beguiles the rich and poor; + Tester I'll have in pouch when thou shalt lack, + Base Phrygian Turk! + NYM. I have operations in my head which be humours of + revenge. + PISTOL. Wilt thou revenge? + NYM. By welkin and her star! + PISTOL. With wit or steel? + NYM. With both the humours, I. + I will discuss the humour of this love to Page. + PISTOL. And I to Ford shall eke unfold + How Falstaff, varlet vile, + His dove will prove, his gold will hold, + And his soft couch defile. + NYM. My humour shall not cool; I will incense Page to deal + with poison; I will possess him with yellowness; for the + revolt of mine is dangerous. That is my true humour. + PISTOL. Thou art the Mars of malcontents; I second thee; + troop on. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. + +DOCTOR CAIUS'S house + +Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY, SIMPLE, and RUGBY + + QUICKLY. What, John Rugby! I pray thee go to the casement + and see if you can see my master, Master Doctor + Caius, coming. If he do, i' faith, and find anybody in the + house, here will be an old abusing of God's patience and + the King's English. + RUGBY. I'll go watch. + QUICKLY. Go; and we'll have a posset for't soon at night, in + faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire. [Exit RUGBY] An + honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in + house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale nor no + breed-bate; his worst fault is that he is given to prayer; he is + something peevish that way; but nobody but has his fault; + but let that pass. Peter Simple you say your name is? + SIMPLE. Ay, for fault of a better. + QUICKLY. And Master Slender's your master? + SIMPLE. Ay, forsooth. + QUICKLY. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a + glover's paring-knife? + SIMPLE. No, forsooth; he hath but a little whey face, with a + little yellow beard, a Cain-colour'd beard. + QUICKLY. A softly-sprighted man, is he not? + SIMPLE. Ay, forsooth; but he is as tall a man of his hands as + any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a + warrener. + QUICKLY. How say you? O, I should remember him. Does + he not hold up his head, as it were, and strut in his gait? + SIMPLE. Yes, indeed, does he. + QUICKLY. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune! + Tell Master Parson Evans I will do what I can for your + master. Anne is a good girl, and I wish- + + Re-enter RUGBY + + RUGBY. Out, alas! here comes my master. + QUICKLY. We shall all be shent. Run in here, good young + man; go into this closet. [Shuts SIMPLE in the closet] He + will not stay long. What, John Rugby! John! what, John, + I say! Go, John, go inquire for my master; I doubt he be + not well that he comes not home. [Singing] + And down, down, adown-a, etc. + + Enter DOCTOR CAIUS + + CAIUS. Vat is you sing? I do not like des toys. Pray you, go + and vetch me in my closet un boitier vert-a box, a green-a + box. Do intend vat I speak? A green-a box. + QUICKLY. Ay, forsooth, I'll fetch it you. [Aside] I am glad + he went not in himself; if he had found the young man, + he would have been horn-mad. + CAIUS. Fe, fe, fe fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. Je m'en vais a + la cour-la grande affaire. + QUICKLY. Is it this, sir? + CAIUS. Oui; mette le au mon pocket: depeche, quickly. Vere + is dat knave, Rugby? + QUICKLY. What, John Rugby? John! + RUGBY. Here, sir. + CAIUS. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby. + Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to the + court. + RUGBY. 'Tis ready, sir, here in the porch. + CAIUS. By my trot, I tarry too long. Od's me! Qu'ai j'oublie? + Dere is some simples in my closet dat I vill not for the + varld I shall leave behind. + QUICKLY. Ay me, he'll find the young man there, and be + mad! + CAIUS. O diable, diable! vat is in my closet? Villainy! larron! + [Pulling SIMPLE out] Rugby, my rapier! + QUICKLY. Good master, be content. + CAIUS. Wherefore shall I be content-a? + QUICKLY. The young man is an honest man. + CAIUS. What shall de honest man do in my closet? Dere is + no honest man dat shall come in my closet. + QUICKLY. I beseech you, be not so phlegmatic; hear the + truth of it. He came of an errand to me from Parson Hugh. + CAIUS. Vell? + SIMPLE. Ay, forsooth, to desire her to- + QUICKLY. Peace, I pray you. + CAIUS. Peace-a your tongue. Speak-a your tale. + SIMPLE. To desire this honest gentlewoman, your maid, to + speak a good word to Mistress Anne Page for my master, + in the way of marriage. + QUICKLY. This is all, indeed, la! but I'll ne'er put my finger + in the fire, and need not. + CAIUS. Sir Hugh send-a you? Rugby, baillez me some paper. + Tarry you a little-a-while. [Writes] + QUICKLY. [Aside to SIMPLE] I am glad he is so quiet; if he + had been throughly moved, you should have heard him + so loud and so melancholy. But notwithstanding, man, I'll + do you your master what good I can; and the very yea and + the no is, the French doctor, my master-I may call him + my master, look you, for I keep his house; and I wash, + wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the + beds, and do all myself- + SIMPLE. [Aside to QUICKLY] 'Tis a great charge to come + under one body's hand. + QUICKLY. [Aside to SIMPLE] Are you avis'd o' that? You + shall find it a great charge; and to be up early and down + late; but notwithstanding-to tell you in your ear, I would + have no words of it-my master himself is in love with + Mistress Anne Page; but notwithstanding that, I know + Anne's mind-that's neither here nor there. + CAIUS. You jack'nape; give-a this letter to Sir Hugh; by gar, + it is a shallenge; I will cut his troat in de park; and I will + teach a scurvy jack-a-nape priest to meddle or make. You + may be gone; it is not good you tarry here. By gar, I will + cut all his two stones; by gar, he shall not have a stone + to throw at his dog. Exit SIMPLE + QUICKLY. Alas, he speaks but for his friend. + CAIUS. It is no matter-a ver dat. Do not you tell-a me dat I + shall have Anne Page for myself? By gar, I vill kill de Jack + priest; and I have appointed mine host of de Jarteer to + measure our weapon. By gar, I will myself have Anne + Page. + QUICKLY. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be well. We + must give folks leave to prate. What the good-year! + CAIUS. Rugby, come to the court with me. By gar, if I have + not Anne Page, I shall turn your head out of my door. + Follow my heels, Rugby. Exeunt CAIUS and RUGBY + QUICKLY. You shall have-An fool's-head of your own. No, + I know Anne's mind for that; never a woman in Windsor + knows more of Anne's mind than I do; nor can do more + than I do with her, I thank heaven. + FENTON. [Within] Who's within there? ho! + QUICKLY. Who's there, I trow? Come near the house, I pray + you. + + Enter FENTON + + FENTON. How now, good woman, how dost thou? + QUICKLY. The better that it pleases your good worship to + ask. + FENTON. What news? How does pretty Mistress Anne? + QUICKLY. In truth, sir, and she is pretty, and honest, and + gentle; and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by + the way; I praise heaven for it. + FENTON. Shall I do any good, think'st thou? Shall I not lose + my suit? + QUICKLY. Troth, sir, all is in His hands above; but + notwithstanding, Master Fenton, I'll be sworn on a book + she loves you. Have not your worship a wart above your eye? + FENTON. Yes, marry, have I; what of that? + QUICKLY. Well, thereby hangs a tale; good faith, it is such + another Nan; but, I detest, an honest maid as ever broke + bread. We had an hour's talk of that wart; I shall never + laugh but in that maid's company! But, indeed, she is + given too much to allicholy and musing; but for you-well, + go to. + FENTON. Well, I shall see her to-day. Hold, there's money + for thee; let me have thy voice in my behalf. If thou seest + her before me, commend me. + QUICKLY. Will I? I' faith, that we will; and I will tell your + worship more of the wart the next time we have confidence; + and of other wooers. + FENTON. Well, farewell; I am in great haste now. + QUICKLY. Farewell to your worship. [Exit FENTON] Truly, + an honest gentleman; but Anne loves him not; for I know + Anne's mind as well as another does. Out upon 't, what + have I forgot? Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE 1. + +Before PAGE'S house + +Enter MISTRESS PAGE, with a letter + + MRS. PAGE. What! have I scap'd love-letters in the holiday-time + of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them? Let + me see. [Reads] + 'Ask me no reason why I love you; for though Love use + Reason for his precisian, he admits him not for his counsellor. + You are not young, no more am I; go to, then, there's + sympathy. You are merry, so am I; ha! ha! then there's + more sympathy. You love sack, and so do I; would you + desire better sympathy? Let it suffice thee, Mistress Page + at the least, if the love of soldier can suffice-that I love + thee. I will not say, Pity me: 'tis not a soldier-like phrase; + but I say, Love me. By me, + Thine own true knight, + By day or night, + Or any kind of light, + With all his might, + For thee to fight, + JOHN FALSTAFF.' + What a Herod of Jewry is this! O wicked, wicked world! + One that is well-nigh worn to pieces with age to show + himself a young gallant! What an unweighed behaviour + hath this Flemish drunkard pick'd-with the devil's name! + -out of my conversation, that he dares in this manner + assay me? Why, he hath not been thrice in my company! + What should I say to him? I was then frugal of my mirth. + Heaven forgive me! Why, I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament + for the putting down of men. How shall I be + reveng'd on him? for reveng'd I will be, as sure as his guts + are made of puddings. + + Enter MISTRESS FORD + + MRS. FORD. Mistress Page! trust me, I was going to your + house. + MRS. PAGE. And, trust me, I was coming to you. You look + very ill. + MRS. FORD. Nay, I'll ne'er believe that; I have to show to + the contrary. + MRS. PAGE. Faith, but you do, in my mind. + MRS. FORD. Well, I do, then; yet, I say, I could show you to + the contrary. O Mistress Page, give me some counsel. + MRS. PAGE. What's the matter, woman? + MRS. FORD. O woman, if it were not for one trifling respect, + I could come to such honour! + MRS. PAGE. Hang the trifle, woman; take the honour. What + is it? Dispense with trifles; what is it? + MRS. FORD. If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment + or so, I could be knighted. + MRS. PAGE. What? Thou liest. Sir Alice Ford! These knights + will hack; and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy + gentry. + MRS. FORD. We burn daylight. Here, read, read; perceive + how I might be knighted. I shall think the worse of fat + men as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's + liking. And yet he would not swear; prais'd women's + modesty, and gave such orderly and well-behaved reproof + to all uncomeliness that I would have sworn his disposition + would have gone to the truth of his words; but they do no + more adhere and keep place together than the Hundredth + Psalm to the tune of 'Greensleeves.' What tempest, I trow, + threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in his belly, + ashore at Windsor? How shall I be revenged on him? I + think the best way were to entertain him with hope, till + the wicked fire of lust have melted him in his own grease. + Did you ever hear the like? + MRS. PAGE. Letter for letter, but that the name of Page and + Ford differs. To thy great comfort in this mystery of ill + opinions, here's the twin-brother of thy letter; but let thine + inherit first, for, I protest, mine never shall. I warrant he + hath a thousand of these letters, writ with blank space for + different names-sure, more!-and these are of the second + edition. He will print them, out of doubt; for he cares not + what he puts into the press when he would put us two. I + had rather be a giantess and lie under Mount Pelion. Well, + I will find you twenty lascivious turtles ere one chaste + man. + MRS. FORD. Why, this is the very same; the very hand, the + very words. What doth he think of us? + MRS. PAGE. Nay, I know not; it makes me almost ready to + wrangle with mine own honesty. I'll entertain myself like + one that I am not acquainted withal; for, sure, unless he + know some strain in me that I know not myself, he would + never have boarded me in this fury. + MRS. FORD. 'Boarding' call you it? I'll be sure to keep him + above deck. + MRS. PAGE. So will I; if he come under my hatches, I'll never + to sea again. Let's be reveng'd on him; let's appoint him a + meeting, give him a show of comfort in his suit, and lead + him on with a fine-baited delay, till he hath pawn'd his + horses to mine host of the Garter. + MRS. FORD. Nay, I will consent to act any villainy against + him that may not sully the chariness of our honesty. O + that my husband saw this letter! It would give eternal food + to his jealousy. + MRS. PAGE. Why, look where he comes; and my good man + too; he's as far from jealousy as I am from giving him + cause; and that, I hope, is an unmeasurable distance. + MRS. FORD. You are the happier woman. + MRS. PAGE. Let's consult together against this greasy knight. + Come hither. [They retire] + + Enter FORD with PISTOL, and PAGE with Nym + + FORD. Well, I hope it be not so. + PISTOL. Hope is a curtal dog in some affairs. + Sir John affects thy wife. + FORD. Why, sir, my wife is not young. + PISTOL. He woos both high and low, both rich and poor, + Both young and old, one with another, Ford; + He loves the gallimaufry. Ford, perpend. + FORD. Love my wife! + PISTOL. With liver burning hot. Prevent, or go thou, + Like Sir Actaeon he, with Ringwood at thy heels. + O, odious is the name! + FORD. What name, sir? + PISTOL. The horn, I say. Farewell. + Take heed, have open eye, for thieves do foot by night; + Take heed, ere summer comes, or cuckoo birds do sing. + Away, Sir Corporal Nym. + Believe it, Page; he speaks sense. Exit PISTOL + FORD. [Aside] I will be patient; I will find out this. + NYM. [To PAGE] And this is true; I like not the humour of + lying. He hath wronged me in some humours; I should + have borne the humour'd letter to her; but I have a sword, + and it shall bite upon my necessity. He loves your wife; + there's the short and the long. + My name is Corporal Nym; I speak, and I avouch; + 'Tis true. My name is Nym, and Falstaff loves your wife. + Adieu! I love not the humour of bread and cheese; and + there's the humour of it. Adieu. Exit Nym + PAGE. 'The humour of it,' quoth 'a! Here's a fellow frights + English out of his wits. + FORD. I will seek out Falstaff. + PAGE. I never heard such a drawling, affecting rogue. + FORD. If I do find it-well. + PAGE. I will not believe such a Cataian though the priest o' + th' town commended him for a true man. + FORD. 'Twas a good sensible fellow. Well. + + MISTRESS PAGE and MISTRESS FORD come forward + + PAGE. How now, Meg! + MRS. PAGE. Whither go you, George? Hark you. + MRS. FORD. How now, sweet Frank, why art thou melancholy? + FORD. I melancholy! I am not melancholy. Get you home; + go. + MRS. FORD. Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy head now. + Will you go, Mistress Page? + + Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY + + MRS. PAGE. Have with you. You'll come to dinner, George? + [Aside to MRS. FORD] Look who comes yonder; she shall + be our messenger to this paltry knight. + MRS. FORD. [Aside to MRS. PAGE] Trust me, I thought on + her; she'll fit it. + MRS. PAGE. You are come to see my daughter Anne? + QUICKLY. Ay, forsooth; and, I pray, how does good Mistress Anne? + MRS. PAGE. Go in with us and see; we have an hour's talk + with you. Exeunt MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, and + MISTRESS QUICKLY + PAGE. How now, Master Ford! + FORD. You heard what this knave told me, did you not? + PAGE. Yes; and you heard what the other told me? + FORD. Do you think there is truth in them? + PAGE. Hang 'em, slaves! I do not think the knight would offer it; + but these that accuse him in his intent towards our + wives are a yoke of his discarded men; very rogues, now + they be out of service. + FORD. Were they his men? + PAGE. Marry, were they. + FORD. I like it never the better for that. Does he lie at the + Garter? + PAGE. Ay, marry, does he. If he should intend this voyage + toward my wife, I would turn her loose to him; and what + he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head. + FORD. I do not misdoubt my wife; but I would be loath to + turn them together. A man may be too confident. I would + have nothing lie on my head. I cannot be thus satisfied. + + Enter HOST + + PAGE. Look where my ranting host of the Garter comes. + There is either liquor in his pate or money in his purse + when he looks so merrily. How now, mine host! + HOST. How now, bully rook! Thou'rt a gentleman. [To + SHALLOW following] Cavaleiro Justice, I say. + + Enter SHALLOW + + SHALLOW. I follow, mine host, I follow. Good even and + twenty, good Master Page! Master Page, will you go with + us? We have sport in hand. + HOST. Tell him, Cavaleiro Justice; tell him, bully rook. + SHALLOW. Sir, there is a fray to be fought between Sir Hugh + the Welsh priest and Caius the French doctor. + FORD. Good mine host o' th' Garter, a word with you. + HOST. What say'st thou, my bully rook? [They go aside] + SHALLOW. [To PAGE] Will you go with us to behold it? My + merry host hath had the measuring of their weapons; and, + I think, hath appointed them contrary places; for, believe + me, I hear the parson is no jester. Hark, I will tell you + what our sport shall be. [They converse apart] + HOST. Hast thou no suit against my knight, my guest-cavaleiro. + FORD. None, I protest; but I'll give you a pottle of burnt + sack to give me recourse to him, and tell him my name is + Brook-only for a jest. + HOST. My hand, bully; thou shalt have egress and regress- + said I well?-and thy name shall be Brook. It is a merry + knight. Will you go, Mynheers? + SHALLOW. Have with you, mine host. + PAGE. I have heard the Frenchman hath good skill in his + rapier. + SHALLOW. Tut, sir, I could have told you more. In these + times you stand on distance, your passes, stoccadoes, and + I know not what. 'Tis the heart, Master Page; 'tis here, + 'tis here. I have seen the time with my long sword I would + have made you four tall fellows skip like rats. + HOST. Here, boys, here, here! Shall we wag? + PAGE. Have with you. I had rather hear them scold than + fight. Exeunt all but FORD + FORD. Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so firmly on + his wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off my opinion so + easily. She was in his company at Page's house, and what + they made there I know not. Well, I will look further into + 't, and I have a disguise to sound Falstaff. If I find her + honest, I lose not my labour; if she be otherwise, 'tis labour + well bestowed. Exit + + + + +SCENE 2. + +A room in the Garter Inn + +Enter FALSTAFF and PISTOL + + FALSTAFF. I will not lend thee a penny. + PISTOL. I will retort the sum in equipage. + FALSTAFF. Not a penny. + PISTOL. Why, then the world's mine oyster. Which I with + sword will open. + FALSTAFF. Not a penny. I have been content, sir, you should + lay my countenance to pawn. I have grated upon my good + friends for three reprieves for you and your coach-fellow, + Nym; or else you had look'd through the grate, like a + geminy of baboons. I am damn'd in hell for swearing to + gentlemen my friends you were good soldiers and tall fellows; + and when Mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan, + I took 't upon mine honour thou hadst it not. + PISTOL. Didst not thou share? Hadst thou not fifteen pence? + FALSTAFF. Reason, you rogue, reason. Think'st thou I'll + endanger my soul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me, + I am no gibbet for you. Go-a short knife and a throng!- + to your manor of Pickt-hatch; go. You'll not bear a letter + for me, you rogue! You stand upon your honour! Why, + thou unconfinable baseness, it is as much as I can do to + keep the terms of my honour precise. I, I, I myself + sometimes, leaving the fear of God on the left hand, and hiding + mine honour in my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge, + and to lurch; and yet you, rogue, will ensconce your rags, + your cat-a-mountain looks, your red-lattice phrases, and + your bold-beating oaths, under the shelter of your honour! + You will not do it, you! + PISTOL. I do relent; what would thou more of man? + + Enter ROBIN + + ROBIN. Sir, here's a woman would speak with you. + FALSTAFF. Let her approach. + + Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY + + QUICKLY. Give your worship good morrow. + FALSTAFF. Good morrow, good wife. + QUICKLY. Not so, an't please your worship. + FALSTAFF. Good maid, then. + QUICKLY. I'll be sworn; + As my mother was, the first hour I was born. + FALSTAFF. I do believe the swearer. What with me? + QUICKLY. Shall I vouchsafe your worship a word or two? + FALSTAFF. Two thousand, fair woman; and I'll vouchsafe + thee the hearing. + QUICKLY. There is one Mistress Ford, sir-I pray, come a little + nearer this ways. I myself dwell with Master Doctor + Caius. + FALSTAFF. Well, on: Mistress Ford, you say- + QUICKLY. Your worship says very true. I pray your worship + come a little nearer this ways. + FALSTAFF. I warrant thee nobody hears-mine own people, + mine own people. + QUICKLY. Are they so? God bless them, and make them his + servants! + FALSTAFF. Well; Mistress Ford, what of her? + QUICKLY. Why, sir, she's a good creature. Lord, Lord, your + worship's a wanton! Well, heaven forgive you, and all of + us, I pray. + FALSTAFF. Mistress Ford; come, Mistress Ford- + QUICKLY. Marry, this is the short and the long of it: you + have brought her into such a canaries as 'tis wonderful. + The best courtier of them all, when the court lay at Windsor, + could never have brought her to such a canary. Yet + there has been knights, and lords, and gentlemen, with + their coaches; I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after + letter, gift after gift; smelling so sweetly, all musk, and so + rushling, I warrant you, in silk and gold; and in such alligant + terms; and in such wine and sugar of the best and the + fairest, that would have won any woman's heart; and I + warrant you, they could never get an eye-wink of her. + I had myself twenty angels given me this morning; but I + defy all angels, in any such sort, as they say, but in the + way of honesty; and, I warrant you, they could never get + her so much as sip on a cup with the proudest of them all; + and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, + pensioners; but, I warrant you, all is one with her. + FALSTAFF. But what says she to me? Be brief, my good she- + Mercury. + QUICKLY. Marry, she hath receiv'd your letter; for the + which she thanks you a thousand times; and she gives you + to notify that her husband will be absence from his house + between ten and eleven. + FALSTAFF. Ten and eleven? + QUICKLY. Ay, forsooth; and then you may come and see + the picture, she says, that you wot of. Master Ford, her + husband, will be from home. Alas, the sweet woman leads + an ill life with him! He's a very jealousy man; she leads a + very frampold life with him, good heart. + FALSTAFF. Ten and eleven. Woman, commend me to her; I + will not fail her. + QUICKLY. Why, you say well. But I have another messenger + to your worship. Mistress Page hath her hearty commendations + to you too; and let me tell you in your ear, she's as + fartuous a civil modest wife, and one, I tell you, that will + not miss you morning nor evening prayer, as any is in + Windsor, whoe'er be the other; and she bade me tell your + worship that her husband is seldom from home, but she + hopes there will come a time. I never knew a woman so + dote upon a man: surely I think you have charms, la! Yes, + in truth. + FALSTAFF. Not I, I assure thee; setting the attraction of my + good parts aside, I have no other charms. + QUICKLY. Blessing on your heart for 't! + FALSTAFF. But, I pray thee, tell me this: has Ford's wife and + Page's wife acquainted each other how they love me? + QUICKLY. That were a jest indeed! They have not so little + grace, I hope-that were a trick indeed! But Mistress Page + would desire you to send her your little page of all loves. + Her husband has a marvellous infection to the little page; + and truly Master Page is an honest man. Never a wife in + Windsor leads a better life than she does; do what she will, + say what she will, take all, pay all, go to bed when she + list, rise when she list, all is as she will; and truly she + deserves it; for if there be a kind woman in Windsor, she + is one. You must send her your page; no remedy. + FALSTAFF. Why, I will. + QUICKLY. Nay, but do so then; and, look you, he may come + and go between you both; and in any case have a + nay-word, that you may know one another's mind, and the boy + never need to understand any thing; for 'tis not good that + children should know any wickedness. Old folks, you + know, have discretion, as they say, and know the world. + FALSTAFF. Fare thee well; commend me to them both. + There's my purse; I am yet thy debtor. Boy, go along with + this woman. [Exeunt QUICKLY and ROBIN] This news + distracts me. + PISTOL. [Aside] This punk is one of Cupid's carriers; + Clap on more sails; pursue; up with your fights; + Give fire; she is my prize, or ocean whelm them all! Exit + FALSTAFF. Say'st thou so, old Jack; go thy ways; I'll make + more of thy old body than I have done. Will they yet look + after thee? Wilt thou, after the expense of so much money, + be now a gainer? Good body, I thank thee. Let them say + 'tis grossly done; so it be fairly done, no matter. + + Enter BARDOLPH + + BARDOLPH. Sir John, there's one Master Brook below would + fain speak with you, and be acquainted with you; and hath + sent your worship a moming's draught of sack. + FALSTAFF. Brook is his name? + BARDOLPH. Ay, sir. + FALSTAFF. Call him in. [Exit BARDOLPH] Such Brooks are + welcome to me, that o'erflows such liquor. Ah, ha! Mistress + Ford and Mistress Page, have I encompass'd you? Go to; + via! + + Re-enter BARDOLPH, with FORD disguised + + FORD. Bless you, sir! + FALSTAFF. And you, sir! Would you speak with me? + FORD. I make bold to press with so little preparation upon + you. + FALSTAFF. You're welcome. What's your will? Give us leave, + drawer. Exit BARDOLPH + FORD. Sir, I am a gentleman that have spent much; my name + is Brook. + FALSTAFF. Good Master Brook, I desire more acquaintance + of you. + FORD. Good Sir John, I sue for yours-not to charge you; for I + must let you understand I think myself in better plight for + a lender than you are; the which hath something + embold'ned me to this unseason'd intrusion; for they say, if + money go before, all ways do lie open. + FALSTAFF. Money is a good soldier, sir, and will on. + FORD. Troth, and I have a bag of money here troubles me; if + you will help to bear it, Sir John, take all, or half, for easing + me of the carriage. + FALSTAFF. Sir, I know not how I may deserve to be your + porter. + FORD. I will tell you, sir, if you will give me the hearing. + FALSTAFF. Speak, good Master Brook; I shall be glad to be + your servant. + FORD. Sir, I hear you are a scholar-I will be brief with you + -and you have been a man long known to me, though I + had never so good means as desire to make myself acquainted + with you. I shall discover a thing to you, wherein + I must very much lay open mine own imperfection; but, + good Sir John, as you have one eye upon my follies, as you + hear them unfolded, turn another into the register of your + own, that I may pass with a reproof the easier, sith you + yourself know how easy is it to be such an offender. + FALSTAFF. Very well, sir; proceed. + FORD. There is a gentlewoman in this town, her husband's + name is Ford. + FALSTAFF. Well, sir. + FORD. I have long lov'd her, and, I protest to you, bestowed + much on her; followed her with a doting observance; + engross'd opportunities to meet her; fee'd every slight occasion + that could but niggardly give me sight of her; not + only bought many presents to give her, but have given + largely to many to know what she would have given; + briefly, I have pursu'd her as love hath pursued me; which + hath been on the wing of all occasions. But whatsoever I + have merited, either in my mind or in my means, meed, I + am sure, I have received none, unless experience be a jewel; + that I have purchased at an infinite rate, and that hath + taught me to say this: + 'Love like a shadow flies when substance love pursues; + Pursuing that that flies, and flying what pursues.' + FALSTAFF. Have you receiv'd no promise of satisfaction at + her hands? + FORD. Never. + FALSTAFF. Have you importun'd her to such a purpose? + FORD. Never. + FALSTAFF. Of what quality was your love, then? + FORD. Like a fair house built on another man's ground; so + that I have lost my edifice by mistaking the place where + erected it. + FALSTAFF. To what purpose have you unfolded this to me? + FORD. When I have told you that, I have told you all. Some + say that though she appear honest to me, yet in other + places she enlargeth her mirth so far that there is shrewd + construction made of her. Now, Sir John, here is the heart + of my purpose: you are a gentleman of excellent + breeding, admirable discourse, of great admittance, authentic in + your place and person, generally allow'd for your many + war-like, courtlike, and learned preparations. + FALSTAFF. O, sir! + FORD. Believe it, for you know it. There is money; spend it, + spend it; spend more; spend all I have; only give me so + much of your time in exchange of it as to lay an amiable + siege to the honesty of this Ford's wife; use your art of + wooing, win her to consent to you; if any man may, you + may as soon as any. + FALSTAFF. Would it apply well to the vehemency of your + affection, that I should win what you would enjoy? + Methinks you prescribe to yourself very preposterously. + FORD. O, understand my drift. She dwells so securely on the + excellency of her honour that the folly of my soul dares + not present itself; she is too bright to be look'd against. + Now, could I come to her with any detection in my hand, + my desires had instance and argument to commend themselves; + I could drive her then from the ward of her purity, + her reputation, her marriage vow, and a thousand other her + defences, which now are too too strongly embattl'd against + me. What say you to't, Sir John? + FALSTAFF. Master Brook, I will first make bold with your + money; next, give me your hand; and last, as I am a gentleman, + you shall, if you will, enjoy Ford's wife. + FORD. O good sir! + FALSTAFF. I say you shall. + FORD. Want no money, Sir John; you shall want none. + FALSTAFF. Want no Mistress Ford, Master Brook; you shall + want none. I shall be with her, I may tell you, by her own + appointment; even as you came in to me her assistant, or + go-between, parted from me; I say I shall be with her between + ten and eleven; for at that time the jealous rascally + knave, her husband, will be forth. Come you to me at + night; you shall know how I speed. + FORD. I am blest in your acquaintance. Do you know Ford, + Sir? + FALSTAFF. Hang him, poor cuckoldly knave! I know him + not; yet I wrong him to call him poor; they say the + jealous wittolly knave hath masses of money; for the which + his wife seems to me well-favour'd. I will use her as the + key of the cuckoldly rogue's coffer; and there's my harvest-home. + FORD. I would you knew Ford, sir, that you might avoid him + if you saw him. + FALSTAFF. Hang him, mechanical salt-butter rogue! I will + stare him out of his wits; I will awe him with my cudgel; + it shall hang like a meteor o'er the cuckold's horns. Master + Brook, thou shalt know I will predominate over the + peasant, and thou shalt lie with his wife. Come to me soon at + night. Ford's a knave, and I will aggravate his style; thou, + Master Brook, shalt know him for knave and cuckold. + Come to me soon at night. Exit + FORD. What a damn'd Epicurean rascal is this! My heart is + ready to crack with impatience. Who says this is improvident + jealousy? My wife hath sent to him; the hour is fix'd; + the match is made. Would any man have thought this? See + the hell of having a false woman! My bed shall be abus'd, + my coffers ransack'd, my reputation gnawn at; and I shall + not only receive this villainous wrong, but stand under the + adoption of abominable terms, and by him that does me + this wrong. Terms! names! Amaimon sounds well; Lucifer, + well; Barbason, well; yet they are devils' additions, the names + of fiends. But cuckold! Wittol! Cuckold! the devil himself + hath not such a name. Page is an ass, a secure ass; he will trust + his wife; he will not be jealous; I will rather trust a Fleming + with my butter, Parson Hugh the Welshman with my + cheese, an Irishman with my aqua-vitae bottle, or a thief to + walk my ambling gelding, than my wife with herself. Then + she plots, then she ruminates, then she devises; and what + they think in their hearts they may effect, they will break + their hearts but they will effect. God be prais'd for my + jealousy! Eleven o'clock the hour. I will prevent this, detect + my wife, be reveng'd on Falstaff, and laugh at Page. + I will about it; better three hours too soon than a minute + too late. Fie, fie, fie! cuckold! cuckold! cuckold! Exit + + + + +SCENE 3. + +A field near Windsor + +Enter CAIUS and RUGBY + + CAIUS. Jack Rugby! + RUGBY. Sir? + CAIUS. Vat is de clock, Jack? + RUGBY. 'Tis past the hour, sir, that Sir Hugh promis'd to + meet. + CAIUS. By gar, he has save his soul dat he is no come; he has + pray his Pible well dat he is no come; by gar, Jack Rugby, + he is dead already, if he be come. + RUGBY. He is wise, sir; he knew your worship would kill + him if he came. + CAIUS. By gar, de herring is no dead so as I vill kill him. Take + your rapier, Jack; I vill tell you how I vill kill him. + RUGBY. Alas, sir, I cannot fence! + CAIUS. Villainy, take your rapier. + RUGBY. Forbear; here's company. + + Enter HOST, SHALLOW, SLENDER, and PAGE + + HOST. Bless thee, bully doctor! + SHALLOW. Save you, Master Doctor Caius! + PAGE. Now, good Master Doctor! + SLENDER. Give you good morrow, sir. + CAIUS. Vat be all you, one, two, tree, four, come for? + HOST. To see thee fight, to see thee foin, to see thee traverse; + to see thee here, to see thee there; to see thee pass thy + punto, thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance, thy montant. + Is he dead, my Ethiopian? Is he dead, my Francisco? Ha, + bully! What says my Aesculapius? my Galen? my heart + of elder? Ha! is he dead, bully stale? Is he dead? + CAIUS. By gar, he is de coward Jack priest of de world; he is + not show his face. + HOST. Thou art a Castalion-King-Urinal. Hector of Greece, + my boy! + CAIUS. I pray you, bear witness that me have stay six or + seven, two tree hours for him, and he is no come. + SHALLOW. He is the wiser man, Master Doctor: he is a curer + of souls, and you a curer of bodies; if you should fight, + you go against the hair of your professions. Is it not true, + Master Page? + PAGE. Master Shallow, you have yourself been a great fighter, + though now a man of peace. + SHALLOW. Bodykins, Master Page, though I now be old, and + of the peace, if I see a sword out, my finger itches to make + one. Though we are justices, and doctors, and churchmen, + Master Page, we have some salt of our youth in us; we are + the sons of women, Master Page. + PAGE. 'Tis true, Master Shallow. + SHALLOW. It will be found so, Master Page. Master Doctor + CAIUS, I come to fetch you home. I am sworn of the peace; + you have show'd yourself a wise physician, and Sir Hugh + hath shown himself a wise and patient churchman. You + must go with me, Master Doctor. + HOST. Pardon, Guest Justice. A word, Mounseur Mockwater. + CAIUS. Mock-vater! Vat is dat? + HOST. Mockwater, in our English tongue, is valour, bully. + CAIUS. By gar, then I have as much mockvater as de Englishman. + Scurvy jack-dog priest! By gar, me vill cut his ears. + HOST. He will clapper-claw thee tightly, bully. + CAIUS. Clapper-de-claw! Vat is dat? + HOST. That is, he will make thee amends. + CAIUS. By gar, me do look he shall clapper-de-claw me; for, + by gar, me vill have it. + HOST. And I will provoke him to't, or let him wag. + CAIUS. Me tank you for dat. + HOST. And, moreover, bully-but first: [Aside to the others] + Master Guest, and Master Page, and eke Cavaleiro Slender, + go you through the town to Frogmore. + PAGE. [Aside] Sir Hugh is there, is he? + HOST. [Aside] He is there. See what humour he is in; and + I will bring the doctor about by the fields. Will it do well? + SHALLOW. [Aside] We will do it. + PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER. Adieu, good Master Doctor. + Exeunt PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER + CAIUS. By gar, me vill kill de priest; for he speak for a jack- + an-ape to Anne Page. + HOST. Let him die. Sheathe thy impatience; throw cold water + on thy choler; go about the fields with me through Frogmore; + I will bring thee where Mistress Anne Page is, at a a + farm-house, a-feasting; and thou shalt woo her. Cried + game! Said I well? + CAIUS. By gar, me dank you vor dat; by gar, I love you; and + I shall procure-a you de good guest, de earl, de knight, de + lords, de gentlemen, my patients. + HOST. For the which I will be thy adversary toward Anne + Page. Said I well? + CAIUS. By gar, 'tis good; vell said. + HOST. Let us wag, then. + CAIUS. Come at my heels, Jack Rugby. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III SCENE 1. + +A field near Frogmore + +Enter SIR HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE + + EVANS. I pray you now, good Master Slender's serving-man, + and friend Simple by your name, which way have you + look'd for Master Caius, that calls himself Doctor of + Physic? + SIMPLE. Marry, sir, the pittie-ward, the park-ward; every + way; old Windsor way, and every way but the town way. + EVANS. I most fehemently desire you you will also look that + way. + SIMPLE. I will, Sir. Exit + EVANS. Pless my soul, how full of chollors I am, and trempling + of mind! I shall be glad if he have deceived me. How + melancholies I am! I will knog his urinals about his knave's + costard when I have goot opportunities for the ork. Pless + my soul! [Sings] + To shallow rivers, to whose falls + Melodious birds sings madrigals; + There will we make our peds of roses, + And a thousand fragrant posies. + To shallow- + Mercy on me! I have a great dispositions to cry. [Sings] + Melodious birds sing madrigals- + Whenas I sat in Pabylon- + And a thousand vagram posies. + To shallow, etc. + + Re-enter SIMPLE + + SIMPLE. Yonder he is, coming this way, Sir Hugh. + EVANS. He's welcome. [Sings] + To shallow rivers, to whose falls- + Heaven prosper the right! What weapons is he? + SIMPLE. No weapons, sir. There comes my master, Master + Shallow, and another gentleman, from Frogmore, over the + stile, this way. + EVANS. Pray you give me my gown; or else keep it in your + arms. [Takes out a book] + + Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER + + SHALLOW. How now, Master Parson! Good morrow, good + Sir Hugh. Keep a gamester from the dice, and a good student + from his book, and it is wonderful. + SLENDER. [Aside] Ah, sweet Anne Page! + PAGE. Save you, good Sir Hugh! + EVANS. Pless you from his mercy sake, all of you! + SHALLOW. What, the sword and the word! Do you study + them both, Master Parson? + PAGE. And youthful still, in your doublet and hose, this raw + rheumatic day! + EVANS. There is reasons and causes for it. + PAGE. We are come to you to do a good office, Master + Parson. + EVANS. Fery well; what is it? + PAGE. Yonder is a most reverend gentleman, who, belike having + received wrong by some person, is at most odds with + his own gravity and patience that ever you saw. + SHALLOW. I have lived fourscore years and upward; I never + heard a man of his place, gravity, and learning, so wide of + his own respect. + EVANS. What is he? + PAGE. I think you know him: Master Doctor Caius, the + renowned French physician. + EVANS. Got's will and his passion of my heart! I had as lief + you would tell me of a mess of porridge. + PAGE. Why? + EVANS. He has no more knowledge in Hibocrates and + Galen, and he is a knave besides-a cowardly knave as you + would desires to be acquainted withal. + PAGE. I warrant you, he's the man should fight with him. + SLENDER. [Aside] O sweet Anne Page! + SHALLOW. It appears so, by his weapons. Keep them asunder; + here comes Doctor Caius. + + Enter HOST, CAIUS, and RUGBY + + PAGE. Nay, good Master Parson, keep in your weapon. + SHALLOW. So do you, good Master Doctor. + HOST. Disarm them, and let them question; let them keep + their limbs whole and hack our English. + CAIUS. I pray you, let-a me speak a word with your ear. + Verefore will you not meet-a me? + EVANS. [Aside to CAIUS] Pray you use your patience; in + good time. + CAIUS. By gar, you are de coward, de Jack dog, John ape. + EVANS. [Aside to CAIUS] Pray you, let us not be + laughing-stocks to other men's humours; I desire you in + friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends. + [Aloud] I will knog your urinals about your knave's cogscomb + for missing your meetings and appointments. + CAIUS. Diable! Jack Rugby-mine Host de Jarteer-have I + not stay for him to kill him? Have I not, at de place I did + appoint? + EVANS. As I am a Christians soul, now, look you, this is the + place appointed. I'll be judgment by mine host of the + Garter. + HOST. Peace, I say, Gallia and Gaul, French and Welsh, + soul-curer and body-curer. + CAIUS. Ay, dat is very good! excellent! + HOST. Peace, I say. Hear mine host of the Garter. Am I + politic? am I subtle? am I a Machiavel? Shall I lose my + doctor? No; he gives me the potions and the motions. Shall I + lose my parson, my priest, my Sir Hugh? No; he gives me + the proverbs and the noverbs. Give me thy hand, terrestrial; + so. Give me thy hand, celestial; so. Boys of art, I have + deceiv'd you both; I have directed you to wrong places; + your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole, and let burnt + sack be the issue. Come, lay their swords to pawn. Follow + me, lads of peace; follow, follow, follow. + SHALLOW. Trust me, a mad host. Follow, gentlemen, follow. + SLENDER. [Aside] O sweet Anne Page! + Exeunt all but CAIUS and EVANS + CAIUS. Ha, do I perceive dat? Have you make-a de sot of us, + ha, ha? + EVANS. This is well; he has made us his vlouting-stog. I + desire you that we may be friends; and let us knog our prains + together to be revenge on this same scall, scurvy, cogging + companion, the host of the Garter. + CAIUS. By gar, with all my heart. He promise to bring me + where is Anne Page; by gar, he deceive me too. + EVANS. Well, I will smite his noddles. Pray you follow. + Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE 2. + +The street in Windsor + +Enter MISTRESS PAGE and ROBIN + + MRS. PAGE. Nay, keep your way, little gallant; you were + wont to be a follower, but now you are a leader. Whether + had you rather lead mine eyes, or eye your master's heels? + ROBIN. I had rather, forsooth, go before you like a man than + follow him like a dwarf. + MRS. PAGE. O, you are a flattering boy; now I see you'll be a + courtier. + + Enter FORD + + FORD. Well met, Mistress Page. Whither go you? + MRS. PAGE. Truly, sir, to see your wife. Is she at home? + FORD. Ay; and as idle as she may hang together, for want of + company. I think, if your husbands were dead, you two + would marry. + MRS. PAGE. Be sure of that-two other husbands. + FORD. Where had you this pretty weathercock? + MRS. PAGE. I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my + husband had him of. What do you call your knight's + name, sirrah? + ROBIN. Sir John Falstaff. + FORD. Sir John Falstaff! + MRS. PAGE. He, he; I can never hit on's name. There is such + a league between my good man and he! Is your wife at + home indeed? + FORD. Indeed she is. + MRS. PAGE. By your leave, sir. I am sick till I see her. + Exeunt MRS. PAGE and ROBIN + FORD. Has Page any brains? Hath he any eyes? Hath he any + thinking? Sure, they sleep; he hath no use of them. Why, + this boy will carry a letter twenty mile as easy as a cannon + will shoot pointblank twelve score. He pieces out his wife's + inclination; he gives her folly motion and advantage; and + now she's going to my wife, and Falstaff's boy with her. A + man may hear this show'r sing in the wind. And Falstaff's + boy with her! Good plots! They are laid; and our revolted + wives share damnation together. Well; I will take him, + then torture my wife, pluck the borrowed veil of modesty + from the so seeming Mistress Page, divulge Page himself + for a secure and wilful Actaeon; and to these violent proceedings + all my neighbours shall cry aim. [Clock strikes] + The clock gives me my cue, and my assurance bids me + search; there I shall find Falstaff. I shall be rather prais'd + for this than mock'd; for it is as positive as the earth is firm + that Falstaff is there. I will go. + + Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, SLENDER, HOST, SIR HUGH EVANS, + CAIUS, and RUGBY + + SHALLOW, PAGE, &C. Well met, Master Ford. + FORD. Trust me, a good knot; I have good cheer at home, + and I pray you all go with me. + SHALLOW. I must excuse myself, Master Ford. + SLENDER. And so must I, sir; we have appointed to dine with + Mistress Anne, and I would not break with her for more + money than I'll speak of. + SHALLOW. We have linger'd about a match between Anne + Page and my cousin Slender, and this day we shall have + our answer. + SLENDER. I hope I have your good will, father Page. + PAGE. You have, Master Slender; I stand wholly for you. But + my wife, Master Doctor, is for you altogether. + CAIUS. Ay, be-gar; and de maid is love-a me; my nursh-a + Quickly tell me so mush. + HOST. What say you to young Master Fenton? He capers, + he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks + holiday, he smells April and May; he will carry 't, he will + carry 't; 'tis in his buttons; he will carry 't. + PAGE. Not by my consent, I promise you. The gentleman is + of no having: he kept company with the wild Prince and + Poins; he is of too high a region, he knows too much. No, + he shall not knit a knot in his fortunes with the finger of + my substance; if he take her, let him take her simply; the + wealth I have waits on my consent, and my consent goes + not that way. + FORD. I beseech you, heartily, some of you go home with me + to dinner: besides your cheer, you shall have sport; I will + show you a monster. Master Doctor, you shall go; so shall + you, Master Page; and you, Sir Hugh. + SHALLOW. Well, fare you well; we shall have the freer + wooing at Master Page's. Exeunt SHALLOW and SLENDER + CAIUS. Go home, John Rugby; I come anon. Exit RUGBY + HOST. Farewell, my hearts; I will to my honest knight + Falstaff, and drink canary with him. Exit HOST + FORD. [Aside] I think I shall drink in pipe-wine first with + him. I'll make him dance. Will you go, gentles? + ALL. Have with you to see this monster. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE 3. + +FORD'S house + +Enter MISTRESS FORD and MISTRESS PAGE + + MRS. FORD. What, John! what, Robert! + MRS. PAGE. Quickly, quickly! Is the buck-basket- + MRS. FORD. I warrant. What, Robin, I say! + + Enter SERVANTS with a basket + + MRS. PAGE. Come, come, come. + MRS. FORD. Here, set it down. + MRS. PAGE. Give your men the charge; we must be brief. + MRS. FORD. Marry, as I told you before, John and Robert, be + ready here hard by in the brew-house; and when I suddenly + call you, come forth, and, without any pause or + staggering, take this basket on your shoulders. That done, + trudge with it in all haste, and carry it among the whitsters + in Datchet Mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch + close by the Thames side. + Mrs. PAGE. You will do it? + MRS. FORD. I ha' told them over and over; they lack no + direction. Be gone, and come when you are call'd. + Exeunt SERVANTS + MRS. PAGE. Here comes little Robin. + + Enter ROBIN + + MRS. FORD. How now, my eyas-musket, what news with + you? + ROBIN. My Master Sir John is come in at your back-door, + Mistress Ford, and requests your company. + MRS. PAGE. You little Jack-a-Lent, have you been true to us? + ROBIN. Ay, I'll be sworn. My master knows not of your + being here, and hath threat'ned to put me into everlasting + liberty, if I tell you of it; for he swears he'll turn me away. + MRS. PAGE. Thou 'rt a good boy; this secrecy of thine shall + be a tailor to thee, and shall make thee a new doublet and + hose. I'll go hide me. + MRS. FORD. Do so. Go tell thy master I am alone. [Exit + ROBIN] Mistress Page, remember you your cue. + MRS. PAGE. I warrant thee; if I do not act it, hiss me. + Exit MRS. PAGE + MRS. FORD. Go to, then; we'll use this unwholesome + humidity, this gross wat'ry pumpion; we'll teach him to + know turtles from jays. + + Enter FALSTAFF + + FALSTAFF. Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel? + Why, now let me die, for I have liv'd long enough; this is + the period of my ambition. O this blessed hour! + MRS. FORD. O sweet Sir John! + FALSTAFF. Mistress Ford, I cannot cog, I cannot prate, + Mistress Ford. Now shall I sin in my wish; I would thy + husband were dead; I'll speak it before the best lord, I + would make thee my lady. + MRS. FORD. I your lady, Sir John? Alas, I should be a pitiful + lady. + FALSTAFF. Let the court of France show me such another. I + see how thine eye would emulate the diamond; thou hast + the right arched beauty of the brow that becomes the + ship-tire, the tire-valiant, or any tire of Venetian admittance. + MRS. FORD. A plain kerchief, Sir John; my brows become + nothing else, nor that well neither. + FALSTAFF. By the Lord, thou art a tyrant to say so; thou + wouldst make an absolute courtier, and the firm fixture of + thy foot would give an excellent motion to thy gait in a + semi-circled farthingale. I see what thou wert, if Fortune + thy foe were, not Nature, thy friend. Come, thou canst not + hide it. + MRS. FORD. Believe me, there's no such thing in me. + FALSTAFF. What made me love thee? Let that persuade thee + there's something extra-ordinary in thee. Come, I cannot + cog, and say thou art this and that, like a many of these + lisping hawthorn-buds that come like women in men's + apparel, and smell like Bucklersbury in simple time; I + cannot; but I love thee, none but thee; and thou deserv'st it. + MRS. FORD. Do not betray me, sir; I fear you love Mistress + Page. + FALSTAFF. Thou mightst as well say I love to walk by the + Counter-gate, which is as hateful to me as the reek of a + lime-kiln. + MRS. FORD. Well, heaven knows how I love you; and you + shall one day find it. + FALSTAFF. Keep in that mind; I'll deserve it. + MRS. FORD. Nay, I must tell you, so you do; or else I could + not be in that mind. + ROBIN. [Within] Mistress Ford, Mistress Ford! here's + Mistress Page at the door, sweating and blowing and looking + wildly, and would needs speak with you presently. + FALSTAFF. She shall not see me; I will ensconce me behind + the arras. + MRS. FORD. Pray you, do so; she's a very tattling woman. + [FALSTAFF hides himself] + + Re-enter MISTRESS PAGE and ROBIN + + What's the matter? How now! + MRS. PAGE. O Mistress Ford, what have you done? You're + sham'd, y'are overthrown, y'are undone for ever. + MRS. FORD. What's the matter, good Mistress Page? + MRS. PAGE. O well-a-day, Mistress Ford, having an honest + man to your husband, to give him such cause of suspicion! + MRS. FORD. What cause of suspicion? + MRS. PAGE. What cause of suspicion? Out upon you, how + am I mistook in you! + MRS. FORD. Why, alas, what's the matter? + MRS. PAGE. Your husband's coming hither, woman, with all + the officers in Windsor, to search for a gentleman that he + says is here now in the house, by your consent, to take an + ill advantage of his absence. You are undone. + MRS. FORD. 'Tis not so, I hope. + MRS. PAGE. Pray heaven it be not so that you have such a + man here; but 'tis most certain your husband's coming, + with half Windsor at his heels, to search for such a one. I + come before to tell you. If you know yourself clear, why, + I am glad of it; but if you have a friend here, convey, + convey him out. Be not amaz'd; call all your senses to you; + defend your reputation, or bid farewell to your good life + for ever. + MRS. FORD. What shall I do? There is a gentleman, my dear + friend; and I fear not mine own shame as much as his peril. + I had rather than a thousand pound he were out of the + house. + MRS. PAGE. For shame, never stand 'you had rather' and 'you + had rather'! Your husband's here at hand; bethink you of + some conveyance; in the house you cannot hide him. O, + how have you deceiv'd me! Look, here is a basket; if he be + of any reasonable stature, he may creep in here; and throw + foul linen upon him, as if it were going to bucking, or-it is + whiting-time-send him by your two men to Datchet + Mead. + MRS. FORD. He's too big to go in there. What shall I do? + FALSTAFF. [Coming forward] Let me see 't, let me see 't. O, + let me see 't! I'll in, I'll in; follow your friend's counsel; + I'll in. + MRS. PAGE. What, Sir John Falstaff! [Aside to FALSTAFF] + Are these your letters, knight? + FALSTAFF. [Aside to MRS. PAGE] I love thee and none but + thee; help me away.-Let me creep in here; I'll never- + [Gets into the basket; they cover him with foul linen] + MRS. PAGE. Help to cover your master, boy. Call your men, + Mistress Ford. You dissembling knight! + MRS. FORD. What, John! Robert! John! Exit ROBIN + + Re-enter SERVANTS + + Go, take up these clothes here, quickly; where's the + cowl-staff? Look how you drumble. Carry them to the laundress + in Datchet Mead; quickly, come. + + Enter FORD, PAGE, CAIUS, and SIR HUGH EVANS + + FORD. Pray you come near. If I suspect without cause, why + then make sport at me, then let me be your jest; I deserve + it. How now, whither bear you this? + SERVANT. To the laundress, forsooth. + MRS. FORD. Why, what have you to do whither they bear it? + You were best meddle with buck-washing. + FORD. Buck? I would I could wash myself of the buck! + Buck, buck, buck! ay, buck! I warrant you, buck; and of + the season too, it shall appear. [Exeunt SERVANTS with + basket] Gentlemen, I have dream'd to-night; I'll tell you my + dream. Here, here, here be my keys; ascend my chambers, + search, seek, find out. I'll warrant we'll unkennel the fox. + Let me stop this way first. [Locking the door] So, now + uncape. + PAGE. Good Master Ford, be contented; you wrong yourself + too much. + FORD. True, Master Page. Up, gentlemen, you shall see sport + anon; follow me, gentlemen. Exit + EVANS. This is fery fantastical humours and jealousies. + CAIUS. By gar, 'tis no the fashion of France; it is not jealous + in France. + PAGE. Nay, follow him, gentlemen; see the issue of his + search. Exeunt EVANS, PAGE, and CAIUS + MRS. PAGE. Is there not a double excellency in this? + MRS. FORD. I know not which pleases me better, that my + husband is deceived, or Sir John. + MRS. PAGE. What a taking was he in when your husband + ask'd who was in the basket! + MRS. FORD. I am half afraid he will have need of washing; so + throwing him into the water will do him a benefit. + MRS. PAGE. Hang him, dishonest rascal! I would all of the + same strain were in the same distress. + MRS. FORD. I think my husband hath some special suspicion + of Falstaff's being here, for I never saw him so gross in his + jealousy till now. + MRS. PAGE. I Will lay a plot to try that, and we will yet have + more tricks with Falstaff. His dissolute disease will scarce + obey this medicine. + MRS. FORD. Shall we send that foolish carrion, Mistress + Quickly, to him, and excuse his throwing into the water, + and give him another hope, to betray him to another + punishment? + MRS. PAGE. We will do it; let him be sent for to-morrow + eight o'clock, to have amends. + + Re-enter FORD, PAGE, CAIUS, and SIR HUGH EVANS + + FORD. I cannot find him; may be the knave bragg'd of that + he could not compass. + MRS. PAGE. [Aside to MRS. FORD] Heard you that? + MRS. FORD. You use me well, Master Ford, do you? + FORD. Ay, I do so. + MRS. FORD. Heaven make you better than your thoughts! + FORD. Amen. + MRS. PAGE. You do yourself mighty wrong, Master Ford. + FORD. Ay, ay; I must bear it. + EVANS. If there be any pody in the house, and in the + chambers, and in the coffers, and in the presses, heaven forgive + my sins at the day of judgment! + CAIUS. Be gar, nor I too; there is no bodies. + PAGE. Fie, fie, Master Ford, are you not asham'd? What + spirit, what devil suggests this imagination? I would not ha' + your distemper in this kind for the wealth of Windsor + Castle. + FORD. 'Tis my fault, Master Page; I suffer for it. + EVANS. You suffer for a pad conscience. Your wife is as + honest a omans as I will desires among five thousand, and five + hundred too. + CAIUS. By gar, I see 'tis an honest woman. + FORD. Well, I promis'd you a dinner. Come, come, walk in + the Park. I pray you pardon me; I will hereafter make + known to you why I have done this. Come, wife, come, + Mistress Page; I pray you pardon me; pray heartly, + pardon me. + PAGE. Let's go in, gentlemen; but, trust me, we'll mock him. + I do invite you to-morrow morning to my house to breakfast; + after, we'll a-birding together; I have a fine hawk for + the bush. Shall it be so? + FORD. Any thing. + EVANS. If there is one, I shall make two in the company. + CAIUS. If there be one or two, I shall make-a the turd. + FORD. Pray you go, Master Page. + EVANS. I pray you now, remembrance to-morrow on the + lousy knave, mine host. + CAIUS. Dat is good; by gar, with all my heart. + EVANS. A lousy knave, to have his gibes and his mockeries! + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. + +Before PAGE'S house + +Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE + + FENTON. I see I cannot get thy father's love; + Therefore no more turn me to him, sweet Nan. + ANNE. Alas, how then? + FENTON. Why, thou must be thyself. + He doth object I am too great of birth; + And that, my state being gall'd with my expense, + I seek to heal it only by his wealth. + Besides these, other bars he lays before me, + My riots past, my wild societies; + And tells me 'tis a thing impossible + I should love thee but as a property. + ANNE.. May be he tells you true. + FENTON. No, heaven so speed me in my time to come! + Albeit I will confess thy father's wealth + Was the first motive that I woo'd thee, Anne; + Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value + Than stamps in gold, or sums in sealed bags; + And 'tis the very riches of thyself + That now I aim at. + ANNE. Gentle Master Fenton, + Yet seek my father's love; still seek it, sir. + If opportunity and humblest suit + Cannot attain it, why then-hark you hither. + [They converse apart] + + Enter SHALLOW, SLENDER, and MISTRESS QUICKLY + + SHALLOW. Break their talk, Mistress Quickly; my kinsman + shall speak for himself. + SLENDER. I'll make a shaft or a bolt on 't; 'slid, 'tis but + venturing. + SHALLOW. Be not dismay'd. + SLENDER. No, she shall not dismay me. I care not for that, + but that I am afeard. + QUICKLY. Hark ye, Master Slender would speak a word + with you. + ANNE. I come to him. [Aside] This is my father's choice. + O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults + Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year! + QUICKLY. And how does good Master Fenton? Pray you, a + word with you. + SHALLOW. She's coming; to her, coz. O boy, thou hadst a + father! + SLENDER. I had a father, Mistress Anne; my uncle can tell + you good jests of him. Pray you, uncle, tell Mistress Anne + the jest how my father stole two geese out of a pen, good + uncle. + SHALLOW. Mistress Anne, my cousin loves you. + SLENDER. Ay, that I do; as well as I love any woman in + Gloucestershire. + SHALLOW. He will maintain you like a gentlewoman. + SLENDER. Ay, that I will come cut and longtail, under the + degree of a squire. + SHALLOW. He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds + jointure. + ANNE. Good Master Shallow, let him woo for himself. + SHALLOW. Marry, I thank you for it; I thank you for that + good comfort. She calls you, coz; I'll leave you. + ANNE. Now, Master Slender- + SLENDER. Now, good Mistress Anne- + ANNE. What is your will? + SLENDER. My Will! 'Od's heartlings, that's a pretty jest + indeed! I ne'er made my will yet, I thank heaven; I am not + such a sickly creature, I give heaven praise. + ANNE. I mean, Master Slender, what would you with me? + SLENDER. Truly, for mine own part I would little or nothing + with you. Your father and my uncle hath made motions; + if it be my luck, so; if not, happy man be his dole! They + can tell you how things go better than I can. You may ask + your father; here he comes. + + Enter PAGE and MISTRESS PAGE + + PAGE. Now, Master Slender! Love him, daughter Anne- + Why, how now, what does Master Fenton here? + You wrong me, sir, thus still to haunt my house. + I told you, sir, my daughter is dispos'd of. + FENTON. Nay, Master Page, be not impatient. + MRS. PAGE. Good Master Fenton, come not to my child. + PAGE. She is no match for you. + FENTON. Sir, will you hear me? + PAGE. No, good Master Fenton. + Come, Master Shallow; come, son Slender; in. + Knowing my mind, you wrong me, Master Fenton. + Exeunt PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER + QUICKLY. Speak to Mistress Page. + FENTON. Good Mistress Page, for that I love your daughter + In such a righteous fashion as I do, + Perforce, against all checks, rebukes, and manners, + I must advance the colours of my love, + And not retire. Let me have your good will. + ANNE. Good mother, do not marry me to yond fool. + MRS. PAGE. I mean it not; I seek you a better husband. + QUICKLY. That's my master, Master Doctor. + ANNE. Alas, I had rather be set quick i' th' earth. + And bowl'd to death with turnips. + MRS. PAGE. Come, trouble not yourself. Good Master + Fenton, + I will not be your friend, nor enemy; + My daughter will I question how she loves you, + And as I find her, so am I affected; + Till then, farewell, sir; she must needs go in; + Her father will be angry. + FENTON. Farewell, gentle mistress; farewell, Nan. + Exeunt MRS. PAGE and ANNE + QUICKLY. This is my doing now: 'Nay,' said I 'will you cast + away your child on a fool, and a physician? Look on + Master Fenton.' This is my doing. + FENTON. I thank thee; and I pray thee, once to-night + Give my sweet Nan this ring. There's for thy pains. + QUICKLY. Now Heaven send thee good fortune! [Exit + FENTON] A kind heart he hath; a woman would run through + fire and water for such a kind heart. But yet I would my + master had Mistress Anne; or I would Master Slender had + her; or, in sooth, I would Master Fenton had her; I will + do what I can for them all three, for so I have promis'd, + and I'll be as good as my word; but speciously for Master + Fenton. Well, I must of another errand to Sir John Falstaff + from my two mistresses. What a beast am I to slack it! + Exit + + + + +SCENE 5. + +The Garter Inn + +Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH + + FALSTAFF. Bardolph, I say! + BARDOLPH. Here, sir. + FALSTAFF. Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in 't. + Exit BARDOLPH + Have I liv'd to be carried in a basket, like a barrow of + butcher's offal, and to be thrown in the Thames? Well, if + I be serv'd such another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out + and butter'd, and give them to a dog for a new-year's gift. + The rogues slighted me into the river with as little remorse + as they would have drown'd a blind bitch's puppies, fifteen + i' th' litter; and you may know by my size that I have + a kind of alacrity in sinking; if the bottom were as deep as + hell I should down. I had been drown'd but that the shore + was shelvy and shallow-a death that I abhor; for the water + swells a man; and what a thing should I have been when + had been swell'd! I should have been a mountain of + mummy. + + Re-enter BARDOLPH, with sack + + BARDOLPH. Here's Mistress Quickly, sir, to speak with you + FALSTAFF. Come, let me pour in some sack to the Thames + water; for my belly's as cold as if I had swallow'd + snowballs for pills to cool the reins. Call her in. + BARDOLPH. Come in, woman. + + Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY + + QUICKLY. By your leave; I cry you mercy. Give your + worship good morrow. + FALSTAFF. Take away these chalices. Go, brew me a pottle + of sack finely. + BARDOLPH. With eggs, sir? + FALSTAFF. Simple of itself; I'll no pullet-sperm in my + brewage. [Exit BARDOLPH] How now! + QUICKLY. Marry, sir, I come to your worship from Mistress + Ford. + FALSTAFF. Mistress Ford! I have had ford enough; I was + thrown into the ford; I have my belly full of ford. + QUICKLY. Alas the day, good heart, that was not her fault! + She does so take on with her men; they mistook their + erection. + FALSTAFF. So did I mine, to build upon a foolish woman's + promise. + QUICKLY. Well, she laments, sir, for it, that it would yearn + your heart to see it. Her husband goes this morning + a-birding; she desires you once more to come to her between + eight and nine; I must carry her word quickly. She'll make + you amends, I warrant you. + FALSTAFF. Well, I Will visit her. Tell her so; and bid her + think what a man is. Let her consider his frailty, and then + judge of my merit. + QUICKLY. I will tell her. + FALSTAFF. Do so. Between nine and ten, say'st thou? + QUICKLY. Eight and nine, sir. + FALSTAFF. Well, be gone; I will not miss her. + QUICKLY. Peace be with you, sir. Exit + FALSTAFF. I marvel I hear not of Master Brook; he sent me + word to stay within. I like his money well. O, here he + comes. + + Enter FORD disguised + + FORD. Bless you, sir! + FALSTAFF. Now, Master Brook, you come to know what + hath pass'd between me and Ford's wife? + FORD. That, indeed, Sir John, is my business. + FALSTAFF. Master Brook, I will not lie to you; I was at her + house the hour she appointed me. + FORD. And sped you, sir? + FALSTAFF. Very ill-favouredly, Master Brook. + FORD. How so, sir; did she change her determination? + FALSTAFF. No. Master Brook; but the peaking cornuto her + husband, Master Brook, dwelling in a continual 'larum of + jealousy, comes me in the instant of our, encounter, after + we had embrac'd, kiss'd, protested, and, as it were, spoke + the prologue of our comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his + companions, thither provoked and instigated by his + distemper, and, forsooth, to search his house for his wife's + love. + FORD. What, while you were there? + FALSTAFF. While I was there. + FORD. And did he search for you, and could not find you? + FALSTAFF. You shall hear. As good luck would have it, comes + in one Mistress Page, gives intelligence of Ford's approach; + and, in her invention and Ford's wife's distraction, they + convey'd me into a buck-basket. + FORD. A buck-basket! + FALSTAFF. By the Lord, a buck-basket! Ramm'd me in with + foul shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, greasy + napkins, that, Master Brook, there was the rankest compound + of villainous smell that ever offended nostril. + FORD. And how long lay you there? + FALSTAFF. Nay, you shall hear, Master Brook, what I have + suffer'd to bring this woman to evil for your good. Being + thus cramm'd in the basket, a couple of Ford's knaves, his + hinds, were call'd forth by their mistress to carry me in + the name of foul clothes to Datchet Lane; they took me on + their shoulders; met the jealous knave their master in the + door; who ask'd them once or twice what they had in their + basket. I quak'd for fear lest the lunatic knave would have + search'd it; but Fate, ordaining he should be a cuckold, + held his hand. Well, on went he for a search, and away + went I for foul clothes. But mark the sequel, Master + Brook-I suffered the pangs of three several deaths: first, + an intolerable fright to be detected with a jealous rotten + bell-wether; next, to be compass'd like a good bilbo in the + circumference of a peck, hilt to point, heel to head; and + then, to be stopp'd in, like a strong distillation, with + stinking clothes that fretted in their own grease. Think of that + -a man of my kidney. Think of that-that am as subject to + heat as butter; a man of continual dissolution and thaw. It + was a miracle to scape suffocation. And in the height of + this bath, when I was more than half-stew'd in grease, like + a Dutch dish, to be thrown into the Thames, and cool'd, + glowing hot, in that surge, like a horse-shoe; think of that + -hissing hot. Think of that, Master Brook. + FORD. In good sadness, sir, I am sorry that for my sake you + have suffer'd all this. My suit, then, is desperate; + you'll undertake her no more. + FALSTAFF. Master Brook, I will be thrown into Etna, as I + have been into Thames, ere I will leave her thus. Her + husband is this morning gone a-birding; I have received from + her another embassy of meeting; 'twixt eight and nine is + the hour, Master Brook. + FORD. 'Tis past eight already, sir. + FALSTAFF. Is it? I Will then address me to my appointment. + Come to me at your convenient leisure, and you shall + know how I speed; and the conclusion shall be crowned + with your enjoying her. Adieu. You shall have her, Master + Brook; Master Brook, you shall cuckold Ford. Exit + FORD. Hum! ha! Is this a vision? Is this a dream? Do I sleep? + Master Ford, awake; awake, Master Ford. There's a hole + made in your best coat, Master Ford. This 'tis to be + married; this 'tis to have linen and buck-baskets! Well, I will + proclaim myself what I am; I will now take the lecher; he + is at my house. He cannot scape me; 'tis impossible he + should; he cannot creep into a halfpenny purse nor into + a pepper box. But, lest the devil that guides him should aid + him, I will search impossible places. Though what I am I + cannot avoid, yet to be what I would not shall not make + me tame. If I have horns to make one mad, let the proverb + go with me-I'll be horn mad. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. + +Windsor. A street + +Enter MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS QUICKLY, and WILLIAM + + MRS. PAGE. Is he at Master Ford's already, think'st thou? + QUICKLY. Sure he is by this; or will be presently; but truly + he is very courageous mad about his throwing into the + water. Mistress Ford desires you to come suddenly. + MRS. PAGE. I'll be with her by and by; I'll but bring my + young man here to school. Look where his master comes; + 'tis a playing day, I see. + + Enter SIR HUGH EVANS + + How now, Sir Hugh, no school to-day? + EVANS. No; Master Slender is let the boys leave to play. + QUICKLY. Blessing of his heart! + MRS. PAGE. Sir Hugh, my husband says my son profits + nothing in the world at his book; I pray you ask him some + questions in his accidence. + EVANS. Come hither, William; hold up your head; come. + MRS. PAGE. Come on, sirrah; hold up your head; answer your + master; be not afraid. + EVANS. William, how many numbers is in nouns? + WILLIAM. Two. + QUICKLY. Truly, I thought there had been one number + more, because they say 'Od's nouns.' + EVANS. Peace your tattlings. What is 'fair,' William? + WILLIAM. Pulcher. + QUICKLY. Polecats! There are fairer things than polecats, + sure. + EVANS. You are a very simplicity oman; I pray you, peace. + What is 'lapis,' William? + WILLIAM. A stone. + EVANS. And what is 'a stone,' William? + WILLIAM. A pebble. + EVANS. No, it is 'lapis'; I pray you remember in your prain. + WILLIAM. Lapis. + EVANS. That is a good William. What is he, William, that + does lend articles? + WILLIAM. Articles are borrowed of the pronoun, and be + thus declined: Singulariter, nominativo; hic, haec, hoc. + EVANS. Nominativo, hig, hag, hog; pray you, mark: genitivo, + hujus. Well, what is your accusative case? + WILLIAM. Accusativo, hinc. + EVANS. I pray you, have your remembrance, child. + Accusativo, hung, hang, hog. + QUICKLY. 'Hang-hog' is Latin for bacon, I warrant you. + EVANS. Leave your prabbles, oman. What is the focative + case, William? + WILLIAM. O-vocativo, O. + EVANS. Remember, William: focative is caret. + QUICKLY. And that's a good root. + EVANS. Oman, forbear. + MRS. PAGE. Peace. + EVANS. What is your genitive case plural, William? + WILLIAM. Genitive case? + EVANS. Ay. + WILLIAM. Genitive: horum, harum, horum. + QUICKLY. Vengeance of Jenny's case; fie on her! Never + name her, child, if she be a whore. + EVANS. For shame, oman. + QUICKLY. YOU do ill to teach the child such words. He + teaches him to hick and to hack, which they'll do fast + enough of themselves; and to call 'horum'; fie upon you! + EVANS. Oman, art thou lunatics? Hast thou no understandings + for thy cases, and the numbers of the genders? Thou + art as foolish Christian creatures as I would desires. + MRS. PAGE. Prithee hold thy peace. + EVANS. Show me now, William, some declensions of your + pronouns. + WILLIAM. Forsooth, I have forgot. + EVANS. It is qui, quae, quod; if you forget your qui's, your + quae's, and your quod's, you must be preeches. Go your + ways and play; go. + MRS. PAGE. He is a better scholar than I thought he was. + EVANS. He is a good sprag memory. Farewell, Mistress Page. + MRS. PAGE. Adieu, good Sir Hugh. Exit SIR HUGH + Get you home, boy. Come, we stay too long. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. + +FORD'S house + +Enter FALSTAFF and MISTRESS FORD + + FALSTAFF. Mistress Ford, your sorrow hath eaten up my + sufferance. I see you are obsequious in your love, and I + profess requital to a hair's breadth; not only, Mistress Ford, in + the simple office of love, but in all the accoutrement, + complement, and ceremony of it. But are you sure of your + husband now? + MRS. FORD. He's a-birding, sweet Sir John. + MRS. PAGE. [Within] What hoa, gossip Ford, what hoa! + MRS. FORD. Step into th' chamber, Sir John. Exit FALSTAFF + + Enter MISTRESS PAGE + + MRS. PAGE. How now, sweetheart, who's at home besides + yourself? + MRS. FORD. Why, none but mine own people. + MRS. PAGE. Indeed? + MRS. FORD. No, certainly. [Aside to her] Speak louder. + MRS. PAGE. Truly, I am so glad you have nobody here. + MRS. FORD. Why? + MRS. PAGE. Why, woman, your husband is in his old lunes + again. He so takes on yonder with my husband; so rails + against all married mankind; so curses an Eve's daughters, + of what complexion soever; and so buffets himself on the + forehead, crying 'Peer-out, peer-out!' that any madness I + ever yet beheld seem'd but tameness, civility, and patience, + to this his distemper he is in now. I am glad the fat knight + is not here. + MRS. FORD. Why, does he talk of him? + MRS. PAGE. Of none but him; and swears he was carried out, + the last time he search'd for him, in a basket; protests to + my husband he is now here; and hath drawn him and the + rest of their company from their sport, to make another + experiment of his suspicion. But I am glad the knight is not + here; now he shall see his own foolery. + MRS. FORD. How near is he, Mistress Page? + MRS. PAGE. Hard by, at street end; he will be here anon. + MRS. FORD. I am undone: the knight is here. + MRS. PAGE. Why, then, you are utterly sham'd, and he's but + a dead man. What a woman are you! Away with him, + away with him; better shame than murder. + MRS. FORD. Which way should he go? How should I bestow + him? Shall I put him into the basket again? + + Re-enter FALSTAFF + + FALSTAFF. No, I'll come no more i' th' basket. May I not go + out ere he come? + MRS. PAGE. Alas, three of Master Ford's brothers watch the + door with pistols, that none shall issue out; otherwise you + might slip away ere he came. But what make you here? + FALSTAFF. What shall I do? I'll creep up into the chimney. + MRS. FORD. There they always use to discharge their + birding-pieces. + MRS. PAGE. Creep into the kiln-hole. + FALSTAFF. Where is it? + MRS. FORD. He will seek there, on my word. Neither press, + coffer, chest, trunk, well, vault, but he hath an abstract for + the remembrance of such places, and goes to them by his + note. There is no hiding you in the house. + FALSTAFF. I'll go out then. + MRS. PAGE. If you go out in your own semblance, you die, + Sir John. Unless you go out disguis'd. + MRS. FORD. How might we disguise him? + MRS. PAGE. Alas the day, I know not! There is no woman's + gown big enough for him; otherwise he might put on a + hat, a muffler, and a kerchief, and so escape. + FALSTAFF. Good hearts, devise something; any extremity + rather than a mischief. + MRS. FORD. My Maid's aunt, the fat woman of Brainford, has + a gown above. + MRS. PAGE. On my word, it will serve him; she's as big as he + is; and there's her thrumm'd hat, and her muffler too. Run + up, Sir John. + MRS. FORD. Go, go, sweet Sir John. Mistress Page and I will + look some linen for your head. + MRS. PAGE. Quick, quick; we'll come dress you straight. Put + on the gown the while. Exit FALSTAFF + MRS. FORD. I would my husband would meet him in this + shape; he cannot abide the old woman of Brainford; he + swears she's a witch, forbade her my house, and hath + threat'ned to beat her. + MRS. PAGE. Heaven guide him to thy husband's cudgel; and + the devil guide his cudgel afterwards! + MRS. FORD. But is my husband coming? + MRS. PAGE. Ay, in good sadness is he; and talks of the basket + too, howsoever he hath had intelligence. + MRS. FORD. We'll try that; for I'll appoint my men to carry + the basket again, to meet him at the door with it as they + did last time. + MRS. PAGE. Nay, but he'll be here presently; let's go dress + him like the witch of Brainford. + MRS. FORD. I'll first direct my men what they shall do with + the basket. Go up; I'll bring linen for him straight. Exit + MRS. PAGE. Hang him, dishonest varlet! we cannot misuse + him enough. + We'll leave a proof, by that which we will do, + Wives may be merry and yet honest too. + We do not act that often jest and laugh; + 'Tis old but true: Still swine eats all the draff. Exit + + Re-enter MISTRESS FORD, with two SERVANTS + + MRS. FORD. Go, sirs, take the basket again on your shoulders; + your master is hard at door; if he bid you set it down, obey + him; quickly, dispatch. Exit + FIRST SERVANT. Come, come, take it up. + SECOND SERVANT. Pray heaven it be not full of knight again. + FIRST SERVANT. I hope not; I had lief as bear so much lead. + + Enter FORD, PAGE, SHALLOW, CAIUS, and SIR HUGH EVANS + + FORD. Ay, but if it prove true, Master Page, have you any + way then to unfool me again? Set down the basket, villain! + Somebody call my wife. Youth in a basket! O you panderly + rascals, there's a knot, a ging, a pack, a conspiracy + against me. Now shall the devil be sham'd. What, wife, I + say! Come, come forth; behold what honest clothes you + send forth to bleaching. + PAGE. Why, this passes, Master Ford; you are not to go loose + any longer; you must be pinion'd. + EVANS. Why, this is lunatics. This is mad as a mad dog. + SHALLOW. Indeed, Master Ford, this is not well, indeed. + FORD. So say I too, sir. + + Re-enter MISTRESS FORD + + Come hither, Mistress Ford; Mistress Ford, the honest + woman, the modest wife, the virtuous creature, that hath + the jealous fool to her husband! I suspect without cause, + Mistress, do I? + MRS. FORD. Heaven be my witness, you do, if you suspect + me in any dishonesty. + FORD. Well said, brazen-face; hold it out. Come forth, sirrah. + [Pulling clothes out of the basket] + PAGE. This passes! + MRS. FORD. Are you not asham'd? Let the clothes alone. + FORD. I shall find you anon. + EVANS. 'Tis unreasonable. Will you take up your wife's + clothes? Come away. + FORD. Empty the basket, I say. + MRS. FORD. Why, man, why? + FORD. Master Page, as I am a man, there was one convey'd + out of my house yesterday in this basket. Why may not + he be there again? In my house I am sure he is; my + intelligence is true; my jealousy is reasonable. + Pluck me out all the linen. + MRS. FORD. If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's + death. + PAGE. Here's no man. + SHALLOW. By my fidelity, this is not well, Master Ford; this + wrongs you. + EVANS. Master Ford, you must pray, and not follow the + imaginations of your own heart; this is jealousies. + FORD. Well, he's not here I seek for. + PAGE. No, nor nowhere else but in your brain. + FORD. Help to search my house this one time. If I find not + what I seek, show no colour for my extremity; let me for + ever be your table sport; let them say of me 'As jealous as + Ford, that search'd a hollow walnut for his wife's leman.' + Satisfy me once more; once more search with me. + MRS. FORD. What, hoa, Mistress Page! Come you and the old + woman down; my husband will come into the chamber. + FORD. Old woman? what old woman's that? + MRS. FORD. Why, it is my maid's aunt of Brainford. + FORD. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean! Have I not + forbid her my house? She comes of errands, does she? We + are simple men; we do not know what's brought to pass + under the profession of fortune-telling. She works by + charms, by spells, by th' figure, and such daub'ry as this + is, beyond our element. We know nothing. Come down, you + witch, you hag you; come down, I say. + MRS. FORD. Nay, good sweet husband! Good gentlemen, let + him not strike the old woman. + + Re-enter FALSTAFF in woman's clothes, and MISTRESS PAGE + + MRS. PAGE. Come, Mother Prat; come. give me your hand. + FORD. I'll prat her. [Beating him] Out of my door, you + witch, you hag, you. baggage, you polecat, you ronyon! + Out, out! I'll conjure you, I'll fortune-tell you. + Exit FALSTAFF + MRS. PAGE. Are you not asham'd? I think you have kill'd the + poor woman. + MRS. FORD. Nay, he will do it. 'Tis a goodly credit for you. + FORD. Hang her, witch! + EVANS. By yea and no, I think the oman is a witch indeed; I + like not when a oman has a great peard; I spy a great peard + under his muffler. + FORD. Will you follow, gentlemen? I beseech you follow; + see but the issue of my jealousy; if I cry out thus upon no + trail, never trust me when I open again. + PAGE. Let's obey his humour a little further. Come, + gentlemen. Exeunt all but MRS. FORD and MRS. PAGE + MRS. PAGE. Trust me, he beat him most pitifully. + MRS. FORD. Nay, by th' mass, that he did not; he beat him + most unpitifully methought. + MRS. PAGE. I'll have the cudgel hallow'd and hung o'er the + altar; it hath done meritorious service. + MRS. FORD. What think you? May we, with the warrant of + womanhood and the witness of a good conscience, pursue + him with any further revenge? + MRS. PAGE. The spirit of wantonness is sure scar'd out of + him; if the devil have him not in fee-simple, with fine and + recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of waste, + attempt us again. + MRS. FORD. Shall we tell our husbands how we have serv'd + him? + MRS. PAGE. Yes, by all means; if it be but to scrape the + figures out of your husband's brains. If they can find in their + hearts the poor unvirtuous fat knight shall be any further + afflicted, we two will still be the ministers. + MRS. FORD. I'll warrant they'll have him publicly sham'd; + and methinks there would be no period to the jest, should + he not be publicly sham'd. + MRS. PAGE. Come, to the forge with it then; shape it. I + would not have things cool. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. + +The Garter Inn + +Enter HOST and BARDOLPH + + BARDOLPH. Sir, the Germans desire to have three of your + horses; the Duke himself will be to-morrow at court, and + they are going to meet him. + HOST. What duke should that be comes so secretly? I hear + not of him in the court. Let me speak with the gentlemen; + they speak English? + BARDOLPH. Ay, sir; I'll call them to you. + HOST. They shall have my horses, but I'll make them pay; + I'll sauce them; they have had my house a week at + command; I have turn'd away my other guests. They must + come off; I'll sauce them. Come. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4 + +FORD'S house + +Enter PAGE, FORD, MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, and SIR HUGH EVANS + + EVANS. 'Tis one of the best discretions of a oman as ever + did look upon. + PAGE. And did he send you both these letters at an instant? + MRS. PAGE. Within a quarter of an hour. + FORD. Pardon me, wife. Henceforth, do what thou wilt; + I rather will suspect the sun with cold + Than thee with wantonness. Now doth thy honour stand, + In him that was of late an heretic, + As firm as faith. + PAGE. 'Tis well, 'tis well; no more. + Be not as extreme in submission as in offence; + But let our plot go forward. Let our wives + Yet once again, to make us public sport, + Appoint a meeting with this old fat fellow, + Where we may take him and disgrace him for it. + FORD. There is no better way than that they spoke of. + PAGE. How? To send him word they'll meet him in the Park + at midnight? Fie, fie! he'll never come! + EVANS. You say he has been thrown in the rivers; and has + been grievously peaten as an old oman; methinks there + should be terrors in him, that he should not come; + methinks his flesh is punish'd; he shall have no desires. + PAGE. So think I too. + MRS. FORD. Devise but how you'll use him when he comes, + And let us two devise to bring him thither. + MRS. PAGE. There is an old tale goes that Heme the Hunter, + Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest, + Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight, + Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns; + And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle, + And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain + In a most hideous and dreadful manner. + You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know + The superstitious idle-headed eld + Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age, + This tale of Heme the Hunter for a truth. + PAGE. Why yet there want not many that do fear + In deep of night to walk by this Herne's oak. + But what of this? + MRS. FORD. Marry, this is our device- + That Falstaff at that oak shall meet with us, + Disguis'd, like Heme, with huge horns on his head. + PAGE. Well, let it not be doubted but he'll come, + And in this shape. When you have brought him thither, + What shall be done with him? What is your plot? + MRS. PAGE. That likewise have we thought upon, and + thus: + Nan Page my daughter, and my little son, + And three or four more of their growth, we'll dress + Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white, + With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads, + And rattles in their hands; upon a sudden, + As Falstaff, she, and I, are newly met, + Let them from forth a sawpit rush at once + With some diffused song; upon their sight + We two in great amazedness will fly. + Then let them all encircle him about, + And fairy-like, to pinch the unclean knight; + And ask him why, that hour of fairy revel, + In their so sacred paths he dares to tread + In shape profane. + MRS. FORD. And till he tell the truth, + Let the supposed fairies pinch him sound, + And burn him with their tapers. + MRS. PAGE. The truth being known, + We'll all present ourselves; dis-horn the spirit, + And mock him home to Windsor. + FORD. The children must + Be practis'd well to this or they'll nev'r do 't. + EVANS. I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will + be like a jack-an-apes also, to burn the knight with my + taber. + FORD. That will be excellent. I'll go buy them vizards. + MRS. PAGE. My Nan shall be the Queen of all the Fairies, + Finely attired in a robe of white. + PAGE. That silk will I go buy. [Aside] And in that time + Shall Master Slender steal my Nan away, + And marry her at Eton.-Go, send to Falstaff straight. + FORD. Nay, I'll to him again, in name of Brook; + He'll tell me all his purpose. Sure, he'll come. + MRS. PAGE. Fear not you that. Go get us properties + And tricking for our fairies. + EVANS. Let us about it. It is admirable pleasures, and fery + honest knaveries. Exeunt PAGE, FORD, and EVANS + MRS. PAGE. Go, Mistress Ford. + Send Quickly to Sir John to know his mind. + Exit MRS. FORD + I'll to the Doctor; he hath my good will, + And none but he, to marry with Nan Page. + That Slender, though well landed, is an idiot; + And he my husband best of all affects. + The Doctor is well money'd, and his friends + Potent at court; he, none but he, shall have her, + Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her. Exit + + + + +SCENE 5. + +The Garter Inn + +Enter HOST and SIMPLE + + HOST. What wouldst thou have, boor? What, thick-skin? + Speak, breathe, discuss; brief, short, quick, snap. + SIMPLE. Marry, sir, I come to speak with Sir John Falstaff + from Master Slender. + HOST. There's his chamber, his house, his castle, his + standing-bed and truckle-bed; 'tis painted about with the + story of the Prodigal, fresh and new. Go, knock and can; he'll + speak like an Anthropophaginian unto thee. Knock, I say. + SIMPLE. There's an old woman, a fat woman, gone up into + his chamber; I'll be so bold as stay, sir, till she come down; + I come to speak with her, indeed. + HOST. Ha! a fat woman? The knight may be robb'd. I'll call. + Bully knight! Bully Sir John! Speak from thy lungs + military. Art thou there? It is thine host, thine Ephesian, calls. + FALSTAFF. [Above] How now, mine host? + HOST. Here's a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down of + thy fat woman. Let her descend, bully, let her descend; + my chambers are honourible. Fie, privacy, fie! + + Enter FALSTAFF + + FALSTAFF. There was, mine host, an old fat woman even + now with, me; but she's gone. + SIMPLE. Pray you, sir, was't not the wise woman of + Brainford? + FALSTAFF. Ay, marry was it, mussel-shell. What would you + with her? + SIMPLE. My master, sir, my Master Slender, sent to her, + seeing her go thorough the streets, to know, sir, whether one + Nym, sir, that beguil'd him of a chain, had the chain or no. + FALSTAFF. I spake with the old woman about it. + SIMPLE. And what says she, I pray, sir? + FALSTAFF Marry, she says that the very same man that + beguil'd Master Slender of his chain cozen'd him of it. + SIMPLE. I would I could have spoken with the woman + herself; I had other things to have spoken with her too, + from him. + FALSTAFF. What are they? Let us know. + HOST. Ay, come; quick. + SIMPLE. I may not conceal them, sir. + FALSTAFF. Conceal them, or thou diest. + SIMPLE.. Why, sir, they were nothing but about Mistress + Anne Page: to know if it were my master's fortune to + have her or no. + FALSTAFF. 'Tis, 'tis his fortune. + SIMPLE. What sir? + FALSTAFF. To have her, or no. Go; say the woman told me + so. + SIMPLE. May I be bold to say so, sir? + FALSTAFF. Ay, sir, like who more bold? + SIMPLE., I thank your worship; I shall make my master glad + with these tidings. Exit SIMPLE + HOST. Thou art clerkly, thou art clerkly, Sir John. Was + there a wise woman with thee? + FALSTAFF. Ay, that there was, mine host; one that hath + taught me more wit than ever I learn'd before in my life; + and I paid nothing for it neither, but was paid for my + learning. + + Enter BARDOLPH + + BARDOLPH. Out, alas, sir, cozenage, mere cozenage! + HOST. Where be my horses? Speak well of them, varletto. + BARDOLPH. Run away with the cozeners; for so soon as I + came beyond Eton, they threw me off from behind one of + them, in a slough of mire; and set spurs and away, like + three German devils, three Doctor Faustuses. + HOST. They are gone but to meet the Duke, villain; do not + say they be fled. Germans are honest men. + + Enter SIR HUGH EVANS + + EVANS. Where is mine host? + HOST. What is the matter, sir? + EVANS. Have a care of your entertainments. There is a friend + of mine come to town tells me there is three + cozen-germans that has cozen'd all the hosts of Readins, + of Maidenhead, of Colebrook, of horses and money. I tell you for + good will, look you; you are wise, and full of gibes and + vlouting-stogs, and 'tis not convenient you should be + cozened. Fare you well. Exit + + Enter DOCTOR CAIUS + + CAIUS. Vere is mine host de Jarteer? + HOST. Here, Master Doctor, in perplexity and doubtful + dilemma. + CAIUS. I cannot tell vat is dat; but it is tell-a me dat you + make grand preparation for a Duke de Jamany. By my + trot, dere is no duke that the court is know to come; I + tell you for good will. Adieu. Exit + HOST. Hue and cry, villain, go! Assist me, knight; I am + undone. Fly, run, hue and cry, villain; I am undone. + Exeunt HOST and BARDOLPH + FALSTAFF. I would all the world might be cozen'd, for I have + been cozen'd and beaten too. If it should come to the car + of the court how I have been transformed, and how my + transformation hath been wash'd and cudgell'd, they + would melt me out of my fat, drop by drop, and liquor + fishermen's boots with me; I warrant they would whip me + with their fine wits till I were as crestfall'n as a dried pear. + I never prosper'd since I forswore myself at primero. Well, + if my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, + would repent. + + Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY + + Now! whence come you? + QUICKLY. From the two parties, forsooth. + FALSTAFF. The devil take one party and his dam the other! + And so they shall be both bestowed. I have suffer'd more + for their sakes, more than the villainous inconstancy of + man's disposition is able to bear. + QUICKLY. And have not they suffer'd? Yes, I warrant; + speciously one of them; Mistress Ford, good heart, is beaten + black and blue, that you cannot see a white spot about her. + FALSTAFF. What tell'st thou me of black and blue? I was + beaten myself into all the colours of the rainbow; and + was like to be apprehended for the witch of Brainford. But + that my admirable dexterity of wit, my counterfeiting the + action of an old woman, deliver'd me, the knave constable + had set me i' th' stocks, i' th' common stocks, for a witch. + QUICKLY. Sir, let me speak with you in your chamber; you + shall hear how things go, and, I warrant, to your content. + Here is a letter will say somewhat. Good hearts, what ado + here is to bring you together! Sure, one of you does not + serve heaven well, that you are so cross'd. + FALSTAFF. Come up into my chamber. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 6. + +The Garter Inn + +Enter FENTON and HOST + + HOST. Master Fenton, talk not to me; my mind is heavy; I + will give over all. + FENTON. Yet hear me speak. Assist me in my purpose, + And, as I am a gentleman, I'll give the + A hundred pound in gold more than your loss. + HOST. I will hear you, Master Fenton; and I will, at the least, + keep your counsel. + FENTON. From time to time I have acquainted you + With the dear love I bear to fair Anne Page; + Who, mutually, hath answer'd my affection, + So far forth as herself might be her chooser, + Even to my wish. I have a letter from her + Of such contents as you will wonder at; + The mirth whereof so larded with my matter + That neither, singly, can be manifested + Without the show of both. Fat Falstaff + Hath a great scene. The image of the jest + I'll show you here at large. Hark, good mine host: + To-night at Heme's oak, just 'twixt twelve and one, + Must my sweet Nan present the Fairy Queen- + The purpose why is here-in which disguise, + While other jests are something rank on foot, + Her father hath commanded her to slip + Away with Slender, and with him at Eton + Immediately to marry; she hath consented. + Now, sir, + Her mother, even strong against that match + And firm for Doctor Caius, hath appointed + That he shall likewise shuffle her away + While other sports are tasking of their minds, + And at the dean'ry, where a priest attends, + Straight marry her. To this her mother's plot + She seemingly obedient likewise hath + Made promise to the doctor. Now thus it rests: + Her father means she shall be all in white; + And in that habit, when Slender sees his time + To take her by the hand and bid her go, + She shall go with him; her mother hath intended + The better to denote her to the doctor- + For they must all be mask'd and vizarded- + That quaint in green she shall be loose enrob'd, + With ribands pendent, flaring 'bout her head; + And when the doctor spies his vantage ripe, + To pinch her by the hand, and, on that token, + The maid hath given consent to go with him. + HOST. Which means she to deceive, father or mother? + FENTON. Both, my good host, to go along with me. + And here it rests-that you'll procure the vicar + To stay for me at church, 'twixt twelve and one, + And in the lawful name of marrying, + To give our hearts united ceremony. + HOST. Well, husband your device; I'll to the vicar. + Bring you the maid, you shall not lack a priest. + FENTON. So shall I evermore be bound to thee; + Besides, I'll make a present recompense. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE 1. + +The Garter Inn + +Enter FALSTAFF and MISTRESS QUICKLY + + FALSTAFF. Prithee, no more prattling; go. I'll, hold. This is + the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers. + Away, go; they say there is divinity in odd numbers, either + in nativity, chance, or death. Away. + QUICKLY. I'll provide you a chain, and I'll do what I can to + get you a pair of horns. + FALSTAFF. Away, I say; time wears; hold up your head, and + mince. Exit MRS. QUICKLY + + Enter FORD disguised + + How now, Master Brook. Master Brook, the matter will + be known tonight or never. Be you in the Park about + midnight, at Herne's oak, and you shall see wonders. + FORD. Went you not to her yesterday, sir, as you told me + you had appointed? + FALSTAFF. I went to her, Master Brook, as you see, like a + poor old man; but I came from her, Master Brook, like a + poor old woman. That same knave Ford, her husband, hath + the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, Master Brook, that + ever govern'd frenzy. I will tell you-he beat me grievously + in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, Master + Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver's beam; because + I know also life is a shuttle. I am in haste; go along with + me; I'll. tell you all, Master Brook. Since I pluck'd geese, + play'd truant, and whipp'd top, I knew not what 'twas to + be beaten till lately. Follow me. I'll tell you strange things + of this knave-Ford, on whom to-night I will be revenged, + and I will deliver his wife into your hand. Follow. Strange + things in hand, Master Brook! Follow. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. + +Windsor Park + +Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER + + PAGE. Come, come; we'll couch i' th' Castle ditch till we + see the light of our fairies. Remember, son Slender, my daughter. + SLENDER. Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have + a nay-word how to know one another. I come to her in + white and cry 'mum'; she cries 'budget,' and by that we + know one another. + SHALLOW. That's good too; but what needs either your mum + or her budget? The white will decipher her well enough. + It hath struck ten o'clock. + PAGE. The night is dark; light and spirits will become it well. + Heaven prosper our sport! No man means evil but the + devil, and we shall know him by his horns. Let's away; + follow me. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. + +A street leading to the Park + +Enter MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, and DOCTOR CAIUS + + MRS. PAGE. Master Doctor, my daughter is in green; when + you see your time, take her by the hand, away with her to + the deanery, and dispatch it quickly. Go before into the + Park; we two must go together. + CAIUS. I know vat I have to do; adieu. + MRS. PAGE. Fare you well, sir. [Exit CAIUS] My husband + will not rejoice so much at the abuse of Falstaff as he will + chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter; but 'tis no + matter; better a little chiding than a great deal of + heartbreak. + MRS. FORD. Where is Nan now, and her troop of fairies, and + the Welsh devil, Hugh? + MRS. PAGE. They are all couch'd in a pit hard by Heme's + oak, with obscur'd lights; which, at the very instant of + Falstaff's and our meeting, they will at once display to the + night. + MRS. FORD. That cannot choose but amaze him. + MRS. PAGE. If he be not amaz'd, he will be mock'd; if he be + amaz'd, he will every way be mock'd. + MRS. FORD. We'll betray him finely. + MRS. PAGE. Against such lewdsters and their lechery, + Those that betray them do no treachery. + MRS. FORD. The hour draws on. To the oak, to the oak! + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. + +Windsor Park + +Enter SIR HUGH EVANS like a satyr, with OTHERS as fairies + + EVANS. Trib, trib, fairies; come; and remember your parts. + Be pold, I pray you; follow me into the pit; and when I + give the watch-ords, do as I pid you. Come, come; trib, + trib. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 5. + +Another part of the Park + +Enter FALSTAFF disguised as HERNE + + FALSTAFF. The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; the minute + draws on. Now the hot-blooded gods assist me! + Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa; love set on thy + horns. O powerful love! that in some respects makes a + beast a man; in some other a man a beast. You were also, + Jupiter, a swan, for the love of Leda. O omnipotent love! + how near the god drew to the complexion of a goose! A + fault done first in the form of a beast-O Jove, a beastly + fault!-and then another fault in the semblance of a fowl- + think on't, Jove, a foul fault! When gods have hot backs + what shall poor men do? For me, I am here a Windsor + stag; and the fattest, I think, i' th' forest. Send me a cool + rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss my tallow? + Who comes here? my doe? + + Enter MISTRESS FORD and MISTRESS PAGE + + MRS. FORD. Sir John! Art thou there, my deer, my male deer. + FALSTAFF. My doe with the black scut! Let the sky rain + potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Greensleeves, hail + kissing-comfits, and snow eringoes; let there come a tempest + of provocation, I will shelter me here. [Embracing her] + MRS. FORD. Mistress Page is come with me, sweetheart. + FALSTAFF. Divide me like a brib'd buck, each a haunch; I + will keep my sides to myself, my shoulders for the fellow + of this walk, and my horns I bequeath your husbands. Am + I a woodman, ha? Speak I like Heme the Hunter? Why, + now is Cupid a child of conscience; he makes restitution. + As I am a true spirit, welcome! [A noise of horns] + MRS. PAGE. Alas, what noise? + MRS. FORD. Heaven forgive our sins! + FALSTAFF. What should this be? + MRS. FORD. } Away, away. + MRS. PAGE. } Away, away. [They run off] + FALSTAFF. I think the devil will not have me damn'd, lest the + oil that's in me should set hell on fire; he would never else + cross me thus. + + Enter SIR HUGH EVANS like a satyr, ANNE PAGE as + a fairy, and OTHERS as the Fairy Queen, fairies, and + Hobgoblin; all with tapers + + FAIRY QUEEN. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, + You moonshine revellers, and shades of night, + You orphan heirs of fixed destiny, + Attend your office and your quality. + Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy oyes. + PUCK. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy toys. + Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap; + Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept, + There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry; + Our radiant Queen hates sluts and sluttery. + FALSTAFF. They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die. + I'll wink and couch; no man their works must eye. + [Lies down upon his face] + EVANS. Where's Pede? Go you, and where you find a maid + That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said, + Raise up the organs of her fantasy + Sleep she as sound as careless infancy; + But those as sleep and think not on their sins, + Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and shins. + FAIRY QUEEN. About, about; + Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out; + Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room, + That it may stand till the perpetual doom + In state as wholesome as in state 'tis fit, + Worthy the owner and the owner it. + The several chairs of order look you scour + With juice of balm and every precious flower; + Each fair instalment, coat, and sev'ral crest, + With loyal blazon, evermore be blest! + And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing, + Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring; + Th' expressure that it bears, green let it be, + More fertile-fresh than all the field to see; + And 'Honi soit qui mal y pense' write + In em'rald tufts, flow'rs purple, blue and white; + Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery, + Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee. + Fairies use flow'rs for their charactery. + Away, disperse; but till 'tis one o'clock, + Our dance of custom round about the oak + Of Herne the Hunter let us not forget. + EVANS. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves in order set; + And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be, + To guide our measure round about the tree. + But, stay. I smell a man of middle earth. + FALSTAFF. Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy, lest he + transform me to a piece of cheese! + PUCK. Vile worm, thou wast o'erlook'd even in thy birth. + FAIRY QUEEN. With trial-fire touch me his finger-end; + If he be chaste, the flame will back descend, + And turn him to no pain; but if he start, + It is the flesh of a corrupted heart. + PUCK. A trial, come. + EVANS. Come, will this wood take fire? + [They put the tapers to his fingers, and he starts] + FALSTAFF. Oh, oh, oh! + FAIRY QUEEN. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire! + About him, fairies; sing a scornful rhyme; + And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time. + THE SONG. + Fie on sinful fantasy! + Fie on lust and luxury! + Lust is but a bloody fire, + Kindled with unchaste desire, + Fed in heart, whose flames aspire, + As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher. + Pinch him, fairies, mutually; + Pinch him for his villainy; + Pinch him and burn him and turn him about, + Till candles and star-light and moonshine be out. + + During this song they pinch FALSTAFF. DOCTOR + CAIUS comes one way, and steals away a fairy in + green; SLENDER another way, and takes off a fairy in + white; and FENTON steals away ANNE PAGE. A noise + of hunting is heard within. All the fairies run away. + FALSTAFF pulls off his buck's head, and rises + + Enter PAGE, FORD, MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, and + SIR HUGH EVANS + + PAGE. Nay, do not fly; I think we have watch'd you now. + Will none but Heme the Hunter serve your turn? + MRS. PAGE. I pray you, come, hold up the jest no higher. + Now, good Sir John, how like you Windsor wives? + See you these, husband? Do not these fair yokes + Become the forest better than the town? + FORD. Now, sir, who's a cuckold now? Master Brook, + Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave; here are his horns, + Master Brook; and, Master Brook, he hath enjoyed nothing of + Ford's but his buck-basket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds + of money, which must be paid to Master Brook; his horses + are arrested for it, Master Brook. + MRS. FORD. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never + meet. I will never take you for my love again; but I will + always count you my deer. + FALSTAFF. I do begin to perceive that I am made an ass. + FORD. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are extant. + FALSTAFF. And these are not fairies? I was three or four + times in the thought they were not fairies; and yet the + guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers, + drove the grossness of the foppery into a receiv'd belief, + in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they + were fairies. See now how wit may be made a Jack-a-Lent + when 'tis upon ill employment. + EVANS. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave your desires, + and fairies will not pinse you. + FORD. Well said, fairy Hugh. + EVANS. And leave you your jealousies too, I pray you. + FORD. I will never mistrust my wife again, till thou art able + to woo her in good English. + FALSTAFF. Have I laid my brain in the sun, and dried it, that + it wants matter to prevent so gross, o'er-reaching as this? + Am I ridden with a Welsh goat too? Shall I have a cox-comb + of frieze? 'Tis time I were chok'd with a piece of + toasted cheese. + EVANS. Seese is not good to give putter; your belly is all + putter. + FALSTAFF. 'Seese' and 'putter'! Have I liv'd to stand at the + taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough + to be the decay of lust and late-walking through the realm. + MRS. PAGE. Why, Sir John, do you think, though we would + have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and + shoulders, and have given ourselves without scruple to hell, + that ever the devil could have made you our delight? + FORD. What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of flax? + MRS. PAGE. A puff'd man? + PAGE. Old, cold, wither'd, and of intolerable entrails? + FORD. And one that is as slanderous as Satan? + PAGE. And as poor as Job? + FORD. And as wicked as his wife? + EVANS. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and sack, + and wine, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and swearings, + and starings, pribbles and prabbles? + FALSTAFF. Well, I am your theme; you have the start of me; + I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel; + ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me; use me as you will. + FORD. Marry, sir, we'll bring you to Windsor, to one Master + Brook, that you have cozen'd of money, to whom you + should have been a pander. Over and above that you have + suffer'd, I think to repay that money will be a biting + affliction. + PAGE. Yet be cheerful, knight; thou shalt eat a posset + tonight at my house, where I will desire thee to laugh at my + wife, that now laughs at thee. Tell her Master Slender hath + married her daughter. + MRS. PAGE. [Aside] Doctors doubt that; if Anne Page be + my daughter, she is, by this, Doctor Caius' wife. + + Enter SLENDER + + SLENDER. Whoa, ho, ho, father Page! + PAGE. Son, how now! how now, son! Have you dispatch'd'? + SLENDER. Dispatch'd! I'll make the best in Gloucestershire + know on't; would I were hang'd, la, else! + PAGE. Of what, son? + SLENDER. I came yonder at Eton to marry Mistress Anne + Page, and she's a great lubberly boy. If it had not been i' + th' church, I would have swing'd him, or he should have + swing'd me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, + would I might never stir!-and 'tis a postmaster's boy. + PAGE. Upon my life, then, you took the wrong. + SLENDER. What need you tell me that? I think so, when I + took a boy for a girl. If I had been married to him, for all + he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him. + PAGE. Why, this is your own folly. Did not I tell you how + you should know my daughter by her garments? + SLENDER. I went to her in white and cried 'mum' and she + cried 'budget' as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was + not Anne, but a postmaster's boy. + MRS. PAGE. Good George, be not angry. I knew of your + purpose; turn'd my daughter into green; and, indeed, she + is now with the Doctor at the dean'ry, and there married. + + Enter CAIUS + + CAIUS. Vere is Mistress Page? By gar, I am cozened; I ha' + married un garcon, a boy; un paysan, by gar, a boy; it is + not Anne Page; by gar, I am cozened. + MRS. PAGE. Why, did you take her in green? + CAIUS. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy; be gar, I'll raise all + Windsor. Exit CAIUS + FORD. This is strange. Who hath got the right Anne? + PAGE. My heart misgives me; here comes Master Fenton. + + Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE + + How now, Master Fenton! + ANNE. Pardon, good father. Good my mother, pardon. + PAGE. Now, Mistress, how chance you went not with Master + Slender? + MRS. PAGE. Why went you not with Master Doctor, maid? + FENTON. You do amaze her. Hear the truth of it. + You would have married her most shamefully, + Where there was no proportion held in love. + The truth is, she and I, long since contracted, + Are now so sure that nothing can dissolve us. + Th' offence is holy that she hath committed; + And this deceit loses the name of craft, + Of disobedience, or unduteous title, + Since therein she doth evitate and shun + A thousand irreligious cursed hours, + Which forced marriage would have brought upon her. + FORD. Stand not amaz'd; here is no remedy. + In love, the heavens themselves do guide the state; + Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate. + FALSTAFF. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special stand + to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanc'd. + PAGE. Well, what remedy? Fenton, heaven give thee joy! + What cannot be eschew'd must be embrac'd. + FALSTAFF. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chas'd. + MRS. PAGE. Well, I will muse no further. Master Fenton, + Heaven give you many, many merry days! + Good husband, let us every one go home, + And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire; + Sir John and all. + FORD. Let it be so. Sir John, + To Master Brook you yet shall hold your word; + For he, to-night, shall lie with Mistress Ford. Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1596 + +A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + THESEUS, Duke of Athens + EGEUS, father to Hermia + LYSANDER, in love with Hermia + DEMETRIUS, in love with Hermia + PHILOSTRATE, Master of the Revels to Theseus + QUINCE, a carpenter + SNUG, a joiner + BOTTOM, a weaver + FLUTE, a bellows-mender + SNOUT, a tinker + STARVELING, a tailor + + HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, bethrothed to Theseus + HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander + HELENA, in love with Demetrius + + OBERON, King of the Fairies + TITANIA, Queen of the Fairies + PUCK, or ROBIN GOODFELLOW + PEASEBLOSSOM, fairy + COBWEB, fairy + MOTH, fairy + MUSTARDSEED, fairy + + PROLOGUE, PYRAMUS, THISBY, WALL, MOONSHINE, LION are presented by: + QUINCE, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, STARVELING, AND SNUG + + Other Fairies attending their King and Queen + Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +Athens and a wood near it + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Athens. The palace of THESEUS + +Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and ATTENDANTS + + THESEUS. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour + Draws on apace; four happy days bring in + Another moon; but, O, methinks, how slow + This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires, + Like to a step-dame or a dowager, + Long withering out a young man's revenue. + HIPPOLYTA. Four days will quickly steep themselves in night; + Four nights will quickly dream away the time; + And then the moon, like to a silver bow + New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night + Of our solemnities. + THESEUS. Go, Philostrate, + Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments; + Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth; + Turn melancholy forth to funerals; + The pale companion is not for our pomp. Exit PHILOSTRATE + Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, + And won thy love doing thee injuries; + But I will wed thee in another key, + With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling. + + Enter EGEUS, and his daughter HERMIA, LYSANDER, + and DEMETRIUS + + EGEUS. Happy be Theseus, our renowned Duke! + THESEUS. Thanks, good Egeus; what's the news with thee? + EGEUS. Full of vexation come I, with complaint + Against my child, my daughter Hermia. + Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord, + This man hath my consent to marry her. + Stand forth, Lysander. And, my gracious Duke, + This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child. + Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes, + And interchang'd love-tokens with my child; + Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung, + With feigning voice, verses of feigning love, + And stol'n the impression of her fantasy + With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits, + Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats- messengers + Of strong prevailment in unhardened youth; + With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart; + Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me, + To stubborn harshness. And, my gracious Duke, + Be it so she will not here before your Grace + Consent to marry with Demetrius, + I beg the ancient privilege of Athens: + As she is mine I may dispose of her; + Which shall be either to this gentleman + Or to her death, according to our law + Immediately provided in that case. + THESEUS. What say you, Hermia? Be advis'd, fair maid. + To you your father should be as a god; + One that compos'd your beauties; yea, and one + To whom you are but as a form in wax, + By him imprinted, and within his power + To leave the figure, or disfigure it. + Demetrius is a worthy gentleman. + HERMIA. So is Lysander. + THESEUS. In himself he is; + But, in this kind, wanting your father's voice, + The other must be held the worthier. + HERMIA. I would my father look'd but with my eyes. + THESEUS. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look. + HERMIA. I do entreat your Grace to pardon me. + I know not by what power I am made bold, + Nor how it may concern my modesty + In such a presence here to plead my thoughts; + But I beseech your Grace that I may know + The worst that may befall me in this case, + If I refuse to wed Demetrius. + THESEUS. Either to die the death, or to abjure + For ever the society of men. + Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires, + Know of your youth, examine well your blood, + Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice, + You can endure the livery of a nun, + For aye to be shady cloister mew'd, + To live a barren sister all your life, + Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. + Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood + To undergo such maiden pilgrimage; + But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd + Than that which withering on the virgin thorn + Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness. + HERMIA. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, + Ere I will yield my virgin patent up + Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke + My soul consents not to give sovereignty. + THESEUS. Take time to pause; and by the next new moon- + The sealing-day betwixt my love and me + For everlasting bond of fellowship- + Upon that day either prepare to die + For disobedience to your father's will, + Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would, + Or on Diana's altar to protest + For aye austerity and single life. + DEMETRIUS. Relent, sweet Hermia; and, Lysander, yield + Thy crazed title to my certain right. + LYSANDER. You have her father's love, Demetrius; + Let me have Hermia's; do you marry him. + EGEUS. Scornful Lysander, true, he hath my love; + And what is mine my love shall render him; + And she is mine; and all my right of her + I do estate unto Demetrius. + LYSANDER. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, + As well possess'd; my love is more than his; + My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd, + If not with vantage, as Demetrius'; + And, which is more than all these boasts can be, + I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia. + Why should not I then prosecute my right? + Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head, + Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, + And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes, + Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, + Upon this spotted and inconstant man. + THESEUS. I must confess that I have heard so much, + And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof; + But, being over-full of self-affairs, + My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come; + And come, Egeus; you shall go with me; + I have some private schooling for you both. + For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself + To fit your fancies to your father's will, + Or else the law of Athens yields you up- + Which by no means we may extenuate- + To death, or to a vow of single life. + Come, my Hippolyta; what cheer, my love? + Demetrius, and Egeus, go along; + I must employ you in some business + Against our nuptial, and confer with you + Of something nearly that concerns yourselves. + EGEUS. With duty and desire we follow you. + Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA + LYSANDER. How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale? + How chance the roses there do fade so fast? + HERMIA. Belike for want of rain, which I could well + Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes. + LYSANDER. Ay me! for aught that I could ever read, + Could ever hear by tale or history, + The course of true love never did run smooth; + But either it was different in blood- + HERMIA. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low. + LYSANDER. Or else misgraffed in respect of years- + HERMIA. O spite! too old to be engag'd to young. + LYSANDER. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends- + HERMIA. O hell! to choose love by another's eyes. + LYSANDER. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice, + War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it, + Making it momentary as a sound, + Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, + Brief as the lightning in the collied night + That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth, + And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!' + The jaws of darkness do devour it up; + So quick bright things come to confusion. + HERMIA. If then true lovers have ever cross'd, + It stands as an edict in destiny. + Then let us teach our trial patience, + Because it is a customary cross, + As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs, + Wishes and tears, poor Fancy's followers. + LYSANDER. A good persuasion; therefore, hear me, Hermia. + I have a widow aunt, a dowager + Of great revenue, and she hath no child- + From Athens is her house remote seven leagues- + And she respects me as her only son. + There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee; + And to that place the sharp Athenian law + Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then, + Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night; + And in the wood, a league without the town, + Where I did meet thee once with Helena + To do observance to a morn of May, + There will I stay for thee. + HERMIA. My good Lysander! + I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow, + By his best arrow, with the golden head, + By the simplicity of Venus' doves, + By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves, + And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage Queen, + When the false Troyan under sail was seen, + By all the vows that ever men have broke, + In number more than ever women spoke, + In that same place thou hast appointed me, + To-morrow truly will I meet with thee. + LYSANDER. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena. + + Enter HELENA + + HERMIA. God speed fair Helena! Whither away? + HELENA. Call you me fair? That fair again unsay. + Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair! + Your eyes are lode-stars and your tongue's sweet air + More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, + When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear. + Sickness is catching; O, were favour so, + Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go! + My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, + My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody. + Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, + The rest I'd give to be to you translated. + O, teach me how you look, and with what art + You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart! + HERMIA. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. + HELENA. O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill! + HERMIA. I give him curses, yet he gives me love. + HELENA. O that my prayers could such affection move! + HERMIA. The more I hate, the more he follows me. + HELENA. The more I love, the more he hateth me. + HERMIA. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. + HELENA. None, but your beauty; would that fault were mine! + HERMIA. Take comfort: he no more shall see my face; + Lysander and myself will fly this place. + Before the time I did Lysander see, + Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me. + O, then, what graces in my love do dwell, + That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell! + LYSANDER. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold: + To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold + Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass, + Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass, + A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal, + Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal. + HERMIA. And in the wood where often you and I + Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie, + Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet, + There my Lysander and myself shall meet; + And thence from Athens turn away our eyes, + To seek new friends and stranger companies. + Farewell, sweet playfellow; pray thou for us, + And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius! + Keep word, Lysander; we must starve our sight + From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight. + LYSANDER. I will, my Hermia. [Exit HERMIA] Helena, adieu; + As you on him, Demetrius dote on you. Exit + HELENA. How happy some o'er other some can be! + Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. + But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so; + He will not know what all but he do know. + And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes, + So I, admiring of his qualities. + Things base and vile, holding no quantity, + Love can transpose to form and dignity. + Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; + And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind. + Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste; + Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste; + And therefore is Love said to be a child, + Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd. + As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, + So the boy Love is perjur'd everywhere; + For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne, + He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine; + And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, + So he dissolv'd, and show'rs of oaths did melt. + I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight; + Then to the wood will he to-morrow night + Pursue her; and for this intelligence + If I have thanks, it is a dear expense. + But herein mean I to enrich my pain, + To have his sight thither and back again. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Athens. QUINCE'S house + +Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING + + QUINCE. Is all our company here? + BOTTOM. You were best to call them generally, man by man, according + to the scrip. + QUINCE. Here is the scroll of every man's name which is thought + fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the Duke + and the Duchess on his wedding-day at night. + BOTTOM. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on; then + read the names of the actors; and so grow to a point. + QUINCE. Marry, our play is 'The most Lamentable Comedy and most + Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisby.' + BOTTOM. A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry. Now, + good Peter Quince, call forth your actors by the scroll. Masters, + spread yourselves. + QUINCE. Answer, as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver. + BOTTOM. Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed. + QUINCE. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus. + BOTTOM. What is Pyramus? A lover, or a tyrant? + QUINCE. A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love. + BOTTOM. That will ask some tears in the true performing of it. If I + do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move storms; I + will condole in some measure. To the rest- yet my chief humour is + for a tyrant. I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat + in, to make all split. + + 'The raging rocks + And shivering shocks + Shall break the locks + Of prison gates; + + And Phibbus' car + Shall shine from far, + And make and mar + The foolish Fates.' + + This was lofty. Now name the rest of the players. This is + Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein: a lover is more condoling. + QUINCE. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender. + FLUTE. Here, Peter Quince. + QUINCE. Flute, you must take Thisby on you. + FLUTE. What is Thisby? A wand'ring knight? + QUINCE. It is the lady that Pyramus must love. + FLUTE. Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I have a beard coming. + QUINCE. That's all one; you shall play it in a mask, and you may + speak as small as you will. + BOTTOM. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too. + I'll speak in a monstrous little voice: 'Thisne, Thisne!' + [Then speaking small] 'Ah Pyramus, my lover dear! Thy + Thisby dear, and lady dear!' + QUINCE. No, no, you must play Pyramus; and, Flute, you Thisby. + BOTTOM. Well, proceed. + QUINCE. Robin Starveling, the tailor. + STARVELING. Here, Peter Quince. + QUINCE. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother. + Tom Snout, the tinker. + SNOUT. Here, Peter Quince. + QUINCE. You, Pyramus' father; myself, Thisby's father; Snug, the + joiner, you, the lion's part. And, I hope, here is a play fitted. + SNUG. Have you the lion's part written? Pray you, if it be, give it + me, for I am slow of study. + QUINCE. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring. + BOTTOM. Let me play the lion too. I will roar that I will do any + man's heart good to hear me; I will roar that I will make the + Duke say 'Let him roar again, let him roar again.' + QUINCE. An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the + Duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek; and that were + enough to hang us all. + ALL. That would hang us, every mother's son. + BOTTOM. I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies out + of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us; + but I will aggravate my voice so, that I will roar you as gently + as any sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale. + QUINCE. You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a + sweet-fac'd man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer's + day; a most lovely gentleman-like man; therefore you must needs + play Pyramus. + BOTTOM. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play + it in? + QUINCE. Why, what you will. + BOTTOM. I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your + orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your + French-crown-colour beard, your perfect yellow. + QUINCE. Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then + you will play bare-fac'd. But, masters, here are your parts; and + I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by + to-morrow night; and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without + the town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse; for if we meet in + the city, we shall be dogg'd with company, and our devices known. + In the meantime I will draw a bill of properties, such as our + play wants. I pray you, fail me not. + BOTTOM. We will meet; and there we may rehearse most obscenely and + courageously. Take pains; be perfect; adieu. + QUINCE. At the Duke's oak we meet. + BOTTOM. Enough; hold, or cut bow-strings. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +A wood near Athens + +Enter a FAIRY at One door, and PUCK at another + + PUCK. How now, spirit! whither wander you? + FAIRY. Over hill, over dale, + Thorough bush, thorough brier, + Over park, over pale, + Thorough flood, thorough fire, + I do wander every where, + Swifter than the moon's sphere; + And I serve the Fairy Queen, + To dew her orbs upon the green. + The cowslips tall her pensioners be; + In their gold coats spots you see; + Those be rubies, fairy favours, + In those freckles live their savours. + + I must go seek some dewdrops here, + And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. + Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone. + Our Queen and all her elves come here anon. + PUCK. The King doth keep his revels here to-night; + Take heed the Queen come not within his sight; + For Oberon is passing fell and wrath, + Because that she as her attendant hath + A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king. + She never had so sweet a changeling; + And jealous Oberon would have the child + Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild; + But she perforce withholds the loved boy, + Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy. + And now they never meet in grove or green, + By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen, + But they do square, that all their elves for fear + Creep into acorn cups and hide them there. + FAIRY. Either I mistake your shape and making quite, + Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite + Call'd Robin Goodfellow. Are not you he + That frights the maidens of the villagery, + Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern, + And bootless make the breathless housewife churn, + And sometime make the drink to bear no barm, + Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm? + Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, + You do their work, and they shall have good luck. + Are not you he? + PUCK. Thou speakest aright: + I am that merry wanderer of the night. + I jest to Oberon, and make him smile + When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, + Neighing in likeness of a filly foal; + And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl + In very likeness of a roasted crab, + And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, + And on her withered dewlap pour the ale. + The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, + Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me; + Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, + And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough; + And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh, + And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear + A merrier hour was never wasted there. + But room, fairy, here comes Oberon. + FAIRY. And here my mistress. Would that he were gone! + + Enter OBERON at one door, with his TRAIN, and TITANIA, + at another, with hers + + OBERON. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania. + TITANIA. What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence; + I have forsworn his bed and company. + OBERON. Tarry, rash wanton; am not I thy lord? + TITANIA. Then I must be thy lady; but I know + When thou hast stolen away from fairy land, + And in the shape of Corin sat all day, + Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love + To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here, + Come from the farthest steep of India, + But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, + Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love, + To Theseus must be wedded, and you come + To give their bed joy and prosperity? + OBERON. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania, + Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, + Knowing I know thy love to Theseus? + Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night + From Perigouna, whom he ravished? + And make him with fair Aegles break his faith, + With Ariadne and Antiopa? + TITANIA. These are the forgeries of jealousy; + And never, since the middle summer's spring, + Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, + By paved fountain, or by rushy brook, + Or in the beached margent of the sea, + To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind, + But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport. + Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, + As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea + Contagious fogs; which, falling in the land, + Hath every pelting river made so proud + That they have overborne their continents. + The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain, + The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn + Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard; + The fold stands empty in the drowned field, + And crows are fatted with the murrion flock; + The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud, + And the quaint mazes in the wanton green, + For lack of tread, are undistinguishable. + The human mortals want their winter here; + No night is now with hymn or carol blest; + Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, + Pale in her anger, washes all the air, + That rheumatic diseases do abound. + And thorough this distemperature we see + The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts + Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose; + And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown + An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds + Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer, + The childing autumn, angry winter, change + Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world, + By their increase, now knows not which is which. + And this same progeny of evils comes + From our debate, from our dissension; + We are their parents and original. + OBERON. Do you amend it, then; it lies in you. + Why should Titania cross her Oberon? + I do but beg a little changeling boy + To be my henchman. + TITANIA. Set your heart at rest; + The fairy land buys not the child of me. + His mother was a vot'ress of my order; + And, in the spiced Indian air, by night, + Full often hath she gossip'd by my side; + And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands, + Marking th' embarked traders on the flood; + When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive, + And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind; + Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait + Following- her womb then rich with my young squire- + Would imitate, and sail upon the land, + To fetch me trifles, and return again, + As from a voyage, rich with merchandise. + But she, being mortal, of that boy did die; + And for her sake do I rear up her boy; + And for her sake I will not part with him. + OBERON. How long within this wood intend you stay? + TITANIA. Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day. + If you will patiently dance in our round, + And see our moonlight revels, go with us; + If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts. + OBERON. Give me that boy and I will go with thee. + TITANIA. Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away. + We shall chide downright if I longer stay. + Exit TITANIA with her train + OBERON. Well, go thy way; thou shalt not from this grove + Till I torment thee for this injury. + My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememb'rest + Since once I sat upon a promontory, + And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back + Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath + That the rude sea grew civil at her song, + And certain stars shot madly from their spheres + To hear the sea-maid's music. + PUCK. I remember. + OBERON. That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, + Flying between the cold moon and the earth + Cupid, all arm'd; a certain aim he took + At a fair vestal, throned by the west, + And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow, + As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts; + But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft + Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon; + And the imperial vot'ress passed on, + In maiden meditation, fancy-free. + Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell. + It fell upon a little western flower, + Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, + And maidens call it Love-in-idleness. + Fetch me that flow'r, the herb I showed thee once. + The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid + Will make or man or woman madly dote + Upon the next live creature that it sees. + Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again + Ere the leviathan can swim a league. + PUCK. I'll put a girdle round about the earth + In forty minutes. Exit PUCK + OBERON. Having once this juice, + I'll watch Titania when she is asleep, + And drop the liquor of it in her eyes; + The next thing then she waking looks upon, + Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, + On meddling monkey, or on busy ape, + She shall pursue it with the soul of love. + And ere I take this charm from off her sight, + As I can take it with another herb, + I'll make her render up her page to me. + But who comes here? I am invisible; + And I will overhear their conference. + + Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him + + DEMETRIUS. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. + Where is Lysander and fair Hermia? + The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me. + Thou told'st me they were stol'n unto this wood, + And here am I, and wood within this wood, + Because I cannot meet my Hermia. + Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. + HELENA. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant; + But yet you draw not iron, for my heart + Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw, + And I shall have no power to follow you. + DEMETRIUS. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair? + Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth + Tell you I do not nor I cannot love you? + HELENA. And even for that do I love you the more. + I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, + The more you beat me, I will fawn on you. + Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, + Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, + Unworthy as I am, to follow you. + What worser place can I beg in your love, + And yet a place of high respect with me, + Than to be used as you use your dog? + DEMETRIUS. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; + For I am sick when I do look on thee. + HELENA. And I am sick when I look not on you. + DEMETRIUS. You do impeach your modesty too much + To leave the city and commit yourself + Into the hands of one that loves you not; + To trust the opportunity of night, + And the ill counsel of a desert place, + With the rich worth of your virginity. + HELENA. Your virtue is my privilege for that: + It is not night when I do see your face, + Therefore I think I am not in the night; + Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company, + For you, in my respect, are all the world. + Then how can it be said I am alone + When all the world is here to look on me? + DEMETRIUS. I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes, + And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. + HELENA. The wildest hath not such a heart as you. + Run when you will; the story shall be chang'd: + Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase; + The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind + Makes speed to catch the tiger- bootless speed, + When cowardice pursues and valour flies. + DEMETRIUS. I will not stay thy questions; let me go; + Or, if thou follow me, do not believe + But I shall do thee mischief in the wood. + HELENA. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field, + You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius! + Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex. + We cannot fight for love as men may do; + We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo. + Exit DEMETRIUS + I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell, + To die upon the hand I love so well. Exit HELENA + OBERON. Fare thee well, nymph; ere he do leave this grove, + Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love. + + Re-enter PUCK + + Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer. + PUCK. Ay, there it is. + OBERON. I pray thee give it me. + I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, + Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, + Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, + With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine; + There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, + Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight; + And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin, + Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in; + And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes, + And make her full of hateful fantasies. + Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove: + A sweet Athenian lady is in love + With a disdainful youth; anoint his eyes; + But do it when the next thing he espies + May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man + By the Athenian garments he hath on. + Effect it with some care, that he may prove + More fond on her than she upon her love. + And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow. + PUCK. Fear not, my lord; your servant shall do so. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Another part of the wood + +Enter TITANIA, with her train + + TITANIA. Come now, a roundel and a fairy song; + Then, for the third part of a minute, hence: + Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds; + Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings, + To make my small elves coats; and some keep back + The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders + At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep; + Then to your offices, and let me rest. + + The FAIRIES Sing + + FIRST FAIRY. You spotted snakes with double tongue, + Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; + Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong, + Come not near our fairy Queen. + CHORUS. Philomel with melody + Sing in our sweet lullaby. + Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby. + Never harm + Nor spell nor charm + Come our lovely lady nigh. + So good night, with lullaby. + SECOND FAIRY. Weaving spiders, come not here; + Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence. + Beetles black, approach not near; + Worm nor snail do no offence. + CHORUS. Philomel with melody, etc. [TITANIA Sleeps] + FIRST FAIRY. Hence away; now all is well. + One aloof stand sentinel. Exeunt FAIRIES + + Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA'S eyelids + + OBERON. What thou seest when thou dost wake, + Do it for thy true-love take; + Love and languish for his sake. + Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, + Pard, or boar with bristled hair, + In thy eye that shall appear + When thou wak'st, it is thy dear. + Wake when some vile thing is near. Exit + + Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA + + LYSANDER. Fair love, you faint with wand'ring in the wood; + And, to speak troth, I have forgot our way; + We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good, + And tarry for the comfort of the day. + HERMIA. Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed, + For I upon this bank will rest my head. + LYSANDER. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; + One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth. + HERMIA. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear, + Lie further off yet; do not lie so near. + LYSANDER. O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence! + Love takes the meaning in love's conference. + I mean that my heart unto yours is knit, + So that but one heart we can make of it; + Two bosoms interchained with an oath, + So then two bosoms and a single troth. + Then by your side no bed-room me deny, + For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie. + HERMIA. Lysander riddles very prettily. + Now much beshrew my manners and my pride, + If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied! + But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy + Lie further off, in human modesty; + Such separation as may well be said + Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid, + So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend. + Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end! + LYSANDER. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer say I; + And then end life when I end loyalty! + Here is my bed; sleep give thee all his rest! + HERMIA. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd! + [They sleep] + + Enter PUCK + + PUCK. Through the forest have I gone, + But Athenian found I none + On whose eyes I might approve + This flower's force in stirring love. + Night and silence- Who is here? + Weeds of Athens he doth wear: + This is he, my master said, + Despised the Athenian maid; + And here the maiden, sleeping sound, + On the dank and dirty ground. + Pretty soul! she durst not lie + Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy. + Churl, upon thy eyes I throw + All the power this charm doth owe: + When thou wak'st let love forbid + Sleep his seat on thy eyelid. + So awake when I am gone; + For I must now to Oberon. Exit + + Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running + + HELENA. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius. + DEMETRIUS. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus. + HELENA. O, wilt thou darkling leave me? Do not so. + DEMETRIUS. Stay on thy peril; I alone will go. Exit + HELENA. O, I am out of breath in this fond chase! + The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace. + Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies, + For she hath blessed and attractive eyes. + How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears; + If so, my eyes are oft'ner wash'd than hers. + No, no, I am as ugly as a bear, + For beasts that meet me run away for fear; + Therefore no marvel though Demetrius + Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus. + What wicked and dissembling glass of mine + Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne? + But who is here? Lysander! on the ground! + Dead, or asleep? I see no blood, no wound. + Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake. + LYSANDER. [Waking] And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake. + Transparent Helena! Nature shows art, + That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart. + Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word + Is that vile name to perish on my sword! + HELENA. Do not say so, Lysander; say not so. + What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though? + Yet Hermia still loves you; then be content. + LYSANDER. Content with Hermia! No: I do repent + The tedious minutes I with her have spent. + Not Hermia but Helena I love: + Who will not change a raven for a dove? + The will of man is by his reason sway'd, + And reason says you are the worthier maid. + Things growing are not ripe until their season; + So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason; + And touching now the point of human skill, + Reason becomes the marshal to my will, + And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook + Love's stories, written in Love's richest book. + HELENA. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born? + When at your hands did I deserve this scorn? + Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man, + That I did never, no, nor never can, + Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye, + But you must flout my insufficiency? + Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do, + In such disdainful manner me to woo. + But fare you well; perforce I must confess + I thought you lord of more true gentleness. + O, that a lady of one man refus'd + Should of another therefore be abus'd! Exit + LYSANDER. She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there; + And never mayst thou come Lysander near! + For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things + The deepest loathing to the stomach brings, + Or as the heresies that men do leave + Are hated most of those they did deceive, + So thou, my surfeit and my heresy, + Of all be hated, but the most of me! + And, all my powers, address your love and might + To honour Helen, and to be her knight! Exit + HERMIA. [Starting] Help me, Lysander, help me; do thy best + To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast. + Ay me, for pity! What a dream was here! + Lysander, look how I do quake with fear. + Methought a serpent eat my heart away, + And you sat smiling at his cruel prey. + Lysander! What, remov'd? Lysander! lord! + What, out of hearing gone? No sound, no word? + Alack, where are you? Speak, an if you hear; + Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear. + No? Then I well perceive you are not nigh. + Either death or you I'll find immediately. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +The wood. TITANIA lying asleep + +Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING + + BOTTOM. Are we all met? + QUINCE. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for our + rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn + brake our tiring-house; and we will do it in action, as we will + do it before the Duke. + BOTTOM. Peter Quince! + QUINCE. What sayest thou, bully Bottom? + BOTTOM. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby that + will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill + himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that? + SNOUT. By'r lakin, a parlous fear. + STARVELING. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is + done. + BOTTOM. Not a whit; I have a device to make all well. Write me a + prologue; and let the prologue seem to say we will do no harm + with our swords, and that Pyramus is not kill'd indeed; and for + the more better assurance, tell them that I Pyramus am not + Pyramus but Bottom the weaver. This will put them out of fear. + QUINCE. Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be written + in eight and six. + BOTTOM. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight. + SNOUT. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion? + STARVELING. I fear it, I promise you. + BOTTOM. Masters, you ought to consider with yourself to bring in- + God shield us!- a lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing; for + there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion living; and + we ought to look to't. + SNOUT. Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion. + BOTTOM. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen + through the lion's neck; and he himself must speak through, + saying thus, or to the same defect: 'Ladies,' or 'Fair ladies, I + would wish you' or 'I would request you' or 'I would entreat you + not to fear, not to tremble. My life for yours! If you think I + come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life. No, I am no such + thing; I am a man as other men are.' And there, indeed, let him + name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner. + QUINCE. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things- that + is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for, you know, Pyramus + and Thisby meet by moonlight. + SNOUT. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play? + BOTTOM. A calendar, a calendar! Look in the almanack; find out + moonshine, find out moonshine. + QUINCE. Yes, it doth shine that night. + BOTTOM. Why, then may you leave a casement of the great chamber + window, where we play, open; and the moon may shine in at the + casement. + QUINCE. Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a + lantern, and say he comes to disfigure or to present the person + of Moonshine. Then there is another thing: we must have a wall in + the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, says the story, did + talk through the chink of a wall. + SNOUT. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom? + BOTTOM. Some man or other must present Wall; and let him have some + plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about him, to signify + wall; and let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny + shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper. + QUINCE. If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down, every + mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin; when + you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake; and so every + one according to his cue. + + Enter PUCK behind + + PUCK. What hempen homespuns have we swagg'ring here, + So near the cradle of the Fairy Queen? + What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor; + An actor too perhaps, if I see cause. + QUINCE. Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth. + BOTTOM. Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet- + QUINCE. 'Odious'- odorous! + BOTTOM. -odours savours sweet; + So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear. + But hark, a voice! Stay thou but here awhile, + And by and by I will to thee appear. Exit + PUCK. A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here! Exit + FLUTE. Must I speak now? + QUINCE. Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes but to + see a noise that he heard, and is to come again. + FLUTE. Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue, + Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier, + Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew, + As true as truest horse, that would never tire, + I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb. + QUINCE. 'Ninus' tomb,' man! Why, you must not speak that yet; that + you answer to Pyramus. You speak all your part at once, cues, and + all. Pyramus enter: your cue is past; it is 'never tire.' + FLUTE. O- As true as truest horse, that y et would never tire. + + Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head + + BOTTOM. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine. + QUINCE. O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted. Pray, masters! fly, + masters! Help! + Exeunt all but BOTTOM and PUCK + PUCK. I'll follow you; I'll lead you about a round, + Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier; + Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, + A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire; + And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, + Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn. +Exit + BOTTOM. Why do they run away? This is a knavery of them to make me + afeard. + + Re-enter SNOUT + + SNOUT. O Bottom, thou art chang'd! What do I see on thee? + BOTTOM. What do you see? You see an ass-head of your own, do you? + Exit SNOUT + + Re-enter QUINCE + + QUINCE. Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art translated. + Exit + BOTTOM. I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me; to + fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do + what they can; I will walk up and down here, and will sing, that + they shall hear I am not afraid. [Sings] + + The ousel cock, so black of hue, + With orange-tawny bill, + The throstle with his note so true, + The wren with little quill. + + TITANIA. What angel wakes me from my flow'ry bed? + BOTTOM. [Sings] + The finch, the sparrow, and the lark, + The plain-song cuckoo grey, + Whose note full many a man doth mark, + And dares not answer nay- + for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird? + Who would give a bird the he, though he cry 'cuckoo' never so? + TITANIA. I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again. + Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note; + So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape; + And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me, + On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee. + BOTTOM. Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that. + And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company + together now-a-days. The more the pity that some honest + neighbours will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon + occasion. + TITANIA. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. + BOTTOM. Not so, neither; but if I had wit enough to get out of this + wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn. + TITANIA. Out of this wood do not desire to go; + Thou shalt remain here whether thou wilt or no. + I am a spirit of no common rate; + The summer still doth tend upon my state; + And I do love thee; therefore, go with me. + I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee; + And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep, + And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep; + And I will purge thy mortal grossness so + That thou shalt like an airy spirit go. + Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed! + + Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and MUSTARDSEED + + PEASEBLOSSOM. Ready. + COBWEB. And I. + MOTH. And I. + MUSTARDSEED. And I. + ALL. Where shall we go? + TITANIA. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman; + Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes; + Feed him with apricocks and dewberries, + With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries; + The honey bags steal from the humble-bees, + And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs, + And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes, + To have my love to bed and to arise; + And pluck the wings from painted butterflies, + To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes. + Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies. + PEASEBLOSSOM. Hail, mortal! + COBWEB. Hail! + MOTH. Hail! + MUSTARDSEED. Hail! + BOTTOM. I cry your worships mercy, heartily; I beseech your + worship's name. + COBWEB. Cobweb. + BOTTOM. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master + Cobweb. If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you. Your + name, honest gentleman? + PEASEBLOSSOM. Peaseblossom. + BOTTOM. I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your mother, and + to Master Peascod, your father. Good Master Peaseblossom, I shall + desire you of more acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you, + sir? + MUSTARDSEED. Mustardseed. + BOTTOM. Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well. That + same cowardly giant-like ox-beef hath devour'd many a gentleman + of your house. I promise you your kindred hath made my eyes water + ere now. I desire you of more acquaintance, good Master + Mustardseed. + TITANIA. Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower. + The moon, methinks, looks with a wat'ry eye; + And when she weeps, weeps every little flower; + Lamenting some enforced chastity. + Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Another part of the wood + +Enter OBERON + + OBERON. I wonder if Titania be awak'd; + Then, what it was that next came in her eye, + Which she must dote on in extremity. + + Enter PUCK + + Here comes my messenger. How now, mad spirit! + What night-rule now about this haunted grove? + PUCK. My mistress with a monster is in love. + Near to her close and consecrated bower, + While she was in her dull and sleeping hour, + A crew of patches, rude mechanicals, + That work for bread upon Athenian stalls, + Were met together to rehearse a play + Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day. + The shallowest thickskin of that barren sort, + Who Pyramus presented, in their sport + Forsook his scene and ent'red in a brake; + When I did him at this advantage take, + An ass's nole I fixed on his head. + Anon his Thisby must be answered, + And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy, + As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye, + Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort, + Rising and cawing at the gun's report, + Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky, + So at his sight away his fellows fly; + And at our stamp here, o'er and o'er one falls; + He murder cries, and help from Athens calls. + Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong, + Made senseless things begin to do them wrong, + For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch; + Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all things catch. + I led them on in this distracted fear, + And left sweet Pyramus translated there; + When in that moment, so it came to pass, + Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass. + OBERON. This falls out better than I could devise. + But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes + With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do? + PUCK. I took him sleeping- that is finish'd too- + And the Athenian woman by his side; + That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd. + + Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA + + OBERON. Stand close; this is the same Athenian. + PUCK. This is the woman, but not this the man. + DEMETRIUS. O, why rebuke you him that loves you so? + Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe. + HERMIA. Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse, + For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse. + If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, + Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, + And kill me too. + The sun was not so true unto the day + As he to me. Would he have stolen away + From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon + This whole earth may be bor'd, and that the moon + May through the centre creep and so displease + Her brother's noontide with th' Antipodes. + It cannot be but thou hast murd'red him; + So should a murderer look- so dead, so grim. + DEMETRIUS. So should the murdered look; and so should I, + Pierc'd through the heart with your stern cruelty; + Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear, + As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere. + HERMIA. What's this to my Lysander? Where is he? + Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me? + DEMETRIUS. I had rather give his carcass to my hounds. + HERMIA. Out, dog! out, cur! Thou driv'st me past the bounds + Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then? + Henceforth be never numb'red among men! + O, once tell true; tell true, even for my sake! + Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake, + And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch! + Could not a worm, an adder, do so much? + An adder did it; for with doubler tongue + Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung. + DEMETRIUS. You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood: + I am not guilty of Lysander's blood; + Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell. + HERMIA. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well. + DEMETRIUS. An if I could, what should I get therefore? + HERMIA. A privilege never to see me more. + And from thy hated presence part I so; + See me no more whether he be dead or no. Exit + DEMETRIUS. There is no following her in this fierce vein; + Here, therefore, for a while I will remain. + So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow + For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe; + Which now in some slight measure it will pay, + If for his tender here I make some stay. [Lies down] + OBERON. What hast thou done? Thou hast mistaken quite, + And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight. + Of thy misprision must perforce ensue + Some true love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true. + PUCK. Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth, + A million fail, confounding oath on oath. + OBERON. About the wood go swifter than the wind, + And Helena of Athens look thou find; + All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer, + With sighs of love that costs the fresh blood dear. + By some illusion see thou bring her here; + I'll charm his eyes against she do appear. + PUCK. I go, I go; look how I go, + Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow. Exit + OBERON. Flower of this purple dye, + Hit with Cupid's archery, + Sink in apple of his eye. + When his love he doth espy, + Let her shine as gloriously + As the Venus of the sky. + When thou wak'st, if she be by, + Beg of her for remedy. + + Re-enter PUCK + + PUCK. Captain of our fairy band, + Helena is here at hand, + And the youth mistook by me + Pleading for a lover's fee; + Shall we their fond pageant see? + Lord, what fools these mortals be! + OBERON. Stand aside. The noise they make + Will cause Demetrius to awake. + PUCK. Then will two at once woo one. + That must needs be sport alone; + And those things do best please me + That befall prepost'rously. + + Enter LYSANDER and HELENA + + LYSANDER. Why should you think that I should woo in scorn? + Scorn and derision never come in tears. + Look when I vow, I weep; and vows so born, + In their nativity all truth appears. + How can these things in me seem scorn to you, + Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true? + HELENA. You do advance your cunning more and more. + When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray! + These vows are Hermia's. Will you give her o'er? + Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh: + Your vows to her and me, put in two scales, + Will even weigh; and both as light as tales. + LYSANDER. I hod no judgment when to her I swore. + HELENA. Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er. + LYSANDER. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you. + DEMETRIUS. [Awaking] O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine! + To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne? + Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show + Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! + That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow, + Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow + When thou hold'st up thy hand. O, let me kiss + This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss! + HELENA. O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent + To set against me for your merriment. + If you were civil and knew courtesy, + You would not do me thus much injury. + Can you not hate me, as I know you do, + But you must join in souls to mock me too? + If you were men, as men you are in show, + You would not use a gentle lady so: + To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts, + When I am sure you hate me with your hearts. + You both are rivals, and love Hermia; + And now both rivals, to mock Helena. + A trim exploit, a manly enterprise, + To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes + With your derision! None of noble sort + Would so offend a virgin, and extort + A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport. + LYSANDER. You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so; + For you love Hermia. This you know I know; + And here, with all good will, with all my heart, + In Hermia's love I yield you up my part; + And yours of Helena to me bequeath, + Whom I do love and will do till my death. + HELENA. Never did mockers waste more idle breath. + DEMETRIUS. Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none. + If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone. + My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd, + And now to Helen is it home return'd, + There to remain. + LYSANDER. Helen, it is not so. + DEMETRIUS. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know, + Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear. + Look where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear. + + Enter HERMIA + + HERMIA. Dark night, that from the eye his function takes, + The ear more quick of apprehension makes; + Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense, + It pays the hearing double recompense. + Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found; + Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound. + But why unkindly didst thou leave me so? + LYSANDER. Why should he stay whom love doth press to go? + HERMIA. What love could press Lysander from my side? + LYSANDER. Lysander's love, that would not let him bide- + Fair Helena, who more engilds the night + Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light. + Why seek'st thou me? Could not this make thee know + The hate I bare thee made me leave thee so? + HERMIA. You speak not as you think; it cannot be. + HELENA. Lo, she is one of this confederacy! + Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three + To fashion this false sport in spite of me. + Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid! + Have you conspir'd, have you with these contriv'd, + To bait me with this foul derision? + Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd, + The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent, + When we have chid the hasty-footed time + For parting us- O, is all forgot? + All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence? + We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, + Have with our needles created both one flower, + Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, + Both warbling of one song, both in one key; + As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, + Had been incorporate. So we grew together, + Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, + But yet an union in partition, + Two lovely berries moulded on one stern; + So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; + Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, + Due but to one, and crowned with one crest. + And will you rent our ancient love asunder, + To join with men in scorning your poor friend? + It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly; + Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it, + Though I alone do feel the injury. + HERMIA. I am amazed at your passionate words; + I scorn you not; it seems that you scorn me. + HELENA. Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn, + To follow me and praise my eyes and face? + And made your other love, Demetrius, + Who even but now did spurn me with his foot, + To call me goddess, nymph, divine, and rare, + Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this + To her he hates? And wherefore doth Lysander + Deny your love, so rich within his soul, + And tender me, forsooth, affection, + But by your setting on, by your consent? + What though I be not so in grace as you, + So hung upon with love, so fortunate, + But miserable most, to love unlov'd? + This you should pity rather than despise. + HERMIA. I understand not what you mean by this. + HELENA. Ay, do- persever, counterfeit sad looks, + Make mouths upon me when I turn my back, + Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up; + This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled. + If you have any pity, grace, or manners, + You would not make me such an argument. + But fare ye well; 'tis partly my own fault, + Which death, or absence, soon shall remedy. + LYSANDER. Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse; + My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena! + HELENA. O excellent! + HERMIA. Sweet, do not scorn her so. + DEMETRIUS. If she cannot entreat, I can compel. + LYSANDER. Thou canst compel no more than she entreat; + Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers + Helen, I love thee, by my life I do; + I swear by that which I will lose for thee + To prove him false that says I love thee not. + DEMETRIUS. I say I love thee more than he can do. + LYSANDER. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too. + DEMETRIUS. Quick, come. + HERMIA. Lysander, whereto tends all this? + LYSANDER. Away, you Ethiope! + DEMETRIUS. No, no, he will + Seem to break loose- take on as you would follow, + But yet come not. You are a tame man; go! + LYSANDER. Hang off, thou cat, thou burr; vile thing, let loose, + Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent. + HERMIA. Why are you grown so rude? What change is this, + Sweet love? + LYSANDER. Thy love! Out, tawny Tartar, out! + Out, loathed med'cine! O hated potion, hence! + HERMIA. Do you not jest? + HELENA. Yes, sooth; and so do you. + LYSANDER. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee. + DEMETRIUS. I would I had your bond; for I perceive + A weak bond holds you; I'll not trust your word. + LYSANDER. What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead? + Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so. + HERMIA. What! Can you do me greater harm than hate? + Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love? + Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander? + I am as fair now as I was erewhile. + Since night you lov'd me; yet since night you left me. + Why then, you left me- O, the gods forbid!- + In earnest, shall I say? + LYSANDER. Ay, by my life! + And never did desire to see thee more. + Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt; + Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest + That I do hate thee and love Helena. + HERMIA. O me! you juggler! you cankerblossom! + You thief of love! What! Have you come by night, + And stol'n my love's heart from him? + HELENA. Fine, i' faith! + Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, + No touch of bashfulness? What! Will you tear + Impatient answers from my gentle tongue? + Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet you! + HERMIA. 'Puppet!' why so? Ay, that way goes the game. + Now I perceive that she hath made compare + Between our statures; she hath urg'd her height; + And with her personage, her tall personage, + Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him. + And are you grown so high in his esteem + Because I am so dwarfish and so low? + How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak. + How low am I? I am not yet so low + But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. + HELENA. I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, + Let her not hurt me. I was never curst; + I have no gift at all in shrewishness; + I am a right maid for my cowardice; + Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think, + Because she is something lower than myself, + That I can match her. + HERMIA. 'Lower' hark, again. + HELENA. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. + I evermore did love you, Hermia, + Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you; + Save that, in love unto Demetrius, + I told him of your stealth unto this wood. + He followed you; for love I followed him; + But he hath chid me hence, and threat'ned me + To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too; + And now, so you will let me quiet go, + To Athens will I bear my folly back, + And follow you no further. Let me go. + You see how simple and how fond I am. + HERMIA. Why, get you gone! Who is't that hinders you? + HELENA. A foolish heart that I leave here behind. + HERMIA. What! with Lysander? + HELENA. With Demetrius. + LYSANDER. Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena. + DEMETRIUS. No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part. + HELENA. O, when she is angry, she is keen and shrewd; + She was a vixen when she went to school; + And, though she be but little, she is fierce. + HERMIA. 'Little' again! Nothing but 'low' and 'little'! + Why will you suffer her to flout me thus? + Let me come to her. + LYSANDER. Get you gone, you dwarf; + You minimus, of hind'ring knot-grass made; + You bead, you acorn. + DEMETRIUS. You are too officious + In her behalf that scorns your services. + Let her alone; speak not of Helena; + Take not her part; for if thou dost intend + Never so little show of love to her, + Thou shalt aby it. + LYSANDER. Now she holds me not. + Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right, + Of thine or mine, is most in Helena. + DEMETRIUS. Follow! Nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jowl. + Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS + HERMIA. You, mistress, all this coil is long of you. + Nay, go not back. + HELENA. I will not trust you, I; + Nor longer stay in your curst company. + Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray; + My legs are longer though, to run away. Exit + HERMIA. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say. Exit + OBERON. This is thy negligence. Still thou mistak'st, + Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully. + PUCK. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. + Did not you tell me I should know the man + By the Athenian garments he had on? + And so far blameless proves my enterprise + That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes; + And so far am I glad it so did sort, + As this their jangling I esteem a sport. + OBERON. Thou seest these lovers seek a place to fight. + Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night; + The starry welkin cover thou anon + With drooping fog as black as Acheron, + And lead these testy rivals so astray + As one come not within another's way. + Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue, + Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong; + And sometime rail thou like Demetrius; + And from each other look thou lead them thus, + Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep + With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep. + Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye; + Whose liquor hath this virtuous property, + To take from thence all error with his might + And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight. + When they next wake, all this derision + Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision; + And back to Athens shall the lovers wend + With league whose date till death shall never end. + Whiles I in this affair do thee employ, + I'll to my queen, and beg her Indian boy; + And then I will her charmed eye release + From monster's view, and all things shall be peace. + PUCK. My fairy lord, this must be done with haste, + For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast; + And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger, + At whose approach ghosts, wand'ring here and there, + Troop home to churchyards. Damned spirits all + That in cross-ways and floods have burial, + Already to their wormy beds are gone, + For fear lest day should look their shames upon; + They wilfully themselves exil'd from light, + And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night. + OBERON. But we are spirits of another sort: + I with the Morning's love have oft made sport; + And, like a forester, the groves may tread + Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red, + Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams, + Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams. + But, notwithstanding, haste, make no delay; + We may effect this business yet ere day. Exit OBERON + PUCK. Up and down, up and down, + I will lead them up and down. + I am fear'd in field and town. + Goblin, lead them up and down. + Here comes one. + + Enter LYSANDER + + LYSANDER. Where art thou, proud Demetrius? Speak thou now. + PUCK. Here, villain, drawn and ready. Where art thou? + LYSANDER. I will be with thee straight. + PUCK. Follow me, then, + To plainer ground. Exit LYSANDER as following the voice + + Enter DEMETRIUS + + DEMETRIUS. Lysander, speak again. + Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled? + Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head? + PUCK. Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars, + Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars, + And wilt not come? Come, recreant, come, thou child; + I'll whip thee with a rod. He is defil'd + That draws a sword on thee. + DEMETRIUS. Yea, art thou there? + PUCK. Follow my voice; we'll try no manhood here. Exeunt + + Re-enter LYSANDER + + LYSANDER. He goes before me, and still dares me on; + When I come where he calls, then he is gone. + The villain is much lighter heel'd than I. + I followed fast, but faster he did fly, + That fallen am I in dark uneven way, + And here will rest me. [Lies down] Come, thou gentle day. + For if but once thou show me thy grey light, + I'll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite. [Sleeps] + + Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS + + PUCK. Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why com'st thou not? + DEMETRIUS. Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot + Thou run'st before me, shifting every place, + And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face. + Where art thou now? + PUCK. Come hither; I am here. + DEMETRIUS. Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear, + If ever I thy face by daylight see; + Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me + To measure out my length on this cold bed. + By day's approach look to be visited. + [Lies down and sleeps] + + Enter HELENA + + HELENA. O weary night, O long and tedious night, + Abate thy hours! Shine comforts from the east, + That I may back to Athens by daylight, + From these that my poor company detest. + And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye, + Steal me awhile from mine own company. [Sleeps] + PUCK. Yet but three? Come one more; + Two of both kinds makes up four. + Here she comes, curst and sad. + Cupid is a knavish lad, + Thus to make poor females mad. + + Enter HERMIA + + HERMIA. Never so weary, never so in woe, + Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers, + I can no further crawl, no further go; + My legs can keep no pace with my desires. + Here will I rest me till the break of day. + Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray! + [Lies down and sleeps] + PUCK. On the ground + Sleep sound; + I'll apply + To your eye, + Gentle lover, remedy. + [Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER'S eyes] + When thou wak'st, + Thou tak'st + True delight + In the sight + Of thy former lady's eye; + And the country proverb known, + That every man should take his own, + In your waking shall be shown: + Jack shall have Jill; + Nought shall go ill; + The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. + Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +The wood. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA, lying asleep + +Enter TITANIA and Bottom; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, +and other FAIRIES attending; + OBERON behind, unseen + + TITANIA. Come, sit thee down upon this flow'ry bed, + While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, + And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head, + And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. + BOTTOM. Where's Peaseblossom? + PEASEBLOSSOM. Ready. + BOTTOM. Scratch my head, Peaseblossom. + Where's Mounsieur Cobweb? + COBWEB. Ready. + BOTTOM. Mounsieur Cobweb; good mounsieur, get you your weapons in + your hand and kill me a red-hipp'd humble-bee on the top of a + thistle; and, good mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret + yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and, good mounsieur, + have a care the honey-bag break not; I would be loath to have you + overflown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur + Mustardseed? + MUSTARDSEED. Ready. + BOTTOM. Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave + your curtsy, good mounsieur. + MUSTARDSEED. What's your will? + BOTTOM. Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to + scratch. I must to the barber's, mounsieur; for methinks I am + marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if + my hair do but tickle me I must scratch. + TITANIA. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love? + BOTTOM. I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have the tongs + and the bones. + TITANIA. Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat. + BOTTOM. Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry + oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay. Good + hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow. + TITANIA. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek + The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts. + BOTTOM. I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas. But, I + pray you, let none of your people stir me; I have an exposition + of sleep come upon me. + TITANIA. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. + Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away. Exeunt FAIRIES + So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle + Gently entwist; the female ivy so + Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. + O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee! [They sleep] + + Enter PUCK + + OBERON. [Advancing] Welcome, good Robin. Seest thou this sweet + sight? + Her dotage now I do begin to pity; + For, meeting her of late behind the wood, + Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool, + I did upbraid her and fall out with her. + For she his hairy temples then had rounded + With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers; + And that same dew which sometime on the buds + Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls + Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes, + Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail. + When I had at my pleasure taunted her, + And she in mild terms begg'd my patience, + I then did ask of her her changeling child; + Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent + To bear him to my bower in fairy land. + And now I have the boy, I will undo + This hateful imperfection of her eyes. + And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp + From off the head of this Athenian swain, + That he awaking when the other do + May all to Athens back again repair, + And think no more of this night's accidents + But as the fierce vexation of a dream. + But first I will release the Fairy Queen. + [Touching her eyes] + Be as thou wast wont to be; + See as thou was wont to see. + Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower + Hath such force and blessed power. + Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen. + TITANIA. My Oberon! What visions have I seen! + Methought I was enamour'd of an ass. + OBERON. There lies your love. + TITANIA. How came these things to pass? + O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now! + OBERON. Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head. + Titania, music call; and strike more dead + Than common sleep of all these five the sense. + TITANIA. Music, ho, music, such as charmeth sleep! + PUCK. Now when thou wak'st with thine own fool's eyes peep. + OBERON. Sound, music. Come, my Queen, take hands with me, + [Music] + And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be. + Now thou and I are new in amity, + And will to-morrow midnight solemnly + Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly, + And bless it to all fair prosperity. + There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be + Wedded, with Theseus, an in jollity. + PUCK. Fairy King, attend and mark; + I do hear the morning lark. + OBERON. Then, my Queen, in silence sad, + Trip we after night's shade. + We the globe can compass soon, + Swifter than the wand'ring moon. + TITANIA. Come, my lord; and in our flight, + Tell me how it came this night + That I sleeping here was found + With these mortals on the ground. Exeunt + + To the winding of horns, enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, + EGEUS, and train + + THESEUS. Go, one of you, find out the forester; + For now our observation is perform'd, + And since we have the vaward of the day, + My love shall hear the music of my hounds. + Uncouple in the western valley; let them go. + Dispatch, I say, and find the forester. Exit an ATTENDANT + We will, fair Queen, up to the mountain's top, + And mark the musical confusion + Of hounds and echo in conjunction. + HIPPOLYTA. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once + When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear + With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear + Such gallant chiding, for, besides the groves, + The skies, the fountains, every region near + Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard + So musical a discord, such sweet thunder. + THESEUS. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind, + So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung + With ears that sweep away the morning dew; + Crook-knee'd and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls; + Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells, + Each under each. A cry more tuneable + Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn, + In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly. + Judge when you hear. But, soft, what nymphs are these? + EGEUS. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep, + And this Lysander, this Demetrius is, + This Helena, old Nedar's Helena. + I wonder of their being here together. + THESEUS. No doubt they rose up early to observe + The rite of May; and, hearing our intent, + Came here in grace of our solemnity. + But speak, Egeus; is not this the day + That Hermia should give answer of her choice? + EGEUS. It is, my lord. + THESEUS. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. + [Horns and shout within. The sleepers + awake and kneel to THESEUS] + Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past; + Begin these wood-birds but to couple now? + LYSANDER. Pardon, my lord. + THESEUS. I pray you all, stand up. + I know you two are rival enemies; + How comes this gentle concord in the world + That hatred is so far from jealousy + To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity? + LYSANDER. My lord, I shall reply amazedly, + Half sleep, half waking; but as yet, I swear, + I cannot truly say how I came here, + But, as I think- for truly would I speak, + And now I do bethink me, so it is- + I came with Hermia hither. Our intent + Was to be gone from Athens, where we might, + Without the peril of the Athenian law- + EGEUS. Enough, enough, my Lord; you have enough; + I beg the law, the law upon his head. + They would have stol'n away, they would, Demetrius, + Thereby to have defeated you and me: + You of your wife, and me of my consent, + Of my consent that she should be your wife. + DEMETRIUS. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth, + Of this their purpose hither to this wood; + And I in fury hither followed them, + Fair Helena in fancy following me. + But, my good lord, I wot not by what power- + But by some power it is- my love to Hermia, + Melted as the snow, seems to me now + As the remembrance of an idle gaud + Which in my childhood I did dote upon; + And all the faith, the virtue of my heart, + The object and the pleasure of mine eye, + Is only Helena. To her, my lord, + Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia. + But, like a sickness, did I loathe this food; + But, as in health, come to my natural taste, + Now I do wish it, love it, long for it, + And will for evermore be true to it. + THESEUS. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met; + Of this discourse we more will hear anon. + Egeus, I will overbear your will; + For in the temple, by and by, with us + These couples shall eternally be knit. + And, for the morning now is something worn, + Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside. + Away with us to Athens, three and three; + We'll hold a feast in great solemnity. + Come, Hippolyta. + Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train + DEMETRIUS. These things seem small and undistinguishable, + Like far-off mountains turned into clouds. + HERMIA. Methinks I see these things with parted eye, + When every thing seems double. + HELENA. So methinks; + And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, + Mine own, and not mine own. + DEMETRIUS. Are you sure + That we are awake? It seems to me + That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think + The Duke was here, and bid us follow him? + HERMIA. Yea, and my father. + HELENA. And Hippolyta. + LYSANDER. And he did bid us follow to the temple. + DEMETRIUS. Why, then, we are awake; let's follow him; + And by the way let us recount our dreams. Exeunt + BOTTOM. [Awaking] When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer. My + next is 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho! Peter Quince! Flute, the + bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God's my life, + stol'n hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare vision. + I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was. + Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream. Methought + I was- there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and + methought I had, but man is but a patch'd fool, if he will offer + to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the + ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his + tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I + will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream. It shall + be call'd 'Bottom's Dream,' because it hath no bottom; and I will + sing it in the latter end of a play, before the Duke. + Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at + her death. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Athens. QUINCE'S house + +Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING + + QUINCE. Have you sent to Bottom's house? Is he come home yet? + STARVELING. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported. + FLUTE. If he come not, then the play is marr'd; it goes not + forward, doth it? + QUINCE. It is not possible. You have not a man in all Athens able + to discharge Pyramus but he. + FLUTE. No; he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in + Athens. + QUINCE. Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour for + a sweet voice. + FLUTE. You must say 'paragon.' A paramour is- God bless us!- A + thing of naught. + + Enter SNUG + + SNUG. Masters, the Duke is coming from the temple; and there is two + or three lords and ladies more married. If our sport had gone + forward, we had all been made men. + FLUTE. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day + during his life; he could not have scaped sixpence a day. An the + Duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll + be hanged. He would have deserved it: sixpence a day in Pyramus, + or nothing. + + Enter BOTTOM + + BOTTOM. Where are these lads? Where are these hearts? + QUINCE. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour! + BOTTOM. Masters, I am to discourse wonders; but ask me not what; + for if I tell you, I am not true Athenian. I will tell you + everything, right as it fell out. + QUINCE. Let us hear, sweet Bottom. + BOTTOM. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that the + Duke hath dined. Get your apparel together; good strings to your + beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace; + every man look o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our + play is preferr'd. In any case, let Thisby have clean linen; and + let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall + hang out for the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no + onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do not + doubt but to hear them say it is a sweet comedy. No more words. + Away, go, away! Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Athens. The palace of THESEUS + +Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, LORDS, and ATTENDANTS + + HIPPOLYTA. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of. + THESEUS. More strange than true. I never may believe + These antique fables, nor these fairy toys. + Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, + Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend + More than cool reason ever comprehends. + The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, + Are of imagination all compact. + One sees more devils than vast hell can hold; + That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, + Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt. + The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, + Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; + And as imagination bodies forth + The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen + Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing + A local habitation and a name. + Such tricks hath strong imagination + That, if it would but apprehend some joy, + It comprehends some bringer of that joy; + Or in the night, imagining some fear, + How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear? + HIPPOLYTA. But all the story of the night told over, + And all their minds transfigur'd so together, + More witnesseth than fancy's images, + And grows to something of great constancy, + But howsoever strange and admirable. + + Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA + + THESEUS. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth. + Joy, gentle friends, joy and fresh days of love + Accompany your hearts! + LYSANDER. More than to us + Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed! + THESEUS. Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have, + To wear away this long age of three hours + Between our after-supper and bed-time? + Where is our usual manager of mirth? + What revels are in hand? Is there no play + To ease the anguish of a torturing hour? + Call Philostrate. + PHILOSTRATE. Here, mighty Theseus. + THESEUS. Say, what abridgment have you for this evening? + What masque? what music? How shall we beguile + The lazy time, if not with some delight? + PHILOSTRATE. There is a brief how many sports are ripe; + Make choice of which your Highness will see first. + [Giving a paper] + THESEUS. 'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung + By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.' + We'll none of that: that have I told my love, + In glory of my kinsman Hercules. + 'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, + Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.' + That is an old device, and it was play'd + When I from Thebes came last a conqueror. + 'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death + Of Learning, late deceas'd in beggary.' + That is some satire, keen and critical, + Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony. + 'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus + And his love Thisby; very tragical mirth.' + Merry and tragical! tedious and brief! + That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow. + How shall we find the concord of this discord? + PHILOSTRATE. A play there is, my lord, some ten words long, + Which is as brief as I have known a play; + But by ten words, my lord, it is too long, + Which makes it tedious; for in all the play + There is not one word apt, one player fitted. + And tragical, my noble lord, it is; + For Pyramus therein doth kill himself. + Which when I saw rehears'd, I must confess, + Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears + The passion of loud laughter never shed. + THESEUS. What are they that do play it? + PHILOSTRATE. Hard-handed men that work in Athens here, + Which never labour'd in their minds till now; + And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories + With this same play against your nuptial. + THESEUS. And we will hear it. + PHILOSTRATE. No, my noble lord, + It is not for you. I have heard it over, + And it is nothing, nothing in the world; + Unless you can find sport in their intents, + Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain, + To do you service. + THESEUS. I will hear that play; + For never anything can be amiss + When simpleness and duty tender it. + Go, bring them in; and take your places, ladies. + Exit PHILOSTRATE + HIPPOLYTA. I love not to see wretchedness o'er-charged, + And duty in his service perishing. + THESEUS. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing. + HIPPOLYTA. He says they can do nothing in this kind. + THESEUS. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing. + Our sport shall be to take what they mistake; + And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect + Takes it in might, not merit. + Where I have come, great clerks have purposed + To greet me with premeditated welcomes; + Where I have seen them shiver and look pale, + Make periods in the midst of sentences, + Throttle their practis'd accent in their fears, + And, in conclusion, dumbly have broke off, + Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet, + Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome; + And in the modesty of fearful duty + I read as much as from the rattling tongue + Of saucy and audacious eloquence. + Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity + In least speak most to my capacity. + + Re-enter PHILOSTRATE + + PHILOSTRATE. SO please your Grace, the Prologue is address'd. + THESEUS. Let him approach. [Flourish of trumpets] + + Enter QUINCE as the PROLOGUE + + PROLOGUE. If we offend, it is with our good will. + That you should think, we come not to offend, + But with good will. To show our simple skill, + That is the true beginning of our end. + Consider then, we come but in despite. + We do not come, as minding to content you, + Our true intent is. All for your delight + We are not here. That you should here repent you, + The actors are at band; and, by their show, + You shall know all, that you are like to know, + THESEUS. This fellow doth not stand upon points. + LYSANDER. He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows not + the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but + to speak true. + HIPPOLYTA. Indeed he hath play'd on this prologue like a child on a + recorder- a sound, but not in government. + THESEUS. His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing im paired, + but all disordered. Who is next? + + Enter, with a trumpet before them, as in dumb show, + PYRAMUS and THISBY, WALL, MOONSHINE, and LION + + PROLOGUE. Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show; + But wonder on, till truth make all things plain. + This man is Pyramus, if you would know; + This beauteous lady Thisby is certain. + This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present + Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder; + And through Walls chink, poor souls, they are content + To whisper. At the which let no man wonder. + This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn, + Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know, + By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn + To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo. + This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name, + The trusty Thisby, coming first by night, + Did scare away, or rather did affright; + And as she fled, her mantle she did fall; + Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain. + Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall, + And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain; + Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful blade, + He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast; + And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade, + His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest, + Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain, + At large discourse while here they do remain. + Exeunt PROLOGUE, PYRAMUS, THISBY, + LION, and MOONSHINE + THESEUS. I wonder if the lion be to speak. + DEMETRIUS. No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do. + WALL. In this same interlude it doth befall + That I, one Snout by name, present a wall; + And such a wall as I would have you think + That had in it a crannied hole or chink, + Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby, + Did whisper often very secretly. + This loam, this rough-cast, and this stone, doth show + That I am that same wall; the truth is so; + And this the cranny is, right and sinister, + Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper. + THESEUS. Would you desire lime and hair to speak better? + DEMETRIUS. It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard + discourse, my lord. + + Enter PYRAMUS + + THESEUS. Pyramus draws near the wall; silence. + PYRAMUS. O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black! + O night, which ever art when day is not! + O night, O night, alack, alack, alack, + I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot! + And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall, + That stand'st between her father's ground and mine; + Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall, + Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne. + [WALL holds up his fingers] + Thanks, courteous wall. Jove shield thee well for this! + But what see what see I? No Thisby do I see. + O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss, + Curs'd he thy stones for thus deceiving me! + THESEUS. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again. + PYRAMUS. No, in truth, sir, he should not. Deceiving me is Thisby's + cue. She is to enter now, and I am to spy her through the wall. + You shall see it will fall pat as I told you; yonder she comes. + + Enter THISBY + + THISBY. O wall, full often hast thou beard my moans, + For parting my fair Pyramus and me! + My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones, + Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee. + PYRAMUS. I see a voice; now will I to the chink, + To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face. + Thisby! + THISBY. My love! thou art my love, I think. + PYRAMUS. Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace; + And like Limander am I trusty still. + THISBY. And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill. + PYRAMUS. Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true. + THISBY. As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you. + PYRAMUS. O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall. + THISBY. I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all. + PYRAMUS. Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway? + THISBY. Tide life, tide death, I come without delay. + Exeunt PYRAMUS and THISBY + WALL. Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so; + And, being done, thus Wall away doth go. Exit WALL + THESEUS. Now is the moon used between the two neighbours. + DEMETRIUS. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear + without warning. + HIPPOLYTA. This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard. + THESEUS. The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are + no worse, if imagination amend them. + HIPPOLYTA. It must be your imagination then, and not theirs. + THESEUS. If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves, + they may pass for excellent men. Here come two noble beasts in, a + man and a lion. + + Enter LION and MOONSHINE + + LION. You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear + The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor, + May now, perchance, both quake and tremble here, + When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar. + Then know that I as Snug the joiner am + A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam; + For, if I should as lion come in strife + Into this place, 'twere pity on my life. + THESEUS. A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience. + DEMETRIUS. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw. + LYSANDER. This lion is a very fox for his valour. + THESEUS. True; and a goose for his discretion. + DEMETRIUS. Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry his + discretion, and the fox carries the goose. + THESEUS. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour; for + the goose carries not the fox. It is well. Leave it to his + discretion, and let us listen to the Moon. + MOONSHINE. This lanthorn doth the horned moon present- + DEMETRIUS. He should have worn the horns on his head. + THESEUS. He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within the + circumference. + MOONSHINE. This lanthorn doth the horned moon present; + Myself the Man i' th' Moon do seem to be. + THESEUS. This is the greatest error of all the rest; the man should + be put into the lantern. How is it else the man i' th' moon? + DEMETRIUS. He dares not come there for the candle; for, you see, it + is already in snuff. + HIPPOLYTA. I am aweary of this moon. Would he would change! + THESEUS. It appears, by his small light of discretion, that he is + in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay + the time. + LYSANDER. Proceed, Moon. + MOON. All that I have to say is to tell you that the lanthorn is + the moon; I, the Man i' th' Moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; + and this dog, my dog. + DEMETRIUS. Why, all these should be in the lantern; for all these + are in the moon. But silence; here comes Thisby. + + Re-enter THISBY + + THISBY. This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love? + LION. [Roaring] O- [THISBY runs off] + DEMETRIUS. Well roar'd, Lion. + THESEUS. Well run, Thisby. + HIPPOLYTA. Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a good + grace. [The LION tears THISBY'S Mantle, and exit] + THESEUS. Well mous'd, Lion. + + Re-enter PYRAMUS + + DEMETRIUS. And then came Pyramus. + LYSANDER. And so the lion vanish'd. + PYRAMUS. Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams; + I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright; + For, by thy gracious golden, glittering gleams, + I trust to take of truest Thisby sight. + But stay, O spite! + But mark, poor knight, + What dreadful dole is here! + Eyes, do you see? + How can it he? + O dainty duck! O dear! + Thy mantle good, + What! stain'd with blood? + Approach, ye Furies fell. + O Fates! come, come; + Cut thread and thrum; + Quail, crush, conclude, and quell. + THESEUS. This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go + near to make a man look sad. + HIPPOLYTA. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man. + PYRAMUS. O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame? + Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear; + Which is- no, no- which was the fairest dame + That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd with cheer. + Come, tears, confound; + Out, sword, and wound + The pap of Pyramus; + Ay, that left pap, + Where heart doth hop. [Stabs himself] + Thus die I, thus, thus, thus. + Now am I dead, + Now am I fled; + My soul is in the sky. + Tongue, lose thy light; + Moon, take thy flight. [Exit MOONSHINE] + Now die, die, die, die, die. [Dies] + DEMETRIUS. No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one. + LYSANDER. Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing. + THESEUS. With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover and yet + prove an ass. + HIPPOLYTA. How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisby comes back + and finds her lover? + + Re-enter THISBY + + THESEUS. She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and her + passion ends the play. + HIPPOLYTA. Methinks she should not use a long one for such a + Pyramus; I hope she will be brief. + DEMETRIUS. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which + Thisby, is the better- he for a man, God warrant us: She for a + woman, God bless us! + LYSANDER. She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes. + DEMETRIUS. And thus she moans, videlicet:- + THISBY. Asleep, my love? + What, dead, my dove? + O Pyramus, arise, + Speak, speak. Quite dumb? + Dead, dead? A tomb + Must cover thy sweet eyes. + These lily lips, + This cherry nose, + These yellow cowslip cheeks, + Are gone, are gone; + Lovers, make moan; + His eyes were green as leeks. + O Sisters Three, + Come, come to me, + With hands as pale as milk; + Lay them in gore, + Since you have shore + With shears his thread of silk. + Tongue, not a word. + Come, trusty sword; + Come, blade, my breast imbrue. [Stabs herself] + And farewell, friends; + Thus Thisby ends; + Adieu, adieu, adieu. [Dies] + THESEUS. Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead. + DEMETRIUS. Ay, and Wall too. + BOTTOM. [Starting up] No, I assure you; the wall is down that + parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the Epilogue, or + to hear a Bergomask dance between two of our company? + THESEUS. No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. + Never excuse; for when the players are all dead there need none + to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had played Pyramus, and + hang'd himself in Thisby's garter, it would have been a fine + tragedy. And so it is, truly; and very notably discharg'd. But + come, your Bergomask; let your epilogue alone. [A dance] + The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve. + Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time. + I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn, + As much as we this night have overwatch'd. + This palpable-gross play hath well beguil'd + The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed. + A fortnight hold we this solemnity, + In nightly revels and new jollity. Exeunt + + Enter PUCK with a broom + + PUCK. Now the hungry lion roars, + And the wolf behowls the moon; + Whilst the heavy ploughman snores, + All with weary task fordone. + Now the wasted brands do glow, + Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud, + Puts the wretch that lies in woe + In remembrance of a shroud. + Now it is the time of night + That the graves, all gaping wide, + Every one lets forth his sprite, + In the church-way paths to glide. + And we fairies, that do run + By the triple Hecate's team + From the presence of the sun, + Following darkness like a dream, + Now are frolic. Not a mouse + Shall disturb this hallowed house. + I am sent with broom before, + To sweep the dust behind the door. + + Enter OBERON and TITANIA, with all their train + + OBERON. Through the house give glimmering light, + By the dead and drowsy fire; + Every elf and fairy sprite + Hop as light as bird from brier; + And this ditty, after me, + Sing and dance it trippingly. + TITANIA. First, rehearse your song by rote, + To each word a warbling note; + Hand in hand, with fairy grace, + Will we sing, and bless this place. + + [OBERON leading, the FAIRIES sing and dance] + + OBERON. Now, until the break of day, + Through this house each fairy stray. + To the best bride-bed will we, + Which by us shall blessed be; + And the issue there create + Ever shall be fortunate. + So shall all the couples three + Ever true in loving be; + And the blots of Nature's hand + Shall not in their issue stand; + Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar, + Nor mark prodigious, such as are + Despised in nativity, + Shall upon their children be. + With this field-dew consecrate, + Every fairy take his gait, + And each several chamber bless, + Through this palace, with sweet peace; + And the owner of it blest + Ever shall in safety rest. + Trip away; make no stay; + Meet me all by break of day. Exeunt all but PUCK + PUCK. If we shadows have offended, + Think but this, and all is mended, + That you have but slumb'red here + While these visions did appear. + And this weak and idle theme, + No more yielding but a dream, + Gentles, do not reprehend. + If you pardon, we will mend. + And, as I am an honest Puck, + If we have unearned luck + Now to scape the serpent's tongue, + We will make amends ere long; + Else the Puck a liar call. + So, good night unto you all. + Give me your hands, if we be friends, + And Robin shall restore amends. Exit + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1599 + + +MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING + + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon. + Don John, his bastard brother. + Claudio, a young lord of Florence. + Benedick, a Young lord of Padua. + Leonato, Governor of Messina. + Antonio, an old man, his brother. + Balthasar, attendant on Don Pedro. + Borachio, follower of Don John. + Conrade, follower of Don John. + Friar Francis. + Dogberry, a Constable. + Verges, a Headborough. + A Sexton. + A Boy. + + Hero, daughter to Leonato. + Beatrice, niece to Leonato. + Margaret, waiting gentlewoman attending on Hero. + Ursula, waiting gentlewoman attending on Hero. + + Messengers, Watch, Attendants, etc. + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE.--Messina. + + +ACT I. Scene I. +An orchard before Leonato's house. + +Enter Leonato (Governor of Messina), Hero (his Daughter), +and Beatrice (his Niece), with a Messenger. + + Leon. I learn in this letter that Don Pedro of Arragon comes this + night to Messina. + Mess. He is very near by this. He was not three leagues off when I + left him. + Leon. How many gentlemen have you lost in this action? + Mess. But few of any sort, and none of name. + Leon. A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full + numbers. I find here that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honour on + a young Florentine called Claudio. + Mess. Much deserv'd on his part, and equally rememb'red by Don + Pedro. He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing + in the figure of a lamb the feats of a lion. He hath indeed + better bett'red expectation than you must expect of me to tell + you how. + Leon. He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very much glad of it. + Mess. I have already delivered him letters, and there appears much + joy in him; even so much that joy could not show itself modest + enough without a badge of bitterness. + Leon. Did he break out into tears? + Mess. In great measure. + Leon. A kind overflow of kindness. There are no faces truer than + those that are so wash'd. How much better is it to weep at joy + than to joy at weeping! + Beat. I pray you, is Signior Mountanto return'd from the wars or no? + Mess. I know none of that name, lady. There was none such in the + army of any sort. + Leon. What is he that you ask for, niece? + Hero. My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua. + Mess. O, he's return'd, and as pleasant as ever he was. + Beat. He set up his bills here in Messina and challeng'd Cupid at + the flight, and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, + subscrib'd for Cupid and challeng'd him at the burbolt. I pray + you, how many hath he kill'd and eaten in these wars? But how + many hath he kill'd? For indeed I promised to eat all of his + killing. + Leon. Faith, niece, you tax Signior Benedick too much; but he'll + be meet with you, I doubt it not. + Mess. He hath done good service, lady, in these wars. + Beat. You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it. He is a + very valiant trencherman; he hath an excellent stomach. + Mess. And a good soldier too, lady. + Beat. And a good soldier to a lady; but what is he to a lord? + Mess. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuff'd with all honourable + virtues. + Beat. It is so indeed. He is no less than a stuff'd man; but for + the stuffing--well, we are all mortal. + Leon. You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a kind of merry + war betwixt Signior Benedick and her. They never meet but there's + a skirmish of wit between them. + Beat. Alas, he gets nothing by that! In our last conflict four of + his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man govern'd + with one; so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let + him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse; for + it is all the wealth that he hath left to be known a reasonable + creature. Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new + sworn brother. + Mess. Is't possible? + Beat. Very easily possible. He wears his faith but as the fashion + of his hat; it ever changes with the next block. + Mess. I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books. + Beat. No. An he were, I would burn my study. But I pray you, who is + his companion? Is there no young squarer now that will make a + voyage with him to the devil? + Mess. He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio. + Beat. O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease! He is sooner + caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently mad. God + help the noble Claudio! If he have caught the Benedick, it will + cost him a thousand pound ere 'a be cured. + Mess. I will hold friends with you, lady. + Beat. Do, good friend. + Leon. You will never run mad, niece. + Beat. No, not till a hot January. + Mess. Don Pedro is approach'd. + + Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, Balthasar, and John the Bastard. + + Pedro. Good Signior Leonato, are you come to meet your trouble? The + fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it. + Leon. Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your Grace; + for trouble being gone, comfort should remain; but when you depart + from me, sorrow abides and happiness takes his leave. + Pedro. You embrace your charge too willingly. I think this is your + daughter. + Leon. Her mother hath many times told me so. + Bene. Were you in doubt, sir, that you ask'd her? + Leon. Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child. + Pedro. You have it full, Benedick. We may guess by this what you + are, being a man. Truly the lady fathers herself. Be happy, lady; + for you are like an honourable father. + Bene. If Signior Leonato be her father, she would not have his head + on her shoulders for all Messina, as like him as she is. + Beat. I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick. + Nobody marks you. + Bene. What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living? + Beat. Is it possible Disdain should die while she hath such meet + food to feed it as Signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert + to disdain if you come in her presence. + Bene. Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of + all ladies, only you excepted; and I would I could find in my + heart that I had not a hard heart, for truly I love none. + Beat. A dear happiness to women! They would else have been troubled + with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of + your humour for that. I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow + than a man swear he loves me. + Bene. God keep your ladyship still in that mind! So some gentleman + or other shall scape a predestinate scratch'd face. + Beat. Scratching could not make it worse an 'twere such a face as + yours were. + Bene. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher. + Beat. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours. + Bene. I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a + continuer. But keep your way, a God's name! I have done. + Beat. You always end with a jade's trick. I know you of old. + Pedro. That is the sum of all, Leonato. Signior Claudio and Signior + Benedick, my dear friend Leonato hath invited you all. I tell him + we shall stay here at the least a month, and he heartly prays + some occasion may detain us longer. I dare swear he is no + hypocrite, but prays from his heart. + Leon. If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn. [To Don + John] Let me bid you welcome, my lord. Being reconciled to the + Prince your brother, I owe you all duty. + John. I thank you. I am not of many words, but I thank you. + Leon. Please it your Grace lead on? + Pedro. Your hand, Leonato. We will go together. + Exeunt. Manent Benedick and Claudio. + Claud. Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato? + Bene. I noted her not, but I look'd on her. + Claud. Is she not a modest young lady? + Bene. Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my simple + true judgment? or would you have me speak after my custom, as + being a professed tyrant to their sex? + Claud. No. I pray thee speak in sober judgment. + Bene. Why, i' faith, methinks she's too low for a high praise, + too brown for a fair praise, and too little for a great praise. + Only this commendation I can afford her, that were she other + than she is, she were unhandsome, and being no other but as she + is, I do not like her. + Claud. Thou thinkest I am in sport. I pray thee tell me truly how + thou lik'st her. + Bene. Would you buy her, that you enquire after her? + Claud. Can the world buy such a jewel? + Bene. Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak you this with a sad + brow? or do you play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a + good hare-finder and Vulcan a rare carpenter? Come, in what key + shall a man take you to go in the song? + Claud. In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I look'd on. + Bene. I can see yet without spectacles, and I see no such matter. + There's her cousin, an she were not possess'd with a fury,exceeds + her as much in beauty as the first of May doth the last of + December. But I hope you have no intent to turn husband, have + you? + Claud. I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the + contrary, if Hero would be my wife. + Bene. Is't come to this? In faith, hath not the world one man but + he will wear his cap with suspicion? Shall I never see a + bachelor of threescore again? Go to, i' faith! An thou wilt needs + thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it and sigh away + Sundays. + + Enter Don Pedro. + + Look! Don Pedro is returned to seek you. + Pedro. What secret hath held you here, that you followed not to + Leonato's? + Bene. I would your Grace would constrain me to tell. + Pedro. I charge thee on thy allegiance. + Bene. You hear, Count Claudio. I can be secret as a dumb man, I + would have you think so; but, on my allegiance--mark you this-on + my allegiance! he is in love. With who? Now that is your Grace's + part. Mark how short his answer is: With Hero, Leonato's short + daughter. + Claud. If this were so, so were it utt'red. + Bene. Like the old tale, my lord: 'It is not so, nor 'twas not so; + but indeed, God forbid it should be so!' + Claud. If my passion change not shortly, God forbid it should be + otherwise. + Pedro. Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy. + Claud. You speak this to fetch me in, my lord. + Pedro. By my troth, I speak my thought. + Claud. And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine. + Bene. And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine. + Claud. That I love her, I feel. + Pedro. That she is worthy, I know. + Bene. That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor know how she + should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me. + I will die in it at the stake. + Pedro. Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despite of + beauty. + Claud. And never could maintain his part but in the force of his + will. + Bene. That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me + up, I likewise give her most humble thanks; but that I will have + a rechate winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible + baldrick, all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do them + the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust + none; and the fine is (for the which I may go the finer), I will + live a bachelor. + Pedro. I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love. + Bene. With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord; not with + love. Prove that ever I lose more blood with love than I will get + again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen + and hang me up at the door of a brothel house for the sign of + blind Cupid. + Pedro. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt + prove a notable argument. + Bene. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me; and + he that hits me, let him be clapp'd on the shoulder and call'd + Adam. + Pedro. Well, as time shall try. + 'In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.' + Bene. The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible Benedick bear + it, pluck off the bull's horns and set them in my forehead, and + let me be vilely painted, and in such great letters as they write + 'Here is good horse to hire,' let them signify under my sign + 'Here you may see Benedick the married man.' + Claud. If this should ever happen, thou wouldst be horn-mad. + Pedro. Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou + wilt quake for this shortly. + Bene. I look for an earthquake too then. + Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the hours. In the meantime, + good Signior Benedick, repair to Leonato's, commend me to him and + tell him I will not fail him at supper; for indeed he hath made + great preparation. + Bene. I have almost matter enough in me for such an embassage; and + so I commit you-- + Claud. To the tuition of God. From my house--if I had it-- + Pedro. The sixth of July. Your loving friend, Benedick. + Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not. The body of your discourse is + sometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but slightly + basted on neither. Ere you flout old ends any further, examine + your conscience. And so I leave you. Exit. + Claud. My liege, your Highness now may do me good. + Pedro. My love is thine to teach. Teach it but how, + And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn + Any hard lesson that may do thee good. + Claud. Hath Leonato any son, my lord? + Pedro. No child but Hero; she's his only heir. + Dost thou affect her, Claudio? + Claud.O my lord, + When you went onward on this ended action, + I look'd upon her with a soldier's eye, + That lik'd, but had a rougher task in hand + Than to drive liking to the name of love; + But now I am return'd and that war-thoughts + Have left their places vacant, in their rooms + Come thronging soft and delicate desires, + All prompting me how fair young Hero is, + Saying I lik'd her ere I went to wars. + Pedro. Thou wilt be like a lover presently + And tire the hearer with a book of words. + If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it, + And I will break with her and with her father, + And thou shalt have her. Wast not to this end + That thou began'st to twist so fine a story? + Claud. How sweetly you do minister to love, + That know love's grief by his complexion! + But lest my liking might too sudden seem, + I would have salv'd it with a longer treatise. + Pedro. What need the bridge much broader than the flood? + The fairest grant is the necessity. + Look, what will serve is fit. 'Tis once, thou lovest, + And I will fit thee with the remedy. + I know we shall have revelling to-night. + I will assume thy part in some disguise + And tell fair Hero I am Claudio, + And in her bosom I'll unclasp my heart + And take her hearing prisoner with the force + And strong encounter of my amorous tale. + Then after to her father will I break, + And the conclusion is, she shall be thine. + In practice let us put it presently. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +A room in Leonato's house. + +Enter [at one door] Leonato and [at another door, Antonio] an old man, +brother to Leonato. + + Leon. How now, brother? Where is my cousin your son? Hath he + provided this music? + Ant. He is very busy about it. But, brother, I can tell you strange + news that you yet dreamt not of. + Leon. Are they good? + Ant. As the event stamps them; but they have a good cover, they + show well outward. The Prince and Count Claudio, walking in a + thick-pleached alley in mine orchard, were thus much overheard by + a man of mine: the Prince discovered to Claudio that he loved my + niece your daughter and meant to acknowledge it this night in a + dance, and if he found her accordant, he meant to take the + present time by the top and instantly break with you of it. + Leon. Hath the fellow any wit that told you this? + Ant. A good sharp fellow. I will send for him, and question him + yourself. + Leon. No, no. We will hold it as a dream till it appear itself; but + I will acquaint my daughter withal, that she may be the better + prepared for an answer, if peradventure this be true. Go you and + tell her of it. [Exit Antonio.] + + [Enter Antonio's Son with a Musician, and others.] + + [To the Son] Cousin, you know what you have to do. + --[To the Musician] O, I cry you mercy, friend. Go you with me, + and I will use your skill.--Good cousin, have a care this busy + time. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene III. +Another room in Leonato's house.] + +Enter Sir John the Bastard and Conrade, his companion. + + Con. What the goodyear, my lord! Why are you thus out of measure + sad? + John. There is no measure in the occasion that breeds; therefore + the sadness is without limit. + Con. You should hear reason. + John. And when I have heard it, what blessings brings it? + Con. If not a present remedy, at least a patient sufferance. + John. I wonder that thou (being, as thou say'st thou art, born + under Saturn) goest about to apply a moral medicine to a + mortifying mischief. I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when + I have cause, and smile at no man's jests; eat when I have + stomach, and wait for no man's leisure; sleep when I am drowsy, + and tend on no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw no + man in his humour. + Con. Yea, but you must not make the full show of this till you may + do it without controlment. You have of late stood out against + your brother, and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace, where + it is impossible you should take true root but by the fair + weather that you make yourself. It is needful that you frame the + season for your own harvest. + John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace, + and it better fits my blood to be disdain'd of all than to + fashion a carriage to rob love from any. In this, though I cannot + be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but + I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle and + enfranchis'd with a clog; therefore I have decreed not to sing in + my cage. If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I + would do my liking. In the meantime let me be that I am, and seek + not to alter me. + Con. Can you make no use of your discontent? + John. I make all use of it, for I use it only. + + Enter Borachio. + + Who comes here? What news, Borachio? + Bora. I came yonder from a great supper. The Prince your brother is + royally entertain'd by Leonato, and I can give you intelligence + of an intended marriage. + John. Will it serve for any model to build mischief on? + What is he for a fool that betroths himself to unquietness? + Bora. Marry, it is your brother's right hand. + John. Who? the most exquisite Claudio? + Bora. Even he. + John. A proper squire! And who? and who? which way looks he? + Bora. Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato. + John. A very forward March-chick! How came you to this? + Bora. Being entertain'd for a perfumer, as I was smoking a musty + room, comes me the Prince and Claudio, hand in hand in sad + conference. I whipt me behind the arras and there heard it agreed + upon that the Prince should woo Hero for himself, and having + obtain'd her, give her to Count Claudio. + John. Come, come, let us thither. This may prove food to my + displeasure. That young start-up hath all the glory of my + overthrow. If I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way. + You are both sure, and will assist me? + Con. To the death, my lord. + John. Let us to the great supper. Their cheer is the greater that + I am subdued. Would the cook were o' my mind! Shall we go prove + what's to be done? + Bora. We'll wait upon your lordship. + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. Scene I. +A hall in Leonato's house. + +Enter Leonato, [Antonio] his Brother, Hero his Daughter, +and Beatrice his Niece, and a Kinsman; [also Margaret and Ursula]. + + Leon. Was not Count John here at supper? + Ant. I saw him not. + Beat. How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can see him but I am + heart-burn'd an hour after. + Hero. He is of a very melancholy disposition. + Beat. He were an excellent man that were made just in the midway + between him and Benedick. The one is too like an image and says + nothing, and the other too like my lady's eldest son, evermore + tattling. + Leon. Then half Signior Benedick's tongue in Count John's mouth, + and half Count John's melancholy in Signior Benedick's face-- + Beat. With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in + his purse, such a man would win any woman in the world--if 'a + could get her good will. + Leon. By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if + thou be so shrewd of thy tongue. + Ant. In faith, she's too curst. + Beat. Too curst is more than curst. I shall lessen God's sending + that way, for it is said, 'God sends a curst cow short horns,' + but to a cow too curst he sends none. + Leon. So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns. + Beat. Just, if he send me no husband; for the which blessing I am + at him upon my knees every morning and evening. Lord, I could not + endure a husband with a beard on his face. I had rather lie in + the woollen! + Leon. You may light on a husband that hath no beard. + Beat. What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel and make + him my waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a + youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that + is more than a youth is not for me; and he that is less than a + man, I am not for him. Therefore I will even take sixpence in + earnest of the berrord and lead his apes into hell. + Leon. Well then, go you into hell? + Beat. No; but to the gate, and there will the devil meet me like an + old cuckold with horns on his head, and say 'Get you to heaven, + Beatrice, get you to heaven. Here's no place for you maids.' So + deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter--for the heavens. + He shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry + as the day is long. + Ant. [to Hero] Well, niece, I trust you will be rul'd by your + father. + Beat. Yes faith. It is my cousin's duty to make cursy and say, + 'Father, as it please you.' But yet for all that, cousin, let him + be a handsome fellow, or else make another cursy, and say, + 'Father, as it please me.' + Leon. Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband. + Beat. Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would + it not grieve a woman to be overmaster'd with a piece of valiant + dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? + No, uncle, I'll none. Adam's sons are my brethren, and truly I + hold it a sin to match in my kinred. + Leon. Daughter, remember what I told you. If the Prince do solicit + you in that kind, you know your answer. + Beat. The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be not wooed + in good time. If the Prince be too important, tell him there is + measure in everything, and so dance out the answer. For, hear me, + Hero: wooing, wedding, and repenting is as a Scotch jig, a + measure, and a cinque-pace: the first suit is hot and hasty like + a Scotch jig--and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly + modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes + Repentance and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace + faster and faster, till he sink into his grave. + Leon. Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly. + Beat. I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight. + Leon. The revellers are ent'ring, brother. Make good room. + [Exit Antonio.] + + Enter, [masked,] Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and Balthasar. + [With them enter Antonio, also masked. After them enter] + Don John [and Borachio (without masks), who stand aside + and look on during the dance]. + + Pedro. Lady, will you walk a bout with your friend? + Hero. So you walk softly and look sweetly and say nothing, + I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away. + Pedro. With me in your company? + Hero. I may say so when I please. + Pedro. And when please you to say so? + Hero. When I like your favour, for God defend the lute should be + like the case! + Pedro. My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove. + Hero. Why then, your visor should be thatch'd. + Pedro. Speak low if you speak love. [Takes her aside.] + Balth. Well, I would you did like me. + Marg. So would not I for your own sake, for I have many ill + qualities. + Balth. Which is one? + Marg. I say my prayers aloud. + Balth. I love you the better. The hearers may cry Amen. + Marg. God match me with a good dancer! + Balth. Amen. + Marg. And God keep him out of my sight when the dance is done! + Answer, clerk. + Balth. No more words. The clerk is answered. + [Takes her aside.] + Urs. I know you well enough. You are Signior Antonio. + Ant. At a word, I am not. + Urs. I know you by the waggling of your head. + Ant. To tell you true, I counterfeit him. + Urs. You could never do him so ill-well unless you were the very + man. Here's his dry hand up and down. You are he, you are he! + Ant. At a word, I am not. + Urs. Come, come, do you think I do not know you by your excellent + wit? Can virtue hide itself? Go to, mum you are he. Graces will + appear, and there's an end. [ They step aside.] + Beat. Will you not tell me who told you so? + Bene. No, you shall pardon me. + Beat. Nor will you not tell me who you are? + Bene. Not now. + Beat. That I was disdainful, and that I had my good wit out of the + 'Hundred Merry Tales.' Well, this was Signior Benedick that said + so. + Bene. What's he? + Beat. I am sure you know him well enough. + Bene. Not I, believe me. + Beat. Did he never make you laugh? + Bene. I pray you, what is he? + Beat. Why, he is the Prince's jester, a very dull fool. Only his + gift is in devising impossible slanders. None but libertines + delight in him; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in + his villany; for he both pleases men and angers them, and then + they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure he is in the fleet. + I would he had boarded me. + Bene. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say. + Beat. Do, do. He'll but break a comparison or two on me; which + peradventure, not marked or not laugh'd at, strikes him into + melancholy; and then there's a partridge wing saved, for the fool + will eat no supper that night. + [Music.] + We must follow the leaders. + Bene. In every good thing. + Beat. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next + turning. + Dance. Exeunt (all but Don John, Borachio, and Claudio]. + John. Sure my brother is amorous on Hero and hath withdrawn her + father to break with him about it. The ladies follow her and but + one visor remains. + Bora. And that is Claudio. I know him by his bearing. + John. Are you not Signior Benedick? + Claud. You know me well. I am he. + John. Signior, you are very near my brother in his love. He is + enamour'd on Hero. I pray you dissuade him from her; she is no + equal for his birth. You may do the part of an honest man in it. + Claud. How know you he loves her? + John. I heard him swear his affection. + Bora. So did I too, and he swore he would marry her tonight. + John. Come, let us to the banquet. + Exeunt. Manet Claudio. + Claud. Thus answer I in name of Benedick + But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio. + [Unmasks.] + 'Tis certain so. The Prince wooes for himself. + Friendship is constant in all other things + Save in the office and affairs of love. + Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues; + Let every eye negotiate for itself + And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch + Against whose charms faith melteth into blood. + This is an accident of hourly proof, + Which I mistrusted not. Farewell therefore Hero! + + Enter Benedick [unmasked]. + + Bene. Count Claudio? + Claud. Yea, the same. + Bene. Come, will you go with me? + Claud. Whither? + Bene. Even to the next willow, about your own business, County. What + fashion will you wear the garland of? about your neck, like an + usurer's chain? or under your arm, like a lieutenant's scarf? You + must wear it one way, for the Prince hath got your Hero. + Claud. I wish him joy of her. + Bene. Why, that's spoken like an honest drovier. So they sell + bullocks. But did you think the Prince would have served you + thus? + Claud. I pray you leave me. + Bene. Ho! now you strike like the blind man! 'Twas the boy that + stole your meat, and you'll beat the post. + Claud. If it will not be, I'll leave you. Exit. + Bene. Alas, poor hurt fowl! now will he creep into sedges. But, + that my Lady Beatrice should know me, and not know me! The + Prince's fool! Ha! it may be I go under that title because I am + merry. Yea, but so I am apt to do myself wrong. I am not so + reputed. It is the base (though bitter) disposition of Beatrice + that puts the world into her person and so gives me out. Well, + I'll be revenged as I may. + + Enter Don Pedro. + + Pedro. Now, signior, where's the Count? Did you see him? + Bene. Troth, my lord, I have played the part of Lady Fame, I found + him here as melancholy as a lodge in a warren. I told him, and I + think I told him true, that your Grace had got the good will of + this young lady, and I off'red him my company to a willow tree, + either to make him a garland, as being forsaken, or to bind him + up a rod, as being worthy to be whipt. + Pedro. To be whipt? What's his fault? + Bene. The flat transgression of a schoolboy who, being overjoyed + with finding a bird's nest, shows it his companion, and he steals + it. + Pedro. Wilt thou make a trust a transgression? The transgression is + in the stealer. + Bene. Yet it had not been amiss the rod had been made, and the + garland too; for the garland he might have worn himself, and the + rod he might have bestowed on you, who, as I take it, have stol'n + his bird's nest. + Pedro. I will but teach them to sing and restore them to the owner. + Bene. If their singing answer your saying, by my faith you say + honestly. + Pedro. The Lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you. The gentleman that + danc'd with her told her she is much wrong'd by you. + Bene. O, she misus'd me past the endurance of a block! An oak but + with one green leaf on it would have answered her; my very visor + began to assume life and scold with her. She told me, not + thinking I had been myself, that I was the Prince's jester, that + I was duller than a great thaw; huddling jest upon jest with such + impossible conveyance upon me that I stood like a man at a mark, + with a whole army shooting at me. She speaks poniards, and every + word stabs. If her breath were as terrible as her terminations, + there were no living near her; she would infect to the North + Star. I would not marry her though she were endowed with all that + Adam had left him before he transgress'd. She would have made + Hercules have turn'd spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make + the fire too. Come, talk not of her. You shall find her the + infernal Ate in good apparel. I would to God some scholar would + conjure her, for certainly, while she is here, a man may live as + quiet in hell as in a sanctuary; and people sin upon purpose, + because they would go thither; so indeed all disquiet, horror, + and perturbation follows her. + + Enter Claudio and Beatrice, Leonato, Hero. + + Pedro. Look, here she comes. + Bene. Will your Grace command me any service to the world's end? I + will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can + devise to send me on; I will fetch you a toothpicker now from the + furthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of Prester John's + foot; fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard; do you any + embassage to the Pygmies--rather than hold three words' + conference with this harpy. You have no employment for me? + Pedro. None, but to desire your good company. + Bene. O God, sir, here's a dish I love not! I cannot endure my Lady + Tongue. [Exit.] + Pedro. Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of Signior + Benedick. + Beat. Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile, and I gave him use for + it--a double heart for his single one. Marry, once before he won + it of me with false dice; therefore your Grace may well say I + have lost it. + Pedro. You have put him down, lady; you have put him down. + Beat. So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove + the mother of fools. I have brought Count Claudio, whom you sent + me to seek. + Pedro. Why, how now, Count? Wherefore are you sad? + Claud. Not sad, my lord. + Pedro. How then? sick? + Claud. Neither, my lord. + Beat. The Count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well; but + civil count--civil as an orange, and something of that jealous + complexion. + Pedro. I' faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true; though I'll + be sworn, if he be so, his conceit is false. Here, Claudio, I + have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won. I have broke with + her father, and his good will obtained. Name the day of marriage, + and God give thee joy! + Leon. Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my fortunes. His + Grace hath made the match, and all grace say Amen to it! + Beat. Speak, Count, 'tis your cue. + Claud. Silence is the perfectest herald of joy. I were but little + happy if I could say how much. Lady, as you are mine, I am yours. + I give away myself for you and dote upon the exchange. + Beat. Speak, cousin; or, if you cannot, stop his mouth with a kiss + and let not him speak neither. + Pedro. In faith, lady, you have a merry heart. + Beat. Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on the windy + side of care. My cousin tells him in his ear that he is in her + heart. + Claud. And so she doth, cousin. + Beat. Good Lord, for alliance! Thus goes every one to the world but + I, and I am sunburnt. I may sit in a corner and cry 'Heigh-ho for + a husband!' + Pedro. Lady Beatrice, I will get you one. + Beat. I would rather have one of your father's getting. Hath your + Grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent + husbands, if a maid could come by them. + Pedro. Will you have me, lady? + Beat. No, my lord, unless I might have another for working days: + your Grace is too costly to wear every day. But I beseech your + Grace pardon me. I was born to speak all mirth and no matter. + Pedro. Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes + you, for out o' question you were born in a merry hour. + Beat. No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star + danc'd, and under that was I born. Cousins, God give you joy! + Leon. Niece, will you look to those things I told you of? + Beat. I cry you mercy, uncle, By your Grace's pardon. Exit. + Pedro. By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady. + Leon. There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord. She + is never sad but when she sleeps, and not ever sad then; for I + have heard my daughter say she hath often dreamt of unhappiness + and wak'd herself with laughing. + Pedro. She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband. + Leon. O, by no means! She mocks all her wooers out of suit. + Pedro. She were an excellent wife for Benedick. + Leon. O Lord, my lord! if they were but a week married, they would + talk themselves mad. + Pedro. County Claudio, when mean you to go to church? + Claud. To-morrow, my lord. Time goes on crutches till love have all + his rites. + Leon. Not till Monday, my dear son, which is hence a just + sevennight; and a time too brief too, to have all things answer + my mind. + Pedro. Come, you shake the head at so long a breathing; + but I warrant thee, Claudio, the time shall not go dully by us. + I will in the interim undertake one of Hercules' labours, which + is, to bring Signior Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a + mountain of affection th' one with th' other. I would fain have + it a match, and I doubt not but to fashion it if you three will + but minister such assistance as I shall give you direction. + Leon. My lord, I am for you, though it cost me ten nights' + watchings. + Claud. And I, my lord. + Pedro. And you too, gentle Hero? + Hero. I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my cousin to a + good husband. + Pedro. And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that I know. + Thus far can I praise him: he is of a noble strain, of approved + valour, and confirm'd honesty. I will teach you how to humour + your cousin, that she shall fall in love with Benedick; and I, + [to Leonato and Claudio] with your two helps, will so practise on + Benedick that, in despite of his quick wit and his queasy + stomach, he shall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this, + Cupid is no longer an archer; his glory shall be ours, for we are + the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +A hall in Leonato's house. + +Enter [Don] John and Borachio. + + John. It is so. The Count Claudio shall marry the daughter of + Leonato. + Bora. Yea, my lord; but I can cross it. + John. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be med'cinable to me. + I am sick in displeasure to him, and whatsoever comes athwart his + affection ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this + marriage? + Bora. Not honestly, my lord, but so covertly that no dishonesty + shall appear in me. + John. Show me briefly how. + Bora. I think I told your lordship, a year since, how much I am in + the favour of Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman to Hero. + John. I remember. + Bora. I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her + to look out at her lady's chamber window. + John. What life is in that to be the death of this marriage? + Bora. The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the + Prince your brother; spare not to tell him that he hath wronged + his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio (whose estimation do + you mightily hold up) to a contaminated stale, such a one as + Hero. + John. What proof shall I make of that? + Bora. Proof enough to misuse the Prince, to vex Claudio, to undo + Hero, and kill Leonato. Look you for any other issue? + John. Only to despite them I will endeavour anything. + Bora. Go then; find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and the Count + Claudio alone; tell them that you know that Hero loves me; intend + a kind of zeal both to the Prince and Claudio, as--in love of + your brother's honour, who hath made this match, and his friend's + reputation, who is thus like to be cozen'd with the semblance of + a maid--that you have discover'd thus. They will scarcely believe + this without trial. Offer them instances; which shall bear no + less likelihood than to see me at her chamber window, hear me + call Margaret Hero, hear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring them + to see this the very night before the intended wedding (for in + the meantime I will so fashion the matter that Hero shall be + absent) and there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero's + disloyalty that jealousy shall be call'd assurance and all the + preparation overthrown. + John. Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put it in + practice. Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a + thousand ducats. + Bora. Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning shall not + shame me. + John. I will presently go learn their day of marriage. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene III. +Leonato's orchard. + +Enter Benedick alone. + + Bene. Boy! + + [Enter Boy.] + + Boy. Signior? + Bene. In my chamber window lies a book. Bring it hither to me in + the orchard. + Boy. I am here already, sir. + Bene. I know that, but I would have thee hence and here again. + (Exit Boy.) I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much + another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love, + will, after he hath laugh'd at such shallow follies in others, + become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love; and such + a man is Claudio. I have known when there was no music with him + but the drum and the fife; and now had he rather hear the tabor + and the pipe. I have known when he would have walk'd ten mile + afoot to see a good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake + carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to speak plain + and to the purpose, like an honest man and a soldier; and now is + he turn'd orthography; his words are a very fantastical banquet-- + just so many strange dishes. May I be so converted and see with + these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not. I will not be sworn but + love may transform me to an oyster; but I'll take my oath on it, + till he have made an oyster of me he shall never make me such a + fool. One woman is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am + well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all graces be in + one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. Rich she shall + be, that's certain; wise, or I'll none; virtuous, or I'll never + cheapen her; fair, or I'll never look on her; mild, or come not + near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good discourse, an + excellent musician, and her hair shall be of what colour it + please God. Ha, the Prince and Monsieur Love! I will hide me in + the arbour. [Hides.] + + Enter Don Pedro, Leonato, Claudio. + Music [within]. + + Pedro. Come, shall we hear this music? + Claud. Yea, my good lord. How still the evening is, + As hush'd on purpose to grace harmony! + Pedro. See you where Benedick hath hid himself? + Claud. O, very well, my lord. The music ended, + We'll fit the kid-fox with a pennyworth. + + Enter Balthasar with Music. + + Pedro. Come, Balthasar, we'll hear that song again. + Balth. O, good my lord, tax not so bad a voice + To slander music any more than once. + Pedro. It is the witness still of excellency + To put a strange face on his own perfection. + I pray thee sing, and let me woo no more. + Balth. Because you talk of wooing, I will sing, + Since many a wooer doth commence his suit + To her he thinks not worthy, yet he wooes, + Yet will he swear he loves. + Pedro. Nay, pray thee come; + Or if thou wilt hold longer argument, + Do it in notes. + Balth. Note this before my notes: + There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting. + Pedro. Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks! + Note notes, forsooth, and nothing! [Music.] + Bene. [aside] Now divine air! Now is his soul ravish'd! Is it not + strange that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies? + Well, a horn for my money, when all's done. + [Balthasar sings.] + The Song. + + Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more! + Men were deceivers ever, + One foot in sea, and one on shore; + To one thing constant never. + Then sigh not so, + But let them go, + And be you blithe and bonny, + Converting all your sounds of woe + Into Hey nonny, nonny. + + Sing no more ditties, sing no moe, + Of dumps so dull and heavy! + The fraud of men was ever so, + Since summer first was leavy. + Then sigh not so, &c. + + Pedro. By my troth, a good song. + Balth. And an ill singer, my lord. + Pedro. Ha, no, no, faith! Thou sing'st well enough for a shift. + Bene. [aside] An he had been a dog that should have howl'd thus, + they would have hang'd him; and I pray God his bad voice bode no + mischief. I had as live have heard the night raven, come what + plague could have come after it. + Pedro. Yea, marry. Dost thou hear, Balthasar? I pray thee get us + some excellent music; for to-morrow night we would have it at the + Lady Hero's chamber window. + Balth. The best I can, my lord. + Pedro. Do so. Farewell. + Exit Balthasar [with Musicians]. + Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of to-day? that + your niece Beatrice was in love with Signior Benedick? + Claud. O, ay!-[Aside to Pedro] Stalk on, stalk on; the fowl sits. + --I did never think that lady would have loved any man. + Leon. No, nor I neither; but most wonderful that she should so dote + on Signior Benedick, whom she hath in all outward behaviours + seem'd ever to abhor. + Bene. [aside] Is't possible? Sits the wind in that corner? + Leon. By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what to think of it, but + that she loves him with an enraged affection. It is past the + infinite of thought. + Pedro. May be she doth but counterfeit. + Claud. Faith, like enough. + Leon. O God, counterfeit? There was never counterfeit of passion + came so near the life of passion as she discovers it. + Pedro. Why, what effects of passion shows she? + Claud. [aside] Bait the hook well! This fish will bite. + Leon. What effects, my lord? She will sit you--you heard my + daughter tell you how. + Claud. She did indeed. + Pedro. How, how, I pray you? You amaze me. I would have thought her + spirit had been invincible against all assaults of affection. + Leon. I would have sworn it had, my lord--especially against + Benedick. + Bene. [aside] I should think this a gull but that the white-bearded + fellow speaks it. Knavery cannot, sure, hide himself in such + reverence. + Claud. [aside] He hath ta'en th' infection. Hold it up. + Pedro. Hath she made her affection known to Benedick? + Leon. No, and swears she never will. That's her torment. + Claud. 'Tis true indeed. So your daughter says. 'Shall I,' says + she, 'that have so oft encount'red him with scorn, write to him + that I love him?'" + Leon. This says she now when she is beginning to write to him; for + she'll be up twenty times a night, and there will she sit in her + smock till she have writ a sheet of paper. My daughter tells us + all. + Claud. Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a pretty jest + your daughter told us of. + Leon. O, when she had writ it, and was reading it over, she found + 'Benedick' and 'Beatrice' between the sheet? + Claud. That. + Leon. O, she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence, rail'd at + herself that she should be so immodest to write to one that she + knew would flout her. 'I measure him,' says she, 'by my own + spirit; for I should flout him if he writ to me. Yea, though I + love him, I should.' + Claud. Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her + heart, tears her hair, prays, curses--'O sweet Benedick! God give + me patience!' + Leon. She doth indeed; my daughter says so. And the ecstasy hath so + much overborne her that my daughter is sometime afeard she will + do a desperate outrage to herself. It is very true. + Pedro. It were good that Benedick knew of it by some other, if she + will not discover it. + Claud. To what end? He would make but a sport of it and torment the + poor lady worse. + Pedro. An he should, it were an alms to hang him! She's an + excellent sweet lady, and (out of all suspicion) she is virtuous. + Claud. And she is exceeding wise. + Pedro. In everything but in loving Benedick. + Leon. O, my lord, wisdom and blood combating in so tender a body, + we have ten proofs to one that blood hath the victory. I am sorry + for her, as I have just cause, being her uncle and her guardian. + Pedro. I would she had bestowed this dotage on me. I would have + daff'd all other respects and made her half myself. I pray you + tell Benedick of it and hear what 'a will say. + Leon. Were it good, think you? + Claud. Hero thinks surely she will die; for she says she will die + if he love her not, and she will die ere she make her love known, + and she will die, if he woo her, rather than she will bate one + breath of her accustomed crossness. + Pedro. She doth well. If she should make tender of her love, 'tis + very possible he'll scorn it; for the man (as you know all) hath + a contemptible spirit. + Claud. He is a very proper man. + Pedro. He hath indeed a good outward happiness. + Claud. Before God! and in my mind, very wise. + Pedro. He doth indeed show some sparks that are like wit. + Claud. And I take him to be valiant. + Pedro. As Hector, I assure you; and in the managing of quarrels you + may say he is wise, for either he avoids them with great + discretion, or undertakes them with a most Christianlike fear. + Leon. If he do fear God, 'a must necessarily keep peace. If he + break the peace, he ought to enter into a quarrel with fear and + trembling. + Pedro. And so will he do; for the man doth fear God, howsoever it + seems not in him by some large jests he will make. Well, I am + sorry for your niece. Shall we go seek Benedick and tell him of + her love? + Claud. Never tell him, my lord. Let her wear it out with good + counsel. + Leon. Nay, that's impossible; she may wear her heart out first. + Pedro. Well, we will hear further of it by your daughter. Let it + cool the while. I love Benedick well, and I could wish he would + modestly examine himself to see how much he is unworthy so good a + lady. + Leon. My lord, will you .walk? Dinner is ready. + [They walk away.] + Claud. If he dote on her upon this, I will never trust my + expectation. + Pedro. Let there be the same net spread for her, and that must your + daughter and her gentlewomen carry. The sport will be, when they + hold one an opinion of another's dotage, and no such matter. + That's the scene that I would see, which will be merely a dumb + show. Let us send her to call him in to dinner. + Exeunt [Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato]. + + [Benedick advances from the arbour.] + + Bene. This can be no trick. The conference was sadly borne; they + have the truth of this from Hero; they seem to pity the lady. + It seems her affections have their full bent. Love me? Why, it + must be requited. I hear how I am censur'd. They say I will bear + myself proudly if I perceive the love come from her. They say too + that she will rather die than give any sign of affection. I did + never think to marry. I must not seem proud. Happy are they that + hear their detractions and can put them to mending. They say the + lady is fair--'tis a truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous + --'tis so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving me--by + my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor no great argument of + her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her. I may chance + have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me because I + have railed so long against marriage. But doth not the appetite + alters? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure + in his age. Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of + the brain awe a man from the career of his humour? No, the world + must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not + think I should live till I were married. + + Enter Beatrice. + + Here comes Beatrice. By this day, she's a fair lady! I do spy + some marks of love in her. + Beat. Against my will I am sent to bid You come in to dinner. + Bene. Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains. + Beat. I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to + thank me. If it had been painful, I would not have come. + Bene. You take pleasure then in the message? + Beat. Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knives point, and + choke a daw withal. You have no stomach, signior. Fare you well. +Exit. + Bene. Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.' + There's a double meaning in that. 'I took no more pains for those + thanks than you took pains to thank me.' That's as much as to + say, 'Any pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks.' If I + do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I + am a Jew. I will go get her picture. Exit. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. Scene I. +Leonato's orchard. + +Enter Hero and two Gentlewomen, Margaret and Ursula. + + Hero. Good Margaret, run thee to the parlour. + There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice + Proposing with the Prince and Claudio. + Whisper her ear and tell her, I and Ursley + Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse + Is all of her. Say that thou overheard'st us; + And bid her steal into the pleached bower, + Where honeysuckles, ripened by the sun, + Forbid the sun to enter--like favourites, + Made proud by princes, that advance their pride + Against that power that bred it. There will she hide her + To listen our propose. This is thy office. + Bear thee well in it and leave us alone. + Marg. I'll make her come, I warrant you, presently. [Exit.] + Hero. Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come, + As we do trace this alley up and down, + Our talk must only be of Benedick. + When I do name him, let it be thy part + To praise him more than ever man did merit. + My talk to thee must be how Benedick + Is sick in love with Beatrice. Of this matter + Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made, + That only wounds by hearsay. + + [Enter Beatrice.] + + Now begin; + For look where Beatrice like a lapwing runs + Close by the ground, to hear our conference. + + [Beatrice hides in the arbour]. + + Urs. The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish + Cut with her golden oars the silver stream + And greedily devour the treacherous bait. + So angle we for Beatrice, who even now + Is couched in the woodbine coverture. + Fear you not my part of the dialogue. + Hero. Then go we near her, that her ear lose nothing + Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it. + [They approach the arbour.] + No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful. + I know her spirits are as coy and wild + As haggards of the rock. + Urs. But are you sure + That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely? + Hero. So says the Prince, and my new-trothed lord. + Urs. And did they bid you tell her of it, madam? + Hero. They did entreat me to acquaint her of it; + But I persuaded them, if they lov'd Benedick, + To wish him wrestle with affection + And never to let Beatrice know of it. + Urs. Why did you so? Doth not the gentleman + Deserve as full, as fortunate a bed + As ever Beatrice shall couch upon? + Hero. O god of love! I know he doth deserve + As much as may be yielded to a man: + But Nature never fram'd a woman's heart + Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice. + Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes, + Misprizing what they look on; and her wit + Values itself so highly that to her + All matter else seems weak. She cannot love, + Nor take no shape nor project of affection, + She is so self-endeared. + Urs. Sure I think so; + And therefore certainly it were not good + She knew his love, lest she'll make sport at it. + Hero. Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw man, + How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd, + But she would spell him backward. If fair-fac'd, + She would swear the gentleman should be her sister; + If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antic, + Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed; + If low, an agate very vilely cut; + If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds; + If silent, why, a block moved with none. + So turns she every man the wrong side out + And never gives to truth and virtue that + Which simpleness and merit purchaseth. + Urs. Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable. + Hero. No, not to be so odd, and from all fashions, + As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable. + But who dare tell her so? If I should speak, + She would mock me into air; O, she would laugh me + Out of myself, press me to death with wit! + Therefore let Benedick, like cover'd fire, + Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly. + It were a better death than die with mocks, + Which is as bad as die with tickling. + Urs. Yet tell her of it. Hear what she will say. + Hero. No; rather I will go to Benedick + And counsel him to fight against his passion. + And truly, I'll devise some honest slanders + To stain my cousin with. One doth not know + How much an ill word may empoison liking. + Urs. O, do not do your cousin such a wrong! + She cannot be so much without true judgment + (Having so swift and excellent a wit + As she is priz'd to have) as to refuse + So rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick. + Hero. He is the only man of Italy, + Always excepted my dear Claudio. + Urs. I pray you be not angry with me, madam, + Speaking my fancy: Signior Benedick, + For shape, for bearing, argument, and valour, + Goes foremost in report through Italy. + Hero. Indeed he hath an excellent good name. + Urs. His excellence did earn it ere he had it. + When are you married, madam? + Hero. Why, every day to-morrow! Come, go in. + I'll show thee some attires, and have thy counsel + Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow. + [They walk away.] + Urs. She's lim'd, I warrant you! We have caught her, madam. + Hero. If it prove so, then loving goes by haps; + Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. + Exeunt [Hero and Ursula]. + + [Beatrice advances from the arbour.] + + Beat. What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true? + Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much? + Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu! + No glory lives behind the back of such. + And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee, + Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand. + If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee + To bind our loves up in a holy band; + For others say thou dost deserve, and I + Believe it better than reportingly. Exit. + + + + +Scene II. +A room in Leonato's house. + +Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and Leonato. + + Pedro. I do but stay till your marriage be consummate, and then go + I toward Arragon. + Claud. I'll bring you thither, my lord, if you'll vouchsafe me. + Pedro. Nay, that would be as great a soil in the new gloss of your + marriage as to show a child his new coat and forbid him to wear + it. I will only be bold with Benedick for his company; for, from + the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, he is all mirth. + He hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bowstring, and the little + hangman dare not shoot at him. He hath a heart as sound as a + bell; and his tongue is the clapper, for what his heart thinks, + his tongue speaks. + Bene. Gallants, I am not as I have been. + Leon. So say I. Methinks you are sadder. + Claud. I hope he be in love. + Pedro. Hang him, truant! There's no true drop of blood in him to be + truly touch'd with love. If he be sad, he wants money. + Bene. I have the toothache. + Pedro. Draw it. + Bene. Hang it! + Claud. You must hang it first and draw it afterwards. + Pedro. What? sigh for the toothache? + Leon. Where is but a humour or a worm. + Bene. Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it. + Claud. Yet say I he is in love. + Pedro. There is no appearance of fancy in him, unless it be a fancy + that he hath to strange disguises; as to be a Dutchman to-day, a + Frenchman to-morrow; or in the shape of two countries at once, as + a German from the waist downward, all slops, and a Spaniard from + the hip upward, no doublet. Unless he have a fancy to this + foolery, as it appears he hath, he is no fool for fancy, as you + would have it appear he is. + Claud. If he be not in love with some woman, there is no believing + old signs. 'A brushes his hat o' mornings. What should that bode? + Pedro. Hath any man seen him at the barber's? + Claud. No, but the barber's man hath been seen with him, and the + old ornament of his cheek hath already stuff'd tennis balls. + Leon. Indeed he looks younger than he did, by the loss of a beard. + Pedro. Nay, 'a rubs himself with civet. Can you smell him out by + that? + Claud. That's as much as to say, the sweet youth's in love. + Pedro. The greatest note of it is his melancholy. + Claud. And when was he wont to wash his face? + Pedro. Yea, or to paint himself? for the which I hear what they say + of him. + Claud. Nay, but his jesting spirit, which is new-crept into a + lutestring, and now govern'd by stops. + Pedro. Indeed that tells a heavy tale for him. Conclude, conclude, + he is in love. + Claud. Nay, but I know who loves him. + Pedro. That would I know too. I warrant, one that knows him not. + Claud. Yes, and his ill conditions; and in despite of all, dies for + him. + Pedro. She shall be buried with her face upwards. + Bene. Yet is this no charm for the toothache. Old signior, walk + aside with me. I have studied eight or nine wise words to speak + to you, which these hobby-horses must not hear. + [Exeunt Benedick and Leonato.] + Pedro. For my life, to break with him about Beatrice! + Claud. 'Tis even so. Hero and Margaret have by this played their + parts with Beatrice, and then the two bears will not bite one + another when they meet. + + Enter John the Bastard. + + John. My lord and brother, God save you. + Pedro. Good den, brother. + John. If your leisure serv'd, I would speak with you. + Pedro. In private? + John. If it please you. Yet Count Claudio may hear, for what I + would speak of concerns him. + Pedro. What's the matter? + John. [to Claudio] Means your lordship to be married tomorrow? + Pedro. You know he does. + John. I know not that, when he knows what I know. + Claud. If there be any impediment, I pray you discover it. + John. You may think I love you not. Let that appear hereafter, and + aim better at me by that I now will manifest. For my brother, I + think he holds you well and in dearness of heart hath holp to + effect your ensuing marriage--surely suit ill spent and labour + ill bestowed! + Pedro. Why, what's the matter? + John. I came hither to tell you, and, circumstances short'ned (for + she has been too long a-talking of), the lady is disloyal. + Claud. Who? Hero? + John. Even she--Leonato's Hero, your Hero, every man's Hero. + Claud. Disloyal? + John. The word is too good to paint out her wickedness. I could say + she were worse; think you of a worse title, and I will fit her to + it. Wonder not till further warrant. Go but with me to-night, you + shall see her chamber window ent'red, even the night before her + wedding day. If you love her then, to-morrow wed her. But it + would better fit your honour to change your mind. + Claud. May this be so? + Pedro. I will not think it. + John. If you dare not trust that you see, confess not that you + know. If you will follow me, I will show you enough; and when you + have seen more and heard more, proceed accordingly. + Claud. If I see anything to-night why I should not marry her + to-morrow, in the congregation where I should wed, there will I + shame her. + Pedro. And, as I wooed for thee to obtain her, I will join with + thee to disgrace her. + John. I will disparage her no farther till you are my witnesses. + Bear it coldly but till midnight, and let the issue show itself. + Pedro. O day untowardly turned! + Claud. O mischief strangely thwarting! + John. O plague right well prevented! + So will you say when you have seen the Sequel. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene III. +A street. + +Enter Dogberry and his compartner [Verges], with the Watch. + + Dog. Are you good men and true? + Verg. Yea, or else it were pity but they should suffer salvation, + body and soul. + Dog. Nay, that were a punishment too good for them if they should + have any allegiance in them, being chosen for the Prince's watch. + Verg. Well, give them their charge, neighbour Dogberry. + Dog. First, who think you the most desartless man to be constable? + 1. Watch. Hugh Oatcake, sir, or George Seacoal; for they can write + and read. + Dog. Come hither, neighbour Seacoal. God hath bless'd you with a + good name. To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune, but + to write and read comes by nature. + 2. Watch. Both which, Master Constable-- + Dog. You have. I knew it would be your answer. Well, for your + favour, sir, why, give God thanks and make no boast of it; and + for your writing and reading, let that appear when there is no + need of such vanity. You are thought here to be the most + senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch. Therefore + bear you the lanthorn. This is your charge: you shall comprehend + all vagrom men; you are to bid any man stand, in the Prince's + name. + 2. Watch. How if 'a will not stand? + Dog. Why then, take no note of him, but let him go, and presently + call the rest of the watch together and thank God you are rid of + a knave. + Verg. If he will not stand when he is bidden, he is none of the + Prince's subjects. + Dog. True, and they are to meddle with none but the Prince's + subjects. You shall also make no noise in the streets; for for + the watch to babble and to talk is most tolerable, and not to be + endured. + 2. Watch. We will rather sleep than talk. We know what belongs to + a watch. + Dog. Why, you speak like an ancient and most quiet watchman, for I + cannot see how sleeping should offend. Only have a care that your + bills be not stol'n. Well, you are to call at all the alehouses + and bid those that are drunk get them to bed. + 2. Watch. How if they will not? + Dog. Why then, let them alone till they are sober. If they make you + not then the better answer, You may say they are not the men you + took them for. + 2. Watch. Well, sir. + Dog. If you meet a thief, you may suspect him, by virtue of your + office, to be no true man; and for such kind of men, the less you + meddle or make with them, why, the more your honesty. + 2. Watch. If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay hands on + him? + Dog. Truly, by your office you may; but I think they that touch + pitch will be defil'd. The most peaceable way for you, if you do + take a thief, is to let him show himself what he is, and steal + out of your company. + Verg. You have been always called a merciful man, partner. + Dog. Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who + hath any honesty in him. + Verg. If you hear a child cry in the night, you must call to the + nurse and bid her still it. + 2. Watch. How if the nurse be asleep and will not hear us? + Dog. Why then, depart in peace and let the child wake her with + crying; for the ewe that will not hear her lamb when it baes will + never answer a calf when he bleats. + Verg. 'Tis very true. + Dog. This is the end of the charge: you, constable, are to present + the Prince's own person. If you meet the Prince in the night, + you may stay him. + Verg. Nay, by'r lady, that I think 'a cannot. + Dog. Five shillings to one on't with any man that knows the + statutes, he may stay him! Marry, not without the Prince be + willing; for indeed the watch ought to offend no man, and it is + an offence to stay a man against his will. + Verg. By'r lady, I think it be so. + Dog. Ha, ah, ha! Well, masters, good night. An there be any matter + of weight chances, call up me. Keep your fellows' counsels and + your own, and good night. Come, neighbour. + 2. Watch. Well, masters, we hear our charge. Let us go sit here + upon the church bench till two, and then all to bed. + Dog. One word more, honest neighbours. I pray you watch about + Signior Leonato's door; for the wedding being there tomorrow, + there is a great coil to-night. Adieu. Be vigitant, I beseech + you. Exeunt [Dogberry and Verges]. + + Enter Borachio and Conrade. + + Bora. What, Conrade! + 2. Watch. [aside] Peace! stir not! + Bora. Conrade, I say! + Con. Here, man. I am at thy elbow. + Bora. Mass, and my elbow itch'd! I thought there would a scab + follow. + Con. I will owe thee an answer for that; and now forward with thy + tale. + Bora. Stand thee close then under this penthouse, for it drizzles + rain, and I will, like a true drunkard, utter all to thee. + 2. Watch. [aside] Some treason, masters. Yet stand close. + Bora. Therefore know I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats. + Con. Is it possible that any villany should be so dear? + Bora. Thou shouldst rather ask if it were possible any villany + should be so rich; for when rich villains have need of poor ones, + poor ones may make what price they will. + Con. I wonder at it. + Bora. That shows thou art unconfirm'd. Thou knowest that the + fashion of a doublet, or a hat, or a cloak, is nothing to a man. + Con. Yes, it is apparel. + Bora. I mean the fashion. + Con. Yes, the fashion is the fashion. + Bora. Tush! I may as well say the fool's the fool. But seest thou + not what a deformed thief this fashion is? + 2. Watch. [aside] I know that Deformed. 'A bas been a vile thief + this seven year; 'a goes up and down like a gentleman. I remember + his name. + Bora. Didst thou not hear somebody? + Con. No; 'twas the vane on the house. + Bora. Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this fashion is? + how giddily 'a turns about all the hot-bloods between fourteen + and five-and-thirty? sometimes fashioning them like Pharaoh's + soldiers in the reechy painting, sometime like god Bel's priests + in the old church window, sometime like the shaven Hercules in + the smirch'd worm-eaten tapestry, where his codpiece seems as + massy as his club? + Con. All this I see; and I see that the fashion wears out more + apparel than the man. But art not thou thyself giddy with the + fashion too, that thou hast shifted out of thy tale into telling + me of the fashion? + Bora. Not so neither. But know that I have to-night wooed Margaret, + the Lady Hero's gentlewoman, by the name of Hero. She leans me + out at her mistress' chamber window, bids me a thousand times + good night--I tell this tale vilely; I should first tell thee how + the Prince, Claudio and my master, planted and placed and + possessed by my master Don John, saw afar off in the orchard this + amiable encounter. + Con. And thought they Margaret was Hero? + Bora. Two of them did, the Prince and Claudio; but the devil my + master knew she was Margaret; and partly by his oaths, which + first possess'd them, partly by the dark night, which did deceive + them, but chiefly by my villany, which did confirm any slander + that Don John had made, away went Claudio enrag'd; swore he would + meet her, as he was appointed, next morning at the temple, and + there, before the whole congregation, shame her with what he saw + o'ernight and send her home again without a husband. + 2. Watch. We charge you in the Prince's name stand! + 1. Watch. Call up the right Master Constable. We have here + recover'd the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known + in the commonwealth. + 2. Watch. And one Deformed is one of them. I know him; 'a wears a + lock. + Con. Masters, masters-- + 1. Watch. You'll be made bring Deformed forth, I warrant you. + Con. Masters-- + 2. Watch. Never speak, we charge you. Let us obey you to go with + us. + Bora. We are like to prove a goodly commodity, being taken up of + these men's bills. + Con. A commodity in question, I warrant you. Come, we'll obey you. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene IV. +A Room in Leonato's house. + +Enter Hero, and Margaret and Ursula. + + Hero. Good Ursula, wake my cousin Beatrice and desire her to rise. + Urs. I will, lady. + Hero. And bid her come hither. + Urs. Well. [Exit.] + Marg. Troth, I think your other rebato were better. + Hero. No, pray thee, good Meg, I'll wear this. + Marg. By my troth, 's not so good, and I warrant your cousin will + say so. + Hero. My cousin's a fool, and thou art another. I'll wear none but + this. + Marg. I like the new tire within excellently, if the hair were a + thought browner; and your gown's a most rare fashion, i' faith. + I saw the Duchess of Milan's gown that they praise so. + Hero. O, that exceeds, they say. + Marg. By my troth, 's but a nightgown in respect of yours-- + cloth-o'-gold and cuts, and lac'd with silver, set with pearls + down sleeves, side-sleeves, and skirts, round underborne with + a blush tinsel. But for a fine, quaint, graceful, and excellent + fashion, yours is worth ten on't. + Hero. God give me joy to wear it! for my heart is exceeding heavy. + Marg. 'Twill be heavier soon by the weight of a man. + Hero. Fie upon thee! art not ashamed? + Marg. Of what, lady? of speaking honourably? Is not marriage + honourable in a beggar? Is not your lord honourable without + marriage? I think you would have me say, 'saving your reverence, + a husband.' An bad thinking do not wrest true speaking, I'll + offend nobody. Is there any harm in 'the heavier for a husband'? + None, I think, an it be the right husband and the right wife. + Otherwise 'tis light, and not heavy. Ask my Lady Beatrice else. + Here she comes. + + Enter Beatrice. + + Hero. Good morrow, coz. + Beat. Good morrow, sweet Hero. + Hero. Why, how now? Do you speak in the sick tune? + Beat. I am out of all other tune, methinks. + Marg. Clap's into 'Light o' love.' That goes without a burden. Do + you sing it, and I'll dance it. + Beat. Yea, 'Light o' love' with your heels! then, if your husband + have stables enough, you'll see he shall lack no barnes. + Marg. O illegitimate construction! I scorn that with my heels. + Beat. 'Tis almost five o'clock, cousin; 'tis time you were ready. + By my troth, I am exceeding ill. Hey-ho! + Marg. For a hawk, a horse, or a husband? + Beat. For the letter that begins them all, H. + Marg. Well, an you be not turn'd Turk, there's no more sailing by + the star. + Beat. What means the fool, trow? + Marg. Nothing I; but God send every one their heart's desire! + Hero. These gloves the Count sent me, they are an excellent + perfume. + Beat. I am stuff'd, cousin; I cannot smell. + Marg. A maid, and stuff'd! There's goodly catching of cold. + Beat. O, God help me! God help me! How long have you profess'd + apprehension? + Marg. Ever since you left it. Doth not my wit become me rarely? + Beat. It is not seen enough. You should wear it in your cap. By my + troth, I am sick. + Marg. Get you some of this distill'd carduus benedictus and lay it + to your heart. It is the only thing for a qualm. + Hero. There thou prick'st her with a thistle. + Beat. Benedictus? why benedictus? You have some moral in this + 'benedictus.' + Marg. Moral? No, by my troth, I have no moral meaning; I meant + plain holy thistle. You may think perchance that I think you are + in love. Nay, by'r lady, I am not such a fool to think what I + list; nor I list not to think what I can; nor indeed I cannot + think, if I would think my heart out of thinking, that you are in + love, or that you will be in love, or that you can be in love. + Yet Benedick was such another, and now is he become a man. He + swore he would never marry; and yet now in despite of his heart + he eats his meat without grudging; and how you may be converted I + know not, but methinks you look with your eyes as other women do. + Beat. What pace is this that thy tongue keeps? + Marg. Not a false gallop. + + Enter Ursula. + + Urs. Madam, withdraw. The Prince, the Count, Signior Benedick, Don + John, and all the gallants of the town are come to fetch you to + church. + Hero. Help to dress me, good coz, good Meg, good Ursula. + [Exeunt.] + + + + +Scene V. +The hall in Leonato's house. + +Enter Leonato and the Constable [Dogberry] and the Headborough [verges]. + + Leon. What would you with me, honest neighbour? + Dog. Marry, sir, I would have some confidence with you that decerns + you nearly. + Leon. Brief, I pray you; for you see it is a busy time with me. + Dog. Marry, this it is, sir. + Verg. Yes, in truth it is, sir. + Leon. What is it, my good friends? + Dog. Goodman Verges, sir, speaks a little off the matter--an old + man, sir, and his wits are not so blunt as, God help, I would + desire they were; but, in faith, honest as the skin between his + brows. + Verg. Yes, I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an + old man and no honester than I. + Dog. Comparisons are odorous. Palabras, neighbour Verges. + Leon. Neighbours, you are tedious. + Dog. It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor Duke's + officers; but truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a + king, I could find in my heart to bestow it all of your worship. + Leon. All thy tediousness on me, ah? + Dog. Yea, in 'twere a thousand pound more than 'tis; for I hear as + good exclamation on your worship as of any man in the city; and + though I be but a poor man, I am glad to hear it. + Verg. And so am I. + Leon. I would fain know what you have to say. + Verg. Marry, sir, our watch to-night, excepting your worship's + presence, ha' ta'en a couple of as arrant knaves as any in + Messina. + Dog. A good old man, sir; he will be talking. As they say, 'When + the age is in, the wit is out.' God help us! it is a world to + see! Well said, i' faith, neighbour Verges. Well, God's a good + man. An two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind. An honest + soul, i' faith, sir, by my troth he is, as ever broke bread; but + God is to be worshipp'd; all men are not alike, alas, good + neighbour! + Leon. Indeed, neighbour, he comes too short of you. + Dog. Gifts that God gives. + Leon. I must leave you. + Dog. One word, sir. Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two + aspicious persons, and we would have them this morning examined + before your worship. + Leon. Take their examination yourself and bring it me. I am now in + great haste, as it may appear unto you. + Dog. It shall be suffigance. + Leon. Drink some wine ere you go. Fare you well. + + [Enter a Messenger.] + + Mess. My lord, they stay for you to give your daughter to her + husband. + Leon. I'll wait upon them. I am ready. + [Exeunt Leonato and Messenger.] + Dog. Go, good partner, go get you to Francis Seacoal; bid him bring + his pen and inkhorn to the jail. We are now to examination these + men. + Verg. And we must do it wisely. + Dog. We will spare for no wit, I warrant you. Here's that shall + drive some of them to a non-come. Only get the learned writer to + set down our excommunication, and meet me at the jail. + [Exeunt.] + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. Scene I. +A church. + +Enter Don Pedro, [John the] Bastard, Leonato, Friar [Francis], Claudio, +Benedick, Hero, Beatrice, [and Attendants]. + + Leon. Come, Friar Francis, be brief. Only to the plain form of + marriage, and you shall recount their particular duties + afterwards. + Friar. You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady? + Claud. No. + Leon. To be married to her. Friar, you come to marry her. + Friar. Lady, you come hither to be married to this count? + Hero. I do. + Friar. If either of you know any inward impediment why you should + not be conjoined, I charge you on your souls to utter it. + Claud. Know you any, Hero? + Hero. None, my lord. + Friar. Know you any, Count? + Leon. I dare make his answer--none. + Claud. O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not + knowing what they do! + Bene. How now? interjections? Why then, some be of laughing, as, + ah, ha, he! + Claud. Stand thee by, friar. Father, by your leave: + Will you with free and unconstrained soul + Give me this maid your daughter? + Leon. As freely, son, as God did give her me. + Claud. And what have I to give you back whose worth + May counterpoise this rich and precious gift? + Pedro. Nothing, unless you render her again. + Claud. Sweet Prince, you learn me noble thankfulness. + There, Leonato, take her back again. + Give not this rotten orange to your friend. + She's but the sign and semblance of her honour. + Behold how like a maid she blushes here! + O, what authority and show of truth + Can cunning sin cover itself withal! + Comes not that blood as modest evidence + To witness simple virtue, Would you not swear, + All you that see her, that she were a maid + By these exterior shows? But she is none: + She knows the heat of a luxurious bed; + Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty. + Leon. What do you mean, my lord? + Claud. Not to be married, + Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton. + Leon. Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof, + Have vanquish'd the resistance of her youth + And made defeat of her virginity-- + Claud. I know what you would say. If I have known her, + You will say she did embrace me as a husband, + And so extenuate the forehand sin. + No, Leonato, + I never tempted her with word too large, + But, as a brother to his sister, show'd + Bashful sincerity and comely love. + Hero. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you? + Claud. Out on the seeming! I will write against it. + You seem to me as Dian in her orb, + As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown; + But you are more intemperate in your blood + Than Venus, or those pamp'red animals + That rage in savage sensuality. + Hero. Is my lord well that he doth speak so wide? + Leon. Sweet Prince, why speak not you? + Pedro. What should I speak? + I stand dishonour'd that have gone about + To link my dear friend to a common stale. + Leon. Are these things spoken, or do I but dream? + John. Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true. + Bene. This looks not like a nuptial. + Hero. 'True!' O God! + Claud. Leonato, stand I here? + Is this the Prince, Is this the Prince's brother? + Is this face Hero's? Are our eyes our own? + Leon. All this is so; but what of this, my lord? + Claud. Let me but move one question to your daughter, + And by that fatherly and kindly power + That you have in her, bid her answer truly. + Leon. I charge thee do so, as thou art my child. + Hero. O, God defend me! How am I beset! + What kind of catechising call you this? + Claud. To make you answer truly to your name. + Hero. Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name + With any just reproach? + Claud. Marry, that can Hero! + Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue. + What man was he talk'd with you yesternight, + Out at your window betwixt twelve and one? + Now, if you are a maid, answer to this. + Hero. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord. + Pedro. Why, then are you no maiden. Leonato, + I am sorry you must hear. Upon my honour, + Myself, my brother, and this grieved Count + Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night + Talk with a ruffian at her chamber window, + Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain, + Confess'd the vile encounters they have had + A thousand times in secret. + John. Fie, fie! they are not to be nam'd, my lord-- + Not to be spoke of; + There is not chastity, enough in language + Without offence to utter them. Thus, pretty lady, + I am sorry for thy much misgovernment. + Claud. O Hero! what a Hero hadst thou been + If half thy outward graces had been plac'd + About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart! + But fare thee well, most foul, most fair! Farewell, + Thou pure impiety and impious purity! + For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love, + And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang, + To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm, + And never shall it more be gracious. + Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me? + [Hero swoons.] + Beat. Why, how now, cousin? Wherefore sink you down? + John. Come let us go. These things, come thus to light, + Smother her spirits up. + [Exeunt Don Pedro, Don Juan, and Claudio.] + Bene. How doth the lady? + Beat. Dead, I think. Help, uncle! + Hero! why, Hero! Uncle! Signior Benedick! Friar! + Leon. O Fate, take not away thy heavy hand! + Death is the fairest cover for her shame + That may be wish'd for. + Beat. How now, cousin Hero? + Friar. Have comfort, lady. + Leon. Dost thou look up? + Friar. Yea, wherefore should she not? + Leon. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly thing + Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny + The story that is printed in her blood? + Do not live, Hero; do not ope thine eyes; + For, did I think thou wouldst not quickly die, + Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames, + Myself would on the rearward of reproaches + Strike at thy life. Griev'd I, I had but one? + Child I for that at frugal nature's frame? + O, one too much by thee! Why had I one? + Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes? + Why had I not with charitable hand + Took up a beggar's issue at my gates, + Who smirched thus and mir'd with infamy, + I might have said, 'No part of it is mine; + This shame derives itself from unknown loins'? + But mine, and mine I lov'd, and mine I prais'd, + And mine that I was proud on--mine so much + That I myself was to myself not mine, + Valuing of her--why, she, O, she is fall'n + Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea + Hath drops too few to wash her clean again, + And salt too little which may season give + To her foul tainted flesh! + Bene. Sir, sir, be patient. + For my part, I am so attir'd in wonder, + I know not what to say. + Beat. O, on my soul, my cousin is belied! + Bene. Lady, were you her bedfellow last night? + Beat. No, truly, not; although, until last night, + I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow + Leon. Confirm'd, confirm'd! O, that is stronger made + Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron! + Would the two princes lie? and Claudio lie, + Who lov'd her so that, speaking of her foulness, + Wash'd it with tears? Hence from her! let her die. + Friar. Hear me a little; + For I have only been silent so long, + And given way unto this course of fortune, + By noting of the lady. I have mark'd + A thousand blushing apparitions + To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames + In angel whiteness beat away those blushes, + And in her eye there hath appear'd a fire + To burn the errors that these princes hold + Against her maiden truth. Call me a fool; + Trust not my reading nor my observation, + Which with experimental seal doth warrant + The tenure of my book; trust not my age, + My reverence, calling, nor divinity, + If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here + Under some biting error. + Leon. Friar, it cannot be. + Thou seest that all the grace that she hath left + Is that she will not add to her damnation + A sin of perjury: she not denies it. + Why seek'st thou then to cover with excuse + That which appears in proper nakedness? + Friar. Lady, what man is he you are accus'd of? + Hero. They know that do accuse me; I know none. + If I know more of any man alive + Than that which maiden modesty doth warrant, + Let all my sins lack mercy! O my father, + Prove you that any man with me convers'd + At hours unmeet, or that I yesternight + Maintain'd the change of words with any creature, + Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death! + Friar. There is some strange misprision in the princes. + Bene. Two of them have the very bent of honour; + And if their wisdoms be misled in this, + The practice of it lives in John the bastard, + Whose spirits toil in frame of villanies. + Leon. I know not. If they speak but truth of her, + These hands shall tear her. If they wrong her honour, + The proudest of them shall well hear of it. + Time hath not yet so dried this blood of mine, + Nor age so eat up my invention, + Nor fortune made such havoc of my means, + Nor my bad life reft me so much of friends, + But they shall find awak'd in such a kind + Both strength of limb and policy of mind, + Ability in means, and choice of friends, + To quit me of them throughly. + Friar. Pause awhile + And let my counsel sway you in this case. + Your daughter here the princes left for dead, + Let her awhile be secretly kept in, + And publish it that she is dead indeed; + Maintain a mourning ostentation, + And on your family's old monument + Hang mournful epitaphs, and do all rites + That appertain unto a burial. + Leon. What shall become of this? What will this do? + Friar. Marry, this well carried shall on her behalf + Change slander to remorse. That is some good. + But not for that dream I on this strange course, + But on this travail look for greater birth. + She dying, as it must be so maintain'd, + Upon the instant that she was accus'd, + Shall be lamented, pitied, and excus'd + Of every hearer; for it so falls out + That what we have we prize not to the worth + Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost, + Why, then we rack the value, then we find + The virtue that possession would not show us + Whiles it was ours. So will it fare with Claudio. + When he shall hear she died upon his words, + Th' idea of her life shall sweetly creep + Into his study of imagination, + And every lovely organ of her life + Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit, + More moving, delicate, and full of life, + Into the eye and prospect of his soul + Than when she liv'd indeed. Then shall he mourn + (If ever love had interest in his liver) + And wish he had not so accused her-- + No, though be thought his accusation true. + Let this be so, and doubt not but success + Will fashion the event in better shape + Than I can lay it down in likelihood. + But if all aim but this be levell'd false, + The supposition of the lady's death + Will quench the wonder of her infamy. + And if it sort not well, you may conceal her, + As best befits her wounded reputation, + In some reclusive and religious life, + Out of all eyes, tongues, minds, and injuries. + Bene. Signior Leonato, let the friar advise you; + And though you know my inwardness and love + Is very much unto the Prince and Claudio, + Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this + As secretly and justly as your soul + Should with your body. + Leon. Being that I flow in grief, + The smallest twine may lead me. + Friar. 'Tis well consented. Presently away; + For to strange sores strangely they strain the cure. + Come, lady, die to live. This wedding day + Perhaps is but prolong'd. Have patience and endure. + Exeunt [all but Benedick and Beatrice]. + Bene. Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while? + Beat. Yea, and I will weep a while longer. + Bene. I will not desire that. + Beat. You have no reason. I do it freely. + Bene. Surely I do believe your fair cousin is wronged. + Beat. Ah, how much might the man deserve of me that would right + her! + Bene. Is there any way to show such friendship? + Beat. A very even way, but no such friend. + Bene. May a man do it? + Beat. It is a man's office, but not yours. + Bene. I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is not that + strange? + Beat. As strange as the thing I know not. It were as possible for + me to say I loved nothing so well as you. But believe me not; and + yet I lie not. I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry + for my cousin. + Bene. By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me. + Beat. Do not swear, and eat it. + Bene. I will swear by it that you love me, and I will make him eat + it that says I love not you. + Beat. Will you not eat your word? + Bene. With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest I love + thee. + Beat. Why then, God forgive me! + Bene. What offence, sweet Beatrice? + Beat. You have stayed me in a happy hour. I was about to protest I + loved you. + Bene. And do it with all thy heart. + Beat. I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to + protest. + Bene. Come, bid me do anything for thee. + Beat. Kill Claudio. + Bene. Ha! not for the wide world! + Beat. You kill me to deny it. Farewell. + Bene. Tarry, sweet Beatrice. + Beat. I am gone, though I am here. There is no love in you. Nay, I + pray you let me go. + Bene. Beatrice-- + Beat. In faith, I will go. + Bene. We'll be friends first. + Beat. You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine + enemy. + Bene. Is Claudio thine enemy? + Beat. Is 'a not approved in the height a villain, that hath + slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kinswoman? O that I were a + man! What? bear her in hand until they come to take hands, and + then with public accusation, uncover'd slander, unmitigated + rancour--O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the + market place. + Bene. Hear me, Beatrice! + Beat. Talk with a man out at a window!-a proper saying! + Bene. Nay but Beatrice-- + Beat. Sweet Hero! she is wrong'd, she is sland'red, she is undone. + Bene. Beat-- + Beat. Princes and Counties! Surely a princely testimony, a goodly + count, Count Comfect, a sweet gallant surely! O that I were a man + for his sake! or that I had any friend would be a man for my + sake! But manhood is melted into cursies, valour into compliment, + and men are only turn'd into tongue, and trim ones too. He is now + as valiant as Hercules that only tells a lie,and swears it. I + cannot be a man with wishing; therefore I will die a woman with + grieving. + Bene. Tarry, good Beatrice. By this hand, I love thee. + Beat. Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it. + Bene. Think you in your soul the Count Claudio hath wrong'd Hero? + Beat. Yea, as sure is I have a thought or a soul. + Bene. Enough, I am engag'd, I will challenge him. I will kiss your + hand, and so I leave you. By this hand, Claudio shall render me a + dear account. As you hear of me, so think of me. Go comfort your + cousin. I must say she is dead-and so farewell. + [Exeunt.] + + + + +Scene II. +A prison. + +Enter the Constables [Dogberry and Verges] and the Sexton, in gowns, +[and the Watch, with Conrade and] Borachio. + + Dog. Is our whole dissembly appear'd? + Verg. O, a stool and a cushion for the sexton. + Sex. Which be the malefactors? + Dog. Marry, that am I and my partner. + Verg. Nay, that's certain. We have the exhibition to examine. + Sex. But which are the offenders that are to be examined? let them + come before Master Constable. + Dog. Yea, marry, let them come before me. What is your name, + friend? + Bor. Borachio. + Dog. Pray write down Borachio. Yours, sirrah? + Con. I am a gentleman, sir, and my name is Conrade. + Dog. Write down Master Gentleman Conrade. Masters, do you serve + God? + Both. Yea, sir, we hope. + Dog. Write down that they hope they serve God; and write God first, + for God defend but God should go before such villains! Masters, + it is proved already that you are little better than false + knaves, and it will go near to be thought so shortly. How answer + you for yourselves? + Con. Marry, sir, we say we are none. + Dog. A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you; but I will go about + with him. Come you hither, sirrah. A word in your ear. Sir, I say + to you, it is thought you are false knaves. + Bora. Sir, I say to you we are none. + Dog. Well, stand aside. Fore God, they are both in a tale. + Have you writ down that they are none? + Sex. Master Constable, you go not the way to examine. You must call + forth the watch that are their accusers. + Dog. Yea, marry, that's the eftest way. Let the watch come forth. + Masters, I charge you in the Prince's name accuse these men. + 1. Watch. This man said, sir, that Don John the Prince's brother + was a villain. + Dog. Write down Prince John a villain. Why, this is flat perjury, + to call a prince's brother villain. + Bora. Master Constable-- + Dog. Pray thee, fellow, peace. I do not like thy look, I promise + thee. + Sex. What heard you him say else? + 2. Watch. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of Don John + for accusing the Lady Hero wrongfully. + Dog. Flat burglary as ever was committed. + Verg. Yea, by th' mass, that it is. + Sex. What else, fellow? + 1. Watch. And that Count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to + disgrace Hero before the whole assembly, and not marry her. + Dog. O villain! thou wilt be condemn'd into everlasting redemption + for this. + Sex. What else? + Watchmen. This is all. + Sex. And this is more, masters, than you can deny. Prince John is + this morning secretly stol'n away. Hero was in this manner + accus'd, in this manner refus'd, and upon the grief of this + suddenly died. Master Constable, let these men be bound and + brought to Leonato's. I will go before and show him their + examination. [Exit.] + Dog. Come, let them be opinion'd. + Verg. Let them be in the hands-- + Con. Off, coxcomb! + Dog. God's my life, where's the sexton? Let him write down the + Prince's officer coxcomb. Come, bind them.--Thou naughty varlet! + Con. Away! you are an ass, you are an ass. + Dog. Dost thou not suspect my place? Dost thou not suspect my + years? O that he were here to write me down an ass! But, masters, + remember that I am an ass. Though it be not written down, yet + forget not that I am an ass. No, thou villain, thou art full of + piety, as shall be prov'd upon thee by good witness. I am a wise + fellow; and which is more, an officer; and which is more, a + householder; and which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any + is in Messina, and one that knows the law, go to! and a rich + fellow enough, go to! and a fellow that hath had losses; and one + that hath two gowns and everything handsome about him. Bring him + away. O that I had been writ down an ass! + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. Scene I. +The street, near Leonato's house. + +Enter Leonato and his brother [ Antonio]. + + Ant. If you go on thus, you will kill yourself, + And 'tis not wisdom thus to second grief + Against yourself. + Leon. I pray thee cease thy counsel, + Which falls into mine ears as profitless + As water in a sieve. Give not me counsel, + Nor let no comforter delight mine ear + But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine. + Bring me a father that so lov'd his child, + Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine, + And bid him speak to me of patience. + Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine, + And let it answer every strain for strain, + As thus for thus, and such a grief for such, + In every lineament, branch, shape, and form. + If such a one will smile and stroke his beard, + Bid sorrow wag, cry 'hem' when he should groan, + Patch grief with proverbs, make misfortune drunk + With candle-wasters--bring him yet to me, + And I of him will gather patience. + But there is no such man; for, brother, men + Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief + Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it, + Their counsel turns to passion, which before + Would give preceptial medicine to rage, + Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, + Charm ache with air and agony with words. + No, no! 'Tis all men's office to speak patience + To those that wring under the load of sorrow, + But no man's virtue nor sufficiency + To be so moral when he shall endure + The like himself. Therefore give me no counsel. + My griefs cry louder than advertisement. + Ant. Therein do men from children nothing differ. + Leon. I pray thee peace. I will be flesh and blood; + For there was never yet philosopher + That could endure the toothache patiently, + However they have writ the style of gods + And made a push at chance and sufferance. + Ant. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself. + Make those that do offend you suffer too. + Leon. There thou speak'st reason. Nay, I will do so. + My soul doth tell me Hero is belied; + And that shall Claudio know; so shall the Prince, + And all of them that thus dishonour her. + + Enter Don Pedro and Claudio. + + Ant. Here comes the Prince and Claudio hastily. + Pedro. Good den, Good den. + Claud. Good day to both of you. + Leon. Hear you, my lords! + Pedro. We have some haste, Leonato. + Leon. Some haste, my lord! well, fare you well, my lord. + Are you so hasty now? Well, all is one. + Pedro. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man. + Ant. If he could right himself with quarrelling, + Some of us would lie low. + Claud. Who wrongs him? + Leon. Marry, thou dost wrong me, thou dissembler, thou! + Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword; + I fear thee not. + Claud. Mary, beshrew my hand + If it should give your age such cause of fear. + In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword. + Leon. Tush, tush, man! never fleer and jest at me + I speak not like a dotard nor a fool, + As under privilege of age to brag + What I have done being young, or what would do, + Were I not old. Know, Claudio, to thy head, + Thou hast so wrong'd mine innocent child and me + That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by + And, with grey hairs and bruise of many days, + Do challenge thee to trial of a man. + I say thou hast belied mine innocent child; + Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart, + And she lied buried with her ancestors- + O, in a tomb where never scandal slept, + Save this of hers, fram'd by thy villany! + Claud. My villany? + Leon. Thine, Claudio; thine I say. + Pedro. You say not right, old man + Leon. My lord, my lord, + I'll prove it on his body if he dare, + Despite his nice fence and his active practice, + His May of youth and bloom of lustihood. + Claud. Away! I will not have to do with you. + Leon. Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast kill'd my child. + If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man. + And. He shall kill two of us, and men indeed + But that's no matter; let him kill one first. + Win me and wear me! Let him answer me. + Come, follow me, boy,. Come, sir boy, come follow me. + Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence! + Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will. + Leon. Brother-- + Ant. Content yourself. God knows I lov'd my niece, + And she is dead, slander'd to death by villains, + That dare as well answer a man indeed + As I dare take a serpent by the tongue. + Boys, apes, braggarts, jacks, milksops! + Leon. Brother Anthony-- + Ant. Hold you content. What, man! I know them, yea, + And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple, + Scambling, outfacing, fashion-monging boys, + That lie and cog and flout, deprave and slander, + Go anticly, show outward hideousness, + And speak off half a dozen dang'rous words, + How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst; + And this is all. + Leon. But, brother Anthony-- + Ant. Come, 'tis no matter. + Do not you meddle; let me deal in this. + Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake your patience. + My heart is sorry for your daughter's death; + But, on my honour, she was charg'd with nothing + But what was true, and very full of proof. + Leon. My lord, my lord-- + Pedro. I will not hear you. + Leon. No? Come, brother, away!--I will be heard. + Ant. And shall, or some of us will smart for it. + Exeunt ambo. + + Enter Benedick. + + Pedro. See, see! Here comes the man we went to seek. + Claud. Now, signior, what news? + Bene. Good day, my lord. + Pedro. Welcome, signior. You are almost come to part almost a fray. + Claud. We had lik'd to have had our two noses snapp'd off with two + old men without teeth. + Pedro. Leonato and his brother. What think'st thou? Had we fought, + I doubt we should have been too young for them. + Bene. In a false quarrel there is no true valour. I came to seek + you both. + Claud. We have been up and down to seek thee; for we are high-proof + melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away. Wilt thou use thy + wit? + Bene. It is in my scabbard. Shall I draw it? + Pedro. Dost thou wear thy wit by thy side? + Claud. Never any did so, though very many have been beside their + wit. I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrel--draw to + pleasure us. + Pedro. As I am an honest man, he looks pale. Art thou sick or + angry? + Claud. What, courage, man! What though care kill'd a cat, thou hast + mettle enough in thee to kill care. + Bene. Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career an you charge it + against me. I pray you choose another subject. + Claud. Nay then, give him another staff; this last was broke cross. + Pedro. By this light, he changes more and more. I think he be angry + indeed. + Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle. + Bene. Shall I speak a word in your ear? + Claud. God bless me from a challenge! + Bene. [aside to Claudio] You are a villain. I jest not; I will make + it good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare. Do + me right, or I will protest your cowardice. You have kill'd a + sweet lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you. Let me hear + from you. + Claud. Well, I will meet you, so I may have good cheer. + Pedro. What, a feast, a feast? + Claud. I' faith, I thank him, he hath bid me to a calve's head and + a capon, the which if I do not carve most curiously, say my + knife's naught. Shall I not find a woodcock too? + Bene. Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily. + Pedro. I'll tell thee how Beatrice prais'd thy wit the other day. I + said thou hadst a fine wit: 'True,' said she, 'a fine little + one.' 'No,' said I, 'a great wit.' 'Right,' says she, 'a great + gross one.' 'Nay,' said I, 'a good wit.' 'Just,' said she, 'it + hurts nobody.' 'Nay,' said I, 'the gentleman is wise.' 'Certain,' + said she, a wise gentleman.' 'Nay,' said I, 'he hath the + tongues.' 'That I believe' said she, 'for he swore a thing to me + on Monday night which he forswore on Tuesday morning. There's a + double tongue; there's two tongues.' Thus did she an hour + together transshape thy particular virtues. Yet at last she + concluded with a sigh, thou wast the proper'st man in Italy. + Claud. For the which she wept heartily and said she cared not. + Pedro. Yea, that she did; but yet, for all that, an if she did not + hate him deadly, she would love him dearly. The old man's + daughter told us all. + Claud. All, all! and moreover, God saw him when he was hid in the + garden. + Pedro. But when shall we set the savage bull's horns on the + sensible Benedick's head? + Claud. Yea, and text underneath, 'Here dwells Benedick, the married + man'? + Bene. Fare you well, boy; you know my mind. I will leave you now to + your gossiplike humour. You break jests as braggards do their + blades, which God be thanked hurt not. My lord, for your many + courtesies I thank you. I must discontinue your company. Your + brother the bastard is fled from Messina. You have among you + kill'd a sweet and innocent lady. For my Lord Lackbeard there, he + and I shall meet; and till then peace be with him. + [Exit.] + Pedro. He is in earnest. + Claud. In most profound earnest; and, I'll warrant you, for the + love of Beatrice. + Pedro. And hath challeng'd thee. + Claud. Most sincerely. + Pedro. What a pretty thing man is when he goes in his doublet and + hose and leaves off his wit! + + Enter Constables [Dogberry and Verges, with the Watch, leading] + Conrade and Borachio. + + Claud. He is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape a doctor to + such a man. + Pedro. But, soft you, let me be! Pluck up, my heart, and be sad! + Did he not say my brother was fled? + Dog. Come you, sir. If justice cannot tame you, she shall ne'er + weigh more reasons in her balance. Nay, an you be a cursing + hypocrite once, you must be look'd to. + Pedro. How now? two of my brother's men bound? Borachio one. + Claud. Hearken after their offence, my lord. + Pedro. Officers, what offence have these men done? + Dog. Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they + have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and + lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified + unjust things; and to conclude, they are lying knaves. + Pedro. First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I ask thee + what's their offence; sixth and lastly, why they are committed; + and to conclude, what you lay to their charge. + Claud. Rightly reasoned, and in his own division; and by my troth + there's one meaning well suited. + Pedro. Who have you offended, masters, that you are thus bound to + your answer? This learned constable is too cunning to be + understood. What's your offence? + Bora. Sweet Prince, let me go no farther to mine answer. Do you + hear me, and let this Count kill me. I have deceived even your + very eyes. What your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow + fools have brought to light, who in the night overheard me + confessing to this man, how Don John your brother incensed me to + slander the Lady Hero; how you were brought into the orchard and + saw me court Margaret in Hero's garments; how you disgrac'd her + when you should marry her. My villany they have upon record, + which I had rather seal with my death than repeat over to my + shame. The lady is dead upon mine and my master's false + accusation; and briefly, I desire nothing but the reward of a + villain. + Pedro. Runs not this speech like iron through your blood? + Claud. I have drunk poison whiles he utter'd it. + Pedro. But did my brother set thee on to this? + Bora. Yea, and paid me richly for the practice of it. + Pedro. He is compos'd and fram'd of treachery, + And fled he is upon this villany. + Claud. Sweet Hero, now thy image doth appear + In the rare semblance that I lov'd it first. + Dog. Come, bring away the plaintiffs. By this time our sexton hath + reformed Signior Leonato of the matter. And, masters, do not + forget to specify, when time and place shall serve, that I am an + ass. + Verg. Here, here comes Master Signior Leonato, and the sexton too. + + Enter Leonato, his brother [Antonio], and the Sexton. + + Leon. Which is the villain? Let me see his eyes, + That, when I note another man like him, + I may avoid him. Which of these is he? + Bora. If you would know your wronger, look on me. + Leon. Art thou the slave that with thy breath hast kill'd + Mine innocent child? + Bora. Yea, even I alone. + Leon. No, not so, villain! thou beliest thyself. + Here stand a pair of honourable men-- + A third is fled--that had a hand in it. + I thank you princes for my daughter's death. + Record it with your high and worthy deeds. + 'Twas bravely done, if you bethink you of it. + Claud. I know not how to pray your patience; + Yet I must speak. Choose your revenge yourself; + Impose me to what penance your invention + Can lay upon my sin. Yet sinn'd I not + But in mistaking. + Pedro. By my soul, nor I! + And yet, to satisfy this good old man, + I would bend under any heavy weight + That he'll enjoin me to. + Leon. I cannot bid you bid my daughter live- + That were impossible; but I pray you both, + Possess the people in Messina here + How innocent she died; and if your love + Can labour aught in sad invention, + Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb, + And sing it to her bones--sing it to-night. + To-morrow morning come you to my house, + And since you could not be my son-in-law, + Be yet my nephew. My brother hath a daughter, + Almost the copy of my child that's dead, + And she alone is heir to both of us. + Give her the right you should have giv'n her cousin, + And so dies my revenge. + Claud. O noble sir! + Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me. + I do embrace your offer; and dispose + For henceforth of poor Claudio. + Leon. To-morrow then I will expect your coming; + To-night I take my leave. This naughty man + Shall fact to face be brought to Margaret, + Who I believe was pack'd in all this wrong, + Hir'd to it by your brother. + Bora. No, by my soul, she was not; + Nor knew not what she did when she spoke to me; + But always hath been just and virtuous + In anything that I do know by her. + Dog. Moreover, sir, which indeed is not under white and black, this + plaintiff here, the offender, did call me ass. I beseech you let + it be rememb'red in his punishment. And also the watch heard them + talk of one Deformed. They say he wears a key in his ear, and a + lock hanging by it, and borrows money in God's name, the which he + hath us'd so long and never paid that now men grow hard-hearted + and will lend nothing for God's sake. Pray you examine him upon + that point. + Leon. I thank thee for thy care and honest pains. + Dog. Your worship speaks like a most thankful and reverent youth, + and I praise God for you. + Leon. There's for thy pains. [Gives money.] + Dog. God save the foundation! + Leon. Go, I discharge thee of thy prisoner, and I thank thee. + Dog. I leave an arrant knave with your worship, which I beseech + your worship to correct yourself, for the example of others. + God keep your worship! I wish your worship well. God restore you + to health! I humbly give you leave to depart; and if a merry + meeting may be wish'd, God prohibit it! Come, neighbour. + Exeunt [Dogberry and Verges]. + Leon. Until to-morrow morning, lords, farewell. + Ant. Farewell, my lords. We look for you to-morrow. + Pedro. We will not fall. + Claud. To-night I'll mourn with Hero. + [Exeunt Don Pedro and Claudio.] + Leon. [to the Watch] Bring you these fellows on.--We'll talk with + Margaret, + How her acquaintance grew with this lewd fellow. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +Leonato's orchard. + +Enter Benedick and Margaret [meeting]. + + Bene. Pray thee, sweet Mistress Margaret, deserve well at my hands + by helping me to the speech of Beatrice. + Marg. Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty? + Bene. In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living shall come + over it; for in most comely truth thou deservest it. + Marg. To have no man come over me? Why, shall I always keep below + stairs? + Bene. Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth--it catches. + Marg. And yours as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit but hurt + not. + Bene. A most manly wit, Margaret: it will not hurt a woman. + And so I pray thee call Beatrice. I give thee the bucklers. + Marg. Give us the swords; we have bucklers of our own. + Bene. If you use them, Margaret, you must put in the pikes with a + vice, and they are dangerous weapons for maids. + Marg. Well, I will call Beatrice to you, who I think hath legs. + Bene. And therefore will come. + Exit Margaret. + [Sings] The god of love, + That sits above + And knows me, and knows me, + How pitiful I deserve-- + + I mean in singing; but in loving Leander the good swimmer, + Troilus the first employer of panders, and a whole book full of + these quondam carpet-mongers, whose names yet run smoothly in the + even road of a blank verse--why, they were never so truly turn'd + over and over as my poor self in love. Marry, I cannot show it in + rhyme. I have tried. I can find out no rhyme to 'lady' but 'baby' + --an innocent rhyme; for 'scorn,' 'horn'--a hard rhyme; for + 'school', 'fool'--a babbling rhyme: very ominous endings! No, I + was not born under a rhyming planet, nor cannot woo in festival + terms. + + Enter Beatrice. + + Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I call'd thee? + Beat. Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me. + Bene. O, stay but till then! + Beat. 'Then' is spoken. Fare you well now. And yet, ere I go, let + me go with that I came for, which is, with knowing what hath + pass'd between you and Claudio. + Bene. Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee. + Beat. Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul + breath, and foul breath is noisome. Therefore I will depart + unkiss'd. + Bene. Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense, so + forcible is thy wit. But I must tell thee plainly, Claudio + undergoes my challenge; and either I must shortly hear from him + or I will subscribe him a coward. And I pray thee now tell me, + for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me? + Beat. For them all together, which maintain'd so politic a state of + evil that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with + them. But for which of my good parts did you first suffer love + for me? + Bene. Suffer love!--a good epithet. I do suffer love indeed, for I + love thee against my will. + Beat. In spite of your heart, I think. Alas, poor heart! If you + spite it for my sake, I will spite it for yours, for I will never + love that which my friend hates. + Bene. Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably. + Beat. It appears not in this confession. There's not one wise man + among twenty, that will praise himself. + Bene. An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that liv'd in the time of + good neighbours. If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb + ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell + rings and the widow weeps. + Beat. And how long is that, think you? + Bene. Question: why, an hour in clamour and a quarter in rheum. + Therefore is it most expedient for the wise, if Don Worm (his + conscience) find no impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet + of his own virtues, as I am to myself. So much for praising + myself, who, I myself will bear witness, is praiseworthy. And now + tell me, how doth your cousin? + Beat. Very ill. + Bene. And how do you? + Beat. Very ill too. + Bene. Serve God, love me, and mend. There will I leave you too, for + here comes one in haste. + + Enter Ursula. + + Urs. Madam, you must come to your uncle. Yonder's old coil at home. + It is proved my Lady Hero hath been falsely accus'd, the Prince + and Claudio mightily abus'd, and Don John is the author of all, + who is fled and gone. Will you come presently? + Beat. Will you go hear this news, signior? + Bene. I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried thy + eyes; and moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle's. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene III. +A churchyard. + +Enter Claudio, Don Pedro, and three or four with tapers, +[followed by Musicians]. + + Claud. Is this the monument of Leonato? + Lord. It is, my lord. + Claud. [reads from a scroll] + + Epitaph. + + Done to death by slanderous tongues + Was the Hero that here lies. + Death, in guerdon of her wrongs, + Gives her fame which never dies. + So the life that died with shame + Lives in death with glorious fame. + + Hang thou there upon the tomb, + [Hangs up the scroll.] + Praising her when I am dumb. + Now, music, sound, and sing your solemn hymn. + + Song. + + Pardon, goddess of the night, + Those that slew thy virgin knight; + For the which, with songs of woe, + Round about her tomb they go. + Midnight, assist our moan, + Help us to sigh and groan + Heavily, heavily, + Graves, yawn and yield your dead, + Till death be uttered + Heavily, heavily. + + Claud. Now unto thy bones good night! + Yearly will I do this rite. + Pedro. Good morrow, masters. Put your torches out. + The wolves have prey'd, and look, the gentle day, + Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about + Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey. + Thanks to you all, and leave us. Fare you well. + Claud. Good morrow, masters. Each his several way. + Pedro. Come, let us hence and put on other weeds, + And then to Leonato's we will go. + Claud. And Hymen now with luckier issue speeds + Than this for whom we rend'red up this woe. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene IV +The hall in Leonato's house. + +Enter Leonato, Benedick, [Beatrice,] Margaret, Ursula, Antonio, +Friar [Francis], Hero. + + Friar. Did I not tell you she was innocent? + Leon. So are the Prince and Claudio, who accus'd her + Upon the error that you heard debated. + But Margaret was in some fault for this, + Although against her will, as it appears + In the true course of all the question. + Ant. Well, I am glad that all things sort so well. + Bene. And so am I, being else by faith enforc'd + To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it. + Leon. Well, daughter, and you gentlewomen all, + Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves, + And when I send for you, come hither mask'd. + Exeunt Ladies. + The Prince and Claudio promis'd by this hour + To visit me. You know your office, brother: + You must be father to your brother's daughter, + And give her to young Claudio. + Ant. Which I will do with confirm'd countenance. + Bene. Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think. + Friar. To do what, signior? + Bene. To bind me, or undo me--one of them. + Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior, + Your niece regards me with an eye of favour. + Leon. That eye my daughter lent her. 'Tis most true. + Bene. And I do with an eye of love requite her. + Leon. The sight whereof I think you had from me, + From Claudio, and the Prince; but what's your will? + Bene. Your answer, sir, is enigmatical; + But, for my will, my will is, your good will + May stand with ours, this day to be conjoin'd + In the state of honourable marriage; + In which, good friar, I shall desire your help. + Leon. My heart is with your liking. + Friar. And my help. + + Enter Don Pedro and Claudio and two or three other. + + Here comes the Prince and Claudio. + Pedro. Good morrow to this fair assembly. + Leon. Good morrow, Prince; good morrow, Claudio. + We here attend you. Are you yet determin'd + To-day to marry with my brother's daughter? + Claud. I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope. + Leon. Call her forth, brother. Here's the friar ready. + [Exit Antonio.] + Pedro. Good morrow, Benedick. Why, what's the matter + That you have such a February face, + So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness? + Claud. I think he thinks upon the savage bull. + Tush, fear not, man! We'll tip thy horns with gold, + And all Europa shall rejoice at thee, + As once Europa did at lusty Jove + When he would play the noble beast in love. + Bene. Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low, + And some such strange bull leap'd your father's cow + And got a calf in that same noble feat + Much like to you, for you have just his bleat. + + Enter [Leonato's] brother [Antonio], Hero, Beatrice, + Margaret, Ursula, [the ladies wearing masks]. + + Claud. For this I owe you. Here comes other reckonings. + Which is the lady I must seize upon? + Ant. This same is she, and I do give you her. + Claud. Why then, she's mine. Sweet, let me see your face. + Leon. No, that you shall not till you take her hand + Before this friar and swear to marry her. + Claud. Give me your hand before this holy friar. + I am your husband if you like of me. + Hero. And when I liv'd I was your other wife; [Unmasks.] + And when you lov'd you were my other husband. + Claud. Another Hero! + Hero. Nothing certainer. + One Hero died defil'd; but I do live, + And surely as I live, I am a maid. + Pedro. The former Hero! Hero that is dead! + Leon. She died, my lord, but whiles her slander liv'd. + Friar. All this amazement can I qualify, + When, after that the holy rites are ended, + I'll tell you largely of fair Hero's death. + Meantime let wonder seem familiar, + And to the chapel let us presently. + Bene. Soft and fair, friar. Which is Beatrice? + Beat. [unmasks] I answer to that name. What is your will? + Bene. Do not you love me? + Beat. Why, no; no more than reason. + Bene. Why, then your uncle, and the Prince, and Claudio + Have been deceived; for they swore you did. + Beat. Do not you love me? + Bene. Troth, no; no more than reason. + Beat. Why, then my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula + Are much deceiv'd; for they did swear you did. + Bene. They swore that you were almost sick for me. + Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me. + Bene. 'Tis no such matter. Then you do not love me? + Beat. No, truly, but in friendly recompense. + Leon. Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman. + Claud. And I'll be sworn upon't that he loves her; + For here's a paper written in his hand, + A halting sonnet of his own pure brain, + Fashion'd to Beatrice. + Hero. And here's another, + Writ in my cousin's hand, stol'n from her pocket, + Containing her affection unto Benedick. + Bene. A miracle! Here's our own hands against our hearts. + Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity. + Beat. I would not deny you; but, by this good day, I yield upon + great persuasion, and partly to save your life, for I was told + you were in a consumption. + Bene. Peace! I will stop your mouth. [Kisses her.] + Beat. I'll tell thee what, Prince: a college of wit-crackers cannot + flout me out of my humour. Dost thou think I care for a satire or + an epigram? No. If a man will be beaten with brains, 'a shall + wear nothing handsome about him. In brief, since I do purpose to + marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say + against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said + against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion. + For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in + that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruis'd, and love my + cousin. + Claud. I had well hop'd thou wouldst have denied Beatrice, that I + might have cudgell'd thee out of thy single life, to make thee a + double-dealer, which out of question thou wilt be if my cousin do + not look exceeding narrowly to thee. + Bene. Come, come, we are friends. Let's have a dance ere we are + married, that we may lighten our own hearts and our wives' heels. + Leon. We'll have dancing afterward. + Bene. First, of my word! Therefore play, music. Prince, thou art + sad. Get thee a wife, get thee a wife! There is no staff more + reverent than one tipp'd with horn. + + Enter Messenger. + + Mess. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight, + And brought with armed men back to Messina. + Bene. Think not on him till to-morrow. I'll devise thee brave + punishments for him. Strike up, pipers! + Dance. [Exeunt.] + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1605 + + +THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO, MOOR OF VENICE + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + OTHELLO, the Moor, general of the Venetian forces + DESDEMONA, his wife + IAGO, ensign to Othello + EMILIA, his wife, lady-in-waiting to Desdemona + CASSIO, lieutenant to Othello + THE DUKE OF VENICE + BRABANTIO, Venetian Senator, father of Desdemona + GRATIANO, nobleman of Venice, brother of Brabantio + LODOVICO, nobleman of Venice, kinsman of Brabantio + RODERIGO, rejected suitor of Desdemona + BIANCA, mistress of Cassio + MONTANO, a Cypriot official + A Clown in service to Othello + Senators, Sailors, Messengers, Officers, Gentlemen, Musicians, and + Attendants + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: Venice and Cyprus + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Venice. A street. + +Enter Roderigo and Iago. + + RODERIGO. Tush, never tell me! I take it much unkindly + That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse + As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of this. + IAGO. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me. + If ever I did dream of such a matter, + Abhor me. + RODERIGO. Thou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate. + IAGO. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city, + In personal suit to make me his lieutenant, + Off-capp'd to him; and, by the faith of man, + I know my price, I am worth no worse a place. + But he, as loving his own pride and purposes, + Evades them, with a bumbast circumstance + Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war, + And, in conclusion, + Nonsuits my mediators; for, "Certes," says he, + "I have already chose my officer." + And what was he? + Forsooth, a great arithmetician, + One Michael Cassio, a Florentine + (A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife) + That never set a squadron in the field, + Nor the division of a battle knows + More than a spinster; unless the bookish theoric, + Wherein the toged consuls can propose + As masterly as he. Mere prattle without practice + Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the election; + And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof + At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds + Christian and heathen, must be belee'd and calm'd + By debitor and creditor. This counter-caster, + He, in good time, must his lieutenant be, + And I- God bless the mark!- his Moorship's ancient. + RODERIGO. By heaven, I rather would have been his hangman. + IAGO. Why, there's no remedy. 'Tis the curse of service, + Preferment goes by letter and affection, + And not by old gradation, where each second + Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself + Whether I in any just term am affined + To love the Moor. + RODERIGO. I would not follow him then. + IAGO. O, sir, content you. + I follow him to serve my turn upon him: + We cannot all be masters, nor all masters + Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark + Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave, + That doting on his own obsequious bondage + Wears out his time, much like his master's ass, + For nought but provender, and when he's old, cashier'd. + Whip me such honest knaves. Others there are + Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty, + Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves, + And throwing but shows of service on their lords + Do well thrive by them; and when they have lined their coats + Do themselves homage. These fellows have some soul, + And such a one do I profess myself. + For, sir, + It is as sure as you are Roderigo, + Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago. + In following him, I follow but myself; + Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty, + But seeming so, for my peculiar end. + For when my outward action doth demonstrate + The native act and figure of my heart + In complement extern, 'tis not long after + But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve + For daws to peck at: I am not what I am. + RODERIGO. What a full fortune does the thick-lips owe, + If he can carry't thus! + IAGO. Call up her father, + Rouse him, make after him, poison his delight, + Proclaim him in the streets, incense her kinsmen, + And, though he in a fertile climate dwell, + Plague him with flies. Though that his joy be joy, + Yet throw such changes of vexation on't + As it may lose some color. + RODERIGO. Here is her father's house; I'll call aloud. + IAGO. Do, with like timorous accent and dire yell + As when, by night and negligence, the fire + Is spied in populous cities. + RODERIGO. What, ho, Brabantio! Signior Brabantio, ho! + IAGO. Awake! What, ho, Brabantio! Thieves! Thieves! Thieves! + Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags! + Thieves! Thieves! + + Brabantio appears above, at a window. + + BRABANTIO. What is the reason of this terrible summons? + What is the matter there? + RODERIGO. Signior, is all your family within? + IAGO. Are your doors lock'd? + BRABANTIO. Why? Wherefore ask you this? + IAGO. 'Zounds, sir, you're robb'd! For shame, put on your gown; + Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul; + Even now, now, very now, an old black ram + Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise! + Awake the snorting citizens with the bell, + Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you. + Arise, I say! + BRABANTIO. What, have you lost your wits? + RODERIGO. Most reverend signior, do you know my voice? + BRABANTIO. Not I. What are you? + RODERIGO. My name is Roderigo. + BRABANTIO. The worser welcome. + I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors. + In honest plainness thou hast heard me say + My daughter is not for thee; and now, in madness, + Being full of supper and distempering draughts, + Upon malicious bravery, dost thou come + To start my quiet. + RODERIGO. Sir, sir, sir- + BRABANTIO. But thou must needs be sure + My spirit and my place have in them power + To make this bitter to thee. + RODERIGO. Patience, good sir. + BRABANTIO. What tell'st thou me of robbing? This is Venice; + My house is not a grange. + RODERIGO. Most grave Brabantio, + In simple and pure soul I come to you. + IAGO. 'Zounds, sir, you are one of those that will not serve God, + if the devil bid you. Because we come to do you service and you + think we are ruffians, you'll have your daughter covered with a + Barbary horse; you'll have your nephews neigh to you; you'll have + coursers for cousins, and gennets for germans. + BRABANTIO. What profane wretch art thou? + IAGO. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the + Moor are now making the beast with two backs. + BRABANTIO. Thou are a villain. + IAGO. You are- a senator. + BRABANTIO. This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Roderigo. + RODERIGO. Sir, I will answer anything. But, I beseech you, + If't be your pleasure and most wise consent, + As partly I find it is, that your fair daughter, + At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night, + Transported with no worse nor better guard + But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier, + To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor- + If this be known to you, and your allowance, + We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs; + But if you know not this, my manners tell me + We have your wrong rebuke. Do not believe + That, from the sense of all civility, + I thus would play and trifle with your reverence. + Your daughter, if you have not given her leave, + I say again, hath made a gross revolt, + Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes + In an extravagant and wheeling stranger + Of here and everywhere. Straight satisfy yourself: + If she be in her chamber or your house, + Let loose on me the justice of the state + For thus deluding you. + BRABANTIO. Strike on the tinder, ho! + Give me a taper! Call up all my people! + This accident is not unlike my dream; + Belief of it oppresses me already. + Light, I say, light! Exit above. + IAGO. Farewell, for I must leave you. + It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place, + To be produced- as, if I stay, I shall- + Against the Moor; for I do know, the state, + However this may gall him with some check, + Cannot with safety cast him, for he's embark'd + With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars, + Which even now stands in act, that, for their souls, + Another of his fathom they have none + To lead their business; in which regard, + Though I do hate him as I do hell pains, + Yet for necessity of present life, + I must show out a flag and sign of love, + Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely find him, + Lead to the Sagittary the raised search, + And there will I be with him. So farewell. Exit. + + Enter, below, Brabantio, in his nightgown, and + Servants with torches. + + BRABANTIO. It is too true an evil: gone she is, + And what's to come of my despised time + Is nought but bitterness. Now, Roderigo, + Where didst thou see her? O unhappy girl! + With the Moor, say'st thou? Who would be a father! + How didst thou know 'twas she? O, she deceives me + Past thought! What said she to you? Get more tapers. + Raise all my kindred. Are they married, think you? + RODERIGO. Truly, I think they are. + BRABANTIO. O heaven! How got she out? O treason of the blood! + Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' minds + By what you see them act. Is there not charms + By which the property of youth and maidhood + May be abused? Have you not read, Roderigo, + Of some such thing? + RODERIGO. Yes, sir, I have indeed. + BRABANTIO. Call up my brother. O, would you had had her! + Some one way, some another. Do you know + Where we may apprehend her and the Moor? + RODERIGO. I think I can discover him, if you please + To get good guard and go along with me. + BRABANTIO. Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll call; + I may command at most. Get weapons, ho! + And raise some special officers of night. + On, good Roderigo, I'll deserve your pains. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE II. +Another street. + +Enter Othello, Iago, and Attendants with torches. + + IAGO. Though in the trade of war I have slain men, + Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience + To do no contrived murther. I lack iniquity + Sometimes to do me service. Nine or ten times + I had thought to have yerk'd him here under the ribs. + OTHELLO. 'Tis better as it is. + IAGO. Nay, but he prated + And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms + Against your honor + That, with the little godliness I have, + I did full hard forbear him. But I pray you, sir, + Are you fast married? Be assured of this, + That the magnifico is much beloved, + And hath in his effect a voice potential + As double as the Duke's. He will divorce you, + Or put upon you what restraint and grievance + The law, with all his might to enforce it on, + Will give him cable. + OTHELLO. Let him do his spite. + My services, which I have done the signiory, + Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'Tis yet to know- + Which, when I know that boasting is an honor, + I shall promulgate- I fetch my life and being + From men of royal siege, and my demerits + May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune + As this that I have reach'd. For know, Iago, + But that I love the gentle Desdemona, + I would not my unhoused free condition + Put into circumscription and confine + For the sea's worth. But, look! What lights come yond? + IAGO. Those are the raised father and his friends. + You were best go in. + OTHELLO. Not I; I must be found. + My parts, my title, and my perfect soul + Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they? + IAGO. By Janus, I think no. + + Enter Cassio and certain Officers with torches. + + OTHELLO. The servants of the Duke? And my lieutenant? + The goodness of the night upon you, friends! + What is the news? + CASSIO. The Duke does greet you, general, + And he requires your haste-post-haste appearance, + Even on the instant. + OTHELLO. What is the matter, think you? + CASSIO. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine; + It is a business of some heat. The galleys + Have sent a dozen sequent messengers + This very night at one another's heels; + And many of the consuls, raised and met, + Are at the Duke's already. You have been hotly call'd for, + When, being not at your lodging to be found, + The Senate hath sent about three several quests + To search you out. + OTHELLO. 'Tis well I am found by you. + I will but spend a word here in the house + And go with you. Exit. + CASSIO. Ancient, what makes he here? + IAGO. Faith, he tonight hath boarded a land carack; + If it prove lawful prize, he's made forever. + CASSIO. I do not understand. + IAGO. He's married. + CASSIO. To who? + + Re-enter Othello. + + IAGO. Marry, to- Come, captain, will you go? + OTHELLO. Have with you. + CASSIO. Here comes another troop to seek for you. + IAGO. It is Brabantio. General, be advised, + He comes to bad intent. + + Enter Brabantio, Roderigo, and Officers with torches + and weapons. + + OTHELLO. Holla! Stand there! + RODERIGO. Signior, it is the Moor. + BRABANTIO. Down with him, thief! + They draw on both sides. + IAGO. You, Roderigo! Come, sir, I am for you. + OTHELLO. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them. + Good signior, you shall more command with years + Than with your weapons. + BRABANTIO. O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd my daughter? + Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her, + For I'll refer me to all things of sense, + If she in chains of magic were not bound, + Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy, + So opposite to marriage that she shunn'd + The wealthy, curled darlings of our nation, + Would ever have, to incur a general mock, + Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom + Of such a thing as thou- to fear, not to delight. + Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense + That thou hast practiced on her with foul charms, + Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals + That weaken motion. I'll have't disputed on; + 'Tis probable, and palpable to thinking. + I therefore apprehend and do attach thee + For an abuser of the world, a practicer + Of arts inhibited and out of warrant. + Lay hold upon him. If he do resist, + Subdue him at his peril. + OTHELLO. Hold your hands, + Both you of my inclining and the rest. + Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it + Without a prompter. Where will you that I go + To answer this your charge? + BRABANTIO. To prison, till fit time + Of law and course of direct session + Call thee to answer. + OTHELLO. What if I do obey? + How may the Duke be therewith satisfied, + Whose messengers are here about my side, + Upon some present business of the state + To bring me to him? + FIRST OFFICER. 'Tis true, most worthy signior; + The Duke's in council, and your noble self, + I am sure, is sent for. + BRABANTIO. How? The Duke in council? + In this time of the night? Bring him away; + Mine's not an idle cause. The Duke himself, + Or any of my brothers of the state, + Cannot but feel this wrong as 'twere their own; + For if such actions may have passage free, + Bond slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE III. +A council chamber. The Duke and Senators sitting at a table; +Officers attending. + + DUKE. There is no composition in these news + That gives them credit. + FIRST SENATOR. Indeed they are disproportion'd; + My letters say a hundred and seven galleys. + DUKE. And mine, a hundred and forty. + SECOND SENATOR. And mine, two hundred. + But though they jump not on a just account- + As in these cases, where the aim reports, + 'Tis oft with difference- yet do they all confirm + A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus. + DUKE. Nay, it is possible enough to judgement. + I do not so secure me in the error, + But the main article I do approve + In fearful sense. + SAILOR. [Within.] What, ho! What, ho! What, ho! + FIRST OFFICER. A messenger from the galleys. + + Enter Sailor. + + DUKE. Now, what's the business? + SAILOR. The Turkish preparation makes for Rhodes, + So was I bid report here to the state + By Signior Angelo. + DUKE. How say you by this change? + FIRST SENATOR. This cannot be, + By no assay of reason; 'tis a pageant + To keep us in false gaze. When we consider + The importancy of Cyprus to the Turk, + And let ourselves again but understand + That as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes, + So may he with more facile question bear it, + For that it stands not in such warlike brace, + But altogether lacks the abilities + That Rhodes is dress'd in. If we make thought of this, + We must not think the Turk is so unskillful + To leave that latest which concerns him first, + Neglecting an attempt of ease and gain, + To wake and wage a danger profitless. + DUKE. Nay, in all confidence, he's not for Rhodes. + FIRST OFFICER. Here is more news. + + Enter a Messenger. + + MESSENGER. The Ottomites, reverend and gracious, + Steering with due course toward the isle of Rhodes, + Have there injointed them with an after fleet. + FIRST SENATOR. Ay, so I thought. How many, as you guess? + MESSENGER. Of thirty sail; and now they do re-stem + Their backward course, bearing with frank appearance + Their purposes toward Cyprus. Signior Montano, + Your trusty and most valiant servitor, + With his free duty recommends you thus, + And prays you to believe him. + DUKE. 'Tis certain then for Cyprus. + Marcus Luccicos, is not he in town? + FIRST SENATOR. He's now in Florence. + DUKE. Write from us to him, post-post-haste dispatch. + FIRST SENATOR. Here comes Brabantio and the valiant Moor. + + Enter Brabantio, Othello, Iago, Roderigo, and Officers. + + DUKE. Valiant Othello, we must straight employ you + Against the general enemy Ottoman. + [To Brabantio.] I did not see you; welcome, gentle signior; + We lack'd your counsel and your help tonight. + BRABANTIO. So did I yours. Good your Grace, pardon me: + Neither my place nor aught I heard of business + Hath raised me from my bed, nor doth the general care + Take hold on me; for my particular grief + Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature + That it engluts and swallows other sorrows, + And it is still itself. + DUKE. Why, what's the matter? + BRABANTIO. My daughter! O, my daughter! + ALL. Dead? + BRABANTIO. Ay, to me. + She is abused, stol'n from me and corrupted + By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks; + For nature so preposterously to err, + Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense, + Sans witchcraft could not. + DUKE. Whoe'er he be that in this foul proceeding + Hath thus beguiled your daughter of herself + And you of her, the bloody book of law + You shall yourself read in the bitter letter + After your own sense, yea, though our proper son + Stood in your action. + BRABANTIO. Humbly I thank your Grace. + Here is the man, this Moor, whom now, it seems, + Your special mandate for the state affairs + Hath hither brought. + ALL. We are very sorry for't. + DUKE. [To Othello.] What in your own part can you say to this? + BRABANTIO. Nothing, but this is so. + OTHELLO. Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors, + My very noble and approved good masters, + That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter, + It is most true; true, I have married her; + The very head and front of my offending + Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my speech, + And little blest with the soft phrase of peace; + For since these arms of mine had seven years' pith, + Till now some nine moons wasted, they have used + Their dearest action in the tented field, + And little of this great world can I speak, + More than pertains to feats of broil and battle; + And therefore little shall I grace my cause + In speaking for myself. Yet, by your gracious patience, + I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver + Of my whole course of love: what drugs, what charms, + What conjuration, and what mighty magic- + For such proceeding I am charged withal- + I won his daughter. + BRABANTIO. A maiden never bold, + Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion + Blush'd at herself; and she- in spite of nature, + Of years, of country, credit, everything- + To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on! + It is judgement maim'd and most imperfect, + That will confess perfection so could err + Against all rules of nature, and must be driven + To find out practices of cunning hell + Why this should be. I therefore vouch again + That with some mixtures powerful o'er the blood, + Or with some dram conjured to this effect, + He wrought upon her. + DUKE. To vouch this is no proof, + Without more certain and more overt test + Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods + Of modern seeming do prefer against him. + FIRST SENATOR. But, Othello, speak. + Did you by indirect and forced courses + Subdue and poison this young maid's affections? + Or came it by request, and such fair question + As soul to soul affordeth? + OTHELLO. I do beseech you, + Send for the lady to the Sagittary, + And let her speak of me before her father. + If you do find me foul in her report, + The trust, the office I do hold of you, + Not only take away, but let your sentence + Even fall upon my life. + DUKE. Fetch Desdemona hither. + OTHELLO. Ancient, conduct them; you best know the place. + Exeunt Iago and Attendants. + And till she come, as truly as to heaven + I do confess the vices of my blood, + So justly to your grave ears I'll present + How I did thrive in this fair lady's love + And she in mine. + DUKE. Say it, Othello. + OTHELLO. Her father loved me, oft invited me, + Still question'd me the story of my life + From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes, + That I have pass'd. + I ran it through, even from my boyish days + To the very moment that he bade me tell it: + Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances, + Of moving accidents by flood and field, + Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach, + Of being taken by the insolent foe + And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence + And portance in my travels' history; + Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle, + Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven, + It was my hint to speak- such was the process- + And of the Cannibals that each other eat, + The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads + Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear + Would Desdemona seriously incline; + But still the house affairs would draw her thence, + Which ever as she could with haste dispatch, + She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear + Devour up my discourse; which I observing, + Took once a pliant hour, and found good means + To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart + That I would all my pilgrimage dilate, + Whereof by parcels she had something heard, + But not intentively. I did consent, + And often did beguile her of her tears + When I did speak of some distressful stroke + That my youth suffer'd. My story being done, + She gave me for my pains a world of sighs; + She swore, in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange; + 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful. + She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd + That heaven had made her such a man; she thank'd me, + And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, + I should but teach him how to tell my story, + And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake: + She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd, + And I loved her that she did pity them. + This only is the witchcraft I have used. + Here comes the lady; let her witness it. + + Enter Desdemona, Iago, and Attendants. + + DUKE. I think this tale would win my daughter too. + Good Brabantio, + Take up this mangled matter at the best: + Men do their broken weapons rather use + Than their bare hands. + BRABANTIO. I pray you, hear her speak. + If she confess that she was half the wooer, + Destruction on my head, if my bad blame + Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress. + Do you perceive in all this noble company + Where most you owe obedience? + DESDEMONA. My noble father, + I do perceive here a divided duty. + To you I am bound for life and education; + My life and education both do learn me + How to respect you; you are the lord of duty, + I am hitherto your daughter. But here's my husband, + And so much duty as my mother show'd + To you, preferring you before her father, + So much I challenge that I may profess + Due to the Moor, my lord. + BRABANTIO. God be with you! I have done. + Please it your Grace, on to the state affairs; + I had rather to adopt a child than get it. + Come hither, Moor. + I here do give thee that with all my heart + Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart + I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel, + I am glad at soul I have no other child; + For thy escape would teach me tyranny, + To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord. + DUKE. Let me speak like yourself, and lay a sentence + Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers + Into your favor. + When remedies are past, the griefs are ended + By seeing the worst, which late on hopes depended. + To mourn a mischief that is past and gone + Is the next way to draw new mischief on. + What cannot be preserved when Fortune takes, + Patience her injury a mockery makes. + The robb'd that smiles steals something from the thief; + He robs himself that spends a bootless grief. + BRABANTIO. So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile; + We lose it not so long as we can smile. + He bears the sentence well, that nothing bears + But the free comfort which from thence he hears; + But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow + That, to pay grief, must of poor patience borrow. + These sentences, to sugar or to gall, + Being strong on both sides, are equivocal. + But words are words; I never yet did hear + That the bruised heart was pierced through the ear. + I humbly beseech you, proceed to the affairs of state. + DUKE. The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus. + Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you; and + though we have there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, + yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer + voice on you. You must therefore be content to slubber the gloss + of your new fortunes with this more stubborn and boisterous + expedition. + OTHELLO. The tyrant custom, most grave senators, + Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war + My thrice-driven bed of down. I do agnize + A natural and prompt alacrity + I find in hardness and do undertake + These present wars against the Ottomites. + Most humbly therefore bending to your state, + I crave fit disposition for my wife, + Due reference of place and exhibition, + With such accommodation and besort + As levels with her breeding. + DUKE. If you please, + Be't at her father's. + BRABANTIO. I'll not have it so. + OTHELLO. Nor I. + DESDEMONA. Nor I. I would not there reside + To put my father in impatient thoughts + By being in his eye. Most gracious Duke, + To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear, + And let me find a charter in your voice + To assist my simpleness. + DUKE. What would you, Desdemona? + DESDEMONA. That I did love the Moor to live with him, + My downright violence and storm of fortunes + May trumpet to the world. My heart's subdued + Even to the very quality of my lord. + I saw Othello's visage in his mind, + And to his honors and his valiant parts + Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate. + So that, dear lords, if I be left behind, + A moth of peace, and he go to the war, + The rites for which I love him are bereft me, + And I a heavy interim shall support + By his dear absence. Let me go with him. + OTHELLO. Let her have your voices. + Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not + To please the palate of my appetite, + Nor to comply with heat- the young affects + In me defunct- and proper satisfaction; + But to be free and bounteous to her mind. + And heaven defend your good souls, that you think + I will your serious and great business scant + For she is with me. No, when light-wing'd toys + Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dullness + My speculative and officed instruments, + That my disports corrupt and taint my business, + Let housewives make a skillet of my helm, + And all indign and base adversities + Make head against my estimation! + DUKE. Be it as you shall privately determine, + Either for her stay or going. The affair cries haste, + And speed must answer't: you must hence tonight. + DESDEMONA. Tonight, my lord? + DUKE. This night. + OTHELLO. With all my heart. + DUKE. At nine i' the morning here we'll meet again. + Othello, leave some officer behind, + And he shall our commission bring to you, + With such things else of quality and respect + As doth import you. + OTHELLO. So please your Grace, my ancient; + A man he is of honesty and trust. + To his conveyance I assign my wife, + With what else needful your good Grace shall think + To be sent after me. + DUKE. Let it be so. + Good night to everyone. [To Brabantio.] And, noble signior, + If virtue no delighted beauty lack, + Your son-in-law is far more fair than black. + FIRST SENATOR. Adieu, brave Moor, use Desdemona well. + BRABANTIO. Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see; + She has deceived her father, and may thee. + Exeunt Duke, Senators, and Officers. + OTHELLO. My life upon her faith! Honest Iago, + My Desdemona must I leave to thee. + I prithee, let thy wife attend on her, + And bring them after in the best advantage. + Come, Desdemona, I have but an hour + Of love, of worldly matters and direction, + To spend with thee. We must obey the time. + Exeunt Othello and Desdemona. + RODERIGO. Iago! + IAGO. What say'st thou, noble heart? + RODERIGO. What will I do, thinkest thou? + IAGO. Why, go to bed and sleep. + RODERIGO. I will incontinently drown myself. + IAGO. If thou dost, I shall never love thee after. + Why, thou silly gentleman! + RODERIGO. It is silliness to live when to live is torment, and then + have we a prescription to die when death is our physician. + IAGO. O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four times + seven years, and since I could distinguish betwixt a benefit and + an injury, I never found man that knew how to love himself. Ere I + would say I would drown myself for the love of a guinea hen, I + would change my humanity with a baboon. + RODERIGO. What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so fond, + but it is not in my virtue to amend it. + IAGO. Virtue? a fig! 'Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. + Our bodies are gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners; so + that if we will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed + up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs or distract it with + many, either to have it sterile with idleness or manured with + industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in + our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one scale of + reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of + our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions. + But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, + our unbitted lusts; whereof I take this, that you call love, to + be a sect or scion. + RODERIGO. It cannot be. + IAGO. It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the + will. Come, be a man! Drown thyself? Drown cats and blind + puppies. I have professed me thy friend, and I confess me knit to + thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness; I could never + better stead thee than now. Put money in thy purse; follow thou + the wars; defeat thy favor with an usurped beard. I say, put + money in thy purse. It cannot be that Desdemona should long + continue her love to the Moor- put money in thy purse- nor he his + to her. It was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an + answerable sequestration- put but money in thy purse. These Moors + are changeable in their wills- fill thy purse with money. The + food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him + shortly as acerb as the coloquintida. She must change for youth; + when she is sated with his body, she will find the error of her + choice. She must have change, she must; therefore put money in + thy purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a more delicate + way than drowning. Make all the money thou canst. If sanctimony + and a frail vow betwixt an erring barbarian and a supersubtle + Venetian be not too hard for my wits and all the tribe of hell, + thou shalt enjoy her- therefore make money. A pox of drowning + thyself! It is clean out of the way. Seek thou rather to be + hanged in compassing thy joy than to be drowned and go without + her. + RODERIGO. Wilt thou be fast to my hopes, if I depend on the issue? + IAGO. Thou art sure of me- go, make money. I have told thee often, + and I retell thee again and again, I hate the Moor. My cause is + hearted; thine hath no less reason. Let us be conjunctive in our + revenge against him. If thou canst cuckold him, thou dost thyself + a pleasure, me a sport. There are many events in the womb of time + which will be delivered. Traverse, go, provide thy money. We will + have more of this tomorrow. Adieu. + RODERIGO. Where shall we meet i' the morning? + IAGO. At my lodging. + RODERIGO. I'll be with thee betimes. + IAGO. Go to, farewell. Do you hear, Roderigo? + RODERIGO. What say you? + IAGO. No more of drowning, do you hear? + RODERIGO. I am changed; I'll go sell all my land. Exit. + IAGO. Thus do I ever make my fool my purse; + For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane + If I would time expend with such a snipe + But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor, + And it is thought abroad that 'twixt my sheets + He has done my office. I know not if't be true, + But I for mere suspicion in that kind + Will do as if for surety. He holds me well, + The better shall my purpose work on him. + Cassio's a proper man. Let me see now- + To get his place, and to plume up my will + In double knavery- How, how?- Let's see- + After some time, to abuse Othello's ear + That he is too familiar with his wife. + He hath a person and a smooth dispose + To be suspected- framed to make women false. + The Moor is of a free and open nature, + That thinks men honest that but seem to be so, + And will as tenderly be led by the nose + As asses are. + I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night + Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light. + Exit. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +A seaport in Cyprus. An open place near the quay. + +Enter Montano and two Gentlemen. + + MONTANO. What from the cape can you discern at sea? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Nothing at all. It is a high-wrought flood; + I cannot, 'twixt the heaven and the main, + Descry a sail. + MONTANO. Methinks the wind hath spoke aloud at land; + A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements. + If it hath ruffian'd so upon the sea, + What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them, + Can hold the mortise? What shall we hear of this? + SECOND GENTLEMAN. A segregation of the Turkish fleet. + For do but stand upon the foaming shore, + The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds; + The wind-shaked surge, with high and monstrous mane, + Seems to cast water on the burning bear, + And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole. + I never did like molestation view + On the enchafed flood. + MONTANO. If that the Turkish fleet + Be not enshelter'd and embay'd, they are drown'd; + It is impossible to bear it out. + + Enter a third Gentleman. + + THIRD GENTLEMAN. News, lads! Our wars are done. + The desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Turks, + That their designment halts. A noble ship of Venice + Hath seen a grievous wreck and sufferance + On most part of their fleet. + MONTANO. How? Is this true? + THIRD GENTLEMAN. The ship is here put in, + A Veronesa. Michael Cassio, + Lieutenant to the warlike Moor, Othello, + Is come on shore; the Moor himself at sea, + And is in full commission here for Cyprus. + MONTANO. I am glad on't; 'tis a worthy governor. + THIRD GENTLEMAN. But this same Cassio, though he speak of comfort + Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly + And prays the Moor be safe; for they were parted + With foul and violent tempest. + MONTANO. Pray heavens he be, + For I have served him, and the man commands + Like a full soldier. Let's to the seaside, ho! + As well to see the vessel that's come in + As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello, + Even till we make the main and the aerial blue + An indistinct regard. + THIRD GENTLEMAN. Come, let's do so, + For every minute is expectancy + Of more arrivance. + + Enter Cassio. + + CASSIO. Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle, + That so approve the Moor! O, let the heavens + Give him defense against the elements, + For I have lost him on a dangerous sea. + MONTANO. I she well shipp'd? + CASSIO. His bark is stoutly timber'd, and his pilot + Of very expert and approved allowance; + Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death, + Stand in bold cure. + A cry within, "A sail, a sail, a sail!" + + Enter a fourth Gentleman. + + What noise? + FOURTH GENTLEMAN. The town is empty; on the brow o' the sea + Stand ranks of people, and they cry, "A sail!" + CASSIO. My hopes do shape him for the governor. + Guns heard. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. They do discharge their shot of courtesy- + Our friends at least. + CASSIO. I pray you, sir, go forth, + And give us truth who 'tis that is arrived. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. I shall. Exit. + MONTANO. But, good lieutenant, is your general wived? + CASSIO. Most fortunately: he hath achieved a maid + That paragons description and wild fame, + One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens, + And in the essential vesture of creation + Does tire the ingener. + + Re-enter second Gentleman. + + How now! who has put in? + SECOND GENTLEMAN. 'Tis one Iago, ancient to the general. + CASSIO. He has had most favorable and happy speed: + Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling winds, + The gutter'd rocks, and congregated sands, + Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel, + As having sense of beauty, do omit + Their mortal natures, letting go safely by + The divine Desdemona. + MONTANO. What is she? + CASSIO. She that I spake of, our great captain's captain, + Left in the conduct of the bold Iago, + Whose footing here anticipates our thoughts + A se'nnight's speed. Great Jove, Othello guard, + And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath, + That he may bless this bay with his tall ship, + Make love's quick pants in Desdemona's arms, + Give renew'd fire to our extincted spirits, + And bring all Cyprus comfort. + + Enter Desdemona, Emilia Iago, Roderigo, and Attendants. + + O, behold, + The riches of the ship is come on shore! + Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees. + Hall to thee, lady! And the grace of heaven, + Before, behind thee, and on every hand, + Enwheel thee round! + DESDEMONA. I thank you, valiant Cassio. + What tidings can you tell me of my lord? + CASSIO. He is not yet arrived, nor know I aught + But that he's well and will be shortly here. + DESDEMONA. O, but I fear- How lost you company? + CASSIO. The great contention of the sea and skies + Parted our fellowship- But, hark! a sail. + A cry within, "A sail, a sail!" Guns heard. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. They give their greeting to the citadel; + This likewise is a friend. + CASSIO. See for the news. + Exit Gentleman. + Good ancient, you are welcome. [To Emilia.] Welcome, mistress. + Let it not gall your patience, good Iago, + That I extend my manners; 'tis my breeding + That gives me this bold show of courtesy. Kisses her. + IAGO. Sir, would she give you so much of her lips + As of her tongue she oft bestows on me, + You'ld have enough. + DESDEMONA. Alas, she has no speech. + IAGO. In faith, too much; + I find it still when I have list to sleep. + Marry, before your ladyship I grant, + She puts her tongue a little in her heart + And chides with thinking. + EMILIA. You have little cause to say so. + IAGO. Come on, come on. You are pictures out of doors, + Bells in your parlors, wildcats in your kitchens, + Saints in your injuries, devils being offended, + Players in your housewifery, and housewives in your beds. + DESDEMONA. O, fie upon thee, slanderer! + IAGO. Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk: + You rise to play, and go to bed to work. + EMILIA. You shall not write my praise. + IAGO. No, let me not. + DESDEMONA. What wouldst thou write of me, if thou shouldst + praise me? + IAGO. O gentle lady, do not put me to't, + For I am nothing if not critical. + DESDEMONA. Come on, assay- There's one gone to the harbor? + IAGO. Ay, madam. + DESDEMONA. I am not merry, but I do beguile + The thing I am by seeming otherwise. + Come, how wouldst thou praise me? + IAGO. I am about it, but indeed my invention + Comes from my pate as birdlime does from frieze; + It plucks out brains and all. But my Muse labors, + And thus she is deliver'd. + If she be fair and wise, fairness and wit, + The one's for use, the other useth it. + DESDEMONA. Well praised! How if she be black and witty? + IAGO. If she be black, and thereto have a wit, + She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit. + DESDEMONA. Worse and worse. + EMILIA. How if fair and foolish? + IAGO. She never yet was foolish that was fair, + For even her folly help'd her to an heir. + DESDEMONA. These are old fond paradoxes to make fools laugh i' the + alehouse. What miserable praise hast thou for her that's foul and + foolish? + IAGO. There's none so foul and foolish thereunto, + But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones do. + DESDEMONA. O heavy ignorance! Thou praisest the worst best. But what + praise couldst thou bestow on a deserving woman indeed, one that + in the authority of her merit did justly put on the vouch of very + malice itself? + IAGO. She that was ever fair and never proud, + Had tongue at will and yet was never loud, + Never lack'd gold and yet went never gay, + Fled from her wish and yet said, "Now I may"; + She that, being anger'd, her revenge being nigh, + Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly; + She that in wisdom never was so frail + To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail; + She that could think and ne'er disclose her mind, + See suitors following and not look behind; + She was a wight, if ever such wight were- + DESDEMONA. To do what? + IAGO. To suckle fools and chronicle small beer. + DESDEMONA. O most lame and impotent conclusion! Do not learn of him, + Emilia, though he be thy husband. How say you, Cassio? Is he not + a most profane and liberal counselor? + CASSIO. He speaks home, madam. You may relish him more in the + soldier than in the scholar. + IAGO. [Aside.] He takes her by the palm; ay, well said, whisper. + With as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as + Cassio. Ay, smile upon her, do; I will gyve thee in thine own + courtship. You say true; 'tis so, indeed. If such tricks as these + strip you out of your lieutenantry, it had been better you had + not kissed your three fingers so oft, which now again you are + most apt to play the sir in. Very good. Well kissed! an excellent + courtesy! 'tis so, indeed. Yet again your fingers to your lips? + Would they were clyster-pipes for your sake! [Trumpet within.] + The Moor! I know his trumpet. + CASSIO. 'Tis truly so. + DESDEMONA. Let's meet him and receive him. + CASSIO. Lo, where he comes! + + Enter Othello and Attendants. + + OTHELLO. O my fair warrior! + DESDEMONA. My dear Othello! + OTHELLO. It gives me wonder great as my content + To see you here before me. O my soul's joy! + If after every tempest come such calms, + May the winds blow till they have waken'd death! + And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas + Olympus-high, and duck again as low + As hell's from heaven! If it were now to die, + 'Twere now to be most happy; for I fear + My soul hath her content so absolute + That not another comfort like to this + Succeeds in unknown fate. + DESDEMONA. The heavens forbid + But that our loves and comforts should increase, + Even as our days do grow! + OTHELLO. Amen to that, sweet powers! + I cannot speak enough of this content; + It stops me here; it is too much of joy. + And this, and this, the greatest discords be Kisses her. + That e'er our hearts shall make! + IAGO. [Aside.] O, you are well tuned now! + But I'll set down the pegs that make this music, + As honest as I am. + OTHELLO. Come, let us to the castle. + News, friends: our wars are done, the Turks are drown'd. + How does my old acquaintance of this isle? + Honey, you shall be well desired in Cyprus; + I have found great love amongst them. O my sweet, + I prattle out of fashion, and I dote + In mine own comforts. I prithee, good Iago, + Go to the bay and disembark my coffers. + Bring thou the master to the citadel; + He is a good one, and his worthiness + Does challenge much respect. Come, Desdemona, + Once more well met at Cyprus. + Exeunt all but Iago and Roderigo. + IAGO. Do thou meet me presently at the harbor. Come hither. If thou + be'st valiant- as they say base men being in love have then a + nobility in their natures more than is native to them- list me. + The lieutenant tonight watches on the court of guard. First, I + must tell thee this: Desdemona is directly in love with him. + RODERIGO. With him? Why, 'tis not possible. + IAGO. Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul be instructed. Mark me + with what violence she first loved the Moor, but for bragging and + telling her fantastical lies. And will she love him still for + prating? Let not thy discreet heart think it. Her eye must be + fed; and what delight shall she have to look on the devil? When + the blood is made dull with the act of sport, there should be, + again to inflame it and to give satiety a fresh appetite, + loveliness in favor, sympathy in years, manners, and beauties- + all which the Moor is defective in. Now, for want of these + required conveniences, her delicate tenderness will find itself + abused, begin to heave the gorge, disrelish and abhor the Moor; + very nature will instruct her in it and compel her to some second + choice. Now sir, this granted- as it is a most pregnant and + unforced position- who stands so eminently in the degree of this + fortune as Cassio does? A knave very voluble; no further + conscionable than in putting on the mere form of civil and humane + seeming, for the better compass of his salt and most hidden loose + affection? Why, none, why, none- a slipper and subtle knave, a + finder out of occasions, that has an eye can stamp and + counterfeit advantages, though true advantage never present + itself- a devilish knave! Besides, the knave is handsome, young, + and hath all those requisites in him that folly and green minds + look after- a pestilent complete knave, and the woman hath found + him already. + RODERIGO. I cannot believe that in her; she's full of most blest + condition. + IAGO. Blest fig's-end! The wine she drinks is made of grapes. If + she had been blest, she would never have loved the Moor. Blest + pudding! Didst thou not see her paddle with the palm of his hand? + Didst not mark that? + RODERIGO. Yes, that I did; but that was but courtesy. + IAGO. Lechery, by this hand; an index and obscure prologue to the + history of lust and foul thoughts. They met so near with their + lips that their breaths embraced together. Villainous thoughts, + Roderigo! When these mutualities so marshal the way, hard at hand + comes the master and main exercise, the incorporate conclusion. + Pish! But, sir, be you ruled by me. I have brought you from + Venice. Watch you tonight; for the command, I'll lay't upon you. + Cassio knows you not. I'll not be far from you. Do you find some + occasion to anger Cassio, either by speaking too loud, or + tainting his discipline, or from what other course you please, + which the time shall more favorably minister. + RODERIGO. Well. + IAGO. Sir, he is rash and very sudden in choler, and haply may + strike at you. Provoke him, that he may; for even out of that + will I cause these of Cyprus to mutiny, whose qualification shall + come into no true taste again but by the displanting of Cassio. + So shall you have a shorter journey to your desires by the means + I shall then have to prefer them, and the impediment most + profitably removed, without the which there were no expectation + of our prosperity. + RODERIGO. I will do this, if I can bring it to any opportunity. + IAGO. I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at the citadel. I must + fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell. + RODERIGO. Adieu. Exit. + IAGO. That Cassio loves her, I do well believe it; + That she loves him, 'tis apt and of great credit. + The Moor, howbeit that I endure him not, + Is of a constant, loving, noble nature, + And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona + A most dear husband. Now, I do love her too, + Not out of absolute lust, though peradventure + I stand accountant for as great a sin, + But partly led to diet my revenge, + For that I do suspect the lusty Moor + Hath leap'd into my seat; the thought whereof + Doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards, + And nothing can or shall content my soul + Till I am even'd with him, wife for wife. + Or failing so, yet that I put the Moor + At least into a jealousy so strong + That judgement cannot cure. Which thing to do, + If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trace + For his quick hunting, stand the putting on, + I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip, + Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb + (For I fear Cassio with my nightcap too), + Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me + For making him egregiously an ass + And practicing upon his peace and quiet + Even to madness. 'Tis here, but yet confused: + Knavery's plain face is never seen till used. Exit. + + + + +SCENE II. +A street. + +Enter a Herald with a proclamation; people following. + + HERALD. It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and valiant general, + that upon certain tidings now arrived, importing the mere + perdition of the Turkish fleet, every man put himself into + triumph; some to dance, some to make bonfires, each man to what + sport and revels his addiction leads him; for besides these + beneficial news, it is the celebration of his nuptial. So much + was his pleasure should be proclaimed. All offices are open, and + there is full liberty of feasting from this present hour of five + till the bell have told eleven. Heaven bless the isle of Cyprus + and our noble general Othello! Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE III. +A hall in the castle. + +Enter Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, and Attendants. + + OTHELLO. Good Michael, look you to the guard tonight. + Let's teach ourselves that honorable stop, + Not to outsport discretion. + CASSIO. Iago hath direction what to do; + But notwithstanding with my personal eye + Will I look to't. + OTHELLO. Iago is most honest. + Michael, good night. Tomorrow with your earliest + Let me have speech with you. Come, my dear love, + The purchase made, the fruits are to ensue; + That profit's yet to come 'tween me and you. + Good night. + Exeunt Othello, Desdemona, and Attendants. + + Enter Iago. + + CASSIO. Welcome, Iago; we must to the watch. + IAGO. Not this hour, lieutenant; 'tis not yet ten o' the clock. Our + general cast us thus early for the love of his Desdemona; who let + us not therefore blame. He hath not yet made wanton the night + with her, and she is sport for Jove. + CASSIO. She's a most exquisite lady. + IAGO. And, I'll warrant her, full of game. + CASSIO. Indeed she's a most fresh and delicate creature. + IAGO. What an eye she has! Methinks it sounds a parley to + provocation. + CASSIO. An inviting eye; and yet methinks right modest. + IAGO. And when she speaks, is it not an alarum to love? + CASSIO. She is indeed perfection. + IAGO. Well, happiness to their sheets! Come, lieutenant, I have a + stope of wine, and here without are a brace of Cyprus gallants + that would fain have a measure to the health of black Othello. + CASSIO. Not tonight, good Iago. I have very poor and unhappy brains + for drinking. I could well wish courtesy would invent some other + custom of entertainment. + IAGO. O, they are our friends! But one cup; I'll drink for you. + CASSIO. I have drunk but one cup tonight, and that was craftily + qualified too, and behold what innovation it makes here. I am + unfortunate in the infirmity, and dare not task my weakness with + any more. + IAGO. What, man! 'Tis a night of revels, the gallants desire it. + CASSIO. Where are they? + IAGO. Here at the door; I pray you, call them in. + CASSIO. I'll do't, but it dislikes me. Exit. + IAGO. If I can fasten but one cup upon him, + With that which he hath drunk tonight already, + He'll be as full of quarrel and offense + As my young mistress' dog. Now my sick fool Roderigo, + Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side out, + To Desdemona hath tonight caroused + Potations pottle-deep; and he's to watch. + Three lads of Cyprus, noble swelling spirits, + That hold their honors in a wary distance, + The very elements of this warlike isle, + Have I tonight fluster'd with flowing cups, + And they watch too. Now, 'mongst this flock of drunkards, + Am I to put our Cassio in some action + That may offend the isle. But here they come. + If consequence do but approve my dream, + My boat sails freely, both with wind and stream. + + Re-enter Cassio; with him Montano and Gentlemen; + Servants following with wine. + + CASSIO. 'Fore God, they have given me a rouse already. + MONTANO. Good faith, a little one; not past a pint, as I am a + soldier. + IAGO. Some wine, ho! + + [Sings.] "And let me the canakin clink, clink; + And let me the canakin clink. + A soldier's a man; + O, man's life's but a span; + Why then let a soldier drink." + + Some wine, boys! + CASSIO. 'Fore God, an excellent song. + IAGO. I learned it in England, where indeed they are most potent in + potting. Your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied Hollander- + Drink, ho!- are nothing to your English. + CASSIO. Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking? + IAGO. Why, he drinks you with facility your Dane dead drunk; he + sweats not to overthrow your Almain; he gives your Hollander a + vomit ere the next pottle can be filled. + CASSIO. To the health of our general! + MONTANO. I am for it, lieutenant, and I'll do you justice. + IAGO. O sweet England! + + [Sings.] "King Stephen was and-a worthy peer, + His breeches cost him but a crown; + He held them sixpence all too dear, + With that he call'd the tailor lown. + + "He was a wight of high renown, + And thou art but of low degree. + 'Tis pride that pulls the country down; + Then take thine auld cloak about thee." + + Some wine, ho! + CASSIO. Why, this is a more exquisite song than the other. + IAGO. Will you hear't again? + CASSIO. No, for I hold him to be unworthy of his place that does + those things. Well, God's above all, and there be souls must be + saved, and there be souls must not be saved. + IAGO. It's true, good lieutenant. + CASSIO. For mine own part- no offense to the general, nor any man + of quality- I hope to be saved. + IAGO. And so do I too, lieutenant. + CASSIO. Ay, but, by your leave, not before me; the lieutenant is to + be saved before the ancient. Let's have no more of this; let's to + our affairs. God forgive us our sins! Gentlemen, let's look to + our business. Do not think, gentlemen, I am drunk: this is my + ancient, this is my right hand, and this is my left. I am not + drunk now; I can stand well enough, and I speak well enough. + ALL. Excellent well. + CASSIO. Why, very well then; you must not think then that I am + drunk. Exit. + MONTANO. To the platform, masters; come, let's set the watch. + IAGO. You see this fellow that is gone before; + He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar + And give direction. And do but see his vice; + 'Tis to his virtue a just equinox, + The one as long as the other. 'Tis pity of him. + I fear the trust Othello puts him in + On some odd time of his infirmity + Will shake this island. + MONTANO. But is he often thus? + IAGO. 'Tis evermore the prologue to his sleep. + He'll watch the horologe a double set, + If drink rock not his cradle. + MONTANO. It were well + The general were put in mind of it. + Perhaps he sees it not, or his good nature + Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio + And looks not on his evils. Is not this true? + + Enter Roderigo. + + IAGO. [Aside to him.] How now, Roderigo! + I pray you, after the lieutenant; go. Exit Roderigo. + MONTANO. And 'tis great pity that the noble Moor + Should hazard such a place as his own second + With one of an ingraft infirmity. + It were an honest action to say + So to the Moor. + IAGO. Not I, for this fair island. + I do love Cassio well, and would do much + To cure him of this evil- But, hark! What noise? + A cry within, "Help, help!" + + Re-enter Cassio, driving in Roderigo. + + CASSIO. 'Zounds! You rogue! You rascal! + MONTANO. What's the matter, lieutenant? + CASSIO. A knave teach me my duty! But I'll beat the knave into a + twiggen bottle. + RODERIGO. Beat me! + CASSIO. Dost thou prate, rogue? Strikes Roderigo. + MONTANO. Nay, good lieutenant; I pray you, sir, hold your hand. + CASSIO. Let me go, sir, or I'll knock you o'er the mazzard. + MONTANO. Come, come, you're drunk. + CASSIO. Drunk? They fight. + IAGO. [Aside to Roderigo.] Away, I say; go out and cry a mutiny. + Exit Roderigo. + Nay, good lieutenant! God's will, gentlemen! + Help, ho!- Lieutenant- sir- Montano- sir- + Help, masters!- Here's a goodly watch indeed! + A bell rings. + Who's that that rings the bell?- Diablo, ho! + The town will rise. God's will, lieutenant, hold! + You will be shamed forever. + + Re-enter Othello and Attendants. + + OTHELLO. What is the matter here? + MONTANO. 'Zounds, I bleed still; I am hurt to the death. + Faints. + OTHELLO. Hold, for your lives! + IAGO. Hold, ho! Lieutenant- sir- Montano- gentlemen- + Have you forgot all place of sense and duty? + Hold! the general speaks to you! Hold, hold, for shame! + OTHELLO. Why, how now, ho! from whence ariseth this? + Are we turn'd Turks, and to ourselves do that + Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites? + For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl. + He that stirs next to carve for his own rage + Holds his soul light; he dies upon his motion. + Silence that dreadful bell; it frights the isle + From her propriety. What is the matter, masters? + Honest Iago, that look'st dead with grieving, + Speak: who began this? On thy love, I charge thee. + IAGO. I do not know. Friends all but now, even now, + In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom + Devesting them for bed; and then, but now + (As if some planet had unwitted men), + Swords out, and tilting one at other's breast, + In opposition bloody. I cannot speak + Any beginning to this peevish odds; + And would in action glorious I had lost + Those legs that brought me to a part of it! + OTHELLO. How comes it, Michael, you are thus forgot? + CASSIO. I pray you, pardon me; I cannot speak. + OTHELLO. Worthy Montano, you were wont be civil; + The gravity and stillness of your youth + The world hath noted, and your name is great + In mouths of wisest censure. What's the matter, + That you unlace your reputation thus, + And spend your rich opinion for the name + Of a night-brawler? Give me answer to it. + MONTANO. Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger. + Your officer, Iago, can inform you- + While I spare speech, which something now offends me- + Of all that I do know. Nor know I aught + By me that's said or done amiss this night, + Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice, + And to defend ourselves it be a sin + When violence assails us. + OTHELLO. Now, by heaven, + My blood begins my safer guides to rule, + And passion, having my best judgement collied, + Assays to lead the way. If I once stir, + Or do but lift this arm, the best of you + Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know + How this foul rout began, who set it on, + And he that is approved in this offense, + Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth, + Shall lose me. What! in a town of war, + Yet wild, the people's hearts brimful of fear, + To manage private and domestic quarrel, + In night, and on the court and guard of safety! + 'Tis monstrous. Iago, who began't? + MONTANO. If partially affined, or leagued in office, + Thou dost deliver more or less than truth, + Thou art no soldier. + IAGO. Touch me not so near: + I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth + Than it should do offense to Michael Cassio; + Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truth + Shall nothing wrong him. Thus it is, general. + Montano and myself being in speech, + There comes a fellow crying out for help, + And Cassio following him with determined sword, + To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman + Steps in to Cassio and entreats his pause. + Myself the crying fellow did pursue, + Lest by his clamor- as it so fell out- + The town might fall in fright. He, swift of foot, + Outran my purpose; and I return'd the rather + For that I heard the clink and fall of swords, + And Cassio high in oath, which till tonight + I ne'er might say before. When I came back- + For this was brief- I found them close together, + At blow and thrust, even as again they were + When you yourself did part them. + More of this matter cannot I report. + But men are men; the best sometimes forget. + Though Cassio did some little wrong to him, + As men in rage strike those that wish them best, + Yet surely Cassio, I believe, received + From him that fled some strange indignity, + Which patience could not pass. + OTHELLO. I know, Iago, + Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter, + Making it light to Cassio. Cassio, I love thee, + But never more be officer of mine. + + Re-enter Desdemona, attended. + + Look, if my gentle love be not raised up! + I'll make thee an example. + DESDEMONA. What's the matter? + OTHELLO. All's well now, sweeting; come away to bed. + Sir, for your hurts, myself will be your surgeon. + Lead him off. Exit Montano, attended. + Iago, look with care about the town, + And silence those whom this vile brawl distracted. + Come, Desdemona, 'tis the soldiers' life. + To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife. + Exeunt all but Iago and Cassio. + IAGO. What, are you hurt, lieutenant? + CASSIO. Ay, past all surgery. + IAGO. Marry, heaven forbid! + CASSIO. Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my + reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what + remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation! + IAGO. As I am an honest man, I thought you had received some bodily + wound; there is more sense in that than in reputation. Reputation + is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and + lost without deserving. You have lost no reputation at all, + unless you repute yourself such a loser. What, man! there are + ways to recover the general again. You are but now cast in his + mood, a punishment more in policy than in malice; even so as one + would beat his offenseless dog to affright an imperious lion. Sue + to him again, and he's yours. + CASSIO. I will rather sue to be despised than to deceive so good a + commander with so slight, so drunken, and so indiscreet an + officer. Drunk? and speak parrot? and squabble? swagger? swear? + and discourse fustian with one's own shadow? O thou invisible + spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call + thee devil! + IAGO. What was he that you followed with your sword? + What had he done to you? + CASSIO. I know not. + IAGO. Is't possible? + CASSIO. I remember a mass of things, but nothing distinctly; a + quarrel, but nothing wherefore. O God, that men should put an + enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains! that we should, + with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves + into beasts! + IAGO. Why, but you are now well enough. How came you thus + recovered? + CASSIO. It hath pleased the devil drunkenness to give place to the + devil wrath: one unperfectness shows me another, to make me + frankly despise myself. + IAGO. Come, you are too severe a moraler. As the time, the place, + and the condition of this country stands, I could heartily wish + this had not befallen; but since it is as it is, mend it for your + own good. + CASSIO. I will ask him for my place again; he shall tell me I am a + drunkard! Had I as many mouths as Hydra, such an answer would + stop them all. To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and + presently a beast! O strange! Every inordinate cup is unblest, + and the ingredient is a devil. + IAGO. Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be + well used. Exclaim no more against it. And, good lieutenant, I + think you think I love you. + CASSIO. I have well approved it, sir. I drunk! + IAGO. You or any man living may be drunk at some time, man. I'll + tell you what you shall do. Our general's wife is now the + general. I may say so in this respect, for that he hath devoted + and given up himself to the contemplation, mark, and denotement + of her parts and graces. Confess yourself freely to her; + importune her help to put you in your place again. She is of so + free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, she holds it a + vice in her goodness not to do more than she is requested. This + broken joint between you and her husband entreat her to splinter; + and, my fortunes against any lay worth naming, this crack of your + love shall grow stronger than it was before. + CASSIO. You advise me well. + IAGO. I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness. + CASSIO. I think it freely; and betimes in the morning I will beseech + the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me. I am desperate of my + fortunes if they check me here. + IAGO. You are in the right. Good night, lieutenant, I must to the + watch. + CASSIO. Good night, honest Iago. Exit. + IAGO. And what's he then that says I play the villain? + When this advice is free I give and honest, + Probal to thinking, and indeed the course + To win the Moor again? For 'tis most easy + The inclining Desdemona to subdue + In any honest suit. She's framed as fruitful + As the free elements. And then for her + To win the Moor, were't to renounce his baptism, + All seals and symbols of redeemed sin, + His soul is so enfetter'd to her love, + That she may make, unmake, do what she list, + Even as her appetite shall play the god + With his weak function. How am I then a villain + To counsel Cassio to this parallel course, + Directly to his good? Divinity of hell! + When devils will the blackest sins put on, + They do suggest at first with heavenly shows, + As I do now. For whiles this honest fool + Plies Desdemona to repair his fortune, + And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor, + I'll pour this pestilence into his ear, + That she repeals him for her body's lust; + And by how much she strives to do him good, + She shall undo her credit with the Moor. + So will I turn her virtue into pitch, + And out of her own goodness make the net + That shall enmesh them all. + + Enter Roderigo. + + How now, Roderigo! + RODERIGO. I do follow here in the chase, not like a hound that + hunts, but one that fills up the cry. My money is almost spent; I + have been tonight exceedingly well cudgeled; and I think the + issue will be, I shall have so much experience for my pains; and + so, with no money at all and a little more wit, return again to + Venice. + IAGO. How poor are they that have not patience! + What wound did ever heal but by degrees? + Thou know'st we work by wit and not by witchcraft, + And wit depends on dilatory time. + Does't not go well? Cassio hath beaten thee, + And thou by that small hurt hast cashier'd Cassio. + Though other things grow fair against the sun, + Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe. + Content thyself awhile. By the mass, 'tis morning; + Pleasure and action make the hours seem short. + Retire thee; go where thou art billeted. + Away, I say. Thou shalt know more hereafter. + Nay, get thee gone. [Exit Roderigo.] Two things are to be done: + My wife must move for Cassio to her mistress- + I'll set her on; + Myself the while to draw the Moor apart, + And bring him jump when he may Cassio find + Soliciting his wife. Ay, that's the way; + Dull not device by coldness and delay. Exit. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +Before the castle. + +Enter Cassio and some Musicians. + + CASSIO. Masters, play here, I will content your pains; Something + that's brief; and bid "Good morrow, general." + Music. + + Enter Clown. + + CLOWN. Why, masters, have your instruments been in Naples, that + they speak i' the nose thus? + FIRST MUSICIAN. How, sir, how? + CLOWN. Are these, I pray you, wind instruments? + FIRST MUSICIAN. Ay, marry, are they, sir. + CLOWN. O, thereby hangs a tail. + FIRST MUSICIAN. Whereby hangs a tale, sir? + CLOWN. Marry, sir, by many a wind instrument that I know. But, + masters, here's money for you; and the general so likes your + music, that he desires you, for love's sake, to make no more + noise with it. + FIRST MUSICIAN. Well, sir, we will not. + CLOWN. If you have any music that may not be heard, to't again; + but, as they say, to hear music the general does not greatly + care. + FIRST MUSICIAN. We have none such, sir. + CLOWN. Then put up your pipes in your bag, for I'll away. + Go, vanish into air, away! Exeunt Musicians. + CASSIO. Dost thou hear, my honest friend? + CLOWN. No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you. + CASSIO. Prithee, keep up thy quillets. There's a poor piece of gold + for thee. If the gentlewoman that attends the general's wife be + stirring, tell her there's one Cassio entreats her a little favor + of speech. Wilt thou do this? + CLOWN. She is stirring, sir. If she will stir hither, I shall seem + to notify unto her. + CASSIO. Do, good my friend. Exit Clown. + + Enter Iago. + + In happy time, Iago. + IAGO. You have not been abed, then? + CASSIO. Why, no; the day had broke + Before we parted. I have made bold, Iago, + To send in to your wife. My suit to her + Is that she will to virtuous Desdemona + Procure me some access. + IAGO. I'll send her to you presently; + And I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor + Out of the way, that your converse and business + May be more free. + CASSIO. I humbly thank you for't. [Exit Iago.] I never knew + A Florentine more kind and honest. + + Enter Emilia. + + EMILIA. Good morrow, good lieutenant. I am sorry + For your displeasure, but all will sure be well. + The general and his wife are talking of it, + And she speaks for you stoutly. The Moor replies + That he you hurt is of great fame in Cyprus + And great affinity and that in wholesome wisdom + He might not but refuse you; but he protests he loves you + And needs no other suitor but his likings + To take the safest occasion by the front + To bring you in again. + CASSIO. Yet, I beseech you, + If you think fit, or that it may be done, + Give me advantage of some brief discourse + With Desdemona alone. + EMILIA. Pray you, come in. + I will bestow you where you shall have time + To speak your bosom freely. + CASSIO. I am much bound to you. + Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE II. +A room in the castle. + +Enter Othello, Iago, and Gentlemen. + + OTHELLO. These letters give, Iago, to the pilot, + And by him do my duties to the Senate. + That done, I will be walking on the works; + Repair there to me. + IAGO. Well, my good lord, I'll do't. + OTHELLO. This fortification, gentlemen, shall we see't? + GENTLEMEN. We'll wait upon your lordship. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE III. +The garden of the castle. + +Enter Desdemona, Cassio, and Emilia. + + DESDEMONA. Be thou assured, good Cassio, I will do + All my abilities in thy behalf. + EMILIA. Good madam, do. I warrant it grieves my husband + As if the cause were his. + DESDEMONA. O, that's an honest fellow. Do not doubt, Cassio, + But I will have my lord and you again + As friendly as you were. + CASSIO. Bounteous madam, + Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio, + He's never anything but your true servant. + DESDEMONA. I know't: I thank you. You do love my lord: + You have known him long; and be you well assured + He shall in strangeness stand no farther off + Than in a politic distance. + CASSIO. Ay, but, lady, + That policy may either last so long, + Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet, + Or breed itself so out of circumstances, + That I being absent and my place supplied, + My general will forget my love and service. + DESDEMONA. Do not doubt that. Before Emilia here + I give thee warrant of thy place, assure thee, + If I do vow a friendship, I'll perform it + To the last article. My lord shall never rest; + I'll watch him tame and talk him out of patience; + His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift; + I'll intermingle everything he does + With Cassio's suit. Therefore be merry, Cassio, + For thy solicitor shall rather die + Than give thy cause away. + + Enter Othello and Iago, at a distance. + + EMILIA. Madam, here comes my lord. + CASSIO. Madam, I'll take my leave. + DESDEMONA. Nay, stay and hear me speak. + CASSIO. Madam, not now. I am very ill at ease, + Unfit for mine own purposes. + DESDEMONA. Well, do your discretion. Exit Cassio. + IAGO. Ha! I like not that. + OTHELLO. What dost thou say? + IAGO. Nothing, my lord; or if- I know not what. + OTHELLO. Was not that Cassio parted from my wife? + IAGO. Cassio, my lord! No, sure, I cannot think it, + That he would steal away so guilty-like, + Seeing you coming. + OTHELLO. I do believe 'twas he. + DESDEMONA. How now, my lord! + I have been talking with a suitor here, + A man that languishes in your displeasure. + OTHELLO. Who is't you mean? + DESDEMONA. Why, your lieutenant, Cassio. Good my lord, + If I have any grace or power to move you, + His present reconciliation take; + For if he be not one that truly loves you, + That errs in ignorance and not in cunning, + I have no judgement in an honest face. + I prithee, call him back. + OTHELLO. Went he hence now? + DESDEMONA. Ay, sooth; so humbled + That he hath left part of his grief with me + To suffer with him. Good love, call him back. + OTHELLO. Not now, sweet Desdemona; some other time. + DESDEMONA. But shall't be shortly? + OTHELLO. The sooner, sweet, for you. + DESDEMONA. Shall't be tonight at supper? + OTHELLO. No, not tonight. + DESDEMONA. Tomorrow dinner then? + OTHELLO. I shall not dine at home; + I meet the captains at the citadel. + DESDEMONA. Why then tomorrow night, or Tuesday morn, + On Tuesday noon, or night, on Wednesday morn. + I prithee, name the time, but let it not + Exceed three days. In faith, he's penitent; + And yet his trespass, in our common reason- + Save that, they say, the wars must make example + Out of their best- is not almost a fault + To incur a private check. When shall he come? + Tell me, Othello. I wonder in my soul, + What you would ask me, that I should deny, + Or stand so mammering on. What? Michael Cassio, + That came awooing with you, and so many a time + When I have spoke of you dispraisingly + Hath ta'en your part- to have so much to do + To bring him in! Trust me, I could do much- + OTHELLO. Prithee, no more. Let him come when he will; + I will deny thee nothing. + DESDEMONA. Why, this is not a boon; + 'Tis as I should entreat you wear your gloves, + Or feed on nourishing dishes, or keep you warm, + Or sue to you to do a peculiar profit + To your own person. Nay, when I have a suit + Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed, + It shall be full of poise and difficult weight, + And fearful to be granted. + OTHELLO. I will deny thee nothing, + Whereon, I do beseech thee, grant me this, + To leave me but a little to myself. + DESDEMONA. Shall I deny you? No. Farewell, my lord. + OTHELLO. Farewell, my Desdemona; I'll come to thee straight. + DESDEMONA. Emilia, come. Be as your fancies teach you; + Whate'er you be, I am obedient. + Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia. + OTHELLO. Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul, + But I do love thee! and when I love thee not, + Chaos is come again. + IAGO. My noble lord- + OTHELLO. What dost thou say, Iago? + IAGO. Did Michael Cassio, when you woo'd my lady, + Know of your love? + OTHELLO. He did, from first to last. Why dost thou ask? + IAGO. But for a satisfaction of my thought; + No further harm. + OTHELLO. Why of thy thought, Iago? + IAGO. I did not think he had been acquainted with her. + OTHELLO. O, yes, and went between us very oft. + IAGO. Indeed! + OTHELLO. Indeed? ay, indeed. Discern'st thou aught in that? + Is he not honest? + IAGO. Honest, my lord? + OTHELLO. Honest? Ay, honest. + IAGO. My lord, for aught I know. + OTHELLO. What dost thou think? + IAGO. Think, my lord? + OTHELLO. Think, my lord? By heaven, he echoes me, + As if there were some monster in his thought + Too hideous to be shown. Thou dost mean something. + I heard thee say even now, thou like'st not that, + When Cassio left my wife. What didst not like? + And when I told thee he was of my counsel + In my whole course of wooing, thou criedst, "Indeed!" + And didst contract and purse thy brow together, + As if thou then hadst shut up in thy brain + Some horrible conceit. If thou dost love me, + Show me thy thought. + IAGO. My lord, you know I love you. + OTHELLO. I think thou dost; + And for I know thou'rt full of love and honesty + And weigh'st thy words before thou givest them breath, + Therefore these stops of thine fright me the more; + For such things in a false disloyal knave + Are tricks of custom; but in a man that's just + They're close dilations, working from the heart, + That passion cannot rule. + IAGO. For Michael Cassio, + I dare be sworn I think that he is honest. + OTHELLO. I think so too. + IAGO. Men should be what they seem; + Or those that be not, would they might seem none! + OTHELLO. Certain, men should be what they seem. + IAGO. Why then I think Cassio's an honest man. + OTHELLO. Nay, yet there's more in this. + I prithee, speak to me as to thy thinkings, + As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts + The worst of words. + IAGO. Good my lord, pardon me; + Though I am bound to every act of duty, + I am not bound to that all slaves are free to. + Utter my thoughts? Why, say they are vile and false; + As where's that palace whereinto foul things + Sometimes intrude not? Who has a breast so pure, + But some uncleanly apprehensions + Keep leets and law-days, and in session sit + With meditations lawful? + OTHELLO. Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago, + If thou but think'st him wrong'd and makest his ear + A stranger to thy thoughts. + IAGO. I do beseech you- + Though I perchance am vicious in my guess, + As, I confess, it is my nature's plague + To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy + Shapes faults that are not- that your wisdom yet, + From one that so imperfectly conceits, + Would take no notice, nor build yourself a trouble + Out of his scattering and unsure observance. + It were not for your quiet nor your good, + Nor for my manhood, honesty, or wisdom, + To let you know my thoughts. + OTHELLO. What dost thou mean? + IAGO. Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, + Is the immediate jewel of their souls. + Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; + 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; + But he that filches from me my good name + Robs me of that which not enriches him + And makes me poor indeed. + OTHELLO. By heaven, I'll know thy thoughts. + IAGO. You cannot, if my heart were in your hand; + Nor shall not, whilst 'tis in my custody. + OTHELLO. Ha! + IAGO. O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! + It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock + The meat it feeds on. That cuckold lives in bliss + Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger; + But O, what damned minutes tells he o'er + Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves! + OTHELLO. O misery! + IAGO. Poor and content is rich, and rich enough; + But riches fineless is as poor as winter + To him that ever fears he shall be poor. + Good heaven, the souls of all my tribe defend + From jealousy! + OTHELLO. Why, why is this? + Think'st thou I'ld make a life of jealousy, + To follow still the changes of the moon + With fresh suspicions? No! To be once in doubt + Is once to be resolved. Exchange me for a goat + When I shall turn the business of my soul + To such exsufflicate and blown surmises, + Matching thy inference. 'Tis not to make me jealous + To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company, + Is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances well; + Where virtue is, these are more virtuous. + Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw + The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt; + For she had eyes and chose me. No, Iago, + I'll see before I doubt; when I doubt, prove; + And on the proof, there is no more but this- + Away at once with love or jealousy! + IAGO. I am glad of it, for now I shall have reason + To show the love and duty that I bear you + With franker spirit. Therefore, as I am bound, + Receive it from me. I speak not yet of proof. + Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio; + Wear your eye thus, not jealous nor secure. + I would not have your free and noble nature + Out of self-bounty be abused. Look to't. + I know our country disposition well; + In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks + They dare not show their husbands; their best conscience + Is not to leave't undone, but keep't unknown. + OTHELLO. Dost thou say so? + IAGO. She did deceive her father, marrying you; + And when she seem'd to shake and fear your looks, + She loved them most. + OTHELLO. And so she did. + IAGO. Why, go to then. + She that so young could give out such a seeming, + To seel her father's eyes up close as oak- + He thought 'twas witchcraft- but I am much to blame; + I humbly do beseech you of your pardon + For too much loving you. + OTHELLO. I am bound to thee forever. + IAGO. I see this hath a little dash'd your spirits. + OTHELLO. Not a jot, not a jot. + IAGO. I'faith, I fear it has. + I hope you will consider what is spoke + Comes from my love. But I do see you're moved; + I am to pray you not to strain my speech + To grosser issues nor to larger reach + Than to suspicion. + OTHELLO. I will not. + IAGO. Should you do so, my lord, + My speech should fall into such vile success + Which my thoughts aim not at. Cassio's my worthy friend- + My lord, I see you're moved. + OTHELLO. No, not much moved. + I do not think but Desdemona's honest. + IAGO. Long live she so! and long live you to think so! + OTHELLO. And yet, how nature erring from itself- + IAGO. Ay, there's the point, as- to be bold with you- + Not to affect many proposed matches + Of her own clime, complexion, and degree, + Whereto we see in all things nature tends- + Foh, one may smell in such a will most rank, + Foul disproportion, thoughts unnatural. + But pardon me. I do not in position + Distinctly speak of her; though I may fear, + Her will, recoiling to her better judgement, + May fall to match you with her country forms, + And happily repent. + OTHELLO. Farewell, farewell. + If more thou dost perceive, let me know more; + Set on thy wife to observe. Leave me, Iago. + IAGO. [Going.] My lord, I take my leave. + OTHELLO. Why did I marry? This honest creature doubtless + Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds. + IAGO. [Returning.] My lord, I would I might entreat your honor + To scan this thing no further; leave it to time. + Though it be fit that Cassio have his place, + For sure he fills it up with great ability, + Yet, if you please to hold him off awhile, + You shall by that perceive him and his means. + Note if your lady strain his entertainment + With any strong or vehement importunity; + Much will be seen in that. In the meantime, + Let me be thought too busy in my fears- + As worthy cause I have to fear I am- + And hold her free, I do beseech your honor. + OTHELLO. Fear not my government. + IAGO. I once more take my leave. Exit. + OTHELLO. This fellow's of exceeding honesty, + And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit, + Of human dealings. If I do prove her haggard, + Though that her jesses were my dear heartstrings, + I'ld whistle her off and let her down the wind + To prey at fortune. Haply, for I am black + And have not those soft parts of conversation + That chamberers have, or for I am declined + Into the vale of years- yet that's not much- + She's gone. I am abused, and my relief + Must be to loathe her. O curse of marriage, + That we can call these delicate creatures ours, + And not their appetites! I had rather be a toad, + And live upon the vapor of a dungeon, + Than keep a corner in the thing I love + For others' uses. Yet, 'tis the plague of great ones: + Prerogatived are they less than the base; + 'Tis destiny unshunnable, like death. + Even then this forked plague is fated to us + When we do quicken. Desdemona comes: + + Re-enter Desdemona and Emilia. + + If she be false, O, then heaven mocks itself! + I'll not believe't. + DESDEMONA. How now, my dear Othello! + Your dinner, and the generous islanders + By you invited, do attend your presence. + OTHELLO. I am to blame. + DESDEMONA. Why do you speak so faintly? + Are you not well? + OTHELLO. I have a pain upon my forehead here. + DESDEMONA. Faith, that's with watching; 'twill away again. + Let me but bind it hard, within this hour + It will be well. + OTHELLO. Your napkin is too little; + He puts the handkerchief from him, and she drops it. + Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you. + DESDEMONA. I am very sorry that you are not well. + Exeunt Othello and Desdemona. + EMILIA. I am glad I have found this napkin; + This was her first remembrance from the Moor. + My wayward husband hath a hundred times + Woo'd me to steal it; but she so loves the token, + For he conjured her she should ever keep it, + That she reserves it evermore about her + To kiss and talk to. I'll have the work ta'en out, + And give't Iago. What he will do with it + Heaven knows, not I; + I nothing but to please his fantasy. + + Re-enter Iago. + + IAGO. How now, what do you here alone? + EMILIA. Do not you chide; I have a thing for you. + IAGO. A thing for me? It is a common thing- + EMILIA. Ha! + IAGO. To have a foolish wife. + EMILIA. O, is that all? What will you give me now + For that same handkerchief? + IAGO. What handkerchief? + EMILIA. What handkerchief? + Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona, + That which so often you did bid me steal. + IAGO. Hast stol'n it from her? + EMILIA. No, faith; she let it drop by negligence, + And, to the advantage, I being here took't up. + Look, here it is. + IAGO. A good wench; give it me. + EMILIA. What will you do with't, that you have been so earnest + To have me filch it? + IAGO. [Snatching it.] Why, what is that to you? + EMILIA. If't be not for some purpose of import, + Give't me again. Poor lady, she'll run mad + When she shall lack it. + IAGO. Be not acknown on't; I have use for it. + Go, leave me. Exit Emilia. + I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin, + And let him find it. Trifles light as air + Are to the jealous confirmations strong + As proofs of holy writ; this may do something. + The Moor already changes with my poison: + Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons, + Which at the first are scarce found to distaste, + But with a little act upon the blood + Burn like the mines of sulphur. I did say so. + Look, where he comes! + + Re-enter Othello. + + Not poppy, nor mandragora, + Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, + Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep + Which thou owedst yesterday. + OTHELLO. Ha, ha, false to me? + IAGO. Why, how now, general! No more of that. + OTHELLO. Avaunt! be gone! Thou hast set me on the rack. + I swear 'tis better to be much abused + Than but to know't a little. + IAGO. How now, my lord? + OTHELLO. What sense had I of her stol'n hours of lust? + I saw't not, thought it not, it harm'd not me; + I slept the next night well, was free and merry; + I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips. + He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stol'n, + Let him not know't and he's not robb'd at all. + IAGO. I am sorry to hear this. + OTHELLO. I had been happy if the general camp, + Pioners and all, had tasted her sweet body, + So I had nothing known. O, now forever + Farewell the tranquil mind! Farewell content! + Farewell the plumed troop and the big wars + That make ambition virtue! O, farewell, + Farewell the neighing steed and the shrill trump, + The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, + The royal banner, and all quality, + Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war! + And O you mortal engines, whose rude throats + The immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit, + Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone! + IAGO. Is't possible, my lord? + OTHELLO. Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore; + Be sure of it. Give me the ocular proof; + Or, by the worth of man's eternal soul, + Thou hadst been better have been born a dog + Than answer my waked wrath! + IAGO. Is't come to this? + OTHELLO. Make me to see't; or at the least so prove it, + That the probation bear no hinge nor loop + To hang a doubt on; or woe upon thy life! + IAGO. My noble lord- + OTHELLO. If thou dost slander her and torture me, + Never pray more; abandon all remorse; + On horror's head horrors accumulate; + Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed; + For nothing canst thou to damnation add + Greater than that. + IAGO. O grace! O heaven defend me! + Are you a man? have you a soul or sense? + God be wi' you; take mine office. O wretched fool, + That livest to make thine honesty a vice! + O monstrous world! Take note, take note, O world, + To be direct and honest is not safe. + I thank you for this profit, and from hence + I'll love no friend sith love breeds such offense. + OTHELLO. Nay, stay; thou shouldst be honest. + IAGO. I should be wise; for honesty's a fool, + And loses that it works for. + OTHELLO. By the world, + I think my wife be honest, and think she is not; + I think that thou art just, and think thou art not. + I'll have some proof. Her name, that was as fresh + As Dian's visage, is now begrimed and black + As mine own face. If there be cords or knives, + Poison or fire, or suffocating streams, + I'll not endure it. Would I were satisfied! + IAGO. I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion; + I do repent me that I put it to you. + You would be satisfied? + OTHELLO. Would? Nay, I will. + IAGO. And may. But, how? how satisfied, my lord? + Would you, the supervisor, grossly gape on? + Behold her topp'd? + OTHELLO. Death and damnation! O! + IAGO. It were a tedious difficulty, I think, + To bring them to that prospect. Damn them then, + If ever mortal eyes do see them bolster + More than their own! What then? how then? + What shall I say? Where's satisfaction? + It is impossible you should see this + Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, + As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross + As ignorance made drunk. But yet, I say, + If imputation and strong circumstances, + Which lead directly to the door of truth, + Will give you satisfaction, you may have't. + OTHELLO. Give me a living reason she's disloyal. + IAGO. I do not like the office; + But sith I am enter'd in this cause so far, + Prick'd to't by foolish honesty and love, + I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately + And, being troubled with a raging tooth, + I could not sleep. + There are a kind of men so loose of soul, + That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs; + One of this kind is Cassio. + In sleep I heard him say, "Sweet Desdemona, + Let us be wary, let us hide our loves"; + And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my hand, + Cry, "O sweet creature!" and then kiss me hard, + As if he pluck'd up kisses by the roots, + That grew upon my lips; then laid his leg + Over my thigh, and sigh'd and kiss'd; and then + Cried, "Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moor!" + OTHELLO. O monstrous! monstrous! + IAGO. Nay, this was but his dream. + OTHELLO. But this denoted a foregone conclusion. + 'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream. + IAGO. And this may help to thicken other proofs + That do demonstrate thinly. + OTHELLO. I'll tear her all to pieces. + IAGO. Nay, but be wise; yet we see nothing done; + She may be honest yet. Tell me but this; + Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief + Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand? + OTHELLO. I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift. + IAGO. I know not that; but such a handkerchief- + I am sure it was your wife's- did I today + See Cassio wipe his beard with. + OTHELLO. If it be that- + IAGO. If it be that, or any that was hers, + It speaks against her with the other proofs. + OTHELLO. O, that the slave had forty thousand lives! + One is too poor, too weak for my revenge. + Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago, + All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven. + 'Tis gone. + Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow hell! + Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne + To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught, + For 'tis of aspics' tongues! + IAGO. Yet be content. + OTHELLO. O, blood, blood, blood! + IAGO. Patience, I say; your mind perhaps may change. + OTHELLO. Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic Sea, + Whose icy current and compulsive course + Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on + To the Propontic and the Hellespont, + Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace, + Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love, + Till that a capable and wide revenge + Swallow them up. Now, by yond marble heaven, + In the due reverence of a sacred vow Kneels. + I here engage my words. + IAGO. Do not rise yet. Kneels. + Witness, you ever-burning lights above, + You elements that clip us round about, + Witness that here Iago doth give up + The execution of his wit, hands, heart, + To wrong'd Othello's service! Let him command, + And to obey shall be in me remorse, + What bloody business ever. They rise. + OTHELLO. I greet thy love, + Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance bounteous, + And will upon the instant put thee to't: + Within these three days let me hear thee say + That Cassio's not alive. + IAGO. My friend is dead, 'tis done at your request; + But let her live. + OTHELLO. Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her! + Come, go with me apart; I will withdraw, + To furnish me with some swift means of death + For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant. + IAGO. I am your own forever. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE IV. +Before the castle. + +Enter Desdemona, Emilia, and Clown. + + DESDEMONA. Do you know, sirrah, where Lieutenant Cassio lies? + CLOWN. I dare not say he lies anywhere. + DESDEMONA. Why, man? + CLOWN. He's a soldier; and for one to say a soldier lies, is + stabbing. + DESDEMONA. Go to! Where lodges he? + CLOWN. To tell you where he lodges, is to tell you where I lie. + DESDEMONA. Can anything be made of this? + CLOWN. I know not where he lodges, and for me to devise a lodging, + and say he lies here or he lies there, were to lie in mine own + throat. + DESDEMONA. Can you inquire him out and be edified by report? + CLOWN. I will catechize the world for him; that is, make questions + and by them answer. + DESDEMONA. Seek him, bid him come hither. Tell him I have moved my + lord on his behalf and hope all will be well. + CLOWN. To do this is within the compass of man's wit, and therefore + I will attempt the doing it. Exit. + DESDEMONA. Where should I lose that handkerchief, Emilia? + EMILIA. I know not, madam. + DESDEMONA. Believe me, I had rather have lost my purse + Full of crusadoes; and, but my noble Moor + Is true of mind and made of no such baseness + As jealous creatures are, it were enough + To put him to ill thinking. + EMILIA. Is he not jealous? + DESDEMONA. Who, he? I think the sun where he was born + Drew all such humors from him. + EMILIA. Look, where he comes. + DESDEMONA. I will not leave him now till Cassio + Be call'd to him. + + Enter Othello. + + How is't with you, my lord? + OTHELLO. Well, my good lady. [Aside.] O, hardness to dissemble! + How do you, Desdemona? + DESDEMONA. Well, my good lord. + OTHELLO. Give me your hand. This hand is moist, my lady. + DESDEMONA. It yet has felt no age nor known no sorrow. + OTHELLO. This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart; + Hot, hot, and moist. This hand of yours requires + A sequester from liberty, fasting, and prayer, + Much castigation, exercise devout, + For here's a young and sweating devil here + That commonly rebels. 'Tis a good hand, + A frank one. + DESDEMONA. You may, indeed, say so; + For 'twas that hand that gave away my heart. + OTHELLO. A liberal hand. The hearts of old gave hands; + But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts. + DESDEMONA. I cannot speak of this. Come now, your promise. + OTHELLO. What promise, chuck? + DESDEMONA. I have sent to bid Cassio come speak with you. + OTHELLO. I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me; + Lend me thy handkerchief. + DESDEMONA. Here, my lord. + OTHELLO. That which I gave you. + DESDEMONA. I have it not about me. + OTHELLO. Not? + DESDEMONA. No, faith, my lord. + OTHELLO. That's a fault. That handkerchief + Did an Egyptian to my mother give; + She was a charmer, and could almost read + The thoughts of people. She told her, while she kept it, + 'Twould make her amiable and subdue my father + Entirely to her love, but if she lost it + Or made a gift of it, my father's eye + Should hold her loathed and his spirits should hunt + After new fancies. She dying gave it me, + And bid me, when my fate would have me wive, + To give it her. I did so, and take heed on't; + Make it a darling like your precious eye; + To lose't or give't away were such perdition + As nothing else could match. + DESDEMONA. Is't possible? + OTHELLO. 'Tis true; there's magic in the web of it. + A sibyl, that had number'd in the world + The sun to course two hundred compasses, + In her prophetic fury sew'd the work; + The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk, + And it was dyed in mummy which the skillful + Conserved of maiden's hearts. + DESDEMONA. Indeed! is't true? + OTHELLO. Most veritable; therefore look to't well. + DESDEMONA. Then would to God that I had never seen't! + OTHELLO. Ha! wherefore? + DESDEMONA. Why do you speak so startingly and rash? + OTHELLO. Is't lost? is't gone? speak, is it out o' the way? + DESDEMONA. Heaven bless us! + OTHELLO. Say you? + DESDEMONA. It is not lost; but what an if it were? + OTHELLO. How? + DESDEMONA. I say, it is not lost. + OTHELLO. Fetch't, let me see it. + DESDEMONA. Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now. + This is a trick to put me from my suit. + Pray you, let Cassio be received again. + OTHELLO. Fetch me the handkerchief, my mind misgives. + DESDEMONA. Come, come, + You'll never meet a more sufficient man. + OTHELLO. The handkerchief! + DESDEMONA. I pray, talk me of Cassio. + OTHELLO. The handkerchief! + DESDEMONA. A man that all his time + Hath founded his good fortunes on your love, + Shared dangers with you- + OTHELLO. The handkerchief! + DESDEMONA. In sooth, you are to blame. + OTHELLO. Away! Exit. + EMILIA. Is not this man jealous? + DESDEMONA. I ne'er saw this before. + Sure there's some wonder in this handkerchief; + I am most unhappy in the loss of it. + EMILIA. 'Tis not a year or two shows us a man. + They are all but stomachs and we all but food; + They eat us hungerly, and when they are full + They belch us. Look you! Cassio and my husband. + + Enter Cassio and Iago. + + IAGO. There is no other way; 'tis she must do't. + And, lo, the happiness! Go and importune her. + DESDEMONA. How now, good Cassio! What's the news with you? + CASSIO. Madam, my former suit: I do beseech you + That by your virtuous means I may again + Exist and be a member of his love + Whom I with all the office of my heart + Entirely honor. I would not be delay'd. + If my offense be of such mortal kind + That nor my service past nor present sorrows + Nor purposed merit in futurity + Can ransom me into his love again, + But to know so must be my benefit; + So shall I clothe me in a forced content + And shut myself up in some other course + To Fortune's alms. + DESDEMONA. Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio! + My advocation is not now in tune; + My lord is not my lord, nor should I know him + Were he in favor as in humor alter'd. + So help me every spirit sanctified, + As I have spoken for you all my best + And stood within the blank of his displeasure + For my free speech! You must awhile be patient. + What I can do I will; and more I will + Than for myself I dare. Let that suffice you. + IAGO. Is my lord angry? + EMILIA. He went hence but now, + And certainly in strange unquietness. + IAGO. Can he be angry? I have seen the cannon, + When it hath blown his ranks into the air + And, like the devil, from his very arm + Puff'd his own brother. And can he be angry? + Something of moment then. I will go meet him. + There's matter in't indeed if he be angry. + DESDEMONA. I prithee, do so. Exit Iago. + Something sure of state, + Either from Venice or some unhatch'd practice + Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him, + Hath puddled his clear spirit; and in such cases + Men's natures wrangle with inferior things, + Though great ones are their object. 'Tis even so; + For let our finger ache, and it indues + Our other healthful members even to that sense + Of pain. Nay, we must think men are not gods, + Nor of them look for such observancy + As fits the bridal. Beshrew me much, Emilia, + I was, unhandsome warrior as I am, + Arraigning his unkindness with my soul; + But now I find I had suborn'd the witness, + And he's indicted falsely. + EMILIA. Pray heaven it be state matters, as you think, + And no conception nor no jealous toy + Concerning you. + DESDEMONA. Alas the day, I never gave him cause! + EMILIA. But jealous souls will not be answer'd so; + They are not ever jealous for the cause, + But jealous for they are jealous. 'Tis a monster + Begot upon itself, born on itself. + DESDEMONA. Heaven keep that monster from Othello's mind! + EMILIA. Lady, amen. + DESDEMONA. I will go seek him. Cassio, walk hereabout. + If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit, + And seek to effect it to my uttermost. + CASSIO. I humbly thank your ladyship. + Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia. + + Enter Bianca. + + BIANCA. Save you, friend Cassio! + CASSIO. What make you from home? + How is it with you, my most fair Bianca? + I'faith, sweet love, I was coming to your house. + BIANCA. And I was going to your lodging, Cassio. + What, keep a week away? seven days and nights? + Eight score eight hours? and lovers' absent hours, + More tedious than the dial eight score times? + O weary reckoning! + CASSIO. Pardon me, Bianca. + I have this while with leaden thoughts been press'd; + But I shall in a more continuate time + Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca, + Gives her Desdemona's handkerchief. + Take me this work out. + BIANCA. O Cassio, whence came this? + This is some token from a newer friend. + To the felt absence now I feel a cause. + Is't come to this? Well, well. + CASSIO. Go to, woman! + Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth, + From whence you have them. You are jealous now + That this is from some mistress, some remembrance. + No, by my faith, Bianca. + BIANCA. Why, whose is it? + CASSIO. I know not, sweet. I found it in my chamber. + I like the work well. Ere it be demanded- + As like enough it will- I'ld have it copied. + Take it, and do't; and leave me for this time. + BIANCA. Leave you! wherefore? + CASSIO. I do attend here on the general; + And think it no addition, nor my wish, + To have him see me woman'd. + BIANCA. Why, I pray you? + CASSIO. Not that I love you not. + BIANCA. But that you do not love me. + I pray you, bring me on the way a little, + And say if I shall see you soon at night. + CASSIO. 'Tis but a little way that I can bring you, + For I attend here, but I'll see you soon. + BIANCA. 'Tis very good; I must be circumstanced. Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +Cyprus. Before the castle. + +Enter Othello and Iago. + + IAGO. Will you think so? + OTHELLO. Think so, Iago? + IAGO. What, + To kiss in private? + OTHELLO. An unauthorized kiss. + IAGO. Or to be naked with her friend in bed + An hour or more, not meaning any harm? + OTHELLO. Naked in bed, Iago, and not mean harm! + It is hypocrisy against the devil. + They that mean virtuously and yet do so, + The devil their virtue tempts and they tempt heaven. + IAGO. So they do nothing, 'tis a venial slip. + But if I give my wife a handkerchief- + OTHELLO. What then? + IAGO. Why, then, 'tis hers, my lord, and being hers, + She may, I think, bestow't on any man. + OTHELLO. She is protectress of her honor too. + May she give that? + IAGO. Her honor is an essence that's not seen; + They have it very oft that have it not. + But for the handkerchief- + OTHELLO. By heaven, I would most gladly have forgot it. + Thou said'st- O, it comes o'er my memory, + As doth the raven o'er the infected house, + Boding to all- he had my handkerchief. + IAGO. Ay, what of that? + OTHELLO. That's not so good now. + IAGO. What, + If I had said I had seen him do you wrong? + Or heard him say- as knaves be such abroad, + Who having, by their own importunate suit, + Or voluntary dotage of some mistress, + Convinced or supplied them, cannot choose + But they must blab- + OTHELLO. Hath he said anything? + IAGO. He hath, my lord; but be you well assured, + No more than he'll unswear. + OTHELLO. What hath he said? + IAGO. Faith, that he did- I know not what he did. + OTHELLO. What? what? + IAGO. Lie- + OTHELLO. With her? + IAGO. With her, on her, what you will. + OTHELLO. Lie with her! lie on her! We say lie on her, when they + belie her. Lie with her! 'Zounds, that's fulsome! Handkerchief- + confessions- handkerchief! To confess and be hanged for his labor- + first, to be hanged, and then to confess. I tremble at it. + Nature would not invest herself in such shadowing passion without + some instruction. It is not words that shakes me thus. Pish! + Noses, ears, and lips. Is't possible? Confess? Handkerchief? O + devil! + Falls in a trance. + IAGO. Work on, + My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught, + And many worthy and chaste dames even thus, + All guiltless, meet reproach. What, ho! My lord! + My lord, I say! Othello! + + Enter Cassio. + + How now, Cassio! + CASSIO. What's the matter? + IAGO. My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy. + This is his second fit; he had one yesterday. + CASSIO. Rub him about the temples. + IAGO. No, forbear; + The lethargy must have his quiet course. + If not, he foams at mouth, and by and by + Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs. + Do you withdraw yourself a little while, + He will recover straight. When he is gone, + I would on great occasion speak with you. Exit Cassio. + How is it, general? Have you not hurt your head? + OTHELLO. Dost thou mock me? + IAGO. I mock you? No, by heaven. + Would you would bear your fortune like a man! + OTHELLO. A horned man's a monster and a beast. + IAGO. There's many a beast then in a populous city, + And many a civil monster. + OTHELLO. Did he confess it? + IAGO. Good sir, be a man; + Think every bearded fellow that's but yoked + May draw with you. There's millions now alive + That nightly lie in those unproper beds + Which they dare swear peculiar. Your case is better. + O, 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock, + To lip a wanton in a secure couch, + And to suppose her chaste! No, let me know, + And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be. + OTHELLO. O, thou art wise; 'tis certain. + IAGO. Stand you awhile apart, + Confine yourself but in a patient list. + Whilst you were here o'erwhelmed with your grief- + A passion most unsuiting such a man- + Cassio came hither. I shifted him away, + And laid good 'scuse upon your ecstasy; + Bade him anon return and here speak with me + The which he promised. Do but encave yourself + And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable scorns, + That dwell in every region of his face; + For I will make him tell the tale anew, + Where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when + He hath and is again to cope your wife. + I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience, + Or I shall say you are all in all in spleen, + And nothing of a man. + OTHELLO. Dost thou hear, Iago? + I will be found most cunning in my patience; + But (dost thou hear?) most bloody. + IAGO. That's not amiss; + But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw? + Othello retires. + Now will I question Cassio of Bianca, + A housewife that by selling her desires + Buys herself bread and clothes. It is a creature + That dotes on Cassio, as 'tis the strumpet's plague + To beguile many and be beguiled by one. + He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain + From the excess of laughter. Here he comes. + + Re-enter Cassio. + + As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad; + And his unbookish jealousy must construe + Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behavior + Quite in the wrong. How do you now, lieutenant? + CASSIO. The worser that you give me the addition + Whose want even kills me. + IAGO. Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure on't. + Now, if this suit lay in Bianco's power, + How quickly should you speed! + CASSIO. Alas, poor caitiff! + OTHELLO. Look, how he laughs already! + IAGO. I never knew a woman love man so. + CASSIO. Alas, poor rogue! I think, i'faith, she loves me. + OTHELLO. Now he denies it faintly and laughs it out. + IAGO. Do you hear, Cassio? + OTHELLO. Now he importunes him + To tell it o'er. Go to; well said, well said. + IAGO. She gives it out that you shall marry her. + Do you intend it? + CASSIO. Ha, ha, ha! + OTHELLO. Do you triumph, Roman? Do you triumph? + CASSIO. I marry her! What? A customer! I prithee, bear some charity + to my wit; do not think it so unwholesome. Ha, ha, ha! + OTHELLO. So, so, so, so. They laugh that win. + IAGO. Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry her. + CASSIO. Prithee, say true. + IAGO. I am a very villain else. + OTHELLO. Have you scored me? Well. + CASSIO. This is the monkey's own giving out. She is persuaded I + will marry her, out of her own love and flattery, not out of my + promise. + OTHELLO. Iago beckons me; now he begins the story. + CASSIO. She was here even now; she haunts me in every place. I was + the other day talking on the sea bank with certain Venetians, and + thither comes the bauble, and, by this hand, she falls me thus + about my neck- + OTHELLO. Crying, "O dear Cassio!" as it were; his gesture imports + it. + CASSIO. So hangs and lolls and weeps upon me; so hales and pulls + me. Ha, ha, ha! + OTHELLO. Now he tells how she plucked him to my chamber. O, I see + that nose of yours, but not that dog I shall throw it to. + CASSIO. Well, I must leave her company. + IAGO. Before me! look where she comes. + CASSIO. 'Tis such another fitchew! marry, a perfumed one. + + Enter Bianca. + + What do you mean by this haunting of me? + BIANCA. Let the devil and his dam haunt you! What did you mean by + that same handkerchief you gave me even now? I was a fine fool to + take it. I must take out the work? A likely piece of work that + you should find it in your chamber and not know who left it + there! This is some minx's token, and I must take out the work? + There, give it your hobbyhorse. Wheresoever you had it, I'll take + out no work on't. + CASSIO. How now, my sweet Bianca! how now! how now! + OTHELLO. By heaven, that should be my handkerchief! + BIANCA. An you'll come to supper tonight, you may; an you will not, + come when you are next prepared for. Exit. + IAGO. After her, after her. + CASSIO. Faith, I must; she'll rail i' the street else. + IAGO. Will you sup there? + CASSIO. Faith, I intend so. + IAGO. Well, I may chance to see you, for I would very fain speak + with you. + CASSIO. Prithee, come; will you? + IAGO. Go to; say no more. Exit Cassio. + OTHELLO. [Advancing.] How shall I murther him, Iago? + IAGO. Did you perceive how he laughed at his vice? + OTHELLO. O Iago! + IAGO. And did you see the handkerchief? + OTHELLO. Was that mine? + IAGO. Yours, by this hand. And to see how he prizes the foolish + woman your wife! She gave it him, and he hath given it his whore. + OTHELLO. I would have him nine years akilling. A fine woman! a fair + woman! a sweet woman! + IAGO. Nay, you must forget that. + OTHELLO. Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned tonight, for + she shall not live. No, my heart is turned to stone; I strike it, + and it hurts my hand. O, the world hath not a sweeter creature. + She might lie by an emperor's side, and command him tasks. + IAGO. Nay, that's not your way. + OTHELLO. Hang her! I do but say what she is. So delicate with her + needle, an admirable musician. O, she will sing the savageness + out of a bear. Of so high and plenteous wit and invention- + IAGO. She's the worse for all this. + OTHELLO. O, a thousand, a thousand times. And then, of so gentle a + condition! + IAGO. Ay, too gentle. + OTHELLO. Nay, that's certain. But yet the pity of it, Iago! + O Iago, the pity of it, Iago! + IAGO. If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her patent to + offend, for, if it touch not you, it comes near nobody. + OTHELLO. I will chop her into messes. Cuckold me! + IAGO. O, 'tis foul in her. + OTHELLO. With mine officer! + IAGO. That's fouler. + OTHELLO. Get me some poison, Iago, this night. I'll not expostulate + with her, lest her body and beauty unprovide my mind again. This + night, Iago. + IAGO. Do it not with poison, strangle her in her bed, even the bed + she hath contaminated. + OTHELLO. Good, good, the justice of it pleases, very good. + IAGO. And for Cassio, let me be his undertaker. You shall hear more + by midnight. + OTHELLO. Excellent good. [A trumpet within.] What trumpet is that + same? + IAGO. Something from Venice, sure. 'Tis Lodovico + Come from the Duke. And, see your wife is with him. + + Enter Lodovico, Desdemona, and Attendants. + + LODOVICO. God save the worthy general! + OTHELLO. With all my heart, sir. + LODOVICO. The Duke and Senators of Venice greet you. + Gives him a letter. + OTHELLO. I kiss the instrument of their pleasures. + Opens the letter, and reads. + DESDEMONA. And what's the news, good cousin Lodovico? + IAGO. I am very glad to see you, signior; + Welcome to Cyprus. + LODOVICO. I thank you. How does Lieutenant Cassio? + IAGO. Lives, sir. + DESDEMONA. Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my lord + An unkind breech; but you shall make all well. + OTHELLO. Are you sure of that? + DESDEMONA. My lord? + OTHELLO. [Reads.] "This fail you not to do, as you will-" + LODOVICO. He did not call; he's busy in the paper. + Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio? + DESDEMONA. A most unhappy one. I would do much + To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio. + OTHELLO. Fire and brimstone! + DESDEMONA. My lord? + OTHELLO. Are you wise? + DESDEMONA. What, is he angry? + LODOVICO. May be the letter moved him; + For, as I think, they do command him home, + Deputing Cassio in his government. + DESDEMONA. By my troth, I am glad on't. + OTHELLO. Indeed! + DESDEMONA. My lord? + OTHELLO. I am glad to see you mad. + DESDEMONA. Why, sweet Othello? + OTHELLO. Devil! Strikes her. + DESDEMONA. I have not deserved this. + LODOVICO. My lord, this would not be believed in Venice, + Though I should swear I saw't. 'Tis very much. + Make her amends; she weeps. + OTHELLO. O devil, devil! + If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, + Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile. + Out of my sight! + DESDEMONA. [Going.] I will not stay to offend you. + LODOVICO. Truly, an obedient lady. + I do beseech your lordship, call her back. + OTHELLO. Mistress! + DESDEMONA. My lord? + OTHELLO. What would you with her, sir? + LODOVICO. Who, I, my lord? + OTHELLO. Ay, you did wish that I would make her turn. + Sir, she can turn and turn, and yet go on, + And turn again; and she can weep, sir, weep; + And she's obedient, as you say, obedient, + Very obedient. Proceed you in your tears. + Concerning this, sir- O well-painted passion!- + I am commanded home. Get you away; + I'll send for you anon. Sir, I obey the mandate, + And will return to Venice. Hence, avaunt! + Exit Desdemona. + Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, tonight, + I do entreat that we may sup together. + You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus. Goats and monkeys! + Exit. + LODOVICO. Is this the noble Moor whom our full Senate + Call all in all sufficient? This the nature + Whom passion could not shake? whose solid virtue + The shot of accident nor dart of chance + Could neither graze nor pierce? + IAGO. He is much changed. + LODOVICO. Are his wits safe? Is he not light of brain? + IAGO. He's that he is. I may not breathe my censure + What he might be: if what he might he is not, + I would to heaven he were! + LODOVICO. What, strike his wife! + IAGO. Faith, that was not so well; yet would I knew + That stroke would prove the worst! + LODOVICO. Is it his use? + Or did the letters work upon his blood, + And new create this fault? + IAGO. Alas, alas! + It is not honesty in me to speak + What I have seen and known. You shall observe him, + And his own courses will denote him so + That I may save my speech. Do but go after, + And mark how he continues. + LODOVICO. I am sorry that I am deceived in him. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE II. +A room in the castle. + +Enter Othello and Emilia. + + OTHELLO. You have seen nothing, then? + EMILIA. Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect. + OTHELLO. Yes, you have seen Cassio and she together. + EMILIA. But then I saw no harm, and then I heard + Each syllable that breath made up between them. + OTHELLO. What, did they never whisper? + EMILIA. Never, my lord. + OTHELLO. Nor send you out o' the way? + EMILIA. Never. + OTHELLO. To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, nor nothing? + EMILIA. Never, my lord. + OTHELLO. That's strange. + EMILIA. I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest, + Lay down my soul at stake. If you think other, + Remove your thought; it doth abuse your bosom. + If any wretch have put this in your head, + Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse! + For if she be not honest, chaste, and true, + There's no man happy; the purest of their wives + Is foul as slander. + OTHELLO. Bid her come hither; go. Exit Emilia. + She says enough; yet she's a simple bawd + That cannot say as much. This is a subtle whore, + A closet lock and key of villainous secrets. + And yet she'll kneel and pray; I have seen her do't. + + Enter Desdemona with Emilia. + + DESDEMONA. My lord, what is your will? + OTHELLO. Pray, chuck, come hither. + DESDEMONA. What is your pleasure? + OTHELLO. Let me see your eyes; + Look in my face. + DESDEMONA. What horrible fancy's this? + OTHELLO. [To Emilia.] Some of your function, mistress, + Leave procreants alone and shut the door; + Cough, or cry "hem," if anybody come. + Your mystery, your mystery; nay, dispatch. Exit Emilia. + DESDEMONA. Upon my knees, what doth your speech import? + I understand a fury in your words, + But not the words. + OTHELLO. Why, what art thou? + DESDEMONA. Your wife, my lord, your true and loyal wife. + OTHELLO. Come, swear it, damn thyself; + Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves + Should fear to seize thee. Therefore be double-damn'd; + Swear thou art honest. + DESDEMONA. Heaven doth truly know it. + OTHELLO. Heaven truly knows that thou art false as hell. + DESDEMONA. To whom, my lord? with whom? how am I false? + OTHELLO. O Desdemona! Away! away! away! + DESDEMONA. Alas the heavy day! Why do you weep? + Am I the motive of these tears, my lord? + If haply you my father do suspect + An instrument of this your calling back, + Lay not your blame on me. If you have lost him, + Why, I have lost him too. + OTHELLO. Had it pleased heaven + To try me with affliction, had they rain'd + All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head, + Steep'd me in poverty to the very lips, + Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes, + I should have found in some place of my soul + A drop of patience; but, alas, to make me + A fixed figure for the time of scorn + To point his slow unmoving finger at! + Yet could I bear that too, well, very well; + But there, where I have garner'd up my heart, + Where either I must live or bear no life; + The fountain from the which my current runs, + Or else dries up; to be discarded thence! + Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads + To knot and gender in! Turn thy complexion there, + Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin, + Ay, there, look grim as hell! + DESDEMONA. I hope my noble lord esteems me honest. + OTHELLO. O, ay, as summer flies are in the shambles, + That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed, + Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet + That the sense aches at thee, would thou hadst ne'er been born! + DESDEMONA. Alas, what ignorant sin have I committed? + OTHELLO. Was this fair paper, this most goodly book, + Made to write "whore" upon? What committed? + Committed? O thou public commoner! + I should make very forges of my cheeks, + That would to cinders burn up modesty, + Did I but speak thy deeds. What committed! + Heaven stops the nose at it, and the moon winks; + The bawdy wind, that kisses all it meets, + Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth, + And will not hear it. What committed? + Impudent strumpet! + DESDEMONA. By heaven, you do me wrong. + OTHELLO. Are not you a strumpet? + DESDEMONA. No, as I am a Christian. + If to preserve this vessel for my lord + From any other foul unlawful touch + Be not to be a strumpet, I am none. + OTHELLO. What, not a whore? + DESDEMONA. No, as I shall be saved. + OTHELLO. Is't possible? + DESDEMONA. O, heaven forgive us! + OTHELLO. I cry you mercy then; + I took you for that cunning whore of Venice + That married with Othello. [Raises his voice.] You, mistress, + That have the office opposite to Saint Peter, + And keep the gate of hell! + + Re-enter Emilia. + + You, you, ay, you! + We have done our course; there's money for your pains. + I pray you, turn the key, and keep our counsel. Exit. + EMILIA. Alas, what does this gentleman conceive? + How do you, madam? How do you, my good lady? + DESDEMONA. Faith, half asleep. + EMILIA. Good madam, what's the matter with my lord? + DESDEMONA. With who? + EMILIA. Why, with my lord, madam. + DESDEMONA. Who is thy lord? + EMILIA. He that is yours, sweet lady. + DESDEMONA. I have none. Do not talk to me, Emilia; + I cannot weep, nor answer have I none + But what should go by water. Prithee, tonight + Lay on my bed my wedding sheets. Remember, + And call thy husband hither. + EMILIA. Here's a change indeed! + Exit. + DESDEMONA. 'Tis meet I should be used so, very meet. + How have I been behaved, that he might stick + The small'st opinion on my least misuse? + + Re-enter Emilia with Iago. + + IAGO. What is your pleasure, madam? How is't with you? + DESDEMONA. I cannot tell. Those that do teach young babes + Do it with gentle means and easy tasks. + He might have chid me so, for in good faith, + I am a child to chiding. + IAGO. What's the matter, lady? + EMILIA. Alas, Iago, my lord hath so bewhored her, + Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her, + As true hearts cannot bear. + DESDEMONA. Am I that name, Iago? + IAGO. What name, fair lady? + DESDEMONA. Such as she says my lord did say I was. + EMILIA. He call'd her whore; a beggar in his drink + Could not have laid such terms upon his callet. + IAGO. Why did he so? + DESDEMONA. I do not know; I am sure I am none such. + IAGO. Do not weep, do not weep. Alas the day! + EMILIA. Hath she forsook so many noble matches, + Her father and her country and her friends, + To be call'd whore? Would it not make one weep? + DESDEMONA. It is my wretched fortune. + IAGO. Beshrew him for't! + How comes this trick upon him? + DESDEMONA. Nay, heaven doth know. + EMILIA. I will be hang'd, if some eternal villain, + Some busy and insinuating rogue, + Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, + Have not devised this slander; I'll be hang'd else. + IAGO. Fie, there is no such man; it is impossible. + DESDEMONA. If any such there be, heaven pardon him! + EMILIA. A halter pardon him! And hell gnaw his bones! + Why should he call her whore? Who keeps her company? + What place? What time? What form? What likelihood? + The Moor's abused by some most villainous knave, + Some base notorious knave, some scurvy fellow. + O heaven, that such companions thou'ldst unfold, + And put in every honest hand a whip + To lash the rascals naked through the world + Even from the east to the west! + IAGO. Speak within door. + EMILIA. O, fie upon them! Some such squire he was + That turn'd your wit the seamy side without, + And made you to suspect me with the Moor. + IAGO. You are a fool; go to. + DESDEMONA. O good Iago, + What shall I do to win my lord again? + Good friend, go to him, for by this light of heaven, + I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel: + If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love + Either in discourse of thought or actual deed, + Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense, + Delighted them in any other form, + Or that I do not yet, and ever did, + And ever will, though he do shake me off + To beggarly divorcement, love him dearly, + Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do much, + And his unkindness may defeat my life, + But never taint my love. I cannot say "whore." + It doth abhor me now I speak the word; + To do the act that might the addition earn + Not the world's mass of vanity could make me. + IAGO. I pray you, be content; 'tis but his humor: + The business of the state does him offense, + And he does chide with you. + DESDEMONA. If 'twere no other- + IAGO. 'Tis but so, I warrant. Trumpets within. + Hark, how these instruments summon to supper! + The messengers of Venice stay the meat. + Go in, and weep not; all things shall be well. + Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia. + + Enter Roderigo. + + How now, Roderigo! + RODERIGO. I do not find that thou dealest justly with me. + IAGO. What in the contrary? + RODERIGO. Every day thou daffest me with some device, Iago; and + rather, as it seems to me now, keepest from me all conveniency + than suppliest me with the least advantage of hope. I will indeed + no longer endure it; nor am I yet persuaded to put up in peace + what already I have foolishly suffered. + IAGO. Will you hear me, Roderigo? + RODERIGO. Faith, I have heard too much, for your words and + performances are no kin together. + IAGO. You charge me most unjustly. + RODERIGO. With nought but truth. I have wasted myself out of my + means. The jewels you have had from me to deliver to Desdemona + would half have corrupted a votarist. You have told me she hath + received them and returned me expectations and comforts of sudden + respect and acquaintance; but I find none. + IAGO. Well, go to, very well. + RODERIGO. Very well! go to! I cannot go to, man; nor 'tis not very + well. By this hand, I say 'tis very scurvy, and begin to find + myself fopped in it. + IAGO. Very well. + RODERIGO. I tell you 'tis not very well. I will make myself known + to Desdemona. If she will return me my jewels, I will give over + my suit and repent my unlawful solicitation; if not, assure + yourself I will seek satisfaction of you. + IAGO. You have said now. + RODERIGO. Ay, and said nothing but what I protest intendment of + doing. + IAGO. Why, now I see there's mettle in thee; and even from this + instant do build on thee a better opinion than ever before. Give + me thy hand, Roderigo. Thou hast taken against me a most just + exception; but yet, I protest, have dealt most directly in thy + affair. + RODERIGO. It hath not appeared. + IAGO. I grant indeed it hath not appeared, and your suspicion is + not without wit and judgement. But, Roderigo, if thou hast that + in thee indeed, which I have greater reason to believe now than + ever, I mean purpose, courage, and valor, this night show it; if + thou the next night following enjoy not Desdemona, take me from + this world with treachery and devise engines for my life. + RODERIGO. Well, what is it? Is it within reason and compass? + IAGO. Sir, there is especial commission come from Venice to depute + Cassio in Othello's place. + RODERIGO. Is that true? Why then Othello and Desdemona return again + to Venice. + IAGO. O, no; he goes into Mauritania, and takes away with him the + fair Desdemona, unless his abode be lingered here by some + accident; wherein none can be so determinate as the removing of + Cassio. + RODERIGO. How do you mean, removing of him? + IAGO. Why, by making him uncapable of Othello's place; knocking out + his brains. + RODERIGO. And that you would have me to do? + IAGO. Ay, if you dare do yourself a profit and a right. He sups + tonight with a harlotry, and thither will I go to him. He knows + not yet of his honorable fortune. If you will watch his going + thence, which his will fashion to fall out between twelve and + one, you may take him at your pleasure; I will be near to second + your attempt, and he shall fall between us. Come, stand not + amazed at it, but go along with me; I will show you such a + necessity in his death that you shall think yourself bound to put + it on him. It is now high supper-time, and the night grows to + waste. About it. + RODERIGO. I will hear further reason for this. + IAGO. And you shall be satisfied. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE III. +Another room in the castle. + +Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, Emilia, and Attendants. + + LODOVICO. I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no further. + OTHELLO. O, pardon me; 'twill do me good to walk. + LODOVICO. Madam, good night; I humbly thank your ladyship. + DESDEMONA. Your honor is most welcome. + OTHELLO. Will you walk, sir? + O- Desdemona- + DESDEMONA. My lord? + OTHELLO. Get you to bed on the instant; I will be returned + forthwith. Dismiss your attendant there; look it be done. + DESDEMONA. I will, my lord. + Exeunt Othello, Lodovico, and Attendants. + EMILIA. How goes it now? He looks gentler than he did. + DESDEMONA. He says he will return incontinent. + He hath commanded me to go to bed, + And bade me to dismiss you. + EMILIA. Dismiss me? + DESDEMONA. It was his bidding; therefore, good Emilia, + Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu. + We must not now displease him. + EMILIA. I would you had never seen him! + DESDEMONA. So would not I. My love doth so approve him, + That even his stubbornness, his checks, his frowns- + Prithee, unpin me- have grace and favor in them. + EMILIA. I have laid those sheets you bade me on the bed. + DESDEMONA. All's one. Good faith, how foolish are our minds! + If I do die before thee, prithee shroud me + In one of those same sheets. + EMILIA. Come, come, you talk. + DESDEMONA. My mother had a maid call'd Barbary; + She was in love, and he she loved proved mad + And did forsake her. She had a song of "willow"; + An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune, + And she died singing it. That song tonight + Will not go from my mind; I have much to do + But to go hang my head all at one side + And sing it like poor Barbary. Prithee, dispatch. + EMILIA. Shall I go fetch your nightgown? + DESDEMONA. No, unpin me here. + This Lodovico is a proper man. + EMILIA. A very handsome man. + DESDEMONA. He speaks well. + EMILIA. I know a lady in Venice would have walked barefoot to + Palestine for a touch of his nether lip. + DESDEMONA. [Sings.] + + "The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree, + Sing all a green willow; + Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee, + Sing willow, willow, willow. + The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans, + Sing willow, willow, willow; + Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones-" + + Lay be these- + + [Sings.] "Sing willow, willow, willow-" + + Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon- + [Sings.] "Sing all a green willow must be my garland. + Let nobody blame him; his scorn I approve-" + + Nay, that's not next. Hark, who is't that knocks? + EMILIA. It's the wind. + DESDEMONA. [Sings.] + + "I call'd my love false love; but what said he then? + Sing willow, willow, willow. + If I court moe women, you'll couch with moe men-" + + So get thee gone; good night. Mine eyes do itch; + Doth that bode weeping? + EMILIA. 'Tis neither here nor there. + DESDEMONA. I have heard it said so. O, these men, these men! + Dost thou in conscience think- tell me, Emilia- + That there be women do abuse their husbands + In such gross kind? + EMILIA. There be some such, no question. + DESDEMONA. Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world? + EMILIA. Why, would not you? + DESDEMONA. No, by this heavenly light! + EMILIA. Nor I neither by this heavenly light; I might do't as well + i' the dark. + DESDEMONA. Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the world? + EMILIA. The world's a huge thing; it is a great price + For a small vice. + DESDEMONA. In troth, I think thou wouldst not. + EMILIA. In troth, I think I should, and undo't when I had done. + Marry, I would not do such a thing for a joint-ring, nor for + measures of lawn, nor for gowns, petticoats, nor caps, nor any + petty exhibition; but, for the whole world- why, who would not + make her husband a cuckold to make him a monarch? I should + venture purgatory for't. + DESDEMONA. Beshrew me, if I would do such a wrong + For the whole world. + EMILIA. Why, the wrong is but a wrong i' the world; and having the + world for your labor, 'tis a wrong in your own world, and you + might quickly make it right. + DESDEMONA. I do not think there is any such woman. + EMILIA. Yes, a dozen, and as many to the vantage as would store the + world they played for. + But I do think it is their husbands' faults + If wives do fall; say that they slack their duties + And pour our treasures into foreign laps, + Or else break out in peevish jealousies, + Throwing restraint upon us, or say they strike us, + Or scant our former having in despite, + Why, we have galls, and though we have some grace, + Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know + Their wives have sense like them; they see and smell + And have their palates both for sweet and sour, + As husbands have. What is it that they do + When they change us for others? Is it sport? + I think it is. And doth affection breed it? + I think it doth. Is't frailty that thus errs? + It is so too. And have not we affections, + Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have? + Then let them use us well; else let them know, + The ills we do, their ills instruct us so. + DESDEMONA. Good night, good night. Heaven me such uses send, + Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend! Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Cyprus. A street. + +Enter Iago and Roderigo: + + IAGO. Here, stand behind this bulk; straight will he come. + Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home. + Quick, quick; fear nothing; I'll be at thy elbow. + It makes us, or it mars us; think on that, + And fix most firm thy resolution. + RODERIGO. Be near at hand; I may miscarry in't. + IAGO. Here, at thy hand, be bold, and take thy stand. + Retires. + RODERIGO. I have no great devotion to the deed; + And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons. + 'Tis but a man gone. Forth, my sword; he dies. + IAGO. I have rubb'd this young quat almost to the sense, + And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill Cassio, + Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other, + Every way makes my gain. Live Roderigo, + He calls me to a restitution large + Of gold and jewels that I bobb'd from him, + As gifts to Desdemona; + It must not be. If Cassio do remain, + He hath a daily beauty in his life + That makes me ugly; and besides, the Moor + May unfold me to him; there stand I in much peril. + No, he must die. Be't so. I hear him coming. + + Enter Cassio. + + RODERIGO. I know his gait; 'tis he. Villain, thou diest! + Makes a pass at Cassio. + CASSIO. That thrust had been mine enemy indeed, + But that my coat is better than thou know'st; + I will make proof of thine. Draws, and wounds Roderigo. + RODERIGO. O, I am slain! + Iago from behind wounds Cassio in the leg, and exit. + CASSIO. I am maim'd forever. Help, ho! Murther! Murther! + Falls. + + Enter Othello. + + OTHELLO. The voice of Cassio; Iago keeps his word. + RODERIGO. O, villain that I am! + OTHELLO. It is even so. + CASSIO. O, help, ho! Light! A surgeon! + OTHELLO. 'Tis he. O brave Iago, honest and just, + That hast such noble sense of thy friend's wrong! + Thou teachest me. Minion, your dear lies dead, + And your unblest fate hies. Strumpet, I come! + Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are blotted; + Thy bed lust-stain'd shall with lust's blood be spotted. + Exit. + + Enter Lodovico and Gratiano. + + CASSIO. What, ho! No watch? No passage? Murther! Murther! + GRATIANO. 'Tis some mischance; the cry is very direful. + CASSIO. O, help! + LODOVICO. Hark! + RODERIGO. O wretched villain! + LODOVICO. Two or three groan; it is a heavy night. + These may be counterfeits; let's think't unsafe + To come in to the cry without more help. + RODERIGO. Nobody come? Then shall I bleed to death. + LODOVICO. Hark! + + Re-enter Iago, with a light. + + GRATIANO. Here's one comes in his shirt, with light and weapons. + IAGO. Who's there? Whose noise is this that cries on murther? + LODOVICO. We do not know. + IAGO. Did not you hear a cry? + CASSIO. Here, here! for heaven's sake, help me! + IAGO. What's the matter? + GRATIANO. This is Othello's ancient, as I take it. + LODOVICO. The same indeed; a very valiant fellow. + IAGO. What are you here that cry so grievously? + CASSIO. Iago? O, I am spoil'd, undone by villains! + Give me some help. + IAGO. O me, lieutenant! What villains have done this? + CASSIO. I think that one of them is hereabout, + And cannot make away. + IAGO. O treacherous villains! + [To Lodovico and Gratiano.] What are you there? + Come in and give some help. + RODERIGO. O, help me here! + CASSIO. That's one of them. + IAGO. O murtherous slave! O villain! + Stabs Roderigo. + RODERIGO. O damn'd Iago! O inhuman dog! + IAGO. Kill men i' the dark! Where be these bloody thieves? + How silent is this town! Ho! Murther! Murther! + What may you be? Are you of good or evil? + LODOVICO. As you shall prove us, praise us. + IAGO. Signior Lodovico? + LODOVICO. He, sir. + IAGO. I cry you mercy. Here's Cassio hurt by villains. + GRATIANO. Cassio? + IAGO. How is't, brother? + CASSIO. My leg is cut in two. + IAGO. Marry, heaven forbid! + Light, gentlemen; I'll bind it with my shirt. + + Enter Bianca. + + BIANCA. What is the matter, ho? Who is't that cried? + IAGO. Who is't that cried? + BIANCA. O my dear Cassio, my sweet Cassio! O Cassio, Cassio, + Cassio! + IAGO. O notable strumpet! Cassio, may you suspect + Who they should be that have thus mangled you? + CASSIO. No. + GRATIANO. I am sorry to find you thus; I have been to seek you. + IAGO. Lend me a garter. So. O, for a chair, + To bear him easily hence! + BIANCA. Alas, he faints! O Cassio, Cassio, Cassio! + IAGO. Gentlemen all, I do suspect this trash + To be a party in this injury. + Patience awhile, good Cassio. Come, come; + Lend me a light. Know we this face or no? + Alas, my friend and my dear countryman + Roderigo? No- yes, sure. O heaven! Roderigo. + GRATIANO. What, of Venice? + IAGO. Even he, sir. Did you know him? + GRATIANO. Know him! ay. + IAGO. Signior Gratiano? I cry you gentle pardon; + These bloody accidents must excuse my manners, + That so neglected you. + GRATIANO. I am glad to see you. + IAGO. How do you, Cassio? O, a chair, a chair! + GRATIANO. Roderigo! + IAGO. He, he, 'tis he. [A chair brought in.] O, that's well said: + the chair. + Some good man bear him carefully from hence; + I'll fetch the general's surgeon. [To Bianca.] For you, mistress, + Save you your labor. He that lies slain here, Cassio, + Was my dear friend; what malice was between you? + CASSIO. None in the world; nor do I know the man. + IAGO. [To Bianca.] What, look you pale? O, bear him out o' the air. + Cassio and Roderigo are borne off. + Stay you, good gentlemen. Look you pale, mistress? + Do you perceive the gastness of her eye? + Nay, if you stare, we shall hear more anon. + Behold her well; I pray you, look upon her. + Do you see, gentlemen? Nay, guiltiness will speak, + Though tongues were out of use. + + Enter Emilia. + + EMILIA. 'Las, what's the matter? What's the matter, husband? + IAGO. Cassio hath here been set on in the dark + By Roderigo, and fellows that are 'scaped; + He's almost slain, and Roderigo dead. + EMILIA. Alas, good gentleman! alas, good Cassio! + IAGO. This is the fruit of whoring. Prithee, Emilia, + Go know of Cassio where he supp'd tonight. + What, do you shake at that? + BIANCA. He supp'd at my house; but I therefore shake not. + IAGO. O, did he so? I charge you, go with me. + EMILIA. Fie, fie upon thee, strumpet! + BIANCA. I am no strumpet, but of life as honest + As you that thus abuse me. + EMILIA. As I! foh! fie upon thee! + IAGO. Kind gentlemen, let's go see poor Cassio dress'd. + Come, mistress, you must tell's another tale. + Emilia, run you to the citadel, + And tell my lord and lady what hath happ'd! + Will you go on? [Aside.] This is the night + That either makes me or fordoes me quite. Exeunt. + + + + +SCENE II. +A bedchamber in the castle. Desdemona in bed asleep; a light burning. + +Enter Othello. + + OTHELLO. It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul. + Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars! + It is the cause. Yet I'll not shed her blood, + Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow + And smooth as monumental alabaster. + Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men. + Put out the light, and then put out the light. + If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, + I can again thy former light restore, + Should I repent me; but once put out thy light, + Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature, + I know not where is that Promethean heat + That can thy light relume. When I have pluck'd the rose, + I cannot give it vital growth again, + It must needs wither; I'll smell it on the tree. Kisses her. + O, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade + Justice to break her sword! One more, one more; + Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee, + And love thee after. One more, and this the last; + So sweet was ne'er so fatal. I must weep, + But they are cruel tears; this sorrow's heavenly, + It strikes where it doth love. She wakes. + DESDEMONA. Who's there? Othello? + OTHELLO. Ay, Desdemona. + DESDEMONA. Will you come to bed, my lord? + OTHELLO. Have you pray'd tonight, Desdemona? + DESDEMONA. Ay, my lord. + OTHELLO. If you bethink yourself of any crime + Unreconciled as yet to heaven and grace, + Solicit for it straight. + DESDEMONA. Alas, my lord, what may you mean by that? + OTHELLO. Well, do it, and be brief; I will walk by. + I would not kill thy unprepared spirit. + No, heaven forfend! I would not kill thy soul. + DESDEMONA. Talk you of killing? + OTHELLO. Ay, I do. + DESDEMONA. Then heaven have mercy on me! + OTHELLO. Amen, with all my heart! + DESDEMONA. If you say so, I hope you will not kill me. + OTHELLO. Hum! + DESDEMONA. And yet I fear you, for you are fatal then + When your eyes roll so. Why I should fear I know not, + Since guiltiness I know not; but yet I feel I fear. + OTHELLO. Think on thy sins. + DESDEMONA. They are loves I bear to you. + OTHELLO. Ay, and for that thou diest. + DESDEMONA. That death's unnatural that kills for loving. + Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip? + Some bloody passion shakes your very frame. + These are portents; but yet I hope, I hope, + They do not point on me. + OTHELLO. Peace, and be still! + DESDEMONA. I will so. What's the matter? + OTHELLO. That handkerchief which I so loved and gave thee + Thou gavest to Cassio. + DESDEMONA. No, by my life and soul! + Send for the man, and ask him. + OTHELLO. Sweet soul, take heed, + Take heed of perjury; thou are on thy deathbed. + DESDEMONA. Ay, but not yet to die. + OTHELLO. Yes, presently: + Therefore confess thee freely of thy sin, + For to deny each article with oath + Cannot remove nor choke the strong conception + That I do groan withal. Thou art to die. + DESDEMONA. Then Lord have mercy on me! + OTHELLO. I say, amen. + DESDEMONA. And have you mercy too! I never did + Offend you in my life; never loved Cassio + But with such general warranty of heaven + As I might love. I never gave him token. + OTHELLO. By heaven, I saw my handkerchief in 's hand. + O perjured woman! Thou dost stone my heart, + And makest me call what I intend to do + A murther, which I thought a sacrifice. + I saw the handkerchief. + DESDEMONA. He found it then; + I never gave it him. Send for him hither; + Let him confess a truth. + OTHELLO. He hath confess'd. + DESDEMONA. What, my lord? + OTHELLO. That he hath used thee. + DESDEMONA. How? unlawfully? + OTHELLO. Ay. + DESDEMONA. He will not say so. + OTHELLO. No, his mouth is stopp'd; + Honest Iago hath ta'en order for't. + DESDEMONA. O, my fear interprets! What, is he dead? + OTHELLO. Had all his hairs been lives, my great revenge + Had stomach for them all. + DESDEMONA. Alas, he is betray'd, and I undone! + OTHELLO. Out, strumpet! Weep'st thou for him to my face? + DESDEMONA. O, banish me, my lord, but kill me not! + OTHELLO. Down, strumpet! + DESDEMONA. Kill me tomorrow; let me live tonight! + OTHELLO. Nay, if you strive- + DESDEMONA. But half an hour! + OTHELLO. Being done, there is no pause. + DESDEMONA. But while I say one prayer! + OTHELLO. It is too late. He stifles her. + EMILIA. [Within.] My lord, my lord! What, ho! my lord, my lord! + OTHELLO. What noise is this? Not dead? not yet quite dead? + I that am cruel am yet merciful; + I would not have thee linger in thy pain. + So, so. + EMILIA. [Within.] What, ho! my lord, my lord! + OTHELLO. Who's there? + EMILIA. [Within.] O, good my lord, I would speak a word with you! + OTHELLO. Yes, 'tis Emilia. By and by. She's dead. + 'Tis like she comes to speak of Cassio's death. + The noise was here. Ha! no more moving? + Still as the grave. Shall she come in? were't good? + I think she stirs again. No. What's best to do? + If she come in, she'll sure speak to my wife. + My wife! My wife! What wife? I have no wife. + O, insupportable! O heavy hour! + Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse + Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe + Should yawn at alteration. + EMILIA. [Within.] I do beseech you + That I may speak with you, O, good my lord! + OTHELLO. I had forgot thee. O, come in, Emilia. + Soft, by and by. Let me the curtains draw. + Where art thou? Unlocks the door. + + Enter Emilia. + + What's the matter with thee now? + EMILIA. O, my good lord, yonder's foul murthers done! + OTHELLO. What, now? + EMILIA. But now, my lord. + OTHELLO. It is the very error of the moon; + She comes more nearer earth than she was wont + And makes men mad. + EMILIA. Cassio, my lord, hath kill'd a young Venetian + Call'd Roderigo. + OTHELLO. Roderigo kill'd? + And Cassio kill'd? + EMILIA. No, Cassio is not kill'd. + OTHELLO. Not Cassio kill'd! Then murther's out of tune, + And sweet revenge grows harsh. + DESDEMONA. O, falsely, falsely murther'd! + EMILIA. Alas, what cry is that? + OTHELLO. That? what? + EMILIA. Out, and alas! That was my lady's voice. + Help! help, ho! help! O lady, speak again! + Sweet Desdemona! O sweet mistress, speak! + DESDEMONA. A guiltless death I die. + EMILIA. O, who hath done this deed? + DESDEMONA. Nobody; I myself. Farewell; + Commend me to my kind lord. O, farewell! Dies. + OTHELLO. Why, how should she be murther'd? + EMILIA. Alas, who knows? + OTHELLO. You heard her say herself, it was not I. + EMILIA. She said so; I must needs report the truth. + OTHELLO. She's like a liar gone to burning hell; + 'Twas I that kill'd her. + EMILIA. O, the more angel she, + And you the blacker devil! + OTHELLO. She turn'd to folly, and she was a whore. + EMILIA. Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil. + OTHELLO. She was false as water. + EMILIA. Thou art rash as fire, to say + That she was false. O, she was heavenly true! + OTHELLO. Cassio did top her; ask thy husband else. + O, I were damn'd beneath all depth in hell, + But that I did proceed upon just grounds + To this extremity. Thy husband knew it all. + EMILIA. My husband? + OTHELLO. Thy husband. + EMILIA. That she was false to wedlock? + OTHELLO. Ay, with Cassio. Nay, had she been true, + If heaven would make me such another world + Of one entire and perfect chrysolite, + I'ld not have sold her for it. + EMILIA. My husband? + OTHELLO. Ay, 'twas he that told me first. + An honest man he is, and hates the slime + That sticks on filthy deeds. + EMILIA. My husband? + OTHELLO. What needs this iteration, woman? I say thy husband. + EMILIA. O mistress, villainy hath made mocks with love! + My husband say that she was false! + OTHELLO. He, woman; + I say thy husband. Dost understand the word? + My friend, thy husband, honest, honest Iago. + EMILIA. If he say so, may his pernicious soul + Rot half a grain a day! He lies to the heart. + She was too fond of her most filthy bargain. + OTHELLO. Ha! + EMILIA. Do thy worst; + This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven + Than thou wast worthy her. + OTHELLO. Peace, you were best. + EMILIA. Thou hast not half that power to do me harm + As I have to be hurt. O gull! O dolt! + As ignorant as dirt! Thou hast done a deed- + I care not for thy sword; I'll make thee known, + Though I lost twenty lives. Help! help, ho! help! + The Moor hath kill'd my mistress! Murther, murther! + + Enter Montano, Gratiano, Iago, and others. + + MONTANO. What is the matter? How now, general? + EMILIA. O, are you come, Iago? You have done well, + That men must lay their murthers on your neck. + GRATIANO. What is the matter? + EMILIA. Disprove this villain, if thou be'st a man. + He says thou told'st him that his wife was false; + I know thou didst not, thou'rt not such a villain. + Speak, for my heart is full. + IAGO. I told him what I thought, and told no more + Than what he found himself was apt and true. + EMILIA. But did you ever tell him she was false? + IAGO. I did. + EMILIA. You told a lie, an odious, damned lie; + Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie! + She false with Cassio? Did you say with Cassio? + IAGO. With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm your tongue. + EMILIA. I will not charm my tongue; I am bound to speak. + My mistress here lies murther'd in her bed- + ALL. O heavens forfend! + EMILIA. And your reports have set the murther on. + OTHELLO. Nay, stare not, masters; it is true indeed. + GRATIANO. 'Tis a strange truth. + MONTANO. O monstrous act! + EMILIA. Villainy, villainy, villainy! + I think upon't, I think, I smell't, O villainy! + I thought so then. I'll kill myself for grief. + O villainy, villainy! + IAGO. What, are you mad? I charge you, get you home. + EMILIA. Good gentlemen, let me have leave to speak; + 'Tis proper I obey him, but not now. + Perchance, Iago, I will ne'er go home. + OTHELLO. O! O! O! Falls on the bed. + EMILIA. Nay, lay thee down and roar; + For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent + That e'er did lift up eye. + OTHELLO. [Rises.] O, she was foul! + I scarce did know you, uncle; there lies your niece, + Whose breath indeed these hands have newly stopp'd. + I know this act shows horrible and grim. + GRATIANO. Poor Desdemon! I am glad thy father's dead. + Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief + Shore his old thread in twain; did he live now, + This sight would make him do a desperate turn, + Yea, curse his better angel from his side, + And fall to reprobation. + OTHELLO. 'Tis pitiful, but yet Iago knows + That she with Cassio hath the act of shame + A thousand times committed. Cassio confess'd it, + And she did gratify his amorous works + With that recognizance and pledge of love + Which I first gave her. I saw it in his hand, + It was a handkerchief, an antique token + My father gave my mother. + EMILIA. O heaven! O heavenly powers! + IAGO. 'Zounds! Hold your peace. + EMILIA. 'Twill out, 'twill. I peace? + No, I will speak as liberal as the north; + Let heaven and men and devils, let them all, + All, all, cry shame against me, yet I'll speak. + IAGO. Be wise, and get you home. + EMILIA. I will not. + Iago offers to stab Emilia. + GRATIANO. Fie! + Your sword upon a woman? + EMILIA. O thou dull Moor! That handkerchief thou speak'st of + I found by fortune and did give my husband, + For often with a solemn earnestness, + More than indeed belong'd to such a trifle, + He begg'd of me to steal it. + IAGO. Villainous whore! + EMILIA. She give it Cassio? No, alas, I found it, + And I did give't my husband. + IAGO. Filth, thou liest! + EMILIA. By heaven, I do not, I do not, gentlemen. + O murtherous coxcomb! What should such a fool + Do with so good a wife? + OTHELLO. Are there not stones in heaven + But what serve for thunder? Precious villain! + He runs at Iago, but Montano + disarms him. Iago stabs Emilia. + GRATIANO. The woman falls; sure, he hath kill'd his wife. + EMILIA. Ay, ay! O, lay me by my mistress' side. Exit Iago. + GRATIANO. He's gone, but his wife's kill'd. + MONTANO. 'Tis a notorious villain. Take you this weapon, + Which I have here recover'd from the Moor. + Come, guard the door without; let him not pass, + But kill him rather. I'll after that same villain, + For 'tis a damned slave. Exeunt all but Othello and Emilia. + OTHELLO. I am not valiant neither, + But every puny whipster gets my sword. + But why should honor outlive honesty? + Let it go all. + EMILIA. What did thy song bode, lady? + Hark, canst thou hear me? I will play the swan, + And die in music. [Sings.] "Willow, willow, willow." + Moor, she was chaste; she loved thee, cruel Moor; + So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true; + So speaking as I think, I die, I die. Dies. + OTHELLO. I have another weapon in this chamber; + It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper- + O, here it is. Uncle, I must come forth. + GRATIANO. [Within.] If thou attempt it, it will cost thee dear. + Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must suffer. + OTHELLO. Look in upon me then, and speak with me, + Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee. + + Re-enter Gratiano. + + GRATIANO. What is the matter? + OTHELLO. Behold, I have a weapon; + A better never did itself sustain + Upon a soldier's thigh. I have seen the day + That with this little arm and this good sword + I have made my way through more impediments + Than twenty times your stop. But, O vain boast! + Who can control his fate? 'Tis not so now. + Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon'd; + Here is my journey's end, here is my butt + And very sea-mark of my utmost sail. + Do you go back dismay'd? 'Tis a lost fear. + Man but a rush against Othello's breast, + And he retires. Where should Othello go? + Now, how dost thou look now? O ill-starr'd wench! + Pale as thy smock! When we shall meet at compt, + This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven, + And fiends will snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl? + Even like thy chastity. O cursed, cursed slave! + Whip me, ye devils, + From the possession of this heavenly sight! + Blow me about in winds! Roast me in sulphur! + Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire! + O Desdemon! dead, Desdemon! dead! + O! O! O! + + Enter Lodovico, Montano, Cassio carried in a chair, + and Officers with Iago, prisoner. + + LODOVICO. Where is this rash and most unfortunate man? + OTHELLO. That's he that was Othello. Here I am. + LODOVICO. Where is that viper? Bring the villain forth. + OTHELLO. I look down towards his feet; but that's a fable. + If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee. Wounds Iago. + LODOVICO. Wrench his sword from him. + IAGO. I bleed, sir, but not kill'd. + OTHELLO. I am not sorry neither. I'ld have thee live, + For, in my sense, 'tis happiness to die. + LODOVICO. O thou Othello, that wert once so good, + Fall'n in the practice of a damned slave, + What shall be said to thee? + OTHELLO. Why, anything; + An honorable murtherer, if you will, + For nought did I in hate, but all in honor. + LODOVICO. This wretch hath part confess'd his villainy. + Did you and he consent in Cassio's death? + OTHELLO. Ay. + CASSIO. Dear general, I never gave you cause. + OTHELLO. I do believe it, and I ask your pardon. + Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil + Why he hath thus ensnared my soul and body? + IAGO. Demand me nothing; what you know, you know. + From this time forth I never will speak word. + LODOVICO. What, not to pray? + GRATIANO. Torments will ope your lips. + OTHELLO. Well, thou dost best. + LODOVICO. Sir, you shall understand what hath befall'n, + Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter + Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo, + And here another. The one of them imports + The death of Cassio to be undertook + By Roderigo. + OTHELLO. O villain! + CASSIO. Most heathenish and most gross! + LODOVICO. Now here's another discontented paper, + Found in his pocket too; and this, it seems, + Roderigo meant to have sent this damned villain; + But that, belike, Iago in the interim + Came in and satisfied him. + OTHELLO. O the pernicious caitiff! + How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief + That was my wife's? + CASSIO. I found it in my chamber; + And he himself confess'd but even now + That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose + Which wrought to his desire. + OTHELLO. O fool! fool! fool! + CASSIO. There is besides in Roderigo's letter, + How he upbraids Iago, that he made him + Brave me upon the watch, whereon it came + That I was cast. And even but now he spake + After long seeming dead, Iago hurt him, + Iago set him on. + LODOVICO. You must forsake this room, and go with us. + Your power and your command is taken off, + And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave, + If there be any cunning cruelty + That can torment him much and hold him long, + It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest, + Till that the nature of your fault be known + To the Venetian state. Come, bring away. + OTHELLO. Soft you; a word or two before you go. + I have done the state some service, and they know't. + No more of that. I pray you, in your letters, + When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, + Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate, + Nor set down aught in malice. Then must you speak + Of one that loved not wisely but too well; + Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought, + Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand, + Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away + Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdued eyes, + Albeit unused to the melting mood, + Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees + Their medicinal gum. Set you down this; + And say besides, that in Aleppo once, + Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk + Beat a Venetian and traduced the state, + I took by the throat the circumcised dog + And smote him, thus. Stabs himself. + LODOVICO. O bloody period! + GRATIANO. All that's spoke is marr'd. + OTHELLO. I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee. No way but this, + Killing myself, to die upon a kiss. + Falls on the bed, and dies. + CASSIO. This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon; + For he was great of heart. + LODOVICO. [To Iago.] O Spartan dog, + More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea! + Look on the tragic loading of this bed; + This is thy work. The object poisons sight; + Let it be hid. Gratiano, keep the house, + And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor, + For they succeed on you. To you, Lord Governor, + Remains the censure of this hellish villain, + The time, the place, the torture. O, enforce it! + Myself will straight aboard, and to the state + This heavy act with heavy heart relate. Exeunt. + + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1596 + + +KING RICHARD THE SECOND + + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + KING RICHARD THE SECOND + JOHN OF GAUNT, Duke of Lancaster - uncle to the King + EDMUND LANGLEY, Duke of York - uncle to the King + HENRY, surnamed BOLINGBROKE, Duke of Hereford, son of + John of Gaunt, afterwards King Henry IV + DUKE OF AUMERLE, son of the Duke of York + THOMAS MOWBRAY, Duke of Norfolk + DUKE OF SURREY + EARL OF SALISBURY + EARL BERKELEY + BUSHY - favourites of King Richard + BAGOT - " " " " + GREEN - " " " " + EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND + HENRY PERCY, surnamed HOTSPUR, his son + LORD Ross LORD WILLOUGHBY + LORD FITZWATER BISHOP OF CARLISLE + ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER LORD MARSHAL + SIR STEPHEN SCROOP SIR PIERCE OF EXTON + CAPTAIN of a band of Welshmen TWO GARDENERS + + QUEEN to King Richard + DUCHESS OF YORK + DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER, widow of Thomas of Woodstock, + Duke of Gloucester + LADY attending on the Queen + + Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Keeper, Messenger, + Groom, and other Attendants + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +England and Wales + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +London. The palace + +Enter RICHARD, JOHN OF GAUNT, with other NOBLES and attendants + + KING RICHARD. Old John of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster, + Hast thou, according to thy oath and band, + Brought hither Henry Hereford, thy bold son, + Here to make good the boist'rous late appeal, + Which then our leisure would not let us hear, + Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? + GAUNT. I have, my liege. + KING RICHARD. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him + If he appeal the Duke on ancient malice, + Or worthily, as a good subject should, + On some known ground of treachery in him? + GAUNT. As near as I could sift him on that argument, + On some apparent danger seen in him + Aim'd at your Highness-no inveterate malice. + KING RICHARD. Then call them to our presence: face to face + And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear + The accuser and the accused freely speak. + High-stomach'd are they both and full of ire, + In rage, deaf as the sea, hasty as fire. + + Enter BOLINGBROKE and MOWBRAY + + BOLINGBROKE. Many years of happy days befall + My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege! + MOWBRAY. Each day still better other's happiness + Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap, + Add an immortal title to your crown! + KING RICHARD. We thank you both; yet one but flatters us, + As well appeareth by the cause you come; + Namely, to appeal each other of high treason. + Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object + Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray? + BOLINGBROKE. First-heaven be the record to my speech! + In the devotion of a subject's love, + Tend'ring the precious safety of my prince, + And free from other misbegotten hate, + Come I appellant to this princely presence. + Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee, + And mark my greeting well; for what I speak + My body shall make good upon this earth, + Or my divine soul answer it in heaven- + Thou art a traitor and a miscreant, + Too good to be so, and too bad to live, + Since the more fair and crystal is the sky, + The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly. + Once more, the more to aggravate the note, + With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat; + And wish-so please my sovereign-ere I move, + What my tongue speaks, my right drawn sword may prove. + MOWBRAY. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal. + 'Tis not the trial of a woman's war, + The bitter clamour of two eager tongues, + Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain; + The blood is hot that must be cool'd for this. + Yet can I not of such tame patience boast + As to be hush'd and nought at an to say. + First, the fair reverence of your Highness curbs me + From giving reins and spurs to my free speech; + Which else would post until it had return'd + These terms of treason doubled down his throat. + Setting aside his high blood's royalty, + And let him be no kinsman to my liege, + I do defy him, and I spit at him, + Call him a slanderous coward and a villain; + Which to maintain, I would allow him odds + And meet him, were I tied to run afoot + Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps, + Or any other ground inhabitable + Where ever Englishman durst set his foot. + Meantime let this defend my loyalty- + By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie + BOLINGBROKE. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage, + Disclaiming here the kindred of the King; + And lay aside my high blood's royalty, + Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except. + If guilty dread have left thee so much strength + As to take up mine honour's pawn, then stoop. + By that and all the rites of knighthood else + Will I make good against thee, arm to arm, + What I have spoke or thou canst worst devise. + MOWBRAY. I take it up; and by that sword I swear + Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder + I'll answer thee in any fair degree + Or chivalrous design of knightly trial; + And when I mount, alive may I not light + If I be traitor or unjustly fight! + KING RICHARD. What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray's charge? + It must be great that can inherit us + So much as of a thought of ill in him. + BOLINGBROKE. Look what I speak, my life shall prove it true- + That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles + In name of lendings for your Highness' soldiers, + The which he hath detain'd for lewd employments + Like a false traitor and injurious villain. + Besides, I say and will in battle prove- + Or here, or elsewhere to the furthest verge + That ever was survey'd by English eye- + That all the treasons for these eighteen years + Complotted and contrived in this land + Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and spring. + Further I say, and further will maintain + Upon his bad life to make all this good, + That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester's death, + Suggest his soon-believing adversaries, + And consequently, like a traitor coward, + Sluic'd out his innocent soul through streams of blood; + Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries, + Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth, + To me for justice and rough chastisement; + And, by the glorious worth of my descent, + This arm shall do it, or this life be spent. + KING RICHARD. How high a pitch his resolution soars! + Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this? + MOWBRAY. O, let my sovereign turn away his face + And bid his ears a little while be deaf, + Till I have told this slander of his blood + How God and good men hate so foul a liar. + KING RICHARD. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and cars. + Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir, + As he is but my father's brother's son, + Now by my sceptre's awe I make a vow, + Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood + Should nothing privilege him nor partialize + The unstooping firmness of my upright soul. + He is our subject, Mowbray; so art thou: + Free speech and fearless I to thee allow. + MOWBRAY. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart, + Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest. + Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais + Disburs'd I duly to his Highness' soldiers; + The other part reserv'd I by consent, + For that my sovereign liege was in my debt + Upon remainder of a dear account + Since last I went to France to fetch his queen: + Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester's death- + I slew him not, but to my own disgrace + Neglected my sworn duty in that case. + For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster, + The honourable father to my foe, + Once did I lay an ambush for your life, + A trespass that doth vex my grieved soul; + But ere I last receiv'd the sacrament + I did confess it, and exactly begg'd + Your Grace's pardon; and I hope I had it. + This is my fault. As for the rest appeal'd, + It issues from the rancour of a villain, + A recreant and most degenerate traitor; + Which in myself I boldly will defend, + And interchangeably hurl down my gage + Upon this overweening traitor's foot + To prove myself a loyal gentleman + Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom. + In haste whereof, most heartily I pray + Your Highness to assign our trial day. + KING RICHARD. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be rul'd by me; + Let's purge this choler without letting blood- + This we prescribe, though no physician; + Deep malice makes too deep incision. + Forget, forgive; conclude and be agreed: + Our doctors say this is no month to bleed. + Good uncle, let this end where it begun; + We'll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son. + GAUNT. To be a make-peace shall become my age. + Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage. + KING RICHARD. And, Norfolk, throw down his. + GAUNT. When, Harry, when? + Obedience bids I should not bid again. + KING RICHARD. Norfolk, throw down; we bid. + There is no boot. + MOWBRAY. Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot; + My life thou shalt command, but not my shame: + The one my duty owes; but my fair name, + Despite of death, that lives upon my grave + To dark dishonour's use thou shalt not have. + I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffl'd here; + Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear, + The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood + Which breath'd this poison. + KING RICHARD. Rage must be withstood: + Give me his gage-lions make leopards tame. + MOWBRAY. Yea, but not change his spots. Take but my shame, + And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord, + The purest treasure mortal times afford + Is spotless reputation; that away, + Men are but gilded loam or painted clay. + A jewel in a ten-times barr'd-up chest + Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast. + Mine honour is my life; both grow in one; + Take honour from me, and my life is done: + Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try; + In that I live, and for that will I die. + KING RICHARD. Cousin, throw up your gage; do you begin. + BOLINGBROKE. O, God defend my soul from such deep sin! + Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight? + Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height + Before this outdar'd dastard? Ere my tongue + Shall wound my honour with such feeble wrong + Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear + The slavish motive of recanting fear, + And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace, + Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face. + Exit GAUNT + KING RICHARD. We were not born to sue, but to command; + Which since we cannot do to make you friends, + Be ready, as your lives shall answer it, + At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day. + There shall your swords and lances arbitrate + The swelling difference of your settled hate; + Since we can not atone you, we shall see + Justice design the victor's chivalry. + Lord Marshal, command our officers-at-arms + Be ready to direct these home alarms. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. +London. The DUKE OF LANCASTER'S palace + +Enter JOHN OF GAUNT with the DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER + + GAUNT. Alas, the part I had in Woodstock's blood + Doth more solicit me than your exclaims + To stir against the butchers of his life! + But since correction lieth in those hands + Which made the fault that we cannot correct, + Put we our quarrel to the will of heaven; + Who, when they see the hours ripe on earth, + Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads. + DUCHESS. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur? + Hath love in thy old blood no living fire? + Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one, + Were as seven vials of his sacred blood, + Or seven fair branches springing from one root. + Some of those seven are dried by nature's course, + Some of those branches by the Destinies cut; + But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloucester, + One vial full of Edward's sacred blood, + One flourishing branch of his most royal root, + Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt; + Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded, + By envy's hand and murder's bloody axe. + Ah, Gaunt, his blood was thine! That bed, that womb, + That mettle, that self mould, that fashion'd thee, + Made him a man; and though thou livest and breathest, + Yet art thou slain in him. Thou dost consent + In some large measure to thy father's death + In that thou seest thy wretched brother die, + Who was the model of thy father's life. + Call it not patience, Gaunt-it is despair; + In suff'ring thus thy brother to be slaught'red, + Thou showest the naked pathway to thy life, + Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee. + That which in mean men we entitle patience + Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts. + What shall I say? To safeguard thine own life + The best way is to venge my Gloucester's death. + GAUNT. God's is the quarrel; for God's substitute, + His deputy anointed in His sight, + Hath caus'd his death; the which if wrongfully, + Let heaven revenge; for I may never lift + An angry arm against His minister. + DUCHESS. Where then, alas, may I complain myself? + GAUNT. To God, the widow's champion and defence. + DUCHESS. Why then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt. + Thou goest to Coventry, there to behold + Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight. + O, sit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's spear, + That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast! + Or, if misfortune miss the first career, + Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom + That they may break his foaming courser's back + And throw the rider headlong in the lists, + A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford! + Farewell, old Gaunt; thy sometimes brother's wife, + With her companion, Grief, must end her life. + GAUNT. Sister, farewell; I must to Coventry. + As much good stay with thee as go with me! + DUCHESS. Yet one word more- grief boundeth where it falls, + Not with the empty hollowness, but weight. + I take my leave before I have begun, + For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done. + Commend me to thy brother, Edmund York. + Lo, this is all- nay, yet depart not so; + Though this be all, do not so quickly go; + I shall remember more. Bid him- ah, what?- + With all good speed at Plashy visit me. + Alack, and what shall good old York there see + But empty lodgings and unfurnish'd walls, + Unpeopled offices, untrodden stones? + And what hear there for welcome but my groans? + Therefore commend me; let him not come there + To seek out sorrow that dwells every where. + Desolate, desolate, will I hence and die; + The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. +The lists at Coventry + +Enter the LORD MARSHAL and the DUKE OF AUMERLE + + MARSHAL. My Lord Aumerle, is Harry Hereford arm'd? + AUMERLE. Yea, at all points; and longs to enter in. + MARSHAL. The Duke of Norfolk, spightfully and bold, + Stays but the summons of the appelant's trumpet. + AUMERLE. Why then, the champions are prepar'd, and stay + For nothing but his Majesty's approach. + + The trumpets sound, and the KING enters with his nobles, + GAUNT, BUSHY, BAGOT, GREEN, and others. When they are set, + enter MOWBRAY, Duke of Nor folk, in arms, defendant, and + a HERALD + + KING RICHARD. Marshal, demand of yonder champion + The cause of his arrival here in arms; + Ask him his name; and orderly proceed + To swear him in the justice of his cause. + MARSHAL. In God's name and the King's, say who thou art, + And why thou comest thus knightly clad in arms; + Against what man thou com'st, and what thy quarrel. + Speak truly on thy knighthood and thy oath; + As so defend thee heaven and thy valour! + MOWBRAY. My name is Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk; + Who hither come engaged by my oath- + Which God defend a knight should violate!- + Both to defend my loyalty and truth + To God, my King, and my succeeding issue, + Against the Duke of Hereford that appeals me; + And, by the grace of God and this mine arm, + To prove him, in defending of myself, + A traitor to my God, my King, and me. + And as I truly fight, defend me heaven! + + The trumpets sound. Enter BOLINGBROKE, Duke of Hereford, + appellant, in armour, and a HERALD + + KING RICHARD. Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms, + Both who he is and why he cometh hither + Thus plated in habiliments of war; + And formally, according to our law, + Depose him in the justice of his cause. + MARSHAL. What is thy name? and wherefore com'st thou hither + Before King Richard in his royal lists? + Against whom comest thou? and what's thy quarrel? + Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven! + BOLINGBROKE. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, + Am I; who ready here do stand in arms + To prove, by God's grace and my body's valour, + In lists on Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, + That he is a traitor, foul and dangerous, + To God of heaven, King Richard, and to me. + And as I truly fight, defend me heaven! + MARSHAL. On pain of death, no person be so bold + Or daring-hardy as to touch the lists, + Except the Marshal and such officers + Appointed to direct these fair designs. + BOLINGBROKE. Lord Marshal, let me kiss my sovereign's hand, + And bow my knee before his Majesty; + For Mowbray and myself are like two men + That vow a long and weary pilgrimage. + Then let us take a ceremonious leave + And loving farewell of our several friends. + MARSHAL. The appellant in all duty greets your Highness, + And craves to kiss your hand and take his leave. + KING RICHARD. We will descend and fold him in our arms. + Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right, + So be thy fortune in this royal fight! + Farewell, my blood; which if to-day thou shed, + Lament we may, but not revenge thee dead. + BOLINGBROKE. O, let no noble eye profane a tear + For me, if I be gor'd with Mowbray's spear. + As confident as is the falcon's flight + Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight. + My loving lord, I take my leave of you; + Of you, my noble cousin, Lord Aumerle; + Not sick, although I have to do with death, + But lusty, young, and cheerly drawing breath. + Lo, as at English feasts, so I regreet + The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet. + O thou, the earthly author of my blood, + Whose youthful spirit, in me regenerate, + Doth with a twofold vigour lift me up + To reach at victory above my head, + Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers, + And with thy blessings steel my lance's point, + That it may enter Mowbray's waxen coat + And furbish new the name of John o' Gaunt, + Even in the lusty haviour of his son. + GAUNT. God in thy good cause make thee prosperous! + Be swift like lightning in the execution, + And let thy blows, doubly redoubled, + Fall like amazing thunder on the casque + Of thy adverse pernicious enemy. + Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant, and live. + BOLINGBROKE. Mine innocence and Saint George to thrive! + MOWBRAY. However God or fortune cast my lot, + There lives or dies, true to King Richard's throne, + A loyal, just, and upright gentleman. + Never did captive with a freer heart + Cast off his chains of bondage, and embrace + His golden uncontroll'd enfranchisement, + More than my dancing soul doth celebrate + This feast of battle with mine adversary. + Most mighty liege, and my companion peers, + Take from my mouth the wish of happy years. + As gentle and as jocund as to jest + Go I to fight: truth hath a quiet breast. + KING RICHARD. Farewell, my lord, securely I espy + Virtue with valour couched in thine eye. + Order the trial, Marshal, and begin. + MARSHAL. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, + Receive thy lance; and God defend the right! + BOLINGBROKE. Strong as a tower in hope, I cry amen. + MARSHAL. [To an officer] Go bear this lance to Thomas, + Duke of Norfolk. + FIRST HERALD. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, + Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself, + On pain to be found false and recreant, + To prove the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, + A traitor to his God, his King, and him; + And dares him to set forward to the fight. + SECOND HERALD. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, + On pain to be found false and recreant, + Both to defend himself, and to approve + Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby, + To God, his sovereign, and to him disloyal, + Courageously and with a free desire + Attending but the signal to begin. + MARSHAL. Sound trumpets; and set forward, combatants. + [A charge sounded] + Stay, the King hath thrown his warder down. + KING RICHARD. Let them lay by their helmets and their spears, + And both return back to their chairs again. + Withdraw with us; and let the trumpets sound + While we return these dukes what we decree. + + A long flourish, while the KING consults his Council + + Draw near, + And list what with our council we have done. + For that our kingdom's earth should not be soil'd + With that dear blood which it hath fostered; + And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect + Of civil wounds plough'd up with neighbours' sword; + And for we think the eagle-winged pride + Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts, + With rival-hating envy, set on you + To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle + Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep; + Which so rous'd up with boist'rous untun'd drums, + With harsh-resounding trumpets' dreadful bray, + And grating shock of wrathful iron arms, + Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace + And make us wade even in our kindred's blood- + Therefore we banish you our territories. + You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of life, + Till twice five summers have enrich'd our fields + Shall not regreet our fair dominions, + But tread the stranger paths of banishment. + BOLINGBROKE. Your will be done. This must my comfort be- + That sun that warms you here shall shine on me, + And those his golden beams to you here lent + Shall point on me and gild my banishment. + KING RICHARD. Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier doom, + Which I with some unwillingness pronounce: + The sly slow hours shall not determinate + The dateless limit of thy dear exile; + The hopeless word of 'never to return' + Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life. + MOWBRAY. A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege, + And all unlook'd for from your Highness' mouth. + A dearer merit, not so deep a maim + As to be cast forth in the common air, + Have I deserved at your Highness' hands. + The language I have learnt these forty years, + My native English, now I must forgo; + And now my tongue's use is to me no more + Than an unstringed viol or a harp; + Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up + Or, being open, put into his hands + That knows no touch to tune the harmony. + Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue, + Doubly portcullis'd with my teeth and lips; + And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance + Is made my gaoler to attend on me. + I am too old to fawn upon a nurse, + Too far in years to be a pupil now. + What is thy sentence, then, but speechless death, + Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath? + KING RICHARD. It boots thee not to be compassionate; + After our sentence plaining comes too late. + MOWBRAY. Then thus I turn me from my countrv's light, + To dwell in solemn shades of endless night. + KING RICHARD. Return again, and take an oath with thee. + Lay on our royal sword your banish'd hands; + Swear by the duty that you owe to God, + Our part therein we banish with yourselves, + To keep the oath that we administer: + You never shall, so help you truth and God, + Embrace each other's love in banishment; + Nor never look upon each other's face; + Nor never write, regreet, nor reconcile + This louring tempest of your home-bred hate; + Nor never by advised purpose meet + To plot, contrive, or complot any ill, + 'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land. + BOLINGBROKE. I swear. + MOWBRAY. And I, to keep all this. + BOLINGBROKE. Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy. + By this time, had the King permitted us, + One of our souls had wand'red in the air, + Banish'd this frail sepulchre of our flesh, + As now our flesh is banish'd from this land- + Confess thy treasons ere thou fly the realm; + Since thou hast far to go, bear not along + The clogging burden of a guilty soul. + MOWBRAY. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor, + My name be blotted from the book of life, + And I from heaven banish'd as from hence! + But what thou art, God, thou, and I, do know; + And all too soon, I fear, the King shall rue. + Farewell, my liege. Now no way can I stray: + Save back to England, an the world's my way. Exit + KING RICHARD. Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes + I see thy grieved heart. Thy sad aspect + Hath from the number of his banish'd years + Pluck'd four away. [To BOLINGBROKE] Six frozen winters spent, + Return with welcome home from banishment. + BOLINGBROKE. How long a time lies in one little word! + Four lagging winters and four wanton springs + End in a word: such is the breath of Kings. + GAUNT. I thank my liege that in regard of me + He shortens four years of my son's exile; + But little vantage shall I reap thereby, + For ere the six years that he hath to spend + Can change their moons and bring their times about, + My oil-dried lamp and time-bewasted light + Shall be extinct with age and endless night; + My inch of taper will be burnt and done, + And blindfold death not let me see my son. + KING RICHARD. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to live. + GAUNT. But not a minute, King, that thou canst give: + Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow + And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow; + Thou can'st help time to furrow me with age, + But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage; + Thy word is current with him for my death, + But dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath. + KING RICHARD. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice, + Whereto thy tongue a party-verdict gave. + Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lour? + GAUNT. Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour. + You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather + You would have bid me argue like a father. + O, had it been a stranger, not my child, + To smooth his fault I should have been more mild. + A partial slander sought I to avoid, + And in the sentence my own life destroy'd. + Alas, I look'd when some of you should say + I was too strict to make mine own away; + But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue + Against my will to do myself this wrong. + KING RICHARD. Cousin, farewell; and, uncle, bid him so. + Six years we banish him, and he shall go. + Flourish. Exit KING with train + AUMERLE. Cousin, farewell; what presence must not know, + From where you do remain let paper show. + MARSHAL. My lord, no leave take I, for I will ride + As far as land will let me by your side. + GAUNT. O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy words, + That thou returnest no greeting to thy friends? + BOLINGBROKE. I have too few to take my leave of you, + When the tongue's office should be prodigal + To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart. + GAUNT. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time. + BOLINGBROKE. Joy absent, grief is present for that time. + GAUNT. What is six winters? They are quickly gone. + BOLINGBROKE. To men in joy; but grief makes one hour ten. + GAUNT. Call it a travel that thou tak'st for pleasure. + BOLINGBROKE. My heart will sigh when I miscall it so, + Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage. + GAUNT. The sullen passage of thy weary steps + Esteem as foil wherein thou art to set + The precious jewel of thy home return. + BOLINGBROKE. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I make + Will but remember me what a deal of world + I wander from the jewels that I love. + Must I not serve a long apprenticehood + To foreign passages; and in the end, + Having my freedom, boast of nothing else + But that I was a journeyman to grief? + GAUNT. All places that the eye of heaven visits + Are to a wise man ports and happy havens. + Teach thy necessity to reason thus: + There is no virtue like necessity. + Think not the King did banish thee, + But thou the King. Woe doth the heavier sit + Where it perceives it is but faintly home. + Go, say I sent thee forth to purchase honour, + And not the King exil'd thee; or suppose + Devouring pestilence hangs in our air + And thou art flying to a fresher clime. + Look what thy soul holds dear, imagine it + To lie that way thou goest, not whence thou com'st. + Suppose the singing birds musicians, + The grass whereon thou tread'st the presence strew'd, + The flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more + Than a delightful measure or a dance; + For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite + The man that mocks at it and sets it light. + BOLINGBROKE. O, who can hold a fire in his hand + By thinking on the frosty Caucasus? + Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite + By bare imagination of a feast? + Or wallow naked in December snow + By thinking on fantastic summer's heat? + O, no! the apprehension of the good + Gives but the greater feeling to the worse. + Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more + Than when he bites, but lanceth not the sore. + GAUNT. Come, come, my son, I'll bring thee on thy way. + Had I thy youtli and cause, I would not stay. + BOLINGBROKE. Then, England's ground, farewell; sweet soil, adieu; + My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet! + Where'er I wander, boast of this I can: + Though banish'd, yet a trueborn English man. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. +London. The court + +Enter the KING, with BAGOT and GREEN, at one door; +and the DUKE OF AUMERLE at another + + KING RICHARD. We did observe. Cousin Aumerle, + How far brought you high Hereford on his way? + AUMERLE. I brought high Hereford, if you call him so, + But to the next high way, and there I left him. + KING RICHARD. And say, what store of parting tears were shed? + AUMERLE. Faith, none for me; except the north-east wind, + Which then blew bitterly against our faces, + Awak'd the sleeping rheum, and so by chance + Did grace our hollow parting with a tear. + KING RICHARD. What said our cousin when you parted with him? + AUMERLE. 'Farewell.' + And, for my heart disdained that my tongue + Should so profane the word, that taught me craft + To counterfeit oppression of such grief + That words seem'd buried in my sorrow's grave. + Marry, would the word 'farewell' have length'ned hours + And added years to his short banishment, + He should have had a volume of farewells; + But since it would not, he had none of me. + KING RICHARD. He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis doubt, + When time shall call him home from banishment, + Whether our kinsman come to see his friends. + Ourself, and Bushy, Bagot here, and Green, + Observ'd his courtship to the common people; + How he did seem to dive into their hearts + With humble and familiar courtesy; + What reverence he did throw away on slaves, + Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles + And patient underbearing of his fortune, + As 'twere to banish their affects with him. + Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench; + A brace of draymen bid God speed him well + And had the tribute of his supple knee, + With 'Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends'; + As were our England in reversion his, + And he our subjects' next degree in hope. + GREEN. Well, he is gone; and with him go these thoughts! + Now for the rebels which stand out in Ireland, + Expedient manage must be made, my liege, + Ere further leisure yicld them further means + For their advantage and your Highness' loss. + KING RICHARD. We will ourself in person to this war; + And, for our coffers, with too great a court + And liberal largess, are grown somewhat light, + We are enforc'd to farm our royal realm; + The revenue whereof shall furnish us + For our affairs in hand. If that come short, + Our substitutes at home shall have blank charters; + Whereto, when they shall know what men are rich, + They shall subscribe them for large sums of gold, + And send them after to supply our wants; + For we will make for Ireland presently. + + Enter BUSHY + + Bushy, what news? + BUSHY. Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord, + Suddenly taken; and hath sent poste-haste + To entreat your Majesty to visit him. + KING RICHARD. Where lies he? + BUSHY. At Ely House. + KING RICHARD. Now put it, God, in the physician's mind + To help him to his grave immediately! + The lining of his coffers shall make coats + To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars. + Come, gentlemen, let's all go visit him. + Pray God we may make haste, and come too late! + ALL. Amen. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +London. Ely House + +Enter JOHN OF GAUNT, sick, with the DUKE OF YORK, etc. + + GAUNT. Will the King come, that I may breathe my last + In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth? + YORK. Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath; + For all in vain comes counsel to his ear. + GAUNT. O, but they say the tongues of dying men + Enforce attention like deep harmony. + Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain; + For they breathe truth that breathe their words -in pain. + He that no more must say is listen'd more + Than they whom youth and ease have taught to glose; + More are men's ends mark'd than their lives before. + The setting sun, and music at the close, + As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last, + Writ in remembrance more than things long past. + Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear, + My death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear. + YORK. No; it is stopp'd with other flattering sounds, + As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond, + Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound + The open ear of youth doth always listen; + Report of fashions in proud Italy, + Whose manners still our tardy apish nation + Limps after in base imitation. + Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity- + So it be new, there's no respect how vile- + That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears? + Then all too late comes counsel to be heard + Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard. + Direct not him whose way himself will choose. + 'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou lose. + GAUNT. Methinks I am a prophet new inspir'd, + And thus expiring do foretell of him: + His rash fierce blaze of riot cannot last, + For violent fires soon burn out themselves; + Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short; + He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes; + With eager feeding food doth choke the feeder; + Light vanity, insatiate cormorant, + Consuming means, soon preys upon itself. + This royal throne of kings, this scept'red isle, + This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, + This other Eden, demi-paradise, + This fortress built by Nature for herself + Against infection and the hand of war, + This happy breed of men, this little world, + This precious stone set in the silver sea, + Which serves it in the office of a wall, + Or as a moat defensive to a house, + Against the envy of less happier lands; + This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, + This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, + Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth, + Renowned for their deeds as far from home, + For Christian service and true chivalry, + As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry + Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son; + This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land, + Dear for her reputation through the world, + Is now leas'd out-I die pronouncing it- + Like to a tenement or pelting farm. + England, bound in with the triumphant sea, + Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege + Of wat'ry Neptune, is now bound in with shame, + With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds; + That England, that was wont to conquer others, + Hath made a shameful conquest of itself. + Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life, + How happy then were my ensuing death! + + Enter KING and QUEEN, AUMERLE, BUSHY, GREEN, BAGOT, + Ross, and WILLOUGHBY + + YORK. The King is come; deal mildly with his youth, + For young hot colts being rag'd do rage the more. + QUEEN. How fares our noble uncle Lancaster? + KING RICHARD. What comfort, man? How is't with aged Gaunt? + GAUNT. O, how that name befits my composition! + Old Gaunt, indeed; and gaunt in being old. + Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast; + And who abstains from meat that is not gaunt? + For sleeping England long time have I watch'd; + Watching breeds leanness, leanness is an gaunt. + The pleasure that some fathers feed upon + Is my strict fast-I mean my children's looks; + And therein fasting, hast thou made me gaunt. + Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave, + Whose hollow womb inherits nought but bones. + KING RICHARD. Can sick men play so nicely with their names? + GAUNT. No, misery makes sport to mock itself: + Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me, + I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee. + KING RICHARD. Should dying men flatter with those that live? + GAUNT. No, no; men living flatter those that die. + KING RICHARD. Thou, now a-dying, sayest thou flatterest me. + GAUNT. O, no! thou diest, though I the sicker be. + KING RICHARD. I am in health, I breathe, and see thee ill. + GAUNT. Now He that made me knows I see thee ill; + Ill in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill. + Thy death-bed is no lesser than thy land + Wherein thou liest in reputation sick; + And thou, too careless patient as thou art, + Commit'st thy anointed body to the cure + Of those physicians that first wounded thee: + A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown, + Whose compass is no bigger than thy head; + And yet, incaged in so small a verge, + The waste is no whit lesser than thy land. + O, had thy grandsire with a prophet's eye + Seen how his son's son should destroy his sons, + From forth thy reach he would have laid thy shame, + Deposing thee before thou wert possess'd, + Which art possess'd now to depose thyself. + Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world, + It were a shame to let this land by lease; + But for thy world enjoying but this land, + Is it not more than shame to shame it so? + Landlord of England art thou now, not King. + Thy state of law is bondslave to the law; + And thou- + KING RICHARD. A lunatic lean-witted fool, + Presuming on an ague's privilege, + Darest with thy frozen admonition + Make pale our cheek, chasing the royal blood + With fury from his native residence. + Now by my seat's right royal majesty, + Wert thou not brother to great Edward's son, + This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head + Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders. + GAUNT. O, Spare me not, my brother Edward's son, + For that I was his father Edward's son; + That blood already, like the pelican, + Hast thou tapp'd out, and drunkenly carous'd. + My brother Gloucester, plain well-meaning soul- + Whom fair befall in heaven 'mongst happy souls!- + May be a precedent and witness good + That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood. + Join with the present sickness that I have; + And thy unkindness be like crooked age, + To crop at once a too long withered flower. + Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee! + These words hereafter thy tormentors be! + Convey me to my bed, then to my grave. + Love they to live that love and honour have. + Exit, borne out by his attendants + KING RICHARD. And let them die that age and sullens have; + For both hast thou, and both become the grave. + YORK. I do beseech your Majesty impute his words + To wayward sickliness and age in him. + He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear + As Harry Duke of Hereford, were he here. + KING RICHARD. Right, you say true: as Hereford's love, so his; + As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is. + + Enter NORTHUMBERLAND + + NORTHUMBERLAND. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your Majesty. + KING RICHARD. What says he? + NORTHUMBERLAND. Nay, nothing; all is said. + His tongue is now a stringless instrument; + Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent. + YORK. Be York the next that must be bankrupt so! + Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe. + KING RICHARD. The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he; + His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be. + So much for that. Now for our Irish wars. + We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns, + Which live like venom where no venom else + But only they have privilege to live. + And for these great affairs do ask some charge, + Towards our assistance we do seize to us + The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables, + Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd. + YORK. How long shall I be patient? Ah, how long + Shall tender duty make me suffer wrong? + Not Gloucester's death, nor Hereford's banishment, + Nor Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private wrongs, + Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke + About his marriage, nor my own disgrace, + Have ever made me sour my patient cheek + Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign's face. + I am the last of noble Edward's sons, + Of whom thy father, Prince of Wales, was first. + In war was never lion rag'd more fierce, + In peace was never gentle lamb more mild, + Than was that young and princely gentleman. + His face thou hast, for even so look'd he, + Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours; + But when he frown'd, it was against the French + And not against his friends. His noble hand + Did win what he did spend, and spent not that + Which his triumphant father's hand had won. + His hands were guilty of no kindred blood, + But bloody with the enemies of his kin. + O Richard! York is too far gone with grief, + Or else he never would compare between- + KING RICHARD. Why, uncle, what's the matter? + YORK. O my liege, + Pardon me, if you please; if not, I, pleas'd + Not to be pardoned, am content withal. + Seek you to seize and gripe into your hands + The royalties and rights of banish'd Hereford? + Is not Gaunt dead? and doth not Hereford live? + Was not Gaunt just? and is not Harry true? + Did not the one deserve to have an heir? + Is not his heir a well-deserving son? + Take Hereford's rights away, and take from Time + His charters and his customary rights; + Let not to-morrow then ensue to-day; + Be not thyself-for how art thou a king + But by fair sequence and succession? + Now, afore God-God forbid I say true!- + If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights, + Call in the letters patents that he hath + By his attorneys-general to sue + His livery, and deny his off'red homage, + You pluck a thousand dangers on your head, + You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts, + And prick my tender patience to those thoughts + Which honour and allegiance cannot think. + KING RICHARD. Think what you will, we seize into our hands + His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands. + YORK. I'll not be by the while. My liege, farewell. + What will ensue hereof there's none can tell; + But by bad courses may be understood + That their events can never fall out good. Exit + KING RICHARD. Go, Bushy, to the Earl of Wiltshire straight; + Bid him repair to us to Ely House + To see this business. To-morrow next + We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow. + And we create, in absence of ourself, + Our Uncle York Lord Governor of England; + For he is just, and always lov'd us well. + Come on, our queen; to-morrow must we part; + Be merry, for our time of stay is short. + Flourish. Exeunt KING, QUEEN, BUSHY, AUMERLE, + GREEN, and BAGOT + NORTHUMBERLAND. Well, lords, the Duke of Lancaster is dead. + Ross. And living too; for now his son is Duke. + WILLOUGHBY. Barely in title, not in revenues. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Richly in both, if justice had her right. + ROSS. My heart is great; but it must break with silence, + Ere't be disburdened with a liberal tongue. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Nay, speak thy mind; and let him ne'er speak more + That speaks thy words again to do thee harm! + WILLOUGHBY. Tends that thou wouldst speak to the Duke of Hereford? + If it be so, out with it boldly, man; + Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him. + ROSS. No good at all that I can do for him; + Unless you call it good to pity him, + Bereft and gelded of his patrimony. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Now, afore God, 'tis shame such wrongs are borne + In him, a royal prince, and many moe + Of noble blood in this declining land. + The King is not himself, but basely led + By flatterers; and what they will inform, + Merely in hate, 'gainst any of us an, + That will the King severely prosecute + 'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs. + ROSS. The commons hath he pill'd with grievous taxes; + And quite lost their hearts; the nobles hath he find + For ancient quarrels and quite lost their hearts. + WILLOUGHBY. And daily new exactions are devis'd, + As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what; + But what, a God's name, doth become of this? + NORTHUMBERLAND. Wars hath not wasted it, for warr'd he hath not, + But basely yielded upon compromise + That which his noble ancestors achiev'd with blows. + More hath he spent in peace than they in wars. + ROSS. The Earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm. + WILLOUGHBY. The King's grown bankrupt like a broken man. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Reproach and dissolution hangeth over him. + ROSS. He hath not money for these Irish wars, + His burdenous taxations notwithstanding, + But by the robbing of the banish'd Duke. + NORTHUMBERLAND. His noble kinsman-most degenerate king! + But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing, + Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm; + We see the wind sit sore upon our sails, + And yet we strike not, but securely perish. + ROSS. We see the very wreck that we must suffer; + And unavoided is the danger now + For suffering so the causes of our wreck. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Not so; even through the hollow eyes of death + I spy life peering; but I dare not say + How near the tidings of our comfort is. + WILLOUGHBY. Nay, let us share thy thoughts as thou dost ours. + ROSS. Be confident to speak, Northumberland. + We three are but thyself, and, speaking so, + Thy words are but as thoughts; therefore be bold. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Then thus: I have from Le Port Blanc, a bay + In Brittany, receiv'd intelligence + That Harry Duke of Hereford, Rainold Lord Cobham, + That late broke from the Duke of Exeter, + His brother, Archbishop late of Canterbury, + Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Ramston, + Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton, and Francis Quoint- + All these, well furnish'd by the Duke of Britaine, + With eight tall ships, three thousand men of war, + Are making hither with all due expedience, + And shortly mean to touch our northern shore. + Perhaps they had ere this, but that they stay + The first departing of the King for Ireland. + If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke, + Imp out our drooping country's broken wing, + Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown, + Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt, + And make high majesty look like itself, + Away with me in post to Ravenspurgh; + But if you faint, as fearing to do so, + Stay and be secret, and myself will go. + ROSS. To horse, to horse! Urge doubts to them that fear. + WILLOUGHBY. Hold out my horse, and I will first be there. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. +Windsor Castle + +Enter QUEEN, BUSHY, and BAGOT + + BUSHY. Madam, your Majesty is too much sad. + You promis'd, when you parted with the King, + To lay aside life-harming heaviness + And entertain a cheerful disposition. + QUEEN. To please the King, I did; to please myself + I cannot do it; yet I know no cause + Why I should welcome such a guest as grief, + Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest + As my sweet Richard. Yet again methinks + Some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune's womb, + Is coming towards me, and my inward soul + With nothing trembles. At some thing it grieves + More than with parting from my lord the King. + BUSHY. Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows, + Which shows like grief itself, but is not so; + For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears, + Divides one thing entire to many objects, + Like perspectives which, rightly gaz'd upon, + Show nothing but confusion-ey'd awry, + Distinguish form. So your sweet Majesty, + Looking awry upon your lord's departure, + Find shapes of grief more than himself to wail; + Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but shadows + Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious Queen, + More than your lord's departure weep not-more is not seen; + Or if it be, 'tis with false sorrow's eye, + Which for things true weeps things imaginary. + QUEEN. It may be so; but yet my inward soul + Persuades me it is otherwise. Howe'er it be, + I cannot but be sad; so heavy sad + As-though, on thinking, on no thought I think- + Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink. + BUSHY. 'Tis nothing but conceit, my gracious lady. + QUEEN. 'Tis nothing less: conceit is still deriv'd + From some forefather grief; mine is not so, + For nothing hath begot my something grief, + Or something hath the nothing that I grieve; + 'Tis in reversion that I do possess- + But what it is that is not yet known what, + I cannot name; 'tis nameless woe, I wot. + + Enter GREEN + + GREEN. God save your Majesty! and well met, gentlemen. + I hope the King is not yet shipp'd for Ireland. + QUEEN. Why hopest thou so? 'Tis better hope he is; + For his designs crave haste, his haste good hope. + Then wherefore dost thou hope he is not shipp'd? + GREEN. That he, our hope, might have retir'd his power + And driven into despair an enemy's hope + Who strongly hath set footing in this land. + The banish'd Bolingbroke repeals himself, + And with uplifted arms is safe arriv'd + At Ravenspurgh. + QUEEN. Now God in heaven forbid! + GREEN. Ah, madam, 'tis too true; and that is worse, + The Lord Northumberland, his son young Henry Percy, + The Lords of Ross, Beaumond, and Willoughby, + With all their powerful friends, are fled to him. + BUSHY. Why have you not proclaim'd Northumberland + And all the rest revolted faction traitors? + GREEN. We have; whereupon the Earl of Worcester + Hath broken his staff, resign'd his stewardship, + And all the household servants fled with him + To Bolingbroke. + QUEEN. So, Green, thou art the midwife to my woe, + And Bolingbroke my sorrow's dismal heir. + Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy; + And I, a gasping new-deliver'd mother, + Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd. + BUSHY. Despair not, madam. + QUEEN. Who shall hinder me? + I will despair, and be at enmity + With cozening hope-he is a flatterer, + A parasite, a keeper-back of death, + Who gently would dissolve the bands of life, + Which false hope lingers in extremity. + + Enter YORK + + GREEN. Here comes the Duke of York. + QUEEN. With signs of war about his aged neck. + O, full of careful business are his looks! + Uncle, for God's sake, speak comfortable words. + YORK. Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts. + Comfort's in heaven; and we are on the earth, + Where nothing lives but crosses, cares, and grief. + Your husband, he is gone to save far off, + Whilst others come to make him lose at home. + Here am I left to underprop his land, + Who, weak with age, cannot support myself. + Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made; + Now shall he try his friends that flatter'd him. + + Enter a SERVINGMAN + + SERVINGMAN. My lord, your son was gone before I came. + YORK. He was-why so go all which way it will! + The nobles they are fled, the commons they are cold + And will, I fear, revolt on Hereford's side. + Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloucester; + Bid her send me presently a thousand pound. + Hold, take my ring. + SERVINGMAN. My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship, + To-day, as I came by, I called there- + But I shall grieve you to report the rest. + YORK. What is't, knave? + SERVINGMAN. An hour before I came, the Duchess died. + YORK. God for his mercy! what a tide of woes + Comes rushing on this woeful land at once! + I know not what to do. I would to God, + So my untruth had not provok'd him to it, + The King had cut off my head with my brother's. + What, are there no posts dispatch'd for Ireland? + How shall we do for money for these wars? + Come, sister-cousin, I would say-pray, pardon me. + Go, fellow, get thee home, provide some carts, + And bring away the armour that is there. + Exit SERVINGMAN + Gentlemen, will you go muster men? + If I know how or which way to order these affairs + Thus disorderly thrust into my hands, + Never believe me. Both are my kinsmen. + T'one is my sovereign, whom both my oath + And duty bids defend; t'other again + Is my kinsman, whom the King hath wrong'd, + Whom conscience and my kindred bids to right. + Well, somewhat we must do.-Come, cousin, + I'll dispose of you. Gentlemen, go muster up your men + And meet me presently at Berkeley. + I should to Plashy too, + But time will not permit. All is uneven, + And everything is left at six and seven. + Exeunt YORK and QUEEN + BUSHY. The wind sits fair for news to go to Ireland. + But none returns. For us to levy power + Proportionable to the enemy + Is all unpossible. + GREEN. Besides, our nearness to the King in love + Is near the hate of those love not the King. + BAGOT. And that is the wavering commons; for their love + Lies in their purses; and whoso empties them, + By so much fills their hearts with deadly hate. + BUSHY. Wherein the King stands generally condemn'd. + BAGOT. If judgment lie in them, then so do we, + Because we ever have been near the King. + GREEN. Well, I will for refuge straight to Bristow Castle. + The Earl of Wiltshire is already there. + BUSHY. Thither will I with you; for little office + Will the hateful commons perform for us, + Except Eke curs to tear us all to pieces. + Will you go along with us? + BAGOT. No; I will to Ireland to his Majesty. + Farewell. If heart's presages be not vain, + We three here part that ne'er shall meet again. + BUSHY. That's as York thrives to beat back Bolingbroke. + GREEN. Alas, poor Duke! the task he undertakes + Is numb'ring sands and drinking oceans dry. + Where one on his side fights, thousands will fly. + Farewell at once-for once, for all, and ever. + BUSHY. Well, we may meet again. + BAGOT. I fear me, never. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. +Gloucestershire + +Enter BOLINGBROKE and NORTHUMBERLAND, forces + + BOLINGBROKE. How far is it, my lord, to Berkeley now? + NORTHUMBERLAND. Believe me, noble lord, + I am a stranger here in Gloucestershire. + These high wild hills and rough uneven ways + Draws out our miles, and makes them wearisome; + And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar, + Making the hard way sweet and delectable. + But I bethink me what a weary way + From Ravenspurgh to Cotswold will be found + In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your company, + Which, I protest, hath very much beguil'd + The tediousness and process of my travel. + But theirs is sweet'ned with the hope to have + The present benefit which I possess; + And hope to joy is little less in joy + Than hope enjoy'd. By this the weary lords + Shall make their way seem short, as mine hath done + By sight of what I have, your noble company. + BOLINGBROKE. Of much less value is my company + Than your good words. But who comes here? + + Enter HARRY PERCY + + NORTHUMBERLAND. It is my son, young Harry Percy, + Sent from my brother Worcester, whencesoever. + Harry, how fares your uncle? + PERCY. I had thought, my lord, to have learn'd his health of you. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Why, is he not with the Queen? + PERCY. No, my good lord; he hath forsook the court, + Broken his staff of office, and dispers'd + The household of the King. + NORTHUMBERLAND. What was his reason? + He was not so resolv'd when last we spake together. + PERCY. Because your lordship was proclaimed traitor. + But he, my lord, is gone to Ravenspurgh, + To offer service to the Duke of Hereford; + And sent me over by Berkeley, to discover + What power the Duke of York had levied there; + Then with directions to repair to Ravenspurgh. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Have you forgot the Duke of Hereford, boy? + PERCY. No, my good lord; for that is not forgot + Which ne'er I did remember; to my knowledge, + I never in my life did look on him. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Then learn to know him now; this is the Duke. + PERCY. My gracious lord, I tender you my service, + Such as it is, being tender, raw, and young; + Which elder days shall ripen, and confirm + To more approved service and desert. + BOLINGBROKE. I thank thee, gentle Percy; and be sure + I count myself in nothing else so happy + As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends; + And as my fortune ripens with thy love, + It shall be still thy true love's recompense. + My heart this covenant makes, my hand thus seals it. + NORTHUMBERLAND. How far is it to Berkeley? And what stir + Keeps good old York there with his men of war? + PERCY. There stands the castle, by yon tuft of trees, + Mann'd with three hundred men, as I have heard; + And in it are the Lords of York, Berkeley, and Seymour- + None else of name and noble estimate. + + Enter Ross and WILLOUGHBY + + NORTHUMBERLAND. Here come the Lords of Ross and Willoughby, + Bloody with spurring, fiery-red with haste. + BOLINGBROKE. Welcome, my lords. I wot your love pursues + A banish'd traitor. All my treasury + Is yet but unfelt thanks, which, more enrich'd, + Shall be your love and labour's recompense. + ROSS. Your presence makes us rich, most noble lord. + WILLOUGHBY. And far surmounts our labour to attain it. + BOLINGBROKE. Evermore thanks, the exchequer of the poor; + Which, till my infant fortune comes to years, + Stands for my bounty. But who comes here? + + Enter BERKELEY + + NORTHUMBERLAND. It is my Lord of Berkeley, as I guess. + BERKELEY. My Lord of Hereford, my message is to you. + BOLINGBROKE. My lord, my answer is-'to Lancaster'; + And I am come to seek that name in England; + And I must find that title in your tongue + Before I make reply to aught you say. + BERKELEY. Mistake me not, my lord; 'tis not my meaning + To raze one title of your honour out. + To you, my lord, I come-what lord you will- + From the most gracious regent of this land, + The Duke of York, to know what pricks you on + To take advantage of the absent time, + And fright our native peace with self-borne arms. + + Enter YORK, attended + + BOLINGBROKE. I shall not need transport my words by you; + Here comes his Grace in person. My noble uncle! + [Kneels] + YORK. Show me thy humble heart, and not thy knee, + Whose duty is deceivable and false. + BOLINGBROKE. My gracious uncle!- + YORK. Tut, tut! + Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle. + I am no traitor's uncle; and that word 'grace' + In an ungracious mouth is but profane. + Why have those banish'd and forbidden legs + Dar'd once to touch a dust of England's ground? + But then more 'why?'-why have they dar'd to march + So many miles upon her peaceful bosom, + Frighting her pale-fac'd villages with war + And ostentation of despised arms? + Com'st thou because the anointed King is hence? + Why, foolish boy, the King is left behind, + And in my loyal bosom lies his power. + Were I but now lord of such hot youth + As when brave Gaunt, thy father, and myself + Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men, + From forth the ranks of many thousand French, + O, then how quickly should this arm of mine, + Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise the + And minister correction to thy fault! + BOLINGBROKE My gracious uncle, let me know my fault; + On what condition stands it and wherein? + YORK. Even in condition of the worst degree- + In gross rebellion and detested treason. + Thou art a banish'd man, and here art come + Before the expiration of thy time, + In braving arms against thy sovereign. + BOLINGBROKE. As I was banish'd, I was banish'd Hereford; + But as I come, I come for Lancaster. + And, noble uncle, I beseech your Grace + Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye. + You are my father, for methinks in you + I see old Gaunt alive. O, then, my father, + Will you permit that I shall stand condemn'd + A wandering vagabond; my rights and royalties + Pluck'd from my arms perforce, and given away + To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born? + If that my cousin king be King in England, + It must be granted I am Duke of Lancaster. + You have a son, Aumerle, my noble cousin; + Had you first died, and he been thus trod down, + He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father + To rouse his wrongs and chase them to the bay. + I am denied to sue my livery here, + And yet my letters patents give me leave. + My father's goods are all distrain'd and sold; + And these and all are all amiss employ'd. + What would you have me do? I am a subject, + And I challenge law-attorneys are denied me; + And therefore personally I lay my claim + To my inheritance of free descent. + NORTHUMBERLAND. The noble Duke hath been too much abused. + ROSS. It stands your Grace upon to do him right. + WILLOUGHBY. Base men by his endowments are made great. + YORK. My lords of England, let me tell you this: + I have had feeling of my cousin's wrongs, + And labour'd all I could to do him right; + But in this kind to come, in braving arms, + Be his own carver and cut out his way, + To find out right with wrong-it may not be; + And you that do abet him in this kind + Cherish rebellion, and are rebels all. + NORTHUMBERLAND. The noble Duke hath sworn his coming is + But for his own; and for the right of that + We all have strongly sworn to give him aid; + And let him never see joy that breaks that oath! + YORK. Well, well, I see the issue of these arms. + I cannot mend it, I must needs confess, + Because my power is weak and all ill left; + But if I could, by Him that gave me life, + I would attach you all and make you stoop + Unto the sovereign mercy of the King; + But since I cannot, be it known unto you + I do remain as neuter. So, fare you well; + Unless you please to enter in the castle, + And there repose you for this night. + BOLINGBROKE. An offer, uncle, that we will accept. + But we must win your Grace to go with us + To Bristow Castle, which they say is held + By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices, + The caterpillars of the commonwealth, + Which I have sworn to weed and pluck away. + YORK. It may be I will go with you; but yet I'll pause, + For I am loath to break our country's laws. + Nor friends nor foes, to me welcome you are. + Things past redress are now with me past care. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. +A camp in Wales + +Enter EARL OF SALISBURY and a WELSH CAPTAIN + + CAPTAIN. My Lord of Salisbury, we have stay'd ten days + And hardly kept our countrymen together, + And yet we hear no tidings from the King; + Therefore we will disperse ourselves. Farewell. + SALISBURY. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman; + The King reposeth all his confidence in thee. + CAPTAIN. 'Tis thought the King is dead; we will not stay. + The bay trees in our country are all wither'd, + And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven; + The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth, + And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change; + Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap- + The one in fear to lose what they enjoy, + The other to enjoy by rage and war. + These signs forerun the death or fall of kings. + Farewell. Our countrymen are gone and fled, + As well assur'd Richard their King is dead. Exit + SALISBURY. Ah, Richard, with the eyes of heavy mind, + I see thy glory like a shooting star + Fall to the base earth from the firmament! + The sun sets weeping in the lowly west, + Witnessing storms to come, woe, and unrest; + Thy friends are fled, to wait upon thy foes; + And crossly to thy good all fortune goes. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +BOLINGBROKE'S camp at Bristol + +Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, ROSS, WILLOUGHBY, +BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners + + BOLINGBROKE. Bring forth these men. + Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls- + Since presently your souls must part your bodies- + With too much urging your pernicious lives, + For 'twere no charity; yet, to wash your blood + From off my hands, here in the view of men + I will unfold some causes of your deaths: + You have misled a prince, a royal king, + A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments, + By you unhappied and disfigured clean; + You have in manner with your sinful hours + Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him; + Broke the possession of a royal bed, + And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks + With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs; + Myself-a prince by fortune of my birth, + Near to the King in blood, and near in love + Till you did make him misinterpret me- + Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries + And sigh'd my English breath in foreign clouds, + Eating the bitter bread of banishment, + Whilst you have fed upon my signories, + Dispark'd my parks and fell'd my forest woods, + From my own windows torn my household coat, + Raz'd out my imprese, leaving me no sign + Save men's opinions and my living blood + To show the world I am a gentleman. + This and much more, much more than twice all this, + Condemns you to the death. See them delivered over + To execution and the hand of death. + BUSHY. More welcome is the stroke of death to me + Than Bolingbroke to England. Lords, farewell. + GREEN. My comfort is that heaven will take our souls, + And plague injustice with the pains of hell. + BOLINGBROKE. My Lord Northumberland, see them dispatch'd. + Exeunt NORTHUMBERLAND, and others, with the prisoners + Uncle, you say the Queen is at your house; + For God's sake, fairly let her be entreated. + Tell her I send to her my kind commends; + Take special care my greetings be delivered. + YORK. A gentleman of mine I have dispatch'd + With letters of your love to her at large. + BOLINGBROKE. Thanks, gentle uncle. Come, lords, away, + To fight with Glendower and his complices. + Awhile to work, and after holiday. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. +The coast of Wales. A castle in view + +Drums. Flourish and colours. Enter the KING, the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, +AUMERLE, and soldiers + + KING RICHARD. Barkloughly Castle can they this at hand? + AUMERLE. Yea, my lord. How brooks your Grace the air + After your late tossing on the breaking seas? + KING RICHARD. Needs must I like it well. I weep for joy + To stand upon my kingdom once again. + Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand, + Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs. + As a long-parted mother with her child + Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting, + So weeping-smiling greet I thee, my earth, + And do thee favours with my royal hands. + Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth, + Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense; + But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom, + And heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way, + Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet + Which with usurping steps do trample thee; + Yield stinging nettles to mine enemies; + And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, + Guard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder, + Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch + Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies. + Mock not my senseless conjuration, lords. + This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones + Prove armed soldiers, ere her native king + Shall falter under foul rebellion's arms. + CARLISLE. Fear not, my lord; that Power that made you king + Hath power to keep you king in spite of all. + The means that heaven yields must be embrac'd + And not neglected; else, if heaven would, + And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse, + The proffered means of succour and redress. + AUMERLE. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss; + Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security, + Grows strong and great in substance and in power. + KING RICHARD. Discomfortable cousin! know'st thou not + That when the searching eye of heaven is hid, + Behind the globe, that lights the lower world, + Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen + In murders and in outrage boldly here; + But when from under this terrestrial ball + He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines + And darts his light through every guilty hole, + Then murders, treasons, and detested sins, + The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs, + Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves? + So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke, + Who all this while hath revell'd in the night, + Whilst we were wand'ring with the Antipodes, + Shall see us rising in our throne, the east, + His treasons will sit blushing in his face, + Not able to endure the sight of day, + But self-affrighted tremble at his sin. + Not all the water in the rough rude sea + Can wash the balm off from an anointed king; + The breath of worldly men cannot depose + The deputy elected by the Lord. + For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd + To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown, + God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay + A glorious angel. Then, if angels fight, + Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the right. + + Enter SALISBURY + + Welcome, my lord. How far off lies your power? + SALISBURY. Nor near nor farther off, my gracious lord, + Than this weak arm. Discomfort guides my tongue, + And bids me speak of nothing but despair. + One day too late, I fear me, noble lord, + Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth. + O, call back yesterday, bid time return, + And thou shalt have twelve thousand fighting men! + To-day, to-day, unhappy day, too late, + O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state; + For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead, + Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispers'd, and fled. + AUMERLE. Comfort, my liege, why looks your Grace so pale? + KING RICHARD. But now the blood of twenty thousand men + Did triumph in my face, and they are fled; + And, till so much blood thither come again, + Have I not reason to look pale and dead? + All souls that will be safe, fly from my side; + For time hath set a blot upon my pride. + AUMERLE. Comfort, my liege; remember who you are. + KING RICHARD. I had forgot myself; am I not King? + Awake, thou coward majesty! thou sleepest. + Is not the King's name twenty thousand names? + Arm, arm, my name! a puny subject strikes + At thy great glory. Look not to the ground, + Ye favourites of a king; are we not high? + High be our thoughts. I know my uncle York + Hath power enough to serve our turn. But who comes here? + + Enter SCROOP + + SCROOP. More health and happiness betide my liege + Than can my care-tun'd tongue deliver him. + KING RICHARD. Mine ear is open and my heart prepar'd. + The worst is worldly loss thou canst unfold. + Say, is my kingdom lost? Why, 'twas my care, + And what loss is it to be rid of care? + Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we? + Greater he shall not be; if he serve God, + We'll serve him too, and be his fellow so. + Revolt our subjects? That we cannot mend; + They break their faith to God as well as us. + Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay- + The worst is death, and death will have his day. + SCROOP. Glad am I that your Highness is so arm'd + To bear the tidings of calamity. + Like an unseasonable stormy day + Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores, + As if the world were all dissolv'd to tears, + So high above his limits swells the rage + Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land + With hard bright steel and hearts harder than steel. + White-beards have arm'd their thin and hairless scalps + Against thy majesty; boys, with women's voices, + Strive to speak big, and clap their female joints + In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown; + Thy very beadsmen learn to bend their bows + Of double-fatal yew against thy state; + Yea, distaff-women manage rusty bills + Against thy seat: both young and old rebel, + And all goes worse than I have power to tell. + KING RICHARD. Too well, too well thou tell'st a tale so in. + Where is the Earl of Wiltshire? Where is Bagot? + What is become of Bushy? Where is Green? + That they have let the dangerous enemy + Measure our confines with such peaceful steps? + If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it. + I warrant they have made peace with Bolingbroke. + SCROOP. Peace have they made with him indeed, my lord. + KING RICHARD. O villains, vipers, damn'd without redemption! + Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man! + Snakes, in my heart-blood warm'd, that sting my heart! + Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas! + Would they make peace? Terrible hell make war + Upon their spotted souls for this offence! + SCROOP. Sweet love, I see, changing his property, + Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate. + Again uncurse their souls; their peace is made + With heads, and not with hands; those whom you curse + Have felt the worst of death's destroying wound + And lie full low, grav'd in the hollow ground. + AUMERLE. Is Bushy, Green, and the Earl of Wiltshire dead? + SCROOP. Ay, all of them at Bristow lost their heads. + AUMERLE. Where is the Duke my father with his power? + KING RICHARD. No matter where-of comfort no man speak. + Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; + Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes + Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth. + Let's choose executors and talk of wills; + And yet not so-for what can we bequeath + Save our deposed bodies to the ground? + Our lands, our lives, and an, are Bolingbroke's. + And nothing can we can our own but death + And that small model of the barren earth + Which serves as paste and cover to our bones. + For God's sake let us sit upon the ground + And tell sad stories of the death of kings: + How some have been depos'd, some slain in war, + Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd, + Some poison'd by their wives, some sleeping kill'd, + All murder'd-for within the hollow crown + That rounds the mortal temples of a king + Keeps Death his court; and there the antic sits, + Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp; + Allowing him a breath, a little scene, + To monarchize, be fear'd, and kill with looks; + Infusing him with self and vain conceit, + As if this flesh which walls about our life + Were brass impregnable; and, humour'd thus, + Comes at the last, and with a little pin + Bores through his castle wall, and farewell, king! + Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood + With solemn reverence; throw away respect, + Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty; + For you have but mistook me all this while. + I live with bread like you, feel want, + Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus, + How can you say to me I am a king? + CARLISLE. My lord, wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes, + But presently prevent the ways to wail. + To fear the foe, since fear oppresseth strength, + Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe, + And so your follies fight against yourself. + Fear and be slain-no worse can come to fight; + And fight and die is death destroying death, + Where fearing dying pays death servile breath. + AUMERLE. My father hath a power; inquire of him, + And learn to make a body of a limb. + KING RICHARD. Thou chid'st me well. Proud Bolingbroke, I come + To change blows with thee for our day of doom. + This ague fit of fear is over-blown; + An easy task it is to win our own. + Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power? + Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour. + SCROOP. Men judge by the complexion of the sky + The state in inclination of the day; + So may you by my dull and heavy eye, + My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say. + I play the torturer, by small and small + To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken: + Your uncle York is join'd with Bolingbroke; + And all your northern castles yielded up, + And all your southern gentlemen in arms + Upon his party. + KING RICHARD. Thou hast said enough. + [To AUMERLE] Beshrew thee, cousin, which didst lead me forth + Of that sweet way I was in to despair! + What say you now? What comfort have we now? + By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly + That bids me be of comfort any more. + Go to Flint Castle; there I'll pine away; + A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey. + That power I have, discharge; and let them go + To ear the land that hath some hope to grow, + For I have none. Let no man speak again + To alter this, for counsel is but vain. + AUMERLE. My liege, one word. + KING RICHARD. He does me double wrong + That wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue. + Discharge my followers; let them hence away, + From Richard's night to Bolingbroke's fair day. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. +Wales. Before Flint Castle + +Enter, with drum and colours, BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, +and forces + + BOLINGBROKE. So that by this intelligence we learn + The Welshmen are dispers'd; and Salisbury + Is gone to meet the King, who lately landed + With some few private friends upon this coast. + NORTHUMBERLAND. The news is very fair and good, my lord. + Richard not far from hence hath hid his head. + YORK. It would beseem the Lord Northumberland + To say 'King Richard.' Alack the heavy day + When such a sacred king should hide his head! + NORTHUMBERLAND. Your Grace mistakes; only to be brief, + Left I his title out. + YORK. The time hath been, + Would you have been so brief with him, he would + Have been so brief with you to shorten you, + For taking so the head, your whole head's length. + BOLINGBROKE. Mistake not, uncle, further than you should. + YORK. Take not, good cousin, further than you should, + Lest you mistake. The heavens are over our heads. + BOLINGBROKE. I know it, uncle; and oppose not myself + Against their will. But who comes here? + + Enter PERCY + + Welcome, Harry. What, will not this castle yield? + PIERCY. The castle royally is mann'd, my lord, + Against thy entrance. + BOLINGBROKE. Royally! + Why, it contains no king? + PERCY. Yes, my good lord, + It doth contain a king; King Richard lies + Within the limits of yon lime and stone; + And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salisbury, + Sir Stephen Scroop, besides a clergyman + Of holy reverence; who, I cannot learn. + NORTHUMBERLAND. O, belike it is the Bishop of Carlisle. + BOLINGBROKE. [To NORTHUMBERLAND] Noble lord, + Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle; + Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parley + Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver: + Henry Bolingbroke + On both his knees doth kiss King Richard's hand, + And sends allegiance and true faith of heart + To his most royal person; hither come + Even at his feet to lay my arms and power, + Provided that my banishment repeal'd + And lands restor'd again be freely granted; + If not, I'll use the advantage of my power + And lay the summer's dust with showers of blood + Rain'd from the wounds of slaughtered Englishmen; + The which how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke + It is such crimson tempest should bedrench + The fresh green lap of fair King Richard's land, + My stooping duty tenderly shall show. + Go, signify as much, while here we march + Upon the grassy carpet of this plain. + [NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the Castle, with a trumpet] + Let's march without the noise of threat'ning drum, + That from this castle's tottered battlements + Our fair appointments may be well perus'd. + Methinks King Richard and myself should meet + With no less terror than the elements + Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock + At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven. + Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water; + The rage be his, whilst on the earth I rain + My waters-on the earth, and not on him. + March on, and mark King Richard how he looks. + + Parle without, and answer within; then a flourish. + Enter on the walls, the KING, the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, + AUMERLE, SCROOP, and SALISBURY + + See, see, King Richard doth himself appear, + As doth the blushing discontented sun + From out the fiery portal of the east, + When he perceives the envious clouds are bent + To dim his glory and to stain the track + Of his bright passage to the occident. + YORK. Yet he looks like a king. Behold, his eye, + As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth + Controlling majesty. Alack, alack, for woe, + That any harm should stain so fair a show! + KING RICHARD. [To NORTHUMBERLAND] We are amaz'd; and thus long + have we stood + To watch the fearful bending of thy knee, + Because we thought ourself thy lawful King; + And if we be, how dare thy joints forget + To pay their awful duty to our presence? + If we be not, show us the hand of God + That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship; + For well we know no hand of blood and bone + Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre, + Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp. + And though you think that all, as you have done, + Have torn their souls by turning them from us, + And we are barren and bereft of friends, + Yet know-my master, God omnipotent, + Is mustering in his clouds on our behalf + Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike + Your children yet unborn and unbegot, + That lift your vassal hands against my head + And threat the glory of my precious crown. + Tell Bolingbroke, for yon methinks he stands, + That every stride he makes upon my land + Is dangerous treason; he is come to open + The purple testament of bleeding war; + But ere the crown he looks for live in peace, + Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons + Shall ill become the flower of England's face, + Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace + To scarlet indignation, and bedew + Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood. + NORTHUMBERLAND. The King of Heaven forbid our lord the King + Should so with civil and uncivil arms + Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice noble cousin, + Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand; + And by the honourable tomb he swears + That stands upon your royal grandsire's bones, + And by the royalties of both your bloods, + Currents that spring from one most gracious head, + And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt, + And by the worth and honour of himself, + Comprising all that may be sworn or said, + His coming hither hath no further scope + Than for his lineal royalties, and to beg + Enfranchisement immediate on his knees; + Which on thy royal party granted once, + His glittering arms he will commend to rust, + His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart + To faithful service of your Majesty. + This swears he, as he is a prince, is just; + And as I am a gentleman I credit him. + KING RICHARD. Northumberland, say thus the King returns: + His noble cousin is right welcome hither; + And all the number of his fair demands + Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction. + With all the gracious utterance thou hast + Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends. + [To AUMERLE] We do debase ourselves, cousin, do we not, + To look so poorly and to speak so fair? + Shall we call back Northumberland, and send + Defiance to the traitor, and so die? + AUMERLE. No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words + Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords. + KING RICHARD. O God, O God! that e'er this tongue of mine + That laid the sentence of dread banishment + On yon proud man should take it off again + With words of sooth! O that I were as great + As is my grief, or lesser than my name! + Or that I could forget what I have been! + Or not remember what I must be now! + Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to beat, + Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me. + AUMERLE. Northumberland comes back from Bolingbroke. + KING RICHARD. What must the King do now? Must he submit? + The King shall do it. Must he be depos'd? + The King shall be contented. Must he lose + The name of king? A God's name, let it go. + I'll give my jewels for a set of beads, + My gorgeous palace for a hermitage, + My gay apparel for an almsman's gown, + My figur'd goblets for a dish of wood, + My sceptre for a palmer's walking staff, + My subjects for a pair of carved saints, + And my large kingdom for a little grave, + A little little grave, an obscure grave- + Or I'll be buried in the king's high way, + Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet + May hourly trample on their sovereign's head; + For on my heart they tread now whilst I live, + And buried once, why not upon my head? + Aumerle, thou weep'st, my tender-hearted cousin! + We'll make foul weather with despised tears; + Our sighs and they shall lodge the summer corn + And make a dearth in this revolting land. + Or shall we play the wantons with our woes + And make some pretty match with shedding tears? + As thus: to drop them still upon one place + Till they have fretted us a pair of graves + Within the earth; and, therein laid-there lies + Two kinsmen digg'd their graves with weeping eyes. + Would not this ill do well? Well, well, I see + I talk but idly, and you laugh at me. + Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland, + What says King Bolingbroke? Will his Majesty + Give Richard leave to live till Richard die? + You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay. + NORTHUMBERLAND. My lord, in the base court he doth attend + To speak with you; may it please you to come down? + KING RICHARD. Down, down I come, like glist'ring Phaethon, + Wanting the manage of unruly jades. + In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base, + To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace. + In the base court? Come down? Down, court! down, king! + For night-owls shriek where mounting larks should sing. + Exeunt from above + BOLINGBROKE. What says his Majesty? + NORTHUMBERLAND. Sorrow and grief of heart + Makes him speak fondly, like a frantic man; + Yet he is come. + + Enter the KING, and his attendants, below + + BOLINGBROKE. Stand all apart, + And show fair duty to his Majesty. [He kneels down] + My gracious lord- + KING RICHARD. Fair cousin, you debase your princely knee + To make the base earth proud with kissing it. + Me rather had my heart might feel your love + Than my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy. + Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know, + [Touching his own head] Thus high at least, although your + knee be low. + BOLINGBROKE. My gracious lord, I come but for mine own. + KING RICHARD. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all. + BOLINGBROKE. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord, + As my true service shall deserve your love. + KING RICHARD. Well you deserve. They well deserve to have + That know the strong'st and surest way to get. + Uncle, give me your hands; nay, dry your eyes: + Tears show their love, but want their remedies. + Cousin, I am too young to be your father, + Though you are old enough to be my heir. + What you will have, I'll give, and willing too; + For do we must what force will have us do. + Set on towards London. Cousin, is it so? + BOLINGBROKE. Yea, my good lord. + KING RICHARD. Then I must not say no. Flourish. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. +The DUKE OF YORK's garden + +Enter the QUEEN and two LADIES + + QUEEN. What sport shall we devise here in this garden + To drive away the heavy thought of care? + LADY. Madam, we'll play at bowls. + QUEEN. 'Twill make me think the world is full of rubs + And that my fortune runs against the bias. + LADY. Madam, we'll dance. + QUEEN. My legs can keep no measure in delight, + When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief; + Therefore no dancing, girl; some other sport. + LADY. Madam, we'll tell tales. + QUEEN. Of sorrow or of joy? + LADY. Of either, madam. + QUEEN. Of neither, girl; + For if of joy, being altogether wanting, + It doth remember me the more of sorrow; + Or if of grief, being altogether had, + It adds more sorrow to my want of joy; + For what I have I need not to repeat, + And what I want it boots not to complain. + LADY. Madam, I'll sing. + QUEEN. 'Tis well' that thou hast cause; + But thou shouldst please me better wouldst thou weep. + LADY. I could weep, madam, would it do you good. + QUEEN. And I could sing, would weeping do me good, + And never borrow any tear of thee. + + Enter a GARDENER and two SERVANTS + + But stay, here come the gardeners. + Let's step into the shadow of these trees. + My wretchedness unto a row of pins, + They will talk of state, for every one doth so + Against a change: woe is forerun with woe. + [QUEEN and LADIES retire] + GARDENER. Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricocks, + Which, like unruly children, make their sire + Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight; + Give some supportance to the bending twigs. + Go thou, and Eke an executioner + Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays + That look too lofty in our commonwealth: + All must be even in our government. + You thus employ'd, I will go root away + The noisome weeds which without profit suck + The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers. + SERVANT. Why should we, in the compass of a pale, + Keep law and form and due proportion, + Showing, as in a model, our firm estate, + When our sea-walled garden, the whole land, + Is full of weeds; her fairest flowers chok'd up, + Her fruit trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd, + Her knots disordered, and her wholesome herbs + Swarming with caterpillars? + GARDENER. Hold thy peace. + He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring + Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf; + The weeds which his broad-spreading leaves did shelter, + That seem'd in eating him to hold him up, + Are pluck'd up root and all by Bolingbroke- + I mean the Earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green. + SERVANT. What, are they dead? + GARDENER. They are; and Bolingbroke + Hath seiz'd the wasteful King. O, what pity is it + That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land + As we this garden! We at time of year + Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit trees, + Lest, being over-proud in sap and blood, + With too much riches it confound itself; + Had he done so to great and growing men, + They might have Ev'd to bear, and he to taste + Their fruits of duty. Superfluous branches + We lop away, that bearing boughs may live; + Had he done so, himself had home the crown, + Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down. + SERVANT. What, think you the King shall be deposed? + GARDENER. Depress'd he is already, and depos'd + 'Tis doubt he will be. Letters came last night + To a dear friend of the good Duke of York's + That tell black tidings. + QUEEN. O, I am press'd to death through want of speaking! + [Coming forward] + Thou, old Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden, + How dares thy harsh rude tongue sound this unpleasing news? + What Eve, what serpent, hath suggested the + To make a second fall of cursed man? + Why dost thou say King Richard is depos'd? + Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth, + Divine his downfall? Say, where, when, and how, + Cam'st thou by this ill tidings? Speak, thou wretch. + GARDENER. Pardon me, madam; little joy have + To breathe this news; yet what I say is true. + King Richard, he is in the mighty hold + Of Bolingbroke. Their fortunes both are weigh'd. + In your lord's scale is nothing but himself, + And some few vanities that make him light; + But in the balance of great Bolingbroke, + Besides himself, are all the English peers, + And with that odds he weighs King Richard down. + Post you to London, and you will find it so; + I speak no more than every one doth know. + QUEEN. Nimble mischance, that art so light of foot, + Doth not thy embassage belong to me, + And am I last that knows it? O, thou thinkest + To serve me last, that I may longest keep + Thy sorrow in my breast. Come, ladies, go + To meet at London London's King in woe. + What, was I born to this, that my sad look + Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke? + Gard'ner, for telling me these news of woe, + Pray God the plants thou graft'st may never grow! + Exeunt QUEEN and LADIES + GARDENER. Poor Queen, so that thy state might be no worse, + I would my skill were subject to thy curse. + Here did she fall a tear; here in this place + I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace. + Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen, + In the remembrance of a weeping queen. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 1. +Westminster Hall + +Enter, as to the Parliament, BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, +FITZWATER, SURREY, the BISHOP OF CARLISLE, the ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, +and others; HERALD, OFFICERS, and BAGOT + + BOLINGBROKE. Call forth Bagot. + Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind- + What thou dost know of noble Gloucester's death; + Who wrought it with the King, and who perform'd + The bloody office of his timeless end. + BAGOT. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle. + BOLINGBROKE. Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man. + BAGOT. My Lord Aumerle, I know your daring tongue + Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd. + In that dead time when Gloucester's death was plotted + I heard you say 'Is not my arm of length, + That reacheth from the restful English Court + As far as Calais, to mine uncle's head?' + Amongst much other talk that very time + I heard you say that you had rather refuse + The offer of an hundred thousand crowns + Than Bolingbroke's return to England; + Adding withal, how blest this land would be + In this your cousin's death. + AUMERLE. Princes, and noble lords, + What answer shall I make to this base man? + Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars + On equal terms to give him chastisement? + Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd + With the attainder of his slanderous lips. + There is my gage, the manual seal of death + That marks thee out for hell. I say thou liest, + And will maintain what thou hast said is false + In thy heart-blood, through being all too base + To stain the temper of my knightly sword. + BOLINGBROKE. Bagot, forbear; thou shalt not take it up. + AUMERLE. Excepting one, I would he were the best + In all this presence that hath mov'd me so. + FITZWATER. If that thy valour stand on sympathy, + There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine. + By that fair sun which shows me where thou stand'st, + I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it, + That thou wert cause of noble Gloucester's death. + If thou deniest it twenty times, thou liest; + And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, + Where it was forged, with my rapier's point. + AUMERLE. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that day. + FITZWATER. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour. + AUMERLE. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this. + PERCY. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true + In this appeal as thou art an unjust; + And that thou art so, there I throw my gage, + To prove it on thee to the extremest point + Of mortal breathing. Seize it, if thou dar'st. + AUMERLE. An if I do not, may my hands rot of + And never brandish more revengeful steel + Over the glittering helmet of my foe! + ANOTHER LORD. I task the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle; + And spur thee on with fun as many lies + As may be halloa'd in thy treacherous ear + From sun to sun. There is my honour's pawn; + Engage it to the trial, if thou darest. + AUMERLE. Who sets me else? By heaven, I'll throw at all! + I have a thousand spirits in one breast + To answer twenty thousand such as you. + SURREY. My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well + The very time Aumerle and you did talk. + FITZWATER. 'Tis very true; you were in presence then, + And you can witness with me this is true. + SURREY. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true. + FITZWATER. Surrey, thou liest. + SURREY. Dishonourable boy! + That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword + That it shall render vengeance and revenge + Till thou the lie-giver and that lie do he + In earth as quiet as thy father's skull. + In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn; + Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st. + FITZWATER. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse! + If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live, + I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness, + And spit upon him whilst I say he lies, + And lies, and lies. There is my bond of faith, + To tie thee to my strong correction. + As I intend to thrive in this new world, + Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal. + Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say + That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men + To execute the noble Duke at Calais. + AUMERLE. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage + That Norfolk lies. Here do I throw down this, + If he may be repeal'd to try his honour. + BOLINGBROKE. These differences shall all rest under gage + Till Norfolk be repeal'd-repeal'd he shall be + And, though mine enemy, restor'd again + To all his lands and signories. When he is return'd, + Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial. + CARLISLE. That honourable day shall never be seen. + Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought + For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field, + Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross + Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens; + And, toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself + To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave + His body to that pleasant country's earth, + And his pure soul unto his captain, Christ, + Under whose colours he had fought so long. + BOLINGBROKE. Why, Bishop, is Norfolk dead? + CARLISLE. As surely as I live, my lord. + BOLINGBROKE. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom + Of good old Abraham! Lords appellants, + Your differences shall all rest under gage + Till we assign you to your days of trial + + Enter YORK, attended + + YORK. Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to the + From plume-pluck'd Richard, who with willing soul + Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields + To the possession of thy royal hand. + Ascend his throne, descending now from him- + And long live Henry, fourth of that name! + BOLINGBROKE. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne. + CARLISLE. Marry, God forbid! + Worst in this royal presence may I speak, + Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth. + Would God that any in this noble presence + Were enough noble to be upright judge + Of noble Richard! Then true noblesse would + Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong. + What subject can give sentence on his king? + And who sits here that is not Richard's subject? + Thieves are not judg'd but they are by to hear, + Although apparent guilt be seen in them; + And shall the figure of God's majesty, + His captain, steward, deputy elect, + Anointed, crowned, planted many years, + Be judg'd by subject and inferior breath, + And he himself not present? O, forfend it, God, + That in a Christian climate souls refin'd + Should show so heinous, black, obscene a deed! + I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks, + Stirr'd up by God, thus boldly for his king. + My Lord of Hereford here, whom you call king, + Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king; + And if you crown him, let me prophesy- + The blood of English shall manure the ground, + And future ages groan for this foul act; + Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels, + And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars + Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound; + Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny, + Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd + The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls. + O, if you raise this house against this house, + It will the woefullest division prove + That ever fell upon this cursed earth. + Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so, + Lest child, child's children, cry against you woe. + NORTHUMBERLAND. Well have you argued, sir; and, for your pains, + Of capital treason we arrest you here. + My Lord of Westminster, be it your charge + To keep him safely till his day of trial. + May it please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit? + BOLINGBROKE. Fetch hither Richard, that in common view + He may surrender; so we shall proceed + Without suspicion. + YORK. I will be his conduct. Exit + BOLINGBROKE. Lords, you that here are under our arrest, + Procure your sureties for your days of answer. + Little are we beholding to your love, + And little look'd for at your helping hands. + + Re-enter YORK, with KING RICHARD, and OFFICERS + bearing the regalia + + KING RICHARD. Alack, why am I sent for to a king, + Before I have shook off the regal thoughts + Wherewith I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd + To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee. + Give sorrow leave awhile to tutor me + To this submission. Yet I well remember + The favours of these men. Were they not mine? + Did they not sometime cry 'All hail!' to me? + So Judas did to Christ; but he, in twelve, + Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand, none. + God save the King! Will no man say amen? + Am I both priest and clerk? Well then, amen. + God save the King! although I be not he; + And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me. + To do what service am I sent for hither? + YORK. To do that office of thine own good will + Which tired majesty did make thee offer- + The resignation of thy state and crown + To Henry Bolingbroke. + KING RICHARD. Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown. + Here, cousin, + On this side my hand, and on that side thine. + Now is this golden crown like a deep well + That owes two buckets, filling one another; + The emptier ever dancing in the air, + The other down, unseen, and full of water. + That bucket down and fun of tears am I, + Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high. + BOLINGBROKE. I thought you had been willing to resign. + KING RICHARD. My crown I am; but still my griefs are mine. + You may my glories and my state depose, + But not my griefs; still am I king of those. + BOLINGBROKE. Part of your cares you give me with your crown. + KING RICHARD. Your cares set up do not pluck my cares down. + My care is loss of care, by old care done; + Your care is gain of care, by new care won. + The cares I give I have, though given away; + They tend the crown, yet still with me they stay. + BOLINGBROKE. Are you contented to resign the crown? + KING RICHARD. Ay, no; no, ay; for I must nothing be; + Therefore no no, for I resign to thee. + Now mark me how I will undo myself: + I give this heavy weight from off my head, + And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand, + The pride of kingly sway from out my heart; + With mine own tears I wash away my balm, + With mine own hands I give away my crown, + With mine own tongue deny my sacred state, + With mine own breath release all duteous oaths; + All pomp and majesty I do forswear; + My manors, rents, revenues, I forgo; + My acts, decrees, and statutes, I deny. + God pardon all oaths that are broke to me! + God keep all vows unbroke are made to thee! + Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd, + And thou with all pleas'd, that hast an achiev'd. + Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit, + And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit. + God save King Henry, unking'd Richard says, + And send him many years of sunshine days! + What more remains? + NORTHUMBERLAND. No more; but that you read + These accusations, and these grievous crimes + Committed by your person and your followers + Against the state and profit of this land; + That, by confessing them, the souls of men + May deem that you are worthily depos'd. + KING RICHARD. Must I do so? And must I ravel out + My weav'd-up follies? Gentle Northumberland, + If thy offences were upon record, + Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop + To read a lecture of them? If thou wouldst, + There shouldst thou find one heinous article, + Containing the deposing of a king + And cracking the strong warrant of an oath, + Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven. + Nay, all of you that stand and look upon me + Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself, + Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands, + Showing an outward pity-yet you Pilates + Have here deliver'd me to my sour cross, + And water cannot wash away your sin. + NORTHUMBERLAND. My lord, dispatch; read o'er these + articles. + KING RICHARD. Mine eyes are full of tears; I cannot see. + And yet salt water blinds them not so much + But they can see a sort of traitors here. + Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself, + I find myself a traitor with the rest; + For I have given here my soul's consent + T'undeck the pompous body of a king; + Made glory base, and sovereignty a slave, + Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant. + NORTHUMBERLAND. My lord- + KING RICHARD. No lord of thine, thou haught insulting man, + Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no tide- + No, not that name was given me at the font- + But 'tis usurp'd. Alack the heavy day, + That I have worn so many winters out, + And know not now what name to call myself! + O that I were a mockery king of snow, + Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke + To melt myself away in water drops! + Good king, great king, and yet not greatly good, + An if my word be sterling yet in England, + Let it command a mirror hither straight, + That it may show me what a face I have + Since it is bankrupt of his majesty. + BOLINGBROKE. Go some of you and fetch a looking-glass. + Exit an attendant + NORTHUMBERLAND. Read o'er this paper while the glass doth come. + KING RICHARD. Fiend, thou torments me ere I come to hell. + BOLINGBROKE. Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland. + NORTHUMBERLAND. The Commons will not, then, be satisfied. + KING RICHARD. They shall be satisfied. I'll read enough, + When I do see the very book indeed + Where all my sins are writ, and that's myself. + + Re-enter attendant with glass + + Give me that glass, and therein will I read. + No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck + So many blows upon this face of mine + And made no deeper wounds? O flatt'ring glass, + Like to my followers in prosperity, + Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face + That every day under his household roof + Did keep ten thousand men? Was this the face + That like the sun did make beholders wink? + Is this the face which fac'd so many follies + That was at last out-fac'd by Bolingbroke? + A brittle glory shineth in this face; + As brittle as the glory is the face; + [Dashes the glass against the ground] + For there it is, crack'd in a hundred shivers. + Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport- + How soon my sorrow hath destroy'd my face. + BOLINGBROKE. The shadow of your sorrow hath destroy'd + The shadow of your face. + KING RICHARD. Say that again. + The shadow of my sorrow? Ha! let's see. + 'Tis very true: my grief lies all within; + And these external manner of laments + Are merely shadows to the unseen grief + That swells with silence in the tortur'd soul. + There lies the substance; and I thank thee, king, + For thy great bounty, that not only giv'st + Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way + How to lament the cause. I'll beg one boon, + And then be gone and trouble you no more. + Shall I obtain it? + BOLINGBROKE. Name it, fair cousin. + KING RICHARD. Fair cousin! I am greater than a king; + For when I was a king, my flatterers + Were then but subjects; being now a subject, + I have a king here to my flatterer. + Being so great, I have no need to beg. + BOLINGBROKE. Yet ask. + KING RICHARD. And shall I have? + BOLINGBROKE. You shall. + KING RICHARD. Then give me leave to go. + BOLINGBROKE. Whither? + KING RICHARD. Whither you will, so I were from your sights. + BOLINGBROKE. Go, some of you convey him to the Tower. + KING RICHARD. O, good! Convey! Conveyers are you all, + That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall. + Exeunt KING RICHARD, some Lords and a Guard + BOLINGBROKE. On Wednesday next we solemnly set down + Our coronation. Lords, prepare yourselves. + Exeunt all but the ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER, the + BISHOP OF CARLISLE, and AUMERLE + ABBOT. A woeful pageant have we here beheld. + CARLISLE. The woe's to come; the children yet unborn + Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn. + AUMERLE. You holy clergymen, is there no plot + To rid the realm of this pernicious blot? + ABBOT. My lord, + Before I freely speak my mind herein, + You shall not only take the sacrament + To bury mine intents, but also to effect + Whatever I shall happen to devise. + I see your brows are full of discontent, + Your hearts of sorrow, and your eyes of tears. + Come home with me to supper; I will lay + A plot shall show us all a merry day. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE 1. +London. A street leading to the Tower + +Enter the QUEEN, with her attendants + + QUEEN. This way the King will come; this is the way + To Julius Caesar's ill-erected tower, + To whose flint bosom my condemned lord + Is doom'd a prisoner by proud Bolingbroke. + Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth + Have any resting for her true King's queen. + + Enter KING RICHARD and Guard + + But soft, but see, or rather do not see, + My fair rose wither. Yet look up, behold, + That you in pity may dissolve to dew, + And wash him fresh again with true-love tears. + Ah, thou, the model where old Troy did stand; + Thou map of honour, thou King Richard's tomb, + And not King Richard; thou most beauteous inn, + Why should hard-favour'd grief be lodg'd in thee, + When triumph is become an alehouse guest? + KING RICHARD. Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so, + To make my end too sudden. Learn, good soul, + To think our former state a happy dream; + From which awak'd, the truth of what we are + Shows us but this: I am sworn brother, sweet, + To grim Necessity; and he and + Will keep a league till death. Hie thee to France, + And cloister thee in some religious house. + Our holy lives must win a new world's crown, + Which our profane hours here have thrown down. + QUEEN. What, is my Richard both in shape and mind + Transform'd and weak'ned? Hath Bolingbroke depos'd + Thine intellect? Hath he been in thy heart? + The lion dying thrusteth forth his paw + And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage + To be o'erpow'r'd; and wilt thou, pupil-like, + Take the correction mildly, kiss the rod, + And fawn on rage with base humility, + Which art a lion and the king of beasts? + KING RICHARD. A king of beasts, indeed! If aught but beasts, + I had been still a happy king of men. + Good sometimes queen, prepare thee hence for France. + Think I am dead, and that even here thou takest, + As from my death-bed, thy last living leave. + In winter's tedious nights sit by the fire + With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales + Of woeful ages long ago betid; + And ere thou bid good night, to quit their griefs + Tell thou the lamentable tale of me, + And send the hearers weeping to their beds; + For why, the senseless brands will sympathize + The heavy accent of thy moving tongue, + And in compassion weep the fire out; + And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black, + For the deposing of a rightful king. + + Enter NORTHUMBERLAND attended + + NORTHUMBERLAND. My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is chang'd; + You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower. + And, madam, there is order ta'en for you: + With all swift speed you must away to France. + KING RICHARD. Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal + The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne, + The time shall not be many hours of age + More than it is, ere foul sin gathering head + Shall break into corruption. Thou shalt think + Though he divide the realm and give thee half + It is too little, helping him to all; + And he shall think that thou, which knowest the way + To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again, + Being ne'er so little urg'd, another way + To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne. + The love of wicked men converts to fear; + That fear to hate; and hate turns one or both + To worthy danger and deserved death. + NORTHUMBERLAND. My guilt be on my head, and there an end. + Take leave, and part; for you must part forthwith. + KING RICHARD. Doubly divorc'd! Bad men, you violate + A twofold marriage-'twixt my crown and me, + And then betwixt me and my married wife. + Let me unkiss the oath 'twixt thee and me; + And yet not so, for with a kiss 'twas made. + Part us, Northumberland; I towards the north, + Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime; + My wife to France, from whence set forth in pomp, + She came adorned hither like sweet May, + Sent back like Hallowmas or short'st of day. + QUEEN. And must we be divided? Must we part? + KING RICHARD. Ay, hand from hand, my love, and heart from heart. + QUEEN. Banish us both, and send the King with me. + NORTHUMBERLAND. That were some love, but little policy. + QUEEN. Then whither he goes thither let me go. + KING RICHARD. So two, together weeping, make one woe. + Weep thou for me in France, I for thee here; + Better far off than near, be ne'er the near. + Go, count thy way with sighs; I mine with groans. + QUEEN. So longest way shall have the longest moans. + KING RICHARD. Twice for one step I'll groan, the way being short, + And piece the way out with a heavy heart. + Come, come, in wooing sorrow let's be brief, + Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief. + One kiss shall stop our mouths, and dumbly part; + Thus give I mine, and thus take I thy heart. + QUEEN. Give me mine own again; 'twere no good part + To take on me to keep and kill thy heart. + So, now I have mine own again, be gone. + That I may strive to kill it with a groan. + KING RICHARD. We make woe wanton with this fond delay. + Once more, adieu; the rest let sorrow say. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. +The DUKE OF YORK's palace + +Enter the DUKE OF YORK and the DUCHESS + + DUCHESS. My Lord, you told me you would tell the rest, + When weeping made you break the story off, + Of our two cousins' coming into London. + YORK. Where did I leave? + DUCHESS. At that sad stop, my lord, + Where rude misgoverned hands from windows' tops + Threw dust and rubbish on King Richard's head. + YORK. Then, as I said, the Duke, great Bolingbroke, + Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed + Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know, + With slow but stately pace kept on his course, + Whilst all tongues cried 'God save thee, Bolingbroke!' + You would have thought the very windows spake, + So many greedy looks of young and old + Through casements darted their desiring eyes + Upon his visage; and that all the walls + With painted imagery had said at once + 'Jesu preserve thee! Welcome, Bolingbroke!' + Whilst he, from the one side to the other turning, + Bareheaded, lower than his proud steed's neck, + Bespake them thus, 'I thank you, countrymen.' + And thus still doing, thus he pass'd along. + DUCHESS. Alack, poor Richard! where rode he the whilst? + YORK. As in a theatre the eyes of men + After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage + Are idly bent on him that enters next, + Thinking his prattle to be tedious; + Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes + Did scowl on gentle Richard; no man cried 'God save him!' + No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home; + But dust was thrown upon his sacred head; + Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off, + His face still combating with tears and smiles, + The badges of his grief and patience, + That had not God, for some strong purpose, steel'd + The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted, + And barbarism itself have pitied him. + But heaven hath a hand in these events, + To whose high will we bound our calm contents. + To Bolingbroke are we sworn subjects now, + Whose state and honour I for aye allow. + DUCHESS. Here comes my son Aumerle. + YORK. Aumerle that was + But that is lost for being Richard's friend, + And madam, you must call him Rudand now. + I am in Parliament pledge for his truth + And lasting fealty to the new-made king. + + Enter AUMERLE + + DUCHESS. Welcome, my son. Who are the violets now + That strew the green lap of the new come spring? + AUMERLE. Madam, I know not, nor I greatly care not. + God knows I had as lief be none as one. + YORK. Well, bear you well in this new spring of time, + Lest you be cropp'd before you come to prime. + What news from Oxford? Do these justs and triumphs hold? + AUMERLE. For aught I know, my lord, they do. + YORK. You will be there, I know. + AUMERLE. If God prevent not, I purpose so. + YORK. What seal is that that without thy bosom? + Yea, look'st thou pale? Let me see the writing. + AUMERLE. My lord, 'tis nothing. + YORK. No matter, then, who see it. + I will be satisfied; let me see the writing. + AUMERLE. I do beseech your Grace to pardon me; + It is a matter of small consequence + Which for some reasons I would not have seen. + YORK. Which for some reasons, sir, I mean to see. + I fear, I fear- + DUCHESS. What should you fear? + 'Tis nothing but some bond that he is ent'red into + For gay apparel 'gainst the triumph-day. + YORK. Bound to himself! What doth he with a bond + That he is bound to? Wife, thou art a fool. + Boy, let me see the writing. + AUMERLE. I do beseech you, pardon me; I may not show it. + YORK. I will be satisfied; let me see it, I say. + [He plucks it out of his bosom, and reads it] + Treason, foul treason! Villain! traitor! slave! + DUCHESS. What is the matter, my lord? + YORK. Ho! who is within there? + + Enter a servant + + Saddle my horse. + God for his mercy, what treachery is here! + DUCHESS. Why, York, what is it, my lord? + YORK. Give me my boots, I say; saddle my horse. + Exit servant + Now, by mine honour, by my life, my troth, + I will appeach the villain. + DUCHESS. What is the matter? + YORK. Peace, foolish woman. + DUCHESS. I will not peace. What is the matter, Aumerle? + AUMERLE. Good mother, be content; it is no more + Than my poor life must answer. + DUCHESS. Thy life answer! + YORK. Bring me my boots. I will unto the King. + + His man enters with his boots + + DUCHESS. Strike him, Aumerle. Poor boy, thou art amaz'd. + Hence, villain! never more come in my sight. + YORK. Give me my boots, I say. + DUCHESS. Why, York, what wilt thou do? + Wilt thou not hide the trespass of thine own? + Have we more sons? or are we like to have? + Is not my teeming date drunk up with time? + And wilt thou pluck my fair son from mine age + And rob me of a happy mother's name? + Is he not like thee? Is he not thine own? + YORK. Thou fond mad woman, + Wilt thou conceal this dark conspiracy? + A dozen of them here have ta'en the sacrament, + And interchangeably set down their hands + To kill the King at Oxford. + DUCHESS. He shall be none; + We'll keep him here. Then what is that to him? + YORK. Away, fond woman! were he twenty times my son + I would appeach him. + DUCHESS. Hadst thou groan'd for him + As I have done, thou wouldst be more pitiful. + But now I know thy mind: thou dost suspect + That I have been disloyal to thy bed + And that he is a bastard, not thy son. + Sweet York, sweet husband, be not of that mind. + He is as like thee as a man may be + Not like to me, or any of my kin, + And yet I love him. + YORK. Make way, unruly woman! Exit + DUCHESS. After, Aumerle! Mount thee upon his horse; + Spur post, and get before him to the King, + And beg thy pardon ere he do accuse thee. + I'll not be long behind; though I be old, + I doubt not but to ride as fast as York; + And never will I rise up from the ground + Till Bolingbroke have pardon'd thee. Away, be gone. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. +Windsor Castle + +Enter BOLINGBROKE as King, PERCY, and other LORDS + + BOLINGBROKE. Can no man tell me of my unthrifty son? + 'Tis full three months since I did see him last. + If any plague hang over us, 'tis he. + I would to God, my lords, he might be found. + Inquire at London, 'mongst the taverns there, + For there, they say, he daily doth frequent + With unrestrained loose companions, + Even such, they say, as stand in narrow lanes + And beat our watch and rob our passengers, + Which he, young wanton and effeminate boy, + Takes on the point of honour to support + So dissolute a crew. + PERCY. My lord, some two days since I saw the Prince, + And told him of those triumphs held at Oxford. + BOLINGBROKE. And what said the gallant? + PERCY. His answer was, he would unto the stews, + And from the common'st creature pluck a glove + And wear it as a favour; and with that + He would unhorse the lustiest challenger. + BOLINGBROKE. As dissolute as desperate; yet through both + I see some sparks of better hope, which elder years + May happily bring forth. But who comes here? + + Enter AUMERLE amazed + + AUMERLE. Where is the King? + BOLINGBROKE. What means our cousin that he stares and looks + So wildly? + AUMERLE. God save your Grace! I do beseech your Majesty, + To have some conference with your Grace alone. + BOLINGBROKE. Withdraw yourselves, and leave us here alone. + Exeunt PERCY and LORDS + What is the matter with our cousin now? + AUMERLE. For ever may my knees grow to the earth, + [Kneels] + My tongue cleave to my roof within my mouth, + Unless a pardon ere I rise or speak. + BOLINGBROKE. Intended or committed was this fault? + If on the first, how heinous e'er it be, + To win thy after-love I pardon thee. + AUMERLE. Then give me leave that I may turn the key, + That no man enter till my tale be done. + BOLINGBROKE. Have thy desire. + [The DUKE OF YORK knocks at the door and crieth] + YORK. [Within] My liege, beware; look to thyself; + Thou hast a traitor in thy presence there. + BOLINGBROKE. [Drawing] Villain, I'll make thee safe. + AUMERLE. Stay thy revengeful hand; thou hast no cause to fear. + YORK. [Within] Open the door, secure, foolhardy King. + Shall I, for love, speak treason to thy face? + Open the door, or I will break it open. + + Enter YORK + + BOLINGBROKE. What is the matter, uncle? Speak; + Recover breath; tell us how near is danger, + That we may arm us to encounter it. + YORK. Peruse this writing here, and thou shalt know + The treason that my haste forbids me show. + AUMERLE. Remember, as thou read'st, thy promise pass'd. + I do repent me; read not my name there; + My heart is not confederate with my hand. + YORK. It was, villain, ere thy hand did set it down. + I tore it from the traitor's bosom, King; + Fear, and not love, begets his penitence. + Forget to pity him, lest thy pity prove + A serpent that will sting thee to the heart. + BOLINGBROKE. O heinous, strong, and bold conspiracy! + O loyal father of a treacherous son! + Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain, + From whence this stream through muddy passages + Hath held his current and defil'd himself! + Thy overflow of good converts to bad; + And thy abundant goodness shall excuse + This deadly blot in thy digressing son. + YORK. So shall my virtue be his vice's bawd; + And he shall spend mine honour with his shame, + As thriftless sons their scraping fathers' gold. + Mine honour lives when his dishonour dies, + Or my sham'd life in his dishonour lies. + Thou kill'st me in his life; giving him breath, + The traitor lives, the true man's put to death. + DUCHESS. [Within] I What ho, my liege, for God's sake, let me in. + BOLINGBROKE. What shrill-voic'd suppliant makes this eager cry? + DUCHESS. [Within] A woman, and thine aunt, great King; 'tis I. + Speak with me, pity me, open the door. + A beggar begs that never begg'd before. + BOLINGBROKE. Our scene is alt'red from a serious thing, + And now chang'd to 'The Beggar and the King.' + My dangerous cousin, let your mother in. + I know she is come to pray for your foul sin. + YORK. If thou do pardon whosoever pray, + More sins for this forgiveness prosper may. + This fest'red joint cut off, the rest rest sound; + This let alone will all the rest confound. + + Enter DUCHESS + + DUCHESS. O King, believe not this hard-hearted man! + Love loving not itself, none other can. + YORK. Thou frantic woman, what dost thou make here? + Shall thy old dugs once more a traitor rear? + DUCHESS. Sweet York, be patient. Hear me, gentle liege. + [Kneels] + BOLINGBROKE. Rise up, good aunt. + DUCHESS. Not yet, I thee beseech. + For ever will I walk upon my knees, + And never see day that the happy sees + Till thou give joy; until thou bid me joy + By pardoning Rutland, my transgressing boy. + AUMERLE. Unto my mother's prayers I bend my knee. + [Kneels] + YORK. Against them both, my true joints bended be. + [Kneels] + Ill mayst thou thrive, if thou grant any grace! + DUCHESS. Pleads he in earnest? Look upon his face; + His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jest; + His words come from his mouth, ours from our breast. + He prays but faintly and would be denied; + We pray with heart and soul, and all beside. + His weary joints would gladly rise, I know; + Our knees still kneel till to the ground they grow. + His prayers are full of false hypocrisy; + Ours of true zeal and deep integrity. + Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them have + That mercy which true prayer ought to have. + BOLINGBROKE. Good aunt, stand up. + DUCHESS. do not say 'stand up'; + Say 'pardon' first, and afterwards 'stand up.' + An if I were thy nurse, thy tongue to teach, + 'Pardon' should be the first word of thy speech. + I never long'd to hear a word till now; + Say 'pardon,' King; let pity teach thee how. + The word is short, but not so short as sweet; + No word like 'pardon' for kings' mouths so meet. + YORK. Speak it in French, King, say 'pardonne moy.' + DUCHESS. Dost thou teach pardon pardon to destroy? + Ah, my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord, + That sets the word itself against the word! + Speak 'pardon' as 'tis current in our land; + The chopping French we do not understand. + Thine eye begins to speak, set thy tongue there; + Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear, + That hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce, + Pity may move thee 'pardon' to rehearse. + BOLINGBROKE. Good aunt, stand up. + DUCHESS. I do not sue to stand; + Pardon is all the suit I have in hand. + BOLINGBROKE. I pardon him, as God shall pardon me. + DUCHESS. O happy vantage of a kneeling knee! + Yet am I sick for fear. Speak it again. + Twice saying 'pardon' doth not pardon twain, + But makes one pardon strong. + BOLINGBROKE. With all my heart + I pardon him. + DUCHESS. A god on earth thou art. + BOLINGBROKE. But for our trusty brother-in-law and the Abbot, + With all the rest of that consorted crew, + Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels. + Good uncle, help to order several powers + To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are. + They shall not live within this world, I swear, + But I will have them, if I once know where. + Uncle, farewell; and, cousin, adieu; + Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true. + DUCHESS. Come, my old son; I pray God make thee new. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. +Windsor Castle + +Enter SIR PIERCE OF EXTON and a servant + + EXTON. Didst thou not mark the King, what words he spake? + 'Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?' + Was it not so? + SERVANT. These were his very words. + EXTON. 'Have I no friend?' quoth he. He spake it twice + And urg'd it twice together, did he not? + SERVANT. He did. + EXTON. And, speaking it, he wishtly look'd on me, + As who should say 'I would thou wert the man + That would divorce this terror from my heart'; + Meaning the King at Pomfret. Come, let's go. + I am the King's friend, and will rid his foe. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 5. +Pomfret Castle. The dungeon of the Castle + +Enter KING RICHARD + + KING RICHARD. I have been studying how I may compare + This prison where I live unto the world + And, for because the world is populous + And here is not a creature but myself, + I cannot do it. Yet I'll hammer it out. + My brain I'll prove the female to my soul, + My soul the father; and these two beget + A generation of still-breeding thoughts, + And these same thoughts people this little world, + In humours like the people of this world, + For no thought is contented. The better sort, + As thoughts of things divine, are intermix'd + With scruples, and do set the word itself + Against the word, + As thus: 'Come, little ones'; and then again, + 'It is as hard to come as for a camel + To thread the postern of a small needle's eye.' + Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot + Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails + May tear a passage through the flinty ribs + Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls; + And, for they cannot, die in their own pride. + Thoughts tending to content flatter themselves + That they are not the first of fortune's slaves, + Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars + Who, sitting in the stocks, refuge their shame, + That many have and others must sit there; + And in this thought they find a kind of ease, + Bearing their own misfortunes on the back + Of such as have before endur'd the like. + Thus play I in one person many people, + And none contented. Sometimes am I king; + Then treasons make me wish myself a beggar, + And so I am. Then crushing penury + Persuades me I was better when a king; + Then am I king'd again; and by and by + Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke, + And straight am nothing. But whate'er I be, + Nor I, nor any man that but man is, + With nothing shall be pleas'd till he be eas'd + With being nothing. [The music plays] + Music do I hear? + Ha, ha! keep time. How sour sweet music is + When time is broke and no proportion kept! + So is it in the music of men's lives. + And here have I the daintiness of ear + To check time broke in a disorder'd string; + But, for the concord of my state and time, + Had not an ear to hear my true time broke. + I wasted time, and now doth time waste me; + For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock: + My thoughts are minutes; and with sighs they jar + Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch, + Whereto my finger, like a dial's point, + Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears. + Now sir, the sound that tells what hour it is + Are clamorous groans which strike upon my heart, + Which is the bell. So sighs, and tears, and groans, + Show minutes, times, and hours; but my time + Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy, + While I stand fooling here, his Jack of the clock. + This music mads me. Let it sound no more; + For though it have holp madmen to their wits, + In me it seems it will make wise men mad. + Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me! + For 'tis a sign of love; and love to Richard + Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world. + + Enter a GROOM of the stable + + GROOM. Hail, royal Prince! + KING RICHARD. Thanks, noble peer! + The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear. + What art thou? and how comest thou hither, + Where no man never comes but that sad dog + That brings me food to make misfortune live? + GROOM. I was a poor groom of thy stable, King, + When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York, + With much ado at length have gotten leave + To look upon my sometimes royal master's face. + O, how it ern'd my heart, when I beheld, + In London streets, that coronation-day, + When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary- + That horse that thou so often hast bestrid, + That horse that I so carefully have dress'd! + KING RICHARD. Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend, + How went he under him? + GROOM. So proudly as if he disdain'd the ground. + KING RICHARD. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back! + That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand; + This hand hath made him proud with clapping him. + Would he not stumble? would he not fall down, + Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck + Of that proud man that did usurp his back? + Forgiveness, horse! Why do I rail on thee, + Since thou, created to be aw'd by man, + Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse; + And yet I bear a burden like an ass, + Spurr'd, gall'd, and tir'd, by jauncing Bolingbroke. + + Enter KEEPER with meat + + KEEPER. Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay. + KING RICHARD. If thou love me, 'tis time thou wert away. + GROOM. my tongue dares not, that my heart shall say. + Exit + KEEPER. My lord, will't please you to fall to? + KING RICHARD. Taste of it first as thou art wont to do. + KEEPER. My lord, I dare not. Sir Pierce of Exton, + Who lately came from the King, commands the contrary. + KING RICHARD. The devil take Henry of Lancaster and thee! + Patience is stale, and I am weary of it. + [Beats the KEEPER] + KEEPER. Help, help, help! + The murderers, EXTON and servants, rush in, armed + KING RICHARD. How now! What means death in this rude assault? + Villain, thy own hand yields thy death's instrument. + [Snatching a weapon and killing one] + Go thou and fill another room in hell. + [He kills another, then EXTON strikes him down] + That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire + That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce hand + Hath with the King's blood stain'd the King's own land. + Mount, mount, my soul! thy seat is up on high; + Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die. + [Dies] + EXTON. As full of valour as of royal blood. + Both have I spill'd. O, would the deed were good! + For now the devil, that told me I did well, + Says that this deed is chronicled in hell. + This dead King to the living King I'll bear. + Take hence the rest, and give them burial here. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 6. +Windsor Castle + +Flourish. Enter BOLINGBROKE, the DUKE OF YORK, With other LORDS +and attendants + + BOLINGBROKE. Kind uncle York, the latest news we hear + Is that the rebels have consum'd with fire + Our town of Ciceter in Gloucestershire; + But whether they be ta'en or slain we hear not. + + Enter NORTHUMBERLAND + + Welcome, my lord. What is the news? + NORTHUMBERLAND. First, to thy sacred state wish I all happiness. + The next news is, I have to London sent + The heads of Salisbury, Spencer, Blunt, and Kent. + The manner of their taking may appear + At large discoursed in this paper here. + BOLINGBROKE. We thank thee, gentle Percy, for thy pains; + And to thy worth will add right worthy gains. + + Enter FITZWATER + + FITZWATER. My lord, I have from Oxford sent to London + The heads of Brocas and Sir Bennet Seely; + Two of the dangerous consorted traitors + That sought at Oxford thy dire overthrow. + BOLINGBROKE. Thy pains, Fitzwater, shall not be forgot; + Right noble is thy merit, well I wot. + + Enter PERCY, With the BISHOP OF CARLISLE + + PERCY. The grand conspirator, Abbot of Westminster, + With clog of conscience and sour melancholy, + Hath yielded up his body to the grave; + But here is Carlisle living, to abide + Thy kingly doom, and sentence of his pride. + BOLINGBROKE. Carlisle, this is your doom: + Choose out some secret place, some reverend room, + More than thou hast, and with it joy thy life; + So as thou liv'st in peace, die free from strife; + For though mine enemy thou hast ever been, + High sparks of honour in thee have I seen. + + Enter EXTON, with attendants, hearing a coffin + + EXTON. Great King, within this coffin I present + Thy buried fear. Herein all breathless lies + The mightiest of thy greatest enemies, + Richard of Bordeaux, by me hither brought. + BOLINGBROKE. Exton, I thank thee not; for thou hast wrought + A deed of slander with thy fatal hand + Upon my head and all this famous land. + EXTON. From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed. + BOLINGBROKE. They love not poison that do poison need, + Nor do I thee. Though I did wish him dead, + I hate the murderer, love him murdered. + The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour, + But neither my good word nor princely favour; + With Cain go wander thorough shades of night, + And never show thy head by day nor light. + Lords, I protest my soul is full of woe + That blood should sprinkle me to make me grow. + Come, mourn with me for what I do lament, + And put on sullen black incontinent. + I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land, + To wash this blood off from my guilty hand. + March sadly after; grace my mournings here + In weeping after this untimely bier. Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1593 + +KING RICHARD III + +by William Shakespeare + + +Dramatis Personae + + EDWARD THE FOURTH + + Sons to the King + EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES afterwards KING EDWARD V + RICHARD, DUKE OF YORK, + + Brothers to the King + GEORGE, DUKE OF CLARENCE, + RICHARD, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, afterwards KING RICHARD III + + A YOUNG SON OF CLARENCE (Edward, Earl of Warwick) + HENRY, EARL OF RICHMOND, afterwards KING HENRY VII + CARDINAL BOURCHIER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY + THOMAS ROTHERHAM, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK + JOHN MORTON, BISHOP OF ELY + DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM + DUKE OF NORFOLK + EARL OF SURREY, his son + EARL RIVERS, brother to King Edward's Queen + MARQUIS OF DORSET and LORD GREY, her sons + EARL OF OXFORD + LORD HASTINGS + LORD LOVEL + LORD STANLEY, called also EARL OF DERBY + SIR THOMAS VAUGHAN + SIR RICHARD RATCLIFF + SIR WILLIAM CATESBY + SIR JAMES TYRREL + SIR JAMES BLOUNT + SIR WALTER HERBERT + SIR WILLIAM BRANDON + SIR ROBERT BRAKENBURY, Lieutenant of the Tower + CHRISTOPHER URSWICK, a priest + LORD MAYOR OF LONDON + SHERIFF OF WILTSHIRE + HASTINGS, a pursuivant + TRESSEL and BERKELEY, gentlemen attending on Lady Anne + ELIZABETH, Queen to King Edward IV + MARGARET, widow of King Henry VI + DUCHESS OF YORK, mother to King Edward IV + LADY ANNE, widow of Edward, Prince of Wales, son to King + Henry VI; afterwards married to the Duke of Gloucester + A YOUNG DAUGHTER OF CLARENCE (Margaret Plantagenet, + Countess of Salisbury) + Ghosts, of Richard's victims + Lords, Gentlemen, and Attendants; Priest, Scrivener, Page, Bishops, + Aldermen, Citizens, Soldiers, Messengers, Murderers, Keeper + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: England + +King Richard the Third + + + +ACT I. SCENE 1. + +London. A street + +Enter RICHARD, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, solus + + GLOUCESTER. Now is the winter of our discontent + Made glorious summer by this sun of York; + And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house + In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. + Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; + Our bruised arms hung up for monuments; + Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings, + Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. + Grim-visag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front, + And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds + To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, + He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber + To the lascivious pleasing of a lute. + But I-that am not shap'd for sportive tricks, + Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass- + I-that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty + To strut before a wanton ambling nymph- + I-that am curtail'd of this fair proportion, + Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, + Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time + Into this breathing world scarce half made up, + And that so lamely and unfashionable + That dogs bark at me as I halt by them- + Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, + Have no delight to pass away the time, + Unless to spy my shadow in the sun + And descant on mine own deformity. + And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover + To entertain these fair well-spoken days, + I am determined to prove a villain + And hate the idle pleasures of these days. + Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous, + By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams, + To set my brother Clarence and the King + In deadly hate the one against the other; + And if King Edward be as true and just + As I am subtle, false, and treacherous, + This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up- + About a prophecy which says that G + Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be. + Dive, thoughts, down to my soul. Here Clarence comes. + + Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY + + Brother, good day. What means this armed guard + That waits upon your Grace? + CLARENCE. His Majesty, + Tend'ring my person's safety, hath appointed + This conduct to convey me to th' Tower. + GLOUCESTER. Upon what cause? + CLARENCE. Because my name is George. + GLOUCESTER. Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours: + He should, for that, commit your godfathers. + O, belike his Majesty hath some intent + That you should be new-christ'ned in the Tower. + But what's the matter, Clarence? May I know? + CLARENCE. Yea, Richard, when I know; for I protest + As yet I do not; but, as I can learn, + He hearkens after prophecies and dreams, + And from the cross-row plucks the letter G, + And says a wizard told him that by G + His issue disinherited should be; + And, for my name of George begins with G, + It follows in his thought that I am he. + These, as I learn, and such like toys as these + Hath mov'd his Highness to commit me now. + GLOUCESTER. Why, this it is when men are rul'd by women: + 'Tis not the King that sends you to the Tower; + My Lady Grey his wife, Clarence, 'tis she + That tempers him to this extremity. + Was it not she and that good man of worship, + Antony Woodville, her brother there, + That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower, + From whence this present day he is delivered? + We are not safe, Clarence; we are not safe. + CLARENCE. By heaven, I think there is no man is secure + But the Queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds + That trudge betwixt the King and Mistress Shore. + Heard you not what an humble suppliant + Lord Hastings was, for her delivery? + GLOUCESTER. Humbly complaining to her deity + Got my Lord Chamberlain his liberty. + I'll tell you what-I think it is our way, + If we will keep in favour with the King, + To be her men and wear her livery: + The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself, + Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen, + Are mighty gossips in our monarchy. + BRAKENBURY. I beseech your Graces both to pardon me: + His Majesty hath straitly given in charge + That no man shall have private conference, + Of what degree soever, with your brother. + GLOUCESTER. Even so; an't please your worship, Brakenbury, + You may partake of any thing we say: + We speak no treason, man; we say the King + Is wise and virtuous, and his noble queen + Well struck in years, fair, and not jealous; + We say that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot, + A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue; + And that the Queen's kindred are made gentlefolks. + How say you, sir? Can you deny all this? + BRAKENBURY. With this, my lord, myself have naught to do. + GLOUCESTER. Naught to do with Mistress Shore! I tell thee, + fellow, + He that doth naught with her, excepting one, + Were best to do it secretly alone. + BRAKENBURY. What one, my lord? + GLOUCESTER. Her husband, knave! Wouldst thou betray me? + BRAKENBURY. I do beseech your Grace to pardon me, and + withal + Forbear your conference with the noble Duke. + CLARENCE. We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will + obey. + GLOUCESTER. We are the Queen's abjects and must obey. + Brother, farewell; I will unto the King; + And whatsoe'er you will employ me in- + Were it to call King Edward's widow sister- + I will perform it to enfranchise you. + Meantime, this deep disgrace in brotherhood + Touches me deeper than you can imagine. + CLARENCE. I know it pleaseth neither of us well. + GLOUCESTER. Well, your imprisonment shall not be long; + I will deliver or else lie for you. + Meantime, have patience. + CLARENCE. I must perforce. Farewell. + Exeunt CLARENCE, BRAKENBURY, and guard + GLOUCESTER. Go tread the path that thou shalt ne'er return. + Simple, plain Clarence, I do love thee so + That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven, + If heaven will take the present at our hands. + But who comes here? The new-delivered Hastings? + + Enter LORD HASTINGS + + HASTINGS. Good time of day unto my gracious lord! + GLOUCESTER. As much unto my good Lord Chamberlain! + Well are you welcome to the open air. + How hath your lordship brook'd imprisonment? + HASTINGS. With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must; + But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks + That were the cause of my imprisonment. + GLOUCESTER. No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence too; + For they that were your enemies are his, + And have prevail'd as much on him as you. + HASTINGS. More pity that the eagles should be mew'd + Whiles kites and buzzards prey at liberty. + GLOUCESTER. What news abroad? + HASTINGS. No news so bad abroad as this at home: + The King is sickly, weak, and melancholy, + And his physicians fear him mightily. + GLOUCESTER. Now, by Saint John, that news is bad indeed. + O, he hath kept an evil diet long + And overmuch consum'd his royal person! + 'Tis very grievous to be thought upon. + Where is he? In his bed? + HASTINGS. He is. + GLOUCESTER. Go you before, and I will follow you. + Exit HASTINGS + He cannot live, I hope, and must not die + Till George be pack'd with posthorse up to heaven. + I'll in to urge his hatred more to Clarence + With lies well steel'd with weighty arguments; + And, if I fail not in my deep intent, + Clarence hath not another day to live; + Which done, God take King Edward to his mercy, + And leave the world for me to bustle in! + For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter. + What though I kill'd her husband and her father? + The readiest way to make the wench amends + Is to become her husband and her father; + The which will I-not all so much for love + As for another secret close intent + By marrying her which I must reach unto. + But yet I run before my horse to market. + Clarence still breathes; Edward still lives and reigns; + When they are gone, then must I count my gains. Exit + + + + +SCENE 2. + +London. Another street + +Enter corpse of KING HENRY THE SIXTH, with halberds to guard it; +LADY ANNE being the mourner, attended by TRESSEL and BERKELEY + + ANNE. Set down, set down your honourable load- + If honour may be shrouded in a hearse; + Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament + Th' untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster. + Poor key-cold figure of a holy king! + Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster! + Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood! + Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost + To hear the lamentations of poor Anne, + Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughtered son, + Stabb'd by the self-same hand that made these wounds. + Lo, in these windows that let forth thy life + I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes. + O, cursed be the hand that made these holes! + Cursed the heart that had the heart to do it! + Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence! + More direful hap betide that hated wretch + That makes us wretched by the death of thee + Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads, + Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives! + If ever he have child, abortive be it, + Prodigious, and untimely brought to light, + Whose ugly and unnatural aspect + May fright the hopeful mother at the view, + And that be heir to his unhappiness! + If ever he have wife, let her be made + More miserable by the death of him + Than I am made by my young lord and thee! + Come, now towards Chertsey with your holy load, + Taken from Paul's to be interred there; + And still as you are weary of this weight + Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry's corse. + [The bearers take up the coffin] + + Enter GLOUCESTER + + GLOUCESTER. Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down. + ANNE. What black magician conjures up this fiend + To stop devoted charitable deeds? + GLOUCESTER. Villains, set down the corse; or, by Saint Paul, + I'll make a corse of him that disobeys! + FIRST GENTLEMAN. My lord, stand back, and let the coffin + pass. + GLOUCESTER. Unmannerd dog! Stand thou, when I command. + Advance thy halberd higher than my breast, + Or, by Saint Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot + And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness. + [The bearers set down the coffin] + ANNE. What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid? + Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal, + And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil. + Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell! + Thou hadst but power over his mortal body, + His soul thou canst not have; therefore, be gone. + GLOUCESTER. Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst. + ANNE. Foul devil, for God's sake, hence and trouble us not; + For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell + Fill'd it with cursing cries and deep exclaims. + If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds, + Behold this pattern of thy butcheries. + O, gentlemen, see, see! Dead Henry's wounds + Open their congeal'd mouths and bleed afresh. + Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity, + For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood + From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells; + Thy deeds inhuman and unnatural + Provokes this deluge most unnatural. + O God, which this blood mad'st, revenge his death! + O earth, which this blood drink'st, revenge his death! + Either, heav'n, with lightning strike the murd'rer dead; + Or, earth, gape open wide and eat him quick, + As thou dost swallow up this good king's blood, + Which his hell-govern'd arm hath butchered. + GLOUCESTER. Lady, you know no rules of charity, + Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses. + ANNE. Villain, thou knowest nor law of God nor man: + No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity. + GLOUCESTER. But I know none, and therefore am no beast. + ANNE. O wonderful, when devils tell the truth! + GLOUCESTER. More wonderful when angels are so angry. + Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman, + Of these supposed crimes to give me leave + By circumstance but to acquit myself. + ANNE. Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man, + Of these known evils but to give me leave + By circumstance to accuse thy cursed self. + GLOUCESTER. Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have + Some patient leisure to excuse myself. + ANNE. Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make + No excuse current but to hang thyself. + GLOUCESTER. By such despair I should accuse myself. + ANNE. And by despairing shalt thou stand excused + For doing worthy vengeance on thyself + That didst unworthy slaughter upon others. + GLOUCESTER. Say that I slew them not? + ANNE. Then say they were not slain. + But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee. + GLOUCESTER. I did not kill your husband. + ANNE. Why, then he is alive. + GLOUCESTER. Nay, he is dead, and slain by Edward's hands. + ANNE. In thy foul throat thou liest: Queen Margaret saw + Thy murd'rous falchion smoking in his blood; + The which thou once didst bend against her breast, + But that thy brothers beat aside the point. + GLOUCESTER. I was provoked by her sland'rous tongue + That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders. + ANNE. Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind, + That never dream'st on aught but butcheries. + Didst thou not kill this king? + GLOUCESTER. I grant ye. + ANNE. Dost grant me, hedgehog? Then, God grant me to + Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed! + O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous! + GLOUCESTER. The better for the King of Heaven, that hath + him. + ANNE. He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come. + GLOUCESTER. Let him thank me that holp to send him + thither, + For he was fitter for that place than earth. + ANNE. And thou unfit for any place but hell. + GLOUCESTER. Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it. + ANNE. Some dungeon. + GLOUCESTER. Your bed-chamber. + ANNE. Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest! + GLOUCESTER. So will it, madam, till I lie with you. + ANNE. I hope so. + GLOUCESTER. I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne, + To leave this keen encounter of our wits, + And fall something into a slower method- + Is not the causer of the timeless deaths + Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward, + As blameful as the executioner? + ANNE. Thou wast the cause and most accurs'd effect. + GLOUCESTER. Your beauty was the cause of that effect- + Your beauty that did haunt me in my sleep + To undertake the death of all the world + So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom. + ANNE. If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide, + These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks. + GLOUCESTER. These eyes could not endure that beauty's + wreck; + You should not blemish it if I stood by. + As all the world is cheered by the sun, + So I by that; it is my day, my life. + ANNE. Black night o'ershade thy day, and death thy life! + GLOUCESTER. Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both. + ANNE. I would I were, to be reveng'd on thee. + GLOUCESTER. It is a quarrel most unnatural, + To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee. + ANNE. It is a quarrel just and reasonable, + To be reveng'd on him that kill'd my husband. + GLOUCESTER. He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband + Did it to help thee to a better husband. + ANNE. His better doth not breathe upon the earth. + GLOUCESTER. He lives that loves thee better than he could. + ANNE. Name him. + GLOUCESTER. Plantagenet. + ANNE. Why, that was he. + GLOUCESTER. The self-same name, but one of better nature. + ANNE. Where is he? + GLOUCESTER. Here. [She spits at him] Why dost thou spit + at me? + ANNE. Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake! + GLOUCESTER. Never came poison from so sweet a place. + ANNE. Never hung poison on a fouler toad. + Out of my sight! Thou dost infect mine eyes. + GLOUCESTER. Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine. + ANNE. Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead! + GLOUCESTER. I would they were, that I might die at once; + For now they kill me with a living death. + Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears, + Sham'd their aspects with store of childish drops- + These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear, + No, when my father York and Edward wept + To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made + When black-fac'd Clifford shook his sword at him; + Nor when thy warlike father, like a child, + Told the sad story of my father's death, + And twenty times made pause to sob and weep + That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks + Like trees bedash'd with rain-in that sad time + My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear; + And what these sorrows could not thence exhale + Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping. + I never sued to friend nor enemy; + My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word; + But, now thy beauty is propos'd my fee, + My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak. + [She looks scornfully at him] + Teach not thy lip such scorn; for it was made + For kissing, lady, not for such contempt. + If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive, + Lo here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword; + Which if thou please to hide in this true breast + And let the soul forth that adoreth thee, + I lay it naked to the deadly stroke, + And humbly beg the death upon my knee. + [He lays his breast open; she offers at it with his sword] + Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry- + But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me. + Nay, now dispatch; 'twas I that stabb'd young Edward- + But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on. + [She falls the sword] + Take up the sword again, or take up me. + ANNE. Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death, + I will not be thy executioner. + GLOUCESTER. Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it; + ANNE. I have already. + GLOUCESTER. That was in thy rage. + Speak it again, and even with the word + This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love, + Shall for thy love kill a far truer love; + To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary. + ANNE. I would I knew thy heart. + GLOUCESTER. 'Tis figur'd in my tongue. + ANNE. I fear me both are false. + GLOUCESTER. Then never was man true. + ANNE. well put up your sword. + GLOUCESTER. Say, then, my peace is made. + ANNE. That shalt thou know hereafter. + GLOUCESTER. But shall I live in hope? + ANNE. All men, I hope, live so. + GLOUCESTER. Vouchsafe to wear this ring. + ANNE. To take is not to give. [Puts on the ring] + GLOUCESTER. Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger, + Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart; + Wear both of them, for both of them are thine. + And if thy poor devoted servant may + But beg one favour at thy gracious hand, + Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever. + ANNE. What is it? + GLOUCESTER. That it may please you leave these sad designs + To him that hath most cause to be a mourner, + And presently repair to Crosby House; + Where-after I have solemnly interr'd + At Chertsey monast'ry this noble king, + And wet his grave with my repentant tears- + I will with all expedient duty see you. + For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you, + Grant me this boon. + ANNE. With all my heart; and much it joys me too + To see you are become so penitent. + Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me. + GLOUCESTER. Bid me farewell. + ANNE. 'Tis more than you deserve; + But since you teach me how to flatter you, + Imagine I have said farewell already. + Exeunt two GENTLEMEN With LADY ANNE + GLOUCESTER. Sirs, take up the corse. + GENTLEMEN. Towards Chertsey, noble lord? + GLOUCESTER. No, to White Friars; there attend my coming. + Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER + Was ever woman in this humour woo'd? + Was ever woman in this humour won? + I'll have her; but I will not keep her long. + What! I that kill'd her husband and his father- + To take her in her heart's extremest hate, + With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes, + The bleeding witness of my hatred by; + Having God, her conscience, and these bars against me, + And I no friends to back my suit at all + But the plain devil and dissembling looks, + And yet to win her, all the world to nothing! + Ha! + Hath she forgot already that brave prince, + Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since, + Stabb'd in my angry mood at Tewksbury? + A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman- + Fram'd in the prodigality of nature, + Young, valiant, wise, and no doubt right royal- + The spacious world cannot again afford; + And will she yet abase her eyes on me, + That cropp'd the golden prime of this sweet prince + And made her widow to a woeful bed? + On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety? + On me, that halts and am misshapen thus? + My dukedom to a beggarly denier, + I do mistake my person all this while. + Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot, + Myself to be a marv'llous proper man. + I'll be at charges for a looking-glass, + And entertain a score or two of tailors + To study fashions to adorn my body. + Since I am crept in favour with myself, + I will maintain it with some little cost. + But first I'll turn yon fellow in his grave, + And then return lamenting to my love. + Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass, + That I may see my shadow as I pass. Exit + + + + +SCENE 3. + +London. The palace + +Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, LORD RIVERS, and LORD GREY + + RIVERS. Have patience, madam; there's no doubt his Majesty + Will soon recover his accustom'd health. + GREY. In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse; + Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort, + And cheer his Grace with quick and merry eyes. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. If he were dead, what would betide on + me? + GREY. No other harm but loss of such a lord. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. The loss of such a lord includes all + harms. + GREY. The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly son + To be your comforter when he is gone. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Ah, he is young; and his minority + Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloucester, + A man that loves not me, nor none of you. + RIVER. Is it concluded he shall be Protector? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. It is determin'd, not concluded yet; + But so it must be, if the King miscarry. + + Enter BUCKINGHAM and DERBY + + GREY. Here come the Lords of Buckingham and Derby. + BUCKINGHAM. Good time of day unto your royal Grace! + DERBY. God make your Majesty joyful as you have been. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. The Countess Richmond, good my Lord + of Derby, + To your good prayer will scarcely say amen. + Yet, Derby, notwithstanding she's your wife + And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd + I hate not you for her proud arrogance. + DERBY. I do beseech you, either not believe + The envious slanders of her false accusers; + Or, if she be accus'd on true report, + Bear with her weakness, which I think proceeds + From wayward sickness and no grounded malice. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Saw you the King to-day, my Lord of + Derby? + DERBY. But now the Duke of Buckingham and I + Are come from visiting his Majesty. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. What likelihood of his amendment, + Lords? + BUCKINGHAM. Madam, good hope; his Grace speaks + cheerfully. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. God grant him health! Did you confer + with him? + BUCKINGHAM. Ay, madam; he desires to make atonement + Between the Duke of Gloucester and your brothers, + And between them and my Lord Chamberlain; + And sent to warn them to his royal presence. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Would all were well! But that will + never be. + I fear our happiness is at the height. + + Enter GLOUCESTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET + + GLOUCESTER. They do me wrong, and I will not endure it. + Who is it that complains unto the King + That I, forsooth, am stern and love them not? + By holy Paul, they love his Grace but lightly + That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours. + Because I cannot flatter and look fair, + Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog, + Duck with French nods and apish courtesy, + I must be held a rancorous enemy. + Cannot a plain man live and think no harm + But thus his simple truth must be abus'd + With silken, sly, insinuating Jacks? + GREY. To who in all this presence speaks your Grace? + GLOUCESTER. To thee, that hast nor honesty nor grace. + When have I injur'd thee? when done thee wrong, + Or thee, or thee, or any of your faction? + A plague upon you all! His royal Grace- + Whom God preserve better than you would wish!- + Cannot be quiet searce a breathing while + But you must trouble him with lewd complaints. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Brother of Gloucester, you mistake the + matter. + The King, on his own royal disposition + And not provok'd by any suitor else- + Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred + That in your outward action shows itself + Against my children, brothers, and myself- + Makes him to send that he may learn the ground. + GLOUCESTER. I cannot tell; the world is grown so bad + That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch. + Since every Jack became a gentleman, + There's many a gentle person made a Jack. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Come, come, we know your meaning, + brother Gloucester: + You envy my advancement and my friends'; + God grant we never may have need of you! + GLOUCESTER. Meantime, God grants that I have need of you. + Our brother is imprison'd by your means, + Myself disgrac'd, and the nobility + Held in contempt; while great promotions + Are daily given to ennoble those + That scarce some two days since were worth a noble. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. By Him that rais'd me to this careful + height + From that contented hap which I enjoy'd, + I never did incense his Majesty + Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been + An earnest advocate to plead for him. + My lord, you do me shameful injury + Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects. + GLOUCESTER. You may deny that you were not the mean + Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment. + RIVERS. She may, my lord; for- + GLOUCESTER. She may, Lord Rivers? Why, who knows + not so? + She may do more, sir, than denying that: + She may help you to many fair preferments + And then deny her aiding hand therein, + And lay those honours on your high desert. + What may she not? She may-ay, marry, may she- + RIVERS. What, marry, may she? + GLOUCESTER. What, marry, may she? Marry with a king, + A bachelor, and a handsome stripling too. + Iwis your grandam had a worser match. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. My Lord of Gloucester, I have too long + borne + Your blunt upbraidings and your bitter scoffs. + By heaven, I will acquaint his Majesty + Of those gross taunts that oft I have endur'd. + I had rather be a country servant-maid + Than a great queen with this condition- + To be so baited, scorn'd, and stormed at. + + Enter old QUEEN MARGARET, behind + + Small joy have I in being England's Queen. + QUEEN MARGARET. And less'ned be that small, God, I + beseech Him! + Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me. + GLOUCESTER. What! Threat you me with telling of the + King? + Tell him and spare not. Look what I have said + I will avouch't in presence of the King. + I dare adventure to be sent to th' Tow'r. + 'Tis time to speak-my pains are quite forgot. + QUEEN MARGARET. Out, devil! I do remember them to + well: + Thou kill'dst my husband Henry in the Tower, + And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury. + GLOUCESTER. Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband + King, + I was a pack-horse in his great affairs, + A weeder-out of his proud adversaries, + A liberal rewarder of his friends; + To royalize his blood I spent mine own. + QUEEN MARGARET. Ay, and much better blood than his or + thine. + GLOUCESTER. In all which time you and your husband Grey + Were factious for the house of Lancaster; + And, Rivers, so were you. Was not your husband + In Margaret's battle at Saint Albans slain? + Let me put in your minds, if you forget, + What you have been ere this, and what you are; + Withal, what I have been, and what I am. + QUEEN MARGARET. A murd'rous villain, and so still thou art. + GLOUCESTER. Poor Clarence did forsake his father, Warwick, + Ay, and forswore himself-which Jesu pardon!- + QUEEN MARGARET. Which God revenge! + GLOUCESTER. To fight on Edward's party for the crown; + And for his meed, poor lord, he is mewed up. + I would to God my heart were flint like Edward's, + Or Edward's soft and pitiful like mine. + I am too childish-foolish for this world. + QUEEN MARGARET. Hie thee to hell for shame and leave this + world, + Thou cacodemon; there thy kingdom is. + RIVERS. My Lord of Gloucester, in those busy days + Which here you urge to prove us enemies, + We follow'd then our lord, our sovereign king. + So should we you, if you should be our king. + GLOUCESTER. If I should be! I had rather be a pedlar. + Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof! + QUEEN ELIZABETH. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose + You should enjoy were you this country's king, + As little joy you may suppose in me + That I enjoy, being the Queen thereof. + QUEEN MARGARET. As little joy enjoys the Queen thereof; + For I am she, and altogether joyless. + I can no longer hold me patient. [Advancing] + Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out + In sharing that which you have pill'd from me. + Which of you trembles not that looks on me? + If not that, I am Queen, you bow like subjects, + Yet that, by you depos'd, you quake like rebels? + Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away! + GLOUCESTER. Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in my + sight? + QUEEN MARGARET. But repetition of what thou hast marr'd, + That will I make before I let thee go. + GLOUCESTER. Wert thou not banished on pain of death? + QUEEN MARGARET. I was; but I do find more pain in + banishment + Than death can yield me here by my abode. + A husband and a son thou ow'st to me; + And thou a kingdom; all of you allegiance. + This sorrow that I have by right is yours; + And all the pleasures you usurp are mine. + GLOUCESTER. The curse my noble father laid on thee, + When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper + And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes, + And then to dry them gav'st the Duke a clout + Steep'd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland- + His curses then from bitterness of soul + Denounc'd against thee are all fall'n upon thee; + And God, not we, hath plagu'd thy bloody deed. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. So just is God to right the innocent. + HASTINGS. O, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe, + And the most merciless that e'er was heard of! + RIVERS. Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported. + DORSET. No man but prophesied revenge for it. + BUCKINGHAM. Northumberland, then present, wept to see it. + QUEEN MARGARET. What, were you snarling all before I came, + Ready to catch each other by the throat, + And turn you all your hatred now on me? + Did York's dread curse prevail so much with heaven + That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death, + Their kingdom's loss, my woeful banishment, + Should all but answer for that peevish brat? + Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven? + Why then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses! + Though not by war, by surfeit die your king, + As ours by murder, to make him a king! + Edward thy son, that now is Prince of Wales, + For Edward our son, that was Prince of Wales, + Die in his youth by like untimely violence! + Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen, + Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self! + Long mayest thou live to wail thy children's death, + And see another, as I see thee now, + Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine! + Long die thy happy days before thy death; + And, after many length'ned hours of grief, + Die neither mother, wife, nor England's Queen! + Rivers and Dorset, you were standers by, + And so wast thou, Lord Hastings, when my son + Was stabb'd with bloody daggers. God, I pray him, + That none of you may live his natural age, + But by some unlook'd accident cut off! + GLOUCESTER. Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd + hag. + QUEEN MARGARET. And leave out thee? Stay, dog, for thou + shalt hear me. + If heaven have any grievous plague in store + Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee, + O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe, + And then hurl down their indignation + On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace! + The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul! + Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st, + And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends! + No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine, + Unless it be while some tormenting dream + Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils! + Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog, + Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity + The slave of nature and the son of hell, + Thou slander of thy heavy mother's womb, + Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins, + Thou rag of honour, thou detested- + GLOUCESTER. Margaret! + QUEEN MARGARET. Richard! + GLOUCESTER. Ha? + QUEEN MARGARET. I call thee not. + GLOUCESTER. I cry thee mercy then, for I did think + That thou hadst call'd me all these bitter names. + QUEEN MARGARET. Why, so I did, but look'd for no reply. + O, let me make the period to my curse! + GLOUCESTER. 'Tis done by me, and ends in-Margaret. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Thus have you breath'd your curse + against yourself. + QUEEN MARGARET. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my + fortune! + Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider + Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about? + Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself. + The day will come that thou shalt wish for me + To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-back'd toad. + HASTINGS. False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse, + Lest to thy harm thou move our patience. + QUEEN MARGARET. Foul shame upon you! you have all + mov'd mine. + RIVERS. Were you well serv'd, you would be taught your + duty. + QUEEN MARGARET. To serve me well you all should do me + duty, + Teach me to be your queen and you my subjects. + O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty! + DORSET. Dispute not with her; she is lunatic. + QUEEN MARGARET. Peace, Master Marquis, you are malapert; + Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current. + O, that your young nobility could judge + What 'twere to lose it and be miserable! + They that stand high have many blasts to shake them, + And if they fall they dash themselves to pieces. + GLOUCESTER. Good counsel, marry; learn it, learn it, Marquis. + DORSET. It touches you, my lord, as much as me. + GLOUCESTER. Ay, and much more; but I was born so high, + Our aery buildeth in the cedar's top, + And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun. + QUEEN MARGARET. And turns the sun to shade-alas! alas! + Witness my son, now in the shade of death, + Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath + Hath in eternal darkness folded up. + Your aery buildeth in our aery's nest. + O God that seest it, do not suffer it; + As it is won with blood, lost be it so! + BUCKINGHAM. Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity! + QUEEN MARGARET. Urge neither charity nor shame to me. + Uncharitably with me have you dealt, + And shamefully my hopes by you are butcher'd. + My charity is outrage, life my shame; + And in that shame still live my sorrow's rage! + BUCKINGHAM. Have done, have done. + QUEEN MARGARET. O princely Buckingham, I'll kiss thy + hand + In sign of league and amity with thee. + Now fair befall thee and thy noble house! + Thy garments are not spotted with our blood, + Nor thou within the compass of my curse. + BUCKINGHAM. Nor no one here; for curses never pass + The lips of those that breathe them in the air. + QUEEN MARGARET. I will not think but they ascend the sky + And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace. + O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog! + Look when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites, + His venom tooth will rankle to the death: + Have not to do with him, beware of him; + Sin, death, and hell, have set their marks on him, + And all their ministers attend on him. + GLOUCESTER. What doth she say, my Lord of Buckingham? + BUCKINGHAM. Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord. + QUEEN MARGARET. What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle + counsel, + And soothe the devil that I warn thee from? + O, but remember this another day, + When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow, + And say poor Margaret was a prophetess! + Live each of you the subjects to his hate, + And he to yours, and all of you to God's! Exit + BUCKINGHAM. My hair doth stand an end to hear her curses. + RIVERS. And so doth mine. I muse why she's at liberty. + GLOUCESTER. I cannot blame her; by God's holy Mother, + She hath had too much wrong; and I repent + My part thereof that I have done to her. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. I never did her any to my knowledge. + GLOUCESTER. Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong. + I was too hot to do somebody good + That is too cold in thinking of it now. + Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid; + He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains; + God pardon them that are the cause thereof! + RIVERS. A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion, + To pray for them that have done scathe to us! + GLOUCESTER. So do I ever- [Aside] being well advis'd; + For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself. + + Enter CATESBY + + CATESBY. Madam, his Majesty doth can for you, + And for your Grace, and you, my gracious lords. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Catesby, I come. Lords, will you go + with me? + RIVERS. We wait upon your Grace. + Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER + GLOUCESTER. I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl. + The secret mischiefs that I set abroach + I lay unto the grievous charge of others. + Clarence, who I indeed have cast in darkness, + I do beweep to many simple gulls; + Namely, to Derby, Hastings, Buckingham; + And tell them 'tis the Queen and her allies + That stir the King against the Duke my brother. + Now they believe it, and withal whet me + To be reveng'd on Rivers, Dorset, Grey; + But then I sigh and, with a piece of Scripture, + Tell them that God bids us do good for evil. + And thus I clothe my naked villainy + With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ, + And seem a saint when most I play the devil. + + Enter two MURDERERS + + But, soft, here come my executioners. + How now, my hardy stout resolved mates! + Are you now going to dispatch this thing? + FIRST MURDERER. We are, my lord, and come to have the + warrant, + That we may be admitted where he is. + GLOUCESTER. Well thought upon; I have it here about me. + [Gives the warrant] + When you have done, repair to Crosby Place. + But, sirs, be sudden in the execution, + Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead; + For Clarence is well-spoken, and perhaps + May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him. + FIRST MURDERER. Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to + prate; + Talkers are no good doers. Be assur'd + We go to use our hands and not our tongues. + GLOUCESTER. Your eyes drop millstones when fools' eyes fall + tears. + I like you, lads; about your business straight; + Go, go, dispatch. + FIRST MURDERER. We will, my noble lord. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. + +London. The Tower + +Enter CLARENCE and KEEPER + + KEEPER. Why looks your Grace so heavily to-day? + CLARENCE. O, I have pass'd a miserable night, + So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights, + That, as I am a Christian faithful man, + I would not spend another such a night + Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days- + So full of dismal terror was the time! + KEEPER. What was your dream, my lord? I pray you + tell me. + CLARENCE. Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower + And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy; + And in my company my brother Gloucester, + Who from my cabin tempted me to walk + Upon the hatches. Thence we look'd toward England, + And cited up a thousand heavy times, + During the wars of York and Lancaster, + That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along + Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, + Methought that Gloucester stumbled, and in falling + Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard + Into the tumbling billows of the main. + O Lord, methought what pain it was to drown, + What dreadful noise of waters in my ears, + What sights of ugly death within my eyes! + Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks, + A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon, + Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, + Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, + All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea; + Some lay in dead men's skulls, and in the holes + Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept, + As 'twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems, + That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep + And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatt'red by. + KEEPER. Had you such leisure in the time of death + To gaze upon these secrets of the deep? + CLARENCE. Methought I had; and often did I strive + To yield the ghost, but still the envious flood + Stopp'd in my soul and would not let it forth + To find the empty, vast, and wand'ring air; + But smother'd it within my panting bulk, + Who almost burst to belch it in the sea. + KEEPER. Awak'd you not in this sore agony? + CLARENCE. No, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life. + O, then began the tempest to my soul! + I pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood + With that sour ferryman which poets write of, + Unto the kingdom of perpetual night. + The first that there did greet my stranger soul + Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick, + Who spake aloud 'What scourge for perjury + Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?' + And so he vanish'd. Then came wand'ring by + A shadow like an angel, with bright hair + Dabbled in blood, and he shriek'd out aloud + 'Clarence is come-false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence, + That stabb'd me in the field by Tewksbury. + Seize on him, Furies, take him unto torment!' + With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends + Environ'd me, and howled in mine ears + Such hideous cries that, with the very noise, + I trembling wak'd, and for a season after + Could not believe but that I was in hell, + Such terrible impression made my dream. + KEEPER. No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you; + I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it. + CLARENCE. Ah, Keeper, Keeper, I have done these things + That now give evidence against my soul + For Edward's sake, and see how he requites me! + O God! If my deep prayers cannot appease Thee, + But Thou wilt be aveng'd on my misdeeds, + Yet execute Thy wrath in me alone; + O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children! + KEEPER, I prithee sit by me awhile; + My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep. + KEEPER. I will, my lord. God give your Grace good rest. + [CLARENCE sleeps] + + Enter BRAKENBURY the Lieutenant + + BRAKENBURY. Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours, + Makes the night morning and the noontide night. + Princes have but their titles for their glories, + An outward honour for an inward toil; + And for unfelt imaginations + They often feel a world of restless cares, + So that between their tides and low name + There's nothing differs but the outward fame. + + Enter the two MURDERERS + + FIRST MURDERER. Ho! who's here? + BRAKENBURY. What wouldst thou, fellow, and how cam'st + thou hither? + FIRST MURDERER. I would speak with Clarence, and I came + hither on my legs. + BRAKENBURY. What, so brief? + SECOND MURDERER. 'Tis better, sir, than to be tedious. Let + him see our commission and talk no more. + [BRAKENBURY reads it] + BRAKENBURY. I am, in this, commanded to deliver + The noble Duke of Clarence to your hands. + I will not reason what is meant hereby, + Because I will be guiltless from the meaning. + There lies the Duke asleep; and there the keys. + I'll to the King and signify to him + That thus I have resign'd to you my charge. + FIRST MURDERER. You may, sir; 'tis a point of wisdom. Fare + you well. Exeunt BRAKENBURY and KEEPER + SECOND MURDERER. What, shall I stab him as he sleeps? + FIRST MURDERER. No; he'll say 'twas done cowardly, when + he wakes. + SECOND MURDERER. Why, he shall never wake until the great + judgment-day. + FIRST MURDERER. Why, then he'll say we stabb'd him + sleeping. + SECOND MURDERER. The urging of that word judgment hath + bred a kind of remorse in me. + FIRST MURDERER. What, art thou afraid? + SECOND MURDERER. Not to kill him, having a warrant; but to + be damn'd for killing him, from the which no warrant can + defend me. + FIRST MURDERER. I thought thou hadst been resolute. + SECOND MURDERER. So I am, to let him live. + FIRST MURDERER. I'll back to the Duke of Gloucester and + tell him so. + SECOND MURDERER. Nay, I prithee, stay a little. I hope this + passionate humour of mine will change; it was wont to + hold me but while one tells twenty. + FIRST MURDERER. How dost thou feel thyself now? + SECOND MURDERER. Faith, some certain dregs of conscience + are yet within me. + FIRST MURDERER. Remember our reward, when the deed's + done. + SECOND MURDERER. Zounds, he dies; I had forgot the reward. + FIRST MURDERER. Where's thy conscience now? + SECOND MURDERER. O, in the Duke of Gloucester's purse! + FIRST MURDERER. When he opens his purse to give us our + reward, thy conscience flies out. + SECOND MURDERER. 'Tis no matter; let it go; there's few or + none will entertain it. + FIRST MURDERER. What if it come to thee again? + SECOND MURDERER. I'll not meddle with it-it makes a man + coward: a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man + cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his + neighbour's wife, but it detects him. 'Tis a blushing shame- + fac'd spirit that mutinies in a man's bosom; it fills a man + full of obstacles: it made me once restore a purse of gold + that-by chance I found. It beggars any man that keeps it. + It is turn'd out of towns and cities for a dangerous thing; + and every man that means to live well endeavours to trust + to himself and live without it. + FIRST MURDERER. Zounds, 'tis even now at my elbow, + persuading me not to kill the Duke. + SECOND MURDERER. Take the devil in thy mind and believe + him not; he would insinuate with thee but to make the + sigh. + FIRST MURDERER. I am strong-fram'd; he cannot prevail with + me. + SECOND MURDERER. Spoke like a tall man that respects thy + reputation. Come, shall we fall to work? + FIRST MURDERER. Take him on the costard with the hilts of + thy sword, and then chop him in the malmsey-butt in the + next room. + SECOND MURDERER. O excellent device! and make a sop of + him. + FIRST MURDERER. Soft! he wakes. + SECOND MURDERER. Strike! + FIRST MURDERER. No, we'll reason with him. + CLARENCE. Where art thou, Keeper? Give me a cup of wine. + SECOND MURDERER. You shall have wine enough, my lord, + anon. + CLARENCE. In God's name, what art thou? + FIRST MURDERER. A man, as you are. + CLARENCE. But not as I am, royal. + SECOND MURDERER. Nor you as we are, loyal. + CLARENCE. Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble. + FIRST MURDERER. My voice is now the King's, my looks + mine own. + CLARENCE. How darkly and how deadly dost thou speak! + Your eyes do menace me. Why look you pale? + Who sent you hither? Wherefore do you come? + SECOND MURDERER. To, to, to- + CLARENCE. To murder me? + BOTH MURDERERS. Ay, ay. + CLARENCE. You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so, + And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it. + Wherein, my friends, have I offended you? + FIRST MURDERER. Offended us you have not, but the King. + CLARENCE. I shall be reconcil'd to him again. + SECOND MURDERER. Never, my lord; therefore prepare to die. + CLARENCE. Are you drawn forth among a world of men + To slay the innocent? What is my offence? + Where is the evidence that doth accuse me? + What lawful quest have given their verdict up + Unto the frowning judge, or who pronounc'd + The bitter sentence of poor Clarence' death? + Before I be convict by course of law, + To threaten me with death is most unlawful. + I charge you, as you hope to have redemption + By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins, + That you depart and lay no hands on me. + The deed you undertake is damnable. + FIRST MURDERER. What we will do, we do upon command. + SECOND MURDERER. And he that hath commanded is our + King. + CLARENCE. Erroneous vassals! the great King of kings + Hath in the tables of his law commanded + That thou shalt do no murder. Will you then + Spurn at his edict and fulfil a man's? + Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his hand + To hurl upon their heads that break his law. + SECOND MURDERER. And that same vengeance doth he hurl + on thee + For false forswearing, and for murder too; + Thou didst receive the sacrament to fight + In quarrel of the house of Lancaster. + FIRST MURDERER. And like a traitor to the name of God + Didst break that vow; and with thy treacherous blade + Unripp'dst the bowels of thy sov'reign's son. + SECOND MURDERER. Whom thou wast sworn to cherish and + defend. + FIRST MURDERER. How canst thou urge God's dreadful law + to us, + When thou hast broke it in such dear degree? + CLARENCE. Alas! for whose sake did I that ill deed? + For Edward, for my brother, for his sake. + He sends you not to murder me for this, + For in that sin he is as deep as I. + If God will be avenged for the deed, + O, know you yet He doth it publicly. + Take not the quarrel from His pow'rful arm; + He needs no indirect or lawless course + To cut off those that have offended Him. + FIRST MURDERER. Who made thee then a bloody minister + When gallant-springing brave Plantagenet, + That princely novice, was struck dead by thee? + CLARENCE. My brother's love, the devil, and my rage. + FIRST MURDERER. Thy brother's love, our duty, and thy + faults, + Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee. + CLARENCE. If you do love my brother, hate not me; + I am his brother, and I love him well. + If you are hir'd for meed, go back again, + And I will send you to my brother Gloucester, + Who shall reward you better for my life + Than Edward will for tidings of my death. + SECOND MURDERER. You are deceiv'd: your brother Gloucester + hates you. + CLARENCE. O, no, he loves me, and he holds me dear. + Go you to him from me. + FIRST MURDERER. Ay, so we will. + CLARENCE. Tell him when that our princely father York + Bless'd his three sons with his victorious arm + And charg'd us from his soul to love each other, + He little thought of this divided friendship. + Bid Gloucester think of this, and he will weep. + FIRST MURDERER. Ay, millstones; as he lesson'd us to weep. + CLARENCE. O, do not slander him, for he is kind. + FIRST MURDERER. Right, as snow in harvest. Come, you + deceive yourself: + 'Tis he that sends us to destroy you here. + CLARENCE. It cannot be; for he bewept my fortune + And hugg'd me in his arms, and swore with sobs + That he would labour my delivery. + FIRST MURDERER. Why, so he doth, when he delivers you + From this earth's thraldom to the joys of heaven. + SECOND MURDERER. Make peace with God, for you must die, + my lord. + CLARENCE. Have you that holy feeling in your souls + To counsel me to make my peace with God, + And are you yet to your own souls so blind + That you will war with God by murd'ring me? + O, sirs, consider: they that set you on + To do this deed will hate you for the deed. + SECOND MURDERER. What shall we do? + CLARENCE. Relent, and save your souls. + FIRST MURDERER. Relent! No, 'tis cowardly and womanish. + CLARENCE. Not to relent is beastly, savage, devilish. + Which of you, if you were a prince's son, + Being pent from liberty as I am now, + If two such murderers as yourselves came to you, + Would not entreat for life? + My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks; + O, if thine eye be not a flatterer, + Come thou on my side and entreat for me- + As you would beg were you in my distress. + A begging prince what beggar pities not? + SECOND MURDERER. Look behind you, my lord. + FIRST MURDERER. [Stabbing him] Take that, and that. If all + this will not do, + I'll drown you in the malmsey-butt within. + Exit with the body + SECOND MURDERER. A bloody deed, and desperately + dispatch'd! + How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands + Of this most grievous murder! + + Re-enter FIRST MURDERER + + FIRST MURDERER-How now, what mean'st thou that thou + help'st me not? + By heavens, the Duke shall know how slack you have + been! + SECOND MURDERER. I would he knew that I had sav'd his + brother! + Take thou the fee, and tell him what I say; + For I repent me that the Duke is slain. Exit + FIRST MURDERER. So do not I. Go, coward as thou art. + Well, I'll go hide the body in some hole, + Till that the Duke give order for his burial; + And when I have my meed, I will away; + For this will out, and then I must not stay. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE 1. + +London. The palace + +Flourish. Enter KING EDWARD sick, QUEEN ELIZABETH, DORSET, RIVERS, +HASTINGS, BUCKINGHAM, GREY, and others + + KING EDWARD. Why, so. Now have I done a good day's + work. + You peers, continue this united league. + I every day expect an embassage + From my Redeemer to redeem me hence; + And more at peace my soul shall part to heaven, + Since I have made my friends at peace on earth. + Hastings and Rivers, take each other's hand; + Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love. + RIVERS. By heaven, my soul is purg'd from grudging hate; + And with my hand I seal my true heart's love. + HASTINGS. So thrive I, as I truly swear the like! + KING EDWARD. Take heed you dally not before your king; + Lest He that is the supreme King of kings + Confound your hidden falsehood and award + Either of you to be the other's end. + HASTINGS. So prosper I, as I swear perfect love! + RIVERS. And I, as I love Hastings with my heart! + KING EDWARD. Madam, yourself is not exempt from this; + Nor you, son Dorset; Buckingham, nor you: + You have been factious one against the other. + Wife, love Lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand; + And what you do, do it unfeignedly. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. There, Hastings; I will never more + remember + Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine! + KING EDWARD. Dorset, embrace him; Hastings, love Lord + Marquis. + DORSET. This interchange of love, I here protest, + Upon my part shall be inviolable. + HASTINGS. And so swear I. [They embrace] + KING EDWARD. Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this + league + With thy embracements to my wife's allies, + And make me happy in your unity. + BUCKINGHAM. [To the QUEEN] Whenever Buckingham + doth turn his hate + Upon your Grace, but with all duteous love + Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me + With hate in those where I expect most love! + When I have most need to employ a friend + And most assured that he is a friend, + Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile, + Be he unto me! This do I beg of God + When I am cold in love to you or yours. + [They embrace] + KING EDWARD. A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham, + Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart. + There wanteth now our brother Gloucester here + To make the blessed period of this peace. + BUCKINGHAM. And, in good time, + Here comes Sir Richard Ratcliff and the Duke. + + Enter GLOUCESTER, and RATCLIFF + + GLOUCESTER. Good morrow to my sovereign king and + Queen; + And, princely peers, a happy time of day! + KING EDWARD. Happy, indeed, as we have spent the day. + Gloucester, we have done deeds of charity, + Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate, + Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers. + GLOUCESTER. A blessed labour, my most sovereign lord. + Among this princely heap, if any here, + By false intelligence or wrong surmise, + Hold me a foe- + If I unwittingly, or in my rage, + Have aught committed that is hardly borne + To any in this presence, I desire + To reconcile me to his friendly peace: + 'Tis death to me to be at enmity; + I hate it, and desire all good men's love. + First, madam, I entreat true peace of you, + Which I will purchase with my duteous service; + Of you, my noble cousin Buckingham, + If ever any grudge were lodg'd between us; + Of you, and you, Lord Rivers, and of Dorset, + That all without desert have frown'd on me; + Of you, Lord Woodville, and, Lord Scales, of you; + Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen-indeed, of all. + I do not know that Englishman alive + With whom my soul is any jot at odds + More than the infant that is born to-night. + I thank my God for my humility. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. A holy day shall this be kept hereafter. + I would to God all strifes were well compounded. + My sovereign lord, I do beseech your Highness + To take our brother Clarence to your grace. + GLOUCESTER. Why, madam, have I off'red love for this, + To be so flouted in this royal presence? + Who knows not that the gentle Duke is dead? + [They all start] + You do him injury to scorn his corse. + KING EDWARD. Who knows not he is dead! Who knows + he is? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. All-seeing heaven, what a world is this! + BUCKINGHAM. Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest? + DORSET. Ay, my good lord; and no man in the presence + But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks. + KING EDWARD. Is Clarence dead? The order was revers'd. + GLOUCESTER. But he, poor man, by your first order died, + And that a winged Mercury did bear; + Some tardy cripple bare the countermand + That came too lag to see him buried. + God grant that some, less noble and less loyal, + Nearer in bloody thoughts, an not in blood, + Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did, + And yet go current from suspicion! + + Enter DERBY + + DERBY. A boon, my sovereign, for my service done! + KING EDWARD. I prithee, peace; my soul is full of sorrow. + DERBY. I Will not rise unless your Highness hear me. + KING EDWARD. Then say at once what is it thou requests. + DERBY. The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's life; + Who slew to-day a riotous gentleman + Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk. + KING EDWARD. Have I a tongue to doom my brother's death, + And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave? + My brother killed no man-his fault was thought, + And yet his punishment was bitter death. + Who sued to me for him? Who, in my wrath, + Kneel'd at my feet, and bid me be advis'd? + Who spoke of brotherhood? Who spoke of love? + Who told me how the poor soul did forsake + The mighty Warwick and did fight for me? + Who told me, in the field at Tewksbury + When Oxford had me down, he rescued me + And said 'Dear Brother, live, and be a king'? + Who told me, when we both lay in the field + Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me + Even in his garments, and did give himself, + All thin and naked, to the numb cold night? + All this from my remembrance brutish wrath + Sinfully pluck'd, and not a man of you + Had so much race to put it in my mind. + But when your carters or your waiting-vassals + Have done a drunken slaughter and defac'd + The precious image of our dear Redeemer, + You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon; + And I, unjustly too, must grant it you. [DERBY rises] + But for my brother not a man would speak; + Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself + For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all + Have been beholding to him in his life; + Yet none of you would once beg for his life. + O God, I fear thy justice will take hold + On me, and you, and mine, and yours, for this! + Come, Hastings, help me to my closet. Ah, poor Clarence! + Exeunt some with KING and QUEEN + GLOUCESTER. This is the fruits of rashness. Mark'd you not + How that the guilty kindred of the Queen + Look'd pale when they did hear of Clarence' death? + O, they did urge it still unto the King! + God will revenge it. Come, lords, will you go + To comfort Edward with our company? + BUCKINGHAM. We wait upon your Grace. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. + +London. The palace + +Enter the old DUCHESS OF YORK, with the SON and DAUGHTER of CLARENCE + + SON. Good grandam, tell us, is our father dead? + DUCHESS. No, boy. + DAUGHTER. Why do you weep so oft, and beat your breast, + And cry 'O Clarence, my unhappy son!'? + SON. Why do you look on us, and shake your head, + And call us orphans, wretches, castaways, + If that our noble father were alive? + DUCHESS. My pretty cousins, you mistake me both; + I do lament the sickness of the King, + As loath to lose him, not your father's death; + It were lost sorrow to wail one that's lost. + SON. Then you conclude, my grandam, he is dead. + The King mine uncle is to blame for it. + God will revenge it; whom I will importune + With earnest prayers all to that effect. + DAUGHTER. And so will I. + DUCHESS. Peace, children, peace! The King doth love you + well. + Incapable and shallow innocents, + You cannot guess who caus'd your father's death. + SON. Grandam, we can; for my good uncle Gloucester + Told me the King, provok'd to it by the Queen, + Devis'd impeachments to imprison him. + And when my uncle told me so, he wept, + And pitied me, and kindly kiss'd my cheek; + Bade me rely on him as on my father, + And he would love me dearly as a child. + DUCHESS. Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shape, + And with a virtuous vizor hide deep vice! + He is my son; ay, and therein my shame; + Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit. + SON. Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam? + DUCHESS. Ay, boy. + SON. I cannot think it. Hark! what noise is this? + + Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, with her hair about her + ears; RIVERS and DORSET after her + + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Ah, who shall hinder me to wail and + weep, + To chide my fortune, and torment myself? + I'll join with black despair against my soul + And to myself become an enemy. + DUCHESS. What means this scene of rude impatience? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. To make an act of tragic violence. + EDWARD, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead. + Why grow the branches when the root is gone? + Why wither not the leaves that want their sap? + If you will live, lament; if die, be brief, + That our swift-winged souls may catch the King's, + Or like obedient subjects follow him + To his new kingdom of ne'er-changing night. + DUCHESS. Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow + As I had title in thy noble husband! + I have bewept a worthy husband's death, + And liv'd with looking on his images; + But now two mirrors of his princely semblance + Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death, + And I for comfort have but one false glass, + That grieves me when I see my shame in him. + Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother + And hast the comfort of thy children left; + But death hath snatch'd my husband from mine arms + And pluck'd two crutches from my feeble hands- + Clarence and Edward. O, what cause have I- + Thine being but a moiety of my moan- + To overgo thy woes and drown thy cries? + SON. Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father's death! + How can we aid you with our kindred tears? + DAUGHTER. Our fatherless distress was left unmoan'd; + Your widow-dolour likewise be unwept! + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Give me no help in lamentation; + I am not barren to bring forth complaints. + All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes + That I, being govern'd by the watery moon, + May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world! + Ah for my husband, for my dear Lord Edward! + CHILDREN. Ah for our father, for our dear Lord Clarence! + DUCHESS. Alas for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence! + QUEEN ELIZABETH. What stay had I but Edward? and he's + gone. + CHILDREN. What stay had we but Clarence? and he's gone. + DUCHESS. What stays had I but they? and they are gone. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Was never widow had so dear a loss. + CHILDREN. Were never orphans had so dear a loss. + DUCHESS. Was never mother had so dear a loss. + Alas, I am the mother of these griefs! + Their woes are parcell'd, mine is general. + She for an Edward weeps, and so do I: + I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she. + These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I: + I for an Edward weep, so do not they. + Alas, you three on me, threefold distress'd, + Pour all your tears! I am your sorrow's nurse, + And I will pamper it with lamentation. + DORSET. Comfort, dear mother. God is much displeas'd + That you take with unthankfulness his doing. + In common worldly things 'tis called ungrateful + With dull unwillingness to repay a debt + Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent; + Much more to be thus opposite with heaven, + For it requires the royal debt it lent you. + RIVERS. Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother, + Of the young prince your son. Send straight for him; + Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives. + Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward's grave, + And plant your joys in living Edward's throne. + + Enter GLOUCESTER, BUCKINGHAM, DERBY, + HASTINGS, and RATCLIFF + + GLOUCESTER. Sister, have comfort. All of us have cause + To wail the dimming of our shining star; + But none can help our harms by wailing them. + Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy; + I did not see your Grace. Humbly on my knee + I crave your blessing. + DUCHESS. God bless thee; and put meekness in thy breast, + Love, charity, obedience, and true duty! + GLOUCESTER. Amen! [Aside] And make me die a good old + man! + That is the butt end of a mother's blessing; + I marvel that her Grace did leave it out. + BUCKINGHAM. You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing + peers, + That bear this heavy mutual load of moan, + Now cheer each other in each other's love. + Though we have spent our harvest of this king, + We are to reap the harvest of his son. + The broken rancour of your high-swol'n hearts, + But lately splinter'd, knit, and join'd together, + Must gently be preserv'd, cherish'd, and kept. + Me seemeth good that, with some little train, + Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fet + Hither to London, to be crown'd our King. + + RIVERS. Why with some little train, my Lord of + Buckingham? + BUCKINGHAM. Marry, my lord, lest by a multitude + The new-heal'd wound of malice should break out, + Which would be so much the more dangerous + By how much the estate is green and yet ungovern'd; + Where every horse bears his commanding rein + And may direct his course as please himself, + As well the fear of harm as harm apparent, + In my opinion, ought to be prevented. + GLOUCESTER. I hope the King made peace with all of us; + And the compact is firm and true in me. + RIVERS. And so in me; and so, I think, in an. + Yet, since it is but green, it should be put + To no apparent likelihood of breach, + Which haply by much company might be urg'd; + Therefore I say with noble Buckingham + That it is meet so few should fetch the Prince. + HASTINGS. And so say I. + GLOUCESTER. Then be it so; and go we to determine + Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow. + Madam, and you, my sister, will you go + To give your censures in this business? + Exeunt all but BUCKINGHAM and GLOUCESTER + BUCKINGHAM. My lord, whoever journeys to the Prince, + For God sake, let not us two stay at home; + For by the way I'll sort occasion, + As index to the story we late talk'd of, + To part the Queen's proud kindred from the Prince. + GLOUCESTER. My other self, my counsel's consistory, + My oracle, my prophet, my dear cousin, + I, as a child, will go by thy direction. + Toward Ludlow then, for we'll not stay behind. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. + +London. A street + +Enter one CITIZEN at one door, and another at the other + + FIRST CITIZEN. Good morrow, neighbour. Whither away so + fast? + SECOND CITIZEN. I promise you, I scarcely know myself. + Hear you the news abroad? + FIRST CITIZEN. Yes, that the King is dead. + SECOND CITIZEN. Ill news, by'r lady; seldom comes the + better. + I fear, I fear 'twill prove a giddy world. + + Enter another CITIZEN + + THIRD CITIZEN. Neighbours, God speed! + FIRST CITIZEN. Give you good morrow, sir. + THIRD CITIZEN. Doth the news hold of good King Edward's + death? + SECOND CITIZEN. Ay, sir, it is too true; God help the while! + THIRD CITIZEN. Then, masters, look to see a troublous + world. + FIRST CITIZEN. No, no; by God's good grace, his son shall + reign. + THIRD CITIZEN. Woe to that land that's govern'd by a child. + SECOND CITIZEN. In him there is a hope of government, + Which, in his nonage, council under him, + And, in his full and ripened years, himself, + No doubt, shall then, and till then, govern well. + FIRST CITIZEN. So stood the state when Henry the Sixth + Was crown'd in Paris but at nine months old. + THIRD CITIZEN. Stood the state so? No, no, good friends, + God wot; + For then this land was famously enrich'd + With politic grave counsel; then the King + Had virtuous uncles to protect his Grace. + FIRST CITIZEN. Why, so hath this, both by his father and + mother. + THIRD CITIZEN. Better it were they all came by his father, + Or by his father there were none at all; + For emulation who shall now be nearest + Will touch us all too near, if God prevent not. + O, full of danger is the Duke of Gloucester! + And the Queen's sons and brothers haught and proud; + And were they to be rul'd, and not to rule, + This sickly land might solace as before. + FIRST CITIZEN. Come, come, we fear the worst; all will be + well. + THIRD CITIZEN. When clouds are seen, wise men put on + their cloaks; + When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand; + When the sun sets, who doth not look for night? + Untimely storms make men expect a dearth. + All may be well; but, if God sort it so, + 'Tis more than we deserve or I expect. + SECOND CITIZEN. Truly, the hearts of men are fun of fear. + You cannot reason almost with a man + That looks not heavily and fun of dread. + THIRD CITIZEN. Before the days of change, still is it so; + By a divine instinct men's minds mistrust + Ensuing danger; as by proof we see + The water swell before a boist'rous storm. + But leave it all to God. Whither away? + SECOND CITIZEN. Marry, we were sent for to the justices. + THIRD CITIZEN. And so was I; I'll bear you company. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. + +London. The palace + +Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, the young DUKE OF YORK, QUEEN ELIZABETH, +and the DUCHESS OF YORK + + ARCHBISHOP. Last night, I hear, they lay at Stony Stratford, + And at Northampton they do rest to-night; + To-morrow or next day they will be here. + DUCHESS. I long with all my heart to see the Prince. + I hope he is much grown since last I saw him. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. But I hear no; they say my son of York + Has almost overta'en him in his growth. + YORK. Ay, mother; but I would not have it so. + DUCHESS. Why, my good cousin, it is good to grow. + YORK. Grandam, one night as we did sit at supper, + My uncle Rivers talk'd how I did grow + More than my brother. 'Ay,' quoth my uncle Gloucester + 'Small herbs have grace: great weeds do grow apace.' + And since, methinks, I would not grow so fast, + Because sweet flow'rs are slow and weeds make haste. + DUCHESS. Good faith, good faith, the saying did not hold + In him that did object the same to thee. + He was the wretched'st thing when he was young, + So long a-growing and so leisurely + That, if his rule were true, he should be gracious. + ARCHBISHOP. And so no doubt he is, my gracious madam. + DUCHESS. I hope he is; but yet let mothers doubt. + YORK. Now, by my troth, if I had been rememb'red, + I could have given my uncle's Grace a flout + To touch his growth nearer than he touch'd mine. + DUCHESS. How, my young York? I prithee let me hear it. + YORK. Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast + That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old. + 'Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth. + Grandam, this would have been a biting jest. + DUCHESS. I prithee, pretty York, who told thee this? + YORK. Grandam, his nurse. + DUCHESS. His nurse! Why she was dead ere thou wast + born. + YORK. If 'twere not she, I cannot tell who told me. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. A parlous boy! Go to, you are too + shrewd. + ARCHBISHOP. Good madam, be not angry with the child. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Pitchers have ears. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + ARCHBISHOP. Here comes a messenger. What news? + MESSENGER. Such news, my lord, as grieves me to report. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. How doth the Prince? + MESSENGER. Well, madam, and in health. + DUCHESS. What is thy news? + MESSENGER. Lord Rivers and Lord Grey + Are sent to Pomfret, and with them + Sir Thomas Vaughan, prisoners. + DUCHESS. Who hath committed them? + MESSENGER. The mighty Dukes, Gloucester and Buckingham. + ARCHBISHOP. For what offence? + MESSENGER. The sum of all I can, I have disclos'd. + Why or for what the nobles were committed + Is all unknown to me, my gracious lord. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Ay me, I see the ruin of my house! + The tiger now hath seiz'd the gentle hind; + Insulting tyranny begins to jet + Upon the innocent and aweless throne. + Welcome, destruction, blood, and massacre! + I see, as in a map, the end of all. + DUCHESS. Accursed and unquiet wrangling days, + How many of you have mine eyes beheld! + My husband lost his life to get the crown; + And often up and down my sons were toss'd + For me to joy and weep their gain and loss; + And being seated, and domestic broils + Clean over-blown, themselves the conquerors + Make war upon themselves-brother to brother, + Blood to blood, self against self. O, preposterous + And frantic outrage, end thy damned spleen, + Or let me die, to look on death no more! + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Come, come, my boy; we will to + sanctuary. + Madam, farewell. + DUCHESS. Stay, I will go with you. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. You have no cause. + ARCHBISHOP. [To the QUEEN] My gracious lady, go. + And thither bear your treasure and your goods. + For my part, I'll resign unto your Grace + The seal I keep; and so betide to me + As well I tender you and all of yours! + Go, I'll conduct you to the sanctuary. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE 1. + +London. A street + +The trumpets sound. Enter the PRINCE OF WALES, GLOUCESTER, BUCKINGHAM, +CATESBY, CARDINAL BOURCHIER, and others + + BUCKINGHAM. Welcome, sweet Prince, to London, to your + chamber. + GLOUCESTER. Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts' sovereign. + The weary way hath made you melancholy. + PRINCE. No, uncle; but our crosses on the way + Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy. + I want more uncles here to welcome me. + GLOUCESTER. Sweet Prince, the untainted virtue of your + years + Hath not yet div'd into the world's deceit; + Nor more can you distinguish of a man + Than of his outward show; which, God He knows, + Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart. + Those uncles which you want were dangerous; + Your Grace attended to their sug'red words + But look'd not on the poison of their hearts. + God keep you from them and from such false friends! + PRINCE. God keep me from false friends! but they were + none. + GLOUCESTER. My lord, the Mayor of London comes to greet + you. + + Enter the LORD MAYOR and his train + + MAYOR. God bless your Grace with health and happy days! + PRINCE. I thank you, good my lord, and thank you all. + I thought my mother and my brother York + Would long ere this have met us on the way. + Fie, what a slug is Hastings, that he comes not + To tell us whether they will come or no! + + Enter LORD HASTINGS + + BUCKINGHAM. And, in good time, here comes the sweating + Lord. + PRINCE. Welcome, my lord. What, will our mother come? + HASTINGS. On what occasion, God He knows, not I, + The Queen your mother and your brother York + Have taken sanctuary. The tender Prince + Would fain have come with me to meet your Grace, + But by his mother was perforce withheld. + BUCKINGHAM. Fie, what an indirect and peevish course + Is this of hers? Lord Cardinal, will your Grace + Persuade the Queen to send the Duke of York + Unto his princely brother presently? + If she deny, Lord Hastings, go with him + And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce. + CARDINAL. My Lord of Buckingham, if my weak oratory + Can from his mother win the Duke of York, + Anon expect him here; but if she be obdurate + To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid + We should infringe the holy privilege + Of blessed sanctuary! Not for all this land + Would I be guilty of so deep a sin. + BUCKINGHAM. You are too senseless-obstinate, my lord, + Too ceremonious and traditional. + Weigh it but with the grossness of this age, + You break not sanctuary in seizing him. + The benefit thereof is always granted + To those whose dealings have deserv'd the place + And those who have the wit to claim the place. + This Prince hath neither claim'd it nor deserv'd it, + And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it. + Then, taking him from thence that is not there, + You break no privilege nor charter there. + Oft have I heard of sanctuary men; + But sanctuary children never till now. + CARDINAL. My lord, you shall o'errule my mind for once. + Come on, Lord Hastings, will you go with me? + HASTINGS. I go, my lord. + PRINCE. Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may. + Exeunt CARDINAL and HASTINGS + Say, uncle Gloucester, if our brother come, + Where shall we sojourn till our coronation? + GLOUCESTER. Where it seems best unto your royal self. + If I may counsel you, some day or two + Your Highness shall repose you at the Tower, + Then where you please and shall be thought most fit + For your best health and recreation. + PRINCE. I do not like the Tower, of any place. + Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord? + BUCKINGHAM. He did, my gracious lord, begin that place, + Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified. + PRINCE. Is it upon record, or else reported + Successively from age to age, he built it? + BUCKINGHAM. Upon record, my gracious lord. + PRINCE. But say, my lord, it were not regist'red, + Methinks the truth should Eve from age to age, + As 'twere retail'd to all posterity, + Even to the general all-ending day. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside] So wise so young, they say, do never + live long. + PRINCE. What say you, uncle? + GLOUCESTER. I say, without characters, fame lives long. + [Aside] Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity, + I moralize two meanings in one word. + PRINCE. That Julius Caesar was a famous man; + With what his valour did enrich his wit, + His wit set down to make his valour live. + Death makes no conquest of this conqueror; + For now he lives in fame, though not in life. + I'll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham- + BUCKINGHAM. What, my gracious lord? + PRINCE. An if I live until I be a man, + I'll win our ancient right in France again, + Or die a soldier as I liv'd a king. + GLOUCESTER. [Aside] Short summers lightly have a forward + spring. + + Enter HASTINGS, young YORK, and the CARDINAL + + BUCKINGHAM. Now, in good time, here comes the Duke of + York. + PRINCE. Richard of York, how fares our loving brother? + YORK. Well, my dread lord; so must I can you now. + PRINCE. Ay brother, to our grief, as it is yours. + Too late he died that might have kept that title, + Which by his death hath lost much majesty. + GLOUCESTER. How fares our cousin, noble Lord of York? + YORK. I thank you, gentle uncle. O, my lord, + You said that idle weeds are fast in growth. + The Prince my brother hath outgrown me far. + GLOUCESTER. He hath, my lord. + YORK. And therefore is he idle? + GLOUCESTER. O, my fair cousin, I must not say so. + YORK. Then he is more beholding to you than I. + GLOUCESTER. He may command me as my sovereign; + But you have power in me as in a kinsman. + YORK. I pray you, uncle, give me this dagger. + GLOUCESTER. My dagger, little cousin? With all my heart! + PRINCE. A beggar, brother? + YORK. Of my kind uncle, that I know will give, + And being but a toy, which is no grief to give. + GLOUCESTER. A greater gift than that I'll give my cousin. + YORK. A greater gift! O, that's the sword to it! + GLOUCESTER. Ay, gentle cousin, were it light enough. + YORK. O, then, I see you will part but with light gifts: + In weightier things you'll say a beggar nay. + GLOUCESTER. It is too heavy for your Grace to wear. + YORK. I weigh it lightly, were it heavier. + GLOUCESTER. What, would you have my weapon, little + Lord? + YORK. I would, that I might thank you as you call me. + GLOUCESTER. How? + YORK. Little. + PRINCE. My Lord of York will still be cross in talk. + Uncle, your Grace knows how to bear with him. + YORK. You mean, to bear me, not to bear with me. + Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me; + Because that I am little, like an ape, + He thinks that you should bear me on your shoulders. + BUCKINGHAM. With what a sharp-provided wit he reasons! + To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle + He prettily and aptly taunts himself. + So cunning and so young is wonderful. + GLOUCESTER. My lord, will't please you pass along? + Myself and my good cousin Buckingham + Will to your mother, to entreat of her + To meet you at the Tower and welcome you. + YORK. What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord? + PRINCE. My Lord Protector needs will have it so. + YORK. I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower. + GLOUCESTER. Why, what should you fear? + YORK. Marry, my uncle Clarence' angry ghost. + My grandam told me he was murder'd there. + PRINCE. I fear no uncles dead. + GLOUCESTER. Nor none that live, I hope. + PRINCE. An if they live, I hope I need not fear. + But come, my lord; and with a heavy heart, + Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower. + A sennet. + Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER, BUCKINGHAM, and CATESBY + BUCKINGHAM. Think you, my lord, this little prating York + Was not incensed by his subtle mother + To taunt and scorn you thus opprobriously? + GLOUCESTER. No doubt, no doubt. O, 'tis a perilous boy; + Bold, quick, ingenious, forward, capable. + He is all the mother's, from the top to toe. + BUCKINGHAM. Well, let them rest. Come hither, Catesby. + Thou art sworn as deeply to effect what we intend + As closely to conceal what we impart. + Thou know'st our reasons urg'd upon the way. + What think'st thou? Is it not an easy matter + To make William Lord Hastings of our mind, + For the instalment of this noble Duke + In the seat royal of this famous isle? + CATESBY. He for his father's sake so loves the Prince + That he will not be won to aught against him. + BUCKINGHAM. What think'st thou then of Stanley? Will + not he? + CATESBY. He will do all in all as Hastings doth. + BUCKINGHAM. Well then, no more but this: go, gentle + Catesby, + And, as it were far off, sound thou Lord Hastings + How he doth stand affected to our purpose; + And summon him to-morrow to the Tower, + To sit about the coronation. + If thou dost find him tractable to us, + Encourage him, and tell him all our reasons; + If he be leaden, icy, cold, unwilling, + Be thou so too, and so break off the talk, + And give us notice of his inclination; + For we to-morrow hold divided councils, + Wherein thyself shalt highly be employ'd. + GLOUCESTER. Commend me to Lord William. Tell him, + Catesby, + His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries + To-morrow are let blood at Pomfret Castle; + And bid my lord, for joy of this good news, + Give Mistress Shore one gentle kiss the more. + BUCKINGHAM. Good Catesby, go effect this business soundly. + CATESBY. My good lords both, with all the heed I can. + GLOUCESTER. Shall we hear from you, Catesby, ere we sleep? + CATESBY. You shall, my lord. + GLOUCESTER. At Crosby House, there shall you find us both. + Exit CATESBY + BUCKINGHAM. Now, my lord, what shall we do if we + perceive + Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots? + GLOUCESTER. Chop off his head-something we will + determine. + And, look when I am King, claim thou of me + The earldom of Hereford and all the movables + Whereof the King my brother was possess'd. + BUCKINGHAM. I'll claim that promise at your Grace's hand. + GLOUCESTER. And look to have it yielded with all kindness. + Come, let us sup betimes, that afterwards + We may digest our complots in some form. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. + +Before LORD HASTING'S house + +Enter a MESSENGER to the door of HASTINGS + + MESSENGER. My lord, my lord! [Knocking] + HASTINGS. [Within] Who knocks? + MESSENGER. One from the Lord Stanley. + HASTINGS. [Within] What is't o'clock? + MESSENGER. Upon the stroke of four. + + Enter LORD HASTINGS + + HASTINGS. Cannot my Lord Stanley sleep these tedious + nights? + MESSENGER. So it appears by that I have to say. + First, he commends him to your noble self. + HASTINGS. What then? + MESSENGER. Then certifies your lordship that this night + He dreamt the boar had razed off his helm. + Besides, he says there are two councils kept, + And that may be determin'd at the one + Which may make you and him to rue at th' other. + Therefore he sends to know your lordship's pleasure- + If you will presently take horse with him + And with all speed post with him toward the north + To shun the danger that his soul divines. + HASTINGS. Go, fellow, go, return unto thy lord; + Bid him not fear the separated council: + His honour and myself are at the one, + And at the other is my good friend Catesby; + Where nothing can proceed that toucheth us + Whereof I shall not have intelligence. + Tell him his fears are shallow, without instance; + And for his dreams, I wonder he's so simple + To trust the mock'ry of unquiet slumbers. + To fly the boar before the boar pursues + Were to incense the boar to follow us + And make pursuit where he did mean no chase. + Go, bid thy master rise and come to me; + And we will both together to the Tower, + Where, he shall see, the boar will use us kindly. + MESSENGER. I'll go, my lord, and tell him what you say. + Exit + + Enter CATESBY + + CATESBY. Many good morrows to my noble lord! + HASTINGS. Good morrow, Catesby; you are early stirring. + What news, what news, in this our tott'ring state? + CATESBY. It is a reeling world indeed, my lord; + And I believe will never stand upright + Till Richard wear the garland of the realm. + HASTINGS. How, wear the garland! Dost thou mean the + crown? + CATESBY. Ay, my good lord. + HASTINGS. I'll have this crown of mine cut from my + shoulders + Before I'll see the crown so foul misplac'd. + But canst thou guess that he doth aim at it? + CATESBY. Ay, on my life; and hopes to find you forward + Upon his party for the gain thereof; + And thereupon he sends you this good news, + That this same very day your enemies, + The kindred of the Queen, must die at Pomfret. + HASTINGS. Indeed, I am no mourner for that news, + Because they have been still my adversaries; + But that I'll give my voice on Richard's side + To bar my master's heirs in true descent, + God knows I will not do it to the death. + CATESBY. God keep your lordship in that gracious mind! + HASTINGS. But I shall laugh at this a twelve month hence, + That they which brought me in my master's hate, + I live to look upon their tragedy. + Well, Catesby, ere a fortnight make me older, + I'll send some packing that yet think not on't. + CATESBY. 'Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord, + When men are unprepar'd and look not for it. + HASTINGS. O monstrous, monstrous! And so falls it out + With Rivers, Vaughan, Grey; and so 'twill do + With some men else that think themselves as safe + As thou and I, who, as thou knowest, are dear + To princely Richard and to Buckingham. + CATESBY. The Princes both make high account of you- + [Aside] For they account his head upon the bridge. + HASTINGS. I know they do, and I have well deserv'd it. + + Enter LORD STANLEY + + Come on, come on; where is your boar-spear, man? + Fear you the boar, and go so unprovided? + STANLEY. My lord, good morrow; good morrow, Catesby. + You may jest on, but, by the holy rood, + I do not like these several councils, I. + HASTINGS. My lord, I hold my life as dear as yours, + And never in my days, I do protest, + Was it so precious to me as 'tis now. + Think you, but that I know our state secure, + I would be so triumphant as I am? + STANLEY. The lords at Pomfret, when they rode from + London, + Were jocund and suppos'd their states were sure, + And they indeed had no cause to mistrust; + But yet you see how soon the day o'ercast. + This sudden stab of rancour I misdoubt; + Pray God, I say, I prove a needless coward. + What, shall we toward the Tower? The day is spent. + HASTINGS. Come, come, have with you. Wot you what, my + Lord? + To-day the lords you talk'd of are beheaded. + STANLEY. They, for their truth, might better wear their + heads + Than some that have accus'd them wear their hats. + But come, my lord, let's away. + + Enter HASTINGS, a pursuivant + + HASTINGS. Go on before; I'll talk with this good fellow. + Exeunt STANLEY and CATESBY + How now, Hastings! How goes the world with thee? + PURSUIVANT. The better that your lordship please to ask. + HASTINGS. I tell thee, man, 'tis better with me now + Than when thou met'st me last where now we meet: + Then was I going prisoner to the Tower + By the suggestion of the Queen's allies; + But now, I tell thee-keep it to thyself- + This day those enernies are put to death, + And I in better state than e'er I was. + PURSUIVANT. God hold it, to your honour's good content! + HASTINGS. Gramercy, Hastings; there, drink that for me. + [Throws him his purse] + PURSUIVANT. I thank your honour. Exit + + Enter a PRIEST + + PRIEST. Well met, my lord; I am glad to see your honour. + HASTINGS. I thank thee, good Sir John, with all my heart. + I am in your debt for your last exercise; + Come the next Sabbath, and I will content you. + [He whispers in his ear] + PRIEST. I'll wait upon your lordship. + + Enter BUCKINGHAM + + BUCKINGHAM. What, talking with a priest, Lord + Chamberlain! + Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest: + Your honour hath no shriving work in hand. + HASTINGS. Good faith, and when I met this holy man, + The men you talk of came into my mind. + What, go you toward the Tower? + BUCKINGHAM. I do, my lord, but long I cannot stay there; + I shall return before your lordship thence. + HASTINGS. Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there. + BUCKINGHAM. [Aside] And supper too, although thou + knowest it not.- + Come, will you go? + HASTINGS. I'll wait upon your lordship. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. + +Pomfret Castle + +Enter SIR RICHARD RATCLIFF, with halberds, carrying the Nobles, +RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN, to death + + RIVERS. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this: + To-day shalt thou behold a subject die + For truth, for duty, and for loyalty. + GREY. God bless the Prince from all the pack of you! + A knot you are of damned blood-suckers. + VAUGHAN. You live that shall cry woe for this hereafter. + RATCLIFF. Dispatch; the limit of your lives is out. + RIVERS. O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison, + Fatal and ominous to noble peers! + Within the guilty closure of thy walls + RICHARD the Second here was hack'd to death; + And for more slander to thy dismal seat, + We give to thee our guiltless blood to drink. + GREY. Now Margaret's curse is fall'n upon our heads, + When she exclaim'd on Hastings, you, and I, + For standing by when Richard stabb'd her son. + RIVERS. Then curs'd she Richard, then curs'd she + Buckingham, + Then curs'd she Hastings. O, remember, God, + To hear her prayer for them, as now for us! + And for my sister, and her princely sons, + Be satisfied, dear God, with our true blood, + Which, as thou know'st, unjustly must be spilt. + RATCLIFF. Make haste; the hour of death is expiate. + RIVERS. Come, Grey; come, Vaughan; let us here embrace. + Farewell, until we meet again in heaven. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4 + +London. The Tower + +Enter BUCKINGHAM, DERBY, HASTINGS, the BISHOP of ELY, RATCLIFF, LOVEL, +with others and seat themselves at a table + + HASTINGS. Now, noble peers, the cause why we are met + Is to determine of the coronation. + In God's name speak-when is the royal day? + BUCKINGHAM. Is all things ready for the royal time? + DERBY. It is, and wants but nomination. + BISHOP OF ELY. To-morrow then I judge a happy day. + BUCKINGHAM. Who knows the Lord Protector's mind + herein? + Who is most inward with the noble Duke? + BISHOP OF ELY. Your Grace, we think, should soonest know + his mind. + BUCKINGHAM. We know each other's faces; for our hearts, + He knows no more of mine than I of yours; + Or I of his, my lord, than you of mine. + Lord Hastings, you and he are near in love. + HASTINGS. I thank his Grace, I know he loves me well; + But for his purpose in the coronation + I have not sounded him, nor he deliver'd + His gracious pleasure any way therein. + But you, my honourable lords, may name the time; + And in the Duke's behalf I'll give my voice, + Which, I presume, he'll take in gentle part. + + Enter GLOUCESTER + + BISHOP OF ELY. In happy time, here comes the Duke himself. + GLOUCESTER. My noble lords and cousins an, good morrow. + I have been long a sleeper, but I trust + My absence doth neglect no great design + Which by my presence might have been concluded. + BUCKINGHAM. Had you not come upon your cue, my lord, + WILLIAM Lord Hastings had pronounc'd your part- + I mean, your voice for crowning of the King. + GLOUCESTER. Than my Lord Hastings no man might be + bolder; + His lordship knows me well and loves me well. + My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn + I saw good strawberries in your garden there. + I do beseech you send for some of them. + BISHOP of ELY. Marry and will, my lord, with all my heart. + Exit + GLOUCESTER. Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you. + [Takes him aside] + Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business, + And finds the testy gentleman so hot + That he will lose his head ere give consent + His master's child, as worshipfully he terms it, + Shall lose the royalty of England's throne. + BUCKINGHAM. Withdraw yourself awhile; I'll go with you. + Exeunt GLOUCESTER and BUCKINGHAM + DERBY. We have not yet set down this day of triumph. + To-morrow, in my judgment, is too sudden; + For I myself am not so well provided + As else I would be, were the day prolong'd. + + Re-enter the BISHOP OF ELY + + BISHOP OF ELY. Where is my lord the Duke of Gloucester? + I have sent for these strawberries. + HASTINGS. His Grace looks cheerfully and smooth this + morning; + There's some conceit or other likes him well + When that he bids good morrow with such spirit. + I think there's never a man in Christendom + Can lesser hide his love or hate than he; + For by his face straight shall you know his heart. + DERBY. What of his heart perceive you in his face + By any livelihood he show'd to-day? + HASTINGS. Marry, that with no man here he is offended; + For, were he, he had shown it in his looks. + + Re-enter GLOUCESTER and BUCKINGHAM + + GLOUCESTER. I pray you all, tell me what they deserve + That do conspire my death with devilish plots + Of damned witchcraft, and that have prevail'd + Upon my body with their hellish charms? + HASTINGS. The tender love I bear your Grace, my lord, + Makes me most forward in this princely presence + To doom th' offenders, whosoe'er they be. + I say, my lord, they have deserved death. + GLOUCESTER. Then be your eyes the witness of their evil. + Look how I am bewitch'd; behold, mine arm + Is like a blasted sapling wither'd up. + And this is Edward's wife, that monstrous witch, + Consorted with that harlot strumpet Shore, + That by their witchcraft thus have marked me. + HASTINGS. If they have done this deed, my noble lord- + GLOUCESTER. If?-thou protector of this damned strumpet, + Talk'st thou to me of ifs? Thou art a traitor. + Off with his head! Now by Saint Paul I swear + I will not dine until I see the same. + Lovel and Ratcliff, look that it be done. + The rest that love me, rise and follow me. + Exeunt all but HASTINGS, LOVEL, and RATCLIFF + HASTINGS. Woe, woe, for England! not a whit for me; + For I, too fond, might have prevented this. + STANLEY did dream the boar did raze our helms, + And I did scorn it and disdain to fly. + Three times to-day my foot-cloth horse did stumble, + And started when he look'd upon the Tower, + As loath to bear me to the slaughter-house. + O, now I need the priest that spake to me! + I now repent I told the pursuivant, + As too triumphing, how mine enemies + To-day at Pomfret bloodily were butcher'd, + And I myself secure in grace and favour. + O Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse + Is lighted on poor Hastings' wretched head! + RATCLIFF. Come, come, dispatch; the Duke would be at + dinner. + Make a short shrift; he longs to see your head. + HASTINGS. O momentary grace of mortal men, + Which we more hunt for than the grace of God! + Who builds his hope in air of your good looks + Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast, + Ready with every nod to tumble down + Into the fatal bowels of the deep. + LOVEL. Come, come, dispatch; 'tis bootless to exclaim. + HASTINGS. O bloody Richard! Miserable England! + I prophesy the fearfull'st time to thee + That ever wretched age hath look'd upon. + Come, lead me to the block; bear him my head. + They smile at me who shortly shall be dead. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 5. + +London. The Tower-walls + +Enter GLOUCESTER and BUCKINGHAM in rotten armour, marvellous ill-favoured + + GLOUCESTER. Come, cousin, canst thou quake and change + thy colour, + Murder thy breath in middle of a word, + And then again begin, and stop again, + As if thou were distraught and mad with terror? + BUCKINGHAM. Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian; + Speak and look back, and pry on every side, + Tremble and start at wagging of a straw, + Intending deep suspicion. Ghastly looks + Are at my service, like enforced smiles; + And both are ready in their offices + At any time to grace my stratagems. + But what, is Catesby gone? + GLOUCESTER. He is; and, see, he brings the mayor along. + + Enter the LORD MAYOR and CATESBY + + BUCKINGHAM. Lord Mayor- + GLOUCESTER. Look to the drawbridge there! + BUCKINGHAM. Hark! a drum. + GLOUCESTER. Catesby, o'erlook the walls. + BUCKINGHAM. Lord Mayor, the reason we have sent- + GLOUCESTER. Look back, defend thee; here are enemies. + BUCKINGHAM. God and our innocence defend and guard us! + + Enter LOVEL and RATCLIFF, with HASTINGS' head + + GLOUCESTER. Be patient; they are friends-Ratcliff and Lovel. + LOVEL. Here is the head of that ignoble traitor, + The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings. + GLOUCESTER. So dear I lov'd the man that I must weep. + I took him for the plainest harmless creature + That breath'd upon the earth a Christian; + Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded + The history of all her secret thoughts. + So smooth he daub'd his vice with show of virtue + That, his apparent open guilt omitted, + I mean his conversation with Shore's wife- + He liv'd from all attainder of suspects. + BUCKINGHAM. Well, well, he was the covert'st shelt'red + traitor + That ever liv'd. + Would you imagine, or almost believe- + Were't not that by great preservation + We live to tell it-that the subtle traitor + This day had plotted, in the council-house, + To murder me and my good Lord of Gloucester. + MAYOR. Had he done so? + GLOUCESTER. What! think you we are Turks or Infidels? + Or that we would, against the form of law, + Proceed thus rashly in the villain's death + But that the extreme peril of the case, + The peace of England and our persons' safety, + Enforc'd us to this execution? + MAYOR. Now, fair befall you! He deserv'd his death; + And your good Graces both have well proceeded + To warn false traitors from the like attempts. + I never look'd for better at his hands + After he once fell in with Mistress Shore. + BUCKINGHAM. Yet had we not determin'd he should die + Until your lordship came to see his end- + Which now the loving haste of these our friends, + Something against our meanings, have prevented- + Because, my lord, I would have had you heard + The traitor speak, and timorously confess + The manner and the purpose of his treasons: + That you might well have signified the same + Unto the citizens, who haply may + Misconster us in him and wail his death. + MAYOR. But, my good lord, your Grace's words shall serve + As well as I had seen and heard him speak; + And do not doubt, right noble Princes both, + But I'll acquaint our duteous citizens + With all your just proceedings in this cause. + GLOUCESTER. And to that end we wish'd your lordship here, + T' avoid the the the censures of the carping world. + BUCKINGHAM. Which since you come too late of our intent, + Yet witness what you hear we did intend. + And so, my good Lord Mayor, we bid farewell. + Exit LORD MAYOR + GLOUCESTER. Go, after, after, cousin Buckingham. + The Mayor towards Guildhall hies him in an post. + There, at your meet'st advantage of the time, + Infer the bastardy of Edward's children. + Tell them how Edward put to death a citizen + Only for saying he would make his son + Heir to the crown-meaning indeed his house, + Which by the sign thereof was termed so. + Moreover, urge his hateful luxury + And bestial appetite in change of lust, + Which stretch'd unto their servants, daughters, wives, + Even where his raging eye or savage heart + Without control lusted to make a prey. + Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person: + Tell them, when that my mother went with child + Of that insatiate Edward, noble York + My princely father then had wars in France + And, by true computation of the time, + Found that the issue was not his begot; + Which well appeared in his lineaments, + Being nothing like the noble Duke my father. + Yet touch this sparingly, as 'twere far off; + Because, my lord, you know my mother lives. + BUCKINGHAM. Doubt not, my lord, I'll play the orator + As if the golden fee for which I plead + Were for myself; and so, my lord, adieu. + GLOUCESTER. If you thrive well, bring them to Baynard's + Castle; + Where you shall find me well accompanied + With reverend fathers and well learned bishops. + BUCKINGHAM. I go; and towards three or four o'clock + Look for the news that the Guildhall affords. Exit + GLOUCESTER. Go, Lovel, with all speed to Doctor Shaw. + [To CATESBY] Go thou to Friar Penker. Bid them both + Meet me within this hour at Baynard's Castle. + Exeunt all but GLOUCESTER + Now will I go to take some privy order + To draw the brats of Clarence out of sight, + And to give order that no manner person + Have any time recourse unto the Princes. Exit + + + + +SCENE 6. + +London. A street + +Enter a SCRIVENER + + SCRIVENER. Here is the indictment of the good Lord Hastings; + Which in a set hand fairly is engross'd + That it may be to-day read o'er in Paul's. + And mark how well the sequel hangs together: + Eleven hours I have spent to write it over, + For yesternight by Catesby was it sent me; + The precedent was full as long a-doing; + And yet within these five hours Hastings liv'd, + Untainted, unexamin'd, free, at liberty. + Here's a good world the while! Who is so gros + That cannot see this palpable device? + Yet who's so bold but says he sees it not? + Bad is the world; and all will come to nought, + When such ill dealing must be seen in thought. Exit + + + + +SCENE 7. + +London. Baynard's Castle + +Enter GLOUCESTER and BUCKINGHAM, at several doors + + GLOUCESTER. How now, how now! What say the citizens? + BUCKINGHAM. Now, by the holy Mother of our Lord, + The citizens are mum, say not a word. + GLOUCESTER. Touch'd you the bastardy of Edward's + children? + BUCKINGHAM. I did; with his contract with Lady Lucy, + And his contract by deputy in France; + Th' insatiate greediness of his desire, + And his enforcement of the city wives; + His tyranny for trifles; his own bastardy, + As being got, your father then in France, + And his resemblance, being not like the Duke. + Withal I did infer your lineaments, + Being the right idea of your father, + Both in your form and nobleness of mind; + Laid open all your victories in Scotland, + Your discipline in war, wisdom in peace, + Your bounty, virtue, fair humility; + Indeed, left nothing fitting for your purpose + Untouch'd or slightly handled in discourse. + And when mine oratory drew toward end + I bid them that did love their country's good + Cry 'God save Richard, England's royal King!' + GLOUCESTER. And did they so? + BUCKINGHAM. No, so God help me, they spake not a word; + But, like dumb statues or breathing stones, + Star'd each on other, and look'd deadly pale. + Which when I saw, I reprehended them, + And ask'd the Mayor what meant this wilfull silence. + His answer was, the people were not used + To be spoke to but by the Recorder. + Then he was urg'd to tell my tale again. + 'Thus saith the Duke, thus hath the Duke inferr'd'- + But nothing spoke in warrant from himself. + When he had done, some followers of mine own + At lower end of the hall hurl'd up their caps, + And some ten voices cried 'God save King Richard!' + And thus I took the vantage of those few- + 'Thanks, gentle citizens and friends,' quoth I + 'This general applause and cheerful shout + Argues your wisdoms and your love to Richard.' + And even here brake off and came away. + GLOUCESTER. What, tongueless blocks were they? Would + they not speak? + Will not the Mayor then and his brethren come? + BUCKINGHAM. The Mayor is here at hand. Intend some fear; + Be not you spoke with but by mighty suit; + And look you get a prayer-book in your hand, + And stand between two churchmen, good my lord; + For on that ground I'll make a holy descant; + And be not easily won to our requests. + Play the maid's part: still answer nay, and take it. + GLOUCESTER. I go; and if you plead as well for them + As I can say nay to thee for myself, + No doubt we bring it to a happy issue. + BUCKINGHAM. Go, go, up to the leads; the Lord Mayor + knocks. Exit GLOUCESTER + + Enter the LORD MAYOR, ALDERMEN, and citizens + + Welcome, my lord. I dance attendance here; + I think the Duke will not be spoke withal. + + Enter CATESBY + + Now, Catesby, what says your lord to my request? + CATESBY. He doth entreat your Grace, my noble lord, + To visit him to-morrow or next day. + He is within, with two right reverend fathers, + Divinely bent to meditation; + And in no worldly suits would he be mov'd, + To draw him from his holy exercise. + BUCKINGHAM. Return, good Catesby, to the gracious Duke; + Tell him, myself, the Mayor and Aldermen, + In deep designs, in matter of great moment, + No less importing than our general good, + Are come to have some conference with his Grace. + CATESBY. I'll signify so much unto him straight. Exit + BUCKINGHAM. Ah ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward! + He is not lolling on a lewd love-bed, + But on his knees at meditation; + Not dallying with a brace of courtezans, + But meditating with two deep divines; + Not sleeping, to engross his idle body, + But praying, to enrich his watchful soul. + Happy were England would this virtuous prince + Take on his Grace the sovereignty thereof; + But, sure, I fear we shall not win him to it. + MAYOR. Marry, God defend his Grace should say us nay! + BUCKINGHAM. I fear he will. Here Catesby comes again. + + Re-enter CATESBY + + Now, Catesby, what says his Grace? + CATESBY. My lord, + He wonders to what end you have assembled + Such troops of citizens to come to him. + His Grace not being warn'd thereof before, + He fears, my lord, you mean no good to him. + BUCKINGHAM. Sorry I am my noble cousin should + Suspect me that I mean no good to him. + By heaven, we come to him in perfect love; + And so once more return and tell his Grace. + Exit CATESBY + When holy and devout religious men + Are at their beads, 'tis much to draw them thence, + So sweet is zealous contemplation. + + Enter GLOUCESTER aloft, between two BISHOPS. + CATESBY returns + + MAYOR. See where his Grace stands 'tween two clergymen! + BUCKINGHAM. Two props of virtue for a Christian prince, + To stay him from the fall of vanity; + And, see, a book of prayer in his hand, + True ornaments to know a holy man. + Famous Plantagenet, most gracious Prince, + Lend favourable ear to our requests, + And pardon us the interruption + Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal. + GLOUCESTER. My lord, there needs no such apology: + I do beseech your Grace to pardon me, + Who, earnest in the service of my God, + Deferr'd the visitation of my friends. + But, leaving this, what is your Grace's pleasure? + BUCKINGHAM. Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above, + And all good men of this ungovern'd isle. + GLOUCESTER. I do suspect I have done some offence + That seems disgracious in the city's eye, + And that you come to reprehend my ignorance. + BUCKINGHAM. You have, my lord. Would it might please + your Grace, + On our entreaties, to amend your fault! + GLOUCESTER. Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land? + BUCKINGHAM. Know then, it is your fault that you resign + The supreme seat, the throne majestical, + The scept'red office of your ancestors, + Your state of fortune and your due of birth, + The lineal glory of your royal house, + To the corruption of a blemish'd stock; + Whiles in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts, + Which here we waken to our country's good, + The noble isle doth want her proper limbs; + Her face defac'd with scars of infamy, + Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants, + And almost should'red in the swallowing gulf + Of dark forgetfulness and deep oblivion. + Which to recure, we heartily solicit + Your gracious self to take on you the charge + And kingly government of this your land- + Not as protector, steward, substitute, + Or lowly factor for another's gain; + But as successively, from blood to blood, + Your right of birth, your empery, your own. + For this, consorted with the citizens, + Your very worshipful and loving friends, + And by their vehement instigation, + In this just cause come I to move your Grace. + GLOUCESTER. I cannot tell if to depart in silence + Or bitterly to speak in your reproof + Best fitteth my degree or your condition. + If not to answer, you might haply think + Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded + To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty, + Which fondly you would here impose on me; + If to reprove you for this suit of yours, + So season'd with your faithful love to me, + Then, on the other side, I check'd my friends. + Therefore-to speak, and to avoid the first, + And then, in speaking, not to incur the last- + Definitively thus I answer you: + Your love deserves my thanks, but my desert + Unmeritable shuns your high request. + First, if all obstacles were cut away, + And that my path were even to the crown, + As the ripe revenue and due of birth, + Yet so much is my poverty of spirit, + So mighty and so many my defects, + That I would rather hide me from my greatness- + Being a bark to brook no mighty sea- + Than in my greatness covet to be hid, + And in the vapour of my glory smother'd. + But, God be thank'd, there is no need of me- + And much I need to help you, were there need. + The royal tree hath left us royal fruit + Which, mellow'd by the stealing hours of time, + Will well become the seat of majesty + And make, no doubt, us happy by his reign. + On him I lay that you would lay on me- + The right and fortune of his happy stars, + Which God defend that I should wring from him. + BUCKINGHAM. My lord, this argues conscience in your + Grace; + But the respects thereof are nice and trivial, + All circumstances well considered. + You say that Edward is your brother's son. + So say we too, but not by Edward's wife; + For first was he contract to Lady Lucy- + Your mother lives a witness to his vow- + And afterward by substitute betroth'd + To Bona, sister to the King of France. + These both put off, a poor petitioner, + A care-craz'd mother to a many sons, + A beauty-waning and distressed widow, + Even in the afternoon of her best days, + Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye, + Seduc'd the pitch and height of his degree + To base declension and loath'd bigamy. + By her, in his unlawful bed, he got + This Edward, whom our manners call the Prince. + More bitterly could I expostulate, + Save that, for reverence to some alive, + I give a sparing limit to my tongue. + Then, good my lord, take to your royal self + This proffer'd benefit of dignity; + If not to bless us and the land withal, + Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry + From the corruption of abusing times + Unto a lineal true-derived course. + MAYOR. Do, good my lord; your citizens entreat you. + BUCKINGHAM. Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love. + CATESBY. O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit! + GLOUCESTER. Alas, why would you heap this care on me? + I am unfit for state and majesty. + I do beseech you, take it not amiss: + I cannot nor I will not yield to you. + BUCKINGHAM. If you refuse it-as, in love and zeal, + Loath to depose the child, your brother's son; + As well we know your tenderness of heart + And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse, + Which we have noted in you to your kindred + And egally indeed to all estates- + Yet know, whe'er you accept our suit or no, + Your brother's son shall never reign our king; + But we will plant some other in the throne + To the disgrace and downfall of your house; + And in this resolution here we leave you. + Come, citizens. Zounds, I'll entreat no more. + GLOUCESTER. O, do not swear, my lord of Buckingham. + Exeunt BUCKINGHAM, MAYOR, and citizens + CATESBY. Call him again, sweet Prince, accept their suit. + If you deny them, all the land will rue it. + GLOUCESTER. Will you enforce me to a world of cares? + Call them again. I am not made of stones, + But penetrable to your kind entreaties, + Albeit against my conscience and my soul. + + Re-enter BUCKINGHAM and the rest + + Cousin of Buckingham, and sage grave men, + Since you will buckle fortune on my back, + To bear her burden, whe'er I will or no, + I must have patience to endure the load; + But if black scandal or foul-fac'd reproach + Attend the sequel of your imposition, + Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me + From all the impure blots and stains thereof; + For God doth know, and you may partly see, + How far I am from the desire of this. + MAYOR. God bless your Grace! We see it, and will say it. + GLOUCESTER. In saying so, you shall but say the truth. + BUCKINGHAM. Then I salute you with this royal title- + Long live King Richard, England's worthy King! + ALL. Amen. + BUCKINGHAM. To-morrow may it please you to be crown'd? + GLOUCESTER. Even when you please, for you will have it so. + BUCKINGHAM. To-morrow, then, we will attend your Grace; + And so, most joyfully, we take our leave. + GLOUCESTER. [To the BISHOPS] Come, let us to our holy + work again. + Farewell, my cousin; farewell, gentle friends. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 1. + +London. Before the Tower + +Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, DUCHESS of YORK, and MARQUIS of DORSET, at one door; +ANNE, DUCHESS of GLOUCESTER, leading LADY MARGARET PLANTAGENET, +CLARENCE's young daughter, at another door + + DUCHESS. Who meets us here? My niece Plantagenet, + Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Gloucester? + Now, for my life, she's wand'ring to the Tower, + On pure heart's love, to greet the tender Princes. + Daughter, well met. + ANNE. God give your Graces both + A happy and a joyful time of day! + QUEEN ELIZABETH. As much to you, good sister! Whither + away? + ANNE. No farther than the Tower; and, as I guess, + Upon the like devotion as yourselves, + To gratulate the gentle Princes there. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Kind sister, thanks; we'll enter + all together. + + Enter BRAKENBURY + + And in good time, here the lieutenant comes. + Master Lieutenant, pray you, by your leave, + How doth the Prince, and my young son of York? + BRAKENBURY. Right well, dear madam. By your patience, + I may not suffer you to visit them. + The King hath strictly charg'd the contrary. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. The King! Who's that? + BRAKENBURY. I mean the Lord Protector. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. The Lord protect him from that kingly + title! + Hath he set bounds between their love and me? + I am their mother; who shall bar me from them? + DUCHESS. I am their father's mother; I will see them. + ANNE. Their aunt I am in law, in love their mother. + Then bring me to their sights; I'll bear thy blame, + And take thy office from thee on my peril. + BRAKENBURY. No, madam, no. I may not leave it so; + I am bound by oath, and therefore pardon me. Exit + + Enter STANLEY + + STANLEY. Let me but meet you, ladies, one hour hence, + And I'll salute your Grace of York as mother + And reverend looker-on of two fair queens. + [To ANNE] Come, madam, you must straight to + Westminster, + There to be crowned Richard's royal queen. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Ah, cut my lace asunder + That my pent heart may have some scope to beat, + Or else I swoon with this dead-killing news! + ANNE. Despiteful tidings! O unpleasing news! + DORSET. Be of good cheer; mother, how fares your Grace? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. O Dorset, speak not to me, get thee + gone! + Death and destruction dogs thee at thy heels; + Thy mother's name is ominous to children. + If thou wilt outstrip death, go cross the seas, + And live with Richmond, from the reach of hell. + Go, hie thee, hie thee from this slaughter-house, + Lest thou increase the number of the dead, + And make me die the thrall of Margaret's curse, + Nor mother, wife, nor England's counted queen. + STANLEY. Full of wise care is this your counsel, madam. + Take all the swift advantage of the hours; + You shall have letters from me to my son + In your behalf, to meet you on the way. + Be not ta'en tardy by unwise delay. + DUCHESS. O ill-dispersing wind of misery! + O my accursed womb, the bed of death! + A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world, + Whose unavoided eye is murderous. + STANLEY. Come, madam, come; I in all haste was sent. + ANNE. And I with all unwillingness will go. + O, would to God that the inclusive verge + Of golden metal that must round my brow + Were red-hot steel, to sear me to the brains! + Anointed let me be with deadly venom, + And die ere men can say 'God save the Queen!' + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Go, go, poor soul; I envy not thy glory. + To feed my humour, wish thyself no harm. + ANNE. No, why? When he that is my husband now + Came to me, as I follow'd Henry's corse; + When scarce the blood was well wash'd from his hands + Which issued from my other angel husband, + And that dear saint which then I weeping follow'd- + O, when, I say, I look'd on Richard's face, + This was my wish: 'Be thou' quoth I 'accurs'd + For making me, so young, so old a widow; + And when thou wed'st, let sorrow haunt thy bed; + And be thy wife, if any be so mad, + More miserable by the life of thee + Than thou hast made me by my dear lord's death.' + Lo, ere I can repeat this curse again, + Within so small a time, my woman's heart + Grossly grew captive to his honey words + And prov'd the subject of mine own soul's curse, + Which hitherto hath held my eyes from rest; + For never yet one hour in his bed + Did I enjoy the golden dew of sleep, + But with his timorous dreams was still awak'd. + Besides, he hates me for my father Warwick; + And will, no doubt, shortly be rid of me. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Poor heart, adieu! I pity thy complaining. + ANNE. No more than with my soul I mourn for yours. + DORSET. Farewell, thou woeful welcomer of glory! + ANNE. Adieu, poor soul, that tak'st thy leave of it! + DUCHESS. [To DORSET] Go thou to Richmond, and good + fortune guide thee! + [To ANNE] Go thou to Richard, and good angels tend + thee! [To QUEEN ELIZABETH] Go thou to sanctuary, and good + thoughts possess thee! + I to my grave, where peace and rest lie with me! + Eighty odd years of sorrow have I seen, + And each hour's joy wreck'd with a week of teen. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Stay, yet look back with me unto the + Tower. + Pity, you ancient stones, those tender babes + Whom envy hath immur'd within your walls, + Rough cradle for such little pretty ones. + Rude ragged nurse, old sullen playfellow + For tender princes, use my babies well. + So foolish sorrows bids your stones farewell. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. + +London. The palace + +Sound a sennet. Enter RICHARD, in pomp, as KING; BUCKINGHAM, CATESBY, +RATCLIFF, LOVEL, a PAGE, and others + + KING RICHARD. Stand all apart. Cousin of Buckingham! + BUCKINGHAM. My gracious sovereign? + KING RICHARD. Give me thy hand. + [Here he ascendeth the throne. Sound] + Thus high, by thy advice + And thy assistance, is King Richard seated. + But shall we wear these glories for a day; + Or shall they last, and we rejoice in them? + BUCKINGHAM. Still live they, and for ever let them last! + KING RICHARD. Ah, Buckingham, now do I play the touch, + To try if thou be current gold indeed. + Young Edward lives-think now what I would speak. + BUCKINGHAM. Say on, my loving lord. + KING RICHARD. Why, Buckingham, I say I would be King. + BUCKINGHAM. Why, so you are, my thrice-renowned lord. + KING RICHARD. Ha! am I King? 'Tis so; but Edward lives. + BUCKINGHAM. True, noble Prince. + KING RICHARD. O bitter consequence: + That Edward still should live-true noble Prince! + Cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull. + Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead. + And I would have it suddenly perform'd. + What say'st thou now? Speak suddenly, be brief. + BUCKINGHAM. Your Grace may do your pleasure. + KING RICHARD. Tut, tut, thou art all ice; thy kindness freezes. + Say, have I thy consent that they shall die? + BUCKINGHAM. Give me some little breath, some pause, + dear Lord, + Before I positively speak in this. + I will resolve you herein presently. Exit + CATESBY. [Aside to another] The King is angry; see, he + gnaws his lip. + KING RICHARD. I will converse with iron-witted fools + [Descends from the throne] + And unrespective boys; none are for me + That look into me with considerate eyes. + High-reaching Buckingham grows circumspect. + Boy! + PAGE. My lord? + KING RICHARD. Know'st thou not any whom corrupting + gold + Will tempt unto a close exploit of death? + PAGE. I know a discontented gentleman + Whose humble means match not his haughty spirit. + Gold were as good as twenty orators, + And will, no doubt, tempt him to anything. + KING RICHARD. What is his name? + PAGE. His name, my lord, is Tyrrel. + KING RICHARD. I partly know the man. Go, call him hither, + boy. Exit PAGE + The deep-revolving witty Buckingham + No more shall be the neighbour to my counsels. + Hath he so long held out with me, untir'd, + And stops he now for breath? Well, be it so. + + Enter STANLEY + + How now, Lord Stanley! What's the news? + STANLEY. Know, my loving lord, + The Marquis Dorset, as I hear, is fled + To Richmond, in the parts where he abides. [Stands apart] + KING RICHARD. Come hither, Catesby. Rumour it abroad + That Anne, my wife, is very grievous sick; + I will take order for her keeping close. + Inquire me out some mean poor gentleman, + Whom I will marry straight to Clarence' daughter- + The boy is foolish, and I fear not him. + Look how thou dream'st! I say again, give out + That Anne, my queen, is sick and like to die. + About it; for it stands me much upon + To stop all hopes whose growth may damage me. + Exit CATESBY + I must be married to my brother's daughter, + Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass. + Murder her brothers, and then marry her! + Uncertain way of gain! But I am in + So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin. + Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye. + + Re-enter PAGE, with TYRREL + + Is thy name Tyrrel? + TYRREL. James Tyrrel, and your most obedient subject. + KING RICHARD. Art thou, indeed? + TYRREL. Prove me, my gracious lord. + KING RICHARD. Dar'st'thou resolve to kill a friend of mine? + TYRREL. Please you; + But I had rather kill two enemies. + KING RICHARD. Why, then thou hast it. Two deep enemies, + Foes to my rest, and my sweet sleep's disturbers, + Are they that I would have thee deal upon. + TYRREL, I mean those bastards in the Tower. + TYRREL. Let me have open means to come to them, + And soon I'll rid you from the fear of them. + KING RICHARD. Thou sing'st sweet music. Hark, come + hither, Tyrrel. + Go, by this token. Rise, and lend thine ear. [Whispers] + There is no more but so: say it is done, + And I will love thee and prefer thee for it. + TYRREL. I will dispatch it straight. Exit + + Re-enter BUCKINGHAM + + BUCKINGHAM. My lord, I have consider'd in my mind + The late request that you did sound me in. + KING RICHARD. Well, let that rest. Dorset is fled to + Richmond. + BUCKINGHAM. I hear the news, my lord. + KING RICHARD. Stanley, he is your wife's son: well, look + unto it. + BUCKINGHAM. My lord, I claim the gift, my due by promise, + For which your honour and your faith is pawn'd: + Th' earldom of Hereford and the movables + Which you have promised I shall possess. + KING RICHARD. Stanley, look to your wife; if she convey + Letters to Richmond, you shall answer it. + BUCKINGHAM. What says your Highness to my just request? + KING RICHARD. I do remember me: Henry the Sixth + Did prophesy that Richmond should be King, + When Richmond was a little peevish boy. + A king!-perhaps- + BUCKINGHAM. My lord- + KING RICHARD. How chance the prophet could not at that + time + Have told me, I being by, that I should kill him? + BUCKINGHAM. My lord, your promise for the earldom- + KING RICHARD. Richmond! When last I was at Exeter, + The mayor in courtesy show'd me the castle + And call'd it Rugemount, at which name I started, + Because a bard of Ireland told me once + I should not live long after I saw Richmond. + BUCKINGHAM. My lord- + KING RICHARD. Ay, what's o'clock? + BUCKINGHAM. I am thus bold to put your Grace in mind + Of what you promis'd me. + KING RICHARD. Well, but o'clock? + BUCKINGHAM. Upon the stroke of ten. + KING RICHARD. Well, let it strike. + BUCKINGHAM. Why let it strike? + KING RICHARD. Because that like a Jack thou keep'st the + stroke + Betwixt thy begging and my meditation. + I am not in the giving vein to-day. + BUCKINGHAM. May it please you to resolve me in my suit. + KING RICHARD. Thou troublest me; I am not in the vein. + Exeunt all but Buckingham + BUCKINGHAM. And is it thus? Repays he my deep service + With such contempt? Made I him King for this? + O, let me think on Hastings, and be gone + To Brecknock while my fearful head is on! Exit + + + + +SCENE 3. + +London. The palace + +Enter TYRREL + + TYRREL. The tyrannous and bloody act is done, + The most arch deed of piteous massacre + That ever yet this land was guilty of. + Dighton and Forrest, who I did suborn + To do this piece of ruthless butchery, + Albeit they were flesh'd villains, bloody dogs, + Melted with tenderness and mild compassion, + Wept like two children in their deaths' sad story. + 'O, thus' quoth Dighton 'lay the gentle babes'- + 'Thus, thus,' quoth Forrest 'girdling one another + Within their alabaster innocent arms. + Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, + And in their summer beauty kiss'd each other. + A book of prayers on their pillow lay; + Which once,' quoth Forrest 'almost chang'd my mind; + But, O, the devil'-there the villain stopp'd; + When Dighton thus told on: 'We smothered + The most replenished sweet work of nature + That from the prime creation e'er she framed.' + Hence both are gone with conscience and remorse + They could not speak; and so I left them both, + To bear this tidings to the bloody King. + + Enter KING RICHARD + + And here he comes. All health, my sovereign lord! + KING RICHARD. Kind Tyrrel, am I happy in thy news? + TYRREL. If to have done the thing you gave in charge + Beget your happiness, be happy then, + For it is done. + KING RICHARD. But didst thou see them dead? + TYRREL. I did, my lord. + KING RICHARD. And buried, gentle Tyrrel? + TYRREL. The chaplain of the Tower hath buried them; + But where, to say the truth, I do not know. + KING RICHARD. Come to me, Tyrrel, soon at after supper, + When thou shalt tell the process of their death. + Meantime, but think how I may do thee good + And be inheritor of thy desire. + Farewell till then. + TYRREL. I humbly take my leave. Exit + KING RICHARD. The son of Clarence have I pent up close; + His daughter meanly have I match'd in marriage; + The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom, + And Anne my wife hath bid this world good night. + Now, for I know the Britaine Richmond aims + At young Elizabeth, my brother's daughter, + And by that knot looks proudly on the crown, + To her go I, a jolly thriving wooer. + + Enter RATCLIFF + + RATCLIFF. My lord! + KING RICHARD. Good or bad news, that thou com'st in so + bluntly? + RATCLIFF. Bad news, my lord: Morton is fled to Richmond; + And Buckingham, back'd with the hardy Welshmen, + Is in the field, and still his power increaseth. + KING RICHARD. Ely with Richmond troubles me more near + Than Buckingham and his rash-levied strength. + Come, I have learn'd that fearful commenting + Is leaden servitor to dull delay; + Delay leads impotent and snail-pac'd beggary. + Then fiery expedition be my wing, + Jove's Mercury, and herald for a king! + Go, muster men. My counsel is my shield. + We must be brief when traitors brave the field. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. + +London. Before the palace + +Enter old QUEEN MARGARET + + QUEEN MARGARET. So now prosperity begins to mellow + And drop into the rotten mouth of death. + Here in these confines slily have I lurk'd + To watch the waning of mine enemies. + A dire induction am I witness to, + And will to France, hoping the consequence + Will prove as bitter, black, and tragical. + Withdraw thee, wretched Margaret. Who comes here? + [Retires] + + Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH and the DUCHESS OF YORK + + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Ah, my poor princes! ah, my tender + babes! + My unblown flowers, new-appearing sweets! + If yet your gentle souls fly in the air + And be not fix'd in doom perpetual, + Hover about me with your airy wings + And hear your mother's lamentation. + QUEEN MARGARET. Hover about her; say that right for right + Hath dimm'd your infant morn to aged night. + DUCHESS. So many miseries have craz'd my voice + That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute. + Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead? + QUEEN MARGARET. Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet, + Edward for Edward pays a dying debt. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle + lambs + And throw them in the entrails of the wolf? + When didst thou sleep when such a deed was done? + QUEEN MARGARET. When holy Harry died, and my sweet + son. + DUCHESS. Dead life, blind sight, poor mortal living ghost, + Woe's scene, world's shame, grave's due by life usurp'd, + Brief abstract and record of tedious days, + Rest thy unrest on England's lawful earth, [Sitting down] + Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Ah, that thou wouldst as soon afford a + grave + As thou canst yield a melancholy seat! + Then would I hide my bones, not rest them here. + Ah, who hath any cause to mourn but we? + [Sitting down by her] + QUEEN MARGARET. [Coming forward] If ancient sorrow be + most reverend, + Give mine the benefit of seniory, + And let my griefs frown on the upper hand. + If sorrow can admit society, [Sitting down with them] + Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine. + I had an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him; + I had a husband, till a Richard kill'd him: + Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him; + Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard kill'd him. + DUCHESS. I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him; + I had a Rutland too, thou holp'st to kill him. + QUEEN MARGARET. Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard + kill'd him. + From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept + A hell-hound that doth hunt us all to death. + That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes + To worry lambs and lap their gentle blood, + That foul defacer of God's handiwork, + That excellent grand tyrant of the earth + That reigns in galled eyes of weeping souls, + Thy womb let loose to chase us to our graves. + O upright, just, and true-disposing God, + How do I thank thee that this carnal cur + Preys on the issue of his mother's body + And makes her pew-fellow with others' moan! + DUCHESS. O Harry's wife, triumph not in my woes! + God witness with me, I have wept for thine. + QUEEN MARGARET. Bear with me; I am hungry for revenge, + And now I cloy me with beholding it. + Thy Edward he is dead, that kill'd my Edward; + The other Edward dead, to quit my Edward; + Young York he is but boot, because both they + Match'd not the high perfection of my loss. + Thy Clarence he is dead that stabb'd my Edward; + And the beholders of this frantic play, + Th' adulterate Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Grey, + Untimely smother'd in their dusky graves. + Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer; + Only reserv'd their factor to buy souls + And send them thither. But at hand, at hand, + Ensues his piteous and unpitied end. + Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, saints pray, + To have him suddenly convey'd from hence. + Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray, + That I may live and say 'The dog is dead.' + QUEEN ELIZABETH. O, thou didst prophesy the time would + come + That I should wish for thee to help me curse + That bottled spider, that foul bunch-back'd toad! + QUEEN MARGARET. I Call'd thee then vain flourish of my + fortune; + I call'd thee then poor shadow, painted queen, + The presentation of but what I was, + The flattering index of a direful pageant, + One heav'd a-high to be hurl'd down below, + A mother only mock'd with two fair babes, + A dream of what thou wast, a garish flag + To be the aim of every dangerous shot, + A sign of dignity, a breath, a bubble, + A queen in jest, only to fill the scene. + Where is thy husband now? Where be thy brothers? + Where be thy two sons? Wherein dost thou joy? + Who sues, and kneels, and says 'God save the Queen'? + Where be the bending peers that flattered thee? + Where be the thronging troops that followed thee? + Decline an this, and see what now thou art: + For happy wife, a most distressed widow; + For joyful mother, one that wails the name; + For one being su'd to, one that humbly sues; + For Queen, a very caitiff crown'd with care; + For she that scorn'd at me, now scorn'd of me; + For she being fear'd of all, now fearing one; + For she commanding all, obey'd of none. + Thus hath the course of justice whirl'd about + And left thee but a very prey to time, + Having no more but thought of what thou wast + To torture thee the more, being what thou art. + Thou didst usurp my place, and dost thou not + Usurp the just proportion of my sorrow? + Now thy proud neck bears half my burden'd yoke, + From which even here I slip my weary head + And leave the burden of it all on thee. + Farewell, York's wife, and queen of sad mischance; + These English woes shall make me smile in France. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. O thou well skill'd in curses, stay awhile + And teach me how to curse mine enemies! + QUEEN MARGARET. Forbear to sleep the nights, and fast the + days; + Compare dead happiness with living woe; + Think that thy babes were sweeter than they were, + And he that slew them fouler than he is. + Bett'ring thy loss makes the bad-causer worse; + Revolving this will teach thee how to curse. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. My words are dull; O, quicken them + with thine! + QUEEN MARGARET. Thy woes will make them sharp and + pierce like mine. Exit + DUCHESS. Why should calamity be fun of words? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Windy attorneys to their client woes, + Airy succeeders of intestate joys, + Poor breathing orators of miseries, + Let them have scope; though what they will impart + Help nothing else, yet do they case the heart. + DUCHESS. If so, then be not tongue-tied. Go with me, + And in the breath of bitter words let's smother + My damned son that thy two sweet sons smother'd. + The trumpet sounds; be copious in exclaims. + + Enter KING RICHARD and his train, marching with + drums and trumpets + + KING RICHARD. Who intercepts me in my expedition? + DUCHESS. O, she that might have intercepted thee, + By strangling thee in her accursed womb, + From all the slaughters, wretch, that thou hast done! + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Hidest thou that forehead with a golden + crown + Where't should be branded, if that right were right, + The slaughter of the Prince that ow'd that crown, + And the dire death of my poor sons and brothers? + Tell me, thou villain slave, where are my children? + DUCHESS. Thou toad, thou toad, where is thy brother + Clarence? + And little Ned Plantagenet, his son? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Where is the gentle Rivers, Vaughan, + Grey? + DUCHESS. Where is kind Hastings? + KING RICHARD. A flourish, trumpets! Strike alarum, drums! + Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women + Rail on the Lord's anointed. Strike, I say! + [Flourish. Alarums] + Either be patient and entreat me fair, + Or with the clamorous report of war + Thus will I drown your exclamations. + DUCHESS. Art thou my son? + KING RICHARD. Ay, I thank God, my father, and yourself. + DUCHESS. Then patiently hear my impatience. + KING RICHARD. Madam, I have a touch of your condition + That cannot brook the accent of reproof. + DUCHESS. O, let me speak! + KING RICHARD. Do, then; but I'll not hear. + DUCHESS. I will be mild and gentle in my words. + KING RICHARD. And brief, good mother; for I am in haste. + DUCHESS. Art thou so hasty? I have stay'd for thee, + God knows, in torment and in agony. + KING RICHARD. And came I not at last to comfort you? + DUCHESS. No, by the holy rood, thou know'st it well + Thou cam'st on earth to make the earth my hell. + A grievous burden was thy birth to me; + Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy; + Thy school-days frightful, desp'rate, wild, and furious; + Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous; + Thy age confirm'd, proud, subtle, sly, and bloody, + More mild, but yet more harmful-kind in hatred. + What comfortable hour canst thou name + That ever grac'd me with thy company? + KING RICHARD. Faith, none but Humphrey Hour, that call'd + your Grace + To breakfast once forth of my company. + If I be so disgracious in your eye, + Let me march on and not offend you, madam. + Strike up the drum. + DUCHESS. I prithee hear me speak. + KING RICHARD. You speak too bitterly. + DUCHESS. Hear me a word; + For I shall never speak to thee again. + KING RICHARD. So. + DUCHESS. Either thou wilt die by God's just ordinance + Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror; + Or I with grief and extreme age shall perish + And never more behold thy face again. + Therefore take with thee my most grievous curse, + Which in the day of battle tire thee more + Than all the complete armour that thou wear'st! + My prayers on the adverse party fight; + And there the little souls of Edward's children + Whisper the spirits of thine enemies + And promise them success and victory. + Bloody thou art; bloody will be thy end. + Shame serves thy life and doth thy death attend. Exit + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Though far more cause, yet much less + spirit to curse + Abides in me; I say amen to her. + KING RICHARD. Stay, madam, I must talk a word with you. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. I have no moe sons of the royal blood + For thee to slaughter. For my daughters, Richard, + They shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens; + And therefore level not to hit their lives. + KING RICHARD. You have a daughter call'd Elizabeth. + Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. And must she die for this? O, let her + live, + And I'll corrupt her manners, stain her beauty, + Slander myself as false to Edward's bed, + Throw over her the veil of infamy; + So she may live unscarr'd of bleeding slaughter, + I will confess she was not Edward's daughter. + KING RICHARD. Wrong not her birth; she is a royal + Princess. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. To save her life I'll say she is not so. + KING RICHARD. Her life is safest only in her birth. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. And only in that safety died her + brothers. + KING RICHARD. Lo, at their birth good stars were opposite. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. No, to their lives ill friends were + contrary. + KING RICHARD. All unavoided is the doom of destiny. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. True, when avoided grace makes destiny. + My babes were destin'd to a fairer death, + If grace had bless'd thee with a fairer life. + KING RICHARD. You speak as if that I had slain my cousins. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Cousins, indeed; and by their uncle + cozen'd + Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life. + Whose hand soever lanc'd their tender hearts, + Thy head, an indirectly, gave direction. + No doubt the murd'rous knife was dull and blunt + Till it was whetted on thy stone-hard heart + To revel in the entrails of my lambs. + But that stiff use of grief makes wild grief tame, + My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys + Till that my nails were anchor'd in thine eyes; + And I, in such a desp'rate bay of death, + Like a poor bark, of sails and tackling reft, + Rush all to pieces on thy rocky bosom. + KING RICHARD. Madam, so thrive I in my enterprise + And dangerous success of bloody wars, + As I intend more good to you and yours + Than ever you or yours by me were harm'd! + QUEEN ELIZABETH. What good is cover'd with the face of + heaven, + To be discover'd, that can do me good? + KING RICHARD. advancement of your children, gentle + lady. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Up to some scaffold, there to lose their + heads? + KING RICHARD. Unto the dignity and height of Fortune, + The high imperial type of this earth's glory. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Flatter my sorrow with report of it; + Tell me what state, what dignity, what honour, + Canst thou demise to any child of mine? + KING RICHARD. Even all I have-ay, and myself and all + Will I withal endow a child of thine; + So in the Lethe of thy angry soul + Thou drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs + Which thou supposest I have done to thee. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Be brief, lest that the process of thy + kindness + Last longer telling than thy kindness' date. + KING RICHARD. Then know, that from my soul I love thy + daughter. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. My daughter's mother thinks it with her + soul. + KING RICHARD. What do you think? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. That thou dost love my daughter from + thy soul. + So from thy soul's love didst thou love her brothers, + And from my heart's love I do thank thee for it. + KING RICHARD. Be not so hasty to confound my meaning. + I mean that with my soul I love thy daughter + And do intend to make her Queen of England. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Well, then, who dost thou mean shall be + her king? + KING RICHARD. Even he that makes her Queen. Who else + should be? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. What, thou? + KING RICHARD. Even so. How think you of it? + QUEEN ELIZABETH. How canst thou woo her? + KING RICHARD. That would I learn of you, + As one being best acquainted with her humour. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. And wilt thou learn of me? + KING RICHARD. Madam, with all my heart. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Send to her, by the man that slew her + brothers, + A pair of bleeding hearts; thereon engrave + 'Edward' and 'York.' Then haply will she weep; + Therefore present to her-as sometimes Margaret + Did to thy father, steep'd in Rutland's blood- + A handkerchief; which, say to her, did drain + The purple sap from her sweet brother's body, + And bid her wipe her weeping eyes withal. + If this inducement move her not to love, + Send her a letter of thy noble deeds; + Tell her thou mad'st away her uncle Clarence, + Her uncle Rivers; ay, and for her sake + Mad'st quick conveyance with her good aunt Anne. + KING RICHARD. You mock me, madam; this is not the way + To win your daughter. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. There is no other way; + Unless thou couldst put on some other shape + And not be Richard that hath done all this. + KING RICHARD. Say that I did all this for love of her. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Nay, then indeed she cannot choose but + hate thee, + Having bought love with such a bloody spoil. + KING RICHARD. Look what is done cannot be now amended. + Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes, + Which after-hours gives leisure to repent. + If I did take the kingdom from your sons, + To make amends I'll give it to your daughter. + If I have kill'd the issue of your womb, + To quicken your increase I will beget + Mine issue of your blood upon your daughter. + A grandam's name is little less in love + Than is the doating title of a mother; + They are as children but one step below, + Even of your metal, of your very blood; + Of all one pain, save for a night of groans + Endur'd of her, for whom you bid like sorrow. + Your children were vexation to your youth; + But mine shall be a comfort to your age. + The loss you have is but a son being King, + And by that loss your daughter is made Queen. + I cannot make you what amends I would, + Therefore accept such kindness as I can. + Dorset your son, that with a fearful soul + Leads discontented steps in foreign soil, + This fair alliance quickly shall can home + To high promotions and great dignity. + The King, that calls your beauteous daughter wife, + Familiarly shall call thy Dorset brother; + Again shall you be mother to a king, + And all the ruins of distressful times + Repair'd with double riches of content. + What! we have many goodly days to see. + The liquid drops of tears that you have shed + Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl, + Advantaging their loan with interest + Of ten times double gain of happiness. + Go, then, my mother, to thy daughter go; + Make bold her bashful years with your experience; + Prepare her ears to hear a wooer's tale; + Put in her tender heart th' aspiring flame + Of golden sovereignty; acquaint the Princes + With the sweet silent hours of marriage joys. + And when this arm of mine hath chastised + The petty rebel, dull-brain'd Buckingham, + Bound with triumphant garlands will I come, + And lead thy daughter to a conqueror's bed; + To whom I will retail my conquest won, + And she shall be sole victoress, Caesar's Caesar. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. What were I best to say? Her father's + brother + Would be her lord? Or shall I say her uncle? + Or he that slew her brothers and her uncles? + Under what title shall I woo for thee + That God, the law, my honour, and her love + Can make seem pleasing to her tender years? + KING RICHARD. Infer fair England's peace by this alliance. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Which she shall purchase with + still-lasting war. + KING RICHARD. Tell her the King, that may command, + entreats. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. That at her hands which the King's + King forbids. + KING RICHARD. Say she shall be a high and mighty queen. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. To wail the title, as her mother doth. + KING RICHARD. Say I will love her everlastingly. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. But how long shall that title 'ever' last? + KING RICHARD. Sweetly in force unto her fair life's end. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. But how long fairly shall her sweet life + last? + KING RICHARD. As long as heaven and nature lengthens it. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. As long as hell and Richard likes of it. + KING RICHARD. Say I, her sovereign, am her subject low. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. But she, your subject, loathes such + sovereignty. + KING RICHARD. Be eloquent in my behalf to her. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. An honest tale speeds best being plainly + told. + KING RICHARD. Then plainly to her tell my loving tale. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Plain and not honest is too harsh a style. + KING RICHARD. Your reasons are too shallow and too quick. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. O, no, my reasons are too deep and + dead- + Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their graves. + KING RICHARD. Harp not on that string, madam; that is past. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Harp on it still shall I till heartstrings + break. + KING RICHARD. Now, by my George, my garter, and my + crown- + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Profan'd, dishonour'd, and the third + usurp'd. + KING RICHARD. I swear- + QUEEN ELIZABETH. By nothing; for this is no oath: + Thy George, profan'd, hath lost his lordly honour; + Thy garter, blemish'd, pawn'd his knightly virtue; + Thy crown, usurp'd, disgrac'd his kingly glory. + If something thou wouldst swear to be believ'd, + Swear then by something that thou hast not wrong'd. + KING RICHARD. Then, by my self- + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Thy self is self-misus'd. + KING RICHARD. Now, by the world- + QUEEN ELIZABETH. 'Tis full of thy foul wrongs. + KING RICHARD. My father's death- + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Thy life hath it dishonour'd. + KING RICHARD. Why, then, by God- + QUEEN ELIZABETH. God's wrong is most of all. + If thou didst fear to break an oath with Him, + The unity the King my husband made + Thou hadst not broken, nor my brothers died. + If thou hadst fear'd to break an oath by Him, + Th' imperial metal, circling now thy head, + Had grac'd the tender temples of my child; + And both the Princes had been breathing here, + Which now, two tender bedfellows for dust, + Thy broken faith hath made the prey for worms. + What canst thou swear by now? + KING RICHARD. The time to come. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. That thou hast wronged in the time + o'erpast; + For I myself have many tears to wash + Hereafter time, for time past wrong'd by thee. + The children live whose fathers thou hast slaughter'd, + Ungovern'd youth, to wail it in their age; + The parents live whose children thou hast butcheed, + Old barren plants, to wail it with their age. + Swear not by time to come; for that thou hast + Misus'd ere us'd, by times ill-us'd o'erpast. + KING RICHARD. As I intend to prosper and repent, + So thrive I in my dangerous affairs + Of hostile arms! Myself myself confound! + Heaven and fortune bar me happy hours! + Day, yield me not thy light; nor, night, thy rest! + Be opposite all planets of good luck + To my proceeding!-if, with dear heart's love, + Immaculate devotion, holy thoughts, + I tender not thy beauteous princely daughter. + In her consists my happiness and thine; + Without her, follows to myself and thee, + Herself, the land, and many a Christian soul, + Death, desolation, ruin, and decay. + It cannot be avoided but by this; + It will not be avoided but by this. + Therefore, dear mother-I must call you so- + Be the attorney of my love to her; + Plead what I will be, not what I have been; + Not my deserts, but what I will deserve. + Urge the necessity and state of times, + And be not peevish-fond in great designs. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Shall I be tempted of the devil thus? + KING RICHARD. Ay, if the devil tempt you to do good. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Shall I forget myself to be myself? + KING RICHARD. Ay, if your self's remembrance wrong + yourself. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Yet thou didst kill my children. + KING RICHARD. But in your daughter's womb I bury them; + Where, in that nest of spicery, they will breed + Selves of themselves, to your recomforture. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. Shall I go win my daughter to thy will? + KING RICHARD. And be a happy mother by the deed. + QUEEN ELIZABETH. I go. Write to me very shortly, + And you shall understand from me her mind. + KING RICHARD. Bear her my true love's kiss; and so, farewell. + Kissing her. Exit QUEEN ELIZABETH + Relenting fool, and shallow, changing woman! + + Enter RATCLIFF; CATESBY following + + How now! what news? + RATCLIFF. Most mighty sovereign, on the western coast + Rideth a puissant navy; to our shores + Throng many doubtful hollow-hearted friends, + Unarm'd, and unresolv'd to beat them back. + 'Tis thought that Richmond is their admiral; + And there they hull, expecting but the aid + Of Buckingham to welcome them ashore. + KING RICHARD. Some light-foot friend post to the Duke of + Norfolk. + Ratcliff, thyself-or Catesby; where is he? + CATESBY. Here, my good lord. + KING RICHARD. Catesby, fly to the Duke. + CATESBY. I will my lord, with all convenient haste. + KING RICHARD. Ratcliff, come hither. Post to Salisbury; + When thou com'st thither- [To CATESBY] Dull, + unmindfull villain, + Why stay'st thou here, and go'st not to the Duke? + CATESBY. First, mighty liege, tell me your Highness' pleasure, + What from your Grace I shall deliver to him. + KING RICHARD. O, true, good Catesby. Bid him levy straight + The greatest strength and power that he can make + And meet me suddenly at Salisbury. + CATESBY. I go. Exit + RATCLIFF. What, may it please you, shall I do at Salisbury? + KING RICHARD. Why, what wouldst thou do there before I + go? + RATCLIFF. Your Highness told me I should post before. + KING RICHARD. My mind is chang'd. + + Enter LORD STANLEY + + STANLEY, what news with you? + STANLEY. None good, my liege, to please you with + the hearing; + Nor none so bad but well may be reported. + KING RICHARD. Hoyday, a riddle! neither good nor bad! + What need'st thou run so many miles about, + When thou mayest tell thy tale the nearest way? + Once more, what news? + STANLEY. Richmond is on the seas. + KING RICHARD. There let him sink, and be the seas on him! + White-liver'd runagate, what doth he there? + STANLEY. I know not, mighty sovereign, but by guess. + KING RICHARD. Well, as you guess? + STANLEY. Stirr'd up by Dorset, Buckingham, and Morton, + He makes for England here to claim the crown. + KING RICHARD. Is the chair empty? Is the sword unsway'd? + Is the King dead, the empire unpossess'd? + What heir of York is there alive but we? + And who is England's King but great York's heir? + Then tell me what makes he upon the seas. + STANLEY. Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess. + KING RICHARD. Unless for that he comes to be your liege, + You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes. + Thou wilt revolt and fly to him, I fear. + STANLEY. No, my good lord; therefore mistrust me not. + KING RICHARD. Where is thy power then, to beat him back? + Where be thy tenants and thy followers? + Are they not now upon the western shore, + Safe-conducting the rebels from their ships? + STANLEY. No, my good lord, my friends are in the north. + KING RICHARD. Cold friends to me. What do they in the + north, + When they should serve their sovereign in the west? + STANLEY. They have not been commanded, mighty King. + Pleaseth your Majesty to give me leave, + I'll muster up my friends and meet your Grace + Where and what time your Majesty shall please. + KING RICHARD. Ay, ay, thou wouldst be gone to join with + Richmond; + But I'll not trust thee. + STANLEY. Most mighty sovereign, + You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful. + I never was nor never will be false. + KING RICHARD. Go, then, and muster men. But leave behind + Your son, George Stanley. Look your heart be firm, + Or else his head's assurance is but frail. + STANLEY. So deal with him as I prove true to you. Exit + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. My gracious sovereign, now in Devonshire, + As I by friends am well advertised, + Sir Edward Courtney and the haughty prelate, + Bishop of Exeter, his elder brother, + With many moe confederates, are in arms. + + Enter another MESSENGER + + SECOND MESSENGER. In Kent, my liege, the Guilfords are in + arms; + And every hour more competitors + Flock to the rebels, and their power grows strong. + + Enter another MESSENGER + + THIRD MESSENGER. My lord, the army of great Buckingham- + KING RICHARD. Out on you, owls! Nothing but songs of + death? [He strikes him] + There, take thou that till thou bring better news. + THIRD MESSENGER. The news I have to tell your Majesty + Is that by sudden floods and fall of waters + Buckingham's army is dispers'd and scatter'd; + And he himself wand'red away alone, + No man knows whither. + KING RICHARD. I cry thee mercy. + There is my purse to cure that blow of thine. + Hath any well-advised friend proclaim'd + Reward to him that brings the traitor in? + THIRD MESSENGER. Such proclamation hath been made, + my Lord. + + Enter another MESSENGER + + FOURTH MESSENGER. Sir Thomas Lovel and Lord Marquis + Dorset, + 'Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms. + But this good comfort bring I to your Highness- + The Britaine navy is dispers'd by tempest. + Richmond in Dorsetshire sent out a boat + Unto the shore, to ask those on the banks + If they were his assistants, yea or no; + Who answer'd him they came from Buckingham + Upon his party. He, mistrusting them, + Hois'd sail, and made his course again for Britaine. + KING RICHARD. March on, march on, since we are up in + arms; + If not to fight with foreign enemies, + Yet to beat down these rebels here at home. + + Re-enter CATESBY + + CATESBY. My liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken- + That is the best news. That the Earl of Richmond + Is with a mighty power landed at Milford + Is colder tidings, yet they must be told. + KING RICHARD. Away towards Salisbury! While we reason + here + A royal battle might be won and lost. + Some one take order Buckingham be brought + To Salisbury; the rest march on with me. + Flourish. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 5. + +LORD DERBY'S house + +Enter STANLEY and SIR CHRISTOPHER URSWICK + + STANLEY. Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me: + That in the sty of the most deadly boar + My son George Stanley is frank'd up in hold; + If I revolt, off goes young George's head; + The fear of that holds off my present aid. + So, get thee gone; commend me to thy lord. + Withal say that the Queen hath heartily consented + He should espouse Elizabeth her daughter. + But tell me, where is princely Richmond now? + CHRISTOPHER. At Pembroke, or at Ha'rford west in Wales. + STANLEY. What men of name resort to him? + CHRISTOPHER. Sir Walter Herbert, a renowned soldier; + SIR Gilbert Talbot, Sir William Stanley, + OXFORD, redoubted Pembroke, Sir James Blunt, + And Rice ap Thomas, with a valiant crew; + And many other of great name and worth; + And towards London do they bend their power, + If by the way they be not fought withal. + STANLEY. Well, hie thee to thy lord; I kiss his hand; + My letter will resolve him of my mind. + Farewell. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE 1. + +Salisbury. An open place + +Enter the SHERIFF and guard, with BUCKINGHAM, led to execution + + BUCKINGHAM. Will not King Richard let me speak with + him? + SHERIFF. No, my good lord; therefore be patient. + BUCKINGHAM. Hastings, and Edward's children, Grey, and + Rivers, + Holy King Henry, and thy fair son Edward, + Vaughan, and all that have miscarried + By underhand corrupted foul injustice, + If that your moody discontented souls + Do through the clouds behold this present hour, + Even for revenge mock my destruction! + This is All-Souls' day, fellow, is it not? + SHERIFF. It is, my lord. + BUCKINGHAM. Why, then All-Souls' day is my body's + doomsday. + This is the day which in King Edward's time + I wish'd might fall on me when I was found + False to his children and his wife's allies; + This is the day wherein I wish'd to fall + By the false faith of him whom most I trusted; + This, this All-Souls' day to my fearful soul + Is the determin'd respite of my wrongs; + That high All-Seer which I dallied with + Hath turn'd my feigned prayer on my head + And given in earnest what I begg'd in jest. + Thus doth He force the swords of wicked men + To turn their own points in their masters' bosoms. + Thus Margaret's curse falls heavy on my neck. + 'When he' quoth she 'shall split thy heart with sorrow, + Remember Margaret was a prophetess.' + Come lead me, officers, to the block of shame; + Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2. + +Camp near Tamworth + +Enter RICHMOND, OXFORD, SIR JAMES BLUNT, SIR WALTER HERBERT, and others, +with drum and colours + + RICHMOND. Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends, + Bruis'd underneath the yoke of tyranny, + Thus far into the bowels of the land + Have we march'd on without impediment; + And here receive we from our father Stanley + Lines of fair comfort and encouragement. + The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar, + That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful vines, + Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough + In your embowell'd bosoms-this foul swine + Is now even in the centre of this isle, + Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn. + From Tamworth thither is but one day's march. + In God's name cheerly on, courageous friends, + To reap the harvest of perpetual peace + By this one bloody trial of sharp war. + OXFORD. Every man's conscience is a thousand men, + To fight against this guilty homicide. + HERBERT. I doubt not but his friends will turn to us. + BLUNT. He hath no friends but what are friends for fear, + Which in his dearest need will fly from him. + RICHMOND. All for our vantage. Then in God's name march. + True hope is swift and flies with swallow's wings; + Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3. + +Bosworth Field + +Enter KING RICHARD in arms, with NORFOLK, RATCLIFF, +the EARL of SURREYS and others + + KING RICHARD. Here pitch our tent, even here in Bosworth + field. + My Lord of Surrey, why look you so sad? + SURREY. My heart is ten times lighter than my looks. + KING RICHARD. My Lord of Norfolk! + NORFOLK. Here, most gracious liege. + KING RICHARD. Norfolk, we must have knocks; ha! must we + not? + NORFOLK. We must both give and take, my loving lord. + KING RICHARD. Up With my tent! Here will I lie to-night; + [Soldiers begin to set up the KING'S tent] + But where to-morrow? Well, all's one for that. + Who hath descried the number of the traitors? + NORFOLK. Six or seven thousand is their utmost power. + KING RICHARD. Why, our battalia trebles that account; + Besides, the King's name is a tower of strength, + Which they upon the adverse faction want. + Up with the tent! Come, noble gentlemen, + Let us survey the vantage of the ground. + Call for some men of sound direction. + Let's lack no discipline, make no delay; + For, lords, to-morrow is a busy day. Exeunt + + Enter, on the other side of the field, + RICHMOND, SIR WILLIAM BRANDON, OXFORD, DORSET, + and others. Some pitch RICHMOND'S tent + + RICHMOND. The weary sun hath made a golden set, + And by the bright tract of his fiery car + Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow. + Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my standard. + Give me some ink and paper in my tent. + I'll draw the form and model of our battle, + Limit each leader to his several charge, + And part in just proportion our small power. + My Lord of Oxford-you, Sir William Brandon- + And you, Sir Walter Herbert-stay with me. + The Earl of Pembroke keeps his regiment; + Good Captain Blunt, bear my good night to him, + And by the second hour in the morning + Desire the Earl to see me in my tent. + Yet one thing more, good Captain, do for me- + Where is Lord Stanley quarter'd, do you know? + BLUNT. Unless I have mista'en his colours much- + Which well I am assur'd I have not done- + His regiment lies half a mile at least + South from the mighty power of the King. + RICHMOND. If without peril it be possible, + Sweet Blunt, make some good means to speak with him + And give him from me this most needful note. + BLUNT. Upon my life, my lord, I'll undertake it; + And so, God give you quiet rest to-night! + RICHMOND. Good night, good Captain Blunt. Come, + gentlemen, + Let us consult upon to-morrow's business. + In to my tent; the dew is raw and cold. + [They withdraw into the tent] + + Enter, to his-tent, KING RICHARD, NORFOLK, + RATCLIFF, and CATESBY + + KING RICHARD. What is't o'clock? + CATESBY. It's supper-time, my lord; + It's nine o'clock. + KING RICHARD. I will not sup to-night. + Give me some ink and paper. + What, is my beaver easier than it was? + And all my armour laid into my tent? + CATESBY. It is, my liege; and all things are in readiness. + KING RICHARD. Good Norfolk, hie thee to thy charge; + Use careful watch, choose trusty sentinels. + NORFOLK. I go, my lord. + KING RICHARD. Stir with the lark to-morrow, gentle Norfolk. + NORFOLK. I warrant you, my lord. Exit + KING RICHARD. Catesby! + CATESBY. My lord? + KING RICHARD. Send out a pursuivant-at-arms + To Stanley's regiment; bid him bring his power + Before sunrising, lest his son George fall + Into the blind cave of eternal night. Exit CATESBY + Fill me a bowl of wine. Give me a watch. + Saddle white Surrey for the field to-morrow. + Look that my staves be sound, and not too heavy. + Ratcliff! + RATCLIFF. My lord? + KING RICHARD. Saw'st thou the melancholy Lord + Northumberland? + RATCLIFF. Thomas the Earl of Surrey and himself, + Much about cock-shut time, from troop to troop + Went through the army, cheering up the soldiers. + KING RICHARD. So, I am satisfied. Give me a bowl of wine. + I have not that alacrity of spirit + Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have. + Set it down. Is ink and paper ready? + RATCLIFF. It is, my lord. + KING RICHARD. Bid my guard watch; leave me. + RATCLIFF, about the mid of night come to my tent + And help to arm me. Leave me, I say. + Exit RATCLIFF. RICHARD sleeps + + Enter DERBY to RICHMOND in his tent; + LORDS attending + + DERBY. Fortune and victory sit on thy helm! + RICHMOND. All comfort that the dark night can afford + Be to thy person, noble father-in-law! + Tell me, how fares our loving mother? + DERBY. I, by attorney, bless thee from thy mother, + Who prays continually for Richmond's good. + So much for that. The silent hours steal on, + And flaky darkness breaks within the east. + In brief, for so the season bids us be, + Prepare thy battle early in the morning, + And put thy fortune to the arbitrement + Of bloody strokes and mortal-staring war. + I, as I may-that which I would I cannot- + With best advantage will deceive the time + And aid thee in this doubtful shock of arms; + But on thy side I may not be too forward, + Lest, being seen, thy brother, tender George, + Be executed in his father's sight. + Farewell; the leisure and the fearful time + Cuts off the ceremonious vows of love + And ample interchange of sweet discourse + Which so-long-sund'red friends should dwell upon. + God give us leisure for these rites of love! + Once more, adieu; be valiant, and speed well! + RICHMOND. Good lords, conduct him to his regiment. + I'll strive with troubled thoughts to take a nap, + Lest leaden slumber peise me down to-morrow + When I should mount with wings of victory. + Once more, good night, kind lords and gentlemen. + Exeunt all but RICHMOND + O Thou, whose captain I account myself, + Look on my forces with a gracious eye; + Put in their hands Thy bruising irons of wrath, + That they may crush down with a heavy fall + The usurping helmets of our adversaries! + Make us Thy ministers of chastisement, + That we may praise Thee in the victory! + To Thee I do commend my watchful soul + Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes. + Sleeping and waking, O, defend me still! [Sleeps] + + Enter the GHOST Of YOUNG PRINCE EDWARD, + son to HENRY THE SIXTH + + GHOST. [To RICHARD] Let me sit heavy on thy soul + to-morrow! + Think how thou stabb'dst me in my prime of youth + At Tewksbury; despair, therefore, and die! + [To RICHMOND] Be cheerful, Richmond; for the wronged + souls + Of butcher'd princes fight in thy behalf. + King Henry's issue, Richmond, comforts thee. + + Enter the GHOST of HENRY THE SIXTH + + GHOST. [To RICHARD] When I was mortal, my anointed + body + By thee was punched full of deadly holes. + Think on the Tower and me. Despair, and die. + Harry the Sixth bids thee despair and die. + [To RICHMOND] Virtuous and holy, be thou conqueror! + Harry, that prophesied thou shouldst be King, + Doth comfort thee in thy sleep. Live and flourish! + + Enter the GHOST of CLARENCE + + GHOST. [To RICHARD] Let me sit heavy in thy soul + to-morrow! I that was wash'd to death with fulsome wine, + Poor Clarence, by thy guile betray'd to death! + To-morrow in the battle think on me, + And fall thy edgeless sword. Despair and die! + [To RICHMOND] Thou offspring of the house of Lancaster, + The wronged heirs of York do pray for thee. + Good angels guard thy battle! Live and flourish! + + Enter the GHOSTS of RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN + + GHOST OF RIVERS. [To RICHARD] Let me sit heavy in thy + soul to-morrow, + Rivers that died at Pomfret! Despair and die! + GHOST OF GREY. [To RICHARD] Think upon Grey, and let + thy soul despair! + GHOST OF VAUGHAN. [To RICHARD] Think upon Vaughan, + and with guilty fear + Let fall thy lance. Despair and die! + ALL. [To RICHMOND] Awake, and think our wrongs in + Richard's bosom + Will conquer him. Awake and win the day. + + Enter the GHOST of HASTINGS + + GHOST. [To RICHARD] Bloody and guilty, guiltily awake, + And in a bloody battle end thy days! + Think on Lord Hastings. Despair and die. + [To RICHMOND] Quiet untroubled soul, awake, awake! + Arm, fight, and conquer, for fair England's sake! + + Enter the GHOSTS of the two young PRINCES + + GHOSTS. [To RICHARD] Dream on thy cousins smothered in + the Tower. + Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard, + And weigh thee down to ruin, shame, and death! + Thy nephews' souls bid thee despair and die. + [To RICHMOND] Sleep, Richmond, sleep in peace, and + wake in joy; + Good angels guard thee from the boar's annoy! + Live, and beget a happy race of kings! + Edward's unhappy sons do bid thee flourish. + + Enter the GHOST of LADY ANNE, his wife + + GHOST. [To RICHARD] Richard, thy wife, that wretched + Anne thy wife + That never slept a quiet hour with thee + Now fills thy sleep with perturbations. + To-morrow in the battle think on me, + And fall thy edgeless sword. Despair and die. + [To RICHMOND] Thou quiet soul, sleep thou a quiet sleep; + Dream of success and happy victory. + Thy adversary's wife doth pray for thee. + + Enter the GHOST of BUCKINGHAM + + GHOST. [To RICHARD] The first was I that help'd thee + to the crown; + The last was I that felt thy tyranny. + O, in the battle think on Buckingham, + And die in terror of thy guiltiness! + Dream on, dream on of bloody deeds and death; + Fainting, despair; despairing, yield thy breath! + [To RICHMOND] I died for hope ere I could lend thee aid; + But cheer thy heart and be thou not dismay'd: + God and good angels fight on Richmond's side; + And Richard falls in height of all his pride. + [The GHOSTS vanish. RICHARD starts out of his dream] + KING RICHARD. Give me another horse. Bind up my wounds. + Have mercy, Jesu! Soft! I did but dream. + O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me! + The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight. + Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. + What do I fear? Myself? There's none else by. + Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I. + Is there a murderer here? No-yes, I am. + Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why- + Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself! + Alack, I love myself. Wherefore? For any good + That I myself have done unto myself? + O, no! Alas, I rather hate myself + For hateful deeds committed by myself! + I am a villain; yet I lie, I am not. + Fool, of thyself speak well. Fool, do not flatter. + My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, + And every tongue brings in a several tale, + And every tale condemns me for a villain. + Perjury, perjury, in the high'st degree; + Murder, stern murder, in the dir'st degree; + All several sins, all us'd in each degree, + Throng to the bar, crying all 'Guilty! guilty!' + I shall despair. There is no creature loves me; + And if I die no soul will pity me: + And wherefore should they, since that I myself + Find in myself no pity to myself? + Methought the souls of all that I had murder'd + Came to my tent, and every one did threat + To-morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard. + + Enter RATCLIFF + + RATCLIFF. My lord! + KING RICHARD. Zounds, who is there? + RATCLIFF. Ratcliff, my lord; 'tis I. The early village-cock + Hath twice done salutation to the morn; + Your friends are up and buckle on their armour. + KING RICHARD. O Ratcliff, I have dream'd a fearful dream! + What think'st thou-will our friends prove all true? + RATCLIFF. No doubt, my lord. + KING RICHARD. O Ratcliff, I fear, I fear. + RATCLIFF. Nay, good my lord, be not afraid of shadows. + KING RICHARD By the apostle Paul, shadows to-night + Have stuck more terror to the soul of Richard + Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers + Armed in proof and led by shallow Richmond. + 'Tis not yet near day. Come, go with me; + Under our tents I'll play the eaves-dropper, + To see if any mean to shrink from me. Exeunt + + Enter the LORDS to RICHMOND sitting in his tent + + LORDS. Good morrow, Richmond! + RICHMOND. Cry mercy, lords and watchful gentlemen, + That you have ta'en a tardy sluggard here. + LORDS. How have you slept, my lord? + RICHMOND. The sweetest sleep and fairest-boding dreams + That ever ent'red in a drowsy head + Have I since your departure had, my lords. + Methought their souls whose bodies Richard murder'd + Came to my tent and cried on victory. + I promise you my soul is very jocund + In the remembrance of so fair a dream. + How far into the morning is it, lords? + LORDS. Upon the stroke of four. + RICHMOND. Why, then 'tis time to arm and give direction. + + His ORATION to his SOLDIERS + + More than I have said, loving countrymen, + The leisure and enforcement of the time + Forbids to dwell upon; yet remember this: + God and our good cause fight upon our side; + The prayers of holy saints and wronged souls, + Like high-rear'd bulwarks, stand before our faces; + Richard except, those whom we fight against + Had rather have us win than him they follow. + For what is he they follow? Truly, gentlemen, + A bloody tyrant and a homicide; + One rais'd in blood, and one in blood establish'd; + One that made means to come by what he hath, + And slaughtered those that were the means to help him; + A base foul stone, made precious by the foil + Of England's chair, where he is falsely set; + One that hath ever been God's enemy. + Then if you fight against God's enemy, + God will in justice ward you as his soldiers; + If you do sweat to put a tyrant down, + You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain; + If you do fight against your country's foes, + Your country's foes shall pay your pains the hire; + If you do fight in safeguard of your wives, + Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors; + If you do free your children from the sword, + Your children's children quits it in your age. + Then, in the name of God and all these rights, + Advance your standards, draw your willing swords. + For me, the ransom of my bold attempt + Shall be this cold corpse on the earth's cold face; + But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt + The least of you shall share his part thereof. + Sound drums and trumpets boldly and cheerfully; + God and Saint George! Richmond and victory! Exeunt + + Re-enter KING RICHARD, RATCLIFF, attendants, + and forces + + KING RICHARD. What said Northumberland as touching + Richmond? + RATCLIFF. That he was never trained up in arms. + KING RICHARD. He said the truth; and what said Surrey + then? + RATCLIFF. He smil'd, and said 'The better for our purpose.' + KING He was in the right; and so indeed it is. + [Clock strikes] + Tell the clock there. Give me a calendar. + Who saw the sun to-day? + RATCLIFF. Not I, my lord. + KING RICHARD. Then he disdains to shine; for by the book + He should have brav'd the east an hour ago. + A black day will it be to somebody. + Ratcliff! + RATCLIFF. My lord? + KING RICHARD. The sun will not be seen to-day; + The sky doth frown and lour upon our army. + I would these dewy tears were from the ground. + Not shine to-day! Why, what is that to me + More than to Richmond? For the selfsame heaven + That frowns on me looks sadly upon him. + + Enter NORFOLK + + NORFOLK. Arm, arm, my lord; the foe vaunts in the field. + KING RICHARD. Come, bustle, bustle; caparison my horse; + Call up Lord Stanley, bid him bring his power. + I will lead forth my soldiers to the plain, + And thus my battle shall be ordered: + My foreward shall be drawn out all in length, + Consisting equally of horse and foot; + Our archers shall be placed in the midst. + John Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Earl of Surrey, + Shall have the leading of this foot and horse. + They thus directed, we will follow + In the main battle, whose puissance on either side + Shall be well winged with our chiefest horse. + This, and Saint George to boot! What think'st thou, + Norfolk? + NORFOLK. A good direction, warlike sovereign. + This found I on my tent this morning. + [He sheweth him a paper] + KING RICHARD. [Reads] + 'Jockey of Norfolk, be not so bold, + For Dickon thy master is bought and sold.' + A thing devised by the enemy. + Go, gentlemen, every man unto his charge. + Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls; + Conscience is but a word that cowards use, + Devis'd at first to keep the strong in awe. + Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law. + March on, join bravely, let us to it pell-mell; + If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell. + + His ORATION to his ARMY + + What shall I say more than I have inferr'd? + Remember whom you are to cope withal- + A sort of vagabonds, rascals, and runaways, + A scum of Britaines, and base lackey peasants, + Whom their o'er-cloyed country vomits forth + To desperate adventures and assur'd destruction. + You sleeping safe, they bring to you unrest; + You having lands, and bless'd with beauteous wives, + They would restrain the one, distain the other. + And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow, + Long kept in Britaine at our mother's cost? + A milk-sop, one that never in his life + Felt so much cold as over shoes in snow? + Let's whip these stragglers o'er the seas again; + Lash hence these over-weening rags of France, + These famish'd beggars, weary of their lives; + Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit, + For want of means, poor rats, had hang'd themselves. + If we be conquered, let men conquer us, + And not these bastard Britaines, whom our fathers + Have in their own land beaten, bobb'd, and thump'd, + And, in record, left them the heirs of shame. + Shall these enjoy our lands? lie with our wives, + Ravish our daughters? [Drum afar off] Hark! I hear their + drum. + Fight, gentlemen of England! Fight, bold yeomen! + Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head! + Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood; + Amaze the welkin with your broken staves! + + Enter a MESSENGER + + What says Lord Stanley? Will he bring his power? + MESSENGER. My lord, he doth deny to come. + KING RICHARD. Off with his son George's head! + NORFOLK. My lord, the enemy is pass'd the marsh. + After the battle let George Stanley die. + KING RICHARD. A thousand hearts are great within my + bosom. + Advance our standards, set upon our foes; + Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George, + Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons! + Upon them! Victory sits on our helms. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 4. + +Another part of the field + +Alarum; excursions. Enter NORFOLK and forces; to him CATESBY + + CATESBY. Rescue, my Lord of Norfolk, rescue, rescue! + The King enacts more wonders than a man, + Daring an opposite to every danger. + His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights, + Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death. + Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost. + + Alarums. Enter KING RICHARD + + KING RICHARD. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! + CATESBY. Withdraw, my lord! I'll help you to a horse. + KING RICHARD. Slave, I have set my life upon a cast + And I Will stand the hazard of the die. + I think there be six Richmonds in the field; + Five have I slain to-day instead of him. + A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 5. + +Another part of the field + +Alarum. Enter RICHARD and RICHMOND; they fight; RICHARD is slain. +Retreat and flourish. Enter RICHMOND, DERBY bearing the crown, +with other LORDS + + RICHMOND. God and your arms be prais'd, victorious friends; + The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead. + DERBY. Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee! + Lo, here, this long-usurped royalty + From the dead temples of this bloody wretch + Have I pluck'd off, to grace thy brows withal. + Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it. + RICHMOND. Great God of heaven, say Amen to all! + But, teLL me is young George Stanley living. + DERBY. He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town, + Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us. + RICHMOND. What men of name are slain on either side? + DERBY. John Duke of Norfolk, Walter Lord Ferrers, + Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon. + RICHMOND. Inter their bodies as becomes their births. + Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled + That in submission will return to us. + And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament, + We will unite the white rose and the red. + Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction, + That long have frown'd upon their emnity! + What traitor hears me, and says not Amen? + England hath long been mad, and scarr'd herself; + The brother blindly shed the brother's blood, + The father rashly slaughter'd his own son, + The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire; + All this divided York and Lancaster, + Divided in their dire division, + O, now let Richmond and Elizabeth, + The true succeeders of each royal house, + By God's fair ordinance conjoin together! + And let their heirs, God, if thy will be so, + Enrich the time to come with smooth-fac'd peace, + With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days! + Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord, + That would reduce these bloody days again + And make poor England weep in streams of blood! + Let them not live to taste this land's increase + That would with treason wound this fair land's peace! + Now civil wounds are stopp'd, peace lives again- + That she may long live here, God say Amen! Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1595 + + +THE TRAGEDY OF ROMEO AND JULIET + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + Chorus. + + Escalus, Prince of Verona. + Paris, a young Count, kinsman to the Prince. + Montague, heads of two houses at variance with each other. + Capulet, heads of two houses at variance with each other. + An old Man, of the Capulet family. + Romeo, son to Montague. + Tybalt, nephew to Lady Capulet. + Mercutio, kinsman to the Prince and friend to Romeo. + Benvolio, nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo + Tybalt, nephew to Lady Capulet. + Friar Laurence, Franciscan. + Friar John, Franciscan. + Balthasar, servant to Romeo. + Abram, servant to Montague. + Sampson, servant to Capulet. + Gregory, servant to Capulet. + Peter, servant to Juliet's nurse. + An Apothecary. + Three Musicians. + An Officer. + + Lady Montague, wife to Montague. + Lady Capulet, wife to Capulet. + Juliet, daughter to Capulet. + Nurse to Juliet. + + Citizens of Verona; Gentlemen and Gentlewomen of both houses; + Maskers, Torchbearers, Pages, Guards, Watchmen, Servants, and + Attendants. + + SCENE.--Verona; Mantua. + + + + THE PROLOGUE + + Enter Chorus. + + Chor. Two households, both alike in dignity, + In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, + From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, + Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. + From forth the fatal loins of these two foes + A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; + Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows + Doth with their death bury their parents' strife. + The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, + And the continuance of their parents' rage, + Which, but their children's end, naught could remove, + Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; + The which if you with patient ears attend, + What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. + [Exit.] + + + + +<> + + + +ACT I. Scene I. +Verona. A public place. + +Enter Sampson and Gregory (with swords and bucklers) of the house of Capulet. + + Samp. Gregory, on my word, we'll not carry coals. + Greg. No, for then we should be colliers. + Samp. I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw. + Greg. Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of collar. + Samp. I strike quickly, being moved. + Greg. But thou art not quickly moved to strike. + Samp. A dog of the house of Montague moves me. + Greg. To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand. + Therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn'st away. + Samp. A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the + wall of any man or maid of Montague's. + Greg. That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the + wall. + Samp. 'Tis true; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are + ever thrust to the wall. Therefore I will push Montague's men + from the wall and thrust his maids to the wall. + Greg. The quarrel is between our masters and us their men. + Samp. 'Tis all one. I will show myself a tyrant. When I have fought + with the men, I will be cruel with the maids- I will cut off + their heads. + Greg. The heads of the maids? + Samp. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads. + Take it in what sense thou wilt. + Greg. They must take it in sense that feel it. + Samp. Me they shall feel while I am able to stand; and 'tis known I + am a pretty piece of flesh. + Greg. 'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been + poor-John. Draw thy tool! Here comes two of the house of + Montagues. + + Enter two other Servingmen [Abram and Balthasar]. + + Samp. My naked weapon is out. Quarrel! I will back thee. + Greg. How? turn thy back and run? + Samp. Fear me not. + Greg. No, marry. I fear thee! + Samp. Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin. + Greg. I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list. + Samp. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is + disgrace to them, if they bear it. + Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? + Samp. I do bite my thumb, sir. + Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? + Samp. [aside to Gregory] Is the law of our side if I say ay? + Greg. [aside to Sampson] No. + Samp. No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my + thumb, sir. + Greg. Do you quarrel, sir? + Abr. Quarrel, sir? No, sir. + Samp. But if you do, sir, am for you. I serve as good a man as you. + Abr. No better. + Samp. Well, sir. + + Enter Benvolio. + + Greg. [aside to Sampson] Say 'better.' Here comes one of my + master's kinsmen. + Samp. Yes, better, sir. + Abr. You lie. + Samp. Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember thy swashing blow. + They fight. + Ben. Part, fools! [Beats down their swords.] + Put up your swords. You know not what you do. + + Enter Tybalt. + + Tyb. What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? + Turn thee Benvolio! look upon thy death. + Ben. I do but keep the peace. Put up thy sword, + Or manage it to part these men with me. + Tyb. What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word + As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. + Have at thee, coward! They fight. + + Enter an officer, and three or four Citizens with clubs or + partisans. + + Officer. Clubs, bills, and partisans! Strike! beat them down! + Citizens. Down with the Capulets! Down with the Montagues! + + Enter Old Capulet in his gown, and his Wife. + + Cap. What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho! + Wife. A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword? + Cap. My sword, I say! Old Montague is come + And flourishes his blade in spite of me. + + Enter Old Montague and his Wife. + + Mon. Thou villain Capulet!- Hold me not, let me go. + M. Wife. Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe. + + Enter Prince Escalus, with his Train. + + Prince. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, + Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel- + Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts, + That quench the fire of your pernicious rage + With purple fountains issuing from your veins! + On pain of torture, from those bloody hands + Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground + And hear the sentence of your moved prince. + Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word + By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, + Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets + And made Verona's ancient citizens + Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments + To wield old partisans, in hands as old, + Cank'red with peace, to part your cank'red hate. + If ever you disturb our streets again, + Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. + For this time all the rest depart away. + You, Capulet, shall go along with me; + And, Montague, come you this afternoon, + To know our farther pleasure in this case, + To old Freetown, our common judgment place. + Once more, on pain of death, all men depart. + Exeunt [all but Montague, his Wife, and Benvolio]. + Mon. Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach? + Speak, nephew, were you by when it began? + Ben. Here were the servants of your adversary + And yours, close fighting ere I did approach. + I drew to part them. In the instant came + The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepar'd; + Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears, + He swung about his head and cut the winds, + Who, nothing hurt withal, hiss'd him in scorn. + While we were interchanging thrusts and blows, + Came more and more, and fought on part and part, + Till the Prince came, who parted either part. + M. Wife. O, where is Romeo? Saw you him to-day? + Right glad I am he was not at this fray. + Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun + Peer'd forth the golden window of the East, + A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad; + Where, underneath the grove of sycamore + That westward rooteth from the city's side, + So early walking did I see your son. + Towards him I made; but he was ware of me + And stole into the covert of the wood. + I- measuring his affections by my own, + Which then most sought where most might not be found, + Being one too many by my weary self- + Pursu'd my humour, not Pursuing his, + And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me. + Mon. Many a morning hath he there been seen, + With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew, + Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs; + But all so soon as the all-cheering sun + Should in the farthest East bean to draw + The shady curtains from Aurora's bed, + Away from light steals home my heavy son + And private in his chamber pens himself, + Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight + And makes himself an artificial night. + Black and portentous must this humour prove + Unless good counsel may the cause remove. + Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? + Mon. I neither know it nor can learn of him + Ben. Have you importun'd him by any means? + Mon. Both by myself and many other friend; + But he, his own affections' counsellor, + Is to himself- I will not say how true- + But to himself so secret and so close, + So far from sounding and discovery, + As is the bud bit with an envious worm + Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air + Or dedicate his beauty to the sun. + Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow, + We would as willingly give cure as know. + + Enter Romeo. + + Ben. See, where he comes. So please you step aside, + I'll know his grievance, or be much denied. + Mon. I would thou wert so happy by thy stay + To hear true shrift. Come, madam, let's away, + Exeunt [Montague and Wife]. + Ben. Good morrow, cousin. + Rom. Is the day so young? + Ben. But new struck nine. + Rom. Ay me! sad hours seem long. + Was that my father that went hence so fast? + Ben. It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours? + Rom. Not having that which having makes them short. + Ben. In love? + Rom. Out- + Ben. Of love? + Rom. Out of her favour where I am in love. + Ben. Alas that love, so gentle in his view, + Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! + Rom. Alas that love, whose view is muffled still, + Should without eyes see pathways to his will! + Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here? + Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. + Here's much to do with hate, but more with love. + Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! + O anything, of nothing first create! + O heavy lightness! serious vanity! + Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms! + Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! + Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is + This love feel I, that feel no love in this. + Dost thou not laugh? + Ben. No, coz, I rather weep. + Rom. Good heart, at what? + Ben. At thy good heart's oppression. + Rom. Why, such is love's transgression. + Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast, + Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest + With more of thine. This love that thou hast shown + Doth add more grief to too much of mine own. + Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs; + Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; + Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears. + What is it else? A madness most discreet, + A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. + Farewell, my coz. + Ben. Soft! I will go along. + An if you leave me so, you do me wrong. + Rom. Tut! I have lost myself; I am not here: + This is not Romeo, he's some other where. + Ben. Tell me in sadness, who is that you love? + Rom. What, shall I groan and tell thee? + Ben. Groan? Why, no; + But sadly tell me who. + Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will. + Ah, word ill urg'd to one that is so ill! + In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman. + Ben. I aim'd so near when I suppos'd you lov'd. + Rom. A right good markman! And she's fair I love. + Ben. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit. + Rom. Well, in that hit you miss. She'll not be hit + With Cupid's arrow. She hath Dian's wit, + And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd, + From Love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd. + She will not stay the siege of loving terms, + Nor bide th' encounter of assailing eyes, + Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold. + O, she's rich in beauty; only poor + That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store. + Ben. Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste? + Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; + For beauty, starv'd with her severity, + Cuts beauty off from all posterity. + She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair, + To merit bliss by making me despair. + She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow + Do I live dead that live to tell it now. + Ben. Be rul'd by me: forget to think of her. + Rom. O, teach me how I should forget to think! + Ben. By giving liberty unto thine eyes. + Examine other beauties. + Rom. 'Tis the way + To call hers (exquisite) in question more. + These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows, + Being black puts us in mind they hide the fair. + He that is strucken blind cannot forget + The precious treasure of his eyesight lost. + Show me a mistress that is passing fair, + What doth her beauty serve but as a note + Where I may read who pass'd that passing fair? + Farewell. Thou canst not teach me to forget. + Ben. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt. Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +A Street. + +Enter Capulet, County Paris, and [Servant] -the Clown. + + Cap. But Montague is bound as well as I, + In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think, + For men so old as we to keep the peace. + Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both, + And pity 'tis you liv'd at odds so long. + But now, my lord, what say you to my suit? + Cap. But saying o'er what I have said before: + My child is yet a stranger in the world, + She hath not seen the change of fourteen years; + Let two more summers wither in their pride + Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. + Par. Younger than she are happy mothers made. + Cap. And too soon marr'd are those so early made. + The earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she; + She is the hopeful lady of my earth. + But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart; + My will to her consent is but a part. + An she agree, within her scope of choice + Lies my consent and fair according voice. + This night I hold an old accustom'd feast, + Whereto I have invited many a guest, + Such as I love; and you among the store, + One more, most welcome, makes my number more. + At my poor house look to behold this night + Earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light. + Such comfort as do lusty young men feel + When well apparell'd April on the heel + Of limping Winter treads, even such delight + Among fresh female buds shall you this night + Inherit at my house. Hear all, all see, + And like her most whose merit most shall be; + Which, on more view of many, mine, being one, + May stand in number, though in reck'ning none. + Come, go with me. [To Servant, giving him a paper] Go, sirrah, + trudge about + Through fair Verona; find those persons out + Whose names are written there, and to them say, + My house and welcome on their pleasure stay- + Exeunt [Capulet and Paris]. + Serv. Find them out whose names are written here? It is written + that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard and the tailor + with his last, the fisher with his pencil and the painter with + his nets; but I am sent to find those persons whose names are + here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath + here writ. I must to the learned. In good time! + + Enter Benvolio and Romeo. + + Ben. Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning; + One pain is lessoned by another's anguish; + Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; + One desperate grief cures with another's languish. + Take thou some new infection to thy eye, + And the rank poison of the old will die. + Rom. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that. + Ben. For what, I pray thee? + Rom. For your broken shin. + Ben. Why, Romeo, art thou mad? + Rom. Not mad, but bound more than a madman is; + Shut up in Prison, kept without my food, + Whipp'd and tormented and- God-den, good fellow. + Serv. God gi' go-den. I pray, sir, can you read? + Rom. Ay, mine own fortune in my misery. + Serv. Perhaps you have learned it without book. But I pray, can you + read anything you see? + Rom. Ay, If I know the letters and the language. + Serv. Ye say honestly. Rest you merry! + Rom. Stay, fellow; I can read. He reads. + + 'Signior Martino and his wife and daughters; + County Anselmo and his beauteous sisters; + The lady widow of Vitruvio; + Signior Placentio and His lovely nieces; + Mercutio and his brother Valentine; + Mine uncle Capulet, his wife, and daughters; + My fair niece Rosaline and Livia; + Signior Valentio and His cousin Tybalt; + Lucio and the lively Helena.' + + [Gives back the paper.] A fair assembly. Whither should they come? + Serv. Up. + Rom. Whither? + Serv. To supper, to our house. + Rom. Whose house? + Serv. My master's. + Rom. Indeed I should have ask'd you that before. + Serv. Now I'll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich + Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray come + and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry! Exit. + Ben. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's + Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so lov'st; + With all the admired beauties of Verona. + Go thither, and with unattainted eye + Compare her face with some that I shall show, + And I will make thee think thy swan a crow. + Rom. When the devout religion of mine eye + Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires; + And these, who, often drown'd, could never die, + Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars! + One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun + Ne'er saw her match since first the world begun. + Ben. Tut! you saw her fair, none else being by, + Herself pois'd with herself in either eye; + But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd + Your lady's love against some other maid + That I will show you shining at this feast, + And she shall scant show well that now seems best. + Rom. I'll go along, no such sight to be shown, + But to rejoice in splendour of my own. [Exeunt.] + + + + +Scene III. +Capulet's house. + +Enter Capulet's Wife, and Nurse. + + Wife. Nurse, where's my daughter? Call her forth to me. + Nurse. Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old, + I bade her come. What, lamb! what ladybird! + God forbid! Where's this girl? What, Juliet! + + Enter Juliet. + + Jul. How now? Who calls? + Nurse. Your mother. + Jul. Madam, I am here. + What is your will? + Wife. This is the matter- Nurse, give leave awhile, + We must talk in secret. Nurse, come back again; + I have rememb'red me, thou's hear our counsel. + Thou knowest my daughter's of a pretty age. + Nurse. Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour. + Wife. She's not fourteen. + Nurse. I'll lay fourteen of my teeth- + And yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four- + She is not fourteen. How long is it now + To Lammastide? + Wife. A fortnight and odd days. + Nurse. Even or odd, of all days in the year, + Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen. + Susan and she (God rest all Christian souls!) + Were of an age. Well, Susan is with God; + She was too good for me. But, as I said, + On Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen; + That shall she, marry; I remember it well. + 'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years; + And she was wean'd (I never shall forget it), + Of all the days of the year, upon that day; + For I had then laid wormwood to my dug, + Sitting in the sun under the dovehouse wall. + My lord and you were then at Mantua. + Nay, I do bear a brain. But, as I said, + When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple + Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, + To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug! + Shake, quoth the dovehouse! 'Twas no need, I trow, + To bid me trudge. + And since that time it is eleven years, + For then she could stand high-lone; nay, by th' rood, + She could have run and waddled all about; + For even the day before, she broke her brow; + And then my husband (God be with his soul! + 'A was a merry man) took up the child. + 'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face? + Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit; + Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidam, + The pretty wretch left crying, and said 'Ay.' + To see now how a jest shall come about! + I warrant, an I should live a thousand yeas, + I never should forget it. 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he, + And, pretty fool, it stinted, and said 'Ay.' + Wife. Enough of this. I pray thee hold thy peace. + Nurse. Yes, madam. Yet I cannot choose but laugh + To think it should leave crying and say 'Ay.' + And yet, I warrant, it bad upon it brow + A bump as big as a young cock'rel's stone; + A perilous knock; and it cried bitterly. + 'Yea,' quoth my husband, 'fall'st upon thy face? + Thou wilt fall backward when thou comest to age; + Wilt thou not, Jule?' It stinted, and said 'Ay.' + Jul. And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I. + Nurse. Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace! + Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nurs'd. + An I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish. + Wife. Marry, that 'marry' is the very theme + I came to talk of. Tell me, daughter Juliet, + How stands your disposition to be married? + Jul. It is an honour that I dream not of. + Nurse. An honour? Were not I thine only nurse, + I would say thou hadst suck'd wisdom from thy teat. + Wife. Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you, + Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, + Are made already mothers. By my count, + I was your mother much upon these years + That you are now a maid. Thus then in brief: + The valiant Paris seeks you for his love. + Nurse. A man, young lady! lady, such a man + As all the world- why he's a man of wax. + Wife. Verona's summer hath not such a flower. + Nurse. Nay, he's a flower, in faith- a very flower. + Wife. What say you? Can you love the gentleman? + This night you shall behold him at our feast. + Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face, + And find delight writ there with beauty's pen; + Examine every married lineament, + And see how one another lends content; + And what obscur'd in this fair volume lies + Find written in the margent of his eyes, + This precious book of love, this unbound lover, + To beautify him only lacks a cover. + The fish lives in the sea, and 'tis much pride + For fair without the fair within to hide. + That book in many's eyes doth share the glory, + That in gold clasps locks in the golden story; + So shall you share all that he doth possess, + By having him making yourself no less. + Nurse. No less? Nay, bigger! Women grow by men + Wife. Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love? + Jul. I'll look to like, if looking liking move; + But no more deep will I endart mine eye + Than your consent gives strength to make it fly. + + Enter Servingman. + + Serv. Madam, the guests are come, supper serv'd up, you call'd, my + young lady ask'd for, the nurse curs'd in the pantry, and + everything in extremity. I must hence to wait. I beseech you + follow straight. + Wife. We follow thee. Exit [Servingman]. + Juliet, the County stays. + Nurse. Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene IV. +A street. + +Enter Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, with five or six other Maskers; Torchbearers. + + Rom. What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse? + Or shall we on without apology? + Ben. The date is out of such prolixity. + We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf, + Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath, + Scaring the ladies like a crowkeeper; + Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke + After the prompter, for our entrance; + But, let them measure us by what they will, + We'll measure them a measure, and be gone. + Rom. Give me a torch. I am not for this ambling. + Being but heavy, I will bear the light. + Mer. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. + Rom. Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes + With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead + So stakes me to the ground I cannot move. + Mer. You are a lover. Borrow Cupid's wings + And soar with them above a common bound. + Rom. I am too sore enpierced with his shaft + To soar with his light feathers; and so bound + I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe. + Under love's heavy burthen do I sink. + Mer. And, to sink in it, should you burthen love- + Too great oppression for a tender thing. + Rom. Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, + Too rude, too boist'rous, and it pricks like thorn. + Mer. If love be rough with you, be rough with love. + Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down. + Give me a case to put my visage in. + A visor for a visor! What care I + What curious eye doth quote deformities? + Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me. + Ben. Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in + But every man betake him to his legs. + Rom. A torch for me! Let wantons light of heart + Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels; + For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase, + I'll be a candle-holder and look on; + The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done. + Mer. Tut! dun's the mouse, the constable's own word! + If thou art Dun, we'll draw thee from the mire + Of this sir-reverence love, wherein thou stick'st + Up to the ears. Come, we burn daylight, ho! + Rom. Nay, that's not so. + Mer. I mean, sir, in delay + We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day. + Take our good meaning, for our judgment sits + Five times in that ere once in our five wits. + Rom. And we mean well, in going to this masque; + But 'tis no wit to go. + Mer. Why, may one ask? + Rom. I dreamt a dream to-night. + Mer. And so did I. + Rom. Well, what was yours? + Mer. That dreamers often lie. + Rom. In bed asleep, while they do dream things true. + Mer. O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. + She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes + In shape no bigger than an agate stone + On the forefinger of an alderman, + Drawn with a team of little atomies + Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep; + Her wagon spokes made of long spinners' legs, + The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers; + Her traces, of the smallest spider's web; + Her collars, of the moonshine's wat'ry beams; + Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film; + Her wagoner, a small grey-coated gnat, + Not half so big as a round little worm + Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid; + Her chariot is an empty hazelnut, + Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub, + Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers. + And in this state she 'gallops night by night + Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; + O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on cursies straight; + O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees; + O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream, + Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, + Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are. + Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, + And then dreams he of smelling out a suit; + And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail + Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep, + Then dreams he of another benefice. + Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, + And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, + Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, + Of healths five fadom deep; and then anon + Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, + And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two + And sleeps again. This is that very Mab + That plats the manes of horses in the night + And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish, hairs, + Which once untangled much misfortune bodes + This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, + That presses them and learns them first to bear, + Making them women of good carriage. + This is she- + Rom. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! + Thou talk'st of nothing. + Mer. True, I talk of dreams; + Which are the children of an idle brain, + Begot of nothing but vain fantasy; + Which is as thin of substance as the air, + And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes + Even now the frozen bosom of the North + And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence, + Turning his face to the dew-dropping South. + Ben. This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves. + Supper is done, and we shall come too late. + Rom. I fear, too early; for my mind misgives + Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars, + Shall bitterly begin his fearful date + With this night's revels and expire the term + Of a despised life, clos'd in my breast, + By some vile forfeit of untimely death. + But he that hath the steerage of my course + Direct my sail! On, lusty gentlemen! + Ben. Strike, drum. + They march about the stage. [Exeunt.] + + + + +Scene V. +Capulet's house. + +Servingmen come forth with napkins. + + 1. Serv. Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? + He shift a trencher! he scrape a trencher! + 2. Serv. When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's hands, + and they unwash'd too, 'tis a foul thing. + 1. Serv. Away with the join-stools, remove the court-cubbert, look + to the plate. Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane and, as + thou loves me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone and Nell. + Anthony, and Potpan! + 2. Serv. Ay, boy, ready. + 1. Serv. You are look'd for and call'd for, ask'd for and sought + for, in the great chamber. + 3. Serv. We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys! + Be brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all. Exeunt. + + Enter the Maskers, Enter, [with Servants,] Capulet, his Wife, + Juliet, Tybalt, and all the Guests + and Gentlewomen to the Maskers. + + Cap. Welcome, gentlemen! Ladies that have their toes + Unplagu'd with corns will have a bout with you. + Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all + Will now deny to dance? She that makes dainty, + She I'll swear hath corns. Am I come near ye now? + Welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day + That I have worn a visor and could tell + A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear, + Such as would please. 'Tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone! + You are welcome, gentlemen! Come, musicians, play. + A hall, a hall! give room! and foot it, girls. + Music plays, and they dance. + More light, you knaves! and turn the tables up, + And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot. + Ah, sirrah, this unlook'd-for sport comes well. + Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet, + For you and I are past our dancing days. + How long is't now since last yourself and I + Were in a mask? + 2. Cap. By'r Lady, thirty years. + Cap. What, man? 'Tis not so much, 'tis not so much! + 'Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio, + Come Pentecost as quickly as it will, + Some five-and-twenty years, and then we mask'd. + 2. Cap. 'Tis more, 'tis more! His son is elder, sir; + His son is thirty. + Cap. Will you tell me that? + His son was but a ward two years ago. + Rom. [to a Servingman] What lady's that, which doth enrich the hand + Of yonder knight? + Serv. I know not, sir. + Rom. O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! + It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night + Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear- + Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! + So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows + As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. + The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand + And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. + Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight! + For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night. + Tyb. This, by his voice, should be a Montague. + Fetch me my rapier, boy. What, dares the slave + Come hither, cover'd with an antic face, + To fleer and scorn at our solemnity? + Now, by the stock and honour of my kin, + To strike him dead I hold it not a sin. + Cap. Why, how now, kinsman? Wherefore storm you so? + Tyb. Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe; + A villain, that is hither come in spite + To scorn at our solemnity this night. + Cap. Young Romeo is it? + Tyb. 'Tis he, that villain Romeo. + Cap. Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone. + 'A bears him like a portly gentleman, + And, to say truth, Verona brags of him + To be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth. + I would not for the wealth of all this town + Here in my house do him disparagement. + Therefore be patient, take no note of him. + It is my will; the which if thou respect, + Show a fair presence and put off these frowns, + An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast. + Tyb. It fits when such a villain is a guest. + I'll not endure him. + Cap. He shall be endur'd. + What, goodman boy? I say he shall. Go to! + Am I the master here, or you? Go to! + You'll not endure him? God shall mend my soul! + You'll make a mutiny among my guests! + You will set cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man! + Tyb. Why, uncle, 'tis a shame. + Cap. Go to, go to! + You are a saucy boy. Is't so, indeed? + This trick may chance to scathe you. I know what. + You must contrary me! Marry, 'tis time.- + Well said, my hearts!- You are a princox- go! + Be quiet, or- More light, more light!- For shame! + I'll make you quiet; what!- Cheerly, my hearts! + Tyb. Patience perforce with wilful choler meeting + Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting. + I will withdraw; but this intrusion shall, + Now seeming sweet, convert to bitt'rest gall. Exit. + Rom. If I profane with my unworthiest hand + This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: + My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand + To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. + Jul. Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, + Which mannerly devotion shows in this; + For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, + And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss. + Rom. Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? + Jul. Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in pray'r. + Rom. O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do! + They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. + Jul. Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake. + Rom. Then move not while my prayer's effect I take. + Thus from my lips, by thine my sin is purg'd. [Kisses her.] + Jul. Then have my lips the sin that they have took. + Rom. Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urg'd! + Give me my sin again. [Kisses her.] + Jul. You kiss by th' book. + Nurse. Madam, your mother craves a word with you. + Rom. What is her mother? + Nurse. Marry, bachelor, + Her mother is the lady of the house. + And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous. + I nurs'd her daughter that you talk'd withal. + I tell you, he that can lay hold of her + Shall have the chinks. + Rom. Is she a Capulet? + O dear account! my life is my foe's debt. + Ben. Away, be gone; the sport is at the best. + Rom. Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest. + Cap. Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone; + We have a trifling foolish banquet towards. + Is it e'en so? Why then, I thank you all. + I thank you, honest gentlemen. Good night. + More torches here! [Exeunt Maskers.] Come on then, let's to bed. + Ah, sirrah, by my fay, it waxes late; + I'll to my rest. + Exeunt [all but Juliet and Nurse]. + Jul. Come hither, nurse. What is yond gentleman? + Nurse. The son and heir of old Tiberio. + Jul. What's he that now is going out of door? + Nurse. Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio. + Jul. What's he that follows there, that would not dance? + Nurse. I know not. + Jul. Go ask his name.- If he be married, + My grave is like to be my wedding bed. + Nurse. His name is Romeo, and a Montague, + The only son of your great enemy. + Jul. My only love, sprung from my only hate! + Too early seen unknown, and known too late! + Prodigious birth of love it is to me + That I must love a loathed enemy. + Nurse. What's this? what's this? + Jul. A rhyme I learnt even now + Of one I danc'd withal. + One calls within, 'Juliet.' + Nurse. Anon, anon! + Come, let's away; the strangers all are gone. Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +PROLOGUE + +Enter Chorus. + + Chor. Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie, + And young affection gapes to be his heir; + That fair for which love groan'd for and would die, + With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair. + Now Romeo is belov'd, and loves again, + Alike bewitched by the charm of looks; + But to his foe suppos'd he must complain, + And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks. + Being held a foe, he may not have access + To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear, + And she as much in love, her means much less + To meet her new beloved anywhere; + But passion lends them power, time means, to meet, + Temp'ring extremities with extreme sweet. +Exit. + + + + +ACT II. Scene I. +A lane by the wall of Capulet's orchard. + +Enter Romeo alone. + + Rom. Can I go forward when my heart is here? + Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out. + [Climbs the wall and leaps down within it.] + + Enter Benvolio with Mercutio. + + Ben. Romeo! my cousin Romeo! Romeo! + Mer. He is wise, + And, on my life, hath stol'n him home to bed. + Ben. He ran this way, and leapt this orchard wall. + Call, good Mercutio. + Mer. Nay, I'll conjure too. + Romeo! humours! madman! passion! lover! + Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh; + Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied! + Cry but 'Ay me!' pronounce but 'love' and 'dove'; + Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, + One nickname for her purblind son and heir, + Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim + When King Cophetua lov'd the beggar maid! + He heareth not, he stirreth not, be moveth not; + The ape is dead, and I must conjure him. + I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes. + By her high forehead and her scarlet lip, + By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh, + And the demesnes that there adjacent lie, + That in thy likeness thou appear to us! + Ben. An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. + Mer. This cannot anger him. 'Twould anger him + To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle + Of some strange nature, letting it there stand + Till she had laid it and conjur'd it down. + That were some spite; my invocation + Is fair and honest: in his mistress' name, + I conjure only but to raise up him. + Ben. Come, he hath hid himself among these trees + To be consorted with the humorous night. + Blind is his love and best befits the dark. + Mer. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. + Now will he sit under a medlar tree + And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit + As maids call medlars when they laugh alone. + O, Romeo, that she were, O that she were + An open et cetera, thou a pop'rin pear! + Romeo, good night. I'll to my truckle-bed; + This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep. + Come, shall we go? + Ben. Go then, for 'tis in vain + 'To seek him here that means not to be found. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +Capulet's orchard. + +Enter Romeo. + + Rom. He jests at scars that never felt a wound. + + Enter Juliet above at a window. + + But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? + It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! + Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, + Who is already sick and pale with grief + That thou her maid art far more fair than she. + Be not her maid, since she is envious. + Her vestal livery is but sick and green, + And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off. + It is my lady; O, it is my love! + O that she knew she were! + She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that? + Her eye discourses; I will answer it. + I am too bold; 'tis not to me she speaks. + Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, + Having some business, do entreat her eyes + To twinkle in their spheres till they return. + What if her eyes were there, they in her head? + The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars + As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven + Would through the airy region stream so bright + That birds would sing and think it were not night. + See how she leans her cheek upon her hand! + O that I were a glove upon that hand, + That I might touch that cheek! + Jul. Ay me! + Rom. She speaks. + O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art + As glorious to this night, being o'er my head, + As is a winged messenger of heaven + Unto the white-upturned wond'ring eyes + Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him + When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds + And sails upon the bosom of the air. + Jul. O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? + Deny thy father and refuse thy name! + Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, + And I'll no longer be a Capulet. + Rom. [aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this? + Jul. 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy. + Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. + What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, + Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part + Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! + What's in a name? That which we call a rose + By any other name would smell as sweet. + So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, + Retain that dear perfection which he owes + Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name; + And for that name, which is no part of thee, + Take all myself. + Rom. I take thee at thy word. + Call me but love, and I'll be new baptiz'd; + Henceforth I never will be Romeo. + Jul. What man art thou that, thus bescreen'd in night, + So stumblest on my counsel? + Rom. By a name + I know not how to tell thee who I am. + My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself, + Because it is an enemy to thee. + Had I it written, I would tear the word. + Jul. My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words + Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound. + Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague? + Rom. Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike. + Jul. How cam'st thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? + The orchard walls are high and hard to climb, + And the place death, considering who thou art, + If any of my kinsmen find thee here. + Rom. With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls; + For stony limits cannot hold love out, + And what love can do, that dares love attempt. + Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me. + Jul. If they do see thee, they will murther thee. + Rom. Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye + Than twenty of their swords! Look thou but sweet, + And I am proof against their enmity. + Jul. I would not for the world they saw thee here. + Rom. I have night's cloak to hide me from their sight; + And but thou love me, let them find me here. + My life were better ended by their hate + Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love. + Jul. By whose direction found'st thou out this place? + Rom. By love, that first did prompt me to enquire. + He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes. + I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far + As that vast shore wash'd with the farthest sea, + I would adventure for such merchandise. + Jul. Thou knowest the mask of night is on my face; + Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek + For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night. + Fain would I dwell on form- fain, fain deny + What I have spoke; but farewell compliment! + Dost thou love me, I know thou wilt say 'Ay'; + And I will take thy word. Yet, if thou swear'st, + Thou mayst prove false. At lovers' perjuries, + They say Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo, + If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully. + Or if thou thinkest I am too quickly won, + I'll frown, and be perverse, and say thee nay, + So thou wilt woo; but else, not for the world. + In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond, + And therefore thou mayst think my haviour light; + But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true + Than those that have more cunning to be strange. + I should have been more strange, I must confess, + But that thou overheard'st, ere I was ware, + My true-love passion. Therefore pardon me, + And not impute this yielding to light love, + Which the dark night hath so discovered. + Rom. Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, + That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops- + Jul. O, swear not by the moon, th' inconstant moon, + That monthly changes in her circled orb, + Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. + Rom. What shall I swear by? + Jul. Do not swear at all; + Or if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self, + Which is the god of my idolatry, + And I'll believe thee. + Rom. If my heart's dear love- + Jul. Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee, + I have no joy of this contract to-night. + It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden; + Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be + Ere one can say 'It lightens.' Sweet, good night! + This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath, + May prove a beauteous flow'r when next we meet. + Good night, good night! As sweet repose and rest + Come to thy heart as that within my breast! + Rom. O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied? + Jul. What satisfaction canst thou have to-night? + Rom. Th' exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine. + Jul. I gave thee mine before thou didst request it; + And yet I would it were to give again. + Rom. Would'st thou withdraw it? For what purpose, love? + Jul. But to be frank and give it thee again. + And yet I wish but for the thing I have. + My bounty is as boundless as the sea, + My love as deep; the more I give to thee, + The more I have, for both are infinite. + I hear some noise within. Dear love, adieu! + [Nurse] calls within. + Anon, good nurse! Sweet Montague, be true. + Stay but a little, I will come again. [Exit.] + Rom. O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard, + Being in night, all this is but a dream, + Too flattering-sweet to be substantial. + + Enter Juliet above. + + Jul. Three words, dear Romeo, and good night indeed. + If that thy bent of love be honourable, + Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow, + By one that I'll procure to come to thee, + Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite; + And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay + And follow thee my lord throughout the world. + Nurse. (within) Madam! + Jul. I come, anon.- But if thou meanest not well, + I do beseech thee- + Nurse. (within) Madam! + Jul. By-and-by I come.- + To cease thy suit and leave me to my grief. + To-morrow will I send. + Rom. So thrive my soul- + Jul. A thousand times good night! Exit. + Rom. A thousand times the worse, to want thy light! + Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books; + But love from love, towards school with heavy looks. + + Enter Juliet again, [above]. + + Jul. Hist! Romeo, hist! O for a falconer's voice + To lure this tassel-gentle back again! + Bondage is hoarse and may not speak aloud; + Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies, + And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine + With repetition of my Romeo's name. + Romeo! + Rom. It is my soul that calls upon my name. + How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night, + Like softest music to attending ears! + Jul. Romeo! + Rom. My dear? + Jul. At what o'clock to-morrow + Shall I send to thee? + Rom. By the hour of nine. + Jul. I will not fail. 'Tis twenty years till then. + I have forgot why I did call thee back. + Rom. Let me stand here till thou remember it. + Jul. I shall forget, to have thee still stand there, + Rememb'ring how I love thy company. + Rom. And I'll still stay, to have thee still forget, + Forgetting any other home but this. + Jul. 'Tis almost morning. I would have thee gone- + And yet no farther than a wanton's bird, + That lets it hop a little from her hand, + Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves, + And with a silk thread plucks it back again, + So loving-jealous of his liberty. + Rom. I would I were thy bird. + Jul. Sweet, so would I. + Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing. + Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, + That I shall say good night till it be morrow. + [Exit.] + Rom. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast! + Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest! + Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell, + His help to crave and my dear hap to tell. + Exit + + + + +Scene III. +Friar Laurence's cell. + +Enter Friar, [Laurence] alone, with a basket. + + Friar. The grey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night, + Check'ring the Eastern clouds with streaks of light; + And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels + From forth day's path and Titan's fiery wheels. + Non, ere the sun advance his burning eye + The day to cheer and night's dank dew to dry, + I must up-fill this osier cage of ours + With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers. + The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb. + What is her burying gave, that is her womb; + And from her womb children of divers kind + We sucking on her natural bosom find; + Many for many virtues excellent, + None but for some, and yet all different. + O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies + In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities; + For naught so vile that on the earth doth live + But to the earth some special good doth give; + Nor aught so good but, strain'd from that fair use, + Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse. + Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied, + And vice sometime's by action dignified. + Within the infant rind of this small flower + Poison hath residence, and medicine power; + For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part; + Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart. + Two such opposed kings encamp them still + In man as well as herbs- grace and rude will; + And where the worser is predominant, + Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. + + Enter Romeo. + + Rom. Good morrow, father. + Friar. Benedicite! + What early tongue so sweet saluteth me? + Young son, it argues a distempered head + So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed. + Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye, + And where care lodges sleep will never lie; + But where unbruised youth with unstuff'd brain + Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign. + Therefore thy earliness doth me assure + Thou art uprous'd with some distemp'rature; + Or if not so, then here I hit it right- + Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night. + Rom. That last is true-the sweeter rest was mine. + Friar. God pardon sin! Wast thou with Rosaline? + Rom. With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No. + I have forgot that name, and that name's woe. + Friar. That's my good son! But where hast thou been then? + Rom. I'll tell thee ere thou ask it me again. + I have been feasting with mine enemy, + Where on a sudden one hath wounded me + That's by me wounded. Both our remedies + Within thy help and holy physic lies. + I bear no hatred, blessed man, for, lo, + My intercession likewise steads my foe. + Friar. Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift + Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift. + Rom. Then plainly know my heart's dear love is set + On the fair daughter of rich Capulet; + As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine, + And all combin'd, save what thou must combine + By holy marriage. When, and where, and how + We met, we woo'd, and made exchange of vow, + I'll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray, + That thou consent to marry us to-day. + Friar. Holy Saint Francis! What a change is here! + Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear, + So soon forsaken? Young men's love then lies + Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes. + Jesu Maria! What a deal of brine + Hath wash'd thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline! + How much salt water thrown away in waste, + To season love, that of it doth not taste! + The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears, + Thy old groans ring yet in mine ancient ears. + Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit + Of an old tear that is not wash'd off yet. + If e'er thou wast thyself, and these woes thine, + Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline. + And art thou chang'd? Pronounce this sentence then: + Women may fall when there's no strength in men. + Rom. Thou chid'st me oft for loving Rosaline. + Friar. For doting, not for loving, pupil mine. + Rom. And bad'st me bury love. + Friar. Not in a grave + To lay one in, another out to have. + Rom. I pray thee chide not. She whom I love now + Doth grace for grace and love for love allow. + The other did not so. + Friar. O, she knew well + Thy love did read by rote, that could not spell. + But come, young waverer, come go with me. + In one respect I'll thy assistant be; + For this alliance may so happy prove + To turn your households' rancour to pure love. + Rom. O, let us hence! I stand on sudden haste. + Friar. Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene IV. +A street. + +Enter Benvolio and Mercutio. + + Mer. Where the devil should this Romeo be? + Came he not home to-night? + Ben. Not to his father's. I spoke with his man. + Mer. Why, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline, + Torments him so that he will sure run mad. + Ben. Tybalt, the kinsman to old Capulet, + Hath sent a letter to his father's house. + Mer. A challenge, on my life. + Ben. Romeo will answer it. + Mer. Any man that can write may answer a letter. + Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter's master, how he dares, being + dared. + Mer. Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! stabb'd with a white + wench's black eye; shot through the ear with a love song; the + very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's butt-shaft; + and is he a man to encounter Tybalt? + Ben. Why, what is Tybalt? + Mer. More than Prince of Cats, I can tell you. O, he's the + courageous captain of compliments. He fights as you sing + pricksong-keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests me his + minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom! the very + butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist! a gentleman of + the very first house, of the first and second cause. Ah, the + immortal passado! the punto reverse! the hay. + Ben. The what? + Mer. The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting fantasticoes- these + new tuners of accent! 'By Jesu, a very good blade! a very tall + man! a very good whore!' Why, is not this a lamentable thing, + grandsir, that we should be thus afflicted with these strange + flies, these fashion-mongers, these pardona-mi's, who stand so + much on the new form that they cannot sit at ease on the old + bench? O, their bones, their bones! + + Enter Romeo. + + Ben. Here comes Romeo! here comes Romeo! + Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring. O flesh, flesh, how art + thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed + in. Laura, to his lady, was but a kitchen wench (marry, she had a + better love to berhyme her), Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gypsy, + Helen and Hero hildings and harlots, This be a gray eye or so, + but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bon jour! There's a French + salutation to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit + fairly last night. + Rom. Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give you? + Mer. The slip, sir, the slip. Can you not conceive? + Rom. Pardon, good Mercutio. My business was great, and in such a + case as mine a man may strain courtesy. + Mer. That's as much as to say, such a case as yours constrains a + man to bow in the hams. + Rom. Meaning, to cursy. + Mer. Thou hast most kindly hit it. + Rom. A most courteous exposition. + Mer. Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy. + Rom. Pink for flower. + Mer. Right. + Rom. Why, then is my pump well-flower'd. + Mer. Well said! Follow me this jest now till thou hast worn out thy + pump, that, when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may + remain, after the wearing, solely singular. + Rom. O single-sold jest, solely singular for the singleness! + Mer. Come between us, good Benvolio! My wits faint. + Rom. Swits and spurs, swits and spurs! or I'll cry a match. + Mer. Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done; for thou + hast more of the wild goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I + have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goose? + Rom. Thou wast never with me for anything when thou wast not there + for the goose. + Mer. I will bite thee by the ear for that jest. + Rom. Nay, good goose, bite not! + Mer. Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce. + Rom. And is it not, then, well serv'd in to a sweet goose? + Mer. O, here's a wit of cheveril, that stretches from an inch + narrow to an ell broad! + Rom. I stretch it out for that word 'broad,' which, added to the + goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goose. + Mer. Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art + thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art thou what thou art, by + art as well as by nature. For this drivelling love is like a + great natural that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in + a hole. + Ben. Stop there, stop there! + Mer. Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair. + Ben. Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large. + Mer. O, thou art deceiv'd! I would have made it short; for I was + come to the whole depth of my tale, and meant indeed to occupy + the argument no longer. + Rom. Here's goodly gear! + + Enter Nurse and her Man [Peter]. + + Mer. A sail, a sail! + Ben. Two, two! a shirt and a smock. + Nurse. Peter! + Peter. Anon. + Nurse. My fan, Peter. + Mer. Good Peter, to hide her face; for her fan's the fairer face of + the two. + Nurse. God ye good morrow, gentlemen. + Mer. God ye good-den, fair gentlewoman. + Nurse. Is it good-den? + Mer. 'Tis no less, I tell ye; for the bawdy hand of the dial is now + upon the prick of noon. + Nurse. Out upon you! What a man are you! + Rom. One, gentlewoman, that God hath made for himself to mar. + Nurse. By my troth, it is well said. 'For himself to mar,' quoth + 'a? Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I may find the young + Romeo? + Rom. I can tell you; but young Romeo will be older when you have + found him than he was when you sought him. I am the youngest of + that name, for fault of a worse. + Nurse. You say well. + Mer. Yea, is the worst well? Very well took, i' faith! wisely, + wisely. + Nurse. If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you. + Ben. She will endite him to some supper. + Mer. A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho! + Rom. What hast thou found? + Mer. No hare, sir; unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pie, that is + something stale and hoar ere it be spent + He walks by them and sings. + + An old hare hoar, + And an old hare hoar, + Is very good meat in Lent; + But a hare that is hoar + Is too much for a score + When it hoars ere it be spent. + + Romeo, will you come to your father's? We'll to dinner thither. + Rom. I will follow you. + Mer. Farewell, ancient lady. Farewell, + [sings] lady, lady, lady. + Exeunt Mercutio, Benvolio. + Nurse. Marry, farewell! I Pray you, Sir, what saucy merchant was + this that was so full of his ropery? + Rom. A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk and will + speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month. + Nurse. An 'a speak anything against me, I'll take him down, an 'a + were lustier than he is, and twenty such jacks; and if I cannot, + I'll find those that shall. Scurvy knave! I am none of his + flirt-gills; I am none of his skains-mates. And thou must stand + by too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure! + Peter. I saw no man use you at his pleasure. If I had, my weapon + should quickly have been out, I warrant you. I dare draw as soon + as another man, if I see occasion in a good quarrel, and the law + on my side. + Nurse. Now, afore God, I am so vexed that every part about me + quivers. Scurvy knave! Pray you, sir, a word; and, as I told you, + my young lady bid me enquire you out. What she bid me say, I will + keep to myself; but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her + into a fool's paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of + behaviour, as they say; for the gentlewoman is young; and + therefore, if you should deal double with her, truly it were an + ill thing to be off'red to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing. + Rom. Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest unto + thee- + Nurse. Good heart, and I faith I will tell her as much. Lord, + Lord! she will be a joyful woman. + Rom. What wilt thou tell her, nurse? Thou dost not mark me. + Nurse. I will tell her, sir, that you do protest, which, as I take + it, is a gentlemanlike offer. + Rom. Bid her devise + Some means to come to shrift this afternoon; + And there she shall at Friar Laurence' cell + Be shriv'd and married. Here is for thy pains. + Nurse. No, truly, sir; not a penny. + Rom. Go to! I say you shall. + Nurse. This afternoon, sir? Well, she shall be there. + Rom. And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall. + Within this hour my man shall be with thee + And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair, + Which to the high topgallant of my joy + Must be my convoy in the secret night. + Farewell. Be trusty, and I'll quit thy pains. + Farewell. Commend me to thy mistress. + Nurse. Now God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir. + Rom. What say'st thou, my dear nurse? + Nurse. Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear say, + Two may keep counsel, putting one away? + Rom. I warrant thee my man's as true as steel. + Nurse. Well, sir, my mistress is the sweetest lady. Lord, Lord! + when 'twas a little prating thing- O, there is a nobleman in + town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard; but she, good + soul, had as lieve see a toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger + her sometimes, and tell her that Paris is the properer man; but + I'll warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any clout + in the versal world. Doth not rosemary and Romeo begin both with + a letter? + Rom. Ay, nurse; what of that? Both with an R. + Nurse. Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. R is for the- No; I know + it begins with some other letter; and she hath the prettiest + sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good + to hear it. + Rom. Commend me to thy lady. + Nurse. Ay, a thousand times. [Exit Romeo.] Peter! + Peter. Anon. + Nurse. Peter, take my fan, and go before, and apace. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene V. +Capulet's orchard. + +Enter Juliet. + + Jul. The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse; + In half an hour she 'promis'd to return. + Perchance she cannot meet him. That's not so. + O, she is lame! Love's heralds should be thoughts, + Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams + Driving back shadows over low'ring hills. + Therefore do nimble-pinion'd doves draw Love, + And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings. + Now is the sun upon the highmost hill + Of this day's journey, and from nine till twelve + Is three long hours; yet she is not come. + Had she affections and warm youthful blood, + She would be as swift in motion as a ball; + My words would bandy her to my sweet love, + And his to me, + But old folks, many feign as they were dead- + Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead. + + Enter Nurse [and Peter]. + + O God, she comes! O honey nurse, what news? + Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away. + Nurse. Peter, stay at the gate. + [Exit Peter.] + Jul. Now, good sweet nurse- O Lord, why look'st thou sad? + Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily; + If good, thou shamest the music of sweet news + By playing it to me with so sour a face. + Nurse. I am aweary, give me leave awhile. + Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunce have I had! + Jul. I would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news. + Nay, come, I pray thee speak. Good, good nurse, speak. + Nurse. Jesu, what haste! Can you not stay awhile? + Do you not see that I am out of breath? + Jul. How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath + To say to me that thou art out of breath? + The excuse that thou dost make in this delay + Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse. + Is thy news good or bad? Answer to that. + Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance. + Let me be satisfied, is't good or bad? + Nurse. Well, you have made a simple choice; you know not how to + choose a man. Romeo? No, not he. Though his face be better than + any man's, yet his leg excels all men's; and for a hand and a + foot, and a body, though they be not to be talk'd on, yet they + are past compare. He is not the flower of courtesy, but, I'll + warrant him, as gentle as a lamb. Go thy ways, wench; serve God. + What, have you din'd at home? + Jul. No, no. But all this did I know before. + What says he of our marriage? What of that? + Nurse. Lord, how my head aches! What a head have I! + It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces. + My back o' t' other side,- ah, my back, my back! + Beshrew your heart for sending me about + To catch my death with jauncing up and down! + Jul. I' faith, I am sorry that thou art not well. + Sweet, sweet, Sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love? + Nurse. Your love says, like an honest gentleman, and a courteous, + and a kind, and a handsome; and, I warrant, a virtuous- Where is + your mother? + Jul. Where is my mother? Why, she is within. + Where should she be? How oddly thou repliest! + 'Your love says, like an honest gentleman, + "Where is your mother?"' + Nurse. O God's Lady dear! + Are you so hot? Marry come up, I trow. + Is this the poultice for my aching bones? + Henceforward do your messages yourself. + Jul. Here's such a coil! Come, what says Romeo? + Nurse. Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day? + Jul. I have. + Nurse. Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence' cell; + There stays a husband to make you a wife. + Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks: + They'll be in scarlet straight at any news. + Hie you to church; I must another way, + To fetch a ladder, by the which your love + Must climb a bird's nest soon when it is dark. + I am the drudge, and toil in your delight; + But you shall bear the burthen soon at night. + Go; I'll to dinner; hie you to the cell. + Jul. Hie to high fortune! Honest nurse, farewell. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene VI. +Friar Laurence's cell. + +Enter Friar [Laurence] and Romeo. + + Friar. So smile the heavens upon this holy act + That after-hours with sorrow chide us not! + Rom. Amen, amen! But come what sorrow can, + It cannot countervail the exchange of joy + That one short minute gives me in her sight. + Do thou but close our hands with holy words, + Then love-devouring death do what he dare- + It is enough I may but call her mine. + Friar. These violent delights have violent ends + And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, + Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey + Is loathsome in his own deliciousness + And in the taste confounds the appetite. + Therefore love moderately: long love doth so; + Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. + + Enter Juliet. + + Here comes the lady. O, so light a foot + Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint. + A lover may bestride the gossamer + That idles in the wanton summer air, + And yet not fall; so light is vanity. + Jul. Good even to my ghostly confessor. + Friar. Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both. + Jul. As much to him, else is his thanks too much. + Rom. Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy + Be heap'd like mine, and that thy skill be more + To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath + This neighbour air, and let rich music's tongue + Unfold the imagin'd happiness that both + Receive in either by this dear encounter. + Jul. Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, + Brags of his substance, not of ornament. + They are but beggars that can count their worth; + But my true love is grown to such excess + cannot sum up sum of half my wealth. + Friar. Come, come with me, and we will make short work; + For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone + Till Holy Church incorporate two in one. + [Exeunt.] + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. Scene I. +A public place. + +Enter Mercutio, Benvolio, and Men. + + Ben. I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire. + The day is hot, the Capulets abroad. + And if we meet, we shall not scape a brawl, + For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring. + Mer. Thou art like one of these fellows that, when he enters the + confines of a tavern, claps me his sword upon the table and says + 'God send me no need of thee!' and by the operation of the second + cup draws him on the drawer, when indeed there is no need. + Ben. Am I like such a fellow? + Mer. Come, come, thou art as hot a jack in thy mood as any in + Italy; and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be + moved. + Ben. And what to? + Mer. Nay, an there were two such, we should have none shortly, for + one would kill the other. Thou! why, thou wilt quarrel with a man + that hath a hair more or a hair less in his beard than thou hast. + Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other + reason but because thou hast hazel eyes. What eye but such an eye + would spy out such a quarrel? Thy head is as full of quarrels as + an egg is full of meat; and yet thy head hath been beaten as + addle as an egg for quarrelling. Thou hast quarrell'd with a man + for coughing in the street, because he hath wakened thy dog that + hath lain asleep in the sun. Didst thou not fall out with a + tailor for wearing his new doublet before Easter, with another + for tying his new shoes with an old riband? And yet thou wilt + tutor me from quarrelling! + Ben. An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy + the fee simple of my life for an hour and a quarter. + Mer. The fee simple? O simple! + + Enter Tybalt and others. + + Ben. By my head, here come the Capulets. + Mer. By my heel, I care not. + Tyb. Follow me close, for I will speak to them. + Gentlemen, good den. A word with one of you. + Mer. And but one word with one of us? + Couple it with something; make it a word and a blow. + Tyb. You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, an you will give me + occasion. + Mer. Could you not take some occasion without giving + Tyb. Mercutio, thou consortest with Romeo. + Mer. Consort? What, dost thou make us minstrels? An thou make + minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords. Here's my + fiddlestick; here's that shall make you dance. Zounds, consort! + Ben. We talk here in the public haunt of men. + Either withdraw unto some private place + And reason coldly of your grievances, + Or else depart. Here all eyes gaze on us. + Mer. Men's eyes were made to look, and let them gaze. + I will not budge for no man's pleasure, + + Enter Romeo. + + Tyb. Well, peace be with you, sir. Here comes my man. + Mer. But I'll be hang'd, sir, if he wear your livery. + Marry, go before to field, he'll be your follower! + Your worship in that sense may call him man. + Tyb. Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford + No better term than this: thou art a villain. + Rom. Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee + Doth much excuse the appertaining rage + To such a greeting. Villain am I none. + Therefore farewell. I see thou knowest me not. + Tyb. Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries + That thou hast done me; therefore turn and draw. + Rom. I do protest I never injur'd thee, + But love thee better than thou canst devise + Till thou shalt know the reason of my love; + And so good Capulet, which name I tender + As dearly as mine own, be satisfied. + Mer. O calm, dishonourable, vile submission! + Alla stoccata carries it away. [Draws.] + Tybalt, you ratcatcher, will you walk? + Tyb. What wouldst thou have with me? + Mer. Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine lives. That I + mean to make bold withal, and, as you shall use me hereafter, + dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of + his pitcher by the ears? Make haste, lest mine be about your ears + ere it be out. + Tyb. I am for you. [Draws.] + Rom. Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up. + Mer. Come, sir, your passado! + [They fight.] + Rom. Draw, Benvolio; beat down their weapons. + Gentlemen, for shame! forbear this outrage! + Tybalt, Mercutio, the Prince expressly hath + Forbid this bandying in Verona streets. + Hold, Tybalt! Good Mercutio! + Tybalt under Romeo's arm thrusts Mercutio in, and flies + [with his Followers]. + Mer. I am hurt. + A plague o' both your houses! I am sped. + Is he gone and hath nothing? + Ben. What, art thou hurt? + Mer. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, 'tis enough. + Where is my page? Go, villain, fetch a surgeon. + [Exit Page.] + Rom. Courage, man. The hurt cannot be much. + Mer. No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; + but 'tis enough, 'twill serve. Ask for me to-morrow, and you + shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this + world. A plague o' both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a + mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a + villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the devil + came you between us? I was hurt under your arm. + Rom. I thought all for the best. + Mer. Help me into some house, Benvolio, + Or I shall faint. A plague o' both your houses! + They have made worms' meat of me. I have it, + And soundly too. Your houses! + [Exit. [supported by Benvolio]. + Rom. This gentleman, the Prince's near ally, + My very friend, hath got this mortal hurt + In my behalf- my reputation stain'd + With Tybalt's slander- Tybalt, that an hour + Hath been my kinsman. O sweet Juliet, + Thy beauty hath made me effeminate + And in my temper soft'ned valour's steel + + Enter Benvolio. + + Ben. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead! + That gallant spirit hath aspir'd the clouds, + Which too untimely here did scorn the earth. + Rom. This day's black fate on moe days doth depend; + This but begins the woe others must end. + + Enter Tybalt. + + Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. + Rom. Alive in triumph, and Mercutio slain? + Away to heaven respective lenity, + And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now! + Now, Tybalt, take the 'villain' back again + That late thou gavest me; for Mercutio's soul + Is but a little way above our heads, + Staying for thine to keep him company. + Either thou or I, or both, must go with him. + Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here, + Shalt with him hence. + Rom. This shall determine that. + They fight. Tybalt falls. + Ben. Romeo, away, be gone! + The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain. + Stand not amaz'd. The Prince will doom thee death + If thou art taken. Hence, be gone, away! + Rom. O, I am fortune's fool! + Ben. Why dost thou stay? + Exit Romeo. + Enter Citizens. + + Citizen. Which way ran he that kill'd Mercutio? + Tybalt, that murtherer, which way ran he? + Ben. There lies that Tybalt. + Citizen. Up, sir, go with me. + I charge thee in the Prince's name obey. + + Enter Prince [attended], Old Montague, Capulet, their Wives, + and [others]. + + Prince. Where are the vile beginners of this fray? + Ben. O noble Prince. I can discover all + The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl. + There lies the man, slain by young Romeo, + That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio. + Cap. Wife. Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother's child! + O Prince! O husband! O, the blood is spill'd + Of my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true, + For blood of ours shed blood of Montague. + O cousin, cousin! + Prince. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray? + Ben. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did stay. + Romeo, that spoke him fair, bid him bethink + How nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal + Your high displeasure. All this- uttered + With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd- + Could not take truce with the unruly spleen + Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts + With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast; + Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point, + And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats + Cold death aside and with the other sends + It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity + Retorts it. Romeo he cries aloud, + 'Hold, friends! friends, part!' and swifter than his tongue, + His agile arm beats down their fatal points, + And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm + An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life + Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled; + But by-and-by comes back to Romeo, + Who had but newly entertain'd revenge, + And to't they go like lightning; for, ere I + Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain; + And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly. + This is the truth, or let Benvolio die. + Cap. Wife. He is a kinsman to the Montague; + Affection makes him false, he speaks not true. + Some twenty of them fought in this black strife, + And all those twenty could but kill one life. + I beg for justice, which thou, Prince, must give. + Romeo slew Tybalt; Romeo must not live. + Prince. Romeo slew him; he slew Mercutio. + Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe? + Mon. Not Romeo, Prince; he was Mercutio's friend; + His fault concludes but what the law should end, + The life of Tybalt. + Prince. And for that offence + Immediately we do exile him hence. + I have an interest in your hate's proceeding, + My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding; + But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine + That you shall all repent the loss of mine. + I will be deaf to pleading and excuses; + Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses. + Therefore use none. Let Romeo hence in haste, + Else, when he is found, that hour is his last. + Bear hence this body, and attend our will. + Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +Capulet's orchard. + +Enter Juliet alone. + + Jul. Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, + Towards Phoebus' lodging! Such a wagoner + As Phaeton would whip you to the West + And bring in cloudy night immediately. + Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, + That runaway eyes may wink, and Romeo + Leap to these arms untalk'd of and unseen. + Lovers can see to do their amorous rites + By their own beauties; or, if love be blind, + It best agrees with night. Come, civil night, + Thou sober-suited matron, all in black, + And learn me how to lose a winning match, + Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods. + Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks, + With thy black mantle till strange love, grown bold, + Think true love acted simple modesty. + Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night; + For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night + Whiter than new snow upon a raven's back. + Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd night; + Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die, + Take him and cut him out in little stars, + And he will make the face of heaven so fine + That all the world will be in love with night + And pay no worship to the garish sun. + O, I have bought the mansion of a love, + But not possess'd it; and though I am sold, + Not yet enjoy'd. So tedious is this day + As is the night before some festival + To an impatient child that hath new robes + And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse, + + Enter Nurse, with cords. + + And she brings news; and every tongue that speaks + But Romeo's name speaks heavenly eloquence. + Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? the cords + That Romeo bid thee fetch? + Nurse. Ay, ay, the cords. + [Throws them down.] + Jul. Ay me! what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands + Nurse. Ah, weraday! he's dead, he's dead, he's dead! + We are undone, lady, we are undone! + Alack the day! he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead! + Jul. Can heaven be so envious? + Nurse. Romeo can, + Though heaven cannot. O Romeo, Romeo! + Who ever would have thought it? Romeo! + Jul. What devil art thou that dost torment me thus? + This torture should be roar'd in dismal hell. + Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but 'I,' + And that bare vowel 'I' shall poison more + Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice. + I am not I, if there be such an 'I'; + Or those eyes shut that make thee answer 'I.' + If be be slain, say 'I'; or if not, 'no.' + Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe. + Nurse. I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes, + (God save the mark!) here on his manly breast. + A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse; + Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub'd in blood, + All in gore-blood. I swounded at the sight. + Jul. O, break, my heart! poor bankrout, break at once! + To prison, eyes; ne'er look on liberty! + Vile earth, to earth resign; end motion here, + And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier! + Nurse. O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had! + O courteous Tybalt! honest gentleman + That ever I should live to see thee dead! + Jul. What storm is this that blows so contrary? + Is Romeo slaught'red, and is Tybalt dead? + My dear-lov'd cousin, and my dearer lord? + Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom! + For who is living, if those two are gone? + Nurse. Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished; + Romeo that kill'd him, he is banished. + Jul. O God! Did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood? + Nurse. It did, it did! alas the day, it did! + Jul. O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face! + Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? + Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! + Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! + Despised substance of divinest show! + Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st- + A damned saint, an honourable villain! + O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell + When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend + In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh? + Was ever book containing such vile matter + So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell + In such a gorgeous palace! + Nurse. There's no trust, + No faith, no honesty in men; all perjur'd, + All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers. + Ah, where's my man? Give me some aqua vitae. + These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old. + Shame come to Romeo! + Jul. Blister'd be thy tongue + For such a wish! He was not born to shame. + Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit; + For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd + Sole monarch of the universal earth. + O, what a beast was I to chide at him! + Nurse. Will you speak well of him that kill'd your cousin? + Jul. Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband? + Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name + When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it? + But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin? + That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband. + Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring! + Your tributary drops belong to woe, + Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy. + My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain; + And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband. + All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then? + Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death, + That murd'red me. I would forget it fain; + But O, it presses to my memory + Like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds! + 'Tybalt is dead, and Romeo- banished.' + That 'banished,' that one word 'banished,' + Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death + Was woe enough, if it had ended there; + Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship + And needly will be rank'd with other griefs, + Why followed not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead,' + Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both, + Which modern lamentation might have mov'd? + But with a rearward following Tybalt's death, + 'Romeo is banished'- to speak that word + Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet, + All slain, all dead. 'Romeo is banished'- + There is no end, no limit, measure, bound, + In that word's death; no words can that woe sound. + Where is my father and my mother, nurse? + Nurse. Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corse. + Will you go to them? I will bring you thither. + Jul. Wash they his wounds with tears? Mine shall be spent, + When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment. + Take up those cords. Poor ropes, you are beguil'd, + Both you and I, for Romeo is exil'd. + He made you for a highway to my bed; + But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed. + Come, cords; come, nurse. I'll to my wedding bed; + And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead! + Nurse. Hie to your chamber. I'll find Romeo + To comfort you. I wot well where he is. + Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night. + I'll to him; he is hid at Laurence' cell. + Jul. O, find him! give this ring to my true knight + And bid him come to take his last farewell. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene III. +Friar Laurence's cell. + +Enter Friar [Laurence]. + + Friar. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man. + Affliction is enanmour'd of thy parts, + And thou art wedded to calamity. + + Enter Romeo. + + Rom. Father, what news? What is the Prince's doom + What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand + That I yet know not? + Friar. Too familiar + Is my dear son with such sour company. + I bring thee tidings of the Prince's doom. + Rom. What less than doomsday is the Prince's doom? + Friar. A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips- + Not body's death, but body's banishment. + Rom. Ha, banishment? Be merciful, say 'death'; + For exile hath more terror in his look, + Much more than death. Do not say 'banishment.' + Friar. Hence from Verona art thou banished. + Be patient, for the world is broad and wide. + Rom. There is no world without Verona walls, + But purgatory, torture, hell itself. + Hence banished is banish'd from the world, + And world's exile is death. Then 'banishment' + Is death misterm'd. Calling death 'banishment,' + Thou cut'st my head off with a golden axe + And smilest upon the stroke that murders me. + Friar. O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness! + Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind Prince, + Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law, + And turn'd that black word death to banishment. + This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not. + Rom. 'Tis torture, and not mercy. Heaven is here, + Where Juliet lives; and every cat and dog + And little mouse, every unworthy thing, + Live here in heaven and may look on her; + But Romeo may not. More validity, + More honourable state, more courtship lives + In carrion flies than Romeo. They may seize + On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand + And steal immortal blessing from her lips, + Who, even in pure and vestal modesty, + Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin; + But Romeo may not- he is banished. + This may flies do, when I from this must fly; + They are free men, but I am banished. + And sayest thou yet that exile is not death? + Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground knife, + No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean, + But 'banished' to kill me- 'banished'? + O friar, the damned use that word in hell; + Howling attends it! How hast thou the heart, + Being a divine, a ghostly confessor, + A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd, + To mangle me with that word 'banished'? + Friar. Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak. + Rom. O, thou wilt speak again of banishment. + Friar. I'll give thee armour to keep off that word; + Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy, + To comfort thee, though thou art banished. + Rom. Yet 'banished'? Hang up philosophy! + Unless philosophy can make a Juliet, + Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom, + It helps not, it prevails not. Talk no more. + Friar. O, then I see that madmen have no ears. + Rom. How should they, when that wise men have no eyes? + Friar. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate. + Rom. Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel. + Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, + An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, + Doting like me, and like me banished, + Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou tear thy hair, + And fall upon the ground, as I do now, + Taking the measure of an unmade grave. + Knock [within]. + Friar. Arise; one knocks. Good Romeo, hide thyself. + Rom. Not I; unless the breath of heartsick groans, + Mist-like infold me from the search of eyes. Knock. + Friar. Hark, how they knock! Who's there? Romeo, arise; + Thou wilt be taken.- Stay awhile!- Stand up; Knock. + Run to my study.- By-and-by!- God's will, + What simpleness is this.- I come, I come! Knock. + Who knocks so hard? Whence come you? What's your will + Nurse. [within] Let me come in, and you shall know my errand. + I come from Lady Juliet. + Friar. Welcome then. + + Enter Nurse. + + Nurse. O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar + Where is my lady's lord, where's Romeo? + Friar. There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk. + Nurse. O, he is even in my mistress' case, + Just in her case! + Friar. O woeful sympathy! + Piteous predicament! + Nurse. Even so lies she, + Blubb'ring and weeping, weeping and blubbering. + Stand up, stand up! Stand, an you be a man. + For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand! + Why should you fall into so deep an O? + Rom. (rises) Nurse- + Nurse. Ah sir! ah sir! Well, death's the end of all. + Rom. Spakest thou of Juliet? How is it with her? + Doth not she think me an old murtherer, + Now I have stain'd the childhood of our joy + With blood remov'd but little from her own? + Where is she? and how doth she! and what says + My conceal'd lady to our cancell'd love? + Nurse. O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps; + And now falls on her bed, and then starts up, + And Tybalt calls; and then on Romeo cries, + And then down falls again. + Rom. As if that name, + Shot from the deadly level of a gun, + Did murther her; as that name's cursed hand + Murder'd her kinsman. O, tell me, friar, tell me, + In what vile part of this anatomy + Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack + The hateful mansion. [Draws his dagger.] + Friar. Hold thy desperate hand. + Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art; + Thy tears are womanish, thy wild acts denote + The unreasonable fury of a beast. + Unseemly woman in a seeming man! + Or ill-beseeming beast in seeming both! + Thou hast amaz'd me. By my holy order, + I thought thy disposition better temper'd. + Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself? + And slay thy lady that in thy life lives, + By doing damned hate upon thyself? + Why railest thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth? + Since birth and heaven and earth, all three do meet + In thee at once; which thou at once wouldst lose. + Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit, + Which, like a usurer, abound'st in all, + And usest none in that true use indeed + Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit. + Thy noble shape is but a form of wax + Digressing from the valour of a man; + Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury, + Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish; + Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love, + Misshapen in the conduct of them both, + Like powder in a skilless soldier's flask, + is get afire by thine own ignorance, + And thou dismemb'red with thine own defence. + What, rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive, + For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead. + There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee, + But thou slewest Tybalt. There art thou happy too. + The law, that threat'ned death, becomes thy friend + And turns it to exile. There art thou happy. + A pack of blessings light upon thy back; + Happiness courts thee in her best array; + But, like a misbhav'd and sullen wench, + Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love. + Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable. + Go get thee to thy love, as was decreed, + Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her. + But look thou stay not till the watch be set, + For then thou canst not pass to Mantua, + Where thou shalt live till we can find a time + To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, + Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back + With twenty hundred thousand times more joy + Than thou went'st forth in lamentation. + Go before, nurse. Commend me to thy lady, + And bid her hasten all the house to bed, + Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto. + Romeo is coming. + Nurse. O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the night + To hear good counsel. O, what learning is! + My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come. + Rom. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide. + Nurse. Here is a ring she bid me give you, sir. + Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. Exit. + Rom. How well my comfort is reviv'd by this! + Friar. Go hence; good night; and here stands all your state: + Either be gone before the watch be set, + Or by the break of day disguis'd from hence. + Sojourn in Mantua. I'll find out your man, + And he shall signify from time to time + Every good hap to you that chances here. + Give me thy hand. 'Tis late. Farewell; good night. + Rom. But that a joy past joy calls out on me, + It were a grief so brief to part with thee. + Farewell. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene IV. +Capulet's house + +Enter Old Capulet, his Wife, and Paris. + + Cap. Things have fall'n out, sir, so unluckily + That we have had no time to move our daughter. + Look you, she lov'd her kinsman Tybalt dearly, + And so did I. Well, we were born to die. + 'Tis very late; she'll not come down to-night. + I promise you, but for your company, + I would have been abed an hour ago. + Par. These times of woe afford no tune to woo. + Madam, good night. Commend me to your daughter. + Lady. I will, and know her mind early to-morrow; + To-night she's mew'd up to her heaviness. + Cap. Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender + Of my child's love. I think she will be rul'd + In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not. + Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed; + Acquaint her here of my son Paris' love + And bid her (mark you me?) on Wednesday next- + But, soft! what day is this? + Par. Monday, my lord. + Cap. Monday! ha, ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon. + Thursday let it be- a Thursday, tell her + She shall be married to this noble earl. + Will you be ready? Do you like this haste? + We'll keep no great ado- a friend or two; + For hark you, Tybalt being slain so late, + It may be thought we held him carelessly, + Being our kinsman, if we revel much. + Therefore we'll have some half a dozen friends, + And there an end. But what say you to Thursday? + Par. My lord, I would that Thursday were to-morrow. + Cap. Well, get you gone. A Thursday be it then. + Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed; + Prepare her, wife, against this wedding day. + Farewell, My lord.- Light to my chamber, ho! + Afore me, It is so very very late + That we may call it early by-and-by. + Good night. + Exeunt + + + + +Scene V. +Capulet's orchard. + +Enter Romeo and Juliet aloft, at the Window. + + Jul. Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day. + It was the nightingale, and not the lark, + That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear. + Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree. + Believe me, love, it was the nightingale. + Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn; + No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks + Do lace the severing clouds in yonder East. + Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day + Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. + I must be gone and live, or stay and die. + Jul. Yond light is not daylight; I know it, I. + It is some meteor that the sun exhales + To be to thee this night a torchbearer + And light thee on the way to Mantua. + Therefore stay yet; thou need'st not to be gone. + Rom. Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death. + I am content, so thou wilt have it so. + I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye, + 'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow; + Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat + The vaulty heaven so high above our heads. + I have more care to stay than will to go. + Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so. + How is't, my soul? Let's talk; it is not day. + Jul. It is, it is! Hie hence, be gone, away! + It is the lark that sings so out of tune, + Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps. + Some say the lark makes sweet division; + This doth not so, for she divideth us. + Some say the lark and loathed toad chang'd eyes; + O, now I would they had chang'd voices too, + Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, + Hunting thee hence with hunt's-up to the day! + O, now be gone! More light and light it grows. + Rom. More light and light- more dark and dark our woes! + + Enter Nurse. + + Nurse. Madam! + Jul. Nurse? + Nurse. Your lady mother is coming to your chamber. + The day is broke; be wary, look about. + Jul. Then, window, let day in, and let life out. + [Exit.] + Rom. Farewell, farewell! One kiss, and I'll descend. + He goeth down. + Jul. Art thou gone so, my lord, my love, my friend? + I must hear from thee every day in the hour, + For in a minute there are many days. + O, by this count I shall be much in years + Ere I again behold my Romeo! + Rom. Farewell! + I will omit no opportunity + That may convey my greetings, love, to thee. + Jul. O, think'st thou we shall ever meet again? + Rom. I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve + For sweet discourses in our time to come. + Jul. O God, I have an ill-divining soul! + Methinks I see thee, now thou art below, + As one dead in the bottom of a tomb. + Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale. + Rom. And trust me, love, in my eye so do you. + Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu! +Exit. + Jul. O Fortune, Fortune! all men call thee fickle. + If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him + That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, Fortune, + For then I hope thou wilt not keep him long + But send him back. + Lady. [within] Ho, daughter! are you up? + Jul. Who is't that calls? It is my lady mother. + Is she not down so late, or up so early? + What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither? + + Enter Mother. + + Lady. Why, how now, Juliet? + Jul. Madam, I am not well. + Lady. Evermore weeping for your cousin's death? + What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears? + An if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live. + Therefore have done. Some grief shows much of love; + But much of grief shows still some want of wit. + Jul. Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss. + Lady. So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend + Which you weep for. + Jul. Feeling so the loss, + I cannot choose but ever weep the friend. + Lady. Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death + As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him. + Jul. What villain, madam? + Lady. That same villain Romeo. + Jul. [aside] Villain and he be many miles asunder.- + God pardon him! I do, with all my heart; + And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart. + Lady. That is because the traitor murderer lives. + Jul. Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands. + Would none but I might venge my cousin's death! + Lady. We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not. + Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua, + Where that same banish'd runagate doth live, + Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram + That he shall soon keep Tybalt company; + And then I hope thou wilt be satisfied. + Jul. Indeed I never shall be satisfied + With Romeo till I behold him- dead- + Is my poor heart so for a kinsman vex'd. + Madam, if you could find out but a man + To bear a poison, I would temper it; + That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof, + Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors + To hear him nam'd and cannot come to him, + To wreak the love I bore my cousin Tybalt + Upon his body that hath slaughter'd him! + Lady. Find thou the means, and I'll find such a man. + But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl. + Jul. And joy comes well in such a needy time. + What are they, I beseech your ladyship? + Lady. Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child; + One who, to put thee from thy heaviness, + Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy + That thou expects not nor I look'd not for. + Jul. Madam, in happy time! What day is that? + Lady. Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn + The gallant, young, and noble gentleman, + The County Paris, at Saint Peter's Church, + Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride. + Jul. Now by Saint Peter's Church, and Peter too, + He shall not make me there a joyful bride! + I wonder at this haste, that I must wed + Ere he that should be husband comes to woo. + I pray you tell my lord and father, madam, + I will not marry yet; and when I do, I swear + It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, + Rather than Paris. These are news indeed! + Lady. Here comes your father. Tell him so yourself, + And see how be will take it at your hands. + + Enter Capulet and Nurse. + + Cap. When the sun sets the air doth drizzle dew, + But for the sunset of my brother's son + It rains downright. + How now? a conduit, girl? What, still in tears? + Evermore show'ring? In one little body + Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind: + For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea, + Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is + Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs, + Who, raging with thy tears and they with them, + Without a sudden calm will overset + Thy tempest-tossed body. How now, wife? + Have you delivered to her our decree? + Lady. Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks. + I would the fool were married to her grave! + Cap. Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife. + How? Will she none? Doth she not give us thanks? + Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blest, + Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought + So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom? + Jul. Not proud you have, but thankful that you have. + Proud can I never be of what I hate, + But thankful even for hate that is meant love. + Cap. How, how, how, how, choplogic? What is this? + 'Proud'- and 'I thank you'- and 'I thank you not'- + And yet 'not proud'? Mistress minion you, + Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds, + But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next + To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church, + Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. + Out, you green-sickness carrion I out, you baggage! + You tallow-face! + Lady. Fie, fie! what, are you mad? + Jul. Good father, I beseech you on my knees, + Hear me with patience but to speak a word. + Cap. Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch! + I tell thee what- get thee to church a Thursday + Or never after look me in the face. + Speak not, reply not, do not answer me! + My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest + That God had lent us but this only child; + But now I see this one is one too much, + And that we have a curse in having her. + Out on her, hilding! + Nurse. God in heaven bless her! + You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so. + Cap. And why, my Lady Wisdom? Hold your tongue, + Good Prudence. Smatter with your gossips, go! + Nurse. I speak no treason. + Cap. O, God-i-god-en! + Nurse. May not one speak? + Cap. Peace, you mumbling fool! + Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl, + For here we need it not. + Lady. You are too hot. + Cap. God's bread I it makes me mad. Day, night, late, early, + At home, abroad, alone, in company, + Waking or sleeping, still my care hath been + To have her match'd; and having now provided + A gentleman of princely parentage, + Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd, + Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts, + Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man- + And then to have a wretched puling fool, + A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender, + To answer 'I'll not wed, I cannot love; + I am too young, I pray you pardon me'! + But, an you will not wed, I'll pardon you. + Graze where you will, you shall not house with me. + Look to't, think on't; I do not use to jest. + Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise: + An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend; + An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, + For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee, + Nor what is mine shall never do thee good. + Trust to't. Bethink you. I'll not be forsworn. Exit. + Jul. Is there no pity sitting in the clouds + That sees into the bottom of my grief? + O sweet my mother, cast me not away! + Delay this marriage for a month, a week; + Or if you do not, make the bridal bed + In that dim monument where Tybalt lies. + Lady. Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word. + Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. Exit. + Jul. O God!- O nurse, how shall this be prevented? + My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven. + How shall that faith return again to earth + Unless that husband send it me from heaven + By leaving earth? Comfort me, counsel me. + Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems + Upon so soft a subject as myself! + What say'st thou? Hast thou not a word of joy? + Some comfort, nurse. + Nurse. Faith, here it is. + Romeo is banish'd; and all the world to nothing + That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you; + Or if he do, it needs must be by stealth. + Then, since the case so stands as now it doth, + I think it best you married with the County. + O, he's a lovely gentleman! + Romeo's a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam, + Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye + As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart, + I think you are happy in this second match, + For it excels your first; or if it did not, + Your first is dead- or 'twere as good he were + As living here and you no use of him. + Jul. Speak'st thou this from thy heart? + Nurse. And from my soul too; else beshrew them both. + Jul. Amen! + Nurse. What? + Jul. Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much. + Go in; and tell my lady I am gone, + Having displeas'd my father, to Laurence' cell, + To make confession and to be absolv'd. + Nurse. Marry, I will; and this is wisely done. Exit. + Jul. Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend! + Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn, + Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue + Which she hath prais'd him with above compare + So many thousand times? Go, counsellor! + Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain. + I'll to the friar to know his remedy. + If all else fail, myself have power to die. Exit. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. Scene I. +Friar Laurence's cell. + +Enter Friar, [Laurence] and County Paris. + + Friar. On Thursday, sir? The time is very short. + Par. My father Capulet will have it so, + And I am nothing slow to slack his haste. + Friar. You say you do not know the lady's mind. + Uneven is the course; I like it not. + Par. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death, + And therefore have I little talk'd of love; + For Venus smiles not in a house of tears. + Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous + That she do give her sorrow so much sway, + And in his wisdom hastes our marriage + To stop the inundation of her tears, + Which, too much minded by herself alone, + May be put from her by society. + Now do you know the reason of this haste. + Friar. [aside] I would I knew not why it should be slow'd.- + Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell. + + Enter Juliet. + + Par. Happily met, my lady and my wife! + Jul. That may be, sir, when I may be a wife. + Par. That may be must be, love, on Thursday next. + Jul. What must be shall be. + Friar. That's a certain text. + Par. Come you to make confession to this father? + Jul. To answer that, I should confess to you. + Par. Do not deny to him that you love me. + Jul. I will confess to you that I love him. + Par. So will ye, I am sure, that you love me. + Jul. If I do so, it will be of more price, + Being spoke behind your back, than to your face. + Par. Poor soul, thy face is much abus'd with tears. + Jul. The tears have got small victory by that, + For it was bad enough before their spite. + Par. Thou wrong'st it more than tears with that report. + Jul. That is no slander, sir, which is a truth; + And what I spake, I spake it to my face. + Par. Thy face is mine, and thou hast sland'red it. + Jul. It may be so, for it is not mine own. + Are you at leisure, holy father, now, + Or shall I come to you at evening mass + Friar. My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now. + My lord, we must entreat the time alone. + Par. God shield I should disturb devotion! + Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye. + Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss. Exit. + Jul. O, shut the door! and when thou hast done so, + Come weep with me- past hope, past cure, past help! + Friar. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief; + It strains me past the compass of my wits. + I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it, + On Thursday next be married to this County. + Jul. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this, + Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it. + If in thy wisdom thou canst give no help, + Do thou but call my resolution wise + And with this knife I'll help it presently. + God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands; + And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo's seal'd, + Shall be the label to another deed, + Or my true heart with treacherous revolt + Turn to another, this shall slay them both. + Therefore, out of thy long-experienc'd time, + Give me some present counsel; or, behold, + 'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife + Shall play the empire, arbitrating that + Which the commission of thy years and art + Could to no issue of true honour bring. + Be not so long to speak. I long to die + If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy. + Friar. Hold, daughter. I do spy a kind of hope, + Which craves as desperate an execution + As that is desperate which we would prevent. + If, rather than to marry County Paris + Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself, + Then is it likely thou wilt undertake + A thing like death to chide away this shame, + That cop'st with death himself to scape from it; + And, if thou dar'st, I'll give thee remedy. + Jul. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, + From off the battlements of yonder tower, + Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk + Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears, + Or shut me nightly in a charnel house, + O'ercover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones, + With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls; + Or bid me go into a new-made grave + And hide me with a dead man in his shroud- + Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble- + And I will do it without fear or doubt, + To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love. + Friar. Hold, then. Go home, be merry, give consent + To marry Paris. Wednesday is to-morrow. + To-morrow night look that thou lie alone; + Let not the nurse lie with thee in thy chamber. + Take thou this vial, being then in bed, + And this distilled liquor drink thou off; + When presently through all thy veins shall run + A cold and drowsy humour; for no pulse + Shall keep his native progress, but surcease; + No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou livest; + The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade + To paly ashes, thy eyes' windows fall + Like death when he shuts up the day of life; + Each part, depriv'd of supple government, + Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death; + And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death + Thou shalt continue two-and-forty hours, + And then awake as from a pleasant sleep. + Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes + To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead. + Then, as the manner of our country is, + In thy best robes uncovered on the bier + Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault + Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie. + In the mean time, against thou shalt awake, + Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift; + And hither shall he come; and he and I + Will watch thy waking, and that very night + Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua. + And this shall free thee from this present shame, + If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear + Abate thy valour in the acting it. + Jul. Give me, give me! O, tell not me of fear! + Friar. Hold! Get you gone, be strong and prosperous + In this resolve. I'll send a friar with speed + To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord. + Jul. Love give me strength! and strength shall help afford. + Farewell, dear father. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +Capulet's house. + +Enter Father Capulet, Mother, Nurse, and Servingmen, + two or three. + + Cap. So many guests invite as here are writ. + [Exit a Servingman.] + Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks. + Serv. You shall have none ill, sir; for I'll try if they can lick + their fingers. + Cap. How canst thou try them so? + Serv. Marry, sir, 'tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own + fingers. Therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with + me. + Cap. Go, begone. + Exit Servingman. + We shall be much unfurnish'd for this time. + What, is my daughter gone to Friar Laurence? + Nurse. Ay, forsooth. + Cap. Well, be may chance to do some good on her. + A peevish self-will'd harlotry it is. + + Enter Juliet. + + Nurse. See where she comes from shrift with merry look. + Cap. How now, my headstrong? Where have you been gadding? + Jul. Where I have learnt me to repent the sin + Of disobedient opposition + To you and your behests, and am enjoin'd + By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here + To beg your pardon. Pardon, I beseech you! + Henceforward I am ever rul'd by you. + Cap. Send for the County. Go tell him of this. + I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning. + Jul. I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell + And gave him what becomed love I might, + Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty. + Cap. Why, I am glad on't. This is well. Stand up. + This is as't should be. Let me see the County. + Ay, marry, go, I say, and fetch him hither. + Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar, + All our whole city is much bound to him. + Jul. Nurse, will you go with me into my closet + To help me sort such needful ornaments + As you think fit to furnish me to-morrow? + Mother. No, not till Thursday. There is time enough. + Cap. Go, nurse, go with her. We'll to church to-morrow. + Exeunt Juliet and Nurse. + Mother. We shall be short in our provision. + 'Tis now near night. + Cap. Tush, I will stir about, + And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife. + Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her. + I'll not to bed to-night; let me alone. + I'll play the housewife for this once. What, ho! + They are all forth; well, I will walk myself + To County Paris, to prepare him up + Against to-morrow. My heart is wondrous light, + Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim'd. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene III. +Juliet's chamber. + +Enter Juliet and Nurse. + + Jul. Ay, those attires are best; but, gentle nurse, + I pray thee leave me to myself to-night; + For I have need of many orisons + To move the heavens to smile upon my state, + Which, well thou knowest, is cross and full of sin. + + Enter Mother. + + Mother. What, are you busy, ho? Need you my help? + Jul. No, madam; we have cull'd such necessaries + As are behooffull for our state to-morrow. + So please you, let me now be left alone, + And let the nurse this night sit up with you; + For I am sure you have your hands full all + In this so sudden business. + Mother. Good night. + Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need. + Exeunt [Mother and Nurse.] + Jul. Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again. + I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins + That almost freezes up the heat of life. + I'll call them back again to comfort me. + Nurse!- What should she do here? + My dismal scene I needs must act alone. + Come, vial. + What if this mixture do not work at all? + Shall I be married then to-morrow morning? + No, No! This shall forbid it. Lie thou there. + Lays down a dagger. + What if it be a poison which the friar + Subtilly hath minist'red to have me dead, + Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd + Because he married me before to Romeo? + I fear it is; and yet methinks it should not, + For he hath still been tried a holy man. + I will not entertain so bad a thought. + How if, when I am laid into the tomb, + I wake before the time that Romeo + Come to redeem me? There's a fearful point! + Shall I not then be stifled in the vault, + To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, + And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes? + Or, if I live, is it not very like + The horrible conceit of death and night, + Together with the terror of the place- + As in a vault, an ancient receptacle + Where for this many hundred years the bones + Of all my buried ancestors are pack'd; + Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, + Lies fest'ring in his shroud; where, as they say, + At some hours in the night spirits resort- + Alack, alack, is it not like that I, + So early waking- what with loathsome smells, + And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth, + That living mortals, hearing them, run mad- + O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught, + Environed with all these hideous fears, + And madly play with my forefathers' joints, + And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud., + And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone + As with a club dash out my desp'rate brains? + O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost + Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body + Upon a rapier's point. Stay, Tybalt, stay! + Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee. + + She [drinks and] falls upon her bed within the curtains. + + + + +Scene IV. +Capulet's house. + +Enter Lady of the House and Nurse. + + Lady. Hold, take these keys and fetch more spices, nurse. + Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry. + + Enter Old Capulet. + + Cap. Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crow'd, + The curfew bell hath rung, 'tis three o'clock. + Look to the bak'd meats, good Angelica; + Spare not for cost. + Nurse. Go, you cot-quean, go, + Get you to bed! Faith, you'll be sick to-morrow + For this night's watching. + Cap. No, not a whit. What, I have watch'd ere now + All night for lesser cause, and ne'er been sick. + Lady. Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time; + But I will watch you from such watching now. + Exeunt Lady and Nurse. + Cap. A jealous hood, a jealous hood! + + Enter three or four [Fellows, with spits and logs and baskets. + + What is there? Now, fellow, + Fellow. Things for the cook, sir; but I know not what. + Cap. Make haste, make haste. [Exit Fellow.] Sirrah, fetch drier + logs. + Call Peter; he will show thee where they are. + Fellow. I have a head, sir, that will find out logs + And never trouble Peter for the matter. + Cap. Mass, and well said; a merry whoreson, ha! + Thou shalt be loggerhead. [Exit Fellow.] Good faith, 'tis day. + The County will be here with music straight, + For so he said he would. Play music. + I hear him near. + Nurse! Wife! What, ho! What, nurse, I say! + + Enter Nurse. + Go waken Juliet; go and trim her up. + I'll go and chat with Paris. Hie, make haste, + Make haste! The bridegroom he is come already: + Make haste, I say. + [Exeunt.] + + + + +Scene V. +Juliet's chamber. + +[Enter Nurse.] + + Nurse. Mistress! what, mistress! Juliet! Fast, I warrant her, she. + Why, lamb! why, lady! Fie, you slug-abed! + Why, love, I say! madam! sweetheart! Why, bride! + What, not a word? You take your pennyworths now! + Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant, + The County Paris hath set up his rest + That you shall rest but little. God forgive me! + Marry, and amen. How sound is she asleep! + I needs must wake her. Madam, madam, madam! + Ay, let the County take you in your bed! + He'll fright you up, i' faith. Will it not be? + [Draws aside the curtains.] + What, dress'd, and in your clothes, and down again? + I must needs wake you. Lady! lady! lady! + Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady's dead! + O weraday that ever I was born! + Some aqua-vitae, ho! My lord! my lady! + + Enter Mother. + + Mother. What noise is here? + Nurse. O lamentable day! + Mother. What is the matter? + Nurse. Look, look! O heavy day! + Mother. O me, O me! My child, my only life! + Revive, look up, or I will die with thee! + Help, help! Call help. + + Enter Father. + + Father. For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come. + Nurse. She's dead, deceas'd; she's dead! Alack the day! + Mother. Alack the day, she's dead, she's dead, she's dead! + Cap. Ha! let me see her. Out alas! she's cold, + Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff; + Life and these lips have long been separated. + Death lies on her like an untimely frost + Upon the sweetest flower of all the field. + Nurse. O lamentable day! + Mother. O woful time! + Cap. Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make me wail, + Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak. + + Enter Friar [Laurence] and the County [Paris], with Musicians. + + Friar. Come, is the bride ready to go to church? + Cap. Ready to go, but never to return. + O son, the night before thy wedding day + Hath Death lain with thy wife. See, there she lies, + Flower as she was, deflowered by him. + Death is my son-in-law, Death is my heir; + My daughter he hath wedded. I will die + And leave him all. Life, living, all is Death's. + Par. Have I thought long to see this morning's face, + And doth it give me such a sight as this? + Mother. Accurs'd, unhappy, wretched, hateful day! + Most miserable hour that e'er time saw + In lasting labour of his pilgrimage! + But one, poor one, one poor and loving child, + But one thing to rejoice and solace in, + And cruel Death hath catch'd it from my sight! + Nurse. O woe? O woful, woful, woful day! + Most lamentable day, most woful day + That ever ever I did yet behold! + O day! O day! O day! O hateful day! + Never was seen so black a day as this. + O woful day! O woful day! + Par. Beguil'd, divorced, wronged, spited, slain! + Most detestable Death, by thee beguil'd, + By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown! + O love! O life! not life, but love in death + Cap. Despis'd, distressed, hated, martyr'd, kill'd! + Uncomfortable time, why cam'st thou now + To murther, murther our solemnity? + O child! O child! my soul, and not my child! + Dead art thou, dead! alack, my child is dead, + And with my child my joys are buried! + Friar. Peace, ho, for shame! Confusion's cure lives not + In these confusions. Heaven and yourself + Had part in this fair maid! now heaven hath all, + And all the better is it for the maid. + Your part in her you could not keep from death, + But heaven keeps his part in eternal life. + The most you sought was her promotion, + For 'twas your heaven she should be advanc'd; + And weep ye now, seeing she is advanc'd + Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself? + O, in this love, you love your child so ill + That you run mad, seeing that she is well. + She's not well married that lives married long, + But she's best married that dies married young. + Dry up your tears and stick your rosemary + On this fair corse, and, as the custom is, + In all her best array bear her to church; + For though fond nature bids us all lament, + Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment. + Cap. All things that we ordained festival + Turn from their office to black funeral- + Our instruments to melancholy bells, + Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast; + Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change; + Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse; + And all things change them to the contrary. + Friar. Sir, go you in; and, madam, go with him; + And go, Sir Paris. Every one prepare + To follow this fair corse unto her grave. + The heavens do low'r upon you for some ill; + Move them no more by crossing their high will. + Exeunt. Manent Musicians [and Nurse]. + 1. Mus. Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone. + Nurse. Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up! + For well you know this is a pitiful case. [Exit.] + 1. Mus. Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended. + + Enter Peter. + + Pet. Musicians, O, musicians, 'Heart's ease,' 'Heart's ease'! + O, an you will have me live, play 'Heart's ease.' + 1. Mus. Why 'Heart's ease'', + Pet. O, musicians, because my heart itself plays 'My heart is full + of woe.' O, play me some merry dump to comfort me. + 1. Mus. Not a dump we! 'Tis no time to play now. + Pet. You will not then? + 1. Mus. No. + Pet. I will then give it you soundly. + 1. Mus. What will you give us? + Pet. No money, on my faith, but the gleek. I will give you the + minstrel. + 1. Mus. Then will I give you the serving-creature. + Pet. Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on your pate. + I will carry no crotchets. I'll re you, I'll fa you. Do you note + me? + 1. Mus. An you re us and fa us, you note us. + 2. Mus. Pray you put up your dagger, and put out your wit. + Pet. Then have at you with my wit! I will dry-beat you with an iron + wit, and put up my iron dagger. Answer me like men. + + 'When griping grief the heart doth wound, + And doleful dumps the mind oppress, + Then music with her silver sound'- + + Why 'silver sound'? Why 'music with her silver sound'? + What say you, Simon Catling? + 1. Mus. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound. + Pet. Pretty! What say You, Hugh Rebeck? + 2. Mus. I say 'silver sound' because musicians sound for silver. + Pet. Pretty too! What say you, James Soundpost? + 3. Mus. Faith, I know not what to say. + Pet. O, I cry you mercy! you are the singer. I will say for you. It + is 'music with her silver sound' because musicians have no gold + for sounding. + + 'Then music with her silver sound + With speedy help doth lend redress.' [Exit. + + 1. Mus. What a pestilent knave is this same? + 2. Mus. Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here, tarry for the + mourners, and stay dinner. + Exeunt. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. Scene I. +Mantua. A street. + +Enter Romeo. + + Rom. If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep + My dreams presage some joyful news at hand. + My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne, + And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit + Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts. + I dreamt my lady came and found me dead + (Strange dream that gives a dead man leave to think!) + And breath'd such life with kisses in my lips + That I reviv'd and was an emperor. + Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd, + When but love's shadows are so rich in joy! + + Enter Romeo's Man Balthasar, booted. + + News from Verona! How now, Balthasar? + Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar? + How doth my lady? Is my father well? + How fares my Juliet? That I ask again, + For nothing can be ill if she be well. + Man. Then she is well, and nothing can be ill. + Her body sleeps in Capel's monument, + And her immortal part with angels lives. + I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault + And presently took post to tell it you. + O, pardon me for bringing these ill news, + Since you did leave it for my office, sir. + Rom. Is it e'en so? Then I defy you, stars! + Thou knowest my lodging. Get me ink and paper + And hire posthorses. I will hence to-night. + Man. I do beseech you, sir, have patience. + Your looks are pale and wild and do import + Some misadventure. + Rom. Tush, thou art deceiv'd. + Leave me and do the thing I bid thee do. + Hast thou no letters to me from the friar? + Man. No, my good lord. + Rom. No matter. Get thee gone + And hire those horses. I'll be with thee straight. + Exit [Balthasar]. + Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night. + Let's see for means. O mischief, thou art swift + To enter in the thoughts of desperate men! + I do remember an apothecary, + And hereabouts 'a dwells, which late I noted + In tatt'red weeds, with overwhelming brows, + Culling of simples. Meagre were his looks, + Sharp misery had worn him to the bones; + And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, + An alligator stuff'd, and other skins + Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves + A beggarly account of empty boxes, + Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, + Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses + Were thinly scattered, to make up a show. + Noting this penury, to myself I said, + 'An if a man did need a poison now + Whose sale is present death in Mantua, + Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.' + O, this same thought did but forerun my need, + And this same needy man must sell it me. + As I remember, this should be the house. + Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut. What, ho! apothecary! + + Enter Apothecary. + + Apoth. Who calls so loud? + Rom. Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor. + Hold, there is forty ducats. Let me have + A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear + As will disperse itself through all the veins + That the life-weary taker mall fall dead, + And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath + As violently as hasty powder fir'd + Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb. + Apoth. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law + Is death to any he that utters them. + Rom. Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness + And fearest to die? Famine is in thy cheeks, + Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes, + Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back: + The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law; + The world affords no law to make thee rich; + Then be not poor, but break it and take this. + Apoth. My poverty but not my will consents. + Rom. I pay thy poverty and not thy will. + Apoth. Put this in any liquid thing you will + And drink it off, and if you had the strength + Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight. + Rom. There is thy gold- worse poison to men's souls, + Doing more murther in this loathsome world, + Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell. + I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none. + Farewell. Buy food and get thyself in flesh. + Come, cordial and not poison, go with me + To Juliet's grave; for there must I use thee. + Exeunt. + + + + +Scene II. +Verona. Friar Laurence's cell. + +Enter Friar John to Friar Laurence. + + John. Holy Franciscan friar, brother, ho! + + Enter Friar Laurence. + + Laur. This same should be the voice of Friar John. + Welcome from Mantua. What says Romeo? + Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter. + John. Going to find a barefoot brother out, + One of our order, to associate me + Here in this city visiting the sick, + And finding him, the searchers of the town, + Suspecting that we both were in a house + Where the infectious pestilence did reign, + Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth, + So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd. + Laur. Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo? + John. I could not send it- here it is again- + Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, + So fearful were they of infection. + Laur. Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood, + The letter was not nice, but full of charge, + Of dear import; and the neglecting it + May do much danger. Friar John, go hence, + Get me an iron crow and bring it straight + Unto my cell. + John. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee. Exit. + Laur. Now, must I to the monument alone. + Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake. + She will beshrew me much that Romeo + Hath had no notice of these accidents; + But I will write again to Mantua, + And keep her at my cell till Romeo come- + Poor living corse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb! Exit. + + + + +Scene III. +Verona. A churchyard; in it the monument of the Capulets. + +Enter Paris and his Page with flowers and [a torch]. + + Par. Give me thy torch, boy. Hence, and stand aloof. + Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. + Under yond yew tree lay thee all along, + Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground. + So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread + (Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves) + But thou shalt hear it. Whistle then to me, + As signal that thou hear'st something approach. + Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go. + Page. [aside] I am almost afraid to stand alone + Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure. [Retires.] + Par. Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew + (O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones) + Which with sweet water nightly I will dew; + Or, wanting that, with tears distill'd by moans. + The obsequies that I for thee will keep + Nightly shall be to strew, thy grave and weep. + Whistle Boy. + The boy gives warning something doth approach. + What cursed foot wanders this way to-night + To cross my obsequies and true love's rite? + What, with a torch? Muffle me, night, awhile. [Retires.] + + Enter Romeo, and Balthasar with a torch, a mattock, + and a crow of iron. + + Rom. Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron. + Hold, take this letter. Early in the morning + See thou deliver it to my lord and father. + Give me the light. Upon thy life I charge thee, + Whate'er thou hearest or seest, stand all aloof + And do not interrupt me in my course. + Why I descend into this bed of death + Is partly to behold my lady's face, + But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger + A precious ring- a ring that I must use + In dear employment. Therefore hence, be gone. + But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry + In what I farther shall intend to do, + By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint + And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs. + The time and my intents are savage-wild, + More fierce and more inexorable far + Than empty tigers or the roaring sea. + Bal. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. + Rom. So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that. + Live, and be prosperous; and farewell, good fellow. + Bal. [aside] For all this same, I'll hide me hereabout. + His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. [Retires.] + Rom. Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death, + Gorg'd with the dearest morsel of the earth, + Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open, + And in despite I'll cram thee with more food. + Romeo opens the tomb. + Par. This is that banish'd haughty Montague + That murd'red my love's cousin- with which grief + It is supposed the fair creature died- + And here is come to do some villanous shame + To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him. + Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague! + Can vengeance be pursu'd further than death? + Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee. + Obey, and go with me; for thou must die. + Rom. I must indeed; and therefore came I hither. + Good gentle youth, tempt not a desp'rate man. + Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone; + Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth, + But not another sin upon my head + By urging me to fury. O, be gone! + By heaven, I love thee better than myself, + For I come hither arm'd against myself. + Stay not, be gone. Live, and hereafter say + A madman's mercy bid thee run away. + Par. I do defy thy, conjuration + And apprehend thee for a felon here. + Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy! + They fight. + Page. O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch. + [Exit. Paris falls.] + Par. O, I am slain! If thou be merciful, + Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. [Dies.] + Rom. In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face. + Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris! + What said my man when my betossed soul + Did not attend him as we rode? I think + He told me Paris should have married Juliet. + Said he not so? or did I dream it so? + Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet + To think it was so? O, give me thy hand, + One writ with me in sour misfortune's book! + I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave. + A grave? O, no, a lanthorn, slaught'red youth, + For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes + This vault a feasting presence full of light. + Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd. + [Lays him in the tomb.] + How oft when men are at the point of death + Have they been merry! which their keepers call + A lightning before death. O, how may I + Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife! + Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, + Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. + Thou art not conquer'd. Beauty's ensign yet + Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, + And death's pale flag is not advanced there. + Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet? + O, what more favour can I do to thee + Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain + To sunder his that was thine enemy? + Forgive me, cousin.' Ah, dear Juliet, + Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe + That unsubstantial Death is amorous, + And that the lean abhorred monster keeps + Thee here in dark to be his paramour? + For fear of that I still will stay with thee + And never from this palace of dim night + Depart again. Here, here will I remain + With worms that are thy chambermaids. O, here + Will I set up my everlasting rest + And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars + From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! + Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you + The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss + A dateless bargain to engrossing death! + Come, bitter conduct; come, unsavoury guide! + Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on + The dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark! + Here's to my love! [Drinks.] O true apothecary! + Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. Falls. + + Enter Friar [Laurence], with lanthorn, crow, and spade. + + Friar. Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night + Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who's there? + Bal. Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well. + Friar. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend, + What torch is yond that vainly lends his light + To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern, + It burneth in the Capels' monument. + Bal. It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master, + One that you love. + Friar. Who is it? + Bal. Romeo. + Friar. How long hath he been there? + Bal. Full half an hour. + Friar. Go with me to the vault. + Bal. I dare not, sir. + My master knows not but I am gone hence, + And fearfully did menace me with death + If I did stay to look on his intents. + Friar. Stay then; I'll go alone. Fear comes upon me. + O, much I fear some ill unthrifty thing. + Bal. As I did sleep under this yew tree here, + I dreamt my master and another fought, + And that my master slew him. + Friar. Romeo! + Alack, alack, what blood is this which stains + The stony entrance of this sepulchre? + What mean these masterless and gory swords + To lie discolour'd by this place of peace? [Enters the tomb.] + Romeo! O, pale! Who else? What, Paris too? + And steep'd in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour + Is guilty of this lamentable chance! The lady stirs. + Juliet rises. + Jul. O comfortable friar! where is my lord? + I do remember well where I should be, + And there I am. Where is my Romeo? + Friar. I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest + Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep. + A greater power than we can contradict + Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away. + Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead; + And Paris too. Come, I'll dispose of thee + Among a sisterhood of holy nuns. + Stay not to question, for the watch is coming. + Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay. + Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away. + Exit [Friar]. + What's here? A cup, clos'd in my true love's hand? + Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end. + O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop + To help me after? I will kiss thy lips. + Haply some poison yet doth hang on them + To make me die with a restorative. [Kisses him.] + Thy lips are warm! + Chief Watch. [within] Lead, boy. Which way? + Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! + [Snatches Romeo's dagger.] + This is thy sheath; there rest, and let me die. + She stabs herself and falls [on Romeo's body]. + + Enter [Paris's] Boy and Watch. + + Boy. This is the place. There, where the torch doth burn. + Chief Watch. 'the ground is bloody. Search about the churchyard. + Go, some of you; whoe'er you find attach. + [Exeunt some of the Watch.] + Pitiful sight! here lies the County slain; + And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead, + Who here hath lain this two days buried. + Go, tell the Prince; run to the Capulets; + Raise up the Montagues; some others search. + [Exeunt others of the Watch.] + We see the ground whereon these woes do lie, + But the true ground of all these piteous woes + We cannot without circumstance descry. + + Enter [some of the Watch,] with Romeo's Man [Balthasar]. + + 2. Watch. Here's Romeo's man. We found him in the churchyard. + Chief Watch. Hold him in safety till the Prince come hither. + + Enter Friar [Laurence] and another Watchman. + + 3. Watch. Here is a friar that trembles, sighs, and weeps. + We took this mattock and this spade from him + As he was coming from this churchyard side. + Chief Watch. A great suspicion! Stay the friar too. + + Enter the Prince [and Attendants]. + + Prince. What misadventure is so early up, + That calls our person from our morning rest? + + Enter Capulet and his Wife [with others]. + + Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek abroad? + Wife. The people in the street cry 'Romeo,' + Some 'Juliet,' and some 'Paris'; and all run, + With open outcry, toward our monument. + Prince. What fear is this which startles in our ears? + Chief Watch. Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain; + And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before, + Warm and new kill'd. + Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes. + Chief Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man, + With instruments upon them fit to open + These dead men's tombs. + Cap. O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds! + This dagger hath mista'en, for, lo, his house + Is empty on the back of Montague, + And it missheathed in my daughter's bosom! + Wife. O me! this sight of death is as a bell + That warns my old age to a sepulchre. + + Enter Montague [and others]. + + Prince. Come, Montague; for thou art early up + To see thy son and heir more early down. + Mon. Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night! + Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath. + What further woe conspires against mine age? + Prince. Look, and thou shalt see. + Mon. O thou untaught! what manners is in this, + To press before thy father to a grave? + Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while, + Till we can clear these ambiguities + And know their spring, their head, their true descent; + And then will I be general of your woes + And lead you even to death. Meantime forbear, + And let mischance be slave to patience. + Bring forth the parties of suspicion. + Friar. I am the greatest, able to do least, + Yet most suspected, as the time and place + Doth make against me, of this direful murther; + And here I stand, both to impeach and purge + Myself condemned and myself excus'd. + Prince. Then say it once what thou dost know in this. + Friar. I will be brief, for my short date of breath + Is not so long as is a tedious tale. + Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet; + And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife. + I married them; and their stol'n marriage day + Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death + Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city; + For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd. + You, to remove that siege of grief from her, + Betroth'd and would have married her perforce + To County Paris. Then comes she to me + And with wild looks bid me devise some mean + To rid her from this second marriage, + Or in my cell there would she kill herself. + Then gave I her (so tutored by my art) + A sleeping potion; which so took effect + As I intended, for it wrought on her + The form of death. Meantime I writ to Romeo + That he should hither come as this dire night + To help to take her from her borrowed grave, + Being the time the potion's force should cease. + But he which bore my letter, Friar John, + Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight + Return'd my letter back. Then all alone + At the prefixed hour of her waking + Came I to take her from her kindred's vault; + Meaning to keep her closely at my cell + Till I conveniently could send to Romeo. + But when I came, some minute ere the time + Of her awaking, here untimely lay + The noble Paris and true Romeo dead. + She wakes; and I entreated her come forth + And bear this work of heaven with patience; + But then a noise did scare me from the tomb, + And she, too desperate, would not go with me, + But, as it seems, did violence on herself. + All this I know, and to the marriage + Her nurse is privy; and if aught in this + Miscarried by my fault, let my old life + Be sacrific'd, some hour before his time, + Unto the rigour of severest law. + Prince. We still have known thee for a holy man. + Where's Romeo's man? What can he say in this? + Bal. I brought my master news of Juliet's death; + And then in post he came from Mantua + To this same place, to this same monument. + This letter he early bid me give his father, + And threat'ned me with death, going in the vault, + If I departed not and left him there. + Prince. Give me the letter. I will look on it. + Where is the County's page that rais'd the watch? + Sirrah, what made your master in this place? + Boy. He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave; + And bid me stand aloof, and so I did. + Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb; + And by-and-by my master drew on him; + And then I ran away to call the watch. + Prince. This letter doth make good the friar's words, + Their course of love, the tidings of her death; + And here he writes that he did buy a poison + Of a poor pothecary, and therewithal + Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet. + Where be these enemies? Capulet, Montage, + See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, + That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! + And I, for winking at you, discords too, + Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punish'd. + Cap. O brother Montague, give me thy hand. + This is my daughter's jointure, for no more + Can I demand. + Mon. But I can give thee more; + For I will raise her Statue in pure gold, + That whiles Verona by that name is known, + There shall no figure at such rate be set + As that of true and faithful Juliet. + Cap. As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie- + Poor sacrifices of our enmity! + Prince. A glooming peace this morning with it brings. + The sun for sorrow will not show his head. + Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; + Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished; + For never was a story of more woe + Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. + Exeunt omnes. + +THE END + + + +<> + +1594 + + + + + +THE TAMING OF THE SHREW + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + Persons in the Induction + A LORD + CHRISTOPHER SLY, a tinker + HOSTESS + PAGE + PLAYERS + HUNTSMEN + SERVANTS + + BAPTISTA MINOLA, a gentleman of Padua + VINCENTIO, a Merchant of Pisa + LUCENTIO, son to Vincentio, in love with Bianca + PETRUCHIO, a gentleman of Verona, a suitor to Katherina + + Suitors to Bianca + GREMIO + HORTENSIO + + Servants to Lucentio + TRANIO + BIONDELLO + + Servants to Petruchio + GRUMIO + CURTIS + + A PEDANT + + Daughters to Baptista + KATHERINA, the shrew + BIANCA + + A WIDOW + + Tailor, Haberdasher, and Servants attending on Baptista and + Petruchio + + SCENE: + Padua, and PETRUCHIO'S house in the country + +SC_1 + INDUCTION. SCENE I. + Before an alehouse on a heath + + Enter HOSTESS and SLY + + SLY. I'll pheeze you, in faith. + HOSTESS. A pair of stocks, you rogue! + SLY. Y'are a baggage; the Slys are no rogues. Look in the + chronicles: we came in with Richard Conqueror. Therefore, paucas + pallabris; let the world slide. Sessa! + HOSTESS. You will not pay for the glasses you have burst? + SLY. No, not a denier. Go by, Saint Jeronimy, go to thy cold bed + and warm thee. + HOSTESS. I know my remedy; I must go fetch the third-borough. + Exit + SLY. Third, or fourth, or fifth borough, I'll answer him by law. + I'll not budge an inch, boy; let him come, and kindly. + [Falls asleep] + + Wind horns. Enter a LORD from hunting, with his train + + LORD. Huntsman, I charge thee, tender well my hounds; + Brach Merriman, the poor cur, is emboss'd; + And couple Clowder with the deep-mouth'd brach. + Saw'st thou not, boy, how Silver made it good + At the hedge corner, in the coldest fault? + I would not lose the dog for twenty pound. + FIRST HUNTSMAN. Why, Belman is as good as he, my lord; + He cried upon it at the merest loss, + And twice to-day pick'd out the dullest scent; + Trust me, I take him for the better dog. + LORD. Thou art a fool; if Echo were as fleet, + I would esteem him worth a dozen such. + But sup them well, and look unto them all; + To-morrow I intend to hunt again. + FIRST HUNTSMAN. I will, my lord. + LORD. What's here? One dead, or drunk? + See, doth he breathe? + SECOND HUNTSMAN. He breathes, my lord. Were he not warm'd with ale, + This were a bed but cold to sleep so soundly. + LORD. O monstrous beast, how like a swine he lies! + Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image! + Sirs, I will practise on this drunken man. + What think you, if he were convey'd to bed, + Wrapp'd in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers, + A most delicious banquet by his bed, + And brave attendants near him when he wakes, + Would not the beggar then forget himself? + FIRST HUNTSMAN. Believe me, lord, I think he cannot choose. + SECOND HUNTSMAN. It would seem strange unto him when he wak'd. + LORD. Even as a flatt'ring dream or worthless fancy. + Then take him up, and manage well the jest: + Carry him gently to my fairest chamber, + And hang it round with all my wanton pictures; + Balm his foul head in warm distilled waters, + And burn sweet wood to make the lodging sweet; + Procure me music ready when he wakes, + To make a dulcet and a heavenly sound; + And if he chance to speak, be ready straight, + And with a low submissive reverence + Say 'What is it your honour will command?' + Let one attend him with a silver basin + Full of rose-water and bestrew'd with flowers; + Another bear the ewer, the third a diaper, + And say 'Will't please your lordship cool your hands?' + Some one be ready with a costly suit, + And ask him what apparel he will wear; + Another tell him of his hounds and horse, + And that his lady mourns at his disease; + Persuade him that he hath been lunatic, + And, when he says he is, say that he dreams, + For he is nothing but a mighty lord. + This do, and do it kindly, gentle sirs; + It will be pastime passing excellent, + If it be husbanded with modesty. + FIRST HUNTSMAN. My lord, I warrant you we will play our part + As he shall think by our true diligence + He is no less than what we say he is. + LORD. Take him up gently, and to bed with him; + And each one to his office when he wakes. + [SLY is carried out. A trumpet sounds] + Sirrah, go see what trumpet 'tis that sounds- + Exit SERVANT + Belike some noble gentleman that means, + Travelling some journey, to repose him here. + + Re-enter a SERVINGMAN + + How now! who is it? + SERVANT. An't please your honour, players + That offer service to your lordship. + LORD. Bid them come near. + + Enter PLAYERS + + Now, fellows, you are welcome. + PLAYERS. We thank your honour. + LORD. Do you intend to stay with me to-night? + PLAYER. So please your lordship to accept our duty. + LORD. With all my heart. This fellow I remember + Since once he play'd a farmer's eldest son; + 'Twas where you woo'd the gentlewoman so well. + I have forgot your name; but, sure, that part + Was aptly fitted and naturally perform'd. + PLAYER. I think 'twas Soto that your honour means. + LORD. 'Tis very true; thou didst it excellent. + Well, you are come to me in happy time, + The rather for I have some sport in hand + Wherein your cunning can assist me much. + There is a lord will hear you play to-night; + But I am doubtful of your modesties, + Lest, over-eying of his odd behaviour, + For yet his honour never heard a play, + You break into some merry passion + And so offend him; for I tell you, sirs, + If you should smile, he grows impatient. + PLAYER. Fear not, my lord; we can contain ourselves, + Were he the veriest antic in the world. + LORD. Go, sirrah, take them to the buttery, + And give them friendly welcome every one; + Let them want nothing that my house affords. + Exit one with the PLAYERS + Sirrah, go you to Bartholomew my page, + And see him dress'd in all suits like a lady; + That done, conduct him to the drunkard's chamber, + And call him 'madam,' do him obeisance. + Tell him from me- as he will win my love- + He bear himself with honourable action, + Such as he hath observ'd in noble ladies + Unto their lords, by them accomplished; + Such duty to the drunkard let him do, + With soft low tongue and lowly courtesy, + And say 'What is't your honour will command, + Wherein your lady and your humble wife + May show her duty and make known her love?' + And then with kind embracements, tempting kisses, + And with declining head into his bosom, + Bid him shed tears, as being overjoyed + To see her noble lord restor'd to health, + Who for this seven years hath esteemed him + No better than a poor and loathsome beggar. + And if the boy have not a woman's gift + To rain a shower of commanded tears, + An onion will do well for such a shift, + Which, in a napkin being close convey'd, + Shall in despite enforce a watery eye. + See this dispatch'd with all the haste thou canst; + Anon I'll give thee more instructions. Exit a SERVINGMAN + I know the boy will well usurp the grace, + Voice, gait, and action, of a gentlewoman; + I long to hear him call the drunkard 'husband'; + And how my men will stay themselves from laughter + When they do homage to this simple peasant. + I'll in to counsel them; haply my presence + May well abate the over-merry spleen, + Which otherwise would grow into extremes. Exeunt + +SC_2 + SCENE II. + A bedchamber in the LORD'S house + + Enter aloft SLY, with ATTENDANTS; some with apparel, basin + and ewer, and other appurtenances; and LORD + + SLY. For God's sake, a pot of small ale. + FIRST SERVANT. Will't please your lordship drink a cup of sack? + SECOND SERVANT. Will't please your honour taste of these conserves? + THIRD SERVANT. What raiment will your honour wear to-day? + SLY. I am Christophero Sly; call not me 'honour' nor 'lordship.' I + ne'er drank sack in my life; and if you give me any conserves, + give me conserves of beef. Ne'er ask me what raiment I'll wear, + for I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than + legs, nor no more shoes than feet- nay, sometime more feet than + shoes, or such shoes as my toes look through the overleather. + LORD. Heaven cease this idle humour in your honour! + O, that a mighty man of such descent, + Of such possessions, and so high esteem, + Should be infused with so foul a spirit! + SLY. What, would you make me mad? Am not I Christopher Sly, old + Sly's son of Burton Heath; by birth a pedlar, by education a + cardmaker, by transmutation a bear-herd, and now by present + profession a tinker? Ask Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of + Wincot, if she know me not; if she say I am not fourteen pence on + the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lying'st knave in + Christendom. What! I am not bestraught. [Taking a pot of ale] + Here's- + THIRD SERVANT. O, this it is that makes your lady mourn! + SECOND SERVANT. O, this is it that makes your servants droop! + LORD. Hence comes it that your kindred shuns your house, + As beaten hence by your strange lunacy. + O noble lord, bethink thee of thy birth! + Call home thy ancient thoughts from banishment, + And banish hence these abject lowly dreams. + Look how thy servants do attend on thee, + Each in his office ready at thy beck. + Wilt thou have music? Hark! Apollo plays, [Music] + And twenty caged nightingales do sing. + Or wilt thou sleep? We'll have thee to a couch + Softer and sweeter than the lustful bed + On purpose trimm'd up for Semiramis. + Say thou wilt walk: we will bestrew the ground. + Or wilt thou ride? Thy horses shall be trapp'd, + Their harness studded all with gold and pearl. + Dost thou love hawking? Thou hast hawks will soar + Above the morning lark. Or wilt thou hunt? + Thy hounds shall make the welkin answer them + And fetch shall echoes from the hollow earth. + FIRST SERVANT. Say thou wilt course; thy greyhounds are as swift + As breathed stags; ay, fleeter than the roe. + SECOND SERVANT. Dost thou love pictures? We will fetch thee + straight + Adonis painted by a running brook, + And Cytherea all in sedges hid, + Which seem to move and wanton with her breath + Even as the waving sedges play wi' th' wind. + LORD. We'll show thee lo as she was a maid + And how she was beguiled and surpris'd, + As lively painted as the deed was done. + THIRD SERVANT. Or Daphne roaming through a thorny wood, + Scratching her legs, that one shall swear she bleeds + And at that sight shall sad Apollo weep, + So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn. + LORD. Thou art a lord, and nothing but a lord. + Thou hast a lady far more beautiful + Than any woman in this waning age. + FIRST SERVANT. And, till the tears that she hath shed for thee + Like envious floods o'er-run her lovely face, + She was the fairest creature in the world; + And yet she is inferior to none. + SLY. Am I a lord and have I such a lady? + Or do I dream? Or have I dream'd till now? + I do not sleep: I see, I hear, I speak; + I smell sweet savours, and I feel soft things. + Upon my life, I am a lord indeed, + And not a tinker, nor Christopher Sly. + Well, bring our lady hither to our sight; + And once again, a pot o' th' smallest ale. + SECOND SERVANT. Will't please your Mightiness to wash your hands? + O, how we joy to see your wit restor'd! + O, that once more you knew but what you are! + These fifteen years you have been in a dream; + Or, when you wak'd, so wak'd as if you slept. + SLY. These fifteen years! by my fay, a goodly nap. + But did I never speak of all that time? + FIRST SERVANT. O, yes, my lord, but very idle words; + For though you lay here in this goodly chamber, + Yet would you say ye were beaten out of door; + And rail upon the hostess of the house, + And say you would present her at the leet, + Because she brought stone jugs and no seal'd quarts. + Sometimes you would call out for Cicely Hacket. + SLY. Ay, the woman's maid of the house. + THIRD SERVANT. Why, sir, you know no house nor no such maid, + Nor no such men as you have reckon'd up, + As Stephen Sly, and old John Naps of Greece, + And Peter Turph, and Henry Pimpernell; + And twenty more such names and men as these, + Which never were, nor no man ever saw. + SLY. Now, Lord be thanked for my good amends! + ALL. Amen. + + Enter the PAGE as a lady, with ATTENDANTS + + SLY. I thank thee; thou shalt not lose by it. + PAGE. How fares my noble lord? + SLY. Marry, I fare well; for here is cheer enough. + Where is my wife? + PAGE. Here, noble lord; what is thy will with her? + SLY. Are you my wife, and will not call me husband? + My men should call me 'lord'; I am your goodman. + PAGE. My husband and my lord, my lord and husband; + I am your wife in all obedience. + SLY. I know it well. What must I call her? + LORD. Madam. + SLY. Al'ce madam, or Joan madam? + LORD. Madam, and nothing else; so lords call ladies. + SLY. Madam wife, they say that I have dream'd + And slept above some fifteen year or more. + PAGE. Ay, and the time seems thirty unto me, + Being all this time abandon'd from your bed. + SLY. 'Tis much. Servants, leave me and her alone. + Exeunt SERVANTS + Madam, undress you, and come now to bed. + PAGE. Thrice noble lord, let me entreat of you + To pardon me yet for a night or two; + Or, if not so, until the sun be set. + For your physicians have expressly charg'd, + In peril to incur your former malady, + That I should yet absent me from your bed. + I hope this reason stands for my excuse. + SLY. Ay, it stands so that I may hardly tarry so long. But I would + be loath to fall into my dreams again. I will therefore tarry in + despite of the flesh and the blood. + + Enter a MESSENGER + + MESSENGER. Your honour's players, hearing your amendment, + Are come to play a pleasant comedy; + For so your doctors hold it very meet, + Seeing too much sadness hath congeal'd your blood, + And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy. + Therefore they thought it good you hear a play + And frame your mind to mirth and merriment, + Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life. + SLY. Marry, I will; let them play it. Is not a comonty a + Christmas gambold or a tumbling-trick? + PAGE. No, my good lord, it is more pleasing stuff. + SLY. What, household stuff? + PAGE. It is a kind of history. + SLY. Well, we'll see't. Come, madam wife, sit by my side and let + the world slip;-we shall ne'er be younger. + [They sit down] + + A flourish of trumpets announces the play + + + + +<> + + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Padua. A public place + +Enter LUCENTIO and his man TRANIO + + LUCENTIO. Tranio, since for the great desire I had + To see fair Padua, nursery of arts, + I am arriv'd for fruitful Lombardy, + The pleasant garden of great Italy, + And by my father's love and leave am arm'd + With his good will and thy good company, + My trusty servant well approv'd in all, + Here let us breathe, and haply institute + A course of learning and ingenious studies. + Pisa, renowned for grave citizens, + Gave me my being and my father first, + A merchant of great traffic through the world, + Vincentio, come of the Bentivolii; + Vincentio's son, brought up in Florence, + It shall become to serve all hopes conceiv'd, + To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds. + And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study, + Virtue and that part of philosophy + Will I apply that treats of happiness + By virtue specially to be achiev'd. + Tell me thy mind; for I have Pisa left + And am to Padua come as he that leaves + A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep, + And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst. + TRANIO. Mi perdonato, gentle master mine; + I am in all affected as yourself; + Glad that you thus continue your resolve + To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy. + Only, good master, while we do admire + This virtue and this moral discipline, + Let's be no Stoics nor no stocks, I pray, + Or so devote to Aristotle's checks + As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd. + Balk logic with acquaintance that you have, + And practise rhetoric in your common talk; + Music and poesy use to quicken you; + The mathematics and the metaphysics, + Fall to them as you find your stomach serves you. + No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en; + In brief, sir, study what you most affect. + LUCENTIO. Gramercies, Tranio, well dost thou advise. + If, Biondello, thou wert come ashore, + We could at once put us in readiness, + And take a lodging fit to entertain + Such friends as time in Padua shall beget. + + Enter BAPTISTA with his two daughters, KATHERINA + and BIANCA; GREMIO, a pantaloon; HORTENSIO, + suitor to BIANCA. LUCENTIO and TRANIO stand by + + But stay awhile; what company is this? + TRANIO. Master, some show to welcome us to town. + BAPTISTA. Gentlemen, importune me no farther, + For how I firmly am resolv'd you know; + That is, not to bestow my youngest daughter + Before I have a husband for the elder. + If either of you both love Katherina, + Because I know you well and love you well, + Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure. + GREMIO. To cart her rather. She's too rough for me. + There, there, Hortensio, will you any wife? + KATHERINA. [To BAPTISTA] I pray you, sir, is it your will + To make a stale of me amongst these mates? + HORTENSIO. Mates, maid! How mean you that? No mates for you, + Unless you were of gentler, milder mould. + KATHERINA. I' faith, sir, you shall never need to fear; + Iwis it is not halfway to her heart; + But if it were, doubt not her care should be + To comb your noddle with a three-legg'd stool, + And paint your face, and use you like a fool. + HORTENSIO. From all such devils, good Lord deliver us! + GREMIO. And me, too, good Lord! + TRANIO. Husht, master! Here's some good pastime toward; + That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward. + LUCENTIO. But in the other's silence do I see + Maid's mild behaviour and sobriety. + Peace, Tranio! + TRANIO. Well said, master; mum! and gaze your fill. + BAPTISTA. Gentlemen, that I may soon make good + What I have said- Bianca, get you in; + And let it not displease thee, good Bianca, + For I will love thee ne'er the less, my girl. + KATHERINA. A pretty peat! it is best + Put finger in the eye, an she knew why. + BIANCA. Sister, content you in my discontent. + Sir, to your pleasure humbly I subscribe; + My books and instruments shall be my company, + On them to look, and practise by myself. + LUCENTIO. Hark, Tranio, thou mayst hear Minerva speak! + HORTENSIO. Signior Baptista, will you be so strange? + Sorry am I that our good will effects + Bianca's grief. + GREMIO. Why will you mew her up, + Signior Baptista, for this fiend of hell, + And make her bear the penance of her tongue? + BAPTISTA. Gentlemen, content ye; I am resolv'd. + Go in, Bianca. Exit BIANCA + And for I know she taketh most delight + In music, instruments, and poetry, + Schoolmasters will I keep within my house + Fit to instruct her youth. If you, Hortensio, + Or, Signior Gremio, you, know any such, + Prefer them hither; for to cunning men + I will be very kind, and liberal + To mine own children in good bringing-up; + And so, farewell. Katherina, you may stay; + For I have more to commune with Bianca. Exit + KATHERINA. Why, and I trust I may go too, may I not? + What! shall I be appointed hours, as though, belike, + I knew not what to take and what to leave? Ha! Exit + GREMIO. You may go to the devil's dam; your gifts are so good + here's none will hold you. There! Love is not so great, + Hortensio, but we may blow our nails together, and fast it fairly + out; our cake's dough on both sides. Farewell; yet, for the love + I bear my sweet Bianca, if I can by any means light on a fit man + to teach her that wherein she delights, I will wish him to her + father. + HORTENSIO. SO Will I, Signior Gremio; but a word, I pray. Though + the nature of our quarrel yet never brook'd parle, know now, upon + advice, it toucheth us both- that we may yet again have access to + our fair mistress, and be happy rivals in Bianca's love- to + labour and effect one thing specially. + GREMIO. What's that, I pray? + HORTENSIO. Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister. + GREMIO. A husband? a devil. + HORTENSIO. I say a husband. + GREMIO. I say a devil. Think'st thou, Hortensio, though her father + be very rich, any man is so very a fool to be married to hell? + HORTENSIO. Tush, Gremio! Though it pass your patience and mine to + endure her loud alarums, why, man, there be good fellows in the + world, an a man could light on them, would take her with all + faults, and money enough. + GREMIO. I cannot tell; but I had as lief take her dowry with this + condition: to be whipp'd at the high cross every morning. + HORTENSIO. Faith, as you say, there's small choice in rotten + apples. But, come; since this bar in law makes us friends, it + shall be so far forth friendly maintain'd till by helping + Baptista's eldest daughter to a husband we set his youngest free + for a husband, and then have to't afresh. Sweet Bianca! Happy man + be his dole! He that runs fastest gets the ring. How say you, + Signior Gremio? + GREMIO. I am agreed; and would I had given him the best horse in + Padua to begin his wooing that would thoroughly woo her, wed her, + and bed her, and rid the house of her! Come on. + Exeunt GREMIO and HORTENSIO + TRANIO. I pray, sir, tell me, is it possible + That love should of a sudden take such hold? + LUCENTIO. O Tranio, till I found it to be true, + I never thought it possible or likely. + But see! while idly I stood looking on, + I found the effect of love in idleness; + And now in plainness do confess to thee, + That art to me as secret and as dear + As Anna to the Queen of Carthage was- + Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perish, Tranio, + If I achieve not this young modest girl. + Counsel me, Tranio, for I know thou canst; + Assist me, Tranio, for I know thou wilt. + TRANIO. Master, it is no time to chide you now; + Affection is not rated from the heart; + If love have touch'd you, nought remains but so: + 'Redime te captum quam queas minimo.' + LUCENTIO. Gramercies, lad. Go forward; this contents; + The rest will comfort, for thy counsel's sound. + TRANIO. Master, you look'd so longly on the maid. + Perhaps you mark'd not what's the pith of all. + LUCENTIO. O, yes, I saw sweet beauty in her face, + Such as the daughter of Agenor had, + That made great Jove to humble him to her hand, + When with his knees he kiss'd the Cretan strand. + TRANIO. Saw you no more? Mark'd you not how her sister + Began to scold and raise up such a storm + That mortal ears might hardly endure the din? + LUCENTIO. Tranio, I saw her coral lips to move, + And with her breath she did perfume the air; + Sacred and sweet was all I saw in her. + TRANIO. Nay, then 'tis time to stir him from his trance. + I pray, awake, sir. If you love the maid, + Bend thoughts and wits to achieve her. Thus it stands: + Her elder sister is so curst and shrewd + That, till the father rid his hands of her, + Master, your love must live a maid at home; + And therefore has he closely mew'd her up, + Because she will not be annoy'd with suitors. + LUCENTIO. Ah, Tranio, what a cruel father's he! + But art thou not advis'd he took some care + To get her cunning schoolmasters to instruct her? + TRANIO. Ay, marry, am I, sir, and now 'tis plotted. + LUCENTIO. I have it, Tranio. + TRANIO. Master, for my hand, + Both our inventions meet and jump in one. + LUCENTIO. Tell me thine first. + TRANIO. You will be schoolmaster, + And undertake the teaching of the maid- + That's your device. + LUCENTIO. It is. May it be done? + TRANIO. Not possible; for who shall bear your part + And be in Padua here Vincentio's son; + Keep house and ply his book, welcome his friends, + Visit his countrymen, and banquet them? + LUCENTIO. Basta, content thee, for I have it full. + We have not yet been seen in any house, + Nor can we be distinguish'd by our faces + For man or master. Then it follows thus: + Thou shalt be master, Tranio, in my stead, + Keep house and port and servants, as I should; + I will some other be- some Florentine, + Some Neapolitan, or meaner man of Pisa. + 'Tis hatch'd, and shall be so. Tranio, at once + Uncase thee; take my colour'd hat and cloak. + When Biondello comes, he waits on thee; + But I will charm him first to keep his tongue. + TRANIO. So had you need. [They exchange habits] + In brief, sir, sith it your pleasure is, + And I am tied to be obedient- + For so your father charg'd me at our parting: + 'Be serviceable to my son' quoth he, + Although I think 'twas in another sense- + I am content to be Lucentio, + Because so well I love Lucentio. + LUCENTIO. Tranio, be so because Lucentio loves; + And let me be a slave t' achieve that maid + Whose sudden sight hath thrall'd my wounded eye. + + Enter BIONDELLO. + + Here comes the rogue. Sirrah, where have you been? + BIONDELLO. Where have I been! Nay, how now! where are you? + Master, has my fellow Tranio stol'n your clothes? + Or you stol'n his? or both? Pray, what's the news? + LUCENTIO. Sirrah, come hither; 'tis no time to jest, + And therefore frame your manners to the time. + Your fellow Tranio here, to save my life, + Puts my apparel and my count'nance on, + And I for my escape have put on his; + For in a quarrel since I came ashore + I kill'd a man, and fear I was descried. + Wait you on him, I charge you, as becomes, + While I make way from hence to save my life. + You understand me? + BIONDELLO. I, sir? Ne'er a whit. + LUCENTIO. And not a jot of Tranio in your mouth: + Tranio is chang'd into Lucentio. + BIONDELLO. The better for him; would I were so too! + TRANIO. So could I, faith, boy, to have the next wish after, + That Lucentio indeed had Baptista's youngest daughter. + But, sirrah, not for my sake but your master's, I advise + You use your manners discreetly in all kind of companies. + When I am alone, why, then I am Tranio; + But in all places else your master Lucentio. + LUCENTIO. Tranio, let's go. + One thing more rests, that thyself execute- + To make one among these wooers. If thou ask me why- + Sufficeth, my reasons are both good and weighty. Exeunt + + The Presenters above speak + + FIRST SERVANT. My lord, you nod; you do not mind the play. + SLY. Yes, by Saint Anne do I. A good matter, surely; comes there + any more of it? + PAGE. My lord, 'tis but begun. + SLY. 'Tis a very excellent piece of work, madam lady + Would 'twere done! [They sit and mark] + + + + +SCENE II. +Padua. Before HORTENSIO'S house + +Enter PETRUCHIO and his man GRUMIO + + PETRUCHIO. Verona, for a while I take my leave, + To see my friends in Padua; but of all + My best beloved and approved friend, + Hortensio; and I trow this is his house. + Here, sirrah Grumio, knock, I say. + GRUMIO. Knock, sir! Whom should I knock? + Is there any man has rebus'd your worship? + PETRUCHIO. Villain, I say, knock me here soundly. + GRUMIO. Knock you here, sir? Why, sir, what am I, sir, that I + should knock you here, sir? + PETRUCHIO. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate, + And rap me well, or I'll knock your knave's pate. + GRUMIO. My master is grown quarrelsome. I should knock you first, + And then I know after who comes by the worst. + PETRUCHIO. Will it not be? + Faith, sirrah, an you'll not knock I'll ring it; + I'll try how you can sol-fa, and sing it. + [He wrings him by the ears] + GRUMIO. Help, masters, help! My master is mad. + PETRUCHIO. Now knock when I bid you, sirrah villain! + + Enter HORTENSIO + + HORTENSIO. How now! what's the matter? My old friend Grumio and my + good friend Petruchio! How do you all at Verona? + PETRUCHIO. Signior Hortensio, come you to part the fray? + 'Con tutto il cuore ben trovato' may I say. + HORTENSIO. Alla nostra casa ben venuto, + Molto honorato signor mio Petruchio. + Rise, Grumio, rise; we will compound this quarrel. + GRUMIO. Nay, 'tis no matter, sir, what he 'leges in Latin. If this + be not a lawful cause for me to leave his service- look you, sir: + he bid me knock him and rap him soundly, sir. Well, was it fit + for a servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, for aught I + see, two and thirty, a pip out? + Whom would to God I had well knock'd at first, + Then had not Grumio come by the worst. + PETRUCHIO. A senseless villain! Good Hortensio, + I bade the rascal knock upon your gate, + And could not get him for my heart to do it. + GRUMIO. Knock at the gate? O heavens! Spake you not these words + plain: 'Sirrah knock me here, rap me here, knock me well, and + knock me soundly'? And come you now with 'knocking at the gate'? + PETRUCHIO. Sirrah, be gone, or talk not, I advise you. + HORTENSIO. Petruchio, patience; I am Grumio's pledge; + Why, this's a heavy chance 'twixt him and you, + Your ancient, trusty, pleasant servant Grumio. + And tell me now, sweet friend, what happy gale + Blows you to Padua here from old Verona? + PETRUCHIO. Such wind as scatters young men through the world + To seek their fortunes farther than at home, + Where small experience grows. But in a few, + Signior Hortensio, thus it stands with me: + Antonio, my father, is deceas'd, + And I have thrust myself into this maze, + Haply to wive and thrive as best I may; + Crowns in my purse I have, and goods at home, + And so am come abroad to see the world. + HORTENSIO. Petruchio, shall I then come roundly to thee + And wish thee to a shrewd ill-favour'd wife? + Thou'dst thank me but a little for my counsel, + And yet I'll promise thee she shall be rich, + And very rich; but th'art too much my friend, + And I'll not wish thee to her. + PETRUCHIO. Signior Hortensio, 'twixt such friends as we + Few words suffice; and therefore, if thou know + One rich enough to be Petruchio's wife, + As wealth is burden of my wooing dance, + Be she as foul as was Florentius' love, + As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd + As Socrates' Xanthippe or a worse- + She moves me not, or not removes, at least, + Affection's edge in me, were she as rough + As are the swelling Adriatic seas. + I come to wive it wealthily in Padua; + If wealthily, then happily in Padua. + GRUMIO. Nay, look you, sir, he tells you flatly what his mind is. + Why, give him gold enough and marry him to a puppet or an + aglet-baby, or an old trot with ne'er a tooth in her head, though + she has as many diseases as two and fifty horses. Why, nothing + comes amiss, so money comes withal. + HORTENSIO. Petruchio, since we are stepp'd thus far in, + I will continue that I broach'd in jest. + I can, Petruchio, help thee to a wife + With wealth enough, and young and beauteous; + Brought up as best becomes a gentlewoman; + Her only fault, and that is faults enough, + Is- that she is intolerable curst, + And shrewd and froward so beyond all measure + That, were my state far worser than it is, + I would not wed her for a mine of gold. + PETRUCHIO. Hortensio, peace! thou know'st not gold's effect. + Tell me her father's name, and 'tis enough; + For I will board her though she chide as loud + As thunder when the clouds in autumn crack. + HORTENSIO. Her father is Baptista Minola, + An affable and courteous gentleman; + Her name is Katherina Minola, + Renown'd in Padua for her scolding tongue. + PETRUCHIO. I know her father, though I know not her; + And he knew my deceased father well. + I will not sleep, Hortensio, till I see her; + And therefore let me be thus bold with you + To give you over at this first encounter, + Unless you will accompany me thither. + GRUMIO. I pray you, sir, let him go while the humour lasts. O' my + word, and she knew him as well as I do, she would think scolding + would do little good upon him. She may perhaps call him half a + score knaves or so. Why, that's nothing; and he begin once, he'll + rail in his rope-tricks. I'll tell you what, sir: an she stand + him but a little, he will throw a figure in her face, and so + disfigure her with it that she shall have no more eyes to see + withal than a cat. You know him not, sir. + HORTENSIO. Tarry, Petruchio, I must go with thee, + For in Baptista's keep my treasure is. + He hath the jewel of my life in hold, + His youngest daughter, beautiful Bianca; + And her withholds from me, and other more, + Suitors to her and rivals in my love; + Supposing it a thing impossible- + For those defects I have before rehears'd- + That ever Katherina will be woo'd. + Therefore this order hath Baptista ta'en, + That none shall have access unto Bianca + Till Katherine the curst have got a husband. + GRUMIO. Katherine the curst! + A title for a maid of all titles the worst. + HORTENSIO. Now shall my friend Petruchio do me grace, + And offer me disguis'd in sober robes + To old Baptista as a schoolmaster + Well seen in music, to instruct Bianca; + That so I may by this device at least + Have leave and leisure to make love to her, + And unsuspected court her by herself. + + Enter GREMIO with LUCENTIO disguised as CAMBIO + + GRUMIO. Here's no knavery! See, to beguile the old folks, how the + young folks lay their heads together! Master, master, look about + you. Who goes there, ha? + HORTENSIO. Peace, Grumio! It is the rival of my love. Petruchio, + stand by awhile. + GRUMIO. A proper stripling, and an amorous! + [They stand aside] + GREMIO. O, very well; I have perus'd the note. + Hark you, sir; I'll have them very fairly bound- + All books of love, see that at any hand; + And see you read no other lectures to her. + You understand me- over and beside + Signior Baptista's liberality, + I'll mend it with a largess. Take your paper too, + And let me have them very well perfum'd; + For she is sweeter than perfume itself + To whom they go to. What will you read to her? + LUCENTIO. Whate'er I read to her, I'll plead for you + As for my patron, stand you so assur'd, + As firmly as yourself were still in place; + Yea, and perhaps with more successful words + Than you, unless you were a scholar, sir. + GREMIO. O this learning, what a thing it is! + GRUMIO. O this woodcock, what an ass it is! + PETRUCHIO. Peace, sirrah! + HORTENSIO. Grumio, mum! [Coming forward] + God save you, Signior Gremio! + GREMIO. And you are well met, Signior Hortensio. + Trow you whither I am going? To Baptista Minola. + I promis'd to enquire carefully + About a schoolmaster for the fair Bianca; + And by good fortune I have lighted well + On this young man; for learning and behaviour + Fit for her turn, well read in poetry + And other books- good ones, I warrant ye. + HORTENSIO. 'Tis well; and I have met a gentleman + Hath promis'd me to help me to another, + A fine musician to instruct our mistress; + So shall I no whit be behind in duty + To fair Bianca, so beloved of me. + GREMIO. Beloved of me- and that my deeds shall prove. + GRUMIO. And that his bags shall prove. + HORTENSIO. Gremio, 'tis now no time to vent our love. + Listen to me, and if you speak me fair + I'll tell you news indifferent good for either. + Here is a gentleman whom by chance I met, + Upon agreement from us to his liking, + Will undertake to woo curst Katherine; + Yea, and to marry her, if her dowry please. + GREMIO. So said, so done, is well. + Hortensio, have you told him all her faults? + PETRUCHIO. I know she is an irksome brawling scold; + If that be all, masters, I hear no harm. + GREMIO. No, say'st me so, friend? What countryman? + PETRUCHIO. Born in Verona, old Antonio's son. + My father dead, my fortune lives for me; + And I do hope good days and long to see. + GREMIO. O Sir, such a life with such a wife were strange! + But if you have a stomach, to't a God's name; + You shall have me assisting you in all. + But will you woo this wild-cat? + PETRUCHIO. Will I live? + GRUMIO. Will he woo her? Ay, or I'll hang her. + PETRUCHIO. Why came I hither but to that intent? + Think you a little din can daunt mine ears? + Have I not in my time heard lions roar? + Have I not heard the sea, puff'd up with winds, + Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat? + Have I not heard great ordnance in the field, + And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies? + Have I not in a pitched battle heard + Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang? + And do you tell me of a woman's tongue, + That gives not half so great a blow to hear + As will a chestnut in a fariner's fire? + Tush! tush! fear boys with bugs. + GRUMIO. For he fears none. + GREMIO. Hortensio, hark: + This gentleman is happily arriv'd, + My mind presumes, for his own good and ours. + HORTENSIO. I promis'd we would be contributors + And bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe'er. + GREMIO. And so we will- provided that he win her. + GRUMIO. I would I were as sure of a good dinner. + + Enter TRANIO, bravely apparelled as LUCENTIO, and BIONDELLO + + TRANIO. Gentlemen, God save you! If I may be bold, + Tell me, I beseech you, which is the readiest way + To the house of Signior Baptista Minola? + BIONDELLO. He that has the two fair daughters; is't he you mean? + TRANIO. Even he, Biondello. + GREMIO. Hark you, sir, you mean not her to- + TRANIO. Perhaps him and her, sir; what have you to do? + PETRUCHIO. Not her that chides, sir, at any hand, I pray. + TRANIO. I love no chiders, sir. Biondello, let's away. + LUCENTIO. [Aside] Well begun, Tranio. + HORTENSIO. Sir, a word ere you go. + Are you a suitor to the maid you talk of, yea or no? + TRANIO. And if I be, sir, is it any offence? + GREMIO. No; if without more words you will get you hence. + TRANIO. Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free + For me as for you? + GREMIO. But so is not she. + + TRANIO. For what reason, I beseech you? + GREMIO. For this reason, if you'll know, + That she's the choice love of Signior Gremio. + HORTENSIO. That she's the chosen of Signior Hortensio. + TRANIO. Softly, my masters! If you be gentlemen, + Do me this right- hear me with patience. + Baptista is a noble gentleman, + To whom my father is not all unknown, + And, were his daughter fairer than she is, + She may more suitors have, and me for one. + Fair Leda's daughter had a thousand wooers; + Then well one more may fair Bianca have; + And so she shall: Lucentio shall make one, + Though Paris came in hope to speed alone. + GREMIO. What, this gentleman will out-talk us all! + LUCENTIO. Sir, give him head; I know he'll prove a jade. + PETRUCHIO. Hortensio, to what end are all these words? + HORTENSIO. Sir, let me be so bold as ask you, + Did you yet ever see Baptista's daughter? + TRANIO. No, sir, but hear I do that he hath two: + The one as famous for a scolding tongue + As is the other for beauteous modesty. + PETRUCHIO. Sir, sir, the first's for me; let her go by. + GREMIO. Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules, + And let it be more than Alcides' twelve. + PETRUCHIO. Sir, understand you this of me, in sooth: + The youngest daughter, whom you hearken for, + Her father keeps from all access of suitors, + And will not promise her to any man + Until the elder sister first be wed. + The younger then is free, and not before. + TRANIO. If it be so, sir, that you are the man + Must stead us all, and me amongst the rest; + And if you break the ice, and do this feat, + Achieve the elder, set the younger free + For our access- whose hap shall be to have her + Will not so graceless be to be ingrate. + HORTENSIO. Sir, you say well, and well you do conceive; + And since you do profess to be a suitor, + You must, as we do, gratify this gentleman, + To whom we all rest generally beholding. + TRANIO. Sir, I shall not be slack; in sign whereof, + Please ye we may contrive this afternoon, + And quaff carouses to our mistress' health; + And do as adversaries do in law- + Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. + GRUMIO, BIONDELLO. O excellent motion! Fellows, let's be gone. + HORTENSIO. The motion's good indeed, and be it so. + Petruchio, I shall be your ben venuto. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT Il. SCENE I. +Padua. BAPTISTA'S house + +Enter KATHERINA and BIANCA + + BIANCA. Good sister, wrong me not, nor wrong yourself, + To make a bondmaid and a slave of me- + That I disdain; but for these other gawds, + Unbind my hands, I'll pull them off myself, + Yea, all my raiment, to my petticoat; + Or what you will command me will I do, + So well I know my duty to my elders. + KATHERINA. Of all thy suitors here I charge thee tell + Whom thou lov'st best. See thou dissemble not. + BIANCA. Believe me, sister, of all the men alive + I never yet beheld that special face + Which I could fancy more than any other. + KATHERINA. Minion, thou liest. Is't not Hortensio? + BIANCA. If you affect him, sister, here I swear + I'll plead for you myself but you shall have him. + KATHERINA. O then, belike, you fancy riches more: + You will have Gremio to keep you fair. + BIANCA. Is it for him you do envy me so? + Nay, then you jest; and now I well perceive + You have but jested with me all this while. + I prithee, sister Kate, untie my hands. + KATHERINA. [Strikes her] If that be jest, then an the rest was so. + + Enter BAPTISTA + + BAPTISTA. Why, how now, dame! Whence grows this insolence? + Bianca, stand aside- poor girl! she weeps. + [He unbinds her] + Go ply thy needle; meddle not with her. + For shame, thou hilding of a devilish spirit, + Why dost thou wrong her that did ne'er wrong thee? + When did she cross thee with a bitter word? + KATHERINA. Her silence flouts me, and I'll be reveng'd. + [Flies after BIANCA] + BAPTISTA. What, in my sight? Bianca, get thee in. + Exit BIANCA + KATHERINA. What, will you not suffer me? Nay, now I see + She is your treasure, she must have a husband; + I must dance bare-foot on her wedding-day, + And for your love to her lead apes in hell. + Talk not to me; I will go sit and weep, + Till I can find occasion of revenge. Exit KATHERINA + BAPTISTA. Was ever gentleman thus griev'd as I? + But who comes here? + + Enter GREMIO, with LUCENTIO in the habit of a mean man; + PETRUCHIO, with HORTENSIO as a musician; and TRANIO, + as LUCENTIO, with his boy, BIONDELLO, bearing a lute and books + + GREMIO. Good morrow, neighbour Baptista. + BAPTISTA. Good morrow, neighbour Gremio. + God save you, gentlemen! + PETRUCHIO. And you, good sir! Pray, have you not a daughter + Call'd Katherina, fair and virtuous? + BAPTISTA. I have a daughter, sir, call'd Katherina. + GREMIO. You are too blunt; go to it orderly. + PETRUCHIO. You wrong me, Signior Gremio; give me leave. + I am a gentleman of Verona, sir, + That, hearing of her beauty and her wit, + Her affability and bashful modesty, + Her wondrous qualities and mild behaviour, + Am bold to show myself a forward guest + Within your house, to make mine eye the witness + Of that report which I so oft have heard. + And, for an entrance to my entertainment, + I do present you with a man of mine, + [Presenting HORTENSIO] + Cunning in music and the mathematics, + To instruct her fully in those sciences, + Whereof I know she is not ignorant. + Accept of him, or else you do me wrong- + His name is Licio, born in Mantua. + BAPTISTA. Y'are welcome, sir, and he for your good sake; + But for my daughter Katherine, this I know, + She is not for your turn, the more my grief. + PETRUCHIO. I see you do not mean to part with her; + Or else you like not of my company. + BAPTISTA. Mistake me not; I speak but as I find. + Whence are you, sir? What may I call your name? + PETRUCHIO. Petruchio is my name, Antonio's son, + A man well known throughout all Italy. + BAPTISTA. I know him well; you are welcome for his sake. + GREMIO. Saving your tale, Petruchio, I pray, + Let us that are poor petitioners speak too. + Bacare! you are marvellous forward. + PETRUCHIO. O, pardon me, Signior Gremio! I would fain be doing. + GREMIO. I doubt it not, sir; but you will curse your wooing. + Neighbour, this is a gift very grateful, I am sure of it. To + express the like kindness, myself, that have been more kindly + beholding to you than any, freely give unto you this young + scholar [Presenting LUCENTIO] that hath been long studying at + Rheims; as cunning in Greek, Latin, and other languages, as the + other in music and mathematics. His name is Cambio. Pray accept + his service. + BAPTISTA. A thousand thanks, Signior Gremio. Welcome, good Cambio. + [To TRANIO] But, gentle sir, methinks you walk like a stranger. + May I be so bold to know the cause of your coming? + TRANIO. Pardon me, sir, the boldness is mine own + That, being a stranger in this city here, + Do make myself a suitor to your daughter, + Unto Bianca, fair and virtuous. + Nor is your firm resolve unknown to me + In the preferment of the eldest sister. + This liberty is all that I request- + That, upon knowledge of my parentage, + I may have welcome 'mongst the rest that woo, + And free access and favour as the rest. + And toward the education of your daughters + I here bestow a simple instrument, + And this small packet of Greek and Latin books. + If you accept them, then their worth is great. + BAPTISTA. Lucentio is your name? Of whence, I pray? + TRANIO. Of Pisa, sir; son to Vincentio. + BAPTISTA. A mighty man of Pisa. By report + I know him well. You are very welcome, sir. + Take you the lute, and you the set of books; + You shall go see your pupils presently. + Holla, within! + + Enter a SERVANT + + Sirrah, lead these gentlemen + To my daughters; and tell them both + These are their tutors. Bid them use them well. + + Exit SERVANT leading HORTENSIO carrying the lute + and LUCENTIO with the books + + We will go walk a little in the orchard, + And then to dinner. You are passing welcome, + And so I pray you all to think yourselves. + PETRUCHIO. Signior Baptista, my business asketh haste, + And every day I cannot come to woo. + You knew my father well, and in him me, + Left solely heir to all his lands and goods, + Which I have bettered rather than decreas'd. + Then tell me, if I get your daughter's love, + What dowry shall I have with her to wife? + BAPTISTA. After my death, the one half of my lands + And, in possession, twenty thousand crowns. + PETRUCHIO. And for that dowry, I'll assure her of + Her widowhood, be it that she survive me, + In all my lands and leases whatsoever. + Let specialities be therefore drawn between us, + That covenants may be kept on either hand. + BAPTISTA. Ay, when the special thing is well obtain'd, + That is, her love; for that is all in all. + PETRUCHIO. Why, that is nothing; for I tell you, father, + I am as peremptory as she proud-minded; + And where two raging fires meet together, + They do consume the thing that feeds their fury. + Though little fire grows great with little wind, + Yet extreme gusts will blow out fire and all. + So I to her, and so she yields to me; + For I am rough, and woo not like a babe. + BAPTISTA. Well mayst thou woo, and happy be thy speed + But be thou arm'd for some unhappy words. + PETRUCHIO. Ay, to the proof, as mountains are for winds, + That shake not though they blow perpetually. + + Re-enter HORTENSIO, with his head broke + + BAPTISTA. How now, my friend! Why dost thou look so pale? + HORTENSIO. For fear, I promise you, if I look pale. + BAPTISTA. What, will my daughter prove a good musician? + HORTENSIO. I think she'll sooner prove a soldier: + Iron may hold with her, but never lutes. + BAPTISTA. Why, then thou canst not break her to the lute? + HORTENSIO. Why, no; for she hath broke the lute to me. + I did but tell her she mistook her frets, + And bow'd her hand to teach her fingering, + When, with a most impatient devilish spirit, + 'Frets, call you these?' quoth she 'I'll fume with them.' + And with that word she struck me on the head, + And through the instrument my pate made way; + And there I stood amazed for a while, + As on a pillory, looking through the lute, + While she did call me rascal fiddler + And twangling Jack, with twenty such vile terms, + As she had studied to misuse me so. + PETRUCHIO. Now, by the world, it is a lusty wench; + I love her ten times more than e'er I did. + O, how I long to have some chat with her! + BAPTISTA. Well, go with me, and be not so discomfited; + Proceed in practice with my younger daughter; + She's apt to learn, and thankful for good turns. + Signior Petruchio, will you go with us, + Or shall I send my daughter Kate to you? + PETRUCHIO. I pray you do. Exeunt all but PETRUCHIO + I'll attend her here, + And woo her with some spirit when she comes. + Say that she rail; why, then I'll tell her plain + She sings as sweetly as a nightingale. + Say that she frown; I'll say she looks as clear + As morning roses newly wash'd with dew. + Say she be mute, and will not speak a word; + Then I'll commend her volubility, + And say she uttereth piercing eloquence. + If she do bid me pack, I'll give her thanks, + As though she bid me stay by her a week; + If she deny to wed, I'll crave the day + When I shall ask the banns, and when be married. + But here she comes; :Lnd.now, Petruchio, speak. + + Enter KATHERINA + + Good morrow, Kate- for that's your name, I hear. + KATHERINA. Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing: + They call me Katherine that do talk of me. + PETRUCHIO. You lie, in faith, for you are call'd plain Kate, + And bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the curst; + But, Kate, the prettiest Kate in Christendom, + Kate of Kate Hall, my super-dainty Kate, + For dainties are all Kates, and therefore, Kate, + Take this of me, Kate of my consolation- + Hearing thy mildness prais'd in every town, + Thy virtues spoke of, and thy beauty sounded, + Yet not so deeply as to thee belongs, + Myself am mov'd to woo thee for my wife. + KATHERINA. Mov'd! in good time! Let him that mov'd you hither + Remove you hence. I knew you at the first + You were a moveable. + PETRUCHIO. Why, what's a moveable? + KATHERINA. A join'd-stool. + PETRUCHIO. Thou hast hit it. Come, sit on me. + KATHERINA. Asses are made to bear, and so are you. + PETRUCHIO. Women are made to bear, and so are you. + KATHERINA. No such jade as you, if me you mean. + PETRUCHIO. Alas, good Kate, I will not burden thee! + For, knowing thee to be but young and light- + KATHERINA. Too light for such a swain as you to catch; + And yet as heavy as my weight should be. + PETRUCHIO. Should be! should- buzz! + KATHERINA. Well ta'en, and like a buzzard. + PETRUCHIO. O, slow-wing'd turtle, shall a buzzard take thee? + KATHERINA. Ay, for a turtle, as he takes a buzzard. + PETRUCHIO. Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry. + KATHERINA. If I be waspish, best beware my sting. + PETRUCHIO. My remedy is then to pluck it out. + KATHERINA. Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies. + PETRUCHIO. Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? + In his tail. + KATHERINA. In his tongue. + PETRUCHIO. Whose tongue? + KATHERINA. Yours, if you talk of tales; and so farewell. + PETRUCHIO. What, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again, + Good Kate; I am a gentleman. + KATHERINA. That I'll try. [She strikes him] + PETRUCHIO. I swear I'll cuff you, if you strike again. + KATHERINA. So may you lose your arms. + If you strike me, you are no gentleman; + And if no gentleman, why then no arms. + PETRUCHIO. A herald, Kate? O, put me in thy books! + KATHERINA. What is your crest- a coxcomb? + PETRUCHIO. A combless cock, so Kate will be my hen. + KATHERINA. No cock of mine: you crow too like a craven. + PETRUCHIO. Nay, come, Kate, come; you must not look so sour. + KATHERINA. It is my fashion, when I see a crab. + PETRUCHIO. Why, here's no crab; and therefore look not sour. + KATHERINA. There is, there is. + PETRUCHIO. Then show it me. + KATHERINA. Had I a glass I would. + PETRUCHIO. What, you mean my face? + KATHERINA. Well aim'd of such a young one. + PETRUCHIO. Now, by Saint George, I am too young for you. + KATHERINA. Yet you are wither'd. + PETRUCHIO. 'Tis with cares. + KATHERINA. I care not. + PETRUCHIO. Nay, hear you, Kate- in sooth, you scape not so. + KATHERINA. I chafe you, if I tarry; let me go. + PETRUCHIO. No, not a whit; I find you passing gentle. + 'Twas told me you were rough, and coy, and sullen, + And now I find report a very liar; + For thou art pleasant, gamesome, passing courteous, + But slow in speech, yet sweet as springtime flowers. + Thou canst not frown, thou canst not look askance, + Nor bite the lip, as angry wenches will, + Nor hast thou pleasure to be cross in talk; + But thou with mildness entertain'st thy wooers; + With gentle conference, soft and affable. + Why does the world report that Kate doth limp? + O sland'rous world! Kate like the hazel-twig + Is straight and slender, and as brown in hue + As hazel-nuts, and sweeter than the kernels. + O, let me see thee walk. Thou dost not halt. + KATHERINA. Go, fool, and whom thou keep'st command. + PETRUCHIO. Did ever Dian so become a grove + As Kate this chamber with her princely gait? + O, be thou Dian, and let her be Kate; + And then let Kate be chaste, and Dian sportful! + KATHERINA. Where did you study all this goodly speech? + PETRUCHIO. It is extempore, from my mother wit. + KATHERINA. A witty mother! witless else her son. + PETRUCHIO. Am I not wise? + KATHERINA. Yes, keep you warm. + PETRUCHIO. Marry, so I mean, sweet Katherine, in thy bed. + And therefore, setting all this chat aside, + Thus in plain terms: your father hath consented + That you shall be my wife your dowry greed on; + And will you, nill you, I will marry you. + Now, Kate, I am a husband for your turn; + For, by this light, whereby I see thy beauty, + Thy beauty that doth make me like thee well, + Thou must be married to no man but me; + For I am he am born to tame you, Kate, + And bring you from a wild Kate to a Kate + Conformable as other household Kates. + + Re-enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, and TRANIO + + Here comes your father. Never make denial; + I must and will have Katherine to my wife. + BAPTISTA. Now, Signior Petruchio, how speed you with my daughter? + PETRUCHIO. How but well, sir? how but well? + It were impossible I should speed amiss. + BAPTISTA. Why, how now, daughter Katherine, in your dumps? + KATHERINA. Call you me daughter? Now I promise you + You have show'd a tender fatherly regard + To wish me wed to one half lunatic, + A mad-cap ruffian and a swearing Jack, + That thinks with oaths to face the matter out. + PETRUCHIO. Father, 'tis thus: yourself and all the world + That talk'd of her have talk'd amiss of her. + If she be curst, it is for policy, + For,she's not froward, but modest as the dove; + She is not hot, but temperate as the morn; + For patience she will prove a second Grissel, + And Roman Lucrece for her chastity. + And, to conclude, we have 'greed so well together + That upon Sunday is the wedding-day. + KATHERINA. I'll see thee hang'd on Sunday first. + GREMIO. Hark, Petruchio; she says she'll see thee hang'd first. + TRANIO. Is this your speeding? Nay, then good-night our part! + PETRUCHIO. Be patient, gentlemen. I choose her for myself; + If she and I be pleas'd, what's that to you? + 'Tis bargain'd 'twixt us twain, being alone, + That she shall still be curst in company. + I tell you 'tis incredible to believe. + How much she loves me- O, the kindest Kate! + She hung about my neck, and kiss on kiss + She vied so fast, protesting oath on oath, + That in a twink she won me to her love. + O, you are novices! 'Tis a world to see, + How tame, when men and women are alone, + A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew. + Give me thy hand, Kate; I will unto Venice, + To buy apparel 'gainst the wedding-day. + Provide the feast, father, and bid the guests; + I will be sure my Katherine shall be fine. + BAPTISTA. I know not what to say; but give me your hands. + God send you joy, Petruchio! 'Tis a match. + GREMIO, TRANIO. Amen, say we; we will be witnesses. + PETRUCHIO. Father, and wife, and gentlemen, adieu. + I will to Venice; Sunday comes apace; + We will have rings and things, and fine array; + And kiss me, Kate; we will be married a Sunday. + Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHERINA severally + GREMIO. Was ever match clapp'd up so suddenly? + BAPTISTA. Faith, gentlemen, now I play a merchant's part, + And venture madly on a desperate mart. + TRANIO. 'Twas a commodity lay fretting by you; + 'Twill bring you gain, or perish on the seas. + BAPTISTA. The gain I seek is quiet in the match. + GREMIO. No doubt but he hath got a quiet catch. + But now, Baptista, to your younger daughter: + Now is the day we long have looked for; + I am your neighbour, and was suitor first. + TRANIO. And I am one that love Bianca more + Than words can witness or your thoughts can guess. + GREMIO. Youngling, thou canst not love so dear as I. + TRANIO. Greybeard, thy love doth freeze. + GREMIO. But thine doth fry. + Skipper, stand back; 'tis age that nourisheth. + TRANIO. But youth in ladies' eyes that flourisheth. + BAPTISTA. Content you, gentlemen; I will compound this strife. + 'Tis deeds must win the prize, and he of both + That can assure my daughter greatest dower + Shall have my Bianca's love. + Say, Signior Gremio, what can you assure her? + GREMIO. First, as you know, my house within the city + Is richly furnished with plate and gold, + Basins and ewers to lave her dainty hands; + My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry; + In ivory coffers I have stuff'd my crowns; + In cypress chests my arras counterpoints, + Costly apparel, tents, and canopies, + Fine linen, Turkey cushions boss'd with pearl, + Valance of Venice gold in needle-work; + Pewter and brass, and all things that belongs + To house or housekeeping. Then at my farm + I have a hundred milch-kine to the pail, + Six score fat oxen standing in my stalls, + And all things answerable to this portion. + Myself am struck in years, I must confess; + And if I die to-morrow this is hers, + If whilst I live she will be only mine. + TRANIO. That 'only' came well in. Sir, list to me: + I am my father's heir and only son; + If I may have your daughter to my wife, + I'll leave her houses three or four as good + Within rich Pisa's walls as any one + Old Signior Gremio has in Padua; + Besides two thousand ducats by the year + Of fruitful land, all which shall be her jointure. + What, have I pinch'd you, Signior Gremio? + GREMIO. Two thousand ducats by the year of land! + [Aside] My land amounts not to so much in all.- + That she shall have, besides an argosy + That now is lying in Marseilles road. + What, have I chok'd you with an argosy? + TRANIO. Gremio, 'tis known my father hath no less + Than three great argosies, besides two galliasses, + And twelve tight galleys. These I will assure her, + And twice as much whate'er thou off'rest next. + GREMIO. Nay, I have off'red all; I have no more; + And she can have no more than all I have; + If you like me, she shall have me and mine. + TRANIO. Why, then the maid is mine from all the world + By your firm promise; Gremio is out-vied. + BAPTISTA. I must confess your offer is the best; + And let your father make her the assurance, + She is your own. Else, you must pardon me; + If you should die before him, where's her dower? + TRANIO. That's but a cavil; he is old, I young. + GREMIO. And may not young men die as well as old? + BAPTISTA. Well, gentlemen, + I am thus resolv'd: on Sunday next you know + My daughter Katherine is to be married; + Now, on the Sunday following shall Bianca + Be bride to you, if you make this assurance; + If not, to Signior Gremio. + And so I take my leave, and thank you both. + GREMIO. Adieu, good neighbour. Exit BAPTISTA + Now, I fear thee not. + Sirrah young gamester, your father were a fool + To give thee all, and in his waning age + Set foot under thy table. Tut, a toy! + An old Italian fox is not so kind, my boy. Exit + TRANIO. A vengeance on your crafty withered hide! + Yet I have fac'd it with a card of ten. + 'Tis in my head to do my master good: + I see no reason but suppos'd Lucentio + Must get a father, call'd suppos'd Vincentio; + And that's a wonder- fathers commonly + Do get their children; but in this case of wooing + A child shall get a sire, if I fail not of my cunning. + Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +Padua. BAPTISTA'S house + +Enter LUCENTIO as CAMBIO, HORTENSIO as LICIO, and BIANCA + + LUCENTIO. Fiddler, forbear; you grow too forward, sir. + Have you so soon forgot the entertainment + Her sister Katherine welcome'd you withal? + HORTENSIO. But, wrangling pedant, this is + The patroness of heavenly harmony. + Then give me leave to have prerogative; + And when in music we have spent an hour, + Your lecture shall have leisure for as much. + LUCENTIO. Preposterous ass, that never read so far + To know the cause why music was ordain'd! + Was it not to refresh the mind of man + After his studies or his usual pain? + Then give me leave to read philosophy, + And while I pause serve in your harmony. + HORTENSIO. Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine. + BIANCA. Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong + To strive for that which resteth in my choice. + I arn no breeching scholar in the schools, + I'll not be tied to hours nor 'pointed times, + But learn my lessons as I please myself. + And to cut off all strife: here sit we down; + Take you your instrument, play you the whiles! + His lecture will be done ere you have tun'd. + HORTENSIO. You'll leave his lecture when I am in tune? + LUCENTIO. That will be never- tune your instrument. + BIANCA. Where left we last? + LUCENTIO. Here, madam: + 'Hic ibat Simois, hic est Sigeia tellus, + Hic steterat Priami regia celsa senis.' + BIANCA. Construe them. + LUCENTIO. 'Hic ibat' as I told you before- 'Simois' I am Lucentio- + 'hic est' son unto Vincentio of Pisa- 'Sigeia tellus' disguised + thus to get your love- 'Hic steterat' and that Lucentio that + comes a-wooing- 'Priami' is my man Tranio- 'regia' bearing my + port- 'celsa senis' that we might beguile the old pantaloon. + HORTENSIO. Madam, my instrument's in tune. + BIANCA. Let's hear. O fie! the treble jars. + LUCENTIO. Spit in the hole, man, and tune again. + BIANCA. Now let me see if I can construe it: 'Hic ibat Simois' I + know you not- 'hic est Sigeia tellus' I trust you not- 'Hic + steterat Priami' take heed he hear us not- 'regia' presume not- + 'celsa senis' despair not. + HORTENSIO. Madam, 'tis now in tune. + LUCENTIO. All but the bass. + HORTENSIO. The bass is right; 'tis the base knave that jars. + [Aside] How fiery and forward our pedant is! + Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love. + Pedascule, I'll watch you better yet. + BIANCA. In time I may believe, yet I mistrust. + LUCENTIO. Mistrust it not- for sure, AEacides + Was Ajax, call'd so from his grandfather. + BIANCA. I must believe my master; else, I promise you, + I should be arguing still upon that doubt; + But let it rest. Now, Licio, to you. + Good master, take it not unkindly, pray, + That I have been thus pleasant with you both. + HORTENSIO. [To LUCENTIO] You may go walk and give me leave + awhile; + My lessons make no music in three Parts. + LUCENTIO. Are you so formal, sir? Well, I must wait, + [Aside] And watch withal; for, but I be deceiv'd, + Our fine musician groweth amorous. + HORTENSIO. Madam, before you touch the instrument + To learn the order of my fingering, + I must begin with rudiments of art, + To teach you gamut in a briefer sort, + More pleasant, pithy, and effectual, + Than hath been taught by any of my trade; + And there it is in writing fairly drawn. + BIANCA. Why, I am past my gamut long ago. + HORTENSIO. Yet read the gamut of Hortensio. + BIANCA. [Reads] + '"Gamut" I am, the ground of all accord- + "A re" to plead Hortensio's passion- + "B mi" Bianca, take him for thy lord- + "C fa ut" that loves with all affection- + "D sol re" one clef, two notes have I- + "E la mi" show pity or I die.' + Call you this gamut? Tut, I like it not! + Old fashions please me best; I am not so nice + To change true rules for odd inventions. + + Enter a SERVANT + + SERVANT. Mistress, your father prays you leave your books + And help to dress your sister's chamber up. + You know to-morrow is the wedding-day. + BIANCA. Farewell, sweet masters, both; I must be gone. + Exeunt BIANCA and SERVANT + LUCENTIO. Faith, mistress, then I have no cause to stay. + Exit + HORTENSIO. But I have cause to pry into this pedant; + Methinks he looks as though he were in love. + Yet if thy thoughts, Bianca, be so humble + To cast thy wand'ring eyes on every stale- + Seize thee that list. If once I find thee ranging, + HORTENSIO will be quit with thee by changing. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Padua. Before BAPTISTA'So house + +Enter BAPTISTA, GREMIO, TRANIO as LUCENTIO, KATHERINA, BIANCA, +LUCENTIO as CAMBIO, and ATTENDANTS + + BAPTISTA. [To TRANIO] Signior Lucentio, this is the 'pointed day + That Katherine and Petruchio should be married, + And yet we hear not of our son-in-law. + What will be said? What mockery will it be + To want the bridegroom when the priest attends + To speak the ceremonial rites of marriage! + What says Lucentio to this shame of ours? + KATHERINA. No shame but mine; I must, forsooth, be forc'd + To give my hand, oppos'd against my heart, + Unto a mad-brain rudesby, full of spleen, + Who woo'd in haste and means to wed at leisure. + I told you, I, he was a frantic fool, + Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour; + And, to be noted for a merry man, + He'll woo a thousand, 'point the day of marriage, + Make friends invited, and proclaim the banns; + Yet never means to wed where he hath woo'd. + Now must the world point at poor Katherine, + And say 'Lo, there is mad Petruchio's wife, + If it would please him come and marry her!' + TRANIO. Patience, good Katherine, and Baptista too. + Upon my life, Petruchio means but well, + Whatever fortune stays him from his word. + Though he be blunt, I know him passing wise; + Though he be merry, yet withal he's honest. + KATHERINA. Would Katherine had never seen him though! + Exit, weeping, followed by BIANCA and others + BAPTISTA. Go, girl, I cannot blame thee now to weep, + For such an injury would vex a very saint; + Much more a shrew of thy impatient humour. + + Enter BIONDELLO + + Master, master! News, and such old news as you never heard of! + BAPTISTA. Is it new and old too? How may that be? + BIONDELLO. Why, is it not news to hear of Petruchio's coming? + BAPTISTA. Is he come? + BIONDELLO. Why, no, sir. + BAPTISTA. What then? + BIONDELLO. He is coming. + BAPTISTA. When will he be here? + BIONDELLO. When he stands where I am and sees you there. + TRANIO. But, say, what to thine old news? + BIONDELLO. Why, Petruchio is coming- in a new hat and an old + jerkin; a pair of old breeches thrice turn'd; a pair of boots + that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another lac'd; an old + rusty sword ta'en out of the town armoury, with a broken hilt, + and chapeless; with two broken points; his horse hipp'd, with an + old motley saddle and stirrups of no kindred; besides, possess'd + with the glanders and like to mose in the chine, troubled with + the lampass, infected with the fashions, full of windgalls, sped + with spavins, rayed with the yellows, past cure of the fives, + stark spoil'd with the staggers, begnawn with the bots, sway'd in + the back and shoulder-shotten, near-legg'd before, and with a + half-cheek'd bit, and a head-stall of sheep's leather which, + being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often + burst, and now repaired with knots; one girth six times piec'd, + and a woman's crupper of velure, which hath two letters for her + name fairly set down in studs, and here and there piec'd with + pack-thread. + BAPTISTA. Who comes with him? + BIONDELLO. O, sir, his lackey, for all the world caparison'd like + the horse- with a linen stock on one leg and a kersey boot-hose + on the other, gart'red with a red and blue list; an old hat, and + the humour of forty fancies prick'd in't for a feather; a + monster, a very monster in apparel, and not like a Christian + footboy or a gentleman's lackey. + TRANIO. 'Tis some odd humour pricks him to this fashion; + Yet oftentimes lie goes but mean-apparell'd. + BAPTISTA. I am glad he's come, howsoe'er he comes. + BIONDELLO. Why, sir, he comes not. + BAPTISTA. Didst thou not say he comes? + BIONDELLO. Who? that Petruchio came? + BAPTISTA. Ay, that Petruchio came. + BIONDELLO. No, sir; I say his horse comes with him on his back. + BAPTISTA. Why, that's all one. + BIONDELLO. Nay, by Saint Jamy, + I hold you a penny, + A horse and a man + Is more than one, + And yet not many. + + Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO + + PETRUCHIO. Come, where be these gallants? Who's at home? + BAPTISTA. You are welcome, sir. + PETRUCHIO. And yet I come not well. + BAPTISTA. And yet you halt not. + TRANIO. Not so well apparell'd + As I wish you were. + PETRUCHIO. Were it better, I should rush in thus. + But where is Kate? Where is my lovely bride? + How does my father? Gentles, methinks you frown; + And wherefore gaze this goodly company + As if they saw some wondrous monument, + Some comet or unusual prodigy? + BAPTISTA. Why, sir, you know this is your wedding-day. + First were we sad, fearing you would not come; + Now sadder, that you come so unprovided. + Fie, doff this habit, shame to your estate, + An eye-sore to our solemn festival! + TRANIO. And tell us what occasion of import + Hath all so long detain'd you from your wife, + And sent you hither so unlike yourself? + PETRUCHIO. Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear; + Sufficeth I am come to keep my word, + Though in some part enforced to digress, + Which at more leisure I will so excuse + As you shall well be satisfied withal. + But where is Kate? I stay too long from her; + The morning wears, 'tis time we were at church. + TRANIO. See not your bride in these unreverent robes; + Go to my chamber, put on clothes of mine. + PETRUCHIO. Not I, believe me; thus I'll visit her. + BAPTISTA. But thus, I trust, you will not marry her. + PETRUCHIO. Good sooth, even thus; therefore ha' done with words; + To me she's married, not unto my clothes. + Could I repair what she will wear in me + As I can change these poor accoutrements, + 'Twere well for Kate and better for myself. + But what a fool am I to chat with you, + When I should bid good-morrow to my bride + And seal the title with a lovely kiss! + Exeunt PETRUCHIO and PETRUCHIO + TRANIO. He hath some meaning in his mad attire. + We will persuade him, be it possible, + To put on better ere he go to church. + BAPTISTA. I'll after him and see the event of this. + Exeunt BAPTISTA, GREMIO, BIONDELLO, and ATTENDENTS + TRANIO. But to her love concerneth us to ad + Her father's liking; which to bring to pass, + As I before imparted to your worship, + I am to get a man- whate'er he be + It skills not much; we'll fit him to our turn- + And he shall be Vincentio of Pisa, + And make assurance here in Padua + Of greater sums than I have promised. + So shall you quietly enjoy your hope + And marry sweet Bianca with consent. + LUCENTIO. Were it not that my fellow schoolmaster + Doth watch Bianca's steps so narrowly, + 'Twere good, methinks, to steal our marriage; + Which once perform'd, let all the world say no, + I'll keep mine own despite of all the world. + TRANIO. That by degrees we mean to look into + And watch our vantage in this business; + We'll over-reach the greybeard, Gremio, + The narrow-prying father, Minola, + The quaint musician, amorous Licio- + All for my master's sake, Lucentio. + + Re-enter GREMIO + + Signior Gremio, came you from the church? + GREMIO. As willingly as e'er I came from school. + TRANIO. And is the bride and bridegroom coming home? + GREMIO. A bridegroom, say you? 'Tis a groom indeed, + A grumbling groom, and that the girl shall find. + TRANIO. Curster than she? Why, 'tis impossible. + GREMIO. Why, he's a devil, a devil, a very fiend. + TRANIO. Why, she's a devil, a devil, the devil's dam. + GREMIO. Tut, she's a lamb, a dove, a fool, to him! + I'll tell you, Sir Lucentio: when the priest + Should ask if Katherine should be his wife, + 'Ay, by gogs-wouns' quoth he, and swore so loud + That, all amaz'd, the priest let fall the book; + And as he stoop'd again to take it up, + This mad-brain'd bridegroom took him such a cuff + That down fell priest and book, and book and priest. + 'Now take them up,' quoth he 'if any list.' + TRANIO. What said the wench, when he rose again? + GREMIO. Trembled and shook, for why he stamp'd and swore + As if the vicar meant to cozen him. + But after many ceremonies done + He calls for wine: 'A health!' quoth he, as if + He had been abroad, carousing to his mates + After a storm; quaff'd off the muscadel, + And threw the sops all in the sexton's face, + Having no other reason + But that his beard grew thin and hungerly + And seem'd to ask him sops as he was drinking. + This done, he took the bride about the neck, + And kiss'd her lips with such a clamorous smack + That at the parting all the church did echo. + And I, seeing this, came thence for very shame; + And after me, I know, the rout is coming. + Such a mad marriage never was before. + Hark, hark! I hear the minstrels play. [Music plays] + + Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHERINA, BIANCA, BAPTISTA, HORTENSIO, + GRUMIO, and train + + PETRUCHIO. Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for your pains. + I know you think to dine with me to-day, + And have prepar'd great store of wedding cheer + But so it is- my haste doth call me hence, + And therefore here I mean to take my leave. + BAPTISTA. Is't possible you will away to-night? + PETRUCHIO. I must away to-day before night come. + Make it no wonder; if you knew my business, + You would entreat me rather go than stay. + And, honest company, I thank you all + That have beheld me give away myself + To this most patient, sweet, and virtuous wife. + Dine with my father, drink a health to me. + For I must hence; and farewell to you all. + TRANIO. Let us entreat you stay till after dinner. + PETRUCHIO. It may not be. + GREMIO. Let me entreat you. + PETRUCHIO. It cannot be. + KATHERINA. Let me entreat you. + PETRUCHIO. I am content. + KATHERINA. Are you content to stay? + PETRUCHIO. I am content you shall entreat me stay; + But yet not stay, entreat me how you can. + KATHERINA. Now, if you love me, stay. + PETRUCHIO. Grumio, my horse. + GRUMIO. Ay, sir, they be ready; the oats have eaten the horses. + KATHERINA. Nay, then, + Do what thou canst, I will not go to-day; + No, nor to-morrow, not till I please myself. + The door is open, sir; there lies your way; + You may be jogging whiles your boots are green; + For me, I'll not be gone till I please myself. + 'Tis like you'll prove a jolly surly groom + That take it on you at the first so roundly. + PETRUCHIO. O Kate, content thee; prithee be not angry. + KATHERINA. I will be angry; what hast thou to do? + Father, be quiet; he shall stay my leisure. + GREMIO. Ay, marry, sir, now it begins to work. + KATHERINA. Gentlemen, forward to the bridal dinner. + I see a woman may be made a fool + If she had not a spirit to resist. + PETRUCHIO. They shall go forward, Kate, at thy command. + Obey the bride, you that attend on her; + Go to the feast, revel and domineer, + Carouse full measure to her maidenhead; + Be mad and merry, or go hang yourselves. + But for my bonny Kate, she must with me. + Nay, look not big, nor stamp, nor stare, nor fret; + I will be master of what is mine own- + She is my goods, my chattels, she is my house, + My household stuff, my field, my barn, + My horse, my ox, my ass, my any thing, + And here she stands; touch her whoever dare; + I'll bring mine action on the proudest he + That stops my way in Padua. Grumio, + Draw forth thy weapon; we are beset with thieves; + Rescue thy mistress, if thou be a man. + Fear not, sweet wench; they shall not touch thee, Kate; + I'll buckler thee against a million. + Exeunt PETRUCHIO, KATHERINA, and GRUMIO + BAPTISTA. Nay, let them go, a couple of quiet ones. + GREMIO. Went they not quickly, I should die with laughing. + TRANIO. Of all mad matches, never was the like. + LUCENTIO. Mistress, what's your opinion of your sister? + BIANCA. That, being mad herself, she's madly mated. + GREMIO. I warrant him, Petruchio is Kated. + BAPTISTA. Neighbours and friends, though bride and bridegroom wants + For to supply the places at the table, + You know there wants no junkets at the feast. + Lucentio, you shall supply the bridegroom's place; + And let Bianca take her sister's room. + TRANIO. Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it? + BAPTISTA. She shall, Lucentio. Come, gentlemen, let's go. + Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +PETRUCHIO'S country house + +Enter GRUMIO + + GRUMIO. Fie, fie on all tired jades, on all mad masters, and all + foul ways! Was ever man so beaten? Was ever man so ray'd? Was + ever man so weary? I am sent before to make a fire, and they are + coming after to warm them. Now were not I a little pot and soon + hot, my very lips might freeze to my teeth, my tongue to the roof + of my mouth, my heart in my belly, ere I should come by a fire to + thaw me. But I with blowing the fire shall warm myself; for, + considering the weather, a taller man than I will take cold. + Holla, ho! Curtis! + + Enter CURTIS + + CURTIS. Who is that calls so coldly? + GRUMIO. A piece of ice. If thou doubt it, thou mayst slide from my + shoulder to my heel with no greater a run but my head and my + neck. A fire, good Curtis. + CURTIS. Is my master and his wife coming, Grumio? + GRUMIO. O, ay, Curtis, ay; and therefore fire, fire; cast on no + water. + CURTIS. Is she so hot a shrew as she's reported? + GRUMIO. She was, good Curtis, before this frost; but thou know'st + winter tames man, woman, and beast; for it hath tam'd my old + master, and my new mistress, and myself, fellow Curtis. + CURTIS. Away, you three-inch fool! I am no beast. + GRUMIO. Am I but three inches? Why, thy horn is a foot, and so long + am I at the least. But wilt thou make a fire, or shall I complain + on thee to our mistress, whose hand- she being now at hand- thou + shalt soon feel, to thy cold comfort, for being slow in thy hot + office? + CURTIS. I prithee, good Grumio, tell me how goes the world? + GRUMIO. A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine; and + therefore fire. Do thy duty, and have thy duty, for my master and + mistress are almost frozen to death. + CURTIS. There's fire ready; and therefore, good Grumio, the news? + GRUMIO. Why, 'Jack boy! ho, boy!' and as much news as thou wilt. + CURTIS. Come, you are so full of cony-catching! + GRUMIO. Why, therefore, fire; for I have caught extreme cold. + Where's the cook? Is supper ready, the house trimm'd, rushes + strew'd, cobwebs swept, the serving-men in their new fustian, + their white stockings, and every officer his wedding-garment on? + Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without, the carpets + laid, and everything in order? + CURTIS. All ready; and therefore, I pray thee, news. + GRUMIO. First know my horse is tired; my master and mistress fall'n + out. + CURTIS. How? + GRUMIO. Out of their saddles into the dirt; and thereby hangs a + tale. + CURTIS. Let's ha't, good Grumio. + GRUMIO. Lend thine ear. + CURTIS. Here. + GRUMIO. There. [Striking him] + CURTIS. This 'tis to feel a tale, not to hear a tale. + GRUMIO. And therefore 'tis call'd a sensible tale; and this cuff + was but to knock at your car and beseech list'ning. Now I begin: + Imprimis, we came down a foul hill, my master riding behind my + mistress- + CURTIS. Both of one horse? + GRUMIO. What's that to thee? + CURTIS. Why, a horse. + GRUMIO. Tell thou the tale. But hadst thou not cross'd me, thou + shouldst have heard how her horse fell and she under her horse; + thou shouldst have heard in how miry a place, how she was + bemoil'd, how he left her with the horse upon her, how he beat me + because her horse stumbled, how she waded through the dirt to + pluck him off me, how he swore, how she pray'd that never pray'd + before, how I cried, how the horses ran away, how her bridle was + burst, how I lost my crupper- with many things of worthy memory, + which now shall die in oblivion, and thou return unexperienc'd to + thy grave. + CURTIS. By this reck'ning he is more shrew than she. + GRUMIO. Ay, and that thou and the proudest of you all shall find + when he comes home. But what talk I of this? Call forth + Nathaniel, Joseph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter, Sugarsop, and the + rest; let their heads be sleekly comb'd, their blue coats brush'd + and their garters of an indifferent knit; let them curtsy with + their left legs, and not presume to touch a hair of my mastcr's + horse-tail till they kiss their hands. Are they all ready? + CURTIS. They are. + GRUMIO. Call them forth. + CURTIS. Do you hear, ho? You must meet my master, to countenance my + mistress. + GRUMIO. Why, she hath a face of her own. + CURTIS. Who knows not that? + GRUMIO. Thou, it seems, that calls for company to countenance her. + CURTIS. I call them forth to credit her. + GRUMIO. Why, she comes to borrow nothing of them. + + Enter four or five SERVINGMEN + + NATHANIEL. Welcome home, Grumio! + PHILIP. How now, Grumio! + JOSEPH. What, Grumio! + NICHOLAS. Fellow Grumio! + NATHANIEL. How now, old lad! + GRUMIO. Welcome, you!- how now, you!- what, you!- fellow, you!- and + thus much for greeting. Now, my spruce companions, is all ready, + and all things neat? + NATHANIEL. All things is ready. How near is our master? + GRUMIO. E'en at hand, alighted by this; and therefore be not- + Cock's passion, silence! I hear my master. + + Enter PETRUCHIO and KATHERINA + + PETRUCHIO. Where be these knaves? What, no man at door + To hold my stirrup nor to take my horse! + Where is Nathaniel, Gregory, Philip? + ALL SERVANTS. Here, here, sir; here, sir. + PETRUCHIO. Here, sir! here, sir! here, sir! here, sir! + You logger-headed and unpolish'd grooms! + What, no attendance? no regard? no duty? + Where is the foolish knave I sent before? + GRUMIO. Here, sir; as foolish as I was before. + PETRUCHIO. YOU peasant swain! you whoreson malt-horse drudge! + Did I not bid thee meet me in the park + And bring along these rascal knaves with thee? + GRUMIO. Nathaniel's coat, sir, was not fully made, + And Gabriel's pumps were all unpink'd i' th' heel; + There was no link to colour Peter's hat, + And Walter's dagger was not come from sheathing; + There were none fine but Adam, Ralph, and Gregory; + The rest were ragged, old, and beggarly; + Yet, as they are, here are they come to meet you. + PETRUCHIO. Go, rascals, go and fetch my supper in. + Exeunt some of the SERVINGMEN + + [Sings] Where is the life that late I led? + Where are those- + + Sit down, Kate, and welcome. Soud, soud, soud, soud! + + Re-enter SERVANTS with supper + + Why, when, I say? Nay, good sweet Kate, be merry. + Off with my boots, you rogues! you villains, when? + + [Sings] It was the friar of orders grey, + As he forth walked on his way- + + Out, you rogue! you pluck my foot awry; + Take that, and mend the plucking off the other. + [Strikes him] + Be merry, Kate. Some water, here, what, ho! + + Enter one with water + + Where's my spaniel Troilus? Sirrah, get you hence, + And bid my cousin Ferdinand come hither: + Exit SERVINGMAN + One, Kate, that you must kiss and be acquainted with. + Where are my slippers? Shall I have some water? + Come, Kate, and wash, and welcome heartily. + You whoreson villain! will you let it fall? [Strikes him] + KATHERINA. Patience, I pray you; 'twas a fault unwilling. + PETRUCHIO. A whoreson, beetle-headed, flap-ear'd knave! + Come, Kate, sit down; I know you have a stomach. + Will you give thanks, sweet Kate, or else shall I? + What's this? Mutton? + FIRST SERVANT. Ay. + PETRUCHIO. Who brought it? + PETER. I. + PETRUCHIO. 'Tis burnt; and so is all the meat. + What dogs are these? Where is the rascal cook? + How durst you villains bring it from the dresser + And serve it thus to me that love it not? + There, take it to you, trenchers, cups, and all; + [Throws the meat, etc., at them] + You heedless joltheads and unmanner'd slaves! + What, do you grumble? I'll be with you straight. + Exeunt SERVANTS + KATHERINA. I pray you, husband, be not so disquiet; + The meat was well, if you were so contented. + PETRUCHIO. I tell thee, Kate, 'twas burnt and dried away, + And I expressly am forbid to touch it; + For it engenders choler, planteth anger; + And better 'twere that both of us did fast, + Since, of ourselves, ourselves are choleric, + Than feed it with such over-roasted flesh. + Be patient; to-morrow 't shall be mended. + And for this night we'll fast for company. + Come, I will bring thee to thy bridal chamber. Exeunt + + Re-enter SERVANTS severally + + NATHANIEL. Peter, didst ever see the like? + PETER. He kills her in her own humour. + + Re-enter CURTIS + + GRUMIO. Where is he? + CURTIS. In her chamber. Making a sermon of continency to her, + And rails, and swears, and rates, that she, poor soul, + Knows not which way to stand, to look, to speak. + And sits as one new risen from a dream. + Away, away! for he is coming hither. Exeunt + + Re-enter PETRUCHIO + + PETRUCHIO. Thus have I politicly begun my reign, + And 'tis my hope to end successfully. + My falcon now is sharp and passing empty. + And till she stoop she must not be full-gorg'd, + For then she never looks upon her lure. + Another way I have to man my haggard, + To make her come, and know her keeper's call, + That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites + That bate and beat, and will not be obedient. + She eat no meat to-day, nor none shall eat; + Last night she slept not, nor to-night she shall not; + As with the meat, some undeserved fault + I'll find about the making of the bed; + And here I'll fling the pillow, there the bolster, + This way the coverlet, another way the sheets; + Ay, and amid this hurly I intend + That all is done in reverend care of her- + And, in conclusion, she shall watch all night; + And if she chance to nod I'll rail and brawl + And with the clamour keep her still awake. + This is a way to kill a wife with kindness, + And thus I'll curb her mad and headstrong humour. + He that knows better how to tame a shrew, + Now let him speak; 'tis charity to show. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Padua. Before BAPTISTA'S house + +Enter TRANIO as LUCENTIO, and HORTENSIO as LICIO + + TRANIO. Is 't possible, friend Licio, that Mistress Bianca + Doth fancy any other but Lucentio? + I tell you, sir, she bears me fair in hand. + HORTENSIO. Sir, to satisfy you in what I have said, + Stand by and mark the manner of his teaching. + [They stand aside] + + Enter BIANCA, and LUCENTIO as CAMBIO + + LUCENTIO. Now, mistress, profit you in what you read? + BIANCA. What, master, read you, First resolve me that. + LUCENTIO. I read that I profess, 'The Art to Love.' + BIANCA. And may you prove, sir, master of your art! + LUCENTIO. While you, sweet dear, prove mistress of my heart. + [They retire] + HORTENSIO. Quick proceeders, marry! Now tell me, I pray, + You that durst swear that your Mistress Blanca + Lov'd none in the world so well as Lucentio. + TRANIO. O despiteful love! unconstant womankind! + I tell thee, Licio, this is wonderful. + HORTENSIO. Mistake no more; I am not Licio. + Nor a musician as I seem to be; + But one that scorn to live in this disguise + For such a one as leaves a gentleman + And makes a god of such a cullion. + Know, sir, that I am call'd Hortensio. + TRANIO. Signior Hortensio, I have often heard + Of your entire affection to Bianca; + And since mine eyes are witness of her lightness, + I will with you, if you be so contented, + Forswear Bianca and her love for ever. + HORTENSIO. See, how they kiss and court! Signior Lucentio, + Here is my hand, and here I firmly vow + Never to woo her more, but do forswear her, + As one unworthy all the former favours + That I have fondly flatter'd her withal. + TRANIO. And here I take the like unfeigned oath, + Never to marry with her though she would entreat; + Fie on her! See how beastly she doth court him! + HORTENSIO. Would all the world but he had quite forsworn! + For me, that I may surely keep mine oath, + I will be married to a wealtlly widow + Ere three days pass, which hath as long lov'd me + As I have lov'd this proud disdainful haggard. + And so farewell, Signior Lucentio. + Kindness in women, not their beauteous looks, + Shall win my love; and so I take my leave, + In resolution as I swore before. Exit + TRANIO. Mistress Bianca, bless you with such grace + As 'longeth to a lover's blessed case! + Nay, I have ta'en you napping, gentle love, + And have forsworn you with Hortensio. + BIANCA. Tranio, you jest; but have you both forsworn me? + TRANIO. Mistress, we have. + LUCENTIO. Then we are rid of Licio. + TRANIO. I' faith, he'll have a lusty widow now, + That shall be woo'd and wedded in a day. + BIANCA. God give him joy! + TRANIO. Ay, and he'll tame her. + BIANCA. He says so, Tranio. + TRANIO. Faith, he is gone unto the taming-school. + BIANCA. The taming-school! What, is there such a place? + TRANIO. Ay, mistress; and Petruchio is the master, + That teacheth tricks eleven and twenty long, + To tame a shrew and charm her chattering tongue. + + Enter BIONDELLO + + BIONDELLO. O master, master, have watch'd so long + That I am dog-weary; but at last I spied + An ancient angel coming down the hill + Will serve the turn. + TRANIO. What is he, Biondello? + BIONDELLO. Master, a mercatante or a pedant, + I know not what; but formal in apparel, + In gait and countenance surely like a father. + LUCENTIO. And what of him, Tranio? + TRANIO. If he be credulous and trust my tale, + I'll make him glad to seem Vincentio, + And give assurance to Baptista Minola + As if he were the right Vincentio. + Take in your love, and then let me alone. + Exeunt LUCENTIO and BIANCA + + Enter a PEDANT + + PEDANT. God save you, sir! + TRANIO. And you, sir; you are welcome. + Travel you far on, or are you at the farthest? + PEDANT. Sir, at the farthest for a week or two; + But then up farther, and as far as Rome; + And so to Tripoli, if God lend me life. + TRANIO. What countryman, I pray? + PEDANT. Of Mantua. + TRANIO. Of Mantua, sir? Marry, God forbid, + And come to Padua, careless of your life! + PEDANT. My life, sir! How, I pray? For that goes hard. + TRANIO. 'Tis death for any one in Mantua + To come to Padua. Know you not the cause? + Your ships are stay'd at Venice; and the Duke, + For private quarrel 'twixt your Duke and him, + Hath publish'd and proclaim'd it openly. + 'Tis marvel- but that you are but newly come, + You might have heard it else proclaim'd about. + PEDANT. Alas, sir, it is worse for me than so! + For I have bills for money by exchange + From Florence, and must here deliver them. + TRANIO. Well, sir, to do you courtesy, + This will I do, and this I will advise you- + First, tell me, have you ever been at Pisa? + PEDANT. Ay, sir, in Pisa have I often been, + Pisa renowned for grave citizens. + TRANIO. Among them know you one Vincentio? + PEDANT. I know him not, but I have heard of him, + A merchant of incomparable wealth. + TRANIO. He is my father, sir; and, sooth to say, + In count'nance somewhat doth resemble you. + BIONDELLO. [Aside] As much as an apple doth an oyster, and all + one. + TRANIO. To save your life in this extremity, + This favour will I do you for his sake; + And think it not the worst of all your fortunes + That you are like to Sir Vincentio. + His name and credit shall you undertake, + And in my house you shall be friendly lodg'd; + Look that you take upon you as you should. + You understand me, sir. So shall you stay + Till you have done your business in the city. + If this be court'sy, sir, accept of it. + PEDANT. O, sir, I do; and will repute you ever + The patron of my life and liberty. + TRANIO. Then go with me to make the matter good. + This, by the way, I let you understand: + My father is here look'd for every day + To pass assurance of a dow'r in marriage + 'Twixt me and one Baptista's daughter here. + In all these circumstances I'll instruct you. + Go with me to clothe you as becomes you. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +PETRUCHIO'S house + +Enter KATHERINA and GRUMIO + + GRUMIO. No, no, forsooth; I dare not for my life. + KATHERINA. The more my wrong, the more his spite appears. + What, did he marry me to famish me? + Beggars that come unto my father's door + Upon entreaty have a present alms; + If not, elsewhere they meet with charity; + But I, who never knew how to entreat, + Nor never needed that I should entreat, + Am starv'd for meat, giddy for lack of sleep; + With oaths kept waking, and with brawling fed; + And that which spites me more than all these wants- + He does it under name of perfect love; + As who should say, if I should sleep or eat, + 'Twere deadly sickness or else present death. + I prithee go and get me some repast; + I care not what, so it be wholesome food. + GRUMIO. What say you to a neat's foot? + KATHERINA. 'Tis passing good; I prithee let me have it. + GRUMIO. I fear it is too choleric a meat. + How say you to a fat tripe finely broil'd? + KATHERINA. I like it well; good Grumio, fetch it me. + GRUMIO. I cannot tell; I fear 'tis choleric. + What say you to a piece of beef and mustard? + KATHERINA. A dish that I do love to feed upon. + GRUMIO. Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little. + KATHERINA. Why then the beef, and let the mustard rest. + GRUMIO. Nay, then I will not; you shall have the mustard, + Or else you get no beef of Grumio. + KATHERINA. Then both, or one, or anything thou wilt. + GRUMIO. Why then the mustard without the beef. + KATHERINA. Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding slave, + [Beats him] + That feed'st me with the very name of meat. + Sorrow on thee and all the pack of you + That triumph thus upon my misery! + Go, get thee gone, I say. + + Enter PETRUCHIO, and HORTENSIO with meat + + PETRUCHIO. How fares my Kate? What, sweeting, all amort? + HORTENSIO. Mistress, what cheer? + KATHERINA. Faith, as cold as can be. + PETRUCHIO. Pluck up thy spirits, look cheerfully upon me. + Here, love, thou seest how diligent I am, + To dress thy meat myself, and bring it thee. + I am sure, sweet Kate, this kindness merits thanks. + What, not a word? Nay, then thou lov'st it not, + And all my pains is sorted to no proof. + Here, take away this dish. + KATHERINA. I pray you, let it stand. + PETRUCHIO. The poorest service is repaid with thanks; + And so shall mine, before you touch the meat. + KATHERINA. I thank you, sir. + HORTENSIO. Signior Petruchio, fie! you are to blame. + Come, Mistress Kate, I'll bear you company. + PETRUCHIO. [Aside] Eat it up all, Hortensio, if thou lovest me.- + Much good do it unto thy gentle heart! + Kate, eat apace. And now, my honey love, + Will we return unto thy father's house + And revel it as bravely as the best, + With silken coats and caps, and golden rings, + With ruffs and cuffs and farthingales and things, + With scarfs and fans and double change of brav'ry. + With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knav'ry. + What, hast thou din'd? The tailor stays thy leisure, + To deck thy body with his ruffling treasure. + + Enter TAILOR + + Come, tailor, let us see these ornaments; + Lay forth the gown. + + Enter HABERDASHER + + What news with you, sir? + HABERDASHER. Here is the cap your worship did bespeak. + PETRUCHIO. Why, this was moulded on a porringer; + A velvet dish. Fie, fie! 'tis lewd and filthy; + Why, 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell, + A knack, a toy, a trick, a baby's cap. + Away with it. Come, let me have a bigger. + KATHERINA. I'll have no bigger; this doth fit the time, + And gentlewomen wear such caps as these. + PETRUCHIO. When you are gentle, you shall have one too, + And not till then. + HORTENSIO. [Aside] That will not be in haste. + KATHERINA. Why, sir, I trust I may have leave to speak; + And speak I will. I am no child, no babe. + Your betters have endur'd me say my mind, + And if you cannot, best you stop your ears. + My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, + Or else my heart, concealing it, will break; + And rather than it shall, I will be free + Even to the uttermost, as I please, in words. + PETRUCHIO. Why, thou say'st true; it is a paltry cap, + A custard-coffin, a bauble, a silken pie; + I love thee well in that thou lik'st it not. + KATHERINA. Love me or love me not, I like the cap; + And it I will have, or I will have none. Exit HABERDASHER + PETRUCHIO. Thy gown? Why, ay. Come, tailor, let us see't. + O mercy, God! what masquing stuff is here? + What's this? A sleeve? 'Tis like a demi-cannon. + What, up and down, carv'd like an appletart? + Here's snip and nip and cut and slish and slash, + Like to a censer in a barber's shop. + Why, what a devil's name, tailor, call'st thou this? + HORTENSIO. [Aside] I see she's like to have neither cap nor gown. + TAILOR. You bid me make it orderly and well, + According to the fashion and the time. + PETRUCHIO. Marry, and did; but if you be rememb'red, + I did not bid you mar it to the time. + Go, hop me over every kennel home, + For you shall hop without my custom, sir. + I'll none of it; hence! make your best of it. + KATHERINA. I never saw a better fashion'd gown, + More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable; + Belike you mean to make a puppet of me. + PETRUCHIO. Why, true; he means to make a puppet of thee. + TAILOR. She says your worship means to make a puppet of her. + PETRUCHIO. O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread, thou + thimble, + Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail, + Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou- + Brav'd in mine own house with a skein of thread! + Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant; + Or I shall so bemete thee with thy yard + As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou liv'st! + I tell thee, I, that thou hast marr'd her gown. + TAILOR. Your worship is deceiv'd; the gown is made + Just as my master had direction. + Grumio gave order how it should be done. + GRUMIO. I gave him no order; I gave him the stuff. + TAILOR. But how did you desire it should be made? + GRUMIO. Marry, sir, with needle and thread. + TAILOR. But did you not request to have it cut? + GRUMIO. Thou hast fac'd many things. + TAILOR. I have. + GRUMIO. Face not me. Thou hast brav'd many men; brave not me. I + will neither be fac'd nor brav'd. I say unto thee, I bid thy + master cut out the gown; but I did not bid him cut it to pieces. + Ergo, thou liest. + TAILOR. Why, here is the note of the fashion to testify. + PETRUCHIO. Read it. + GRUMIO. The note lies in's throat, if he say I said so. + TAILOR. [Reads] 'Imprimis, a loose-bodied gown'- + GRUMIO. Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown, sew me in the + skirts of it and beat me to death with a bottom of brown bread; I + said a gown. + PETRUCHIO. Proceed. + TAILOR. [Reads] 'With a small compass'd cape'- + GRUMIO. I confess the cape. + TAILOR. [Reads] 'With a trunk sleeve'- + GRUMIO. I confess two sleeves. + TAILOR. [Reads] 'The sleeves curiously cut.' + PETRUCHIO. Ay, there's the villainy. + GRUMIO. Error i' th' bill, sir; error i' th' bill! I commanded the + sleeves should be cut out, and sew'd up again; and that I'll + prove upon thee, though thy little finger be armed in a thimble. + TAILOR. This is true that I say; an I had thee in place where, thou + shouldst know it. + GRUMIO. I am for thee straight; take thou the bill, give me thy + meteyard, and spare not me. + HORTENSIO. God-a-mercy, Grumio! Then he shall have no odds. + PETRUCHIO. Well, sir, in brief, the gown is not for me. + GRUMIO. You are i' th' right, sir; 'tis for my mistress. + PETRUCHIO. Go, take it up unto thy master's use. + GRUMIO. Villain, not for thy life! Take up my mistress' gown for + thy master's use! + PETRUCHIO. Why, sir, what's your conceit in that? + GRUMIO. O, sir, the conceit is deeper than you think for. + Take up my mistress' gown to his master's use! + O fie, fie, fie! + PETRUCHIO. [Aside] Hortensio, say thou wilt see the tailor paid.- + Go take it hence; be gone, and say no more. + HORTENSIO. Tailor, I'll pay thee for thy gown to-morrow; + Take no unkindness of his hasty words. + Away, I say; commend me to thy master. Exit TAILOR + PETRUCHIO. Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father's + Even in these honest mean habiliments; + Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor; + For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich; + And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, + So honour peereth in the meanest habit. + What, is the jay more precious than the lark + Because his feathers are more beautiful? + Or is the adder better than the eel + Because his painted skin contents the eye? + O no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse + For this poor furniture and mean array. + If thou account'st it shame, lay it on me; + And therefore frolic; we will hence forthwith + To feast and sport us at thy father's house. + Go call my men, and let us straight to him; + And bring our horses unto Long-lane end; + There will we mount, and thither walk on foot. + Let's see; I think 'tis now some seven o'clock, + And well we may come there by dinner-time. + KATHERINA. I dare assure you, sir, 'tis almost two, + And 'twill be supper-time ere you come there. + PETRUCHIO. It shall be seven ere I go to horse. + Look what I speak, or do, or think to do, + You are still crossing it. Sirs, let 't alone; + I will not go to-day; and ere I do, + It shall be what o'clock I say it is. + HORTENSIO. Why, so this gallant will command the sun. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Padua. Before BAPTISTA'S house + +Enter TRANIO as LUCENTIO, and the PEDANT dressed like VINCENTIO + + TRANIO. Sir, this is the house; please it you that I call? + PEDANT. Ay, what else? And, but I be deceived, + Signior Baptista may remember me + Near twenty years ago in Genoa, + Where we were lodgers at the Pegasus. + TRANIO. 'Tis well; and hold your own, in any case, + With such austerity as longeth to a father. + + Enter BIONDELLO + + PEDANT. I warrant you. But, sir, here comes your boy; + 'Twere good he were school'd. + TRANIO. Fear you not him. Sirrah Biondello, + Now do your duty throughly, I advise you. + Imagine 'twere the right Vincentio. + BIONDELLO. Tut, fear not me. + TRANIO. But hast thou done thy errand to Baptista? + BIONDELLO. I told him that your father was at Venice, + And that you look'd for him this day in Padua. + TRANIO. Th'art a tall fellow; hold thee that to drink. + Here comes Baptista. Set your countenance, sir. + + Enter BAPTISTA, and LUCENTIO as CAMBIO + + Signior Baptista, you are happily met. + [To To the PEDANT] Sir, this is the gentleman I told you of; + I pray you stand good father to me now; + Give me Bianca for my patrimony. + PEDANT. Soft, son! + Sir, by your leave: having come to Padua + To gather in some debts, my son Lucentio + Made me acquainted with a weighty cause + Of love between your daughter and himself; + And- for the good report I hear of you, + And for the love he beareth to your daughter, + And she to him- to stay him not too long, + I am content, in a good father's care, + To have him match'd; and, if you please to like + No worse than I, upon some agreement + Me shall you find ready and willing + With one consent to have her so bestow'd; + For curious I cannot be with you, + Signior Baptista, of whom I hear so well. + BAPTISTA. Sir, pardon me in what I have to say. + Your plainness and your shortness please me well. + Right true it is your son Lucentio here + Doth love my daughter, and she loveth him, + Or both dissemble deeply their affections; + And therefore, if you say no more than this, + That like a father you will deal with him, + And pass my daughter a sufficient dower, + The match is made, and all is done- + Your son shall have my daughter with consent. + TRANIO. I thank you, sir. Where then do you know best + We be affied, and such assurance ta'en + As shall with either part's agreement stand? + BAPTISTA. Not in my house, Lucentio, for you know + Pitchers have ears, and I have many servants; + Besides, old Gremio is heark'ning still, + And happily we might be interrupted. + TRANIO. Then at my lodging, an it like you. + There doth my father lie; and there this night + We'll pass the business privately and well. + Send for your daughter by your servant here; + My boy shall fetch the scrivener presently. + The worst is this, that at so slender warning + You are like to have a thin and slender pittance. + BAPTISTA. It likes me well. Cambio, hie you home, + And bid Bianca make her ready straight; + And, if you will, tell what hath happened- + Lucentio's father is arriv'd in Padua, + And how she's like to be Lucentio's wife. Exit LUCENTIO + BIONDELLO. I pray the gods she may, with all my heart. + TRANIO. Dally not with the gods, but get thee gone. + Exit BIONDELLO + Signior Baptista, shall I lead the way? + Welcome! One mess is like to be your cheer; + Come, sir; we will better it in Pisa. + BAPTISTA. I follow you. Exeunt + + Re-enter LUCENTIO as CAMBIO, and BIONDELLO + + BIONDELLO. Cambio. + LUCENTIO. What say'st thou, Biondello? + BIONDELLO. You saw my master wink and laugh upon you? + LUCENTIO. Biondello, what of that? + BIONDELLO. Faith, nothing; but has left me here behind to expound + the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens. + LUCENTIO. I pray thee moralize them. + BIONDELLO. Then thus: Baptista is safe, talking with the deceiving + father of a deceitful son. + LUCENTIO. And what of him? + BIONDELLO. His daughter is to be brought by you to the supper. + LUCENTIO. And then? + BIONDELLO. The old priest at Saint Luke's church is at your command + at all hours. + LUCENTIO. And what of all this? + BIONDELLO. I cannot tell, except they are busied about a + counterfeit assurance. Take your assurance of her, cum privilegio + ad imprimendum solum; to th' church take the priest, clerk, and + some sufficient honest witnesses. + If this be not that you look for, I have more to say, + But bid Bianca farewell for ever and a day. + LUCENTIO. Hear'st thou, Biondello? + BIONDELLO. I cannot tarry. I knew a wench married in an afternoon + as she went to the garden for parsley to stuff a rabbit; and so + may you, sir; and so adieu, sir. My master hath appointed me to + go to Saint Luke's to bid the priest be ready to come against you + come with your appendix. + Exit + LUCENTIO. I may and will, if she be so contented. + She will be pleas'd; then wherefore should I doubt? + Hap what hap may, I'll roundly go about her; + It shall go hard if Cambio go without her. Exit + + + + +SCENE V. +A public road + +Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHERINA, HORTENSIO, and SERVANTS + + PETRUCHIO. Come on, a God's name; once more toward our father's. + Good Lord, how bright and goodly shines the moon! + KATHERINA. The moon? The sun! It is not moonlight now. + PETRUCHIO. I say it is the moon that shines so bright. + KATHERINA. I know it is the sun that shines so bright. + PETRUCHIO. Now by my mother's son, and that's myself, + It shall be moon, or star, or what I list, + Or ere I journey to your father's house. + Go on and fetch our horses back again. + Evermore cross'd and cross'd; nothing but cross'd! + HORTENSIO. Say as he says, or we shall never go. + KATHERINA. Forward, I pray, since we have come so far, + And be it moon, or sun, or what you please; + And if you please to call it a rush-candle, + Henceforth I vow it shall be so for me. + PETRUCHIO. I say it is the moon. + KATHERINA. I know it is the moon. + PETRUCHIO. Nay, then you lie; it is the blessed sun. + KATHERINA. Then, God be bless'd, it is the blessed sun; + But sun it is not, when you say it is not; + And the moon changes even as your mind. + What you will have it nam'd, even that it is, + And so it shall be so for Katherine. + HORTENSIO. Petruchio, go thy ways, the field is won. + PETRUCHIO. Well, forward, forward! thus the bowl should run, + And not unluckily against the bias. + But, soft! Company is coming here. + + Enter VINCENTIO + + [To VINCENTIO] Good-morrow, gentle mistress; where away?- + Tell me, sweet Kate, and tell me truly too, + Hast thou beheld a fresher gentlewoman? + Such war of white and red within her cheeks! + What stars do spangle heaven with such beauty + As those two eyes become that heavenly face? + Fair lovely maid, once more good day to thee. + Sweet Kate, embrace her for her beauty's sake. + HORTENSIO. 'A will make the man mad, to make a woman of him. + KATHERINA. Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet, + Whither away, or where is thy abode? + Happy the parents of so fair a child; + Happier the man whom favourable stars + Allots thee for his lovely bed-fellow. + PETRUCHIO. Why, how now, Kate, I hope thou art not mad! + This is a man, old, wrinkled, faded, withered, + And not a maiden, as thou sayst he is. + KATHERINA. Pardon, old father, my mistaking eyes, + That have been so bedazzled with the sun + That everything I look on seemeth green; + Now I perceive thou art a reverend father. + Pardon, I pray thee, for my mad mistaking. + PETRUCHIO. Do, good old grandsire, and withal make known + Which way thou travellest- if along with us, + We shall be joyful of thy company. + VINCENTIO. Fair sir, and you my merry mistress, + That with your strange encounter much amaz'd me, + My name is call'd Vincentio, my dwelling Pisa, + And bound I am to Padua, there to visit + A son of mine, which long I have not seen. + PETRUCHIO. What is his name? + VINCENTIO. Lucentio, gentle sir. + PETRUCHIO. Happily met; the happier for thy son. + And now by law, as well as reverend age, + I may entitle thee my loving father: + The sister to my wife, this gentlewoman, + Thy son by this hath married. Wonder not, + Nor be not grieved- she is of good esteem, + Her dowry wealthy, and of worthy birth; + Beside, so qualified as may beseem + The spouse of any noble gentleman. + Let me embrace with old Vincentio; + And wander we to see thy honest son, + Who will of thy arrival be full joyous. + VINCENTIO. But is this true; or is it else your pleasure, + Like pleasant travellers, to break a jest + Upon the company you overtake? + HORTENSIO. I do assure thee, father, so it is. + PETRUCHIO. Come, go along, and see the truth hereof; + For our first merriment hath made thee jealous. + Exeunt all but HORTENSIO + HORTENSIO. Well, Petruchio, this has put me in heart. + Have to my widow; and if she be froward, + Then hast thou taught Hortensio to be untoward. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Padua. Before LUCENTIO'S house + +Enter BIONDELLO, LUCENTIO, and BIANCA; GREMIO is out before + + BIONDELLO. Softly and swiftly, sir, for the priest is ready. + LUCENTIO. I fly, Biondello; but they may chance to need the at + home, therefore leave us. + BIONDELLO. Nay, faith, I'll see the church a your back, and then + come back to my master's as soon as I can. + Exeunt LUCENTIO, BIANCA, and BIONDELLO + GREMIO. I marvel Cambio comes not all this while. + + Enter PETRUCHIO, KATHERINA, VINCENTIO, GRUMIO, + and ATTENDANTS + + PETRUCHIO. Sir, here's the door; this is Lucentio's house; + My father's bears more toward the market-place; + Thither must I, and here I leave you, sir. + VINCENTIO. You shall not choose but drink before you go; + I think I shall command your welcome here, + And by all likelihood some cheer is toward. [Knocks] + GREMIO. They're busy within; you were best knock louder. + [PEDANT looks out of the window] + PEDANT. What's he that knocks as he would beat down the gate? + VINCENTIO. Is Signior Lucentio within, sir? + PEDANT. He's within, sir, but not to be spoken withal. + VINCENTIO. What if a man bring him a hundred pound or two to make + merry withal? + PEDANT. Keep your hundred pounds to yourself; he shall need none so + long as I live. + PETRUCHIO. Nay, I told you your son was well beloved in Padua. Do + you hear, sir? To leave frivolous circumstances, I pray you tell + Signior Lucentio that his father is come from Pisa, and is here + at the door to speak with him. + PEDANT. Thou liest: his father is come from Padua, and here looking + out at the window. + VINCENTIO. Art thou his father? + PEDANT. Ay, sir; so his mother says, if I may believe her. + PETRUCHIO. [To VINCENTIO] Why, how now, gentleman! + Why, this is flat knavery to take upon you another man's name. + PEDANT. Lay hands on the villain; I believe 'a means to cozen + somebody in this city under my countenance. + + Re-enter BIONDELLO + + BIONDELLO. I have seen them in the church together. God send 'em + good shipping! But who is here? Mine old master, Vicentio! Now we + are undone and brought to nothing. + VINCENTIO. [Seeing BIONDELLO] Come hither, crack-hemp. + BIONDELLO. I hope I may choose, sir. + VINCENTIO. Come hither, you rogue. What, have you forgot me? + BIONDELLO. Forgot you! No, sir. I could not forget you, for I never + saw you before in all my life. + VINCENTIO. What, you notorious villain, didst thou never see thy + master's father, Vincentio? + BIONDELLO. What, my old worshipful old master? Yes, marry, sir; see + where he looks out of the window. + VINCENTIO. Is't so, indeed? [He beats BIONDELLO] + BIONDELLO. Help, help, help! Here's a madman will murder me. + Exit + PEDANT. Help, son! help, Signior Baptista! Exit from above + PETRUCHIO. Prithee, Kate, let's stand aside and see the end of this + controversy. [They stand aside] + + Re-enter PEDANT below; BAPTISTA, TRANIO, and SERVANTS + + TRANIO. Sir, what are you that offer to beat my servant? + VINCENTIO. What am I, sir? Nay, what are you, sir? O immortal gods! + O fine villain! A silken doublet, a velvet hose, a scarlet cloak, + and a copatain hat! O, I am undone! I am undone! While I play the + good husband at home, my son and my servant spend all at the + university. + TRANIO. How now! what's the matter? + BAPTISTA. What, is the man lunatic? + TRANIO. Sir, you seem a sober ancient gentleman by your habit, but + your words show you a madman. Why, sir, what 'cerns it you if I + wear pearl and gold? I thank my good father, I am able to + maintain it. + VINCENTIO. Thy father! O villain! he is a sailmaker in Bergamo. + BAPTISTA. You mistake, sir; you mistake, sir. Pray, what do you + think is his name? + VINCENTIO. His name! As if I knew not his name! I have brought him + up ever since he was three years old, and his name is Tranio. + PEDANT. Away, away, mad ass! His name is Lucentio; and he is mine + only son, and heir to the lands of me, Signior Vicentio. + VINCENTIO. Lucentio! O, he hath murd'red his master! Lay hold on + him, I charge you, in the Duke's name. O, my son, my son! Tell + me, thou villain, where is my son, Lucentio? + TRANIO. Call forth an officer. + + Enter one with an OFFICER + + Carry this mad knave to the gaol. Father Baptista, I charge you + see that he be forthcoming. + VINCENTIO. Carry me to the gaol! + GREMIO. Stay, Officer; he shall not go to prison. + BAPTISTA. Talk not, Signior Gremio; I say he shall go to prison. + GREMIO. Take heed, Signior Baptista, lest you be cony-catch'd in + this business; I dare swear this is the right Vincentio. + PEDANT. Swear if thou dar'st. + GREMIO. Nay, I dare not swear it. + TRANIO. Then thou wert best say that I am not Lucentio. + GREMIO. Yes, I know thee to be Signior Lucentio. + BAPTISTA. Away with the dotard; to the gaol with him! + VINCENTIO. Thus strangers may be hal'd and abus'd. O monstrous + villain! + + Re-enter BIONDELLO, with LUCENTIO and BIANCA + + BIONDELLO. O, we are spoil'd; and yonder he is! Deny him, forswear + him, or else we are all undone. + Exeunt BIONDELLO, TRANIO, and PEDANT, as fast as may be + LUCENTIO. [Kneeling] Pardon, sweet father. + VINCENTIO. Lives my sweet son? + BIANCA. Pardon, dear father. + BAPTISTA. How hast thou offended? + Where is Lucentio? + LUCENTIO. Here's Lucentio, + Right son to the right Vincentio, + That have by marriage made thy daughter mine, + While counterfeit supposes blear'd thine eyne. + GREMIO. Here's packing, with a witness, to deceive us all! + VINCENTIO. Where is that damned villain, Tranio, + That fac'd and brav'd me in this matter so? + BAPTISTA. Why, tell me, is not this my Cambio? + BIANCA. Cambio is chang'd into Lucentio. + LUCENTIO. Love wrought these miracles. Bianca's love + Made me exchange my state with Tranio, + While he did bear my countenance in the town; + And happily I have arrived at the last + Unto the wished haven of my bliss. + What Tranio did, myself enforc'd him to; + Then pardon him, sweet father, for my sake. + VINCENTIO. I'll slit the villain's nose that would have sent me to + the gaol. + BAPTISTA. [To LUCENTIO] But do you hear, sir? Have you married my + daughter without asking my good will? + VINCENTIO. Fear not, Baptista; we will content you, go to; but I + will in to be revenged for this villainy. Exit + BAPTISTA. And I to sound the depth of this knavery. Exit + LUCENTIO. Look not pale, Bianca; thy father will not frown. + Exeunt LUCENTIO and BIANCA + GREMIO. My cake is dough, but I'll in among the rest; + Out of hope of all but my share of the feast. Exit + KATHERINA. Husband, let's follow to see the end of this ado. + PETRUCHIO. First kiss me, Kate, and we will. + KATHERINA. What, in the midst of the street? + PETRUCHIO. What, art thou asham'd of me? + KATHERINA. No, sir; God forbid; but asham'd to kiss. + PETRUCHIO. Why, then, let's home again. Come, sirrah, let's away. + KATHERINA. Nay, I will give thee a kiss; now pray thee, love, stay. + PETRUCHIO. Is not this well? Come, my sweet Kate: + Better once than never, for never too late. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +LUCENTIO'S house + +Enter BAPTISTA, VINCENTIO, GREMIO, the PEDANT, LUCENTIO, BIANCA, +PETRUCHIO, KATHERINA, HORTENSIO, and WIDOW. The SERVINGMEN with TRANIO, +BIONDELLO, and GRUMIO, bringing in a banquet + + LUCENTIO. At last, though long, our jarring notes agree; + And time it is when raging war is done + To smile at scapes and perils overblown. + My fair Bianca, bid my father welcome, + While I with self-same kindness welcome thine. + Brother Petruchio, sister Katherina, + And thou, Hortensio, with thy loving widow, + Feast with the best, and welcome to my house. + My banquet is to close our stomachs up + After our great good cheer. Pray you, sit down; + For now we sit to chat as well as eat. [They sit] + PETRUCHIO. Nothing but sit and sit, and eat and eat! + BAPTISTA. Padua affords this kindness, son Petruchio. + PETRUCHIO. Padua affords nothing but what is kind. + HORTENSIO. For both our sakes I would that word were true. + PETRUCHIO. Now, for my life, Hortensio fears his widow. + WIDOW. Then never trust me if I be afeard. + PETRUCHIO. YOU are very sensible, and yet you miss my sense: + I mean Hortensio is afeard of you. + WIDOW. He that is giddy thinks the world turns round. + PETRUCHIO. Roundly replied. + KATHERINA. Mistress, how mean you that? + WIDOW. Thus I conceive by him. + PETRUCHIO. Conceives by me! How likes Hortensio that? + HORTENSIO. My widow says thus she conceives her tale. + PETRUCHIO. Very well mended. Kiss him for that, good widow. + KATHERINA. 'He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.' + I pray you tell me what you meant by that. + WIDOW. Your husband, being troubled with a shrew, + Measures my husband's sorrow by his woe; + And now you know my meaning. + KATHERINA. A very mean meaning. + WIDOW. Right, I mean you. + KATHERINA. And I am mean, indeed, respecting you. + PETRUCHIO. To her, Kate! + HORTENSIO. To her, widow! + PETRUCHIO. A hundred marks, my Kate does put her down. + HORTENSIO. That's my office. + PETRUCHIO. Spoke like an officer- ha' to thee, lad. + [Drinks to HORTENSIO] + BAPTISTA. How likes Gremio these quick-witted folks? + GREMIO. Believe me, sir, they butt together well. + BIANCA. Head and butt! An hasty-witted body + Would say your head and butt were head and horn. + VINCENTIO. Ay, mistress bride, hath that awakened you? + BIANCA. Ay, but not frighted me; therefore I'll sleep again. + PETRUCHIO. Nay, that you shall not; since you have begun, + Have at you for a bitter jest or two. + BIANCA. Am I your bird? I mean to shift my bush, + And then pursue me as you draw your bow. + You are welcome all. + Exeunt BIANCA, KATHERINA, and WIDOW + PETRUCHIO. She hath prevented me. Here, Signior Tranio, + This bird you aim'd at, though you hit her not; + Therefore a health to all that shot and miss'd. + TRANIO. O, sir, Lucentio slipp'd me like his greyhound, + Which runs himself, and catches for his master. + PETRUCHIO. A good swift simile, but something currish. + TRANIO. 'Tis well, sir, that you hunted for yourself; + 'Tis thought your deer does hold you at a bay. + BAPTISTA. O, O, Petruchio! Tranio hits you now. + LUCENTIO. I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio. + HORTENSIO. Confess, confess; hath he not hit you here? + PETRUCHIO. 'A has a little gall'd me, I confess; + And, as the jest did glance away from me, + 'Tis ten to one it maim'd you two outright. + BAPTISTA. Now, in good sadness, son Petruchio, + I think thou hast the veriest shrew of all. + PETRUCHIO. Well, I say no; and therefore, for assurance, + Let's each one send unto his wife, + And he whose wife is most obedient, + To come at first when he doth send for her, + Shall win the wager which we will propose. + HORTENSIO. Content. What's the wager? + LUCENTIO. Twenty crowns. + PETRUCHIO. Twenty crowns? + I'll venture so much of my hawk or hound, + But twenty times so much upon my wife. + LUCENTIO. A hundred then. + HORTENSIO. Content. + PETRUCHIO. A match! 'tis done. + HORTENSIO. Who shall begin? + LUCENTIO. That will I. + Go, Biondello, bid your mistress come to me. + BIONDELLO. I go. Exit + BAPTISTA. Son, I'll be your half Bianca comes. + LUCENTIO. I'll have no halves; I'll bear it all myself. + + Re-enter BIONDELLO + + How now! what news? + BIONDELLO. Sir, my mistress sends you word + That she is busy and she cannot come. + PETRUCHIO. How! She's busy, and she cannot come! + Is that an answer? + GREMIO. Ay, and a kind one too. + Pray God, sir, your wife send you not a worse. + PETRUCHIO. I hope better. + HORTENSIO. Sirrah Biondello, go and entreat my wife + To come to me forthwith. Exit BIONDELLO + PETRUCHIO. O, ho! entreat her! + Nay, then she must needs come. + HORTENSIO. I am afraid, sir, + Do what you can, yours will not be entreated. + + Re-enter BIONDELLO + + Now, where's my wife? + BIONDELLO. She says you have some goodly jest in hand: + She will not come; she bids you come to her. + PETRUCHIO. Worse and worse; she will not come! O vile, + Intolerable, not to be endur'd! + Sirrah Grumio, go to your mistress; + Say I command her come to me. Exit GRUMIO + HORTENSIO. I know her answer. + PETRUCHIO. What? + HORTENSIO. She will not. + PETRUCHIO. The fouler fortune mine, and there an end. + + Re-enter KATHERINA + + BAPTISTA. Now, by my holidame, here comes Katherina! + KATHERINA. What is your sir, that you send for me? + PETRUCHIO. Where is your sister, and Hortensio's wife? + KATHERINA. They sit conferring by the parlour fire. + PETRUCHIO. Go, fetch them hither; if they deny to come. + Swinge me them soundly forth unto their husbands. + Away, I say, and bring them hither straight. + Exit KATHERINA + LUCENTIO. Here is a wonder, if you talk of a wonder. + HORTENSIO. And so it is. I wonder what it bodes. + PETRUCHIO. Marry, peace it bodes, and love, and quiet life, + An awful rule, and right supremacy; + And, to be short, what not that's sweet and happy. + BAPTISTA. Now fair befall thee, good Petruchio! + The wager thou hast won; and I will ad + Unto their losses twenty thousand crowns; + Another dowry to another daughter, + For she is chang'd, as she had never been. + PETRUCHIO. Nay, I will win my wager better yet, + And show more sign of her obedience, + Her new-built virtue and obedience. + + Re-enter KATHERINA with BIANCA and WIDOW + + See where she comes, and brings your froward wives + As prisoners to her womanly persuasion. + Katherine, that cap of yours becomes you not: + Off with that bauble, throw it underfoot. + [KATHERINA complies] + WIDOW. Lord, let me never have a cause to sigh + Till I be brought to such a silly pass! + BIANCA. Fie! what a foolish duty call you this? + LUCENTIO. I would your duty were as foolish too; + The wisdom of your duty, fair Bianca, + Hath cost me a hundred crowns since supper-time! + BIANCA. The more fool you for laying on my duty. + PETRUCHIO. Katherine, I charge thee, tell these headstrong women + What duty they do owe their lords and husbands. + WIDOW. Come, come, you're mocking; we will have no telling. + PETRUCHIO. Come on, I say; and first begin with her. + WIDOW. She shall not. + PETRUCHIO. I say she shall. And first begin with her. + KATHERINA. Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow, + And dart not scornful glances from those eyes + To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor. + It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads, + Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds, + And in no sense is meet or amiable. + A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled- + Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty; + And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty + Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it. + Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, + Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee, + And for thy maintenance commits his body + To painful labour both by sea and land, + To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, + Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe; + And craves no other tribute at thy hands + But love, fair looks, and true obedience- + Too little payment for so great a debt. + Such duty as the subject owes the prince, + Even such a woman oweth to her husband; + And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour, + And not obedient to his honest will, + What is she but a foul contending rebel + And graceless traitor to her loving lord? + I am asham'd that women are so simple + To offer war where they should kneel for peace; + Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway, + When they are bound to serve, love, and obey. + Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth, + Unapt to toll and trouble in the world, + But that our soft conditions and our hearts + Should well agree with our external parts? + Come, come, you froward and unable worms! + My mind hath been as big as one of yours, + My heart as great, my reason haply more, + To bandy word for word and frown for frown; + But now I see our lances are but straws, + Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare, + That seeming to be most which we indeed least are. + Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot, + And place your hands below your husband's foot; + In token of which duty, if he please, + My hand is ready, may it do him ease. + PETRUCHIO. Why, there's a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate. + LUCENTIO. Well, go thy ways, old lad, for thou shalt ha't. + VINCENTIO. 'Tis a good hearing when children are toward. + LUCENTIO. But a harsh hearing when women are froward. + PETRUCHIO. Come, Kate, we'll to bed. + We three are married, but you two are sped. + [To LUCENTIO] 'Twas I won the wager, though you hit the white; + And being a winner, God give you good night! + Exeunt PETRUCHIO and KATHERINA + HORTENSIO. Now go thy ways; thou hast tam'd a curst shrow. + LUCENTIO. 'Tis a wonder, by your leave, she will be tam'd so. + Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1612 + +THE TEMPEST + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + ALONSO, King of Naples + SEBASTIAN, his brother + PROSPERO, the right Duke of Milan + ANTONIO, his brother, the usurping Duke of Milan + FERDINAND, son to the King of Naples + GONZALO, an honest old counsellor + + Lords + ADRIAN + FRANCISCO + CALIBAN, a savage and deformed slave + TRINCULO, a jester + STEPHANO, a drunken butler + MASTER OF A SHIP + BOATSWAIN + MARINERS + + MIRANDA, daughter to Prospero + + ARIEL, an airy spirit + + Spirits + IRIS + CERES + JUNO + NYMPHS + REAPERS + Other Spirits attending on Prospero + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +A ship at sea; afterwards an uninhabited island + + + +THE TEMPEST +ACT I. SCENE 1 + +On a ship at sea; a tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning heard + +Enter a SHIPMASTER and a BOATSWAIN + + MASTER. Boatswain! + BOATSWAIN. Here, master; what cheer? + MASTER. Good! Speak to th' mariners; fall to't yarely, or + we run ourselves aground; bestir, bestir. Exit + + Enter MARINERS + + BOATSWAIN. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts! + yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to th' master's + whistle. Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough. + + Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, FERDINAND + GONZALO, and OTHERS + + ALONSO. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master? + Play the men. + BOATSWAIN. I pray now, keep below. + ANTONIO. Where is the master, boson? + BOATSWAIN. Do you not hear him? You mar our labour; + keep your cabins; you do assist the storm. + GONZALO. Nay, good, be patient. + BOATSWAIN. When the sea is. Hence! What cares these + roarers for the name of king? To cabin! silence! Trouble + us not. + GONZALO. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. + BOATSWAIN. None that I more love than myself. You are + counsellor; if you can command these elements to + silence, and work the peace of the present, we will not + hand a rope more. Use your authority; if you cannot, give + thanks you have liv'd so long, and make yourself ready + in your cabin for the mischance of the hour, if it so + hap.-Cheerly, good hearts!-Out of our way, I say. + Exit + GONZALO. I have great comfort from this fellow. Methinks + he hath no drowning mark upon him; his complexion is + perfect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging; + make the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth + little advantage. If he be not born to be hang'd, our + case is miserable. Exeunt + + Re-enter BOATSWAIN + + BOATSWAIN. Down with the topmast. Yare, lower, lower! + Bring her to try wi' th' maincourse. [A cry within] A + plague upon this howling! They are louder than the + weather or our office. + + Re-enter SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, and GONZALO + + Yet again! What do you here? Shall we give o'er, and + drown? Have you a mind to sink? + SEBASTIAN. A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, + incharitable dog! + BOATSWAIN. Work you, then. + ANTONIO. Hang, cur; hang, you whoreson, insolent noisemaker; + we are less afraid to be drown'd than thou art. + GONZALO. I'll warrant him for drowning, though the ship were + no stronger than a nutshell, and as leaky as an unstanched + wench. + BOATSWAIN. Lay her a-hold, a-hold; set her two courses; off + to sea again; lay her off. + + Enter MARINERS, Wet + MARINERS. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost! + Exeunt + BOATSWAIN. What, must our mouths be cold? + GONZALO. The King and Prince at prayers! + Let's assist them, + For our case is as theirs. + SEBASTIAN. I am out of patience. + ANTONIO. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards. + This wide-chopp'd rascal-would thou mightst lie drowning + The washing of ten tides! + GONZALO. He'll be hang'd yet, + Though every drop of water swear against it, + And gape at wid'st to glut him. + [A confused noise within: Mercy on us! + We split, we split! Farewell, my wife and children! + Farewell, brother! We split, we split, we split!] + ANTONIO. Let's all sink wi' th' King. + SEBASTIAN. Let's take leave of him. + Exeunt ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN + GONZALO. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for + an acre of barren ground-long heath, brown furze, any + thing. The wills above be done, but I would fain die + dry death. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2 + +The Island. Before PROSPERO'S cell + +Enter PROSPERO and MIRANDA + + MIRANDA. If by your art, my dearest father, you have + Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. + The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, + But that the sea, mounting to th' welkin's cheek, + Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered + With those that I saw suffer! A brave vessel, + Who had no doubt some noble creature in her, + Dash'd all to pieces! O, the cry did knock + Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perish'd. + Had I been any god of power, I would + Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere + It should the good ship so have swallow'd and + The fraughting souls within her. + PROSPERO. Be conected; + No more amazement; tell your piteous heart + There's no harm done. + MIRANDA. O, woe the day! + PROSPERO. No harm. + I have done nothing but in care of thee, + Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter, who + Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing + Of whence I am, nor that I am more better + Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, + And thy no greater father. + MIRANDA. More to know + Did never meddle with my thoughts. + PROSPERO. 'Tis time + I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand, + And pluck my magic garment from me. So, + [Lays down his mantle] + Lie there my art. Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort. + The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd + The very virtue of compassion in thee, + I have with such provision in mine art + So safely ordered that there is no soul- + No, not so much perdition as an hair + Betid to any creature in the vessel + Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. + Sit down, for thou must now know farther. + MIRANDA. You have often + Begun to tell me what I am; but stopp'd, + And left me to a bootless inquisition, + Concluding 'Stay; not yet.' + PROSPERO. The hour's now come; + The very minute bids thee ope thine ear. + Obey, and be attentive. Canst thou remember + A time before we came unto this cell? + I do not think thou canst; for then thou wast not + Out three years old. + MIRANDA. Certainly, sir, I can. + PROSPERO. By what? By any other house, or person? + Of any thing the image, tell me, that + Hath kept with thy remembrance? + MIRANDA. 'Tis far off, + And rather like a dream than an assurance + That my remembrance warrants. Had I not + Four, or five, women once, that tended me? + PROSPERO. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it + That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else + In the dark backward and abysm of time? + If thou rememb'rest aught, ere thou cam'st here, + How thou cam'st here thou mayst. + MIRANDA. But that I do not. + PROSPERO. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, + Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and + A prince of power. + MIRANDA. Sir, are not you my father? + PROSPERO. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and + She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father + Was Duke of Milan, and his only heir + And princess no worse issued. + MIRANDA. O, the heavens! + What foul play had we that we came from thence? + Or blessed was't we did? + PROSPERO. Both, both, my girl. + By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence; + But blessedly holp hither. + MIRANDA. O, my heart bleeds + To think o' th' teen that I have turn'd you to, + Which is from my remembrance. Please you, farther. + PROSPERO. My brother and thy uncle, call'd Antonio- + I pray thee, mark me that a brother should + Be so perfidious. He, whom next thyself + Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put + The manage of my state; as at that time + Through all the signories it was the first, + And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed + In dignity, and for the liberal arts + Without a parallel, those being all my study- + The government I cast upon my brother + And to my state grew stranger, being transported + And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle- + Dost thou attend me? + MIRANDA. Sir, most heedfully. + PROSPERO. Being once perfected how to grant suits, + How to deny them, who t' advance, and who + To trash for over-topping, new created + The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd 'em, + Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key + Of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' state + To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was + The ivy which had hid my princely trunk + And suck'd my verdure out on't. Thou attend'st not. + MIRANDA. O, good sir, I do! + PROSPERO. I pray thee, mark me. + I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated + To closeness and the bettering of my mind + With that which, but by being so retir'd, + O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother + Awak'd an evil nature; and my trust, + Like a good parent, did beget of him + A falsehood, in its contrary as great + As my trust was; which had indeed no limit, + A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded, + Not only with what my revenue yielded, + But what my power might else exact, like one + Who having into truth, by telling of it, + Made such a sinner of his memory, + To credit his own lie-he did believe + He was indeed the Duke; out o' th' substitution, + And executing th' outward face of royalty + With all prerogative. Hence his ambition growing- + Dost thou hear? + MIRANDA. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. + PROSPERO. To have no screen between this part he play'd + And him he play'd it for, he needs will be + Absolute Milan. Me, poor man-my library + Was dukedom large enough-of temporal royalties + He thinks me now incapable; confederates, + So dry he was for sway, wi' th' King of Naples, + To give him annual tribute, do him homage, + Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend + The dukedom, yet unbow'd-alas, poor Milan!- + To most ignoble stooping. + MIRANDA. O the heavens! + PROSPERO. Mark his condition, and th' event, then tell me + If this might be a brother. + MIRANDA. I should sin + To think but nobly of my grandmother: + Good wombs have borne bad sons. + PROSPERO. Now the condition: + This King of Naples, being an enemy + To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit; + Which was, that he, in lieu o' th' premises, + Of homage, and I know not how much tribute, + Should presently extirpate me and mine + Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan + With all the honours on my brother. Whereon, + A treacherous army levied, one midnight + Fated to th' purpose, did Antonio open + The gates of Milan; and, i' th' dead of darkness, + The ministers for th' purpose hurried thence + Me and thy crying self. + MIRANDA. Alack, for pity! + I, not rememb'ring how I cried out then, + Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint + That wrings mine eyes to't. + PROSPERO. Hear a little further, + And then I'll bring thee to the present busines + Which now's upon 's; without the which this story + Were most impertinent. + MIRANDA. Wherefore did they not + That hour destroy us? + PROSPERO. Well demanded, wench! + My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not, + So dear the love my people bore me; nor set + A mark so bloody on the business; but + With colours fairer painted their foul ends. + In few, they hurried us aboard a bark; + Bore us some leagues to sea, where they prepared + A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigg'd, + Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats + Instinctively have quit it. There they hoist us, + To cry to th' sea, that roar'd to us; to sigh + To th' winds, whose pity, sighing back again, + Did us but loving wrong. + MIRANDA. Alack, what trouble + Was I then to you! + PROSPERO. O, a cherubin + Thou wast that did preserve me! Thou didst smile, + Infused with a fortitude from heaven, + When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt, + Under my burden groan'd; which rais'd in me + An undergoing stomach, to bear up + Against what should ensue. + MIRANDA. How came we ashore? + PROSPERO. By Providence divine. + Some food we had and some fresh water that + A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, + Out of his charity, who being then appointed + Master of this design, did give us, with + Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, + Which since have steaded much; so, of his gentleness, + Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me + From mine own library with volumes that + I prize above my dukedom. + MIRANDA. Would I might + But ever see that man! + PROSPERO. Now I arise. [Puts on his mantle] + Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. + Here in this island we arriv'd; and here + Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit + Than other princess' can, that have more time + For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful. + MIRANDA. Heavens thank you for't! And now, I pray you, + sir, + For still 'tis beating in my mind, your reason + For raising this sea-storm? + PROSPERO. Know thus far forth: + By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune, + Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies + Brought to this shore; and by my prescience + I find my zenith doth depend upon + A most auspicious star, whose influence + If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes + Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions; + Thou art inclin'd to sleep; 'tis a good dullness, + And give it way. I know thou canst not choose. + [MIRANDA sleeps] + Come away, servant; come; I am ready now. + Approach, my Ariel. Come. + + Enter ARIEL + + ARIEL. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come + To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly, + To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride + On the curl'd clouds. To thy strong bidding task + Ariel and all his quality. + PROSPERO. Hast thou, spirit, + Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee? + ARIEL. To every article. + I boarded the King's ship; now on the beak, + Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, + I flam'd amazement. Sometime I'd divide, + And burn in many places; on the topmast, + The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, + Then meet and join Jove's lightning, the precursors + O' th' dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary + And sight-outrunning were not; the fire and cracks + Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune + Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble, + Yea, his dread trident shake. + PROSPERO. My brave spirit! + Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil + Would not infect his reason? + ARIEL. Not a soul + But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd + Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners + Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel, + Then all afire with me; the King's son, Ferdinand, + With hair up-staring-then like reeds, not hair- + Was the first man that leapt; cried 'Hell is empty, + And all the devils are here.' + PROSPERO. Why, that's my spirit! + But was not this nigh shore? + ARIEL. Close by, my master. + PROSPERO. But are they, Ariel, safe? + ARIEL. Not a hair perish'd; + On their sustaining garments not a blemish, + But fresher than before; and, as thou bad'st me, + In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle. + The King's son have I landed by himself, + Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs + In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting, + His arms in this sad knot. + PROSPERO. Of the King's ship, + The mariners, say how thou hast dispos'd, + And all the rest o' th' fleet? + ARIEL. Safely in harbour + Is the King's ship; in the deep nook, where once + Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew + From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid; + The mariners all under hatches stowed, + Who, with a charm join'd to their suff'red labour, + I have left asleep; and for the rest o' th' fleet, + Which I dispers'd, they all have met again, + And are upon the Mediterranean flote + Bound sadly home for Naples, + Supposing that they saw the King's ship wreck'd, + And his great person perish. + PROSPERO. Ariel, thy charge + Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work. + What is the time o' th' day? + ARIEL. Past the mid season. + PROSPERO. At least two glasses. The time 'twixt six and now + Must by us both be spent most preciously. + ARIEL. Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains, + Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd, + Which is not yet perform'd me. + PROSPERO. How now, moody? + What is't thou canst demand? + ARIEL. My liberty. + PROSPERO. Before the time be out? No more! + ARIEL. I prithee, + Remember I have done thee worthy service, + Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, serv'd + Without or grudge or grumblings. Thou didst promise + To bate me a full year. + PROSPERO. Dost thou forget + From what a torment I did free thee? + ARIEL. No. + PROSPERO. Thou dost; and think'st it much to tread the ooze + Of the salt deep, + To run upon the sharp wind of the north, + To do me business in the veins o' th' earth + When it is bak'd with frost. + ARIEL. I do not, sir. + PROSPERO. Thou liest, malignant thing. Hast thou forgot + The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy + Was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her? + ARIEL. No, sir. + PROSPERO. Thou hast. Where was she born? + Speak; tell me. + ARIEL. Sir, in Argier. + PROSPERO. O, was she so? I must + Once in a month recount what thou hast been, + Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax, + For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible + To enter human hearing, from Argier + Thou know'st was banish'd; for one thing she did + They would not take her life. Is not this true? + ARIEL. Ay, sir. + PROSPERO. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought with child, + And here was left by th'sailors. Thou, my slave, + As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant; + And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate + To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands, + Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee, + By help of her more potent ministers, + And in her most unmitigable rage, + Into a cloven pine; within which rift + Imprison'd thou didst painfully remain + A dozen years; within which space she died, + And left thee there, where thou didst vent thy groans + As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island- + Save for the son that she did litter here, + A freckl'd whelp, hag-born-not honour'd with + A human shape. + ARIEL. Yes, Caliban her son. + PROSPERO. Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban + Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st + What torment I did find thee in; thy groans + Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts + Of ever-angry bears; it was a torment + To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax + Could not again undo. It was mine art, + When I arriv'd and heard thee, that made gape + The pine, and let thee out. + ARIEL. I thank thee, master. + PROSPERO. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak + And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till + Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. + ARIEL. Pardon, master; + I will be correspondent to command, + And do my spriting gently. + PROSPERO. Do so; and after two days + I will discharge thee. + ARIEL. That's my noble master! + What shall I do? Say what. What shall I do? + PROSPERO. Go make thyself like a nymph o' th' sea; be subject + To no sight but thine and mine, invisible + To every eyeball else. Go take this shape, + And hither come in 't. Go, hence with diligence! + Exit ARIEL + Awake, dear heart, awake; thou hast slept well; + Awake. + MIRANDA. The strangeness of your story put + Heaviness in me. + PROSPERO. Shake it off. Come on, + We'll visit Caliban, my slave, who never + Yields us kind answer. + MIRANDA. 'Tis a villain, sir, + I do not love to look on. + PROSPERO. But as 'tis, + We cannot miss him: he does make our fire, + Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices + That profit us. What ho! slave! Caliban! + Thou earth, thou! Speak. + CALIBAN. [ Within] There's wood enough within. + PROSPERO. Come forth, I say; there's other business for thee. + Come, thou tortoise! when? + + Re-enter ARIEL like a water-nymph + + Fine apparition! My quaint Ariel, + Hark in thine ear. + ARIEL. My lord, it shall be done. Exit + PROSPERO. Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself + Upon thy wicked dam, come forth! + + Enter CALIBAN + + CALIBAN. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd + With raven's feather from unwholesome fen + Drop on you both! A south-west blow on ye + And blister you all o'er! + PROSPERO. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps, + Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up; urchins + Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, + All exercise on thee; thou shalt be pinch'd + As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging + Than bees that made 'em. + CALIBAN. I must eat my dinner. + This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, + Which thou tak'st from me. When thou cam'st first, + Thou strok'st me and made much of me, wouldst give me + Water with berries in't, and teach me how + To name the bigger light, and how the less, + That burn by day and night; and then I lov'd thee, + And show'd thee all the qualities o' th' isle, + The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile. + Curs'd be I that did so! All the charms + Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you! + For I am all the subjects that you have, + Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me + In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me + The rest o' th' island. + PROSPERO. Thou most lying slave, + Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have us'd thee, + Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodg'd thee + In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate + The honour of my child. + CALIBAN. O ho, O ho! Would't had been done. + Thou didst prevent me; I had peopl'd else + This isle with Calibans. + MIRANDA. Abhorred slave, + Which any print of goodness wilt not take, + Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee, + Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour + One thing or other. When thou didst not, savage, + Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like + A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes + With words that made them known. But thy vile race, + Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures + Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou + Deservedly confin'd into this rock, who hadst + Deserv'd more than a prison. + CALIBAN. You taught me language, and my profit on't + Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you + For learning me your language! + PROSPERO. Hag-seed, hence! + Fetch us in fuel. And be quick, thou 'rt best, + To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice? + If thou neglect'st, or dost unwillingly + What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps, + Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar, + That beasts shall tremble at thy din. + CALIBAN. No, pray thee. + [Aside] I must obey. His art is of such pow'r, + It would control my dam's god, Setebos, + And make a vassal of him. + PROSPERO. So, slave; hence! Exit CALIBAN + + Re-enter ARIEL invisible, playing ad singing; + FERDINAND following + + ARIEL'S SONG. + Come unto these yellow sands, + And then take hands; + Curtsied when you have and kiss'd, + The wild waves whist, + Foot it featly here and there, + And, sweet sprites, the burden bear. + Hark, hark! + [Burden dispersedly: Bow-wow.] + The watch dogs bark. + [Burden dispersedly: Bow-wow.] + Hark, hark! I hear + The strain of strutting chanticleer + Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow. + FERDINAND. Where should this music be? I' th' air or th' + earth? + It sounds no more; and sure it waits upon + Some god o' th' island. Sitting on a bank, + Weeping again the King my father's wreck, + This music crept by me upon the waters, + Allaying both their fury and my passion + With its sweet air; thence I have follow'd it, + Or it hath drawn me rather. But 'tis gone. + No, it begins again. + + ARIEL'S SONG + Full fathom five thy father lies; + Of his bones are coral made; + Those are pearls that were his eyes; + Nothing of him that doth fade + But doth suffer a sea-change + Into something rich and strange. + Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: + [Burden: Ding-dong.] + Hark! now I hear them-Ding-dong bell. + + FERDINAND. The ditty does remember my drown'd father. + This is no mortal business, nor no sound + That the earth owes. I hear it now above me. + PROSPERO. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance, + And say what thou seest yond. + MIRANDA. What is't? a spirit? + Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir, + It carries a brave form. But 'tis a spirit. + PROSPERO. No, wench; it eats and sleeps and hath such senses + As we have, such. This gallant which thou seest + Was in the wreck; and but he's something stain'd + With grief, that's beauty's canker, thou mightst call him + A goodly person. He hath lost his fellows, + And strays about to find 'em. + MIRANDA. I might call him + A thing divine; for nothing natural + I ever saw so noble. + PROSPERO. [Aside] It goes on, I see, + As my soul prompts it. Spirit, fine spirit! I'll free thee + Within two days for this. + FERDINAND. Most sure, the goddess + On whom these airs attend! Vouchsafe my pray'r + May know if you remain upon this island; + And that you will some good instruction give + How I may bear me here. My prime request, + Which I do last pronounce, is, O you wonder! + If you be maid or no? + MIRANDA. No wonder, sir; + But certainly a maid. + FERDINAND. My language? Heavens! + I am the best of them that speak this speech, + Were I but where 'tis spoken. + PROSPERO. How? the best? + What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee? + FERDINAND. A single thing, as I am now, that wonders + To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me; + And that he does I weep. Myself am Naples, + Who with mine eyes, never since at ebb, beheld + The King my father wreck'd. + MIRANDA. Alack, for mercy! + FERDINAND. Yes, faith, and all his lords, the Duke of Milan + And his brave son being twain. + PROSPERO. [Aside] The Duke of Milan + And his more braver daughter could control thee, + If now 'twere fit to do't. At the first sight + They have chang'd eyes. Delicate Ariel, + I'll set thee free for this. [To FERDINAND] A word, good + sir; + I fear you have done yourself some wrong; a word. + MIRANDA. Why speaks my father so ungently? This + Is the third man that e'er I saw; the first + That e'er I sigh'd for. Pity move my father + To be inclin'd my way! + FERDINAND. O, if a virgin, + And your affection not gone forth, I'll make you + The Queen of Naples. + PROSPERO. Soft, Sir! one word more. + [Aside] They are both in either's pow'rs; but this swift + busines + I must uneasy make, lest too light winning + Make the prize light. [To FERDINAND] One word more; I + charge thee + That thou attend me; thou dost here usurp + The name thou ow'st not; and hast put thyself + Upon this island as a spy, to win it + From me, the lord on't. + FERDINAND. No, as I am a man. + MIRANDA. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple. + If the ill spirit have so fair a house, + Good things will strive to dwell with't. + PROSPERO. Follow me. + Speak not you for him; he's a traitor. Come; + I'll manacle thy neck and feet together. + Sea-water shalt thou drink; thy food shall be + The fresh-brook mussels, wither'd roots, and husks + Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow. + FERDINAND. No; + I will resist such entertainment till + Mine enemy has more power. + [He draws, and is charmed from moving] + MIRANDA. O dear father, + Make not too rash a trial of him, for + He's gentle, and not fearful. + PROSPERO. What, I say, + My foot my tutor? Put thy sword up, traitor; + Who mak'st a show but dar'st not strike, thy conscience + Is so possess'd with guilt. Come from thy ward; + For I can here disarm thee with this stick + And make thy weapon drop. + MIRANDA. Beseech you, father! + PROSPERO. Hence! Hang not on my garments. + MIRANDA. Sir, have pity; + I'll be his surety. + PROSPERO. Silence! One word more + Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee. What! + An advocate for an impostor! hush! + Thou think'st there is no more such shapes as he, + Having seen but him and Caliban. Foolish wench! + To th' most of men this is a Caliban, + And they to him are angels. + MIRANDA. My affections + Are then most humble; I have no ambition + To see a goodlier man. + PROSPERO. Come on; obey. + Thy nerves are in their infancy again, + And have no vigour in them. + FERDINAND. So they are; + My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. + My father's loss, the weakness which I feel, + The wreck of all my friends, nor this man's threats + To whom I am subdu'd, are but light to me, + Might I but through my prison once a day + Behold this maid. All corners else o' th' earth + Let liberty make use of; space enough + Have I in such a prison. + PROSPERO. [Aside] It works. [To FERDINAND] Come on.- + Thou hast done well, fine Ariel! [To FERDINAND] Follow + me. + [To ARIEL] Hark what thou else shalt do me. + MIRANDA. Be of comfort; + My father's of a better nature, sir, + Than he appears by speech; this is unwonted + Which now came from him. + PROSPERO. [To ARIEL] Thou shalt be as free + As mountain winds; but then exactly do + All points of my command. + ARIEL. To th' syllable. + PROSPERO. [To FERDINAND] Come, follow. [To MIRANDA] + Speak not for him. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE 1 + +Another part of the island + +Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and OTHERS + + GONZALO. Beseech you, sir, be merry; you have cause, + So have we all, of joy; for our escape + Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe + Is common; every day, some sailor's wife, + The masters of some merchant, and the merchant, + Have just our theme of woe; but for the miracle, + I mean our preservation, few in millions + Can speak like us. Then wisely, good sir, weigh + Our sorrow with our comfort. + ALONSO. Prithee, peace. + SEBASTIAN. He receives comfort like cold porridge. + ANTONIO. The visitor will not give him o'er so. + SEBASTIAN. Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit; by + and by it will strike. + GONZALO. Sir- + SEBASTIAN. One-Tell. + GONZALO. When every grief is entertain'd that's offer'd, + Comes to th' entertainer- + SEBASTIAN. A dollar. + GONZALO. Dolour comes to him, indeed; you have spoken + truer than you purpos'd. + SEBASTIAN. You have taken it wiselier than I meant you + should. + GONZALO. Therefore, my lord- + ANTONIO. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue! + ALONSO. I prithee, spare. + GONZALO. Well, I have done; but yet- + SEBASTIAN. He will be talking. + ANTONIO. Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first + begins to crow? + SEBASTIAN. The old cock. + ANTONIO. The cock'rel. + SEBASTIAN. Done. The wager? + ANTONIO. A laughter. + SEBASTIAN. A match! + ADRIAN. Though this island seem to be desert- + ANTONIO. Ha, ha, ha! + SEBASTIAN. So, you're paid. + ADRIAN. Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible- + SEBASTIAN. Yet- + ADRIAN. Yet- + ANTONIO. He could not miss't. + ADRIAN. It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate + temperance. + ANTONIO. Temperance was a delicate wench. + SEBASTIAN. Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly + deliver'd. + ADRIAN. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. + SEBASTIAN. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones. + ANTONIO. Or, as 'twere perfum'd by a fen. + GONZALO. Here is everything advantageous to life. + ANTONIO. True; save means to live. + SEBASTIAN. Of that there's none, or little. + GONZALO. How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green! + ANTONIO. The ground indeed is tawny. + SEBASTIAN. With an eye of green in't. + ANTONIO. He misses not much. + SEBASTIAN. No; he doth but mistake the truth totally. + GONZALO. But the rarity of it is, which is indeed almost + beyond credit- + SEBASTIAN. As many vouch'd rarities are. + GONZALO. That our garments, being, as they were, drench'd + in the sea, hold, notwithstanding, their freshness and + glosses, being rather new-dy'd, than stain'd with salt + water. + ANTONIO. If but one of his pockets could speak, would it + not say he lies? + SEBASTIAN. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report. + GONZALO. Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when + we put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of the + King's fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis. + SEBASTIAN. 'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in + our return. + ADRIAN. Tunis was never grac'd before with such a paragon + to their queen. + GONZALO. Not since widow Dido's time. + ANTONIO. Widow! a pox o' that! How came that 'widow' + in? Widow Dido! + SEBASTIAN. What if he had said 'widower Aeneas' too? + Good Lord, how you take it! + ADRIAN. 'Widow Dido' said you? You make me study of + that. She was of Carthage, not of Tunis. + GONZALO. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage. + ADRIAN. Carthage? + GONZALO. I assure you, Carthage. + ANTONIO. His word is more than the miraculous harp. + SEBASTIAN. He hath rais'd the wall, and houses too. + ANTONIO. What impossible matter will he make easy next? + SEBASTIAN. I think he will carry this island home in his + pocket, and give it his son for an apple. + ANTONIO. And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring + forth more islands. + GONZALO. Ay. + ANTONIO. Why, in good time. + GONZALO. Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now + as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage of + your daughter, who is now Queen. + ANTONIO. And the rarest that e'er came there. + SEBASTIAN. Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido. + ANTONIO. O, widow Dido! Ay, widow Dido. + GONZALO. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I + wore it? I mean, in a sort. + ANTONIO. That 'sort' was well fish'd for. + GONZALO. When I wore it at your daughter's marriage? + ALONSO. You cram these words into mine ears against + The stomach of my sense. Would I had never + Married my daughter there; for, coming thence, + My son is lost; and, in my rate, she too, + Who is so far from Italy removed + I ne'er again shall see her. O thou mine heir + Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish + Hath made his meal on thee? + FRANCISCO. Sir, he may live; + I saw him beat the surges under him, + And ride upon their backs; he trod the water, + Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted + The surge most swoln that met him; his bold head + 'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oared + Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke + To th' shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bowed, + As stooping to relieve him. I not doubt + He came alive to land. + ALONSO. No, no, he's gone. + SEBASTIAN. Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss, + That would not bless our Europe with your daughter, + But rather lose her to an African; + Where she, at least, is banish'd from your eye, + Who hath cause to wet the grief on't. + ALONSO. Prithee, peace. + SEBASTIAN. You were kneel'd to, and importun'd otherwise + By all of us; and the fair soul herself + Weigh'd between loathness and obedience at + Which end o' th' beam should bow. We have lost your son, + I fear, for ever. Milan and Naples have + Moe widows in them of this business' making, + Than we bring men to comfort them; + The fault's your own. + ALONSO. So is the dear'st o' th' loss. + GONZALO. My lord Sebastian, + The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness, + And time to speak it in; you rub the sore, + When you should bring the plaster. + SEBASTIAN. Very well. + ANTONIO. And most chirurgeonly. + GONZALO. It is foul weather in us all, good sir, + When you are cloudy. + SEBASTIAN. Foul weather? + ANTONIO. Very foul. + GONZALO. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord- + ANTONIO. He'd sow 't with nettle-seed. + SEBASTIAN. Or docks, or mallows. + GONZALO. And were the king on't, what would I do? + SEBASTIAN. Scape being drunk for want of wine. + GONZALO. I' th' commonwealth I would by contraries + Execute all things; for no kind of traffic + Would I admit; no name of magistrate; + Letters should not be known; riches, poverty, + And use of service, none; contract, succession, + Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none; + No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil; + No occupation; all men idle, all; + And women too, but innocent and pure; + No sovereignty- + SEBASTIAN. Yet he would be king on't. + ANTONIO. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the + beginning. + GONZALO. All things in common nature should produce + Without sweat or endeavour. Treason, felony, + Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine, + Would I not have; but nature should bring forth, + Of it own kind, all foison, all abundance, + To feed my innocent people. + SEBASTIAN. No marrying 'mong his subjects? + ANTONIO. None, man; all idle; whores and knaves. + GONZALO. I would with such perfection govern, sir, + T' excel the golden age. + SEBASTIAN. Save his Majesty! + ANTONIO. Long live Gonzalo! + GONZALO. And-do you mark me, sir? + ALONSO. Prithee, no more; thou dost talk nothing to me. + GONZALO. I do well believe your Highness; and did it to + minister occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such + sensible and nimble lungs that they always use to laugh + at nothing. + ANTONIO. 'Twas you we laugh'd at. + GONZALO. Who in this kind of merry fooling am nothing to + you; so you may continue, and laugh at nothing still. + ANTONIO. What a blow was there given! + SEBASTIAN. An it had not fall'n flat-long. + GONZALO. You are gentlemen of brave mettle; you would + lift the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue + in it five weeks without changing. + + Enter ARIEL, invisible, playing solemn music + + SEBASTIAN. We would so, and then go a-bat-fowling. + ANTONIO. Nay, good my lord, be not angry. + GONZALO. No, I warrant you; I will not adventure my + discretion so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for I am + very heavy? + ANTONIO. Go sleep, and hear us. + [All sleep but ALONSO, SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO] + ALONSO. What, all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes + Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts; I find + They are inclin'd to do so. + SEBASTIAN. Please you, sir, + Do not omit the heavy offer of it: + It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth, + It is a comforter. + ANTONIO. We two, my lord, + Will guard your person while you take your rest, + And watch your safety. + ALONSO. Thank you-wondrous heavy! + [ALONSO sleeps. Exit ARIEL] + SEBASTIAN. What a strange drowsiness possesses them! + ANTONIO. It is the quality o' th' climate. + SEBASTIAN. Why + Doth it not then our eyelids sink? I find not + Myself dispos'd to sleep. + ANTONIO. Nor I; my spirits are nimble. + They fell together all, as by consent; + They dropp'd, as by a thunder-stroke. What might, + Worthy Sebastian? O, what might! No more! + And yet methinks I see it in thy face, + What thou shouldst be; th' occasion speaks thee; and + My strong imagination sees a crown + Dropping upon thy head. + SEBASTIAN. What, art thou waking? + ANTONIO. Do you not hear me speak? + SEBASTIAN. I do; and surely + It is a sleepy language, and thou speak'st + Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say? + This is a strange repose, to be asleep + With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving, + And yet so fast asleep. + ANTONIO. Noble Sebastian, + Thou let'st thy fortune sleep-die rather; wink'st + Whiles thou art waking. + SEBASTIAN. Thou dost snore distinctly; + There's meaning in thy snores. + ANTONIO. I am more serious than my custom; you + Must be so too, if heed me; which to do + Trebles thee o'er. + SEBASTIAN. Well, I am standing water. + ANTONIO. I'll teach you how to flow. + SEBASTIAN. Do so: to ebb, + Hereditary sloth instructs me. + ANTONIO. O, + If you but knew how you the purpose cherish, + Whiles thus you mock it! how, in stripping it, + You more invest it! Ebbing men indeed, + Most often, do so near the bottom run + By their own fear or sloth. + SEBASTIAN. Prithee say on. + The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim + A matter from thee; and a birth, indeed, + Which throes thee much to yield. + ANTONIO. Thus, sir: + Although this lord of weak remembrance, this + Who shall be of as little memory + When he is earth'd, hath here almost persuaded- + For he's a spirit of persuasion, only + Professes to persuade-the King his son's alive, + 'Tis as impossible that he's undrown'd + As he that sleeps here swims. + SEBASTIAN. I have no hope + That he's undrown'd. + ANTONIO. O, out of that 'no hope' + What great hope have you! No hope that way is + Another way so high a hope, that even + Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond, + But doubt discovery there. Will you grant with me + That Ferdinand is drown'd? + SEBASTIAN. He's gone. + ANTONIO. Then tell me, + Who's the next heir of Naples? + SEBASTIAN. Claribel. + ANTONIO. She that is Queen of Tunis; she that dwells + Ten leagues beyond man's life; she that from Naples + Can have no note, unless the sun were post, + The Man i' th' Moon's too slow, till newborn chins + Be rough and razorable; she that from whom + We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again, + And by that destiny, to perform an act + Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come + In yours and my discharge. + SEBASTIAN. What stuff is this! How say you? + 'Tis true, my brother's daughter's Queen of Tunis; + So is she heir of Naples; 'twixt which regions + There is some space. + ANTONIO. A space whose ev'ry cubit + Seems to cry out 'How shall that Claribel + Measure us back to Naples? Keep in Tunis, + And let Sebastian wake.' Say this were death + That now hath seiz'd them; why, they were no worse + Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples + As well as he that sleeps; lords that can prate + As amply and unnecessarily + As this Gonzalo; I myself could make + A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore + The mind that I do! What a sleep were this + For your advancement! Do you understand me? + SEBASTIAN. Methinks I do. + ANTONIO. And how does your content + Tender your own good fortune? + SEBASTIAN. I remember + You did supplant your brother Prospero. + ANTONIO. True. + And look how well my garments sit upon me, + Much feater than before. My brother's servants + Were then my fellows; now they are my men. + SEBASTIAN. But, for your conscience- + ANTONIO. Ay, sir; where lies that? If 'twere a kibe, + 'Twould put me to my slipper; but I feel not + This deity in my bosom; twenty consciences + That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they + And melt, ere they molest! Here lies your brother, + No better than the earth he lies upon, + If he were that which now he's like-that's dead; + Whom I with this obedient steel, three inches of it, + Can lay to bed for ever; whiles you, doing thus, + To the perpetual wink for aye might put + This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who + Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest, + They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk; + They'll tell the clock to any business that + We say befits the hour. + SEBASTIAN. Thy case, dear friend, + Shall be my precedent; as thou got'st Milan, + I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword. One stroke + Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest; + And I the King shall love thee. + ANTONIO. Draw together; + And when I rear my hand, do you the like, + To fall it on Gonzalo. + SEBASTIAN. O, but one word. [They talk apart] + + Re-enter ARIEL, invisible, with music and song + + ARIEL. My master through his art foresees the danger + That you, his friend, are in; and sends me forth- + For else his project dies-to keep them living. + [Sings in GONZALO'S ear] + While you here do snoring lie, + Open-ey'd conspiracy + His time doth take. + If of life you keep a care, + Shake off slumber, and beware. + Awake, awake! + + ANTONIO. Then let us both be sudden. + GONZALO. Now, good angels + Preserve the King! [They wake] + ALONSO. Why, how now?-Ho, awake!-Why are you drawn? + Wherefore this ghastly looking? + GONZALO. What's the matter? + SEBASTIAN. Whiles we stood here securing your repose, + Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing + Like bulls, or rather lions; did't not wake you? + It struck mine ear most terribly. + ALONSO. I heard nothing. + ANTONIO. O, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear, + To make an earthquake! Sure it was the roar + Of a whole herd of lions. + ALONSO. Heard you this, Gonzalo? + GONZALO. Upon mine honour, sir, I heard a humming, + And that a strange one too, which did awake me; + I shak'd you, sir, and cried; as mine eyes open'd, + I saw their weapons drawn-there was a noise, + That's verily. 'Tis best we stand upon our guard, + Or that we quit this place. Let's draw our weapons. + ALONSO. Lead off this ground; and let's make further + search + For my poor son. + GONZALO. Heavens keep him from these beasts! + For he is, sure, i' th' island. + ALONSO. Lead away. + ARIEL. Prospero my lord shall know what I have done; + So, King, go safely on to seek thy son. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 2 + +Another part of the island + +Enter CALIBAN, with a burden of wood. A noise of thunder heard + + CALIBAN. All the infections that the sun sucks up + From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him + By inch-meal a disease! His spirits hear me, + And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch, + Fright me with urchin-shows, pitch me i' th' mire, + Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark + Out of my way, unless he bid 'em; but + For every trifle are they set upon me; + Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me, + And after bite me; then like hedgehogs which + Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount + Their pricks at my footfall; sometime am I + All wound with adders, who with cloven tongues + Do hiss me into madness. + + Enter TRINCULO + + Lo, now, lo! + Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me + For bringing wood in slowly. I'll fall flat; + Perchance he will not mind me. + TRINCULO. Here's neither bush nor shrub to bear off any + weather at all, and another storm brewing; I hear it + sing i' th' wind. Yond same black cloud, yond huge one, + looks like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor. If + it should thunder as it did before, I know not where to + hide my head. Yond same cloud cannot choose but fall by + pailfuls. What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or + alive? A fish: he smells like a fish; a very ancient and + fish-like smell; kind of not-of-the-newest Poor-John. A + strange fish! Were I in England now, as once I was, and + had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but + would give a piece of silver. There would this monster + make a man; any strange beast there makes a man; when + they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they + will lay out ten to see a dead Indian. Legg'd like a + man, and his fins like arms! Warm, o' my troth! I do now + let loose my opinion; hold it no longer: this is no + fish, but an islander, that hath lately suffered by + thunderbolt. [Thunder] Alas, the storm is come again! My + best way is to creep under his gaberdine; there is no + other shelter hereabout. Misery acquaints a man with + strange bed-fellows. I will here shroud till the dregs + of the storm be past. + + Enter STEPHANO singing; a bottle in his hand + + STEPHANO. I shall no more to sea, to sea, + Here shall I die ashore- + This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's funeral; + well, here's my comfort. [Drinks] + + The master, the swabber, the boatswain, and I, + The gunner, and his mate, + Lov'd Mall, Meg, and Marian, and Margery, + But none of us car'd for Kate; + For she had a tongue with a tang, + Would cry to a sailor 'Go hang!' + She lov'd not the savour of tar nor of pitch, + Yet a tailor might scratch her where'er she did itch. + Then to sea, boys, and let her go hang! + + This is a scurvy tune too; but here's my comfort. + [Drinks] + CALIBAN. Do not torment me. O! + STEPHANO. What's the matter? Have we devils here? Do you + put tricks upon 's with savages and men of Ind? Ha! I + have not scap'd drowning to be afeard now of your four + legs; for it hath been said: As proper a man as ever + went on four legs cannot make him give ground; and it + shall be said so again, while Stephano breathes at + nostrils. + CALIBAN. The spirit torments me. O! + STEPHANO. This is some monster of the isle with four legs, + who hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil + should he learn our language? I will give him some + relief, if it be but for that. If I can recover him, and + keep him tame, and get to Naples with him, he's a + present for any emperor that ever trod on neat's + leather. + CALIBAN. Do not torment me, prithee; I'll bring my wood + home faster. + STEPHANO. He's in his fit now, and does not talk after the + wisest. He shall taste of my bottle; if he have never + drunk wine afore, it will go near to remove his fit. If + I can recover him, and keep him tame, I will not take + too much for him; he shall pay for him that hath him, + and that soundly. + CALIBAN. Thou dost me yet but little hurt; thou wilt anon, + I know it by thy trembling; now Prosper works upon thee. + STEPHANO. Come on your ways; open your mouth; here is + that which will give language to you, cat. Open your + mouth; this will shake your shaking, I can tell you, and + that soundly; you cannot tell who's your friend. Open + your chaps again. + TRINCULO. I should know that voice; it should be-but he is + drown'd; and these are devils. O, defend me! + STEPHANO. Four legs and two voices; a most delicate monster! + His forward voice, now, is to speak well of his + friend; his backward voice is to utter foul speeches and + to detract. If all the wine in my bottle will recover + him, I will help his ague. Come-Amen! I will pour some + in thy other mouth. + TRINCULO. Stephano! + STEPHANO. Doth thy other mouth call me? Mercy, mercy! + This is a devil, and no monster; I will leave him; I + have no long spoon. + TRINCULO. Stephano! If thou beest Stephano, touch me, and + speak to me; for I am Trinculo-be not afeard-thy good + friend Trinculo. + STEPHANO. If thou beest Trinculo, come forth; I'll pull + the by the lesser legs; if any be Trinculo's legs, these + are they. Thou art very Trinculo indeed! How cam'st thou + to be the siege of this moon-calf? Can he vent + Trinculos? + TRINCULO. I took him to be kill'd with a thunderstroke. + But art thou not drown'd, Stephano? I hope now thou are + not drown'd. Is the storm overblown? I hid me under the + dead moon-calf's gaberdine for fear of the storm. And + art thou living, Stephano? O Stephano, two Neapolitans + scap'd! + STEPHANO. Prithee, do not turn me about; my stomach is not + constant. + CALIBAN. [Aside] These be fine things, an if they be not + sprites. + That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor. + I will kneel to him. + STEPHANO. How didst thou scape? How cam'st thou hither? + Swear by this bottle how thou cam'st hither-I escap'd + upon a butt of sack, which the sailors heaved o'erboard- + by this bottle, which I made of the bark of a tree, with + mine own hands, since I was cast ashore. + CALIBAN. I'll swear upon that bottle to be thy true + subject, for the liquor is not earthly. + STEPHANO. Here; swear then how thou escap'dst. + TRINCULO. Swum ashore, man, like a duck; I can swim like + a duck, I'll be sworn. + STEPHANO. [Passing the bottle] Here, kiss the book. Though + thou canst swim like a duck, thou art made like a + goose. + TRINCULO. O Stephano, hast any more of this? + STEPHANO. The whole butt, man; my cellar is in a rock by + th' seaside, where my wine is hid. How now, moon-calf! + How does thine ague? + CALIBAN. Hast thou not dropp'd from heaven? + STEPHANO. Out o' th' moon, I do assure thee; I was the Man + i' th' Moon, when time was. + CALIBAN. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee. My + mistress show'd me thee, and thy dog and thy bush. + STEPHANO. Come, swear to that; kiss the book. I will + furnish it anon with new contents. Swear. + [CALIBAN drinks] + TRINCULO. By this good light, this is a very shallow + monster! + I afeard of him! A very weak monster! The Man i' th' + Moon! A most poor credulous monster! Well drawn, + monster, in good sooth! + CALIBAN. I'll show thee every fertile inch o' th' island; + and will kiss thy foot. I prithee be my god. + TRINCULO. By this light, a most perfidious and drunken + monster! When's god's asleep he'll rob his bottle. + CALIBAN. I'll kiss thy foot; I'll swear myself thy + subject. + STEPHANO. Come on, then; down, and swear. + TRINCULO. I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy- + headed monster. A most scurvy monster! I could find in + my heart to beat him- + STEPHANO. Come, kiss. + TRINCULO. But that the poor monster's in drink. An + abominable monster! + CALIBAN. I'll show thee the best springs; I'll pluck thee + berries; + I'll fish for thee, and get thee wood enough. + A plague upon the tyrant that I serve! + I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee, + Thou wondrous man. + TRINCULO. A most ridiculous monster, to make a wonder of + a poor drunkard! + CALIBAN. I prithee let me bring thee where crabs grow; + And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts; + Show thee a jay's nest, and instruct thee how + To snare the nimble marmoset; I'll bring thee + To clust'ring filberts, and sometimes I'll get thee + Young scamels from the rock. Wilt thou go with me? + STEPHANO. I prithee now, lead the way without any more + talking. Trinculo, the King and all our company else + being drown'd, we will inherit here. Here, bear my bottle. + Fellow Trinculo, we'll fill him by and by again. + CALIBAN. [Sings drunkenly] Farewell, master; farewell, + farewell! + TRINCULO. A howling monster; a drunken monster! + CALIBAN. No more dams I'll make for fish; + Nor fetch in firing + At requiring, + Nor scrape trenchering, nor wash dish. + 'Ban 'Ban, Ca-Caliban, + Has a new master-Get a new man. + Freedom, high-day! high-day, freedom! freedom, high- + day, freedom! + STEPHANO. O brave monster! Lead the way. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE 1 + +Before PROSPERO'S cell + +Enter FERDINAND, hearing a log + + FERDINAND. There be some sports are painful, and their + labour + Delight in them sets off; some kinds of baseness + Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters + Point to rich ends. This my mean task + Would be as heavy to me as odious, but + The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead, + And makes my labours pleasures. O, she is + Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed; + And he's compos'd of harshness. I must remove + Some thousands of these logs, and pile them up, + Upon a sore injunction; my sweet mistress + Weeps when she sees me work, and says such baseness + Had never like executor. I forget; + But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours, + Most busy, least when I do it. + + Enter MIRANDA; and PROSPERO at a distance, unseen + + MIRANDA. Alas, now; pray you, + Work not so hard; I would the lightning had + Burnt up those logs that you are enjoin'd to pile. + Pray, set it down and rest you; when this burns, + 'Twill weep for having wearied you. My father + Is hard at study; pray, now, rest yourself; + He's safe for these three hours. + FERDINAND. O most dear mistress, + The sun will set before I shall discharge + What I must strive to do. + MIRANDA. If you'll sit down, + I'll bear your logs the while; pray give me that; + I'll carry it to the pile. + FERDINAND. No, precious creature; + I had rather crack my sinews, break my back, + Than you should such dishonour undergo, + While I sit lazy by. + MIRANDA. It would become me + As well as it does you; and I should do it + With much more ease; for my good will is to it, + And yours it is against. + PROSPERO. [Aside] Poor worm, thou art infected! + This visitation shows it. + MIRANDA. You look wearily. + FERDINAND. No, noble mistress; 'tis fresh morning with me + When you are by at night. I do beseech you, + Chiefly that I might set it in my prayers, + What is your name? + MIRANDA. Miranda-O my father, + I have broke your hest to say so! + FERDINAND. Admir'd Miranda! + What's dearest to the world! Full many a lady + I have ey'd with best regard; and many a time + Th' harmony of their tongues hath into bondage + Brought my too diligent ear; for several virtues + Have I lik'd several women, never any + With so full soul, but some defect in her + Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd, + And put it to the foil; but you, O you, + So perfect and so peerless, are created + Of every creature's best! + MIRANDA. I do not know + One of my sex; no woman's face remember, + Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen + More that I may call men than you, good friend, + And my dear father. How features are abroad, + I am skilless of; but, by my modesty, + The jewel in my dower, I would not wish + Any companion in the world but you; + Nor can imagination form a shape, + Besides yourself, to like of. But I prattle + Something too wildly, and my father's precepts + I therein do forget. + FERDINAND. I am, in my condition, + A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king- + I would not so!-and would no more endure + This wooden slavery than to suffer + The flesh-fly blow my mouth. Hear my soul speak: + The very instant that I saw you, did + My heart fly to your service; there resides + To make me slave to it; and for your sake + Am I this patient log-man. + MIRANDA. Do you love me? + FERDINAND. O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this sound, + And crown what I profess with kind event, + If I speak true! If hollowly, invert + What best is boded me to mischief! I, + Beyond all limit of what else i' th' world, + Do love, prize, honour you. + MIRANDA. I am a fool + To weep at what I am glad of. + PROSPERO. [Aside] Fair encounter + Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace + On that which breeds between 'em! + FERDINAND. Wherefore weep you? + MIRANDA. At mine unworthiness, that dare not offer + What I desire to give, and much less take + What I shall die to want. But this is trifling; + And all the more it seeks to hide itself, + The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning! + And prompt me, plain and holy innocence! + I am your wife, if you will marry me; + If not, I'll die your maid. To be your fellow + You may deny me; but I'll be your servant, + Whether you will or no. + FERDINAND. My mistress, dearest; + And I thus humble ever. + MIRANDA. My husband, then? + FERDINAND. Ay, with a heart as willing + As bondage e'er of freedom. Here's my hand. + MIRANDA. And mine, with my heart in't. And now farewell + Till half an hour hence. + FERDINAND. A thousand thousand! + Exeunt FERDINAND and MIRANDA severally + PROSPERO. So glad of this as they I cannot be, + Who are surpris'd withal; but my rejoicing + At nothing can be more. I'll to my book; + For yet ere supper time must I perform + Much business appertaining. Exit + + + + +SCENE 2 + +Another part of the island + +Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO + + STEPHANO. Tell not me-when the butt is out we will drink + water, not a drop before; therefore bear up, and board + 'em. Servant-monster, drink to me. + TRINCULO. Servant-monster! The folly of this island! They + say there's but five upon this isle: we are three of + them; if th' other two be brain'd like us, the state + totters. + STEPHANO. Drink, servant-monster, when I bid thee; thy + eyes are almost set in thy head. + TRINCULO. Where should they be set else? He were a brave + monster indeed, if they were set in his tail. + STEPHANO. My man-monster hath drown'd his tongue in + sack. For my part, the sea cannot drown me; I swam, ere + I could recover the shore, five and thirty leagues, off + and on. By this light, thou shalt be my lieutenant, + monster, or my standard. + TRINCULO. Your lieutenant, if you list; he's no standard. + STEPHANO. We'll not run, Monsieur Monster. + TRINCULO. Nor go neither; but you'll lie like dogs, and + yet say nothing neither. + STEPHANO. Moon-calf, speak once in thy life, if thou beest + a good moon-calf. + CALIBAN. How does thy honour? Let me lick thy shoe. + I'll not serve him; he is not valiant. + TRINCULO. Thou liest, most ignorant monster: I am in case + to justle a constable. Why, thou debosh'd fish, thou, + was there ever man a coward that hath drunk so much sack + as I to-day? Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie, being but + half fish and half a monster? + CALIBAN. Lo, how he mocks me! Wilt thou let him, my + lord? + TRINCULO. 'Lord' quoth he! That a monster should be such + a natural! + CALIBAN. Lo, lo again! Bite him to death, I prithee. + STEPHANO. Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head; if + you prove a mutineer-the next tree! The poor monster's + my subject, and he shall not suffer indignity. + CALIBAN. I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleas'd to + hearken once again to the suit I made to thee? + STEPHANO. Marry will I; kneel and repeat it; I will stand, + and so shall Trinculo. + + Enter ARIEL, invisible + + CALIBAN. As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, + sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the + island. + ARIEL. Thou liest. + CALIBAN. Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou; + I would my valiant master would destroy thee. + I do not lie. + STEPHANO. Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in's tale, + by this hand, I will supplant some of your teeth. + TRINCULO. Why, I said nothing. + STEPHANO. Mum, then, and no more. Proceed. + CALIBAN. I say, by sorcery he got this isle; + From me he got it. If thy greatness will + Revenge it on him-for I know thou dar'st, + But this thing dare not- + STEPHANO. That's most certain. + CALIBAN. Thou shalt be lord of it, and I'll serve thee. + STEPHANO. How now shall this be compass'd? Canst thou + bring me to the party? + CALIBAN. Yea, yea, my lord; I'll yield him thee asleep, + Where thou mayst knock a nail into his head. + ARIEL. Thou liest; thou canst not. + CALIBAN. What a pied ninny's this! Thou scurvy patch! + I do beseech thy greatness, give him blows, + And take his bottle from him. When that's gone + He shall drink nought but brine; for I'll not show him + Where the quick freshes are. + STEPHANO. Trinculo, run into no further danger; interrupt + the monster one word further and, by this hand, I'll turn + my mercy out o' doors, and make a stock-fish of thee. + TRINCULO. Why, what did I? I did nothing. I'll go farther + off. + STEPHANO. Didst thou not say he lied? + ARIEL. Thou liest. + STEPHANO. Do I so? Take thou that. [Beats him] As you like + this, give me the lie another time. + TRINCULO. I did not give the lie. Out o' your wits and + hearing too? A pox o' your bottle! This can sack and + drinking do. A murrain on your monster, and the devil + take your fingers! + CALIBAN. Ha, ha, ha! + STEPHANO. Now, forward with your tale.-Prithee stand + further off. + CALIBAN. Beat him enough; after a little time, I'll beat + him too. + STEPHANO. Stand farther. Come, proceed. + CALIBAN. Why, as I told thee, 'tis a custom with him + I' th' afternoon to sleep; there thou mayst brain him, + Having first seiz'd his books; or with a log + Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake, + Or cut his wezand with thy knife. Remember + First to possess his books; for without them + He's but a sot, as I am, nor hath not + One spirit to command; they all do hate him + As rootedly as I. Burn but his books. + He has brave utensils-for so he calls them- + Which, when he has a house, he'll deck withal. + And that most deeply to consider is + The beauty of his daughter; he himself + Calls her a nonpareil. I never saw a woman + But only Sycorax my dam and she; + But she as far surpasseth Sycorax + As great'st does least. + STEPHANO. Is it so brave a lass? + CALIBAN. Ay, lord; she will become thy bed, I warrant, + And bring thee forth brave brood. + STEPHANO. Monster, I will kill this man; his daughter and I + will be King and Queen-save our Graces!-and Trinculo + and thyself shall be viceroys. Dost thou like the plot, + Trinculo? + TRINCULO. Excellent. + STEPHANO. Give me thy hand; I am sorry I beat thee; but + while thou liv'st, keep a good tongue in thy head. + CALIBAN. Within this half hour will he be asleep. + Wilt thou destroy him then? + STEPHANO. Ay, on mine honour. + ARIEL. This will I tell my master. + CALIBAN. Thou mak'st me merry; I am full of pleasure. + Let us be jocund; will you troll the catch + You taught me but while-ere? + STEPHANO. At thy request, monster, I will do reason, any + reason. Come on, Trinculo, let us sing. [Sings] + + Flout 'em and scout 'em, + And scout 'em and flout 'em; + Thought is free. + + CALIBAN. That's not the tune. + [ARIEL plays the tune on a tabor and pipe] + STEPHANO. What is this same? + TRINCULO. This is the tune of our catch, play'd by the + picture of Nobody. + STEPHANO. If thou beest a man, show thyself in thy + likeness; if thou beest a devil, take't as thou list. + TRINCULO. O, forgive me my sins! + STEPHANO. He that dies pays all debts. I defy thee. Mercy + upon us! + CALIBAN. Art thou afeard? + STEPHANO. No, monster, not I. + CALIBAN. Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, + Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not. + Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments + Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices, + That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep, + Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming, + The clouds methought would open and show riches + Ready to drop upon me, that, when I wak'd, + I cried to dream again. + STEPHANO. This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I + shall have my music for nothing. + CALIBAN. When Prospero is destroy'd. + STEPHANO. That shall be by and by; I remember the story. + TRINCULO. The sound is going away; let's follow it, and + after do our work. + STEPHANO. Lead, monster; we'll follow. I would I could see + this taborer; he lays it on. + TRINCULO. Wilt come? I'll follow, Stephano. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE 3 + +Another part of the island + +Enter ALONSO, SEBASTIAN, ANTONIO, GONZALO, ADRIAN, FRANCISCO, and OTHERS + + GONZALO. By'r lakin, I can go no further, sir; + My old bones ache. Here's a maze trod, indeed, + Through forth-rights and meanders! By your patience, + I needs must rest me. + ALONSO. Old lord, I cannot blame thee, + Who am myself attach'd with weariness + To th' dulling of my spirits; sit down and rest. + Even here I will put off my hope, and keep it + No longer for my flatterer; he is drown'd + Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks + Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go. + ANTONIO. [Aside to SEBASTIAN] I am right glad that he's + so out of hope. + Do not, for one repulse, forgo the purpose + That you resolv'd t' effect. + SEBASTIAN. [Aside to ANTONIO] The next advantage + Will we take throughly. + ANTONIO. [Aside to SEBASTIAN] Let it be to-night; + For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they + Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance + As when they are fresh. + SEBASTIAN. [Aside to ANTONIO] I say, to-night; no more. + + Solemn and strange music; and PROSPERO on the + top, invisible. Enter several strange SHAPES, + bringing in a banquet; and dance about it with + gentle actions of salutations; and inviting the + KING, etc., to eat, they depart + + ALONSO. What harmony is this? My good friends, hark! + GONZALO. Marvellous sweet music! + ALONSO. Give us kind keepers, heavens! What were these? + SEBASTIAN. A living drollery. Now I will believe + That there are unicorns; that in Arabia + There is one tree, the phoenix' throne, one phoenix + At this hour reigning-there. + ANTONIO. I'll believe both; + And what does else want credit, come to me, + And I'll be sworn 'tis true; travellers ne'er did lie, + Though fools at home condemn 'em. + GONZALO. If in Naples + I should report this now, would they believe me? + If I should say, I saw such islanders, + For certes these are people of the island, + Who though they are of monstrous shape yet, note, + Their manners are more gentle-kind than of + Our human generation you shall find + Many, nay, almost any. + PROSPERO. [Aside] Honest lord, + Thou hast said well; for some of you there present + Are worse than devils. + ALONSO. I cannot too much muse + Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing, + Although they want the use of tongue, a kind + Of excellent dumb discourse. + PROSPERO. [Aside] Praise in departing. + FRANCISCO. They vanish'd strangely. + SEBASTIAN. No matter, since + They have left their viands behind; for we have stomachs. + Will't please you taste of what is here? + ALONSO. Not I. + GONZALO. Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys, + Who would believe that there were mountaineers, + Dewlapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em + Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men + Whose heads stood in their breasts? which now we find + Each putter-out of five for one will bring us + Good warrant of. + ALONSO. I will stand to, and feed, + Although my last; no matter, since I feel + The best is past. Brother, my lord the Duke, + Stand to, and do as we. + + Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL, like a harpy; + claps his wings upon the table; and, with a quaint + device, the banquet vanishes + + ARIEL. You are three men of sin, whom Destiny, + That hath to instrument this lower world + And what is in't, the never-surfeited sea + Hath caus'd to belch up you; and on this island + Where man doth not inhabit-you 'mongst men + Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad; + And even with such-like valour men hang and drown + Their proper selves. + [ALONSO, SEBASTIAN etc., draw their swords] + You fools! I and my fellows + Are ministers of Fate; the elements + Of whom your swords are temper'd may as well + Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs + Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish + One dowle that's in my plume; my fellow-ministers + Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt, + Your swords are now too massy for your strengths + And will not be uplifted. But remember- + For that's my business to you-that you three + From Milan did supplant good Prospero; + Expos'd unto the sea, which hath requit it, + Him, and his innocent child; for which foul deed + The pow'rs, delaying, not forgetting, have + Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures, + Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso, + They have bereft; and do pronounce by me + Ling'ring perdition, worse than any death + Can be at once, shall step by step attend + You and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from- + Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls + Upon your heads-is nothing but heart's sorrow, + And a clear life ensuing. + + He vanishes in thunder; then, to soft music, enter + the SHAPES again, and dance, with mocks and mows, + and carrying out the table + + PROSPERO. Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou + Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring. + Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated + In what thou hadst to say; so, with good life + And observation strange, my meaner ministers + Their several kinds have done. My high charms work, + And these mine enemies are all knit up + In their distractions. They now are in my pow'r; + And in these fits I leave them, while I visit + Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown'd, + And his and mine lov'd darling. Exit above + GONZALO. I' th' name of something holy, sir, why stand you + In this strange stare? + ALONSO. O, it is monstrous, monstrous! + Methought the billows spoke, and told me of it; + The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder, + That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd + The name of Prosper; it did bass my trespass. + Therefore my son i' th' ooze is bedded; and + I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded, + And with him there lie mudded. Exit + SEBASTIAN. But one fiend at a time, + I'll fight their legions o'er. + ANTONIO. I'll be thy second. Exeunt SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO + GONZALO. All three of them are desperate; their great guilt, + Like poison given to work a great time after, + Now gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you, + That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly, + And hinder them from what this ecstasy + May now provoke them to. + ADRIAN. Follow, I pray you. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 1 + +Before PROSPERO'S cell + +Enter PROSPERO, FERDINAND, and MIRANDA + + PROSPERO. If I have too austerely punish'd you, + Your compensation makes amends; for + Have given you here a third of mine own life, + Or that for which I live; who once again + I tender to thy hand. All thy vexations + Were but my trials of thy love, and thou + Hast strangely stood the test; here, afore heaven, + I ratify this my rich gift. O Ferdinand! + Do not smile at me that I boast her off, + For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise, + And make it halt behind her. + FERDINAND. I do believe it + Against an oracle. + PROSPERO. Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition + Wort'hily purchas'd, take my daughter. But + If thou dost break her virgin-knot before + All sanctimonious ceremonies may + With full and holy rite be minist'red, + No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall + To make this contract grow; but barren hate, + Sour-ey'd disdain, and discord, shall bestrew + The union of your bed with weeds so loathly + That you shall hate it both. Therefore take heed, + As Hymen's lamps shall light you. + FERDINAND. As I hope + For quiet days, fair issue, and long life, + With such love as 'tis now, the murkiest den, + The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion + Our worser genius can, shall never melt + Mine honour into lust, to take away + The edge of that day's celebration, + When I shall think or Phoebus' steeds are founder'd + Or Night kept chain'd below. + PROSPERO. Fairly spoke. + Sit, then, and talk with her; she is thine own. + What, Ariel! my industrious servant, Ariel! + + Enter ARIEL + + ARIEL. What would my potent master? Here I am. + PROSPERO. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service + Did worthily perform; and I must use you + In such another trick. Go bring the rabble, + O'er whom I give thee pow'r, here to this place. + Incite them to quick motion; for I must + Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple + Some vanity of mine art; it is my promise, + And they expect it from me. + ARIEL. Presently? + PROSPERO. Ay, with a twink. + ARIEL. Before you can say 'come' and 'go,' + And breathe twice, and cry 'so, so,' + Each one, tripping on his toe, + Will be here with mop and mow. + Do you love me, master? No? + PROSPERO. Dearly, my delicate Ariel. Do not approach + Till thou dost hear me call. + ARIEL. Well! I conceive. Exit + PROSPERO. Look thou be true; do not give dalliance + Too much the rein; the strongest oaths are straw + To th' fire i' th' blood. Be more abstemious, + Or else good night your vow! + FERDINAND. I warrant you, sir, + The white cold virgin snow upon my heart + Abates the ardour of my liver. + PROSPERO. Well! + Now come, my Ariel, bring a corollary, + Rather than want a spirit; appear, and pertly. + No tongue! All eyes! Be silent. [Soft music] + + Enter IRIS + + IRIS. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas + Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and pease; + Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, + And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep; + Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims, + Which spongy April at thy hest betrims, + To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom groves, + Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, + Being lass-lorn; thy pole-clipt vineyard; + And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky hard, + Where thou thyself dost air-the Queen o' th' sky, + Whose wat'ry arch and messenger am I, + Bids thee leave these; and with her sovereign grace, + Here on this grass-plot, in this very place, + To come and sport. Her peacocks fly amain. + [JUNO descends in her car] + Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain. + + Enter CERES + + CERES. Hail, many-coloured messenger, that ne'er + Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter; + Who, with thy saffron wings, upon my flow'rs + Diffusest honey drops, refreshing show'rs; + And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown + My bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down, + Rich scarf to my proud earth-why hath thy Queen + Summon'd me hither to this short-grass'd green? + IRIS. A contract of true love to celebrate, + And some donation freely to estate + On the blest lovers. + CERES. Tell me, heavenly bow, + If Venus or her son, as thou dost know, + Do now attend the Queen? Since they did plot + The means that dusky Dis my daughter got, + Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company + I have forsworn. + IRIS. Of her society + Be not afraid. I met her Deity + Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, and her son + Dove-drawn with her. Here thought they to have done + Some wanton charm upon this man and maid, + Whose vows are that no bed-rite shall be paid + Till Hymen's torch be lighted; but in vain. + Mars's hot minion is return'd again; + Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows, + Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows, + And be a boy right out. [JUNO alights] + CERES. Highest Queen of State, + Great Juno, comes; I know her by her gait. + JUNO. How does my bounteous sister? Go with me + To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be, + And honour'd in their issue. [They sing] + JUNO. Honour, riches, marriage-blessing, + Long continuance, and increasing, + Hourly joys be still upon you! + Juno sings her blessings on you. + CERES. Earth's increase, foison plenty, + Barns and gamers never empty; + Vines with clust'ring bunches growing, + Plants with goodly burden bowing; + Spring come to you at the farthest, + In the very end of harvest! + Scarcity and want shall shun you, + Ceres' blessing so is on you. + FERDINAND. This is a most majestic vision, and + Harmonious charmingly. May I be bold + To think these spirits? + PROSPERO. Spirits, which by mine art + I have from their confines call'd to enact + My present fancies. + FERDINAND. Let me live here ever; + So rare a wond'red father and a wise + Makes this place Paradise. + [JUNO and CERES whisper, and send IRIS on employment] + PROSPERO. Sweet now, silence; + Juno and Ceres whisper seriously. + There's something else to do; hush, and be mute, + Or else our spell is marr'd. + IRIS. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the wind'ring brooks, + With your sedg'd crowns and ever harmless looks, + Leave your crisp channels, and on this green land + Answer your summons; Juno does command. + Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate + A contract of true love; be not too late. + + Enter certain NYMPHS + + You sun-burnt sicklemen, of August weary, + Come hither from the furrow, and be merry; + Make holiday; your rye-straw hats put on, + And these fresh nymphs encounter every one + In country footing. + + Enter certain REAPERS, properly habited; they join + with the NYMPHS in a graceful dance; towards the + end whereof PROSPERO starts suddenly, and speaks, + after which, to a strange, hollow, and confused + noise, they heavily vanish + + PROSPERO. [Aside] I had forgot that foul conspiracy + Of the beast Caliban and his confederates + Against my life; the minute of their plot + Is almost come. [To the SPIRITS] Well done; avoid; no + more! + FERDINAND. This is strange; your father's in some passion + That works him strongly. + MIRANDA. Never till this day + Saw I him touch'd with anger so distemper'd. + PROSPERO. You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort, + As if you were dismay'd; be cheerful, sir. + Our revels now are ended. These our actors, + As I foretold you, were all spirits, and + Are melted into air, into thin air; + And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, + The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, + The solemn temples, the great globe itself, + Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, + And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, + Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff + As dreams are made on; and our little life + Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd; + Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled; + Be not disturb'd with my infirmity. + If you be pleas'd, retire into my cell + And there repose; a turn or two I'll walk + To still my beating mind. + FERDINAND, MIRANDA. We wish your peace. Exeunt + PROSPERO. Come, with a thought. I thank thee, Ariel; come. + + Enter ARIEL + + ARIEL. Thy thoughts I cleave to. What's thy pleasure? + PROSPERO. Spirit, + We must prepare to meet with Caliban. + ARIEL. Ay, my commander. When I presented 'Ceres.' + I thought to have told thee of it; but I fear'd + Lest I might anger thee. + PROSPERO. Say again, where didst thou leave these varlets? + ARIEL. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking; + So full of valour that they smote the air + For breathing in their faces; beat the ground + For kissing of their feet; yet always bending + Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor, + At which like unback'd colts they prick'd their ears, + Advanc'd their eyelids, lifted up their noses + As they smelt music; so I charm'd their cars, + That calf-like they my lowing follow'd through + Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss, and thorns, + Which ent'red their frail shins. At last I left them + I' th' filthy mantled pool beyond your cell, + There dancing up to th' chins, that the foul lake + O'erstunk their feet. + PROSPERO. This was well done, my bird. + Thy shape invisible retain thou still. + The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither + For stale to catch these thieves. + ARIEL. I go, I go. Exit + PROSPERO. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature + Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains, + Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost; + And as with age his body uglier grows, + So his mind cankers. I will plague them all, + Even to roaring. + + Re-enter ARIEL, loaden with glistering apparel, &c. + + Come, hang them on this line. + [PROSPERO and ARIEL remain, invisible] + + Enter CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO, all wet + + CALIBAN. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may not + Hear a foot fall; we now are near his cell. + STEPHANO. Monster, your fairy, which you say is a harmless + fairy, has done little better than play'd the Jack with us. + TRINCULO. Monster, I do smell all horse-piss at which my + nose is in great indignation. + STEPHANO. So is mine. Do you hear, monster? If I should + take a displeasure against you, look you- + TRINCULO. Thou wert but a lost monster. + CALIBAN. Good my lord, give me thy favour still. + Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to + Shall hoodwink this mischance; therefore speak softly. + All's hush'd as midnight yet. + TRINCULO. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool! + STEPHANO. There is not only disgrace and dishonour in + that, monster, but an infinite loss. + TRINCULO. That's more to me than my wetting; yet this is + your harmless fairy, monster. + STEPHANO. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er + ears for my labour. + CALIBAN. Prithee, my king, be quiet. Seest thou here, + This is the mouth o' th' cell; no noise, and enter. + Do that good mischief which may make this island + Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban, + For aye thy foot-licker. + STEPHANO. Give me thy hand. I do begin to have bloody + thoughts. + TRINCULO. O King Stephano! O peer! O worthy Stephano! + Look what a wardrobe here is for thee! + CALIBAN. Let it alone, thou fool; it is but trash. + TRINCULO. O, ho, monster; we know what belongs to a + frippery. O King Stephano! + STEPHANO. Put off that gown, Trinculo; by this hand, I'll + have that gown. + TRINCULO. Thy Grace shall have it. + CALIBAN. The dropsy drown this fool! What do you mean + To dote thus on such luggage? Let 't alone, + And do the murder first. If he awake, + From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches; + Make us strange stuff. + STEPHANO. Be you quiet, monster. Mistress line, is not + this my jerkin? Now is the jerkin under the line; now, + jerkin, you are like to lose your hair, and prove a bald + jerkin. + TRINCULO. Do, do. We steal by line and level, an't like + your Grace. + STEPHANO. I thank thee for that jest; here's a garment + for't. Wit shall not go unrewarded while I am king of + this country. 'Steal by line and level' is an excellent + pass of pate; there's another garmet for't. + TRINCULO. Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers, + and away with the rest. + CALIBAN. I will have none on't. We shall lose our time, + And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes + With foreheads villainous low. + STEPHANO. Monster, lay-to your fingers; help to bear this + away where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out + of my kingdom. Go to, carry this. + TRINCULO. And this. + STEPHANO. Ay, and this. + + A noise of hunters beard. Enter divers SPIRITS, in + shape of dogs and hounds, bunting them about; + PROSPERO and ARIEL setting them on + + PROSPERO. Hey, Mountain, hey! + ARIEL. Silver! there it goes, Silver! + PROSPERO. Fury, Fury! There, Tyrant, there! Hark, hark! + [CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO are driven out] + Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints + With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews + With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make them + Than pard or cat o' mountain. + ARIEL. Hark, they roar. + PROSPERO. Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour + Lies at my mercy all mine enemies. + Shortly shall all my labours end, and thou + Shalt have the air at freedom; for a little + Follow, and do me service. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE 1 + +Before PROSPERO'S cell + +Enter PROSPERO in his magic robes, and ARIEL + + PROSPERO. Now does my project gather to a head; + My charms crack not, my spirits obey; and time + Goes upright with his carriage. How's the day? + ARIEL. On the sixth hour; at which time, my lord, + You said our work should cease. + PROSPERO. I did say so, + When first I rais'd the tempest. Say, my spirit, + How fares the King and 's followers? + ARIEL. Confin'd together + In the same fashion as you gave in charge; + Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir, + In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell; + They cannot budge till your release. The King, + His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted, + And the remainder mourning over them, + Brim full of sorrow and dismay; but chiefly + Him you term'd, sir, 'the good old lord, Gonzalo'; + His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops + From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works 'em + That if you now beheld them your affections + Would become tender. + PROSPERO. Dost thou think so, spirit? + ARIEL. Mine would, sir, were I human. + PROSPERO. And mine shall. + Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling + Of their afflictions, and shall not myself, + One of their kind, that relish all as sharply, + Passion as they, be kindlier mov'd than thou art? + Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th' quick, + Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury + Do I take part; the rarer action is + In virtue than in vengeance; they being penitent, + The sole drift of my purpose doth extend + Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel; + My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore, + And they shall be themselves. + ARIEL. I'll fetch them, sir. Exit + PROSPERO. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and + groves; + And ye that on the sands with printless foot + Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him + When he comes back; you demi-puppets that + By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, + Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime + Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice + To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid- + Weak masters though ye be-I have be-dimm'd + The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds, + And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd vault + Set roaring war. To the dread rattling thunder + Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak + With his own bolt; the strong-bas'd promontory + Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck'd up + The pine and cedar. Graves at my command + Have wak'd their sleepers, op'd, and let 'em forth, + By my so potent art. But this rough magic + I here abjure; and, when I have requir'd + Some heavenly music-which even now I do- + To work mine end upon their senses that + This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff, + Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, + And deeper than did ever plummet sound + I'll drown my book. [Solem music] + + Here enters ARIEL before; then ALONSO, with + frantic gesture, attended by GONZALO; SEBASTIAN + and ANTONIO in like manner, attended by ADRIAN + and FRANCISCO. They all enter the circle which + PROSPERO had made, and there stand charm'd; which + PROSPERO observing, speaks + + A solemn air, and the best comforter + To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains, + Now useless, boil'd within thy skull! There stand, + For you are spell-stopp'd. + Holy Gonzalo, honourable man, + Mine eyes, ev'n sociable to the show of thine, + Fall fellowly drops. The charm dissolves apace, + And as the morning steals upon the night, + Melting the darkness, so their rising senses + Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle + Their clearer reason. O good Gonzalo, + My true preserver, and a loyal sir + To him thou follow'st! I will pay thy graces + Home both in word and deed. Most cruelly + Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter; + Thy brother was a furtherer in the act. + Thou art pinch'd for't now, Sebastian. Flesh and blood, + You, brother mine, that entertain'd ambition, + Expell'd remorse and nature, who, with Sebastian- + Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong- + Would here have kill'd your king, I do forgive thee, + Unnatural though thou art. Their understanding + Begins to swell, and the approaching tide + Will shortly fill the reasonable shore + That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them + That yet looks on me, or would know me. Ariel, + Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell; Exit ARIEL + I will discase me, and myself present + As I was sometime Milan. Quickly, spirit + Thou shalt ere long be free. + + ARIEL, on returning, sings and helps to attire him + + Where the bee sucks, there suck I; + In a cowslip's bell I lie; + There I couch when owls do cry. + On the bat's back I do fly + After summer merrily. + Merrily, merrily shall I live now + Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. + + PROSPERO. Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee; + But yet thou shalt have freedom. So, so, so. + To the King's ship, invisible as thou art; + There shalt thou find the mariners asleep + Under the hatches; the master and the boatswain + Being awake, enforce them to this place; + And presently, I prithee. + ARIEL. I drink the air before me, and return + Or ere your pulse twice beat. Exit + GONZALO. All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement, + Inhabits here. Some heavenly power guide us + Out of this fearful country! + PROSPERO. Behold, Sir King, + The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero. + For more assurance that a living prince + Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body; + And to thee and thy company I bid + A hearty welcome. + ALONSO. Whe'er thou be'st he or no, + Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me, + As late I have been, I not know. Thy pulse + Beats, as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee, + Th' affliction of my mind amends, with which, + I fear, a madness held me. This must crave- + An if this be at all-a most strange story. + Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat + Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should Prospero + Be living and be here? + PROSPERO. First, noble friend, + Let me embrace thine age, whose honour cannot + Be measur'd or confin'd. + GONZALO. Whether this be + Or be not, I'll not swear. + PROSPERO. You do yet taste + Some subtleties o' th' isle, that will not let you + Believe things certain. Welcome, my friends all! + [Aside to SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO] But you, my brace of + lords, were I so minded, + I here could pluck his Highness' frown upon you, + And justify you traitors; at this time + I will tell no tales. + SEBASTIAN. [Aside] The devil speaks in him. + PROSPERO. No. + For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother + Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive + Thy rankest fault-all of them; and require + My dukedom of thee, which perforce I know + Thou must restore. + ALONSO. If thou beest Prospero, + Give us particulars of thy preservation; + How thou hast met us here, whom three hours since + Were wreck'd upon this shore; where I have lost- + How sharp the point of this remembrance is!- + My dear son Ferdinand. + PROSPERO. I am woe for't, sir. + ALONSO. Irreparable is the loss; and patience + Says it is past her cure. + PROSPERO. I rather think + You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace + For the like loss I have her sovereign aid, + And rest myself content. + ALONSO. You the like loss! + PROSPERO. As great to me as late; and, supportable + To make the dear loss, have I means much weaker + Than you may call to comfort you, for I + Have lost my daughter. + ALONSO. A daughter! + O heavens, that they were living both in Naples, + The King and Queen there! That they were, I wish + Myself were mudded in that oozy bed + Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter? + PROSPERO. In this last tempest. I perceive these lords + At this encounter do so much admire + That they devour their reason, and scarce think + Their eyes do offices of truth, their words + Are natural breath; but, howsoe'er you have + Been justled from your senses, know for certain + That I am Prospero, and that very duke + Which was thrust forth of Milan; who most strangely + Upon this shore, where you were wrecked, was landed + To be the lord on't. No more yet of this; + For 'tis a chronicle of day by day, + Not a relation for a breakfast, nor + Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir; + This cell's my court; here have I few attendants, + And subjects none abroad; pray you, look in. + My dukedom since you have given me again, + I will requite you with as good a thing; + At least bring forth a wonder, to content ye + As much as me my dukedom. + + Here PROSPERO discovers FERDINAND and MIRANDA, + playing at chess + + MIRANDA. Sweet lord, you play me false. + FERDINAND. No, my dearest love, + I would not for the world. + MIRANDA. Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle + And I would call it fair play. + ALONSO. If this prove + A vision of the island, one dear son + Shall I twice lose. + SEBASTIAN. A most high miracle! + FERDINAND. Though the seas threaten, they are merciful; + I have curs'd them without cause. [Kneels] + ALONSO. Now all the blessings + Of a glad father compass thee about! + Arise, and say how thou cam'st here. + MIRANDA. O, wonder! + How many goodly creatures are there here! + How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world + That has such people in't! + PROSPERO. 'Tis new to thee. + ALONSO. What is this maid with whom thou wast at play? + Your eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours; + Is she the goddess that hath sever'd us, + And brought us thus together? + FERDINAND. Sir, she is mortal; + But by immortal Providence she's mine. + I chose her when I could not ask my father + For his advice, nor thought I had one. She + Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan, + Of whom so often I have heard renown + But never saw before; of whom I have + Receiv'd a second life; and second father + This lady makes him to me. + ALONSO. I am hers. + But, O, how oddly will it sound that I + Must ask my child forgiveness! + PROSPERO. There, sir, stop; + Let us not burden our remembrances with + A heaviness that's gone. + GONZALO. I have inly wept, + Or should have spoke ere this. Look down, you gods, + And on this couple drop a blessed crown; + For it is you that have chalk'd forth the way + Which brought us hither. + ALONSO. I say, Amen, Gonzalo! + GONZALO. Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue + Should become Kings of Naples? O, rejoice + Beyond a common joy, and set it down + With gold on lasting pillars: in one voyage + Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis; + And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife + Where he himself was lost; Prospero his dukedom + In a poor isle; and all of us ourselves + When no man was his own. + ALONSO. [To FERDINAND and MIRANDA] Give me your + hands. + Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart + That doth not wish you joy. + GONZALO. Be it so. Amen! + + Re-enter ARIEL, with the MASTER and BOATSWAIN + amazedly following + + O look, sir; look, sir! Here is more of us! + I prophesied, if a gallows were on land, + This fellow could not drown. Now, blasphemy, + That swear'st grace o'erboard, not an oath on shore? + Hast thou no mouth by land? What is the news? + BOATSWAIN. The best news is that we have safely found + Our King and company; the next, our ship- + Which but three glasses since we gave out split- + Is tight and yare, and bravely rigg'd, as when + We first put out to sea. + ARIEL. [Aside to PROSPERO] Sir, all this service + Have I done since I went. + PROSPERO. [Aside to ARIEL] My tricksy spirit! + ALONSO. These are not natural events; they strengthen + From strange to stranger. Say, how came you hither? + BOATSWAIN. If I did think, sir, I were well awake, + I'd strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep, + And-how, we know not-all clapp'd under hatches; + Where, but even now, with strange and several noises + Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains, + And moe diversity of sounds, all horrible, + We were awak'd; straightway at liberty; + Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld + Our royal, good, and gallant ship; our master + Cap'ring to eye her. On a trice, so please you, + Even in a dream, were we divided from them, + And were brought moping hither. + ARIEL. [Aside to PROSPERO] Was't well done? + PROSPERO. [Aside to ARIEL] Bravely, my diligence. Thou + shalt be free. + ALONSO. This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod; + And there is in this business more than nature + Was ever conduct of. Some oracle + Must rectify our knowledge. + PROSPERO. Sir, my liege, + Do not infest your mind with beating on + The strangeness of this business; at pick'd leisure, + Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve you, + Which to you shall seem probable, of every + These happen'd accidents; till when, be cheerful + And think of each thing well. [Aside to ARIEL] Come + hither, spirit; + Set Caliban and his companions free; + Untie the spell. [Exit ARIEL] How fares my gracious sir? + There are yet missing of your company + Some few odd lads that you remember not. + + Re-enter ARIEL, driving in CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and + + TRINCULO, in their stolen apparel + STEPHANO. Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man + take care for himself; for all is but fortune. Coragio, + bully-monster, coragio! + TRINCULO. If these be true spies which I wear in my head, + here's a goodly sight. + CALIBAN. O Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed! + How fine my master is! I am afraid + He will chastise me. + SEBASTIAN. Ha, ha! + What things are these, my lord Antonio? + Will money buy'em? + ANTONIO. Very like; one of them + Is a plain fish, and no doubt marketable. + PROSPERO. Mark but the badges of these men, my lords, + Then say if they be true. This mis-shapen knave- + His mother was a witch, and one so strong + That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs, + And deal in her command without her power. + These three have robb'd me; and this demi-devil- + For he's a bastard one-had plotted with them + To take my life. Two of these fellows you + Must know and own; this thing of darkness I + Acknowledge mine. + CALIBAN. I shall be pinch'd to death. + ALONSO. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler? + SEBASTIAN. He is drunk now; where had he wine? + ALONSO. And Trinculo is reeling ripe; where should they + Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em? + How cam'st thou in this pickle? + TRINCULO. I have been in such a pickle since I saw you + last that, I fear me, will never out of my bones. I + shall not fear fly-blowing. + SEBASTIAN. Why, how now, Stephano! + STEPHANO. O, touch me not; I am not Stephano, but a + cramp. + PROSPERO. You'd be king o' the isle, sirrah? + STEPHANO. I should have been a sore one, then. + ALONSO. [Pointing to CALIBAN] This is as strange a thing + as e'er I look'd on. + PROSPERO. He is as disproportioned in his manners + As in his shape. Go, sirrah, to my cell; + Take with you your companions; as you look + To have my pardon, trim it handsomely. + CALIBAN. Ay, that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter, + And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass + Was I to take this drunkard for a god, + And worship this dull fool! + PROSPERO. Go to; away! + ALONSO. Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found it. + SEBASTIAN. Or stole it, rather. + Exeunt CALIBAN, STEPHANO, and TRINCULO + PROSPERO. Sir, I invite your Highness and your train + To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest + For this one night; which, part of it, I'll waste + With such discourse as, I not doubt, shall make it + Go quick away-the story of my life, + And the particular accidents gone by + Since I came to this isle. And in the morn + I'll bring you to your ship, and so to Naples, + Where I have hope to see the nuptial + Of these our dear-belov'd solemnized, + And thence retire me to my Milan, where + Every third thought shall be my grave. + ALONSO. I long + To hear the story of your life, which must + Take the ear strangely. + PROSPERO. I'll deliver all; + And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales, + And sail so expeditious that shall catch + Your royal fleet far off. [Aside to ARIEL] My Ariel, + chick, + That is thy charge. Then to the elements + Be free, and fare thou well!-Please you, draw near. + Exeunt + + + +EPILOGUE + EPILOGUE + Spoken by PROSPERO + + Now my charms are all o'erthrown, + And what strength I have's mine own, + Which is most faint. Now 'tis true, + I must be here confin'd by you, + Or sent to Naples. Let me not, + Since I have my dukedom got, + And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell + In this bare island by your spell; + But release me from my bands + With the help of your good hands. + Gentle breath of yours my sails + Must fill, or else my project fails, + Which was to please. Now I want + Spirits to enforce, art to enchant; + And my ending is despair + Unless I be reliev'd by prayer, + Which pierces so that it assaults + Mercy itself, and frees all faults. + As you from crimes would pardon'd be, + Let your indulgence set me free. + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1608 + +THE LIFE OF TIMON OF ATHENS + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + TIMON of Athens + + LUCIUS + LUCULLUS + SEMPRONIUS + flattering lords + + VENTIDIUS, one of Timon's false friends + ALCIBIADES, an Athenian captain + APEMANTUS, a churlish philosopher + FLAVIUS, steward to Timon + + FLAMINIUS + LUCILIUS + SERVILIUS + Timon's servants + + CAPHIS + PHILOTUS + TITUS + HORTENSIUS + servants to Timon's creditors + + POET + PAINTER + JEWELLER + MERCHANT + MERCER + AN OLD ATHENIAN + THREE STRANGERS + A PAGE + A FOOL + + PHRYNIA + TIMANDRA + mistresses to Alcibiades + + CUPID + AMAZONS + in the Masque + + Lords, Senators, Officers, Soldiers, Servants, Thieves, and + Attendants + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +Athens and the neighbouring woods + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Athens. TIMON'S house + +Enter POET, PAINTER, JEWELLER, MERCHANT, and MERCER, at several doors + + POET. Good day, sir. + PAINTER. I am glad y'are well. + POET. I have not seen you long; how goes the world? + PAINTER. It wears, sir, as it grows. + POET. Ay, that's well known. + But what particular rarity? What strange, + Which manifold record not matches? See, + Magic of bounty, all these spirits thy power + Hath conjur'd to attend! I know the merchant. + PAINTER. I know them both; th' other's a jeweller. + MERCHANT. O, 'tis a worthy lord! + JEWELLER. Nay, that's most fix'd. + MERCHANT. A most incomparable man; breath'd, as it were, + To an untirable and continuate goodness. + He passes. + JEWELLER. I have a jewel here- + MERCHANT. O, pray let's see't. For the Lord Timon, sir? + JEWELLER. If he will touch the estimate. But for that- + POET. When we for recompense have prais'd the vile, + It stains the glory in that happy verse + Which aptly sings the good. + MERCHANT. [Looking at the jewel] 'Tis a good form. + JEWELLER. And rich. Here is a water, look ye. + PAINTER. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication + To the great lord. + POET. A thing slipp'd idly from me. + Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes + From whence 'tis nourish'd. The fire i' th' flint + Shows not till it be struck: our gentle flame + Provokes itself, and like the current flies + Each bound it chafes. What have you there? + PAINTER. A picture, sir. When comes your book forth? + POET. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir. + Let's see your piece. + PAINTER. 'Tis a good piece. + POET. So 'tis; this comes off well and excellent. + PAINTER. Indifferent. + POET. Admirable. How this grace + Speaks his own standing! What a mental power + This eye shoots forth! How big imagination + Moves in this lip! To th' dumbness of the gesture + One might interpret. + PAINTER. It is a pretty mocking of the life. + Here is a touch; is't good? + POET. I will say of it + It tutors nature. Artificial strife + Lives in these touches, livelier than life. + + Enter certain SENATORS, and pass over + + PAINTER. How this lord is followed! + POET. The senators of Athens- happy man! + PAINTER. Look, moe! + POET. You see this confluence, this great flood of visitors. + I have in this rough work shap'd out a man + Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug + With amplest entertainment. My free drift + Halts not particularly, but moves itself + In a wide sea of tax. No levell'd malice + Infects one comma in the course I hold, + But flies an eagle flight, bold and forth on, + Leaving no tract behind. + PAINTER. How shall I understand you? + POET. I will unbolt to you. + You see how all conditions, how all minds- + As well of glib and slipp'ry creatures as + Of grave and austere quality, tender down + Their services to Lord Timon. His large fortune, + Upon his good and gracious nature hanging, + Subdues and properties to his love and tendance + All sorts of hearts; yea, from the glass-fac'd flatterer + To Apemantus, that few things loves better + Than to abhor himself; even he drops down + The knee before him, and returns in peace + Most rich in Timon's nod. + PAINTER. I saw them speak together. + POET. Sir, I have upon a high and pleasant hill + Feign'd Fortune to be thron'd. The base o' th' mount + Is rank'd with all deserts, all kind of natures + That labour on the bosom of this sphere + To propagate their states. Amongst them all + Whose eyes are on this sovereign lady fix'd + One do I personate of Lord Timon's frame, + Whom Fortune with her ivory hand wafts to her; + Whose present grace to present slaves and servants + Translates his rivals. + PAINTER. 'Tis conceiv'd to scope. + This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, + With one man beckon'd from the rest below, + Bowing his head against the steepy mount + To climb his happiness, would be well express'd + In our condition. + POET. Nay, sir, but hear me on. + All those which were his fellows but of late- + Some better than his value- on the moment + Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance, + Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear, + Make sacred even his stirrup, and through him + Drink the free air. + PAINTER. Ay, marry, what of these? + POET. When Fortune in her shift and change of mood + Spurns down her late beloved, all his dependants, + Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top + Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down, + Not one accompanying his declining foot. + PAINTER. 'Tis common. + A thousand moral paintings I can show + That shall demonstrate these quick blows of Fortune's + More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well + To show Lord Timon that mean eyes have seen + The foot above the head. + + Trumpets sound. Enter TIMON, addressing himself + courteously to every suitor, a MESSENGER from + VENTIDIUS talking with him; LUCILIUS and other + servants following + + TIMON. Imprison'd is he, say you? + MESSENGER. Ay, my good lord. Five talents is his debt; + His means most short, his creditors most strait. + Your honourable letter he desires + To those have shut him up; which failing, + Periods his comfort. + TIMON. Noble Ventidius! Well. + I am not of that feather to shake of + My friend when he must need me. I do know him + A gentleman that well deserves a help, + Which he shall have. I'll pay the debt, and free him. + MESSENGER. Your lordship ever binds him. + TIMON. Commend me to him; I will send his ransom; + And being enfranchis'd, bid him come to me. + 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, + But to support him after. Fare you well. + MESSENGER. All happiness to your honour! Exit + + Enter an OLD ATHENIAN + + OLD ATHENIAN. Lord Timon, hear me speak. + TIMON. Freely, good father. + OLD ATHENIAN. Thou hast a servant nam'd Lucilius. + TIMON. I have so; what of him? + OLD ATHENIAN. Most noble Timon, call the man before thee. + TIMON. Attends he here, or no? Lucilius! + LUCILIUS. Here, at your lordship's service. + OLD ATHENIAN. This fellow here, Lord Timon, this thy creature, + By night frequents my house. I am a man + That from my first have been inclin'd to thrift, + And my estate deserves an heir more rais'd + Than one which holds a trencher. + TIMON. Well; what further? + OLD ATHENIAN. One only daughter have I, no kin else, + On whom I may confer what I have got. + The maid is fair, o' th' youngest for a bride, + And I have bred her at my dearest cost + In qualities of the best. This man of thine + Attempts her love; I prithee, noble lord, + Join with me to forbid him her resort; + Myself have spoke in vain. + TIMON. The man is honest. + OLD ATHENIAN. Therefore he will be, Timon. + His honesty rewards him in itself; + It must not bear my daughter. + TIMON. Does she love him? + OLD ATHENIAN. She is young and apt: + Our own precedent passions do instruct us + What levity's in youth. + TIMON. Love you the maid? + LUCILIUS. Ay, my good lord, and she accepts of it. + OLD ATHENIAN. If in her marriage my consent be missing, + I call the gods to witness I will choose + Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world, + And dispossess her all. + TIMON. How shall she be endow'd, + If she be mated with an equal husband? + OLD ATHENIAN. Three talents on the present; in future, all. + TIMON. This gentleman of mine hath serv'd me long;. + To build his fortune I will strain a little, + For 'tis a bond in men. Give him thy daughter: + What you bestow, in him I'll counterpoise, + And make him weigh with her. + OLD ATHENIAN. Most noble lord, + Pawn me to this your honour, she is his. + TIMON. My hand to thee; mine honour on my promise. + LUCILIUS. Humbly I thank your lordship. Never may + That state or fortune fall into my keeping + Which is not owed to you! + Exeunt LUCILIUS and OLD ATHENIAN + POET. [Presenting his poem] Vouchsafe my labour, and long live your + lordship! + TIMON. I thank you; you shall hear from me anon; + Go not away. What have you there, my friend? + PAINTER. A piece of painting, which I do beseech + Your lordship to accept. + TIMON. Painting is welcome. + The painting is almost the natural man; + For since dishonour traffics with man's nature, + He is but outside; these pencill'd figures are + Even such as they give out. I like your work, + And you shall find I like it; wait attendance + Till you hear further from me. + PAINTER. The gods preserve ye! + TIMON. Well fare you, gentleman. Give me your hand; + We must needs dine together. Sir, your jewel + Hath suffered under praise. + JEWELLER. What, my lord! Dispraise? + TIMON. A mere satiety of commendations; + If I should pay you for't as 'tis extoll'd, + It would unclew me quite. + JEWELLER. My lord, 'tis rated + As those which sell would give; but you well know + Things of like value, differing in the owners, + Are prized by their masters. Believe't, dear lord, + You mend the jewel by the wearing it. + TIMON. Well mock'd. + + Enter APEMANTUS + + MERCHANT. No, my good lord; he speaks the common tongue, + Which all men speak with him. + TIMON. Look who comes here; will you be chid? + JEWELLER. We'll bear, with your lordship. + MERCHANT. He'll spare none. + TIMON. Good morrow to thee, gentle Apemantus! + APEMANTUS. Till I be gentle, stay thou for thy good morrow; + When thou art Timon's dog, and these knaves honest. + TIMON. Why dost thou call them knaves? Thou know'st them not. + APEMANTUS. Are they not Athenians? + TIMON. Yes. + APEMANTUS. Then I repent not. + JEWELLER. You know me, Apemantus? + APEMANTUS. Thou know'st I do; I call'd thee by thy name. + TIMON. Thou art proud, Apemantus. + APEMANTUS. Of nothing so much as that I am not like Timon. + TIMON. Whither art going? + APEMANTUS. To knock out an honest Athenian's brains. + TIMON. That's a deed thou't die for. + APEMANTUS. Right, if doing nothing be death by th' law. + TIMON. How lik'st thou this picture, Apemantus? + APEMANTUS. The best, for the innocence. + TIMON. Wrought he not well that painted it? + APEMANTUS. He wrought better that made the painter; and yet he's + but a filthy piece of work. + PAINTER. Y'are a dog. + APEMANTUS. Thy mother's of my generation; what's she, if I be a dog? + TIMON. Wilt dine with me, Apemantus? + APEMANTUS. No; I eat not lords. + TIMON. An thou shouldst, thou'dst anger ladies. + APEMANTUS. O, they eat lords; so they come by great bellies. + TIMON. That's a lascivious apprehension. + APEMANTUS. So thou apprehend'st it take it for thy labour. + TIMON. How dost thou like this jewel, Apemantus? + APEMANTUS. Not so well as plain dealing, which will not cost a man + a doit. + TIMON. What dost thou think 'tis worth? + APEMANTUS. Not worth my thinking. How now, poet! + POET. How now, philosopher! + APEMANTUS. Thou liest. + POET. Art not one? + APEMANTUS. Yes. + POET. Then I lie not. + APEMANTUS. Art not a poet? + POET. Yes. + APEMANTUS. Then thou liest. Look in thy last work, where thou hast + feign'd him a worthy fellow. + POET. That's not feign'd- he is so. + APEMANTUS. Yes, he is worthy of thee, and to pay thee for thy + labour. He that loves to be flattered is worthy o' th' flatterer. + Heavens, that I were a lord! + TIMON. What wouldst do then, Apemantus? + APEMANTUS. E'en as Apemantus does now: hate a lord with my heart. + TIMON. What, thyself? + APEMANTUS. Ay. + TIMON. Wherefore? + APEMANTUS. That I had no angry wit to be a lord.- Art not thou a + merchant? + MERCHANT. Ay, Apemantus. + APEMANTUS. Traffic confound thee, if the gods will not! + MERCHANT. If traffic do it, the gods do it. + APEMANTUS. Traffic's thy god, and thy god confound thee! + + Trumpet sounds. Enter a MESSENGER + + TIMON. What trumpet's that? + MESSENGER. 'Tis Alcibiades, and some twenty horse, + All of companionship. + TIMON. Pray entertain them; give them guide to us. + Exeunt some attendants + You must needs dine with me. Go not you hence + Till I have thank'd you. When dinner's done + Show me this piece. I am joyful of your sights. + + Enter ALCIBIADES, with the rest + + Most welcome, sir! [They salute] + APEMANTUS. So, so, there! + Aches contract and starve your supple joints! + That there should be small love amongst these sweet knaves, + And all this courtesy! The strain of man's bred out + Into baboon and monkey. + ALCIBIADES. Sir, you have sav'd my longing, and I feed + Most hungerly on your sight. + TIMON. Right welcome, sir! + Ere we depart we'll share a bounteous time + In different pleasures. Pray you, let us in. + Exeunt all but APEMANTUS + + Enter two LORDS + + FIRST LORD. What time o' day is't, Apemantus? + APEMANTUS. Time to be honest. + FIRST LORD. That time serves still. + APEMANTUS. The more accursed thou that still omit'st it. + SECOND LORD. Thou art going to Lord Timon's feast. + APEMANTUS. Ay; to see meat fill knaves and wine heat fools. + SECOND LORD. Fare thee well, fare thee well. + APEMANTUS. Thou art a fool to bid me farewell twice. + SECOND LORD. Why, Apemantus? + APEMANTUS. Shouldst have kept one to thyself, for I mean to give + thee none. + FIRST LORD. Hang thyself. + APEMANTUS. No, I will do nothing at thy bidding; make thy requests + to thy friend. + SECOND LORD. Away, unpeaceable dog, or I'll spurn thee hence. + APEMANTUS. I will fly, like a dog, the heels o' th' ass. Exit + FIRST LORD. He's opposite to humanity. Come, shall we in + And taste Lord Timon's bounty? He outgoes + The very heart of kindness. + SECOND LORD. He pours it out: Plutus, the god of gold, + Is but his steward; no meed but he repays + Sevenfold above itself; no gift to him + But breeds the giver a return exceeding + All use of quittance. + FIRST LORD. The noblest mind he carries + That ever govern'd man. + SECOND LORD. Long may he live in fortunes! shall we in? + FIRST LORD. I'll keep you company. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +A room of state in TIMON'S house + +Hautboys playing loud music. A great banquet serv'd in; +FLAVIUS and others attending; and then enter LORD TIMON, the states, +the ATHENIAN LORDS, VENTIDIUS, which TIMON redeem'd from prison. +Then comes, dropping after all, APEMANTUS, discontentedly, like himself + + VENTIDIUS. Most honoured Timon, + It hath pleas'd the gods to remember my father's age, + And call him to long peace. + He is gone happy, and has left me rich. + Then, as in grateful virtue I am bound + To your free heart, I do return those talents, + Doubled with thanks and service, from whose help + I deriv'd liberty. + TIMON. O, by no means, + Honest Ventidius! You mistake my love; + I gave it freely ever; and there's none + Can truly say he gives, if he receives. + If our betters play at that game, we must not dare + To imitate them: faults that are rich are fair. + VENTIDIUS. A noble spirit! + TIMON. Nay, my lords, ceremony was but devis'd at first + To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes, + Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown; + But where there is true friendship there needs none. + Pray, sit; more welcome are ye to my fortunes + Than my fortunes to me. [They sit] + FIRST LORD. My lord, we always have confess'd it. + APEMANTUS. Ho, ho, confess'd it! Hang'd it, have you not? + TIMON. O, Apemantus, you are welcome. + APEMANTUS. No; + You shall not make me welcome. + I come to have thee thrust me out of doors. + TIMON. Fie, th'art a churl; ye have got a humour there + Does not become a man; 'tis much to blame. + They say, my lords, Ira furor brevis est; but yond man is ever + angry. Go, let him have a table by himself; for he does neither + affect company nor is he fit for't indeed. + APEMANTUS. Let me stay at thine apperil, Timon. + I come to observe; I give thee warning on't. + TIMON. I take no heed of thee. Th'art an Athenian, therefore + welcome. I myself would have no power; prithee let my meat make + thee silent. + APEMANTUS. I scorn thy meat; 't'would choke me, for I should ne'er + flatter thee. O you gods, what a number of men eats Timon, and he + sees 'em not! It grieves me to see so many dip their meat in one + man's blood; and all the madness is, he cheers them up too. + I wonder men dare trust themselves with men. + Methinks they should invite them without knives: + Good for their meat and safer for their lives. + There's much example for't; the fellow that sits next him now, + parts bread with him, pledges the breath of him in a divided + draught, is the readiest man to kill him. 'T has been proved. If + I were a huge man I should fear to drink at meals. + Lest they should spy my windpipe's dangerous notes: + Great men should drink with harness on their throats. + TIMON. My lord, in heart! and let the health go round. + SECOND LORD. Let it flow this way, my good lord. + APEMANTUS. Flow this way! A brave fellow! He keeps his tides well. + Those healths will make thee and thy state look ill, Timon. + Here's that which is too weak to be a sinner, honest water, which + ne'er left man i' th' mire. + This and my food are equals; there's no odds.' + Feasts are too proud to give thanks to the gods. + + APEMANTUS' Grace + + Immortal gods, I crave no pelf; + I pray for no man but myself. + Grant I may never prove so fond + To trust man on his oath or bond, + Or a harlot for her weeping, + Or a dog that seems a-sleeping, + Or a keeper with my freedom, + Or my friends, if I should need 'em. + Amen. So fall to't. + Rich men sin, and I eat root. [Eats and drinks] + + Much good dich thy good heart, Apemantus! + TIMON. Captain Alcibiades, your heart's in the field now. + ALCIBIADES. My heart is ever at your service, my lord. + TIMON. You had rather be at a breakfast of enemies than dinner of + friends. + ALCIBIADES. So they were bleeding new, my lord, there's no meat + like 'em; I could wish my best friend at such a feast. + APEMANTUS. Would all those flatterers were thine enemies then, that + then thou mightst kill 'em, and bid me to 'em. + FIRST LORD. Might we but have that happiness, my lord, that you + would once use our hearts, whereby we might express some part of + our zeals, we should think ourselves for ever perfect. + TIMON. O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods themselves have + provided that I shall have much help from you. How had you been + my friends else? Why have you that charitable title from + thousands, did not you chiefly belong to my heart? I have told + more of you to myself than you can with modesty speak in your own + behalf; and thus far I confirm you. O you gods, think I, what + need we have any friends if we should ne'er have need of 'em? + They were the most needless creatures living, should we ne'er + have use for 'em; and would most resemble sweet instruments hung + up in cases, that keep their sounds to themselves. Why, I have + often wish'd myself poorer, that I might come nearer to you. We + are born to do benefits; and what better or properer can we call + our own than the riches of our friends? O, what a precious + comfort 'tis to have so many like brothers commanding one + another's fortunes! O, joy's e'en made away ere't can be born! + Mine eyes cannot hold out water, methinks. To forget their + faults, I drink to you. + APEMANTUS. Thou weep'st to make them drink, Timon. + SECOND LORD. Joy had the like conception in our eyes, + And at that instant like a babe sprung up. + APEMANTUS. Ho, ho! I laugh to think that babe a bastard. + THIRD LORD. I promise you, my lord, you mov'd me much. + APEMANTUS. Much! [Sound tucket] + TIMON. What means that trump? + + Enter a SERVANT + + How now? + SERVANT. Please you, my lord, there are certain ladies most + desirous of admittance. + TIMON. Ladies! What are their wills? + SERVANT. There comes with them a forerunner, my lord, which bears + that office to signify their pleasures. + TIMON. I pray let them be admitted. + + Enter CUPID + CUPID. Hail to thee, worthy Timon, and to all + That of his bounties taste! The five best Senses + Acknowledge thee their patron, and come freely + To gratulate thy plenteous bosom. Th' Ear, + Taste, Touch, Smell, pleas'd from thy table rise; + They only now come but to feast thine eyes. + TIMON. They're welcome all; let 'em have kind admittance. + Music, make their welcome. Exit CUPID + FIRST LORD. You see, my lord, how ample y'are belov'd. + + Music. Re-enter CUPID, witb a Masque of LADIES as Amazons, + with lutes in their hands, dancing and playing + + APEMANTUS. Hoy-day, what a sweep of vanity comes this way! + They dance? They are mad women. + Like madness is the glory of this life, + As this pomp shows to a little oil and root. + We make ourselves fools to disport ourselves, + And spend our flatteries to drink those men + Upon whose age we void it up again + With poisonous spite and envy. + Who lives that's not depraved or depraves? + Who dies that bears not one spurn to their graves + Of their friends' gift? + I should fear those that dance before me now + Would one day stamp upon me. 'T has been done: + Men shut their doors against a setting sun. + + The LORDS rise from table, with much adoring of + TIMON; and to show their loves, each single out an + Amazon, and all dance, men witb women, a lofty + strain or two to the hautboys, and cease + + TIMON. You have done our pleasures much grace, fair ladies, + Set a fair fashion on our entertainment, + Which was not half so beautiful and kind; + You have added worth unto't and lustre, + And entertain'd me with mine own device; + I am to thank you for't. + FIRST LADY. My lord, you take us even at the best. + APEMANTUS. Faith, for the worst is filthy, and would not hold + taking, I doubt me. + TIMON. Ladies, there is an idle banquet attends you; + Please you to dispose yourselves. + ALL LADIES. Most thankfully, my lord. + Exeunt CUPID and LADIES + TIMON. Flavius! + FLAVIUS. My lord? + TIMON. The little casket bring me hither. + FLAVIUS. Yes, my lord. [Aside] More jewels yet! + There is no crossing him in's humour, + Else I should tell him- well i' faith, I should- + When all's spent, he'd be cross'd then, an he could. + 'Tis pity bounty had not eyes behind, + That man might ne'er be wretched for his mind. Exit + FIRST LORD. Where be our men? + SERVANT. Here, my lord, in readiness. + SECOND LORD. Our horses! + + Re-enter FLAVIUS, with the casket + + TIMON. O my friends, + I have one word to say to you. Look you, my good lord, + I must entreat you honour me so much + As to advance this jewel; accept it and wear it, + Kind my lord. + FIRST LORD. I am so far already in your gifts- + ALL. So are we all. + + Enter a SERVANT + + SERVANT. My lord, there are certain nobles of the Senate newly + alighted and come to visit you. + TIMON. They are fairly welcome. Exit SERVANT + FLAVIUS. I beseech your honour, vouchsafe me a word; it does + concern you near. + TIMON. Near! Why then, another time I'll hear thee. I prithee let's + be provided to show them entertainment. + FLAVIUS. [Aside] I scarce know how. + + Enter another SERVANT + + SECOND SERVANT. May it please vour honour, Lord Lucius, out of his + free love, hath presented to you four milk-white horses, trapp'd + in silver. + TIMON. I shall accept them fairly. Let the presents + Be worthily entertain'd. Exit SERVANT + + Enter a third SERVANT + + How now! What news? + THIRD SERVANT. Please you, my lord, that honourable gentleman, Lord + Lucullus, entreats your company to-morrow to hunt with him and + has sent your honour two brace of greyhounds. + TIMON. I'll hunt with him; and let them be receiv'd, + Not without fair reward. Exit SERVANT + FLAVIUS. [Aside] What will this come to? + He commands us to provide and give great gifts, + And all out of an empty coffer; + Nor will he know his purse, or yield me this, + To show him what a beggar his heart is, + Being of no power to make his wishes good. + His promises fly so beyond his state + That what he speaks is all in debt; he owes + For ev'ry word. He is so kind that he now + Pays interest for't; his land's put to their books. + Well, would I were gently put out of office + Before I were forc'd out! + Happier is he that has no friend to feed + Than such that do e'en enemies exceed. + I bleed inwardly for my lord. Exit + TIMON. You do yourselves much wrong; + You bate too much of your own merits. + Here, my lord, a trifle of our love. + SECOND LORD. With more than common thanks I will receive it. + THIRD LORD. O, he's the very soul of bounty! + TIMON. And now I remember, my lord, you gave good words the other + day of a bay courser I rode on. 'Tis yours because you lik'd it. + THIRD LORD. O, I beseech you pardon me, my lord, in that. + TIMON. You may take my word, my lord: I know no man + Can justly praise but what he does affect. + I weigh my friend's affection with mine own. + I'll tell you true; I'll call to you. + ALL LORDS. O, none so welcome! + TIMON. I take all and your several visitations + So kind to heart 'tis not enough to give; + Methinks I could deal kingdoms to my friends + And ne'er be weary. Alcibiades, + Thou art a soldier, therefore seldom rich. + It comes in charity to thee; for all thy living + Is 'mongst the dead, and all the lands thou hast + Lie in a pitch'd field. + ALCIBIADES. Ay, defil'd land, my lord. + FIRST LORD. We are so virtuously bound- + TIMON. And so am I to you. + SECOND LORD. So infinitely endear'd- + TIMON. All to you. Lights, more lights! + FIRST LORD. The best of happiness, honour, and fortunes, keep with + you, Lord Timon! + TIMON. Ready for his friends. + Exeunt all but APEMANTUS and TIMON + APEMANTUS. What a coil's here! + Serving of becks and jutting-out of bums! + I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums + That are given for 'em. Friendship's full of dregs: + Methinks false hearts should never have sound legs. + Thus honest fools lay out their wealth on curtsies. + TIMON. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen + I would be good to thee. + APEMANTUS. No, I'll nothing; for if I should be brib'd too, there + would be none left to rail upon thee, and then thou wouldst sin + the faster. Thou giv'st so long, Timon, I fear me thou wilt give + away thyself in paper shortly. What needs these feasts, pomps, + and vain-glories? + TIMON. Nay, an you begin to rail on society once, I am sworn not to + give regard to you. Farewell; and come with better music. + Exit + APEMANTUS. So. Thou wilt not hear me now: thou shalt not then. I'll + lock thy heaven from thee. + O that men's ears should be + To counsel deaf, but not to flattery! Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +A SENATOR'S house + +Enter A SENATOR, with papers in his hand + + SENATOR. And late, five thousand. To Varro and to Isidore + He owes nine thousand; besides my former sum, + Which makes it five and twenty. Still in motion + Of raging waste? It cannot hold; it will not. + If I want gold, steal but a beggar's dog + And give it Timon, why, the dog coins gold. + If I would sell my horse and buy twenty moe + Better than he, why, give my horse to Timon, + Ask nothing, give it him, it foals me straight, + And able horses. No porter at his gate, + But rather one that smiles and still invites + All that pass by. It cannot hold; no reason + Can sound his state in safety. Caphis, ho! + Caphis, I say! + + Enter CAPHIS + + CAPHIS. Here, sir; what is your pleasure? + SENATOR. Get on your cloak and haste you to Lord Timon; + Importune him for my moneys; be not ceas'd + With slight denial, nor then silenc'd when + 'Commend me to your master' and the cap + Plays in the right hand, thus; but tell him + My uses cry to me, I must serve my turn + Out of mine own; his days and times are past, + And my reliances on his fracted dates + Have smit my credit. I love and honour him, + But must not break my back to heal his finger. + Immediate are my needs, and my relief + Must not be toss'd and turn'd to me in words, + But find supply immediate. Get you gone; + Put on a most importunate aspect, + A visage of demand; for I do fear, + When every feather sticks in his own wing, + Lord Timon will be left a naked gull, + Which flashes now a phoenix. Get you gone. + CAPHIS. I go, sir. + SENATOR. Take the bonds along with you, + And have the dates in compt. + CAPHIS. I will, sir. + SENATOR. Go. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Before TIMON'S house + +Enter FLAVIUS, TIMON'S Steward, with many bills in his hand + + FLAVIUS. No care, no stop! So senseless of expense + That he will neither know how to maintain it + Nor cease his flow of riot; takes no account + How things go from him, nor resumes no care + Of what is to continue. Never mind + Was to be so unwise to be so kind. + What shall be done? He will not hear till feel. + I must be round with him. Now he comes from hunting. + Fie, fie, fie, fie! + + Enter CAPHIS, and the SERVANTS Of ISIDORE and VARRO + + CAPHIS. Good even, Varro. What, you come for money? + VARRO'S SERVANT. Is't not your business too? + CAPHIS. It is. And yours too, Isidore? + ISIDORE'S SERVANT. It is so. + CAPHIS. Would we were all discharg'd! + VARRO'S SERVANT. I fear it. + CAPHIS. Here comes the lord. + + Enter TIMON and his train, with ALCIBIADES + + TIMON. So soon as dinner's done we'll forth again, + My Alcibiades.- With me? What is your will? + CAPHIS. My lord, here is a note of certain dues. + TIMON. Dues! Whence are you? + CAPHIS. Of Athens here, my lord. + TIMON. Go to my steward. + CAPHIS. Please it your lordship, he hath put me off + To the succession of new days this month. + My master is awak'd by great occasion + To call upon his own, and humbly prays you + That with your other noble parts you'll suit + In giving him his right. + TIMON. Mine honest friend, + I prithee but repair to me next morning. + CAPHIS. Nay, good my lord- + TIMON. Contain thyself, good friend. + VARRO'S SERVANT. One Varro's servant, my good lord- + ISIDORE'S SERVANT. From Isidore: he humbly prays your speedy + payment- + CAPHIS. If you did know, my lord, my master's wants- + VARRO'S SERVANT. 'Twas due on forfeiture, my lord, six weeks and + past. + ISIDORE'S SERVANT. Your steward puts me off, my lord; and + I am sent expressly to your lordship. + TIMON. Give me breath. + I do beseech you, good my lords, keep on; + I'll wait upon you instantly. + Exeunt ALCIBIADES and LORDS + [To FLAVIUS] Come hither. Pray you, + How goes the world that I am thus encount'red + With clamorous demands of date-broke bonds + And the detention of long-since-due debts, + Against my honour? + FLAVIUS. Please you, gentlemen, + The time is unagreeable to this business. + Your importunacy cease till after dinner, + That I may make his lordship understand + Wherefore you are not paid. + TIMON. Do so, my friends. + See them well entertain'd. Exit + FLAVIUS. Pray draw near. Exit + + Enter APEMANTUS and FOOL + + CAPHIS. Stay, stay, here comes the fool with Apemantus. + Let's ha' some sport with 'em. + VARRO'S SERVANT. Hang him, he'll abuse us! + ISIDORE'S SERVANT. A plague upon him, dog! + VARRO'S SERVANT. How dost, fool? + APEMANTUS. Dost dialogue with thy shadow? + VARRO'S SERVANT. I speak not to thee. + APEMANTUS. No, 'tis to thyself. [To the FOOL] Come away. + ISIDORE'S SERVANT. [To VARRO'S SERVANT] There's the fool hangs on + your back already. + APEMANTUS. No, thou stand'st single; th'art not on him yet. + CAPHIS. Where's the fool now? + APEMANTUS. He last ask'd the question. Poor rogues and usurers' + men! Bawds between gold and want! + ALL SERVANTS. What are we, Apemantus? + APEMANTUS. Asses. + ALL SERVANTS. Why? + APEMANTUS. That you ask me what you are, and do not know + yourselves. Speak to 'em, fool. + FOOL. How do you, gentlemen? + ALL SERVANTS. Gramercies, good fool. How does your mistress? + FOOL. She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens as you + are. Would we could see you at Corinth! + APEMANTUS. Good! gramercy. + + Enter PAGE + + FOOL. Look you, here comes my mistress' page. + PAGE. [To the FOOL] Why, how now, Captain? What do you in this wise + company? How dost thou, Apemantus? + APEMANTUS. Would I had a rod in my mouth, that I might answer thee + profitably! + PAGE. Prithee, Apemantus, read me the superscription of these + letters; I know not which is which. + APEMANTUS. Canst not read? + PAGE. No. + APEMANTUS. There will little learning die, then, that day thou art + hang'd. This is to Lord Timon; this to Alcibiades. Go; thou wast + born a bastard, and thou't die a bawd. + PAGE. Thou wast whelp'd a dog, and thou shalt famish dog's death. + Answer not: I am gone. Exit PAGE + APEMANTUS. E'en so thou outrun'st grace. + Fool, I will go with you to Lord Timon's. + FOOL. Will you leave me there? + APEMANTUS. If Timon stay at home. You three serve three usurers? + ALL SERVANTS. Ay; would they serv'd us! + APEMANTUS. So would I- as good a trick as ever hangman serv'd + thief. + FOOL. Are you three usurers' men? + ALL SERVANTS. Ay, fool. + FOOL. I think no usurer but has a fool to his servant. My mistress + is one, and I am her fool. When men come to borrow of your + masters, they approach sadly and go away merry; but they enter my + mistress' house merrily and go away sadly. The reason of this? + VARRO'S SERVANT. I could render one. + APEMANTUS. Do it then, that we may account thee a whoremaster and a + knave; which notwithstanding, thou shalt be no less esteemed. + VARRO'S SERVANT. What is a whoremaster, fool? + FOOL. A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. 'Tis a + spirit. Sometime 't appears like a lord; sometime like a lawyer; + sometime like a philosopher, with two stones moe than's + artificial one. He is very often like a knight; and, generally, + in all shapes that man goes up and down in from fourscore to + thirteen, this spirit walks in. + VARRO'S SERVANT. Thou art not altogether a fool. + FOOL. Nor thou altogether a wise man. + As much foolery as I have, so much wit thou lack'st. + APEMANTUS. That answer might have become Apemantus. + VARRO'S SERVANT. Aside, aside; here comes Lord Timon. + + Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS + + APEMANTUS. Come with me, fool, come. + FOOL. I do not always follow lover, elder brother, and woman; + sometime the philosopher. + Exeunt APEMANTUS and FOOL + FLAVIUS. Pray you walk near; I'll speak with you anon. + Exeunt SERVANTS + TIMON. You make me marvel wherefore ere this time + Had you not fully laid my state before me, + That I might so have rated my expense + As I had leave of means. + FLAVIUS. You would not hear me + At many leisures I propos'd. + TIMON. Go to; + Perchance some single vantages you took + When my indisposition put you back, + And that unaptness made your minister + Thus to excuse yourself. + FLAVIUS. O my good lord, + At many times I brought in my accounts, + Laid them before you; you would throw them off + And say you found them in mine honesty. + When, for some trifling present, you have bid me + Return so much, I have shook my head and wept; + Yea, 'gainst th' authority of manners, pray'd you + To hold your hand more close. I did endure + Not seldom, nor no slight checks, when I have + Prompted you in the ebb of your estate + And your great flow of debts. My lov'd lord, + Though you hear now- too late!- yet now's a time: + The greatest of your having lacks a half + To pay your present debts. + TIMON. Let all my land be sold. + FLAVIUS. 'Tis all engag'd, some forfeited and gone; + And what remains will hardly stop the mouth + Of present dues. The future comes apace; + What shall defend the interim? And at length + How goes our reck'ning? + TIMON. To Lacedaemon did my land extend. + FLAVIUS. O my good lord, the world is but a word; + Were it all yours to give it in a breath, + How quickly were it gone! + TIMON. You tell me true. + FLAVIUS. If you suspect my husbandry or falsehood, + Call me before th' exactest auditors + And set me on the proof. So the gods bless me, + When all our offices have been oppress'd + With riotous feeders, when our vaults have wept + With drunken spilth of wine, when every room + Hath blaz'd with lights and bray'd with minstrelsy, + I have retir'd me to a wasteful cock + And set mine eyes at flow. + TIMON. Prithee no more. + FLAVIUS. 'Heavens,' have I said 'the bounty of this lord! + How many prodigal bits have slaves and peasants + This night englutted! Who is not Lord Timon's? + What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord Timon's? + Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon!' + Ah! when the means are gone that buy this praise, + The breath is gone whereof this praise is made. + Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter show'rs, + These flies are couch'd. + TIMON. Come, sermon me no further. + No villainous bounty yet hath pass'd my heart; + Unwisely, not ignobly, have I given. + Why dost thou weep? Canst thou the conscience lack + To think I shall lack friends? Secure thy heart: + If I would broach the vessels of my love, + And try the argument of hearts by borrowing, + Men and men's fortunes could I frankly use + As I can bid thee speak. + FLAVIUS. Assurance bless your thoughts! + TIMON. And, in some sort, these wants of mine are crown'd + That I account them blessings; for by these + Shall I try friends. You shall perceive how you + Mistake my fortunes; I am wealthy in my friends. + Within there! Flaminius! Servilius! + + Enter FLAMINIUS, SERVILIUS, and another SERVANT + + SERVANTS. My lord! my lord! + TIMON. I will dispatch you severally- you to Lord Lucius; to Lord + Lucullus you; I hunted with his honour to-day. You to Sempronius. + Commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that my occasions + have found time to use 'em toward a supply of money. Let the + request be fifty talents. + FLAMINIUS. As you have said, my lord. Exeunt SERVANTS + FLAVIUS. [Aside] Lord Lucius and Lucullus? Humh! + TIMON. Go you, sir, to the senators, + Of whom, even to the state's best health, I have + Deserv'd this hearing. Bid 'em send o' th' instant + A thousand talents to me. + FLAVIUS. I have been bold, + For that I knew it the most general way, + To them to use your signet and your name; + But they do shake their heads, and I am here + No richer in return. + TIMON. Is't true? Can't be? + FLAVIUS. They answer, in a joint and corporate voice, + That now they are at fall, want treasure, cannot + Do what they would, are sorry- you are honourable- + But yet they could have wish'd- they know not- + Something hath been amiss- a noble nature + May catch a wrench- would all were well!- 'tis pity- + And so, intending other serious matters, + After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions, + With certain half-caps and cold-moving nods, + They froze me into silence. + TIMON. You gods, reward them! + Prithee, man, look cheerly. These old fellows + Have their ingratitude in them hereditary. + Their blood is cak'd, 'tis cold, it seldom flows; + 'Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind; + And nature, as it grows again toward earth, + Is fashion'd for the journey dull and heavy. + Go to Ventidius. Prithee be not sad, + Thou art true and honest; ingeniously I speak, + No blame belongs to thee. Ventidius lately + Buried his father, by whose death he's stepp'd + Into a great estate. When he was poor, + Imprison'd, and in scarcity of friends, + I clear'd him with five talents. Greet him from me, + Bid him suppose some good necessity + Touches his friend, which craves to be rememb'red + With those five talents. That had, give't these fellows + To whom 'tis instant due. Nev'r speak or think + That Timon's fortunes 'mong his friends can sink. + FLAVIUS. I would I could not think it. + That thought is bounty's foe; + Being free itself, it thinks all others so. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +LUCULLUS' house + +FLAMINIUS waiting to speak with LUCULLUS. Enter SERVANT to him + + SERVANT. I have told my lord of you; he is coming down to you. + FLAMINIUS. I thank you, sir. + + Enter LUCULLUS + + SERVANT. Here's my lord. + LUCULLUS. [Aside] One of Lord Timon's men? A gift, I warrant. Why, + this hits right; I dreamt of a silver basin and ewer to-night- + Flaminius, honest Flaminius, you are very respectively welcome, + sir. Fill me some wine. [Exit SERVANT] And how does that + honourable, complete, freehearted gentleman of Athens, thy very + bountiful good lord and master? + FLAMINIUS. His health is well, sir. + LUCULLUS. I am right glad that his health is well, sir. And what + hast thou there under thy cloak, pretty Flaminius? + FLAMINIUS. Faith, nothing but an empty box, sir, which in my lord's + behalf I come to entreat your honour to supply; who, having + great and instant occasion to use fifty talents, hath sent to + your lordship to furnish him, nothing doubting your present + assistance therein. + LUCULLIUS. La, la, la, la! 'Nothing doubting' says he? Alas, good + lord! a noble gentleman 'tis, if he would not keep so good a + house. Many a time and often I ha' din'd with him and told him + on't; and come again to supper to him of purpose to have him + spend less; and yet he would embrace no counsel, take no warning + by my coming. Every man has his fault, and honesty is his. I ha' + told him on't, but I could ne'er get him from't. + + Re-enter SERVANT, with wine + + SERVANT. Please your lordship, here is the wine. + LUCULLUS. Flaminius, I have noted thee always wise. Here's to thee. + FLAMINIUS. Your lordship speaks your pleasure. + LUCULLUS. I have observed thee always for a towardly prompt spirit, + give thee thy due, and one that knows what belongs to reason, and + canst use the time well, if the time use thee well. Good parts in + thee. [To SERVANT] Get you gone, sirrah. [Exit SERVANT] Draw + nearer, honest Flaminius. Thy lord's a bountiful gentleman; but + thou art wise, and thou know'st well enough, although thou com'st + to me, that this is no time to lend money, especially upon bare + friendship without security. Here's three solidares for thee. + Good boy, wink at me, and say thou saw'st me not. Fare thee well. + FLAMINIUS. Is't possible the world should so much differ, + And we alive that liv'd? Fly, damned baseness, + To him that worships thee. [Throwing the money back] + LUCULLUS. Ha! Now I see thou art a fool, and fit for thy master. + Exit + FLAMINIUS. May these add to the number that may scald thee! + Let molten coin be thy damnation, + Thou disease of a friend and not himself! + Has friendship such a faint and milky heart + It turns in less than two nights? O you gods, + I feel my master's passion! This slave + Unto his honour has my lord's meat in him; + Why should it thrive and turn to nutriment + When he is turn'd to poison? + O, may diseases only work upon't! + And when he's sick to death, let not that part of nature + Which my lord paid for be of any power + To expel sickness, but prolong his hour! Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +A public place + +Enter Lucius, with three STRANGERS + + LUCIUS. Who, the Lord Timon? He is my very good friend, and an + honourable gentleman. + FIRST STRANGER. We know him for no less, though we are but + strangers to him. But I can tell you one thing, my lord, and + which I hear from common rumours: now Lord Timon's happy hours + are done and past, and his estate shrinks from him. + LUCIUS. Fie, no: do not believe it; he cannot want for money. + SECOND STRANGER. But believe you this, my lord, that not long ago + one of his men was with the Lord Lucullus to borrow so many + talents; nay, urg'd extremely for't, and showed what necessity + belong'd to't, and yet was denied. + LUCIUS. How? + SECOND STRANGER. I tell you, denied, my lord. + LUCIUS. What a strange case was that! Now, before the gods, I am + asham'd on't. Denied that honourable man! There was very little + honour show'd in't. For my own part, I must needs confess I have + received some small kindnesses from him, as money, plate, jewels, + and such-like trifles, nothing comparing to his; yet, had he + mistook him and sent to me, I should ne'er have denied his + occasion so many talents. + + Enter SERVILIUS + + SERVILIUS. See, by good hap, yonder's my lord; I have sweat to see + his honour.- My honour'd lord! + LUCIUS. Servilius? You are kindly met, sir. Fare thee well; commend + me to thy honourable virtuous lord, my very exquisite friend. + SERVILIUS. May it please your honour, my lord hath sent- + LUCIUS. Ha! What has he sent? I am so much endeared to that lord: + he's ever sending. How shall I thank him, think'st thou? And what + has he sent now? + SERVILIUS. Has only sent his present occasion now, my lord, + requesting your lordship to supply his instant use with so many + talents. + LUCIUS. I know his lordship is but merry with me; + He cannot want fifty-five hundred talents. + SERVILIUS. But in the mean time he wants less, my lord. + If his occasion were not virtuous + I should not urge it half so faithfully. + LUCIUS. Dost thou speak seriously, Servilius? + SERVILIUS. Upon my soul, 'tis true, sir. + LUCIUS. What a wicked beast was I to disfurnish myself against such + a good time, when I might ha' shown myself honourable! How + unluckily it happ'ned that I should purchase the day before for a + little part and undo a great deal of honour! Servilius, now + before the gods, I am not able to do- the more beast, I say! I + was sending to use Lord Timon myself, these gentlemen can + witness; but I would not for the wealth of Athens I had done't + now. Commend me bountifully to his good lordship, and I hope his + honour will conceive the fairest of me, because I have no power + to be kind. And tell him this from me: I count it one of my + greatest afflictions, say, that I cannot pleasure such an + honourable gentleman. Good Servilius, will you befriend me so far + as to use mine own words to him? + SERVILIUS. Yes, sir, I shall. + LUCIUS. I'll look you out a good turn, Servilius. + Exit SERVILIUS + True, as you said, Timon is shrunk indeed; + And he that's once denied will hardly speed. Exit + FIRST STRANGER. Do you observe this, Hostilius? + SECOND STRANGER. Ay, too well. + FIRST STRANGER. Why, this is the world's soul; and just of the same + piece + Is every flatterer's spirit. Who can call him his friend + That dips in the same dish? For, in my knowing, + Timon has been this lord's father, + And kept his credit with his purse; + Supported his estate; nay, Timon's money + Has paid his men their wages. He ne'er drinks + But Timon's silver treads upon his lip; + And yet- O, see the monstrousness of man + When he looks out in an ungrateful shape!- + He does deny him, in respect of his, + What charitable men afford to beggars. + THIRD STRANGER. Religion groans at it. + FIRST STRANGER. For mine own part, + I never tasted Timon in my life, + Nor came any of his bounties over me + To mark me for his friend; yet I protest, + For his right noble mind, illustrious virtue, + And honourable carriage, + Had his necessity made use of me, + I would have put my wealth into donation, + And the best half should have return'd to him, + So much I love his heart. But I perceive + Men must learn now with pity to dispense; + For policy sits above conscience. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +SEMPRONIUS' house + +Enter SEMPRONIUS and a SERVANT of TIMON'S + + SEMPRONIUS. Must he needs trouble me in't? Hum! 'Bove all others? + He might have tried Lord Lucius or Lucullus; + And now Ventidius is wealthy too, + Whom he redeem'd from prison. All these + Owe their estates unto him. + SERVANT. My lord, + They have all been touch'd and found base metal, for + They have all denied him. + SEMPRONIUS. How! Have they denied him? + Has Ventidius and Lucullus denied him? + And does he send to me? Three? Humh! + It shows but little love or judgment in him. + Must I be his last refuge? His friends, like physicians, + Thrice give him over. Must I take th' cure upon me? + Has much disgrac'd me in't; I'm angry at him, + That might have known my place. I see no sense for't, + But his occasions might have woo'd me first; + For, in my conscience, I was the first man + That e'er received gift from him. + And does he think so backwardly of me now + That I'll requite it last? No; + So it may prove an argument of laughter + To th' rest, and I 'mongst lords be thought a fool. + I'd rather than the worth of thrice the sum + Had sent to me first, but for my mind's sake; + I'd such a courage to do him good. But now return, + And with their faint reply this answer join: + Who bates mine honour shall not know my coin. Exit + SERVANT. Excellent! Your lordship's a goodly villain. The devil + knew not what he did when he made man politic- he cross'd himself + by't; and I cannot think but, in the end, the villainies of man + will set him clear. How fairly this lord strives to appear foul! + Takes virtuous copies to be wicked, like those that under hot + ardent zeal would set whole realms on fire. + Of such a nature is his politic love. + This was my lord's best hope; now all are fled, + Save only the gods. Now his friends are dead, + Doors that were ne'er acquainted with their wards + Many a bounteous year must be employ'd + Now to guard sure their master. + And this is all a liberal course allows: + Who cannot keep his wealth must keep his house. Exit + + + + +SCENE IV. +A hall in TIMON'S house + +Enter two Of VARRO'S MEN, meeting LUCIUS' SERVANT, and others, +all being servants of TIMON's creditors, to wait for his coming out. +Then enter TITUS and HORTENSIUS + + FIRST VARRO'S SERVANT. Well met; good morrow, Titus and Hortensius. + TITUS. The like to you, kind Varro. + HORTENSIUS. Lucius! What, do we meet together? + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Ay, and I think one business does command us all; + for mine is money. + TITUS. So is theirs and ours. + + Enter PHILOTUS + + LUCIUS' SERVANT. And Sir Philotus too! + PHILOTUS. Good day at once. + LUCIUS' SERVANT. welcome, good brother, what do you think the hour? + PHILOTUS. Labouring for nine. + LUCIUS' SERVANT. So much? + PHILOTUS. Is not my lord seen yet? + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Not yet. + PHILOTUS. I wonder on't; he was wont to shine at seven. + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Ay, but the days are wax'd shorter with him; + You must consider that a prodigal course + Is like the sun's, but not like his recoverable. + I fear + 'Tis deepest winter in Lord Timon's purse; + That is, one may reach deep enough and yet + Find little. + PHILOTUS. I am of your fear for that. + TITUS. I'll show you how t' observe a strange event. + Your lord sends now for money. + HORTENSIUS. Most true, he does. + TITUS. And he wears jewels now of Timon's gift, + For which I wait for money. + HORTENSIUS. It is against my heart. + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Mark how strange it shows + Timon in this should pay more than he owes; + And e'en as if your lord should wear rich jewels + And send for money for 'em. + HORTENSIUS. I'm weary of this charge, the gods can witness; + I know my lord hath spent of Timon's wealth, + And now ingratitude makes it worse than stealth. + FIRST VARRO'S SERVANT. Yes, mine's three thousand crowns; what's + yours? + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Five thousand mine. + FIRST VARRO'S SERVANT. 'Tis much deep; and it should seem by th' + sum + Your master's confidence was above mine, + Else surely his had equall'd. + + Enter FLAMINIUS + + TITUS. One of Lord Timon's men. + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Flaminius! Sir, a word. Pray, is my lord ready to + come forth? + FLAMINIUS. No, indeed, he is not. + TITUS. We attend his lordship; pray signify so much. + FLAMINIUS. I need not tell him that; he knows you are to diligent. + Exit + + Enter FLAVIUS, in a cloak, muffled + + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Ha! Is not that his steward muffled so? + He goes away in a cloud. Call him, call him. + TITUS. Do you hear, sir? + SECOND VARRO'S SERVANT. By your leave, sir. + FLAVIUS. What do ye ask of me, my friend? + TITUS. We wait for certain money here, sir. + FLAVIUS. Ay, + If money were as certain as your waiting, + 'Twere sure enough. + Why then preferr'd you not your sums and bills + When your false masters eat of my lord's meat? + Then they could smile, and fawn upon his debts, + And take down th' int'rest into their glutt'nous maws. + You do yourselves but wrong to stir me up; + Let me pass quietly. + Believe't, my lord and I have made an end: + I have no more to reckon, he to spend. + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Ay, but this answer will not serve. + FLAVIUS. If 'twill not serve, 'tis not so base as you, + For you serve knaves. Exit + FIRST VARRO'S SERVANT. How! What does his cashier'd worship mutter? + SECOND VARRO'S SERVANT. No matter what; he's poor, and that's + revenge enough. Who can speak broader than he that has no house + to put his head in? Such may rail against great buildings. + + Enter SERVILIUS + + TITUS. O, here's Servilius; now we shall know some answer. + SERVILIUS. If I might beseech you, gentlemen, to repair some other + hour, I should derive much from't; for take't of my soul, my lord + leans wondrously to discontent. His comfortable temper has + forsook him; he's much out of health and keeps his chamber. + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Many do keep their chambers are not sick; + And if it be so far beyond his health, + Methinks he should the sooner pay his debts, + And make a clear way to the gods. + SERVILIUS. Good gods! + TITUS. We cannot take this for answer, sir. + FLAMINIUS. [Within] Servilius, help! My lord! my lord! + + Enter TIMON, in a rage, FLAMINIUS following + + TIMON. What, are my doors oppos'd against my passage? + Have I been ever free, and must my house + Be my retentive enemy, my gaol? + The place which I have feasted, does it now, + Like all mankind, show me an iron heart? + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Put in now, Titus. + TITUS. My lord, here is my bill. + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Here's mine. + HORTENSIUS. And mine, my lord. + BOTH VARRO'S SERVANTS. And ours, my lord. + PHILOTUS. All our bills. + TIMON. Knock me down with 'em; cleave me to the girdle. + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Alas, my lord- + TIMON. Cut my heart in sums. + TITUS. Mine, fifty talents. + TIMON. Tell out my blood. + LUCIUS' SERVANT. Five thousand crowns, my lord. + TIMON. Five thousand drops pays that. What yours? and yours? + FIRST VARRO'S SERVANT. My lord- + SECOND VARRO'S SERVANT. My lord- + TIMON. Tear me, take me, and the gods fall upon you! Exit + HORTENSIUS. Faith, I perceive our masters may throw their caps at + their money. These debts may well be call'd desperate ones, for a + madman owes 'em. Exeunt + + Re-enter TIMON and FLAVIUS + + TIMON. They have e'en put my breath from me, the slaves. + Creditors? Devils! + FLAVIUS. My dear lord- + TIMON. What if it should be so? + FLAMINIUS. My lord- + TIMON. I'll have it so. My steward! + FLAVIUS. Here, my lord. + TIMON. So fitly? Go, bid all my friends again: + Lucius, Lucullus, and Sempronius- all. + I'll once more feast the rascals. + FLAVIUS. O my lord, + You only speak from your distracted soul; + There is not so much left to furnish out + A moderate table. + TIMON. Be it not in thy care. + Go, I charge thee, invite them all; let in the tide + Of knaves once more; my cook and I'll provide. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +The Senate House + +Enter three SENATORS at one door, ALCIBIADES meeting them, with attendants + + FIRST SENATOR. My lord, you have my voice to't: the fault's bloody. + 'Tis necessary he should die: + Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy. + SECOND SENATOR. Most true; the law shall bruise him. + ALCIBIADES. Honour, health, and compassion, to the Senate! + FIRST SENATOR. Now, Captain? + ALCIBIADES. I am an humble suitor to your virtues; + For pity is the virtue of the law, + And none but tyrants use it cruelly. + It pleases time and fortune to lie heavy + Upon a friend of mine, who in hot blood + Hath stepp'd into the law, which is past depth + To those that without heed do plunge into't. + He is a man, setting his fate aside, + Of comely virtues; + Nor did he soil the fact with cowardice- + An honour in him which buys out his fault- + But with a noble fury and fair spirit, + Seeing his reputation touch'd to death, + He did oppose his foe; + And with such sober and unnoted passion + He did behove his anger ere 'twas spent, + As if he had but prov'd an argument. + FIRST SENATOR. You undergo too strict a paradox, + Striving to make an ugly deed look fair; + Your words have took such pains as if they labour'd + To bring manslaughter into form and set + Quarrelling upon the head of valour; which, indeed, + Is valour misbegot, and came into the world + When sects and factions were newly born. + He's truly valiant that can wisely suffer + The worst that man can breathe, + And make his wrongs his outsides, + To wear them like his raiment, carelessly, + And ne'er prefer his injuries to his heart, + To bring it into danger. + If wrongs be evils, and enforce us kill, + What folly 'tis to hazard life for ill! + ALCIBIADES. My lord- + FIRST SENATOR. You cannot make gross sins look clear: + To revenge is no valour, but to bear. + ALCIBIADES. My lords, then, under favour, pardon me + If I speak like a captain: + Why do fond men expose themselves to battle, + And not endure all threats? Sleep upon't, + And let the foes quietly cut their throats, + Without repugnancy? If there be + Such valour in the bearing, what make we + Abroad? Why, then, women are more valiant, + That stay at home, if bearing carry it; + And the ass more captain than the lion; the fellow + Loaden with irons wiser than the judge, + If wisdom be in suffering. O my lords, + As you are great, be pitifully good. + Who cannot condemn rashness in cold blood? + To kill, I grant, is sin's extremest gust; + But, in defence, by mercy, 'tis most just. + To be in anger is impiety; + But who is man that is not angry? + Weigh but the crime with this. + SECOND SENATOR. You breathe in vain. + ALCIBIADES. In vain! His service done + At Lacedaemon and Byzantium + Were a sufficient briber for his life. + FIRST SENATOR. What's that? + ALCIBIADES. Why, I say, my lords, has done fair service, + And slain in fight many of your enemies; + How full of valour did he bear himself + In the last conflict, and made plenteous wounds! + SECOND SENATOR. He has made too much plenty with 'em. + He's a sworn rioter; he has a sin that often + Drowns him and takes his valour prisoner. + If there were no foes, that were enough + To overcome him. In that beastly fury + He has been known to commit outrages + And cherish factions. 'Tis inferr'd to us + His days are foul and his drink dangerous. + FIRST SENATOR. He dies. + ALCIBIADES. Hard fate! He might have died in war. + My lords, if not for any parts in him- + Though his right arm might purchase his own time, + And be in debt to none- yet, more to move you, + Take my deserts to his, and join 'em both; + And, for I know your reverend ages love + Security, I'll pawn my victories, all + My honours to you, upon his good returns. + If by this crime he owes the law his life, + Why, let the war receive't in valiant gore; + For law is strict, and war is nothing more. + FIRST SENATOR. We are for law: he dies. Urge it no more + On height of our displeasure. Friend or brother, + He forfeits his own blood that spills another. + ALCIBIADES. Must it be so? It must not be. My lords, + I do beseech you, know me. + SECOND SENATOR. How! + ALCIBIADES. Call me to your remembrances. + THIRD SENATOR. What! + ALCIBIADES. I cannot think but your age has forgot me; + It could not else be I should prove so base + To sue, and be denied such common grace. + My wounds ache at you. + FIRST SENATOR. Do you dare our anger? + 'Tis in few words, but spacious in effect: + We banish thee for ever. + ALCIBIADES. Banish me! + Banish your dotage! Banish usury + That makes the Senate ugly. + FIRST SENATOR. If after two days' shine Athens contain thee, + Attend our weightier judgment. And, not to swell our spirit, + He shall be executed presently. Exeunt SENATORS + ALCIBIADES. Now the gods keep you old enough that you may live + Only in bone, that none may look on you! + I'm worse than mad; I have kept back their foes, + While they have told their money and let out + Their coin upon large interest, I myself + Rich only in large hurts. All those for this? + Is this the balsam that the usuring Senate + Pours into captains' wounds? Banishment! + It comes not ill; I hate not to be banish'd; + It is a cause worthy my spleen and fury, + That I may strike at Athens. I'll cheer up + My discontented troops, and lay for hearts. + 'Tis honour with most lands to be at odds; + Soldiers should brook as little wrongs as gods. Exit + + + + +SCENE VI. +A banqueting hall in TIMON'S house + +Music. Tables set out; servants attending. Enter divers LORDS, +friends of TIMON, at several doors + + FIRST LORD. The good time of day to you, sir. + SECOND LORD. I also wish it to you. I think this honourable lord + did but try us this other day. + FIRST LORD. Upon that were my thoughts tiring when we encount'red. + I hope it is not so low with him as he made it seem in the trial + of his several friends. + SECOND LORD. It should not be, by the persuasion of his new + feasting. + FIRST LORD. I should think so. He hath sent me an earnest inviting, + which many my near occasions did urge me to put off; but he hath + conjur'd me beyond them, and I must needs appear. + SECOND LORD. In like manner was I in debt to my importunate + business, but he would not hear my excuse. I am sorry, when he + sent to borrow of me, that my provision was out. + FIRST LORD. I am sick of that grief too, as I understand how all + things go. + SECOND LORD. Every man here's so. What would he have borrowed of + you? + FIRST LORD. A thousand pieces. + SECOND LORD. A thousand pieces! + FIRST LORD. What of you? + SECOND LORD. He sent to me, sir- here he comes. + + Enter TIMON and attendants + + TIMON. With all my heart, gentlemen both! And how fare you? + FIRST LORD. Ever at the best, hearing well of your lordship. + SECOND LORD. The swallow follows not summer more willing than we + your lordship. + TIMON. [Aside] Nor more willingly leaves winter; such summer-birds + are men- Gentlemen, our dinner will not recompense this long + stay; feast your ears with the music awhile, if they will fare so + harshly o' th' trumpet's sound; we shall to't presently. + FIRST LORD. I hope it remains not unkindly with your lordship that + I return'd you an empty messenger. + TIMON. O sir, let it not trouble you. + SECOND LORD. My noble lord- + TIMON. Ah, my good friend, what cheer? + SECOND LORD. My most honourable lord, I am e'en sick of shame that, + when your lordship this other day sent to me, I was so + unfortunate a beggar. + TIMON. Think not on't, sir. + SECOND LORD. If you had sent but two hours before- + TIMON. Let it not cumber your better remembrance. [The banquet + brought in] Come, bring in all together. + SECOND LORD. All cover'd dishes! + FIRST LORD. Royal cheer, I warrant you. + THIRD LORD. Doubt not that, if money and the season can yield it. + FIRST LORD. How do you? What's the news? + THIRD LORD. Alcibiades is banish'd. Hear you of it? + FIRST AND SECOND LORDS. Alcibiades banish'd! + THIRD LORD. 'Tis so, be sure of it. + FIRST LORD. How? how? + SECOND LORD. I pray you, upon what? + TIMON. My worthy friends, will you draw near? + THIRD LORD. I'll tell you more anon. Here's a noble feast toward. + SECOND LORD. This is the old man still. + THIRD LORD. Will't hold? Will't hold? + SECOND LORD. It does; but time will- and so- + THIRD LORD. I do conceive. + TIMON. Each man to his stool with that spur as he would to the lip + of his mistress; your diet shall be in all places alike. Make not + a city feast of it, to let the meat cool ere we can agree upon + the first place. Sit, sit. The gods require our thanks: + + You great benefactors, sprinkle our society with thankfulness. + For your own gifts make yourselves prais'd; but reserve still to + give, lest your deities be despised. Lend to each man enough, + that one need not lend to another; for were your god-heads to + borrow of men, men would forsake the gods. Make the meat be + beloved more than the man that gives it. Let no assembly of + twenty be without a score of villains. If there sit twelve women + at the table, let a dozen of them be- as they are. The rest of + your foes, O gods, the senators of Athens, together with the + common lag of people, what is amiss in them, you gods, make + suitable for destruction. For these my present friends, as they + are to me nothing, so in nothing bless them, and to nothing are + they welcome. + + Uncover, dogs, and lap. [The dishes are uncovered and + seen to he full of warm water] + SOME SPEAK. What does his lordship mean? + SOME OTHER. I know not. + TIMON. May you a better feast never behold, + You knot of mouth-friends! Smoke and lukewarm water + Is your perfection. This is Timon's last; + Who, stuck and spangled with your flatteries, + Washes it off, and sprinkles in your faces + [Throwing the water in their faces] + Your reeking villainy. Live loath'd and long, + Most smiling, smooth, detested parasites, + Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears, + You fools of fortune, trencher friends, time's flies, + Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute-lacks! + Of man and beast the infinite malady + Crust you quite o'er! What, dost thou go? + Soft, take thy physic first; thou too, and thou. + Stay, I will lend thee money, borrow none. [Throws the + dishes at them, and drives them out] + What, all in motion? Henceforth be no feast + Whereat a villain's not a welcome guest. + Burn house! Sink Athens! Henceforth hated be + Of Timon man and all humanity! Exit + + Re-enter the LORDS + + FIRST LORD. How now, my lords! + SECOND LORD. Know you the quality of Lord Timon's fury? + THIRD LORD. Push! Did you see my cap? + FOURTH LORD. I have lost my gown. + FIRST LORD. He's but a mad lord, and nought but humours sways him. + He gave me a jewel th' other day, and now he has beat it out of + my hat. Did you see my jewel? + THIRD LORD. Did you see my cap? + SECOND LORD. Here 'tis. + FOURTH LORD. Here lies my gown. + FIRST LORD. Let's make no stay. + SECOND LORD. Lord Timon's mad. + THIRD LORD. I feel't upon my bones. + FOURTH LORD. One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones. + Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +Without the walls of Athens + +Enter TIMON + + TIMON. Let me look back upon thee. O thou wall + That girdles in those wolves, dive in the earth + And fence not Athens! Matrons, turn incontinent. + Obedience, fail in children! Slaves and fools, + Pluck the grave wrinkled Senate from the bench + And minister in their steads. To general filths + Convert, o' th' instant, green virginity. + Do't in your parents' eyes. Bankrupts, hold fast; + Rather than render back, out with your knives + And cut your trusters' throats. Bound servants, steal: + Large-handed robbers your grave masters are, + And pill by law. Maid, to thy master's bed: + Thy mistress is o' th' brothel. Son of sixteen, + Pluck the lin'd crutch from thy old limping sire, + With it beat out his brains. Piety and fear, + Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth, + Domestic awe, night-rest, and neighbourhood, + Instruction, manners, mysteries, and trades, + Degrees, observances, customs and laws, + Decline to your confounding contraries + And let confusion live. Plagues incident to men, + Your potent and infectious fevers heap + On Athens, ripe for stroke. Thou cold sciatica, + Cripple our senators, that their limbs may halt + As lamely as their manners. Lust and liberty, + Creep in the minds and marrows of our youth, + That 'gainst the stream of virtue they may strive + And drown themselves in riot. Itches, blains, + Sow all th' Athenian bosoms, and their crop + Be general leprosy! Breath infect breath, + That their society, as their friendship, may + Be merely poison! Nothing I'll bear from thee + But nakedness, thou detestable town! + Take thou that too, with multiplying bans. + Timon will to the woods, where he shall find + Th' unkindest beast more kinder than mankind. + The gods confound- hear me, you good gods all- + The Athenians both within and out that wall! + And grant, as Timon grows, his hate may grow + To the whole race of mankind, high and low! + Amen. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Athens. TIMON's house + +Enter FLAVIUS, with two or three SERVANTS + + FIRST SERVANT. Hear you, Master Steward, where's our master? + Are we undone, cast off, nothing remaining? + FLAVIUS. Alack, my fellows, what should I say to you? + Let me be recorded by the righteous gods, + I am as poor as you. + FIRST SERVANT. Such a house broke! + So noble a master fall'n! All gone, and not + One friend to take his fortune by the arm + And go along with him? + SECOND SERVANT. As we do turn our backs + From our companion, thrown into his grave, + So his familiars to his buried fortunes + Slink all away; leave their false vows with him, + Like empty purses pick'd; and his poor self, + A dedicated beggar to the air, + With his disease of all-shunn'd poverty, + Walks, like contempt, alone. More of our fellows. + + Enter other SERVANTS + + FLAVIUS. All broken implements of a ruin'd house. + THIRD SERVANT. Yet do our hearts wear Timon's livery; + That see I by our faces. We are fellows still, + Serving alike in sorrow. Leak'd is our bark; + And we, poor mates, stand on the dying deck, + Hearing the surges threat. We must all part + Into this sea of air. + FLAVIUS. Good fellows all, + The latest of my wealth I'll share amongst you. + Wherever we shall meet, for Timon's sake, + Let's yet be fellows; let's shake our heads and say, + As 'twere a knell unto our master's fortune, + 'We have seen better days.' Let each take some. + [Giving them money] + Nay, put out all your hands. Not one word more! + Thus part we rich in sorrow, parting poor. + [Embrace, and part several ways] + O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings us! + Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt, + Since riches point to misery and contempt? + Who would be so mock'd with glory, or to live + But in a dream of friendship, + To have his pomp, and all what state compounds, + But only painted, like his varnish'd friends? + Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart, + Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual blood, + When man's worst sin is he does too much good! + Who then dares to be half so kind again? + For bounty, that makes gods, does still mar men. + My dearest lord- blest to be most accurst, + Rich only to be wretched- thy great fortunes + Are made thy chief afflictions. Alas, kind lord! + He's flung in rage from this ingrateful seat + Of monstrous friends; nor has he with him to + Supply his life, or that which can command it. + I'll follow and enquire him out. + I'll ever serve his mind with my best will; + Whilst I have gold, I'll be his steward still. Exit + + + + +SCENE III. +The woods near the sea-shore. Before TIMON'S cave + +Enter TIMON in the woods + + TIMON. O blessed breeding sun, draw from the earth + Rotten humidity; below thy sister's orb + Infect the air! Twinn'd brothers of one womb- + Whose procreation, residence, and birth, + Scarce is dividant- touch them with several fortunes: + The greater scorns the lesser. Not nature, + To whom all sores lay siege, can bear great fortune + But by contempt of nature. + Raise me this beggar and deny't that lord: + The senator shall bear contempt hereditary, + The beggar native honour. + It is the pasture lards the rother's sides, + The want that makes him lean. Who dares, who dares, + In purity of manhood stand upright, + And say 'This man's a flatterer'? If one be, + So are they all; for every grise of fortune + Is smooth'd by that below. The learned pate + Ducks to the golden fool. All's oblique; + There's nothing level in our cursed natures + But direct villainy. Therefore be abhorr'd + All feasts, societies, and throngs of men! + His semblable, yea, himself, Timon disdains. + Destruction fang mankind! Earth, yield me roots. + [Digging] + Who seeks for better of thee, sauce his palate + With thy most operant poison. What is here? + Gold? Yellow, glittering, precious gold? No, gods, + I am no idle votarist. Roots, you clear heavens! + Thus much of this will make black white, foul fair, + Wrong right, base noble, old young, coward valiant. + Ha, you gods! why this? What, this, you gods? Why, this + Will lug your priests and servants from your sides, + Pluck stout men's pillows from below their heads- + This yellow slave + Will knit and break religions, bless th' accurs'd, + Make the hoar leprosy ador'd, place thieves + And give them title, knee, and approbation, + With senators on the bench. This is it + That makes the wappen'd widow wed again- + She whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores + Would cast the gorge at this embalms and spices + To th 'April day again. Come, damn'd earth, + Thou common whore of mankind, that puts odds + Among the rout of nations, I will make thee + Do thy right nature. [March afar off] + Ha! a drum? Th'art quick, + But yet I'll bury thee. Thou't go, strong thief, + When gouty keepers of thee cannot stand. + Nay, stay thou out for earnest. [Keeping some gold] + + Enter ALCIBIADES, with drum and fife, in warlike + manner; and PHRYNIA and TIMANDRA + + ALCIBIADES. What art thou there? Speak. + TIMON. A beast, as thou art. The canker gnaw thy heart + For showing me again the eyes of man! + ALCIBIADES. What is thy name? Is man so hateful to thee + That art thyself a man? + TIMON. I am Misanthropos, and hate mankind. + For thy part, I do wish thou wert a dog, + That I might love thee something. + ALCIBIADES. I know thee well; + But in thy fortunes am unlearn'd and strange. + TIMON. I know thee too; and more than that I know thee + I not desire to know. Follow thy drum; + With man's blood paint the ground, gules, gules. + Religious canons, civil laws, are cruel; + Then what should war be? This fell whore of thine + Hath in her more destruction than thy sword + For all her cherubin look. + PHRYNIA. Thy lips rot off! + TIMON. I will not kiss thee; then the rot returns + To thine own lips again. + ALCIBIADES. How came the noble Timon to this change? + TIMON. As the moon does, by wanting light to give. + But then renew I could not, like the moon; + There were no suns to borrow of. + ALCIBIADES. Noble Timon, + What friendship may I do thee? + TIMON. None, but to + Maintain my opinion. + ALCIBIADES. What is it, Timon? + TIMON. Promise me friendship, but perform none. If thou wilt not + promise, the gods plague thee, for thou art man! If thou dost + perform, confound thee, for thou art a man! + ALCIBIADES. I have heard in some sort of thy miseries. + TIMON. Thou saw'st them when I had prosperity. + ALCIBIADES. I see them now; then was a blessed time. + TIMON. As thine is now, held with a brace of harlots. + TIMANDRA. Is this th' Athenian minion whom the world + Voic'd so regardfully? + TIMON. Art thou Timandra? + TIMANDRA. Yes. + TIMON. Be a whore still; they love thee not that use thee. + Give them diseases, leaving with thee their lust. + Make use of thy salt hours. Season the slaves + For tubs and baths; bring down rose-cheek'd youth + To the tub-fast and the diet. + TIMANDRA. Hang thee, monster! + ALCIBIADES. Pardon him, sweet Timandra, for his wits + Are drown'd and lost in his calamities. + I have but little gold of late, brave Timon, + The want whereof doth daily make revolt + In my penurious band. I have heard, and griev'd, + How cursed Athens, mindless of thy worth, + Forgetting thy great deeds, when neighbour states, + But for thy sword and fortune, trod upon them- + TIMON. I prithee beat thy drum and get thee gone. + ALCIBIADES. I am thy friend, and pity thee, dear Timon. + TIMON. How dost thou pity him whom thou dost trouble? + I had rather be alone. + ALCIBIADES. Why, fare thee well; + Here is some gold for thee. + TIMON. Keep it: I cannot eat it. + ALCIBIADES. When I have laid proud Athens on a heap- + TIMON. War'st thou 'gainst Athens? + ALCIBIADES. Ay, Timon, and have cause. + TIMON. The gods confound them all in thy conquest; + And thee after, when thou hast conquer'd! + ALCIBIADES. Why me, Timon? + TIMON. That by killing of villains + Thou wast born to conquer my country. + Put up thy gold. Go on. Here's gold. Go on. + Be as a planetary plague, when Jove + Will o'er some high-vic'd city hang his poison + In the sick air; let not thy sword skip one. + Pity not honour'd age for his white beard: + He is an usurer. Strike me the counterfeit matron: + It is her habit only that is honest, + Herself's a bawd. Let not the virgin's cheek + Make soft thy trenchant sword; for those milk paps + That through the window bars bore at men's eyes + Are not within the leaf of pity writ, + But set them down horrible traitors. Spare not the babe + Whose dimpled smiles from fools exhaust their mercy; + Think it a bastard whom the oracle + Hath doubtfully pronounc'd thy throat shall cut, + And mince it sans remorse. Swear against abjects; + Put armour on thine ears and on thine eyes, + Whose proof nor yells of mothers, maids, nor babes, + Nor sight of priests in holy vestments bleeding, + Shall pierce a jot. There's gold to pay thy soldiers. + Make large confusion; and, thy fury spent, + Confounded be thyself! Speak not, be gone. + ALCIBIADES. Hast thou gold yet? I'll take the gold thou givest me, + Not all thy counsel. + TIMON. Dost thou, or dost thou not, heaven's curse upon thee! + PHRYNIA AND TIMANDRA. Give us some gold, good Timon. + Hast thou more? + TIMON. Enough to make a whore forswear her trade, + And to make whores a bawd. Hold up, you sluts, + Your aprons mountant; you are not oathable, + Although I know you'll swear, terribly swear, + Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues, + Th' immortal gods that hear you. Spare your oaths; + I'll trust to your conditions. Be whores still; + And he whose pious breath seeks to convert you- + Be strong in whore, allure him, burn him up; + Let your close fire predominate his smoke, + And be no turncoats. Yet may your pains six months + Be quite contrary! And thatch your poor thin roofs + With burdens of the dead- some that were hang'd, + No matter. Wear them, betray with them. Whore still; + Paint till a horse may mire upon your face. + A pox of wrinkles! + PHRYNIA AND TIMANDRA. Well, more gold. What then? + Believe't that we'll do anything for gold. + TIMON. Consumptions sow + In hollow bones of man; strike their sharp shins, + And mar men's spurring. Crack the lawyer's voice, + That he may never more false title plead, + Nor sound his quillets shrilly. Hoar the flamen, + That scolds against the quality of flesh + And not believes himself. Down with the nose, + Down with it flat, take the bridge quite away + Of him that, his particular to foresee, + Smells from the general weal. Make curl'd-pate ruffians bald, + And let the unscarr'd braggarts of the war + Derive some pain from you. Plague all, + That your activity may defeat and quell + The source of all erection. There's more gold. + Do you damn others, and let this damn you, + And ditches grave you all! + PHRYNIA AND TIMANDRA. More counsel with more money, bounteous + Timon. + TIMON. More whore, more mischief first; I have given you earnest. + ALCIBIADES. Strike up the drum towards Athens. Farewell, Timon; + If I thrive well, I'll visit thee again. + TIMON. If I hope well, I'll never see thee more. + ALCIBIADES. I never did thee harm. + TIMON. Yes, thou spok'st well of me. + ALCIBIADES. Call'st thou that harm? + TIMON. Men daily find it. Get thee away, and take + Thy beagles with thee. + ALCIBIADES. We but offend him. Strike. + Drum beats. Exeunt all but TIMON + TIMON. That nature, being sick of man's unkindness, + Should yet be hungry! Common mother, thou, [Digging] + Whose womb unmeasurable and infinite breast + Teems and feeds all; whose self-same mettle, + Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd, + Engenders the black toad and adder blue, + The gilded newt and eyeless venom'd worm, + With all th' abhorred births below crisp heaven + Whereon Hyperion's quick'ning fire doth shine- + Yield him, who all thy human sons doth hate, + From forth thy plenteous bosom, one poor root! + Ensear thy fertile and conceptious womb, + Let it no more bring out ingrateful man! + Go great with tigers, dragons, wolves, and bears; + Teem with new monsters whom thy upward face + Hath to the marbled mansion all above + Never presented!- O, a root! Dear thanks!- + Dry up thy marrows, vines, and plough-torn leas, + Whereof ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts + And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind, + That from it all consideration slips- + + Enter APEMANTUS + + More man? Plague, plague! + APEMANTUS. I was directed hither. Men report + Thou dost affect my manners and dost use them. + TIMON. 'Tis, then, because thou dost not keep a dog, + Whom I would imitate. Consumption catch thee! + APEMANTUS. This is in thee a nature but infected, + A poor unmanly melancholy sprung + From change of fortune. Why this spade, this place? + This slave-like habit and these looks of care? + Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft, + Hug their diseas'd perfumes, and have forgot + That ever Timon was. Shame not these woods + By putting on the cunning of a carper. + Be thou a flatterer now, and seek to thrive + By that which has undone thee: hinge thy knee, + And let his very breath whom thou'lt observe + Blow off thy cap; praise his most vicious strain, + And call it excellent. Thou wast told thus; + Thou gav'st thine ears, like tapsters that bade welcome, + To knaves and all approachers. 'Tis most just + That thou turn rascal; hadst thou wealth again + Rascals should have't. Do not assume my likeness. + TIMON. Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself. + APEMANTUS. Thou hast cast away thyself, being like thyself; + A madman so long, now a fool. What, think'st + That the bleak air, thy boisterous chamberlain, + Will put thy shirt on warm? Will these moist trees, + That have outliv'd the eagle, page thy heels + And skip when thou point'st out? Will the cold brook, + Candied with ice, caudle thy morning taste + To cure thy o'ernight's surfeit? Call the creatures + Whose naked natures live in all the spite + Of wreakful heaven, whose bare unhoused trunks, + To the conflicting elements expos'd, + Answer mere nature- bid them flatter thee. + O, thou shalt find- + TIMON. A fool of thee. Depart. + APEMANTUS. I love thee better now than e'er I did. + TIMON. I hate thee worse. + APEMANTUS. Why? + TIMON. Thou flatter'st misery. + APEMANTUS. I flatter not, but say thou art a caitiff. + TIMON. Why dost thou seek me out? + APEMANTUS. To vex thee. + TIMON. Always a villain's office or a fool's. + Dost please thyself in't? + APEMANTUS. Ay. + TIMON. What, a knave too? + APEMANTUS. If thou didst put this sour-cold habit on + To castigate thy pride, 'twere well; but thou + Dost it enforcedly. Thou'dst courtier be again + Wert thou not beggar. Willing misery + Outlives incertain pomp, is crown'd before. + The one is filling still, never complete; + The other, at high wish. Best state, contentless, + Hath a distracted and most wretched being, + Worse than the worst, content. + Thou should'st desire to die, being miserable. + TIMON. Not by his breath that is more miserable. + Thou art a slave whom Fortune's tender arm + With favour never clasp'd, but bred a dog. + Hadst thou, like us from our first swath, proceeded + The sweet degrees that this brief world affords + To such as may the passive drugs of it + Freely command, thou wouldst have plung'd thyself + In general riot, melted down thy youth + In different beds of lust, and never learn'd + The icy precepts of respect, but followed + The sug'red game before thee. But myself, + Who had the world as my confectionary; + The mouths, the tongues, the eyes, and hearts of men + At duty, more than I could frame employment; + That numberless upon me stuck, as leaves + Do on the oak, have with one winter's brush + Fell from their boughs, and left me open, bare + For every storm that blows- I to bear this, + That never knew but better, is some burden. + Thy nature did commence in sufferance; time + Hath made thee hard in't. Why shouldst thou hate men? + They never flatter'd thee. What hast thou given? + If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag, + Must be thy subject; who, in spite, put stuff + To some she-beggar and compounded thee + Poor rogue hereditary. Hence, be gone. + If thou hadst not been born the worst of men, + Thou hadst been a knave and flatterer. + APEMANTUS. Art thou proud yet? + TIMON. Ay, that I am not thee. + APEMANTUS. I, that I was + No prodigal. + TIMON. I, that I am one now. + Were all the wealth I have shut up in thee, + I'd give thee leave to hang it. Get thee gone. + That the whole life of Athens were in this! + Thus would I eat it. [Eating a root] + APEMANTUS. Here! I will mend thy feast. + [Offering him food] + TIMON. First mend my company: take away thyself. + APEMANTUS. So I shall mend mine own by th' lack of thine. + TIMON. 'Tis not well mended so; it is but botch'd. + If not, I would it were. + APEMANTUS. What wouldst thou have to Athens? + TIMON. Thee thither in a whirlwind. If thou wilt, + Tell them there I have gold; look, so I have. + APEMANTUS. Here is no use for gold. + TIMON. The best and truest; + For here it sleeps and does no hired harm. + APEMANTUS. Where liest a nights, Timon? + TIMON. Under that's above me. + Where feed'st thou a days, Apemantus? + APEMANTUS. Where my stomach. finds meat; or rather, where I eat it. + TIMON. Would poison were obedient, and knew my mind! + APEMANTUS. Where wouldst thou send it? + TIMON. To sauce thy dishes. + APEMANTUS. The middle of humanity thou never knewest, but the + extremity of both ends. When thou wast in thy gilt and thy + perfume, they mock'd thee for too much curiosity; in thy rags + thou know'st none, but art despis'd for the contrary. There's a + medlar for thee; eat it. + TIMON. On what I hate I feed not. + APEMANTUS. Dost hate a medlar? + TIMON. Ay, though it look like thee. + APEMANTUS. An th' hadst hated medlars sooner, thou shouldst have + loved thyself better now. What man didst thou ever know unthrift + that was beloved after his means? + TIMON. Who, without those means thou talk'st of, didst thou ever + know belov'd? + APEMANTUS. Myself. + TIMON. I understand thee: thou hadst some means to keep a dog. + APEMANTUS. What things in the world canst thou nearest compare to + thy flatterers? + TIMON. Women nearest; but men, men are the things themselves. What + wouldst thou do with the world, Apemantus, if it lay in thy + power? + APEMANTUS. Give it the beasts, to be rid of the men. + TIMON. Wouldst thou have thyself fall in the confusion of men, and + remain a beast with the beasts? + APEMANTUS. Ay, Timon. + TIMON. A beastly ambition, which the gods grant thee t' attain to! + If thou wert the lion, the fox would beguile thee; if thou wert + the lamb, the fox would eat thee; if thou wert the fox, the lion + would suspect thee, when, peradventure, thou wert accus'd by the + ass. If thou wert the ass, thy dulness would torment thee; and + still thou liv'dst but as a breakfast to the wolf. If thou wert + the wolf, thy greediness would afflict thee, and oft thou + shouldst hazard thy life for thy dinner. Wert thou the unicorn, + pride and wrath would confound thee, and make thine own self the + conquest of thy fury. Wert thou bear, thou wouldst be kill'd by + the horse; wert thou a horse, thou wouldst be seiz'd by the + leopard; wert thou a leopard, thou wert german to the lion, and + the spots of thy kindred were jurors on thy life. All thy safety + were remotion, and thy defence absence. What beast couldst thou + be that were not subject to a beast? And what beast art thou + already, that seest not thy loss in transformation! + APEMANTUS. If thou couldst please me with speaking to me, thou + mightst have hit upon it here. The commonwealth of Athens is + become a forest of beasts. + TIMON. How has the ass broke the wall, that thou art out of the + city? + APEMANTUS. Yonder comes a poet and a painter. The plague of company + light upon thee! I will fear to catch it, and give way. When I + know not what else to do, I'll see thee again. + TIMON. When there is nothing living but thee, thou shalt be + welcome. I had rather be a beggar's dog than Apemantus. + APEMANTUS. Thou art the cap of all the fools alive. + TIMON. Would thou wert clean enough to spit upon! + APEMANTUS. A plague on thee! thou art too bad to curse. + TIMON. All villains that do stand by thee are pure. + APEMANTUS. There is no leprosy but what thou speak'st. + TIMON. If I name thee. + I'll beat thee- but I should infect my hands. + APEMANTUS. I would my tongue could rot them off! + TIMON. Away, thou issue of a mangy dog! + Choler does kill me that thou art alive; + I swoon to see thee. + APEMANTUS. Would thou wouldst burst! + TIMON. Away, + Thou tedious rogue! I am sorry I shall lose + A stone by thee. [Throws a stone at him] + APEMANTUS. Beast! + TIMON. Slave! + APEMANTUS. Toad! + TIMON. Rogue, rogue, rogue! + I am sick of this false world, and will love nought + But even the mere necessities upon't. + Then, Timon, presently prepare thy grave; + Lie where the light foam of the sea may beat + Thy gravestone daily; make thine epitaph, + That death in me at others' lives may laugh. + [Looks at the gold] O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce + 'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler + Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars! + Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate wooer, + Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow + That lies on Dian's lap! thou visible god, + That sold'rest close impossibilities, + And mak'st them kiss! that speak'st with every tongue + To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts! + Think thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue + Set them into confounding odds, that beasts + May have the world in empire! + APEMANTUS. Would 'twere so! + But not till I am dead. I'll say th' hast gold. + Thou wilt be throng'd to shortly. + TIMON. Throng'd to? + APEMANTUS. Ay. + TIMON. Thy back, I prithee. + APEMANTUS. Live, and love thy misery! + TIMON. Long live so, and so die! [Exit APEMANTUS] I am quit. More + things like men? Eat, Timon, and abhor them. + + Enter the BANDITTI + + FIRST BANDIT. Where should he have this gold? It is some poor + fragment, some slender ort of his remainder. The mere want of + gold and the falling-from of his friends drove him into this + melancholy. + SECOND BANDIT. It is nois'd he hath a mass of treasure. + THIRD BANDIT. Let us make the assay upon him; if he care not for't, + he will supply us easily; if he covetously reserve it, how + shall's get it? + SECOND BANDIT. True; for he bears it not about him. 'Tis hid. + FIRST BANDIT. Is not this he? + BANDITTI. Where? + SECOND BANDIT. 'Tis his description. + THIRD BANDIT. He; I know him. + BANDITTI. Save thee, Timon! + TIMON. Now, thieves? + BANDITTI. Soldiers, not thieves. + TIMON. Both too, and women's sons. + BANDITTI. We are not thieves, but men that much do want. + TIMON. Your greatest want is, you want much of meat. + Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots; + Within this mile break forth a hundred springs; + The oaks bear mast, the briars scarlet hips; + The bounteous housewife Nature on each bush + Lays her full mess before you. Want! Why want? + FIRST BANDIT. We cannot live on grass, on berries, water, + As beasts and birds and fishes. + TIMON. Nor on the beasts themselves, the birds, and fishes; + You must eat men. Yet thanks I must you con + That you are thieves profess'd, that you work not + In holier shapes; for there is boundless theft + In limited professions. Rascal thieves, + Here's gold. Go, suck the subtle blood o' th' grape + Till the high fever seethe your blood to froth, + And so scape hanging. Trust not the physician; + His antidotes are poison, and he slays + Moe than you rob. Take wealth and lives together; + Do villainy, do, since you protest to do't, + Like workmen. I'll example you with thievery: + The sun's a thief, and with his great attraction + Robs the vast sea; the moon's an arrant thief, + And her pale fire she snatches from the sun; + The sea's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves + The moon into salt tears; the earth's a thief, + That feeds and breeds by a composture stol'n + From gen'ral excrement- each thing's a thief. + The laws, your curb and whip, in their rough power + Has uncheck'd theft. Love not yourselves; away, + Rob one another. There's more gold. Cut throats; + All that you meet are thieves. To Athens go, + Break open shops; nothing can you steal + But thieves do lose it. Steal not less for this + I give you; and gold confound you howsoe'er! + Amen. + THIRD BANDIT. Has almost charm'd me from my profession by + persuading me to it. + FIRST BANDIT. 'Tis in the malice of mankind that he thus advises + us; not to have us thrive in our mystery. + SECOND BANDIT. I'll believe him as an enemy, and give over my + trade. + FIRST BANDIT. Let us first see peace in Athens. There is no time so + miserable but a man may be true. Exeunt THIEVES + + Enter FLAVIUS, to TIMON + + FLAVIUS. O you gods! + Is yond despis'd and ruinous man my lord? + Full of decay and failing? O monument + And wonder of good deeds evilly bestow'd! + What an alteration of honour + Has desp'rate want made! + What viler thing upon the earth than friends, + Who can bring noblest minds to basest ends! + How rarely does it meet with this time's guise, + When man was wish'd to love his enemies! + Grant I may ever love, and rather woo + Those that would mischief me than those that do! + Has caught me in his eye; I will present + My honest grief unto him, and as my lord + Still serve him with my life. My dearest master! + TIMON. Away! What art thou? + FLAVIUS. Have you forgot me, sir? + TIMON. Why dost ask that? I have forgot all men; + Then, if thou grant'st th'art a man, I have forgot thee. + FLAVIUS. An honest poor servant of yours. + TIMON. Then I know thee not. + I never had honest man about me, I. + All I kept were knaves, to serve in meat to villains. + FLAVIUS. The gods are witness, + Nev'r did poor steward wear a truer grief + For his undone lord than mine eyes for you. + TIMON. What, dost thou weep? Come nearer. Then I love thee + Because thou art a woman and disclaim'st + Flinty mankind, whose eyes do never give + But thorough lust and laughter. Pity's sleeping. + Strange times, that weep with laughing, not with weeping! + FLAVIUS. I beg of you to know me, good my lord, + T' accept my grief, and whilst this poor wealth lasts + To entertain me as your steward still. + TIMON. Had I a steward + So true, so just, and now so comfortable? + It almost turns my dangerous nature mild. + Let me behold thy face. Surely, this man + Was born of woman. + Forgive my general and exceptless rashness, + You perpetual-sober gods! I do proclaim + One honest man- mistake me not, but one; + No more, I pray- and he's a steward. + How fain would I have hated all mankind! + And thou redeem'st thyself. But all, save thee, + I fell with curses. + Methinks thou art more honest now than wise; + For by oppressing and betraying me + Thou mightst have sooner got another service; + For many so arrive at second masters + Upon their first lord's neck. But tell me true, + For I must ever doubt though ne'er so sure, + Is not thy kindness subtle, covetous, + If not a usuring kindness, and as rich men deal gifts, + Expecting in return twenty for one? + FLAVIUS. No, my most worthy master, in whose breast + Doubt and suspect, alas, are plac'd too late! + You should have fear'd false times when you did feast: + Suspect still comes where an estate is least. + That which I show, heaven knows, is merely love, + Duty, and zeal, to your unmatched mind, + Care of your food and living; and believe it, + My most honour'd lord, + For any benefit that points to me, + Either in hope or present, I'd exchange + For this one wish, that you had power and wealth + To requite me by making rich yourself. + TIMON. Look thee, 'tis so! Thou singly honest man, + Here, take. The gods, out of my misery, + Have sent thee treasure. Go, live rich and happy, + But thus condition'd; thou shalt build from men; + Hate all, curse all, show charity to none, + But let the famish'd flesh slide from the bone + Ere thou relieve the beggar. Give to dogs + What thou deniest to men; let prisons swallow 'em, + Debts wither 'em to nothing. Be men like blasted woods, + And may diseases lick up their false bloods! + And so, farewell and thrive. + FLAVIUS. O, let me stay + And comfort you, my master. + TIMON. If thou hat'st curses, + Stay not; fly whilst thou art blest and free. + Ne'er see thou man, and let me ne'er see thee. + Exeunt severally + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +The woods. Before TIMON's cave + +Enter POET and PAINTER + + PAINTER. As I took note of the place, it cannot be far where he + abides. + POET. to be thought of him? Does the rumour hold for true that he's + so full of gold? + PAINTER. Certain. Alcibiades reports it; Phrynia and Timandra had + gold of him. He likewise enrich'd poor straggling soldiers with + great quantity. 'Tis said he gave unto his steward a mighty sum. + POET. Then this breaking of his has been but a try for his friends? + PAINTER. Nothing else. You shall see him a palm in Athens again, + and flourish with the highest. Therefore 'tis not amiss we tender + our loves to him in this suppos'd distress of his; it will show + honestly in us, and is very likely to load our purposes with what + they travail for, if it be just and true report that goes of his + having. + POET. What have you now to present unto him? + PAINTER. Nothing at this time but my visitation; only I will + promise him an excellent piece. + POET. I must serve him so too, tell him of an intent that's coming + toward him. + PAINTER. Good as the best. Promising is the very air o' th' time; + it opens the eyes of expectation. Performance is ever the duller + for his act, and but in the plainer and simpler kind of people + the deed of saying is quite out of use. To promise is most + courtly and fashionable; performance is a kind of will or + testament which argues a great sickness in his judgment that + makes it. + + Enter TIMON from his cave + + TIMON. [Aside] Excellent workman! Thou canst not paint a man so bad + as is thyself. + POET. I am thinking what I shall say I have provided for him. It + must be a personating of himself; a satire against the softness + of prosperity, with a discovery of the infinite flatteries that + follow youth and opulency. + TIMON. [Aside] Must thou needs stand for a villain in thine own + work? Wilt thou whip thine own faults in other men? Do so, I have + gold for thee. + POET. Nay, let's seek him; + Then do we sin against our own estate + When we may profit meet and come too late. + PAINTER. True; + When the day serves, before black-corner'd night, + Find what thou want'st by free and offer'd light. + Come. + TIMON. [Aside] I'll meet you at the turn. What a god's gold, + That he is worshipp'd in a baser temple + Than where swine feed! + 'Tis thou that rig'st the bark and plough'st the foam, + Settlest admired reverence in a slave. + To thee be worship! and thy saints for aye + Be crown'd with plagues, that thee alone obey! + Fit I meet them. [Advancing from his cave] + POET. Hail, worthy Timon! + PAINTER. Our late noble master! + TIMON. Have I once liv'd to see two honest men? + POET. Sir, + Having often of your open bounty tasted, + Hearing you were retir'd, your friends fall'n off, + Whose thankless natures- O abhorred spirits!- + Not all the whips of heaven are large enough- + What! to you, + Whose star-like nobleness gave life and influence + To their whole being! I am rapt, and cannot cover + The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude + With any size of words. + TIMON. Let it go naked: men may see't the better. + You that are honest, by being what you are, + Make them best seen and known. + PAINTER. He and myself + Have travail'd in the great show'r of your gifts, + And sweetly felt it. + TIMON. Ay, you are honest men. + PAINTER. We are hither come to offer you our service. + TIMON. Most honest men! Why, how shall I requite you? + Can you eat roots, and drink cold water- No? + BOTH. What we can do, we'll do, to do you service. + TIMON. Y'are honest men. Y'have heard that I have gold; + I am sure you have. Speak truth; y'are honest men. + PAINTER. So it is said, my noble lord; but therefore + Came not my friend nor I. + TIMON. Good honest men! Thou draw'st a counterfeit + Best in all Athens. Th'art indeed the best; + Thou counterfeit'st most lively. + PAINTER. So, so, my lord. + TIMON. E'en so, sir, as I say. [To To POET] And for thy fiction, + Why, thy verse swells with stuff so fine and smooth + That thou art even natural in thine art. + But for all this, my honest-natur'd friends, + I must needs say you have a little fault. + Marry, 'tis not monstrous in you; neither wish I + You take much pains to mend. + BOTH. Beseech your honour + To make it known to us. + TIMON. You'll take it ill. + BOTH. Most thankfully, my lord. + TIMON. Will you indeed? + BOTH. Doubt it not, worthy lord. + TIMON. There's never a one of you but trusts a knave + That mightily deceives you. + BOTH. Do we, my lord? + TIMON. Ay, and you hear him cog, see him dissemble, + Know his gross patchery, love him, feed him, + Keep in your bosom; yet remain assur'd + That he's a made-up villain. + PAINTER. I know not such, my lord. + POET. Nor I. + TIMON. Look you, I love you well; I'll give you gold, + Rid me these villains from your companies. + Hang them or stab them, drown them in a draught, + Confound them by some course, and come to me, + I'll give you gold enough. + BOTH. Name them, my lord; let's know them. + TIMON. You that way, and you this- but two in company; + Each man apart, all single and alone, + Yet an arch-villain keeps him company. + [To the PAINTER] If, where thou art, two villians shall not be, + Come not near him. [To the POET] If thou wouldst not reside + But where one villain is, then him abandon.- + Hence, pack! there's gold; you came for gold, ye slaves. + [To the PAINTER] You have work for me; there's payment; hence! + [To the POET] You are an alchemist; make gold of that.- + Out, rascal dogs! [Beats and drives them out] + + Enter FLAVIUS and two SENATORS + + FLAVIUS. It is vain that you would speak with Timon; + For he is set so only to himself + That nothing but himself which looks like man + Is friendly with him. + FIRST SENATOR. Bring us to his cave. + It is our part and promise to th' Athenians + To speak with Timon. + SECOND SENATOR. At all times alike + Men are not still the same; 'twas time and griefs + That fram'd him thus. Time, with his fairer hand, + Offering the fortunes of his former days, + The former man may make him. Bring us to him, + And chance it as it may. + FLAVIUS. Here is his cave. + Peace and content be here! Lord Timon! Timon! + Look out, and speak to friends. Th' Athenians + By two of their most reverend Senate greet thee. + Speak to them, noble Timon. + + Enter TIMON out of his cave + + TIMON. Thou sun that comforts, burn. Speak and be hang'd! + For each true word a blister, and each false + Be as a cauterizing to the root o' th' tongue, + Consuming it with speaking! + FIRST SENATOR. Worthy Timon- + TIMON. Of none but such as you, and you of Timon. + FIRST SENATOR. The senators of Athens greet thee, Timon. + TIMON. I thank them; and would send them back the plague, + Could I but catch it for them. + FIRST SENATOR. O, forget + What we are sorry for ourselves in thee. + The senators with one consent of love + Entreat thee back to Athens, who have thought + On special dignities, which vacant lie + For thy best use and wearing. + SECOND SENATOR. They confess + Toward thee forgetfulness too general, gross; + Which now the public body, which doth seldom + Play the recanter, feeling in itself + A lack of Timon's aid, hath sense withal + Of it own fail, restraining aid to Timon, + And send forth us to make their sorrowed render, + Together with a recompense more fruitful + Than their offence can weigh down by the dram; + Ay, even such heaps and sums of love and wealth + As shall to thee blot out what wrongs were theirs + And write in thee the figures of their love, + Ever to read them thine. + TIMON. You witch me in it; + Surprise me to the very brink of tears. + Lend me a fool's heart and a woman's eyes, + And I'll beweep these comforts, worthy senators. + FIRST SENATOR. Therefore so please thee to return with us, + And of our Athens, thine and ours, to take + The captainship, thou shalt be met with thanks, + Allow'd with absolute power, and thy good name + Live with authority. So soon we shall drive back + Of Alcibiades th' approaches wild, + Who, like a boar too savage, doth root up + His country's peace. + SECOND SENATOR. And shakes his threat'ning sword + Against the walls of Athens. + FIRST SENATOR. Therefore, Timon- + TIMON. Well, sir, I will. Therefore I will, sir, thus: + If Alcibiades kill my countrymen, + Let Alcibiades know this of Timon, + That Timon cares not. But if he sack fair Athens, + And take our goodly aged men by th' beards, + Giving our holy virgins to the stain + Of contumelious, beastly, mad-brain'd war, + Then let him know- and tell him Timon speaks it + In pity of our aged and our youth- + I cannot choose but tell him that I care not, + And let him take't at worst; for their knives care not, + While you have throats to answer. For myself, + There's not a whittle in th' unruly camp + But I do prize it at my love before + The reverend'st throat in Athens. So I leave you + To the protection of the prosperous gods, + As thieves to keepers. + FLAVIUS. Stay not, all's in vain. + TIMON. Why, I was writing of my epitaph; + It will be seen to-morrow. My long sickness + Of health and living now begins to mend, + And nothing brings me all things. Go, live still; + Be Alcibiades your plague, you his, + And last so long enough! + FIRST SENATOR. We speak in vain. + TIMON. But yet I love my country, and am not + One that rejoices in the common wreck, + As common bruit doth put it. + FIRST SENATOR. That's well spoke. + TIMON. Commend me to my loving countrymen- + FIRST SENATOR. These words become your lips as they pass through + them. + SECOND SENATOR. And enter in our ears like great triumphers + In their applauding gates. + TIMON. Commend me to them, + And tell them that, to ease them of their griefs, + Their fears of hostile strokes, their aches, losses, + Their pangs of love, with other incident throes + That nature's fragile vessel doth sustain + In life's uncertain voyage, I will some kindness do them- + I'll teach them to prevent wild Alcibiades' wrath. + FIRST SENATOR. I like this well; he will return again. + TIMON. I have a tree, which grows here in my close, + That mine own use invites me to cut down, + And shortly must I fell it. Tell my friends, + Tell Athens, in the sequence of degree + From high to low throughout, that whoso please + To stop affliction, let him take his haste, + Come hither, ere my tree hath felt the axe, + And hang himself. I pray you do my greeting. + FLAVIUS. Trouble him no further; thus you still shall find him. + TIMON. Come not to me again; but say to Athens + Timon hath made his everlasting mansion + Upon the beached verge of the salt flood, + Who once a day with his embossed froth + The turbulent surge shall cover. Thither come, + And let my gravestone be your oracle. + Lips, let sour words go by and language end: + What is amiss, plague and infection mend! + Graves only be men's works and death their gain! + Sun, hide thy beams. Timon hath done his reign. + Exit TIMON into his cave + FIRST SENATOR. His discontents are unremovably + Coupled to nature. + SECOND SENATOR. Our hope in him is dead. Let us return + And strain what other means is left unto us + In our dear peril. + FIRST SENATOR. It requires swift foot. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Before the walls of Athens + +Enter two other SENATORS with a MESSENGER + + FIRST SENATOR. Thou hast painfully discover'd; are his files + As full as thy report? + MESSENGER. I have spoke the least. + Besides, his expedition promises + Present approach. + SECOND SENATOR. We stand much hazard if they bring not Timon. + MESSENGER. I met a courier, one mine ancient friend, + Whom, though in general part we were oppos'd, + Yet our old love had a particular force, + And made us speak like friends. This man was riding + From Alcibiades to Timon's cave + With letters of entreaty, which imported + His fellowship i' th' cause against your city, + In part for his sake mov'd. + + Enter the other SENATORS, from TIMON + + FIRST SENATOR. Here come our brothers. + THIRD SENATOR. No talk of Timon, nothing of him expect. + The enemies' drum is heard, and fearful scouring + Doth choke the air with dust. In, and prepare. + Ours is the fall, I fear; our foes the snare. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +The TIMON's cave, and a rude tomb seen + +Enter a SOLDIER in the woods, seeking TIMON + + SOLDIER. By all description this should be the place. + Who's here? Speak, ho! No answer? What is this? + Timon is dead, who hath outstretch'd his span. + Some beast rear'd this; here does not live a man. + Dead, sure; and this his grave. What's on this tomb + I cannot read; the character I'll take with wax. + Our captain hath in every figure skill, + An ag'd interpreter, though young in days; + Before proud Athens he's set down by this, + Whose fall the mark of his ambition is. Exit + + + + +SCENE IV. +Before the walls of Athens + +Trumpets sound. Enter ALCIBIADES with his powers before Athens + + ALCIBIADES. Sound to this coward and lascivious town + Our terrible approach. + + Sound a parley. The SENATORS appear upon the walls + + Till now you have gone on and fill'd the time + With all licentious measure, making your wills + The scope of justice; till now, myself, and such + As slept within the shadow of your power, + Have wander'd with our travers'd arms, and breath'd + Our sufferance vainly. Now the time is flush, + When crouching marrow, in the bearer strong, + Cries of itself 'No more!' Now breathless wrong + Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease, + And pursy insolence shall break his wind + With fear and horrid flight. + FIRST SENATOR. Noble and young, + When thy first griefs were but a mere conceit, + Ere thou hadst power or we had cause of fear, + We sent to thee, to give thy rages balm, + To wipe out our ingratitude with loves + Above their quantity. + SECOND SENATOR. So did we woo + Transformed Timon to our city's love + By humble message and by promis'd means. + We were not all unkind, nor all deserve + The common stroke of war. + FIRST SENATOR. These walls of ours + Were not erected by their hands from whom + You have receiv'd your griefs; nor are they such + That these great tow'rs, trophies, and schools, should fall + For private faults in them. + SECOND SENATOR. Nor are they living + Who were the motives that you first went out; + Shame, that they wanted cunning, in excess + Hath broke their hearts. March, noble lord, + Into our city with thy banners spread. + By decimation and a tithed death- + If thy revenges hunger for that food + Which nature loathes- take thou the destin'd tenth, + And by the hazard of the spotted die + Let die the spotted. + FIRST SENATOR. All have not offended; + For those that were, it is not square to take, + On those that are, revenge: crimes, like lands, + Are not inherited. Then, dear countryman, + Bring in thy ranks, but leave without thy rage; + Spare thy Athenian cradle, and those kin + Which, in the bluster of thy wrath, must fall + With those that have offended. Like a shepherd + Approach the fold and cull th' infected forth, + But kill not all together. + SECOND SENATOR. What thou wilt, + Thou rather shalt enforce it with thy smile + Than hew to't with thy sword. + FIRST SENATOR. Set but thy foot + Against our rampir'd gates and they shall ope, + So thou wilt send thy gentle heart before + To say thou't enter friendly. + SECOND SENATOR. Throw thy glove, + Or any token of thine honour else, + That thou wilt use the wars as thy redress + And not as our confusion, all thy powers + Shall make their harbour in our town till we + Have seal'd thy full desire. + ALCIBIADES. Then there's my glove; + Descend, and open your uncharged ports. + Those enemies of Timon's and mine own, + Whom you yourselves shall set out for reproof, + Fall, and no more. And, to atone your fears + With my more noble meaning, not a man + Shall pass his quarter or offend the stream + Of regular justice in your city's bounds, + But shall be render'd to your public laws + At heaviest answer. + BOTH. 'Tis most nobly spoken. + ALCIBIADES. Descend, and keep your words. + [The SENATORS descend and open the gates] + + Enter a SOLDIER as a Messenger + + SOLDIER. My noble General, Timon is dead; + Entomb'd upon the very hem o' th' sea; + And on his grave-stone this insculpture, which + With wax I brought away, whose soft impression + Interprets for my poor ignorance. + + ALCIBIADES reads the Epitaph + + 'Here lies a wretched corse, of wretched soul bereft; + Seek not my name. A plague consume you wicked caitiffs left! + Here lie I, Timon, who alive all living men did hate. + Pass by, and curse thy fill; but pass, and stay not here thy + gait.' + These well express in thee thy latter spirits. + Though thou abhorr'dst in us our human griefs, + Scorn'dst our brain's flow, and those our droplets which + From niggard nature fall, yet rich conceit + Taught thee to make vast Neptune weep for aye + On thy low grave, on faults forgiven. Dead + Is noble Timon, of whose memory + Hereafter more. Bring me into your city, + And I will use the olive, with my sword; + Make war breed peace, make peace stint war, make each + Prescribe to other, as each other's leech. + Let our drums strike. Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1594 + +THE TRAGEDY OF TITUS ANDRONICUS + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + SATURNINUS, son to the late Emperor of Rome, afterwards Emperor + BASSIANUS, brother to Saturninus + TITUS ANDRONICUS, a noble Roman + MARCUS ANDRONICUS, Tribune of the People, and brother to Titus + + Sons to Titus Andronicus: + LUCIUS + QUINTUS + MARTIUS + MUTIUS + + YOUNG LUCIUS, a boy, son to Lucius + PUBLIUS, son to Marcus Andronicus + + Kinsmen to Titus: + SEMPRONIUS + CAIUS + VALENTINE + + AEMILIUS, a noble Roman + + Sons to Tamora: + ALARBUS + DEMETRIUS + CHIRON + + AARON, a Moor, beloved by Tamora + A CAPTAIN + A MESSENGER + A CLOWN + + TAMORA, Queen of the Goths + LAVINIA, daughter to Titus Andronicus + A NURSE, and a black CHILD + + Romans and Goths, Senators, Tribunes, Officers, Soldiers, and + Attendants + + + + +<> + + + + SCENE: + Rome and the neighbourhood + + +ACT 1. SCENE I. +Rome. Before the Capitol + +Flourish. Enter the TRIBUNES and SENATORS aloft; and then enter below +SATURNINUS and his followers at one door, and BASSIANUS and his followers +at the other, with drums and trumpets + + SATURNINUS. Noble patricians, patrons of my right, + Defend the justice of my cause with arms; + And, countrymen, my loving followers, + Plead my successive title with your swords. + I am his first born son that was the last + That ware the imperial diadem of Rome; + Then let my father's honours live in me, + Nor wrong mine age with this indignity. + BASSIANUS. Romans, friends, followers, favourers of my right, + If ever Bassianus, Caesar's son, + Were gracious in the eyes of royal Rome, + Keep then this passage to the Capitol; + And suffer not dishonour to approach + The imperial seat, to virtue consecrate, + To justice, continence, and nobility; + But let desert in pure election shine; + And, Romans, fight for freedom in your choice. + + Enter MARCUS ANDRONICUS aloft, with the crown + + MARCUS. Princes, that strive by factions and by friends + Ambitiously for rule and empery, + Know that the people of Rome, for whom we stand + A special party, have by common voice + In election for the Roman empery + Chosen Andronicus, surnamed Pius + For many good and great deserts to Rome. + A nobler man, a braver warrior, + Lives not this day within the city walls. + He by the Senate is accited home, + From weary wars against the barbarous Goths, + That with his sons, a terror to our foes, + Hath yok'd a nation strong, train'd up in arms. + Ten years are spent since first he undertook + This cause of Rome, and chastised with arms + Our enemies' pride; five times he hath return'd + Bleeding to Rome, bearing his valiant sons + In coffins from the field; and at this day + To the monument of that Andronici + Done sacrifice of expiation, + And slain the noblest prisoner of the Goths. + And now at last, laden with honour's spoils, + Returns the good Andronicus to Rome, + Renowned Titus, flourishing in arms. + Let us entreat, by honour of his name + Whom worthily you would have now succeed, + And in the Capitol and Senate's right, + Whom you pretend to honour and adore, + That you withdraw you and abate your strength, + Dismiss your followers, and, as suitors should, + Plead your deserts in peace and humbleness. + SATURNINUS. How fair the Tribune speaks to calm my thoughts. + BASSIANUS. Marcus Andronicus, so I do affy + In thy uprightness and integrity, + And so I love and honour thee and thine, + Thy noble brother Titus and his sons, + And her to whom my thoughts are humbled all, + Gracious Lavinia, Rome's rich ornament, + That I will here dismiss my loving friends, + And to my fortunes and the people's favour + Commit my cause in balance to be weigh'd. + Exeunt the soldiers of BASSIANUS + SATURNINUS. Friends, that have been thus forward in my right, + I thank you all and here dismiss you all, + And to the love and favour of my country + Commit myself, my person, and the cause. + Exeunt the soldiers of SATURNINUS + Rome, be as just and gracious unto me + As I am confident and kind to thee. + Open the gates and let me in. + BASSIANUS. Tribunes, and me, a poor competitor. + [Flourish. They go up into the Senate House] + + Enter a CAPTAIN + + CAPTAIN. Romans, make way. The good Andronicus, + Patron of virtue, Rome's best champion, + Successful in the battles that he fights, + With honour and with fortune is return'd + From where he circumscribed with his sword + And brought to yoke the enemies of Rome. + + Sound drums and trumpets, and then enter MARTIUS + and MUTIUS, two of TITUS' sons; and then two men + bearing a coffin covered with black; then LUCIUS + and QUINTUS, two other sons; then TITUS ANDRONICUS; + and then TAMORA the Queen of Goths, with her three + sons, ALARBUS, DEMETRIUS, and CHIRON, with AARON the + Moor, and others, as many as can be. Then set down + the coffin and TITUS speaks + + TITUS. Hail, Rome, victorious in thy mourning weeds! + Lo, as the bark that hath discharg'd her fraught + Returns with precious lading to the bay + From whence at first she weigh'd her anchorage, + Cometh Andronicus, bound with laurel boughs, + To re-salute his country with his tears, + Tears of true joy for his return to Rome. + Thou great defender of this Capitol, + Stand gracious to the rites that we intend! + Romans, of five and twenty valiant sons, + Half of the number that King Priam had, + Behold the poor remains, alive and dead! + These that survive let Rome reward with love; + These that I bring unto their latest home, + With burial amongst their ancestors. + Here Goths have given me leave to sheathe my sword. + Titus, unkind, and careless of thine own, + Why suffer'st thou thy sons, unburied yet, + To hover on the dreadful shore of Styx? + Make way to lay them by their brethren. + [They open the tomb] + There greet in silence, as the dead are wont, + And sleep in peace, slain in your country's wars. + O sacred receptacle of my joys, + Sweet cell of virtue and nobility, + How many sons hast thou of mine in store + That thou wilt never render to me more! + LUCIUS. Give us the proudest prisoner of the Goths, + That we may hew his limbs, and on a pile + Ad manes fratrum sacrifice his flesh + Before this earthy prison of their bones, + That so the shadows be not unappeas'd, + Nor we disturb'd with prodigies on earth. + TITUS. I give him you- the noblest that survives, + The eldest son of this distressed queen. + TAMORA. Stay, Roman brethen! Gracious conqueror, + Victorious Titus, rue the tears I shed, + A mother's tears in passion for her son; + And if thy sons were ever dear to thee, + O, think my son to be as dear to me! + Sufficeth not that we are brought to Rome + To beautify thy triumphs, and return + Captive to thee and to thy Roman yoke; + But must my sons be slaughtered in the streets + For valiant doings in their country's cause? + O, if to fight for king and commonweal + Were piety in thine, it is in these. + Andronicus, stain not thy tomb with blood. + Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods? + Draw near them then in being merciful. + Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. + Thrice-noble Titus, spare my first-born son. + TITUS. Patient yourself, madam, and pardon me. + These are their brethren, whom your Goths beheld + Alive and dead; and for their brethren slain + Religiously they ask a sacrifice. + To this your son is mark'd, and die he must + T' appease their groaning shadows that are gone. + LUCIUS. Away with him, and make a fire straight; + And with our swords, upon a pile of wood, + Let's hew his limbs till they be clean consum'd. + Exeunt TITUS' SONS, with ALARBUS + TAMORA. O cruel, irreligious piety! + CHIRON. Was never Scythia half so barbarous! + DEMETRIUS. Oppose not Scythia to ambitious Rome. + Alarbus goes to rest, and we survive + To tremble under Titus' threat'ning look. + Then, madam, stand resolv'd, but hope withal + The self-same gods that arm'd the Queen of Troy + With opportunity of sharp revenge + Upon the Thracian tyrant in his tent + May favour Tamora, the Queen of Goths- + When Goths were Goths and Tamora was queen- + To quit the bloody wrongs upon her foes. + + Re-enter LUCIUS, QUINTUS, MARTIUS, and + MUTIUS, the sons of ANDRONICUS, with their swords bloody + + LUCIUS. See, lord and father, how we have perform'd + Our Roman rites: Alarbus' limbs are lopp'd, + And entrails feed the sacrificing fire, + Whose smoke like incense doth perfume the sky. + Remaineth nought but to inter our brethren, + And with loud 'larums welcome them to Rome. + TITUS. Let it be so, and let Andronicus + Make this his latest farewell to their souls. + [Sound trumpets and lay the coffin in the tomb] + In peace and honour rest you here, my sons; + Rome's readiest champions, repose you here in rest, + Secure from worldly chances and mishaps! + Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells, + Here grow no damned drugs, here are no storms, + No noise, but silence and eternal sleep. + In peace and honour rest you here, my sons! + + Enter LAVINIA + + LAVINIA. In peace and honour live Lord Titus long; + My noble lord and father, live in fame! + Lo, at this tomb my tributary tears + I render for my brethren's obsequies; + And at thy feet I kneel, with tears of joy + Shed on this earth for thy return to Rome. + O, bless me here with thy victorious hand, + Whose fortunes Rome's best citizens applaud! + TITUS. Kind Rome, that hast thus lovingly reserv'd + The cordial of mine age to glad my heart! + Lavinia, live; outlive thy father's days, + And fame's eternal date, for virtue's praise! + + Enter, above, MARCUS ANDRONICUS and TRIBUNES; + re-enter SATURNINUS, BASSIANUS, and attendants + + MARCUS. Long live Lord Titus, my beloved brother, + Gracious triumpher in the eyes of Rome! + TITUS. Thanks, gentle Tribune, noble brother Marcus. + MARCUS. And welcome, nephews, from successful wars, + You that survive and you that sleep in fame. + Fair lords, your fortunes are alike in all + That in your country's service drew your swords; + But safer triumph is this funeral pomp + That hath aspir'd to Solon's happiness + And triumphs over chance in honour's bed. + Titus Andronicus, the people of Rome, + Whose friend in justice thou hast ever been, + Send thee by me, their Tribune and their trust, + This par]iament of white and spotless hue; + And name thee in election for the empire + With these our late-deceased Emperor's sons: + Be candidatus then, and put it on, + And help to set a head on headless Rome. + TITUS. A better head her glorious body fits + Than his that shakes for age and feebleness. + What should I don this robe and trouble you? + Be chosen with proclamations to-day, + To-morrow yield up rule, resign my life, + And set abroad new business for you all? + Rome, I have been thy soldier forty years, + And led my country's strength successfully, + And buried one and twenty valiant sons, + Knighted in field, slain manfully in arms, + In right and service of their noble country. + Give me a staff of honour for mine age, + But not a sceptre to control the world. + Upright he held it, lords, that held it last. + MARCUS. Titus, thou shalt obtain and ask the empery. + SATURNINUS. Proud and ambitious Tribune, canst thou tell? + TITUS. Patience, Prince Saturninus. + SATURNINUS. Romans, do me right. + Patricians, draw your swords, and sheathe them not + Till Saturninus be Rome's Emperor. + Andronicus, would thou were shipp'd to hell + Rather than rob me of the people's hearts! + LUCIUS. Proud Saturnine, interrupter of the good + That noble-minded Titus means to thee! + TITUS. Content thee, Prince; I will restore to thee + The people's hearts, and wean them from themselves. + BASSIANUS. Andronicus, I do not flatter thee, + But honour thee, and will do till I die. + My faction if thou strengthen with thy friends, + I will most thankful be; and thanks to men + Of noble minds is honourable meed. + TITUS. People of Rome, and people's Tribunes here, + I ask your voices and your suffrages: + Will ye bestow them friendly on Andronicus? + TRIBUNES. To gratify the good Andronicus, + And gratulate his safe return to Rome, + The people will accept whom he admits. + TITUS. Tribunes, I thank you; and this suit I make, + That you create our Emperor's eldest son, + Lord Saturnine; whose virtues will, I hope, + Reflect on Rome as Titan's rays on earth, + And ripen justice in this commonweal. + Then, if you will elect by my advice, + Crown him, and say 'Long live our Emperor!' + MARCUS. With voices and applause of every sort, + Patricians and plebeians, we create + Lord Saturninus Rome's great Emperor; + And say 'Long live our Emperor Saturnine!' + [A long flourish till they come down] + SATURNINUS. Titus Andronicus, for thy favours done + To us in our election this day + I give thee thanks in part of thy deserts, + And will with deeds requite thy gentleness; + And for an onset, Titus, to advance + Thy name and honourable family, + Lavinia will I make my emperess, + Rome's royal mistress, mistress of my heart, + And in the sacred Pantheon her espouse. + Tell me, Andronicus, doth this motion please thee? + TITUS. It doth, my worthy lord, and in this match + I hold me highly honoured of your Grace, + And here in sight of Rome, to Saturnine, + King and commander of our commonweal, + The wide world's Emperor, do I consecrate + My sword, my chariot, and my prisoners, + Presents well worthy Rome's imperious lord; + Receive them then, the tribute that I owe, + Mine honour's ensigns humbled at thy feet. + SATURNINUS. Thanks, noble Titus, father of my life. + How proud I am of thee and of thy gifts + Rome shall record; and when I do forget + The least of these unspeakable deserts, + Romans, forget your fealty to me. + TITUS. [To TAMORA] Now, madam, are you prisoner to an emperor; + To him that for your honour and your state + Will use you nobly and your followers. + SATURNINUS. [Aside] A goodly lady, trust me; of the hue + That I would choose, were I to choose anew.- + Clear up, fair Queen, that cloudy countenance; + Though chance of war hath wrought this change of cheer, + Thou com'st not to be made a scorn in Rome- + Princely shall be thy usage every way. + Rest on my word, and let not discontent + Daunt all your hopes. Madam, he comforts you + Can make you greater than the Queen of Goths. + Lavinia, you are not displeas'd with this? + LAVINIA. Not I, my lord, sith true nobility + Warrants these words in princely courtesy. + SATURNINUS. Thanks, sweet Lavinia. Romans, let us go. + Ransomless here we set our prisoners free. + Proclaim our honours, lords, with trump and drum. + [Flourish] + BASSIANUS. Lord Titus, by your leave, this maid is mine. + [Seizing LAVINIA] + TITUS. How, sir! Are you in earnest then, my lord? + BASSIANUS. Ay, noble Titus, and resolv'd withal + To do myself this reason and this right. + MARCUS. Suum cuique is our Roman justice: + This prince in justice seizeth but his own. + LUCIUS. And that he will and shall, if Lucius live. + TITUS. Traitors, avaunt! Where is the Emperor's guard? + Treason, my lord- Lavinia is surpris'd! + SATURNINUS. Surpris'd! By whom? + BASSIANUS. By him that justly may + Bear his betroth'd from all the world away. + Exeunt BASSIANUS and MARCUS with LAVINIA + MUTIUS. Brothers, help to convey her hence away, + And with my sword I'll keep this door safe. + Exeunt LUCIUS, QUINTUS, and MARTIUS + TITUS. Follow, my lord, and I'll soon bring her back. + MUTIUS. My lord, you pass not here. + TITUS. What, villain boy! + Bar'st me my way in Rome? + MUTIUS. Help, Lucius, help! + TITUS kills him. During the fray, exeunt SATURNINUS, + TAMORA, DEMETRIUS, CHIRON, and AARON + + Re-enter Lucius + + LUCIUS. My lord, you are unjust, and more than so: + In wrongful quarrel you have slain your son. + TITUS. Nor thou nor he are any sons of mine; + My sons would never so dishonour me. + + Re-enter aloft the EMPEROR + with TAMORA and her two Sons, and AARON the Moor + + Traitor, restore Lavinia to the Emperor. + LUCIUS. Dead, if you will; but not to be his wife, + That is another's lawful promis'd love. Exit + SATURNINUS. No, Titus, no; the Emperor needs her not, + Nor her, nor thee, nor any of thy stock. + I'll trust by leisure him that mocks me once; + Thee never, nor thy traitorous haughty sons, + Confederates all thus to dishonour me. + Was there none else in Rome to make a stale + But Saturnine? Full well, Andronicus, + Agree these deeds with that proud brag of thine + That saidst I begg'd the empire at thy hands. + TITUS. O monstrous! What reproachful words are these? + SATURNINUS. But go thy ways; go, give that changing piece + To him that flourish'd for her with his sword. + A valiant son-in-law thou shalt enjoy; + One fit to bandy with thy lawless sons, + To ruffle in the commonwealth of Rome. + TITUS. These words are razors to my wounded heart. + SATURNINUS. And therefore, lovely Tamora, Queen of Goths, + That, like the stately Phoebe 'mongst her nymphs, + Dost overshine the gallant'st dames of Rome, + If thou be pleas'd with this my sudden choice, + Behold, I choose thee, Tamora, for my bride + And will create thee Emperess of Rome. + Speak, Queen of Goths, dost thou applaud my choice? + And here I swear by all the Roman gods- + Sith priest and holy water are so near, + And tapers burn so bright, and everything + In readiness for Hymenaeus stand- + I will not re-salute the streets of Rome, + Or climb my palace, till from forth this place + I lead espous'd my bride along with me. + TAMORA. And here in sight of heaven to Rome I swear, + If Saturnine advance the Queen of Goths, + She will a handmaid be to his desires, + A loving nurse, a mother to his youth. + SATURNINUS. Ascend, fair Queen, Pantheon. Lords, accompany + Your noble Emperor and his lovely bride, + Sent by the heavens for Prince Saturnine, + Whose wisdom hath her fortune conquered; + There shall we consummate our spousal rites. + Exeunt all but TITUS + TITUS. I am not bid to wait upon this bride. + TITUS, when wert thou wont to walk alone, + Dishonoured thus, and challenged of wrongs? + + Re-enter MARCUS, + and TITUS' SONS, LUCIUS, QUINTUS, and MARTIUS + + MARCUS. O Titus, see, O, see what thou hast done! + In a bad quarrel slain a virtuous son. + TITUS. No, foolish Tribune, no; no son of mine- + Nor thou, nor these, confederates in the deed + That hath dishonoured all our family; + Unworthy brother and unworthy sons! + LUCIUS. But let us give him burial, as becomes; + Give Mutius burial with our bretheren. + TITUS. Traitors, away! He rests not in this tomb. + This monument five hundred years hath stood, + Which I have sumptuously re-edified; + Here none but soldiers and Rome's servitors + Repose in fame; none basely slain in brawls. + Bury him where you can, he comes not here. + MARCUS. My lord, this is impiety in you. + My nephew Mutius' deeds do plead for him; + He must be buried with his bretheren. + QUINTUS & MARTIUS. And shall, or him we will accompany. + TITUS. 'And shall!' What villain was it spake that word? + QUINTUS. He that would vouch it in any place but here. + TITUS. What, would you bury him in my despite? + MARCUS. No, noble Titus, but entreat of thee + To pardon Mutius and to bury him. + TITUS. Marcus, even thou hast struck upon my crest, + And with these boys mine honour thou hast wounded. + My foes I do repute you every one; + So trouble me no more, but get you gone. + MARTIUS. He is not with himself; let us withdraw. + QUINTUS. Not I, till Mutius' bones be buried. + [The BROTHER and the SONS kneel] + MARCUS. Brother, for in that name doth nature plead- + QUINTUS. Father, and in that name doth nature speak- + TITUS. Speak thou no more, if all the rest will speed. + MARCUS. Renowned Titus, more than half my soul- + LUCIUS. Dear father, soul and substance of us all- + MARCUS. Suffer thy brother Marcus to inter + His noble nephew here in virtue's nest, + That died in honour and Lavinia's cause. + Thou art a Roman- be not barbarous. + The Greeks upon advice did bury Ajax, + That slew himself; and wise Laertes' son + Did graciously plead for his funerals. + Let not young Mutius, then, that was thy joy, + Be barr'd his entrance here. + TITUS. Rise, Marcus, rise; + The dismal'st day is this that e'er I saw, + To be dishonoured by my sons in Rome! + Well, bury him, and bury me the next. + [They put MUTIUS in the tomb] + LUCIUS. There lie thy bones, sweet Mutius, with thy friends, + Till we with trophies do adorn thy tomb. + ALL. [Kneeling] No man shed tears for noble Mutius; + He lives in fame that died in virtue's cause. + MARCUS. My lord- to step out of these dreary dumps- + How comes it that the subtle Queen of Goths + Is of a sudden thus advanc'd in Rome? + TITUS. I know not, Marcus, but I know it is- + Whether by device or no, the heavens can tell. + Is she not, then, beholding to the man + That brought her for this high good turn so far? + MARCUS. Yes, and will nobly him remunerate. + + Flourish. Re-enter the EMPEROR, TAMORA + and her two SONS, with the MOOR, at one door; + at the other door, BASSIANUS and LAVINIA, with others + + SATURNINUS. So, Bassianus, you have play'd your prize: + God give you joy, sir, of your gallant bride! + BASSIANUS. And you of yours, my lord! I say no more, + Nor wish no less; and so I take my leave. + SATURNINUS. Traitor, if Rome have law or we have power, + Thou and thy faction shall repent this rape. + BASSIANUS. Rape, call you it, my lord, to seize my own, + My true betrothed love, and now my wife? + But let the laws of Rome determine all; + Meanwhile am I possess'd of that is mine. + SATURNINUS. 'Tis good, sir. You are very short with us; + But if we live we'll be as sharp with you. + BASSIANUS. My lord, what I have done, as best I may, + Answer I must, and shall do with my life. + Only thus much I give your Grace to know: + By all the duties that I owe to Rome, + This noble gentleman, Lord Titus here, + Is in opinion and in honour wrong'd, + That, in the rescue of Lavinia, + With his own hand did slay his youngest son, + In zeal to you, and highly mov'd to wrath + To be controll'd in that he frankly gave. + Receive him then to favour, Saturnine, + That hath express'd himself in all his deeds + A father and a friend to thee and Rome. + TITUS. Prince Bassianus, leave to plead my deeds. + 'Tis thou and those that have dishonoured me. + Rome and the righteous heavens be my judge + How I have lov'd and honoured Saturnine! + TAMORA. My worthy lord, if ever Tamora + Were gracious in those princely eyes of thine, + Then hear me speak indifferently for all; + And at my suit, sweet, pardon what is past. + SATURNINUS. What, madam! be dishonoured openly, + And basely put it up without revenge? + TAMORA. Not so, my lord; the gods of Rome forfend + I should be author to dishonour you! + But on mine honour dare I undertake + For good Lord Titus' innocence in all, + Whose fury not dissembled speaks his griefs. + Then at my suit look graciously on him; + Lose not so noble a friend on vain suppose, + Nor with sour looks afflict his gentle heart. + [Aside to SATURNINUS] My lord, be rul'd by me, + be won at last; + Dissemble all your griefs and discontents. + You are but newly planted in your throne; + Lest, then, the people, and patricians too, + Upon a just survey take Titus' part, + And so supplant you for ingratitude, + Which Rome reputes to be a heinous sin, + Yield at entreats, and then let me alone: + I'll find a day to massacre them all, + And raze their faction and their family, + The cruel father and his traitorous sons, + To whom I sued for my dear son's life; + And make them know what 'tis to let a queen + Kneel in the streets and beg for grace in vain.- + Come, come, sweet Emperor; come, Andronicus. + Take up this good old man, and cheer the heart + That dies in tempest of thy angry frown. + SATURNINUS. Rise, Titus, rise; my Empress hath prevail'd. + TITUS. I thank your Majesty and her, my lord; + These words, these looks, infuse new life in me. + TAMORA. Titus, I am incorporate in Rome, + A Roman now adopted happily, + And must advise the Emperor for his good. + This day all quarrels die, Andronicus; + And let it be mine honour, good my lord, + That I have reconcil'd your friends and you. + For you, Prince Bassianus, I have pass'd + My word and promise to the Emperor + That you will be more mild and tractable. + And fear not, lords- and you, Lavinia. + By my advice, all humbled on your knees, + You shall ask pardon of his Majesty. + LUCIUS. We do, and vow to heaven and to his Highness + That what we did was mildly as we might, + Tend'ring our sister's honour and our own. + MARCUS. That on mine honour here do I protest. + SATURNINUS. Away, and talk not; trouble us no more. + TAMORA. Nay, nay, sweet Emperor, we must all be friends. + The Tribune and his nephews kneel for grace. + I will not be denied. Sweet heart, look back. + SATURNINUS. Marcus, for thy sake, and thy brother's here, + And at my lovely Tamora's entreats, + I do remit these young men's heinous faults. + Stand up. + Lavinia, though you left me like a churl, + I found a friend; and sure as death I swore + I would not part a bachelor from the priest. + Come, if the Emperor's court can feast two brides, + You are my guest, Lavinia, and your friends. + This day shall be a love-day, Tamora. + TITUS. To-morrow, and it please your Majesty + To hunt the panther and the hart with me, + With horn and hound we'll give your Grace bonjour. + SATURNINUS. Be it so, Titus, and gramercy too. + Exeunt. Sound trumpets + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +Rome. Before the palace + +Enter AARON + + AARON. Now climbeth Tamora Olympus' top, + Safe out of Fortune's shot, and sits aloft, + Secure of thunder's crack or lightning flash, + Advanc'd above pale envy's threat'ning reach. + As when the golden sun salutes the morn, + And, having gilt the ocean with his beams, + Gallops the zodiac in his glistening coach + And overlooks the highest-peering hills, + So Tamora. + Upon her wit doth earthly honour wait, + And virtue stoops and trembles at her frown. + Then, Aaron, arm thy heart and fit thy thoughts + To mount aloft with thy imperial mistress, + And mount her pitch whom thou in triumph long. + Hast prisoner held, fett'red in amorous chains, + And faster bound to Aaron's charming eyes + Than is Prometheus tied to Caucasus. + Away with slavish weeds and servile thoughts! + I will be bright and shine in pearl and gold, + To wait upon this new-made emperess. + To wait, said I? To wanton with this queen, + This goddess, this Semiramis, this nymph, + This siren that will charm Rome's Saturnine, + And see his shipwreck and his commonweal's. + Hullo! what storm is this? + + Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS, braving + + DEMETRIUS. Chiron, thy years wants wit, thy wits wants edge + And manners, to intrude where I am grac'd, + And may, for aught thou knowest, affected be. + CHIRON. Demetrius, thou dost over-ween in all; + And so in this, to bear me down with braves. + 'Tis not the difference of a year or two + Makes me less gracious or thee more fortunate: + I am as able and as fit as thou + To serve and to deserve my mistress' grace; + And that my sword upon thee shall approve, + And plead my passions for Lavinia's love. + AARON. [Aside] Clubs, clubs! These lovers will not keep the + peace. + DEMETRIUS. Why, boy, although our mother, unadvis'd, + Gave you a dancing rapier by your side, + Are you so desperate grown to threat your friends? + Go to; have your lath glued within your sheath + Till you know better how to handle it. + CHIRON. Meanwhile, sir, with the little skill I have, + Full well shalt thou perceive how much I dare. + DEMETRIUS. Ay, boy, grow ye so brave? [They draw] + AARON. [Coming forward] Why, how now, lords! + So near the Emperor's palace dare ye draw + And maintain such a quarrel openly? + Full well I wot the ground of all this grudge: + I would not for a million of gold + The cause were known to them it most concerns; + Nor would your noble mother for much more + Be so dishonoured in the court of Rome. + For shame, put up. + DEMETRIUS. Not I, till I have sheath'd + My rapier in his bosom, and withal + Thrust those reproachful speeches down his throat + That he hath breath'd in my dishonour here. + CHIRON. For that I am prepar'd and full resolv'd, + Foul-spoken coward, that thund'rest with thy tongue, + And with thy weapon nothing dar'st perform. + AARON. Away, I say! + Now, by the gods that warlike Goths adore, + This pretty brabble will undo us all. + Why, lords, and think you not how dangerous + It is to jet upon a prince's right? + What, is Lavinia then become so loose, + Or Bassianus so degenerate, + That for her love such quarrels may be broach'd + Without controlment, justice, or revenge? + Young lords, beware; an should the Empress know + This discord's ground, the music would not please. + CHIRON. I care not, I, knew she and all the world: + I love Lavinia more than all the world. + DEMETRIUS. Youngling, learn thou to make some meaner choice: + Lavina is thine elder brother's hope. + AARON. Why, are ye mad, or know ye not in Rome + How furious and impatient they be, + And cannot brook competitors in love? + I tell you, lords, you do but plot your deaths + By this device. + CHIRON. Aaron, a thousand deaths + Would I propose to achieve her whom I love. + AARON. To achieve her- how? + DEMETRIUS. Why mak'st thou it so strange? + She is a woman, therefore may be woo'd; + She is a woman, therefore may be won; + She is Lavinia, therefore must be lov'd. + What, man! more water glideth by the mill + Than wots the miller of; and easy it is + Of a cut loaf to steal a shive, we know. + Though Bassianus be the Emperor's brother, + Better than he have worn Vulcan's badge. + AARON. [Aside] Ay, and as good as Saturninus may. + DEMETRIUS. Then why should he despair that knows to court it + With words, fair looks, and liberality? + What, hast not thou full often struck a doe, + And borne her cleanly by the keeper's nose? + AARON. Why, then, it seems some certain snatch or so + Would serve your turns. + CHIRON. Ay, so the turn were served. + DEMETRIUS. Aaron, thou hast hit it. + AARON. Would you had hit it too! + Then should not we be tir'd with this ado. + Why, hark ye, hark ye! and are you such fools + To square for this? Would it offend you, then, + That both should speed? + CHIRON. Faith, not me. + DEMETRIUS. Nor me, so I were one. + AARON. For shame, be friends, and join for that you jar. + 'Tis policy and stratagem must do + That you affect; and so must you resolve + That what you cannot as you would achieve, + You must perforce accomplish as you may. + Take this of me: Lucrece was not more chaste + Than this Lavinia, Bassianus' love. + A speedier course than ling'ring languishment + Must we pursue, and I have found the path. + My lords, a solemn hunting is in hand; + There will the lovely Roman ladies troop; + The forest walks are wide and spacious, + And many unfrequented plots there are + Fitted by kind for rape and villainy. + Single you thither then this dainty doe, + And strike her home by force if not by words. + This way, or not at all, stand you in hope. + Come, come, our Empress, with her sacred wit + To villainy and vengeance consecrate, + Will we acquaint with all what we intend; + And she shall file our engines with advice + That will not suffer you to square yourselves, + But to your wishes' height advance you both. + The Emperor's court is like the house of Fame, + The palace full of tongues, of eyes, and ears; + The woods are ruthless, dreadful, deaf, and dull. + There speak and strike, brave boys, and take your turns; + There serve your lust, shadowed from heaven's eye, + And revel in Lavinia's treasury. + CHIRON. Thy counsel, lad, smells of no cowardice. + DEMETRIUS. Sit fas aut nefas, till I find the stream + To cool this heat, a charm to calm these fits, + Per Styga, per manes vehor. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +A forest near Rome + +Enter TITUS ANDRONICUS, and his three sons, LUCIUS, QUINTUS, MARTIUS, +making a noise with hounds and horns; and MARCUS + + TITUS. The hunt is up, the morn is bright and grey, + The fields are fragrant, and the woods are green. + Uncouple here, and let us make a bay, + And wake the Emperor and his lovely bride, + And rouse the Prince, and ring a hunter's peal, + That all the court may echo with the noise. + Sons, let it be your charge, as it is ours, + To attend the Emperor's person carefully. + I have been troubled in my sleep this night, + But dawning day new comfort hath inspir'd. + + Here a cry of hounds, and wind horns in a peal. + Then enter SATURNINUS, TAMORA, BASSIANUS LAVINIA, + CHIRON, DEMETRIUS, and their attendants + Many good morrows to your Majesty! + Madam, to you as many and as good! + I promised your Grace a hunter's peal. + SATURNINUS. And you have rung it lustily, my lords- + Somewhat too early for new-married ladies. + BASSIANUS. Lavinia, how say you? + LAVINIA. I say no; + I have been broad awake two hours and more. + SATURNINUS. Come on then, horse and chariots let us have, + And to our sport. [To TAMORA] Madam, now shall ye see + Our Roman hunting. + MARCUS. I have dogs, my lord, + Will rouse the proudest panther in the chase, + And climb the highest promontory top. + TITUS. And I have horse will follow where the game + Makes way, and run like swallows o'er the plain. + DEMETRIUS. Chiron, we hunt not, we, with horse nor hound, + But hope to pluck a dainty doe to ground. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +A lonely part of the forest + +Enter AARON alone, with a bag of gold + + AARON. He that had wit would think that I had none, + To bury so much gold under a tree + And never after to inherit it. + Let him that thinks of me so abjectly + Know that this gold must coin a stratagem, + Which, cunningly effected, will beget + A very excellent piece of villainy. + And so repose, sweet gold, for their unrest + [Hides the gold] + That have their alms out of the Empress' chest. + + Enter TAMORA alone, to the Moor + + TAMORA. My lovely Aaron, wherefore look'st thou sad + When everything does make a gleeful boast? + The birds chant melody on every bush; + The snakes lie rolled in the cheerful sun; + The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind + And make a chequer'd shadow on the ground; + Under their sweet shade, Aaron, let us sit, + And while the babbling echo mocks the hounds, + Replying shrilly to the well-tun'd horns, + As if a double hunt were heard at once, + Let us sit down and mark their yellowing noise; + And- after conflict such as was suppos'd + The wand'ring prince and Dido once enjoyed, + When with a happy storm they were surpris'd, + And curtain'd with a counsel-keeping cave- + We may, each wreathed in the other's arms, + Our pastimes done, possess a golden slumber, + Whiles hounds and horns and sweet melodious birds + Be unto us as is a nurse's song + Of lullaby to bring her babe asleep. + AARON. Madam, though Venus govern your desires, + Saturn is dominator over mine. + What signifies my deadly-standing eye, + My silence and my cloudy melancholy, + My fleece of woolly hair that now uncurls + Even as an adder when she doth unroll + To do some fatal execution? + No, madam, these are no venereal signs. + Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, + Blood and revenge are hammering in my head. + Hark, Tamora, the empress of my soul, + Which never hopes more heaven than rests in thee- + This is the day of doom for Bassianus; + His Philomel must lose her tongue to-day, + Thy sons make pillage of her chastity, + And wash their hands in Bassianus' blood. + Seest thou this letter? Take it up, I pray thee, + And give the King this fatal-plotted scroll. + Now question me no more; we are espied. + Here comes a parcel of our hopeful booty, + Which dreads not yet their lives' destruction. + + Enter BASSIANUS and LAVINIA + + TAMORA. Ah, my sweet Moor, sweeter to me than life! + AARON. No more, great Empress: Bassianus comes. + Be cross with him; and I'll go fetch thy sons + To back thy quarrels, whatsoe'er they be. Exit + BASSIANUS. Who have we here? Rome's royal Emperess, + Unfurnish'd of her well-beseeming troop? + Or is it Dian, habited like her, + Who hath abandoned her holy groves + To see the general hunting in this forest? + TAMORA. Saucy controller of my private steps! + Had I the pow'r that some say Dian had, + Thy temples should be planted presently + With horns, as was Actaeon's; and the hounds + Should drive upon thy new-transformed limbs, + Unmannerly intruder as thou art! + LAVINIA. Under your patience, gentle Emperess, + 'Tis thought you have a goodly gift in horning, + And to be doubted that your Moor and you + Are singled forth to try thy experiments. + Jove shield your husband from his hounds to-day! + 'Tis pity they should take him for a stag. + BASSIANUS. Believe me, Queen, your swarth Cimmerian + Doth make your honour of his body's hue, + Spotted, detested, and abominable. + Why are you sequest'red from all your train, + Dismounted from your snow-white goodly steed, + And wand'red hither to an obscure plot, + Accompanied but with a barbarous Moor, + If foul desire had not conducted you? + LAVINIA. And, being intercepted in your sport, + Great reason that my noble lord be rated + For sauciness. I pray you let us hence, + And let her joy her raven-coloured love; + This valley fits the purpose passing well. + BASSIANUS. The King my brother shall have notice of this. + LAVINIA. Ay, for these slips have made him noted long. + Good king, to be so mightily abused! + TAMORA. Why, I have patience to endure all this. + + Enter CHIRON and DEMETRIUS + + DEMETRIUS. How now, dear sovereign, and our gracious mother! + Why doth your Highness look so pale and wan? + TAMORA. Have I not reason, think you, to look pale? + These two have 'ticed me hither to this place. + A barren detested vale you see it is: + The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, + Overcome with moss and baleful mistletoe; + Here never shines the sun; here nothing breeds, + Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven. + And when they show'd me this abhorred pit, + They told me, here, at dead time of the night, + A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes, + Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins, + Would make such fearful and confused cries + As any mortal body hearing it + Should straight fall mad or else die suddenly. + No sooner had they told this hellish tale + But straight they told me they would bind me here + Unto the body of a dismal yew, + And leave me to this miserable death. + And then they call'd me foul adulteress, + Lascivious Goth, and all the bitterest terms + That ever ear did hear to such effect; + And had you not by wondrous fortune come, + This vengeance on me had they executed. + Revenge it, as you love your mother's life, + Or be ye not henceforth call'd my children. + DEMETRIUS. This is a witness that I am thy son. + [Stabs BASSIANUS] + CHIRON. And this for me, struck home to show my strength. + [Also stabs] + LAVINIA. Ay, come, Semiramis- nay, barbarous Tamora, + For no name fits thy nature but thy own! + TAMORA. Give me the poniard; you shall know, my boys, + Your mother's hand shall right your mother's wrong. + DEMETRIUS. Stay, madam, here is more belongs to her; + First thrash the corn, then after burn the straw. + This minion stood upon her chastity, + Upon her nuptial vow, her loyalty, + And with that painted hope braves your mightiness; + And shall she carry this unto her grave? + CHIRON. An if she do, I would I were an eunuch. + Drag hence her husband to some secret hole, + And make his dead trunk pillow to our lust. + TAMORA. But when ye have the honey we desire, + Let not this wasp outlive, us both to sting. + CHIRON. I warrant you, madam, we will make that sure. + Come, mistress, now perforce we will enjoy + That nice-preserved honesty of yours. + LAVINIA. O Tamora! thou bearest a woman's face- + TAMORA. I will not hear her speak; away with her! + LAVINIA. Sweet lords, entreat her hear me but a word. + DEMETRIUS. Listen, fair madam: let it be your glory + To see her tears; but be your heart to them + As unrelenting flint to drops of rain. + LAVINIA. When did the tiger's young ones teach the dam? + O, do not learn her wrath- she taught it thee; + The milk thou suck'dst from her did turn to marble, + Even at thy teat thou hadst thy tyranny. + Yet every mother breeds not sons alike: + [To CHIRON] Do thou entreat her show a woman's pity. + CHIRON. What, wouldst thou have me prove myself a bastard? + LAVINIA. 'Tis true, the raven doth not hatch a lark. + Yet have I heard- O, could I find it now!- + The lion, mov'd with pity, did endure + To have his princely paws par'd all away. + Some say that ravens foster forlorn children, + The whilst their own birds famish in their nests; + O, be to me, though thy hard heart say no, + Nothing so kind, but something pitiful! + TAMORA. I know not what it means; away with her! + LAVINIA. O, let me teach thee! For my father's sake, + That gave thee life when well he might have slain thee, + Be not obdurate, open thy deaf ears. + TAMORA. Hadst thou in person ne'er offended me, + Even for his sake am I pitiless. + Remember, boys, I pour'd forth tears in vain + To save your brother from the sacrifice; + But fierce Andronicus would not relent. + Therefore away with her, and use her as you will; + The worse to her the better lov'd of me. + LAVINIA. O Tamora, be call'd a gentle queen, + And with thine own hands kill me in this place! + For 'tis not life that I have begg'd so long; + Poor I was slain when Bassianus died. + TAMORA. What beg'st thou, then? Fond woman, let me go. + LAVINIA. 'Tis present death I beg; and one thing more, + That womanhood denies my tongue to tell: + O, keep me from their worse than killing lust, + And tumble me into some loathsome pit, + Where never man's eye may behold my body; + Do this, and be a charitable murderer. + TAMORA. So should I rob my sweet sons of their fee; + No, let them satisfy their lust on thee. + DEMETRIUS. Away! for thou hast stay'd us here too long. + LAVINIA. No grace? no womanhood? Ah, beastly creature, + The blot and enemy to our general name! + Confusion fall- + CHIRON. Nay, then I'll stop your mouth. Bring thou her husband. + This is the hole where Aaron bid us hide him. + + DEMETRIUS throws the body + of BASSIANUS into the pit; then exeunt + DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, dragging off LAVINIA + + TAMORA. Farewell, my sons; see that you make her sure. + Ne'er let my heart know merry cheer indeed + Till all the Andronici be made away. + Now will I hence to seek my lovely Moor, + And let my spleenful sons this trull deflower. Exit + + Re-enter AARON, with two + of TITUS' sons, QUINTUS and MARTIUS + + AARON. Come on, my lords, the better foot before; + Straight will I bring you to the loathsome pit + Where I espied the panther fast asleep. + QUINTUS. My sight is very dull, whate'er it bodes. + MARTIUS. And mine, I promise you; were it not for shame, + Well could I leave our sport to sleep awhile. + [Falls into the pit] + QUINTUS. What, art thou fallen? What subtle hole is this, + Whose mouth is covered with rude-growing briers, + Upon whose leaves are drops of new-shed blood + As fresh as morning dew distill'd on flowers? + A very fatal place it seems to me. + Speak, brother, hast thou hurt thee with the fall? + MARTIUS. O brother, with the dismal'st object hurt + That ever eye with sight made heart lament! + AARON. [Aside] Now will I fetch the King to find them here, + That he thereby may have a likely guess + How these were they that made away his brother. Exit + MARTIUS. Why dost not comfort me, and help me out + From this unhallow'd and blood-stained hole? + QUINTUS. I am surprised with an uncouth fear; + A chilling sweat o'er-runs my trembling joints; + My heart suspects more than mine eye can see. + MARTIUS. To prove thou hast a true divining heart, + Aaron and thou look down into this den, + And see a fearful sight of blood and death. + QUINTUS. Aaron is gone, and my compassionate heart + Will not permit mine eyes once to behold + The thing whereat it trembles by surmise; + O, tell me who it is, for ne'er till now + Was I a child to fear I know not what. + MARTIUS. Lord Bassianus lies beray'd in blood, + All on a heap, like to a slaughtered lamb, + In this detested, dark, blood-drinking pit. + QUINTUS. If it be dark, how dost thou know 'tis he? + MARTIUS. Upon his bloody finger he doth wear + A precious ring that lightens all this hole, + Which, like a taper in some monument, + Doth shine upon the dead man's earthy cheeks, + And shows the ragged entrails of this pit; + So pale did shine the moon on Pyramus + When he by night lay bath'd in maiden blood. + O brother, help me with thy fainting hand- + If fear hath made thee faint, as me it hath- + Out of this fell devouring receptacle, + As hateful as Cocytus' misty mouth. + QUINTUS. Reach me thy hand, that I may help thee out, + Or, wanting strength to do thee so much good, + I may be pluck'd into the swallowing womb + Of this deep pit, poor Bassianus' grave. + I have no strength to pluck thee to the brink. + MARTIUS. Nor I no strength to climb without thy help. + QUINTUS. Thy hand once more; I will not loose again, + Till thou art here aloft, or I below. + Thou canst not come to me- I come to thee. [Falls in] + + Enter the EMPEROR and AARON the Moor + + SATURNINUS. Along with me! I'll see what hole is here, + And what he is that now is leapt into it. + Say, who art thou that lately didst descend + Into this gaping hollow of the earth? + MARTIUS. The unhappy sons of old Andronicus, + Brought hither in a most unlucky hour, + To find thy brother Bassianus dead. + SATURNINUS. My brother dead! I know thou dost but jest: + He and his lady both are at the lodge + Upon the north side of this pleasant chase; + 'Tis not an hour since I left them there. + MARTIUS. We know not where you left them all alive; + But, out alas! here have we found him dead. + + Re-enter TAMORA, with + attendants; TITUS ANDRONICUS and Lucius + + TAMORA. Where is my lord the King? + SATURNINUS. Here, Tamora; though griev'd with killing grief. + TAMORA. Where is thy brother Bassianus? + SATURNINUS. Now to the bottom dost thou search my wound; + Poor Bassianus here lies murdered. + TAMORA. Then all too late I bring this fatal writ, + The complot of this timeless tragedy; + And wonder greatly that man's face can fold + In pleasing smiles such murderous tyranny. + [She giveth SATURNINE a letter] + SATURNINUS. [Reads] 'An if we miss to meet him handsomely, + Sweet huntsman- Bassianus 'tis we mean- + Do thou so much as dig the grave for him. + Thou know'st our meaning. Look for thy reward + Among the nettles at the elder-tree + Which overshades the mouth of that same pit + Where we decreed to bury Bassianus. + Do this, and purchase us thy lasting friends.' + O Tamora! was ever heard the like? + This is the pit and this the elder-tree. + Look, sirs, if you can find the huntsman out + That should have murdered Bassianus here. + AARON. My gracious lord, here is the bag of gold. + SATURNINUS. [To TITUS] Two of thy whelps, fell curs of bloody + kind, + Have here bereft my brother of his life. + Sirs, drag them from the pit unto the prison; + There let them bide until we have devis'd + Some never-heard-of torturing pain for them. + TAMORA. What, are they in this pit? O wondrous thing! + How easily murder is discovered! + TITUS. High Emperor, upon my feeble knee + I beg this boon, with tears not lightly shed, + That this fell fault of my accursed sons- + Accursed if the fault be prov'd in them- + SATURNINUS. If it be prov'd! You see it is apparent. + Who found this letter? Tamora, was it you? + TAMORA. Andronicus himself did take it up. + TITUS. I did, my lord, yet let me be their bail; + For, by my fathers' reverend tomb, I vow + They shall be ready at your Highness' will + To answer their suspicion with their lives. + SATURNINUS. Thou shalt not bail them; see thou follow me. + Some bring the murdered body, some the murderers; + Let them not speak a word- the guilt is plain; + For, by my soul, were there worse end than death, + That end upon them should be executed. + TAMORA. Andronicus, I will entreat the King. + Fear not thy sons; they shall do well enough. + TITUS. Come, Lucius, come; stay not to talk with them. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Another part of the forest + +Enter the Empress' sons, DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, with LAVINIA, +her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out, and ravish'd + + DEMETRIUS. So, now go tell, an if thy tongue can speak, + Who 'twas that cut thy tongue and ravish'd thee. + CHIRON. Write down thy mind, bewray thy meaning so, + An if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe. + DEMETRIUS. See how with signs and tokens she can scrowl. + CHIRON. Go home, call for sweet water, wash thy hands. + DEMETRIUS. She hath no tongue to call, nor hands to wash; + And so let's leave her to her silent walks. + CHIRON. An 'twere my cause, I should go hang myself. + DEMETRIUS. If thou hadst hands to help thee knit the cord. + Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON + + Wind horns. Enter MARCUS, from hunting + + MARCUS. Who is this?- my niece, that flies away so fast? + Cousin, a word: where is your husband? + If I do dream, would all my wealth would wake me! + If I do wake, some planet strike me down, + That I may slumber an eternal sleep! + Speak, gentle niece. What stern ungentle hands + Hath lopp'd, and hew'd, and made thy body bare + Of her two branches- those sweet ornaments + Whose circling shadows kings have sought to sleep in, + And might not gain so great a happiness + As half thy love? Why dost not speak to me? + Alas, a crimson river of warm blood, + Like to a bubbling fountain stirr'd with wind, + Doth rise and fall between thy rosed lips, + Coming and going with thy honey breath. + But sure some Tereus hath deflowered thee, + And, lest thou shouldst detect him, cut thy tongue. + Ah, now thou turn'st away thy face for shame! + And notwithstanding all this loss of blood- + As from a conduit with three issuing spouts- + Yet do thy cheeks look red as Titan's face + Blushing to be encount'red with a cloud. + Shall I speak for thee? Shall I say 'tis so? + O, that I knew thy heart, and knew the beast, + That I might rail at him to ease my mind! + Sorrow concealed, like an oven stopp'd, + Doth burn the heart to cinders where it is. + Fair Philomel, why she but lost her tongue, + And in a tedious sampler sew'd her mind; + But, lovely niece, that mean is cut from thee. + A craftier Tereus, cousin, hast thou met, + And he hath cut those pretty fingers off + That could have better sew'd than Philomel. + O, had the monster seen those lily hands + Tremble like aspen leaves upon a lute + And make the silken strings delight to kiss them, + He would not then have touch'd them for his life! + Or had he heard the heavenly harmony + Which that sweet tongue hath made, + He would have dropp'd his knife, and fell asleep, + As Cerberus at the Thracian poet's feet. + Come, let us go, and make thy father blind, + For such a sight will blind a father's eye; + One hour's storm will drown the fragrant meads, + What will whole months of tears thy father's eyes? + Do not draw back, for we will mourn with thee; + O, could our mourning case thy misery! Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +Rome. A street + +Enter the JUDGES, TRIBUNES, and SENATORS, with TITUS' two sons +MARTIUS and QUINTUS bound, passing on the stage to the place of execution, +and TITUS going before, pleading + + TITUS. Hear me, grave fathers; noble Tribunes, stay! + For pity of mine age, whose youth was spent + In dangerous wars whilst you securely slept; + For all my blood in Rome's great quarrel shed, + For all the frosty nights that I have watch'd, + And for these bitter tears, which now you see + Filling the aged wrinkles in my cheeks, + Be pitiful to my condemned sons, + Whose souls are not corrupted as 'tis thought. + For two and twenty sons I never wept, + Because they died in honour's lofty bed. + [ANDRONICUS lieth down, and the judges + pass by him with the prisoners, and exeunt] + For these, Tribunes, in the dust I write + My heart's deep languor and my soul's sad tears. + Let my tears stanch the earth's dry appetite; + My sons' sweet blood will make it shame and blush. + O earth, I will befriend thee more with rain + That shall distil from these two ancient urns, + Than youthful April shall with all his show'rs. + In summer's drought I'll drop upon thee still; + In winter with warm tears I'll melt the snow + And keep eternal spring-time on thy face, + So thou refuse to drink my dear sons' blood. + + Enter Lucius with his weapon drawn + + O reverend Tribunes! O gentle aged men! + Unbind my sons, reverse the doom of death, + And let me say, that never wept before, + My tears are now prevailing orators. + LUCIUS. O noble father, you lament in vain; + The Tribunes hear you not, no man is by, + And you recount your sorrows to a stone. + TITUS. Ah, Lucius, for thy brothers let me plead! + Grave Tribunes, once more I entreat of you. + LUCIUS. My gracious lord, no tribune hears you speak. + TITUS. Why, 'tis no matter, man: if they did hear, + They would not mark me; if they did mark, + They would not pity me; yet plead I must, + And bootless unto them. + Therefore I tell my sorrows to the stones; + Who though they cannot answer my distress, + Yet in some sort they are better than the Tribunes, + For that they will not intercept my tale. + When I do weep, they humbly at my feet + Receive my tears, and seem to weep with me; + And were they but attired in grave weeds, + Rome could afford no tribunes like to these. + A stone is soft as wax: tribunes more hard than stones. + A stone is silent and offendeth not, + And tribunes with their tongues doom men to death. + [Rises] + But wherefore stand'st thou with thy weapon drawn? + LUCIUS. To rescue my two brothers from their death; + For which attempt the judges have pronounc'd + My everlasting doom of banishment. + TITUS. O happy man! they have befriended thee. + Why, foolish Lucius, dost thou not perceive + That Rome is but a wilderness of tigers? + Tigers must prey, and Rome affords no prey + But me and mine; how happy art thou then + From these devourers to be banished! + But who comes with our brother Marcus here? + + Enter MARCUS with LAVINIA + + MARCUS. Titus, prepare thy aged eyes to weep, + Or if not so, thy noble heart to break. + I bring consuming sorrow to thine age. + TITUS. Will it consume me? Let me see it then. + MARCUS. This was thy daughter. + TITUS. Why, Marcus, so she is. + LUCIUS. Ay me! this object kills me. + TITUS. Faint-hearted boy, arise, and look upon her. + Speak, Lavinia, what accursed hand + Hath made thee handless in thy father's sight? + What fool hath added water to the sea, + Or brought a fagot to bright-burning Troy? + My grief was at the height before thou cam'st, + And now like Nilus it disdaineth bounds. + Give me a sword, I'll chop off my hands too, + For they have fought for Rome, and all in vain; + And they have nurs'd this woe in feeding life; + In bootless prayer have they been held up, + And they have serv'd me to effectless use. + Now all the service I require of them + Is that the one will help to cut the other. + 'Tis well, Lavinia, that thou hast no hands; + For hands to do Rome service is but vain. + LUCIUS. Speak, gentle sister, who hath martyr'd thee? + MARCUS. O, that delightful engine of her thoughts + That blabb'd them with such pleasing eloquence + Is torn from forth that pretty hollow cage, + Where like a sweet melodious bird it sung + Sweet varied notes, enchanting every ear! + LUCIUS. O, say thou for her, who hath done this deed? + MARCUS. O, thus I found her straying in the park, + Seeking to hide herself as doth the deer + That hath receiv'd some unrecuring wound. + TITUS. It was my dear, and he that wounded her + Hath hurt me more than had he kill'd me dead; + For now I stand as one upon a rock, + Environ'd with a wilderness of sea, + Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave, + Expecting ever when some envious surge + Will in his brinish bowels swallow him. + This way to death my wretched sons are gone; + Here stands my other son, a banish'd man, + And here my brother, weeping at my woes. + But that which gives my soul the greatest spurn + Is dear Lavinia, dearer than my soul. + Had I but seen thy picture in this plight, + It would have madded me; what shall I do + Now I behold thy lively body so? + Thou hast no hands to wipe away thy tears, + Nor tongue to tell me who hath martyr'd thee; + Thy husband he is dead, and for his death + Thy brothers are condemn'd, and dead by this. + Look, Marcus! Ah, son Lucius, look on her! + When I did name her brothers, then fresh tears + Stood on her cheeks, as doth the honey dew + Upon a gath'red lily almost withered. + MARCUS. Perchance she weeps because they kill'd her husband; + Perchance because she knows them innocent. + TITUS. If they did kill thy husband, then be joyful, + Because the law hath ta'en revenge on them. + No, no, they would not do so foul a deed; + Witness the sorrow that their sister makes. + Gentle Lavinia, let me kiss thy lips, + Or make some sign how I may do thee ease. + Shall thy good uncle and thy brother Lucius + And thou and I sit round about some fountain, + Looking all downwards to behold our cheeks + How they are stain'd, like meadows yet not dry + With miry slime left on them by a flood? + And in the fountain shall we gaze so long, + Till the fresh taste be taken from that clearness, + And made a brine-pit with our bitter tears? + Or shall we cut away our hands like thine? + Or shall we bite our tongues, and in dumb shows + Pass the remainder of our hateful days? + What shall we do? Let us that have our tongues + Plot some device of further misery + To make us wonder'd at in time to come. + LUCIUS. Sweet father, cease your tears; for at your grief + See how my wretched sister sobs and weeps. + MARCUS. Patience, dear niece. Good Titus, dry thine eyes. + TITUS. Ah, Marcus, Marcus! Brother, well I wot + Thy napkin cannot drink a tear of mine, + For thou, poor man, hast drown'd it with thine own. + LUCIUS. Ah, my Lavinia, I will wipe thy cheeks. + TITUS. Mark, Marcus, mark! I understand her signs. + Had she a tongue to speak, now would she say + That to her brother which I said to thee: + His napkin, with his true tears all bewet, + Can do no service on her sorrowful cheeks. + O, what a sympathy of woe is this + As far from help as Limbo is from bliss! + + Enter AARON the Moor + + AARON. Titus Andronicus, my lord the Emperor + Sends thee this word, that, if thou love thy sons, + Let Marcus, Lucius, or thyself, old Titus, + Or any one of you, chop off your hand + And send it to the King: he for the same + Will send thee hither both thy sons alive, + And that shall be the ransom for their fault. + TITUS. O gracious Emperor! O gentle Aaron! + Did ever raven sing so like a lark + That gives sweet tidings of the sun's uprise? + With all my heart I'll send the Emperor my hand. + Good Aaron, wilt thou help to chop it off? + LUCIUS. Stay, father! for that noble hand of thine, + That hath thrown down so many enemies, + Shall not be sent. My hand will serve the turn, + My youth can better spare my blood than you, + And therefore mine shall save my brothers' lives. + MARCUS. Which of your hands hath not defended Rome + And rear'd aloft the bloody battle-axe, + Writing destruction on the enemy's castle? + O, none of both but are of high desert! + My hand hath been but idle; let it serve + To ransom my two nephews from their death; + Then have I kept it to a worthy end. + AARON. Nay, come, agree whose hand shall go along, + For fear they die before their pardon come. + MARCUS. My hand shall go. + LUCIUS. By heaven, it shall not go! + TITUS. Sirs, strive no more; such with'red herbs as these + Are meet for plucking up, and therefore mine. + LUCIUS. Sweet father, if I shall be thought thy son, + Let me redeem my brothers both from death. + MARCUS. And for our father's sake and mother's care, + Now let me show a brother's love to thee. + TITUS. Agree between you; I will spare my hand. + LUCIUS. Then I'll go fetch an axe. + MARCUS. But I will use the axe. + Exeunt LUCIUS and MARCUS + TITUS. Come hither, Aaron, I'll deceive them both; + Lend me thy hand, and I will give thee mine. + AARON. [Aside] If that be call'd deceit, I will be honest, + And never whilst I live deceive men so; + But I'll deceive you in another sort, + And that you'll say ere half an hour pass. + [He cuts off TITUS' hand] + + Re-enter LUCIUS and MARCUS + + TITUS. Now stay your strife. What shall be is dispatch'd. + Good Aaron, give his Majesty my hand; + Tell him it was a hand that warded him + From thousand dangers; bid him bury it. + More hath it merited- that let it have. + As for my sons, say I account of them + As jewels purchas'd at an easy price; + And yet dear too, because I bought mine own. + AARON. I go, Andronicus; and for thy hand + Look by and by to have thy sons with thee. + [Aside] Their heads I mean. O, how this villainy + Doth fat me with the very thoughts of it! + Let fools do good, and fair men call for grace: + Aaron will have his soul black like his face. Exit + TITUS. O, here I lift this one hand up to heaven, + And bow this feeble ruin to the earth; + If any power pities wretched tears, + To that I call! [To LAVINIA] What, would'st thou kneel with me? + Do, then, dear heart; for heaven shall hear our prayers, + Or with our sighs we'll breathe the welkin dim + And stain the sun with fog, as sometime clouds + When they do hug him in their melting bosoms. + MARCUS. O brother, speak with possibility, + And do not break into these deep extremes. + TITUS. Is not my sorrow deep, having no bottom? + Then be my passions bottomless with them. + MARCUS. But yet let reason govern thy lament. + TITUS. If there were reason for these miseries, + Then into limits could I bind my woes. + When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'erflow? + If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad, + Threat'ning the welkin with his big-swol'n face? + And wilt thou have a reason for this coil? + I am the sea; hark how her sighs do blow. + She is the weeping welkin, I the earth; + Then must my sea be moved with her sighs; + Then must my earth with her continual tears + Become a deluge, overflow'd and drown'd; + For why my bowels cannot hide her woes, + But like a drunkard must I vomit them. + Then give me leave; for losers will have leave + To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues. + + Enter a MESSENGER, with two heads and a hand + + MESSENGER. Worthy Andronicus, ill art thou repaid + For that good hand thou sent'st the Emperor. + Here are the heads of thy two noble sons; + And here's thy hand, in scorn to thee sent back- + Thy grief their sports, thy resolution mock'd, + That woe is me to think upon thy woes, + More than remembrance of my father's death. Exit + MARCUS. Now let hot Aetna cool in Sicily, + And be my heart an ever-burning hell! + These miseries are more than may be borne. + To weep with them that weep doth ease some deal, + But sorrow flouted at is double death. + LUCIUS. Ah, that this sight should make so deep a wound, + And yet detested life not shrink thereat! + That ever death should let life bear his name, + Where life hath no more interest but to breathe! + [LAVINIA kisses TITUS] + MARCUS. Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless + As frozen water to a starved snake. + TITUS. When will this fearful slumber have an end? + MARCUS. Now farewell, flatt'ry; die, Andronicus. + Thou dost not slumber: see thy two sons' heads, + Thy warlike hand, thy mangled daughter here; + Thy other banish'd son with this dear sight + Struck pale and bloodless; and thy brother, I, + Even like a stony image, cold and numb. + Ah! now no more will I control thy griefs. + Rent off thy silver hair, thy other hand + Gnawing with thy teeth; and be this dismal sight + The closing up of our most wretched eyes. + Now is a time to storm; why art thou still? + TITUS. Ha, ha, ha! + MARCUS. Why dost thou laugh? It fits not with this hour. + TITUS. Why, I have not another tear to shed; + Besides, this sorrow is an enemy, + And would usurp upon my wat'ry eyes + And make them blind with tributary tears. + Then which way shall I find Revenge's cave? + For these two heads do seem to speak to me, + And threat me I shall never come to bliss + Till all these mischiefs be return'd again + Even in their throats that have committed them. + Come, let me see what task I have to do. + You heavy people, circle me about, + That I may turn me to each one of you + And swear unto my soul to right your wrongs. + The vow is made. Come, brother, take a head, + And in this hand the other will I bear. + And, Lavinia, thou shalt be employ'd in this; + Bear thou my hand, sweet wench, between thy teeth. + As for thee, boy, go, get thee from my sight; + Thou art an exile, and thou must not stay. + Hie to the Goths and raise an army there; + And if ye love me, as I think you do, + Let's kiss and part, for we have much to do. + Exeunt all but Lucius + LUCIUS. Farewell, Andronicus, my noble father, + The woefull'st man that ever liv'd in Rome. + Farewell, proud Rome; till Lucius come again, + He leaves his pledges dearer than his life. + Farewell, Lavinia, my noble sister; + O, would thou wert as thou tofore hast been! + But now nor Lucius nor Lavinia lives + But in oblivion and hateful griefs. + If Lucius live, he will requite your wrongs + And make proud Saturnine and his emperess + Beg at the gates like Tarquin and his queen. + Now will I to the Goths, and raise a pow'r + To be reveng'd on Rome and Saturnine. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Rome. TITUS' house + +A banquet. + +Enter TITUS, MARCUS, LAVINIA, and the boy YOUNG LUCIUS + + TITUS. So so, now sit; and look you eat no more + Than will preserve just so much strength in us + As will revenge these bitter woes of ours. + Marcus, unknit that sorrow-wreathen knot; + Thy niece and I, poor creatures, want our hands, + And cannot passionate our tenfold grief + With folded arms. This poor right hand of mine + Is left to tyrannize upon my breast; + Who, when my heart, all mad with misery, + Beats in this hollow prison of my flesh, + Then thus I thump it down. + [To LAVINIA] Thou map of woe, that thus dost talk in signs! + When thy poor heart beats with outrageous beating, + Thou canst not strike it thus to make it still. + Wound it with sighing, girl, kill it with groans; + Or get some little knife between thy teeth + And just against thy heart make thou a hole, + That all the tears that thy poor eyes let fall + May run into that sink and, soaking in, + Drown the lamenting fool in sea-salt tears. + MARCUS. Fie, brother, fie! Teach her not thus to lay + Such violent hands upon her tender life. + TITUS. How now! Has sorrow made thee dote already? + Why, Marcus, no man should be mad but I. + What violent hands can she lay on her life? + Ah, wherefore dost thou urge the name of hands? + To bid Aeneas tell the tale twice o'er + How Troy was burnt and he made miserable? + O, handle not the theme, to talk of hands, + Lest we remember still that we have none. + Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk, + As if we should forget we had no hands, + If Marcus did not name the word of hands! + Come, let's fall to; and, gentle girl, eat this: + Here is no drink. Hark, Marcus, what she says- + I can interpret all her martyr'd signs; + She says she drinks no other drink but tears, + Brew'd with her sorrow, mesh'd upon her cheeks. + Speechless complainer, I will learn thy thought; + In thy dumb action will I be as perfect + As begging hermits in their holy prayers. + Thou shalt not sigh, nor hold thy stumps to heaven, + Nor wink, nor nod, nor kneel, nor make a sign, + But I of these will wrest an alphabet, + And by still practice learn to know thy meaning. + BOY. Good grandsire, leave these bitter deep laments; + Make my aunt merry with some pleasing tale. + MARCUS. Alas, the tender boy, in passion mov'd, + Doth weep to see his grandsire's heaviness. + TITUS. Peace, tender sapling; thou art made of tears, + And tears will quickly melt thy life away. + [MARCUS strikes the dish with a knife] + What dost thou strike at, Marcus, with thy knife? + MARCUS. At that that I have kill'd, my lord- a fly. + TITUS. Out on thee, murderer, thou kill'st my heart! + Mine eyes are cloy'd with view of tyranny; + A deed of death done on the innocent + Becomes not Titus' brother. Get thee gone; + I see thou art not for my company. + MARCUS. Alas, my lord, I have but kill'd a fly. + TITUS. 'But!' How if that fly had a father and mother? + How would he hang his slender gilded wings + And buzz lamenting doings in the air! + Poor harmless fly, + That with his pretty buzzing melody + Came here to make us merry! And thou hast kill'd him. + MARCUS. Pardon me, sir; it was a black ill-favour'd fly, + Like to the Empress' Moor; therefore I kill'd him. + TITUS. O, O, O! + Then pardon me for reprehending thee, + For thou hast done a charitable deed. + Give me thy knife, I will insult on him, + Flattering myself as if it were the Moor + Come hither purposely to poison me. + There's for thyself, and that's for Tamora. + Ah, sirrah! + Yet, I think, we are not brought so low + But that between us we can kill a fly + That comes in likeness of a coal-black Moor. + MARCUS. Alas, poor man! grief has so wrought on him, + He takes false shadows for true substances. + TITUS. Come, take away. Lavinia, go with me; + I'll to thy closet, and go read with thee + Sad stories chanced in the times of old. + Come, boy, and go with me; thy sight is young, + And thou shalt read when mine begin to dazzle. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +Rome. TITUS' garden + +Enter YOUNG LUCIUS and LAVINIA running after him, +and the boy flies from her with his books under his arm. + +Enter TITUS and MARCUS + + BOY. Help, grandsire, help! my aunt Lavinia + Follows me everywhere, I know not why. + Good uncle Marcus, see how swift she comes! + Alas, sweet aunt, I know not what you mean. + MARCUS. Stand by me, Lucius; do not fear thine aunt. + TITUS. She loves thee, boy, too well to do thee harm. + BOY. Ay, when my father was in Rome she did. + MARCUS. What means my niece Lavinia by these signs? + TITUS. Fear her not, Lucius; somewhat doth she mean. + See, Lucius, see how much she makes of thee. + Somewhither would she have thee go with her. + Ah, boy, Cornelia never with more care + Read to her sons than she hath read to thee + Sweet poetry and Tully's Orator. + MARCUS. Canst thou not guess wherefore she plies thee thus? + BOY. My lord, I know not, I, nor can I guess, + Unless some fit or frenzy do possess her; + For I have heard my grandsire say full oft + Extremity of griefs would make men mad; + And I have read that Hecuba of Troy + Ran mad for sorrow. That made me to fear; + Although, my lord, I know my noble aunt + Loves me as dear as e'er my mother did, + And would not, but in fury, fright my youth; + Which made me down to throw my books, and fly- + Causeless, perhaps. But pardon me, sweet aunt; + And, madam, if my uncle Marcus go, + I will most willingly attend your ladyship. + MARCUS. Lucius, I will. [LAVINIA turns over with her + stumps the books which Lucius has let fall] + TITUS. How now, Lavinia! Marcus, what means this? + Some book there is that she desires to see. + Which is it, girl, of these?- Open them, boy.- + But thou art deeper read and better skill'd; + Come and take choice of all my library, + And so beguile thy sorrow, till the heavens + Reveal the damn'd contriver of this deed. + Why lifts she up her arms in sequence thus? + MARCUS. I think she means that there were more than one + Confederate in the fact; ay, more there was, + Or else to heaven she heaves them for revenge. + TITUS. Lucius, what book is that she tosseth so? + BOY. Grandsire, 'tis Ovid's Metamorphoses; + My mother gave it me. + MARCUS. For love of her that's gone, + Perhaps she cull'd it from among the rest. + TITUS. Soft! So busily she turns the leaves! Help her. + What would she find? Lavinia, shall I read? + This is the tragic tale of Philomel + And treats of Tereus' treason and his rape; + And rape, I fear, was root of thy annoy. + MARCUS. See, brother, see! Note how she quotes the leaves. + TITUS. Lavinia, wert thou thus surpris'd, sweet girl, + Ravish'd and wrong'd as Philomela was, + Forc'd in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy woods? + See, see! + Ay, such a place there is where we did hunt- + O, had we never, never hunted there!- + Pattern'd by that the poet here describes, + By nature made for murders and for rapes. + MARCUS. O, why should nature build so foul a den, + Unless the gods delight in tragedies? + TITUS. Give signs, sweet girl, for here are none but friends, + What Roman lord it was durst do the deed. + Or slunk not Saturnine, as Tarquin erst, + That left the camp to sin in Lucrece' bed? + MARCUS. Sit down, sweet niece; brother, sit down by me. + Apollo, Pallas, Jove, or Mercury, + Inspire me, that I may this treason find! + My lord, look here! Look here, Lavinia! + [He writes his name with his + staff, and guides it with feet and mouth] + This sandy plot is plain; guide, if thou canst, + This after me. I have writ my name + Without the help of any hand at all. + Curs'd be that heart that forc'd us to this shift! + Write thou, good niece, and here display at last + What God will have discovered for revenge. + Heaven guide thy pen to print thy sorrows plain, + That we may know the traitors and the truth! + [She takes the staff in her mouth + and guides it with stumps, and writes] + O, do ye read, my lord, what she hath writ? + TITUS. 'Stuprum- Chiron- Demetrius.' + MARCUS. What, what! the lustful sons of Tamora + Performers of this heinous bloody deed? + TITUS. Magni Dominator poli, + Tam lentus audis scelera? tam lentus vides? + MARCUS. O, calm thee, gentle lord! although I know + There is enough written upon this earth + To stir a mutiny in the mildest thoughts, + And arm the minds of infants to exclaims. + My lord, kneel down with me; Lavinia, kneel; + And kneel, sweet boy, the Roman Hector's hope; + And swear with me- as, with the woeful fere + And father of that chaste dishonoured dame, + Lord Junius Brutus sware for Lucrece' rape- + That we will prosecute, by good advice, + Mortal revenge upon these traitorous Goths, + And see their blood or die with this reproach. + TITUS. 'Tis sure enough, an you knew how; + But if you hunt these bear-whelps, then beware: + The dam will wake; and if she wind ye once, + She's with the lion deeply still in league, + And lulls him whilst she playeth on her back, + And when he sleeps will she do what she list. + You are a young huntsman, Marcus; let alone; + And come, I will go get a leaf of brass, + And with a gad of steel will write these words, + And lay it by. The angry northern wind + Will blow these sands like Sibyl's leaves abroad, + And where's our lesson, then? Boy, what say you? + BOY. I say, my lord, that if I were a man + Their mother's bedchamber should not be safe + For these base bondmen to the yoke of Rome. + MARCUS. Ay, that's my boy! Thy father hath full oft + For his ungrateful country done the like. + BOY. And, uncle, so will I, an if I live. + TITUS. Come, go with me into mine armoury. + Lucius, I'll fit thee; and withal my boy + Shall carry from me to the Empress' sons + Presents that I intend to send them both. + Come, come; thou'lt do my message, wilt thou not? + BOY. Ay, with my dagger in their bosoms, grandsire. + TITUS. No, boy, not so; I'll teach thee another course. + Lavinia, come. Marcus, look to my house. + Lucius and I'll go brave it at the court; + Ay, marry, will we, sir! and we'll be waited on. + Exeunt TITUS, LAVINIA, and YOUNG LUCIUS + MARCUS. O heavens, can you hear a good man groan + And not relent, or not compassion him? + Marcus, attend him in his ecstasy, + That hath more scars of sorrow in his heart + Than foemen's marks upon his batt'red shield, + But yet so just that he will not revenge. + Revenge the heavens for old Andronicus! Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Rome. The palace + +Enter AARON, DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, at one door; and at the other door, +YOUNG LUCIUS and another with a bundle of weapons, and verses writ upon them + + CHIRON. Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius; + He hath some message to deliver us. + AARON. Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather. + BOY. My lords, with all the humbleness I may, + I greet your honours from Andronicus- + [Aside] And pray the Roman gods confound you both! + DEMETRIUS. Gramercy, lovely Lucius. What's the news? + BOY. [Aside] That you are both decipher'd, that's the news, + For villains mark'd with rape.- May it please you, + My grandsire, well advis'd, hath sent by me + The goodliest weapons of his armoury + To gratify your honourable youth, + The hope of Rome; for so he bid me say; + And so I do, and with his gifts present + Your lordships, that, whenever you have need, + You may be armed and appointed well. + And so I leave you both- [Aside] like bloody villains. + Exeunt YOUNG LUCIUS and attendant + DEMETRIUS. What's here? A scroll, and written round about. + Let's see: + [Reads] 'Integer vitae, scelerisque purus, + Non eget Mauri iaculis, nec arcu.' + CHIRON. O, 'tis a verse in Horace, I know it well; + I read it in the grammar long ago. + AARON. Ay, just- a verse in Horace. Right, you have it. + [Aside] Now, what a thing it is to be an ass! + Here's no sound jest! The old man hath found their guilt, + And sends them weapons wrapp'd about with lines + That wound, beyond their feeling, to the quick. + But were our witty Empress well afoot, + She would applaud Andronicus' conceit. + But let her rest in her unrest awhile- + And now, young lords, was't not a happy star + Led us to Rome, strangers, and more than so, + Captives, to be advanced to this height? + It did me good before the palace gate + To brave the Tribune in his brother's hearing. + DEMETRIUS. But me more good to see so great a lord + Basely insinuate and send us gifts. + AARON. Had he not reason, Lord Demetrius? + Did you not use his daughter very friendly? + DEMETRIUS. I would we had a thousand Roman dames + At such a bay, by turn to serve our lust. + CHIRON. A charitable wish and full of love. + AARON. Here lacks but your mother for to say amen. + CHIRON. And that would she for twenty thousand more. + DEMETRIUS. Come, let us go and pray to all the gods + For our beloved mother in her pains. + AARON. [Aside] Pray to the devils; the gods have given us over. + [Trumpets sound] + DEMETRIUS. Why do the Emperor's trumpets flourish thus? + CHIRON. Belike, for joy the Emperor hath a son. + DEMETRIUS. Soft! who comes here? + + Enter NURSE, with a blackamoor CHILD + + NURSE. Good morrow, lords. + O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor? + AARON. Well, more or less, or ne'er a whit at all, + Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now? + NURSE. O gentle Aaron, we are all undone! + Now help, or woe betide thee evermore! + AARON. Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep! + What dost thou wrap and fumble in thy arms? + NURSE. O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye: + Our Empress' shame and stately Rome's disgrace! + She is delivered, lord; she is delivered. + AARON. To whom? + NURSE. I mean she is brought a-bed. + AARON. Well, God give her good rest! What hath he sent her? + NURSE. A devil. + AARON. Why, then she is the devil's dam; + A joyful issue. + NURSE. A joyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue! + Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad + Amongst the fair-fac'd breeders of our clime; + The Empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal, + And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point. + AARON. Zounds, ye whore! Is black so base a hue? + Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom sure. + DEMETRIUS. Villain, what hast thou done? + AARON. That which thou canst not undo. + CHIRON. Thou hast undone our mother. + AARON. Villain, I have done thy mother. + DEMETRIUS. And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone her. + Woe to her chance, and damn'd her loathed choice! + Accurs'd the offspring of so foul a fiend! + CHIRON. It shall not live. + AARON. It shall not die. + NURSE. Aaron, it must; the mother wills it so. + AARON. What, must it, nurse? Then let no man but I + Do execution on my flesh and blood. + DEMETRIUS. I'll broach the tadpole on my rapier's point. + Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon dispatch it. + AARON. Sooner this sword shall plough thy bowels up. + [Takes the CHILD from the NURSE, and draws] + Stay, murderous villains, will you kill your brother! + Now, by the burning tapers of the sky + That shone so brightly when this boy was got, + He dies upon my scimitar's sharp point + That touches this my first-born son and heir. + I tell you, younglings, not Enceladus, + With all his threat'ning band of Typhon's brood, + Nor great Alcides, nor the god of war, + Shall seize this prey out of his father's hands. + What, what, ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys! + Ye white-lim'd walls! ye alehouse painted signs! + Coal-black is better than another hue + In that it scorns to bear another hue; + For all the water in the ocean + Can never turn the swan's black legs to white, + Although she lave them hourly in the flood. + Tell the Empress from me I am of age + To keep mine own- excuse it how she can. + DEMETRIUS. Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus? + AARON. My mistress is my mistress: this my self, + The vigour and the picture of my youth. + This before all the world do I prefer; + This maugre all the world will I keep safe, + Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome. + DEMETRIUS. By this our mother is for ever sham'd. + CHIRON. Rome will despise her for this foul escape. + NURSE. The Emperor in his rage will doom her death. + CHIRON. I blush to think upon this ignomy. + AARON. Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears: + Fie, treacherous hue, that will betray with blushing + The close enacts and counsels of thy heart! + Here's a young lad fram'd of another leer. + Look how the black slave smiles upon the father, + As who should say 'Old lad, I am thine own.' + He is your brother, lords, sensibly fed + Of that self-blood that first gave life to you; + And from your womb where you imprisoned were + He is enfranchised and come to light. + Nay, he is your brother by the surer side, + Although my seal be stamped in his face. + NURSE. Aaron, what shall I say unto the Empress? + DEMETRIUS. Advise thee, Aaron, what is to be done, + And we will all subscribe to thy advice. + Save thou the child, so we may all be safe. + AARON. Then sit we down and let us all consult. + My son and I will have the wind of you: + Keep there; now talk at pleasure of your safety. + [They sit] + DEMETRIUS. How many women saw this child of his? + AARON. Why, so, brave lords! When we join in league + I am a lamb; but if you brave the Moor, + The chafed boar, the mountain lioness, + The ocean swells not so as Aaron storms. + But say, again, how many saw the child? + NURSE. Cornelia the midwife and myself; + And no one else but the delivered Empress. + AARON. The Emperess, the midwife, and yourself. + Two may keep counsel when the third's away: + Go to the Empress, tell her this I said. [He kills her] + Weeke weeke! + So cries a pig prepared to the spit. + DEMETRIUS. What mean'st thou, Aaron? Wherefore didst thou this? + AARON. O Lord, sir, 'tis a deed of policy. + Shall she live to betray this guilt of ours- + A long-tongu'd babbling gossip? No, lords, no. + And now be it known to you my full intent: + Not far, one Muliteus, my countryman- + His wife but yesternight was brought to bed; + His child is like to her, fair as you are. + Go pack with him, and give the mother gold, + And tell them both the circumstance of all, + And how by this their child shall be advanc'd, + And be received for the Emperor's heir + And substituted in the place of mine, + To calm this tempest whirling in the court; + And let the Emperor dandle him for his own. + Hark ye, lords. You see I have given her physic, + [Pointing to the NURSE] + And you must needs bestow her funeral; + The fields are near, and you are gallant grooms. + This done, see that you take no longer days, + But send the midwife presently to me. + The midwife and the nurse well made away, + Then let the ladies tattle what they please. + CHIRON. Aaron, I see thou wilt not trust the air + With secrets. + DEMETRIUS. For this care of Tamora, + Herself and hers are highly bound to thee. + + Exeunt DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, bearing off the dead NURSE + + AARON. Now to the Goths, as swift as swallow flies, + There to dispose this treasure in mine arms, + And secretly to greet the Empress' friends. + Come on, you thick-lipp'd slave, I'll bear you hence; + For it is you that puts us to our shifts. + I'll make you feed on berries and on roots, + And feed on curds and whey, and suck the goat, + And cabin in a cave, and bring you up + To be a warrior and command a camp. + Exit with the CHILD + + + + +SCENE III. +Rome. A public place + +Enter TITUS, bearing arrows with letters on the ends of them; +with him MARCUS, YOUNG LUCIUS, and other gentlemen, +PUBLIUS, SEMPRONIUS, and CAIUS, with bows + + TITUS. Come, Marcus, come; kinsmen, this is the way. + Sir boy, let me see your archery; + Look ye draw home enough, and 'tis there straight. + Terras Astrea reliquit, + Be you rememb'red, Marcus; she's gone, she's fled. + Sirs, take you to your tools. You, cousins, shall + Go sound the ocean and cast your nets; + Happily you may catch her in the sea; + Yet there's as little justice as at land. + No; Publius and Sempronius, you must do it; + 'Tis you must dig with mattock and with spade, + And pierce the inmost centre of the earth; + Then, when you come to Pluto's region, + I pray you deliver him this petition. + Tell him it is for justice and for aid, + And that it comes from old Andronicus, + Shaken with sorrows in ungrateful Rome. + Ah, Rome! Well, well, I made thee miserable + What time I threw the people's suffrages + On him that thus doth tyrannize o'er me. + Go get you gone; and pray be careful all, + And leave you not a man-of-war unsearch'd. + This wicked Emperor may have shipp'd her hence; + And, kinsmen, then we may go pipe for justice. + MARCUS. O Publius, is not this a heavy case, + To see thy noble uncle thus distract? + PUBLIUS. Therefore, my lords, it highly us concerns + By day and night t' attend him carefully, + And feed his humour kindly as we may + Till time beget some careful remedy. + MARCUS. Kinsmen, his sorrows are past remedy. + Join with the Goths, and with revengeful war + Take wreak on Rome for this ingratitude, + And vengeance on the traitor Saturnine. + TITUS. Publius, how now? How now, my masters? + What, have you met with her? + PUBLIUS. No, my good lord; but Pluto sends you word, + If you will have Revenge from hell, you shall. + Marry, for Justice, she is so employ'd, + He thinks, with Jove in heaven, or somewhere else, + So that perforce you must needs stay a time. + TITUS. He doth me wrong to feed me with delays. + I'll dive into the burning lake below + And pull her out of Acheron by the heels. + Marcus, we are but shrubs, no cedars we, + No big-bon'd men fram'd of the Cyclops' size; + But metal, Marcus, steel to the very back, + Yet wrung with wrongs more than our backs can bear; + And, sith there's no justice in earth nor hell, + We will solicit heaven, and move the gods + To send down justice for to wreak our wrongs. + Come, to this gear. You are a good archer, Marcus. + [He gives them the arrows] + 'Ad Jovem' that's for you; here 'Ad Apollinem.' + 'Ad Martem' that's for myself. + Here, boy, 'To Pallas'; here 'To Mercury.' + 'To Saturn,' Caius- not to Saturnine: + You were as good to shoot against the wind. + To it, boy. Marcus, loose when I bid. + Of my word, I have written to effect; + There's not a god left unsolicited. + MARCUS. Kinsmen, shoot all your shafts into the court; + We will afflict the Emperor in his pride. + TITUS. Now, masters, draw. [They shoot] O, well said, Lucius! + Good boy, in Virgo's lap! Give it Pallas. + MARCUS. My lord, I aim a mile beyond the moon; + Your letter is with Jupiter by this. + TITUS. Ha! ha! + Publius, Publius, hast thou done? + See, see, thou hast shot off one of Taurus' horns. + MARCUS. This was the sport, my lord: when Publius shot, + The Bull, being gall'd, gave Aries such a knock + That down fell both the Ram's horns in the court; + And who should find them but the Empress' villain? + She laugh'd, and told the Moor he should not choose + But give them to his master for a present. + TITUS. Why, there it goes! God give his lordship joy! + + Enter the CLOWN, with a basket and two pigeons in it + + News, news from heaven! Marcus, the post is come. + Sirrah, what tidings? Have you any letters? + Shall I have justice? What says Jupiter? + CLOWN. Ho, the gibbet-maker? He says that he hath taken them down + again, for the man must not be hang'd till the next week. + TITUS. But what says Jupiter, I ask thee? + CLOWN. Alas, sir, I know not Jupiter; I never drank with him in all + my life. + TITUS. Why, villain, art not thou the carrier? + CLOWN. Ay, of my pigeons, sir; nothing else. + TITUS. Why, didst thou not come from heaven? + CLOWN. From heaven! Alas, sir, I never came there. God forbid I + should be so bold to press to heaven in my young days. Why, I am + going with my pigeons to the Tribunal Plebs, to take up a matter + of brawl betwixt my uncle and one of the Emperal's men. + MARCUS. Why, sir, that is as fit as can be to serve for your + oration; and let him deliver the pigeons to the Emperor from you. + TITUS. Tell me, can you deliver an oration to the Emperor with a + grace? + CLOWN. Nay, truly, sir, I could never say grace in all my life. + TITUS. Sirrah, come hither. Make no more ado, + But give your pigeons to the Emperor; + By me thou shalt have justice at his hands. + Hold, hold! Meanwhile here's money for thy charges. + Give me pen and ink. Sirrah, can you with a grace deliver up a + supplication? + CLOWN. Ay, sir. + TITUS. Then here is a supplication for you. And when you come to + him, at the first approach you must kneel; then kiss his foot; + then deliver up your pigeons; and then look for your reward. I'll + be at hand, sir; see you do it bravely. + CLOWN. I warrant you, sir; let me alone. + TITUS. Sirrah, hast thou a knife? Come let me see it. + Here, Marcus, fold it in the oration; + For thou hast made it like a humble suppliant. + And when thou hast given it to the Emperor, + Knock at my door, and tell me what he says. + CLOWN. God be with you, sir; I will. + TITUS. Come, Marcus, let us go. Publius, follow me. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Rome. Before the palace + +Enter the EMPEROR, and the EMPRESS and her two sons, DEMETRIUS and CHIRON; +LORDS and others. The EMPEROR brings the arrows in his hand that TITUS +shot at him + + SATURNINUS. Why, lords, what wrongs are these! Was ever seen + An emperor in Rome thus overborne, + Troubled, confronted thus; and, for the extent + Of egal justice, us'd in such contempt? + My lords, you know, as know the mightful gods, + However these disturbers of our peace + Buzz in the people's ears, there nought hath pass'd + But even with law against the wilful sons + Of old Andronicus. And what an if + His sorrows have so overwhelm'd his wits, + Shall we be thus afflicted in his wreaks, + His fits, his frenzy, and his bitterness? + And now he writes to heaven for his redress. + See, here's 'To Jove' and this 'To Mercury'; + This 'To Apollo'; this 'To the God of War'- + Sweet scrolls to fly about the streets of Rome! + What's this but libelling against the Senate, + And blazoning our unjustice every where? + A goodly humour, is it not, my lords? + As who would say in Rome no justice were. + But if I live, his feigned ecstasies + Shall be no shelter to these outrages; + But he and his shall know that justice lives + In Saturninus' health; whom, if she sleep, + He'll so awake as he in fury shall + Cut off the proud'st conspirator that lives. + TAMORA. My gracious lord, my lovely Saturnine, + Lord of my life, commander of my thoughts, + Calm thee, and bear the faults of Titus' age, + Th' effects of sorrow for his valiant sons + Whose loss hath pierc'd him deep and scarr'd his heart; + And rather comfort his distressed plight + Than prosecute the meanest or the best + For these contempts. [Aside] Why, thus it shall become + High-witted Tamora to gloze with all. + But, Titus, I have touch'd thee to the quick, + Thy life-blood out; if Aaron now be wise, + Then is all safe, the anchor in the port. + + Enter CLOWN + + How now, good fellow! Wouldst thou speak with us? + CLOWN. Yes, forsooth, an your mistriship be Emperial. + TAMORA. Empress I am, but yonder sits the Emperor. + CLOWN. 'Tis he.- God and Saint Stephen give you godden. I have + brought you a letter and a couple of pigeons here. + [SATURNINUS reads the letter] + SATURNINUS. Go take him away, and hang him presently. + CLOWN. How much money must I have? + TAMORA. Come, sirrah, you must be hang'd. + CLOWN. Hang'd! by'r lady, then I have brought up a neck to a fair + end. [Exit guarded] + SATURNINUS. Despiteful and intolerable wrongs! + Shall I endure this monstrous villainy? + I know from whence this same device proceeds. + May this be borne- as if his traitorous sons + That died by law for murder of our brother + Have by my means been butchered wrongfully? + Go drag the villain hither by the hair; + Nor age nor honour shall shape privilege. + For this proud mock I'll be thy slaughterman, + Sly frantic wretch, that holp'st to make me great, + In hope thyself should govern Rome and me. + + Enter NUNTIUS AEMILIUS + + What news with thee, Aemilius? + AEMILIUS. Arm, my lords! Rome never had more cause. + The Goths have gathered head; and with a power + Of high resolved men, bent to the spoil, + They hither march amain, under conduct + Of Lucius, son to old Andronicus; + Who threats in course of this revenge to do + As much as ever Coriolanus did. + SATURNINUS. Is warlike Lucius general of the Goths? + These tidings nip me, and I hang the head + As flowers with frost, or grass beat down with storms. + Ay, now begins our sorrows to approach. + 'Tis he the common people love so much; + Myself hath often heard them say- + When I have walked like a private man- + That Lucius' banishment was wrongfully, + And they have wish'd that Lucius were their emperor. + TAMORA. Why should you fear? Is not your city strong? + SATURNINUS. Ay, but the citizens favour Lucius, + And will revolt from me to succour him. + TAMORA. King, be thy thoughts imperious like thy name! + Is the sun dimm'd, that gnats do fly in it? + The eagle suffers little birds to sing, + And is not careful what they mean thereby, + Knowing that with the shadow of his wings + He can at pleasure stint their melody; + Even so mayest thou the giddy men of Rome. + Then cheer thy spirit; for know thou, Emperor, + I will enchant the old Andronicus + With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous, + Than baits to fish or honey-stalks to sheep, + When as the one is wounded with the bait, + The other rotted with delicious feed. + SATURNINUS. But he will not entreat his son for us. + TAMORA. If Tamora entreat him, then he will; + For I can smooth and fill his aged ears + With golden promises, that, were his heart + Almost impregnable, his old ears deaf, + Yet should both ear and heart obey my tongue. + [To AEMILIUS] Go thou before to be our ambassador; + Say that the Emperor requests a parley + Of warlike Lucius, and appoint the meeting + Even at his father's house, the old Andronicus. + SATURNINUS. Aemilius, do this message honourably; + And if he stand on hostage for his safety, + Bid him demand what pledge will please him best. + AEMILIUS. Your bidding shall I do effectually. Exit + TAMORA. Now will I to that old Andronicus, + And temper him with all the art I have, + To pluck proud Lucius from the warlike Goths. + And now, sweet Emperor, be blithe again, + And bury all thy fear in my devices. + SATURNINUS. Then go successantly, and plead to him. + Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Plains near Rome + +Enter LUCIUS with an army of GOTHS with drums and colours + + LUCIUS. Approved warriors and my faithful friends, + I have received letters from great Rome + Which signifies what hate they bear their Emperor + And how desirous of our sight they are. + Therefore, great lords, be, as your titles witness, + Imperious and impatient of your wrongs; + And wherein Rome hath done you any scath, + Let him make treble satisfaction. + FIRST GOTH. Brave slip, sprung from the great Andronicus, + Whose name was once our terror, now our comfort, + Whose high exploits and honourable deeds + Ingrateful Rome requites with foul contempt, + Be bold in us: we'll follow where thou lead'st, + Like stinging bees in hottest summer's day, + Led by their master to the flow'red fields, + And be aveng'd on cursed Tamora. + ALL THE GOTHS. And as he saith, so say we all with him. + LUCIUS. I humbly thank him, and I thank you all. + But who comes here, led by a lusty Goth? + + Enter a GOTH, leading AARON with his CHILD in his arms + + SECOND GOTH. Renowned Lucius, from our troops I stray'd + To gaze upon a ruinous monastery; + And as I earnestly did fix mine eye + Upon the wasted building, suddenly + I heard a child cry underneath a wall. + I made unto the noise, when soon I heard + The crying babe controll'd with this discourse: + 'Peace, tawny slave, half me and half thy dam! + Did not thy hue bewray whose brat thou art, + Had nature lent thee but thy mother's look, + Villain, thou mightst have been an emperor; + But where the bull and cow are both milk-white, + They never do beget a coal-black calf. + Peace, villain, peace!'- even thus he rates the babe- + 'For I must bear thee to a trusty Goth, + Who, when he knows thou art the Empress' babe, + Will hold thee dearly for thy mother's sake.' + With this, my weapon drawn, I rush'd upon him, + Surpris'd him suddenly, and brought him hither + To use as you think needful of the man. + LUCIUS. O worthy Goth, this is the incarnate devil + That robb'd Andronicus of his good hand; + This is the pearl that pleas'd your Empress' eye; + And here's the base fruit of her burning lust. + Say, wall-ey'd slave, whither wouldst thou convey + This growing image of thy fiend-like face? + Why dost not speak? What, deaf? Not a word? + A halter, soldiers! Hang him on this tree, + And by his side his fruit of bastardy. + AARON. Touch not the boy, he is of royal blood. + LUCIUS. Too like the sire for ever being good. + First hang the child, that he may see it sprawl- + A sight to vex the father's soul withal. + Get me a ladder. + [A ladder brought, which AARON is made to climb] + AARON. Lucius, save the child, + And bear it from me to the Emperess. + If thou do this, I'll show thee wondrous things + That highly may advantage thee to hear; + If thou wilt not, befall what may befall, + I'll speak no more but 'Vengeance rot you all!' + LUCIUS. Say on; an if it please me which thou speak'st, + Thy child shall live, and I will see it nourish'd. + AARON. An if it please thee! Why, assure thee, Lucius, + 'Twill vex thy soul to hear what I shall speak; + For I must talk of murders, rapes, and massacres, + Acts of black night, abominable deeds, + Complots of mischief, treason, villainies, + Ruthful to hear, yet piteously perform'd; + And this shall all be buried in my death, + Unless thou swear to me my child shall live. + LUCIUS. Tell on thy mind; I say thy child shall live. + AARON. Swear that he shall, and then I will begin. + LUCIUS. Who should I swear by? Thou believest no god; + That granted, how canst thou believe an oath? + AARON. What if I do not? as indeed I do not; + Yet, for I know thou art religious + And hast a thing within thee called conscience, + With twenty popish tricks and ceremonies + Which I have seen thee careful to observe, + Therefore I urge thy oath. For that I know + An idiot holds his bauble for a god, + And keeps the oath which by that god he swears, + To that I'll urge him. Therefore thou shalt vow + By that same god- what god soe'er it be + That thou adorest and hast in reverence- + To save my boy, to nourish and bring him up; + Or else I will discover nought to thee. + LUCIUS. Even by my god I swear to thee I will. + AARON. First know thou, I begot him on the Empress. + LUCIUS. O most insatiate and luxurious woman! + AARON. Tut, Lucius, this was but a deed of charity + To that which thou shalt hear of me anon. + 'Twas her two sons that murdered Bassianus; + They cut thy sister's tongue, and ravish'd her, + And cut her hands, and trimm'd her as thou sawest. + LUCIUS. O detestable villain! Call'st thou that trimming? + AARON. Why, she was wash'd, and cut, and trimm'd, and 'twas + Trim sport for them which had the doing of it. + LUCIUS. O barbarous beastly villains like thyself! + AARON. Indeed, I was their tutor to instruct them. + That codding spirit had they from their mother, + As sure a card as ever won the set; + That bloody mind, I think, they learn'd of me, + As true a dog as ever fought at head. + Well, let my deeds be witness of my worth. + I train'd thy brethren to that guileful hole + Where the dead corpse of Bassianus lay; + I wrote the letter that thy father found, + And hid the gold within that letter mention'd, + Confederate with the Queen and her two sons; + And what not done, that thou hast cause to rue, + Wherein I had no stroke of mischief in it? + I play'd the cheater for thy father's hand, + And, when I had it, drew myself apart + And almost broke my heart with extreme laughter. + I pried me through the crevice of a wall, + When, for his hand, he had his two sons' heads; + Beheld his tears, and laugh'd so heartily + That both mine eyes were rainy like to his; + And when I told the Empress of this sport, + She swooned almost at my pleasing tale, + And for my tidings gave me twenty kisses. + GOTH. What, canst thou say all this and never blush? + AARON. Ay, like a black dog, as the saying is. + LUCIUS. Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds? + AARON. Ay, that I had not done a thousand more. + Even now I curse the day- and yet, I think, + Few come within the compass of my curse- + Wherein I did not some notorious ill; + As kill a man, or else devise his death; + Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it; + Accuse some innocent, and forswear myself; + Set deadly enmity between two friends; + Make poor men's cattle break their necks; + Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night, + And bid the owners quench them with their tears. + Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves, + And set them upright at their dear friends' door + Even when their sorrows almost was forgot, + And on their skins, as on the bark of trees, + Have with my knife carved in Roman letters + 'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.' + Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things + As willingly as one would kill a fly; + And nothing grieves me heartily indeed + But that I cannot do ten thousand more. + LUCIUS. Bring down the devil, for he must not die + So sweet a death as hanging presently. + AARON. If there be devils, would I were a devil, + To live and burn in everlasting fire, + So I might have your company in hell + But to torment you with my bitter tongue! + LUCIUS. Sirs, stop his mouth, and let him speak no more. + + Enter AEMILIUS + + GOTH. My lord, there is a messenger from Rome + Desires to be admitted to your presence. + LUCIUS. Let him come near. + Welcome, Aemilius. What's the news from Rome? + AEMILIUS. Lord Lucius, and you Princes of the Goths, + The Roman Emperor greets you all by me; + And, for he understands you are in arms, + He craves a parley at your father's house, + Willing you to demand your hostages, + And they shall be immediately deliver'd. + FIRST GOTH. What says our general? + LUCIUS. Aemilius, let the Emperor give his pledges + Unto my father and my uncle Marcus. + And we will come. March away. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Rome. Before TITUS' house + +Enter TAMORA, and her two sons, DEMETRIUS and CHIRON, disguised + + TAMORA. Thus, in this strange and sad habiliment, + I will encounter with Andronicus, + And say I am Revenge, sent from below + To join with him and right his heinous wrongs. + Knock at his study, where they say he keeps + To ruminate strange plots of dire revenge; + Tell him Revenge is come to join with him, + And work confusion on his enemies. + + They knock and TITUS opens his study door, above + + TITUS. Who doth molest my contemplation? + Is it your trick to make me ope the door, + That so my sad decrees may fly away + And all my study be to no effect? + You are deceiv'd; for what I mean to do + See here in bloody lines I have set down; + And what is written shall be executed. + TAMORA. Titus, I am come to talk with thee. + TITUS. No, not a word. How can I grace my talk, + Wanting a hand to give it that accord? + Thou hast the odds of me; therefore no more. + TAMORA. If thou didst know me, thou wouldst talk with me. + TITUS. I am not mad, I know thee well enough: + Witness this wretched stump, witness these crimson lines; + Witness these trenches made by grief and care; + Witness the tiring day and heavy night; + Witness all sorrow that I know thee well + For our proud Empress, mighty Tamora. + Is not thy coming for my other hand? + TAMORA. Know thou, sad man, I am not Tamora: + She is thy enemy and I thy friend. + I am Revenge, sent from th' infernal kingdom + To ease the gnawing vulture of thy mind + By working wreakful vengeance on thy foes. + Come down and welcome me to this world's light; + Confer with me of murder and of death; + There's not a hollow cave or lurking-place, + No vast obscurity or misty vale, + Where bloody murder or detested rape + Can couch for fear but I will find them out; + And in their ears tell them my dreadful name- + Revenge, which makes the foul offender quake. + TITUS. Art thou Revenge? and art thou sent to me + To be a torment to mine enemies? + TAMORA. I am; therefore come down and welcome me. + TITUS. Do me some service ere I come to thee. + Lo, by thy side where Rape and Murder stands; + Now give some surance that thou art Revenge- + Stab them, or tear them on thy chariot wheels; + And then I'll come and be thy waggoner + And whirl along with thee about the globes. + Provide thee two proper palfreys, black as jet, + To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away, + And find out murderers in their guilty caves; + And when thy car is loaden with their heads, + I will dismount, and by thy waggon wheel + Trot, like a servile footman, all day long, + Even from Hyperion's rising in the east + Until his very downfall in the sea. + And day by day I'll do this heavy task, + So thou destroy Rapine and Murder there. + TAMORA. These are my ministers, and come with me. + TITUS. Are they thy ministers? What are they call'd? + TAMORA. Rape and Murder; therefore called so + 'Cause they take vengeance of such kind of men. + TITUS. Good Lord, how like the Empress' sons they are! + And you the Empress! But we worldly men + Have miserable, mad, mistaking eyes. + O sweet Revenge, now do I come to thee; + And, if one arm's embracement will content thee, + I will embrace thee in it by and by. + TAMORA. This closing with him fits his lunacy. + Whate'er I forge to feed his brain-sick humours, + Do you uphold and maintain in your speeches, + For now he firmly takes me for Revenge; + And, being credulous in this mad thought, + I'll make him send for Lucius his son, + And whilst I at a banquet hold him sure, + I'll find some cunning practice out of hand + To scatter and disperse the giddy Goths, + Or, at the least, make them his enemies. + See, here he comes, and I must ply my theme. + + Enter TITUS, below + + TITUS. Long have I been forlorn, and all for thee. + Welcome, dread Fury, to my woeful house. + Rapine and Murder, you are welcome too. + How like the Empress and her sons you are! + Well are you fitted, had you but a Moor. + Could not all hell afford you such a devil? + For well I wot the Empress never wags + But in her company there is a Moor; + And, would you represent our queen aright, + It were convenient you had such a devil. + But welcome as you are. What shall we do? + TAMORA. What wouldst thou have us do, Andronicus? + DEMETRIUS. Show me a murderer, I'll deal with him. + CHIRON. Show me a villain that hath done a rape, + And I am sent to be reveng'd on him. + TAMORA. Show me a thousand that hath done thee wrong, + And I will be revenged on them all. + TITUS. Look round about the wicked streets of Rome, + And when thou find'st a man that's like thyself, + Good Murder, stab him; he's a murderer. + Go thou with him, and when it is thy hap + To find another that is like to thee, + Good Rapine, stab him; he is a ravisher. + Go thou with them; and in the Emperor's court + There is a queen, attended by a Moor; + Well shalt thou know her by thine own proportion, + For up and down she doth resemble thee. + I pray thee, do on them some violent death; + They have been violent to me and mine. + TAMORA. Well hast thou lesson'd us; this shall we do. + But would it please thee, good Andronicus, + To send for Lucius, thy thrice-valiant son, + Who leads towards Rome a band of warlike Goths, + And bid him come and banquet at thy house; + When he is here, even at thy solemn feast, + I will bring in the Empress and her sons, + The Emperor himself, and all thy foes; + And at thy mercy shall they stoop and kneel, + And on them shalt thou ease thy angry heart. + What says Andronicus to this device? + TITUS. Marcus, my brother! 'Tis sad Titus calls. + + Enter MARCUS + + Go, gentle Marcus, to thy nephew Lucius; + Thou shalt inquire him out among the Goths. + Bid him repair to me, and bring with him + Some of the chiefest princes of the Goths; + Bid him encamp his soldiers where they are. + Tell him the Emperor and the Empress too + Feast at my house, and he shall feast with them. + This do thou for my love; and so let him, + As he regards his aged father's life. + MARCUS. This will I do, and soon return again. Exit + TAMORA. Now will I hence about thy business, + And take my ministers along with me. + TITUS. Nay, nay, let Rape and Murder stay with me, + Or else I'll call my brother back again, + And cleave to no revenge but Lucius. + TAMORA. [Aside to her sons] What say you, boys? Will you abide + with him, + Whiles I go tell my lord the Emperor + How I have govern'd our determin'd jest? + Yield to his humour, smooth and speak him fair, + And tarry with him till I turn again. + TITUS. [Aside] I knew them all, though they suppos'd me mad, + And will o'er reach them in their own devices, + A pair of cursed hell-hounds and their dam. + DEMETRIUS. Madam, depart at pleasure; leave us here. + TAMORA. Farewell, Andronicus, Revenge now goes + To lay a complot to betray thy foes. + TITUS. I know thou dost; and, sweet Revenge, farewell. + Exit TAMORA + CHIRON. Tell us, old man, how shall we be employ'd? + TITUS. Tut, I have work enough for you to do. + Publius, come hither, Caius, and Valentine. + + Enter PUBLIUS, CAIUS, and VALENTINE + + PUBLIUS. What is your will? + TITUS. Know you these two? + PUBLIUS. The Empress' sons, I take them: Chiron, Demetrius. + TITUS. Fie, Publius, fie! thou art too much deceiv'd. + The one is Murder, and Rape is the other's name; + And therefore bind them, gentle Publius- + Caius and Valentine, lay hands on them. + Oft have you heard me wish for such an hour, + And now I find it; therefore bind them sure, + And stop their mouths if they begin to cry. Exit + [They lay hold on CHIRON and DEMETRIUS] + CHIRON. Villains, forbear! we are the Empress' sons. + PUBLIUS. And therefore do we what we are commanded. + Stop close their mouths, let them not speak a word. + Is he sure bound? Look that you bind them fast. + + Re-enter TITUS ANDRONICUS + with a knife, and LAVINIA, with a basin + + TITUS. Come, come, Lavinia; look, thy foes are bound. + Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me; + But let them hear what fearful words I utter. + O villains, Chiron and Demetrius! + Here stands the spring whom you have stain'd with mud; + This goodly summer with your winter mix'd. + You kill'd her husband; and for that vile fault + Two of her brothers were condemn'd to death, + My hand cut off and made a merry jest; + Both her sweet hands, her tongue, and that more dear + Than hands or tongue, her spotless chastity, + Inhuman traitors, you constrain'd and forc'd. + What would you say, if I should let you speak? + Villains, for shame you could not beg for grace. + Hark, wretches! how I mean to martyr you. + This one hand yet is left to cut your throats, + Whiles that Lavinia 'tween her stumps doth hold + The basin that receives your guilty blood. + You know your mother means to feast with me, + And calls herself Revenge, and thinks me mad. + Hark, villains! I will grind your bones to dust, + And with your blood and it I'll make a paste; + And of the paste a coffin I will rear, + And make two pasties of your shameful heads; + And bid that strumpet, your unhallowed dam, + Like to the earth, swallow her own increase. + This is the feast that I have bid her to, + And this the banquet she shall surfeit on; + For worse than Philomel you us'd my daughter, + And worse than Progne I will be reveng'd. + And now prepare your throats. Lavinia, come, + Receive the blood; and when that they are dead, + Let me go grind their bones to powder small, + And with this hateful liquor temper it; + And in that paste let their vile heads be bak'd. + Come, come, be every one officious + To make this banquet, which I wish may prove + More stern and bloody than the Centaurs' feast. + [He cuts their throats] + So. + Now bring them in, for I will play the cook, + And see them ready against their mother comes. + Exeunt, bearing the dead bodies + + + + +SCENE III. +The court of TITUS' house + +Enter Lucius, MARCUS, and the GOTHS, with AARON prisoner, +and his CHILD in the arms of an attendant + + LUCIUS. Uncle Marcus, since 'tis my father's mind + That I repair to Rome, I am content. + FIRST GOTH. And ours with thine, befall what fortune will. + LUCIUS. Good uncle, take you in this barbarous Moor, + This ravenous tiger, this accursed devil; + Let him receive no sust'nance, fetter him, + Till he be brought unto the Empress' face + For testimony of her foul proceedings. + And see the ambush of our friends be strong; + I fear the Emperor means no good to us. + AARON. Some devil whisper curses in my ear, + And prompt me that my tongue may utter forth + The venomous malice of my swelling heart! + LUCIUS. Away, inhuman dog, unhallowed slave! + Sirs, help our uncle to convey him in. + Exeunt GOTHS with AARON. Flourish within + The trumpets show the Emperor is at hand. + + Sound trumpets. Enter SATURNINUS and + TAMORA, with AEMILIUS, TRIBUNES, SENATORS, and others + + SATURNINUS. What, hath the firmament more suns than one? + LUCIUS. What boots it thee to can thyself a sun? + MARCUS. Rome's Emperor, and nephew, break the parle; + These quarrels must be quietly debated. + The feast is ready which the careful Titus + Hath ordain'd to an honourable end, + For peace, for love, for league, and good to Rome. + Please you, therefore, draw nigh and take your places. + SATURNINUS. Marcus, we will. + [A table brought in. The company sit down] + + Trumpets sounding, enter TITUS + like a cook, placing the dishes, and LAVINIA + with a veil over her face; also YOUNG LUCIUS, and others + + TITUS. Welcome, my lord; welcome, dread Queen; + Welcome, ye warlike Goths; welcome, Lucius; + And welcome all. Although the cheer be poor, + 'Twill fill your stomachs; please you eat of it. + SATURNINUS. Why art thou thus attir'd, Andronicus? + TITUS. Because I would be sure to have all well + To entertain your Highness and your Empress. + TAMORA. We are beholding to you, good Andronicus. + TITUS. An if your Highness knew my heart, you were. + My lord the Emperor, resolve me this: + Was it well done of rash Virginius + To slay his daughter with his own right hand, + Because she was enforc'd, stain'd, and deflower'd? + SATURNINUS. It was, Andronicus. + TITUS. Your reason, mighty lord. + SATURNINUS. Because the girl should not survive her shame, + And by her presence still renew his sorrows. + TITUS. A reason mighty, strong, and effectual; + A pattern, precedent, and lively warrant + For me, most wretched, to perform the like. + Die, die, Lavinia, and thy shame with thee; [He kills her] + And with thy shame thy father's sorrow die! + SATURNINUS. What hast thou done, unnatural and unkind? + TITUS. Kill'd her for whom my tears have made me blind. + I am as woeful as Virginius was, + And have a thousand times more cause than he + To do this outrage; and it now is done. + SATURNINUS. What, was she ravish'd? Tell who did the deed. + TITUS. Will't please you eat? Will't please your Highness feed? + TAMORA. Why hast thou slain thine only daughter thus? + TITUS. Not I; 'twas Chiron and Demetrius. + They ravish'd her, and cut away her tongue; + And they, 'twas they, that did her all this wrong. + SATURNINUS. Go, fetch them hither to us presently. + TITUS. Why, there they are, both baked in this pie, + Whereof their mother daintily hath fed, + Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred. + 'Tis true, 'tis true: witness my knife's sharp point. + [He stabs the EMPRESS] + SATURNINUS. Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed! + [He stabs TITUS] + LUCIUS. Can the son's eye behold his father bleed? + There's meed for meed, death for a deadly deed. + [He stabs SATURNINUS. A great tumult. LUCIUS, + MARCUS, and their friends go up into the balcony] + MARCUS. You sad-fac'd men, people and sons of Rome, + By uproars sever'd, as a flight of fowl + Scatter'd by winds and high tempestuous gusts? + O, let me teach you how to knit again + This scattered corn into one mutual sheaf, + These broken limbs again into one body; + Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself, + And she whom mighty kingdoms curtsy to, + Like a forlorn and desperate castaway, + Do shameful execution on herself. + But if my frosty signs and chaps of age, + Grave witnesses of true experience, + Cannot induce you to attend my words, + [To Lucius] Speak, Rome's dear friend, as erst our ancestor, + When with his solemn tongue he did discourse + To love-sick Dido's sad attending ear + The story of that baleful burning night, + When subtle Greeks surpris'd King Priam's Troy. + Tell us what Sinon hath bewitch'd our ears, + Or who hath brought the fatal engine in + That gives our Troy, our Rome, the civil wound. + My heart is not compact of flint nor steel; + Nor can I utter all our bitter grief, + But floods of tears will drown my oratory + And break my utt'rance, even in the time + When it should move ye to attend me most, + And force you to commiseration. + Here's Rome's young Captain, let him tell the tale; + While I stand by and weep to hear him speak. + LUCIUS. Then, gracious auditory, be it known to you + That Chiron and the damn'd Demetrius + Were they that murd'red our Emperor's brother; + And they it were that ravished our sister. + For their fell faults our brothers were beheaded, + Our father's tears despis'd, and basely cozen'd + Of that true hand that fought Rome's quarrel out + And sent her enemies unto the grave. + Lastly, myself unkindly banished, + The gates shut on me, and turn'd weeping out, + To beg relief among Rome's enemies; + Who drown'd their enmity in my true tears, + And op'd their arms to embrace me as a friend. + I am the turned forth, be it known to you, + That have preserv'd her welfare in my blood + And from her bosom took the enemy's point, + Sheathing the steel in my advent'rous body. + Alas! you know I am no vaunter, I; + My scars can witness, dumb although they are, + That my report is just and full of truth. + But, soft! methinks I do digress too much, + Citing my worthless praise. O, pardon me! + For when no friends are by, men praise themselves. + MARCUS. Now is my turn to speak. Behold the child. + [Pointing to the CHILD in an attendant's arms] + Of this was Tamora delivered, + The issue of an irreligious Moor, + Chief architect and plotter of these woes. + The villain is alive in Titus' house, + Damn'd as he is, to witness this is true. + Now judge what cause had Titus to revenge + These wrongs unspeakable, past patience, + Or more than any living man could bear. + Now have you heard the truth: what say you, Romans? + Have we done aught amiss, show us wherein, + And, from the place where you behold us pleading, + The poor remainder of Andronici + Will, hand in hand, all headlong hurl ourselves, + And on the ragged stones beat forth our souls, + And make a mutual closure of our house. + Speak, Romans, speak; and if you say we shall, + Lo, hand in hand, Lucius and I will fall. + AEMILIUS. Come, come, thou reverend man of Rome, + And bring our Emperor gently in thy hand, + Lucius our Emperor; for well I know + The common voice do cry it shall be so. + ALL. Lucius, all hail, Rome's royal Emperor! + MARCUS. Go, go into old Titus' sorrowful house, + And hither hale that misbelieving Moor + To be adjudg'd some direful slaught'ring death, + As punishment for his most wicked life. Exeunt some + attendants. LUCIUS, MARCUS, and the others descend + ALL. Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor! + LUCIUS. Thanks, gentle Romans! May I govern so + To heal Rome's harms and wipe away her woe! + But, gentle people, give me aim awhile, + For nature puts me to a heavy task. + Stand all aloof; but, uncle, draw you near + To shed obsequious tears upon this trunk. + O, take this warm kiss on thy pale cold lips. [Kisses TITUS] + These sorrowful drops upon thy blood-stain'd face, + The last true duties of thy noble son! + MARCUS. Tear for tear and loving kiss for kiss + Thy brother Marcus tenders on thy lips. + O, were the sum of these that I should pay + Countless and infinite, yet would I pay them! + LUCIUS. Come hither, boy; come, come, come, and learn of us + To melt in showers. Thy grandsire lov'd thee well; + Many a time he danc'd thee on his knee, + Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow; + Many a story hath he told to thee, + And bid thee bear his pretty tales in mind + And talk of them when he was dead and gone. + MARCUS. How many thousand times hath these poor lips, + When they were living, warm'd themselves on thine! + O, now, sweet boy, give them their latest kiss! + Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave; + Do them that kindness, and take leave of them. + BOY. O grandsire, grandsire! ev'n with all my heart + Would I were dead, so you did live again! + O Lord, I cannot speak to him for weeping; + My tears will choke me, if I ope my mouth. + + Re-enter attendants with AARON + + A ROMAN. You sad Andronici, have done with woes; + Give sentence on the execrable wretch + That hath been breeder of these dire events. + LUCIUS. Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him; + There let him stand and rave and cry for food. + If any one relieves or pities him, + For the offence he dies. This is our doom. + Some stay to see him fast'ned in the earth. + AARON. Ah, why should wrath be mute and fury dumb? + I am no baby, I, that with base prayers + I should repent the evils I have done; + Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did + Would I perform, if I might have my will. + If one good deed in all my life I did, + I do repent it from my very soul. + LUCIUS. Some loving friends convey the Emperor hence, + And give him burial in his father's grave. + My father and Lavinia shall forthwith + Be closed in our household's monument. + As for that ravenous tiger, Tamora, + No funeral rite, nor man in mourning weed, + No mournful bell shall ring her burial; + But throw her forth to beasts and birds to prey. + Her life was beastly and devoid of pity, + And being dead, let birds on her take pity. Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1602 + +THE HISTORY OF TROILUS AND CRESSIDA + +by William Shakespeare + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + PRIAM, King of Troy + + His sons: + HECTOR + TROILUS + PARIS + DEIPHOBUS + HELENUS + + MARGARELON, a bastard son of Priam + + Trojan commanders: + AENEAS + ANTENOR + + CALCHAS, a Trojan priest, taking part with the Greeks + PANDARUS, uncle to Cressida + AGAMEMNON, the Greek general + MENELAUS, his brother + + Greek commanders: + ACHILLES + AJAX + ULYSSES + NESTOR + DIOMEDES + PATROCLUS + + THERSITES, a deformed and scurrilous Greek + ALEXANDER, servant to Cressida + SERVANT to Troilus + SERVANT to Paris + SERVANT to Diomedes + + HELEN, wife to Menelaus + ANDROMACHE, wife to Hector + CASSANDRA, daughter to Priam, a prophetess + CRESSIDA, daughter to Calchas + + Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants + + SCENE: + Troy and the Greek camp before it + +PROLOGUE + TROILUS AND CRESSIDA + PROLOGUE + + In Troy, there lies the scene. From isles of Greece + The princes orgillous, their high blood chaf'd, + Have to the port of Athens sent their ships + Fraught with the ministers and instruments + Of cruel war. Sixty and nine that wore + Their crownets regal from th' Athenian bay + Put forth toward Phrygia; and their vow is made + To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures + The ravish'd Helen, Menelaus' queen, + With wanton Paris sleeps-and that's the quarrel. + To Tenedos they come, + And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge + Their war-like fraughtage. Now on Dardan plains + The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch + Their brave pavilions: Priam's six-gated city, + Dardan, and Tymbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien, + And Antenorides, with massy staples + And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts, + Sperr up the sons of Troy. + Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits + On one and other side, Troyan and Greek, + Sets all on hazard-and hither am I come + A Prologue arm'd, but not in confidence + Of author's pen or actor's voice, but suited + In like conditions as our argument, + To tell you, fair beholders, that our play + Leaps o'er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils, + Beginning in the middle; starting thence away, + To what may be digested in a play. + Like or find fault; do as your pleasures are; + Now good or bad, 'tis but the chance of war. + + + + +<> + + + +ACT I. SCENE 1. +Troy. Before PRIAM'S palace + +Enter TROILUS armed, and PANDARUS + + TROILUS. Call here my varlet; I'll unarm again. + Why should I war without the walls of Troy + That find such cruel battle here within? + Each Troyan that is master of his heart, + Let him to field; Troilus, alas, hath none! + PANDARUS. Will this gear ne'er be mended? + TROILUS. The Greeks are strong, and skilful to their strength, + Fierce to their skill, and to their fierceness valiant; + But I am weaker than a woman's tear, + Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance, + Less valiant than the virgin in the night, + And skilless as unpractis'd infancy. + PANDARUS. Well, I have told you enough of this; for my part, + I'll not meddle nor make no farther. He that will have a cake + out of the wheat must needs tarry the grinding. + TROILUS. Have I not tarried? + PANDARUS. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the bolting. + TROILUS. Have I not tarried? + PANDARUS. Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the leavening. + TROILUS. Still have I tarried. + PANDARUS. Ay, to the leavening; but here's yet in the word + 'hereafter' the kneading, the making of the cake, the heating + of the oven, and the baking; nay, you must stay the cooling too, + or you may chance to burn your lips. + TROILUS. Patience herself, what goddess e'er she be, + Doth lesser blench at suff'rance than I do. + At Priam's royal table do I sit; + And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts- + So, traitor, then she comes when she is thence. + PANDARUS. Well, she look'd yesternight fairer than ever I saw her + look, or any woman else. + TROILUS. I was about to tell thee: when my heart, + As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain, + Lest Hector or my father should perceive me, + I have, as when the sun doth light a storm, + Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile. + But sorrow that is couch'd in seeming gladness + Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness. + PANDARUS. An her hair were not somewhat darker than Helen's- well, + go to- there were no more comparison between the women. But, for + my part, she is my kinswoman; I would not, as they term it, + praise her, but I would somebody had heard her talk yesterday, as + I did. I will not dispraise your sister Cassandra's wit; but- + TROILUS. O Pandarus! I tell thee, Pandarus- + When I do tell thee there my hopes lie drown'd, + Reply not in how many fathoms deep + They lie indrench'd. I tell thee I am mad + In Cressid's love. Thou answer'st 'She is fair'- + Pourest in the open ulcer of my heart- + Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice, + Handlest in thy discourse. O, that her hand, + In whose comparison all whites are ink + Writing their own reproach; to whose soft seizure + The cygnet's down is harsh, and spirit of sense + Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st me, + As true thou tell'st me, when I say I love her; + But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm, + Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me + The knife that made it. + PANDARUS. I speak no more than truth. + TROILUS. Thou dost not speak so much. + PANDARUS. Faith, I'll not meddle in it. Let her be as she is: if + she be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be not, she has the + mends in her own hands. + TROILUS. Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus! + PANDARUS. I have had my labour for my travail, ill thought on of + her and ill thought on of you; gone between and between, but + small thanks for my labour. + TROILUS. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? What, with me? + PANDARUS. Because she's kin to me, therefore she's not so fair as + Helen. An she were not kin to me, she would be as fair a Friday + as Helen is on Sunday. But what care I? I care not an she were a + blackamoor; 'tis all one to me. + TROILUS. Say I she is not fair? + PANDARUS. I do not care whether you do or no. She's a fool to stay + behind her father. Let her to the Greeks; and so I'll tell her + the next time I see her. For my part, I'll meddle nor make no + more i' th' matter. + TROILUS. Pandarus! + PANDARUS. Not I. + TROILUS. Sweet Pandarus! + PANDARUS. Pray you, speak no more to me: I will leave all + as I found it, and there an end. Exit. Sound alarum + TROILUS. Peace, you ungracious clamours! Peace, rude sounds! + Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair, + When with your blood you daily paint her thus. + I cannot fight upon this argument; + It is too starv'd a subject for my sword. + But Pandarus-O gods, how do you plague me! + I cannot come to Cressid but by Pandar; + And he's as tetchy to be woo'd to woo + As she is stubborn-chaste against all suit. + Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love, + What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we? + Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl; + Between our Ilium and where she resides + Let it be call'd the wild and wand'ring flood; + Ourself the merchant, and this sailing Pandar + Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark. + + Alarum. Enter AENEAS + + AENEAS. How now, Prince Troilus! Wherefore not afield? + TROILUS. Because not there. This woman's answer sorts, + For womanish it is to be from thence. + What news, Aeneas, from the field to-day? + AENEAS. That Paris is returned home, and hurt. + TROILUS. By whom, Aeneas? + AENEAS. Troilus, by Menelaus. + TROILUS. Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a scar to scorn; + Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn. [Alarum] + AENEAS. Hark what good sport is out of town to-day! + TROILUS. Better at home, if 'would I might' were 'may.' + But to the sport abroad. Are you bound thither? + AENEAS. In all swift haste. + TROILUS. Come, go we then together. Exeunt + + + + +ACT I. SCENE 2. +Troy. A street + +Enter CRESSIDA and her man ALEXANDER + + CRESSIDA. Who were those went by? + ALEXANDER. Queen Hecuba and Helen. + CRESSIDA. And whither go they? + ALEXANDER. Up to the eastern tower, + Whose height commands as subject all the vale, + To see the battle. Hector, whose patience + Is as a virtue fix'd, to-day was mov'd. + He chid Andromache, and struck his armourer; + And, like as there were husbandry in war, + Before the sun rose he was harness'd light, + And to the field goes he; where every flower + Did as a prophet weep what it foresaw + In Hector's wrath. + CRESSIDA. What was his cause of anger? + ALEXANDER. The noise goes, this: there is among the Greeks + A lord of Troyan blood, nephew to Hector; + They call him Ajax. + CRESSIDA. Good; and what of him? + ALEXANDER. They say he is a very man per se, + And stands alone. + CRESSIDA. So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, or have no + legs. + ALEXANDER. This man, lady, hath robb'd many beasts of their + particular additions: he is as valiant as a lion, churlish as the + bear, slow as the elephant-a man into whom nature hath so crowded + humours that his valour is crush'd into folly, his folly sauced + with discretion. There is no man hath a virtue that he hath not a + glimpse of, nor any man an attaint but he carries some stain of + it; he is melancholy without cause and merry against the hair; he + hath the joints of every thing; but everything so out of joint + that he is a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use, or purblind + Argus, all eyes and no sight. + CRESSIDA. But how should this man, that makes me smile, make Hector + angry? + ALEXANDER. They say he yesterday cop'd Hector in the battle and + struck him down, the disdain and shame whereof hath ever since + kept Hector fasting and waking. + + Enter PANDARUS + + CRESSIDA. Who comes here? + ALEXANDER. Madam, your uncle Pandarus. + CRESSIDA. Hector's a gallant man. + ALEXANDER. As may be in the world, lady. + PANDARUS. What's that? What's that? + CRESSIDA. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus. + PANDARUS. Good morrow, cousin Cressid. What do you talk of?- Good + morrow, Alexander.-How do you, cousin? When were you at Ilium? + CRESSIDA. This morning, uncle. + PANDARUS. What were you talking of when I came? Was Hector arm'd + and gone ere you came to Ilium? Helen was not up, was she? + CRESSIDA. Hector was gone; but Helen was not up. + PANDARUS. E'en so. Hector was stirring early. + CRESSIDA. That were we talking of, and of his anger. + PANDARUS. Was he angry? + CRESSIDA. So he says here. + PANDARUS. True, he was so; I know the cause too; he'll lay about + him today, I can tell them that. And there's Troilus will not + come far behind him; let them take heed of Troilus, I can tell + them that too. + CRESSIDA. What, is he angry too? + PANDARUS. Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man of the two. + CRESSIDA. O Jupiter! there's no comparison. + PANDARUS. What, not between Troilus and Hector? Do you know a man + if you see him? + CRESSIDA. Ay, if I ever saw him before and knew him. + PANDARUS. Well, I say Troilus is Troilus. + CRESSIDA. Then you say as I say, for I am sure he is not Hector. + PANDARUS. No, nor Hector is not Troilus in some degrees. + CRESSIDA. 'Tis just to each of them: he is himself. + PANDARUS. Himself! Alas, poor Troilus! I would he were! + CRESSIDA. So he is. + PANDARUS. Condition I had gone barefoot to India. + CRESSIDA. He is not Hector. + PANDARUS. Himself! no, he's not himself. Would 'a were himself! + Well, the gods are above; time must friend or end. Well, Troilus, + well! I would my heart were in her body! No, Hector is not a + better man than Troilus. + CRESSIDA. Excuse me. + PANDARUS. He is elder. + CRESSIDA. Pardon me, pardon me. + PANDARUS. Th' other's not come to't; you shall tell me another tale + when th' other's come to't. Hector shall not have his wit this + year. + CRESSIDA. He shall not need it if he have his own. + PANDARUS. Nor his qualities. + CRESSIDA. No matter. + PANDARUS. Nor his beauty. + CRESSIDA. 'Twould not become him: his own's better. + PANDARUS. YOU have no judgment, niece. Helen herself swore th' + other day that Troilus, for a brown favour, for so 'tis, I must + confess- not brown neither- + CRESSIDA. No, but brown. + PANDARUS. Faith, to say truth, brown and not brown. + CRESSIDA. To say the truth, true and not true. + PANDARUS. She prais'd his complexion above Paris. + CRESSIDA. Why, Paris hath colour enough. + PANDARUS. So he has. + CRESSIDA. Then Troilus should have too much. If she prais'd him + above, his complexion is higher than his; he having colour + enough, and the other higher, is too flaming praise for a good + complexion. I had as lief Helen's golden tongue had commended + Troilus for a copper nose. + PANDARUS. I swear to you I think Helen loves him better than Paris. + CRESSIDA. Then she's a merry Greek indeed. + PANDARUS. Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him th' other day + into the compass'd window-and you know he has not past three or + four hairs on his chin- + CRESSIDA. Indeed a tapster's arithmetic may soon bring his + particulars therein to a total. + PANDARUS. Why, he is very young, and yet will he within three pound + lift as much as his brother Hector. + CRESSIDA. Is he so young a man and so old a lifter? + PANDARUS. But to prove to you that Helen loves him: she came and + puts me her white hand to his cloven chin- + CRESSIDA. Juno have mercy! How came it cloven? + PANDARUS. Why, you know, 'tis dimpled. I think his smiling becomes + him better than any man in all Phrygia. + CRESSIDA. O, he smiles valiantly! + PANDARUS. Does he not? + CRESSIDA. O yes, an 'twere a cloud in autumn! + PANDARUS. Why, go to, then! But to prove to you that Helen loves + Troilus- + CRESSIDA. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you'll prove it so. + PANDARUS. Troilus! Why, he esteems her no more than I esteem an + addle egg. + CRESSIDA. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle + head, you would eat chickens i' th' shell. + PANDARUS. I cannot choose but laugh to think how she tickled his + chin. Indeed, she has a marvell's white hand, I must needs + confess. + CRESSIDA. Without the rack. + PANDARUS. And she takes upon her to spy a white hair on his chin. + CRESSIDA. Alas, poor chin! Many a wart is richer. + PANDARUS. But there was such laughing! Queen Hecuba laugh'd that + her eyes ran o'er. + CRESSIDA. With millstones. + PANDARUS. And Cassandra laugh'd. + CRESSIDA. But there was a more temperate fire under the pot of her + eyes. Did her eyes run o'er too? + PANDARUS. And Hector laugh'd. + CRESSIDA. At what was all this laughing? + PANDARUS. Marry, at the white hair that Helen spied on Troilus' + chin. + CRESSIDA. An't had been a green hair I should have laugh'd too. + PANDARUS. They laugh'd not so much at the hair as at his pretty + answer. + CRESSIDA. What was his answer? + PANDARUS. Quoth she 'Here's but two and fifty hairs on your chin, + and one of them is white.' + CRESSIDA. This is her question. + PANDARUS. That's true; make no question of that. 'Two and fifty + hairs,' quoth he 'and one white. That white hair is my father, + and all the rest are his sons.' 'Jupiter!' quoth she 'which of + these hairs is Paris my husband?' 'The forked one,' quoth he, + 'pluck't out and give it him.' But there was such laughing! and + Helen so blush'd, and Paris so chaf'd; and all the rest so + laugh'd that it pass'd. + CRESSIDA. So let it now; for it has been a great while going by. + PANDARUS. Well, cousin, I told you a thing yesterday; think on't. + CRESSIDA. So I do. + PANDARUS. I'll be sworn 'tis true; he will weep you, and 'twere a + man born in April. + CRESSIDA. And I'll spring up in his tears, an 'twere a nettle + against May. [Sound a retreat] + PANDARUS. Hark! they are coming from the field. Shall we stand up + here and see them as they pass toward Ilium? Good niece, do, + sweet niece Cressida. + CRESSIDA. At your pleasure. + PANDARUS. Here, here, here's an excellent place; here we may see + most bravely. I'll tell you them all by their names as they pass + by; but mark Troilus above the rest. + + AENEAS passes + + CRESSIDA. Speak not so loud. + PANDARUS. That's Aeneas. Is not that a brave man? He's one of the + flowers of Troy, I can tell you. But mark Troilus; you shall see + anon. + + ANTENOR passes + + CRESSIDA. Who's that? + PANDARUS. That's Antenor. He has a shrewd wit, I can tell you; and + he's a man good enough; he's one o' th' soundest judgments in + Troy, whosoever, and a proper man of person. When comes Troilus? + I'll show you Troilus anon. If he see me, you shall see him nod + at me. + CRESSIDA. Will he give you the nod? + PANDARUS. You shall see. + CRESSIDA. If he do, the rich shall have more. + + HECTOR passes + + PANDARUS. That's Hector, that, that, look you, that; there's a + fellow! Go thy way, Hector! There's a brave man, niece. O brave + Hector! Look how he looks. There's a countenance! Is't not a + brave man? + CRESSIDA. O, a brave man! + PANDARUS. Is 'a not? It does a man's heart good. Look you what + hacks are on his helmet! Look you yonder, do you see? Look you + there. There's no jesting; there's laying on; take't off who + will, as they say. There be hacks. + CRESSIDA. Be those with swords? + PANDARUS. Swords! anything, he cares not; an the devil come to him, + it's all one. By God's lid, it does one's heart good. Yonder + comes Paris, yonder comes Paris. + + PARIS passes + + Look ye yonder, niece; is't not a gallant man too, is't not? Why, + this is brave now. Who said he came hurt home to-day? He's not + hurt. Why, this will do Helen's heart good now, ha! Would I could + see Troilus now! You shall see Troilus anon. + + HELENUS passes + + CRESSIDA. Who's that? + PANDARUS. That's Helenus. I marvel where Troilus is. That's + Helenus. I think he went not forth to-day. That's Helenus. + CRESSIDA. Can Helenus fight, uncle? + PANDARUS. Helenus! no. Yes, he'll fight indifferent well. I marvel + where Troilus is. Hark! do you not hear the people cry 'Troilus'? + Helenus is a priest. + CRESSIDA. What sneaking fellow comes yonder? + + TROILUS passes + + PANDARUS. Where? yonder? That's Deiphobus. 'Tis Troilus. There's a + man, niece. Hem! Brave Troilus, the prince of chivalry! + CRESSIDA. Peace, for shame, peace! + PANDARUS. Mark him; note him. O brave Troilus! Look well upon him, + niece; look you how his sword is bloodied, and his helm more + hack'd than Hector's; and how he looks, and how he goes! O + admirable youth! he never saw three and twenty. Go thy way, + Troilus, go thy way. Had I a sister were a grace or a daughter a + goddess, he should take his choice. O admirable man! Paris? Paris + is dirt to him; and, I warrant, Helen, to change, would give an + eye to boot. + CRESSIDA. Here comes more. + + Common soldiers pass + + PANDARUS. Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff and bran! + porridge after meat! I could live and die in the eyes of Troilus. + Ne'er look, ne'er look; the eagles are gone. Crows and daws, + crows and daws! I had rather be such a man as Troilus than + Agamemnon and all Greece. + CRESSIDA. There is amongst the Greeks Achilles, a better man than + Troilus. + PANDARUS. Achilles? A drayman, a porter, a very camel! + CRESSIDA. Well, well. + PANDARUS. Well, well! Why, have you any discretion? Have you any + eyes? Do you know what a man is? Is not birth, beauty, good + shape, discourse, manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, + liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that season a man? + CRESSIDA. Ay, a minc'd man; and then to be bak'd with no date in + the pie, for then the man's date is out. + PANDARUS. You are such a woman! A man knows not at what ward you + lie. + CRESSIDA. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon my wit, to defend + my wiles; upon my secrecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to + defend my beauty; and you, to defend all these; and at all these + wards I lie at, at a thousand watches. + PANDARUS. Say one of your watches. + CRESSIDA. Nay, I'll watch you for that; and that's one of the + chiefest of them too. If I cannot ward what I would not have hit, + I can watch you for telling how I took the blow; unless it swell + past hiding, and then it's past watching + PANDARUS. You are such another! + + Enter TROILUS' BOY + + BOY. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with you. + PANDARUS. Where? + BOY. At your own house; there he unarms him. + PANDARUS. Good boy, tell him I come. Exit Boy + I doubt he be hurt. Fare ye well, good niece. + CRESSIDA. Adieu, uncle. + PANDARUS. I will be with you, niece, by and by. + CRESSIDA. To bring, uncle. + PANDARUS. Ay, a token from Troilus. + CRESSIDA. By the same token, you are a bawd. + Exit PANDARUS + Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love's full sacrifice, + He offers in another's enterprise; + But more in Troilus thousand-fold I see + Than in the glass of Pandar's praise may be, + Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing: + Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing. + That she belov'd knows nought that knows not this: + Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is. + That she was never yet that ever knew + Love got so sweet as when desire did sue; + Therefore this maxim out of love I teach: + Achievement is command; ungain'd, beseech. + Then though my heart's content firm love doth bear, + Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. Exit + + + + +ACT I. SCENE 3. +The Grecian camp. Before AGAMEMNON'S tent + +Sennet. Enter AGAMEMNON, NESTOR, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, MENELAUS, and others + + AGAMEMNON. Princes, + What grief hath set these jaundies o'er your cheeks? + The ample proposition that hope makes + In all designs begun on earth below + Fails in the promis'd largeness; checks and disasters + Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd, + As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, + Infects the sound pine, and diverts his grain + Tortive and errant from his course of growth. + Nor, princes, is it matter new to us + That we come short of our suppose so far + That after seven years' siege yet Troy walls stand; + Sith every action that hath gone before, + Whereof we have record, trial did draw + Bias and thwart, not answering the aim, + And that unbodied figure of the thought + That gave't surmised shape. Why then, you princes, + Do you with cheeks abash'd behold our works + And call them shames, which are, indeed, nought else + But the protractive trials of great Jove + To find persistive constancy in men; + The fineness of which metal is not found + In fortune's love? For then the bold and coward, + The wise and fool, the artist and unread, + The hard and soft, seem all affin'd and kin. + But in the wind and tempest of her frown + Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan, + Puffing at all, winnows the light away; + And what hath mass or matter by itself + Lies rich in virtue and unmingled. + NESTOR. With due observance of thy godlike seat, + Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply + Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance + Lies the true proof of men. The sea being smooth, + How many shallow bauble boats dare sail + Upon her patient breast, making their way + With those of nobler bulk! + But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage + The gentle Thetis, and anon behold + The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut, + Bounding between the two moist elements + Like Perseus' horse. Where's then the saucy boat, + Whose weak untimber'd sides but even now + Co-rivall'd greatness? Either to harbour fled + Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so + Doth valour's show and valour's worth divide + In storms of fortune; for in her ray and brightness + The herd hath more annoyance by the breeze + Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind + Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks, + And flies fled under shade-why, then the thing of courage + As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathise, + And with an accent tun'd in self-same key + Retorts to chiding fortune. + ULYSSES. Agamemnon, + Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece, + Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit + In whom the tempers and the minds of all + Should be shut up-hear what Ulysses speaks. + Besides the applause and approbation + The which, [To AGAMEMNON] most mighty, for thy place and sway, + [To NESTOR] And, thou most reverend, for thy stretch'd-out life, + I give to both your speeches- which were such + As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece + Should hold up high in brass; and such again + As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver, + Should with a bond of air, strong as the axle-tree + On which heaven rides, knit all the Greekish ears + To his experienc'd tongue-yet let it please both, + Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak. + AGAMEMNON. Speak, Prince of Ithaca; and be't of less expect + That matter needless, of importless burden, + Divide thy lips than we are confident, + When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws, + We shall hear music, wit, and oracle. + ULYSSES. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, + And the great Hector's sword had lack'd a master, + But for these instances: + The specialty of rule hath been neglected; + And look how many Grecian tents do stand + Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions. + When that the general is not like the hive, + To whom the foragers shall all repair, + What honey is expected? Degree being vizarded, + Th' unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. + The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre, + Observe degree, priority, and place, + Insisture, course, proportion, season, form, + Office, and custom, in all line of order; + And therefore is the glorious planet Sol + In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd + Amidst the other, whose med'cinable eye + Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil, + And posts, like the commandment of a king, + Sans check, to good and bad. But when the planets + In evil mixture to disorder wander, + What plagues and what portents, what mutiny, + What raging of the sea, shaking of earth, + Commotion in the winds! Frights, changes, horrors, + Divert and crack, rend and deracinate, + The unity and married calm of states + Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shak'd, + Which is the ladder of all high designs, + The enterprise is sick! How could communities, + Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities, + Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, + The primogenity and due of birth, + Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, + But by degree, stand in authentic place? + Take but degree away, untune that string, + And hark what discord follows! Each thing melts + In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters + Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores, + And make a sop of all this solid globe; + Strength should be lord of imbecility, + And the rude son should strike his father dead; + Force should be right; or, rather, right and wrong- + Between whose endless jar justice resides- + Should lose their names, and so should justice too. + Then everything includes itself in power, + Power into will, will into appetite; + And appetite, an universal wolf, + So doubly seconded with will and power, + Must make perforce an universal prey, + And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, + This chaos, when degree is suffocate, + Follows the choking. + And this neglection of degree it is + That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose + It hath to climb. The general's disdain'd + By him one step below, he by the next, + That next by him beneath; so ever step, + Exampl'd by the first pace that is sick + Of his superior, grows to an envious fever + Of pale and bloodless emulation. + And 'tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, + Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length, + Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength. + NESTOR. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd + The fever whereof all our power is sick. + AGAMEMNON. The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses, + What is the remedy? + ULYSSES. The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns + The sinew and the forehand of our host, + Having his ear full of his airy fame, + Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent + Lies mocking our designs; with him Patroclus + Upon a lazy bed the livelong day + Breaks scurril jests; + And with ridiculous and awkward action- + Which, slanderer, he imitation calls- + He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, + Thy topless deputation he puts on; + And like a strutting player whose conceit + Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich + To hear the wooden dialogue and sound + 'Twixt his stretch'd footing and the scaffoldage- + Such to-be-pitied and o'er-wrested seeming + He acts thy greatness in; and when he speaks + 'Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unsquar'd, + Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp'd, + Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff + The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling, + From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause; + Cries 'Excellent! 'tis Agamemnon just. + Now play me Nestor; hem, and stroke thy beard, + As he being drest to some oration.' + That's done-as near as the extremest ends + Of parallels, as like Vulcan and his wife; + Yet god Achilles still cries 'Excellent! + 'Tis Nestor right. Now play him me, Patroclus, + Arming to answer in a night alarm.' + And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age + Must be the scene of mirth: to cough and spit + And, with a palsy-fumbling on his gorget, + Shake in and out the rivet. And at this sport + Sir Valour dies; cries 'O, enough, Patroclus; + Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all + In pleasure of my spleen.' And in this fashion + All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, + Severals and generals of grace exact, + Achievements, plots, orders, preventions, + Excitements to the field or speech for truce, + Success or loss, what is or is not, serves + As stuff for these two to make paradoxes. + NESTOR. And in the imitation of these twain- + Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns + With an imperial voice-many are infect. + Ajax is grown self-will'd and bears his head + In such a rein, in full as proud a place + As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him; + Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war + Bold as an oracle, and sets Thersites, + A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint, + To match us in comparisons with dirt, + To weaken and discredit our exposure, + How rank soever rounded in with danger. + ULYSSES. They tax our policy and call it cowardice, + Count wisdom as no member of the war, + Forestall prescience, and esteem no act + But that of hand. The still and mental parts + That do contrive how many hands shall strike + When fitness calls them on, and know, by measure + Of their observant toil, the enemies' weight- + Why, this hath not a finger's dignity: + They call this bed-work, mapp'ry, closet-war; + So that the ram that batters down the wall, + For the great swinge and rudeness of his poise, + They place before his hand that made the engine, + Or those that with the fineness of their souls + By reason guide his execution. + NESTOR. Let this be granted, and Achilles' horse + Makes many Thetis' sons. [Tucket] + AGAMEMNON. What trumpet? Look, Menelaus. + MENELAUS. From Troy. + + Enter AENEAS + + AGAMEMNON. What would you fore our tent? + AENEAS. Is this great Agamemnon's tent, I pray you? + AGAMEMNON. Even this. + AENEAS. May one that is a herald and a prince + Do a fair message to his kingly eyes? + AGAMEMNON. With surety stronger than Achilles' an + Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice + Call Agamemnon head and general. + AENEAS. Fair leave and large security. How may + A stranger to those most imperial looks + Know them from eyes of other mortals? + AGAMEMNON. How? + AENEAS. Ay; + I ask, that I might waken reverence, + And bid the cheek be ready with a blush + Modest as Morning when she coldly eyes + The youthful Phoebus. + Which is that god in office, guiding men? + Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon? + AGAMEMNON. This Troyan scorns us, or the men of Troy + Are ceremonious courtiers. + AENEAS. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm'd, + As bending angels; that's their fame in peace. + But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls, + Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove's accord, + Nothing so full of heart. But peace, Aeneas, + Peace, Troyan; lay thy finger on thy lips. + The worthiness of praise distains his worth, + If that the prais'd himself bring the praise forth; + But what the repining enemy commends, + That breath fame blows; that praise, sole pure, transcends. + AGAMEMNON. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself Aeneas? + AENEAS. Ay, Greek, that is my name. + AGAMEMNON. What's your affair, I pray you? + AENEAS. Sir, pardon; 'tis for Agamemnon's ears. + AGAMEMNON. He hears nought privately that comes from Troy. + AENEAS. Nor I from Troy come not to whisper with him; + I bring a trumpet to awake his ear, + To set his sense on the attentive bent, + And then to speak. + AGAMEMNON. Speak frankly as the wind; + It is not Agamemnon's sleeping hour. + That thou shalt know, Troyan, he is awake, + He tells thee so himself. + AENEAS. Trumpet, blow loud, + Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents; + And every Greek of mettle, let him know + What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud. + [Sound trumpet] + We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy + A prince called Hector-Priam is his father- + Who in this dull and long-continued truce + Is resty grown; he bade me take a trumpet + And to this purpose speak: Kings, princes, lords! + If there be one among the fair'st of Greece + That holds his honour higher than his ease, + That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril, + That knows his valour and knows not his fear, + That loves his mistress more than in confession + With truant vows to her own lips he loves, + And dare avow her beauty and her worth + In other arms than hers-to him this challenge. + Hector, in view of Troyans and of Greeks, + Shall make it good or do his best to do it: + He hath a lady wiser, fairer, truer, + Than ever Greek did couple in his arms; + And will to-morrow with his trumpet call + Mid-way between your tents and walls of Troy + To rouse a Grecian that is true in love. + If any come, Hector shall honour him; + If none, he'll say in Troy, when he retires, + The Grecian dames are sunburnt and not worth + The splinter of a lance. Even so much. + AGAMEMNON. This shall be told our lovers, Lord Aeneas. + If none of them have soul in such a kind, + We left them all at home. But we are soldiers; + And may that soldier a mere recreant prove + That means not, hath not, or is not in love. + If then one is, or hath, or means to be, + That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he. + NESTOR. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man + When Hector's grandsire suck'd. He is old now; + But if there be not in our Grecian mould + One noble man that hath one spark of fire + To answer for his love, tell him from me + I'll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver, + And in my vantbrace put this wither'd brawn, + And, meeting him, will tell him that my lady + Was fairer than his grandame, and as chaste + As may be in the world. His youth in flood, + I'll prove this truth with my three drops of blood. + AENEAS. Now heavens forfend such scarcity of youth! + ULYSSES. Amen. + AGAMEMNON. Fair Lord Aeneas, let me touch your hand; + To our pavilion shall I lead you, first. + Achilles shall have word of this intent; + So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent. + Yourself shall feast with us before you go, + And find the welcome of a noble foe. + Exeunt all but ULYSSES and NESTOR + ULYSSES. Nestor! + NESTOR. What says Ulysses? + ULYSSES. I have a young conception in my brain; + Be you my time to bring it to some shape. + NESTOR. What is't? + ULYSSES. This 'tis: + Blunt wedges rive hard knots. The seeded pride + That hath to this maturity blown up + In rank Achilles must or now be cropp'd + Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil + To overbulk us all. + NESTOR. Well, and how? + ULYSSES. This challenge that the gallant Hector sends, + However it is spread in general name, + Relates in purpose only to Achilles. + NESTOR. True. The purpose is perspicuous even as substance + Whose grossness little characters sum up; + And, in the publication, make no strain + But that Achilles, were his brain as barren + As banks of Libya-though, Apollo knows, + 'Tis dry enough-will with great speed of judgment, + Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose + Pointing on him. + ULYSSES. And wake him to the answer, think you? + NESTOR. Why, 'tis most meet. Who may you else oppose + That can from Hector bring those honours off, + If not Achilles? Though 't be a sportful combat, + Yet in this trial much opinion dwells; + For here the Troyans taste our dear'st repute + With their fin'st palate; and trust to me, Ulysses, + Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd + In this vile action; for the success, + Although particular, shall give a scantling + Of good or bad unto the general; + And in such indexes, although small pricks + To their subsequent volumes, there is seen + The baby figure of the giant mas + Of things to come at large. It is suppos'd + He that meets Hector issues from our choice; + And choice, being mutual act of all our souls, + Makes merit her election, and doth boil, + As 'twere from forth us all, a man distill'd + Out of our virtues; who miscarrying, + What heart receives from hence a conquering part, + To steel a strong opinion to themselves? + Which entertain'd, limbs are his instruments, + In no less working than are swords and bows + Directive by the limbs. + ULYSSES. Give pardon to my speech. + Therefore 'tis meet Achilles meet not Hector. + Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares + And think perchance they'll sell; if not, the lustre + Of the better yet to show shall show the better, + By showing the worst first. Do not consent + That ever Hector and Achilles meet; + For both our honour and our shame in this + Are dogg'd with two strange followers. + NESTOR. I see them not with my old eyes. What are they? + ULYSSES. What glory our Achilles shares from Hector, + Were he not proud, we all should wear with him; + But he already is too insolent; + And it were better parch in Afric sun + Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes, + Should he scape Hector fair. If he were foil'd, + Why, then we do our main opinion crush + In taint of our best man. No, make a lott'ry; + And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw + The sort to fight with Hector. Among ourselves + Give him allowance for the better man; + For that will physic the great Myrmidon, + Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall + His crest, that prouder than blue Iris bends. + If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off, + We'll dress him up in voices; if he fail, + Yet go we under our opinion still + That we have better men. But, hit or miss, + Our project's life this shape of sense assumes- + Ajax employ'd plucks down Achilles' plumes. + NESTOR. Now, Ulysses, I begin to relish thy advice; + And I will give a taste thereof forthwith + To Agamemnon. Go we to him straight. + Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone + Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE 1. +The Grecian camp + +Enter Ajax and THERSITES + + AJAX. Thersites! + THERSITES. Agamemnon-how if he had boils full, an over, generally? + AJAX. Thersites! + THERSITES. And those boils did run-say so. Did not the general run + then? Were not that a botchy core? + AJAX. Dog! + THERSITES. Then there would come some matter from him; + I see none now. + AJAX. Thou bitch-wolf's son, canst thou not hear? Feel, then. + [Strikes him] + THERSITES. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou mongrel beef-witted + lord! + AJAX. Speak, then, thou whinid'st leaven, speak. I will beat thee + into handsomeness. + THERSITES. I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness; but I + think thy horse will sooner con an oration than thou learn a + prayer without book. Thou canst strike, canst thou? A red murrain + o' thy jade's tricks! + AJAX. Toadstool, learn me the proclamation. + THERSITES. Dost thou think I have no sense, thou strikest me thus? + AJAX. The proclamation! + THERSITES. Thou art proclaim'd, a fool, I think. + AJAX. Do not, porpentine, do not; my fingers itch. + THERSITES. I would thou didst itch from head to foot and I had the + scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in + Greece. When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as + slow as another. + AJAX. I say, the proclamation. + THERSITES. Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and + thou art as full of envy at his greatness as Cerberus is at + Proserpina's beauty-ay, that thou bark'st at him. + AJAX. Mistress Thersites! + THERSITES. Thou shouldst strike him. + AJAX. Cobloaf! + THERSITES. He would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a + sailor breaks a biscuit. + AJAX. You whoreson cur! [Strikes him] + THERSITES. Do, do. + AJAX. Thou stool for a witch! + THERSITES. Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! Thou hast no more + brain than I have in mine elbows; an assinico may tutor thee. You + scurvy valiant ass! Thou art here but to thrash Troyans, and thou + art bought and sold among those of any wit like a barbarian + slave. If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel and tell + what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou! + AJAX. You dog! + THERSITES. You scurvy lord! + AJAX. You cur! [Strikes him] + THERSITES. Mars his idiot! Do, rudeness; do, camel; do, do. + + Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS + + ACHILLES. Why, how now, Ajax! Wherefore do you thus? + How now, Thersites! What's the matter, man? + THERSITES. You see him there, do you? + ACHILLES. Ay; what's the matter? + THERSITES. Nay, look upon him. + ACHILLES. So I do. What's the matter? + THERSITES. Nay, but regard him well. + ACHILLES. Well! why, so I do. + THERSITES. But yet you look not well upon him; for who some ever + you take him to be, he is Ajax. + ACHILLES. I know that, fool. + THERSITES. Ay, but that fool knows not himself. + AJAX. Therefore I beat thee. + THERSITES. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters! His + evasions have ears thus long. I have bobb'd his brain more than + he has beat my bones. I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and + his pia mater is not worth the ninth part of a sparrow. This + lord, Achilles, Ajax-who wears his wit in his belly and his guts + in his head-I'll tell you what I say of him. + ACHILLES. What? + THERSITES. I say this Ajax- [AJAX offers to strike him] + ACHILLES. Nay, good Ajax. + THERSITES. Has not so much wit- + ACHILLES. Nay, I must hold you. + THERSITES. As will stop the eye of Helen's needle, for whom he + comes to fight. + ACHILLES. Peace, fool. + THERSITES. I would have peace and quietness, but the fool will not- + he there; that he; look you there. + AJAX. O thou damned cur! I shall- + ACHILLES. Will you set your wit to a fool's? + THERSITES. No, I warrant you, the fool's will shame it. + PATROCLUS. Good words, Thersites. + ACHILLES. What's the quarrel? + AJAX. I bade the vile owl go learn me the tenour of the + proclamation, and he rails upon me. + THERSITES. I serve thee not. + AJAX. Well, go to, go to. + THERSITES. I serve here voluntary. + ACHILLES. Your last service was suff'rance; 'twas not voluntary. No + man is beaten voluntary. Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as + under an impress. + THERSITES. E'en so; a great deal of your wit too lies in your + sinews, or else there be liars. Hector shall have a great catch + an he knock out either of your brains: 'a were as good crack a + fusty nut with no kernel. + ACHILLES. What, with me too, Thersites? + THERSITES. There's Ulysses and old Nestor-whose wit was mouldy ere + your grandsires had nails on their toes-yoke you like draught + oxen, and make you plough up the wars. + ACHILLES. What, what? + THERSITES. Yes, good sooth. To Achilles, to Ajax, to- + AJAX. I shall cut out your tongue. + THERSITES. 'Tis no matter; I shall speak as much as thou + afterwards. + PATROCLUS. No more words, Thersites; peace! + THERSITES. I will hold my peace when Achilles' brach bids me, shall + I? + ACHILLES. There's for you, Patroclus. + THERSITES. I will see you hang'd like clotpoles ere I come any more + to your tents. I will keep where there is wit stirring, and leave + the faction of fools. Exit + PATROCLUS. A good riddance. + ACHILLES. Marry, this, sir, is proclaim'd through all our host, + That Hector, by the fifth hour of the sun, + Will with a trumpet 'twixt our tents and Troy, + To-morrow morning, call some knight to arms + That hath a stomach; and such a one that dare + Maintain I know not what; 'tis trash. Farewell. + AJAX. Farewell. Who shall answer him? + ACHILLES. I know not; 'tis put to lott'ry. Otherwise. He knew his + man. + AJAX. O, meaning you! I will go learn more of it. Exeunt + + + + +ACT II. SCENE 2. +Troy. PRIAM'S palace + +Enter PRIAM, HECTOR, TROILUS, PARIS, and HELENUS + + PRIAM. After so many hours, lives, speeches, spent, + Thus once again says Nestor from the Greeks: + 'Deliver Helen, and all damage else- + As honour, loss of time, travail, expense, + Wounds, friends, and what else dear that is consum'd + In hot digestion of this cormorant war- + Shall be struck off.' Hector, what say you to't? + HECTOR. Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than I, + As far as toucheth my particular, + Yet, dread Priam, + There is no lady of more softer bowels, + More spongy to suck in the sense of fear, + More ready to cry out 'Who knows what follows?' + Than Hector is. The wound of peace is surety, + Surety secure; but modest doubt is call'd + The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches + To th' bottom of the worst. Let Helen go. + Since the first sword was drawn about this question, + Every tithe soul 'mongst many thousand dismes + Hath been as dear as Helen-I mean, of ours. + If we have lost so many tenths of ours + To guard a thing not ours, nor worth to us, + Had it our name, the value of one ten, + What merit's in that reason which denies + The yielding of her up? + TROILUS. Fie, fie, my brother! + Weigh you the worth and honour of a king, + So great as our dread father's, in a scale + Of common ounces? Will you with counters sum + The past-proportion of his infinite, + And buckle in a waist most fathomless + With spans and inches so diminutive + As fears and reasons? Fie, for godly shame! + HELENUS. No marvel though you bite so sharp at reasons, + You are so empty of them. Should not our father + Bear the great sway of his affairs with reasons, + Because your speech hath none that tells him so? + TROILUS. You are for dreams and slumbers, brother priest; + You fur your gloves with reason. Here are your reasons: + You know an enemy intends you harm; + You know a sword employ'd is perilous, + And reason flies the object of all harm. + Who marvels, then, when Helenus beholds + A Grecian and his sword, if he do set + The very wings of reason to his heels + And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove, + Or like a star disorb'd? Nay, if we talk of reason, + Let's shut our gates and sleep. Manhood and honour + Should have hare hearts, would they but fat their thoughts + With this cramm'd reason. Reason and respect + Make livers pale and lustihood deject. + HECTOR. Brother, she is not worth what she doth, cost + The keeping. + TROILUS. What's aught but as 'tis valued? + HECTOR. But value dwells not in particular will: + It holds his estimate and dignity + As well wherein 'tis precious of itself + As in the prizer. 'Tis mad idolatry + To make the service greater than the god-I + And the will dotes that is attributive + To what infectiously itself affects, + Without some image of th' affected merit. + TROILUS. I take to-day a wife, and my election + Is led on in the conduct of my will; + My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears, + Two traded pilots 'twixt the dangerous shores + Of will and judgment: how may I avoid, + Although my will distaste what it elected, + The wife I chose? There can be no evasion + To blench from this and to stand firm by honour. + We turn not back the silks upon the merchant + When we have soil'd them; nor the remainder viands + We do not throw in unrespective sieve, + Because we now are full. It was thought meet + Paris should do some vengeance on the Greeks; + Your breath with full consent benied his sails; + The seas and winds, old wranglers, took a truce, + And did him service. He touch'd the ports desir'd; + And for an old aunt whom the Greeks held captive + He brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and freshness + Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes stale the morning. + Why keep we her? The Grecians keep our aunt. + Is she worth keeping? Why, she is a pearl + Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships, + And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants. + If you'll avouch 'twas wisdom Paris went- + As you must needs, for you all cried 'Go, go'- + If you'll confess he brought home worthy prize- + As you must needs, for you all clapp'd your hands, + And cried 'Inestimable!' -why do you now + The issue of your proper wisdoms rate, + And do a deed that never fortune did- + Beggar the estimation which you priz'd + Richer than sea and land? O theft most base, + That we have stol'n what we do fear to keep! + But thieves unworthy of a thing so stol'n + That in their country did them that disgrace + We fear to warrant in our native place! + CASSANDRA. [Within] Cry, Troyans, cry. + PRIAM. What noise, what shriek is this? + TROILUS. 'Tis our mad sister; I do know her voice. + CASSANDRA. [Within] Cry, Troyans. + HECTOR. It is Cassandra. + + Enter CASSANDRA, raving + + CASSANDRA. Cry, Troyans, cry. Lend me ten thousand eyes, + And I will fill them with prophetic tears. + HECTOR. Peace, sister, peace. + CASSANDRA. Virgins and boys, mid-age and wrinkled eld, + Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry, + Add to my clamours. Let us pay betimes + A moiety of that mass of moan to come. + Cry, Troyans, cry. Practise your eyes with tears. + Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilion stand; + Our firebrand brother, Paris, burns us all. + Cry, Troyans, cry, A Helen and a woe! + Cry, cry. Troy burns, or else let Helen go. Exit + HECTOR. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strains + Of divination in our sister work + Some touches of remorse, or is your blood + So madly hot that no discourse of reason, + Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause, + Can qualify the same? + TROILUS. Why, brother Hector, + We may not think the justness of each act + Such and no other than event doth form it; + Nor once deject the courage of our minds + Because Cassandra's mad. Her brain-sick raptures + Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel + Which hath our several honours all engag'd + To make it gracious. For my private part, + I am no more touch'd than all Priam's sons; + And Jove forbid there should be done amongst us + Such things as might offend the weakest spleen + To fight for and maintain. + PARIS. Else might the world convince of levity + As well my undertakings as your counsels; + But I attest the gods, your full consent + Gave wings to my propension, and cut of + All fears attending on so dire a project. + For what, alas, can these my single arms? + What propugnation is in one man's valour + To stand the push and enmity of those + This quarrel would excite? Yet, I protest, + Were I alone to pass the difficulties, + And had as ample power as I have will, + Paris should ne'er retract what he hath done + Nor faint in the pursuit. + PRIAM. Paris, you speak + Like one besotted on your sweet delights. + You have the honey still, but these the gall; + So to be valiant is no praise at all. + PARIS. Sir, I propose not merely to myself + The pleasures such a beauty brings with it; + But I would have the soil of her fair rape + Wip'd off in honourable keeping her. + What treason were it to the ransack'd queen, + Disgrace to your great worths, and shame to me, + Now to deliver her possession up + On terms of base compulsion! Can it be + That so degenerate a strain as this + Should once set footing in your generous bosoms? + There's not the meanest spirit on our party + Without a heart to dare or sword to draw + When Helen is defended; nor none so noble + Whose life were ill bestow'd or death unfam'd + Where Helen is the subject. Then, I say, + Well may we fight for her whom we know well + The world's large spaces cannot parallel. + HECTOR. Paris and Troilus, you have both said well; + And on the cause and question now in hand + Have gloz'd, but superficially; not much + Unlike young men, whom Aristode thought + Unfit to hear moral philosophy. + The reasons you allege do more conduce + To the hot passion of distemp'red blood + Than to make up a free determination + 'Twixt right and wrong; for pleasure and revenge + Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice + Of any true decision. Nature craves + All dues be rend'red to their owners. Now, + What nearer debt in all humanity + Than wife is to the husband? If this law + Of nature be corrupted through affection; + And that great minds, of partial indulgence + To their benumbed wills, resist the same; + There is a law in each well-order'd nation + To curb those raging appetites that are + Most disobedient and refractory. + If Helen, then, be wife to Sparta's king- + As it is known she is-these moral laws + Of nature and of nations speak aloud + To have her back return'd. Thus to persist + In doing wrong extenuates not wrong, + But makes it much more heavy. Hector's opinion + Is this, in way of truth. Yet, ne'er the less, + My spritely brethren, I propend to you + In resolution to keep Helen still; + For 'tis a cause that hath no mean dependence + Upon our joint and several dignities. + TROILUS. Why, there you touch'd the life of our design. + Were it not glory that we more affected + Than the performance of our heaving spleens, + I would not wish a drop of Troyan blood + Spent more in her defence. But, worthy Hector, + She is a theme of honour and renown, + A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds, + Whose present courage may beat down our foes, + And fame in time to come canonize us; + For I presume brave Hector would not lose + So rich advantage of a promis'd glory + As smiles upon the forehead of this action + For the wide world's revenue. + HECTOR. I am yours, + You valiant offspring of great Priamus. + I have a roisting challenge sent amongst + The dull and factious nobles of the Greeks + Will strike amazement to their drowsy spirits. + I was advertis'd their great general slept, + Whilst emulation in the army crept. + This, I presume, will wake him. Exeunt + + + + +ACT II. SCENE 3. +The Grecian camp. Before the tent of ACHILLES + +Enter THERSITES, solus + + THERSITES. How now, Thersites! What, lost in the labyrinth of thy + fury? Shall the elephant Ajax carry it thus? He beats me, and I + rail at him. O worthy satisfaction! Would it were otherwise: that + I could beat him, whilst he rail'd at me! 'Sfoot, I'll learn to + conjure and raise devils, but I'll see some issue of my spiteful + execrations. Then there's Achilles, a rare engineer! If Troy be + not taken till these two undermine it, the walls will stand till + they fall of themselves. O thou great thunder-darter of Olympus, + forget that thou art Jove, the king of gods, and, Mercury, lose + all the serpentine craft of thy caduceus, if ye take not that + little little less-than-little wit from them that they have! + which short-arm'd ignorance itself knows is so abundant scarce, + it will not in circumvention deliver a fly from a spider without + drawing their massy irons and cutting the web. After this, the + vengeance on the whole camp! or, rather, the Neapolitan + bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the curse depending on those + that war for a placket. I have said my prayers; and devil Envy + say 'Amen.' What ho! my Lord Achilles! + + Enter PATROCLUS + + PATROCLUS. Who's there? Thersites! Good Thersites, come in and + rail. + THERSITES. If I could 'a rememb'red a gilt counterfeit, thou + wouldst not have slipp'd out of my contemplation; but it is no + matter; thyself upon thyself! The common curse of mankind, folly + and ignorance, be thine in great revenue! Heaven bless thee from + a tutor, and discipline come not near thee! Let thy blood be thy + direction till thy death. Then if she that lays thee out says + thou art a fair corse, I'll be sworn and sworn upon't she never + shrouded any but lazars. Amen. Where's Achilles? + PATROCLUS. What, art thou devout? Wast thou in prayer? + THERSITES. Ay, the heavens hear me! + PATROCLUS. Amen. + + Enter ACHILLES + + ACHILLES. Who's there? + PATROCLUS. Thersites, my lord. + ACHILLES. Where, where? O, where? Art thou come? Why, my cheese, my + digestion, why hast thou not served thyself in to my table so + many meals? Come, what's Agamemnon? + THERSITES. Thy commander, Achilles. Then tell me, Patroclus, what's + Achilles? + PATROCLUS. Thy lord, Thersites. Then tell me, I pray thee, what's + Thersites? + THERSITES. Thy knower, Patroclus. Then tell me, Patroclus, what art + thou? + PATROCLUS. Thou must tell that knowest. + ACHILLES. O, tell, tell, + THERSITES. I'll decline the whole question. Agamemnon commands + Achilles; Achilles is my lord; I am Patroclus' knower; and + Patroclus is a fool. + PATROCLUS. You rascal! + THERSITES. Peace, fool! I have not done. + ACHILLES. He is a privileg'd man. Proceed, Thersites. + THERSITES. Agamemnon is a fool; Achilles is a fool; Thersites is a + fool; and, as aforesaid, Patroclus is a fool. + ACHILLES. Derive this; come. + THERSITES. Agamemnon is a fool to offer to command Achilles; + Achilles is a fool to be commanded of Agamemnon; Thersites is a + fool to serve such a fool; and this Patroclus is a fool positive. + PATROCLUS. Why am I a fool? + THERSITES. Make that demand of the Creator. It suffices me thou + art. Look you, who comes here? + ACHILLES. Come, Patroclus, I'll speak with nobody. Come in with me, + Thersites. Exit + THERSITES. Here is such patchery, such juggling, and such knavery. + All the argument is a whore and a cuckold-a good quarrel to draw + emulous factions and bleed to death upon. Now the dry serpigo on + the subject, and war and lechery confound all! Exit + + Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, NESTOR, DIOMEDES, + AJAX, and CALCHAS + + AGAMEMNON. Where is Achilles? + PATROCLUS. Within his tent; but ill-dispos'd, my lord. + AGAMEMNON. Let it be known to him that we are here. + He shent our messengers; and we lay by + Our appertainings, visiting of him. + Let him be told so; lest, perchance, he think + We dare not move the question of our place + Or know not what we are. + PATROCLUS. I shall say so to him. Exit + ULYSSES. We saw him at the opening of his tent. + He is not sick. + AJAX. Yes, lion-sick, sick of proud heart. You may call it + melancholy, if you will favour the man; but, by my head, 'tis + pride. But why, why? Let him show us a cause. A word, my lord. + [Takes AGAMEMNON aside] + NESTOR. What moves Ajax thus to bay at him? + ULYSSES. Achilles hath inveigled his fool from him. + NESTOR.Who, Thersites? + ULYSSES. He. + NESTOR. Then will Ajax lack matter, if he have lost his argument + ULYSSES. No; you see he is his argument that has his argument- + Achilles. + NESTOR. All the better; their fraction is more our wish than their + faction. But it was a strong composure a fool could disunite! + ULYSSES. The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie. + + Re-enter PATROCLUS + + Here comes Patroclus. + NESTOR. No Achilles with him. + ULYSSES. The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy; his legs + are legs for necessity, not for flexure. + PATROCLUS. Achilles bids me say he is much sorry + If any thing more than your sport and pleasure + Did move your greatness and this noble state + To call upon him; he hopes it is no other + But for your health and your digestion sake, + An after-dinner's breath. + AGAMEMNON. Hear you, Patroclus. + We are too well acquainted with these answers; + But his evasion, wing'd thus swift with scorn, + Cannot outfly our apprehensions. + Much attribute he hath, and much the reason + Why we ascribe it to him. Yet all his virtues, + Not virtuously on his own part beheld, + Do in our eyes begin to lose their gloss; + Yea, like fair fruit in an unwholesome dish, + Are like to rot untasted. Go and tell him + We come to speak with him; and you shall not sin + If you do say we think him over-proud + And under-honest, in self-assumption greater + Than in the note of judgment; and worthier than himself + Here tend the savage strangeness he puts on, + Disguise the holy strength of their command, + And underwrite in an observing kind + His humorous predominance; yea, watch + His pettish lunes, his ebbs, his flows, as if + The passage and whole carriage of this action + Rode on his tide. Go tell him this, and ad + That if he overhold his price so much + We'll none of him, but let him, like an engine + Not portable, lie under this report: + Bring action hither; this cannot go to war. + A stirring dwarf we do allowance give + Before a sleeping giant. Tell him so. + PATROCLUS. I shall, and bring his answer presently. Exit + AGAMEMNON. In second voice we'll not be satisfied; + We come to speak with him. Ulysses, enter you. + Exit ULYSSES + AJAX. What is he more than another? + AGAMEMNON. No more than what he thinks he is. + AJAX. Is he so much? Do you not think he thinks himself a better + man than I am? + AGAMEMNON. No question. + AJAX. Will you subscribe his thought and say he is? + AGAMEMNON. No, noble Ajax; you are as strong, as valiant, as wise, + no less noble, much more gentle, and altogether more tractable. + AJAX. Why should a man be proud? How doth pride grow? I know not + what pride is. + AGAMEMNON. Your mind is the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the + fairer. He that is proud eats up himself. Pride is his own glass, + his own trumpet, his own chronicle; and whatever praises itself + but in the deed devours the deed in the praise. + + Re-enter ULYSSES + + AJAX. I do hate a proud man as I do hate the engend'ring of toads. + NESTOR. [Aside] And yet he loves himself: is't not strange? + ULYSSES. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow. + AGAMEMNON. What's his excuse? + ULYSSES. He doth rely on none; + But carries on the stream of his dispose, + Without observance or respect of any, + In will peculiar and in self-admission. + AGAMEMNON. Why will he not, upon our fair request, + Untent his person and share the air with us? + ULYSSES. Things small as nothing, for request's sake only, + He makes important; possess'd he is with greatness, + And speaks not to himself but with a pride + That quarrels at self-breath. Imagin'd worth + Holds in his blood such swol'n and hot discourse + That 'twixt his mental and his active parts + Kingdom'd Achilles in commotion rages, + And batters down himself. What should I say? + He is so plaguy proud that the death tokens of it + Cry 'No recovery.' + AGAMEMNON. Let Ajax go to him. + Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent. + 'Tis said he holds you well; and will be led + At your request a little from himself. + ULYSSES. O Agamemnon, let it not be so! + We'll consecrate the steps that Ajax makes + When they go from Achilles. Shall the proud lord + That bastes his arrogance with his own seam + And never suffers matter of the world + Enter his thoughts, save such as doth revolve + And ruminate himself-shall he be worshipp'd + Of that we hold an idol more than he? + No, this thrice-worthy and right valiant lord + Shall not so stale his palm, nobly acquir'd, + Nor, by my will, assubjugate his merit, + As amply titled as Achilles is, + By going to Achilles. + That were to enlard his fat-already pride, + And add more coals to Cancer when he burns + With entertaining great Hyperion. + This lord go to him! Jupiter forbid, + And say in thunder 'Achilles go to him.' + NESTOR. [Aside] O, this is well! He rubs the vein of him. + DIOMEDES. [Aside] And how his silence drinks up this applause! + AJAX. If I go to him, with my armed fist I'll pash him o'er the + face. + AGAMEMNON. O, no, you shall not go. + AJAX. An 'a be proud with me I'll pheeze his pride. + Let me go to him. + ULYSSES. Not for the worth that hangs upon our quarrel. + AJAX. A paltry, insolent fellow! + NESTOR. [Aside] How he describes himself! + AJAX. Can he not be sociable? + ULYSSES. [Aside] The raven chides blackness. + AJAX. I'll let his humours blood. + AGAMEMNON. [Aside] He will be the physician that should be the + patient. + AJAX. An all men were a my mind- + ULYSSES. [Aside] Wit would be out of fashion. + AJAX. 'A should not bear it so, 'a should eat's words first. + Shall pride carry it? + NESTOR. [Aside] An 'twould, you'd carry half. + ULYSSES. [Aside] 'A would have ten shares. + AJAX. I will knead him, I'll make him supple. + NESTOR. [Aside] He's not yet through warm. Force him with praises; + pour in, pour in; his ambition is dry. + ULYSSES. [To AGAMEMNON] My lord, you feed too much on this dislike. + NESTOR. Our noble general, do not do so. + DIOMEDES. You must prepare to fight without Achilles. + ULYSSES. Why 'tis this naming of him does him harm. + Here is a man-but 'tis before his face; + I will be silent. + NESTOR. Wherefore should you so? + He is not emulous, as Achilles is. + ULYSSES. Know the whole world, he is as valiant. + AJAX. A whoreson dog, that shall palter with us thus! + Would he were a Troyan! + NESTOR. What a vice were it in Ajax now- + ULYSSES. If he were proud. + DIOMEDES. Or covetous of praise. + ULYSSES. Ay, or surly borne. + DIOMEDES. Or strange, or self-affected. + ULYSSES. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet composure + Praise him that gat thee, she that gave thee suck; + Fam'd be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature + Thrice-fam'd beyond, beyond all erudition; + But he that disciplin'd thine arms to fight- + Let Mars divide eternity in twain + And give him half; and, for thy vigour, + Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield + To sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom, + Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confines + Thy spacious and dilated parts. Here's Nestor, + Instructed by the antiquary times- + He must, he is, he cannot but be wise; + But pardon, father Nestor, were your days + As green as Ajax' and your brain so temper'd, + You should not have the eminence of him, + But be as Ajax. + AJAX. Shall I call you father? + NESTOR. Ay, my good son. + DIOMEDES. Be rul'd by him, Lord Ajax. + ULYSSES. There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles + Keeps thicket. Please it our great general + To call together all his state of war; + Fresh kings are come to Troy. To-morrow + We must with all our main of power stand fast; + And here's a lord-come knights from east to west + And cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best. + AGAMEMNON. Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep. + Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep. + Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE 1. +Troy. PRIAM'S palace + +Music sounds within. Enter PANDARUS and a SERVANT + + PANDARUS. Friend, you-pray you, a word. Do you not follow the young + Lord Paris? + SERVANT. Ay, sir, when he goes before me. + PANDARUS. You depend upon him, I mean? + SERVANT. Sir, I do depend upon the lord. + PANDARUS. You depend upon a notable gentleman; I must needs praise + him. + SERVANT. The lord be praised! + PANDARUS. You know me, do you not? + SERVANT. Faith, sir, superficially. + PANDARUS. Friend, know me better: I am the Lord Pandarus. + SERVANT. I hope I shall know your honour better. + PANDARUS. I do desire it. + SERVANT. You are in the state of grace. + PANDARUS. Grace! Not so, friend; honour and lordship are my titles. + What music is this? + SERVANT. I do but partly know, sir; it is music in parts. + PANDARUS. Know you the musicians? + SERVANT. Wholly, sir. + PANDARUS. Who play they to? + SERVANT. To the hearers, sir. + PANDARUS. At whose pleasure, friend? + SERVANT. At mine, sir, and theirs that love music. + PANDARUS. Command, I mean, friend. + SERVANT. Who shall I command, sir? + PANDARUS. Friend, we understand not one another: I am to courtly, + and thou art too cunning. At whose request do these men play? + SERVANT. That's to't, indeed, sir. Marry, sir, at the request of + Paris my lord, who is there in person; with him the mortal Venus, + the heart-blood of beauty, love's invisible soul- + PANDARUS. Who, my cousin, Cressida? + SERVANT. No, sir, Helen. Could not you find out that by her + attributes? + PANDARUS. It should seem, fellow, that thou hast not seen the Lady + Cressida. I come to speak with Paris from the Prince Troilus; I + will make a complimental assault upon him, for my business + seethes. + SERVANT. Sodden business! There's a stew'd phrase indeed! + + Enter PARIS and HELEN, attended + + PANDARUS. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this fair company! + Fair desires, in all fair measure, fairly guide them- especially + to you, fair queen! Fair thoughts be your fair pillow. + HELEN. Dear lord, you are full of fair words. + PANDARUS. You speak your fair pleasure, sweet queen. Fair prince, + here is good broken music. + PARIS. You have broke it, cousin; and by my life, you shall make it + whole again; you shall piece it out with a piece of your + performance. + HELEN. He is full of harmony. + PANDARUS. Truly, lady, no. + HELEN. O, sir- + PANDARUS. Rude, in sooth; in good sooth, very rude. + PARIS. Well said, my lord. Well, you say so in fits. + PANDARUS. I have business to my lord, dear queen. My lord, will you + vouchsafe me a word? + HELEN. Nay, this shall not hedge us out. We'll hear you sing, + certainly- + PANDARUS. Well sweet queen, you are pleasant with me. But, marry, + thus, my lord: my dear lord and most esteemed friend, your + brother Troilus- + HELEN. My Lord Pandarus, honey-sweet lord- + PANDARUS. Go to, sweet queen, go to-commends himself most + affectionately to you- + HELEN. You shall not bob us out of our melody. If you do, our + melancholy upon your head! + PANDARUS. Sweet queen, sweet queen; that's a sweet queen, i' faith. + HELEN. And to make a sweet lady sad is a sour offence. + PANDARUS. Nay, that shall not serve your turn; that shall it not, + in truth, la. Nay, I care not for such words; no, no. -And, my + lord, he desires you that, if the King call for him at supper, + you will make his excuse. + HELEN. My Lord Pandarus! + PANDARUS. What says my sweet queen, my very very sweet queen? + PARIS. What exploit's in hand? Where sups he to-night? + HELEN. Nay, but, my lord- + PANDARUS. What says my sweet queen?-My cousin will fall out with + you. + HELEN. You must not know where he sups. + PARIS. I'll lay my life, with my disposer Cressida. + PANDARUS. No, no, no such matter; you are wide. Come, your disposer + is sick. + PARIS. Well, I'll make's excuse. + PANDARUS. Ay, good my lord. Why should you say Cressida? + No, your poor disposer's sick. + PARIS. I spy. + PANDARUS. You spy! What do you spy?-Come, give me an instrument. + Now, sweet queen. + HELEN. Why, this is kindly done. + PANDARUS. My niece is horribly in love with a thing you have, sweet + queen. + HELEN. She shall have it, my lord, if it be not my Lord Paris. + PANDARUS. He! No, she'll none of him; they two are twain. + HELEN. Falling in, after falling out, may make them three. + PANDARUS. Come, come. I'll hear no more of this; I'll sing you a + song now. + HELEN. Ay, ay, prithee now. By my troth, sweet lord, thou hast a + fine forehead. + PANDARUS. Ay, you may, you may. + HELEN. Let thy song be love. This love will undo us all. O Cupid, + Cupid, Cupid! + PANDARUS. Love! Ay, that it shall, i' faith. + PARIS. Ay, good now, love, love, nothing but love. + PANDARUS. In good troth, it begins so. [Sings] + + Love, love, nothing but love, still love, still more! + For, oh, love's bow + Shoots buck and doe; + The shaft confounds + Not that it wounds, + But tickles still the sore. + These lovers cry, O ho, they die! + Yet that which seems the wound to kill + Doth turn O ho! to ha! ha! he! + So dying love lives still. + O ho! a while, but ha! ha! ha! + O ho! groans out for ha! ha! ha!-hey ho! + + HELEN. In love, i' faith, to the very tip of the nose. + PARIS. He eats nothing but doves, love; and that breeds hot blood, + and hot blood begets hot thoughts, and hot thoughts beget hot + deeds, and hot deeds is love. + PANDARUS. Is this the generation of love: hot blood, hot thoughts, + and hot deeds? Why, they are vipers. Is love a generation of + vipers? Sweet lord, who's a-field today? + PARIS. Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor, and all the gallantry + of Troy. I would fain have arm'd to-day, but my Nell would not + have it so. How chance my brother Troilus went not? + HELEN. He hangs the lip at something. You know all, Lord Pandarus. + PANDARUS. Not I, honey-sweet queen. I long to hear how they spend + to-day. You'll remember your brother's excuse? + PARIS. To a hair. + PANDARUS. Farewell, sweet queen. + HELEN. Commend me to your niece. + PANDARUS. I will, sweet queen. Exit. Sound a retreat + PARIS. They're come from the field. Let us to Priam's hall + To greet the warriors. Sweet Helen, I must woo you + To help unarm our Hector. His stubborn buckles, + With these your white enchanting fingers touch'd, + Shall more obey than to the edge of steel + Or force of Greekish sinews; you shall do more + Than all the island kings-disarm great Hector. + HELEN. 'Twill make us proud to be his servant, Paris; + Yea, what he shall receive of us in duty + Gives us more palm in beauty than we have, + Yea, overshines ourself. + PARIS. Sweet, above thought I love thee. Exeunt + + + + +ACT III. SCENE 2. +Troy. PANDARUS' orchard + +Enter PANDARUS and TROILUS' BOY, meeting + + PANDARUS. How now! Where's thy master? At my cousin Cressida's? + BOY. No, sir; he stays for you to conduct him thither. + + Enter TROILUS + + PANDARUS. O, here he comes. How now, how now! + TROILUS. Sirrah, walk off. Exit Boy + PANDARUS. Have you seen my cousin? + TROILUS. No, Pandarus. I stalk about her door + Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks + Staying for waftage. O, be thou my Charon, + And give me swift transportance to these fields + Where I may wallow in the lily beds + Propos'd for the deserver! O gentle Pandar, + From Cupid's shoulder pluck his painted wings, + And fly with me to Cressid! + PANDARUS. Walk here i' th' orchard, I'll bring her straight. + Exit + TROILUS. I am giddy; expectation whirls me round. + Th' imaginary relish is so sweet + That it enchants my sense; what will it be + When that the wat'ry palate tastes indeed + Love's thrice-repured nectar? Death, I fear me; + Swooning destruction; or some joy too fine, + Too subtle-potent, tun'd too sharp in sweetness, + For the capacity of my ruder powers. + I fear it much; and I do fear besides + That I shall lose distinction in my joys; + As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps + The enemy flying. + + Re-enter PANDARUS + + PANDARUS. She's making her ready, she'll come straight; you must be + witty now. She does so blush, and fetches her wind so short, as + if she were fray'd with a sprite. I'll fetch her. It is the + prettiest villain; she fetches her breath as short as a new-ta'en + sparrow. Exit + TROILUS. Even such a passion doth embrace my bosom. + My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse, + And all my powers do their bestowing lose, + Like vassalage at unawares encount'ring + The eye of majesty. + + Re-enter PANDARUS With CRESSIDA + + PANDARUS. Come, come, what need you blush? Shame's a baby.-Here she + is now; swear the oaths now to her that you have sworn to me.- + What, are you gone again? You must be watch'd ere you be made + tame, must you? Come your ways, come your ways; an you draw + backward, we'll put you i' th' fills.-Why do you not speak to + her?-Come, draw this curtain and let's see your picture. + Alas the day, how loath you are to offend daylight! An 'twere + dark, you'd close sooner. So, so; rub on, and kiss the mistress + How now, a kiss in fee-farm! Build there, carpenter; the air is + sweet. Nay, you shall fight your hearts out ere I part you. The + falcon as the tercel, for all the ducks i' th' river. Go to, go + to. + TROILUS. You have bereft me of all words, lady. + PANDARUS. Words pay no debts, give her deeds; but she'll bereave + you o' th' deeds too, if she call your activity in question. + What, billing again? Here's 'In witness whereof the parties + interchangeably.' Come in, come in; I'll go get a fire. + Exit + CRESSIDA. Will you walk in, my lord? + TROILUS. O Cressid, how often have I wish'd me thus! + CRESSIDA. Wish'd, my lord! The gods grant-O my lord! + TROILUS. What should they grant? What makes this pretty abruption? + What too curious dreg espies my sweet lady in the fountain of our + love? + CRESSIDA. More dregs than water, if my fears have eyes. + TROILUS. Fears make devils of cherubims; they never see truly. + CRESSIDA. Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, finds safer footing + than blind reason stumbling without fear. To fear the worst oft + cures the worse. + TROILUS. O, let my lady apprehend no fear! In all Cupid's pageant + there is presented no monster. + CRESSIDA. Nor nothing monstrous neither? + TROILUS. Nothing, but our undertakings when we vow to weep seas, + live in fire, cat rocks, tame tigers; thinking it harder for our + mistress to devise imposition enough than for us to undergo any + difficulty imposed. This is the monstruosity in love, lady, that + the will is infinite, and the execution confin'd; that the desire + is boundless, and the act a slave to limit. + CRESSIDA. They say all lovers swear more performance than they are + able, and yet reserve an ability that they never perform; vowing + more than the perfection of ten, and discharging less than the + tenth part of one. They that have the voice of lions and the act + of hares, are they not monsters? + TROILUS. Are there such? Such are not we. Praise us as we are + tasted, allow us as we prove; our head shall go bare till merit + crown it. No perfection in reversion shall have a praise in + present. We will not name desert before his birth; and, being + born, his addition shall be humble. Few words to fair faith: + Troilus shall be such to Cressid as what envy can say worst shall + be a mock for his truth; and what truth can speak truest not + truer than Troilus. + CRESSIDA. Will you walk in, my lord? + + Re-enter PANDARUS + + PANDARUS. What, blushing still? Have you not done talking yet? + CRESSIDA. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedicate to you. + PANDARUS. I thank you for that; if my lord get a boy of you, you'll + give him me. Be true to my lord; if he flinch, chide me for it. + TROILUS. You know now your hostages: your uncle's word and my firm + faith. + PANDARUS. Nay, I'll give my word for her too: our kindred, though + they be long ere they are wooed, they are constant being won; + they are burs, I can tell you; they'll stick where they are + thrown. + CRESSIDA. Boldness comes to me now and brings me heart. + Prince Troilus, I have lov'd you night and day + For many weary months. + TROILUS. Why was my Cressid then so hard to win? + CRESSIDA. Hard to seem won; but I was won, my lord, + With the first glance that ever-pardon me. + If I confess much, you will play the tyrant. + I love you now; but till now not so much + But I might master it. In faith, I lie; + My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown + Too headstrong for their mother. See, we fools! + Why have I blabb'd? Who shall be true to us, + When we are so unsecret to ourselves? + But, though I lov'd you well, I woo'd you not; + And yet, good faith, I wish'd myself a man, + Or that we women had men's privilege + Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue, + For in this rapture I shall surely speak + The thing I shall repent. See, see, your silence, + Cunning in dumbness, from my weakness draws + My very soul of counsel. Stop my mouth. + TROILUS. And shall, albeit sweet music issues thence. + PANDARUS. Pretty, i' faith. + CRESSIDA. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me; + 'Twas not my purpose thus to beg a kiss. + I am asham'd. O heavens! what have I done? + For this time will I take my leave, my lord. + TROILUS. Your leave, sweet Cressid! + PANDARUS. Leave! An you take leave till to-morrow morning- + CRESSIDA. Pray you, content you. + TROILUS. What offends you, lady? + CRESSIDA. Sir, mine own company. + TROILUS. You cannot shun yourself. + CRESSIDA. Let me go and try. + I have a kind of self resides with you; + But an unkind self, that itself will leave + To be another's fool. I would be gone. + Where is my wit? I know not what I speak. + TROILUS. Well know they what they speak that speak so wisely. + CRESSIDA. Perchance, my lord, I show more craft than love; + And fell so roundly to a large confession + To angle for your thoughts; but you are wise- + Or else you love not; for to be wise and love + Exceeds man's might; that dwells with gods above. + TROILUS. O that I thought it could be in a woman- + As, if it can, I will presume in you- + To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love; + To keep her constancy in plight and youth, + Outliving beauty's outward, with a mind + That doth renew swifter than blood decays! + Or that persuasion could but thus convince me + That my integrity and truth to you + Might be affronted with the match and weight + Of such a winnowed purity in love. + How were I then uplifted! but, alas, + I am as true as truth's simplicity, + And simpler than the infancy of truth. + CRESSIDA. In that I'll war with you. + TROILUS. O virtuous fight, + When right with right wars who shall be most right! + True swains in love shall in the world to come + Approve their truth by Troilus, when their rhymes, + Full of protest, of oath, and big compare, + Want similes, truth tir'd with iteration- + As true as steel, as plantage to the moon, + As sun to day, as turtle to her mate, + As iron to adamant, as earth to th' centre- + Yet, after all comparisons of truth, + As truth's authentic author to be cited, + 'As true as Troilus' shall crown up the verse + And sanctify the numbers. + CRESSIDA. Prophet may you be! + If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth, + When time is old and hath forgot itself, + When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy, + And blind oblivion swallow'd cities up, + And mighty states characterless are grated + To dusty nothing-yet let memory + From false to false, among false maids in love, + Upbraid my falsehood when th' have said 'As false + As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, + As fox to lamb, or wolf to heifer's calf, + Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son'- + Yea, let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood, + 'As false as Cressid.' + PANDARUS. Go to, a bargain made; seal it, seal it; I'll be the + witness. Here I hold your hand; here my cousin's. If ever you + prove false one to another, since I have taken such pains to + bring you together, let all pitiful goers- between be call'd to + the world's end after my name-call them all Pandars; let all + constant men be Troiluses, all false women Cressids, and all + brokers between Pandars. Say 'Amen.' + TROILUS. Amen. + CRESSIDA. Amen. + PANDARUS. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a chamber + and a bed; which bed, because it shall not speak of your + pretty encounters, press it to death. Away! + And Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here, + Bed, chamber, pander, to provide this gear! Exeunt + + + + +ACT III. SCENE 3. +The Greek camp + +Flourish. Enter AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, DIOMEDES, NESTOR, AJAX, MENELAUS, +and CALCHAS + + CALCHAS. Now, Princes, for the service I have done, + Th' advantage of the time prompts me aloud + To call for recompense. Appear it to your mind + That, through the sight I bear in things to come, + I have abandon'd Troy, left my possession, + Incurr'd a traitor's name, expos'd myself + From certain and possess'd conveniences + To doubtful fortunes, sequest'ring from me all + That time, acquaintance, custom, and condition, + Made tame and most familiar to my nature; + And here, to do you service, am become + As new into the world, strange, unacquainted- + I do beseech you, as in way of taste, + To give me now a little benefit + Out of those many regist'red in promise, + Which you say live to come in my behalf. + AGAMEMNON. What wouldst thou of us, Troyan? Make demand. + CALCHAS. You have a Troyan prisoner call'd Antenor, + Yesterday took; Troy holds him very dear. + Oft have you-often have you thanks therefore- + Desir'd my Cressid in right great exchange, + Whom Troy hath still denied; but this Antenor, + I know, is such a wrest in their affairs + That their negotiations all must slack + Wanting his manage; and they will almost + Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam, + In change of him. Let him be sent, great Princes, + And he shall buy my daughter; and her presence + Shall quite strike off all service I have done + In most accepted pain. + AGAMEMNON. Let Diomedes bear him, + And bring us Cressid hither. Calchas shall have + What he requests of us. Good Diomed, + Furnish you fairly for this interchange; + Withal, bring word if Hector will to-morrow + Be answer'd in his challenge. Ajax is ready. + DIOMEDES. This shall I undertake; and 'tis a burden + Which I am proud to bear. + Exeunt DIOMEDES and CALCHAS + + ACHILLES and PATROCLUS stand in their tent + + ULYSSES. Achilles stands i' th' entrance of his tent. + Please it our general pass strangely by him, + As if he were forgot; and, Princes all, + Lay negligent and loose regard upon him. + I will come last. 'Tis like he'll question me + Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why turn'd on him? + If so, I have derision med'cinable + To use between your strangeness and his pride, + Which his own will shall have desire to drink. + It may do good. Pride hath no other glass + To show itself but pride; for supple knees + Feed arrogance and are the proud man's fees. + AGAMEMNON. We'll execute your purpose, and put on + A form of strangeness as we pass along. + So do each lord; and either greet him not, + Or else disdainfully, which shall shake him more + Than if not look'd on. I will lead the way. + ACHILLES. What comes the general to speak with me? + You know my mind. I'll fight no more 'gainst Troy. + AGAMEMNON. What says Achilles? Would he aught with us? + NESTOR. Would you, my lord, aught with the general? + ACHILLES. No. + NESTOR. Nothing, my lord. + AGAMEMNON. The better. + Exeunt AGAMEMNON and NESTOR + ACHILLES. Good day, good day. + MENELAUS. How do you? How do you? Exit + ACHILLES. What, does the cuckold scorn me? + AJAX. How now, Patroclus? + ACHILLES. Good morrow, Ajax. + AJAX. Ha? + ACHILLES. Good morrow. + AJAX. Ay, and good next day too. Exit + ACHILLES. What mean these fellows? Know they not Achilles? + PATROCLUS. They pass by strangely. They were us'd to bend, + To send their smiles before them to Achilles, + To come as humbly as they us'd to creep + To holy altars. + ACHILLES. What, am I poor of late? + 'Tis certain, greatness, once fall'n out with fortune, + Must fall out with men too. What the declin'd is, + He shall as soon read in the eyes of others + As feel in his own fall; for men, like butterflies, + Show not their mealy wings but to the summer; + And not a man for being simply man + Hath any honour, but honour for those honours + That are without him, as place, riches, and favour, + Prizes of accident, as oft as merit; + Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, + The love that lean'd on them as slippery too, + Doth one pluck down another, and together + Die in the fall. But 'tis not so with me: + Fortune and I are friends; I do enjoy + At ample point all that I did possess + Save these men's looks; who do, methinks, find out + Something not worth in me such rich beholding + As they have often given. Here is Ulysses. + I'll interrupt his reading. + How now, Ulysses! + ULYSSES. Now, great Thetis' son! + ACHILLES. What are you reading? + ULYSSES. A strange fellow here + Writes me that man-how dearly ever parted, + How much in having, or without or in- + Cannot make boast to have that which he hath, + Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection; + As when his virtues shining upon others + Heat them, and they retort that heat again + To the first giver. + ACHILLES. This is not strange, Ulysses. + The beauty that is borne here in the face + The bearer knows not, but commends itself + To others' eyes; nor doth the eye itself- + That most pure spirit of sense-behold itself, + Not going from itself; but eye to eye opposed + Salutes each other with each other's form; + For speculation turns not to itself + Till it hath travell'd, and is mirror'd there + Where it may see itself. This is not strange at all. + ULYSSES. I do not strain at the position- + It is familiar-but at the author's drift; + Who, in his circumstance, expressly proves + That no man is the lord of anything, + Though in and of him there be much consisting, + Till he communicate his parts to others; + Nor doth he of himself know them for aught + Till he behold them formed in th' applause + Where th' are extended; who, like an arch, reverb'rate + The voice again; or, like a gate of steel + Fronting the sun, receives and renders back + His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this; + And apprehended here immediately + Th' unknown Ajax. Heavens, what a man is there! + A very horse that has he knows not what! + Nature, what things there are + Most abject in regard and dear in use! + What things again most dear in the esteem + And poor in worth! Now shall we see to-morrow- + An act that very chance doth throw upon him- + Ajax renown'd. O heavens, what some men do, + While some men leave to do! + How some men creep in skittish Fortune's-hall, + Whiles others play the idiots in her eyes! + How one man eats into another's pride, + While pride is fasting in his wantonness! + To see these Grecian lords!-why, even already + They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder, + As if his foot were on brave Hector's breast, + And great Troy shrinking. + ACHILLES. I do believe it; for they pass'd by me + As misers do by beggars-neither gave to me + Good word nor look. What, are my deeds forgot? + ULYSSES. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, + Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, + A great-siz'd monster of ingratitudes. + Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devour'd + As fast as they are made, forgot as soon + As done. Perseverance, dear my lord, + Keeps honour bright. To have done is to hang + Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail + In monumental mock'ry. Take the instant way; + For honour travels in a strait so narrow - + Where one but goes abreast. Keep then the path, + For emulation hath a thousand sons + That one by one pursue; if you give way, + Or hedge aside from the direct forthright, + Like to an ent'red tide they all rush by + And leave you hindmost; + Or, like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank, + Lie there for pavement to the abject rear, + O'er-run and trampled on. Then what they do in present, + Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours; + For Time is like a fashionable host, + That slightly shakes his parting guest by th' hand; + And with his arms out-stretch'd, as he would fly, + Grasps in the corner. The welcome ever smiles, + And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek + Remuneration for the thing it was; + For beauty, wit, + High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, + Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all + To envious and calumniating Time. + One touch of nature makes the whole world kin- + That all with one consent praise new-born gawds, + Though they are made and moulded of things past, + And give to dust that is a little gilt + More laud than gilt o'er-dusted. + The present eye praises the present object. + Then marvel not, thou great and complete man, + That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax, + Since things in motion sooner catch the eye + Than what stirs not. The cry went once on thee, + And still it might, and yet it may again, + If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive + And case thy reputation in thy tent, + Whose glorious deeds but in these fields of late + Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods themselves, + And drave great Mars to faction. + ACHILLES. Of this my privacy + I have strong reasons. + ULYSSES. But 'gainst your privacy + The reasons are more potent and heroical. + 'Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love + With one of Priam's daughters. + ACHILLES. Ha! known! + ULYSSES. Is that a wonder? + The providence that's in a watchful state + Knows almost every grain of Plutus' gold; + Finds bottom in th' uncomprehensive deeps; + Keeps place with thought, and almost, like the gods, + Do thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles. + There is a mystery-with whom relation + Durst never meddle-in the soul of state, + Which hath an operation more divine + Than breath or pen can give expressure to. + All the commerce that you have had with Troy + As perfectly is ours as yours, my lord; + And better would it fit Achilles much + To throw down Hector than Polyxena. + But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at home, + When fame shall in our island sound her trump, + And all the Greekish girls shall tripping sing + 'Great Hector's sister did Achilles win; + But our great Ajax bravely beat down him.' + Farewell, my lord. I as your lover speak. + The fool slides o'er the ice that you should break. Exit + PATROCLUS. To this effect, Achilles, have I mov'd you. + A woman impudent and mannish grown + Is not more loath'd than an effeminate man + In time of action. I stand condemn'd for this; + They think my little stomach to the war + And your great love to me restrains you thus. + Sweet, rouse yourself; and the weak wanton Cupid + Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold, + And, like a dew-drop from the lion's mane, + Be shook to airy air. + ACHILLES. Shall Ajax fight with Hector? + PATROCLUS. Ay, and perhaps receive much honour by him. + ACHILLES. I see my reputation is at stake; + My fame is shrewdly gor'd. + PATROCLUS. O, then, beware: + Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves; + Omission to do what is necessary + Seals a commission to a blank of danger; + And danger, like an ague, subtly taints + Even then when they sit idly in the sun. + ACHILLES. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patroclus. + I'll send the fool to Ajax, and desire him + T' invite the Troyan lords, after the combat, + To see us here unarm'd. I have a woman's longing, + An appetite that I am sick withal, + To see great Hector in his weeds of peace; + To talk with him, and to behold his visage, + Even to my full of view. + + Enter THERSITES + + A labour sav'd! + THERSITES. A wonder! + ACHILLES. What? + THERSITES. Ajax goes up and down the field asking for himself. + ACHILLES. How so? + THERSITES. He must fight singly to-morrow with Hector, and is so + prophetically proud of an heroical cudgelling that he raves in + saying nothing. + ACHILLES. How can that be? + THERSITES. Why, 'a stalks up and down like a peacock-a stride and a + stand; ruminaies like an hostess that hath no arithmetic but her + brain to set down her reckoning, bites his lip with a politic + regard, as who should say 'There were wit in this head, an + 'twould out'; and so there is; but it lies as coldly in him as + fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking. The man's + undone for ever; for if Hector break not his neck i' th' combat, + he'll break't himself in vainglory. He knows not me. I said 'Good + morrow, Ajax'; and he replies 'Thanks, Agamemnon.' What think you + of this man that takes me for the general? He's grown a very land + fish, languageless, a monster. A plague of opinion! A man may + wear it on both sides, like leather jerkin. + ACHILLES. Thou must be my ambassador to him, Thersites. + THERSITES. Who, I? Why, he'll answer nobody; he professes not + answering. Speaking is for beggars: he wears his tongue in's + arms. I will put on his presence. Let Patroclus make his demands + to me, you shall see the pageant of Ajax. + ACHILLES. To him, Patroclus. Tell him I humbly desire the valiant + Ajax to invite the most valorous Hector to come unarm'd to my + tent; and to procure safe conduct for his person of the + magnanimous and most illustrious six-or-seven-times-honour'd + Captain General of the Grecian army, et cetera, Agamemnon. Do + this. + PATROCLUS. Jove bless great Ajax! + THERSITES. Hum! + PATROCLUS. I come from the worthy Achilles- + THERSITES. Ha! + PATROCLUS. Who most humbly desires you to invite Hector to his + tent- + THERSITES. Hum! + PATROCLUS. And to procure safe conduct from Agamemnon. + THERSITES. Agamemnon! + PATROCLUS. Ay, my lord. + THERSITES. Ha! + PATROCLUS. What you say to't? + THERSITES. God buy you, with all my heart. + PATROCLUS. Your answer, sir. + THERSITES. If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven of the clock it + will go one way or other. Howsoever, he shall pay for me ere he + has me. + PATROCLUS. Your answer, sir. + THERSITES. Fare ye well, with all my heart. + ACHILLES. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he? + THERSITES. No, but he's out a tune thus. What music will be in him + when Hector has knock'd out his brains I know not; but, I am sure, + none; unless the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings + on. + ACHILLES. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him straight. + THERSITES. Let me carry another to his horse; for that's the more + capable creature. + ACHILLES. My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirr'd; + And I myself see not the bottom of it. + Exeunt ACHILLES and PATROCLUS + THERSITES. Would the fountain of your mind were clear again, that I + might water an ass at it. I had rather be a tick in a sheep than + such a valiant ignorance. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 1. +Troy. A street + +Enter, at one side, AENEAS, and servant with a torch; at another, +PARIS, DEIPHOBUS, ANTENOR, DIOMEDES the Grecian, and others, with torches + + PARIS. See, ho! Who is that there? + DEIPHOBUS. It is the Lord Aeneas. + AENEAS. Is the Prince there in person? + Had I so good occasion to lie long + As you, Prince Paris, nothing but heavenly business + Should rob my bed-mate of my company. + DIOMEDES. That's my mind too. Good morrow, Lord Aeneas. + PARIS. A valiant Greek, Aeneas -take his hand: + Witness the process of your speech, wherein + You told how Diomed, a whole week by days, + Did haunt you in the field. + AENEAS. Health to you, valiant sir, + During all question of the gentle truce; + But when I meet you arm'd, as black defiance + As heart can think or courage execute. + DIOMEDES. The one and other Diomed embraces. + Our bloods are now in calm; and so long health! + But when contention and occasion meet, + By Jove, I'll play the hunter for thy life + With all my force, pursuit, and policy. + AENEAS. And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly + With his face backward. In humane gentleness, + Welcome to Troy! now, by Anchises' life, + Welcome indeed! By Venus' hand I swear + No man alive can love in such a sort + The thing he means to kill, more excellently. + DIOMEDES. We sympathise. Jove let Aeneas live, + If to my sword his fate be not the glory, + A thousand complete courses of the sun! + But in mine emulous honour let him die + With every joint a wound, and that to-morrow! + AENEAS. We know each other well. + DIOMEDES.We do; and long to know each other worse. + PARIS. This is the most despiteful'st gentle greeting + The noblest hateful love, that e'er I heard of. + What business, lord, so early? + AENEAS. I was sent for to the King; but why, I know not. + PARIS. His purpose meets you: 'twas to bring this Greek + To Calchas' house, and there to render him, + For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Cressid. + Let's have your company; or, if you please, + Haste there before us. I constantly believe- + Or rather call my thought a certain knowledge- + My brother Troilus lodges there to-night. + Rouse him and give him note of our approach, + With the whole quality wherefore; I fear + We shall be much unwelcome. + AENEAS. That I assure you: + Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece + Than Cressid borne from Troy. + PARIS. There is no help; + The bitter disposition of the time + Will have it so. On, lord; we'll follow you. + AENEAS. Good morrow, all. Exit with servant + PARIS. And tell me, noble Diomed-faith, tell me true, + Even in the soul of sound good-fellowship- + Who in your thoughts deserves fair Helen best, + Myself or Menelaus? + DIOMEDES. Both alike: + He merits well to have her that doth seek her, + Not making any scruple of her soilure, + With such a hell of pain and world of charge; + And you as well to keep her that defend her, + Not palating the taste of her dishonour, + With such a costly loss of wealth and friends. + He like a puling cuckold would drink up + The lees and dregs of a flat tamed piece; + You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins + Are pleas'd to breed out your inheritors. + Both merits pois'd, each weighs nor less nor more; + But he as he, the heavier for a whore. + PARIS. You are too bitter to your country-woman. + DIOMEDES. She's bitter to her country. Hear me, Paris: + For every false drop in her bawdy veins + A Grecian's life hath sunk; for every scruple + Of her contaminated carrion weight + A Troyan hath been slain; since she could speak, + She hath not given so many good words breath + As for her Greeks and Troyans suff'red death. + PARIS. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do, + Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy; + But we in silence hold this virtue well: + We'll not commend what we intend to sell. + Here lies our way. Exeunt + + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 2. +Troy. The court of PANDARUS' house + +Enter TROILUS and CRESSIDA + + TROILUS. Dear, trouble not yourself; the morn is cold. + CRESSIDA. Then, sweet my lord, I'll call mine uncle down; + He shall unbolt the gates. + TROILUS. Trouble him not; + To bed, to bed! Sleep kill those pretty eyes, + And give as soft attachment to thy senses + As infants' empty of all thought! + CRESSIDA. Good morrow, then. + TROILUS. I prithee now, to bed. + CRESSIDA. Are you aweary of me? + TROILUS. O Cressida! but that the busy day, + Wak'd by the lark, hath rous'd the ribald crows, + And dreaming night will hide our joys no longer, + I would not from thee. + CRESSIDA. Night hath been too brief. + TROILUS. Beshrew the witch! with venomous wights she stays + As tediously as hell, but flies the grasps of love + With wings more momentary-swift than thought. + You will catch cold, and curse me. + CRESSIDA. Prithee tarry. + You men will never tarry. + O foolish Cressid! I might have still held off, + And then you would have tarried. Hark! there's one up. + PANDARUS. [Within] What's all the doors open here? + TROILUS. It is your uncle. + + Enter PANDARUS + + CRESSIDA. A pestilence on him! Now will he be mocking. + I shall have such a life! + PANDARUS. How now, how now! How go maidenheads? + Here, you maid! Where's my cousin Cressid? + CRESSIDA. Go hang yourself, you naughty mocking uncle. + You bring me to do, and then you flout me too. + PANDARUS. To do what? to do what? Let her say what. + What have I brought you to do? + CRESSIDA. Come, come, beshrew your heart! You'll ne'er be good, + Nor suffer others. + PANDARUS. Ha, ha! Alas, poor wretch! a poor capocchia! hast not + slept to-night? Would he not, a naughty man, let it sleep? A + bugbear take him! + CRESSIDA. Did not I tell you? Would he were knock'd i' th' head! + [One knocks] + Who's that at door? Good uncle, go and see. + My lord, come you again into my chamber. + You smile and mock me, as if I meant naughtily. + TROILUS. Ha! ha! + CRESSIDA. Come, you are deceiv'd, I think of no such thing. + [Knock] + How earnestly they knock! Pray you come in: + I would not for half Troy have you seen here. + Exeunt TROILUS and CRESSIDA + PANDARUS. Who's there? What's the matter? Will you beat down the + door? How now? What's the matter? + + Enter AENEAS + AENEAS. Good morrow, lord, good morrow. + PANDARUS. Who's there? My lord Aeneas? By my troth, + I knew you not. What news with you so early? + AENEAS. Is not Prince Troilus here? + PANDARUS. Here! What should he do here? + AENEAS. Come, he is here, my lord; do not deny him. + It doth import him much to speak with me. + PANDARUS. Is he here, say you? It's more than I know, I'll be + sworn. For my own part, I came in late. What should he do here? + AENEAS. Who!-nay, then. Come, come, you'll do him wrong ere you are + ware; you'll be so true to him to be false to him. Do not you + know of him, but yet go fetch him hither; go. + + Re-enter TROILUS + + TROILUS. How now! What's the matter? + AENEAS. My lord, I scarce have leisure to salute you, + My matter is so rash. There is at hand + Paris your brother, and Deiphobus, + The Grecian Diomed, and our Antenor + Deliver'd to us; and for him forthwith, + Ere the first sacrifice, within this hour, + We must give up to Diomedes' hand + The Lady Cressida. + TROILUS. Is it so concluded? + AENEAS. By Priam, and the general state of Troy. + They are at hand and ready to effect it. + TROILUS. How my achievements mock me! + I will go meet them; and, my lord Aeneas, + We met by chance; you did not find me here. + AENEAS. Good, good, my lord, the secrets of neighbour Pandar + Have not more gift in taciturnity. + Exeunt TROILUS and AENEAS + PANDARUS. Is't possible? No sooner got but lost? The devil take + Antenor! The young prince will go mad. A plague upon Antenor! I + would they had broke's neck. + + Re-enter CRESSIDA + + CRESSIDA. How now! What's the matter? Who was here? + PANDARUS. Ah, ah! + CRESSIDA. Why sigh you so profoundly? Where's my lord? Gone? Tell + me, sweet uncle, what's the matter? + PANDARUS. Would I were as deep under the earth as I am above! + CRESSIDA. O the gods! What's the matter? + PANDARUS. Pray thee, get thee in. Would thou hadst ne'er been born! + I knew thou wouldst be his death! O, poor gentleman! A plague + upon Antenor! + CRESSIDA. Good uncle, I beseech you, on my knees I beseech you, + what's the matter? + PANDARUS. Thou must be gone, wench, thou must be gone; thou art + chang'd for Antenor; thou must to thy father, and be gone from + Troilus. 'Twill be his death; 'twill be his bane; he cannot bear + it. + CRESSIDA. O you immortal gods! I will not go. + PANDARUS. Thou must. + CRESSIDA. I will not, uncle. I have forgot my father; + I know no touch of consanguinity, + No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me + As the sweet Troilus. O you gods divine, + Make Cressid's name the very crown of falsehood, + If ever she leave Troilus! Time, force, and death, + Do to this body what extremes you can, + But the strong base and building of my love + Is as the very centre of the earth, + Drawing all things to it. I'll go in and weep- + PANDARUS. Do, do. + CRESSIDA. Tear my bright hair, and scratch my praised cheeks, + Crack my clear voice with sobs and break my heart, + With sounding 'Troilus.' I will not go from Troy. + Exeunt + + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 3. +Troy. A street before PANDARUS' house + +Enter PARIS, TROILUS, AENEAS, DEIPHOBUS, ANTENOR, and DIOMEDES + + PARIS. It is great morning; and the hour prefix'd + For her delivery to this valiant Greek + Comes fast upon. Good my brother Troilus, + Tell you the lady what she is to do + And haste her to the purpose. + TROILUS. Walk into her house. + I'll bring her to the Grecian presently; + And to his hand when I deliver her, + Think it an altar, and thy brother Troilus + A priest, there off'ring to it his own heart. Exit + PARIS. I know what 'tis to love, + And would, as I shall pity, I could help! + Please you walk in, my lords. Exeunt + + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 4. +Troy. PANDARUS' house + +Enter PANDARUS and CRESSIDA + + PANDARUS. Be moderate, be moderate. + CRESSIDA. Why tell you me of moderation? + The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste, + And violenteth in a sense as strong + As that which causeth it. How can I moderate it? + If I could temporize with my affections + Or brew it to a weak and colder palate, + The like allayment could I give my grief. + My love admits no qualifying dross; + No more my grief, in such a precious loss. + + Enter TROILUS + + PANDARUS. Here, here, here he comes. Ah, sweet ducks! + CRESSIDA. O Troilus! Troilus! [Embracing him] + PANDARUS. What a pair of spectacles is here! Let me embrace too. 'O + heart,' as the goodly saying is, + O heart, heavy heart, + Why sigh'st thou without breaking? + where he answers again + Because thou canst not ease thy smart + By friendship nor by speaking. + There was never a truer rhyme. Let us cast away nothing, for we + may live to have need of such a verse. We see it, we see it. How + now, lambs! + TROILUS. Cressid, I love thee in so strain'd a purity + That the bless'd gods, as angry with my fancy, + More bright in zeal than the devotion which + Cold lips blow to their deities, take thee from me. + CRESSIDA. Have the gods envy? + PANDARUS. Ay, ay, ay; 'tis too plain a case. + CRESSIDA. And is it true that I must go from Troy? + TROILUS. A hateful truth. + CRESSIDA. What, and from Troilus too? + TROILUS. From Troy and Troilus. + CRESSIDA. Is't possible? + TROILUS. And suddenly; where injury of chance + Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by + All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips + Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents + Our lock'd embrasures, strangles our dear vows + Even in the birth of our own labouring breath. + We two, that with so many thousand sighs + Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves + With the rude brevity and discharge of one. + Injurious time now with a robber's haste + Crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how. + As many farewells as be stars in heaven, + With distinct breath and consign'd kisses to them, + He fumbles up into a loose adieu, + And scants us with a single famish'd kiss, + Distasted with the salt of broken tears. + AENEAS. [Within] My lord, is the lady ready? + TROILUS. Hark! you are call'd. Some say the Genius so + Cries 'Come' to him that instantly must die. + Bid them have patience; she shall come anon. + PANDARUS. Where are my tears? Rain, to lay this wind, or my heart + will be blown up by th' root? Exit + CRESSIDA. I must then to the Grecians? + TROILUS. No remedy. + CRESSIDA. A woeful Cressid 'mongst the merry Greeks! + When shall we see again? + TROILUS. Hear me, my love. Be thou but true of heart- + CRESSIDA. I true! how now! What wicked deem is this? + TROILUS. Nay, we must use expostulation kindly, + For it is parting from us. + I speak not 'Be thou true' as fearing thee, + For I will throw my glove to Death himself + That there's no maculation in thy heart; + But 'Be thou true' say I to fashion in + My sequent protestation: be thou true, + And I will see thee. + CRESSIDA. O, you shall be expos'd, my lord, to dangers + As infinite as imminent! But I'll be true. + TROILUS. And I'll grow friend with danger. Wear this sleeve. + CRESSIDA. And you this glove. When shall I see you? + TROILUS. I will corrupt the Grecian sentinels + To give thee nightly visitation. + But yet be true. + CRESSIDA. O heavens! 'Be true' again! + TROILUS. Hear why I speak it, love. + The Grecian youths are full of quality; + They're loving, well compos'd with gifts of nature, + And flowing o'er with arts and exercise. + How novelties may move, and parts with person, + Alas, a kind of godly jealousy, + Which I beseech you call a virtuous sin, + Makes me afeard. + CRESSIDA. O heavens! you love me not. + TROILUS. Die I a villain, then! + In this I do not call your faith in question + So mainly as my merit. I cannot sing, + Nor heel the high lavolt, nor sweeten talk, + Nor play at subtle games-fair virtues all, + To which the Grecians are most prompt and pregnant; + But I can tell that in each grace of these + There lurks a still and dumb-discoursive devil + That tempts most cunningly. But be not tempted. + CRESSIDA. Do you think I will? + TROILUS. No. + But something may be done that we will not; + And sometimes we are devils to ourselves, + When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, + Presuming on their changeful potency. + AENEAS. [Within] Nay, good my lord! + TROILUS. Come, kiss; and let us part. + PARIS. [Within] Brother Troilus! + TROILUS. Good brother, come you hither; + And bring Aeneas and the Grecian with you. + CRESSIDA. My lord, will you be true? + TROILUS. Who, I? Alas, it is my vice, my fault! + Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion, + I with great truth catch mere simplicity; + Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns, + With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare. + + Enter AENEAS, PARIS, ANTENOR, DEIPHOBUS, and DIOMEDES + + Fear not my truth: the moral of my wit + Is 'plain and true'; there's all the reach of it. + Welcome, Sir Diomed! Here is the lady + Which for Antenor we deliver you; + At the port, lord, I'll give her to thy hand, + And by the way possess thee what she is. + Entreat her fair; and, by my soul, fair Greek, + If e'er thou stand at mercy of my sword, + Name Cressid, and thy life shall be as safe + As Priam is in Ilion. + DIOMEDES. Fair Lady Cressid, + So please you, save the thanks this prince expects. + The lustre in your eye, heaven in your cheek, + Pleads your fair usage; and to Diomed + You shall be mistress, and command him wholly. + TROILUS. Grecian, thou dost not use me courteously + To shame the zeal of my petition to the + In praising her. I tell thee, lord of Greece, + She is as far high-soaring o'er thy praises + As thou unworthy to be call'd her servant. + I charge thee use her well, even for my charge; + For, by the dreadful Pluto, if thou dost not, + Though the great bulk Achilles be thy guard, + I'll cut thy throat. + DIOMEDES. O, be not mov'd, Prince Troilus. + Let me be privileg'd by my place and message + To be a speaker free: when I am hence + I'll answer to my lust. And know you, lord, + I'll nothing do on charge: to her own worth + She shall be priz'd. But that you say 'Be't so,' + I speak it in my spirit and honour, 'No.' + TROILUS. Come, to the port. I'll tell thee, Diomed, + This brave shall oft make thee to hide thy head. + Lady, give me your hand; and, as we walk, + To our own selves bend we our needful talk. + Exeunt TROILUS, CRESSIDA, and DIOMEDES + [Sound trumpet] + PARIS. Hark! Hector's trumpet. + AENEAS. How have we spent this morning! + The Prince must think me tardy and remiss, + That swore to ride before him to the field. + PARIS. 'Tis Troilus' fault. Come, come to field with him. + DEIPHOBUS. Let us make ready straight. + AENEAS. Yea, with a bridegroom's fresh alacrity + Let us address to tend on Hector's heels. + The glory of our Troy doth this day lie + On his fair worth and single chivalry. Exeunt + + + + +ACT IV. SCENE 5. +The Grecian camp. Lists set out + +Enter AJAX, armed; AGAMEMNON, ACHILLES, PATROCLUS, MENELAUS, ULYSSES, +NESTOR, and others + + AGAMEMNON. Here art thou in appointment fresh and fair, + Anticipating time with starting courage. + Give with thy trumpet a loud note to Troy, + Thou dreadful Ajax, that the appalled air + May pierce the head of the great combatant, + And hale him hither. + AJAX. Thou, trumpet, there's my purse. + Now crack thy lungs and split thy brazen pipe; + Blow, villain, till thy sphered bias cheek + Out-swell the colic of puff Aquilon'd. + Come, stretch thy chest, and let thy eyes spout blood: + Thou blowest for Hector. [Trumpet sounds] + ULYSSES. No trumpet answers. + ACHILLES. 'Tis but early days. + + Enter DIOMEDES, with CRESSIDA + + AGAMEMNON. Is not yond Diomed, with Calchas' daughter? + ULYSSES. 'Tis he, I ken the manner of his gait: + He rises on the toe. That spirit of his + In aspiration lifts him from the earth. + AGAMEMNON. Is this the lady Cressid? + DIOMEDES. Even she. + AGAMEMNON. Most dearly welcome to the Greeks, sweet lady. + NESTOR. Our general doth salute you with a kiss. + ULYSSES. Yet is the kindness but particular; + 'Twere better she were kiss'd in general. + NESTOR. And very courtly counsel: I'll begin. + So much for Nestor. + ACHILLES. I'll take that winter from your lips, fair lady. + Achilles bids you welcome. + MENELAUS. I had good argument for kissing once. + PATROCLUS. But that's no argument for kissing now; + For thus popp'd Paris in his hardiment, + And parted thus you and your argument. + ULYSSES. O deadly gall, and theme of all our scorns! + For which we lose our heads to gild his horns. + PATROCLUS. The first was Menelaus' kiss; this, mine- + [Kisses her again] + Patroclus kisses you. + MENELAUS. O, this is trim! + PATROCLUS. Paris and I kiss evermore for him. + MENELAUS. I'll have my kiss, sir. Lady, by your leave. + CRESSIDA. In kissing, do you render or receive? + PATROCLUS. Both take and give. + CRESSIDA. I'll make my match to live, + The kiss you take is better than you give; + Therefore no kiss. + MENELAUS. I'll give you boot; I'll give you three for one. + CRESSIDA. You are an odd man; give even or give none. + MENELAUS. An odd man, lady? Every man is odd. + CRESSIDA. No, Paris is not; for you know 'tis true + That you are odd, and he is even with you. + MENELAUS. You fillip me o' th' head. + CRESSIDA. No, I'll be sworn. + ULYSSES. It were no match, your nail against his horn. + May I, sweet lady, beg a kiss of you? + CRESSIDA. You may. + ULYSSES. I do desire it. + CRESSIDA. Why, beg then. + ULYSSES. Why then, for Venus' sake give me a kiss + When Helen is a maid again, and his. + CRESSIDA. I am your debtor; claim it when 'tis due. + ULYSSES. Never's my day, and then a kiss of you. + DIOMEDES. Lady, a word. I'll bring you to your father. + Exit with CRESSIDA + NESTOR. A woman of quick sense. + ULYSSES. Fie, fie upon her! + There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, + Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out + At every joint and motive of her body. + O these encounters so glib of tongue + That give a coasting welcome ere it comes, + And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts + To every ticklish reader! Set them down + For sluttish spoils of opportunity, + And daughters of the game. [Trumpet within] + ALL. The Troyans' trumpet. + + Enter HECTOR, armed; AENEAS, TROILUS, PARIS, HELENUS, + and other Trojans, with attendants + + AGAMEMNON. Yonder comes the troop. + AENEAS. Hail, all the state of Greece! What shall be done + To him that victory commands? Or do you purpose + A victor shall be known? Will you the knights + Shall to the edge of all extremity + Pursue each other, or shall they be divided + By any voice or order of the field? + Hector bade ask. + AGAMEMNON. Which way would Hector have it? + AENEAS. He cares not; he'll obey conditions. + ACHILLES. 'Tis done like Hector; but securely done, + A little proudly, and great deal misprizing + The knight oppos'd. + AENEAS. If not Achilles, sir, + What is your name? + ACHILLES. If not Achilles, nothing. + AENEAS. Therefore Achilles. But whate'er, know this: + In the extremity of great and little + Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector; + The one almost as infinite as all, + The other blank as nothing. Weigh him well, + And that which looks like pride is courtesy. + This Ajax is half made of Hector's blood; + In love whereof half Hector stays at home; + Half heart, half hand, half Hector comes to seek + This blended knight, half Troyan and half Greek. + ACHILLES. A maiden battle then? O, I perceive you! + + Re-enter DIOMEDES + + AGAMEMNON. Here is Sir Diomed. Go, gentle knight, + Stand by our Ajax. As you and Lord ]Eneas + Consent upon the order of their fight, + So be it; either to the uttermost, + Or else a breath. The combatants being kin + Half stints their strife before their strokes begin. + [AJAX and HECTOR enter the lists] + ULYSSES. They are oppos'd already. + AGAMEMNON. What Troyan is that same that looks so heavy? + ULYSSES. The youngest son of Priam, a true knight; + Not yet mature, yet matchless; firm of word; + Speaking in deeds and deedless in his tongue; + Not soon provok'd, nor being provok'd soon calm'd; + His heart and hand both open and both free; + For what he has he gives, what thinks he shows, + Yet gives he not till judgment guide his bounty, + Nor dignifies an impair thought with breath; + Manly as Hector, but more dangerous; + For Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes + To tender objects, but he in heat of action + Is more vindicative than jealous love. + They call him Troilus, and on him erect + A second hope as fairly built as Hector. + Thus says Aeneas, one that knows the youth + Even to his inches, and, with private soul, + Did in great Ilion thus translate him to me. + [Alarum. HECTOR and AJAX fight] + AGAMEMNON. They are in action. + NESTOR. Now, Ajax, hold thine own! + TROILUS. Hector, thou sleep'st; + Awake thee. + AGAMEMNON. His blows are well dispos'd. There, Ajax! + [Trumpets cease] + DIOMEDES. You must no more. + AENEAS. Princes, enough, so please you. + AJAX. I am not warm yet; let us fight again. + DIOMEDES. As Hector pleases. + HECTOR. Why, then will I no more. + Thou art, great lord, my father's sister's son, + A cousin-german to great Priam's seed; + The obligation of our blood forbids + A gory emulation 'twixt us twain: + Were thy commixtion Greek and Troyan so + That thou could'st say 'This hand is Grecian all, + And this is Troyan; the sinews of this leg + All Greek, and this all Troy; my mother's blood + Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister + Bounds in my father's'; by Jove multipotent, + Thou shouldst not bear from me a Greekish member + Wherein my sword had not impressure made + Of our rank feud; but the just gods gainsay + That any drop thou borrow'dst from thy mother, + My sacred aunt, should by my mortal sword + Be drained! Let me embrace thee, Ajax. + By him that thunders, thou hast lusty arms; + Hector would have them fall upon him thus. + Cousin, all honour to thee! + AJAX. I thank thee, Hector. + Thou art too gentle and too free a man. + I came to kill thee, cousin, and bear hence + A great addition earned in thy death. + HECTOR. Not Neoptolemus so mirable, + On whose bright crest Fame with her loud'st Oyes + Cries 'This is he' could promise to himself + A thought of added honour torn from Hector. + AENEAS. There is expectance here from both the sides + What further you will do. + HECTOR. We'll answer it: + The issue is embracement. Ajax, farewell. + AJAX. If I might in entreaties find success, + As seld I have the chance, I would desire + My famous cousin to our Grecian tents. + DIOMEDES. 'Tis Agamemnon's wish; and great Achilles + Doth long to see unarm'd the valiant Hector. + HECTOR. Aeneas, call my brother Troilus to me, + And signify this loving interview + To the expecters of our Troyan part; + Desire them home. Give me thy hand, my cousin; + I will go eat with thee, and see your knights. + + AGAMEMNON and the rest of the Greeks come forward + + AJAX. Great Agamemnon comes to meet us here. + HECTOR. The worthiest of them tell me name by name; + But for Achilles, my own searching eyes + Shall find him by his large and portly size. + AGAMEMNON.Worthy all arms! as welcome as to one + That would be rid of such an enemy. + But that's no welcome. Understand more clear, + What's past and what's to come is strew'd with husks + And formless ruin of oblivion; + But in this extant moment, faith and troth, + Strain'd purely from all hollow bias-drawing, + Bids thee with most divine integrity, + From heart of very heart, great Hector, welcome. + HECTOR. I thank thee, most imperious Agamemnon. + AGAMEMNON. [To Troilus] My well-fam'd lord of Troy, no less to you. + MENELAUS. Let me confirm my princely brother's greeting. + You brace of warlike brothers, welcome hither. + HECTOR. Who must we answer? + AENEAS. The noble Menelaus. + HECTOR. O you, my lord? By Mars his gauntlet, thanks! + Mock not that I affect the untraded oath; + Your quondam wife swears still by Venus' glove. + She's well, but bade me not commend her to you. + MENELAUS. Name her not now, sir; she's a deadly theme. + HECTOR. O, pardon; I offend. + NESTOR. I have, thou gallant Troyan, seen thee oft, + Labouring for destiny, make cruel way + Through ranks of Greekish youth; and I have seen thee, + As hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed, + Despising many forfeits and subduements, + When thou hast hung thy advanced sword i' th' air, + Not letting it decline on the declined; + That I have said to some my standers-by + 'Lo, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life!' + And I have seen thee pause and take thy breath, + When that a ring of Greeks have hemm'd thee in, + Like an Olympian wrestling. This have I seen; + But this thy countenance, still lock'd in steel, + I never saw till now. I knew thy grandsire, + And once fought with him. He was a soldier good, + But, by great Mars, the captain of us all, + Never like thee. O, let an old man embrace thee; + And, worthy warrior, welcome to our tents. + AENEAS. 'Tis the old Nestor. + HECTOR. Let me embrace thee, good old chronicle, + That hast so long walk'd hand in hand with time. + Most reverend Nestor, I am glad to clasp thee. + NESTOR. I would my arms could match thee in contention + As they contend with thee in courtesy. + HECTOR. I would they could. + NESTOR. Ha! + By this white beard, I'd fight with thee to-morrow. + Well, welcome, welcome! I have seen the time. + ULYSSES. I wonder now how yonder city stands, + When we have here her base and pillar by us. + HECTOR. I know your favour, Lord Ulysses, well. + Ah, sir, there's many a Greek and Troyan dead, + Since first I saw yourself and Diomed + In Ilion on your Greekish embassy. + ULYSSES. Sir, I foretold you then what would ensue. + My prophecy is but half his journey yet; + For yonder walls, that pertly front your town, + Yond towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds, + Must kiss their own feet. + HECTOR. I must not believe you. + There they stand yet; and modestly I think + The fall of every Phrygian stone will cost + A drop of Grecian blood. The end crowns all; + And that old common arbitrator, Time, + Will one day end it. + ULYSSES. So to him we leave it. + Most gentle and most valiant Hector, welcome. + After the General, I beseech you next + To feast with me and see me at my tent. + ACHILLES. I shall forestall thee, Lord Ulysses, thou! + Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee; + I have with exact view perus'd thee, Hector, + And quoted joint by joint. + HECTOR. Is this Achilles? + ACHILLES. I am Achilles. + HECTOR. Stand fair, I pray thee; let me look on thee. + ACHILLES. Behold thy fill. + HECTOR. Nay, I have done already. + ACHILLES. Thou art too brief. I will the second time, + As I would buy thee, view thee limb by limb. + HECTOR. O, like a book of sport thou'lt read me o'er; + But there's more in me than thou understand'st. + Why dost thou so oppress me with thine eye? + ACHILLES. Tell me, you heavens, in which part of his body + Shall I destroy him? Whether there, or there, or there? + That I may give the local wound a name, + And make distinct the very breach whereout + Hector's great spirit flew. Answer me, heavens. + HECTOR. It would discredit the blest gods, proud man, + To answer such a question. Stand again. + Think'st thou to catch my life so pleasantly + As to prenominate in nice conjecture + Where thou wilt hit me dead? + ACHILLES. I tell thee yea. + HECTOR. Wert thou an oracle to tell me so, + I'd not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well; + For I'll not kill thee there, nor there, nor there; + But, by the forge that stithied Mars his helm, + I'll kill thee everywhere, yea, o'er and o'er. + You wisest Grecians, pardon me this brag. + His insolence draws folly from my lips; + But I'll endeavour deeds to match these words, + Or may I never- + AJAX. Do not chafe thee, cousin; + And you, Achilles, let these threats alone + Till accident or purpose bring you to't. + You may have every day enough of Hector, + If you have stomach. The general state, I fear, + Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him. + HECTOR. I pray you let us see you in the field; + We have had pelting wars since you refus'd + The Grecians' cause. + ACHILLES. Dost thou entreat me, Hector? + To-morrow do I meet thee, fell as death; + To-night all friends. + HECTOR. Thy hand upon that match. + AGAMEMNON. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my tent; + There in the full convive we; afterwards, + As Hector's leisure and your bounties shall + Concur together, severally entreat him. + Beat loud the tambourines, let the trumpets blow, + That this great soldier may his welcome know. + Exeunt all but TROILUS and ULYSSES + TROILUS. My Lord Ulysses, tell me, I beseech you, + In what place of the field doth Calchas keep? + ULYSSES. At Menelaus' tent, most princely Troilus. + There Diomed doth feast with him to-night, + Who neither looks upon the heaven nor earth, + But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view + On the fair Cressid. + TROILUS. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so much, + After we part from Agamemnon's tent, + To bring me thither? + ULYSSES. You shall command me, sir. + As gentle tell me of what honour was + This Cressida in Troy? Had she no lover there + That wails her absence? + TROILUS. O, sir, to such as boasting show their scars + A mock is due. Will you walk on, my lord? + She was belov'd, she lov'd; she is, and doth; + But still sweet love is food for fortune's tooth. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE 1. +The Grecian camp. Before the tent of ACHILLES + +Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS + + ACHILLES. I'll heat his blood with Greekish wine to-night, + Which with my scimitar I'll cool to-morrow. + Patroclus, let us feast him to the height. + PATROCLUS. Here comes Thersites. + + Enter THERSITES + + ACHILLES. How now, thou core of envy! + Thou crusty batch of nature, what's the news? + THERSITES. Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, and idol of + idiot worshippers, here's a letter for thee. + ACHILLES. From whence, fragment? + THERSITES. Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy. + PATROCLUS. Who keeps the tent now? + THERSITES. The surgeon's box or the patient's wound. + PATROCLUS. Well said, Adversity! and what needs these tricks? + THERSITES. Prithee, be silent, boy; I profit not by thy talk; thou + art said to be Achilles' male varlet. + PATROCLUS. Male varlet, you rogue! What's that? + THERSITES. Why, his masculine whore. Now, the rotten diseases of + the south, the guts-griping ruptures, catarrhs, loads o' gravel + in the back, lethargies, cold palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten + livers, wheezing lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas, + limekilns i' th' palm, incurable bone-ache, and the rivelled fee- + simple of the tetter, take and take again such preposterous + discoveries! + PATROCLUS. Why, thou damnable box of envy, thou, what meanest thou + to curse thus? + THERSITES. Do I curse thee? + PATROCLUS. Why, no, you ruinous butt; you whoreson + indistinguishable cur, no. + THERSITES. No! Why art thou, then, exasperate, thou idle immaterial + skein of sleid silk, thou green sarcenet flap for a sore eye, + thou tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou? Ah, how the poor world is + pest'red with such water-flies-diminutives of nature! + PATROCLUS. Out, gall! + THERSITES. Finch egg! + ACHILLES. My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite + From my great purpose in to-morrow's battle. + Here is a letter from Queen Hecuba, + A token from her daughter, my fair love, + Both taxing me and gaging me to keep + An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it. + Fall Greeks; fail fame; honour or go or stay; + My major vow lies here, this I'll obey. + Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent; + This night in banqueting must all be spent. + Away, Patroclus! Exit with PATROCLUS + THERSITES. With too much blood and too little brain these two may + run mad; but, if with too much brain and to little blood they do, + I'll be a curer of madmen. Here's Agamemnon, an honest fellow + enough, and one that loves quails, but he has not so much brain + as ear-wax; and the goodly transformation of Jupiter there, his + brother, the bull, the primitive statue and oblique memorial of + cuckolds, a thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain, hanging at his + brother's leg-to what form but that he is, should wit larded with + malice, and malice forced with wit, turn him to? To an ass, were + nothing: he is both ass and ox. To an ox, were nothing: he is both + ox and ass. To be a dog, a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a + lizard, an owl, a put-tock, or a herring without a roe, I would + not care; but to be Menelaus, I would conspire against destiny. + Ask me not what I would be, if I were not Thersites; for I care + not to be the louse of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus. Hey-day! + sprites and fires! + + Enter HECTOR, TROILUS, AJAX, AGAMEMNON, ULYSSES, + NESTOR, MENELAUS, and DIOMEDES, with lights + + AGAMEMNON. We go wrong, we go wrong. + AJAX. No, yonder 'tis; + There, where we see the lights. + HECTOR. I trouble you. + AJAX. No, not a whit. + + Re-enter ACHILLES + + ULYSSES. Here comes himself to guide you. + ACHILLES. Welcome, brave Hector; welcome, Princes all. + AGAMEMNON. So now, fair Prince of Troy, I bid good night; + Ajax commands the guard to tend on you. + HECTOR. Thanks, and good night to the Greeks' general. + MENELAUS. Good night, my lord. + HECTOR. Good night, sweet Lord Menelaus. + THERSITES. Sweet draught! 'Sweet' quoth 'a? + Sweet sink, sweet sewer! + ACHILLES. Good night and welcome, both at once, to those + That go or tarry. + AGAMEMNON. Good night. + Exeunt AGAMEMNON and MENELAUS + ACHILLES. Old Nestor tarries; and you too, Diomed, + Keep Hector company an hour or two. + DIOMEDES. I cannot, lord; I have important business, + The tide whereof is now. Good night, great Hector. + HECTOR. Give me your hand. + ULYSSES. [Aside to TROILUS] Follow his torch; he goes to + Calchas' tent; I'll keep you company. + TROILUS. Sweet sir, you honour me. + HECTOR. And so, good night. + Exit DIOMEDES; ULYSSES and TROILUS following + ACHILLES. Come, come, enter my tent. + Exeunt all but THERSITES + THERSITES. That same Diomed's a false-hearted rogue, a most unjust + knave; I will no more trust him when he leers than I will a + serpent when he hisses. He will spend his mouth and promise, like + Brabbler the hound; but when he performs, astronomers foretell + it: it is prodigious, there will come some change; the sun + borrows of the moon when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather + leave to see Hector than not to dog him. They say he keeps a + Troyan drab, and uses the traitor Calchas' tent. I'll after. + Nothing but lechery! All incontinent varlets! Exit + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 2. +The Grecian camp. Before CALCHAS' tent + +Enter DIOMEDES + + DIOMEDES. What, are you up here, ho? Speak. + CALCHAS. [Within] Who calls? + DIOMEDES. Diomed. Calchas, I think. Where's your daughter? + CALCHAS. [Within] She comes to you. + + Enter TROILUS and ULYSSES, at a distance; after them + THERSITES + + ULYSSES. Stand where the torch may not discover us. + + Enter CRESSIDA + + TROILUS. Cressid comes forth to him. + DIOMEDES. How now, my charge! + CRESSIDA. Now, my sweet guardian! Hark, a word with you. +[Whispers] + TROILUS. Yea, so familiar! + ULYSSES. She will sing any man at first sight. + THERSITES. And any man may sing her, if he can take her cliff; + she's noted. + DIOMEDES. Will you remember? + CRESSIDA. Remember? Yes. + DIOMEDES. Nay, but do, then; + And let your mind be coupled with your words. + TROILUS. What shall she remember? + ULYSSES. List! + CRESSIDA. Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to folly. + THERSITES. Roguery! + DIOMEDES. Nay, then- + CRESSIDA. I'll tell you what- + DIOMEDES. Fo, fo! come, tell a pin; you are a forsworn- + CRESSIDA. In faith, I cannot. What would you have me do? + THERSITES. A juggling trick, to be secretly open. + DIOMEDES. What did you swear you would bestow on me? + CRESSIDA. I prithee, do not hold me to mine oath; + Bid me do anything but that, sweet Greek. + DIOMEDES. Good night. + TROILUS. Hold, patience! + ULYSSES. How now, Troyan! + CRESSIDA. Diomed! + DIOMEDES. No, no, good night; I'll be your fool no more. + TROILUS. Thy better must. + CRESSIDA. Hark! a word in your ear. + TROILUS. O plague and madness! + ULYSSES. You are moved, Prince; let us depart, I pray, + Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself + To wrathful terms. This place is dangerous; + The time right deadly; I beseech you, go. + TROILUS. Behold, I pray you. + ULYSSES. Nay, good my lord, go off; + You flow to great distraction; come, my lord. + TROILUS. I prithee stay. + ULYSSES. You have not patience; come. + TROILUS. I pray you, stay; by hell and all hell's torments, + I will not speak a word. + DIOMEDES. And so, good night. + CRESSIDA. Nay, but you part in anger. + TROILUS. Doth that grieve thee? O withered truth! + ULYSSES. How now, my lord? + TROILUS. By Jove, I will be patient. + CRESSIDA. Guardian! Why, Greek! + DIOMEDES. Fo, fo! adieu! you palter. + CRESSIDA. In faith, I do not. Come hither once again. + ULYSSES. You shake, my lord, at something; will you go? + You will break out. + TROILUS. She strokes his cheek. + ULYSSES. Come, come. + TROILUS. Nay, stay; by Jove, I will not speak a word: + There is between my will and all offences + A guard of patience. Stay a little while. + THERSITES. How the devil luxury, with his fat rump and potato + finger, tickles these together! Fry, lechery, fry! + DIOMEDES. But will you, then? + CRESSIDA. In faith, I will, lo; never trust me else. + DIOMEDES. Give me some token for the surety of it. + CRESSIDA. I'll fetch you one. Exit + ULYSSES. You have sworn patience. + TROILUS. Fear me not, my lord; + I will not be myself, nor have cognition + Of what I feel. I am all patience. + + Re-enter CRESSIDA + + THERSITES. Now the pledge; now, now, now! + CRESSIDA. Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve. + TROILUS. O beauty! where is thy faith? + ULYSSES. My lord! + TROILUS. I will be patient; outwardly I will. + CRESSIDA. You look upon that sleeve; behold it well. + He lov'd me-O false wench!-Give't me again. + DIOMEDES. Whose was't? + CRESSIDA. It is no matter, now I ha't again. + I will not meet with you to-morrow night. + I prithee, Diomed, visit me no more. + THERSITES. Now she sharpens. Well said, whetstone. + DIOMEDES. I shall have it. + CRESSIDA. What, this? + DIOMEDES. Ay, that. + CRESSIDA. O all you gods! O pretty, pretty pledge! + Thy master now lies thinking on his bed + Of thee and me, and sighs, and takes my glove, + And gives memorial dainty kisses to it, + As I kiss thee. Nay, do not snatch it from me; + He that takes that doth take my heart withal. + DIOMEDES. I had your heart before; this follows it. + TROILUS. I did swear patience. + CRESSIDA. You shall not have it, Diomed; faith, you shall not; + I'll give you something else. + DIOMEDES. I will have this. Whose was it? + CRESSIDA. It is no matter. + DIOMEDES. Come, tell me whose it was. + CRESSIDA. 'Twas one's that lov'd me better than you will. + But, now you have it, take it. + DIOMEDES. Whose was it? + CRESSIDA. By all Diana's waiting women yond, + And by herself, I will not tell you whose. + DIOMEDES. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm, + And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it. + TROILUS. Wert thou the devil and wor'st it on thy horn, + It should be challeng'd. + CRESSIDA. Well, well, 'tis done, 'tis past; and yet it is not; + I will not keep my word. + DIOMEDES. Why, then farewell; + Thou never shalt mock Diomed again. + CRESSIDA. You shall not go. One cannot speak a word + But it straight starts you. + DIOMEDES. I do not like this fooling. + THERSITES. Nor I, by Pluto; but that that likes not you + Pleases me best. + DIOMEDES. What, shall I come? The hour- + CRESSIDA. Ay, come-O Jove! Do come. I shall be plagu'd. + DIOMEDES. Farewell till then. + CRESSIDA. Good night. I prithee come. Exit DIOMEDES + Troilus, farewell! One eye yet looks on thee; + But with my heart the other eye doth see. + Ah, poor our sex! this fault in us I find, + The error of our eye directs our mind. + What error leads must err; O, then conclude, + Minds sway'd by eyes are full of turpitude. Exit + THERSITES. A proof of strength she could not publish more, + Unless she said 'My mind is now turn'd whore.' + ULYSSES. All's done, my lord. + TROILUS. It is. + ULYSSES. Why stay we, then? + TROILUS. To make a recordation to my soul + Of every syllable that here was spoke. + But if I tell how these two did coact, + Shall I not lie in publishing a truth? + Sith yet there is a credence in my heart, + An esperance so obstinately strong, + That doth invert th' attest of eyes and ears; + As if those organs had deceptious functions + Created only to calumniate. + Was Cressid here? + ULYSSES. I cannot conjure, Troyan. + TROILUS. She was not, sure. + ULYSSES. Most sure she was. + TROILUS. Why, my negation hath no taste of madness. + ULYSSES. Nor mine, my lord. Cressid was here but now. + TROILUS. Let it not be believ'd for womanhood. + Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage + To stubborn critics, apt, without a theme, + For depravation, to square the general sex + By Cressid's rule. Rather think this not Cressid. + ULYSSES. What hath she done, Prince, that can soil our mothers? + TROILUS. Nothing at all, unless that this were she. + THERSITES. Will 'a swagger himself out on's own eyes? + TROILUS. This she? No; this is Diomed's Cressida. + If beauty have a soul, this is not she; + If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies, + If sanctimony be the god's delight, + If there be rule in unity itself, + This was not she. O madness of discourse, + That cause sets up with and against itself! + Bifold authority! where reason can revolt + Without perdition, and loss assume all reason + Without revolt: this is, and is not, Cressid. + Within my soul there doth conduce a fight + Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate + Divides more wider than the sky and earth; + And yet the spacious breadth of this division + Admits no orifex for a point as subtle + As Ariachne's broken woof to enter. + Instance, O instance! strong as Pluto's gates: + Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven. + Instance, O instance! strong as heaven itself: + The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolv'd, and loos'd; + And with another knot, five-finger-tied, + The fractions of her faith, orts of her love, + The fragments, scraps, the bits, and greasy relics + Of her o'er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed. + ULYSSES. May worthy Troilus be half-attach'd + With that which here his passion doth express? + TROILUS. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well + In characters as red as Mars his heart + Inflam'd with Venus. Never did young man fancy + With so eternal and so fix'd a soul. + Hark, Greek: as much as I do Cressid love, + So much by weight hate I her Diomed. + That sleeve is mine that he'll bear on his helm; + Were it a casque compos'd by Vulcan's skill + My sword should bite it. Not the dreadful spout + Which shipmen do the hurricano call, + Constring'd in mass by the almighty sun, + Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune's ear + In his descent than shall my prompted sword + Falling on Diomed. + THERSITES. He'll tickle it for his concupy. + TROILUS. O Cressid! O false Cressid! false, false, false! + Let all untruths stand by thy stained name, + And they'll seem glorious. + ULYSSES. O, contain yourself; + Your passion draws ears hither. + + Enter AENEAS + + AENEAS. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord. + Hector, by this, is arming him in Troy; + Ajax, your guard, stays to conduct you home. + TROILUS. Have with you, Prince. My courteous lord, adieu. + Fairwell, revolted fair!-and, Diomed, + Stand fast and wear a castle on thy head. + ULYSSES. I'll bring you to the gates. + TROILUS. Accept distracted thanks. + + Exeunt TROILUS, AENEAS. and ULYSSES + + THERSITES. Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! I would croak like + a raven; I would bode, I would bode. Patroclus will give me + anything for the intelligence of this whore; the parrot will not + do more for an almond than he for a commodious drab. Lechery, + lechery! Still wars and lechery! Nothing else holds fashion. A + burning devil take them! Exit + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 3. +Troy. Before PRIAM'S palace + +Enter HECTOR and ANDROMACHE + + ANDROMACHE. When was my lord so much ungently temper'd + To stop his ears against admonishment? + Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day. + HECTOR. You train me to offend you; get you in. + By all the everlasting gods, I'll go. + ANDROMACHE. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the day. + HECTOR. No more, I say. + + Enter CASSANDRA + + CASSANDRA. Where is my brother Hector? + ANDROMACHE. Here, sister, arm'd, and bloody in intent. + Consort with me in loud and dear petition, + Pursue we him on knees; for I have dreamt + Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night + Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter. + CASSANDRA. O, 'tis true! + HECTOR. Ho! bid my trumpet sound. + CASSANDRA. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet brother! + HECTOR. Be gone, I say. The gods have heard me swear. + CASSANDRA. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows; + They are polluted off'rings, more abhorr'd + Than spotted livers in the sacrifice. + ANDROMACHE. O, be persuaded! Do not count it holy + To hurt by being just. It is as lawful, + For we would give much, to use violent thefts + And rob in the behalf of charity. + CASSANDRA. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow; + But vows to every purpose must not hold. + Unarm, sweet Hector. + HECTOR. Hold you still, I say. + Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate. + Life every man holds dear; but the dear man + Holds honour far more precious dear than life. + + Enter TROILUS + + How now, young man! Mean'st thou to fight to-day? + ANDROMACHE. Cassandra, call my father to persuade. + Exit CASSANDRA + HECTOR. No, faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, youth; + I am to-day i' th' vein of chivalry. + Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong, + And tempt not yet the brushes of the war. + Unarm thee, go; and doubt thou not, brave boy, + I'll stand to-day for thee and me and Troy. + TROILUS. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you + Which better fits a lion than a man. + HECTOR. What vice is that, good Troilus? + Chide me for it. + TROILUS. When many times the captive Grecian falls, + Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, + You bid them rise and live. + HECTOR. O, 'tis fair play! + TROILUS. Fool's play, by heaven, Hector. + HECTOR. How now! how now! + TROILUS. For th' love of all the gods, + Let's leave the hermit Pity with our mother; + And when we have our armours buckled on, + The venom'd vengeance ride upon our swords, + Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth! + HECTOR. Fie, savage, fie! + TROILUS. Hector, then 'tis wars. + HECTOR. Troilus, I would not have you fight to-day. + TROILUS. Who should withhold me? + Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars + Beck'ning with fiery truncheon my retire; + Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees, + Their eyes o'ergalled with recourse of tears; + Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn, + Oppos'd to hinder me, should stop my way, + But by my ruin. + + Re-enter CASSANDRA, with PRIAM + + CASSANDRA. Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him fast; + He is thy crutch; now if thou lose thy stay, + Thou on him leaning, and all Troy on thee, + Fall all together. + PRIAM. Come, Hector, come, go back. + Thy wife hath dreamt; thy mother hath had visions; + Cassandra doth foresee; and I myself + Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt + To tell thee that this day is ominous. + Therefore, come back. + HECTOR. Aeneas is a-field; + And I do stand engag'd to many Greeks, + Even in the faith of valour, to appear + This morning to them. + PRIAM. Ay, but thou shalt not go. + HECTOR. I must not break my faith. + You know me dutiful; therefore, dear sir, + Let me not shame respect; but give me leave + To take that course by your consent and voice + Which you do here forbid me, royal Priam. + CASSANDRA. O Priam, yield not to him! + ANDROMACHE. Do not, dear father. + HECTOR. Andromache, I am offended with you. + Upon the love you bear me, get you in. + Exit ANDROMACHE + TROILUS. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl + Makes all these bodements. + CASSANDRA. O, farewell, dear Hector! + Look how thou diest. Look how thy eye turns pale. + Look how thy wounds do bleed at many vents. + Hark how Troy roars; how Hecuba cries out; + How poor Andromache shrills her dolours forth; + Behold distraction, frenzy, and amazement, + Like witless antics, one another meet, + And all cry, Hector! Hector's dead! O Hector! + TROILUS. Away, away! + CASSANDRA. Farewell!-yet, soft! Hector, I take my leave. + Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive. Exit + HECTOR. You are amaz'd, my liege, at her exclaim. + Go in, and cheer the town; we'll forth, and fight, + Do deeds worth praise and tell you them at night. + PRIAM. Farewell. The gods with safety stand about thee! + Exeunt severally PRIAM and HECTOR. Alarums + TROILUS. They are at it, hark! Proud Diomed, believe, + I come to lose my arm or win my sleeve. + + Enter PANDARUS + + PANDARUS. Do you hear, my lord? Do you hear? + TROILUS. What now? + PANDARUS. Here's a letter come from yond poor girl. + TROILUS. Let me read. + PANDARUS. A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally tisick so troubles + me, and the foolish fortune of this girl, and what one thing, + what another, that I shall leave you one o' th's days; and I have + a rheum in mine eyes too, and such an ache in my bones that + unless a man were curs'd I cannot tell what to think on't. What + says she there? + TROILUS. Words, words, mere words, no matter from the heart; + Th' effect doth operate another way. + [Tearing the letter] + Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change together. + My love with words and errors still she feeds, + But edifies another with her deeds. Exeunt severally + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 4. +The plain between Troy and the Grecian camp + +Enter THERSITES. Excursions + + THERSITES. Now they are clapper-clawing one another; I'll go look + on. That dissembling abominable varlet, Diomed, has got that same + scurvy doting foolish young knave's sleeve of Troy there in his + helm. I would fain see them meet, that that same young Troyan ass + that loves the whore there might send that Greekish whoremasterly + villain with the sleeve back to the dissembling luxurious drab of + a sleeve-less errand. A th' t'other side, the policy of those + crafty swearing rascals-that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese, + Nestor, and that same dog-fox, Ulysses -is not prov'd worth a + blackberry. They set me up, in policy, that mongrel cur, Ajax, + against that dog of as bad a kind, Achilles; and now is the cur, + Ajax prouder than the cur Achilles, and will not arm to-day; + whereupon the Grecians begin to proclaim barbarism, and policy + grows into an ill opinion. + + Enter DIOMEDES, TROILUS following + + Soft! here comes sleeve, and t'other. + TROILUS. Fly not; for shouldst thou take the river Styx + I would swim after. + DIOMEDES. Thou dost miscall retire. + I do not fly; but advantageous care + Withdrew me from the odds of multitude. + Have at thee. + THERSITES. Hold thy whore, Grecian; now for thy whore, + Troyan-now the sleeve, now the sleeve! + Exeunt TROILUS and DIOMEDES fighting + + Enter HECTOR + + HECTOR. What art thou, Greek? Art thou for Hector's match? + Art thou of blood and honour? + THERSITES. No, no-I am a rascal; a scurvy railing knave; a very + filthy rogue. + HECTOR. I do believe thee. Live. Exit + THERSITES. God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me; but a plague + break thy neck for frighting me! What's become of the wenching + rogues? I think they have swallowed one another. I would laugh at + that miracle. Yet, in a sort, lechery eats itself. I'll seek + them. Exit + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 5. +Another part of the plain + +Enter DIOMEDES and A SERVANT + + DIOMEDES. Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus' horse; + Present the fair steed to my lady Cressid. + Fellow, commend my service to her beauty; + Tell her I have chastis'd the amorous Troyan, + And am her knight by proof. + SERVANT. I go, my lord. Exit + + Enter AGAMEMNON + + AGAMEMNON. Renew, renew! The fierce Polydamus + Hath beat down enon; bastard Margarelon + Hath Doreus prisoner, + And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam, + Upon the pashed corses of the kings + Epistrophus and Cedius. Polixenes is slain; + Amphimacus and Thoas deadly hurt; + Patroclus ta'en, or slain; and Palamedes + Sore hurt and bruis'd. The dreadful Sagittary + Appals our numbers. Haste we, Diomed, + To reinforcement, or we perish all. + + Enter NESTOR + + NESTOR. Go, bear Patroclus' body to Achilles, + And bid the snail-pac'd Ajax arm for shame. + There is a thousand Hectors in the field; + Now here he fights on Galathe his horse, + And there lacks work; anon he's there afoot, + And there they fly or die, like scaled sculls + Before the belching whale; then is he yonder, + And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge, + Fall down before him like the mower's swath. + Here, there, and everywhere, he leaves and takes; + Dexterity so obeying appetite + That what he will he does, and does so much + That proof is call'd impossibility. + + Enter ULYSSES + + ULYSSES. O, courage, courage, courage, Princes! Great + Achilles Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance. + Patroclus' wounds have rous'd his drowsy blood, + Together with his mangled Myrmidons, + That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd, come to + him, Crying on Hector. Ajax hath lost a friend + And foams at mouth, and he is arm'd and at it, + Roaring for Troilus; who hath done to-day + Mad and fantastic execution, + Engaging and redeeming of himself + With such a careless force and forceless care + As if that luck, in very spite of cunning, + Bade him win all. + + Enter AJAX + + AJAX. Troilus! thou coward Troilus! Exit + DIOMEDES. Ay, there, there. + NESTOR. So, so, we draw together. Exit + Enter ACHILLES + + ACHILLES. Where is this Hector? + Come, come, thou boy-queller, show thy face; + Know what it is to meet Achilles angry. + Hector! where's Hector? I will none but Hector. Exeunt + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 6. +Another part of the plain + +Enter AJAX + + AJAX. Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy head. + + Enter DIOMEDES + + DIOMEDES. Troilus, I say! Where's Troilus? + AJAX. What wouldst thou? + DIOMEDES. I would correct him. + AJAX. Were I the general, thou shouldst have my office + Ere that correction. Troilus, I say! What, Troilus! + + Enter TROILUS + + TROILUS. O traitor Diomed! Turn thy false face, thou traitor, + And pay thy life thou owest me for my horse. + DIOMEDES. Ha! art thou there? + AJAX. I'll fight with him alone. Stand, Diomed. + DIOMEDES. He is my prize. I will not look upon. + TROILUS. Come, both, you cogging Greeks; have at you + Exeunt fighting + + Enter HECTOR + + HECTOR. Yea, Troilus? O, well fought, my youngest brother! + + Enter ACHILLES + + ACHILLES. Now do I see thee, ha! Have at thee, Hector! + HECTOR. Pause, if thou wilt. + ACHILLES. I do disdain thy courtesy, proud Troyan. + Be happy that my arms are out of use; + My rest and negligence befriends thee now, + But thou anon shalt hear of me again; + Till when, go seek thy fortune. Exit + HECTOR. Fare thee well. + I would have been much more a fresher man, + Had I expected thee. + + Re-enter TROILUS + + How now, my brother! + TROILUS. Ajax hath ta'en Aeneas. Shall it be? + No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven, + He shall not carry him; I'll be ta'en too, + Or bring him off. Fate, hear me what I say: + I reck not though thou end my life to-day. Exit + + Enter one in armour + + HECTOR. Stand, stand, thou Greek; thou art a goodly mark. + No? wilt thou not? I like thy armour well; + I'll frush it and unlock the rivets all + But I'll be master of it. Wilt thou not, beast, abide? + Why then, fly on; I'll hunt thee for thy hide. Exeunt + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 7. +Another part of the plain + +Enter ACHILLES, with Myrmidons + + ACHILLES. Come here about me, you my Myrmidons; + Mark what I say. Attend me where I wheel; + Strike not a stroke, but keep yourselves in breath; + And when I have the bloody Hector found, + Empale him with your weapons round about; + In fellest manner execute your arms. + Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye. + It is decreed Hector the great must die. Exeunt + + Enter MENELAUS and PARIS, fighting; then THERSITES + + THERSITES. The cuckold and the cuckold-maker are at it. Now, bull! + now, dog! 'Loo, Paris, 'loo! now my double-horn'd Spartan! 'loo, + Paris, 'loo! The bull has the game. Ware horns, ho! + Exeunt PARIS and MENELAUS + + Enter MARGARELON + + MARGARELON. Turn, slave, and fight. + THERSITES. What art thou? + MARGARELON. A bastard son of Priam's. + THERSITES. I am a bastard too; I love bastards. I am a bastard + begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valour, in + everything illegitimate. One bear will not bite another, and + wherefore should one bastard? Take heed, the quarrel's most + ominous to us: if the son of a whore fight for a whore, he tempts + judgment. Farewell, bastard. + Exit + MARGARELON. The devil take thee, coward! Exit + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 8. +Another part of the plain + +Enter HECTOR + + HECTOR. Most putrified core so fair without, + Thy goodly armour thus hath cost thy life. + Now is my day's work done; I'll take good breath: + Rest, sword; thou hast thy fill of blood and death! + [Disarms] + + Enter ACHILLES and his Myrmidons + + ACHILLES. Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set; + How ugly night comes breathing at his heels; + Even with the vail and dark'ning of the sun, + To close the day up, Hector's life is done. + HECTOR. I am unarm'd; forego this vantage, Greek. + ACHILLES. Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I seek. + [HECTOR falls] + So, Ilion, fall thou next! Come, Troy, sink down; + Here lies thy heart, thy sinews, and thy bone. + On, Myrmidons, and cry you an amain + 'Achilles hath the mighty Hector slain.' + [A retreat sounded] + Hark! a retire upon our Grecian part. + MYRMIDON. The Troyan trumpets sound the like, my lord. + ACHILLES. The dragon wing of night o'erspreads the earth + And, stickler-like, the armies separates. + My half-supp'd sword, that frankly would have fed, + Pleas'd with this dainty bait, thus goes to bed. + [Sheathes his sword] + Come, tie his body to my horse's tail; + Along the field I will the Troyan trail. Exeunt + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 9. +Another part of the plain + +Sound retreat. Shout. Enter AGAMEMNON, AJAX, MENELAUS, NESTOR, DIOMEDES, +and the rest, marching + + AGAMEMNON. Hark! hark! what shout is this? + NESTOR. Peace, drums! + SOLDIERS. [Within] Achilles! Achilles! Hector's slain. Achilles! + DIOMEDES. The bruit is Hector's slain, and by Achilles. + AJAX. If it be so, yet bragless let it be; + Great Hector was as good a man as he. + AGAMEMNON. March patiently along. Let one be sent + To pray Achilles see us at our tent. + If in his death the gods have us befriended; + Great Troy is ours, and our sharp wars are ended. + Exeunt + + + + +ACT V. SCENE 10. +Another part of the plain + +Enter AENEAS, PARIS, ANTENOR, and DEIPHOBUS + + AENEAS. Stand, ho! yet are we masters of the field. + Never go home; here starve we out the night. + + Enter TROILUS + + TROILUS. Hector is slain. + ALL. Hector! The gods forbid! + TROILUS. He's dead, and at the murderer's horse's tail, + In beastly sort, dragg'd through the shameful field. + Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed. + Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at Troy. + I say at once let your brief plagues be mercy, + And linger not our sure destructions on. + AENEAS. My lord, you do discomfort all the host. + TROILUS. You understand me not that tell me so. + I do not speak of flight, of fear of death, + But dare all imminence that gods and men + Address their dangers in. Hector is gone. + Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba? + Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call'd + Go in to Troy, and say there 'Hector's dead.' + There is a word will Priam turn to stone; + Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives, + Cold statues of the youth; and, in a word, + Scare Troy out of itself. But, march away; + Hector is dead; there is no more to say. + Stay yet. You vile abominable tents, + Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains, + Let Titan rise as early as he dare, + I'll through and through you. And, thou great-siz'd coward, + No space of earth shall sunder our two hates; + I'll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still, + That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy's thoughts. + Strike a free march to Troy. With comfort go; + Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe. + + Enter PANDARUS + + PANDARUS. But hear you, hear you! + TROILUS. Hence, broker-lackey. Ignominy and shame + Pursue thy life and live aye with thy name! + Exeunt all but PANDARUS + PANDARUS. A goodly medicine for my aching bones! world! world! thus + is the poor agent despis'd! traitors and bawds, how earnestly are + you set a work, and how ill requited! Why should our endeavour be + so lov'd, and the performance so loathed? What verse for it? What + instance for it? Let me see- + + Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing + Till he hath lost his honey and his sting; + And being once subdu'd in armed trail, + Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail. + + Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted + cloths. As many as be here of pander's hall, + Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar's fall; + Or, if you cannot weep, yet give some groans, + Though not for me, yet for your aching bones. + Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade, + Some two months hence my will shall here be made. + It should be now, but that my fear is this, + Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss. + Till then I'll sweat and seek about for eases, + And at that time bequeath you my diseases. Exit + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1602 + + +TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + ORSINO, Duke of Illyria + SEBASTIAN, brother of Viola + ANTONIO, a sea captain, friend of Sebastian + A SEA CAPTAIN, friend of Viola + VALENTINE, gentleman attending on the Duke + CURIO, gentleman attending on the Duke + SIR TOBY BELCH, uncle of Olivia + SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK + MALVOLIO, steward to Olivia + FABIAN, servant to Olivia + FESTE, a clown, servant to Olivia + + OLIVIA, a rich countess + VIOLA, sister of Sebastian + MARIA, Olivia's waiting woman + + Lords, Priests, Sailors, Officers, Musicians, and Attendants + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +A city in Illyria; and the sea-coast near it + + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +The DUKE'S palace + +Enter ORSINO, Duke of Illyria, CURIO, and other LORDS; MUSICIANS attending + + DUKE. If music be the food of love, play on, + Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, + The appetite may sicken and so die. + That strain again! It had a dying fall; + O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound + That breathes upon a bank of violets, + Stealing and giving odour! Enough, no more; + 'Tis not so sweet now as it was before. + O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou! + That, notwithstanding thy capacity + Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there, + Of what validity and pitch soe'er, + But falls into abatement and low price + Even in a minute. So full of shapes is fancy, + That it alone is high fantastical. + CURIO. Will you go hunt, my lord? + DUKE. What, Curio? + CURIO. The hart. + DUKE. Why, so I do, the noblest that I have. + O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, + Methought she purg'd the air of pestilence! + That instant was I turn'd into a hart, + And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, + E'er since pursue me. + + Enter VALENTINE + + How now! what news from her? + VALENTINE. So please my lord, I might not be admitted, + But from her handmaid do return this answer: + The element itself, till seven years' heat, + Shall not behold her face at ample view; + But like a cloistress she will veiled walk, + And water once a day her chamber round + With eye-offending brine; all this to season + A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh + And lasting in her sad remembrance. + DUKE. O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame + To pay this debt of love but to a brother, + How will she love when the rich golden shaft + Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else + That live in her; when liver, brain, and heart, + These sovereign thrones, are all supplied and fill'd, + Her sweet perfections, with one self king! + Away before me to sweet beds of flow'rs: + Love-thoughts lie rich when canopied with bow'rs. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +The sea-coast + +Enter VIOLA, a CAPTAIN, and SAILORS + + VIOLA. What country, friends, is this? + CAPTAIN. This is Illyria, lady. + VIOLA. And what should I do in Illyria? + My brother he is in Elysium. + Perchance he is not drown'd- what think you, sailors? + CAPTAIN. It is perchance that you yourself were saved. + VIOLA. O my poor brother! and so perchance may he be. + CAPTAIN. True, madam, and, to comfort you with chance, + Assure yourself, after our ship did split, + When you, and those poor number saved with you, + Hung on our driving boat, I saw your brother, + Most provident in peril, bind himself- + Courage and hope both teaching him the practice- + To a strong mast that liv'd upon the sea; + Where, like Arion on the dolphin's back, + I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves + So long as I could see. + VIOLA. For saying so, there's gold. + Mine own escape unfoldeth to my hope, + Whereto thy speech serves for authority, + The like of him. Know'st thou this country? + CAPTAIN. Ay, madam, well; for I was bred and born + Not three hours' travel from this very place. + VIOLA. Who governs here? + CAPTAIN. A noble duke, in nature as in name. + VIOLA. What is his name? + CAPTAIN. Orsino. + VIOLA. Orsino! I have heard my father name him. + He was a bachelor then. + CAPTAIN. And so is now, or was so very late; + For but a month ago I went from hence, + And then 'twas fresh in murmur- as, you know, + What great ones do the less will prattle of- + That he did seek the love of fair Olivia. + VIOLA. What's she? + CAPTAIN. A virtuous maid, the daughter of a count + That died some twelvemonth since, then leaving her + In the protection of his son, her brother, + Who shortly also died; for whose dear love, + They say, she hath abjur'd the company + And sight of men. + VIOLA. O that I serv'd that lady, + And might not be delivered to the world, + Till I had made mine own occasion mellow, + What my estate is! + CAPTAIN. That were hard to compass, + Because she will admit no kind of suit- + No, not the Duke's. + VIOLA. There is a fair behaviour in thee, Captain; + And though that nature with a beauteous wall + Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee + I will believe thou hast a mind that suits + With this thy fair and outward character. + I prithee, and I'll pay thee bounteously, + Conceal me what I am, and be my aid + For such disguise as haply shall become + The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke: + Thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him; + It may be worth thy pains, for I can sing + And speak to him in many sorts of music, + That will allow me very worth his service. + What else may hap to time I will commit; + Only shape thou silence to my wit. + CAPTAIN. Be you his eunuch and your mute I'll be; + When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes not see. + VIOLA. I thank thee. Lead me on. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +OLIVIA'S house + +Enter SIR TOBY BELCH and MARIA + + SIR TOBY. What a plague means my niece to take the death of her + brother thus? I am sure care's an enemy to life. + MARIA. By my troth, Sir Toby, you must come in earlier o' nights; + your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours. + SIR TOBY. Why, let her except before excepted. + MARIA. Ay, but you must confine yourself within the modest limits + of order. + SIR TOBY. Confine! I'll confine myself no finer than I am. These + clothes are good enough to drink in, and so be these boots too; + an they be not, let them hang themselves in their own straps. + MARIA. That quaffing and drinking will undo you; I heard my lady + talk of it yesterday, and of a foolish knight that you brought in + one night here to be her wooer. + SIR TOBY. Who? Sir Andrew Aguecheek? + MARIA. Ay, he. + SIR TOBY. He's as tall a man as any's in Illyria. + MARIA. What's that to th' purpose? + SIR TOBY. Why, he has three thousand ducats a year. + MARIA. Ay, but he'll have but a year in all these ducats; he's a + very fool and a prodigal. + SIR TOBY. Fie that you'll say so! He plays o' th' viol-de-gamboys, + and speaks three or four languages word for word without book, + and hath all the good gifts of nature. + MARIA. He hath indeed, almost natural; for, besides that he's a + fool, he's a great quarreller; and but that he hath the gift of a + coward to allay the gust he hath in quarrelling, 'tis thought + among the prudent he would quickly have the gift of a grave. + SIR TOBY. By this hand, they are scoundrels and subtractors that + say so of him. Who are they? + MARIA. They that add, moreover, he's drunk nightly in your company. + SIR TOBY. With drinking healths to my niece; I'll drink to her as + long as there is a passage in my throat and drink in Illyria. + He's a coward and a coystrill that will not drink to my niece + till his brains turn o' th' toe like a parish-top. What, wench! + Castiliano vulgo! for here comes Sir Andrew Agueface. + + Enter SIR ANDREW AGUECHEEK + + AGUECHEEK. Sir Toby Belch! How now, Sir Toby Belch! + SIR TOBY. Sweet Sir Andrew! + AGUECHEEK. Bless you, fair shrew. + MARIA. And you too, sir. + SIR TOBY. Accost, Sir Andrew, accost. + AGUECHEEK. What's that? + SIR TOBY. My niece's chambermaid. + AGUECHEEK. Good Mistress Accost, I desire better acquaintance. + MARIA. My name is Mary, sir. + AGUECHEEK. Good Mistress Mary Accost- + SIR Toby. You mistake, knight. 'Accost' is front her, board her, + woo her, assail her. + AGUECHEEK. By my troth, I would not undertake her in this company. + Is that the meaning of 'accost'? + MARIA. Fare you well, gentlemen. + SIR TOBY. An thou let part so, Sir Andrew, would thou mightst never + draw sword again! + AGUECHEEK. An you part so, mistress, I would I might never draw + sword again. Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand? + MARIA. Sir, I have not you by th' hand. + AGUECHEEK. Marry, but you shall have; and here's my hand. + MARIA. Now, sir, thought is free. I pray you, bring your hand to + th' buttry-bar and let it drink. + AGUECHEEK. Wherefore, sweetheart? What's your metaphor? + MARIA. It's dry, sir. + AGUECHEEK. Why, I think so; I am not such an ass but I can keep my + hand dry. But what's your jest? + MARIA. A dry jest, sir. + AGUECHEEK. Are you full of them? + MARIA. Ay, sir, I have them at my fingers' ends; marry, now I let + go your hand, I am barren. Exit MARIA + SIR TOBY. O knight, thou lack'st a cup of canary! When did I see + thee so put down? + AGUECHEEK. Never in your life, I think; unless you see canary put + me down. Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian + or an ordinary man has; but I am great eater of beef, and I + believe that does harm to my wit. + SIR TOBY. No question. + AGUECHEEK. An I thought that, I'd forswear it. I'll ride home + to-morrow, Sir Toby. + SIR TOBY. Pourquoi, my dear knight? + AGUECHEEK. What is 'pourquoi'- do or not do? I would I had bestowed + that time in the tongues that I have in fencing, dancing, and + bear-baiting. Oh, had I but followed the arts! + SIR TOBY. Then hadst thou had an excellent head of hair. + AGUECHEEK. Why, would that have mended my hair? + SIR TOBY. Past question; for thou seest it will not curl by nature. + AGUECHEEK. But it becomes me well enough, does't not? + SIR TOBY. Excellent; it hangs like flax on a distaff, and I hope to + see a huswife take thee between her legs and spin it off. + AGUECHEEK. Faith, I'll home to-morrow, Sir Toby. Your niece will + not be seen, or if she be, it's four to one she'll none of me; + the Count himself here hard by woos her. + SIR TOBY. She'll none o' th' Count; she'll not match above her + degree, neither in estate, years, nor wit; I have heard her + swear't. Tut, there's life in't, man. + AGUECHEEK. I'll stay a month longer. I am a fellow o' th' strangest + mind i' th' world; I delight in masques and revels sometimes + altogether. + SIR TOBY. Art thou good at these kickshawses, knight? + AGUECHEEK. As any man in Illyria, whatsoever he be, under the + degree of my betters; and yet I will not compare with an old man. + SIR TOBY. What is thy excellence in a galliard, knight? + AGUECHEEK. Faith, I can cut a caper. + SIR TOBY. And I can cut the mutton to't. + AGUECHEEK. And I think I have the back-trick simply as strong as + any man in Illyria. + SIR TOBY. Wherefore are these things hid? Wherefore have these + gifts a curtain before 'em? Are they like to take dust, like + Mistress Mall's picture? Why dost thou not go to church in a + galliard and come home in a coranto? My very walk should be a + jig; I would not so much as make water but in a sink-a-pace. What + dost thou mean? Is it a world to hide virtues in? I did think, by + the excellent constitution of thy leg, it was form'd under the + star of a galliard. + AGUECHEEK. Ay, 'tis strong, and it does indifferent well in + flame-colour'd stock. Shall we set about some revels? + SIR TOBY. What shall we do else? Were we not born under Taurus? + AGUECHEEK. Taurus? That's sides and heart. + SIR TOBY. No, sir; it is legs and thighs. Let me see the caper. Ha, + higher! Ha, ha, excellent! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +The DUKE'S palace + +Enter VALENTINE, and VIOLA in man's attire + + VALENTINE. If the Duke continue these favours towards you, Cesario, + you are like to be much advanc'd; he hath known you but three + days, and already you are no stranger. + VIOLA. You either fear his humour or my negligence, that you call + in question the continuance of his love. Is he inconstant, sir, + in his favours? + VALENTINE. No, believe me. + + Enter DUKE, CURIO, and ATTENDANTS + + VIOLA. I thank you. Here comes the Count. + DUKE. Who saw Cesario, ho? + VIOLA. On your attendance, my lord, here. + DUKE. Stand you awhile aloof. Cesario, + Thou know'st no less but all; I have unclasp'd + To thee the book even of my secret soul. + Therefore, good youth, address thy gait unto her; + Be not denied access, stand at her doors, + And tell them there thy fixed foot shall grow + Till thou have audience. + VIOLA. Sure, my noble lord, + If she be so abandon'd to her sorrow + As it is spoke, she never will admit me. + DUKE. Be clamorous and leap all civil bounds, + Rather than make unprofited return. + VIOLA. Say I do speak with her, my lord, what then? + DUKE. O, then unfold the passion of my love, + Surprise her with discourse of my dear faith! + It shall become thee well to act my woes: + She will attend it better in thy youth + Than in a nuncio's of more grave aspect. + VIOLA. I think not so, my lord. + DUKE. Dear lad, believe it, + For they shall yet belie thy happy years + That say thou art a man: Diana's lip + Is not more smooth and rubious; thy small pipe + Is as the maiden's organ, shrill and sound, + And all is semblative a woman's part. + I know thy constellation is right apt + For this affair. Some four or five attend him- + All, if you will, for I myself am best + When least in company. Prosper well in this, + And thou shalt live as freely as thy lord + To call his fortunes thine. + VIOLA. I'll do my best + To woo your lady. [Aside] Yet, a barful strife! + Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife. + + + + +SCENE V. +OLIVIA'S house + +Enter MARIA and CLOWN + + MARIA. Nay, either tell me where thou hast been, or I will not open + my lips so wide as a bristle may enter in way of thy excuse; my + lady will hang thee for thy absence. + CLOWN. Let her hang me. He that is well hang'd in this world needs + to fear no colours. + MARIA. Make that good. + CLOWN. He shall see none to fear. + MARIA. A good lenten answer. I can tell thee where that saying was + born, of 'I fear no colours.' + CLOWN. Where, good Mistress Mary? + MARIA. In the wars; and that may you be bold to say in your + foolery. + CLOWN. Well, God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are + fools, let them use their talents. + MARIA. Yet you will be hang'd for being so long absent; or to be + turn'd away- is not that as good as a hanging to you? + CLOWN. Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage; and for turning + away, let summer bear it out. + MARIA. You are resolute, then? + CLOWN. Not so, neither; but I am resolv'd on two points. + MARIA. That if one break, the other will hold; or if both break, + your gaskins fall. + CLOWN. Apt, in good faith, very apt! Well, go thy way; if Sir Toby + would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a piece of Eve's flesh + as any in Illyria. + MARIA. Peace, you rogue, no more o' that. Here comes my lady. Make + your excuse wisely, you were best. Exit + + Enter OLIVIA and MALVOLIO + + CLOWN. Wit, an't be thy will, put me into good fooling! Those wits + that think they have thee do very oft prove fools; and I that am + sure I lack thee may pass for a wise man. For what says + Quinapalus? 'Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.' God bless + thee, lady! + OLIVIA. Take the fool away. + CLOWN. Do you not hear, fellows? Take away the lady. + OLIVIA. Go to, y'are a dry fool; I'll no more of you. Besides, you + grow dishonest. + CLOWN. Two faults, madonna, that drink and good counsel will amend; + for give the dry fool drink, then is the fool not dry. Bid the + dishonest man mend himself: if he mend, he is no longer + dishonest; if he cannot, let the botcher mend him. Anything + that's mended is but patch'd; virtue that transgresses is but + patch'd with sin, and sin that amends is but patch'd with virtue. + If that this simple syllogism will serve, so; if it will not, + what remedy? As there is no true cuckold but calamity, so + beauty's a flower. The lady bade take away the fool; therefore, I + say again, take her away. + OLIVIA. Sir, I bade them take away you. + CLOWN. Misprision in the highest degree! Lady, 'Cucullus non facit + monachum'; that's as much to say as I wear not motley in my + brain. Good madonna, give me leave to prove you a fool. + OLIVIA. Can you do it? + CLOWN. Dexteriously, good madonna. + OLIVIA. Make your proof. + CLOWN. I must catechize you for it, madonna. + Good my mouse of virtue, answer me. + OLIVIA. Well, sir, for want of other idleness, I'll bide your + proof. + CLOWN. Good madonna, why mourn'st thou? + OLIVIA. Good fool, for my brother's death. + CLOWN. I think his soul is in hell, madonna. + OLIVIA. I know his soul is in heaven, fool. + CLOWN. The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul + being in heaven. Take away the fool, gentlemen. + OLIVIA. What think you of this fool, Malvolio? Doth he not mend? + MALVOLIO. Yes, and shall do, till the pangs of death shake him. + Infirmity, that decays the wise, doth ever make the better fool. + CLOWN. God send you, sir, a speedy infirmity, for the better + increasing your folly! Sir Toby will be sworn that I am no fox; + but he will not pass his word for twopence that you are no fool. + OLIVIA. How say you to that, Malvolio? + MALVOLIO. I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren + rascal; I saw him put down the other day with an ordinary fool + that has no more brain than a stone. Look you now, he's out of + his guard already; unless you laugh and minister occasion to him, + he is gagg'd. I protest I take these wise men that crow so at + these set kind of fools no better than the fools' zanies. + OLIVIA. O, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a + distemper'd appetite. To be generous, guiltless, and of free + disposition, is to take those things for bird-bolts that you deem + cannon bullets. There is no slander in an allow'd fool, though he + do nothing but rail; nor no railing in known discreet man, though + he do nothing but reprove. + CLOWN. Now Mercury endue thee with leasing, for thou speak'st well + of fools! + + Re-enter MARIA + + MARIA. Madam, there is at the gate a young gentleman much desires + to speak with you. + OLIVIA. From the Count Orsino, is it? + MARIA. I know not, madam; 'tis a fair young man, and well attended. + OLIVIA. Who of my people hold him in delay? + MARIA. Sir Toby, madam, your kinsman. + OLIVIA. Fetch him off, I pray you; he speaks nothing but madman. + Fie on him! [Exit MARIA] Go you, Malvolio: if it be a suit from + the Count, I am sick, or not at home- what you will to dismiss + it. [Exit MALVOLIO] Now you see, sir, how your fooling grows old, + and people dislike it. + CLOWN. Thou hast spoke for us, madonna, as if thy eldest son should + be a fool; whose skull Jove cram with brains! For- here he comes- + one of thy kin has a most weak pia mater. + + Enter SIR TOBY + + OLIVIA. By mine honour, half drunk! What is he at the gate, cousin? + SIR TOBY. A gentleman. + OLIVIA. A gentleman! What gentleman? + SIR TOBY. 'Tis a gentleman here. [Hiccups] A plague o' these + pickle-herring! How now, sot! + CLOWN. Good Sir Toby! + OLIVIA. Cousin, cousin, how have you come so early by this + lethargy? + SIR TOBY. Lechery! I defy lechery. There's one at the gate. + OLIVIA. Ay, marry; what is he? + SIR TOBY. Let him be the devil an he will, I care not; give me + faith, say I. Well, it's all one. Exit + OLIVIA. What's a drunken man like, fool? + CLOWN. Like a drown'd man, a fool, and a madman: one draught above + heat makes him a fool; the second mads him; and a third drowns + him. + OLIVIA. Go thou and seek the crowner, and let him sit o' my coz; + for he's in the third degree of drink, he's drown'd; go look + after him. + CLOWN. He is but mad yet, madonna, and the fool shall look to the + madman. Exit + + Re-enter MALVOLIO + + MALVOLIO. Madam, yond young fellow swears he will speak with you. I + told him you were sick; he takes on him to understand so much, + and therefore comes to speak with you. I told him you were + asleep; he seems to have a foreknowledge of that too, and + therefore comes to speak with you. What is to be said to him, + lady? He's fortified against any denial. + OLIVIA. Tell him he shall not speak with me. + MALVOLIO. Has been told so; and he says he'll stand at your door + like a sheriff's post, and be the supporter to a bench, but he'll + speak with you. + OLIVIA. What kind o' man is he? + MALVOLIO. Why, of mankind. + OLIVIA. What manner of man? + MALVOLIO. Of very ill manner; he'll speak with you, will you or no. + OLIVIA. Of what personage and years is he? + MALVOLIO. Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy; + as a squash is before 'tis a peascod, or a codling when 'tis + almost an apple; 'tis with him in standing water, between boy and + man. He is very well-favour'd, and he speaks very shrewishly; one + would think his mother's milk were scarce out of him. + OLIVIA. Let him approach. Call in my gentlewoman. + MALVOLIO. Gentlewoman, my lady calls. Exit + + Re-enter MARIA + + OLIVIA. Give me my veil; come, throw it o'er my face; + We'll once more hear Orsino's embassy. + + Enter VIOLA + + VIOLA. The honourable lady of the house, which is she? + OLIVIA. Speak to me; I shall answer for her. Your will? + VIOLA. Most radiant, exquisite, and unmatchable beauty- I pray you + tell me if this be the lady of the house, for I never saw her. I + would be loath to cast away my speech; for, besides that it is + excellently well penn'd, I have taken great pains to con it. Good + beauties, let me sustain no scorn; I am very comptible, even to + the least sinister usage. + OLIVIA. Whence came you, sir? + VIOLA. I can say little more than I have studied, and that + question's out of my part. Good gentle one, give me modest + assurance if you be the lady of the house, that I may proceed in + my speech. + OLIVIA. Are you a comedian? + VIOLA. No, my profound heart; and yet, by the very fangs of malice + I swear, I am not that I play. Are you the lady of the house? + OLIVIA. If I do not usurp myself, I am. + VIOLA. Most certain, if you are she, you do usurp yourself; for + what is yours to bestow is not yours to reserve. But this is from + my commission. I will on with my speech in your praise, and then + show you the heart of my message. + OLIVIA. Come to what is important in't. I forgive you the praise. + VIOLA. Alas, I took great pains to study it, and 'tis poetical. + OLIVIA. It is the more like to be feigned; I pray you keep it in. I + heard you were saucy at my gates, and allow'd your approach + rather to wonder at you than to hear you. If you be not mad, be + gone; if you have reason, be brief; 'tis not that time of moon + with me to make one in so skipping dialogue. + MARIA. Will you hoist sail, sir? Here lies your way. + VIOLA. No, good swabber, I am to hull here a little longer. + Some mollification for your giant, sweet lady. + OLIVIA. Tell me your mind. + VIOLA. I am a messenger. + OLIVIA. Sure, you have some hideous matter to deliver, when the + courtesy of it is so fearful. Speak your office. + VIOLA. It alone concerns your ear. I bring no overture of war, no + taxation of homage: I hold the olive in my hand; my words are as + full of peace as matter. + OLIVIA. Yet you began rudely. What are you? What would you? + VIOLA. The rudeness that hath appear'd in me have I learn'd from my + entertainment. What I am and what I would are as secret as + maidenhead- to your cars, divinity; to any other's, profanation. + OLIVIA. Give us the place alone; we will hear this divinity. + [Exeunt MARIA and ATTENDANTS] Now, sir, what is your text? + VIOLA. Most sweet lady- + OLIVIA. A comfortable doctrine, and much may be said of it. + Where lies your text? + VIOLA. In Orsino's bosom. + OLIVIA. In his bosom! In what chapter of his bosom? + VIOLA. To answer by the method: in the first of his heart. + OLIVIA. O, I have read it; it is heresy. Have you no more to say? + VIOLA. Good madam, let me see your face. + OLIVIA. Have you any commission from your lord to negotiate with my + face? You are now out of your text; but we will draw the curtain + and show you the picture. [Unveiling] Look you, sir, such a one I + was this present. Is't not well done? + VIOLA. Excellently done, if God did all. + OLIVIA. 'Tis in grain, sir; 'twill endure wind and weather. + VIOLA. 'Tis beauty truly blent, whose red and white + Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on. + Lady, you are the cruell'st she alive, + If you will lead these graces to the grave, + And leave the world no copy. + OLIVIA. O, sir, I will not be so hard-hearted; I will give out + divers schedules of my beauty. It shall be inventoried, and every + particle and utensil labell'd to my will: as- item, two lips + indifferent red; item, two grey eyes with lids to them; item, one + neck, one chin, and so forth. Were you sent hither to praise me? + VIOLA. I see you what you are: you are too proud; + But, if you were the devil, you are fair. + My lord and master loves you- O, such love + Could be but recompens'd though you were crown'd + The nonpareil of beauty! + OLIVIA. How does he love me? + VIOLA. With adorations, fertile tears, + With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire. + OLIVIA. Your lord does know my mind; I cannot love him. + Yet I suppose him virtuous, know him noble, + Of great estate, of fresh and stainless youth; + In voices well divulg'd, free, learn'd, and valiant, + And in dimension and the shape of nature + A gracious person; but yet I cannot love him. + He might have took his answer long ago. + VIOLA. If I did love you in my master's flame, + With such a suff'ring, such a deadly life, + In your denial I would find no sense; + I would not understand it. + OLIVIA. Why, what would you? + VIOLA. Make me a willow cabin at your gate, + And call upon my soul within the house; + Write loyal cantons of contemned love + And sing them loud even in the dead of night; + Halloo your name to the reverberate hals, + And make the babbling gossip of the air + Cry out 'Olivia!' O, you should not rest + Between the elements of air and earth + But you should pity me! + OLIVIA. You might do much. + What is your parentage? + VIOLA. Above my fortunes, yet my state is well: + I am a gentleman. + OLIVIA. Get you to your lord. + I cannot love him; let him send no more- + Unless perchance you come to me again + To tell me how he takes it. Fare you well. + I thank you for your pains; spend this for me. + VIOLA. I am no fee'd post, lady; keep your purse; + My master, not myself, lacks recompense. + Love make his heart of flint that you shall love; + And let your fervour, like my master's, be + Plac'd in contempt! Farewell, fair cruelty. Exit + OLIVIA. 'What is your parentage?' + 'Above my fortunes, yet my state is well: + I am a gentleman.' I'll be sworn thou art; + Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit, + Do give thee five-fold blazon. Not too fast! Soft, soft! + Unless the master were the man. How now! + Even so quickly may one catch the plague? + Methinks I feel this youth's perfections + With an invisible and subtle stealth + To creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be. + What ho, Malvolio! + + Re-enter MALVOLIO + + MALVOLIO. Here, madam, at your service. + OLIVIA. Run after that same peevish messenger, + The County's man. He left this ring behind him, + Would I or not. Tell him I'll none of it. + Desire him not to flatter with his lord, + Nor hold him up with hopes; I am not for him. + If that the youth will come this way to-morrow, + I'll give him reasons for't. Hie thee, Malvolio. + MALVOLIO. Madam, I will. Exit + OLIVIA. I do I know not what, and fear to find + Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind. + Fate, show thy force: ourselves we do not owe; + What is decreed must be; and be this so! Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +The sea-coast + +Enter ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN + + ANTONIO. Will you stay no longer; nor will you not that I go with + you? + SEBASTIAN. By your patience, no. My stars shine darkly over me; the + malignancy of my fate might perhaps distemper yours; therefore I + shall crave of you your leave that I may bear my evils alone. It + were a bad recompense for your love to lay any of them on you. + ANTONIO. Let me know of you whither you are bound. + SEBASTIAN. No, sooth, sir; my determinate voyage is mere + extravagancy. But I perceive in you so excellent a touch of + modesty that you will not extort from me what I am willing to + keep in; therefore it charges me in manners the rather to express + myself. You must know of me then, Antonio, my name is Sebastian, + which I call'd Roderigo; my father was that Sebastian of + Messaline whom I know you have heard of. He left behind him + myself and a sister, both born in an hour; if the heavens had + been pleas'd, would we had so ended! But you, sir, alter'd that; + for some hour before you took me from the breach of the sea was + my sister drown'd. + ANTONIO. Alas the day! + SEBASTIAN. A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled me, + was yet of many accounted beautiful; but though I could not with + such estimable wonder overfar believe that, yet thus far I will + boldly publish her: she bore mind that envy could not but call + fair. She is drown'd already, sir, with salt water, though I seem + to drown her remembrance again with more. + ANTONIO. Pardon me, sir, your bad entertainment. + SEBASTIAN. O good Antonio, forgive me your trouble. + ANTONIO. If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your + servant. + SEBASTIAN. If you will not undo what you have done- that is, kill + him whom you have recover'd-desire it not. Fare ye well at once; + my bosom is full of kindness, and I am yet so near the manners of + my mother that, upon the least occasion more, mine eyes will tell + tales of me. I am bound to the Count Orsino's court. Farewell. + Exit + ANTONIO. The gentleness of all the gods go with thee! + I have many cnemies in Orsino's court, + Else would I very shortly see thee there. + But come what may, I do adore thee so + That danger shall seem sport, and I will go. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +A street + +Enter VIOLA and MALVOLIO at several doors + + MALVOLIO. Were you not ev'n now with the Countess Olivia? + VIOLA. Even now, sir; on a moderate pace I have since arriv'd but + hither. + MALVOLIO. She returns this ring to you, sir; you might have saved + me my pains, to have taken it away yourself. She adds, moreover, + that you should put your lord into a desperate assurance she will + none of him. And one thing more: that you be never so hardy to + come again in his affairs, unless it be to report your lord's + taking of this. Receive it so. + VIOLA. She took the ring of me; I'll none of it. + MALVOLIO. Come, sir, you peevishly threw it to her; and her will is + it should be so return'd. If it be worth stooping for, there it + lies in your eye; if not, be it his that finds it. + Exit + VIOLA. I left no ring with her; what means this lady? + Fortune forbid my outside have not charm'd her! + She made good view of me; indeed, so much + That methought her eyes had lost her tongue, + For she did speak in starts distractedly. + She loves me, sure: the cunning of her passion + Invites me in this churlish messenger. + None of my lord's ring! Why, he sent her none. + I am the man. If it be so- as 'tis- + Poor lady, she were better love a dream. + Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness + Wherein the pregnant enemy does much. + How easy is it for the proper-false + In women's waxen hearts to set their forms! + Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we! + For such as we are made of, such we be. + How will this fadge? My master loves her dearly, + And I, poor monster, fond as much on him; + And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me. + What will become of this? As I am man, + My state is desperate for my master's love; + As I am woman- now alas the day!- + What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe! + O Time, thou must untangle this, not I; + It is too hard a knot for me t' untie! Exit + + + + +SCENE III. +OLIVIA'S house + +Enter SIR TOBY and SIR ANDREW + + SIR TOBY. Approach, Sir Andrew. Not to be abed after midnight is to + be up betimes; and 'diluculo surgere' thou know'st- + AGUECHEEK. Nay, by my troth, I know not; but I know to be up late + is to be up late. + SIR TOBY. A false conclusion! I hate it as an unfill'd can. To be + up after midnight and to go to bed then is early; so that to go + to bed after midnight is to go to bed betimes. Does not our lives + consist of the four elements? + AGUECHEEK. Faith, so they say; but I think it rather consists of + eating and drinking. + SIR TOBY. Th'art a scholar; let us therefore eat and drink. + Marian, I say! a stoup of wine. + + Enter CLOWN + + AGUECHEEK. Here comes the fool, i' faith. + CLOWN. How now, my hearts! Did you never see the picture of 'we + three'? + SIR TOBY. Welcome, ass. Now let's have a catch. + AGUECHEEK. By my troth, the fool has an excellent breast. I had + rather than forty shillings I had such a leg, and so sweet a + breath to sing, as the fool has. In sooth, thou wast in very + gracious fooling last night, when thou spok'st of Pigrogromitus, + of the Vapians passing the equinoctial of Queubus; 'twas very + good, i' faith. I sent thee sixpence for thy leman; hadst it? + CLOWN. I did impeticos thy gratillity; for Malvolio's nose is no + whipstock. My lady has a white hand, and the Myrmidons are no + bottle-ale houses. + AGUECHEEK. Excellent! Why, this is the best fooling, when all is + done. Now, a song. + SIR TOBY. Come on, there is sixpence for you. Let's have a song. + AGUECHEEK. There's a testril of me too; if one knight give a- +CLOWN. Would you have a love-song, or a song of good life? + SIR TOBY. A love-song, a love-song. + AGUECHEEK. Ay, ay; I care not for good life. + + CLOWN sings + + O mistress mine, where are you roaming? + O, stay and hear; your true love's coming, + That can sing both high and low. + Trip no further, pretty sweeting; + Journeys end in lovers meeting, + Every wise man's son doth know. + + AGUECHEEK. Excellent good, i' faith! + SIR TOBY. Good, good! + + CLOWN sings + + What is love? 'Tis not hereafter; + Present mirth hath present laughter; + What's to come is still unsure. + In delay there lies no plenty, + Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty; + Youth's a stuff will not endure. + + AGUECHEEK. A mellifluous voice, as I am true knight. + SIR TOBY. A contagious breath. + AGUECHEEK. Very sweet and contagious, i' faith. + SIR TOBY. To hear by the nose, it is dulcet in contagion. But shall + we make the welkin dance indeed? Shall we rouse the night-owl in + a catch that will draw three souls out of one weaver? Shall we do + that? + AGUECHEEK. An you love me, let's do't. I am dog at a catch. + CLOWN. By'r lady, sir, and some dogs will catch well. + AGUECHEEK. Most certain. Let our catch be 'Thou knave.' + CLOWN. 'Hold thy peace, thou knave' knight? I shall be constrain'd + in't to call thee knave, knight. + AGUECHEEK. 'Tis not the first time I have constrained one to call + me knave. Begin, fool: it begins 'Hold thy peace.' + CLOWN. I shall never begin if I hold my peace. + AGUECHEEK. Good, i' faith! Come, begin. [Catch sung] + + Enter MARIA + + MARIA. What a caterwauling do you keep here! If my lady have not + call'd up her steward Malvolio, and bid him turn you out of + doors, never trust me. + SIR TOBY. My lady's a Cataian, we are politicians, Malvolio's a + Peg-a-Ramsey, and [Sings] + Three merry men be we. + Am not I consanguineous? Am I not of her blood? Tilly-vally, + lady. [Sings] + There dwelt a man in Babylon, + Lady, lady. + CLOWN. Beshrew me, the knight's in admirable fooling. + AGUECHEEK. Ay, he does well enough if he be dispos'd, and so do I + too; he does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural. + SIR TOBY. [Sings] O' the twelfth day of December- + MARIA. For the love o' God, peace! + + Enter MALVOLIO + + MALVOLIO. My masters, are you mad? Or what are you? Have you no + wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this + time of night? Do ye make an ale-house of my lady's house, that + ye squeak out your coziers' catches without any mitigation or + remorse of voice? Is there no respect of place, persons, nor + time, in you? + SIR TOBY. We did keep time, sir, in our catches. Sneck up! + MALVOLIO. Sir Toby, I must be round with you. My lady bade me tell + you that, though she harbours you as her kins-man, she's nothing + allied to your disorders. If you can separate yourself and your + misdemeanours, you are welcome to the house; if not, and it would + please you to take leave of her, she is very willing to bid you + farewell. + SIR TOBY. [Sings] Farewell, dear heart, since I must needs be gone. + MARIA. Nay, good Sir Toby. + CLOWN. [Sings] His eyes do show his days are almost done. + MALVOLIO. Is't even so? + SIR TOBY. [Sings] But I will never die. [Falls down] + CLOWN. [Sings] Sir Toby, there you lie. + MALVOLIO. This is much credit to you. + SIR TOBY. [Sings] Shall I bid him go? + CLOWN. [Sings] What an if you do? + SIR TOBY. [Sings] Shall I bid him go, and spare not? + CLOWN. [Sings] O, no, no, no, no, you dare not. + SIR TOBY. [Rising] Out o' tune, sir! Ye lie. Art any more than a + steward? Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall + be no more cakes and ale? + CLOWN. Yes, by Saint Anne; and ginger shall be hot i' th' mouth + too. + SIR TOBY. Th' art i' th' right. Go, sir, rub your chain with crumbs. + A stoup of wine, Maria! + MALVOLIO. Mistress Mary, if you priz'd my lady's favour at anything + more than contempt, you would not give means for this uncivil + rule; she shall know of it, by this hand. + Exit + MARIA. Go shake your ears. + AGUECHEEK. 'Twere as good a deed as to drink when a man's ahungry, + to challenge him the field, and then to break promise with him + and make a fool of him. + SIR TOBY. Do't, knight. I'll write thee a challenge; or I'll + deliver thy indignation to him by word of mouth. + MARIA. Sweet Sir Toby, be patient for to-night; since the youth of + the Count's was to-day with my lady, she is much out of quiet. + For Monsieur Malvolio, let me alone with him; if I do not gull + him into a nayword, and make him a common recreation, do not + think I have wit enough to lie straight in my bed. I know I can + do it. + SIR TOBY. Possess us, possess us; tell us something of him. + MARIA. Marry, sir, sometimes he is a kind of Puritan. + AGUECHEEK. O, if I thought that, I'd beat him like a dog. + SIR TOBY. What, for being a Puritan? Thy exquisite reason, dear + knight? + AGUECHEEK. I have no exquisite reason for't, but I have reason good + enough. + MARIA. The devil a Puritan that he is, or anything constantly but a + time-pleaser; an affection'd ass that cons state without book and + utters it by great swarths; the best persuaded of himself, so + cramm'd, as he thinks, with excellencies that it is his grounds + of faith that all that look on him love him; and on that vice in + him will my revenge find notable cause to work. + SIR TOBY. What wilt thou do? + MARIA. I will drop in his way some obscure epistles of love; + wherein, by the colour of his beard, the shape of his leg, the + manner of his gait, the expressure of his eye, forehead, and + complexion, he shall find himself most feelingly personated. I + can write very like my lady, your niece; on forgotten matter we + can hardly make distinction of our hands. + SIR TOBY. Excellent! I smell a device. + AGUECHEEK. I have't in my nose too. + SIR TOBY. He shall think, by the letters that thou wilt drop, that + they come from my niece, and that she's in love with him. + MARIA. My purpose is, indeed, a horse of that colour. + AGUECHEEK. And your horse now would make him an ass. + MARIA. Ass, I doubt not. + AGUECHEEK. O, 'twill be admirable! + MARIA. Sport royal, I warrant you. I know my physic will work with + him. I will plant you two, and let the fool make a third, where + he shall find the letter; observe his construction of it. For + this night, to bed, and dream on the event. Farewell. + Exit + SIR TOBY. Good night, Penthesilea. + AGUECHEEK. Before me, she's a good wench. + SIR TOBY. She's a beagle true-bred, and one that adores me. + What o' that? + AGUECHEEK. I was ador'd once too. + SIR TOBY. Let's to bed, knight. Thou hadst need send for more + money. + AGUECHEEK. If I cannot recover your niece, I am a foul way out. + SIR TOBY. Send for money, knight; if thou hast her not i' th' end, + call me Cut. + AGUECHEEK. If I do not, never trust me; take it how you will. + SIR TOBY. Come, come, I'll go burn some sack; 'tis too late to go + to bed now. Come, knight; come, knight. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +The DUKE'S palace + +Enter DUKE, VIOLA, CURIO, and OTHERS + + DUKE. Give me some music. Now, good morrow, friends. + Now, good Cesario, but that piece of song, + That old and antique song we heard last night; + Methought it did relieve my passion much, + More than light airs and recollected terms + Of these most brisk and giddy-paced times. + Come, but one verse. + CURIO. He is not here, so please your lordship, that should sing + it. + DUKE. Who was it? + CURIO. Feste, the jester, my lord; a fool that the Lady Olivia's + father took much delight in. He is about the house. + DUKE. Seek him out, and play the tune the while. + Exit CURIO. [Music plays] + Come hither, boy. If ever thou shalt love, + In the sweet pangs of it remember me; + For such as I am all true lovers are, + Unstaid and skittish in all motions else + Save in the constant image of the creature + That is belov'd. How dost thou like this tune? + VIOLA. It gives a very echo to the seat + Where Love is thron'd. + DUKE. Thou dost speak masterly. + My life upon't, young though thou art, thine eye + Hath stay'd upon some favour that it loves; + Hath it not, boy? + VIOLA. A little, by your favour. + DUKE. What kind of woman is't? + VIOLA. Of your complexion. + DUKE. She is not worth thee, then. What years, i' faith? + VIOLA. About your years, my lord. + DUKE. Too old, by heaven! Let still the woman take + An elder than herself; so wears she to him, + So sways she level in her husband's heart. + For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, + Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, + More longing, wavering, sooner lost and won, + Than women's are. + VIOLA. I think it well, my lord. + DUKE. Then let thy love be younger than thyself, + Or thy affection cannot hold the bent; + For women are as roses, whose fair flow'r + Being once display'd doth fall that very hour. + VIOLA. And so they are; alas, that they are so! + To die, even when they to perfection grow! + + Re-enter CURIO and CLOWN + + DUKE. O, fellow, come, the song we had last night. + Mark it, Cesario; it is old and plain; + The spinsters and the knitters in the sun, + And the free maids that weave their thread with bones, + Do use to chant it; it is silly sooth, + And dallies with the innocence of love, + Like the old age. + CLOWN. Are you ready, sir? + DUKE. Ay; prithee, sing. [Music] + + FESTE'S SONG + + Come away, come away, death; + And in sad cypress let me be laid; + Fly away, fly away, breath, + I am slain by a fair cruel maid. + My shroud of white, stuck all with yew, + O, prepare it! + My part of death no one so true + Did share it. + + Not a flower, not a flower sweet, + On my black coffin let there be strown; + Not a friend, not a friend greet + My poor corpse where my bones shall be thrown; + A thousand thousand to save, + Lay me, O, where + Sad true lover never find my grave, + To weep there! + + DUKE. There's for thy pains. + CLOWN. No pains, sir; I take pleasure in singing, sir. + DUKE. I'll pay thy pleasure, then. + CLOWN. Truly, sir, and pleasure will be paid one time or another. + DUKE. Give me now leave to leave thee. + CLOWN. Now the melancholy god protect thee; and the tailor make thy + doublet of changeable taffeta, for thy mind is a very opal. I + would have men of such constancy put to sea, that their business + might be everything, and their intent everywhere: for that's it + that always makes a good voyage of nothing. Farewell. + Exit CLOWN + DUKE. Let all the rest give place. + Exeunt CURIO and ATTENDANTS + Once more, Cesario, + Get thee to yond same sovereign cruelty. + Tell her my love, more noble than the world, + Prizes not quantity of dirty lands; + The parts that fortune hath bestow'd upon her, + Tell her I hold as giddily as Fortune; + But 'tis that miracle and queen of gems + That Nature pranks her in attracts my soul. + VIOLA. But if she cannot love you, sir? + DUKE. I cannot be so answer'd. + VIOLA. Sooth, but you must. + Say that some lady, as perhaps there is, + Hath for your love as great a pang of heart + As you have for Olivia. You cannot love her; + You tell her so. Must she not then be answer'd? + DUKE. There is no woman's sides + Can bide the beating of so strong a passion + As love doth give my heart; no woman's heart + So big to hold so much; they lack retention. + Alas, their love may be call'd appetite- + No motion of the liver, but the palate- + That suffer surfeit, cloyment, and revolt; + But mine is all as hungry as the sea, + And can digest as much. Make no compare + Between that love a woman can bear me + And that I owe Olivia. + VIOLA. Ay, but I know- + DUKE. What dost thou know? + VIOLA. Too well what love women to men may owe. + In faith, they are as true of heart as we. + My father had a daughter lov'd a man, + As it might be perhaps, were I a woman, + I should your lordship. + DUKE. And what's her history? + VIOLA. A blank, my lord. She never told her love, + But let concealment, like a worm i' th' bud, + Feed on her damask cheek. She pin'd in thought; + And with a green and yellow melancholy + She sat like Patience on a monument, + Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed? + We men may say more, swear more, but indeed + Our shows are more than will; for still we prove + Much in our vows, but little in our love. + DUKE. But died thy sister of her love, my boy? + VIOLA. I am all the daughters of my father's house, + And all the brothers too- and yet I know not. + Sir, shall I to this lady? + DUKE. Ay, that's the theme. + To her in haste. Give her this jewel; say + My love can give no place, bide no denay. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE V. +OLIVIA'S garden + +Enter SIR TOBY, SIR ANDREW, and FABIAN + + SIR TOBY. Come thy ways, Signior Fabian. + FABIAN. Nay, I'll come; if I lose a scruple of this sport let me be + boil'd to death with melancholy. + SIR TOBY. Wouldst thou not be glad to have the niggardly rascally + sheep-biter come by some notable shame? + FABIAN. I would exult, man; you know he brought me out o' favour + with my lady about a bear-baiting here. + SIR TOBY. To anger him we'll have the bear again; and we will fool + him black and blue- shall we not, Sir Andrew? + AGUECHEEK. And we do not, it is pity of our lives. + + Enter MARIA + + SIR TOBY. Here comes the little villain. + How now, my metal of India! + MARIA. Get ye all three into the box-tree. Malvolio's coming down + this walk. He has been yonder i' the sun practising behaviour to + his own shadow this half hour. Observe him, for the love of + mockery, for I know this letter will make a contemplative idiot + of him. Close, in the name of jesting! [As the men hide she drops + a letter] Lie thou there; for here comes the trout that must be + caught with tickling. + Exit + + Enter MALVOLIO + + MALVOLIO. 'Tis but fortune; all is fortune. Maria once told me she + did affect me; and I have heard herself come thus near, that, + should she fancy, it should be one of my complexion. Besides, she + uses me with a more exalted respect than any one else that + follows her. What should I think on't? + SIR TOBY. Here's an overweening rogue! + FABIAN. O, peace! Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him; + how he jets under his advanc'd plumes! + AGUECHEEK. 'Slight, I could so beat the rogue- + SIR TOBY. Peace, I say. + MALVOLIO. To be Count Malvolio! + SIR TOBY. Ah, rogue! + AGUECHEEK. Pistol him, pistol him. + SIR TOBY. Peace, peace! + MALVOLIO. There is example for't: the Lady of the Strachy married + the yeoman of the wardrobe. + AGUECHEEK. Fie on him, Jezebel! + FABIAN. O, peace! Now he's deeply in; look how imagination blows + him. + MALVOLIO. Having been three months married to her, sitting in my + state- + SIR TOBY. O, for a stone-bow to hit him in the eye! + MALVOLIO. Calling my officers about me, in my branch'd velvet gown, + having come from a day-bed- where I have left Olivia sleeping- + SIR TOBY. Fire and brimstone! + FABIAN. O, peace, peace! + MALVOLIO. And then to have the humour of state; and after a demure + travel of regard, telling them I know my place as I would they + should do theirs, to ask for my kinsman Toby- + SIR TOBY. Bolts and shackles! + FABIAN. O, peace, peace, peace! Now, now. + MALVOLIO. Seven of my people, with an obedient start, make out for + him. I frown the while, and perchance wind up my watch, or play + with my- some rich jewel. Toby approaches; curtsies there to me- + SIR TOBY. Shall this fellow live? + FABIAN. Though our silence be drawn from us with cars, yet peace. + MALVOLIO. I extend my hand to him thus, quenching my familiar smile + with an austere regard of control- + SIR TOBY. And does not Toby take you a blow o' the lips then? + MALVOLIO. Saying 'Cousin Toby, my fortunes having cast me on your + niece give me this prerogative of speech'- + SIR TOBY. What, what? + MALVOLIO. 'You must amend your drunkenness'- + SIR TOBY. Out, scab! + FABIAN. Nay, patience, or we break the sinews of our plot. + MALVOLIO. 'Besides, you waste the treasure of your time with a + foolish knight'- + AGUECHEEK. That's me, I warrant you. + MALVOLIO. 'One Sir Andrew.' + AGUECHEEK. I knew 'twas I; for many do call me fool. + MALVOLIO. What employment have we here? + [Taking up the letter] + FABIAN. Now is the woodcock near the gin. + SIR TOBY. O, peace! And the spirit of humours intimate reading + aloud to him! + MALVOLIO. By my life, this is my lady's hand: these be her very + C's, her U's, and her T's; and thus makes she her great P's. It + is, in contempt of question, her hand. + AGUECHEEK. Her C's, her U's, and her T's. Why that? + MALVOLIO. [Reads] 'To the unknown belov'd, this, and my good + wishes.' Her very phrases! By your leave, wax. Soft! And the + impressure her Lucrece with which she uses to seal; 'tis my lady. + To whom should this be? + FABIAN. This wins him, liver and all. + MALVOLIO. [Reads] + + Jove knows I love, + But who? + Lips, do not move; + No man must know.' + + 'No man must know.' What follows? The numbers alter'd! + 'No man must know.' If this should be thee, Malvolio? + SIR TOBY. Marry, hang thee, brock! + MALVOLIO. [Reads] + + 'I may command where I adore; + But silence, like a Lucrece knife, + With bloodless stroke my heart doth gore; + M. O. A. I. doth sway my life.' + + FABIAN. A fustian riddle! + SIR TOBY. Excellent wench, say I. + MALVOLIO. 'M. O. A. I. doth sway my life.' + Nay, but first let me see, let me see, let me see. + FABIAN. What dish o' poison has she dress'd him! + SIR TOBY. And with what wing the staniel checks at it! + MALVOLIO. 'I may command where I adore.' Why, she may command me: I + serve her; she is my lady. Why, this is evident to any formal + capacity; there is no obstruction in this. And the end- what + should that alphabetical position portend? If I could make that + resemble something in me. Softly! M. O. A. I.- + SIR TOBY. O, ay, make up that! He is now at a cold scent. + FABIAN. Sowter will cry upon't for all this, though it be as rank + as a fox. + MALVOLIO. M- Malvolio; M- why, that begins my name. + FABIAN. Did not I say he would work it out? + The cur is excellent at faults. + MALVOLIO. M- But then there is no consonancy in the sequel; that + suffers under probation: A should follow, but O does. + FABIAN. And O shall end, I hope. + SIR TOBY. Ay, or I'll cudgel him, and make him cry 'O!' + MALVOLIO. And then I comes behind. + FABIAN. Ay, an you had any eye behind you, you might see more + detraction at your heels than fortunes before you. + MALVOLIO. M. O. A. I. This simulation is not as the former; and + yet, to crush this a little, it would bow to me, for every one of + these letters are in my name. Soft! here follows prose. + [Reads] + 'If this fall into thy hand, revolve. In my stars I am above + thee; but be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some + achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. Thy + Fates open their hands; let thy blood and spirit embrace them; + and, to inure thyself to what thou art like to be, cast thy + humble slough and appear fresh. Be opposite with a kinsman, surly + with servants; let thy tongue tang arguments of state; put + thyself into the trick of singularity. She thus advises thee that + sighs for thee. Remember who commended thy yellow stockings, and + wish'd to see thee ever cross-garter'd. I say, remember, Go to, + thou art made, if thou desir'st to be so; if not, let me see thee + a steward still, the fellow of servants, and not worthy to touch + Fortune's fingers. Farewell. She that would alter services with + thee, + THE FORTUNATE-UNHAPPY.' + + Daylight and champain discovers not more. This is open. I will be + proud, I will read politic authors, I will baffle Sir Toby, I + will wash off gross acquaintance, I will be point-devise the very + man. I do not now fool myself to let imagination jade me; for + every reason excites to this, that my lady loves me. She did + commend my yellow stockings of late, she did praise my leg being + cross-garter'd; and in this she manifests herself to my love, and + with a kind of injunction drives me to these habits of her + liking. I thank my stars I am happy. I will be strange, stout, in + yellow stockings, and cross-garter'd, even with the swiftness of + putting on. Jove and my stars be praised! Here is yet a + postscript. + + [Reads] 'Thou canst not choose but know who I am. If thou + entertain'st my love, let it appear in thy smiling; thy smiles + become thee well. Therefore in my presence still smile, dear my + sweet, I prithee.' + + Jove, I thank thee. I will smile; I will do everything that thou + wilt have me. Exit + FABIAN. I will not give my part of this sport for a pension of + thousands to be paid from the Sophy. + SIR TOBY. I could marry this wench for this device. + AGUECHEEK. So could I too. + SIR TOBY. And ask no other dowry with her but such another jest. + + Enter MARIA + + AGUECHEEK. Nor I neither. + FABIAN. Here comes my noble gull-catcher. + SIR TOBY. Wilt thou set thy foot o' my neck? + AGUECHEEK. Or o' mine either? + SIR TOBY. Shall I play my freedom at tray-trip, and become thy + bond-slave? + AGUECHEEK. I' faith, or I either? + SIR TOBY. Why, thou hast put him in such a dream that when the + image of it leaves him he must run mad. + MARIA. Nay, but say true; does it work upon him? + SIR TOBY. Like aqua-vita! with a midwife. + AIARIA. If you will then see the fruits of the sport, mark his + first approach before my lady. He will come to her in yellow + stockings, and 'tis a colour she abhors, and cross-garter'd, a + fashion she detests; and he will smile upon her, which will now + be so unsuitable to her disposition, being addicted to a + melancholy as she is, that it cannot but turn him into a notable + contempt. If you will see it, follow me. + SIR TOBY. To the gates of Tartar, thou most excellent devil of wit! + AGUECHEEK. I'll make one too. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +OLIVIA'S garden + +Enter VIOLA, and CLOWN with a tabor + + VIOLA. Save thee, friend, and thy music! + Dost thou live by thy tabor? + CLOWN. No, sir, I live by the church. + VIOLA. Art thou a churchman? + CLOWN. No such matter, sir: I do live by the church; for I do live + at my house, and my house doth stand by the church. + VIOLA. So thou mayst say the king lies by a beggar, if a beggar + dwell near him; or the church stands by thy tabor, if thy tabor + stand by the church. + CLOWN. You have said, sir. To see this age! A sentence is but a + chev'ril glove to a good wit. How quickly the wrong side may be + turn'd outward! + VIOLA. Nay, that's certain; they that dally nicely with words may + quickly make them wanton. + CLOWN. I would, therefore, my sister had had name, sir. + VIOLA. Why, man? + CLOWN. Why, sir, her name's a word; and to dally with that word + might make my sister wanton. But indeed words are very rascals + since bonds disgrac'd them. + VIOLA. Thy reason, man? + CLOWN. Troth, sir, I can yield you none without words, and words + are grown so false I am loath to prove reason with them. + VIOLA. I warrant thou art a merry fellow and car'st for nothing. + CLOWN. Not so, sir; I do care for something; but in my conscience, + sir, I do not care for you. If that be to care for nothing, sir, + I would it would make you invisible. + VIOLA. Art not thou the Lady Olivia's fool? + CLOWN. No, indeed, sir; the Lady Olivia has no folly; she will keep + no fool, sir, till she be married; and fools are as like husbands + as pilchers are to herrings- the husband's the bigger. I am + indeed not her fool, but her corrupter of words. + VIOLA. I saw thee late at the Count Orsino's. + CLOWN. Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun- it + shines everywhere. I would be sorry, sir, but the fool should be + as oft with your master as with my mistress: think I saw your + wisdom there. + VIOLA. Nay, an thou pass upon me, I'll no more with thee. + Hold, there's expenses for thee. [Giving a coin] + CLOWN. Now Jove, in his next commodity of hair, send the a beard! + VIOLA. By my troth, I'll tell thee, I am almost sick for one; + [Aside] though I would not have it grow on my chin.- Is thy lady + within? + CLOWN. Would not a pair of these have bred, sir? + VIOLA. Yes, being kept together and put to use. + CLOWN. I would play Lord Pandarus of Phrygia, sir, to bring a + Cressida to this Troilus. + VIOLA. I understand you, sir; 'tis well begg'd. + [Giving another coin] + CLOWN. The matter, I hope, is not great, sir, begging but a beggar: + Cressida was a beggar. My lady is within, sir. I will construe to + them whence you come; who you are and what you would are out of + my welkin- I might say 'element' but the word is overworn. + Exit CLOWN + VIOLA. This fellow is wise enough to play the fool; + And to do that well craves a kind of wit. + He must observe their mood on whom he jests, + The quality of persons, and the time; + And, like the haggard, check at every feather + That comes before his eye. This is a practice + As full of labour as a wise man's art; + For folly that he wisely shows is fit; + But wise men, folly-fall'n, quite taint their wit. + + Enter SIR TOBY and SIR ANDREW + + SIR TOBY. Save you, gentleman! + VIOLA. And you, sir. + AGUECHEEK. Dieu vous garde, monsieur. + VIOLA. Et vous aussi; votre serviteur. + AGUECHEEK. I hope, sir, you are; and I am yours. + SIR TOBY. Will you encounter the house? My niece is desirous you + should enter, if your trade be to her. + VIOLA. I am bound to your niece, sir; I mean, she is the list of my + voyage. + SIR TOBY. Taste your legs, sir; put them to motion. + VIOLA. My legs do better understand me, sir, than I understand what + you mean by bidding me taste my legs. + SIR TOBY. I mean, to go, sir, to enter. + VIOLA. I will answer you with gait and entrance. But we are + prevented. + + Enter OLIVIA and MARIA + + Most excellent accomplish'd lady, the heavens rain odours on you! + AGUECHEEK. That youth's a rare courtier- 'Rain odours' well! + VIOLA. My matter hath no voice, lady, but to your own most pregnant + and vouchsafed car. + AGUECHEEK. 'Odours,' 'pregnant,' and 'vouchsafed'- I'll get 'em all + three all ready. + OLIVIA. Let the garden door be shut, and leave me to my hearing. + [Exeunt all but OLIVIA and VIOLA] Give me your hand, sir. + VIOLA. My duty, madam, and most humble service. + OLIVIA. What is your name? + VIOLA. Cesario is your servant's name, fair Princess. + OLIVIA. My servant, sir! 'Twas never merry world + Since lowly feigning was call'd compliment. + Y'are servant to the Count Orsino, youth. + VIOLA. And he is yours, and his must needs be yours: + Your servant's servant is your servant, madam. + OLIVIA. For him, I think not on him; for his thoughts, + Would they were blanks rather than fill'd with me! + VIOLA. Madam, I come to whet your gentle thoughts + On his behalf. + OLIVIA. O, by your leave, I pray you: + I bade you never speak again of him; + But, would you undertake another suit, + I had rather hear you to solicit that + Than music from the spheres. + VIOLA. Dear lady- + OLIVIA. Give me leave, beseech you. I did send, + After the last enchantment you did here, + A ring in chase of you; so did I abuse + Myself, my servant, and, I fear me, you. + Under your hard construction must I sit, + To force that on you in a shameful cunning + Which you knew none of yours. What might you think? + Have you not set mine honour at the stake, + And baited it with all th' unmuzzled thoughts + That tyrannous heart can think? To one of your receiving + Enough is shown: a cypress, not a bosom, + Hides my heart. So, let me hear you speak. + VIOLA. I Pity YOU. + OLIVIA. That's a degree to love. + VIOLA. No, not a grize; for 'tis a vulgar proof + That very oft we pity enemies. + OLIVIA. Why, then, methinks 'tis time to smile again. + O world, how apt the poor are to be proud! + If one should be a prey, how much the better + To fall before the lion than the wolf! [Clock strikes] + The clock upbraids me with the waste of time. + Be not afraid, good youth; I will not have you; + And yet, when wit and youth is come to harvest, + Your wife is like to reap a proper man. + There lies your way, due west. + VIOLA. Then westward-ho! + Grace and good disposition attend your ladyship! + You'll nothing, madam, to my lord by me? + OLIVIA. Stay. + I prithee tell me what thou think'st of me. + VIOLA. That you do think you are not what you are. + OLIVIA. If I think so, I think the same of you. + VIOLA. Then think you right: I am not what I am. + OLIVIA. I would you were as I would have you be! + VIOLA. Would it be better, madam, than I am? + I wish it might, for now I am your fool. + OLIVIA. O, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful + In the contempt and anger of his lip! + A murd'rous guilt shows not itself more soon + Than love that would seem hid: love's night is noon. + Cesario, by the roses of the spring, + By maidhood, honour, truth, and every thing, + I love thee so that, maugre all thy pride, + Nor wit nor reason can my passion hide. + Do not extort thy reasons from this clause, + For that I woo, thou therefore hast no cause; + But rather reason thus with reason fetter: + Love sought is good, but given unsought is better. + VIOLA. By innocence I swear, and by my youth, + I have one heart, one bosom, and one truth, + And that no woman has; nor never none + Shall mistress be of it, save I alone. + And so adieu, good madam; never more + Will I my master's tears to you deplore. + OLIVIA. Yet come again; for thou perhaps mayst move + That heart which now abhors to like his love. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +OLIVIA'S house + +Enter SIR TOBY, SIR ANDREW and FABIAN + + AGUECHEEK. No, faith, I'll not stay a jot longer. + SIR TOBY. Thy reason, dear venom, give thy reason. + FABIAN. You must needs yield your reason, Sir Andrew. + AGUECHEEK. Marry, I saw your niece do more favours to the Count's + servingman than ever she bestow'd upon me; I saw't i' th' + orchard. + SIR TOBY. Did she see thee the while, old boy? Tell me that. + AGUECHEEK. As plain as I see you now. + FABIAN. This was a great argument of love in her toward you. + AGUECHEEK. 'Slight! will you make an ass o' me? + FABIAN. I will prove it legitimate, sir, upon the oaths of judgment + and reason. + SIR TOBY. And they have been grand-jurymen since before Noah was a + sailor. + FABIAN. She did show favour to the youth in your sight only to + exasperate you, to awake your dormouse valour, to put fire in + your heart and brimstone in your liver. You should then have + accosted her; and with some excellent jests, fire-new from the + mint, you should have bang'd the youth into dumbness. This was + look'd for at your hand, and this was baulk'd. The double gilt of + this opportunity you let time wash off, and you are now sail'd + into the north of my lady's opinion; where you will hang like an + icicle on Dutchman's beard, unless you do redeem it by some + laudable attempt either of valour or policy. + AGUECHEEK. An't be any way, it must be with valour, for policy I + hate; I had as lief be a Brownist as a politician. + SIR TOBY. Why, then, build me thy fortunes upon the basis of + valour. Challenge me the Count's youth to fight with him; hurt + him in eleven places. My niece shall take note of it; and assure + thyself there is no love-broker in the world can more prevail in + man's commendation with woman than report of valour. + FABIAN. There is no way but this, Sir Andrew. + AGUECHEEK. Will either of you bear me a challenge to him? + SIR TOBY. Go, write it in a martial hand; be curst and brief; it is + no matter how witty, so it be eloquent and full of invention. + Taunt him with the license of ink; if thou thou'st him some + thrice, it shall not be amiss; and as many lies as will lie in + thy sheet of paper, although the sheet were big enough for the + bed of Ware in England, set 'em down; go about it. Let there be + gall enough in thy ink, though thou write with a goose-pen, no + matter. About it. + AGUECHEEK. Where shall I find you? + SIR TOBY. We'll call thee at the cubiculo. Go. + Exit SIR ANDREW + FABIAN. This is a dear manakin to you, Sir Toby. + SIR TOBY. I have been dear to him, lad- some two thousand strong, + or so. + FABIAN. We shall have a rare letter from him; but you'll not + deliver't? + SIR TOBY. Never trust me then; and by all means stir on the youth + to an answer. I think oxen and wainropes cannot hale them + together. For Andrew, if he were open'd and you find so much + blood in his liver as will clog the foot of a flea, I'll eat the + rest of th' anatomy. + FABIAN. And his opposite, the youth, bears in his visage no great + presage of cruelty. + + Enter MARIA + + SIR TOBY. Look where the youngest wren of nine comes. + MARIA. If you desire the spleen, and will laugh yourselves into + stitches, follow me. Yond gull Malvolio is turned heathen, a very + renegado; for there is no Christian that means to be saved by + believing rightly can ever believe such impossible passages of + grossness. He's in yellow stockings. + SIR TOBY. And cross-garter'd? + MARIA. Most villainously; like a pedant that keeps a school i' th' + church. I have dogg'd him like his murderer. He does obey every + point of the letter that I dropp'd to betray him. He does smile + his face into more lines than is in the new map with the + augmentation of the Indies. You have not seen such a thing as + 'tis; I can hardly forbear hurling things at him. I know my lady + will strike him; if she do, he'll smile and take't for a great + favour. + SIR TOBY. Come, bring us, bring us where he is. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +A street + +Enter SEBASTIAN and ANTONIO + + SEBASTIAN. I would not by my will have troubled you; + But since you make your pleasure of your pains, + I will no further chide you. + ANTONIO. I could not stay behind you: my desire, + More sharp than filed steel, did spur me forth; + And not all love to see you- though so much + As might have drawn one to a longer voyage- + But jealousy what might befall your travel, + Being skilless in these parts; which to a stranger, + Unguided and unfriended, often prove + Rough and unhospitable. My willing love, + The rather by these arguments of fear, + Set forth in your pursuit. + SEBASTIAN. My kind Antonio, + I can no other answer make but thanks, + And thanks, and ever thanks; and oft good turns + Are shuffl'd off with such uncurrent pay; + But were my worth as is my conscience firm, + You should find better dealing. What's to do? + Shall we go see the reliques of this town? + ANTONIO. To-morrow, sir; best first go see your lodging. + SEBASTIAN. I am not weary, and 'tis long to night; + I pray you, let us satisfy our eyes + With the memorials and the things of fame + That do renown this city. + ANTONIO. Would you'd pardon me. + I do not without danger walk these streets: + Once in a sea-fight 'gainst the Count his galleys + I did some service; of such note, indeed, + That, were I ta'en here, it would scarce be answer'd. + SEBASTIAN. Belike you slew great number of his people. + ANTONIO.Th' offence is not of such a bloody nature; + Albeit the quality of the time and quarrel + Might well have given us bloody argument. + It might have since been answer'd in repaying + What we took from them; which, for traffic's sake, + Most of our city did. Only myself stood out; + For which, if I be lapsed in this place, + I shall pay dear. + SEBASTIAN. Do not then walk too open. + ANTONIO. It doth not fit me. Hold, sir, here's my purse; + In the south suburbs, at the Elephant, + Is best to lodge. I will bespeak our diet, + Whiles you beguile the time and feed your knowledge + With viewing of the town; there shall you have me. + SEBASTIAN. Why I your purse? + ANTONIO. Haply your eye shall light upon some toy + You have desire to purchase; and your store, + I think, is not for idle markets, sir. + SEBASTIAN. I'll be your purse-bearer, and leave you for + An hour. + ANTONIO. To th' Elephant. + SEBASTIAN. I do remember. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +OLIVIA'S garden + +Enter OLIVIA and MARIA + + OLIVIA. I have sent after him; he says he'll come. + How shall I feast him? What bestow of him? + For youth is bought more oft than begg'd or borrow'd. + I speak too loud. + Where's Malvolio? He is sad and civil, + And suits well for a servant with my fortunes. + Where is Malvolio? + MARIA. He's coming, madam; but in very strange manner. + He is sure possess'd, madam. + OLIVIA. Why, what's the matter? Does he rave? + MARIA. No, madam, he does nothing but smile. Your ladyship were + best to have some guard about you if he come; for sure the man is + tainted in's wits. + OLIVIA. Go call him hither. Exit MARIA + I am as mad as he, + If sad and merry madness equal be. + + Re-enter MARIA with MALVOLIO + + How now, Malvolio! + MALVOLIO. Sweet lady, ho, ho. + OLIVIA. Smil'st thou? + I sent for thee upon a sad occasion. + MALVOLIO. Sad, lady? I could be sad. This does make some + obstruction in the blood, this cross-gartering; but what of that? + If it please the eye of one, it is with me as the very true + sonnet is: 'Please one and please all.' + OLIVIA. Why, how dost thou, man? What is the matter with thee? + MALVOLIO. Not black in my mind, though yellow in my legs. + It did come to his hands, and commands shall be executed. + I think we do know the sweet Roman hand. + OLIVIA. Wilt thou go to bed, Malvolio? + MALVOLIO. To bed? Ay, sweetheart, and I'll come to thee. + OLIVIA. God comfort thee! Why dost thou smile so, and kiss thy hand + so oft? + MARIA. How do you, Malvolio? + MALVOLIO. At your request? Yes, nightingales answer daws! + MARIA. Why appear you with this ridiculous boldness before my lady? + MALVOLIO. 'Be not afraid of greatness.' 'Twas well writ. + OLIVIA. What mean'st thou by that, Malvolio? + AIALVOLIO. 'Some are born great,'- + OLIVIA. Ha? + MALVOLIO. 'Some achieve greatness,'- + OLIVIA. What say'st thou? + MALVOLIO. 'And some have greatness thrust upon them.' + OLIVIA. Heaven restore thee! + MALVOLIO. 'Remember who commended thy yellow stockings,'- + OLIVIA. 'Thy yellow stockings?' + MALVOLIO. 'And wish'd to see thee cross-garterd.' + OLIVIA. 'Cross-garter'd?' + MALVOLIO. 'Go to, thou an made, if thou desir'st to be so';- + OLIVIA. Am I made? + MALVOLIO. 'If not, let me see thee a servant still.' + OLIVIA. Why, this is very midsummer madness. + + Enter SERVANT + + SERVANT. Madam, the young gentleman of the Count Orsino's is + return'd; I could hardly entreat him back; he attends your + ladyship's pleasure. + OLIVIA. I'll come to him. [Exit SERVANT] Good Maria, let this + fellow be look'd to. Where's my cousin Toby? Let some of my + people have a special care of him; I would not have him miscarry + for the half of my dowry. + Exeunt OLIVIA and MARIA + MALVOLIO. O, ho! do you come near me now? No worse man than Sir + Toby to look to me! This concurs directly with the letter: she + sends him on purpose, that I may appear stubborn to him; for she + incites me to that in the letter. 'Cast thy humble slough,' says + she. 'Be opposite with kinsman, surly with servants; let thy + tongue tang with arguments of state; put thyself into the trick + of singularity' and consequently sets down the manner how, as: a + sad face, a reverend carriage, a slow tongue, in the habit of + some sir of note, and so forth. I have lim'd her; but it is + Jove's doing, and Jove make me thankful! And when she went away + now- 'Let this fellow be look'd to.' 'Fellow,' not 'Malvolio' nor + after my degree, but 'fellow.' Why, everything adheres together, + that no dram of a scruple, no scruple of a scruple, no obstacle, + no incredulous or unsafe circumstance- What can be said? Nothing + that can be can come between me and the full prospect of my + hopes. Well, Jove, not I, is the doer of this, and he is to be + thanked. + + Re-enter MARIA, with SIR TOBY and FABIAN + + SIR TOBY. Which way is he, in the name of sanctity? If all the + devils of hell be drawn in little, and Legion himself possess'd + him, yet I'll speak to him. + FABIAN. Here he is, here he is. How is't with you, sir? + SIR TOBY. How is't with you, man? + MALVOLIO. Go off; I discard you. Let me enjoy my private; go off. + MARIA. Lo, how hollow the fiend speaks within him! Did not I tell + you? Sir Toby, my lady prays you to have a care of him. + MALVOLIO. Ah, ha! does she so? + SIR TOBY. Go to, go to; peace, peace; we must deal gently with him. + Let me alone. How do you, Malvolio? How is't with you? What, man, + defy the devil; consider, he's an enemy to mankind. + MALVOLIO. Do you know what you say? + MARIA. La you, an you speak ill of the devil, how he takes it at + heart! Pray God he be not bewitched. + FABIAN. Carry his water to th' wise woman. + MARIA. Marry, and it shall be done to-morrow morning, if I live. My + lady would not lose him for more than I'll say. + MALVOLIO. How now, mistress! + MARIA. O Lord! + SIR TOBY. Prithee hold thy peace; this is not the way. Do you not + see you move him? Let me alone with him. + FABIAN. No way but gentleness- gently, gently. The fiend is rough, + and will not be roughly us'd. + SIR TOBY. Why, how now, my bawcock! + How dost thou, chuck? + MALVOLIO. Sir! + SIR TOBY. Ay, Biddy, come with me. What, man, 'tis not for gravity + to play at cherrypit with Satan. Hang him, foul collier! + MARIA. Get him to say his prayers, good Sir Toby, get him to pray. + MALVOLIO. My prayers, minx! + MARIA. No, I warrant you, he will not hear of godliness. + MALVOLIO. Go, hang yourselves all! You are idle shallow things; I + am not of your element; you shall know more hereafter. + Exit + SIR TOBY. Is't possible? + FABIAN. If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as + an improbable fiction. + SIR TOBY. His very genius hath taken the infection of the device, + man. + MARIA. Nay, pursue him now, lest the device take air and taint. + FABIAN. Why, we shall make him mad indeed. + MARIA. The house will be the quieter. + SIR TOBY. Come, we'll have him in a dark room and bound. My niece + is already in the belief that he's mad. We may carry it thus, for + our pleasure and his penance, till our very pastime, tired out of + breath, prompt us to have mercy on him; at which time we will + bring the device to the bar and crown thee for a finder of + madmen. But see, but see. + + Enter SIR ANDREW + + FABIAN. More matter for a May morning. + AGUECHEEK. Here's the challenge; read it. I warrant there's vinegar + and pepper in't. + FABIAN. Is't so saucy? + AGUECHEEK. Ay, is't, I warrant him; do but read. + SIR TOBY. Give me. [Reads] 'Youth, whatsoever thou art, thou art + but a scurvy fellow.' + FABIAN. Good and valiant. + SIR TOBY. [Reads] 'Wonder not, nor admire not in thy mind, why I do + call thee so, for I will show thee no reason for't.' + FABIAN. A good note; that keeps you from the blow of the law. + SIR TOBY. [Reads] 'Thou com'st to the Lady Olivia, and in my sight + she uses thee kindly; but thou liest in thy throat; that is not + the matter I challenge thee for.' + FABIAN. Very brief, and to exceeding good sense- less. + SIR TOBY. [Reads] 'I will waylay thee going home; where if it be + thy chance to kill me'- + FABIAN. Good. + SIR TOBY. 'Thou kill'st me like a rogue and a villain.' + FABIAN. Still you keep o' th' windy side of the law. Good! + SIR TOBY. [Reads] 'Fare thee well; and God have mercy upon one of + our souls! He may have mercy upon mine; but my hope is better, + and so look to thyself. Thy friend, as thou usest him, and thy + sworn enemy, + ANDREW AGUECHEEK.' + + If this letter move him not, his legs cannot. I'll give't him. + MARIA. You may have very fit occasion for't; he is now in some + commerce with my lady, and will by and by depart. + SIR TOBY. Go, Sir Andrew; scout me for him at the corner of the + orchard, like a bum-baily; so soon as ever thou seest him, draw; + and as thou draw'st, swear horrible; for it comes to pass oft + that a terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply twang'd + off, gives manhood more approbation than ever proof itself would + have earn'd him. Away. + AGUECHEEK. Nay, let me alone for swearing. Exit + SIR TOBY. Now will not I deliver his letter; for the behaviour of + the young gentleman gives him out to be of good capacity and + breeding; his employment between his lord and my niece confirms + no less. Therefore this letter, being so excellently ignorant, + will breed no terror in the youth: he will find it comes from a + clodpole. But, sir, I will deliver his challenge by word of + mouth, set upon Aguecheek notable report of valour, and drive the + gentleman- as know his youth will aptly receive it- into a most + hideous opinion of his rage, skill, fury, and impetuosity. This + will so fright them both that they will kill one another by the + look, like cockatrices. + + Re-enter OLIVIA. With VIOLA + + FABIAN. Here he comes with your niece; give them way till he take + leave, and presently after him. + SIR TOBY. I will meditate the while upon some horrid message for a + challenge. + Exeunt SIR TOBY, FABIAN, and MARIA + OLIVIA. I have said too much unto a heart of stone, + And laid mine honour too unchary out; + There's something in me that reproves my fault; + But such a headstrong potent fault it is + That it but mocks reproof. + VIOLA. With the same haviour that your passion bears + Goes on my master's griefs. + OLIVIA. Here, wear this jewel for me; 'tis my picture. + Refuse it not; it hath no tongue to vex you. + And I beseech you come again to-morrow. + What shall you ask of me that I'll deny, + That honour sav'd may upon asking give? + VIOLA. Nothing but this- your true love for my master. + OLIVIA. How with mine honour may I give him that + Which I have given to you? + VIOLA. I will acquit you. + OLIVIA. Well, come again to-morrow. Fare thee well; + A fiend like thee might bear my soul to hell. Exit + + Re-enter SIR TOBY and SIR FABIAN + + SIR TOBY. Gentleman, God save thee. + VIOLA. And you, sir. + SIR TOBY. That defence thou hast, betake thee tot. Of what nature + the wrongs are thou hast done him, I know not; but thy + intercepter, full of despite, bloody as the hunter, attends + thee at the orchard end. Dismount thy tuck, be yare in thy + preparation, for thy assailant is quick, skilful, and deadly. + VIOLA. You mistake, sir; I am sure no man hath any quarrel to me; + my remembrance is very free and clear from any image of offence + done to any man. + SIR TOBY. You'll find it otherwise, I assure you; therefore, if you + hold your life at any price, betake you to your guard; for your + opposite hath in him what youth, strength, skill, and wrath, can + furnish man withal. + VIOLA. I pray you, sir, what is he? + SIR TOBY. He is knight, dubb'd with unhatch'd rapier and on carpet + consideration; but he is a devil in private brawl. Souls and + bodies hath he divorc'd three; and his incensement at this moment + is so implacable that satisfaction can be none but by pangs of + death and sepulchre. Hob-nob is his word- give't or take't. + VIOLA. I will return again into the house and desire some conduct + of the lady. I am no fighter. I have heard of some kind of men + that put quarrels purposely on others to taste their valour; + belike this is a man of that quirk. + SIR TOBY. Sir, no; his indignation derives itself out of a very + competent injury; therefore, get you on and give him his desire. + Back you shall not to the house, unless you undertake that with + me which with as much safety you might answer him; therefore on, + or strip your sword stark naked; for meddle you must, that's + certain, or forswear to wear iron about you. + VIOLA. This is as uncivil as strange. I beseech you do me this + courteous office as to know of the knight what my offence to him + is: it is something of my negligence, nothing of my purpose. + SIR TOBY. I Will do so. Signior Fabian, stay you by this gentleman + till my return. Exit SIR TOBY + VIOLA. Pray you, sir, do you know of this matter? + FABIAN. I know the knight is incens'd against you, even to a mortal + arbitrement; but nothing of the circumstance more. + VIOLA. I beseech you, what manner of man is he? + FABIAN. Nothing of that wonderful promise, to read him by his form, + as you are like to find him in the proof of his valour. He is + indeed, sir, the most skilful, bloody, and fatal opposite that + you could possibly have found in any part of Illyria. Will you + walk towards him? I will make your peace with him if I can. + VIOLA. I shall be much bound to you for't. I am one that would + rather go with sir priest than sir knight. I care not who knows + so much of my mettle. Exeunt + + Re-enter SIR TOBY With SIR ANDREW + + SIR TOBY. Why, man, he's a very devil; I have not seen such a + firago. I had a pass with him, rapier, scabbard, and all, and he + gives me the stuck in with such a mortal motion that it is + inevitable; and on the answer, he pays you as surely as your feet + hit the ground they step on. They say he has been fencer to the + Sophy. + AGUECHEEK. Pox on't, I'll not meddle with him. + SIR TOBY. Ay, but he will not now be pacified; Fabian can scarce + hold him yonder. + AGUECHEEK. Plague on't; an I thought he had been valiant, and so + cunning in fence, I'd have seen him damn'd ere I'd have + challeng'd him. Let him let the matter slip, and I'll give him + my horse, grey Capilet. + SIR TOBY. I'll make the motion. Stand here, make a good show on't; + this shall end without the perdition of souls. [Aside] Marry, + I'll ride your horse as well as I ride you. + + Re-enter FABIAN and VIOLA + + [To FABIAN] I have his horse to take up the quarrel; I have + persuaded him the youth's a devil. + FABIAN. [To SIR TOBY] He is as horribly conceited of him; and pants + and looks pale, as if a bear were at his heels. + SIR TOBY. [To VIOLA] There's no remedy, sir: he will fight with you + for's oath sake. Marry, he hath better bethought him of his + quarrel, and he finds that now scarce to be worth talking of. + Therefore draw for the supportance of his vow; he protests he + will not hurt you. + VIOLA. [Aside] Pray God defend me! A little thing would make me + tell them how much I lack of a man. + FABIAN. Give ground if you see him furious. + SIR TOBY. Come, Sir Andrew, there's no remedy; the gentleman will, + for his honour's sake, have one bout with you; he cannot by the + duello avoid it; but he has promis'd me, as he is a gentleman and + a soldier, he will not hurt you. Come on; to't. + AGUECHEEK. Pray God he keep his oath! [They draw] + + Enter ANTONIO + + VIOLA. I do assure you 'tis against my will. + ANTONIO. Put up your sword. If this young gentleman + Have done offence, I take the fault on me: + If you offend him, I for him defy you. + SIR TOBY. You, sir! Why, what are you? + ANTONIO. One, sir, that for his love dares yet do more + Than you have heard him brag to you he will. + SIR TOBY. Nay, if you be an undertaker, I am for you. + [They draw] + + Enter OFFICERS + + FABIAN. O good Sir Toby, hold! Here come the officers. + SIR TOBY. [To ANTONIO] I'll be with you anon. + VIOLA. Pray, sir, put your sword up, if you please. + AGUECHEEK. Marry, will I, sir; and for that I promis'd you, I'll be + as good as my word. He will bear you easily and reins well. + FIRST OFFICER. This is the man; do thy office. + SECOND OFFICER. Antonio, I arrest thee at the suit + Of Count Orsino. + ANTONIO. You do mistake me, sir. + FIRST OFFICER. No, sir, no jot; I know your favour well, + Though now you have no sea-cap on your head. + Take him away; he knows I know him well. + ANTONIO. I Must obey. [To VIOLA] This comes with seeking you; + But there's no remedy; I shall answer it. + What will you do, now my necessity + Makes me to ask you for my purse? It grieves me + Much more for what I cannot do for you + Than what befalls myself. You stand amaz'd; + But be of comfort. + SECOND OFFICER. Come, sir, away. + ANTONIO. I must entreat of you some of that money. + VIOLA. What money, sir? + For the fair kindness you have show'd me here, + And part being prompted by your present trouble, + Out of my lean and low ability + I'll lend you something. My having is not much; + I'll make division of my present with you; + Hold, there's half my coffer. + ANTONIO. Will you deny me now? + Is't possible that my deserts to you + Can lack persuasion? Do not tempt my misery, + Lest that it make me so unsound a man + As to upbraid you with those kindnesses + That I have done for you. + VIOLA. I know of none, + Nor know I you by voice or any feature. + I hate ingratitude more in a man + Than lying, vainness, babbling drunkenness, + Or any taint of vice whose strong corruption + Inhabits our frail blood. + ANTONIO. O heavens themselves! + SECOND OFFICER. Come, sir, I pray you go. + ANTONIO. Let me speak a little. This youth that you see here + I snatch'd one half out of the jaws of death, + Reliev'd him with such sanctity of love, + And to his image, which methought did promise + Most venerable worth, did I devotion. + FIRST OFFICER. What's that to us? The time goes by; away. + ANTONIO. But, O, how vile an idol proves this god! + Thou hast, Sebastian, done good feature shame. + In nature there's no blemish but the mind: + None can be call'd deform'd but the unkind. + Virtue is beauty; but the beauteous evil + Are empty trunks, o'erflourish'd by the devil. + FIRST OFFICER. The man grows mad. Away with him. + Come, come, sir. + ANTONIO. Lead me on. Exit with OFFICERS + VIOLA. Methinks his words do from such passion fly + That he believes himself; so do not I. + Prove true, imagination, O, prove true, + That I, dear brother, be now ta'en for you! + SIR TOBY. Come hither, knight; come hither, Fabian; we'll whisper + o'er a couplet or two of most sage saws. + VIOLA. He nam'd Sebastian. I my brother know + Yet living in my glass; even such and so + In favour was my brother; and he went + Still in this fashion, colour, ornament, + For him I imitate. O, if it prove, + Tempests are kind, and salt waves fresh in love! Exit + SIR TOBY. A very dishonest paltry boy, and more a coward than a + hare. His dishonesty appears in leaving his friend here in + necessity and denying him; and for his cowardship, ask Fabian. + FABIAN. A coward, a most devout coward, religious in it. + AGUECHEEK. 'Slid, I'll after him again and beat him. + SIR TOBY. Do; cuff him soundly, but never draw thy sword. + AGUECHEEK. And I do not- Exit + FABIAN. Come, let's see the event. + SIR TOBY. I dare lay any money 'twill be nothing yet. + Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +Before OLIVIA'S house + +Enter SEBASTIAN and CLOWN + + CLOWN. Will you make me believe that I am not sent for you? + SEBASTIAN. Go to, go to, thou art a foolish fellow; let me be clear + of thee. + CLOWN. Well held out, i' faith! No, I do not know you; nor I am not + sent to you by my lady, to bid you come speak with her; nor your + name is not Master Cesario; nor this is not my nose neither. + Nothing that is so is so. + SEBASTIAN. I prithee vent thy folly somewhere else. + Thou know'st not me. + CLOWN. Vent my folly! He has heard that word of some great man, and + now applies it to a fool. Vent my folly! I am afraid this great + lubber, the world, will prove a cockney. I prithee now, ungird + thy strangeness, and tell me what I shall vent to my lady. Shall + I vent to her that thou art coming? + SEBASTIAN. I prithee, foolish Greek, depart from me; + There's money for thee; if you tarry longer + I shall give worse payment. + CLOWN. By my troth, thou hast an open hand. These wise men that + give fools money get themselves a good report after fourteen + years' purchase. + + Enter SIR ANDREW, SIR TOBY, and FABIAN + + AGUECHEEK. Now, sir, have I met you again? + [Striking SEBASTIAN] There's for you. + SEBASTIAN. Why, there's for thee, and there, and there. + Are all the people mad? + SIR TOBY. Hold, sir, or I'll throw your dagger o'er the house. + [Holding SEBASTIAN] + CLOWN. This will I tell my lady straight. I would not be in some of + your coats for two-pence. Exit + SIR TOBY. Come on, sir; hold. + AGUECHEEK. Nay, let him alone. I'll go another way to work with + him; I'll have an action of battery against him, if there be any + law in Illyria; though I struck him first, yet it's no matter for + that. + SEBASTIAN. Let go thy hand. + SIR TOBY. Come, sir, I will not let you go. Come, my young soldier, + put up your iron; you are well flesh'd. Come on. + SEBASTIAN. I will be free from thee. What wouldst thou now? + If thou dar'st tempt me further, draw thy sword. [Draws] + SIR TOBY. What, what? Nay, then I must have an ounce or two of this + malapert blood from you. [Draws] + + Enter OLIVIA + + OLIVIA. Hold, Toby; on thy life, I charge thee hold. + SIR TOBY. Madam! + OLIVIA. Will it be ever thus? Ungracious wretch, + Fit for the mountains and the barbarous caves, + Where manners ne'er were preach'd! Out of my sight! + Be not offended, dear Cesario- + Rudesby, be gone! + Exeunt SIR TOBY, SIR ANDREW, and FABIAN + I prithee, gentle friend, + Let thy fair wisdom, not thy passion, sway + In this uncivil and unjust extent + Against thy peace. Go with me to my house, + And hear thou there how many fruitless pranks + This ruffian hath botch'd up, that thou thereby + Mayst smile at this. Thou shalt not choose but go; + Do not deny. Beshrew his soul for me! + He started one poor heart of mine in thee. + SEBASTIAN. What relish is in this? How runs the stream? + Or I am mad, or else this is a dream. + Let fancy still my sense in Lethe steep; + If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep! + OLIVIA. Nay, come, I prithee. Would thou'dst be rul'd by me! + SEBASTIAN. Madam, I will. + OLIVIA. O, say so, and so be! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +OLIVIA'S house + +Enter MARIA and CLOWN + + MARIA. Nay, I prithee, put on this gown and this beard; make him + believe thou art Sir Topas the curate; do it quickly. I'll call + Sir Toby the whilst. Exit + CLOWN. Well, I'll put it on, and I will dissemble myself in't; and + I would I were the first that ever dissembled in such a gown. I + am not tall enough to become the function well nor lean enough to + be thought a good student; but to be said an honest man and a + good housekeeper goes as fairly as to say a careful man and a + great scholar. The competitors enter. + + Enter SIR TOBY and MARIA + + SIR TOBY. Jove bless thee, Master Parson. + CLOWN. Bonos dies, Sir Toby; for as the old hermit of Prague, that + never saw pen and ink, very wittily said to niece of King + Gorboduc 'That that is is'; so I, being Master Parson, am Master + Parson; for what is 'that' but that, and 'is' but is? + SIR TOBY. To him, Sir Topas. + CLOWN. What ho, I say! Peace in this prison! + SIR TOBY. The knave counterfeits well; a good knave. + MALVOLIO. [Within] Who calls there? + CLOWN. Sir Topas the curate, who comes to visit Malvolio the + lunatic. + MALVOLIO. Sir Topas, Sir Topas, good Sir Topas, go to my lady. + CLOWN. Out, hyperbolical fiend! How vexest thou this man! + Talkest thou nothing but of ladies? + SIR TOBY. Well said, Master Parson. + MALVOLIO. Sir Topas, never was man thus wronged. Good Sir Topas, do + not think I am mad; they have laid me here in hideous darkness. + CLOWN. Fie, thou dishonest Satan! I call thee by the most modest + terms, for I am one of those gentle ones that will use the devil + himself with courtesy. Say'st thou that house is dark? + MALVOLIO. As hell, Sir Topas. + CLOWN. Why, it hath bay windows transparent as barricadoes, and the + clerestories toward the south north are as lustrous as ebony; and + yet complainest thou of obstruction? + MALVOLIO. I am not mad, Sir Topas. I say to you this house is dark. + CLOWN. Madman, thou errest. I say there is no darkness but + ignorance; in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in + their fog. + MALVOLIO. I say this house is as dark as ignorance, though + ignorance were as dark as hell; and I say there was never man + thus abus'd. I am no more mad than you are; make the trial of it + in any constant question. + CLOWN. What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild fowl? + MALVOLIO. That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird. + CLOWN. What think'st thou of his opinion? + MALVOLIO. I think nobly of the soul, and no way approve his + opinion. + CLOWN. Fare thee well. Remain thou still in darkness: thou shalt + hold th' opinion of Pythagoras ere I will allow of thy wits; and + fear to kill a woodcock, lest thou dispossess the soul of thy + grandam. Fare thee well. + MALVOLIO. Sir Topas, Sir Topas! + SIR TOBY. My most exquisite Sir Topas! + CLOWN. Nay, I am for all waters. + MARIA. Thou mightst have done this without thy beard and gown: he + sees thee not. + SIR TOBY. To him in thine own voice, and bring me word how thou + find'st him. I would we were well rid of this knavery. If he may + be conveniently deliver'd, I would he were; for I am now so far + in offence with my niece that I cannot pursue with any safety + this sport to the upshot. Come by and by to my chamber. + Exit with MARIA + CLOWN. [Sings] Hey, Robin, jolly Robin, + Tell me how thy lady does. + MALVOLIO. Fool! + CLOWN. [Sings] My lady is unkind, perdy. + MALVOLIO. Fool! + CLOWN. [Sings] Alas, why is she so? + MALVOLIO. Fool I say! + CLOWN. [Sings] She loves another- Who calls, ha? + MALVOLIO. Good fool, as ever thou wilt deserve well at my hand, + help me to a candle, and pen, ink, and paper; as I am a + gentleman, I will live to be thankful to thee for't. + CLOWN. Master Malvolio? + MALVOLIO. Ay, good fool. + CLOWN. Alas, sir, how fell you besides your five wits? + MALVOLIO. Fool, there was never man so notoriously abus'd; + I am as well in my wits, fool, as thou art. + CLOWN. But as well? Then you are mad indeed, if you be no better in + your wits than a fool. + MALVOLIO. They have here propertied me; keep me in darkness, send + ministers to me, asses, and do all they can to face me out of my + wits. + CLOWN. Advise you what. you say: the minister is here. + [Speaking as SIR TOPAS] Malvolio, thy wits the heavens restore! + Endeavour thyself to sleep, and leave thy vain bibble-babble. + MALVOLIO. Sir Topas! + CLOWN. Maintain no words with him, good fellow.- Who, I, sir? Not + I, sir. God buy you, good Sir Topas.- Marry, amen.- I will sir, I + will. + MALVOLIO. Fool, fool, fool, I say! + CLOWN. Alas, sir, be patient. What say you, sir? I am shent for + speaking to you. + MALVOLIO. Good fool, help me to some light and some paper. + I tell thee I am as well in my wits as any man in Illyria. + CLOWN. Well-a-day that you were, sir! + MALVOLIO. By this hand, I am. Good fool, some ink, paper, and + light; and convey what I will set down to my lady. It shall + advantage thee more than ever the bearing of letter did. + CLOWN. I will help you to't. But tell me true, are you not mad + indeed, or do you but counterfeit? + MALVOLIO. Believe me, I am not; I tell thee true. + CLOWN. Nay, I'll ne'er believe a madman till I see his brains. + I will fetch you light and paper and ink. + MALVOLIO. Fool, I'll requite it in the highest degree; I prithe be + gone. + CLOWN. [Singing] + I am gone, sir, + And anon, sir, + I'll be with you again, + In a trice, + Like to the old Vice, + Your need to sustain; + + Who with dagger of lath, + In his rage and his wrath, + Cries, Ah, ha! to the devil, + Like a mad lad, + Pare thy nails, dad. + Adieu, goodman devil. Exit + + + + +SCENE III. +OLIVIA'S garden + +Enter SEBASTIAN + + SEBASTIAN. This is the air; that is the glorious sun; + This pearl she gave me, I do feel't and see't; + And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus, + Yet 'tis not madness. Where's Antonio, then? + I could not find him at the Elephant; + Yet there he was; and there I found this credit, + That he did range the town to seek me out. + His counsel now might do me golden service; + For though my soul disputes well with my sense + That this may be some error, but no madness, + Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune + So far exceed all instance, all discourse, + That I am ready to distrust mine eyes + And wrangle with my reason, that persuades me + To any other trust but that I am mad, + Or else the lady's mad; yet if 'twere so, + She could not sway her house, command her followers, + Take and give back affairs and their dispatch + With such a smooth, discreet, and stable bearing, + As I perceive she does. There's something in't + That is deceivable. But here the lady comes. + + Enter OLIVIA and PRIEST + + OLIVIA. Blame not this haste of mine. If you mean well, + Now go with me and with this holy man + Into the chantry by; there, before him + And underneath that consecrated roof, + Plight me the fun assurance of your faith, + That my most jealous and too doubtful soul + May live at peace. He shall conceal it + Whiles you are willing it shall come to note, + What time we will our celebration keep + According to my birth. What do you say? + SEBASTIAN. I'll follow this good man, and go with you; + And, having sworn truth, ever will be true. + OLIVIA. Then lead the way, good father; and heavens so shine + That they may fairly note this act of mine! Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Before OLIVIA's house + +Enter CLOWN and FABIAN + + FABIAN. Now, as thou lov'st me, let me see his letter. + CLOWN. Good Master Fabian, grant me another request. + FABIAN. Anything. + CLOWN. Do not desire to see this letter. + FABIAN. This is to give a dog, and in recompense desire my dog + again. + + Enter DUKE, VIOLA, CURIO, and LORDS + + DUKE. Belong you to the Lady Olivia, friends? + CLOWN. Ay, sir, we are some of her trappings. + DUKE. I know thee well. How dost thou, my good fellow? + CLOWN. Truly, sir, the better for my foes and the worse for my + friends. + DUKE. Just the contrary: the better for thy friends. + CLOWN. No, sir, the worse. + DUKE. How can that be? + CLOWN. Marry, sir, they praise me and make an ass of me. Now my + foes tell me plainly I am an ass; so that by my foes, sir, I + profit in the knowledge of myself, and by my friends I am abused; + so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make + your two affirmatives, why then, the worse for my friends, and + the better for my foes. + DUKE. Why, this is excellent. + CLOWN. By my troth, sir, no; though it please you to be one of my + friends. + DUKE. Thou shalt not be the worse for me. There's gold. + CLOWN. But that it would be double-dealing, sir, I would you could + make it another. + DUKE. O, you give me ill counsel. + CLOWN. Put your grace in your pocket, sir, for this once, and let + your flesh and blood obey it. + DUKE. Well, I will be so much a sinner to be a double-dealer. + There's another. + CLOWN. Primo, secundo, tertio, is a good play; and the old saying + is 'The third pays for all.' The triplex, sir, is a good tripping + measure; or the bells of Saint Bennet, sir, may put you in mind- + one, two, three. + DUKE. You can fool no more money out of me at this throw; if you + will let your lady know I am here to speak with her, and bring + her along with you, it may awake my bounty further. + CLOWN. Marry, sir, lullaby to your bounty till I come again. I go, + sir; but I would not have you to think that my desire of having + is the sin of covetousness. But, as you say, sir, let your bounty + take a nap; I will awake it anon. Exit + + Enter ANTONIO and OFFICERS + + VIOLA. Here comes the man, sir, that did rescue me. + DUKE. That face of his I do remember well; + Yet when I saw it last it was besmear'd + As black as Vulcan in the smoke of war. + A baubling vessel was he captain of, + For shallow draught and bulk unprizable, + With which such scathful grapple did he make + With the most noble bottom of our fleet + That very envy and the tongue of los + Cried fame and honour on him. What's the matter? + FIRST OFFICER. Orsino, this is that Antonio + That took the Phoenix and her fraught from Candy; + And this is he that did the Tiger board + When your young nephew Titus lost his leg. + Here in the streets, desperate of shame and state, + In private brabble did we apprehend him. + VIOLA. He did me kindness, sir; drew on my side; + But in conclusion put strange speech upon me. + I know not what 'twas but distraction. + DUKE. Notable pirate, thou salt-water thief! + What foolish boldness brought thee to their mercies + Whom thou, in terms so bloody and so dear, + Hast made thine enemies? + ANTONIO. Orsino, noble sir, + Be pleas'd that I shake off these names you give me: + Antonio never yet was thief or pirate, + Though I confess, on base and ground enough, + Orsino's enemy. A witchcraft drew me hither: + That most ingrateful boy there by your side + From the rude sea's enrag'd and foamy mouth + Did I redeem; a wreck past hope he was. + His life I gave him, and did thereto ad + My love without retention or restraint, + All his in dedication; for his sake, + Did I expose myself, pure for his love, + Into the danger of this adverse town; + Drew to defend him when he was beset; + Where being apprehended, his false cunning, + Not meaning to partake with me in danger, + Taught him to face me out of his acquaintance, + And grew a twenty years removed thing + While one would wink; denied me mine own purse, + Which I had recommended to his use + Not half an hour before. + VIOLA. How can this be? + DUKE. When came he to this town? + ANTONIO. To-day, my lord; and for three months before, + No int'rim, not a minute's vacancy, + Both day and night did we keep company. + + Enter OLIVIA and ATTENDANTS + + DUKE. Here comes the Countess; now heaven walks on earth. + But for thee, fellow- fellow, thy words are madness. + Three months this youth hath tended upon me- + But more of that anon. Take him aside. + OLIVIA. What would my lord, but that he may not have, + Wherein Olivia may seem serviceable? + Cesario, you do not keep promise with me. + VIOLA. Madam? + DUKE. Gracious Olivia- + OLIVIA. What do you say, Cesario? Good my lord- + VIOLA. My lord would speak; my duty hushes me. + OLIVIA. If it be aught to the old tune, my lord, + It is as fat and fulsome to mine ear + As howling after music. + DUKE. Still so cruel? + OLIVIA. Still so constant, lord. + DUKE. What, to perverseness? You uncivil lady, + To whose ingrate and unauspicious altars + My soul the faithfull'st off'rings hath breath'd out + That e'er devotion tender'd! What shall I do? + OLIVIA. Even what it please my lord, that shall become him. + DUKE. Why should I not, had I the heart to do it, + Like to the Egyptian thief at point of death, + Kill what I love?- a savage jealousy + That sometime savours nobly. But hear me this: + Since you to non-regardance cast my faith, + And that I partly know the instrument + That screws me from my true place in your favour, + Live you the marble-breasted tyrant still; + But this your minion, whom I know you love, + And whom, by heaven I swear, I tender dearly, + Him will I tear out of that cruel eye + Where he sits crowned in his master's spite. + Come, boy, with me; my thoughts are ripe in mischief: + I'll sacrifice the lamb that I do love + To spite a raven's heart within a dove. + VIOLA. And I, most jocund, apt, and willingly, + To do you rest, a thousand deaths would die. + OLIVIA. Where goes Cesario? + VIOLA. After him I love + More than I love these eyes, more than my life, + More, by all mores, than e'er I shall love wife. + If I do feign, you witnesses above + Punish my life for tainting of my love! + OLIVIA. Ay me, detested! How am I beguil'd! + VIOLA. Who does beguile you? Who does do you wrong? + OLIVIA. Hast thou forgot thyself? Is it so long? + Call forth the holy father. Exit an ATTENDANT + DUKE. Come, away! + OLIVIA. Whither, my lord? Cesario, husband, stay. + DUKE. Husband? + OLIVIA. Ay, husband; can he that deny? + DUKE. Her husband, sirrah? + VIOLA. No, my lord, not I. + OLIVIA. Alas, it is the baseness of thy fear + That makes thee strangle thy propriety. + Fear not, Cesario, take thy fortunes up; + Be that thou know'st thou art, and then thou art + As great as that thou fear'st. + + Enter PRIEST + + O, welcome, father! + Father, I charge thee, by thy reverence, + Here to unfold- though lately we intended + To keep in darkness what occasion now + Reveals before 'tis ripe- what thou dost know + Hath newly pass'd between this youth and me. + PRIEST. A contract of eternal bond of love, + Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands, + Attested by the holy close of lips, + Strength'ned by interchangement of your rings; + And all the ceremony of this compact + Seal'd in my function, by my testimony; + Since when, my watch hath told me, toward my grave, + I have travell'd but two hours. + DUKE. O thou dissembling cub! What wilt thou be, + When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case? + Or will not else thy craft so quickly grow + That thine own trip shall be thine overthrow? + Farewell, and take her; but direct thy feet + Where thou and I henceforth may never meet. + VIOLA. My lord, I do protest- + OLIVIA. O, do not swear! + Hold little faith, though thou has too much fear. + + Enter SIR ANDREW + + AGUECHEEK. For the love of God, a surgeon! + Send one presently to Sir Toby. + OLIVIA. What's the matter? + AGUECHEEK. Has broke my head across, and has given Sir Toby a + bloody coxcomb too. For the love of God, your help! I had rather + than forty pound I were at home. + OLIVIA. Who has done this, Sir Andrew? + AGUECHEEK. The Count's gentleman, one Cesario. We took him for a + coward, but he's the very devil incardinate. + DUKE. My gentleman, Cesario? + AGUECHEEK. Od's lifelings, here he is! You broke my head for + nothing; and that that did, I was set on to do't by Sir Toby. + VIOLA. Why do you speak to me? I never hurt you. + You drew your sword upon me without cause; + But I bespake you fair and hurt you not. + + Enter SIR TOBY and CLOWN + + AGUECHEEK. If a bloody coxcomb be a hurt, you have hurt me; I think + you set nothing by a bloody coxcomb. Here comes Sir Toby halting; + you shall hear more; but if he had not been in drink, he would + have tickl'd you othergates than he did. + DUKE. How now, gentleman? How is't with you? + SIR TOBY. That's all one; has hurt me, and there's th' end on't. + Sot, didst see Dick Surgeon, sot? + CLOWN. O, he's drunk, Sir Toby, an hour agone; his eyes were set at + eight i' th' morning. + SIR TOBY. Then he's a rogue and a passy measures pavin. I hate a + drunken rogue. + OLIVIA. Away with him. Who hath made this havoc with them? + AGUECHEEK. I'll help you, Sir Toby, because we'll be dress'd + together. + SIR TOBY. Will you help- an ass-head and a coxcomb and a knave, a + thin fac'd knave, a gull? + OLIVIA. Get him to bed, and let his hurt be look'd to. + Exeunt CLOWN, FABIAN, SIR TOBY, and SIR ANDREW + + Enter SEBASTIAN + + SEBASTIAN. I am sorry, madam, I have hurt your kinsman; + But, had it been the brother of my blood, + I must have done no less with wit and safety. + You throw a strange regard upon me, and by that + I do perceive it hath offended you. + Pardon me, sweet one, even for the vows + We made each other but so late ago. + DUKE. One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons! + A natural perspective, that is and is not. + SEBASTIAN. Antonio, O my dear Antonio! + How have the hours rack'd and tortur'd me + Since I have lost thee! + ANTONIO. Sebastian are you? + SEBASTIAN. Fear'st thou that, Antonio? + ANTONIO. How have you made division of yourself? + An apple cleft in two is not more twin + Than these two creatures. Which is Sebastian? + OLIVIA. Most wonderful! + SEBASTIAN. Do I stand there? I never had a brother; + Nor can there be that deity in my nature + Of here and everywhere. I had a sister + Whom the blind waves and surges have devour'd. + Of charity, what kin are you to me? + What countryman, what name, what parentage? + VIOLA. Of Messaline; Sebastian was my father. + Such a Sebastian was my brother too; + So went he suited to his watery tomb; + If spirits can assume both form and suit, + You come to fright us. + SEBASTIAN. A spirit I am indeed, + But am in that dimension grossly clad + Which from the womb I did participate. + Were you a woman, as the rest goes even, + I should my tears let fall upon your cheek, + And say 'Thrice welcome, drowned Viola!' + VIOLA. My father had a mole upon his brow. + SEBASTIAN. And so had mine. + VIOLA. And died that day when Viola from her birth + Had numb'red thirteen years. + SEBASTIAN. O, that record is lively in my soul! + He finished indeed his mortal act + That day that made my sister thirteen years. + VIOLA. If nothing lets to make us happy both + But this my masculine usurp'd attire, + Do not embrace me till each circumstance + Of place, time, fortune, do cohere and jump + That I am Viola; which to confirm, + I'll bring you to a captain in this town, + Where lie my maiden weeds; by whose gentle help + I was preserv'd to serve this noble Count. + All the occurrence of my fortune since + Hath been between this lady and this lord. + SEBASTIAN. [To OLIVIA] So Comes it, lady, you have been mistook; + But nature to her bias drew in that. + You would have been contracted to a maid; + Nor are you therein, by my life, deceiv'd; + You are betroth'd both to a maid and man. + DUKE. Be not amaz'd; right noble is his blood. + If this be so, as yet the glass seems true, + I shall have share in this most happy wreck. + [To VIOLA] Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times + Thou never shouldst love woman like to me. + VIOLA. And all those sayings will I overswear; + And all those swearings keep as true in soul + As doth that orbed continent the fire + That severs day from night. + DUKE. Give me thy hand; + And let me see thee in thy woman's weeds. + VIOLA. The captain that did bring me first on shore + Hath my maid's garments. He, upon some action, + Is now in durance, at Malvolio's suit, + A gentleman and follower of my lady's. + OLIVIA. He shall enlarge him. Fetch Malvolio hither; + And yet, alas, now I remember me, + They say, poor gentleman, he's much distract. + + Re-enter CLOWN, with a letter, and FABIAN + + A most extracting frenzy of mine own + From my remembrance clearly banish'd his. + How does he, sirrah? + CLOWN. Truly, madam, he holds Belzebub at the stave's end as well + as a man in his case may do. Has here writ a letter to you; I + should have given 't you to-day morning, but as a madman's + epistles are no gospels, so it skills not much when they are + deliver'd. + OLIVIA. Open't, and read it. + CLOWN. Look then to be well edified when the fool delivers the + madman. [Reads madly ] 'By the Lord, madam-' + OLIVIA. How now! Art thou mad? + CLOWN. No, madam, I do but read madness. An your ladyship will have + it as it ought to be, you must allow vox. + OLIVIA. Prithee read i' thy right wits. + CLOWN. So I do, madonna; but to read his right wits is to read + thus; therefore perpend, my Princess, and give ear. + OLIVIA. [To FABIAN] Read it you, sirrah. + FABIAN. [Reads] 'By the Lord, madam, you wrong me, and the world + shall know it. Though you have put me into darkness and given + your drunken cousin rule over me, yet have I the benefit of my + senses as well as your ladyship. I have your own letter that + induced me to the semblance I put on, with the which I doubt not + but to do myself much right or you much shame. Think of me as you + please. I leave my duty a little unthought of, and speak out of + my injury. + THE MADLY-US'D MALVOLIO' + + OLIVIA. Did he write this? + CLOWN. Ay, Madam. + DUKE. This savours not much of distraction. + OLIVIA. See him deliver'd, Fabian; bring him hither. + Exit FABIAN + My lord, so please you, these things further thought on, + To think me as well a sister as a wife, + One day shall crown th' alliance on't, so please you, + Here at my house, and at my proper cost. + DUKE. Madam, I am most apt t' embrace your offer. + [To VIOLA] Your master quits you; and, for your service done + him, + So much against the mettle of your sex, + So far beneath your soft and tender breeding, + And since you call'd me master for so long, + Here is my hand; you shall from this time be + You master's mistress. + OLIVIA. A sister! You are she. + + Re-enter FABIAN, with MALVOLIO + + DUKE. Is this the madman? + OLIVIA. Ay, my lord, this same. + How now, Malvolio! + MALVOLIO. Madam, you have done me wrong, + Notorious wrong. + OLIVIA. Have I, Malvolio? No. + MALVOLIO. Lady, you have. Pray you peruse that letter. + You must not now deny it is your hand; + Write from it if you can, in hand or phrase; + Or say 'tis not your seal, not your invention; + You can say none of this. Well, grant it then, + And tell me, in the modesty of honour, + Why you have given me such clear lights of favour, + Bade me come smiling and cross-garter'd to you, + To put on yellow stockings, and to frown + Upon Sir Toby and the lighter people; + And, acting this in an obedient hope, + Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd, + Kept in a dark house, visited by the priest, + And made the most notorious geck and gul + That e'er invention play'd on? Tell me why. + OLIVIA. Alas, Malvolio, this is not my writing, + Though, I confess, much like the character; + But out of question 'tis Maria's hand. + And now I do bethink me, it was she + First told me thou wast mad; then cam'st in smiling, + And in such forms which here were presuppos'd + Upon thee in the letter. Prithee, be content; + This practice hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee, + But, when we know the grounds and authors of it, + Thou shalt be both the plaintiff and the judge + Of thine own cause. + FABIAN. Good madam, hear me speak, + And let no quarrel nor no brawl to come + Taint the condition of this present hour, + Which I have wond'red at. In hope it shall not, + Most freely I confess myself and Toby + Set this device against Malvolio here, + Upon some stubborn and uncourteous parts + We had conceiv'd against him. Maria writ + The letter, at Sir Toby's great importance, + In recompense whereof he hath married her. + How with a sportful malice it was follow'd + May rather pluck on laughter than revenge, + If that the injuries be justly weigh'd + That have on both sides pass'd. + OLIVIA. Alas, poor fool, how have they baffl'd thee! + CLOWN. Why, 'Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some + have greatness thrown upon them.' I was one, sir, in this + interlude- one Sir Topas, sir; but that's all one. 'By the Lord, + fool, I am not mad!' But do you remember- 'Madam, why laugh you + at such a barren rascal? An you smile not, he's gagg'd'? And thus + the whirligig of time brings in his revenges. + MALVOLIO. I'll be reveng'd on the whole pack of you. + Exit + OLIVIA. He hath been most notoriously abus'd. + DUKE. Pursue him, and entreat him to a peace; + He hath not told us of the captain yet. + When that is known, and golden time convents, + A solemn combination shall be made + Of our dear souls. Meantime, sweet sister, + We will not part from hence. Cesario, come; + For so you shall be while you are a man; + But when in other habits you are seen, + Orsino's mistress, and his fancy's queen. + Exeunt all but the CLOWN + + CLOWN sings + + When that I was and a little tiny boy, + With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, + A foolish thing was but a toy, + For the rain it raineth every day. + + But when I came to man's estate, + With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, + 'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate, + For the rain it raineth every day. + + But when I came, alas! to wive, + With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, + By swaggering could I never thrive, + For the rain it raineth every day. + + But when I came unto my beds, + With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, + With toss-pots still had drunken heads, + For the rain it raineth every day. + + A great while ago the world begun, + With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, + But that's all one, our play is done, + And we'll strive to please you every day. + Exit + +THE END + + + +<> + + + +1595 + +THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA + +by William Shakespeare + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + + DUKE OF MILAN, father to Silvia + VALENTINE, one of the two gentlemen + PROTEUS, " " " " " + ANTONIO, father to Proteus + THURIO, a foolish rival to Valentine + EGLAMOUR, agent for Silvia in her escape + SPEED, a clownish servant to Valentine + LAUNCE, the like to Proteus + PANTHINO, servant to Antonio + HOST, where Julia lodges in Milan + OUTLAWS, with Valentine + + JULIA, a lady of Verona, beloved of Proteus + SILVIA, the Duke's daughter, beloved of Valentine + LUCETTA, waiting-woman to Julia + + SERVANTS + MUSICIANS + + + + +<> + + + +SCENE: +Verona; Milan; the frontiers of Mantua + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Verona. An open place + +Enter VALENTINE and PROTEUS + + VALENTINE. Cease to persuade, my loving Proteus: + Home-keeping youth have ever homely wits. + Were't not affection chains thy tender days + To the sweet glances of thy honour'd love, + I rather would entreat thy company + To see the wonders of the world abroad, + Than, living dully sluggardiz'd at home, + Wear out thy youth with shapeless idleness. + But since thou lov'st, love still, and thrive therein, + Even as I would, when I to love begin. + PROTEUS. Wilt thou be gone? Sweet Valentine, adieu! + Think on thy Proteus, when thou haply seest + Some rare noteworthy object in thy travel. + Wish me partaker in thy happiness + When thou dost meet good hap; and in thy danger, + If ever danger do environ thee, + Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers, + For I will be thy headsman, Valentine. + VALENTINE. And on a love-book pray for my success? + PROTEUS. Upon some book I love I'll pray for thee. + VALENTINE. That's on some shallow story of deep love: + How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont. + PROTEUS. That's a deep story of a deeper love; + For he was more than over shoes in love. + VALENTINE. 'Tis true; for you are over boots in love, + And yet you never swum the Hellespont. + PROTEUS. Over the boots! Nay, give me not the boots. + VALENTINE. No, I will not, for it boots thee not. + PROTEUS. What? + VALENTINE. To be in love- where scorn is bought with groans, + Coy looks with heart-sore sighs, one fading moment's mirth + With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights; + If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain; + If lost, why then a grievous labour won; + However, but a folly bought with wit, + Or else a wit by folly vanquished. + PROTEUS. So, by your circumstance, you call me fool. + VALENTINE. So, by your circumstance, I fear you'll prove. + PROTEUS. 'Tis love you cavil at; I am not Love. + VALENTINE. Love is your master, for he masters you; + And he that is so yoked by a fool, + Methinks, should not be chronicled for wise. + PROTEUS. Yet writers say, as in the sweetest bud + The eating canker dwells, so eating love + Inhabits in the finest wits of all. + VALENTINE. And writers say, as the most forward bud + Is eaten by the canker ere it blow, + Even so by love the young and tender wit + Is turn'd to folly, blasting in the bud, + Losing his verdure even in the prime, + And all the fair effects of future hopes. + But wherefore waste I time to counsel the + That art a votary to fond desire? + Once more adieu. My father at the road + Expects my coming, there to see me shipp'd. + PROTEUS. And thither will I bring thee, Valentine. + VALENTINE. Sweet Proteus, no; now let us take our leave. + To Milan let me hear from thee by letters + Of thy success in love, and what news else + Betideth here in absence of thy friend; + And I likewise will visit thee with mine. + PROTEUS. All happiness bechance to thee in Milan! + VALENTINE. As much to you at home; and so farewell! + Exit VALENTINE + PROTEUS. He after honour hunts, I after love; + He leaves his friends to dignify them more: + I leave myself, my friends, and all for love. + Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphis'd me, + Made me neglect my studies, lose my time, + War with good counsel, set the world at nought; + Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with thought. + + Enter SPEED + + SPEED. Sir Proteus, save you! Saw you my master? + PROTEUS. But now he parted hence to embark for Milan. + SPEED. Twenty to one then he is shipp'd already, + And I have play'd the sheep in losing him. + PROTEUS. Indeed a sheep doth very often stray, + An if the shepherd be awhile away. + SPEED. You conclude that my master is a shepherd then, and + I a sheep? + PROTEUS. I do. + SPEED. Why then, my horns are his horns, whether I wake or sleep. + PROTEUS. A silly answer, and fitting well a sheep. + SPEED. This proves me still a sheep. + PROTEUS. True; and thy master a shepherd. + SPEED. Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance. + PROTEUS. It shall go hard but I'll prove it by another. + SPEED. The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the sheep the + shepherd; but I seek my master, and my master seeks not me; + therefore, I am no sheep. + PROTEUS. The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd; the shepherd for + food follows not the sheep: thou for wages followest thy master; + thy master for wages follows not thee. Therefore, thou art a + sheep. + SPEED. Such another proof will make me cry 'baa.' + PROTEUS. But dost thou hear? Gav'st thou my letter to Julia? + SPEED. Ay, sir; I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a lac'd + mutton; and she, a lac'd mutton, gave me, a lost mutton, nothing + for my labour. + PROTEUS. Here's too small a pasture for such store of muttons. + SPEED. If the ground be overcharg'd, you were best stick her. + PROTEUS. Nay, in that you are astray: 'twere best pound you. + SPEED. Nay, sir, less than a pound shall serve me for carrying your + letter. + PROTEUS. You mistake; I mean the pound- a pinfold. + SPEED. From a pound to a pin? Fold it over and over, + 'Tis threefold too little for carrying a letter to your lover. + PROTEUS. But what said she? + SPEED. [Nodding] Ay. + PROTEUS. Nod- ay. Why, that's 'noddy.' + SPEED. You mistook, sir; I say she did nod; and you ask me if she + did nod; and I say 'Ay.' + PROTEUS. And that set together is 'noddy.' + SPEED. Now you have taken the pains to set it together, take it for + your pains. + PROTEUS. No, no; you shall have it for bearing the letter. + SPEED. Well, I perceive I must be fain to bear with you. + PROTEUS. Why, sir, how do you bear with me? + SPEED. Marry, sir, the letter, very orderly; having nothing but the + word 'noddy' for my pains. + PROTEUS. Beshrew me, but you have a quick wit. + SPEED. And yet it cannot overtake your slow purse. + PROTEUS. Come, come, open the matter; in brief, what said she? + SPEED. Open your purse, that the money and the matter may be both + at once delivered. + PROTEUS. Well, sir, here is for your pains. What said she? + SPEED. Truly, sir, I think you'll hardly win her. + PROTEUS. Why, couldst thou perceive so much from her? + SPEED. Sir, I could perceive nothing at all from her; no, not so + much as a ducat for delivering your letter; and being so hard to + me that brought your mind, I fear she'll prove as hard to you in + telling your mind. Give her no token but stones, for she's as + hard as steel. + PROTEUS. What said she? Nothing? + SPEED. No, not so much as 'Take this for thy pains.' To testify + your bounty, I thank you, you have testern'd me; in requital + whereof, henceforth carry your letters yourself; and so, sir, + I'll commend you to my master. + PROTEUS. Go, go, be gone, to save your ship from wreck, + Which cannot perish, having thee aboard, + Being destin'd to a drier death on shore. Exit SPEED + I must go send some better messenger. + I fear my Julia would not deign my lines, + Receiving them from such a worthless post. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Verona. The garden Of JULIA'S house + +Enter JULIA and LUCETTA + + JULIA. But say, Lucetta, now we are alone, + Wouldst thou then counsel me to fall in love? + LUCETTA. Ay, madam; so you stumble not unheedfully. + JULIA. Of all the fair resort of gentlemen + That every day with parle encounter me, + In thy opinion which is worthiest love? + LUCETTA. Please you, repeat their names; I'll show my mind + According to my shallow simple skill. + JULIA. What think'st thou of the fair Sir Eglamour? + LUCETTA. As of a knight well-spoken, neat, and fine; + But, were I you, he never should be mine. + JULIA. What think'st thou of the rich Mercatio? + LUCETTA. Well of his wealth; but of himself, so so. + JULIA. What think'st thou of the gentle Proteus? + LUCETTA. Lord, Lord! to see what folly reigns in us! + JULIA. How now! what means this passion at his name? + LUCETTA. Pardon, dear madam; 'tis a passing shame + That I, unworthy body as I am, + Should censure thus on lovely gentlemen. + JULIA. Why not on Proteus, as of all the rest? + LUCETTA. Then thus: of many good I think him best. + JULIA. Your reason? + LUCETTA. I have no other but a woman's reason: + I think him so, because I think him so. + JULIA. And wouldst thou have me cast my love on him? + LUCETTA. Ay, if you thought your love not cast away. + JULIA. Why, he, of all the rest, hath never mov'd me. + LUCETTA. Yet he, of all the rest, I think, best loves ye. + JULIA. His little speaking shows his love but small. + LUCETTA. Fire that's closest kept burns most of all. + JULIA. They do not love that do not show their love. + LUCETTA. O, they love least that let men know their love. + JULIA. I would I knew his mind. + LUCETTA. Peruse this paper, madam. + JULIA. 'To Julia'- Say, from whom? + LUCETTA. That the contents will show. + JULIA. Say, say, who gave it thee? + LUCETTA. Sir Valentine's page; and sent, I think, from Proteus. + He would have given it you; but I, being in the way, + Did in your name receive it; pardon the fault, I pray. + JULIA. Now, by my modesty, a goodly broker! + Dare you presume to harbour wanton lines? + To whisper and conspire against my youth? + Now, trust me, 'tis an office of great worth, + And you an officer fit for the place. + There, take the paper; see it be return'd; + Or else return no more into my sight. + LUCETTA. To plead for love deserves more fee than hate. + JULIA. Will ye be gone? + LUCETTA. That you may ruminate. Exit + JULIA. And yet, I would I had o'erlook'd the letter. + It were a shame to call her back again, + And pray her to a fault for which I chid her. + What fool is she, that knows I am a maid + And would not force the letter to my view! + Since maids, in modesty, say 'No' to that + Which they would have the profferer construe 'Ay.' + Fie, fie, how wayward is this foolish love, + That like a testy babe will scratch the nurse, + And presently, all humbled, kiss the rod! + How churlishly I chid Lucetta hence, + When willingly I would have had her here! + How angerly I taught my brow to frown, + When inward joy enforc'd my heart to smile! + My penance is to call Lucetta back + And ask remission for my folly past. + What ho! Lucetta! + + Re-enter LUCETTA + + LUCETTA. What would your ladyship? + JULIA. Is't near dinner time? + LUCETTA. I would it were, + That you might kill your stomach on your meat + And not upon your maid. + JULIA. What is't that you took up so gingerly? + LUCETTA. Nothing. + JULIA. Why didst thou stoop then? + LUCETTA. To take a paper up that I let fall. + JULIA. And is that paper nothing? + LUCETTA. Nothing concerning me. + JULIA. Then let it lie for those that it concerns. + LUCETTA. Madam, it will not lie where it concerns, + Unless it have a false interpreter. + JULIA. Some love of yours hath writ to you in rhyme. + LUCETTA. That I might sing it, madam, to a tune. + Give me a note; your ladyship can set. + JULIA. As little by such toys as may be possible. + Best sing it to the tune of 'Light o' Love.' + LUCETTA. It is too heavy for so light a tune. + JULIA. Heavy! belike it hath some burden then. + LUCETTA. Ay; and melodious were it, would you sing it. + JULIA. And why not you? + LUCETTA. I cannot reach so high. + JULIA. Let's see your song. [LUCETTA withholds the letter] + How now, minion! + LUCETTA. Keep tune there still, so you will sing it out. + And yet methinks I do not like this tune. + JULIA. You do not! + LUCETTA. No, madam; 'tis too sharp. + JULIA. You, minion, are too saucy. + LUCETTA. Nay, now you are too flat + And mar the concord with too harsh a descant; + There wanteth but a mean to fill your song. + JULIA. The mean is drown'd with your unruly bass. + LUCETTA. Indeed, I bid the base for Proteus. + JULIA. This babble shall not henceforth trouble me. + Here is a coil with protestation! [Tears the letter] + Go, get you gone; and let the papers lie. + You would be fing'ring them, to anger me. + LUCETTA. She makes it strange; but she would be best pleas'd + To be so ang'red with another letter. Exit + JULIA. Nay, would I were so ang'red with the same! + O hateful hands, to tear such loving words! + Injurious wasps, to feed on such sweet honey + And kill the bees that yield it with your stings! + I'll kiss each several paper for amends. + Look, here is writ 'kind Julia.' Unkind Julia, + As in revenge of thy ingratitude, + I throw thy name against the bruising stones, + Trampling contemptuously on thy disdain. + And here is writ 'love-wounded Proteus.' + Poor wounded name! my bosom,,as a bed, + Shall lodge thee till thy wound be throughly heal'd; + And thus I search it with a sovereign kiss. + But twice or thrice was 'Proteus' written down. + Be calm, good wind, blow not a word away + Till I have found each letter in the letter- + Except mine own name; that some whirlwind bear + Unto a ragged, fearful, hanging rock, + And throw it thence into the raging sea. + Lo, here in one line is his name twice writ: + 'Poor forlorn Proteus, passionate Proteus, + To the sweet Julia.' That I'll tear away; + And yet I will not, sith so prettily + He couples it to his complaining names. + Thus will I fold them one upon another; + Now kiss, embrace, contend, do what you will. + + Re-enter LUCETTA + + LUCETTA. Madam, + Dinner is ready, and your father stays. + JULIA. Well, let us go. + LUCETTA. What, shall these papers lie like tell-tales here? + JULIA. If you respect them, best to take them up. + LUCETTA. Nay, I was taken up for laying them down; + Yet here they shall not lie for catching cold. + JULIA. I see you have a month's mind to them. + LUCETTA. Ay, madam, you may say what sights you see; + I see things too, although you judge I wink. + JULIA. Come, come; will't please you go? Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Verona. ANTONIO'S house + +Enter ANTONIO and PANTHINO + + ANTONIO. Tell me, Panthino, what sad talk was that + Wherewith my brother held you in the cloister? + PANTHINO. 'Twas of his nephew Proteus, your son. + ANTONIO. Why, what of him? + PANTHINO. He wond'red that your lordship + Would suffer him to spend his youth at home, + While other men, of slender reputation, + Put forth their sons to seek preferment out: + Some to the wars, to try their fortune there; + Some to discover islands far away; + Some to the studious universities. + For any, or for all these exercises, + He said that Proteus, your son, was meet; + And did request me to importune you + To let him spend his time no more at home, + Which would be great impeachment to his age, + In having known no travel in his youth. + ANTONIO. Nor need'st thou much importune me to that + Whereon this month I have been hammering. + I have consider'd well his loss of time, + And how he cannot be a perfect man, + Not being tried and tutor'd in the world: + Experience is by industry achiev'd, + And perfected by the swift course of time. + Then tell me whither were I best to send him. + PANTHINO. I think your lordship is not ignorant + How his companion, youthful Valentine, + Attends the Emperor in his royal court. + ANTONIO. I know it well. + PANTHINO. 'Twere good, I think, your lordship sent him thither: + There shall he practise tilts and tournaments, + Hear sweet discourse, converse with noblemen, + And be in eye of every exercise + Worthy his youth and nobleness of birth. + ANTONIO. I like thy counsel; well hast thou advis'd; + And that thou mayst perceive how well I like it, + The execution of it shall make known: + Even with the speediest expedition + I will dispatch him to the Emperor's court. + PANTHINO. To-morrow, may it please you, Don Alphonso + With other gentlemen of good esteem + Are journeying to salute the Emperor, + And to commend their service to his will. + ANTONIO. Good company; with them shall Proteus go. + + Enter PROTEUS + + And- in good time!- now will we break with him. + PROTEUS. Sweet love! sweet lines! sweet life! + Here is her hand, the agent of her heart; + Here is her oath for love, her honour's pawn. + O that our fathers would applaud our loves, + To seal our happiness with their consents! + O heavenly Julia! + ANTONIO. How now! What letter are you reading there? + PROTEUS. May't please your lordship, 'tis a word or two + Of commendations sent from Valentine, + Deliver'd by a friend that came from him. + ANTONIO. Lend me the letter; let me see what news. + PROTEUS. There is no news, my lord; but that he writes + How happily he lives, how well-belov'd + And daily graced by the Emperor; + Wishing me with him, partner of his fortune. + ANTONIO. And how stand you affected to his wish? + PROTEUS. As one relying on your lordship's will, + And not depending on his friendly wish. + ANTONIO. My will is something sorted with his wish. + Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed; + For what I will, I will, and there an end. + I am resolv'd that thou shalt spend some time + With Valentinus in the Emperor's court; + What maintenance he from his friends receives, + Like exhibition thou shalt have from me. + To-morrow be in readiness to go- + Excuse it not, for I am peremptory. + PROTEUS. My lord, I cannot be so soon provided; + Please you, deliberate a day or two. + ANTONIO. Look what thou want'st shall be sent after thee. + No more of stay; to-morrow thou must go. + Come on, Panthino; you shall be employ'd + To hasten on his expedition. + Exeunt ANTONIO and PANTHINO + PROTEUS. Thus have I shunn'd the fire for fear of burning, + And drench'd me in the sea, where I am drown'd. + I fear'd to show my father Julia's letter, + Lest he should take exceptions to my love; + And with the vantage of mine own excuse + Hath he excepted most against my love. + O, how this spring of love resembleth + The uncertain glory of an April day, + Which now shows all the beauty of the sun, + And by an by a cloud takes all away! + + Re-enter PANTHINO + + PANTHINO. Sir Proteus, your father calls for you; + He is in haste; therefore, I pray you, go. + PROTEUS. Why, this it is: my heart accords thereto; + And yet a thousand times it answers 'No.' Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +Milan. The DUKE'S palace + +Enter VALENTINE and SPEED + + SPEED. Sir, your glove. + VALENTINE. Not mine: my gloves are on. + SPEED. Why, then, this may be yours; for this is but one. + VALENTINE. Ha! let me see; ay, give it me, it's mine; + Sweet ornament that decks a thing divine! + Ah, Silvia! Silvia! + SPEED. [Calling] Madam Silvia! Madam Silvia! + VALENTINE. How now, sirrah? + SPEED. She is not within hearing, sir. + VALENTINE. Why, sir, who bade you call her? + SPEED. Your worship, sir; or else I mistook. + VALENTINE. Well, you'll still be too forward. + SPEED. And yet I was last chidden for being too slow. + VALENTINE. Go to, sir; tell me, do you know Madam Silvia? + SPEED. She that your worship loves? + VALENTINE. Why, how know you that I am in love? + SPEED. Marry, by these special marks: first, you have learn'd, like + Sir Proteus, to wreath your arms like a malcontent; to relish a + love-song, like a robin redbreast; to walk alone, like one that + had the pestilence; to sigh, like a school-boy that had lost his + A B C; to weep, like a young wench that had buried her grandam; + to fast, like one that takes diet; to watch, like one that fears + robbing; to speak puling, like a beggar at Hallowmas. You were + wont, when you laughed, to crow like a cock; when you walk'd, to + walk like one of the lions; when you fasted, it was presently + after dinner; when you look'd sadly, it was for want of money. + And now you are metamorphis'd with a mistress, that, when I look + on you, I can hardly think you my master. + VALENTINE. Are all these things perceiv'd in me? + SPEED. They are all perceiv'd without ye. + VALENTINE. Without me? They cannot. + SPEED. Without you! Nay, that's certain; for, without you were so + simple, none else would; but you are so without these follies + that these follies are within you, and shine through you like the + water in an urinal, that not an eye that sees you but is a + physician to comment on your malady. + VALENTINE. But tell me, dost thou know my lady Silvia? + SPEED. She that you gaze on so, as she sits at supper? + VALENTINE. Hast thou observ'd that? Even she, I mean. + SPEED. Why, sir, I know her not. + VALENTINE. Dost thou know her by my gazing on her, and yet know'st + her not? + SPEED. Is she not hard-favour'd, sir? + VALENTINE. Not so fair, boy, as well-favour'd. + SPEED. Sir, I know that well enough. + VALENTINE. What dost thou know? + SPEED. That she is not so fair as, of you, well-favour'd. + VALENTINE. I mean that her beauty is exquisite, but her favour + infinite. + SPEED. That's because the one is painted, and the other out of all + count. + VALENTINE. How painted? and how out of count? + SPEED. Marry, sir, so painted, to make her fair, that no man counts + of her beauty. + VALENTINE. How esteem'st thou me? I account of her beauty. + SPEED. You never saw her since she was deform'd. + VALENTINE. How long hath she been deform'd? + SPEED. Ever since you lov'd her. + VALENTINE. I have lov'd her ever since I saw her, and still + I see her beautiful. + SPEED. If you love her, you cannot see her. + VALENTINE. Why? + SPEED. Because Love is blind. O that you had mine eyes; or your own + eyes had the lights they were wont to have when you chid at Sir + Proteus for going ungarter'd! + VALENTINE. What should I see then? + SPEED. Your own present folly and her passing deformity; for he, + being in love, could not see to garter his hose; and you, being + in love, cannot see to put on your hose. + VALENTINE. Belike, boy, then you are in love; for last morning you + could not see to wipe my shoes. + SPEED. True, sir; I was in love with my bed. I thank you, you + swing'd me for my love, which makes me the bolder to chide you + for yours. + VALENTINE. In conclusion, I stand affected to her. + SPEED. I would you were set, so your affection would cease. + VALENTINE. Last night she enjoin'd me to write some lines to one + she loves. + SPEED. And have you? + VALENTINE. I have. + SPEED. Are they not lamely writ? + VALENTINE. No, boy, but as well as I can do them. + + Enter SILVIA + + Peace! here she comes. + SPEED. [Aside] O excellent motion! O exceeding puppet! + Now will he interpret to her. + VALENTINE. Madam and mistress, a thousand good morrows. + SPEED. [Aside] O, give ye good ev'n! + Here's a million of manners. + SILVIA. Sir Valentine and servant, to you two thousand. + SPEED. [Aside] He should give her interest, and she gives it him. + VALENTINE. As you enjoin'd me, I have writ your letter + Unto the secret nameless friend of yours; + Which I was much unwilling to proceed in, + But for my duty to your ladyship. + SILVIA. I thank you, gentle servant. 'Tis very clerkly done. + VALENTINE. Now trust me, madam, it came hardly off; + For, being ignorant to whom it goes, + I writ at random, very doubtfully. + SILVIA. Perchance you think too much of so much pains? + VALENTINE. No, madam; so it stead you, I will write, + Please you command, a thousand times as much; + And yet- + SILVIA. A pretty period! Well, I guess the sequel; + And yet I will not name it- and yet I care not. + And yet take this again- and yet I thank you- + Meaning henceforth to trouble you no more. + SPEED. [Aside] And yet you will; and yet another' yet.' + VALENTINE. What means your ladyship? Do you not like it? + SILVIA. Yes, yes; the lines are very quaintly writ; + But, since unwillingly, take them again. + Nay, take them. [Gives hack the letter] + VALENTINE. Madam, they are for you. + SILVIA. Ay, ay, you writ them, sir, at my request; + But I will none of them; they are for you: + I would have had them writ more movingly. + VALENTINE. Please you, I'll write your ladyship another. + SILVIA. And when it's writ, for my sake read it over; + And if it please you, so; if not, why, so. + VALENTINE. If it please me, madam, what then? + SILVIA. Why, if it please you, take it for your labour. + And so good morrow, servant. Exit SILVIA + SPEED. O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible, + As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple! + My master sues to her; and she hath taught her suitor, + He being her pupil, to become her tutor. + O excellent device! Was there ever heard a better, + That my master, being scribe, to himself should write the letter? + VALENTINE. How now, sir! What are you reasoning with yourself? + SPEED. Nay, I was rhyming: 'tis you that have the reason. + VALENTINE. To do what? + SPEED. To be a spokesman from Madam Silvia? + VALENTINE. To whom? + SPEED. To yourself; why, she woos you by a figure. + VALENTINE. What figure? + SPEED. By a letter, I should say. + VALENTINE. Why, she hath not writ to me. + SPEED. What need she, when she hath made you write to yourself? + Why, do you not perceive the jest? + VALENTINE. No, believe me. + SPEED. No believing you indeed, sir. But did you perceive her + earnest? + VALENTINE. She gave me none except an angry word. + SPEED. Why, she hath given you a letter. + VALENTINE. That's the letter I writ to her friend. + SPEED. And that letter hath she deliver'd, and there an end. + VALENTINE. I would it were no worse. + SPEED. I'll warrant you 'tis as well. + 'For often have you writ to her; and she, in modesty, + Or else for want of idle time, could not again reply; + Or fearing else some messenger that might her mind discover, + Herself hath taught her love himself to write unto her lover.' + All this I speak in print, for in print I found it. Why muse you, + sir? 'Tis dinner time. + VALENTINE. I have din'd. + SPEED. Ay, but hearken, sir; though the chameleon Love can feed on + the air, I am one that am nourish'd by my victuals, and would + fain have meat. O, be not like your mistress! Be moved, be moved. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Verona. JULIA'S house + +Enter PROTEUS and JULIA + + PROTEUS. Have patience, gentle Julia. + JULIA. I must, where is no remedy. + PROTEUS. When possibly I can, I will return. + JULIA. If you turn not, you will return the sooner. + Keep this remembrance for thy Julia's sake. + [Giving a ring] + PROTEUS. Why, then, we'll make exchange. Here, take you this. + JULIA. And seal the bargain with a holy kiss. + PROTEUS. Here is my hand for my true constancy; + And when that hour o'erslips me in the day + Wherein I sigh not, Julia, for thy sake, + The next ensuing hour some foul mischance + Torment me for my love's forgetfulness! + My father stays my coming; answer not; + The tide is now- nay, not thy tide of tears: + That tide will stay me longer than I should. + Julia, farewell! Exit JULIA + What, gone without a word? + Ay, so true love should do: it cannot speak; + For truth hath better deeds than words to grace it. + + Enter PANTHINO + + PANTHINO. Sir Proteus, you are stay'd for. + PROTEUS. Go; I come, I come. + Alas! this parting strikes poor lovers dumb. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Verona. A street + +Enter LAUNCE, leading a dog + + LAUNCE. Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the + kind of the Launces have this very fault. I have receiv'd my + proportion, like the Prodigious Son, and am going with Sir + Proteus to the Imperial's court. I think Crab my dog be the + sourest-natured dog that lives: my mother weeping, my father + wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her + hands, and all our house in a great perplexity; yet did not this + cruel-hearted cur shed one tear. He is a stone, a very pebble + stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog. A Jew would have + wept to have seen our parting; why, my grandam having no eyes, + look you, wept herself blind at my parting. Nay, I'll show you + the manner of it. This shoe is my father; no, this left shoe is + my father; no, no, left shoe is my mother; nay, that cannot be so + neither; yes, it is so, it is so, it hath the worser sole. This + shoe with the hole in it is my mother, and this my father. A + vengeance on 't! There 'tis. Now, sir, this staff is my sister, + for, look you, she is as white as a lily and as small as a wand; + this hat is Nan our maid; I am the dog; no, the dog is himself, + and I am the dog- O, the dog is me, and I am myself; ay, so, so. + Now come I to my father: 'Father, your blessing.' Now should not + the shoe speak a word for weeping; now should I kiss my father; + well, he weeps on. Now come I to my mother. O that she could + speak now like a wood woman! Well, I kiss her- why there 'tis; + here's my mother's breath up and down. Now come I to my sister; + mark the moan she makes. Now the dog all this while sheds not a + tear, nor speaks a word; but see how I lay the dust with my + tears. + + Enter PANTHINO + + PANTHINO. Launce, away, away, aboard! Thy master is shipp'd, and + thou art to post after with oars. What's the matter? Why weep'st + thou, man? Away, ass! You'll lose the tide if you tarry any + longer. + LAUNCE. It is no matter if the tied were lost; for it is the + unkindest tied that ever any man tied. + PANTHINO. What's the unkindest tide? + LAUNCE. Why, he that's tied here, Crab, my dog. + PANTHINO. Tut, man, I mean thou'lt lose the flood, and, in losing + the flood, lose thy voyage, and, in losing thy voyage, lose thy + master, and, in losing thy master, lose thy service, and, in + losing thy service- Why dost thou stop my mouth? + LAUNCE. For fear thou shouldst lose thy tongue. + PANTHINO. Where should I lose my tongue? + LAUNCE. In thy tale. + PANTHINO. In thy tail! + LAUNCE. Lose the tide, and the voyage, and the master, and the + service, and the tied! Why, man, if the river were dry, I am able + to fill it with my tears; if the wind were down, I could drive + the boat with my sighs. + PANTHINO. Come, come away, man; I was sent to call thee. + LAUNCE. Sir, call me what thou dar'st. + PANTHINO. Will thou go? + LAUNCE. Well, I will go. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Milan. The DUKE'S palace + +Enter SILVIA, VALENTINE, THURIO, and SPEED + + SILVIA. Servant! + VALENTINE. Mistress? + SPEED. Master, Sir Thurio frowns on you. + VALENTINE. Ay, boy, it's for love. + SPEED. Not of you. + VALENTINE. Of my mistress, then. + SPEED. 'Twere good you knock'd him. Exit + SILVIA. Servant, you are sad. + VALENTINE. Indeed, madam, I seem so. + THURIO. Seem you that you are not? + VALENTINE. Haply I do. + THURIO. So do counterfeits. + VALENTINE. So do you. + THURIO. What seem I that I am not? + VALENTINE. Wise. + THURIO. What instance of the contrary? + VALENTINE. Your folly. + THURIO. And how quote you my folly? + VALENTINE. I quote it in your jerkin. + THURIO. My jerkin is a doublet. + VALENTINE. Well, then, I'll double your folly. + THURIO. How? + SILVIA. What, angry, Sir Thurio! Do you change colour? + VALENTINE. Give him leave, madam; he is a kind of chameleon. + THURIO. That hath more mind to feed on your blood than live in your + air. + VALENTINE. You have said, sir. + THURIO. Ay, sir, and done too, for this time. + VALENTINE. I know it well, sir; you always end ere you begin. + SILVIA. A fine volley of words, gentlemen, and quickly shot off. + VALENTINE. 'Tis indeed, madam; we thank the giver. + SILVIA. Who is that, servant? + VALENTINE. Yourself, sweet lady; for you gave the fire. Sir Thurio + borrows his wit from your ladyship's looks, and spends what he + borrows kindly in your company. + THURIO. Sir, if you spend word for word with me, I shall make your + wit bankrupt. + VALENTINE. I know it well, sir; you have an exchequer of words, + and, I think, no other treasure to give your followers; for it + appears by their bare liveries that they live by your bare words. + + Enter DUKE + + SILVIA. No more, gentlemen, no more. Here comes my father. + DUKE. Now, daughter Silvia, you are hard beset. + Sir Valentine, your father is in good health. + What say you to a letter from your friends + Of much good news? + VALENTINE. My lord, I will be thankful + To any happy messenger from thence. + DUKE. Know ye Don Antonio, your countryman? + VALENTINE. Ay, my good lord, I know the gentleman + To be of worth and worthy estimation, + And not without desert so well reputed. + DUKE. Hath he not a son? + VALENTINE. Ay, my good lord; a son that well deserves + The honour and regard of such a father. + DUKE. You know him well? + VALENTINE. I knew him as myself; for from our infancy + We have convers'd and spent our hours together; + And though myself have been an idle truant, + Omitting the sweet benefit of time + To clothe mine age with angel-like perfection, + Yet hath Sir Proteus, for that's his name, + Made use and fair advantage of his days: + His years but young, but his experience old; + His head unmellowed, but his judgment ripe; + And, in a word, for far behind his worth + Comes all the praises that I now bestow, + He is complete in feature and in mind, + With all good grace to grace a gentleman. + DUKE. Beshrew me, sir, but if he make this good, + He is as worthy for an empress' love + As meet to be an emperor's counsellor. + Well, sir, this gentleman is come to me + With commendation from great potentates, + And here he means to spend his time awhile. + I think 'tis no unwelcome news to you. + VALENTINE. Should I have wish'd a thing, it had been he. + DUKE. Welcome him, then, according to his worth- + Silvia, I speak to you, and you, Sir Thurio; + For Valentine, I need not cite him to it. + I will send him hither to you presently. Exit DUKE + VALENTINE. This is the gentleman I told your ladyship + Had come along with me but that his mistresss + Did hold his eyes lock'd in her crystal looks. + SILVIA. Belike that now she hath enfranchis'd them + Upon some other pawn for fealty. + VALENTINE. Nay, sure, I think she holds them prisoners still. + SILVIA. Nay, then, he should be blind; and, being blind, + How could he see his way to seek out you? + VALENTINE. Why, lady, Love hath twenty pair of eyes. + THURIO. They say that Love hath not an eye at all. + VALENTINE. To see such lovers, Thurio, as yourself; + Upon a homely object Love can wink. Exit THURIO + + Enter PROTEUS + + SILVIA. Have done, have done; here comes the gentleman. + VALENTINE. Welcome, dear Proteus! Mistress, I beseech you + Confirm his welcome with some special favour. + SILVIA. His worth is warrant for his welcome hither, + If this be he you oft have wish'd to hear from. + VALENTINE. Mistress, it is; sweet lady, entertain him + To be my fellow-servant to your ladyship. + SILVIA. Too low a mistress for so high a servant. + PROTEUS. Not so, sweet lady; but too mean a servant + To have a look of such a worthy mistress. + VALENTINE. Leave off discourse of disability; + Sweet lady, entertain him for your servant. + PROTEUS. My duty will I boast of, nothing else. + SILVIA. And duty never yet did want his meed. + Servant, you are welcome to a worthless mistress. + PROTEUS. I'll die on him that says so but yourself. + SILVIA. That you are welcome? + PROTEUS. That you are worthless. + + Re-enter THURIO + + THURIO. Madam, my lord your father would speak with you. + SILVIA. I wait upon his pleasure. Come, Sir Thurio, + Go with me. Once more, new servant, welcome. + I'll leave you to confer of home affairs; + When you have done we look to hear from you. + PROTEUS. We'll both attend upon your ladyship. + Exeunt SILVIA and THURIO + VALENTINE. Now, tell me, how do all from whence you came? + PROTEUS. Your friends are well, and have them much commended. + VALENTINE. And how do yours? + PROTEUS. I left them all in health. + VALENTINE. How does your lady, and how thrives your love? + PROTEUS. My tales of love were wont to weary you; + I know you joy not in a love-discourse. + VALENTINE. Ay, Proteus, but that life is alter'd now; + I have done penance for contemning Love, + Whose high imperious thoughts have punish'd me + With bitter fasts, with penitential groans, + With nightly tears, and daily heart-sore sighs; + For, in revenge of my contempt of love, + Love hath chas'd sleep from my enthralled eyes + And made them watchers of mine own heart's sorrow. + O gentle Proteus, Love's a mighty lord, + And hath so humbled me as I confess + There is no woe to his correction, + Nor to his service no such joy on earth. + Now no discourse, except it be of love; + Now can I break my fast, dine, sup, and sleep, + Upon the very naked name of love. + PROTEUS. Enough; I read your fortune in your eye. + Was this the idol that you worship so? + VALENTINE. Even she; and is she not a heavenly saint? + PROTEUS. No; but she is an earthly paragon. + VALENTINE. Call her divine. + PROTEUS. I will not flatter her. + VALENTINE. O, flatter me; for love delights in praises! + PROTEUS. When I was sick you gave me bitter pills, + And I must minister the like to you. + VALENTINE. Then speak the truth by her; if not divine, + Yet let her be a principality, + Sovereign to all the creatures on the earth. + PROTEUS. Except my mistress. + VALENTINE. Sweet, except not any; + Except thou wilt except against my love. + PROTEUS. Have I not reason to prefer mine own? + VALENTINE. And I will help thee to prefer her too: + She shall be dignified with this high honour- + To bear my lady's train, lest the base earth + Should from her vesture chance to steal a kiss + And, of so great a favour growing proud, + Disdain to root the summer-swelling flow'r + And make rough winter everlastingly. + PROTEUS. Why, Valentine, what braggardism is this? + VALENTINE. Pardon me, Proteus; all I can is nothing + To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing; + She is alone. + PROTEUS. Then let her alone. + VALENTINE. Not for the world! Why, man, she is mine own; + And I as rich in having such a jewel + As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl, + The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold. + Forgive me that I do not dream on thee, + Because thou seest me dote upon my love. + My foolish rival, that her father likes + Only for his possessions are so huge, + Is gone with her along; and I must after, + For love, thou know'st, is full of jealousy. + PROTEUS. But she loves you? + VALENTINE. Ay, and we are betroth'd; nay more, our marriage-hour, + With all the cunning manner of our flight, + Determin'd of- how I must climb her window, + The ladder made of cords, and all the means + Plotted and 'greed on for my happiness. + Good Proteus, go with me to my chamber, + In these affairs to aid me with thy counsel. + PROTEUS. Go on before; I shall enquire you forth; + I must unto the road to disembark + Some necessaries that I needs must use; + And then I'll presently attend you. + VALENTINE. Will you make haste? + PROTEUS. I will. Exit VALENTINE + Even as one heat another heat expels + Or as one nail by strength drives out another, + So the remembrance of my former love + Is by a newer object quite forgotten. + Is it my mind, or Valentinus' praise, + Her true perfection, or my false transgression, + That makes me reasonless to reason thus? + She is fair; and so is Julia that I love- + That I did love, for now my love is thaw'd; + Which like a waxen image 'gainst a fire + Bears no impression of the thing it was. + Methinks my zeal to Valentine is cold, + And that I love him not as I was wont. + O! but I love his lady too too much, + And that's the reason I love him so little. + How shall I dote on her with more advice + That thus without advice begin to love her! + 'Tis but her picture I have yet beheld, + And that hath dazzled my reason's light; + But when I look on her perfections, + There is no reason but I shall be blind. + If I can check my erring love, I will; + If not, to compass her I'll use my skill. Exit + + + + +SCENE V. +Milan. A street + +Enter SPEED and LAUNCE severally + + SPEED. Launce! by mine honesty, welcome to Padua. + LAUNCE. Forswear not thyself, sweet youth, for I am not welcome. I + reckon this always, that a man is never undone till he be hang'd, + nor never welcome to a place till some certain shot be paid, and + the hostess say 'Welcome!' + SPEED. Come on, you madcap; I'll to the alehouse with you + presently; where, for one shot of five pence, thou shalt have + five thousand welcomes. But, sirrah, how did thy master part with + Madam Julia? + LAUNCE. Marry, after they clos'd in earnest, they parted very + fairly in jest. + SPEED. But shall she marry him? + LAUNCE. No. + SPEED. How then? Shall he marry her? + LAUNCE. No, neither. + SPEED. What, are they broken? + LAUNCE. No, they are both as whole as a fish. + SPEED. Why then, how stands the matter with them? + LAUNCE. Marry, thus: when it stands well with him, it stands well + with her. + SPEED. What an ass art thou! I understand thee not. + LAUNCE. What a block art thou that thou canst not! My staff + understands me. + SPEED. What thou say'st? + LAUNCE. Ay, and what I do too; look thee, I'll but lean, and my + staff understands me. + SPEED. It stands under thee, indeed. + LAUNCE. Why, stand-under and under-stand is all one. + SPEED. But tell me true, will't be a match? + LAUNCE. Ask my dog. If he say ay, it will; if he say no, it will; + if he shake his tail and say nothing, it will. + SPEED. The conclusion is, then, that it will. + LAUNCE. Thou shalt never get such a secret from me but by a + parable. + SPEED. 'Tis well that I get it so. But, Launce, how say'st thou + that my master is become a notable lover? + LAUNCE. I never knew him otherwise. + SPEED. Than how? + LAUNCE. A notable lubber, as thou reportest him to be. + SPEED. Why, thou whoreson ass, thou mistak'st me. + LAUNCE. Why, fool, I meant not thee, I meant thy master. + SPEED. I tell thee my master is become a hot lover. + LAUNCE. Why, I tell thee I care not though he burn himself in love. + If thou wilt, go with me to the alehouse; if not, thou art an + Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Christian. + SPEED. Why? + LAUNCE. Because thou hast not so much charity in thee as to go to + the ale with a Christian. Wilt thou go? + SPEED. At thy service. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE VI. +Milan. The DUKE's palace + +Enter PROTEUS + + PROTEUS. To leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn; + To love fair Silvia, shall I be forsworn; + To wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn; + And ev'n that pow'r which gave me first my oath + Provokes me to this threefold perjury: + Love bade me swear, and Love bids me forswear. + O sweet-suggesting Love, if thou hast sinn'd, + Teach me, thy tempted subject, to excuse it! + At first I did adore a twinkling star, + But now I worship a celestial sun. + Unheedful vows may heedfully be broken; + And he wants wit that wants resolved will + To learn his wit t' exchange the bad for better. + Fie, fie, unreverend tongue, to call her bad + Whose sovereignty so oft thou hast preferr'd + With twenty thousand soul-confirming oaths! + I cannot leave to love, and yet I do; + But there I leave to love where I should love. + Julia I lose, and Valentine I lose; + If I keep them, I needs must lose myself; + If I lose them, thus find I by their loss: + For Valentine, myself; for Julia, Silvia. + I to myself am dearer than a friend; + For love is still most precious in itself; + And Silvia- witness heaven, that made her fair!- + Shows Julia but a swarthy Ethiope. + I will forget that Julia is alive, + Rememb'ring that my love to her is dead; + And Valentine I'll hold an enemy, + Aiming at Silvia as a sweeter friend. + I cannot now prove constant to myself + Without some treachery us'd to Valentine. + This night he meaneth with a corded ladder + To climb celestial Silvia's chamber window, + Myself in counsel, his competitor. + Now presently I'll give her father notice + Of their disguising and pretended flight, + Who, all enrag'd, will banish Valentine, + For Thurio, he intends, shall wed his daughter; + But, Valentine being gone, I'll quickly cross + By some sly trick blunt Thurio's dull proceeding. + Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift, + As thou hast lent me wit to plot this drift. Exit + + + + +SCENE VII. +Verona. JULIA'S house + +Enter JULIA and LUCETTA + + JULIA. Counsel, Lucetta; gentle girl, assist me; + And, ev'n in kind love, I do conjure thee, + Who art the table wherein all my thoughts + Are visibly character'd and engrav'd, + To lesson me and tell me some good mean + How, with my honour, I may undertake + A journey to my loving Proteus. + LUCETTA. Alas, the way is wearisome and long! + JULIA. A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary + To measure kingdoms with his feeble steps; + Much less shall she that hath Love's wings to fly, + And when the flight is made to one so dear, + Of such divine perfection, as Sir Proteus. + LUCETTA. Better forbear till Proteus make return. + JULIA. O, know'st thou not his looks are my soul's food? + Pity the dearth that I have pined in + By longing for that food so long a time. + Didst thou but know the inly touch of love. + Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow + As seek to quench the fire of love with words. + LUCETTA. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire, + But qualify the fire's extreme rage, + Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason. + JULIA. The more thou dam'st it up, the more it burns. + The current that with gentle murmur glides, + Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage; + But when his fair course is not hindered, + He makes sweet music with th' enamell'd stones, + Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge + He overtaketh in his pilgrimage; + And so by many winding nooks he strays, + With willing sport, to the wild ocean. + Then let me go, and hinder not my course. + I'll be as patient as a gentle stream, + And make a pastime of each weary step, + Till the last step have brought me to my love; + And there I'll rest as, after much turmoil, + A blessed soul doth in Elysium. + LUCETTA. But in what habit will you go along? + JULIA. Not like a woman, for I would prevent + The loose encounters of lascivious men; + Gentle Lucetta, fit me with such weeds + As may beseem some well-reputed page. + LUCETTA. Why then, your ladyship must cut your hair. + JULIA. No, girl; I'll knit it up in silken strings + With twenty odd-conceited true-love knots- + To be fantastic may become a youth + Of greater time than I shall show to be. + LUCETTA. What fashion, madam, shall I make your breeches? + JULIA. That fits as well as 'Tell me, good my lord, + What compass will you wear your farthingale.' + Why ev'n what fashion thou best likes, Lucetta. + LUCETTA. You must needs have them with a codpiece, madam. + JULIA. Out, out, Lucetta, that will be ill-favour'd. + LUCETTA. A round hose, madam, now's not worth a pin, + Unless you have a codpiece to stick pins on. + JULIA. Lucetta, as thou lov'st me, let me have + What thou think'st meet, and is most mannerly. + But tell me, wench, how will the world repute me + For undertaking so unstaid a journey? + I fear me it will make me scandaliz'd. + LUCETTA. If you think so, then stay at home and go not. + JULIA. Nay, that I will not. + LUCETTA. Then never dream on infamy, but go. + If Proteus like your journey when you come, + No matter who's displeas'd when you are gone. + I fear me he will scarce be pleas'd withal. + JULIA. That is the least, Lucetta, of my fear: + A thousand oaths, an ocean of his tears, + And instances of infinite of love, + Warrant me welcome to my Proteus. + LUCETTA. All these are servants to deceitful men. + JULIA. Base men that use them to so base effect! + But truer stars did govern Proteus' birth; + His words are bonds, his oaths are oracles, + His love sincere, his thoughts immaculate, + His tears pure messengers sent from his heart, + His heart as far from fraud as heaven from earth. + LUCETTA. Pray heav'n he prove so when you come to him. + JULIA. Now, as thou lov'st me, do him not that wrong + To bear a hard opinion of his truth; + Only deserve my love by loving him. + And presently go with me to my chamber, + To take a note of what I stand in need of + To furnish me upon my longing journey. + All that is mine I leave at thy dispose, + My goods, my lands, my reputation; + Only, in lieu thereof, dispatch me hence. + Come, answer not, but to it presently; + I am impatient of my tarriance. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +Milan. The DUKE'S palace + +Enter DUKE, THURIO, and PROTEUS + + DUKE. Sir Thurio, give us leave, I pray, awhile; + We have some secrets to confer about. Exit THURIO + Now tell me, Proteus, what's your will with me? + PROTEUS. My gracious lord, that which I would discover + The law of friendship bids me to conceal; + But, when I call to mind your gracious favours + Done to me, undeserving as I am, + My duty pricks me on to utter that + Which else no worldly good should draw from me. + Know, worthy prince, Sir Valentine, my friend, + This night intends to steal away your daughter; + Myself am one made privy to the plot. + I know you have determin'd to bestow her + On Thurio, whom your gentle daughter hates; + And should she thus be stol'n away from you, + It would be much vexation to your age. + Thus, for my duty's sake, I rather chose + To cross my friend in his intended drift + Than, by concealing it, heap on your head + A pack of sorrows which would press you down, + Being unprevented, to your timeless grave. + DUKE. Proteus, I thank thee for thine honest care, + Which to requite, command me while I live. + This love of theirs myself have often seen, + Haply when they have judg'd me fast asleep, + And oftentimes have purpos'd to forbid + Sir Valentine her company and my court; + But, fearing lest my jealous aim might err + And so, unworthily, disgrace the man, + A rashness that I ever yet have shunn'd, + I gave him gentle looks, thereby to find + That which thyself hast now disclos'd to me. + And, that thou mayst perceive my fear of this, + Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested, + I nightly lodge her in an upper tow'r, + The key whereof myself have ever kept; + And thence she cannot be convey'd away. + PROTEUS. Know, noble lord, they have devis'd a mean + How he her chamber window will ascend + And with a corded ladder fetch her down; + For which the youthful lover now is gone, + And this way comes he with it presently; + Where, if it please you, you may intercept him. + But, good my lord, do it so cunningly + That my discovery be not aimed at; + For love of you, not hate unto my friend, + Hath made me publisher of this pretence. + DUKE. Upon mine honour, he shall never know + That I had any light from thee of this. + PROTEUS. Adieu, my lord; Sir Valentine is coming. Exit + + Enter VALENTINE + + DUKE. Sir Valentine, whither away so fast? + VALENTINE. Please it your Grace, there is a messenger + That stays to bear my letters to my friends, + And I am going to deliver them. + DUKE. Be they of much import? + VALENTINE. The tenour of them doth but signify + My health and happy being at your court. + DUKE. Nay then, no matter; stay with me awhile; + I am to break with thee of some affairs + That touch me near, wherein thou must be secret. + 'Tis not unknown to thee that I have sought + To match my friend Sir Thurio to my daughter. + VALENTINE. I know it well, my lord; and, sure, the match + Were rich and honourable; besides, the gentleman + Is full of virtue, bounty, worth, and qualities + Beseeming such a wife as your fair daughter. + Cannot your grace win her to fancy him? + DUKE. No, trust me; she is peevish, sullen, froward, + Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty; + Neither regarding that she is my child + Nor fearing me as if I were her father; + And, may I say to thee, this pride of hers, + Upon advice, hath drawn my love from her; + And, where I thought the remnant of mine age + Should have been cherish'd by her childlike duty, + I now am full resolv'd to take a wife + And turn her out to who will take her in. + Then let her beauty be her wedding-dow'r; + For me and my possessions she esteems not. + VALENTINE. What would your Grace have me to do in this? + DUKE. There is a lady, in Verona here, + Whom I affect; but she is nice, and coy, + And nought esteems my aged eloquence. + Now, therefore, would I have thee to my tutor- + For long agone I have forgot to court; + Besides, the fashion of the time is chang'd- + How and which way I may bestow myself + To be regarded in her sun-bright eye. + VALENTINE. Win her with gifts, if she respect not words: + Dumb jewels often in their silent kind + More than quick words do move a woman's mind. + DUKE. But she did scorn a present that I sent her. + VALENTINE. A woman sometime scorns what best contents her. + Send her another; never give her o'er, + For scorn at first makes after-love the more. + If she do frown, 'tis not in hate of you, + But rather to beget more love in you; + If she do chide, 'tis not to have you gone, + For why, the fools are mad if left alone. + Take no repulse, whatever she doth say; + For 'Get you gone' she doth not mean 'Away!' + Flatter and praise, commend, extol their graces; + Though ne'er so black, say they have angels' faces. + That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man, + If with his tongue he cannot win a woman. + DUKE. But she I mean is promis'd by her friends + Unto a youthful gentleman of worth; + And kept severely from resort of men, + That no man hath access by day to her. + VALENTINE. Why then I would resort to her by night. + DUKE. Ay, but the doors be lock'd and keys kept safe, + That no man hath recourse to her by night. + VALENTINE. What lets but one may enter at her window? + DUKE. Her chamber is aloft, far from the ground, + And built so shelving that one cannot climb it + Without apparent hazard of his life. + VALENTINE. Why then a ladder, quaintly made of cords, + To cast up with a pair of anchoring hooks, + Would serve to scale another Hero's tow'r, + So bold Leander would adventure it. + DUKE. Now, as thou art a gentleman of blood, + Advise me where I may have such a ladder. + VALENTINE. When would you use it? Pray, sir, tell me that. + DUKE. This very night; for Love is like a child, + That longs for everything that he can come by. + VALENTINE. By seven o'clock I'll get you such a ladder. + DUKE. But, hark thee; I will go to her alone; + How shall I best convey the ladder thither? + VALENTINE. It will be light, my lord, that you may bear it + Under a cloak that is of any length. + DUKE. A cloak as long as thine will serve the turn? + VALENTINE. Ay, my good lord. + DUKE. Then let me see thy cloak. + I'll get me one of such another length. + VALENTINE. Why, any cloak will serve the turn, my lord. + DUKE. How shall I fashion me to wear a cloak? + I pray thee, let me feel thy cloak upon me. + What letter is this same? What's here? 'To Silvia'! + And here an engine fit for my proceeding! + I'll be so bold to break the seal for once. [Reads] + 'My thoughts do harbour with my Silvia nightly, + And slaves they are to me, that send them flying. + O, could their master come and go as lightly, + Himself would lodge where, senseless, they are lying! + My herald thoughts in thy pure bosom rest them, + While I, their king, that thither them importune, + Do curse the grace that with such grace hath blest them, + Because myself do want my servants' fortune. + I curse myself, for they are sent by me, + That they should harbour where their lord should be.' + What's here? + 'Silvia, this night I will enfranchise thee.' + 'Tis so; and here's the ladder for the purpose. + Why, Phaethon- for thou art Merops' son- + Wilt thou aspire to guide the heavenly car, + And with thy daring folly burn the world? + Wilt thou reach stars because they shine on thee? + Go, base intruder, over-weening slave, + Bestow thy fawning smiles on equal mates; + And think my patience, more than thy desert, + Is privilege for thy departure hence. + Thank me for this more than for all the favours + Which, all too much, I have bestow'd on thee. + But if thou linger in my territories + Longer than swiftest expedition + Will give thee time to leave our royal court, + By heaven! my wrath shall far exceed the love + I ever bore my daughter or thyself. + Be gone; I will not hear thy vain excuse, + But, as thou lov'st thy life, make speed from hence. Exit + VALENTINE. And why not death rather than living torment? + To die is to be banish'd from myself, + And Silvia is myself; banish'd from her + Is self from self, a deadly banishment. + What light is light, if Silvia be not seen? + What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by? + Unless it be to think that she is by, + And feed upon the shadow of perfection. + Except I be by Silvia in the night, + There is no music in the nightingale; + Unless I look on Silvia in the day, + There is no day for me to look upon. + She is my essence, and I leave to be + If I be not by her fair influence + Foster'd, illumin'd, cherish'd, kept alive. + I fly not death, to fly his deadly doom: + Tarry I here, I but attend on death; + But fly I hence, I fly away from life. + + Enter PROTEUS and LAUNCE + + PROTEUS. Run, boy, run, run, seek him out. + LAUNCE. So-ho, so-ho! + PROTEUS. What seest thou? + LAUNCE. Him we go to find: there's not a hair on 's head but 'tis a + Valentine. + PROTEUS. Valentine? + VALENTINE. No. + PROTEUS. Who then? his spirit? + VALENTINE. Neither. + PROTEUS. What then? + VALENTINE. Nothing. + LAUNCE. Can nothing speak? Master, shall I strike? + PROTEUS. Who wouldst thou strike? + LAUNCE. Nothing. + PROTEUS. Villain, forbear. + LAUNCE. Why, sir, I'll strike nothing. I pray you- + PROTEUS. Sirrah, I say, forbear. Friend Valentine, a word. + VALENTINE. My ears are stopp'd and cannot hear good news, + So much of bad already hath possess'd them. + PROTEUS. Then in dumb silence will I bury mine, + For they are harsh, untuneable, and bad. + VALENTINE. Is Silvia dead? + PROTEUS. No, Valentine. + VALENTINE. No Valentine, indeed, for sacred Silvia. + Hath she forsworn me? + PROTEUS. No, Valentine. + VALENTINE. No Valentine, if Silvia have forsworn me. + What is your news? + LAUNCE. Sir, there is a proclamation that you are vanished. + PROTEUS. That thou art banished- O, that's the news!- + From hence, from Silvia, and from me thy friend. + VALENTINE. O, I have fed upon this woe already, + And now excess of it will make me surfeit. + Doth Silvia know that I am banished? + PROTEUS. Ay, ay; and she hath offered to the doom- + Which, unrevers'd, stands in effectual force- + A sea of melting pearl, which some call tears; + Those at her father's churlish feet she tender'd; + With them, upon her knees, her humble self, + Wringing her hands, whose whiteness so became them + As if but now they waxed pale for woe. + But neither bended knees, pure hands held up, + Sad sighs, deep groans, nor silver-shedding tears, + Could penetrate her uncompassionate sire- + But Valentine, if he be ta'en, must die. + Besides, her intercession chaf'd him so, + When she for thy repeal was suppliant, + That to close prison he commanded her, + With many bitter threats of biding there. + VALENTINE. No more; unless the next word that thou speak'st + Have some malignant power upon my life: + If so, I pray thee breathe it in mine ear, + As ending anthem of my endless dolour. + PROTEUS. Cease to lament for that thou canst not help, + And study help for that which thou lament'st. + Time is the nurse and breeder of all good. + Here if thou stay thou canst not see thy love; + Besides, thy staying will abridge thy life. + Hope is a lover's staff; walk hence with that, + And manage it against despairing thoughts. + Thy letters may be here, though thou art hence, + Which, being writ to me, shall be deliver'd + Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love. + The time now serves not to expostulate. + Come, I'll convey thee through the city gate; + And, ere I part with thee, confer at large + Of all that may concern thy love affairs. + As thou lov'st Silvia, though not for thyself, + Regard thy danger, and along with me. + VALENTINE. I pray thee, Launce, an if thou seest my boy, + Bid him make haste and meet me at the Northgate. + PROTEUS. Go, sirrah, find him out. Come, Valentine. + VALENTINE. O my dear Silvia! Hapless Valentine! + Exeunt VALENTINE and PROTEUS + LAUNCE. I am but a fool, look you, and yet I have the wit to think + my master is a kind of a knave; but that's all one if he be but + one knave. He lives not now that knows me to be in love; yet I am + in love; but a team of horse shall not pluck that from me; nor + who 'tis I love; and yet 'tis a woman; but what woman I will not + tell myself; and yet 'tis a milkmaid; yet 'tis not a maid, for + she hath had gossips; yet 'tis a maid, for she is her master's + maid and serves for wages. She hath more qualities than a + water-spaniel- which is much in a bare Christian. Here is the + cate-log [Pulling out a paper] of her condition. 'Inprimis: She + can fetch and carry.' Why, a horse can do no more; nay, a horse + cannot fetch, but only carry; therefore is she better than a + jade. 'Item: She can milk.' Look you, a sweet virtue in a maid + with clean hands. + + Enter SPEED + + SPEED. How now, Signior Launce! What news with your mastership? + LAUNCE. With my master's ship? Why, it is at sea. + SPEED. Well, your old vice still: mistake the word. What news, + then, in your paper? + LAUNCE. The black'st news that ever thou heard'st. + SPEED. Why, man? how black? + LAUNCE. Why, as black as ink. + SPEED. Let me read them. + LAUNCE. Fie on thee, jolt-head; thou canst not read. + SPEED. Thou liest; I can. + LAUNCE. I will try thee. Tell me this: Who begot thee? + SPEED. Marry, the son of my grandfather. + LAUNCE. O illiterate loiterer. It was the son of thy grandmother. + This proves that thou canst not read. + SPEED. Come, fool, come; try me in thy paper. + LAUNCE. [Handing over the paper] There; and Saint Nicholas be thy + speed. + SPEED. [Reads] 'Inprimis: She can milk.' + LAUNCE. Ay, that she can. + SPEED. 'Item: She brews good ale.' + LAUNCE. And thereof comes the proverb: Blessing of your heart, you + brew good ale. + SPEED. 'Item: She can sew.' + LAUNCE. That's as much as to say 'Can she so?' + SPEED. 'Item: She can knit.' + LAUNCE. What need a man care for a stock with a wench, when she can + knit him a stock. + SPEED. 'Item: She can wash and scour.' + LAUNCE. A special virtue; for then she need not be wash'd and + scour'd. + SPEED. 'Item: She can spin.' + LAUNCE. Then may I set the world on wheels, when she can spin for + her living. + SPEED. 'Item: She hath many nameless virtues.' + LAUNCE. That's as much as to say 'bastard virtues'; that indeed + know not their fathers, and therefore have no names. + SPEED. 'Here follow her vices.' + LAUNCE. Close at the heels of her virtues. + SPEED. 'Item: She is not to be kiss'd fasting, in respect of her + breath.' + LAUNCE. Well, that fault may be mended with a breakfast. + Read on. + SPEED. 'Item: She hath a sweet mouth.' + LAUNCE. That makes amends for her sour breath. + SPEED. 'Item: She doth talk in her sleep.' + LAUNCE. It's no matter for that, so she sleep not in her talk. + SPEED. 'Item: She is slow in words.' + LAUNCE. O villain, that set this down among her vices! To be slow + in words is a woman's only virtue. I pray thee, out with't; and + place it for her chief virtue. + SPEED. 'Item: She is proud.' + LAUNCE. Out with that too; it was Eve's legacy, and cannot be ta'en + from her. + SPEED. 'Item: She hath no teeth.' + LAUNCE. I care not for that neither, because I love crusts. + SPEED. 'Item: She is curst.' + LAUNCE. Well, the best is, she hath no teeth to bite. + SPEED. 'Item: She will often praise her liquor.' + LAUNCE. If her liquor be good, she shall; if she will not, I will; + for good things should be praised. + SPEED. 'Item: She is too liberal.' + LAUNCE. Of her tongue she cannot, for that's writ down she is slow + of; of her purse she shall not, for that I'll keep shut. Now of + another thing she may, and that cannot I help. Well, proceed. + SPEED. 'Item: She hath more hair than wit, and more faults + than hairs, and more wealth than faults.' + LAUNCE. Stop there; I'll have her; she was mine, and not mine, + twice or thrice in that last article. Rehearse that once more. + SPEED. 'Item: She hath more hair than wit'- + LAUNCE. More hair than wit. It may be; I'll prove it: the cover of + the salt hides the salt, and therefore it is more than the salt; + the hair that covers the wit is more than the wit, for the + greater hides the less. What's next? + SPEED. 'And more faults than hairs'- + LAUNCE. That's monstrous. O that that were out! + SPEED. 'And more wealth than faults.' + LAUNCE. Why, that word makes the faults gracious. Well, I'll have + her; an if it be a match, as nothing is impossible- + SPEED. What then? + LAUNCE. Why, then will I tell thee- that thy master stays for thee + at the Northgate. + SPEED. For me? + LAUNCE. For thee! ay, who art thou? He hath stay'd for a better man + than thee. + SPEED. And must I go to him? + LAUNCE. Thou must run to him, for thou hast stay'd so long that + going will scarce serve the turn. + SPEED. Why didst not tell me sooner? Pox of your love letters! + Exit + LAUNCE. Now will he be swing'd for reading my letter. An unmannerly + slave that will thrust himself into secrets! I'll after, to + rejoice in the boy's correction. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Milan. The DUKE'S palace + +Enter DUKE and THURIO + + DUKE. Sir Thurio, fear not but that she will love you + Now Valentine is banish'd from her sight. + THURIO. Since his exile she hath despis'd me most, + Forsworn my company and rail'd at me, + That I am desperate of obtaining her. + DUKE. This weak impress of love is as a figure + Trenched in ice, which with an hour's heat + Dissolves to water and doth lose his form. + A little time will melt her frozen thoughts, + And worthless Valentine shall be forgot. + + Enter PROTEUS + + How now, Sir Proteus! Is your countryman, + According to our proclamation, gone? + PROTEUS. Gone, my good lord. + DUKE. My daughter takes his going grievously. + PROTEUS. A little time, my lord, will kill that grief. + DUKE. So I believe; but Thurio thinks not so. + Proteus, the good conceit I hold of thee- + For thou hast shown some sign of good desert- + Makes me the better to confer with thee. + PROTEUS. Longer than I prove loyal to your Grace + Let me not live to look upon your Grace. + DUKE. Thou know'st how willingly I would effect + The match between Sir Thurio and my daughter. + PROTEUS. I do, my lord. + DUKE. And also, I think, thou art not ignorant + How she opposes her against my will. + PROTEUS. She did, my lord, when Valentine was here. + DUKE. Ay, and perversely she persevers so. + What might we do to make the girl forget + The love of Valentine, and love Sir Thurio? + PROTEUS. The best way is to slander Valentine + With falsehood, cowardice, and poor descent- + Three things that women highly hold in hate. + DUKE. Ay, but she'll think that it is spoke in hate. + PROTEUS. Ay, if his enemy deliver it; + Therefore it must with circumstance be spoken + By one whom she esteemeth as his friend. + DUKE. Then you must undertake to slander him. + PROTEUS. And that, my lord, I shall be loath to do: + 'Tis an ill office for a gentleman, + Especially against his very friend. + DUKE. Where your good word cannot advantage him, + Your slander never can endamage him; + Therefore the office is indifferent, + Being entreated to it by your friend. + PROTEUS. You have prevail'd, my lord; if I can do it + By aught that I can speak in his dispraise, + She shall not long continue love to him. + But say this weed her love from Valentine, + It follows not that she will love Sir Thurio. + THURIO. Therefore, as you unwind her love from him, + Lest it should ravel and be good to none, + You must provide to bottom it on me; + Which must be done by praising me as much + As you in worth dispraise Sir Valentine. + DUKE. And, Proteus, we dare trust you in this kind, + Because we know, on Valentine's report, + You are already Love's firm votary + And cannot soon revolt and change your mind. + Upon this warrant shall you have access + Where you with Silvia may confer at large- + For she is lumpish, heavy, melancholy, + And, for your friend's sake, will be glad of you- + Where you may temper her by your persuasion + To hate young Valentine and love my friend. + PROTEUS. As much as I can do I will effect. + But you, Sir Thurio, are not sharp enough; + You must lay lime to tangle her desires + By wailful sonnets, whose composed rhymes + Should be full-fraught with serviceable vows. + DUKE. Ay, + Much is the force of heaven-bred poesy. + PROTEUS. Say that upon the altar of her beauty + You sacrifice your tears, your sighs, your heart; + Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears + Moist it again, and frame some feeling line + That may discover such integrity; + For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews, + Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones, + Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans + Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands. + After your dire-lamenting elegies, + Visit by night your lady's chamber window + With some sweet consort; to their instruments + Tune a deploring dump- the night's dead silence + Will well become such sweet-complaining grievance. + This, or else nothing, will inherit her. + DUKE. This discipline shows thou hast been in love. + THURIO. And thy advice this night I'll put in practice; + Therefore, sweet Proteus, my direction-giver, + Let us into the city presently + To sort some gentlemen well skill'd in music. + I have a sonnet that will serve the turn + To give the onset to thy good advice. + DUKE. About it, gentlemen! + PROTEUS. We'll wait upon your Grace till after supper, + And afterward determine our proceedings. + DUKE. Even now about it! I will pardon you. Exeunt + + + + +ACT_4|SC_1 +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. +The frontiers of Mantua. A forest + +Enter certain OUTLAWS + + FIRST OUTLAW. Fellows, stand fast; I see a passenger. + SECOND OUTLAW. If there be ten, shrink not, but down with 'em. + + Enter VALENTINE and SPEED + + THIRD OUTLAW. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about ye; + If not, we'll make you sit, and rifle you. + SPEED. Sir, we are undone; these are the villains + That all the travellers do fear so much. + VALENTINE. My friends- + FIRST OUTLAW. That's not so, sir; we are your enemies. + SECOND OUTLAW. Peace! we'll hear him. + THIRD OUTLAW. Ay, by my beard, will we; for he is a proper man. + VALENTINE. Then know that I have little wealth to lose; + A man I am cross'd with adversity; + My riches are these poor habiliments, + Of which if you should here disfurnish me, + You take the sum and substance that I have. + SECOND OUTLAW. Whither travel you? + VALENTINE. To Verona. + FIRST OUTLAW. Whence came you? + VALENTINE. From Milan. + THIRD OUTLAW. Have you long sojourn'd there? + VALENTINE. Some sixteen months, and longer might have stay'd, + If crooked fortune had not thwarted me. + FIRST OUTLAW. What, were you banish'd thence? + VALENTINE. I was. + SECOND OUTLAW. For what offence? + VALENTINE. For that which now torments me to rehearse: + I kill'd a man, whose death I much repent; + But yet I slew him manfully in fight, + Without false vantage or base treachery. + FIRST OUTLAW. Why, ne'er repent it, if it were done so. + But were you banish'd for so small a fault? + VALENTINE. I was, and held me glad of such a doom. + SECOND OUTLAW. Have you the tongues? + VALENTINE. My youthful travel therein made me happy, + Or else I often had been miserable. + THIRD OUTLAW. By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar, + This fellow were a king for our wild faction! + FIRST OUTLAW. We'll have him. Sirs, a word. + SPEED. Master, be one of them; it's an honourable kind of thievery. + VALENTINE. Peace, villain! + SECOND OUTLAW. Tell us this: have you anything to take to? + VALENTINE. Nothing but my fortune. + THIRD OUTLAW. Know, then, that some of us are gentlemen, + Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth + Thrust from the company of awful men; + Myself was from Verona banished + For practising to steal away a lady, + An heir, and near allied unto the Duke. + SECOND OUTLAW. And I from Mantua, for a gentleman + Who, in my mood, I stabb'd unto the heart. + FIRST OUTLAW. And I for such-like petty crimes as these. + But to the purpose- for we cite our faults + That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives; + And, partly, seeing you are beautified + With goodly shape, and by your own report + A linguist, and a man of such perfection + As we do in our quality much want- + SECOND OUTLAW. Indeed, because you are a banish'd man, + Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you. + Are you content to be our general- + To make a virtue of necessity, + And live as we do in this wilderness? + THIRD OUTLAW. What say'st thou? Wilt thou be of our consort? + Say 'ay' and be the captain of us all. + We'll do thee homage, and be rul'd by thee, + Love thee as our commander and our king. + FIRST OUTLAW. But if thou scorn our courtesy thou diest. + SECOND OUTLAW. Thou shalt not live to brag what we have offer'd. + VALENTINE. I take your offer, and will live with you, + Provided that you do no outrages + On silly women or poor passengers. + THIRD OUTLAW. No, we detest such vile base practices. + Come, go with us; we'll bring thee to our crews, + And show thee all the treasure we have got; + Which, with ourselves, all rest at thy dispose. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Milan. Outside the DUKE'S palace, under SILVIA'S window + +Enter PROTEUS + + PROTEUS. Already have I been false to Valentine, + And now I must be as unjust to Thurio. + Under the colour of commending him + I have access my own love to prefer; + But Silvia is too fair, too true, too holy, + To be corrupted with my worthless gifts. + When I protest true loyalty to her, + She twits me with my falsehood to my friend; + When to her beauty I commend my vows, + She bids me think how I have been forsworn + In breaking faith with Julia whom I lov'd; + And notwithstanding all her sudden quips, + The least whereof would quell a lover's hope, + Yet, spaniel-like, the more she spurns my love + The more it grows and fawneth on her still. + + Enter THURIO and MUSICIANS + + But here comes Thurio. Now must we to her window, + And give some evening music to her ear. + THURIO. How now, Sir Proteus, are you crept before us? + PROTEUS. Ay, gentle Thurio; for you know that love + Will creep in service where it cannot go. + THURIO. Ay, but I hope, sir, that you love not here. + PROTEUS. Sir, but I do; or else I would be hence. + THURIO. Who? Silvia? + PROTEUS. Ay, Silvia- for your sake. + THURIO. I thank you for your own. Now, gentlemen, + Let's tune, and to it lustily awhile. + + Enter at a distance, HOST, and JULIA in boy's clothes + + HOST. Now, my young guest, methinks you're allycholly; I pray you, + why is it? + JULIA. Marry, mine host, because I cannot be merry. + HOST. Come, we'll have you merry; I'll bring you where you shall + hear music, and see the gentleman that you ask'd for. + JULIA. But shall I hear him speak? + HOST. Ay, that you shall. [Music plays] + JULIA. That will be music. + HOST. Hark, hark! + JULIA. Is he among these? + HOST. Ay; but peace! let's hear 'em. + + SONG + Who is Silvia? What is she, + That all our swains commend her? + Holy, fair, and wise is she; + The heaven such grace did lend her, + That she might admired be. + + Is she kind as she is fair? + For beauty lives with kindness. + Love doth to her eyes repair, + To help him of his blindness; + And, being help'd, inhabits there. + + Then to Silvia let us sing + That Silvia is excelling; + She excels each mortal thing + Upon the dull earth dwelling. + 'To her let us garlands bring. + + HOST. How now, are you sadder than you were before? + How do you, man? The music likes you not. + JULIA. You mistake; the musician likes me not. + HOST. Why, my pretty youth? + JULIA. He plays false, father. + HOST. How, out of tune on the strings? + JULIA. Not so; but yet so false that he grieves my very + heart-strings. + HOST. You have a quick ear. + JULIA. Ay, I would I were deaf; it makes me have a slow heart. + HOST. I perceive you delight not in music. + JULIA. Not a whit, when it jars so. + HOST. Hark, what fine change is in the music! + JULIA. Ay, that change is the spite. + HOST. You would have them always play but one thing? + JULIA. I would always have one play but one thing. + But, Host, doth this Sir Proteus, that we talk on, + Often resort unto this gentlewoman? + HOST. I tell you what Launce, his man, told me: he lov'd her out of + all nick. + JULIA. Where is Launce? + HOST. Gone to seek his dog, which to-morrow, by his master's + command, he must carry for a present to his lady. + JULIA. Peace, stand aside; the company parts. + PROTEUS. Sir Thurio, fear not you; I will so plead + That you shall say my cunning drift excels. + THURIO. Where meet we? + PROTEUS. At Saint Gregory's well. + THURIO. Farewell. Exeunt THURIO and MUSICIANS + + Enter SILVIA above, at her window + + PROTEUS. Madam, good ev'n to your ladyship. + SILVIA. I thank you for your music, gentlemen. + Who is that that spake? + PROTEUS. One, lady, if you knew his pure heart's truth, + You would quickly learn to know him by his voice. + SILVIA. Sir Proteus, as I take it. + PROTEUS. Sir Proteus, gentle lady, and your servant. + SILVIA. What's your will? + PROTEUS. That I may compass yours. + SILVIA. You have your wish; my will is even this, + That presently you hie you home to bed. + Thou subtle, perjur'd, false, disloyal man, + Think'st thou I am so shallow, so conceitless, + To be seduced by thy flattery + That hast deceiv'd so many with thy vows? + Return, return, and make thy love amends. + For me, by this pale queen of night I swear, + I am so far from granting thy request + That I despise thee for thy wrongful suit, + And by and by intend to chide myself + Even for this time I spend in talking to thee. + PROTEUS. I grant, sweet love, that I did love a lady; + But she is dead. + JULIA. [Aside] 'Twere false, if I should speak it; + For I am sure she is not buried. + SILVIA. Say that she be; yet Valentine, thy friend, + Survives, to whom, thyself art witness, + I am betroth'd; and art thou not asham'd + To wrong him with thy importunacy? + PROTEUS. I likewise hear that Valentine is dead. + SILVIA. And so suppose am I; for in his grave + Assure thyself my love is buried. + PROTEUS. Sweet lady, let me rake it from the earth. + SILVIA. Go to thy lady's grave, and call hers thence; + Or, at the least, in hers sepulchre thine. + JULIA. [Aside] He heard not that. + PROTEUS. Madam, if your heart be so obdurate, + Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love, + The picture that is hanging in your chamber; + To that I'll speak, to that I'll sigh and weep; + For, since the substance of your perfect self + Is else devoted, I am but a shadow; + And to your shadow will I make true love. + JULIA. [Aside] If 'twere a substance, you would, sure, deceive it + And make it but a shadow, as I am. + SILVIA. I am very loath to be your idol, sir; + But since your falsehood shall become you well + To worship shadows and adore false shapes, + Send to me in the morning, and I'll send it; + And so, good rest. + PROTEUS. As wretches have o'ernight + That wait for execution in the morn. + Exeunt PROTEUS and SILVIA + JULIA. Host, will you go? + HOST. By my halidom, I was fast asleep. + JULIA. Pray you, where lies Sir Proteus? + HOST. Marry, at my house. Trust me, I think 'tis almost day. + JULIA. Not so; but it hath been the longest night + That e'er I watch'd, and the most heaviest. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Under SILVIA'S window + +Enter EGLAMOUR + + EGLAMOUR. This is the hour that Madam Silvia + Entreated me to call and know her mind; + There's some great matter she'd employ me in. + Madam, madam! + + Enter SILVIA above, at her window + + SILVIA. Who calls? + EGLAMOUR. Your servant and your friend; + One that attends your ladyship's command. + SILVIA. Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good morrow! + EGLAMOUR. As many, worthy lady, to yourself! + According to your ladyship's impose, + I am thus early come to know what service + It is your pleasure to command me in. + SILVIA. O Eglamour, thou art a gentleman- + Think not I flatter, for I swear I do not- + Valiant, wise, remorseful, well accomplish'd. + Thou art not ignorant what dear good will + I bear unto the banish'd Valentine; + Nor how my father would enforce me marry + Vain Thurio, whom my very soul abhors. + Thyself hast lov'd; and I have heard thee say + No grief did ever come so near thy heart + As when thy lady and thy true love died, + Upon whose grave thou vow'dst pure chastity. + Sir Eglamour, I would to Valentine, + To Mantua, where I hear he makes abode; + And, for the ways are dangerous to pass, + I do desire thy worthy company, + Upon whose faith and honour I repose. + Urge not my father's anger, Eglamour, + But think upon my grief, a lady's grief, + And on the justice of my flying hence + To keep me from a most unholy match, + Which heaven and fortune still rewards with plagues. + I do desire thee, even from a heart + As full of sorrows as the sea of sands, + To bear me company and go with me; + If not, to hide what I have said to thee, + That I may venture to depart alone. + EGLAMOUR. Madam, I pity much your grievances; + Which since I know they virtuously are plac'd, + I give consent to go along with you, + Recking as little what betideth me + As much I wish all good befortune you. + When will you go? + SILVIA. This evening coming. + EGLAMOUR. Where shall I meet you? + SILVIA. At Friar Patrick's cell, + Where I intend holy confession. + EGLAMOUR. I will not fail your ladyship. Good morrow, gentle lady. + SILVIA. Good morrow, kind Sir Eglamour. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Under SILVIA'S Window + +Enter LAUNCE with his dog + + LAUNCE. When a man's servant shall play the cur with him, look you, + it goes hard- one that I brought up of a puppy; one that I sav'd + from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and + sisters went to it. I have taught him, even as one would say + precisely 'Thus I would teach a dog.' I was sent to deliver him + as a present to Mistress Silvia from my master; and I came no + sooner into the dining-chamber, but he steps me to her trencher + and steals her capon's leg. O, 'tis a foul thing when a cur + cannot keep himself in all companies! I would have, as one should + say, one that takes upon him to be a dog indeed, to be, as it + were, a dog at all things. If I had not had more wit than he, to + take a fault upon me that he did, I think verily he had been + hang'd for't; sure as I live, he had suffer'd for't. You shall + judge. He thrusts me himself into the company of three or four + gentleman-like dogs under the Duke's table; he had not been + there, bless the mark, a pissing while but all the chamber smelt + him. 'Out with the dog' says one; 'What cur is that?' says + another; 'Whip him out' says the third; 'Hang him up' says the + Duke. I, having been acquainted with the smell before, knew it + was Crab, and goes me to the fellow that whips the dogs. + 'Friend,' quoth I 'you mean to whip the dog.' 'Ay, marry do I' + quoth he. 'You do him the more wrong,' quoth I; "twas I did the + thing you wot of.' He makes me no more ado, but whips me out of + the chamber. How many masters would do this for his servant? Nay, + I'll be sworn, I have sat in the stock for puddings he hath + stol'n, otherwise he had been executed; I have stood on the + pillory for geese he hath kill'd, otherwise he had suffer'd + for't. Thou think'st not of this now. Nay, I remember the trick + you serv'd me when I took my leave of Madam Silvia. Did not I bid + thee still mark me and do as I do? When didst thou see me heave + up my leg and make water against a gentlewoman's farthingale? + Didst thou ever see me do such a trick? + + Enter PROTEUS, and JULIA in boy's clothes + + PROTEUS. Sebastian is thy name? I like thee well, + And will employ thee in some service presently. + JULIA. In what you please; I'll do what I can. + PROTEUS..I hope thou wilt. [To LAUNCE] How now, you whoreson + peasant! + Where have you been these two days loitering? + LAUNCE. Marry, sir, I carried Mistress Silvia the dog you bade me. + PROTEUS. And what says she to my little jewel? + LAUNCE. Marry, she says your dog was a cur, and tells you currish + thanks is good enough for such a present. + PROTEUS. But she receiv'd my dog? + LAUNCE. No, indeed, did she not; here have I brought him back + again. + PROTEUS. What, didst thou offer her this from me? + LAUNCE. Ay, sir; the other squirrel was stol'n from me by the + hangman's boys in the market-place; and then I offer'd her mine + own, who is a dog as big as ten of yours, and therefore the gift + the greater. + PROTEUS. Go, get thee hence and find my dog again, + Or ne'er return again into my sight. + Away, I say. Stayest thou to vex me here? Exit LAUNCE + A slave that still an end turns me to shame! + Sebastian, I have entertained thee + Partly that I have need of such a youth + That can with some discretion do my business, + For 'tis no trusting to yond foolish lout, + But chiefly for thy face and thy behaviour, + Which, if my augury deceive me not, + Witness good bringing up, fortune, and truth; + Therefore, know thou, for this I entertain thee. + Go presently, and take this ring with thee, + Deliver it to Madam Silvia- + She lov'd me well deliver'd it to me. + JULIA. It seems you lov'd not her, to leave her token. + She is dead, belike? + PROTEUS. Not so; I think she lives. + JULIA. Alas! + PROTEUS. Why dost thou cry 'Alas'? + JULIA. I cannot choose + But pity her. + PROTEUS. Wherefore shouldst thou pity her? + JULIA. Because methinks that she lov'd you as well + As you do love your lady Silvia. + She dreams on him that has forgot her love: + You dote on her that cares not for your love. + 'Tis pity love should be so contrary; + And thinking on it makes me cry 'Alas!' + PROTEUS. Well, give her that ring, and therewithal + This letter. That's her chamber. Tell my lady + I claim the promise for her heavenly picture. + Your message done, hie home unto my chamber, + Where thou shalt find me sad and solitary. Exit PROTEUS + JULIA. How many women would do such a message? + Alas, poor Proteus, thou hast entertain'd + A fox to be the shepherd of thy lambs. + Alas, poor fool, why do I pity him + That with his very heart despiseth me? + Because he loves her, he despiseth me; + Because I love him, I must pity him. + This ring I gave him, when he parted from me, + To bind him to remember my good will; + And now am I, unhappy messenger, + To plead for that which I would not obtain, + To carry that which I would have refus'd, + To praise his faith, which I would have disprais'd. + I am my master's true confirmed love, + But cannot be true servant to my master + Unless I prove false traitor to myself. + Yet will I woo for him, but yet so coldly + As, heaven it knows, I would not have him speed. + + Enter SILVIA, attended + + Gentlewoman, good day! I pray you be my mean + To bring me where to speak with Madam Silvia. + SILVIA. What would you with her, if that I be she? + JULIA. If you be she, I do entreat your patience + To hear me speak the message I am sent on. + SILVIA. From whom? + JULIA. From my master, Sir Proteus, madam. + SILVIA. O, he sends you for a picture? + JULIA. Ay, madam. + SILVIA. Ursula, bring my picture there. + Go, give your master this. Tell him from me, + One Julia, that his changing thoughts forget, + Would better fit his chamber than this shadow. + JULIA. Madam, please you peruse this letter. + Pardon me, madam; I have unadvis'd + Deliver'd you a paper that I should not. + This is the letter to your ladyship. + SILVIA. I pray thee let me look on that again. + JULIA. It may not be; good madam, pardon me. + SILVIA. There, hold! + I will not look upon your master's lines. + I know they are stuff'd with protestations, + And full of new-found oaths, which he wul break + As easily as I do tear his paper. + JULIA. Madam, he sends your ladyship this ring. + SILVIA. The more shame for him that he sends it me; + For I have heard him say a thousand times + His Julia gave it him at his departure. + Though his false finger have profan'd the ring, + Mine shall not do his Julia so much wrong. + JULIA. She thanks you. + SILVIA. What say'st thou? + JULIA. I thank you, madam, that you tender her. + Poor gentlewoman, my master wrongs her much. + SILVIA. Dost thou know her? + JULIA. Almost as well as I do know myself. + To think upon her woes, I do protest + That I have wept a hundred several times. + SILVIA. Belike she thinks that Proteus hath forsook her. + JULIA. I think she doth, and that's her cause of sorrow. + SILVIA. Is she not passing fair? + JULIA. She hath been fairer, madam, than she is. + When she did think my master lov'd her well, + She, in my judgment, was as fair as you; + But since she did neglect her looking-glass + And threw her sun-expelling mask away, + The air hath starv'd the roses in her cheeks + And pinch'd the lily-tincture of her face, + That now she is become as black as I. + SILVIA. How tall was she? + JULIA. About my stature; for at Pentecost, + When all our pageants of delight were play'd, + Our youth got me to play the woman's part, + And I was trimm'd in Madam Julia's gown; + Which served me as fit, by all men's judgments, + As if the garment had been made for me; + Therefore I know she is about my height. + And at that time I made her weep a good, + For I did play a lamentable part. + Madam, 'twas Ariadne passioning + For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight; + Which I so lively acted with my tears + That my poor mistress, moved therewithal, + Wept bitterly; and would I might be dead + If I in thought felt not her very sorrow. + SILVIA. She is beholding to thee, gentle youth. + Alas, poor lady, desolate and left! + I weep myself, to think upon thy words. + Here, youth, there is my purse; I give thee this + For thy sweet mistress' sake, because thou lov'st her. + Farewell. Exit SILVIA with ATTENDANTS + JULIA. And she shall thank you for't, if e'er you know her. + A virtuous gentlewoman, mild and beautiful! + I hope my master's suit will be but cold, + Since she respects my mistress' love so much. + Alas, how love can trifle with itself! + Here is her picture; let me see. I think, + If I had such a tire, this face of mine + Were full as lovely as is this of hers; + And yet the painter flatter'd her a little, + Unless I flatter with myself too much. + Her hair is auburn, mine is perfect yellow; + If that be all the difference in his love, + I'll get me such a colour'd periwig. + Her eyes are grey as glass, and so are mine; + Ay, but her forehead's low, and mine's as high. + What should it be that he respects in her + But I can make respective in myself, + If this fond Love were not a blinded god? + Come, shadow, come, and take this shadow up, + For 'tis thy rival. O thou senseless form, + Thou shalt be worshipp'd, kiss'd, lov'd, and ador'd! + And were there sense in his idolatry + My substance should be statue in thy stead. + I'll use thee kindly for thy mistress' sake, + That us'd me so; or else, by Jove I vow, + I should have scratch'd out your unseeing eyes, + To make my master out of love with thee. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Milan. An abbey + +Enter EGLAMOUR + + EGLAMOUR. The sun begins to gild the western sky, + And now it is about the very hour + That Silvia at Friar Patrick's cell should meet me. + She will not fail, for lovers break not hours + Unless it be to come before their time, + So much they spur their expedition. + + Enter SILVIA + + See where she comes. Lady, a happy evening! + SILVIA. Amen, amen! Go on, good Eglamour, + Out at the postern by the abbey wall; + I fear I am attended by some spies. + EGLAMOUR. Fear not. The forest is not three leagues off; + If we recover that, we are sure enough. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Milan. The DUKE'S palace + +Enter THURIO, PROTEUS, and JULIA as SEBASTIAN + + THURIO. Sir Proteus, what says Silvia to my suit? + PROTEUS. O, sir, I find her milder than she was; + And yet she takes exceptions at your person. + THURIO. What, that my leg is too long? + PROTEUS. No; that it is too little. + THURIO. I'll wear a boot to make it somewhat rounder. + JULIA. [Aside] But love will not be spurr'd to what it loathes. + THURIO. What says she to my face? + PROTEUS. She says it is a fair one. + THURIO. Nay, then, the wanton lies; my face is black. + PROTEUS. But pearls are fair; and the old saying is: + Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies' eyes. + JULIA. [Aside] 'Tis true, such pearls as put out ladies' eyes; + For I had rather wink than look on them. + THURIO. How likes she my discourse? + PROTEUS. Ill, when you talk of war. + THURIO. But well when I discourse of love and peace? + JULIA. [Aside] But better, indeed, when you hold your peace. + THURIO. What says she to my valour? + PROTEUS. O, sir, she makes no doubt of that. + JULIA. [Aside] She needs not, when she knows it cowardice. + THURIO. What says she to my birth? + PROTEUS. That you are well deriv'd. + JULIA. [Aside] True; from a gentleman to a fool. + THURIO. Considers she my possessions? + PROTEUS. O, ay; and pities them. + THURIO. Wherefore? + JULIA. [Aside] That such an ass should owe them. + PROTEUS. That they are out by lease. + JULIA. Here comes the Duke. + + Enter DUKE + + DUKE. How now, Sir Proteus! how now, Thurio! + Which of you saw Sir Eglamour of late? + THURIO. Not I. + PROTEUS. Nor I. + DUKE. Saw you my daughter? + PROTEUS. Neither. + DUKE. Why then, + She's fled unto that peasant Valentine; + And Eglamour is in her company. + 'Tis true; for Friar Lawrence met them both + As he in penance wander'd through the forest; + Him he knew well, and guess'd that it was she, + But, being mask'd, he was not sure of it; + Besides, she did intend confession + At Patrick's cell this even; and there she was not. + These likelihoods confirm her flight from hence; + Therefore, I pray you, stand not to discourse, + But mount you presently, and meet with me + Upon the rising of the mountain foot + That leads toward Mantua, whither they are fled. + Dispatch, sweet gentlemen, and follow me. Exit + THURIO. Why, this it is to be a peevish girl + That flies her fortune when it follows her. + I'll after, more to be reveng'd on Eglamour + Than for the love of reckless Silvia. Exit + PROTEUS. And I will follow, more for Silvia's love + Than hate of Eglamour, that goes with her. Exit + JULIA. And I will follow, more to cross that love + Than hate for Silvia, that is gone for love. Exit + + + + +SCENE III. +The frontiers of Mantua. The forest + +Enter OUTLAWS with SILVA + + FIRST OUTLAW. Come, come. + Be patient; we must bring you to our captain. + SILVIA. A thousand more mischances than this one + Have learn'd me how to brook this patiently. + SECOND OUTLAW. Come, bring her away. + FIRST OUTLAW. Where is the gentleman that was with her? + SECOND OUTLAW. Being nimble-footed, he hath outrun us, + But Moyses and Valerius follow him. + Go thou with her to the west end of the wood; + There is our captain; we'll follow him that's fled. + The thicket is beset; he cannot 'scape. + FIRST OUTLAW. Come, I must bring you to our captain's cave; + Fear not; he bears an honourable mind, + And will not use a woman lawlessly. + SILVIA. O Valentine, this I endure for thee! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE IV. +Another part of the forest + +Enter VALENTINE + + VALENTINE. How use doth breed a habit in a man! + This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, + I better brook than flourishing peopled towns. + Here can I sit alone, unseen of any, + And to the nightingale's complaining notes + Tune my distresses and record my woes. + O thou that dost inhabit in my breast, + Leave not the mansion so long tenantless, + Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall + And leave no memory of what it was! + Repair me with thy presence, Silvia: + Thou gentle nymph, cherish thy forlorn swain. + What halloing and what stir is this to-day? + These are my mates, that make their wills their law, + Have some unhappy passenger in chase. + They love me well; yet I have much to do + To keep them from uncivil outrages. + Withdraw thee, Valentine. Who's this comes here? + [Steps aside] + + Enter PROTEUS, SILVIA, and JULIA as Sebastian + + PROTEUS. Madam, this service I have done for you, + Though you respect not aught your servant doth, + To hazard life, and rescue you from him + That would have forc'd your honour and your love. + Vouchsafe me, for my meed, but one fair look; + A smaller boon than this I cannot beg, + And less than this, I am sure, you cannot give. + VALENTINE. [Aside] How like a dream is this I see and hear! + Love, lend me patience to forbear awhile. + SILVIA. O miserable, unhappy that I am! + PROTEUS. Unhappy were you, madam, ere I came; + But by my coming I have made you happy. + SILVIA. By thy approach thou mak'st me most unhappy. + JULIA. [Aside] And me, when he approacheth to your presence. + SILVIA. Had I been seized by a hungry lion, + I would have been a breakfast to the beast + Rather than have false Proteus rescue me. + O, heaven be judge how I love Valentine, + Whose life's as tender to me as my soul! + And full as much, for more there cannot be, + I do detest false, perjur'd Proteus. + Therefore be gone; solicit me no more. + PROTEUS. What dangerous action, stood it next to death, + Would I not undergo for one calm look? + O, 'tis the curse in love, and still approv'd, + When women cannot love where they're belov'd! + SILVIA. When Proteus cannot love where he's belov'd! + Read over Julia's heart, thy first best love, + For whose dear sake thou didst then rend thy faith + Into a thousand oaths; and all those oaths + Descended into perjury, to love me. + Thou hast no faith left now, unless thou'dst two, + And that's far worse than none; better have none + Than plural faith, which is too much by one. + Thou counterfeit to thy true friend! + PROTEUS. In love, + Who respects friend? + SILVIA. All men but Proteus. + PROTEUS. Nay, if the gentle spirit of moving words + Can no way change you to a milder form, + I'll woo you like a soldier, at arms' end, + And love you 'gainst the nature of love- force ye. + SILVIA. O heaven! + PROTEUS. I'll force thee yield to my desire. + VALENTINE. Ruffian! let go that rude uncivil touch; + Thou friend of an ill fashion! + PROTEUS. Valentine! + VALENTINE. Thou common friend, that's without faith or love- + For such is a friend now; treacherous man, + Thou hast beguil'd my hopes; nought but mine eye + Could have persuaded me. Now I dare not say + I have one friend alive: thou wouldst disprove me. + Who should be trusted, when one's own right hand + Is perjured to the bosom? Proteus, + I am sorry I must never trust thee more, + But count the world a stranger for thy sake. + The private wound is deepest. O time most accurst! + 'Mongst all foes that a friend should be the worst! + PROTEUS. My shame and guilt confounds me. + Forgive me, Valentine; if hearty sorrow + Be a sufficient ransom for offence, + I tender 't here; I do as truly suffer + As e'er I did commit. + VALENTINE. Then I am paid; + And once again I do receive thee honest. + Who by repentance is not satisfied + Is nor of heaven nor earth, for these are pleas'd; + By penitence th' Eternal's wrath's appeas'd. + And, that my love may appear plain and free, + All that was mine in Silvia I give thee. + JULIA. O me unhappy! [Swoons] + PROTEUS. Look to the boy. + VALENTINE. Why, boy! why, wag! how now! + What's the matter? Look up; speak. + JULIA. O good sir, my master charg'd me to deliver a ring to Madam + Silvia, which, out of my neglect, was never done. + PROTEUS. Where is that ring, boy? + JULIA. Here 'tis; this is it. + PROTEUS. How! let me see. Why, this is the ring I gave to Julia. + JULIA. O, cry you mercy, sir, I have mistook; + This is the ring you sent to Silvia. + PROTEUS. But how cam'st thou by this ring? + At my depart I gave this unto Julia. + JULIA. And Julia herself did give it me; + And Julia herself have brought it hither. + PROTEUS. How! Julia! + JULIA. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths, + And entertain'd 'em deeply in her heart. + How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root! + O Proteus, let this habit make thee blush! + Be thou asham'd that I have took upon me + Such an immodest raiment- if shame live + In a disguise of love. + It is the lesser blot, modesty finds, + Women to change their shapes than men their minds. + PROTEUS. Than men their minds! 'tis true. O heaven, were man + But constant, he were perfect! That one error + Fills him with faults; makes him run through all th' sins: + Inconstancy falls off ere it begins. + What is in Silvia's face but I may spy + More fresh in Julia's with a constant eye? + VALENTINE. Come, come, a hand from either. + Let me be blest to make this happy close; + 'Twere pity two such friends should be long foes. + PROTEUS. Bear witness, heaven, I have my wish for ever. + JULIA. And I mine. + + Enter OUTLAWS, with DUKE and THURIO + + OUTLAW. A prize, a prize, a prize! + VALENTINE. Forbear, forbear, I say; it is my lord the Duke. + Your Grace is welcome to a man disgrac'd, + Banished Valentine. + DUKE. Sir Valentine! + THURIO. Yonder is Silvia; and Silvia's mine. + VALENTINE. Thurio, give back, or else embrace thy death; + Come not within the measure of my wrath; + Do not name Silvia thine; if once again, + Verona shall not hold thee. Here she stands + Take but possession of her with a touch- + I dare thee but to breathe upon my love. + THURIO. Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I; + I hold him but a fool that will endanger + His body for a girl that loves him not. + I claim her not, and therefore she is thine. + DUKE. The more degenerate and base art thou + To make such means for her as thou hast done + And leave her on such slight conditions. + Now, by the honour of my ancestry, + I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine, + And think thee worthy of an empress' love. + Know then, I here forget all former griefs, + Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again, + Plead a new state in thy unrivall'd merit, + To which I thus subscribe: Sir Valentine, + Thou art a gentleman, and well deriv'd; + Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserv'd her. + VALENTINE. I thank your Grace; the gift hath made me happy. + I now beseech you, for your daughter's sake, + To grant one boon that I shall ask of you. + DUKE. I grant it for thine own, whate'er it be. + VALENTINE. These banish'd men, that I have kept withal, + Are men endu'd with worthy qualities; + Forgive them what they have committed here, + And let them be recall'd from their exile: + They are reformed, civil, full of good, + And fit for great employment, worthy lord. + DUKE. Thou hast prevail'd; I pardon them, and thee; + Dispose of them as thou know'st their deserts. + Come, let us go; we will include all jars + With triumphs, mirth, and rare solemnity. + VALENTINE. And, as we walk along, I dare be bold + With our discourse to make your Grace to smile. + What think you of this page, my lord? + DUKE. I think the boy hath grace in him; he blushes. + VALENTINE. I warrant you, my lord- more grace than boy. + DUKE. What mean you by that saying? + VALENTINE. Please you, I'll tell you as we pass along, + That you will wonder what hath fortuned. + Come, Proteus, 'tis your penance but to hear + The story of your loves discovered. + That done, our day of marriage shall be yours; + One feast, one house, one mutual happiness! Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1611 + +THE WINTER'S TALE + +by William Shakespeare + + + +Dramatis Personae + + LEONTES, King of Sicilia + MAMILLIUS, his son, the young Prince of Sicilia + CAMILLO, lord of Sicilia + ANTIGONUS, " " " + CLEOMENES, " " " + DION, " " " + POLIXENES, King of Bohemia + FLORIZEL, his son, Prince of Bohemia + ARCHIDAMUS, a lord of Bohemia + OLD SHEPHERD, reputed father of Perdita + CLOWN, his son + AUTOLYCUS, a rogue + A MARINER + A GAOLER + TIME, as Chorus + + HERMIONE, Queen to Leontes + PERDITA, daughter to Leontes and Hermione + PAULINA, wife to Antigonus + EMILIA, a lady attending on the Queen + MOPSA, shepherdess + DORCAS, " + + Other Lords, Gentlemen, Ladies, Officers, Servants, Shepherds, + Shepherdesses + + SCENE: + Sicilia and Bohemia + + + + +<> + + + +ACT I. SCENE I. +Sicilia. The palace of LEONTES + +Enter CAMILLO and ARCHIDAMUS + + ARCHIDAMUS. If you shall chance, Camillo, to visit Bohemia, on the + like occasion whereon my services are now on foot, you shall see, + as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your + Sicilia. + CAMILLO. I think this coming summer the King of Sicilia means to + pay Bohemia the visitation which he justly owes him. + ARCHIDAMUS. Wherein our entertainment shall shame us we will be + justified in our loves; for indeed- + CAMILLO. Beseech you- + ARCHIDAMUS. Verily, I speak it in the freedom of my knowledge: we + cannot with such magnificence, in so rare- I know not what to + say. We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses, + unintelligent of our insufficience, may, though they cannot + praise us, as little accuse us. + CAMILLO. You pay a great deal too dear for what's given freely. + ARCHIDAMUS. Believe me, I speak as my understanding instructs me + and as mine honesty puts it to utterance. + CAMILLO. Sicilia cannot show himself overkind to Bohemia. They were + train'd together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt + them then such an affection which cannot choose but branch now. + Since their more mature dignities and royal necessities made + separation of their society, their encounters, though not + personal, have been royally attorneyed with interchange of gifts, + letters, loving embassies; that they have seem'd to be together, + though absent; shook hands, as over a vast; and embrac'd as it + were from the ends of opposed winds. The heavens continue their + loves! + ARCHIDAMUS. I think there is not in the world either malice or + matter to alter it. You have an unspeakable comfort of your young + Prince Mamillius; it is a gentleman of the greatest promise that + ever came into my note. + CAMILLO. I very well agree with you in the hopes of him. It is a + gallant child; one that indeed physics the subject, makes old + hearts fresh; they that went on crutches ere he was born desire + yet their life to see him a man. + ARCHIDAMUS. Would they else be content to die? + CAMILLO. Yes; if there were no other excuse why they should desire + to live. + ARCHIDAMUS. If the King had no son, they would desire to live on + crutches till he had one. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Sicilia. The palace of LEONTES + +Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, CAMILLO, and ATTENDANTS + + POLIXENES. Nine changes of the wat'ry star hath been + The shepherd's note since we have left our throne + Without a burden. Time as long again + Would be fill'd up, my brother, with our thanks; + And yet we should for perpetuity + Go hence in debt. And therefore, like a cipher, + Yet standing in rich place, I multiply + With one 'We thank you' many thousands moe + That go before it. + LEONTES. Stay your thanks a while, + And pay them when you part. + POLIXENES. Sir, that's to-morrow. + I am question'd by my fears of what may chance + Or breed upon our absence, that may blow + No sneaping winds at home, to make us say + 'This is put forth too truly.' Besides, I have stay'd + To tire your royalty. + LEONTES. We are tougher, brother, + Than you can put us to't. + POLIXENES. No longer stay. + LEONTES. One sev'night longer. + POLIXENES. Very sooth, to-morrow. + LEONTES. We'll part the time between's then; and in that + I'll no gainsaying. + POLIXENES. Press me not, beseech you, so. + There is no tongue that moves, none, none i' th' world, + So soon as yours could win me. So it should now, + Were there necessity in your request, although + 'Twere needful I denied it. My affairs + Do even drag me homeward; which to hinder + Were in your love a whip to me; my stay + To you a charge and trouble. To save both, + Farewell, our brother. + LEONTES. Tongue-tied, our Queen? Speak you. + HERMIONE. I had thought, sir, to have held my peace until + You had drawn oaths from him not to stay. You, sir, + Charge him too coldly. Tell him you are sure + All in Bohemia's well- this satisfaction + The by-gone day proclaim'd. Say this to him, + He's beat from his best ward. + LEONTES. Well said, Hermione. + HERMIONE. To tell he longs to see his son were strong; + But let him say so then, and let him go; + But let him swear so, and he shall not stay; + We'll thwack him hence with distaffs. + [To POLIXENES] Yet of your royal presence I'll + adventure the borrow of a week. When at Bohemia + You take my lord, I'll give him my commission + To let him there a month behind the gest + Prefix'd for's parting.- Yet, good deed, Leontes, + I love thee not a jar o' th' clock behind + What lady she her lord.- You'll stay? + POLIXENES. No, madam. + HERMIONE. Nay, but you will? + POLIXENES. I may not, verily. + HERMIONE. Verily! + You put me off with limber vows; but I, + Though you would seek t' unsphere the stars with oaths, + Should yet say 'Sir, no going.' Verily, + You shall not go; a lady's 'verily' is + As potent as a lord's. Will go yet? + Force me to keep you as a prisoner, + Not like a guest; so you shall pay your fees + When you depart, and save your thanks. How say you? + My prisoner or my guest? By your dread 'verily,' + One of them you shall be. + POLIXENES. Your guest, then, madam: + To be your prisoner should import offending; + Which is for me less easy to commit + Than you to punish. + HERMIONE. Not your gaoler then, + But your kind. hostess. Come, I'll question you + Of my lord's tricks and yours when you were boys. + You were pretty lordings then! + POLIXENES. We were, fair Queen, + Two lads that thought there was no more behind + But such a day to-morrow as to-day, + And to be boy eternal. + HERMIONE. Was not my lord + The verier wag o' th' two? + POLIXENES. We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' th' sun + And bleat the one at th' other. What we chang'd + Was innocence for innocence; we knew not + The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dream'd + That any did. Had we pursu'd that life, + And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd + With stronger blood, we should have answer'd heaven + Boldly 'Not guilty,' the imposition clear'd + Hereditary ours. + HERMIONE. By this we gather + You have tripp'd since. + POLIXENES. O my most sacred lady, + Temptations have since then been born to 's, for + In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl; + Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes + Of my young playfellow. + HERMIONE. Grace to boot! + Of this make no conclusion, lest you say + Your queen and I are devils. Yet, go on; + Th' offences we have made you do we'll answer, + If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us + You did continue fault, and that you slipp'd not + With any but with us. + LEONTES. Is he won yet? + HERMIONE. He'll stay, my lord. + LEONTES. At my request he would not. + Hermione, my dearest, thou never spok'st + To better purpose. + HERMIONE. Never? + LEONTES. Never but once. + HERMIONE. What! Have I twice said well? When was't before? + I prithee tell me; cram's with praise, and make's + As fat as tame things. One good deed dying tongueless + Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that. + Our praises are our wages; you may ride's + With one soft kiss a thousand furlongs ere + With spur we heat an acre. But to th' goal: + My last good deed was to entreat his stay; + What was my first? It has an elder sister, + Or I mistake you. O, would her name were Grace! + But once before I spoke to th' purpose- When? + Nay, let me have't; I long. + LEONTES. Why, that was when + Three crabbed months had sour'd themselves to death, + Ere I could make thee open thy white hand + And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter + 'I am yours for ever.' + HERMIONE. 'Tis Grace indeed. + Why, lo you now, I have spoke to th' purpose twice: + The one for ever earn'd a royal husband; + Th' other for some while a friend. + [Giving her hand to POLIXENES] + LEONTES. [Aside] Too hot, too hot! + To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods. + I have tremor cordis on me; my heart dances, + But not for joy, not joy. This entertainment + May a free face put on; derive a liberty + From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bosom, + And well become the agent. 'T may, I grant; + But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers, + As now they are, and making practis'd smiles + As in a looking-glass; and then to sigh, as 'twere + The mort o' th' deer. O, that is entertainment + My bosom likes not, nor my brows! Mamillius, + Art thou my boy? + MAMILLIUS. Ay, my good lord. + LEONTES. I' fecks! + Why, that's my bawcock. What! hast smutch'd thy nose? + They say it is a copy out of mine. Come, Captain, + We must be neat- not neat, but cleanly, Captain. + And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf, + Are all call'd neat.- Still virginalling + Upon his palm?- How now, you wanton calf, + Art thou my calf? + MAMILLIUS. Yes, if you will, my lord. + LEONTES. Thou want'st a rough pash and the shoots that I have, + To be full like me; yet they say we are + Almost as like as eggs. Women say so, + That will say anything. But were they false + As o'er-dy'd blacks, as wind, as waters- false + As dice are to be wish'd by one that fixes + No bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true + To say this boy were like me. Come, sir page, + Look on me with your welkin eye. Sweet villain! + Most dear'st! my collop! Can thy dam?- may't be? + Affection! thy intention stabs the centre. + Thou dost make possible things not so held, + Communicat'st with dreams- how can this be?- + With what's unreal thou coactive art, + And fellow'st nothing. Then 'tis very credent + Thou mayst co-join with something; and thou dost- + And that beyond commission; and I find it, + And that to the infection of my brains + And hard'ning of my brows. + POLIXENES. What means Sicilia? + HERMIONE. He something seems unsettled. + POLIXENES. How, my lord! + What cheer? How is't with you, best brother? + HERMIONE. You look + As if you held a brow of much distraction. + Are you mov'd, my lord? + LEONTES. No, in good earnest. + How sometimes nature will betray its folly, + Its tenderness, and make itself a pastime + To harder bosoms! Looking on the lines + Of my boy's face, methoughts I did recoil + Twenty-three years; and saw myself unbreech'd, + In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzl'd, + Lest it should bite its master and so prove, + As ornaments oft do, too dangerous. + How like, methought, I then was to this kernel, + This squash, this gentleman. Mine honest friend, + Will you take eggs for money? + MAMILLIUS. No, my lord, I'll fight. + LEONTES. You will? Why, happy man be's dole! My brother, + Are you so fond of your young prince as we + Do seem to be of ours? + POLIXENES. If at home, sir, + He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter; + Now my sworn friend, and then mine enemy; + My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all. + He makes a July's day short as December, + And with his varying childness cures in me + Thoughts that would thick my blood. + LEONTES. So stands this squire + Offic'd with me. We two will walk, my lord, + And leave you to your graver steps. Hermione, + How thou lov'st us show in our brother's welcome; + Let what is dear in Sicily be cheap; + Next to thyself and my young rover, he's + Apparent to my heart. + HERMIONE. If you would seek us, + We are yours i' th' garden. Shall's attend you there? + LEONTES. To your own bents dispose you; you'll be found, + Be you beneath the sky. [Aside] I am angling now, + Though you perceive me not how I give line. + Go to, go to! + How she holds up the neb, the bill to him! + And arms her with the boldness of a wife + To her allowing husband! + + Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, and ATTENDANTS + + Gone already! + Inch-thick, knee-deep, o'er head and ears a fork'd one! + Go, play, boy, play; thy mother plays, and I + Play too; but so disgrac'd a part, whose issue + Will hiss me to my grave. Contempt and clamour + Will be my knell. Go, play, boy, play. There have been, + Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now; + And many a man there is, even at this present, + Now while I speak this, holds his wife by th' arm + That little thinks she has been sluic'd in's absence, + And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by + Sir Smile, his neighbour. Nay, there's comfort in't, + Whiles other men have gates and those gates open'd, + As mine, against their will. Should all despair + That hath revolted wives, the tenth of mankind + Would hang themselves. Physic for't there's none; + It is a bawdy planet, that will strike + Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis pow'rfull, think it, + From east, west, north, and south. Be it concluded, + No barricado for a belly. Know't, + It will let in and out the enemy + With bag and baggage. Many thousand on's + Have the disease, and feel't not. How now, boy! + MAMILLIUS. I am like you, they say. + LEONTES. Why, that's some comfort. + What! Camillo there? + CAMILLO. Ay, my good lord. + LEONTES. Go play, Mamillius; thou'rt an honest man. + Exit MAMILLIUS + Camillo, this great sir will yet stay longer. + CAMILLO. You had much ado to make his anchor hold; + When you cast out, it still came home. + LEONTES. Didst note it? + CAMILLO. He would not stay at your petitions; made + His business more material. + LEONTES. Didst perceive it? + [Aside] They're here with me already; whisp'ring, rounding, + 'Sicilia is a so-forth.' 'Tis far gone + When I shall gust it last.- How came't, Camillo, + That he did stay? + CAMILLO. At the good Queen's entreaty. + LEONTES. 'At the Queen's' be't. 'Good' should be pertinent; + But so it is, it is not. Was this taken + By any understanding pate but thine? + For thy conceit is soaking, will draw in + More than the common blocks. Not noted, is't, + But of the finer natures, by some severals + Of head-piece extraordinary? Lower messes + Perchance are to this business purblind? Say. + CAMILLO. Business, my lord? I think most understand + Bohemia stays here longer. + LEONTES. Ha? + CAMILLO. Stays here longer. + LEONTES. Ay, but why? + CAMILLO. To satisfy your Highness, and the entreaties + Of our most gracious mistress. + LEONTES. Satisfy + Th' entreaties of your mistress! Satisfy! + Let that suffice. I have trusted thee, Camillo, + With all the nearest things to my heart, as well + My chamber-councils, wherein, priest-like, thou + Hast cleans'd my bosom- I from thee departed + Thy penitent reform'd; but we have been + Deceiv'd in thy integrity, deceiv'd + In that which seems so. + CAMILLO. Be it forbid, my lord! + LEONTES. To bide upon't: thou art not honest; or, + If thou inclin'st that way, thou art a coward, + Which hoxes honesty behind, restraining + From course requir'd; or else thou must be counted + A servant grafted in my serious trust, + And therein negligent; or else a fool + That seest a game play'd home, the rich stake drawn, + And tak'st it all for jest. + CAMILLO. My gracious lord, + I may be negligent, foolish, and fearful: + In every one of these no man is free + But that his negligence, his folly, fear, + Among the infinite doings of the world, + Sometime puts forth. In your affairs, my lord, + If ever I were wilfull-negligent, + It was my folly; if industriously + I play'd the fool, it was my negligence, + Not weighing well the end; if ever fearful + To do a thing where I the issue doubted, + Whereof the execution did cry out + Against the non-performance, 'twas a fear + Which oft infects the wisest. These, my lord, + Are such allow'd infirmities that honesty + Is never free of. But, beseech your Grace, + Be plainer with me; let me know my trespass + By its own visage; if I then deny it, + 'Tis none of mine. + LEONTES. Ha' not you seen, Camillo- + But that's past doubt; you have, or your eye-glass + Is thicker than a cuckold's horn- or heard- + For to a vision so apparent rumour + Cannot be mute- or thought- for cogitation + Resides not in that man that does not think- + My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess- + Or else be impudently negative, + To have nor eyes nor ears nor thought- then say + My wife's a hobby-horse, deserves a name + As rank as any flax-wench that puts to + Before her troth-plight. Say't and justify't. + CAMILLO. I would not be a stander-by to hear + My sovereign mistress clouded so, without + My present vengeance taken. Shrew my heart! + You never spoke what did become you less + Than this; which to reiterate were sin + As deep as that, though true. + LEONTES. Is whispering nothing? + Is leaning cheek to cheek? Is meeting noses? + Kissing with inside lip? Stopping the career + Of laughter with a sigh?- a note infallible + Of breaking honesty. Horsing foot on foot? + Skulking in corners? Wishing clocks more swift; + Hours, minutes; noon, midnight? And all eyes + Blind with the pin and web but theirs, theirs only, + That would unseen be wicked- is this nothing? + Why, then the world and all that's in't is nothing; + The covering sky is nothing; Bohemia nothing; + My is nothing; nor nothing have these nothings, + If this be nothing. + CAMILLO. Good my lord, be cur'd + Of this diseas'd opinion, and betimes; + For 'tis most dangerous. + LEONTES. Say it be, 'tis true. + CAMILLO. No, no, my lord. + LEONTES. It is; you lie, you lie. + I say thou liest, Camillo, and I hate thee; + Pronounce thee a gross lout, a mindless slave, + Or else a hovering temporizer that + Canst with thine eyes at once see good and evil, + Inclining to them both. Were my wife's liver + Infected as her life, she would not live + The running of one glass. + CAMILLO. Who does her? + LEONTES. Why, he that wears her like her medal, hanging + About his neck, Bohemia; who- if I + Had servants true about me that bare eyes + To see alike mine honour as their profits, + Their own particular thrifts, they would do that + Which should undo more doing. Ay, and thou, + His cupbearer- whom I from meaner form + Have bench'd and rear'd to worship; who mayst see, + Plainly as heaven sees earth and earth sees heaven, + How I am gall'd- mightst bespice a cup + To give mine enemy a lasting wink; + Which draught to me were cordial. + CAMILLO. Sir, my lord, + I could do this; and that with no rash potion, + But with a ling'ring dram that should not work + Maliciously like poison. But I cannot + Believe this crack to be in my dread mistress, + So sovereignly being honourable. + I have lov'd thee- + LEONTES. Make that thy question, and go rot! + Dost think I am so muddy, so unsettled, + To appoint myself in this vexation; sully + The purity and whiteness of my sheets- + Which to preserve is sleep, which being spotted + Is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wasps; + Give scandal to the blood o' th' Prince, my son- + Who I do think is mine, and love as mine- + Without ripe moving to 't? Would I do this? + Could man so blench? + CAMILLO. I must believe you, sir. + I do; and will fetch off Bohemia for't; + Provided that, when he's remov'd, your Highness + Will take again your queen as yours at first, + Even for your son's sake; and thereby for sealing + The injury of tongues in courts and kingdoms + Known and allied to yours. + LEONTES. Thou dost advise me + Even so as I mine own course have set down. + I'll give no blemish to her honour, none. + CAMILLO. My lord, + Go then; and with a countenance as clear + As friendship wears at feasts, keep with Bohemia + And with your queen. I am his cupbearer; + If from me he have wholesome beverage, + Account me not your servant. + LEONTES. This is all: + Do't, and thou hast the one half of my heart; + Do't not, thou split'st thine own. + CAMILLO. I'll do't, my lord. + LEONTES. I will seem friendly, as thou hast advis'd me. Exit + CAMILLO. O miserable lady! But, for me, + What case stand I in? I must be the poisoner + Of good Polixenes; and my ground to do't + Is the obedience to a master; one + Who, in rebellion with himself, will have + All that are his so too. To do this deed, + Promotion follows. If I could find example + Of thousands that had struck anointed kings + And flourish'd after, I'd not do't; but since + Nor brass, nor stone, nor parchment, bears not one, + Let villainy itself forswear't. I must + Forsake the court. To do't, or no, is certain + To me a break-neck. Happy star reign now! + Here comes Bohemia. + + Enter POLIXENES + + POLIXENES. This is strange. Methinks + My favour here begins to warp. Not speak? + Good day, Camillo. + CAMILLO. Hail, most royal sir! + POLIXENES. What is the news i' th' court? + CAMILLO. None rare, my lord. + POLIXENES. The King hath on him such a countenance + As he had lost some province, and a region + Lov'd as he loves himself; even now I met him + With customary compliment, when he, + Wafting his eyes to th' contrary and falling + A lip of much contempt, speeds from me; + So leaves me to consider what is breeding + That changes thus his manners. + CAMILLO. I dare not know, my lord. + POLIXENES. How, dare not! Do not. Do you know, and dare not + Be intelligent to me? 'Tis thereabouts; + For, to yourself, what you do know, you must, + And cannot say you dare not. Good Camillo, + Your chang'd complexions are to me a mirror + Which shows me mine chang'd too; for I must be + A party in this alteration, finding + Myself thus alter'd with't. + CAMILLO. There is a sickness + Which puts some of us in distemper; but + I cannot name the disease; and it is caught + Of you that yet are well. + POLIXENES. How! caught of me? + Make me not sighted like the basilisk; + I have look'd on thousands who have sped the better + By my regard, but kill'd none so. Camillo- + As you are certainly a gentleman; thereto + Clerk-like experienc'd, which no less adorns + Our gentry than our parents' noble names, + In whose success we are gentle- I beseech you, + If you know aught which does behove my knowledge + Thereof to be inform'd, imprison't not + In ignorant concealment. + CAMILLO. I may not answer. + POLIXENES. A sickness caught of me, and yet I well? + I must be answer'd. Dost thou hear, Camillo? + I conjure thee, by all the parts of man + Which honour does acknowledge, whereof the least + Is not this suit of mine, that thou declare + What incidency thou dost guess of harm + Is creeping toward me; how far off, how near; + Which way to be prevented, if to be; + If not, how best to bear it. + CAMILLO. Sir, I will tell you; + Since I am charg'd in honour, and by him + That I think honourable. Therefore mark my counsel, + Which must be ev'n as swiftly followed as + I mean to utter it, or both yourself and me + Cry lost, and so goodnight. + POLIXENES. On, good Camillo. + CAMILLO. I am appointed him to murder you. + POLIXENES. By whom, Camillo? + CAMILLO. By the King. + POLIXENES. For what? + CAMILLO. He thinks, nay, with all confidence he swears, + As he had seen 't or been an instrument + To vice you to't, that you have touch'd his queen + Forbiddenly. + POLIXENES. O, then my best blood turn + To an infected jelly, and my name + Be yok'd with his that did betray the Best! + Turn then my freshest reputation to + A savour that may strike the dullest nostril + Where I arrive, and my approach be shunn'd, + Nay, hated too, worse than the great'st infection + That e'er was heard or read! + CAMILLO. Swear his thought over + By each particular star in heaven and + By all their influences, you may as well + Forbid the sea for to obey the moon + As or by oath remove or counsel shake + The fabric of his folly, whose foundation + Is pil'd upon his faith and will continue + The standing of his body. + POLIXENES. How should this grow? + CAMILLO. I know not; but I am sure 'tis safer to + Avoid what's grown than question how 'tis born. + If therefore you dare trust my honesty, + That lies enclosed in this trunk which you + Shall bear along impawn'd, away to-night. + Your followers I will whisper to the business; + And will, by twos and threes, at several posterns, + Clear them o' th' city. For myself, I'll put + My fortunes to your service, which are here + By this discovery lost. Be not uncertain, + For, by the honour of my parents, I + Have utt'red truth; which if you seek to prove, + I dare not stand by; nor shall you be safer + Than one condemn'd by the King's own mouth, thereon + His execution sworn. + POLIXENES. I do believe thee: + I saw his heart in's face. Give me thy hand; + Be pilot to me, and thy places shall + Still neighbour mine. My ships are ready, and + My people did expect my hence departure + Two days ago. This jealousy + Is for a precious creature; as she's rare, + Must it be great; and, as his person's mighty, + Must it be violent; and as he does conceive + He is dishonour'd by a man which ever + Profess'd to him, why, his revenges must + In that be made more bitter. Fear o'ershades me. + Good expedition be my friend, and comfort + The gracious Queen, part of this theme, but nothing + Of his ill-ta'en suspicion! Come, Camillo; + I will respect thee as a father, if + Thou bear'st my life off hence. Let us avoid. + CAMILLO. It is in mine authority to command + The keys of all the posterns. Please your Highness + To take the urgent hour. Come, sir, away. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT II. SCENE I. +Sicilia. The palace of LEONTES + +Enter HERMIONE, MAMILLIUS, and LADIES + + HERMIONE. Take the boy to you; he so troubles me, + 'Tis past enduring. + FIRST LADY. Come, my gracious lord, + Shall I be your playfellow? + MAMILLIUS. No, I'll none of you. + FIRST LADY. Why, my sweet lord? + MAMILLIUS. You'll kiss me hard, and speak to me as if + I were a baby still. I love you better. + SECOND LADY. And why so, my lord? + MAMILLIUS. Not for because + Your brows are blacker; yet black brows, they say, + Become some women best; so that there be not + Too much hair there, but in a semicircle + Or a half-moon made with a pen. + SECOND LADY. Who taught't this? + MAMILLIUS. I learn'd it out of women's faces. Pray now, + What colour are your eyebrows? + FIRST LADY. Blue, my lord. + MAMILLIUS. Nay, that's a mock. I have seen a lady's nose + That has been blue, but not her eyebrows. + FIRST LADY. Hark ye: + The Queen your mother rounds apace. We shall + Present our services to a fine new prince + One of these days; and then you'd wanton with us, + If we would have you. + SECOND LADY. She is spread of late + Into a goodly bulk. Good time encounter her! + HERMIONE. What wisdom stirs amongst you? Come, sir, now + I am for you again. Pray you sit by us, + And tell's a tale. + MAMILLIUS. Merry or sad shall't be? + HERMIONE. As merry as you will. + MAMILLIUS. A sad tale's best for winter. I have one + Of sprites and goblins. + HERMIONE. Let's have that, good sir. + Come on, sit down; come on, and do your best + To fright me with your sprites; you're pow'rfull at it. + MAMILLIUS. There was a man- + HERMIONE. Nay, come, sit down; then on. + MAMILLIUS. Dwelt by a churchyard- I will tell it softly; + Yond crickets shall not hear it. + HERMIONE. Come on then, + And give't me in mine ear. + + Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, LORDS, and OTHERS + + LEONTES. he met there? his train? Camillo with him? + FIRST LORD. Behind the tuft of pines I met them; never + Saw I men scour so on their way. I ey'd them + Even to their ships. + LEONTES. How blest am I + In my just censure, in my true opinion! + Alack, for lesser knowledge! How accurs'd + In being so blest! There may be in the cup + A spider steep'd, and one may drink, depart, + And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge + Is not infected; but if one present + Th' abhorr'd ingredient to his eye, make known + How he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides, + With violent hefts. I have drunk, and seen the spider. + Camillo was his help in this, his pander. + There is a plot against my life, my crown; + All's true that is mistrusted. That false villain + Whom I employ'd was pre-employ'd by him; + He has discover'd my design, and I + Remain a pinch'd thing; yea, a very trick + For them to play at will. How came the posterns + So easily open? + FIRST LORD. By his great authority; + Which often hath no less prevail'd than so + On your command. + LEONTES. I know't too well. + Give me the boy. I am glad you did not nurse him; + Though he does bear some signs of me, yet you + Have too much blood in him. + HERMIONE. What is this? Sport? + LEONTES. Bear the boy hence; he shall not come about her; + Away with him; and let her sport herself + [MAMILLIUS is led out] + With that she's big with- for 'tis Polixenes + Has made thee swell thus. + HERMIONE. But I'd say he had not, + And I'll be sworn you would believe my saying, + Howe'er you lean to th' nayward. + LEONTES. You, my lords, + Look on her, mark her well; be but about + To say 'She is a goodly lady' and + The justice of your hearts will thereto ad + 'Tis pity she's not honest- honourable.' + Praise her but for this her without-door form, + Which on my faith deserves high speech, and straight + The shrug, the hum or ha, these petty brands + That calumny doth use- O, I am out!- + That mercy does, for calumny will sear + Virtue itself- these shrugs, these hum's and ha's, + When you have said she's goodly, come between, + Ere you can say she's honest. But be't known, + From him that has most cause to grieve it should be, + She's an adultress. + HERMIONE. Should a villain say so, + The most replenish'd villain in the world, + He were as much more villain: you, my lord, + Do but mistake. + LEONTES. You have mistook, my lady, + Polixenes for Leontes. O thou thing! + Which I'll not call a creature of thy place, + Lest barbarism, making me the precedent, + Should a like language use to all degrees + And mannerly distinguishment leave out + Betwixt the prince and beggar. I have said + She's an adultress; I have said with whom. + More, she's a traitor; and Camillo is + A federary with her, and one that knows + What she should shame to know herself + But with her most vile principal- that she's + A bed-swerver, even as bad as those + That vulgars give bold'st titles; ay, and privy + To this their late escape. + HERMIONE. No, by my life, + Privy to none of this. How will this grieve you, + When you shall come to clearer knowledge, that + You thus have publish'd me! Gentle my lord, + You scarce can right me throughly then to say + You did mistake. + LEONTES. No; if I mistake + In those foundations which I build upon, + The centre is not big enough to bear + A school-boy's top. Away with her to prison. + He who shall speak for her is afar off guilty + But that he speaks. + HERMIONE. There's some ill planet reigns. + I must be patient till the heavens look + With an aspect more favourable. Good my lords, + I am not prone to weeping, as our sex + Commonly are- the want of which vain dew + Perchance shall dry your pities- but I have + That honourable grief lodg'd here which burns + Worse than tears drown. Beseech you all, my lords, + With thoughts so qualified as your charities + Shall best instruct you, measure me; and so + The King's will be perform'd! + LEONTES. [To the GUARD] Shall I be heard? + HERMIONE. Who is't that goes with me? Beseech your highness + My women may be with me, for you see + My plight requires it. Do not weep, good fools; + There is no cause; when you shall know your mistress + Has deserv'd prison, then abound in tears + As I come out: this action I now go on + Is for my better grace. Adieu, my lord. + I never wish'd to see you sorry; now + I trust I shall. My women, come; you have leave. + LEONTES. Go, do our bidding; hence! + Exeunt HERMIONE, guarded, and LADIES + FIRST LORD. Beseech your Highness, call the Queen again. + ANTIGONUS. Be certain what you do, sir, lest your justice + Prove violence, in the which three great ones suffer, + Yourself, your queen, your son. + FIRST LORD. For her, my lord, + I dare my life lay down- and will do't, sir, + Please you t' accept it- that the Queen is spotless + I' th' eyes of heaven and to you- I mean + In this which you accuse her. + ANTIGONUS. If it prove + She's otherwise, I'll keep my stables where + I lodge my wife; I'll go in couples with her; + Than when I feel and see her no farther trust her; + For every inch of woman in the world, + Ay, every dram of woman's flesh is false, + If she be. + LEONTES. Hold your peaces. + FIRST LORD. Good my lord- + ANTIGONUS. It is for you we speak, not for ourselves. + You are abus'd, and by some putter-on + That will be damn'd for't. Would I knew the villain! + I would land-damn him. Be she honour-flaw'd- + I have three daughters: the eldest is eleven; + The second and the third, nine and some five; + If this prove true, they'll pay for 't. By mine honour, + I'll geld 'em all; fourteen they shall not see + To bring false generations. They are co-heirs; + And I had rather glib myself than they + Should not produce fair issue. + LEONTES. Cease; no more. + You smell this business with a sense as cold + As is a dead man's nose; but I do see't and feel't + As you feel doing thus; and see withal + The instruments that feel. + ANTIGONUS. If it be so, + We need no grave to bury honesty; + There's not a grain of it the face to sweeten + Of the whole dungy earth. + LEONTES. What! Lack I credit? + FIRST LORD. I had rather you did lack than I, my lord, + Upon this ground; and more it would content me + To have her honour true than your suspicion, + Be blam'd for't how you might. + LEONTES. Why, what need we + Commune with you of this, but rather follow + Our forceful instigation? Our prerogative + Calls not your counsels; but our natural goodness + Imparts this; which, if you- or stupified + Or seeming so in skill- cannot or will not + Relish a truth like us, inform yourselves + We need no more of your advice. The matter, + The loss, the gain, the ord'ring on't, is all + Properly ours. + ANTIGONUS. And I wish, my liege, + You had only in your silent judgment tried it, + Without more overture. + LEONTES. How could that be? + Either thou art most ignorant by age, + Or thou wert born a fool. Camillo's flight, + Added to their familiarity- + Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture, + That lack'd sight only, nought for approbation + But only seeing, all other circumstances + Made up to th' deed- doth push on this proceeding. + Yet, for a greater confirmation- + For, in an act of this importance, 'twere + Most piteous to be wild- I have dispatch'd in post + To sacred Delphos, to Apollo's temple, + Cleomenes and Dion, whom you know + Of stuff'd sufficiency. Now, from the oracle + They will bring all, whose spiritual counsel had, + Shall stop or spur me. Have I done well? + FIRST LORD. Well done, my lord. + LEONTES. Though I am satisfied, and need no more + Than what I know, yet shall the oracle + Give rest to th' minds of others such as he + Whose ignorant credulity will not + Come up to th' truth. So have we thought it good + From our free person she should be confin'd, + Lest that the treachery of the two fled hence + Be left her to perform. Come, follow us; + We are to speak in public; for this business + Will raise us all. + ANTIGONUS. [Aside] To laughter, as I take it, + If the good truth were known. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Sicilia. A prison + +Enter PAULINA, a GENTLEMAN, and ATTENDANTS + + PAULINA. The keeper of the prison- call to him; + Let him have knowledge who I am. Exit GENTLEMAN + Good lady! + No court in Europe is too good for thee; + What dost thou then in prison? + + Re-enter GENTLEMAN with the GAOLER + + Now, good sir, + You know me, do you not? + GAOLER. For a worthy lady, + And one who much I honour. + PAULINA. Pray you, then, + Conduct me to the Queen. + GAOLER. I may not, madam; + To the contrary I have express commandment. + PAULINA. Here's ado, to lock up honesty and honour from + Th' access of gentle visitors! Is't lawful, pray you, + To see her women- any of them? Emilia? + GAOLER. So please you, madam, + To put apart these your attendants, + Shall bring Emilia forth. + PAULINA. I pray now, call her. + Withdraw yourselves. Exeunt ATTENDANTS + GAOLER. And, madam, + I must be present at your conference. + PAULINA. Well, be't so, prithee. Exit GAOLER + Here's such ado to make no stain a stain + As passes colouring. + + Re-enter GAOLER, with EMILIA + + Dear gentlewoman, + How fares our gracious lady? + EMILIA. As well as one so great and so forlorn + May hold together. On her frights and griefs, + Which never tender lady hath borne greater, + She is, something before her time, deliver'd. + PAULINA. A boy? + EMILIA. A daughter, and a goodly babe, + Lusty, and like to live. The Queen receives + Much comfort in't; says 'My poor prisoner, + I am as innocent as you.' + PAULINA. I dare be sworn. + These dangerous unsafe lunes i' th' King, beshrew them! + He must be told on't, and he shall. The office + Becomes a woman best; I'll take't upon me; + If I prove honey-mouth'd, let my tongue blister, + And never to my red-look'd anger be + The trumpet any more. Pray you, Emilia, + Commend my best obedience to the Queen; + If she dares trust me with her little babe, + I'll show't the King, and undertake to be + Her advocate to th' loud'st. We do not know + How he may soften at the sight o' th' child: + The silence often of pure innocence + Persuades when speaking fails. + EMILIA. Most worthy madam, + Your honour and your goodness is so evident + That your free undertaking cannot miss + A thriving issue; there is no lady living + So meet for this great errand. Please your ladyship + To visit the next room, I'll presently + Acquaint the Queen of your most noble offer + Who but to-day hammer'd of this design, + But durst not tempt a minister of honour, + Lest she should be denied. + PAULINA. Tell her, Emilia, + I'll use that tongue I have; if wit flow from't + As boldness from my bosom, let't not be doubted + I shall do good. + EMILIA. Now be you blest for it! + I'll to the Queen. Please you come something nearer. + GAOLER. Madam, if't please the Queen to send the babe, + I know not what I shall incur to pass it, + Having no warrant. + PAULINA. You need not fear it, sir. + This child was prisoner to the womb, and is + By law and process of great Nature thence + Freed and enfranchis'd- not a party to + The anger of the King, nor guilty of, + If any be, the trespass of the Queen. + GAOLER. I do believe it. + PAULINA. Do not you fear. Upon mine honour, I + Will stand betwixt you and danger. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Sicilia. The palace of LEONTES + +Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, LORDS, and SERVANTS + + LEONTES. Nor night nor day no rest! It is but weakness + To bear the matter thus- mere weakness. If + The cause were not in being- part o' th' cause, + She, th' adultress; for the harlot king + Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank + And level of my brain, plot-proof; but she + I can hook to me- say that she were gone, + Given to the fire, a moiety of my rest + Might come to me again. Who's there? + FIRST SERVANT. My lord? + LEONTES. How does the boy? + FIRST SERVANT. He took good rest to-night; + 'Tis hop'd his sickness is discharg'd. + LEONTES. To see his nobleness! + Conceiving the dishonour of his mother, + He straight declin'd, droop'd, took it deeply, + Fasten'd and fix'd the shame on't in himself, + Threw off his spirit, his appetite, his sleep, + And downright languish'd. Leave me solely. Go, + See how he fares. [Exit SERVANT] Fie, fie! no thought of him! + The very thought of my revenges that way + Recoil upon me- in himself too mighty, + And in his parties, his alliance. Let him be, + Until a time may serve; for present vengeance, + Take it on her. Camillo and Polixenes + Laugh at me, make their pastime at my sorrow. + They should not laugh if I could reach them; nor + Shall she, within my pow'r. + + Enter PAULINA, with a CHILD + + FIRST LORD. You must not enter. + PAULINA. Nay, rather, good my lords, be second to me. + Fear you his tyrannous passion more, alas, + Than the Queen's life? A gracious innocent soul, + More free than he is jealous. + ANTIGONUS. That's enough. + SECOND SERVANT. Madam, he hath not slept to-night; commanded + None should come at him. + PAULINA. Not so hot, good sir; + I come to bring him sleep. 'Tis such as you, + That creep like shadows by him, and do sigh + At each his needless heavings- such as you + Nourish the cause of his awaking: I + Do come with words as medicinal as true, + Honest as either, to purge him of that humour + That presses him from sleep. + LEONTES. What noise there, ho? + PAULINA. No noise, my lord; but needful conference + About some gossips for your Highness. + LEONTES. How! + Away with that audacious lady! Antigonus, + I charg'd thee that she should not come about me; + I knew she would. + ANTIGONUS. I told her so, my lord, + On your displeasure's peril, and on mine, + She should not visit you. + LEONTES. What, canst not rule her? + PAULINA. From all dishonesty he can: in this, + Unless he take the course that you have done- + Commit me for committing honour- trust it, + He shall not rule me. + ANTIGONUS. La you now, you hear! + When she will take the rein, I let her run; + But she'll not stumble. + PAULINA. Good my liege, I come- + And I beseech you hear me, who professes + Myself your loyal servant, your physician, + Your most obedient counsellor; yet that dares + Less appear so, in comforting your evils, + Than such as most seem yours- I say I come + From your good Queen. + LEONTES. Good Queen! + PAULINA. Good Queen, my lord, good Queen- I say good Queen; + And would by combat make her good, so were I + A man, the worst about you. + LEONTES. Force her hence. + PAULINA. Let him that makes but trifles of his eyes + First hand me. On mine own accord I'll off; + But first I'll do my errand. The good Queen, + For she is good, hath brought you forth a daughter; + Here 'tis; commends it to your blessing. + [Laying down the child] + LEONTES. Out! + A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o' door! + A most intelligencing bawd! + PAULINA. Not so. + I am as ignorant in that as you + In so entitling me; and no less honest + Than you are mad; which is enough, I'll warrant, + As this world goes, to pass for honest. + LEONTES. Traitors! + Will you not push her out? Give her the bastard. + [To ANTIGONUS] Thou dotard, thou art woman-tir'd, unroosted + By thy Dame Partlet here. Take up the bastard; + Take't up, I say; give't to thy crone. + PAULINA. For ever + Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou + Tak'st up the Princess by that forced baseness + Which he has put upon't! + LEONTES. He dreads his wife. + PAULINA. So I would you did; then 'twere past all doubt + You'd call your children yours. + LEONTES. A nest of traitors! + ANTIGONUS. I am none, by this good light. + PAULINA. Nor I; nor any + But one that's here; and that's himself; for he + The sacred honour of himself, his Queen's, + His hopeful son's, his babe's, betrays to slander, + Whose sting is sharper than the sword's; and will not- + For, as the case now stands, it is a curse + He cannot be compell'd to 't- once remove + The root of his opinion, which is rotten + As ever oak or stone was sound. + LEONTES. A callat + Of boundless tongue, who late hath beat her husband, + And now baits me! This brat is none of mine; + It is the issue of Polixenes. + Hence with it, and together with the dam + Commit them to the fire. + PAULINA. It is yours. + And, might we lay th' old proverb to your charge, + So like you 'tis the worse. Behold, my lords, + Although the print be little, the whole matter + And copy of the father- eye, nose, lip, + The trick of's frown, his forehead; nay, the valley, + The pretty dimples of his chin and cheek; his smiles; + The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger. + And thou, good goddess Nature, which hast made it + So like to him that got it, if thou hast + The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colours + No yellow in't, lest she suspect, as he does, + Her children not her husband's! + LEONTES. A gross hag! + And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd + That wilt not stay her tongue. + ANTIGONUS. Hang all the husbands + That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself + Hardly one subject. + LEONTES. Once more, take her hence. + PAULINA. A most unworthy and unnatural lord + Can do no more. + LEONTES. I'll ha' thee burnt. + PAULINA. I care not. + It is an heretic that makes the fire, + Not she which burns in't. I'll not call you tyrant + But this most cruel usage of your Queen- + Not able to produce more accusation + Than your own weak-hing'd fancy- something savours + Of tyranny, and will ignoble make you, + Yea, scandalous to the world. + LEONTES. On your allegiance, + Out of the chamber with her! Were I a tyrant, + Where were her life? She durst not call me so, + If she did know me one. Away with her! + PAULINA. I pray you, do not push me; I'll be gone. + Look to your babe, my lord; 'tis yours. Jove send her + A better guiding spirit! What needs these hands? + You that are thus so tender o'er his follies + Will never do him good, not one of you. + So, so. Farewell; we are gone. Exit + LEONTES. Thou, traitor, hast set on thy wife to this. + My child! Away with't. Even thou, that hast + A heart so tender o'er it, take it hence, + And see it instantly consum'd with fire; + Even thou, and none but thou. Take it up straight. + Within this hour bring me word 'tis done, + And by good testimony, or I'll seize thy life, + With that thou else call'st thine. If thou refuse, + And wilt encounter with my wrath, say so; + The bastard brains with these my proper hands + Shall I dash out. Go, take it to the fire; + For thou set'st on thy wife. + ANTIGONUS. I did not, sir. + These lords, my noble fellows, if they please, + Can clear me in't. + LORDS. We can. My royal liege, + He is not guilty of her coming hither. + LEONTES. You're liars all. + FIRST LORD. Beseech your Highness, give us better credit. + We have always truly serv'd you; and beseech + So to esteem of us; and on our knees we beg, + As recompense of our dear services + Past and to come, that you do change this purpose, + Which being so horrible, so bloody, must + Lead on to some foul issue. We all kneel. + LEONTES. I am a feather for each wind that blows. + Shall I live on to see this bastard kneel + And call me father? Better burn it now + Than curse it then. But be it; let it live. + It shall not neither. [To ANTIGONUS] You, Sir, come you hither. + You that have been so tenderly officious + With Lady Margery, your midwife there, + To save this bastard's life- for 'tis a bastard, + So sure as this beard's grey- what will you adventure + To save this brat's life? + ANTIGONUS. Anything, my lord, + That my ability may undergo, + And nobleness impose. At least, thus much: + I'll pawn the little blood which I have left + To save the innocent- anything possible. + LEONTES. It shall be possible. Swear by this sword + Thou wilt perform my bidding. + ANTIGONUS. I will, my lord. + LEONTES. Mark, and perform it- seest thou? For the fail + Of any point in't shall not only be + Death to thyself, but to thy lewd-tongu'd wife, + Whom for this time we pardon. We enjoin thee, + As thou art liegeman to us, that thou carry + This female bastard hence; and that thou bear it + To some remote and desert place, quite out + Of our dominions; and that there thou leave it, + Without more mercy, to it own protection + And favour of the climate. As by strange fortune + It came to us, I do in justice charge thee, + On thy soul's peril and thy body's torture, + That thou commend it strangely to some place + Where chance may nurse or end it. Take it up. + ANTIGONUS. I swear to do this, though a present death + Had been more merciful. Come on, poor babe. + Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens + To be thy nurses! Wolves and bears, they say, + Casting their savageness aside, have done + Like offices of pity. Sir, be prosperous + In more than this deed does require! And blessing + Against this cruelty fight on thy side, + Poor thing, condemn'd to loss! Exit with the child + LEONTES. No, I'll not rear + Another's issue. + + Enter a SERVANT + + SERVANT. Please your Highness, posts + From those you sent to th' oracle are come + An hour since. Cleomenes and Dion, + Being well arriv'd from Delphos, are both landed, + Hasting to th' court. + FIRST LORD. So please you, sir, their speed + Hath been beyond account. + LEONTES. Twenty-three days + They have been absent; 'tis good speed; foretells + The great Apollo suddenly will have + The truth of this appear. Prepare you, lords; + Summon a session, that we may arraign + Our most disloyal lady; for, as she hath + Been publicly accus'd, so shall she have + A just and open trial. While she lives, + My heart will be a burden to me. Leave me; + And think upon my bidding. Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT III. SCENE I. +Sicilia. On the road to the Capital + +Enter CLEOMENES and DION + + CLEOMENES. The climate's delicate, the air most sweet, + Fertile the isle, the temple much surpassing + The common praise it bears. + DION. I shall report, + For most it caught me, the celestial habits- + Methinks I so should term them- and the reverence + Of the grave wearers. O, the sacrifice! + How ceremonious, solemn, and unearthly, + It was i' th' off'ring! + CLEOMENES. But of all, the burst + And the ear-deaf'ning voice o' th' oracle, + Kin to Jove's thunder, so surpris'd my sense + That I was nothing. + DION. If th' event o' th' journey + Prove as successful to the Queen- O, be't so!- + As it hath been to us rare, pleasant, speedy, + The time is worth the use on't. + CLEOMENES. Great Apollo + Turn all to th' best! These proclamations, + So forcing faults upon Hermione, + I little like. + DION. The violent carriage of it + Will clear or end the business. When the oracle- + Thus by Apollo's great divine seal'd up- + Shall the contents discover, something rare + Even then will rush to knowledge. Go; fresh horses. + And gracious be the issue! Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Sicilia. A court of justice + +Enter LEONTES, LORDS, and OFFICERS + + LEONTES. This sessions, to our great grief we pronounce, + Even pushes 'gainst our heart- the party tried, + The daughter of a king, our wife, and one + Of us too much belov'd. Let us be clear'd + Of being tyrannous, since we so openly + Proceed in justice, which shall have due course, + Even to the guilt or the purgation. + Produce the prisoner. + OFFICER. It is his Highness' pleasure that the Queen + Appear in person here in court. + + Enter HERMIONE, as to her trial, PAULINA, and LADIES + + Silence! + LEONTES. Read the indictment. + OFFICER. [Reads] 'Hermione, Queen to the worthy Leontes, King of + Sicilia, thou art here accused and arraigned of high treason, in + committing adultery with Polixenes, King of Bohemia; and + conspiring with Camillo to take away the life of our sovereign + lord the King, thy royal husband: the pretence whereof being by + circumstances partly laid open, thou, Hermione, contrary to the + faith and allegiance of true subject, didst counsel and aid them, + for their better safety, to fly away by night.' + HERMIONE. Since what I am to say must be but that + Which contradicts my accusation, and + The testimony on my part no other + But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me + To say 'Not guilty.' Mine integrity + Being counted falsehood shall, as I express it, + Be so receiv'd. But thus- if pow'rs divine + Behold our human actions, as they do, + I doubt not then but innocence shall make + False accusation blush, and tyranny + Tremble at patience. You, my lord, best know- + Who least will seem to do so- my past life + Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true, + As I am now unhappy; which is more + Than history can pattern, though devis'd + And play'd to take spectators; for behold me- + A fellow of the royal bed, which owe + A moiety of the throne, a great king's daughter, + The mother to a hopeful prince- here standing + To prate and talk for life and honour fore + Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it + As I weigh grief, which I would spare; for honour, + 'Tis a derivative from me to mine, + And only that I stand for. I appeal + To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes + Came to your court, how I was in your grace, + How merited to be so; since he came, + With what encounter so uncurrent I + Have strain'd t' appear thus; if one jot beyond + The bound of honour, or in act or will + That way inclining, hard'ned be the hearts + Of all that hear me, and my near'st of kin + Cry fie upon my grave! + LEONTES. I ne'er heard yet + That any of these bolder vices wanted + Less impudence to gainsay what they did + Than to perform it first. + HERMIONE. That's true enough; + Though 'tis a saying, sir, not due to me. + LEONTES. You will not own it. + HERMIONE. More than mistress of + Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not + At all acknowledge. For Polixenes, + With whom I am accus'd, I do confess + I lov'd him as in honour he requir'd; + With such a kind of love as might become + A lady like me; with a love even such, + So and no other, as yourself commanded; + Which not to have done, I think had been in me + Both disobedience and ingratitude + To you and toward your friend; whose love had spoke, + Ever since it could speak, from an infant, freely, + That it was yours. Now for conspiracy: + I know not how it tastes, though it be dish'd + For me to try how; all I know of it + Is that Camillo was an honest man; + And why he left your court, the gods themselves, + Wotting no more than I, are ignorant. + LEONTES. You knew of his departure, as you know + What you have underta'en to do in's absence. + HERMIONE. Sir, + You speak a language that I understand not. + My life stands in the level of your dreams, + Which I'll lay down. + LEONTES. Your actions are my dreams. + You had a bastard by Polixenes, + And I but dream'd it. As you were past all shame- + Those of your fact are so- so past all truth; + Which to deny concerns more than avails; for as + Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself, + No father owning it- which is indeed + More criminal in thee than it- so thou + Shalt feel our justice; in whose easiest passage + Look for no less than death. + HERMIONE. Sir, spare your threats. + The bug which you would fright me with I seek. + To me can life be no commodity. + The crown and comfort of my life, your favour, + I do give lost, for I do feel it gone, + But know not how it went; my second joy + And first fruits of my body, from his presence + I am barr'd, like one infectious; my third comfort, + Starr'd most unluckily, is from my breast- + The innocent milk in it most innocent mouth- + Hal'd out to murder; myself on every post + Proclaim'd a strumpet; with immodest hatred + The child-bed privilege denied, which 'longs + To women of all fashion; lastly, hurried + Here to this place, i' th' open air, before + I have got strength of limit. Now, my liege, + Tell me what blessings I have here alive + That I should fear to die. Therefore proceed. + But yet hear this- mistake me not: no life, + I prize it not a straw, but for mine honour + Which I would free- if I shall be condemn'd + Upon surmises, all proofs sleeping else + But what your jealousies awake, I tell you + 'Tis rigour, and not law. Your honours all, + I do refer me to the oracle: + Apollo be my judge! + FIRST LORD. This your request + Is altogether just. Therefore, bring forth, + And in Apollo's name, his oracle. + Exeunt certain OFFICERS + HERMIONE. The Emperor of Russia was my father; + O that he were alive, and here beholding + His daughter's trial! that he did but see + The flatness of my misery; yet with eyes + Of pity, not revenge! + + Re-enter OFFICERS, with CLEOMENES and DION + + OFFICER. You here shall swear upon this sword of justice + That you, Cleomenes and Dion, have + Been both at Delphos, and from thence have brought + This seal'd-up oracle, by the hand deliver'd + Of great Apollo's priest; and that since then + You have not dar'd to break the holy seal + Nor read the secrets in't. + CLEOMENES, DION. All this we swear. + LEONTES. Break up the seals and read. + OFFICER. [Reads] 'Hermione is chaste; Polixenes blameless; + Camillo a true subject; Leontes a jealous tyrant; his innocent + babe truly begotten; and the King shall live without an heir, if + that which is lost be not found.' + LORDS. Now blessed be the great Apollo! + HERMIONE. Praised! + LEONTES. Hast thou read truth? + OFFICER. Ay, my lord; even so + As it is here set down. + LEONTES. There is no truth at all i' th' oracle. + The sessions shall proceed. This is mere falsehood. + + Enter a SERVANT + + SERVANT. My lord the King, the King! + LEONTES. What is the business? + SERVANT. O sir, I shall be hated to report it: + The Prince your son, with mere conceit and fear + Of the Queen's speed, is gone. + LEONTES. How! Gone? + SERVANT. Is dead. + LEONTES. Apollo's angry; and the heavens themselves + Do strike at my injustice. [HERMIONE swoons] + How now, there! + PAULINA. This news is mortal to the Queen. Look down + And see what death is doing. + LEONTES. Take her hence. + Her heart is but o'ercharg'd; she will recover. + I have too much believ'd mine own suspicion. + Beseech you tenderly apply to her + Some remedies for life. + Exeunt PAULINA and LADIES with HERMIONE + Apollo, pardon + My great profaneness 'gainst thine oracle. + I'll reconcile me to Polixenes, + New woo my queen, recall the good Camillo- + Whom I proclaim a man of truth, of mercy. + For, being transported by my jealousies + To bloody thoughts and to revenge, I chose + Camillo for the minister to poison + My friend Polixenes; which had been done + But that the good mind of Camillo tardied + My swift command, though I with death and with + Reward did threaten and encourage him, + Not doing it and being done. He, most humane + And fill'd with honour, to my kingly guest + Unclasp'd my practice, quit his fortunes here, + Which you knew great, and to the certain hazard + Of all incertainties himself commended, + No richer than his honour. How he glisters + Thorough my rust! And how his piety + Does my deeds make the blacker! + + Re-enter PAULINA + + PAULINA. Woe the while! + O, cut my lace, lest my heart, cracking it, + Break too! + FIRST LORD. What fit is this, good lady? + PAULINA. What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me? + What wheels, racks, fires? what flaying, boiling + In leads or oils? What old or newer torture + Must I receive, whose every word deserves + To taste of thy most worst? Thy tyranny + Together working with thy jealousies, + Fancies too weak for boys, too green and idle + For girls of nine- O, think what they have done, + And then run mad indeed, stark mad; for all + Thy by-gone fooleries were but spices of it. + That thou betray'dst Polixenes, 'twas nothing; + That did but show thee, of a fool, inconstant, + And damnable ingrateful. Nor was't much + Thou wouldst have poison'd good Camillo's honour, + To have him kill a king- poor trespasses, + More monstrous standing by; whereof I reckon + The casting forth to crows thy baby daughter + To be or none or little, though a devil + Would have shed water out of fire ere done't; + Nor is't directly laid to thee, the death + Of the young Prince, whose honourable thoughts- + Thoughts high for one so tender- cleft the heart + That could conceive a gross and foolish sire + Blemish'd his gracious dam. This is not, no, + Laid to thy answer; but the last- O lords, + When I have said, cry 'Woe!'- the Queen, the Queen, + The sweet'st, dear'st creature's dead; and vengeance + For't not dropp'd down yet. + FIRST LORD. The higher pow'rs forbid! + PAULINA. I say she's dead; I'll swear't. If word nor oath + Prevail not, go and see. If you can bring + Tincture or lustre in her lip, her eye, + Heat outwardly or breath within, I'll serve you + As I would do the gods. But, O thou tyrant! + Do not repent these things, for they are heavier + Than all thy woes can stir; therefore betake thee + To nothing but despair. A thousand knees + Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting, + Upon a barren mountain, and still winter + In storm perpetual, could not move the gods + To look that way thou wert. + LEONTES. Go on, go on. + Thou canst not speak too much; I have deserv'd + All tongues to talk their bitt'rest. + FIRST LORD. Say no more; + Howe'er the business goes, you have made fault + I' th' boldness of your speech. + PAULINA. I am sorry for't. + All faults I make, when I shall come to know them. + I do repent. Alas, I have show'd too much + The rashness of a woman! He is touch'd + To th' noble heart. What's gone and what's past help + Should be past grief. Do not receive affliction + At my petition; I beseech you, rather + Let me be punish'd that have minded you + Of what you should forget. Now, good my liege, + Sir, royal sir, forgive a foolish woman. + The love I bore your queen- lo, fool again! + I'll speak of her no more, nor of your children; + I'll not remember you of my own lord, + Who is lost too. Take your patience to you, + And I'll say nothing. + LEONTES. Thou didst speak but well + When most the truth; which I receive much better + Than to be pitied of thee. Prithee, bring me + To the dead bodies of my queen and son. + One grave shall be for both. Upon them shall + The causes of their death appear, unto + Our shame perpetual. Once a day I'll visit + The chapel where they lie; and tears shed there + Shall be my recreation. So long as nature + Will bear up with this exercise, so long + I daily vow to use it. Come, and lead me + To these sorrows. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Bohemia. The sea-coast + +Enter ANTIGONUS with the CHILD, and a MARINER + + ANTIGONUS. Thou art perfect then our ship hath touch'd upon + The deserts of Bohemia? + MARINER. Ay, my lord, and fear + We have landed in ill time; the skies look grimly + And threaten present blusters. In my conscience, + The heavens with that we have in hand are angry + And frown upon 's. + ANTIGONUS. Their sacred wills be done! Go, get aboard; + Look to thy bark. I'll not be long before + I call upon thee. + MARINER. Make your best haste; and go not + Too far i' th' land; 'tis like to be loud weather; + Besides, this place is famous for the creatures + Of prey that keep upon't. + ANTIGONUS. Go thou away; + I'll follow instantly. + MARINER. I am glad at heart + To be so rid o' th' business. Exit + ANTIGONUS. Come, poor babe. + I have heard, but not believ'd, the spirits o' th' dead + May walk again. If such thing be, thy mother + Appear'd to me last night; for ne'er was dream + So like a waking. To me comes a creature, + Sometimes her head on one side some another- + I never saw a vessel of like sorrow, + So fill'd and so becoming; in pure white robes, + Like very sanctity, she did approach + My cabin where I lay; thrice bow'd before me; + And, gasping to begin some speech, her eyes + Became two spouts; the fury spent, anon + Did this break from her: 'Good Antigonus, + Since fate, against thy better disposition, + Hath made thy person for the thrower-out + Of my poor babe, according to thine oath, + Places remote enough are in Bohemia, + There weep, and leave it crying; and, for the babe + Is counted lost for ever, Perdita + I prithee call't. For this ungentle business, + Put on thee by my lord, thou ne'er shalt see + Thy wife Paulina more.' so, with shrieks, + She melted into air. Affrighted much, + I did in time collect myself, and thought + This was so and no slumber. Dreams are toys; + Yet, for this once, yea, superstitiously, + I will be squar'd by this. I do believe + Hermione hath suffer'd death, and that + Apollo would, this being indeed the issue + Of King Polixenes, it should here be laid, + Either for life or death, upon the earth + Of its right father. Blossom, speed thee well! + [Laying down the child] + There lie, and there thy character; there these + [Laying down a bundle] + Which may, if fortune please, both breed thee, pretty, + And still rest thine. The storm begins. Poor wretch, + That for thy mother's fault art thus expos'd + To loss and what may follow! Weep I cannot, + But my heart bleeds; and most accurs'd am I + To be by oath enjoin'd to this. Farewell! + The day frowns more and more. Thou'rt like to have + A lullaby too rough; I never saw + The heavens so dim by day. [Noise of hunt within] A savage + clamour! + Well may I get aboard! This is the chase; + I am gone for ever. Exit, pursued by a bear + + Enter an old SHEPHERD + + SHEPHERD. I would there were no age between ten and three and + twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is + nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging + the ancientry, stealing, fighting- [Horns] Hark you now! Would + any but these boil'd brains of nineteen and two and twenty hunt + this weather? They have scar'd away two of my best sheep, which I + fear the wolf will sooner find than the master. If any where I + have them, 'tis by the sea-side, browsing of ivy. Good luck, an't + be thy will! What have we here? [Taking up the child] Mercy + on's, a barne! A very pretty barne. A boy or a child, I wonder? A + pretty one; a very pretty one- sure, some scape. Though I am not + bookish, yet I can read waiting-gentlewoman in the scape. This + has been some stair-work, some trunk-work, some behind-door-work; + they were warmer that got this than the poor thing is here. I'll + take it up for pity; yet I'll tarry till my son come; he halloo'd + but even now. Whoa-ho-hoa! + + Enter CLOWN + + CLOWN. Hilloa, loa! + SHEPHERD. What, art so near? If thou'lt see a thing to talk on when + thou art dead and rotten, come hither. What ail'st thou, man? + CLOWN. I have seen two such sights, by sea and by land! But I am + not to say it is a sea, for it is now the sky; betwixt the + firmament and it you cannot thrust a bodkin's point. + SHEPHERD. Why, boy, how is it? + CLOWN. I would you did but see how it chafes, how it rages, how it + takes up the shore! But that's not to the point. O, the most + piteous cry of the poor souls! Sometimes to see 'em, and not to + see 'em; now the ship boring the moon with her mainmast, and anon + swallowed with yeast and froth, as you'd thrust a cork into a + hogshead. And then for the land service- to see how the bear tore + out his shoulder-bone; how he cried to me for help, and said his + name was Antigonus, a nobleman! But to make an end of the ship- + to see how the sea flap-dragon'd it; but first, how the poor + souls roared, and the sea mock'd them; and how the poor gentleman + roared, and the bear mock'd him, both roaring louder than the sea + or weather. + SHEPHERD. Name of mercy, when was this, boy? + CLOWN. Now, now; I have not wink'd since I saw these sights; the + men are not yet cold under water, nor the bear half din'd on the + gentleman; he's at it now. + SHEPHERD. Would I had been by to have help'd the old man! + CLOWN. I would you had been by the ship-side, to have help'd her; + there your charity would have lack'd footing. + SHEPHERD. Heavy matters, heavy matters! But look thee here, boy. + Now bless thyself; thou met'st with things dying, I with things + new-born. Here's a sight for thee; look thee, a bearing-cloth for + a squire's child! Look thee here; take up, take up, boy; open't. + So, let's see- it was told me I should be rich by the fairies. + This is some changeling. Open't. What's within, boy? + CLOWN. You're a made old man; if the sins of your youth are + forgiven you, you're well to live. Gold! all gold! + SHEPHERD. This is fairy gold, boy, and 'twill prove so. Up with't, + keep it close. Home, home, the next way! We are lucky, boy; and + to be so still requires nothing but secrecy. Let my sheep go. + Come, good boy, the next way home. + CLOWN. Go you the next way with your findings. I'll go see if the + bear be gone from the gentleman, and how much he hath eaten. They + are never curst but when they are hungry. If there be any of him + left, I'll bury it. + SHEPHERD. That's a good deed. If thou mayest discern by that which + is left of him what he is, fetch me to th' sight of him. + CLOWN. Marry, will I; and you shall help to put him i' th' ground. + SHEPHERD. 'Tis a lucky day, boy; and we'll do good deeds on't. + Exeunt + + + + +<> + + + +ACT IV. SCENE I. + +Enter TIME, the CHORUS + + TIME. I, that please some, try all, both joy and terror + Of good and bad, that makes and unfolds error, + Now take upon me, in the name of Time, + To use my wings. Impute it not a crime + To me or my swift passage that I slide + O'er sixteen years, and leave the growth untried + Of that wide gap, since it is in my pow'r + To o'erthrow law, and in one self-born hour + To plant and o'erwhelm custom. Let me pass + The same I am, ere ancient'st order was + Or what is now receiv'd. I witness to + The times that brought them in; so shall I do + To th' freshest things now reigning, and make stale + The glistering of this present, as my tale + Now seems to it. Your patience this allowing, + I turn my glass, and give my scene such growing + As you had slept between. Leontes leaving- + Th' effects of his fond jealousies so grieving + That he shuts up himself- imagine me, + Gentle spectators, that I now may be + In fair Bohemia; and remember well + I mention'd a son o' th' King's, which Florizel + I now name to you; and with speed so pace + To speak of Perdita, now grown in grace + Equal with wond'ring. What of her ensues + I list not prophesy; but let Time's news + Be known when 'tis brought forth. A shepherd's daughter, + And what to her adheres, which follows after, + Is th' argument of Time. Of this allow, + If ever you have spent time worse ere now; + If never, yet that Time himself doth say + He wishes earnestly you never may. Exit + + + + +SCENE II. +Bohemia. The palace of POLIXENES + +Enter POLIXENES and CAMILLO + + POLIXENES. I pray thee, good Camillo, be no more importunate: 'tis + a sickness denying thee anything; a death to grant this. + CAMILLO. It is fifteen years since I saw my country; though I have + for the most part been aired abroad, I desire to lay my bones + there. Besides, the penitent King, my master, hath sent for me; + to whose feeling sorrows I might be some allay, or I o'erween to + think so, which is another spur to my departure. + POLIXENES. As thou lov'st me, Camillo, wipe not out the rest of thy + services by leaving me now. The need I have of thee thine own + goodness hath made. Better not to have had thee than thus to want + thee; thou, having made me businesses which none without thee can + sufficiently manage, must either stay to execute them thyself, or + take away with thee the very services thou hast done; which if I + have not enough considered- as too much I cannot- to be more + thankful to thee shall be my study; and my profit therein the + heaping friendships. Of that fatal country Sicilia, prithee, + speak no more; whose very naming punishes me with the remembrance + of that penitent, as thou call'st him, and reconciled king, my + brother; whose loss of his most precious queen and children are + even now to be afresh lamented. Say to me, when saw'st thou the + Prince Florizel, my son? Kings are no less unhappy, their issue + not being gracious, than they are in losing them when they have + approved their virtues. + CAMILLO. Sir, it is three days since I saw the Prince. What his + happier affairs may be are to me unknown; but I have missingly + noted he is of late much retired from court, and is less frequent + to his princely exercises than formerly he hath appeared. + POLIXENES. I have considered so much, Camillo, and with some care, + so far that I have eyes under my service which look upon his + removedness; from whom I have this intelligence, that he is + seldom from the house of a most homely shepherd- a man, they say, + that from very nothing, and beyond the imagination of his + neighbours, is grown into an unspeakable estate. + CAMILLO. I have heard, sir, of such a man, who hath a daughter of + most rare note. The report of her is extended more than can be + thought to begin from such a cottage. + POLIXENES. That's likewise part of my intelligence; but, I fear, the + angle that plucks our son thither. Thou shalt accompany us to the + place; where we will, not appearing what we are, have some + question with the shepherd; from whose simplicity I think it not + uneasy to get the cause of my son's resort thither. Prithee be my + present partner in this business, and lay aside the thoughts of + Sicilia. + CAMILLO. I willingly obey your command. + POLIXENES. My best Camillo! We must disguise ourselves. + Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Bohemia. A road near the SHEPHERD'S cottage + +Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing + + When daffodils begin to peer, + With heigh! the doxy over the dale, + Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year, + For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale. + + The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, + With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing! + Doth set my pugging tooth on edge, + For a quart of ale is a dish for a king. + + The lark, that tirra-lirra chants, + With heigh! with heigh! the thrush and the jay, + Are summer songs for me and my aunts, + While we lie tumbling in the hay. + + I have serv'd Prince Florizel, and in my time wore three-pile; + but now I am out of service. + + But shall I go mourn for that, my dear? + The pale moon shines by night; + And when I wander here and there, + I then do most go right. + + If tinkers may have leave to live, + And bear the sow-skin budget, + Then my account I well may give + And in the stocks avouch it. + + My traffic is sheets; when the kite builds, look to lesser linen. + My father nam'd me Autolycus; who, being, I as am, litter'd under + Mercury, was likewise a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. With + die and drab I purchas'd this caparison; and my revenue is the + silly-cheat. Gallows and knock are too powerful on the highway; + beating and hanging are terrors to me; for the life to come, I + sleep out the thought of it. A prize! a prize! + + Enter CLOWN + + CLOWN. Let me see: every 'leven wether tods; every tod yields pound + and odd shilling; fifteen hundred shorn, what comes the wool to? + AUTOLYCUS. [Aside] If the springe hold, the cock's mine. + CLOWN. I cannot do 't without counters. Let me see: what am I to + buy for our sheep-shearing feast? Three pound of sugar, five + pound of currants, rice- what will this sister of mine do with + rice? But my father hath made her mistress of the feast, and she + lays it on. She hath made me four and twenty nosegays for the + shearers- three-man song-men all, and very good ones; but they + are most of them means and bases; but one Puritan amongst them, + and he sings psalms to hornpipes. I must have saffron to colour + the warden pies; mace; dates- none, that's out of my note; + nutmegs, seven; race or two of ginger, but that I may beg; four + pound of prunes, and as many of raisins o' th' sun. + AUTOLYCUS. [Grovelling on the ground] O that ever I was born! + CLOWN. I' th' name of me! + AUTOLYCUS. O, help me, help me! Pluck but off these rags; and then, + death, death! + CLOWN. Alack, poor soul! thou hast need of more rags to lay on + thee, rather than have these off. + AUTOLYCUS. O sir, the loathsomeness of them offend me more than the + stripes I have received, which are mighty ones and millions. + CLOWN. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great + matter. + AUTOLYCUS. I am robb'd, sir, and beaten; my money and apparel ta'en + from me, and these detestable things put upon me. + CLOWN. What, by a horseman or a footman? + AUTOLYCUS. A footman, sweet sir, a footman. + CLOWN. Indeed, he should be a footman, by the garments he has left + with thee; if this be a horseman's coat, it hath seen very hot + service. Lend me thy hand, I'll help thee. Come, lend me thy + hand. [Helping him up] + AUTOLYCUS. O, good sir, tenderly, O! + CLOWN. Alas, poor soul! + AUTOLYCUS. O, good sir, softly, good sir; I fear, sir, my shoulder + blade is out. + CLOWN. How now! Canst stand? + AUTOLYCUS. Softly, dear sir [Picks his pocket]; good sir, softly. + You ha' done me a charitable office. + CLOWN. Dost lack any money? I have a little money for thee. + AUTOLYCUS. No, good sweet sir; no, I beseech you, sir. I have a + kinsman not past three quarters of a mile hence, unto whom I was + going; I shall there have money or anything I want. Offer me no + money, I pray you; that kills my heart. + CLOWN. What manner of fellow was he that robb'd you? + AUTOLYCUS. A fellow, sir, that I have known to go about with + troll-my-dames; I knew him once a servant of the Prince. I cannot + tell, good sir, for which of his virtues it was, but he was + certainly whipt out of the court. + CLOWN. His vices, you would say; there's no virtue whipt out of the + court. They cherish it to make it stay there; and yet it will no + more but abide. + AUTOLYCUS. Vices, I would say, sir. I know this man well; he hath + been since an ape-bearer; then a process-server, a bailiff; then + he compass'd a motion of the Prodigal Son, and married a tinker's + wife within a mile where my land and living lies; and, having + flown over many knavish professions, he settled only in rogue. + Some call him Autolycus. + CLOWN. Out upon him! prig, for my life, prig! He haunts wakes, + fairs, and bear-baitings. + AUTOLYCUS. Very true, sir; he, sir, he; that's the rogue that put + me into this apparel. + CLOWN. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia; if you had but + look'd big and spit at him, he'd have run. + AUTOLYCUS. I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter; I am false + of heart that way, and that he knew, I warrant him. + CLOWN. How do you now? + AUTOLYCUS. Sweet sir, much better than I was; I can stand and walk. + I will even take my leave of you and pace softly towards my + kinsman's. + CLOWN. Shall I bring thee on the way? + AUTOLYCUS. No, good-fac'd sir; no, sweet sir. + CLOWN. Then fare thee well. I must go buy spices for our + sheep-shearing. + AUTOLYCUS. Prosper you, sweet sir! Exit CLOWN + Your purse is not hot enough to purchase your spice. I'll be with + you at your sheep-shearing too. If I make not this cheat bring + out another, and the shearers prove sheep, let me be unroll'd, + and my name put in the book of virtue! + [Sings] + Jog on, jog on, the footpath way, + And merrily hent the stile-a; + A merry heart goes all the day, + Your sad tires in a mile-a. Exit + + + + +SCENE IV. +Bohemia. The SHEPHERD'S cottage + +Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA + + FLORIZEL. These your unusual weeds to each part of you + Do give a life- no shepherdess, but Flora + Peering in April's front. This your sheep-shearing + Is as a meeting of the petty gods, + And you the Queen on't. + PERDITA. Sir, my gracious lord, + To chide at your extremes it not becomes me- + O, pardon that I name them! Your high self, + The gracious mark o' th' land, you have obscur'd + With a swain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid, + Most goddess-like prank'd up. But that our feasts + In every mess have folly, and the feeders + Digest it with a custom, I should blush + To see you so attir'd; swoon, I think, + To show myself a glass. + FLORIZEL. I bless the time + When my good falcon made her flight across + Thy father's ground. + PERDITA. Now Jove afford you cause! + To me the difference forges dread; your greatness + Hath not been us'd to fear. Even now I tremble + To think your father, by some accident, + Should pass this way, as you did. O, the Fates! + How would he look to see his work, so noble, + Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how + Should I, in these my borrowed flaunts, behold + The sternness of his presence? + FLORIZEL. Apprehend + Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves, + Humbling their deities to love, have taken + The shapes of beasts upon them: Jupiter + Became a bull and bellow'd; the green Neptune + A ram and bleated; and the fire-rob'd god, + Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain, + As I seem now. Their transformations + Were never for a piece of beauty rarer, + Nor in a way so chaste, since my desires + Run not before mine honour, nor my lusts + Burn hotter than my faith. + PERDITA. O, but, sir, + Your resolution cannot hold when 'tis + Oppos'd, as it must be, by th' pow'r of the King. + One of these two must be necessities, + Which then will speak, that you must change this purpose, + Or I my life. + FLORIZEL. Thou dearest Perdita, + With these forc'd thoughts, I prithee, darken not + The mirth o' th' feast. Or I'll be thine, my fair, + Or not my father's; for I cannot be + Mine own, nor anything to any, if + I be not thine. To this I am most constant, + Though destiny say no. Be merry, gentle; + Strangle such thoughts as these with any thing + That you behold the while. Your guests are coming. + Lift up your countenance, as it were the day + Of celebration of that nuptial which + We two have sworn shall come. + PERDITA. O Lady Fortune, + Stand you auspicious! + FLORIZEL. See, your guests approach. + Address yourself to entertain them sprightly, + And let's be red with mirth. + + Enter SHEPHERD, with POLIXENES and CAMILLO, disguised; + CLOWN, MOPSA, DORCAS, with OTHERS + + SHEPHERD. Fie, daughter! When my old wife liv'd, upon + This day she was both pantler, butler, cook; + Both dame and servant; welcom'd all; serv'd all; + Would sing her song and dance her turn; now here + At upper end o' th' table, now i' th' middle; + On his shoulder, and his; her face o' fire + With labour, and the thing she took to quench it + She would to each one sip. You are retired, + As if you were a feasted one, and not + The hostess of the meeting. Pray you bid + These unknown friends to's welcome, for it is + A way to make us better friends, more known. + Come, quench your blushes, and present yourself + That which you are, Mistress o' th' Feast. Come on, + And bid us welcome to your sheep-shearing, + As your good flock shall prosper. + PERDITA. [To POLIXENES] Sir, welcome. + It is my father's will I should take on me + The hostess-ship o' th' day. [To CAMILLO] + You're welcome, sir. + Give me those flow'rs there, Dorcas. Reverend sirs, + For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep + Seeming and savour all the winter long. + Grace and remembrance be to you both! + And welcome to our shearing. + POLIXENES. Shepherdess- + A fair one are you- well you fit our ages + With flow'rs of winter. + PERDITA. Sir, the year growing ancient, + Not yet on summer's death nor on the birth + Of trembling winter, the fairest flow'rs o' th' season + Are our carnations and streak'd gillyvors, + Which some call nature's bastards. Of that kind + Our rustic garden's barren; and I care not + To get slips of them. + POLIXENES. Wherefore, gentle maiden, + Do you neglect them? + PERDITA. For I have heard it said + There is an art which in their piedness shares + With great creating nature. + POLIXENES. Say there be; + Yet nature is made better by no mean + But nature makes that mean; so over that art + Which you say adds to nature, is an art + That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry + A gentler scion to the wildest stock, + And make conceive a bark of baser kind + By bud of nobler race. This is an art + Which does mend nature- change it rather; but + The art itself is nature. + PERDITA. So it is. + POLIXENES. Then make your garden rich in gillyvors, + And do not call them bastards. + PERDITA. I'll not put + The dibble in earth to set one slip of them; + No more than were I painted I would wish + This youth should say 'twere well, and only therefore + Desire to breed by me. Here's flow'rs for you: + Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram; + The marigold, that goes to bed wi' th' sun, + And with him rises weeping; these are flow'rs + Of middle summer, and I think they are given + To men of middle age. Y'are very welcome. + CAMILLO. I should leave grazing, were I of your flock, + And only live by gazing. + PERDITA. Out, alas! + You'd be so lean that blasts of January + Would blow you through and through. Now, my fair'st friend, + I would I had some flow'rs o' th' spring that might + Become your time of day- and yours, and yours, + That wear upon your virgin branches yet + Your maidenheads growing. O Proserpina, + From the flowers now that, frighted, thou let'st fall + From Dis's waggon!- daffodils, + That come before the swallow dares, and take + The winds of March with beauty; violets, dim + But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes + Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses, + That die unmarried ere they can behold + Bright Phoebus in his strength- a malady + Most incident to maids; bold oxlips, and + The crown-imperial; lilies of all kinds, + The flow'r-de-luce being one. O, these I lack + To make you garlands of, and my sweet friend + To strew him o'er and o'er! + FLORIZEL. What, like a corse? + PERDITA. No; like a bank for love to lie and play on; + Not like a corse; or if- not to be buried, + But quick, and in mine arms. Come, take your flow'rs. + Methinks I play as I have seen them do + In Whitsun pastorals. Sure, this robe of mine + Does change my disposition. + FLORIZEL. What you do + Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet, + I'd have you do it ever. When you sing, + I'd have you buy and sell so; so give alms; + Pray so; and, for the ord'ring your affairs, + To sing them too. When you do dance, I wish you + A wave o' th' sea, that you might ever do + Nothing but that; move still, still so, + And own no other function. Each your doing, + So singular in each particular, + Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, + That all your acts are queens. + PERDITA. O Doricles, + Your praises are too large. But that your youth, + And the true blood which peeps fairly through't, + Do plainly give you out an unstain'd shepherd, + With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles, + You woo'd me the false way. + FLORIZEL. I think you have + As little skill to fear as I have purpose + To put you to't. But, come; our dance, I pray. + Your hand, my Perdita; so turtles pair + That never mean to part. + PERDITA. I'll swear for 'em. + POLIXENES. This is the prettiest low-born lass that ever + Ran on the green-sward; nothing she does or seems + But smacks of something greater than herself, + Too noble for this place. + CAMILLO. He tells her something + That makes her blood look out. Good sooth, she is + The queen of curds and cream. + CLOWN. Come on, strike up. + DORCAS. Mopsa must be your mistress; marry, garlic, + To mend her kissing with! + MOPSA. Now, in good time! + CLOWN. Not a word, a word; we stand upon our manners. + Come, strike up. [Music] + + Here a dance Of SHEPHERDS and SHEPHERDESSES + + POLIXENES. Pray, good shepherd, what fair swain is this + Which dances with your daughter? + SHEPHERD. They call him Doricles, and boasts himself + To have a worthy feeding; but I have it + Upon his own report, and I believe it: + He looks like sooth. He says he loves my daughter; + I think so too; for never gaz'd the moon + Upon the water as he'll stand and read, + As 'twere my daughter's eyes; and, to be plain, + I think there is not half a kiss to choose + Who loves another best. + POLIXENES. She dances featly. + SHEPHERD. So she does any thing; though I report it + That should be silent. If young Doricles + Do light upon her, she shall bring him that + Which he not dreams of. + + Enter a SERVANT + + SERVANT. O master, if you did but hear the pedlar at the door, you + would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe + could not move you. He sings several tunes faster than you'll + tell money; he utters them as he had eaten ballads, and all men's + ears grew to his tunes. + CLOWN. He could never come better; he shall come in. I love a + ballad but even too well, if it be doleful matter merrily set + down, or a very pleasant thing indeed and sung lamentably. + SERVANT. He hath songs for man or woman of all sizes; no milliner + can so fit his customers with gloves. He has the prettiest + love-songs for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with + such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings, 'jump her and thump + her'; and where some stretch-mouth'd rascal would, as it were, + mean mischief, and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the + maid to answer 'Whoop, do me no harm, good man'- puts him off, + slights him, with 'Whoop, do me no harm, good man.' + POLIXENES. This is a brave fellow. + CLOWN. Believe me, thou talkest of an admirable conceited fellow. + Has he any unbraided wares? + SERVANT. He hath ribbons of all the colours i' th' rainbow; points, + more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though + they come to him by th' gross; inkles, caddisses, cambrics, + lawns. Why he sings 'em over as they were gods or goddesses; you + would think a smock were she-angel, he so chants to the + sleeve-hand and the work about the square on't. + CLOWN. Prithee bring him in; and let him approach singing. + PERDITA. Forewarn him that he use no scurrilous words in's tunes. + Exit SERVANT + CLOWN. You have of these pedlars that have more in them than you'd + think, sister. + PERDITA. Ay, good brother, or go about to think. + + Enter AUTOLYCUS, Singing + + Lawn as white as driven snow; + Cypress black as e'er was crow; + Gloves as sweet as damask roses; + Masks for faces and for noses; + Bugle bracelet, necklace amber, + Perfume for a lady's chamber; + Golden quoifs and stomachers, + For my lads to give their dears; + Pins and poking-sticks of steel- + What maids lack from head to heel. + Come, buy of me, come; come buy, come buy; + Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry. + Come, buy. + + CLOWN. If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou shouldst take no + money of me; but being enthrall'd as I am, it will also be the + bondage of certain ribbons and gloves. + MOPSA. I was promis'd them against the feast; but they come not too + late now. + DORCAS. He hath promis'd you more than that, or there be liars. + MOPSA. He hath paid you all he promis'd you. May be he has paid you + more, which will shame you to give him again. + CLOWN. Is there no manners left among maids? Will they wear their + plackets where they should bear their faces? Is there not + milking-time, when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole, to whistle + off these secrets, but you must be tittle-tattling before all our + guests? 'Tis well they are whisp'ring. Clammer your tongues, and + not a word more. + MOPSA. I have done. Come, you promis'd me a tawdry-lace, and a pair + of sweet gloves. + CLOWN. Have I not told thee how I was cozen'd by the way, and lost + all my money? + AUTOLYCUS. And indeed, sir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it + behoves men to be wary. + CLOWN. Fear not thou, man; thou shalt lose nothing here. + AUTOLYCUS. I hope so, sir; for I have about me many parcels of + charge. + CLOWN. What hast here? Ballads? + MOPSA. Pray now, buy some. I love a ballad in print a-life, for + then we are sure they are true. + AUTOLYCUS. Here's one to a very doleful tune: how a usurer's wife + was brought to bed of twenty money-bags at a burden, and how she + long'd to eat adders' heads and toads carbonado'd. + MOPSA. Is it true, think you? + AUTOLYCUS. Very true, and but a month old. + DORCAS. Bless me from marrying a usurer! + AUTOLYCUS. Here's the midwife's name to't, one Mistress Taleporter, + and five or six honest wives that were present. Why should I + carry lies abroad? + MOPSA. Pray you now, buy it. + CLOWN. Come on, lay it by; and let's first see moe ballads; we'll + buy the other things anon. + AUTOLYCUS. Here's another ballad, of a fish that appeared upon the + coast on Wednesday the fourscore of April, forty thousand fathom + above water, and sung this ballad against the hard hearts of + maids. It was thought she was a woman, and was turn'd into a cold + fish for she would not exchange flesh with one that lov'd her. + The ballad is very pitiful, and as true. + DORCAS. Is it true too, think you? + AUTOLYCUS. Five justices' hands at it; and witnesses more than my + pack will hold. + CLOWN. Lay it by too. Another. + AUTOLYCUS. This is a merry ballad, but a very pretty one. + MOPSA. Let's have some merry ones. + AUTOLYCUS. Why, this is a passing merry one, and goes to the tune + of 'Two maids wooing a man.' There's scarce a maid westward but + she sings it; 'tis in request, I can tell you. + MOPSA. can both sing it. If thou'lt bear a part, thou shalt hear; + 'tis in three parts. + DORCAS. We had the tune on't a month ago. + AUTOLYCUS. I can bear my part; you must know 'tis my occupation. + Have at it with you. + + SONG + + AUTOLYCUS. Get you hence, for I must go + Where it fits not you to know. + DORCAS. Whither? + MOPSA. O, whither? + DORCAS. Whither? + MOPSA. It becomes thy oath full well + Thou to me thy secrets tell. + DORCAS. Me too! Let me go thither + MOPSA. Or thou goest to th' grange or mill. + DORCAS. If to either, thou dost ill. + AUTOLYCUS. Neither. + DORCAS. What, neither? + AUTOLYCUS. Neither. + DORCAS. Thou hast sworn my love to be. + MOPSA. Thou hast sworn it more to me. + Then whither goest? Say, whither? + + CLOWN. We'll have this song out anon by ourselves; my father and + the gentlemen are in sad talk, and we'll not trouble them. Come, + bring away thy pack after me. Wenches, I'll buy for you both. + Pedlar, let's have the first choice. Follow me, girls. + Exit with DORCAS and MOPSA + AUTOLYCUS. And you shall pay well for 'em. + Exit AUTOLYCUS, Singing + + Will you buy any tape, + Or lace for your cape, + My dainty duck, my dear-a? + Any silk, any thread, + Any toys for your head, + Of the new'st and fin'st, fin'st wear-a? + Come to the pedlar; + Money's a meddler + That doth utter all men's ware-a. + + Re-enter SERVANT + + SERVANT. Master, there is three carters, three shepherds, three + neat-herds, three swineherds, that have made themselves all men + of hair; they call themselves Saltiers, and they have dance which + the wenches say is a gallimaufry of gambols, because they are not + in't; but they themselves are o' th' mind, if it be not too rough + for some that know little but bowling, it will please + plentifully. + SHEPHERD. Away! We'll none on't; here has been too much homely + foolery already. I know, sir, we weary you. + POLIXENES. You weary those that refresh us. Pray, let's see these + four threes of herdsmen. + SERVANT. One three of them, by their own report, sir, hath danc'd + before the King; and not the worst of the three but jumps twelve + foot and a half by th' squier. + SHEPHERD. Leave your prating; since these good men are pleas'd, let + them come in; but quickly now. + SERVANT. Why, they stay at door, sir. Exit + + Here a dance of twelve SATYRS + + POLIXENES. [To SHEPHERD] O, father, you'll know more of that + hereafter. + [To CAMILLO] Is it not too far gone? 'Tis time to part them. + He's simple and tells much. [To FLORIZEL] How now, fair + shepherd! + Your heart is full of something that does take + Your mind from feasting. Sooth, when I was young + And handed love as you do, I was wont + To load my she with knacks; I would have ransack'd + The pedlar's silken treasury and have pour'd it + To her acceptance: you have let him go + And nothing marted with him. If your lass + Interpretation should abuse and call this + Your lack of love or bounty, you were straited + For a reply, at least if you make a care + Of happy holding her. + FLORIZEL. Old sir, I know + She prizes not such trifles as these are. + The gifts she looks from me are pack'd and lock'd + Up in my heart, which I have given already, + But not deliver'd. O, hear me breathe my life + Before this ancient sir, whom, it should seem, + Hath sometime lov'd. I take thy hand- this hand, + As soft as dove's down and as white as it, + Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow that's bolted + By th' northern blasts twice o'er. + POLIXENES. What follows this? + How prettily the young swain seems to wash + The hand was fair before! I have put you out. + But to your protestation; let me hear + What you profess. + FLORIZEL. Do, and be witness to't. + POLIXENES. And this my neighbour too? + FLORIZEL. And he, and more + Than he, and men- the earth, the heavens, and all: + That, were I crown'd the most imperial monarch, + Thereof most worthy, were I the fairest youth + That ever made eye swerve, had force and knowledge + More than was ever man's, I would not prize them + Without her love; for her employ them all; + Commend them and condemn them to her service + Or to their own perdition. + POLIXENES. Fairly offer'd. + CAMILLO. This shows a sound affection. + SHEPHERD. But, my daughter, + Say you the like to him? + PERDITA. I cannot speak + So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better. + By th' pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out + The purity of his. + SHEPHERD. Take hands, a bargain! + And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to't: + I give my daughter to him, and will make + Her portion equal his. + FLORIZEL. O, that must be + I' th' virtue of your daughter. One being dead, + I shall have more than you can dream of yet; + Enough then for your wonder. But come on, + Contract us fore these witnesses. + SHEPHERD. Come, your hand; + And, daughter, yours. + POLIXENES. Soft, swain, awhile, beseech you; + Have you a father? + FLORIZEL. I have, but what of him? + POLIXENES. Knows he of this? + FLORIZEL. He neither does nor shall. + POLIXENES. Methinks a father + Is at the nuptial of his son a guest + That best becomes the table. Pray you, once more, + Is not your father grown incapable + Of reasonable affairs? Is he not stupid + With age and alt'ring rheums? Can he speak, hear, + Know man from man, dispute his own estate? + Lies he not bed-rid, and again does nothing + But what he did being childish? + FLORIZEL. No, good sir; + He has his health, and ampler strength indeed + Than most have of his age. + POLIXENES. By my white beard, + You offer him, if this be so, a wrong + Something unfilial. Reason my son + Should choose himself a wife; but as good reason + The father- all whose joy is nothing else + But fair posterity- should hold some counsel + In such a business. + FLORIZEL. I yield all this; + But, for some other reasons, my grave sir, + Which 'tis not fit you know, I not acquaint + My father of this business. + POLIXENES. Let him know't. + FLORIZEL. He shall not. + POLIXENES. Prithee let him. + FLORIZEL. No, he must not. + SHEPHERD. Let him, my son; he shall not need to grieve + At knowing of thy choice. + FLORIZEL. Come, come, he must not. + Mark our contract. + POLIXENES. [Discovering himself] Mark your divorce, young sir, + Whom son I dare not call; thou art too base + To be acknowledg'd- thou a sceptre's heir, + That thus affects a sheep-hook! Thou, old traitor, + I am sorry that by hanging thee I can but + Shorten thy life one week. And thou, fresh piece + Of excellent witchcraft, who of force must know + The royal fool thou cop'st with- + SHEPHERD. O, my heart! + POLIXENES. I'll have thy beauty scratch'd with briers and made + More homely than thy state. For thee, fond boy, + If I may ever know thou dost but sigh + That thou no more shalt see this knack- as never + I mean thou shalt- we'll bar thee from succession; + Not hold thee of our blood, no, not our kin, + Farre than Deucalion off. Mark thou my words. + Follow us to the court. Thou churl, for this time, + Though full of our displeasure, yet we free thee + From the dead blow of it. And you, enchantment, + Worthy enough a herdsman- yea, him too + That makes himself, but for our honour therein, + Unworthy thee- if ever henceforth thou + These rural latches to his entrance open, + Or hoop his body more with thy embraces, + I will devise a death as cruel for thee + As thou art tender to't. Exit + PERDITA. Even here undone! + I was not much afeard; for once or twice + I was about to speak and tell him plainly + The self-same sun that shines upon his court + Hides not his visage from our cottage, but + Looks on alike. [To FLORIZEL] Will't please you, sir, be gone? + I told you what would come of this. Beseech you, + Of your own state take care. This dream of mine- + Being now awake, I'll queen it no inch farther, + But milk my ewes and weep. + CAMILLO. Why, how now, father! + Speak ere thou diest. + SHEPHERD. I cannot speak nor think, + Nor dare to know that which I know. [To FLORIZEL] O sir, + You have undone a man of fourscore-three + That thought to fill his grave in quiet, yea, + To die upon the bed my father died, + To lie close by his honest bones; but now + Some hangman must put on my shroud and lay me + Where no priest shovels in dust. [To PERDITA] O cursed wretch, + That knew'st this was the Prince, and wouldst adventure + To mingle faith with him!- Undone, undone! + If I might die within this hour, I have liv'd + To die when I desire. Exit + FLORIZEL. Why look you so upon me? + I am but sorry, not afeard; delay'd, + But nothing alt'red. What I was, I am: + More straining on for plucking back; not following + My leash unwillingly. + CAMILLO. Gracious, my lord, + You know your father's temper. At this time + He will allow no speech- which I do guess + You do not purpose to him- and as hardly + Will he endure your sight as yet, I fear; + Then, till the fury of his Highness settle, + Come not before him. + FLORIZEL. I not purpose it. + I think Camillo? + CAMILLO. Even he, my lord. + PERDITA. How often have I told you 'twould be thus! + How often said my dignity would last + But till 'twere known! + FLORIZEL. It cannot fail but by + The violation of my faith; and then + Let nature crush the sides o' th' earth together + And mar the seeds within! Lift up thy looks. + From my succession wipe me, father; I + Am heir to my affection. + CAMILLO. Be advis'd. + FLORIZEL. I am- and by my fancy; if my reason + Will thereto be obedient, I have reason; + If not, my senses, better pleas'd with madness, + Do bid it welcome. + CAMILLO. This is desperate, sir. + FLORIZEL. So call it; but it does fulfil my vow: + I needs must think it honesty. Camillo, + Not for Bohemia, nor the pomp that may + Be thereat glean'd, for all the sun sees or + The close earth wombs, or the profound seas hides + In unknown fathoms, will I break my oath + To this my fair belov'd. Therefore, I pray you, + As you have ever been my father's honour'd friend, + When he shall miss me- as, in faith, I mean not + To see him any more- cast your good counsels + Upon his passion. Let myself and Fortune + Tug for the time to come. This you may know, + And so deliver: I am put to sea + With her who here I cannot hold on shore. + And most opportune to her need I have + A vessel rides fast by, but not prepar'd + For this design. What course I mean to hold + Shall nothing benefit your knowledge, nor + Concern me the reporting. + CAMILLO. O my lord, + I would your spirit were easier for advice. + Or stronger for your need. + FLORIZEL. Hark, Perdita. [Takes her aside] + [To CAMILLO] I'll hear you by and by. + CAMILLO. He's irremovable, + Resolv'd for flight. Now were I happy if + His going I could frame to serve my turn, + Save him from danger, do him love and honour, + Purchase the sight again of dear Sicilia + And that unhappy king, my master, whom + I so much thirst to see. + FLORIZEL. Now, good Camillo, + I am so fraught with curious business that + I leave out ceremony. + CAMILLO. Sir, I think + You have heard of my poor services i' th' love + That I have borne your father? + FLORIZEL. Very nobly + Have you deserv'd. It is my father's music + To speak your deeds; not little of his care + To have them recompens'd as thought on. + CAMILLO. Well, my lord, + If you may please to think I love the King, + And through him what's nearest to him, which is + Your gracious self, embrace but my direction. + If your more ponderous and settled project + May suffer alteration, on mine honour, + I'll point you where you shall have such receiving + As shall become your Highness; where you may + Enjoy your mistress, from the whom, I see, + There's no disjunction to be made but by, + As heavens forfend! your ruin- marry her; + And with my best endeavours in your absence + Your discontenting father strive to qualify, + And bring him up to liking. + FLORIZEL. How, Camillo, + May this, almost a miracle, be done? + That I may call thee something more than man, + And after that trust to thee. + CAMILLO. Have you thought on + A place whereto you'll go? + FLORIZEL. Not any yet; + But as th' unthought-on accident is guilty + To what we wildly do, so we profess + Ourselves to be the slaves of chance and flies + Of every wind that blows. + CAMILLO. Then list to me. + This follows, if you will not change your purpose + But undergo this flight: make for Sicilia, + And there present yourself and your fair princess- + For so, I see, she must be- fore Leontes. + She shall be habited as it becomes + The partner of your bed. Methinks I see + Leontes opening his free arms and weeping + His welcomes forth; asks thee there 'Son, forgiveness!' + As 'twere i' th' father's person; kisses the hands + Of your fresh princess; o'er and o'er divides him + 'Twixt his unkindness and his kindness- th' one + He chides to hell, and bids the other grow + Faster than thought or time. + FLORIZEL. Worthy Camillo, + What colour for my visitation shall I + Hold up before him? + CAMILLO. Sent by the King your father + To greet him and to give him comforts. Sir, + The manner of your bearing towards him, with + What you as from your father shall deliver, + Things known betwixt us three, I'll write you down; + The which shall point you forth at every sitting + What you must say, that he shall not perceive + But that you have your father's bosom there + And speak his very heart. + FLORIZEL. I am bound to you. + There is some sap in this. + CAMILLO. A course more promising + Than a wild dedication of yourselves + To unpath'd waters, undream'd shores, most certain + To miseries enough; no hope to help you, + But as you shake off one to take another; + Nothing so certain as your anchors, who + Do their best office if they can but stay you + Where you'll be loath to be. Besides, you know + Prosperity's the very bond of love, + Whose fresh complexion and whose heart together + Affliction alters. + PERDITA. One of these is true: + I think affliction may subdue the cheek, + But not take in the mind. + CAMILLO. Yea, say you so? + There shall not at your father's house these seven years + Be born another such. + FLORIZEL. My good Camillo, + She is as forward of her breeding as + She is i' th' rear o' our birth. + CAMILLO. I cannot say 'tis pity + She lacks instructions, for she seems a mistress + To most that teach. + PERDITA. Your pardon, sir; for this + I'll blush you thanks. + FLORIZEL. My prettiest Perdita! + But, O, the thorns we stand upon! Camillo- + Preserver of my father, now of me; + The medicine of our house- how shall we do? + We are not furnish'd like Bohemia's son; + Nor shall appear in Sicilia. + CAMILLO. My lord, + Fear none of this. I think you know my fortunes + Do all lie there. It shall be so my care + To have you royally appointed as if + The scene you play were mine. For instance, sir, + That you may know you shall not want- one word. + [They talk aside] + + Re-enter AUTOLYCUS + + AUTOLYCUS. Ha, ha! what a fool Honesty is! and Trust, his sworn + brother, a very simple gentleman! I have sold all my trumpery; + not a counterfeit stone, not a ribbon, glass, pomander, brooch, + table-book, ballad, knife, tape, glove, shoe-tie, bracelet, + horn-ring, to keep my pack from fasting. They throng who should + buy first, as if my trinkets had been hallowed and brought a + benediction to the buyer; by which means I saw whose purse was + best in picture; and what I saw, to my good use I rememb'red. My + clown, who wants but something to be a reasonable man, grew so in + love with the wenches' song that he would not stir his pettitoes + till he had both tune and words, which so drew the rest of the + herd to me that all their other senses stuck in ears. You might + have pinch'd a placket, it was senseless; 'twas nothing to geld a + codpiece of a purse; I would have fil'd keys off that hung in + chains. No hearing, no feeling, but my sir's song, and admiring + the nothing of it. So that in this time of lethargy I pick'd and + cut most of their festival purses; and had not the old man come + in with whoobub against his daughter and the King's son and + scar'd my choughs from the chaff, I had not left a purse alive in + the whole army. + + CAMILLO, FLORIZEL, and PERDITA come forward + + CAMILLO. Nay, but my letters, by this means being there + So soon as you arrive, shall clear that doubt. + FLORIZEL. And those that you'll procure from King Leontes? + CAMILLO. Shall satisfy your father. + PERDITA. Happy be you! + All that you speak shows fair. + CAMILLO. [seeing AUTOLYCUS] Who have we here? + We'll make an instrument of this; omit + Nothing may give us aid. + AUTOLYCUS. [Aside] If they have overheard me now- why, hanging. + CAMILLO. How now, good fellow! Why shak'st thou so? + Fear not, man; here's no harm intended to thee. + AUTOLYCUS. I am a poor fellow, sir. + CAMILLO. Why, be so still; here's nobody will steal that from thee. + Yet for the outside of thy poverty we must make an exchange; + therefore discase thee instantly- thou must think there's a + necessity in't- and change garments with this gentleman. Though + the pennyworth on his side be the worst, yet hold thee, there's + some boot. [Giving money] + AUTOLYCUS. I am a poor fellow, sir. [Aside] I know ye well + enough. + CAMILLO. Nay, prithee dispatch. The gentleman is half flay'd + already. + AUTOLYCUS. Are you in camest, sir? [Aside] I smell the trick + on't. + FLORIZEL. Dispatch, I prithee. + AUTOLYCUS. Indeed, I have had earnest; but I cannot with conscience + take it. + CAMILLO. Unbuckle, unbuckle. + + FLORIZEL and AUTOLYCUS exchange garments + + Fortunate mistress- let my prophecy + Come home to ye!- you must retire yourself + Into some covert; take your sweetheart's hat + And pluck it o'er your brows, muffle your face, + Dismantle you, and, as you can, disliken + The truth of your own seeming, that you may- + For I do fear eyes over- to shipboard + Get undescried. + PERDITA. I see the play so lies + That I must bear a part. + CAMILLO. No remedy. + Have you done there? + FLORIZEL. Should I now meet my father, + He would not call me son. + CAMILLO. Nay, you shall have no hat. + [Giving it to PERDITA] + Come, lady, come. Farewell, my friend. + AUTOLYCUS. Adieu, sir. + FLORIZEL. O Perdita, what have we twain forgot! + Pray you a word. [They converse apart] + CAMILLO. [Aside] What I do next shall be to tell the King + Of this escape, and whither they are bound; + Wherein my hope is I shall so prevail + To force him after; in whose company + I shall re-view Sicilia, for whose sight + I have a woman's longing. + FLORIZEL. Fortune speed us! + Thus we set on, Camillo, to th' sea-side. + CAMILLO. The swifter speed the better. + Exeunt FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and CAMILLO + AUTOLYCUS. I understand the business, I hear it. To have an open + ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a + cut-purse; a good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for + th' other senses. I see this is the time that the unjust man doth + thrive. What an exchange had this been without boot! What a boot + is here with this exchange! Sure, the gods do this year connive + at us, and we may do anything extempore. The Prince himself is + about a piece of iniquity- stealing away from his father with his + clog at his heels. If I thought it were a piece of honesty to + acquaint the King withal, I would not do't. I hold it the more + knavery to conceal it; and therein am I constant to my + profession. + + Re-enter CLOWN and SHEPHERD + + Aside, aside- here is more matter for a hot brain. Every lane's + end, every shop, church, session, hanging, yields a careful man + work. + CLOWN. See, see; what a man you are now! There is no other way but + to tell the King she's a changeling and none of your flesh and + blood. + SHEPHERD. Nay, but hear me. + CLOWN. Nay- but hear me. + SHEPHERD. Go to, then. + CLOWN. She being none of your flesh and blood, your flesh and blood + has not offended the King; and so your flesh and blood is not to + be punish'd by him. Show those things you found about her, those + secret things- all but what she has with her. This being done, + let the law go whistle; I warrant you. + SHEPHERD. I will tell the King all, every word- yea, and his son's + pranks too; who, I may say, is no honest man, neither to his + father nor to me, to go about to make me the King's + brother-in-law. + CLOWN. Indeed, brother-in-law was the farthest off you could have + been to him; and then your blood had been the dearer by I know + how much an ounce. + AUTOLYCUS. [Aside] Very wisely, puppies! + SHEPHERD. Well, let us to the King. There is that in this fardel + will make him scratch his beard. + AUTOLYCUS. [Aside] I know not what impediment this complaint may + be to the flight of my master. + CLOWN. Pray heartily he be at palace. + AUTOLYCUS. [Aside] Though I am not naturally honest, I am so + sometimes by chance. Let me pocket up my pedlar's excrement. + [Takes off his false beard] How now, rustics! Whither are you + bound? + SHEPHERD. To th' palace, an it like your worship. + AUTOLYCUS. Your affairs there, what, with whom, the condition of + that fardel, the place of your dwelling, your names, your ages, + of what having, breeding, and anything that is fitting to be + known- discover. + CLOWN. We are but plain fellows, sir. + AUTOLYCUS. A lie: you are rough and hairy. Let me have no lying; it + becomes none but tradesmen, and they often give us soldiers the + lie; but we pay them for it with stamped coin, not stabbing + steel; therefore they do not give us the lie. + CLOWN. Your worship had like to have given us one, if you had not + taken yourself with the manner. + SHEPHERD. Are you a courtier, an't like you, sir? + AUTOLYCUS. Whether it like me or no, I am a courtier. Seest thou + not the air of the court in these enfoldings? Hath not my gait in + it the measure of the court? Receives not thy nose court-odour + from me? Reflect I not on thy baseness court-contempt? Think'st + thou, for that I insinuate, that toaze from thee thy business, I + am therefore no courtier? I am courtier cap-a-pe, and one that + will either push on or pluck back thy business there; whereupon I + command the to open thy affair. + SHEPHERD. My business, sir, is to the King. + AUTOLYCUS. What advocate hast thou to him? + SHEPHERD. I know not, an't like you. + CLOWN. Advocate's the court-word for a pheasant; say you have none. + SHEPHERD. None, sir; I have no pheasant, cock nor hen. + AUTOLYCUS. How blessed are we that are not simple men! + Yet nature might have made me as these are, + Therefore I will not disdain. + CLOWN. This cannot be but a great courtier. + SHEPHERD. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handsomely. + CLOWN. He seems to be the more noble in being fantastical. + A great man, I'll warrant; I know by the picking on's teeth. + AUTOLYCUS. The fardel there? What's i' th' fardel? Wherefore that + box? + SHEPHERD. Sir, there lies such secrets in this fardel and box which + none must know but the King; and which he shall know within this + hour, if I may come to th' speech of him. + AUTOLYCUS. Age, thou hast lost thy labour. + SHEPHERD. Why, Sir? + AUTOLYCUS. The King is not at the palace; he is gone aboard a new + ship to purge melancholy and air himself; for, if thou be'st + capable of things serious, thou must know the King is full of + grief. + SHEPHERD. So 'tis said, sir- about his son, that should have + married a shepherd's daughter. + AUTOLYCUS. If that shepherd be not in hand-fast, let him fly; the + curses he shall have, the tortures he shall feel, will break the + back of man, the heart of monster. + CLOWN. Think you so, sir? + AUTOLYCUS. Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy and + vengeance bitter; but those that are germane to him, though + remov'd fifty times, shall all come under the hangman- which, + though it be great pity, yet it is necessary. An old + sheep-whistling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer to have his + daughter come into grace! Some say he shall be ston'd; but that + death is too soft for him, say I. Draw our throne into a + sheep-cote!- all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy. + CLOWN. Has the old man e'er a son, sir, do you hear, an't like you, + sir? + AUTOLYCUS. He has a son- who shall be flay'd alive; then 'nointed + over with honey, set on the head of a wasp's nest; then stand + till he be three quarters and a dram dead; then recover'd again + with aqua-vitae or some other hot infusion; then, raw as he is, + and in the hottest day prognostication proclaims, shall he be set + against a brick wall, the sun looking with a southward eye upon + him, where he is to behold him with flies blown to death. But + what talk we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be + smil'd at, their offences being so capital? Tell me, for you seem + to be honest plain men, what you have to the King. Being + something gently consider'd, I'll bring you where he is aboard, + tender your persons to his presence, whisper him in your behalfs; + and if it be in man besides the King to effect your suits, here + is man shall do it. + CLOWN. He seems to be of great authority. Close with him, give him + gold; and though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led + by the nose with gold. Show the inside of your purse to the + outside of his hand, and no more ado. Remember- ston'd and flay'd + alive. + SHEPHERD. An't please you, sir, to undertake the business for us, + here is that gold I have. I'll make it as much more, and leave + this young man in pawn till I bring it you. + AUTOLYCUS. After I have done what I promised? + SHEPHERD. Ay, sir. + AUTOLYCUS. Well, give me the moiety. Are you a party in this + business? + CLOWN. In some sort, sir; but though my case be a pitiful one, I + hope I shall not be flay'd out of it. + AUTOLYCUS. O, that's the case of the shepherd's son! Hang him, + he'll be made an example. + CLOWN. Comfort, good comfort! We must to the King and show our + strange sights. He must know 'tis none of your daughter nor my + sister; we are gone else. Sir, I will give you as much as this + old man does, when the business is performed; and remain, as he + says, your pawn till it be brought you. + AUTOLYCUS. I will trust you. Walk before toward the sea-side; go on + the right-hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you. + CLOWN. We are blest in this man, as I may say, even blest. + SHEPHERD. Let's before, as he bids us. He was provided to do us + good. Exeunt SHEPHERD and CLOWN + AUTOLYCUS. If I had a mind to be honest, I see Fortune would not + suffer me: she drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a + double occasion- gold, and a means to do the Prince my master + good; which who knows how that may turn back to my advancement? I + will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him. If he + think it fit to shore them again, and that the complaint they + have to the King concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue for + being so far officious; for I am proof against that title, and + what shame else belongs to't. To him will I present them. There + may be matter in it. Exit + + + + +<> + + + +ACT V. SCENE I. +Sicilia. The palace of LEONTES + +Enter LEONTES, CLEOMENES, DION, PAULINA, and OTHERS + + CLEOMENES. Sir, you have done enough, and have perform'd + A saint-like sorrow. No fault could you make + Which you have not redeem'd; indeed, paid down + More penitence than done trespass. At the last, + Do as the heavens have done: forget your evil; + With them forgive yourself. + LEONTES. Whilst I remember + Her and her virtues, I cannot forget + My blemishes in them, and so still think of + The wrong I did myself; which was so much + That heirless it hath made my kingdom, and + Destroy'd the sweet'st companion that e'er man + Bred his hopes out of. + PAULINA. True, too true, my lord. + If, one by one, you wedded all the world, + Or from the all that are took something good + To make a perfect woman, she you kill'd + Would be unparallel'd. + LEONTES. I think so. Kill'd! + She I kill'd! I did so; but thou strik'st me + Sorely, to say I did. It is as bitter + Upon thy tongue as in my thought. Now, good now, + Say so but seldom. + CLEOMENES. Not at all, good lady. + You might have spoken a thousand things that would + Have done the time more benefit, and grac'd + Your kindness better. + PAULINA. You are one of those + Would have him wed again. + DION. If you would not so, + You pity not the state, nor the remembrance + Of his most sovereign name; consider little + What dangers, by his Highness' fail of issue, + May drop upon his kingdom and devour + Incertain lookers-on. What were more holy + Than to rejoice the former queen is well? + What holier than, for royalty's repair, + For present comfort, and for future good, + To bless the bed of majesty again + With a sweet fellow to't? + PAULINA. There is none worthy, + Respecting her that's gone. Besides, the gods + Will have fulfill'd their secret purposes; + For has not the divine Apollo said, + Is't not the tenour of his oracle, + That King Leontes shall not have an heir + Till his lost child be found? Which that it shall, + Is all as monstrous to our human reason + As my Antigonus to break his grave + And come again to me; who, on my life, + Did perish with the infant. 'Tis your counsel + My lord should to the heavens be contrary, + Oppose against their wills. [To LEONTES] Care not for issue; + The crown will find an heir. Great Alexander + Left his to th' worthiest; so his successor + Was like to be the best. + LEONTES. Good Paulina, + Who hast the memory of Hermione, + I know, in honour, O that ever I + Had squar'd me to thy counsel! Then, even now, + I might have look'd upon my queen's full eyes, + Have taken treasure from her lips- + PAULINA. And left them + More rich for what they yielded. + LEONTES. Thou speak'st truth. + No more such wives; therefore, no wife. One worse, + And better us'd, would make her sainted spirit + Again possess her corpse, and on this stage, + Where we offend her now, appear soul-vex'd, + And begin 'Why to me'- + PAULINA. Had she such power, + She had just cause. + LEONTES. She had; and would incense me + To murder her I married. + PAULINA. I should so. + Were I the ghost that walk'd, I'd bid you mark + Her eye, and tell me for what dull part in't + You chose her; then I'd shriek, that even your ears + Should rift to hear me; and the words that follow'd + Should be 'Remember mine.' + LEONTES. Stars, stars, + And all eyes else dead coals! Fear thou no wife; + I'll have no wife, Paulina. + PAULINA. Will you swear + Never to marry but by my free leave? + LEONTES. Never, Paulina; so be blest my spirit! + PAULINA. Then, good my lords, bear witness to his oath. + CLEOMENES. You tempt him over-much. + PAULINA. Unless another, + As like Hermione as is her picture, + Affront his eye. + CLEOMENES. Good madam- + PAULINA. I have done. + Yet, if my lord will marry- if you will, sir, + No remedy but you will- give me the office + To choose you a queen. She shall not be so young + As was your former; but she shall be such + As, walk'd your first queen's ghost, it should take joy + To see her in your arms. + LEONTES. My true Paulina, + We shall not marry till thou bid'st us. + PAULINA. That + Shall be when your first queen's again in breath; + Never till then. + + Enter a GENTLEMAN + + GENTLEMAN. One that gives out himself Prince Florizel, + Son of Polixenes, with his princess- she + The fairest I have yet beheld- desires access + To your high presence. + LEONTES. What with him? He comes not + Like to his father's greatness. His approach, + So out of circumstance and sudden, tells us + 'Tis not a visitation fram'd, but forc'd + By need and accident. What train? + GENTLEMAN. But few, + And those but mean. + LEONTES. His princess, say you, with him? + GENTLEMAN. Ay; the most peerless piece of earth, I think, + That e'er the sun shone bright on. + PAULINA. O Hermione, + As every present time doth boast itself + Above a better gone, so must thy grave + Give way to what's seen now! Sir, you yourself + Have said and writ so, but your writing now + Is colder than that theme: 'She had not been, + Nor was not to be equall'd.' Thus your verse + Flow'd with her beauty once; 'tis shrewdly ebb'd, + To say you have seen a better. + GENTLEMAN. Pardon, madam. + The one I have almost forgot- your pardon; + The other, when she has obtain'd your eye, + Will have your tongue too. This is a creature, + Would she begin a sect, might quench the zeal + Of all professors else, make proselytes + Of who she but bid follow. + PAULINA. How! not women? + GENTLEMAN. Women will love her that she is a woman + More worth than any man; men, that she is + The rarest of all women. + LEONTES. Go, Cleomenes; + Yourself, assisted with your honour'd friends, + Bring them to our embracement. Exeunt + Still, 'tis strange + He thus should steal upon us. + PAULINA. Had our prince, + Jewel of children, seen this hour, he had pair'd + Well with this lord; there was not full a month + Between their births. + LEONTES. Prithee no more; cease. Thou know'st + He dies to me again when talk'd of. Sure, + When I shall see this gentleman, thy speeches + Will bring me to consider that which may + Unfurnish me of reason. + + Re-enter CLEOMENES, with FLORIZEL, PERDITA, and + ATTENDANTS + + They are come. + Your mother was most true to wedlock, Prince; + For she did print your royal father off, + Conceiving you. Were I but twenty-one, + Your father's image is so hit in you + His very air, that I should call you brother, + As I did him, and speak of something wildly + By us perform'd before. Most dearly welcome! + And your fair princess- goddess! O, alas! + I lost a couple that 'twixt heaven and earth + Might thus have stood begetting wonder as + You, gracious couple, do. And then I lost- + All mine own folly- the society, + Amity too, of your brave father, whom, + Though bearing misery, I desire my life + Once more to look on him. + FLORIZEL. By his command + Have I here touch'd Sicilia, and from him + Give you all greetings that a king, at friend, + Can send his brother; and, but infirmity, + Which waits upon worn times, hath something seiz'd + His wish'd ability, he had himself + The lands and waters 'twixt your throne and his + Measur'd, to look upon you; whom he loves, + He bade me say so, more than all the sceptres + And those that bear them living. + LEONTES. O my brother- + Good gentleman!- the wrongs I have done thee stir + Afresh within me; and these thy offices, + So rarely kind, are as interpreters + Of my behind-hand slackness! Welcome hither, + As is the spring to th' earth. And hath he too + Expos'd this paragon to th' fearful usage, + At least ungentle, of the dreadful Neptune, + To greet a man not worth her pains, much less + Th' adventure of her person? + FLORIZEL. Good, my lord, + She came from Libya. + LEONTES. Where the warlike Smalus, + That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd and lov'd? + FLORIZEL. Most royal sir, from thence; from him whose daughter + His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her; thence, + A prosperous south-wind friendly, we have cross'd, + To execute the charge my father gave me + For visiting your Highness. My best train + I have from your Sicilian shores dismiss'd; + Who for Bohemia bend, to signify + Not only my success in Libya, sir, + But my arrival and my wife's in safety + Here where we are. + LEONTES. The blessed gods + Purge all infection from our air whilst you + Do climate here! You have a holy father, + A graceful gentleman, against whose person, + So sacred as it is, I have done sin, + For which the heavens, taking angry note, + Have left me issueless; and your father's blest, + As he from heaven merits it, with you, + Worthy his goodness. What might I have been, + Might I a son and daughter now have look'd on, + Such goodly things as you! + + Enter a LORD + + LORD. Most noble sir, + That which I shall report will bear no credit, + Were not the proof so nigh. Please you, great sir, + Bohemia greets you from himself by me; + Desires you to attach his son, who has- + His dignity and duty both cast off- + Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with + A shepherd's daughter. + LEONTES. Where's Bohemia? Speak. + LORD. Here in your city; I now came from him. + I speak amazedly; and it becomes + My marvel and my message. To your court + Whiles he was hast'ning- in the chase, it seems, + Of this fair couple- meets he on the way + The father of this seeming lady and + Her brother, having both their country quitted + With this young prince. + FLORIZEL. Camillo has betray'd me; + Whose honour and whose honesty till now + Endur'd all weathers. + LORD. Lay't so to his charge; + He's with the King your father. + LEONTES. Who? Camillo? + LORD. Camillo, sir; I spake with him; who now + Has these poor men in question. Never saw I + Wretches so quake. They kneel, they kiss the earth; + Forswear themselves as often as they speak. + Bohemia stops his ears, and threatens them + With divers deaths in death. + PERDITA. O my poor father! + The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have + Our contract celebrated. + LEONTES. You are married? + FLORIZEL. We are not, sir, nor are we like to be; + The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first. + The odds for high and low's alike. + LEONTES. My lord, + Is this the daughter of a king? + FLORIZEL. She is, + When once she is my wife. + LEONTES. That 'once,' I see by your good father's speed, + Will come on very slowly. I am sorry, + Most sorry, you have broken from his liking + Where you were tied in duty; and as sorry + Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty, + That you might well enjoy her. + FLORIZEL. Dear, look up. + Though Fortune, visible an enemy, + Should chase us with my father, pow'r no jot + Hath she to change our loves. Beseech you, sir, + Remember since you ow'd no more to time + Than I do now. With thought of such affections, + Step forth mine advocate; at your request + My father will grant precious things as trifles. + LEONTES. Would he do so, I'd beg your precious mistress, + Which he counts but a trifle. + PAULINA. Sir, my liege, + Your eye hath too much youth in't. Not a month + Fore your queen died, she was more worth such gazes + Than what you look on now. + LEONTES. I thought of her + Even in these looks I made. [To FLORIZEL] But your petition + Is yet unanswer'd. I will to your father. + Your honour not o'erthrown by your desires, + I am friend to them and you. Upon which errand + I now go toward him; therefore, follow me, + And mark what way I make. Come, good my lord. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE II. +Sicilia. Before the palace of LEONTES + +Enter AUTOLYCUS and a GENTLEMAN + + AUTOLYCUS. Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. I was by at the opening of the fardel, heard the + old shepherd deliver the manner how he found it; whereupon, after + a little amazedness, we were all commanded out of the chamber; + only this, methought I heard the shepherd say he found the child. + AUTOLYCUS. I would most gladly know the issue of it. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. I make a broken delivery of the business; but the + changes I perceived in the King and Camillo were very notes of + admiration. They seem'd almost, with staring on one another, to + tear the cases of their eyes; there was speech in their dumbness, + language in their very gesture; they look'd as they had heard of + a world ransom'd, or one destroyed. A notable passion of wonder + appeared in them; but the wisest beholder that knew no more but + seeing could not say if th' importance were joy or sorrow- but in + the extremity of the one it must needs be. + + Enter another GENTLEMAN + + Here comes a gentleman that happily knows more. The news, Rogero? + SECOND GENTLEMAN. Nothing but bonfires. The oracle is fulfill'd: + the King's daughter is found. Such a deal of wonder is broken out + within this hour that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it. + + Enter another GENTLEMAN + + Here comes the Lady Paulina's steward; he can deliver you more. + How goes it now, sir? This news, which is call'd true, is so like + an old tale that the verity of it is in strong suspicion. Has the + King found his heir? + THIRD GENTLEMAN. Most true, if ever truth were pregnant by + circumstance. That which you hear you'll swear you see, there is + such unity in the proofs. The mantle of Queen Hermione's; her + jewel about the neck of it; the letters of Antigonus found with + it, which they know to be his character; the majesty of the + creature in resemblance of the mother; the affection of nobleness + which nature shows above her breeding; and many other evidences- + proclaim her with all certainty to be the King's daughter. Did + you see the meeting of the two kings? + SECOND GENTLEMAN. No. + THIRD GENTLEMAN. Then you have lost a sight which was to be seen, + cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown + another, so and in such manner that it seem'd sorrow wept to take + leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was casting up + of eyes, holding up of hands, with countenance of such + distraction that they were to be known by garment, not by favour. + Our king, being ready to leap out of himself for joy of his found + daughter, as if that joy were now become a loss, cries 'O, thy + mother, thy mother!' then asks Bohemia forgiveness; then embraces + his son-in-law; then again worries he his daughter with clipping + her. Now he thanks the old shepherd, which stands by like a + weather-bitten conduit of many kings' reigns. I never heard of + such another encounter, which lames report to follow it and + undoes description to do it. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. What, pray you, became of Antigonus, that carried + hence the child? + THIRD GENTLEMAN. Like an old tale still, which will have matter to + rehearse, though credit be asleep and not an ear open: he was + torn to pieces with a bear. This avouches the shepherd's son, who + has not only his innocence, which seems much, to justify him, but + a handkerchief and rings of his that Paulina knows. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. What became of his bark and his followers? + THIRD GENTLEMAN. Wreck'd the same instant of their master's death, + and in the view of the shepherd; so that all the instruments + which aided to expose the child were even then lost when it was + found. But, O, the noble combat that 'twixt joy and sorrow was + fought in Paulina! She had one eye declin'd for the loss of her + husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfill'd. She + lifted the Princess from the earth, and so locks her in embracing + as if she would pin her to her heart, that she might no more be + in danger of losing. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. The dignity of this act was worth the audience of + kings and princes; for by such was it acted. + THIRD GENTLEMAN. One of the prettiest touches of all, and that + which angl'd for mine eyes- caught the water, though not the + fish- was, when at the relation of the Queen's death, with the + manner how she came to't bravely confess'd and lamented by the + King, how attentivenes wounded his daughter; till, from one sign + of dolour to another, she did with an 'Alas!'- I would fain say- + bleed tears; for I am sure my heart wept blood. Who was most + marble there changed colour; some swooned, all sorrowed. If all + the world could have seen't, the woe had been universal. + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Are they returned to the court? + THIRD GENTLEMAN. No. The Princess hearing of her mother's statue, + which is in the keeping of Paulina- a piece many years in doing + and now newly perform'd by that rare Italian master, Julio + Romano, who, had he himself eternity and could put breath into + his work, would beguile nature of her custom, so perfectly he is + her ape. He so near to Hermione hath done Hermione that they say + one would speak to her and stand in hope of answer- thither with + all greediness of affection are they gone, and there they intend + to sup. + SECOND GENTLEMAN. I thought she had some great matter there in + hand; for she hath privately twice or thrice a day, ever since + the death of Hermione, visited that removed house. Shall we + thither, and with our company piece the rejoicing? + FIRST GENTLEMAN. Who would be thence that has the benefit of + access? Every wink of an eye some new grace will be born. Our + absence makes us unthrifty to our knowledge. Let's along. + Exeunt GENTLEMEN + AUTOLYCUS. Now, had I not the dash of my former life in me, would + preferment drop on my head. I brought the old man and his son + aboard the Prince; told him I heard them talk of a fardel and I + know not what; but he at that time over-fond of the shepherd's + daughter- so he then took her to be- who began to be much + sea-sick, and himself little better, extremity of weather + continuing, this mystery remained undiscover'd. But 'tis all one + to me; for had I been the finder-out of this secret, it would not + have relish'd among my other discredits. + + Enter SHEPHERD and CLOWN + + Here come those I have done good to against my will, and already + appearing in the blossoms of their fortune. + SHEPHERD. Come, boy; I am past moe children, but thy sons and + daughters will be all gentlemen born. + CLOWN. You are well met, sir. You denied to fight with me this + other day, because I was no gentleman born. See you these + clothes? Say you see them not and think me still no gentleman + born. You were best say these robes are not gentlemen born. Give + me the lie, do; and try whether I am not now a gentleman born. + AUTOLYCUS. I know you are now, sir, a gentleman born. + CLOWN. Ay, and have been so any time these four hours. + SHEPHERD. And so have I, boy. + CLOWN. So you have; but I was a gentleman born before my father; + for the King's son took me by the hand and call'd me brother; and + then the two kings call'd my father brother; and then the Prince, + my brother, and the Princess, my sister, call'd my father father. + And so we wept; and there was the first gentleman-like tears that + ever we shed. + SHEPHERD. We may live, son, to shed many more. + CLOWN. Ay; or else 'twere hard luck, being in so preposterous + estate as we are. + AUTOLYCUS. I humbly beseech you, sir, to pardon me all the faults I + have committed to your worship, and to give me your good report + to the Prince my master. + SHEPHERD. Prithee, son, do; for we must be gentle, now we are + gentlemen. + CLOWN. Thou wilt amend thy life? + AUTOLYCUS. Ay, an it like your good worship. + CLOWN. Give me thy hand. I will swear to the Prince thou art as + honest a true fellow as any is in Bohemia. + SHEPHERD. You may say it, but not swear it. + CLOWN. Not swear it, now I am a gentleman? Let boors and franklins + say it: I'll swear it. + SHEPHERD. How if it be false, son? + CLOWN. If it be ne'er so false, a true gentleman may swear it in + the behalf of his friend. And I'll swear to the Prince thou art a + tall fellow of thy hands and that thou wilt not be drunk; but I + know thou art no tall fellow of thy hands and that thou wilt be + drunk. But I'll swear it; and I would thou wouldst be a tall + fellow of thy hands. + AUTOLYCUS. I will prove so, sir, to my power. + CLOWN. Ay, by any means, prove a tall fellow. If I do not wonder + how thou dar'st venture to be drunk not being a tall fellow, + trust me not. Hark! the kings and the princes, our kindred, are + going to see the Queen's picture. Come, follow us; we'll be thy + good masters. Exeunt + + + + +SCENE III. +Sicilia. A chapel in PAULINA's house + +Enter LEONTES, POLIXENES, FLORIZEL, PERDITA, CAMILLO, PAULINA, +LORDS and ATTENDANTS + + LEONTES. O grave and good Paulina, the great comfort + That I have had of thee! + PAULINA. What, sovereign sir, + I did not well, I meant well. All my services + You have paid home; but that you have vouchsaf'd, + With your crown'd brother and these your contracted + Heirs of your kingdoms, my poor house to visit, + It is a surplus of your grace, which never + My life may last to answer. + LEONTES. O Paulina, + We honour you with trouble; but we came + To see the statue of our queen. Your gallery + Have we pass'd through, not without much content + In many singularities; but we saw not + That which my daughter came to look upon, + The statue of her mother. + PAULINA. As she liv'd peerless, + So her dead likeness, I do well believe, + Excels whatever yet you look'd upon + Or hand of man hath done; therefore I keep it + Lonely, apart. But here it is. Prepare + To see the life as lively mock'd as ever + Still sleep mock'd death. Behold; and say 'tis well. + [PAULINA draws a curtain, and discovers HERMIONE + standing like a statue] + I like your silence; it the more shows off + Your wonder; but yet speak. First, you, my liege. + Comes it not something near? + LEONTES. Her natural posture! + Chide me, dear stone, that I may say indeed + Thou art Hermione; or rather, thou art she + In thy not chiding; for she was as tender + As infancy and grace. But yet, Paulina, + Hermione was not so much wrinkled, nothing + So aged as this seems. + POLIXENES. O, not by much! + PAULINA. So much the more our carver's excellence, + Which lets go by some sixteen years and makes her + As she liv'd now. + LEONTES. As now she might have done, + So much to my good comfort as it is + Now piercing to my soul. O, thus she stood, + Even with such life of majesty- warm life, + As now it coldly stands- when first I woo'd her! + I am asham'd. Does not the stone rebuke me + For being more stone than it? O royal piece, + There's magic in thy majesty, which has + My evils conjur'd to remembrance, and + From thy admiring daughter took the spirits, + Standing like stone with thee! + PERDITA. And give me leave, + And do not say 'tis superstition that + I kneel, and then implore her blessing. Lady, + Dear queen, that ended when I but began, + Give me that hand of yours to kiss. + PAULINA. O, patience! + The statue is but newly fix'd, the colour's + Not dry. + CAMILLO. My lord, your sorrow was too sore laid on, + Which sixteen winters cannot blow away, + So many summers dry. Scarce any joy + Did ever so long live; no sorrow + But kill'd itself much sooner. + POLIXENES. Dear my brother, + Let him that was the cause of this have pow'r + To take off so much grief from you as he + Will piece up in himself. + PAULINA. Indeed, my lord, + If I had thought the sight of my poor image + Would thus have wrought you- for the stone is mine- + I'd not have show'd it. + LEONTES. Do not draw the curtain. + PAULINA. No longer shall you gaze on't, lest your fancy + May think anon it moves. + LEONTES. Let be, let be. + Would I were dead, but that methinks already- + What was he that did make it? See, my lord, + Would you not deem it breath'd, and that those veins + Did verily bear blood? + POLIXENES. Masterly done! + The very life seems warm upon her lip. + LEONTES. The fixture of her eye has motion in't, + As we are mock'd with art. + PAULINA. I'll draw the curtain. + My lord's almost so far transported that + He'll think anon it lives. + LEONTES. O sweet Paulina, + Make me to think so twenty years together! + No settled senses of the world can match + The pleasure of that madness. Let 't alone. + PAULINA. I am sorry, sir, I have thus far stirr'd you; but + I could afflict you farther. + LEONTES. Do, Paulina; + For this affliction has a taste as sweet + As any cordial comfort. Still, methinks, + There is an air comes from her. What fine chisel + Could ever yet cut breath? Let no man mock me, + For I will kiss her. + PAULINA. Good my lord, forbear. + The ruddiness upon her lip is wet; + You'll mar it if you kiss it; stain your own + With oily painting. Shall I draw the curtain? + LEONTES. No, not these twenty years. + PERDITA. So long could I + Stand by, a looker-on. + PAULINA. Either forbear, + Quit presently the chapel, or resolve you + For more amazement. If you can behold it, + I'll make the statue move indeed, descend, + And take you by the hand, but then you'll think- + Which I protest against- I am assisted + By wicked powers. + LEONTES. What you can make her do + I am content to look on; what to speak + I am content to hear; for 'tis as easy + To make her speak as move. + PAULINA. It is requir'd + You do awake your faith. Then all stand still; + Or those that think it is unlawful business + I am about, let them depart. + LEONTES. Proceed. + No foot shall stir. + PAULINA. Music, awake her: strike. [Music] + 'Tis time; descend; be stone no more; approach; + Strike all that look upon with marvel. Come; + I'll fill your grave up. Stir; nay, come away. + Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him + Dear life redeems you. You perceive she stirs. + [HERMIONE comes down from the pedestal] + Start not; her actions shall be holy as + You hear my spell is lawful. Do not shun her + Until you see her die again; for then + You kill her double. Nay, present your hand. + When she was young you woo'd her; now in age + Is she become the suitor? + LEONTES. O, she's warm! + If this be magic, let it be an art + Lawful as eating. + POLIXENES. She embraces him. + CAMILLO. She hangs about his neck. + If she pertain to life, let her speak too. + POLIXENES. Ay, and make it manifest where she has liv'd, + Or how stol'n from the dead. + PAULINA. That she is living, + Were it but told you, should be hooted at + Like an old tale; but it appears she lives + Though yet she speak not. Mark a little while. + Please you to interpose, fair madam. Kneel, + And pray your mother's blessing. Turn, good lady; + Our Perdita is found. + HERMIONE. You gods, look down, + And from your sacred vials pour your graces + Upon my daughter's head! Tell me, mine own, + Where hast thou been preserv'd? Where liv'd? How found + Thy father's court? For thou shalt hear that I, + Knowing by Paulina that the oracle + Gave hope thou wast in being, have preserv'd + Myself to see the issue. + PAULINA. There's time enough for that, + Lest they desire upon this push to trouble + Your joys with like relation. Go together, + You precious winners all; your exultation + Partake to every one. I, an old turtle, + Will wing me to some wither'd bough, and there + My mate, that's never to be found again, + Lament till I am lost. + LEONTES. O peace, Paulina! + Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent, + As I by thine a wife. This is a match, + And made between's by vows. Thou hast found mine; + But how, is to be question'd; for I saw her, + As I thought, dead; and have, in vain, said many + A prayer upon her grave. I'll not seek far- + For him, I partly know his mind- to find thee + An honourable husband. Come, Camillo, + And take her by the hand whose worth and honesty + Is richly noted, and here justified + By us, a pair of kings. Let's from this place. + What! look upon my brother. Both your pardons, + That e'er I put between your holy looks + My ill suspicion. This your son-in-law, + And son unto the King, whom heavens directing, + Is troth-plight to your daughter. Good Paulina, + Lead us from hence where we may leisurely + Each one demand and answer to his part + Perform'd in this wide gap of time since first + We were dissever'd. Hastily lead away. Exeunt + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + +1609 + +A LOVER'S COMPLAINT + +by William Shakespeare + + + + From off a hill whose concave womb reworded + A plaintful story from a sist'ring vale, + My spirits t'attend this double voice accorded, + And down I laid to list the sad-tuned tale, + Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale, + Tearing of papers, breaking rings atwain, + Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain. + + Upon her head a platted hive of straw, + Which fortified her visage from the sun, + Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw + The carcase of a beauty spent and done. + Time had not scythed all that youth begun, + Nor youth all quit, but spite of heaven's fell rage + Some beauty peeped through lattice of seared age. + + Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne, + Which on it had conceited characters, + Laund'ring the silken figures in the brine + That seasoned woe had pelleted in tears, + And often reading what contents it bears; + As often shrieking undistinguished woe, + In clamours of all size, both high and low. + + Sometimes her levelled eyes their carriage ride, + As they did batt'ry to the spheres intend; + Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied + To th' orbed earth; sometimes they do extend + Their view right on; anon their gazes lend + To every place at once, and nowhere fixed, + The mind and sight distractedly commixed. + + Her hair, nor loose nor tied in formal plat, + Proclaimed in her a careless hand of pride; + For some, untucked, descended her sheaved hat, + Hanging her pale and pined cheek beside; + Some in her threaden fillet still did bide, + And, true to bondage, would not break from thence, + Though slackly braided in loose negligence. + + A thousand favours from a maund she drew + Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet, + Which one by one she in a river threw, + Upon whose weeping margent she was set; + Like usury applying wet to wet, + Or monarchs' hands that lets not bounty fall + Where want cries some, but where excess begs all. + + Of folded schedules had she many a one, + Which she perused, sighed, tore, and gave the flood; + Cracked many a ring of posied gold and bone, + Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud; + Found yet moe letters sadly penned in blood, + With sleided silk feat and affectedly + Enswathed and sealed to curious secrecy. + + These often bathed she in her fluxive eyes, + And often kissed, and often 'gan to tear; + Cried, 'O false blood, thou register of lies, + What unapproved witness dost thou bear! + Ink would have seemed more black and damned here! + This said, in top of rage the lines she rents, + Big discontents so breaking their contents. + + A reverend man that grazed his cattle nigh, + Sometime a blusterer that the ruffle knew + Of court, of city, and had let go by + The swiftest hours observed as they flew, + Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew; + And, privileged by age, desires to know + In brief the grounds and motives of her woe. + + So slides he down upon his grained bat, + And comely distant sits he by her side; + When he again desires her, being sat, + Her grievance with his hearing to divide. + If that from him there may be aught applied + Which may her suffering ecstasy assuage, + 'Tis promised in the charity of age. + + 'Father,' she says, 'though in me you behold + The injury of many a blasting hour, + Let it not tell your judgement I am old: + Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power. + I might as yet have been a spreading flower, + Fresh to myself, if I had self-applied + Love to myself, and to no love beside. + + 'But woe is me! too early I attended + A youthful suit- it was to gain my grace- + O, one by nature's outwards so commended + That maidens' eyes stuck over all his face. + Love lacked a dwelling and made him her place; + And when in his fair parts she did abide, + She was new lodged and newly deified. + + 'His browny locks did hang in crooked curls; + And every light occasion of the wind + Upon his lips their silken parcels hurls. + What's sweet to do, to do will aptly find: + Each eye that saw him did enchant the mind; + For on his visage was in little drawn + What largeness thinks in Paradise was sawn. + + 'Small show of man was yet upon his chin; + His phoenix down began but to appear, + Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin, + Whose bare out-bragged the web it seemed to wear: + Yet showed his visage by that cost more dear; + And nice affections wavering stood in doubt + If best were as it was, or best without. + + 'His qualities were beauteous as his form, + For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free; + Yet if men moved him, was he such a storm + As oft 'twixt May and April is to see, + When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be. + His rudeness so with his authorized youth + Did livery falseness in a pride of truth. + + 'Well could he ride, and often men would say, + "That horse his mettle from his rider takes: + Proud of subjection, noble by the sway, + What rounds, what bounds, what course, what stop he makes!" + And controversy hence a question takes + Whether the horse by him became his deed, + Or he his manage by th' well-doing steed. + + 'But quickly on this side the verdict went: + His real habitude gave life and grace + To appertainings and to ornament, + Accomplished in himself, not in his case, + All aids, themselves made fairer by their place, + Came for additions; yet their purposed trim + Pierced not his grace, but were all graced by him. + + 'So on the tip of his subduing tongue + All kind of arguments and question deep, + All replication prompt, and reason strong, + For his advantage still did wake and sleep. + To make the weeper laugh, the laugher weep, + He had the dialect and different skill, + Catching all passions in his craft of will, + + 'That he did in the general bosom reign + Of young, of old, and sexes both enchanted, + To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain + In personal duty, following where he haunted. + Consents bewitched, ere he desire, have granted, + And dialogued for him what he would say, + Asked their own wills, and made their wills obey. + + 'Many there were that did his picture get, + To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind; + Like fools that in th' imagination set + The goodly objects which abroad they find + Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought assigned; + And labouring in moe pleasures to bestow them + Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them. + + 'So many have, that never touched his hand, + Sweetly supposed them mistress of his heart. + My woeful self, that did in freedom stand, + And was my own fee-simple, not in part, + What with his art in youth, and youth in art, + Threw my affections in his charmed power + Reserved the stalk and gave him all my flower. + + 'Yet did I not, as some my equals did, + Demand of him, nor being desired yielded; + Finding myself in honour so forbid, + With safest distance I mine honour shielded. + Experience for me many bulwarks builded + Of proofs new-bleeding, which remained the foil + Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil. + + 'But ah, who ever shunned by precedent + The destined ill she must herself assay? + Or forced examples, 'gainst her own content, + To put the by-past perils in her way? + Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay; + For when we rage, advice is often seen + By blunting us to make our wills more keen. + + 'Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood + That we must curb it upon others' proof, + To be forbod the sweets that seems so good + For fear of harms that preach in our behoof. + O appetite, from judgement stand aloof! + The one a palate hath that needs will taste, + Though Reason weep, and cry it is thy last. + + 'For further I could say this man's untrue, + And knew the patterns of his foul beguiling; + Heard where his plants in others' orchards grew; + Saw how deceits were gilded in his smiling; + Knew vows were ever brokers to defiling; + Thought characters and words merely but art, + And bastards of his foul adulterate heart. + + 'And long upon these terms I held my city, + Till thus he 'gan besiege me: "Gentle maid, + Have of my suffering youth some feeling pity, + And be not of my holy vows afraid. + That's to ye sworn to none was ever said; + For feasts of love I have been called unto, + Till now did ne'er invite nor never woo. + + '"All my offences that abroad you see + Are errors of the blood, none of the mind; + Love made them not; with acture they may be, + Where neither party is nor true nor kind. + They sought their shame that so their shame did find; + And so much less of shame in me remains + By how much of me their reproach contains. + + '"Among the many that mine eyes have seen, + Not one whose flame my heart so much as warmed, + Or my affection put to th' smallest teen, + Or any of my leisures ever charmed. + Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed; + Kept hearts in liveries, but mine own was free, + And reigned commanding in his monarchy. + + '"Look here what tributes wounded fancies sent me, + Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood; + Figuring that they their passions likewise lent me + Of grief and blushes, aptly understood + In bloodless white and the encrimsoned mood- + Effects of terror and dear modesty, + Encamped in hearts, but fighting outwardly. + + '"And, lo, behold these talents of their hair, + With twisted metal amorously empleached, + I have receiv'd from many a several fair, + Their kind acceptance weepingly beseeched, + With the annexions of fair gems enriched, + And deep-brained sonnets that did amplify + Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality. + + '"The diamond? why, 'twas beautiful and hard, + Whereto his invised properties did tend; + The deep-green em'rald, in whose fresh regard + Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend; + The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend + With objects manifold; each several stone, + With wit well blazoned, smiled, or made some moan. + + '"Lo, all these trophies of affections hot, + Of pensived and subdued desires the tender, + Nature hath charged me that I hoard them not, + But yield them up where I myself must render- + That is, to you, my origin and ender; + For these, of force, must your oblations be, + Since I their altar, you enpatron me. + + '"O then advance of yours that phraseless hand + Whose white weighs down the airy scale of praise; + Take all these similes to your own command, + Hallowed with sighs that burning lungs did raise; + What me your minister for you obeys + Works under you; and to your audit comes + Their distract parcels in combined sums. + + '"Lo, this device was sent me from a nun, + Or sister sanctified, of holiest note, + Which late her noble suit in court did shun, + Whose rarest havings made the blossoms dote; + For she was sought by spirits of richest coat, + But kept cold distance, and did thence remove + To spend her living in eternal love. + + '"But, O my sweet, what labour is't to leave + The thing we have not, mast'ring what not strives, + Playing the place which did no form receive, + Playing patient sports in unconstrained gyves! + She that her fame so to herself contrives, + The scars of battle scapeth by the flight, + And makes her absence valiant, not her might. + + '"O pardon me in that my boast is true! + The accident which brought me to her eye + Upon the moment did her force subdue, + And now she would the caged cloister fly. + Religious love put out religion's eye. + Not to be tempted, would she be immured, + And now to tempt all liberty procured. + + '"How mighty then you are, O hear me tell! + The broken bosoms that to me belong + Have emptied all their fountains in my well, + And mine I pour your ocean all among. + I strong o'er them, and you o'er me being strong, + Must for your victory us all congest, + As compound love to physic your cold breast. + + '"My parts had pow'r to charm a sacred nun, + Who, disciplined, ay, dieted in grace, + Believed her eyes when they t'assail begun, + All vows and consecrations giving place, + O most potential love, vow, bond, nor space, + In thee hath neither sting, knot, nor confine, + For thou art all, and all things else are thine. + + '"When thou impressest, what are precepts worth + Of stale example? When thou wilt inflame, + How coldly those impediments stand forth, + Of wealth, of filial fear, law, kindred, fame! + Love's arms are peace, 'gainst rule, 'gainst sense, 'gainst shame. + And sweetens, in the suff'ring pangs it bears, + The aloes of all forces, shocks and fears. + + '"Now all these hearts that do on mine depend, + Feeling it break, with bleeding groans they pine, + And supplicant their sighs to your extend, + To leave the batt'ry that you make 'gainst mine, + Lending soft audience to my sweet design, + And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath, + That shall prefer and undertake my troth." + + 'This said, his wat'ry eyes he did dismount, + Whose sights till then were levelled on my face; + Each cheek a river running from a fount + With brinish current downward flowed apace. + O, how the channel to the stream gave grace! + Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses + That flame through water which their hue encloses. + + 'O father, what a hell of witchcraft lies + In the small orb of one particular tear! + But with the inundation of the eyes + What rocky heart to water will not wear? + What breast so cold that is not warmed here? + O cleft effect! cold modesty, hot wrath, + Both fire from hence and chill extincture hath. + + 'For lo, his passion, but an art of craft, + Even there resolved my reason into tears; + There my white stole of chastity I daffed, + Shook off my sober guards and civil fears; + Appear to him as he to me appears, + All melting; though our drops this diff'rence bore: + His poisoned me, and mine did him restore. + + 'In him a plenitude of subtle matter, + Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives, + Of burning blushes or of weeping water, + Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves, + In either's aptness, as it best deceives, + To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes, + Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows; + + 'That not a heart which in his level came + Could scape the hail of his all-hurting aim, + Showing fair nature is both kind and tame; + And, veiled in them, did win whom he would maim. + Against the thing he sought he would exclaim; + When he most burned in heart-wished luxury, + He preached pure maid and praised cold chastity. + + 'Thus merely with the garment of a Grace + The naked and concealed fiend he covered, + That th' unexperient gave the tempter place, + Which, like a cherubin, above them hovered. + Who, young and simple, would not be so lovered? + Ay me, I fell, and yet do question make + What I should do again for such a sake. + + 'O, that infected moisture of his eye, + O, that false fire which in his cheek so glowed, + O, that forced thunder from his heart did fly, + O, that sad breath his spongy lungs bestowed, + O, all that borrowed motion, seeming owed, + Would yet again betray the fore-betrayed, + And new pervert a reconciled maid.' + +THE END + + + +<> + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Complete Works of William +Shakespeare, by William Shakespeare + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMPLETE WORKS--WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE *** + +***** This file should be named 100.txt or 100.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/100/ + +Produced by World Library, Inc., from their Library of the Future + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be +renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one +owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and +you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission +and without paying copyright royalties. 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